#this is good amazing stuff here i gotta archive it

[wallpaper-inside-my-heart]

💛Smoshblr December Asks Day 21💙

Top 3 tropes in media/fanfic

So in terms of general concepts/tropes I enjoy in all media, there def any iteration of (Enemies/Rivals to) Friends to Lovers; then Found Family <3 and hurt/comfort -> especially in combo with one of the other two tropes!

When in comes to which types of fanfics I specifically seek out most of the time:

(putting these answers and the fanfic recs under the cut, cause this is once again getting way longer than I intended)

I know this is super unpopular, but I love well done miscommunication in fanfics! Hate it in most movies tho!!

-> also what I think constitutes “good” miscommunication basically boils down to “ is the miscommunication plot or character motivated?” cause in a lot of media the miscommunication feels forced and only meant to prolong or escalate the story

-> but if the miscommunication happens bc the characters are, for example, insecure about sharing certain info/feelings it is way more captivating and relatable (to me)

-> so this is ofc directly related to (Mutual) Pining <3 (plus also connected to another fave of mine: Memory Loss/Amnesia & also secret identity)

2. Forced proximity!!

-> I’m counting both sharing a bed and stuff like fake relationship under this umbrella

-> I just love when characters are forced to interact with each other in a different and typically more intimate way than they usually do! (and what it reveals about themselves and their relationship to eachother!)

3. Fix-it fanfics

-> I actually love original stories that have tragic endings! But there are many ways a story can end in a disappointing way and make me immeditaly turn to what all the wonderful fanfic authors have come up with in order to clean up the mess!

I have way too many favourite fanfics tbh... SO I'm actually gonna do both general and smosh ones I enjoyed a lot recently!

Multifandom (I am a huge podfic girlie, so I'm gonna give them a shoutout here!)

Harry Hart and the Honey Pot: An Indiana Jones Adventure - reena_jenkins, samanthahirr - Kingsman (Movies) [Archive of Our Own] -> I love me a good movie based AU from time to time and the kingsman fandom has so many great writers!

2. [podfic] tomorrow will always and forever now be today (tomorrow is our always and forever) - Matriaya - 9-1-1 (TV) [Archive of Our Own] -> this fic changed me as a person istg; like it is such an incredibly well done take on the timeloop trope, I'm-

3. Be My Savior - Chapter 1 - jessebee - Supernatural [Archive of Our Own] -> this is me coming out as lowkey more of a Sabriel than Destiel fan 🙈 Like ofc Destiel have the better canon story, and I do love them very much; However Sabriel fanfics captured my heart when I was a teenager and are still hanging on by a thread! (also I can still make myself cry instantly via a headcanon I created for them ages ago and that's gotta count for smth 😹)

Smosh Fanfics &lt;3

In general of course any and all fics by Katie @jovenshires 🩷🩵 (love you and your writing to death istg🫶) but having to choose one for this, I'm gonna go with right where you left me - jovenshires (imdeansgirl) - Smosh [Archive of Our Own]

2. doing something like this right on the first try - halfwheeze - Smosh [Archive of Our Own] my most recent bookmark and 100% my fave fic I've read these past few weeks! But Mer 🖤💜@tommybowefuneralattendee has so many banger fanfics, it was super hard to choose! <3 But this fic made me truly ship nintendogs, so it deserves this mention

3. I abstained from choosing any of the amazing spommy fics by the lovely ppl I mentioned above, bc I might have spommy brainworms 24/7, but I cannot lose my multishipper rep! 😹🙈 But here is one of my other fave spommy fics from a different author! maybe my animals live in your zoo - creepysounds - Smosh [Archive of Our Own] edit: by the lovely @tommybones 🫶

[letstalkwhump]

Let's Talk Whump

Welcome to Let’s Talk Whump, a series of interviews that spotlight the amazing people in our whump community! I’m Malice and I’ll be your host today. 

Today’s I’m talking whump with the amazing @lonesome–hunter!

(this blog and the recommended pieces contain NSFW and are 18+)

Welcome to Let’s Talk Whump! Would you mind sharing a little about yourself?

Howdy! My name is Sarah but everyone usually calls me Lonesome. I'm an elder here in the community lol. I love thrifting, smoking pot, birdwatching and Disney World (I live so close to it). My favorite colors alternate between black, various greens and burnt orange. I truly love all animals. There's no way I could pick just one. I am particularly fond of moths, owls, elephants and exotic birds. 

I'm a big stoner goth aunt and I love connecting with people. So feel free to come talk to me anytime!

What does whump mean to you? 

It's absolutely an outlet for me. When I was a kid I couldn't figure out why I liked seeing people tied up in people's basements in movies and on TV so much but it never left my mind. Those feelings are there, the excitement. When I started writing in fifth grade I realized I could produce those feelings by writing the stories myself.

And trauma dumping through fictional people is almost therapy lol.

And how did you find the whump community? What made you want to join? 

During the first season of Supernatural I got on live journal and found other SPN communities. Then I fell down a rabbit hole that led me to whump. I finally had a word and a whole bunch of people who felt the same way which felt validating after being told I'm weird from teachers and family members.

During the pandemic I reconnected with it when I was in a dark place and really got into what everyone was doing. I thought "maybe I can do this". The rest is history.

Do you think your view on whump changed since you joined in terms of trope enjoyment or consumption style?

My view on whump has always been the same really. No one is hurting anyone and with proper warnings we can write the darker stuff some of us really enjoy.

I can't really say there are any I changed my mind over. Any trope can be good if it sucks you in with the writing. 

And your favourite whump tropes because it’s guaranteed there’ll be more than one!

 Ooh wee here we goooo lol. I dig dehumanization, whipping, sadistic whumpers, noncon, water torture, stress positions, begging. So many.

Time to share your awesome writing. Do you have a favourite piece you've written? 

So my first main series “The Devil’s Highway” has been my baby for three plus years and I’m excited to rework it now that I have more tools at my disposal. That being said, I really am proud of what I did with “Bury Me Beneath The Weeping Willow Tree”. It features some heavy TWs so be mindful of that but that almost stopped me from wanting to do it. Would showing Big Boy and Darlin’s graphic murder be too far? Probably lol. But I really dug deep in and got emotional writing it honestly. And it shows Ezra that this weird love Josiah has for me won’t protect him like he thinks it will. It didn’t work for Big Boy. Those two guys are secretly my favorite and I’m most excited about reworking that particular story.

Your imagery is deliciously brutal and creepy. I’m obsessed with it, it’s that good! Do you have a writing routine or is it more when inspiration strikes?

Definitely a night owl. I can’t focus until it’s dark out. Gotta have water and a little sweet drink to keep me focused. I tend to write when something strikes, lately it’s been extremely dry for me creatively but I’m trying to stretch my legs again and get back into it.

And do you find that it’s easier to write some things over others?

I can write the hell out of dreams, surrealism and atmosphere. That’s always been my favorite thing to do writing wise. Also death fics are fun lol.

Dialogue is my least favorite and it probably shows but can’t get better without practice.

Is there anything you're working on at the moment?

Been working on the rework of The Devil’s Highway, started a fun little prompt series about a bunch of masked men and I have another forced to fight series with slow burn romance than I’ve ever done before.

Do you have a joke or pun you would like to share to spread some smiles today?

I wish I could remember the dad joke my customer told me last night that sent me into a coughing fit but I have another one for you.

"What do you call a factory that makes okay products?" "A satisfactory."

That got a laugh out of me! Is there any writing advice you’d like to share?

Just have fun. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself and just write for yourself.

And tag your stuff!

Shout out to your favourite writing/whump blogs, bffs or people who've inspired you. We're hyping everyone one up here!!!

Oh man there's so many I could be here all day but these folks have truly helped me so much over the years and I would die for them lol

@knivestothroats, @galaxywhump, @girlsjustwannadrawwhump, @evermetnotforgotten, @redstainedsocks, @coldresolve, @whumpshaped, @whumpfigure, @ephemeral-phosphorescence, @whump-me-all-night-long, 

Anything you'd like to add?

Save Florida from Facists!

So good to have you here today, @lonesome--hunter! 

And to all you folks at home, have a whump-derful day!

[whumpy-wyrms]

are u in any fandoms? what are ur interests besides whump? u don’t have to answer i’m just curious!!

someone’s asking me about my interests i can’t NOT answer

this got a bit long tho so i’m putting it under the read more for people who don’t care/are only here for the whump

OKOK. so i’m kinda in the starkid/nerdy prudes must die fandom rn but i know for a fact if i finished adventure time and started watching fiona and cake, that would quite literally become my entire personality for the next 3 months because simon and prismo (and marceline and princess bubblegum and all my other favorite characters) make me insane. but i haven’t done that because well. i’ve gotta write tllr yknow..

anyway, my absolute most favorite pieces of media of all time are undertale and deltarune guys. i cant put in words how much those games mean to me holy shit. as i’m writing this i’m sitting next to my jevil and sans and spamton plushie and they are saying hi. anywayyy yeah i was in the deltarune fandom for a bit it was fun. spamton is silly fucked up creature. jevil is my all time favorite tho

AND THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES… my favorite thing ever fr. y’all. LISTEN TO TMA SERIOUSLY YOU’LL PROBABLY LIKE IT!! it’s a horror podcast and it’s seriously the best fuckinf thing ever it’s so amazing seriously. it’s a bit hard to get into at first because season 1 is less story driven BUT HOLY SHIT. AHHHH ITS SO FUCKING GOOD. jon is one of my favorite blorbos ever and so is michael because he’s a silly distortion guy. just trust me and listen to TMA it will actually change your life.

also i love the amazing world of gumball so fucking much. i wasn’t allowed to watch cartoon network as a kid (idk why??) so i first watched tawog last year and holy shit holy shit it’s my favorite thing ever. rob. ROB!!!! ROB IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE CHARACTER. SO IS MR SMALL. AHHHH!!!! anyway i love tawog i’ve drawn a lot of fanart and even wrote a 60k word fanfiction (about what happens after The Inquisition because that ending fucked me up) that i’ve Never and will probably never show anyone because it’s probably Not that good. but it was sooo Important to me back then. tawog just means so much to me it :))) it changed me as a person. nobody’s a nobody and everybody is weird like you and me.

i also really like hollow knight! i haven’t played it in a while but i was at 111% completion on one of my playthroughs (CURSE YOU PANTHEON 4). i’m also super fucking excited for silksong obviously and i will say this now: WHEN SILKSONG FINALLY RELEASES… i will probably go on hiatus here LMAO. sorry but guys. SILKSONG…. honestly same for new deltarune chapters. the second chapters 3, 4, and 5 release it is sooo over for me. i probably won’t post much here for a few months during that. but that’s fine!! i’ll never abandon tllr but sometimes some things are more important to my silly little brain :3

gravity falls quite literally changed my life in 2018. like i can’t even explain it, but it’s how i was introduced to online fandoms and fanart in general. dipper LITERALLY made me trans (not literally but pretty much). it’s how i started watching other amazing cartoons and series i love, it’s literally what made me get into drawing art and writing and stuff. it’s what made me start making ocs. it literally made me an artist guys. which is how i started writing. without gravity falls and it’s effect it had on me, this account might have never existed?? i’m being super dramatic but wowww. i was so autistic about that silly cartoon

minecraft i love. i’ve been playing minecraft for over a decade and won’t stop because it’s like, probably a special interest of mine? i’ve watch minecraft youtubers forever too, hermitcraft and the life series are my favorite. i’m a huge grian fan too, been watching him since the evo days. anyway if u play minecraft and wanna play with me sometime, feel free to ask!!! :D i love making new friends and playing video games with people!!! let’s make a world together!!!

also i like terraria and stardew valley, and animal crossing new horizons but i haven’t played that in a few years. hmm other games i like are oneshot game, NITW, omori, celeste, cuphead, fnaf (although i’ve only played the first 5 games and am super super behind on the lore), ori, dead cells, untitled goose game (this is for u anon), and probably more i’m forgetting! feel free to recommend me some video games and we can even play together :3

other series i love are the umbrella academy. soooo autistic about this show it’s fucking AMAZING!!!!!! klaus is my favorite character. anyway i also like what we do in the shadows. it made me super autistic about vampires (before i watched this show i kinda thought vampires were cringe IDK WHY I’M SORRYY). the netflix show lucifer made me insane a few years ago and is what probably indirectly inspired me to give Dew wings. i also like our flag means death, breaking bad, moon knight, and camp here in there (another podcast i HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend, will wood made the soundtrack!)

i LOVEEE FINAL SPACE!! avocato has been my pfp on this account forever and now i feel like i can’t ever change it (i don’t want to). final space is seriously amazing!!! but it was cancelled and basically got fucked over by the networks- infinity train style. idk, stuff happened and it was removed from hbo max so there’s not really anywhere to watch it (legally) except for netflix international iirc? but it’s getting removed from that too i think. super fucking sad :( it ended on a huge cliffhanger too BUT there is a graphic novel being made!!!! super excited about that!

other cartoons i like are over the garden wall (dressed up as wirt for halloween last year), the owl house, adventure time, regular show, steven universe, infinity train, bojack horseman, rick and morty, mlp, the midnight gospel, and so much more i’m forgetting. OH anime i like are death note, demon slayer (haven’t caught up yet on the latest seasons tho), and MOB PSYCHO 100!! vampire in the garden on netflix is really amazing as well.

this is sooo long but now i gotta talk about my favorite music artists. WILL WOOD (AND THE TAPEWORMS) IS MY FAVORITEEE. I ALSO LOVEEE JHARIAH!!! AND HARLEY POE!!!!! top three of all time. i also like toby fox obviously, and glass beach (LITERALLY GOING TO SEE THEM IN MARCH AND I AM SOOO EXCITED!!!), mcr, shayfer james, weezer, mitski, lemon demon, set it off, tally hall, gerard way, and probably more i’m forgetting. i also like musicals!! (i was in the spongebob musical earlier this year for school! i was larry the lobster :))

so guys. GUYSSS. IF YOU LIKE MUSICALS, GO WATCH NERDY PRUDES MUST DIE!!!! OR JUST WATCH THE ENTIRE HATCHETFEILD TRILOGY!!! WHILE UR AT IT, WATCH ALL THE STARKID MUSICALS ACTUALLY!!! this is my current hyperfixation. the lords in black are amazing, npmd is amazing. i love everything about it. go watch it seriously, it’s fucking awesome and the soundtrack is AMAZING!!!

i think this is it. this got super long but i’m super passionate about my interests so yeah. this is pretty much everything. one very important thing (literally my special interest) that i didn’t mention are my other ocs. i have wayyy more ocs that are completely separate from the tllr ones. i don’t wanna post about them here though, cuz they’re not whump related and i want to keep my main account separate from this account. but they’re my favorite blorbos in existence so…

if u WANT to know about my other ocs, u can feel free to dm me for the username of my other fandom/oc account. that’s where i post other stuff that i don’t post here, like my fanart and my other oc stuff. i don’t post writing or anything like that there, so ur not missing out on that.

anyway those are most of my main interests! things i didn’t mention that im also really interested in are reptiles (snakes specifically), and animals in general. i have two leopard geckos named Lars and Alphys and i reallyyyy want a pet snake but my family hates snakes :(( anyway i’m rambling

thanks for the ask!!

[klanceyuri]

Three Weed Smoking Girlfriends

Summary: Kylie doesn't smoke, her best friends do, things get intimate faster than she could imagine.

Warnings: Smoking, check ao3 port for full tags

Authors Note: I was fucking wracking my brain for all the right words and terms but I was coming up short and my dignity would not allow me to ask the local grower (my father) for help. this time we have stylenny, which uh, was unplanned, but now we have three weed smoking girlfriends which is actually an amazing unexpected turn of events.

"Want a hit?" Stacy asked, holding out the lit embers to Kylie.

"I'll pass on becoming part of the worlds worst blunt rotation," Kylie answered with a laugh on her voice as she glanced over her friends.

Wendyl pouted, "What? You really think this is the worlds worst rotation?"

Kylie nodded, "You, Stacy, Kelsey, and Claire? Yeah, that is the worlds worst blunt rotation."

"Don't be so cruel Kylie," Kelsey said as she slumped back against the redhead.

"Yeah, don't be so cruel," Claire chimed in with as she ran a hand through choppy black locks atop her head.

