#it was a us military supersoldier experiment

[direwombat]

Just got back from seeing Deadpool and Wolverine with my family and. I am obsessed with the idea of syb with Wolverine claws, hiding in rural Montana and drowning herself in a bottle of whiskey at the Spread Eagle

[catgirlforeskin]

what is halo

Imagine a hard-scifi military series where, in the wake of a massively popular anti-colonial insurrection, the future CIA starts kidnapping children from colonial subject planets, brainwashing and experimenting on them to create teenage supersoldiers, then using the survivors of this program to assassinate left-wing political opponents of the imperial government, because the previous traditional military campaign was untenable. THEN as this is happening, an alien pseudo-catholic empire doing some Ancient Rome shit shows up and just starts OBLITERATING any resistance humans put up.

Okay so now imagine a series of video games where you play as (now adult) child soldiers from this program, and none of it EVER comes up and the games are just about how freaking sick the imperial government’s guns and tanks are and you go around shooting aliens with them and it’s sick as hell. That’s halo, baby! Anyway, read the short story Dirt from Halo Evolutions it’s so so good

[fembot-y2k]

ill never forgive gamer culture for boiling down genuinely well made/told stories to "oo-ra I like to kill fuck yeah man guns and explosions" gamerbro shit, just for being action games. I do admit that I think action games are STILL over permeating in the gaming landscape, but that doesn't mean that action games, yes even shooters, cant have well made and/or fun stories. This post is about HALO and GEARS OF WAR. Both of these games have genuinely well considered and well crafted worlds for different reasons and good stories to tell, but are only ever remembered for their multiplayer "fuck yeah shooting" impact. Gears of war is remembered for being gory and having good multiplayer, Halo is remembered SOMETIMES for its story, but more often than not for its revolutionary multiplayer. MULTIPLAYER is not the enemy, its not a bad thing, but fuck do these games have some potent writing in their CAMPAIGNS, which were the main focus of the game being made in the first place.

Gears of war has a potently written critique of fascism, living under it, those who are used by it, and its cyclical self destructive mode of existence. Gears of war is *sometimes* about big dudes with big guns screaming and shooting big monsters, but every other time its about how fascism eats everything it creates alive including the people it so proudly proclaims it will protect as the chosen ones. Halo is a space opera featuring a religious alien superpower that experiences a schism so great it almost destroys the galaxy. It has philosophical zombies that cause the FIRST galaxy destroying event. It has a united earth military that acts in spite of its secret fascist government that kidnapped 6 year olds to make supersoldiers and killed upwards of 60% of them in the process, you play as one who survived. Its a rich world full of stories and well written characters, interesting world building, dont even get me started on ODST and its side logs you can find from the fall of New Mombasa.

These games are more than just, shooters. Every game strives to be more than its genre. Sometimes they are, and they get to end being that. Sometimes they end up like Halo and Call of Duty, trapped forever in the cycle of annual franchises and upholding a legacy that was created by people who aren't allowed to work on the game anymore.

[volatile95]

What? Here? Marvel? Yasss! Enjoy original with me on my sunshine's @marshalllir telegram channel. English version of our headcanons and more under the cut. Thank you for the translation, dear~

Marshall: Hakon Matyjas and Brock Rumlow are very similar in their essence. Both work for the bad guys, both aka spies are on the opposite side of the conflict, and no one suspects their double loyalty.

The Winter Soldier and Aiden have memory problems, partial amnesia, and enormous strength compared to humans.

Brock Rumlow oversees the Winter Soldier, Hakon oversees Aiden.

Hydra and the Renegades have at least one scientist experimenting with the serum, and what Waltz created can be called the supersoldier serum.

The S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers are pure Peacekeepers, aka local fighters, for justice and for all good against all bad. The survivors are civilians, often dissatisfied with the work of local defenders.

The heat of the plot is that Aiden doesn't remember anything because he's being reset. That is, he even sees Hakon every time like the first time. Hakon calmly watches the reset as a supervisor, but as a person, he feels pangs of conscience. And Aiden, every time he sits down in the treatment chair, looks at Hakon through the protective glass and feels something between resentment and betrayal, but then he forgets everything again.

Volatile: One day, Hakon drunkenly, when Aiden is supposedly already sleeping on the table, talks about what connected them before everything. And even though Aiden is being reset, he still remembers this conversation somewhere deep inside.

Marshall: By the way, given the fact that Aiden is reset after each mission (upon returning to base) (erasing his memory and purely using him as a living weapon without a personality), Hakon can, after getting drunk, confess to Aiden about Hydra, Waltz, Lawan and the VNC Tower, knowing that he will not remember it the next day.

Volatile: And Aiden has a glitch. And he's like, "I despise you" after confession?

And Hakon was like, "But I saved you."

Like, it's impossible to save everyone. And he continues to persistently save Aiden.

AND AIDEN'S LOOK AT THE ART TURNS OUT TO BE ON HIS FINGERS. WHAT'S THE CHANCE THAT AIDEN AND HAKON SLEEP TOGETHER AND THEN AIDEN FORGETS EVERYTHING?

Marshall: MAXIMUM

Volatile: I think this ring belonged to Aiden before he was a soldier. And Hakon keeps it in the hope that Aiden will want it back one day.

Since Aiden has one prosthetic arm, even before everything, during the crash Hakon found only Aiden's severed arm, he thought that he was gone. Hakon took the ring in memory of Aiden.

Marshall: As military special forces, they're not supposed to wear jewelry on missions, but I think they might have worn rings on their left hands instead of their right ones.

Volatile: Or it could be a tattoo. When Hakon was burying Aiden's hand, he could put his ring in the coffin (put it on his finger). Hakon buried his heart. And he got a tattoo on his finger so he wouldn't forget. And he won't forget, of course.…

Marshall: God, it's painful and beautiful, but it's heartbreaking as hell. I can't even imagine Hakon's condition at that moment.

Volatile: It is necessary to open the topic with a thousand first dates - Hakon seduces Aiden every time, and in the morning he does not know where and with whom he was. Hakon wants not only physical intimacy, but also feelings. And Aiden is always indifferent afterwards, because for him it's just needs.

Hakon has severe PTSD, while Aiden has no personality and has brains that are periodically ground in a blender.

Marshall: Two peas in a pod, God

Volatile: Hakon constantly hits on Aiden, who is surprised, but they still have a working relationship, but he does not refuse free physical intimacy.

For some reason, Hakon also likes to stroke Aiden's hair and always asks him to take off his mask.

Hakon might even love Aiden like that. Bribes the guards. He enters the laboratory. Hugs him. He kisses him, looking for a spark of recognition or understanding in his wide, indifferent eyes. Talking to him.

What is the probability that due to such sessions, the code in Aiden's brain will turn towards "I can't forget this person. But I forgot it once. Who is he?"

Aiden's brain will accumulate a critical amount of errors, and one day it will give out a residual memory of Hakon. Which he will reinforce with his usual actions towards Aiden. And break the firmware even more without knowing about it.

But Aiden isn't dumb, he doesn't tell anyone that he's starting to think about his work cycles. And that his memory was being erased. And that he's in a state of hibernation waiting. And how Hakon keeps coming and loving him. It's wild at first. But this is what allows Aiden to cling on and not fall into unconsciousness.

Marshall: IT'S BEAUTIFUL! Aiden knows what he should say about the errors, but he doesn't. He's redeveloping his "I", might say.

Will Rowe and his 404 peacekeepers squad drag Aiden and Hakon to freedom at a critical moment of escape?

Volatile: OH, YES!

Why isn't Aiden talking? Because the memories of nights with this man... Are they pleasant?

After the battles and tortures, feeling his hands, lips, heartbeat, warmth, breath tickling in his hair is so reminiscent of life.

Marshall: I can imagine how at first Aiden is in a state of "sleep" and doesn't react in any way, then he begins to hear and listen, and then he begins to react in small ways, like watching, trembling from touch, tilting his head, moving his fingers, and shortness of breath.

And Hakon may initially attribute this to the fact that it seems to him that Aiden hears, watches and "responds" that he is just an old fool in love.

