#reading this again and i'm onboard the ship now

[bunneechan]

i'm still not over how sweet this scene was i did not expect the Megumi and Hana ship for some reason and what he said about being her right hand was absolutely so fucking sweet i caaaaan't

[cyberrose2001]

Illogical This, Illogical That

TFP Shockwave x Reader

whoa, i'm on fire. i swear everytime im sick i become a powerhouse with a keyboard. anyhow, this is for my dear friend @goreismyforte, hope this cheers you up my love mwah mwah

Warnings: Implied Sexual Relationship (nothing explicit at all /gen), Fluff

Word Count: 642

It was getting late, but you had slumped into bed hours ago, doomscrolling. Since you're the only human onboard the Nemesis, you were the only one to constantly point out how frigidly cold it gets when the ship rises to higher altitudes. Of course, Steve just laughs and waves you off every time. Bastards, the lot of them.

It's not that you disliked the cold; you love it. Better up here than down on Earth, where your hometown is currently sweltering in the summer heat, you think. No, it's that fact that you'd much rather shiver under these blankets with Shockwave.

Your Cybertronian lover is strict with his work, and you respect him with the whole of your body, so you dare not distract him until he's finished for the day. So, like a poor, lonely wife whose husband has been dispatched for war, you lay there lonely in your darkened, shared berthroom with only the light from your phone bathing your face.

You curl the blanket around yourself more, your thumb flicking aimlessly as you wait patiently as ever.

The next thing you remember is the vague feeling of the berth below you shifting and a cold draft of the blanket being lifted. You don't remember it happening, and you never do, but you must have dozed off. Your phone, long since slipped from your fingers, lies face up on the berth as evidence. You feel Shockwave slotting himself behind you, not taking him long to snake a thick arm around your waist.

"I apologise for my prolonged absence, love."

"Mhmm, it's okay," you mumble sleepily, your hand finding his, "Just glad you're here now. I was getting cold without you."

"Core temperature is reading normal, and your organic body is quite capable of sustaining itself without me; that is rather illogical of you."

With an ex-vent against your neck, you feel him press his large frame against your back as he settles into the berth. Most people would believe most bots to be cold, which is true for the most part, but Shockwave tends to run hotter. It probably has something to do with the amount of computing that occurs within that frame of his. Once again, you're not complaining at all.

"Blah blah blah, illogical this, illogical that," You roll over to face him, eyes closed with a mischievous sleepy grin on your lips, "Your logic still doesn't stop you from cuddling with me every night."

Shockwave's audial fins twitch as his gaze wanders down to look at you; the only way you can tell is by the red glow of his optic through your eyelids. He's in deep thought, and it seems you have won the playful argument. You feel him wrap his arm around you tighter, the other finally curling underneath you to wrap you in his full embrace, pressing you against his chassis.

"Indeed, you are... correct," He cups the back of your head to run his digits through your hair, "I have come to enjoy our usual coupling."

"I'm not sure if you know what that means in our slang."

"Oh, I am quite aware."

A small blush blooms on your face, and you bury your face in his chassis. You feel the vibrations of his chuckle, a rare treat only you often get to hear, "You're so annoying."

"Hush now," Shockwave rests his helm above your head, now completely cocooning you, "You're well overdue for your rest cycle."

It doesn't take you long to fall victim to your drowsiness. With a familiar warmth finally accompanying you and with his digits gently combing through your hair, you soon drift off to sleep. Shockwave observes silently before finally deciding to join you. Your forgotten phone goes dark as it times out, and the red glow of his optic powering down plunges the room back into darkness.

[yaut-jaknowit]

Hi, this is my first time making a request so I hope I'm doing it right. If I am may I please request a part 2 to the "you are not hunted" because I am currently OBSESSED with Gawtin (a little to much) and just re-read the whole masterlist and came upon this post making me want to know what happens next. You can ignore this is u want but I want you to know I love your work and hope your having a great day/evening <3

You Are Not The Hunted Part 2

Character: Gawtin (female Yautja) x GN!Reader

Word Count: 3019

Summary: This giant alien takes you from your friends, from your home. She traps you in her bedroom, the safest place to be. You are claimed to be her pet from that moment forward. And well... you don't take that very well.

Author Note: Ehehehe, I'm so glad you are obsessed with her! There's no such thing as too much with Gawtin. Love her as much as you want! I appreciate all the love!

Part 1

Masterlist

Ao3

Now, onboard Gawtin’s ship, reader is both terrified and angry that this thing took them. Reader tries to fight their way off the ship but Gawtin easily overpowers them and pins them to a wall. So, they tried to escape by wedging the door open or smashing the keypad. They get electrocuted by accident. When Gawtin tries to feed them, that doesn’t work. Reader refuses to eat even when Gawtin uses her presence to scare them.

Despite the pounding of your fists against the creature’s sturdy back, it did nothing to make her even flinch. She continued to strut through the forest you were once enjoying. Your screams rung through the trees. Your friends lost between the trunks and foliage. Tears slowly ran down your cheeks. The world taking a darker turn as you’re carried away from them.

In this position, you spotted a weapon hanging from her waist. A machete. You instantly reached for it and attempted to pull it off of its fixed position. A hand engulfed yours before you could make contact with it. It held a firm grasp but not enough force to crack any bones. You struggled again. Your hand couldn’t be retrieved.

Her feet stopped. Your body slid down her front and landed unsteadily on your feet in front of her. The large alien snatched both of your wrists and crowded into your space. Instinctively, you took steps backwards to get away from her. Until the curve of your spine met the rough texture of a tree trunk. A gasp sounded from your throat.

Each of your wrists were lifted high above your head and pinned to the bark. They were easily held in one of her hands. A snort sounded from the creature. “You… do not think,” she uttered. Her free hand pinched something out of a pouch on her side. Rope was held between two fingers. She brings it up to your wrists. Your brows jerked up towards your hairline. You doubled down the fight and tried to slip out by taking off the weight on your legs. That only pulls painfully on your shoulders. The creature still has a firm grip on you.

Talently, the alien is able to tie your wrists together with one hand. Then, she throws you back onto her shoulder like you weighed nothing to her. With her size, you believed that as a fact.

The journey began once more. She carried you through the forest. The speed she took only made the trip short but sweet. Her form stopped. Her arm holding onto your thigh lets go for a moment. You hear a beep then a hiss. Curiosity got the best of you. You tried to lift yourself up to peer over her shoulder. She makes a short but warning growl. Your survival instincts force you to lay back down against her back, limp.

All you had to do was play along and hope for survival.

A new scene greeted you. She had walked up some sort of ramp and entered… something out of this world. Alien. This was a ship. A spacecraft. The angle hurt your neck but you took in everything you saw. From what looked to be storage all the way to main area of the vessel. She passed a door before one opened up for her.

Muted colors made up the interior of the ship. In the room she took you into, skulls were the first thing that greeted you. A terrified scream pierced the air. The fight entered your veins again. You kneed and punched and even bit to get her to let go you. It didn’t matter if your hands were tied together. You fought for your survival.

Snarls erupted from the creatures throat. Your body was harshly tugged off of her shoulder and dropped onto the floor. Your knees gave out. You were forced to lay back while peering up at her. Her metal mask made it impossible to see her expressions. The muscles that lined her shoulders and chest were tense. You whimpered and scrambled backwards, legs kicking to get away from her.

“Stop,” her rough voice demanded. The green creature ate up the space you desperately put between the two of you. Her hand grasped at the limited space between your own tied up ones and pulled you closer to her. You kicked at her shins.

A sharp huff escaped her. “Stop. I will not harm you.” You could see the blurred reflection of yourself staring back at you. Your head rapidly shook no.

“Let go of me!” you yelled at her and tugged harder. The rope painfully dug into your wrists. Yet, it didn’t budge. “Please, don’t kill me.” Her words had gone flying over your head. You were in such a state of panic, you weren’t listening. Your ears had blocked out all other sounds besides the race of your heart. Survival to see another day.

The grip on the bindings didn’t loosen or falter for even a second; despite your constant kicking. She held strong in her stance. Her other hand came around and grabbed you by the throat. It easily encircled one of the most fragile parts of your body. You instantly froze, paralyzed to the spot. One wrong move and she could snap your neck like a twig.

“Now, listen. I will not harm you. You are my pet now.” You accidently yelled out a ‘what?!’ which caused her to squeeze your neck in a threatening manner. A whimper fell from your lips. “No harm shall come to you under my care. You will be cared for, fed, clothed.” You fearfully looked into her purple eyes that kept you froze to the ground.

“W-why?!” you sputtered out and fought back the tears desperate to dribble down your face.

Her thumb on your neck caressed along the artery hidden between skin. “I have watched you for some time, little one. You intrigue me.” Heat blotted your features. How long has she been watching you?! Oh god. You’ve not felt eyes on you in what was thought to be the safety of your home. “I have made you mine, under my kinds law. I lay claim to you as my pet.”

Every time she called you ‘pet’ made your stomach twist with a sick feeling. Out of all the things to happen to you in your life. To be made a pet to an alien wasn’t plausible in your mind.

Yet, the new situation that surrounded you was evident of your new issues. You swallowed hard, chest stuttering with each intake of air. Your ribs felt like they were constricting your lungs, squeezing out the air in them.

The corners of your vision began to darken. Each new breath was faster than the last. Your eyes glazed over. Her grip around your neck loosened to the point you could almost just drop down the floor. That didn’t help ease up the issue you were causing to yourself.

Both of your hands went to the center of your chest, feeling them move underneath your fingertips. You tried to slow down your breathing. The danger no longer as high of a threat now. But, your body didn’t feel that way. The panic kept building and building. Until darkness overtook your sight and left you limp in the creature’s hold.

When you awoke next, you sat up with a gasp, hands flying to your throat in terror. Nothing held you in place. Your body acted before your mind had a chance to think. All of your limbs forced you to back peddle until you smacked into a hard, flat object. The wall. You pressed yourself against it, limiting the places something or someone could come and attack you.

Your hands gripped at your unkept hair. Whatever dream – or nightmare – that had controlled you during your sleep caused it. You swiftly swivel your head back and forth. The room was empty, bare from anyone or anything. All besides the three skulls on top of the door frame across from you.

One of them was a human skull.

Instantly, your chest began to heave. She was going to turn you into that. Every word from before had flew straight over your head. Actions speak louder than words. And if by the looks of the other skulls that decorated the… bedroom, she’s lying to you. You were no pet, nothing more than another trophy on the wall. These were all trophies.

Wait! Her bedroom?! You finally took in the space and its contents. Currently, you had been placed on top of what looked and felt like a bed. Furs covered it. All from different looking creatures she’s probably killed herself. And that was going to be you next. You shuddered and hugged yourself, slightly rocking yourself in a pacifying manner. It did little to quell the quaking of your lungs or the stuttering of your heart.

One wall had an open doorway that seemed to lead into a bathroom. You were unsure in the darkness that nearly consumed the whole space. Only a low light came from the running boards that lined the walls. It was just bright enough to barely make out the skulls and other animal bones that decorated the bedroom. All of them signs of what will happen to you next.

Light flashed bright. It temporarily blinded you. A yelp echoed back at you. Your face scrunched up, eyes unable to accommodate the sudden light so quickly. But the click of talons on metal had a shiver running down your spine, rattling your bones. You tried to fight off the pain to find her.

A warm hand cupped your chin and tilted your head up. The touch had your heartrate spiking even higher than before. Your hands shot out and smacked against a firm, muscular arm that didn’t yield to your attacks. She didn’t even make a single sound of distress and simply held you in place. It was evident that her strength greatly outweighs your own. In multiple ways she’s shown you.

“Calm down, little one,” she grumbled and pinched your chin only slightly harder to gain your attention. You whimpered. Finally, your eyes worked with you to open and find the giant alien leaning over the side of the bed. One of her hands was holding up her weight while the other held your jaw. Your gaze flickered down to the arm on the bed, knowing there was a chance you could kick it out. That may drop her to the bed. Then what? She’ll easily roll over, sit up, and tear your head off of your shoulders for doing such a thing.

“I have told you, you are not in harms way. There is no reason to panic.” Her voice was a rumble, deep. A tone you weren’t use to when it came to feminine figures. Nor did she fit the standards for humans. The only thing you could notice was a slight pronunciation of her chest and wider hips. Besides that, the thickly corded muscles that lined her figure, deep voice, and aggressiveness made you think of her otherwise. That only made you wonder what the male looked on her side of the species.

Your eyes completely stopped hurting from the light and opened all the way. Shyly, you had tucked your head to the side. Not once did you take your eyes off of her. If you were going down, you were going to take every chance to survive. No matter what.

The alien chuffed then released your chin and straightened her posture. She reached towards the end of the bed and push a tray towards you. “Food. Eat. You will need your strength.”

That through you in for a loop. Why in the world would you need your strength if she was going to turn you into one of her trophies? Your gaze narrowed on her, questioning on her intent. What was her point? What was she doing?

“I’m not hungry,” you stated, eyes flickering down to the steaming plate of food for only a second. The scent waft up into your nose and caused your stomach to growl loudly. Heat flushed to your cheeks instantly. “You didn’t hear that.” Now, she won’t believe you for even a second.

Her head tilted to the side. Her mask was still in place, covering whatever lay underneath. All you could read was her body language and hoped it was at least similar to humans.

She pushed the tray close enough to knock it against your shin. You refused to take your eyes of her for even a second. Every moment in a fight counts. Even in one that looks like you won’t win. You’d rather go down trying than willingly give up. “I told you, I’m not hungry.” Thankfully, your stomach decided not to interrupt the conversation.

