#they gotta show up on the dash organically

[discomycelium]

they should invent a character tag that doesn’t make you irrationally angry to scroll through

[hoshifighting]

WARNINGS: afab!reader, non-stabilished relationship, lots of alcohol, suggestive, university's games, competition, hangovers, being drunk, public-make out.

college fling!seungcheol just bc he looks so university's crush coded in today's show.

college fling!seungcheol that would stand there, hands on his hips, head tilted a little as he scanned you from head to toe when y'all got paired. “you sure about this?” he asked to the organizer of the games, voice full of doubt but eyes already sizing up jeonghan across the field, like that rivalry was the only thing keeping him in check. you just raised a brow, cocky grin pulling at your lips. “oh, don’t worry. i’ll carry us.” his laugh was quiet, disbelieving, but there was something about the way his lips twitched like he wasn’t ready to write you off completely.

fast forward a few games in and you’d completely turned the tables on him—like, when you knocked jeonghan’s smug ass out of dodgeball, the look on seungcheol’s face was priceless. you were really out here, dodging like your life depended on it. jeonghan’s out for blood, but you’re quicker. you hit him square in the chest, and his dramatic reaction has seungcheol laughing so hard he nearly doubles over. like, he blinked a few times and then that big, stupid grin just split across his face. he gave you this sideways glance, “i might’ve underestimated you.”

“yeah, no shit.”

so now, you’re stuck, tied leg to leg with him for this stupid-ass three-legged race. he’s got his arm slung around your waist, warm and firm like he’s not letting you trip up even once, and his breath is hot against your ear as he leans in. “you ready to win this?”

“you better keep up,” you shoot back, glancing up at him just to see that fire in his eyes, the same one you’d caught earlier when he was glaring daggers at jeonghan like the free beer wasn’t even the point anymore—it was just about beating him.

the whistle blows, and suddenly you’re off. at first, it's awkward as hell—legs all tangled and stumbling over each other “you gotta move faster,” he says, out of breath, too serious, like this whole thing isn’t ridiculous.

“maybe if you stopped dragging me like a sack of potatoes!”

“we’re not losing to him,” he mutters, eyes sharp like he’s got a personal vendetta against that flowing hair and smug smile.

and suddenly, you’re in it too, because if there’s one thing you hate more than this sweaty, chaotic mess, it’s losing to jeonghan.

“fine. let’s beat his ass.” maybe it’s the adrenaline or maybe it’s just seungcheol’s grip tightening around your waist, but you two start to move as one, hitting your stride, and you feel the wind whipping past your face as you dash ahead of the other pairs.

by the end of it, you’re both panting, chest heaving, but you’ve won.

later on, the soccer game, when you’re standing by the soccer field, he’s got this boyish smirk plastered on his face. “just cheer loud,” he calls out before jogging onto the field, glancing back every now and then, clearly waiting for your cheer. and yeah, maybe your voice is a little louder than it needs to be when you shout his name, but when you see the way his whole face lights up as soon as you do, it’s worth it. he says he’ll play better if you cheer for him, like your voice will magically give him superpowers.

he scores a few points and each time, without fail, he looks over at you, like he’s feeding off of it. like, your praise alone is fueling him more than anything else. after the game, all sweaty and breathless, he jogs over to you, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. “told you i’d win.”

college fling!seungcheol that would be loud as hell when you’re out there, ready to crush the final game. it’s some chaotic water relay—like, they filled these huge tubs with water, gave y'all a bucket, and the goal was to fill up another container on the other side of the field. the buckets had holes in them, so you had to sprint before the water leaked out.

and seungcheol? this man was unhinged. standing right on the sidelines, practically losing his damn mind every time you bolted back with a half-full bucket. “FASTER, Y/N, COME ON! YOU GOT THIS!” it was like he’d forgotten that this wasn’t some life-or-death competition, just free beer for a year. other students were shooting him dirty looks, a couple even told him to shut up, but he didn’t give a single fuck. “LET’S GO, DON’T SLOW DOWN NOW!”

that's when he saw something different in you—like, something clicked in his head, especially when you wiped your face, water dripping down your legs, making those already too-short shorts stick to your thighs. his cheers stopped mid-scream for a second, eyes going wide as they raked over your legs. he blinked like he’d forgotten what he was supposed to be yelling, and for a moment, it was just him staring.

“shit,” he muttered under his breath, but then he snapped out of it just as quick, “COME ON, Y/N! LET’S GO! ONE MORE, YOU GOT THIS!”

the final lap, water sloshing everywhere, legs burning, and you sprinted across the field with that leaky-ass bucket. and when you dumped that last bit of water into the container, tipping it just right, you barely had time to catch your breath before seungcheol was on you.

he practically tackled you into a hug, soaked and laughing like a maniac. “WE DID IT! FREE BEER ALL YEAR!” he was yelling in your ear, spinning you around like you weren’t already dizzy from running your ass off. his hands slipped down to your waist again, fingers digging into your skin. the grin on his face was huge, like he was the one who won, not you.

“put me down, you big idiot,” you laughed, but honestly, you didn’t mind the way he held you up.

“not a chance,” he grinned, pressing his forehead to yours, still breathless. “you fuckin’ killed it. i knew you would.”

and then came the beer. someone from the staff tossed a cooler your way, cracking open a cold one, and before you could even take a sip, seungcheol snatched it out of your hand with this naughty look in his eye. “oh, nah, you’re not drinking that yet.”

“what—” but before you could even finish, he shook the bottle like a madman and sprayed it all over you, foam and liquid pouring down your face and chest, soaking your already-wet clothes even more. you gasped, but it was too late—you were drenched.

“cheol!” you screamed, reaching for another beer, ready to get him back. and that’s when it turned into this all-out beer fight, both of you laughing so hard your sides hurt, chasing each other around the field with bottles. students were cheering, joining in on the madness, but all you could focus on was seungcheol, hair wet and sticking to his forehead, eyes bright as he grabbed another bottle and aimed it right at you.

“this is for winning!” he shouted, dousing you again, the white beer's foam in the middle of your breasts through your sports top, and you retaliated, beer spilling all over his shirt, his jaw slack with a mock gasp.

“you’re gonna regret that,” he said, but his voice was soft, eyes flicking to your lips just for a second. you both froze, your chest heaving, his hands sliding to your waist again, beer dripping down your arms, clothes clinging to your bodies in the late summer sun.

“not if i do this first,” you whispered, grabbing his collar, and in one quick move, you kissed him.

your bodies slipped slightly, drenched in beer, but that didn’t stop you from pressing yourself tighter against seungcheol. his arm, still holding the half-empty bottle, looped around the back of your neck, drawing you in closer as his lips crushed against yours. his mouth was hot, wet, tasting like the beer he’d just sprayed all over you, and you felt the way his tongue dragged against yours, sucking at it slow and messy, like he was taking his time, savoring the taste of you. your fingers were tangled in his hair, pulling just enough to make him moan into your mouth.

you felt the cold bottle you were still holding press into his back as your bodies shifted. his free hand twitched, so close to your ass that you were almost sure he’d give in and grab it, but he paused. his fingers hovered just above your skin, twitching like he was fighting the urge. even though you could feel the heat between you two, that raw, hungry want, he knew where you were. middle of the field. right after the game. some people were definitely watching, but no one cared. honestly, stuff like this? it happened all the time after athletic games. it was almost tradition.

still, seungcheol held back. instead, he pulled back slightly, lips swollen, breathing hard against your mouth as his forehead rested against yours. “you’re making it real hard to be respectful right now,” he mumbled. the way he said it made you even wetter—not from the beer, not from the sweat, not from the water—and you let out a breathless laugh.

“who said i needed you to be respectful?” you teased, nipping at his bottom lip before finally letting go of his hair. his eyes flicked down to your lips, and his grip tightened, like he was fighting every instinct to just take you right there.

but then someone yelled, “get a room!” and seungcheol just grinned, eyes crinkling at the corners as he looked at you. “come on, let’s go celebrate this win properly.”

— // —

after a good bath and a quick nap, at night, you made it to the bar, it was packed. everyone from the games was there, still high off the adrenaline, beers already flowing, and the music was loud enough to shake the walls. seungcheol’s arm was around your shoulders as you walked in, pulling you close like he wasn’t about to let you get too far from him.

“you think we’ll ever have to pay for a drink again?” you asked, glancing up at him with a smirk.

“not after today,” he replied, flashing you that same cocky grin that made your stomach flip. “free beer for a year? we’re legends now.”

you found a spot at the bar, already surrounded by some of your friends, and before you knew it, you had drinks in your hands. shot after shot, and seungcheol was right there with you, matching you drink for drink. you lost track of how many times he leaned in close, voice low in your ear as he made some comment that had you laughing so hard your sides hurt. his hand never left your waist, and each time his thumb brushed the bare skin just under your shirt, it made you squirm.

at some point, seungcheol challenged you to a drinking game—one that neither of you had any business playing after the amount of alcohol you’d already consumed. “you’re gonna lose,” he slurred, eyes half-lidded as he leaned in close, face inches from yours.

“in your dreams,” you shot back, taking another shot just to prove a point.

you lost the game, obviously. seungcheol won with a shit-eating grin, and you were tipsy enough to let him pull you into his lap, his arms wrapping around your waist like you belonged there.

— // —

by the time you both stumbled out of the bar, the cool dawn brushed your skin. seungcheol’s arm was slung over your shoulders, both of you laughing about something you couldn’t even remember. the streets were quiet, the rest of campus dark except for the streetlights flickering above. you were both drunk, but in that good way where everything felt light and easy.

“you think we’re gonna regret this tomorrow?” you asked, glancing up at him with a smirk.

“probably,” he grinned, his voice slurred as he leaned in to press a sloppy kiss to your temple. “but who cares?”

the walk back to your dorms was full of teasing, bumping into each other as you tried to walk straight. every now and then, seungcheol would stop, grab your hand, and pull you into a kiss, laughing against your lips when you almost tripped over your own feet.

when you finally made it back, he didn’t let go of you. not when you fumbled with your keys, not when you stumbled into your room, not even when you both collapsed onto the bed, still fully dressed and reeking of beer. he pulled you into his chest, both of you too drunk and too tired to do anything else.

“you’re a mess,” you whispered, eyes half-closed as you curled into him.

“you smell like beer.” he mumbled against your neck.

— // —

monday's mornings comes way too fast, and the hangovers hit even harder. you woke up with your head pounding, still tangled up in the sheets with seungcheol’s arm draped over you. groaning, you tried to sit up, but the room spun, and you collapsed back onto the bed.

“never again,” you muttered.

seungcheol just chuckled, his voice raspy and rough. “we said that last time.”

you both spent the entire day nursing your hangovers, drinking water, and trying to piece together the night before. every now and then, seungcheol would nudge you, reminding you of something stupid you’d said or done, and you’d both break into fits of laughter despite the splitting headaches.

[attapullman]

Bob From Pi Kapp | Robert "Bob" Floyd

While this can be enjoyed on it's own, the recommended reading on the syllabus for this class is Bob From Stats before proceeding.

Summary: First he's late to chapter, and now Bob is late to your Stats final. You saved him a seat. But should you also save one for his hobby horse?

Word Count: 3k

Warnings: 18+ ONLY as always, f!reader, no use of y/n, smuttttttt, goofy frat behavior, the other Daggers do make a brief appearance

A Note From Mo: Happy Start of the School Year! It wouldn't feel quite like autumn without checking in with our favourite frat boy-turned-cowboy and what shenanigans the Pi Kapps are getting up to. Can anyone guess what unforgettable moment in TV history inspired this second part to stats!Bob?

It’s unfair how good he looks laying between your thighs.

Sandy hair disheveled, glasses fogged at the rim. Chest heaving beneath thin cotton, catching his breath after a marathon make out session in your cramped dorm bed. There’s still three sections left in the review material, but Bob’s only now coming up for air as an alarm sounds and he reluctantly sits up.

Your hands reach out trying to pull him back into your embrace. He playfully swats them away, unwillingly having to extricate himself. Your fingers catch in the hem of his shirt, twisting in the fabric.

“I have to go!” He jovially laughs, returning your grabby hand back as he wiggles into his sweatshirt. “I have chapter - a non-negotiable, remember?” 

While you sarcastically cross your arms and hmph at him, he knows you aren’t actually angry. Disappointed, sure, but how could you be mad at those big round blue puppy eyes? Especially after he’s been attached to your lips since he swung by after lecture hours ago. You’ve started having a Pavlovian response every time he asks if you ‘want to study’.

Sitting up, you take your study buddy in, straightening his clothes before having to mad dash to Greek Row. He’s all long limbs and sturdy shoulders, the thick tendons of his fingers showing off the strength that he exhibits every time you get him into bed. That trucker hat is already back on his head and your eyes wander to his freshly shaven jaw and neck.

“Bob, you can’t go to chapter like that.”

He stops in his tracks and his brows crease in confusion, glasses highlighting his cornflower eyes. “It’s not a formal thing, jeans are fine. But I gotta go, there’s a fine if I’m late and I have perfect attendance.”

You shake your head and walk him the three steps over to the wardrobe in your tiny dorm, the full-length mirror on the side barely lit by the florescent bulb. Bob fills out the entire view, the mirror barely tall enough to capture above his torso, but just enough for you to gently hook your fingers into the soft heather collar of his sweatshirt. You don’t even have to tug for him to see the glaring concern.