Wendyl took hold of the cigarette, "I learned a cool trick."

"Smoke rings?" Kylie asked.

Wendyl nodded as he took a hit before exhaling in rings of smoke, he only got a few. He held out the smoldering embers to Kelsey who gladly took it.

"Stacy you gotta get some better shit," Kelsey said with a bit of a laugh.

"It's all the leftovers from moms trimming, take it or leave it," Stacy said as she watched her partner in crime exhale a gray haze.

"The flavors clash, too much citrus," Kelsey said, Claire nodded along as Kelsey idled with the lit end. Pressing her finger to it until it stung just a bit, she'd handled worse.

"Well sorry that she won't let me buy any from her shop," Stacy complained.

"Get good and steal some," Kylie said as she ran her hands through Kelseys hair, carding fingers between blonde locks. Kelsey leaned back into her, a pleased and syrupy sweet smile on her face.

Stacy gave a groan, "My mom would kill me if she caught me stealing the stuff she sells."

"It'd be hilarious," Wendyl said with a light laugh bereft of malicious intent.

"So fucking funny," Kelsey said.

"It would not be funny," Stacy said.

"It would be hilarious," Kylie countered with.

-/-/-/-

"It's just a bit of smoke," Stacy urged as she tapped the cigarette in her hands, a haze of almost blue smoke escaping with her words.

Kylie just looked intimidated.

"It doesn't hurt," Stacy said with a sigh as she slumped back further against the chair she sat in, toque discarded. She ran a hand through her hair, deep black locks water-falling over her shoulders.

"I know," Kylie said quietly.

"Then how come you always pussy out of a quick high?" Stacy asked as Kylie walked over and sat down next to her. She nuzzled up next to Kylie, holding the lit end of her cigarette to the side.

Kylie pauses, "Government weed is fucking dogshit honestly."

"You've smoked before?!" Stacy exclaimed, Kylie nodded.

"Oh yeah, it was not pleasant," Kylie said, "They cracked open a box of cigs and said 'take a hit?' and I did, and I'm pretty sure I bruised something with how much I was coughing. It was terrible," She took a deep breath, the haze of the room just the way it always is.

"Damn bro," Stacy said, she paused, staring up at the ceiling fan, "Wanna try again?"

"Nope," Kylie said, "I will sit here with you when you're getting high as shit."

There's a hum of amusement, "Thanks girl."

-/-/-/-

"Kelsey I'm going to fucking cry," Stacy got out as she reached into her pocket, pulling out some rolling papers.

Kelsey just hummed, "What is it this time Stace?"

"Kylie doesn't smoke," Stacy said, hastily spreading a thin sheet of paper.

"Obviously," Kelsey said, grabbing her pair of scissors and a small clump before snipping it even smaller.

"And she thinks we fucking buy our shit- which we don't- and she bruised a rib coughing last time she tried," Stacy said, using the back of her fingernail to press the green into a line before rolling it up. She licked a stripe along the exposed edge before sealing it up and handed it to Kelsey. The McCormick pulled out her lighter and lit the end of the cigarette, "She's never gonna smoke with us Kelsey."

Kelsey shrugged as she handed the smoke to Stacy who took a drag far too fast, sputtering a bit as she coughed. The blonde watched her partner in crime, "And?"

"God, Kelsey that is the one thing I wanted to do with her," Stacy said, bringing a hand to tussle through dark strands of hair. She gave a long sigh, "I've been waiting and offering for so long and she doesn't smoke."

"What about shotgunning?" Kelsey offered as she took Stacys hand, stalling her motions to let the idea sink into her head. She simply glanced over to Kelsey and stared.

"Fucking what?" Stacy asked as Kelsey took a hold of a cigarette.

"I could show you but it's pretty gay," Kelsey said, "Just hold still for me and breath, like CPR."

"Like CPR?" Stacy asked as Kelsey took a drag, she rested a hand on Stacy's cheek and tilted her until they were locked in eye contact. She pulled her into a kiss and exhaled, Stacy inhaled, the contact was brief and the smoke easily exchanged. When Kelsey pulled away there was a swiftly diffusing haze of gray between them.

"That, is shotgunning," Kelsey said, hand comfortably atop Stacys cheek.

Stacy spoke next, haze spilling out as she spoke, "Wow."

"Just offer to do that with Kylie, your moms got some of those fancy plants that don't have nicotine right?" Kelsey asked, releasing her grasp on Stacy's face and dropping a knee while hitching the other.

"Yeah, we got two," Stacy said.

"Use that, tell her it won't induce a high- I'm sure she'll be down to do it with you," Kelsey said. She smiled a bit, "I might even tag along.

"That would be so much fun," Stacy said with a bit of a laugh, she drew out the 'o' as she spoke.

-/-/-/-

"What the fuck did you do to the weed?" Kylie asked as she took another deep inhale of the haze, it smelt different.

Stacy gave a lazy grin, "Special strain, less citrus tones."

"A new one?" Kylie asked, Kelsey nodded.

"Brand new, sprouted it myself, Stace did most of the work to actually prune and grow it," Kelsey said, slung over the back of the couch. She dropped a hand to run through Kylies hair, the redhead comfortably against the armrest, one leg hanging over the edge. Stacy was resting comfortably in Kylies lap, back to her front and head resting at her sternum.

"I didn't you gardened Kelsey," Kylie said as she rested her hands at Stacy's abdomen.

"I don't, Stacy just needed somewhere to put her seeds and said I could grow one or two," Kelsey said with a laugh.

Stacy gives a sigh, "So you know how you don't smoke Kylie?"

Kylie nodded, "Yep."

"I was wondering if you'd want to try out shotgunning?" Stacy asked as she pushed herself off of Kylies form, the redhead quirked a brow.

"So long as I'm not putting a cigarette in my mouth we're good," Kylie said, she lifted her leg to the couch and shifted in spot. She watched as Stacy hesitantly move to face her, her hand shook a bit.

"Cool, cool," Stacy said, "You just gotta breath and it'll work."

Kylie nodded, watching with as Stacy brought a hand to her face, hand sliding down to the back of her neck. There's a chill rolling through her as painted nails tap along her spine. With her free hand Stacy takes a heady hit, then she's pulling Kylie into a kiss. It's short, and the flavor of the smoke instantly assaults Kylie, but she breaths like she was told. She breaths deep and holds it until Stacy backs away before trying to exhale it without coughing much.

Kelsey gives a hum as she runs a hand through a mess of red curls, she revels in the relief Stacy is wearing and the shock on Kylies face, "Enjoy it?"

Kylie nods, "Oh yeah."

"Cool, don't think that Stacy gets to hog the fun though," Kelsey said, a smirk growing on her face as Kyle turned to face her. She raises her cigarette, lit end burning like amber, "My turn."

Kylie does nothing to stop her friend, melts into the slight pull as she takes a hit. She easily reciprocates, inhaling every wisp of smoke in the delayed exhale. A haze rests around them in the brief moments that Kelsey pulls back, bluish gray smoke spilling from parted lips and Kylie can't believe she's chasing the feeling. She can't believe she's chasing the contact that Kelsey is so willingly doling out, hands on her face and in her hair.

"How about that?" Kelsey asked when she finally pulled away for good and Kylie looks just a bit zoned out, "There's no nicotine, don't worry."

Kylie still can't make her words work, especially not with Stacy's hands coming back to her form. Sliding along her waist where her shirt rode up only a bit, she slung herself atop the red head, "Fun?"

Kylie nodded, she brings her arms to rest over Stacys shoulders, hands on her back.

Kelsey is grinning a Cheshire grin from her perch atop the couch, smoke almost at her lips once more, "Wanna do it again?"

[kosmicpowers]

Hi, Hey there!

I've had this blog up for a few weeks so I figured I'd introduce myself. Not gonna reveal my actual name for security reasons but just call me Kosmic.

I currently live in the USA (Unfortunately). I'm genderfluid and really don't care what pronouns I am referred to with as long as they're not it/it's. I'm also an aspiring writer but for now I mostly just write fanfiction. Mostly Saint Seiya related obviously though I've been working on other stuff.

You can find my AO3 account here:

I've also been working on art but I'm still a beginner.

I try to be a nice person. (Though I'm not sure if I'm good at it because I can't stop swearing.) I don't accept racism, ableism, bullying, kin exclusionists or gatekeeping, misogyny, homophobia or anything anti-lgbt...

Yeah, Just don't be a dick. It's not hard.

Also don't be a sicko, no pedophila or zoophilia.

Some other stuff about me in case you care:

I'm a minor, don't be a creep.

I have ADHD, tend to hyperfixate on weird stuff. Then again a lot of people on this website do. Just saying I'm not one to judge people when I think about my interests.

I'm agnostic but I'm not going to crap on anyone for having a religion, as long as you're not a Jehovah's Witness. Screw those abusive idiots.

My hobbies are reading, writing, drawing, playing retro games, creating OCs, watching documentaries, and staying up at three AM regretting all of my life's choices

My favorite shows are: Saint Seiya (1986), Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas, Ronin Warriors, Ranma 1/2, My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, Astro Boy, Jetter Mars, Sonic Prime, Sonic X, Beastars, Thundercats (both 1986 and 2011), Futurama, Kimba the White Lion, Cowboy Bebop, To Kai Watch, Captain Scarlet, Black Jack, Samurai Jack, Ampanman, The Amazing World of Gumball, Don't Hug Me I'm Scared, Danger Mouse, Kamen Rider, Super Sentai (AKA Power Rangers)

My favorite movies: the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, AKIRA, the Barbie movie (don't judge), Godzilla, Plague Dogs, Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Saint Seiya: Legend of the Crimson Youth, Chirin's Bell, The amazing Spider-Man, Toy Story 3, The Iron Giant, Into the Spiderverse, also as of now gotta add the FNAF movie

Favorite video games: Sonic the Hedgehog series, Phantasy Star 4, Columns, Panel De Pon, Mega Man, PulseMan, Mario Kart 8, Pokemon: Legends Arceus, Animal Crossing, Earthbound, Poyo Poyo/Mean Bean Machine, Sin and Punishment, Harvest Moon, Star Fox

Favorite Bands/Musical Artists: Jack Stauber, Daft Punk, Lemon Demon, Caravan Palace, Tally Hall, Miura Ayme, Rammstein, The Living Tombstone, Rare Americans, Nirvana, Rammstein, Witchfinder General, Gorillaz

Favorite books: The Golden Compass, The Most Dangerous Game, Magnus Chase, Heros of Olympus (or basically anything by Rick Riordan), Death Note, Beastars (manga), Inuyasha, The Lovely Bones (I fucking cried so hard), MAUS (Made me cry harder), City of Ember, Journey to the West, Most classic creepypastas mainly "Abandoned by Disney" (YES. I know they're not books), Cells at Work, AKIRA (Manga)

So... Um... Yeah.

I like to talk with people about my interests so don't be afraid to give me a message. (As long as it doesn't promise "hot singles" in my area, I'm not that stupid.)

Updates:

I have a discord under the name robotic carnival and a side blog Tezuka Brainrot.

I am fictokin of: Cobalt from Astro Boy mainly.

Partially:

Mars from Jetter Mars.

Jibanyan from Yo Kai Watch

Rika from Phantasy Star.

Akane Tendo and Ryoga Hibbikki from Ranma 1/2

Cygnus Hyoga, Pegasus Seiya, and Aquarius Camus from Saint Seiya.

And the flag on my profile picture is ADHD flag.

Cringe and proud. ♥️

My husbandos are Doctor Yamanoue and Doctor Kawashimo from Jetter Mars, Phoenix Ikki from Saint Seiya, James/Kojiro from Pokemon, and Rune from Phantasy Star.

I can't beat Zio PLZ someone tell me how.

I am pro Palestine and I will accept no support of genocide.

I am neutral on the Joe Hawley situation as he has done terrible things yet does not deserve to be hacked or harassed.

Also ship discourse and fanfiction censorship discourse is dumb I don't care anymore. And regret my past actions. Don't harass over stuff you don't like but also tag your shit. You can't complain about people judging you if you are irresponsible about keeping it where it belongs.

[devintrinidad]

AQjjzjwjsjz ALL of these ships are SO CUTE. I agree with almost all of them. I haven't considered cancer/3803 before tbh. I can only imagine the drama. I can see 3803 trying to have good faith in him at first then it all going down hill from there.

I was about to say 3803/4948 would be SO adorable and then you hit me with a WAR FIC??? OH MY GOD??? LEAVE THEM ALONE?? (Jk don't)

And YES!! I LOVE ALL POLY SHIPS TBH!!! Sometimes it's too hard to pick just one pair bc they are all good and you just GOTTA smash them all together. The more the merrier.

Reverse harem >>>>>>>>>>>>

Speaking of poly ships u mentioned 5100 with 2048 and 2626 and I was just about to say why not all 3 of them together. I adore both dynamics they sre SOO fun, and I think 5100 could definitely pull two (or more) guys at the same time. I think i like 5100/2626 a tiny bit more but I love both equally as well.

I havent thought enough yet about all the possibilities so I dont have strong opinions, but I am honestly up for anything. If the dynamic is fun then I'm all in. I think Eosinophil and NK would be really adorable. NK would throw hands with anyone who talks about her gf. Eosinophil would get both of them matching phone chains. NK broke her phone(s) so she puts the chain in her sword instead. NK and Killer T are super fun as well!!

Basophil is funny as hell i enjoy that motherfucker I think he should be friends with 2001 (Or boyfriend. Idc I just want them hanging out together). I think he is cute with macrophage as well. She is everything he is just ken.

Honestly there are a lot of characters that I adore but I havent come up with anything for them!! I love Mast cell a lot cuz she is messy and moody and I ADORE her energy lmao

I enjoyed chatting with you!! have a wonderful day as well ᕕ ( ᐛ ) ᕗ

Hi! Here's the Cancer/AE-3803 series that I made just to explore their dynamics! Beware the tags, though, it can be quite visceral at times. :D

And yes! I've always loved AE-3803 and U-1146 ever since their first canon interaction in the manga! When I watched their little scene together for the first time in the anime, I was absolutely floored! They are so cute and I love them so much! (Hence, the reason why I had to torture them with a war au).

Poly! You like poly! That's amazing!

Here's a treat from lunch that inspired me to write a harem (ish) fic back in the day. :D

Oh my gosh??? You're so right! 5100 would definitely wrangle 2048 and 2626. 2626 immediately loves her while 2048 is more of a tsundere and wants to be all macho for her, but they all know better. I can imagine that during a regular day, they try to save 5100, but she's trying to shield her juniors away from bacteria. They scold her for putting herself in harm's way, but she tells them that she trusts them to save her when the time comes :D

Eosinophil and NK??? That's so adorable! I think it's canon that NK secretly likes wearing cute, feminine things once in a while, so on dates Eo likes to dress up NK in cute stuff, doing their nails, makeup, etc. NK basks in the pampering and she teaches Eo how to be more confident in herself. And the phone chains??? That's so cute???

Basophil/U-2001???? YES THAT IS AMAZING WONDERFUL SPLENDERIFIC Totally ship this.

Also, Macrophage/Basophil/U-2001??? Just the whole dynamic of the more parental/cryptid cells being put together. Their dynamic would be so weird, but the most amzing power throuple.

Mast Cell is so cute, too! No one gives her the recognition that she deserves -_- That's okay, we love her all the same! :D

Thanks again and I hope that you have a wonderful day! :D

[bahamutgames]

SAGE 2023 Postin'

Yay!! SAGE 2023 has started! Last year I didn't make the time to play much of anything despite having a year to do it lmao, and that really bummed me out so I really wanted to get ahead of the curve and go ahead and play some stuff! Idk how much I'll play from this year's showing cause there's a LOT of great stuff! But I'll make however many posts it takes. Here's what I played tonight that I think YOU should check out!!

Dotty Game - by Wootinaboot

A game from a friend of mine! This is a SUPER cute Megaman like where you play as an ADORABLE little bug and blast mushrooms! This demo is really neat cause it's actually a gameboy file that I had to play through emulator! Although, you can just play it in browser on their itch so that's nice too! Controls are tight, sprites are great, music is REALLY nice and I was surprised by how challenging it could get with some of the bosses. There's also a LOT of hidden stuff to find so be sure to play it all the way through! You do NOT want to miss the special surprise let me tell you!

