#me fully believing she has a prosthetic leg when i first looked at her design. so true for artists drawing it as a prosthetic lol

[canismajors]

#sotrue to yoimiya for being the first genshin character w a prosthetic & #sotrue to dehya for being the second

[robininthelabyrinth]

Thanks for opening prompts back up! I look forward to seeing what new ideas will come up. Prompt 1/2: The young archer shidi succeeds in killing Wen Zhuliu during the battle of Lotus Pier

They beat Jiang Cheng all the harder for it, when they catch him.

Wang Lingjiao said that he’d been the one to block her blow, the one that would have killed the little boy who shot Wen Zhuliu, and was therefore to blame for his death; Jiang Cheng had no idea if that was true or not, or if they were just making excuses.

Why they felt that they still needed to make excuses when they had all the power, he didn’t know.

Wen Chao kicked him, face twisting in disgust. “I was going to have Wen Zhuliu melt his core,” he complained, voice aggravated as if Wen Zhuliu dying had been done intentionally to inconvenience him. “Then we could have kept him as a pet.”

Jiang Cheng would rather die, at his own hand if necessary, than face that fate.

“Oh, well,” Wen Chao said, and reached for the discipline whip. “There’s more than one way to make a man useless.”

By the time Wei Wuxian came for him, Jiang Cheng was more dead than alive.

“You should go without me,” he whispered.

“Never,” Wei Wuxian swore, and took him away anyway.

Wen Qing didn’t have an especially promising expression on her face when she looked at him, and so he tried not to look at her. He had had thoughts about her once, maybe even coalescing towards vague intentions, but no one could be expected to take him as he currently was: little more than a few scraps of meat held together by ruptured and bloody flesh.

“You can help him, right?” Wei Wuxian asked her when he thought Jiang Cheng was unconscious.

“I don’t even know how he’s still alive,” she said frankly. “Even if he makes it through this, you’re looking at a recovery period measured in years, not months.”

“We don’t have years! The Jiang sect –”

“This isn’t something I can fix,” she said. “I can give him medicine to ease the pain, I can stitch him up to stop the bleeding, I can apply bandages to stop any further damage, I can prescribe a treatment regime that will hopefully leave him with some ability to move – but he’ll probably be in pain for the rest of his life.”

She stopped, licked her lips. “Or, if you think it better, I can – I can prescribe something stronger.”

Wei Wuxian’s voice rose up in protest, but then she dragged him away from Jiang Cheng’s door, and he didn’t hear what they decided.

The next day, she gave Jiang Cheng medicine. He drank it all down, finished even the dregs, and said, “Was that the one for death, or merely for pain?”

Their expressions were both stricken.

“Pain, then,” he concluded. He wasn’t sure if he was happy about that decision - he mostly just felt empty inside, even though he had a golden core to keep him warm. What use was a golden core if you couldn’t use your arms and legs? Wen Chao had laughed as he’d lashed him, aimed specifically at the connections between his limbs - a pet didn’t need those. “We need to make our way to the Nie sect.”

“The Nie sect? Why?”

“They’re the only ones I trust not to turn me in to the Wen sect,” Jiang Cheng said, and didn’t look at Wen Qing when he spoke. “They wouldn’t make their lives easier by giving me up, no matter what the Wen sect said. As for the rest - the rest will depend on you, Wei Wuxian.”

“On…me?”

Jiang Cheng nodded. He’d thought it over the night before and decided: if they sent him to his death, the responsibility for the future would fall on their shoulders; if they let him live, he would tell them what had to be done. “You’re going to lie to everyone.”

“What? Lie -” 

“Tell them that I’m off on sect business or something,” Jiang Cheng continued, refusing to let Wei Wuxian interrupt. “Recruit them in the name of revitalizing the Jiang sect on my behalf, and only later do we reveal that I’ve become a useless person and you’re the actual sect leader.”

“I’m not going to be –”

“Father would have wanted it to be you if I were dead,” Jiang Cheng said brutally, cutting him off. “And even if I wasn’t, he might have still wanted it – you understand the Jiang sect motto better than me, remember?”

“I don’t want your birthright, Jiang Cheng! I never have –”

“What use is a birthright I can’t claim? The sect will have to be in your hands. You have to put it first, Wei Wuxian – above personal feelings, above revenge, above even righteousness. Chifeng-zun sat across the table from his father’s murderer for ten years, waiting for this war; you just have to fight it.”

“But I can’t do it without you,” Wei Wuxian said, and his eyes were wet. “Jiang Cheng…”

“What other choice do we have? I can’t do anything. I don’t doubt Mistress Wen’s words that the prospects aren’t good that I’ll ever be able to do anything again. Not cultivate, not fight…nothing.”

There was a cough at the door.

Wen Ning was standing there with some bowls of soup, his shoulders up by his ears. “About that,” he said hesitantly. “I had an idea the other day…I don’t know if it’d work.”

“What is it?” Wei Wuxian asked at once, always eager to believe in the impossible.

“It was one of jiejie’s earlier medical texts,” Wen Ning explained. “The one about prosthetics, and paralyzed limbs…”

“That was purely theoretical,” Wen Qing interrupted. They looked at her and she flushed. “My idea was that since we know the pattern of the body’s meridians, there was no need to amputate a paralyzed limb in order to replace it with a prosthetic, but rather build up a prosthetic around the limb as it existed: sort of like a metal frame that you could manipulate with your qi, the way people manipulate swords. But it wasn’t practical. Even if you could find someone skilled in smiting spiritual weapons willing to waste their time building the metal frame, there’s no way to infuse the necessary amount of spiritual energy into it without cultivating with it - and the ones that need it won’t be able to.”

“But what if you tied it to something that was already a spiritual weapon?” Wen Ning said.

“Are you suggesting melting down my sword?” Jiang Cheng demanded, horrified.

Wen Ning quickly shook his head. “Not melting down anything at all,” he assured him. “But rather…jiejie, didn’t you say that the important part of cultivating the metal frame was to send energy throughout it?”

“Yes,” she said, looking puzzled. “But how…?”

Wen Ning pointed at Jiang Cheng’s hand, where Zidian still sat – the Wen clan hadn’t been able to get it off of him despite their best efforts, and at the time of his rescue Wen Chao hadn’t yet decided if he was willing to commit to just chopping the entire hand off at the wrist.

Wen Qing’s eyes widened. “Impossible,” she said, but there was a quiver in her voice.

“It’s not impossible, is it?” Wei Wuxian said, voice eager, and for a second Jiang Cheng felt himself start to fill with hope. “It can be done! Metal conducts lightning - Zidian recognizes Jiang Cheng as its master. We could spread Zidian’s spiritual energy through its lightning –”

“But that’s the problem!” she said. “Yes, metal transmits lightning, and yes, in theory, it would work to spread the spiritual energy throughout the metal frame and therefore permit Zidian’s master to control his movements with his qi rather than his body. But it’s lightning, sparking over every nerve – it would be agonizing. His body is already a wreck, you can’t ask him to -”

“No one is asking anything,” Jiang Cheng said, and now he was afire with hope. If it was just pain...well, there wouldn’t be anything just about it, but he would manage. He would have to manage. “If it can be done, let us do it. Will you come with us to Qinghe to help us design it?”

“We can’t. Our family –”

“I drugged the wine so they could escape,” Wen Ning blurted out. “And I’m pretty sure Wen Chao will be able to figure out it was me. Jiejie, please…”

“The Nie sect has the fiercest army,” Wei Wuxian said. “We could ask them to prioritize getting your kinsmen to safety, as a favor to us; they repay you on our behalf, and we repay them later. Please!”

“It may hinder your recovery,” Wen Qing said, turning to Jiang Cheng. “As it stands, your body was just ripped apart by the discipline whip – if you take it easy for two, three years, with your strong cultivation, you may be able to heal, to get your arms and legs back.”

“But not fully.���

“…no. Not fully.”

“And the metal frame will give me full mobility?”

