#this is entirely annoyance at staff and this site | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wygolvillage · 11 months ago

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a new year's resolution

well, as of 2024 i’ve decided i will no longer be posting on tumblr... this shouldnt be the hugest surprise since ive been pretty critical of staff, the over-monetization of the website, the site culture, and the user experience for the past year and gradually reducing my time spent scrolling the ol’ dashboard- ive even mentioned my intent to eventually leave; well, that eventually is now! gradually ive found myself analyzing the effect that using tumblr for 7+ years has had on me, and the effects of social media in general.

ive never had to write a goodbye letter like this before. while ive joined and left several online platforms over the years, its always been a gradual fade in interest rather than a conscious decision to stop. never have i used a platform as long as ive used tumblr, over 1/3 of my life. ive grown up with tumblr, for better or worse. how do you write a goodbye for that? i guess ill have to try my best. because as important as tumblr was for me, ive recognized the way its hurt me too.

finding other avenues of online self-expression particularly has made me think a lot about this. when i edit my website i feel accomplished, happy, and content, feeling i have put something of myself out into the world, my seed to grow and garden to tend. when i scroll through tumblr i feel as if my brain is mostly idle, and when i do emotionally respond its often out of anger or annoyance, because anger = engagement and social media sites like tumblr WANT engagement. particularly because i have OCD ive found myself upset by certain aspects of tumblr discourse culture, as well- it is basically the Scrupulosity Website and much of the way i react to and interact with media has been colored by my years spent absorbing the viewpoints of said Scrupulosity Website! i even used to look up discourse topics on tumblr just to anger myself on purpose, which is a dangerous road to go down, to build up Enemies and Factions in your mind- this is how discourse culture works. the culture of tumblr teaches you to see the world in black and white, and to feel like youre always in danger of compromising your moral purity or being attacked by the morally impure. If You Don’t Reblog This You Are A Bad Person. even as someone who nowadays tries to stay away from discourse entirely, its still there in the back of my mind, because the way we interact on this website is colored by this. when im online i dont actually want to be angry all the time! in fact i like putting my effort towards more positive stuff. but additionally: tumblr made me unhappy but it also made me an addict

and yeah social media addiction sounds like a silly boomer thing to complain about but one thing i noticed when i started trying to curb my time spent on tumblr was that opening the site was damn near compulsive. we all know those “open tumblr, close tumblr, open tumblr again immediately after” memes but that did describe my behavior pretty accurately. the draw and allure of social media feeds is powerful, if i accidentally click the youtubes short tab ill find myself a half hour later scrolling through random shit i don't care about and asking well how the hell did i get here? i dont even like that stuff! tumblr is no different no matter how much the site tries to coast on the reputation of being the last social media that's a “remnant of the old web” and “has no algorithm”. i like my chronological dash but it is equally as addicting to scroll through the thousands of people ive followed over the years, as it is to scroll through the algorithmic feeds of youtube shorts, because that's just social media!

and kicking addiction is pretty damn hard. before 2023, i made two separate attempts at reducing my tumblr usage and both fell through within a week due to that addiction. for reference this current bought of thoughts about reducing my tumblr usage and making my online/irl balance more healthy, around the start of 2023 when i began working on my website and its taken me an entire year to wean myself off of the hellsite, bit by bit. theres a point where it stopped being a conscious act, and even as i was carefully whittling down how often i use tumblr with extensions like leechblock i still had that compulsion go off multiple times every day, its a really strange feeling. but now that ive found so many more ways to express myself online, i just feel more whole now... i guess what im saying is that when i post on tumblr my first instinct is to complain or wallow about something, when i post on my own handmade blog on my website i always want to talk about things that excite me or make me happy! and its been such a tangible change in the way i think and act and im certain its because of the way social media and tumblr have their own “societal expectations” and structure that is built to feed on this negativity loop.

and a lot of the biggest shifts happened when i began immersing myself in the ideals of the web revival, while creating my own website. finding things that genuinely interested me and niches i want to occupy made me so much happier. i know we make a lot of jokes about having mutuals we never talk to that mean the world to us and i do think that is indicative of something. like, when i post on a forum full of strangers i am engaging with more “face to face” (or the digital equivalent) communication than i do with years-long mutuals. how genuine are these connections, this dashboard, the enjoyment i got from that meme post ill forget in 10 minutes? (not to say that i don’t genuinely care abt my followers and mutuals. ykwim?) i can still get all the things i enjoy out of tumblr in a more curated form via rss feeds; ive been so much more proud of what i post and create and code on my website. what am i here for? i gradually realized that i am losing absolutely nothing when i “miss out” or block tumblr on my phone or what have you.

since starting working on my neocities site ive felt so much creative drive. ive created whole interactive essays and worlds and games and writings and so many things i could never host on social media. my website is a place of my very own, and ive been learning the value of focusing on what i put out into the net compared to what i take from it. its made me feel so much more fulfilled when i spend time online.

and let's not forget about staff. i have broader issues with how automattic in particular has gone about running the site. the ads only took up more and more of the dashboard, and every month it felt like there was some new paid feature doomed to never take off. all while the user experience gradually degraded. using the site without browser extensions to fix the ui and block the ads and tumblr live and all the other shit they threw all over the place makes it look like its ridden with viruses, and i think the fact that its become so normalized to feel like we have to stay in spaces that become increasingly hostile to us, even while the internet is so vast, is really strange (i mean, i also thought that way at first). but Anyway. so much time and effort was spent on features no one liked or wanted in some desperate attempt to get a little extra money, while staff members get in public fights with users who complain about getting monetization shoved down their throat. its so openly pathetic. the merch store had mostly mediocre designs and the digital tumblrmart is absolutely full of useless digital goods with free alternatives. considering this is a userbase that gladly donates to other sites donation drives for hosting costs (i.e. ao3, wikipedia, internet archive), i am shocked that staff never considered the obvious answer of a fucking donation drive once a year or so! the ceo telling people with concerns about the ads being unsafe for epilepsy to “just pay the ad free subscription” is one of the most disgusting things ive ever heard from someone officially representing such a platform. do not be fooled by the reputation tumblr has cultivated: all that it cares about is making money from you. tumblr is “in danger” because it can't turn a profit- because a profit is all they care about!

so why stay here when im happier elsewhere, apart from the addictive compulsion? that's what ive been thinking through for nearly a year, realizing that i have no reason to, and that weaning myself off of the addiction is in my best interest. i can create and blog and have fun online and connect with others and follow other peoples work all without the need for tumblr anymore! and i think id be all the healthier for it.

over the past year ive truly fallen in love with the internet again and ive loved putting myself out there, unrestrained in ways i havent felt since i was very young. but nonetheless ive learned a lot on tumblr, ive had some of the worst and best experiences of my online life, and i dont doubt that i would be a much different person if i had never been a tumblr user for as long as i was. but i had to break out of this shell eventually.

i keep going over this wondering how i can express every feeling in my head, how i can word everything just a little better, how i can make the perfect goodbye. but i think this will have to suffice.

you can still keep up with me online here:

-explore my website: i keep it consistently updated and im always adding new things and writing new posts on my blog! you can even speak to me directly on the site! if you sign my guestbook or use my chatbox ill try to respond :) if theres anything on this list you do id like it to be this one! i worked hard on it! you can even send me chat messages on my homepage! just keep in mind it may not display everything right on most mobile browsers, but it should be mostly navigable...

you can also subscribe to my rss feed. if you don't know what rss is, it allows you to use a feed reader to keep up with updates from sites all over the internet! my rss feed will notify you whenever ive made a new post on my blog or made an interesting edit on my site id like you to take a peek at :0 convenient, right?

you can also email me at [email protected] to message me directly. if you prefer im also “wygolvillage” on discord

thank you and happy new years :) thanks for seeing me off as i sail to a new sunrise <3

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dzthenerd490 · 3 months ago

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File: OC 26

SCP#: AHV

Code Name: The Silver Blanket

Object Class: Euclid/ Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-AHV has been left to float freely within a 6x6 meter containment cell within Site-AK. The walls and floor of the containment cell are made of skinned human flesh. Behind the flesh is an artificial nervous system that helps keep the flesh fresh. It’s the same type of technology that AFA-3’s use to maintain their skin. As such there is no reason to enter the containment cell, even for maintenance. However, in the event of a containment breach or a power outage AFA-3 units specifically designed for SCP-AHV are to head to its containment cell and stand by.

These particular SCP-AFA-3 units have been augmented with extendible spider-like limbs hidden in their arms, chest and back that grow out skin like a curtain. Should the skin within SCP-AHV’s containment cell start to rot allowing it to escape these AFA-3 units are to mobilize and wrap themselves around SCP-AHV like a bubble. The others are then to guard the one who has SCP-AHV contained until MTF units can arrive. The MTF are to guard SCP-AHV by updating Command on its status and watching out for possible threats and obstacles until Foundation engineers can reestablish the power in the containment cell of SCP-AHV. Afterwards, it will be slowly returned into the containment cell by the AFA-3, only then will containment be officially reestablished.

Any testing must be approved by at least three Level 5 Foundation staff members, and if it’s a part of one of the major Projects. These are the only exceptions, anything else proposed will be disapproved immediately.

Description: SCP-AHV is a piece of metal that stands 24 inches wide, 36 inches tall, and is ½ centimeters thick. It seems heavily wrinkled like a sheet of aluminum foil yet what kind of metal it’s exactly made of is entirely unknown as it’s impossible to hold SCP-AHV in place. SCP-AHV is constantly moving, floating in the air and often swifts in direction and movement constantly to the point that it’s impossible to predict where it will go next.

When SCP-AHV comes into 5 inches of human flesh it will quickly float away into the opposite direction. The fastest SCP-AHV goes is only 10 mph, and it never flies that high from the ground so it’s generally easy to catch. Though once a human does grab SCP-AHV it will quickly slip out of their grasp and continue to do so until it is free, no matter what the human tries. The longest anyone has ever been able to keep SCP-AHV within their grasp is 2 seconds. Knowing all of this one might assume SCP-AHV can be considered a toy but the true nature of the anomaly is anything but.

Humans are avoided by SCP-AHV and besides the annoyance, are brought no harm, however when SCP-AHV comes into contact with any other organic matter or any other matter in general it will be erased from existence. Metal, stone, water, gas, plant, animal, dead, living, any form of matter will be instantly erased upon physical contact of SCP-AHV. Temperature has no effect on SCP-AHV in any way and forms of energy including energy-based attacks only seem to bounce right off. Though despite all of this, for whatever reason the only thing that is spared is either dead or living human tissue. This must be purely human tissue as Species of Interest Hybrids and Anomalous humanoids are at risk as well. Why this is the case is unknown.

SCP-AHV was discovered in 2010 when the Global Occult Coalition reported an anomaly that was a massive threat before losing contact with the Strike Team who reported it. The Horizon Initiative and the Eight Wings of Mekhane formed a team and went to the area reported. It was the [data expunged] mountains of Alaska which is considered a war zone as it is home to several Sarkite clans and primitive Mekhanite sects that have been at constant war with each other. However, both organizations soon lost contact with this newly formed team as well.

The Foundation and the Global Occult Coalition used drones to see what was going on. As the drone entered the area in question it saw trees that were cut up and missing chunks of themselves, strange holes in the ground and boulders, and there were also bits of dead bodies form animals and various Groups of Interest members. It was originally concluded that this unknown anomaly killed them; the only questioned remained is what?

Curiously the Sarkites had lost bits of them leaving them either half dead or dying by the time they were spotted by the drone. Thankfully the drone was equipped with a gun so it shot them all down before any could recover. The Mekhanites however, were completely dead as their vital artificial organs were erased entirely. Unfortunately this included the Eights Wings of Mekhane warriors who volunteered for the first investigation team. As the Drone progressed into the affected area more and more chunks of everything were erased exposing large amounts of the area below. Finally SCP-AHV was discovered, creating a crater around it by destroying all of the land in the area. Since it never floats very high from the ground it kept getting lower and lower leading to the massive crater.

The discovery of SCP-AHV led to conflict as no one knew how to deal with it. The ACPA worked tirelessly with several ideas but none worked until SCP-AHV was contained entirely by chance. Please see Addendum X-56 for details.

***

Addendum X-56

The following is a SCP Foundation Copy of the ACPA’s efforts as well as which exact organizations were involved in each containment or neutralization attempt. There were actually hundreds of attempts so only the ones of great interest will be listed within Addendum X-56.

Attempt#: 65

GoIs Involved: The Autobots.

Experiment: Optimus Prime proposed that he used a large crate like structure to contain the anomaly. He claimed this same crate was used to transport the “All Spark” a sacred treasure of all Cybertronians.

