#what else does Gamma Base have going on at this point

[daydreamerdrew]

Iron Man (1968) #132

[digitalgate02]

Y’know, one of the things this fandom seemed to be divided into two parts is about Frontier and Takuya’s “Dark Evolution” in the story. Some pointed it was “Vritramon rampaging phase” in the story, and some would consider “Takuya reverting into Flamon” as the dark evolution of this series.

First, what are the characteristics of Dark Evolution, according to the older three series + Savers? Mixing strong negative emotions and forcing your digimon to evolve. All cases of Dark Evolution before and after Frontier were like this. (I know, the OG Taichi was mostly by being a reckless idiot, but i like to think the novel version explained something a little more about this event)

Character has strong negative feelings and then forces their or someone else’s digimon to dark evolve into a mindless beast. – That’s how things worked in Adv’99, 02, Tamers and Savers.

(you may notice that instead of Daisuke dark evolving his partner, it’s Ken who forces a dark evolution on Taichi’s partner. Which implies yeah anyone could do that. Funny enough, Ken also fits the criteria established in those series: He is a self-absorbed and arrogant kid, so those emotions are mixed in the mix and this is why he evolves Agumon into SkullGreymon first. He only manages to get MetalGreymon virus after he cheats with his Evil/Dark Spiral. Meanwhile Daisuke lacks malice, lacks negative feelings. So he’s just a dumbass in ep 22 getting into trouble in the process.)

However, Ghost Game brought a new view of this concept by introducing GulusGammamon. As you can see, Gulus is a dark evolution (somehow) and it differs from every mindless-beast-on-rampage case we watched until now. But before going into GG take on it, I’d like to talk about the peculiar case in Adventure’s reboot series (aka Psi, or Adv:2020) first:

So, one of the things we saw in the episode from the reboot is that Taichi was getting consumed by the dark miasma around the place. We never had something like this before as well – this series was trying to “corrupt” Taichi too. The last time we saw a “tamer” corruption was on a Drama CD which was more a very weird and for fun story (this was done before the Drama CDs for digimon started to get serious stories) than something to take seriously. Anyway, the reboot was trying to corrupt Taichi first. Second is… Taichi dies for a moment which triggers Agumon’s dark evolution based on Agumon’s strong feelings (and the dark miasma, probably). This is going to be reused in Ghost Game, actually.

Now, back to Ghost Game!! Fun facts for you: Gulus is the only Gamma-form to not have a ring on his wrist/paw. Also, Gulus does not need Hiro to evolve either! But it was triggered by Gammamon’s strong feelings at first – when Bokomon died in front of him. Other cases were probably for survival in a life-or-death scenario for him or any of the trio. Gulus’ has another speech pattern from the other Gammamon forms, and the most important detail is he’s totally sentient. Gulus is more like another personality to Gammamon than being a feral beast in rampage.

But what can Ghost Game help us to decide which “dark evolution” scenario counts for Takuya/Frontier?

First of all, if we ignore Takuya for a moment, Frontier already has a “dark evolution” character – Kimura Kouichi. Duskmon and Velgmon are evil forms, and they’re purified into Loweemon and KaiserLeomon later. And heck, Kouichi himself is the “Warrior of Darkness” c’mon guys!!

BUT, Kouichi’s role is most suitable for the “redeemed villain” category. So yeah, which of Takuya’s cases suit the dark evolution criteria?

I’d like to reveal that, maybe, Frontier was ahead of its time. Because now that we got Ghost Game to break the norm and show us a new approach from this concept, it can help us here to notice Flamon was sort of a dark evolution for Takuya.

Frontier already makes clear that the Beast spirit forms cannot be controlled that easily, and I’ll shamelessly plug Shiha’s meta about everyone’s cases here in case we start the discussion about Izumi again.

So if we consider Vritramon the “dark evolution case”, you could say most of the kids in Frontier had it too. Which is odd, right?

But, if you consider Flamon an unusual dark evolution case, one like Gulus is now, it makes some sense. Dark evolution in the Digimon franchise is sort of “punishment” for not raising your digimon correctly – It’s a challenge, and you have to beat this obstacle to gain the new power/form to proceed. Dark evolution does not always mean “evil form” as well, just, as Gennai puts it in the end of Adventure, “a form not suitable for certain occasions” – So this concludes my thesis that Frontier started the unusual dark evolution forms instead.

Thank y’all for reading~

[sweatertheman]

even though i can tell you had 100% good intentions with it, i'll still politely request you delete the katana zero psychopathy post for two reasons:

1. psychopathy is generally a problematic diagnosis: its symptoms are based almost entirely on the subjective view of the people studying a person (not treating them. studying them). it primarily includes such things as:

criminal activity (only 'diagnosable' after the fact)

lacking empathy (not uncommon)

not showing regret or remorse (as far as the person making the diagnosis can tell)

not being able to form real interpersonal connection (every interpersonal connection that seems real gets re-interpreted as cunning manipulation)

defiance against authority (i don't have to spell out why that's not a good symptom for diagnosis)

"deviant sexual interests" (again, i don't have to spell that one out)

coldness (measured by the person making the diagnosis)

and, especially in children, an already existing diagnosis of adhd.

it's questionable whether psychopathy can be 'misdiagnosed' since the symptoms are mostly things that are attributed after the person making the diagnosis has already decided that they think someone is a psychopath. it's extremely subjective, and very little of it actually takes the person's own experience into consideration. in fact, there are a lot of studies actively disproving that the symptoms above have anything to do with heightened criminal activity (the thing psychopathy is said to cause). if nearly every diagnosis turns out to be a 'misdiagnosis' upon closer inspection, does that mean something was misdiagnosed, or maybe that the diagnosis is inherently wrong in of itself?

2. your post puts a lot of emphasis on there being or not being an "official" diagnosis. this makes me a little uneasy. what's official? in history, a lot of institutions have given very much official diagnoses to their patients- to imprison, torture or kill them. the idea that an official psychopathy diagnosis would make a difference one way or another implies that a greater authority can decide on someone's diagnosis and how to treat/use said someone based on it. i am sure that in zero's files, there probably is an official diagnosis for psychopathy, or if there isn't, one could be made at a moment's notice by his psychiatrist, an official mental health professional.

again, i recognise that you didn't mean anyone harm with your post, but the argument you make in it is flawed in its premise. you're absolutely right that the gamma null project just grabbed any kid that would kill people without a lot of fuss, but starting the argument by disproving zero's, fifteen's and headhunter's case of psychopathy is not the right way to go, since it implies that if there were nulls who were "real, officially diagnosed" psychopaths, the case would be different.

i hope this ask isn't upsetting, but i've seen you respond in the post itself and i thought you handled that really well, so hopefully it'll be the same with this.

yeah no, dont worry about it, it's all good!i m still not entirely sure where people are getting the idea that i was saying the NULL would not be deserving of decent treatment of they were "real psychopaths" from, but i guess i can delete the post, considering i was mistaken in my definition of psychopathy.

i would like to say that i feel like everything you've pointed out here is both useful and interesting! the fact that psychopathy is not a legitimate diagnosis and that it could be handed out on a whim based on whatever feelings the examiner has lends further credence to the idea that New Mecca doesn't care about these people at all and justifies its atrocities however it can! "official diagnosises" here just means getting a doctor to tell them whatever they already wanted to hear, that being that the NULL are actually evil soulless bastards and any mistreatment is justified if it means keeping them in line. anything to dehumanize the NULL. i dont really know how else to put it considering you laid it out so well in the ask!

i will reiterate again that i didnt mean to imply that Zero, Fifteen, and Headhunter being "real psychopaths" would have in any way made the NULL project somehow less terrible and inhumane. only that new mecca doesn't actually care if the NULL they create are "real psychopaths." it doesn't matter to them how social these people are, what connections they can and cannot form. they will claim that they're anti-social freaks regardless. psych is actively uncomfortable with the idea that Zero would be forming actual social connections.

i do agree though that my phrasing wasn't very well thought out and i guess it's easily misunderstood. when i made the post, i didnt know that psychopathy is not a real diagnosis, and was conflating the term psychopathy with the idea of someone who is antisocial, incapable of forming bonds, feels no guilt or remorse, and etc. when i set out to disprove the psychopathy of the NULL, i was trying to draw attention to the fact that the government and psych were trying to dehumanize the NULL by labelling them as psychopaths, even if they don't actually meet the criteria they had set out.

thanks for sending this message to me, you laid things out very well. ill delete the other post.

[crusherthedoctor]

top 5 favorite sonic soundtracks?

This list and order will probably change in about three days, because Sonic music is never easy to list and rank lol.

5. Sonic '06 - '06 has many problems (controversial opinion, I know... that's not even a joke these days), but the music ain't one of them. As someone who finds orchestral soundtracks to be something of an overused gimmick, with many of them sounding samey, flaccid, and lacking identity, Sonic's ones manage to be some of the exceptions, and '06 is arguably the crowning example. The actual gameplay-related tracks are full of bangers of course (Aquatic Base and Solaris Phase 1 <3), but don't forget the cutscene music too. Even Mephiles has some good themes associated with him, so well done to them for putting in that much composition effort for a character who didn't deserve it.

4. Sonic CD - How many games do you know where the boss theme tells you to work that sucker to death (c'mon now)? The raw energy present across the JP soundtrack is infectious, the more relaxed tracks are beautiful, and the differences for each level between each period of time enhances the memorability. My favourite overall is probably Quartz Quadrant, cause it makes me think of @greenyvertekins :> And while I do prefer the JP soundtrack overall, the US one does still have some great tracks of its own here and there.

3. Sonic Mania - Half of it may be remixes, but they're top tier remixes. Acts 2 of Chemical Plant, Oil Ocean, and Lava Reef are my favourite renditions of those themes in the series, and Act 1 of Stardust Speedway is jazzy as hell. As for the new themes? I can't even pick a favourite because they're all too good. D: Although I do have a particular spot for Press Garden...

2. Sonic Advance trilogy - Going back to the orchestral talk, it must be stressed that I don't praise or elevate a soundtrack just because it's orchestral. I don't care how primitive the resources used for my blue hedgehog ditties are. What I care about is that they're memorable, and that they bop. That's it. That's all that's required. So with that in mind, the Advance trilogy may be working with GBA compression, but I don't think it audibly sacrifices the level of raw passion and heart that went into them. Some of that might be the nostalgia talking since Advance 1 and 2 were the first Sonic games I saw and played respectively, but you don't need nostalgia to appreciate Ice Mountain, Egg Rocket, Music Plant, Chaos Angel, Nonaggression...

1. Sonic Adventure 1 - Despite doing this list, I don't think I can ever hand-on-heart pin down what my favourite soundtrack of all time is, because of how consistently excellent the music has usually been across three decades. I can, on the other hand, point out the ingredients that I think completes the highest of the highs, and for that reason, SA1 finds itself here. It's got the bangin', it's got the leitmotifs, it's got the impactful cutscene music, and above all else, it's got variety. Some otherwise good soundtracks can get carried away with throwing the same kind of rock here, there and everywhere; SA1 certainly has its rock, but it has plenty of other genres too, and the rock that is used actually compliments the environment and context perfectly.

My favourite track in the game? Tricky Maze for Lost World, but only barely, because if you haven't guessed, the other competing tracks are right by the door. Like Station Square, Windy and Ripply, Windy Hill, Mechanical Resonance, Crazy Robo, Unbound, Gamma's theme in general, Red Mountain in general...

[kninedlog]

I haven't been praising Sonic characters on my blog lately. Let's change that!

Here's every current main Sonic character IDW or Videogame and my; I've been with sonic the hedgehog since birth, opinion.

V+Name= Videogame vr

C+Name= IDW comic vr

Name = just assume I'm talking about both iterations or they only have the one of either.

(mostly jokes under the cut. I'm not taking this seriously)

VSonic: He be going; but the development of character is slow and practically stagnant

CSonic: He be going; but, the character development is actively moving along with him.

Tails: He be following; but, he has grown and I am very proud of my fox baby

Knuckles: He be punching. But, he has grown to accept more company. I *really* REALLY like that. He's gonna try to no longer be a loner. That makes me so happy, take that vacation Knux you deserve it boy!!

VAmy: Grown to levels at the age of twelve I never thought I would see possible.

CAmy: Shows me every time she's in a panel why she's still and forever will be my favorite sonic character.

VEggman: His same goofy ahh self. That old geezer is now hell-bent on just ending Sonic at this point.

CEggman: Still has plans and ambitions and still executes the most perfect plan awfully. Why is there a button to fuck you over, sir!

VMetal Sonic: My poor baby gets no love...

CMetal Sonic: This is what I'm talking about! This character hit hard and makes me cry harder!!

VShadow: Could be edgier...

CShadow: I would say the same thing as the video game iteration, but at the time I am making this post the Eggperial city arc of IDW comic has ended and Shadow played a big part in it. And he slayed. An absolute KING 👑 I'm just happy we got to see him a little bit fixed from what we got from the previous arcs. So, ultimate.

VRouge: Haven't seen her in a while can only go off based on what we recently got and fine I guess.

CRouge: A BOSS ASS BITCH! QUEEN! I LOVE YOU 💜💖💞💕💓 She one ups everyone with every line of sassy dialogue and I don't ever want it to end.

VE-123 Omega: Haven't seen him a while, can only go off base of what we've gotten so far, and I still miss Gamma. (Jk jk Omega's still cool)

COmega: A little menace of a preteen in a tank like robot body focused on nothing but being petty towards Eggman! Read the IDW Omega and you'll see the angsty preteen I promise! I love this Omega!

