#okay it's a mob grinder

[theminecraftbee]

I'm loving the VH content from Second

it’s so much fun guys like. okay see my minecraft problem is that it’s too open-ended and I get overwhelmed, and also that I don’t like building. sky vaults has in-built small goals (level up! get this resource!) that naturally flow into larger goals (I need to collect string for beds for a villager breeder so I can get a villager setup started. I can do this in the vaults or finally build that starter mob grinder I haven’t done yet. the starter mob grinder will be necessary at some point, so I can start that. I need iron for hoppers so that I can at least have that to not constantly die collecting items. that’s probably actually easier than string. I go to vaults to get iron. etc etc), and it makes just a REALLY good gameplay loop. plus the vaults are REALLY FUN like I GET IT I get why streamer loves running them so much I’m having a really good time. plus writing the vh logs and fleshing out my sona is gonna be really fun. I’ve played like twenty hours. I don’t even normally last that long in heavy mod packs because I get overwhelmed but this is so good at giving it to me little by little as I get to my goals it’s so good

[dirt-piper]

On the origins of Not So Seecret Saturday, and its future

When I first found Minecraft I was roughly 10 years old.

I can’t precisely identify how I found it - through some kid at school, or a friend of my sister, or randomly on the internet - but I remember falling in love with it.

I loved the aesthetic, I loved the dopey Minecraft music parodies, I loved the let’s plays, I loved the classic multiplayer servers, I loved the dumb jokes the community made, but most of all - I loved the game itself. It was weird, beautiful, simple, terrifying, serene, and hilarious, all at the same time.

I spent hours not only playing the game itself, but also watching videos about it, reading forum and blog posts, and poring over the Minecraft wiki - my favorite articles of which were the ones regarding the removed, unused, and planned features - aspects of the game that I could know about but never experience for myself.

Over time the game I fell in love with started to fade away - the aesthetic changed as biomes were added (though not that much, and it still looked nice), the gameplay began to suffer (a fast travel hell dimension with nothing to do in it, beds that let you sidestep the entire challenge of the game), but it was still largely the game I loved.

After Beta 1.8, the game I loved ceased to exist.

Okay, that’s a bit too dramatic. I still played the hell out of the game during the early release era - but I notably stopped playing survival singleplayer altogether after Beta 1.8. Multiplayer in any game is fun, and the newly added creative mode gave me hours of mindless entertainment blowing things up with TNT and making useless redstone contraptions. But to a large extent I stopped playing the game itself - survival singleplayer - and every time I did I found myself having a very hard time enjoying it.

Now, kid me didn’t really know why I suddenly lost all interest in this game I loved - I could kinda grok that stuff like the new hunger system and terrain system were less than stellar (likely helped by the fact that everyone seemed to hate these two things at the time - the massive open letter to Mojang begging them to add beaches back to the terrain generator springs to mind), but the nitty gritty specifics of what exactly made the game less fun for me were not yet apparent.

Luckily for kid me, I managed to find something to help me alleviate the problem - Exalm’s OldDays mod. This mod allowed you to tweak Minecraft’s features to your own preferences, literally undoing changes from various updates on-the-fly to permit you to hand-tune your personal “perfect” version of Minecraft. I used it to tear out all the changes I didn’t like - gone were the biomes, hunger system, nether, sprinting, new terrain generator, stackable food, potions, enchanting system, etc. Now, suddenly, I could play (and enjoy) singleplayer survival again - and this was the ‘default’ way I played Minecraft up until the mod stopped getting updated in 2013, around release 1.6.4.

By this time a brand new Minecraft launcher had released which allowed you to (officially) go back and play previous versions of Minecraft - with OldDays gone, I picked the version of the game closest to my hand-crafted ideal and dove right in. Thus, the primary version of Minecraft that I played became Alpha 1.1.2_01.

Flash-forward 5 years to July 18th 2018, and I’m not a kid anymore. I’ve just graduated high school, and I’m on vacation with my family in Long Beach Island, New Jersey. It’s a rainy day, so I’m playing Minecraft on my laptop. By this point I had a singleplayer world with damn near everything a player could want in 2010 - an automatic cactus farm, a mob grinder, a minecart system, vast underground mines, an automatic boat dispenser, a hulking storage room - you name it. But deep within I felt a twinge, a feeling that something was missing. I don’t remember what originally set me off, whether it was being by the ocean, or the nascient release of the update aquatic, or a memory of Minecraft classic, but somehow I started getting a bit upset that sponges were unobtainable in the version of the game I was playing.

Very conveniently, I had taken a class on Java my junior year of high school.

I dug up an ancient version of the Mod Coder Pack for a1.1.2_01, decompiled Minecraft and started poking around the codebase. After a bit of digging, a realization slowly began to dawn on me - why stop at sponges? Why not fix more things? Like fix axes not breaking workbenches? Or redstone ore taking an eternity to mine? Or boats exploding when you sneeze on them? Or, better yet, fulfill my childhood fantasies by implementing all the removed/unused/unimplemented features I used to spend hours reading about on the minecraft wiki. Realizing I could use some guidance, I asked my friend Vulpovile (creator of Minecraft Classic Creative Revived) if he might like to help me out with my new project.

side note: I planned on adding the ambient loops a full two years before getting around to implementing them... and my method was essentially the same as what I schemed up on the first day. Most NSSS features bounce around my head for a year or two before I finally implement them.

We managed to get sponges done within a day, and banged out the rest of the little QoL fixes I wanted not too long after. Soon we began going haywire - adding singleplayer commands, trying to fix the outrageously janky alpha multiplayer, optimizing the game, making food stack, making trees drop apples, underwater dungeons, whatever we wanted to do, we did it. We had already numbered our new ‘fork’ of Minecraft as ‘Alpha v1.1.3’, but didn’t actually have a name for it - the original working title was “Minecraft Redone” - a very literal description of our goals, but not that catchy. After 4 days I finally coined the name.

By the 28th, our first release was out: Not So Seecret Saturday’s Minecraft Alpha v1.1.3. We ended up released one update every other week straight on into october - in 1.1.4 we tried to beat the server code further into submission, in 1.1.5 I reimplemented the score system from survival test and added floating worlds, in 1.1.6 I tried (and failed) to improve mob AI and made sponges redstone-sensitive, and in 1.1.7 we polished our work a bit and added two more world types. Then September hit and Vulpovile and I were sucked right back into college. During winter break we managed to release some more patches to 1.1.7, as well as 1.1.8 to add McRegion and running... before the first gap.

‘The gap’, as I’m dubbing it now, is a fairly common occurrence in NSSS development - it’s happened roughly 3.5 times now, and each time it’s the same thing:

Development on NSSS is interrupted by something IRL (at first this was always college, but now it’s health conditions and other boring responsibilities of being an adult. And a bit of depression.)

I don’t get right back to working on NSSS.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the then-current state of NSSS. A LOT of time.

The more I think, the more I determine needs to be done to NSSS before I’d be satisfied enough to do a new release.

Every time I open eclipse I either get so overwhelmed by the massive backlog of work that has to be done that I either only manage one tiny portion or I give up and do something else.

Steps 2-5 are repeated ad nauseum, until...

A sudden, miraculous wave of motivation occurs. I get everything I’ve been planning over the past [weeks/months/year(s)] done in the span of 2 weeks, release the update, and finally return to making semi-regular NSSS updates.

This routine is so predictable to me now that I can nearly time my watch to it. But that first gap after 1.1.8 was special - as I sat and thought about NSSS, and what I really wanted to do with it, my goal slowly shifted. At first I had just wanted to ‘fix’ Minecraft alpha by cramming a bunch of shiny toys and knick-knacks into it to satisfy my inner child, but now I wanted something... more. I didn’t just want to make a better alpha than alpha, I wanted to make a better Minecraft than Minecraft.

Let me preface this by divulging that I’m a massive fan of Team Fortress 2.

The development history of TF2 is utterly fascinating, and if you’re at all interested in game development I urge you greatly to play through the entire TF2 developer’s commentary, but the relevant parallel is this:

The original Team Fortress was a mod of quake made by a trio of Australian teenagers who went hog-wild with QuakeC, the super powerful Quake scripting language, to invent the class-based shooter in 1996. At first they were just adding things to have fun, but over time started paying more and more attention to the actual design and balance of the game they had created. Eventually, the entire team was hired by VALVe in ‘98, and after porting Team Fortress to GoldSrc as ‘Team Fortress Classic’, they got right to work on Team Fortress 2.

Team Fortress 2 didn’t release for another 9 years.

During that time, TF2 went through a multitude of totally different designs and ideas, at some points being nearly unrecognizable gameplay-wise to the original Team Fortress, until ultimately VALVe decided to stop trying to invent something wholly new and unknown and instead to improve on what they knew - and so they essentially rebuilt Team Fortress for the third time, now in the Source engine, and with a cartoon-ier art style. And then they started playtesting.

VALVe had learnt from making half-life that playtesting often and early is utterly invaluable as a tool to aide game design. After all - how do you know how something is gonna play until you’ve played it? And how will it play for people who are totally unexposed to it? A developer already knows all the game’s mechanics and how they work - how would a lay-person discover them all for themselves? Which mechanics would a normal player use in ways the developers never intended? There’s no way to find this stuff out until you hand your game off to a stranger and wait to see how they break it.

And so VALVe, through constant playtesting, tweaking, and fiddling, honed TF2′s design and gameplay to a point where, while not totally perfect, was absolutely better than the original Team Fortress. And aside from the new artstyle, the omission of grenades and bhopping, and the medic becoming... well, an actual medic, very little had changed of the core gameplay beyond little tweaks and nudges.

That’s what I wanted NSSS to become.

I wanted to make Minecraft into a better game than it already was through little tweaks and nudges - an adjustment here, a rebalance there, and a few new features where a gap exists to justify them.

During the first gap I did manage to release some moderate patches to 1.1.8, fixes for things like the busted FastRender port and proper textures for all the dye colors, as well as the first release of the NSSS launcher. But all of these were just tide-overs for what I really wanted.

In summer of 2020 the first gap-and-a-half concluded with the release of 1.1.9, which added Creative mode, Sponge Armor, and Ambient loops. All of these features were things I had spent years brainstorming, tweaking, and revising before I was finally happy with them - and when they finally released to the public... they were good. By now NSSS had started to accumulate some following, and the positive feedback to 1.1.9 was notable - it turns out that people like things that are carefully thought-out and designed! Two weeks later I released 1.1.10 to patch over some more things and finalize gold touch, and then I set my aim on the largest hulking problem NSSS has faced since day 1:

Multiplayer.

The original ‘legacy’ NSSS server was accidentally based off of a version of hMod for Alpha 1.1.2_01, but our problems with it would have occurred regardless; the Alpha server SUCKED. Within a day of poking around the code Vulpovile and I came to the conclusion that Notch had taken the Classic server and stapled infinite worlds onto it to create a horrible abomination.

Mobs would randomly turn invisible, Redstone would only work at certain Y levels, Doors would open halfway, you would randomly die of fall damage for no reason, you couldn’t eat food unless you were looking directly at the floor, if you checked a furnace while it was smelting something it’d break the timer and waste fuel, you could dupe items in chests by clicking on them fast enough, tools could be repaired by dropping them on the ground and picking them back up - it was a nightmare.

Vulpovile and I both, quite rightly, came to the conclusion around 1.1.8 that the legacy server was unworkable. We started trying to write our own , new server from scratch, but that went nowhere - too much of an uphill battle. Once 1.1.9 came along, I decided to do it ‘the easy way’ and just take a later version’s server and downgrade it to alpha - the winner was beta 1.7.3. I had hoped to finish by 1.1.10, but found myself in a deeper hole than I expected, so 1.1.10 was shipped with no multiplayer and I made 1.1.11 into the “fix multiplayer” release.

1.1.11 took over a year to finish.

God what a nightmare. It did not take me very much time to get simple interoperability between the NSSS client and the Beta server, but certain bugs quickly emerged as gordion knots: if someone sneaked they would crash all connected clients, opening a chest crashed the game, crafting recipes were one slot to the left, your armor would shift one slot down at random times, and vehicles were possessed by demons. The sheer amount of bugs I had to work through to get this update out was mind-boggling, to a point where I actually opened 1.1.11 up to a limited group of playtesters for several months before full release just for the sake of trying to eliminate every bug possible. Ultimately, the pre-planned release date of September 18th, 2021 (exactly eleven years after Alpha 1.1.1, the first seecret saturday) snuck up on me, and I panickedly released what I hoped was a relatively bug-free 1.1.11: it wasn’t! While multiplayer was far, far better than it had been in 1.1.9 and prior, singleplayer had become riddled with bugs, namely pertaining to inventories and creepers. I quashed most of them in later patches, but the armor shifting bug still isn’t totally fixed in multiplayer - if you die and relog without completely closing and reopening the game, your armor still shifts one slot down. I have no clue why the hell this happens.

Something that started happening during 1.1.11 that would foreshadow the next 2 years of NSSS’s development was a trend wherein I would gradually feel more and more trapped by the feature set of the update I was working on, and would increasingly wish I was working on the next update instead - this sucked for motivation and made 1.1.11 take even longer. That next update was going to be one that would add Seasons and Dynamic Weather to NSSS - an update which has been in progress for almost two years.

1.1.12 is still coming along, don’t worry, but I can guarantee you that once it’s out, I am never doing another massive, year-long-wait update for NSSS every again. Updates will return to being smaller and more frequent - the way it should be! Expect further ranting in a later post.

-DirtPiper

[star-maiden-fufu]

more mincraf updates

Iron farm! A butchers!

Tree! Fountain :D

okay the tree isnt finished, i need to do the trunk, but i spent several in game days doing the root bridges connecting to the land and i left it at that to check on my villagers. ill get back to the trunk another day. another update related to the tree - its on top of the entrance to a mob grinder i found. so it was originally just a block of stone in the middle of the river but i wanted to add more life and aesthetic to it by making it an island...then the tree came about cos i was like “why not, i could look prettier”

[stirpicus]

Okay I got a question on Sky City

So in that one scene of sky city where Jesse needs to create a level

Well there was the island and of course the cobblestone generator behind the castle.

Do you think, that Sky City started off as that island?

That was the intent, yep! We had it all worked out that Sky City was only built out of materials that could’ve started from a cobblestone generator. (And a significant number of mob grinders!)

[rosasappho]

okay. so the mob grinder didn’t get done but uhhhhh there is a lake being made right now?

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Recap (January 27/2021)

Time to go on the offensive against the Blood Vines! And what better method to use than some good old fashioned explosives?

---

- Fundy asks to meet with Phil, saying he misses him. He’s very freaked out by the spreading of the Vines over everything.

- Ranboo has started speaking in Enderman language in game chat.

- Fundy meets with Phil at Church Prime and gives him an unrequited hug. They walk to the ice cream shop. Phil asks him how he’s been doing, how he’s feeling about L’manburg being gone.

Fundy explains that while initially he was upset, he realized that Phil was just trying to teach them that L’manburg was the cause of the bad. He’s doing well, except for the Blood Vines everywhere. Phil says the Vines have told him terrible things.

- Fundy plans to attempt to blow it up since it won’t burn. Phil agrees to try it. Fundy tries blowing up one. Antfrost shows up and watches them...

Antfrost speaks Standard Galactic to them.

“The Egg doesn’t appreciate your attempts, Fundy.”

“You have been warned.”

- Ranboo meets up with them. He’s a little confused and doesn’t know how he got there.