Results: Failed, the anomaly destroyed the crate and nearly killed the Autobot Volunteer as a result. From here on out, it was proposed to have the anomaly destroyed rather than contained to preserve the lives of ACPA members.

Attempt#: 273

GoIs Involved: The Global Occult Coalition and the SCP Foundation

Experiment: Space Task Fleet Apollo-1 and Strike Team-7445: "Space Dragons" deployed the SCPSS “Space Whale” and the GOCSS “Nova” over Alaska. The SCPSS “Space Whale” was armed with an electromagnetic distortion large scale rounds used for weakening entire populations of mekanites and hostile automatrons. Meanwhile the GOCSS “Nova” was armed with an experimental “rust” large scale rounds designed to release a strange virus that targets metal only and causes it to rust at an accelerated pace. Both were fired at the same time but with minimal acceleration and power to ensure any damage would only affect the anomaly and the surrounding area. The cover story presented later was that a meteorite fell in the area.

Results: Failed, the anomaly was accelerated for a few short seconds but then proceeded to fly around at a normal pace again. It quickly erased all the smoke and debris around it.

Attempt#: 367

GoIs Involved: the Eight Wings of Mekhane, the Autobots, and the SCP Foundation.

Experiment: The idea was to trap the anomaly within a bubble of pure energy and of no mass so that the anomaly couldn’t escape. The SCP Foundation, the Eight Wings of Mekhane, and the Autobots worked together to create a portable device for this. The Autobots notably gave a lot of their own Energon reserve to power up the device system and make the field as strong as possible.

Results: Failed, the energy bubble was successfully created but the anomaly went berserk inside, bouncing between the walls at ever increasing speeds until the energy reserves were exhausted and the anomaly flew out. Once it did, it killed two Winged Mekhanites, cut off an Autobot’s hand, and even flew so fast that it cut off a researcher's head. This was the first reported time the anomaly managed to kill or bring any kind of harm to a human. The anomaly continued to bound around wiping out nearly an entire forest in the area before finally slowing down. All forces retreated immediately, some suffering great injuries like the ones listed during the retreat. It was agreed to never use energy as a containment alternative again.

Attempt#: 376

GoIs Involved: Horizon Initiative and the Global Occult Coalition.

Experiment: The HI believed the item was a fragment of a chaos god and thus couldn’t be destroyed but can be sealed. They performed a thaumaturgic ritual known only to the HI and the GOC provided technology to boost the anomalous wavelengths created from the ritual for maximum power. This ritual was well known for weakening the power of chaos gods by a minimal amount but should be enough to stun this fragment.

Results: Failed, the anomaly was not affected at all and even started destroying equipment forcing them to retreat.

Attempt#: 434

GoIs Involved: The SCP Foundation

Experiment: Given the evidence from previous attempts Dr. Zeek proposed to have a bunch of agents surround the anomaly since it tends to avoid specifically humans. They were to surround the anomaly then guide it to a transportation truck where it will be sent to an experimental site with experimental containment procedures.

Results: Failed, The anomaly just dug into the ground and ended up erasing vast amounts of the underground terrain causing a sinkhole and killing all the agents as a result.

Attempt#: 507

GoIs Involved: The SCP Foundation

Experiment: by this point the mountain has half of its side erased as well as a majority of the ground. Granted it was all out of sight of any civilian settlement or area where civilians normally go but given the rate at which the anomaly was erasing everything, it wouldn’t last long. Unfortunately at this point the ACPA had exhausted almost every option that could both stop the anomaly but also protect the veil of normalcy. As such the thousands of options that were left would have to disregard the veil, however Dr. Walker proposed to have a net created only this time, have it made entirely of human skin and be able to convert the anomaly entirely though it must extend to at least 2 meters in diameter and must maintain the skin to keep it “fresh and alive” at all times. A drone was created to carry this “net” and use it to catch the anomaly.

Results: Success! The anomaly was caught immediately and the drone flew into a transport plane and taken to Site-AK where a containment cell of the same nature as the net would be made for the anomaly.

***

Since the SCP Foundation had one of its researchers finally catch the anomaly it was left in Foundation custody. However no one celebrated as it has never taken the ACPA 507 attempts to deal with an anomaly, thus this was considered a failure on ALL organizations within the ACPA. Instead the containment of SCP-AHV is left as a reminder on all organizations that to deal with anomalies requires not just conventional, or unconventional means but also completely unheard of means. There are an unknown number of anomalies out there and though some abide by a few laws even if they are laws, they are outside of our realm of comprehension. Thus it takes more outlandish ideas to contain the threat before humanity is exposed or worse, harmed by said anomalies.

Still the most peculiar thing about SCP-AHV is its origin. To this day no researcher from any organization has been able to identify its origin. It just manifested out of nowhere, yet another thing everyone here at the Foundation or anyone within the ACPA must be aware of regarding anomalies. You never know when the next one will show up and where. It is for this reason SCP-AHV is one of the few anomalies labeled as dual Object Class Euclid/ Keter.

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

#DZtheNerd #SCP: Horror Movie Files #SCP: HMF #SCP Foundation #SCP Fanfiction #SCP AU #SCP #SCP Fanmade #SCP OC #SCP-AHV #Site-AK #Euclid #Keter

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fizzingwizard · 1 year ago

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re: the new tumblr dash, it's whatever. I didn't need it, it doesn't improve my experience, but it doesn't horribly ruin it either... The twitter-like layout is something I'll laugh about for years to come though.

But I did see (or hope I saw) staff mention that they might make the navigation menu collapsible. And that I REALLY want. In fact that it's not is one reason I complained yesterday, bc I wanted that feature right away. Reason being: people's posts are too fucking small now. Whyyyy. I squint at enough online shit at work, why do I have to do it on social media... Especially on an image heavy site.

Assuming collapsing the navigation bar would resize posts to pre-change size, I won't complain about new layout anymore. But if it collapses and... posts don't change... well that'd be stupid. And I'll go get an extension to revert to the old dash hahahah

(However, worth mentioning: I only assume posts are smaller. It's entirely possible that they just LOOK smaller to me with so much stuff around them. I don't know how I'd find it out. But anyway my eye strain is worse either way lmao)

oh another annoyance: pressing "following" to refresh my dash no longer seems to work. I have to reload the site from the address bar. Except very occasionally, when after clicking "following" four times, the fifth times refreshes it... idk man...

#tumblr

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rigaudon · 1 year ago

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You know what, actually, I'm gonna comment on the original post rather than just venting my annoyance in my own blog. Holy shit guys, the entire community needs to collectively chill out and stop jumping to conclusions and regurgitating them until half the site is parroting back misinformation that takes months (or, realistically, never) to correct.

there's already half a dozen optional dashboard tabs in tumblr labs. In addition to the normal following/for you/tracked tags at the top of your dash. The keyword here being optional. You can use as many of them as you want, or none! If you want them, they're in a new tab that has no effect on your chronological dash. If you don't want them, keep them off and they won't even show up at the top to annoy you!

Like c'mon guys. I get that it's on brand for tumblr to push back against any changes @staff make to the site, but we really need to be better about not assuming the worst possible scenario and dog piling on it until the whole site is in a frenzy over something that isn't even true.

Please, I'm begging you, exercise your critical thinking skills and look into how the site already functions before writing 2k word essays on how staff is 100% For Real Taking away the chronological dashboard. You're just making yourselves mad over literally nothing.

Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience.

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content.

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up.

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant.

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are.

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds.

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs.

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread.

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads.

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed.

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it.

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages.

Test what the right daily push notification limit is.

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users.

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

#so many comments in the notes are making my brain rot.#the amount of people jumping to write thesis papers worth of outrage over a situation that Does Not Exist. With EXTREME leaps of logic #and these are AFTER staff already made an update. take 30 seconds to make sure your assumption is true before you lose your mind about it #idk. it bugs me how petulant and ungrateful tumblr users are towards the staff. I get it's always been a haha funny meme but holy shit #some of you are BEYOND entitled on this webbed site that turns no profit and is a giant money sink.#for tumblr to continue to exist staff needs to find a way to draw new people to the platform. AND to pay the bills.#would you rather there be optional algorithmic social media things that YOU DO NOT NEED TO USE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO #or would you rather tumblr go down because staff can't keep paying for the servers?#have some goddamn flexibility

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thestarsalign1010 · 2 months ago

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starforyou1010 · 8 months ago

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Best Sunnyside Fleet Vehicle

Best Mobile Fleet Vehicle Washing Business Sunnyside Washington

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fluffy-critter · 1 year ago

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#crosspost #busybee

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that-fema-corps-blog · 1 year ago

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Day 132

December 12, 2022

Back to writing inspection reports; we’re a fair bit behind due to the two site inspections at the end of last week. We got feedback that our first site inspection reports looked good, so the upcoming ones should go faster.

We had a meeting with the rest of the environmental historic preservation (EHP) staff where our project point of contact gave us some tips for using ArcGIS and Grants Manager. On the FEMA ArcGIS map, one can mark the inspection sites they visited and tag it with the relevant information (date, work order and damage inventory number, site photos, etc), and ArcGIS will automatically find the link to the site information on Grants Manager. The hope is that developers and others looking at the map will more easily be able to access and use information about past damages and hazard mitigation.

We were told that FEMA’s Grant Manager had an update years ago that added an “EHP Report” section with questions about consultations that may be needed. This sounds like a good idea; however, the answers were originally required before the scope of work was established and would not have provided useful information as a result. When the update originally rolled out, it prevented any project from moving forward until the questions were answered, and only EHP staff and a few others were allowed to answer them. This brought the process to a standstill, as perhaps only a dozen staff had to answer the questions for thousands of damage inventories before they could be moved forward. And the EHP staff who would have originally been doing actual work were instead delegated to click answer choices for days at a time. Bureaucracy at its finest.

Eventually the types of people who were allowed to answer were expanded and – even later – the requirement to complete the EHP Report dropped altogether, but the process still causes annoyances. We were told to answer “No” on everything in the EHP Report because the EHP people rarely review the report due to the unreliability of the responses, and selecting “Yes” gives you a bunch more questions to fill out. Right now the only reason to complete the EHP Report questionnaire is to get the notification to go away. Completing it otherwise contributes little of value.

We returned to working on EHP site inspection reports after the staff meeting. I completed all four site visits for the day we went to Naranjito. I also requested Grants Manager access by emailing a request form, as requesting through the site itself had gotten me nowhere after over a week of waiting. I was granted access within the hour.

I immediately took a nap once we got back to the hotel. It was time to get ready for dinner not long after I woke up. One of our teammates was going to grill outside, but the hotel requires 24 hours advance notice to borrow the equipment, so that didn’t work out. He cooked inside instead, and the entire room filled with smoke. We opened the door, fanned out the smoke, and covered the smoke alarm so it wouldn’t go off… which worked, though the entire hallway on our floor was smoky by the end of it.

Some guy from another room came by to ask us what we were doing. We showed him the cooking, and he seemed amused. Then he asked where we were from/who we were with, and we we said we were working with FEMA. He said he was with LUMA Energy and then asked us a few questions, including things we were not allowed to answer (“so who did you vote for?”). We offered him food, but he declined and eventually left. We shut the door afterward so he wouldn’t wander back in. What a strange interaction.

#fema corps #ehp #information #round 2

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thr-333 · 4 years ago

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Just Another Class Trip :)

Part 7

Siblings fight thats just part of the deal, nothing out of the ordinary here.

First< Previous >Next

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

“You’re sure you’re alright Pollen?” Marinette asks, leaping across the city hoping to catch hide or hair of the miraculous.

“Yes my queen,” The bee Kwami answers, nursing an entire jar of honey Marinette had given her as an apology, “I’m only sorry I can’t tell you anything more,”

“It’s alright,” Marinette sighs, it really wasn't but that was hardly Pollen’s fault, “I know the miraculous are out there, I just need to find them… before we get another Hawkmoth,”

“It’s alright Marinette,” Tikki squeaks, she and Kaalki had yet to leave Pollen’s side, “Hawkmoth had years to rise to power,”

“Yes but Paris wasn't already full of supervillains,” speaking of, “Hide,”

The Kwami’s dart into the many pockets of her outfit. Marinette tries not to betray she knows she is being followed. She doesn't have time to avoid the Batman tonight. However, it doesn't seem it’s just him she needs to worry about, there more people on her trail. Apparently he had learned his mistake from trying to corner her last time, she wished he hadn’t.

