#of course i had to post a shot of The Hands™

[malwa1216]

I Never Asked For This

[total-drama-brainrot]

Noah is canonically the youngest of eight sibling. Eight.

You don't grow up in a family that large, as the youngest and therefore the favourite victim, and not have a super casual relationship with touch.

This guy is light enough to be literally blown away by a strong breeze; if you think even for a second that his family didn't take turns carrying him around like a briefcase and abducting him from whatever he was doing into a Family Pile™ then you're objectively wrong.

(You also can't convince me that he wasn't spoiled rotten as the baby of the family.)

So frequent platonic touching is pretty normal for him, expected even, and he tends to be more tactile than his personality or demeanour would suggest.

He gives Owen side-hugs and pats on the arm every time the two interact, and wilfully flops himself onto Eva whenever he's overwhelmed and wants the company of someone comparatively quiet (she always uses it as an excuse to carry him to the gym and encourage him to bulk up, though it never works). He tries to tire out Izzy's boundless energy by play-fighting and grappling with her (much to his chagrin) despite him essentially ending up as her glorified chew toy, and often times passes out due to being a stick insect in human form.

It's unexpected, just how casually clingy he is to the people he trusts/likes.

But you know who isn't used to physical contact?

Cody E.J. "my parents forgot my birthday" Anderson

This wet noodle of a boy bigs himself up as a ladies' man and a hot commodity but wouldn't know what to do with himself if someone held his hand. The concept of affection of any kind is so foreign to him, especially positive physical contact- I wouldn't be surprised if he could count the amount of hugs his parents had given him on one hand.

And this is backed by his canonical desperation for acknowledgement! Every time he pursues Gwen, even when he's directly shot down and sometimes harshly rejected, he still tries to win her affections and festers the delusion that she likes him. After all, everyone who's supposed to care about him does the same! His parents, 'friends' or lack thereof, ect.; they all ignore/rebuff him so it must be a sign of endearment.

Additionally, he sleeps with a stuffed emu at the ripe age of 16/17- as stated by Sierra, which he never denies (not that there's anything wrong with that, stuffed animals are top tier imho). You know who else sleeps with stuffed animals? Touch-starved people.

Cody is incredibly attention-starved, touch-starved and, post World Tour, in all likelihood somewhat touch-averse- at least when it comes to other people initiating contact.

To elaborate; Sierra is constantly breaching his personal bubble non-consensually, which would inadvertently condition anyone into being at least a little haphephobic, but Cody himself is more than happy to instigate contact with people he trusts (i.e. hugging Alejandro when he protects Cody from Sierra overnight in Rapa Phooey!).

...See where I'm going with this?

We see these two cuddling twice in canon; once in the Awake-a-thon and again in the Celebrity Manhunt. Once is happenstance, but twice indicates a pattern or coincidence but I'm going to gloss over that for the sake of this post.

Plus, with their consistent proximity during Action, they had plenty of time to form some type of relationship be it friendly or more.

(Wouldn't you want to at the very least get some closure from the guy who kissed you/you kissed for the world to see? It would be awkward to completely ignore each other, and they literally shared a cabin at one point so it's not like they were strangers either. So of course they're at least cordial from Action onwards.)

Then, as Noah becomes more comfortable around Cody, his tactile tendancies come to play.

Cody, predictably, reacts skittishly at the alien phenomenon known as friendly touch and tries to play it off to preserve his cool-guy image. Except Noah's not falling for it. He's observant, if emotionally illiterate, and watching the guy you just backpatted in greeting jump five feet into the air and screech like a falcon is a flashing red alarm for even the most empathetically challenged people.

Eventually, Noah gets Cody to divulge his issues with human contact and offers his assistance to the brunette. If giving his pal a hug every now and then, and letting him in turn initiate whatever he's comfortable with, would help him overcome his rocky relationship with touch then Noah is more than happy to oblige. It's not like it's out of the norm for him, so he doesn't mind at all.

Then, gradually, Cody loses his touch aversion.

But a lifetime of isolation won't be magically cured that easily, and he finds himself craving Noah's embrace more and more. Again, the taller of the two is content to give him what he wants. Their agreement evolves into the duo napping together and feeding into Noah's sleep-hugging habit, or just spending quality time in a heap of pretzeled limbs under a weighted blanket.

(Whether their relationship is platonic or romantic is entirely up to interpretation, though I'm partial to the two being friends who are just Like That since it allows for the funniest potential character interactions. The bromance is real.)

That's as good a place as any to end the post, before I end up writing a whole drabble.

[geddy-leesbian]

RE2 Serrennedy AU headcanons

(I'm a Darkside Chronicles stan on main so that version of the events is usually what I have in mind, with some bits and pieces from other canons thrown in)

so a lot of these were in a fic I posted like a couple months ago and eventually deleted because I wasn't happy with it, so until I rewrite and post it again here they are in list format

Prior to Luis and Leon meeting: Birkin is how Luis ends up getting transferred to Raccoon City. There's something in Wesker's Report about how Birkin went totally insane when he felt upstaged by the 10 year old Alexia Ashford, and while Luis isn't as impressive as her, I can still see Birkin's ego feeling somewhat threatened when Umbrella Europe starts trotting out their new hotshot child prodigy. He would hope Luis just meets the same fate as Alexia and dies in an experiment, but it never comes, Luis just continues to be impressive and live up to expectations, so eventually he gets really psycho on main again and starts scheming to get Luis transferred to Raccoon City. So that he can take matters into his own hands and arrange a tragic "lab accident."

There's enough rumors and gossip for Luis to be able to figure out that the transfer is likely bad news for him, but he doesn't feel like he has much of a choice– Either he accepts it and maybe gets killed, or he tries to fight the transfer and gets branded "disloyal" and sent to Rockfort.

Leon and Luis meet at a bar on the way to Raccoon City that Leon stops at when he decides not to go. But then Luis lets a bit about what's happening slip, and Leon goes into hero mode and decides he does want to go after all, and Luis goes along with it because he's instantly down bad for Leon. (it's not essential reading for this post but I have a one-shot of them meeting that spawned this AU)

Luis would try to downplay how much he knows about Umbrella overall, acting like he had no idea what they were up to until he got transferred to Raccoon City. Leon is still naive enough to not question much, but Claire would be a lot more suspicious.

Overall Luis is kinda useless at first. He goes into it with a daydream/fantasy about how the little bit of shooting he did with his grandfather will kick in and be enough that he'll be badass and save Leon. That does Not happen. He doesn't panic and become a burden or anything, but he can't contribute much as far as fighting goes. Of course he's brilliant and able to help with puzzles/navigation/etc.

Luis tries to feel useful by being obsessive about making sure Leon is okay. He gets so much as a scratch, and Luis wants to clean and slap a bandaid on it.

SHERRY. Luis becomes the Designated Babysitter because it's a way for him to be useful, and at first he's Struggling because he has like negative experience with children. Like when he was Sherry's age, he was being groomed by Umbrella and being told how he was so much smarter and more mature than normal kids his age and already working on his degree and being treated like an adult for the most part. So not only has he never been around kids her age, he has no idea what it's like to even be a kid her age. And it doesn't help that she's Sherry Birkin. "hey so I'm like 75% sure your dad was going to kill me haha" isn't a great icebreaker. But once they warm up to each other, Luis ends up being a natural at the whole Being A Dad™ thing. He has no idea what he's really doing, but she likes him and he tells stories and sings to her when they're not worried about being quiet, and carries her to comfort her when they don't want to make noise.

Luis literally just speed runs having a family. Dude goes from being a man whore sleeping around with random women to basically having a husband, daughter, and sister in a few hours.

Tbh I'm still kind of thinking about how exactly Ada would fit into everything, but she would definitely know about Luis to some extent. She wouldn't want to give away too much, but might drop something about her "boyfriend, John Clemens," knowing that Luis would recognize the name, but to Leon and Claire it would sound pretty generic and not mean anything.

And Luis would REALLY want to get (and stay) the fuck away from her after that, because 1. he's playing with his cards close to his chest witch Claire and Leon and trying not to let on just how much he knows about Umbrella/how involved he really is, and doesn't want to run into people who know about him and might. 2. He's not sure what the hell he's going to do after this, and therefore would like it if no one at Umbrella finds out where he was and thinks Luis just fucked around partying the whole time, and didn't go to Raccoon City. (While he definitely doesn't want to go back to Umbrella, burning the bridge literally puts his life in danger.)

So when Leon and Claire bicker about going after Ada, Luis would jump in to back up Claire. It would be for his own personal reason, but his argument to appeal to Leon would be that clearly Ada knows what she's doing and can take care of herself, so instead of going after her they should focus on finding people who do need help. (they would still bump into Ada here and there tho)

Using Leon A/Claire B as precedent, Sherry doesn't get infected, to make a neat happy ending easier. Luis goes with Claire to look for Chris, but before leaving, he drills into Leon (and Sherry to some extent) what to say/do: Play dumb and naive. Insist that he drove into Raccoon City and saw shit on fire and knew something was up, but no idea what. All he did was go to the police station, find it was trashed and Sherry was the only person there. He took Sherry and immediately left the city, without looking around or investigating what was happening. And thanks to having 3 people working together, Leon isn't visibly wounded enough to make it Immediately obvious he went through some Shit. (And Luis instructs him to simply say "rough sex" if questioned about any wounds that are noticed.)

Leon plays the part well enough that the government just views him as a potential useful idiot. He acts like he's still confused and asks if they know what happened to the city, and they feed him a bullshit cover story that he pretends to whole heartedly believe. They still tell him not to talk about it and give him some money they say is to compensate/reward him for the trouble he went through and rescuing Sherry. Really it's just more of a bribe than anything. They assume that if they're nice to him this naive kid that trusts authority and eats up the cover story will happily regurgitate what he was told and vouch that it wasn't the government's fault at all and they even treated him so well after, making him a useful idiot for damage control purposes, if the story starts getting out.

So basically: Leon isn't a government agent or anything, just a normal dude. During the questioning he also keeps saying that if they can't find Sherry's parents then he wants to adopt her, pulling the "I was an orphan too!" sob story card. And they do give him custody of her, thinking she has zero clue what happened/how her parents were involved, so keeping her with a useful idiot like Leon who won't ever try to question anything or dig into her family makes sense.

Luis also gave Leon his jacket to hold onto before leaving. It was originally a present from his grandfather to his mother and eventually got passed down to him, so it's sentimental and he's afraid of it getting fucked up on his adventure with Claire. Leon uses it as a pillow some nights.

Leon decides to just live off the government money for a bit, being unwilling to let Sherry out of his sight. Eventually Claire/Luis get an address for where Chris is and send it to Leon, before getting captured and losing contact. Leon gets there and catches him up on everything, and Chris introduces him to Barry so he's got some type of support system and not just raising Sherry all on his own, and Sherry gets to get some social interaction without Leon going down anxiety spirals worrying about if she's okay.

Chris finds out where Claire and Luis are and goes to rescue them. Leon wants to go, but stays with Sherry.

will probably do another post with headcanons for Luis's adventure with Claire and after they get back?

[a-bitch-made-fullmetal]

GOOD morning. keen observers of Me as a person on the internet might know that I've published a couple of fma fanfics, one of which is titled "chance encounter". that fic, of course, is about Hohenheim being a transphobic piece of shit because I love making fictional fathers evil for no reason.

another fun fact, that fic was originally meant to be from Ed's pov before I changed my mind and made it from Roy's instead because in my head certain elements worked better that way. but I recently came across the original draft, and I quite like it actually, so I'm posting it here!

trigger warning for transphobia and misgendering and also Ray's Customary Hohenheim Character Slander™

At first, Edward thought he wouldn't recognise him.

Hoped he wouldn't recognise him.

