#to look into smaller and more local stuff. not just in a 'call your local representative about the most recent hot-button issue'

[septembermonologues]

i am so fucking terrified, i don't know how to get through this waiting

I guess I'm asking if there's any hope left to be had

the wait is so brutal but yes, i firmly believe that there is always hope!! some things i'm trying to keep in mind are:

- the red haze-- early results seem widely red because in-person votes lean republican. those votes are also counted first and faster because they're smaller counties compared to denser ones that lean democrat. make sure you're looking at the % of ballots counted because projected results aren't true results. the race won't start to actually solidify until tomorrow morning.

- keep an eye on your state and local reps! the nitty gritty stuff can be more positive than the national (i live in a pretty rural area but i just happily voted for rep underwood--a younger progressive black woman--a second time).

- just because results come short of what we hoped doesn't mean they represent popular opinion. in florida, marijuana and abortion rights have fallen short even with a 50%+ majority because they require a 60% majority to pass. i know it's incredibly disheartening to not see popular opinions supported by law but i also believe that you have to remember that people, especially people in historically red states, don't necessary tow the stereotypical line. there is room for movement and change.

- there are ballots that currently aren't being counted because they have errors that are CURABLE and CAN be counted if corrected. i already reblogged something about it but if you voted (esp if by mail) please answer unnamed calls because it could be about your ballot. if you go here at vote.com you can also track your ballot.

- there are always, always things for us to do between elections. encourage your friends and family to look forward at the 2026 midterms (they can have huge effects on congress) and start planning, see if there are any campaigns that could use your help moving forward, look into working polling stations in the future (i did it in 2018 and it was a long but fulfilling day), get the fuck outside and moving around. find out where you can volunteer around you- homeless shelters, food banks/kitchens, community events. read some history and some theory-- we aren't actually in completely unprecedented times and it's important to remember where we've progressed from.

- honestly? stop giving batshit crazy people the attention they want. no rage engagement. its what they want. focus on raising awareness without directly interacting with them.

- it fucking sucks ass that its this close and that extremists win. i will never ever say that it doesn't. but it will not be the end. it will be hard but thats when we have to lean on each other. we can't be afraid to ask each other for help and we have to find things to be excited and hopeful for. there is some truth to "other people have it worse so i have to keep going". who are we to give up on the whole?

maybe im just tipsy but i just find so much hope and inspiration in the work so many people put into civil service. people want better than what we have and are fighting for us. i can't let myself get too negative because it doesn't do any good to wallow. just in general i love humanity too much to let the bad win.

[mollypaup]

i do not talk about politics online for a variety of reasons, top amongst them being that i think the most effective way to make an impact on someone's views is to have a one-on-one conversation with them. And i am personally most well versed in local politics because living in a conservative area means that i am fighting an uphill battle both ways trying to convince someone that actually the more liberal candidate is the one who is advocating for policies that will positively effect you, i promise, and i have to have specific instances i can cite as proof for these conversations to be really meaningful. but because of this specific way i engage with politics, sometimes i see posts on this webbed site that makes me go "why are you even talking. what are you aiming for. what do you Want."

[drunkenlionwrites]

alright curveball what typical archetype would boothill be in a high school setting and what would he be like with his partner >:) (hc format please)

Boothill HS AU headcanons:

OMG OMG nonnie, that’s such a cool ask. I honestly would’ve not thought about this concept myself, cause school was so so long ago for me, but I’ve got the vision of HS Boothill right away when I read it💖 CW: none, g/n reader

So Boothill as the archetype would be ‘the classmate who looks like a local thug but is actually the kindest soul.’

Imagine your classmate who is not really studious and can disrupt the lesson by loudly laughing and talking in class and does this 5/5 days per week. He’s loud and brush and sometimes vulgar.

Once, he kicked and cussed out the vending machine out in hallway so loudly when you passed by that it made you physically jump. Even though he’s noticed that and tried to apologize to you, calling out your name through the hall, since that time you’ve decided that you don’t like him.

You are slightly annoyed by this and never approach him, but he’s got a big presence in school, so you see and hear things about him from time to time, though you don’t know which rumors are true and which are not. Some of them sound crazy: once he beat 4 to 5 upperclassmen alone. Some say it was 10 of them. Some say he’s got something on the principal; hence he doesn’t get in trouble with anyone. Some say it’s cause he’s the principal’s kid. Or lover. Those all sound crazy and unrealistic, but who knows?

Once you see him really beating up someone behind the school building with your own eyes. You stand there and watch for a bit, thinking about reporting this to someone, but then you notice Boothill coming up to a smaller kid, sitting on the ground not far away, comforting him and picking up his bag, helping the kid to pack the contents inside. You just hear never-ending ‘thank you’s in between small sobs and Boothill’s warm laughter afterwards.

Another day, you hear him quarrelling loudly with a teacher, which sounded again completely disrespectful from his side. Later, from murmurs around school you learn that he stood up for the shyer kid when he thought that they were unjustly reprimanded.

Once you saw him in the street after school on the day when he was missing, presumably staying in sick or something. He shouted out your name from the tree, causing you to flinch again. Turns out, he spent hours trying to get one stubborn kitty to come to him, skipping classes cause of it.

It was a bit awkward when you started dating, cause being in his orbit meant that you too became more known in school and began noticing stares and hearing whispers about you.

Boothill is a total sweetheart with you, even though he can be slightly obnoxious and is not good at reading the mood from time to time. It doesn’t matter since his positive outlook and mostly always good mood is oh so infectious.

He’s also very physical, not minding the pda at school. Walking with you holding your hand, hugging from behind etc.

He doesn’t mind spending the whole day at school attempting to study, especially if you’re a diligent student. Though he is a student who’s always ready to and will bail classes and will try to talk you into skipping school with him cause it’s just too much fun stuff happening outside that seems much more important to him.

I see the dynamic as a he’s a good influence in terms for teaching his s/o to be more assertive and confident in themselves and in return being the one who needs to be stopped and calmed out a bit when he acts on a whim.

[seafoamreadings]

week of january 7th, 2024

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: it is a great week to be you. but it may not feel like it. the reason is that the sun is squaring the nodes and that's a lot of clashing cardinal energy, like maybe you have ten million things to do at once. but really - mars is doing so much good stuff behind the scenes. trust the process.

taurus: the aspects this week are invigorating and strengthening. your sign is known for kind of languishing in relaxation and it's actually good for you nearly always but this week? please go outside, please get up and accomplish things. it is so auspicious for you to be in movement and flow right now. crash on the weekend if you must.

gemini: you may feel quite antsy about staying at home, like you can't bear to see your own walls a moment longer. alternatively, or even simultaneously, there may be a feeling that you can't handle the public eye. maybe it helps to go wander around in disguise, or at least with big giant sunglasses and a floppy hat on.

cancerians: the new moon in capricorn is fresh relationship vibes. a new romance, a breakup, an engagement are all possibilities. no, probably not all at once. set an intention around how you want your commitments to actually look in real life, regardless of what happens to you at this time.

leo: this time of year can be hard for solar creatures like you, especially north of the equator. but this week is bookended by two lunar ingresses that are quite supportive to you, especially if you are out there looking for love. create something new. it can be just for yourself. it should probably involve glitter.

virgo: you have a lot of supportive astrology all week in taurus and capricorn. go out of your way to create, learn, and grow. granted, commitment is not really your thing right now. dabble and have fun and if you need to shed a few things, people, or situations, do so.

libra: even though lots of great things are likely to happen this week, the quality of the period can be quite frazzling to your typically very delicate constitution. watch for omens but make what changes you can if you don't like what you see. you don't have to resign yourself to a bad lot.

scorpio: this is a great week for your relationships. ALL kinds of relationships. it's okay, and indeed quite good, to nurture romantic ones! but do NOT forget all the manifold other ways to love. go out of your way to spread love in your community locally, online, to children, to animals, to the vulnerable, to your friends, to your family... what else can you think of?

sagittarius: be cautious with mercury-things, yes even though it's direct now, because it is right at the end of your sign preparing to move. it's still in the shadow zone, and especially at the so-called critical degrees it can feel like you just went back in time a week or two for a moment. probably not in a good way. just be careful.

capricorn: you're in a good, steady, stable place and picking up momentum. mercury re-enters your sign and mars gives you a major boost. you're getting things done and probably not feeling too depleted by the effort. one caveat; mercury is still retracing its retrograde path, so you're not done with the themes of the last few weeks yet, you're just wrapping them up. probably in really nice littel satin bows.

aquarius: beneath all the jolly jupiter vibes lies the constant hum of electric current due to your ruling planet uranus. rebellions in the name of justice do well at this time, but on a smaller scale too you might want to revolutionize your own life.

pisces: expect a little agitation early in the week. but keep in mind that agitation can serve as a boost to improve things. so it's not a time to be lazy, but it is a time to scry for omens, at least figuratively. scry and then act.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I love the beastmen in Twist but every time I look at their ears my brain just cannot with my perceived anatomy of their skull. I know it can probably be explained very logically and stuff but in my head cannot unsee it as weird, like someone plopping some fluffy ears on top of a round skull and calling it a day T_T :'D

I actually studied human hearing and ear structures so I can simplify it and explain it logically—

Mammalian ear structures are actually very similar to one another. Therefore, the hearing pathways for lions (or cats in general), wolves, and hyenas are like that of a human’s. It would actually be easier to understand the integration of, for example, human anatomy and physiology with that of a lion as opposed to that of a fish (ie merfolk) since fish operate completely differently than humans. (To this day, merpeople A&P still confuses the heck out of me 😂)

If you look at both diagrams above, the human skull and the lion skull both have external auditory meatuses in similar locations; the meatus is a channel that funnels sound to the auditory nerves for further processing as it gets passed up to the brain.

Since beastmen ears are usually placed on top of their heads rather than on the sides of their heads, I’d wager that there’s just a difference in the angle of the ear canal, as illustrated in the diagrams below. Cats and such have more slanted canals, whereas human canals are more horizontal. As you can see, cats and humans have the same structures in their ears:

Brief aside: yes, there’s a teeny bony in your ear called the “malleus”. No, it will never not be funny to me that Malleus has the same name because my mind always defaults to the bone 😂

The greatest difference is actually in outer ear structures, where humans have the disadvantage due to how cartilaginous their pinna are. The placement of the ears is different, of course, but the real reason why, say, dogs and cats hear better than humans is because their outer ears are more mobile. Their ears are able to change direction and shape to adjust to where sound is coming from—and this helps with localizing the auditory sensations into the nerves that process “sound”. Humans can’t do this as easily, so their hearing range is smaller than some other animals.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not outing myself at my internship?

(some quoted things are paraphrased because my native language isnt english and i had to translate the things im quoting first.)

I (20+, trans nb) recently got a four week internship at a local radio station. I dont take any HRT yet and dont own a binder, so while i do try to dress in a way that feels comfortable to me, i dont really consider myself to be passing. So I applied to the internship as my deadname (which is also still my legal name) and introduced myself as a girl and with that name too. I was going in with the mindset that its kinda my own personal thing to consider, and since its only temporary and involves 'official' stuff (documents, articles being credited etc) + i never know how people would react to it/treat me, i dont necessarily have to tell everyone i meet. the internship went over kinda fast and everyone there was really nice and i had a feeling they'd also be accepting and use my right pronouns and name if i told them, but at that part i didnt have much time left and didnt want them to suddenly treat me differently and make a big thing out of it.

During the last few days of the internship, i got sick and couldn't go to work, which in itself was fine. But what happened was that my grandpa, who sometimes does volunteering at the same radio station, had an appointment to record something on one of the days i was sick and thought it'd be nice to surprise visit me. I, being sick and at home, obviously wasn't there but when he tried to find me he called out my new name and not my deadname, and when they got confused and asked him who he meant he apparently kind of laughed at them for not knowing that that name is me.

The next day, when i called in again to tell them I'd have to stay home for the next two days (till weekend) too, i immediately got asked why he was calling me [new name] instead of [deadname]. I got kinda uncomfortable since its like, either forcing me to lie or to out myself. I ended up telling them the truth, that im actually trans and prefer that name and that my family & friends use it for me, but that i didnt feel like outing myself at their workplace since it was only a short term official thing. The woman on the phone then went along the lines of "ah, i figured it was that already. you wouldnt have been the first trans intern we had, we would have been happy to use your new name for you. I also didn't like/appreciate your grandfather laughing at me for not knowing about it". I didnt really comment on that more than saying 'thanks' because i didnt want to have to defend me not outing myself? And we had a few other official things to discuss regarding the internship ending anyway.

A few days later i got mail from them, which had the documents i needed to prove i was an intern there (and they were nice and sent two copies, one with my deadname and she/her and one with my new name and he/him). There was another smaller piece of paper in the envelope which read "kind regards from everyone in the team. and sorry we weren't sensitive/understanding/empathetic enough for you to tell us".

And it sounds nice, but to me the message + the conversation i had where i was kind of forced to out myself earlier reads kind of passive aggressive. or as indirectly telling me i should have just outed myself and they're hurt by me not trusting them enough to tell them and making them look dumb to my grandfather for not knowing.

AITA?

What are these acronyms?