So if you read our thoughts and still here, thank you, dear stranger💖

So bonuses. So much pain in his eyes. So much hairs in his face. Heheheh

First idea and sketches and final sketch

Soldier Aiden’s booba are my religion, Hakon’s exhausted face is my wife’s kryptonite

Thank you for watching~

[fa1lsoldier]

| FAILED SUPER-SOLDIER TURNED DANGEROUS CYBORG. | by nika. 25. he/they. EST.

EXPLORING THEMES OF. -> being a dutiful son even if it means destroying yourself in the process, wielding anger and pain as a double edged sword, and getting torn apart and building yourself back up again. | Please note he was originally written/made for a discord rp server. That server has since gone inactive. A brief version of his about under the cut. | READ RULES HERE (sideblog to /follows from @vigilanthe )

The only child of a waitress and delivery man, no one expected him to be much of anything. The most he and his parents could hope is that as an adult he could make enough money to help pay the family’s bills. His family struggled a lot with money due to loans with high interest rates, rent, etc. Joining the south korean military at age 18 as a means of supporting his parents/family, he and his family managed to survive paycheck to paycheck… until his father was severely injured in a hit and run accident. At age 28, due to the accident, his father needed frequent hospital visits which racked up a lot of medical debt. To help pay for their ever growing medical debt, he volunteered to join the South Korean army’s experimental corps, a selective branch of the military that was designed to help develop tools and soldiers who are able to keep pace with super powered individuals. The work was dangerous, but the pay was double what he was making as a regular soldier… 

At first, his job was mostly testing weapons, armors and tools for the corps. However, over time, the corps began to experiment with tech less and with people more. Thrust into a testing pool of 7 additional people, he was subjected to multiple injections and experiments, all in an effort to make stronger, faster and smart soldiers (super soldiers). Given the 5th version of the south korean super soldier serum, despite being a newer serum, it proved little better than the earlier version. He and some of the other test subjects experienced violently negative reactions to the serum. Instead of getting faster, stronger and better parts of his body disintegrated into an irreversible dust. Thanks to the super soldier scientists, he lost his jaw and hands. His condition was stabilized by the scientists/doctors but was deemed a failure.

An intern eager to prove their worth took pity on the failure known as “subject 5-8” and gave him a prosthetic jaw and hands. However, in their rush to make the failure useful,they accidentally have him wearable weapon prototypes. The jaw he was given, despite looking more or less like a regular human jaw, wasn’t. Instead it contained sharp, carnivore like teeth. And the hands he were given contained sharp, panther like claws. The intern realized their mistake too little too late. Biting and clawing his way free, Sam left a trail of blood in his wake as he fled the facility. 

During his escape, he killed many high ranking, irreplaceable scientists and soldiers. Because of the loss of so many valuable assets, he was branded a traitor by the South Korean military. Left with no choice but to flee the country to avoid getting arrested or killed, he took the first plane available, which just happened to be to New York. In New York, despite originally laying low and trying to live a more peaceful life, he found himself unable to turn a blind eye to all the injustices being conducted by both the American and South Korean government. He now works as a vigilante, targeting those who experiment on people as well as those who prey on the defenseless.

[arklay]

RESIDENT EVIL → THE WESKER FAMILY

To the public, little is known of the families behind some of the world’s most renowned bioterrorists, but the question remains: did they play a role in causing their children to walk down the path that they did? Or are these individuals simply ambitious criminals with delusions of grandeur?

For Diana Wesker (née Afanasyeva), her introduction into the bioweapons black market trade was upon discovering her employers were using her research into limb regeneration with salamanders to further their experiments in creating enhanced soldiers, instead of developing human therapies with which she was recruited for. Although the prospect of using biological weapons in the military did not appeal to her, the concept remained fascinating for her own selfish endeavours. Born on the 27th of October, 1963 in Sydney, Australia to Russian immigrant parents, Diana had harsh expectations placed upon her at a young age, ones that no matter how hard she tried she could never live up to. Her mother, Tatyana, was an unfeeling woman, absent for long stretches of time with little regard to how it affected her daughters, much more concerned with her craft as an accomplished opera singer. Viktor was no better. A strict man whose role as father and ballet master blurred, he pushed his girls to one day follow in his footsteps. Whilst Sofia enjoyed ballet, and went on to become a professional ballet dancer, Diana’s heart was set on going into the field of biology. She wished to make a name for herself, separate from her family – to which she succeeded.

Diana was married to former U.S. Marine, Dave Monroe, for only a year until he was declared dead in 1992 after succumbing to injuries sustained in a horrific car accident. Foul play was ruled out while Diana played the role of the grief-stricken widow, but in reality, she had snapped after years of mistreatment at her husband’s hands, and opted for something she could pass off as an accident to be free of him. For years she believed he was dead – and he was, legally – but that proved to not be the case when he found his way back into her life again in 1999. Unbeknownst to her, she had been lied to by the police and coroner, who were paid off by her employers when they took Dave’s body for themselves and used him as one of their first test subjects in developing supersoldiers. Before he could ever hurt her again, Diana’s second husband, Albert Wesker, tracked the man down, captured him and tortured him, before allowing Diana to get her violent and bloody revenge.

The origins of Albert Wesker’s involvement in bioterrorism, alongside his twin sister, Alex, are much different than that of Diana’s. The two hail from London, Canada, but unfortunately, they hold no memories of their lives there, nor what happened to their biological parents when they were eight years old. Agents of Oswell E. Spencer, an aristocratic billionaire and eugenicist, took the twins from their home and executed their parents as per Spencer’s orders. Albert and Alex were then placed in a home funded by the Spencer Foundation where they were given new names and a privileged upbringing. They had access to the best education possible, free to pursue whichever field they decided, but it was by no accident they both went into virology and bioengineering; at home, their adoptive parents – agents whom they believed to be their real parents – instilled them with the beliefs of Oswell E. Spencer, harbouring disdain for war and pestilence, and believing humans to be an evolutionary dead-end in need of a rebirth. They were only two of the hundreds of children “adopted” as part of what is known as Project W, a plan intended to develop an advanced race of human beings. The most promising candidates were headhunted by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, the twins amongst them, where they went on to create bioweapons for the company founded by none other than the man who had handpicked them for his plan. The final stage of this was to infect the thirteen Spencer saw fit, however, only two survived; Albert received the intended effects, now possessing superhuman abilities, however, Alex was only offered more time to live due to her terminal degenerative illness.

In the summer of 1995, Diana was working undercover within Umbrella to gather development data on their projects for her company. Here, she had a chance encounter with Albert, an intelligence officer at the time, which permanently altered the course of her life. The two were never seen far from one another’s side, marrying in 1998, and they went on to become notorious in the bioweapons industry. The development of the Uroboros virus was where things took a turn for the worst. Although Diana’s infection was successful and she bore abilities that rivalled her husband’s, the plan itself did not succeed as they had hoped, and almost cost Albert his life at the hands of his former subordinates.

Now, they work within the shadows, with Diana declared missing and Albert believed to be dead. Their legacy, however, lives on with the mark they left on the world. As visionaries in their field, they influenced bioterror attacks carried out by countless individuals and organisations. In turn, they also inspired others to fight against such atrocities. One such person happens to be Albert’s son from a former relationship, Jake Müller, whose existence he was unaware of.

[charleecat-bat]

Another reference, another guardan? NOPE but he has a relation to one! ;p

This is Milo. He's the cousin of Shepherd. Milo and Shepherd grew up together, and he was his closest and really only friend due to how awkward Shep unlike Milo, who was quite a social butterfly.

Growing up while Shepherd was put in the Guardian position, Milo decided he wanted to be by Shepheds side anyway he could. So as a result he decided to join the echidna military to help his cousin in any situation at the time.

So that they did for quite a few years...until suddenly Milo just disappeared. Shepherd was frazzled and frantically trying to get any updates on his cousin. Only to get the news he was killed in action during a mission...

this broke Shepherd deeply... but little did he know that was a complete lie. Milo was alive.