It had been over ten years, and he doubted the man had spared them more than a handful of thoughts in the decade he had left them to fend for themselves.

He couldn't possibly recognise him.

Ed shook his head, didn't brush his bangs back when they fell into his face. His gaze landed on the debris littering the street, the torn up cobblestones, the loose wires sparking away from the base of a toppled streetlight.

“Fullmetal.” Edward turned and watched the Colonel step up beside him, surveying the damage they had done as he tugged his ignition gloves off. He waited for him to say something else, rubbing at his faintly aching wrist–sprained, probably–but Mustang stayed silent.

He turned his attention to his little brother, clunking around awkwardly in the background like he didn't know what to do with himself.

At least he didn't have to worry about being recognised.

Ed swallowed against the sour taste on his tongue.

Havoc approached the man idling on the other side of the street, undoubtedly staring at Ed from behind reflective glasses, and he angled himself further away.

“Well, we got our guy–let’s go,” he said and didn't acknowledge the strange look Mustang shot him.

“...sure. The team can handle the rest.” Edward trudged past him, only to screech to a halt two steps later. “Alphonse! C’mon, let's pack it up.”

There was a brief silence before heavy clanking footsteps drew nearer, and Ed closed his eyes, praying for the first time in a long time.

“Alright, boys-” the Colonel began as he fell into step next to them, Hawkeye the ever dutiful shadow at his back.

A heavy hand clapped down on Ed's flesh shoulder, whirling him around with enough force his braid whipped behind his back. He knocked the unwelcome appendage off without thinking about it, moving a quick step backwards to get out of reach.

Golden eyes stared down at him from behind wired frames, and Ed's mouth pulled into a sneer. He was dimly aware of Alphonse's quiet brother somewhere next to him, followed by a metallic click he immediately recognised as the sound of a gun being cocked.

“Rebecca,” Hohenheim said, and Edward reared backwards as if struck-

God, he wished he had just struck him.

That would have hurt less.

“Dad,” Alphonse said quietly, and Hohenheim’s cold eyes flitted from Ed to Al and back, not paying any mind to Hawkeye and her gun, or the fact that Mustang pulled his ignition gloves back on and readied himself to snap.

“I could have sworn you were a girl the last time I saw you,” he said, and Ed balled his fists so tightly the metallic screech of automail filled the otherwise silent street.

“You must be mistaking me for someone else,” he pressed past gritted teeth, eyes narrowed in a vicious glare, his chest so tight he could barely breathe.

“Let's go, Fullmetal,” the Colonel said, voice calm but fingers still poised to snap, and all of a sudden he experienced an appreciation for Mustang's presence he had never known before.

“Yeah.” He turned on his heel, ready to get as far away from this as fast as possible, when a hand closed around his flesh–injured–wrist and yanked him back.

He yelped and attempted to free himself, but Hohenheim didn't budge, and his wrist hurt.

“Unhand him!” Mustang demanded at once, and Hawkeye narrowed her eyes, clicking off the safety.

“She's my daughter,” was all Hohenheim said, and yet all the air rushed from Ed's lungs as if he had taken a good punch to the solar plexus. “Rebecca- you're with the military?”

Ed stared up at the man in pressing silence. It was like he was watching the scene unfold as a third party, standing next to his frozen body, unaffected.

“Dad-” Al began next to him, taking a hulking step forward, his usually soft tinny voice stern.

“My name is Edward,” he cut in, toneless and blank faced, and Hohenheim’s brows knotted in a frown.

“Let go of my subordinate, I will not be asking again-” Mustang hissed from somewhere behind his shoulder, Alphonse audibly nodding his agreement.

“I'm her father,” Hohenheim said as if that was all reasoning required and yanked Ed off balance with a firm tug on his trapped wrist, making him stumble another step forward. “What's going on, Rebecca? What happened to you brother? What did you do?”

Edward's breath caught in his tight throat. His wrist throbbed. He bit back a wince.

“It's Edward,” he breathed again, but his voice was weak and small and barely audible, and he hated himself for it.

“You think I don't recognise my own daughter? I was there for your birth, I gave you your name–what is this, some kind of charade for the sake of your military career?” the last words dripped from his lips like poison, his eyes narrowing behind his glasses, and his fingers tightened around his wrist. This time, Edward couldn't suppress his pained whimper.

“You're hurting him!” Alphonse called, one armoured hand shooting out, but Hohenheim yanked his hand back as if burned before he could make contact. Ed ripped his arm away, cradling it to his chest, and took two quick steps backwards. The added distance wasn't nearly enough.

Something in the man's eyes changed, then, softened, and he let his hand drop to his side, fingers flexing.

“I didn't mean-” he said to Ed, who just glared and sneered, but paused before something akin to an apology could actually leave his mouth–Edward couldn't say he was surprised.

Hohenheim turned to Alphonse. Hawkeye moved from her place beside the Colonel to Edward's other side on silent soles, so that he was flanked by both adults. Inexplicably, something tight inside him uncoiled ever so slightly.

“Him?” Hohenheim said as if he hadn't heard every single time someone had referred to Edward before this instance.

Al nodded. “He's my brother,” he said softly, and Edward swallowed hard, still so affected by the way his little brother spoke those words, effortless and earnest.

The man's mouth tightened into a hard line, and he lowered his head, the reflection of his glasses hiding his eyes from view.

“Your mother would be heartbroken if she could see you like this,” he said quietly, and the numbness encompassing Ed was devoured by an inferno of rage as though with a snap of the Colonel's fingers.

“You do not get to talk about our mother,” he snarled, storming out from the protective cocoon of Mustang and Hawkeye to crowd into Hohenheim's space, his face twisted with fury.

“You-” He jabbed his automail finger into the man's chest, hard. “keep her name out of your mouth, do you understand me? You have no fucking right-”

“Edward.” Somehow, his real name from that man's mouth felt more like a slap to the face than the other one had. “Understand- you took her daughter from her. You took my daughter from me.”

His arm dropped. Spots danced across his vision as though he had taken a blow to the nose, and Ed stumbled backwards-

Right into a pair of strong arms.

“Alright, that's enough. Boys, we're leaving,” Mustang said, low and controlled, and took Ed by his automail arm with a gentleness that was by no means necessary–but still appreciated, even though he wouldn't admit to that out loud–, turning him around, breaking his gaze away from Hohenheim.

Hawkeye lowered her gun, but didn't put it away yet. Alphonse let out a muffled sigh, and then he fell into step behind them.

“Wait- Flame Alchemist,” Hohenheim called, and Mustang let out a long breath, his brow creased with annoyance.

“What?” he snapped, only halfway turned around, his arm a protective barrier between Ed and that man.

“They're my children. I have a right to them.”

A burst of hysterical laughter tore from Ed's throat, but neither man acknowledged him. Al lowered his head with a soft creak, mumbling a tiny brother that tugged on something deep inside his ribcage.

Mustang scoffed. “They're orphans on paper. I'm their legal guardian. You have the right to fuck right off.”

With that, he wrapped his arm tighter around Ed and firmly led him away, Alphonse following without another word.

His chest hurt, and his wrist throbbed, but the tight knot in his stomach loosened with every step he took.

[cru5h-cascades]

DOLL WOMAN AU: THE ENDING

Welp guess it's time for another Doll Woman AU post! Since I kinda wrote about the rest of the story in the other posts, here's how the AU's story ends...

Instead of Taro actively seeking out Emiko like Junko did in the main game, Taro is instead kidnapped by Emiko and this AU's Junko is there to witness the kidnapping. So after tracking down Emiko (and hearing a bunch of shouting) Junko finds herself at the Doll Cabin™, Emiko's hideout.

"I finally got you this time, big brother. And this time I'm not going to let you get away. I'm finishing what I started and this time nobody is here to save you because I made sure of that oh so long ago... Now hold still you bastard!"

It's here where Junko finds Emiko shot in the leg (but still alive though) and Taro out of breath, with a larger cut over his mini Glasgow smile.

This is when the truth about the crime being investigated in the AU is revealed. Taro reveals that he put the doll in Ayaka's hands after discovering her body and that Ayaka actually killed herself. He had no idea that the doll was actually from Emiko and that he regrets messing with the crime scene to begin with.

Since Emiko is still alive by the end of the AU's story, she's taken to a mental asylum because of her issues. But the story doesn't simply end there and Junko finds out about Emiko's backstory via bonus chapter with a side of slice of life anime. Nope! We get to see what's up with Emiko in a timeskip!

The timeskip happens several months after the events of the kidnapping incident. Emiko had the stitches on her face removed and now she just has a Glascow smile scar. She's also a bit more calmer but still has the same sass she had prior to being sent to the mental asylum. This is where we get an abridged version of Emiko's backstory from her perspective...

"Okay, I'm gonna make this short. You see, my big brother Minoru and I had a shitty childhood. Dad went out for cigarettes and never came back so we were left with our shitty mother who couldn't care less about us. So, big bro and I had to have each other's backs, you know? He took care of me and I tried to keep both of us entertained with these stupid dolls I made. I even made mini versions of us. Buuut one day he got the genius idea to just leave me with that BITCH... I was the one to find his body, you know. And because mommy dearest didn't go to the funeral, I decided to deliver some sweet justice. I got stabby... and then I ended up in juvie. Back then I wasn't mad at him for just leaving, at least not completely. Anyways, after getting out of juvie I got a job as a seamstress and tried to turn my life around. I met this guy, his name's not important, but I thought he was neat, but one day we had a fight and I realized something: he was so much like my brother that he just had to be him... and I hated it. So, you know, I made things right. I knew he was long gone so I made sure of that. But of course I figured I'd get locked up again and so I just ran away. That night I even gave myself those stitch marks on my face I loved all so very much. But even after I killed that guy I just kept seeing big bro everywhere, so I kept trying to make things right. Do I regret killing those boys? Nah. I don't. I'm just making things right. There's no way he'd still be around, so seeing him walking around like nothing happened was just so wrong to me. There you have it. You wanted the truth and now you got it, copper. Whatcha gonna do? Send me to jail now? Well you can't 'cause I'm already here. Now get the hell out of here. I'm pretty sure they want me to do more stupid shit anyways...

After getting the abridged version of the story, Junko talks to one of the doctors working at the facility and gets the actual story, which I've already written about in the first post related to this AU.

[shirogane-oushirou]

OMG RO HAPPY ANNIVERSARY WAJFEKAHFEKE ;-; take this as an opportunity to gush if you want!! <333

KJNASDKJN THANK YOU NICK!!! technically i messed up yesterday, it's actually tomorrow kjsndfjkn, but i started the gif and art reblogging early bc i've collected so many lmao ;; i'm the only oushirou gif-maker and people WILL see my boy!!!!!

i was going to gush on my anniversary art post, but you've handed me a golden opportunity to do it here. you will regret this. :3c 💞

[cw quick mention of a scene where he's called a slur]

oushirou's been my most beloved, specialest, best boy since my first year in college. i was working my way through the games, and i saw his profile in some artbook scans, and i went... who the FUCK is this guy??? KAJSNKDJN. i hated his design so much; it didn't fit with the rest of the series's designs.

but he immediately won me over as a side character in the pc game, and then i was Doomed the second i booted up to play the PSP port with the added oushirou route (our 13yr anniversary is the day i started posting about playing his route lol). i became The Oushirou Guy™ in the eng fandom from that point on ;; and, of course, now i'm like "i need MORE characters who look like this guy, RIGHT NEOW" kjsnfkjn.

and then a year later -- 12 years ago tomorrow -- the last game released AND, FINALLY, he had his own karedanna cd! a fandom friend sent a rip to myself and my also-oushirou-lover friend, as we were waiting for ours to ship... and he proposes in it. my friend and i both made this day the wedding anniversary in commemoration. i even have some ancient joke art i made on the release day itself LMAO

i love him so much more than i think i let on; ren's my main right now, so that's what people know me for, but oushirou really is The Blueprint for me.

he's so self-driven. he could have lived a cushy, comfortable life following the family trade as a western fortune teller, but he would rather throw that -- and an unealthy relationship with his family -- away so he could follow his dreams of being a photographer and journalist.

and he's loyal. after his life is saved by another student (kazuki), and he realizes kazuki will be held back due to spending too many days recovering from the injuries he incurred, he makes sure he's also held back a year so he can play as kazuki's right-hand-man during the remainder of their time at seigetsu academy.

also like... ngl, him being a scorpio is like 👀 he's a freak like me LMAOOOO we can be like "every zodiac girlie hates our pussiessss" together. 💖

oh. and then of course he's the Ambiguously Queer Character of the series. he's a little fruity w it in general, he loves crossdressing, he's flirty with kazuki, homare, and shiki, he's stated outright that his love for kazuki and tsukiko are equal and he can't decide between them, and his fashion sense is just a little cherry on top ksjdnfk.

ugh. honeybee's just itching to call him a slur i s2g.... wait omg wait they actually had some one-off characters call him a slur in his first route KJASNDKDJNSDFKJN WAIT???????? I JUST REMEMBERED??????? it was one of the first scenes i translated from his route i'm lksnfkns oh my fucking god. and everything since then has been like. doubling down without actually calling him anything. crying omg ksjdnfkjns.

