#overwatch office au

[nevermindtheweights]

Belches as her gut is placed upon the patrol car bonnet.

[halfadoginatank]

RE:BOOTING

The problem with being a mad scientist, John surmises, is being very aware of his madness.

There had been a few moments of all out delusion, spawned mostly of sleep deprived nights and the long term effects they bring. But throughout his career helping this military world, he had always been very aware of the line he toed.

More accurately, aware of his own actions and how they kicked any idea of morality off the shelf.

Oh he couldn't help it, John Mactavish had always been passionate, and eager, and maybe a bit uncanny in his desire for creation.

After all that's what he did for a living, Create.

It started with sketches, cartoon scribbles as the world fell to pieces behind a little boy.

Then small parts of building kids in sweaty teenage palms, building something just as the world did.

Then the military started using androids, Replacants, some looked human, mass produced for the population for everyday needs. Some prehistoric bolts and scrap metal stayed in houses or with children. But those high end beings, gifted to look like peoples lost loved ones, transferring consciousness to faux human forms.

John was obsessed, so when they opened their doors for engineers, chemists and robot specialists of all kinds to join- to help. He ran to the nearest outpost and signed up

He'd worked on everything throughout the years, robots that knew nothing but carrying bombs from location to location, Replicents of soldiers whose original bodies had decayed and grown useless to the military. Even androids with their own original personalities. He'd lived in sheds disguised as dorms, he'd slept in glamorous R&D departments, he'd even crashed in a superior's car.

Then Captain John Price stormed into his lab, his ‘office’. Hard earned with years of climbing ranks until he became an engineer worthy of the SAS, a mess of parts and papers and coffee, safety goggles on his head despite the whirling bandsaw he stood in front of.

Task force 141 was in the making, he told him. Kyle ‘Gaz’ Garrick was an android, who'd loved life as a civilian before the family that bought him passed, Kate Laswell, their overwatch and trusted friend, and price himself. but there was one problem.

They called him Ghost, a revitalized Replicant, a robotic body as close as they get to what he looked like when they found him, dying in Texas just past the Mexican border. The body was damaged, chassis cracked and wires tangled.

Price told him of Simon Riley, the man he'd been before. How good of a soldier, how good a friend.

A special task force was just the thing to give him authorization to bring him back, the last piece of the puzzle, they needed a man to do it.

————

Pretty much, Androids are human like artificial beings with their own personalities. Replicents are an android body with a human consciousness, and Robots are just brainless task things.

Part Two

Whooo okay, the brainrot decided I wanted to make a shitty sifi au for task force 141. Im keeping world building pretty blurry so I dont end up tripping myself up and creating a world that doesnt make sense.

I did all this shoddy writing so I can actually get to explaining the anomaly that is Ghost and how Soap fixes him and ties the team together.

Honestly, you can blame my ultrakill interest for making this, especially with what im about to write about Ghost.

[wisteriagoesvroom]

unnecessarily specific headcanons for college!AU f1 drivers, part 2

part 1 available here

(and now with more gender diversity because it’s my AU and why not)

pierre

- major: entrepreneurship

- attending on a sports scholarship. is on the diving team

- birth name Pascale but she hates it, someone called her Pierre years ago as a joke (after the founder of the modern olympics) and it stuck

- met charles as a kid on a highscool exchange scuba diving trip and they’ve been best friends ever since

- has made a habit of introducing herself as “from Rouen, not Paris”, so much so that the rest of the gang groans and says it for her every time someone new arrives and she has to make an introduction

- has bars of chocolate stowed in random places. literally all sorts. it’s her bad habit. she and Lando become friends because she hoards good Belgian chocolate (“the real stuff not this Americane or Britishe nonsense”)

- got into a huge disagreement with max over a second year group project. people could hear the dispute from several rooms down in the library. they were called into the dean’s office and let off with a warning

- claims not to be a good cook but regularly bashes out amazing French home cuisine that has half the dorm in tears

- somehow also finds time to snowboard and run half marathons during summer and winter breaks

yuki

- major: he doesn’t go to the university but is in the city culinary school. he is Pierre’s friend and shows up on campus mostly on Fridays and weekends

- the origin story of their friendship changes all the time because they lie about it. it becomes a running gag and nobody knows the actual truth (the truth is they both swiped right on tinder in freshman year, but actually worked out to be better friends than a couple)

- disgusted by most campus food. will bring his own bentos to eat on the quad. can magic up dishes out of seemingly nothing. famous for a hack that somehow involves making omurice in a rice cooker. also does a killer savoury soufflé pancake, and deep fried chicken which the gang request every time they get too sloshed. Yuki obliges because he enjoys cooking for people

- actually enjoys anime but gets annoyed when people ask him about it or when people use weeby topics as a conversational opener with him

- learned English from stage-ing in local kitchens and thus swears like a sailor and knows cuss words in three additional languages (Spanish, Italian, French)

- scar on leg in shape of a cow from falling off a skateboard once

- everyone thinks he and Pierre have something going on but at this point it’s purely platonic

- will start a fight if drunk and people make fun of his height

lando

- major: psychology

- openly nonbinary

- performs well in their field of study but is determined to finish their degree so they can fully focus on their budding career in esports. esports alias is quadrant

- dyes their hair different colours constantly, depending on mood. had a phase where it was really orange when they were mad at an overwatch match that ended badly

- self-taught in three different instruments (guitar, piano, recorder for the shits and giggles). is a better DJ than charles and stops charles from taking the aux chord at parties to play his charlie sadboi mixes all the time

- best Instagram stories of the gang. somehow really well curated but authentic at the same time

- will do standup one day for kicks and absolutely murder the set, and then never touch it again

- shockingly good at the game twister. maybe was a gymnast in highschool but doesn’t like to talk about it possibly due to the gender trauma

- is a little bit abrasive and will tease/clown everybody for their shenanigans. but when shit hits the fan is the first person to show up with a big bowl of soup and some tissues and check if the other person is okay and “do you want to talk about it”

guan yu

- major: software engineering

- always seems on the cusp of some academic disaster but pulls through surprisingly well

- rides an e scooter around campus

- people think he’s in the architecture or design school because he always turns out immaculate fits

- is the person to ask everyone during study sessions if anyone wants bubble tea. (he wants bubble tea. he will order for everyone. he has a phone note with everyone’s favourite order. he judges charles for wanting a jasmine tea flavour but with milk. he will patiently explain to max what a bubble tea is, then it becomes one of max’s favourite drinks.)

- despite his academic ups and downs, already has unconditional offers from at least 3 Silicon Valley late-stage startups and all 4 Chinese big tech firms

- will one day do something so revolutionary with AI and visual design, like the next great CAD system or something, that he never has to work again

carla

- major: history of art

- many aliases. aka Carlita. Kylie. Kiki.

- THE it-girl on campus. manicure always immaculate and always in shades of red. boys (and girls, and even the TAs) always want to talk to her but are sooo intimidated

- always posting Instagram photos of her on a plane or holiday even though she’s studying in her room. never lets people know her next move

- people clown her for her major but she is actually really knowledgeable about art and takes it very seriously. her study notes are extremely organized, whether it’s her macbook or flashcards. she is in general good favour with the profs if she would only stop texting in seminars

- dad’s name is on one of the library wings. everyone realises this on the first day and she’s like “yes… i am a nepo baby. anyway where are we meeting later, i have an in with the promoters at this club if we want to go there”

- secret guilty pleasure is playing first person shooter games on her switch and absolutely decimating people. it is her outlet for aggression. she may also have beaten quadrant/lando at overwatch once but won’t tell anyone because playing overwatch messes with her party girl image

- starts a side hustle doing events and ten years after graduation will be extremely successful in this venture

- stress cries often but pulls it together. prone to scream-singing sad Spanish ballads when drunk. surprisingly knows every single word to a decade’s worth of Pitbull songs

[benevolenterrancy]

Fic author interview!

Thanks for tagging me @morporkian-cryptid I'm taking a leaf out of your book and being a bit late responding, oops ;;; (also, like my last one, posting this on my art/writing blog despite getting tagged on my other blog :P)

@meso-mijali @rose-of-pollux @yarrayora @sorrel-scribbles @auxiliarydetective @pazithigallifreya

1 How many works do you have on AO3?

76!

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

667,467 apparently, which feels like way more than I expected. Then again, I also didn't expect to have seventy six fics on there either...

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Lost In Translation (7,256 kudos) An Overwatch fic. I was baffled when it did as well as it did while I was actively posting it and frankly I'm not sure how to deal with the fact that it's still head and shoulders above every other fic I've written. I think it must be from people sorting by kudos and creating a weird positive feedback loop.

How To Torment Cats (And Witchers) (2,124 kudoes) A very light-hearted Witcher one-shot with Ciri and Dandelion

Standard-Issue (1,143 kudos) Another Overwatch fic, this one about McCree's recruitment into Overwatch

Sunlight and Sea Foam (1,102 kudos) A Witcher mermaid!au. This one I'm still pretty pleased with, it was a lot of fun to write.

Mark My Place (952 kudos) A post-canon MDZS fic in which I get to lavish love on Wei Wuxian! A pretty impressive kudo count given that it's only a few months old

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Generally I try to! I really appreciate getting comments and I want to let people know that <3 Fandom is the most fun when it's a community and the only way to get that is to actually connect with people. Also I personally appreciate it when an author responds to comments when a new chapter drops because it helps me keep track of fic updates, so I often do that too for on-going stories :3

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I don't really go in for anything without a happy ending ^^;; Maybe In My Hands I Held The World purely because I didn't finish it and stopped writing in the middle of the all the hurt and never made it to the comfort? Or Promises Misconstrued just by virtue of it.... well, being what it is.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

We only believe in happy endings here!! I really couldn't narrow it down, I like a happy ending... The Celestial Shell Game was a pretty recent one MDZS fic that was just pure post-canon fix-it and reconciliation and lightly bullying the juniors

7. Do you write crossovers?

I do from time to time, but most aren't ever cleaned up or completed to the point of posting -- they're just Fun For Me fics.

My only completed crossover is a Torchwood/MASH fic called An Officer's Guide to Surgery, Shelling & Pterosaurs. It was honestly just a wild ride to write. Very proud of how that one turned out

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

A bit, but not for years. The only one I specifically remember was someone who was very unhappy that I wasn't including individual chapter content warnings, I guess because they've never read a novel?

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not often, I am Very Ace, but it does happen occasionally. Bound and Held was my most recent one, which was really just 20k of pure kink exploration because Geralt and Dandelion just have the vibe

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so...

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

One! An old Les Mis fic got translated into Chinese years back :3 that was very flattering that someone would want to go to that amount of effort

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Me and @meso-mijali will co-write stuff from time to time, but nothing that's ever made it to completion. I do use her relentlessly to help me solve plot dilemmas (or make new plot dilemmas, depending on how things are going)

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Could not tell you, 100% depends on sort of mood I'm in sorry xD I bounce all over the place. At the moment I am deeply into wangxian, to the surprise of no one following me on tumblr at the moment

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Well, any of my three current fics I'd love to make some progress on >:/ but I'm still hopeful about getting them finished, albeit slowly and painfully. I have a Hogan's Heroes dating sim that me and @meso-mijali have been working on but the longer it goes undone the more I suspect it never will be *sigh* it took so much planning but it's hard to pick up again in the middle. I also had a Lupin soulmate au called Mosiac that I feel bad about dropping. I still quite like the concept but I'm stuck on where to go next with it...