- Fundy leads the two of them through the Nether to his Mushroom mob grinder to get gunpowder.

- Ranboo shows Fundy his silk touch powers.

- Tubbo, meanwhile, has decided to start rebuilding his old house, the ruins of which have been left abandoned since it was burned down the second time.

- They return home and Fundy starts exploding the Blood Vines with TNT. Antfrost confronts them in the Casino, asking about TNT.

“The Egg requires you in its chamber.”

- Fundy and Ranboo escape Antfrost, but Antfrost comes across Tubbo as Tubbo is rebuilding his old house. Ant whispers to Tubbo to let him know of the fox’s whereabouts.

- Ant finds Fundy, Phil and Ranboo, and says he needs to come with.

- Fundy is canonically not okay.

- Antfrost leads them to the Meeting Room and Fundy falls down, but Ranboo and Phil let him back up with water. Antfrost doesn’t seem to realize.

- Phil later jumps down into the Egg Room to explore and steal some things. 

- Phil leaves. Fundy speaks with Ranboo.

- Tubbo falls down into the Egg hole and gets trapped. Ranboo rescues him.

- Tubbo and Ranboo examine the Egg Room. Tubbo asks if Ranboo knows what Dreamons are. Tubbo shows Ranboo the nuclear bunker he made with Tommy and then leads Ranboo over to show him the Containment Pit for Containing Shit.

He says this may be Dreamon-related activity.

- Foolish works some more on his builds. 

- Captain Puffy walks around, disgusted by the Vines. She’d rather be in prison with Dream than have to deal with this nonsense!

- She comes across Badboyhalo, who does some strange things with a photo of Skeppy, a bucket of fish and some wooden doors at the mansion.

- He aggressively spins the Skeppy photo. Puffy decides to just leave him to it.

- He’s boxed like a fish with a boxed fish. 

- The fish dies.

- Bad, Skeppy, Puffy and Foolish all talk about Skeppy’s upcoming Love or Host.

---

Upcoming Events:

- Everyone and their mother wants to visit Dream at some point

- The Eggpire might meet with Technoblade

[contagious-addiction]

I’m thinking of making a 1.18 Java server if anyone’s interested in a vanilla-esk server!

It will have a whitelist so you’ll have to DM me your username so I can add you but otherwise any of my watchers/mutuals are free to ask to join! Or non-watchers/mutuals but I’m less likely to choose you just cos I’m not sure who you are/what you’re like.

Eventually I may add some plugins or something to the server but that’ll be a discussion for later. I’m also in the works of making a separate discord for the server too.

Some basic server rules:

• Purposeful griefing (including baiting mobs like creepers into people’s homes with the purpose of destruction or player injury/death) is not allowed. Obviously there are accidents but you should try your best to be careful! An excessive amount of “accidents” will result in a warning or a possible ban depending on the severity. Pranks are okay just try not to destroy too much for the sake of pranks.

• Stealing from players who have not given you permission to share their belongs is not allowed.

• Constantly killing players for their belongings/to harass them may result in a warning or ban from this server.

• Breeding villagers is allowed.

• End and Nether exploration is allowed.

• Please ask/discuss mob/exp grinders with the server before you build them!

• I can remove/ban you from the server at any time if I feel you don’t get along with a member of the server or cause trouble.

• I don’t give a damn if you use X-ray but I’d just ask that you use it sparingly.

Other info:

• Server difficulty is hard.

[miiilowo]

Hellooo, very random and out of the blue, but could I ask about your OC, the enderboi with the gold in pink hair?

He seems vv sweet and I would very much like to learn a bit more about him

(If it's okay of course!! It's up to you!)

-Blep

>:)

ALright!!! I made this dude because of an smp i was on cause we were gonna get into some lore stuff, but it never happened and the smp is now entirely dead, so he’s free game and i can do whatever i want with him

We did have some lore set up, but we never got around to any actual plot development unfortunately :[ Ill tell you what we had, though:

- He’s a prince! The gold in his hair is like, threads of gold i suppose? An alternative to a traditional crown. I did this mainly because i didnt want to be too similar to ranboo, but i also just think it looks neat

He’s the prince of the end realm. How this came to be is that one of the server members, who ill just refer to as L, made an enderman grinder in the end. She saw my ender boy and for whatever reason (we never figured out why) she thought he was special and basically adopted him. One of her character flaws is that she has trouble viewing sentient mobs as sentient, and thought she had control over the end. She does not, but he is the prince of the end in everyones hearts i suppose

He’s got a castle, too. Its in the overworld though because he doesnt like being in the end very much.

ta da

I accidentally made him intensely neurodivergent coded as well!! is this a reflection of myself? Very possibly but i guess thats up to the therapists to figure out 

He got tired of the bland gray castle walls and, you cant see it, but the entire interior is decked with bushes and flowers and vines growing on the walls. Lots of bright carpets, too. He needs bright colorful stuff to function and is a big fan of flowers, hence why he is eating them in my header and icon. and im. i do that. i am these things. i eat flowers sometimes

He avoids eye contact because, well, he’s an enderman. He cant go in water unless hes got a full suit of armor on, and cant be in rain unless hes got a helmet or hat on. He cant drink water, but wants to be more like normal people, and he just drinks honey instead.

I also decided that his pink hair is actually just a wig he made with the surplus of pink sheep he has!!! because why not!!!!!!!!!!! its actually based off of me because i currently have pink hair >:]

He does have an accomplice, this kinda not-all-here clown lady who belongs to my buddy @loserchips. i helped make her backstory, but she can explain it if she would like to <3 Basically all u need to know from me is that Shes There, And Oh Boy, Shes Not Very Good For The Boys Mental Health. he’s still gonna stick with her though because he has abandonment issues

He also has a big library!!!!!!!!! Hes loves reading and collecting (stealing) books and learning about the overworld cause he wants to fit in better. I was planning on putting my poetry into the books but i never got around to it. we can say hes a poet though. for funsies

Hes a little shorter than the average enderman and has a piglin husband named william who i love so very much. william has become one of my go-to things to draw. i love him so much. heres william in game and in my Heart

 WILLIAM..........love him so very much..................... huggable...big guy...

enderboy is currently obsessed with expanding the wheat field to Absurd extents and william is willing to help ten thousand percent. Hes got his funky little sunhat and a lot of determination baby

They also garden together because of the flower thing and it is Cute And Good. these are my comfort characters and i think about them often

i also have a son? but its in an alternate world, so what im gonna say here is that they travel together and different minecraft worlds are just different vacations. So, kevin isnt on the smp with the castle, but he does exist:

he is wearing williams shirt and he has his comfort block of netherrack. love this guy

Also, the enderboy prefers mobs over humans as company! Hes got three enderfriends in his castle and doesnt like killing mobs much at all :[ theres also a grave in the yard filled with ender pearls that people on the server have given me as a joke. oh man. was not good for him

He has more formal and decked out clothes, but prefers to just chill in his comfey cloak around the castle <3 He probably gets dressed up when people come around, but he doesnt really consider himself much of a prince since he never visits the end

Oh!!!!!!!!!!! yes! i forgot! the man fucking loves gems and gold and stuff like that! the throne room is full of ore blocks, mostly emeralds, but theres a lot of gold and diamond in there too. Gold is his favorite and he has a lot of gold jewelry <3

also his ears move in accordance to his mood and his eyes work like cat eyes because it makes me happy and i love him

I will probably use him as a general persona eventually, but thats his minecraft lore!!!!! I did leave out some big chunks, but thats the main deal hes got going on. I adore him so much

[shyrose57]

2: Upon first glance, no. Though they do tend to avoid the subjects of parents or siblings, and also try their best to avoid conversations that lead into sharing their past. Their also not so pushing about knowing the brothers past relationships and their childhood. Ranya and Seth are the brothers parents! Ranya is their mom who is 20% enderman, and Seth is their dad who's fully human.

3: But is there any proof of it being bad for you? That's exactly what it is, its just Team Rocket but switched if that makes sense. Raq's trying so hard to capture Ran and now Ranbob, he's planning so many plans and coming up with so many unique ways to capture them. But the groups dumb shenanigans and the fact most of them just kinda flop around half the time SOMEHOW manage to foil every plan he has and its pissing him off. But now I also have a angst idea that features Raq getting his hands on a potion of blinding and using it. 

4: He was screaming because he was trying to escape the others and resorted to trying to make himself seem big and stronger than them, like a animal sometimes does to escape a predator. And also he was screaming because Cletus grabbed his arm and was trying to keep him from moving, and Ranbob's brain sadly registered the touch as painful. 

6: Benjamin does actually just carry around blankets, mostly just in case someone gets cold or someone gets wet and need to be dried off. But he also does carry a special blanket only for Ranbob, its a very fluffy blanket, is a bit heavy (which helps ground and reassure Ranbob), and is big enough to cover the top half of his body. But they don't carry around tea or anything for Ranbob to drink when he gets sad, mostly cause the times they tried to do that either it got spilt or Isaac drank it. 

10: I have developed the town a bit further. The town has a population of only 300 (may change though, but no matter what it's going to be a small town), and is situated in the Crater, where homes and business are built into the side of the Crater, with overlapping bridges, stairs, overhangings littering all around the Crater (if anyone is having problems imagining it tell me, I have some pictures I found that fit what I'm trying to describe pretty well). Wilburs decendent shall be called Lucia, and some residents of the town are Siren-the towns only blacksmith and armourer, also one of the most knowledgeable people in the town due to their great fascination with history, Adler-one of the only remaining Clerics that actually make all possible potions and even new ones at times, and almost freely gives them out, Atlas-the towns trouble maker, and the one who goes adventuring, but he also has a great interest in astrology, and can read the stars to figure out locations of things or upcoming events, Josh-He's just Josh, no one's quite sure what he does, Atlas suspects he has a secret mob grinder since he has so many mob parts and seems to have whatever someone needs, and Lucia insists that he's the one that does the communication and trading with big cities but no one believes him (spoiler, he's the redstone expert but since redstone isn't used a lot in the town he hasn't actually told anyone), Asidi-town guard, mostly just checks on the residents, though is also greatly defensive of his home, and Mripat-the towns mayor/leader, though she mostly lets people do what they want to do, its only when people want to build new things or have suggestions, or break a law does she actually act like a mayor/leader. The town itself doesn't have a set name yet but im thinking maybe Kelalen Kepungkur (Forgotten Past), but just Kelalen for short. And its mostly forgotten by other kingdoms and towns, because it doesn't belong to any certain kingdom, and due to them being forgotten, their incredibly nice and tight knit, but also suspicious of new comers. Infact Ran and Ranbobs groups where going to be chased out of the towns property until Lucia stepped in, saying how he recognizes the black and white skin. 

11: It is! He figured, hey the memory book seemed to help Ranboo, who says it won't help him? Though it only slightly helped him at first. Eventually he'll get hugs without pain, I promise you.

12: IN MY DEFENSE, you never told me not too.

13: Ok so this is the additional fluff, this is not canon to the story at all, as it just simply seems to out there to actually fit in the story. But anyway, I was thinking that upon returning to Mizu, Ranbob finds a hidden room. And in one of the rooms there's a sort of ghost box type thing, where people can hear and even see nearby ghosts (that is what immediately got it out of the story). So Ranbob manages to get the box to work, and when it finally starts up, the ghosts of his family is actually behind him cause they've been following him the whole time. At first Ranbob is horrified and quickly backs away from them, borderline breaking down crying at seeing them again, cause he's gotten overwhelmed with grief. At first the ghosts don't follow him, but suddenly Memi runs out after him, and Ranbob has to fight the instinct to protect himself, and instead leaves himself vulnerable to whatever they want to do to him (which he imagines is degradation and even hitting). But instead Memi just hugs him tightly and cries into him, saying how she missed Big Brother so much. And Ranbob can feel this, and this wasn't what he was expecting, so he's left shocked and frozen. Until Lias also approaches and hugs him too, saying how he's so sorry and how he missed him too. Then Seth and Ranya both join in on the hug, saying how their so sorry Ranbob had to suffer alone and how they failed him because they didn't protect them. Meanwhile Ranbob is shocked, but he soon gets over it and hugs them back just as tightly. Repeatedly saying how he's sorry and he didn't mean too, all while his family comforts him. In the end, they manage to convince Ranbob they have no harsh feelings towards him, comfort him, talk to him about what to do with Ran not trusting him, say how their so proud of Ranbob for growing so strong and breaking Dreams hold on him, and listen to Ranbob share stories of his haunting. 

2: First glance, huh? How about further glances? Also, how did Ran get so much Enderman blood in him if he had a human father and a mother with only 20% in her?

3: Yeah, actually, I think they have medical studies on it? Something about blood loss, or infection, maybe? Idk the specifics, anon.

Okay, so I’m not sure I read this right. The group’s shenanigans accidentally defeat his plans? Is that right? Or do his plans just flop on their own? Also, oof. Can’t wait to see how bad that goes. Which poor Ender boy is subjected to blindness?

4: Hahaha, ouch, ouch, ouch. So, like Endermen screaming? Also, he registers touch as painful? That’s...not good. Is that something that happens often, or just during his relapses?

6: Benjamin just carries around blankets. He’s a fluffy blanket dealer. You come to him looking even slightly in need of a hug, and he burritos you in blankets. Payment is self-care. 

Also, Isaac drinks it? Is he like a tea gremlin? Locates tea and drinks it no matter what?

10: Sounds like a lively little place! And quite frankly, I already love Lucia. For what reason do the townsfolk have towards being suspicious and chasing people off though? Have they had trouble before? Also, Lucia recognizes Ranbob as Ranboo’s descendant? Or just that he looks similar? How does everyone react to the sudden hostility, and then being allowed in?

12: EVERYONE KNOWS YOU DON’T ADMIT TO A CRIME, ANON, GOODNESS! Also, fair. Mean, cruel, and sadistic, but ultimately fair. I did not say not to. That is true.

(Still mean, how dare-)

13: Anon, how dare you call this fluff, just. This is so bittersweet, I’m literally crying. I can’t believe you’ve done this. 

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness 177: Let Me Have This Moment

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Weiss and I were waiting at the airfield. I glanced around way over Weiss’s head. Travelers were coming and going. Embarking and disembarking on ships of all sorts of sizes. Massive cruisers and the lingering Atlas Battleships swept up and down onto the airstrips. Smaller private liners landed and took off like little gnats compared to the larger ships. 

“So…” Weiss began. She was searching for her words carefully. “So I was thinking.”

“Okay? This doesn’t sound good.”

“It’s nothing bad. Don’t be a coward. Well, it’s not necessarily bad.”

“Shoot.”

“I think we should stop trying. It’s been a month and nothing has come of it. And if I’m getting married within the next nine months I don’t want to get married pregnant. We can start trying on our honeymoon again. Does that sound alright?”

“That’s really your decision.”

“You have a say too.”

“Do I though?” I asked. “Could I really demand that you keep trying when you just said you don’t want to? Could I actually? Think about it. It’s your body. What you say goes.”

“Is that really fair?”

“Pretty fair. You’re the one who would have to carry the thing.”

“Baby,” she corrected. “We call those ‘things’ babies.”

“Yeah that. One of those,” I agreed. “An infant. You’d be the one dealing with hormones and weight changes and body changes and pushing it out and feeding it and mood swings. What am I gonna do? Ejaculate and evacuate? There’s nothing I could do to help.”

“You’ll be there suffering along with Ruby and I. There will be two pregnant women for you to attend to at once. You will suffer, don’t worry.”