She lets them believe she is stopping to stretch for a minute, getting them to lower their guard. Just as they should be content she’s staying put she jumps down to the wall below, sprinting along the narrow surface with speed a little above human. There are few ways to follow her now, Robin lands behind her on the wall, keeping pace with almost the same accuracy. He isn’t the only one, there's someone on the rooftops above her, she can hear the mechanics of a grappling hook.

She jumps from the brick wall to a mesh metal one surrounding a construction site. This one’s hard for even her to balance and the emptiness should force their other friend down. It works, but unfortunately, they were already ahead of her and Nightwing drops down in her path. As if she’s going to run straight to him. She makes a jump to the nearest digger, landing on its arm, slipping down the metal a bit, her boots really aren’t suited for this.

Her pursuers need to use grappling hooks to make up the gap she jumped, giving her enough time to slide down the arm of the digger, the roof giving her a good surface to jump to the next machine. Nightwing lands next to her as she races along the bucket of a dump truck. She jumps down into the empty basket, the metallic clang ringing out in the quiet night.

Predictably, they follow her down, blocking the exit. Lucky for her she is able to jump high enough to land back on the roof with a little flip. Without bothering to look back at their reaction she jumps to the next highest point which happens to be a cement tube being suspended by a crane.

She runs along the inside, the structure swinging a bit at the movement. Her curse echos through the tube as Robin jumps in, blocking her exit. Turning around Nightwing is on the other side, both closing in. Robin is closer, approaching with a sword so she does the only sane thing, ducking below it to punch him. He jumps back, landing the force of it has the tube swinging more, sending them all off balance for a second. Marinette uses the distraction to bring out her staff, meeting Nightwing’s weapon head-on. There's strength behind it but not more than she can bear, using the movement of the tube to force him back a step or two.

She doesn't’ have long to spend on Nightwing as Robin attacks her back. She moves the staff to meet the katana facing away from him. Nightwing doesn't immediately attack her so she pivots around to meet Robins's next swing. She paries with her staff, noticing there is less strength behind it as he expected that. Playing off his expectations the next swing she pretends to parry, using her wrists to change the direction of the staff at the last moment she lets the sword graze her shoulder, it cuts into her a little more as the tubes swing forces her to step into it. She lets the staff go the force of it hitting Robin's side, she uses the precious second to twist his hand holding the Katana. Using a pressure point Master fu had been taught by the guardians, she needs some Ladybug strength to make it work through the glove but he releases it with a hiss.

Catching the Katana she spins around to brandish it against Nightwing, having expected him to make his move already. Instead, he raises his hands, which are still holding his weapons.

“We didn’t come here to fight,” He explains when Starling doesn't lower the weapon.

“Oh, you did a fine job of that didn’t you?” She scoffs, half turning to face them both, having to shift to keep balance in the rocking tube, not at all happy with their brief fight. Robin is on her other side, now holding her staff in a mirror of her with his Katana, “So what do you want?"

“You’re looking for a jewelry box right?” Nightwing asks, how did they know about the miracle box? Did they know what it was? Had they figured it out from the pool?

“What’s it to you?”

“We were just going to offer our help,” He says kindly, but Marinette had met far too many people(or just one person) who used a kind tone falsely, it brings her guard up more. Then again she desperately needed their help, if they knew what she was actually looking for or not. If worse came to worse she supposed she could transform into Ladybug, or with another miraculous and pretend that was why she was in Gotham in the first place.

“What do you know about it?” She demands, had they seen other miraculous already?

“First you tell us why it’s so important,” Robin snaps, growling slightly as she threatens him with his own sword. Nightwing gives him a pointed look, silence hanging as the tube swung back and forth lightly.

He made it seem like he didn’t know, but it could be a trap to see how much she knew. Or they really didn’t have the information and were trying to get it out of her. She could say Marinette asked her to find it, but that would risk both identities and possibly even reveal her as Ladybug. Marinette had once received the miraculous, maybe she could pretend Ladybug had handed her the box for safekeeping while on a special mission. It wasn't something Ladybug would actually do but she had never talked with the Justice League so they wouldn’t know that. Could she pass herself off as being three different miraculous holders? Depends on how fast she can find the fox miraculous. In the meantime.

“A girl had it stolen, I bumped into her and she asked me to look for it, that's all,” Starling shrugs, relaxing her pose, lowering the sword some.

“Why?” Robin demands, even as Nightwing seemed to accept the answer.

“It’s a nice thing to do?” Starling posed it more as a question, forcing herself to drop out of the defensive pose, “Speaking of nice things to do, I give you back the Katana and you give me back my staff?”

Robin scowls but accepts the exchange. Starling holds her weapon loosely at her side.

“So what’s the plan, you got any leads?” She looks at Nightwing, eyes narrowing in annoyance, “Cause your boss kind of chased off my only one,”

“Sorry about that,” Nightwing rubs the back of his neck, “You know, just random person threatening a civilian and all that,”

“Yeah sure,” She gives him a flat look, “So do you have any leads or not?”

“Follow me,” He turns, leading the way out of the tube, Starling hesitates to face her back to Robin but ultimately follows him out. It’s easy enough to keep pace until they come to a much too high building.

“Yeah, there's no way I can make that,” She looks down at the gap for the street, then the good thirty feet of height the next building over had on them.

“Hold on then,” Nightwing grins at her, holding a hand out, “You alright with this?”

“As long as you don’t let me splat on the road we should get along just fine,” Nightwing gives her a dazzling smile, she still holds on tight as they are pulled up to the roof by the grappling hook.

On the roof, the first person she spots is Batman, which is quite the feat with the bright colors of Red Robin's suit right next to him. Batman just gives her a nod as they land, she raises a brow at that, um, no?

“I’m surprised that wasn't all a plot to get rid of me,” She lets the bitterness into her voice, who throws knives at people before asking what they’re doing?! “What's that on the pavement? Oh not to worry it’s just Starling! Oh, I’m sure Batman had nothing to do with it, look no tacky knives around! That serves more purpose as a collector's item than an actual weapon by the way,”

Batman looks at her with as much shock as the stoic can muster, while Red Robin next to him tries to turn his snort into a cough.

“So you go by Starling then?” he says gruffly and that cannot be his real voice.

“Well I had hoped I said it loud enough the other day for you to catch but I guess your hearing is as bad as your eyesight, how quickly did you lose me in that crowd again?”

“You’re upset,”

“You’re very astute for the, what was it?” She looks at Robin for dramatic effect, “World's greatest detective, was it? Yeah…. Rrrriiiight,”

There must be something going around since both Red Robin and Nightwing seem to be coughing an awful lot, the sound suspiciously close to a laugh.

“So, since you ruined my only lead I hope you have something to make up for it,” She switches back to business before Batman can regain his bearings enough to retaliate.

“We haven't seen any report filed so we were thinking you could give us a description-”

“That's the thing,” Starling cuts Red Robin off, she could tell where this was going and did not have time for it, “How did you even hear about this if no report has been filed? I’m starting to get the feeling you're just doing this just because of me,”

“... well-”

“Worry not then, rest assured I’ll be out of your hair as soon as I fulfill my promise,” She gives a quick bow, and yeah she can see why Chat finds this fun, "Trust me I have no desire to stick around longer than that after this welcome,"

“We can’t just let a meta-human run around my city-”

“First of all,” Was cutting off the Batman a good idea? No, but that wasn't going to stop her? No, “You really can’t do anything to stop me, legally and morally, despite you thinking it’s your city you’re still as much an illegal vigilante as I am, quite frankly you don’t have the authority to kick me out,”

“Second, a meta-human? Yeah not quite, and no I will not clarify,” She stares him down, “If your problem is with me being a meta-human there are a lot more vigilantes than me running around with powers that you let fly, not that is should really matter anyway,”

“Third, you don’t care about this,” well if they didn’t know about the miraculous the didn't, “I know your wheelhouse and petty theft isn’t on your radar, so why don’t you let me do my job in peace and I’ll leave you to yours,”

She looks them all over, sparing a second to take note of their shock, before turning on her heel. It’s then she realizes they are really high up and she has no way to get down. Well, might as well make his meta-human theory harder.

“Hey, they didn’t know anything,” She says, bringing her hand up to her ear, pretending to press a communicator, “Pick me up will you?”

She waits a second so they think she’ll be staying awhile, then jumps off the ledge. She calls on Kaalki quickly, hoping to transform quickly enough they don’t notice her costume change before she disappears into a portal, landing in her hotel room.

“You know I’m starting to think I should stop pissing them off,” Marinette says out loud, dropping the transformation.

“You think? Are you going to transform every time you meet them,” Kaalki scoffs, but is handed a sugar cube before they can complain too much.

“It wasn't the best approach,” Tikki says gently, flying out of her cape.

“I know,” Marinette pulls off her mask, “But the less time I spend around them the better, I just need to find the miraculous quickly before they realize,”

“If they haven't already,” Pollen says solemnly, settling in on the bed.

“Well the best I can hope if they don’t think I know anything and know just as much themselves,” Marinette flops down onto the bed with the Kwamis, “And that they stay out of my way from now on, hopefully, the rest of the trip runs smoothly enough I can keep slipping off to look for the miraculous,”

Her Kwamis accept this, curling close she starts to drift off, before a horrible realisation strikes;

"I'm getting blood on the bed!"

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

Taglist:

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amelialincoln · 4 years ago

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Electric Love pt2

sorry im working on an amelink fic but its hard cause i have little to motivate me with. soooo here's marecal

They both awoke to the sound of an alarm blaring continuously over their heads. This happened on occasion and as terrifying as the situation was, the couple had almost gotten used to it. After the war the idea of democracy had been popular among the regions. With red and silver becoming equal, the solution had seemed obvious. But it would be wrong to say that the idea of everyone living in harmony was accepted by all. It was mostly the silvers that had an issue with it all, still craving the power they once had maintained. The small rebellion had formed about a year after the war, and raids had been happening throughout the palace almost every month since then. It was rare that anyone would come near their apartment but Cal had built an underground bunker just in case. The raids never resulted in much, other than terrifying those who lived there. Occasionally, they’d take a staff member or government official but eventually would set them free after their pleas went unanswered.

Mare stumbled out of their bed, still half asleep. However, Cal tugged at her arm, wide awake. He’d already secured his bracelets and a dim flame lit up their bedroom. He couldn’t help but worry that since word had gotten around about Mare’s pregnancy, they may somehow be a target. To which Mare had responded, days earlier, that no silver in their right mind would come anywhere near the two of them, in fear for their lives.

“Feeling nauseous?” He asked as she gripped the stair railing and swayed softly.

“When am I not,” she grumbled, following him down into the blackness. Cal sighed with relief as he bolted the door and pulled the string to an overhead light. The concrete room contained a double bed, a cabinet full of snacks and a pathetic sink that sat in the corner, almost always dripping. Mare crawled into the mess of duvet and leaned back against the bed frame. She was usually unfazed by the break-ins and normally slept through the entire event, unlike Cal who usually spent the night watching the door and allowing flames to creep across his fingertips. He glanced over to find her hands pressed against the small bump that had formed on her midsection earlier that week. Her first trimester was exhausting her and Cal had never felt more helpless.

“You should rest,” he noted. “Practice starts at six tomorrow because of the holiday on Monday.” He knew that despite tonight’s events there was no way that Mare would miss even an hour of training.

“I would lie down but I’m trying really hard to not throw up,” she responded slowly. Mare wasn’t known as a ray of sunshine when functioning on little sleep. “I would appreciate it if you could get your child to give me a break, Tiberias.” She tried to sound bitter but he could hear the fragility in her voice.

“Do you want the plain crackers? Those usually help,” he suggested.

“Do we have any down here?”

“No.” He expected her to yell at him but instead she leaned back in exhaustion.

“Can you just come sit with me?” Cal glanced over at her apprehensively, not wanting to leave his position by the door. Mare rolled her eyes at his hesitation.“Cal, for fucksake it’s absolutely fine--” As if on cue the sound of their apartment door banging open echoed through the flat. Mare fell silent as the sound of moving furniture filled their ears. Someone was looking for them. Anxiety raged inside her and lightning sparked on her palms, growing brighter by the second.

“Mare, control it,” Cal hissed. Her ability was becoming more and more unpredictable as her pregnancy went on, to the point where they were in the midst of getting a necklace made out of silent stone for moments like these. Cal couldn’t help but wish they’d had it by now.

“I can’t,” her voice wavered. The light above them brightened immensely before popping and surrounding them in blackness. Light bulb glass reflected red as Cal’s flames dimly lit the room. Mare silently prayed that her purple sparks would not reappear. “Do you hear that?” She asked, as a familiar voice called out to them, calling their names over and over. “It’s Gisa!” She moved to the side of the bed

“No Mare, it’s not.” Cal’s eyes darkened, willing her to lie back down.

