#meanwhile I haven’t applied to any of them yet

[how-gross]

12:25am — January 11th, 2024

Trying to think up how to explain to my counselor how anxiety-inducing and positively draining my winter break was to the point where I could barely focus on my college essay without mentioning how much I want to kill myself.

[legomonkiefics]

Hello! I hope you’re doing good! I’m not sure if this has been done yet, but I got an idea for a fluff (possibly a pinch of angst?) scenario!:

Any, all or two of the traffic light trio sillies (Mei, Red Son, MK), with an s/o GN!reader that’s an experienced healer who takes care of them after a tough battle against a monster of your choosing. Maybe they have a heartfelt conversation afterwards, or during the process of patching them up, about getting themselves in danger for the sake of saving the world? 👀

Been thinking a lot about this since s5 lmao. Haven’t fully recovered yet 💀

🍜💛 Healing a Trio —🐉💚 Traffic Light Trio x GN Healer!Reader HCs 🔥❤️

Genres: Fluff || they/them pronouns for reader || No warnings needed

₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁⋆˚｡⋆୨🍜🐉🔥୧⋆˚｡⋆✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ . ݁˖

- It had been a fight with a huge hawk demon, one that MK was pretty confident he could take, especially cause Mei could use her bike to move closer to the threat. Red Son was roped in by circumstance, begrudgingly working with the heroes to defeat the threat. The attack was a surprise, so there wasn't much the Trio was prepared to do. Once it finally ended, they were sufficiently scratched, scuffed, battered, and bruised

- The three had come to you a little hesitantly. They didn't like feeling like they were bothering you, especially because these always ended in some deep conversations about the nature of self-sacrafice and priorities. When you'd opened your door to the three and allowed them in without many questions, they filed in, MK and Mei attempting lighthearted jokes right off the bat to diffuse tension

- MK, for as much as he gets hurt, sucks at getting patched up. He hisses and writhes if the topical medicine stings, yelping and whining at the unpleasant sensations. He's a very dramatic patient, but a very talkative one as well

- He tells you about the fight, reassuring you that he already remembers the conversations you'd both had before about these things. He's not exactly happy having to sit still while getting bandaids and bandages applied, but he's obviously still proud of his victory

- He's more quiet when you're closer, focusing on the feeling of your hands on his skin, the gentle and reliable touch providing a sense of safety and warmth. He feels his heart swell seeing the determined expression you have while working, and little flutters when you occasionally banter back. This routine between you was familiar, it was comforting. He felt safe under your care

- Mei, meanwhile, is also a pretty passionate speaker, but much less of a whiner than MK. Her problems are mostly just squirming from being hyperactive and wound up on adrenaline, frequently trying to hop off of your workbench to demonstrate a move

- Your gentle chastising with Mei is unique, specifically taking time to address how she feels being on the sideline of missions these days, and having to hold things together for MK most of the time. She feels like she can have that full honesty with you, your complete confidentiality and understanding helping to hold her together

- She flirts with you more openly than the other two. Any time you're close enough, she points out something about your face to compliment. She offers to help you do small things, asking questions about your job and what kinda stuff you see outside of the Monkey Crew

- Red Son, like the others, is a talker. His ramblings are closer to ranting and raving, and outside of waving his arms or doing grand dramatic gestures, he's more still than the other two

- Conversations about his family are what come up most often, when he isn't bragging about his villainy or latest attacks on the town. More recently he's been talking a lot about working as a food vendor. It's nice to see him happy about something that doesn't come from malicious intent

- He allows himself to show past his anger and be more vulnerable with you. He's a hint softer, a little more willing to be honest and open with you. He loves your willingness to do this for them, and he tells you frequently how much he admires you and your work

- The three usually stick around for a few hours after each appointment, talking with you and telling you about everything you my have missed in their lives. They treasure their individual time with you, and Mei and MK especially try to hype you up all the time to show their thanks

- They invite you out every once in a while to have some hangouts without medicine or injury in the picture. They introduce you as a vital member of the team to others and get protective of you during battles

[dailycharacteroption]

Magaambya Attendant (Pathfinder Second Edition Archetype)

(art by LorenzoTonetto on DeviantArt)

(Oh goodness, I must have been supremely tired last night, as I forgot to post this. Never fear, Tuesday’s entry will be coming later today as well)

Of all the magical academies I’ve seen in fiction, Magaambya is probably one of my favorites. Founded on the teachings of the man who singlehandedly saved the traditions of arcane magic during the Age of Darkness and shored up by his philosophy of magic for all and used for the betterment of all, it truly has become Oldmage Jatembe’s shining legacy, where students are taught not just to master magic, but how to use it to better others… and most learn these lessons well. Most of them.

In any case, today we’re looking at the Magaambya Attendant, an archetype associated with the school. While not every graduate has this archetype, those that do represent those that have taken the lessons, both philosophical and magical, to heart. This isn’t to say that others slack on their lessons, rather that the Attendants draw power directly from their lessons rather than just philosophically.

Additionally, these attendants often also specialize in the lessons of one of the five branches of scholarship at the Magaambya: the Cascade Bearers who value creativity and imagination in magic; the Emerald Bough, who favor camaraderie and goodwill; Rain-Scribes, who adapt and learn from their mistakes; Tempest-Sun Mages who value valor and the courage to let their own views be challenged and changed; and finally Uzunjati, storyteller masters that seek wisdom in the lore and knowledge of old.

No matter how they specialize, however, they are still students of the same philosophy, so let’s take a look at how they apply what they have learned!

The base dedication of this archetype grants training in either the primal or arcane arts, as well as a basic cantrip in either of those traditions. Additionally, one must pick affiliation with one of the aforementioned branches, and finally, since they are associated with the same school, one can also take the halcyon speaker archetype alongside this one without the restriction one normally sees with archetypes.

Traditionally, Magammbya mages wear masks, often enchanted, when performing their duties, but some find, whether by accident or design, that their mask takes on a life of it’s own, becoming their familiar. While not all can talk, they can all detach from the wearer’s face and move about with a body composed of multicolored light, and can of course pretend to be an ordinary mask when the need strikes.

Naturally, some attendants master magic to further bolster their mask familiars, granting them new abilities.

Cascade Bearers demonstrate surprising flexibility, able to alter their spells on the fly with metamagical techniques they haven’t properly mastered yet, though only once a day.

Emerald Boughs are expected to travel beyond the school and potentially recruit new students. As such, they have a knack for adapting quickly to any culture they find themselves in.

Meanwhile, Rain-Scribes learn how to sustain their bodies entirely with ambient magic, eliminating the need for food, though they can also overclock it to stay awake while resting normally at the cost of needing food later.

The Tempest-Suns are perhaps the most likely to engage in combat, so they’d developed techniques to redirect the flow of their attacking spells, minimizing damage to their allies while also redirecting some of the energy to ward them for a few moments as well.

The Storytellers of the Uzunjati know dozens of tales, and they can leverage that knowledge to recall important tales and impress others with their knowledge of the old wisdom.

Later on, Cascade Bearers learn to be more flexible with the sources of their magic, able to add occult and divine magics to their halcyon spell arsenal.

Travelling so far from home, many Emerald Boughs find it useful to store away certain items for later use, and learn to create a small pocket dimension to store items that lasts as long as they remain conscious. Perfect for hiding an item that cannot be allowed to be stolen, or emergency tools for a situation.

Rain-Scribes are themed around adaptability, so some master learn to turn aside that which would hinder them. By shrouding themselves in magic, they can stride easily through difficult terrain, destroying or casting aside the inhibiting elements of which as they do so, with not even magically manipulated terrain being safe.

The combat expertise of Tempest-Suns continues as they learn how to expend unused spell energy to blunt and block incoming attacks, robbing them of the force to wound.

Masters among the Uzunjati can recall information and create a story about it on the fly, entertaining and gaining useful information in one act.

True masters among the Uzunjati might also learn to improve their stories further, providing useful advice and maybe a little guiding magic to bolster their allies when fighting a foe that inspired the recalled story in the first place.

As you can see, this archetype is primarily all about branching into one of the many schools of thought and roles associated with the academy, granting abilities that are thematic to what each branch of the school favors and represents, though obviously some are more flashy than others. This also means that an individual can only take a maximum of three feats (four for Uzunjati) from this archetype, making it relatively unobtrusive if you want to blend it with its sister archetype, the Halcyon Speaker, or take it by itself for some practical abilities that speak to the character’s role and vocation.

Like I said before, neither this archetype nor the Halcyon Speaker are required to represent a graduate of the Magaambya, but they both help represent someone who has learned to incorporate the unique teachings of the academy into their magical arsenal, and it’s nice to have such an option. Additionally, I like that in addition to breaking down the barriers between arcane and primal magic, the branches of the school are not broken down by schools of magic, but by philosophy in how magic is learned and applied. This goes a long way towards justifying how the Thassilonian schools are not universal, and why the schools of magic in the remastered version are more broad in their theming. (though I’ll still be using them for those that want them.

The dry desert consumes the weak, that is what Torva, a beastkin orc woman, grew up understanding, but when her latent talent for the druidic arts manifested, she was sent off to the Oasis, an impossible green city in the middle of the sands, to harness her magic at their academy. There, she encountered the kind and unjudging school environment and began to question what it meant to be weak or strong.

Instructor Kanzarato has a reputation at the school, and not just because he’s a dragon! The brine dragon wyrm tries very hard, but has trouble thinking of his classroom as anything other than his territory. However, once he has warmed up to new students, he is the first and fiercest to protect them.

Charming and quick with a joke, the storyteller Uban has many a tale they could spin, including those of the days when the magic academy of the White Valley still stood, teaching a blending of every source of magic. In the late night, when most have gone to bed, he confides that though they are outlawed and hunted, the mages of that school do still remain, bringing kindness and wisdom to those that need it. He meets any suggestion that he is one such mage with a soft chuckled and a wink.

[freddy-and-friends-au]

The band’s all here! (WIP)

I still haven’t finished their new endoskeletons yet, but I think I have their suits mostly down!

Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the inbox!

EXTRA INFO AND SCREENSHOTS UNDER THE CUT!!!

At first glance, these are obviously inspired by the traditional Chuck E. Cheese x Rockafire Explosion suits, designing them more like sports mascot costumes and having very little of the endoskeleton showing at all times (say for Foxy, of course). This was not only for more realistic world-building, but also to optimize animation, as we now have less moving parts that are actually showing, and therefore, less to render.

You might be wondering “if you wanted a more realistic approach to the suits, why not take a more realistic approach to the masks, like a more ShowBiz Pizza style?” And to that I say: everyone does that.

Okay, that isn’t entirely the reason. I like the idea of basing the designs more off of the canon models than something that already exists, because I like the idea of FazEnt having their own style of making animatronics. The ShowBiz style isn’t the only way to do animatronic masks, and these masks are how FazEnt would go about making them. Even when FazEnt does use the trademark ShowBiz rubber-face masks on the Junior models, they don’t do it the same way that ShowBiz does it.

Something interesting I want to do with Freddy & Friends is to set narrative moments apart from the moments meant to be passed off as real footage. The designs shown above are for the latter, meanwhile the narrative will use more artistically stylized suits textured to more so resemble a comic book, sort of like Into The Spider-Verse (except instead of going for a generalized comic book feel, the Freddy & Friends style is gonna be more reminiscent of the Batman: Year One comic). The designs will be more reminiscent of how I draw them on paper, as opposed to being faithful to the canon.

