#one time that acronym is acceptable...

[mrs-kamishiro-official]

aww~! Isn't that lovely!

[never-lov-an-anchor]

ok let me get the last liek day fuckinf. under control and processed here. tl;dr

get super high, *e* *a*e* ** *a*

can't believe that happened, still in denial about it actually, move on as if everything's fine (it isn't)

+1 new fp?????????????? and he's fine with this???????? fhdjsjsjdjfdjssjdaaaa a aa okay///

frontstuck because of the aforementioned. um. anyways.!

going back to sleep it's too early for this shit our head still feels weird

[teaboot]

Boring people who aren’t queer and queer people who are boring loooooooove to complain about all the letters in LGBTQ+ and every time a new one is accepted they get more annoying like yeah I’m sorry you don’t wanna add to the acronym but that’s what the words Queer and Alphabet Mafia are good for

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for choosing my cat over my trans friend?

Some background about my cat first.

I (25F) have a pet cat named Max (not real name. It would be too identifiable if I used his real name). Max is a rescue. He had been abandoned by his previous owner because he would meow too loudly. This had happened several times, so he has been in and out of the shelter a lot. None of the previous owners had tried to figure out why he always meows so loudly, so I took him to a vet. It turns out that Max is deaf, so I don't blame him for meowing so loudly. He can't hear himself! He is scared of strangers and tends to hide, so I don't try to force him to come out if he doesn't want to. I also don't usually take pictures of him because the cameras and phones scare him. I just do what I can to respect his boundaries. Max isn't just a cat to me. He is my treasured family who brings a smile to my face everyday. I can't imagine life without him.

My friend, Amelia (22F) is trans. Her folks are transphobic and were not accepting of her when they found out. However, they had not kicked her out of her home right away. They had given her a week to pack her things and find a place to stay. I'm not sure what they were trying to do with that but another friend, Nina (24F) thinks that they did that as a manipulation tactic to get Amelia to retransition and Amelia thinks so too.

But the week had passed and Amelia couldn't find a place to stay. Nina had said she would have offered, but she lives in a small apartment that hardly had enough room for two people. So Amelia had asked out friend Ted (26M) who had also said he couldn't because he was housing his younger siblings since their parents had passed and he was struggling financially.

So that left me. But Amelia said she wouldn't be able to stay unless I got rid of Max. Why? Amelia is highly allergic to cats. Whenever she had come over to my place in the past, she had to take allergy medicine to keep from having severe allergies around Max. The allergies are bad enough that they could trigger an asthmatic attack. I told her that I refuse to get rid of Max because of his past with being abandoned. I do not want to become one of the people he distrusts, not after it took so long to get him to feel comfortable around me.

Amelia is upset with me for this and says that she doesn't want to have to always take allergy medicine. She said that I should get rid of Max because he is just a cat and his needs are not as important as hers when she could become homeless soon. I argued that he wasn't just a cat and was part of my family. Max would be staying no matter what. Amelia ended up renting a motel room, but she couldn't afford to stay for more than 4 nights. Nina ended up taking her in, but that has made her own living situation harder.

Amelia and Nina are calling me an asshole for choosing Max over giving Amelia shelter. They are saying that I am being a horrible ally and friend by valuing an animal over a human life. I don't think I made the wrong choice by choosing Max, but it doesn't feel great that they are starting to tell some other friends that I am being transphobic for not choosing Amelia. A part of me is saying that I should have chosen Amelia, but that same part is also saying I would fee guilty for being one of the people to also abandon Max if I chose to do that. Amelia and Nina barely talk to me aside from saying that I am being a transphobic asshole for "choosing an animal over a trans person's livelihood." I am thinking about just cutting them off now, but I'm afraid that would just lead to more backlash.

AITA for choosing my cat over my trans friend?

What are these acronyms?

[yoredoesmore]

The Life of A Married Couple | Soshiro Hoshina | IDMCWBM

a/n: “I Drink My Coffee With Blueberry Milk” is my new mini series featuring a stoic and always serious reader and her funny and teasing husband (Soshiro)! “IDMCWBM” is a long acronym but we will live 

(I'm not dead guys, exam season is almost over please bear with me! > <)

Husband Soshiro who has multiple folders dedicated to different pictures of you. One is for funny pictures, one is for candid pictures, one for professionally taken images and so many more the list goes on!

You who pretends to not be affected by the fact that you haven't seen your husband in 12 hours but the second someone mentions his name you melt internally 

Husband Soshiro who leaves his office door unlocked at night because he knows that you like to take a nap in there. You act like its no big deal when he catches you but he absolutely loves it

You who once tried to make his favorite dish for him but you ended up creating something so gruesome and terrible that Hoshina lost his appetite that day and has ever since claimed a new dish as his new favorite (don't mention the old dish, he will get war flashbacks)

Husband Soshiro who buys you a cup of flan every month and places it in the exact same spot in the fridge every time, because during your first date you mentioned your love for flan. (You actually prefer pudding over flan but he got it mixed up but that is a secret you will take to the grave)

You who personally tends to his blades, fixes them up and polishes them whenever necessary, since you are the only person Soshiro trusts them with.

Husband Soshiro who once overheard a cadet make an inappropriate comment about you and later that day completely demolished him during the combat training session. He walked away smiling, not even bothering to help him up, which earned him many suspicious looks from the others. (Especially Kafka found himself freaked out by the Captain's roughness)

You who goes lengths to ease up your husbands work life. “Oh, these folders are supposed to be inspected by the Vice Captain? No worries, I will handle them myself.” No matter how much needs to be done in your own office, you will do anything so that Soshiro can rest a little more.

Husband Soshiro who agreed to a “no display of intimacy/PDA in public and especially not at work” rule but he can't help himself but pull you into an empty training room every now and then and show you just how much he needs you. You pretend to be upset but not so deep down you need this just as much as he does (you end up initiating round two)

a/n: I could write these for hours :>. To everyone who has send in a request, please bear with me I'm working on them !! > < for the time being please accept my crumbs

[magicicephoenix]

Hey, I'm sorry if this sounds rude, but is it ok if you can just give me a quick explanation of dca who? au, or just send me the link to your explanation of it? I kinda just got tired from trying to find explanations of lots of aus... sorry.

hi i’m going to use your ask as a rough masterpost until i manufacture a permanent one

The DCA Who AU is inspired by the show Doctor Who. That’s why it’s called that; DCA replaces Doctor for a silly play on words. pretty please do not call it the “Who AU”, that’s not what it’s called. and you can refer to specific characters with the acronym “DW” (ex. DW!Moon, DW!Sun)

here are the designs for our main trio! the Moon and Y/N had a quick redesign so direct your attention to the second image for them. note that Y/N also wears pants and other things i just felt like giving them a skirt here :)

the Moon was inspired by the Doctor, and the Sun was inspired by the Master. and Y/N is the Moon’s companion.

Brief explanation for those who don’t know Doctor Who (but in the terms of the AU): the Moon and the Sun are of an ancient race called the Time Lords, who oversaw all of time and were very powerful. Some time ago, there was a giant battle called the Time War, in which all of the Time Lords were wiped out… except for the Moon. the Moon stole borrowed a special device called the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space), which is essentially a spaceship that is also a time machine. Years pass, and the Moon spends his time traveling from place to place; occasionally he comes across trouble, and he is one to help those who need it. The ‘start’ of the AU is when the Moon comes across Y/N during one of these bouts of trouble, and one thing leads to another and now Y/N is traveling alongside the Moon in the TARDIS!

the Sun comes much later in the story, once the Moon and Y/N become closer. he is a key antagonist and hates the Moon’s guts. why? unknown at the moment.

established lore (at the time of writing this):

the Time Lords are partly inorganic, partly organic. not just animatronics. They can open their mouths (though do not need to in order to speak) and eat. They don’t need to eat in order to survive, but it’s good for them. they also have fangs because fangs are fun. and retractable claws too.

in Doctor Who, Time Lords have a special ability that allows them to “regenerate” upon death, restoring their body with a new face and personality. in the DCA Who AU, this is replaced with a special program called the Regeneration Protocol, which kicks in when a Time Lord is fatally injured. it does a quick, barebones fix of the Time Lord’s body so that they won’t immediately die, and then initiates a mode where the Time Lord isn’t really mentally present as their body searches for materials to repair itself until they’re stable again. they will use anything (anything) in reach to do this. afterwards the Time Lord may suffer some negative effects, as running the protocol is harsh on the body & mind.

the Moon and the Sun used to be old friends. they have special nicknames for each other: “Moondust” and “Sunshine”. however, once they meet again in the AU, the Sun refuses use of his nickname. additionally, the Moon gives Y/N the nickname “Star” and also “Starlight” occasionally, and the Sun (upon meeting them) nicknames them “Dewdrop.” these names have out-of-universe significance :)

i’m using their full titles here but the Moon and the Sun are good to just be called “Moon” and “Sun”! doesn’t matter to them.

Y/N is in their 20s, lives alone, and is somewhat distant from their family. they don’t have much to return to.

the collars around the Moon and the Sun’s neck are a special cloaking device! it’s for if they time travel to a point where cyborgs/animatronic/the like aren’t considered people or are disproved of. it works as a sort of perception filter that forces the brain to gloss over the non organic parts of their appearance, essentially accepting them as whatever form of being would make sense in the scenario (ex. on earth surrounded by humans? must be human! on mars surrounded by martians? must be martian! though it usually defaults to human for simplicity’s sake, especially when the Moon’s with Y/N)

playlists

Main playlist; songs are arranged in chronological order to the AU :)

Sun's playlist; no particular order

[creature-wizard]

A warning for trauma survivors looking for online support

You may have come across the acronym "RAMCOA", which stands for "ritual abuse, mind control, and organized abuse."

If you search the Internet for RAMCOA, you might come across a result like this:

If you click the link, you'll be taken to a site that briefly describes what RAMCOA supposedly is, with content like:

MC - Mind Control. A shortened form of TBMC, standing for Torture Based Mind Control. MC is also known as programming, where victims are repeatedly tortured starting at a very young age to intentionally cause a system of dissociated parts that function perfectly to suit the abusers' needs.

alpha : a base program, one of the very first implemented. it trains the victim's mind to accept every order given by handlers willingly. parts with alpha programming will often have no will of their own, and very little personality outside of following orders.

aiw : alice in wonderland. typically split into 3 different sections : black alice, white alice, and crazy alice. ideally, a system scripted with aiw would have all three. white alice makes sure the system forgets the trauma, black alice makes the system feel like theyll be a danger to others if they remember the trauma, and crazy alice makes the system think theyre making it up or going insane if they ever remember it.

Literally all of this comes from a conspiracy theory - specifically, the Project Monarch alter programming conspiracy. It was developed and pushed by far right conspiracy theorists. Most of what people run into specifically traces back to Fritz Springmeier, a man who claimed in the 90's that the fight for gay rights was part of a plot to enthrone the antichrist in the year 2000. The Project Monarch conspiracy theory was always adjacent to the Satanic Panic, if not a somewhat niche part of it. If you start checking citations, you will find many of these people citing Svali, a conspiracy theorist who gets a lot of her material from Springmeier. (Example 1, example 2.)