Mottled along the left side of his neck are three mouth-shaped mauve bruises. They’ve only just begun to bloom, but against his creamy skin they stand out like stop signs. You didn’t think you had been sucking so hard. Or bitten so deep.

“I think they look kind of pretty.” He’s teasing, but you’re mortified.

Bob kisses your heated cheek, gathering his hood around his neck. “It’s fine, don’t worry. I’ll hunch my shoulders and no one will be the wiser.” At this point he’s used to his roommates pointing out the signs of affection you leave on him every week.

You’re still hot from embarrassment twenty minutes later, curled on your little dorm bed reading through your organic chemistry textbook. Though part of that may be from the lingering kiss he gave you before promising to text you after. It’s not your fault he’s perfectly adorable and fuckable - you’re only human. 

Beside you, a small ping interrupts your (distracted) studying. It’s a text from Bob, slightly earlier than planned.

BF: They may have noticed 😬

His Pi Kapp brothers not only noticed the arrangement of love bites along his neck - you were lying to yourself if you thought they were in any way subtle -  and the house of frat boys were now taking turns lining up to get photos with Love Bite Bob for posterity. Plus he was a minute late to chapter. 

You’re still giggling to yourself when you turn off the light for the night. The photo of your boyfriend’s cherry red face matching your indecent markings, a swarm of Pi Kapp sweatshirts and backwards baseball caps in the background, and mischievous grins filling every corner of your dreams.

Students mill past you, filing into the atrium of the lecture hall with a buzz of misery and despair around them. Finals Week. Every backpack in sight is heavy with textbooks and over a dozen weeks worth of notes. Your last neon highlighter died last night from overuse. 

Amongst the throng of students also dreading your Stats final, you have yet to see that vintage trucker hat Bob has been sporting since September. It seems off-brand that he wouldn’t be early, broad back already hunched over in that cramped seat with his calculator and an apprehensive smile. 

The last few weeks of sitting next to each other have been exquisite - elbows bumping in his new desk next to yours, thighs brushing in those impossibly close seats. It’s a part of your routine at this point. Bob still lends you a pencil, but you barely take any notes once the toe of his sneaker runs along your shin and suddenly you two are playing footsie like teenagers.

It’s been a horny remaining nine weeks of Stats. It was lucky that Bob was as studious as he was or you’d have gotten nothing done, stealing kisses between flashcards. Not to mention the glorious hour he spent with his head buried between your thighs while you memorized formulas, swearing he’d only leave your clit alone after you could recite them backwards.

And yet he was missing from your very last class together. The last chance to borrow a pencil and brush elbows for an hour like foreplay. Where was he?

Wanting to get yourself settled, you resign to entering the lecture hall and sitting beside Anna in one of the front rows. She gives you a sympathetic look at your dejected grimace. Your dorm room has been a testament to many a study night as of late, the two of you swapping sticky notes and notes like candy. The hall titters with students chatting as you not-so-subtly keep checking the door for latecomers, the seconds ticking down before those heavy doors shut.

The seat beside you is still empty when the teaching assistant shuts the oak doors, signaling the exam’s start.

Your professor stands at the front of the lecture hall holding a tall stack of booklets and gives a wicked grin. “Who’s ready to see what they actually learned about probability this semester?”

A collective groan sounds out and he sinisterly laughs before starting up the ancient projector. The bustle of pens and paper disappear when the loud thunk of the lecture hall doors slam open, bouncing off the sturdy brick walls and turning every head at the latecomer.

Giggles, snorts, and neighing all blend together as the cavernous lecture hall bustles with noise. Your head whips around to catch the commotion, eyes widening in surprise. 

Five men in auxiliary blue Pi Kapp sweatshirts and their own hobby horses (featuring a rather familiar Appaloosa) come galloping down the stairs, heading straight for the center stage. Standing front and center in beat up cowhide boots, a well-used felt Stetson, and tight jeans is none other than your favorite frat cowboy, blue-eyed Bob from Stats. 

His posse of Greek lettered faux cowboys stand around him, jostling each other’s shoulders and pretending to calm their steeds. Your professor patiently waits behind the pulpit, curious how this will play out with the exam he’s supposed to be proctoring. You’re gripping your seat in confusion and anticipation.

Once the raucous laughter has died down, Pi Kapp President Jake Seresin makes a show of steadying his hobby horse once more while three fellow cowboys spread out across the room, casually milling through the aisles with their wooden horses clanging between their jean-clad knees. Looking more like a lamb at slaughter all by himself, Bob calmly holds his own, knuckles rolling over the handles of his ‘horse’. Jake grins at his Pi Kapp brother before turning to his captive audience.

“Howdy, pard’ners!” The blonde’s voice booms in the cavernous hall. Various greetings yell out from all over the rows, Anna throwing in her own Howdy.

This is crazy. Anna looks at you for answers, but you have none. Whatever is going on, Pi Kappa Phi Ranch has invaded your Stats final. 

Their president makes a show of quieting the room, hand hauntingly on his hip. “So, we’ve been traveling all over this here Wild West looking for something.”

Reuben Fitch, a Pi Kapp brother and one of Bob’s roommates, stands tall at the top of the steps and calls back to him, “And what is that something, Brother Seresin?”

“Glad you asked. We’re looking for a cowgirl.”

The name catches your attention. Your blood runs cold and by default your eyes flash to Bob, hoping to find the answers in those wide, truthful ultramarine eyes. But he continues to stare boldly ahead, letting his brothers put on their show. 

Giddily clomping around with the stick of his black mare clacking on the stairs, Mickey Garcia raucously yells out, “So let’s look for her!”

Suddenly the four men are traipsing around the spacious room pretending to ride their horses, the hundreds of seats no match for their speed as they run up and down aisles, zipping through seats and over student’s knees. 

“Not here!”

“Not here!”

“Not here!”

Heat creeps along your skin as you feel Jake’s right hand man, Javy Machado, lock in on you, the squeak of his sneakers and thwack of his horse against the ground alerting his arrival. Your eyes bore into the side of Bob’s head - spectacles still facing forward - as every classmate watches the frat boy descend. Javy stops only feet from where you’re clutching the edge of your desk.

“This one here looks like she could be a real ol’ cowgirl!” Javy’s horrible Western accent and shit eating grin are begging to be smacked off his face. He turns toward the familiar Stetson and puts both hands around his mouth as he hollers. “Hey Floyd, found a cowgirl for you!”

That sweet face finally turns to you. Adrenaline floods your nervous system as every pair of eyes in the hall watches his boots clack up the stairs and past the seats until he’s standing in the row before yours, craning over the wooden chair with delicately pink cheeks. From this angle, those cerulean eyes are level with yours. And boy, are they nervous.

His voice is wobbly, but the script is practiced. “Howdy, little lady. Hiding in plain sight, weren’t ya?”

You both know you’ve sat in the same spot since that first day he lent you a pencil.

“Didn’t realize you needed an entire fraternity to find your study buddy.” Your hand waves at the four faux cowboys standing at the end of your row, looking entirely too pleased with themselves. Despite the fact that you’re as timid as him under the stares of your fellow students, you can’t help but be a little sassy and theatrical after the production you just witnessed.

That soft grin comes out to play, always amused by your fire. “I do when I have a question for you.”

The smirk on your face wipes clean. A question? There’s a flutter in the air as students turn to each other, anxious to know what quiet little Bob Floyd has been keeping to himself. Even your professor is leant forward on his elbow patches, brow quirked in interest.

You swallow slowly before responding, barely over a whisper, “What do you want to know?”

Time and space stop as he holds your gaze. So soft and affectionate, as if you are the stars in his night sky. The same hazy look he gave you in that hall closet weeks ago that made you unable to ever look back. He licks his lips, warm hand sliding over yours on the peeling wooden desktop. His eyes are so impossibly open. 

“Will you do the honor of being my date to the Pi Kappa Phi spring formal, cowgirl?”

You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Relief tingles through your extremities as your brain starts up again. The pounding of your heart backs up your smart response.

“Only if you let me borrow your boots for dancing.”

Your response settles, then suddenly all around you there’s whoops and hollers. To your left, four hobby horses are whipped into the air and twirled like batons. Mickey yells out, “Yeehaw!”

And yet all you can focus on is the wide grin that’s stretched out Bob’s face, his lean body still bent over the row before yours. You know the same smile is etched on your own jaw as your fingers intertwine. He’s so utterly ridiculous and self-assured. The perfect pairing of endearing. You can’t get enough.

You really wish everyone wasn’t watching so you could kiss him.

“Alright, alright, settle down. We do have a final to get to, if Mr. Floyd would like to take his seat.”

Handing off his trusty steed to his cowboy brothers, Bob takes the hint and makes his way around the row toward you, long legs effortlessly vaulting the nailed-in desks. He stops at the knobby wooden seat next to you and gestures, as if to ask Is this free? The corners of your mouth can’t help but upturn once more as you nod, letting your handsome Bob from Pi Kapp slip into the seat and knock his knee against yours.

You lean in, letting your lips brush against the lobe of his ear. “Not that I wasn’t entertained, but what was all that?”

He shoots you the most blinding grin, the sides of his drowningly blue eyes crinkling behind perfectly straight wire frames.

“My punishment for being late to chapter - they got to choose how I asked you to spring formal.”

Your jaw slackens as your eyes trail over to where his brethren are slinking out the heavy hall doors with their wooden steeds over their shoulders. Those cruel bastards. Your hand reaches out to stroke Bob’s still pinkened cheeks, fingers resting along his jaw to imitate soothing his wounded ego.

“One last yeehaw for Cowboy Bob for the semester, huh?” He guffaws out a laugh and kisses your cheek. 

The stack of little blue booklets makes their way over again and Bob grabs one before passing your way. His eyes are glued to you, unable to stop his affectionate attention after putting himself out on the line like that. You open your mouth to say something, but stop when the significance of it hits you. It’s the last time. 

The words form out of muscle memory. “Can I borrow a pencil?”

The air between you is sickeningly sweet as he reaches down and grabs two from his bag, handing you the sharper point. You give him a gooey smile as your fingers brush. Test nerves and bittersweet affection trickle down your spine. Who would have thought your hardest class all semester would bring such joy?

For the next ninety minutes your eyes stay strictly on your own booklet, but you can’t help but feel the radiant energy off the guy in a cowboy hat and fraternity sweatshirt and his knee that somehow keeps knocking yours.

“Slow down, cowgirl! I need a minute to recover,” Bob breathily begs from beneath you, where you’re still grinding your hips into his, one arm braced on his chest and the other against your peeling dorm wall. That damn cowboy hat is somewhere on the floor and his skin has evolved into an exerted red from the two orgasms he’s already stolen from you. 

You playfully roll your eyes and mutter something about bucking broncos before stilling, still so full of him. You delicately press a kiss to his sweaty cheek, your bare chest against his, timpani heartbeats synchronized. 

“While I have you,” you start, and he booms out a laugh, his cock still nestled tightly inside you. “How were you going to ask me to spring formal before?”

He’s so cute when he plays dumb. “Before what?”

“Before the guys made you publicly humiliate yourself to the point you can never take a Stats class again.”

Bob presses his lips together, warm hand smoothing over your hips as he weighs his response. Which is hard when you smell like sex and sweat and that fragrance he can’t quite identify the undertones of but has him dizzy. It’s a miracle he can pull himself away from you sometimes.

“You can’t just be happy knowing that I can never show my face in that building again?”

You reach down to the floor and pick up the worn Stetson, plopping it on your own head. You give him a stern look, stabbing your finger into his chest. He has a hard time being intimidated when his vision is centered on your breasts pressed together so deliciously. “Tell me or I’m sending you to cowboy jail.”

He raises his neck and pecks the tops of your breasts, just how he knows you like. With a joking frown, you grab him by the nape of his neck and stare him down. 

“Fine, fine,” Bob laughs deep from his chest. He looks so joyous, the whiff of sex and amorousness coloring him so beautifully. “If you really want to know.”

As you settle in to listen, the reality is that it doesn’t really matter his original plan. It’s that he even wants to go with you, that he’s just as far gone as you’ve been the last fifteen weeks. That one silly pencil would start something worth delaying a Stats final fifteen minutes and continue to another semester.

You just hope one day he’ll get you your own hobby horse.

Massive shoutout to all the Internet besties who keep the stats!Bob brainrot fresh - wouldn't get anything done without all you amazing peeps!

taglist: @berryvanille @bobfloydsbabe @bobgasm @bradshawsbaby @cosmoeticss @creatchie8 @desert-fern @drxgxnslxyer @hangmanapologist @hiireadstuff @himbos-on-ice @jaguarthecat @jessicab1991 @just-in-case-iloveyou @kmc1989 @littlemsbumblebee @mariaenchanted @maryelizabeth13 @midnightmagpiemama @m3ndacious @nerdgirljen @nouis-bum @petersunderoos96 @roosterforme @seitmai @senawashere @smoothdogsgirl @sometimesanalice @sorchathered @spidervman @sweetwhispersofchaos @sydsommersss @tastefulregularthots @theamuz @topherwrites @xoxabs88xox @yuckosworld

[whatiwishfanfiction]

Chapter 10 is up! Who started the fire?

I added a fire because I thought more things needed to happen to Once-ler to show why he doesn't care about anyone else's opinions anymore. I thought this story beat would add more character development (and every story is better with an extra mystery).