VSilver: He's such a punk.... Where's all the smack you were talking and power you were showing in 06 bro, where'd that go!

CSilver: He's such a punk.... But he talks that smack and shows that power he's been given since 06! Love him 🤍, this is why he'll always be number 2

VBlaze: All we got recently was her in that annoying racing game (it's fun cuz it's a little buggy I'm just trash at it) and the April fools game and in those I'm happy to see her having fun. In any cannon game she's ever been in she's got a stick up her butt. I'm happy to see her smiling more.

CBlaze: A breath of fresh air is what she needs and what she deserves and I'm happy that the comic is delivering. It's clear that her breath of fresh air is her going on adventure with sonic and co. So let her go on a little more adventures though, I wouldn't mind seeing her go on another girl focused adventure with Amy, rouge, cream, bell, tangle, whisper, and Lanolin. That sounds really fun! She'd probably have a blast.

VCream: I don't think I'm wrong about this but the last time we saw her was in GENERATIONS! . . . Need I say anything else?

CCream: IDW has made me find a new appreciation for the characters I never thought about as much since Sonic X. Cream being one of those characters. She's so headstrong, and believes in what she does and, is such a purely good force that everyone that has recently crossed paths with her either understands, or knows, that she will be a force to be reckoned with in the future. That girl is going places, and gonna change the world. We may never see it but the facts are there.

Gemerl: A gem. And I'm happy I got my Omega vs Gemerl fight in an annual issue. THAT made me love their character. So serious about everything unless their allowed to chill out which is everyday considering they live with the Rabbit family.

Vanilla: I don't think I can say anything about Vanilla other than that she's just a good mom.

💚💛💜TEAM CHAOTIX!!💚💛💜

VVector: Since we got him in the April fools game and the racing game he has more coverage to talk about, however he's still just a loud crocodile making the audience laugh

CVector: Yoooo! This guy don't play about his buddies. The metal virus arc... I was ready to cry. I didn't think he would do that let alone be as serious as he was in that arc considering the Chaotix are meant to jokes. Especially Vector with his greed. The comic shows that he's a good leader, and since he's been doing it for years I want to see another mini adventure involving the Chaotix and Knuckles.

VEspio: I don't think we've seen him since Generations either so,.... Still as quiet and ninja like as ever

CEspio: NINJA POWER!! He was, is, and forever will be one of the coolest characters in the sonic franchise to me. As he is; I believe, to be the only one with a definite fighting style and set of skill along with a vibe of mystery that I wish would be uncovered sooooo bad. If you seen that annual where Silver and him had that deep talk, I almost could hold back tears. Again this comic has made me have a serious appreciation for the characters I never thought about so hard since Sonic X. He's perfect, never change Espio.

VCharmy: Again since Generations, all we've seen is a kid.

CCharmy: I have a lot of thoughts on comic Charmy that it's hard for me to put it down. I'm not gonna make the rest of this post a rant/appraisal on this little kid. So this is all I'm leaving you with.

- PART 1 - You're here!

- PART 2 - Here

[theomnicode]

Hero Association and Hidden agendas

Beyond the midway point, basically the point where the timelines diverged and Garou got punched by future Saitama.

But what is interesting is what Sekingar says next. What the police apparently learned from Garou's interrogation.

Lose his memory? No no no, this is incorrect.

Garou actually remembers pretty damn well who he fought after he monsterized.

He even remembers who he actually fought and remembers things past Garou should not remember. The shock of the punch did not make him lose memory of the future fight or what happened in these fights before Zero punch.

So, Sekingar-

How exactly could the police confirm that some future event took place? When Garou has no memory of it happening in the first place, like Saitama? But you claim that was what they interrogated him about? That Garou forgot he was defeated by Saitama?

If you were to ask Garou, he would've said that he blasted away Caped Baldy with Gamma ray burst and "beat him." If anything.

Not "I forgot if I kicked Bald guy's ass cuz some random person punched me too hard."

Can he forget something he has no memory of? The loss of future event memories which did not happen for Garou, would be impossible to ascertain during interrogation process WHICH HAD ALREADY HAPPENED the week before, unless someone from this meeting chose to basically go and confront him about the information in this SPECIFIC meeting and ask him about it directly.

Are you trying to lead the questioning with the answer, Sekingar?

And make it appear like Garou losing memory is about Garou losing memory of the fight conclusion and the future fight that did not happen to him, after hearing Genos' tale?

So nobody would figure out and ASK what Garou had ACTUALLY forgotten?

The secrets of monsterization.

Which is being kept hidden at all costs. That denouncing your humanity by feeling subhuman is what causes the monsterization process and emotions and being driven to a corner like an animal fuel the mutation process and give it power.

This is what Garou learned on his monsterization journey, forgot from Saitama punching the monsterization out of him and what is being kept hidden.

This would be the most important intel of the century.

Please come up with a more believable lie next time Sekingar.

(I wish Flash would say this but alas...)

Nope, you don't have any definitive information at all, Flash.

Because you suck at gathering true intel, you believe anything HA is saying and disregard the only one telling an authentic story.

Kakashi-sensei would be disappointed in you. What a ninja you are. Look underneath the underneath and go watch more Naruto or something.

If you get fed false intel, you're basically dead if you attempt to do subterfuge.

Meanwhile, HA is still trying to lead the conversation.

Where the hell would Blast pull this kind of information anyway? Out of his ass that has a pocket dimension?

This is such a wild assumption to make holy moly.

And if you knew someone was basically summoning God in, A SPIRITUAL GODDAMN BEING, you'd fucking know the source. 100%. And not throw a random guesswork that would implicate someone else.

If Blast knows there is a connection between Saitama and OPM God, he damn right would've already done something about it. Otherwise he has zero ways to actually infer God's motives. Zero ways. Interaction with God's dimension could literally be anything.

Basically, we're fed False Intel. Saitama does not summon God to their dimension.

Flash continues to not impress by having zero intel gathering skillsets whatsoever. Sitch just changes the subject under his nose and stops him from questioning about the actual investigation taking place and how they would supposedly investigate an incorporeal being.

I'm glad Genos called Flash out on not being sensitive to information gathering. Top tier burn.

If Flashy knew he was being hoodwinked so hard and how much he disregarded true intel based on gay subtext, this burn would sting his pride something awful.

Ah I love Genos and him being the objective truth narrator.

Always, always listen to what Genos is saying. Be sensitive to gathering intel yup yup.

Honestly, at this point, you just have to wonder about the HA's agenda here.

If we're even talking to the real HA. Doubtful. Something more is at play.

The only one who'd really want to keep secrets of monsterization hidden would be OPM God, so nobody would be able to make countermeasures against that.

So I wager that OPM God has a hand in this too.

Possibly to implicate Saitama and make him public enemy number 1# and other things to break his spirit, so he would get all sorts of desperate, cornered, feel like the worst possible human being and emotional and come to him on his own volition and beg to become his slave, so he would forget himself.

Cruel and sociopathic self-amusement might be just the agenda.

Maybe OPM God is honestly just fucking bored.

I mean, if the protagonist suffers from excessive boredom because they became too strong, why not the antagonist too?

It's still an intellectual being, but very much alone and stuck in alternate dimension. It would even make sense in a twisted way.

The metaphor of frying ants with a magnifying glass comes to mind. It would be like toying with or swatting bugs to him.

Lot's of hidden agendas being at play, let's see how this plays out.

[lastdr3am3r445]

💘Dying Your Hair with Eijirou Kirishima 💘

Hey guys!~ Sorry I haven't been posting, I've got a case of the sads, so only one post today, but it's something I've been wanting to write for a while. Today I just needed a soft fluffy comfort story. No naughtiness here, but maybe tomorrow 🤫

Genre: Fluff Wordcount: 999 (yes, really.) CW: Like a small mention of maybe being bullied in the past, but nothing actively described.

If you like to listen to music while you read, might I suggest this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gt1cAfalNM Semi-related, does anyone else get the feeling that Kirishima listens to old 80's Top 40's like REO Speedwagon? Maybe I'll do a headcanon on that... Anyhow! Now to the story: You pick up the same damn box of hair dye for probably the fourth or fifth time, examine the instructions on the back, the sample colors on the side, and wonder if your hair will actually turn out like that before you heave another sigh and replace it back on the shelf.

What were you doing here?

Maybe you were having an identity crisis. Maybe you were worried that if you didn’t do something soon, you’d be stuck looking the way you do your entire life, that would just be your “Brand” as a “Hero”, and you just didn’t feel very heroic.

At that moment, about the worst possible thing found your ears.

“Hey! New kid!”

Great, you’re ‘the new kid’.

You squeezed your eyes shut and hoped that if you thought about it hard enough, you might become one with the display of boxes of dye and thus not be perceived by anyone you might have to see ever again.

“Hey!” A smiling voice let you know that your manifestation had failed.

“Oh God..” you heard, and you waited for it. The judgement, the teasing, the laughter at your expense that always seemed to follow you as “the new kid”.

“Are you dying your hair?”

“Yeah. What about it?” You clipped, and when you looked up, you saw red.

Not in that way, literally red. Red hair, red eyes, all framed by a relaxed red hoodie slung over his head.

“Well don’t use that brand, it washes out, like, instantly!” He flicked his hands with a toothy grin, “and that one..” he pointed to the box next to the one you had picked up, “that one is semi-permanent, and will rub off on ev-er-y-thing!”

He laughed brightly, like he was recalling a memory. He didn’t seem like he was putting you on, seemed… genuine. You decided to indulge him, “Oh.. well.. which one do you recommend?”

He brought a crooked finger to his chin, and red irises floated up, accessing his brain, “hmmm..”

You backed up a little when he stopped to start perusing the shelves, “based on that color, want demi-permanent… not too expensive… with good coverage… I’d go with this one!” He hands you a bottle, not a box. You look at him, a little confused.

“This one?”

“Yeeep! Typically you wanna stay away from box dyes.” He says through a deep stretch, which left his arms folded behind his head, “you might need to bleach your hair just a little, but I have that stuff at home.” He gave you another sharp toothed grin and a wink, “Hi, I’m Eijirou Kirishima!”

You introduced yourself and asked “How.. do you know about all this stuff?”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” He pulled the hood off his head to reveal dark shadowy roots, “did you think this was my natural hair color?”

“Stranger things have happened!” You said, a small smile quirking your lips.

“Yeah I suppose that’s true.” His face fell into a sheepish smile.

“So.. you’ll let me borrow your bleach and stuff?”

“I’ve got a better idea…”

***

You sat cross legged against Eijirou’s bed, a splotchy bleach-stained towel around your shoulders, still damp from your shower.

“You’re sure about this?”

“Apfolutely!” He muffled past the plastic brush pinched in his teeth, his arms a tangle of gloves, foils, bowls and product.

He dumped his armful across his desk and started sorting the pile, “You’re gonna look great!”

He didn’t even look at the directions as he mixed the bleach and developer into a viscous goo.

“Alright!” He cheered with a *fwoomp* as he leapt with his bowl onto the bed behind you. He positioned a box of foils beside him and asked, “Ya ready?”

You covered your face, and took a short breath, “As I’ll ever be…”

“Heheheheh~” he loosed a sinister laugh, took up his rat tail comb, and started sectioning and clipping your hair.

***

“Alrighty!” He chimed, snapping the vinyl gloves off his hands, “Check it out!” He handed you a wide hand mirror.

“I look like I’m waiting for the mothership…”

You weren’t wrong, tin foil jutted out from your head in every direction. At least you were protected from gamma waves, or whatever.

“Hahaha! This is the part where you trust the process..” He laughed as he padded over to the desk to mix up more product.

“Yeah.. Sure..” You guessed you kinda had to, at that point.

“Okay!” The mirror left your hand, replaced by the bowl of lightener, and your new friend plopped down in front of you, “Your turn!”

“What?! I- I never- I thought you said you’ve done this before?”

“Yeah, just because I can do it by myself, doesn’t mean I want to.” He rolled his eyes, “Don’t worry, I’ll walk you through everything.” He flipped the mirror up in front of his face so he could see the dark stained roots and you beyond them; “It’s a part of the fun anyway!”

“O-okay…” You hesitated, but you pulled on a clean pair of vinyl gloves and went to work.

***

He did as he promised, and walked you through every step. Turns out it wasn’t that hard, and it was pretty repetitive after a while. Section the hair, paint the darkened roots on the front and back, section again; it left you plenty of time to talk.

By the time you were done with his roots, your hair was done developing. You rinsed and rinsed and rinsed, and after many more reassurances from Eijirou to “trust the process” you did it all again with toner, then again with color. The two of you were up until the wee hours coloring your hair, watching movies and talking.

After all was said and done, and your skin itched from the constant in-and-out of the shower, you were super happy with your choice, and that you had made a friend. Nowadays the two of you keep an appointment, maybe even a date, to do each other's hair every 6 weeks.