Basically, long story short, Milo witnessed government officials up to some shady ass stuff, and he did not like that and immediately wanted to go and find Shepherd to tell him. And the government didn't quite like that, so they quickly took him and locked him away. They then decided they were going to try to use him as a test subject for their next experiment, which was a backup concept for a 'supersoldier' if the Guardians got a bit too powerful for their liking. Opting to try and develop a series of supersoldiers that instead of being enhanced by chaos energy are enhanced by cybernetic enhancements. Which is what was done to him, turning him into a cybernetic attack dog and wanting to use him on their enemies behind the Guardians back.

So yeah they basically did a winter soldier to him as my friends have pointed out lol

but after all that story-driven mess he is set free and just trying to readjust to life despite being from a completely different period of time. He's just happy to have his cousin and Shepherd is too.

[captainsophiestark]

Captain America

Steve Rogers x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Fandom: Marvel

Requested: Yes, by @flowers-and-fichte​ ! Thanks so much for your patience with this one queen, it took me forever (I completely underestimated my April schedule when I opened requests), but I’m happy with how it came out! Hope you enjoy it!

Summary: Steve Rogers was supposed to get the serum and become Captain America. An enemy agent was supposed to shoot him and Erskine, keeping the Allies from ever getting a weapon like that. Y/N was supposed to be in the room, supporting her boyfriend and keeping an eye on things along with her fellow agent, Peggy Carter. None of them end up with the roles they'd expected.

Word Count: 5,667

Category: Fluff, Angst

A/N: I haven’t watched tfa or what if? in a hot minute so this ended up as a kind of mix of all of those with some other fun stuff thrown in there

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

"Are you sure you want to do this?"

I couldn't help the question escaping my lips as I sat at the bar with my boyfriend, Steve Rogers. He looked even paler than usual as we sat together for our last night before Steve would risk everything in an experiment to become a supersoldier tomorrow morning. We'd both been given special leave from camp and our regular duties to spend tonight together, both of us mentally preparing.

"I'm sure," he said, after taking a long breath in and out. He looked at me with a calm smile, confidence written in every line of his face despite the massive uncertainty that followed us through every minute of this war.

His answer didn't surprise me one bit.

I'd only met Steve a short time ago, when he showed up at camp for training along with tons of other recruits. Despite the fact that he was clearly nowhere near healthy enough to be here without the support of Doctor Erskine, and that General Phillips clearly didn't like him very well, he never let any of that stop him or slow him down.

I'd fallen in love almost at first sight.

Despite the mountain of obstacles in his way, Steve had fought to be part of the war, to defend justice and freedom, no matter what barriers anyone put in his way. From the US military to the enemy, he did everything in his power to stand for what was right, no matter who stood against him. What more could I ask for in a partner?

"You're coming with me tomorrow, right?" he asked, looking at me with a touch of uncertainty breaking through his expression. It was the first and only sign he'd shown of fear for tomorrow and what it might bring.

"Of course, Steve," I said, smiling as I reached out to take his hand. I'll be there with you every step of the way, both before and after."

He nodded, giving me a tight smile which I returned. Neither of us was willing to entertain the possibility that there might not be an after tomorrow.

We finished our drinks, taking our time and enjoying the moment together, then left hand-in-hand to return to our separate army bunks for the night. I knew sleep would be difficult, but I did my best to drift off quickly, since I'd need to be as rested as possible for the morning.

The drive to the facility and all the procedures that went with it passed in a blur when the time came. I stayed by Steve's side as much as I could, both of us resolute and determined as we entered the top secret facility where Steve would become the world's first super soldier.

"Don't worry, he's going to be fine."

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Howard Stark's voice behind me. I'd been lost in thought and hadn't noticed his approach, and couldn't hold back a slight glare when I turned to face him.

"You're strung as tight as a live wire."

"I don't think that's a real expression, Howard."

He shrugged. "What makes any expression more real than another? If you say it often and with enough confidence, it becomes one."

With that settled, at least in his mind, he headed off towards the waiting machines and instruments he needed to tend to. I just shook my head as I watched him go.

"How are you feeling?" asked the much more calming voice of Peggy Carter from my right. I sighed as I turned to her, arguably my best friend in the world, and she gave me a sympathetic look.

"I've felt better. I just... I hope he's okay. Howard says he will be, but Howard's a maniac, so what does he know?"

Peggy gave me a soft smile as I turned to look at Steve, who stood across the room talking to Doctor Erskine.

"He will be fine, Y/N. And once this is over, the two of you can keep fighting the bad guys and saving the world even more than you already have."

I sighed, at last turning my attention back to my friend and willing myself to believe her words.

"I'm sure you're right, Peggy."

Time seemed to fly by and move at the pace of molasses somehow at the same time as Howard made the last adjustments on the machines and Steve had a last few words with Doctor Erskine. I waited a few steps from the machine with Peggy by my side as Steve finally approached. The time had come.

And then a shot rang out.

I whipped my head around in horror towards the source of the noise, to find Doctor Erskine lifeless on the ground, a man with a gun hovering over him. Officers all around the room ran to take him down, but not quickly enough.

He fired off another shot. It hit Steve right in the chest.

"No!" I screamed, surging forward to try to get to my boyfriend, my best friend, the love of my life, but my progress was stopped by an even greater force pulling me backward. I whirled around, ready to throw off whatever was pulling me backward, and to my surprise found Peggy.

"I'm sorry, Y/N, I'm so sorry," she said, continuing to drag me nonetheless. Then she turned, shouting across the room. "Howard!"

Somehow, amidst the screaming and chaos in the room and the gunshot that still seemed to ring everywhere and drown out everything else, Howard apparently heard her.

"We're a go, Peggy! Now!"

I finally caught sight of Steve then, laying on the floor without moving despite the flood of movement happening around him. My heart leapt into my throat, and I was about to shove Peggy off me and go to him again when, somehow, I was looking at the ceiling instead.

Peggy hovered over me and I moved to get up, but restraints slapped me into place as, finally, I realized what was happening.

I was in the supersoldier machine. Instead of Steve, Howard and Doctor Erskine's concoction was being pumped into my bloodstream while the one it was intended for, my wonderful boyfriend, lay dead or dying a few feet away.

For better or worse, the despair welling in my chest didn't have the chance to overtake me as a pain like nothing I'd ever felt completely took over every thought, sense, and feeling in my body. Somehow, I was on fire, and the metal box around me was closing in. My limbs were being ripped away one by one, my skin was stretching to the point of breaking, my blood was boiling-

I screamed, but it felt like a faraway version of me that did it. I wasn't in my own body anymore, rather looking down from somewhere else as my brain short circuited with every nerve ending screaming.

And then suddenly, I was back. The pain started to ebb, and I grit my teeth and focused on breathing and hanging onto survival no matter what it took. I would do it, I would survive this world-ending pain, and I would do it for Steve. And hopefully, by some insane miracle, he would do the same for me.

At last, the rest of the pain drained away, leaving me breathing heavily but otherwise feeling better than I ever had in my life. Slowly, I felt the contraption Howard had built tip upright, and my porthole viewing window revealed the room I'd just left.

I had no idea how long it had taken, but based on the chaos that still dominated the slightly more empty room I guessed it hadn't been too long. At last, the metal door opened, and I stumbled out. I looked down, intending to finally run to Steve, but he wasn't there.

"Y/N!"

"How do you feel?"

I turned to find Peggy and Howard, their voices respectively concerned and curious, then found I had to look down a little further than I ever had before. I blinked a few times, the world briefly spinning, and realized, somehow, I was taller than I'd been a few minutes ago.

"Do you think she can speak?" I heard Howard ask, leaning around me to talk to Peggy. "Maybe some of the muscle growth impacted her vocal cords-"

"Where's Steve?" I managed to ask, overcoming my shock and inadvertently answering Howard's question. He looked at me in surprise, then started dancing around me with scientific instruments and taking measurements, so I turned to Peggy.

"Y/N, are you alright? I-"

"Where is he, Peggy?"

She hesitated, then seemed to realize I was stubborn enough not to let this go until I got an answer. "A few of the soldiers we still trust took him to the hospital."

"Take me to him."

"Y/N, I really don't think-"

"Peggy." My best friend and I stood perfectly frozen as we held eye contact, Howard still moving all around me but neither of us paying him any attention. "I need to see Steve."

