#the game 04

[digi-lov]

Terriermon BT17-043 Alternative Art by p!k@ru from EX-08: Legend Pack

[sassenashsworld]

The Game - Preston

It can’t be said Preston never thought about the bet. In fact, he thinks about it every day, every hour, every minute that goes by every hour. When Sturges finally learned the truth about the bet, he burst out laughing, patting Preston’s back two or three times and then shook his head, showing an air of deep pity.

So, Preston spent weeks thinking about it.

How do you get Nora, the woman who could break your hand if you make the mistake of brush against her, to enjoy him caressing her. Frankly, he has been reluctant to embark, and he is reluctant to take action.

Surprisingly, three of the betting companions have already lost and got away with all their members, but that doesn’t encourage Preston. The only thing that keeps him from withdrawing immediately is Hancock’s immensely satisfied smile and his little giggle every time he looks in his direction. Hancock is convinced Preston is going to fail miserably, and it just pulls something bad into the poor Minutemen. He who thought himself above these futile things, he does not know why, rage mounts him when Hancock looks haughty, too sure of himself.

Finally, a tactical problem with Kingsport Lighthouse took Preston on the road with Nora and as a lot of work would be required, she advised they would be away for at least a week. At least one day for the road, five days of work and one day for the return. Preston feels it’s the time or never.

On the road, a resurgence of raiders accompanied by robots and some synthetic prevents them from being frankly quiet and their short stop at the Finch farm does not offer more opportunity. Then, the first three days are entirely devoted, as well as the nights, to building a warehouse in which Nora intends to set up a few trading posts, but the fourth day is entirely devoted to the defenses of the colony and therefore much less exhausting. Also, at night, Nora stops to enjoy a good evening around the fire.

It’s now or never, Preston thought.

He digs into a coolant and finds two bottles of Nuka Dark he had brought back from Nuka World during the cleaning. He did not know exactly what he would do with it and has kept it for an opportunity ever since, but he feels it’s the best opportunity in the world. He found that when Nora has a good dose of whisky in her blood and then drinks a sweet drink, she becomes much sweeter herself. He therefore lets several rounds pass and settlers for the majority go to bed, then when the night is really advanced, he brings the two drinks by coming to sit ‘in the bubble’ of his General. She’s not pushing him away, that’s good news.

“Hey Garvey, the work is well under way. I’m glad our suppliers were all present on the first day and we had all the equipment available. Our small organization is really starting to be…organized!”

She gives a slightly stupid laugh, and the minutemen knows she is well ripe. He hands her one of the two bottles and opens the other one.

“Wow, a Nuka-Dark. I haven’t seen one since…since…”

And she scolds at the memory. Shit, what a shitty tactic. Preston hadn’t thought about what Nick had told him, that Nora was starting to remember what had happened at Nuka-World. This was his chance…and he screw it.

“Sorry General, I didn’t want to remind you of bad memories…”

“Oh, forget it. I just have to learn to live with it. Nick helps me a lot with that, he know a little bit about intrusive memories.”

The man hesitates for a long time, then approaches substantially, gaining a side look a little suspicious.

“Did…you remember our meeting that day?”

She takes a sip of her Nuka-Dark before answering.

“I remember I was forced to kill Porter and if you hadn’t intervened, maybe I shouldn’t have.”

He sighs deeply. No, it’s really not won.

“I told you about our first meeting, do you remember?”

She stares at him for a long time, taking one or two sips without leaving him with her hawk glare. He does not feel at all a beautiful atmosphere forming to allow him to enter the heart of the bet. On the contrary, he feels on the hot seat.

“No, I’m sorry. I remember a few things; my meeting with Oswald, some good times with Porter, then when Nick tried to break his neck, then when I had to shoot him. Not much details, more impressions.”

She sighs deeply.

“My sense of security, his smile. His strength. My well-being.”

“To Nick?”

“Porter” which she replies placidly. “Nick is a good friend and I know I was delirious before Christmas, but I’m not in love with Nick.”

“That’s not what I read” he grows beneath his teeth.