ANYWAY. just a year ago, he was the character everybody associated me with, only beaten out once ren appeared. even my art username is based on him (zerofoursix -> 0-4-6 -> o-shi-ro -> oushirou). he's pulled me through so many things, from shitty college experiences to my health issues... to even being part of the reason why i picked art back up after i took a 5-6yr hiatus due to art school burnout. ;;

i love him so so much, forever and ever, my beloved hentai sentai red*, my adhd king, my most skilled f/o by a LONG shot**, my scorpio twin, my misunderstood weirdo... he's Everything to me 😭💗

* think i've posted about it once before, but it's a running joke that he's a sentai hero who regularly saves tsukiko from creeps in his AW route ;;

** photographer, journalist, multilingual, fashion-forward, western fortune teller, super emotionally intelligent... i could go on. the guy hides SO MUCH of his power level around others.

[the-06]

'Mac the Knifed

First off, don't call the schmaltz police on me but I want to thank everyone who's liked/reblogged etc. my silly MK1 posts. They were a catharsis of sorts during last month that was the absolute shits for me. After giving the finger to the trainwreck that was MK11 (and my account having been inactive for a long time with also so many of my Tumblr buddies leaving), I've liked most of the bits and pieces of the MK1 story I've seen so far. The game's been out for almost a month now and we all naturally have opinions galore on how our beloved character(s) were treated (Rep fans, raise a glass). The last time I've actually played an MK game was 1999, so for me it's all about the story.

On to the topic at hand. Discussion of our Man of the Hour is under the cut.

For me the biggest revelation, naturally, was the surprising role that Ermac played in the story mode. Yes, he's still suppressed by NRS Brand Plot Armor™, but after nearly two entire decades Boon and company FINALLY got the damn message that fans still fondly remember his Deception storyline to this day.

And did they throw us a bone. The connection again with Kenshi and the resulting TK Bros moment with the rockslide, him again taking out five characters without breaking a sweat (including hand-to-hand combat; yes!!), and him again fighting Ashrah.

Most of all, he was actually important to the plot this time around, FINALLY making Jerrod frickin' relevant and — call it guilt by association if you will — made characters that I've never really cared for like Sindel and Mileena actually likable (and Ms. Useless herself, Tanya, a bit more tolerable), and this is coming from someone who was never a fan of his MK9 ending. I did have an issue with the large gap between chapters in which he appears, which in turn made his revelation as Jerrod seem somewhat rushed, but it's — to use a favorite expression of mine — complaining about the color of the couch in the mansion. Definitely a 9/10.

And despite all this...it's gone relatively ignored so far because people still won't quit bitching about his design.

Well, get the hell over it. His MK11 look is not happening. He's not a ninja anymore. And it's now clear as crystal why he's not masked. (I guess I'll be pedantic myself and say maybe he should've been masked after his creation and then taken it off when Jerrod took over.) It's already been three months since it was revealed, it was ONE shot in a trailer, and it looks far better in action. The same people constantly griping about Ermac looking like a mummy back in MKX are now going completely apeshit because more of his skin is showing this time around. Pick one or the other, folks. Can't we just put this crap aside and focus on his having a strong role in an NRS-era MK story mode for the first time?

Veering off topic a bit, but I've realized something else recently. Ermac went from a nonexistent glitch to having a badass distinctive symbol (his Deception chest design that's a mainstay to this day) and an iconic catchphrase. Other than Scorpion, who the hell else in MK can boast that? Maybe one or the other, but not both. (Plus, the telekinesis will never not be sexy.)

That's so much marketing potential for NRS but since Ermac is not either of The Big Two, they've elected to sit on their hands. What a damn shame. Hell, a spinoff game featuring the Outworld Six based on Kotal Kahn's ending (the best in MKX), with them squaring off against a maniacal Raiden to reclaim their realm, would've done wonders for their characters and been the GREATEST thing ever. It of course had a snowball's chance of happening but just as a fan of these guys it literally hurts thinking about the wasted potential.

Thank you for listening. The collection plate will now be passed around.

[sunflowergem]

💚🧡💜Da Gurls!!

Behind the scenes on the making of and some lore for them under the cut 👍🏽 I hope I remembered everything this time, Tumblr might have messed me up.

If you saw a post like this earlier and then it suddenly disappeared. It's because Tumblr bungled itself and I was trying to edit a draft and then save and it posted for some reason and deleted the like five paragraphs I had added. So now I've got to remember where those were go back and add them again and then get back to finishing this 🤬😡

The shine on some of the metallic bits went hard on that first picture so I took a couple angled shots. And there's also like the progress here. Getting the proportions right for this was insanity inducing 😵‍💫

So yeah, here's more confirmed looks at Clover, Spade, and Diamond. There might still be a few things that get tweaked in the future, but overall I'm pretty happy with this. Colors are a little limited because of markers, but one day I'll do a digital version with a bit more control. It overall gets the color scheme across though and I had a lot of fun with the metallic paint pens.

So collectively they are known as team charm. As a group they function very much as like early 2000s girlz™ vibes with like being absolute besties and each other's biggest hype man. They also very much become the biggest cheerleaders they can for anyone they deem as their friends. So some of the other teams in the main series eventually will get the same treatment. I'm thinking it would be cool if they could cast buffs on folks to help in like fighting scenarios even if they aren't being main character fighters at that time. I just think it would be a neat way for there to be diegetic music when folks be fighting.

As I said in there the first rough sketch post they come from a different dimension from the main Sonic the Hedgehog folk. I've been watching timeline videos to try and get a wrap around Canon lore and where they would fit best. I think the rough outline for their story would be that they ended up lost and now they're trying to get back to their own dimension. Timing wise I think Clover could pop up somewhere during adventure 1 as a new character and she mentions she's looking for her friends. At the end of that game I'm seeing a cutscene if you like a rank, everything or something like that, I'm not actually super familiar with the games, but there'd be in an ending scene where she's reuniting with the two of them. Next game they'd be working as a team trying to figure out how they accidentally ended up there and how to go home.

Vague backstory wise their dimension has a lot of people who use magic. Very fantasy heavy and they go to school together to try and harness their own forms of magic. Clovers is vocal, Spade is kinesthetic (dancing), and Diamond works with instrumental. Magic system is very soft on rules and overall the magic is connected to both creativity and emotion/ willpower. On the weekend, which is why they're in their casual outfits not school uniform, there was an incident with an experiment and the pendant that Clover is wearing. It's hard to tell in the first picture. I'll try and do a close-up another time, but it's a heart-shaped pendant that belonged to her mom. Students of magic get charms to help them restrict and refine magic until it can be properly controlled by the user. Clover has a hand-me-down charm since they can be a little expensive to be made and her mother's not around anymore. Spades charm is on her hat and Diamonds is the belt buckle (It might change to be the tie clip instead one day. I'm not sure which one I like more) and of course, each of the charms glow when the girls are activating their magic. I also think it would be fun to pull some magical girl inspiration into this so they can change their outfits to match the genre of music that they're vibing with when casting magic. The outfits here are their default because it's their favorite genres. But eventually I'll draw like everyone in things for classical music or everyone in things for hip hop and then so on and so forth. I also think it could be neat if like there was a bit of an element system and it changed along with their genre or maybe it just depends on the song or the mood of the person doing the performance. Which for reference performance would be like the umbrella term for all three of their types of magic. It's also why they're magic is so compatible with each other.

But yeah something went funky with Clover's charm. Maybe they were trying to change it so it matches color since the red clashes majorly with the outfit. Perhaps it was a different spell. Detail of why the accident happened is unimportant. What is important is that they ended up on the same planet as Sonic and friends (I think it's Earth but when I was watching lore videos was rather unclear) at first they were separated so first people would see Clover she'd be very much focused on trying to find her friends.

After reuniting I have vague ideas for them being connected somehow to the Black Doom stuff and that's why they ended up being called to another dimension. Not sure if I love that as a plot point, but it does make it easy for them to head back to their own dimension afterwards. I figure magic in this system just kind of has a will of its own and lets them go home after that. After that they pop in and out of stories as I see fit. Once I've got a better handle on the timeline I might do a list of where any of them might appear in any of the games/other media properties. I also if I ever write this, might do just completely original story and have it set in the magic universe and the Sonic characters end up there somehow. And then I could tie in flashbacks for like how these folks met and all that. I think it could be kind of fun. Just good silly fanfic fodder.

But let's give some information on the girls individually shall we. I'm also going to slip in some reasons why I made certain decisions and background on how these guys kind of developed in my brain. Just cuz it's a few things are funny to me about the whole process.

Clover the Hedgehog

The first of this group of OCS that I thought of and I've had her rattling around in my brain for a while, but this is a more finalized version, which is why I'm now sharing it with the world. Clover is about as happy go lucky as she looks. She's very much supposed to come off as in early 2000s girly girl character which is kind of a departure for my original thought.

Originally I thought I'd be kind of neat to make a tomboy girl Hedgehog in contrast to Amy Rose from like main series. There is a lack of female hedgehogs obviously and I thought that would be a very characteristic of like when Sonic was coming out to make a tomboy girl. But over time she became more of a pop idol vibe in my head and it just brings me much more joy this way. She's very casually flirtatious in interactions as opposed to like Amy being single-minded with Sonic for a good chunk of her screen time. I thought a lot on how to contrast and compliment Amy, when I was developing Clover at first some things are remnants from that. However, unlike Amy, Clover is rarely serious about her flirtations.

I just realized that Clover from totally spies also has the whole flirtation personality trait and I didn't do that on purpose lol

Clover came from small town where her mother and father had a little family band kind of thing. They used to be a singing in like guitar Duo before Clover came along and they started to bring her into the mix too. Clover adore performing! Clover's mother ended up out of the picture. Not sure if I want to write her as fully dead or just disappeared and maybe there's a mystery. But yeah either way she gone (for now) and we had single dad raising Clover for a while. Once Clover started to show signs of magic, I'm thinking in my world maybe this starts to happen around double-digits usually so Clover was old enough to remember her mother but her mother didn't see her magic search to develop. The family was originally saving up to get Clover a charm made for her before sending her off to school but Clover asked if she could keep her mother's instead.

Clover at school was very much a social butterfly but didn't have a lot of close friends until she met Spade and Diamond. The trio ended up being instant besties and started performing together. These small performances at college would end up growing into them being musical stars in their dimension before they mysteriously disappeared to the dimension with canon characters.