She sighed, then gave an abrupt nod. "Howard, if anyone asks, tell them where we've gone. And keep me updated on anything you find out."

"Hold on, I still need to-"

"You can do experiments on our friend later," she snapped. I gave her a grateful smile as I followed behind her, out of the room where the world had just upended itself completely. I loved Howard, but sometimes he didn't know the meaning of the word "boundary".

Still half in a daze, I followed Peggy to a car outside. She went around to the driver's side while I went to climb into the passenger's seat. I tried to pull the door open, something I'd done a thousand times before, but the door ripped off its hinges in my hand like it was made of paper. I stared at it blankly, trying to fight off the wave of shock threatening to totally overcome me.

"Y/N?"

I shook myself out of it, looking back up at Peggy.

"I'm fine."

We got a new car, and for the first part of our drive, I tried quietly testing out a few of my new limits. I could bend metal like it was nothing, and I was clearly stronger and more muscled than I'd been before the serum. Erskine's serum was a success; I was officially a supersoldier.

As we made our way through the busy streets of New York to the hospital, my mind wandered to other things. I glanced over at Peggy, white knuckled on the steering wheel while otherwise projecting outward calm.

"Why did you do it, Peggy?" I asked, unable to help the question from bursting out of me.

Peggy glanced over to me, then back to the road. She was silent for almost two full blocks before she finally answered.

"You were always our contingency plan," she started, her voice a little gravelly. "While you and Steve were having your last night of drinks, Howard and I had drinks of our own. He was worried about the serum falling into the wrong hands, especially after Colonel Phillips pushed for that absolute prat from training camp. We talked about it for some time, and neither of us could come up with a better option than you."

I didn't respond, instead opting to stare straight ahead as I tried to process everything Peggy had just told me. She gave me a few seconds, then continued.

"I'm sorry we never told you, Y/N," she said. "We didn't have much time, and honestly, it was never supposed to come to this."

I nodded, mostly to let her know I'd heard her. My brain was working overtime, but one question kept ringing through my mind.

"Why me?"

Peggy glanced at me a few times, splitting her attention between me and the road.

"Why you? I thought that would be rather self-evident."

She briefly turned her attention away from me as she at last pulled into a parking spot in front of the hotel. I started to shift in my seat, ready to just let the question keep echoing in my head while I ran to find Steve, but Peggy put a hand on my arm to stop me.

"Y/N, listen to me. You are just as good a choice for this serum as Steve. You're strong, kind, and a fundamentally good person- not only are we lucky to have you as the world's first supersoldier, but I'm lucky to have you as a friend. I know this must be overwhelming, and I'm sorry I put you in this situation without warning. But I need you to believe it when I say you are up to this task."

I took a deep breath as Peggy held my stare, willing myself to take in her words. I wanted to, but honestly now that we were at the hospital, I couldn't really think of much beyond Steve.

I gave Peggy a tight-lipped smile, then pulled my arm out of her grasp and moved for the car door. I nearly pulled this one off its hinges too, then remembered to be much, much more gentle than I'd normally be.

Peggy gave me a look as we got out of the car together and headed towards the hospital, but I pretended not to notice. Thankfully, she just let it go, and helped me get to Steve as quickly as possible.

When we arrived at his hospital room, he wasn't there. We'd been told he was in emergency surgery, and the doctors were currently fighting to save his life. I plopped down in the chair next to his bed and resolved to wait.

"He's not going to be back for some time, you know," Peggy said gently from her place by the door. "You might be waiting here for a while."

"Better than waiting in a lab while all the military execs talk about what to do with me now."

Peggy pursed her lips, but didn't voice whatever she was feeling. She just nodded, and came to take a seat by my side.

"Then I suppose I'm in for the long haul too."

****************

When they finally brought Steve back in, he was unconscious. Alive, to my massive relief, but unconscious and still not safe as he was fighting to recover from his injury and the resulting surgery. I didn't move an inch from my seat by his side.

Peggy stayed with me for a while, but eventually had to start working with and talking to various generals and officials again. None of them wanted to let me out in the field anyway, so I didn't have anyone challenging my decision to stay by Steve's side.

When I was alone with him, I talked to him, telling him about everything that had happened after he'd been shot and working through my own attempts at processing everything that had happened. I started exploring my powers in my own time too, within the confines of the room. I could bend the metal instruments left on the table in one corner, and could do more than double the number of pushups I'd been able to do before without breaking a sweat.

I was in the middle of testing whether I could jump high enough to touch the ceiling (yes) and then with how much of my arm I could touch it with when Peggy came back into the room. She grinned when she saw what I was doing, but I quickly stopped to look at her instead.

"Not going stir crazy, I hope?" she teased. I rolled my eyes.

"It's for science, Peggy. Come on."

She snorted, but didn't challenge my statement all the same. Instead, she crossed the room to take a seat beside Steve, next to the chair I usually sat in.

"How is he doing?" she asked softly, staring now at Steve instead of me. I sighed and went to sit next to her.

"Still fighting through his coma, as I'm sure you can see," I said. It had been just less than a week now, but Steve still hadn't woken up. "The doctors say his injuries are healing well, though, and they're hopeful that he'll wake up soon."

Peggy nodded, keeping her gentle stare on Steve for another minute longer, then at last turned to me. Her expression became much more serious, and I tried to brace myself for whatever she would say next.

"We need you back," she said bluntly, not bothering to beat around the bush. "I've worked with Howard to get permission for you to join us–meaning Howard and myself, under General Phillips–in the European theater. We don't have permission for more than just you being there yet, but this is the closest we've come to getting you cleared for active duty. If you stay, we may never get you out of a lab or off a stage again."

I frowned, processing her words. I hadn't realized there'd been a risk of being trapped in a lab or on a stage for the rest of the war, although if I'd given it a second of thought, I probably would have.

"I know you don't want to leave Steve," said Peggy, turning to look at him one last time. "I can't say I really want to either. But he wouldn't want you to be cooped up in here, when there's so much you could be doing out there."

I sighed, staring at Steve as I felt Peggy's eyes drilling into me. I knew she was right; Steve and I hadn't gone through everything we'd been through so far, both alone and together, just to stand by and do nothing if the opportunity came up for us to make a difference.

"Alright," I finally said, tearing my eyes away from Steve and hardening my resolve. "Let's do this, then."

Peggy smiled, and I didn't let myself look back as I followed her out of the room.

****************

The next few weeks were an absolute blur. Peggy (and Howard, whenever he was around) kept pushing for me to be allowed into combat, and just about every other top brass officer pushed back. Despite the fact they refused to clear me, I'd been kept plenty busy, running around with Peggy doing all the codebreaking, organizational, and action-coordinating duties we'd done before and then some. Whenever I finally collapsed onto my bedroll for a few hours of sleep at the end of the day, I basically slept like the dead.

Still, I jolted up quickly enough when Peggy shook my shoulder just past two in the morning.

"What do you want?" I mumbled, the words only half-intelligible thanks to the sleep slurring my words. After the initial adrenaline that I was being attacked had faded, the drowsiness had swept back in with a vengeance.

"Some soldiers just returned to camp," she said, her voice a hissing whisper. The urgency and the secrecy made me sit up a little straighter, some of the sleepiness fading away. "They're what's left of a regiment captured by Hydra, the rest of whom are currently being held at a base some distance into enemy territory."

"Okay..."

"Since Steve's talked to me about Bucky, I'm assuming you know about him too?"

"...Of course. Obviously I never met him, but... Steve talks about him all the time. Why?"

"His regiment–him included–is the one being held by Hydra."

I shot up, finally fully awake. "What?"

"Bucky, along with most of the other soldiers in his regiment, are being held at a Hydra base not far from our current position. While this is obviously awful-"

"If anything happens to him, Steve-"

"I think it could also prove exactly the opportunity we need."

My eyes snapped to Peggy, not even bothering to hide how crazy I thought she was as I looked at her.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Y/N, you are being wasted sitting in this camp doing behind the scenes duties, even more than you were before you took the serum. Neither of us wants to risk everything and get court-martialed for something ridiculous, no matter how tempting it may be. But going after Bucky and his regiment, going on a mission to save them... that might be worth it. And it might be everything we need to get everyone to stop second-guessing your importance in combat."