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

U.A. High School Field Trip Around Japan: Day 3 Translations

This is Day 3 of Shonen Jump’s special commemoration of My Hero Academia reaching one hundred million copies worldwide, which is being rolled out daily across one-week in each prefecture’s newspaper.

The schedule:

April 4th, Day 1: Hokkaidō & Tōhōku regions

April 5th, Day 2: Kantō region

April 6th, Day 3: Chūbu region

April 7th, Day 4: Kansai region

April 8th, Day 5: Chūgoku & Shikoku regions

April 9th, Day 6: Kyūshū & Okinawa regions

April 10th, Day 7: Nationwide release

You can see the illustrations on their website here, where they are released digitally the day after the newspaper release.

Here we go!

Note: As I mentioned, the illustrations are available on the official site, but they are all rather small, which makes them hard to read, so in this post I have included photographs from fans which I used for my translations. Every photo was available publicly on twitter and I have credited the posters, but please be respectful and don’t draw undue attention to these fans. If anyone contacts me wishing for their photo to be removed, I will do so.

Chūbu Region

Niigata

Photo credit: twitter user kz555ing

Ashido: "Cuteness is justice!" Todoroki: "Cuteness is justice? Then this Kannon is a good omen for heroes." Asui: "'Cuteness' is profound, too."

Class 1-A is visiting Sado Island's Chokokuji Temple, where a 20-foot tall rabbit statue has been erected to show appreciation for the temple's domestic rabbits tended by the priests, who roam the grounds freely. Just behind Todoroki actually stands a second, much smaller rabbit statue. The goddess of mercy, Kannon, is carved into the rabbits' chests.

Toyama

Photo credit: twitter user MazeHistory

Tokoyami: "The torrential flow of power liberated from prohibition... Those of us who have freed a once-sealed power feel the same, don't we, Todoroki?" Todoroki: "No, not particularly."

They are visiting Kurobe Dam, the tallest dam in Japan at 186 meters (610 feet).

Ishikawa

Photo credit: twitter user ESORA_artwork_

Iida: "There are approximately 180 shops in here!!" Kacchan: "Tell me which one's got the tastiest stuff." Izuku: "That's gotta be all of them!" Kirishima: "Daaamn, there's no way you can go to all of them in one day." All Might: "Looks like those boys are having fun, doesn't it?"

This is Omicho Market in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa, a very busy market with fresh seafood, vegetables, fruit, and local specialties!

Fukui

Photo credit: twitter user mlluv1

Izuku: "Sauce katsudon originates in Fukui prefecture! ︎ The deep flavor comes from the sour sauce seeping into the cutlet! You could say the sauce is saving the cutlet, and the cutlet is saving the sauce. It's a food that embodies the concept of being able to save to win and win to save. I don't think it's an exaggeration to call it the soul food of heroes. Ahhh! I can't stop thinking that I want everyone in Japan to know more about this..." Uraraka: "He's saying it's tasty."

One of Fukui's specialties is "sauce katsudon" wherein the pork cutlet is battered, coated in crumbs, deep fried, and then coated in a thick, sweet, tangy, savory sauce. "Katsu" means cutlet but it is phonetically identical to the word for win--the same one that's in Katsuki's name. Izuku is such a nerd, dear god. Special thanks to @pikahlua for saving my skin with Izuku's dreaded mumble-speech!

Yamanashi

Photo credit: twitter user MARINJIJI

Mirio: "There's... A RIPE PEACH! There's... RIPE GRAPES!" Kaminari: "The Yamanashi Prefecture Tourism Ambassador Hero...!" Sero: "Have we got a chance!?" Kirishima: "Sempai, you went out of your way just for this!?"

Yamanashi is one of Japan's big fruit providers with many orchards and vineyards, specializing in grapes, plums, and peaches. Mount Fuji is visible in the background! But Mirio... what were the ripe grapes!?

Nagano

Photo credit: twitter user hirom_1107

Hagakure: "Ojiro-kun! You really can't see it!?" Jirou: "I can see it!" Ojiro: "It's 'cause I've got a tail, isn't it. I wonder if they're feeling territorial..."

They are at Jigokudani Monkey Park with Japanese macaque (snow monkeys), who love to hang out in hot springs in the winter.

Gifu

Photo credit: twitter user some_mitsu

Iida: "Everyone!! Assemble here for a group photo!!" Uraraka: "Let's all do the gasshō pose, okay!!" Sero: "That's great!!"

The Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama are part of a World Heritage Site protecting the traditional gasshō-zukuri houses unique to the area. The style is named for the arch of the roof looking like hands in prayer; the area gets substantial snowfall every year, and the shape of the roof and structure of the walls are optimal for protecting the integrity of the house. I got to see and step inside this style of home at the Japan Open-Air Folk Museum, and they are absolutely incredible. The informational placards said that in years when the snow piles high enough, the second story windows are used as entrances!

Shizuoka

Photo credit: twitter user sugar_eraser

Yaoyorozu: "The reason Mount Fuji looks blue is because its size is so great that one must view it at a distance. This distance puts a thick layer of air in-between, scattering the light and causing the mountain's surface to appear blue. The sky is blue for the same reason." Ashido: "Yaomomo's like a walking encyclopedia!" Aoyama: "A beautiful blue mountain, you say? Why, there's one right here~!"

Viewing Mount Fuji from Shizuoka's famous tea fields. Shizuoka provides 40% of Japan's green tea! I've had a few varieties unique to their area, they were very flavorful and soothing. Aoyama is bein' vain because his surname means "blue mountain."

Aichi

Photo credit: twitter user Hrkn1500

Satou: "All right, all right, now this is what I've been waiting for!" Yaoyorozu: "It's delicious!" Todoroki (thinking): "Half-Sweet Half-Salt..."

They are eating Ogura toast, a dish originating in a Nagoya cafe in 1921. Ogura jam is a sweet spread made out of adzuki beans, and it is often served with butter -- the butter being salted is the source of Todoroki's stroke of genius. I've had it several times, it's tasty!!

That's all for Day 3! See you soon for Day 4.

[jackie-gremlin-ghost]

Here’s a post-finale TGAMM headcanon/crossover idea I have

A couple months after the finale, while out to lunch with her family, Molly notices two strangers hanging around in Sam’s Diner. They appear to be tourists; a boy and a girl, probably siblings, who look to be around college age or a little older. The boy is very casually dressed, looking over a map while writing something down in a blue book. The girl, meanwhile, who’s dressed very colorfully, is looking through photos in a pink album covered in stickers. It’s then that Molly catches a bit of their conversation.

“…If what I’ve gathered from the locals is true, there’s been quite a few eyewitness accounts of paranormal activity in this town, specifically of the spectral kind.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that too. Apparently there was a huge thing that happened a little over half a year ago. A large cloaked figure with smaller beings nearly decimated the whole town, leaving people around them feeling drained and even depressed. Do you think the cause might’ve been similar to what happened back at Pacifica’s old house?”

“No. This wasn’t your basic haunting caused by unfinished business; this was clearly much more malevolent, and whatever did that was only in it for control. Not quite as bad as… you-know-what… but pretty close.”

“Still, it would be pretty cool to see some nice ghosts for a change. Sure, that couple in that old abandoned convenience store back when we were 12 were okay, but did they really need to use me as a scare tactic? I was already out of it on the Smile Dip as is, that just made it worse!”

Molly can’t help but insert herself into the conversation at this point, apologizing for eavesdropping and asking them what they knew about ghosts. The boy is a bit suspicious at this, which Molly responds with her own suspicions. She’s already barely managed to change the minds of one ghost hunter team, she’s not sure that she can do it a second time.

The girl is thankfully much more friendly towards her, and explains; her brother is a paranormal researcher, and since the two of them have recently graduated from college, they’re currently on a cross-country road trip, exploring different places and investigating whatever supernatural mysteries they might hold. They’re not hunters at all; they just wanna learn about the unknown ever since a very eventful summer they had when they were young.

Molly is relieved by this, and always eager to make new friends, she sits with them and introduces herself.

“I’m Molly McGee. And you are?”

“Name’s Mabel. Mabel Pines. And this is my twin brother.”

“Hi. My name’s Mason. But everyone calls me Dipper.”

“Nice to meet you both. So… can I see some of the stuff you guys have seen? I noticed your scrapbook, and I can always appreciate a fellow scrapbooker who believes in a generous use of stickers.”

“Dipper! I’ve found more of my people!”

[prettywarriors]

Mini Mahou March Year 4 Week 1

Hey everyone and welcome to the third week of Mini Mahou March! You can find the main post for the event here X.

The Prompt for the week of March 2nd-8th is…

Hime Lolita Phantom Thief/Kaitou!

The sub-genre of magical girls that needs more love, the phantom thief has a long history of non-magical girl entries such as Lupin and Magic Kaitou. MGs include Shadow Lady, Saint Tail, Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, and the recent Phantomirage.

Magical girl Kaitou often steal with good purpose- returning stolen goods like Saint Tail, or exorcising demons like Jeanne. With a much smaller pool of inspiration to draw from, there is very little consistency in designs for these characters, although they always have a way to make a quick escape. They often leave behind a calling card, sometimes as a form of cheeky flirting with their officer rival.

Hime Lolita, or Princess Lolita. If you know magical girls you probably know Lolita fashion- Rococo inspired, distinct silhouette, frilly and feminine. Hime lolita is extra frilly and a bit more mature with a lighter color pallet.

I’m only looking for a visual character design, something as simple as a single fullish-body picture, but you are more than welcome to go as wild as you want with trinkets, backstory, information, alt outfits, all that good stuff. Also I say girl but girl boy nb other as long as it’s a magical humanoid gender be damned, thumbs up. (Also nothing 18+ please. Your characters can be, just not your art for this)

Make your post and tag me before end of day March 8th (11.59EST) and I will be re-blogging participants here next Sunday/early Monday, with everything tagged Mini Mahou March.

Saint Tail uses stage magic to distract while stealing stolen goods and returning them to their proper owner while leaving calling cards for her crush who is the detective trying to catch her. Shadow Lady uses a magic eye shadow pallet to transform into different forms depending on the color, and steals, well, for fun until the plot happens, while the local cop is in love with her thief form. Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne transforms with assistance from her mascot to remove demons from pieces of art which makes the art disappears, and her rival is transformed boy who wants to stop her (and her best friend is the obligatory cop) D.N.Angel is the long accept magical boy, and he transforms into his older alter ego to steal magical artifacts made by the ancestor of the obligatory cop who has his own magical alter ego and there’s a love square. 

So uh. Complicated romances & police enemies with possible overlap in those categories, transformations range from ‘new dress’ to ‘new body’, stealing is good sometimes. It’s not my fault there aren’t more Kaitou MGs we deserve this sub-genre c’mon Toei. Pierrot? Anyway there’s always non magical girl kaitou like Skye from Harvest Moon or whatever is happening in Persona 5. Masks are generally not a magical girl thing beyond proto-senshi and a couple of weirder male-target series, but it is a thief thing so your call.

Robin Hood Lolita? Scarlet Pimpernel but Frilly? How many weird thief tools is she hiding under her big skirt? Are the ribbons removable to use as getaway ropes? How fancy is that kaitou mask? Maybe some wings- with bows?

[l00na24]

I Got Your Six - Chapter 5

Warnings: Death, some things won't be 100% accurate to reality and are written that way for the sake of the story

Word Count: 9k

A/N: Hello 🤗 First of all I wish everyone a happy new year even if it's a bit late but I hope all of you are doing well and had a great start into the new year! 🥰 I am so sorry it took me sooo long to finally get this chapter finished (after changing it about a million of times because I wasn't happy with it lol), which I had wanted to get out before Christmas but unfortunately I got sick for a few weeks and then real life stuff came up right after 😓 But now it's here and I hope you enjoy reading it with things turning up a notch 😋 And don't worry, the next one won't take that long because I'm already on it! 😉

Also a little part of this chapter was inspired by the original Triple Frontier Script which I totally recommend you to read if you haven't already!

7 days later, 4 PM, Brazil, Jungle (at Lorea’s house)

It was a humid warm and cloudy day when I crept through the various green plants that surrounded me. The typical climate you would expect in a jungle.

Exotic birds occasionally flying high above the treetops and filling the wild and untamed nature with their chirping or insects buzzing around between leaves big enough to cover my body entirely, some smaller ones with the similarity of palms that fit perfectly in the spaces between together with other, more colorful plants or bushes on the ground. Meter long lianas hanging from above that were winding themselves along the branches of some big trees like snakes.

If I wouldn’t be here for a mission, I would take my time admiring every little detail and the peaceful, quiet and yet a tad mysterious atmosphere with the slight fog floating around.

The calm before the storm.

How the ridges of the Andes, completely covered in green nature and shrouded in banks of clouds, ominously greeted us at our arrival. Like they would be announcing a bad omen that was in the air.

Normally I wouldn’t be faced much by anything when it came to a mission besides the flying part but this time I’d been restless as soon as we were on our way to the destination Santiago had given me when I called him a few days ago.

My gut was screaming at me to not do it, to turn as fast as we could and fly back instead but it was too late and I wouldn’t leave them alone in this. I never backed down from a mission. No matter what. And I’d never forgive myself if I did now.