This is no accident. The term RAMCOA was created by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD), which was created by and for psychologists who believed in the myths promoted during the Satanic Panic.

The RA part comes from "satanic ritual abuse," which was coined by Dr. Lawrence Pazder of Michelle Remembers (cw for descriptions of horrible abuses) fame. Lawrence Pazder is the man who effectively started the Satanic Panic. It cannot be overstated that Pazder, now a known malpractitioner, was considered the expert on ritual abuse during this time.

The MC part comes from "trauma-based mind control," which was coined to refer to the alleged abuses inflicted in Project Monarch. Parts of this conspiracy theory that can't be traced back to Fritz Springmeier can usually be traced back to Cathy O'Brien and Mark Phillips, two other (really racist) conspiracy theorists.

Ultimately, the entire conspiracy theory is constructed from tropes that go back to The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion (a known antisemitic hoax), blood libel, and early modern witch panic.

Searching the Internet for RAMCOA resources, ritual abuse, or trauma-based mind control will always bring you to conspiracy theorists.

(Also, the term OEA, which stands for "organized extreme abuse," will lead you to conspiracy theorists as well.)

So yeah, if you're looking for support, be very wary of this stuff. It will absolutely not help you heal; just the opposite.

[ghostbeam]

Oblivi_n.exe | Dabi/Touya Todoroki

Touya Todoroki, known as ‘Dabi’ to the league, quirk class: cremation, mech title: Blue. You’re his new handler. 

As Dabi’s new handler, you’re well aware of his history, how frequently he goes through handlers assigned to him. Not that he ever uses them—it’s more complete resistance. You’re not particularly good at your job. Transferred from the PLF for lack of success in handling any of their pilots, you’ve always been far too gentle. You lack authority. Your pilots never respected you. You don’t think Dabi will be any different. You give it a week. 

Notes: okay wow hiiiii it’s been a long time since I’ve posted an actual fic (nearing almost a year now😬) this is something I’ve been working on for a bit. I have mech brain rot curtesy of @streimiv and @hawnks (both of whom this is dedicated to bc there’s no way I could have written this without yapping to them abt it and also mint helped me come up w the acronym for HERO’s) and we’ve all got our own mech fics in the works atm but anywayssssss this is kind of my baby atm but I hope it makes sense it’s very inspired first and foremost by pacific rim and then also NGE (mostly through consumption of YouTube vids bc I haven’t actually watched it pls don’t hate me) it’s a whole mess of things and Dabi is kind of a bitch and reader is slowly coming into herself and at the end of the day they both wanna be metal fused to one another forever (no matter how hard he denies it) also I’m not a huge computer person idk if this title makes sense so don’t make fun of me pls ok anyways I hope u like it!!!!

Warnings: 18+, minors DNI, pilot!Dabi x handler!reader, there’s no explicit sexual content in this part, not even a kiss sorry guys, mentions of robot gore (exposed wires, insides described as guts), brief descriptions of being trapped inside a small space, descriptions of burning while inside said space, mention of surgery to fashion a metal jaw onto someone, mentions of child abuse (nothing graphic just allusions to the todoroki family and touya’s past), angst, many run on sentences, a small cliff hanger

Words: 7.9k

Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 (coming soon)

You are nothing without your machine.

It’s the first rule, the first thing beaten into his brain by his father. You carry the burden of the mech alone, or you’re weak. You don’t exist. 

U.A. raises the best and brightest pilots, navigators, mechanics, and handlers, each one carefully trained to ensure the most important outcome: winning. It should be protection. It should be defense. But if Touya has learned anything at all, it’s that winning means glory. It means worship. It means HERO’s (Human Engineered Robotic Objects) are saints, and pilots are gods. 

 Touya used to be one of those best and brightest before his accident. 

First son to Enji Todoroki, Touya was supposed to be the golden child, the first Todoroki to pilot without a handler. He was supposed to carry the burden alone, something his father couldn’t do, something only one man has ever actually been capable of. 

But Touya is born weak, bad bones, a brain unable to handle all that the mech needs to unload onto it. One too many accidents results in him being expelled from the pilot program, his HERO discarded and collecting dust in its pod, and Touya is promptly transferred to mechanics. 

It should have been a smooth transition. If one kid can’t handle it, the next will. Because they have to. 

He doesn’t take the news well. It’s a fit of tears, a persistent fight, unable to accept the loss of his machine—of his body. Because Touya loves it. What he lacks in strength, he makes up for in pure passion, and despite being unable to handle the burden, there’s no denying that he’s good. He’s almost perfect. 

But almost is not enough for Enji Todoroki, and no matter how hard Touya tries, he’s made up his mind. 

After months of mechanics, Touya makes a decision. When the next fleet of HERO’s is deployed for the next kaiju battle, Touya sneaks in among the chaos, tucked neatly inside the chest of his machine where he belongs. It doesn’t take long for things to go south, for Touya to get caught in the crossfire, losing control of his mech and burning from the inside out. 

It should be an excruciating death, stuck inside a machine made for war, fire raining from above as a battle continues on outside without him. 

But he survives, because what he lacks in strength, he makes up for in resilience, and his mech is programed with solutions to every situation. He’s stuck inside for months before he’s found.

Tomura Shigaraki rescues him, pries open the chest of his mech and pulls him from inside. His group feeds him, takes him in, fashions a new jaw for him made from the metal of his mech, and allows him the decision to join their cause or go back home. 

And since there’s no home to go back to, Touya finds his footing with the league and becomes one of their top pilots. One who vehemently resists any and all handlers.

…

Touya Todoroki, known as ‘Dabi’ to the league, quirk class: cremation, mech title: Blue. You’re his new handler. 

As Dabi’s new handler, you’re well aware of his history, how frequently he goes through handlers assigned to him. Not that he ever uses them—it’s more complete resistance. You’re not particularly good at your job. Transferred from the PLF for lack of success in handling any of their pilots, you’ve always been far too gentle. You lack authority. Your pilots never respected you. You don’t think Dabi will be any different. You give it a week. 

Following closely behind Tenko, formerly Tomura, he quickly explains to you the in’s and out’s of the pilot/handler relationship, along with a warning about Dabi’s resentment toward the whole idea. You try to keep up, but he talks quickly and uses his hands a lot. Even so, you can tell he’s a natural leader, something he had to grow into after overthrowing the man who raised him. His story is a tragic one, and it resonates with you because Tenko came out the other side stronger. Now, the league is a community with a cause, one you really believe in. Even if you and Dabi aren’t the right fit, you still have a place here. 

You follow Tenko into what he calls the garage, a large floor of the abandoned academy that serves as the league’s base, this part of it full of HERO’s and mechanics all focused on the machines in front of them. It’s completely different from how HERO’s were worked on at UA, where you grew up, and even the PLF didn’t have one dedicated floor to this sort of work. You can feel the energy of the room buzzing on your skin, music blasting from old radios and mechanics tossing tools towards one another in a familiar routine. Tomura leads you to Dabi and his HERO, Blue, though you’re instructed not to call it a HERO around him. With goggles over his eyes and gloved hands, he brings two wires from Blue’s ankle together, sighing at the way they spark each time they connect. 

“Dabi.” Tomura calls over the music coming from the radio hanging off of Dabi’s waist. He drops the wires and his gaze flickers toward the two of you. Pushing his goggles up to his forehead, he gives you a once over. His eyes are the brightest you’ve ever seen—kaiju blood blue—and burn scars litter his body. He’s striking in a way you’ve never seen, almost too beautiful to be human. Giving Dabi your name, Tomura explains that you’re taking over as his handler, seeing as he couldn’t keep the last one for more than a couple of days. “She’s your last handler. If you can’t keep this one, then go ahead and fry your brain. See if I care.”

“You say that every time.” Dabi calls from around sucker as Tomura walks away, leaving you alone with your new pilot. 

You just your hand out in a greeting, “I’m looking forward to working with you.”

Eyeing your hand, Dabi shakes his head and turns his back to you, picking the two wires back up and connecting them again, despite the same spark from before igniting between the two. He looks back up at Blue, touching his fingers to the slim lines starting at the back of her ankle and running all the way up her leg. You peak over his shoulder at the wiring, noticing that he’s connecting two of the wrong ones. 

“It’s the wrong wire.” You tell him, and he spins around to look at you, tearing his goggles from his face as he scoffs. 

“Here we go.” He sighs with a roll of his eyes, pulling the candy from his lips and tossing it onto the tool cart without a care. “Handler know-it-all bullshit. This is my mech.”  

You push passed him and grab the similarly colored wire from beside a red wire and connect it with the one in Dabi’s right hand. Blue lights up cyan through the thin lines that run along each of its limbs and torso, connecting with the two cameras within its head, which seem to blink before the light reaches them. 

In an instant, you’re being pushed up against the hard metal, a strong arm over your chest—pinning you up against the HERO. Dabi, now having discarded his goggles, looks at you full of white, hot rage. 

“Don’t fucking touch her.” He growls. You’re suddenly aware of the close proximity, eyes flickering between the snarl across his lips and his angry gaze. For a beat, you both freeze, the air suddenly charged like you’re waiting for one another to strike. Snapping yourself out of his hypnotic stare, you push against his chest, forcing him to let you go. 

“If I’m going to be you’re handler, you’re going to have to trust me with her.” You remind him. He lets out a harsh laugh, like he can’t believe you would suggest such a ridiculous idea. 

“I don’t trust anything but this machine.” He speaks, turning away from you to seal up the machine’s exposed wires. It’s a challenge you’re willing to accept.

“Well, I’m here to change that.” You tell him, before turning on your heel to leave him alone. 

He thinks he’ll give you a week. 

…

One of the worst parts of being assigned a handler, Touya thinks, is the way that pilot/handler living quarters are set up. He assumes the academy, before it was abandoned and turned into a base for the league, created this sort of set up so that handlers could keep a close eye on their pilots. The handlers Touya has burned through up until now also assumed the same. 

The door that connects both the pilot’s and handler’s dorms doesn’t lock, and all of Touya’s past handlers have taken advantage of this fact. He’s been pulled out of bed far too early, pushed around and commanded and barked at. Most handlers behaved as if pilots belonged to them, which was the sentiment drilled into their brains from being thrown into such a fucked up system at a young age.—unless you were a pilot of status like a Todoroki. While he league dedicates a lot of its time to reversing these ideas, most handlers look at Touya like some kind of challenge, this arrogant pilot begging to be tamed. It never takes long for them to realize how easily he’s able to flip the switch on them. You’ll be no different.

But hours pass and you still haven’t entered. You don’t swing the door open and demand he apologize for his behavior earlier. You don’t try and punish him with training regimes, a command of a set of push ups, a schedule you expect him to follow, an extremely detailed meal plan. The entire evening comes and goes without so much as a sound on the other side of the door so he knows you’re even behind it. 