Excerpt:

Once-ler looked up from his drawing board as the air grew suddenly thicker. The proud smile he’d had on his face as he drew modifications for his products faded when a dark feeling descended upon him. The sky was dim and gray, but it didn’t feel like rain. It was a dry, ominous darkness, and there was an eerie silence. It was a deep, all-consuming quietness in which even the wind had stopped.

A flock of swomee-swans burst over the horizon, hooting and speeding south as if death was on their tails.

In his pajamas, Once-ler ran out of his house. Black clouds were forming all around. Not rain clouds, which he was more than familiar with, but something even more sinister and hot.

"No…" He cast around helplessly as the sky around the construction site of his new assembly line glowed orange. "No, no, no, no, no, NO!"

The Lorax and his band of Barbaloots and humming-fish appeared quickly beside him. "We have to flee!" he cried. "Where's your family?"

"I… I told them to leave."

"Did they go? Yes or no?"

"I dunno!"

"I gotta get all the animals out. I'll get Melvin too, if you need me, shout!" The Lorax and his own strange assorted family of creatures dashed away, leaving Once-ler on his own.

READ THE FULL CHAPTER ON AO3!!!!

Also I shall be away next week, that's why I'm posting this early.

[sweetiesicheng]

seventeen - competition

jeonghan x reader

word count : 2,667

-

you were taking a break from training and sat on one of the couches in the living room. with your phone in hand, you were scrolling through social media and saw some posts about other e-sports teams appear on your screen; most of them announcing which teams were going to appear at a competition scheduled for next week in tokyo.

"oh my god! y/n! did you hear?" dino frantically exclaimed. you looked over and saw him make a dash towards you from his desk. "look at this!" he instructed while shoving his phone screen into your view.

you grabbed his phone and looked at what he had on his screen: an online article with the title "#1 in south korea, team fts, announces their participation in the summer sundown festival happening in tokyo, japan next week as a last minute entry."

you sighed, "i'm gonna kill him," you immediately said, staring at dino's phone screen in disbelief. you started scrolling through the article, reading the most important parts before sending the article to your phone.

"did he not tell you?" dino asked, sinking into the couch cushion next to you.

"no, he didn't," you sighed again. "you wanna tell joshua, or should i?" you asked dino as you handed his phone back to him.

"if you wanna call jeonghan, i can go tell coach," dino replied. you nodded in agreement.

both of you got up from the couch and walked in separate directions. dino headed to your coach, who was with the rest of your team while you went onto the balcony of the house you lived in. you closed the door behind you and called jeonghan.

once he answered, you heard him immediately chuckle, "i was wondering when you were gonna call me. this was sooner than i expected."

"i just saw the article. dino just showed it to me," you replied, "what happened to the competition here?" you asked him, crossing one arm across your torso.

"the organizers are horrible. we're playing against people in the league below us, so it's clearly rigged," he explained before sighing, "it's kind of a mess though. we'll be training longer cause of the teams in tokyo."

"hey, jeonghan hyung, come on."

"i'll be downstairs in a minute. start talking with the others about the new thing," jeonghan said to the person that just called for him. it sounded like the8, but you weren’t sure.

"who was that?" you asked.

"oh, it was the8,” he confirmed. “hey, call me when you're done. i gotta go," he said to you.

you hummed in response, "i will.”

"love you."

"you wish i loved you."

"hey, don't do this—"

you hung up, laughing at what you did before receiving a text message from jeonghan, who was upset. you texted him back before going inside.

"y/n, is it true?" jun asked you as you closed the door behind you.

you nodded, "yea, just confirmed it with him."

mingyu groaned and sat back in his chair, "you have got to be kidding me."

"tonight, you guys need to go through their battles from the last competition," joshua said to everyone else. "we'll need to start planning tomorrow morning. let's just go through what we have right now."

"sounds good," vernon spoke up, putting his headphones on.

you walked to your seat that was next to dino's before loading the game up on your computer screen.

-

days later and you were in japan. you spent the first day walking around and exploring since the day after was the day of the gaming festival.

"woah, this place is nice," dino said as you guys were taken to your team's designated waiting room.

as everyone set their things down, you opened a bottle of water and started drinking from it.

"please let a staff member know if you need anything," the staff member who was with you said before leaving the room, closing the door behind them.

"who's playing the first round again?" mingyu asked before vernon handed him his phone. "oh, thanks."

"i'm gonna grab some more waters for us," you said to everyone.

"don't take too long. we need to watch all of the matches," jun said to you.

"i won't. it'll only take a second," you replied and set your own water down. you left the waiting room and went down the hall to find an area with snacks and drinks.

"do you need something?" a staff member asked you when they noticed you.

"just some waters, please," you requested. "can i just get a whole case actually?" you asked.

they nodded, "of course."

another staff member grabbed a case of water and handed it to you.

"thank you," you replied and managed to pick the case up. you started walking back to the waiting room and saw familiar faces being guided to their waiting room.

"y/n!" dk immediately yelled as he noticed you first.

"oh, hi," you greeted as jeonghan approached you.

"need some help?" he asked you.

"no."

"you do? okay," he said and took the case of water from your hands.

"jeonghan, we need to go," s.coups said to him.

"jeonghan, i'm fine," you said and tried to take the case from him.

"i'll be back in a second," jeonghan said to them before walking away from his team.

you sighed and looked at their captain, "sorry."

s.coups laughed, "it's fine. see you later.”

"see you later," you smiled before following jeonghan down the hall. "yoon jeonghan, you're going the wrong way."

you caught up to him as he looked at you, "can we take a detour so i can be with you longer? i haven't gotten to see you in like two weeks."

you rolled your eyes, "no. i have battles to watch, and you have a team to coach," you said to him and started walking in the direction to the waiting room. once you got there, you opened the door for jeonghan, "put it on the table and leave."

"you're so mean to your boyfriend," jeonghan pouted as he did what was instructed. the guys looked at him as he walked in.

"oh, jeonghan. nice to see you," joshua greeted. the two coaches greeted each other with a handshake.

"y/n, isn't there a rule about fraternizing with the enemy at competitions?" mingyu asked you.

"you're just saying that cause he's here," you replied before grabbing jeonghan and pushing him out of the room. "bye."

"wanna get dinner later?" jeonghan asked as he stood in the hallway, holding the door open despite you trying to close it.

"maybe. bye," you said and closed the door on him before locking it.

"you know, jeonghan's right. you are being mean to him," jun said to you.

"can we not? we have a competition to win," you said to your captain and crossed your arms.

-

"that battle was way too long," vernon complained as you and your team walked back into the waiting room. you had just won against one of the teams from japan.

"seriously," mingyu said and grabbed a bag of chips from the table.

"y/n, is your hand okay?" jun asked you as you grabbed your brace for your wrist from your backpack.

"it's fine. i just tweaked it during the last raid," you said and took your jacket off to cool off. you put the brace on and sat down next to dino on a couch.

"it's already bothering you? will you be okay for the rest of the competition? we have three more battles for sure and two more if we make it all the way to the finals," dino asked in concern.

"i have to be fine. who else are we gonna get to substitute for me?" you replied.

"i mean, there was that time i tried playing as two people."

"dino, you died in an instant."

-

"and here we have it. the long awaited battle between south korea's fts and south korea's sector:17. both of them are strong teams within the e-sports community. don't you agree, hoshi?" one of the commentators spoke.

"i definitely agree with you on that, seungkwan. both of these teams are powerful within the community. fts is definitely the top team in this community, so it'll be interesting to see how sector:17 overcomes this later today," the other commenter said. "let's look at the stats of both teams and see what could happen in this final battle."

"hoshi knows stuff about the game?" vernon questioned as he sat down with a snack in his hand.

"guess woozi finally taught him some stuff," you replied while massaging your wrist.

"hey, you guys feel good?" joshua asked as he walked into the room. "here's coffee," he said, handing you a cup.

"thanks," you replied, "do you think they're going to use that new strategy today?" you asked.

"probably. they probably want to wear us out with it for the first part," vernon replied.

"hey, vernon, go wake up everyone else. they need to eat before we leave," joshua instructed. vernon nodded and got up while joshua took his spot on the couch next to you. "have you talked to jeonghan?" he asked you.

"not really. didn't want to get in trouble with the league," you replied, "just that date we went on the other night."

"according to s.coups, he's been more irritating," joshua mentioned, "you should see him before the competition starts."

you shrugged, "maybe. i just don't want to get distracted either."

"understandable," joshua replied to you, "but you know how he gets, which means all of them are probably annoyed at him for sulking."

"they'll get over it. they always do," you replied and looked over when you heard someone walk into the room. "good morning, sleeping beauty," you said to mingyu as he headed to the table.

"i'm handsome, thank you," mingyu sarcastically replied as he grabbed a coffee cup off of the table. "thanks, shua."

"no problem," joshua replied. "eat a bit more. don't want to get too hungry later," he said to you before getting up and heading into the hall, "guys! wake up!"

-

a few hours later, and you're about to leave for the last battle between your team and fts. you took your brace off your wrist and put it back in your backpack.

"you good, y/n?" jun asked you. you nodded and walked over to everyone, who were waiting by the door. "let's go," he said and dino opened the door for everyone.

a staff member guided all of you to the entrance to the stage. you waited until someone instructed you to go on stage.

you walked onto the stage following jun; the others following behind you. fans were cheering everywhere from the audience. you walked to where the computers were set up, seeing the game loaded up on screen. you sat down in your seat and got ready to play.

"okay, let's do this!" mingyu yelled into his microphone.

"hey! not too loud. you're gonna blow my ears out, and then i won't be able to use these headphones anymore," dino whined at your teammate.

you looked over to your side and saw the other team getting ready. wonwoo looked over at you, as if he sensed you looking at him. he looked back at jeonghan, who also looked over at you. he gave you a smile, and you gave him a smile back before looking at the computer screen.

"alright guys," joshua said to all of you, "let's use the new strategy for the first round."

"got it."

"okay."

-

after two matches, the score was one-to-one. you were in the last match, waiting to get resurrected after dying to one of woozi's attack.

"okay, push through!" jun yelled.

"mingyu, come here," vernon instructed.

mingyu groaned, "shit. i died," he huffed out. "y/n, can you cover him?" he asked you.

"hang on, five more seconds and i'll follow," you said as you watched the screen.

"i got one down!" dino exclaimed.

"okay, i'm back," you announced to your team, "i'm coming to you, vernon. hold off if you can."

"i'm almost out of health," vernon mentioned.

"dino, i'm coming to you. use your shield," jun instructed.

"you got it."

you continued moving and reached vernon, who had barely any health left. you killed a few monsters that were on the screen and then you saw s.coups's character appear on the screen.

"shoot, i don't know where the8 went," vernon mentioned. "mingyu, are you back?" he asked as you started attacking s.coups's character.

"yep, i am. coming towards you," mingyu replied.

"all of them are by us. y/n, come here," jun said and you started moving again. you found jun and dino's characters and started attacking the8 and dk with dino while jun fought woozi.

"need backup?" vernon asked.

"we're fine. stay there," jun immediately replied. "come on...yes! okay, woozi's down."

"the8's down," dino said, "so is dk."

"s.coups and wonwoo are retreating. should we follow?" you asked, looking at the map.

"yea, keep going. mingyu, vernon, push through and get to us," jun instructed.

"we're coming," mingyu said.

you followed jun with dino behind, killing any monsters that appeared on screen. eventually, you reached the base and started attacking s.coups and wonwoo while dino was dealing with the base. a few seconds later, and mingyu joined you and jun. vernon helped dino with the base.

"they're resurrecting in twenty seconds," dino mentioned while attacking the base as quickly as possible.

"come on, come on. use your attack, y/n. our health is fine," jun instructed you. you used your character's special attack, which lowered everyone's health around you. then, you started hitting wonwoo's character and killed him quickly since his health was quite low.

"wonwoo's out," you announced.

"the base is almost down," vernon mentioned.

"we have fourteen seconds until they're back," you said, glancing at the top of the screen. "hurry."

"my health is low. mingyu, help," jun said.

"hang on."

"ten, nine, eight..." you started counting off while attacking s.coups, "seven, six, five, four-"

"we destroyed it!" dino yelled out.

"okay, finish all of them off," jun instructed right as mingyu killed s.coups.

the rest of the characters came back to life and you started attacking dk. eventually, wonwoo's character came back as well and your team killed off all of them.

"yes!"

the crowd had been cheering the whole time but you didn’t notice how loud they were until your team won. you got up from your chair and hugged dino, who was the closest to you before hugging everyone else.

you and your team started doing your victory ritual of jumping in a circle and singing a song. joshua joined in after being backstage since the beginning of the match.

after celebrating, your team went to the center of the stage where the other team was.

"you guys did good," s.coups said to jun.

"not bad yourself," jun replied.

"hey, wonwoo, let's play together some time," mingyu said to wonwoo.

"oh sure. that'd be great," wonwoo said to mingyu.

"y/n! you did great!" dk said to you.

"yea, seriously. during the second round? that was crazy," woozi said to you.

"i'm glad we won that round. i was scared there for a bit," you said to them with a laugh.

then, you were pulled away by someone and turned to see jeonghan.

"good job." you felt him kiss your forehead.

"you're just saying that to be nice to me," you said to him while wrapping your arms around him.

"i am nice, unlike you," he said as he put his arms around you, "and don't forget, we won the last competition."

you rolled your eyes, "you're annoying, you know that?"

