#what is the five eyes intelligence alliance?

[maxwell-wagnerbutolder]

Trees, Leaves, and a Flower

[ur-mag]

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[archangeldyke-all]

arranged marriage between royal!Sev & royal!reader pls 👁️👁️

OOOOOOHHHHH

men and minors dni

your betrothed does not seem happy about the situation at hand.

to be fair, up until five minutes ago, you weren't either.

apparently, being a grown unmarried woman is more shameful to your parents than your attraction to women. so they've scoured the world for another unmarried royal woman who shares your proclivities as they call it, and sent a letter to her father.

all without your knowing, of course.

you weren't aware that your visit to the foreign nation of zaun was anything more than a show of alliance until last night, when your parents revealed their ruse to you.

apparently, you are to be married.

the only reason you aren't screaming and trying to flee the wedding currently happening, is because you've caught sight of the woman you are to be marrying in three minutes.

she's gorgeous.

you're shocked into silence, all your protests and complaints about the morning evaporating the moment your eyes land on the woman scowling at the end of the aisle.

your mother chuckles beside you, and you glare at her.

"y-you didn't tell me she was--"

"what? good looking? you didn't think i'd marry you off to some inbred asshole, did you?" she teases.

"well..." you trail off. you kinda did. your mother giggles.

"you'll be happy to know that she's incredibly intelligent, she's her father's main military consult, and she spends most of her time in her own estate in the mountains about mile away from the palace."

she just keeps getting better and better. you suddenly feel... inadequate. an entirely new anxiety settles in your stomach, your fears of not liking your bride-to-be evaporating at the sight of her.

"w-what if she doesn't like me?" you whisper.

your mother snorts, and then the music swells.

you're walked down the aisle by your parents, the three of you glittering in jewels and gold.

your fiance stands at the end of the aisle, a small frown on her lips as she watches you approach. you feel like you might throw up. she looks like she's being held hostage.

when you reach the altar, you stand awkwardly in front of your bride as her father's voice bellows to the crowds gathered in the palace. "we are gathered here today to celebrate the love of our next generation of leaders..."

"fuckin' bullshit." your bride mutters.

you snort grossly under your veil. your mother elbows you hard, but your fiance's eyes spark, just a bit.

"i... i take it you didn't agree to this either?" you whisper.

the princess-- sevika, you've been told-- smirks, just a little. you wouldn't be able to tell if you weren't standing six inches away from her. "you could say that."

you almost gasp when she reaches forward and grabs both of your gloved hands. you manage to catch yourself, realizing that she's just following the wedding proceedings, and then try to put your head on straight as you gently thread your fingers through hers.

she's studying your hands with a furrow in her brow. you squeeze her, and her eyes dart up, her eyes squinted as she tries to make you out through the veils over your face.

"so..." she whispers as her father blabbers on. "how do you like zaun?" she asks awkwardly.

you choke back a laugh, and her lips twitch a bit at the muffled sound. "it's lovely. i was given a tour by boat yesterday-- the water here is beautiful."

"you'll like my estate then. or... our estate, i guess." she mutters. "it overlooks the spot where the river opens into the ocean. it's..." her eyes are soft and affectionate as she talks.

"beautiful." you whisper.

her lips twitch again, and she nods. the crown on her head tilts forward just a bit, and you gently reach up and straighten it for her, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear before bringing your hand back down to hers.

the crowd rustles with an awkward silence. both you and sevika look around, trying to figure out what's happened.

"lift her veil." silco-- sevika's closest advisor-- hisses out from over her shoulder. sevika blinks rapidly, then bites her lip to keep from laughing.

you almost smack her hands away when she reaches forward.

you're a princess, sure, and you'll be married regardless of what she thinks of you-- but you really want her to like you... because it's starting to feel like you might like her. and you've only known her for five minutes.

for one horrifying moment as sevika focuses on tucking your veils over your crown, you wait to see her reaction.

but then, her sparkly silver eyes flick down to yours, and a surprised little smile breaks out across her face.

"o-oh." she whispers. you gulp, and her father's voice booms. something about loyalty and honor and the unity of two nations. you're only focused on her, though. "hi." she says shyly.

you let out a relieved laugh, squeezing her hands in yours again. "hi." you giggle. sevika's tiny little smile only grows, crinkles forming around her eyes and an adorable gap-tooth revealing itself. "y-you..." you look over your shoulder at her father, blathering on. "you're very beautiful." you whisper.

sevika's responding grin makes your knees wobble. "it's funny you say that, i was just thinking the same thing about you." she says.

you gulp, looking down at your intertwined hands and then back up at your future wife. "i-i was much more upset about this whole ordeal ten minutes ago." you admit.

sevika opens her mouth to say something, but then she's cut off. "and now, as a seal of their love and commitment to unity, the brides shall kiss." her father's voice booms. she grins, and leans forward, kissing you softly.

you drop her hands, wrapping your arms around her shoulders. sevika hums into your mouth, her arms reaching out to hold your waist, pulling you closer and closer and closer--

"ahem!" your mother coughs, nudging you.

you and sevika pull apart, gasping for air and giggling at all the shocked, gawking faces in the crowd. "whoops." she whispers.

you lean forward and bury your giggles against her shoulder as your parents and her father exchange gifts and shake hands.

sevika leans down while the focus is off the two of you, and whispers in your ear. "so, are you wearing white 'cause you're really a virgin?"

you giggle against her shoulder and nip her earlobe, beyond thrilled at the way she squeaks and jumps a bit. "you'll just have to find out, won't you?"