He falls asleep unnerved by this, waking up late into the night in a cold sweat, expecting you to barge in, rip the covers from his body and demand to train together. When he wakes up (peacefully) the next morning, there’s no sign of you. He rises from his bed, drinks orange juice straight from the carton and eats a candy bar for breakfast. He fiddles with the navigation screen from his mech that stopped working a couple of days ago, tools spread out on the counter in front of him. Once he’s got the thing working again, your knock sounds from the unlocked door between the two of you. He thinks this might be it, the commands he expects to fall from your lips at the ready as he swings the door open, but you stand there, nervous, hands twitching as your eyes finally meet his.

Greeted by a shirtless Touya, hair mused from sleep, cargo pants hung low on his hips, dog tags swinging against his chest, his scars on display, unashamed and proud. The sight of him knocks the breath out of you, and you clear your throat in embarrassment, hoping your state of dreaming comes off as nerves rather than lust. 

“Dabi. Or do you prefer Touya?” You smile. When he doesn’t answer, you continue. “I wanted to see if you wanted to eat breakfast together in the caf. I think we should start over. Yesterday was—”

You’re promptly cut off, “I already ate breakfast.”

With a harsh slam of the door, he leaves you stunned in your room.

You eat alone. 

When you started as a pilot, back when you’d entered UA (a few years about Touya’s accident), you went into it believing you could change the world. The exam had placed you into the position of handler, and you were assigned a pilot who had always seemed a little frightened of you despite your obvious lack of authority. Bringing the fact up to your instructors did nothing. They all assured you that this was the ideal dynamic, that the handler always had the upper hand, but you hated that feeling. You weren’t a team like you expected to be; you were urged to control your pilot. You were there to keep them in line, not to be a pillar of support. The bond was never built on trust, and the soul link was always a looming threat. No matter how many pilots you went through, the link was never held as a gift, but a prison, something you would both be stuck with for the betterment of society, a sacrifice to make. 

You’d been expelled from the handler program after guiding your pilot to help save another in the wreckage of your first battle together, resulting in the damage of your pilot’s HERO. Your pilot was okay, but the other couldn’t be saved, and you were blamed for the damage of both mech’s. 

When you found the league (or when the league found you), you were working with the PLF, but proved to be a weak handler. Every pilot you were assigned to took advantage of your optimistic outlook on the kind of relationship dynamic that pilots had with their handlers. Despite all that you had been through at UA, and with the rest of the pilots you’d been paired with after, you never gave up the hope that handlers and pilots could behave as a team, or, even better, one entity. 

Tenko had taken one look at you and demanded you’d be transferred to the league. There hadn’t been much of a choice in the matter, not that you really cared. You were miserable everywhere else. But when you arrived at the abandoned academy and taken a peak behind the kudzu covered walls where each and every area of the building acted as multiple moving parts in collaboration with one another in order to create one massive system, you realized that this was the future you imagined for yourself—and for the world you lived in.

Tenko saw something in you that day, something you aren’t sure you even see in yourself. And so Dabi was your first task, one that’s proving to be very difficult. But he doesn’t treat you like all the other pilots before had. He doesn’t use you. In fact, it seems like he wants nothing to do with you. And while that’s a problem, it’s still one you can work with. 

You’re broken from your thoughts by the sound of a voice through an overhead intercom asking for everyone to meet on the first floor of the academy at their earliest convenience. Judging by the quick movements of those around you, you figure you’d better head downstairs as soon as possible. 

The meeting on the first floor makes you very aware of just how small the league really is. While it’s definitely not a tiny organization, it’s still much smaller than both UA and the PLF. With everyone piled up like this in one group, you realize it feels more like a community, and the hum of conversation that surrounds you comforts you in a way you’ve never felt within the walls of any other academy before. 

There’s discussion about the upcoming mission, one which may be the league’s most ambitious yet; the plan to hijack a mech and kidnap a pilot may be a little unorthodox compared to the league’s past missions, but the jaded pilot they’re targeting has a high chance of joining the cause. Or that’s what they have assumed. As the bodies move and speak around you, it strikes you how different this meeting is from any other meeting you’ve ever been a part of. Tenko is less a dictator and more a wrangler for the disembodied voices of your peers. 

You don’t know much about his story, save for the vague details you’ve heard, but Tenko’s status as a lone handler is something you find yourself curious about. If he’s able to work without a pilot, why can’t you? It’s an idea you keep in your back pocket, one you think you can fall back on if things with Touya don’t work out. But you want them to work out. So badly. 

You aren’t sure what it is about him, but he’s reignited that spark inside of you. You know he’d rather you give up, and maybe the you from a couple of months ago would have, but something about him—and this place—won’t let you leave. 

As you observe the meeting, you take the time to look around the room, taking in your peers and their attentive faces as they listen to Tenko intently. You turn to your right, your eyes meeting a pair of blue ones, impossible to miss. Dabi holds your stare for what feels like ages, and when your colleagues erupt in a fit of many simultaneous discussions, you tear your eyes from his to observe the commotion. When you glance back in his direction, he’s gone. 

You don’t seem him again after that. You train with other handlers, get to know your peers a little better. Everyone else seems to be welcoming, and most offer you sympathy when they find out you’re Touya’s new handler. From what you can gather, he’s had his fair share of them, all of which have quit or left in hysterics due to his harsh nature. When you ask around about where he could be, you’re told that he’s most likely in the garage, a place you assume he’s in more often than not.

You don’t know if you’ll ever get used to the garage. A place so completely different, so against the ideas and beliefs of any other academy you’ve been a part of, the chaos and community within is so foreign to you. You find Touya with Blue, working inside of her chest, where the cockpit is. 

“Touya!” You call up to him and watch as he peaks his head over the edge of her metal plating. Annoyance falling across his face, he jumps down from where he stands, landing hard on his feet in front of you. 

“What are you doing here?” He questions, his figure so tall and imposing above you. He’s not particularly muscular, not even all that tall compared to Tenko, but he makes you feel small regardless, in more ways than one. Rolling your shoulders back, you stare straight into his eyes, unwilling to back down. 

“I figured you wanted your space today.” You explain, as Touya moves around you to get to his rolling cart of tools, forcing you to turn toward him and follow him if you want him to hear you. “I know adjusting to a new handler is rough, and I never want to make you uncomfortable. But I was thinking we could try some of those pilot/handler bonding exercises. It might be good to start training like some of the others do.”

He drops the wrench in his hand onto his cart with a loud thud, turning around toward you with a look of disbelief on his face. “Pilot/handler bonding exercises? They really brainwashed the shit out of you at UA, huh?”

At the mention of your past academy, your eyes widen in surprise. You had no idea he knew about that. Clearing your throat in order to compose yourself, you speak again, “I left UA for a reason. I have no attachment to their methods, but you guys do the same stuff here, so what’s the issue?”

“The issue is that I never asked for a fucking handler in the first place, especially not one as eager as you.” He spits, “Sure, you’re understanding now, all that bullshit about ‘giving me space,’ but the moment you get a lick of power over me, you’ll change. You’re not different.”

“I don’t want power over you. This is an equal exchange. Pilot’s and handlers are meant to be a team—” You try and argue, but he doesn’t let you finish. 

“That’s what they told you, right? We’re a team, and as teammates, you make sacrifices. And it doesn’t matter if one of you turns into the other’s braindead dog because that’s your place.” His words hit you hard, the exact thought process you went through when leaving UA, completely disillusioned with their idea of “teamwork.” He’s right, and you know it, but since coming here, you thought that wasn’t how it had to be.

“Look, trust me, I get—” You’re cut off again.

“You went to UA! There’s no trusting you.” He scoffs, “It’s not like you’ll last here, anyway.”

“You are such a hypocrite! You’re from UA!” You retort, throwing your arms up in desperation. “You can hate me all you want. You can resist and resist and fry your brain ‘till there’s nothing left, but I believe in this shit. And you don’t get to tell me that I don’t, or tell me I’ll turn into something I worked so hard to get away from.”

Touya stands there, surprised by your outburst, completely unaware that you were capable of all of that. He doesn’t say anything back, and you roll your eyes. “So fuck you, and, by the way, her angel port is smoking.”

At your words, he turns in a rush, seeing the smoke billowing from Blue’s chest as he climbs his way up her form. Once inside his machine, he extinguishes the port and allows himself to relax. There are two things on his mind in this moment: how you could have possibly known it was the angel port without being inside of Blue’s chest and how, for the first time in a long time, he feels bad for his handler.

But for you, it’s the first time you’ve ever held your own against a pilot before, and that feels good.

…

Something feels weird.

Off, unsettling, strange.

He realizes, much to his dismay, that it’s your absence. Despite only having you around for such a short time, Touya has realized that your lack of presence now feels wrong. He hates it. He hates you. 

He can’t find you. You haven’t knocked on his door. You’re not in the caf, not the garage, not the sparring floor, not in your room. And he did check—without knocking. 

He’s not even sure how he can feel an absence. You aren’t a regular part of his life, and he never wanted you to be. But he feels all fucked up.

During training, Touya jams Blue’s halo core and she leaks vibrant neon from between her ribs. It takes him half an hour to get her reboot her system and rips one of the cables attached to the back of his suit in the process. He spends the afternoon cleaning HERO fluid off the sparring floor. 

During repairs, he shocks himself over and over while trying to fix her core, fingers burning from the sparks each time he arranges the wires inside. The cameras in her eyes won’t work from the reboot, and Blue won’t let him unlock the lens panel to fix it. It’s almost like she’s mad at him too.

He’s a complete mess. It’s your fault. He has no choice but to go looking for you. Again.

He searches every wing of the academy before concluding that you’re in your room. He barges through the joint door, spotting you at the counter in your tiny kitchen. You’re surprised by the intrusion, a frightened gasp falling from your lips as you jump in your seat. You turn toward him, prepared with angry words on your tongue, but Touya speaks first.

“You’re not getting an apology out of me, so don’t expect it.” He begins, moving to stand in front of your swiveling kitchen stool as he looks down at you. “But I’m willing to be civil with you, so we don’t have to do this shit anymore.”

You’re not exactly sure what “this shit” is, but Touya looks a little worse for wear at the moment, so you don’t question it. He places a tray from the caf down in front of you that you hadn’t noticed in his hands upon arrival, says nothing else, and turns to leave the room. After shutting your joint door, you look down at the tray of food, noticing one of his suckers placed onto a vacant compartment of the tray. 

You’re greeted the next morning with a knock on your door, Touya dressed in his pilot’s suit on the other side as you swing the door open. “C’mon. You’re gonna watch me train today.”

You watch him turn around to leave, expecting you to follow. You rush to pull on your combat boots and grip your dog tags in your fist as you rush to catch up to him. He doesn’t spare you a glance as you fall into step beside him, taking a look around his dorm before he leads you through the exit door. 

“You need to get a feel for my fighting style.” He explains as you walk down the corridor. “I’m not saying I’ll listen to you when it comes down to it, but it’s important for you to know.”

You nod, agreeing that you should definitely observe him inside of his HERO. By understanding his moves, you’ll be able to understand the way he thinks, and you’ll be able to help him in actual combat if needed. He’s already said he won’t listen to you, but it won’t stop you from trying. He stops abruptly, turning to look at you, and you stop with him. 