“Not full,” she said firmly. “You would still need to heal from the basic wounds for a few months before we could even think about starting something like this, but after...” She bit her lip. “After that, that it should be enough for you to walk and fly and maybe even fight…but listen to me! If you strain yourself when you should be healing, your body will take even longer to heal – not two or three years, but ten. It may never heal right.”

“I don’t have two years,” Jiang Cheng said. “The war is happening now. I need to lead my men, at least in appearance – I need to be sect leader, I need Wei Wuxian by my side, and I need you. I need your help.”

He looked at her – would have taken her hand in his, if he could.

“Please,” he said, nearly begging. “Please.”

She gave in.

[wanderingchocolateeclair]

Here she is!!! I finally got round to drawing her again and I’m actually relatively happy with how she turned out. She is one of my favourite ocs and I love her to bits - I made her almost a year ago when I was thinking about some random EctoLoader headcanons and suddenly had the urge to give them a child...and so then she was designed :D I wasn’t sure if I wanted to post my initial designs as well because I really don’t like the look of my old art but you know why not:

Please keep in mind that these are quite old and um...not that brilliant but they were my first quick sketches of her and I ended up writing a whole entire backstory for her so yeah! (Now that I look back at it I realise I didn’t make her hair poofy enough in the new drawing...also the page ripped and I was really sad about that-) anyway here’s some info about her (under the cut because it ended up a little longer than I expected):

AH I forgot to say!! There are mentions of death and severe injury and other stuff like that in the backstory so please read with caution!

Name -> Yuna Makimi

Age -> 17

Quirk -> “Adapt” - her quirk allows her to adapt certain parts of her body to suit whatever situation she is in. A main example of this would be when she creates little pads on the ends of her fingers which pick up vibrations, enabling her to “see” her surroundings a little better. However she cannot use her quirk to restore parts of her body that are lost/severely damaged (like her legs + eyes).

Occupation -> Student at UA

Current status -> Alive

Family -> Mother (deceased), Father (deceased), Powerloader (adopted dad), Ectoplasm (adopted dad)

Likes -> Dumplings, sitting in flower fields, doing literally anything with her friends + family

More info + backstory:

So, like I mentioned, I came up with her when I was thinking about EctoLoader headcanons and one of these hcs is that after Ecto loses his legs they both go round and pay visits to hospitals and other places to visit the children/patients there - and so yeah.

Yuna was part of quite the loving family, her parents were quite strict but loved her to pieces.

They weren’t the richest of people, and didn’t get along with the rest of their family for whatever reasons, but they were fine together - just the three of them.

That is until the accident that completely changed her life.

At the age of 8 she was caught up in a nasty villain attack as they were driving through the city and their car was completely destroyed. Her parents died at the scene and she was immediately whisked to hospital with very severe injuries.

She lost both her legs and almost all sight in her eyes, her parents were dead and she had nowhere to go, and at such a young age she felt so lost.

2 years passed and still nobody wanted to take her in, they said it would be “too much responsibility” to look after someone like her. And so at that point she had given up on all hope if someday being in a loving family again. Only 10 years old and her life had completely crumbled to pieces.

That is until one day PL swings by on one of his visits and meets this small child who looks as if she never smiles. He speaks to her and she slowly became less shy of this small man that sat in front of her. He decided to visit more often (he was made aware of her situation by one of the nurses that looked after her) and told Ecto all about this sweet little girl who he’d met who was in need of a better life. And over time they contemplated taking her in as their own - they weren’t sure yet but they had thought about it.

One day PL came with a surprise. He had put together a pair of prosthetic legs for her that she had mentioned to him before that she wished she had and that wasn’t all, they mentioned that this time Ecto came along too. She was absolutely overjoyed. She had heard about him and looked up to him a lot, he inspired her to keep going, even though she had lost her legs.

After discussing it with each other, they asked her whether she would be happy to come and live with them, and join a loving family once again. She was taken aback by the offer, as no one had even considered looking after for 2 whole years, but she realised that she was finally offered a normal life again and she was oh so happy with that...and so they adopted her and it was the best decision they ever made.

They helped her get used to her new home and she slowly got more and more comfortable with her new life. Ecto helped her with her therapy, guiding her when she felt lost and confused about what she’s doing. PL helped by tweaking little things about her prosthetics that could help her, and created little items to support her in her walking and her sight. They helped her discover new ways of using her quirk to allow her to be more aware of her surroundings and to help her “see” (she can’t use it to see fully, it just helps her to pinpoint the movements and positions of the objects/people around her a little better).

Soon enough, she was happier than ever, and when she was old enough she brought up her decision of wanting to go to UA. They weren’t sure whether or not she should, for her own safety, but she insisted that even with her disabilities she wanted to try her best at becoming a hero just like them in her own way...even if others believed it was barely possible. And so they allowed it. They taught there anyway so if anything were to happen they would always be close by.

She made a bunch of amazing friends at UA and learnt to handle her quirk in many different ways - expanding it to help her in various different situations. Her classmates would always be there to help her when she needed it but all believed that she was one of the strongest out of all of them - this really made her emotional because it wasn’t something that she ever expected to hear - and hearing this really made Ecto and PL happy, because they had watched as this tiny helpless girl had grown up to become strong, happy and incredibly loved.

And that’s my “little” backstory for her! Sorry its a bit sad and all that but it wouldn’t be one of my backstories if it wasn’t some form of tragic....:/ Anyway have some random headcanons for her->

She cannot ride in a car unless she is holding someone’s hand, this is pretty self-explanatory.

She loves jokes and stupid puns, they make her so incredibly happy it’s unbelievable.

She also loves flowers - they smell nice.

She isn’t entirely blind - she can just about make out shapes and moving objects but without the aid of her quirk she finds it hard to tell the difference between what might be a person and what might just be a large object.

She loves to sing and dance, and she has a beautiful voice, however she gets embarrassed if she gets caught.

She is always happy to spend any sort of time with her dads because with their jobs as heroes, free time can sometimes be very hard to come by.

Sorry how absolutely all over the place this is, I have plenty more headcanons and info about her, but I think I’ve rambled on for quite long enough now! (Plus I kinda just want to post it now because the more I look at the drawing the less I like it-)

Anyway, I hope you like her! She is one of my favourite characters that I’ve made and she makes me very happy. Hopefully, I’ll draw her some more :)

~Eclair

[tinalbion]

Hey! Ive really like your slasher head-canons and their really good! Appreciateyou taking the time to write them, if your still doing them, I have a small request, what about the slashers reaction to a surviver with multiple prosthetics and or missing limbs? Keep up the good work, and remember to take breaks when you need them!

No slashers were chosen so I'll choose 3 and if they aren't what you're looking for, just let me know ♡ And thank you for being SO sweet, you're so lovely 😍 I love doing this for you guys and seeing what situations you can come up with! Now seeing as I am getting the feeling that the survivor aspect of it MAY be from DBD, I am gonna wing this since I don’t write for the DBD universe~

Survivor s/o with Norman Bates, Tiffany Valentine, and Ash Williams!

Norman (missing limbs s/o)

Seeing that you were so positive and outgoing despite the hardships you had obviously been through, it made Norman smile and think that he could even get through his tough times. You were actually someone he looked up to in that aspect.

He is a very kind man and will always offer his help, even though he didn’t want you to think that he was overplaying it because you were missing your arm, you were fully capable of doing things on your own. He just wanted to make your life a little easier. He wonders about how it happened but will never bring it up unless you want to.

When you’re having a particularly off day, he will always sit down with you and listen. It’s the best thing he can offer since it isn’t his place to tell you ‘things will be alright’, but he knows how it can be if you’re unable to vent out your frustrations. 

You missing a limb or two would NEVER take away from the fact that you’re beautiful/ handsome and it doesn’t take away from you as a person whatsoever. If anything, it adds some uniqueness to you and brings out such beauty that Norman can’t help but admire you when you’re not looking.