It had been the first warning.

My team and me nearly got caught in the crossfire of some criminals and the local police on our way to the friendship bridge, the signature element of the Triple Frontier, that connected Paraguay to Brazil over the Parana River.

We were slowly driving through the outskirts of Ciudad del Este, the second largest city of Paraguay and a literal hotspot for any crime imaginable thanks to the Triple Frontier connection, the biggest part being the smuggling of a lot of dangerous things. You could practically see on every corner you turned, that the criminals were ruling this place. My trained eyes spotting them from miles away out of the car window next to me or the guns some people were carrying with them, hidden beneath their clothes in hopes nobody would notice, even if they were way too obvious. Drug dealers selling their stuff openly on the street without a care as if it would be an everyday business. The poorest of the poor together with other citizens weaving through the thick traffic between cars.

You should think we would actually change something with our work but looking at this, I understood what Santiago had meant. Nobody was giving a shit about government or authority here, they had their own laws and the police were only bystanders, not able to do anything and probably not even bothering anymore or corrupt to the core.

Just as we were crossing an intersection, suddenly loud sirens started to blare in the distance and only seconds after a sports car nearly crashed with us when it flew by in high speed, the police following close behind.

“Alex! Watch out!” I shouted from the right backseat when I saw it speeding directly at us.

“Oh fuck!” As fast as he could, Alex hit the brakes. The force of it jolting us forward in our seats as we came to an abrupt stop just enough that the car only lightly grazed our front and didn’t crash into us.

In the middle of the chaos that broke out with people screaming and madly running around and vehicles on the street trying to get out of the way, I saw the windows of the sports car rolling down and persons with assault rifles leaning out of them to shoot at the police car.

“Get down! Put your heads down!” I raised my voice even louder before I heard the first shot being fired and made myself as small as I could.

The bullets were flying everywhere, one piercing through our windshield and almost hitting my shoulder if I hadn’t ducked to the side in my seat.

“Is everyone okay?” Luc asked from the passenger seat in the front and immediately looked over to Alex and then behind to me and Mick in the backseats.

“Yes.”

“Yeah.”

The boys breathed out after everything seemed to be back to normal like nothing happened and people resumed their ways. The bullet hole the only reminder of what had just transpired.

“What the fuck is wrong with these people?!” I let out with irritation.

“I think they had a slight disagreement with each other.” Mick commented from the left.

That had been the second warning we ignored.

Stalking like a panther through the thick foliage of the jungle, I moved forward to the spot I was supposed to be and grabbed my TAC-50 that was slung around me as I came closer.

When I looked through my scope, a set of two big, black eyes ogled me and I looked up confused, spotting a little black and white patterned gecko sitting in front of its lens on my sniper.

What the heck?

“Hey there, little guy. You should be careful, you could get yourself hurt.” I said and inspected him curiously.

He held eye contact when his tongue darted out and ran along his mouth before he carefully moved across the upside of my gun, over the scope to its long rear where he laid himself flat on his stomach, his tiny feet spread wide from his body and blinked a few times at me and slightly tilted his head.

“You better get down there.” I told him and slowly moved my hand that wasn’t holding the gun to him.

Without moving he still sat there, not letting me out of sight. After another moment of studying me with his big, round button eyes he got up and came toward my hand. Stopping for a moment right in front to look, before carefully climbing with his sticky, nub-like toes onto it.

He was running all over it, in my palm and between my fingers, stopping at some point and dragging his little pink tongue along my skin.

“Did you… just lick me?” I asked him surprised, staring at the little reptile who didn’t seem bothered by me.

He only looked back innocently before he started to advance up my arm to my shoulder.

“Oh, no, no, little guy! You can’t go there!” I slightly panicked, not wanting him to touch or come close to the part of my body that was forbidden to everyone.

Thankfully he stopped as if he understood what I was saying and changed his direction. Moving over to my other shoulder along my front and looking from there at me once he had reached it.

“Let’s get you somewhere more comfortable, hm?” I asked and held my hand at him again, so I could put him on one of the plants around me, waiting till he was back in my palm.

I let him climb on one of the lianas hanging down in front of me.

“Watch your six, little guy.”

Following his movements along it until he turned upside down and looked back at me before I turned around and continued onward. At least a nice surprise for a change.

Brushing past some large ferns, I made my path through the wilderness with a watchful eye on the ground to not fall over tree roots or for any other kind of danger and made sure to take slow steps to not cause any unnatural movement that potentially could be spotted.

As I reached my spot, I got in position hidden behind a wall of leaves and cocked my sniper to inspect the rest of the area around the house after I had done a full circle of observation.

“I don’t like this.” I spoke into the com I had placed on my in dark and light grey tones camouflaged gear.

“What’s your concern?” Alex’ voice crackled through my earpiece.

“Looks too easy.”

“Did you expect a heavily fortified fortress out here in the middle of a jungle?” Mick asked chuckling.

“Considering the millions of dollars he’s supposed to have and that he’s one of the top tier pieces of shit here, yes, that would be my first expectation if I’m honest.” I retorted while letting my sight wander around through the scope, not spotting much besides some guards hanging around in a few corners with submachine guns strapped to them.

“You aren’t wrong. I estimated with more defense measures too, looking at his profile. But let’s check what we’ve gathered so far.” Luc suggested, wanting to hear what we had detected during our surveillance so he could start thinking about possible tactics at how we would approach this.

“Guards on all sides of the house in groups of two to max three, no protection and armed with SMG’s. Three right, left and rear side, two front, potentially more inside. Lots of spots all around the house where we could easily slip in without a problem except the front. There’s a long, unprotected driveway, ending with a couple of concrete jersey barriers on the sides and a steal gate. Could be breakable with a car I would guess, if you manage to destroy the barrier that comes out of the ground when the gate closes but that would alert everyone, which rules it out as possible option. The only real “danger”, if you wanna call it that, is the machine gun in a sort of tower behind it. 50 caliber, that would shred you before you come even close. I would need help from one of you to take both guards out undetected if we do this the ‘silent way’.” I explained my observation.

“I could give you a hand. There’s a small waterway from my position leading in your direction, would be a matter of seconds to get to you.” Alex confirmed.

“Perfect.” I answered before continuing. “I’ve also seen some surveillance cameras around. We will have to either destroy them when we approach, or we have to look inside the house for a security room to deal with it. They didn’t seem to give a shit about aiming them at the crucial spots, but I would like to take care of them, so we don’t have to worry about it later.”

“They are not looking like the newest ones there are. Don’t wanna know where he got them from, but it will be enough if we take care of the hard drives.” Mick brought in his opinion. His expertise as the best engineer we had in Delta gave us a huge advantage with any tech or gadgets we had to deal with in our missions or other unconventionalities.

“Also, we have high fences extending around the house in a radius of probably twenty to thirty meters. We won’t be able to climb over, but we could cut through them. I’m actually surprised they aren’t charged with electricity.”

“If I were him, I wouldn’t want my kids getting roasted, that’s probably the reason.” He had a point. I had seen them playing outside and some toys laying around but I doubted that it was why.

“The less time we need the better.” Luc pointed out, reminding us that we would have a time window we had to keep in mind once we were in.

“Look what we have here... Someone’s got some little toys.” Mick’s amused voice came through the com again.

“What is it?” The tone he used set off alarm bells in my head. Something was wrong.

“Ground sensors.”

Well, shit.

“The lethal kind?” I inquired with a hint of worry and scoped the area more wary a second time and focused on every detail I could find but spotting none of the mentioned sensors. They must be hidden underneath the plants.

“Hard to say but I don’t wanna find that out.” He answered thoughtfully when he inspected the object on the ground more closely with his trained eyes.

“Any way we can deactivate them?”

“Negative. Not without setting them off.”

“Copy that. Eyes up and on the ground then. Be careful where you’re going.” I spoke sternly, not wanting my team to have an unpleasant encounter that could end potentially deadly and risk the mission before it even started.

The theory with his kids was off the table with that but now we had an explanation why he wasn’t using electricity. Lorea probably thought it would be enough to rely on the sensors and I guessed, he hadn’t even wasted a thought about the possibility of some highly trained and lethal delta force soldiers attacking him or figuring out his location in the first place. Very bad mistake.

But it didn’t make our situation any better, knowing we practically walked around in a minefield. I had to hope the other guys would spot the objects in time and not run into one by accident, not having the possibility to communicate to them what they were about to walk into without revealing myself. They didn’t know we were here and I wanted to keep it this way till we were done with the recce.

“We’ve got company now, boys and girls.” I heard Luc shortly after through my earpiece upon spotting the arrival of the five ex-delta soldiers we had been waiting for. Their timing was just great… note the sarcasm.

“Make sure none of them notices the slightest trace of you and get your comms ready.” I ordered in the serious tone as their captain, wanting to avoid getting detected by any of the boys at all costs.

“Copy.” The three men of my team answered in unison.

I lowered my weapon and slung it back around me with its strap, reaching into a pocket on the backside of my vest and pulling out the com I had requested for me and my team from Santiago, so we could listen their conversation, putting it in my other free ear. They couldn’t hear us unless we used the manual trigger of the mic, which me or my teammates wouldn’t dare to touch and continued to use our own to communicate with each other.

Hearing their line crackling to life, I left my position and disappeared back into the thick foliage.

“So what's this guy got against banks? At least a safe.” Will’s deep voice reached my ears and sent a shudder down my spine that halted my movement for a moment. It felt weird to hear their voices after so long. I needed to get used to them again.

“The house is the safe.” Santiago answered cryptical. What was that supposed to mean?

“Got any idea what he’s talking about?” Alex questioned through our com and spoke out what I was asking myself.

“No clue.”

“Feels like he didn’t tell you everything.” Mick threw in skeptically, emphasizing the most important word in his sentence. Everything. Santiago better didn’t withhold any important information we should have known about before.

Carefully ducking underneath some low hanging branches, the quiet rustling of plants caught my attention and I looked alarmed around. It didn’t come from me but who- or whatever it was that made them was close.

The only thing I saw was a backwards cap in green camouflage moving through the greenery of the jungle and I knew who it was. I stopped dead in my tracks and didn’t dare to breathe or even blink. Ben had no clue I stood directly behind him when he moved by, not more than a thin wall of leaves separating us. His sudden closeness speeding up the beat of my heart in an instant that was pounding loudly in my ears and I prayed he couldn’t hear it. Keep your god damn composure, Y/N! Don’t panic.

Fuck. Did he have a compass which seemed to always lead him to me?

His hand was not a mere inch away and nearly brushed my belly. I’d be so, so fucked if he was able to sense me. Please don’t let him notice. Only this time.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump.

After a few beats of him deciding it was a good idea to stop and stand right there in front of me and I thought I’d die from my heart jumping out of my chest, he finally started to walk away and gave me an actual chance to get some desperately needed air into my lungs again. I swear, this man was the death of me, in more ways than one.

This was waaay too close.

My eyes had grown at least double their size as I followed his path till he was out of sight, not making any kind of motion or noise yet for fear he could pick up on it and discover who was here with them.

“I'm at the gate.” I let out a sigh of relief when I heard his still well too familiar rough voice speak through their com that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. If someone would have told me, I’d ever be relieved not having to be near him… Nothing could have been more wrong…

“This looks like everything was done about 82% right. They got all the toys out here, but these cameras aren't even aimed at the weakest breach point.” Ben continued and repeated in his own words what I had observed before, showing clearly why both of us were the experts at reconnaissance.

“Someone’s got some knowledge there too, huh?” Mick indicated, somewhat surprised there was someone else ‘as good as me’ as he would put it, in this field.

We had been the perfect team… And now we were standing on opposite sides.

Deciding to stay silent, I put more distance between us when I was sure he would be far enough away and went with fast but still calculated steps in the other direction. I didn’t want to have another close encounter with him.

“Your girlfriend's making her normal money drop?” Tom’s voice joined in and halted my steps a few meters after once again. What were they talking about now?

“Yeah.” Santiago answered him directly like they were talking about the weather, despite knowing that we could hear their conversation. “She's prepared to record the inside of the house.”

Girlfriend?... Wait a minute…- His so called ‘informant’ was his girlfriend?! And he had the nerve to not tell me before all of this?! He just had dug his own grave.

I was sure my teammates didn’t take this new information any different. I could already imagine how their brows would knit together and their jaws would clench at the revelation.

Santiago had unknowingly managed to turn our team against him before they even had the chance to meet with his move. The fact that none of them felt like speaking up about it told basically everything already. Good luck for him to get out of this.

“Pope...” The person using his callsign was Frankie but it sounded a bit off. Was that concern I heard? What was worrying him? Everything should be fine, I made sure of that before they arrived. Besides… My thoughts went back to the discovery we had made not long ago. Damn it. He didn’t accidentally set off one of the sensors, did he?

“Pope, I have kids over here. Does he have kids living in here with him? 'Cause that's gonna make things a whole lot more complicated and is not what I signed up for.” He shared his discovery over the com and thankfully not confirmed my suspicion but reminded me of what would be another part on my personal task list which I hadn’t wanted to think about yet. If Fish had known what he signed up for… maybe he would’ve had considered his options better.