Here’s some extra info as to how I came up with the designs, as well as some extra renders and concept art!:

Original concept art from September 30, 2020.

Freddy was a little obvious to design, probably because everyone seems to design him like this when making more cartoonish versions of him. A more defined tuxedo complete with a collar and cuffs with a red stripe around his hat. It just seemed like the right direction to go in.

Bonnie was initially intended to wear a vest, though I was holding out for something else so that he could be differentiated from the evil rabbit (the evil rabbit wears a vest). I asked my friends what I could change it to, and one of them said “Try a cardigan”. Honestly, that fits Bonnie’s personality so much better, both in terms of spirit and cartoon.

You might also notice that Bonnie was supposed to have buck teeth, as well as more squared off teeth. That was originally part of his V1 model, but when I tried applying that to the new models, literally any way I tried to arrange it made Bonnie look like so much like an insufferable asshole that I wanted to punch him in the face. Ultimately, I ended up ditching the buck teeth and just gave him his classic teeth.

Chica was a little hard to do something unique with at first. I initially wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with her, but when I modeled her V1, her little chef’s hat was a last minute addition to her design. I’m also thinking about changing her bib into an apron, per the toon designs that Henry posted a while back.

Foxy was probably the most fun to design. Obviously, his final model has a lot of details inspired by the FNAF movie, but when I was designing him 4 years ago, I really just wanted to go crazy with his design. I wanted him to have a beard, I wanted him to have a peg leg (I really liked the idea of animating him with a limp). Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll keep the peg leg, because it might be a little too hard for Henry to animate with the tech that he has.

As a cheeky little reference to the roots of the FNAF fandom, I wanted Foxy’s hook to resemble the hook seen on the Splinks Foxy model. ;)

Endo01 - Version 4 WIP

I’ve done a few different versions of the endoskeleton. What I’m trying to do for this new one is to assemble him modularly, allowing me to make each component a recognizable component (they’re also actually modeled after real components).

I’m not gonna go into detail about the functionality of this guy, because I eventually plan to make a Freddy & Friends Instructional VHS series centered around being a mechanic for FazEnt. However, what I will say is that these designs are intended to have plausible functionality, especially using the technology of the 1980’s (which is not restricted to pneumatic technology, because making an animatronic walk with pneumatic actuators while maintaining the traditional complexity of animatronic endoskeletons is simply impossible).

EXTRAS:

The original Version 1 designs

My failed attempt at giving Bonnie buck teeth (I wanna punch him so bad…)

Fixed Foxy

???

[sesshy380-rp]

(continued from here)

“People will touch your face and hair. You'll have to put up with it, but I promise it will be worth it.”

Kat was a little confused by the warning at first, considering it was something to be expected. She then realized it was his way of making sure she didn’t freak out on anyone for touching her.

“It kinda comes with the territory, so it’s to be expected…though I do appreciate the warning” she said with a small laugh. “This isn’t the first time I’ve been subjected to a makeover. In case you haven’t realized it yet, I do have an older sister who was extremely enthused by my arrival in the Duat. Nothing anyone here does will ever match the fact that Kebechet does not understand that there is such a thing as too much kohl. I didn’t have any comparison then, but now I can safely say I looked like a tiny golden clown with panda eyes.”

Marik dramatically winced and laughed.

“Don’t worry, these people are amazing at what they do. No panda eyes or clown paint here.”

A lady came up and motioned for her to follow, where she was then led to a chair in front of a mirror with two other people standing beside it.

The team of three quickly got to work. The lady started on her hair, while the other two each took a hand and began focusing on her nails. They complimented the fine points and asked where she went to get them done, which she said she did on her own (which wasn’t a lie, but they didn’t need to know the details about her nails technically being claws).

Once they finished applying a glossy coat to her nails, they moved on to covering up all the marks that the dress wouldn’t hide, then eventually onto her face. Meanwhile the hairstylist seemed to be having a field day with the waves of her hair, pulling back sections while doing something in the back that she couldn’t see in the mirror. It was a bit annoying having to deal with the occasional pull on her head, along with the odd sensation of whatever it was that they kept sticking in her hair, but she did her best to not move.

After what felt like forever (and her head had been sprayed with something that she didn’t like the smell of), the team was finished. As per Marik’s instructions, they’d stuck with only enhancing her features while making it look like she wasn’t wearing anything. He’d called it a ‘nude look’. The only part that looked like actual makeup was the very obvious line of kohl on her eyes (which was the real deal and not an eyeliner like Bakura had). They also brought her to a different set of mirrors that allowed her to see what they’d done to her hair. The hairstylist had pulled back the top section of her hair so that it would be out of the way and instead of just putting it in a bun or ponytail, they had made little roses with her hair.

“Well, what do you think?” Marik asked, obviously coming over to inspect that everything met his standards.

Kat looked at him and smiled.

“A thousand times better than Kebechet,” she said with a laugh.

((@nb-lesbian-tkb))

[time-variance-archive]

Thank you @galaxythreads​ for taking the time to explain your points so thoroughly ! If you don’t mind I’m going to answer from my side blog because I haven’t posted anything on it for a while and it’s easier for me if I post all my Loki related meta in one place.

Before I start, I don’t mean to invalidate any headcanon or interpretations of the show, just fill in some details you’ve missed from canon.

Since Sylvie’s nexus event doesn’t have an explicit explaination, I guess we’re all doing speculation. I just think some theories are more likely than others if we take everything in consideration. I tend to follow the rule of Ocham’s razor : the theory that requires the less twists and turns and over-interpretations is more likely to be false. But of course, it’s not always the case ^^.

Also, thankfully I have a copy of the scripts in another tab so I'll be able to copy past instead of looking for the exact lines in the show and transcribe them ^^.

1- Loki stealing the Tesseract HAD to happen otherwise Endgame wouldn't

I need to confess I have only watched Endgame once, so I don’t remember exactly what happens in 1970 ^^. But I don’t think it’s relevant because I agree with the premise. Loki stealing the Tesseract had to happen so Endgame happens the way it does.

And no one ever said otherwise.

Judge Renslayer : “ What they did was supposed to happen. You escaping was not. “

The events of Endgame happened the way they were meant to and nothing has been retconned.

I suppose the reason why this lines confuses you is because you seem to assume the TVA operate under logical and “fair” rules. But it doesn’t. The TVA is a Kafka-esque hell where everything is meant to be as absurd and confusing as possible for the prisoners. Also, the TVA is entirely based on a lie. It lies to it’s agents, even the Judges don’t understand the laws they are applying. If it seems that nothing makes sense, it’s because at this point we know nothing of it’s real purpose and goals.

Also, this line by Renslayer sounds exactly like the paradox of Judas in theology. Jesus HAD to be betrayed to put God’s plan in motion, but Judas is still guilty of his action and deserves punishment. And the making off confirms the TVA is written as a religious cult, with its idols, its corrupted elites and its all powerful leader.

Basically, it’s a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.

Now if you wonder what are the criteria : everything that helps the TVA to reach its mysterious goal is supposed to happen, and everything that hinders them has to be deleted. The Avengers beating Thanos ? Good. A mischievous Loki messing around with the Tesseract ? Less good.

The TVA’s true goal has not been officially revealed yet because it seems season 2 will dive deep into its origins, but Michael Waldron confirmed a few fan theories. The main goal is to prevent the existance of Kang. The only requirement for a timeline to be kept is that it has to be Kang-less. We can assume if Thanos hadn’t been defeated, it would have caused a butterfly effect that would have left to Kang’s great great grandparents meeting, or something silly like that. Meanwhile, Steve Rogers was allowed to stay in the past because it doesn’t cause the birth of a Kang. It seems the Sacred Timeline is relatively permissive for ordinary poeple, as long as they don’t accidentally cause the creation of a Kang.

2- Sylvie and Loki holding hands in episode 4 was in an apocalypse, ergo, no nexus 

Yeah, this one is a plothole. I guess it’s a classic situation of “the magic of love is so powerful it defies logics”. It’s cheesy and a bit dumb, but this is a Disney kids show.

3. Sylvie being a girl doesn't work as a nexus event because loki is genderfluid

Nothing in the show even hints it could be the case. Little Sylvie was about 10 years old when she was pruned, and neither Mobius or Renslayer or our main Loki seem surprised by the existance of a female Loki. The only one surprised is Classic Loki, a character who literally comes from a 60s comic book. It’s like those jokes about the First Doctor being sexist in Doctor Who crossover events.

Even in the comics, female presenting Lokis, AFAB or AMAB, seem pretty rare (I've never heard of a confirmed AFAB Loki in the comics, but I don't see why there wouldn't be any. Maybe Double Trouble Loki ?). I am not the biggest expert in the continuity of the comics though and I don't know how many distinct versions of Loki exist so I'm talking a bit lightly here.

And the Goddess of Mischief line you quoted in your post feels a bit out of context.

Sylvie : “The universe wants to break free, so it manifests chaos. Like me being born the Goddess of Mischief. And as soon as that created a big enough detour from the Sacred Timeline, the TVA showed up, erased my reality, and took me prisoner.“

The topic of this conversation is order and chaos. The key word is “Mischief”, not “Goddess”. What Sylvie seems to explain here is that the existance of Lokis is a proof that the universe needs chaos. And since Lokis get pruned far more often than average, she’s right about it. Also, the phrase “as soon as it created a big enough detour” would not work if it was about gender. Unless she is AMAB and the “detour” was her transitioning (but nothing suggests little Sylvie just started presenting that way). That would be a really cool plot twist, but I’m not sure Disney is ready.

Also, having variants of another gender doesn’t prove an individual is genderfluid. The crew saying that our MCU Loki is genderfluid means little if it doesn’t lead to a confirmation in canon. This is shallow queerbaiting and genderfluid poeple deserve better.

There is one way her gender could play a role in her Nexus event though : she got arrested for playing with a Valkyrie figure. The most popular theory is that she was about to become a Valkyrie herself, something a male Loki would be less likely to do. But since she got arrested at the age of 10, there is at least one other Loki out there with Sylvie’s face who lived her life as needed by the TVA.

4. The TVA forgot about Sylvie's master plan by epi 4

I don’t see how ???

Sylvie’s plan was to cause a distraction so she could access to the Time Keepers chamber, and it worked. Loads of agents were dispatched to prevent the disaster. I’m not really sure how you deactivate a Reset Charge. By pruning it probably. But what happens when a Reset Charge activates in the Void ? Wow, this is the Portals paradox again ^^.

I’m not sure how putting Reset Charges at specific places endangers the timeline though. I would say it erases specific events from time and causes the risk that they happen differently when time heals itself, but this is pure speculation.

Also the TVA is still very actively searching for Sylvie :

ANALYST 1: There’s nothing, sir.

MOBIUS: Even with the magnified nexus threshold? That one should be setting off alarms if somebody steps on the wrong leaf.

The whole agency is working on monitoring every single timeline with accute algorythms to find the two fugitives. That’s how big of a deal Sylvie and Loki are to them.