15. What are your writing strengths?

Uhh... I dunno, there must be something because people seem to enjoy my work well enough but I'll be damned if I know what it is. I think I write high intensity, sensory-based scenes pretty well? At least I like doing them a lot. And I get complimented on my character voices sometimes, so hopefully that!

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Pacing >:/ I will ramble and ramble and ramble and then need to go back and cull things until I have a fic that's even halfway readable. It's so hard to get good pacing down.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Big fan, I'm always here for a bilingual bonus. Either I understand it and get a little thrill out of it or else I just google translate it real quick. As for me writing it I generally don't because I don't want to fuck it up beyond reason... sometimes I might dabble with French if it's character appropriate.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Les Mis! I'm too terrified to reread anything from my Les Mis era because god only knows what my writing was like back then, but it was such a warm and welcoming fandom it's what finally gave me the nerve to starting engaging in fandom space as more than observer

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

...I'm not sure I have one, if I want to write about something I generally do, even if I don't get it to be "publishing" worthy... Maybe Hogan/Kinch? I really like that ship, but I've never written much Hogan's Heroes fic to begin with, I think I only have one published work, and I find it a hard one to write shippy things for

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Huh... I'm not sure. There a number of fics I've written that I still really really like and will reread (the author's amazing! she knows exactly what I like!) I'm really proud of my Torchwood/MASH crossover, it's my longest fic and took the highest level of technical skill to write. I also tend to reread A Poet Under Pressure fairly often because I do love tormenting Dandelion u.u

[almaprincess66]

Okay, so this is slightly cringe of me but I have been making this Actor AU for George Washington's office for abouth half a year now. And I kinda wanna talk about it because it consumes my every waking thought.

To clarify the acting au is that I made up fictional actors who would play the historical figures in some sort of adaptation of the revolutionary war. Most of them have names and personalities too that I made up.

So I will introduce all of you to the following people playing our favorite aide-de camps:

Alexander Hamilton as: Natalie Neumann, actress musician and queer icon, wrote a 36 page long psychological analisis on Hamilton to get the job and killed it.

John Laurens as: Stephen, Two times married 26 year old with a love for horror and the personality of a golden retriver, originally wasn't even in the top three choices for the role but the person they casted quit four weeks in and he spoke french.

Tench Tilghman as: Taylor, tired ex-nurse turned actor and everybody asks him about their medical problems instead of going to a doctor, he had to overwatch every single of Natalie's and Stephen's bullshit and also fluent in french.

Richard Kidder Meade as: Richard, his significant other (they/them) works for the Tax Man, originally was on the audio team because he is a voice actor but Natalie and him had so much fun figuring out the Hamilton voice that the director asked him to get an on-screen role.

Robert Hanson Harrison as: Reggie(Regulus), father of four but you could not tell, got arrested on set for breaking the arm of the murderous ex of their director.

John Fitzgerald as: Felix O'Connor, Singer is a curch choir with three parrots, got married during the shooting and told it to literally noone.

James McHenry as: Liam, got famous with a serious police drama role actually is a sweetheart, got hit in the face with at least three books on set.

Caleb Gibbs as: Ivan, was a croatian child actor before his family emigrated to the US, appeared on the infamous and hillarious pancake making advertisment program for the screen project where they got literally the two people on team who wasn't born in the states.

Joseph Reed: Noah, the phisically healthiest person with occasional emotional breakdowns, is the reason everybody has everyone's phone number because he got lost in the forest for three hours and could have died.

George Washington as: Benson Herrera, has the vibe of a father of four and shamelessly late from everywhere, got a 28 minute long video compalation of him titled "Benson Herrera getting screamed at by Italian women for 28 minutes and 36 seconds" and all the recordings are from this one project alone.

This was asked by nooen and I never done such a thing but here you go. I hope at least someone will apprechiate it because I could talk so much about them.

[kmjuseyo]

I’ve been reading a lot of Jikook fanfics lately and thought of compiling my favorites that I’ve read so far. I’ll add more later on. :)

These fics gave me massive butterflies, angst, ugly crying, fluff, and punch to the heart feels, so please suffer with me.

Also, I made a more organized page for my fic recs which you can find here (open on browser) for easier fic finding!

*List Updated: 08.26.2023* Hi friends, I’m currently writing my own fic so recommendation updates will come slower until I finish my story. ♥

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By disneykoo

✼ just another game (that you lose)     enemies to lovers, Overwatch centric, gamer JK

✼ just another game (between us two) (short sequel to JAG)     established relationship, Overwatch centric, gamer JK

✼ necktarines     established relationship, vampire JK, human JM

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By annie_vi

✼ Stories Above Concrete         strangers to lovers, apartment neighbors JKK

✼ Whispers and Sunlight         strangers to lovers, a/b/o, royalty au, prince JM     (the very first a/b/o fic I’ve ever read and it’s *chef’s kiss*)

✼ Like Everything Glows     strangers to lovers, merpeople fantasy au, merman JM     (highly recommend listening to the suggested songs)

✼ Like The Sun Came Out (one-shot sequel to LEG)     strangers to lovers, merpeople fantasy au, merman JM

✼ Screwed Up and Brilliant     strangers to lovers, escort JK

✼ Seeds of a Broken Heart     strangers to lovers, dancers JKK

✼ Love as Fast as Light     best friends to lovers, fake relationship, singer JK

✼ Boxing the Stars     strangers to lovers, uni student JK, barista JM

✼ Fold It Up Like Origami     strangers to lovers, ldr, model JM, gamer JK

✼ Drop Like Confetti     strangers to lovers, friends with benefits, CEO JK, uni student JM     (age swap and the age gap is pretty big)

✼ Sweet Words and Fevers     enemies to lovers, enemies with benefits, journalists JKK

✼ The Midnight Streets Are Running Red     childhood bestfriends/enemies to lovers, superhero au, hero JM

✼ How Villains Are Made (sequel to TMSARR)     established relationship, superhero au, hero JM

✼ Wicked and Wild Wind     strangers to lovers, royalty au, prince JK, thief JM

✼ Two Can Play That Game     strangers to lovers, lots of fluff, single dad JK  

✼ Leave a Light On     childhood bestfriends to lovers, royalty au, princes JKK  

✼ All in Bloom     strangers to lovers, lots of fluff, actor JM, wedding planner JK

✼ Armed With a Spray Can Soul     strangers to lovers, light fluff, police officer JM

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By annie_vi, Charmander

✼ Secret Keeping, Stop the Bleeding     exes to lovers, actor JM, tattoo artist JK     (tw: emotional/psychological abuse, gaslighting)

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By Charmander

✼ Devil Dog     strangers to lovers, friends with benefits, military au, wolf hybrid JK

✼ Eight Count     strangers to lovers, ballet dancer JM, boxer/single dad JK

✼ Learning Curve     friends to lovers (sort of), lots of fluff, professor JM, uni student JK     (age gap is pretty big, tw: recreational drug use)

✼ beauty is of soft whisperings     strangers to lovers, photographer JK

✼ Seeking Alpha         strangers to lovers, a/b/o, online dating au    (mentions of mpreg, very fluffy)  

✼ Burn For You       best friends to lovers, regency au         (there’s a het pairing/mmf threesome but can easily be skipped)

✼ Dreaming in Lucid Fire     strangers to lovers, lots of fluff, artist JM, game dev/single dad JK     (age swap and the age gap is pretty big)

✼ show a little more     strangers to lovers, burlesque au, dancer JM

✼ A Crown Called Content     strangers/enemies to lovers, a/b/o, royalty au, prince JM     (mentions of mpreg, has a Game of Thrones vibe with the factions)

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By mockturtletale

✼ track 3     rainy day au, canon divergent

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By caughtinjimin

✼ Deadly Match     strangers/enemies to lovers, enemies with benefits, mafia au

✼ When The Heedless Sun Captures The Moon     childhood bestfriends to lovers, unrequited love angst     (there’s some het pairing moments for story development)

✼ Fools Game     childhood bestfriends/enemies to lovers, unrequited love angst

✼ La Petite Mort         strangers/lovers/enemies to lovers, fantasy creatures au, vampire JM         (temporary/brief mcd)

✼ Jamais Vu (short prequel to LPM, can be standalone)     strangers to lovers, fantasy creatures au, vampire JM, single dad JK     (temporary/brief mcd, massive spoilers for LPM)

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By islandbreeze

✼ everything i know brings me back to us      exes to lovers, officemates JKK

✼ ours are the moments i play in the dark     best friends to lovers, unrequited love angst, veterinarian JK

✼ dancing with our hands tied     exes to lovers, nurse JM

✼ to be alone with you     strangers to lovers, idol JM, webtoon artist JK

✼ you made your mark on me     hickeygate au, canon divergent

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By Lssimpson999

✼ Till My Last Breath     established relationship, massive angst, mcd     (hurts too much - read it once and it destroyed me)

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By moonboymin

✼ fingertips     strangers to lovers, CEO JM, uni student JK     (lots of fluff, the slowest burn ever)

✼ wishbone     childhood bestfriends/strangers to lovers, unrequited love angst     (lots of fluff, slow burn but not like ‘fingertips’)

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By JMoonChildWrites

✼ Call and Answer (series)         ⋆ Calling His Name         ⋆ Call and Answer         ⋆ Sweet Surprises         ⋆ Clarion Call (can be a standalone)              canon divergent from Boy With Luv era onwards

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By Hyejin7

✼ Chasing Memories     childhood friends/strangers/enemies to lovers, officemates JKK     (tw: mentions of drug use, underage sex but can easily be skipped)

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By humblestart1

✼ The President’s Detail     strangers to lovers, secret service agents JKK     (brief mmm threesome scene that can easily be skipped,     tw: mental illness, drug addiction/overdose, kidnapping)

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By Ashlyn17

✼ Park Jimin's Guide to Good Housekeeping     strangers to lovers, fantasy creatures au, brownie JM

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By Ramyani  

✼ You're My All And More (Breathe)     strangers/lovers/exes to lovers, photographer JK, doctor JM

✼ Racing Home At Sunset     childhood bestfriends/strangers to lovers, farmhand JM     (there’s some het pairing moments for story development as early     as the beginning but can easily be skipped)  

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By Daisyjjang  

✼ a dose of salt     strangers/enemies to lovers, hospital au, doctors JKK     (it says 9/10 chapters, but it’s basically a completed fic)

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By kookminstars

✼ we don’t talk together     exes to lovers, pilot JK, flight attendant JM

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By Chimneycricket

✼ The Family Jewels     strangers to lovers, prince JM, uni student JK     (very fluffy — “it’s so fluffy, I’m gonna die” level)