What you had lived through was horrendous enough, but it was Norman’s priority to keep Mother from inflicting harm upon you; you were the one weakness he had. He wouldn’t let her exploit you and scare you off, he worked too hard to make you comfortable here with him.

Tiffany Valentine (prosthetic s/o)

Upon first meeting, Tiff was kinda caught off guard by how charming you were, especially with a prosthetic leg and all, but you were pulling it off so well that she didn’t even believe that it was fake until you pointed it out to her. She found it amusing how well you had accepted your fate of losing your leg, though she picked up on how hesitant you became when she asked how it happened. She dropped the conversation and switched over to something else entirely. 

She will happily make half-assed jokes about it if you’re okay with it and you’re on her good side. She loves to tease you, it’s one of the ways she shows affection, you’re just gonna have to suck it up. ‘Wobbles’ or ‘Woody’ is the go-to nickname you have to endure, even if the leg isn’t made out of wood, you’re stuck with it. If you’re having a tough night, she’ll drop the teasing and just call you ‘sweetcheeks’ or ‘dollface’ to make up for it. She does care, she’ll show you just how much. 

Knowing that you’re independent enough, you’re fully capable of handling yourself when it comes to your prosthetic, you’ve had it since before you both met, so there would be no point in babying you about it and treating you like a child. That’s a reason why you appreciate her so much because even though she has a motherly side to her, she would never degrade you.

If you’re feeling down and just having a day that you can’t handle it, Tiff will sit you down and allow you to lean on her shoulder. She will give you all the support and advice she can possibly think of, all thanks to her mother’s guidance growing up, and she will be more than happy to pass that all to you. If it doesn’t really sink in as well as she’d hoped, she will gladly take you out on a shopping trip to clear your mind. Anything to spend time with you.

Tiff will actually suggest drawing on your prosthetic just to add some ‘flair’ to it -her words- and she’ll be sure to give you the most badass design possible. Now she’s no professional artist, but she’s going to try just for you, and much to your surprise, she kinda nails it. It’s of a dragon flying through flames with her in the sexiest lingerie riding said dragon. Hell yeah.

Ash Williams (prosthetic s/o)

Another incredibly attractive person also with a prosthetic? Bangin’! He’ll go on with some shit that he lost it in a freak accident that involved a shark, who knows, he derailed the conversation so many times that you lost count. Either way, it was hilarious and he was getting wasted. You decided to fuck around and tell him a crazy story in return, mentioning how you were able to save an entire family in a house fire, but lost your footing when it came to saving the dog. The dog was fine, your hand, not so fine. Ash was impressed, to say the least, and he bought you a couple of drinks for the story.

Ever since having to take his own hand, he had adjusted fairly quickly and became super comfortable with his lack of it, but you were a different story. The ‘accident’ was recent for you, the events still painfully fresh in your mind, but you would accept it sooner or later. But here and now, you couldn’t help but ask how long it took Ash to get used to it. He wanted to give you some bullshit answer to keep up the charm, but seeing just how lost you seemed, he figured he’d be real for a minute and give you some advice.

Hanging out with him was honestly refreshing since it took your mind off of the fact you were missing a part of you, Ash made it feel like it was a normal occurrence that happened to people sometimes. “No point in being ashamed, you still have a lot of sexy to go around,” he’d assure you with a wink. He helped a lot, you never really thought twice about it, especially when you both decided to get together. 

Ash sees you as one of the most amazing people he’d ever met and knowing you were like him in a way was quite refreshing for him, too. Slowly but surely, you accepted that you were different and that it wouldn’t change who you were, you just lived through more shit than others. It made you different. It made you great.

Since Ash had his hand made out of rosewood and "hand-carved by Italian artisans", he figured he’d take you out on a date to get you your very own gorgeously carved and crafted prosthetic. When you graciously declined, he said to hell with it and took you along anyway, hoping you’d change your mind. He was always willing to treat you to something unique like this in order to boost your confidence. Cute little thing like you deserved something special.    

[grimmjowjaegerjaquez]

so. ach’m. he is an amphibious alien character thats been with me for a long time and i havent had the feeling for him in YEARS. but i have to talk about him because hes still got a special place in my heart despite my uh... abandonment of him. 

this is really long so it’s under a cut

first things first: his name, Ach’M Raten, is pronounced, Ahk-mm Rah-ten. it has a meaning to it because apparently those are names derived from words in his people’s language, which you’ll find out about more later. 

he was someone i made when i was RIGHT in the middle of my Alien phase, and was also just starting my OCT xDDD phase on deviantArt. (i was. not good at octs bc i had no concept of cohesive storytelling in a limited timeline comic format and also had really bad add that made it impossible to ever finish anything.) the OCT he was apart of was Tapestry of Horror, which, honestly i think my audition comic for that was the only good one i made for that entire tourney. this was his reference for it: 

ahh, look at that. the nostalgia is all coming back to me. the amount of “:U” which was a go-to face for 13 year old me. this was posted back in 2010! wow!

the reason the 63 on his age is crossed out is because THIS IS NOT ACTUALLY THE ORIGINAL REFERENCE I HAD FOR HIM! i had to redraw him because his original reference (which unfortunately has been lost to the annals of time) was too human looking? and tapestry of horror was an anthro/alien/no-human-faces tourney, so they told me i should probably change his face up some and then he’d be fine, and ORIGINALLY, ACH’M WAS AN OLD MAN. I DON’T KNOW WHY I ALSO CUT HIS AGE IN HALF BUT IT’s PROBABLY BECAUSE I WAS THE INDECISIVE BASTARD THEN THAT I STILL AM TODAY.

supposedly he used to slink around in shadows and laugh and speak in rhymes, and im pretty sure that was a side effect of edgy 13 year old interests? like, i think i tried giving him kind of a creepy serial killer vibe? and then just never executed it? he had an epithet of, The Laughing Cyborg, which is still relevant in later versions of him. 

oh and here, have some TOP SECRET ACH’M LORE COURTESY OF THE IMAGE DESCRIPTION OF HIS REFERENCE:

i don’t believe i was lying. i think i did originally make an amphibious alien woman character that just later evolved into ach’m. i’m sure if i had any of my sketchbooks from that age physically with me i would ABSOLUTELY be able to find it and show you guys but i dont so, rip. 

because i was trying to be coy and ~*~mysterious~*~ i never originally explained his backstory on his reference. it was planned to be something revealed overtime through ~*~dramatic~*~ flashbacks and dream sequences that i did not have the ability to execute. its always followed the same beats, though: ach’m and his younger brother were child refugees from a civil war on his home planet. in their initial escape, ach’m is caught under a crumbling wall and loses his leg, and they’re later found and adopted by a retired opera singer of another species. through vague never-established family issues, ach’m leaves his adoptive mother and joins a travelling circus. 

this is his adoptive mother: 

her name is (and i’m sorry) Nippeteranulzenkodelonio. You can just call her Nippy, though. Please just call her Nippy. 

god, her species used to be called draconae? what the heck. in future designs, those religious symbols are obsolete and replaced with other symbols relating to a galaxy-wide secret society that has NOTHING to do with ach’m and i never figured out how nippy was involved in it, so we’re not delving into that. 

they both come from a planet called Naruviie, which in his language just means, “Land of the People,” “naru” being the part that means people. i never like, fully fleshed out their planet aside from very vague allusions to it being mostly swampland populated by cute little amphibious animals like this fun guy: 

pictured: a gold Yarlian, which is basically the Naruviian equivalent of a dog. 