5. people shouldn't be able to make choices (nexuses) because there is no free will

The answer is very simple though : if there was no free will, there would be no need for a TVA.

There is no way to remove a person’s free will, except by extreme brainwashing or hypnosis, like what happened to Bucky. But it’s not how the TVA operates. Even under the most severe authoritarian regime, poeple keep their free will and capacity to make choices, at least inside their head. And the fact the TVA needs to constantly police the entirety of time proves poeple have a mind of their own.

Also, the use of the word “pruning” says everything. Those darn timelines won’t stay inert for more than a few minutes before a new sprout starts growing somewhere.

6. there has never been ANYONE with mind powers to face Alioth before Sylvie

Ok, this one made me smile because it had never crossed my mind. I think the idea of reading inside the mind of a giant dragon shaped cloud is absurd enough to be a once in a lifetime experience. But It made me think about the whole chain of events that lead to that moment.

First, one would not immediately assume Alioth is sentient enough to have a mind to read. Also, if I was on the run from a giant-ass dragon the side of a small country, I would probably run in the opposite direction. The only reason why the idea crossed Sylvie’s mind is because she accidentally touched one of its tendrils and survived it. Which must be a pretty rare occurence too.

But let’s imagine a mind reader accidentally touched the dragon and had a mental flash of a big castle. What would they do of this information ? If they had been pruned recently, they wouldn’t even know where they are or what this is all about. Sylvie came to the Void with a purpose. She knows where he is (in a dimension at the end of time) and she knows what she is looking for (some sort of king hiding beyond the end of time). So she makes the mental connection that the dragon knows how to access the castle.

And yeah, the number one rule to survive in the Void is to hide and avoid the big dragon at all cost.

Oh, and Kang absolutely wanted to be found. He even admitted he helped Loki and Sylvie (a popular theory is that he’s the one who alerted the TVA for Lamentis). Remember that all of this was part of his plan ! It’s like in The Matrix, Neo and Trinity are not a bug, they’re a feature.

7. loki consistently forgetting he has magic

I agree, the magic system in the MCU makes little sense. I don’t think Loki uses his magic less in the show. I think he uses it far more than he did in movies. We see him shapeshift, dry his clothes, lift a freaking building with his mind (wow, that was really badass !). I don’t know if magic can produce electricity . I suppose it does, Kid Loki has to power his Polybius game arcade with something ^^.

8. The tva has no solar power for anything (like tempads, like Sylvie's)

I don’t think the TVA has a sun to begin with ^^. Have you seen those guys ? They look like they have never touched grass in their lives ! They don’t even have aquariums :,( !

More seriously, we never saw TVA agents on the field for more than a few minutes, and they’re never alone so even if one had a faulty tempad, it would not endanger them.

Also, TVA tech is extremely obsolete. I don’t think solar power fits the whole mid-century cold war era vibe.

And you overestimate Sylvie’s intellect I think ^^. I’m not saying she’s an idiot, but she’s also kinda dumb. More seriously, her plan was completely whack. She ran right into the den of the wolf with almost no preparation. She could have asked C-20 more questions, or enchant more agents. She didn’t even know magic doesn’t work in the TVA. It’s very in line with Sylvie’s character, she’s impulsive and never thinks in the long term. Not charging her tempad is 100% Sylvie behaviour.

9. rather than kill anyone, Kang decided to make a big void they would all go to

“When we prune a branched reality, it’s impossible to destroy all of its matter. So we move it to a place on the timeline where it won’t continue growing.“

I’m not sure how the Grandmaster’ weapon works, or if there is any form of continuity inside the MCU when it comes to the laws of physics. But for the sake of the argument, I’ll assume the Grandmaster’s weapon dissipates your atoms in the air.

Pruning isn’t disintegrating. When a timeline is pruned, a small area is restored to it’s previous state. It’s a bit like turning your game off so you can start from your previous save (unless you’re playing old Animal Crossing and the local time agent mole yells at you for 10 minutes. Yeah, I hate that dude ^^). But it creates some “residual” events that have to be destroyed in some way. Like a bit of tape cut from a movie and replaced by another one.

Once a small section of a timeline has been removed, it has to be destroyed in some way. The Void is the junkyard and Alioth is the big racoon feeding on the junk.

Though, I agree that the TVA could kill poeple first and prune them later. But I think pruning poeple alive says a lot about the cruel and dehumanizing nature of the organization. The upper-crust would rather throw poeple in the trash alive than soil their hands. I don’t think the common agents know what pruning really is, though. They probably think they desintegrate poeple.

10. removing someone from a timeline creates a long-standing butterfly effect

“Reset charges prune the affected radius of a branched timeline, allowing time to heal all its wounds. Which sounds like a nice way of saying disintegrate everything in its vicinity.”

A reset charge prunes everything on a small zone. That’s why agents have to watch out for the red line. Once the Nexus event has spread too much, the timeline cannot be reset anymore.

I’ll try to think of an exemple. When Loki arrived in the desert after stealing the Tesseract, he meets some locals. If the TVA had not intervened, we can assume those poeple would have spread the word and it would have had consequences. The TVA arrived right before it happened and reset this small patch of desert to how it was before Loki arrived, sending the witnesses into the void. We can also assume they reset the Stark Tower lobby, to restore OG Loki and erase all memories from the Avengers’ mind.

I assume they can probably prune a larger zone using several reset charges, or a bigger one. But once the butterfly effect is too important, nothing can be done anymore. Also the TVA’s methods seem to imply they try to cut as little as possible, probably to avoid causing more instability.

Loki : Let me ask you this, why don’t we just travel back to before the attack, when the Variant first arrives?

Mobius : Nexus events destabilize the time flow. This branch is still changing and growing, so you gotta show up in real time.

The TVA doesn’t remove poeple from reality. It only removes one “instance” of a person. When someone is pruned, it’s like they’ve been duplicated and their “original self” is still on the timeline. The little cartoon PSA in episode one illustrates it very well. And this one trippy scene in Quantumania ^^. As our TVA Loki is taken away by the Minute Men, OG Loki is being taken to Asgard.

So no, a Reset Charge cannot remove a whole existing timeline. When Sylvie says her reality has been erased, it doesn’t mean her whole timeline disappeared in the Void. Somewhere, a little princess Loki decided to play with the dragon toy instead of the Valkyrie and fulfilled her approved destiny and caused the Avengers to assemble. But this reality is not Sylvie’s reality anymore. It is a similar looking Asgard where her parents have another little girl who look like her and forgot her mere existance.

In a sense you were right in your question. Changing one little element causes a butterfly effect that prevents future events from happening, therefor destroying a whole potential world. Also, remember the TVA exists out of linear time. Those realities are not just potential, at some point in the TVA's relative past, they were actual timelines full of unique poeple and civilisations. The TVA snuffed them from existance by removing one single event.

And the TVA trials are useful. Everyone at the TVA is a Variant so I assume they have to recruit their agents one way or another ^^. Interestingly, Renslayer condemned Loki to be reset, not pruned. I wonder if the TVA already recruited Lokis. Plot twist, Casey was a Loki all along XD.

I really hoped I answered to some of your questions. I apologize for this wall of text ^^. I really tried to explain everything the best I could, based on interviews, and what I got from canon. Of course I could be wrong ^^. We simply don’t know enough.

But the leaked trailer for season 2 seems to confirm we’ll learn a lot about the TVA. And of course there are the good old insider leaks, to take with a pinch of salt.

Thank you again for your encouragements !

[shaakyhaands]

Court of Darkness Consort Routes Wishlist because I have brainrot:

💐🌸💫 🧚‍♂️Sherry, my beloved🧚‍♂️💫 🌸💐

Violet, because we already have valets as consort options from most of the other kingdoms, it is a crime to not have one from Luxure of all places 😤

Thoma? I haven’t played Rio’s route yet, but people seem to like this guy, so he can come with :)

Hawke, because:

man’s got swag

occupies specific niche, as the only non royal/noble consort option. More chill in that regard, more relatable.

Would be another consort from Ira, thus increasing the utility of Integrity virtue points/items.

3a. No, I’m so fucking serious. Warning: this is about to turn into an economics rant.

Ira, Voleri, Luxure, and technically Colde(?) all have only one consort representing them. This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem in all otome games, but given how CoD is set up with kingdoms, it has repercussions. Specifically, regarding CoD’s virtue system.

Unless you are invested in the one character associated with that given virtue, you have no incentive to care about that virtue. Thus, the demand for items with said virtue values is lessened, as there is limited benefit to obtaining said virtue.

Compare this to Kindness, which is the virtue associated with THREE consorts: Lynt, Tino, AND Dia. Or Charisma, associated with Guy, Jasper, and (spoiler) soon to be/already available on the Japanese server, Aquia. The marginal utility of the virtues associated with these characters are not dependent on any one consort: If you don’t care for Lynt, but you still like Dia, then you still care about gathering Kindness. If you don’t fuck with Guy, but would die for Aquia, then you’ll still want to build up Charisma.

Why does this matter? Because if Otome Romance wants to push items that’ll sell/encourage people to play, then they’ll want to make items that cater to the widest audience possible. Making an item carry Kindness as it’s virtue will benefit players on 3/13 routes (14 with Aquia). Whereas making an item with Honesty as it’s virtue will only matter to a player if they’re playing specifically Rio’s route. That’s it. Nowhere else. The value of Honesty is entirely dependent on Rio’s marketability to the player.

Less utility for a given virtue? Less demand for items carrying that virtue from audience. Less demand for said items? Less supply created. Less supply? Less investment from audience, therefore lowering the demand, thus repeating the cycle. This means Otome Romance will be far more incentivized to make items with virtues that apply to more than just one consort. Such as Charisma, Wit, Kindness, Grace. Which inadvertently fucks over the players who are maining those solo consorts.

So if you are maining Rio, Lance, Lou or Fenn? Items carrying your consort’s virtue are going to appear in-game less frequently than items with virtues that apply to a wider range of consorts.* Which makes it harder to gather said items, and in turn more difficult to raise said virtue rank. This can inadvertently discourage players from pursuing certain routes, as they are less accessible than others. If I’m torn between Lynt and Rio, but my Kindness rank has increased at a much faster rate than my Honesty rank, purely due to the higher abundance of Kindness items compared to Honesty items? I will get more out of Lynt’s route than I would Rio’s.

Personal anecdote: I don’t Main any of the Akedia consorts (no shade. Sloth just isn’t my thing. I’m too uptight). I haven’t tried AT ALL to raise my Kindness virtue. And yet, despite literally zero effort on my part, my Kindness virtue is at 240??? Meanwhile, my Integrity virtue I have been intentionally trying to raise. It’s only with the recent addition of the magician hat (that I got like, 3 hours ago?) that I have been able to break 250. Before? I was sitting at 180. And that was after putting in effort. So if actually trying got me to 180 Integrity, while not try at all got me to 240 Kindness— what gives, dude?

*note: Fenn may or may not be an exception to this, given his status as one of the Big Princes from the Opening Sequence. Nonetheless: if there were a second consort from Luxure, Allure-Virtue items would appear more frequently.

Basically—

uneven distribution of consorts throughout the kingdoms generates uneven demand for different virtues.

This demand is met with matching supply, reenforcing and exacerbating the disparity in the demand.