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By serendiplini

✼ Black Swan     strangers to lovers, lots of fluff, makeup guru JK, dancer JM

✼ sweetener     friends to lovers, lots of fluff, a/b/o, baker JM     (mentions of mpreg, very funny)

✼ Sea of Stars     strangers to lovers, photographer JK, aspiring model JM

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By NaHe  

✼ The Jeon Pack     childhood friends/enemies to lovers (sort of), a/b/o, head alpha JK     (mpreg, tw: mentions of human/omega trafficking for side characters)

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By Lady_Siha  

✼ Draw Me From Memory     exes to lovers, artist JM, nude model JK

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By jiminslattae (drpuffles)

✼ in paradise     friends to lovers, summer romance au     (tw: past emotional abuse)

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By dontknowwhatimdoing  

✼ Until I Met You      strangers to lovers, rapper JK, waiter/server JM     (tw: mentions of drug use/addiction)

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By pjungkook  

✼ through the lens     enemies to lovers, actors JKK

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By 7timesSana, aled7  

✼ I moved the sun so he could see the moon     exes to lovers (sort of), magical creatures au, vampire JK, human JM

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By Yasutora  

✼ until the spring comes again, until the flowers bloom again      strangers/enemies/friends to lovers, a/b/o, unique omega JM     (mentions of mpreg, tw: brief mentions of past sexual assault)

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By Rose_gold715

✼ Falling for you again     established relationship, memory loss, dancer JM, lawyer JK     (tw: talks/depictions of ED and self loathing)

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By Sanji @euphoridipity  

✼ Sign Your Love         strangers to lovers, deaf JM

✼ Stay Away But Close         strangers to lovers, single dad JM

✼ #jikookau: Idol JM, Fan JK         JK is a big fan of pop star JM but he doesn't know oomf is JM     (very very cute and fluffy)

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[vacantgodling]

🥸🧥 hello i am a humble stranger here for the secret wip knowledge... 📓

welcome to secret wip corner mysterious stranger 😎

so i literally have a whole doc of my rogue yeehan ideas when i’m not thinking about cage OR when i’m pretending that my custody battle au that i need to update doesn’t exist. so i will let loose one of my ideas from the aether: one of my i have a kink about cassidy’s voice fic idea.

hear me out like

cassidy’s voice is hot as shit and i’m a weak sad sad man and i feel like hanzo is the same and you can pry this from my cold dead hands.

i don’t have a name for it yet but it’s a “sales call center au” (ive worked at both a call center and have done my fair share of phone sales so more of this au hinges on my experience from phone sales lol) and basically cole gets hired by some company (overwatch ig) to sell services over the phone. his easy humor, smooth voice, and non pressuring vibes have led to numerous sales so someone (idk who yet) asks him to pursue the toughest nut to crack: hanzo’s company—shimada whatever. no one has been ever able to get past the gatekeeping front desk staff let alone talk to the ceo. so cole does some digging and manages to get the ceo’s (hanzo’s) personal number. he leaves a few messages which hanzo ignores, but cole isn’t one to leave this shit hanging. finally one day hanzo picks up and is all Will you Quit Calling. and cole is like okay one growl at me more daddy what—but he’s like sugar gimme a second of your time but hanzo hangs up on him.

now at the company i worked for (and any phone sales company) getting hung up on didn’t mean don’t pursue; in fact they said hey keep trying until you get a good convo and a formal no then push them out for a few months and come back (basically pester them to death you know businesses gotta business LMAO). the only exception is obviously dnc lists and whatnot. so cole keeps calling. and more and more he and hanzo start to actually talk. it’s pretty flirty from jump and their talks get longer and longer to the point that they don’t even talk about sales or any of that shit just about each other. cassidy “takes work home” a night or two on his personal cell (and they have phone sex cough). and then eventually hanzo’s like alright tell me about this product of yours so i don’t make your superiors think i’m wasting your time. cassidy does the full pitch, hanzo actually considers it because he’s built up so much rapport with cole and it WOULD be beneficial for the business… so he’s just like cole i will consider your proposal and partnering with your company on one condition… and cole’s just anything sugar name your price. SO hanzo’s like i do not do online payments. i will only provide you a check… in person. and i will only sign if you are physically in my office. CLEARLY he’s saying “cole i need you in my bed and i’m willing to make this fucking happen” and cole knows but obviously it’s a recorded line when he’s in the office so he’s like hon lemme put you on hold. goes to talk to his boss and reyes (ig who is his boss i haven’t thought much about the company structure yet) is like: boy, if you get the shimada’s to sign i will promote you the second you come back WITH bonuses. and cole explains how hanzo will only sign if he goes in person and reyes is like i’ll book the flight for tomorrow LMAO. so cole goes back to his phone to talk to hanzo and said can i count on you to pick me up at the airport? and he can hear hanzo smiling over the line and HUEHUEHUE

yeah anyway when he gets to hanzo’s city they see each other in person they’re so fucking horny, they go to hanzo’s penthouse and fuck nasty style and then the next day hanzo goes over all the terms, signs the check and huzzah business partners lol. they probably get married in the future too LMAO

is it ethical?? idc the fic is hot to me LOL. one day i’ll write it 🌚

[betty-boom]

temptation tuesday...

...is for straying further from god (the tattoo shop soulmates fic that i'm meant to be working on).

some of the things i'm itching to write at all times tho:

demon eddie - shannon took chris to LA where they met a friendly firefighter that helped them out through thick and thin for absolutely no reason until he's shannon's closest friend. with eddie gone, shannon doesn't want chris to ever fall into the diaz parents hands so she makes buck chris' guardian in case of her death. by the time she does have her accident, eddie is KiA in afghanistan and has come back through a combo of a violent death and his own perceived sins as what he assumes is a demon to find the son he abandoned buddie budget hallmark fic - basically inspired by those stupid mobile puzzle games where buck inherits an estate from a distant relative he never knew and finds an attractive jack-of-all-trades handyman (and his adorable son) who live on the grounds buddie inspired by overwatch's antarctic peninsula map - the futuristic au where they're posted on the antarctic research base with a small team of scientists. buck's the resident chief security officer and the welcoming committee for new arrivals, such as the new medical officer with a shady past that definitely didn't think his new posting (and the extreme weather) through

that last one was originally meant to be a tarlos fic, but my motivation for them kinda dwindled so i am def working on changing that outline

[psilocybinlemon]

DARK ENERGY - CH2, MANIFEST

Modern Post-Apocalyptic AU, based in the universe of Half-Life series. Rated Explicit for death, blood and gore, terrible politics, war, that kind of stuff you see in First-Person Shooter games.

Pairing: Eventual Nalu

Chapters in Tumblr: 1, 2 Also in AO3 __________________________________________________________

CHAPTER 2: MANIFEST

// December 5th, Tuesday, 5:35 PM. Black Mesa East

“You were being watched?”

Natsu nodded as he took a cigarette from the blood-stained pack, placed it between his teeth and ignited it. He left the lighter and the carton on the table, then lifted his gaze to the old man sitting in front of him. Disapproval was clear as the day in Makarov’s eyes, yet the leader of the base made no effort to make Natsu stop smoking in his office. Not today, at least.

“Yeah,” Natsu mumbled, then lowered his eyes back to his hands. The dried blood, that wasn’t his, had begun to flake off and fall to the black-and-white checkered floor. “But there wasn’t anyone. It just felt so off.”

“Strange. Our visitor reported having the same experience this morning,” Makarov said and wrote a few lines into his notebook. “What was the clock at that moment?”

“I don’t know. Quarter past eight?” Natsu said, remaining quiet for a second. “What visitor?”

“We have a visitor from the White Forest,” Makarov answered, then glanced at Erza, who then stepped from the back of the office closer to the table. She had slightly opened the window to let the smoke escape the room. “We didn’t want to tell this to you… yet, but well, you’ll be introduced soon enough. Anyway, seemingly at the same time today, before arriving at Black Mesa East, our visitor reported feeling as if they were being watched. An interesting occurrence, indeed.”

Natsu shrugged. “I’m not sure if I’m supposed to like this information or not.”

“The events could be connected somehow,” Erza said. “Something is stirring the Combine up, and we have to find out what it is.”

“I meant the visitor,” Natsu clarified, then glanced down at his bloodied outfit, blowing out some smoke. He had never been to White Forest himself, but it was Resistance’s most secret base dedicated to scientific research, mostly trying to restore technology from old Black Mesa. Fancy folk, those scientists. “I’m probably not in a proper condition to meet some visitors from White Forest. Can I at least change –“

“No. Immediately as you’re done with the report, we’ll invite this person to the office,” Erza said, making Natsu roll his eyes in frustration. “There’s no time to waste. This is very important business, Sergeant Dragneel.”

“Yeah, seems like it,” Natsu scoffed. It’s going fucking great, he thought and inhaled the cigarette. “Anyway, so, after I felt like some creepy-ass-fucker had its eyes on me, everything went as usual for a while. Or so I thought…”

And then he fell quiet, sharp pain in his chest suffocating his voice.

“Natsu?”

“… until we made it to Station 12.” __________________________________________________________

// December 5th, 2017. Tuesday, 8:16 AM. City 17 //

“… Do our benefactors really know what's best for us? What gives them the right to make this kind of decision for mankind? Will they ever deactivate the suppression field and let us breed again?”

Side by side, Natsu and Gray walked across the city plaza. A small group of citizens flinched as they saw them approach, turning their gazes back to the screen, mounted high on a mast in the square’s centre. There spoke an older man, with short white hair and a trimmed beard. Seeing his face aroused an impulse in Natsu to point his gun at the screen and shoot it to smithereens. It was dr. Wallace Breen, Earth’s Administrator under the Combine, formerly known as the leader of Black Mesa Research Facility. These things, Breencasts, were the only entertainment delivered to the citizens of each Combine-controlled city.

But well, if Natsu had to choose between listening to Overwatch Voice or Breencast, he’d choose the latter – in Black Mesa East, they did some funny remixes out of them. But the Voice was still lingering in his mind, the haunting echo of doom he had barely managed to escape from. Though the events of this morning aroused hundreds of questions and the strange feeling in his guts refused to fade, he forced them to the shadows for now. They were alive. They had an objective to focus on.

Now, they had to find Cana and Loke.

“… Allow me to address the anxieties underlying your concerns, rather than try to answer every possible question you might have left unvoiced,” spoke Earth’s Administrator on the record. “First, let us consider the fact that for the first time ever, as a species, immortality is in our reach. This simple fact has far-reaching implications. It requires radical rethinking and revision of our genetic imperatives. It also requires planning and forethought that run in direct opposition to our neural pre-sets.”

In silence, Natsu and Gray left the plaza and headed to the alley between the buildings, arriving at a scene where an old playground stood. It had once been a park for the block’s children to play in, but only echoes lingered here now. The swings swayed in the faint wind, old metal creaking with the motion. A graffiti had been spray-painted on the rusty carousel. ‘CASTE’, it read, with a Combine soldier holding a blue-eyed human child in his arms. Its stare seemed to pierce right through Natsu. ‘Fucking shit, I’ve had enough creepy things staring at me this morning.’