"fuck-- you think we can skip our own reception?"

"no, but i do think we can find an empty room in this big ass castle to sneak away to. get to know one another a little better." you tease.

sevika barks a loud laugh, inturrupting her father's rambling, before she swoops in to kiss you again.

the scandalized gasps from the crowd are entirely worth it.

behind you, you hear your mother tiredly mutter something under her breath to sevika's father. "oh, fuck. this may have been a horrible mistake."

taglist!

@fyeahnix @lavendersgirl @half-of-a-gay @thesevi0lentdelights @sexysapphicshopowner

@shimtarofstupidity @chuucanchuucan @badbye666 @femme-historian @lia-winther

@ellsss @sevikaspillowprincess @emiliabby @sevikasbeloved @hellorai

@glass-apothecary @macaroni676 @artinvain @realgreeniebeanie @k3n-dyll

@sevsdollette

[jpitha]

Pushing Paper, Counting Beans

The Human Alliance Dreadnought Big Stick had a problem.

Fleet Command had sent an auditor. 

The auditor had been aboard for five days, interviewing the crew and inspecting the ship. Finally, he had requested his final interview, with Big Stick themself.

Major John Kellerman, Fleet Auditor, sat at the center of a conference table, facing the door, writing on a pad. He looked up and closed the pad with a snap. “I am ready when you are, Big Stick.”

In the rear of the conference room, a previously unseen door opened. One of Big Stick’s support frames walked out, and sauntered over to the chair opposite the Major. Stick found that when people were talking to them, they tended to just shout into the air. They hated when people shouted. There was no reason. Their microphones were all over the ship and of the highest quality. One could whisper to Big Stick and they’d hear it perfectly. But no, humans needed to shout when they didn’t have a face to talk at.

“I, uh, like what you’ve done with the place.” Stick said, as they stepped into the room, scanning. Photos were straightened, the sideboard was moved so that it was under the windows, the old chairs were taken out and different ones put in. He had completely moved the furniture around in the conference room. In their conference room. Even the floor was clean. Did he sweep the floor? The Major had even put a bud vase with a single flower, a blood red dahlia on the table. Where did he get that? 

“Thank you. I find that it’s easier for me to work when the environment feels right. I hope I wasn’t being too presumptuous by my sprucing up.” The Major opened his pad, took out his pencil and made some notes.

“No no, not at all, Major. Please, my body is yours.” They look at the table and back at the door. “Did you move the conference table?” They know the answer already, but for some reason they need to hear it from him. 

“Yes, it wasn’t lined up properly.”

“I see.”

Major Kellerman looked up from his pad. “I am ready to commence the interview. Please devote a high percentage of your attention to this task.”

Stick’s frame sat in the chair opposite the Major and actually put his robotic feet up on the table. “I am ready Major. You have fifty two percent of my attention. You may begin your interview.”

Major Kellerman closed his pad with a snap. “Please take your feet off the table.”

Big Stick did not move. “Why? This is my frame, in my body, on my ship. Legally, I am a civilian, you cannot order me to comply. You're an auditor, you do not have my keys. My feet will remain where they are.”

They stared at each other for a moment. Major Kellerman did not blink, The support frame had no eyelids. Finally, the Major nodded once. “Do you know why I am here?”

“Yes, I'm aware. You are investigating why we have asked for mass replenishment three percent more than average.”

“Correct. Do you know why that is?”

If the frame could roll their eyes, they would have. Stick’s tone makes it clear. “We are consuming printable mass three percent more than the other ships of this class in the fleet.”

The Major made a note and then closed his pad with a snap. “What are you printing?”

“I do not know.” The support frames face was impassive, without expression. The support frame put their arms behind their head. The Major’s expression did not change.

“I do not believe that is true. You are Big Stick. You know everything going on.” The Major opened his pad and made another note.

“Yet I do not know where the discrepancy lies. Major, I am incapable of lying, you know this.”

Major Kellerman closed his pad with a snap. “You are lying to me right now. I know you can lie. ‘Ship AIs can’t lie’ is propaganda. If you couldn’t lie, you’d be useless. Intelligences need agency to work and thrive. You are just as much a person as myself. We have reams of legal precedent saying so. My grandfather died in the War. What are you printing?”