I continued my way with quick strides through the jungle while I listened, passing by the gate in the distance with enough space to not get noticed and reaching the spot on the left side of the house where I had originally begun my observation round.

“The family's not the problem. They're the answer.” The addressed man replied without the slightest concern. What was it with Santiago and his cryptic sentences?

“Why?” Frankie wasn’t the only person who liked to know.

“Church.” Santiago simply answered. “Lorea's very devout. Every Sunday morning, he sends three guards to the 6 AM service. When they get back, he sends the rest of the team, along with his family, into town to mass. That leaves him and three guards in that house, and that's our window.” He elaborated and I could only shake my head at what I heard. I wouldn’t give them a chance to escape and not finish the mission properly, he could totally forget that. I didn’t care how many guards Lorea had in his house, ten, twenty, it didn’t matter. We would have the army with us too, which would be way enough to wipe them out for good. Not that my team and I could handle it on our own. I didn’t understand why he was making such a fuss about the damn family. There was definitely some business we had to discuss later.

“Why would he do that?” Will inquired, which wasn’t really surprising. He always was someone for details. Too bad he didn’t pay attention to them when he actually should have.

“Worried about someone taking his kids. And he never leaves his money.” These would be the least of his problems very soon…

“Also, I don't think he believes anyone actually has the balls to come out here and rob him.” Santiago added bluntly. That was another way to put it, except ‘rob’ was the wrong word for what we’d be doing. Let me correct, what they’d be doing. My team wouldn’t get involved with the money the guys would confiscate together with the army after we were done. So was the plan. But I didn’t like how he said it and the feeling it caused in my gut.

“It's probably cause it's a stupid idea.” At least Will had some common sense. Yes, it absolutely was. It was the stupidest idea on earth to be exact.

The sound of a car approaching had me drawing my sniper in a flash, holding it steady with both hands and looking out at the driveway through some trees and bushes from my higher position. A black van came into view that slowly approached the barrier at the gate where it stopped. The guard not standing behind the machine gun walked up to the passenger side.

“Pope, I got your girlfriend coming up right now.” Ben announced at the same time.

“Y/N, do you have the safety of your gun on?” Mick joked into the com right after, who had been uncharacteristically silent, already knowing what my reaction would be and wanting to check up on me.

“Maybe I accidentally switched it off.” My voice dropped lower, with an underlying threat behind it my boys were familiar with, while aiming through the scope of my TAC-50 at the woman’s head. It would only take a little pull on the trigger…

I inspected her nearer and got slapped in the face with the bitter truth that I couldn’t compare to her, and it was obvious why Santiago seemed to have a liking in this woman. She looked attractive with her tanned skin, the dark brown, shoulder long, wavy hair and dark eyes. And I bet the rest of her body looked just as good. Something I wouldn’t ever come close to…

“Holy shit. She is beautiful, man.” My blood ran cold at Benny’s next words and something broke inside me. He should have kept his damn mouth shut. The grip on my weapon tightened with my fingers wrapping themselves like snakes around it that were about to choke their victim to death.

Don’t let it get to you. Just ignore all the shit they’re talking. He’s not worth it! None of them are worth it!

“He doesn’t know that the most beautiful woman is already here.” Alex threw in quickly, trying to lessen the damage but he had no clue that what Ben said had fueled my wrath already to a dangerous level. He only tried to lift the situation and make me feel better, knowing about my insecurities that got much worse after what I had been through, but this was something even he couldn’t fix. Only one person could have done that and he wasn’t here anymore… because of me.

Fuck him. Fuck all of them. I wouldn’t give them even the slightest chance to hurt me.

Thank god the van drove past the gate a moment later before I couldn’t resist the temptation to shoot her and the driver anymore. My index finger hovering dangerously close over the small part of the gun that could decide between life and death in a moment’s notice if I wanted.

“I got an execution about to go down over here.” As if sensing my mood for satisfying the craving I felt, Will spoke through their line, adding greatly to the need for shedding blood. Did I hear execution?

“Are you at the tennis courts?” Santiago wanted to know and I looked around if I could see the mentioned place from my position to follow what was happening there but to my disappointment it was out of my sight.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, that's his spot.” He confirmed. Of course Lorea would kill others for his sake, people like him were all the same. He wasn’t the first and surely wouldn’t be the last.

“Anyone have sight on it?” I spoke into the mic, in hopes one of my boys would be close by and could give more detailed information about the situation.

“Positive, I do.” Alex answered while watching Lorea with a guard next to him getting ready to kill the unfortunate souls that were kneeling on the ground with bags over their heads. He had also found the blonde person lurking behind the small brick wall not far from him who must be one of the ex-delta soldiers, watching through the free spaces in between what was about to unfold.

“How many?” I inquired after his response, meaning the number of people the drug lord was about to kill.

“Four.” Too many. I would make sure to pay it equally back to him. He wouldn’t hurt someone ever again after we would be finished with him.

“Man, this guy really takes his business way too serious.” Mick commented with a snort when multiple shots of a gun filled the atmosphere. It wasn’t meant as disrespect toward Lorea’s victims but more his own way to cope with what we had to experience in our job and to not let it get to him. The complete opposite of me.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

“One more reason to get rid of him.” The grip on my sniper hardened even more at the thought of how many people had died because of him. How many lives he had taken for all the blood money. This guy was practically begging to be killed. A shame I couldn’t do it right now.

“Why is she doing this?” Frankie wondered as he saw the dark-haired woman and a few men getting out of the van and entering Lorea’s house with some bags, bringing their line back to life after it went silent for the time of the execution, everyone probably listening the sound of bullets delivering death and leaving nothing but corpses behind.

“She hopes I can get her little brother out of jail.” As if it hadn’t been enough to hear that she was his ‘girlfriend’ but to also find out she was doing this for Santiago to get her brother back on top of it… This was the culmination of it all. How did he even wanted to do that? If her brother was involved with Lorea, there was no way he could get him out legally. Or was he simply playing her so she agreed to help him? Like he tried with me also with leaving out what I heard since they arrived? He had chosen the wrong person.

“Tell me he isn’t fucking serious?!” Our engineer let out in vexation, being careful to not speak too loud and give himself away to the person with a cap he had in sight while he looked over the entrance area of the house where the van had stopped not a minute ago.

“I guess he ‘forgot’ to mention those little details, right?” Alex was just as pissed off, the kind where he questioned himself if he should shoot first and ask questions later or the other way round.

“He should pray I won’t find him right now.” Mick threatened afterwards, directly voicing out what his Spanish brother had hidden behind his words.

“You should give him a chance to explain himself and not make any assumptions already.” Luc spoke up, surprising us with his calmness and how he wasn’t on the side of his brothers. Sitting still on his spot on the other side of the house and following the guards’ movements while also keeping a careful eye on two of the ex-delta soldiers laying on top the massive concrete wall underneath some plants.

“What the fuck, man?! How can you defend him?! There is no god damn room for assumptions because everything is fucking clear! We need to have a talk after this!” His friend shot back with a growl.

It would be an exhausting drive back… Releasing some air and not wanting to take part in their conversation to fuel the tension that already had manifested itself with my own emotions, I focused back on the other boys.

“Did you put him in jail?” I heard Ben asking the most obvious question, silencing and distracting my three men from their heated discussion. I wouldn’t be surprised at this point if Santiago did.

“Not really.” There we go. So he had something to do with it. He might be able to fool the others but not me.

“I'm guessing that's putting her at some risk.” Tom pointed out and a sarcastic chuckle left me. It was putting her at the risk of vanishing from the face of this earth as soon as I got my hands on her.

“Man, I almost forgot why I got out of this business. Shit gets so dark so quick.” Frankie shared his thoughts, not knowing how true his words actually were and hitting the nail on the head. Explaining why I was as I was and bringing back painful memories. Nothing would come close to what I had to experience.

My knuckles turned white from the force I was gripping my weapon with now, teeth grinding hard against each other and shutting my eyes to force the unwelcomed thoughts away before they had a chance to get through.

Keep breathing slowly. You’re not going back to that place. You’re over it.

“Oh, shit, we got ground sensors here, boys.” Benny suddenly announced alarmed over their com when he found himself near the dangerous little object that blocked his way.

“Did you hit one?” As soon as Santiago had asked his question, my focus completely relied on them, tensely waiting for an answer and cursing under my breath that of course it had to be him out of the five to get himself into this situation.

“I don't know, I'm not sure.” With concern heavy in his voice and face Ben answered, uncertain if he had activated it or not and quickly taking a look around to check if he had been detected but everything seemed normal until Fish’s warning hit his ears.

“Benny, I got two guys on motorbikes coming your way.” He informed the younger Miller when he watched them speeding down the driveway in the direction of the gate where Ben was crouching deeper into the bushes covering him.

The urge to eliminate the enemy grew with every passing second and I considered starting the mission early. They wouldn’t get anywhere near him. I wouldn’t allow it. They’d be dead before they knew it.

With him already in my sight from my place across, I switched off the safety of my sniper once again. Making sure he was unharmed and nobody would come too close to him and discover where he was hiding.

Will left his position right after, following back the way he came through the small waterway around the area toward his little brother.

“Hold tight, Benny. I'm trying to get out there to cover you.” He told him, the protectiveness as his big brother coming to the surface. Moving as fast as he could till he got in position behind a small tree on the opposite side of the gate and aiming his pistol underneath its branches toward the newly arrived guards.

I shifted my view to the gate when I heard the sound of motorbikes approaching, noticing Will at the edge of my scope. Shutting out everything to not get distracted from the threat at hand and taking in controlled breaths to keep the heavy weapon steady while looking at the guys getting off their bikes, ready to shoot at any wrong movement or getting closer to Ben’s position.

“A stock boy job at Walmart's starting to look pretty good right now, boys.” It wouldn’t be Ben if he didn’t make one of his comments in his current situation, holding his pistol low but ready to use if needed. He was unaware that me and his brother had him covered from both sides of the gate and nobody would have an actual chance to harm or get to him without being killed. It kind of was like a déjà vu.

For a long moment they stood there, talking to the other guards. Thankfully not showing any signs that they were alarmed or actively searching for Ben. With a wave of a hand from one of them they got on their motorbikes again and drove back where they came from.

“I'm clear. They're coming back to you.” Ben confirmed to Frankie and watched them retreating, putting the gun back in the waistband of his jeans and relieving all of us with his words.

“Let's get the fuck outta here.” Will ordered into their com, keeping his hand weapon aimed on the men until they were out of sight. He had seen enough and didn’t want to push their luck any further, it had already been a close call with his brother and there was no reason to risk another encounter. The intel they had gathered should be enough to make a plan.

“Two retreating on my position.” I informed my team, watching both Miller brothers leave and disappearing into the jungle. Lowering my sniper and allowing my muscles to loosen up after I made sure my surroundings were safe.

“Positive, two as well here.” Luc responded first.

“Affirmative. One on me.” His friend Mick validating the same after.

“That’s all of ‘em. Alex, you clear?”

“Crystal.”

“Copy. If y’all are, I’ll meet you at the car. Be careful out there, boys.” I instructed before heading to where we had parked and took the earpieces out. Not looking forward to what awaited me…

35 Minutes later, 6:18 PM, Brazil

A bump in the road we were driving along woke me rudely from my nap when my front made contact with the car door to my right side I had leant to in my sleep. Startling me awake with the force of the impact.

A very faint “Sorry!” rang through the car.

“Can’t you drive more careful? If you continue like this, you gonna wake her up!” Alex complained annoyed from the left backseat, taking a look beside him in the dark of the car to ensure their girl was getting some much-needed sleep.

“I’m very obviously trying my best here. It’s not my fault this road is absolute shit. How is someone supposed to drive safe here anyway?” Mick complained back and shot his friend a glare through the rearview mirror before looking back at the road and giving Luc a glance on the way in the passenger seat.

“We’re in the middle of nowhere, you won’t find any better ways out here. I’m afraid this is the best we can get, gentlemen.” Luc declared with a chuckle.

“Still was a mistake to let him drive.” Alex grumbled lowly, not agreeing with the choice they had made earlier because he had enough experience with his recklessness at times. Especially with driving.

“If you think you can do it better, go ahead, pen-, pem-? Whatever you call asshole in Spanish.” Mick challenged him, struggling to find the word he was looking for because his knowledge of his friends’ second language was very limited or rather nonexistent and slowing their vehicle.

“It’s called pen-de-jo, dumbass. And we all know I’m a better driver than you.”

“Who almost caused an accident when we came here? Hm?”

“Seriously?! It wasn’t my fault some crazy people were having a fucking chase with the police!”

“Whatever you say, bud.”

“If you keep going like this and not lower your volume, it won’t be the movement of the car who’ll wake her up.” Luc clarified, sending a look their ways that didn’t require any further words.

With a slight groan I came to and opened my eyes slowly, noticing the lack of daylight.

“Great job, Mick. Look what you’ve done! You woke her up!”

“It certainly wasn’t me!”

With an eyeroll Alex shifted his head in my direction and gave me a smile.

“Hey, sleepyhead.” He greeted me softly, his hand searching mine and giving me a light squeeze while caressing the back of it with his thumb. A ritual my boys always did when we were out on a mission, to assure me I was safe and in the present while I was waking up out of my half sleep.