The Wingless Bee - by Ryansil

Another game from a friend and famously, the creator of Pac-Man as you all know. This game I was not expecting at all, it's actually very similar to Frogger! Though it is kind of gloomy and sad. But it's cool and the demo really shows some neat stuff like perspective changes and boss fights. It's simple but I genuinely had an out loud "AHA!" moment when I figured out how to fight the boss. Cool stuff!

Sonic McOrigins Plus - by Difgue

FINALLY, GAMING IS GOOD AGAIN! I have SO MUCH nostalgia for these old Sonic McDonald's toys! I tried to collect all of them but obviously couldn't (I didn't even realize there were SO many!) But I can relive wonderful memories of Shadow Grinding, Shadow vs Omega Hockey, AiAi Banana Catcher, Amy and Rouge Tennis ect ect. I knew there were efforts to archive these types of game & watch styled games but I hadn't really tried any before myself. This feels great and even works great on my dinky phone!

F-ZERO POCKET - by Linky493

This was such a neat one! F-ZERO on Gameboy Color! It has a TON of characters and tracks, I was actually seriously shocked by how much was in here. It's a little difficult to play though but weirdly enough I feel like that's authentic to how a GBC F-ZERO would be. If you're a fan you gotta check it out the novelty of this one alone is so good!

Toree Saturn - by Siactro

Probably the least surprising thing I've ever said by this point: I love Toree! I've played the whole series and I think at this point I've S ranked every stage in the series??? Maybe? It's been a bit since I looked. So of course I had to try Toree Saturn! I hadn't seen gameplay prior to playing this so I figured it was just gonna be another level pack. But to my delight, no! It's actually a Toree Sequel! A brand new game! New models, new moves and mechanics! Now I am BEYOND excited for this game! I still have to play Kiwi 64 but it looks amazing and Siactro hasn't missed once yet. This was a lovely surprise!

Dono's Tale - by Super Item Studios

WOW! WOW WOW WOW! This one absolutely blew me away! I've had my eye on this game for a bit (I'm so sorry I missed the kickstarter, y'all, I WISH I HAD MORE MONEY I'D FUND SO MANY INDIE GAMES!) But I finally got to try it with this demo and just WOW! This game is SO good! Absolutely GORGEOUS artwork that looks so authentically SNES it's amazing. Super cute music and designs, this was an absolute treat! My favorite powers were fire + wings! I wish you had more use for the other powers, though I do assume a full game will have levels soley based around each of Dono's abilities. This game rules!

Bub's Big Blowout - by Miles' Games

DUDE THIS GAME LOOKS REAL!? FAN GAMES JUST STRAIGHT UP LOOK LIKE OFFICIAL GAMES NOWADAYS THIS IS NUTS!! Bub's Big Blowout is a 3D Platformer translation of Bubble Bobble and honestly, it rules! I genuinely think Taito should give them the resources they need to make this a real game cause this is SO high quality and it's just the demo! I don't even think the game is done. This seriously looks and feels amazing! Only issue is I couldn't get my controller to work with it, but if it did I think this would feel almost 100% official

Sonic Battle Rush - by FreeGilio

A 2D Sonic Fighter? Using Sonic Battle Sprites? And Shadow has a Mephiles alt? YES YES YES!! A 2D Sonic Fighting Game is basically one of my dream games, but surprisingly I haven't tried any of the dozen fan attempts at the concept... Until today! This demo only features Sonic and Shadow and 3 stages, but it absolutely RULES! Both characters feel fantastic and unique and have fully fleshed out movesets! I was even able to string together some goofy little combos by myself and overall it felt super satisfying to play. Also there's a ton of modes and even ways to loadout your characters such as having 2 at once or taking turns. So the demo has lots to do! I'll absolutely be keeping up with this game going forward!

---

Today I just played some stuff that caught my eye from the SAGE 2023 trailer but I will try to play some more stuff as the year goes along! So if you have anything you think I'd like or if YOU submitted anything to Sage that you want me to look at just cause you want people to see your game? Why not, send that to me too!

There's so many amazing indie games it's genuinely hard to keep up with all of them. But SAGE is seriously becoming my favorite place to just discover new stuff or finally get to try things I'm excited for! Again I'm bummed it just kinda slipped my mind to try anything from last year but already we're not repeating that mistake. I encourage you to go try some stuff too if you have the time! Or at least just take a look at what's available! Everyone put in a LOT of hard work on these games!

[self-ships-ahoy]

Demeter, Apollo, and Thalia with medic?

Greek Mythology Self Ship Asks

Thank you so much...T^T

Demeter: What’s your favorite season, and how do you like to spend that season together?

Oh I never thought about that before? Well, my favorite season is Fall, cuz A: the weather, B: the aesthetic/feel, and C: ....my birthday. XD Personally that’s when I find walks around town to be the most pleasant, the air cool and crisp, the colors of the leaves decorating the sky and the ground. Lots of nice seasonal foods come out that time of year too, and I love buying them to share with him. Oh, and the harvest festival, that’s a must. -u-

I think his favorite season might be either Winter or Fall. Winters really remind him of home, when it snows. He comes of as a guy who can really tolerate the cold too, so you can find him enjoying himself in the snow. Sometimes a fresh snowfall can really bring out the child in him, and he’s invited me to make realistic-looking snowmen with him a few times. I accepted once, and I helped him do a snow-autopsy to solve a snow-homicide. Got some police tape and everything. I....don’t know where we got it from.  Actually, I hate the cold. Fortunately, he takes great pleasure in nurturing me so I stay comfy. He’s given me his lab coat many times (even if I’m already wearing one-- sometimes it’s not enough), and he’ll sometimes envelop me in it while he’s still wearing it (thanks @sketchyships XD). He makes a mean hot chocolate too!. But the best part is the cuddles.

Apollo: What do you like best about your f/o(s)? What does your f/o(s) like best about you?

What do I like best about Medic......I like his spirit. I like that unbridled passion he gets for science (though sometimes misplaced XD), the confidence he has in himself (though often too high XD).... Okay, honestly, I also like the checks and balances of his attributes and flaws, which mostly seem to come from the same traits. That’s very realistic, that a trait may be both a positive and negative, depending on how it’s expressed. I like his infectious laugh that cures sadness - no joke, it has healing properties. I like his subtle hints of kindness he shows to his team, like he actually calls them his friends! 

And...I love, love how considerate and respectful he treats me. I love how he cherishes me. That passion he has for his trade? He has that for me. Do you know how that feels? To be treated like I’m this man’s world? To be listened to, and supported, and fully accepted in all my neurodivergent ways? To see him actually treat my requests and opinions like they matter, and even adjust his behavior to make me feel more comfortable? Coming from him, it’s like...like I’m a queen or something! I feel like his queen!

What he likes best about me? Well, going off that one imagine that I sourced, he likes my support and understanding. That I don’t treat him like he’s “nuts or crazy”. I embrace his eccentricities (within reason X3), and I’m sure he’s flattered by how enamored I seem to be with his whole being. Cuz guess what. He’s captivated by the entire concept of my existence. How could a woman so kind, so cute and quirky, so complimenting to his own personality, so filled with purity and beauty, possibly exist? How could he be so lucky as to find her by chance? And I’ll tell you this. After all the trials we’ve been through, from our jobs to our mental handicaps, and seeing how I haven’t abandoned him, he’s been convinced I’m The One for a very long time.

Also, my hugs and kisses are A+. -u-

Thalia: Discuss any fluff ideas you have for your ship. What kind of affectionate or sweet scenarios do you like best for this ship?

M’kay. He’s an acts of service man. I’m a words of affirmation woman. But I love when we get physically affectionate. Let me tell you this now, do not listen to stereotypes, this German man can be very affectionate and sweet. You’ve seen how openly expressive he can be! You know that’s gotta extend to things like cuddles and kisses. The way we laugh together when we get secretly cute away from the cameras. >w< I really didn’t think a relationship with him would be this cute at first, but it totally can be. 

It’s been pretty much unanimously decided by the x reader blogs that he is a great dancer and that he will frequently pull me into a dance right in the lab. His responses to physical affection varies by blog, though, so I might just say it depends on his mood. Some days he just doesn’t want to be touched, but other days he can’t pull himself away from me. Cuddle days. -u- Sometimes, he’ll just be so caught up in how he’s feeling, I can hear him quietly giggling to himself. I won’t out him for it though, it’s nice to hear. X3 Also, he has caught me staring at him, so yeah we both have our things. 

[carpisuns]

chapters: 5/21

Summary: Adrien’s favorite color used to be orange. Until Marinette.

An Adrinette fic with short, drabble-y chapters all involving the color pink

previous chapter

5. cherry blossoms

He stands in the shade of a blossoming cherry tree, leaning against the trunk.

“More dreamy. Awestruck. Smitten!” his photographer commands. “Like you are in the very act of falling in love.”

Well, that’s strangely specific, Adrien thinks, but he does his best to look dreamy and awestruck and smitten while the camera clicks and clicks and clicks.

His eyes fall on a girl sitting on a bench under a nearby cherry tree. Her head is bent over a sketchpad, dark pigtails spilling over her shoulders. She scuffs her ballet flats against the grass while her pencil sweeps across the page.

She lifts her head. Their eyes meet.

“Yes! Like that—perfetto!” the photographer cries. “Hold, hold, and … done. Let’s take a break, yes? Five minutes.”

Adrien walks toward the bench. Something flutters in his stomach, and he doesn’t know why his mouth is suddenly so dry.

“Hey, Marinette.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Mind if I join you for a bit?”

“S-sure.” She scoots over, and he sits beside her.

“Were you designing?” he asks.

“Um, yeah. I come here a lot. Actually, I’ve been here almost every day since the start of the break. It’s kind of like my … garden of inspiration.” She lets out a nervous laugh.

“I love the Trocadéro too,” he offers. “It’s one of my favorite places to have a photoshoot.”

“Yeah. The view is pretty great.” She sighs, and then her eyes widen. “I mean—not—not you. Like. The Eiffel Tower. There’s a nice view of—of that.” She gestures toward the tower.

“Oh, I knew what you meant,” he says. “And the view is even better now that the cherry blossoms are here, huh?”

“For—for sure. Spring in Paris is always beautiful.”

She smiles at him softly. A breeze runs through her hair, through the branches above their heads, and she squints against it, eyes bright between the fringe of her lashes.

“Yeah,” he says. “Beautiful.”

She looks down at her sketchpad, sweeping a stray hair behind her ear.

He clears his throat. “Can I see what you were working on? I mean—if you want to.”

“Sure.”

She angles the sketchpad toward him. There are several figures scattered across the page, posing in striking suits and stylish rompers and sweeping gowns. Her pencil strokes are bold and clean, like she knew exactly what to draw.

“Wow,” he breathes. “You’re so good, Marinette. These are all amazing!”

“Thanks.”

“I’m serious.” He looks her in the eye. “Like, I’m not just saying that because you’re my friend. I can honestly imagine any of these on the runway.”

“Really?”

“Really. In fact, I’d say they’re better than a lot of the stuff I’ve seen. I mean, don’t tell my father this, but some of them are kind of ugly, if you ask me.”

She laughs. “I won’t tell.”

A cherry blossom drifts down and lands on the paper. Almost without thinking, he picks it up and tucks it behind her ear, fingers tingling as they brush against her hair.

He draws back. Under the canopy of cherry blossoms, the air feels closer, warmer. The color of the blossoms reflects onto her clothes, her skin, the paper in her hands—the pink cradles her, tucking itself tenderly around her edges, wrapping her up in its gentle glow. It’s like a different world here, with her, in the pink shade of the cherry tree, and she’s still and breathless and soft and—

“Adrien!”

His head snaps up. His photographer taps impatiently on an invisible watch.

“I gotta go,” he says reluctantly. “See you later, Marinette.”

“Goodbye, Adrien,” she says, voice hushed.

Back beneath his own cherry tree, with the click-click-click of the camera in his ear, he can’t keep his eyes from wandering over to her bench.

She’s watching him, flower bright against her hair, and even from here, he can see her smile.

Pink suits her, he thinks.

next chapter (to come)

[iamburdened]

Reader’s Masterlist #5

Not my stories. Just my favorites from other writers. All credits and support to the original artists.

IMPORTANT: like and REBLOG all the fanfics you read to support the writers, please.

If you liked the fanfic, tell the writer. They will be in cloud nine with your compliment! Show support!

* = NSFW

Link to all my masterlist (+ Draco Malfoy, Loki, Shawn Mendes, Tom Holland, Peter Parker, Angus McGyver, Newt Scamander)

GEORGE WEASLEY X READER

Love At first Sight     @wondernimbus

Summary: Cheesy love at first sight we all need from time to time.

Be Happy Again     @selfwriting-sugarquills

Summary: This is like a teaser for a series. Sadly it is Fred is dead canon, BUT this part has such a rhythm it's so good to read. I caught myself reading it out loud just to enjoy it fully.

Materlist         @writesowhatnext

Summary: I recommend everything here. Period.

Fred Knows      @acciotwinz

Summary: Fred and Angelina’s wedding is around the corner and Geroge still doesn’t have a date and that doesn’t sit well with the happy couple.

Masterlist       @plant-flwrs

Summary: I recommend everything here.

Mischief       @plant-flwrs

Summary: George falls for the mischievous pureblood Slytherin who couldn’t care less about blood status.

Wonderful Thing     @pastanest

Summary: the amount of fluff in this will kill you. George and reader have an absurdly close friendship and of course they gotta a crush. Just read it.

Good girl *     @lumosandnoxwriting

Summary: George has been the reader’s enemy since their first year at Hogwarts together and now, in their final year the universe keeps throwing them together in ways that make the reader question why she ever hated George in the first place. This is smut, babies, enjoy and be warned. 

Under The Stars    @feetoffthetable

Summary: best Yulle Ball I've read, cheesiest George EVER.

I solemnly swear i am up to no good     @shysneeze

Summary: what if one night the golden trio is look at the marauders map that the twins gave Harry and they see the reader and George sneaking around hogwarts and they ask George about it the next day? 

Finally home *    @malfycs

Summary: george has always tried to prove to you that he wants what’s best for you. will he ever succeed in winning your heart, or will you break his instead? A.K.A long ass fic that ends in smut. Amazing. Read!

In Safe Hands *    @theweasleysredhair

Summary: this is hand porn basically. And you want to read it, just go. 

Dating Someone Shorter  @writingwizardwheezes

Summary: for the shortie club

Here's To Luck     @holyhead-hufflepuff

Summary: smooth George, reader and George's dynamic is amazing. 

The Only Exception    @chudleycanons

Summary: (Y/n) swears that she will never fall in love. George is determined to change that

Little Less To Love    @durmstrange

Summary: I know the title seems angst as fuck but it's about George losing his ear, funnier than the 'I am holey' bulshit lol

Chocolate Milk    @durmstranged

Summary: George finding out he is gonna be a daddy in the best way. 

NSFW Alphabet *  @gredandforge01

Summary: we are lacking some NSFW stuff so here is the good and old nsfw alphabet.

Sweet Like Honey   @gcdric

Summary: It’s finally the day of the Yule Ball and you and George are both nervous as can be. Will he find the nerve to make a move or will you have to take drastic measures?

Masterlist   @weasleydream

Summary: if you look in this master post, the less we have is angst because it's not my cup of tea, but this writer have some very good angst and I read it all without meaning to because it's just so good. Dive in and cry, you are going to suffer, but you will be grateful for it. 

First Christmas   @loony-loopy-lupinn

Summary: shortie one with baby Weasley first Christmas and cute daddy George. 

Sweaters   @fandoms-archive-blog

Summary: Molly having enough of you two pinning for years and giving a little help. 

Kinktober Masterlist *   @wand3ringr0s3

Summary: shameless smut in every piece. There are Fred fanfics here too.

Cherry, Lemon, Peach   @harrysweasleys

Summary: george is obsessed with your chapstick and tries to guess what flavour you’re wearing. 

DRACO MALFOY X READER

Veritaserum   @wondernimbus

Summary: Draco is pranked into drinking veritaserum and for one day he speaks his mind freely. He loose some friends, get on bad terms with the teachers but worst of all: he can't shut the fuck up about how beautiful you are. This fanfic is perfect, seriously, the parallel between him being rude to you but not stopping telling you how he loves your eyes. It's * chef kiss*. 

