#maybe someone cries

[tragedy-for-sale]

Until Replacements Come

"There's only one reason Alpha-17 comes to the capital."

Brothers don't keep secrets from each other. At least, that's how it's supposed to be. But lately... Wrecker wasn't too sure about that. They weren’t training to be spies; they were training to be soldiers. The brothers of Clone Force 99 all have a secret or two up their sleeves. Crosshair’s medbay sonnet, Tech’s secret lab, and Hunter’s out in the water- However, if these brothers hold their tongue too long, when the truth finally reins free, forgiveness may be too far- Hunter's out in the water- Brothers find their first enemy, not in regs, but in each other. As Tsunami storms place Tipoca City on lock down, secrets come in with the rain

Greetings, dear reader, as you may know I participated in this year's @clonebang as a part of team 10. I had the opportunity to work with @pizzaboy-maul who created corresponding art to my fic. The full fic is finally up on AO3. The first chapter is below, enjoy!

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|| Ch. I || The Lab & Nala Se

The mutation of genetics required hours of dedication. Understanding the structure of one’s DNA, what type of bond holds them together, how many chromosomes and what each individual chromosome affects. That was the tip of the iceberg of knowledge a cloner had to learn and understand. For if one did not, clones would never be viable. Understanding one’s own species’ was completely different to understanding another’s. Nala Se knew this, beyond just simply knowing, she also understood the differences. She understood the manipulation of genes just as well as she knew the effect those mutations would have on the individual later in life. As a young scientist, she felt overwhelmed with the powerful feeling that came with knowing she could create a being and choose every aspect of it. Their eyes, color of hair, whether they would have hair. But as Nala Se got older, she realized it was a great privilege, and not something to take advantage of and fuel the ego of a god. Nala Se was a scientist, she was not a god. As she aged, she viewed her creations with great pride but looking down at all the clones she’d had a hand in creating, it was a bittersweet feeling.

It had been an experiment, as all scientists did, she was simply testing a hypothesis. Following a hunch. Late in her private lab, four clones were created; it wasn’t some grand demandment by the prime minister or chasing after that godly pride, no, it had simply been a test. Four clones. This didn’t happen all at once, no, looking over all the chromosomes individually, manipulating genes to present certain alleles, changing the structure of DNA in itself, an act like this couldn’t possibly happen all at once. No, it happened slowly.

Early in the morning came the first brother; Age acceleration of course. In the case of heightened sensitivity, she knew a majority of those manipulations would have to be added later on in development, so for now, he was almost normal compared to all the clones she’d oversaw. That evening came the second brother, an enlarged hippocampus, resulting in the creation of more neurons and synapses, enhanced neuroplasticity for better absorption of knowledge. This clone would have to undergo constant stimulation to the mind and would remember little details his brothers have long forgotten, but his mind will be exceptional. 

The third brother came the following night, enhanced metabolism, heightened protein synthesis; he would tower over everyone around him, he’d move mountains. There was a trickle of doubt, he might turn out to be hard to control, he might wreck everything. The last and final brother came the morning after; enhanced synthesis of rhodopsin and photopsin to better photoreceptors; an added fourth cone: tetrachromacy; Larger optic nerves. This clone will see colors his brothers never would, he’d see clearly in the night and farther in the day. 

Over the course of a week, these four enhanced clones were created. The more one manipulated genes, the larger the margin for genetic mutations. The manipulation of DNA is to affect how proteins build the body, the manipulation of proteins is to change the foundation of a house while the framework is already up. That is why this is a test, Nala Se told herself. It was likely these clones would not survive, many base clones already didn’t survive. There were already many undesirable mutations to be fixed in the standard clone. Millions of clones were created, heart defects, missing cones in the eyes, the misformation of bones; all those mutations became a greater risk the more chromosomes were changed. DNA started to self-destruct on itself. For all the clones that were in this facility alone, there were just as many that were quickly discarded when defects like those were spotted. There were already signs of congenital defects in her experimental unit. Nala Se knew that even if all these clones survived, even if  they all lived, their life would forever be a struggle. If not due to error in their creation than the lifetime promise of war.