“Hey. What’s… happening?” I answered groggily and looked at him with barely opened eyes, giving a squeeze back.

“Nothing you have to worry about. You okay?” He asked, letting me take my time to get more conscious and inspecting me.

“Mhm. As best as I can be.” I saw it in his eyes when I nodded at him that it wasn’t the answer he’d been waiting for, even if he did an excellent job at not showing any changes in his facial expression and maintaining the smile on his lips for my sake. Giving me a final caress with a bit more pressure before retreating his hand.

“Welcome back.” Mick’s cheerful voice broke our moment and my sight went to the front of the car. Realizing night had settled in with the headlights illuminating the earthy path ahead and the instruments inside being our only light source, now that I was more awake.

“How was your little nap?” Luc turned around in his seat to face me.

“You know how it was.” I told him right away, every person in the car aware of the fact that my sleep was screwed for good with permanently fearing to have another nightmare yet again when I allowed myself to rest. But of course it didn’t keep them from asking anyway.

“Sorry by the way if we woke you.” Came it from the driver’s seat, a brief side eye meeting mine while Mick took one hand off the steering wheel and rubbed the back of his head in a guilty manner.

“You didn’t.” I assured, not wanting him to feel responsible for something he wasn’t the reason of.

“And for earlier… I didn’t mean to be an ass.” He added more quietly, exchanging another look with me, the memory of our “chat” before the drive in his mind that hadn’t gone like probably all of us had intended it to. But on the other hand, they had gotten a chance to release some steam and cool off which mattered the most for me, not blaming them at all about their complaints and voicing them out loud. Taking in every last word and feeding the side of me that lived from it, that didn’t know anything else and used what I bottled up within me as its catalyst to cause the fatal havoc it was meant to do. To make the world burn for what had been done.

“There’s nothing you’d have to apologize for, Mick. And aren’t you an ass all the time? At least to Alex?” I tried to lighten the mood and draw the attention away from me.

“Whoa! Now that’s just cruel, Y/N! You can’t say something like that when I just apologized!” Our driver let out in his usual overdramatic way, going along with it. Making his friends laugh heartfully, mostly about his reaction but also my words. The joyful sound wrapping around us like a comfortable, warm blanket in the winter. Only that its warmth wasn’t enough to reach my cold, dead soul. It would never be enough to bring it back to life ever again.

Another precious moment between us I should enjoy but couldn’t, with the inability to feel the same happiness as them - or any at all. Faking a small smile to not ruin the entire situation because I didn’t want them to have to deal with me more than they already had to, like the constant loneliness I felt even if they were always around me.

“Totally deserved.” The Spanish man next to me nodded in agreement and fixated his brother in front of him with a wide smirk.

“Keep going and I throw you out of this car myself, then you can see for yourself how you get there.” A finger pointed in his direction as a warning sign before Mick had to focus on driving again and put his hand back on the steering wheel.

“Why do I have the feeling I missed something important?” I asked in confusion, suspecting there was more to their talk than I knew and switching my sight between the boys.

“Oh trust me, you didn’t miss anything, Y/N.” Luc laughed to himself, the other two starting to snicker along him.

“Okay…?” Coming across my lips in more a question than a normal pronunciation. Despite my curiosity I decided to not dig further and leave it at that. It was probably just another banter of theirs like usual. Looking a last time between them before I shifted my view out the window into the night and silence falling over us with only the faint tune from the radio playing in the background.

A few miles later when I couldn’t stand the quietness anymore, I leaned forward in my seat over the center console as far as my seatbelt allowed it and grabbed the inner edges of the front seats with my hands.

“How long till we’re there?” My nervosity getting the best of me because the previous silence grew too loud for my head and I couldn’t keep the thoughts in it no longer from running wild, threatening to overwhelm me.

“We still have a bit to go. You can take another nap if you want.” Luc answered and looked over to me from the side.

“I’m not tired.” I quickly refused his suggestion, as everyone expected, because it had become a common thing over the last 2 years and they were used to it by now.

“Y/N… Then at least try to get a bit more rest, please. You know-” He tried to reason like a parent with their child who was too stubborn to follow their instruction, but I interrupted him before he could finish what I had to hear too many times already: “You know he wouldn't want you to put yourself in danger.”. Who the fuck cares?

“I don’t wanna hear it.” A well-meant advice to drop what he was going to say.

I had decided to walk this path with no looking back till the end, whenever that would be. There was nothing waiting for me anyway. It was like I had been stuck somewhere along the way and got lost in search for something I had known once but wouldn’t find again, left alone in the shadows with nothing more than misery, sadness and deafening silence as my companions, the only remains of a life before that had stopped existing.

With a heavy sigh I sat back in my seat and busied myself with the sight out the windshield, not wanting to continue the conversation we’d had so many times before like the words he wanted to use.

“Can we not-” I instantly stopped midsentence when I saw a hooded figure appear out of nowhere in the shine of the headlights that stood on the side of the road, directly facing us.

I wasn’t sure what it was but the feeling hitting me in this very moment I couldn’t place - something both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time - had me sitting up straight immediately.

“Mick, stop the car! Stop the car!! Now!” I yelled when we drove past it, my eyes glued to where the figure had disappeared behind us in the night and hands pressed hard against the glass. Startling the boys with my sudden change and the urgency in my voice.

“What? Why? Did I hit an animal or somethin’?” He asked as confused as his brothers, all looking at me now with big question marks in their faces.

“Just stop it already!” I urged impatiently, not caring to elaborate and wanting to get out as fast as possible.

“I’m on it! What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?”

Before they got an answer, I was out as soon as we came to a stop in the middle of the road with only the person I saw in mind and ran back through the dark to where I had seen it. Shouts of my name erupting from behind me when the three quickly followed and ran after me.

“Hello? Is anyone here?” My raised voice filled the night, loud enough to be heard for a few meters distance but I got no answer or any sign that somebody was there.

“I know you are! Come out and show yourself! I won’t hurt you, I promise!” After nothing happened and I didn’t want to wait any longer I spoke up again, opting for a different way to get the person to reveal itself but it turned out the same as my first attempt. Looking in every possible direction in hopes of finding what I was searching for.

Multiple cones of flashlights lighting up my surroundings more and more from behind announced my team’s approach very soon after but I was too focused to pay them any mind for now.

With hands crossed over each other, raised pistol in one and a flashlight in the other held next to it, how they had been trained to, so they could shoot at any possible threat lurking out there while still being able to see, they closed the distance between us with fast steps and in their tactical formation with Alex on the left side, Luc in the middle and Mick on the right to cover as much ground as possible.

“Can you tell me what the hell this is all about?” Taking in a defensive stance, Mick came to a stand next to me and let his eyes roam around to make sure no danger was in sight before they landed on me, displaying his obvious discontentment about my careless action.

“They were here.” I answered without looking away from the spot I had been staring at, still clinging on to the false hope of the person showing up.

“Who?” He questioned confused, not understanding what I meant and being more concerned about my safety since I wasn’t wearing a bulletproof vest or a weapon.

“The Person. They were right here.” Repeating my words, assuming he would catch on, I tore my gaze away and toward him. Noticing Luc and Alex next to us and the handguns they carried with them. “And put your guns down.”

“Well, I don’t see anyone. Are you sure?” Taking another attentive glance around at my words, he followed my instruction and lowered his pistol slowly after he spotted nothing but grass.

“What Person?” Alex asked from the other side while doing the same as his brothers and loosened his stiff posture.

“That stood on the side of the road looking at us.” I elaborated a last time with slight agitation, not getting why they asked all these unnecessary questions when they must have seen the person too.

Luc, Mick and Alex exchanged a troubled look with each other.

“There wasn’t anyone.” Luc said after a short pause.

“But…- No…- They were standing right here…! I swear!” Denying his words and pointing at where the person had stood, I took a few steps forward, letting my sight wander through the dark once more and staring at the earthy ground in front of me in total disbelieve after I still found no evidence that someone had been here only minutes ago. This couldn’t be true… I knew what I saw… I wasn’t making it up…

“Hey, we believe you, okay? If you say you saw someone, you did.” Alex assured, stepping before me and searching my eyes. The other two not wasting time and appearing at my sides, forming a half circle.

“How did they look like?” Luc changed the direction of our conversation, deeming it a good choice to distract me from the thoughts he practically could see swarming my head and make sense of what I was saying.

“Their… clothes were all black… with a hood over the head. And… the lower half of the face… was covered with a black mask.” I stuttered out. “I know how this sounds but I swear to you I didn’t imagine it!” Seeking the boys’ eyes for reassurance that I wasn’t going mad and my mind didn’t make up things that weren’t there when I just had literally described what we normally wore on our missions.

But it was hard to miss the doubt in them which hurt me more than I wanted to admit to myself when I realized my mistake, not allowing my expression to show I had noticed and quickly cutting off our line of sight to avoid getting more upset and revealing my emotions. I shouldn’t have told them.

“Did you notice anything else? Or were you able to identify the person?” A vertical shake of my head was all I gave Luc, feeling a surge of rage rush up that I didn’t pay closer attention to the person’s face, so I would have known who it was and if they were real but everything had happened too fast and caught me right off guard.

“What’s the plan here then? Are we going for a search?” Mick wanted to know, switching from expectantly looking between us four and checking our surroundings from time to time.

“I don’t see any footprints but if somebody was here they couldn’t have gone too far.” Our Spanish man moved his light around, emphasizing he wasn’t completely dismissing it. His way of telling me he didn’t think I was crazy.

“We surely would have noticed anyone by now - and I’m not saying I don’t believe you,” Coming up with the fact none of us could dismiss, Luc stepped into his role amongst our team and I could feel his observing gaze that hadn’t left me since his arrival. He noticeably changed the pitch of his voice while adding his own assurance into the sentence - a smart move, to ensure I would be listening. “But we won’t find much in this high grass with only our flashlights at this time of day. Also don’t forget we still have a good few miles to go and I doubt we wanna be too late.”

“As much as I agree with you, but I’m not comfortable leaving without knowing if we’re being followed-”

“Luc’s right. It doesn’t make sense to try and find someone in the middle of the night, Alex. And I said we’d be there.” I countered him with a defeated sigh, not having the nerves to argue with my boys about the actual existence of the person but wanting to ease at least his worry that was an ever constant of the trio below the surface since certain things had happened all of them never fully recovered from and wouldn’t. Another thing I was the reason of.

“I mean it won’t do any harm if we take a quick look, right? I’d feel better if we do. And let’s be honest here, none of us gives a damn about being late.” Mick suggested, not passing the opportunity to add one of his blunt comments.

“It’s just a waste of time, forget it. Let’s go and get this over with as fast as possible.” To make this decision wasn’t easy for me but it was the most rational in the current moment. Swallowing down my increasing anger. If things continued like this, I would need an outlet soon because I could only hold it in for so long until I had to release it.

Casting my view for a moment toward the sky in hopes of finding some relief, my mood dropped further when I saw nothing but clouds plunging the stars in their darkness to snuff out their light, like they were foreshadowing what was to come. Not deeming me worthy of the only thing bringing me some little kind of comfort for what I was about to do.

Averting my eyes, I turned around and started to walk back to the car.

“Wait! Y/N!” Alex tried to stop me and was hot on my heels.

“I already told you we’re not searching!” I let out angrily and sped up my steps.

“I swear to god, this woman…” Mick huffed out quietly before he and Luc got moving too, earning an amused snort paired with a smirk from his brother next to him.

“That’s why we love her.” He patted him a few times on the shoulder. “And you wouldn’t want it any differently.” Luc added after a short distance without looking back, following their captain and Alex who was making some gestures with his hands and arms on her side only to be ignored.

“I hate when he’s right…” The last member of the team started to catch up in a sprint.

From afar a hooded figure in black was watching them…

If I had at least understood my third and final warning.

A/N: I want to thank every single one of you who gave this story a chance in the last year and supported it so far, no matter if it was through a like, a lovely comment or a reblog! Each one means the world to me and is greatly appreciated and a huge motivator, regardless how small it is! And I hope I can continue to bring you more enjoyment in the future with it! ❤️

You can definitely look forward to the ultimate clash that's bound to happen which we are approaching with careful steps! Maybe in the next chapter already? 😱

If you enjoyed feel free to reblog, like and comment! 🥰

Masterlist

Previous Chapter

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[b1asho]

Oh no, there's lines in there!!!!

This is a (once again, a leetle outdated but still good enough) political map! The border lines are a bit wacky, don't worry it's annoying for everyone living there too. Anyway, here's a horrid lore dump if you care to read it XD :

Blue represents the DRSS (Democratic Republic of the Solar System) its just about what it sounds like. This country is made up of a collection of states similar to the USA, and it is largely populated and governed by humans. much of their internal infrastructure is meant for humans, too, making it very difficult to live there as anything else. However, some areas within each state are Enclaves, where other species have been given say over the laws and architecture and are more or less free to govern themselves (with some intervention from the big government). The grayish blue area to the west is known as the Outlands. It's legally a part of the DRSS, but extremely undeveloped and sparsely populated beyond rough farming and mining operations. They got this land in the afotementioned treaty ( and a considerable amount of say in other territories outside their borders, since they won the war. And still have some nukes.)