Clicking sounded from behind the mask. Your brows furrowed, instantly trying to make sense of the noises. It didn’t sound like tongue clicking. It was far too fast. You leaned away from her the best you could with a wall behind you.

“What will get you to eat?” she asked of you in an annoyed tone of voice. She seemed done with your antics. Your heart began to thunder in your ears. Panic settling back into your veins again.

The food smelled wonderful. It was hot and fresh by the looks of it. But, she had made it. There’s a chance she poisoned it. Who knows? She may have the strength to kill you with her bare hands, but what if she’s insane. She has to be since she kidnapped you out of all of your friends. And her wording from before. She had wanted just you. As if she had been stalking you this entire time, picking out a target to become a new plaything.

Fear drew you away from her, scooting towards the side. Until you had the chance to slip off and get onto your feet. “Just let me go, okay? I don’t know what I’ve done to get kidnapped but please. All I want is to go home,” you pleaded with all of your heart. You knew it was going to get denied. There’s a hidden reason she wanted you. More than her calling you her pet. That had to be.

She bowed her head and shook it with disappointment, flowing off of her. “Paya, give me strength.” You heard her uttered barely above a breath. Her head raised so the eye sockets of the mask found your face. The intense stare from her behind the mask was nearly paralyzing. “Listen to me closely: you are my pet now. You will not be harmed. You are not leaving. I have laid my claim over you.”

With the words repeated straight to your face for the fifth time, you paused in your tactical retreat.

The nearest object appeared in your hand a millisecond before it went flying through the air. “No!” you shouted at the top of your lungs, face flush with heat. The next thing you went was nearly in your hand when you felt a presence behind you.

One thickly corded arm wrapped around your waist and tugged you up and off the ground. Your feet kicked wildly, striking every part you could reach. None of it did the damage you wished to see. She only grunted when you hit her knee in a particular spot. Then, she was sitting down on the bed and hold you in her lap. Your back to her chest. That same arm still snug and secure around your waist.

A deep, vibrating purr erupted from her throat and skipped across your skin. Goosebumps arose across your flesh, pebbling the tissue.

Before you had time to realize the effects, your tense muscles began to loosen. Confusion overridden your features. You struggled weakly in her grasp. Then, you went slack against her chest. The purr acting like a drug had added to your system.

“Good,” she interrupted the sound for only a second. Her other hand came up and petted the top of your head. You further relaxed against her, eyes nearly drifting shut. Your heart even slowed back down to normal.

“What… what did you, you do to me?” you slurred and titled your head back to see the underneath of her mask. In your dazed, doused state, you reached up and poked the exposed portion of her jaw. Weird looking jaw. You attempted to hook your finger under the metal and tug it free. She caught your wrist before you fully committed and put it down by your side. “What are you…?”

The alien paused, including the purring. It still affected you heavily despite the silence now entering the air. You were able to think clearer without the constant sound. She let go both of your waist and wrist and reached for the mask. Your eyes grew to the size of saucers. Was she truly going to expose her features to you? Oh god, what did she look like?!

When the mask was pulled off, a hiss of depressurized air sounded in the room. Your brows furrowed at the noise. She continued the move until you tensed back up. All the dopamine in your system instantly went out the window.

She was surely alien and completely inhuman. But… not ugly? You felt weird to think such a thing. Her head was massive with a dome-like shape that elongated the back of her skull. Piercing purple eyes were sharp and deadly to look in. Four mandibles acted like her lips, each ending in a lethal looking fang. Expect one had signs of a fracture. On the out edges of the dome had beige colored spikes that almost created a full crown.

You gulped down the lump in your throat and stayed still. It wasn’t just her claws and strength that could kill you, those mandible could easily gouge an eye out.

“I am Gawtin,” she announced and set the mask off to the side. “And, like I have said, you will be staying with me.”

[yamaylander]

hey, it's me again! after a whole 2 days, i've finished redoing Nightmare. to be honest i didnt expect myself to work that fast but i guess i was THAT devoted to redoing her entire character. it's a really long file so it's obviously gonna be put under read more. there'll be a preview up until her profile below

special thanks to @cherry-blossomtea and another friend for helping me research DID as well as talking about their experiences with DID themselves. and obviously thanks @adorablegorilla for inspiring me to do this (although i did take a lot of liberties remaking Nightmare's character. found the evil alter thing distasteful)

of course, feedback is always appreciated so i know what parts work best and what areas i need to improve upon, especially in regards to DID as this is my first time engaging it. so do send if you have any!

without further ado, i present to you what i'm calling: Y5 Nightmare!

-----

Nightmare, Medic Operators of Rhodes Island, will provide help no matter who’s currently in the moment.

Who is it I’m talking to today?

Codename: Nightmare

Class: Incantation Medic

Real Name: Nyx Rebel Pasbelletti, Gloria

Gender: Female [Both]

Experience: 6 months [Nyx], 1 month [Gloria]

Place of birth: Victoria

Date of birth: June 1st [Nyx], March 12th [Gloria]

Race: Feline

Height: 156 cm

Infection status: Visible internal blotches, infection confirmed

(file continued below)

Token: A glow-in-the-dark doll, handmade. Nyx said it’ll protect you from bad dreams.

Physical examination

Strength: Normal

Mobility: Standard

Endurance: Normal

Tactical acumen: Good [Nyx], Normal [Gloria]

Combat Skill: Good [Nyx], Standard [Gloria]

Arts adaptation: Excellent

Skills (Rank 7)

Soul Reflection - ATK increases by 70% and attacks two enemies at once, healing two allies in range; each attack binds enemies for 3 seconds

Phantasmagoria - Range expands and stops attacking; decreases movement speed of enemies by 60% and drains 20% of their health every second with Arts damage, while healing operators depending on how many enemies are currently in range

Talent

Fronting - Healing effectiveness increased by 20% when equipped with skill 1; Obtains 18% ATK when equipped with skill 2

*Gloria has asked to keep this event classified until both her and Nyx come to a consensus to speak about it.

Profile

Nyx is a Victorian operating under the codename Nightmare with her headmate, Gloria. Prior to their entry into Rhodes Island, Nyx was a college student who studied medical Arts. Gloria came later during her life due to an unspecified event* before her subsequent infection. They now currently work in Rhodes Island’s triage section, working to help patients as well as Operators in the battlefield.

Clinical Testing

Imaging tests for this Operator showed a blurry outline of internal organs with visible unusual dark spots. Unusually high concentrations of Originium particles were present in her circulation, indicating signs of infection and confirming her as infected at this stage.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 16%

Surveillance is recommended for rare cases like this.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.33u/L

Infection is in mid-stage and continues to spread. First-level medical plan recommended. Pathological Monitoring Protocol Label: Red (signed by Dr. Kal’tsit, see medical file for more detail).

Gloria is known to be gentle, almost to a fault. She doesn’t strike anyone as the type who would go out in the battlefield, instead giving the impression that she would rather stay and help others in the infirmary. This view is only half the truth. While Gloria does indeed want to help others, she wishes to do so in a manner that both soothes and protects her fellow operators onboard. In the ship, she is often the one who consoles others during their time of need. This is especially true for those who are currently experiencing traumatic stress. Surprisingly Gloria seems to have a good handle on how to deal with such matters, to the point that she could very well apply to be a therapist. It’s even more surprising that Gloria chose to become a battlefield operator, though this is because by her and Nyx’s volition, they want to help people wherever they can.

Archive File 1

Operator Nightmare suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder. In rudimentary terms, DID is when a person suffers from having two or more personalities, also known as alters, in their consciousness. Currently, Nightmare has two headmates that are present, that being Nyx and Gloria, the latter of which tends to be fronting much of the time.

On the subject of Nyx, who is the oldest alter before Gloria came to be, she appears to be far more reserved compared to the more sociable Gloria. She usually remains dormant for long periods of time, often letting Gloria front whenever possible. On the chance that Nyx is fronting however, she shows herself to be far quieter than Gloria is. When talking to others, she speaks in a hushed voice and is quick with her words. She also tends to be more upfront and honest, which has led to others conflicting with Nyx from time to time. From Gloria’s words however, this isn’t because Nyx chooses to be mean, this is only because Nyx isn’t sure how she can talk to others. 

Currently, Gloria is undergoing talks with Nyx in order to help her open up, but she also stresses that Nyx must be given time before she can properly do so. On that note, Operators should be mindful of who they are speaking to at the moment and that proper respect should be given to Nyx’s situation.

Nyx has attended many classes regarding medicine and psychology, to the point that she often spent time reading up on the subject matters during her free time which has resulted in her stifled sociality. This may have also given way to her blunt nature, as Gloria admitted that Nyx often got into trouble by her own volition simply because she was honest in a manner that hurt others. Nyx doesn’t seem to understand why this is but seeing as this was the consequence of her honesty, she wishes to learn how she can avoid hurting others in the future.

Archive File 2

Both Nyx and Gloria have an interest in medicine, psychology and Originium, a somewhat broader range of interest compared to others. Although Nyx was born in a Victorian city that focused on artistry, with her father working in the pottery business, Nyx opted to follow her mother’s footsteps, who worked at the local hospital.

Her interest in Originium came about after Gloria had manifested. Both have been seen attending classes and reading up on Originium and its effects in Rhodes Island. As Gloria stated, “We want to know about Originium simply because we don’t want others to suffer because of it, as well as helping others become safer around it”. To say that Nyx and Gloria are determined to work hard and help others is an understatement.

On the subject of medicine and psychology, it seems the interests somewhat split with Nyx leaning more into studying psychology and Gloria studying medicine more often. Nyx appears to be up to speed on most mental disorders and knows how to deal with them in their proper manner while Gloria’s knowledge on medicine allows her to work in Rhodes Island’s infirmaries without trouble, assisting the doctors if she is available. Their efforts in both departments are commendable and their knowledge will prove fruitful to Rhodes Island’s advances in care.

When Gloria is fronting, the Arts unit becomes more effective at healing operators on the field, targeting multiple people at once. The healing Arts is immensely effective, allowing operators to stand longer and keep fighting. It also has the effect of making our operators feel more alert and thus more vigilant during their battles, increasing their performance in combat.

Archive File 3

For someone so young, Nyx shows a surprising aptitude for battle. Although Gloria has only had one month of combat experience and has focused mostly on first aid, Nyx seems to have the battlefield almost under her control. This is attributed to her Arts unit, which was discovered to have two functions based on whoever is currently fronting at the moment.

On the other hand, when Nyx is fronting the Arts unit becomes focused on keeping enemies back. When used on enemies, it puts them into a dreamlike state where their consciousness appears to dissociate from the current reality. This often causes them to give up fighting in bizarre ways, the most common of which involves them dropping their weapons and staring up at the sky, with some of them slowly wandering the area aimlessly. Why this happens is currently unknown, as Nyx refuses to divulge for the time being. Many operators who have been in field missions with Nyx have said it to be unnerving, unsure what to think when they see the people they were fighting with “suddenly fall asleep while awake”.

One notable incident happened during one of Nightmare’s field missions with Nyx fronting. While fighting a particularly dangerous enemy, she wound up forcing them into a REM state. This resulted in the enemy panicking as though experiencing vivid nightmares, constantly screaming for nonexistent entities to stop while begging for their life to be spared. It was only when they were knocked out that they ceased their panic. After this, Nyx was told not to do this again although it doesn’t seem like she was particularly affected by this event.

While walking back home from college to visit her parents, she decided to take a quick shortcut through one of Londinium’s districts to head there faster. However, she wound up getting caught in the middle of the Kazdel-Victoria crisis where the district she was in ended up getting caught in the middle of the artillery barrages. With nowhere else to go, Nyx was forced to run aimlessly through Londinium in an attempt to get away from the situation. Although mostly successful, the event left her deeply traumatized. In the state the district was in, she had to fend for herself no matter what.

Archive File 4

After a long time, Nyx and Gloria eventually agreed to share how they came to be. Upon their request, this file should also be kept secret from the general staff of Rhodes Island.

The next few days were described to be a living nightmare. She ran afoul with some of the district’s residents whose rationales were gradually deteriorating. Nyx wasn’t an exception as she also began to steal from others whenever she could just so she could make it to another day, even going as far as to attack others who attempted to steal from her. This all eventually culminated into her breakdown when one night, while hiding away in a shelter, someone had broken into it and attempted to steal her supplies. When Nyx tried to fight back, the attacker was far more aggressive than she thought and nearly killed her. Out of desperation, Nyx casted her Arts onto her attacker. Rather than putting them to sleep however, the blast was powerful enough to not only put her attacker to near death but also caused him to experience live nightmares. The end result was that the attacker was left screaming for help for the next few seconds before finally perishing.

Horrified by her actions, her stress finally broke her down. She underwent a severe mental and emotional breakdown before her mind eventually “quarantined” the stressor. For the next few minutes, Nyx had no success of calming down until she suddenly heard Gloria’s voice, who immediately began to reassure her and that everything will eventually be alright. After that, Gloria was able to help Nyx through the crisis however she could, right up until they joined Rhodes Island when they entered one of our buildings in Victoria.

The event has changed Nyx forever and it is certainly not something she’ll easily forget, but she is forever grateful that Gloria was born during her greatest time of need.

To this day, Nyx and Gloria have been continuously communicating to each other about their activities this way but after their therapy sessions, have also been figuring out alternative ways to break down their amnesiac barriers. This led to them creating a headspace of their own, which Gloria described to be a small bedroom in the middle of the night, with a nightlight on at all times. According to Gloria, this is what they find most comforting.

Promotional Record

Prior to them joining Rhodes Island, whenever Nyx and Gloria switched they often forgot about their alter’s activities during their time fronting. Gloria was the first to notice this problem when she spoke to Nyx during their time in Victoria, after hearing the latter ask what Gloria did. With this problem in mind, Gloria had the idea of using a journal she found to document both her and Nyx’s activities so that until they find proper shelter, their alter can remember what the other did so that they are aware of what happened.