SO BACK TO ACH’M AND THE TAPESTRY OF HORROR: i only won the first round because my opponent had to drop out, and i lost the second round. it didn’t really matter though, because ach’m remained an incredibly popular character to followers of the tourney, and No, It Was Not Because Of Me. it was because one of the other competitors who i was friends with included him in her rounds, mostly for jokes, and i thought it was the best thing ever. the problem with that though, was that even though in every entry for the tourney she would say IN THE DESCRIPTION that he was NOT her character, everyone thought he was. because she was just a more well-known artist in that community, and i was just. some 13 year old. 

but anyway, she was a more competent storyteller than i was so she actually like... gave him more character than i was capable of at the time, and she would ask me if i characterized him wrong and i would always be like, “NO ITS GREAT HES PRETTY MUCH WHAT I WANTED HIM TO BE BUT JUST COULD NOT WRITE FOR WHATEVER REASON!” not that i ever expressed it like that because... from what i remember about my 13 year old self... i was very Virgo in all of my statements. yikes. 

im not close with that artist anymore, and our interests have diverged a lot since then, but i always think back to that time with fondness. for my tween mind, having an artist that i looked up to see my character and actually like them enough to do that absolutely had a profound effect on me at the time. 

ALRIGHT NOW FOR THE NEXT VERSION OF ACH’M, 2015: 

see i told you his name had a meaning. and look, i even gave his language a name! wow! such developments!

his backstory didn’t really change, except this time instead of a wall falling on him and crushing his leg, he was just born with a bad leg that had to get amputated. apparently. i also changed up his personality more. instead of him being this one dimensional jokey boy that talked in a bad accent, he became more of this like... roguish bardish type of character? he’s more flirty, more prone to being pride and false bravado, tells ridiculous stories of his life to appear more dashing, and, get this: i literally put in his updated backstory that he used to work more Colorful Jobs (ie: he was a prostitute at some point) 

his brother also has more of a presence and an actual character? i think i planned on him being dead in his 2010 iteration. Orith in this version is a grouchy mechanic/space engineer with a prosthetic eye. oh yeah that’s right him and ach’m were like. attacked by giant birds at some point in their childhoods? i think i had it that the giant birds were a natural predator of his fucking species????????? and thats why ach’m is missing an arm and an ear

moving on. 

LOOK WOW I GAVE ACH’M MULTIPLE OUTFITS!! WOW!!!

big himbo energies. i knew what was up. 

and that leads us to the latest ach’m that i’ve drawn which is these sketchy things from 2016

his cybernetic arm looks completely different now, he doesn’t have the robot ear anymore and his brother (wow an actual picture of his brother!) doesn’t even have a robot eye, and nippy now looks actually old and is like. completely blind now. i didn’t even realize my art style changed THAT much in the span of like, one and a half years until like.. JUST now. wow. 

he definitely looks like more of a scumbag now, and i don’t think i ever made anymore drastic changes to his backstory. i’m probably going to take another crack at it though because uhhhhh i dont like a lot of the implications i made in his backstory lmfao.

anyway yeah that’s the story of ach’m! 

[radiant-flutterbun]

The Lampsi Emperor

Previously

“It’s so uncanny how much she looks like Sapphire…”

“You don’t think it’s really her do you?”

Bluemoon opened her eyes. Her body ached, but that was nothing new. What was new was that she felt something soft underneath her. She was laying in a bed. She was so used to sleeping on the lifeless ground of Lampsi, that she was shocked.

“Oh! She’s awake.”

Blue saw two dragons look down at her. One was a green tundra with Arcane eyes and the other was a blue spiral that glowed slightly.

“Is this… Is this Ton Theon?” Blue tried to get up, but the tundra stopped her.

“Whoa there. You’re in no condition to move about. You’re lucky you got here when you did. Your body has been cannibalizing itself, there’s hardly anything left of you. You’re in desperate need of rest and nutrition.”

“And yes. This is Ton Theon,” The spiral added.

“Are you two the clan healers?”

“That’s right. I’m Hecate,” The tundra said “And this is Alaria,” She gestured to the spiral.

“And I believe your little pukasloth friend said your name was Bluemoon?” Alaria asked.

Blue nodded “Where… Where is he? Where is Cam?”

“The pukasloth?”

“Yes! Is he ok?”

Hecate placed her paw on Blue’s shoulder and gently pushed her so she laid back down in her bed “He’s fine. We’ll bring him in to visit soon, alright?”

Blue nodded “O-ok…”

“You… You wouldn’t happen to be related to Sapphiremoon, would you?” Alaria piped up.

Bluemoon flinched “I’m not her! I swear. I don’t know why I look like her, but we’re not the same dragon! I know… I know she did awful things, but you have to believe me. I never even met her!”

“Shh, It’s alright,” Hecate said “If you were Sapphire I would know, and it’s obvious you’re not.”

“It is?”

“Yes. I knew Sapphire. She was always so mad and stubborn. She refused to listen to anyone and always insisted that her way was the only way. She manipulated other dragons. She lied to them, and she destroyed our old home because of it. She tried to kill me because of it.”

“That sounds horrible. I’m so sorry…”

“It’s not your fault. I can tell that you’re a good dragon, and you’ve had to endure a lot of suffering you didn’t deserve. But you’re in Ton Theon now. We used to be called Seeking Clan, the Clan of Second Chances, maybe we can be that again.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much…” Bluemoon wiped away a tear  “When, when will I be fully healed?”

“Well… Unfortunately my magic isn’t very useful for this.”

“And neither are my herbs,” Alaria said “What you need the most is rest and proper nutrition, and to let your body slowly rebuild itself.”

“It could take months until you’re able to function properly.”

“What?!” Blue shouted “But I can’t! I need to save Wish!”

“Whoa! Whoa calm down! Who’s Wish?”

“She’s… She’s my girlfriend and she’s trapped all alone on Lampsi! Please I need to save her! I need her to be alright!”

Hecate frowned “I understand how hard that is. To be separated from a loved one. Don’t worry, I’ll tell Nike about it. I’m sure she’ll assemble a team of dragons to rescue her. Your girlfriend is going to be alright, but right now you need to focus on yourself. I’m sure it’s what your girlfriend would want, right?”

Blue was silent for a moment, and then nodded.

“It’s going to be alright. You should try going back to sleep. I could cast a spell on you to numb any pain you’re in first though.”

“You can do that?”

“Of course. My magic is good for things like that, and I’d be happy to do whatever I can to help you.”

“Then yes, I would like that. Thank you. Thank you so much. I’ve… I’ve never had anyone be so nice to me before. Besides Wish of course…”

“Well you better get used to it, because that’s what we do here. We help each other, and we’re nice to each other,” Hecate waved her paw in the air and a pink cloud appeared. It fell onto Blue and soaked into her feathers. She let out a breath of relief and relaxed.

“Wow… is this what it’s like to not be in pain for once? Wow…”

“Also before you fall asleep, would you ever be interested in flying again?” Alaria asked.

“Flying? But isn’t my wing too mangled to be repaired? It… it healed all wrong ages ago.”

“Your wing can’t be healed, but I can build you a new one.”

“Build?”

“Yes. I’m not just a healer, but a mechanic. I have crafted prosthetics for many dragons before. I’ve even recreated a mechanical nervous system! A wing would be a piece of cake.”

“I don’t know what cake is, but if it’s no trouble, I would like to fly again. Thank you.”

“It will be no problem,” Alaria smiled.

Bluemoon shut her eyes, and it wasn’t long before she drifted back to sleep.

“Keep an eye on her,” Hecate said “I’m going to talk to Nike. We’re saving her girlfriend.”

Alaria nodded as Hecate left the Healing Den.

***

Wish sobbed. What else could she do but cry? It was bad enough that Bluemoon was gone, but now so were her birds. Shining had just took them away like they were some toys and Wish was just a child misbehaving.

“I’m not a kid!” Wish punched her door “Stop treating me like one!” She sniffled.

“Hey, settle down in there!” The guard on the other side of her door growled.

“I shouldn’t be a prisoner in my own home! Let me out!”

“No. I’m under Shining’s orders to watch you.”

Wish charged her door and tried to break it down, but she wasn’t strong enough. Instead she just slumped next to it and sobbed more.

“Would you quit it? If you break that door Shining is gonna-” The guard opened the door a crack, and then stopped. Another dragon approached him out of breath.

“Where’s Shining? It’s an emergency!”