“If we’re gonna do this, it’ll be on my terms. I’m not your dog.” He tells you, seriously. He eye’s you up and down, taking in your expression as you nod at his words. “If anything, you’re mine.”

He begins walking again, leaving you in your spot, irritation filling your chest as you watch him, smug. “Asshole.” You curse under your breath.

“What’d you say?” He barks, turning to look at you abruptly.

“You’re an asshole.” You speak louder. He walks back toward you, making sure to tower over you intimidatingly as he looks down at you in annoyance. His eyes flicker down to the tags around your neck before hooking a finger on the chain and pulling you closer. 

“Watch it.” He drops the chain and walks away again. 

You follow him to the sparring floor, and he shows you where to go to watch. Stood behind a large window that looks over the sparring area, other members of the base watch the HERO’s engage in combat below. You spot Tenko and he motions for you to stand beside him. 

“I knew he’d warm up to you.” He comments. The last of the previous battle finishes and you watch the two enormous machines retreat to the sides of the area, their pilots emerging from their chests with their handlers rushing to the bottom of the mech’s in support. 

“He hasn’t. He’s not.” You shake your head. You aren’t sure why you deny it, if it’s some way to keep your expectations low or if there’s some kind of embarrassment aspect to the whole thing. Whatever is happening between you and Touya feels intimate and private, something that the two of you need to figure out for yourselves, not something meant for the eyes of others.

“Hm. Okay.” Tenko shrugs. “Guess not.”

You hadn’t noticed Touya enter his mech at all. You see the swing of one giant mechanic arm, too close to the window you stand behind, and you’ve shifted your full attention to the scene at hand. 

The enormity of the room surprises you, despite the fact that you had seen it just moments before. But when you’re truly looking at it, watching these huge machines go at each other, the way the ground shakes, the leaves outside shake, the deep forrest clear in view from the wall that opens out to the greenery (the lack of a wall is likely from the academy’s abandoned state, but it’s a good feature to have on the sparring floor when giant robots are toppled over onto various surfaces).

The way Blue moves is electric, mechanic movements almost feel fluid with the way that Touya pilots her, easily dodging attacks from their opponent and moving around them in the most graceful way a giant machine can. It’s beautiful, unlike any fighting style you’ve ever seen in a HERO before. 

“He’s showing off for you.” Tenko observes from beside you. You don’t argue with him, only because you can’t dispute it. This is your first time seeing him in action. It makes your heart beat out of your chest. There’s this ache like you should be inside with him, cables connected to both of you, tucked neatly inside of Blue together. 

It doesn’t take him long to get his opponent on their back, the heavy thump against the floor jostling the ant-like figures on the ground below, handlers waiting for their pilots to finish. It goes on like this for a while, his training, using different methods of combat and winning each time. He’s amazing, and you can tell why his reputation is the way it is, second only to Tenko, who you have yet to see in action. 

When he finishes his last session, you watch Blue walk to the edge of the room, and Touya emerges from her chest, jumping the long way down her body without any issue. You watch as he looks toward the window you’re behind. He waves at you, an acknowledgment of your presence, and you wave back, though you aren’t sure he can actually see you.

It’s the beginning of everything for the two of you. You think Tenko was right.

He lets you stay with him afterwards while he does maintenance on Blue. He helps you climb up the path to her chest, hauling you over the edge to sit inside with him. He turns around abruptly, holding a hand up before allowing you to walk any further.

“Do not touch anything.” He warns, completely serious, before letting his hand fall and allowing you further into the cockpit. You take in your surroundings, the guts of his machine, analyzing the different control panels and screens that line the interior. You can tell he takes good care of her, and he spends a lot of time in here. It looks lived in, stickers stuck to metal plating and pieces of him all over. He’s made a second home in between the ribs of his mech. You feel a little jealous, though you aren’t sure of what. 

The two of you sit against the left side of Blue’s interior, waiting for her updates to finish, the loading screen on each of her monitors display a fire graphic that grows with the increasing percentage on screen. Between you and Touya sits an opened bag of sour gummies, which Touya picks out the lemon flavor and drops the candy in your palm with each new handful he gathers. 

“How do you know all this stuff?” He questions around a mouthful of sour cherry, “Like, the real names for things, where stuff goes, how to fix them. That day with the wires…”

“I spent a lot of time around mechanics at UA, and then also at the PLF.” You explain, picking the yellow colored candy from his open palm as you speak. “I couldn’t connect with other handlers. I didn’t like how they thought, or how they viewed the pilot/handler relationship. Mechanics were mostly neutral, and they loved these machines like nothing else. They reminded me of why I joined UA in the first place.”

“Hm.” He nods, thinking about your past. “Well, I guess if you spent so much time around actual professionals…I could maybe use your help sometimes in the garage.”

“Really?” You question excitedly, a spark lighting up your eyes as you swerve your head toward him. He feels something tight in his chest at the sight.

“Yes, but only on the outside. I don’t want you messing with her insides, yet.” He establishes. “And never alone. I have to be there at all times.”

“Of course, yes, oh my god. Touya!” You smile, gripping his shoulder firmly, a gesture of thanks, communication of how much his trust means to you. “I’ll be so careful with her, I promise.”

“Yeah, well, you have no other choice.” He shrugs, throwing another pile of candy in his mouth. “I’ll kill you if anything happens to her.”

You take the threat seriously, but his heart isn’t in it. He’s realized that you’ve wormed your way into his life and he hadn’t even noticed just how entangled you were now. 

As the weeks go by, you spend a lot more time together. You work on blue together, and you rest inside of her chest, sometimes allowing yourself to drift off against his shoulder on especially tiring days. He sits beside you in the caf, and while he doesn’t always say much, the feeling of his arm against yours is comforting. You can tell people are starting to notice, and they’re starting to talk. You’re being dubbed someone who’s tamed him, but you know how far from the truth that is. 

Despite your differences and the petty arguments that come up when Touya feels like you’re intruding on his independence, you’re growing attached. You wonder if he is, too.

…

Spending time together in the garage becomes the new normal for the two of you. Being in each other’s dorms feels far too intimate, so you always meet in the garage. This way, one of you is always busy doing something with your hands. There’s no room for any strange feelings in the pit of your stomach to seep in. 

You sit in the crook of Blue’s neck, watching Touya as he repairs the lenses in her “eyes.” Blue has three pairs of eyes; in her head, her chest, and down near her hips, which all footage is projected onto monitors inside the cockpit so that Touya has a full view of what’s in front of him. 

He’s so peaceful while he works, you’ve noticed, almost like he goes somewhere else completely. It’s a part of him you don’t think many people get to see, a piece of him just for you, and you want to be selfish with it.

“Can I ask you something?” You question, leaning your head back against the metal. “But you can’t get mad.”

He looks up at you, still fiddling with a lens, a mocking look on his face. “I’m not making any promises.”

You take a deep breath, preparing yourself for the possible fallout of the question you’re about to ask, “What do you think about the soul link?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “I’d never do it.”

You nod your head in understanding, “yeah, I get it. It’s weird, right? The idea that someone else would be inside your brain.”

“It’s fucking invasive.” He says.

“You know, at UA it always felt like a threat, you know. Like, it was a way for a handler to control their pilot, not a tool or a bond like it should be.” You begin, thinking back to how you viewed the soul link back then. You didn’t like how the bond was presented as this power that a handler holds over their pilot, a threat to keep their pilot in line. But, you could understand how the link could be used for good. “But since coming here, I can tell it’s not all bad. People trust each other here. I mean, there’s obviously some people who abuse it, but, for the most part, everyone seems to understand what it really means to be a pilot and a handler.”

You’re mostly just thinking out loud, but Touya doesn’t say anything to your ramblings. He continues to work on the lenses, and you can gather that he doesn’t want to talk about the subject anymore. But you can’t let it go, yet. There’s something you’ve been worried about since you met him.

“And what about…your brain? They say when a handler and a pilot don’t complete the soul link, the pilot will eventually fry their brain.” You can’t help it. You think about it all the time, what will happen when he can’t take it anymore. The closer you get to him, the realer it feels. “Are you ever worried about that?”

He looks at you, an expression you can’t quite make out fall across his face as he stares. It’s almost soft, the way he looks at you in this moment. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

The truth is, this is a reality Touya has accepted. He’s not afraid to die, and he never has been. He’ll probably die inside of Blue, and he has no problem with that fact. He doesn’t need to be around for long, just enough to show his dad what he’s capable of.

“C’mon.” You stare. “That’s not fair.”

“Shit. I left some of the screws for this in my dorm.” He curses. He looks where you lounge, tucked into Blue’s shoulder. “Keep an eye on her, okay?”

You watch him jump down, much higher than his usual height at her chest, but he lands anyway. He doesn’t turn to look back at you as he jogs away. You climb up the side of Blue, and look at the lenses in her head. They’re already repaired, and you know Touya used the excuse of missing screw just so he wouldn’t have to talk about the soul link.

But it’s the first time he’s ever left you alone with Blue before. 

…

As the mission draws closer, Touya throws himself into training. You’re on the training floor with him most days, standing behind that big glass panel as you watch him spar with his peers. He still doesn’t let you down on the floor with him until he’s full out of Blue and close enough to the edge of the sparring floor to get to you. You’re not allowed in the actual training area, and even though he says he doesn’t want you clinging to him, it’s really because he wants to keep you safe. Seeing your human body near the giant machines that are HERO’s makes him want to grab you and keep you inside of Blue’s chest forever. 

You can tell all the training is taking a toll on him. With an excess of headaches and the occasional nosebleed, you continuously get into arguments about him cutting back on training inside of Blue. There are other ways for him to prepare that don’t involve his fragile brain being hooked up to an entity that takes so much. He doesn’t listen.

Later and later into the night, as your fellow pilots and handlers disperse and return to their rooms to sleep, Touya stays inside of Blue, testing her movements and sparring against test dummies and obstacles. Once you and Touya are the only two left on the sparring floor, you speak into the intercom attached to your head.

“Touya, I think you should take a break.” You tell him, “It’s late. Get some rest and then we can pick it back up in the morning.”

There’s a pause, then, “I’m gonna stay for another hour. Get some sleep. I’ll be done soon.”

“No, Touya. You’ve been at it for hours. You barely took a break for dinner. C’mon.” 

“You know, you sound awfully like a handler trying to tell their pilot what to do.” He teases, but you can hear the irritation in his voice.

“You are insufferable. I’m worried about you.” You groan.

“I’m fine. Go sleep.” He insists.

“If I find out you aren’t out of here in an hour—” Your line is promptly cut off, leaving behind static in your ear. You sigh and throw your com to the side. You hope he’s telling the truth.

With one last look at Blue, you make your way out of the training floor and find your way back to your dorm. 

Touya doesn’t answer the door when you knock the next morning. With a frustrated groan, you leave your dorm and head to the training floor, assuming he woke up early to get some extra hours in. The closer you get the the floor, you notice other members of the base rushing in front of you. Feeling panicked, you pick up the pace, jogging toward the training room to make sure something isn’t wrong. You collide with a body in front of you, nearly falling to the floor as you steady yourself. Toga stands in front of you, her cheeks red and eyes glossy as she explains something your mind can’t catch up to understand. The only thing you recognize is his name, and you’re running toward the training floor in an instant. 