Two Sworn Enemies    @wondernimbus

Summary: This is part 2 but still, Draco and reader hated each other since year 1, suddenly, the little shit starts to throw cheesy pick up lines at you every opportunity he gets. At first you hated it, but maybe, just maybe, there is more to it than you are willing to figure out. (ps: the way the writer builds the golden trio + reader friendship is AMAZING, also the twins are there so) (pps: go to her master list!)

Masterlist   @adorerdraco

Summary I recommend everything here.

Masterlist    @wondernimbus

Summary: there is Fred, George, Harry and a bunch of other characters here. Go all or it!

[ghoste-catte]

I was curious what advice would you give to someone new to writing fics? I've been wanting to get back into it but haven't seriously written something since high school. I hope this isn't an annoying question or anything!

Not an annoying question at all! I'm just a little worried that I won't have terribly good or useful advice. To be honest, I also sort of stopped writing in earnest right as I finished high school, and didn't pick it back up until my late 20s. It's certainly an adjustment! But I think the few things that really helped me get back into writing fic as a hobby and something I spend quite a bit of time on would be:

Write for yourself first, then find your other motivations. My original inspiration in getting back into fic writing was that there just were not that many fics I liked for my favorite pairing, and I wanted more of them, and I especially wanted more with the tropes and characterizations I wanted to see. I think at the very core of anything you need that internal spark that drives you. At the same time, for me at least, if I just relied on my own drive, I would not get much done; I need some external guardrails. So having people send prompts, or writing for particular events, or writing stuff for friends really helps me to get my ass in gear and finish stuff. That may not be the perfect motivator for you, and that's fine! You just gotta figure out what is.

Be open to inspiration. Anything and everything can be spun out into a story with the right tweaking. Obviously stuff like music is a classic inspiration source, but I've also pulled ideas from poetry, from memes, from Reddit threads, from YouTube videos, from rambling conversations on Discord and from real life to make fics out of. So many times, someone will post a silly Twitter screencap, and I'll think, There's a fic in this. And a lot of the time, there is! Research is a wonderful thing, but so is serendipity. If you're out there actively looking for ideas, eventually one that you like will stumble past you.

Find your community. I can genuinely say I never would have finished more than one fic if I didn't have fandom friends to talk to about even stupid headcanons, to bounce ideas off of, and to encourage me (and to encourage them in turn!). Discord has been a godsend, and some of my closest online friends are people I met in the GaaLee discord server. As I've gotten more comfortable as a writer, I've also joined general writing servers and Reddit communities and have found them immensely helpful on both a motivational level (bingos, sprints, owe-me challenges) and on a craft level (plot workshopping and writing ethics and live grammar help). It's a lot easier to think about fic ideas and hash through problem moments when I have a constant stream of fandom-related chatter coming from the little people who live in my phone! Ao3 is an amazing website, and it's great as, well, an archive, but it isn't social media by design. If you want conversation and human connection and cheerleading, you've gotta forge out and find it.

Make it a habit ... If you want to produce anything longer than a couple hundred words, you really have to set aside time for it. And writing is just like knitting or dirt biking or painting little model figurines: the more you do it, the more easily it comes. When I was first getting back into the proper swing of things, I committed myself to 30 minutes of writing per week. Just 30 minutes. I didn't even hit that goal every week, but there were tons of weeks I got on a roll and went over that amount, and by the end of the year I'd written over 200,000 words. I used to spend an hour laboriously tip-tapping out 200 words, but now I can easily blow through 1k in a 50 minute sprint. It's all about training that muscle.

... But don't make it a chore. With fanfic, you aren't doing this as a job, and you aren't ultimately doing it for anyone other than you. That means you can take breaks when you need them, you can set deadlines and then fail to meet them, you can write stuff and then decide to never post it. When you start getting burnt out, when the practice loses the joy and energy, stop. There's no 'hustle' here. In our capitalist society we're so trained to push past our limits and keep going even when it hurts us, but the hobby you do for connection and relaxation and whatever else shouldn't be like that.

Ignore metrics. Sometimes stuff isn't gonna get hits, or kudos, or comments. There are some basic 'rules' as to the stuff that does and doesn't get traction, but every time you post something it's a roll of the dice. If you're focused on watching that kudos counter tick up, you will get bummed out fast. And any writer will tell you that the stuff you think is your best work will never be the stuff that gets the most accolades. So you have to find something else to give you a sense of success. For me, it's watching my wordcount go up in my stats and those occasional comments where someone has a lot to say and that one person who always leaves me a <3 emoji (and, shout out to @egregiousderp, having someone to have long one-on-one conversations with about the stuff that never made it to page).

Don't strive for perfection. It's really easy to want your first ever fic to be a complete showstopper, the best fic fandom has ever seen, hitting all the tropes and the ideas and the characterization that you just know fandom is missing and would be everyone's top favorite if only it was written. This is a trap. No one fic can be all things. Most people who want to write an epic as their very first venture will not see the end of that epic, because they haven't put in the practice hours to make something on that scale work. That's not to say you can't start out with a big, sprawling multichap, just don't expect it to be the greatest thing since sliced bread if you're just starting out, and be okay with abandoning it for greener pastures if you get to that point. Think of the first time someone makes a vase out of clay or bakes a loaf of bread. That's never their best vase or their best bread. If they keep up with it, they'll make more and better vases and loaves. Likewise, your first fic is probably not gonna be your best fic. See it for what it is: your launchpad.

You can't edit an empty page, but you can over-edit a full one. This kind of spins off of #7, but if the words aren't there, you can't fix them. Daydreams and headcanons are fantastic (and god, how many times have I wished for a speech-to-text engine that projected my falling asleep thoughts onto a Google doc for later perusal), but they aren't fic. If you want to write fic, you've gotta get comfortable with the idea of sloppy outlines and rough first drafts. You can't build a house without a frame and you can't build a man without a skeleton (I mean, you can, I guess, but he'd be one floppy man). The nice thing about fic is that it doesn't matter if that frame is structurally unsound or the skeleton has 18 too many bones, you can clean that up in the editing process. But you can't start hanging curtains and arranging furniture in something that doesn't even have walls. That's the process. But! Also know when to set down the editor's pen and say, "Okay, this is good enough for government work", and call it done. ("Done" doesn't have to mean "posted", but it does mean, "I'm done picking at this for now, and I'm gonna go write some more stuff".) Over-editing can make stuff seem laborious and forced, and it prevents you from actually improving. To continue belaboring the house metaphor, you can spend your whole life rearranging furniture in just one room, but the end result of that is a pretty narrow existence and a room with a lot of footprints and tracks in the carpet.

Write shit down. When you have ideas, jot them down--in a notebook, in a Google Doc, in the Notes app of your phone, in pen on the back of your hand. You think you will remember that brilliant line of dialogue or sparkling snippet of narration or genius plot that came to you in a dream, but you Will Not. Write it down. Write it down. Write it down! There have been so many times when a fic was completely saved by past!me having written down my shower thoughts about what happens next in the fic, that present!me had completely forgotten about and was floundering over.

Have fun with it! Try different stuff. Try stupid stuff. Try experimental stuff. Do stuff you've never done before that you aren't sure will work. It's important to get comfortable with your niche (for example, I know I'm never going to be the sort of person who writes intricate plots of intrigue or super long 100k epics or detailed battles), but you can't find that niche unless you explore lots of different niches! Figure out what you love and what you absolutely hate, and then keep doing the stuff you love.

Okay, so that was actually TEN things, but ... I hope you still found this helpful. Feel free to send another ask if any of this was confusing or unclear. Good luck with your fic writing and, if you want, send me a link to what you've written once you've written it! I'd love to read it.

[wrongydkjquotes]

Wrote another thing

The sequel to BinjPowered is here!

Fic text under the cut

"So, by green lantern shit, you mean, like, summoning holographic constructs?" Buzz asked Cookie as the five fucks sat in the office together, eating some leftover Chinese food that had frankly seen better days. "Gee, between that and the whole mindfuck psychonaut power set, I'm surprised the federal government isn't trying to experiment on your ass right now."

"Well, they aren't. Because this is not a fucking comic book."

Buzz's tone quickly did a 180 in response. "Uh...heard you and Nate are teaming up to do April fools stuff. How's that coming along?"

"Oh, it's going amazing." Nate smirked. "We've got a whole 5 step plan and everything! It's gonna be fucking awesome!!!!"

"Easy, tiger." Cookie rolled his eyes. "If you spoil too much, they're going to blab about it."

"Not true," Schmitty retorted.

"Easy for you to say, pants boy." Guy laughed.

"Shut up." He turned to Cookie. "I told you not to fucking post that-"

"I mean, come on, you gotta admit that shit was hilarious. Surprised you didn't say 'Here, take my pants with you for luck!'"

"How about I take your eye out for luck? Huh?" Schmitty raised a fist.

"Sheesh, ok." Guy raised his hands as he got up from his chair. "Can't a Guy make a tease in peace?"

"Nobody found that joke funny!" An intern chimed in from the other room, to which Guy awkwardly rubbed his shoulder while grabbing a beer from the fridge.

"That's because they aren't receptive to good fucking comedy!" Guy yelled back as he opened the can and guzzled it down.

Nate dusted his hands. "Welp. Love to chat more, really, but its time to do our thing." He smirked as Cookie used his newfound telekinesis to grab another beer can from the fridge. "You've got my flash drive?"

"Locked and loaded." Cookie pulled the flash drive out of his pocket, taking a quick sip of his beer while doing so, before dramatically slamming the beer on the table. "Let's do this."

"Locked and loaded, huh. Just what he likes a man." Schmitty snorted. Nate could only glare back at the Hawaiian shirt-wearing guy as the two left the break room.

***

"Ok..." Cookie sighed as they walked down the hall. "So...let me get the straight. The plan is to hack into the meeting Zoom feed and mindfuck a bunch of interns to do shit, then put it on camera for your stupid Youtube channel."

"Not how I'd put it, but yeah, that's basically it." Nate sighed. "If you don't like it-"

"No, no, I do." Cookie reassured. "But if Helen finds out-"

"You can reset people, dude. It'll be like it never happened."

"But if Helen found out I reset her...she's gonna be even more pissed." Cookie awkwardly looked away. "Quite honestly, Helen's had it rough. She's the only thing stopping me from going full-on anime revenge-seeking supervillain right now."

"That and therapy!"

Silence.

"....You haven't been going to those appointments."

"..."

"The therapy sessions I scheduled for you."

"...I got busy?"

"Oh my god, you're such an idiot." Nate facepalmed. "Whatever. We'll talk later." He motioned over to an unmarked locked door. "Here's the spot."

"Right." Cookie's eyes glowed a brilliant bright pink as a small house key formed in his hand. Despite its more fitting shape for a home rather than an office, it fit into the door perfectly, and soon, they found themselves inside walls and walls of computers and server-machines.

"What now?"

"Hand me the flash drive, and I'll get you access to the smartboard feeds in every meeting room in this place. Then...." His voice turned sly. "...we'll do what we rehearsed."

"Hell yeah, man." Cookie couldn't help but snicker as he handed Nate the flash drive, and he began to turn on the computers. "Thanks for setting this up."

"Hey, you owed me one."

"True..." Cookie couldn't help but squee. "Either way, this shits gonna be good!"

***

"And next up in our agenda, any thoughts about the big Pack 10 sequel? We were thinking a You Don't Know Jack sequel, but quite honestly, the fans have been demanding Trivia Murder Party 3 for awhile now, and we already have Fibbage 4 to tie them-" Mavis spoke to an audience of Kim, Donny, and a couple of interns, only to be interrupt with the slides abruptly changing to a Zoom camera feed of Cookie. His smile was clearly smug as he rested his chin on the backs of his hands.

"Hello, staff members of the YDKJ community. If you're watching this, I have a mandatory message for you all. So, uh, if you could all listen to me real quick? That's an order by the way."

In the various zoom windows, a sudden flash of pink across the eyes of every staff member in the room confirmed that they were.

"Good. Now, uh, you've all got embarrassing moments in your lives, I'm sure. Ones that might have happened in this very office, perhaps?" The crowd nodded, their gazes distant. "Good. You're probably picturing them right now if that 'pink elephant paradox' Nate told me was correct or whatever. Anyway, good news! You're all in those very moments you're thinking about, right now! And you're trapped in them until I say you're free. Why? Because I'm the motherfucking boss! Cookie out!" He logged off the zoom meeting.

And everyone immediately began to panic. Mavis rambled on about forgetting to wear a bra this morning, covering her chest instinctively. Kim began flopping around the floor like a fish, panicking that someone discovered her secret mermaid form. Donny grabbed a random book in a vain effort to remember a more fancy word for cucumber.

And Cookie couldn't help but burst into laughter upon seeing that chaos.

***

"Now what?" Cookie shrugged as he glanced at the chaos on the security feeds.

"We just sit back and watch the chaos, then tell them to stop once things get too out of hand." Nate smirked back, only to notice Cookie's concern. "Don't worry, I'll take the blame if Helen somehow wasn't affected by this. What could go wrong?!?"

***

"Buzz, my dear, sweet, cousin, why didn't you fucking tell me Redacted's most embarrassing moment was setting the entire fucking break room on fire?" A few minutes later, the entire office found themselves outside, the fire truck sirens blaring so loud that they almost made Buzz's call inaudible.

Almost.

"You didn't fucking ask!!!!"

"Well, I figured when I said to check on every staff member doing meetings, you would've checked every staff-"

"He peaked in, Nate. I have no fucking control of when people peak in."

"Oh." Nate's forced smile turned into more of a grimace. "Well...shit."

"Yeah. Helen wants to talk to y'all, by the way. Have fun." Buzz snarked.

"We will." Was Nate's reply as he ended call, before turning to Cookie. "Fuck...we're going to be in trouble for this, aren't we."

"Yeah...." Cookie trailed off. "...I'm not going to do the mindfuck on her, before you-"

"I get that." Nate quickly replied.

"Glad you do." Cookie awkwardly looked away. "...I should really go to therapy, huh."

"Yeah, probably!" Schmitty yelled in the background, his snark cutting through Cookie like a knife.

"SHUT UP!"

[liannelara-dracula]

Headcannons of S&M&T and Kino using Instagram? What do you think they would post and how would they use it?

Omg you are genius! This is an amazing ask.

I can’t believe I didn’t think of this.

Link to prompt---> HERE

Please join my diabolik lovers group chat! Link---> HERE

Read Laito Sakamaki Fanfic [Dark Theme]---> Here

————————

Shu:

He’s not on too much.

His username is just: shu.sakamaki

He follows his brothers and Yuma to annoy him.

His posts are probably just like landscapes.

Usually of a sunset.

And about his music and classical music he likes.

He also probably posts about the triplets doing something stupid on his story.

While they’re not watching.

He’ll tag them in the story saying, “remember this?”

Even adds special effects just to spice it up.

He has so many followers bc all the girls at his school follow him.

He gets so many dms but leaves them on read.😂😂

He tags his bros to annoy them.

Doesn’t post about his gf very much.

Usually when she’s not looking.

Reiji:

Username: scienceiskey or perfectioniskey

He follows his brothers of course and might even follow Ruki.

He sometimes unfollows his brothers tho if there getting annoying😂😂

But will eventually refollow them.

He posts about his experiments and science in general.

But it’s very aesthetic.

On his story he’ll post pictures of things that are broken in the house and he’ll literally tag all his brothers and ask “who is responsible?” Or “you did it and I know.”😂😂

He’ll also post things about nature on his story.

He never posts selfies.

On his bio he literally tagged shu and said please don’t follow this good for nothing.😂😂

He posts with a schedule.😂

He doesn’t post about his gf at all.

This is cause he doesn’t want to share you with the world.

Laito:

Personal account username is: Laito.is.gay sexy😂😂

He has two accounts: one is a porn one and the other is his personal.

He doesn’t keep them private.

Because he believes in being open.

He follows his brothers and has Ayato on his bio.

On his personal he posts pictures of himself.

Fangirls follow him. So he live streams a lot.

And talks about his day and what annoys him and whose getting on his nerves.

He blows kisses into the camera.

Tells them his plans and has a slogan, “being a hoe never hurt anyone.”😂

He follows the fangirls back.

Answers the dms.

All of them.

On his porn account he says he’s a major in sexology.