“What’s wrong?”

The other dragon gulped “There’s… a creature approaching the border! I… I don’t know what it is. It looked like an Imperial, but it’s all wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“Does it matter? I need to report it to Shining, and quick! It’s moving fast.”

“Alright, I think she’s in her throne-” A roar cut the guard off.

“Holy Shadowbinder, it’s here already?!”

“Run!” The guards both screamed and run down the hallway. Wish poked her head out of her door when they were gone and looked around. She didn’t see anything.

Wish shrugged, and began to walk down the hallway toward the exit. The hallway suddenly turned dark as something blocked the light coming in through the skylight above. Wish looked up and saw a large snout sniffing the skylight. The nose was so big that it covered the glass.

“Whoa… Are you an imperial?” Wish asked “I’ve never met an imperial before!” The glass shattered above her as the creature pushed its snout through. Wish quickly ran out of the way of the broken glass “Hey! That wasn't nice. I could have gotten hurt!”

The creature snorted and pulled its snout out from what once was a sunlight. It roared and then a different colored snout sniffed against the hole.

“There’s… Two of you?”

The second creature grabbed the roof of the hallway in it’s mouth and ripped it off, sending sunlight to bathe the usually gloomy passage. With the roof gone Wish now had a better view of her visitor.

“Whoa…”

The creature’s basic shape was that of an imperial, the largest breed of dragon that roamed Sornieth. Wish had never met one before, but even she understood that they weren't supposed to have three heads.

One head was black with a crystal texture that sparkled in the light, and a slick wavy mane and beard. His eyes were the light green of a wind dragon, and embedded into his head and neck were tangled thorns. His lips were nearly rotted away, giving him a permanent smile of jagged teeth. The middle head was brown with a rich blue mane. The top of her head had rotted to reveal bone, and what were once her eyes were now empty sockets. The last head looked the most alive of the three. He had dark blue water eyes, light pink skin, and a full metallic blue mane. He would have looked like a normal dragon if it wasn’t for his missing antler and the cut across his throat that still had dried blood around it.

All three heads turned to stare at Wish. The middle growled.

Wish took a step back “Hey, hey I’m not here to cause any trouble! Don’t mind me!” She smiled nervously. The pink head sniffed her.

“Um… my name is Wish, do you three have names? Is there anything you need here or…?”

The middle head opened her mouth, as if to speak, but all that came out was a rough bark. Her head pointed down the hallway where Shiningscourge’s throne room was.

“Do you… want to see my mom?”

The middle head snorted.

“I can take you guys to her if you want. Just follow me!” Wish began to move back the way she came from and the three headed imperial followed her. The pink head peeled back the roof off of the hallway as he walked alongside her. The creature didn’t exactly walk, but stumbled. Its legs were all colored differently and they weren't the same size. Actually it appeared to have more than four legs, and it had two tails that were tangled together. Its wings were mismatched, but otherwise looked normal.

“Alright! This is my mom’s room. Be warned though she’s probably going to be REALLY mad. I wasn’t supposed to leave my room, and you guys kinda… wrecked the hallway.”

The middle head wasn’t paying attention. She broke the door down.

“Alright… who needs knocking, right?” Wish inched inside “Huh… I guess mom left. Sorry guys she isn’t here. But she might be-” The creature ripped off the roof of Shining’s room and began to knock things around and dig into the floor.

“Are you looking for something?” Wish asked. The creature ripped up a rug, which revealed a rusted trap door. The door had beautiful oriental designs carved inside and runes that Wish didn’t recognize “I had no idea this was here. Mother always said she founded this clan to protect something hidden here. Is this it? Is this why you’re here?”

The creature clawed at the trap door and whimpered when its claws did nothing.

“Here, maybe I can open it,” Wish grabbed the handle and began to lift, but the door was sealed shut “It must have some sort of spell on it. Don’t worry though! I’ll think of someway to get it open for you!”

The middle head growled and shot ice at the door.

“Don’t do that! You’ll just make it harder to open!”

The pink head began to whimper, and Wish tried to open the door again. She strained so hard she pulled a muscle in her arm. She let go and yelped.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry but I can’t do it!” Tears welled in her eyes “I really am useless. I can’t do anything right! I should have just stayed in my room and listened to mother…” A tear fell, and splashed onto the trapdoor. The moment the tear sunk into the metal, the door began to glow, and with a creak it sprun open.

Wish sniffled “I… I did it?” She gazed below, and a pool of golden liquid rippled in a chamber beneath the trapdoor “What… What is that?”

The middle head gently nudged Wish away and stuck her tongue into the liquid, lapping it up. The other two heads took turns drinking the liquid, until only a few drops they couldn’t reach were left. Wish scooped up a drop that was leftover with her claw and licked it.

“Bleh! That tastes awful! Why did you guys do that?”

The creature answered by all three heads licking Wish.

Wish giggled “Hey stop it! That’s gross!” The middle head nuzzled her and purred “Does this mean we’re friends now? Oh this is great! I thought Bluemoon was my only friend!”

Wish gasped “Bluemoon! You guys can take me to her! Oh wow… I can. I can actually leave. If you guys help me anyway. Would you do that?”

The middle head nuzzled Wish.

“I take that as a yes! Thank you so much! Oh I better go pack up, and then I need to find out what mother did with my birds. Stay right here, I’ll be back!” She ran back into her room and grabbed a bag and began to stuff whatever she could find into it.

“I can’t leave without my jewelry kit, or my feather collection! Oh and this is my favorite dress! And my pillow! And maaaybe my old blanket from when I was a hatchling…” Once the bag was full she took a deep breath “Ok. That’s it. Everything else I’ll just have to leave behind. That’s fine. It was miserable here anyway. But still. Even if I didn’t like it here, it was still home.” She took one last look at her room and turned away “Now to find my birds.”

Wish explored room after room within the clan, but she couldn’t find any sign of her birds, or of anyone else. She was beginning to become frantic when she heard someone behind her.

“Wish! Oh thank goodness you’re safe! The Emperor has destroyed the left wing, we need to get you somewhere safe.”

Wish turned to confront her mother “Where are my birds?”

“Now, now don’t do this. Come on, I know where you’ll be safe,” Shining grabbed Wish’s paw, but Wish snarled at her mother.

“I’m not going anywhere without my birds! What did you do with them?!”

“They’re fine dear, just come along with me.”

“Where are they?”

“Don’t use that tone of voice on me.” Shiningscourge tugged at Wish’s arm, but she stayed rooted in place.

“Give me my birds back!” Wish shouted and her voice echoed down the tunnel she was in.

“Shh! Be quiet the Emperor-” Shining was cut off by the sound of loud thumping footsteps approaching “Shit! Wish come on! We need to hide!”

Light shone through the tunnel as something pulled the top off of it. The three heads of the creature peered through the hole that they created.

“Holy Shadowbinder…” Shining gasped and backed away, all four of her purple eyes locked on the fearsome creature above.

“Like my new friend, mother?” Wish stepped toward Shining, feeling empowered  “I helped them, so now they’re going to help me. So, where are my birds?!”

“They’re… They’re in Erebus’s room!”

Wish grinned “Thank you!” The middle head of the Emperor bent down, and Wish climbed on top of it “His room is on the right wing, could you take me there?” The head purred and the entire creature began to move. Wish had to grab a clawfull of the Emperor’s mane so she didn’t fall.

“Wow… I’ve never been this high up before. It’s amazing.”

The Emperor lifted up the roof of the right wing and Wish could hear the sound of chirping below.

“I can hear them! Let me down please!” The middle head lowered and Wish glided off of it, landing right next to Erebus’s door.

It was locked, so she began to punch it “Let! Me! In!” The birds began making a racket as they heard their owner’s voice. Wish slammed into the door with her entire body, which sent the door crashing down.

“My birds! It’s alright my dears, I’m here!”

“Wish?” Her father, Erebus crawled out from under his bed “What are you doing here? You should be in your room hiding from the Emperor!”

