#sidestep tbh

[bunnieswithknives]

I feel bad for neglecting Hazel so much, I do have many thoughts about her.. and also a mermaid au that im probably not going to do anything with

[bibyvariable]

Crack baby, you don’t know what you want

But you know that you had it once

And you know that you want it back

[muninnhuginn]

Also. I'm so not sure which direction it's going to take with Damian liking ancient history. It could just be setup for this one chapter, sure, but it seemed like something he genuinely had passion for. But. Something about politics and history and learning from the mistakes of the past so they're not repeated

[reapersmarch]

and he's loving him with that body, I just know it

[alaraxia]

secrets and lies

[wardensantoineandevka]

I feel like some people putting Phineas MidstPodcast into the "nervous golden retriever from the shelter" box did significant damage to the way he's seen and thought of and talked about in portions of the fandom.

[22degreehalo]

I get why it frustrates people to not be able to afford things but it just. really gets me sometimes just HOW uncaring about worker's compensation so many leftist spaces have become

Like the same people who will encourage artists to price their commissions based on the amount of time it takes to make it (with respect paid to the many more hours of practice and training etc.) will turn around and complain that a TTRPG book with hundreds upon hundreds of hours of work put into it is overpriced at $40.

And as always this is the daycare problem: that the people who work at daycares and the people who most need childcare tend to come from the same demographic, and nobody has enough money.

But I just. Yes, indie art/fiction/games/whatever being expensive makes them unavailable to poor fans. But if you can't actually make money out of them, that makes working on them unavailable to poor creators, who need to spend time and effort on stuff that will help them stay alive. It's just very easy to complain about capitalism 'infiltrating hobbies' or 'only caring about profit' when you do have the comfort to pursue hobbies purely for your leisure. Or when you just completely dehumanise all creators, I guess.

[saltypeepo]

just some ugly little valerian doodles bcs i miss her,,

[valya-kingoftherats]

Taste of Freedom, my AU roulette fic is done! I didn't think I'd actually get anything done for this. I had a lot of trouble getting the inspiration and motivation to write. It's mostly just a short little thing with Valya and Anathema lol

AU nestled in an AU, its coffee shop set in a timeline where Valya did a farm mission with the Rangers, and Anathema ended up tracking them down and rescuing them.

[beastlyidiocy]

whatever

[aurriearts]

(image desc in alt text) @silvery-bluish's arsinoe :D

[choiceofcrow]

i wanted to redesign lara's sidestep outfit on a whim (with a lot of influence from spiderverse haha)

[theprinceandthewitch]

So like... why wasn't Lumity conceptualized as a friends to lovers type of thing? Season 1 is supposed to be episodic so they couldnt give Amity the redemption arc she needed to make a romance between Luz and her believable... so... why didnt she just start off as a friend of Luzs?

I mean, after Understanding Willow the show wants me to forget Amity was bullying Willow for years anyways, so you might as well throw the bully thing out together and just make her a friend of Luzs right out the gate... that way you can save yourself a headache by taking away the need to give Amity a redemption arc and you dont make Luz look like a bad friend to Willow by having her date Amity before her and Willow are on good terms with each other.

[alaraxia]

pose ref practice with vesper

[calnexin]

OUUUGGHG LOVE THAT FOR ALINA. i always forget that sidestep's self is added onto by the AI so its like. OUUGGH. anyways love alina so if u have any more thoughts on her.. hehe

There is nothing wrong with her she is normal

Before dying she was a friendly little weirdo, but her mannerisms were still a bit robotic and she was a little too intense at times to really be approachable. Her quirks made her peculiar to most people, and endearing to some. I imagine her as kinda shy and reserved back in the day, when she was more of a blank slate and not quite sure what her place in the world is. Overall: socially awkward, can be intense and a bit hard to talk to, but sweet in her own way. Quirky 😙 She was slowly easing into being human; by the time of heartbreak she had even started cracking shitty jokes 😌