“Cal, I think I would know my own sister--”

“It’s a voice manipulator, it’s trying to convince us to come out.”

“How do you know--” She wanted nothing more than to answer the voice calling out to her.

“Because I hear Maven,” Cal hissed, his eyes begging her to be quiet. Mare had never wanted to throw up more. She finally processed the idea of silvers rummaging through their apartment, playing tricks on their minds. Suddenly the situation was more nauseating than the smell of Cal’s green smoothies he’d been forcing her to drink lately. He noticed her gag and shot her a look of sympathy. Eventually the calling diminished and they heard less and less footsteps above, though neither of them wanted to go back upstairs. Eventually Mare fell asleep but Cal couldn’t bring himself to leave the door, waiting for the voice of his brother to return.

She awoke the next morning to find Cal missing from the bunker. A handwritten note was left on her pillow.

Mare,

Taking the kids up the mountain today. Don’t try and follow us, we'll be back soon enough. Rest and please just be safe.

Love, Cal

Classic. She threw her head back in frustration. Despite the break-ins being an inconvenience, they always put Cal on edge. She was surprised that he’d decided to let her out of his sight, even if it meant her getting some extra hours of sleep. She walked lazily up the stairs to find their apartment torn to shreds. Furniture was pushed over and destroyed. Picture frames had fallen off walls and glass lay shattered on the floor. Although she hadn’t been too involved in the design of their place, she couldn’t help but feel awful that all of Cal’s hard work had gone to waste. She smoothed the crinkled photos that had fallen out of their frames. Most were of her and Cal, apart from some of Mare’s family and Cal had one photo of Coriane, which he cherished greatly. She couldn’t help but grin at the thought of racing up the mountain to meet the group, the idea didn’t seem too bad to her. Undoubtedly would piss off Cal, which was always fun. She didn’t bother having breakfast, through trial and error she’d learned that eating before noon would result in an hour spent in the bathroom. Eventually, after a while of trying to tidy up the apartment, she was dying of boredom. She tied her hair back into a messy braid and pulled on her training uniform before swifty leaving the apartment, locking it behind her.

“Hey!” She whipped around to find Evangeline morphing the garden fountain into a rather inappropriate image. “Cal cleared my schedule to sit around and wait for you to try and leave.” She narrowed her eyes, obviously upset by her change in plans.

“That’s dumb,” Mare shrugged, turning to leave.

“He also lied about where he took the kids today. If you go up that mountain you aren’t going to find them.” Mare stopped in her tracks, cursing. “Why do you want to go so bad anyways?”

“Because what else am I supposed to do?” she huffed.

“Domestic life not treating you well?” Evangeline teased, Mare glanced up at her, realizing how much she had begun to miss everyone she’d gotten close with last year. She hadn’t seen Farely in what seemed like months.

“How’s Elane?” She changed the subject and Evangeline took the bait, never upset when speaking of her girlfriend.

“She comes to visit today,” her eyes lit up with excitement. “I’m going back with her in a week and then staying awhile. There isn’t much to do around here,” she admitted, Cal had mentioned that her ‘government’ role had been less riveting than she’d anticipated.

“Yeah, no kidding.” Mare couldn’t help but grin at the idea of Evangeline in a stuffy room talking about politics.

“He did seem shaken up this morning though. The raids were bad last night?” Mare could tell Evangeline was trying to keep her from leaving but at that point she didn’t care. There were twelve off campus training sites scattered over Montford and the group could be anywhere. She sat down on the edge of the fountain and tried to look as if she wasn’t bothered.

“They don’t usually search our apartment.”

“Ah,” Evangeline responded. “Probably something to do with the bun in the oven.” She gestured to the small bump that Mare had been desperately trying to hide with baggy clothing.

“I don’t know what they think they could possibly achieve by trying to harm either of us.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

“Yeah, it’s messed.” Evangeline bit her lip. “The group is expanding though. If you go downtown there’s signs up everywhere. The silvers aren’t happy.”

“You think after last year people would want a break from the violence.”

“I don’t know, would be nice to have a little fun.” The rings on her fingers were morphing into tiny daggers on her palms. Mare couldn’t help but laugh.

“You haven’t changed.”

“Have any of us, really?” Evangeline shrugged. “Come on, Barrow, I know you miss silver blood on your hands.”

“We crave the chaos now but the moment we’re back in it we’ll wish we savoured these moments.” She shook her head but couldn’t suppress the rush of euphoria that passed over her as she imagined what Evangeline was suggesting.

“You think there will be another war?” Evangeline’s voice was hushed, as if someone was listening in on the pair’s conversation. Mare nodded grimly.

“Cal’s been seeing Julian almost every night. I can tell they’re hashing out the beginnings of some plan. He’s been downplaying the silver’s revolt. I don’t know why he’s treating me like I’m too weak to handle the truth.”

“Probably doesn’t want to stress you out.” Evangeline brushed a piece of her frizzy blond behind her ear and smirked as she watched Mare gag at the idea of her condition was making her incompetent. “Just go,” she finally caved. “They’re at the training centre in Elm.” Evangeline chuckled as the lightning girl’s eyes lit up with delight. “Tell him I told you and I’ll give the silvers a key to your underground bunker,” she added darkly, trying to hide her amusement.

“I wouldn’t put it past you.”

Judging from the time of day the group would probably be on their trek back by now. Mare decided to go anyways. The idea of getting a rise out of Cal was too appealing to pass up. He deserved it for treating her like she was useless. The dirt road was longer than she remembered or maybe she was just more out of shape than the last time she’d run it. She pushed herself faster at the thought. It took a lot for someone to sneak up on Mare. Cal failed miserably almost every day. Which is why, when she was pulled back suddenly, she froze in shock rather than fought back. Before she could react a knife was pressed to her neck and it drew a small amount of blood that began to pool under her chin. She felt the silent before it even started reaping her ability from her, tugging her strength away.

“Not so powerful now, sparks.” She could hear the enjoyment in the unfamiliar silver’s voice and wanted to spit at the nickname. The knife, however, permitted her from doing such.

“I’ve got guards watching me,” she forced out a lie. “Letting me go would be a smart move.” To her dismay the group of silvers only chuckled.

“Look Red Queen, you're the issue here. You’re the reason that reds think they can waltz into our cities and act like they aren’t the worthless vermin that they are. You may have deceived the prince but there’s no mistaking your true intentions.” Mare couldn’t begin to guess what they were talking about.

“He’s not your prince anymore.” Was all she could think of to say. Cal didn’t want anything to do with the crown anymore, or so she hoped.

“And that’s where you're wrong.” The new silver’s voice was calm and poised. “Tiberias Calore VII has been working to revise the new laws. The democratic system is flawed. It’s only a matter of time before it splits. Your boyfriend is working hard to fix the damage you caused.”

“That’s not true.” She could hear the falter in her own voice.

“So that leaves you as the problem. A red can never sit on a silver throne.” Mare could feel the knife digging deeper into her skin.

“I don’t want your stupid throne.” She managed to kick her leg back, connecting with the soft area that she’d been aiming for. The man yelped in pain, allowing the knife to drop. Mare whirled around to find a larger group than she’d expected. As the sky began to darken she noticed a line of sweat was starting to form on the silent’s forehead.

“Get her in the vehicle,” the woman ordered, Mare could sense the weakness in her voice knowing she wouldn’t last for much longer. She could feel the static energy increasing in the air, begging to strike. The men came at her quickly. She dodged the first couple easily but more kept advancing. The silent held on to her dismay and eventually she was surrounded. It was the knife guy that hit her first, undoubtedly holding onto some sort of resentment. After that the rest was blurry until she doubled over in pain and blackness invaded her vision.

#marecal #marecal fanfic #marecalfanfic #marebarrow #mare barrow #tiberias calore #evangeline samos #redqueen #red queen #red queen fanfiction #victoria aveyard

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dzthenerd490 · 2 months ago

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File: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl

SCP#: AIX

Code Name: Planet Drool, the World of Dreams

Object Class: Apollyon Thaumiel

Special Containment Procedures: The Anomalous Celestial Body Management Department has created a large holographic mirror made of hundreds of satellites to cover SCP-AIX’s presence from the rest of the solar system. Site-DREAM has been constructed on SCP-AIX in hopes of cooperating the world into Project Medusa. Mobile Task Force Zeus-9 “Dream Catchers” are responsible for establishing security for Site-DREAM and fighting off hostile entities that reside on SCP-AIX. Resources and staff transitioning is done on a monthly basis, Space Task Fleet Apollo-1 is responsible for protecting transportation ships.

Description: SCP-AIX is a world that exists on the very edge of our solar system, even more beyond Pluto. SCP-AIX is not actually a real world but instead created from the dreams of a boy named [data expunged]. Though he was only discovered in 2005 and in the same year was revealed to be a Level 4 Reality Bender. He created SCP-AIX entirely by accident but after being exposed to its existence he unlocked his Reality Bending abilities on the planet. For whatever reason [data expunged] can only activate his powers when on SCP-AIX. This has earned him the title of SCP-AIX-King.

SCP-AIX as a whole is created from the bits and pieces of SCP-AIX-King’s chaotic dreams and imagination, the main driving force that unites them all is his desires. Despite the seemingly lawless nature everything within SCP-AIX follows their own set of rules, the real problem is finding out what those rules are. For example, in the land of cookies and cream of SCP-AIX, there are giants that exist to eat the giant cookies that populate the area from time to time. The power that flows through SCP-AIX to power the machines and robots is operated by large serpent-like plugs as well as various other plug and wire-based creatures. There are also floating cuckoo clocks that actively shoot out robotic cuckoo birds to attack people to signify the annoyance of alarm clocks. There are many other areas and various other rules regarding SCP-AIX, but this is the basic rundown of what the Foundation has discovered as of late.

However, SCP-AIX is much more complex as it is filled with all sorts of living beings that all have their own job and abilities. The most notable of these are Shark boy and Lava girl also known as SCP-AIX-Shark and SCP-AIX-Lava. SCP-AIX-Shark is the king of all aquatic life on SCP-AIX despite seemingly only being 10 years old. He was supposedly born on earth and raised by talking sharks at least according to SCP-AIX-King though whether this is true and not another dream he made up is unknown. Regardless he is very strong, has teeth that can bite through steel, swim at a speed of 30 mph, and can manifest water from his hands.

SCP-AIX-Lava is a girl seemingly made out of lava, she possesses great power but also intense and dangerous heat being able to burn almost anything she gets too close to. Originally this was thought to be a curse on her but in actuality she is the living source of power for all machines and living beings in SCP-AIX. Without her SCP-AIX will be stuck in darkness forever and SCP-AIX-King might end up losing his powers forever. Though thankfully the three of them are powerful enough to ensure that such a scenario will never happen. Furthermore, the Foundation has agreed to assist them in protecting SCP-AIX.

SCP-AIX was discovered in 1995 the same day SCP-AIX-King was born, though at the time there was no known connection between the two. At the time SCP-AIX was seen as nothing more than a spatial anomaly as it was a floating bubble of random shapes and colors. SCP-ANO seemed to have great interest in SCP-AIX; as such, the SCP Foundation and the Global Occult Coalition took interest as well. This led to a long and detailed observation of SCP-AIX, please see Addendum X-67 for details.

***

Addendum X-67

The following is a list of major events regarding SCP-AIX and possible SCP-ANO if involved, as well as the year they happened.

1995 - SCP-ANO observes SCP-AIX upon its manifestation for an extremely long time and even creates a tendril to get closer. The O5 Council and 108 Council agree it is not worth the risk to engage SCP-ANO, so they leave it be. This proves to work out in their favor as SCP-AIX seems to react badly to SCP-ANO’s contact and releases a wave of energy greatly harming SCP-ANO and forcing it back. From here on out SCP-ANO merely watches from a distance.

Side Note: Upon the discovery of SCP-AIX-King Foundation agents reviewed archives and camera recordings of him as a baby. They found that at the exact moment SCP-ANO made contact with SCP-AIX, SCP-AIX-King eyes turned black, and he cried in fear while shedding a single tear of blood. His family quickly took him to the hospital, but he was confirmed fine as soon as SCP-ANO backed off. This is deeply concerning but there's not enough information to confirm what this exactly means.

1996 - [data expunged] entered our solar system but was destroyed after [data expunged] survivors of Space Task Fleet Apollo-1 noticed that several pieces were falling towards SCP-AIX and were absorbed by it. They seemingly disappeared from reality though if that is true or if something else happened is entirely known.

1998 - SCP-AIX starts taking up a form of a planet but is changing form all the time which is most likely due to SCP-AIX-King still too young to keep an idea for very long and often letting his imagination go crazy.