Big demand gets bigger, smaller demand gets more and more sidelined.

I can understand some kingdoms having two consorts while others have three. I can even understand the unique in-game situation that results in Colde only having Lou. But there is no good reason, in-game or meta-game, for Ira, Luxure, or Voleri to only have one consort option.

IMO? For a more balanced gameplay? For more engagement from the players? Add (at least) one consort for each of those aforementioned kingdoms. Increase the utility of the Integrity, Allure, and Honesty virtues. This will increase the appeal of said virtues to the audience, thus driving up gameplay.

Thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

[stupid-but-gentle-writing]

What did you think when you made me this way? Chapter 2

Total words: 608

Tag List (ask to be tagged): @latenightcupsofcoffee

Trigger warnings: (fear of) abonnement, religious themes (talk of the devil), mentioned homelessness, parent issues

_________________________________

The devil's house was bigger than any house Anwir had ever seen. He couldn’t help but stop and stare at it when the woman opened the front gate and walked him through the clean and colorful garden. He could feel Fintan looking at him (how? He did not know, he hadn’t shown any emotions since he had answered his question) and as soon as his gaze became unbearable, he closed his half-open mouth and followed the family inside.

Inside, the house was even bigger and Anwir’s mouth fell open again. The interior was simple yet detailed, showing how deep this place could go. There were paintings on every wall, a few plants in corners with deep dark green leafs casting shadows as soon as the man turned the lights on. He walked straight to the kitchen, followed by the woman, leaving Anwir alone with the devil in the living room.

The situation slowly started to sink into Anwir. He was in a stranger’s house (would he count the devil as a stranger?), surrounded by richness he could only dream of. He didn’t want to wonder how a family could have such richness, so he pushed the thought away. He felt dirty and out of place, with his clothes that never really dried or always got wet. Panic would have settled if it wasn’t for the fact he had always lived in a panic since he ran away, accepting the fact the world never went the direction he thought it would go.

‘You should hang your jacket there and put your shoes over there,’ and Fintan grabbed Anwir’s shoulder to turn it towards the places he pointed to. This time, there was the same shock, the same sense of short pain going through his shoulder.

But he did what he was asked to, not wanting to discover what would happen if he went against the words of the devil.

‘Are you hungry?’ 

Anwir looked up from his shaking hands before he nodded. Yes, he was hungry, he didn’t remember the last time he hadn’t felt like that. It was hard, living on the street, and life before that had even been hard. He hadnt fully understood the reasons why; he knew life wasn’t fair from a young age, but that had been it. He had understood that, he hadn’t understood that it had applied to him.

Not until now.

‘They will be cooking dinner soon,’ and Fintan walked towards the kitchen. If he was surprised by the fact the man and the woman were whispering to each other in tones that indicated they were in a state of disbelief, he ignored it and instead went straight to the fruit bowl to grab an apple from it.

‘Have this meanwhile,’ and he handed the apple to Anwir.

It was a perfect apple; it was round and bigger than any apple Anwir had ever seen. The perfect shade of red (it was like blood, once he noticed that, he couldn’t forget) rested on it. He wanted to grab and bite into it, but a wave of hesitation suddenly fell over him. 

The devil looked at and studied him before he pushed the apple closer to Anwir. ‘Take it. It shows you haven’t had anything good in a while. I don’t want you to starve.’ 

Anwir took it.

________________________

I don't want you to starve.

Fintan didn’t want him to die in any way. And there were many ways, the devil knew because he had seen them all. 

I don’t want you to starve.

No, he wanted Anwir to stay alive. And there were many reasons for why, and Anwir knew none.

[desertcastaway]

Confessions of an Old-School Geek

Good gods, I detested being a geek back then. Geekdom right now is a mess, commodified by companies, and sometimes co-opted by radicals, but it wasn’t any better back then.

The community didn’t help by being so consumerist, often based on whether you were a true fan or not for owning certain goods. And then there were the geeks who would test if you were a REAL one by asking pointless trivial questions. Worst of all were the goddamn Trekkies; you know how nowadays people like to make fun of Potterheads by telling them to read other books? The same applies to Trekkies and series. They won’t shut up about their shallow space idiots franchise.I could say the same about Discworld fanboys, who think that their little book series is the most important body of literature. Meanwhile they haven’t read anything else.

Don’t get me started on the Joss Whedon fanbase. We all know he’s a creep now, which surprisingly yet thankfully opened the eyes of many and made them realize how bad his stuff was, but back then he was untouchable. We still got a mnaner of writing named after the creep. And I thought I was the one who was mad for thinking Buffy the Vampire Slayer was trash television.

I’m glad I moved on from that, and I’m glad I fell in the Tumblr fandom scene in 2011-16. Warts and all. I’ll take it over being stuck among grumbly nerds who make monuments of their Star Treks and Joss Whedons, who won’t give space for newcomers and also won’t watch or read anything else. 

It’s about time to let new things for geekdom, to let new hobbies flourish, and for Odin’s sake stop making monuments out of things.

[clunelover]

Okay work whining that won’t make sense if you don’t use these same tools (GitLab mainly)

We have a project for security views which have to get applied to all our visible views. As such, there are tons of edits to these files, like every time you add a column to a view you have to also add it to the list of columns in the security view, along with its level of sensitivity.

My team has been granted permissions to do some of our own merge requests but data governance still has to approve the ones pertaining to security.

We also are probably the only team that does not, since we are just learning data engineering things somewhat on the fly and that’s not our original job function, know how to use visual studio or pycharm integration with gitlab. This is what the real developers use.

So we use the web UI and thus any time we have questions about the errors we get, they just have no idea what we are talking about cause they don’t work that way (nor should they!)

We ARE supposed to get trained on VS, but it has been delayed for so many reasons, starting with

- the one person they’ve assigned to train us was out of the country for a month around the holidays and said it was too hard to run the training via just their laptop and no second screen which….errr…fair, but meant that something we’ve needed since before Xmas had to wait to even start until Jan 17

-we finally began the training but all we were able to do was get some security certificates set up to allow VS and gitlab to connect, and some people on my team haven’t been able to install things they need to make this work, like GitBash, due to weird incomprehensible security settings that seem to impact some of us differently for unknown reasons that require lots of calls with the help desk. The trainer doesn’t want to continue the training til everyone has the necessary things installed, which makes sense, but also makes me a tad annoyed that she wasn’t open to giving it a go from abroad so we could have discovered these issues way back when.

Anyway back to the issue at hand, I post asking for help with merge request conflicts, and I say “I am not able to run git fetch and other such commands yet” and get a bunch of other instructions (in an annoyed tone) that I am not able to do, but I have to do the whole song and dance of attempting them before the people who are able to do them for me just…do it.

And I’m sure it’s very annoying for them too but also, I post about once a week, you know who I am enough to be annoyed with me, but also my situation hasn’t changed!

Oh and meanwhile any business partner I told “this should be a quick fix��� cause I’m still just thinking in terms of the one line of code I need to add instead of the whole process (finally learning my lesson there) are also annoyed and perplexed by me.

It’s also why I’ve not had much more than a couple hours of real work each day!

Babysitting merge requests that get hung up at every possible turn.

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 5.1.19 “Jean Valjean takes his revenge”

Marius’s sense of morality is wild.

This memory, however, was misty and indistinct, like all his ideas. It was not an affirmation he was making to himself, it was a question: "Isn't this that police inspec­tor who told me his name was Javert?"

Perhaps there was still time to intervene for this man? But he would first have to know if it were indeed that Javert.

HOW does he think ethics works? What is even the logic here? “If I’ve met this man in my life before this, it is my solemn duty to save him; if I haven’t, let him die who cares.”

All of which of course leaves aside the pretty pressing point that Marius still hasn’t learned that Cops Aren’t His Friends. God, he’s not paying attention. He never is, of course. I shouldn’t be surprised.

But he’s also not engaging with any of the coherent moralities. There’s “pragmatic acts up to and including killing enemy combatants and spies need to be done when one is participating in a war that one believes is worth waging” or there’s “all lives are worth saving to the best of one’s ability” which are both positions one could theoretically take. But he’s not even achieving Combeferre’s dubious and confused mashup of the two of those.

I mean, it’s not not a very human thing to do, being able to sympathize better with people you’ve interacted with, but. I just. I can’t get over “I need to find out this guy’s name to know if I’m honor bound to save him by virtue of having met him once.”

That’s not even Marius’s weird gratitude thing. Wtf IS that?

...Unless his gratitude thing applies even to “gave me pistols once.” Oh god, it might. Is this seriously about the fact that Javert once did him the stupidest of slight favors? Oh my god. Marius, those pistols were a blight on your life, you’re VERY well rid of them.

And then there’s Valjean’s reasoning about who to save. Like Marius, he hasn’t at all thought about what harm Javert might do to any of the insurgents here, should they happen to live. Valjean is specifically focusing his saving people on... well, it’s not “anybody I met one time”; it seems to be more like “I’m going to save specifically the people I think are guaranteed to ruin my life.”

Which is also weird, but it’s extremely Valjean.

Meanwhile, Javert’s straightening his coat and squaring his shoulders reminds me very much of Valjean stealing the coin from Petit-Gervais. Something has changed so suddenly and irrevocably for him that the only thing he knows how to do is pantomime the forms and actions of the old self he hasn’t realized yet that he’s lost.

[rezzyromance]

Maybe if you have the time could you do a part 2 to the heisenberg diary one? It's really cute :3

Absolutely! Ask and you shall receive!

(If you are looking for Part 1 you can find it here. Thanks.)

Part 2 Of Karl finding the readers diary

(CW: Sex) NSFW +18

Hey guys! So many of you requested for a part 2 and honestly it made my day. As someone who doesn't write smut often, I am definitely not well versed in all the different "types". That being said, I'm definitely not confident enough to tackle male on male sexual scenarios yet. I try to keep all of my stories gender neutral unless asked for differently, but I have no clue how to write gender neutral sex. With all that being said, the sex that happens in this story will present the reader as someone with female anatomy. I'm sorry if this isn't what some of you were looking for. I will be writing sexual stories in the future where the reader is male, but I'll need time. So sorry for the inconvenience and I hope this doesn't disappoint.- R

After you were sure Karl was far away from the door, you run to shut it, feeling ashamed of your secret being found out. You almost feel like you could cry out of embarrassment. You let out a sigh and begin to get dressed in the clothing he previously grabbed for you. Once you're dressed, you curl up on the bed and try to gather your thoughts and emotions. Obviously he wasn't upset about your feelings. So, does that mean he doesn't hate you or think of you any less? What does this mean for your future? Can you even look at him after this? You groan and shove your face into your pillow.

Meanwhile, he was in his workshop, grinning ear to ear. He wanted to keep teasing you, seeing how far he could push you, but at the same time he didn't want to genuinely make you uncomfortable. The last thing he wanted was to drive you away, especially now that he's starting to feel strange. Could he possibly be falling for you too? He ignores this thought and begins to work on a new project, a gift for you.