You watch as Blue stomps around the area, her arms swinging in all directions, losing her footing as she moves. Knowing you can’t do anything on the floor, you make your way up to the overlook, finding Tenko yelling into your intercom. 

“What’s going on? What’s happening?” You ask him, pulling the headset off of his head and placing it on yours instead. 

“He’s out of fucking control. He won’t answer. I don’t even think he’s conscious in there.” He tells you, running a hand through his hair, pulling at the roots in anxiety. “You’re not linked yet, are you?”

You shake your head, closing your eyes in frustration as you try to think. You know it’s the only way. You have to take some of the burden off of him, make him share it with you. It’s the only way he’ll survive right now. “Do you think you can get into Decay right now and knock him down somehow?”

He hesitates, “I can get inside. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to touch him at all.”

“You have to.” You plead, desperately. “I just need him down for ten seconds, tops. As long as I can get inside of her, I can save him.”

He looks at you like you’re insane, and maybe you are. But you know you can’t live with yourself if you don’t try something. Tenko nods.

“I can do it.” He tells you. You rush passed him, following the stairs down to the training area. You feel Tenk grab your wrist firmly. “You bring him back, okay?”

“I will.” You nod. 

He dodges Blue’s movements, weaving between her legs as he finally makes it to Decay. It takes a few moments for him to connect, but he goes straight for Blue. You watch the giant machines fight one another, but it’s clear that Blue’s lack of control hinders much of her ability. She needs Touya just as much as he needs her. It’s tough for Decay to dodge her swinging arms, but Tenko manages to knock her down quickly.

The fall shakes the room, but you waste no time running for Blue. Climbing over the side of her, you manage to touch your thumb to the pad on the outside to open her chest up. She begins to stand up, and you slip down, grabbing onto a bar beneath her ribcage. You let out a frustrated groan as you try to pull yourself up over the edge of the cockpit. Finally making it over, you see Touya sitting there, still connected to his pilot’s chair, eyes glazed over and blood gushing from his nose. You push the button that closes the panel in Blue’s chest, and you’re suddenly alone with him. 

Touya’s body is being jerked around by the movement of the mech, and you hang onto the walls of her chest in order to make your way to him. You situate yourself in his lap, taking his head in your hands as you look at him with tears in your eyes.

“You fucking asshole! I told you to take a break.” You sob, resting your head against his as you try and think of what to do next. “Touya, please. Please, baby, I need to you come back. Just fucking come back so I don’t have to do this without your permission, please.”

With no response from him, you wipe your tears, coming to terms with the fact that you have to complete the soul link now, or he’ll die. “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry, Touya. Please forgive me.”

The soul link isn’t exactly an action so much as it is a feeling, an experience. There’s no trigger for it, no way to make it happen. It just begins. 

It’s Touya, aged thirteen, wild, chubby-cheeked and happy, in the pilot’s seat of his father’s HERO. It’s his drive, his determination, his anger, his hurt. It’s the day he snuck into battle, the day he couldn’t get out, flesh burning and fusing to the metal walls of his mech, the feeling now deep in your skin. It’s you, aged fifteen, hopeful, alive, shaking hands with your first pilot. It’s your heart, much too big and much too open for your line of work, it’s your passion, your fire, every piece of you that was broken down again and again until there was nothing left. It’s Touya and it’s you, and every single bit of your souls now tied together in one big knot. 

There’s nothing but darkness. And then there’s screaming. And then you can hear everything. Every thought running through Touya’s brain right now echoes in your head as you slowly come back to yourself. He can hear the same of yours.

It’s overwhelming at first, to have two sets of thoughts in your head at the same time, but you manage to focus. You can feel an anger inside of you like you’ve never felt. It’s almost like it’s your own. You need to come back. You’ve lost control of Blue.

In an instant, you feel yourself come back to your body, now straddling Touya like before, you feel his arms shoot around you and he tucks his chin over your shoulder to pilot Blue like he’s used to doing. He pays no mind as he presses up against you, but you feel your heart rate increase at the closeness. 

He’s so close.

I have to be. You’re in my lap.

Shit. I didn’t think—

Clearly.

I can’t fucking believe you. I told you we weren’t going to do this.

You were dying!

Then you fucking let me!

You’re jostled around in his lap for a moment as he stops Blue from destroying any more of the training floor, and Touya wraps an arm around your waist, holding you steady.

He gains control of her quickly, moving her toward the edge of the room. You tuck your face into his neck, not wanting to distract him and keeping your thoughts at bay so you don’t overwhelm him. He powers Blue down, severing the neural connection between the two of you, and shoves you from his lap and into the pilot’s chair like you’ve burned him. He storms out of the cockpit, climbing out of his machine and leaving you inside. You think about the argument you had within each other’s head, how Touya would have rather died than be linked to you like he is now. 

You slump against the seat, comforted by the metal cage you’ve been left inside of. 

[rebornofstars]

MY FAVOURITE PARTS OF THE UPDATE

BECAUSE THIS HAS BEEN MY FAVOURITE UPDATE EVER

all comic panels from crescent flame by @linkeduniverse. readmore bc its LONG

can we start with the gorgeous lighting please . like this has to be one of the absolute prettiest palettes i dont know how the colour wheel works but PLEASE im dying over this peach coloured light. and the camera angles??? absolute fire

and we already knew he had it but as far as i can remember this is the first time we've actually seen legend using his lantern????

somoene will have to help me (SOS 😭🙏) because ive lost the spreadsheet matching each item in the december art with its name & game of origin so FORGIVE ME IF IM WRONG BUT ISNT THIS THE SAME LAMP FROM LINK'S HOUSE AT THE BEGINNING OF ALTTP??? legend you sentimental freak (deeply affectionate). hes everything.

and!!!! rulie with the candle. i dont know why im going crazy about a candle but i AM. the fact that rulie uses a light method less modern than legend's old lamp is speaking to me and the inevitable conversation about legend's legacy and the gulf between their eras. this is canon and we've been talking about it for years but seeing them together in direct comparison like this is really hammering it into my skull. and of course jojo's attention to detail is once again UNPARALLELED

also the architecture in this dungeon is just gorgeous. jojo can u design my house pls??? 🥺🥺 i'm in love with all these zoomed out shots as well like holy shit. so effective in creating an atmosphere

PLEASE the fact that hyrule holds his candle right over it to look but then backs off a bit when legend comes over so he can light it with the lamp?????? WORDLESSLY??? i dont know if its just because he knew the lamp would do a better job but the TEAMWORK??? THE COOPERATION??? I LOVE THEM???? i used to think that downfall duo was mostly a fanon invention cause legend and hyrule didnt spend much one-on-one time in the comic but FUCK THAT I BELIEVE!!!! I SEE THE LGIHT!!!!! legend's little grin is telling me everything i need to know

his face im wheezing 😂😂😂😂 rule please how did u survive this long 😭😭😭

and then it doesnt even attack them it just runs away!!!!! accurate!!!! dfd (downfall duo? is this an acceptable acronym?) are TOO OP

im actually fucking dying over this panel u dont understand. strong contender for one of the panels of all time. four has STRUCK UP A POSE. nobody walks down stairs with their hands behind their head that boy is RECLINING DRAMATICALLY.

and WIND DOING HIS LITTLE LEAP. ITS TOTALLY UNECCESSARY. IM SO GLAD IT EXISTS. and time descending in the middle of the stairs staring straight ahead 😭😭😭 equally theatric in his own stupid way im wheezing this is too much. the drama kids. old man & the Youngsters

THE ARGUING ABOUT WHO GETS A TURN AT WHAT. SOOOO SIBLINGS CODED. IM DEAD ON THE FLOOR

wiat wait wait fuck. wait fuck HOW OLD IS FOUR. theyre thinking so furiously theyre gonna hurt their brains. recontextualising every single conversation theyve ever had with the smithy!! im actually sooo sooo happy abt this panel because cheekily mysterious four (especially about completely unecessary things like his AGE) is my kryptonite & i feel like this couldve come straight out of a crackfic. the chaos is unmatched. jojo is on our WAVELENGTH ‼️‼️‼️

they are soooo sooo comfortable with each other. hyrule sasses everyone its true BUT LEGEND IS TAKING HIS SASS AND RESPONDING TO IT. theyre having a debate. legend is expressing all his grumpy opinions and hyrule is like lmao ok i see ur point. ahgsjdbgsj

the way the games are baked into every panel and plot point of this comic.. im actually deceased. also legend's stance is cracking me up

ADORE the way this is framed. love love love

the MISCHIEF AND GLEE ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ WHAT IS A LINK IF NOT A DESTROYER OF POTS‼️‼️‼️ this whole page im obsessed with i read it like 3 times cause i couldnt believe my eyes. they ARE besties they ARE. theyre both being so playful & theyre both in their element & pairing them up was a gorgeous fantastic idea and i am SO here for it

in conclusion every update is getting better and better i am LIVING for this dungeon arc and i adore this comic to pieces. thank u for coming to my ted talk

[henry-fox-biggest-stan]

At the 1984 Republican National Convention breakfast, the president of American Airlines opened his speech by joking that "gay" was an acronym for "got AIDS yet?" […] Weeks after Hudson's death in 1985, Houston's former mayor outlined his own plan for ending the crisis during a reelection bid: if you want to stop AIDS, he said, "shoot the queers."

- - -

Buckley wrote an op-ed in the New York Times proposing that "everyone detected with AIDS should be tattooed in the upper forearm, to protect common needle users, and on the buttocks to prevent the victimization of other homosexuals."

[…]

Buckley joked to Reagan that his proposed tattoos should read, "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here," over the buttocks.

- - -

The pink triangle, both in its original usage and in its first reclamations, pointed down. But Chris Lione, misremembering the triangle's direction, told the group that it pointed upward, like a pyramid. He chided the group for doubting him. "Boys, I just came from that concentration camp," he told them. "I know what I'm talking about." Johnston was supposed to research the direction of the triangle but failed to do so. And so it went to the printer upside down. This inversion of the triangle came to be read as a gesture of empowerment, and Finkelstein would later hawk it as such. But in actuality, the pink triangle facing upward was essentially a printing error.

- - -

Though Silence=Death was widely accepted by the immediate circle of ACT UP, this was not immediately beloved by the gay community writ large. Finkelstein recalled that when he wore a Silence=Death button to dinner one night, his waiter, a gay man, registered his disapproval. "That's a very violent button," he told Finkelstein.

"These are very violent times," Finkelstein shot back.

These sorts of confrontations were not uncommon. One ACT UP member named Joe Ferrari recalled wearing a Silence=Death shirt on Fire Island and being spit on by another gay man.

- - -

It was initially suggested that ACT UP's members carry coffins through the parade. One ACT UP member living with AIDS, Griffin Gold, lobbied against this. "Can't you folks think of any other way to represent people with AlDS other than carrying coffins?" he snapped back. "We are living with AIDS," he proclaimed, "not dying with AIDS!"