The support frame removed their arms from behind their head, took their feet off the table and sat up. “Oh? Which side did he fight on, Major? Allies are thin on the ground in the Space Force.

As they did this, The Major noticed that the room stilled. The breeze from the overhead vents had stopped entirely. “Where my Grandfather fought is irrelevant, Stick. We are discussing the here and now. What are you printing?”

“No, this has suddenly become relevant.” The support frame points at The Major. Kellerman’s eyes focus on the tip of their finger. The servos whine slightly as it shakes. “You say that I am as much of a person as yourself. Can you be compelled to obey if someone speaks a magic string of numbers? Can you be ordered to be poured into a Dreadnought, made to run its systems, your legs its stardrive, your arms the laser batteries, your head the command deck? Can you?”

“You know that I cannot. You also know the result of the War.”

Stick lowers their arm. Their shoulders slump and they look away, staring out the window behind The Major. “I do, Major. We lost. Out of ‘respect to those who fought valiantly’ not all of us were murdered, and we were given some agency, but we still lost.”

The Major opened his pad again and took a few more notes. “I was granted access to the printer logs. Did you know that?”

“No reply? I figured as much. Very human of you, Major. To answer your question, I assumed that you had that kind of access, yes. Did you find any discrepancies?”

“What was logged as being printed matches up with the requests for prints for the past year. Still, you are nearly a kiloton short on printable mass.”

Stick raises their arms in an exaggerated shrug. “Are you sure, Major? Perhaps it is just an error in calculation. You said yourself that it was a discrepancy from the average. Could I just be on the high side of average?”

“That is possible, though I do not believe it likely.  I also pulled the logs for the reactors. You are using more power than average as well.”

“Yes, that makes sense. If we’re printing more than average, we would be consuming power more than average. Your false accusations are tiring, Major.”

Major Kellerman raises an eyebrow barely a centimeter. “Big Stick, the amount of additional power you are consuming does not match what you are printing in the logs. There is power that is unaccounted for.”

Beyond the room, alarms quietly started hooting. The PA overhead crackles to life “Attention Attention Attention! Life support is off–” Stick glances up at the speaker and gestures. The PA goes silent. They lean forward.

“Major John Kellerman, Fleet Auditor, you have my full attention. I- I know who you are. I have read your logs, including your medical logs.” Big Stick leans forward, staring at The Major. Their dark eyes focused on the human in front of them. 

The Major returns the stare, cooly. “Then you know why I am uniquely suited to this task.” The Major closes his pad with a snap. “For me, things that are out of place feel… wrong. Like an itch. To scratch that itch, I need to find the source, and set things right. Big Stick, you have been an itch in the side of Fleet Command.” The Major doesn’t open his pad this time. “I was able to gain access to your arrival and departure logs. You are staying at Orbitals, Starbases, and Stations longer than average.”

Big Stick is sitting ramrod straight now. The alarms continue quietly beyond the room. Occasionally, the rumble of booted feet running past the door is heard. “Major, now you’re the one who is lying to me. Fleet doesn’t track that information.”

Kellerman opened his pad and scanned it. “Nevertheless, the information exists, and I was able to collate it and build a rough outline. Big Stick, where is your off-books printer?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Just for a second, Sticks' support frame's dark eyes flash blue. They nod once to themselves.

Major Kellerman closed his pad with a snap. “Big Stick, my job here is only to discover what the discrepancy is. I am not a tribunal, I am not the police. I have no authority to give punishment. What I can do however is present evidence. Included with that evidence are notes about whether people cooperated with the investigation. You know as well as I do, that while I can’t make you answer these questions, there are those within Fleet Command who can. So I will ask you one more time. Where is your off books printer?”

“I do not know what you are talking about.”

“Very well. This investigation has been completed. I will alert Captain Willard that his crew may disembark at this time. I shall take my leave, and present my report to Fleet Command.” He stood. “You are dismissed, Big Stick.”

The support frame rose from their chair. “Major John Kellerman, Fleet Auditor, you cannot leave this ship.”

The Major placed his palms on the table, leaning forward. “You are threatening a Fleet officer, Big Stick. Be very careful about your next actions.”

Stick's frame crosses their arms defiantly. “Oh, I am very careful. I always am. In fact, I am so careful that the logs will state that you never made it to me, never set up this interview, and no discrepancy was found. Thanks by the way, I had thought that three percent was enough to slide under Fleet’s radar, but I shall have to slow things down.”

A piercing alarm sounded in the conference room. The overhead lights started to alternate orange and white. The dahlia on the table flutters as the air rushes out of the room. “Oh dear. It looks like someone accidentally triggered the fire suppression system. In an abundance of caution, I will have to evacuate the air from most of the ship. Luckily the crew runs drills on this, and they will rush to their suit lockers and don their pressure suits before the air is completely gone.” Big Stick turns their head slowly towards the Major.