As the lights of this private lab dimmed for the evening, Nala Se reached out her hand for a young girl to take. This young girl took Nala Se’s hand, looking once behind her at the four tubes growing her brothers. 

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It's been such a wonderful experience for me. It was definitely challenging. I hope you check it out. Read the full fic here.

[morganbritton132]

The thing is there a million cute ways that Steve could meet Wayne without Eddie’s involvement, but only two ways that Eddie could meet the Harringtons outside of Steve:

(1) He’s their drug dealer

(2) Little tiny Eddie was riding his bike really fast and they pulled out in front of him. He crashed into their car. They yelled at him.

[asmogorna]

vampires and their black and white umbrellas

[khaopybara]

Saudade is a vague and constant desire for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present. – Aubrey Bell

FERNANDA MONTENEGRO as ISADORA 'DORA' TEIXEIRA and VINÍCIUS DE OLIVEIRA as JOSUÉ FONTENELE DE PAIVA CENTRAL DO BRASIL // CENTRAL STATION (1998) dir. Walter Salles

[cocomuffy]

The Cookie Batter Bowl...

(i know it's cookie dough but batter bowl is alliteration)

(also sorry the drawing is bad this idea hit me like lightning)

(and here's the masterlist btw)

[the---hermit]

My toxic trait is that whenever i see crafts i have zero knowledge of or experience with, my first thought is "i totally teach myself that"

[apocalyptic-byler]

eddie doesn’t know about the way richie caressed his face after he died or about the way the losers literally had to drag richie away from him btw

[butchtwelfthdoctor]

tenth doctor being aroace is so important to me and i don't even know why. i love rose tyler so so much but i don't think the right end to her arc was 'kissing tentwo to show people they love each other' like YES THEY LOVE EACH OTHER. did rose want to kiss him, yeah sure i just don't think she wanted to be romantically involved with him yknow?? he'll love rose forever but that doesn't need to be romantic. like yes ten *gets kissed* a fair bit but idk. i just think he's aroace. and that's part of why i think he is so sad about river in the library episodes because he knows it's not *him* that she loves. that's why it's important that martha left him to be with her family and get married because she fancied him but she knew he 'didn't look at her' because he just... couldn't feel that. that's why it's so so so important about donna. that they both knew they were best friends. the ending of the giggle made me so so happy because he's living with donna because he loves her because they're friends. he didn't need to be *with* her to be part of her family or to love her completely.

[hammill-goes-fogwalking]

I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI. I HATE AI.

[jay-wasreblogging]

When someone says JohnLock is canon in *insert adaptation* but it's just one-sided, unrequited love johnlock

[vindicia]

so why did nobody tell me actively trying to date would make me feel lonelier than ever

[poopiefart420]

HE FINALLY WENT TO THE CLUB!!

[jenna-louise-jamie]

thinking about yassen gregorovich instead of sleeping (because i love him) and how he is a catalyst. yassen stabbs ash -> ash kills john rider -> ian rider raises alex -> yassen kills ian rider -> mi6 blackmails alex into becoming a teenage spy.

i have so many thoughts that i can't properly articulate. obviously this is a simplified chain of events, but yassen and his choices set off a chain reaction of the world's most unfortunate dominos. especially when you read russian roulette. to be clear im not necessarily trying to blame him for everything because that feels very mean. he was also just a 14 year old kid when everything in his life went wrong, just like alex. only difference being yassen literally had no one.

i think i should write an essay about this because i haven't even gotten into my thoughts about what yassen and alex's dynamic would look like past eagle strike. i would imagine it'd be similar to ellie and joel from the last of us part 2.

where obviously yassen loves alex and alex on some level cares for yassen back but struggles to reconcile that with the fact that yassen is responsible for his uncle's death. a very unforgivable act. it would be so messy and complicated and angsty, because on one hand here is an adult who truly cares about him and has a connection with him through his father. yassen could tell alex about john, and trust that yassen truly wants whats best for him. but he killed ian, and he cannot take that back.

while alex reels from those feelings, yassen is also trying to reconcile his love of alex with the knowledge that he on some level is responsible for the suffering alex endured at the hands of mi6. and possibly even the fact that alex's godfather is the one who killed john and helen.