"i know i am,” he admitted. “congratulations," he said to you before kissing your lips.

confetti continued to fall, the crowd kept cheering, and you felt like the best in the world.

[lynmars79]

When sharing stories on Tumblr, what makes for good tags to put on them?

Well, that depends. And there's likely people who do a lot of original writing on Tumblr who may have different answers, but:

I have a specific writing tag I use for both original and fanfiction ("Lyn Writing") as it helps me find things in my archive/blog search, and if folks are using those auto-tagger addons that just copy your tags, or the auto-copy of tags in mobile or other addons, it doesn't put "my writing" on their blog (which I get annoyed by).

For fanfiction, I'm going to tag the main fandom tag, and any relevant characters. Things like specific seasons, episodes, expansions, books, etc as necessary, especially if spoilery.

For original fiction, I might have an "original character" tag. If it's stuff I'm going to repeatedly post I make tags for specific OCs (or places, concepts, etc original to my writing). Usually in that last case, it's again a housekeeping method to make searching my own blog easier.

For either, there might be genre, general themes, ideas, concepts, or warnings I feel might be needed ("poetry, horror, romance, hope, names, family, violence"). Maybe some jabber commentary ("in which I try to write silly songs, OC just wants to take a nap"). If it's for a writing challenge or prompt that gets added, too, especially if the organizer has a requested tag or two to use ("DWC2024"). Sometimes I might use some Ao3 methodology to determine a few things (ratings, relationships, warnings, etc).

In the end, it's not too different from other posts one wants to be able to find, and/or tell people at a glance what's in the work, and what Searches it pops up in. For the question of "how easily do you want to find things on your own blog later," consider if you are keeping links on a page or post somewhere (also back up your work elsewhere always), and how easily do you want others to find your original stories? Do you have a specific writing tag on your pinned post or in your description?

Words and phrases in the body of a work, as well as in the tags, will pull up in the Search. Don't use tags (especially fandom tags) unrelated to one's work; that's a quick trip to "Blocked and Reported as Spam."

I also recommend anything over (my personal limit of) 500 words go under a cut. It's a delicate balance of "get people to read" when that's already difficult, so gotta hook them to hit that "Keep Reading" link, or stretch out dashes and annoy people who then scroll past (or block you or the post).

Original stuff likely won't be noticed often. The folks who do get noticed tend to have larger followings already, and/or are posting their stories as replies to writing prompts to start and getting noticed when folks trawl the notes of those posts.

A lot of it is, frankly, luck, and who reblogs to show a wider audience and then if any of them read and reblog, and so on.

So figure out the tagging scheme that works for you, link to friends and in Discord servers you're in, and reblog yourself a few times to catch followers with different timezones. Know only original posts show in the Search, not reblogs (even a reblog by OP). Write and post for the fun of it and keep expectations realistic so far as wide recognition, but honestly in the end, somewhat consistent posting, with consistent and clear tags, will slowly grow an audience over time.

[whisplow]

An Overdue Nap

Heisenwinters domestic fluff au, featuring a very sleepy Karl with a power inhibitor and no sense of personal space. Please enjoy!

-

“Mia.”

Ethan’s voice was small, hushed. From the kitchen, Mia could barely hear him, so she stayed put at first, watching her insta-oats slowly rotate in the microwave. It was the late afternoon in the safe house they were relocated to after what happened in the village, but circumstances hopefully meant this was the last one for a long time. Would be nice if Rose got to start school here in a couple years.

“Mia. Mia!”

Now she could hear it, and that somewhat urgent tone, too. Following Ethan’s voice to the living room, she discovered the reason behind him calling for her.

Karl’s adjustment to house arrest was…a very mixed experience, but his options after Miranda’s death were to be locked in a concrete box, alone, and be tested on, or to stay with the Winters’. When factoring in things like being able to see sunlight and keeping his organs untouched, it was an obvious choice.

Unfortunately the obvious choice also meant wearing a tracker and power inhibitor at all times. The whole situation left him angry, pouty, tired—

—And now angry, pouty, tired Karl, always claiming to be touch averse, had passed out hard and had himself draped over Ethan’s form on the couch. Ethan’s eyes were alight, matching the ear-to-ear grin plastered on his face. Mia’s own expression twisted as she tried not to immediately burst out laughing.

“How��how did he even—“

“—Don’t ask how! Just get your phone and take a picture already! I think he’s waking up.”

“Right, right…” Her volume dimmed to match his. She dashed to get her phone from where she left it in Rose’s room while putting her down for her nap. By the time she returned, Ethan was cupping his hand over his mouth. His shoulders twitched with his own efforts not to laugh and wake Karl up.

*Click*

The dimmed lighting automatically put her camera settings to flash mode. Mia and Ethan froze, and Karl began to stir—briefly. He shifted into a slightly different position and dropped back on top of his brand new bed.

“He sleeps harder than Rose,” Ethan whispered with a barely hidden snicker. “God, I think he’s drooling on me.”

“I mean, all those nights he spends moping around. This had to happen eventually, right?” She took a few deep breaths to ease the threat of cracking up. “I guess…I’ll leave you to it? We can show him the picture once he’s—“

SNOOOOORE

Ethan wheezed as he tried to muffle himself with his sleeve, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. Mia snorted loudly. Trying to stifle the sound left it sounding like air rushing out of a garbage disposal. She wished she took a video instead of just a picture!

That noise, that snoring only continued. It practically shook the whole couch, which didn’t help Ethan’s case. “I can’t breathe,” he complained with that smile he had no chance of getting rid of. He rubbed up and down Karl’s back, not quite sure what else to do.

With the flash pointedly turned off, Mia made sure to snap a few more pictures. She intended them as blackmail. Maybe threatening to show them to Chris would finally convince him to learn how to do a load of dishes.

“You’re not gonna leave me like this, are you?” Karl was getting especially comfortable. “Mia, I gotta pee…”

“What do you expect me to do? Roll a grown man off of you? It’s Karl, he’s so dense I swear he’s made of rocks. I’m sure you’re learning that very well right now. Besides, you’re the one who wanted a grumpy old dog.” Right then, the microwave blipped from the other room. “And! I gotta take care of that.”

“Oh, I see how it is.”

“I guess you do.”

“Even though I saved you twice—“

“Yup.”

“—and rescued our beautiful daughter—“

“Uh-huh.”

“—and wound up with some pretty terrible scars—“

“I can’t hear you anymore, I’m in the kitchen getting my food.”

Ethan chuckled. He moved his hand from Karl’s back to his head, petting him like the grumpy old dog he definitely was. “You’re both the worst…I really am going to have to kick you off here in a few minutes. Mia’s right. You were overdue for a good rest. Wonder if I can convince you to just. Sleep normally. In a bed.”

If Rose can manage, why can’t he?

“I’m glad you’re warming up to us, though. At least, I hope this is you warming up.”

[insertsyscoursehere]

just took a look at Sophie's blog after seeing a post of urs about her on my dash and... holy hell she has gotten so much worse like- she's now saying disorders are a social construct???????

Oh joy, gotta love transID stuff…

Listen, if someone suspects they may have traits of a disorder, it’s not that someone is transdisordered. They are probably showing symptoms of a disorder and should seek treatment or at least alert a trusted person in their life that something is up.

Do I think the way we treat the disabled is a social construct? Sure, that’s why we have mad pride and disability pride— because it wasn’t a choice for those who struggle.

Disorders are a social construct like asthma or cerebral palsy is a social construct— that is to say, not at all. A disorder is, by definition, something that hinders the ability to function, such as holding down a job or mobility or ability to discern between a delusion and reality. There are people who have managed their disorders, but that doesn’t mean they never struggle ever again.

Tbh, I feel like in the case of the claim she’s making, she fails to understand that a psychiatric disorder is the brain being a very smart but very stupid organ. That like any organ it is capable of failure, and that there’s no stopping it, only managing the fallout.

I didn’t have a hard life and get depressed simply through cultural osmosis or nurture. I don’t look within myself and identify as autistic. I was tested, misdiagnosed, retested, properly diagnosed, and they concluded that not only does my autism present as ADHD, but my cortisol levels are staggeringly high and my serotonin levels are lower than a contortionist limbo competition.

I feel like the only reason “transdisordered” became a thing—and mind you I’m making an educated guess here— is because we make fun of everyone who self-dx’s as if they’re all bad actors.

Self-dx is what kept me out of the hospital when I was too far from home and family to be in their insurance network. And it turns out I was right in my assertion— I have BPD and CPTSD.

There’s nothing wrong with the self dx pool, the water’s fine! But my disorders are not an aesthetic— they’re hard to live with and full of breakdowns and delusions that worry my family. To say it’s a social construct is to deny the very real pain that is caused internally and only focus on outward appearances.

Thank you for the ask, I hope your dash clears up soon. This garbage fire discourse sucks but there’s a strange beauty in it.

Most of all, have a great weekend. You deserve it!

[randomsonicshenanigans]

Chapter 2. Frozen Hill Zone

As Sonic ran across the now-snowy Green Hill Zone, it didn't took that long until he realized that he had to mind the speed. "Woah-!" He barely managed to stop before he could fall into the pit. "Phew! Gotta be more careful about speed huh? This is new... Kind of..."

"Huh? Badniks?... Looks like Eggman is involved in this huh? Tho I do doubt that he'd be able to have pulled something like this..." Sonic, like he always does, spin-dashes right towards a few badniks. And Sonic makes his way through Frozen Hill... Until he hears a familiar voice...

"Rah! Why is it so cold!" It was Eggman. He was wearing extra thick clothes, making him look more fatter, to which Sonic, couldn't help but mock him for.

"You look more rounder than before, Egghead. Preparing for hibernation? Hmm?"

Eggman, who obvioulsy also recognized the voice and got annoyed, spoke angrily. "NO IT'S NOT! YOU BLUE GUMBALL! I've had ENOUGH!.. Of you calling me things... Although "Eggman" may have been the only one I accepted... A- Anyways... The point is... if you're going to stand in my way... I'll have to fight you!"

Sonic grabbed his head. "Alright alright... I'll put an end to whatever you're doing Egghead."

Sonic with his homing attacks, was able to hit the eggmobile. Eggman shot lazers at Sonic, which didn't helped that much since Sonic defeated him anyways.

"Alright Egghead, tell me. Are you the one who's been causing this?"

Eggman looked at Sonic in disbelief. "What? Me? To change the entire planet's temperature? No way! You probably know I don't like cold places..."

Sonic, although expected this situation, was a bit shocked. "I mean... You... did kind of did a part on changing the entire planet... splitting em up y'know?"

"I-," Eggman tried to make a comeback, but ultimately failed "...Fair."

"So what? Like... you're not up to something? That's honestly... Impressive for ya Eggy. You usually would be like, '"Ugh! I hate that hedgehog!'" and immidiately go and plan another scheme."

"Look Sonic, although yes I hate you. But, I got to say... trying to scheme in a cold environment... Does not work well."

"Y'mean... '"I hate the cold more than I hate you.'"?"

"...Yes Yes, I'll admit it."

Sonic then got an idea, which he kind of hated.

"Y'know what? You help me find whatever or whoever is causing this."

"Oh? And what's in for me?"

"... No more freezing days in a middle of summer?" Sonic looked at Eggman, kind of annoyed for not knowing the obvious thing.

"...Fine fine... But you gotta do this real quick! I can't stand this temperature!" Eggman shivered.

"Heh, what can I say? Quickness is my specialty!"

Then, from the wristband Tails gave to Sonic vibrated, as it showed a hologram... of Tails calling. Sonic answers.

"Sup lil' buddy. I didn't knew this was for communication!"

"Hey Sonic! Also... Is that Eggman?!"

Eggman then came closer to the hologram.

"Yes, yes hello young Prower..."

Sonic smirked, "Yeah, he's helpin' us."

Tails paused, thinking for a second before answering. "Well... I guess using a helping hand won't be an issue. Also, Sonic! I've found some more information about this situation. But I don't want ya to be freezing there outside. So you can come back and I'll tell you... Also Eggman can come if he wants."

"Thank god! I can't handle this weather anymore! What are you waiting for hedgehog? Lead the way!"

Sonic, always with his smug face answered. "Alright! Just make sure that you can keep up with me!"

"Sonic! Eggman. Welcome back."

"Alright Tails, what is this new information you were talkin' about?"

"Okay, so, from what I've gathered, I came to the conclusion that whoever is causing this... Might be in Ice Cap... Y'know in Angel Island?"

"Oh boy! Sounds like we're going to have a little nostalgia trip eh? I wonder how's Knuckles doing... Hope he's not inside an icecube with a silly face on him..."

[midnightcreator12]

And We'll Keep Marching On Chapter 17 - A Cabin in the Woods

AO3 Link

-------------------------------------------------

The training session had been pretty much abandoned after Leo managed to choke out a few words. 

Donnie had dashed off to the barn, likely to get his laptop, and left everyone else to convince Leo to go back inside and not attempt to do training.

By the time Raph had gotten his brother settled, his phone was blowing up with messages from Donnie, all about the thing that was wrong with Leo’s brain. Raph had debated watching them right then and there but….knowing Leo could understand, he decided to cue them up later.

Later came late at night when everyone else had long gone to bed. Raph set himself up at the kitchen table with a cup of water and his T-Phone, reading articles and watching videos.