"Are you suggesting we go rogue, somehow sneak across enemy lines, and that I then go single-handedly into an active Hydra base to free almost an entire captured regiment?"

"And destroy the Hydra base in the process, yes."

I sighed, staring blankly at a spot on my blankets for a minute, then swung my legs out of bed and looked at Peggy.

"Alright, I'm in. It's been a little too long since I've done something stupid and reckless anyway."

Just under three hours later, I found myself jumping out of a plane towards a Hydra base, in the middle of enemy territory. Famous last words, I guess, saying I hadn't been doing anything reckless and then jumping straight into the most reckless thing I'd ever done.

I landed in the Hydra base behind a cluster of tanks, then managed to sneak my way inside. Thankfully, I knew enough about interior layouts to make a pretty good guess of where prisoners might be kept, and it wasn't long before I found the men from the missing regiment in a series of cages.

One of them was talking to a guard, thankfully the only one in the room, until I knocked the guard out.

"And who are you?" asked the man behind bars, sounding pleasantly surprised.

"Captain America," I said simply, standing tall with my shoulders back. That had been the planned name for Steve, and the name Peggy and I insisted on keeping, despite the number of male higher-ups who didn't like a woman having that title.

"Well, Captain, any chance you could get us out of these cages?"

"That's what I'm here for," I said, quickly setting to work. "Do you know a man named Sergeant Barnes?"

"Yeah, but he's not here. Some of the guards took him away not long ago. They've been running experiments in rooms on the other side of the compound."

I swore under my breath, then stepped back as the cage door swung open. I looked the man in the eye as he met my stare with a new respect.

"What's your name?"

"Tim Dugan."

"Alright Dugan, do you think you can get these men out of here and on the path back to friendly territory?"

"With the door wide open like this? Not gonna be a problem, sweetheart."

I narrowed my eyes at him, but he just grinned back, no hint of the condescension usually associated with that nickname anywhere on his face. Instead, he looked excited, the wild gleam I'd seen in my own and Steve's eyes before shining back at me. I sighed.

"Alright, good, then get on it. I've got a sergeant to save."

"See you on the other side," he said with a nod. I nodded back, then turned and sprinted deeper into the base.

After ducking and dodging lots of armed guards, as well as knocking out a few when I accidentally barged into the wrong room, I finally flung open a door to find a man strapped on the table in front of me. He was alone in the room, and to my relief, he matched the appearance of the man I'd seen in almost every photograph Steve had before joining the military.

"Sergeant Barnes?" I asked, not waiting for an answer as I moved to start unstrapping him from the table. He looked up at me, bewildered and clearly exhausted.

"And who are you?"

"Y/N Y/L/N, otherwise known as Captain America. I'm Steve's girlfriend."

Bucky's face lit up at that, the suspicion that had been building in his eyes disappearing in an instant.

"Steve has a girlfriend? Now I know you're lying to me."

I glanced back at him to find a crooked smile on his face, and I couldn't help returning one of my own. I undid the last strap, then moved around the table to help Bucky stand.

"Come on, let's get you out of here. Then you can give Steve shit to his face."

Bucky chuckled, but it quickly turned into a wheeze, which made me incredibly nervous. I subtly shifted him so I was taking more of his weight, but before we could make much progress to the door, it came flying open on its own.

"A valiant effort at a rescue attempt. Too bad it is going to be in vain."

We both froze in our tracks, looking up to find ourselves face to face with a man with goggles and a lab coat, standing tall in the doorway and towering over us, one of the biggest guns I'd ever seen in his hands leveled right at us.

"We had heard the Allies created a supersoldier, despite our best efforts to stop them. We hadn't realized it was a woman."

He scoffed the last word, and I scowled, more than ready to put this punk in his place. Before I could, however, he pushed a setting on the weapon, and it began firing up.

"Fortunately, now that you have come right to us, there will be plenty of time for us to figure out just what made the Allies decide to send you into combat."

I frowned, mostly ignoring him while I looked for any way out of this situation. Punching this guy straight in the face felt like a good option, but despite my super strength and speed he could probably shoot me before I got to him, and since this was my first combat mission I had no idea just how well my new super-self held up against bullets, let alone whatever the hell this thing would fire.

As my brain ran through possibilities searching for options, the man turned his gaze to Bucky, an expression of mock-sympathy on his face.

"Now that we have her, Sergeant Barnes, we unfortunately no longer have use for you."

Bucky tensed beside me, and my full focus snapped back to the situation at hand rather than ways to get out of it as the crazy gun before us started heating up, whirring like it was about to fire. It was leveled right at Bucky's head.

I swore, time slowing down as I came to a conclusion. My only real option was to push Bucky out of the way and take the shot for him. I'd just have to hope my super-metabolism also equalled super-healing, and try to take it in the shoulder instead of the head or chest. Then, I'd have to find a way to get up and keep swinging, and hopefully Bucky had enough energy left in him to help me get the gun. Otherwise I'd just have to figure it out myself.

I started to move, ready to block Bucky and hopefully come up swinging, refusing to dwell on how often the word "hope" appeared in my plan, but then the gun went flying across the room all on its own.

For half a second, the only thought in my head was: Do I have magic powers now too?

Then, a metal fist appeared in the doorway, absolutely creaming the guy who'd been blocking it before, dropping him unconscious to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Bucky and I looked up in sync, confused and (on my part) ready to fight a new threat, only to see a metal man step into view. His eyes glowed blue, and it looked like a big suit of armor come to life. I shifted on my feet, trying to determine whether this was a friend or if I needed to attack this thing, and then its face lifted up, revealing another, human face beneath.

"Oh great, you two have met now. I don't know whether to be happy or brace myself for just how much more shit I'm about to take as a result."

"Steve!" I cried, rushing towards him and wrapping him in the tightest hug my supersoldier strength would allow. Thankfully, the metal suit meant he was fine, despite the enthusiasm. Behind me, I heard Bucky thump into the table as he caught himself after my support disappeared, but I couldn't bring myself to care.

"Hey, sweetheart. I missed you."

"I missed you too," I said, pulling back from the hug to kiss him, hard. For the first time in our relationship I had to get up on my toes to kiss him, even with the extra super-height, which felt incredibly weird. After a second I pulled back, giving his suit a once-over and raising an eyebrow.

"So what exactly is this?"

"A supersuit," he replied with a grin. "Howard's apparently been working on one for a while, but after I got shot he made it more of a priority."

"After you got what?"

I turned to see Bucky behind me, still leaning on the table, looking at Steve with a mix of concern, fury, and exasperation. Steve moved past me to go wrap his friend in a bearhug, and I caught a grin on his face as he went. Bucky didn't look amused, but he also didn't have the strength to do anything about Steve in a metal suit hugging him for dear life.

"Don't worry about it, Buck," he said, still grinning, before turning back to me. Bucky kept frowning between the two of us, but Steve and I both ignored it. "So what now?"

"Now we get out of here, and destroy the base on our way out," I said simply. Steve beamed, and even Bucky's expression turned slightly more pleasant at the thought. "Let's do this."

Like we'd spent our whole lives working together, we moved out of the room in perfect sync. Steve supported Bucky, following right behind me as we moved through the base. We threw stealth out the window now that we had everything we needed, and whenever we came across someone who might try to stop us, I knocked them out before they could so much as reach for their weapon. When the occasional guard got past me, Steve easily took care of them on cleanup.

We planted bombs on support pillars and in power rooms as we gradually made our way towards the exit, then pushed the button to start the short timers once we made it outside. We sprinted for the treeline, Steve in his suit keeping pace with me and my superspeed even though he was carrying Bucky, and made it about a hundred yards into the woods before everything behind us exploded.

The three of us stopped, turning back to watch the wreckage we'd just caused. I couldn't help smiling, since the destruction of that base not only meant the destruction of a terrible Hydra facility, but also a successful mission under my belt we could throw in the face of anyone who doubted me.

"Damn. That's sure a pretty sight."

The three of us whirled around as one to find Dugan, the soldier I'd met earlier, and the rest of the regiment standing behind us. Steve got into a fighting stance, but Bucky and I just smiled.