Clovers the speedy character in the trio because of course the hedgehog gotta go fast. She's pretty fast on just her feet, but with the rollerblades she goes even better and she enjoys just being able to glide along instead of running. As much of an extrovert as she is, her hobbies are walking in parks and she has a particular love for reading outdoors.

Clover can act on her own is quite airheaded and easily distracted, so she's not the best leader. That role in the trio actually goes to Spade.

Characters with similar vibes in other media would be; Serena from Sailor Moon, Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: FiM, or Bee from Bee and Puppycat

Spade the Mole

So originally when I started drawing for Sonic OC stuff I just had Clover. I knew I wanted Clover to be part of a trio but I didn't have like specific animals or anything other than like the names, cuz I liked the idea of using card suits to go along with Clover, picked out yet. So credit to @beecreeper who suggested Spade be a mole because you dig with a spade. My brain latched onto that idea so quickly! I immediately pictured her with the big old glasses which are supposed to be tinted to protect her from bright lights. Not sure if that came fully across in the picture but yet. After that I thought about it and she came to me in a vision with like a street wear hip hop aesthetic as a contrast to Clover's pop idle vibes. So yeah, this might have been one of my fastest developed OC's. Not that it's a bad thing. It's just very funny that she spontaneously formed almost fully developed immediately into my brain. And then once developed they demanded to be drawn. So here we are with a trio being pumped out instead of just Clover.

This does mean I don't have as much backstory wise nor characterization for Spade. She's definitely the most reliable of the trio and is the most charismatic. That's why she gets to lead a lot of the decisions. She's very grounded (ha) and at the risk of another pun is great at digging into the real root of an issue. She's the one who keeps the other two on track to figuring out how to go home. Clover is more interested in just having a good time and Diamond really wants to know how and why they ended up in another dimension, but Spades got her eye on the prize. Once she sets out to do something there's very little that can be done to stop her, this does lead to a stubborn streak which can cause some problems for the group but with Diamonds, analytical skills and Clovers go with the flow nature, they can usually find a way around any problem.

As for abilities, she's a power character, she's able to dig very quickly and hit very hard from below. Not to mention magical abilities. Still working on exactly what the magic system is but I think since hers is dance based it could be interesting to have it. Maybe spawn duplicates and then they can rush at enemies or do whatever else needs to be done. I don't know that one's still developing. Other than dancing she can also sing well and play drums and piano.

As mentioned with the magical girl vibes way back, quite a few paragraphs. The girls are proficient at many different genres of music, meaning Spade is proficient at many types of dances as well. Hip hop is just her favorite. I unfortunately can't go into heavy detail when it comes to dance and how to apply it because I am not a dancer! Despite my best efforts with lessons. When I was a teenager I have two left feet. I'm probably going to do more research into the whole thing and she'll develop more from there though. That's the nice thing about researching real life topics it can lead to some interesting things for your OCs later.

Characters with similar vibes in other media would be; Mina from Sailor Moon, Phineas from Phineas and Ferb, or Kim from Kim Possible

Diamond the Dragonfly

In a similar vibe of research, turning into stuff for OCs I think dragonflies are my favorite bug. I actually started learning about them for information on their wings for a different OC which I'll probably get to another day and I started to fall in love with all the interesting little factoids about them. Did you know that per catch dragonflies are per catch probably the most effective hunter in the natural world with a 95% catch rate on prey. Wild!

Diamond wasn't the fastest in all this but she did develop quite quickly. Once I had drawn up Clover who was midsized and Spade who I decided to make smaller and rounder, I decided I wanted a longer character. And since I was looking at like team building and had a speedy character and power character already, I needed somebody for flying. With the name Diamond. I already had the vague idea that I wanted either a bug or a reptile. I was also debating on if I wanted to go for Heart or Diamond for the name since I was pulling from card suits. Diamond ended up winning out because I thought it would be a cooler name for some form of insect character, Heart or some form of the word will end up being Clover's mother's name, and diamond dragonfly just had such good alliteration. Plus they are kind of gem looking so year.

I forget exactly when I decided on the classical/ conductor vibe. It might just be cuz I'm starting to get into wearing vests in real life. But yeah that is the mood with Diamond. Although they can talk but they don't do it often. They're actually super socially anxious and prefer to talk only when they're around the other two girls. Given the put together look that Diamond has she's also sometimes mistaken as the leader of the group, but she will just stare if somebody starts to address her. As such. It's actually quite intimidating which she finds very funny. Once you get to know her though, you can get the vibe of what she's thinking. Even without her saying anything. Her facial expressions can be quite revealing. Her actually talking around folks that aren't super close to her is either a sign that shit just got real or she had a really good one-liner. There is no in between with her.

Like most characters that don't talk, she has a particular pension for a noticing important details that others might miss. She's highly analytical and is the best at strategizing among the girls.

I also think she came from a more well-off family than most back in their dimension. She had access to a lot of different musical instruments and is somewhat known as a prodigy. Like Clover, she didn't have a lot of close friends until the other two came into her life. It's not that people didn't try and befriend her. It's that her social anxiety combined with her super busy schedule, learning many different instruments and magic to go along with it made it hard for her to socialize. The fact that the girls went to school and were able to harmonize easily with her made it so they could speed run becoming buddies.

With the conductors baton, she's also got the most traditional magic wielder vibe in some ways since she uses it like a wand. I'm thinking projectiles might be interesting. Like music shaped notes ones that can go after folks. Other skills would include The flight of course, and she's very precise with her flight. Fun fact, dragonflies can fly backwards, upside,and hover in mid-air, they're just so freaking cool! Along with being able to conduct an orchestra, she also does pretty well as a DJ and can play most instruments, although her favorites are cello, flute, and theremin.

Characters with similar vibes in other media would be; Ferb from Phineas and Ferb, Gromit from Wallace and Gromit, or Snoopy from Peanuts (I didn't mean for hers to mean mostly animal based but the silent but sassy animal companion is such a common trope I'm realizing)

[knifedog]

Lmao I can’t believe I missed you saying that you watched Kubo and the Two Strings last month - that was my MOVIE when it first came out!! I actually decided to rewatch it after seeing your post, and yeah that last shot of Kubo with his mom and dad’s human SPIRITS smiling at each other and then the audience after everything that happened was just plain mean of the movie makers, no way they didn’t know what they were doing with that XD

(Warning and apologies for the following movie rant that this rewatch awakened in me) What did you think of the Moon King and the Sisters? I thought they were AWESOME villains the first time I saw this in theaters, PLUS it turns out that they’ve got really good rewatch value. In the Sisters’ case, it makes total sense now why the chain-wielding Sister at the boat freaked out and lunged at Beetle when she first saw him. And then there’s the smoking, sword-wielding Sister rubbing him actually being Hanzo in his face at the fortress trap and waiting until he was sharing a tender moment with his son to get back up and kill him for good. These two have a GRUDGE™. In the Moon King’s case, him visiting Kubo’s dream pretending to be a blind seer was actually pretty smart; Kubo of course had no way of knowing what his grandfather looks like at that point, and the Moon King made their meeting spot out of origami paper and was playing his personal shamisen like Kubo always does to make him more comfortable and likely to trust the dream.

SPEAKING OF THE SECOND SISTER AND THE MOON KING, I completely forgot that these two both straight-up backhanded Kubo when he fought back against them?? Hard enough that he blacked out for at least a solid minute each time??? Like, after Kubo swipes at his Aunt’s face with his shamisen pick when she’s about to RIP HIS OTHER EYE OUT, she full-on screams in a rage before smacking him?? Like girl what did you think he was gonna do - you’re standing here GIGGLING about this eye horror shit you’re about to do to your 11-12 YEAR OLD NEPHEW like it’s a game, but all of a sudden there’s a huge problem just ‘cause he broke your mask and pipe in self-defense?? And then she just kinda looks at him on the ground for a moment right before Monkey Mom rushes over with the Sword Unbreakable - YEAH BITCH HE DID A WHOLE FLIP FROM HOW HARD YOU HIT HIM WHAT YOU DIDN’T THINK THAT WOULD HAPPEN OR YOU JUST REALIZED WHAT YOU DID OR WHAT WHAT’S THAT STUPID SORTA-STUNNED-BUT-STILL-ANGRY LOOK FOR!?!

AND WHEN THE MOON KING FINALLY SHOWS UP IN PERSON he’s all amicable and shit like Kubo didn’t lose both his parents all over again all at once and his veneer keeps cracking when Kubo brings up totally valid points that he doesn’t like and when Kubo’s fully fed up and full of rage and like “I’m legit gonna try to kill you now” he’s like “oh how mortal very well” before going literal beast mode and then SQUEEZING Kubo in his creepy tail-hand once he nabs him right before BACKHANDING HIM LITERALLY ACROSS THE WHOLE FOREST THANK GOODNESS KUBO’S A LITERAL DEMIGOD OR HE WOULD’VE BEEN KILLED RIGHT THEN. And SPEAKING OF KILLING I was SURE that the Moon Beast was trying to kill Kubo in return at this point but I misremembered that too?? Because when he corners Kubo as he’s letting go of his anger near the river where the Sisters first showed up he’s all “now take one last look with that lonely eye at this wretched place” and Kubo replies quote “I’m not leaving” with a bunch of stuff about how he can still see with one eye the beauty of the world despite the awful stuff just like his parents did and the Moon Beast replies quote “Then I’ll just have to rip it right out of your head again, won’t I?!” SO HE ACTUALLY STILL WANTS TO TAKE KUBO TO BE PART OF HIS FAMILY IN THE HEAVENS EVEN WHILE DOING ALL THE SHIT HE DID NOT TWO MINUTES AGO, AND THEN HE’S ALL QUOTE “Everything you loved is gone! Everything you knew has been taken from you!” YEAH IT WAS TAKEN BY YOU AND YOUR TWO OTHER DAUGHTERS AND YET YOU’RE TRYING TO CONVINCE YOUR GRANDSON INTO GOING WITH YOU IN THE MIDDLE OF SIMULTANEOUSLY TRYING TO FORCE HIM BY PHYSICALLY ATTACKING HIM AND ARE UPSET IT’S NOT WORKING???

The first Sister isn’t even exempt from this behavior just because she doesn’t have any one-on-one interaction with Kubo since she was giggling right along with her twin when they first met him. The interesting thing is that SHE ALSO shows signs of personally wanting Kubo in the family since both her and her twin said quote “We’re here, Kubo. You’re family has come for you.” when he was running away and tripped at the bridge on top of having HER OWN moment of being pissed that he wasn’t cooperating when she found his drinking gourd in in the snow and said quote “He’s searching for the armor, just like his insolent father.” sounding all irritated/hurt/disappointed??