2001 - SCP-AIX finally take a concrete shape and different lands and continents start forming. Eventually SCP-AIX starts to resemble a large world, with different lands based on SCP-AIX-Kings’s dreams and ideas.

2005 - SCP-AIX-Shark and SCP-AIX-Lava are spotted manifesting on earth for some reason and take SCP-AIX-King to SCP-AIX to help quell a rebellion caused by the plug creatures and their leader Entity of Interest: Mr. Electric. They succeed and SCP-AIX-King unlocks his power to manipulate everything on SCP-AIX. Thankfully anomalous exposure is limited so Foundation agents are able to quickly give amnestics to anyone who witnessed the event.

2006 - The ACPA agrees to allow the SCP-Foundation to have custody of SCP-AIX and thus diplomats are sent to meet with the three. They ask for a means to colonize SCP-AIX by establishing Site-DREAM. This unfortunately led to lots of back and forth and nearly led to an all-out war between Foundation forces and the inhabitants of SCP-AIX. Shockingly it was only after SCP-ANO tried once again, to attack SCP-AIX that led to the alliance.

Space Task Fleet Apollo-1 tried to attack SCP-ANO while SCP-AIX-King imagined his own space fleet to attack the Celestial Scale Anomaly. Because the ships were made from SCP-AIX-King’s imagination, he could make an infinite number of them and thus eventually wore down SCP-ANO, for the first since its discovery SCP-ANO actually was hurt and retreated as a result. Peace was finally made, and the construction of Site-DREAM began.

2006 - The SCP Foundation helps SCP-AIX-King establish a more stable way to travel from earth to SCP-AIX without having to rely on imagining ships that don’t always work every time.

***

Because SCP-AIX was able to harm SCP-ANO far better than any Foundation weapon or any weapon owned by any organization within the ACPA it is considered an extremely valuable asset. As such it must be protected at all costs, this includes SCP-AIX-Shark, SCP-AIX-Lava, and SCP-AIX-King obviously. Site-DREAM isn’t just a sanctuary designed to continue Foundation work should earth fall but also a place where new science based on SCP-AIX is made to assist in protecting the planet. It is with hope that SCP-AIX will be the spearhead in the eventual attack that will finally lead to the destruction of SCP-ANO.

Though it should be noted that SCP-AIX is not indestructible against SCP-ANO or other Celestial Scale Class Anomalies like it. We've already seen that SCP-AIX-King can get hurt if SCP-AIX is heavily damaged in any way. As such it is possible that to overuse SCP-AIX or for a possible God Like anomaly such as SCP-ANO can manipulate it. Still. as of late, SCP-AIX is the only viable candidate for Project Medusa.

SCP: Horror Movie Files Hub

#DZtheNerd #SCP: Horror Movie Files #SCP: HMF #SCP Foundation #SCP Fanfiction #SCP AU #SCP #SCP Fanmade #Movie #Childhood #CGI #Action #Adventure #Action Adventure #SCP-ANO #SCP-AIX #Thaumiel #Anomalous Celestial Body Management Department #Project Medusa

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puddygeeks · 4 years ago

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𝑊𝑎𝑟 𝑂𝑓 𝐻𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 - 𝐶𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑀𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑠, 𝑆𝑝𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑟 𝑅𝑒𝑖𝑑 𝑥 𝑂𝐶 - 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑟 6: 𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝐵𝑒𝑡𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠

Masterlist

Rating: Mature

Summary: 𝐴𝑙𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑠𝑖𝑟𝑒 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠. 𝑊𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝐴𝑈 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦, 𝑚𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑒𝑔𝑖𝑛 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑠𝑡.

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Pairing: Spencer Reid x OC

Status: Ongoing

LONG TERM ONGOING PROJECT :)

My writing is entirely fuelled by coffee! If you enjoy my work, feel free to donate toward my caffeine dependency: will work for coffee

𝑾𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔: 𝐺𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤. 𝑃𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑏𝑒 𝑎𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑐𝑎𝑠𝑒𝑠 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑢𝑟𝑑𝑒𝑟, 𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑙𝑑 𝑎𝑏𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 & 𝑠𝑒𝑥𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝐴𝑈'𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘. 𝐼𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑐𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑖𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑠𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑎𝑔𝑒𝑑, 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑘𝑛𝑜𝑤.

Eᴘɪsᴏᴅᴇ: Pʀᴇ Sᴇᴀsᴏɴ 1

Chapter Six

“We’re missing something.” I muttered to myself, as Reid and I examined the small room in the house that had been locked. I’d lost track of how many times we had checked this room already, but as we’d been left to finish investigating here, we were both drawn back to this room as if it were the key to the mystery. “I can see how Logan took Amanda, how he held her and we know that he took her for revenge. So, why move her now and then just lie in wait for us? If he knew we were coming, you would think that he’d try to avoid us, but he didn’t. He just hid her from us. Why?”

“Some part of his revenge fantasy isn’t complete yet. He might be confident that he can clear his name and return to collect her later. Or he has factored his arrest into his plans somehow. The time with us serves some kind of purpose for his fantasy.” Reid thought aloud and I rubbed at my temples.

“It doesn’t make sense. She’s literally right under our noses. Why can’t I find her?” I hissed irritably, the pressure that hung over me only growing with every hour that passed and Reid glanced up at me with his brows furrowed in concern.

“It’s not just your responsibility, Alice. We’re a team.” He advised, a self conscious smile filling his face and I ran my fingers through my hair in a gesture of stress.

“I know, but Agent Hotchner-” I paused abruptly, reminding myself of our earlier conversation about dropping the formalities and attempted to respect his wishes. “Hotch pulled a lot of strings to get me on this case. I don’t want to disappoint him.”

“You won’t.” Reid assured me, flashing me a smile before he moved off to examine the rest of the house again.

I made my way outside to get some air, feeling shaken by the unusual reality of being physically present in the place where our victim had been held and busied myself with investigating the external elements of the property for clues. Hotch and Morgan had returned to the main building with our suspect for questioning, but my instinct told me that they would be unlikely to pry anything from Logan that he wasn’t willing to share, due to the careful control that we’d seen in his actions so far.

The sharp ringtone of my mobile pulled me from my thoughts and I glanced at the screen to find Penelope calling.

“Greetings, my fine British scone! I have dug into all blueprints for the home as you asked and at least officially, there is no basement, no extra building permits and no small spaces that you and Reid haven’t already searched.” She explained, attempting to use her bright attitude to soften the impact of the information and I sighed in disappointment.

“Are they getting anywhere with the interview?” I asked hopefully, beginning to pace in the garden of the property impatiently. We had little to work with at this point and I remained conscious of the clock for child abductions, which had been against us since we arrived.

“Nada, I’m afraid. It seems that this Bo Peep is keeping very secretive track of his sheep.” She answered and I cursed under my breath in annoyance. “This team knows what they’re doing, Ally. They’ll crack him, eventually.”

“Amanda doesn’t have time to wait for that.” I groaned, the helplessness of the situation already grating at me. “We must have missed something in this guy's history. Maybe there’s a link to the Sweeney Todd stuff that we haven’t noticed. Have you found any more files on Logan in the military system?”

“Honey, you would be shocked at how little the military has modernised. Not only am I having to battle against heavy encryption, but a whole bunch of information hasn’t been digitised yet. They’re still recording an awful lot of their logs with pen and paper.” She divulged with an obvious sense of disgust and I felt my interest peak.

“Do they keep the paper records on site? And if so, can you get me access to them?” I suggested, waiting with baited breath for her answer and Penelope simply chuckled confidently.

“Of course I can. I’ll get hold of the Colonel now. Head over to office 4A, that’s where they store it all. I’ll have one of those charming soldier boys bring your laptop and an access code for you.” She instructed proudly and I had to smile as I hung up the phone to search for Reid.

Once back inside the house, I found him staring intently at a picture on the wall in the master bedroom and seeming as if he was lost in thought. I cleared my throat as I approached to keep from startling him, but he didn’t move at all to acknowledge me.

“Penelope might have a lead for us. She’s arranging access to the paper files in 4A. I’m thinking some of the details about Logan’s past might be buried in there. Want to ride along?” I offered, causing him to finally turn to face me with interest and I couldn’t help noticing how handsome he looked when he was concentrating.

“That’s a good idea. Perhaps something was omitted from the original report when it was added to the system.” He agreed, causing me to smile at the support for my suggestion. I wasn’t used to having colleagues appreciate my input and it still gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling every time that this team trusted me. “I’m gonna stay here, if you’re okay going alone? I think I’m close to something.” He checked, examining my face closely for any signs of discomfort, until I nodded in confirmation.

“Sure. I can fly solo. I’ve got my phone on me, so just call if there’s anything I can do to help out.”

--⥈--

When Penelope described the base as behind the times, I hadn’t ever imagined a level of disorganisation this extreme to be possible amongst military personnel. I’d set up my laptop at the small desk in the room, before sitting cross legged on the floor amongst the stacks of boxes that almost reached the ceiling in places.

Even the soldier who had granted me access seemed too daunted by the task ahead of me to be able to cope with remaining in the cramped room and after many reassurances that I was quite capable of sitting here alone, he’d returned to his post. Time had already lost meaning and I was growing bleary eyed from the onslaught of information.

Fortunately, Penelope broke up the task by giving me regular updates on the team, who were still having little success in their interrogation of the suspect and were now highly relying on Reid and I to find something that they could use to pressure him.

There were countless reports of Logan’s antisocial behaviour amongst the boxes and it became clear that his friendship with Franklin as he rose to power allowed him far more leniency than any other member of staff would have received in similar circumstances. There was very little information on his wife Stacey, who seemed to have joined the military later in life and met her husband there. She was an otherwise painfully ordinary soldier, serving her time with little distinction and a simple life right up until her death.

I sighed as I got to my feet and stretched out my limbs, desperation creeping up on me. There was nothing here that bought us any closer to finding Amanda and at this point, I was losing faith that we would ever recover her alive. I pulled out my phone to contact Reid in the hope that he might have had some success, but realised that I had no service. With a dramatic groan, I navigated my way through the maze of paperwork that I’d created to reach the door, only to find that it wouldn’t open.

A cold chill ran down my spine, causing my stomach to flip and I couldn’t deny a feeling of severe dread pooling in my stomach. Instinctively, I pulled the handle a few more times, but after my earlier performance with a simple wooden door, I knew that I wasn’t getting out of this steel, electronic locked door without help. Holding my phone up in the air, I paced the room in an effort to catch a signal to little success, before I was interrupted by a loud sound in the distance that caused the ground to shake.

“Shit!” I hissed, grabbing a nearby shelf for balance and noticing that my heartbeat had already quickened in my chest. I hit my phone in a panic, desperate to get through to someone and just as I felt myself losing control, my gaze fell onto my laptop.

Dropping into the seat heavily, my fingers grazed over the keys with an urgent desire to seek help. I first confirmed that the base’s systems were all locked out, meaning that I couldn’t contact any of the team or any military support, but was blessed to discover that my connection to the FBI system was still live. Immediately, I utilised this to get in touch with Penelope and the moment that her face filled my screen, I sighed with relief.

“Oh, Alice! Thank god you’re okay!” She gasped before I could even get a word out and the flustered expression that she wore only intensified my fear. It was clear that whatever had happened was unexpected for her too and I knew that whatever piece of the puzzle that we were missing was likely about to complicate our situation.

“What the hell is going on?” I breathed, noticing that something was flashing in the background of her video and as I concentrated harder, I realised that I could hear alarms.

“There was an explosion in the main building. We think that it came from Colonel Franklin’s office, but I can’t tell. The security systems have kicked in. We’re trapped in this room.” She answered hurriedly, her eyes wide with panic and as I opened my mouth to ask if the Colonel had made it, he appeared behind her. “I think there’s been a couple of other targets too, as the base system has gone down. This is not the work of a hacker, or you and I would definitely have been targeted. Whoever it is likely blew up the actual server rooms themselves just to kick us out. I was terrified that there might have been one in your room too.” She admitted, seeming shaken by the idea and I quickly caught up to what she was implying.

“To get rid of the paper trail, too. Colonel, how many people know about this backlog of paperwork here?” I enquired nervously, attempting to quash the fear that I might meet a fiery death at any moment and he moved to take a seat beside Penelope.

“We had an administrator a while ago who was responsible for amalgamating all of the paperwork onto the system, but other than that it’s only top ranking staff.” He explained in confusion and I released a long breath in relief.

“Alright. So, other than the soldier that you just had in here, there’s hardly anyone on this base who knows that you are still holding paper documentation. We can assume that if I haven’t been blown up already, I’m probably safe. Unfortunately, I’m also locked in, so I have no choice but to test that theory.” I reported, causing Penelope to frown in terror and I fidgeted awkwardly in my seat at the thought. “What about the rest of the team? Are they okay?”