“Yay?” I wondered. 

“So, I think we should stop trying until we have the wedding. What’s our budget look like for that?”

“Under two million?”

“You have no idea how much weddings cost, do you?”

“Under two million.”

She whacked me in the chest with the back of her hand and smirked up at me. 

“Well, yes. But with just our small group of family and friends it can’t be more than two hundred thousand. And that’s fairly extravagant for twenty or thirty people. And it’ll probably be fewer than twenty people.”

“Okay? I don’t have a very good picture of money. All my life I’ve just sort of earned it way too easily. Like way too easily. Other people struggle but I make the stuff hand over fist.”

“Plus you robbed a mob boss.”

“I did do that.”

“That’s dirty money.”

“What money isn’t dirty money? It’s all filthy. Money is kinda gross when you think about what it really is.”

“I suppose that’s true to a certain extent…”

An Atlas airship swung down into the bay in the mountain. It was a decent sized passenger liner. 

“Is that Ruby’s flight?” I asked Weiss.

“I think so…”

“Do we just wait?” 

“Well you made the sign.”

I shuffled the ‘Ruby Rose’ sign in my hands. I did make the sign. I did. Weiss and I were both in our hunter clothes which for Weiss was that white dress with a blue sash and tassels. She had her blade by her side and the little box containing Ruby’s engagement necklace in it in the palm of one hand. She opened the box and peeked inside. Then she carefully manipulated the locket so its face was just so within the box and closed it again. Then she carefully held it in one hand so the face would still be forward when we presented it to Ruby. She exhaled hard.

“Relax,” I told her helpfully. 

“Thanks for the tip,” she sassed. 

“You’re the one who’s so sure she’ll say ‘yes.’”

“I mean… probably. Right? Why wouldn’t she say ‘yes?’” 

“Don’t trip. This was your idea. Don’t start flaking on me now.”

“You’re right, of course you’re right.”

We spotted Ruby making her way off the airship with her bags and weapon on her back. She was beautiful with wolfish bangs and hair that was red just at the tips. She wore a tight corset that led down to a skirt and tight leggings but the leggings stopped above the knee and skirt only went down to about mid thigh so there was this space of white flesh shown off that was dimpled by the leggings. Her developed chest was pushed up and out by the corset and I think Weiss and I both sighed when we saw her but it could have just been me or it could have just been her. Somebody sighed was the point. At least one of us did. 

It was apparent when Ruby saw us. She jumped excitedly and paced over to us at a rush. As she got closer I was able to make out her eyes. 

Man, if Ruby thought she could just look up at me with those eyes and get whatever she wanted, then she was totally correct.

“You guys!” She ran up and threw her arms around Weiss jostling the box Weiss was holding. Weiss hugged her back and I lowered down the sign I was hefting and grinned as I watched the two of them embrace. Ruby drew back and pressed her lips against Weiss’s and I saw Weiss melt into the kiss with a smile.

“Sweetheart,” I greeted with a grin. 

She drew back and turned to me. I dropped the sign and swung her up into my arms. She wrapped her hands over my shoulders as I easily held her aloft in one arm. Then she grinned and kissed my cheek. She chased that kiss with another one on my lips. My free hand came up to her cheek and cupped it gently while I kissed her back. Then I lowered her and set her to her feet on the ground. 

“You guys! I missed you both so much. And Jaune it’s been a long time. Too long. Way too long. Never do that again!”

“Fair enough. Yeah. Fair cop.”

“Ruby…” Weiss muttered and she glanced at me. I just nodded a little with a small smile. 

Weiss and I got down on our knees. 

“You guys!” 

Weiss opened the box. 

“Ruby Rose, won’t you marry us?” Weiss asked.

“Of course I will! Finally!”

I laughed. Weiss took the necklace out of the box and stepped behind Ruby to put it around her neck.

“How are we doing this?” Ruby asked.

“No idea,” I said.

“He does too.” Weiss waved exasperatedly. “We’re going to pair off for the engagement presents and we’re going to modify one another’s weapons slightly.”

Ruby jumped a little in place.

“It’s so exciting. We need to plan the wedding and we need to invite my family. And Blake and Penny and Oscar and who else do we know?”

“I was going to invite the butler who raised me to walk me down the aisle.”

“I have no one to invite,” I declared. “Well, no one who would be appropriate to invite. Just a crowd of enemies, really. That would be interesting,” I admitted. 

“Ooh this is so exciting. I’m going to be married. Mrs. Arc. Me. And you? Weiss?”

“Me too,” Weiss smiled. “I’ll take his name as well. I’m probably ending my family name but that may be for the best.”

“And kids. How many am I allowed to have? Jaune? Weiss?”

“How about we start with one and see where that takes us…” I trailed. “If - you know, nothing horrific happens, then I don’t know. Less than five. Don’t destroy me, Rubes.”

“Nothing bad will happen. You’ll see, Jaune. Oh my gosh there’s so much to plan. Have we set a date yet? Weiss and I need dresses. And we have to get a cake organized. And what kind of cake do you two want? And instead of little figurines can we have miniature versions of our weapons on top? And where do you want it to be? Where are we going for our honeymoon? What’s our budget look like? Where are we staying? Can we buy a house? Where are we going to raise our babies? Anywhere in the whole world. Where would you two pick? Oh, I suppose we want Jaune to keep his job. So somewhere here or near Vale? Like Patch? Oh we could buy a nice big house out in Patch. Big enough for all the babies and us three. And Jaune can fly. He can really commute without a problem. And it’s such a safe job. The safest he could have gotten. I mean… the sort of missions he could be being sent on by any of the councils or militaries could just be the most dangerous. They only pass you up to harder missions the better you are. It’s such a good job. It pays well enough and he can really stay close to home and not have to travel much. What do you guys think?”

“I agree completely. He should keep his job right here.”

I glanced at Weiss. They both turned to look up at me at the same time. I sighed.

“I have to kill my dad. And I have to butcher my mom. I can’t stay teaching forever and make my family someone else’s problem.”

“Why not?” Ruby asked. “Why can’t we have our lives?”

“Weiss, come on, can you really sit back and do nothing while your family makes a mess out of things?”

“I’m not going to do nothing. But dealing with my family and dealing with yours are two seperate things. Yours is a whole mess of trouble that is never really going to get solved.”

I sighed. I looked down at them. Ruby was looking up at me with those big fucking eyes. Weiss folded her arms and raised an elegant white brow on her scar side. 

I turned away.

“I can’t do nothing. It’s my responsibility. Can you really ask me to not do anything and let more and more people die? It’s a fucking meat grinder out there. My Mother isn’t going to stop. How many other hunters should I let get blended up? I can put a stop to it. I can end this whole cycle of suffering. It’s on me. It falls on me. Ruby… would you really love me if I put it aside for someone else to deal with? If I condemned other people to face her. If I made someone else take my place. Really?” I side eyed her. “Could you really sleep soundly beside me each night knowing what I let other people face in my stead?”

When one of us looked away it wasn’t me. 

“...no…it’s what makes you a hero,” she muttered and she eyeballed Weiss. Weiss let her arms droop and sighed despairingly. “But we can have both. We can beat Salem. But we can also live our lives. I really believe that we can. I do expect you to face your mother. But not today, this week, this month, or even this year.”

“My father has to be stopped. That’s next on my agenda.”

“Marrying us should be next on your agenda,” Weiss cut in.

“I thought that was first?” I asked. “You have my accounts. You have my schedule. Just ask me. I’m yours. For this year I belong to you. But I also belong to the world. It falls on me to slice up my Mother and put an end to this train of human suffering. And humanity will grow and blossom without her withering influence. Maybe the sort of world peace the gods expect from us will happen one day and Oscar will be able to unite the world. But it comes down on me. I’m the one with the power to face my Mother and I’m growing weaker now. I was getting stronger but recently I’ve been faltering more and more. The more time I waste the more other people get hurt and my chances of success fall too. If I’m not at my best she will destroy me. Like a bug on a windshield. She won’t even need to use my sisters against me but she can. My best chance to take her down is right now.” I pointed at the ground to emphasize my point. 

“But I’m asking you to wait. We’re asking you to wait,” Ruby informed me. “Wait. It’ll be okay. Live with us.”

I breathed deeply. I… I couldn’t say ‘no’ to her. Not really. Never could. Maybe that was a weakness of mine. If I could look at her and tell her ‘no’ and start flying in my Mother’s direction I could end this today. I could still feel her out there on the edge of my thoughts. She hung like a piano over my head ready to crash down on me.  

“Fine. Yes. Sure,” I bit out. “But one day you’ll have to let me go to her…”

“We will,” Weiss whispered. “We’ll let you go.”

“We’ll release you. We will.”

“I’ll die,” I warned. “She’ll kill me,” I said without emotion. 

They said nothing. They looked between each other but I marched forward. 

“I might get her but she will get me. And if she doesn’t, then my sisters will. You have to let me go anyway. You have to let me go knowing that.”

“Jaune…” Weiss trailed. “You don’t know that.”

“Yeah. I do. And you do too,” I said. 

Weiss frowned but didn’t have a ready retort. 

“All the more reason to spend some time with us,” Ruby pressed. “Don’t you think? Just a little more time together…”

“It will never be enough, though. You have to see that. You’re always going to want more. You’re going to want even more time. No matter how much I give you it will never be enough and you’ll never be satisfied.”

“Let us have this at least,” Weiss demanded. “Don’t start leaving us now. We only just got all together. There’s no need for this. We don’t want you to go now. We want you to be with us now. All of you. Your mind and your body and your soul. Don’t start straying from us the moment we’re finally one again. Let us have this moment. Ruby just said yes to us. What more do you want? Why do you have to undermine it? Just be with us.”

“Let me have this moment,” Ruby pleaded. “This moment with you and Weiss when we’re all engaged. Let me have the moment where I see your face as I walk down the aisle. Let me have the moment where we hold our babies in our arms. I’ll let you go. I will.”

“You know that I will too…” Weiss murmured. “I can’t hold you back from your destiny. And I believe you have the power to stop Salem. I won’t stay your hand. But you have to be with us the rest of the time. You can’t be pulled apart by your worries. You need to really be with us. Not partially but all the way.”

“I can’t do that either. She lingers like a curse on me. I’ll always have to look over my shoulder… but I can give you the rest,” I promised. “And if nothing horrible happens I’ll give you as many kids as you want. Well, not as many. But quite a few. No more than I have fingers for.”

“You always have to tag with that, don’t you?” Weiss leveraged. “Something ‘horrible.’ They’re our babies. Let’s be optimistic.”

“We still don’t know if I’m not using an empty revolver.”

“Please. Little Jaune is a rifle,” Ruby cut me off. “Call a spade a spade, at least.”

“Um. Anyways,” I shrugged that ego boost off as well as I was able. And I was pretty good at it. Not gonna lie. “We tried for a month straight and nothing happened. And I’m probably the issue. Not you, Weiss. You’re young and healthy.”

“And you’re not?” Weiss continued. 

“You know I’m not. I’m old for my age.”

“Five or four,” Weiss informed me. 

“Yeah. Five,” I agreed. It really was so young. So many people got so many years. Even in our hellish world. They got to grow up. They got to live. They got to grow old. They got to die. 

I was cutting to the chase. I didn’t get to grow up. I got grown. And if I wasn’t careful I wouldn’t get to do much living as I aged rapidly. I would definitely die. All people did. All people should. Everyone got that privilege. Except for my Mother. She always had to be the exception to the rule. My Mother… my fucking Mother.

The eternal bitch. 

I sighed heavily. 

“I’m only five. I should be worried about kindergarten. And the cutest girls in class. And trying to make my parents proud. Not… not having kids, or wives, or saving the world from that alien. I’m matricidal and patricidal. And I’ll be sororicidal too. I don’t want to kill my sisters but I will. So it counts.”

“You always stack the deck against yourself,” Weiss dismissed. “You always have. You can’t see the good parts of who you are and what you do. It’s not like you asked for your family to be evil. And you take it on yourself to solve it. That’s what a hero would do.”

“You can’t see that you’re a hero. You’re blind to yourself,” Ruby pointed. “We’re going to work on that.”

“We have time, Jaune. You’ll see. You’ll have all the time you need to become a good father and a good husband before you save the world and come back to us. And you’ll see that having kids is easier than you think.”

“I… I doubt it. I bet having kids and doing a good job is hard as fuck.”

“I told you to work on your language. Start with that. We probably have just been getting unlucky but we’ll get it right. If we need to, we’ll get tested. There’s always medical programs to assist with pregnancies if we really need them. You worry far more than is healthy. I do too, I can admit that. But we have Ruby now. All together we really can figure this out. There’s nothing we can’t do. I know you don’t always feel that way. So we’ll just have to show you. We’ll show you what you’re really capable of.”

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-WG

[sestra-inestro]

The Carry On - (2/5)

Pairings: mob!bucky x reader

Warnings: smut straight-up (18+), unprotected sex (wrap n strap it people), swearing, angst, violence, blood, guns, suicide, the killing of an animal so read at your own risk.

A/N: just kinda crammed the smut in there for this. I think we needed it. This will be the most violent part tho.

Part 1

2 Years Later

Bucky stirring beside you woke you from your light sleep. Groaning, you rolled over and faced him.

“Sorry baby.” Bucky’s raspy voice chuckled as his fingers traced your hairline. He leaned in to kiss your lips but you covered your mouth.

“Nope.” He pouted at you. “Not until I brush my teeth.”

“Oh, baby.” Bucky rolled his body on top of yours and pulled your hands away from your face. “You know I don’t care about that.”

He placed a warm kiss on your neck. His tongue swiped your skin.

“You should care.” You say, tilting your head back to expose more of your neck.

“Well I don’t.” His kisses trailed down across your collarbone. His actions were causing heat to bloom at your core. His hips started to gently roll against yours, gaining a moan from you.

“You are so beautiful.” He continued to worship your skin and rub up against you. “No matter what your breath smells like.” He smirked against your skin.

You giggled and pushed against his shoulder.

His arms curled under you and pulled you closer, burying his head in your neck and pushing himself into you. He pushed his thighs up under your legs and hooked your knees around the thick muscle of his legs.

You push yourself further up on the bed with his legs and grasp onto his forearms, enjoy feeling him so close to you and the pleasure he brings you just by moving over your clothes.

You rolled your hips back into his, making him groan in your neck. You closed your eyes, listening to the sounds of him. Knowing only you can make him make those noises.

As Bucky’s firm hand gently started to make its way down your waist, squeezing your skin as it made its way to the waistband of your pyjamas shorts. His fingers slipped into your shorts and you braces yourself for his loving hands to touch you where you were craving him the most...when Brunner’s whines sounded through the door and a soft knock tapped on the wood.

“Mr Barnes?” Rita’s timid voice came to your ears. “Are you awake?”

Bucky groaned and dropped his head to your shoulder, making you giggle.

“Yes, Rita?” Bucky’s voice came out muffled.

“Um, there has been a phone call for you this morning. More information about an enemy?” Rita said as she struggled to hold back Brunner from making so much noise.

“I’ll be up in a minute.” He said, his voice still muffled.

“I’m sorry?” Rita asked, straining to hear her boss.

“I’ll be up in a minute.” He said a little louder.

“Pardon?”

“For Gods sake.” Bucky curse and pulling himself away from you. But before he could yell and scream at the poor maid you flipped him over and straddled him. Bucky was startled by the sudden movement and looked up to you in shock, completely silent.