“…I find it helpful at times like these to remind myself that our true enemy is Instinct. Instinct was our mother when we were an infant species. Instinct coddled us and kept us safe in those hardscrabble years when we hardened our sticks and cooked our first meals above a meagre fire and startled at the shadows that leapt upon the cavern's walls. But inseparable from Instinct is its dark twin, Superstition. Instinct is inextricably bound to unreasoning impulses, and today we clearly see its true nature.”

Natsu had heard the same speech too many times. It was one of those that was replayed the most, as if to keep reminding everyone that the suppression field hadn’t gone anywhere. Since the Combine took over Earth, no new human had been born. The Combine, or rather Dr. Breen himself, never explained how the field actually worked, but Natsu’s brother had presumed it prohibited certain protein chains important to the process of embryonic development – a part of the Combine plan for total omnicide of the human species.

Yet, since it had been affecting the population for seventeen years now, Natsu didn’t think about it too often. Strangely, he couldn’t fully remember what children even looked like. He had been just five back then, and all the children had grown into adulthood alongside him. Only a few pictures had been spared from the time before the apocalypse. His brother had a photo of their family framed in his laboratory, one Natsu used to glance at just enough times to not forget how his parents had looked like. He might’ve been one or two years old when the picture was taken, so perhaps it would also remind him what strange creatures these children were like.

Though, as they passed by the abandoned playground, a strange flash of sadness swept over his heart. It was always so haunting to remember he might never actually see a living child again. Unless the Combine would be driven off Earth, his generation would be the last one there’d ever be.

And in the speakers, the speech went ever on.

“…Instinct has just become aware of its irrelevance, and like a cornered beast, it will not go down without a bloody fight. Instinct would inflict a fatal injury on our species. Instinct creates its own oppressors, and bids us rise up against them. Instinct tells us that the unknown is a threat, rather than an opportunity. Instinct slyly and covertly compels us away from change and progress. Instinct, therefore, must be expunged. It must be fought tooth and nail, beginning with the basest of human urges: the urge to reproduce.”

“Come to think of it,” Gray spoke suddenly, as if he had been lost in thought for a long while, “that if the suppression field actually suppressed boners, half of the population would be very encouraged to fight back the Combine.”

Natsu chuckled. “That’s fucking terrifying.”

“Like, it isn’t as bad as it is now. The field might’ve suppressed the urge to reproduce, but not the urge to fuck. And we actually benefit from it,” Gray said, and though Natsu couldn’t see his face behind the CP’s helmet, he knew Gray was grinning. “Yeah, sooner or later our race is gonna go extinct, but at least we can rail bareback without a worry until then.”

Cringing, Natsu slammed his palm on his goggles, dragging his fingers down the mask’s respirator. “Doesn’t it get a bit claustrophobic at the base when you’re railing at least three girls at the same time?”

“I don’t know. Does it? At least I can’t get all of them pregnant at the same time. That would be slightly awkward.”

“I adore your optimism, my friend, but I think you’re gonna end up with gonorrhea at that rate.”

Gray laughed, his voice still distorted by the helmet’s vocoder. “Rather that than a baby. Or worse, many babies,” he said and thought for a moment. “Maybe the vortigaunts would write some poetry about it. ‘Roses are red. Violets are blue. Went to the pizzeria, came back with gonorrhea…’”

Natsu tried not to laugh, but failed. This thing he adored about Gray: no matter how dark the circumstances were, he could always rip some humour out of it. While they spoke, they missed lines from the dragging speech. The last part started, only so that the record could play again right after it would finish.

“We should thank our benefactors for giving us respite from this overpowering force. They have thrown a switch and exorcised our demons in a single stroke. They have given us the strength we never could have summoned to overcome this compulsion. They have given us purpose. They have turned our eyes toward the stars.”

A moment’s silence fell upon those words. When the record began from the start, they were so far they could only hear it muffled in the distance. Natsu always chuckled at how wrong the Combine was. Thrown a switch and exorcised our demons in a single stroke? If they truly believed so, they knew absolutely nothing about human nature. At least Gray wasn’t given a crumb of that strength to overcome this compulsion – but of himself, Natsu wasn’t so sure.

Not anymore.

They arrived at the end of the alley between the buildings, reaching a path towards the canal below the streets. A small, orange λ, lambda badge, had been painted on the concrete wall to indicate the Resistance’s presence in this area. “Now that we’re talking about girls, you mentioned things with Lisanna are getting complicated,” Gray said quietly. “I thought you got along well, but isn’t it working?”

Natsu shrugged. “Never probably did, to be honest.” His shoulders tensed as he grew silent, hoping Gray would stop talking about this. But as the dark-haired man knit his brows in wonder, Natsu knew he wouldn’t hear the end of it anytime soon. “Damn man, I just don’t know. Maybe it used to. Maybe I used to like being with her, but it’s… starting to feel like I signed up for something I don’t want to be in.”

“Signed up?” Gray echoed. “So, she’s your girlfriend for real now and you didn’t tell me?”

“Nope. We aren’t in any relationship,” Natsu cut him off, struggling to find an explanation for a thing he hadn’t figured out either. Nervously he glanced around as they climbed down the narrow path between the abandoned buildings, leading towards the rails. “But, eh, she probably wishes we were. She’s liking me a lot. Too much, I guess.”

“And how’s that a bad thing? She’s a pretty lass. Strong as hell. She’s gonna be an amazing fighter when she’s through the training,” Gray said. “I think it’s gonna get less complicated when you’re not the one training her. Couples are never put on the same team, you know. Some time apart would –“

“Yeah, I know. But I’m just not feeling it. Think it’s better to end things before it becomes anything more serious, but shit, I don’t want to break her heart.”

“The same way Erza broke yours?”

“She didn’t, damn you,” Natsu cursed, lowering his voice as he swiftly changed the topic. “Besides, if I’d break Lisanna’s heart, her sister would kill me.” 

“I couldn’t agree more,” Gray chuckled. “Mirajane can be scary as fuck if you mess with her siblings.” Then he remained silent for a while, as if reminiscing the time he went into a bloody brawl with Elfman. “Damn, you’re fucked.”

“I know, right?” he groaned, crunching his brow. “If there would be a clean and easy way to just end this, it would be fucking great.”

“I’m afraid there isn’t. Even the world doesn’t end clean and easy, it keeps lingering for damn decades,” Gray said. “But anyway, I hope you’ll figure out whatever you have going on. Even if it doesn’t work with her, we’ve still gotta cling on to the human feelings we have left. We all might be sterile by now, but we’ll still love each other. The Combine can’t take that away from us.”

Natsu shrugged, giving his fellow soldier a slight grin. Somehow though, he had a feeling this thing with Lisanna wouldn’t linger as long as the world did after its dying blows. Sooner or later, this bright-eyed girl would notice what he had become – or if she had already noticed, she’d finally admit it: the toll this life would take on a man.

“I feel like it already has.”

As Gray looked at him in silence, Natsu realised what he had said. The words had slipped from his mouth without much thought. He turned his eyes to the path ahead – they were soon arriving at the railway yard, and they’d better remain quiet.

“Bro?” Gray whispered. “Is everything okay? Like, really okay?”

Natsu replied with a nod. “Yeah,” he said then, but knew Gray did not believe it. “Everything is just okay.”

If Gray said something, his voice got buried under the blast of a horn, a distinctive bellow to announce the departure of another razor train. They stepped from the shadowed alley into the light and waited behind the fence as the train sped by, fast out of the city, possibly heading into Nova Prospekt. Of course, everything is okay, Natsu thought, somehow sensing Gray felt the same. We are not the ones on that train. We are that lucky.

When the train had passed, they climbed over the fence and jumped down, quickly running over the steel rails into the other side of the yard. As the trains were fully automatized and loaded in the station further away, no Combine security was present in this area. Still, they hurried into the underground tunnel ahead and wasted no time threading through it. It led them to the other half of the railway yard, yet this time, they headed down the wastewater canal.

Here, the Route Kanal, the underground railroad into Black Mesa East, began.

This time of the year, the waters were low, making it easy to access safe paths. Things were different in the spring – in the worst years, all canals were flooded to the top, and no citizens could be saved this way, but that had been long ago. As the Combine kept tapping away Earth’s water resources, the drought that now reigned these canals was the Resistance’s advantage. One had to see the bright side in times like these, after all.

Down the ladders they went, jumping into a small path that framed the water below, which was now mostly toxic waste. Too many times had Gray threatened to throw Natsu into the murky waters, and equally often had Natsu promised to kill him if he did so. But this time, Gray was dead silent. Neither of them said a word until they made it to the large, red box car ahead of them. Natsu climbed onto its roof and knocked a few times on the hatch door.

“Dragneel and Fullbuster coming in,” he said, then pulled aside the metal shield, and dropped into the box. Gray followed, hanging on the edge with one hand as he closed the hatch after him. They took off their helmets, shoving their black scarves and Resistance emblazons. Here in the underground railroad, wearing full CP outfits meant getting shot without mercy. “Seen Cana and Loke pass by?”

In the cosy corner of the container, there stood a fair-haired man, clad in black Resistance armour. Lyon was his name, an old friend of Gray’s – yet those who weren’t on any good terms nowadays. In turns with few others, Lyon guarded this station and lived here for days at the time. A large map of the canal system covered the wall behind him. “Yeah, they passed here with a group of citizens a moment ago. They said they’d wait for you at Station 12,” Lyon told with a worried look on his face. “You ran into some trouble?”

“Civil Protection raided the block, but that was nothing we couldn’t handle. We sent Cana and Loke ahead of us here, as they probably told,” Gray answered, gazing at the vortigaunt standing next to Lyon. The creature was trying to fix the radio which had lost signal and paid them no attention. “You having problems as well?”

Lyon shrugged. “The radio is being a piece of shit as always. We lost connection to other stations about an hour ago, but Gary is trying to fix it.”

Natsu chuckled by himself. The vortigaunt’s name most likely wasn’t Gary, but most often their real vortigese names were too difficult for humans to pronounce. The sight of vortigaunts always made him shudder, even though they had been their allies for years now. Such wasn’t the case in the initial days when these hostile, electricity-shooting aliens had flooded the halls of Black Mesa. Now, as he watched the green-brown-skinned creature struggling with a broken radio with its three arms, he could sympathize them. The vortigaunts had once been slaves in Xen, lost and confused as they spawned on Earth during the Resonance Cascade.

Then, the vortigaunt turned its head, adorned by a large red eye, towards them. “There’s a disturbance in the vortessence. A deep mystery,” it spoke fluently, but with its bizarre accent. “No deeper than the void itself.”

Gray nodded, holding back a smile. “Seems like this day is full of these deep mysteries. Hope you’ll solve them somehow.”

The vortigaunt bowed and extended its middle arm towards them, clenching its long claws. “As do you. Please, accept this charge as a gift for the rest of your journey.”

Then, a jolt of energy floated from the vortigaunt’s hand, passed the air, and reached Natsu’s head. The tingling electricity sent shivers down his spine as the charge spread, first attaching to the metallic dots on his temple, then fully loading the electric parts of his Combine armour. Then the vortigaunt released another bolt, charging Gray’s BCI and suit as well. The man shuddered, making Natsu smile. Gray never seemed to get used to this.