After coming back from the dead, she acts more “human” in many ways - notably, she’s learned how to be an asshole…! She carries herself with more bravado and confidence that’s initially faked but gradually becomes real. During the time between her 2nd Farm escape and the beginning of Rebirth, Alina threw all her effort into conditioning herself and practicing to act like a “real human”, effectively changing or burying all the traits that set her apart before. Truly a rebirth! She reaaally doesn’t wanna get caught again

The biggest change would be her boldness in social situations. While she might seem much more at ease talking to people now, she's really just better at hiding her discomfort. Nobody comments on the change in demeanour because they assume that the increase in assertiveness/confidence is a good thing - best not to jinx it! She’s just come out of her shell a little, that’s it.

She’s still blunt and insensitive at times, but what’s important is that she learned how to be a really good liar! So good that she does it without noticing; everything she does is to deter suspicion. She makes jokes and teases to diffuse the situation when needed, she puts herself in the role of a washed-up hero past her prime to appear nonthreatening, she dresses a bit goofy and is laid back, showing little of the intensity she carried before. Ain’t no way she’s the newest villain currently beating up the rangers on live television 😙

[licuadora-nasir]

First meetings

Pairing: chargestep

Warnings: None

Summary: Sidestep and Charge's first meeting. Beware of highly delulu Sidestep with nerd thoughts.

Notes: Thank you @silvery-bluish for proofreading River's delusional thoughts muac muac

Read it in AO3

FUCK SHIT! 

You didn’t hear him coming. Probably because you were so focused on spotting your target that you disregarded your back, maybe because he was approaching you stealthily, but the truth of it it’s that you couldn’t hear him. You couldn’t read his mind and the first thing you recognised after he popped up in front of your shitty face was the static. 

BREATHE. 

“Hey, hey, easy. I didn’t want to startle you, sorry. You’re Sidestep, aren’t you?” The Colgate smile plastered on his tanned face doesn’t fit in this part of the city at this hour. Even though he’s tried to look scrubby, his outfit is too fancy and doesn’t look anything like your scrubby clothes. The way he stands, too tall, too proud of himself, how he looks and speaks… Is he a model? He looks like a model. 

Or a member of the Special Directive. A cuckoo? No, you’ve spoken in reflex and he didn’t notice. An agent? Unlikely, the handlers and the staff look like grim reapers and lingering nightmares, they don’t have charming smiles with honey voices and deep eyes you could get lost in. 

Who the heck is this man? Why can’t you read his mind? 

“Yes,” You reply, after a few seconds. The best course of action is to stay calm, watch your surroundings and craft an escape plan in case things go south. 

“I’ve seen some of your fights and man, you know how to move.”

“Are you a fan or something? You shouldn’t be here, this is not a safe place for civilians.” ‘How to move’? How to move like the Special Directive? Like an infiltrator? The Hispanic man before you is friendly and chill. Could he… Be a stalker? Fuck shit, please do not be a stalker. 

 “Oh… No, I mean, yes? I always keep an eye on the new, competent vigilantes,” Buttering you up, calling you competent… What does he want? It unnerves you that you can not read his mind. 

He is rambling and gesticulating with his hands when you see it: He is modded! There are emitters in his hands, and you recognize what could be a rare design of a modded system with plasma core reactors. You once read an article about the possibility of subjecting individuals to modded prototypes based on electrical power, but you don’t know the details, even though you tried to dig and research, all the info seemed to be highly classified. Based on your assumptions and some theories of your favourite scientists, he must have ports and two more pairs of emitters in his lower arms. 

You remember being fascinated with this kind of modding, only an insane individual would agree to let themselves be modded with that kind of technology, but you have no idea if the people they tested these tech on even survived. 

“You are modded.” It would be stupid to pose it as a question, better to see what he answers. He must be a corporate hero or military, then. Oh dear, you wish you could sit down and ask him all kinds of questions about his mods, but he is not to be trusted. 