If there is an occupation option he types in sexologist.😂😂

If Reiji finds his porn account he’ll block it permanently.😂

With his gf he posts pictures of them on his personal account. And will feature them on his porn account if she’s ok with it.

Kanato:

Username is: teddyisnotbasic or dollsarebetterthanu or better yet, on_wednesdays_we_wear_purple. Even, only.bitches.wear.purple

He is an idol on there.

Every girl loves him.

He sets the Lolita trend.

Posts about doll stuff and it’s super aesthetic.

Everything is very cute.

He uses a lot filters to make the posts all have the same glow.

He also posts about sweets and about teddy too.

He does post about his gf when she wears Lolita clothes with him.

Ayato:

Omg 😱 do not get me started😂😂

His username is: Ayato_Sama_Sakamaki

Which idk if you’ll noticed but his username’s initials spell ass.😂😂

Includes special people in his bio, for example

look @ dee dude: @/laito.is.sexy

Bae: @/y/n’s username

This dude is the meme king and the vine king.

He reposts his favorite vines or memes too.

He makes his own with Laito all the effin’ time!

Which are beyond popular.

Sometimes he features Kino or Subaru in the film and shit just gets wilder.

Literally posts the dumbest shit on his story.

He’ll make live videos about the challenges he does too.

He even has friends from school join his vids.

He has so many followers and he tags his brothers to make them laugh.

Shu usually finds it funny, especially if it’s about dissing Reiji.

And Reiji being the petty ass he is, will just block him for little bit.😂😂

But then he’ll follow him again.

Has a lot of followers like no shit.

He follows a lot of them back too.

Includes his gf in the vines.

Subaru:

Username: im_not_a_damn_car 😂😂😂

He doesn’t follow anyone except for his brothers and his gf.

His account is private so every time Kou sends in a follow request he rejects it.😂😂😂

Doesn’t post anything really.

When he does it’s only for a little bit and then he archives it.

Bc he thinks it’s weird.

Or that the photo turns ugly.

He follows a lot of emo accounts tho.

And emo bands

His bio is emo too.

“how can emptiness be so heavy?”

Will take selfies but ones that don’t show his face very much.

Only uses black emoji hearts.

Doesn’t post about his gf cause that’s private but he has her on his bio.

“Claimed, touch her and you die”

Kino:

Username: ask_yo_girl_about_me

Another vine king

Him an Ayato follow each other.

They r bros—fight me on this but I’m right.

They are always in each other’s videos.

Tags Ayato in a lot of posts

Has lots of followers

Does so many live streams and answers random questions.

Posts late at night, a lot.

He has a lot of reels too.

Uses a lot slang.

Cocky af😏

Has rants sometimes.

He has his gf in his bio and sometimes posts about her.

Mukami

Ruki:

Username: Ruki_grey

He’s not online too much.

Follows his brothers and surprisingly Reiji.

Posts about literature like his favorite book/quotes

But it’s always aesthetic.

He has some pictures of himself but not too many.

He usually has more pictures of his girlfriend tbh.

He is very poetic and on his story he posts about quotes he likes or pictures of his gf.

He has a lot followers and has probably been scouted for modeling.

Yuma:

Username: hotgirlbummer or summerbummer

He posts about the music he likes and gardening.

It’s really about plants and how to grow them.

Has a lot tutorials.

And facts.

Never mind the profanity and his clumsiness in his tutorials.

“Oh shit!” He’d say dropping a shovel.

“Ruki man didn’t set this up right.” He’d complain referring to the space he was using to do the tutorial.

Pots pictures of flowers that have bloomed and veggies that are ready.

He has another account that’s personal where he follows his brothers and posts about rap music.

Or just music he likes.

There are not too many photos.

He posts pictures of his gf on his personal.

He also takes videos of her to annoy her and see her get camera shy.

“Turn it off!” You’d say cover the camera with your hand.

But he of course just doesn’t.

Kou:

Username: koumukami

It’s an official account.

Cause he’s an idol

He has millions of people following him.

He only follows his brothers.

Tries to follow Subaru but it never works😂😂

Calls out people who judge him.

“Hey! I don’t appreciate comments like this on my page.”

He’s slogan is, “I just can’t worry about no haters, I gotta stay on my grind.”

Tags Yuma and teases him about stuff if possible.

He posts about his music.

Has live videos where he talks about anything or where he sings.

Loves to take pictures of himself and he does a lot.

like everyday.

Includes his gf in videos and photos and talks about her non stop.

making fans jelly.

Is very sassy and will post rants if needed.

Responds to his fans’ dms.

Azusa:

Username: softclouds

Has a soft profile.

Things about nature and cute things.

Posts about his gf more than himself.

Or about them together.

Doesn’t have a lot of posts

He gets tagged by his brothers which he follows.

On his story he posts pictures of you or where he’s traveled to.

The filters are soft ones.

He probably has a bio that’s short but simple.

“Hi.....I’m Azusa Mukami.”

Tsukinami

Carla:

Username: imcarlatsukinami or scarftsuki.

He posts about land scapes and literature.

Just really aesthetic.

He has pictures of him and his gf.

Has you in his bio.

Is rarely on.

Follows Shin.

Has a private account.

Doesn’t reply to comments unless it’s from his gf.

Shin:

Username: badassesonly or y/n’s.daddy

He posts so much about his girlfriend and him.

Always about where they go.

He has pics of him and his brother too.

He follows Carla, Kino and Ayato.

He doesn’t make vines but sometimes Kino will ask him to join his.

He posts about food and working out.

On his story he posts about you secretly.

Mostly about your body.

You get mad at him for it.

Tells people to follow you.

Doesn’t live stream.

He’s on a lot.

Loves to use filters on his brother and on his gf.

He posts about animals to.

His account is not private and he has a lot of followers.

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 146

Whew, on a roll with queuing these up!  Kind of proud of myself.

Speaking of proud... So many familiar names in the notes this week!  Y’all are giving me a huge smile during a super busy week/month. Work has been bananas, weekends have been insane, and knowing that all of you are reading and enjoying the story gives me the encouragement I need to keep writing and to make the effort to keep the quality as consistent as possible.

All of you literally encourage me to take care of myself :)  Thank you so much. 

And, always, thank you to @baelpenrose, @charlylimph-blog, and @the-raven-fae, for everything you do, from beta-reading, to giving me stuff to read, to just keeping me reasonably sane. 

I huffed as I put down the box of blankets in our new quarters. With our expected drop from hyperspace getting closer, we had finally been assigned quarters closer to the Archives.  Xiomara and Tyche had both told me I was being ‘too nice’ by having Maverick put in the transfer request rather than doing it myself, but I still didn’t think it was fair to use my unwilling position on the Council as leverage to get bumped to the front of the line. After all, we had a few months to go, and with everything else going on, it wasn’t like I was in a hurry.

“Conor, be careful!” Maverick scolded as a box of dishes landed on the regrettably-smaller counter. “You’ll break them!”

“Mav, I love you to pieces,” Conor grunted and stretched his back. “But I want to point out again that we can just recycle broken ones and request new ones.” Completely contradictory to his own words, he wrapped the other man in a crushing hug and whispered something in his ear.

When Maverick gave him a skeptical look, Conor opened the box and pulled out a chipped plate. “The ones on the bottom are the ones with no chips, cracks, or stains. Promise.”

Hang on. “You let Conor pack the dishes, but you only let me pack the blankets?!”  I was honestly hurt.

Maverick kicked the floor gently, his way of showing embarrassment. “I was worried I would break them, and you know how attached I am to the chipped plates, and I knew he wouldn’t get rid of them….”

“Baby,” I whispered. “Babe. It’s okay. I like the chipped ones, too. I would never get rid of those…” I held out a hand to see if he was receptive to a hug. When he tugged my hand, I squished his waist the best I could.

“You’re so particular with the clothes, though…”

“Because I despise pills against my skin.” I shuddered at the thought. “They feel… dirty.”

I could feel him shudder in agreement. “They do, don’t they?”

Conor gave us both a squish and shook his head, chin rubbing against us both. “Just leave my shirts alone, yeah?”

Maverick’s agreement with my philosophy nearly vibrated my soul. He never notices when we replace the pit-stained ones, it’s all okay. We both casually replaced the never-ceasing rotation of Conor’s white shirts when they were dirty past the point of laundering, but made a point to leave the permanently grungy coveralls until they either gained enough sentience to run away or fell apart in despair.

“Your shirts and Brenda, promise,” I tried to swear as solemnly as possible. ‘Brenda’ was the tilandsia xerographica that he had gifted me that first Insert Winter Holiday. She was currently twelve inches, and was the third love of Conor’s life.

He nodded before releasing us. “Mav, the silverware is still by the door so you can make sure everything is in the right place. Sophia, I’ll put up the clothes if you’ll sort where you want the blankets.” Without another word, he palmed the thermostat control and adjusted it to the agreed-upon settings we had maintained for years in our shared quarters. “Head’s up, once I get the clothes sorted, I gotta go help Sam and Derek move.”

My neck cramped from the speed I whipped around to look at him. “Derek and Sam are moving?”

Maverick nodded, his chin against my scalp. “They mutually requested relocation to stay in similar proximity to our quarters… specifically to Mac.”

I rolled my eyes. “It is absolutely to be close to Mac. Not my blanket, not soup on tap, not Conor’s plants - “

“They’re your plants, love.”

“Tell the plants that,” I joked. “You keep them alive.”

He muttered something that sounded distinctly like ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ as he gently set a box under Brenda’s stand and started unpacking spritz bottles, fertilizers, and the world’s tiniest pruning shears.

I can honestly say I did not laugh.  With the exception of the shears, all six spray bottles, the soaking tub, and the three different fertilizers had actually lived with me longer than he had. “The point is that I’m sure they aren’t just moving to be closer to Mac… he roams the entire Ark, so it’s a pretty lame excuse.”

Maverick and Conor both shrugged before the former spoke. “Sam likes how you cook his produce. And it’s a long walk from our previous quarters.”

“I am not going to apologize that his strawberries go better in ketchup, or that his tomatoes make amazing ice cream,” I waved off. “I know it’s a side effect of using the known composition of Von’s soil and light, but… the strawberries are orange. Like a bell pepper.”

“But the tomato soup from his tomatoes is amazing,” Conor granted. “None of us even like tomato soup.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he cut me off. “The one recipe you like, Sophie, proves my point, it’s not an argument. It’s the only recipe you don’t….” He gestured vaguely. “You know.”

“Zhuzh,” I provided. “I don’t zhuzh it.”

Somewhat out of nowhere, Maverick sat down in the new but familiar armchair and asked, “Is it expected to have a housewarming when you live in the same… building… ship… thingie… but moved quarters?”

“I - “ Gaping, I turned to them both. “I’m not sure. I mean… we celebrated when you two moved into my quarters, but that was more a… wedding-slash-engagement thing. Have we been invited to any for just moving?”

Conor shrugged. “All the moves were done in the first few years to settle down. Nothing like this.”

I tapped my chin before pulling up my datapad. “I’m seeing that a total of fifty people - fifty, really? - have been relocated, just to be closer to the Archives.” I took a couple of deep breaths. “I know it’s the furthest Protection Zone from the rest of the ship, but there are only fifteen people sheltering there, not counting Tyche and Alistair.”

Maverick gaped at me before waving both hands widely. “You moved, so a total of five people relocated down here, which we were just discussing, and you don’t understand how fifteen people turned into fifty?” He scowled. “Sophie, I know you can do math.”

I glared at him. “Given the nature of relationships on the Ark, I thought it would be higher, smartass.” I leaned over to kiss his chin. “But that also makes me think… block party? Take the pressure off of us?”

Conor looked thoughtfully at both of us. “I think we should put up curtains, or - you know, soft barriers, something visible but easy to navigate - for the apartments where folks can duck and cover from being wound up too much?”

He had a good point. “Just to be clear,” I ventured, “you just mean the apartments that people already know they can duck into?”

Conor’s enthusiastic nod dropped mine and Mav’s shoulders by a solid two inches. “Yeah, color code them or put proximity alerts on them, something. I don’t think anyone overstimmed wants to wander into a room full of strangers, right? Derek would know he can walk in here, straight to our bed, pile up under the blankets, and he’s fine, but… what if he walks into another person’s bedroom? Fuck all, I’ll kill someone.”

He had a point. I hated that he had a point, but he was right.

“We’re purple, right?”

Conor and Maverick collectively rolled their eyes hard enough to make my head cramp. “Duh,” was the only response Maverick gave, while Conor just shook his head.

It was only a week later that they had the door to our old quarters repainted and retextured,  and had the doors to our new quarters painted screaming purple with green and black stripes.  Just to be clear, apparently.

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[dana-chan-the-control-brain]

Top five fanfics?

Oh fuck (gets shot)

Well, I shot myself in the foot with that one.

Keep in mind, these are in no particular order, and I'm a bit of a pleb when it comes to reading fanfic. I just tend to like what's popular or stuff written by my friends.

I need to give Height Treason by @wholesomeklei a huge shout-out.

I'm not sure if this fic will ever be continued or not. Last I heard of Klei, they had a cancer scare (it wasn't) updated a chapter about Sizz-lorr and then vanished from the internet entirely. I hope they're taking a much needed break from online stuff and nothing bad happened to them.

But anyways, I can not thank Height Treason enough for existing. It gells with the humor of canon so seemlessly it feels like I'm watching an "Invader Zim after dark" show. Yes, even despite the not safe for work canon.

I love the lore they weave and I'm always a fan of "zim finds out the truth of his mission and schmoops and gets revenge on the Irken empire" stories. Also Pining Zim has my whole heart.

And it even paints side characters with much love.

Membrane tries his best and sucks at parenting and it inspired me greatly for how I write and came to understand Membrane as a character.

Miss Bitters is a delight. Sargent Slabrankle gets a cameo. Tak's ship has an existential crisis. Gosshloog gets an entire chapter about a spicy love afair with his boss. Zim's Computer is his usual sassy self and has ackward conversations with a frustrated teenage Dib.

Like the love for the side characters is amazing.

Height Treason was the fanfic that inspired me to write an entire fanfiction based on Computer Brain lore.

The lore is amazing, it's in character and this fic inspired me SO MUCH and is the reason that Tech Support (and the Brainbrane fic by extension) even exists.

I've probably reread this fic over twenty times.

However, I can't link the fic here, since it's VERY nsfw. As in, explicit sex scenes later. (The chapter where zim learns sex education is great)

So I can't link it, but it's easily searchable on A03.

If you're of age, and don't mind nsfw I highly recommend it.

Honesty Hour by @patchworkpoltergeist is one of those new fandom classics.

Like I don't even know how describe this fic.

Honesty Hour chills me to the core and has me looking at my ceiling for hours on end questioning my own existence.

Like it's Zim gets therapy, but in a psychological horror way.

Patch is a master wordsmith and just has a way of describing things. Everything is in the details.

I just love how Zim thinks and that half the time I don't know what's going on as much as Zim does. Which is honestly more scary then I think.

There's lots of details that I miss and usually after talking about the chapter with Patch or the Moo-ping10 gang, I realize "oh fuck that's what happened?! The hell"

Anyways. I fear and look forward to every update.

But I honestly have to run a mental health check before I even attempt to read the chapters.

Emotions, Cryptids and the possible end of the world series by @bamsara

I feel Bamsara does onto theirself and I don't need to sing her fics praises but I will.

I am a bit behind on my reading, cause I haven't read the latest chapter of Galaxy Days yet.

But I love the casual yet feral friendship Dib and Zim have built throughout this series.

There's just a constant yearning throughout the whole thing, and the two boys are at the center of it all. Like the feeling of a real long road trip with no destination in mind. That's often what these series of fics feel like. There's an underlying tenderness and longing but also something dark and sinister. A lot of moments stay in my head for days after the fact. Not just the cryptids of the fic, but the smaller moments. Zim and Dib having breakfast in France as the sun rises, Dib crying his eyes out in a dingy motel room near the beach, Zim breaking into Dib's hospital room in the dark, Dib attacking Zim in a fit of insomnia hallucinations....

The list goes on.

There's plenty of good moments, and I've even drawn Zim giving Dib space (cause that's the fucking gayest romantic thing and I still lie in bed thinking about it)

Also Dib constantly running into Death's arms and Zim often doing fisticuffs with her and both getting stupid trauma over stupid decisions is very good.