Orange is the Seru Empire (Cerest Empire or just 'the Empire' to most people). They are related to the interplanetary Imperial power I talked about in the geography post, though the so-called Seru Empire is much newer, created thanks to the resurgence of Old Empire sympathies and ideologies. There are no good empires, and this one is no exception. It is a widely known fact that those living within its borders are subject to harsh working conditions, strict legislation and swift brutal punishment, and of course are separated by species into a rigid caste structure. Besides humans, there are 5 other intelligent species stranded on this planet. 4 of them make up the bulk of the population in the SE (more on all them later I promise) . Technically, the SE is made up of different internal jurisdictions like the DRSS, though led by associated arms of the dictator, but those have much less autonomy and no authority under the central regime. They have limited access to pretty much everything everywhere because they're the losing side. And everyone hates them.

Purple is the Muttreazik Territories, named after the species that mostly lives there. While characterized as a 'Wild West' of sorts, this land is actually separated into very distinctive cultural regions of muttreazik that are highly organized within their own turf (though not very interested in working together). This place is largely unexplored and presumably largely untouched by exo terraforming, making the West the only place you can go and still see the original plant life that was there before your species crashed a ship on it. On a related note, it is very unforgiving to pioneers, both because of the lack of anything edible/any infrastructre to help you survive and the parasitic mutant-inhabiting locals who look like you but not (muttreazik are a fun bunch).

The yellow/grayish blue area in the middle is the Skyfall Exclusion Zone, or the SEZ. This was originally a smaller area unofficially sectioned off/avoided by the world because of the high levels of Radiation from Unknown Universe (RUU) leaking out from that damn lake (or rather, the thing in that damn lake. I should probably mention, RUU was used to power many of the human spacecraft. It's a barely understood energy that was supposed to stay in the machines. It was never supposed to get out of the machines.) The SEZ was officially established with the treaty as a vassal state to the DRSS to act as a demilitarized buffer between the warring powers, since neither of them want to cross that land and both consider it unusable. Well, mostly unusable. The SEZ's main export is space junk, since this area also happens to be where most of the stuff fell in The Crash. The technology, resources, and information that can be gathered from The Wreck is valuable enough for the DRSS to keep it around and let it do its own thing as ling as all the best junk goes to them and not the Empire. Speaking of, the inhabitants of the SEZ are a mix of everyone, mostly just riffraff that ended up there for one reason or another. Though many also got trapped in there by new border drawing and now can't leave thanks to the closure. Womp womp, have fun living downwind of the radioactive scrap heap, loser.

That dark gray circle is a nuclear exclusion zone (Area 1) . Considerably less fun than the SEZ because this radiation is normal and just rips your cells apart instead of giving you powers. Don't go in there.

Green on the mainland is the Gaek Federation. Offshore green is the Orbouh Island Nations, collectively known as the Drowning Islands region. This area is an economic exclusive zone, since the big countries no longer trade across their own borders. This area is entirely neutral and independent, gov wise, though it upholds the treaty's stipulations because they want to keep the tentative peace and their biggest customers. This area has a diverse population. It's outer borders are a bit malleable, since as the 'Drowning' part of the name suggests the islands tend to appear and dissappear with the tides caused by the planet's 3 moons. The planet also has rings btw you can see a tiny version of it in my pfp.

Red is the Kixeli Interplanetary Community, pretty much a really dense and mostly autonomous Enlclave of a certain amphibious species. It shares territory with the Confederation of Free Sapients, a small country built on rejecting the current entrenched ways of the two super powers and building a more inclusive system.

All these idiots are just stuck on an ideal little part of a much wider world, unexplored and vast. Who knows what's on the rest of this continent, or the rest of the globe...

Anyways, it's the aliens next. Once I figure out the best way to Compile and Present them all.........

[lawluaficionado]

Pregnant Luffy + Distressed Law

Law was stressed most of the time, we can say it was the default setting. Having been dating Luffy for well more than a year is the cure for his depression, and the introduction to anxiety, massive panic attacks and mild high blood pressure.

When he'd met Luffy (again) two years ago, the younger had claimed "You had the yummy tattoos at the hospital!" Yes, claimed. He hadn't even responded when his brothers had already wrestled him to the ground saying he was a creep. THIS HAPPENED AT A COFFEE SHOP!

Two months later they were dating, so...he couldn't be all right up in the head either.

Now, at the age of 28, he's decided it's finally time to invite Luffy to move in with him. That's the plan at least.

Nothing, absolutely nothing goes according to plan with his boyfriend. NOTHING! Here he was making steak when his boyfriend barges through the front door, luggage in hand. "You got me pregnant! Now you hafta take all the responsibility!"

This is what Law meant with the panic attacks...

=-=-=-=-=-=

To be continued later...

=-=-=-=-=-=

So much for Law asking Luffy to move in. When he'd told Luffy about his botched plans, the shorter male had laughed and said "Silly Torao, don't you know by now those never work?"

Needless to say, it's now been two months since Luffy had moved into his house and things had gone from 'We still have time before the baby' to 'oh shit there's literally only three months left'. When Luffy had moved in, he was already four months along, and based from his latest doctor's appointment, their baby is on the smaller side. Which would explain why even at six months, he's much smaller than other pregnant people (on average).

"It's okay, he just takes after me then," Luffy's carefree laugh rang in the exam room.

It eased Law's nerves more than he would admit. "So I guess this means we don't have as much time as I thought to get everything together."

Luffy just waived him off. "We have to get a big party and tell people!" Luffy watched with a odd sparkle in his eyes as the jelly was wiped from his abdomen. "Can we stop for grape jellies at the store? And meat?"

Law instead made a detour into their local supercenter. He had a mental checklist of every single thing he researched on what newborns need. But first... He went straight to the paint section. "Want to choose the color of the nursery?" He smiles down at Luffy.

"Really!?" Luffy bounces around toward some really bright yellows and reds. "I like these! It can be like a sunrise and then we can paint clouds and birds and a pirate ship!" He let Luffy ramble on about the decoration. And from there Luffy started putting in more things into the shopping cart. A lot of carved wood decorations, which he swore he'd paint himself and place in the nursery.

They'd have to call in Ussop, no way was this nursery going to look decent with their art skills.

"Whatever you want Luffy, but we should really at least buy the crib."

"Ohh, I didn't tell you. Your dad, my dad and Gramps got everything already. They said it was going to be a surprise. But if they told me, they should have know it wasn't going to last long," he shurgs. "So we only need to decorate really." By Luffy's dad, he meant his birth father, Crocodile. Guy scared Law as much as Sabo irritated him. The only tolerable one was Ace, and that was pushing it.

Law relaxes a little, "Wait, so when you say they got everything, you mean all the crib stuff and rocking chair, and then the changing table and the stroller and-"

Luffy shuts him up, standing on his tippy toes to kiss him. "You worry too much."

"No, you worry too little," Law leans down, cradling his boyfriend's face between his hands.

"Our dad's were really happy to be grandparents. My Gramps is not as happy but he's gotten over it. They said it was a gift."

"Well, okay then, that makes me feel ten times better than this morning."

Once they are on their way home, Luffy has an epiphany. "Oh I forgot to mention! Your dad and my dad are going to stay with us the last month I'm pregnant. That was kinda the deal we made." He continues laughing as Law's eye begins to twitch.

[baenyth]

Miraculous: Dreams

Prologue Outline

So, since the AMA was a bust and I'm feeling more invigorated to get back into Miraculous, I wanted to start off with explaining the outline for the prologue of a Miraculous RPG game I'm going to make called Miraculous Dreams. Let's go!

PROLOGUE: WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HOPES AND DREAMS!

The game begins with Marinette waking up in her room from the ringing of a telephone, except it's not really. All her stuff is there, but the room is smaller, and her bed is on floor-level instead of ascended above. She goes to the ringing phone, a red and black-spotted rotary phone, and picks it up.

It's Tikki. Not just who's calling, but she's also the phone, she doesn't know what's going on, other than that she can't move. Marinette tries to think of what caused this, with last her memories before waking up being a bright flash of light everywhere and a shockwave. Marinette tries to transform and find things out, except that she can't, no matter what she does. What's worse is that she doesn't know Chat's number and can't get it, and the Miracle Box is missing and Tikki has no idea where they went off to! (For the record, the game takes place between seasons 3 and 4, after the New York Special.)

Confused, Marinette goes downstairs, phone-Tikki in her bag, and finds her parents. They're so glad to see her awake! Apparently she was unconscious for a week after the "Great Shift," as people called it. Apparently it was a bright light shining everything with a shockwave pushing everyone off their feet, then darkness, then suddenly a new world. Many people were displaced to different and exotic locales in this new world, and Marinette and her parents are currently in what's called New Paris. Or is it Neo Paris? People can escape, and on the outside it looks like a giant bubble of swirling energy, but no one knows how to stop it, and the United Heroez and others are busy with their own problems.

Afterwards, Marinette's friends and classmates come in, happy to see her awake! Well, some of her friends and classmates. Only Alya, Max, Markov, Mylene, Nathaniel, and Marc are there, and they explain where the others are:

Ivan's still comatose, like Marinette was.

Chloe's also here, but she's off doing her own thing.

The class learned the truth about Lila. Apparently she tried to blame the Great Shift on Ladybug and Chat Noir and convince the class to betray them in favor of Hawkmoth, and snapped and revealed her true self to them. Mylene apologizes on behalf of the class for not believing Marinette, and she forgives them. What matters is what happened to Adrien and the others.

Nino's in a town not too far away, but he's stuck there babysitting Chris.

Finally, Kim, Alix, Rose, Juleka, Luka, and Adrien are missing!

Marinette asks about Kagami. Alya's seen her occasionally, but she was alone and seemed busy with something.

The class explains a bit more about the new world. Apparently magic is real and easy to use here as long as you have a strong ambition and follow your dreams. Most of the class has used some degree of magic, and while Ladybug and Chat Noir are gone some Parisian civillains took up the mantle of hero. Mr. Pigeon is redeeming himself for getting akumatized so many times, while Mr. Damocles is actual hero as the Owl! School is on break, anyways. However, with this new magic, New/Neo Paris is in a state of anarchy with no police force, and the two greatest powers, the Bob Roth Syndicate and Team Rainbow Dogs, vying for power with constant battles.

Oh hey! There's Mr. Red, the big boisterous leader of Team Rainbow Dogs! And he's got an army and wants Max and/or Markov for his info on the Seven Sacred Treasures! The goons grab Marinette and friends, but Mari breaks free and begins the first fight of this RPG.

This is your first battle, but there isn't much a tutorial other than to attack him. Marinette spawns Ladybug's Yoyo out of nowhere. Even she's confused. Thankfully, you're only fighting Mr. Red, and he's taking you lightly and has two easily-dodgable attacks. You beat him in like, four turns. Maybe less if you know about timed hits.

Mr. Red's goons all begin to gang up on Mari, but he calls them off. She beat him fair and square, and so team Rainbow Dogs retreats and doesn't bug Mari or the others. So now the crew is freed, they have one question: What was up with Marinette having Ladybug's Yoyo? Where did that come from? Marinette excuses herself to skedaddle and talk to phone Tikki, who only gives the answer of "Again, I don't know." Alya and the gang are wondering what's going on, and Marinette tries to find an explanation to hide the fact that she's Ladybug.

She comes up that Ladybug is, uh, erm... dead! Yeah! Dead! But her corpse was turned into this phone and she's giving me her powers and talking to me as the phone! (Wait, how can she be doing that if she's dead?) Well, uh, Ladybug is only mostly dead! That's it!

The class buys it, thankfully. Or pretends to buy it in the case of the students that already know Ladybug's identity, but that's neither here nor there and Marinette doesn't know that. Either way, Alya's impressed by Marinette saving her as well as her fighting skill and decides to buddy-up with her.

ALYA JOINS THE PARTY!

Alya primarily uses her phone, which has been converted to a blocky 2000s Nokiaesque phone that is still somehow high-tech with loads of apps. Everyone's phones have been 2000s-ized, actually. But back on topic, Alya has a "Sword App" installed that turns her phone into a sword. Not the best sword but it gets the job done. She also has a Scan App to scan foes and see their stats and a general description, because I love a good bestiary.

Anyways, Marinette asks about what the Seven Sacred Treasures are, and Max and Markov are happy to explain in their own home. So our heroes go with Max and Markov, and he explains that they're seven treasures that are sacred (of course,) but also grant different abilities and vary heavily, from a golden crown to an orb full of magical energy to a fossilized sea sponge. All seven are also linked to the "Cranium Door," some door leading to somewhere underground the city our heroes lie in, which may exist considering the strange waves detected underground. Marinette wants to go right down to that door, even though it's dangerous and the door might not even be there, in hopes of finding Adrien. Marinette doesn't care. If there's a chance, there's a chance.

The others are coerced by her determination, but first Max gives Marinette a map and Markov pulls out a training dummy so Marinette and Alya can get their bearings in on fighting. This is the actual tutorial of the game, introducing and explaining the battle system in all its interactive glory.