As Natsu’s interface was again in full charge, he realised the disturbances with his feelings earlier today might’ve been a symptom of running on low power. His BCI had never run out of charge, for it drained energy from Combine’s outlets as well as receiving jolts of vortigaunt’s electricity. But sometimes, if he went too long without charging his system, it started running slow and laggy. Now, it felt like magic – all noise in his head went dead silent, like a raging sea had calmed into perfect still.

A few years back, Natsu had felt the same when the interface was first installed. As he had woken up from the anaesthesia in his brother’s laboratory, everything had been… different. For all his life there had been dozens of radio channels open in his brain at once, and then there was finally peace. If he hadn’t known the technology was counterfeited from the Combine, he would’ve fallen in love with it. But there was always this strange aftertaste in the flawlessness, some nagging sounds that always reminded him, you’re now the same as your enemies.  

“Thank you, Gary,” Natsu said to the vortigaunt. “We’ll be on our way. Please report to Station 12 and Black Mesa East when you get the radio to work, and if you discovered what caused the disturbance.”

Lyon nodded to him and slid open the door on the container’s side wall. The iron bars in the canal’s gate had been broken, allowing them to proceed into the closed underground sections by foot. “Good luck,” he said, and stepped out of the way. “Be careful out there.”

“Always. Stay safe,” Gray said nonchalantly as he followed Natsu out of the car box. When the door was closed behind them, Gray sighed heavily. “Damn, I can barely stand that fucker’s face for two seconds.”

Here, after the first checkpost, the road truly began. Despite its name, the underground railroad had no rails, no trains, only concrete paths that lead through the canals. Over the years, the Resistance had worked to build makeshift bridges out of rubble, planks and cement blocks, over the toxic waste below. Several tunnels and pentices protected them from plain sight – there was always a shelter to hide into if the Combine hunter-choppers flew over them.

After today’s ordeals in the city, it felt great to be finally safe.

“You were surprisingly kind this check-in,” Natsu chuckled, and attached the helmet to the strap on his back, taking off the machine gun in exchange. He let it rest in his arms as he took steps forward on the path of concrete, gazing into the underpass ceiling. If he’d see a barnacle, he’d shoot it – having one of those nasty things almost strangle Gray yesterday had been too much. “He’s still salty because you fucked his girlfriend like half a year ago?”

“Of course. He’s jealous of my dick,” Gray answered with a grin and reached for the cigarette he had tucked behind his ear earlier this morning. He extended his hand towards Natsu, a wordless signal for fire. Natsu rolled his eyes and tossed his lighter to him, realising he was also dying for a smoke. Swiftly, Gray ignited his cigarette and threw the lighter back to Natsu. “Well, if I were him, I’d be jealous too. My dick’s so big it can distort time and space.”

“Yeah, even black holes move towards your huge dick,” Natsu mocked with a suffocated laugh as he lit a cigarette of his own, inhaling the smoke as he put the pack and lighter back into his pockets. Through the grey clouds, the sun was beginning to shine, rays of light descending through the holes in the concrete ceiling. “Got something else to brag about on this beautiful morning?”

“I ain’t bragging, baby, it’s the truth,” Gray said and smirked. He kept the burning cigarette between his lips and took off the small radiophone from his belt. He extended the antenna and pressed the button, trying to get connected to Loke. Only static echoed from the speaker. “It’s fucking blank. Seems like my dick distorts radio connections too.”

Natsu wanted to chuckle, but this wasn’t funny anymore. He exhaled a cloud of smoke, gazing at the static in silence as a serious frown formed on his forehead. Gray turned the channel selection knobs, but no connection was found. “It’s weird,” he mumbled. “Let's not keep them waiting any longer.”

Gray kept pressing on and off the radio, as if making a beat on the static noise, grinning by himself. Natsu held back a frustrated sigh. As he knew, Gray always acted like this whenever he was nervous – not even the BCI had managed to rid that trait of him. Perhaps by a miracle, it hadn’t got him killed yet. A momentary melancholy swept past Natsu. He could remember being like this, too, long before technology changed him. 

Slowly, Natsu raised his gaze upwards, to the rays of light that bled through the cracks. And hidden by them, there was a barnacle attached to the ceiling, right above Gray – a xenian creature, no more than a large mouth full of sharp teeth. The alien’s long, sticky tongue was descending towards the man, hidden by the blinding light. For a moment Natsu felt tempted to let it snare Gray and teach him a lesson, but as the leader of his team, he had duties to keep.

Quickly, Natsu lifted his gun, aimed at the barnacle and opened fire. Gray flinched at the sudden noise and leapt backwards with a terrified shriek. With a few shots the alien was dead, and a powerful spew followed instantly. The barnacle turned inside out and disgorged the skulls, bones, and other remains of recently consumed victims – thank god the bones were too small to belong to a human – along with gallons of green bile. They splattered right next to Gray, and as the limp dead alien’s limp tongue retracted and hung in the air, he nearly gagged.

“Focus, you goddamn idiot,” Natsu mumbled and lowered his gun, then let it hang on his shoulder as he took the cigarette from his mouth. “Let’s go.”

Being safe was just an illusion, as they were both reminded. __________________________________________________________

On their way to Station 12, Gray kept frequently checking whether the radio had begun working, but it never did. It wasn’t completely unusual for the radios to fail, but now, an unyielding worry kept growing in their guts. Even Gray’s playfulness withered and his jokes went quiet, and the silence around them started to feel more and more like a trap. Keeping their guns close, they threaded through the familiar pathways, seeing no signs of the rest of the team. It was, most often, a good sign – corpses in the canal would be far worse than full absence.

They walked fast amongst the rubble. Over the years, lots of buildings had collapsed, even some trains from the rails above had fallen into the canal’s bottom. The Combine cared little about reconstructing whatever was broken – to them, the canal was only a part of the endless wasteland outside City 17, a landfill. But this crumbling debris, the box cars and concrete tunnels and corridors, were the lifeline for the Resistance. The chaos was their maze, a perfect shelter to sneak out of the city, right under Combine’s nose.

Nearing the station, Natsu noticed a few dead headcrabs on the mud puddle. Their yellow blood mixed with the water as their long limbs sprawled out. Natsu hated these creatures. This xenian race of omnivorous parasites had gotten its name from its unique way of choosing and controlling its victims. About the size of a pumpkin, the headcrab latched onto human head with its enormous mouth, chewed its way into the victim’s brain, and then gained full access to the human’s motor functions by unknown means. Natsu had seen the zombies headcrabs could turn humans into, and the sight never stopped haunting him. Gladly, Cana and Loke had killed them before they gained any more victims.

“You know, it still disgusts me that your brother has a headhumper as a freaking pet,” Gray said, gazing at the dead headcrab. “Zeref even named it, didn’t he?”

“Yeah,” Natsu said, cringing. “He calls it Lamarr. Says it’s de-beaked and completely harmless and likes eating watermelons… I call it bullshit.” Then he turned his eyes away from the creature. “Nobody really knows what goes through my brother’s mind with these experiments of his.”

Gray climbed over the part of the broken steel fence. “Sometimes I wonder what he’s doing in this lab all day long, but then I realise that I don’t wanna know,” he said. “Have you heard of the teleport project? It would be much appreciated if he’d finally succeed at that. We wouldn’t have to thread this shitpath every damn week.”

Natsu shrugged and followed Gray to the other side of the fence, walking into shadows towards the brighter space where Station 12 was located. “That would indeed be great, but from what I’ve last heard, there’s been no breakthrough yet. Not having a teleport is better than a broken teleport.”

“Yeah,” Gray said, shuddering. “I’m still having nightmares about that cat.”

“Geez, don’t mention it.”

Gray was about to say something, but Natsu silenced him by lifting his arm. The station – the abandoned warehouse by the sewers, fenced and guarded, was eerily quiet. Usually, by now, they were supposed to be welcomed by someone. There was always a team keeping the station, but now, it seemed there were none.

“Don’t like the looks of this,” Natsu whispered, carefully scanning the environment as they walked closer to the wall. “Can you test your radio again? We’ve gotta get contact inside and see what’s going on.”

Gray nodded and took out the radiophone, pressing the buttons again. Out of the static, a faint voice could be heard. It’s finally working. They both flinched and crouched closer to the speaker.   

“We don’t… what are you…don’t shoot! What are you doing? Please, don’t hurt me! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! Don’t –“

The transmission ended with the abrupt roar of the machine guns. Cold shivers ran down Natsu’s spine – the radio went silent, but from the cellar of the station, he could hear the screams and the gunfire. Upon an impulse, he aimed to run straight in, but Gray caught him by the collar of his suit and held him still.

“Station 12, come in. Station 12, do you read?” Gray shouted to the radio.

“This is Station 8!” responded someone from the channel. The connection was weak and frail, words barely recognisable. “We heard 12 go down and out. Surgical strike units are targeting railway stations. Repeat, civil protection is coming down on underground stations! We are already getting refugees from 9 and outlying! Looks like we’re –“

Then, the voice was cut again – and from there, Natsu’s mind went fully blank. A snap of the synapse, and now it was fucking war.

The Resistance was under direct attack.

Natsu caught Gray’s radio and hissed in. “Station 8, do you copy? Station 8, are you there?” He bit hard into his lip and threw his fist in frustration. “Fucking hell, I can’t believe this!” Then he pulled on Gray, forcing him to his feet. Quickly, Natsu took out his resistance scarf, wrapped it around his arm and put the helmet back on his head – in a situation like this, friendly fire was better than a bullet to the head from CP. “Come on, let’s go!”

They ran into the sideway stairs, down into the cellar and kicked open the door. A strong scent of blood and gunfire flooded in, a terror that had just been released and now grown deadly silent. With the night-vision turned on, Natsu saw the bodies in the darkness – all lined up against the wall, shot from behind. There were eight of them.

And Natsu knew all their faces.

The rage did not blind him. It never did. So fast he found the Combine soldiers, turned his gun at them, and shot. The half-second’s confusion he gained by wearing their uniform was enough to get them killed, for they saw not the resistance badge in his arm, not before their eyes were shut forever. Gray aimed for the soldier climbing on the ladder to the upper level, pressed down the trigger, and then the cop’s pierced body dropped to the ground as the blood began to spread below him.

There had to be more of them.

Natsu scanned through the shadows while Gray ran towards the ladder, hearing distant chatter from upstairs, voices distorted by vocoders. Natsu kept cursing as he crouched by the bodies to check if any of them was still alive, if they could be saved somehow, but his hopes withered fast. Just a few hours ago Natsu had promised them a better life, and now the CP’s pulse rifles had torn them to shreds.

But Cana and Loke weren’t among the corpses.

Natsu stood up, mumbling silent apologies to the victims while he stole one last glance around, running after Gray. All supplies in the cellar chamber were thrown over and destroyed, even the radio was shot to pieces. There had been beds, shelves full of preserved food and medicines and ammo, but now it was all coated in blood and gasoline – and right then Natsu realised they had to get out of there immediately.