I feel a lot of Sara's soul in these fics and it shows. Especially with how Dib is written and I can tell this is an extremely personal project with passion behind it and I can't help but admire that.

Every star another sun series by @dionysuscrysis

I really love this series. The end.

Okay, unfair.

But Dion's series really needs more views and appreciation.

I like how it just skips over the "zim and dib become friends somehow....realizes mission is fake..yadda yadda" part of the story and just jumps right into the thick of it.

Space Adventures! Wooooo!!!!

A giant sandworm, a Battle Zoo!!! An alien spa, badass good guy Skoodge, and mad max style sci-fi racing.

And I'm glad that Dib is already in his early twenties here. And Dib is just so smart with machines and not a complete lost duck in space. He's sharp as a tack and dumb as an ox this boy and I love him very much.

Lol I'm old. I'm sick of seeing teenage drama sometimes.

And I can also feel a lot of Dion's soul in their fics.

Lots of hurt comfort in here....

It's actually kinda like the Bamsara effect in reverse...

Instead of Dib throwing himself head first into danger...

Zim is the one doing it.

And Dib thinks an appropriate way to fix this is throw himself at the same danger.

Idiots.

Help them.

Parade of Indignities by @rissynicole

Finished recently and since then my heart has never known peace.

It's one of those fandom classics that I ended up reading due to Bamsara's fic recommendation list like roughly two years ago.

Rissy has a way with words and their strengths lend themselves to action scenes extremely well.

Zim finds himself critically ill and it's up to Dib to travel back to irken space to save him.

Thats the basic premise but there is so much more.

A conspiracy, involving the other Invaders, Zim's massive wall of denial, and how everything Zadf happens from Dib's perspective.

I remember reading all the available chapters (like 15 of them) all in one night until 5am the first time I read it.

It's a master suspense and thriller story and I enjoyed it very much.

I still have to leave a huge comment.

Also honorable recommendations:

@melodyofthevoid 's Royalty AU.

....just. it good. Save these kids.

And ofc me and @paketdimensioncomic 's collab fics:

"Jerking around the House" and "Membrane's guide to be a better parent, lose your fucking arms"

You're a delight to work with and I love how your writing style compliments my insane ramblings so they're less wordy.

Also gotta give a shout-out to my Baby Tech Support.

Is it vain to plug your own fics? Maybe.

Do I care.

Nah.

I love my stuff. And I'm glad others do too.

[burningcowboyhoagietaco]

A Way to Learn a Lesson

written by:

@burningcowboyhoagietaco

illustrated and edited by the amazing, the one and only:

@lenle-g

Before I publish the story id like to thank @lenle-g from the bottom of my heart for being patient with me, being nice to me the whole time, and for making my story even better and more exciting. Without her I would have stayed in my normal, not that good English story. so thank you for everything!!! <3<3

And here's my part at @tagminibang submission:)

☆☆☆☆☆

Scott, no!!! No way! I am not going to give any lectures to anyone." John's voice comes out tight. "Especially not in front of a crowd. No way."

"Why not?" Scott raises a brow, his voice honeyed with ‘big brother wants something’. "It's not like you're gonna get executed by some children just for talking space at them, right? You love talking about space. It's all I've heard since you were, like, seven."

"No, that's not it." There's a sharp shake of the ginger’s head, "Scott, come on!" John knows for a fact that his oldest brother knows he's the most socially awkward person to have ever lived on Tracy Island (and maybe the entire planet). "You’ve lived with me long enough to know how much I hate social.... anything." John complains. "Why would you ever think I'd want to do this?""

"Well, yes, I know that," Scott shrugs, "I've seen that look you get on your face when there's a lot of people around." He’s well aware that his brother is an introvert who hates socializing with anyone, so he quickly changes the subject to try and make his younger brother feel a little more at ease. "But hey... everyone knows how much you like it when anyone talks about space or anything about astronomy. You'd be amazing at it."

"That's a different thing." John says flatly. Flattery, it seems, wont get Scott very far. "It's like, whenever you guys ask me anything about space, I like to answer them for you, but from random people…? And in huge crowds? I just simply can't." Surely he doesn’t have to explain himself much more than that?

"Oh trust me, everything is going to be fine." Scott was a flippant hand around, talking without really thinking, because all he wants is for his brother to get out of Thunderbird 5, to visit Earth for a little bit, to mingle with people a little. It can't be that bad. "If anything happens, Gordon and Alan'll be in Thunderbird Five doing Space Monitor duty, me and Virgil are gonna keep an eye on everything, and you’re in safe hands with Lady Penelope and Parker. It's all set up, so please go have some fun for once and teach the children something cool."

"My answer is still no." John says persistently, without hesitation. He's pretty sure it'd be worse than being in the middle of a hurricane, or testing one of his Grandma's new cooking experiments. It’s lucky Scott misses his involuntary shudder.

Scott, though, is so done with him at this point, that he's pretty sure there's no choice but to use plan b and hope that that works instead on his unwilling, stubborn, red haired brother. They've got to get him down from orbit and to that lecture somehow. Scott's just not going to stand for anything else.

"Are you sure that's your last answer?" Scott asks, with a heavy sigh, already planning the best way to call in the big guns.

"Yes," John scowls, arms folded. "Yes, it is."

They'll see about that.

...

"Is everything ready?" John adjusts his sleeves, smoothing down his vest and putting the last touches on his collar. Neat, simple, formal. Can't go wrong. "My presentation papers, laptop, and my mini simple dimple?”

"Yes, all in the bag." Scott calls back, rapidly checking everything, "But do you really need that little fidget thing of yours?" He picks his younger brother's old toy up between forefinger and thumb to examine it, remembering the day John made their Mom buy it for when he gets stressed.

"What fidge- oh, yes I need it." The look on John's face leaves no doubt about that. "I've used it ever since Mom bought it for me."

"Hey… Mom would've been proud of you, you know?” Scott tells him, in a quick flash of brotherly pride. “For, you know, going out of your safe zone for a little while and teaching the children and all that."

"Yeah, I know…" John finds him a nervous smile, "But I'm not doing this voluntarily, you've forced me with that plan b of yours."

The second John says that Scott's cheeks dimple, the corners of his eyes crinkle, and he grins victoriously, his teeth a bright white in the earliest rays of morning sun.

“All I had to do was make a call." He shrugs, "Lady Penelope did all the talking and somehow convinced you to go." Scott got a little more excited. He took a couple of steps forward, slightly standing on his toes reaching John's level asking"How did she convince you?" Clearly waiting teasingly for an answer to come out of John's lips

"Huhhhh." John exhales loudly, a little despairing. "She promised me we'd go to the Pagasa Astronomical Observatory after I finish the lecture with the children." He shrugs, keeping his eyes down, embarrassed.

"The what now?" Scott stares at him, thoroughly confused.

"The Pagasa Astronomical Observatory in the Philippines.” John says, like that was obvious, “It's equipped with a 45-cm computer-based telescope. It's so powerful that astronomers and astronomy enthusiasts can now conduct effective observations of stellar bodies and other distant space objects! Scott, it’s been my dream to go since I was, like, 17."

Scott always knew how much of an astrophile his younger brother is; he never cared about his physical appearance, nor his poor eating habits and he always used to make excuses to read his books alone, yet no one has ever interfered in his personal life.

"Okay okay space lover boy,” Scott grins at him. He'd expected Penny to be persuasive, but resigning herself to hours stuck with John in full excited-about-space mode would hardly be in his top ten. Either he's gonna owe her one, or Penny's more resilient than him. “You can go, no one is holding you back."

The short silence between them was broken by a ringing sound from a nearby table, which John answers.

“...Mhm, yes? Oh, the lecture." It must be Penelope calling, "Yeah, I'm ready, I'll head out now." John grabs his bag, wandering toward where the FAB1 must already be idling on the Tracy runway. "Time to go."

"Mhm,” Scott makes an agreeable noise, watching him go. “Please stay safe and please don't make an idiot of yourself." He's teasing… mostly.

"Yeah yeah," John waves at him over his shoulder, not even looking back. "I won't."

…

"Are we there yet?" Despite the consistently amazing views out of FAB1’s windows during the flight, John’s found himself mostly looking down, fidgeting with his fingers. He’s worrying, just a little, about what awaits him in the Philippines - a whole different tropical island to his own, though still in the South of the Pacific Ocean.

"Just give Parker ten more minutes, darling,” Her Ladyship smiles at him, “We'll arrive in no time."

There’s a moment of silence before, unexpectedly, it’s broken by a call flashing up from, of all places, Thunderbird Five. There’s a prickly sense of discomfort as John realises that, of course, it’s not him calling. Gordon must be trying to reach them.

"Heeeeey Lady Penelope,” The kid greets, as Penny flicks it on, seemingly a lot less bothered by the change than he is. “Oh, and Mr. Tracy.” There’s a huge smirk on his face. “How's our newest teacher holding up?"

"Firstly, my name is John.” John points out, flatly, “Second, I'm not your teacher so please don’t call me Mr. Tracy ever again. Thirdly…” He concedes, quirking an eyebrow, “Yeah, I'm good for now, but fourth… How are you holding up, up there in my Thunderbird? She’s not much like Four, is she?"

"Ooooooooo that's a good question,” Gordon looks half like he’s considering it, half like he’s really missing his own ‘bird. “I'm holding up pretty well thanks to Alan. He’s taken all the Monitor duty stuff, so all I gotta do is keep an eye on you guys." He sounds a bit… sarcastic about that. “It’s pretty boring, honestly. How do you survive up here without a pool?”

"Young Master Gordon, are you quite done talking?" Parker glances, unimpressed, at the little floating hologram of John’s brother in his rearview mirror, "Because we're about to arrive at our destination."

"Huh… oh yeah,” Gordon doesn’t seem too bothered about that, but he waves merrily at them all the same, “Okay bye and John, please have fun, you too Lady Penelope, okay bye guys."

It’s only a few moments later that Parker opens his mouth to tell them that they’ve arrived at Chino Roque Theater, pulling up out front to let them both climb out.

John's eyes widen: it’s nothing like what he saw on the internet. It was more enormous, more luminous, more spectacular than anything he’d seen or read online. All he remembers reading is that it's a sphere shaped building located in the Philippines, in Anilao Hill, but the pictures on the webpage didn’t do it justice like being there in person does.

The building was smooth and round; the auditorium shaped like a massive egg nestled in amongst the other buildings. They were early enough that the sun was just cresting the horizon, colouring the sky with reds and oranges, visible through the geometric front of the building - where giant triangles of glass intersect together to give the people inside an amazing view of the sky at night.

"M'lady, you and John can go ahead. I'll park FAB 1." Parker said, before going to the parking lot - unaware just how tiring and long his journey to find a place to park is going to be.

They both head inside the building, admiring the sweeping glass fractals of the roof high above them. It’s incredibly beautiful, really a feat of engineering. So much so, that John almost forgets why he’s even there, until he spots a couple of buses arriving on the other side of the building, and the panic sets in. He was expecting to be a little bit anxious, but this feels like his heart is going to beat right out of his chest. He presses a hand hard against it, trying to calm his racing pulse and stop the sudden shake of his fingers, and Penny must notice, because a little hand settles, ever so lightly, on his shoulder, drawing his attention to her.

"Hey John," Lady Penelope looks him steadily in the eye, projecting warmth and reassurance. "They're just a small, mixed group of children and teens. They can’t possibly hurt you, now can they? They just came to have a small lecture because all of them like space and astronomy just like you. Imagine yourself at their age, meeting a real life astronaut.” John tries very hard not to remind her who, exactly, his Father was, as she goes on - trying to visualise being a kid that didn’t get ‘take your son to work days’ at NASA’. It’s a pretty horrifying concept. “Most importantly,” Penny adds, “it's only for an hour or so, so you don't need to worry so much." She had to smile just to reassure him. “You’ll have filled their heads with space facts and be out before you know it.”

"O-okay,” John takes a deep, steadying breath, “I don't know if I'm supposed to trust you on this, or whatever, but I really don't have any other choice." He also wants to add that they forced him to go, but at the last second he remembers that they never forced him - he agreed to go because Lady Penelope promised him a trip to the observatory.

It seems like a pretty weak reason, now that he’s outside the stage door, knees shaking.

"Mhm, I think it's time to go inside.” She nudges him callously in the right direction, and John’s palms meeting the solid metal of the double doors is the only thing that keeps him from following gravity’s call and landing on his face. “Again, if anything happens, I'll be at the back of the room and I have a plan b if things get too much." John, pretty shocked by just how many plan b's the Lady Penelope might have prepared for the day, can only shake his head, bemused. “So stop worrying and get out there!”

She vanishes off into the atrium, and John can’t help the loud exhale that escapes his mouth before he musters up all the courage he can, and enters the room.

Bright lights startle him for a moment, and he’s pretty sure he does an awful, awkward impression of a blind baby giraffe as he stumbles out onto the stage and freezes as he notices the first smatterings of audience are already taking their seats.

The moment he placed his foot on the smooth wooden floor, his heart had started to beat faster, his hands began to sweat, the more steps he took forward the more he felt anxious. It was, he’ll think later, one of the toughest moments of his life, and he’s been to space. Multiple times.

Come on John. He tries to straighten up, shake off his anxiety, This can’t go worse than your first EVA.

Taking another deep breath, John waits patiently for all the attendees to take a seat inside the room. Waiting doesn’t help his anxiety levels at all, and he can feel them increasing by the second, but, determined, John doesn’t let it stop him from starting his lecture.

"H-Hello everybody,” He starts, incredibly conscious of the hushed silence that falls across his audience. “I'm John Tracy, M.Sci, PgDip, B.Lang Hons,” he rattles off his credentials, his nerves almost blurring them together, “I worked with NASA as an astronaut for three years before going… uh… solo in my astronomical studies, and I'll be your guest lecturer for the day.” He swallows around the lump in his throat, as a ripple of hushed oohhhs and ahhhs goes through the crowd. John’s pretty sure his face has gone bright red. “Thank you for having me at the Chino Roque Theater,” He goes on, before his embarrassment can bet the better of him, “I hope everyone’s had an amazing day so far. We'll be spending the next hour or so talking about astronomy and space physics, so shall we get started?" John thought it was a good opening, and yet his back was really wet from all the people's eyes on him. Glancing offstage, Penelope throws him a thumbs up, and he feels a little better.

"Um,” He blinks. “So does anyone here know how old the universe is?" John ventures, only to be surprised as almost everyone answers at once;

"Almost 13.8 billion years!"

"Yes,” The edge of a smile works its way onto John’s face. Clearly this was going to be a shout out the answer kind of lecture. He can work with that. “That's correct, now does anyone know how the universe started?"

"The Big Bang!" Most of them answer, and John feels a surge of relief. These guys really are into space.

"Okay, okay, not bad at all." He nods affirmatively at them, and the screen behind him lights up with an artist’s rendition of the Big Bang happening. "Now if I were to go and search ‘how old is the universe’ in, say, Google, the answer would be 13,772 billion years. It’d be the same thing if we looked at NASA, or even Wikipedia - so how did people get to know the age of the universe? How do you even start calculating something that old? Well I'm going to explain it for you in two ways: the good, nice way, and the kinda not that good and not that scientific way." There’s a bit of an awkward pause as John wonders whether or not he’s explained that well. When only silence greets him, he very quickly realises he needs to press on.

"So, uh, the good way.” He folds his fingers together behind his back, trying to resist the urge to fidget. “Well, in the middle of the previous century, as telescopes developed, we noticed something strange. We found that stars in very distant galaxies tend to look red… Umm, which is something that’s not supposed to happen.” A chuckle escapes John and, to his relief, the audience laughs with him. Scott never gets his space jokes. “So why’s that?” He asks, “See, if a chemical element gains or loses energy it’ll emit light in certain frequencies, thereby creating certain colors.” A small movement of his hand signals the slide to change, and a picture of the visible section of the electromagnetic spectrum appears, colouring the room with rainbow light. “For example,” John goes on, bathed in blue and violet, “Consider something like… a desk lamp, as like an element. If you give a lamp electrical energy, it’ll release that energy in the form of heat and light, yeah?" There’s a murmur of uncertain understanding in the room. “Electricity goes in, the bulb gets hot, and it gives off light. Well, we know stars do pretty much the same thing - only powered by nuclear fusion rather than a nine volt plug.”