“I can’t get hold of them. It’s possible that the cell towers have also been blown out.” Penelope revealed, tears beginning to fill her eyes and I found myself holding my head in my hands as I considered our predicament. The faces of each of our team members flashed through my mind and I said a quick prayer in my mind for each of them to calm my anxiety.

“The lockdown protocol would only affect high priority areas. This room houses all of our main access to the base systems, the room that Hawthorne is in has our physical records and the cell block where your agents are interviewing closes to contain prisoners. The rest of the base will already be proceeding with evacuation.” The colonel explained, his demeanour significantly calmer than either of us and I strained to come up with a plan.

“If this evacuation procedure is known by the whole base, there’s a chance that a bomb could already be in place to inflict more casualties. They’d be sitting ducks.” I analysed, looking back up at the screen with severity as I realised that everyone but Reid was trapped behind locked doors somewhere. “We need to override the locks somehow. Where is your security system housed?”

“Right where you are, Agent. There should be a large metal container in the corner.”

Wasting no time, I jumped to my feet to rush to the cupboard and entered the code that the Colonel provided to open it. Behind the innocuous looking metal doors was a spaghetti junction display of wires to an ancient security system and I could hardly believe that anyone would still be using such antiquated technology.

“You have got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed as I marched over to grab my laptop and placed it on a box with a clear view of the cupboard’s contents. “I hope you’re up to date with your caveman technology, Nels. This is like Jurassic Park in here.” I announced, hearing a dissatisfied groan from her over the speakers.

“This is absolutely criminal. Fortunately, I toyed with robotics for a while before computer science, so I might be able to crack this.” She calculated as she began drawing out the pattern of the wiring on a piece of paper. “It looks like there’s a simple enough bypass here, but it’s going to take me a few minutes to figure it out.”

“Colonel, I’ve looked at everything that you have on Logan and nothing here is giving us the answers that we need to find your daughter. I can’t find a connection to Sweeney Todd at all. Sure, there’s a similar feeling that he could be inspired by, but plenty of stories could say the same. There has to be a reason why he chose that particular one. Did the Logan’s have a love of musicals as a couple?” I asked, deciding to utilise our waiting time to keep the focus on Amanda, instead of obsessing over the safety of our colleagues.

“Not that I remember. They were average soldiers, into sports and barbecues. They weren’t the type to read often, so I can’t understand why he would be this obsessed with some story?” The Colonel answered, his frustration evident as he struggled to comprehend the relevance of this conversation.

“What about Stacey? She joined service late. From the limited background information in her file, it doesn’t seem like she was military bred. Was there anything in particular that led her to enlist?” I probed, desperately trying to find the missing piece of the puzzle and he sighed deeply at me.

“I don’t know what it is that you’re trying to say about her, Agent Hawthorne, but she was a good soldier. Her unit was everything to her. She treated them like a family. Even gave them haircuts when they were on tour.” He growled, seeming thoroughly offended by my questions and I quirked a brow at him in interest. “She was a barber before she enlisted. It was her fathers trade and she followed in his footsteps. I can tell you that came in incredibly handy when you’re living in the middle of the desert.” He added defensively and I jumped to my feet to scatter around paperwork in search of something specific. A theory clicked in my mind at this revelation and I knew that it had to be the connection that we needed.

“Sir, we believe that your daughter is still on this base. We’ve been looking for places that relate to you, or your wife, but I suspect that it may have more relevance to Stacey. Is there anywhere on this base that she would offer haircuts? Or did you have a specific barber shop here at any point?” I pelted out the questions in quick succession as I laid the blueprint of the base out on the floor and busied myself with examining it again.

“I already told your agents that. The people here go to a family business in the next town. It’s owned by a grandparent of one of the troops. We support each other in the military.” He answered aggressively and I scanned the document before me with confusion. Something seemed out of place, a structure that I didn’t recognise and as I grabbed a current map to compare it, I noticed that it wasn’t marked.

“This building here is on the blueprint, but not the map. What is it?” I interrogated, holding up the document accusingly and he rolled his eyes at me.

“It’s marked for demolition, but the project has been put on hold. We decided not to list it on the new maps as it was supposed to be gone by now. It’s a world war 2 relic, structurally unsound and not fit for purpose. We already had troops search it before we even called your team.” He elaborated impatiently, glancing over at Penelope as if it were her fault that I was wasting his time.

“That was before he moved her.” I argued, drawing his attention back to me instantly. “What was it used for? The building?”

“Storage mostly. For a long time it was considered a historical landmark, because many of the soldiers that were stationed here in the war wrote about it in their letters home. They would creep in there at night to smoke cigars and drink moonshine.” He began to describe in a bored tone, before pausing abruptly in a chilling manner that allowed all of the colour to drain from his face. “They...they used to call it the barber club.”

“That’s it! That’s where he’s holding her. Penelope, I need these doors open!” I ordered frantically, hardly able to contain the energy that pulsed through my body and she nodded back resolutely.

“I know, my love. I think I’ve got it. Follow my instructions very clearly.” She demanded as I placed myself in front of the cupboard and felt my hands shaking from the pressure.

Step by step, she guided me through the process, disconnecting wires and rerouting things that I barely understood for myself like a pro. Were the circumstances less dire, I would have littered her with praise for her efforts, but I didn’t have the space in my mind for that now. Finally, there was one switch left to flip and the moment that I did, I heard the door click open from across the room.

Before I could even begin to celebrate our success, the sound of an explosion rocketed from nearby and the entire room shook hard enough to knock me from my feet, causing even the Colonel to freeze in shock.

“I...I think that might have come from the barber club.” Penelope mumbled regretfully, whilst the Colonel fought back tears, seeming as if he were in shock. It seemed that even powerful leaders were not immune to the emotion of losing a child and I had to channel my own determination to keep things moving.

“I’m the closest to that building right now. Penelope, find the team and send them to meet me there. We’re gonna need medics, too.” I blurted as I got to my feet with determination, prompting the Colonel to launch into action too as he charged through the door to her side and left her looking flustered.

“Alice, the building is probably already on fire! Just wait for backup.” She pleaded, her eyes filling with tears as she stared into the camera. I stepped away from the laptop to grab a rag to cover my face, planning to protect myself from the smoke that was likely and turned back to face her with fire in my eyes.

“I can’t. Send the team and stay safe, Nels.” I ordered, before rushing out of the room and into the chaos of outside.

As expected, the air was heavy with smoke from multiple directions and people were running around in panic all around me. Now that I had left the well protected room, I was overwhelmed by the blaring sound of sirens and lights flashing from overhead. It was clear that things had already spiralled out of control and I tried to prevent myself from being sucked into the mania. Mentally following the blueprints, I ran in the direction of the unmarked building, being passed by numerous scared civilians who simply lived here due to their partners enlistment and were not equipped for these circumstances.

As I turned the corner to the large old storage unit, I found that Penelope had been correct in placing the most recent explosion and there was already fire spreading within. For a moment, I couldn’t bring myself to move as I stared up at it with a crushing feeling of defeat, but following a bolt of rebellion, I launched myself inside to search for Amanda.

Fortunately, I thought to tie the rag around my face for protection and instead of struggling to breathe, I was taken aback by how little I could see once inside. I placed my hand on the nearest wall and used it to navigate my way as I strained to remember the building’s layout.

The air was agonisingly hot, worse than I had even imagined that it would be and every step that I took felt impossibly hotter. I had no idea how far I would be able to go, as I knew from the plans that this was a vast space and it was impossible to know where exactly Amanda would be hidden, if she hadn’t already died in the blast.

Smoke filled my lungs, causing me to cough heavily and burned at my eyes. I could feel myself growing weaker and though I considered whether I would be able to make it out, I wasn’t willing to turn back yet. My posture shrivelled under the strain, crouching down to avoid the oppressive heat and without warning, I tripped over something very solid.

Somehow I managed to land on my hands and knees to avoid any serious injury and turned to investigate the cause of my fall. From feeling alone, I quickly realised that the object I was touching was, in fact, a person and judging from the size, it was highly likely to be a child. I wished that I could see enough to identify them, before remembering that Amanda had very short, almost graded hair and a quick feel of her head left me feeling confident that I had found her.

Coughing burned at my chest and I knew that I didn’t have much time, so I began to drag her in the direction that I’d come from. It was even harder now to tell where I was going as the fire rapidly spread through the unstable building and it took every ounce of my strength to keep moving with Amanda in tow.

The rag around my face only seemed to be making it harder to breathe now and I ripped it off as I could tell that I was nearing the exit. Unfortunately, my bulletproof vest that I was still wearing constricted my chest uncomfortably, but I couldn’t wiggle out of it without wasting precious moments that I needed to escape. Some of the structure began to collapse behind me and I yelped in panic, hoisting Amanda’s limp form into my arms for protection.

With one final burst of defiance, I stumbled out into the open air, gripping onto her tightly and continued walking into the chaos that stretched in every direction in search of help. Unfortunately, no one was waiting for me outside as I’d hoped and the various explosions were still causing panic as people ran around me in a fluster.

My entire body ached as I fought to drag myself onward, glancing around frantically for someone who could assist us and as I finally ran out of energy, I stopped to look down at the girl that I was carrying. Despite all of the soot and sweat that covered her young features, I still easily recognised her and squeezed her to me warily.

“Don’t give up, kid.” I wheezed, hardly able to get the words out from my burned throat.

Finally, an ambulance skidded into view and I sighed in relief. Closely behind them were my team, including even Penelope, who ran toward me in desperation and I thanked every force I could think of for providing me with colleagues who cared enough to seek me out. I almost burst into tears as two paramedics rushed over to meet me and I assisted in lowering Amanda to the ground so that they could work on her.

“Is she alive? Is she gonna be okay?” I whispered, my voice hoarse and dry despite the power of my emotions and the medics ignored me as they frantically prepared an oxygen tank and mask for her. I watched them impatiently, unable to tear my eyes off the little girl’s delicate form, even as Penelope charged up to examine me.

“Are you hurt? Oh my god, I can’t believe that you went in there! You’re insane!” She scolded, fussing over me with teary eyes as she reached to take my face in her hands, but I batted her off with annoyance.

“Is she alive?!” I repeated, much louder this time despite the pain that it caused me and one of the paramedics looked up at me with annoyance.

Before they could get a single word of explanation, or scolding out, Amanda gasped loudly, spluttering for air and it took the full attention of both paramedics to calm her enough to benefit from the mask. Almost immediately after, Colonel Franklin arrived and dropped by her side in relief, holding her to him whilst she refilled her lungs.

My knees gave way from the weight of my own relief, but fortunately Morgan was quick to catch me as the rest of my team surrounded us and he swept me off my feet, leaving Hotch to wave down another ambulance for me. Though I fought to tell them that I was fine, the only sound that I could manage to make was coughing as my lungs finally gave in to the effects of smoke inhalation and Morgan carried me protectively straight to the back of the second ambulance that parked beside us.

In order to save time, Morgan simply sat me on the back of the open vehicle instead of allowing the medics to take me fully inside and they strapped an oxygen mask to my face before I could protest. Reid pushed past the staff with a determined expression and ripped off the bulletproof vest that I wore in an efficient manner, quickly calculating that it was restricting me and I felt an immediate improvement in my breathing the moment that it was released.

As he stepped back out of my space with a sly smile, I gripped the oxygen mask as if it were the most important thing in my world and allowed myself a few moments to catch my breath, whilst Penelope took a seat beside me to hold my free hand soothingly.

“Reid, Morgan. Keep an eye on Alice. I’ll talk to the Colonel.” Hotch ordered, nodding at me to check that I was okay with him leaving, before he strode over to the first ambulance where Amanda had now been situated for further treatment.

I felt too exhausted to even argue as the two boys took their places in front of me, guarding the entrance to the ambulance and staring down at me with amazement in their faces. Though it was subtle, I caught a brief smirk in Morgan’s face as he peeked at Reid, raising his brows at the vest that he held as if implying something, but I couldn’t bring myself to address it at the moment.

“What were you thinking running in there alone, kid? You have a whole team here. You don’t have to be the big hero.” Morgan scolded, though his tone was still light enough to reveal his amusement at this outcome.

Behind them, a fire truck arrived to begin battling the blaze and it seemed that the military had finally regained control of the situation as they set to work evacuating the alarmed residents that still remained in the area. I watched them with interest, hoping that they had realised the danger of following their usual plan and Reid cleared his throat, catching my eye.

