#now i just have three extra i have no idea what to do with. backups i guess bc they're kinda cheap oops

[juice-enjoyer]

swapped out my case fans all by myself and i feel like a greek god rn

[mewfistoe]

The Association is sending you out on a honeypot-type mission focused on the head of a criminal faction. Sylus is familiar with the group and their leader, so you ask him for some help getting ready.

————

It was supposed to be Tara’s mission actually. Poor Tara who had come down with the worst case of bronchitis, her usual bubbly voice reduced to little more than raspy gasps.

You were only the backup.

It was a honeypot type mission of sorts. The goal was to tag the leader of the B-Group, Mr. B, to find the location of their primary base; and to gather intel on their work with illegal protocore weapons. Ideally, the Association wanted to set up a long term espionage system in place to slowly dismantle the faction completely.

Mr. B was flashy. Unlike some of his peers who mostly tried to keep a low profile, he was loud and liked to make his presence known. He was alleged to have a weakness for women. Specifically, wide-eyed and vivacious women with brown hair and a sweet voice. Needless to say, out of all the hunters at the Association, Tara had fit the bill best.

Originally, you were only supposed to be a handler for the initial drop mission. To be there unobtrusively in the background and only step in if any issues arose. But now, with Tara out sick and the date for the soiree that Mr. B was set to attend coming up fast, you found thrown into a honeypot role that you felt ill-trained for.

Tara had spent the majority of the past three or four months prepping for the role, but you had only six days to prepare yourself. Jenna had sent you a fair amount of documents concerning Mr. B, and the Association had provided videos on luring men of power into romantic entanglements for purposes of gathering intel, but honestly, it was all a bit much. It was very different from all the previous undercover roles you had undertaken, and you were nervous.

In one of the documents you had been sent, it mentioned that the B-Group was known to have previous dealings with Onychinus. That Mr. B was said to have bragged about having a personal association with the Onychinus leader. It gave you an idea…

In retrospect, you had known that you shouldn’t. That it was a bad idea. That Sylus didn’t need to know about the Association’s business anymore than he already did. But, you were feeling so overwhelmed, and Sylus had been so helpful in prepping for other undercover roles. And he even knew Mr. B!

Deciding to ignore your gut instincts, you call up Sylus anyway.

****

“Hello kitten, it’s late for you. Pulling another all-nighter?”

“Ugh…Unfortunately,” you griped. You sighed, weirdly nervous for just a phone call with Sylus.

If Sylus could sense your nerves at all, he pretended not to. “Anything I can do to help?”

You swallowed. “Well…actually….” You gave another sigh, “So, I have this big mission concerning the B-Group, and I was wondering if you had any extra info on them. Specifically on Mr. B. If you have any personal info or anything like that, I could really use it…”

“Mr. B and the B-group? Mm, I suppose I might.” His voice turns teasing, “What are you planning with them?”

“Top secret Association stuff bucko, can’t say.”

Sylus gives a low throaty chuckle. “Now now sweetie, as generous as I am with you, you know that there is always a price when it comes to intel….”

You grit your teeth, you probably shouldn’t have called him. But it was too late to back out now, “Alright. I’m supposed to get close to Mr. B and find out more information about their protocore weapons. The Association wants an agent to establish a long term personal relationship with him to slowly dismantle the B-Group and their routes before they get any bigger.”

There is a pause before Sylus can be heard clearing his throat, “A…personal relationship? Are you the agent that’s meant to establish a personal relationship with him? What exactly do you mean by a ‘long term personal relationship’ anyway?”

Of course that would be the part that he would harp on about.

“It’s like…” You struggle to relay the information properly, unsure of what exactly to say. “It’s…not quite, but it’s kinda meant to be like…a semi-honeypot mission. I guess that’s the best way I can describe it.”

There was nothing but dead silence from Sylus’ end, which was very unusual actually.

It made you nervous and you blathered on, words coming a bit too fast, “The Association’s contacts have said that he’s…fond of women and I mean- I wasn’t supposed to do it originally but the first choice agent is currently out sick. So I’m, I’m scrambling…I just- I just want to prepare more I suppose. It’s very different from any other undercover roles I’ve done.” You take a breath, “I already have some info and stuff on his preferences and all, but since you’ve actually met the man, I thought….”

Your lips suddenly feel dry and you lick them before continuing, “I thought maybe you could help me prep? Like when I was supposed to be the leader of the Tenebra group. Y’know?”

Another pause of silence. It’s a moment before Sylus replies, his voice slow, “A…honeypot mission. I…see. Is the Association doing that sort of thing now?”

“Umm…”

“It’s a bit…well, never mind, kitten. Far be it from me to dictate how the Hunter’s Association should run their affairs.”

You pause. “So, will you help me?”

“Sure.” His voice sounds curt, but casual.

You breathe with relief, “Oh my gosh, Sylus, thank you. I’ve been freaking out so hard over this assignment.”

“I aim to please, sweetie.” His voice is relaxed and it sets you at ease, glad he was taking this so well, “So, tell me, when exactly is this mission set for anyway? What do you need to know? How can I help you?”

****

Three days before you were set to meet Mr. B at the soiree, and two days after you had called Sylus, the entire undercover mission is called off.

The B-Group had been fully dismantled. Their routes and protocore weapons had all been destroyed, and nobody had any idea what had happened to Mr. B, or where he was. Rumors ranged from the B-Group breaking down due to internal strife, to Mr. B selling it off himself and escaping to some private island paradise. However, the Association’s best intel suggested that the B-Group had somehow run afoul of Onychinus and been taken down for it.

As you sat at your desk reading the email that had been sent about the entire thing, you couldn’t help but feel irritated. You knew you shouldn’t have called Sylus that day.

And he had pretended to be so helpful too! Had spent all that time with you rehearsing your approach, and had even role played as Mr. B for some practice at light flirtation. You had some choice words for him next time.

Still irritated, you see Captain Jenna walking towards your desk with another file at hand, you sigh as you close out the email and turn your attention to her. You wondered what she had to say about this whole debacle.

****

You shove yourself into an empty bathroom and angrily speed dial Sylus’ number. He answers after just two rings.

“Hello kitten. What a pleasant surprise to hear from you.”

“Sylus! Don’t you ‘pleasant surprise’ me! Why did Jenna just tell me that my honeypot training might not go to waste after all? Why did the Association get a weird tip about an Onychinus lieutenant named ‘Slater’ who has a weakness for women who like…plushies, claw machines, gaming, and kitty cards?!”

You pause to take a breath, “Who is ‘Slater’? Is it you? I know it’s you, Sylus! The Association’s busy trying to verify if it was a weird tip-off or not!”

Sylus laughs heartily, “Mm…oh no. What a shockingly accurate tip-off that is.” You can hear the self-satisfied smile in his voice, “Should I congratulate the Hunter’s Association on having excellent surveillance?”

You bristle at his casual tone, “You’re the one who gave that weird tip and you know it, Sylus!”

He sounds far too pleased with himself, “Now why would I ever give up such useful and correct information about Onychinus?” He hums a bit and you can hear the smugness in his voice, “I certainly hope that the Association doesn’t find out that ‘Slater’ is set to attend an arms auction in two weeks. And I would never want them to find out that the very next day after that, there is a shipment of altered protocores that they would love to get their hands on….”

“SYLUS!”

He finally drops the act, “You’ve been so busy with work, sweetie. It’s been almost impossible to get ahold of you. It feels like you only ever call me for business. I wanted to arrange a date. Can you really blame me?”

“Yes! I can, and I do! I know what you did about the B-Group by the way, and I’m really annoyed!”

“I just wanted to help, sweetie. Like I said I would.” He ignores your angry protests, “You were so stressed out about the whole thing, and honestly, the B-Group…and Mr. B, they weren’t worth your time anyway. Their protocore weapons were subpar and besides, they had been threatening to step on Onychinus’ toes a bit concerning product routes. It was really a two-for-one sort of thing. Would have happened eventually anyway.”

You’re not at all assauged. “You better be prepared to give up that shipment of protocores in two weeks, Sylus! They’ll all be coming with me back to the Association’s office! Every last one, you hear?”

He laughs, completely unbothered, “Of course, of course. A small price to pay for a night spent with you, kitten.”

————

A/N: you just know he was BIG MAD when he first heard abt the mission. mans was trying SO hard to sound chill on the phone.

[deadhands69]

A Small Gift

Tomura Shigaraki x Reader

a little fluffy birthday fic thanks for the prompt/idea @shigarakislaughter

It’s a little past two pm when you start to think something is going on. Kurogiri has been talking for a solid two minutes about green tea kit kats. Dabi just showed up and is sipping coffee by himself. Tomura looks like he’s about to pass out onto the bar, but you have to admit he’s still cute even with the huge bags under his eyes. Twice is actually asleep in an armchair on the other side of the room. 

Kurogiri has been subtly dropping hints about Tomura to you all morning. You now know his favorite flavors of candy. What games he likes to play. How his headset broke.

Okay, everyone who happened to be around the league headquarters yesterday knew this already because you all overheard him get angry when someone shit talked him playing Overwatch and he lost it. You’ve heard stories of him breaking monitors and keyboards in the past, but it’s been a while. The headset especially doesn’t surprise you because you were tasked with waking him up once so you know he falls asleep with it on which has to cause some extra wear on the parts.

Pulling yourself from the cute memory of his messy blue hair wrapped around the light-up cat ears, you tune back into what Kurogiri is saying. You're really not sure why he's telling you this. Maybe Tomura has a crush on you too (!!!) or it’s just obvious that you like him and would want to know these things. Regardless, you’re taking it all to mean something important is going on and you'll have to figure out what that is. 

“[y/n],” Kurogiri’s voice calls out from across the room. 

“Yes,” you walk to the bar, sitting in front of him while Tomura plays his switch three stools down. 

“I need some help sorting important documents,” your hopes die a little, you thought this would have something to do with his recent over communication of all things Tomura. Then you see the file with his name at the top. 

“I particularly need help with this one,” his vaporous finger rests above a box, ‘date of birth: April 4.’ 