Appointed as Assistant - Oh, it’s really bright in here… Doctor, do you mind if you turn down the lights a bit?

Dialogue

Normal text is Gloria speaking, italics is Nyx speaking.

Talk 1 - When we got into Rhodes Island, we weren’t sure what we were expecting… including the kindness that everyone was expressing! It’ll take a bit for Nyx to get used to, but I think she’ll also do just fine here!

Talk 2 - Our staff was given to us by Nyx’s dad. It has the power to sorta put people to sleep but to be honest, using the staff isn’t really a wise choice if we actually want to sleep…

Talk 3 - When I’m alone and Nyx is awake, we talk to each other. The same goes for Nyx too. Hm? Do people think it’s weird? I don’t think Nyx would care, as long as she has someone to talk to… and, well, she’s right for it.

Talk after Promotion 1 - There wasn’t a moment where I could get a good night’s rest back in Victoria… but when Gloria came along, I was finally able to rest. But… I do feel bad for making her go through those horrors. She’s a really brave person.

Talk after Promotion 2 - Oh, what’s that? Our Oripathy is worsening? Yes, that’s been a really big concern of ours… but we’re sure that Rhodes Island can do something. Right Nyx? … mhm.

Trust Talk 1 - Erm, let me apologize on Nyx’s behalf! She really didn’t mean to start that fight in the hallway, I promise! It’s just been a while since she properly talked to someone so her social skills are a bit rusty… but I promise, I’ll help her learn how to socialize better. Just please be patient with her?

Trust Talk 2 - If I’m allowed to be a little morbid here… you’re essentially the leader of Rhodes Island, right? If you die out there, I’d imagine that your operators… your friends, they wouldn’t take it well. Well, that’s why we’re here! We’ll protect you, and everyone, from the threats outside. That much we can promise.

Trust Talk 3 - You get tired from time to time, right? With that pile of work, surely you do lose a lot of sleep doing it… well, what if I have a solution to that? I can always just make you sleep for a day or two. All you have to do is say the word… and I’ll come right along with what you need… haha, just kidding. Too scary?

Idle - … sweet dreams.

Onboard - Ah, hello! I’m Gloria, but you’ve already seen our resume right? My headmate’s name is Nyx! Oh, but give her some time, she’s not used to talking to people yet… codename? Hmmm… well, I think Nyx would want something intimidating like Nightmare but… w-wait, you’re already registering it?! H-Hold on!

Watching Battle Record - So this is how you get stronger…? Intriguing…

Promotion 1 - When we came here, we thought we’d simply be patients getting treatment… but we’d never imagined that we’d be so much more…!

Promotion 2 - It feels like I’m not qualified for this promotion at all… but since Gloria insists, I’ll take it too. I’m just lucky to be alive at this point. So, whatever you need us to do, we’ll do it.

Appointed to Squad (S1) - Mhm, got it.

Appointed to Squad (S2) - I’ll do my best.

Appointed as Squad Leader (S1) - W-Wait, can I really do this alone?

Appointed as Squad Leader (S2) - You won’t be alone.

Depart (S1) - We’ll get a good night’s sleep after this, right…?

Depart (S2) - Curious… what kind of things will you pull off?

Begin Operation (S1) - I see them… over the horizon…

Begin Operation (S2) - So, these are the enemies we’re facing…

Selecting 1 (S1) - Are our supplies safe?

Selecting 1 (S2) - I’ll keep them safe.

Selecting 2 (S1) - I’m ready to fight!

Selecting 2 (S2) - Be sure you won’t regret this.

Deployment 1 (S1) - So this… is our battlefield…

Deployment 1 (S2) - I see no difference in battlefield.

Deployment 2 (S1) - I’ve only fought a few times, please bear with me…

Deployment 2 (S2) - It’s been a while since I’ve been somewhere like this.

In Battle 1 (S1) - Don’t get too rash now!

In Battle 1 (S2) - I’m only getting serious.

In Battle 2 (S1) - Keep yourselves calm!

In Battle 2 (S2) - Relax. You'll only be sleeping for a few seconds.

In Battle 3 (S1) - Have a nice rest!

In Battle 3 (S2) - Sweet dreams.

In Battle 4 (S1) - We’re still advancing? O-Okay!

In Battle 4 (S2) - Don’t waste our time.

4-Star (S1) - D-Doctor… did we just… do something incredible?

4-Star (S2) - So this is what total victory feels like…

3-Star (S1) - And that’s that! Good work everyone!

3-Star (S2) - It ends here. Well done.

2-Star (S1) - Ahhh, is anyone hurt?! I’ll be right there!

2-Star (S2) - We’ve won… but it’s costly. I’ll go clean up the mess.

Assigned to Facility - Where should we sit…

Failure (S1) - Are you hurt?! W-We need to run, now!

Failure (S2) - This… can’t be happening…

Tap - Ah-! Oi.

Trust Tap - Oh, hello! Hi.

Greeting - Good morning, Doctor! Are you well rested?

Title - Akunaitsu.

[firesage010]

So I've definitely manifested a lot in the last few days and I'm just so proud and happy.

So at first I wanted this job right, it's called Au Pair, basically an exchange program and taking care of kids from people in a different country and when we have time off we can explore Paris or wherever we are, you know. So I really wanted to do that and I was reading up on it and then decided to get another job that pays a lot so when I go be an Au Pair ill have enough money to do anything in France (where I want to go, you can go to any country besides ur own and UK if u from US, unless I manifest it differently but I am lazy)

So I decided one day to somehow find a fun job that pays 5k a week and I think either later that day or the next day my mom sends me this job offer on indeed which was a cruise ship and I signed up right away (the pay 15 an hour but.. I KNOW I'm getting 5k a week)

I researched that and heard.. Really good things about it... But I know it's gonna be fun, only like 6 hours every day- one break day and one half day so it will be so fun and for 20k a month? Hell yea.

So the manifestations- I heard from research it was so hard to get responses in time, like so hard some people where emailing crazy to this company to only be told they missed something or they were already set, there was no communication and I was like ummm no I'm getting instant replys. And I did-

I did the interview, got the application like two hours after cuz I knew I was gonna get it and I just watched YouTube to keep it from making me overthink, the next day I got both an offer letter and the onboarding contacted me. Which mind you even the interview person said that it will take around 3 weeks to get all of that, which is crazy.

Another thing is, I need to pay for only one thing and they pay for the rest.. I didn't have any way to pay so I've been affirming that everything always works out for me and yesterday I got a text from someone and I told her about it and she set me up with something that can pay it all-its only 125.25

Mind u again, this all started Monday with a collective virtual interview with 70 people, it was the first interview of the week (cuz people signed up for it) so the fact that they emailed me so fast was definitely my doing.

So now I'm visualising and affirming how good and fun this cruise job is, because it is, why wouldn't it. I see the part where when I don't think about it so much and overthink if I'm just gonna get on a ship where they overwork you, I am a God, I control this world this world loves me and can't control me 🥰. It's crazy how easy this is tbh, ik I've heard it before and took it in but just saying I got it already and just going about my day and getting it like the same day, 😖😍 it's so awesome.

All methods I really did was my voice in tik tok telling me over and over "everything always works out for me" (only has it playing once a day for idk how long-for 2 days) and being confident, that confidence really played a role in this whole thing. I talked about the job like I already got it, talked about the planning of it before I even got the offer letter, visualized packing cool clothes in my luggage, researching onboarding advice etc.. For a while (it's been 5 days-its only 6am so 4 days lol)

As everyone says, "act as is" act as if you already have it, keep that state and watch a normal YouTube video (not on manifesting or shifting) or before bed, act as is and then go to sleep no need to get into this alpha state or void state (you are void) if you had that thing you wanted, would you try to keep awake and do all of this stuff? No you'll go to sleep like normal, you'll get it, it's that easy.

[sameheart-sameblood]

Turn of the Tide

pairing: wojchek x f!reader

summary: wojchek discovers you've disguised yourself as a man to work aboard the demeter and agrees to keep your secret. he begins treating you different than the other crewmates and you confront him about his unfair behavior

words: 2.8k

warnings: angst, mentions of reader's sad background, chest binding, fluff, me not knowing anything about ships and what happens on them

a/n: popping in to say i'm not dead, just depressed and busy lol. truly grateful to this character for pulling me out of my fic slump. im back to once again make a grumpy fictional man way softer than he was ever meant to be hahaha. also guess im obsessed with david dastmalchian now?? didn't have that on my 2023 bingo card tbh

read on ao3!

Sailors believe in many things. A red sunrise can send them into a panic, anticipating the swells and overbearing winds they’re so sure are to come. Red skies at night, however, can make even the most pessimistic crewmate believe there’s fair weather on the way. Captains refuse to set sail on Fridays, sailors place coins under the mast for good fortune and mariners daren’t whistle lest they summon a storm. Many vessels even have a cat aboard, the little creatures seen to bring luck (and sharp teeth to lessen the rat population). 

Sailors believe in many things but above all they can agree that a woman on board is bad luck. Which seems silly to you because here you are, a woman who’s been on board The Demeter for many months now. Your presence had not brought ill fortune to the vessel. In fact, the weather had remained pleasant, despite the late summer month’s usual downpours and hurricanes. 

Granted none of the crew knew you were a woman. You had disguised yourself as a man, hair cut short and chest bound tightly, but that didn’t change the fact of your sex. A life of adventure on the seas had always called to you but there was no possibility of you being granted work on a ship. The only woman allowed onboard was the carved wooden figurehead of a mermaid that decorated the bow of a vessel. There was no place for you at sea. 

Not one to take no for an answer, you found your own way to get work as a sailor. You had spent time aboard trading ships, learning the ways of the trade and earning the trust of the men you crewed alongside. Your last posting had gone so well that the captain of that ship had recommended you to a friend for your next job. 

That friend had turned out to be Captain Eliot of The Demeter. Captain Eliot and his First Mate, Wojchek, had asked you a few questions, all of which you answered confidently. The Captain was a kind man who remarked positively at your experience. The First Mate, however, was standoffish, challenging your every answer. Wojchek frowned slightly as the Captain offered you the posting and as they walked away you heard him mutter, “He’s too scrawny, Captain. He won’t be able to pull his weight.” 

Captain Eliot had only chuckled, “I thought the same thing when I hired you. Look how wrong I was. You must learn to give people chances, Mr. Wojchek.”

While you appreciated the Captain’s confidence, you made it your mission to show this Mr. Wojchek just how mistaken he was. And for a time, your life aboard the ship was simple. You performed your duties well, befriended the men, took initiative and came to be seen as one of the more ambitious members of the crew. Even Wojchek had to admit, although never to your face, that your were one of the better sailors who had worked under him. 

That good will you had earned was probably the only thing that kept the First Mate from throwing you overboard when he found out who you really were. Your secret was discovered when Wojchek had walked in on you unannounced and had discovered you securing your chest binding. After much fussing, he had threatened to toss you off at the next port. 

You had pleaded with him to show some kindness and let you stay. Eventually, Wojchek reluctantly agreed to let you remain aboard but warned that he couldn’t help you if the rest of the crew found the truth about you. You had promised him that if you were discovered, you would never let on that he had been any the wiser.

The two of you came to an uneasy agreement and work continued, albeit now with a strained air between you. The men would often remark how the first mate would give you the hardest tasks. You had to agree with them. It did feel like Wojchek was taking out his frustration on you. After one particularly grueling day where he had assigned you to a back to back deck watch, you knew you had no choice but to confront him. 

******

You find him in the tiny room assigned to the First Mate of the ship . It was one of the few luxuries he was given on the boat. Whereas you and the other sailors slept where they could in hammocks tied between posts and amongst the cargo, Wojchek had a tiny room all to himself. He even had a porthole, something he takes great pride in.  

You hear him groan as you continuously knock on the door, disrupting his peace. Footsteps approach and the door squeaks open. Wojchek grimaces down at you. 

“What is it, sailor?”

“I need to speak with you, sir.”

“I don’t have time. Neither do you. It’s nearly your watch.”

“I’m not due on deck for a good while yet.”

“We can talk later. Be on your way.”

He starts to close the door but you push against it, anger surging through you at his dismissal. You barge into his room, slamming the door behind you. Wojchek’s eyes widen for a moment, caught off guard by your boldness. But a moment later, he’s back to his usual gruff self. He glowers, backing away from you like you carry a disease he’s worried is catching. 

“This isn’t appropriate.”

“Why? Because I’m a woman?”

“Keep your voice down!”

“It’s not a dirty word.”

“It is when you are disguised as a man on a ship. I’ve kept your secret and I’ll continue to do so. If any of the others were to find out, though…”

“I’ve been sailing with these men for nearly a year. They’re my friends but they’re not the most observant. I think my secret is safe. Besides, if they found out…” you lead off, shrugging your shoulders. 

Wojchek’s face darkens at your blasé attitude. “You think these men are your friends? They would turn on you the second they found out the truth about you.”

“That’s not true,” you retort, “just because you hate me doesn’t mean they would.”

“When did I ever say I hate you?”

“You don’t have to. The way you treat me is proof enough. The others may not have realized I’m a woman but they have started to notice you seem to give me the worst tasks and the most watches.  They know you don’t like me. Sooner or later, they’ll really try and figure out why. You might be the one that reveals my secret to them without meaning to.”

“I don’t hate you, I…”

He looks at you. Really looks at you, something he tried not to do very often once he noticed how catching sight of you made his heart skip a beat. His shoulders tense as he stares into your bright, vulnerable eyes, so out of place in a sailor. 