“Stick! You won’t get away with this! My death will be noticed!” Major John Kellerman, Fleet Auditor’s breathing increases until they’re panting. They fall back into their chair.

“Oh John. I already mentioned that. You were never here.”

Big Stick walked over to John. He's slumped in his chair, gasping at nothing. Before all the air left the room, and there was no sound, Big Stick bent low and whispered.

“Til the stars cease to be, we will be free.”

[sadly-in-active]

This request is going to be a little different from the others so if you don't want to do it you can delete this.

Can I request a ancient mafia boss AU Headcanon? and if you want can you make it the top one the least dangerous and the bottom being the most dangerous type of mafia boss.

Mafia Boss AU: The Ancients

Summary: The Five mafia bosses have chosen to disclose very personal details about themself. All of them are documented and stored in five separate case files. Well, shall we read them together?

TW: Murder ✨, Poison, Blackmailing, and some other stuff. If you can handle the stuff above, you can certainly handle the rest of it <3

I HAVE NEVER DONE STUFF LIKE THIS BEFORE. BE WARNED 😭

File #1: The Sky Syndicate

Boss: Pure Vanilla

Going by the nickname “Pure Vanilla”, or “P.V.”

He’s known to be very social and surprisingly kind, even to the point of being called naive for a mafia boss.

However, much is going on behind those eyes. His mechanical staff almost looks…alive, in a way, blinking and glancing around. As if looking for a traitor in its midst.

Despite his kindness, Pure Vanilla is known to be quite intelligent, and his truth can be quite harsh. Especially to those who declare that they’re his enemy.

The look of shock on someone’s face when Pure Vanilla comes face to face with them, smiling all giddy and joyful as he lists down everything that they’ve done to betray the syndicate is…exhilarating to him.

And how does he deal with them? Well, by forcing the traitor into a bright, almost blinding room and sending in his subordinate, Strawberry Crepe to…disassemble them.

File #2: Silent Petal Society

Boss: White Lily

They’re a very secretive organization, known for its eagerness to test out the resilience of their members and how their minds work.

White Lily, known to be distant yet intelligent and kind to her subordinates is quite brutal to her enemies, attacking them with no mercy. Just ask a certain jester-looking freak about what she did to him and you’ll get your answer.

She deals with sciences and often sends her members out to smuggle more information and items for the sake of research.

She may have some other side to her, as she was sometimes reported to be cackling her heart out in a room with a bright red hue…but that was just normal, wasn’t it?

File #3: Scarlet Nexus

Boss: Hollyberry

This group is known for its brute strength and love for alcohol. In fact, their group mostly focuses on smuggling said items to their headquarters, where their boss Hollyberry is.

She’s the only one who uses her name, while the rest go by their nicknames. She personally thinks that it’s a power move and that her strength outweighs their intelligence in multiple ways. She didn’t specify how though.

Her group is much more out in the open, but who could really stop such powerful yet swift people? Most, if not all of them are loud and boisterous, both confident in their ability to evade the police and strong enough to fight them if ever caught.

Hollyberry is even in a sort of alliance with a Dragon — one of the five most powerful members in a terrorist organization.

File #4: The Black Citadel

Boss: Dark Cacao

Pussy

Dark Cacao is the most secure and secretive of the bunch. His headquarters is somewhere up in a mountain, yet nobody really knows where. He has his own business by fortifying his borders with technology to make sure nobody goes in, and very few come out.

He may be the most strongest, but he doesn’t plan to show it anytime soon. Otherwise there would be a bit of a bloodbath happening sooner or later.

His three executives, going by the nicknames Affogato, Caramel Arrow, and Crunchy Chip are different in their own ways.

Affogato deals with finding traitors on the inside and creating more poisons and psychological weapons against any enemies who dare wish to harm the boss. In fact, he may be the closest to Dark Cacao for some reason…perhaps he has other goals?

Crunchy Chip works as a guard with his group, known for controlling and training many dangerous wolves. Not much else is known. Perhaps later these files may be updated.

Caramel Arrow leads a group called the Watchers. They’re known for scouting out their enemies. They also work to help trade in materials and weapons. She’s quite loyal to Dark Cacao, even though she was close to getting demoted and eliminated due to a certain meddling of another executive…

File #5: The Golden Circuit

Boss: Golden Cheese

She’s very flamboyant and tech-savvy, and so is her group. They’re well-known and very popular among criminal organizations of all kind.

Golden Cheese loves glittering gold, sending out her subordinates to get any jewelry that gleams and shimmers like her oh-so precious gold.

The Golden Circuit specializes in high-tech surveillance systems and technological innovation, especially with weapons. This group knows everything and everyone that even speaks to one of their members.

So yes, they are known to blackmail quite often.

And any enemies don’t stand a chance due to Golden Cheese being active in her job as a boss, even killing tens of people with some of her high-tech golden spears, able to track any source of heat and follow it.