"I let you out and you only got this far? You might have some skills to work on, Dugan," I said, beaming at him nonetheless. He smiled right back.

"Unlike your trio, I had to get the whole regiment out without being caught. Besides, I can't say I mind how this timing worked out."

"Yeah, me neither."

After Bucky was welcomed back into the relieved arms of his regiment and we got Steve introduced, our group slowly started making our way back to friendly territory and the familiar camp waiting beyond. It took a little over a day, and I had to step into the action a few more times to deal with barriers trying to keep people moving between sides of the war, but eventually, we made it back.

As soon as we came within sight of the camp, we could hear cheering. People flocked out to see us, beaming as we staggered in triumphantly, arms around each other and heads held high. Steve stood on my right, Bucky on my left, Dugan and the rest of his squad right behind us. I smiled as Peggy approached, and I swear I could feel puzzle pieces falling into place.

"Let's hear it for Captain America!" cried Steve, smiling at me as he let up the shout. Everyone cheered, and towards the back of the crowd I could see General Phillips with his arms crossed but a smile on his face nonetheless. It disappeared the second he caught me looking, but I'd known it was there.

Steve wrapped his arm a little more tightly around me, his suit currently off and hidden somewhere safe, and I leaned down to kiss him. The crowd cheered even louder, and in that moment, I knew for certain that nothing Hydra or the Axis powers threw at us could touch us.

Captain America, the Iron Man, Agent Carter, and the Howling Commandos were about to turn the world on its head, and no one would ever be able to stand in our way.

****************

Marvel Taglist: @valkyriepirate​

[thegerto]

Meet: Omegaka “The Red Dawn ”.

Omegaka or simply Omega is a kind of humanoid whose arms, legs and face are shaped like a squid, a kind of capsule on his back and a total of 8 tentacles, 4 of them are his arms and legs while the others are on his back, he wears worn white pants held by a red ribbon, a hood and a red hat covering his face.

Backstory Omegaka in life was a soldier of the USSR, he was sent to the Eastern Siberia where after a bloody battle, he was seriously wounded and where unfortunately, he died a slow and painful death, once in Purgatory, Omegaka volunteered to the experiments of the Supersoldier and thanks to his military experience, he would not take long to get used to it.

Power: Life absorption.

Omegaka has the power to absorb the life energy of living beings when in contact with them (including his tentacles), by absorbing energy the affected will have different effects such as dizziness, vomiting, migraine, internal bleeding and among others, Omegaka on the other hand will become stronger and gain strength and improved resistance temporarily, in addition to doing this can also heal from any type of injury, whether fatal or not.

In addition to this, Omegaka has a multipurpose gauntlets (Equipped with GPS, Communicator, Radio or laser guns) and uses his tentacles as if they were whips (If they are cut they will grow back) Not to mention his great agility underwater, you could say that is his element and where it becomes more dangerous.

Data Military Rank: Lieutenant Species: Soul of Purgatory Age: 30 Family: Unknown Team: “The Voidlanders”. Places of Ops: Hell (Pride, Gluttony and Lust) Purgatory (Ring 7,6 and 4).

Statistics Strength: 8/10 Speed: 9/10 Endurance: 7/10 Intelligence: 7/10 Magic power: 5/10

[aimmyarrowshigh]

Hello! Dropping into your inbox to ask you about your research for

"Lent From Tomorrow (today was too small for us)." You must have done a ton of historical research for it to get so many of those details. I think that sort of thing is a lot of fun, and I'm very curious to know if you came across anything especially cool/fascinating/weird during your writing research.

Ooh, thank you for the ask! How fun!

There's SO MUCH research in this fic, from the codebreaking to the science of how to defrost a supersoldier to what was on the radio on specific days in 1943. I've got a whole folder of just Lent From Tomorrow research, and the back half of my WIP document is just copy-pastes of quotes from soldiers, scientists, codebreakers, radio hosts, etc.

But, to be fair, I've been reading nonfiction about WWII codebreakers for like 20 years. It's one of my special interests~ and something that I just love learning about. WWII *battles*, I don't care about at all, but everything else about the time period is fascinating to me -- probably because of Molly McIntire, haha.

My FAVORITE little tidbit actually comes up in this coming week's chapter, so I'm not going to spoil it, but it's my favorite recollection in Code Girls by Liza Mundy. That was definitely the book that I used the most for this fic, since the main characters are basically all "code girls," or code omegas, whatever. I also used a lot from PBS Nova's The Mind of a Codebreaker, which I watched when it first came out in 1999 and it rewired my entire brain. I immediately did a report on the women of Bletchley Park in 7th grade (and another on the WASP/WAVE/WAC pilots, so I was really excited to be able to have Carol Danvers make a cameo in Lent!).

But I also looked up specifics for just about every scene -- the snippet of Quiz Kids that's on the wireless radio when Steve and the Asset are listening to the wireless is a quote and actually aired that day. The Torah portion that Steve hears when he goes to shul with the gals and Scott is the Torah portion from that particular Shabbat service in December 1942. The movie scene is the actual movie, newsreel, and cartoon that were shown together at a theater in Washington, DC, on that Friday in March 1943.

I leaned on a former-scientist friend of mine to point me in the right direction to find out how they would have frozen and defrosted the Asset, and also how The Arm might work in a way that isn't just "::shrug:: it's Superhero Science." Her husband is a mathematician, and she suggested some avenues that Steve might have written his big 1929 math paper about, too. And then I read a bunch of math papers from the 1920s and tried to understand them and it was. a lot.

I also did a lot of research into Steve's various disabilities and ailments and the treatments available by the early 1940s, particularly asthma and his childhood polio. (I'm forgetting whether the backstory of his polio experience has actually shown up in the fic yet or if it's coming up soon in a chapter? If it hasn't been posted yet, then spoiler, I guess, Steve had polio as a kid [although I *think* that's canon?]). Steve's experience of being disabled is really important to me, and I wanted it to matter and be a part of his life in this story (and any story I write about Steve).

There's a lot more specific stuff coming up in the back half of the fic, now that we've reached the midway point... Bucky's backstory requires a lot of research into things that I don't know as much about, just because I don't tend to look into actual battle/military histories, and because [redacted for spoilers].

[bitchfitch]

I'm still picking at 'Retired' spy Zephyr to figure out how he's going to be loony, extremely self destructive tendencies is the current vibe but the Flavor of it isnt there yet. But I've got Retired Supersoldier Renard figured out.

He's spent so long being gaslit and having his actual perception of reality discredited and made to feel fake that he struggles to tell what's real and whats a story. It means he settles into their cover story and new life as civilians almost instantly, but when reality conflicts with the story it confuses him and sends him into explosive bouts of rage as he seeks to Make it fit. That used to be an adaptation he needed to use in order to survive the absolute hell he was put through, but now that he's out... It's just destructive.

He ends up genuinely believing their new lived lie is the truth. He's was honorably discharged from the army following a traumatic head injury before he ever saw actual combat. He and Zephyr were highschool sweethearts who married before Renard was deployed for the first time. Zephyr has always ran a tattoo and piercing studio, Renard is a data analyst now. Neither of them have ever taken a life.

They live in a happy white picket fence neighborhood, all the other houses are empty They have a cat, it's a statuette that was part of the Generic Home Decor their place was furnished with for this experiment. They have two beautiful infant children to whom Renard is a doting father, He hasn't noticed that they don't age or cry, or move, or that they're cheap baby dolls.

Zephyr loves him. He loves Zephyr. Their wedding was beautiful. The pictures of the event make his head hurt because they don't 100% line up with their agreed on story. They got married in the winter, Zephyr already had his piercings and tattoos. The man in the picture is dressed for a hot summer wedding and his skin is bare of any identifiable marks. They've been in love since highschool. Renard doesn't remember anything about highschool. He never went.

Zephyr loves him, they're married, a lot of the time Zephyr treats him like a stranger or like there was nothing between them.

A man from the military comes by every week to talk to them. Renard remembers the man giving them their new identies. He asks questions about them that don't make sense. What cover? What plan? What experiment? Why was he given a new identity? why did the man introduce him to the husband he had had for a decade like they were total strangers the first time the man came to visit the house?