On the second floor, several flatlines rang as Gray shot the CP officers to their deaths. Natsu jumped the ladder, keeping his gun in his left hand, pointing upwards as his finger rested on the trigger. A faint sound of a rolling bottle approached him, and before he fully recognised it, the firebomb dropped from the hatch door right past him. It shattered on the floor below, each sound buried under the roaring flames as the burning gasoline engulfed the cellar.

Cursing, Natsu hurried up as fire licked his boots. He jumped out off the ladder to the upper floor and kicked the hatch closed. For this open moment, Gray kept him covered, and Natsu showed his gratitude by stepping to his side and opening fire towards the CPs lined up in stations across the room.

“Alright, which one of you fuckers tried to burn me alive!?” Natsu shouted through his vocoder. “No matter, you are all fucking dead, you pigs!”

Amongst the dead officers, there lay blue-suited Resistance members on the floor, executed in the same manner as the group of citizens in the basement – these folks had let them pass through the station yesterday, and now they were gone. Yet Natsu couldn’t grieve them until the Combine unit was destroyed and the situation stabilized, which he knew wouldn’t happen anytime soon.

As most of the CP’s fell lifeless to the ground, Gray shot directly at the last living officer’s rifle, tearing the gun out of his hands. He marched to the man, fired a few bullets into his feet, then kicked him down and caught him by the neck. “Where are two of our buddies? The brown-haired woman and the ginger man? Tell me!”

The CP didn’t say a word. He reached for the grenade on his belt, but Gray shot him in the arm. “They aren’t here!” Gray shouted. “How’d you find out about us? It ain’t no fucking coincidence that the same day you raid us in the city, you wound up fucking here –“

“Gray,” Natsu muttered, walking across the room, listening closely to the humming sound from above. “Do you hear that?”

Gray lifted his head, and instantly realised what Natsu was talking about. He mumbled a curse, shot the enemy in the neck, and hurried up to the stairs, to the roof. The humming grew into a deafening noise as they stepped outside.

Natsu raised his gaze up. A Combine’s dropship ascended towards the sky, closing its carriage door, and covering the sun as it went. Natsu pulled Gray into the cover of concrete blocks as the ship opened fire towards them, pulse bullets flying right past where they had stood. Natsu glanced through the roof but saw no bodies, right then knowing where Loke and Cana were.

They were on the ship.

Unable to say a word, Natsu and Gray watched as the dropship flew out of the canal, disappearing behind the tall buildings framing the area. The Combine rarely used these ships for combat, only for transporting troops – but as Natsu heard another chopping sound approaching, he knew they were only sending in whatever would kill them.

He could only steal a glance at the overflying hunter-chopper before the bombs unfurled.  

// December 5th, Tuesday, 5:45 PM. Black Mesa East. //

After those words, Natsu fell quiet. His cigarette had burned out, but he still held its remains between his fingers, blankly staring at the table in front of him.

“So, this is where Gray was injured?”

“No,” Natsu said, then realised he was lying. Though his memories of the events were sharp, he struggled to speak them out. “Or, well, he got a shell shard into his arm at Station 12, so yes, he was first injured at station 12.”

“Then where did he receive those bullet wounds?”

“Station 8.”

“What happened?”

Then, Natsu reached for another cigarette. Leader Makarov sighed, crossing his arms on his chest. Hell, what should I even say? Natsu thought as the silence stretched on. How can I tell them? He ignited the smoke, inhaled it, yet found absolutely no relief. They waited for his answer, but there were no words to describe the events of Station 8. Not now, not yet.

“I think we can get to that a bit later,” Erza said then, understanding that when Natsu went silent, things were really bad. “What concerns me the most is what happened to Loke and Cana. Are you sure they were taken into the dropship?”

Natsu shrugged. “I couldn’t see them getting in. Their radio signals were also gone. But I’m sure if they were taken, they were taken alive.” He let out a heavy sigh, rubbing his aching forehead. “But for them, it’s probably worse.”

“Indeed. The Combine needs information. And they have their way of getting it,” Erza replied. “But… I wish I didn’t have to say this, but this all seems that somebody ratted on us. If there’s no sign of Cana and Loke, then –“

“It’s no fucking way it was them. I trust them with my life,” Natsu cut her off. “It’s gotta be that ninth citizen we were supposed to rescue. That black-haired woman. She heard too much of our plans, and then gave us into the Combine.”

“Then Cana and Loke made a mistake trusting that citizen. That’s bad news for the whole rebellion.”

Natsu glanced at Makarov. Sadness glimmered in his dark eyes. So far, Makarov had chosen to trust humanity – to trust citizens –  to fight united against the Combine. Everyone who believed in Earth’s freedom was an addition to the rebellion, no matter if they became a fighter or just a passive supporter. Even those who didn’t believe in their goals never wanted to hurt them. Now, somebody did – and for their trust, they had to pay with blood.        

“Do you know the woman’s name?” Erza asked.

Natsu knit his brows. “One of the other citizens called her Minerva, but I’m not sure if that’s her real name. If she’s an infiltrator, it probably isn’t. She behaved like a normal citizen before she suddenly disappeared. At least I didn’t notice something was off.”

Makarov nodded. “Good thing is that Black Mesa East isn’t bombed to the ground yet. If they knew about our base, they would’ve aimed here first instead of destroying stations of our underground railroad,” he said. “But the bad thing is that they’re now aware of the railroad. You sent an evacuation code to everyone in the other stations?”

“Yes. All posts will be abandoned to avoid further casualties.”

“We’ve already received refugees from the closest stations,” Erza said. “We’ll figure out what to do with them, but for now, the railroad is closed. The vortigaunts are working extra hard to conceal all signals of the base to ensure that we’ll stay under the radar. For now, we are safe, but we’ll remain cautious.”

Slowly, Natsu inhaled the smoke, failing to trust Erza’s words. Even if the Combine would follow their tracks, they’d be stopped by the doorstep. Finding the base without knowing where to go was nearly impossible, and getting in was even harder. But they have Cana and Loke, Natsu was grimly reminded. If they break in the hands of the Combine, then things it’ll be really bad.     

Makarov seemed to have the same thought. “We’ll be launching a rescue operation for our captured comrades. It’s most likely they’ll be taken to Nova Prospekt,” the leader said, making Natsu shudder. “Tomorrow we’ll gather a team and send them in. It’s crucial for our survival that they’re rescued… or silenced, as soon as possible.”

“Will I be going?” Natsu asked. Great, if I’d even get to wash off the blood before being sent on another round, that would be nice. But the way Makarov said they had to be silenced wrenched his guts. I just don’t want to kill any more comrades, fucking damn it.

“No,” Makarov said. “We have other plans for you.”

Natsu squeezed his eyes shut, instantly knowing this would be worse.

“Well, what is it?”

“We’ll let you know as soon as the report is done,” Erza said. “I’m sorry, but we need to know what happened at Station 8.”

Lowering his gaze at the table, Natsu let his smoke burn on its own. Never before had he had issues giving reports, but now, he froze. I did what I must, he thought, still remembering the frightened screams before he pulled the trigger. I can’t help a casualty if I become a casualty, that’s the rule, but fuck, how can I fucking tell them?  

“I had to kill a citizen.”

Natsu brought the cigarette back to his lips as Makarov’s and Erza’s eyes shot into him. In disbelief, they stared at him, wondering if they’d heard right. But yes, they did.

“Here’s how it happened.” __________________________________________________________

// December 5th, Tuesday, 5:46 PM. City 17. //

It happened so fast.

As he lay hiding in the sewer tunnel, holding a gun tight against his chest, he still struggled to understand what was going on. What happened to the world he’d known? Who were these strange soldiers in white armour and gas masks hunting him for not having an ID to show? Why was his former employer speaking on the massive screens, mumbling something about our benefactors?   

Just how many years had passed since he had last walked on Earth?

Yet still, he held onto the gun he’d managed to steal. Next, he’d need armour – if he’d get his old hazard suit from Black Mesa, that would also be great, but perhaps it was too much to hope for. Perhaps there’d be a dead soldier lying somewhere he could borrow some equipment from, but before that, he didn’t have a chance of surviving in this strange, changed world. He had to figure it out. He had no other choice.

Then, he had to find his sons.

[therealmofamorus]

My Mood

Original Male Stud AU: Farmer AU, Office AU: CEO AU, Naruto AU: Missing Nin AU, Naruto AU: Samurai AU, Mundane AU, Domestic AU, Cyberpunk AU, MHA AU: Vigilantes AU (including crossover), Smol AU: Shortstack AU/Shortjack AU, Fusion AU: Future + Married AU

Alpha Male Stud AU: Free Use AU, Lust Virius AU, Clone AU, Brothel AU: Stripper AU, Bimbo Maker AU, Misogyny AU, Stepford AU, Bimbo Maker AU, Law and Crime AU: Criminal AU - Corrupt Lawyer AU, Law and Crime AU: Criminal AU - Fugitive AU

General Moods: Crossover AU/Fusion AU, Dom/Sub: Maledom/Femsub + Femdom/Malesub, Rough Sex, Corruption, Degradation, Blackmail, Slutty, Free Use, Humiliation

Main Muses: Male: Cloud Strife, Neptune Vasilias, Kiba Inuzuka, Vinsmoke Sanji, Makoto Yuki, Mondo Owada, Johnny (Guilty Gear), Fergus mac Róich, Kazuma Satou, Kevin Levin. Female: Artoria Pendragon (Lancer Alter), Narcissa Malfoy, Heather (TD), Fareeha Amari/Pharah, Sansa Stark, Moe Kamiji, C.C., Camilla (Fire Emblem), Fem!Broly, Jinx, the Loose Cannon

Male: Persona Series, Naruto, Final Fantasy Series, Guilty Gear, One Piece, Dangaronpa, RWBY, Konosuba, Fate Series (Fate Grand Order), Ben 10

Female: Fate Grand Order, Total Drama Series, My Hero Academia, Overwatch, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones/House of Dragon, Code Geass, Dragon Ball, Fire Emblem, League of Legend

Meme: FMK Game, Condom Break, Wet Dream/😴 💦, Pornhub Meme, Orgasmic Headpat, Snap Finger Hypnosis, FREE-USE SLUT, Naked Dogeza, Crossover Crack Ship/OT3, Forbidden Passion, Free Use Empire, Transactional Sex

[purplekoop]

Role Requeue Status Update

So, as mentioned in my last post, I figured it'd make sense to elaborate on where my thoughts are with the Role Requeue AU, a project mostly focused around gameplay changes (with some lore changes to help explain some of the more drastic overhauls) to refit every existing hero into a brand new role!

Let's start out with a recap of the existing reworks, either the ones I've made myself or those suggested by others (which is so far a list of... one):

Tracer: Support. The poster girl of the main game was the first character I used to explain this AU's concept. While she hasn't gotten a formal post detailing her new kit, I explained most of my ideas in the original post. Her trip in the slipstream ended up with her gaining the ability to rewind not just her own condition through time, but also the ability to share this with others, healing wounds by rewinding the body to a state before the wound.