All the information made his head swim and his eyes cross, which was not helped when Donnie sent a wall of texts outlining his plan to get Leo’s brain back to normal.

But he read and watched everything. Twice. Because he was not going to drop the ball on this. He was going to help Leo get better in no time and things would, hopefully, finally, settle out some. Even if Leo wasn’t well enough physically yet, if he could talk then he could take over training, organize everyone, help them come up with plans to return to the city-

Raph paused his train of thought. One thing at a time. And the first thing was to get Leo fully back to himself.

...he also had questions about one part of Donnie’s treatment plan.

And, like the thought had summoned him, the front door clicked open and Donnie walked in, bleary-eyed but looking a lot less depressed than he had over the last few weeks.

Raph scrabbled up from the table to catch him before he went upstairs, “Hey, Dee?”

Donnie paused, rubbing his eyes as he turned to Raph. But he was grinning, almost bursting with pride, “Oh, hi! You read everything I sent you, right? I know Mikey probably didn’t but if you did we can start speech therapy tomorrow!”

“Yeah…I had a question about that actually.”

“Oh, course, course, course,” Donnie shook his head a bit, probably waking his brain up enough to focus on Raph.

“Do we really gotta…baby talk to Leo?”

“Baby talk?” Donnie huffed. “I’d hardly call it baby talking to him.”

“...your little planner literally says ‘hand and/or show Leo items and get him to say what they are accurately.’ That’s literally what Splinter did to teach us how to talk.”

“Exactly,” Donnie nodded. “That was how Splinter taught us and it’s a highly recommended method in language and speech therapy.”

Raph grimaced a bit at Donnie’s enthusiastic explanation, “Yeah but…you said he knows what’s going on.”

“Well….he knows the gist of whatever is happening around him,” Donnie shrugged. “But without some kind of MRI scan, I can’t gauge how affected his concentration and retention is. All I know for sure is that the part of his brain that helps him talk has been affected. Now, he could likely heal on his own without intervention but if we help him reteach his brain in the meantime it will lessen the likelihood of him having permanent issues with speaking.”

“Permanent?” Raph looked down at his T-Phone. Donnie hadn’t mentioned anything about long term damage.

Donnie nodded, some of his excitement finally bleeding out, “Um, yeah. Stuttering is the biggest one. But he could also have issues remembering certain words, long-term issues focusing, there is a chance the symptoms could resurface again down the line-”

“Okay, okay,” Raph cut him off. “I get it…but it still sounds demeaning.”

“Well,” Donnie scratched the back of his neck. “...okay, yeah, he’s probably going to hate it. But it’s the best way we have to help him.”

Raph sighed heavily, head drooping a bit. He knew Donnie probably would’ve left that part off if he didn’t think it would help. But it still made something in his chest twist a bit, thinking about having to walk Leo through something as simple as speaking.

Donnie was quiet for a bit, awkwardly shuffling his feet as he waited for Raph to reply, “You, um…you don’t have to do the speech therapy with Leo.”

“No!” Raph said quickly. “No, I can…I can help. I’m not gonna just…give up on Leo-”

Donnie nodded, wringing his hands, “Yeah, okay, I get it…but its fine to let us take over if it gets too much.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Raph cleared his throat. “I’m just gonna….read more…for a bit.”

“Oookay,” Donnie frowned. “You sure you don’t want to sleep?”

“Later,” Raph dismissed as he turned away. “Later. Erm, sleep well Donnie.”

“Yeah…same to you.”

Raph moved quickly back into the kitchen, only pausing at the table to listen as Donnie moved upstairs and into one of the brdrooms. He sighed when he heard a door click shut, sinking back into his chair and picking his phone back up.

As much as the mere idea of doing the whole…speech therapy stuff churned his guts, he had to get over his own hangups to help Leo.

He meant what he told Leo, weeks ago in the dark on their first night at the farmhouse.

He was going to be a better brother. And he wasn’t going to leave Leo’s side no matter what.

---------------------------------------------------

Raph decided that the sooner they started, the better. 

So the next morning, when he and Leo had sat down in the kitchen for some breakfast, Raph plucked up Leo’s glass, “Okay Leo. I need you to repeat after me real quick.”

Leo blinked, frowning at Raph’s hand in confusion.

Raph pushed down at the twinge he felt, clearing his throat. Donnie had said to start things simple and in their first language, since it seemed that that was easier at the moment. And there was a good chance that once Leo got most of his comprehension with Japanese back, English would soon follow.

So Raph swallowed and tapped the cup, saying, "Mizu."

Leo frowned and let out a questioning churr.

“You gotta say it, so your brain can start…ya know, fixing itself. Come, just try.” He tapped the glass again, "Mi-zu."

Leo's beak scrunched up, eyes pinching as he mentally processed what Raph wanted, “Maa-zi.”

And Raph was so tempted to call it good enough, pat Leo on the shell and say he’d done fine. Because watching Leo struggle over such a simple word hurt, worse than he thought it would and he just wanted this to be over and done with.

Except Donnie’s messages had reinforced, several times, that ‘close enough’ would do more harm than good and that they had to make sure Leo said the words accurately, or his brain might start making inaccurate connections and mess things up too much to fix later on..

So Raph shook his head and repeated, “No, it’s Mizu.”

Leo frowned, jaw working open and shut, much like he had the day before. Like he was trying to chew on the word or mouthing it before trying to verbalize it.

“Me…Zi.”

“Mi-zu,” Raph repeated, a tiny bit of frustration entering his tone.

He noticed it seconds after it entered the air and mentally kicked himself. Donnie had said this would be hard, that they needed to be patient. And Raph couldn't bail or mess things up now because he was getting antsy.

Leo let out a small hiss, and Raph twitched at the sound, unsure if the hiss was directed at him or that Leo was frustrated with himself.

But he also thought of Splinter, gently but firmly reminding them that they had to use words and that they were too old to be making turtle sounds.

He almost repeated the phrase to Leo, it was on the tip of his tongue. But…something stopped him. Something deep down that he’d felt whenever Splinter when reprimand a hiss or chirp or churr.

Instead, he said, “Mi-zu.”

Leo hissed again, but this time he cut himself off, eyes shutting and face contorting in concentration, “Meeee-za.”

“No,” Raph choked, free hand clenching on the table. “Come on Leo, you can do it. Mi-zu, Mizu.” He slid the glass closer to Leo, trying to help…what had Donnie called it? Build the association between the word and what the word represents?

Leo's jaw clenched, his hands balling up and shaking as his eyes cracked open again.

He looked upset and Raph was so, so tempted to just end the impromptu session. This had been a horrible idea, he should have let Donnie do the first one.

Leo opened his mouth, a choked sound coming out a first. Then, slowly, painfully, he said, “Miiiiii-zu.”

“Great!” Raph was a little ashamed at the relief that washed over him, knowing that they were done. “That was great Leo, well done! You’re gonna be back to top shape in no time! Here, why don’t you-”

Leo snatched the glass away when Raph went to hand it to him, water sloshing over the side. Leo seemed to pay it little mind as he raised his shaking hands and tried to take a drink.

Raph stood, moving to help steady to cup, “Hey, be care-”

Leo’s eyes went white and he slammed the cup onto the kitchen table with a loud, “Yame!”

It had made Raph jerk back.

Because, duh, of course Leo didn’t want help. Especially not his help. Raph had pretty much humiliated him with the stupid therapy session, forced Leo to struggle with one simple little word. And Leo knew, knew what the word was but still had to flounder in front of Raph.

Raph, who had spent the last year, ever since Leo had been appointed leader, picking at him, teasing relentlessly, doing everything he could to try and make Leo falter.

Of course he didn’t want Raph’s help. Why would he? Raph had been a terrible brother to him. Even before they started going to the surface, Raph had been so awful to Leo-

For once, he was very glad when Mikey brust into the room jabbering away about what the chickens were up to that morning and what he had planned for breakfast. Leo’s head turned away and Raph took the distraction to beat a hasty retreat to recollect himself.

He ended up on the barn roof…sulking.

Which honestly made him feel even worse. He was sulking because Leo had gotten mad at him and meanwhile, Leo's reasons to be upset were much, much more valid.

Leo had to watch the rest of them train, go about their business, do things that he couldn’t right now. And Raph had gotten frustrated with him! Hell, he should understand not being able to fully say what was on his mind. When he was mad it was like all his words got stuck in his throat.

No, that wasn’t even the same. Because Raph could calm down and speak. Leo couldn’t, he could barely get out one word answers.

Stupid, he was so stupid-

“Hey Raph!”

Raph nearly jumped out of his shell and definitely did not squawk in surprise, “Casey? How- How’d you get up here?”

“Uh, climbed? Probably the same way you came up!” Casey plopped himself down next to Raph, letting his feet dangle over the edge. “Better question is, why are you up here dude?”

Raph shrugged, pulling his knees closer to his chest, “....thinkin’.”

“Surprised you aren’t still glued to Leo’s hip. What, you two fightin’ again?”

“No!” Raph snapped out, feeling a small rush of anger. “No, I’m not…I’m never gonna fight with him again.”

“Really? You?” Casey chuckled. “Dude, I hate to break it to you but siblings fight, like, all the time. Especially you and Leo.”

“But he can’t,” Raph grumbled. “He can’t and….he shouldn’t have to! God I always gave him so much shit and now…now I’m still the bad guy because I have to tell him what things are!”

“I mean, he knows what they are, right?” Casey shrugged. “His brain just doesn’t know how to say the words anymore.”

“Why do you have to phrase it like that?” Raph grumbled.

“Geez, chill out dude. Don said he’s just gotta, ahhhh, what was it? Something about reteaching his brain how to interpret signals so he can say what he’s thinkin’?”

“Right, and while we do that, he knows exactly what's going on and can’t do anything but put up with the baby talk and not being able to walk.”

Casey went quiet for a bit, gaze drifting out to the horizon, “...you need a run.”

“Eh?” Raph blinked, the sudden change of topic throwing him for a momentary loop.

“Yeah, let’s go check out the woods!” Casey jumped up, seeming very excited about his idea. “You’ve been all cooped up in the house for weeks, dude. And I know that training with Mike and Don ain’t enough to get your blood really pumping.”

Raph blinked again, eyes flicking towards the direction of the house.

Maybe…he should? Maybe that was why he’d done so bad helping Leo's speech? Because he needed to work any anger out of his system.

But…something could happen…

Casey didn’t give him much more time to debate, reaching down and grabbing the top edge of his shell to drag him up, “Come on, it’ll be fun. Plus! Can’t let Raven and Mikey find all the cool stuff out there first!”

Raph gave Casey a flat look, “I thought you two were getting along now.”

“Define ‘getting along’,” Casey snickered. “She's still weird as hell dude.”

“Whatever,” Raph pulled away and headed for the side of the roof where he could swing himself down into the open hayloft, “You coming?”

“Hey! It was my idea!” Casey shouted as he raced to catch up.

Raph simply rolled his eyes and slid over the edge. He did wait once his feet hit the wood floor of the loft, making sure Casey didn’t fall to his death if he tried to move too fast and mistimed the swing from the roof into the loft.

Luckily, the idiot did learn a thing or two with all those rooftop patrols. Enough that he easily followed after Raph and did not have to be saved from cracking his skull open on the ground.

Raph stumbled a bit when they walked past the house, eyes instinctively scanning for signs of Leo. But the kitchen window was empty and the rest were too obscured for him to see inside from the yard.

He debated for a moment, about just switching direction and going to the house roof. Leo may not want to see him right now but it still felt wrong to just up and leave when he was still clearly in need of support.

Casey gave his arm an impatient tug.

And Raph followed after him because he was a damn coward who didn’t want to face Leo again.

The moment the pair stepped into the woods Raph started scanning around them, more out of habit than actually wanting to take in the scenery. The entire Mom-Thing incident taught him a very valuable lesson in not getting too comfortable.

Casey, however, was very much the opposite. He plowed ahead with no hesitation, crashing through the underbrush and loudly telling Raph that he'd found a great hiking spot further in the woods a few weeks ago.

Raph only nodded, trying to take in landmarks to help him find his way back.

It was…surprisingly a lot more difficult than finding ones in the city.

In New York, finding his way was as easy as remembering street names or certain billboards or recognizable buildings. In the sewers, it was valves in certain places or which tunnels were caved in or which old substation they had to cut through.

The woods? Raph would pick out a tree to mark the path and then lose it the second he turned his head. He’d pick out a bush he thought was unique only to find dozens more exactly like it within seconds. He’d find a rock only for it to vanish into the fauna if he didn’t stand in a very specific spot.

It was the inability to get a sense of direction that made him ask, “Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Sure I do,” Casey grunted as he clambered over a fallen tree. “Raven and Mike ain’t the only ones who go exploring. And I can only stay cooped up for so long, ya know? Least I don’t gotta worry about cars and other people out here.”

“Yeah, just getting lost.”

“We aren’t lost!” Casey stomped through a particularly thick clump of bushes before spinning around. “See!”

Raph followed and found himself standing on a worn dirt path. He frowned, looking up and down it for any kind of signage or markers or anything to show people regularly used it, “Case-”

“Oh relax,” Casey scoffed, moving to follow the path uphill. “It’s the wrong season for people to be hiking. And besides, pretty sure deer or something made this.”

“Deer can make trails now?”

“I mean, I think my Zoology teach said that….or was it elephants?”