A few hours go by and you haven't left the bd. You hear a knock on the door and stay silent, still embarrassed about the whole situation. The door slowly opens and Karl peaks through. "Hey.. wanna talk?", he asks awkwardly. "No." "Good because I'm shit with words.", he opens the door completely and begins to walk towards you with a hand suspiciously behind his back. "Did you come in here just to fuck with me again?", you snap, sitting up and resting your back against the headboard. He smiles at your attitude and sits beside you on the bed. "Well, I'm very tempted to. But, I came here to give you this.", he moves the hand behind his back to the front, handing you a gift. It was a little metal figure of your favorite animal that he just made.

You take it into your hands and hold it, gazing upon every detail. Why would he make you something so nice? Especially after he learned how you felt? Could this be some type of confession on his part?

You hold the little metal animal close and and look up at him. He was staring at your face the whole time, analyzing your reaction. A smile slowly formed on your face and you move forward, wrapping your arms around his neck as you hug him. This caught him off guard and his mouth slightly gapes open. Positive physical contact was a foreign concept to him, but he loved it. He moves a hand and places it on your back. "Thank you so much, Karl. I love it." "No problem, Buttercup."

Your face grows so hot from the sudden new nickname that he can feel the heat radiating off of you. You pull away and he chuckles at your blushed face. "You're so easy to make flustered." he says. His words make you cross your arms and look away. "Oh shut up!", you hiss. His face doesn't change from its usual smug look. "Why don't you make me?", he hums. You snap your face towards his, shocked at his boldness. "I know you want to. In fact, I know you want a lot more than just that. You made it pretty clear in those pages. So tell me (Y/N), is it true? Do you really want me that badly?"

You feel as if you've stopped breathing. You're frozen in place, stuck in the middle of wanting to kiss him and wanting to slap him. Your silence only makes him smile bigger as he watches you grow more and more flustered. "You don't have to be shy. Though it's really cute that you are.", you watch as his gloved hand extends towards your face, gently gripping your chin between his thumb and pointer finger.

He leans in closer, almost grazing your lips with his. His eyes are fixed on your red face, burning into your soul. "What do you want?", he hums. You can barely hear him over the sound of your own heartbeat. "I want you.", you finally whisper. "That's what I thought.", he grins and breaks the distance between the both of you by placing his lips to yours. You don't fight it and instead lean into it, intertwining your fingers in his hair eagerly. You feel him smile against your lips and his hand moves from your chin to your waist, causing you to flinch under his touch.

He pulls away but keeps his face close to yours. "I take it that you're not as pissed as I thought, right?", he snickers. "No I'm still pretty pissed at you." you say as you try to stifle a smile. "If that's the case then you must want me to just get up and leave you alone.", his body begins to shift away and you grip onto his coat. "Wow you're even more needy in real life than you are on paper." You tug on his coat harder, signaling for him to get closer.

He responds by taking his coat off completely and throwing it to the side. With his back now to the headboard and his legs outstretched in front of him, you crawl over to him and straddle his lap. You look at his face and begin to rub your thumb over the scar on his lip. The scar you had mentioned as your favorite. He goes to kiss your finger, but you move it away. "Aw come on. I won't bite. Even if you feel like I'm the predator to your prey.", he teases. "Shit, he really did read my diary huh.", you think to yourself. He could tell what you were thinking as your face grew more and more flushed. "Now don't get all embarrassed on me now. The fun's just getting started. After all, all you want is me, right?", he places his hands gently on your lower back, slowly lowering them towards your ass as he scans your face, making sure you're still okay. "You're quoting it like it's scripture.", you smile. "They might as well be. Good words to live by."

You smile and place your hands on his shoulders, leaning over to kiss him once again. While you were still nervous, you decided to let a little of your anxiety drift away as you grow more and more comfortable. You begin to unbuckle his pants and pull on his shirt, untucking it. He pulls away from you to help you out and completely removes his shirt, throwing it close to his coat. The kiss resumes as you fiddle with the button of his pants, finally unbottoning them.

Suddenly, he grips your waist and tosses you lightly to the side. He gets off of the bed and pulls you closer to him with your legs, causing you to squeal. An idiotic smile is plastered across his face as he unbottons your pants effortlessly. His fierce eyes had a glimmer in them that caused goosebumps to rise all over your skin. Soon, your pants are completely pulled off. He pulls your legs again, causing the lower half of your body to be dangling off the side of the bed. You wrap your legs around him and he leans down, placing messy kisses across your neck. Breathy moans leave your lips as you feel his bulge sit against your now barely clothed privates.

You look up at the sight in front of you. You could see each and every scar that laid on his skin in so much more detail than before. He watched your eyes wander around his body and felt his pride somehow grow stronger as you grew more and more flustered. With one hand, he begins to rub one of your thighs, with the other, he slides up inside your sweater and begins to fondle your breast. He made sure to show some extra attention to your nipple, using his rough and calloused fingers to play with it as you squirmed and whined. "Alright. Enough fucking around.", his hands leave your skin. All it took was a second for your body to miss his touch. Now, his hands were fondling with his pants, unbuttoning and removing them.

The sight you were met with was intimidating. You lifted your head up and swallowed anxiously. His bulge was so big you could almost see the details of his cock as it was pressed against the fabric of his boxers. The tip was peaking out from the waistline, leaking a few drops of precum. You clutch the sheets beneath you in anxious anticipation. He takes a few steps to go back to his previous position of entanglement with you. Even though he didn't have to take many steps, maybe 3 or 4 at most, he walked with a confident stride that both terrified you and brought a smile to your face.

"What's with the grin? You want me to fuck you that bad?", he moves his hands back under your sweater and begins to grope each of your breasts. You nod, too flustered and shy to verbally say yes. "Aw come on. That's all you got?", he leans forward slightly to place his hand on your throat, applying pressure to each side of your neck. "I want to hear you beg for it.", he begins to rub his bulge against your soaked panties. Your legs twitch slightly as you stumble on your words. "Pl-please...", you manage to say. "What do you want?", he squeezes harder, enough to cause your body to tense up but not enough to actually cause any harmful lack of airflow. "I want you.. to f-fuck me... please..", you say. "Good girl.", he lets go of your throat and begins to pull his boxers down to his knees.

You take a deep breath as you feel his tip graze your entrance. Suddenly, your breath hitches as your whole body is pulled towards him, causing you to take almost all of him in at once. You gasp and he looks at your face, making sure your pleasure was overpowering the pain. Once he knows for sure that you're okay, he pushes the rest of him in. With his dick now fully lubricated with your wetness, he grips your thighs and begins to pound into you.

You grip onto the sheets for dear life as you feel him stretch you. You can hear him grunting under his breath with each thrust. His movements were brutal. You felt like you could feel him in your stomach, intruding on your organs as they tied in knots. Without stopping, he leans down again to nip at the skin of your neck.

You whimper under his teeth, knowing he plans on leaving marks for you to discover later. "You like this? Is this what you fantasized?", he switches in between kissing and biting all over your neck. "Mhm", you whimper. His face moves lower, traveling to your breast. He begins to nibble at your sensitive nipple. You wrap your arms around him and respond with a loud moan as you dig your nails into his back. He winces, but enjoys the feeling.

He continues to restlessly pound into you. The air is filled with moans, whines, grunts, slurred swears, and the sound of your skin slapping against his. He moves his hand in-between your legs, placing his thumb against your clit. This simple action alone is enough to make your whole body jolt. He continues to rub it, watching and listening closely to figure out what works best on you. He sticks to whatever makes you scream the louds and grip onto him the hardest. Your body shakes beneath him as it is overstimulated with pleasure, close to reaching it's peak.

He abrupt stops and pulls out. Before you begin to complain, he makes his way onto the bed and sits up, wiggling his fingers breathlessly to signal for you. "Come here.", he says. Once you're in reaching distance, he grabs you by the arms and pulls you closer. You sit down on his cock, dying for more. You both moan, nearly harmonizing as you take in his girth. "Bounce on it. I know you want it.", he says. You do as he says and begin to bounce up and down, feeling your walls squeeze onto his hard, throbbing erection. "Aw fuck yeah.", he moans and lays his head back, closing his eyes tightly as you use him to fuck your brains out. He opens them again to look at your boobs. It's almost hypnotizing to him the way they bounce. "Aw fuck.. look at you.. so desperate to cum.", he says in-between deep, breathy moans. "Bouncing on my cock like a good little whore. Show me how much you want it.", he slaps your ass hard. You pick up the pace after gasping from his harsh hit, your ass cheek stinging from where his hand struck.

He leaned forward and began to bite on different parts of you boobs, leaving soon-to-be hickeys all over your chest. This makes your knees weak. Your legs shake as you struggle to continue to ride out your high. You could tell by the way that your insides burned and ached that you were so close to cumming, but you were even closer to running out of steam. He could see your struggles, so he decided to help out. He grips you harshly by the hips and begins to thrust upwards, slamming right into the spot you so desperately wanted to be touched. To be obliterated. You threw your head back, so filled with overwhelming passion that your moan came out completely silent. "Come on. Cum all over my dick. Just like you always wanted.", he says between gritted teeth. You tangle your fingers in his hair and begin to tug on his silver locks. While it does hurt, he loves it, and continues to pound into your sweetspot.

"F-fuck I'm gonna ...c- cu", you can't even finish your sentence before you gush beneath him. Your legs shake violently as he continues to pound into you. Soon, he cums aswell. He loosens his grip on your hips and you begin to rise off of his dick. You're so shaky that you can barely move, so he wraps one arm around your back and gently places a hand behind your head, laying your face down on his chest. "Just rest for a sec." , he says while panting. You nod and lay down as he says. You were both hot and sweaty, but your skin felt perfect against each other. After a few seconds of you both catching your breath, he raises your hips up, letting his dick fall out of you and onto him. He then lowers you back down and continues to hold you.

"So.. will you be adding a new chapter to that little book of yours tonight?", he chuckles. "...fuck off.", he smiles at your response and places a kiss on your head. "Will things... be different between us now that you know?", you ask, nervous about how he'll react. "Well.. I think they will. But if we get to do this more often then I don't mind." You then hold each other for what feels like forever. Melting into each other and your newly mutual feelings.

[maletfsstories]

The International ("Soju 🇰🇷")

Requested By linxiaopei

"Newcastle"

-"You are here" Said Matt’s boss in a drunken tone as Matt walked towards the table his boss and some coworkers were seated in.

-"Jesus Christ how much have you guys drunk already" Said Matt as he sat down and observed a mountain of empty shots and beer mugs.

 

-"Not enough and you haven’t had any yet" One of Matt’s coworkers said as he continued drinking from his mug.

-"If you guys forgot I'm the one driving all of you home so I can't drink" Said Matt rather tired as he wanted to be at home instead of in a bar filled with drunk and obnoxious people.

-"Just buy yourself one and bring us another round of beers" Said Matt's boss as he passed him a coupon for a free drink.

 

Matt begrudgingly got up from his seat and walked towards a small area where a female bartender was passing a few drinks to a waiter.

-"Hello Sir how may I help you?" Asked the bartender as she pushed a menu in front of Matt.

Matt turned around and counted the number of people that were seated around his boss.

 

-"Could you give me four pints of beer please?" Said Matt as he looked back towards the bartender.

-"Sure" Said the bartender as she rapidly started to fill four large glass mugs with beer.

-"You seem a little stressed sir, are you alright?" Said the bartender once she noticed Matt's blatantly obvious impatient demeanor.