Reaper: Tank. The second character detailed in the initial post, the menace known as Reaper is being reimagined from a whispy specter to an almost liquid mass of a being, draining the life of his victims to be a resilient menace. Like Tracer, I didn't actually detail his kit, and I'm actually struggling slightly to do so, so expect his own post later too.

Widowmaker: Tank. Complementing Reaper with Overwatch's most iconic duo of longest-standing villains, Widowmaker is also given a major character overhaul to make her a terrifying type of tank. While I had her marked down as a Tank in the initial post with a vague idea in my head to take inspiration from a scrapped character from official concept art, @daylightcommand3 came in with a basically perfect kit to match the concept, imagining her using long cybernetic spider legs to move around, and web-based abilities to ensnare her prey and defend her team in the process. As far as I'm concerned for now, their post on her is as good as "official" for the AU.

Mei: Tank. Hey can you tell my favorite and least favorite roles yet. In seriousness, I don't think this one's much of a shock. Taking her already defensive playstyle up a notch, Mei is now outfitted with a cryogenic power armor suit to give herself the durability and stature needed for the Tank role. This was the first one to get an official separate post, detailing her entire new kit, so she's functionally "complete" outside of artwork.

Zenyatta: Damage. A more hands-on (and feet-on-the-ground) approach to Zenyatta's already damage-heavy playstyle, Zenyatta is now a melee-ranged fighter, with a variety of abilities letting him to get some damage in from a distance, get in close, finish off a target, and get out safely. The most drastic rework yet, but one I'm still fairly proud of. While his visual changes are less drastic than Mei's, I'd still like to give him some art eventually.

Sojourn: Tank. Last character to get a formal post as of now, and the first OW2 hero (let alone post-OW1-launch hero) to boot. With more high-power cybernetics to bulk up her build, and a bigger, badder Railgun she's now built to weild, Sojourn's effectively taken Zarya's role of "big lady with big gun who takes big damage and hits back with aforementioned big gun powered up by said big damage". While her post had more to do with the concept design process and lacked any real lore changes, I don't exactly have drastic story changes in mind for her besides "she buff now", so once I get a design out for her I'll be relatively content with where she's at.

And that's... six. Look I swear I have more ideas than just turning DPS into Tanks. Granted, I have more DPS I want to turn into Tanks, but that's besides the point here.

Let's go over some minor reworks first, ones that won't require major visual overhauls. I mentioned these in what was basically my second post on the AU, but here I'll keep things more focused:

Doomfist... is awkward. I mean, the devs beat me to the punch (ha) on this one, he's one of two characters who've been officially "requeued", and unlike the other rapidly approaching instance of this, I agree with them on the change. So... I'm at a crossroads of how I wanna be lazy. Do I just use old Doomfist's kit, requeuing him from Tank back to Damage, or do I accept his current kit as a requeue from Damage to Tank that happened officially a year before the AU itself. I like Tank Doomfist more than DPS Doomfist, both on a thematic level and a gameplay level (mostly in terms of fighting against him), so uh... current compromise is that he's a tank still, but he has Rising Uppercut instead of Seismic Slam. Somebody wins here.

Symmetra is the other hero who's changed roles in the actual game, and while her history in both roles has been tumultuous (as explained in that other post), I have a relatively solid idea for how I'd change her kit to make her actually work as a proper Support. I'll detail this later, but just know for now that it doesn't require any major design or lore changes. Maybe a minor design change would be fun, making her main color yellow like in her initial art would be fun, but her light blue is pretty iconic to her now so I'm not sure.

Sombra, a hot topic lately who looks like she goes to hot topic, is the subject of the game's most recent major rework. So recent in fact that it's going live in literally a day from now. Her new kit definitely gives me ideas for how I'd tackle the Support iteration of her I've been considering for a while, but not by too drastic a measure. Again, no visual redesign or lore changes planned.

Echo is the last one of this bunch, another of the lovely ladies who I think should've been Support this whole time. Echo's a very funny hero to conceptualize reworks with considering her literal defining character trait is, like a certain silly little jester, doing anything. This is another one I've considered ideas for in the past, and while it definitely needs work I think I was on the right track. Once again, no story or design changes, she already looks and acts so damn much like a support it actively makes me a little mad.

So that's another easy four, only three of which I think really warrant posts of their own. 10 down, which is only about 25% of the cast jesus okay

Moving swiftly on, now I'm gonna go over the rest of the cast I have ideas for, starting with the (former) Tanks:

D.va: Damage. Considering my main issue with putting Tanks into other roles is size, D.va is an obvious first choice for a Tank to rework. Just make her not be in the mech and bam, already halfway there. Spoiler alert but D.va is probably gonna be one of the next few ideas I make a post for, and might be the first to get art to explain her new look! I'm excited for this one.

Orisa: Support. On the other hand, Orisa is a seven foot tall robot. I have... a couple ideas on how I plan to address this, but given she has effectively two whole kits to pull ideas from, the abilities themselves won't be the issue. Design... might be a little weirder, so another one that kind of needs art to explain.

Junker Queen: Support. While JQ is almost certainly the skinniest tank as is, it pains me to admit that she'll probably need to get shrunk a little bit to fit any other role. While it'd be easy to convert her aggro playstyle into pure DPS, I think it'd be both more fun and more thematically appropriate to make her into a Support. Considering this was the role I expected her to end up in for years, it's gonna be fun going back to those old ideas with the context of her existing kit. I have some more design changes to fit this new role, including a new weapon and some more "regal" attire, at least by Junkertown standards.

Ramattra: Support. Again, Ramattra's Omnic form is one of the smallest tanks as-is, so a minor shrink and the removal of Nemesis Form should already bring us halfway there. This is another one that feels thematically appropriate, and again, was kind of what I was expecting with the "Null Sector guy" that was teased all the way back in early 2019. Definitely leaning into his "mage" design inspirations here, and I'm not even sure I'd want to change his design all too much, but I'm not too certain how I want his kit to work yet. We'll see though!

Wrecking Ball: Damage. Listen, Ball is already a DPS that just sucks at killing things and is slightly better at not dying. sometimes. Hammond is also the smallest playable character outside of the mech, so just... give him a smaller mech. This is just gonna be D.va again but I like him less.

Roadhog: Damage. This one I'm not too certain on, but like... it's Roadhog, he's gotta be a DPS, right? He can't be a support at least. I don't like the idea of shrinking him in general, but according to one conspiracy theory I remember from before the 5v5 reveal, it's something that was officially considered. This might end up being more of a rebalance than a full-on rework, but I'm withholding further judgement until we see what his actual rework coming in a month or so is gonna be like, that might jostle the brain juices.

That's all the Tanks I really have ideas for, the rest I'm struggling with, mostly because of the size issue. I'm also torn between Damage and Tank for some of the remaining ones, but I'll get into that more later.

Now though, time for the Damage heroes I have ideas for:

Bastion: Tank. I mean... come on. He used to literally turn into a tank. He's on par in height with some of the tallest existing tanks. The only issue is... I don't exactly know how to make him play like a tank? All his current abilities are pure damage, and the "tankiest" part of his kit are his passive and his old self heal, which while potentially useful parts of a tank kit, don't exactly make a complete tank package. This one's gonna require some basically brand new abilities, but I think it'll be worth it in the end.

Ashe: Tank. Somebody might get where I'm going with this one, but uh... yeah, I'm gonna have fun with it. Probably the most drastic playstyle overhaul of the whole AU, which shouldn't be surprising when I see how I handle them. I think I have most of this kit planned out too, and it actually shouldn't require any new design work, so expect this one relatively soon.

Cassidy: Support. Yeah this one's actually gonna be another fairly minimalist one, my main idea is to trade his weapon with a similar feel but obviously with healing capabilities. His overall niche would actually be pretty close to Ana's, which I'm sure is gonna make some lore fans happy. I'm also stealing his mechanics from one of the supports from my original hero shooter concept, War Bots, just trading out one utility ability for Combat Roll being largely unchanged outside of how it interacts with his main weapon. Oh, and deadeye, War Bots doesn't have ults so I gotta figure out a replacement for that. Also possibly expect this one pretty soon.

Torbjorn: Support. This is another one like Bastion (fitting enough I suppose) where the broad idea is there, but I don't know the execution. He's also like Echo in the sense that his broad character archetype means he can do basically whatever, so it's just figuring out what engineer capabilities he needs in order to work. This might be another one where I steal from a War Bots character fairly heavily, since that cast also features a support who's a fire-themed mechanic. This one might not be too hard either all things considered.

There's some more I left out so far, but we'll get to them later with the other stragglers that are in TBD limbo, but for the rest of my semi-solid ideas let's wrap up with the Supports.

For this one though, I'm gonna do a sort of lightning round deal, since I honestly haven't thought about these ones too much.

How fast of a lightning round?

Lucio, Ana, Moira, Baptiste, Kiriko, Illari: Damage. Yeah. Look, we need more Damage heroes, and the guys with guns are the easiest to work with. I don't have much to say about these, since like... it's damage. Just dumb down their existing mechanics to do damage instead of healing... I mean not with Lucio, but that's the gist for the others. I have some fun ideas for Moira (who I also considered for Tank but I fear that'd overlap with Reaper too much), but again, there's not much to say about these.

Lifeweaver: Tank. I mean it's Lifeweaver, "damage" is the last thing that comes to mind with him. He's also got the most health and height out of any of the current Supports, plus his abilities are already primarily defensive and protective. I'm not sure on specifics for his kit, but the general idea visually is to bulk him out with some extra thematically appropriate armor to give him a bit more width, but to be honest he's already borderline tank sized, so there's not that much extra he needs.

So yeah, that's everybody who I have at least some half decent idea for. Let's look at the stragglers:

Reinhardt: ...look, Reinhardt is my favorite character of the cast, it makes my stomach not feel right to consider him as anything else but the big german-engineered block of meat and metal I've loved all these years. If I can give any character a free pass to not rework at all, it's him. It just hurts my heart too much to consider him getting shrunk down enough to work in either other role.

Sigma: Similar to Rein but with less emotional investment. In theory I could see him work as a Support or maybe DPS, but I'm just not sure what direction to take him in. I wouldn't be as sad to see him shrunk a bit, most of his tanky bulk comes from his shoulder pads and the fact that he's floating, plus to be honest the fact he's so excessively shredded canonically is a little jarring, so there's slimming down you could do to make him work, I just don't know for what role and how.

Winston: Fun fact, Winston is above average in size for a gorilla, even before Primal Rage! So sizing him down a bit isn't too unrealistic, but again, I don't know what direction to take him. Support could be interesting, the last War Bots support could be used as inspiration given their shared electrical aptitude, and it fits his personality better than DPS, but I'm just not too sure, especially considering the overall lower amount of DPS in this roster right now. Ironic, I know.

Zarya: Again, lacking great ideas, and I'm torn between DPS and Support for her. She has big gun and big muscles, but her bubbles allow her to be a lot more of an "enabler" Tank normally, so I might want to extrapolate on that. I'm leaning Damage though because again, kind of low on those so far, so she's probably just ending up with a (relatively) smaller gun and new abilities to replace her bubbles. She still might end up a relatively big and tanky DPS, like Bastion is normally, but it's the best idea I got even if it's not perfect.