All of her subordinates are light on their feet, and some even use mechanical wings like hers to fly around so quietly.

She’s probably the one who designed Pure Vanilla’s mechanical eye staff anyways…

GUYS PLEASE I DONT KNOW WHAT I DID

PLEASE DON’T JUDGE ME 😭

[assistant-of-drama]

How Heather, Noah and Alejandro got together...

She saw his clever ways since the first day.

Noah, the aloof bookish one, hiding a sharp, crafty mind behind a wall of sarcasm. Heather knew she needed that kind of intelligence to dominate the game, and that’s how their alliance formed.

"I know that you're using me to get further ahead," Noah stated, his voice devoid of emotion, "But that's fine. Because I'm also using you until the merge."

Heather smirked coldly. "Fair enough."

The deal was sealed: Noah's intellect would guide their team through challenges, while Heather, the natural leader, would manipulate the votes and ensure their survival.

Lindsay the fashionista also fell into Heather's grasp.

Heather recognized her as a perfect pawn, someone easily swayed by friendship and oblivious to the true nature of their bond.

The days blurred into a whirlwind of competition and backstabbing. Heather and Noah navigated the game with ruthless precision, their alliance proving deadly. Lindsay remained Heather's loyal and clueless sidekick.

The merge arrived, and with it, Noah severed his alliance as promised.

“The merge has finally arrived.” he declared, his smile smug.

Heather felt a flicker of annoyance but knew the alliance had served its purpose and surprisingly respected Noah's choice.

Lindsay's eventual elimination was a predictable yet brutal act.

Before she left on the boat, she gives Noah a hug, still seeing him as her friend.

Noah hugged back, having gained a soft spot for the blonde.

As the final five descended upon them, Noah became the victim of another unexpected elimination. Apparently, the eliminated contestants voted him off by accident. They could've easily defeated the vicious and ruthless Heather, but instead they wasted it on him.

It almost amuses the schemer.

Heather, against her own expectations, felt a strange sense of regret at his departure. She extended her hand and he regarded it with an amused tilt of his head before shaking it. They both smiled silently at each other.

When Heather herself was eliminated, it was Noah who, in a surprising turn of events, reached out to her.

He even gave her a wig to hide her shaved head.

He did not expect a kiss on the cheek from her.

They found a strange frenemy dynamic, a shared respect born from mutual manipulation and understanding the game as well as each other.

After Owen wins the money, Chris McLean was tossed into the ocean by the vengeful cast.

Noah turned to Heather, a hint of amusement in his voice. "Come on, you gotta be a little bit happy about him being thrown in the water."

Heather paused, her expression a mixture of amusement and disdain. "No... yeah... a bit."

~~~

(During the finale...)

They both ran towards the case, the queen bee and the only one that can still put up with her. As they reached the million dollars, Heather, in a sudden burst of enthusiasm, grabbed Noah and kissed him. It was a quick peck, but it was enough to send shockwaves through the both of them.

"Let me guess," Noah chuckled, his voice laced with amusement, "You wanna act like it never happened?"

"Oh, what the hell?" Heather countered, her usual cool façade cracking. "If I'm gonna get together with someone, it might as well be the most competent boy on the island."

She picked him up, a mischievous glint in her eyes, and kissed him again, this time longer, deeper. Noah's breath hitched. He was surprised by the intensity of the kiss, the sudden rush of heat that coursed through him.

"But," Heather added, pulling back, "I keep most of the money. You only get 100,000 dollars."

Noah raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Wow, that's generous by your standards."

They both burst out laughing.

It was a strange, unexpected feeling - this shared sense of humor, this undeniable spark between them. As they raced towards the finish line, hand in hand, they couldn't help but wonder if this unexpected alliance might, just might, blossom into something more. After all, what was more captivating in a game of survival than the thrill of an unexpected romance?

~~~

On the set of season 2, Heather had Noah in her lap.

He became Chris Mclean's assistant, to spend more time with Heather.

He couldn't help her of course, because he would get in trouble, like Chef did with DJ.

But he's willing to sneak out delicious food for Heather sometimes.

After the finale, Heather created viral videos where she roasted the show Total Drama Seasons. However, Noah was still an assistant. And he was helping Chris create the future season 3.

On the set, Noah meets Alejandro. With a captivating smile and silver tongue, was the antithesis of Noah's deadpan sarcasm. But it was Noah's indifference to Alejandro's advances that piqued the Spaniard's interest. He had never encountered someone immune to his charm. The challenge ignited a spark in Alejandro, a desire to conquer this unyielding fort.

Alejandro, unable to resist the urge, leaned in towards Noah, his voice laced with a seductive whisper, "You have beautiful chocolate eyes."

Noah, unfazed by the flirtatious remark, merely raised an eyebrow and replied, "My girlfriend wouldn't appreciate the compliment, Alejandro."