[thebirdandhersong]

Anyways

[hollowwish]

I don't really like. Politics post much but I wanna say something. Because the 2020 election was bad. This year is already worse and it's only March

As a queer trans american (who lives in the south, no less, and has to hear the dumbest anti biden propaganda you've ever heard) a republican getting in office is actually doomsday for me. I'm literally horrified of it. It gives me horrible anxiety for days on end and makes me feel physically sick. And if it happens I will not be able to leave immediately like I would want to.

The republicans want to kill me and i have known this since I was thirteen years old and i have just had to live with it. I have to just live with the thought as long as I'm in america. They want to kill me and all my queer friends and every other minority group they hate, they already took away abortion they have already started. And they are going to if we put them in office. Please please god do not let them put Trump in office again. I do not care who is in there, anyone but a republican. I will take almost anyone else but them.

Its to the point where I don't really care that a bunch of swfities are apparently voting democrat because Taylor said so. Yeah that's fucking insane but also it keeps literally the most evil man in this country out of office. Beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

Everyone around me is so sure of a Trump victory. They want him to fix the gas prices and things like that. People I thought were my friends really truly do not care what anti lgbt laws or whatever other horrible law they would make, as long as their personal problems get fixed. And I'm really really hoping that's not the case and that his victory is not already assured because I do not know what would happen and I am scared.

Please don't put him back in office. Just. Please. It's all I ask.

[collieii]

i'm sure it's been said but i do love how trimax handles wolfwoods death. i've seen so many stories that have characters die and they just go away after. i'm really used to stories where the other characters aren't allowed to grieve, the story keeps going and it feels like the other characters aren't really affected or get over it really easily. but in trimax wolfwoods death is so important. we see other characters grieving him. vash protecting the orphanage, expanding his power when he really shouldn't, because it was wolfwood's home, even though wolfwood is already gone. he gets an actual burial. vash and livio eating their way through the grief, which is more comedic but still shows us how important he was to the two of them, sets up how in many ways they're fighting in his memory.

even after he's gone he's still present in the story in such a strong way. we can see how he's affected the other characters, even when they don't explicitly mention him it's obvious that they're thinking about him. what he did when he was alive, and his death itself, are so important to the story even after he's not there. not just in a really abstract "this is someone we lost" way (though there are a lot of times his death and sacrifice motivate vash and livio to fight harder!) he's present in the finale in a material way to livio, who uses his serums to help fight against elendira, which ofc also ties into the way wolfwoods choice to ally with vash and fight against knives gave livio strength to do the same. wolfwood showed him that there are things worth fighting for, things worth protecting. that your body is a weapon, but you can choose what to do with it, use it for something meaningful.

and the way vash kills legato in order to save livio? vash outright says that he did it to protect what wolfwood fought for, sacrificed his life for. it's tied to the ongoing arc between vash and wolfwood, their conflict over the necessity of killing others. wolfwood pushed vash into having an understanding of his views when he was alive, demonstrating the necessity of that violence. simultaneously, vash inspired wolfwood to follow his path, a kinder one. vash remembers what wolfwood said to him, and his death gives those words added poignancy. wolfwood well and truly sacrificed everything to protect what he loved and fight for what he believed in. how can vash let that go to waste? he sacrifices something just as meaningful to himself, and he pulls the trigger. it brings him closer to wolfwood in a way he never was before. he understands now, fundamentally, what motivates people, motivated wolfwood, to act as he did when he took lives. there are so many other ways wolfwood is present in the story after his death i can't talk about all of them but it makes me so crazy