"From studies of the sun and stars that are near Earth, we know that they’re made of helium and hydrogen, yes?” There’s another murmur of agreement in John’s crowd, “Well, hydrogen and helium can create red light, but they don't have the ability to create these shades of red that we see in deep space." The slide behind John clicks to a comparison of the two shades, on two different stars - making the difference clear.

"So, if stars are made of helium and hydrogen then why do distant stars have different colours? Are their compositions different?uh, well It’s possible, but not likely. The strongest explanation is that the color difference is due to the movement of the stars." The room gives a soft gasp at this news, and John knows he’s onto something good.

"So there's something called the redshift and blueshift phenomenon that says that if an object radiates light and approaches you, the color of the light begins to turn blue, and if the object is moving away from you, the color will turn red. This happens because the wavelength of light contracts and expands with movement meaning that something stretching equals red and contraction equals blue."

"And the strange thing is,” John adds, his audience listening raptly, “That most, if not all, stars show the same behavior, so, if we think about it, if all stars are moving away from us, that means that they were close to us at some point, and if we follow their path, we find that everything in space meets at a point named ‘singularity’."

"It was believed, in the past, that everything in the universe, or at least in the visible part that we have observed, that is to say,” John flicks to a graphic on his next slide. “All the galaxies, planets and stars, were all gathered at one point - the singularity. The theory is that this point exploded in what we call the ‘Big Bang’, and from that time onward, the universe has been in constant expansion.”

"So it’s with data from this knowledge that we can calculate the age of the universe:” With a wave of his hand, John puts a series of bullet points up on the screen behind him, then reads them aloud.

“One, the universe began as a very small, single point.” He reaffirms, “Two, the universe is constantly expanding outward from that point, and three, from these we have the ability to calculate the expansion rate of the universe, by calculating the speed of the stars that are moving away from us. If we take the furthest accelerations and enter them into this equation,” John’s board merrily does it’s thing behind him, “Then, we get the age of the universe."

"And, so we don't forget, all this talking was about the good way. There is another way to calculate the age of the universe, the, uh, not as good way, or, more specifically, the less scientific way.” A ripple of laughter goes through John’s audience - and he relaxes a little more. Maybe Scott was right. Maybe these are his kind of people. Scott’s never laughed at a space joke for sure. “There's no problem with it,” He quietens them again with a gentle gesture, “and it does support our theory and calculations, so I guess we should talk about it."

"Since ancient times, humans have been looking at the sky, watching the stars, and giving them names like Cygnus, Canis Major, Orion.” All names any young astronomer in the Southern Hemisphere would recognise, and be able to enthusiastically point out in the night sky. “In those days, there wasn't the internet so they were looking up at the stars instead.” Much like John himself, when he’d been a boy.

“As a way of calculating the age of the universe, astronomers set out to search for the oldest celestial bodies in space.” He goes on to explain, “The idea was that if we find a star whose age equals X, then the age of the universe must be greater than the number X. So we pointed our telescopes up there and started trying to find out their ages from birth, to youth, to their old age until their end."

"Can anyone guess the age of the oldest star we've found?" A lot of answers were guessed, some of them were pretty close, but some, amusingly, were way too far. "Ok, ok…” John puts his hands up to pacify his excited crowd, “Umm I see there are a lot of answers, but the oldest star people discovered was actually estimated to be 13.5 billion years old. The HD-140283, or as you might know it, the Methuselah Star. That number is very close, you’ll notice, to our estimation of the age of the universe."

"But if we found a star that is 13.5 billion years old today, then we could find an even older star next week and that would ruin all of that,” He chuckles, mostly to himself, “We also should note that this method alone isn't suitable for determining the universe’s age, but as long as we have two methods with corroborative results, we can be reassured that the estimate is correct.” He pauses for a second, “So, does anyone have questions?" A couple of hands raised, and John found himself suddenly answering a lot of questions - but he managed all of them despite his fear of the huge crowd.

He’s starting to feel more than a little overwhelmed.

"Umm… W-well that was a lot of questions,” John tries to pull it back in, his allotted lecture time ticking away on the big clock at the back of the hall. He feels a little panicky from the bombardment, and his palms have gone sweaty. “We’d better move on.” To distract himself from the people, as much as anything, “Our next topic is the theory of relativity, so l-let's get started on that."

Lady Penelope, from her fold-out seat at the back of the room, frowns. It’s clear John’s terrified and she wants to use plan b, but as long as he’s still standing on his feet, and giving the lecture, he's probably fine for now. If anything, it’d cause more of a disruption to drag him away now.

"Umm,” John takes a breath, trying to centre himself in the science of it all. “Let's start with a supposition, a hypothesis if you like, and consider it together. Okay, you’ll have to bear with me on this one, but let us suppose that we were all asleep, and the universe suddenly inflated by a thousand times.” There’s a murmur in the crowd at how odd everything abruptly getting that much bigger sounds, “Your bed, your pillow, your desk,” John extrapolates, “even the meter we measure stuff with. If humans became a thousand times bigger, when we woke up would we feel something strange? Would we even notice anything had changed? You’d think so, but no.” John’s settling back into his rhythm now, “So why is that? Because the bed and everything became a thousand times more inflated and our bodies also inflated a thousand times, with everything scaling in parallel relation to each other so that this percentage, this scale, was preserved throughout the room. You’d never know the difference."

"Henri Poincaré, the well known mathematician and theoretical physicist, says that we will never be able to discover that something like this has happened, even if we use all the mathematics and calculations ever invented.” John drives the point home with another illustrated slide, “This hypothesis is called the Poincaré hypothesis, and simply, because the meter with which we measure things will have also expanded a thousand times, there’s never going to be any equation or calculation or any analysis possible that could lead us to the truth, because the ratio is preserved in all parts."

"Now, this is important, because the same thing also happens with time. If everything suddenly got a thousand times faster, we’d still never feel anything different. Why’s that?” He asks, rhetorically, “Because time is also a thousand times faster, your heartbeat is also a thousand times faster, your body would function a thousand times faster to keep up with it all. As long as everything is increased by the same amount, the ratio is preserved, and none of us will be able to detect any change."

"So Poincaré asked the scientific community; is there no way to know that time increased or that things inflated?" John tells the room, "Well, it was Albert Einstein who answered him, deciding that the one and only way to tell, would be to have someone observing what happened to the world from another galaxy, from another world, lightyears away. For someone to point a telescope in our direction, and look through it at us, and say what happened to the Earth? Why are humans walking a thousand times faster than in the past? But this person who realized the situation,” The astronaut waves a flippant hand, starting to feel much more confident again, “would have to be a person standing on a fixed external platform in a different world, so that what happened to us was not also happening to him."

"But, as Einstein commented, this hypothesis is impossible for a simple reason and it's that there is no fixed platform in the universe - the entirety of it is in constant, turbulent motion. For example, the Earth rotates at a speed of 460 meters per second, revolving around the sun at 30 kilometers per second, and at the same time, the sun and it’s planets and dwarf planets and moons and asteroids, all revolve around our galaxy, The Milky Way, at a speed of 300 kilometres per second, and so the whole universe revolves. That's,” John takes a deep breath, finding himself out of air after so much explaining, “why it's impossible for us humans to completely accurately judge the motion of any astral body."

"Because there is no fixed berth, we can only offer relativity. This is the first part of the theory that Einstein came up with, in summary; it cannot be said that the monotony of a body is absolute motion."

"Another thing he said was that, because of the vastness of the universe, it’s impossible to synchronize, what does that mean? Well, I will give you an example.” He flicks his slide, “Say I’m a person in the Philippines, and I'm talking to someone from the United States. We synchronize, and hear each other in real time, because we have a method of fast communication. I can hold my device and say; hello, how are you?” John holds up the slim, sliver slice of his phone to show the audience, “How’s the weather there? And they’d answer me with something like; I’m fine thank you, it's night here so it’s a bit hard to tell what the weather’s doing! What’s the weather like there? And I’d answer them; it's daytime, and maybe ask them something like, what are you eating? They’d answer me; a burger, and then I’d tell them that I'm eating kaldereta, and it’s much better than a burger."

In the audience Penny quietly hopes that Gordon, who's probably listening in with the rest of his brother’s, missed the fact John was making jokes on stage. The poor little bugger’ll never live it down otherwise.

"These two events, each person talking to the other, are compatible.”  John goes on, absolutely oblivious, “It’s possible because the two wireless devices, be they mobile phones or more sophisticated comms systems, are on the same globe, creating a fast means of communication.”

"But,” John postulates, “If I was talking to someone from another galaxy and I used the same means of communication to make a call, do you know how long it would take to get to them? It would be about five to six thousand years until my signal reaches the phone of our friend, and they’ll have married, had children and died, and their children would have married and had children and died, and so on, for thousands of years before then."

"And that's why it's impossible to synchronize between the ends of the universe,” John balances his palms like he’s weighing two invisible ends, “It rather puts a damper on our chances of finding and communicating with extraterrestrial life, for sure, but at least it’s possible to synchronize within one system, like the system of the Earth. "

"This is a thing that also applies to light, for example: any star you could look up and see now, the light emanating from it may be coming from thousands of years ago. This means that it’s possible that the star you see shining could have exploded and disappeared, and hasn't existed for a long time. Why? Because it takes a couple of thousand years for the light from that explosion to reach us."

"There isn’t any proof for the hypothesis that the universe is linked by time, but the thing that happens that we’re sure of is that the universe is made up of, sort of, separate islands of different times that have no connection between them. The connection between movement and time in space is something we all know about, for example, a day on Earth equals twenty-four hours, yes?” There’s a chorus of agreement from the audience, “But on Saturn, a day is ten hours because it rotates faster. Astonishingly, a day on Mercury is the same as fifty-eight whole Earth days, which, infact, is also a Mercurian year, because the planet revolves around the sun for the exact same period as it revolves around itself."

"Okay, so, to what extent is movement related to time?” John asks, well and truly into this whole teaching thing now, “Well, Einstein was the first person to discover the connection between them and suggested that; suppose you’re on board a very fast rocket, 100,000 miles per hour for example. The mechanical watch on your wrist would be delayed over the flight, but you wouldn’t feel like time is being delayed. Why’s that? It’s because the rhythm of your heart would slow down - all of the vital processes in your body that are inside the rocket will slow down."

"As you move more, something called the dilation of time will happen.” He steps to the side, as if to illustrate the point, only to find himself stumbling a little, like if the ground beneath his feet had moved. “T-Time slows down,” John tries to recover it smoothly, but everything’s starting to feel, weirdly, like it’s shaking, and he doesn’t think it’s the anxiety anymore, “and that's-"

John doesn’t get to finish his sentence because there’s an abrupt shift and a loud cracking from under him, and getting off the stage suddenly seems like a good idea. Someone screams outside, and the volume in the room skyrockets as the children start panicking. John’s one hundred percent sure this wasn't anything planned.

He knew he shouldn't have come.

Earthquake? He wonders first, then; Tsunami? Ground slip? Hurricane? Whichever it is, John has to prioritise calming the people and evacuating them out of the building. The giant glass panels above them are trembling with the force of the shaking, and, as a professional at this sort of thing, Thunderbird Five’s Space Monitor doesn’t like the look of it one bit.

"Everyone calm down,” He has to shout to make himself heard over the roar of people, even with the microphones pointed his way, “This is a normal thing. All we have to do is evacuate immediately, as calmly. as. possible. I don't want anyone crowding the exits, do you all understand what I just said?" The front rows, white faced with fear, nod encouragingly at him, and he watches as they begin to lead the way toward the glowing green signs that signal the emergency exits. Immediately after making sure the crowd is moving, John pulls up his comm to contact Gordon.

"Gordon, are you on the line?” John’s a little breathless and he climbs down from the precarious stage, into the throng of terrified bodies, “We have a situation in here."

"Let me guess, you caused it?" Gordon seems so excited to hear something other than his brother's boring lecture that humour has outweighed his professionalism.

"Gordon,” John grits his teeth, “I'm being serious right now, there was a huge movement in the ground beneath the Chino Roque Theater, and it's still ongoing. Tell Alan to do a check on what's happening beneath us using the Ground Penetrating Radar." He orders.

"F.A.B." Comes the far more serious response, before Gordon clicks off the line to do just that. Squashing down any fear he’d about the now swelling, shuffling crowd, John opens his arms wide and walks toward them, the motion sort of like he’s trying to herd sheep, as he tries to evacuate the people safely out of the building.

He’s not exactly an expert at being on the scene during rescues.

"John, there's a landslide going on right now,” Alan’s worried little voice comes ringing out of his comm speakers, “Right next to the theatre. You’d better get out of there. I’m monitoring the situation, but it’s looking like you’re going to need International Rescue to get you and the people out of there. The debris field is spreading fast." John would do almost anything to be up there instead, at his own screens. “I've contacted Virgil and Scott, I’m patching them through now.” Alan clicks Scott and Virgil, both clearly just finishing their suit up sequences, into the conversation. It seems important to keep them up to date with John's developing situation.

"Hey Mr. Tracy, how are you holding up?" Scott jokes over the roar of his launching Thunderbird, the sound filling the background of the call with white-noise, "Oh, and how was your lecture?" John thinks he sounds far too casual in contrast to the impending danger all around him.

"Oh my God, Scott, is now really the time?” John groans, and a kid with mousey blond hair not dissimilar to Alan’s looks up at him, very confused, before the astronaut waves him on, “You are an adult person,” He reminds his big brother, “Please don't be like Gordon right now. He’s practically still a child."

"Hey!” Gordon had clearly overheard the conversation between his brothers, and springs up to defend himself. “I'm only two or three years younger than you!" He complains, not about to do the math.

"Gordon, we don't have time for arguing about that now,” John frowns, “and Scott, I'm holding up alright at the moment. Please don't ask me anything about the lecture until I get back home." If his voice cracks a little on that last bit, he’ll never admit it.

"Okay, okay I won't ask anything about that,” Scott reassures him, his amused, big brother grin very much in place, “Keep on evacuating the people safely until we arrive John, you’re doing great. It won’t take us that long. ETA at 15,000 mph is sixteen minutes.” He reassures, “We’ll be there before you know it."

"F.A.B. Scott." He reluctantly signs off. Now that he’s finished talking with Scott, John’s pleased to see that a lot of people have already made their way out of the atrium’s three sets of double doors, evacuating the building to get as far away from the landslide as possible. His fingers itch to pull up the schematics from Thunderbird Five on his comm, no matter what the people around him might think. He quickly caves, and it feels worth it to be able to see the incoming tide of slipping land.

They don’t have much time.

“Let’s go!” He shouts, chivvying. He’s a little breathless with the tension, so he keeps things short. “Come on! Let’s move guys!”

From his vantage near the crumbling stage, John can make out Lady Penelope and Parker by the main doors, ushering people through, and the sight of them fills him instantly with immense relief.

“Okay, that's a good amount of people out.” John has to jog to catch up with them, skirting around a little old lady with a zimmer frame and taking a second to correct her course, “Lady Penelope, Parker, I think you should go and check on the people who’re out. They could have minor injuries from the stampede, and International Rescue are still ten minutes out. I'll make sure the last few stragglers exit safely."

Penelope just nods, pale and worried. Her blond brows are all pinched in together, nervous and Parker looks practically haggard as he claps a reassuring hand on John’s shoulder, her faithful old companion following her pink shape dutifully out the doors. Hopefully they’ll go make sure that no one was badly injured in any way.

Turning back to the slow cascade of cracking rubble behind him, John finds the stage area has been all but obliterated, and his heart aches for the patrons of the Chino Roque Theater who’ll have to rebuild from scratch when this is over. He imagines the Tracy fund can contribute a significant amount toward that though. They often do for worthy causes.

John pushes the damp curl of his slightly sweaty bangs out of his eyes and climbs over what looks like a twisted piece of ceiling girder toward the sound of people, possibly trapped stragglers, who are calling for help.

"I miss Thunderbird 5 so much,” John mutters, keeping it under his breath so that no one hears him, as his palms are scraped raw against the concrete he’s trying to clamber around. There’s a rippp of fabric on a jagged piece of metal and the knee of his previous pristine brown jeans meets much the same fate as his poor, scuffed hands. “Oh, come on!” He’s having no luck today, “I'd so rather be assisting the situation from space. I can’t believe I’m stuck here." John grumbles, to no one in particular. He’s just not built for this kind of thing. Heavy labour and getting sweaty pulling people out of scrap heaps is what his other brothers do. At least rescues in space don’t have all this… gravity to contend with.