My thing with the three Moon Family members upon rewatch is that all three of them are obviously abusive and take sadistic joy in what they’re doing yet genuinely want Kubo to be part of their family, try to “comfort” and/or convince him in the middle of what they’re doing (the above example with both Sisters at the bridge plus the second Sister brushing Kubo’s cheek with her hand and shushing him when she’s about to take his other eye plus the Moon King trying to convince him with his words twice, calmly when they first meet and frustratedly near the end) and are pissed that he doesn’t want to go with them all at the EXACT same time?? I’m not bad-angry with it either as if it were bad writing since people like this honest-to-God exist in real life and the Laika writers consistently establish the Moon Family as being this way throughout the movie so you know that’s what they’re going for; I’m good-angry with the characters themselves because - once more with feeling - 👏 what 👏 did 👏 you 👏 think 👏 he 👏 was 👏 gonna 👏 do?? Like I totally get why Monkey Mom had to clarify to Kubo that the Moon King doesn’t hate him (I also misremembered that scene as Kubo asking her “Does Grandfather hate me?” when he actually asked “Why does Grandfather hate me?” like little boy had fully come to that conclusion all on his own at that point in the movie) as well as her comment to the second Sister saying quote “I think we have very different definitions of family” because the mixed signals are really something else?? I don’t know whether it’s because they’re actual malignant sociopaths or because they’re a literally immortal, human-looking godly species or both but I’m just gonna end this by saying kudos to Laika for looking at Even Evil Has Loved Ones, looking back at the movie they’re in the middle of making, and going “yeah, we’re gonna play this trope straight but in the exact opposite of the wholesome and heartwarming read of it 😈” for the SECOND time now.

oh! I love the enthusiasm! I really really really enjoyed the movie, I loved all the characters and character designs. The beats in the movie were great. All the fights were great. It really feels like a movie worth rewatching to notice the interactions now that you know the twist! i just wanted something from kubo mourning the loss of both his human family and his celestial family. he's like twelve? and he's lost everyone he's related to, even if they were trying to kill him. it sounds like he would've wanted all of them in his life if possible. and now he's left with nobody in the whole wide world, or at least he thinks so. I would've loved the finale scene of kubo being devastated of losing all his family and then the village seeing what happened basically adopt him. you know the whole 'your family doesnt have to be who you are born too. your family can be the people around you' the villlagers already like kubo the just never understood why he had to leave before sun down.

its just kinda weird that scene goes to the grandfather when he becomes human.

and I don't mind the darkness! i think it's good for kids to have that!! I just want some balance where it's ok to have loss there's always going to be people around you to help pick up the pieces!

[just-another-thundermans-blog]

Mr. Thunderman, Your Son is a Rocket Scientist, Part III

-O-

Hello! The last time I posted anything for this little fic of mine was... 27/7/2020 I guess! Today is 12/6/2022! Yeesh a nearly two year absence...

Well, I'm back now so... Yay? Yeah yay!

I hope you guys like this, my writing style changed quite a bit since 2020 and I scraped off the entire idea for the old Part III! Hopefully this has more substance so I can start working in the fourth and final part!

Now, I'll leave you with the fic!

---

Original Snippet - Part I - Part II - Part III (Draft) - Part IV

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"Nora, honey, would you go check in on Max?"

Nora looked up from her doll in order to meet her mother's eyes as the woman called for her attention. Normally, Barb never bothers to ask her youngest daughter to help with anything (other than the standard chores of course) and thus, the 8-year-old girl was slightly perplexed. 

Nora wrinkled her nose as she processed her mother's orders, obviously not wanting to do it, and decided to settle for the easiest thing she could do. 

Complain.

"Why me?" Nora whined in exasperation. 

Her mom rolled her eyes at the (typical) reply, "Because," Barb started pointedly. "Phoebe is helping me out with dinner and I'm, obviously, too busy making dinner."

Nora scowled. "Can't you ask Billy to do it then?"

Barb sighed loudly as Phoebe mumbled something from her place next to the stove. 

Barb shot her eldest a pointed look (as the girl sighed dramatically and turned her attention to the stove) before directing all her attention to Nora. "Sweetie, we all know that Billy lacks…. Tact."

"But-!"

Barb straightened up sharply and gave her youngest daughter 'The Look™'. "No buts!" Barb cut in. "Besides," The woman sighed tiredly. "Your dad decided it was a good idea to take Billy for some 'last-minute’ shopping at the Chocolate Festival in Belgium. I doubt they'll be back any time soo-"

Suddenly, wind-whipped by Barb's face, upturning her perfectly styled hair as the older woman blinked in surprise. Nora had to stifle a laugh as Billy perched himself next to her looking both hyper and aware at the same time.

"We're back!" Her dad's exhausted voice trailed from the living room. 

Barb blinked before she sighed in exasperation. Nora groaned as her mom shooed her and Billy out of the kitchen and into the living room, where their dad was already sprawled on the couch. 

"Billy, put those away in the fridge." Hank said, handing Billy two big paper bags. "And don't use your super speed! We don't want your mom to kill us."

Billy smiled at him bouncing slightly. "Will do!" He said as he ran (normally) to the kitchen.

Nora sighed loudly as she distantly heard her mom tell Billy to 'go and sleep off this sugar rush'. Great. Now she had to go and check up on Max herself. 

"This stinks.” The young girl muttered, as she started heading towards Max’s room. 

"Hm? What's wrong sweetie?" Her dad asked, straightening up a bit so he could look at her properly. 

Nora frowned. "Nothing." She sighed. "I'm just going to check on Max."

"Okay." Hank shrugged a little dismissively. "Yell for me if anything's wrong."

"Will do." Nora replied as she opened the door to the basement a little forcefully.

Walking down the stairs, Nora noticed two things. 1) Max's lair was too quiet. 2) It was dark. 

'Weird.' The 8 year-old thought. 'Max hates working in the dark.'

Nora paused for a moment. If Max's lair was dark did that mean… was Max finally done with his project? 

Well, only one to find out. 

Nora carefully stepped into the lair, noting how dim the blue LED lights were. Normally, Max had those obnoxious things on 'full luminance' or something. Right now they were barely making any light, a stark contrast to how they normally are. 

Luckily, there was just enough light for her to see where she was stepping and where Max's work tables were. There was also enough light for her to clearly see a human-shaped lump on her brother's bed. 

Nora frowned a little worriedly. Max almost never sleeps deeply. If anything he mostly functioned on power naps and barely 4 hours of sleep almost everyday. Or so she heard her mother say whenever she scolded her eldest brother for not taking care of himself.

The 8-year-old slowly approached her brother's bed and leaned in to get a closer look at his face. Max's mouth was a little bit open and, if she concentrated hard enough, she could hear him breathe softly through his mouth. She slowly waved her hand in front of his face. 

No reaction. 

Okay, now she was getting worried. Max was the type of person to wake up if people so much as breathed a little loudly next to him and here she was, standing next to his bed and practically leaning over him. Her presence alone should have woken him up.

'Should I just call for dad?' Nora wondered. 

"Hey. Girlie."

Nora jumped in her place at the sudden sound and spun around. 

Dr. Colosso was watching her from his cage, his beady little eyes looking directly at her as she hovered next to her brother's bed uncertainly. 

"You scared me." Nora hissed a little harshly. 

Dr. Colosso snorted. "You were looking a little worried there." He whispered. "I was doing you a favor."

Nora raised an eyebrow. "You're a supervillain. Villains don't do favors."

"Well, look at you being a smart munchkin." 

Nora wrinkled her nose. "Shut up." She looked back at her brother. "Is he okay?"

Dr. Colosso didn't respond. 

Nora fidgeted in her place. "Uhh, Dr. Colosso?"

"What? You told me to shut up."

"Dr. Colosso!"

"Fine fine, yeesh. Kids these day." The bunny adjusted himself a little in his cage. "Yeah, yeah, the kid's fine don't worry too much."

Nora frowned. "But-"

"He overworked himself a little these past few days, that's why he's out like a light. He'll be back up and running after a little snooze time, so don't worry that little head of yours."

Nora relaxed a bit. "Okay then." She approached Dr. Colosso's cage. "So, what was he making?"

Dr. Colosso's mouth did that weird thing it does whenever he smiles. "It's a surprise." 

Nora felt her lips curl into a pout. Now she wanted to know even more! 

"Well, can you give me a hint?"

"Personally, I think it's a bit less impressive than what he normally creates, but the simpletons at NASA? They'll lose their absolute minds."

"That's not a hint Dr. Colosso!"

"Well, that's all I have for ya so why don't'cha beat it, huh?"

Nora huffed. "Whatever." She muttered, as she left the room. 

Opening the basement door, Nora was met by her parents and sister in the living room. Her mom was fidgeting a little in the middle of the room while her dad looked concerned. Phoebe was just on her phone.

Her mom stopped moving the moment she saw her. "Nora!" Barb exclaimed. "What took you so long? You've been down there for fifteen minutes!"

Nora blinked. "Really?" 

"Yeah." Hank sat up even straighter. "Did something happen?"

Barb leaned a bit towards her daughter. "Yeah, is your brother okay? Do we need to get down there and check on him? Do we call an ambu-" 

"Mom you're overreacting." Phoebe huffed, not looking up from her phone. "If something was wrong Nora would've started screaming, like, 10 minutes ago or something."

Barb didn't seem too convinced. "Well, how is Max, Nora?"

Nora blinked. "Oh. He's asleep." 

"Oooh." Hank nodded. "Well, is he coming up for dinner? Your mom made a casserole.

Nora shook her head. "I doubt it. He didn't wake up when I stood next to him and waved my hand in his face." 

That gave everyone a pause. Even Phoebe had her fingers hovering over the keyboard of her phone, almost as if she'd frozen. 

"Wait, you mean Max is asleep? Like actually asleep? Like, deep deep asleep?" Hank asked, already halfway off the couch. 

Nora nodded. "Yeah. Dr. Colosso said he overworked himself a bit and that's why he's sleeping super deeply."

Barb frowned. "I see." She exchanged a look with Hank. "Well, you kids go wait at the dinner table. Your dad and I will check in on Max and come join you in a little bit " 

Nora agreed quietly as she followed Phoebe to the kitchen. She wasn't surprised her mom and dad were worried. Max has never (to her knowledge) slept so deeply before. Even when he does, he's almost never still. He keeps on twisting and turning on the bed. That's how they found him on the floor the couple of times he slept on the couch of the living room. 

She really hoped Max is okay. 

(10 minutes later her mom and dad joined them. Nothing was terribly wrong, at least according to the various first aid scanners they have in their house. Max was just a little too tired, they told her.

Nora was glad he was okay. She would hate not having anyone to talk to whenever Billy wasn't available.)

[ageless-aislynn]

👻 and 🥳!

Aw, thanks so much for playing along! 😁

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

Okay, so it’s not really wild since I’ve talked about it so much and written a fic about it, too, but I would’ve LOVED to see the mayhem these two could’ve caused together, lol! They’d have this whole Covenant war thing cleared up in a week or so, I’m thinking... 🤔😂 Either that or they’d have the galaxy burned down. I’m confident on one or the other, though! *fist thump* 😂

In other headcanon news, I’m pretty sure I can justify every member of Noble Team somehow surviving Reach. Even the ones we clearly saw Get Killed™. Jorge was actually transported safely away to a slipspace destination before the explosion and just needs to catch a ride back! Kat’s shields had begun to recharge and managed to direct that shot around her helmet, she was just knocked unconscious and woke up later with a slight headache! Carter was just a little bit shot-up and managed to eject before crashing into the Scarab. Give him a couple of Band-Aids and he’s fiiiiine. 👍 Emile’s shields are still active (seriously, they really are, you can check when Six goes up to the MAC gun, the Elites’ are too, they also have been known to blink 👀) so clearly he was only a tiny bit stabbed and is sleeping it off. Boy, is he going to be embarrassed when he wakes up and he TOTALLY missed shooting down that huge ship, right? We all know that Six found the Deepest Cave on Reach™ and hid out there. It’s practically canon at this point. 😇 And Jun comes back like...

Jun: What the heck, guys? I left you for 10 seconds and now the planet’s been glassed???

*gigglesnort*

🥳 Why did you start writing fanfic?

I didn’t know that’s what it was but I wrote my very first fanfic about a total self-insert Mary Sue and Mr. Spock back when I was maybe 10? I loved Star Trek and Spock, I loved writing stories and the two just combined. It was a way for me to feel like I could be a part of something I loved.

The first fanfic I actually posted was for Lord of the Rings when Fellowship came out, another self-insert but this one was purposely aware of it, written like “my” diary as a serial done over the course of a year. Then the first “proper” fic I wrote was for Doctor Who. I’d had writer’s block for 6 years at that point (yes, years; that was awful as somebody who used to always be writing something) but I had several friends who were writing Ten/Donna and encouraged me to try my hand as well. I decided to try a drabble, just to prove to myself I could write 100 words. Then I got such a nice response, I wrote another one. Eventually, I wrote quite a few DW fics.