“Ah, yes,” He flexes his hands, opening and closing his palms, “are you a boost?��� 

“None of your business.” Too carefree with his questions. Even if he is friendly, you are not answering the questions of someone whose mind you can not read. 

“Ouch, that was rude,” With a nervous chuckle, he crouches next to you, too close for your taste. “are you hunting down Disruptor?” Again with the prodding. You have a feeling he is going to keep asking, so you choose to answer him this time. 

“If that is the name of the moron that’s been sabotaging the suburb's water supply, then yes.” A villain has been messing with the water supply in the neighbourhood you had been squatting in and you could not sit idle and watch anymore. These people had been good to you, the least you could was catching this asshole. 

“Why? Many other flashy villains have been robbing companies lately, you could make a name for yourself if you manage to catch one of those.” 

“The LDPD and The Rangers are keeping an eye on those, but since this part of the city is in the suburbs and the villain hasn’t messed up with any fancy company, the Mayor and the heroes haven’t given three fucks about him,” You sigh, frustrated. It was so unfair, no one would do anything to help ‘the bad part of the city’, and you wondered who would fix the water supply and the broken pipes. 

“Hey, that’s not —”

“Shhhh shut up. He’s here.” 

The villain was tall and bulky, you were not sure about what his powers were, but they had something to do with strength and resistance, which, considering the physical disadvantage, sucked. 

Scanning your surroundings, you turn to lady-killer here, who is looking with interest at you. Is he waiting to see what you do? Is this normal human behaviour? But he is probably a hero, isn’t he? Then why is he not suggesting anything? Is this a trap? Is there some kind of malfunctioning in his brain? No, you are probably the one who is malfunctioning. Fuck shit, you wish you had paid more attention to the infiltration lessons. 

“So…” You whisper, catching his attention, “Do you know how to fight?”

(...)

The plan you crafted was easy. The industrial area you were in was full of abandoned buildings, containers and places to hide, so the deal was cornering Disruptor to the place Mr. Colgate Smile was hiding, so he could have a clear chance to take him down. The fucker fought on instinct, striking one or two blows on you, but surprisingly, the rest of the fight went smoothly. 

The mystery hero-model man was a good partner to fight with. He listened to your plan, made some interesting suggestions regarding what he could do and took the villain down hard and fast.  

“Hey, Sidestep! Are you alright there? ¡Ay! ¡Cabrón!” He curses, struggling to pin the villain down, “Mind giving me a hand?” 

“I’m okay, are you fine?” You go to them, bending down and holding Disruptor while Don Juan cuffs him… Cuffs? Why cuffs? 

“Yeah, this was noth—”

“Fuck you and The Rangers, Marshal!” 

…What? Marshal? This man is the Marshal? 

“You’re the Marshal?” You question him in disbelief.

“I mean… Yeah?” Shrugging, he gives you a confused smile. Stupid smiley man. 

“Why didn’t you—” You argue angrily, before being interrupted. 

“You didn’t ask— Quit struggling, Disruptor!” 

“Go to hell, Charge!” Growls the fucker from where he is being held on the floor. 

“Charge? Who are you?” 

“My name’s Charge—”

“Are you trying to tell me Charge and the Marshal are the same person?”

“Man, that’s entirely on you.” He chuckles as if you are someone who is supposed to be funny. A joke. Is this a joke to him? No. 

This is bad. Bad, bad. This is the Marshal of Los fucking Diablos. How long had he been following you until he decided to approach you? 

“I’m out of here.” Fuck the Marshal. And fuck Charge too. You turn to go but the not—so—charming—anymore man doesn’t seem happy with that.

“Wait! Don’t go yet, hold up until the—” He doesn’t finish before you hit the back of Disruptor’s head, knocking him out in the process. “What the hell, Sidestep?!”

“That shouldn’t be a problem anymore.” Before he can reply, you break to run, getting out of his sight. 

No pleasantries. No greetings. No goodbyes. What a shit of a first meeting. Hopefully, it will be the first, and the last one.