Raph groaned in the back of his throat but trailed after Casey, keeping close to the tree line and one ear tuned for any sounds of humans��that weren’t Casey.

The trail went for a while, winding around in erratic curves but moving steadily upwards with a smooth enough slope that it was nearly unnoticeable.

Casey eventually wore himself out running around in the front and slowed himself down to walk next to Raph.

They both plodded along in silence for a bit, just the sound of snow crunching under them and a few birds trilling in the distance breaking it.

Then Casey finally spoke, “Do you….wanna talk?”

“What about?” Raph grumbled as he did a quick scan over his shoulder.

“About…I dunno, anything? This is the first time it’s been you and me one on one in weeks!”

Raph shrugged. Mostly because he didn’t have much to talk about or want to talk about.

Casey sighed heavily, “Dude, come on. If you’re hung up about the hissing thing, it’s water under the bridge. I get it, you were stressed out and probably hadn’t been sleeping great.”

Raph just shrugged again.

“Come on. You gotta at least got some new funny stories about Leo-”

“No,” Raph interrupted harshly.

“Okay, still a sore spot.”

Raph growled under his breath, “My brother could have died Casey….my brother almost did die.”

“...yeah but…he’s okay now.”

“No he’s not!” Raph hissed out. “He can’t walk, he can’t talk, hell, we don’t even know how aware he is.”

“I thought Don said-”

“He could still be having problems. He may never not have problems! Leo might…damnit, he might never be Leo again!”

Raph was breathing heavily, eyes starting to get blurry as his worst fear came tumbling out. That Leo was gonna be stuck in a vulnerable state because he wasn’t good enough to help him-

He felt Casey’s hand touch his arm and he didn’t even think, just dashed ahead up the trail. He scrubbed at his eyes, trying to force the stray tears back inside.

He could NOT break down. He was supposed to be leading and Leo never broke down like this when he was leading. Not even when Raph had recruited Donnie and Mikey to help him push Leo’s buttons and frustrate him so badly that he would leave patrol early.

God, why had he ever thought that was a good idea? At the time he’d wanted to prove that he could be a better leader than Leo but…it had all ended so badly.

And even after that he’d still pick and push and prod and try to get a rise out of Leo over missions and patrols and now he might have to permanently take on everything because Leo-

The trees suddenly ended, spitting Raph out into a small clearing.

And when he looked up he froze.

The clearing was small and was very well hidden by the trees, but there was enough room for a structure to be built safely. An old, dilapidated-looking shack being that said structure.

Raph only froze for a moment, barely a second, before he spun and dived back into the trees, hunkering down and disappearing into the shadows.

“Raph!” Casey’s voice cut through the woods and Raph jumped at the sound, shuffling away even more.

He could still see the clearing from his hiding spot, so he saw Casey tumble out of the woods, panting and red-faced. He looked around before freezing much like Raph had.

Raph waited, watching for when Casey would turn around and come back so Raph could meet up with him.

…instead, the idiot whistled and started walking towards the shack.

Raph hissed…then bit his tongue when he realized it was a turtle hiss, and pulled out his phone to fire off a quick ‘get back here’ text.

A red ‘not delivered’ message appeared next to his text bubble seconds after he hit send.

He looked back up, hissing again in agitation when he saw Casey was at the freaking door of the place and was trying to open it.

He edged closer to the treeline but years of ingrained lessons from Splinter stopped him from breaking cover. He watched in baffled shock as Casey managed to open the shack door and walked right inside.

He heard Casey’s voice, ringing clearly to his hiding spot, “I know you did your little vanishing trick Raph but there is no way anyone lives here! Come check this place out!” 

Raph didn’t move. Every instinct screamed at him to not move, to not be seen, to disappear and retreat to somewhere it was safe.

But he didn’t know the way back. All these trees looked the same.

So he waited and watched as Casey went inside without a damn care in the world. He knew his friend was an idiot but come on! He was older than Raph, he was supposed to know better!

…his inner voice was starting to sound a lot like Leo.

Raph couldn’t see in the shack, any windows the place had were boarded up with plywood and it was too far for him to even attempt to listen in.

He still tried, moving as close to the edge of his cover as he could and straining to try and hear anything.

It was him trying so hard to focus in on Casey’s movements that gave him the early warning of something else.

A very loud engine, slowly getting louder and coming up the trail.

Raph scrabbled back, whipping out his phone again and desperately trying to send Casey a text. And each one had a little ‘not delivered’ message within a moment of him hitting send.

The sound of the truck got louder, loud enough that Casey could definitely hear it. Raph moved under some brush, watching as a rattling, rusted truck appeared from the trail, growling and grumbling as it rolled up to the shack before the engine was cut. He watched, eyes flicking between the shack door and the truck, waiting to see which human would appear first.

The truck door squeaked loudly as it was pushed open and an old, haggard-looking man stepped out. His back was hunched, clothing just as old and rough looking as his house and truck and, even from a distance, Raph could see deep hallows under the guy's eyes that gave his face an almost skeletal look.

The guy stumbled around his truck, fumbling with the tailgate for a bit.

And Raph saw the moment the man's head turned and saw the front door wide open. And suddenly, the guy was moving. Off like a shot into the house, shouting and banging around loudly enough for Raph to flinch. 

He moved back to the edge of the woods again, mind spinning, debating if he should risk being seen and go in after Casey-

Only for Casey to come speeding out of the house, eyes wide and being followed by the old man’s shouting.

Raph still tensed, bracing his limbs and waiting for Casey to get close enough-

He shot out of the foliage, just for a moment, just long enough to snatch Casey up and drag him down into the hiding spot. And no sooner had the leaves stopped shaking from the disturbance, the old man skidded into the doorframe, looking around wildly.

His voice echoed across the clearing, croaking and scratchy, “You better stay away! Or you’ll doom yourself to endless nightmares, ya hear! You shouldn’t go poking your nose where it don’t belong!”

Raph kept a firm hold on Casey as he back away from the old man’s shack, footsteps silent as the shouting started to fade.

Raph didn’t dare start running until he couldn't hear the man’s voice anymore. Only then did he turn and start sprinting, keeping the road in the corner of his eye to help guide him and keeping a firm hold of Casey.

He would have run all the way back but Casey didn’t have as much endurance as he did, so they had to stop after a few minutes.

Raph dropped his friend's hand, waiting as Casey panted and wheezed.

Only after he straightened up did Raph reach out and slap his hand to the back of Casey’s head, “What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“What? It looked abandoned!”

“Well, turned out, it wasn’t,” Raph hissed. “You can’t be taking risks like that bonehead! We can’t afford it! What if that guy had seen me?!”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” Casey huffed, rubbing the back of his head. “Was just trying to have some fun.”

“Well stop it,” Raph barked. “Just…gha, which is the way back? We’ve been gone way too long.”

Casey sighed, shoulder drooping and face making an…almost disappointed expression.

But he gestured and started to lead the way back.

Or, Raph hoped it was the way back. The last thing he needed or wanted was to get lost in these damned woods.

----------------------

Mizu - Water

SO! The plan was that I would finish editing and upload the chapter when I got home. But then I got a lil delayed so the chapter got posted later than I planned so sorry about that. But I hope y'all still enjoyed it!

[waddledab]

wtf pls tell me abt your splatoon mlp au???

OH boy. oh boy. anon I am so glad you asked. putting this under a read more so I don't clog people's dashes lmao (also forgive me for my thoughts not being organized)

ok so this is based on friendship is magic bc that's the only one I've seen and it's like... if the mane six were in splatoon? specifically splatoon 3 bc that's the one I had on my mind lol anyways. freshness is magic

Twilight is an octarian soldier (like, the only one left for some reason) sent by Octavio to investigate the Splatlands about the disappearances of the other Octarians while he says he "won't be too far behind" (foreshadowing)

on the way there she meets spike. he's the "little buddy" smallfry of this. no he will not tell her what spike is short for or why he was in the middle of the desert when he met her

Oh yeah and only twilight can understand him bc she speaks salmonid. he just sounds like gurgles to the rest of the gang

twilight gets a transmission from Octavio basically telling her to go to Splatsville specifically, "blend in, make friends, keep a low profile, whatever"

just outside of splatsville they run into fluttershy (her name is probably different but I can't think of a good one so she's just fluttershy for now). she's a sea slug (kinda like flow) bc look at this image.

it's literally just her. come on

she's heading into town too and it basically goes like the show where she's like "omg is that a salmonid... wowie......."

MEANWHILE in Splatsville:

Pinkie (inkling), Dash (octoling who grew up in the Splatlands), and Jack (inkling) are all friends but they're in a bit of a pickle. they wanna do turf wars but they need a 4th person and the random people they keep getting matched with just don't vibe very well :(

enter twilight. (and fluttershy) (and spike)

Pinkie goes "GAAAAASP HEY HEY WANNA JOIN OUR TURF WAR TEAM"

at first twilight's like "Ugh no" but then spike is like "heyyyyy part of your missionnnn was making friiiiiends rememeberrrrr?"

so she joins the team. fine sure whatever I'm not gonna get attached (she gets attached)

Twilight is a charger main. e-liter menace

Dash is a dualies main because of course

Pinkie is good with all weapons tbh but her favorites are rollers and blasters

Jack mains N-Zap 64 and she is a tacticooler mvp

At one point they're like "Hey twi love the military drip but like you gotta get some drip"

enter rarity. i don't really have a clear mental image of her yet but she is crab. probably hermit crab? tamatoa ass back I know that for sure

she moved to the splatlands from Inkopolis and started a boutique there

she's a brush main btw "hey Earnest you dipshit only inklings and octolings do turf war" nuh uh big man canonically plays turf war AND salmon run so there

(fluttershy doesn't like doing turf war and doesn't have a main for obvious reasons) (but she does cheer them on) (spike does too bc he's not allowed in the Turf War building :( )

anyways. twilight and the gang are now besties. enter cuttlefish.

Dash: hey is it just me or is that old guy staring at us from the sewers

Pinkie: I'm gonna go follow him lol

this action has consequences.

they're all agent 3 now (3.1-3.7) but cuttlefish only has one set of hero gear. "sorry guys you're all shit out of luck" (of course twilight gets it bc protag disorder) and rarity's all "well Fine I can make hero gear for the rest of us"

crater proceeds as normal with twilight, pinkie, dash, and jack each taking one level. twilight is... *unnerved* by the current status of the octarian troops

enter octavio. hes fucking pissed. this is his natural state of being tho

he calls out twilight for being a TRAITOR and she feels bad blah blah blah they kick his ass

again it proceeds as normal but when twilight wakes up. she's alone (except for spike). as it turns out all of her besties landed on different islands somehow bc this might as well happen

Twilight is island 1, jack is island 2, pinkie is island 3, fluttershy is island 4, dash is island 5, and rarity is island 6 working on everyone's agent outfits all along so they got their group swag by the end of it

again story is pretty much the same from there. kill that bear

and so the world is saved with the power of friendship :)

unfortunately celestia and luna don't really exist by virtue of octavio kind of taking celestia's role? rip queens we loved you so much but you were replaced by old men unfortunately. sad

[milkytheholy1]

One-offs and Random Masterlist

Vigilante: Peacemaker

It’s a vigilante thing - Vigilante x Female Reader

Ok so, I just finished watching Peacemaker now that it's finally in the Uk. And I gotta say I absolutely loved it and my favourite character was definitely Viginalte, so of course, I had to write something. The plot is barely there, I literally just went off of dialogue that I thought of at two different times of the day and sorta forced them together into a story.

Cole: Ninjago

Double trouble - Cole x Female Reader

A bit of a long one today, I've been rewatching Ninjago and a few episodes have stuck out to me that I'd like to cover so expect more like this soon.

Hypno sweethearts - Cole x Female Reader

Based on the first episodes with a few little changes.

Feel you - Cole x GN Reader

Set when Cole becomes a ghosty boy. I can't remember the season, it's been a real long time since I've seen it but I plan to rewatch the entire show.

Family - Cole x Female Reader

"Mail call!" yelled the voice from over the monastery's walls. The ninja dashed to the door with excitement, you and Master Wu following closely behind. The large gates opened to reveal the poor postman, he was panting due to the number of stairs.

Ninjago city - Cole x GN Reader

As the sun rises, it casts bright, sunny rays onto the water; waking everyone up with a fresh smile. But when the sun goes down, the sunset expands across the horizon until the yellow sky fades to black. But that's your favourite part of the day, you think. When the lights along the street glow, when the individual candles flicker in the breeze. The world is only lit by small light sources, but oh boy, does the whole city illuminate.

Egon Spengler:Ghostbusters

You cheeky boy, Egon! -  Egon x Female Reader

You were usually so prepared with this stuff, getting everyone’s gift months in advance, yet with Egon, you struggled. Maybe it was because of your quickly developed feelings for him, impacting how he perceived you. This gift just had to be the best, otherwise, he could hate you forever, and that’s a very long time.

Christmas party - Egon x Female Reader

You caught the dark tuffs of his hair by the bar, an unusual place to see him but not an unwelcome one. Swiftly making your way towards his back, your ball-length dress swaying as you moved, you placed a delicate hand on his shoulder.

Bumblebee: Transformers

Transform and roll out! - Bumblebee x Female Reader

You felt Sari shaking your shoulder, forcing you to open your eyes, the ground beneath you moved, driving you to sway left and right. "Hi, I'm bumblebee," the bot spoke, making you jump slightly. You looked down to see yourself perfectly situated in his hands, peering over his shoulder you caught the fight going down with the bots and the organic monster...thing.