“They’re evacuating to a completely different spot than the agreed plan. Whilst you were locked away, I found the nearest officer and advised them of the risk that the unsub would target the evacuation zone.” He explained, as if reading my mind and when I furrowed my brows in confusion, he chuckled shyly. “Garcia told us that you were worried about it and I noticed that you were watching them. I’m just...I’m sorry that I didn’t come with you.” He added, staring down at his feet guiltily and I removed my mask to address him.

“Reid, you have nothing to apologise for.” I wheezed, cringing immediately at how awful my voice sounded and though Penelope tried to force the mask straight back on, I pushed it away again. “I’m serious. All of these people are safe because you didn’t get trapped with me. You did your job and I’m fine. No harm done.” I insisted, prompting him to drag his gaze back up to me with a smile, which was painfully addictive for me, until we were interrupted by Hotch.

“I’d like a moment to speak to Alice alone.” He announced, his expression as stern as ever.

Reid and Morgan made an excuse about needing to check on Amanda, quickly excusing themselves from the conversation, but Penelope hesitated for a few moments longer, before finally caving to his intense stare. Once we were alone, Hotch crossed his arms in a gesture that indicated I was about to receive a lecture and I gulped in dread.

“Going into that building was reckless. It was a risk with no guaranteed reward, especially for someone who is not a trained field agent.” He began, his tone scolding and I nodded slowly in acceptance, feeling any future opportunities to work with the FBI slipping through my fingers.

“However, you took action despite great personal risk and even considering your lack of experience, you did what needed to be done. You were honest with Garcia about where you were going and what you needed, showing that you trusted your team to have your back. These are not qualities that can be taught. If you had waited, Amanda would likely be dead. You have an enormous amount of potential, Alice and that saved a girl's life today. “

“Thank you, Sir.” I wheezed, coughing from the strain of my words and he softened his expression slightly as he viewed me.

“As you played such a large role in this case, I would appreciate it if you could return to Quantico with the team to complete your reports, so that I can oversee them.” He requested and I nodded without hesitation. “We’ll arrange for someone to take you back to your hotel for the night. I imagine you could do with some rest. You’ll join us on the jet first thing tomorrow.”

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heychangbin · 4 years ago

Text

The Camping Trip ║ Part One

Summary: An offhanded admission turns into a weekend trip.

Wordcount: 5228

Warnings: There be smut ahead, Billy working with his hands, that warrants a warning too, right??

A/N: we’re doing parts for this one too y’all, the entire thing came to be over 16k and I’m not about to do that to anyone. I’ll post the next part in the next few days. tag list at the bottom.

It was one of those rare weekends where everyone had a free Saturday night, there were no stuffy business dinners, overseas conference calls, no late night researching of New York City’s penal code, or the chasing leads for The Bulletins next exposé, that's how you found yourself in your favorite comfortable jeans and t-shirt, sitting beside Billy in one of the tables that lined the wall of Josie’s bar, pushing sleeves of his olive green henley to his elbows as he gesticulated while he, Frank, Curt, Matt and Foggy were in the midst of fleshing out a new and improved screening process of new recruits at Anvil so as not to fall into the mistake of Iron & Steel, a rival company who, due to a too lax vetting and screening process, recruited a soldier with PTSD and was now looking at several lawsuits for a training exercise that went wrong.

After they had hashed out the outline for implementing new training protocols, rescreening the personnel and recruits, and possible mandatory sessions with Curt and his veterans group you turned over to the TV behind the bar, watching the two men in the ring deal blow after blow while you wait for Karen to return with the next round of drinks and continue your own conversation with the blonde.

It was just under two minutes into the first round when one of the fighters, a well built man with fair skin and reddish brown hair, wearing black and green trunks, swung his right arm, landing a green glove covered fist to the underside of his opponent’s, a dark skinned man with closely cropped black hair, wearing ((black trucks with a red stripe going down the side, jaw, making him stumble sideways along the ropes. He was on his way down when the familiar logo of WHiH New York flashed across the screen, making everyone in the bar, you included, curse and groan at the interruption.

It was after the news anchor, a strawberry blonde in a conservative scoop navy blue dress, recited the scripted greeting and a banner appeared at the bottom of the screen reading, “dead body found at Thatcher Park Trail.” that the bar quieted down enough for you to hear what she was saying.

"Earlier today, what was supposed to be a relaxing stroll through the woods for a young woman and her dog quickly turned to the things of nightmares when she discovered the body of a dead man, who we now know is Senator Silverstein.” a picture of a man in his early 60s, dressed in a charcoal suit, white shirt and bright red tie, with light brown hair and a generous dusting of white throughout his head, thin lips and his features lined heavily by the years that had passed him by, swept in from the right, “Jeff Santoro is at the scene with more on this story.”

The video cut to a man dressed in a dark windbreaker, looking directly at the camera, giving a few small nods, holding a bulky microphone in his right hand, the WHiH logo stamped on the cube under the foam cover at the top.

“Thank you Christina,” the man said into the bulbous cover, the video on the screen splitting down the middle, on the left, the reporter read off the screen of his phone, reciting what the senators last day’s schedule had been, while on the right, various looping clips of Senator Silverstein talking with the press, walking out of The New York Capitol building, sitting in a plush arms chair deep in thought, and of him having lunch at some restaurant with a portion of his staff.

After having finished, he looked up from the screen of his phone, looking directly at the camera once more and saying,

“Christina, everyone in the news station and especially to our viewers at home, the following is graphic in nature, we strongly suggest that our young and more sensitive viewers turn off their screens.”

There was a brief pause, then a nod and he raised his phone again and began reading from the screen. As he read there is a mixture of murmured phrases that range from “holy shit” to “about damn time” throughout the bar as Karen pushed her way through the tightly packed bodies, bottlenecks of the next round of drinks tucked securely between her slender fingers.

“Can you believe that?” she asked, eyes wide as she settled the bottles at the center of the table except for one, bringing the dark brown bottle up to her lips and taking a swig, turning back around, eyes locking on the TV screen.

“Yeah,” you said, taking one of the bottles for yourself, “kinda makes me feel relieved that I’ve never been camping.”

Frank spluttered mid drink, a violent cough wracking his burly body in the seat across from yours, fighting not to choke on the liquid going down the wrong pipe.

"You gotta be shittin' me," he said, wiping the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand, "you've never been camping?" Frank asked incredulously.

"It's not that weird Frank." You said, picking up your bottle and taking a measured swig.

"It's kinda weird." Billy chimed from beside you, long fingers slowly turning the dark green bottle in front of him.

"It really isn't,” you argue, annoyance creeping into the edges of your tone, “I bet Matt's never been camping either."

"Red's blind, he doesn't count." Frank said matter of factly, waving off your comment like someone would brush away an annoying fly.

"Wasn't born blind guys, I went camping with my dad all the time before it,” Matt paused, tapping the side of his red tinted glasses with the lip of the bottle in his hand, "happened.”

You looked across the table at him and glowered, it didn't matter that he couldn't see you, you were sure that he could feel it...or was at least picking up on it with his enhanced senses.

It was then that Karen put forth the idea of a group camping trip. As they discussed when it would be a good time and what state park to go to, Billy wrapped an arm around your shoulders and pulled you closer to his side, kissing the top of your head and whispering against your temple,

"Don't worry, I won't let any bears eat you, only I get to do that."

"Gee, thanks." You say, feeling a wave of warmth spread through your body at the image and sensations his words conjure up, you bring the bottle in your hands to your lips, taking another swing of your drink to hide the creeping blush you can feel on your face, making him laugh as the others continue talking enthusiastically about who had and would bring what, things that had to be packed, things that needed to be bought and most importantly, how long the trip would be.

You turned back to the TV behind the bar, tuning them out just as the special bulletin ended, the broadcast signal going back to the fight, a slow motion shot of the man in black and green trucks landing a devastating blow on his opponent, making his head snap to the right, the rest of his body following the motion as his skin rippled with the force of the hit and going down. The bar coming to life with a roar as the hit was replayed, a banner scrolling at the bottom of the screen that read “due to the interruption, the fight will be available on the HBO website” as an announcer came into the ring, a microphone lowering from the ceiling and in a booming voice announced the winner by knockout in the third round, making the man in the black and green trucks raise his arms in victory as the people in the arena and in the bar around you roared to life again.

In the days that followed, the group text was full of pictures of tents, sleeping bags, camping chairs, portable power stations courtesy of Billy, who had four of them lined up with a caption that read, “I got us covered on electricity” and countless other stuff. Between the pictures were questions for possible dates, it was Karen the one that suggested the upcoming holiday, everyone readily agreeing.

You groaned internally, you had been looking forward to those four glorious days to destress with Billy, were secretly hoping that he’d have some kind of overseas conference call that he could not postpone, but when his text came through a few minutes later saying that it worked for him, your hopes were dashed, sending your own reply.

At the end of the following week, after lists were checked twice and everything was carefully packed, you all piled into two SUV's, Billy, you, and Curtis in one, Frank, Karen, Foggy and Matt in the other and were headed to Watkins Glen State Park, a drive that was just a little over four hours, not something you were looking forward to but Billy and Curt assured you there would be stops along the way for everyone to stretch their legs. So far it wasn't bad, the change from city to greenery was soothing, the soft music spilling from the car speakers helping a great deal as were the stories Billy and Curt were recounting of their own trips in the past, Curtis from when he was a kid with his dad and Billy from his time in the military,

“Billy, I don’t think that counts as camping.” you said, turning to him and looking at his profile.

“‘course it does,” Billy argued, taking his hand off the wheel to push his aviators up the bridge of his nose from where they had ridden down. “It’s outta the city, deserted, limited access to supplies. It’s the same thing, just that we ran the risk of an air strike...so maybe a more extreme version of camping.”

You rolled your eyes at him, his laughter filling the small space as he no doubt caught the action out of the corner of his eye.

“Yeah but everyone runs that risk now, what with giant holes appearing in the sky and whatnot.” Curt said from the back seat.

You moved the conversation into lighter topics, and after a quick rest stop Billy maneuvered the SUV through the twists and turns of the park, pulling into the site a while later and killing the engine, the second SUV pulling up just a beat later. It was a flurry of movement after that, trunks were opened and unloaded, you pulled on one of the smaller coolers while Billy tugged on a couple of duffles, hooking the straps to his shoulders and walked off to the northern edge of the site as you gripped both handles of the cooler and carried it over to where Frank and Matt were bringing down the picnic table that was leaning up against one of the more sturdy looking trees.

You were on your way back to bring out another cooler when you saw Billy crouched down on the ground, strong hands pulling and tugging out the large and rolled up tent, followed by a smaller bag. He pulled on the drawstrings that held it close, turned on the balls of his feet and slid out various poles beside the rolled up canvas. You shifted midstep, walking to where Billy was separating the hollow aluminum rods by size and shape.

“Need some help there Lieutenant ?” you asked coming to a stop behind him. Billy looked over his shoulder, the right side of his lip lifting, pushing the apple of his cheek up, making the corner of his eye crinkle in your favorite uneven smile, giving you a quick nod.

“Sure, I could use a hand.” he said, grabbing the rolled up tent, setting it on it’s side in front of him, pulling and gathering the ropes that were holding it close and stuffing them in the back pocket of his loose pants, and giving it a push, the curled up edged flopping open.

“Whaddya need me to do?”

Billy flipped open the folded flaps, his thumb running over a black stripe that ran up the middle “Grab that end, will you?” he pointed a long finger at the opposite end

You walked around him, pushing the sleeves of your plaid overshirt up, the soft cotton bunching at the crook of your elbows and bent down to take the edge, looking over at Billy when you stood back up.

“Gonna turn it so that you’re standing where I am”

You nodded, taking a step in the opposite direction that Billy went, setting it down when you had switched places, then pulled the folded edges at the center, spreading the four corners out until the tent was laying flat on the ground. He walked over to where he had all the poles laid out and picked up a small mallet and a bunch of stakes and went around the tent, pulling the edges, sticking the stake through the grommet and hammering it down, the muscles in his arm bulging and tensing as he brought the mallet up and down.

“Y’know, this’d go much faster if you helped.” you could hear the humor in his voice, and you shrugged,

“There’s only one mallet and I'm enjoying the view too much to ask Frank or Curt if they’ll let me borrow theirs. It’s not every day I get to see you do manual labor.”

“That doing it for you?” he asked, eyes focused on the hook of the spike as he brought the mallet down a little harder than necessary, the muscle in his forearm shifting and tensing, cutting a line that ran along the bottom of his arm all the way to his elbow, looking up when the spike was buried all the way into the ground. Sweat beading across his forehead and down his temples, dampening the roots of his dark hair, a few drops running down and disappearing into the top of his beard.