— It Was Vulgar and It Was Beautiful: How AIDS Activists Used Art to Fight a Pandemic, by Jack Lowery (2022)

[smilepilled]

in light of all of these horrible things jappening to till, i would like to start a loveletter train to hir. i'll go first, and i'll tag some people under the cut. please try to be platonic and reasonably-far-yet-friendly if you're not close to hir, because im sure no one that does this wants to make void even more upset. let's show some love for a dear member of this community; show some kind words and support for hir

i'll go first...

@idwl, till. we are distant mutuals, and i wish i could utter these words in a private setting, but i will repeat them as many times as i can until you accept it as a undoubtable truth. i will say so much more than this when i can, and i truly apologize for not once expressing my heartfelt appreciation for you.

coin-related; you are brilliant. your terms shine upon mine eyes when i see them, and the geniosity of the majority of your terms brings me hope for a more unified queer community. you've created things that struck close to home for me, and im sure your terms have brought the same feeling of homeliness to many others. your creations arent just pretty labels with pretty flags— they are ways for people to feel unionship, a sense of belonging & hope for themselves. your creations may be mocked by the soulless minority, but you should ALWAYS remember that your terms have, do, and will reach into the hearts of people.

person-wise; i am not able to say much myself, but from all and any interactions i've seen from you, i can tell you are a lovely, dear person. you are cared for, people cherish your presence— and even if i'm a mere aunt (read: vibe of a "distant relative") for you in this case, i too partake in the appreciation of your presence here. regardless if you choose to move on from liomogai tumblr spaces or choose to remain, you will always have a place in the memoirs of the people. you may leave the scene, but you'll never ever be removed from the picture frames in the people's hearts. you are appreciated and folks will be willing to offer support for you, no matter how small or big they feel it is.

please, please count on us. don't isolate yourself or run away out of fear that you're "too much" or "evil" (for example?), or any other adjacent though you personally may have about asking for help. your friends and peers care about you, and i hope this old creature stending its hand to you can act even as little as being a symbol of that. you are valued and cared for, and even if you never coin again, people will still care for you — as a person, not a coiner. thank you, thank you & thank you for all you've done in here, and thank you for hanging in there as you are today (& have many other times). please dont be mean to yourself, hurt yourself, and instead go to your friends & watch a nice nature documentary with snacks instead.

your community's got your back, publicly and/or privately. you can reach out, and we do care. please be well, and take a bunch of breaks if you need to— play some games and get some snacks, you deserve it; especially now, but you always do.

i'm happy to spend time with you if you need a distraction, my discord is @\hackerbug if you wanna drop by. no need to ask or warn me beforehand, just airdrop yourself and i'll be glad to help. its not just me, either. please take care

additionally: i apologize if any of this is too much or too intense. i'm just really worried and i want to make sure you understand im offering myself to help you with a space to rant/vent and take your mind off this situation. thank you for being yourself

tagging: @radiomogai, @lunentity, @rwuffles, @kiruliom, @inknoidd, @h-halos, @puppfie, @gender-mailman, @hypnosiacon, @losergendered, @rabidbatboy, @acronym-chaos, @daybreakthing, @gengernoway, @local-maneater, @scr-ppup, @sevvys, @icwdtea, @floraeth, @nyrieve, @snugmutt, @starstruckdolly. — it's obviously okay to skip this, but i'd appreciate if you guys could drop some love for till. hi definitely needs some hearts right now. please focus on giving support to hir instead of attacking the harrassing party, for this.

[dcdreamblog]

Are the Birds of Prey real? I mean, I know all the heroes commonly put under that group label actually exist. But are they functionally a unit led by a JLA connected information broker called Oracle, rather than just some of them know each other and like to team up.

I ask cause you see the media slapping names on team ups all the time and nothing comes of it. I remember one time the second Blue Beetle worked with the original Question, Captain Atom, the briefly existing second Peacemaker and a few others one time the JLA got knocked out of this dimension and reports were calling them the L.A.W.(all caps, a period after each letter like it was an acronym. No idea what it was supposed to stand for.) and nothing ever came of it. And Gothamites know if Catwoman is seen near Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn then the Gotham City Sirens are out and about. It can get pretty ridiculous

Ah, Oracle. Queen of superheroine conspiracy theories. If I had a nickel for every place she was accused of intervening compared to the places she actually DID I would be a very rich man.

And she probably likes it that way.

(The famous/infamous "mask" icon that serves as Oracle's digital calling card) The Birds of Prey are a hard category to pin down. The most "core" members of the "team" are Oracle, Batgirl (no don't ask me which one no one can seem to agree), Black Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk. Though basically any heroine who has been in and around Gotham for any length of time has been roped in. Catwoman, Cynthia Reynolds, Hawk and Dove, Big Barda, Hawkgirl, the modern Judomaster, Misfit, Power Girl, Vixen and the list goes on and one. To answer your question in the firmest way possible. No, no official team by the name "The Birds of Prey" appears in or is legitimized by any official records from the Justice League or any other public facing superhero team. That being SAID that is a VERY narrow marker by which to define "existence" and it goes into some of the vagaries you mentioned with what a superhero team is. A superhero team is basically just any amount of superheroes gathering together for some common purpose, whether that be general or specific. While the most famous teams all of us are familiar with like the Justice League, Justice Society, Teen Titans, Global Guardians, etc are all public facing with some of kind of widely accessible history, records, a known base of operations and the like that is by FAR not the norm when it comes to these things. Many hero teams are stuck together by simple association. If enough people call the lady antivillains of Gotham the Sirens, then the Sirens they are. That's how words are defined, enough people accept what they mean that arguing their existence becomes an exercise in pedantry. Other heroes teams are fleeting and temporary, stuck together to deal with a single or a small group of threats before dissolving back into the ether. Most heroes teams are NOT the Justice League who keep meticulous records of accepted membership and most teams are CERTAINLY not the All Star Squadron where membership was a legislation defined position that came with written benefits and responsibilities. Most superheroes teams are only uncovered after the fact, finding their outline in records, accounts and interviews. That isn't to imply that if they DO exist that they're somehow an illicit or "illegal" organization. Any group with THAT membership operating for any length of time in Gotham of all places would be well known to the wider superhero community which I always like to remind people keeps much if not most of its information close to the chest for a lot of good reasons. So, the utterly unhelpful answer is No but also Yes but also Maybe but also ask me in 20 years.

[snitchcrimsonwrites]

Drawn Together-Chapter 18

Pairing: Tech x Jedi! Reader

"Have you given consideration to whether this relationship should progress into... further physical intimacy?” Things get a little bit interesting during what Tech started terming as your ‘scheduled interval of mutually beneficial closeness’.

Chapter 17

Cuddled up in the Marauder's common area, you and Tech prepared for the night, enjoying your nightly ritual that the rest of Clone Force 99 had come to accept. Each evening, Echo, Hunter, Omega, and Wrecker would bid farewell one by one, wishing you both a good night as you savored your time together, which Tech had started terming as your ‘scheduled interval of mutually beneficial closeness’. Maybe you could convince him of a suitable acronym instead. You generally read as Tech tinkered, both absorbed in your activities while still recognizing each other’s presence.

Tonight was no different.He sat beside you while you read, his posture relaxed as he worked through maintenance logs and long-range sensor diagnostics with practiced ease. Not your cup of tea, but you appreciated this aspect of your developing relationship: the ability to be independent while still maintaining a level of intimacy. It was a facet you didn't expect, not realizing that a relationship could play out this way.

You lay against him, legs entwined beneath a worn blanket, your fingers curled around the spine of an old book, something Tech and Echo picked up in a tattered stall during their last supply run for you. The pages were aged and faded, chronicling the events of an ancient tradition on the planet known as the Veilfire Festival. It was a spectacle where the presence of an ancient flame was said to reveal the intentions of the spirit realm during the days of the festival. From what you’ve read so far, it sounded like a riveting, mystic event.

You turned the page, initially eager to learn more about the festival and how the elders of this planet communed with their long-dead ancestors. However, you paused as a completely unrelated thought interrupted your concentration. A thought about the man sitting next to you.

"Can I ask you something?” you whispered, keeping your eyes fixed on the page.

Tech didn’t look up. “You just did.” You nudged him with your foot under the blanket. He was getting too comfortable with that. He smiled, feeling pleased with himself for matching your usual energy. “Yes. Go on.” He was adapting.

“How did you know I’d enjoy this?” You held the book at an angle in your hands to emphasize your point: “And how were you so confident that I could even read it?”

That made him glance up from the datapad. “I didn’t know, with certainty,” he admitted. “But I made an educated guess,” he added, recovering quickly. “Based on the languages I’ve observed you use, read, or translate, I calculated an sixty-seven percent probability you’d recognize the root script.”

“So, you gambled,” you clarified, already knowing that he wouldn’t appreciate the semantics.

He set the datapad aside and adjusted himself, prepared to explain. “It was a calculated risk. Even in the worst-case scenario, you’d find translating it to be an engaging challenge. In the best-case,” he said, pointing to the book you held, “you’d discover something worth reading. You tend to respond well to intellectual stimulation, especially when intertwined with historical or cultural context. That text, seemingly, holds both,” he remarked, giving the cover a light tap.

“See? This was highly calculated,” he concluded, expecting you to allow him to return to his maintenance logs. You observed him with amusement, your interest piqued by his words. “Hmmm. So, what else have you discovered about me?” Curious about the how the extent of your presence occupied his thoughts.

He paused momentarily, and you noticed the subtle shift in his expression. It wasn't discomfort; it was something more cautious. “I could share,” he said slowly, thinking about it now, “but you’d probably accuse me of being ‘predictive’ again,” clearly trying to avoid another round of teasing from you.

You smiled, leaning your head softly on his shoulder as you looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. “I'll keep the commentary to a minimum.” Or at least you'd try.

He let out a sigh, yielding to the moment. Initially, he was uncertain about sharing all the data he had meticulously collected. However, he realized that resisting you was an exercise in futility. Then he tapped his datapad lightly, not looking up immediately, unsure of your reaction, before speaking again, ready to share a few of his observations.

“I’ve observed certain behavioral traits, like the ones you exhibited tonight during reading. For instance, you frequently tuck your leg under you when you are especially focused."

He paused, gesturing with his head to indicate the position of your leg that was currently not intertwined with his. Spot on. You giggled, encouraging him to continue, not surprised by his accuracy so far. You knew he was particularly observant, but tonight you would find out exactly how observant he truly was.

“You tend to pause your breathing for half a second when you read something that resonates with you. It's something you’ve done at least a dozen times while reading that text tonight, which I'll count as a success on my part,” a slight smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, feeling rather satisfied with himself.

You exhale deeply, not bothering to look up as you sense his smug satisfaction. “You’re lucky that I consider your relentless accuracy somewhat charming,” you roll your eyes, glancing upward just enough to catch his smirk.

He offered a subtle, half-smile, still noticing everything, "I believe your eye-rolls have become a sort of affection at this point," before continuing to share further insights he had noticed.