…that's today. 

“You can see why sorting this one is of the highest priority,” he says, sliding the file back under the bar. Tomura doesn't notice. Typically he's nosey, but at the moment he's too tired and preoccupied with his game to care about boring office talk. 

“Absolutely,” you respond, “I'll do something about that immediately.” You rush out the door before realizing you don't really know what you're going to do. 

A cupcake would be cute, but everything makes him itchy and you wouldn't want to risk cross contamination from a bakery. Baking one wouldn’t work either since you don’t have time for it today.

The candies Kurogiri mentioned are a good backup plan, but you get the feeling they're something he liked as a kid more than an adult. In the time you've spent with the league, you've never seen him eat candy. Come to think of it, you almost never see him eat anything but that's probably an allergy issue more than anything else. And since you don't know his exact allergies (with the exception of him telling you once that strawberries taste itchy), you should probably avoid it altogether.

So, something not food related. 

You don't want to spend too much money and make him uncomfortable. Last week, Twice covered his takeout and he was weird about it for days. And that wasn’t even from somewhere expensive.

It can't be something he'd consider a big deal, otherwise he might feel bad. It's pretty clear by how he didn't tell anyone it's his birthday, he doesn't want people fussing over him. 

Thinking through everything else you know he likes, the list is pretty short. He got excited to see a dog once, but you don't think Kurogiri would be very happy with you bringing a living creature into the headquarters that he would inevitably have to take care of. 

This leaves video games. He likes the cute little figures of characters, but he never specifies which are his favorites and you don't want to guess wrong. Getting him a game would be fun, but he torrents whatever he wants so there's no point in that. As you mindlessly walk into the busier part of the city, you consider getting him a new gaming headset.

You know exactly which one he had before (black with blue light up cat ears) because he randomly stumbles out of his room whenever you're around and often has them pulled around his neck. They’re particularly memorable to you because you always thought it was adorable that the symbol of fear is absolutely unashamed in his cutesy little headset choice. Upon a quick google search, you find that exact model isn’t cheap. Not only does it have different light settings, it’s noise canceling which bumps the price up considerably. 

Out of ideas, you sit on a concrete ledge to gather your thoughts. The street is loud. Even louder than the bar has been lately, making it difficult to think properly. 

Then it hits you.

Rushing to a nearby department store, you find what you need and make your way back to the headquarters to leave it on his desk.

A few hours later, Tomura disappears into his room before promptly returning. 

“Something’s wrong,” he announces to the room, with your small gift in hand.

Kurogiri sees the situation and pulls him aside to discuss it quietly. Dabi tunes this out, attention returning to his phone but you listen in a few stools down.

“What troubles you?” he asks in a calming voice. You can tell this isn’t his first time having to calm Tomura down from something most people would find mundane. It's not even an exciting gift.

Tomura holds his hand out, showing him the reusable earplugs surrounded in ripped-up silver paper.

“Ah, this appears to be a gift. Surely, you know why someone would give you something like this on a day such as today.”

“No, not really.” Tomura grumbles, pocketing the box after dusting the paper.

“It’s because they care about you. It is customary to give gifts to people you appreciate on their birthdays.”

“But no one else cares about me like that,” there’s not a trace of hurt in his voice, he just looks confused. “And you already gave me something this morning.”

“Well, it would appear that I am not the only one who appreciates your existence.”

“Huh,” he considers, “but how would they know I needed these? I never told anyone that I can’t sleep when it’s loud.” 

“Well,” Kurogiri’s yellow eyes glance subtly in your direction, “it seems that someone is more observant than you’re giving them credit for.”

Tomura spends the rest of the day grouchy and suspicious of everyone in the league. He eliminates Dabi quickly because he would never go out of his way for anything like that. At least not for him. Everyone else is slowly crossed off the list for varying reasons. Magne had to take her cat to the vet so she wasn't around all day. Spinner is on a mission. Compress would never give a gift so subtle. Twice is eliminated simply because Tomura doesn't think he could wrap anything that nicely. By the following morning, all that’s left is you and Toga. 

When Toga runs up to him with a handmade card, apologizing profusely for missing his “birthday birthday” he accepts it with as much grace as Tomura ever could (practically none) and shifts his attention to you.

“Thanks,” he mumbles under his breath when no one is looking.

“No problem,” you respond, just happy to see him well rested.

masterlist

taglist: @shigarakislaughter @cryptidfuckerofficial @minniessskii @vaval3ntin @ykyouluvme 

@dummi666 @lotus-flower420 @nonominchan @softnfuzzy @mysticalhills 

@reireitaka @crwavee @baby-pink-flowers @drlucichen @frieren-imposter

@lou-the-naga-queen @multifandomidk @xytraxpy @venom-barf  @shiiigaraki

@thetinas21 @kitkat13001 @kennys-partner @amira-44820 @its-evee16

@thesecond2demonking @love-for-yoosung-kim @spam-1 

[deathbyathousandspiders]

“ cuddle bugs. ,,

(( REQUEST PART FOUR )).

mcu!peter parker x reader.

!!! read part one | two | three | five here. !!!

IN WHICH — you fell asleep on your best friend’s shoulder during movie night and now things aren’t going the way you anticipating. how far will things go before one of you confess your feelings?

✨masterlist✨.

3.2k.

Peter found it quite amusing how every single trip to the compound kitchen somehow involved Sam Wilson. He wasn’t sure how or why, but perhaps, Sam had been planning this strategically. Every time he went to grab a snack, or make a cup of cocoa, Sam happened to beat him there and lurk in the corner. He also happened to make it his goal to tease him about his feelings for you.

“You going to the holiday party tomorrow night?” Sam asked, a smirk coating his lips. “I heard there’s gonna be mistletoe.” His eyebrows wiggled as he went to sip from his drink. “You should take Y/N and go find it.”

Just the idea of kissing you made Peter’s legs turn to jelly. He’d tried to picture what such an intimate moment would be like with you, but he couldn’t fathom it. He especially couldn’t fathom it when he had to try and picture the rest of the team there, watching. Peter knew he had to make the moment extra special, and if the team was there ogling you both, that would make things extra awkward.

Taking a deep breath, Peter sighed to try and tame how big his grin had gotten. “I’m not gonna do that. I can’t.” He saw the way Sam’s eyes widened a bit, and Peter figured that it was because he’d gotten confused. “I just don’t want..” Peter trailed off, wanting to find a way to explain without getting extra cheesy. He wasn’t sure why Sam wasn’t holding eye contact anymore, leering behind Peter’s shoulder, or why he looked so shocked, but Peter knew he needed to find his words sooner than later.

“You don’t want to kiss me?”

Fuck.

Cold. Everything ran cold with panic. Panic and regret and sadness and desperation to fix this. Peter turned on his heels, meeting your eyes in the state they were; in a state he hadn’t been exposed to. You were hurt, and he could tell. What was so painful for Peter to realize was that he could read that you weren’t just hurt by his words, you were hurt by him and his actions. It sliced at his heart in a way that he didn’t think was possible. He couldn’t tell if the sound of shattered glass came from your heart, or his.

“Y/N, I–”

It absolutely crushed him to see you take distance when he got closer. Peter knew he didn’t set up his point well, but he hated that he couldn’t explain it to you. He hated every second that he couldn’t spend giving you the security that you needed.

“No, no. It’s fine.” You seemed to understand it. Or, you tried to make it seem like you got it. Like it registered the way he wanted it to, but it didn’t. It could never. Peter felt like the scum of the earth; unforgivable, and douchey unlike any other. He felt every single hurting syllable when you said: “But you don’t have to make kissing your best friend sound like such a chore.”

Your tone of voice when you snapped at him was almost as haunting as the sight of you walking away so quickly. Peter wanted nothing more than to rush after you and explain everything, but he also wanted to respect your boundaries. Luckily, Sam rushed after you so that he didn’t have to.

He turned back to face Peter, “Don’t worry, I’ve got a plan.” And that was all he needed to say to give Peter some peace of mind. At least, a little peace of mind.

Peter didn’t know that Sam’s plan was to dupe him into a partnered stakeout with you. He didn’t know that the two of you would be stuck, in a car, alone, for hours. He didn’t know that it was an actual mission. A serious, dangerous, very important mission; and Peter had no idea that Sam and Bucky fully went out of their way to be your guys' backup for the stakeout if it started escalating.

Yet, there you were: alone, in a car, Peter in the driver’s seat, and you riding shotgun. The Prius was parked on a street corner, just as Peter was instructed to leave it by Fury himself. It had already been two hours. Two hours had gone by, and neither of you had spoken a word to the other. Silent, in superhero suits, listening to the wind rattling the windows and the car occasionally click and hum in the quiet.

It was awful.

It was the third longest period of radio silence between the two of you, right next to when you had laryngitis in the fifth grade and when you avoided him senseless three days ago. And Peter didn’t want the silent treatment to go on any longer.

He knew he had to say the first word. He needed to. He just didn’t know how to fix the mess he made, or get you to stop staring out the dashboard like you were mad at it. He knew that the anger you expressed to the sheet of glass was actually directed at him.

Peter tapped his fingers along the steering wheel, pulled at the spandex fabric covering his fingers, and tried to run through and rationalize any and every outcome that could occur once he opened his mouth. You were his best friend, and had been for as long as he could remember. He wasn’t going to let this be the rift that tore your friendship apart.

His eyes finally stuck to your figure for longer than a second’s glance. He saw the way your face was barren, relaxed. It was a look you had when you were lost in thought. Taking a deep breath, Peter tried to suck as much of the thickened tension as he could.

“Y/N, I’m sorry–”

Your eyes shut tight, and your face scrunched in a way that had regret immediately wash out Peter’s bloodstream. You didn’t even look in his direction when you said the word: “Don’t.” Your tone was sharp, trying to slice off any remnants of the conversation; a conversation that you were well trying to move past.