“Dad, I’m fine. I’m actually friends with this ‘Emperor’ now!”

“What?”

“It didn’t hurt me, it just wanted that golden stuff mom had hidden in her throne room!”

“Golden stuff? Wait you mean… oh no, and you’re saying the Emperor got it?!”

“Yeah! I ate some of it too. It didn’t taste very good.”

“You did?!”

“Yep! Anyway, I’m just here to get my birds and leave. Bye!” Wish grabbed the cart filled with birdcages and began to wheel it out of the room.

Erebus was frozen for a moment “Wait Wish!”

“Bye dad! I’m going to find my girlfriend, you know the dragon you and everyone else nearly bullied to death? Yeah. I’m going to find her with the help of my new three headed friend and there’s nothing you can do about it! Bye!”

The Emperor’s middle head lowered and allowed Wish to roll her birds onto it. Wish waved to her father below, while she rested on top of the head. Erebus only just stared with his jaw open and his eyes wide with a combination of awe and terror.

“Alright new friend, take me to Clan Ton Theon, it’s by the Beacon of the Radiant Eye!”

All three heads snarled, and the Emperor began to move.

[squirenonny]

Hey :) Just saw a swap au by a very talented artist (iacediai) and idk if you already know about it, but I'd loooove to read your thoughts! Have a nice day/evening/night!

Ahh! Yes! I’ve seen that post. It’s actually sitting in my drafts waiting to be queued, because I p much add things to my queue in batches of 100-200 about once a month. (Here’s a link for anyone who’s not sure what we’re talking about.)

First of all, A++ designs, I love them so very much. Loverboy Hunk and Sunshine Pidge are probably my favs, but I love them all.

I don’t have thoughts specifically about that role swap combination, but a while ago I saw pepplemint’s role-swapped!Lance art, and boy did that give me ideas. Specifically for a limited role swap AU where the only real *swap* is that Lance went to Kerberos in Shiro’s place.

Lance and Keith trained under Shiro after graduating from the Garrison. They were rivals, not least of all because Keith and Shiro were so obviously friends that Lance felt ignored outside of training

Shiro was originally supposed to pilot for the Kerberos mission but was in a car crash or something similar that injured his arm to the point he needed to have it amputated. This was, like, six months before launch, so at first the mission is just delayed–there’s no one to take Shiro’s place, and everyone at first is hoping that if the Garrison pays for the top of the line prosthetic maybe Shiro will still be able to go. (After all, they’ve already pumped so much money into this mission and into Shiro specifically.)

But Shiro’s recovery is slow, and PTSD + reduced dexterity mean he just can’t fly at the same level as before. So the Garrison decides they’re going to find a new pilot and have Shiro train them, since he knows better than anyone what this mission is going to require.

This is about the time the show would have started–one year after the original launch date. And the Garrison needs some gimmick for the media to “salvage” the mission from a PR standpoint. Shiro was literally the face of the Kerberos mission, and the public is more concerned about his recovery than the Garrison’s expedition (which is… you know, a good thing? But the Garrison cares about the publicity. They want the Kerberos mission to drive recruitment and all that.)

So they go to the next graduating class of fighter pilots and say, “Hey, guess what? One of you is going to be the youngest solo pilot in history, and you’re going to go farther than anyone else has ever gone. Ready? Cool. Now duke it out for your spot on this crew.”

(In more PR-friendly terms, obviously, but that’s the intent.)

Keith and Lance are the two top contenders, so both get to undergo training with Shiro. They’ll both have the full training, just in case there’s another car accident or something, and the Garrison is running it almost like a reality show, getting the public invested in the Big Question of Who’s going to pilot the mission???

The decision is ultimately Shiro’s, and he’s as pissed off about the spectacle of it as Keith is. (Lance, conversely, is absolutely loving the attention.) He doesn’t know what the public opinion is, and frankly, he doesn’t care. (It’s about 60-40 favoring Lance, but the Garrison bigwigs are split the opposite way, because Keith is Iverson’s golden boy the same way Shiro was–just a little less inclined to put up with bullshit.)

Lance is sure Shiro’s going to pick Keith. Frankly? So is Keith. Both of them are shocked when Shiro picks Lance.

Lance and Keith have a big fight after it’s announced, and they didn’t talk once in the last month before launch.

It’s now about two years later than canonverse–Lance is 20 for most of the mission, but they launch when he’s still 19, purely for the headline “Teen Pilots Landmark Mission to Kerberos”

The Galra still attack, and the disaster still goes down in history as pilot error.

Pidge didn’t have to sneak into the Garrison–she entered openly a year before the mission launched, has her own crew, and is the top communications cadet in the Garrison. She wants to wreck shit when Sam, Matt, and Lance are declared dead, but Shiro talks her down. (He stayed friends with the Holts even after he was removed from the mission, and through him Pidge knows Keith.)

So Pidge takes a week or two off from classes to grieve and to talk with Keith, both of them stoking the flames of their anger. Pidge doesn’t buy the official story and when she returns to classes she starts hacking the Garrison computers–secretly–looking for the truth.

Keith, in contrast, fully believes Lance was at fault and blames him for killing Pidge’s family. He doesn’t think any of them survived, and he has no outlet for his anger, so he starts going on long flights into the desert–which is where he stumbles upon the Blue Lion’s cave.

Hunk graduated along with Keith and Lance, having been Lance’s engineer as in canon. He spent the year/year and a half after graduation working on Garrison ships, but when Lance “dies” he quits and opens a restaurant/gets a job as head chef at a restaurant instead. He can’t stand working at the place that reminds him of his best friend.

Shiro is a regular patron at Hunk’s restaurant, and the two are pretty good friends, all things considered. He knows Pidge and Keith distantly–Keith mostly as “Lance’s rival who’s actually a pretty cool guy” and Pidge as “Shiro’s friend who’s always on her computer looking at technical diagrams.”

Pidge and Keith both wind up at the crash site in the desert as they do in canon. Lance has visible scars and a white streak in his hair, but he has a cybernetic eye and maybe a prosthetic leg, too, instead of the arm Shiro has. Keith and Pidge break Lance out mostly to get answers about the Holts, and once they have him, they kind of panic because, hello, they’re now fugitives.

Keith calls Shiro and tells him exactly nothing except that Lance is at their shack in the desert. Shiro was at Hunk’s restaurant when he got the call, and Hunk overhears. He rips off his apron and demands that Shiro bring him along, so the five of them are once more all together in the Blue Lion’s cave when she chooses Shiro.

Shiro still kind of thinks of himself as Lance’s mentor and it takes a while for them to get used to the changes. Because Shiro is still happy and mostly healthy and he wants to protect the younger paladins, Lance especially, but he can’t deny that Lance is far more suited to protecting the rest of them. He knows the enemy, he has practice fighting, he’s a scary good sniper and just as deadly in the heat of battle. Lance ultimately becomes the team’s leader, while Shiro acts as their emotional support.

There’s also friction among the younger paladins–a much deeper rooted conflict between Keith and Lance than in the show, and Pidge’s festering resentment about the Kerberos mission (she knows it’s not Lance’s fault, but she and Keith fueled each other, so she can’t quite let it go). Hunk is 100% on Team Lance, so he initially doesn’t get along well with Keith or Pidge, and Lance just isn’t interested in repairing bridges other people burned for him. It falls to Shiro to play peacemaker and get them all on the same page.

And yeah, idk where the plot goes from there except more or less the same way canon goes, but there’s lots of angst. ^.^’

[sweet-taiyaki]

Sin City Sour

Warning: Some violence, sexual themes, angst, gun violence, language

I was celebrating how I managed to smuggle in illegal drugs with my team. All of a sudden, I was approached by these men, that were armed. “Get dressed, we have to take a ride. The boss wants to meet you.” Oh, how romantic. Nothing like being blindfolded by a bag, hands zip tied, and legs strung together by rope. Unfortunately, I’m in this situation more than you think. Don’t tell the bad guys, but I’m actually a CIA agent undercover. My real name is Vincent Hawthorne and today I’m playing the part of Benito Salazar, a member of a Spanish cartel shipping an illegal drug to the States. I basically feel like an infamous citizen at this point by all the missions I’ve done. I barely even know who I am anymore.