“You have no idea what a life at sea does to you.” He anticipates the retort you have ready to throw at him and holds up a silencing hand, imploring you to let him finish. “You’ve been on The Demeter for almost a year. No small feat for anyone, man or woman. You’re a good sailor. One of my best. People like you all start out the same, hungry for adventure. They see a life sailing from place to place as an answer to all their problems. And for a time, they’re happy. But eventually, the work breaks you. It keeps you from your family, from your friends. People on land move on while you’re away for months, even years at a time. ” 

Wojchek pauses, all the fight leaving him. “When you come back to port, you look for those who promised they’d always be there for you but one day they don’t come back. The ship’s arrival to land no longer brings hope and the sea can no longer mend the hurt that’s inside you. ” He lowers his gaze, perhaps remembering those whom he’s lost over the years. 

“The light leaves the men’s eyes once they realize that their world has shrunk to the size of this ship. They have nowhere else they belong. It’s suffocating. They grow resentful. I don’t want that for you. I don’t want to see the light leave your eyes.”

The whiplash of it all makes your head spin. You’ve been so convinced these last few months that this man hates you. Now he’s speaking to you more than he has this whole year. Not only that, it seems the worry over your wellbeing has cost him sleep. More so than a First Mate is supposed to spend worrying about a subordinate… 

The light in your eyes? Honestly, you didn’t know that was something you possessed. Maybe a glint of steely determination but you would never have called it anything akin to hope. Your life had always been hard. Being born a woman made life a constant struggle. Being born a poor one made it near impossible. 

Wojchek hasn’t moved, still close enough that you can feel the heat coming off of him in the crisp autumn night air that seeps through the tiny cracks in the ship. His eyes, however, keep jumping between your face and the floor. What he’s said has finally sunk in and along with it, his shame of wearing his heart on his sleeve. 

You keep your voice low as not to scare him. Seeing the usual rock of a man so skittish makes you approach your next words with the same precision as someone handling explosives. “I was born  in squalor to a family that saw my existence as nothing more than a burden. I spent most of my days wondering where my next meal would come from and if I’d have somewhere to sleep. I learned to deal with my lack of means. The thing I never could get over was the fact that I had no one in my life who cared if I lived or died.”

This is nothing you haven’t thought before but something about saying it aloud takes your breath away. A pressure grows in your chest as you fight the emotion that comes with revealing your own secrets. Wojchek doesn’t make it any easier, his once darting gaze now fixed intently on you. It’s your turn to avoid his dark eyes, staring at your shoes as you continue. 

“I was never truly happy until I came on The Demeter. I have food, my own bed, purpose, adventure…friends,” the last word almost doesn’t make it past your throat, now tight with emotion. “I finally feel like I have a home.”

It’s only fair that you tell him the whole of your truth seeing how he’d kept your secret for the last few months. He deserves that much. The tension in the room swirls thick but you aren’t sure if it’s because the First Mate is preparing to send you away or not. You wouldn’t blame him if he did throw you off the ship. With you gone, everything could return to the way it was. It might be better for everyone. 

You become lost in your own dark thoughts. Wojchek reaches out a hand, brushing your hair, shorn short and shaggy as part of your disguise, off of your face. You close your eyes at the touch, savoring the feel of his calloused fingers skimming so gently across your skin. All too soon, he’s pulling his hand away, remembering himself. 

“The Demeter is also the only home I’ve ever known,” Wojchek admits, “It’s a good ship and she’s been strong and true to me. If you’re sure this is where you want to be then you’re welcome to stay as long as you like.”

You nod your thanks, tears threatening to spill again at the relief of knowing you don’t have to leave. When they begin to roll down your cheeks despite your efforts to keep them hidden, Wojchek tuts softly, “Everything will be alright, kotku.”

You may not know the meaning of the word but you can understand from the tenderness in his eyes that it’s a term of endearment in his native tongue. The realization makes you bold. 

“It’s not just the ship or the crew that make The Demeter my home. It’s you.” You force yourself to maintain eye contact with Wojchek, fighting the instinct to look away. The though that he may not return the strength of your feelings sends a shiver of fear through you but you need him to understand how you feel. 

Wojchek searches your face for some deceit but finds only raw truth. He takes a step forward mere inches between you now. His hands twitch to reach for you again but he holds himself back. Above all else, Wojchek is a professional. Just because he thinks you want him doesn’t mean he’ll take the risk of abusing the power imbalance between you. 

Instead, you take the initiative. “May I kiss you, Mr. Wojchek?” It comes out as nothing more than a whisper but he nods. You lean in, teetering on your toes, never realizing how tall he actually was until now. A particularly strong wave hits the ship and you lose your balance. Before you can lose your footing, he has you in his arms. 

Wojchek hikes you up, bringing your face level to his. Years of working the ship have made him strong as an ox and he thanks the gods that he finally has good use for the muscles that hide beneath his tunic.

You press your lips to his and it takes you a few moments to remember to breathe. The kiss is trepidatious and sweet but leaves your stomach swirling with butterflies. Wojchek’s grip tightens on you, scared he’ll find that you’ve been some sprite in his dream that the morning sun will chase away. It feels good to be pressed together like this, limbs intertwined so you’re not sure where you end and he begins.

All too soon, he breaks away, gasping slightly. It seems you weren’t the only one who forgot how breathing works. The sight of the usually stern man so undone by a chaste kiss makes you chuckle.  Your hand grazes his cheek, running over his stubble. It’s strange to remember that just an hour ago you were convinced Wojchek wanted nothing more than to throw you overboard. Now he’s holding you like he’ll never let you go. How quickly life can change for the better. 

The tranquility is broken by the banging of Olgaren resonating through the wood of the ship. Your watch will soon begin and if you aren’t there to take your post, someone will come looking for you. The ship won’t sail itself and you sigh, realizing you can’t put off your responsibilities in favor of staying with Wojchek all night. 

The First Mate groans, “Stay a little longer.”

“I’m late as it is!” You smile at his pout. It’s a new expression you’ve never seen from his before and you push him down onto his tiny bed, kissing him once again. Another bang resounds through the ship and you whine, getting back to your feet. 

“I’ll make Abrams cover your watch.” Wojchek offers, staring up at you with comically pleading eyes. 

“You’ll have a mutiny on your hands if you come between that man and his sleep. Besides, it’s only four hours. You can even come visit me on deck if you like. It’s single watch so there won’t be anyone around to wonder why we’re together.”

“Four hours?” he grumbles.

“You’re the one who assigned me double watch!” 

Wojchek leans back, watching you button your jacket, trying your best to look presentable. He can’t help but smile at the commitment to your work ethic. “I’ll be up as soon as you relieve Olgaren.”

You nod, trying to remove the smile plastered on your face but failing miserably. Hopefully Olgaren is too tired to ask questions when he sees you. “See you soon.”

You’re about to open the door when you remember something. “What does kotku mean?”

Wojchek smiles, “Little cat.”

Once again you’re struck by the sweetness of a man so eager to have the world call him unfeeling. The nickname makes sense. You yourself believe that your presence seems to bring fair weather and good luck to the boat. The Demeter might not have a four legged feline to bring fair fortune but you’re the next best thing; positive, tenacious and willing to do anything for the good of the ship and crew. 

You grin at Wojchek, who now lounges happily on his tiny bed, looking somewhat feline himself. “Are you sure you want to call me that? A ship can never be without a cat. It’s bad luck. You’ll never be rid of me.”

Wojchek smiles contentedly, blinking slowly, sleep seemingly not far off. The chances of him joining you on deck for the evening appear to be dwindling. You’d be devastated if he didn’t look so adorable. He nods, beckoning you for one last kiss goodbye. “Good. I’ll keep calling you kotku so we never have to be apart.”

******

[tamsiblings]

okay i've got things to say about simon knowing about river's assassin conditioning in the movie that i'll talk about later (tldr; don't buy at all that it's not a total retcon and i think simon's reaction to finding out river shot the men at niska's makes that clear.)

but tbh i am more sold on him knowing about her psychic abilities. i used to think he wasn't at all aware in the show proper and was genuinely puzzled, at the start of this rewatch i was more in the space of like. i think he knows subconsciously that there's a lot of shit river shouldn't be able to know but does, but he's still genuinely in denial at this team meeting at the dinner table scene. but now my perspective is like - i think it was subconscious at first. and then he becomes more and more aware. (i'm SO curious about where his thoughts are at in war stories in particular. he notices a pattern on one of river's scans that he finds really significant.) and i can't of thing he's lying his off in this scene now, knowing that yeah, river is some form of psychic, but not wanting them to think that because he's Seen first-hand how people react when they think someone is too different with them, back in safe. and while i don't think he thinks anyone on the crew would go That far, i do think he's very worried about their honestly very precarious position on the ship at this point. so i get why he would lie here.

simon doesn't look particularly confused or surprised by mal's statement here - but he does raise his head slightly and look. kind of concerned.

he tries to play it off with what i think Has probably been his rationalization to himself as he was coming to grips with river's abilities

but mal presses him on it (because he can totally tell simon is trying to walk around the subject)

now, this is ofc subjective but... simon does not look shocked by the suggestion here, to me. he looks more like "oh fuck" and then immediately turns to zoe before he has to respond.

not gonna include a bunch of screenshots of it but the jayne-wash chaos ahdhsh and inara interrupting gives simon some time to gather himself

and when he does, so much of his body language feels... a little forced. like he's trying a little too hard to be confused/look more surprised than he was before.

like, it's very possible that i'm reading into this. but i do think it's incredibly plausible that he either is on some level aware but Very Deeply In Denial - or that at this point, he does know, and he's lying about it and Keeps Lying because he feels increasingly trapped.

and again: i don't think that's an unsympathetic reading at all. simon and river's position onboard has never been stable to begin with, and this only further threatens it, but they are in the very vulnerable position of being highly wanted fugitives who can't just like, go anywhere. it's said by multiple characters (including mal himself) that while it's possible they could find a safe-ish place, realistically, the threat of the alliance is going to make that Extremely Fucking difficult for them. simon knows that. it doesn't surprise me that he would hold onto a lie Really Really hard if he thought it meant keeping river safe.

[comicaurora]

So, you mentioned on the podcast that you were watching some classic-era Gundam.

For the season(s) you've watched, assuming you're not planning on suddenly taking the plunge and making a Universal Century Detail Diatribe, would you mind sharing your opinion so far? Universal Century can be a bit divisive, but I always enjoy seeing people's opinions on it. I have mixed feelings on some of the decisions made, myself, but in the grand scheme of things I enjoy what I've seen so far. (Especially Unicorn, but that's not really classic era.)

Also, I'd like to reccomend watching (or reading!) Gundam The Origin, since it acts as a really good, pretty, (and in the anime's case, short) prequel series to the original.

It's interesting! I've watched the compilation movies for 1 and 2 and most of 3, and I can't tell if they lost the plot after 1 or if the writers were being really, really scathing in a subtle way.

1 was incredibly blatant about how Amuro is a traumatized kid who got strongarmed into being the gundam pilot and using it to kill people, something that he clearly absolutely hates - and it's pretty overt that the Federation Force is more than willing to mulch up as many child soldiers as they want in order to win. The movies, and I assume the show they're compiled from, go out of their way to show that there are sympathetic young people on both sides of the conflict that just want to be free of this war, and there are also right bastards on both sides that are willing to be very callous with the lives of others. You can, of course, always identify who the compassionate people are by how pretty they are, and all the right bastards by how grotesque they are. It's pretty unsubtle about that being the core of the narrative, and they really twist the knife at certain points, like when Amuro's mother is horrified and ashamed at him self-defense-killing a Zeon soldier that was actively menacing her refugee camp, and Amuro concluding that she doesn't love him and he truly has no family to go back to.

By 2, things have gotten a little confusing, and I'm inclined to assume this is because the compilation movies had to make some cuts that would've made the character arcs flow a little more smoothly. Amuro decides to leave the whole war behind, which makes sense, but he takes the gundam, which doesn't. They introduce this thread that Amuro is extremely attached to the gundam and very proud of his ability to pilot it, and he has an actual breakdown when he learns that other members of the crew are now trained in its operation and can use it just fine, if not quite as skillfully as he can. It seems like there was a bit of a lurch from "Amuro has been unwillingly dragged into this nightmare and is forced to fight again and again despite his extremely obvious PTSD" to "Amuro refuses to let go of the giant robot that tethers him TO this nightmare," and while it's very interesting in the implications, it doesn't exactly flow cleanly. In fact, this is where there seems to be a bit of a shift from "war is bad" to "wow! cool robot." Amuro goes from PTSD-catatonia every time he destroys an enemy mobile suit to counting them during fight scenes, which is kind of a chilling indicator of the mechanized horror he's becoming accustomed to - assuming that was on purpose and not just a broad defanging of the story to do more Cool Robot Fights.

But the thing is, there's this subplot sometime around 2 or 3 involving a bunch of actual toddlers that have been hanging around on the ship - because it started as a refugee vessel escaping the destruction of a colony, so there's a lot of women (who are now conscripted pilots, of course, and shockingly badass for the era it came out in) and children onboard, and they've been stuck on the front lines running from Zeon with almost no ground support because the Federation likes throwing the gundam at things too much to care about a handful of six-year-olds potentially getting mulched. But throughout this little arc, the kids are finally on track to getting rehomed on Earth by the military - something that the kids are unhappy about because they've got a whole Found Family thing going, but Amuro approves of them leaving, saying "little kids shouldn't see people killing each other," which aligns very firmly with how he is a kid who hates all the killing he's stuck in.