Peter’s lips pressed into a thin line, hiding how frantically he wracked his brain for the right words to say. “But I need to explain myself! Can’t you let me do that?” His body posture craned towards you. One leg tucked beneath the weight of his torso as he looked at you. His brows knit together in desperation, and his eyes sent you a leer that could break you into pieces.

But your walls were becoming too thick for his shattered stare.

You huffed out a breath of frustration. “Peter, I don’t see what’s there to explain.” Your tone was short, stiff, and stuffed with something you hoped sounded like a backbone. Lying to yourself wouldn’t stop the fact that you were hurting, silently grieving over the loss of your expectations. Grieving over the loss of what could’ve been between you and Peter Parker. “You don’t want to kiss me! What else is there to understand?”

“That’s not true!” Peter was quick to defend himself, his voice growing a bit in the process. “I do want to kiss you–”

Scoffing, you also raised your voice a little. “God, Peter! I don’t want your pity!” You couldn’t believe him. He was just pulling shit from his ass to try and make you feel better. “I don’t need your pity either!” You sunk deeper into your seat, a crossed expression staking claim in your eyes, and your arms folding over your chest to hold your ground.

Peter could physically feel the distance you were putting between the two of you. He studied you, how irritated you were, how much hurt he caused. “Y/N, it’s not pity–”

“Harley asked me out.” You cut him off, finally looking at him. It was the first time your eyes had met since yesterday. The first time you let your guard down a little. And the way his eyes widened at you, you could tell this was the first time he’d seen you in such a dimming light; perhaps you really were slipping through his fingers, out of his grasp.

His silence said millions of words, yet none of them were satisfying. It felt so much worse, quite frankly. What you really wanted from him was the reassurance that he felt the same way. It wasn’t just about a kiss, rather than wanting a romantic connection. It wasn’t about the misunderstanding, but the way he’d go about fixing it. And it wasn’t about Harley asking you out, you wanted to see how Peter would react.

The look in his eyes mirrored yours. It was a glisten of betrayal, and the lingering stare of denial. Peter looked at you like it would be the last time he was allowed to. He didn’t know where to go from here, and it was obvious.

You let out a sigh, irritated and remorseful and heartached. “Harley asked me out, and I–” Pausing, you looked straight ahead, unable to meet Peter’s eyes while the words muttered from your lips. “I think I’m going to change my answer.”

Peter’s breath caught, and you could hear his hushed thought process. He filtered through the words you said, and kept searching for the phrase or touch or look that would convince you to stay with him. To choose him.

“I–”

You couldn’t even stomach the sound of his voice. Your nerves spiked much higher than you’d anticipated. What were you even getting at? Making him jealous? All you felt was guilt. Embarrassment. Suddenly, you were nervous. “I need some air.” You choked abruptly, fleeing from the passenger’s seat and exiting the vehicle.

Peter sat in the driver’s side, frozen in his place as he watched you walk further from the car. He couldn’t deny how much of a gut punch your words were, but he also kept replaying the way you’d phrased it like a broken record.

‘I think I’m going to change my answer.’

Even you seemed uncertain about it, and if Peter had any chance with you, he knew he needed to act now. Just as went to get out of the car and follow you, he felt his spider sense heighten. Blood ran cold and the world moved slow as he watched the scene. From behind a bush merely fifteen feet from where Peter was, you were grabbed and pulled out of sight.

“Shit!” Peter panicked. He slipped his mask on, updating KAREN to alert Sam and Bucky. He was lucky that whoever had taken you didn’t spot him, but he felt every fiber of his being spiral about how to get you back. When Peter said he was afraid of losing you, this was not what he meant.

And he was going to do everything in his power to bring you back safely.

Shuttered and softened gasps fell from your lips as your eyes opened, and you watched your breath visibly leave your mouth. Was it below freezing in the room? It had to be. It was the middle of December, after all. Your skin ached as you gained consciousness, every inch of your body screaming for warmth by the time you’d finally come to.

Some scrawny white man with disheveled hair and a short–sleeved t-shirt stood in front of you, holding you in whatever darkened room you seemed to be in. He stood rather close to you, much closer than your comfort levels permitted. He didn’t seem any bit irked by your presence in the slightest.

Maybe that was because your wrists were tightly chained to exposed water–pipes spouting from the floor, or because he’d finally discovered your super–heroine identity. Either way, the light in his eyes was anything but frightened or angered or even confused.

In fact, his eyes scanned your body with marvel and awe. It sent a shiver down your spine.

“Astonishing..” His accent was thick through his words, letting the statement fall heavy with the sigh it traveled through. “It’s working…”

Your blood ran even colder at the words, stilling your posture for a millisecond. What chilled your bones even more was when your body broke out into an intense fit of shivers, and the man laughed. A laugh that was maniacal, entertained, psychopathic. Psychopathic, and relieved.

Thick clouds of steam left your mouth as your breaths drew faster in panic, indicating just how below zero the temperature was. You could barely muster out the words that your throat shoved out: “Wha–what’s so funny?” You asked, clearly freezing.

Now, a bit more serious, the man leaned disarmingly close to your face, eying you in a way that sobered your mind, soul, and being.

“You’re cold.”

The muttered words only caused more confusion, until you finally noticed the two broken syringes on the ground to your left, and how the liquid oozing from the shattered glass had frozen over. It was ice. You became aware of the sweat caking the hairline of the man in front of you, and how disgustingly consuming the warmth of his breath was.

The room wasn’t cold, you were cold. And you were left to assume that it was only a matter of time before you froze to death.

Quite frankly, as much as the dude yapped your ear off with his “diabolical” plan, your brian was clouded with more pressing matters: how you left things with Peter. You didn’t know how long it would take for the team to find you, or if you’d even make it to see this guy get his ass kicked. Either way, you knew Peter was overthinking.

And so were you.

The wave of relief that cast over your body when Sam broke the door down was indescribable. You hadn’t known how long it had been, or how much time you had left, but pins and needles pricked every inch of your body and you’d spent however long shivering just to try and shake the feeling.

Peter immediately swooped down from the ceiling at Sam’s cue, webbed the guy to a wall, and rushed to your aid in the blink of an eye. Not a word was said until he unclasped the restraints and pulled you into a hug. It was the quickest hug he’d ever given you; record time of point–two seconds. “Jesus Christ! Y/N, you’re fucking freezing!!” It were though he hadn’t heard your teeth chattering this entire time.

You could only look at him with a concerned crinkle in your brow, unable to speak through the chill you kept continually catching.

“KAREN!” Peter called out, his mask still on over his face. “Turn on the thermal–heater–protocol thing!! Pronto!” Hearing his panicked demands almost brought you peace, yet nothing could compare to how nice it felt to finally come in contact with warmth.

It barely helped at all, but the contrast was enough to notice. All and every part of you melted into Peter, giving him unspoken permission to pick you up and carry you to the Quinjet. His touch didn’t waver as he sat down on the plane, and his jaw didn’t unclench until his response was requested. His protective demeanor provided a sense of safety, yet it felt tugged from beneath you with one quick statement.

“We should probably call Harley and tell him you’re alright.”

The disappointment tugging at his expression was enough to shatter your heart into a million pieces. You could tell that it broke his just the same, too.

Your head shook against his chest as he sat you down on a bench, seating himself closely beside you to keep you from whatever fridged feeling this kidnapping brought upon you.

“Harley doesn’t– He doesn’t need to know.” Confusion washed over Peter’s face so quickly, you nearly forgot the rut you dug yourself in. “Pe–Pete.. I owe you an apo–ology.” The words were almost impossible to mutter out. You were only getting colder by the second.

His attention was so fixated on you, eyes glued to yours, brows sewn together, and thoughts racing circles trying to grasp whatever you could mean. Peter’s eyes studied your face for the possible answers, but he was getting ahead of himself.

There was nothing left to do other than to come clean. The confession was yours to make, and the look Peter gave you only made that more apparent. His emotions pierced your soul, all his sincerity and curiosity and genuity and eagerness. It was almost like he knew what you were trying to choke out between shivers. Or as though it were his job to fix whatever you presented broken.

You couldn’t tell whether the rapid rhythmic heartbeat was your own, or Peter’s, but either way, you had to force these words out before they staled with the lump in your throat. “I–I–” You took a deep breath to still your chattering teeth, feeling Peter’s grip tighten reassuringly around you in the midst of it. “I was upset that you didn’t want to kiss me.”

The apology flashed in his eyes just as he went to open his mouth, but you weren’t finished. “I was upset, because I–” You nearly sped through the sentence, but halted. “I—” And it were though you froze in place, right then and there. You completely froze, stopped moving, stopped breathing.

Panic. It washed over you like panic, sheer uncontrollable unexpected panic. Your blood ran cold, and if it weren’t for the feeling of your body washing white, you would’ve thought you were dying.

Peter calling your name almost sounded fake. It was so distant and faint that you swore you were dreaming. However, with a small hitch of your breath, reality hit you a lot harder than necessary. Your entire being shook, spazzing in this cold and freezing state. So much so, it was painful.

You knew you were being hugged and blanketed by Peter’s protection much more intently. The press of his biceps communicated that he felt like he was to fault for this. The dazy holler of his voice told you that he felt responsible and sorry and nervous. There wasn’t anything in the world you wanted to do more than to fight against this and assure him that you were okay. You were going to be fine.

Bucky walked over with a sense of urgency, relaying to Peter a medical analysis that Bruce laid out. He stated things about your condition that the author was far too lazy to look up you couldn’t make out in this fridged trance.

Every inch of your body had stopped shouting for warmth and instead now screamed for it, for relief. It begged and pleaded and bruised its knees just for some sense of stillness from whatever blizzard was injected into your system.

So cold, too cold, everything blurred to white. Every sound was washed out, every sensation pricked in spears and spikes against you, and every thought felt too heavy to handle. You weren’t sure how or when, but at a certain point, you passed out. Consciousness suddenly became too overwhelming for your fragile limp little body.

Part of you wasn’t sure whether this was better than feeling the sting of Peter’s rejection, but you knew that was a demon you’d have to face sooner than later. You made a promise to yourself right then and there that regardless of what and when, the next time you saw Peter Parker, you’d tell him how you’d really felt.