 

-"Sorry, the thing is that I shouldn't be here at all" Said Matt with a little bit of anger in his voice.

-"Same here, today is my first day on the job and I already want to call it quits" Said the bartender as she placed the first mug of beer in front of Matt.

-"Why haven't you?" Asked Matt

-“Even though I don't like large crowds and this bar is the worst I at least get more than the minimum wage” Said the bartender as she placed the second mug of beer in front of Matt.

 

-"So are you going to continue working here for the rest of your life?" Asked Matt

-"Not at all, I'm working here to pay for my studies, unlike the rest of my family I prefer to work for my stuff” said the bartender as she placed the third mug of beer in front of Matt.

-"Your family is rich?" asked Matt with little intrigue in his voice.

 

-"Yup, they are a bunch of snobbish idiots, my father doesn't work because he inherited a lot of money from our estate and my brother is an influencer who wins a lot of money by posting revealing images of his gym routines on his Instagram" Said the bartender as she stopped filling the last mug of beer and turned back to face Matt directly.

-“Wow, I can't imagine you see your family very often" Said Matt

-“No I don’t, my father lives in our family estate which I don’t normally visit and my brother is currently traveling around the world with his group of roided meatheads”. Said the bartender as she rolled her eyes.

 

-"It must be a fun life, kind of wish mine was like that" Said Matt with a little bit of melancholy in his voice

-"It does seem desirable but I frankly believe in working hard for one’s stuff" Said the bartender with a smile on her face.

-"What are you studying?" Asked Matt as he made himself comfortable in a small seat placed in front of the bartender's workstation.

 

-'' I'm studying accounting at Newcastle University" Said the bartender.

-"Well I'm an accountant ..." Said Matt with a small amount of surprise in his voice.

-"Really? How is the job? I mean I love the classes I'm seeing but I don't know anything about how to apply them in a real-life scenario" Said the bartender with a glee in her eyes.

 

-"Well I've been an accountant for the last five years and believe me when I say that the scenarios in class are way easier than the ones I've experienced in the job, it's hard and complicated but I still kind of like what I do" Said Matt in an attempt to reassure the bartender's career choice.

-"Why are you taking so much!"

Matt turned around and saw his drunk boss moving slowly towards him.

 

-"Sorry I was just speaking to the bartender," Said Matt as his boss leaned on the bar, meanwhile the bartender immediately completed filling the last mug of beer and placed it in front of Matt.

Matt's boss looked at the four beers and immediately frowned -"Where the hell is yours?" He asked.

-"Sir I can't drink I'm driving you and everyone else home" said Matt in an attempt to stop his boss's insistence.

-"Nonsense, just drink a small bit, that's all I'm asking from you" Matt's boss said as he moved closer towards him.

Matt momentarily looked at the bartender as she grabbed the smallest glass size possible, while she was doing that Matt looked at the menu that had been placed earlier in front of him.

In the meantime, Matt's boss rapidly drank his beer and walked away toward his table with the other three that were left.

-"Is this good?" Asked the Bartender as she showed Matt the small glass, Matt immediately looked up and nodded.

-"Do you have something that is similar to vodka but isn't that powerful?" Asked Matt as his boss approached him again.

-"Well, we do have Soju, it's from South Korea and it's in a way an exact match to Vodka, the only difference is that it's mildly less alcoholic, will that do?" Asked the bartender.

-"Please give me one in the small glass you showed me earlier" Said Matt as his boss was now standing next to him.

-"What did you order?" Asked Matt's boss.

-"I ordered some vodka" Lied Matt.

-"Wow Matt, I thought you didn't want to get drunk tonight" Said Matt's boss as he laughed like a clown.

In the meantime, the Bartender had poured Matt's drink from a small green bottle with Korean lettering onto a small transparent glass.

-"I hope you enjoy it sir" Said the Bartender as she placed the drink in front of Matt.

-"Here goes nothing" Though Matt as he swallowed every drop of Soju in an instant, because of this he immediately felt a burning sensation in his throat, luckily it wasn't as bad as the one produced by drinking vodka.

Matt then gave the empty glass to the Bartender and looked at his boss. -"Are you happy now?" Asked Matt with a little sarcasm in his voice.

-"Where is the fun in only one?" Asked Matt's boss.

-"You can't be serious, do you want me to get arrested" Said Matt in a raised tone of voice as he was tired of being pushed around by his middle age child of a boss.

-"Don't you dare to speak to me that way, I'm your boss, if you don't drink another shot I'll fucking fire you" Said Matt's boss in an aggressive tone.

Matt momentarily looked at the bartender who had a sad expression on her face while still having the green bottle of soju between her hands.

-"Another one please," said Matt as he finally relented to his boss's order.

The bartender immediately grabbed the empty glass and filled it with the crystalline liquid -"Here you are sir" said the bartender as she passed the drink to Matt.

As Matt grabbed the glass and drank its contents he wished he could end it all, to have a new life where he didn't have a boss or any type of responsibilities.

Once Matt placed the empty glass in front of him the bar where he was in seemed to disappear and was rapidly replaced by the interior of a luxury hotel room.

-"What the hell" Said Matt in a worried tone as he was about to get up from the bed he had suddenly materialized in, before Matt could completely get out of the bed a strange pain made his stop.

This pain was due to Matt's five feet nine stature increasing to six feet three, while that was happening Matt's slim build changed into a more muscular one. His flat chest developed a pair of juicy and muscled pecs, down below in Matt's stomach a few small tires of fat were rapidly removed out of existed which left him with a flat surface that was rapidly replaced by the growth of a six-pack.

Meanwhile, in Matt's skinny arms his biceps, triceps, and forearms grew as new muscle mass filled them, a few veins also appeared here and there, as that was happening Matt's back also became incredibly shredded.

While all the changes to Matt's upper body were occurring all the healthy patches of hair that covered the majority of his body disappeared leaving him completely waxed.

As the majority of Matt's upper body had gone through a certain amount of changes the next area to change was his lower body.

At first in Matt's pelvic area his equipment grew larger and larger. This made him immediately aroused as a moan escaped from his mouth, this moan however was very masculine and in a way, it sounded like that of a huge beast.

When Matt's dick reached the ten-inch mark his ass became the next target of the changes, it grew until what was left was a perfect round and bouncy bubble, then Matt's thighs and calves grew larger leaving him with a pair of powerful legs.

Because of the new growth in muscles around Matt's body, his clothes became extremely strained, as Matt suddenly moved his clothes finally gave in, they broke into small pieces which immediately disappeared, the larger pieces which were still attached to his body also disappeared leaving him completely naked.

A few seconds after Matt's clothes had disappeared a pair of black underwear and black swimming shorts now covered his private area while still leaving his upper body completely exposed.

-"Shit" Said Matt out loud as he noticed his new body and the weird clothing that had replaced his shirt and dress pants.

While Matt continued looking he felt a weird sensation as his face lots its Caucasian features which were replaced by more Eastern Asian ones

Matt's lips inflated only a small bit, his nose became fair and straight, his eyes became slightly slanted and his pupils became dark in coloration, the last thing to change was Matt's hair, it became coal black and his previously office neutral haircut was replaced by a more trendy one.

With the changes now complete Matt got up from the bed he was laying in and grabbed an ultra-modern Samsung phone that was placed on a sleeping table next to the bed.

Matt unlocked the phone with his new face and immediately opened the camera, he was obviously shocked and amazed at the beautiful young Asian face that was looking back at him.

-"너무 이상해" (This is so weird) Said Matt in fluent Korean with his new deep voice, the Adonis looking back at him through the camera shared nothing in common with his old nerdy self, the only thing that was the same was the pair of black glasses he was still wearing.

After exploring his new face with the camera for a little more Matt finally decided to look at Instagram for any info about his new self, Matt opened the personal profile which had the name "Gan Sangwook" displayed next to a picture of Matt's new self flexing with a dumb grin plastered on his face.

Matt after looking at the name and picture also noticed that the new him had a following of almost a million people and that his account was verified meaning that he was relatively famous and well known.

Matt then proceeded to scroll down, as he did he saw dozens of images of the new him working out in gyms surrounded by similarly muscled men, there were also some pictures of him in different locations from around the world and a few pictures were modeling and sponsor type posts.

As Matt continued looking at the pictures a new personality and identity became more dominant in his head, during the process of Matt's old life and memories being eliminated the door of his hotel room opened with a loud bang.

With the door now wide open a group of five heavily muscled Korean men entered the room, Matt remembered seeing some of these men in the Instagram profile but now he somehow recognized all of them and felt a deep personal connection with them.

-"이봐, 여기서 뭐해? 늦었 어. 해변에 가야 해" (Hey dude what are you doing here, it's late. We should be on the beach) Said the bigger of them as the others around him cheered with their deep dumb sounding voices.

-"해변 친구들을 위해 준비된 것 외에 제 인스 타 그램을보고 있었어요" (I was looking at my Instagram, other than that I'm ready for the beach dudes) Said Matt as he started flexing his muscles, the men he now recognized as his gym crew also started flexing their muscles.

-"그럼 가자!" (Then let's go!) Said another one of the muscled men as Matt got up from the bed and walked with the men through the large hallways of the most luxurious resort in Jeju Island.

After a short elevator ride, Matt or Gan Sangwook walked with his friends toward the private beach owned by the resort.

-"수영하러 가기 전에 여러분 사진을 제 인스 타 그램에 올려도 될까요?" (Dudes before we go swimming can I post a picture of all of you to my Instagram?) Asked Gan as he and his crew were a few feet away from the sea.

All of the men said yes and Gan got into position, once he took a few hundred pictures he posted the one he thought looked the best with the caption "해변 준비 😎💪🏻" (Ready for the beach)

After Gan took the picture he continued walking toward the sea, as he did the last vestiges of his old identity of a thirty-year-old British accountant were eliminated what was left was in its place was Gan Sangwook, a young and muscled South Korean jock whose only worry in the world was to keep his body in shape and his one million Instagram followers happy.

[sadoeuphemist]

We were about twenty minutes in when we realized Brody’s fingers weren’t wrinkling. We’d only just come up with the idea for the competition, all of us splashing around in the pool and clowning on each other, and Kai was going, “You guys ready to have your whole bodies turn into prunes? All baggy and swole up with water? Because I’m sticking it out to the end. You guys don’t want to end up with your waterlogged skin peeling off, you better call it right now!” That got us comparing each other’s fingertips, trying to figure out who’d end up the most pruney, and Brody’s were perfectly smooth and taut, not a wrinkle in sight.

“You been keeping your hands out of the water?” Derek said, squinting at him.

“I’ve been in the pool just the same as you,” said Brody with a shrug. He splashed his hands. “Maybe you guys just don’t have what it takes.”

“What the hell,” said Derek. “Let’s see your feet.”

Now all of us, our toes were pretty wrinkly already, but Brody, again, had perfectly smooth skin, not a single wrinkle or crease. “What the hell?” said Derek.

“Is there something wrong with your skin?” said Tyler. We were all sort of gathered around him now, with Brody leaning against the edge of the pool and floating, bobbing one foot out of the water. “Is this, like, a medical condition?”

Brody shrugged again and looked real smug.

“Are you not affected by water?” said Kai.