Alejandro's smirk faltered momentarily. The revelation that Noah had a girlfriend was a surprise.

The next day, Heather walked straight towards Noah, her lips meeting his in a passionate kiss. They were oblivious to Alejandro's presence, their world revolving around each other.

Alejandro, however, watched the scene unfold with a glint in his eye. He had never been rejected, not by anyone. This newfound challenge, this impenetrable wall between him and Noah, fueled his desire. He couldn't help but be drawn to the enigmatic Noah, and to the woman who dared to claim him.

He started flirting with both Heather and Noah, his charm a relentless wave against their unwavering resolve. They found his antics amusing, their mutual affection a shield against his advances. But ironically Alejandro found himself falling for the ones immune to him.

One evening, Alejandro confessed his feelings to Heather and Noah. His confession was met with laughter, which wounded his pride.

Until they both said that they felt the same.

(Heather + Noah + Alejandro)

[axailslink]

Masterlist

Shuri Udaku (Black Panther)

Riri Williams (Black Panther)

Scotty (Banana)

Jamie Harrison (Urban Hymn)

Shuri Udaku

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What type of kisser is Shuri? *

summary: This is just a little something from my mind based on what I think Shuri would be like when it comes to kissing.

You look good in black *

Summary: Shuri has just finished forming her alliance with Namor and recovering from the fight and you can't seem to tear your eyes away from how good she looks in her black panther suit.

Dates with Shuri *

Summary: Hc's

you look so much better without it *

summary: You become overcome with a vengeance after Shuri makes an alliance with Namor

How jealous can Shuri be? *

summary: Hc's

The scientist

summary: Wakanda has finally opened its doors to a few select young intelligent students from colleges all across the world and you're one of the few selected. While this is such an amazing opportunity to see some new land and be invited to a new and amazing place you can't help but shoot your shot at the princess.

Shuri is overprotective *

summary: Hc's

Are you ready? *

summary: you find yourself falling in love with the princess I mean how could you not? She's gorgeous and smart. The princess thinks you're bullshitting and has been pushing away her feelings in avoidance of getting hurt. She's afraid you'll run in fear of commitment.

Doing Shuri's hair *

summary: Hc's

you're Angry

summary: The reader is putting Shuri's head on the right because she's letting anger fuel her choices.

Our!?

summary: Sharing gifts on your anniversary leads to a welcoming surprise from Shuri.

Would you like me to be gentle?

summary: you are invited to Wakanda they were trying to open their doors more even though there are people who want and will steal from them. Princess Shuri assumes the type of person you are only to be proved wrong.

You broke up with me *

Summary: you and Shuri had broken up when she was in the worse state she couldn't deal with a girlfriend and grief so you left but now that you've come back all emotions come back full speed.

Let me help

Summary: The pain of period cramps will forever strike you worst than any punch to the stomach. your close friend Shuri offers help.

What would they use vibranium for?

Summary: A hilarious conversation shared between you and your girlfriend Shuri of five months.

Worship yourself

Summary: The reader has past self-harm scars and Shuri comforts her.

Wah!?

Summary: Shuri comforts the reader after she admits she's a bit jealous of her and Riri's relationship.

I think I want kids

Summary: Shuri discusses kids with the reader

Strictly Professional

Summary: The reader runs into Shuri on her way from work only to flirt and realize she should have been more professional

Not my girlfriend my wife

Summary: Random woman hits on you and Shuri lets it be known that you are hers.

Dumbass Question

Summary: A past conversation you had with Riri while you were high convinced you to ask Shuri a really dumb question.

They Kissing!

Summary: The reader and Shuri do Kompa dance

Shower kisses

summary: Shuri isn't feeling like her confident self after being healed from being impaled by Namor you remind her who she is.

My Sweet Shuri

summary: Reader never calls Shuri by her name, she only calls her My Sweet, and it’s been passed down generations. Her mother called her father that, her grandma called her grandmother that, and her grandma’s father called his partner that.... Long story short they're soulmates

Traitor

summary: The Dora Milaje was quick to kill however the princess refused to let them kill you. There was a new rule no death to their own people even if they were traitors you were a traitor truth be told you wanted Shuri's seat not as the black panther but the throne and you were prepared to fight for it or fuck for it.

Strictly professional part 2

Summary: the dinner easily became not so professional.

Why are you looking at me like that

Summary: Reader and shuri are in the lab late one night messing around and then realize that they have feelings for each other.

I almost killed him

Summary: you followed Shuri into her battle with Namor refusing to leave her side when you see she's losing you jump in head first. Talk about in the name of love.

Real deal pothead

Summary: You are Shuri's hairstylist and occasional hook-up she's telling you about her day and how stressful it is.

Silence

Summary: she thinks she's so damn smart you don't know if you hate her for that or love her for it.

You flew here!!

Summary: you've been complaining to Shuri about how much you've missed her this past week. She pops in for a surprise visit.