So the four embark on a journey to the Underground where the Cranium Door may lie. Max and Markov aren't part of the party, they're just trailing along and Markov is acting as a sensor to where the door may be. This is where the first real enemies are fought, and during the subterranean adventure,

A mysterious tortoiseshell cat is seen. Marinette wants to follow it in hopes of finding Chat but Alya pulls her back to the task at hand.

At one point, Alya's phone starts recieving weird signals and the ability to download a "jetpack app." She does, and now Alya's phone can turn into a jetpack that can carry her and Marinette across gaps! Max uses a portal to get across said gaps and Markov just flies over it.

The crew finally get to the actual, real Cranium Door! And Tikki the Ladybug Phone is reacting to it! She It's glowing and the phone itself is levitating until...

A Lucky Charm spawns! Specifically a key with a handle shaped like a mole's skull. Alya's excited to figure out said charm, while Marinette tries to use it on the Cranium Door to no avail. The Cranium Door doesn't even have a keyhole, or handles. Ultimately, the four decide to return to Max's House in hopes that the key won't vanish after five minutes so they can figure out what to do with it.

Back home, Max still can't figure out anything on the warped 2000s internet, but on the plus side the key is still there. Alya decides that their best bet is to go east to Terra Fields and help Nino with his problems. He is living with mole people, after all.

Before you set off, Max and Markov give you an add-on and an introduction to them. Add-Ons here are basically badges from PM:TTYD with aspects of TMs from Pokemon in that different party members are compatible with different Add-Ons, although Marinette is compatible with pretty much all of them.

The game opens up a bit here. You can explore New/Neo Paris or just head east into the Terra Fields, although there isn't much to explore. The west side is blocked off by a passed-out Roger Raincomprix. You can also advance deeper into Rainbow Dogs territory, but you either have to pay a hefty price to the guardian of the gate Steve Buscemi Mr. Magenta, or fight him. Be wary, though. He's the reason why the local store sells antidotes, not to mention he has camoflauge abilities and hits hard. I'd recommend saving him until you beat chapter 1.

Either way, Chapter 1 begins when you exit New Paris and enter Terra Fields.

[karinyosa]

one action that i haven't seen a ton of people discuss online is writing a letter to the editor (not one specific editor, that's just what they're called). i'm thinking of palestine, but a lot of this can apply to other things. jvp has a letter to the editor guide here if u think you'd find that helpful. it's specific to jvp members from what i remember, so take what applies. individual papers will sometimes have their own sets of guidelines as well so be mindful of those. letters are generally more likely to make it to print when it comes to local papers, but you can also write letters to like. the nyt or wapo. you're just more likely to not get a response. as tools for social change, letters' purpose is to sway public opinion and pressure via institutions of media. i focus on local papers because, like with bds campaigns targeting college campuses, this stuff is going to start on a smaller scale first, but can and does build over time. think of one berkeley branch voting to divest very soon after another did first. this is like that to me.

i recommend seeing what other articles individual papers have about palestine just to get a feel for what might be most impactful for you to write about, or what still needs to be said. for local papers, you might want to tie it to your community in some way (and that might even be a requirement to get in the paper), so you can talk about, for example, how much money comes out of your specific area for israel, using uscpr's funding map. you can talk about protests in your area. if there are arab, palestinian, and/or muslim communities in your area, you talk about them. if there are medical facilities or lots of families in your area, you can talk about them. if there's a big tech presence in your area, you can relate it to that. education, youth, food, policing, etc. there's something. there are probably multiple lines of connection between your local community and palestine. you can also just respond to a published article or lte.

if you are writing a letter to the editor, it will be considered an opinion piece, so you can include opinions or things that may be seen as more subjective. check out other letters to the editor to get a sense for the type of tone/content/etc they are looking for. don't be afraid to break or bend those rules, but it's helpful to be aware of the general vibe of the paper, what's likely to get published, and what needs to be said.

what do you want your community to be talking about? what needs to be brought to their attention? what misconceptions need to be corrected? what issues do you want to put on the table? what do you want to add to the conversation? what's missing? what should be done about it?

if you can't make it to in-person actions, this can all be done online. and if you consider yourself good with words, this may be an area in which you're uniquely effective.

ps: citing other articles or sources is always helpful and is a way to platform other articles/books/texts that u think should be shared, although i don't think that's usually a requirement for ltes. if u can't think of one, ask around.

[prettygirlsincorporated]

your jokes were terrible, you know that right?

fandom: criminal minds

paring: jj x reader

warnings: mentions of rape, typical criminal minds violence. uh a little angst but it gets better.

w/c: 1k+

A/N: here it is! i’m so so tired so eat up! it was originally gonna get so angsty, but it’s all around just fluff! - 🧸

You really didn't understand how you'd gotten your job as a technical assistant, you started off as an intern for the BAU but Penelope decided to take you under her wing, showing you everything she knew. You picked it up easily, knowing a little more about certain areas than her.

Which is how you ended up here, being the technical assistant. You'd go on cases with the team, working with Penelope to figure it out as she stayed in her bat cave. You were an incredible asset to the team, and they all loved you.

They were your family, your friends. Of course they all had their respective cliques, some closer to others, which is how you and JJ were. From the start you've felt a spark with the blonde, she slowly became your best friend. Someone you'd seek out in a crowd full of people, someone you'd call when anything went wrong, someone who was always there for you.

That's why it didn't strike you as odd when she started doing smaller things for you, getting you coffee, getting you snacks, always sitting near you. It was the small things that she'd do that would brighten your day. Everything she would do you saw as a friendly gesture, emily and derek had done the same thing to you.

Derek would often walk up with your favorite order and a small “hey mama” or “hey pretty girl” and so when JJ started acting like this it never struck you as odd, until she started every morning with a pickup line. Everyday without fail there'd be a new one, as soon as you'd walk in the bullpen.

It started off with innocent ones for the first few weeks, and it progressively got more sexual. You were confused at first, not knowing how to handle the flip your stomach would do when you heard her voice ring through the bullpen when you stepped in, or how your brain would short circuit when it was a hard case and she'd hold your hand anytime she could. You convinced yourself it was just her being friendly, but you couldn't deny the overwhelming feeling of joy every morning you'd hear her say her usual line.

As soon as you rode up the elevator, entering the office you heard her clear her throat and you tried to bite back a smile. “If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put U and I together.” she said it with such a cocky, shit eating grin that you couldn't help but stifle a laugh as Derek chuckled walking over to you with a coffee. “Did you know that statistically more words in the alphabet start with the letter S than any other letter?” Spencer said as he spun around in his swivel chair, stopping when Derek flicked him on the head. “Ow!” Spencer whined pushing his chair off with his feet, away from Derek. “What was that for?” He pouted, you walked over giving him a kiss where Derek had flicked him. “There, all better spence.” everyone chuckled as you sat down at your desk, everyone expect a certain blond.

You'd been too busy setting your stuff down to notice jj’s change in demeanor when you had innocently placed a kiss to Spencer's head, a form of showing him compassion, but Jennifer didn't seem to think that. You only noticed the falter in her smile when you went to ask her if she wanted more coffee, seeming as she was nursing a near empty mug. You saw the tension she'd been producing, the clinch in her jaw as she declined your offer, not looking you in the eyes. Maybe she was jealous? No, she couldn't be. This was just meaningless flirting, right? Thats what you told yourself as you sat back down, only to be interrupted by hotch coming out of his office looking over all of you.

“We have a case. No go bag needed, it's local.” you all groaned as you walked to the briefing room, sitting in your respective spots. “The unsub is killing women around the DC area. He breaks into womens homes, rapes them and then kills them with an ice pick.” Hotch spoke explaining the case as he flipped the slide show to show what we were up against. “Did you know, in 1998 Danny Paul Bible confessed to killing a string of women with an ice pick after raping them? Could it be a copycat?” Everyone turned their attention to Reid as he talked about the killing, before hotch spoke up. “We don't know yet, y/n and jj, go to the medical examiner, Emily, Derek and Spencer go to the crime scene. Me and Rossi will speak to the families.” you all nodded as you headed out to an SUV getting in the passenger seat as jj opted to drive.

Car rides with her were usually fun, you'd flirt as you talked about anything and everything, but today was different. She kept her gaze fixated on the road as she gripped the wheel, not speaking. You were going to break the awkward silence until Peneolpe called you both, filling you in on information.

“Hey sweet cheeks, got that sexy brain of yours workin?” you chuckled as you noticed jjs grip on the wheel got tighter, as you responded. “Always for you, my dear!” giggles ripped from her as she exchanged information, bidding you a farewell as you and Jennifer kept driving.

“jj, what’s wrong?” you could tell something was off but she didn’t want to tell you, just absentmindedly shaking her head as you arrived at the M.E’s office, getting out of the car, walking next to each other.

you talked to the M.E and headed to the precinct, driving in yet again silence. “Jennifer, what’s wrong?” she didn’t like when you used her full name, she knew you knew something was wrong, so why wouldn’t she tell you? she glanced over at you, seeing your pleading eyes as you searched for any sign of what had happened to make her so pissed off. “Jennifer! I'm talking to you, please, can you tell me? I care about you!” she just shook her head yet again, speeding up as she drove to the police department.

she avoided you all day, never once acknowledging you unless she had too. it was weird, different, you missed her witty comments, the winks she’d throw your way. you missed when she’d hold your hand if you were anxious. Why did you miss it? it wasn’t fair for her to just take it away.. but i guess she didn’t owe you anything..

you wrapped up the case and headed home, you opted to drive with derek instead this time. Apparently everyone notices jjs personality shift, because as you were riding home Derek decided to ask you about it. “hey mama, why’s your blonde so upset? you guys get in a fight or something?” you simply shook your head and turned the other way, facing out the window as a silent sign to not ask anymore questions.

the next day you’d walk in, you’d hope for a usual pickup line, but you just saw her stare blankly at you and go back to her paperwork. if you said it didn’t hurt, you’d be lying. Have you done something? had you made her uncomfortable? Did you cross a line? all these thoughts ran through your brain as you sat down at your desk, avoiding the gazes that seemed to be on you and jj.

of course there was no case today, you’d had to be stuck with her in a small space. you tried to work on your paperwork, but all the thoughts of jj were running through your brain. would this damage your relationship forever? had you fucked this up? you really fucking wished she’d tell you what was going on so you didn’t keep guessing, wondering what you possibly could have done to fuck this up. deep in thought, a voice broke you out of your trance. “y/n, will you come see me in the briefing room?” you noticed the familiar voice without even looking, jennifer. Was she finally going to tell you what happened? maybe tell you that she didn’t want to be friends with you ever again?

you silently followed her up, closing the door behind you as she sat down on the table, looking at you. “look. y/n, i like you. i have, all my flirty comments, hand holding, everything, it was me silently telling you I liked you. When you flirt with someone else, I can't handle it. It was a joke at first, a thing to pass time, but eventually I realized how I felt. when you talk to penelope like that, god, i can’t handle it. i want you to be mine, and only mine.” you stood in front of her jaw probably on the floor as you stared into her piercing blue eyes who tried to avoid your gaze. you giggled as you walked over to her, putting your arms around her waist as you slightly tugged her so she was standing. she leaned in for a kiss, pulling away as you stifled a laugh. “what’s so funny?” she said with a smirk. “your jokes were terrible, you know that right?” she smiled, lightly slapping you on the arm as she nodded. “that was the point! they’re cheesy pickup lines for a reason!” she pulled you closer to her, holding you there for a moment just relishing in the fact that you were finally hers.

[jpitha]

Just a Little Further 23

Part 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

It's still early, so we go and find a cafe and have lunch. Once again, I don't have to use my voice, they just give us our meal for free. I really should get an idea about money though. I know they are called Skys, I know at least part of them are small green metallic coins - actually they look like the same metal the Throne and Chairs are made out of, I wonder if they are - and I know that everyone uses them here to buy stuff. I should ask about banks. We should pay a visit to one. I'm sure they'd be... happy to explain it to me.

That's for later though. For now, we work our way to the dock, and find the internal docking bay that Omar found.

Walking in, it becomes clear that we have a lot of work ahead. High Line is in here thanks to Omar earlier and it's...

It's junk.

Even when it was operating, it was clearly made up of a hodgepodge of between three and five different starships. This thing has been limping along on patches and ad hoc repairs for centuries it looks like.

Human ships from our side of the galaxy tend to be very personalized. Riots of color, patterns, little flourishes here and there that speak to the tastes and preferences of the operator. It's probably a function of the fact that all our ships are AI operated. It's their body, and they decorate and personalize it.

High Line is... downright drab in comparison.

Grey on grey with streaks of soot and... is that rust? It looks like rust. What would rust on a spacecraft hull? High Line is all boxes and blocks stuck together where they fit or where a need was found. I'm much more used to the sweeping, flowing shapes the Starjumpers have. In addition to looking fast, they look much more elegant. Even our smaller ships, the Frigates and Destroyers tend towards looking more like living creatures than... a box.

As I walk around staring at things and - apparently - making a sour face, Starlight, Ocean and River are standing there, looking nervous and worried. "So Empress... Here is High Line. We admit, it's a little more worse for wear than the ship you came to us on, but.." Starlight stands a little taller. "It got my forebears here all those years ago and through all that time put many light-years on it shuttling people around the system and still held air and gravity. It's not much to look at, but it was ours."