The bed making a loud thump.

“He’ll be right out, Rita.” You called out to her.

“Okay, Mrs Barnes.” Rita said before pulling Brunner away from the door so he doesn’t get into trouble.

You peered down at Bucky with your hands on his chest. “You need to be nicer to her.”

Bucky huffed in response and caressed the skin on your thighs.

“I was trying to make love to my wife.” Bucky pouted.

You smirked down at him. “You can make love to your wife.” You leant down and placed a kiss on his chest. “When you’ve caught your enemy.”

You said playfully before pushing off of him and leaping out of bed before he could reach you.

Bucky whined in protest as he watched you slip on your silk robe.

“I’ll see you downstairs, lover.” You winked at him. Bucky watches with pride as you leave, hips sashaying away and leaving him straining against him boxer briefs.

~

It was sometime before Bucky joined you once again. He descended down the stairs freshly showered and in his good work suit. His eyes were on you as you talked to Brunner, who was sitting at you feet, happily wagging his tail.

Bucky didn’t quite appreciate having the Staffy in the house. He made messes and scratched up the floor with his claws. But you adored the dog beyond every mess he made, and always picked up after him. You compromised with Bucky to let him stay in the house for some parts of the day while he finished his training. He is protective, just can’t tell the difference between carpet or grass sometimes.

Brunner lowers his head and makes his way to the back door at the sight of Bucky, who is walking straight to you.

You smiled, knowingly as Bucky approached you. Swiftly, Bucky grasped your hip and pulled you to him.

“I need you.” He whispered in you ear, pushing himself into you so you feel how hard he still is. He crushed his lips against yours.

You moan at the feeling of him against you. You wrapped your arms around his neck and he lifted your thighs around him and backed you into the couch. You locked your ankles around him and pulled him closer to you, feeling his hard member against your heated core. Feeling him through your clothes and his pants made your core swell with wetness.

You rushed to pulled the robe off your shoulders and pushed Bucky’s blazer off his.

Bucky’s hand cupped your cheek, his tongue dancing around your lips before diving into your mouth. His other hand trailed across you thigh and pressed flat against your heat, pressing on your nub of nerves.

Your body grew more hungry from him as he rubbed you through your pyjamas. You pull your lips away from his and look him in the eyes as you grind your hips against his hand.

Bucky stares into your eyes as he rubbed harsh circles on your center. Your hips swirls at the movement of his hand as your shorts began to dampen.

“Bucky...” You whimpered out. “Please.”

“Please what, Princess?” Bucky’s voice was raspy.

“Fuck me.” You begged.

Your plea was followed by a tear of your cotton shorts. You gasped at the action and yelped when he pushed you back. You watched Bucky quickly undo his pants and dive back down to you. Your hands went straight to his hair, fingers twisting around his his locks as his lips attacked yours again.

You used your feet to push down his pants and underwear and reached down to touch him.

He throbbed in your hand and groaned in your mouth. His cock grew rock hard in your hand and his hands gripped your thighs.

“Please, fuck me.” You whimpered against his mouth.

“Patience, baby.” He said as he grinder himself against your wet cunt. “I’ll make you feel so good.”

He lifted his hips and the tip of his cock nudged your clit, causing your body to jerk and gasp.

“I love you.” He kissed your jaw. “You’re beautiful.” He kissed your neck.

You closed your eyes, feeling him slide against your wet folds and moaning in his ear.

“You’re mine.” He growled into your neck before slipping into your hot entrance, causing you to gasp deeply.

You could feel every ridge and vein in his cock, deep within you. Your core pulsed around him, begging him to move.

“We have to be quick.” He sighed in pleasure.

“Make me come.” You whispered.

Bucky snapped his hips forwards, jerking your body upwards. You wrapped your arm around his shoulders and held onto him as he set his pace, driving himself in and out of you, grunting in your neck.

“Fuck yes, baby.” You moaned as you shook underneath him.

“So fucking tight.” He grunted.

The sound of slapping skin filled the entire living room and both of your soft moans and grunts.

Both of your bodies moved together in sync, fast as you tried to reach your orgasm fast.

You let out a loud moan and threw you head back as he hit a sweet spot inside you.

“Oh fuck, Bucky.” You panted out. “I’m so close.”

“Come for me baby.” He groan as he felt your walls clench around his cock like a warm vice. He slipped his hand down and furiously rubbed at your clit. “Come on my cock.”

Your hips stilled and your mouth fell open in a silent scream as pleasure exploded through your core and you stomach tightened.

You thighs shook in his hand and your heels dug into his lower back, pushing him further to you, gushing over his cock.

Bucky thrusted a few more times before giving in to the pleasure, his hips stuttered against yours, emptying himself inside you.

You let out a shuddering breath as your legs slacked around his waist, finally coming down from your orgasm.

His forehead rested against yours as his body calmed down. You whined as he slowly pulled out of you, body jerking slightly as his hand pressed slightly onto your still sensitive clit.

You laid on the couch, spent and your body still humming in your post-orgasm state.

Bucky fell back and lazily put himself back together, sweat spots forming on his forehead slightly as he tucked his glistening wet cock back into his pants.

“You okay?” He asked, rubbing your ankle.

You hummed. “Better than okay.” You smiled sweetly at him.

He chuckled and massaged your skin.

A horn sounded from outside, signalling that his men were ready to head to their destination. Groaning, Bucky lifted himself off the couch and leaned back over you to give you a passionate kiss. You sighed at the kiss and pushed yourself off the couch.

Bucky ran a hand over your hair, smoothing it down and pulled away from the kiss.

“I love you.” He whispered.

“I love you.” You whispered back.

A knock on the door alerted Bucky, as well as Steve’s voice. “C’mon, Buck. We gotta go.”

Bucky sighed and pulled you with him as he walked to the door. You wrapped your robe around you again to cover your exposed bottom half.

Bucky opened the door to reveal Steve, whose face fell at the sight of you. You rolled your eyes at Bucky’s distrusting friend. After being with Bucky and getting married two years ago, he still doesn’t trust you.

“I’ll be back later tonight. If I’m late, don’t wait up.” Bucky said before pressing a kiss to your temple.

“See you later, my love.” You said smiling at him.

You watched him pull away and follow Steve to the car. The black sleek vehicle rumbled, Sam hanging out of the back window and waving at you. You chuckled and waved back. Before Bucky got into the car he turned and blew you a kiss, which you caught and held to you heart. You then watched as he drove off to handle whatever enemy him and his alliance was facing today.

You turned and walked back into the mansion, closing the door behind you. Brunner trotted up to you and sat at your feet. The thick headed Staffy smiled up at you and panted.

“Let me go get some clothes on and then we can go for walkies.” You said to him in you doggie voice, which made Brunner jump in excitement.

“Barnes.” Tony waltzed into Bucky’s office, announcing himself. Bucky rubbed a hand over his face before turning to look at Tony.

“Yes, Stark?” Bucky gave a tired response.

“You’re late, and this is important.” Tony sat on one of the couches in Bucky’s office.

Bucky smirked to himself. “I had something I needed to do first.” The memory of you trembling underneath him sent a reaction straight to his cock. “Now what’s so important that I had to leave my warm wife and so early?” Bucky sat down in his chair.

“Well actually...” Tony leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. “The subject of your wife is part of this important discussion we need to have.”

Bucky groaned internally. “If Steve has put you on her case as well, I’m going to hit you.” He pointed at Tony. “She’s not using me for the money. And what we do is our business.”

“No, gosh I don’t care about that.” Tony raised his hands and shook his head. “But you might care after this.”

“What are you talking about?” Bucky frowned at his alliance team member.

“We’ve discovered that the mission information has been transmitted from inside your house.” Tony informed him.

Bucky’s spine straightened and the hairs stood at the back of his neck. Tony’s words made Bucky’s skin crawl, but he stayed silent.

“We have reasons to believe that your wife is-“

“Do not fucking finish that sentence!” Bucky cut Tony off. His voice was loud but trembled.

“Barnes-“ Tony tried again.

“No,” Bucky stood from his chair. “My wife might’ve been an outsider at the beginning but she would never betray me like that.”

“James, you need to calm down.” Tony also stood from his chair, warning Bucky.

“She’s not the mole.” Bucky’s eyes pleaded Tony not to continue with his accusation.

“James-“

“Buck.” Steve was now the one to interrupt Tony as he burst through the door with a laptop in his arms. “You need to see this.”

Tony groaned at the interruption.

“No, it’s a confirmation.” Steve assured Tony.

“What?” Bucky asks in shock.

“Listen, Buck. I know you don’t want to believe that she’s the mole. But this evidence is hard to argue with.” Steve told him.

Bucky clenched his fists by his sides. “No, I don’t want to hear it. She can’t be the mole.

“You don’t think her motives were to find out that we have Natasha in there as our own mole? To expose her to them?” Steve tries to convince him. “One of our own could very much be in danger because of your wife.”

“And it would explain how they get the route details of our cartel units.” Tony added.

Bucky stood standing silently. There was no way his beautiful wife could’ve been the mole. She was too busy loving the dog when he wasn’t there. The one woman who had captivated him so much that he fell in love with her the first time she smiled at him could’ve been the mole. That just would’ve been a cruel joke.

“Just...look at the evidence, Buck.” Steve offered him the laptop.

Hesitantly, Bucky grasped the laptop while still glaring at Steve, hoping it would be someone who just looked like you. As he lifted the screen, his eyes betrayed his stoic expression as he saw a picture, clear as day, of you exchanging words with someone who you know is against him and his team of alliances. Rumlow. And seated at your feet, Brunner.

Tear threaten to tip over his lids as he takes a deep breath to try and hold the rage and hurt that’s growing in his chest.

Hurt.

Pain.

Betrayal.

That fucking dog.

You bitch.

Bucky snapped the laptop shut before hurling it at the wall. As if he couldn’t afford another one.

Tony and Steve stayed silent as they watched Bucky slowly move and surly panting at the growing sense of betrayal that swelled his stomach.

Sam then arrived at the door of the office, seeing what the commotion was. They all eyes Bucky as he took a deep breath.

“June’s the mole.” Bucky’s voice croaked out. “She’s the fucking mole.”

Steve looked down at his feet, no longer able to look at his best friends painful expression.

Bucky suddenly turned back towards his desk and swiped his gun off the table.

“Let’s go.” He said before storming passed them and out of his office.

“Damn.” Sam shook his head. “I really liked her.” He mumbled as him and Steve followed Bucky out of the building and back to his house.

You stood at the sink washing the small plate you had just used for your food. Sure you had house staff for that sort of thing, but it was just one plate. After going for a walk and a play with Brunner you had come back to make yourself lunch. You hummed to yourself happily, drying off the dish before placing it in the cupboard. That’s when you heard heavy footsteps headed in your direction. Turning, you saw Bucky storming in with Steve and Sam hot on his tail.

“Oh hey, Buck. I didn’t expect you to-“ You cut yourself off as you watched Steve and Sam stop at the doorway, drawing their guns at you.

“Woah, hey.” You said in confusion as Bucky marched over to where you stood. “What’s happeni-“ You we’re cut off once again, but this time by the back of Bucky’s hand burning across your cheek.

“You think I wouldn’t find out?” Bucky snarled in your ear as you clutched the right side of your face. “You think because you can get naked and marry me I would just over looking this?”

Still in shock from the slap, you stared at him.

“Answer me!” He shouted causing you to jump back.

“B-Buck. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You stuttered, afraid you’d get hit again.

“Enough playing dumb.” He gripped your wrist, his fingers digging into your flesh, causing you to whimper.

The noise coming from the kitchen had summoned Brunner. He now stood at the second doorway to the kitchen from the living room, tail still and a growl rumbling from his throat.

“Bucky, please. Just talk to me.” You begged, trying to brace your arm from any movement he might make.

“I know you’re the mole, June. Or even if that’s your real name.” The look in his eyes was pure rage built up behind the smallest ring of tears. “You tricked me you, little bitch. Say it!” He threw you back against the counter, it hitting your lower back. This caused Brunner to step forward in a warning and Bucky whipped around to him.

“Stay there dog!” He bellowed at him. The dog back up but the snarl still wrinkled his snout as he watched Bucky throw his mother around.

“You’ve been going behind my back and selling out everything. Meeting with Rumlow. You’ve stayed in my house and tainted every inch of trust I had with you. Staying was the dumbest thing you could’ve done, bitch.” Bucky stepped back towards you and lifted his hand. You flinched and turned your head, in hopes to protect your face but the blow came your stomach. His fist took the wind out of you and you doubled over onto your knees, groaning and coughing. Tears now fell down your face as your husband abused you. You sobbed as his feet stopped right in front of your face. Brunner barked at Bucky.

“Bucky...” Your voice came out weak. “Please...stop.”

Brunner continued to bark, taking Bucky’s attention away from you. You looked up to see Steve and Sam wincing at the way Bucky was handling you mercilessly. Your eyes moved back to Bucky as you watched him move closer to the barking dog, bringing yourself up from the ground again.

“Don’t hurt him.” You said on instinct as Bucky showed aggression towards the dog.

Bucky turned back to you and raised his brows as you pulled yourself back up, supporting yourself on the sink. “Oh. So you’ll protect the mutt but you’ll betray me?”

“Bucky, I never-“ He didn’t let you finish as he pulled out his own gun and pointed it right at Brunner.

Your wet eyes widened and you rushed forward with your arms out towards him. You went to grab at his gun but Bucky was quickly and thumped you right in the cheek with the handle of the gun, causing your head to whip back and you land on your ass on the floor again.

Brunner bared his teeth at Bucky and moved again.

“Stay!” Bucky shouted once again, the dog halting on stiff legs.

You groaned as your body now throbbed in pain. You just knew your face was bleeding from that hit. Your brain hurt from raking over the reasons he would be so angry to hurt you like this. And your hope was thinning as he looked down at you with a glare that could kill you.

“Tell me where you sent the information.” Bucky said in a terrifyingly calm tone now having his gun drawn on you. “Tell me who you work for.”

“I’m not working for anyone, Bucky. Please.” You sobbed out a beg.

Bucky rolled his eyes and sighed in frustration. He moved his gun to point at Brunner again. The dog started barking at him again.

“No...” You whimpered, tears falling down your cheeks as you sat up and stinging the cut on your face.

“Tell me, June! Or I put a bullet right between Brunner’s pretty eyes!” Bucky yelled.

“No please.” You cried.

“Buck...” Sam said gently.

“Shut it, Sam!” Bucky silenced him. “Tell me, now!”

“I swear to you I’m not working with anyone!” You cried to him.

“I saw the evidence, June! I know! Tell me where!” Bucky was now red in the face.

Brunner continued to bark and you begged for Bucky to not hurt him.

“I’m not! Bucky! I love yo-“ The gun went off and you gasped, closing your eyes.

You heard Brunner yelp before a thud hit the ground and silence screamed through your ears.

You felt the bile start to rise in your throat and now Steve and Sam has lowered their guns. Bucky’s heavy breathing was the only thing that could now be heard.

When you woke up today, never would you have thought your day would go like this, when you took Brunner for a walk or kissed your husband goodbye. Nothing like this harsh event crossed your mind.

Bucky slowly stepped forward, looking down at your kneeling form on the floor with your face covered with your hands. The sight broke him, but the idea of your betrayal broke him even more.

“I’m going to ask you once more time, June.” Bucky said lowly. “Where did that information go?”