“Hey,” said Brody, “you guys don’t think you can beat me, feel free to call it quits right now. Me, I’m real comfortable.” He spread his elbows out on the gutter like he was reclining on a throne. “I could spend the whole summer in this damn pool.”

“C’mon in the deep end, if you’re so comfortable then!” said Kai.

Brody laughed and pushed off from the wall, disappearing under the surface of the water, a dark shape propelling itself across the pool until he surfaced again at the far end. We all stared.

“What the hell?” said Derek. “How is your hair not wet?”

---

The contest was temporarily put aside, as everyone applied themselves to the issue of how Brody’s body was completely unaffected by the water. The rest of us splashed around, got chlorine in our eyes, snorted water out of our noses, watched the skin on our fingers etch themselves into little labyrinths of grooves, and through it all Brody might as well have been on dry land for all it showed on him. It was as if his skin had been sealed off, rubberized, like there was an invisible force field keeping the water from touching him. Brody himself seemed similarly insulated to the bizarreness of what the hell was going on with his body. “I’m feeling great,” was all he would say. “I could spend the whole summer right here.”

I was the first to call it quits after a few hours. “Brody’s going to win,” I said, climbing out of the pool dripping. “How’s this even a contest? He’s got some weird physiology that makes him immune to water!”

“Boooo,” said Tyler. “Don’t even want to try for second place!”

“I’ve swam enough!” I said. “I’m going inside!”

“Yeah, that’s right,” said Brody. “Acknowledge the champion. All of you ought to give up right now.”

We had a pizza by the poolside as well as a bunch of drinks, but as the hours went by I ordered another, got more drinks out of the refrigerator. Tyler gave up. I went diving a few more times, but then the sun started going down and it started getting cooler. Derek got out, shivering. Kai and Brody had set themselves at opposite ends of the pool, staring each other down.

Tyler broke out the DVDs. Derek went out to yell at them. “It’s been ten hours!” he said. “You fuckers have been emptying soda cans and haven’t left the pool once! That’s piss soup in there! You’re both stewing in piss soup!”

Kai looked absolutely miserable. His fingertips were white and wrinkled and had turned translucent. He was hunched around himself like a wadded-up rag. The moon was out, reflected in milky ripples across the pool. Brody meanwhile looked untouched, like a plastic bottle bobbing in the ocean, stoppered up and completely airtight. “You could quit at any time, Kai,” he said, grinning. “This is my element.”

“F-fuck you,” Kai said. “You gotta crack, sooner or later. I don’t care what sort of genetic mutant you are, you can’t keep sitting in a pool for hours and nothing happens to your body. You gotta reach your limit! You gotta - hit saturation or something, man, I don’t know! Fuck!”

“Suit yourself,” said Brody. He lazily kicked out his legs. “Man, this pool’s real nice. Figure I could just about live here.”

“It’s piss soup!” Derek said.

It took two hours more, but Kai finally gave up. He came out shivering from the black surface of the pool, and we had to wrap him up in towels and rub him down because he looked like he was at risk for hypothermia. Brody did a few more laps, floating unconcernedly, and we had to yell at him before he finally pulled himself out. He sat on the edge, one foot still dangling in the water, and rubbed at the sole of his foot.

“Hey, whaddya know,” Brody said, looking down. “Finally got a wrinkle. What are we on, hour twelve? Well, took long enough, I guess.���

We all looked, even Kai, who was still waterlogged as a drowned cat. There was in fact a wrinkle on Brody’s perfectly smooth skin - but just a single one, incongruous against his rubberized sole. Squinting at it, I thought it looked like a defect, a flaw in the material. It was like seeing a wrinkle on the taut skin of an inflated balloon.

“Never got one of these before,” Brody said casually, pinching the crease of skin between his fingers. I got a sick feeling in my stomach, seeing it, someone pinching the skin of a balloon. “Maybe you shouldn’t -” I started to say.

And then the piece of skin came off in Brody’s fingers, and all the water started gushing out.

We were all awestruck for a moment, just watching it. It was a perfect arc of water, crystal in the moonlight, so smooth that it seemed like a curve of glass stretching from his foot into the pool, like a sculpture, or a fountain, a perfect pressurized flow. We might have all just watched that for a good ten seconds, twenty seconds, half a minute, just staring in wonder at the sight of it, and then I looked up at the rest of Brody and saw his eyes rolling back in his head, his head and shoulders deflating, sagging, right about to collapse.

“Oh shit, put some pressure on it!” Tyler called out, and we all sort of grabbed at him at the same time and went unbalanced, and Brody toppled right back into the pool, Tyler and Derek diving in, fully clothed, after him.

Between the four of us we must’ve seen that event from every possible angle, and yet none of us could tell what had happened next. We all saw bubbles, the splash, the force of impact, and to my mind it was like watching a balloon popping, the pressure equalizing, Brody disappearing beneath the surface of the water and gone. Tyler and Derek came up gasping, and already there was this murky fog spreading through the water, all skin cells and hair and whatnot, I figured, Brody’s remains. Derek scrambled out of the water, spluttering, rubbing at his skin and pulling off his shirt and immediately ran to hose himself down. Tyler dived back down, looking for Brody, and then came back up again with the growing bewilderment of someone who’d set something down for just a moment and couldn’t tell where he’d left it. Kai was standing by the pool’s edge, probably in shock, and I'd fallen backwards on my ass and was just watching the whole thing like an idiot, while Tyler dived under again and again, feeling around the edges of the pool, possibly trying to find Brody by process of elimination.

Finally we managed to get him to come out, and we all just stood there poolside, staring down at the cloudy water. Brody was gone, not a trace left of him but his trunks.

“Fuck,” I said.

“Yeah,” said Kai. “Fuck.“

“Oh god,” said Tyler. “Oh god oh god he just disappeared, he was there and then -”

The murky pool water burbled, bubbled, spoke with Brody’s voice, if he had been speaking to us from the bottom of a drain.

“Told you guys I could spend the whole summer right here,” it said.

---

So, swimming was out for the rest of the summer. Brody occupied the pool, and the rest of us would come by to skim out the leaves and whatnot, toss some pizza slices or nachos in there occasionally, or empty in a few cans of coke. The water level slowly sunk as the summer rolled along, the pool water growing cloudier and more congealed, until it started to look like Jell-O setting in a mold. The pool drained itself, its contents becoming more and more concentrated, until one day we came by and found Brody at the bottom of the pool, stark naked, his skin still wobbly and not quite fully set, waving up at us.

“Lost my trunks!” he said. “How ‘bout you help a guy out!”

So that was how we spent our summer, and we all agreed that we had definitely not gotten the full benefit of the pool, although Brody maintained he could not reasonably be blamed. That didn’t stop him from lording his victory over the rest of us, proclaiming himself the undisputed Champion of the Pool, a record that would never be broken. Brody being Brody, it got to the point where he was seriously obnoxious about it, but once Derek started calling him Piss Soup that was finally enough to shut him up.

[the-irken-pony]

You said to remind you about that Henry and the CCC thing...I can’t find it...

YES YOU'RE RIGHT

A lot has happened so I haven't been able to get to it for a while but THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME

So first of all, I want to emphasize the CCC's relative importance in the Henry Stickmin series.

Part 1: The CCC vs the other factions

All of the other major factions in THSC appeared in Infiltrating the Airship or later, not counting Winston Davis and Gene Fredrickson, two members of the Toppat Clan who were introduced before the Toppat Clan was formally introduced. The Government and the Toppat Clan were formally introduced in Infiltrating the Airship, and The Wall was formally introduced in Fleeing the Complex.

The Center for Chaos Containment, meanwhile, made an appearance as early as Stealing the Diamond, back when Henry was a simple thief with some bizarre abilities (which I will touch on in a bit). Since their initial introduction, the CCC has made brief yet consistent appearances in every following game, introducing at least one member who has not been seen prior (often more).

So, if they're so important, why are they so much less prominent than other factions? Simple: their job is to contain chaos from behind the scenes to try to normalize the world around them. Unless something major is going down that requires intervention, there's no reason to publicly show their face.

And honestly? It might actually be better for everyone that they don't. After all, the CCC has demonstrated power beyond what the Government or the Toppats could even dream of. Sure, the Toppats might also have giant space lasers, but they were only able to get them after major funding and numerous months--probably years--of preparation. Likewise, the Government may have access to nuclear (emphasis on "may" because this is unconfirmed), but the CCC is able to whip these out without a second thought.

Yet the CCC's power goes further. Also at the CCC's disposal are gargantuan robots (one of which is G.A.B.E.G.G., which forces the Govt to abort the Toppat raid), a calculator that can instantly vaporize the world by dividing by 0, the ability to stop time itself, and a "Dark Energy Blaster" (capable of instantly wiping out all life within a certain radius).

Sure, the Government may have Charles' helicopter which is capable of some wacky things, and the Toppat Clan and the Wall may have superpowered members, but none of it even comes close to just how far the CCC's power extends. And yet! No one! Talks about it!!

Okay, so I've talked on and on about just how strong the CCC is. How is this at all related to Henry?

Part 2: Henry Stickmin, a thief in need of cash

Before I can get into how Henry and the CCC are connected, I need to touch on who Henry Stickmin actually is, or at least how he started.

Early on in the series, before he was captured by the Govt, Henry's sole motive was getting money in order to pay for rent (and presumably other bills).

Over the course of the first two games, Breaking the Bank and Escaping the Prison, Henry learns two new things about himself:

1. Not only does he die in numerous alternate timelines, but he remembers these timelines in which he dies (or is otherwise inconvenienced) as though they were his own.

2. Some mysterious force which he had never before known (the player) has begun to provide him with various tools to help him achieve various degrees of success (or lack thereof).

The evidence for both of these are provided by one particular recurring object in the series: the Teleporter. Not only does Henry make direct eye contact to glare at the player in ItA, but the series has him show increasing reluctance to use the teleporter whenever it's provided (eventually becoming outright refusal in Completing the Mission). Additionally, the teleporter's use in Fleeing the Complex is mutually exclusive to its use in both ItA and CtM due to the teleporter appearing in an incompatible route, suggesting he's even aware of the routes that he does not take.

However, there's one more thing which points to this being the case, which is also were we can start to see a connection between Henry and the CCC.

Off to the right, we can see that Henry was brainstorming potential jobs around the start of Stealing the Diamond.

Janitor

Prison Guard

Test subject

All but one of these options have been crossed out: “test subject”, suggesting that this is the job that he’s decided to settle on. What’s especially interesting here is that the same game we see this is the same game that introduces the Center for Chaos Containment. The connections don’t end there, though.

Part 3: Henry and the CCC

As you’ve probably gathered by now, I’m making the claim that, by the beginning of Stealing the Diamond, Henry has started working for the CCC as a test subject. I mean, someone who regularly causes accidental chaos working for a faction whose job it is to contain chaos makes sense on its own, but add to that the fact that any major repercussions caused by the CCC’s reckless decisions are immediately undone with no lasting consequences? You could say it’s too good of a fit.

Plus, it would explain how they consistently appear in the same general area as Henry (even if Kyle Baxter doesn’t actually act in FtC). There are more connections between Henry and the CCC, though.

1) The CCC’s various tools directly interact with Henry at multiple points in the series, and Henry seems much less surprised by the CCC’s actions.