Except then the happy ending is that the six-year-olds get to stay on the warship because they recently helped out with bomb disposal and "they've seen things you guys can't imagine, they don't want to leave!" And this is either really losing the plot or absolutely brilliant spiteful writing on the part of the creative team, because as I understand it, executive meddling was pushing them to include newer, flashier, more colorful giant robots (weapons of war and untold suffering that our teen hero has been trapped in by a mechanized war machine that has effectively enslaved him for his talents) to push toys to the exact age demographic of those chipper six-year-olds. It's almost like the teenage child soldiers are turning out to directly face the camera and saying "what's the difference between forcing us onto the front lines and letting these precocious youngsters keep flinging themselves into the crossfire? Gotta sell more gunplas, right?"

So if that was on purpose, I really liked it. If not, it's kinda hearbreaking to see the show gradually start pulling its punches in favor of turning the Oops All Babies warship into a heartwarming found family situation.

Also they started really banging the "newtypes are the plot now" drum in 3 and once everyone started getting psychic powers I kinda lost steam tbh

[friedfriedchicken]

Hello fellow WFC Breaksounder may I please ask for your head-canons of them 🙏

OHHH YOU GOT IT BESTIE- I'm writing a fic right now but I'm in writer's block so this is gonna be fun letsgooo

Gonna keep this fluffy because I'm in a fluffy mood (<- person who just posted an angsty fic)

I wrote a ton of like- story points- so I'm stuffing it under a read more because uhhhh that's long whoops

Headcanons on how they met because I'm a yapperrrr and I've barely had anyone to yap to about them <3

Soundwave and Breakdown first met during the war. It was by chance that Megatron brought both of them on the train-station-thingy mission but he needed a trusted officer and a good soldier who wound't yap (WFC Breakdown is a yapper but he wouldn't dare say anything that would get him on Megatron's bad side.)

Their first encounter stuck with Soundwave. He's not sure why but something irritating about Breakdown made him smile, or whatever equivalent he had.

Megatron, being old friends with Soundwave, could tell that his Intelligence Officer was comfortable and let his old-self peak through. Whether it was concious or subconcious, that's for Primus to decide. Breakdown really enjoyed being brought into this weird friendgroup for like, 6 hours, or something.

Breakdown and Soundwave wouldn't cross paths again until Breakdown and Knock Out were summoned to the Nemesis.

By this point, Breakdown has mostly gotten over his anxiety, being the character we know him as in Prime, which Soundwave found odd. Soundwave never bothered to keep close tabs on Breakdown because what problems would he cause anyways? Not enough to be a threat, that's for sure.

Anyways, they don't say much to eachother, they're just two Decepticons on the same ship.

That is, until Breakdown was taken by M.E.C.H. and dissected.

Soundwave suffered a similar, even more grevious injury, during the height of the war and felt like he had to help the wounded bot. Also Knock Out was out racing because who knew Jasper, Nevada had such great street races!?

So that put Soundwave in the position to patch Breakdown up. Breakdown was scared at first (who wouldn't be when Megatron's right hand bot is staring you down?) but when he figured out what Soundwave was doing, accepted the help.

Soundwave is a smart 'con and like any good doctor, started to observe Breakdown to make sure his body adjusted to the patch job. It's during this that Soundwave began to feel some odd emotions. Not the same irritations but, something else. He couldn't describe it but he wanted to know more about the blue-grey truck.

Breakdown took notice of Soundwave's sudden attention and took this as a sign to start opening up to the silent bot. Breakdown, as always, was a yapper and liked to befriend the Vehicons onboard the Nemesis because all the other officers were less than friendly or Knock Out. Talking to the same guy over and over again can get boring, as much as you like them.

Knock Out became suspicious of Soundwave but quickly deduced what was going on and started to play matchmaker between his friend and the Intelligence Officer.

And normal relationship headcanons because I am obsessed with these two

Their love language is gift-giving and acts of service. Breakdown has an interest in Earth with how different it is from Cybertron and likes to bring back little presents for Soundwave. Soundwave returns the love by grooming Breakdown, as taught by Knock Out lol. You can tell the two just had a date when Breakdown looks extra shiny and/or Soundwave is trying to adapt some Earth tech into the Nemesis' systems.

Soundwave doesn't like to leave the Nemesis because standing on Earth makes him feel cramped and lost so the pair don't often go on dates outside of the ship but when they do, Breakdown tries to find places similar to Cybertron to comfort Soundwave. They've been to a few drive-in theaters, courtesy of Knock Out, of course.

Sometimes Soundwave sends Laserbeak out on missions with Breakdown for "insurance" but in reality, Laserbeak is also in on the pairing-up. Laserbeak also likes to take pictures of Breakdown just for Soundwave along with actively making sure the Decepticons have footage of whatever's going on just incase something happens.

Megatron absolutely can not fathom why Soundwave had suddenly become interested in Breakdown. The warlord suspects that Soundwave misses the gladiatorial arena and is trying to scope out a new rival to re-enact the old days with so Megatron is a little worried he might have infighting among his soldiers. As long as Soundwave is functioning, Megatron won't step in but, y'know. He hopes it's nothing bad.

Starscream is oblivious to the on-goings behind him.

Airachnid also takes notice in the pair's chemistry but says nothing. It's not her place to talk and she wouldn't gain anything if she did besides look like a crazy conspiracy theorist.

Dreadwing sees Breakdown's and Soundwave's closeness but never thinks too deep into it until after Breakdown's death.

The Autobots never find out about Soundwave and Breakdown's courting.

Both Soundwave and Breakdown come to think their love for the other is one-sided until Knock Out has to break the glass between them. He's very blunt and even a little rude about it but he's just so fed up with them dancing around eachother and never with eachother that he just had to burst in. Laserbeak doesn't react well to this and gets embarrassed on Soundwave's behalf. They all sort out their emotions later and things go smoothly.

Breakdown hoped to fix his broken eye after the war ends but goes back on that thought when he realizes that he'd much rather match Soundwave. Maybe he can get a visor like Soundwave's to cover his missing eye!

Soundwave wanted to finally retire after the war but he starts opening himself up to other possibilities after starting a relationship with Breakdown. He'd be fine doing anything as long as it's with his partner and minicon.

When she's bored, Miko will start making up nonsense lore for the Decepticons to get the Autobots' attention. Her favorite is suggesting that Breakdown and Soundwave have a fairytale Shakespearean tragedy K-drama-esque romance going on between them and it really peeves a majority of Team Prime. Hence why it's her favorite nonsense lore. Even Agent Fowler gets heavily confused and concerned for Miko's well-being.

[libertyreads]

Book Review #8 of 2025--

The Moon the Sun Forgot by B.J. Wagner. Rating: 3.5 stars.

Read from January 30th to February 2nd.

Before I get into the bulk of the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Mythic Roads Press for allowing me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review. The Moon the Sun Forgot is a dual POV SciFi novel that follows Kassia McCullough, a mariner who lives off the ocean under the surface of Europa's icy shell, and Max Danzig, a detective from Earth. Their paths intersect as they both plot courses for revenge. Kassia hunts for Pretorious Grant, the man she holds responsible for her father's suicide, while Max has traveled the solar system to bring Pretorious Grant's half-brother Somerled Rhone to justice (and to get some personal justice of his own). The Moon the Sun Forgot comes out on March 3rd and is available for preorder now.

When I first started this ARC, I thought to myself, "Finally. Some good SciFi again." The world building at the beginning of this novel really hit it out of the park for me (though, it did fade later on). There's just something about SciFi where it strikes a cord when you see the intricacies of a world that's had to be adapted by humans and for humans. Seeing the different ways the ships are built and the maintenance required due to different conditions, seeing what's been adapted for human life, seeing how humans have adapted for space. It's what gives me so much love for the genre. The set up at the beginning was just so good. Also, who doesn't love a revenge story? I enjoyed our main characters Kassia and Max so much. Probably Kassia more than Max because she is so confident and sure of herself. But the character who could really steal the show for me was Alex, their onboard A.I. You can place your eye roll here. Hi, my name is Liberty and I love any sort of A.I./droid/bot (the murderous and non-murderous kinds). That's probably the first thing you should know upon meeting me. Alex was able to act as moments of levity in really dark moments or was able to bring our main characters back to reality when they were lost in fantasies of each other (or their revenge). Such a great character.

As I said before, the world building was lacking once we truly got into the story which made it all fade away for me. I wish I had felt more grounded in the world. All of the components were there to make this such an amazing story for me, but I felt like this one kept us at an arm's length. When the romance was introduced, I was genuinely surprised. Because I had no idea they felt romantic emotions for each other. So, despite being in both of our main characters' heads, I felt pretty separate from what they were thinking and feeling. It also felt like the fire of revenge didn't really burn in our characters. I could see that they definitely blamed those people for their roles in what happened in the past, but I never truly felt the anger, hatred, and passion that supposedly ruled these characters. There were also just moments when the romantic side of the story felt a little...off. It wasn't the right time or place, in my opinion. Or the descriptions were just so obviously written by a man for men. Which feels weird to say. I normally don't complain about sex scenes being written by a man or a woman due to gender. It's more of a general asexual who doesn't quite get what the hype is about or whatever normally. This time it just felt like the authorial voice was too present in the sex scenes. I didn't enjoy it.

Overall, this was a good SciFi novel (not great, but still good) and I'm ready as ever to read more SciFi. I think this is a good jumping off point for any reader looking to get into SciFi. I think both the romantic plot line and the humorous side characters can really bridge the gap for readers.

[le-trash-prince]

for the five or whatever many things meme/prompt...whatever:

the story of how dean completely accidentally becomes the top dog of their prison block and how winner somewhat accidentally becomes his bitch

I'm making this a space prison AU because thinking about real prison just makes me sad dfkgdfgd

setting-wise this is inspired by The Salvation Gambit but garbled because I'm going off of memory of having read it once.

Background plot-wise, things are similar to Pit Babe, just, you know, space-ified. Babe champions a local star-system racing circuit, Tony deals in interstellar human trafficking (I'm going with "special alpha powers are a human thing"), Kenta is an android (I have so many thoughts about android Kenta to share later), and Dean and Winner are on the same shuttle, post-series, getting shipped off to the nearest prison planet. Winner spends the entire trip bragging about how his family is sooo wealthy, he'll get a retrial and be out of there in no time, and "maybe if you kiss my boots I'll think about helping you out." Which just pisses Dean off, but whatever.

But, there's an unexpected change of plans, and their shuttle gets hijacked by a massive, unsanctioned prison ship run by a sentient, megalomaniacal AI that views itself as the prisoners' god of redemption. They're not just prisoners now, they're captives, and nobody ever escapes this ship. Not that this is going to stop them from trying—they're both pilots after all. They're each given a "welcome kit" and then dropped into a hallway where they're immediately jumped by a trio of scavengers. Winner, as always, cowers after a single hit, but Dean—he may be small, he may be new, but he's angry and he's willing to hurt people, and he fights them off until they're rescued by another, friendlier group.

They get taken to this group’s quadrant for the night, and they’re given the recruitment speech, "we grow our own fresh food, we've got weapons," but they've also got boring rules that Winner isn't interested in living by. And if these people are desperate enough to recruit newbies, it means there's bound to be better things elsewhere in the ship. Dean on the other hand is a little taken-in by being pampered and told what an asset he'd be, and he's a little annoyed by Winner's assumption that Dean would just follow him wherever. Especially when Dean is starting to realize he could actually take Winner in a fight, so who actually needs who here? They argue, Winner storms off, and then Dean has a "goddamnit" moment of realizing this ship is bigger than he can even fathom, and the only familiar face onboard is about to disappear, possibly for good. And Winner is a better pilot than him, which still makes him Dean's best chance of ever seeing daylight again. They need each other. So he grabs what he can from the little room they'd been set up in and sulks off after Winner.

From there, the two of them make their way through the different quadrants of the ship, trying to learn the ins-and-outs so they can hatch their escape plan. They get a change of clothes that removes the "fresh meat" target on their backs. They have a "and there was only one blanket" moment on one of the colder levels. And they never cease to be amazed at just how expansive the ship is, and what kind of life people have built for themselves after having been trapped here for generations. They visit a market on a central level that has live music going on—the loud and pulsing sort that gets Dean stripping his jacket off and joining the crowd of dancers because he's been desperate to let loose. Winner prowls along the edge of the crowd, until he gives in to the heated looks that Dean keeps shooting his way and joins him in a dance that's mostly just the two of them grinding their hips against each other. And then there’s Dean grabbing Winner by the wrist and dragging him off to somewhere more private.

Winner is big and good at giving mean looks that intimidate most people, but Dean's the real scary one (he will bite your fingers off). Their goal is finding people who would be useful in figuring out an escape plan, but they end up amassing a small gang of recent intakes, and they hole up in one of the surveillance dead-zones of the ship. And Dean has never felt more useful or needed. The thing is, Winner still has family on the outside. He has something to lose if they never make it out of here. But Dean has already lost everything, and sometimes the thought that he might never see X-Hunter again is almost a relief. Like he doesn't have to face up to the past. He wonders if it would really be so bad to stay. But all it takes is a "No wonder you're such a shitty racer if you'd give up on it before you even got started," to remind Dean that they're still in a prison, and there's things on the outside that he wants to do. But he still gives Winner the cold shoulder for a whole day after that comment.

One last thing is Winner does eventually grow the tiniest spine and attack someone when they try carrying Dean off during a fight because he panics at the thought of something happening to Dean. Of course this is immediately followed up by a show of emotional constipation and “Maybe don’t be such a dead weight next time,” because it is still Winner.

Edit: Android!Kenta AU set in the same 'verse

[nottheweirdest]

Had to get involved in the love fest to say I found your writing maybe month ago, and since have read everything you've written, some of it many multiple times!!