“On a similar note, I’ve calculated that you’re eighty-three percent more likely to tease me when we’re this close, and I appear to encourage it.” Then, in a softer tone, he added, "Surprisingly, I haven't found a reason to mind.”

“I might be inclined to test the limits of your tolerance,” you joked, offering. His lips twitched, but he didn’t take the bait. Not yet.

“Tolerances aside,” he continued, his voice more steady than his heartbeat, “I find your closeness… agreeable, which leads me to notice,” he noted carefully, “that your skin temperature rises by approximately half a degree when I touch your shoulder or the small of your back. You also respond intensely to light pressure on your wrist,” he added nonchalantly. “That was the most remarkable observation. You remain very still during it, yet your pulse quickens. Quite noticeably.”

You looked at him in disbelief. “You tested that on purpose,” you mocked, now surprised by how much body language information he took in.

“Not initially.” He tilted his head. “But once I observed the reaction, it seemed... prudent to verify.”

You paused and you placed the datapad aside, stretched your legs, and leaned in closer, allowing your knee to brush against his. “And what exactly did you intend to do with all this data?” you inquired, your eyes glowing with both challenge and curiosity. What will you do now, Tech?

Tech said, "I hadn’t determined an application," then added, a bit softer, “But I found I didn’t want to stop gathering it.”

Your breath caught slightly as you edged closer, reducing the space between you to almost nothing. He felt the urge to close that small distance. He reached out cautiously, brushing his fingers along the inside of your wrist, just enough to sense the subtle shift in your pulse that he knew would be there. Just as he observed, a noticeable increase from resting.

You parted your lips as you looked from your wrist into his eyes. This was unexpected. He tilted his head, scrutinizing your profile and growing more daring as you responded to his advances. He seemed eager to test things further, wanting more tangible evidence.

He committed, dropping his voice to a near whisper before rising to a deeper, clearer octave. “You respond more strongly when I speak like this.”

You inhaled slowly and shallowly. It was a barely perceptible intake, but he caught it. He was always correct.

“You encourage proximity and like when I’m close,” he said next, leaning in so that his breath touched your skin just below your ear. You briefly closed your eyes, and he noticed the slight hitch in your breath from what he had done. Curious, he tried again. “You’re a pattern I never want to stop decoding,” he whispered.

That did it. You reacted swiftly, pressing your lips against his with a conviction that surprised you both. It wasn’t gentle; it was intense and pressing. It felt like a clash of tension, as all restraint faded. While kissing him, your hand glided to the side of his neck, drawing him nearer as you kissed him once more, this time more passionately. And he responded to your kiss immediately.

Tech’s hands settled on your waist, his thumbs brushing the hem of your shirt before gently slipping under the fabric to touch your warm skin at your stomach. Under his touch, your body instinctively leaned closer to him, releasing a satisfied sigh against his lips. Intriguing.

He leaned back, breaking the kiss a bit to talk, eager to share his newest observation. “Your breathing shifts with a deeper kiss. You lean into it.” You let out a breathless laugh against his lips, then paused to rest your forehead on his. “You really can’t turn it off, can you?”

“No,” he confessed, his gaze shifting to your lips. “But I find I enjoy the feedback loop.”

“Hmmm. Interesting, I guess that means it's my turn?” you comment, returning to kiss the corner of his mouth. “And you,” you whisper, tracing kisses down the line of his jaw, then down, just below his ear, nipping slightly at the soft flesh there, “shiver when I do that.”

Tech froze momentarily and let out what might have been a stunned exhale, maybe a moan. You couldn’t be sure, but you were determined to hear that sound again. Over and over again.

He responded with a sense of increasing urgency, closing the final distance between you. He pulled you into his lap with sudden confidence, bringing you over him so that your legs straddled him while his hands rested on your back. This time, he initiated the kiss with purpose, moving slowly and deeply. Your lips yielded to his effortlessly, allowing him to lead as another gentle sound caught in your throat. He filed that reaction away, too.

Your hand followed a line down the center of his chest, as his grip on your waist and back instinctively tightened, pulling you closer until no space remained between you. His hips lifted toward yours, a sharp, unspoken response to your weight pressing into him.

You breathed softly against his mouth at the friction he supplied beneath you, part moan, part exhale, and he felt it like a current: the warmth of your breath, the give of your lips, and the way your body fit his effortlessly, without hesitation. He needed you, all of you, with increasing desperation.

But a spark of logic resurfaced somewhere between the next kiss and the feeling of your fingers weaving through his hair. A soft vibration from the ship's systems. The subtle clang of a changing ventilation cycle. A faint, yet unmistakable snore from Wrecker in the nearby corridor. Tech’s eyes snapped open.

He murmured your name, voice low and strained, but you didn’t stop. Your lips were too focused on tracing along the line of his jaw.

“Y/N,” he repeated, his tone more urgent now as he leaned back slightly to grab your attention. “We’re still in the common area.” There was a pause. Your breathing was still heavy, warm against his skin. And then—“Oh.”

You pulled back an inch, then another, and blinked. The haze of desire in your expression flickered into realization, followed by mortified amusement. "Oh.” You sat up straighter, brushing a hand over your flushed face. “Right. Uh. Right.”

Tech fiddled with his goggles unnecessarily. “Given the high probability of one of the others entering at any time, this is... not the optimal location for what we were just doing.”

You bit your lip, trying to suppress a laugh. “You think? ”He looked at you seriously. "I’m attempting to respect boundaries—yours and theirs.”

You let out a soft, breathless laugh as you smoothed your hair. “Tech, we were on the boundary,” glancing down to your position across his lap, “We were very nearly past the boundary.”

His expression flickered with a hint of pride. “That... was not unintentional.”

This brought a slow smile from you. “For the record, you’re quite adept at pushing boundaries,” you encouraged. He initially appeared pleased, then became almost bashful about his ability to break through your collected demeanor. You decided it was perhaps the most endearing expression you had ever witnessed on him.

You glanced toward the hall leading to the crew bunks, then back to him, suddenly very aware of how entwined the two of you still were. Tech’s hands lingered on your waist as you pulled back slightly, not yet ready to get off his lap, shifting your position sideways so your legs remained resting on top of his as you fell into the seat beside him.

A tense stillness surrounded you both. While neither of you wanted this moment to end, you understood that continuing on your current path wasn't possible. Too many possible witnesses. Again, you rested your head against his shoulder, tracing slow, absent patterns on his chest as you slowly came down from that high. Your thoughts were entirely focused on him and how swiftly he could unravel you.

Eventually, he spoke. “Have you given consideration to whether this relationship should progress into... further physical intimacy?”

You blinked and reclined slightly to meet his gaze. “Tech,” you replied, your voice laced with humor, “I was on your lap, kissing you, with your hands beneath my shirt. I’d say the odds are quite favorable that I’ve thought about it.” I am still thinking about it, you corrected in your head.

“Yes,” he replied calmly. "This would indicate a distinct interest in continued development. Nevertheless, concluding long-term intentions based on a fleeting moment of heightened emotion is not dependable."

You stared at him. “So... this is your way of saying you’re interested, but you want to be sure we won’t regret it in the morning?”

"Exactly," he replied, pausing before continuing, "although that isn't related to the specific partner I've chosen. What I mean is that considering our present living situation and the likelihood of mission disruptions, the chance of unplanned intimacy may lead to… less-than-optimal conditions. If this is a path you want to explore, it would be prudent to approach our efforts with some strategy."

Your lips twitched. “Strategy,” you repeated, wondering if you should be concerned with the implication.

“Yes.”

“So,” you murmured, vocalizing that thought, “should I be concerned you’re drafting a flight plan for our sex life?”

Tech sat up a bit straighter, surprised by your plain language. “No. Well, yes, in the sense that I am preparing. But not... not excessively.”

—--------------------------------------------

The Marauder touched down gently on a serene, wooded moon in the Outer Rim—just a routine supply run with little risk involved. The plan was simple: Hunter, Wrecker, Omega, and Echo would make the short trip to the outpost for supplies, while Tech had suggested that you two stay behind.

“Navigation relays need recalibrating,” he’d said, pushing up his goggles. “I’ll be far more effective here.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow. “Right,” he said tersely. “Navigation.” Yet, he chose not to argue.

Twenty minutes later, everyone else had left, their boots fading along the trail amid cheerful chatter, with Wrecker’s hearty laugh echoing through the trees. Tech stood at the top of the ramp, arms folded behind him, eyes fixed on the others as they vanished into the foliage. You joined him, arms casually folded, observing the path where the others had gone, deciding whether to play dumb. The situation didn't exactly scream subtle.

“So, the nav system, huh?” you test.

“It needs recalibrating," Tech responded. "However, to be honest... I may have overstated the urgency.”

You glanced at him with a mix of suspicion and amusement. “You orchestrated this.”He cast a quick sideways glance at you, a slight, self-satisfied smile playing on his lips. “I prefer the term engineered.”

“Only you would turn a supply run into an elaborate scheme to be alone with me.”

“I don't hear you complaining. “

“I wouldn't dream of it. But Tech... are you sure?”He nodded, lowering his voice. “Yes. I’ve considered the variables. We have roughly three uninterrupted hours. The diagnostic cover is secure. The team won’t come back early unless there’s an emergency.” He paused. “But none of that matters unless you are sure.”

You moved in closer, wrapping your arms around his waist and pulling him into your space. “I’ve been sure,” you whispered. Tech’s arms wrapped around you slowly in response, planting a soft kiss to your forehead before instructing. “Come with me,” he said quietly.

You allowed him to take your hand as he guided you toward the Marauder's bunks. He paused at his, sitting down and unconsciously adjusting his posture. Then he looked up at you, his eyes soft behind the glint of his goggles. You faced him, positioning yourself between his knees, while your hands slid to his shoulders, fingers gripping the fabric of his blacks at his neck. One of his hands rested gently at your hip, his thumbs tracing slow arcs just above the curve of your hips. You leaned closer, softly brushing your nose against his as an invitation. In response, his lips met yours again, this time with certainty.

You deepened the kiss without hesitation, one hand sliding into the back of his hair while the other slid down to brace against his chest. Tech instinctively pulled you closer until your thighs brushed against his, then carefully guided you to straddle his lap. Round two. He moved his hands from your waist to rest against your back, fingers once again slipping beneath the hem of your shirt to find the warmth of bare skin, mirroring the action from a few nights ago. His touch was cautious at first, experimental and calculating, as his hand moved up from your waist to the soft skin on your chest.

The action made you exhale softly against his mouth, your hips settling more firmly in his lap, and he released a low sound from his throat, part breath and part restrained need. He needed you now.

“You always think before you touch,” you whispered in his ear, teasing.

“Precision has its advantages,” he replied. You remember the last time he mentioned something like that—after your drink on Ord Mantell, right before he kissed you. It wasn’t the first occasion, yet it was one where he profoundly left you breathless.

In reply, you cradled his face with both hands and kissed him once more. Deep, slow, and intimate. This time, you savored his reaction more deliberately as your fingers moved to the closures on his blacks, undoing them slowly. One by one, until none remained, and he slid out, chest bare before you. You admired the sight before you, biting your lip gently before softly pushing his shoulders down onto the bunk, kissing him as you followed him down. Wanting this, wanting him.