[rubykgrant]

A nonsensical “Freelacer/Sim Trooper/AI” swap because it amuses me-

York and North are the two dudes on Red Team who just stand around and talk all day (York is a little bit more of a slacker, and North tries to actually pay attention to orders. Often, York will lock-pick his way into a room so he can hide and take a nap, but North always finds him and nags the guy to get back to work). Later, South is the sister who shows up (but less in an “I missed you, bro!” way and more of a “You though you could escape ME, your problem sibling?!” way). Wash is their rookie, and they start dunking on him (yes, he’s the Donut). Wyoming is their leader (instead of all that bonkers yee-haw junk Sarge says, they have to listen to Wyoming talk British). They have another team member named CT, who the boys ASSUMED was a robot... because she almost never talks to them and is always working on the vehicles (Wyoming knows she’s human, and South figured it out right away; North, York, and Wash are just dinks)

Flowers is still Florida, because that’s just... that’s him. So, he’s the dead Blue Team leader. Carolina called dibs on his armor (everybody else calls it aqua, she insist it is cyan). New reluctant Blue leader is Tex (who is swapped with Alpha; the Director decided to hide the AI that almost-kinda-sorta reminds him of his dead wife in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere, under the guise of “Let’s see if she’ll act like a real soldier?”, but he just wants to keep her out of the way. He’s not even paying enough attention to realize his DAUGHTER is there too). Carolina and Tex argue a lot, but also get along really well (they have NO clue how ironic this is). Their rookie is Maine, who doesn’t say much... but he’s actually very sweet and happy to help (he intimidates the heck out of the Reds, but he’s a push-over). Sheila is also still their tank~

“Alpha” is Tex’s ex-boyfriend and a Freelancer who just shows up... he has a reputation for always surviving dangerous and deadly situations, but he can’t shoot for crap (he keeps doing AI things by accident and doesn’t notice because he’s stupid; THAT’S why his missions are successful, not because of physical skills. he’s still got amnesia about what he really is, the Director is using him as part of the “let’s see if the AI will act like people” experiment). Initially the others are afraid of him, but then they get to know him and see he’s also a dork

The Triplets are a group who were SUPPOSED to be trained as field medics... but then never got told what to do. They move between both teams and sometimes... help? A little? They try

The Freelancers all have code-names based on the Greek Alphabet, and are paired with AI units; the AI are very odd... they have unique personalities and nick-names that make them sound more like “real people” than computer programs (Alpha doesn’t remember because his memories were taken away, but he actually MADE THEM. these AI were friends that he created, partially based on emotions/real people the Director encountered at some point, but they’ve been allowed to develop into unique individuals. they also have missing memories, but feel like they should have another friend with them). There is also a training AI assistant named Lopez; there was a glitch, and his speech settings are stuck on Spanish... nobody can figure out how to fix it (he’s doing it on PURPOSE just to mess with people)

Alpha is usually put on solo missions, so the others don’t know him that well (again, he’s got a mysterious and impressive reputation, but... he’s a dork). He doesn’t have an AI partner (because secretly, he IS one). He tends to use a voice filter... because otherwise, people will hear his stress-screech when he’s upset (with the filter, he sounds more scary)

Delta is a very logical person and doesn’t like to rush into things without knowing all the information first. Despite seeming somewhat distant, he actually cares for the others very much. His AI partner is called Caboose, who seems to provide nearly boundless energy for running the equipment in his suit, and a special ability to allow Delta to see patterns in chaotic situations (somehow, random things just make sense from Caboose’s point of view)

Theta is the youngest Freelancer, though not a literal child (he’s just short and his voice still cracks). He’s pretty much the heart of the group and is best at breaking up arguments. His AI partner is called Sarge, who talks tough but has a soft-spot for Theta, and provides him with the ability to project multiple energy shields around himself and others to keep people safe (Theta also figures out how to make a perfect sphere, and roll in his shield through enemies like a giant hamster ball of doom)

Eta is a little bit melancholy and tends to mope... but still manages to always complete missions successfully. Their AI partner is called Grif, who seems to have a easy-going attitude, but also helps cheer Eta up (Grif gives him perfect camouflage/invisibility, plus block heat-tracers and motion-trackers... which is good, since when Eta feels awkward, he just wants to vanish)

Iota is Eta’s twin sibling, but they were raised apart. Iota wants to reconnect now that they are both here, but it is awkward. Iota is more out-going and cheerful, but has bad luck on missions (not very sneaky). Their AI partner is called Kai, who can help them hack into pretty much any machine (Kai especially loves creating distractions- she makes security cameras play random internet videos, and will make loud obnoxious music play on enemy radio channels)

Sigma is a very ambitious Freelancer, but he hides his motives with a calm persona. His AI partner is called Simmons, who seems very intelligent and eager to help with tasks, but he tends to panic under stress (when he can focus, Simmons is able allow Sigma to temporarily see into the thoughts of others, essentially reading the minds of enemies... it is against the rules to do this outside of battle, but Sigma bullies Simmons into letting him do it whenever he wants)

Omega is the most violent Freelancer, plain and simple. Most of the others don’t like him much, but it is undeniable that he’s helpful on missions. His AI partner is called Doc, who creates the best form of a healing unit (able to ease pain almost instantly and heal broken bones moments later. if they run out of energy though, it doesn’t work. Doc’s nicer attitude clashes with Omega’s personality at first, but the two wind up being good for each other)

Gamma is a Freelancer who was born mute, but speaks with digital voice enhancement. His skills with vehicles and machines make him a valuable member of the team. His AI partner is called Donut, and the two get along almost instantly (Gamma loves to tell jokes, and Donut thinks he’s hilarious... Donut has a habit of mis-speaking in a way that makes other people roll their eyes, but Gamma finds him endearing). Donut’s ability to let Gamma “see into the past” (they can visualize what took place in an a area a long time ago, even with no witnesses or security footage, allowing them know secrets and important information)

There is one AI that doesn’t have a Freelancer partner, and is kept hidden away in storage; each of the AI have become their own “person” in a way, but initially they began as people Alpha wanted to be friends with and had a “purpose”. They filled roles of companionship, but Alpha also wanted them to be individuals so they could grow and change. For some reason, Tucker didn’t let go of his memories when the Director tried to take them away. It was too dangerous to use Tucker as an AI to assist a Freelancer, so they locked him up. Tucker has a a talent for figuring out how to make strange alien tech work, even when nobody else does. They keep putting objects and devices in the storage room with Tucker’s AI unit, and he’s been learning how to use them, thus planning an escape. His first step is to contact his other AI friends so they remember him, and hopefully find Alpha again...

[eli-kittim]

Science & God’s Existence

By Author Eli Kittim

Can We Reject Paul’s Vision Based On the Fact that No One Saw It?

Given that none of Paul’s companions saw or heard the content of his visionary experience (Acts 9), on the road to Damascus, some critics have argued that it must be rejected as unreliable and inauthentic. Let’s test that hypothesis. Thoughts are common to all human beings. Are they not? However, no one can “prove” that they have thoughts. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have any. Just because others can’t see or hear your thoughts doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Obviously, a vision, by definition, is called a “vision” precisely because it is neither seen nor observed by others. So, this preoccupation with “evidence” and “scientism” has gone too far. We demand proof for things that are real but cannot be proven. According to philosopher William Lane Craig, the irony is that science can’t even prove the existence of the external world, even though it presupposes it.

No one has ever seen an electron, or the substance we call “dark matter,” yet physicists presuppose them. Up until recently we could not see, under any circumstances, ultraviolet rays, X – rays, or gamma rays. Does that mean they didn’t exist before their detection? Of course not. Recently, with the advent of better instruments and technology we are able to detect what was once invisible to the human eye. Gamma rays were first observed in 1900. Ultraviolet rays were discovered in 1801. X-rays were discovered in 1895. So, PRIOR to the 19th century, no one could see these types of electromagnetic radiation with either the naked eye or by using microscopes, telescopes, or any other available instruments. Prior to the 19th century, these phenomena could not be established. Today, however, they are established as facts. What made the difference? Technology (new instruments)!

If you could go back in time to Ancient Greece and tell people that in the future they could sit at home and have face-to-face conversations with people who are actually thousands of miles away, would they have believed you? According to the empirical model of that day, this would have been utterly impossible! It would have been considered science fiction. My point is that what we cannot see today with the naked eye might be seen or detected tomorrow by means of newer, more sophisticated technologies!

——-

Can We Use The Scientific Model to Address Metaphysical Questions?

Using empirical methods of “observation” to determine what is true and what is false is a very *simplistic* way of understanding reality in all its complexity. For example, we don’t experience 10 dimensions of reality. We only experience a 3-dimensional world, with time functioning as a 4th dimension. Yet Quantum physics tells us there are, at least, 10 dimensions to reality: https://www.google.com/amp/s/phys.org/news/2014-12-universe-dimensions.amp

Prior to the discoveries of primitive microscopes, in the 17th century, you couldn’t see germs, bacteria, viruses, or microorganisms with the naked eye! For all intents and purposes, these microorganisms DID NOT EXIST! It would therefore be quite wrong to assume that, because a large number of people (i.e. a consensus) cannot see it, an unobservable phenomenon must be ipso facto nonexistent.

Similarly, prophetic experiences (e.g. visions) cannot be tested by any instruments of modern technology, nor investigated by the methods of science. Because prophetic experiences are of a different kind, the assumption that they do not have objective reality is a hermeneutical mistake that leads to a false conclusion. Physical phenomena are perceived by the senses, whereas metaphysical phenomena are not perceived by the senses but rather by pure consciousness. Therefore, if we use the same criteria for metaphysical perceptions that we use for physical ones (which are derived exclusively from the senses), that would be mixing apples and oranges. The hermeneutical mistake is to use empirical observation (that only tests physical phenomena) as “a standard” for testing the truth value of metaphysical phenomena. In other words, the criteria used to measure physical phenomena are quite inappropriate and wholly inapplicable to their metaphysical counterparts.

——-

Are the “Facts” of Science the Only Truth, While All Else is Illusion?

Whoever said that scientific “facts” are *necessarily* true? On the contrary, according to Bertrand Russell and Immanuel Kant, only a priori statements are *necessarily* true (i.e. logical & mathematical propositions), which are not derived from the senses! The senses can be deceptive. That’s why every 100 years or so new “facts” are discovered that replace old ones. So what happened to the old facts? Well, they were not necessarily true in the epistemological sense. And this process keeps repeating seemingly ad infinitum. If that is the case, how then can we trust the empirical model, devote ourselves to its shrines of truth, and worship at its temples (universities)? Read the “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” by Thomas Kuhn, a classic book on the history of science and how scientific paradigms change over time.

——-

Cosmology, Modern Astronomy, & Philosophy Seem to Point to the Existence of God

If you studied cosmology and modern astronomy, you would be astounded by the amazing beauty, order, structure, and precision of the various movements of the planets and stars. The Big Bang Theory is the current cosmological model which asserts that the universe had a beginning. Astoundingly, the very first line of the Bible (the opening sentence, i.e. Gen. 1.1) makes the exact same assertion. The fine tuning argument demonstrates how the slightest change to any of the fundamental physical constants would have changed the course of history so that the evolution of the universe would not have proceeded in the way that it did, and life itself would not have existed. What is more, the cosmological argument demonstrates the existence of a “first cause,” which can be inferred via the concept of causation. This is not unlike Leibniz’ “principle of sufficient reason” nor unlike Parmenides’ “nothing comes from nothing” (Gk. οὐδὲν ἐξ οὐδενός; Lat. ex nihilo nihil fit)! All these arguments demonstrate that there must be a cosmic intelligence (i.e. a necessary being) that designed and sustained the universe.

We live in an incredibly complex and mysterious universe that we sometimes take for granted. Let me explain. The Earth is constantly traveling at 67,000 miles per hour and doesn’t collide with anything. Think about how fast that is. The speed of an average bullet is approximately 1,700 mph. And the Earth’s speed is 67,000 mph! That’s mind-boggling! Moreover, the Earth rotates roughly 1,000 miles per hour, yet you don’t fall off the grid, nor do you feel this gyration because of gravity. And I’m not even discussing the ontological implications of the enormous information-processing capacity of the human brain, its ability to invent concepts, its tremendous intelligence in the fields of philosophy, mathematics, and the sciences, and its modern technological innovations.

It is therefore disingenuous to reduce this incredibly complex and extraordinarily deep existence to simplistic formulas and pseudoscientific oversimplifications. As I said earlier, science cannot even “prove” the existence of the external world, much less the presence of a transcendent one. The logical positivist Ludwig Wittgenstein said that metaphysical questions are unanswerable by science. Yet atheist critics are incessantly comparing Paul’s and Jesus’ “experiences” to the scientific model, and even classifying them as deliberate literary falsehoods made to pass as facts because they don’t meet scholarly and academic parameters. The present paper has tried to show that this is a bogus argument! It does not simply question the “epistemological adequacy” of atheistic philosophies, but rather the methodological (and therefore epistemic) legitimacy of the atheist program per se.

——-

[legends-live-in-memories]

“How Did All This Happen?”- A Memoire by one Marinette Dupain-Cheng 4

Yooooooooo. Guess who’s back? me. this part 4 whoohoo. I swear i will let them meet i promise okay. but first, plot. kinda short but needed to happen. also i have such fun ideas for identity shenanigans, misunderstandings and situations that would permanently grey poor Damian. 

without further ado

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5 Part 6

Let it Be Known That Damian Thought This was a Bad Idea II

The Team had expanded their research into more forms of magical weapons, enlisting the help of Zatanna and Dr. Fate. Constantine was nowhere to be found. Using the Shaolin’s Snake Fist as a focal point, they searched for other magical weapons that could have been used to develop modern martial arts. They came across information on a collection of magical artifacts called Prodigiouses, which are said to grant the owner abilities respective to the specific animal spirits. The story corroborated what Kobra was yapping on about so the Team took particular interest in them. They could not however find any connection between these Prodigiouses and the Kobra-Venom other than the Cult of the Kobra was involved. 