What is he writing in his stupid clipboard? Always writing. the scratching sound is killing Renard. he can take it. it's not Right. he just meant to grab the clipboard and take it away from the man.

Renard doesn't know what he's looking at when he stands in the tiled foyer of his perfect home. The man is on the ground. he's screaming. Zephyr is bolting out the door. There's something in Renard's hand. There's so much blood.

the clipboard is on the floor beside his feet. There's something in his hand. Renard is staring at it and his brain isn't letting him process what it is.

Zephyr comes back. there's other people with him. They take the screaming man away and Zephyr is saying sweet things to him that don't match the movements of his mouth. He takes the thing in Renard's hand and passes it to one of the people. They wrap it in scarlet plastic.

He'd just meant to grab the clipboard. Something told him he'd grabbed the man by the wrist too hard instead... but there was so much blood. He wasn't a strong man. He was big sure, but he wasn't strong. Their story involved nothing about this man, or Renard being particularly strong.

Zephyr was still right there, soothing him. Telling him that now that their guest was gone they should go have a drink in the dining room. Zephyr likes making cocktails, Renard likes watching his husband do it. He just wishes he could handle more than one Martini before he was so sleepy he could barely stand. You'd think a man his size wouldn't be such a lightweight. Zephyr tells him he always has been, and it doesn't feel right to Renard, but his husband wouldn't lie to him. right?

He dreams of torn off hands that night.

[flesh-and-faith]

"This is a love story."

I started writing Don't Go Where I Can't Find You in January 2023, but I'd been thinking about it much longer than that. I've been a Halo fan for as long as Halo's existed, but more specifically, I read Halo: The Thursday War in 2012 and was especially intrigued by this plot line:

In the story, a Sangheili named Jul is taken prisoner by ONI and they introduce irukan, a grain that they intend to feed him while he is in captivity. As he eats it, he starts to become ill. He notices that half the grain is also being fed to an animal called a colo. The ones that are getting the grain are becoming emaciated, while the ones that are eating grass are healthy.

Jul never confirms what ONI was doing, but the readers learn that ONI was genetically modifying the crop so that it would be indigestible to the Sangheili before introducing to Sangheili colonies, starving the planets out.

I was horrified and fascinated. Halo can get dark, but despite the major themes of war, it usually steps carefully to make sure that you don't have to think too hard about the people you're fighting in the games: you're either killing aliens before they kill you, or killing robot aliens before they kill you. So to see a plan that would impact civilians (and mostly women and children, given how the Sangheili military was structured at the time) was shocking. But then, the place the experiment was being held becomes a joint human-Sangheili research development, and the project seems to have been presumed to be cancelled. That always seemed strange to me. It doesn't seem very ONI of them to just stop. So, where did it go? That question sat with me for years.

When I decided to pick up writing again, it was just for my own enjoyment. I've loved writing since I was young, but life got in the way and it made me sad to be so out of practice. I was experiencing pretty bad burnout at the end of 2022, and needed an outlet, so with some encouragement, I decided to try it out. I knew immediately that the story I wanted to tell was going to be my answer to what happened to the irukan project.

I also knew that if I was going to write a Halo fic, I wanted it to be about regular people. In Halo, by the end of the human-Covenant war, about half of the entire human population has died. By the end of the Sangheili civil war, Sanghelios' population is also halved. Assuming rescue efforts prioritized children, that is a lot of orphans. Billions, even. And so, my next question was: What does that look like? What are the practical consequences? I imagined empty stores and children raising children. I imagined the people who were not able to fall back on their wealth or status. That was more compelling to me than another supersoldier among supersoldiers.

Lastly, I decided on inter-species romance, because that's what I like, and I haven't seen anything quite like what I was imagining. I thought that using loss as the great unifier between very different people who were once enemies could make for a beautiful love story. You know what they say: write what you want to see.

Once I had they story's main question and an idea of who the characters would be, I was able to do a deeper dive into canon to see where this story could fit. I know not everyone cares about fitting neatly into canon, but I like the limitations of canon because it gives me direction. First, I looked up planets that had a Guardian event, and then I looked up human colonies that were glassed around a time that made sense for Julia's age and August's disappearance.

I don't use large story outlines or character charts because I find them to be too overwhelming, and I think it can create a trap wherein I'd spend all my time preparing and too little time getting to work. I do have a chart I refer to to make sure I don't mix up dates, which I'll talk about in another post.

The most important part of this note isn't the character work at all, imo. The most important part is the first thing I ever wrote in preparing for this undertaking: "This is a love story."

I suppose you could call this the central theme or the heart of the story. It's what I come back to when I'm stuck or getting bogged down in the details. At the end of the day, it's a love story, and the plot should advance that theme.

So, I had my question: What happened to the irukan experiment? And I had my central theme: This is a love story.

And then I got to work.

[sometimesraven]

Comping is hard but it must be done! Let's see if I can't explain these a lil.

First, Level 16. For those who aren't familiar, it's a YA movie about girls raised into a 'school' that teaches them to be obedient, clean ladies. The comparison here is in the slow discovery of the truth behind their captive upbringing, the comraderie and familial bond between the girls, and their eventual defiance in the face of their captors. I used a screenshot from this movie in my webweaving about the found family element of my books!

The Umbrella Academy is an obvious one! Bunch of kids raised to be superheroes/soldiers by one british asshole who might not be human? All traumatised beyond belief and dysfunctional af and also some of them are trans?? Yup, I gotcha.

Night Game by Christine Feehan is actually the book which initially inspired the Truth Saga characters! It's... super fucked up and I definitely shouldn't have been reading her books as a young teen XD

Basically, the Ghostwalker series is a series of adult romance novels about genetically engineered military men trying to save and protect the genetically engineered supersoldier women who were part of a fucked up experiment. I was inspired by the supersoldier aspect and the way the characters had to learn to trust and love each other through their trauma, and so my books have those elements to them (but without the hetero forced breeding programme and excessive erotica XD)

Finally, we have Rainy Day by Ice Nine Kills. LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS FUCKIN SONG. So it's about Resident Evil, right? I've been lightheardedly making comparisons between the Truth Saga and Resident Evil as there's some coincidental similarities between some of the characters and themes (in book 2 I actually gave the villain a line from one of the villains in the games, as an easter egg).

So when this song comes out I'm super excited! I love INK and they wrote a song about a video game franchise I love??? Then, halfway through, I get jumpscared by this fucking line: "Become a soldier for the controller"

SO YEAH. Besides being thematically appropriate, that fuCKING LINE. Also "Don't save the truth for a rainy day"

--

Credit to bhavya_reads on instagram and twitter for the template!

Taglist (Click here to be added)

@smallvillecrows

[that-house]

Hey so how did you get started in making tabletop games? I really wanna start but I don't really know where I can look to even get basics. I haven't been able to find anything applicable to it.

Especially since I didn't really have much experience with any games that weren't video games til like a few years ago. And I can for sure see it as a case of a big part of learning is doing both playing games then tweaking those games to be somewhat different in ways that suit you but I just don't have anyone with the time to play.

i mean part of it is just. this has been a huge part of my life literally since elementary school

i loved pretending to be fantasy heroes and whatnot with my friends, and at some point long before i'd heard of D&D i was like "wow i sure am tired of forgetting what my character can do, i should write it down" and made my first ever character sheet which (a) was totally incomprehensible like a week later and (b) got lost super fast

after that i think i encountered the official warrior cats rpg, Warriors Adventure Game, and that inspired me to start making my own games using Word on the family computer. they were not good, as you might expect from a 4th grader

this post is turning out to be Long so

i got more serious about it in middle school. my school had a LARP program, and that was my first ever brush with actual organized RPG stuff. i loved it so much that i wanted to keep doing it over the summer, but didn't have access to the official rules, so i made my own for my friends and I.