You were going to tell your best friend that you’d been in love with him. And still very much so were.

tag–list : @helen-on-earth @ellebutnotwoods @hufflepuff-n-fluff @petersparkerss @tommysfrog @zelzablues @mavex @thatmarvelchick19 @parkersmaterialgirl @justtuesdays @coralineyouareinterribledanger @abucketofweird @cayleejx16 @thievin-stealing

[ms-demeanor]

my thing is I'm capable of any of this stuff up to at least level 3 and can do them for special occasions and if I've rested enough no problem, but I can't do it OFTEN because it just uses up too many spoons. any thoughts on this? besides practice, I already cook as often as I can (which is not very)

Mise en place your life as much as possible. I've talked about this before but this is what I do to make things easier on myself. My baking station with all the ingredients out and clearly labeled instead of at the bottom of the pantry where I have to dig for them makes it much, much, much easier to bake. My knife strip on the wall and the dozen cutting boards in a rack on the wall and the frying pan that lives on the stove instead of under the counter all make it much easier for me to cook.

Like, a lot of what I've been going through and doing in terms of home improvement/home decor is attempting to configure the house in such a way that large bastard and i can easily do the things we want to/need to do. We need batteries all the time, so the batteries live in an organized box where we can see it instead of in the back of the cabinet. We also need to *discard* batteries all the time, so the battery discard tub is right next to that box otherwise we'll start accumulating used batteries on surfaces.

The instruments that live on my kitchen counter are the ones that get used most often so that I don't need to go looking for them and so that I know at a glance if they're clean (if so they're in the canister on the counter) or need to be washed. The appliances that I use the most either live on the counter or get put places where it's convenient - I don't have enough bowls and plates that I need to use the top three shelves of my cabinet for bowls and plates like my parents did, but I do use my rice cooker twice a week so my rice cooker lives in the same cabinet as my dishes (as does my tofu press, my waffle maker, and the easiest-to-use 16oz food storage containers).

And you know what sometimes i just can't do it. Sometimes my back isn't working or my hip isn't working or i got glutened recently and I can't do much of anything.

I've got a variety of low spoon foods that I always have ingredients for (one recent addition to this list is tofu; i went from eating no tofu to eating tofu twice a week because two days a week i can't really use one of my arms to make dinner so i just prep the tofu at lunchtime and when i get home from the plasma center all i have to do is season and pan fry it and make a pot of rice. And I also make a shitload of extra rice because rice with eggs and sweet-spicy sauce is now one of my easiest and best go-to lunches) and whenever I make a pot of soup (something that I do pretty much every weekend when it's cool enough) I will make enough for lunch that week plus usually some extra to go in the freezer as backup "I don't feel like cooking" meals.

So, yeah I guess what I'm saying is get a good list of low-spoon foods that you like and can keep the ingredients handy for (ground beef goes bad in a week, tofu lasts like a month, i love tofu, it's so easy and so cheap to keep a bunch of tofu handy), and throw out the idea of what a kitchen is "supposed" to be like and figure out if there are ways to make your kitchen more adaptive for you.

Get anti-fatigue mats for your home kitchen. Get a tall stool that you can sit at while cooking at the stove instead of standing. Reorganize your cabinets for maximum efficiency for your needs. (large bastard and I have been doing this both with organized visible storage like wall racks as well as putting his stuff up high because bending over isn't easy for him but it is easy for me).

And also, like, consider if it's worth it, or how it can be worth it. How do you want to be a better cook? Do you want to be better at making meals for large groups or do you want to be more comfortable cooking for yourself or do you want a wider repertoire of recipes - all of those things will take a different path and some will be harder than others if you're wrangling disabilities that make it difficult to cook. I'm probably never going to be great at cooking for large groups because it doesn't really suit my lifestyle and it hurts! It hurts a lot and after hosting thanksgiving last year i needed to use my cane for a week because of how much it hurt my back! But I can work on stuff that makes it easier for me to cook, like having my baking station or keeping my rice cooker in an easy-to-reach cabinet.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

One of the consequences of all this four-monitor silliness is that I decided to move the components around and dust them off. I hadn’t fired up my Heathkit AJ-11 AM/FM tube tuner in forever, because I thought it had finally died when I tried to use it last. I jostled things around this afternoon, trying to get things moved, it’s sitting in a tight space next to the HiFi VCR, which I wanted to get the dust off of.

On a whim I plugged the Heathkit back into the power strip, and hooked an RCA cable up to the old Realistic input selector, which I have goin’ to the good old Realistic mixer (dependable backups, since my Dynaco PAS-3X Preamp is inoperable for the forseeable future). The little mixer and that simple selector switch at least let me listen to music while one of my main components is off-line for...awhile.

I turned the AJ-11 on, and lo and behold , it lit up, both tuning eyes glowed green, and it was picking up my little AM station transmitter broadcasting loud and clear at 1340AM. No idea why it decided to spring back to life again, but cool that it did. Maybe my jostling had jostled the right thing back into place? Who knows? All I know is that now I can hear my radio station through the tubes, as the gods intended.

And as another little lagniappe, as it were, I have a very large and heavy, and evidently very exclusively made in Berkeley back when thing, a black case with a cast aluminum front panel, with a sine wave cut in it, and a blue LED, called a “Z-Stabilizer Line Conditioner”, which is essentially a huge line voltage “smoother-outer”, and a regulator to keep the voltage as dead-on as possible. I always thought the Dynaco sounded better when it was plugged into that thing. The only indicator it’s working was a bright blue LED, which as far as I knew went out awhile back. Like years back.

So I am re-routing wires and tucking things into place like a good hobbit and I figure what the hell I’ll plug it in and see what’s up and lo and behold, the LED on the front glowed bright blue again.

Both of these things happened this afternoon. The Heathkit/Daystrom Tuner sprung back to life, seemingly miraculously, because I remember it being deader than a doornail. I must have jostled something that made it remember itself.

And the blue LED coming back on, after years of it being out.

It's definitely cool, but kinda...disconcerting.

Is this just a bit of electronic good luck?

Or are these artifacts from that other timeline we all want to get back to so desperately?

At any rate, I have nearly all my tubes back in commission and glowin'. Hallelujah. At least I can sit and watch the tubes on the ST70 glow along with the dash-lights on the Heathkit.

I have to admit that my PAS-3X has me stymied at the moment. Actually it's more intimidated. It's all simple soldering, nothing incredibly exotic, just there will be a LOT of it. And a lot of matching of wires, measuring of wires, etc.

While I pulled the Realistic mixer out to take up the slack, and I want to get going on the final bit of work I need to do on the PAS, I'm a bit anxious to tackle it. And it's one of those things that I can't trust anybody else to do, and it's completely up to me.

That three-wafer selector switch got broken because my hand slipped while I was soldering something else. There are like 30 solder connections on those three very delicate phenolic wafers...I have to make sure the right ones get to the right RCA jacks on the back.

I've got the original build manual, but still...it's a mother of a thing to have to do, and having to do it because of my own carelessness in not realizing how close to the switch my hand was, adds an extra layer of angst to it.

I've got kiddo duty tomorrow and Friday nights, and then dinner on Saturday, but back here Saturday night. At least I've got my system patched back together enough to keep going until the PAS is back in order.

Interesting thing about the Realistic mixer is there is no EQ, no tone controls, no "loudness' control like the PAS has, and even so I can't push the output volume up over 1 or 2 before it's too loud for the building. The output signal is so clean and "live", going straight into the ST70, it's able to pump the sound out with the volume slider almost completely off. The ST70 is still one of the best power amps ever made. The fact that it was sold in its day in kit form for $99 is kinda crazy. Literally the "Hi-Fi Tube Sound for Everyman" of amps.

[ct-99xx]

My Tech Theory

Hi everybody. I'm new here. I just marathoned all of the Bad Batch in like three days. I'm absolutely broken up over Tech, but as I've been digging into the theory-crafting and surveys going around, I haven't seen my main theory mentioned, so I feel the need to add it to the pile. I want to start by saying I badly want to get Tech back, but I also am not willing to commit to the idea that he's definitely coming back. I am not making myself any promises. Instead, this is specifically what I think is the most likely way he might come back, based on the Season 3 trailer. The big thing the trailer tells us is that Palpatine is really interested in getting Nala Se to do some specific new, different thing with cloning. Something she says is impossible. What could that be? Well y'all, I am an ancient Star Wars fan. And I have at least a vague idea of how Palpatine's clones work. Or how they worked in older continuities, anyway. Palpatine wants clones who can get his memories and powers after he dies. I don't know precisely how this works in canon. I don't think the specifics have been established in the current canon yet. But what has been established is that somehow Palpatine returned. He definitely has access to extra life clone bullshit in the future. And future Palpatine has all his powers and memories.

That's what I think Nala Se is working on: a method to make a clone that has (or gains) the memories of a dead person. So if Tech is dead, he'd be a perfect candidate for this specific experiment: can a dead person's personality and memory be re-uploaded to a newly cloned version of their body? Now, even if my theory is true, here are the reasons this might not work to give us our happy ending: Palpatine's clones might require the memory backup to occur BEFORE death. It could be that they TRY to do the cloning trick on Tech, but they just produce a clone of his body, and can't upload his memories. This gives us... something at least, but it's still very sad. Tech2 could be a failed attempt at making a vessel for Tech's memories, after which Nala Se figures out that you have to get [Something] from the body before death to get the results that Palpatine wants. I'm guessing that we will at least see someone who is a clone of Tech, even if they aren't ACTUALLY our boy. We may even see several. Why else would they let us know that Hemlock has Tech's body? Even if Tech's dead, that's a real Chekov's corpse right there. Will the person who looks like him actually BE Tech? I'm not willing to promise that. But dang I hope at least one of them will be.