This could mean two things. Either the Cult of the Kobra is only one small part in an even bigger pyramid scheme of world domination, or that the cult was only aware of the snake dagger and had total disregard for the rest. Guess which one the Team of Batman offsprings and conspiracy theorists believed happened? No one could leave well enough alone.

Damian didn’t know how their research didn’t lead them to the Miraculouses or the League of Shadows but he will take his blessings where he can. The Prodigious were rumored to have been scattered across the globe, in areas where their animal spirits thrived. They uncovered the existence of five of these prodigiouses, including the missing dagger. Their information was limited in what these actually looked like, referring to them by specific names instead. The Team had divided into four squads to maximize search and retrieval. 

Alpha Squad, consisting of Blue Beetle, SuperBoy, Spoiler, Batgirl (Oracle’s new protege) and Thirteen, was to head to Juneau, Alaska to look for what their research has called the Bear’s Paw.  

Beta Squad was to head to Serengeti, Tanzania in search of the Lion’s Head. The members were Red Robin, Raven, Wonder Girl, El Dorado and Static. 

Gamma Squad was sent to Kyoto in Japan to find the Dragon’s Claw. Gamma Squad was Nightwing, Halo, Robin, Ms. Martian and Kid Flash.

Delta Squad, members being Tigress, Arrowette, Beast Boy, Signal and Starfire, was sent to the Amazons in Brazil. They were tasked with finding the Monkey’s Tail. 

Oracle would be stationed at the Hub computers, monitoring surveillance, tracking all the missions and relaying information to each squad. Zetatubes would only work in Kyoto and in the outskirts of the Amazons. Tracking and finding the Snake’s Fang, and whoever stole it, was set for a later date. Damian prayed for never.

The squads were set to head out by the end of the week, giving each enough time to prepare and set up travel and rest accommodations. This was not going to be a quick and easy mission that only lasted a few hours due to the lack of actual information to base off. Again, Damian refused to be of help here. Three of the squads had magic users and the Team was hoping for some magical essence to be traced. Delta had Beast Boy and they hoped he could talk to the animals to see if they knew anything. Yeah, this mission was multiple shots in the dark but the Team was not taking any chances. Also the week would give the younger members of the team time to find believable cover stories to tell their parents since, you know, the League, and League-adjacents, no longer had jurisdiction in any of these places. One day, Lex Luthor is going to have to pay for all this and Damian hopes he gets to be the one to bash the fucker’s face in. 

Anyways, there were several questions that went unanswered amongst all this planning. The first was what they planned to do with all these artifacts. Destroy them? Keep them in Justice League vaults? It’s one thing to keep potentially dangerous weapons out of the wrong hands, but this plan felt very colonistic in execution; removing what could potentially be sacred artifacts from the local culture because they thought it was unprotected there left a bad taste in Damian’s mouth. Clearly, he wasn’t the only one who thought so as Thirteen voiced these very concerns. The other younger members were of similar opinion. Static and Signal looked particularly miffed and wouldn’t look anyone in the eye. 

“Well,” Nightwing looked like he didn’t account for that in his planning. No one seemed to have an intelligent answer to that question and exchanged semi-awkward glances. He was honestly surprised at this, expecting a firm pushback at the concerns. This wasn’t the first time the Team made morally compromising decisions so Damian was confused at the sudden hesitation. He knew why the younger members would be concerned about the ethics. But he held no such understanding for the members of Batman Inc. or those who faked their own deaths for the sake of the mission. The sudden acquisition of a moral compass which prevented a solid answer was ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

But then again, most things in this life are. Zatanna assured that if they did find any of these Prodigiouses, she and Constantine would work to find a proper way to keep them out of nefarious hands without robbing the locals of their culture. She obviously didn’t believe what she was saying. Neither did anyone else but who was paying attention to that detail? No one, apparently. And she mentioned Constantine who was off doing whatever it was that he does when he’s skiving off of official Justice League duties. He was supposed to be here, being a highly trained magic user with impressive tracking skills and all. But he wasn’t. He wished wherever that bastard is, he’s having a horrible time. 

Taglist

@deathwishy @neakco @virtualreading @f-rget-lt @your-resident-chicken-nugget @nathleigh @toodaloo-kangaroo @irontimetravelflower @trippingovermyfeet @t1dwarrior-of-earth @tip-tap-tired @fidget-eep @thenillabean @officiallydarkgeek @mystery-5-5 @moonlightstar64 @just-an-observer-ignore-me @nightstarblue @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @fan-written @jjmjjktth @vixen-uchiha @zorua-adorable

[druck-in-love]

Okeyy here it is!! I decided to put together a step by step (gif) coloring tutorial where i list the layers i use and how i've so far made them work for me.

I've been giffing for 2 years now (i'm using PS CC2019, the example pics are in finnish but icons and placements should be the same) but it's an ongoing learning process.

My coloring style is quite natural, i don't do fancy stuff often and i mostly just want the colors to look as true to real as possible but better than originally. And for this kind of style i've found the steps below working for me.

I also don't have any base psds or anything that i'd often use. I always start the coloring for each set from the scratch because, to me, it's the most fun part of giffing. I have 6 layers I use every time and then some random additional ones that i often add too. None of this is me saying what you should do, this all just me explaining what i do and hopefully this can be helpful to someone.

Ok ok time to get to the point so:

1. Curves

I always, like literally always, start with this layer

Sometimes i just drag the line upwards to brighten the gif but very often i use the eyedropper tool

Choose the white tool, pick the whitest (but not 100% white coz then it won't do anything) spot and it will make that the whitest part of the gif. It also works great at correcting the colors, sometimes you need to try multiple different spots to get the best result

The black dropper tool works the same way, only opposite, so clicking on the darkest spot you make that the blackest part of the gif

If the effect is good but a bit too much, you can lower the opacity of the layer, or the other way, so if it did well but not enough then duplicate the layer

Example: the difference between the left and right photo is 2 clicks and this, my dudes, is why i worship curves. I chose the white eyedropper tool and clicked on that light spot visible in the water, then i chose the black eyedropper and clicked on fatou’s hair and that’s it. Needs more work, but that’s a pretty allright (and easy!!) start (zoom to see better)

2. Levels

I drag the left and right sliders a bit to the center to get contrast (left ~5-20, right ~240)

The eyedroppers work on this layer pretty much the same way as in curves, but i'm more used to using them only with curves

3. Black and white gradient map

I set the blending mode to soft light and lower the opacity to ~10-30 %, this brings some depth to the colors imo

4. Vibrance

I usually add ~20-60, it really varies tho and you can just wing it most times

5. Exposure

I set the top one (exposure) to 0,1 - 0,2 and bottom one (gamma) to 0,97 - 0,90. This is an effective layer so better not do too much

6. Color balance

Owing my life to this layer

I add this layer at around this point of coloring but i drag it to be the bottom layer, since when it's under the rest of the layers it's more effective

In the midtones, i always drag the bottom slider towards blue, something as small as +2 might work, sometimes you need to go +15 or so. I might drag the middle slider slightly to the left to reduce the green tones, and the top one on either side depending on the tone of the gif

Example: this one doesn’t have any of those other 5 coloring layers i always use so it needs more work but also it shows how effective color balance is. I added more blue than normally, at least with one layer, but this one needed it imo. Love to see the green go whoosh

At this point the coloring might be done (jk it likely isn’t) but if it needs some more work then i might try one or some/all of these:

7. Photofilter

I mostly use either warm orange filter to bring some warmness to the colors or cold blue filter to correct yellow/green/red tones

8. Hue/saturation

I choose red and drag the middle slider (saturation) to -5 to -20, this helps to reduce the orange/unnatural skintones

Example:

9. Selective color

Playing around with whichever color i want to add or reduce, if i feel like the gif needs more contrast i choose neutral and/or black and drag the bottom (black) color to the right.

If sometimes the whites are too blinding, i choose white and then the bottom option (black) and drag it to the right ~10 -20.

If the skintones are too yellowish, i choose yellow and go -40 / -40 / -80 and leave the blacks at 0. If it does too much, i lower the opacity of the layer, or in case i want it to be more, i duplicate the layer

Example: (zoom and cry happy tears over the ugley yellowness being gone)

10. Gradient map

For example blue-white gradient to get to colder tones, yellow-white to brighten/soften the colors or smth like pink-blue if you want to get fancier (the options are limitless tbh)

I set these to soft light and lower the opacity, usually to less than 40%

If i want the color to strongly affect the entire gif, then i leave the blending mode to normal or choose color

11. Brightness

Adding this if some more brightness is needed (i don't use the contrast option here but go to levels instead, if needed)

_________

Tips with poc!!

Some things i've found to be helpful when wanting to bring color back to the skintone after brightening or other adjustments have taken some of it away:

a. Check the points 8 & 9

In selective coloring choosing neutral or black and then black in them and dragging it to the right helps to darken the skintone

Try choosing red or yellow and then yellows or blacks in them and dragging the slider either to the left or right, depending if you want to add or reduce the yellow/red tone

Honestly the best advice i can give with selective coloring is to just simply play around, choose a color, drag them sliders to the left 'n right and see what happens

b. Go to channel mixer and add a little bit of red (+101-105)

c. Add levels or contrast or vibrance layer

d. Choose a warm colored photo filter

e. Be careful with exposure and too much brightness

_________

Soooo yeah, these are the layers i use, sometimes you can't do everything with the same layer so for example i might add one or two more curves to get brightness, or multiple selective coloring layers or add another color balance etc.

Generally i like to do small changes with one layer and not everything all at once.

_________

As for when saving the gif for web, these are my settings. I translated the one’s that aren’t obvious but everything else i’m assuming doesn’t need translating since this view always looks the same.

I use diffusion 90% the time, but when it doesn’t look quite right i try pattern. And sometimes when the gif has been really dark originally (😩) and has needed tons of brightening layers, noise might be the best option.

At the bottom i have the quality set as “bicubic”.

_________

So that’s it! If you made it this far, thank you, ily <3 Lots of stuff i’ve learned along the way and lots of stuff to be learned. Hoping that maybe you got to learn something from my way of coloring, too. And if not, thanks for reading anyway 😌✌🏻

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 113

Sooo.... I completely did not realize my queue dumped itself again, or that this chapter didn’t post when it should have. So I’m sorry for the slightly-delayed update!

Thanks to @baelpenrose​ for their beta-reading, as always.  This chapter loops back to something that came up previously and I hate loose ends dangling around everywhere. Content warnings for anger issues, trauma, and poor coping mechanisms.

“Dude, I’m making soup,” I jokingly scolded Maverick as I took the bowl of pumpkin seeds away from him.  After the camping trip, I had made the brilliant decision to roast the seeds we had harvested. All of them. Ten pounds of them, it turned out.  How he wasn’t sick of eating them, I had no idea.

 With a pout, he made grabby-hands at the bowl. “What kind?”

 “Potato,” I informed him as I pivoted away and carried the bowl back to the kitchen and put the lid on it.

It didn’t take long for him to join me and start requesting potatoes from the food console.  Even though they were freshly-generated and already clean, he started washing them anyway.  I was pretty sure the action ranked up there with utensils being in exactly-the-right place, because he always washed the vegetables that he got from the console.  It didn’t hurt anything, though, so we generally just let him do it.

About an hour later, we were sitting at the table with two bowls of velvety, off-white soup - his topped with sour cream, bacon, and cheese, mine just topped with scallions - and dug in.  Conor was on Beta-shift at work currently, so we made sure to put the lid on the rest to keep it warm.  Even though the temperature on the Ark never changed beyond a ten-degree variance, the camping trip had triggered something in me that said “Autumn”, and soup was exactly what I needed right then.

I had just finished my first bowl, and Maverick was halfway through his second - with somehow even more bacon - when the door opened and Conor stalked in.  Everything in his body language screamed that he was angry about something, and I subconsciously held my breath.  Glancing at Maverick, I saw him arch an eyebrow at me before turning to our clearly-upset partner.

“Everything okay?” he ventured slowly.

“Work. Huynh,” he grunted, shoving a hand through his hair as he started pacing into the kitchen, past the table, into the living room, and back.  “Stupid pre-fab structures. We don’t… Stupid!” Grasping for words, he only seemed to get more and more frustrated.  On his next trip into the kitchen, he grabbed a bowl and  thought he was going to try to eat, but instead I saw him start to raise the bowl higher.

Maverick stood, rushed over, and snatched the bowl from him. “We talked about this. If you throw that, you’ll give Sophia the panic attack she is trying not to have right now. I told you before, if you give her a panic attack again, I would knock you out. Please don’t make me keep my word.” Rather than angry, he sounded distressed and sad. “What are you supposed to do when you get frustrated like this?”

“Run,” Conor grunted, rubbing his face briskly before gesturing at his sweat-stained coveralls. “And I did. For miles and miles. It didn’t help. And I’m supposed to try to talk about what I’m angry about, but that’s even more frustrating, because I… I can’t explain it fast enough.”

Nodding, Maverick ladled soup into the bowl before gently pushing Conor to the table and setting the now-full bowl in front of him.  Without even realizing what he was doing, Conor started tearing a roll in half and dipping it in the soup - he ate every soup like that, and it was the weirdest thing I had ever seen. But it meant he was calming down, apparently, because he couldn’t rant and eat at the same time, and the man had priorities.