But the thing they all ultimately have in common is a way for me to feel like I’m a part of whatever show/movie/etc I love. 🤗

Thanks again so much! 😁

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

[jimkirkachu]

oh?? Turnabout Intruder fic? Tell us about it? :)

(another lengthy reply, because apparently I can't help myself 🙈)

Okay so... I have several Word docs that are just random k/s fic ideas I jot down whenever they come to me, right? Outlines, messy one-line scrawled ideas, half-stories that I don't know how to start or finish or fit together in the middle, little blurbs/paragraphs of actually edited stuff (but they're, you know, just individual paragraphs or lines of dialogue, lol). But my main document eventually got so long that doing a [ctrl + S] save on it took about 90 seconds?? 😂🤪 which of course made me impatient... and paranoid about losing my work. Thus I decided to put my various ideas/starts of fics in separate docs by category, like... I have a doc of story pieces or concepts that all have to do with Spock's family, a doc for random hurt/comfort ideas, a doc for possible wedding/honeymoon things, etc.

Anyway, one of these docs has all the different after-the-credits / episode tag / missing scene ideas I've had, and--guess what 😅--eventually THAT document got too long for me to handle keeping it all in one place 😅😆 [send help!! 😂😂😂] so I moved some of the longer things I'd spent a little more time developing into their own individual docs. I've put the most time and thought into an after-the-credits fic attempting to fix all the myriad things I hate about "Wink of an Eye" (possibly my Least favorite TOS episode)... but that's neither here nor there. 🙃

My vague outline for an after-the-credits scene of "Turnabout Intruder" is... mostly just... smut... LOL!! 😆 It starts in the turbolift with Kirk, Spock, and Scott (the last shot of the episode is the three of them getting on the lift), and Scotty gets out on the engineering level, leaving the Husbands alone together at last. There's a wee bit of romance there in the lift as they get to their deck, 😉 and then once they're in Kirk's quarters they sort of, um... get half-nakey... and have some massage time... based on the brig scene where Kirk is still in Lester's body and Spock tenderly caresses his neck and Kirk-as-Lester closes his eyes in bliss. 👀😍 Spock picks up where he had to leave off earlier, gently rubbing Kirk's neck, and they discuss the strangeness of body-swapping, the relief Kirk felt when he got Spock to meld with him and realize what was going on, and so forth. Soon enough they're just exchanging touches and sweet nothings, getting each other all worked up, and stripping down to full-nakey for a little "thank God you're okay"/"thank God you were on my side, convinced Bones and Scotty who I was, and helped rescue me" lovemaking. 🙈💞💛💙

Unfortunately thus far it's not actually a fix-it of the terrible gender-related atrocities committed by the episode's script... I do have them discussing some of the differences Kirk has now experienced between his usual body and Lester's, but mostly it's just a PWP (for now, anyway). Perhaps if I get to really working on it again, I'll try to do some ret-con damage control on the canon material, because I truly do *not* buy any of the crew (James Totally-drunk-on-his-daily-Respect-All-Sentient-Beings-Juice™ Kirk least of all) being so misogynistic and gender-binary-deluded the way the script makes them all seem. We'll see what happens, aka if I ever go back to editing and fleshing out this fic for actual posting! 😅

Here's a teeny weeny excerpt:

"I will say, though," Kirk went on, "that I won't miss how much taller you were than me. I can handle the few centimeters' difference between us in these bodies..." Relaxing back against that firm chest, he pulled Spock's arms and hands away from exploring his legs and guided them to rest on his midsection in a loose hug. "I just love it so much when you look down at me with your sparkling 'I'm going to kiss you' eyes," he said dreamily, stroking Spock's arm hair, "or when we dance or cuddle and I can rest my cheek on your shoulder so easily."

Smiling fondly, Spock tightened his embrace and nuzzled his husband's neck again.

"But in Janice's body," Kirk said, "I was, what? At least a full head shorter than you. I missed this--" Here, he squeezed on Spock's arms and gave a happy sigh crossed with a contented hum. "--the feeling of your heartbeat against my hip, the closeness of your breath at my ear. I'm too accustomed to the sweet little kisses you leave on my neck from our normal heights, I suppose."

Spock chuckled; he had been nipping, licking, and kissing Kirk's neck and shoulders the entire time he'd been speaking.

Uhh... yeah, so, it's mostly just fluffy and naughty stuff like that! 🙈☺ Thanks so much for the ask!! And sorry it took me so long to answer!!! 💜💛💙

[valkblue]

— masterlist, tumblr post masterlist

Chapter 26 on 70

Chapter wordcount: 4k         Rating: Mature           Warning: mention of gruesome violence, screams and fear from a new group of guests, ... the 'calm' before the storm™ !!!

Author’s notes: There are still guests alive in this park (thankfully...), and they are about to make it The Posse's problem. Also, SHARD's threat is still looming... but so is "Wyatt's".

Ask box always open! I really want to know what you think about this story!

— Chapter 26

It was the pain of her sleeping position that had started to stir Vivian from her sleep, that more than the two voices in the room; one was Lawrence’s, low and vibrating under her cheek and the other sounded like a kid’s.

For now, Vivian had a hard time coming to and, as nothing seemed to threaten them, she didn’t hurry, even in spite of how numb her legs and her right arm were.

"Ma’ told me to hide when she saw you comin’," she heard the little voice whispering, very close.

"Yeah?" Lawrence answered, his voice creaking a little, like when talking to his horse. "She did good."

Vivian felt his hand stroking her arm; she was still huddled against him but had apparently slid from his shoulder to his chest during the night.

"Y’all bandits, she said!" the little voice insisted.

And Lawrence scoffed.

"What d’you think?"

"Folks don’t get shot if… if they ain’t bandits," the kid muttered bashfully.

"We must be bandits then."

Vivian could perfectly picture his expression in her mind, based on nothing more than the tone of his voice — from lopsided smile, to his narrowed eyes in a falsely threatening look. She cracked a smile.

"Y’ain’t gonna steal our stuff, right?" the kid worried.

"Depends…" Lawrence creaked, his fingers still stroking Vivian’s shoulder. "What is there to steal?"

"Eggs," the boy answered, shifting from one foot to the other, the coarse planks of wood groaning under his weight. "And… and Betsy’s milk."

"Eggs?" Lawrence echoed, as if the kids had just piqued his interest. "Nah, we don’t do that, stealing eggs."

He chuckled again before adding:

"You should go back to hide, no need to worry your mother. We’ll be gone before long anyway…"

The kid didn’t need more to be convinced, the dusty floorboards vibrating under his pitter patter back to the bedroom. Vivian couldn’t hold back a weak groan at the shaking of the hardwood floor in her painful legs. She sat up, grumpy.

"Hey, good mornin’," Lawrence greeted her with laugher in his voice.

He let her escape from the arc of his arm and Vivian rubbed her eyes and her cheek, in which she wouldn’t be surprised to find imprints of the fabric folds.

"Mmh," she muttered. "Mornin’…"

She pushed the strands of hair escaped from her braid behind her ears and frowned when her blood painfully resumed its normal course through her veins.

"Sorry," she croaked.

"What for?"

Vivian felt herself blush.

"For sleeping on you…"

Again, Lawrence chuckled. He stroke her cheek with a finger and brushed away one lone strand of hair on her temple. This sweet gesture brought her to a better mood and Vivian smiled to him. Opposite to her, a curious pair of eyes was watching them; it was a young boy with tousled air who, when he locked eyes with her, closed the bedroom’s door in a gasp of surprise. Lawrence stood up with slightly stiff moves which brought Vivian’s attention back to him.

"Wake Rafe up," he told her as he held his hand out to her. "I’m gonna get the horses ready with the others…"

She put her hand in his and he helped her to her feet and still numb legs.

"Ok…"

He picked his hat up, keeping it in his hand before leaving the room; outside, it wasn’t quite day yet and Vivian felt around her wrist to glance at her watch. It was barely six in the morning.

With a sigh, she stretched all her muscles, arms raised, rolling her shoulders as if to put them back in place with a painful groan. And she would still have to ride a horse with all that…

She hoped she could trade with the farmer for a fruit or anything else lighter to eat than jerky for breakfast before leaving. But for now, she crouched by Rafe and put a hand on his thick arm.

Then, she hesitated to call him. The fact that he didn’t wake up on his own worried her suddenly; the warmth of his skin was reassuring however, and it was obvious that he was breathing, even weakly.

The bloodstains on his bandages were larger than last night and Vivian moved them apart as carefully as she could to look at the farmer’s needlework. Honestly, it was all she had imagined horsehair stitches made on the fly by a host whose primary function were far from medicine could look like; it was coarse but it would hold until the end of a guest’s adventure and a return to Livestock… Excepted that this adventure wasn’t a narrative, and that there was no returning to Livestock anymore. Vivian nibbled hard on her lips to the point of waking the pain in her wound. She could try cauterizing Rafe while she was alone!

Like the crook she was, she cast a sweeping look all around her before searching for Petersen’s cauter in her leather pouch. The feel of her tablet made her shiver but she focused on her current task — she had to hurry!

Her hands a bit clamy and shaking from the anxiety that the sense of urgency was giving her, Vivian pressed the switch and turned her cauter on. Or at least, she tried…

"What the fuck?!" she grumbled, her jaw clenched, shaking the thing.

She pressed again but still nothing happened. The indicator light didn’t even shine. Anger made Vivian’s blood boil and she slamed the cauter against her palm until it hurt. Sometimes, concussive maintenance could do miracles.

Not this time.

And yet, after a long press on the switch, one of the light finally turned on — the red one. This piece of shit had to be out of battery, or simply busted. Vivian was starting to understand why this cauter was in the bottom of a drawer and not on its usual stand… What a dumbass!

She raged against herself and against this useless tool in her balled fist.

"Fuck…"

Vivian closed her eyes and let out a slow, dejected sigh. She should have checked this cauter before, or in the meantime… Why hadn’t she? What was she thinking?!

The harm was done now. No need to beat herself up over it, it wouldn’t get her anywhere. It was a bit too late now to be wise and use her head, though, and Vivian didn’t manage to quell the anger she felt against herself as easily as that.

Fuck it, she’d keep that thing anyway — if she was to find a charging stand in Las Mudas, or anywhere else, she might be glad to have held on to it. She was about to put the cauter back into her pouch when a strong grasp closed on her wrist; Vivian gasped to hold back a frightened yelp. Her widened eyes landed on Rafe, perfectly awake.

He sat up without letting go of her arm and, frowning, he looked at the cauter still in her hand. Vivian kept her lips pursed and contained her protest — he was kinda hurting her.

"Wattcha doin’?" he grumbled.

"I—I… I wanted to make sure your wounds are alright!"

A second of tensed silence lingered in the room and Vivian didn’t make a move, holding her breath. Rafe’s gaze fell on her hand and the cauter.

"And what’s that?"

She mumbled a couple sounds before making sense of her thoughts.

"It’s a tool that could help you heal faster," she admitted to him. "I mean, in theory… 'cause right now, it doesn’t work anymore."

"Already seen that before…"

The tone of his voice sounded a bit calmer. Vivian nodded. She relaxed when Rafe’s grasp loosened a little. So, she hazarded a guess:

"Probably when Marichka took care of you. She healed my leg with the same kind of tool at Zeke’s…"

Rafe nodded in his turn, looking lost in thought and Vivian didn’t add anything; she observed him, careful. It was surprising how well he was taking the truth, considering his cognition was just fried… Or maybe it was actually because it did that it was getting through to him so well?