You didn’t answer. You knew you were innocent, but you also knew Bucky. He would either kill you or find more ways to hurt you even more. So you stayed silent.

Bucky’s frustration was building up again in response to your silence. He snarled and grabbed your arm again, force you to look up at his as he raise you slightly. You yelped at the bruising that had formed from earlier and his tight grip now. Tears watered your face as you looked up at the man you shared a bed with last night and many nights since before your wedding night. This wasn’t the same man.

“Mr Barnes.” A voice said from the doorway to the living room. Everyone turned their eyes to see Rita, your friend and Bucky’s longtime general housekeeper, standing there with a small gun by her side.

“It was me. Don’t hurt Mrs Barnes anymore.” She said with sad eyes.

Bucky’s grip on you immediately softened as he turned his body in shock.

“I’m sorry.” She muttered before holding the gun behind her ear. You gasped again and looked away before you could hear the gun go off.

Now two bodies lay in the doorway to the living room and Bucky’s body immediately filled with shock and regret. He had just bashed his wife around and killed the dog she had been loving and training while his most trusted housekeeper revealed she betrayed him and killed herself in front of them.

Bucky took his time to let everything sink in while he listened to your sobs coming from your body on the floor at his feet.

He looked down at you, heat and hurt filling his chest as he saw your blood on your hands.

Oh, baby. I’m so sorry.

The tears of betrayal he was holding back had turned into tears of regret and slipped down his cheeks. Slowly and gently, he reached down to touch you softly. His fingers brushing against the back of your arm made you flinch. Your body flipping backward and away from his touch, your eyes full of fear and hatred staring back at him.

His face had morphing into one of sadness and hopeless regret. He still cradled his gun in his other hand and held it away from you. He held out his hand and you shook your head.

Sweat made the baby hairs stick to your forehead and your wet cheeks were now streaked. The deep gash from the gun swollen and raging red and blood dripping down. Every detail of your face was another slice on Bucky’s heart. He promised to never hurt you in any way. This afternoon, he broke you in more than one way.

You pushed yourself to your wobbly feet and stumbled. Bucky reacted by reaching forward to help you balance yourself. You whacked his hand away and your eyes pierced through him.

“Stay the fuck away from me.” The words dripping venom made his heart drop to his stomach. He watched as you made your way passed Steve and Sam and out of the kitchen.

“June.” He quiet voice trembled in a plea and he trailed after you.

You kept walking through the house towards the front door as you ignored Bucky saying your name behind you. Not bothering to grab your coat, you opened the front door and you were met with 5 cars of men all aiming their guns towards you.

“Stay where you are!” One of them demanded. You froze. More guns aimed at your head in the last 10 minutes than some people in a life time.

“No! Stop! Don’t shoot her!” Bucky’s voice came rushing to the door and he stood behind you, ordering his men over your shoulder. “Don’t hurt her!”

You scoff at his orders and continue down the front steps, Bucky’s men putting down their guns.

Bucky watched with a heavy heart you as you made your way to your car and slammed the door shut. Without looking back, you turned in the ignition and drove out of the driveway, his men moving away from your car as you drove straight through them.

“Someone please follow her and make sure she is safe.” Bucky’s voice trembled as he wiped away the tears on his face. “Make sure no one else hurts her but keep your distance.” One of the men nodded and got into one of he cars, driving off to follow you.

“Buck.” Steve said from behind him. Bucky turned his head to see Steve holding a piece of paper in his hand with one word written in Rita’s handwriting. ‘Hydra’.

Bucky took a shaky sigh as he looked at the spot your car was once in. One he bought you as only one of the many random gifts he had given you.

He had really messed this up. He considered himself lucky if he ever even saw you again. Images of your scared face while he hurt you played over in his mind, already haunting him and breaking his heart even more.

I’m so sorry baby girl.

Tags: @kiwi-comics

[zathechaosgod]

So on Phil’s stream he talked to Fundy about Fundy building a raid farm (and the dream smp is on easy mode, so this entire part of the stream was really funny 10/10 would recommend watchingback!) but it got me thinking because Dream banned villager trading hals and a while back I also watched a video on Dream threatening to kill Tubbo because he wanted to build an iron farm and...

Okay so I have like,,, three main points on why Dream seems so against anything that isn’t just mining for diamonds and iron and tries to fight them about it? And they’re all connected together but let’s see.

1. Dream is the server owner/ god

Dream is (as everyone knows) the owner of the Dreamsmp (duh), and thus also has access to all the commands and can block anyone if they don’t keep to his rules. But then why doesn’t he use it? Because, in the end, the dreamsmp is all about content. And that brings us to the second point.

2. Dream is an awkward dork who can’t roleplay. at all.

This is also partly inspired by a tweet/post about dream begging the others to let him join in on the roleplaying lol. So basically Dream is really bad at acting. Take for example what I would argue is his most iconic line of all so far, where he stops Tommy when he tries to steal Wilbur’s tnt. Even there he sounds like he’s reading from a piece of paper AND STILL MANAGES TO TRIP OVER HIS WORDS

And I don’t want to diss Dream too hard, but he might be the server owner but Wilbur and Tommy are the reason the Dreamsmp is what it has become. And he knows it as well. That’s why he’s never really on their side, because by creating conflict he is also creating relevant content for himself.

So he doesn’t, cannot, ban any of the main characters of the stories, because then he would literally take away some of his own content (even if he doesn’t livestream/post videos of his own a lot, EVERYONE who watches any dreamsmp streams knows who he is. Ruining his own server would ruin his reputation just as much even if it doesn’t impact his own videos).

So he does what he can do within this set limit: And there’s something he is good at in the dreamsmp server: killing anyone who tries to break his rules in game. But still a question remains: Why? Why is he so against farms? And this leads to my final point:

3. Dream is a speedrunner

Dream, at his core, has build his entire reputation around his speedrunning, whether his world-records or his manhunt videos with the added pvp.

For him, minecraft starts and ends with a single goal: killing the ender dragon, and doing that in as little time as possible.

He is used to getting barely past iron armor before doing so, and even with up to four people hunting him down as he does so.

When is the last time he used an elytra outside of MCC? What’s the last time he set foot in an end city? When has he build a farm that went beyond a field of crops or a basic mob grinder?

And this is kinda where we return to the first two points. Dream most likely has very little experience in end game minecraft. And if other people build those farms, get their endless enchantments, resources, elytra? What happens when the server reaches a point beyond his expertise?

He loses his only form of power. He cannot use his server operator powers, so he needs to find a way in-game to keep his power over the other players. And the only way to keep this in-game power, is by preventing the rest to get to the point where he doesn’t have the upper hand anymore.

It’s honestly making me really curious as to how long this is going to continue, and if he’ll keep setting more and more limits as to which farms are allowed.

(Also phil revealed dream is working on a video on fighting other cc’s in minecraft, only dream doesn’t wear any armor during the duels. He beat at least two people 6-0, but lost to Phil, although barely. This also means that most likely, even in endgame minecraft like i just mentioned, he could still kicks everyone’s ass lmao)

——————————

TLDR: Dream wants to prevent the server from reaching endgame minecraft because he’s not as familiar (and thus powerful) with endgame things like proper farms etc. Also take all of this with a grain of salt because he can still beat your favs without even wearing armor :)

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #231

Thurs Apr 30 2020 [10:59 PM] Wack'd: It's actually the gruffest looking comic writer you’ve ever seen. It’s like if somebody put Jack Kirby through a meat grinder and just sorta schluffed him back together again and then like glued some hair onto him. He's smoking a big cigar and he says "My name...is

[11:00 PM] Bocaj: HAH! [11:01 PM] Umbramatic: pfft [11:02 PM] Wack'd: Seriously, his name is just Gurland. Even Marvel Wiki says so. This issue is the only reference I can find of this person *ever existing* [11:02 PM] Mousa The 14: ... [11:02 PM] Mousa The 14: What [11:02 PM] Mousa The 14: No... No first... no first name? No alias? That’s not possible. Someone’s gotta know something! [11:03 PM] maxwellelvis: This might be an Alan Smithee [11:03 PM] Wack'd: If it is, no one knows who it's one for [11:03 PM] maxwellelvis: Could have been one for everyone [11:04 PM] Umbramatic: The Gurland Collective [11:06 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, our story opens not with the Four but this great collage of NYC humanity reacting to their neighborhood having been abruptly Negative Zoned.

[11:06 PM] maxwellelvis: Why's the head of Filmation working a construction job? [11:06 PM] Wack'd: Look at Filmation's finances and ask that again [11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: Ha [11:07 PM] Umbramatic: burn [11:07 PM] maxwellelvis: 'course this is just a few years before they got the He-Man deal [11:08 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, back at the Baxter, Ben is really cheesed off. As far as he's concerned, this just isn't the sort of thing heroes do to an unsuspecting populous of average joes, and he's really steamed that Reed didn't think this out. [11:08 PM] maxwellelvis: As right he should be. [11:08 PM] Mousa The 14: Legit [11:09 PM] Wack'd: Reed, to his credit, apologizes, and concedes that even with the pressure of Earth's impending destruction, he could've thought harder about all this. [11:09 PM] Mousa The 14: Earth’s destruction is a lot of pressure admittedly [11:09 PM] Umbramatic: yes! listen to ben! [11:10 PM] Mousa The 14: But also he deals with that every week so [11:10 PM] Mousa The 14: Not that much pressure, he should be used to it by now [11:10 PM] Wack'd: He's also been monitoring the situation and found that the island is moving, specifically towards the Distortion Area, which is where the Baxter's Negative Zone portal usually opens up. [11:11 PM] maxwellelvis: Uh-oh [11:11 PM] maxwellelvis: That can't be good. [11:11 PM] Wack'd: It's...kind of good. [11:11 PM] Mousa The 14: Yeah [11:11 PM] Mousa The 14: That’s a way home [11:11 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, but the other side is currently in the Negative Zone [11:11 PM] Wack'd: See, the Distortion Area just kinda shunts shit between the Positive and Negative Zones naturally, so ideally if the island gets there they can go home. [11:12 PM] maxwellelvis: That's just ASKING for space to warp and bend to the snapping point. [11:12 PM] Mousa The 14: They don’t have much a choice right now [11:12 PM] Mousa The 14: And they use that area all the time [11:12 PM] Mousa The 14: It’ll be fine [11:12 PM] Wack'd: However, to get there, they need to. You know. Traverse the Negative Zone. Which even apart from the monsters has a host of terrors in it. [11:12 PM] Mousa The 14: Iiiiiits fiiiiiiiiiiine [11:13 PM] Wack'd: Specifically, they'll have to pass through Sub-Space, a nexus of all realities that could dump them literally anywhere if it doesn't destroy them first. [11:13 PM] maxwellelvis: And during all of this, hope that Annihilus doesn't spot this chunk of city floating through space. [11:14 PM] Wack'd: And Reed can't put too much computing power into calculating a trajectory or even figuring out how to steer, since he needs as much electricity as possible to keep the bubble protecting their neighborhood going. [11:15 PM] Mousa The 14: “Citizens, my name is Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. As you know, we have rescued the earth with the help of your unwilling sacrifice. The good news is I may have found a way home!” [11:15 PM] Umbramatic: this is a lot of fuckery [11:15 PM] Mousa The 14: “Now we might die horribly torn across the 5th dimensions, but that is a risk I am willing to take on your behalf” [11:16 PM] Mousa The 14: “I’m certain you would all agree to my plan of getting all of us home even if it kills us” [11:17 PM] maxwellelvis: "Let's just beat him up and take his stuff!" [11:17 PM] maxwellelvis: "No no no, do not listen to that man!" [11:17 PM] Aleph Null: imagine being stuck in this scenario and the only person with the know how to get you out is the person who got you in [11:18 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, on top of all this, there are a couple of new problems brewing. One of them is a giant purple spacegod who thinks his territory is being invaded...and the other is a construction foreman.

[11:18 PM] maxwellelvis: Purple guy's probably just pissed because of his very painful-looking glasses. [11:19 PM] Wack'd: ...I just noticed the foreman is also wearing purple and glasses [11:19 PM] Wack'd: That's some good storytelling [11:19 PM] Mousa The 14: ART [11:19 PM] maxwellelvis: And "Stygorr" and "Lew Shiner" sound a little bit similar as far as names go [11:19 PM] Umbramatic: don't trust purple glasses [11:19 PM] Mousa The 14: The true villain was the foreman we made along the way! [11:20 PM] Mousa The 14: Man, they’re really going for the parallels thing, huh [11:20 PM] Wack'd: So Reed has a plan [11:20 PM] Wack'd: All they need is to build up infinite momentum. For complicated science reasons. The problem is generating force. [11:21 PM] Bocaj: UM [11:21 PM] Aleph Null: @Wack'd hang on [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Infinite momentum. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Right. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: That means "very fast" [11:21 PM] Wack'd: Yes, that's what I said. [11:21 PM] Mousa The 14: Infinite... right. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: got it [11:21 PM] Umbramatic: LUDICROUS SPEED [11:21 PM] Mousa The 14: That’s how science works [11:21 PM] Aleph Null: reed trying to tap into the fucking speed force here [11:21 PM] Aleph Null: thinks he’s goddamn sonic t hedgehog [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: I actually think Neelix would be a better scientitian in this instance than Reed, gods help me. [11:22 PM] Aleph Null: oh god this was literally a voyager episode [11:22 PM] Aleph Null: thanks max [11:22 PM] Wack'd: Back on Earth, Lorrie feels awkward

[11:23 PM] maxwellelvis: "I can see you all!" -- Franklin Richards, 1980 [11:23 PM] Wack'd: I'll say this--this is the most acceptably child-looking Franklin we've gotten. Um. Ever? [11:23 PM] Aleph Null: he looks like a small adult [11:24 PM] Wack'd: Eh [11:24 PM] Aleph Null: i mean, sure. less like a small adult. than usual [11:25 PM] Umbramatic: franklin is watching you. judging you. [11:25 PM] Wack'd: SO! Reed and Ben are going to fight purple dude. Sue is the last line of defense in case purple dude breaks the bubble protecting the neighborhood. Johnny is making sure Reed and Ben stay tethered to the Baxter [11:25 PM] Wack'd: YELLOW! FROM THE YELLOW DIMENSION!