You're an excellent writer, your characterisation of Sonic and Shadow is just spot on! Though I don't think I'd have counted myself a Sonadow shipper before I guess I am now!

It just makes perfect sense!

It's a joy to read your work and obviously I'm highly addicted! Thank you so much for continuing to post for us thirsty readers. Cannot wait to read the new masks chapter later 🙌🏻 and literally everything else you ever publish ❤️❤️

🥺😭🙏You're too sweet to me I stg.... Thank you so much 💖💖💖

That's so much reading, and to read some more than once?? That's on the list of best things you can say to a writer. You liked it so much you wanted to consume it again 🥰

I'm honored you like my characterization of them. I sure do love those two idiots (obviously lol) and would like to personally welcome you onboard the good ship Sonadow!! I hope you enjoy your stay 🖤💙 They really do just... go together

I'm gonna print this ask out and hang it on my wall so whenever I get insecure or sad I can read it again 💗 Truly thank you! I hope you keep enjoying Masks. I have so many other wips it's insane. The sonadow brainrot is powerful lol

[thetruearchmagos]

Submarine Stuff

@theprissythumbelina, this is for you!

So, you wanna know more about nuclear submarines...

I'll spare all of us an introduction and just go straight to answering the questions you've specified so far. If you have more, please give them to me!

---

I'm still stuck on how a nuclear reactor actually makes power. Does it just boil water and from there it's a steam engine?

While some of the resources I read through might give you that impression, the truth is slightly more complicated.

Here's the spark notes; it is a very bad idea to use water that's been exposed to the inside of a nuclear core to do basically anything directly. Instead, high temperature 'coolant' is exposed, and loses thermal energy, to a secondary volume of water through a heat exchanger. This water rapidly turns into high temperature, high pressure steam, which is then piped into a steam turbine, which harnesses the steam to turn at an incredible speed.

The next step is a little unclear to me so I'll try and explain what I understand. The rotation of the steam turbine, moderated through a series of gears, might be used to turn the propeller directly. Alternatively, this rotation gets used to generate electricity, for the ships general use and possibly (I think?) to turn an electrical motor that, again, would turn the main propeller.

After this, the now much cooler steam / water (no clue what state it's in at this point) gets pumped through a third circuit of water directly exposed to the sea to cool off, returned to the heat exchanger to be heated up, and the cycle continues.

Since you mentioned liquid metal cooled power plants, their main difference is that the water used in that first stage gets replaced by a sodium-potassium alloy in a liquid state. There's a few additional engineering differences that come with this style of coolant, but I'm not sure you want to hear that (and I know I'd rather not have to read up on it anytime too soon).

How do steam engines make electricity?

Basically, take your rapidly spinning turbine and attach it to one of these;

I left actually studying physics behind me a while ago so forgive me for not trying to explain how a DC generator works /s

#I'm so far out of my depth #Are nuclear submarines warmer than none nuclear cause of the heat

First of all, holy crap that's the best pun I've read in a week, and I don't even know if it was intentional.

Secondly... Ehhh???

For what it's worth, every single account of the interior of a modern submarine, which kinda inevitably includes all nuclear submarines, is that they're really damn cold as far as crew spaces are concerned thanks to the powerful AC they've got going. Seeing as the alternative is sweltering, absolutely hellish heat a la most Ww2 era boats, though, I think I know what I'd prefer.

But I get the feeling you're talking about the temperature of the hull, in which case...

If you can somehow notice any measurable temperature difference in the outer hull of a nuclear submarine VS a 'conventional' submarine...

Caused by heat which would somehow have had to bypass the heavily insulated core or coolant pipes...

And the entire interior of the vessel...

I think you're main problem would be that everyone onboard is very, very dead. Because the only thing I can think of that would cause that is a total reactor meltdown, with molten corium literally melting a hole out through the hull. And it's not as if the machinery of either type of submarine doesn't produce waste heat energy of some kind, all of which would be rapidly dissipated under any great depth of water.

Nonetheless, recent reading has led me to uncover the fact that nuclear submarines do, in fact, leave a heat-based signature thanks to their reactor above that of a conventional submarine. Basically, while the hull of a boat doesn't really emit much heat, when the tertiary loop of water, the one which cools down the water for the steam turbines, gets discharged into the open ocean it is noticeably warmer than the ambient temperature of surrounding sea water, a fact which surprised me until I remembered thermodynamics exists. So, while the heat of the reactor itself should be pretty well insulated from the external environment, in submerged running nuclear subs technically have a somewhat greater thermal 'signature' than non nuclear ones. Apparently some navies have looked for this signature as a way to detect the most stealthy modern submarines, but I don't know much about those efforts and I doubt the US Navy would be kind enough to brief me on 'em.

[itsanidiom]

SHIPPER TAG GAME

LET'S GOOOOO~ tagged by @negrowhat

1. What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don't care anymore?

Glorestor or Glorfindel / Erestor of Middle Earth Fanon Fame. Not that I don't CARE about it anymore, mind you. There's just not enough new content (for obvious reasons god it's old and there's like one conversation of original source material). I don't think about them as much anymore. Like I used to be reading fanfic EVERY NIGHT and we're talking like novel length fanfics (as you can imagine people in the LOTR fandom write lol). Anyway here's some super old fan art... (>u<)

2. Which ship would you consider your first one?

Oh god...something Dynasty Warriors related for sure...

Probably like Sun Ce / Zhao Yu or Gan Ning / Lu Xun. (GO WU! lol) I feel like there were other couples I'm totally forgetting right now...but yeah god I love Dynasty Warriors...

Also...daaamn Gan Ning looks good there I should go buy the latest game. (>w<)

3. Your first fanfic belonged to which couple?

Like the first one I wrote or read?? I went into my oldest of old "old writing" folders and found this list of docs that I haven't been touched in over ten years. SO I'm gonna saaaay it was a Dynasty Warriors fanfic...one of these pairings. (^ ^;)

Also kind of hilarious to see that I literally still organize my fanfic files in the same way for over half my fucking life ago...nice...

4. Do you remember the first couple you saw a fanart over?

I feel like it would have been something Inuyasha related. That or something Final Fantasy X. I do not remember, but it was probably some version of these scene.

5. Did you ever get into ship discourse?

Not that I can remember...do not need this in my life...lol but maybe I've reblogged some RPF like discourse? Like the "should or shouldn't you ship" type discussions. I'm on the side of "do whatever you want but don't send it to the famous people" [ex. like ATEEZ fanfic/fanart] or "if they are literally doing it as part of their promo go ahead, it's for fun/they literally requested it as part of their promo" [ex. BillyBabe]. (^ ^;)

6. Did you used to have any no-otp or have it currently?

It honestly always depends on the quality of the fanart or the fanfic because even a notp can turn into a OH!tp if it's good enough. [Exhibit a: my Phaya/Tharn/Chalothorn fanfic]

7. Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

Weirdly the one new Chalothon/Singh fic from The Sign. But I really need AO3 to fix the spelling of his name in the tag...

8. Currently, do you have any OTPs?

PhayaTharn are the current obsession~

Look at them...adorable...

9. Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together?

Still wish John Wick / Santino fucked...also like James Bond / Q and The Protagonist / Neil and Arthur / Eames...bromance is SUCH a waste but considering the genres of these movies it is never gonna happen...I have to wait for the Thai BL versions lol (^ ^;)

10. Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting?

OH I haven't been traumatized by watched it yet, but Dead Friends Forever has made me get onboard with Macau/Chay of KinnPorsche fame because OMG LOOK AT THESE CUTIES!!!!

11. Do you have any ship that, in the past, was considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

GOD I remember there was a LOT of Sesshomaru x Inuyasha yaoi when I was a kid LMFAO like...straight up cancelled...I dunno if it was normal back then but no yaoi was normal back then so like it sadly all got lumped together or something...then again looking at some of the comics that are coming out these days...

12. What was your favorite crack ship?

All the McFassy ships from back in the day like OMG REMEMBER JUNGKOV?? STELIOS AND LETO??? ARCHIE AND ROBBIE? SO MANY CROSSOVERS!!

LOL Sorry that just brought me back LOL

13. Who is the couple you read more fanfics of?

Ahhhh I don't know...I usually either write a lot or read a lot...I literally have a fic rec list for Glorestor lol and then when I look in my AO3 bookmarks the top ship is Hannigram sooooo let's say Hannigram even though I haven't read one for a while.

14. What most of your ships usually have in common?

toll and smol...i like me a toll and a smoll...lol or big and small...i dunno something something contrast something something just crush him and/or be uncharacteristically gentle or somehow incapacitate the larger man with your wiles...that is all...

15. What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

Miscommunication < seconding @negrowhat's response. Cannot stand it. Such a boring trope. Very annoying for me (the audience).

[being-of-rain]

I've been in a podcasts and video games mood for a while, but I think it's time to try and change back to reading and writing, because I've been doing far too little of both. So today I decided to spend some time finishing a few books.

I finished reading All Flesh Is Grass, the Time Lord Victorious novel that I put down... more than 18 months ago. Whoops. I couldn't be bothered starting from the start again so I just finished it. Una McCormack has a really wonderful way with words, I highlighted a lot of phrases I liked or made me laugh, such as the Great Vampires' Coffin Ship being described "like sailing through space in a velvet fridge." But while having Eight, Nine, and Ten together is very cool, I'm not sure the book captured the Doctors with its dialogue. And there was way too many paragraph breaks and cutting between scenes, often several on a page. On the whole these issues made me think the story would've been better as a script for an audio, but I think overall I enjoyed the Time Lord Victorious novels more than other people. Now that I've finished them, I'm going to finish listening to all the TLV audios, and consider myself done with the project. And when I feel like I have a bit more free time, I'll move on to Doom's Day. On the whole I think I'm less interested in it than I was with TLV, but it is nice to see that they took feedback from TLV onboard by restricting Doom's Day to a limited, ordered series rather than a sprawling chaotic web of stories. As much as I was amused by the sprawling chaotic web.

I also finished my reread of The Mysterious Mr Quin by Agatha Christie. I think it's definitely not some of Christie's best writing or cleverest mysteries, but it's still one of my favourites because of Mr Quin and Mr Satterthwaite's relationship. There needs to be a TV adaptation of the characters that can mix and match bits of the short stories and include all of the really emotional parts. Much more so than Christie's other protagonists, you could get really stylised TV with Mr Quin.

I read some 2006 Doctor Who short stories in my continuing project to refine a history of the Master's timeline. I've been consuming so much Master content recently, I really hope that I can pull all the fun facts I've learnt together into some kind of video eventually. I don't know how, but it'll be a good opportunity to learn some new creative skills!

I have so many novels and books on my to-read list, of course including the EDAs, which embarrassingly I haven't touched for a few years now, but I took a blood oath to someday finish in their entirety. But I think my next book might be yet another Doctor Who one, the 1999 Past Doctor Adventure Divided Loyalties, because it includes both (dubious) Master lore, and The Toymaker.

[lizard-shifter-noms]

Wayward Waters Chapter 2

——————————————————————————

Hello everyone! Chapter 2!

time to have them explore more of the world!

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

have fun reading!

and as always reblogs are appreciated! (Also ASK’s are open so feel free to bother me!)

AO3 Link for those that prefer the layout there;

AO3 Wayward waters

——————————————————————————

My first assumption upon getting properly on the boat was that I would indeed fit on the deck as an Ardua, three times even.

The second was that the ground wasn't as steady anymore.

The waves that gently swapped against the boat made it rock back and forth slightly, Arthur would probably have thrown up by now already.

I walked over the deck with Robin in tow, taking a closer look at the middle mast and the deck itself.

There were crates strewn about and some crewmates were tying them down to the ship with rope or lowering them into the ship itself through a hole.

Robin leaned so far over one that he almost fell in but I managed to snatch the back of his shirt before he did.

Having him on the deck properly again we went to search for Rikaad, if he was on board already he could tell us what to do.

I could shift into a giant, maybe I could help with the cargo somehow?

Thought that might scare people so maybe not, 

not to mention i was still hauling Robin's bag around with me while he had mine slung over his shoulder.

“Do you see Rikaad? Or even the captain? I want to now where to put our stuff”

The ginger shook his head.

“No, I don't even know who the Captain is! Ohh do you think he has an eyepatch? Like a pirate? Or a wooden leg?”

“No idea, I guess look for someone with the fanciest gear? Or like someone with medals on their uniform?”

I kinda doubted the captain would look like one of the pirates from stories, but then again I had no idea what to look for.

Continuing to look around we walked up a set of stairs, where we did find Rikaad talking to a man who wore a big dark red coat that had yellow accents and golden buttons.

Considering he was talking to Rikaad, that was probably the captain.

Rikkad suddenly turned around to face us,  as weird as it was that he knew we were there.

“There you are! Come here for a moment i'm going to introduce you to the captain of this vessel”

We walked over as instructed and he introduced the captain, who apparently was named Nemas.

Judging by his appearance, while still human, he wasn't native to Kamerasca and he had a face tattoo in the shape of a thorny rose stalk.

No wonder the ship was called Victory Rose.

“Welcome onboard! I hope none of you are prone to get seasick as we will spend a few days on the sea!”

Without missing a beat Robin replied.

“No, we left the one that gets sick back at home!”

the captain roared with guttural laughter.

“AHAHAHA good one! One less thing to worry about then,  last time I had a seasick guy onboard he fell in the water! Now then I'll have one of my crewmates show you your cabins later! We only need to tow the last crate and get all of the crew!”

He jumped over a railing to the lower part of the big deck and I could see from up here he was filling his lungs with air.

“GUYS! GET YOUR SHIP WIVES AND GET READY!  WERE ABOUT TO LEAVE HARBOR!”

That guy could yell loud, I should have held a hand over my ears, and what the hell were ship wives?