The men tie me to a chair and remove the bag from my head. I can see my gun, my burner phone, and my speedo. There were two men on each side of me with AK-47s. They seem poorly built though. “The boss” comes out of the shadows and starts laughing. “Out of all the idiots in the world, this is the top Spanish cartel leader? ¿Cuál es tu propósito? (What is your purpose),” he asked. I stood silent. This guy seems like an amateur leader that just wants to move up in the cartel hierarchy. My job is to prevent that from happening. “Mi equipo no puede ser derrotado. Decidimos matar a cualquiera que se estorbo. (My team cannot be defeated. We decided to kill people that get in the way),” I said confidently. My Spanish is okay, well actually all the languages I’ve learned are okay. I just basically know the gist of killing people and it seems to work. His guys grip their guns. They seem pretty intimidated, or angry. I see my phone go off, Costa was the name of the contact. The boss looks at my phone. “Yo no respondería (I wouldn’t answer that),” I said. The boss answers it anyway. The first bombs go off as warnings. “Puta madre!” I bust out of the zip ties and run as I get shot at, but then I set off the second set of bombs that blow up the place. I jump into a properly timed CIA squad car as I peel away the prosthetics and got away before they could escape the building.

“Nice to see you again,” said Ivy. “Just because you are a princess that can’t break a nail, it would have been nice to have some back up,” I said to her as she rolled her eyes. Ivy was an undercover agent, but then she moved up to the head of Intelligence and Foreign Affairs, so now she’s my boss. “I’d love to sit and chat, Vince, but I have another assignment for you.” Spoiler alert, Ivy and I had a small fling when we were on an assignment together, and I think she still has feelings for me, but reading a woman is so hard. “Do you overwork me because you hate me, or you actually give a shit about these citizens? To be fair, I haven’t been called Vince in over 5 years by the amount of undercover work I’ve done.” “I put you on because you’re the best at it,” she said, “At the end of the day, you give a shit about saving the people in the end because you created a relationship with them.” Great. So, now I’m a superhero that comes and goes for people because they ask for help.

Ivy drops me off at my apartment. “See you at 7 am,” she says and drives off. I live in New York. I sleep in this crappy apartment, but the view at night overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge. You would think I’d date, but I can’t by working all over the world from bad guys.

I woke up at 6 am, showered, and stared at myself in the mirror. I almost didn’t recognize myself. The Spanish cartel mission lasted a year and I had my tattoos covered. I had a black wig, but my hair is brown. My nose and jaw were made of prosthetics and I wore brown contacts when my eyes were blue. I almost cried, but I got ready for work to meet the HBIC.

I sat down in a chair, drinking my coffee, then I was approached by this intern that seemed to be starstruck by me. This kid was almost on the verge of hyperventilating. “You’re Vince Hawthorne! I’ve heard so much about you and your work,” he said. I felt like I should play with the kid. “No, no, sir. My name is Fabio. Parli italiano,” I said. The kid seemed in shock. “Oh, I’m sorry, Fabio. I thought you were someone I read about.” Ivy stood up in front of the podium.

“Good morning, everybody. I’m sure you may have heard that the Spanish cartel has been shut down and have been taken into custody. However, we have another mission, and it’s gonna be a little different. This one will only last a month at the latest. Our citizen’s name is twenty-three-year-old, Hayley Fay. She also goes by the name of ‘Rosé’ since she strips on the side without her parents knowing. Fay lives in Las Vegas. She met a client that was acting creepy, bouncers kicked him out, found out he was one of the hitmen to kill her. The mission is to save her from harm and put an end to her creep stalker. Mr. Hawthorne will be with the citizen to keep her safe and I will organize a team to assist him in Vegas in 48 hours. Thank you.”

All the men approach me so they can go to Vegas with me. I immediately find Ivy. “Ma’am, with all due respect, please pick the right people with me. I don’t want these low life, creepy middle aged men working along side me.” She stopped in her tracks, “You really believe that I would do that to those girls, no way. I’m organizing a team strategically. You’ll find the results on your flight. Here’s your identity.” She hands me my passport and state id. Ryan Sparrow is my new name. “Thanks, I appreciate that you put in my love of Johnny Depp in there.” She smiled then said quietly “Captain” as she walked away.

I get on the plane and found out that I’m with the intern. I mean, he was younger than me, but I think the kid is 21. Of course, he sat next to me. “Vince—” “The name is Ryan. Nice to meet you kind sir.” I grabbed his hand and pull his ear to my face. “I realize that this is your first gig, but we are undercover. You reveal my identity, you die.” He was scared and intimidated. We lift off into the air and I took a nap. I woke up and the kid was still a deer in headlights. I roll my eyes, but I knew I had to do something. “Hey, kid. I’m sorry. I’m just in the mode and I don’t want any of us to get hurt.” He nodded and started to realize that this is the real deal and that people could die if he didn’t keep his mouth shut.

We land in Vegas and check in to the Cosmopolitan. My team consisted of 6 guys, we decided to take a bachelor party approach. Jake, the groom; Chase, the best man; Hunter, the little brother of groom; Dylan, childhood friend of groom; Tyler, the kid and coworker; and myself, friend of groom. We got to our rooms and we had the view of the Bellagio Fountains. “Boss, did good,” Chase said. I get a call from Ivy. “Well well well, does this remind you of when we were in Paris,” I smirked. “Enough, Vince. I have cars for everyone that is in the garage. You’ll find the keys in your room. Everything you need for the mission should be in the car. I’ll be on the first flight there if anything goes wrong.” She hung up and we made our way down to the garage to find Mustangs in different colors. The guys got all excited, but these are nothing compared to Lamborghinis. We found burner phones to keep in contact, some pistols fully loaded, earpieces, beer and liquor, and some essentials. Ivy even gifted each of us a designer suit for the occasion.

Unfortunately, I’m the only one in the group that has been to Vegas, so the guys don’t really understand the lifestyle. Tonight, we plan to let loose, so they know the ins and outs of Vegas. Hopefully, they will remember it all. We pregame with shots of liquor, then hit the strip. The guys were in awe how women would just flirt with them. I got a table at a club, which is instantly a chick magnet. The guys picked a girl to flirt with and I went to the bar. “A Boston Sour, please.” The bartender seemed surprised. “Any preference on bourbon,” she asked. “Whatever you like,” I said confidently. She smiled and made the cocktail. “It’s nice to make something that isn’t White Claw or a vodka lemonade,” she said. “Now I know what to order next.” She laughed and served another guest. I do some surveillance of the club. There seems to be a good amount of security around the club, but then I found out that there was a table across the club that had men in suits that didn’t want any women at their table unless they stepped on the dancefloor. I looked away before they could notice me. The group of men left the club. I told the team that I would follow them through the earpiece.

At this point, I sobered up and was in the mission. I followed the group of men to a strip club, which happened to be Harley’s workplace. They went inside, but I decided to take a detour by going around to the back door. Fortunately, I found Hayley before her shift started. She worked the graveyard shift, midnight to 6 am. Hayley and the dancers looked over to me. “Ms. Rosé,” I said. “Out of all the girls, you pick Rosé,” a woman said as if she was insulted. “May I have a word? Just a few seconds, no favors or anything. I just want to talk,” I offered my hand. She took it, but she was kinda nervous. I pulled her out to the alleyway. “I don’t have much time to explain, but my name is Ryan Sparrow. There is a group of gentlemen that are here to kidnap and kill you.” She immediately got scared. “How do I know that you’re not one of them,�� she panicked. “I like to think of myself as the ‘superhero’ character. Usually people don’t say that they will kill you. They just do. I’m hired to protect you. Do you trust me?” Hayley looked me and she nodded. I stuck her in my car and drove off.