[11:26 PM] Bocaj: Hal Jordan: ;__; [11:26 PM] Aleph Null: pissland! [11:26 PM] Aleph Null: "Wack'd and Umbra are typing..." [11:27 PM] Umbramatic: i was gonna say that dimension wasn't always yellow [11:27 PM] Wack'd: Stygorr claims to be the equal of Annihilus and Blastaar, so naturally I checked Marvel Wiki and he gets his ass kicked this issue and we never see him again [11:27 PM] maxwellelvis: "No no, don't worry, it's lemon" [11:27 PM] Wack'd: He has the power to change his body from matter to anti-matter, which, uh, causes explosions, I think? [11:28 PM] Bocaj: Surrrre [11:28 PM] maxwellelvis: That is the basic theory of matter-antimatter [11:28 PM] maxwellelvis: Matter + antimatter = kaboom [11:28 PM] Umbramatic: antimatter god huh? [11:29 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile, an army of militants convinced that they are being conspired against are about to storm the buildings of the people who are supposed to be preventing them from dying painfully. You know. Something that would never happen in real life. [11:29 PM] Wack'd: Certainly wouldn't happen today, in America. Nope. [11:29 PM] Wack'd: Comic book fantasy at its best. [11:29 PM] Umbramatic: also eeeeeeeep [11:31 PM] Wack'd: All these people are white so the cop, singular, doesn't shoot at them. The foreman successfully steals his gun. [11:32 PM] Bocaj: Well [11:32 PM] Wack'd: ...i just remembered the foreman's motivation here is that he needs to stay on deadline [11:32 PM] Wack'd: i fucking hate everything [11:32 PM] Bocaj: Huh! [11:32 PM] maxwellelvis: THE ESCAPISM OF COMIC BOOKS [11:32 PM] Bocaj: The more things comic the more they stay the same [11:33 PM] Bocaj: I imagine the writer though this was obvious ludicrous ridiculousness [11:33 PM] Bocaj: The way that comic book villainy is just a thing that happens openly nowadays [11:33 PM] Wack'd: Anyway the foreman's like "okay, so here's the plan, we go into the Baxter building and do the thing that will get us home" [11:34 PM] Wack'd: And a member of the mob is like "but Reed and Ben aren't in the bubble right now? How're they gonna get back" [11:34 PM] Wack'd: And the foreman's like "fuck them, actually" [11:34 PM] Wack'd: And now the mob has Doubts [11:34 PM] maxwellelvis: You serious? [11:35 PM] Wack'd: Sue wants to use a force field to keep the mob out, but unfortunately a hole in the containment field has cropped up so she needs to send Johnny to deal with this nonsense [11:36 PM] Bocaj: Raimi sure got Jameson right [11:36 PM] Wack'd: I could pin this on Sue needing to be kept out of action but I think the fact is seeing Johnny deal with this nonsense is just more entertaining. The mob is using fucking dynamite and wrecking balls [11:36 PM] Umbramatic: oh boy [11:36 PM] Wack'd: The foreman tries to shoot Johnny [11:36 PM] Wack'd: And suddenly the mob is like "fuck this, actually" [11:37 PM] Wack'd: They successfully dogpile him so he gives up and runs off, shouting about how they need him and he'll be back [11:37 PM] Umbramatic: The Mob Has Standards [11:38 PM] Wack'd: It's nice, yeah [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, Reed has A Plan [11:39 PM] Wack'd: Stygorr keeps rotating the island by blasting at it. They are going to release the demolition site from the bubble just as it's in Stygorr's range, creating a huge matter/antimatter explosion [11:39 PM] Wack'd: Which will create infinite momentum [11:40 PM] Wack'd: Johnny goes to make sure there's no one still there and evacuates everyone [11:40 PM] Bocaj: "Stygorr keeps rotating the island by blasting at it" this makes me laugh [11:40 PM] Wack'd: Except this dipshit who is definitely going to die

[11:42 PM] Umbramatic: that man, later, probably [11:43 PM] Wack'd: I want to praise the storytelling here but it occurs to me these guys have literally nothing in common besides being the bad guys of this issue and similar aesthetics so like. Uh.

[11:44 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, they both immediately assume that this is a personal attack on them and immediately go off to kill the FF [11:44 PM] Wack'd: Also christ the inks on this section are garbage [11:44 PM] Wack'd: I suppose that's true, sure [11:44 PM] Bocaj: They're thematic doubles [11:44 PM] Bocaj: And the universe abhors doubles [11:45 PM] Bocaj: I assume anyway since everyone is always saying 'no doubles' [11:45 PM] maxwellelvis: FA-BA-BA-BOOM [11:45 PM] Wack'd: But also like. Uh. We don't actually know what purple dude wanted or what his deal was besides being a baddie? [11:45 PM] Wack'd: Like the foreman had very concrete and specific motivations and pathology [11:45 PM] Umbramatic: Holy shit, there’s two of them https://imgur.com/Br8T9tS https://i.imgur.com/Br8T9tSh.jpg [11:45 PM] Wack'd: Purple dude just yelled a lot [11:45 PM] maxwellelvis: I think he assumed this was an attack on his kingdom or something [11:46 PM] Wack'd: He did but after his big intro speech he doesn't really say anything meaningful about himself [11:46 PM] Wack'd: hahahahahahhaahahahahahhahahah

[11:47 PM] Bocaj:

Purple Guy: -shoots lasers- "BY THE WAY, I'M A VIRGO AND LIKE LONG WALKS ON THE BEACH" Ben: "Uh" Purple Guy: "I'M LOOKING FOR LOVE BUT FEAR I'M UNLOVABLE AND ALSO I FEAR MATTER ANTI-MATTER ANNIHILATION"

[11:47 PM] Wack'd: Some real forty-years-later quarterbacking here but like [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Maybe if purple guy had also been in actual peril at some point? [11:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Isn't this the ending of TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist? [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Because like the New Yorkers are kinda right to be cheesed off [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Anyway [11:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, but he starts a lynch mob because he personally is inconvenienced by this. [11:49 PM] Wack'd: New writer incoming, new love interest awkwardly exits stage left

[11:49 PM] Bocaj: Aw [11:49 PM] Bocaj: Shame [11:49 PM] Umbramatic: f for johnny [11:49 PM] Bocaj: I liked the character beat of her sort of envying how close knit the Fantastic Four Family fwere [11:52 PM] maxwellelvis: Does Lorrie get a last name? [11:52 PM] Wack'd: She does, it's Melton [11:52 PM] Wack'd: Which is cute [11:52 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [11:53 PM] Wack'd: She is also never seen again according to Marvel Wiki. which is less cute [11:53 PM] Wack'd: So many great characters casually discarded in the 70s interim [11:53 PM] maxwellelvis: Alas [11:53 PM] Wack'd: ...fuck [11:54 PM] Wack'd: Okay this is hilarious. A legendary six-year run starting with "Diablo! Everyone likes Diablo, right?"

[11:55 PM] maxwellelvis: Shall we wrap it up for the night or dive right in to the Byrne era? [11:55 PM] Wack'd: Also fuck "back to basics". Everyone in the letters pages is complaining too much 60s stuff has been discarded and I'm over here desperately trying to think of a single Lee/Kirby thing I miss that hasn't been retained [11:55 PM] Wack'd: I don't even remember what Diablo's shtick was. Is he the illusions guy? [11:55 PM] maxwellelvis: Alchemy [11:56 PM] Wack'd: Cool [11:56 PM] maxwellelvis: He's the guy who made Dragon Man, too. [11:56 PM] maxwellelvis: And most memorably, tried to get Ben under his thumb by partially curing him, putting him in this creepy "Ben-Thing" intermediary state. [11:57 PM] Wack'd: Right, I remember Dragon Man. He has nothing to do with dragons, and he has nothing to do with men. He has everything to do with hurting [11:57 PM] Wack'd: You know what? I will say this. [11:57 PM] Wack'd: The 70s hasn't had nearly enough Mad Thinker [11:57 PM] maxwellelvis: And even less of Andy [11:57 PM] Wack'd: I don't care about Andy so much but for your sake I hope he returns [11:58 PM] Wack'd: LETTERS! [11:59 PM] Wack'd: There's not much here. People are torn on the Brain Parasites, and one writer is sad Doug and Bill are leaving. [12:03 AM] maxwellelvis: Anyways, I find it hilarious, all these letters calling for a back to basics thing, to the point that the next issue is titled that in the preview blurb, when John Byrne is one writer who brings in a lot of shake-ups

[aptronyms]

Okay so what is a good way to build a mob grinder without a spawner? There's the classic tower with some water in it or also the ones that use turtle eggs? And some other ones too ig???

oh i actually have no clue ive never ever built a mob grinder without a spawner, i know u can make some pretty sick ones tho. i saw a wicked sweet wither skeleton one once :) best bet is looking up a tutorial

[kee-writestrashh]

Guns for Hire

Ramsay Bolton x Reader

ao3

Summary:  You are the wife to the Heir of the Red Kings, Ramsay Bolton. living the undercover life of a mob wife has its perks, and you love your husband. But you find out something that seems to unfold a series of unwanted events…

Chapter 36: The awakening

"Thank you for the shower." You said, sitting down on the couch with a heavy sigh.

Now that you were comfortable, warm, and clean it was easy to feel how exhausted you were. You really couldn't keep running around like this anymore. You'd have to tell Ramsay you desperately needed a few days to do nothing. You were too fucking tired.

"Not at all, sweetie." Charlotte said, handing you a blanket, as you curled up on the couch, waiting on Ramsay to get out of the shower. But mostly waiting on Matt to show up with food.

You yawned, glancing around the living room, resting your hand on your belly when a pair of yellow eyes under the entertainment center caught yours.

"Kitty!" You practically squealed, sitting up straight and holding your hand out.

"Herman. He's shy." Charlotte said with a laugh.

"Here, Herman. Let me love you!" You said, sliding from the couch to your knees on the floor.

Herman slowly pushed his head out from under the entertainment center. He was just a baby. A little gray fuzzball, with white socked front paws.

Ah! Baby animals! Aren't they just the best?

You sat patiently, with your hand out stretched, waiting on the kitten to get close enough to scoop up.

You giggled as the kitten touched his nose to your finger tip, finally deciding you were okay as he pushed his head into your hand.

You scratched him behind the ear with your finger, a swooping sensation in your chest making it hard to breath as you thought of Kira and Willow.

You blinked the tears away with a small sniff, and scooped the kitten up, holding him close. He purred loudly and rubbed his head into the crook of your neck.

Charlotte watched you with a sad smile as if she could feel your heartache.

"I caught him and Damon cuddled up on the couch this morning. He says he hates cats, but I keep catching them together." Charlotte said with a small laugh.

"How could anyone say no to this little face, though?" You giggled, holding the kitten out to look him over.

It mewed and twitched it's tail. You set the cat down and sat back on the couch.

Damon and Matt entered the living room a few moments later and you were ecstatic to finally eat. You lodged yourself comfortably in the couch with drink between your legs and sandwiches on your stomach.

"Where's Ramsay?" Damon asked, running his finger along his game collection across the room.

"Trying to drown himself in the shower, I think." You said thickly, as you stuffed the toasted bread crust in your mouth.

"Figures. Never met someone who takes showers as long as him." Damon said, tossing Matt a controller and throwing himself down beside Charlotte, resting his head in her lap.

"Kid, roll one." Damon said, lazily pointing to the coffee table.

Matt sighed and pulled a metal tray in his lap, "dude." He moaned, "break it up. Then I'll roll it."

"Quit whining. Grinders in the kitchen." Damon said dismissively.

You blindly watched Matt roll a joint as you finished eating. Ramsay would be disappointed. You could only make it through four whole sandwich crusts. You threw away your trash and returned to find Ramsay sitting in your spot. You scowled.

"What took you so damn long?" You asked, sitting beside him.

"Phone call." He shrugged, taking the joint from Matt and taking a deep hit.

"Got whiskey in the freezer, Boss." Damon said, glancing up from his game.

"Nah. Good man." Ramsay struggled to get out, trying to hold the smoke in and not cough, as he handed the joint back to Matt, who passed it off to Damon.

"Really?" You asked, slightly shocked, as your husband lost his battle and the coughing fit overtook him.

He simply nodded, and took your drink from you.

"Fuck dude. What is that?" He choked, wiping the tears from his eyes, trying to catch his breath.

"Martell shit, man. Good isn't it?" Damon said, trying to suppress his cough, as he handed off to Charlotte.

"Sorry, baby girl." Ramsay whispered, watching you watch the handoffs.

You shrugged, "it's okay. Not really a stoner anyways, ya know."

"Think you would change your mind over this shit. What I wouldn't give to get you baked and horny as fuck right now." He murmured in your ear with a sigh, shifting on the couch to pull you into him as he rested his head back, watching the TV screen through heavily lidded, glazed bloodshot eyes.

He gently ran his fingers through your hair, holding you close as you curled up under the blanket.

"What time is it?" You asked thickly, opening your bleary eyes a bit.

"Bedtime." Ramsay said, laying you down gently in a bed.

You scoot into him, burying your face in his chest once he laid down.

"Baby?" You asked, quietly.

"Hm?" He hummed, running his hand down your spine.

"What are we going to do about our house?"

"I'm working on it, baby girl. Besides, I told you we were moving anyways."

"Mmm." You hummed in response, letting out a yawn and relaxing into the bed.

×××

As usual, you woke up alone. You felt even more tired than before you had fell asleep on the couch the night before. You had slept fitfully; nightmares and disgust making you toss and turn.

You pulled clothes from the bag at the end of the bed, dressed, and went through your daily routine in the guest bathroom.

"Smells like a family of fucking skunks live in here." You gagged, walking into the living room.

"Really happy, chill skunks." Ramsay replied, looking up from his phone as you sat beside him.

You rolled your eyes, glancing at his phone. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Got the info on the guy I need to snuff for the Iron Bank."

You took his phone, examining the picture closely.

"Hey... I know him." You said slowly.

"Yeah?" Ramsay asked, raising a brow.

"Well I don't know him know him. But he's the guy from the bar last night. What was it you said Damon, over worked middle class who hates everything?"

Damon leaned over the back of the couch examining the picture, "hm. Suppose you're right. Janos Slynt. What a shit name. His momma musta hated him.What a cocksucking lookin' son of a bitch."

"Well this cocksucker is adding twenty k to our pockets. I figured you and I could take him. And now we know where to look." Ramsay said, pocketing his phone and rising from the couch.

You stifled a yawn and looked over at Matt, who sat quietly, staring blankly at the wall. Made you grin. So stoned.

"What are you boys up to today?" You asked, glancing over at Ramsay and Damon, both taking turns smoking a bowl.

You watched Ramsay blow his smoke in Herman's face before registering what you said.

"Look at this cat. He's such a stoner." He chuckled before turning his attention to you completely. "First, I'm going to get rid of this fucking cotton mouth. Then I'm making pancakes. Or maybe it's you making pancakes. But for real though, I have a safe house to set up, numbers to go through, and sneaky shit to get on with."

You raised your brows and gave a slow nod, "Right. Sure you can function today?"

Ramsay gave a dismissive shrug and left the room.

"Matt. Want this?" Damon asked, holding up the pipe.

You watched Matt jump at the sound of his name and slowly turn his eyes to Damon. He shook his head slowly, saying nothing, and turning back to the wall.

He was usually so talkative and lively. What was wrong with him? Maybe he was just slow in the mornings?

You rose from your seat following Ramsay and Damon to the kitchen.

"Where's Charlotte?" You asked, opening the flour jar, ignoring Ramsay down a bottle of water.

"Work." Damon shrugged, grabbing a box of Fruit Loops.

Both he and Ramsay sat at the kitchen table eating dry cereal as you mixed up the pancake mix. For two men in their late twenties, they acted more like teenagers when together.

"What's wrong with the kid? He's hardly said two words since last night." Ramsay said thickly.

"Dunno. He is a bit off. I think you scared the shit out of him." Damon said, flicking a cereal at the cat, who chased it across the floor.

"Why? He was there when I killed those two pirate fucks. He wasn't even in there when I tortured the fuck last night?"

Damon shrugged, "man, I don't fucking know. Maybe the reality of it is setting in. You're a scary dude."

You snorted, measuring milk in the cup.

"Speaking of the guy last night, he said he and his sister were back. What if she goes looking for him?" You asked, turning to Ramsay.

"Ain't shit she can do. Can't go to the police about it and file a missing persons. If his face gets out there the other families will know the Dragons are back. She can't afford that. Unless she's as stupid as her brother." Ramsay said, rubbing his eye and crossing the room for another bottle of water.

"Why does everyone hate them?" You asked, pouring batter on the griddle.