“I’m frustrated, because Huynh wants us to start prototypes for the pre-fabs that we will be using on Von,” he confessed, angrily dunking another chunk of bread and shoving it in his mouth. “I still think it’s too early.  I talked to Noah, and the last information they have about the planet is a decade old.  We aren’t close enough to drop out of whatever FTL we are using and get fresh scans, and we can’t get communications while we’re travelling, apparently, because… FTL.”

I nodded tentatively, encouraging him to go on, and started putting butter on a roll to keep myself calm.  So far, he wasn’t nearly as angry as it usually took for him to start throwing things, and he hadn’t had an episode in a while, so…. So far, so good.

He saw my nod and kept going. “I just think he’s putting the cart before the horse. We shouldn’t be constructing things based on old data, and major climate change can happen over ten years.” We’d found that out the hard way, unfortunately.

“What does Charly think?” Maverick asked.

“She’s on Gamma shift this week, so I didn’t get a chance to ask her,” he confessed sullenly.  At this point, he was out of soup and still trying to stab a piece of bread through the bottom of his bowl, so Maverick gently took it away and refilled it. “Thanks, love. So, I couldn’t ask Charly her suggestion, Huynh won’t listen, and I just… I feel like I’m barking in the wind.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I tried to do everything I was supposed to do.”

“I don’t think it’s working.” Maverick’s statement wasn’t said unkindly, and Conor shrugged and nodded in response. “What else have you and your therapist discussed?”

“I have an appointment tomorrow,” he answered, rather than answering the question.

“Then you need to talk to them about another way to vent your frustration,” Maverick insisted. “And where these anger issues are coming from.”

Conor mumbled something, prompting us to lean forward to better hear him.  When I made a gesture to repeat himself, he sighed. “We’ve talked about that, and I think I know where it’s coming from, it’s just…. It’s embarrassing.”

“It can’t be any more embarrassing than anything you know about either of us,” Maverick tried to point out, prompting me to scowl at him. “Hey! I literally slept through the end of the world.”

That got a chuckle out of Conor, but he got serious again quickly. “The anger…” he started, clearly reluctant. “So, I was an orphan. Parents died when I was - four? Five?” We nodded - this wasn’t new information so far. They’d died in an accident, and neither had any family. He’d mentioned siblings, but they were his foster siblings throughout the years. “I got bounced around the foster system a bit as a kid, but I think I got lucky.  None of my foster families were bad, necessarily, but I think that made it worse when I got moved from home to home.  Every time I started to let myself get close and open up…. I would get taken and moved to another family for one reason or another.  This family moved, that couple got too old to keep fostering kids, one of my foster mom’s got cancer and her wife couldn’t take care of me and Mum at the same time.  No one’s fault but… I felt so betrayed. So I… I started getting angry and pushing people away, making sure that I wouldn’t get close to them just to lose them again.” That word, betrayed, tickled something in my mind.  It was too familiar. “I got moved from family to family even more after that, but it hurt less, right? Because I wasn’t getting attached, and I was being moved because of anger issues. Because of something I did.”

“So… you’re pushing us away?” I asked, not even trying to hide my hurt feelings.

“I’m getting there, swear.” His response was very firm before he picked up where he left off. “Eventually, I turned eighteen, I was on my own, and now I really felt like I had control over my life.  I started an engineering program, I saw a therapist, and a lot of that anger went away.”

“That’s where the You we normally see came out?” Maverick asked, direct as always.

“Yeah. I was happier, calmer… I wasn’t a scared little boy anymore. I felt more stable.”

“And then…?”

“And then the world went tits up,” Conor laughed sadly. “I didn’t have much control over which people were in my life and which weren’t, but it was the After, right? I did manage to find a group who were pretty peaceful, and I stuck it out there.  Then I woke up here, and I could be happy again. I tried to be the version of myself that I liked, instead of that angry little boy.”

That was when it clicked. Betrayed. “Then Arantxa…”

“Yeah, then Arantxa,” he confirmed quietly.  “And you almost died.”

Tyche’s words from the day she busted my lip came back to me. For three weeks, I had to watch you try to figure out if you were going to live or die! Conor had to watch you… “Three times,” I whispered without realizing it.

“Twice,” Conor corrected, not realizing I was talking about what Tyche had said. “Once after you were attacked, and once when we were trying to figure out what was going on with Else.” Huffing, he shoved his now-empty bowl toward Maverick. “Please take that, I’m getting angry again.”

“Thanks for recognizing that,” Maverick nodded. “But I don’t think you’re mad. I think you just feel out of control again thinking about it.”

“That’s what my therapist says,” he admitted. “But inside, it feels like anger. And after Arantxa, when I started feeling that kind of angry, I… I felt like that scared little boy again. I didn’t realize I was doing it, until I started talking to Josh, but they think I subconsciously started pushing you away more every time something would happen.” He took a deep breath to compose himself. “To… I don’t know, make you show me who you ‘really’ are, to make you leave me before you can decide to leave, or before you actually die one time.”

“So, this is about me,” I ventured slowly. “Not Maverick at all.”

“I don’t mean it’s your fault,” Conor objected quickly. “None of this is your fault, that I react the wrong way when I feel like I need more control over situations.”

It started dawning on me what he was talking about. “PTSD.  You’re talking about PTSD. Not just the kind we all have from the After, but… from moving around so much when you were growing up. From not having a secure situation.”  

My mind started racing, connecting the dots.  Before moving in with me, neither Maverick nor Conor had what would have been considered ‘proper’ quarters - both had essentially chosen personal quarters barely big enough for a bed.  Maverick had admitted early on when we were still only friends, that he had chosen his because he never really had anything and spent his entire life after his dad died wandering from place to place, never really belonging. So he had a habit of being ready to pick up and go at a moment’s notice, and tried to take up as little space as possible in the process.  It was no secret - he did it deliberately and had no shame regarding the situation.  

It had never occurred to me that Conor did the same thing without realizing it.

Maverick shook his head.  I thought he was negating what I had said, but then he sighed. “We’re a mess, you know that?” Leaning back, he stretched and put his hands behind his head. “I think we should have a therapy session or four, together, about all this.”

Both Conor and I turned slowly to stare at him, wide-eyed. “When did you start being the sensible one?”

He pointed a finger at me. “You run headfirst into every dangerous situation you can find.” The finger flicked to point at Conor. “And you are convinced you’re an idiot, which is the only idiotic thing I’ve actually heard you say.”  Smugly, he put his hands back behind his head and smiled. “I’ve always been the sensible one.”

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[hoe-doroki]

hollow victory ch2

A part of the ‘A Spare Heart’ series.

pairing: none–eventual Shouto x Reader later in the series.

wc: 3.9k

genre: gen

summary: You transferred to U.A. from America two weeks ago. You’ve trained, studied, and observed alongside your classmates, but no one has found out your quirk yet. Today, they’re going be meeting it head on. You don’t have as much combat experience as any of them, but you have the advantage: surprise. Because none of them are prepared for what you have coming for them.

a/n: 2nd of 2 chapters! Make sure to read chapter 1 first! American!fem!Reader.

As you watched Todoroki retreat slowly to the stands, rejoining Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka, you remembered all the things people used to say about your quirk back in America. You looked at everyone back together on one set of cement bleachers while you remained on the ground, and saw in their faces that they now knew.

You fell to the ground, groaning, “God” in English, only partially because of the fresh pain. You’d been hit just about everywhere and, despite all the work you’d been doing to build muscle for the past few months, you’d definitely pushed past your limit. You were drenched in sweat and probably in need of a lot more water, despite all you’d gulped down from Aizawa. Still, that wasn’t what hurt the most.

What was coming next would be.

“Alright,” Aizawa said as he handed you another water and Cementoss formed a chair for you to sit in, facing the rest of your peers. “Does everyone have a good idea of what Y/N’s quirk is?”

There were nods and murmurs among the group and more than a few faces were looking at you warily. Your heart sank at the familiarity of it. Yaoyorozu’s hand shot up and Aizawa called on her.

“She has the ability to manipulate emotions in others. She doesn’t appear to need any eye or physical contact, although it’s unknown if any other information is needed. She has fine-honed the kinds of emotions she can use and has some mastery over nuance. Endurance seems to be a moderate factor.”

Aizawa nodded, looking at you for approval that Yaoyorozu had gotten it right, although you knew she had. “Anything to add?” he asked.

You sighed heavily, but began the old spiel anyway, talking slowly as you tried to fit everything into Japanese. “There is some range factored into it, so it only works if I’m close by a person, and the connection gets faint before severing the farther away someone is. I have some control over how long the emotions last, but they’ll naturally fade without my intervention. Um, I can’t read minds or anything like that, so I just have to intuit how people are feeling. The emotion sticks better if it’s something that someone is already feeling in some way, like if someone is feeling a little lazy, it’s easy for me to strengthen that, but it won’t really work if I try to put an emotion on someone that they’re already strongly feeling. Like making someone who’s already angry more angry. If that all makes sense. Yaoyorozu is right that the first emotion I hit someone with is the strongest and subsequent ones don’t hit as well, because then they start to blur a little.”

You were surprised you’d managed to get all of that out. Your Japanese must have gotten a lot better in your last two weeks  here. You almost smiled, but then you remembered what you were talking about and you stopped. Truthfully, you weren’t even sure you’d described the extent of it, since there were still things you didn’t know. This was the most varied use of your quirk that you’d ever pulled off, which should have felt momentous. And it did, a little, but that feeling was shadowed by the way some of your peers had looked at you. Todoroki, Bakugou, Kaminari. You couldn’t enjoy what you’d done to them.

“What’s your quirk called?” Midoriya asked as he frantically scribbled in his notebook.

For a moment, you didn’t answer. But there was no point in hiding it, so you said, “Legally, it’s called gaslighting. I think that gives the wrong idea, though.” You mumbled the last part under your breath, but it seemed your peers heard you anyway. Sound really did travel well with all the cement.

“Why’s that?” Tsu asked.

“Because gaslighting is a way people abuse others by telling lies in order to distort their sense of reality,” you spat out. “And, yeah, okay, my quirk distorts someone’s sense of reality so they’re feeling an emotion that they wouldn’t otherwise, but it’s not the same. It’s more like projecting or, I don’t know, just creating emotion, but the quirk was already on the books, so that’s the name I was stuck with.”

“But you were able to totally freeze some people like Bakugou and Todoroki,” Hagakure said. “How was your quirk able to do that?”

Todoroki hadn’t had the chance to share his experience with your quirk with the group yet and you were willing to bet that Bakugou hadn’t been in the mood to tell anyone his. So it was no wonder she was confused about how you’d taken down two of the strongest fighters in your class so easily.

“I came up with strategies for everyone, based on what I’ve observed of you for the past couple weeks and what was available online,” you explained. “Then I discussed the strategies with Aizawa-sensei to see if they made sense and alter them a bit. I’m sure you know by now that most of you got a different emotion based on what I thought would slow you down or make you give up. Since I can’t defeat most of you physically, especially with quirks at play, that’s what I have to do.”

“So…what did you use on everyone?” Ashido asked, looking almost giddy as she eyed her fellow classmates.

You’d known that there would be a lot of questions for you after your quirk was revealed, as had Aizawa. But still, he took a step forward and put his hand up. “Y/N is exhausted. She just fought twenty of you with only very short breaks in between. And yet she only lost four times and Midoriya is the only one who managed to guess her quirk before the battle. She’s going to Recovery Girl and you can all go see her at lunch. For now, Todoroki, Bakugou, melt the ice and everyone else can spar, quirks included.”

Everyone looked excited at the prospect of being able to spar freely with quirks, something they hadn’t been able to do in class since your arrival. Of course, it wasn’t lost on you that you were going to miss it, but at least you’d be able to take part next time.

If anyone would be willing to partner with you.

Cementoss walked you to the nurse’s office and stayed as you endured your first kiss from Recovery Girl. She didn’t give you a hard time as you knew she did for students sometimes, since all you had were minor injuries. A lot of them—your body was covered with bruises not to mention a few small scratches and muscles that would soon be wound as a rubber band ball regardless of what she did. It all added up and, despite the fact that she put you just short of ‘good as new’ you were exhausted at the end. Although, you’d been exhausted to begin with.

“Why don’t you take a nap on the cot until the end of your class and I’ll wake you when it’s time to head to lunch?”

You’d resigned yourself to missing the rest of class as soon as you’d left Gym Gamma, and you were hardly in a position to argue. You were out as soon as you closed your eyes.

It seemed hardly a minute had passed when Recovery Girl was in your ear, Cementoss having left the room sometime during your nap. Which, apparently, had been about a half an hour.

You pushed yourself up and found that a lot of the aches and pains you’d walked into the room with were nothing but phantoms now, although the stiffness you’d expected tomorrow morning was already beginning to hit. Your quads and hamstrings were so tight you couldn’t walk without limping.

“Take these with lunch,” Recovery Girl said as she handed you a couple muscle-relaxing pain relievers.

Usually you didn’t like to take those and preferred to know where you were feeling more tender, but you grabbed them gratefully this time. You’d have to take a truck full of painkillers for your pain to go away that easily.

You walked by yourself to the Lunch Rush cafeteria, keeping an eye on landmarks as you did so. After two weeks, you generally knew how to get from place to place—especially somewhere as vital as the cafeteria—but the reminders reassured you since you couldn’t read any of the classroom signs pointing the way.