The last few guys from the group of men saw that I took Hayley. “Ah, shit,” I said. The men got into their SUV and chased me. Of course, they were armed. I knew my gut was right about these group of guys. I tried calling my team to help me out, but the car kept shooting at me. No one answered. I tried to lose them by going through some alleyways and difficult turns, but they didn’t seem to lose their speed. I released some small bombs to pop the tires, but not injure the people around the car. It worked and all four tires were popped. It created a small explosion, but not enough to kill them. The guys continued to shoot at my car, but I ended up losing them, for now.

I got Hayley back to the hotel. She looked around to see all the technology I had set up. She looked at me and started laughing. “So, you must really be my superhero,” she said in a flirtatious way. “Kind of. I like my job and saving lives. I just want to make the world a happier place.” Hayley leaned into me. “Well, you came to the right place. How can I be of service for you?” She stuck her fingers in my pants and ran them across my waistline and crotch. “Hayley,” I said. She stopped and looked at me in shock. “No one calls me Hayley, but my parents. Did they send you to look over me?” She started getting angry. “No, I told you that I’m here to save you. I’ve never met your parents. My job is to get rid of the bad guys so you can be safe,” I said, pretty much like a father. Dammit. “At least your parents are alive. Mine were killed in front of me and I couldn’t react because it would have blown my cover and true identity. After years of being undercover, I don’t even know who I am. I became this robot to save people because I give a shit about justice and doing the right thing. It fucking sucks that I see people die and I can’t have any emotion when all I want to do is bury myself and cry. But I wasn’t put on this Earth to cry. I knew that I wanted to help people.”

I can’t believe I just confessed that, but I knew that it would reel her in and trust me. “I never said that to anyone, and I don’t want to lose you. So please, stay with me and I’ll keep you safe here and get rid of these men out to get you.” I got up as she looked at me and I looked back to her. “You’re gonna kill them,” she asked. I chuckled. “It’s either them or you, and it won’t be you.” She got up, kissed me passionately, and wished me luck as I left the hotel room, which was kinda unexpected.

It’s around 3 am. I get down to the lobby and I found my team completely wasted. I tried to keep my head down, but they recognized me. “Hey man!” They all shouted. I grabbed everyone by the bathroom. “Guys, seriously. Don’t enter my room, the citizen is in there. She’s quite scared so please just act professional.” The intern looked at me and knew that I was serious. “Don’t worry, Ryan. I’ll make sure no one goes in your room.” I gave him a pat on the shoulder and it looked like he was gonna cry. I moved them away and continued my mission to find the group of men.

Surprisingly, I was walking through the Circus Circus casino and saw one of the guys. I stayed hidden, but followed him to the hotel room, assuming the boss would be there. I knocked out the guy I followed after he got to his floor, out of the camera view. There were two big guys chatting outside a room with double doors. A group of girls came to the floor and saw the guy I knocked out in front of them. “Sorry, my friend can’t hang,” I said. The girls laughed and I smiled and winked at one of them. They were going towards the room with the double doors. I follow them and was stopped by the two guys. They closed the door. “No men allowed, turn the other way, pretty boy.” I knocked them out and snuck my way into the room. There was a party going on with a DJ, liquor bottles everywhere and another guarded door.

The guards see me and I make my way to them. “You wouldn’t want to traumatize these women, by a blood bath, would you? Kill me in private, or even take me to your boss.” They patted me down, found my burner phone, and let me in. The boss was covered in girls. All of them were laughing, drunk. I closed the door behind me and the room went silent. “Ooooo he’s cute,” said one of the girls. The boss took out a gun and shot her. The other girls ran out in panic and the boss came up to me. “Pretty boy with the mustang, huh. You tried to save your whore,” he looked me up and down. “She is so beautiful, and out of all the women I’ve bought as my slave, I wanted her. She would have been a great showpiece in my collection.” I started to get angry, but I knew if I showed any emotion, it would blow my cover. “Actually, Mr. Barsotti, I’m a man like you. I cum in girls all day. And when I’m your age, I’m gonna be just like you, buried in women, wanting me. I’m inspired by you and thought that you could give me some tips. No hard feelings. I just want the best and I knew the girl I got was the best.” He laughed and patted my shoulders. “Atta boy, you could be my apprentice. Would you like to join the team?” I nodded and he gave me an M-15. “Do you know how to use it,” he asked me. I looked at it nervously. He pulled a gun to my head. “Well now you do, go out there and—”

I heard gunfire outside the room. I dropped the M-15 and punched Mr. Barsotti. He fell to the ground and his two bodyguards pointed their guns and me and started shooting. I took cover, but I knew they were coming closer. I escaped through the vent to the other room. I saw my team in the room. They killed the door guards and started to help the other women escape. I go back to the room with the bodyguards and fought them. One of them had a knife and managed to slash my right arm. Thankfully, I have even strength in both arms, but both of them were too strong. My face is covered in blood and they wouldn’t stop beating me until they knew I was dead. I could barely move and I knew this was probably the end. I saw them take their guns and point them at my face. I closed my eyes and I heard four guns shots.

“Ryan, Ryan” I heard faintly. I was outside the casino with police cars and an ambulance early in the morning. “Are the girls safe,” I said. “Yeah, they’re safe and Mr. Barsotti was taken into custody. We thought we lost you, man.” My arm was bandaged, and my face had some stiches, but I was okay. “I couldn’t have done it without you guys. Together we gave those women a future.” They all smiled at each other.

I decided to go back to the hotel to pack up and leave. I brought some coffee and a fruit cup for Hayley. I got in my room and she was sound asleep, knowing that she was safe. I woke her up, gave her breakfast. “You’re free, you are safe now. The boss was actually holding women hostage as his slaves and we saved them. So it’s like a double win.” She sighed in relief as she rolled out of bed. “Thank you, Ryan. Do you mind if I call you for all my stalkers? Oh my God, what happened to your arm,” she panicked. “I’m fine, I’ll escort you to your house, if that’s okay.” She nodded.

I took Hayley to her parent’s house. They hugged her as soon she opened the door. I walked back to my car when I heard a ‘wait’. “Please, may I call you,” Hayley asked me. I laughed, wrote on a piece of paper, and gave it to her. She opened it. “Seriously, 911?” I laughed and said, “I can’t always be there for you, unfortunately. I have more people to save. I hope it inspires you to save people.” She turned around to her parents and looked at me, “Thank you, Ryan.” She got back into her parent’s house. “It’s Vince,” I said softly. I drove off and left on the first flight back to New York.

I got back to work the following day. Ivy approached my team and congratulated them on their success defeating Mr. Barsotti and his cartel. “Hawthorne, see me in my office, please.” I sighed angrily. I was not ready to take on another mission. Thankfully, this last one was pretty short and sweet, but I felt another long mission ahead of me. She closed the door behind me and I let loose. “Ma’am, with all due respect, I am exhausted—” “Stop, that’s not what I called you in here.” I was confused, if it wasn’t about work, then what would I be in her office for? “Vince, you save lives, plenty of lives. And I know that what you’ve gone through is definitely not easy. I know you can’t save everybody, but you definitely make the world a better place by taking the bad people to justice. With that, I brought you in today to be yourself.” I laughed. “Be myself, what kind of advice is that?” She rolled her eyes and I know she was trying to be genuine. “We are giving you three months of paid time off. You deserve it after being my partner years ago to now. You are an incredible agent and this is my present to you so you can get back to your normal life.” I contemplated what she said and I know her intention was sincere and caring. “Thank you, Ivy.” We got up and hugged each other. “It’s good to have a friend like you,” I said as I left her office.

I celebrated with the team at a bar. We watched some sports, got a couple rounds of beers. This was me. It just felt right. I saw Ivy come into the bar with a guy and saw her join a group of their friends. I saw there was a ring on her finger, and they kissed. She looked at me and I raised my glass to her. She smiled. Dammit. I lost her.