"You know, I don't know. I know their father was a real cunt. You think I'm psycho, but apparently I don't have shit on him. Everyone kinda rallied against him and fucked him real good up the ass. Everyone but the two youngest.... Oh shit! That reminds me! Martell's. Their sister was married to the eldest son, they had two children together. When the Lannister's sacked 'em, Tywin sent his executioner, the Mountain, to eliminate every person with Dragon blood. I remember reading the police report. Fucker raped the woman to death, murdered her children in front of her. Smashed their tiny little heads in. Strings were pulled and a shit ton of money was undoubtedly handed off because the Mountain did like a year in the pen. Gregor Clegane."

You swallowed, suddenly losing your appetite the more Ramsay spoke, as you flipped a pancake. You placed your hand firmly over your belly, holding back the tears.

You sniffed and cleared your throat, turning your back completely to the two men in the room. You heard Damon leave the room, talking to Herman as he went. You heard the flick of a lighter and exhale of smoke.

"Sleep okay?" Ramsay asked.

You shrugged, "I guess."

He huffed. You flinched slightly as he wrapped his arms around your waist. You relaxed into him.

"You're a terrible guesser, because you didn't. What's wrong?" He whispered in your ear.

You sighed, "I dunno, baby. Just couldn't get comfortable. I miss our bed. I miss sleeping on my stomach. It's getting hard finding a comfortable spot to sleep in all night. I'm just... I'm so tired, Rams."

"I promise I won't make you do anything until you feel better." He said gently, kissing along the curve of your neck and resting his hands on your belly.

"Thank you." You said quietly, adding the last pancake to the stack and turning to face your husband. You wrapped your arms around him and inhaled deeply, closing your eyes tight.

"Damon and I will be awhile. Kid stays here. He will do whatever you ask him."

You nodded, listening to the rumble of his chest as he spoke.

It was a good thing that you weren't hungry, because it would have been disappointing as two grown men and teenage boy with the munchies demolished your batch of pancakes.

"Call if you need anything." Ramsay said, grabbing your ass and kissing your forehead as he pulled on his coat.

"Be careful. I love you." You said, watching your husband and Damon leave.

"Love you too, baby doll." Ramsay replied, shutting the door behind him.

You sat on the couch, petting Herman, who had jumped up beside you.

This was awkward. At a house where the two people who owned it were gone. Left with a kid who should of been in his senior year of high school, not sitting here. And no idea what to even say to him. Joking and talking with him around Ramsay and the Boys was one thing... But this was weird. Ramsay must have planned this on purpose. Bastard.

"You can watch whatever." Matt finally said after twenty minutes of awkward silence.

"Are you okay?" You asked.

Matt sat up straight, "Are you?" His eyes went wide and he looked afraid, wishing he could take his words back.

"I don't really know, to be honest. It's weird isn't it? To kill someone. I mean, it's one thing to just shoot someone, but to torture them..." You said, giving a kind smile.

Matt nodded, "yeah. I don't know what I expected... getting into this, I mean. I should of finished school."

"Why didnt you?"

"Didn't see a point. Never met my dad. Mom is a strung out, crank whore who lives with a guy who beats the hell out if her. Had me when she was fifteen and was never really a mom. She said I was on my own when she got with him. He wouldn't let me stay. Next thing I know I'm sixteen and living on the streets. Bum around with some pals, trying to do school. But just gave up. Got into stealing and selling drugs to get by. I'd be dead if it wasn't for Ramsay. I owe him my life. Him and Damon."

Sadness filled you as you watched the boy talk. You couldn't imagine.

"Well do you have any hobbies? I know you said Ramsay caught you tagging an alley wall, and I've seen cars you've painted." You said, trying to figure this kid out.

"I'm alright at art. Always wanted to be a tattoo artist." Matt shrugged.

"Then do it, kid. You're one of the Boys now. You're family. Sometimes blood is not thicker than water. You wanna tat, then do it. I will find you a shop. Tat the Boys until you're confident enough in your work. I know they like to give you shit, but if they didn't like you they would of killed you already. Anything you need, just say the word."

Matt looked at you through his bloodshot eyes. "Anything?"

You nodded with a smile.

"I need to see my mom. I haven't heard from her in over a year. I don't know if she's even alive. I just need to know." Matt said with a sigh, staring down at his hands.

You stood, "then let's go."

Matt looked up at you, clearly startled. "We can't just... I mean...?"

You snorted, "you're to do what I say. Perks of being the Boss's wife. And I say we are going to go see what we can find out about your mother."

You grabbed up your purse after sliding your coat on, and pulling the Jeep keys from Ramsay's discarded jacket from last night.

"Ready?" You asked kindly.

Matt pulled his hat on and gave a small nod.

"Hold down the fort, Herman. I believe in you." You said, glancing back at the kitten who was trying to catch dust in the ray of sunlight from a window.

"I can't guarantee she's here. But this was the last place she was when I saw her last." Matt said, standing outside the door.

You knocked on the door. You could hear cursing and dogs aggressively barking on the other side of the door.

A series of clicking locks could be heard and a very angry looking older man cracked the door.

"What do you want?" He grunted.

"I'm looking for Ros who used to stay here." You said, feeling this was not going to be easy.

"Don't know no Ros and I don't talk to no undercovers." The man said slamming the door in your face.

You exchanged a look with Matt. Anger was beyond him.

"That him?" You asked.

Words seemed to fail the poor kid and he was only able to nod, turning his hat backward, reaching in his jacket for his gun.

You pulled Ice Cream from your coat pocket and took a deep breath.

"Ready when you are, hon." You said, fingering the safety as Matt kicked down the door.

"The fuck?!" The man raged as two aggressive dogs rushed Matt.

He shot both, point blank as if it was nothing.

"You can't be here without a warrant you fucking bitch!" The man shouted, pulling his own gun from the couch cushion.

It must have been your insanity that kept you calm.

"I'm not here on police business. I'm here on mob business. If you don't cooperate, I will kill you. Where is Ros?" You said, finally pushing the safety off, slightly excited to finally use your Christmas present.

"Bath-bathroom." The man wheezed, holding his hands up in surrender as you and Matt held him at gunpoint.

You glanced around the nasty home. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in 5 years or more. The smell was awful. You stepped lightly, avoiding the dog shit and caked on muck as you made your way down the hall. You opened the first door you came to and cried out in anguish.

There chained to bedposts were two teenage girls. They were both covered in their own filth. The urge to throw up was more than you could take as you went slightly dizzy.

You stumbled back into the living room.

"How many?!" You shouted.

The man gave a wicked toothless grin and spit on the floor.

"I always have room for one more." He cackled.

Without thinking you pulled your gun up and shot the man in the gut. He screeched, falling to the ground.

"Take his gun." You barked rather aggressively at Matt, pulling your phone from your pocket.

"Yes, my pet?"

"I'm sending you an address. Be here in no more than ten." You said, words shaking in suppressed rage. You hung up and looked around again. "If he so much as moves, kill him."

You set off through the house again, opening doors and finding more girls. Finally you found the bathroom where three women sat. All three chained by the ankles to a metal pipe in the wall.

"Is one of you Ros?" You asked, pulling your shirt up over your nose.

The woman nearest you raised her hand.

"Ros, my name is (y/n). I'm here with your son, Matt. We're going to get you all out of here." You said kindly, putting your gun away and fighting the urge to gag.

The woman dropped to her knees, sobbing. You watched her, anger boiling.

You stormed back to Matt and the nasty old man.

"What's your name?" You demanded, kicking the man.

"Fuck you bitch." He choked, clutching his side.

"What's your fucking name you nasty piece of shit?" You yelled, pulling your gun again.

"Fuck. You." He hissed, looking up at you.

You pulled the trigger. The sight of the destroyed eye socket not nearly as sickening as it should of been, compared to the filth of this house and the things going on here. Your anger and disgust only increased, and you pulled the trigger again, furiously pulling the trigger even after your clip was unloaded, the hot tears coming fast on your cheeks.

"You nasty fucking monster!" You screamed at the dead man.

Ramsay and Damon came rushing inside, guns at the ready, and both stopping dead, swallowing thickly as the smell hit them. You practically saw the color drain from their faces and eyes water as they stepped backward.

"The fuck is going on here?" Ramsay demanded, covering his nose and mouth in the crook of his elbow.

"It's a funny story, and we will be glad to tell you over beers and cheese fries, but right now we have work to do. Every room in this house, other than this one is full of three to five women. All are chained." You said, dropping your gun to your side again.

"I leave you alone for an hour and now I have to play vigilante good guy. I'm not a vigilante good guy, baby girl. I'm a psycho serial killer." Ramsay said, pocketing his gun and glancing around.

You could see the disgust in his eyes at the amount of filth.

"Baby, please. But first, there's a woman in the bathroom. Her name is Ros. I need her."

"Kid, make an anonymous call and tip off the police. Let them do their job." Damon said, lip curled in disgust as he stepped further into the trailer.

×××

"You are in so much trouble." Ramsay growled, slamming the bedroom door.

You dropped your shoulders and simply nodded, "yes sir."

"What were you thinking?! You could of been hurt! You had no idea what you were walking into!" He raged, voice strangled, running his hands through his hair.

"Baby, stop please. I know what I did was foolish. And you're right, I had no idea what I was walking into. It wasn't supposed to go the way it did. Matt just wanted to see his mom. To know she was alive. And it just... well, went really fucking weird."

"I'll say. You're like a sex slave magnet. Or is that what you want? Use your husband's scary reputation to free poor girls who are used for sex?"

"It was a fucking coincidence. But if that's what it took. And in case you didn't notice I handled it just fine on my own!" You said defensively.

He clenched his jaw, making a frustrated noise, running his hands through his hair again. Clearly struggling against the urge to come undone.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Baby girl, I refuse to let you put yourself in harm's way. For fuckssake, just behave. I won't ask again. Do you understand me?"

You watched him. Examining him closely, you saw he looked exhausted, upset, and he was still overly pale.

"Yes, daddy. I promise. I'm sorry. I just... wanted to show the kid that he's family too. You like him. He's broken and confused and angry. Just like you were. Circumstances are very different, but I know he reminds you of you. You're tailoring him to have a bigger part in your little scheme you have going in your mind. Just wanted to do something good." You sighed, sitting heavily on the bed.

"We aren't good people. You've killed three men in a month. You even tortured one. And if you ever do something as stupid as you did today, you will regret it." Ramsay said, turning on his heel to leave.

"Oh my god." You said with a gasp. "You were scared!"

Ramsay stopped, hand on the door knob. He said nothing, threw the door open and left.

×××

You sat on the couch, playing with Herman when Charlotte came and sat next to you.

You decided she wasn't as bad as you first thought. Maybe you could get her story out of her like you did Matt. You were on a roll after all. Becoming an expert at getting down to brass tacks with people and their secrets.

"Where are the Boys?"

"Dunno. I guess they're still working on getting a safe house set up?" You shrugged.

"Ah, I see. So, what happened to your cheek?" She asked, watching you closely through her hazel eyes, pulling her blonde hair to one side.

"A man who will be dead soon." You shrugged, staring at the floor.

"You okay? You look miserable."

"No. Not miserable. Just... confused?"

"About?"

You sighed, "I've killed people."

"So you feel guilty? Tell Ramsay. Be honest with him. He worships you. We all see it. I don't think he'd make you do it if it upsets you. He doesn't want to see you down in the dumps." Charlotte suggested.

You gave a dry laugh, "that's the problem. I'm not upset about taking peoples lives and that is what upsets me. I'm turning into a monster and it doesn't bother me. I want it to. I want to feel sorry. I should be sorry. But I'm just... not. I'm upset because I'm not upset. Does that make sense?"

"I suppose. But sweetheart... what did all of these men do?" She asked.

You stared at her, not taking the time to under stand her question.

"Charlotte, I tortured a man I didn't know! I cut off his fucking finger!" You cried out, throwing your arms up, and scaring Herman who streaked from the couch to hide under the recliner.

"A scumbag." She said, pulling you back into the couch and giving you a sisterly hug. It caught you off guard.

"Who was the first guy?"

"My ex boyfriend." You sniffed.

"What did he do to you?" She asked, pulling away from you.

"Physically and emotionally hurt me." You said, dropping your eyes to your lap.

"The guy you tortured? He was just the same. He wanted so badly to date rape you, I could smell it on him when I stole you away. And that nasty man today... Just look what he was doing. You've killed men who abuse women. Who think they are better than us. Who think they can own us and do whatever they wish to us. You rid the world of three men who would have kept hurting other girls."

You looked back up at her. Her words calmed you. But then Ramsay's words sounded.

"But Ramsay..." You began slowly.

"Does what he thinks is right. That's all there is to it. Really no good or bad. Just what we think to be the right thing. It goes beyond cops and robbers. It's what you believe in your heart to be right. If killing women abusing men is what is right to you, why should you feel guilty about not feeling guilty?"

"What's your story?" You asked, glancing at the TV as the 5:00 news signal chimed.

Charlotte turned her attention to the TV too.

The news anchorman wasted no time in starting off his hour:

"Tonight we start out with a breaking story from the south side, where late this morning police were given an anonymous call about an underground sex torture ring where sixteen women, ages thirteen to forty-five were found on the two acres of land owned by the man. Some chained in a shed, and the others residing in the house. Reporter Talisa is on the scene with lead Dectective Robb Stark."

The picture changed to a woman standing beside Robb Stark.

"Thank you, Yhon. I'm here with Dectective Stark at the home they are calling Craster's Keep. What can you tell us, detective?"

"So far we have uncovered the remains of no less than fifty persons, ranging from infant to adult, buried in deep pit on the edge of the land. After receiving the tip we arrived to find Craster dead, with multiple gun shot..."

You turned back to Charlotte, waiting on her answer. Her eyes seemed far away as she chewed her lip. She drew a long, deep breath.

"When I was seventeen I was smuggled into human trafficking. I left my home country, never to return. The most evil man I've met abducted me. Abused me for about three years or so until I was finally sold off as an exotic mail order. Was married to a wrinkly old windbag. He died of a heart attack and I was hoping to go back home. But, I was grabbed up again. Same shit, different man. Anyways, I was working as a show girl, and I saw Damon. He caught my pimp beating me in the alley behind the casino, and took me. Killed my pimp and took me to a church and told me he was marrying me. I was just like, okay. Used to this by now. But he's good to me."

"What about all the women I see him with?" You blurted before you could stop yourself.

Charlotte laughed until she cried, "think they're for him?"

You gaped, "really?"

She grinned, "yeah. I like to lay with women too. Damon and I... we have a thing. It works for us. I don't believe in love. It's not for me. But Damon... he's a good guy. He gives me freedom."

"What do you do? Like work wise?" You asked, suddenly very curious of this woman. And even Damon. You had never really liked him. But the last 24 hours had shown you a side of both Damon and Ramsay you didn't know.

"During the day I'm a boring sales rep at a car lot. But at night I'm a stripper." She shrugged.

"What's it like?" You asked, glancing her over.

"Well, car sales are boring. Though, I'm sure you didn't mean that." She said, giving you a sly grin.

Your cheeks warmed.

"It's fun. And men can talk all the shit they want, but pole dancing will keep you in shape better than any other work out known to man kind." She glanced at your belly, and gave you a wink as she rose from the couch.

Cheeks were definitely warm now.

"I... I don't think I could." You admitted.