Warmth that had very little to do with the sun that filtered through the canopy of trees spread throughout your body, as you watched Billy work, Yeah, it is.

He smirks at your silence, huffing out a laugh as he shakes his head and moves along the side of the tent to the next grommet, threading the spike through it and hammering it to the ground.

“Learn something new everyday.” amusement colored his voice as he pushed himself up and moved to the next spot.

It wasn’t long until he was hammering the last spike down, completely securing the bottom of the tent to the ground he braced his hands on his bent knees and pushed himself up, left hand reaching for the brim of his hat and pushing it up and off his head, running his free hand through the damp long strand of hair.

“Ready to get back to work?” he asked, taking the edge of his shirt and using it to wipe across his forehead, down his nose, and over his top lip.

“I mean I guess, since the show is over and all.”

The chuckle he let out was full and hearty as he placed the faded cap back oh his head and walked over to where you were standing,

“I can give you a private show later.” his voice was pitched low, his breath fanning against your ear making a shiver run up your back, fanning the flames of the simmering warmth that watching him work had sparked.

“Imma hold you to that Lieutenant.” you say, stepping closer to him, his hands instantly coming to rest on your waist, bringing you that much closer, your arms circling his neck, the fingers of your right hand stroking the small hair at the nape of his neck as his fingers find their way under the edge of your shirt, gripping the skin there. The calluses that never seem to completely fade from his fingers press against the soft skin of your waist, making you feel hotter as his grip tightens, his tongue coming out to run across his bottom lip before he pulls it into his mouth, teeth digging into the ample flesh, you press yourself forward, lifting yourself onto the balls of your feet, your chest pressing against his, your head angled to the side ready to slot your lips over his, you feel his hands tense and shift, you’re prepared to hoist yourself up when he wraps his arms around your waist and lifts you up, instead you feel him ease back.

“Let's finish getting this thing up so we can take a break.” he says, giving your skin a final squeeze before stepping away and walking to where the poles are on the ground, you let out a huff and shake your head, muttering “fucking tease”

You go around the tent setting up the poles, you’re on the last corner when you begin to feel beads of sweat gathering at your temples, over your top lip, and at the nape of your neck, you gathered your hair at the crown of your head, twirled the silky strands between your fingers and twist it into a bun, hooking your finger between your wrist and the elastic band that was there and quickly pulled your hair through it twice. You take the last pole and thread it through the two hoops on the tent wall and secure the bottom end to the ground, you take a step back and look at what you helped build, fully erect, it’s big, way bigger than what two people need, could probably fit everyone in this thing.

You walk around the tent, dusting your hands off ready to grab a beer for a job well done when you see Billy walking over, a bundle of ropes and more spikes in his hands.

“Thought we were done?”

“Almost, just gotta secure the poles to the ground using these” he said, holding up the bundle of ropes and stakes as he walked past you to the nearest corner of the tent, you turn on your heel and follow behind him.

“Gonna do a slip knot, hook it to the top of the pole, drop a stake and move to the next one. While you’re doin’ that, I’ll fasten them to the ground. Should be done in no time.” he hands you the ropes and stakes and turns to get to work, bringing the mallet out, angling the stake on the ground and starts to steadily pound on the bent top.

You drape the ropes over your shoulder, stuff the spikes into your back pocket and walk over to the next pole over. You pull one of the ropes free, taking the end and wrapping it generously over your index and middle fingers of your left hand, looping the tail over the standing end with your right, then reaching your left fingers through the loop, you take the standing end and pull it through until the knot tightens, making sure to pinch the tail between your index and thumb of your right hand. You hook the loop on the top of the pole, take a stake out from your pocket and drop it, move to the next pole and repeat the process.

You're more than halfway done when you look over at Billy hammering away at one of the spikes, looping the rope under the hook and pulling it until it’s taunt, muscles bulging and shifting with every twist of his hands, then clamping the hook at the end of the rope on itself and moving to the next pole.

Your mind goes back to the words he had said when he had caught you staring at him, wondering how much stock to put to his earlier statement, from experience, you knew Billy was a man of his word, but the tent you were finishing up could easily fit him, yourself and at least two other people.

Maybe we'll bunk with Frank and Karen, that happens on camping trips, right? You hook the knot you've just finished to the pole in front of you.

“So,” you say, plucking another rope from the bunch on your shoulder and start looping it over your fingers, “we gonna be sharing this place with the others?”

“If you’re cruisin for an orgy--”

“Jesus Christ Billy!!” you cry out, eyes going wide, head whipping to the side to look at him. You roll your eyes at the way his shoulders are shaking with laughter as he takes a break from hammering down the stake.

“Just askin’ ‘cause this thing looks like it’ll fit more than just the two of us.” you pull the rope through the loop a little harder than necessary and hook it over the pole, pulling the next rope free and start working on tying the knot, his laughter following you as you stop at the next pole.

You hear some shifting behind you as you tighten the knot, reaching your hand out to hook the loop over the knob at the top of the pole when you feel Billy press up behind you, his arms wrapping around your waist and bringing you against his chest.

“Just gonna be us in here.” his voice is a soft rumble against the side of your face as he trails the tip of his nose from the apple of your cheek to your temple, “‘nd, just in case you were wonderin’,” he continues, lips brushing the shell of your ear, voice pitched low, “I don't share what’s mine.”

You feel your throat go dry and your body go warm at the low possessive growl at the edge of his words, your knees turn to jelly and you suppress a moan as blunt teeth sink into the juncture of you neck and shoulder, it's just on the side of too much when he laves his tongue over the bite.

“Thought never crossed my mind,” your voice comes out breathy, making Billy chuckle into the space behind your ear, his arms squeezing you just a fraction tighter, making your head fall back against his shoulder. After a few beats you clear your throat a couple of times and squeeze his wrist, “Should probably get back to it, I don't wanna have to sleep with one eye open thinking half this thing is gonna fall in on us.”

"Coulda stayed like this for a bit longer" he hums, his arms loosening their hold on you.

Me too Billy, me too.

You’re hooking the loop of your guide rope on the last corner, already pulling and working on the knot of the next one when Frank suggests you go and gather some wood to get a fire going.

"The hell did we buy those bundles of wood for if you weren’t gonna use them to build a fire?" You asked over your shoulder, pulling the rope through the loop in your hands and hooking it to the pole in front of you,

"It's part of the experience" He says too cheerfully for your taste as he walks over to where you are. You look over at Billy who shrugs, adjusting the guide rope, making sure it’s taunt. Stepping up to you and taking the remaining ropes from your shoulder and draping them over his own with a, “I can finish this up on my own,” holding out his hands for the stakes, which you hand over reluctantly.

"Anythin’ on the floor and dry is fine!" Were Frank's last words to you as you walked off past the treeline that was around your site.

You wandered around picking up sticks that looked dead and dry, constantly looking over your shoulder to make sure there wasn't some wild animal about to pounce on you. You had a decent pile of wood under your arm when you stopped cursing Frank to the moon and back. The scenery was nice, the intermittent sound of birds singing was soothing and the odd sighting of squirrels and chipmunks made you simultaneously smile and curse yourself for leaving your phone behind.

You lost track of time as you kept walking aimlessly, bending to pick up another stick to add to the pile you had going when you felt a pair of hands snake themselves around your waist. You didn't need to turn around to know who it was, you'd recognize the feel of those hands anywhere, (the rougher texture of his right index finger where the pulling of a trigger had made it calloused) you leaned back into the strong chest you had woken on that morning, letting out a pleasant and content hum as his face buried itself in the crook of your neck, soft lips leaving a trail of kisses that went up your jaw and behind your ear, to that spot that turned you into putty in his hands.

"What are you doing here Billy?" You asked, your voice coming out a little breathless

"Came to check on you, make sure you didn't wander off too far." He said, against the shell of your ear, giving your lobe a playful nip, the kind that always had you moaning and shuddering in his arms.

"I'm not having wilderness sex with you Billy" you meant for your voice to come out stern but it came out breathy, making him smile against the shell of your ear.

"Thought never crossed my mind." He murmured, hands going tighter around you as he kissed his way back down to your shoulder, sucking and biting the skin of your neck, and grinding his crotch against your ass.

"Liar, bet it's all you've--” a moan interrupted you as his teeth sunk into the soft skin on the crook of your neck, your hips shifting against his hardening crotch of their own accord, “you’ve been thinking about ever since Karen brought up the idea of a camping trip." You said, hand going to his head and burying itself in the longer strands of his hair, your nails dragging against his scalp. His moan was muffled by the skin he was teasing and sucking on, the grinding of his hips was firmer, their shifting full of purpose, and despite not wanting to give the local wildlife or some stray camper a show, you couldn’t deny that Billy was gonna get his way.

You dropped the pile of sticks under your arm and turned, your arms going around his neck and bringing him down into a kiss, he gripped and walked you back until your back was pressed against a nearby tree, his hand caresses the side of your neck, thumb guiding your head to the side so he can kiss and suck along your neck.

His hand moves down, pushing and squeezing your breast up making you hum into his mouth. He slots his thigh between your legs and you shift against it, you’ve worked yourself up but still need more to help you over the edge,

“Billy…” the single word is a desperate plea for more, for him to touch you were you need him and Billy wastes no time in doing so.

His long finger tug and pull at the button and fly of your jeans with practiced ease, hand slipping past the elastic of your underwear and between your folds. The pad of his middle finger circles your clit with a feather light touch that has your shifting downward. Your hand grip his hair and you mutter out a

“Stop playing around Russo, if you’re gonna fuck me—!!” your words die a swift death as his fingers fully press onto your clit as he flicks it about. His fingers work you relentlessly and you come screaming his name. He keeps circling your clit, each stroke sending shivers through you, making you moan and wince slightly as you quickly became overstimulated.

He slowly pulls his hand from between your legs, slotting his lips over yours, his lips moving slow enough for you to catch your breath. When you have your bearing about you, you pull back, placing kisses to the corner of his mouth, his jaw, his chin, and work yourself further down, placing one on his adams apple, another at the hollow of his throat, you kiss his chest through his shirt as our hands work on loosening his jeans and pushing his boxer briefs down, freeing his length.

You lower yourself down until your level with the tip of his member, have half a mind to drag this out just a few seconds more, but when you look up at him through your eyelashes, see the way his eyes were blown, a barely there ring of dark brown around the pupil, making his eyes look completely black, you couldn’t help yourself. You continued to stare into his eyes, licking your lips before taking him into your mouth, swallowing a portion of his length and pulling back again, repeating the process until you’ve taken as much as you can of him, leaving the rest to pump with your hand.

Above you, Billy sings a symphony of steady curses interrupted by the odd moan and groan, it wasn’t long before his hands tightened in your hair with a breathless,

“...I’m close”

Making you double your efforts, and after a few hard sucks he was crying out your name, spilling into the back of your throat. You swallowed everything he gave you before tucking him back into his briefs and getting up off the floor.

He was breathing hard as he fully leaned against the tree in front of him, a wide smile on his lips as he pulled you against him, wrapping his arms around you as you both worked to catch your breath.

“We should get back,” you murmured against his chest once your breathing had returned to normal, “Everyones gotta be wondering what we’re up to.”

He chuckled, pressing his lips to the top of your head

“They ain’t wondering shit, they know exactly what we’re up to.”

You pulled away from him just enough to look him in the eyes, arching an eyebrow questiongly, he just shrugged and said,

“I told Frankie I was gonna come after you and see if we could find the answer to the age old question of, if two people fuck in the middle of the forest and no one is around to hear them, do they make a sound?”

You groaned and let your head fall back to his chest. Of course he did, it really shouldn’t be a surprise to you and you imagined it wasn’t much of a surprise to your group of friends either, they had known Billy way too long for any of his antics to shock them at this point.

“Come on, Karen promised me s’mores.” you said as you pulled away from him completely and turned to pick up the small pile of firewood you had gathered, ready to head back when you looked around you and saw that you had no idea where you had come in from.

“Billy?”

“Yeah?” he said, followed by the sound of the zipper of his jeans being pulled up.

“You know how to get back...right?”

Your question was met with an unsettling silence, then, a murmured,

“Shit.”

Gen: @something-tofightfor @its-my-little-dumpster-fire @the-blind-assassin-12 @suchatinyinfinity @bts-smolarmy @elanor-of-imladris @emyyjemyy

Billy Russo: @nananananananananananabatman @shinebrightlikeafanbase

#billy russo x reader #billy russo x you #billy russo fanfiction #billy russo fic #billy russo #i cant believe i finally finished this #i feel like i'm gonna cry #bonus points to anyone who can name the fight that i tried to vague about

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