[allmightskitten]

Hey! Thanks for tagging me in the WIP post! I don't have a lot of active WIPs, myself -- it takes me approximately 90 years to finish writing anything, so all I've got at the moment is the 100k+ BNHA fic I've been working on literally since before I even started One Piece lol 😅😅 -- but I'm having so much fun reading through all your ideas! They all sound fantastic (and honestly, I love your writing so much that I would happily read anything you wrote), but I'm maybe the most interested in the Water 7 romance dawn trio fic! I just adore those three in any setting, and I just made it to Water 7 in my first read-through of the manga, so I guess I've got it in my head. 😅 I'll admit, though, I'm also a bit too intrigued by the Sabo/Koala fic; why *is* Caesar Clown the only other character tagged...? 👀 (and, perhaps more importantly, will I regret asking lol? 😅🤣)

Once again, thanks for the tag! I'm always happy to tune in for some more snippets of your writing! 😄💗

Ooh, I didn't know you were into BNHA, we have that fandom in common 😳

Thank you, talking about these WIPs is a lot of fun so I love to get into them a little more :') Funny thing about that Water 7 fic specifically is that I made the silly goose decision to write it on the ao3 editor and ended up not saving a backup copy before it expired, so I've lost MOST of it 😭😭😭 BUT! But that ISN'T dissuading me, this is still a fic I plan on getting done someday!! I got an ask from @saraptor-art about this one too, I'll scavenge my files for a decent snippet from the little that I could salvage and share it in that ask, but until then– let me share a few more details about the fic!

The idea is that the Straw Hats get to spend an extra day in Water 7 before their adventures there canonically start (I mean, if you pretend there's a little gap in the timeline, it *could* be canon compliant...), where Luffy goes on ahead as usual to see what adventures the new island offers, without consulting anyone or sticking around for a plan to be made. Zoro goes after him WITHOUT CONSULTING ANYONE, with a undeservedly confident "It's fine I'll bring him back" which means a sensible member of the crew now needs to go retrieve them both. That ends up being Nami, who finds Zoro first and promptly realises she lost his ass again just as soon as she finds Luffy. There are some mini adventures from there that were mostly an excuse for me to explore what I think Water 7 is like beyond what we see of it in the animanga! BTW, they do find Zoro again, he's part of some of it before he inevitably wanders off a second time. Nami also has an agenda on the side to map out the city itself when she realises the official map is so poorly done it's aggravating XD

The Caesar Clown question!!!😂😂 okay, it's definitely a little cursed that he's there. It's in the vein of him discovering that there are "spies" aboard this ship and making a huge fuss getting everyone involved and leading them to what he thinks are definitely spies looking for their secrets...hint hint, everyone ends up seeing something they probably wish they didn't. Or maybe some did, a few of these unnamed characters are nasty.

Thank you again for your ask!! I'm going to go see what I can salvage from the wreckage...👀

[uptonogoodindiememes]

Arrow Sentence Meme - Brothers in Arms

“It would be nice to have some backup,”

“I’m waiting for the right moment, that moment is not now,”

“These things are in the past, alright? Tonight is a good night,”

“Oh how nice, you’ve come to visit,”

“I’ve been waiting for the right moment, the appropriate moment to tell you,”

“That’s the moment you were waiting for? That one?”

“I don’t like the idea of you doing this without backup,”

“We’ve only been on three dates,”

“This is bothering me way more than expected,”

“Looks like you’ve had an exciting day,”

“No one’s holding you prisoner, why don’t you get out, get some sun?”

“I’ve never had a real job in my whole love,”

“You might just enjoy doing something good for a change,”

“Would you please just give me some good news,”

“I should have been upfront with you, and I avoided what I thought might be a tough conversation,”

“Don’t you know how to make a girl feel special,”

“I need some air,”

“It’s exhausting trying to be something you’re not,”

“So what, you’re going to tell me what I’m supposed to be?”

“Everything alright?”

“I’ve been out of town for so long, I just found the gift you left for me back in December, I wanted to say thank you,”

“You’re right, there’s something wrong, and I’m worried that once I find out what it is, I’m not gonna like it,”

“Maybe I was a little worried about you too,”

“You’ve changed, you have grown so much, and it has been my honor, my privilege to watch you,”

“Sorry I punched you,”

“Sorry I punched you back,”

“For what it’s worth, I know you’ve done a lot of good,”

“You’re getting ahead of me,”

“I know I’m the last person who should be giving you relationship advice,”

“Just live in the moment, because you can only see the step that’s ahead of you, you don’t know what’s at the end of the road,”

“We’re gonna get you to a hospital, okay? Hold on,”

“Are we getting out of here or not?”

“I’m really sorry about what I said,”

“I have followed the chain of command without question,”

“I hope you find what you’re looking for,”

“Don’t do this,”

“You know I don’t actually mind tidying up, I kinda like it. It keeps my mind off of things,”

“I get it if you wanna step away from this,”

“I could use an extra pair of hands,”

“You’ll always have me, I’m not going anywhere,”

[booksandchainmail]

Pale 11.2 extra

I just want you to know I’ve been trying to be my best self and do good in the world and if there’s something that ends up keeping me from coming back to you guys I hope you know that at least.

this bit is incredibly sad to me. "If I died, I died doing the right thing" is actually a pretty good ending, but coming from a kid it's just bleak

All the not listening you did and the ignoring me and everything? I forgive you for that and I think I understand

I wonder how this will feel going on? I imagine that even if Avery is glossing over this a bit for her parents to not feel guilty, she must have done some final sour searching to reach this point. It must be weird to come to terms with everyone in your life, be prepared to not leave regrets behind, and then get to keep on going with the clean slate

Sheridan, you had my back when it counted and I can’t tell you what it means to me, or how it changed the idea of what family is in my head. You get so down on yourself but you’re so so so much better and cooler than you think you are.

oh... that;s really sweet

A beautiful woman once told me I was on the cusp of losing my connection to humanity.

lol at specifying beautiful

no comments on the rest of Avery's letter to Ms. Hardy because I'm tearing up

If I can escape the chaos do you want to hang? We can hang out with Sir and chat art orrrr We could hang out and you can take your shirt off and I can draw you orrrrrrr We could hang out and we both take our shirts off and we can pretend we’re confused about who is supposed to be painting who before finding something else to do

smooth

I told Lucy and Avery and a woman called Miss to pass on a password for a gallery I sent you.  You’re my designated replacement if anything happens and that gallery has the big rundown.  Yep, you thought you were getting to know me?  That was all the tip of the iceberg, buddy.

I'm picturing Jeremy opening this, reading it, and realizing that a girl who was a pretty new friend in his life had no outside contact closer than him

On that note? I’m writing this under the assumption that they’re there. Avery Kelly and Lucy Ellingson. No other end result is okay in my books.

oh Verona

Care and Feeding of Lucy Ellingson and Avery Kelly: I liked the headline but because I wrote it I gotta let you know the feeding part: Lucy gets into stuff like pepperoni sticks and sour foods and things that make you go WOAH (except garlic and onions apparently) and it’s all intense and crap but when you get down to it I think she likes sweet and savory stuff most.  Avery is a vegetarian and she can eat next to anything you could call food, now, but I think what matters is that it comes from a place of care. She likes fruity flavors and mellow stuff. If Lucy’s down and out and needs nourishment to get back in the game then a chance to have a savory home cooked meal or a sweet treat she can spend a bit enjoying would do it for her.  For Avery, just the fact that you notice she’s down and out is important and then you can hand her a sports drink or something and she’ll be up for more.

aww, funny and cute that she's leaning into this bit, deeply touching that she knows this about them

[Tash is] about three years older than us she’s super cool enough I wouldn’t blame you for getting a crush on her. 😉

... yeah that's fair! Don't know how Jeremy would feel about the eyes, but I love that it's not a factor for Verona

If you bring me back as a composite echo and someone wants to take me as a familiar to help clarify me further then I’m down.

what the hell. I mean a good backup plan! But a hell of a lot of pressure to drop casually at the end of this letter

If not or if that’s weird then don’t sweat it.  Thanks for being a friend.

or don't resurrect me if you don't want! wild.

I got lucky because home was the place I could come back to to unload the small things, instead.  This was pretty close to perfect. Except I haven’t come home to unload this time, if you’re reading the letter.

yeah tearing up again

Zed has agreed he’ll fill you in if someone needs to.  He knows most of the story and it’s easier for him to answer your questions than for me to explain everything here.  Imagining you going through my stuff and uncovering it all with a terrible look on your face is making this too hard to write.

Interesting to me that Lucy is the only on who leaves information for her mom to take action, I guess because neither Verona or Avery feel that their parents are particularly useful

As a last ditch effort if the cops fail and Avery and Verona are gone you can contact a man I listed on the sheet. His name is Samaniego and he organizes people who hunt monsters like one of the ones I’m about to fight.

damn that's a nuclear option. But I suppose if all the girls are dead there's no point in playing fair or easy

I don’t want this to end without there being justice.  If I was capable of accepting any other answer then I think this might be the point I gave up.  I could let Edith win, I could choose the option where I didn’t risk me dying and you having to find this letter. I can’t.  I can’t let the people who would do that get what they want and take any more power or get any more influence.

Lucy... I love how much her principles come through in this. Avery may be the soft heart in the group and Lucy all business in her letter, but peel back the focus and drive and you get this moral determination

This can’t end without justice of some sort.

[sodiumlamp]

Picard

The one thing, the only thing that I really cared about with Picard Season 2 was this moment where he hugs Q. I don't know if I just figured out he was dying all on my own, or I read spoilers at some point. But I'm pretty sure I saw this and decided there was really only one reason for this. I mean, I guess Q could just be "going away for a really long time." Like he got a job screwing with some other characters in a different dimension, and he won't be back before Picard dies of old age. But it simplifies things if he's just dying, or whatever the Q version of death is.

And I guess the basic idea is sound. Q knows he's only got so much time left, and he wants to spend it on one last romp with Picard, and this one is extra special because it forces Picard to confront his feelings about his mother's suicide.