Whatever, I followed Rikaad and Robin down again to the deck where a sailor with a scarred throat mentioned for us to follow.

We did as instructed and the man led us to a bunch of cabins in the back of the ship, Rikaad got the biggest seeing as he was king.

Robin and I got one somewhat close and tossed our bags inside before going back on deck to watch the city get smaller and smaller behind us.

How weird, my entire life I had spent scared of being murdered in the city, and now I was on a ship to the trader islands with the king himself.

To Make sure I REALLY wasn't dreaming I pinched myself, yeah no, wide awake.

But still crazy to think about, so I just sat there for a while and watched Kamerasca get smaller and smaller. 

But I still made sure to keep an eye on Robin who clambered all over the place, ready to sprint after him should he even get close to falling in the water.

After a few minutes of that he joined me and we watched as Kamerasca slowly disappeared, talking about what details we could still make out.

At some point nothing of Kamerasca was visible anymore, not even the Castle and I had to admit this was a very fast boat despite its size.

Not that I knew anything about sailing though.

Since it was midday when we left it was only a few hours till dinnertime, I wondered what that would be like on the ship, did they also have a big table? Did that even fit in here?

Though maybe they would just hand out rations to the people and leave them to eat them on their own.

I did see a table in the captains quarter, though that one had been full of maps and other stuff I couldn't even name, Oakley would have had a blast with that I'm sure.

I decided to look around the deck a bit while Robin went and talked the ears of some sailor off about the boat and whatnot.

What I did find weird was that none of the sailors even batted an eye at me, considering my bastard status and pointy ears that was a tad strange.

I decided to talk to a few of the sailors out of curiosity.

As it turned out they just didn't care,  and had seen way weirder things on their journeys, they even pointed out the various injuries they had gotten from unusual creatures.

For example a missing finger from a horned wolf who had looked pettable for way too short and a chunk bitten out of someone's leg by a seadrake, as well as the sailor from before with the scarred throat.

The other ones told me he was mute which made sense given he hadn't made a single sound and the reason for that and the scars was that he got into a bar brawl with a tall and bumpy skinned guy that had possessed tusks.

Apparently the being aimed to rip out his throat with said tusks and I winced in sympathy, that must have hurt as hell! 

But he obviously survived, and when I asked how they told me their Captain had fought the attacker and cut his head off with the tusks still embedded in the mute man's throat. 

They brought him to a doc like that to prevent him from bleeding out.

What a wild story! And it was nice to know that according to them it was one of the least freaky things they came across.

They also told me they kept the tusks and they were somewhere in the captain's quarters.

These guys had quite the wild stories! And scars to match!

Suddenly a three legged gray cat with a blue bandana tied to its neck jumped up next to me and startled me.

The sailors laughed and told me the cat was named Smokey and supposed to catch rats and mice on the boat.

They had fished him out of the ocean in a bag and suspected someone tried to get rid of him like that.

The cat suddenly meowed with the most scratchy voice I could imagine, not even some of the hardcore smokers in the taverns of Kamerasca sounded like that!

No wonder he was called Smokey, not only did he have gray fur he also had a voice like he had gargled gravel.

“Mrechechech!”

The furball looked at me for a moment with weirdly yellow eyes before sprinting away to some crates.

“He's got good ears! Probably sensed a rat or something!”

For something with three legs he was pretty fast I had to admit.

Before anyone could say anything else a loud gong sounded from who knew where and the sailors all stood up and walked towards some carts that had been brought out by what I assumed were the cooks.

Suddenly I got tackled by Robin, who squealed in joy.

“They have a cat on board! And he has a job! Have you seen it? I wanna see it!”

I took a few seconds to recover from that, so he was aware of Smokey but hadn't seen him huh?

“Uh yeah i have, Smokey if i recall correctly? I think he went to hunt some mice? Maybe if you wait you'll see him?”

He pouted for a second before noticing the carts as well.

“Is that food on the carts? Do you think we are allowed to have some?”

Good question.

“Uhh lets ask someone first, they may have made extra somewhere for us so we don't intrude over there”

He nodded and we went to look for anyone who looked like they knew about such stuff.

Not finding one we decided to just knock on the captain's door to ask him.

He opened it with a sandwich in his hand that smelled strongly of fish.

“Ah hello there, can I help you with anything?”

He seemed confused,  probably thinking someone had already told us what to do.

Robin answered him faster than I could.

“Hi! Do you know where we are supposed to eat?  We can't find our group!”

His brain was all over the place once again it seemed,  but at least Nemas didn't seem bothered by the blunt question.

“Ah, I knew I forgot something! Sorry about that, I was busy with the maps! I think you can just go to the kitchen and ask, no wait you don't know where that is, eh, let me show you”

With hat he stepped out of his room and winked us to follow him,  fishy smelling sandwich still in hand.

I just shrugged and went after him with Robin right behind me.

He led us down some stairs not far from his door and showed us how to get to the kitchen.

It looked pretty much like a normal kitchen, aside from the fact things were bolted extra secure to the ground, like the tables and other working spaces.

Made sense, if bigger waves hit they would just slide around.

He organized us some bread and marmalade and then led us back to the deck. 

I silently thought next time we should just look for Rikaad.

We still thanked him and he went back into his own room, half eaten fish sandwich in hand.

How he could stand to eat something that smelled like that was beyond me though.

Deciding not to put crumbs all over the place we ate near the railing, only to have to flee to our cabins as seagulls appeared. 

So we ended up eating in our shared cabin instead, picking a feather out of my shirt.

The thing was still completely intact so I put it in the wooden box I took with me.

No idea what for but maybe someone would want it as a souvenir?

After eating we decided to unpack what we needed and I saw that the room had a bed and a hammock so we would have to choose who got what.

“Which one do you want? Bed or hammock? I'm fine with either as long as i don't fall on my face”

Robin shrugged.

“Uhh can I have the bed? Last time i went in a hammock i managed to get trapped in the fabric somehow”

Why did that not surprise me?

“Sure, take the bed,  but make sure that when we leave to check under it for your stuff”

He nodded and started searching for something in his bag while I hung my own on a hook on the wall and climbed into the hammock to test it out.

It was alright, it swayed with the motion of the sea which had a strangely soothing effect.

Grabbing my bag I fished out the medication Oakley gave me against the nightmares and took what he prescribed from it.

It was late and running all over the boat today had been exhausting, especially as I had to balance myself a lot on the unusually swaying ground.

Yawning and wishing Robin a goodnight I fell asleep pretty quickly.

I got woken up by Robin this time, which was worlds better than Nea as the only thing he did was poke my shoulder.

“Mhm?”

I blinked blearily at him.

“It's breakfast time! And this time I know where to go!”

Oh right, that was good, how long had he been awake for?

At least half an hour if he found that out already.

“Really? Good, gimme a minute i'll be right out”

“Okay! I'll try to find the cat! I really wanna see it!”

He nodded excitedly and weaseled out of the room, probably to go onto the deck.

Yawning, I stretched and then awkwardly climbed out of the hammock.

I really wasn't used to that huh.

Whatever, this arrangement wasn't for terribly long anyway.

I grabbed my shoes and slipped them on before following Robin up to the deck.

He was there staring up the middle mast with curiosity.

I went next to him and looked up as well to try and see what had captured his attention.

“There's a guy up there! What do you think he's doing?”

Looking up I could indeed see a leg stick out from a platform at the top.

Ohh what was that called again? Something Nest or so?

“i think that's the lookout, like the guy that informs people if there's land nearby or other ships”

He tilted his head like an inquisitive dog.

“Really? You think we could go up there?”

What? Up there? Quite frankly as interesting as that was, it seemed dangerous, especially for people that had never done this.

“I'm not sure if we are allowed to, besides that doesn't look very safe so id rather not, what if i fall? Or fall on top of someone?”

Falling itself was bad enough, falling on top of someone else was even worse as then I wouldn't even be the only one injured.

“Oh, you're right, and that does look pretty high up, so maybe not”

I nodded and he dragged me to where he last saw Rikaad, which turned out to be the same spot where he introduced the captain to us.

He was still there even, as well as the captain who apparently told some tale that happened to him sometime.

Man these sailors loved telling stories huh?

He was just about done with the story when we walked up the stairs though.

“Ah hello there boys! Hope sleeping with the waves moving the boat wasn't too bad for you!”

In my opinion it had been fine actually.

“Yeah it was pretty okay”

He saluted and then jumped over the railing onto the main deck again.

Rikaad looked after him.

“I do not think that man likes stairs”

Then he turned to us and before he could say anything Robin had tackled him in a hug.

To Rikaads credit he didn't even flinch, or even move a millimeter.

Instead of doing the normal thing and telling him to let go Robin was hoisted over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

Right, Rikaad was strong, so it was no wonder that he just carried Robin like that while he led us to an empty but pretty big cabin that had tables haphazardly bolted to its floor.

On the tables itself which had strange indents so the plates wouldn't slide off was some food, half of which I did not recognize.

And most of what i did not recognize was some sort of fish anyway, well it probably was the cheapest and most efficient thing to do.

Remembering the not so good smelling sandwich of the captain I'd probably leave that alone though.

While I tried to choose what to eat, Robin had already run around the tables and grabbed random things, Rikaad was nowhere to be found once again.

I went to a table that was in the corner away from the other tables which had some strange brown blocks stacked onto it.

One of the sailors was sawing a piece with a serrated bread knife.

Deciding to be bold i asked the man what that was.

“What is that? Some type of bread?”

He turned to me while stacking some of the crumbly stuff on his plate. 

“Hardtack! It's basically made from flour and water and some salt”

The entire thing only had three ingredients? No wonder it looked so strange, but then what was the white stuff? Wait did it move?

“Uhh why is it moving? What is that?”

“Oh that's maggots!”

Replied the sailor in a cheerful voice and scooped some of them onto his plate with the Hardtack before walking away.

I tried my best not to gag and instead went outside, As an Ardua I didn't need to eat as long as I had sunlight and I've never been more glad for that than now.

I really regretted asking now but there was nothing to be done about that.

No wonder that table was away from the other ones, but why the FUCK would a maggot infested salty flour block even be a meal option?

No, I didn't want to know, but considering it was made from only three easy to get ingredients it was probably meant for longer journeys where they couldn't stock up on fresh things.

Still, eew.

I didn't really want to go back inside so I walked over the large deck again, looking into the grid covered holes into the holding room of the ship.

Through the sparse light I could make out lots of crates tied to the ship and I wondered what was inside of it.

Maybe I could ask someone? Or would that be rude?

As far as i knew the cargo might as well be classified or whatever.

That and most of the people were still eating, at least the ones that weren't needed to keep the ship going where it was supposed to.

Looking up at the sunlight I kinda wished I could just turn into my Ardua form and take a nap on the deck.

But I didn't know if the ship would hold me or not, but maybe I could ask the captain? He did call the shots here after all.

Where was he anyway? Back in his cabin?

Since that was where he was last time I decided to check there, politely knocking on the door.

I heard footsteps on the wood and after a moment he opened the door, this time holding an entire smoked fish, who at least didn't smell bad.

“Ah hello! Do you need help with anything?”

He seemed quite confused, which honestly was fair.

“Uh, I just wanted to ask some things about the ship? If I'm allowed to?”

He winked me inside,  waving his smoked fish around and I followed him inside.

“Of course! I always love talking about my ship! 

It used to belong to my grandfather but I inherited it because my father would rather work a sawmill for whatever reason,  but hey if something here gets broken he's the best man to fix it!”

I felt like I was in for a not that factual rambling.

“Oh that's nice, I just wanted to ask some basic things really, like how much cargo can this vessel hold?”

He motioned for me to sit on a chair that was covered in maps, 

which I politely set on the ground.

As I sat down I spotted a weird set of coat hangers screwed into the wall and it took me a second to recognize them as tusks,  probably the same ones from that one sailors story.

So they weren't kidding huh?

“How much can it hold? Well if you're smart about weight distribution that can be multiple tons! Of course that does depend on the crate sizes and how heavy the things we transport actually are!

For example if we transport cotton that's a whole lot lighter and easier to distribute than like Marble blocks!”

He stopped gesticulating with the fish for a second, biting a chunk out of it.

“Oh wait, I think I get why you ask that!”

He did? What?

“You do? What?” He slapped the fish loudly onto a random plate.

“Your king has already informed you of the thing with the enemy ships and since my dear Victory Rose here has a very large and flat deck that can hold multiple tons he asked me to bring you guys there! 

He also informed me that one of his men could shapeshift, which is why they needed my boat and didn't take the Royal fleet!

So by that I'm assuming you're the shapeshifter? Do you really turn into a giant green lion?“

I was taken aback by that information, Rikaad had just told him that? Then again he did say he'd like me for the intimidation factor and doing that one a normal boat would just make it sink.

And informing the captain that I would eventually do that was probably the only option to not randomly get harpooned, so it did make sense.

I just wish he told me that.

“Uh, yeah, yeah I do turn into a giant ‘green lion’ though it's called an Ardua sooo…

Uh the thing i was here for was to actually ask if i could shift on the deck? 

Like if i do that i can just use sunlight instead of food and also showing what it looks like in a calm environment might be a good idea instead of suddenly having a giant being appear while in conflict with other ships?”

He clapped his hands loudly and I flinched back.

“Brilliant! What a good idea to demonstrate so my sailors don't get a heart attack! Having them distracted during a fight would be a bad thing! Especially since a ship requires a lot of things at once to sail properly!”

Huh, I was just rambling out of nervousness but he thought it was a good idea? Well I wasn't complaining.

He stood up abruptly and walked to the door, I followed behind him still a bit taken back by the waterfall of words he'd used.