"You can. Come on. It's fun. I doubt your husband would object. Come to the dance studio with me tomorrow. It's a Sunday, it'll be mostly empty. I won't push you. But it'll keep you fit, and limber. You'll need that. Trust me."

You followed her to the kitchen, "you have children?"

"One. But she's better off without me. They took her as soon as she was born. I never even knew what color her hair was."

You leaned against the door frame, "you're different than I thought you would be."

"Yeah. I was really strung out over Christmas. Just a dark place." She nodded, pulling the freezer open. "Any ideas for dinner?"

"Not really. I'd like to cook something though. I miss cooking." You sighed, again, missing home.

[ayankun]

GOTHAM

insanely rambley HUGE spoiler-ridden seasons 1-4 thoughts under cut

FIRST OFF LET ME TELL YOU I GOT CHILLS

Secondly, let’s think back to how I felt about season one.  A little loose in the narrative, not so much weaving threads as having threads, ones that you keep expecting to pull tight but more often than not just get dropped for other, shinier threads.  All leading to a surprisingly effective character-driven season finale that hopes to prove to you that a few meandering plot points can still add to a sum greater than the parts.

(Oswald goes from umbrella boy to King of Gotham, Bruce Wayne starts at the site of his parents’ murder and ends up taking his first steps into the Batcave, Jim enters as this black-and-white idealist and winds learning from a mob boss that even good men sometimes get their hands dirty to get the job done.  A socially awkward unrecognized genius has a psychic break, leading ultimately to the fall of Edward Nygma and the rise of the Riddler.)

Season two is a blur.  A period of transition from Jim “Good Cop” Gordon Fistfighting Corruption into... Gotham City: Arkham Asylum’s Backyard.  Think how much season one was about only Fish Mooney vs Falcone vs the GCPD and Cobblepot doublecrossing everyone he meets, and how much seasons two and three and four were about the Riddler and Valeska and Tetch and Ra’s al Ghul (and Valeska).  We have the bring-everyone-back-to-life at Indian Hill period to thank for the sudden left turn into the Strange.

WHICH IS NOT A COMPLAINT.

There are so many types of Batman stories, and there’s a time and a place for both Joe Chill and Killer Croc.  Gotham started in one and always knew it was headed for the other.

And B.D. Wong as Strange is a DELIGHT and I really appreciated his dynamic with Miss Peabody.  Speaking of, the bomb defusing scene was a real gem omg lololol give the woman some damn water already.

At the same time, the Fish storyline was like WHOA what EVEN is haPPENINg at any given moment.  And it ultimately didn’t amount to much?  There’s so much waffling between the surviving gang camps where everyone’s either got a kill-on-sight order or a owed-life-debt to each other and the pendulum swings back and forth so quickly it’s not really worth holding onto how anyone feels about anyone else.  That dead/MIA character will come back or the rivalry will be revived or the long-held grudge will be recalled if and when that plot point is going to be drafted, but other than that everyone’s friends and that’s ok.

And like.  Ivy??? Ivy Pepper???????  Why is that ride so wild???  There is no cause and effect, only next next next.  It’s insane.  Maybe watching this all at once rather than over the course of four years lends a different perspective, but holy cow.  Such a ballsy way to do whatever with a character you never had a plan for.

Which brings us to Barbara Kean?!  Season one she was there because they knew she was a Mythos Character but then they were like, wait, whateven is she for though?  Which is a fair question, since having her be the Little Lady Trophy Fiance meant she was a boring and needless character wasting space, not standing on her own and hardly informing Jim’s character either.  So what to do, what to do.  How about we kidnap her, put her through some insanely cruel physical and psychological abuse, make her a psycho-revenge-bride, put her in a coma, have her come back as a 100% Arkham Villain, give her a hench(wo)man, have the henchman KILL HER, have Ra’s al Ghul waltz up out of literally nowhere and say “lol, borrow this arcane mojo for a minute, I’ll want it back later or will I” and now she’s a kingpin of Gotham’s underworld with her own mini League of Assassin?!!!!!!!   !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like.  Even if they never had a plan going into it, I’m pretty okay with most of what they came up with.  Better than the lil wifey hanging out at home and having one passing remark about curating a gallery that we never saw and was never mentioned again.

Better off a once-crazy, once-dead mafiosa than the less inspired handling of Miss Kringle.  I won’t even get into that trainwreck I-only-exist-to-validate-manpain-of-my-murderer wait I said I wasn’t going to get into it.

So Nygma!  Like I said when I got started with the show, the season one Edward Nygma was crafted as this painfully unsympathetic offbeat loser and I think they fully succeeded with that characterization.  The emergence of the Riddler persona was a welcome change, an upgrade, a spit-shine into something clean cut and confident and stylish.  But I like that, compared to the Penguin, the posterchild for evil-psychotic-villain!Protaganist, for example, they held on to a lot of Nygma’s unlikeablilty in that he’s still an ass, even more of an insufferable egoist, and SO CRAZY he can’t even read himself (which was a big thing about the character before he split in half, so in itself that’s pretty great).

I don’t know.  Maybe you like him and I’m supposed to like him.  I think he’s exactly what he ought to be, and while I'd never want to see him marched off a peer with a bullet in his back, I’m more than happy to see his fellow villain-Protagonists knock him around once in a while.  Penguin and Mooney and now Lee (?!) and Zsasz even are the kind of villan!Protagonist you really root for.  But if it’s any one of them vs. the Riddler, they’re definitely not going to lose.  Nygma’s like in his own category of villain!Protagonist Antagonist.

Of course, the post-Arkham-proto-Riddler who was running Oswald’s mayoral campaign, now HOT DAMN that was a storyline I could get behind.  I almost actually believed they were going to do something great in the Nygmobblepot arena and that was a magical moment.  I think the resulting blood feud, as painful of a 360 as they come, was a sounder storytelling decision and more in line with the show’s Schroedinger’s Frenemies mentality.

And his season four storyline with the Ed Nygma persona challenging the Riddler was a nice full circle.  Sort of closing the gap between this raging banana nutball and the razor-sharp criminal mastermind he could be if tried.  Not SUPER THRILLED with his creeping on Lee but, with all due respect, that’s par for the character so again I say I don’t think I’m meant to like him??

I just spent half this rant on the Riddler so I guess they’re doing something right.

Ok so Cameron Monaghan’s VALESKA TWINS.  Let’s get right into it, shall we.

Holy smokes they did everything right on this one.  Loved the Primal Fear treatment of his introduction, and the way this random circus kid just so happens to start displaying jokey traits that astute viewers will start to suspect that this could be the big bad we’ve all been waiting for --

and then they kill him.

WOW

I was so ready for this kid to grow up to be the Joker, and they rip that dream away and replace it with an idea that anyone can grow up to be the Joker, and damn if that isn’t the nicest treatment of the character’s fractured and obfuscated origin story.  But.  THEN!

THEY BRING HIM BACK and it’s everything you wanted him to be.  He’s just so good.  There’s just the right amount of (IMO, anyway) Hamill-homage in what is otherwise a fully imagined Character who is instantly recognizable as one of many iterations but at the same time outclasses them all.  The high-level narrative and dialogue stuff, the stuff they create for him to do, I mean, is all great.  And then Monaghan brings this manic A++ game to the table and blows it out of the water.  Best Joker performance?  Arguably so, especially when you consider

JEREMIAH VELASKA because this kid can’t stop having stellar Joker performances.  He’s like, two and a half, three of the best Joker performances on the books.  Jeremiah’s distinct visual style, the characterization, AGAIN with the obfuscated we-are-legion origin story hocow.  NO COMPLAINTS HERE.

Anyway so if that’s what we get in return for sending Fish Mooney through a narrative meat grinder, then I guess it’s an even trade.

Pengiun.  What to say about Penguin.  I loved what they gave him in season two, a ton of character stuff because his plot stuff of rags to riches had played itself out.  I felt real bad for his mom, but I really liked that he went and made himself mayor, and even while his story arcs tend to go riches to rags and back again, it’s never not a pleasure watching him claw his way up to where he thinks he ought to be.

For the most part they do a good job stringing together these different Protagonist story-groups, keeping in mind that most of these groups serve mainly as antagonists amongst themselves (when they’re not being buddy-buddy to serve some winding end).  So when you get the villain!Antagonists you can really tell the difference.  I got a little yawny while we were setting up Fries, and by the time we finally locked Tetch up for good I was very grateful.  These will never be main characters and the show knows it and wants you to know it, too.  So while they’re the main on-screen villain, it can get a little stale because the same effort isn’t being put into their lasting appeal.

Um.  Jim Gordon.  Another thing I liked about season four was a strong return to GCPD bidniss.  Season two there was a lot of GCPD, but with Captain Barnes and the strike force and Galavan, so it was a completely different narrative animal than what Gordon was throwing down with in season one.  Then Gordon goes to prison and after that he doesn’t go back to GCPD until well into season three, and by then the story’s about Mario and Tetch and Lee and omg I forgot about Valerie Vale until this very moment whoops.

As was hinted in the season one finale, Jim Gordon went on a very twisty path through the mud before he figured himself out again.  Killing Galavan was like WHAT JIMBOY and that wasn’t even the worst of it.  What I liked most about his stint as a PI was the character’s eventual acceptance that the law isn’t the be all and end all of righteousness, and that there are other means available when enforcing peace and justice.  Not necessarily by killing every evil mayor you come across with your own two hands, but the eye-opening to the virtues of vigilantism is super important when you realize he’s going to be Batman’s main ally down the line and this time in his life is going to be what ultimately allows the future police commissioner to legitimize this kind of shadowy ninja behavior.

Anyway, in season four, Jim kind of comes back to roost at the GCPD, and finally ousting Bullock as Captain was rough but obviously warranted, and with only one season left that was a good time to do it.  Harper was a nice addition and I’d like to see more of her as a standalone character.  (Similarly, Fox has fit in nicely with the cops, but I’m not overly hankering to see more of his day to day antics.) 

What was my real point?  I really liked the Gordon vs the GCPD dynamics of season one, and while obviously that’s not a story you can tell forever, it did inform the sense that the police force is a living entity that can serve you very well if it trusts you, but before that can happen you really have to jump on its back and break its will LOL.

Also, remember Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent?  Yeah, I don’t either.

SO BRUCE WAYNE, MY FRIENDS.

Gotham is my very most favorite Bruce Wayne story, and much as Batman: TAS is my forever-reference for most Batmany things, Gotham is going to be my heart-canon for Bruce Wayne origins.

It’s one thing to say, “ok so this rich kid watches his parents get murdered in an alley, and from this moment on he vows to do something about it and makes himself a master detective/martial artist who puts on a mask and a cape and runs around at night smashing thugs’ heads in for justice” like it’s a foregone conclusion, a straight-forward A-to-B process, and a wholly other thing to show us, step by step, how he learns to become the thing we all know he’s going to become.

In season one he was this quiet, morose but driven child who didn’t know what to do with this crisis he’d been handed.  He’s a kid who sits in a pool with his whole clothes on, trying to hold his breath for as long as possible because he has no idea how else to become better prepared for handling his issues.  But he has Selina and he has Alfred and he has Fox and he has Jim Gordon, and he will have the Court of Owls and the Valeskas and Ra’s al Ghul who will all play a part in handing him pieces of himself until he has a full set.

He started with this strong sense of right and wrong, a deeply seated desire to put his talents and his money to some sort of use, an earnest diligence towards bettering himself in all ways, and little by little he gets shown just how much of a fragile and defenseless baby he is.  That time Alfred accidentally-on-purpose clobbered him in the eye -- that was the moment Bruce found out they’d all been pulling their punches with him and that he still had so so so far to go.

Of course, at the particular moment, he was going through a well-earned rebel without a cause phase (which will do him well when he calls on those behaviors for the benefit of a wider audience), so I don’t think that realization hit him at the time.  BUT I NOTICED.  Sure he’s got a bulletproof suit and he can look Jim Gordon straight in the eye now and he can fling himself off rooftops like a champ (and when Alfred gave him the keys to the Batmobile I cried a little), but he’s no Batman.  Not yet.  Not quite yet.

But you can see without a shadow of a doubt that he’s gonna be!  Instead of this “Bruce Wayne woke up as Batman” story, we get a look at all the day by day choices and experiences that inform, shape, and depend on Bruce Wayne’s core identity and the way that they will collectively create Batman.

Now, David Mazouz may not have the character acting chops of a Pinkett-Smith or a Taylor or a Monaghan, and he may not be as comfortable living in a everyday character like Pertwee and Logue do so effortlessly, but there’s a steeliness a Bruce Wayne should have, a hauntedness, an idealistness, that Mazouz emotes in spades.  Sometimes his Bruce Wayne does a stunt or pulls a pose that Mazouz KNOWS is Batman territory, and while his awareness of “I’m doing a cool thing look at me doing it” is a little distracting--it’s also SUPER EFFECTIVE and I fall for it hook, line, and sinker.

I’ve always been one of those fans who’s way more interested in the lives and characters of the secret identities (compared to the heroics of the super identities) so hot diggity dog is this the show for me.  All Bruce Wayne all the time.  When we he does put on the mask, it’s all the more powerful for knowing who exactly is wearing it and what’s driving him to do these borderline insane things.

Not 100% sold on Ra’s’ “I saw this in a dream” strong-arm prophecy, feeling like it steps on four years of Bruce Wayne’s self-determination.  Not 100% on how they introduced him and his aims and his baffling reincarnation(s).  But I am 100% on the pronunciation of “Ra’s” because I’m aware that Kevin Conroy et al figured it out somewhere between TAS and Arkham Asylum, but it’s something that they never quite got in Arrow.  (Oliver consistently uses “raysh” but everyone else is a grab bag between that and “rawz”.)

For that matter, David Mazouz consistently pronounces Ra’s with two syllables, so there’s also that.  Wait, hold on.  In Gotham they also draw a hard line between Ra’s al Ghul, the man, and “the demon’s head,” some sort of mystical power of time travel and flashlightiness.  Give one point to Arrow for not being that bizarre.

Long story short, the shot at the finale where Gordon’s waiting on the GCPD rooftop with the spot light and Bruce Wayne stalks up behind him was BEAUTIFUL.  (They also did the thing some episodes earlier where Bruce peaces out on Gordon when Gordon’s mid-sentence with his back turned and I laughed a lot)

Looking forward to their take on No Man’s Land.  Here’s a short story for you at the end of this long story:

One time I was reading No Man’s Land volume by volume from the library.  It was tough because I checked the first time and they had the full set, but then you never knew that the next one was going to be available when you went in for it.

So I get out of the car one day and look there’s a quarter on the ground.  Neat.  It’s mine now!

Going into the library, there was a cart of used books for sale by the door.  25 cents each.  Hell, I’ve got a quarter now, let’s see what they got.

What they got is the No Man’s Land novelization.  For 25 cents, or, in my case, free.

So I read that instead, and turned out I liked it way better than the source comics.  I have a hard time reading comics?  I tend to not look at the pictures, and certain art styles aren’t my jam.  Also when it comes to narrative capabilities, there are different tools and effects inherent to each form, and I appreciated the literary treatment and the internal voice it brought to the table that the comics couldn’t.

Also the author said in the note that his method was to sit down and jam out minimum 2000 words a day and that’s still a feat I admire.

Anyway, that’s my long winded take on Gotham.  Not perfection, but certainly a respectable and authoritative representation of a subject matter we all know and love.  I give it my second favorite Batman portrayal (behind Kevin Conroy and above Adam West) and my absolute favorite live-action Bruce Wayne, hands down.