Genji and Hanzo: I'm grouping these up because my initial suggestion was to swap their roles as Damage heroes with each other, but... to be frank I have no clue where I was going with that. With Genji I could see a melee tank playstyle, and for Hanzo there's some possibilities for a supportive archer playstyle, but again, there's just a major imbalance in Damage heroes relative to the main roster at this point.

Junkrat: So like. he's gotta be Support, because I don't think he's got the staying power to fit as a Tank. Honestly could be interesting, and the kit could lean a lot more into the "tinkerer" theming that I like about Junkrat normally, though that could overlap with Torbjorn now. Eh, they both constantly emit fire normally, I guess it makes sense they overlap a little.

Pharah: Another splodey person, this one flies. Honestly her above-average height and armor makes it so Tank is the obvious choice, I just struggle to think of defensive abilities that'd make sense for her. I might copy my own homework here again, though this time for my notes for how I'd turn the TF2 mercs into Overwatch heroes. I'll elaborate more later but I put Soldier (TF2) as a tank there, which I might take some of that design and put it into Pharah here.

Soldier 76: I feel like he could be the replacement for Baptiste in this roster, with healing rockets instead of healing grenades, and biotic field instead of regenerative burst, but that feels... too easy. Maybe. I dunno, probably overthinking things. I think the way to make this feel interesting is with his characterization, which... I guess is also what makes Baptiste interesting.

Brigitte: I know Tank seems obvious for her, but... I dunno, I'm not ruling out Damage yet? The main reason I say that is because if Rein is my free pass to keep, then Brig would just be a semi clone of him. If there's room for another melee-based DPS, then I think Brigitte could fit just fine there too.

Mercy: full disclosure I just want to entertain the idea of Big Mercy. That appeals to me deeply. Damage probably makes way more sense but uhhhhh. I dunno, lemme have this. maybe. I dunno I'm not sold either way yet.

So that's everybody so far. Updated tier list to reflect the changes:

And here's a less conservative list, putting people where I'd put them just based on gut instinct and cutting out my indecisiveness.

So that's 12 Tanks, 13 DPS, and 13 Supports. A better split than the actual game right now, almost perfectly even between the three roles. I ain't shrinking Mauga either so hey, perfect 13/13/13 split, I solved Overwatch.

Again, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'm wide open! Feel free to tag me in your own post or submit them to my ask box and I'll be sure to respond ASAP!

Hoping to get out one of my ideas soon, so stay tuned folks!

[thevortexsystem]

Intro post !

Hi we are a system trying to figure out things lmao (Fictive Heavy)

Traumagenic (that's the term right ?)

Age 18 and sad

Pretty new to all this system stuff , we try not to get into any type of discourse , we don't like drama . So that means we are endo neutral (?).

Keep in mind the host is fictionkin , otherkin and Therian .

Please tell us NICELY if we get something wrong or made a mistake .

Feel free to reach out ! We are pretty flexible with peoples opinions , so the DNI is just don't be a mean person ! And please don't try to start fights .

Our interests include:

- Welcome Home

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Intros underneath !

Gravity / Goldfish / Microwave is what you can call us as a whole , Gravity is the main host ! They are almost always there . They are fictionkin!!

Megan is a protector , fictive of a mix of an SCP (953) and a AU character.

River and Millie are the caretakers , River is a fictive of River from Underworld Office , and Millie is a fictive of Mille from Helluva Boss .

Blitzø is a moodbooster , I believe ? Fictive of Blitzø from Helluva Boss .

Mas/Mal is a (best way to describe it) moodbooster, comedian guy lol . Fictive of a Geometry Dash cube, also has someone who formed with him, named Max.

There are more , but most of them are not as active .

Have a good day !

[ink-flavored]

💞💥💌

Thank you friend! <3

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

Jeez, this is a hard one. I think I have the most fun with world-building, and I personally click off of most stories that don't use proper grammar/paragraph breaks/dialogue tags so that's obviously important to me as a writer, but overall I'd say that having strong characters is what's really going to make or break a story.

You can have the most action-packed plot in the world, tailor it perfectly to the hero's journey, make the perfect 3-Act Structure Narrative, etc. etc.. But if people don't enjoy reading about the characters who have to carry out the decisions in your plot, the story is boring. How many people have stuck around for the compelling characters in a story with a thin or uninteresting plot, compared to unlikable or flat characters in fascinating circumstances?

The characters can and should inform your plot. If your characters aren't compelling, the plot dies with them. That's my philosophy, at least, and I'm sure there are people out there who disagree, but when I write, I always aim for interesting, well-rounded characters.

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it.

According to my AO3 stats, the least kudos'd fic on my account, at 8 total kudos, is The Price of Oblivion. It's an old Overwatch fic that was supposed to be multichapter, but sadly I lost interest in it very quickly.

I actually do think the initial concept for this fic is one of the sickest I've ever had. Steampunk, eldritch magic, sentient robots, cyborgs, necromancy, there was a lot going on under the hood. It was supposed to be an expansion of a one-shot called Oblivion that I wrote for Zenyatta Appreciation Week 2018—which, for the record, is my highest kudos'd Overwatch fic. So I definitely had a good concept! I still love the one-shot! But sadly the writing juices never materialized. It happens.

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

Well, those subscribed to me on Ko-Fi will have already read this, but I am STOKED to post Day 15 of AU-gust '22 on AO3 next month. Here's a little piece:

One case closed this month concerning the annual corrupt member on the Domino Chapter of the Mage’s Guild, and silence ever since. His other cases had gone cold, his leads dead or skipped town to avoid being traced. As much as his mentors liked to say otherwise, having a reputation had only made his life harder. Not that he blamed them for wanting to get as far away as possible.

Someone next door had been thinking extensively about the state of their home repairs for the past hour. His other neighbor couldn’t wait to get down to the pub after nightfall. The pair walking down the hall held nothing but contempt for each other, despite the friendly conversation. A new patron walked in the door of the office complex thinking unspeakable things about a stranger they’d seen on the street.

Atem was in all their heads. Whether he wanted to be or not.

If you love sad wet detectives, this is going to be a fun one.

[send me a fic writer ask]

[rimechaser]

Finished the latest chapter of the Fatui Office AU and whoops, came up with a bunch of headcanons for Sandrone and her gamer team.

They all play Genius Invocation FPS, which I'd loosely describe as having Overwatch mechanics, Call of Duty violence, and set in the Genshin fantasy world. In this modern Genshin AU, the Genius Invocation franchise takes place in the canon Genshin universe.

Sandrone and her chat group play competetive, ranked Genius Invocation FPS and they're all in the national top 50. Lowest to highest, it's Sucrose, Ayato and Sandrone, then Alhaitham and Cyno constantly competing in the top 10, and Nahida consistently at #1.

Nahida is something of a superstar in the gaming world (positively and negatively), but nobody's seen her face or knows her real name. Also, nobody knows that Nahida's older sister owns Aka-Net (think Google). Nahida is technically not old enough to play GI:FPS, but she's fine. Unrelated, she also carries a pocket knife because I say so.

Nahida also keeps lots of little succulent plants in cute glass vases, has a good life balance, and goes outside.

Cyno is something of a tryhard, while Alhaitham is just naturally good at the game. The fact that Alhaitham can be better than him without even trying gets on Cyno's nerves, so there's lots of competition between them.

Cyno is also a very serious nerd. He DMs games of Genius Invocation Tabletop RPG, organizes LARP groups, and is a streamer. His prized possession is a headset with jackal ears on it.

Sucrose also plays during work hours, but unlike Sandrone she's technically doing it when there's nothing else to do, like when a big file is saving or when code is compiling or something. She knows how to make sure this happens often. The two of them know they work in the same building but haven't talked because Sucrose is shy and Sandrone doesn't like talking to people.

Ayato is the team strategist and plays flex in whatever team composition they choose. Based on the enemy team, he'll suggest what everyone else should play and fill in whatever else they need. As a result, he has a pretty good understanding of every weapon/character/playstyle, but doesn't fully understand the intricacies since he doesn't focus on any one.

Based on the point above, I've decided just now that in Genius Invocation FPS, players can see the profiles on the other team. There are stats that show percentages of how often a character or weapon is used, but not exact numbers or if they actually won while using them. Ayato uses these stats when preparing for a match.

Nahida is the calmest player. Cyno is the most intense, with Alhaitham being the second most. Alhaitham swears more in voice chat, but Sucrose swears the most in text chat.

Itto got banned for a week for accidentally using a word that he didn't know was a slur once.

[shouga-nai]

Five Comfort Characters, Five Tags ~

1. Kannonzaka Doppo - I relate to him a whole lot! We both work at the office of a manufacturing firm, we both like omurice and potato salad, we both rely on caffeine to get through the day otherwise we're just tired 24/7... I feel his anxiety regarding work and pretty much most things in life, and admire his development - standing up for himself, taking initiative and being confident in his capabilities and gut instincts. It's inspiring :)

2. Tekhartha Zenyatta - As a Zen main, he's been a comfort character for years. I love his gameplay, most of the time dealing a good balance of damage and healing, which is oddly satisfying to me. Love his lore and him as a character too, of course. Particularly the idea of him being wise but also a trickster lol. Such a fun and interesting character.

3. Shimada Genji - The OG muse of this blog, and the muse that's been active the longest. Six years and still going strong, getting into character with him has gotten quite natural regardless of verse/AU. And I have TONS of those. Watching the Dragons short for the first time was what got me into Overwatch, and I remember getting into it with my Bro. That was one of my favorite memories. Dragon bros 💚

4. Cho Hakkai - Saiyuki was the very first anime that I really got into way back when, so it will always have a special place in my heart. And Hakkai has always been my favorite. My irl friends once said that I'm like Hakkai and it made me happy haha. Can't help but love Mister silly sad, walking wikipedia. Oh and Hakuryuu too! They come as a package~

5. Vash - Particularly Stampede Vash. Not a muse of mine, but my best friend's. She's the one who got me into the series and I got instantly drawn to Vash. At one point, I realized why. His mannerisms, looks, down to his smile, reminds me of someone I used to know. We were close, at lease I thought we were. Sadly we lost touch long ago, but the memories of them were good. In any case, I do love Vash a whole lot and want very much to give him a hug. Or be hugged by him ;; I can imagine he'd give the best hugs

Tagged by: Best Bro @wolfsmuses ~ Tagging: @bombmate , @pyramiscmuses , @caliganxio , @roleplay-abiogenesis2 , @worldly-diversity (no pressure though!)

[rwac96]

Type: Ask

AU: Law and Crime AU: Officer AU - Lawyer AU, Crossover AU

Fandom: Dragon Ball, RWBY, Overwatch, Blazblue

Summary: Sequel to this Post: Chichi, if you could pick one of your son admirers to be his wife and the one to give you your grandchildren whom would it be?

Chi-Chi: "None of them! They're hussies who could've gotten Gohan disbarred! I preferred my son's wife not to be a potential criminal, thank you very much."