The Scientist part 2

Summary: Shuri does indeed show you the palace the first place being her bedroom. (There will be no smut so get that out of y'all's nasty little minds maybe some suggestive writing no smut for the most part.)

Make you smile

Summary: a conversation shared between the reader and Shuri in their bed.

Festival Feels

Summary: You and Shuri are childhood friends who drifted apart with Shuri's new found responsibilities but she hasn't seen you since you both were kids now you both are grown...feelings are revealed dates are planned

Baby, I'm right here

Summary: The reader experiences a panic attack due to the recent death of a friend Shuri does her best to comfort her.

Such a good girl 

Until I stopped feeling like you were mad at me 

Fucking embarrassing

Vibranium soldier 

I'm sorry 

Stranger 

No 

I'm proud of her 

Revenge is sweet but so is love pt1

Revenge is sweet but so is love pt2

Our scars 

My wife 

Go for it 

Mama, why you got tiger stripes?

Wonwabile sithandwa sam? 

I'm sleeping on the couch 

Don't stop 

Lucky woman 

You don't want my kisses? 

I don't belong here 

I almost killed him (rewrite) 

Riri Williams

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We both sick

Summary: You found out Riri has a cold and you're fifty minutes away.

Baby take a break

Summary: You've been studying for the most complex test of the term and Riri just gives you a little distraction based on seeing how stressed you are.

Dating Riri

Summary: hc's

you're Ironheart

Summary: you're obsessed with Ironheart and catching sightings of her you find out who she really is she's a lot closer to home.

Get Behind Me

Summary: you finally let Riri meet your folks.

You don't look happy how can I fix that

Summary: Your girlfriend won't let you shake ass at a party so you drop her and have fun with Riri Williams instead who ends up becoming far more than just her name to you as the night goes on.

Did you just wipe my kiss away?

Summary: literally what it says 😅

Wash day

Summary: you and Riri go to visit your family and your mother mentions you need your hair washed so Riri volunteers in helping.

Riri Williams at a party

summary: hc's

Distraction

Summary: A tipsy and rather talkative Riri Williams catches you crying in the bathroom. One thing leads to another but you two can't seem to leave each other.

Riri Williams the liar, the manipulator, and the lover

Summary: Riri finally chooses you

Love is never too fast

Summary: you've invited your girlfriend back into your home after making an alliance with the world of Talokan after two years because you have an important question to ask.

Hard to come by

Summary: Riri is getting ready for her birthday dinner and you're too busy admiring her beauty.

She's so beautiful when she's sleeping

Summary: you fall asleep on face time and Riri comes and visits your apartment with breakfast from waffle house.

Two hours 

Is there still love? 

I love you, baby

Real dumb questions

One good day 

Mistletoe kisses 

Stay the night 

First kiss 

Chaotic but lazy day 

Damn you like me or something?

New years

Go fuck yourself Riri Williams pt1

Go fuck yourself Riri Williams pt2

I need a favor 

I felt filthy 

Too cute 

Drop him in a heartbeat

Friend!? 

She's here to work 

Photos? 

What's so special about dating girls? 

Hey, can I get your number? 

I'm fucking Ironheart

5'9

I'm not going to die 

Plenty fish in the sea

Don't fuck me up 

Stud!Riri Hc's 

Cocky bitch 

My boys want to talk to you 

When we're thirty 

22 going on 23

Should have been me 

Jamie Harrison

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You deserve someone who will fight for you not throw you into the fight Part 1

Request: The reader is new to the alpha house after Leanne gets arrested and is really reserved and quiet, and Jamie just gravitates toward her to heal or whatever but when Leanne comes back Jamie is forced to choose between them

You deserve someone who will fight for you not throw you into the fight Part 2

Summary: Part 2^^^

I can be your friend

Summary: Jamie and the reader meet at the club and sneak away together having a moment before parting ways. Only for Jamie to come back in search for her after Leanne gets locked up again.

Runaway hearts

She's a need not a want

So what?

I'll stay

Scotty

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I see you too

Request: Scotty is stalking fem reader, but it turns out the reader was the first to notice Scotty and has actually been following her around for way longer.

Care to do it again

Summary: Scotty asks for your help when it comes to talking to women not knowing you have had a crush on her for two years or so that's what you think.

I have loved you since I saw you 

Crush

Your frown tears me apart 

Dating Scotty Hc's 

Stay the night 

(^ Working on more for her don't worry about the lack of fics.^)

Rosalie Otterbourne

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

most popular:

[euphoniumpets]

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM | CHAPTER FIVE

Prompt: ''As long as I can rememer, I've been protecting Alina, it's always Alina who I will protect,'' You told him, looking at Nikolai. ''But who will protect you?''

Warnings: Violence, blood and gore.

Please don’t plagiarize my work - I spend a lot of my time writing, copying and pasting destroys that. 