Without releasing Vivian from his grip, Rafe got up surprisingly fast and easy for a badly hurt man, and he helped her to her feet to stand with him, almost forcefuly.

"I’m alright," he replied. "See, no need for anythin’ to make me heal faster…"

He released Vivian’s wrist to put his large hands on his bushy chest.

"Ain’t gonna die," he boasted. "Can’t, now…"

Vivian gave him a sad smile and put a gentle hand on Rafe’s arm.

"I don’t want you to," she whispered to him, moved. "So, be careful anyway, ok?"

Rafe chuckled and he patted her arm with a strong push that sent her stagger.

Having left at the crack of dawn without taking the time to swallow anything else than a gulp of lukewarm water, Lawrence’s posse only resumed its gallop once they were back on the road. And if at first Rafe had all of Vivian’s attention even though he seemed stabilized, she was also wary of the sky which was clearing and the drone that could still be spying on them from up there. And that, even though she was pretty sure that the surveillance array had been brought back online along with the system… And against that, there was nothing Vivian could do.

Keeping her tablet off wouldn’t change a thing; if without its signal, she herself would only appear on the holographic projections as a guest whose identity would have been lost in the chaos — unless anyone up there bothered to run a facial recognition — the five hosts around her were still broadcasting a perfectly trackable signal for the control room.

This whole thought had something frustrating for Vivian who turned her focus back on the road, and on Rafe. Who was starting to slouch in his saddle.

Vivian hurried her horse’s canter to join Rafe’s, in front of her. Right away, Lawrence ordered a break with a brief, high-pitched whistle which reached Hank and Ike, a few strides ahead; they turned around to a trot while Josela was grabbing Rafe’s horse’s reins. Neither the horse, nor its rider complained. To be fair, Rafe looked completely dazed. Lawrence made his horse trot in a circle around them all.

"We’re gonna stop a moment," he stated.

Vivian let out a brief sigh. Her thoughts exactly!

Even if she was on the opposite side from Rafe’s injury, she could see that his wound had started bleeding again; the brownish scabs from the day before were once more wet and glistening with freshly dripped blood. Vivian was already expecting what she would find under the bandages as Josela was leading Rafe’s horse to the side of the road that Ike deemed to be safe enough.

All a little too tense by this forced stop, Rafe and Vivian were the only ones to get down their horses. The others would keep watch while she’d treat him — that she would do what she could, at least.

Rather docile despite a few protests, Rafe had clumsily set foot to ground and let Vivian help him out of his pierced vest and shirt, both already stiff with dried blood too, and now soaked again.

Came the moment of undoing his bandages; as she was expecting, one of the stitches got busted and the bleeding resumed. The pain didn’t seem to be Rafe’s problem right now, calm and resilient as he was. Vivian was suffering for him, though.

"How d’you feel?" she asked him on a low voice. "Is there a spot that hurts more than another?"

Too bad if her questions were borderline diagnostic.

"No, I’m fine," Rafe fended off, as if to play it down. "Don’t even hurt that much…"

Vivian scoffed.

"I trust you on that!"

Him confirming wasn’t really to reassure her, though. It was just an additional proof of the conflict between his cognition and his programming. He rubbed his cheeck and his temple again, on the side where he had been hit on the head. She finished to take the bandages off and cleaned the wounds with water from her canteen before going to get some of the other strips that the farmer had given her before they left.

Somehow, it was pointless; the hosts couldn’t die from an infection or any other stuff like that but it was almost more superstitious than anything else, like a way to put every chances on their side for Rafe’s survival. At least long enough for them to reach somewhere she could recharge her cauter and close his wounds before he’d loose too much blood to function.

For now, she would cut some more gause in the least gross parts of used bandage. Reusing her knife gave her a sinking feeling but she held her breath with each bite of the blade in the fibers.

"He told me that… that you could help me…"

Perplexed, Vivian caught Rafe’s gaze as she put her knife back into the sheathe at her belt to unroll one of the sheet strips.

"What are you talking about?"

"Arnold…"

The strips almost jumped from her hands. Rafe let her wrap it around his stomach and, for a turn or two of cloth, Vivian didn’t say anything. Then, after a look at Lawrence who was studying the map with Ike, she dared to whisper a question:

"You heard him talk to you again… since?"

He didn’t answer. And this silence increased Vivian’s worry. She faced him to knot the bandage in front of him.

"Rafe… was it Arnold who told you to attack those… those men, yesterday?"

"No," he finally said, seemingly still serene. "I just didn’t want them to kill us."

Vivian pursed her lips.

"You’re the one they were lookin’ for and you wanted to let them take you away to… to save us," he continued, without raising his voice. "I heard that alright!"

This time, she gritted her teeth; he had been close enough to hear, true. And hearing Rafe, this assault hadn’t been more inspired by this glitch, this supposed signature, than by the the restriction’s removal or a moment of panic, emotional or cognitive — even if it had been rash, here again it had been his decision…

Despite the state of his cognition, Rafe was using all the skills put at his disposal in his build and his narratives to keep going — and that like any other individual would use their experience. Even through their traumas.

Vivian couldn’t hold back a shudder.

"How is he?" Lawrence inquired, from the top of his horse which he had brought beside them. "Do you need help?"

Vivian shook her head but Rafe was already replying:

"I’m fine, Lawrence. Don’t worry ‘bout me. Ain’t gonna die…"

Lawrence cracked a smile despite his frown and straightened up in his saddle.

"That’s good news, my friend. Can you ride?"

"I’d recommend a slow pace," Vivian told Lawrence who nodded. "Gallop’s not gonna do him any good. One of his stitches is bu—"

"I’m good!” Rafe uttered as he stood up without stumbling. "I can ride, and I can gallop! No need to make such a fuss for me, Ivy!"

He picked up his vest and shirt on the way and put them back on with more ease than he had gotten out of them.

"No bullet that can take me down has been cast yet!"

"Ok!" she gave up with a smile and her hands raised before rubbing her palms on her pants. "Have it your way!"

He held a hand out to her and brought her back to her feet with one pull.

"Let’s go, I don’t want us to lose any more time ’cause of me," he grumbled.

Vivian got the reins of her horse back from Josela’s hands and, all in their saddle, they went back on the road at a walking pace. When Lawrence slowed down his horse to let Vivian catch up with him, he asked her:

"How is he, really?"

"One of his stitches didn’t hold," she admitted. "And I think that simply getting back in the saddle is enough tear the ones that are still holding…"

She bobbed her head, leaving the rest at Lawrence’s understanding. Clotting would eventually happen and create an efficient plug to avoid another bleeding but in the meantime, Vivian would have done everything she could to keep as much pressure as possible in his veins.

"Thanks," Lawrence whispered. "For trying to keep him alive…"

Surprised but touched by his gratitude, Vivian only let out an indefinite sound before looking down at her hands, one on the reins and the other on her saddle’s horn. There, she noticed a bit of dried blood under the bitten short nails of her right hand, and her own froze in her veins; was it Rafe’s, or that of this merc they had left for the crows?

Queasy, she bent over in her saddle and she rubbed her fingers vigorously against her vest until they hurt. When she inspected them again, all traces of blood had disappeared and Vivian blamed herself that she might even have imagined it!

Shaking from a cold sweat, she turned back to Lawrence whose collected poise reassured her a bit, before focusing on the road, a ribbon of dirt waving in the yellowing greenery.

And this road took them farther on open terrain after having already led them away from the main river for a few hours; in front of them, were now standing out the curves and the valleys of high tree-covered hills behind which Vivian knew they would find Las Mudas.

They would still have to snake in the brush for a while, but they were reaching their destination. Even if, once there, Vivian knew they wouldn’t be any safer. In fact, they might even be even more in danger if QA’s teams had already intervened in this sector…

Head low and rocked by the steps of her horse, Vivian muffled a slow sigh in the folds of her neckerchief in a vain attempt to curb her anxiety. What was also worrying her, was the idea that she would have to turn her tablet back on in a bit, probably even before their arrival in Las Mudas, to define what she could do to disable this explosive charge… if there was even anything she could do about it!

"Ivy, we can stop if you need…"

Vivian straightened up, almost surprised to hear Lawrence’s voice over her piercing screams of her thoughts, caged in her head.

"W-what?" she mumbled, as confused as if he had pulled her from a bad dream. "No, I’m fine, I…"

She took a short breath and gave him a smile which was intended to be reassuring.

"My head was just elsewhere," she rephrased. "Nothing to worry about."

Lawrence acknowledged, cracking a cocky smile as an answer. He came stride by stride with her to ask:

"And what’s on your mind?"

Vivian shrugged and readjusted her hat on her head; it was keeping her warm despite the fact that a bit of wind, heavy with the midday sun, was blowing on the grassland.

"I was thinking about the last time I was in Las Mudas," she hedged to make it simpler. "I… I was wondering what might have changed since…"

She lowered her head, ashamed to ruin Lawrence’s effort towards a lighter tone.

"Don’t worry," he told her, with a lenient smile. "If they’re in town, my cousins… they’ll welcome us good."

He bobbed his head before adding, on a playful tone:

"Better than the first time anyway!"

This time, Vivian’s smile was heartfelt.

"Oh," she let out, on the same tone. "You remember that?"

Lawrence nodded, lowering his head as if to hide his expression behind the brim of his hat.

"Yeah," he replied, drawling. "That and… the fact that I was wrong."

Vivian raised her eyebrows.

"What about?"

"I misjudged you. You ain’t too polite for a place like Pariah…"

Lawrence shoot her a knowing look; she received the compliment in silence, flushed. It was only the rumble of thunder that made her look up to the yet pale blue sky above them. That’s all they needed, to have a downpour right on their faces! But a shiver of worry shook her whole as the sound lasted, and grew… Her gaze and Lawrence’s met; he was already cocking the hammer of his revolver in his holster.

"Riders!" he shouted. "Off the road! Now!"

With a flick of his hand still holding the reins, he steered his horse to the bushy side of the flat road, pointing to Vivian the round, reddish shape of a rise in the terrain. She followed Hank and Rafe there, heart pounding and a hand on the grip of her weapon.

Quite frankly, she was hoping she wouldn’t have to use it again… Not ever.

A cloud of yellow dust was rising from the road behind the meanderings of the grassland, signaling the arrival of a group of riders, maybe a bigger one than theirs. Without releasing her reins, she wiped the sweat from her forehead. When she lowered her hand, it was only to see a fully tacked horse rushing on the road without rider; it cut the road to Lawrence and Josela, neck low and scarlet nostrils flaring…

No-one tried to stop its frantic race, and panicked screams preceded the riders. Lawrence and Josela didn’t even have the time to join with Rafe, Ike, Vivian and Hank in their piss-poor hiding spot that the group was already emerging from the dust; there seemed to be only four horses and yet, those riders were making the racket of an entire army!

When the one in front noticed Lawrence and Josela, he let out such a frightened shriek that Vivian jumped in her saddle, her clammy palm on the handle of her revolver. She guessed that they was a guest — and when they got closer, she even identified her as a woman with short hair, in an outfit pretty similar to her own. She pulled on her reins so hard that her horse protested in a painful snort, skidding on the hard dirt road, and made the hammer of her already empty gun clack in every direction. All the others — three men, including one sitting behind another on a single horse — were catching up with just as much terrified screams.

Without thinking any longer, Vivian had already launched her horse across the path, pushing it with a single spur of her voice and her heels, shacking in fear, to get between them, Lawrence and Josela.

"Stop!" she yelled, the weapon in her hand raised on an open palm as a sign of peace.

One of the men yelped something and it seemed to her that Lawrence and Josela did too but in all that panic, she wasn’t getting anything anymore.

"It’s alright!" she insisted. "We’re friendly!"