Love like you - Bumblebee x GN Reader

Pulling up to your house Prowl offered a word of wisdom with you about the troubled scout. He transformed suddenly, startling you slightly, his face coming close to yours as if he was whispering a secret. "(Y/N) do you know why Bumblebee has been acting so abnormal today?" You simply shook your head staring up at him with a smile "No, I don't think I've had a chance to see him long enough to know."

Awards evening - Bumblebee x Female Reader

The bots receive a letter inviting them to city hall, Bumblebee gets nervous around the reader and refuses to go.

Ben Schwartz Characters

Blue boy - Ben Schwartz x Female Reader

You couldn't stop laughing, that's the first thing he noticed. Your eyes were constantly stuck to your phone screen, that's the second thing he noticed. You'd keep having to reschedule lunch dates every so often claiming "something's come up, I'll call you later." That's when he lost it.

Wasn’t there a vase there? - Ben Schwartz x Female Reader

Reader has a super bad day and Ben gets home and she's crying and he makes her feel better.

Quarantine - Jean Ralphio x Female Reader

He's lonely in the big house he bought & the reader who has been safely quarantining for a month decides to go keep him company. They can be friends & then admit their feelings or already kinda be in a relationship.

You’re real? - Jean Ralphio x Female Reader

He's dating the reader and no one believes him and is surprised when she's real and normal.

Ducktales

 I said I was worry - Scrooge McDuck x Female Reader

Reader does something reckless on an adventure, Scrooge has a talk with her resulting in tears.

It involves fire - Not an X Reader

Prompt "I have a solution, it involves fire" "absolutely not"

Finn Wolfhard Characters

Dickbag! - Richie Tozier x Female Reader

Reader gets dumped Richie is here to help.

Nervous - Finn Wolfhard x Female Reader

Reader believes Finn would never like her but Finn has a surprise for her.

TPOH

Sleep well - RGB x Female Reader

"Come along!" He shouted walking down the footpath with wide strides, you straddled behind him taking in the strange world around you. You didn't know what tempted you into following this so-called 'monster', perhaps it was the call of adventure or the way he said 'hero'. You continued following RGB or at least that's what he called himself, it had felt like you were walking for hours your pace was slowing down.

[kintrash413]

chapter two is out ! excerpt below the cut as usual

4Chan awoke to loud, metallic banging from the trapdoor above. she didn't even remember falling asleep, and was still struggling to process being awake when Discord dashed just inside her peripheral.

"Finally," they were saying. "that's gotta be Twitch."

"wouldn't Twitch know the combination?" Wikipedia asked as Discord climbed up the ladder.

the knocking continued, loud and echoing. Wikipedia trailed behind Discord with a concerned expression.

"I know at least 12 horror movies that start exactly like this," Reddit noted before beginning to list them off.

4Chan rubbed her eyes. seemed she had fallen asleep in the common area, leaning against Reddit. the abandoned book on his lap and the imprint where Wikipedia had been sitting betrayed the scene that had been active before the knocking began.

the trapdoor creaked open reluctantly, and immediately a body came tumbling down so fast Discord yelped and had to push themself against the wall to avoid getting knocked down.

"the fuck??"

"YouTube?"

4Chan and Reddit got up quickly, and soon everyone was surrounding the body. No, not body- he was still breathing, shallow raspy breaths. the smell of blood coming off of him was overwhelming.

“Looks like he got into a bad fight with Twitch,” 4Chan noted.

“You think?” Discord asked, sounding way too hopeful.

Wikipedia pushed them all out the way to look over YouTube, reporting that his blood was off-colour and he was bleeding out more blood than he should rightfully have.

“The bright colour could be because of high oxygen in the blood, but usually when there’s an increased amount of blood that just manifests as the blood coming out thicker, but-”

“Get some bandaids!” Wikipedia interrupted.

“R-right!” Reddit let himself be cut off, quickly rushing out into the infirmary while Wiki called after him to also grab some medicine.

4Chan kneeled beside Wikipedia, dipping her fingers into the quickly-pooling puddle of blood. The blood was thin, nearly the texture of water, and showed no signs of slowing.

[decibelcoatl]

Little Heartbeats II

Read on AO3

Behold, the long-awaited sequel no one asked for, but is getting anyway.

Also, Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

-

He awoke to the sound of snow thumping loudly against the balcony door, slowly rising from his bed and the blankets that covered his body. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Lan turned to notice several imprints on the glass where several snowballs had struck, partly blocking out the moonlight that shone upon his room. Looking around, he was surprised (and relieved) that the noise hadn’t disturbed MegaMan from sleep mode.

What kind of maniac throws snowballs in the middle of the night, and what do they even want from me, he thought as he trudged to the door. The moment he opened it, he found himself being blasted by a rush of cold air, causing him to shiver. It almost reminded him of the time he’d braved a fierce snowstorm trying to restore the weather in Sharo, risking his body heat while MegaMan lit the Cyber Torches.

Well, I’m not going to stand around and freeze to death, he thought with a grumble as he shut the door and locked it as tightly as he could. He started to turn around to get back to sleep, only for the snowballs to resume once more.

Letting out a groan, he returned to open the door once more right as a stray snowball flew right in his face. Lan quickly dodged it and watched as the snowball slammed against his collection of action figures. Some of them wobbled in place, while others fell with a resounding thud.

“You gotta be joking…” Lan sighed, putting a hand to his forehead. All that time spent organizing his collection, only for it to be partly wasted. At least none of them broke, including that limited edition Owl Guard figurine. Lord knows how much Zenny he’d spent on that figurine, and having it broken meant his efforts would have been all for naught!

Well, putting the figurines back in place would have to wait until tomorrow. Right now, he needed to find out the cause behind those snowballs.

“Finally awake and showing your sleepy face?” a familiar girlish voice called out to him from below. Lan turned around to find none other than his dear friend Mayl standing below the balcony. Her ruby eyes were shimmering as she grinned from ear to ear.

“M-Mayl?! What are you even doing here?! It’s the freakin’ middle of the night!”

The girl quickly shushed him before beckoning him to come down. Lan sighed as he went back inside and closed the door. “She better owe me an explanation,” he muttered to himself as he slipped on his bandana. He then headed downstairs to put on his coat and boots before opening the door and stepping outside.

To his astonishment, a gentle snowfall had descended upon ACDC Town, blanketing the whole world in pure white. Up above, the moon was as bright and silvery as ever, coupled with the glittering stars that dashed across the endless black sky. His breath caught in his throat and his hands unconsciously clasped over his chest as his heart began to beat at a slightly faster tempo.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Lan stifled a yelp of surprise upon hearing Mayl’s voice, causing him to turn around to find his best friend right beside him.

“M-Mayl, don’t sneak up on me like that!” Lan scolded her. “You almost gave me a heart attack!”

But Mayl only giggled. He looked so adorable when he was flustered like this – that was one of the reasons why she liked him…more than he realized.

“Sorry about that,” she said. “But there’s something I want to show you. I think you’ll love it!”

She was always like that. Lan had known this aspect of her for as long as he could remember. When they were little and their friendship was nothing more than a bud, she’d take him wherever she wanted to take him, show him what she wanted to show him, and more. He’d been lonely for much of his early life ��� a fact made more prominent when he learned that MegaMan was his identical twin brother Hub, who died of HBD when they were only one. But he knew he’d be lying if he said he didn’t appreciate Mayl’s company.

Back then, Lan was much more timid and sheltered, with his only “friends” being his dad’s colleagues from SciLab. Mayl, on the other hand, was much more brave and outgoing, and also a secret fantasy nerd. A complete contrast to their present selves, except for the third aspect. Lan never stopped hanging around SciLab, and Mayl continued being a secret fantasy nerd.

With little warning, Mayl grabbed Lan’s hand and began dragging him down the streets. Lan opened his mouth to protest against her act of throwing him off-balance, only to quickly close it upon laying his eyes on her smile – that damned, beautiful smile that always seemed to make his ears burn and his heart race these days (and all without him knowing or understanding why).

Without even thinking, he gently squeezed her hand back as she continued dragging him along. She wanted to show him something she thought he might like; there was not a snowball’s chance in hell he was going to ruin it over something so trivial!

As the two passed by snow-covered buildings and trees, Lan kept his gaze trained on the snowflakes that lazily fell from the sky, noticing the contrast between now and during the snowstorm crisis in Sharo. It made him wonder how Raika and SearchMan were doing back there. Perhaps he should write an e-mail to them sometime, even though he and Raika weren’t exactly what one would call friends.

“And here we are!” Mayl’s chipper voice snapped Lan out of his reverie. He looked down and let out a choked gasp to find a view most beautiful.

There, right before the two, was a sprawling lake encrusted with white snow. Its surface was clear and reflective as any mirror as starlight and moonlight danced upon it, while snowflakes whirled about it in their slow movements. Not a creature was stirring, save for the occasional hoot of an owl or two, and there was nothing that could disturb the stillness of the lake.

All things considered, it was a view and a moment most resplendent.

…Until he decided, against his better judgement, to open his mouth.

“So…you brought me here to tell me that you found yet another possible portal to that realm of witches?”

He was quickly punished by a sharp jab in the ribs, followed by a swift kick to the back of his legs that knocked him off-balance. He grunted in pain as his back met the cold, hard earth, knocking whatever air he had stored in his lungs straight out of them.

He lay there, wheezing for a few moments before slowly sitting up to brush out some snow that had gotten into his hair. He then turned to glare up at the girl, who had turned away with her arms crossed and a pouty expression on her face. “What the hell was that for, Mayl??”

“You’re such a moron, Lan,” Mayl simply retorted. “I didn’t bring you here just to show off some portal!”

“Then what?” Lan rose back to his feet and dusted the snow off his pajama pants, muttering half to himself about how he was going to have them air-dried in the morning.

Just as quickly as she had lost her temper, Mayl was able to regain it as she looked out at the lake. “I heard this place was at its most beautiful in winter, when the sky was clear and there was no one around,” she explained. “I’ve always wanted to see it for myself, but never really got the chance to do so…until now.”

Lan raised an eyebrow. “And you decided to bring me here because…?”

There was a pause as Mayl shuffled her feet in the snow, sprinkling the fluffy pink trim of her boots with a powdery white. She then looked up bashfully at him with a light pink blush on her face.

“Lan,” she began. “Do you know what today is?”

Lan found himself absentmindedly flicking a snowflake off his nose. “No…?”

The girl let out a sigh. “Of course you wouldn’t,” she muttered half to herself before turning to face him. “It’s Valentine’s Day!”

Oh.

Oh crap.

He always forgot about THAT day! The day when he would receive so many cards that he’d go completely speechless, and so many chocolates that he could stuff himself full if he wanted to (though not without receiving a scolding from MegaMan). He knew Mayl would have plenty of competition that day, with all the other girls fawning over him – except Yai, who saw him as more of an older brother figure.

He turned away as he put a hand to his chest, his heart pounding a little bit more than usual.

Mayl frowned. “Is there something wrong, Lan,” she asked.

“W-well,” the boy stammered. “It’s got nothing to do with you, or the scenery. And I do appreciate coming out here with you, even if you had to drag me out here in the middle of the night…but…”

How could he formulate his next thoughts into words? It had been a few months since the fall of the Nebula crime syndicate and the permanent deletion of Nebula Grey. Dr. Regal had been completely reformed through mysterious circumstances, but he and Dr. Hikari were certainly on better and more friendly terms now that they were colleagues in SciLab.

Despite all that, however, Lan just couldn’t shake the feeling of regret and guilt that was building up inside of him. All this time, he’d been hiding so much from Mayl, Dex, Yai…even his own mother, whom he’d disobeyed for the sake of working alongside Chaud and Baryl to rescue his father and put a stop to Regal’s abuse of the SoulNet. In the end, they did succeed…but Lan was worried that he had put a wedge between himself and Mayl in the process.

He recalled how upset and distressed she was when she learned the truth. The only thing he could do was comfort her with words of reassurance that he would rescue Roll, GutsMan and Glyde, and all the other Navis who were corrupted by Regal’s Dark Chips, and that he would come back to her…and even then, he knew these words were just illusions to keep her out of any more danger than she was in now.

He turned his attention to the distant horizon, taking note of an owl that had just crossed his line of sight before vanishing into the dark canopy of the trees.

“It’s not on you, Mayl,” he spoke rather absentmindedly. “It’s on me.”

Mayl blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

Lan let out a shaky breath as he felt his eyes begin to water. “During the SoulNet incident, I’ve been nothing but selfish. I lied about teaming up with Chaud and Baryl, I hid the fact that I was operating within Higsby’s chip shop to take down Nebula…hell, I even disobeyed my own mother about staying put! And all because I was too weak and selfish to stop Regal from hurting the one closest to me! If I hadn’t asked Dad to bring you, Dex and Yai along, Roll and the others wouldn’t have been kidnapped, and the whole mess wouldn’t have happened to begin with!”

You don’t deserve me.

Tears were now streaming down his cheeks, but he pushed himself to continue. “I’ve done nothing but screw things up. I couldn’t protect my family. I couldn’t protect my friends. I couldn’t even protect myself or Hub. I pushed everyone away to try and change who I really was.”

He lowered his head and wiped the tears from his eyes. “Chaud was right…I’ll always be just a burden.”