When you made it to the cafeteria, the rest of your class was already there, and some of them were waving you over. For the past two weeks, only the likes of Iida, Midoriya, Kirishima, Kaminari, and Ashido had done so, quickly representing themselves as the most welcoming members of class 2-A, even if Iida was doing it mostly out of duty.

Everyone, save Aoyama, was sitting together taking up two whole tables, minus one seat between Ashido and Yaoyorazu. There was a simple noodle dish in that spot and you pointed to it and asked, “Is that for me?”

“Sure is!” Ashido said, patting the seat. “Hope it’s okay. We didn’t weren’t sure what you like, with your American tastes and everything.”

“Honestly, anything looks good right now,” you said as you sat down. All of the food smells were making you ravenous.

“How are you feeling?” Yaoyorazu asked as you took your first bit of noodles. Someone had set you up with a fork instead of chopsticks, and you were grateful for that. You could manage with chopsticks, but there was nothing quite like a fork for shoveling food down your gullet.

You nodded as you chewed, swallowing the big bite as you said, “Much better, thanks. Pretty sore, but no bad injuries.”

“That’s a relief,” Midoriya said. He’d hit you the hardest out of everyone except for maybe Shouji, so it made sense that he’d be the most concerned about you. You smiled at him through another bite of food.

“So…” Ashido drawled, looking at you expectantly. You just raised your eyebrows up at her, bowl up to your chin as you kept eating. “Are you gonna tell us what you did to everyone?”

You looked around at the group to see if everyone had the same enthusiasm that Ashido did. There were a few looks of casual curiosity and more than a few who seemed to be purposefully looking away. But only Tsu, Yaoyorozu, and Sero looked equally intrigued about the emotions you had used against them and their friends.

“Well,” you started, taking gulp of water, “Ashido, I tried all kinds of things against you. But it seems you roll with the punches pretty well, because even though I could see you taking on all the emotions, none of them actually slowed you down. Happy, sad, angry, whatever. Your intention was strong regardless. That’s really good.”

“Oh, that explains the emotional roller coaster!” Ashido said. “I thought I was just having funky endorphins or something.”

You shrugged. “Maybe that’s part of how my quirk works. I don’t really know.”

“Wait, you said intention,” Midoriya said, looking up from where he was scribbling in his notebook. “Is that how you fight back against it? Intention?”

“Is that what you felt?” you asked back.

You’d never seen someone overpower your quirk before, although you hadn’t used it offensively very much in your life thus far either. The most you’d used it had been on people who were accepting your quirk voluntarily, so naturally they wouldn’t be fighting back.

“Hmm,” Midoriya paused, looking up at the ceiling. “I…well, the feeling that I think you used on me was something like total disinterest. I was coming at you and suddenly I was asking myself, ‘why bother?’ ‘Why even do this?’ And that made me give up a little bit. But I was still in control of my thoughts and was able to tell myself that we were fighting and was able to come back to myself, only to start feeling indifferent again.”

“Yeah, so I was thinking ‘boredom’ for you,” you explained, finally beginning to slow down on the noodles. “You clearly have so much passion and ambition, that going in the opposite direction of that seemed like something that would inhibit you. But since that’s probably something that you never feel, especially in combat, your mind was able to fight against it easier than emotion that’s more normal for you.”

“Okay,” Midoriya said, writing frantically. “That still doesn’t explain how someone would fight back. Especially if it is a feeling that would stick better.”

You shrugged. “I’m not a hundred percent sure, to be honest. I’ve never had this quirk used on me before, so there’s no way for me to know.”

“That makes sense…” Midoriya mumbled to himself as he continued scribbling.

“What did you use on me?” Jirou asked. She was barely making eye contact with you and you saw a bit of the distrust you’d seen on her, amongst others, after you’d revealed your quirk. She probably felt like her psyche had been invaded. Which, after all, it had.

“Embarrassment,” you admitted. “A bit of shame and anxiety and stress and you started to lose confidence in yourself. But you’re good at using your quirk, so you should have better confidence then that.”

Your cheeks felt hot as you said the words, already knowing that they probably wouldn’t be received well. There you were, having only been with these people for a couple weeks and the first way you were making yourself known was by diagnosing their emotional issues. Jirou gave a little huff and a nod, saying “Okay,” before turning back to her food.

“Ah, I see, so this is also an opportunity for us to learn how someone who knows us a little bit perceives us,” Iida said, putting a hand forward. “Not to mention a bit of insight as to what Aizawa-sensei thinks our shortcomings still are. This is an excellent lesson.”

“Well, your shortcoming is obviously that you’re too polite,” Tsu said.

Iida turned to Tsu, full of offense. “I don’t see how that’s a shortcoming,” he defended.

“Well, Tsu’s kind of right,” you said. “I did take advantage of your chivalry. But I’m not sure that kind of thing would have worked on you against a real villain, and without the heightened emotion.”

Iida shook his head. “I don’t want the technicalities of a training exercise in my favor. This is something I must work on to be a pro hero. So, tell me, what emotion did you use on me?”

“Shame,” you answered. “Different from Jirou, though. For you, obviously you pride honor so much that I was able to give you that emotion whilst acting as though you’d injured me so that the emotion would stick better. I did similar things to Ojiro and Satou and used regret just to slow them down a bit.”

“Ah, so acting out the scenario helps…” Midoriya muttered.

“Those are strong emotions,” Yaoyorozu commented. “Stronger than boredom, like you used on Midoriya. Does that have something to do with the power of your quirk as well?”

“Definitely,” you said. “I forgot to mention that before. It’s a bit of a person to person thing but, generally, yeah. An emotion like anger is always going to be stronger than, say, calmness or peacefulness.”

“A tragedy of the human condition,” Tokoyami said to himself.

You ended up going through everyone else one by one as they asked, sometimes struggling for the exact nuance of the word you were intending, occasionally reverting to English. You told them how you’d used anger against Tsu’s even-keeled nature, something she’d been able to guess, doubt against Yaoyorozu, which seemed to hit hard, and fear against Kouda.

“Okay, I don’t understand what she might have used against me,” Kaminari bemoaned. “All I could think once the match started was that she was really pretty and I didn’t want to hurt her.”

“Dude, you were horny,” Kirishima exclaimed, patting his friend on the back. “Y/N, tell me I’m wrong. You made him horny, right?”

“Um…” you started awkwardly and both Kirishima and Mineta gave hoots of laughter. “Well, lust, really. But hey, the good news is that means you’re not a sadist?”

There were more laughs from some of the boys and you might have joined in for the good humor, but it was still embarrassing. You could see a slight blush on Kaminari’s face and your cheeks were warm as well. And when Mineta’s leering eyes turned to you, you couldn’t help but tug up your uniform’s zipper a bit.

“Wow, she could be just like a Viagra,” Mineta murmured.

“I don’t need that,” Kaminari insisted. “I don’t need any of that.”

He looked at you as he said it, and you couldn’t help but hear, “I don’t need any of you,” instead. It shouldn’t matter, but it did. It always did.

Soon, your bowl was empty of noodles and Bakugou and Todoroki were the only ones who hadn’t asked how you’d manipulated them. And it didn’t seem as though either of them were going to. Of course, Bakugou’s friends couldn’t let that lie, so Kirishima came forward and asked. “So what did you do to poor Bakugou to make him fall to his knees?”

“I have an idea,” Mineta said, but everyone ignored him.

You looked at Bakugou, not wanting to say unless he was okay with it. He was glaring powerfully at you, but he didn’t tell you or Kirishima to shut up, as you’d so often heard him growl in your time at U.A. already. That must have meant that he was at least a little curious too.

“His was a bit harder to form in my mind,” you admitted, “but one of the simpler ones to plan. I was going for a sense of defeat. Some sadness, some hopelessness, despair, shame. He seems to run so much on anger—anger and a need to win, really—that if those aren’t at the forefront, he’s toast.”

That brought a growl out of Bakugou, but you continued.

“I’m sure that he could have broken through it like Midoriya did, since those emotions probably aren’t common for you,” you said, turning your gaze to Bakugou’s despite how it made you feel like he was going to pounce and tear you limb from limb at any moment. “But I think that that also made them really surprising for you to feel, especially since you were first, and that gave me just enough time to end the match quickly. But if something more time consuming than capture tape had been involved…I don’t know.”

Some people might have heard a compliment somewhere in your words, but as soon as you’d said Midoriya’s name, he’d snarled, closing him off from hearing anything good in your words. From what you’d observed so far, you weren’t surprised.

“Well, well, if it isn’t the newest member of class 2-A,” a blond boy said from behind you. He was looking down his nose at you, a wicked grin on his lips. “I hear you’ve got a freaky quirk that messes with people’s minds. Just what 2-A needed to round them out, since we have a new one too.”

You were frozen, unable to respond. How had word already gotten out? Only the class, Cementoss, and Aizawa had been in Gym Gamma and you’d assumed that they hadn’t blabbed to anyone else on the way to the cafeteria. Although, there wasn’t anything stopping them if that’s what they wanted to do. But maybe other students had just overheard the nature of the discussion you all had been having and had been able to put the pieces together based on the questions and answers you’d given.

“So, tell me? Can you force people to like you? Force everyone in this pathetic, little class to enjoy spending time around you until you turn around and convince them to give up in battles so you can rise to the top of the famous 2-A class? Pretty smart strategy if you ask—”

“Nobody did ask you, Monoma,” a girl with orange hair said as her fist ballooned and closed around the boy. “Sorry he’s your introduction to us. He’s barely house trained.”

“Oh, that’s okay,” you assured her. It wasn’t the worst you’d ever heard.

“Still,” she continued. “On behalf of class 2-B, I wish you luck. Enjoy your lunch.”

The girl carried the blond away, seemingly unbothered by the weight of an entire human person that she was now carrying. Once they were gone, you turned to your empty tray and picked it up.

“I’m still pretty tired from Recovery Girl,” you said, forcing a bit of cheer into your voice as you stared at the thin sauce coating the bottom of your bowl. “I’m going to rest a bit and see you all back in class.”

You only made it a few steps toward the dish station when you felt someone coming up behind you. You glanced back to see Todoroki, following you with his own empty tray.

“Can I ask you what emotion you used on me?” he asked quietly, coming up to your side.

You take a breath, seeing the defeated look he’d had on his face, even after you’d pulled the influence of your quirk back from him again. “Sadness. Maybe a bit of regret. No anger.”

“I see,” Todoroki said.

With that, he brushed past you and placed his dishes on the rack, then returned to his friends. You did the same with your dishes, and then went to the exit. When you pushed open the doors, there was someone standing with his arms crossed, looking at you as though he’d been waiting. You didn’t think you’d ever had so many people who wanted to speak to you before.

This boy had indigo hair and looked as tired as you felt. Actually, probably as tired as you looked too. He surprised you when he gave a small, uncertain smile. “Hi, I’m Shinsou. What’s your name?”

“I’m Y/N. It’s my given name, but I’m more comfortable if you call me that.” It was what you said every time you introduced yourself here in Japan. Another thing keeping you just a little bit othered.

“Okay, Y/N,” Shinsou said. “It’s nice to meet you. I…I heard that you have a quirk that lets you influence people’s emotions?”

You sighed. You could already hear it. This guy was going to ask you to make him feel happier or, judging by his face, more energetic or something like that. Sometimes you hated these guys even more than people like that Monoma fellow.

“No, I—” Shinsou started, seeming to catch onto the way your face fell, “I just wanted to say that my quirk lets me control other people in a way too, and sometimes—often, actually—people make assumptions about me that hurt. So I don’t know if you feel like that, but if so,” he shrugged, “I understand.”

You didn’t smile. You couldn’t say you felt happy, but as a breath whooshed out of you and your whole body sagged, despite the stiffness fisting every muscle, you could only think of one emotion.

Relief.

[singtotheskiies]

a single word // bruce banner x reader

request: Nothing would make me happier than a Bruce Banner X reader. He doesn't get nearly as much love as he deserves and he is adorable and smart and one of the many loves of my life. If you can make it a soulmate AU it would be even better and you would be my very bestest friend. But you don't have to write this if you don't want to.

summary: your soulmate’s emotions are written on your forearm. sometimes it’s only a single word—anger—and a news feed of New York being destroyed starts you on a mission to find him.

words: 2301

warnings: slight angst, but otherwise lotsa fluff:)))

a/n: i’m so sorry for the delay in writing! i was sick for a few days and found it really difficult to write. for that reason, this imagine may not flow as well or have as detailed writing as others, but i still hope it’s enjoyable!!

✖️✖️✖️

Your soulmate’s emotions were—complicated, to say the least.

Most people had multiple words on their arm based on what their soulmate was feeling at the moment—it wasn’t uncommon to see entire forearm-lengths of words like curious and fearful and hopeful. Sometimes your arm had a normal, long list like that, but over the past few years, things had begun to change.

Sometimes, the writing on your arm would fade away to one word—ANGER.

It was menacing—red and in all caps. Sometimes it would only last a few seconds, your arm flickering from ANGER to fear or attempted calm. Sometimes it stayed for hours before fading to confusion and regret and self-hatred. Your heart went out to your soulmate, mourning their seeming lack of stability. Sure, it was more interesting than a typical soulmate bond, but it seemed as if they had a hard time dealing with life and controlling their emotions. You hoped that if you ever met them, you’d be able to provide a much-needed constant of calm.

For your whole life, though, you were left clueless as to who it could possibly be. Someone who had such blindingly intense emotions was surely one of a kind—but no hints presented themselves until the attack on New York.