The woman screeched something as she shook the barrel of her empty revolver in her direction but Vivian only felt indifference at the idea of catching a bullet, from her or one of the others in the back.

"… or human?!" the woman hollered as vehemently as if she was repeating a question Vivian had obviously not heard.

"I said chill out!" she then barked.

Her shout imposed some kind of confused silence during which Hank, Rafe and Ike joined them on the road. A silence which didn’t last as the only one who was still donning a hat among them cried out, shaking:

"Beasts! Furious bests that… that jumped on us!"

Lawrence moved his horse next to Vivian’s and she felt grateful for it; his proximity was a more than welcome support. Especially when the woman added, on the verge of tears:

"They were guys! Guys in costumes with masks! Growling like bears and they came out of nowhere, I don’t know how we managed to lose them, and… and…"

And then, their testimony became a confused cacophony as they all started to talk at the same time; they had been chased by a bunch of stark naked hosts and other raving lunatics on horses who had emptied their guns on them, killing two of them — "how was that possible?!" — and repeated several times they had barely gotten away by the skin of their teeth, and shooting all their bullets in doing so!

"The… the biggest of those with masks, he… he flung a axe in Greg’s horse!" the woman cried, like a sudden realization. "And… and Greg, he… he couldn’t fight, he… oh my God!"

She gasped for air, having a panic attack, and the man with the hat continued for her, in a frightened quaver:

"They butchered him!"

"He w-was…" the woman stuttered. "The screams! He was screaming an-and then…"

This time, she burst into tears and the one carrying a wounded one behind him on his horse moved forward to reach and squeeze her shoulder.

"We… we have to call someone," the rider with the hat mumbled. "That’s not supposed to happen, that’s…"

With a glance, Vivian quickly estimated the state the riders; they were four on three horses, all exhausted and more or less injured. She suspected that the passenger would need treatment…

"Looks like we’re about to meet your Wyatt’s men, Lawrence, Josela snarked with a impressive cool.

"Don’t be so excited about it, Josie please," Vivian muttered.

"No," Lawrence was already replying, looking even more serious. "We gotta leave, let’s go!"

He beckoned Ike to take the lead on the road before adding for the guests:

"You can come with us. You’ll be safe in Las Mudas…"

He didn’t wait for their answer and made his horse turn around. After a brief surge of compassion for their state and their confusion, Vivian turned around to follow Lawrence’s gallop.

Tag list: @hathorik​​​ , @pheedraws​ , @something-tofightfor​ , @the-blind-assassin-12 …

[hobiscloset]

I’m seeing them at the AMA’s red carpet and I hate it. Nearly all of it. Why the pants look like they need to shorten the cuffs. Why the 80’s shoulder pads. Why they put Namjoon in gray. Why. Why. Why.

But above all, how in sweet hell Jungkook managed to pull that atrocity off, tho?

I’m so conflicted.

okay. okay. okay. after giving ourselves enough time to like scream. Here we go. Thoughts on the Suits

Before We Noticed The Pants (a lot of the early shots on tumblr were from the waist up)

E - WAKE UP YOONGI DYED HIS HAIR ORANGE E - my jaw dropped when i saw the fits. like yes they look a bit like Gangster from The Untouchables. but ALSO so good E - i need to shake the hand of the person that walked into the styling room and pulled out a giant poster with WAISTS written in glitter glue. also i love that they made everyone have waists except Jin and Joon L - those are two fridges in louis vuitton L - alexa play blue & grey

After We Noticed The Pants

E - PLEASE LOOK AT THESE PANTS. I JUST REALIZED HOW THE PANTS ARE FITTING THEM L - NO NO NO WE'RE DOING WAIST UP DO NOT LOOK AT THE PANTS. REPEAT DO NOT LOOK AT THE PANTS S - Why would you do this to me, bruh. Also, why the fuck is this world LIKE THIS. I AM PACKING MY RUCKASACK AND MOVING TO ASIA E - i was so blinded by how fucking tiny their waists look that i didnt notice until @punkrockbrokemy--heart messaged the blog directly to say a crime had been committed E @ S - you gonna fight everyone who fits pants in the entire content? S - I have no other choice L - the hero we need S - how can an ENTIRE continent suck at tailoring pants [for reference please see every pair of pants Xiao Zhan has worn] K - if I don't look at where they fall on the shoes it can't hurt me K - they're gonna get that arc of damp material if they step on a real street. and it's in grey. at the heel S - YES L - (we we saw them chang out of the suits) i'm so happy for them that they got to take off the pants not that it was hard, them already being half off

The Next day after we calmed down ( a bit)

E - So i know we Hate™ the pants in their first looks. but i sort of love the jackets. in like an 80s inspired zut suit look. i mean they arent just boring black suits K - the jackets are acceptable. no pants that are as expensive as their clothes are should look so easily creased and cheap E - the crotch creases are real and pleantiful K - they literally went from a hotel suite to a car to a show and it already looks that bad. that's a terrible fabric choice for the event L - yes actually loving the jackets shoulder pads and all. we knew they weren't going to do anything big at an american award show but this is a huge step up from just meh suits. and of course they're still well within louisvitton grip but i think these are some of the best lv fits we've seen (this is of course ignoring the pants) E - the only fits i liked slightly better from LV are the ones they had in the us when they saw cold play last time. JHope wore that checkered suit. those were like fun and funky A - Someone misunderstood what people meant when they said "hour glass figure" and now we have terrible pants but great shoulder to waist ratios

We are gonna have a separate post for the performance looks

[sssn-neptune-vasilias]

I posted 1,273 times in 2021

501 posts created (39%)

772 posts reblogged (61%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.5 posts.

I added 1,909 tags in 2021

#rwby - 676 posts

#yang xiao long - 204 posts

#blake belladonna - 169 posts

#rwby spoilers - 168 posts

#rwby8 - 168 posts

#ruby rose - 152 posts

#penny polendina - 109 posts

#bumbleby - 93 posts

#jnpr - 87 posts

#weiss schnee - 83 posts

Longest Tag: 75 characters

#you see how this is a less interesting story after this revelation right???

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

The scars are permanent and I honestly couldn’t be happier about it. She should keep those scars. She deserves to keep those scars. She earned them. She did something so ridiculously valiant and courageous without even stopping to think how it could affect her. No need to erase that sacrifice.

800 notes • Posted 2021-03-06 17:04:58 GMT

#4

Arthur Watts was grabbed by the throat and dangled over the edge of a building he couldn’t hope to survive the fall from, and when Cinder threatened to kill him, he LAUGHED and seasoned the best roast of 2021 so far. He cooked Cinder Fall to such a degree she PULLED HIM BACK over the edge, SAT DOWN and CRIED.

Watts hasn’t really said much of note in the series so far, but HOLY SHIT was watching him roast Cinder not fucking PHENOMENAL

896 notes • Posted 2021-02-27 16:31:49 GMT

#3

“No more Gretchen’s” was such a badass line to defect on. Because even I was like “wait does he mean he’s double crossing or defecting” for a hot second until he handed Oscar Ozpin’s cane. “No more Gretchens” ends his- considerably short- character arc. He’s done. He’s tired. He’s finally gonna do what he should’ve done to begin with. He lost his sister- I think anyone can empathize with that- and he started down a spiral that Salem dragged him out of. Gave him purpose. Gave him an enemy to fight. And throughout it all, Hazel was never an overly bad guy. He helped Oscar when they first met. He took the fall for Emerald and Mercury with no hesitation. He was against what Adam did to Sienna. Yeah, obviously he’s a Bad Guy™ with no compunction about torturing a kid if it means he can get back at the man who he believes got his sister killed, but he’s never been a bad guy.

This is him finally deciding to put a stop to all the bullshit. He beat Salem down with his bare fucking hands. If Salem wasn’t literally immortal he would’ve killed her himself! “No more Gretchens.” He’s done sitting by and watching people get hurt and killed. He’s doing something about it. He’s turning the tide. He’s fighting the witch. It’s “what Gretchen would’ve done.”

What a badass line to defect on

962 notes • Posted 2021-02-13 16:56:31 GMT

#2

When Nora says “all I do is make dumb jokes and smash things with a hammer” Ren immediately gets up from his spot at the foot of the bed and joins her closer. He literally can’t even believe what she’s saying

And Nora responds with an exasperated sigh and throws her head back because she just expects him to tell her the usual “no, you’re not like that Nora.”

She doesn’t open her eyes until he says “love.” She was going to discount everything he said because she’s so wrapped up in her own self-hatred that she can’t even listen to Ren praise her. It isn’t until Ren slips that he loves her that shocks her out of her bubble.

I’m deadass crying y’all, I can’t take these two

972 notes • Posted 2021-03-06 17:22:29 GMT

#1

“Oh! Of course you are! Because that's just what you do, isn't it? And how has that worked out for you? You stormed into Fria's room thinking you could take on Ironwood's top fighter and war machine, but you couldn't! And that machine became the Winter Maiden! Oh, and let's not forget your deal with Raven Branwen! Get all your enemies in one place so you'd have a shot at revenge. If only someone could've warned you against such a miserable idea... Oh, wait, I DID! But you pushed ahead and you lost it when all you had to do was your job! You think you're entitled to everything just because you've suffered, but suffering isn't enough. You can't just be strong you have to be smart! You can't just be deserving you have to be worthy! But all you have ever been is a bloody migraine!”

-Dr. Arthur Watts seasoning the spiciest roast of 2021 while dangling by his throat off the edge of a building

1314 notes • Posted 2021-02-27 16:58:07 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[untameablesands]

Headcanon time!

         Omg I can’t believe I haven’t made a headcanon post about this yet (I swore I typed it out somewhere but I can’t find it -weeps-) so here goes! 

        Sundira wears the Hyrule warriors concept design for his Sheikah uniform (which he most often wears instead of his casual clothing); Shaia and Shane both wear the Twilight Princess Sheik concept design for their Sheikah uniform (however those two are both more often seen in their casual wear) with Shaia’s being a deep purple colour and Shane’s being a deep crimson, meanwhile Sachi wears Ocarina of Time Sheik style uniform in a mix of dark gray and black (he often wears his uniform and is rarely in his casual clothing). 

         All of the siblings are trained to be able to use a variety of weapons (Sundira of course having more training than the other three), but they do have their preferences/specializations. Sundira tends to favour throwing knives and daggers (for a mix of both range and up close’n personal); both of the twins prefer staffs with something at the end (top?) that allows them to bludgeon people as necessary as well as their throwing needles (often poisoned or otherwise coated in something to aid them in battle), Sachi is one for magic (both his own and those slips of paper with the spells on them) plus as daggers when he needs to fight close combat.

         Ayla (who has her own style uniform that she is rarely seen out of, and that I do not have actual art of yet) is a gal who adores her whip and bows/arrows- she’s one hell of a shot, her control and accuracy is scary tbh- though when neither are a possibility she’ll default to a sword (usually a broadsword or katana, whatever it is Sheikah use). Hiro is quite fond of battle fans honestly, those and little mini bombs (am I thinking of sheikah style grenades? Maybe??) are definitely his go to- also same as Ayla, I have no art of his ‘official’ uniform, and just like Ayla he is rarely seen not wearing it bc y’know Sheikah Leaders.

         Now Illaine on the other hand... Foxy grandma wears a mix of casual and uniform, the art I have of her is forever a wip so I’m not gonna link it :U She duel wields blades; likely katanas but possibly broadswords bc again I don’t know what blades Sheikah use- her technique is mostly Sheikah with some Gerudo styling mixed in with it, as she had earned the trust and respect of likely the previous Gerudo leader? And was allowed to learn some of their techniques for herself only, as their two races were technically still enemies. 

        In the event she does not have access to her preferred blades, she’ll one hand a two handed blade because she’s fucking strong™ like that, a one woman army really 100/10 would not want to fight.