“Sorry?”

“Nothing.”

Now his General’s eyes are suspicious.

“Nick only had one page of my diary. I never found the others, and he said he didn’t know where they were but always refused to tell me more. You have them, don’t you?”

And he’s gonna die tonight.

“Listen, Nora—

“No, I understand. I know it wasn’t easy for anyone. Don’t add anything. But I would ask you for one service. If those pages still exist, I want them on my desk when we get back to Sanctuary. This is my story and I have a right to know. You and Nick were very thoughtful, and I understand the context, but Amari treated me, and I will never make the same mistakes again. I promise you.”

She puts one hand on his thigh, and he swallows slowly. Nora is not at all threatening, on the opposite. She spoke to him gently, not the false sweetness that’s always followed by a threat, just sweetness. He looks down on her hand, but she doesn’t take it off. He puts his hand over it.

“Nora, you’re not important to me just because you’re our General. You’re important to me because… that day at Concord, I had lost all hope. I was ready to die. I had made so many mistakes, I had lost so many people. I was ready to die. But you appeared, you fought, and defeated, for us, what was going to destroy us. You have rebuilt hope in my heart and in the Commonwealth at the same time as you have brought the Minutemen out of their ashes. You have restored that image of our faction that made me believe in humanity. I have become to believe again, and to live, thanks to you.”

She listened to him the whole time. She did not take her hand off. She remains with her eyes lost in the horizon, seemingly dreamy. After a while, she slowly leans towards him and kisses him tenderly.

Time stopped its track.

He remains completely dumbfounded but cannot hold his hand from coming to place itself in the white neck of the young woman, going up along her jawline, his fingers sliding behind her ear, in her hair. And Nora prolongs the kiss, long, exploring his mouth with her tongue. During a more enterprising movement, they lose balance, and he finds himself on his back in the sand, his General on his chest. His arm comes around the waist that presses against him and he is completely overwhelmed by what happens—

“Preston! Get up! The sun has been up for several hours. It's unlikely you to sleep so late.”

He falls to the bottom of his bed and growls. Shit, that dream again. He rubs his face. Working with Nora stole him of the best of himself and when he finally falls into a bed, tired to death, he still has the same dream. He raises a haggard look on the one he held in his arms a moment earlier in a dreamlike universe.

“Do I get a kiss to wake me up?” he tries despite himself.

She burst out of laugh. Shit, that was insulting.

“Come on, Preston, I thought I was clear about this. You’re a very good friend, and I really like you, but I don’t have that kind of feeling for you. Do I always have to remind you?”

“No… General. Sorry. I…”

“You’re still half asleep. I understand. Come on! I want to finish the three turrets today!”

He manages to get up and put on his outfit by growling. Yeah, she remembers him back. Basically, he should just admit defeat immediately. That would be better. It would surely save him that kind of dream. Also, he promises to put the pages of her diary on her desk at Sanctuary on his way back. No doubt his conscience is trying to give him a message about it…

[goldenpinof]

yeah, all of this

[homiu-l]

i miss when "goon" just means you were a lower tier henchman for a big time crime lord

[archiveofmyownheadspace]

[doesephs]

i feel like TSC is going to be the next twin towers to fifty shades of grey pipeline

[gethighdropacidneverdie]

Very cool Obama thank u

[orangetintedglasses]

"I was born on one of those ships-- that probably has something to do with it~." he says light-heartedly, dropping down beside him on the bench. He'll even sling one of his arms over the back of the bench, basically around Wolfwood's shoulders as he throws one leg over the other.

Seems the menace is back to feeling fairly comfortable around the other man. Maybe even more than before.

Vash'll take another bite of his snack, maybe chew a few times before talking through his mouthful, "got some things I need to do over there... might be nice to spend some time in the observatory with the plant-life. Wouldn't be there too long."

A sort of 'vacation'... and maybe some other things. He wouldn't call it business, but...