You were working like any other day when your coworker suddenly barged in, babbling about something horrific and otherworldly that was happening on the East Coast. Standing up in alarm (and, quite frankly, slight disbelief), you grabbed your phone and quickly opened your news app only to have your friend’s story confirmed. You clicked on a news feed, watching in utter shock as entire city blocks were torn down by what looked like otherworldly spaceships. They twisted through the air grotesquely, resembling some sort of worm or insect. Clearly, they were not from Earth.

A reporter was attempting to interview a shaken citizen—a young woman who seemed to be on the point of crying. The reporter wasn’t having much success, as the young lady’s voice was too choked with tears to get much out. However, after several painful moments, the woman’s face changed as she looked up. The camera pivoted wildly to show a small group of individuals making their way purposefully down the street. As it zoomed in, you got a closer look—the people looked intimidating and like they had a purpose.

All except one. The camera was slightly fuzzy and the chaos going on around it didn’t help, but you could tell a few details about this odd one out. He looked to be shorter than many of the others, with curly salt-and-pepper hair and a look of terrified confusion. He was unarmed with any weapon or armor, dressed only in work clothes. Your arm itched and burned as you looked at him, and you looked down at it in surprise.

Unsure, afraid, determined, disbelieving.

“No way,” you breathed, and your friend looked at you sideways.

“I know! Who are these people? I have no clue what’s going on anymore.” You didn’t have the energy to tell her that you were most stunned by the fact that the seemingly unarmed man may very well be the soulmate you had waited your whole life to meet. Although you did agree with her that you wanted to know who he was.

Before you could get a better look at the group of people, your maybe-soulmate spoke to one of the others and turned around to fight. However, as he did, he grew several feet taller, huge new muscles bunching together as his shirt ripped away to reveal—green skin? You couldn’t believe your eyes, staring at the screen in almost catatonic shock. Your arm started stinging again, and as you looked down at it, it shifted into that all-too-familiar word: ANGER.

“I have to go home,” you told your friend, packing up your things in a rush.

“Are you okay?” she asked you.

“Don’t feel well,” you said. Several other people were heading for the doors. You figured a disaster of this scale would cause more than a few changes in schedule.

Getting home in record time, you turned on your television and sat, not even bothering to toe off your shoes. You watched in utter astonishment as New York continued to be trashed by an otherworldly army. The news feeds gave as many updates on the team attempting to fight the aliens off as they could. Your eyes were peeled for any flashes of green, and you were occasionally rewarded with a few seconds of whoever-he-was fighting off creatures singlehandedly. Was this beast of a man the same timid person who had walked with the other fighters at the beginning? Maybe he was possessed or something. Hopefully he wouldn’t die fending off the alien attackers—possibly finding your soulmate and then having them ripped away from you on the same day was something you’d prefer not to happen.

After hours of battle, all the attackers had been taken out and the cube of energy—the Tesseract, it was called—had been taken to a government facility. You hadn’t seen any more of your potential soulmate, but the words on your arm had gone back to small black words: exhausted, relieved, frightened. He was still alive, thank goodness, but your only hope of finding out who he was was through news of some sort, so you kept your television on and scrolled through news websites as you ate dinner. After an hour or two, you began to feel a little hopeless—you couldn’t find anywhere that was listing the names of the group who had fought back—the Avengers, as they were being called. Eventually, you gave up and decided to call it a night. Maybe you’d find out more in the morning.

To your surprise (and relief) there was an article titled “Just Who Are the Avengers?” that seemed to list a few names. It was scant information (unsurprising, since they seemed to be spies or government workers of some sort), but it was something. The name that you were looking for seemed to be Bruce Banner—the Incredible Hulk. You felt a surge of adrenaline as you typed his name into your phone, pulling up multiple sources about your potential soulmate.

You discovered that he was a top scientist, a man who had underwent a freak gamma radiation accident that caused him to turn into the Hulk when he didn’t have control over his emotions. He now worked to understand radiation as well as countless other fields of study—the man had seven PhDs! He seemed to be quite the extraordinary person, and the pictures available of him painted him out to be quite the handsome man as well.

You looked down at your arm and sighed. Terror and hopelessness. Judging by the blue ink, he must be having a nightmare. You set your jaw and resolutely looked for some way to contact him. Yes, he had just saved America, but you had a feeling he needed some actual good things in his life. You wanted to help if it were at all possible.

The best you could do was find an email address, so you started a draft and stared at your screen wondering out loud what to say.

“Hi, I’m your soulmate—probably. Saw you turn into a big green guy on TV—that’s something else! No, that’s stupid. Uh—you seem to have a lot of trauma going on, maybe I could hel—no, I’m not his therapist. C’mon, think!”

You eventually settled on a message that stated your awareness of who he was, an admiration for how bravely he had fought, and the possibility that you may be each other’s soulmates. Breathing deeply, you sent the message and left your laptop open for easy refreshing.

It took him almost 36 anxiety-ridden hours to respond back, but his response made you smile.

Dear (Y/N),

I was so surprised to hear from you that I nearly dropped my phone—in a good way, of course. I appreciate your compliments, and your description of what happens on your arm would certainly be a good match for me. You seem to be a wonderful person, and while I would love to meet you right away, the rest of the team and I have a few post-battle things we need to take care of. Does coffee about a week from now sound good? Let me know, and we can work out the details.

Sincerely, Bruce

You emailed him back saying that coffee sounded wonderful, including your phone number because texting would be a little easier, you thought. He texted you about a half hour later, giving you details to a coffee place that was far enough away from downtown to be safe. Can’t wait to see you there, he said, and you grinned as you sent back a similar message.

Putting your phone down on your kitchen table, you hummed in satisfaction—finally, after waiting for years and years, you were meeting your soulmate.

✖️✖️✖️

You were a little nervous, to say the least, but it was tempered with a great deal of excitement. As you neared the coffee shop, you touched your hair almost self-consciously, but then took your hand away quickly. All you could do was hope for the best—if the two of you were really meant to be, things would go well. Taking a deep breath, you pushed open the door and went inside.

You found him almost immediately, and he stood up as if by instinct when you entered. He was at a small corner table, and his eyes met yours with a look of astonishment and admiration.

“(Y/N)?” he asked with near disbelief.

“Bruce,” you beamed, and without thinking, you threw your arms around him in a hug. He returned the gesture, arms wrapping tightly around you.

“I—I can’t believe you’re here,” he spoke into your hair. “I mean, really here. I always thought—“ he trailed off and you pulled back, looking in his deep brown eyes again.

“Of course I’m here, Bruce. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

“Thank you,” he said, smiling softly, and said “Shall we?” as he pulled out your seat for you. Thanking him, you took a seat and began studying his face as casually as you could. He had a strong jaw, full lips, lovely brown eyes, and the same curly brown-and-grey hair you had seen on the news. You had a very strong urge to reach out and slip your fingers through it, but resisted somehow. He noticed your eyes on him and cocked his head at you, a slight, sweet smile on his face.

“What?” he asked, his voice grinning along with him.

“Nothing, you’re just—really handsome,” you said, blushing. “I think you’re wonderful.” He blushed with you, and you smiled at each other for a long moment before discussing what you would order. After settling on a few things, you placed your orders and began chatting right away. He told you about his work in the science field (he shocked you with his intellect), while you told him about your job. You shared little facts about each other, and as you talked about your interests, he watched you intently with awestruck, loving eyes. It gave you more than a few butterflies, and you could still hardly believe that you were there with your soulmate.

After you finished your drinks, Bruce offered taking a walk outside. You nodded enthusiastically, wanting to spend as much time with him as you could. There’s a park nearby, fairly large for a city, with lots of pretty flowers and trees to enjoy. As you walked, you continued talking about all sorts of things.

Eventually the topic of his alien-fighting experience came up, and something in his eyes shifted. Looking down at your arm, you saw the words nervous and hopeful and worried etch themselves into your skin. You furrowed your brows in concern, and without thinking, took his hand. His fingers moved nervously under yours, but latched on with clear relief.

“I’m sorry,” he nearly whispered. “I just feel like—well, I can’t offer you normalcy, dependency, consistency. Sometimes he just takes over. I try, I really do, but I’ve still got a long way to go before I learn to control or even coexist with him. I could hurt you, I could break things, and it scares me, (Y/N). You’re very likely the best thing to ever come into my life, and I don’t want to ruin it.”

“Bruce,” you answered, tears welling up in the bottom of your eyes. “I don’t need consistency or perfection or anything close to it. All I need is you. We’ve been put together for a reason, and I’m going to fight for you, no matter what tries to stop us. I’m here for you now, and I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon.”

He really did whisper now, your name softly under his breath. As his eyes met yours, you began to move a little closer, head tilting towards his as if magnetized. He raised his other hand to brush across your face gently, a question, and you smiled in response. With a soft tip of his head, your mouths fell together, eagerly gentle. Your hand came up to ruffle through his curls, and they felt just as lovely as you had imagined. The two of you stayed that way, together, touching, for several moments. As he came up for air, he rested his forehead against yours, kissing you again until your smiles outgrew the spaces between you.

“Thank you,” he murmured again, and as you looked into his blissful eyes, you noticed your arm—only a single word was on it, different from the one you typically saw by itself.

Smitten.

[crusherthedoctor]

Can you list anything you unironically like in the games (and cartoons and comics) that you don't like?

I won't bother mentioning music, since that goes without saying and is to be expected for a Sonic game... unless you're Chronicles.

Sonic Adventure 2 (mixed gameplay-wise, annoying story-wise) - While I prefer Sonic's SA1 levels for a number of reasons, I still think his and Shadow's gameplay in SA2 is fun on its own merit. I also don't mind the treasure hunting gameplay returning or how big the levels are this time around, since Knuckles and Rouge are still fast and not '06 levels of slow. It's mainly the gimped radar that creates the unfortunate domino effect of making them a problem.

- Introduced Rouge, one of my favourite characters for how playful she is and how she's a lot more nuanced and intelligent than you'd expect.

- Some genuinely good scenes, like Eggman's trap on the A.R.K and Sonic escaping from the G.U.N. helicopter.

- Had some good ideas going for it, like the Pyramid Base and the Biolizard as a scientific monster instead of an ancient one.

- Despite my thoughts on the backstory itself (or rather, its execution), Shadow has enough depth and subtle qualities and occasional unintended hilarity to stand out from the typical dark rival characters you see in media.

- The Last Scene's music in particular is one of my favourite cutscene tracks in the series.

Sonic Heroes (mixed gameplay-wise, loathed story-wise) - The gameplay is fun when you're not being screwed over by repetitive combat, overly long levels and/or ice physics.

- Boasts some of the most consistently Genesis-worthy environments in the 3D games, up there with SA1's and Colours'.

- The in-game dialogue that isn't the same tutorial drivel repeated ad nauseam can be interesting, funny, etc.

- Reintroduced the Chaotix, which provided me with another character I quite like in the form of Vector.

- Bringing Metal Sonic back in full force and front and center in the plot after a long absence (not counting cameos and the like) is a perfectly fine idea. Just... not like this.

Sonic Battle (decent yet repetitive gameplay, mixed story-wise) - Emerl's arc is compelling, and it earns the emotional weight of having to put him down at the end.

- While some characters are iffy (read: Amy), other characters are extremely well-handled. Shadow is probably the prime example.

- Gamma's belly dance healing animation is fucking hilarious.

- When I was young, and the game was first announced, I was really excited about being able to play as Chaos. This proved to be my downfall when it turned out he was arguably one of the worst characters in the game due to being slower than me during the writing process, but I still recall that excitement fondly.

Shadow the Hedgehog (comedy classic) - The sheer amount of legendary stupidity this game has going for it makes it practically impossible to actually hate. It helps that it's not quite as white-knighted on the same level as '06... usually. You know you're in for a unique experience when you hear a gunshot every time you click something in the menu.

- By extension, Black Doom never gained an unironic fanbase like Mephiles/Scourge/Eggman Nega did, which means I'm a lot more willing to take Doom's dumbass brand of villainy in stride. He even has a unique design... a terrible one that rips off Wizeman granted, but alas, even that is a step-up from Fridge Shadow and Bumblebee Eggman.

- Despite being... well, Shadow the Hedgehog, some of the environments would fit right in with any other Sonic game, like with Circus Park, Lava Shelter, and Digital Circuit. Even the Black Comet levels look pretty cool.

- This game understands amnesia better than IDW does.

Sonic '06 (what do you think?) - The obvious one: Shadow's character was handled pretty well, even if it came at the cost of everyone else being a dummy and being forced to interact with Mephiles.

- Like SA2, there are some good moments, like the Last Story ending sequence with Sonic and Elise.

- In the greatest form of irony ever, I like Solaris as a concept and design(s), and its backstory has potential to serve as a parallel with Chaos without being a complete ripoff. Iblis sucks, Mephiles sucks, but I'm fine with Solaris.

- Introduced legendary characters like Sonic Man, Pele the Beloved Dog, Hatsun the Pigeon, and Pacha from The Emperor's New Groove.

The Rivals duology (apathetic outside of Nega-related grumbling) - There were some cool zone ideas in both games that were sadly let down by the restrictive and limiting gameplay. I particularly like Colosseum Highway for thus far being the only full-on Roman level in the series instead of merely having a couple minor hints of Roman, and Meteor Base for the unique scenario of the space station being built into an asteroid. These level concepts and others deserve a second chance IMO. (At least Frontier Canyon got a second chance in the form of Mirage Saloon, amirite?)