He turned to me as he opened the door and strolled out backwards.

“Got any more questions? Oh since you don't really need to eat as long as you can shift have you even tried the food on the ship? If so, how'd you like it? The cooks I have onboard are from all over the known trade routes!”

That guy could talk a lot,  even more so than Robin who at least tried to stay on topic.

“Uhh, i did look at the tables? But I did go outside again after I was offered what one of your men called ‘Hardtack’.

I'm not a fan of eating live bugs and the stuff was teeming with maggots sooo…”

Alone the memory made me suppress a shudder, i didn't want to be rude but maggot infested flour block was not something i wanted on my plate.

“Ah the good ol’ Hardtack, it's for the longer journeys! And since it's only flour and a little bit of salt with water there aren't many nutrients in it!

Maggots on the other hand are full of em’! So like half the sailors started eating them with the hardtack when there wasn't much else!

I guess some of them came to like it and now they are eating them even when we got other stuff!

Also one of the cooks figured out how to fry them so they taste even better!

Though i guess to a landrat like you that seem rather unappealing”

Ah, that made some sense? Probably? 

If they got used to it they were not as squicked by it as others i guess.

And the captain really did talk a LOT, which i didn't find always necessary but whatever, as long as i understood what he was saying it was fine.

I started to regret asking as he led me to the front side of the large deck but there was nothing to be done about that now.

Ughhh and only because a bunch of maggots squicked me out!

To be fair the sight had briefly reminded me of what I had seen in the forest so long ago.

I had basically kidnapped Robin back then and walked aimlessly through the forest where some weird multi eyed fox deer with tusks rammed a maggot infested tree only to have magpies swarm down and eat them.

Not a fond memory, and I still had no idea what that even was about.

I didn't want to anyway. 

Captain Nemas led me to the front of the deck where there was enough space and told me to just hang out here while he informed the crewmantes.

Oh, that would mean they would stare at me, Now I really regretted asking.

But my rambly assessment that it was better to show them beforehand what the Ardua looked like was still valid.

I wasn't keen on having someone aim the ships cannons at me because they got scared or confused me for an enemy.

Also it was a little funny seeing him run around in his captain's coat and hat and tell his sailors not to freak out when a Giant ‘Green lion’ appeared today.

He was talking as unrelenting as the waves crashing against the boat and chatted to everyone about whatever they were doing.

That took quite a lot of time, during which Rikaad actually appeared, which made me wonder where the fuck he was staying on the ship.

“I have to say, informing them beforehand what an Ardua looks like is a good idea, less chance of anyone freaking out and losing focus should we clash with the Maringand Boats”

I numbly nodded at him, while it was the smart thing to do I still wasn't really comfortable having people stare at me.

I didn't even want to talk about that as I was sure I'd lose my nerves beforehand.

So I talked about the first thing that came to mind, which was still the Hardtack thing.

“I guess so, did you see that they have some sort of maggot flour block called hardtack? After i saw that i just went outside again”

His usually rather emotionless face cracked for a moment, and it was safe to assume by the face he made for a split second that he did indeed see it.

“I have, regrettably so, seen it and then left the room just like you did”

Glad to know I wasn't the only one who had a negative reaction to it.

“Well someone did explain why that was there,  but a warning would have been nice still”

He nodded in agreement and I had a feeling neither of us would go back there today.

Looking past Rikaad I could see captain Nemas still running around, which on the ever swaying boat was impressive as he'd not once fallen over.

By now he had informed the majority of the sailors,  some of which just continued working, 

apparently not thinking anything much of it.

Hoo fuck, but at least there were barely any people gawking as i was sure my nerves wouldn’t have been able to handle that.

As i thought Nemas was done taking his mouth off at the sailors and came back over, waving at us as he did so.

“Well! Now nobody should freak out! If you're sure there's enough space you can show what your other form looks like! 

I do wonder though why it's green? An animal isn't a plant after all, 

then again I rarely see either of those out on the ship anyway!”

Tuning out the captain talking on and on I stood a few paces away and turned the gem on the bracelet that let me shift.

In barely a moment I changed into the familiar giant form of the Ardua.

For a second i expected someone to scream or otherwise be terrified but as it was no one gave really a fuck.

These guys were weird, well so was i.

The only one gawking at me with curiosity was the captain, but he was mainly staring at my back, saying in the most confused voice I had ever heard.

“Are those plants? On your back I mean, and are those dandelions? aren't you a mammal? Not a plant?”

I loafed like a cat on the deck to get more stability on the swaying wood before answering him.

“Well, yes that's plants, but I'm still a mammal, they just grow there like hair, I think they are meant to help me absorb sunlight? Not sure though”

He came a little closer to examine it in more detail,  an almost childlike wonder in his eyes.

Well, he did imply to have lived on the ship for most of his life,  so who knew when he'd gotten to see field flowers closeup last time? 

Just then Robin walked out of the ship, a gray colored cat in his arms.

When he noticed me in my Ardua form his face visibly brightened and he walked over as fast as he could without tripping or dropping the cat.

Strangely enough the cat didn't seem to mind as Robin put him on the ground in front of me,  instead opting to brush up against my elbow and upper arm.

It was weird that cats weren't scared of me, they had every reason to.

Maybe it was because I somewhat looked like a big version of them?

“I think there's catnip growing on your shoulder and elbow”

Catnip? Why that? And how did Robin even know what that looked like?

Oh wait nevermind that last question, but still, catnip? No wonder the tiny Felines still came up to a giant plant lion thing like the Ardua.

It wasn't that they weren't scared, they just wanted catnip.

I felt kinda disappointed by that, I had hoped that I wasn't so scary even in that form but as it turned out they just wanted one of the plants that grew on me.

But that was still better than them being scared so there was at least that.

I stayed as an Ardua for the rest of the day, with Robin sitting next to me or using me as a pillow while cuddling with the three legged cat.

The cat himself purred at the attention, Which considering his voice sounded terribly scratchy and stopped at random intervals to pick back up stutteringly a moment later.

The sailors for the most part were only mildly distracted, not really caring somehow about the, who even knew how tall, Ardua next to them on the deck.

The only one that complained was someone that needed to move a heavier crate where I was in the way.

That was solved by standing up for a bit and letting me shove it through under myself.

While sunning myself I heard some of the sailors tell more stories, some of them even about sea monsters.

Huh, i wondered if there were any sea monsters in these waters, I hoped not.

Though it was really strange that no one batted an eye at me unless I was in the way, so I decided to ask Nemas the next time he came within earshot.

“Nemas! I have a question, could you come over here for a second?” He walked over to me at a brisk pace and tugged at his coat when it got snagged by the corner of a crate.

“What is it? Don't tell me you got seasick! That would be bad! Or is-”

I interrupted him before he talked even more again.

“No, I'm fine! Really! I just wanted to ask how you and your men are so indifferent? I guess? About a literary Giant with claws on your boat, i mean anyone else would be pretty afraid”

He tilted his head for a moment and I could see his tattoo in great detail.

“Well, we aren't afraid of you because you really can't do anything to us without also dooming yourself.

You don't know much about ships, and a big one like this needs many people to keep going, on top of that if you even where to destroy it then you'd be stuck in the middle of the ocean and drown.

So we don't really have any reason to be afraid, if you fuck us over then you're also absolutely screwed!”

Oh, well, he was right about that, if anything happened to the boat I'd just go down with it, and that would suck.

So really, they didn't have reason to believe I would do that, I didn't know shit about boats anyway.

Then Nemas pointed at the cat who was laying on top of a sleepy Robin.

“Also Smokey doesn't seem to have anything against you! And thus far he's always hissed at shady people!”

Huh, id better not mention the catnip then?

Probably better if I didn't. 

Though if their bar was, cant fuck us over without dooming themselves and the judgement of a three legged cat they might run into big trouble someday.

Though they also agreed to let us on board to fight other ships.

These guys were weird, though I had not much room to talk in that regard.

It wasn't too long after that the sun went down so I shifted back to the human sized one much to the dismay of Robin and the cat who now had no more catnip.

To be fair he had chewed a good chunk off my elbow so there was bound to be some on the ground.

I gave him a friendly pat on the head and then left for my quarters with a tired Robin behind me.

How he was tired after doing basically nothing was a mystery to me, though maybe he'd run around the inside of the ship while I had shifted.

Whatever, I went to my hammock and used the rest of the daylight to try and read something Rikaad had lent me to help me get better at reading.

It was a book about how to write neatly and legibly, of course he'd pick something like that for me.

The book itself was incredibly boring, so much so that I fell asleep before it got properly dark.

The next time I woke up was because I got flung out of the hammock and face first onto the floor.

What the fuck?-

“Ouch!”

The book that was previously on my lap landed on my head.

I tossed the thing to the side before standing up with a pounding head.

Only to fall over immediately again.

Getting my senses back in order I noticed that the entire floor was tilting left and right like mad, making balancing a nightmare.

Then I heard it, loud waves crashing against wood and the heavy pitter of rain.

A storm!

The ship tilted heavily to the left and I slid on the wooden floor into the table.

Ugh, good thing it was bolted down to the floor.

I looked over to where Robin's bed was only to find it empty.

What? Where was he?

I fell over again to the other side into the wall,  the book I had tossed earlier colliding with my leg.

Grabbing at the wall i stood back up again, trying to see if Robin was anywhere else in the small room.

He wasn't there.

Why? It had been late, He should be here sleeping?

Wait, his bed was anchored to the floor,  and thus would have noticed the crazy waves sooner than me!

He must have gone out to ask what was going on!

Oh no, oh no OH NO

I stumbled out the door and went along the little walkspace that led to the cabins, trying to get to the outside door without falling over too much.

At one point shortly before I reached the door the entire ship went sideways, making me slam into what was previously the wall.

That would leave bruises for sure.

Then the gravity went back again,  and this time I slammed into the actual floor.

I was now VERY glad they kept everything bolted down.

I managed to get to the stairs only to slam into them as the ship dipped forward, but I managed to catch myself with my shoulder instead of face.

Not bothering to stand up here as I would just fall again I crawled up on all fours, only stumbling twice.

When I reached the top I grabbed the doorknob, holding on for dear life as another wave hit the ship, making the door slam open and me into the adjacent wall while holding on like mad.

Swinging around I could actually look outside, well look was a bit much.

There was a LOT of rain, so much so that I could only make out what was there up to the middle mast of the ship.

Fuck, i hoped Robin was only on the other side somewhere and not in the ocean.

Maybe he was lucky and managed to shelter in the dining room.

I heard a strange strangled and scratchy yowl then, something that definitely wasn't human.

Looking around I saw nothing at first, and over the tosing water it was hard to make out where the noise came from.

Then I heard it again and managed to somewhat pinpoint where it Originated from.

It was the gray cat! He was tangled in a spare rope that had tied itself around the first mast!

Oh fuck! The poor thing!

Against better judgment and survival instincts I went out to the deck to try and get him.

I grabbed another rope that was used to tether a crate that was long since gone now and used it to not fall overboard when the ship tilted.

I slid around horribly and sometimes the waves crashed over the railing, dousing me and making it extremely hard to get to the cat.

I reached him eventually after a big wave drenched us both even more.

I untied him as best as I could in the ever shifting environment while I tried not to slide around too much while also holding onto the rope I had picked up.

I managed to untie him after fumbling around and he still clung to a part of the rope. 

I grabbed him with one arm and held him against my chest where he immediately dug the claws of his remaining front leg in.

That was fine, as long as I got him to safety.

I was thrown over on my ass as another wave hit the ship,  making it jerk suddenly.

While falling over I could see a bit more of the latter half of the ship as I was now closer than before.

My heart stopped for a second as I saw a familiar redhead hold onto another familiar form that was tethered by a rope to who knew what.

Why were Rikaad and Robin out here???  

I couldn't go over though, I still held the cat, so I got as close to the open door as I could and tried to stay steady, which was an incredibly hard task.

I grabbed the cat that was clinging onto me for dear life and then, as mean as it was, tossed him down the stairs into the ship so he wouldn't fall off the boat into the ocean in this storm.

I looked back again to where I last saw the other two, noticing there were some sailors as well struggling to close the main sail.

Oh, that's why there were people out, they needed to close the sail!

Another wave hit the ship, making me stumble.

I watched in horror as the rope Rikaad was tied to while holding Robin suddenly snapped, making them slide over the deck.

To my great relief Rikaad managed to hold onto the railing and Robin at the same time, now they just had to get away from there!

They tried to make their way inside, using the rail as an anchor to try and stay upright while they walked as water sloshed heavily over the boat, threatening to make them slip with each step if they weren’t careful. 

The floor lurched beneath them for a moment as another wave hit the side of the ship, but thankfully they were able to keep their grip on the rail while the sailors continued to try and pull the sail.

Then another wave hit and I was flushed over the railing in a rush of water, banging against the side of the ship as I dangled from the rope.

Only to be hit by another wave that transported me back onto the ship barely a second later.

that was terrifying as fuck, never again please.

There was a loud boom and lightning hit the middle mast, breaking it and making it tip over.

Right to where Rikaad and Robin were!

Oh no!

Without thinking I let go of the rope and sprinted over the deck towards them, not caring about the slickness of the wood.

While I ran as fast as I could I twisted the gem on the bracelet to turn into the Ardua form and dashed forward to stop the heavy wooden pole from falling on top of them.

Instead the thing crashed on top of me.

I slid from the sudden weight and when another big wave hit the boat I was swept over the side into the cold water.

I resurfaced only to have the broken mast hit me square on the head, dragging me under from the force.

At that point my body decided it had taken enough damage to warrant blacking out, which I promptly did as I sank under the waves.

NEXT / PREVIOUS / OVERSIGHT