—-----------------------------

Later you occupied a far too small bunk for both of you, yet neither seemed to mind. Tech lay on his back with one arm around you and the other on his chest. You were spread out beside him, your bare leg draped over his while your head rested against his shoulder. For some time, you stayed quiet, letting the warmth of your shared moment surround you both. But now, you chose to interrupt it.

"So..." you whispered, your fingers gently tracing his chest. “If that was your first field test, I must admit... the results exceeded expectations.”

“Oh. I—well. That is reassuring to hear.”

“Reassuring?” You chuckle softly, tilting your head slightly to meet his eyes. “Tech, you had me questioning if my name was Y/N or cyar’ika for a good five minutes.”

A faint flush crept onto his cheeks. “That... was not documented.”

“You want me to log it for you?” you teased, nuzzling soft kisses against his jaw as you spoke. “Mark it down as a ‘highly effective technique’?”

He released a breathy laugh, attempting but failing to appear composed. “I have made mental notes. Certain techniques elicited particularly positive reactions—”

“Tech,” you chided, trying to avoid being on the receiving end. Again.

“—specifically when I kissed the underside of your jaw while—” he explained, while rolling back on top of you, as if he was going to provide a demonstration. You interrupted him by laughing and placing your hand over his mouth. “Maker, you’re unbelievable.”

He softly took your hand and kissed your knuckles, wearing a satisfied smile. “And yet, you were quite pleased.”

“Oh, I was very pleased, you said with a grin. “ But I swear, if you develop a full debrief —” He hesitated, questioning. “Too far?”

“Maybe a little, especially if you were considering the possibility of ‘replicating’ your results before your brothers got back?” you prompted, wondering if he would take advantage of the position you found yourself in.

He responded somewhat faster than he would have preferred, all too eager saying, “We have about one hour and forty-seven minutes left. Which, based on my calculations... is more than enough time for a thorough second trial.”

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for scamming my ex out of an extremely valuable virtual pet?

🐓🥤to recognize. This might be a very long post with a lot of added context for a very niche hobby and a very small actual conflict.

I religiously play a virtual pet site called Chicken Smoothie. It's a pretty old site as far as virtual pet games go, starting back in 2008, so there is a pretty solid established site economy. Just for some context, Every pet on the site has a rarity, ranging from "OMG So Common" to "OMG So Rare", being the most common and most rare respectively. But there are rarities within those rarities, where some OMGSRs can be worth more than others based on species and demand. For example, an OMGSR dog from 2008 will be worth more than an OMGSR rat from 2008 despite being the same highest rarity and year, because people prefer the dogs over rats. These pets can get extremely valuable. You can't sell them for real money (according to site rules, but of course there's a black market), but the site has its own virtual currency you can buy (with real money) and trade for called Chicken Dollars, and you can also trade a valuable pet for other valuable pets. It gets very complicated, with the community coming up with its own set of value terms each pet can have. I'm not getting into specifics there, that's not important.

Every year, on December 18th, CS has gift boxes you can adopt from. These gift boxes can contain any rare pet from any previous year, including special "Unreleased pets" that you can only get from these Dec 18th boxes, with a very slim chance. These unreleased pets are some of the most valuable and rarest in the game.

Recently, I had seen my ex posting on the forums. I didn't know he had an account, he had made it within this year, long after I got the fuck away from him, and I only knew it was him because he uses the same username everywhere. This person had groomed me, physically abused me when we were together (we no longer live anywhere near each other, thankfully) and has always been emotionally manipulative. He does not know I play, and he wouldn't recognize my account as me. I took a note of his account and left it be for a while, until December 18th hit and I took a peek at what he had got. And what he got was one of the new Unreleased pets, which currently at the time of writing this only looks like a box of cereal. (Most pets on the site have growth stages.) And even better, all his groups were open for trade, so I took a chance and sent an extremely terrible trade. I told him that this pet would only be a recent rare, and I offered him a "Very Rare" rarity (but not very valuable) pet from 2018, telling him I was overpaying. (In the CS community, this is known as Ninjaing, and it's Not A Good Thing To Do). I didn't expect him to accept it, I at least thought he'd be smart enough to ask in the trade advice thread that is literally pinned on the home page for December 18th, but he didn't. He took my word for it and accepted the trade, and now I own an unreleased pet that will eventually end up as an OMGSR.

What I did was not a bannable offence. He will not get his unreleased pet back. The CS mods are laughable at worst, incompetent at best, and don't do anything to stop scamming. They have an "eh, sucks to be you, sorry, be smarter next time" mentality when people get scammed (Which is insane because there are literal single digit aged children allowed on this site!!!)

After taking a bit to think about it, I do feel a bit guilty because I really would not do this in any other circumstances. I hate scamming. I did what I did out of anger and contempt, and I do feel a bit guilty because in essence, I scammed a new player that didn't have much else and didn't know any better.

I'm still keeping that unreleased cereal box no matter what though

What are these acronyms?

[textpostscymraeg]

Helo, dysgwr Cymraeg arall yma. Dw i eisiau dweud diolch yn fawr am redeg y blog yma - mae'n help mawr ar gyfer dysgu Cymraeg!

Dw i'n mwynhau darllen y tagiau mewn dy bostiadau di, hefyd.

[gotta switch to English now, and also sorry for any mistakes in my Welsh!] I hadn't really thought much about how acronyms work in Welsh with mutations, so your tags in the recent post where you translate 'smh' were really interesting! It's strange to think how the same word could end up represented by loads of different letters in acronyms, depending on how it gets mutated in each one. Do you think this makes acronyms harder to understand/guess in Welsh?

Croeso mawr! Dwi'n falch fy fod yn mwynhau'r blog a'r tagiau!

Ooh, now that's a good question! Off the top of my head, the only acronyms I can think of that I see in everyday use are 'ayyb' (ac yn y blaen = and so on), 'yfmi' (yn fy marn i = in my opinion) and 'omb' (o mam bach = oh little mother, basically our version of 'omg').

I don't really think mutations impact things too much; as you can see, 'yn fy marn i' or 'yfmi' mutates 'barn' to 'marn'! I think that, like any English-language acronym, it just takes context clues and wide usage for an acronym to become generally accepted as part of the lexicon. (I for one still find myself stumbling over 'ijbol' and trying to remember if it's a keysmash or an acronym.)

Side note: 'omb' should mutate into 'omf', but that's probably less to do with the fact it's an acronym and more to do with the fact that 'o mam bach' is already a very commonly used (if technically incorrect!) colloquial phrase.

Another side note: 'lol' (laugh out loud) is already a word in Welsh that means rubbish/nonsense! Which makes deciphering Welsh-language Facebook comments incredibly funny at times.

Diolch am y cwestiwn diddorol!

[spyxfamilyanalysis]

Something I found in Spy x Family Meta community

from crooked-mantis's post

Chapter 90.1 has been haunting me

This is a very speculative thought. And it lacks a lot of hard evidence. If this post doesn't qualify for guidelines I'll remove it myself, but I have been thinking a lot about 'ANIA' and its potential meaning.

Some people have assumed it is an acronym or initialism, given to Anya by the facility that made her 'study'. This would make the mystery presented in this chapter impossible to solve on its own. We can imagine 1,000+ hypothetical word combinations with different meanings, but they would all be guesswork based on context we already have. It wouldn't teach us anything new, so it'd be a poor hint of what's to come.

And I imagine incorporating such a Western system of abbreviation might also feel out of left field for a lot of Japanese readers who are seeing it as アニア [a-ni-a] in 90.1's speech bubble.

Additionally, we already know Anya's lab designation was Test Subject "007". Why would they give her another codename on top of that? It would be a bit excessive. It's more likely that Ania is just her birth name, which the scientists would naturally use for ease of speaking to her and convincing her to cooperate.

It's also worth considering that Anya accepts her name fully. If it were given to her by the people of the facility, I feel like she wouldn't volunteer that name so happily, and without hesitation. Chapter 111 did not confirm it [in English, though I haven't been able to find the Japanese version], but I assume she accepts her name because its likely what her biological mother called her, first and foremost.

So, in short, I'm certain this is not an acronym.

Following that thread of Ania being her given birth name: some have suggested it must be a name derived from classical language, of which Anya has a mysterious proficiency with. And I agree, but not exactly in the same way.

I don't think it's a traditional classic language name. Not to put too much faith in Twilight's encyclopedic brain, but he did not recognize 'Ania' as a real name. He only understood Anya, with a 'y', to be a proper name.

It's like if someone wrote 'Kile' as their name. You'd be certain they were making a mistake, and might correct it as 'Kyle'. Because 'Kile' is so uncommon that I didn't think that was a legitimate spelling anyone had seriously used, until I looked it up just now.

The point is, Ania is likely so non-traditional, that Twilight can't clock it as a legitimate name. And he is a man who has had to memorize thousands upon thousands. Likely those from historical eras as well, given his immense reserves of trivia.

So I don't think 'Ania' stems from the etymology of peoples' names. I think it stems from somewhere suitably unconventional: a place's name.

Ostania

Due, in part, to how it has been automatically translated and surrounded by <>'s in the English manga, I don't know if 'classical language' is a direct analogue to a real Germanic language, or if it's being artificially made up by Endo. But, in the case of the latter, I wouldn't be at all surprised if Ostania and Westalis were country names that originated from the classical language.

Anya's biological mother may have borrowed the nation's suffix [which may carry its own meanings] and tied it to her daughter. For etymological, personal, or political reasons? I can't say for sure. But I feel like this is truly the most likely 'in-universe' source for Anya's original name.

Or at least, it's the one we can actually figure out, given all the information we presently have. And I enjoy a planted mystery much better if you can figure out some parts of it ahead of time.

...Now, if you'll allow me a bit of fun, this line of thinking accidentally led me and a mutual friend of mine to a crack theory, of sorts. I'm not trying to convince anyone of this, but I have unfortunately half-convinced myself. I'm sharing this portion mostly because the thought has been eating at me. To me, this idea is somewhere between a joke and a serious prediction. Take it as you will.

Westalis → 'Alis' → "Alice"

[Image ID: A manga panel from Spy x Family Chapter 8. Twilight narrates that he changed the student groupings to help with the mission. Meanwhile, the students of Cecil House are called forward, the first name is 'Alice Paulet'. The image is edited to underline 'Alice'. /end ID]

Alice Paulet is also first on the roll call in Chapter 26, though it could easily be a repeat of the first list without much thought behind it.

I have no claims for who Alice might be. If she is a character of importance, her origin could be anything. All I'm guessing is that she could serve as a narrative foil for Anya in the future, and I'm keeping an eye out for her name as a result.

Mostly because, at its core, Spy x Family is still a comedy. So I would not be surprised if 'Ost-Anya' and 'West-Alice' was a setup made to be both suitably dramatic, and in the same breath, a dumb pun. May I remind you Endo penned a fake family called 'The Forgers' and made a neighboring family called 'The Authens'?