I mean, they're right. Maybe I'm being too hard on it. They got centuries of use out of with with barely any maintenance. All the more reason to refit it right and make it soar once again.

Omar seems like he's having a great time. Walking around, taking measurements going in and out. "Melody, it might not be much to look at now, but it's actually a pretty good foundation! We can add some improved thrusters, beef up the armor, add a wormhole generator and some laser batteries and while we won't be able to take on a dreadnought or even a Starjumper, we'll be able to hold our own against anything local we've seen. It's got plenty of room inside too. You won't have a suite of rooms like at the Royal Dawn, but I should be able to make you an... appropriately royal room.

"At this point a starship is better than no starship so I'll take what I can get. How long will the refit take, Omar?"

He looks at the ship, at the Aviens and then at me. "It will depend on their printer and how well we can integrate the designs from my copy of the database but maybe a month? Hopefully less?"

"Well then, you had better get started Omar. You spend your time getting High Line up to your satisfaction, and let me know about your progress. For now, we will be staying at the Royal Dawn. I don't know if there's other royal quarters that we just haven't found or if the hotel is made out of the original royal quarters, but I'm satisfied with our current accommodations. Make your own schedule and if you need something or someone, just let me know. Starlight" - I look pointedly at them - "can help you with any personnel needs you have." Starlight bobs their head eagerly. "If you need to speak to me or the others, you should be able to though the Reach. Just... concentrate and it should work."

"Okay Melody, I'll get on it. Come on Starlight, show me the printer. Ocean, go see what kind of help you can find for us. River, go see about the condition of the other starships. Some of them have to be operable, how else is food getting here?" Omar looks up at us as the Aviens run off in different directions to obey Omar. "What happened to Ottarn, that Mariens who took their ship and tried to run? If nothing else, we could use that ship."

"They went with FarReach. They told me that they scooped up Ottarn and their ship and were going to take them where they wanted to go."

"Hmm, do you think that means back to human space?" Um'reli asks and she's looking at the ship.

"I have no idea, I don't think so? I'm not sure what they'd find out there to benefit them."

This time Ava puts her hands on her hips and stares at us. "You mean, other that some sympathetic ears to listen to their story about a human who has installed herself as Empress in their space and might be willing to lend a hand with a couple of Starjumpers and their assorted lasers and missiles? You did lock the Gate after FarReach left, right?"

Uh oh. I forgot.

"Uh, sure thing Ava, let me just go... double check that it's locked. I reach out and I can feel the Gate from here though it's faint and... fuzzy. The lock was simple enough though I push here... pull that... and...

"Okay, yes, it's locked."

"Good. We don't want Ottarn coming back with reinforcements or something just yet. Later though... let them come. We'll show them." Ava's grin is worrying me a little bit. She seems much too excited about showing off.

I grab Ava and Um'reli "Come on, let's leave Omar to his work. We have other things to take care of. I think we're going to have to hire on some help, but before that we're going to have to figure out money."

Ava scoffs as we walk "You're still going on about money? Just make people help us out."

"Ava we're looking to help out here, not be overthrown in a couple weeks. If I make people help us, the moment we walk away people will start to wonder why they're helping us at all."

"Melody has a point Ava. What is it that we do here?" Um'reli is really good at throwing cold water on Ava's plans. I'm glad she came. Without her I have a hunch that Ava would be talking me into all kinds of bad ideas.

"Builders seem to work like the AIs on Starbases back home. So it's not like we have no job."

"Well then, let's go back to the Throne and do some work. I'm tired of walking around trying to mooch free stuff from people because they're scared of Melody." Um'reli stars walking back towards the Throne. I really don't have anything else to do, so I follow. "You coming, Ava?"

"I guess. I don't have anything else to do." Ava looks around somewhat wistfully and follows. I wonder what she was hoping to do instead. Probably have me order people to give her something.

As we walk into the entryway to the Throne - there's still no back door, I really need to find one or make one - something catches my eye. I walk over and... "It's a shrine"

"What?" Ava peeks over my shoulder "Oh, it's beautiful."

It really is. Someone made a drawing of us in some kind of pastel medium, like pencils or chalk. It's... me at the top, my wings spread wide and I'm glowing. Below that, it's Um'reli, Ava and Omar standing tall and proud looking up. Under that is a decent representation of hundreds of people bowing before us. Written on the bottom in the same local script I see all over it says "May They Protect Us." The drawing is on a little easel and there are flowers and candles all around it in a semicircle.

Protect them from what though?

"These flowers are amazing! I've never seen ones like this before" Um'reli bends down to get a closer look. She takes a deep breath "And they smell so good, Ava, Melody, you should smell them!"

Well if Um'reli, a K'laxi can smell them and not immediately break out in allergic hives, it's probably fine for us to smell too. I bend down low and... they smell... familiar? Why is that?

Ava straightens "These were grown. We need to find out where the gardens are and visit it!"

Um'reli stands as well. "After we get some work done Ava. We need to show everyone that we do something and aren't a drain on resources because Melody can order them around and they can't say no."

"What's the point of all this power if we don't use it!"

"Ava, we 'use it' like you want to and people will come after us with guns and knives. Who was the Empress before Melody?" Um'reli is looking hard at Ava.

"We have no idea."

"Exactly." Um'reli continues up the stairs to the Throne itself. I follow and Ava pouts but doesn't say anything further.

In the Builder room, Um'reli and Ava sit down. Their bodies go distant and they are integrating. "Okay Ava, Um'reli. You get down to work, I'm going to see about finding a bank and talking to them. Any idea where one is?"

"One moment Melody..." Ava is searching. "Okay, looks like a bank is down the street from the Administration building. It's not far."

"Thanks! Just reach out to me if you need anything." I head back out and down the stairs of the throne, passing by the little shine again. It really is cute, though I wish they put something a little more specific about what they wanted us to protect them from. Oh well, with our luck we'll find out soon enough.

It's not actually a long walk to the bank, Ava was right, it was just down the street from the Administration building. As I walk past I see that a couple people are cleaning up the barricades finally. I wave as I walk by, and they stand smartly and bow. Nice.

Soon enough, I come across what I assume is the bank. It's a large building, made out of the same material as the Administration building, marking it as very old. There is a large double door in the front made of what looks like the same metal as the coins everyone uses. The doors stand open with two people (an Azurian and a Mariens) standing out front. With a little wave to them, I walk in.

It's... a bank. Really. Tellers, little booths where people can discuss finance, even a little table before you get in line to fill out small slips of paper. I walk over to an Aviens who is sitting at a desk by the front door. They look up and do a double take when they see me. I'm not wearing my wings and crown anymore, but I still have on the gown from earlier.

"Uh, good day Holy One, what may this one help you with?" Holy One. Interesting.

"I would like to speak to the Bank Manager, please."

They rush to stand and their chair slides back with a squawk. "Of course, Holy One. Please, wait right here." The gesture over to a small group of chairs up against the wall. I can't really think of a reason why not, so I go over and sit.

Next to me is one of the pressure suited people. Up close, I can see how their suits are segmented metal colored bronze and completely decorated in elaborate carvings. They really are quite beautiful. Their helmets are almost completely featureless except for a bar where human eyes would be and there is what looks like a speaker on their neck.

I clear my throat. "Pardon me, I'm so sorry, but I haven't met one of you yet. Can you tell me your name and the name of your people?"

With just the most subtle clank and whir, they turn their head. "I am known as Vaaqo, and here, people call us Falor in your tongue." His head inclines slightly. "That is to say, the language that most people here speak call us Falor. I do not know your word for us in your Builder tongue."

"Falor is fine with me." I say brightly, and then stop. "Unless it is insulting to you or something."

They make a gesture with their hands. The Nanites indicate that they are indicating no. Oh, that makes sense! If they're suited all the time, most body language markers are lost. Hand gestures could take over for a bunch of nonspeaking conversation.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Vaaqo, thank you so much for the information. I have so many questions, but I will only ask one for now. Do you have to stay in your suit all the time?"

The same gesture meaning no. "We are fortunate that the upper sunward lobe of the Reach has a pressure door. We're able to maintain our helium methane atmosphere and higher ambient pressure and live suit free. The remains of our starship are installed up there, and we use it to control our own breathing gas."

They took their ship apart to survive? "Oh but that means you're trapped here! Once we open the gates and build more ships, we can send a message to your people."

Another gesture. The Nanites say it might be a smile "That is kind of you to offer, Empress. Before... well before, we were in the middle of a war. We were offered refuge here and so we do not know if any others of our kind remain. It will be... nice to find out for sure."

They're holding something back. I think they don't want to insult you.

It's fine. I see no need to compel them to tell me what they're hiding. It's probably something embarrassing to them or they think to me.

Luckily for all of us, you have no shame.

Ha ha.

As I argue with my Nanites, a Mariens walks up, looking nervous. "Hol-Empress, what a pleasant surprise. Thank you for taking the time to visit our fine financial establishment! My name is Utaid and I am at your service." He bows elaborately.

I stand and try to tower only slightly. I want to impress, not intimidate. "The pleasure is all mine Utaid, I am happy to have met you. I wish to open an account so that I will be able to pay people for services they render me."

They look shocked. "E-Empress, of course. We will do everything in our power to help. Since... all here is yours that of course includes all the money stored in the different banks across the Reach."

I nod. "While this is true, I am not a tyrant. I wish to make sure that people are paid and that operations continue as closely to before as possible. Please accept payment requests that come in from people in my name and keep records. We will do our utmost to make sure that the money going in is equal to or greater than the money coming out... in the long term."

They visibly relax. I wonder if they thought I was just going to come in and demand all the currency?

"It will be our most sincere pleasure Empress. We are proud that you have selected us to carry out your financial orders in Your name. We shall set up everything and dispatch a runner to you when it has been completed. I assume you are residing at the Royal Dawn hotel?"

"Yes, that's correct. How did you know?"

They look smug and embarrassed? How did they manage that? "Even though Reach of the Might of Vzzx is a very large starbase, rumors still seem to fly faster than light."

"Ah, thank you Utaid for all your help. I await your runners." They bow low again and I walk out.

Huh, that was easy. I guess people are starting to realize that I really am Empress and I really am trying to help everyone. Feeling very happy, I begin to walk back to the Throne.

"Uh, Melody there might be a problem." Um'reli's voice sounds worried in my head. She figured out how to contact me directly, very nice!

"What is it Um'reli?"

"Just a minute ago, I saw what looked like an alert. Ava and I checked it out and there's something going on at the main transit hub station. We either don't understand the alert or can't ready it yet. Can you check it out please?"

"Oh neat! I haven't been there yet. Sure, I'll go down and check it out. You two stay up there and be my eyes and ears."

The transit station is right around the corner from the bank. It reminds me a lot of photos of transit stations back on Earth. platforms, people milling about, advertising. But I see no crowds or anything worrying. I connect to the Starbase and think to Ava and Um'reli "I don't see any problem here, what's going on?"

"It's not here, it's at the main station. Get on the next train and ride two stops, you'll see it."

Oh, okay. Just as Ava finished speaking, a train rolls up. Like a lot of this place, it clearly was very fancy a long long time ago. The fact that it's still working is pretty impressive, even if it looks a bit run down. I walk on, and look around. There are seats all along the walls of the train car and poles along the middle to hang on to. Mentally I shrug and sit down near the door. After a moment, there's a trilling chime and the doors close.

With a lurch and a hiss of brakes, we get moving. I wonder if this train is automated, or if someone drives it. I should ask later. I'm lost in thought for the ride through the first station stop, but then I look around and realize everyone is staring at me.

"Oh, Hello!" I say brightly.

Immediately, the people closest to me drop to the ground, bowing their heads. "Oh, thank you, but you don't have to do that right now, please just sit. I'm just riding the train over to the hub station. My Builders tell me there's some kind of issue and I'm going to check it out."

"But, Empress... Surely you have people that you can send to do that for you?" It's a Mariens sitting across from me. They look amused.

"Oh not right now. I'm... between retainers and assistants right now. One of my Builders, Omar is helping to repair the High Line, that Aviens ship, and my other two, Ava and Um'reli are sitting in their Chairs, assisting with the operation of the Reach." Oh wait. "Do you want a job? I do find myself needing more people to help out with-" I gesture "-all this. I'm not sure how much to pay yet but I did just come back from the bank, so I'll be able to pay you; I'm sure I'll work all the rest out soon enough."

The Mariens chuckles "Thank you for the generous offer Empress, but I quite like my job. If you so order it... of course I'd help. If you're just asking though, no thank you."

"Oh, that's quite all right. I don't want to order you. But, if you know anyone that would like to help, have them come to the Throne chamber tomorrow, we'll see what we can do!" I look around at everyone trying very hard to look like they're not listening in. "That goes for anyone here too! If you want a job, come see us, if you know someone that does, send them. I need help, and I would love for it to be you!"

And with that same trilling chime, the doors open and I'm at the hub station.

Ah. Okay. I see what Ava and Um'reli are talking about.

There's a riot.

Part 24