"John?” The crackle of a comm cut’s across his complaints, “What’re you still doing in there?” Gordon’s voice breaks him from his thoughts, little brother’s tone heavy with concern. “The building could fall any moment! You're so lucky the landslide isn't moving very fast, but it’s not gonna stay that way forever." Gordon was really worried about the fact that his older brother was still inside. “It could engulf the building! You need to hurry it up, bro.”

"I'm evacuating the people as fast as I can,” John gets both hands under the armpits of a boy who couldn’t be older than seven, and swings him above a pile of rubble toward safety, “I'll be out in no ti- Ah!"

John’s voice gets cut off with a startled cry, and it takes Gordon a second or two, time John might not have, to remember how to breathe so that he can yell in any way coherently into his comm. His eyes are wide, his anxiety levels through the roof as he tries, and fails, to rouse his brother on the other end.

"SCOTT! You need to get there now.” Gordon’s aware that he’s totally losing his cool, panic creeping in over his weak layer of professionalism, “I just lost contact with John.” He gasps, “He was evacuating people and I heard him yell and now he’s not responding! And- and it's not just him. There were other people he was trying to get out."

"Hey Gordon,” Scott tries to keep his voice steady to inject some kind of stability into the conversation, “Don't lose your cool yet. I'm sure nothing that bad happened to John. Just stay your positive self, okay? I’m arriving right now and Virgil isn’t far behind me."

Thunderbird One is panning over the city, low enough to ruffle the hair of people looking up, but it’s not a problem until the usually so sure and steady pilot finds his hands nearly slipping off her controls as Scott catches his first, horrific glimpse of the building that he knows his younger brother is inside.

“What the…?”

The Chino Roque Theater is almost flat.

"Virgil,” Scott swallows hard to try and remove any of the tremor from his voice, “A-Are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?" He almost succeeds.

"Scott this isn't a joke, it looks like half of the building has come down with the landslide! John’s in there!" Virgil sounds more terrified than Scott thinks he’s ever heard him. What scares him the most is that the exit was on the side that has fallen in, which means that a lot of people are trapped under it, their John included. "Scott, we need to help them right now.

"Okay, here's the plan,” Scott’s hands tighten white-knuckled on the steering yoke, “You wear your exo-suit and go clear the debris out of the way so that we can save them, and I'll get rid of that roof with Thunderbird One and check for life signs. Remember that saving lives is our top priority, got it? No matter what’s happened to John."

"F.A.B." Virgil sounds incredibly tense. He lands Thunderbird Two as fast as he can in the crowded, limited space. Local people are beginning to make their way out of their houses to see what all the commotion is about, and the cramped city streets aren’t ideal for International Rescue’s four hundred and six ton workhorse.

Two’s pilot struggles into his exo-suit, rushing to get the Jaws of Life prepared despite Scott’s insistence that he focus and take things slow and sensible. It’s not long until he finds himself digging among the debris looking for buried people and, in the white rush of it all, Virgil’s not even sure how he got there.

"Scott,” he presses on his comm, “Please tell me you’ve got something?"

"Fortunately and thankfully yes,” It’s hard to find the hopefulness in big brother’s clipped Mobile Control voice, but it’s there to Virgil’s expert ear, drizzled in nervous relief. “I've got a whole cluster of life signs,” Scott reports, “BPM signalling in the green. "I think they’re just trapped under the debris." Alan’s echolocation report came back suggesting that there’s a big space under what could be folded sheet metal from the ceiling, that they’ve huddled in. I'm really sure there's nothing that bad, but still we have to continue otherwise it will take a bad turn for us and the people in there."

“I can use the grappling cables in Thunderbird One to take the strain off the roof,” Scott adds, “But I need you in there to get those people out.”

“Already on my way,” Virgil ducks under some rebar, skirting around the rubble and pulling away loose debris as he goes. His heart is loud in his own ears, and Virgil hopes the creak and groan of metal and concrete above him is Scott lifting the weight off the roof, keeping it from collapsing any further onto the people below, and not anything more sinister. Virgil gets peppered by a slide of small stones, but the roof holds steady.

He presses on until he catches sight of the cluster of around forty people, all huddled together around a tall, central figure with a shocking amount of rubble dust smeared over his face, and powdered through his ginger hair.

“John!” Two’s pilot makes a beeline for his brother, despite the fact three of the people are stuck under rubble. Clearly John’s in control of the situation here, and he’s never wanted a mission update from their Space Monitor so much in his life. He can’t help but hone in on the fact John's left arm is crudely wrapped in a piece of cloth from his sleeve, which he must’ve ripped off in order to tie it.

"You have to tell me exactly what happened,” Virgil drops the controls for the Jaws of Life, and grasps his brother’s biceps in both hands instead, resisting the very strong temptation to pull the spaceman in for a hug. “And what happened to your arm?!?" There’s a river of blood seeping from beneath the make-shift bandage, but John, it seems, isn’t bothered by it in the slightest.

"Not now Virgil.” His concerns get thoroughly dismissed, “We’ve got to get these people out of here, and then I'll tell you everything." Virgil didn't like the idea that something happened to his brother and he's silent about it, but after all John was right about saving the people first since his arm is under control for now.

John crouches by the nearest injured person; a pale, skinny teen with a sizable piece of rebar keeping him pinned.

“You’re gonna be out of there in just a second, Lito.” Virgil watches him reassuring the young man for a long moment, “Uh, Virgil?” John prompts. “Any time?”

“What?” He blinks, “Oh, yeah!” His brother is clearly waiting expectantly for him to use the Jaws of Life to get the poor kid out. "I’m on it, but you better tell me everything after we're done saving them." Virgil demands. “But, uh, Scott’s kind of holding the roof up right now, so you’re probably right.”

"Okay,” John literally rolls his eyes, busy stealing a pair of blue rubber gloves from the Med Kit Virgil brought with him, and snapping them on to protect his hands and the fine cuts he’d gotten from climbing over rubble. “I promise I'll tell you everything, but can we start actually rescuing them now?" Rolling his eyes right back, the bigger man uses his exosuit to heft the rubble off Lito, before John swoops in to apply pressure to his injuries.

“Give me the fold out stretcher from your sash.” He orders, hands bloodied “Then go get the next person out. Efifania, Sergio?” John beckons a pair of nearby dad’s in closer, clearly having singled them out as capable stretcher bearers. “Think you can manage Lito here for me?”

As Virgil starts removing the rubble from above the other two trapped people, a middle aged man and a younger woman, it becomes immediately obvious that both of them have more severe wounds than young Lito. They both need medical treatment immediately.

“I’ll carry one of them.” Without the three extra sets of hands he’d need, Virgil has to leave a couple of crowd members applying pressure to their wounds, as he moves back to where John is helping Lito unsteadily to his feet. “Think you can walk, young man? We’re gonna need that stretcher for the big guy.”

“I won’t let you fall.” John promises, and Virgil feels a real swell of pride at how well his brother is handling the situation whilst being outside of both his space station and his comfort zone. It looks like having a rescue and a job to do really gives him no time for anxiety. "I agree that that's our best plan.” He adds, nodding, short and sharp, to confirm it, then John turns, an arm around Lito’s waist and the kid’s arm slung over his shoulder, to address the crowd.

“Anyone not so severely hurt needs to help get the injured out of here.” John instructs, the small crowd listening raptly. The look on the faces of these scared people is one Virgil is all too familiar with, but he knows John has far less experience of in person. They’re really looking to him as their saviour. “Virgil here is going to lead us through the path he just made.” Which is news to Virgil, but does seem like the best plan. “International Rescue will then be able to take us all to the hospital to get checked out, and then I’m sure you’ll be released to go home to your families before you know it. Got it everyone?"

In that moment Virgil finds himself struck with amazement at how John seems to have become almost as fearless as Scott, as they started carrying the two injured people out to safety. It was really a new side to him that Virgil doesn’t think he’s ever seen before.

"Virgil… I need you to check on Lady Penelope and Parker.” John’s keeping pace at his side, helping the boy they’d dug out along as he goes, “I told them to check to see if anyone was hurt."

"Hmm, yeah you're right.” Virgil frowns. If Penny and Parker have any more injured party members, even minor ones that just need a check up, Thunderbird Two will need to evacuate them to the hospital as well. “Have you got any idea where they might be?"

"Well, I told them to get somewhere away from the landslide,” John frowns, as their limping, shocky party stumbles out into the bright light of day, to be greeted by the roar of Thunderbird One’s engines high above them. “They should be near here.” He yells over the sound of it.

As usual, it turns out that John is completely right. Penny and Parker are waiting for them, but neither John nor Virgil find the look on Lady Penelope's face all that reassuring.

"JOHN!” She rushes toward the battered, bloodied spaceman, her arms outstretched. Virgil very quickly and carefully finagles poor Lito out of the way as his brother gets ambushed. “Are you okay?!?” Penelope demands, frantic, “What happened to your arm?” She reaches for the bloodied bandage, and John winces, “I'm so sorry,” All of John’s carefully constructed rules around personal space are shattered as she cups his cheek, inspecting his face for injury. It’s lucky that John is by far the most patient of the Tracy boys. “I shouldn't have left you there.

"She’d been so terrified, perhaps more than anyone else here. The horrific view she’d seen with her own eyes is going to haunt her for a long time yet. One second she was getting out of the building to reassure and check up on the people, and the next she was watching half the structure collapse completely, with John under the side that fell. She still feels a little sick.

"I'm so, so, so sorry John,” She repeats, before he can get a word in edgeways to reassure her, “Please, you must tell me if there's any way I can make it up to you. Ask me anything and I'll do it."

"Okay guys,” Virgil chuckles, “while you talk things out I'll go to get the injured people aboard Thunderbird 2. Make it quick though, we’ve still got people who need immediate medical treatment, got it?"

"F.A.B. Virgil.” John nods, “We'll be quick. Penny, I..."

“I’m so sorry.” She repeats again, and pulls his good arm over her shoulder as if to steady him as they make their way at the back of the crowd toward the big green Thunderbird.

"No no no, Penny, please stop apologising.” John’s fingers tighten for a quick moment on her shoulder, in brief reassurance, “I'm not going to ask you for anything because it was never your fault.” He insists, “It was just some bad luck, that's all. Fortunately I, and most people, got out safe with no severe wounds. These things happen.”

“Your arm.” She points out softly, hoping that all that blood looks worse than it is, “John I can’t believe you stayed behind like that, it’s so...”

“Tracy?” He grins, amused but very weary.

“Scott Tracy.” She corrects, scowling a little as she holds on just that little bit tighter around his waist as his adrenaline from the rescue starts to flag. “I thought you had more common sense.”

“Hate to disappoint.” She feels the warmth of him chuckling, “I’m lucky it was nothing worse than his cut from some shattered glass that fell on my arm while I was helping one of the guys who got stuck. I don’t think any arteries or anything have been damaged, but it is... kinda deep." And he might be getting a little lightheaded from the blood loss. Still, he really wants to reassure her, just like she had reassured him before he’d gone in to give the lecture.

"Hate to interrupt your moment, but are you guys done?" Scott pops up from who-knows-where amongst the crowd to yell at them. He’s clearly joined the relief effort. "Virgil’s just finished getting everyone aboard Thunderbird 2, and he's ready to launch." He adds, squinting at the pale, wobbly mess of his brother. "And you really do need to check your arm. That looks nasty.”

"Yeah Scott,” John wipes a tired hand over his dirty face, dislodging dust, “We're done. Don’t let Thunderbird Two wait for me, I'll hitch a ride with Lady Penelope, uh,” He turns to her, bashful, to check, “If that’s okay?"

“Of course,” Her Ladyship concedes, “Scott?” She is mildly concerned that big brother might want to have the injured member of his flock under his wing so he can smother him.

"Yeah sure, ride whatever you want.” Scott flip flops a dismissive hand at them, “You can ride a pod, I won't care as long as your destination is the hospital."

"How about you, Gordon?” John knows his little brother is still on the line, probably sulking. “Is it okay if I take the ride with Lady P?"

"W-what do you mean by that?” Gordon sounds confused and maybe a little embarrassed, like he’s been caught out. “Scott already said you should go, why’re you asking me?"

"Well, she's your girlfriend.” John grins, teasing, as Penny helps him into the back of FAB1. “Of course I have to get permission from her boyfriend.

"Penny swats at him for that, amused, but careful not to hit his injured arm. She doesn’t need anyone’s permission to do anything, but it is fun to see Gordon squirm - especially as Scott and Virgil both crack up, and even Alan in space starts teasing him.

"What?!?” Gordon’s face, bless that darling young man, has gone bright red. “J-Just go already." He ducks off the comm screen to try and hide his embarrassment, but it’s far too late for that.

He’s lucky that Penelope finds it incredibly endearing.

"John,” She nudges him, as the Tracy’s all click off the line to go do their actual jobs. She’s a little concerned that he’s looking a bit spaced out, if you’ll excuse the pun, and it’s probably a good idea to keep him talking. “You know we're still going to The Pagasa Observatory, just like I promised you, right?"

"Wait really?” John’s head tilts, a little floppy, towards her from where it had been sinking into FAB1’s luxurious headrests. He’s looking a little grey, but it’s good to see his eyes open. “After all that happened?” A ginger eyebrow quirks, “Are you sure there's time for that?"

"Well, we’re on our way to the hospital now, but there’ll be plenty of time this afternoon.” As long as the medics give him a clean bill of health. “You can change your clothes after we're done checking your arm then there should be time for you to go see that big telescope you've been dreaming of visiting. After all, I did promise you we’d go there after we're done."

"Well, that sounds good to me!” John smiles like there’s a supanova fuling him, “Penny you’re the best."

They reach the hospital a little after International Rescue has dropped off the fourty or so injured people, and so there’s quite a wait for a Doctor to be free so that they can have a look at John’s poor, sliced arm. Penny seems to be doing a worried hover at his side, while he waits, shaky from blood loss, and though he’s not used to having so much company, John has to admit it’s nice to have a chance to catch up with his old friend with no rescue alarms blaring.

Alan reports in that the two worst injured in the landslide have been hospitalized as fast as possible, that they were stable - the doctors have said their prognosis looked good. He also tells him that Lito’s family had been asking after the redheaded lecturer who’d helped him out of the rubble, and that John Tracy, M.Sci, PgDip, B.Lang Hons, should probably expect a gift basket in the mail quite soon.

John gets quite flustered about that. He’d just been doing his job.

The spaceman's arm was eventually treated, and Scott calls in to ask what actually happened to his arm. It still hurts, a properly bandaged throb just under his elbow, but not like before. The painkilling injection and little bit of morphine they’d given him when they stitched it up had probably helped with that.

Alan’s reports dug up that the landslide had been caused by a water main leaking under the building, and destabilizing the soil. Over time, water can do a lot of damage, washing away vital infrastructure if it’s not been properly reinforced during construction.

As the Chino Roque Theater was a new build, there must have been a mistake in the installation of the pipes during construction.

Someone was getting a big lawsuit heading their way, and Tracy Enterprises will be more than happy to fund the lawyers for the theatre.

As Lady Penelope promised him, they found John a change of clothes and went to the Pagasa Observatory. Penny’s quite sure she’s never seen anything as wholesome as the moment John sees the telescope - his eyes went all shiny, and the smile on his face was massive.

"Lady Penelope, Parker come take a look at the stars!!!” He calls, over his shoulder, with the enthusiasm of a boy half his age, “They’re really beautiful from here!" With such a high-powered lens pointed up at the cosmos, it rivals even his view from Thunderbird Five.

"Indeed, they are." Lady Penelope and Parker both step up to take turns, but John was the one to look through the telescope the most. With all the stealth her years as a secret agent offered her, Lady Penelope took a picture of him.

"Parker, come take a look." She whispers, beckoning her old companion gleefully over. "He looks so happy and innocent in this picture. Wouldn’t it be lovely to see his face like this always?"

"We still have some time before they close,” Parker points out, a sly grin creeping onto his nosey old face. “How h’bout we leave him like this for a little longer?"

"That, Parker.” she smiles, “Is an excellent idea.”

The End