one of those LARP friends got me into D&D, and i almost instantly ruined the campaign i ran for him and our other LARP friends with broken homebrew items because ough game design

i got serious about indie ttrpg design in high school. my big project was Reclaim, a sci fi RPG focused on supersoldiers reconquering the planet for humanity after an apocalypse (which gradually morphed into a critique of the military-industrial complex and american imperialism as my brain pathways connected properly in the later half of high school). it was the focus of my college application essay, but the game itself was not great in retrospect

nowadays i've further refined my approach to game design for my high power sci fi/fantasy anime bullshit project, Field of White Flowers, which is definitely the game i'm proudest of to date (it will probably have a basic version of the rules available for free some day, but the full game is enough of an undertaking that I will be charging some money for it)

the issue with advising people on how to make RPG systems is that there isn't necessarily a "right answer." RPGs can be anything. I can say "making a fun game is the most important part" but different people are going to have different definitions of fun.

like some people want crunchy systems with an answer to everything and rules for how many moles of oxygen you can hold in your lungs, while other people want stuff that's more rules light and lets them get right to the narrative and the roleplay. so i think the main thing when designing a game is pick an audience and stick to it: my games' primary audience is usually myself (i like systems with a lot of room for customization and optimization)

the other big tip i have is to play and read as many RPG systems as you can. almost everything has at least one good idea in it somewhere, and even stuff that's just Bad might give you a moment of inspiration while you're laughing at it.

as a suuuper bare-bones outline of what a game might consist of:

Resolution Mechanic: how does your game solve questions like "can i jump over this gap" or "can I cut this mountain in half?" for example, D&D does the whole thing with a d20 + modifiers compared to a number. other systems handle this in different ways. as a baseline it's nice for players' choices to matter, so i like to keep it somewhere between "flip a coin" and "consult thirteen tables based on your Class and Sense of Style, and then add four if you're a Gemini"

Combat: not every RPG needs combat, but the hobby has its roots in wargaming and so a lot of RPGs end up having some element of combat. your combat can be as simple as a more narrative game saying "make a skill check to kill this guy" (and thus overlapping entirely with your Resolution Mechanic) or it can be a multiple-hour tactical engagement like in Lancer

Stakes: what happens if players fail? can they fail? this is stuff like hit points in combat games, or the king finding out about your plans for the revolution in an intrigue game.

Character Creation: you need a Guy to be. how do you make the Guy? can the Guy be a dragon. an offshoot of this is progression: can my Guy get stronger? how?

this is very much an abstraction. games don't necessarily need all of these things. you can have a game without combat, and if you get silly enough with it you might be able to avoid character creation of any sort. it's harder to make a game without a resolution mechanic or stakes and have it be fun, but it's possible someone out there has done it

but that list of four things, in addition to more literary things like tone and setting, are sort of the basic framework my brain operates off of while making games.

at the end of the day, if you want to get good at something, the first step is to get out there and try it! good luck and happy game development!

[honey-tragedy]

this is nova, nova is my proto type spidersona based on the salmon pink bird eating spider. nova is what happens if you tell a broke 18 year old you'll give them 5000 bucks and a full ride scholarship if they agree to be part of your sketchy bio engineering drug trial. 

per usual, click for better resolution cause tumblr just eats image quality. 

long post below

their universe, number 244598, is a semi technologically advanced world, but its advancements are mostly in military applications. time line wise their running in the year 2040.

based on the what if situation of oscorp realizing that their radioactive spider could be used to make the newest batch of super soldiers , and the military funding the project. currently their are only two surviving from the original pool of applicants, both of which got spider powers, nova as the feet on the ground half and a yet to be named other half as the guy in the chair. 

both of them weren't to keen on being the newest attack dogs for the military, but oscorp doesn't exactly agree with that. oscorp don't know whos under the spider mask but they do know Spiderman has got to be using their experimental supersoldier serum and if they can capture them the compony would have a working version of the serum.  consequently both “spiderman” and “ that other smaller spiderman” have warrants out for their arrest.

nova, during a attempt to transfer them to larger tank, “dealt with” the researchers in the lad at the time, in a sort of spider-sense fueled blind rage. destroying the lab and wiping as much evidenced of the project as they could.  they destroyed the tanks and the rest of the deceased trial candidates, threw the only other survivor over their shoulder and bolted.

after setting the place on fire of course. they've got a Deadpool style “I'm too changed and monstrous to go back to the people i love but ill keep them safe in the meantime” thing going on.

they went into the trial 5′2 and with the normal two arms and two eyes.

 their now about 7′1 and around 700 pounds, even if they don't look it, two extra arms, six extra mini eyes and a whole lot of muscle and joint issues on their left side.  due to them growing far larger then expected their containment tank was too small, as such their left side was pressed into the glass and its growth stunted.

their suit compensates for most of it with braces and extra support on that side. outside of costume they use a Cain. 

im playing with the idea of their like, unique power being some sort of weight/ density shifting, their basically like a brick wall with other various spider powers. but because their so heavy they got to  be super carful with where they swing and land. many billboards have been dented and bent due to them. 

they were in new York for collage when they joined the spider experiment. now seeing as they essentially faked their death, collage’s not exactly in the cards.  they work day shift at a strip club bar and nights as the one and only goliath.

im basically planning on throwing them into their universes team red cause i think dp and dd would do very well with a big big friend.

[thewapolls]

a big thing of creepy crawlies. It's kinda funny actually, Mycale has a magical girl transformation, Agathion has its hero summons, but the larva doesn't naturally go through metamorphosis?

LARVA just a big olde worm. I don't know why it has that funky antenna on its head rather than just a horn. I already had SQUIRM in its own tree with GRABOID but clearly there was some thread between LARVA, SQUIRM, and BEAST SLUG as far as design sensibilities: they're all a monstrous horned caterpillar and don't ever appear in the same game together. There are of course two unrelated LARVA enemies that I put here, that are just the Larval stages of some other things... They're only kind of sort of in the running here... You'll see...

PRISONER is a weird one... I have no idea what the association of idea is here. It feels like it would have to do with dehumanizing prisoners and the general language around calling people "worms" or "bugs" but I can't actually substantiate that link... In any event I threw the PURPLE WORM enemy under here because it seems like it's assuming the role of the PRISONER enemy in the remake? Oh but PURPLE WORM itself is actually a D&D monster, go figure.

ROAR is a weird one too... The Japanese phonetics do in fact match that of the English "roar" but clearly that makes no sense in the context of a worm? So my assumption would be that it was supposed to be LOA/LWA as in the spirits and sometimes god-like figures of voodoo faith. (By the time WA1 came out I know for a fact that the SMT series had already used a Loa enemy/summons, so I wonder if that was the impetus for it while ignoring any specific named Loa: that they just borrowed it from SMT rather than digging it out of their own research.) That all being said, I have no idea why a LOA would be a worm any more than ROAR would.

CHRYSALIS I have here informally. Not directly linked to the worms, but the obvious link in terms from LARVA to CHRYSALIS felt like it was worth addressing, even though WA2 didn't have a common enemy called LARVA. Funny enough it looks a little less like an actual chrysalis and more like a discarded cicada shell.

MYSTERE is funny. The original name is MYSTEREGG as in a MYSTERY-EGG/MYSTERIOUS-EGG. A Final Fantasy IV reference maybe? Confusingly I don't think it ever actually hatches into anything, which feels like that defeats the purpose of it conceptually...

CARRION CRAWLER another big D&D worm. It's a big olde grub what digs in the dirt and eats corpses.

BEAST SLUG I dunno why this one seems perfectly generic. It's a Slug, it's a Beast, it doesn't appear to reference anything in existing lore or popculture somehow. Why is it here? Why does it exist? Were there really not enough worm monsters?

ZAEBOS is a demon from the Dictionnaire Infernal. A funny time to bring back the demonology amidst all these bugs.

MISCREATION, INCUBATOR and MYRMIDON I'm throwing together here. All recolors of WA4's LARVA. The LARVA to INCUBATOR thing makes sense; it's just a funky parallel to the CHRYSALIS. MISCREATION gets to exist as a divergent little failed offshoot of the experiments. But then the final form is MYRMIDON? The legendary warriors of Thessaly in the Iliad?? Kind of appropriate though, the name does come from Myrmeciinae: "ant" so they are still bug men, in line with the LARVA thing, and a legion of legendary soldiers ala the military supersoldier experiments.