@forgivenpunishment (continued from x)

[fandom]

Web Stuff

Week Ending April 29th, 2024

Game Changer

Watcher

Fantasy High: Junior Year -2

Helluva Boss

Hermitcraft -3

Epic: The Musical

The Magnus Archives

The Magnus Protocol -4

Homestuck -4

Dan and Phil

Grian -5

EthosLab

Hatsune Miku -2

The Amazing Digital Circus -1

Matt Sturniolo +4

Starkid Productions

Critical Role -14

Chris Sturniolo

GoodTimesWithScar -5

The QSMP Minecraft Server -5

The number in italics indicates how many spots a name or title moved up or down from the previous week. The ones in bold weren’t on the list last week.

[windydrawallday]

While walking your merry way during this night of Halloween, a sudden cold and playful breeze left near your feet... 🍂🍂🍂

A Magical CANDY HUNT Card to fill! [FINISHED]

Welcome, everyone! From my dearests stray cats, to the roaming raccoons and crows that dive between my work and reblogs now and then: I'm inviting all of ya to my first Trick-Or-Treat Ask Box Game 🎃🎃🎃

🎉🦇🎉🦇[UPDATE: Card COMPLETED, YAY]🎉🦇🎉🦇

YOU CAN DOWNLOAD these little graphics for FREE HERE ➡️ [Itchio Page] ⬅️ (Donations are optional) Thank you for all!

This time I decided to put an extra fun (and motivational) twist to it:

All you need to do is to leave and ask off anon (I won't count any anon ask for this event, obvious reasons I hope) on my inbox saying in any way "Trick-or-treat".

⚠️PS You can only ToT ONCE! The idea is to use this as an excuse for interaction, even if ephemeral.

Then, I'll reply to you with one of the six Candy Items I drew especially for this event (that I will pull with the aid of Random.org).

And that's it!

Now, what's different from usual ToT games here? Well, every time one of you pulls a new item, I will update this post with the unveiled candy until all of them are unveiled!

And then what will happen? The prize for everyone will be having access to these cute graphics in full high res! I will leave it as a free-to-use set of PNGs to download on my Itchio/Kofi page for all of you to enjoy forever 🧡

⭐ Other extra rules to take into account:

I'm not searching to roleplay or go too deep in interaction, but be free to use this as an excuse to draw/write scenes with your OCs/Sonas if it inspires you! [Corny] will be happy to eat help you during the hunt!

This event will last until the whole card is filled but! I'll reply a bit more after the 31 ends so, bear with me if I don't reply to yours in time (I'm still working during these days).

That's it! I hope I can make some company to ya with this, or just fill the moment with fun in case you are like me dealing with the flu and with rain keeping you away from venturing outside, sigh. Anyways.

Happy Halloween and good luck! 🦇

[damailbox]

April 2004

[digi-lov]

Monochromon EX7-033 by koki from EX-07 Extra Booster Digimon Liberator

This card is another reference to the old pendulum artworks!

[Palmon: Here ya go | Monochromon: aah!]

[alphamecha-mkii]

Linxtage Season 04 - Hi-ν Gundam by ハヤケン・サレナ

[goldenpinof]

favourite behind-the-scenes moments (WE'RE SO BACK, BABY)

[jtl-fics]

I have been screaming and beating a pillow against the wall over tbd (not an exaggeration unfortunately) so I think that means I need more please

-ofsunshineandfoxes

11/20/24 WIP Wednesday (Closed) | TBD AU

Dion beams at the thanks, giggling before running off. Smith appeared at Andrew’s side and it takes a lot out of him not to instinctively lash out when he’s startled. Smith seems long used to people nearly punching him out as he offers a small smile, “Let's get you inside.”

Andrew finds himself folded into the Wilson/Gordon/Smith family household easily. He and Neil are fully off of any team related thing for the entire week.

They ate dinner with the family before they retired to Neil’s apartment. Crawling into Neil’s bed and going to sleep that first night without doing or saying much to one another, neither of them had really slept properly in the hospital or even since Neil had declined his confession.

[thisisrealy2kok]

Dead Or Alive Ultimate 1 (2004)