You deserve better.

The feeling of Mayl’s pinkie finger intertwining with his own caught Lan’s attention as she inched closer to him. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Lan, and you were never a burden,” she told him as gently as she could. “You did the best you could – no one can blame you for that.”

She leaned over to rest her head on his shoulder as she bumped her wrist against his, smiling softly. “The fact that you’re still here is more than enough. After all, you mean the world to me. I brought you here to remind you that there’s more to life than stopping cyber terrorists.”

A light blush appeared on Lan’s cheeks as her kind words touched him. He could almost swear the beating of his heart filling his ears as it hammered within his ribcage.

“I…I don’t know what to say,” he whispered.

Without warning, she suddenly wrapped her free arm around him, pulling him in for a hug. Lan was completely caught off-guard at first, but then slowly returned the embrace. He felt a warm feeling overcome him as he did, and he couldn’t help but smile a little.

“By the way,” Mayl said as they pulled away and she placed a finger on the tip of his nose.

“U-um, yes?”

“No more putting yourself down and calling yourself a burden,” she admonished him. “Or I’m going to get really mad.”

Lan gulped, but smiled sheepishly and nodded. “A-as you wish, captain,” he replied.

His only response was a silly little giggle that escaped the girl’s mouth.

* * *

After what seemed like a long time, Lan and Mayl decided it was time to head home. Though Lan would have liked to spend just a little more time at that moonlit lake, he also knew that if stayed there too long, MegaMan would likely get suspicious.

The two of them spent the entire return trip home in complete silence, taking in the gentle snowfall that surrounded them and the quiet, snowy town of ACDC. The only lights to guide them other than the moon or stars were the streetlights that illuminated their path, and even then there wasn’t anyone around except for themselves.

All the while, Lan kept Mayl close to him, his hand held in hers. He could feel his heart thumping a happy tune in his chest as his cheeks became flushed. Normally, such display of affection from Mayl would have left him feeling bewildered and confused. But tonight was not the case.

Tonight, he just felt happy having her by his side.

Plus, Valentine’s Day was coming up. Maybe for once he should try and get a bit more involved this year (provided he didn’t die of secondhand embarrassment first).

“Well, here we are,” Mayl’s voice broke the peaceful silence as they finally arrived back home.

Lan let out a sad sigh as he reluctantly let go of her hand, knowing that this would be a parting of ways for now. But at the same time, he also knew that they would meet again in school.

“I had a lovely time going out with you,” Mayl chirped, drawing his attention back to her. She had her hands behind her back as she smiled her brightest yet (damn, she could outshine both the sun and moon with that smile if she could!) “Even if it meant having to wake you up in the middle of the night.”

Lan remained speechless. Then, he chuckled. “I-it’s alright,” he replied, averting his eyes and clutching his right arm with his left hand. “I had a nice time, too.”

Mayl smiled, drawing out those adorable dimples on her face as she did.

Then let out a yawn.

“Well,” she said drowsily. “I’d better get some sleep. You’d better, too.”

Lan chuckled. “Heh, yeah,” he commented, rubbing the back of his head with one hand. “I bet MegaMan is probably out of sleep mode and wondering where I snuck off to.”

Mayl giggled. “I bet Roll is, too. Well, see you.”

She then turned on her heel and began to walk towards the front door of her house. Lan did the same, but only took a few steps before he paused.

“H-hey, um…Mayl?”

“Hm?” Mayl turned to him, her eyes brimming with curiosity.

Lan took a deep breath and turned to face her, this time with a much more genuine smile. “Thanks for what you told me back there,” he said. “You…” He turned away and blushed while maintaining eye contact with her. “You mean the world to me, too.”

Mayl’s eyes widened with surprise at this statement. She hadn’t expected Lan to say something like that, especially after all that emotional turmoil he went through.

Still, she couldn’t help but smile warmly. She was glad she was able to at least help him in her own way, even if it wasn’t what either of them had expected. It felt like a weight had been lifted off both their shoulders, and they could finally rest easy with the knowledge that Nebula was gone for good.

“I’m glad,” she said. “Well, see you tomorrow.”

Lan nodded as she watched her disappear behind the front door of her house. “Yeah…see you.”

He stood for just a little while longer before a sleepy feeling came over him. He decided it was best to get home and get some rest.

As he approached the door, he took one last look outside, taking in the moonlight that shone upon the streets, and smiled. Tonight might not have been what he had expected in the slightest, but he knew in his heart that it was one he would treasure for as long as he lived…just being that that moonlit lake, alone with the one person who mattered the most to him.

[chaoticriderlessb]

Carmen Sandiego Thoughts

Ok, mostly really random, and I know I don't really get on Tumblr, anymore....

But, I've recently rewatched "Carmen Sandiego" on Netflix, mostly for a fanfic of mine that's now being rewritten. I totally thought there had been a season 5, but then again, I am an idiot, lol!

I gotta say, though...(spoiler alert for those of you who have not seen the show, yet) the last half of season 4 really disappointed me. Personally, I hate it when creators or show writers decide to just make the main character evil, especially out of the blue. I never grew up or watched the original "Carmen Sandiego", but I know that in the original, I think Carmen was evil. For the most part, anyway. Even so, in this reboot of "Carmen Sandiego", I didn't like what they did with her in the last half of season 4. That was just...very strange, and like I said, I personally don't like when main characters just suddenly turn evil.

I also didn't like that V.I.L.E. was so easy to take down when they're supposed to be...what, the most powerful evil organization on the planet? They had like, over a hundred operatives or something, and even the faculty members were supposed to be pretty powerful! Not just physically (Coach Brunt), but also mentally (Maelstrom). I feel like Cleo and Bellum would've been a combo of both, especially with Bellum's tools. Out of the four of them, I would've thought Maelstrom and Brunt to be the hardest to take down. But instead, every faculty member (except Shadowsan, of course) were so easily caught? What?!

Carmen being evil was just...pointless. It didn't even last very long, and there was nothing shown for it, other than a random time-skip. I just don't think it was very necessary.

About the Gray/Carmen thing.... I'm not much of a shipper, and I never shipped those two, together, anyway (honestly, if anything, Carmen and Julia being a thing would make more sense, but...ship whoever, I guess...just don't war over it, please). So, I'm not sure how to really feel about that, other than to me, it was just weird.

And if I remember, correctly, from the last time I watched the show's finale, Carmen just up and split with everyone? Ivy, Zack, Player...did Shadowsan go with her? And what about Carmen's mom? They never found her! Did they?! I don't quite remember....

Overall, I do think the last half of season 4 was very rushed (no thanks to Netflix probably pounding on the show's door to hurry things up or whatever...because it's Netflix), and I also think that yeah, there should have been a season 5, and made that the last season. I don't think I'll be rewatching season 4, again, if I'm being completely honest. I mean, first half of it was fine, and I liked the episode with Ivy/Dash Haber (I do ship them, sue me). But other than that, I think I'll be rewriting things for my fanfic or something.

Some people say that season 3 was pretty useless, but I don't know, I liked it. To me, the different shift in tone was nice, and giving the V.I.L.E. faculty a lighter side made me laugh. I don't know, maybe I'm just easily amused by that kind of thing. I don't really see anything wrong with the 3rd season...but, that's probably just me.

Anyway, those are my thoughts for today. If you agree with me, cool. If you don't, cool but please don't get at me for my opinions and feelings. Please, respect them.

Later!

[thatninjacat27]

The Chaos of Time

Summary: When an incident at the lab involving the Chaos Emeralds leaves Sonic trapped in a time loop, it’s up to him to figure out a way out of this mess with everyone alive and his sanity intact.

Warnings so far: Major Character Death

(Ao3 link above and below is the same stuff)

It was dark outside and Sonic and his friends were going through the forest in search of Dr. Eggman. The doctor had stolen the Chaos Emeralds from Tails’s lab and it was up to the group to get them back.

“Tails, are you sure we’re going the right way? We’ve been out here for a few hours and,” Sonic yawns. “We’re all getting pretty sleepy and tired over here.”

Tails yawns too. “Yes Sonic, we are heading the right way.” He flies over to the hedgehog and shows him his tablet. It was a map with a light flashing repeatedly in a single place from what looked like only a few minutes away.

“I put a tracker on the Emeralds just incase something like this might happen.”, the fox says and then he makes a thoughtful sound. “It looks like he’s going into his old warehouse.”

“Wait didn’t he abandoned that place a few years ago?”, Knuckles asks.

“Yeah he did. And I remember that day too. Eggman had moved out to the beach side so he could have his lab in a more open area.” Amy Rose said. 

“Right and he was a lot happier for it.” Tails remarks as he flies more towards the back with Amy and Knuckles.

”So why is he back here?” Knuckles questions. 

“Well whatever his deal is for returning, I willing to bet that it has something to do with the Chaos Emeralds and something in that building. Look over there.” Sonic says as he ducks behind some bushes and points out. 

Everyone ducks behind him. From where they were, they could see Dr. Eggman’s old laboratory/home. The warehouse looks slightly decrepit and really shows its age. It also looked like it had been recently put to use plus there was a few robots guarding the outside of building.

The bushes surrounding them covered them up well and none of the robots noticed the group’s presence.

“Alright, so we all know what we’re doing?”, Sonic turns to his friends.

“Yep.”, Tails said while Amy and Knuckles just made sounds of affirmation and nod.

“Okay, Let’s roll.” And with that, They all jump out of the bushes in their battle poses, surprisingly the robot guards.

Amy swings her hammer knocking one robot towards Knuckles. Knuckles take a swing, deactivating the bot with one blow. Meanwhile Sonic does his dash attacks and Tails helps take down a few of the guards. In less than a few minutes, they’ve destroyed all the bots surrounding the warehouse.

“Good work guys.“, Sonic gives a thumbs up. “But now it’s time for the main event.” With the guards now taken care of, the group proceeds inside.

“Stop right there Eggman! We’re here to get those stolen Chaos Emeralds back.” Sonic announces as he and his team bust down the door to Eggman’s no longer abandon warehouse, leaving a trail of destroyed robots behind.

“Ha ha ha ha! You are too late to stop me, Sonic. With these Chaos Emeralds in my possession, I can now begin testing my latest machine.”, Eggman said as he flew up high above them with his flying chair. “Observe!”

Eggman presses a giant red button on the remote control in his hand.The machine begins to power up. Doors open up to reveal hordes of robots coming their way.

“Fuck!”, Tails said as everyone else turns to look at him in disbelief even Eggman.

“What? I play online games. What did you expect?”, Tails shrugs off. Everyone nods along still very confused on what had just happened, chalking it up to needing coffee/sleep deprived-itis. Sonic is still a bit distracted with hearing Tails curse out loud for the first time and narrowly dodges a punch from the one of the more faster released Badniks.

“Guys I know that was a little weird but we kinda gotta focus right now.” Sonic backflips over another bot as more start to close in. “These bots are coming in hot and we got to stop Eggman from testing out that machine which he inconveniently forgot to explain the purpose of in his unusual not very descriptive evil monologue.“

The team fights off the robots. It’s not easy. The Badniks are almost swarming them like mosquitoes desperate for blood. It had seemed like the doctor had finally made enough robots this time to keep the Sonic team preoccupied for a while. Keyword being seemed.

Amy and Knuckles were making short work of those bots, while Tails was offering air support and used some of his inventions to help clear off the bots when they got too gathered in anyone’s personal space. Sonic tries to get closer to Eggman.

The blue hedgehog manages to make a clear a path up to doctor when out of nowhere, an error sound can be heard in alarms. The sound is screeching through the speakers, making everyone’s ears feel like bleeding.

”Uh Eggman, is your machine supposed to do that?”, Sonic questioned. Chaos the ringing was making him feel a little dizzy. 

“No it’s not. I don’t know what’s wrong with the blasted thing.” Eggman says as he types away at the computer. The alarm sound only gets louder and Eggman begins to look panic. “Come on come on. Work dammit work.” Eggman said as he punched the keyboard with both fists.

The doctor’s attempt at a solution does not work. The building begins to go on lockdown as the final Badniks get deactivated by the heavyhitters that are Knuckles and Amy Rose.

“Huh what’s happening?“, Tails asks as he lands to look around in confusion. An automated voice starts speaking after him, almost as if the universe had a sick sense of humor.

“CHAOS ENERGY BREACH! CHAOS ENERGY BREACH!”, the voice repeated. “CONTAINMENT REQUIRED!”

Energy emits off of the machine in visible waves. It sends small shockwaves in intervals and different loud screeching noises coming from within the machine almost as if parts were breaking on the inside. The sounds were worse than the alarm. And combined, it was torture worse than anything you could imagine hearing.

“Can someone make that thing shut up already?!” Knuckles yells as he covers up his ears. The machine then sends a blast so strong that it pushes everyone off their feet and back a couple meters.

Amy uses her hammer to keep her footing and avoid getting sent back too far. Tails manages to grab on to some piece of broken equipment. Knuckles falls on his butt. Eggman falls off his flying chair landing on the hard concrete head first. And Sonic lands right through a pole.

The pole pierces his heart. The blue hedgehog hears voices of concern coming from his friends and lights flashing all the colors of the rainbow to a steady yellow before settling to white. Eggman is yelling for everyone to trying and get out but his voice is muffled by the other loud noises playing in the background. The loss of blood is fast and the last thing Sonic sees as his life fades to black is a blinding white light consuming everything in its wake.