I don't like Yvette's suicide in a vacuum. It's pretty fucking dark, and the gravitas it would have had in another show is wasted in Star Trek: Picard, which does constantly hotshots dark moments in a vain effort to be profound. By the time we get to Yvette's noose we've already seen Icheb's eye get plucked out, several other character deaths, Evil General Picard's skull collection, and all the spooky hallucinations and flashbacks that foreshadowed the Yvette reveal. The actual reveal gets lost in the shuffle.

Still, for what they were trying to do with Q, the gesture he was trying to make to Picard, it almost has to be something that big and character redefining. It's just that it's a good idea that was cast in the purgatory of this tedious bullshit show. Q's powers giving out was completely unnecessary, except as a way to drag out the story. Now he has to walk everywhere and use proxies like Adam Soong, which just ruins the pacing. All the other Q stories are settled in two hours or less, and that's because he can appear whenever and wherever to gas up the plot, or vanish to allow the story to simmer. But Picard isn't built that way.

The thing I realized today is that this show, and others like it, relies more on the audience speculation than the actual writing. What I mean by that is: You get one story over several episodes, and you're supposed to watch them over a span of time, and between episodes you're supposed to wonder about what's going to happen next. You're expected to rewatch the episodes you have access to and search for clues, formulate fan theories, and then tune in for the next one and see if you were right. And there's fun to be had there, but with Picard, it feels like the show is constructed more to tickle the viewer's curiosity more than actually telling a compelling story. For example:

Most of this episode is about the good guys trying to protect Renee and the Europa launch so Adam Soong doesn't spoil it. Q's nearly powerless, and the Borg Queen left in the previous episode, so there's no one left to be the villain except Soong, and he's... not a strong enough character to carry that off. He tries to poison Renee with a fast-acting neurotoxin, but Gary Eight fakes him out with a decoy. Soong's backup plan is to destroy the spacecraft itself with drones, but Raffi hacks their guidance system and Rios manages to use one drone to take out the other three. Then Kore reappears to reveal she erased all his research files, just to twist the knife. Utterly defeated, Soong reaches into his desk and pulls out a file entitled "PROJECT KHAN". You know, like the Star Trek villain. Khan? You know who that is? Do you?

It's... a dumb moment. This story is over, so there's nowhere for it to go. The good guys return to 2401 at the end of this episode, so they don't have to deal with the Eugenics Wars. And we already know how Khan ended up. This show isn't gonna pay any of this off.

But earlier in this viewing, I considered that maybe Adam Soong had something to do with the Eugenics Wars, since he seemed to be a hawk for genetic engineering, and then it turned out he cloned dozens of daughters in some sort of weird experiment. So during the long, dull minutes of this season, I wondered if maybe he was going to turn out to be involved with Khan and the Eugenics Wars somehow. That was kind of fun. And I was right! Good for me!

Except... I had to make my own fun. The text of Star Trek: Picard doesn't actually do much with any of this. Adam Soong's arc in this season is:

Whoa, what's Brent Spiner doing here?

Oh, he's a scientist with a sick daughter, and he's desperate enough to help Q.

Oh, he's turning into a huge dick. It's like Q corrupted his love for his daughter. Very tragic.

Oh, he's some sort of shady war criminal? So he's always been like this, and he always will be.

It's not much of a character arc at all, is my point. The real fun of Adam Soong depends on the audience to try to figure out his whole deal. Maybe he's Alton Soong from the 25th Century, or Data in disguise! Maybe he's Lore! Maybe he has an army of Kore clones in his basement! But the dirty little secret is that he really isn't that interesting at all. And by the time you find out what he really is, it's the end of the season, and they got away with wasting your time with a dud character.

The "PROJECT KHAN" folder is this cheap prize they give you at the end to reward you for sticking around this long. "Hey, you were right, he really is important because he invents Khan later." But it doesn't actually matter because this is his last appearance. It's just Brent Spiner holding a folder.

The same thing applies to Wesley Crusher showing up to recruit Kore into the Watcher/Traveler organization. I guess the idea here is that the Gary Seven people and the Travelers were in the same group? And now that Renee's Watcher is dead, they have a vacancy. But what makes Kore special? Like, Wesley had all these special talents and gifts. Kore spent her whole life indoors waiting for a cure for her genetic ailments. I mean, maybe she's a super-genius, but they never showed that. It just feels like they worked this in to cover for the fact that they never did much with Kore. "No, no, we meant to overlook Kore! That way you'd never see it coming when we... uh... uh... have her team up with Wesley Crusher! Wow!"

I mean, it's nice to see Wesley. I wasn't sure if he was in this series or not, so I can check off that box. I'm glad he's doing well. But it just doesn't matter. I guess they might still turn up in Season 3, but I doubt it.

So, once Q takes everyone back to their own time, we get back to the Borg crisis from the beginning of the season, and it turns out it's Jurati, and she set all this up to coordinate some big joint mission to save the galaxy from another space anomaly. It really doesn't mean anything, but they had to do some big feel-good thing to pay off the Borg. Jurati's Borg are good guy Borgs, I guess, and they request provisional Federation membership. I guess.

I think that's about all I wanted to go over. There's some interesting ideas in this, but the show is so plodding and slow that it never manages to land any of its best shots. Again, all I cared about was Q and Picard hugging. They could have done anything else to set up that moment, and it probably would have been better. Maye Q uses Picard's house as his own hospice, and Picard's stuck with him as a roommate for a while. Maybe he tries to take Picard on some goofy fantasy adventure but his heart just isn't into it, so Picard takes him out for drinks instead. Maybe they just give in to 30+ years of sexual tension and have dirty, nasty, old man sex for three episodes straight.

Oh, and Elnor's alive again. For all the difference it makes.

[holydramon]

I guess for reference the aus I sometimes refer to offhandedly that haunt my mind are (apologies that some have multiple names)…

Fatal Exception Error:

- Super Danganronpa 2 AU, with Chiaki as the protagonist

- This is basically a take on the redo/time travel concept I’ve seen other people do, with the main conceit of this AU being that the Neo World Project crashes and restarts during Chiaki’s execution (it was not programmed to handle what would happen if all the Usami backups were destroyed)

- Chiaki, Monomi, and Monokuma are all aware of what happened last game, and the game is even more them playing a big game of chess than the last time. Some things stay the same, but Monokuma does throw in new motives this time around.

- Chiaki tries to use her knowledge of what she knows about everyone and the events of last time to use and prevent her friends being killed but will she succeed..? (no it’s a rewrite people still die)

- I accidentally made Chiaki and Peko gay for each other and now that’s a large part of the AU. like I swear I did not make this AU with this in mind it just happened.

Your Angel or Your Devil (aka Deal With a Tiny Devil or YAoYD):

- my take on the Hikari’s partner is PicoDevimon AU

- the idea is mainly just a while rewrite of canon but only writing the relevant things that’d change, plus some extra content that just exists within the canon of this AU

- this is actually also a digimon tri rewrite in disguise because a large part of it is trying to set up tri and have it make sense in the broader sense of the series

- I have had this one the longest and have a LOT of thoughts about it but since I have not rewatched Adventure or 02 for a while I am not sure how many of said thoughts actually make sense/fit character or lore wise

Apollo Justice Quadrilogy (aka The Second Quadrilogy or Apollo Justice: Retrial):

- Rewrite of the second Ace Attorney trilogy, meant to actually progress from AA4 left off

- Is a quadrilogy because there are four games! One being Athena Cykes: Ace Attorney which is the third game, is purely Athena POV, and is a Dual Destinies rewrite. I debated moving this around timeline wise but legitimately I think it works best as right after my planned second game.

- Some main things to know are: Phoenix does not become a lawyer again, the sibling reveal happens second game and based a lot around the Gramaryes/Thalassa, and the last game is centered around the Gavin brothers and why Kristoph is Like That

anyway yeah. if you have questions about these let me know I guess because these three haunt my brain 24/7. I will note if you ask about these now it may be a while til I answer tho cause school is a pain.

[hungerandthirst]

second program done – grade 4s again but from a co-ed school

these kids were soooo different from last week’s angels – i think this was genuinely the worst listening ability i’ve ever seen in a group of kids. we never once had silence, it was impossible to get their attention. and it was kind of cute because they all just liked each other a lot and wanted to talk to each other all the time but holy shit. even one minute of actual listening was not achievable.

this group was also a little bit like “too cool for school” and many of them were referencing memes etc which is so sad and disorienting to see from 9 year olds…

that said, at the end of the program we did a gratitude activity and got really genuine answers about like food, nature, family/friends etc so obviously some things clicked. i also got real engagement and insightful answers after the sit spot with my group which was interesting because i honestly didn’t think they would be able to handle it. but sometimes they surprise you

i definitely started the week in a funk and would randomly sink into despair whenever i had a minute to myself. this is the first job i’ve had where i haven’t had coworkers who became true friends (it’s only been two weeks but my only coworkers are three people in the mid 30s to early 40s range who are all my direct superior…..) obviously that’s just lucky on my part but i think it’s actually taking a toll that i just do the work and then I’m completely alone and i’m the only new person and there’s nobody to just like chat shit and process the new working environment with. it feels like being an only child again – i dont know anything and the three of them know each other super well and people are nice to me but there’s nobody to hang out with. and this makes it harder for me to pull off the energy i need to engage kids for 14 hours a day because i have no outlet for anything when I’m there. it’s kind of lonely.

last weekend i was sooooo anxious about canoeing and my walkabout and i had literally no reason to be it was completely fine. canoeing actually kind of pissed me off because nobody gave me any instructions and the tide was sooooooo low that it was so difficult and chaotic to launch…. then when we were trying to raft up with the other canoes i meant to tell the left side to do something but i accidentally said right so we went the wrong way and it just felt so shitty idk. and then when we landed the tide was still so low and my boat hit a sandbar so I had to push us back out and try again to come in and my hiking boots got full of water and i was actually just in such a bad mood. ugghhhhh it was literally fine i just was pissed off

because of that my boots were wet for the entire program and it was so uncomfortable. and now I need to figure out what to do because they smell foul

the weather was unbelievable like it was sunny as they got off the ferry and then it started raining as soon as we launched the canoes an hour later. then it rained and was freezing for 48 hours straight until we did our closing circle and as soon as they got on the ferry to leave it was sunny again…. audacious weather

my poor kids were soaking wet and freezing and we still had to eat lunch outside and they kept asking me why we had to eat outside and i was like girl i literally have no idea. we’re trying to cram 50 people under this tiny tarp can we not just find somewhere to go under cover or indoors like this is insane.