- Ifrit has a better design than Iblis. Not saying it's amazing, but the Firebird motif it has going on is a lot more interesting for a fire monster than the Not-Chaos schtick they had with Iblis.

Sonic and the Secret Rings (a very frustrating gaming experience) - Erazor Djinn, A.K.A. Qui-Gon Djinn, A.K.A. Dr. N. Djinn, A.K.A. I'll Take It On The Djinn, A.K.A. Not From The Hairs On My Djinny Djinn Djinn, is one of the best villains not associated with Eggman in the series. He's a Mephiles-type character done right, and there's actual weight and reason to his actions, however sinister or petty.

- I don't have strong opinions either way on Shahra as a character, but the Sonic/Shahra friendship is sweet and well-handled.

- The ending is one of Sonic's greatest moments. The sheer contrast between how ruthlessly he deals with Erazor and how comforting he is towards Shahra speaks volumes... Still gonna make fun of the mountain of handkerchiefs though. (Before anyone lectures me, I understand the significance of it and can even appreciate it from that angle... doesn't mean I'm not allowed to poke fun at it. :P)

- Another game with some redeeming environments. I love the aesthetic of Night Palace, and Sand Oasis looks gorgeous too.

Sonic Chronicles (my personal least favourite game in the series) - Uh...

- Um...

- Er...

- I like Shade's design?

Sonic Unleashed (overrated game and story IMO) - The obvious two: the opening sequence and the Egg Dragoon fight deserve all the praise they get.

- Seeing Eggmanland come to life was an impressive moment to be sure. While part of me does feel it didn't quite measure up to what I had in mind (ironically, the Interstellar Amusement Park ended up being closer to what I had in mind), it still looks badass and works well for what it is. I also don't mind the idea of it being a one-level gauntlet... key word being idea.

- Obviously, the game looks great. Not a fan of the real world focus (real world inspiration is fine, but copy-pasting the real world and shoving loops in it is just unimaginative), but it can't be denied that the environments look good.

- This game pulled off dialogue options a lot better than Chronicles did, since they didn't rely on making Sonic OoC.

Sonic and the Black Knight (just kind of boring all around) - Despite my gripes with the story (Merlina wasn't nearly as fleshed out as her unique anti-villain status deserved, which ends up severely undermining the ambition of the plot in more ways than one, and the other characters go from being useless yes men for King Arthur to being useless yes men for Sonic), I will admit it provides interesting insight into Sonic's character.

- Like '06 and Secret Rings, the ending is very nice... well, aside from Amy being an unreasonable bitch ala Sonic X at the very end.

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 (apathetic) - The admittedly few new concepts sprinkled within had promise. They may not have been as fleshed out as they could have been, but level concepts like Sylvania Castle and White Park, bosses like Egg Serpentleaf and the Egg Heart, and story beats like the Death Egg mk.II being powered by Little Planet, all could have been brilliant had they been better executed.

SatAM (apathetic outside of SatAM Robotnik-related grumbling) - I'm not a fan of the environments on the whole due to them looking too bland or samey, but there are some exceptions that look pleasant or interesting, like the Void.

Sonic Underground (apathetic) - The character designs make me feel better about myself.

- Does "large quantities of unintentional meme material" count as a positive?

Sonic X (mostly apathetic outside of Eggman's handling) - Helen was a better human character and audience surrogate in her one focus episode than Chris was throughout his entire runtime.

- Actually, most of the human characters not named Chris were legitimately likable. Including everyone in Chris' own family not named Chris. Hilarious.

- Despite arguably having the most Chris in it, I actually don't mind the first season that much, partly due to slight nostalgia from seeing it on TV when it was new, but mostly because Eggman actually acted like a villain for the most part, and certain other characters weren't quite as flanderized yet. It's season 2 and onwards where things started going off the rails IMO. (Incidentally, Helen's episode was part of season 1...)

The Boom franchise (apathetic) - Along with Chronicles, the games provide yet more proof that just because someone isn't SEGA/Sonic Team, that doesn't mean they're automatically more qualified to handle the series.

- The show had some good episodes here and there, and Tails' characterization was probably the most consistently on-point out of the cast.

- Despite not exactly being favourite portrayals for either character, even I'll admit that many of Knuckles and Eggman's lines in the show on their own were genuinely funny.

Archie Sonic (pre-reboot is mostly terrible, post-reboot is mostly... bland) - Whenever I doubt myself as a writer, I think back to Ken Penders, and suddenly I'm filled with a lot more confidence.

Sonic the Comic (apathetic) - Fleetway isn't a comic I tend to recall much of aside from how much of a loathesome cunt Sonic is, but IIRC, Robotnik's portrayal is pretty good. Different, but good.

IDW Sonic (stop pissing me off, comic) - Putting their handling aside (and being too obviously "inspired" by MGS in the latter's case), Tangle and Whisper are good characters IMO.

- Same goes for Starline, before he was killed off-screen and replaced with Toothpaste Snively.

- Execution aside (noticing a pattern?), the zombot virus was a fine concept on its own and an interesting new scheme for Eggman.

- I get to remind myself that I've never drawn scat edits and posted them publicly on Twitter.

[miraculous-ninjabird]

request!! bluewire (jay x pixal) but Prom Night 2208 au. Jay as Kyle, Pixal as Tess, Nya as Kate. (prom night 2208 is a song that george salzar sings btw) :) love ur page btw

Anon, I was thrilled to get this prompt. It was so, so good that I had to take the time to try and do it justice. I hope I succeeded.

Title: Prom Night

Words: 1693

Rating: G, no real warnings apply as far as I am aware

Bluewireshipping (Jay/Pixal)

Based on the song Prom Night 2208 by George Salazar

Alternating POV

Jay straightened his tie for probably the twentieth time. Tonight was the night. Prom. He’d passed by the leisure deck a little earlier, and things were really starting to look good. His date...wasn’t who he had been hoping it would be. Getting up the courage to ask Nya had ended up being nearly impossible, and his mom had ended up setting him up with someone else insead.

Pixal was somewhat of an oddity to him. She had transferred to the Zircon-4 just a month ago, from Echo fleet. Which was wild since Echo fleet was like, the best of the best. On top of that, she was Gamma-Class Elite. So really, he wondered what she was doing here at all. It was also a little strange to know his date was a recon droid, but one of his best friends was also a droid so maybe it wasn’t that weird. Not that any of it mattered in the end since he was only doing this because his mom had asked and it was just as friends anyways. No need to sweat the details.

Finally! Prom night was here and Pixal could not be more excited. She didn’t really know much about her date...other than his name was Jay and he was human. They had met a few times since she’d gotten here, and he was pretty funny. Pixal really liked him. However, she also had to remember that he was totally in love with Nya. But all the boys seemed to be in love with Nya, and she couldn’t really blame him. Nya was pretty cute. No matter how much she wished it could be true, she and Jay just weren't compatible. As long as she kept that in mind, the night would still be fun.

Jay is waiting for her outside the door to his apartment. Dressed in a sharp blue suit, and a tie that matched, it was hard to deny how attractive he was.

“Hey Pixal! You ready to go?” He asks cheerily. He gives her a soft smile, before averting his eyes.

“Yes. We can leave whenever you are ready.” She responds, trying really hard not to let disappointment flood her voice at the fact that he wouldn’t even look at her. That was a signal that she was more than capable of reading. That more than anything nailed home their directives for tonight really didn’t align. ‘Just get through the night Pixal,’ She thinks to herself. This was nothing more than a routine social function. Just like the hundreds of others she had attended before. Tonight was going to be fine.

In the short time Jay had known her, he had never realized just how beautiful Pixal was. It was incredibly obvious now though. She was wearing a silky purple dress that complemented the silver tone of her skin. Her hair was pulled up into a high ponytail and fixed in place with a matching purple butterfly clip. When he looked closely, he also spotted cute little butterfly earrings. There was no doubting it. Jay was utterly and completely enchanted. He tries not to stare, and the only way he can seem to accomplish that is by not looking at her at all. Guilt flooded him. Come on Jay. Get it together. Just a friend thing, remember? You like Nya, not Pixal. Just get through the night, have fun, and everything would be fine.

Jay’s mom stops them for a quick set of photos, and then they are on their way. Dozens of other couples are heading the same way as them, congregating on the leisure deck. An usher of some sort points them to a table, and they take their seats.

“I heard that Kai was gonna try and use a cloaking ray to try and sneak in some booze.” Jay starts, an awkward attempt to make conversation. She feels him turn to look at her. “And uhhh...I like your earrings.”

“Oh! Thank you.” Pixal feels her thoughts going a little haywire at the compliment. What does she even say? “I like your shoes.” Jay lets out a nervous little laugh. ‘Okay. Wow. Of all the compliments, you decided to tell him you like his shoes? Why would you say that?’ Pixal berates herself internally.

“Oh hey! Food’s here! Wanna try some of this biopaste? I swear it’s good.” Jay grasps at the new opportunity to try and dispel a little of the awkwardness.

“Oh, sure! Let me just flip on the flavor sensor and…” Pixal takes a bite of the strange blue goo Jay was offering her. That certainly wasn't something she had ever seen back on Echo fleet. “Oh wow! That’s actually really good!”

“You can turn on your taste receptors on and off at will?” Pixal almost balks at Jay’s unexpected question.

“Yes. Did that make you uncomfortable? I apologize-” she starts, but the look Jay is giving her has her stopping short. He looks very impressed.

“Man, that’s so cool! I wish I could do that. Do you know how many terrible dinners that would have saved me from?” And just like that, the awkwardness is broken. They fall into an easy conversation, and Pixal finds they have several shared interests.

Maybe this night wasn’t going to be such a waste afterall.

By the time dinner is over, Jay finds he is becoming more and more attracted to his companion for the night. He is no longer dreading having to dance with her. She was cute and smart and in all honesty, he wanted to spend more time just talking with her. Good thing there would be plenty of time for that while they were dancing. Pushing back from the table, he moved to stand in front of her, offering a hand.

“Pixal, may I have this dance?” He asks. She smiles wildly.

“Yes. Yes you may.”

Jay leads her over to the dance floor. The music was spunky and upbeat, not great for a slow dance. That didn’t seem to bother Pixal though. She kept up with all of his movements, and had near perfect rhythm.

Several songs pass before something that really worked for slow dancing played. Taking up a dance position with her, Jay is once again struck by just how beautiful she is. He can see his own face reflected in her eyes, and god does he look love struck. Because maybe, just maybe, he is. All other outside distractions fade away until it felt like he and Pixal were the only people in the whole universe. He could stay here forever, swaying to the music out in the depths of outer space…

A soft tap on his shoulder brings Jay out of his trance. Breaking away from Pixal, he finds it’s Nya who has gotten his attention. Nya!

“Hey Jay. Mind if I steal you for just one dance?” Jay’s heart leaps into his throat. Nya wants to dance with him. Him!

“Is that okay with you Pixal? It’ll just be one dance.” He asks his date.

“Oh...Okay.” PIxal’s hesitancy goes right over his head, he’s so excited by the fact his crush actually wants to dance with him. This was his chance!

“Thanks Pix! I’ll be back, I promise!” He’s already taking Nya’s hand, and leading her away. Which means he misses the absolute devastation on Pixal’s face.

When she had been dancing with Jay, Pixal had felt like she was on top of the world. The way he had been looking at her. She had almost felt human. Almost wanted to be human, if only to be able to understand Jay just a little bit better. Then Nya had shown up and it was like Jay completely forgot about Pixal.

Watching them walk away, laughing nervously, had been a harsh snap back to reality. Right. This was only supposed to be a friend thing. Nothing else. He didn’t really want to be with her. Now that Nya was here, Jay didn’t need Pixal around. She didn’t fit with him and that was it. No point in analysing it any further.

Pixal makes sure she has her charger before turning and sprinting away. Screw being human.

Jay should have been over the moon. He and Nya swayed together, his head resting in her hair and hands settled delicately on her dress. Nya pulled him as close as she could. He should be happy. This is what he wanted. Expect apparently it wasn’t. Because the only thing he can think about is Pixal. Pixal, Pixal, Pixal.

“That was fun. Want to keep dancing?” Nya asks hopefully as the song ends, but Jay is already pulling away.

“Sorry, I can’t. I really need to go find Pixal.” He apologizes. He rushes back to where he and Pixal had been sitting, but she isn’t there. Her bright silver form isn’t visible in the crowd either. She had mentioned wanting to go down to the hanger bay before the night was over…

Suddenly he’s sprinting. Maybe she was there. He prays she is. Man, he had messed up so bad. Hopefully she would be there and he would be able to apologize, and tell her everything that had been going through his head that night.

The door hisses open, startling Pixal out of her thoughts. What startles her even more though, is who’d come through the door.

“Jay? What are you doing here?” Hope swells inside her.

“I wanted to dance with you one more time before the night is over. I hope I’m not too late?” He rubs his head sheepishly. Pixal’s heart soars.

“Ask me. I won’t hesitate,” She finds herself answering, mouth running ten steps ahead of her thoughts. Jay steps forward, taking her hand gently.

“Just one dance though. Then I’d hit the breaks if I were you. You really don’t want to fall for me. Us humans...we really tend to be pretty lousy flakes.” He twirls her around, then pulls her close. They sway gently to non-existent music. Screw human tendencies. Pixal knew what she wanted.

“Jay?”

“Yeah?” he breaths, ticking her hair.

“I am a robot. I don’t make mistakes.”