Meanwhile, others seem much less aware of the CCC’s influence.

2) Even with all of the major chaos incidents that Henry directly causes, Henry himself never catches the CCC’s attention.

The CCC repeatedly mentions “chaos readings” whenever chaos incidents happen in a particular area, yet either Henry himself doesn’t give off chaos readings or the CCC actively ignores him. The first option seems unlikely due to Henry’s, well... everything. Yet, if Henry gave off chaos readings and was unaffiliated with the CCC, then why wouldn’t they put more focus on containing Henry directly? Sure, they wouldn’t succeed due to Henry being able to undo their more harmful actions, but the fact that they aren’t even antagonists is... intriguing.

3) Adding on to 2, when the CCC doesn’t accidentally hurt Henry, they directly help him somehow.

While this is rarely their immediate goal, the CCC’s attempts to contain chaos often help Henry in some way or another. In Stealing the Diamond, the Tunisian diamond happens to get thrown right next to him after he escapes from the museum; in Infiltrating the Airship, Henry takes one member’s flying suit in order to make his escape with the Romanian Ruby; and in Completing the Mission, the CCC’s intervention leads the Govt to aborting the Toppat raid.

All of these are minor coincidences, but what really ties this together is the secret ending of CtM, the Multiverse Correction.

In this secret ending, the multiverse is “defragmented” and an anomaly is corrected. The way this anomaly is corrected is actually by spawning in the package seen in Escaping the Prison.

Up to now, I’ve mentioned multiple minor details that tangentially connect Henry to the CCC, but I’ve only mentioned in passing what is probably the most important part of this whole post: you, the player.

Part 4: The Player (You) and the CCC

As the various teleporter uses demonstrate, you (the player) are a separate being from Henry, and you provide Henry with different tools or make various decisions from him. However, there are very few times (if any) in which you exert full control over Henry. A major demonstration of this is with the hammer.

All identical looking options, yet depending on which of the three you select, Henry does something different with the hammer. Aside from subtle sound cues, you don’t get any clue what each option will do. All the decision making is done by Henry.

However, there are characters which you DO exert direct control over: Clyde Jenkins, Wilson Stone, and Ellias Bahtchin. All of them are members of the Center for Chaos Containment.

Every time you take control of these characters, you have a first person view of their options and, in the case of Clyde, your mouse becomes his hand.

At no other point do you control a character like this, not even with Henry. This is a trait exclusive to these three characters. And, quite frankly, it’s incredibly fascinating from a gameplay standpoint.

Is it possible that based on this, you (the player) also work for the CCC? Maybe, but it’s entirely likely that the CCC (excluding Henry) are unaware of your presence.

Conclusion:

The fact that Henry considered applying as a test subject in Stealing the Diamond as a direct result of his chaos and just so happened to keep bumping into the Center for Chaos Containment in every game since then feels like more than just coincidence.

[i-write-sometimes-blog]

Lost Without You (Bo-Katan x Mando!Reader)

Request: Can I request a Bo-Katan and maybe a Mando!reader like reader has sworn the creed like Din and they’re taking on an empire ship together and readers jet pack gets hit and she falls in the water and Bo panics because reader hasn’t resurfaced so she dives in after a d they have a cute moment together afterwards. lol sorry it’s a lot. Love your writing btw! By anon

Word count: 1,764

Warnings: Drowning counts? Also terrible attempt to describe cpr

A/N: This was fun to write. It was also my first time writing Bo but I kinda like the way it turned out. Hope you like it, let me know what you think!

The mission was almost over, you couldn't say it was the easiest you've been to but it was finally over. The ship was under your possession, Koska was piloting as Bo-Katan and you were taking down the remaining stormtroopers.

Flying with the jetpack around the ship allowed you to have a clear shot at the railings and upper levels of the cargo ship, your job was to blast anyone who tried to escape.

From the air you caught the familiar helmeted figure of Bo-Katan fighting hand to hand with the few remaining stormtroopers. She was a skilled warrior, moving fast and throwing punches at the white helmets around her with ease, these guys didn’t stand a chance against her. However, one of them saw the opportunity to grab his blaster from the floor while Bo-Katan was just finishing the last one of them and he aimed directly at her.

Just when the imperial was about to fire his weapon you shot him down, the thud of his body falling to the durasteel floor of the ship alerted Bo. She looked over her shoulder, finding the fallen trooper before turning her head to look at you.

"What would you do without me, Bo?" You said through the communicator earpiece under your own helmet. 

"I've survived a war and a purge." She said in her usual cold tone. "I think I'd be fine without you."

You chuckled. Bo-Katan wasn’t someone to express her feelings often, aside from her anger. She was always focused on her mission to regain Mandalore, no time for other things. But deep down you knew she had feelings for you. Something in the way she was protective over you in missions and something in the way her emerald eyes seemed to soften when she saw you let you know there was a heart beating for you under her beskar cuirass.

"Oh, come on!" You told her. "Admit it, Kryze, you like having me around." you teased.

Thinking all the enemies were gone you both lowered your guard, used to one another's company. Neither Bo-Katan or you noticed the Imperial officer with a blaster in hand coming out of the farthest hatch. 

"How sweet but-" Bo started but before she could finish with her words, a single blaster shot hit right in your jetpack. "Y/N!" She barely screamed when she saw the fire in your jetpack.

The shot broke the engines that kept you in the air, sending you flying in all directions and even though you tried you were incapable to control it. Finally it sent you directly into the water beneath the big ship.

The moment you felt the cold water you tried to swim back to the surface but the heavy beskar of the armor and the extra weight of the jetpack wouldn't let you. The helmet didn't make it any easier to breathe, it was making it rather harder but you weren't going to take it off, you wouldn't break the creed. And though you were fighting to get to the surface you only sunken more and more with every passing second, until you ran out of air and the world seemed to turn black.

Meanwhile on the ship, Bo immediately shot down the sudden menace before running to the railing of the ship, looking at the water for some sort of sign of you.

She waited for a moment, trying to control her nerves, hoping she would see your familiar helmet emerging from the water and she was ready to hear your voice through the comlink with some kind of comment that would make her roll her eyes. But after a short time of waiting none of those things happened and that put Bo-Katan in alert.

You were not resurfacing.

Without thinking it twice the woman jumped to the water, the fear of losing you completely taking over her because after all this time with you, Bo-Katan couldn't stand to lose you, she'd lose Mandalore before losing you.

She found you floating in the water like a ship stranded in space. Panic rushed through her body as she thought the worst. Wrapping her arms securely around you she ignited her own jetpack to pull you out of the water, placing you on the nearest platform .

She took off her helmet, worriness on her face as she waited for you to wake up, to say something, hoping for any sign of life yet she only heard silence. Concerned, Kryze leaned close to you.

You weren't breathing.

Bo-Katan needed to take a decision and fast but if she was to save you she must take your helmet off. 

If it were up to her she would have taken your helmet off your head a long time ago, she longed to see your face, find out the color of your eyes, dreamed to kiss your lips...  but there was this creed you sworn to. You were a Child of the Watch, a cult that she thought was stupid, however Bo respected it just because it was important to you.

She knew you would never forgive her if she ever dared to take your helmet off.

But this was a life or death situation and she preferred to be hated by you the rest of her life than losing you. She'd rather be hated but know you were alive than live knowing she could have easily saved by removing that piece of beskar off your head.

She sighed, preparing herself to finally take your helmet off. She grabbed it by the sides, admiring for a moment the designs over the metal before sliding it off your head.

Bo-Katan almost forgot her mission when she finally saw your face, perfect features that seemed to match perfectly with your voice, you were just as she imagined. But your eyes were closed as if you were asleep, reminding her of why she broke your way in the first place.

Returning to her mission she took your cuirass off your chest and started with the reanimation process, applying pressure to your chest with her hands alternating to provide some air to your lungs. 

“Come on, Y/N.” she murmured, growing more desperate with every new push on your chest. “You can’t leave me.” she said, her voice cracking a little. “Please, come back to me, cyare.”

You woke up gasping for air, coughing as the water inside you left your body finally allowing you to breath. The first thing you saw in front of you was Bo-Katan kneeled next to you, her red hair looked messy and wet, a relieved smile curved her lips as her green eyes looked down at you.

“Hi, grumpy.” you barely murmured, still coughing a bit.

“Welcome back, Y/N.” she said. “You gave me a good scare there.” 

You smiled at her but the smile disappeared as soon as you noticed the weight missing in your head, the way your voice wasn't making echoes, you haven't seen the world this way since you were a kid.

You weren't wearing the helmet. You broke the creed or rather, she did.

"Bo!" You told her, confusion in your voice. "What- why?"

"I'm sorry." She rushed to said, her tone was a bit more serious now, it was the tone she used to give arguments. "I had to do it."

"No, you should have-"

"Let you die?" She cut you off. "Forget it, I could never." Her eyes changed when she looked at you, they were not angry as always but actual concern seemed to paint them a lighter green. "I don't expect you to forgive me for breaking your creed, but when I saw you weren't coming out of the water I thought I lost you."

You watched her face carefully, there was fear on her face, sincere pain, weakness. For a woman that was always as strong as the beskar of her armor this was new.

"And I realized, I don't want a life without you in it." She said. She wasn’t someone to express her feelings often but actually Lady Bo-Katan, last one of House Kryze, rightful heiress of Mandalore didn't know what she would do without you. She'd be lost without you.

"I love you, Y/N." She confessed. "I love you, you enormously stubborn pain in the ass." She said with a smile.

You couldn't help but chuckle at her words but at the same time you were confused, upset for breaking the creed that was part of you for most of your life. But on the other hand you couldn't be happier now that you knew Bo's true feelings for you.

Hesitating you leaned closer to her. Your lips closer to hers for a few seconds before capturing them in a delicate kiss. You kissed her sweetly almost shyly for a moment, after all this time with her this was the very first you met her lips.

“I love you, Bo.” you murmured. Her green eyes admired you for a moment, filled with a mix of emotions, love was one of them. 

She leaned to brush your lips again, long and delicately while her arms slowly wrapped around your waist pulling you close to her body making you smile between kisses, you enjoyed her closeness, her warmth against your body. And when the kiss was over she rested her forehead against yours for a moment and you stayed like that, just enjoying each other's comány.

The comlink beeping dragged you back to reality.

“Bo, Y/N, do you read me?” you heard Koska’s voice.

“Bring the ship to the coordinates I’m sending you. We had a small jetpack malfunction.” Kryze said, looking at her gauntlet, pressing a few buttons. 

“Copy that.” You heard your friend say.

Bo-Katan turned her gaze back at you, there was a little smirk over your lips. “What?” she asked.

“So, you can’t live without me, huh?” you teased, remembering her words.You observed her putting on her helmet again and shaking her head.

“Don’t let that get to your head, cyare.” she chuckled, handing you your own helmet. “Now, come on. I wanna continue our little talk somewhere else.” she said in a teasing tone before the Imperial ship you had taken appeared in front of her, the hatch already open for both of you.

You looked down at the helmet in your hands for a moment and sighed before placing it back in its place. This was a new start for you, but you were sure that meanwhile Bo was by your side you were sure you could take anything.

Tagging: @natasha-danvers

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