on that note like we literally just need more staff. trying to run programs like this with a staff team of literally 4 people is insane. even just one extra set of hands would make a huge difference and they have no backup plan if somebody gets sick/injured

i’m worried that one of the teachers gave negative feedback about me on the evaluation forms??? there was just some weird specificity in handing out the forms in our debrief meeting that seemed like there was something about either me or one specific other staff member. and that’s fair because i don’t think i did my best work this week but i do wanna know and it sucks because I have THREE BOSSES and NO COWORKERS so everybody just gets to know except for me

i don’t even know like…. in this job i’ve experienced a range from “i like this” to “i actively dislike this” which has never really happened to me at a job like this before. I’ve never once been like wow i love this so much!!! and it’s unusual for my to not enjoy work/being outdoors to the point that i just want to go home. it has its redeeming moments for sure and it seems to get better as the week goes on but it’s hard to not have coworkers that aren’t my superior

my main boss said i was really funny and everybody liked the characters i did this week 👍

got my first pay check and not a moment too soon

i am really looking forward to my summer job w the whales and i have a zoom call with the team on monday so that’s something to look forward to

the program this upcoming week is a completely new curriculum in a completely new location so i’m basically starting from scratch…… sigh.

only 5 more programs babe… it’s fine

[forestshadow-wolf]

Another ghost+soap idea because I apparently can't stop giving them the ouchies. This one's a long one.

Ok a while back I on here I said that I hc that soap has a scar on his hand that he got b4 he met ghost. I'm changing that now because I can't stop hurting my boy bubbles

They're sent out on a mission, just the two of them. Price didn't want to send them, it seemed shady, but the higher-ups forced his hand. Intel was limited, backup would be unable to reach their position for days should it be needed, and exfil would be too far to reach in an emergency.

Price was told that the higher-ups needed soap and ghost's exact skill set. As much as price hates it, he is unwilling to send someone incompetent, so he sends his two best soldiers.

~~~

Soap lay flat next to ghost, scope to his eye, as he'd been doing for the last 3 days. They were stationed deep in some foreign mountain range, watching a small group of buildings. Price said he thinks it's a research facility. They were meant to figure out what was being researched, gather what other info they can find, then blow the place sky high.

The place was heavily gaurded, which is what attracted their attention in the first place. Normally soap would be capable of soloing the mission, but there were aspects that would put ghost's skills and experience to use. With the terrain and his pack full of explosives he'd need to be extra careful, which ghost could help with.

They'd been sat in their position for 3 days, watching the guard rotations, trying to find an opportunity to slip inside. Higher-ups had put him in a tight spot in terms of method of explosion, with regulations and everything, they refused to loosen up on. With such short notice, Soap grabbed what he could, as he packed but...

They'd been there for 3 days, ample time to run the numbers and do the calculations. Ample time for him to think up twenty different ways to not succeed. The gaurds would make positioning and timing difficult, not to mention the size of area he had to demolish with his limited supplies, and there was always the chance of underground expansion that they couldn't account for. There just wasn't enough to go around, and it was making him antsy.

---

For 3 days ghost lay prone, next to soap, looking through his scope trying to map out gaurd routines.

Six days and fifteen hours ago price had called both himself and Soap into his office. He informed them of a mission, pushed to priority on short notice. It required the best of their skills.

They had barely three hours to pack, before a twelve hour flight, which led to a three day hike, plus three days of waiting lead them to now.

They had limited supplies, the higher-ups hadn't bothered to clear them for more than the standard. Which was fine for ghost's part, he'd had to do far longer with far less. But soap wasn't so happy. It seemed okay until soap began running numbers.

There wasn't enough material, and too much space. Soap was getting agitated, he could tell because he'd been quiet for 2 days. Mouthing numbers, and scenario to himself, but none of it worked. He never said anything to ghost though.

---

On the 4th day they packed up, they'd move in come nightfall. Soap would follow ghost's lead, planting what he had along the outskirts. He still couldn't figure out how to blow the rest of the area. He'd just have to hope to find something along the way.

They stashed their packs, tents and other supplies a few miles down the mountain, where they could quickly grab it on the way to exfil. The trek back gave took enough time that they had just enough time to check their weapons and ammo one more time before they needed to move.

The tower guards were easy enough to snipe from their elevated position, and they were far enough away that there was no one to hear their shots. As soon as they were down ghost set about, clearing the area in a spiral pattern, stopping when soap signaled just long enough to set the charges.

By the time they reached the middle, soap had long since run out of all but one charge, and he warned ghost as such. The man paused, and the bottom of his mask shifted slightly, before he nodded and continued forward.

The large center building, evidently used for some kind of research, was more heavily guarded that the rest of the area. Not really a problem for them though, nothing they haven't handled before. Again Ghost took point while soap watched his 6, it was routine. They went room by room, slowly, collecting whatever intel of other information they could.

One room they came across looked to be a storage room for chemicals and other such materials. Ghost was about to move on, but Soap stopped him. Maybe he could see if they had any kind of chemical accelerant, or atleast make one. If he could they'd have to go back and reset all the charges, it was a risk, but if it meant a mission success...

Ghost took watch while he scanned shelfs of chemicals. He got lucky with a number of them, and immediately he began doing calculations. This could work. Only thing he needed now was a bunson burner. Which evidently was not in the room, as he searched more and more frantically.

Ghost seemed to notice his agitation because he told him to grab what he needed at move of, soap listened, if slightly unhappily.

The next few rooms they cleared were, luckily, pretty sparce. Much to their luck they did stumble across a lab room, which soap made them stop in. The chemicals he took, if done correctly, could be made into a highly reactive sticky paste. A paste that if he used efficiency could spread their charges up to twice or even 3x the area.

If time was on their side he'd have had half a mind for proper protection and measuring equipment for the chemicals, but it wasn't. So in lieu of personal safety he shucke off his gloves, as it was easier to feel out the correct measurements without them.

In a too quick pour a spash of chemicals landed on the webbing of his hand between the thumb and forefinger. It burned as it it foamed down the back of his hand, and ran a stripe down his palm. Too focused on watching two liquids thicken as he mixed them together to notice.

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

This isn't done yet, but I want to get it out of my drafts and this is a kinda good stopping place. I'll probably just reblog this when I have the next part... maybe

[sailorwritesstuff]

Bruno leaving his pregnant S/o behind.

+ a little bit of Mirabel fluff.

Okay so you guys found out you were pregnant not by taking like a pregnancy test or anything but the family is getting ready for breakfast and you are the last two come downstairs and 12-year-old Dolores goes "does anyone hear that?"

of course everyone's confused bc nobody knows what she's talking about and then she keeps talking

"Dolores what are you talking about?" and Dolores frowns and looks at Pepa "mamá It's an extra heartbeat It's so quiet." She took her head while pepa and Felix Just look at her puzzled.

You finally come downstairs to join everybody and little Dolores grabs your wrist and tugs you towards her.

And then she places her ear on your still flat tummy.

"its coming from you."

everyone else at the table is like freaking out except for The youngest three who are literally 4,5, and 9.

Bruno, who's frozen in his chair staring at Dolores like she grew an extra head

And you. who just came downstairs has no idea what Dolores is talking about. You laugh nervously at her and part her head. "what are you talking about, amor?"

"there's an extra heartbeat in you" you make eye contact with Bruno (and he blushes because he's Bruno)

"Oh-"

Julieta insist on a party because honestly no one really thought Bruno was going to have kids.

It's relatively small due to Not a lot of people in town liking him but everyone's really too happy to care.

for a few months everything was perfect every morning when he would wake up he would kiss your stomach and mutter "te amo pequeña mariposa" when he thought you were still sleeping.

he didn't let you do too much due to being paranoid. and anytime the two of you went anywhere he threw salt over his shoulder before entering the room.

seriously tho where does he keep the salt??

The only place he's not allowed to throw salt is in Julieta's the kitchen. his sister will smack him in the back of the head with the wooden spoon "suficiente con la sal!!"

he's constantly making sure you've eaten. and he insist that you wear one of his ponchos everywhere. "What if you get cold, Mi Girasol? or worse you catch a cold."

"you worry to much, miedoso." (scaredy cat)

he insist you wear socks to bed even if they're uncomfortable.

despite that he'll cuddle up with you and throw his arms around your body to hold you close at night.

he'll tell you both good night and sweet dreams.

The two of you discussed names and decided if you had a boy you would name him after Bruno's father Pedro with Alma's permission of course. And if she said no your backup option was Mateo.

and if it was a girl, Which Bruno seemed so sure it was, he decided Aurora, You didn't know where he got it from at all

but it means Dawn Which was the time of day he realized "oh shit I'm in love with them"

Him and Mirabel are so cute together

they both talk to the baby. Not the cute baby talk but they have genuine conversations with this baby. sometimes a kind of feels like you're interrupting.

One time in particular you went to take a nap on the couch and you wake up to Mirabel laying along your legs Her cheeks pressed against her now showing Belly and He finger laying next to your belly button just talking. " 'nd so Luisa said I couldn't beat her in a race and I said of course I can! so we raced and i lost." she huffed. "But I'll show her in a few weeks I'm going to get a really awesome gift. Maybe it'll be super speed. I wonder what kind of gift you'll get, Mariposa."

when you turn your head to the side there is you husband sitting next to the couch head pressed into the sofa arm drooling just a bit.

and then everything went wrong.

those few weeks did pass and Alma asked Bruno to look into Mira's future.

when you asked him how it went he got dodgy and didn't answer. Which was weird because He might have been anxious about things but he always made an effort to talk to you about it.

"everything is fine i promise." And he smiled at you. And you believed him. "go wish Mira good luck for me? I'll be down in just a minute."

And then the gifting ceremony happened and you watched as Mira touch the candle with both her little hands and wipe her nervousness on The top of her dress before reaching out to touch the door handle.

You couldn't really focus because your husband was nowhere to be seen

And when you finally refocused on your niece there was no door. and the crowd was silent.

and Mira looked confused to her Abuela, then to her mamá, and then to you.

when things finally settled down And all the flowers have been put away and all The townspeople had gone home you wonder back up to Bruno's Tower.

"Miedoso? Mi Amor? are you alright you didn't watch Mira's gifting-..."

but the room is empty.

You turn on your feet to go and ask anyone else if they had seen him.

"He isn't in his room? He said he was going to lay down a bit just earlier."

But he couldn't have. He said he'd be down in a minute and he never came. your brain insisted if he wasn't feeling well he would have told you.

and so the family searched for a bit. No luck.

and in the morning Felix and Luisa searched again.

Dolores avoided you like the plague. and Mirabel clung to you more than ever.

that night for the first time the baby kicked.

and he wasn't there.

of course what you didn't know is he kept an eye on you. through little cracks in the wall

he listens to you when you talk at dinner and sat in the walls when you sang to his little mariposa

So far but so out of reach.

He would leave little gifts around for you to find. And you just thought it was Casita being nice.

I mean it was a magic house

You give birth with Julieta in the room holding your hand.

You had a daughter. Aurora.

Aurora Mariposa Madrigal you were just a little happier

but Bruno cried for days because he couldn't be there.

he watched in silent distress as you moved out of your room. and the door was boarded shut.

He listened as his name became a taboo subject.

But you told Aurora stories about him. the REAL him.

when he came back he was so awkward and in serious need of a shower and maybe a new poncho.

The three of you hugged and he tells you "i missed you amor."

And he looks at your daughter and says "You've gotten so big mariposa."

[fantasticbluebirdfan]

brain blurb for The Wight Baby for the Job

 @itshype @thegatorsgoose

i get lots done when sick.....

Connor knew it was a bad idea the second Tim said he needed a backup For tonight's Steakout Not only was he the least patient person to do a Stakeout he was also  looking forward to the pirate that mom made but then Tim said he was looking into a new Academy's research facility under a new name that wasn't weird Tim has been looking into a lot of things recently and he's just glad he stopped a little bit sure he's still staying up 3 days straight and I sleeping but at least He just wished it wasn't him

 but the second he knew it was Academy's related he was really interested cuz they're still a lot left and known about what made him into him sure he's a clone of Superman and likes loser but what else he also wanted to make sure that there is no other little clone kids or whatever it is being made in another secret facility and nobody else was cloned

 getting closer to the facility Connor started noticing some strange things they could see people walking around it we can only hear the heartbeats other people outside he can see people through the windows and such and he could hear them answering over the radios and there's still more people inside scientists guards and the like but he can only see the 12 pacing outside 

Tim hacked into the cameras in the facility and saw that they got a new subject and that they are now working with a sister program called the giw that specialize into the Paranormal a quick Research into it it shows that JW is it government-funded program that Is said to no longer to be in use in the next two months if they don't get any real hard evidence of whatever they're hunting

They can find evidence of ectoplasm and such all over the place but there's no concrete evidence of these  so-called ghosts so far I wouldn't seems to be their extra dimensional beings and they don't get no real evidence at these so called ghosts don't feel and pain their funding will be cut in the program will be disbanded

 but recently it is documented that they were getting close to that subject Phantom and lost him after having him get put captivity for about an undetermined amount of time since some of the data is corroded but they noted that they have found a phantom even though he is in the different condition they are 100% sure it's him they said they'll continue with experiments post-taste regardless of what tricks in mind games he tries to pull by trying to make them believe he looks like a human CHILD  and the next part is  screeched out while Tim finds a photo of phantom he doesn't look to be any bigger than three years old likes to be 10  months  at the youngest and while he's scrolling down the patient sees that the notes are being updated live  and are about to start experimenting on the child and sooner or later plants are vivisection neither caring about anything else they both decided to start extracting the child baby 

 meanwhile on the other side of the facility Danny is tired he's hungry he's asking for his dad and all these non-dead of people refuse to give him his dad in fact they look the opposite of his dad and they smell the opposite of him too his dad never wore White and always smelled something funny and coppery of books Gun Leather and smokes even though he doesn't know what those are that's what his father usually smells like the mean man in white start yelling at him and telling him to stop playing tricks on them and that they know what he Really is and he should just give up The Jig and transform back to the Abomination that he is those are big words Danny only knows half of them he just knows that the mean men are not going to get him his daddy and are being mean to him so he decides to be mean back they try to poke him with those bright shiny things you make sure the minute goes all the way in and it can't get it out They later try to strap him in onto a table but he decided to start floating they can't strap him down if he they can't catch him so little baby Danny decides to start floating like his little astronaut like the game him and his dad play fearing that the Abomination would fly out of the facility they put the active shield around the facility 

at this point Tim and Connor have Infiltrated the facility I started knocking out cards and Gathering evidence against them while they try to look for their baby Sarah and the monitor room trying to check out which room they have the baby in and all of a sudden he just see him on screen flirting above the heads of the scientist and seems to be dropping something on top of them and they're running away from him screaming yelling and start SHOOTING  at him why are they shooting at a baby 

Baby danny decides that this is less fun and decides to face through the floor when Tim and Connor lost  visuals on him they had a mini panic attack on how their going to find him, all the sudden they hurt a small little giggle footing above their heads and there's baby Danny suddenly the doors stretched open and a scientist or where is playing at scientist throws something and it actually latches on to the baby turns out that was a work in progress color to suppress ghost abilities obviously being modeled after the meta collars and  power dampeners Listen to say work in progress and only limited two Abilities at the moment  flight and what the team Heroes would call density shifting this cause the baby to fall onto the floor hard 

Now baby daddy is tired scared wants his papa and hungry and was just 10 ft onto the floor  where he a regular human child this would obviously cause some problems then just problems him being a helper with all these Powers containing to a small body shocked him in his state unless he began to cry he still had his ghostly will which had Connor immediately though his hands above his ears to a person damage thankfully Danny was screaming away from him so that did help a lot after the scientists wannabe was incapacitated the two teens just stared at the baby  seeing that his powered crying pit her off into a normal crying until he started yawning and falling like he needed a nap 

Well that was easy is a shirt suck between the two boys two picks up the baby and wraps his cape around him to keep him safe Connor goes to drag the butt into a closet when all the sudden the computer starts making noise and calls their attention back to it Tim shoves the baby into Connor and says “this is where we got to split up The facility is about to self-destruct and they destroying evidence as fast as they can meet each other back outside you get a small head start I'll finish collecting evidence if all else fails we'll see each other at the  at the JL headquarters in space and about an hour” 

“Tim don't leave me with the baby this was your idea your operation I didn't even want to come” 

“ come on Connor it's just for a little bit he's just a baby he can't be that hard to handle he's asleep and wrapped up in my Cape what could go wrong”

Not even 10 minutes later Connor wanted to punch  him to space straight to the JL headquarters forget an hour Connor will send him there in 5 minutes. Well could go wrong he  said he's taking a nap he said he's just a baby he said  damn it Timothy You jinxed it and the short time they've been apart Danny decided it was a great idea to wake up from his little  impromptu nap  that he'll start calling power nap cuz the second he woke up Danny bit him and  sure he's half human but he's also half Kryptonian meaning a child's bite shouldn't hurt that much but Danny isn't normal so they were both surprised Danny waking up in the arms of somebody that wasn't his father and Connor getting bitten that actually hurt  that made him throw the baby into the air accidentally in shock. not only is throwing a baby a very bad idea that's what I meant to be at the worst moment possible cuz a group of giw Agents decide to swarm him and start shooting at both Connor decided to start blocking off whatever and time meta rhetoric that they were spewing from the mouth saying something about not even being human and says to start Plowing through all of them,  thankfully Danny didn't cry out when he fell this time and started biting all the ankles he could reach

This sadly we came up pattern for the next 30 minutes until they escaped and I am throwing the baby well not just during the baby but the baby causing chaos wherever he went he couldn't keep on carrying the baby so he had to let him down a few times and Danny would bite and Claw and think he could reach whether that be humans or any wall panels in start  crawling through the walls  this is how Tim found them actually Connor surrounded by down to agents calling out for the baby and a weird laugh floating around them

“ Connor where's the baby”

“I lost the baby”

“ how can you lose a baby”

“ well Tim it's easy you see I was carrying him I had to put him down had to knock all these fuck**s out and I turn back around and I can't find him he's like he's in the.. W a l l s”

Thankfully at this time to stop the self destruction sequence got all evidence he needed and spent 30 minutes helping Connor get the baby at the walls promising to take him to his daddy after all this They check the baby over to make sure that he wasn't hurt anywhere and took the weird  collar that ended up being a belt for Danny

 And radioed the Watchtower saying that they needed an extraction at this location because they found a   Cadmus facility working  with a previously unknown organization that tried to experiment on a child that is calling for his dad  

 the JL member that picked up was Flash and started to explain that they were unable to extract them at the moment cuz  they're being blackmailed by someone named RedHood  Help find their child but they'll send someone out as soon as they can as soon as those words were  out of flash’s mouth he was pushed out of the way by someone  wearing a leather jacket and a crude red helmet  “damn right f*** you replacement ain't nobody moving until I find my son back and if I find him with a hair out of place so help me I'll burn this world into the ground  starting with-”

  at that moment Red Hood was cut off by a cheerful voice yelling “Daddy!”

 Red Hood did a complete 180 and started baby talking the child in Connor's arm, “ Hi Danny! Daddy's  been looking all over for you are you okay are you hurt did the Weirdos take you who took you  daddy will come get you as soon as he can okay?”

Back at the Watchtower the hero stood by and amazement seeing the 6'2 man that previously  threatened them in detail how he was going to hurt all of them if they didn't find his child which they would have done without any threats by the way start baby talking a child in the arms of Superboy who's standing next to Robin with a burning building in the back