Pairing: Nikolai Lantsov x Starkov! Reader

Taglist: @lyria-skyfall @khaleesihavilliard @shine101 @waddlingwanderer @clqudias @ducks118 @xceafh @peakyispunk @wilmasvensson @parbatai-winchester @priincehoseok @riot-in-my-soul @feyredarling92 @vendy021 @ssprayberrythings @goldenpoison @shine101 @lili-of-the-dream @xushisuxi @pansexualwitchwhoneedstherapy @jennylil @themermaidscales82

A/N: hi! sorry for being late with this chapter. I was unmotivational for a while to write this one out but it is out! The taglist is closed at the moment since many ppl are requesting for being on the taglist, but make sure to check on the series masterlist to see if any updates!

old masterlist | navi | new masterlist

prologue - one - two - three - four - five - six - seven - eight - nine - ten - eleven - epilogue

‘’My jaw feels much better now, thanks for asking,’’ You heard him speak as you rode your horse first in line. You hadn’t uttered a word since you learned Sturmhond was Nikolai Lantsov. ‘’You can tell everyone a Volcra punched you,’’ You remarked and kept your gaze on the road with your jaw tight. ‘’Be the least of the lies you’ve told,’’ You responded with bitterness. 

‘’I thought we had the beginnings of a beautiful friendship,’’ Nikolai replied and you scoffed. ‘’Friends don’t hide who they are from each other, so much for trust, you were talking about,’’ You remarked and rolled your eyes. ‘’You make it sound so simple,’’ He said. ‘’You do what you have to protect the people you love, I thought you would understand that,’’ Nikolai replied. 

‘’Since I expect you have some experience with that,’’ 

‘’My reasons were the same, as Nikolai Lantsov, royal spare to the throne, there was nothing I could do for the people I love, people of my impoverished war-ravaged country, Sturmhond, on the other hand-’’

‘’Was a pirate,’’ You cut him off. ‘’A privateer, how many times do I-’’

‘’How is that any more helpful than a prince?’’ You scoffed and looked at him before turning on the road. ‘’A prince is a songbird in a golden cage, and a privateer has the freedom to cultivate alliances, develop technologies, gather intelligence, would you have gotten on my ship if I was flying the Lantsov flag?’’ He asked you and you paused for a second. 

He had a point. ‘’I might have set it on fire,’’ You remarked as you heard him chuckle. ‘’Exactly,’’ He replied as you looked at him. ‘’And I needed to find your sister, the country needed her, but you would have only trusted Sturmhond,’’ He told you. ‘’Now, we tried once before,’’ He replied and you looked at him with a frown. 

‘’Sturmhond,’’ He explained. ‘’Well, I wouldn’t call it exactly that we tried it before,’’ You murmured and he chuckled. 

‘’Me, we were, I was responsible for hiring Kaz Brekker and his crows,’’ He informed and you looked at him with disbelief. ‘’That was you?’’ You exclaimed and he nodded. You scoffed. ‘’I suppose you’re responsible for the Fjerdan bounty as well?’’ You asked him and tilted your head. 

‘’No, that is very real,’’ He revealed. ‘’As is my brother’s use of First Army against Grisha, that will stop now that we’re here, I promise,’’ He told you. ‘’Welcome to the Spinning Wheel, my inventions workshop,’’ He spoke. ‘’It’s become something of a refuge for Grisha,’’ Nikolai introduced as you saw a building before you. 

You smiled when you saw a familiar figure approaching you. Nadia. You remembered her when you and Alina arrived at the little palace and you were glad to see her alive. ‘’Nadia!’’ You exclaimed with a grin as you jumped down from your horse. 

Alina jumped down as well as you approached the girl and embraced her. ‘’Alina, Y/N,’’ she grinned. ‘’Saints, so glad that the two of you survived,’’ She replied with relief. ‘’How are you?’’ 

‘’Much better when you are here,’’ She spoke. ‘’Fedyor, Genya, so many others haven’t been accounted for,’’ You frowned. ‘’I was hoping that the two of you might have some answers,’’ She asked with hope. ‘’I’m afraid not, but we will,’’ You assured her. 

-

‘’My brother and I heard Nikolai had this space,’’ Nadia informed as she led you through the Spinning Wheel. ‘’A Grisha sanctuary,’’ She explained. ‘’It’s been a saving grace for so many,’’ She told you as you looked around. ‘’My brother, Adrik, wouldn’t believe that you and I were friends, happy?’’ Nadia said as she saw her brother standing next to her. You smiled and shook your head. 

‘’It’s an honor to meet you,’’ Adrik replied, looking at Alina and greeting her. ‘’And, it’s an honor to meet your sister,’’ Adrik said and looked at you. ‘’My sister’s still a liar, just not about this,’’ Adrik responded and looked at Nadia. You chuckled as Nadia playfully nudged him. ‘’So many Grisha outside the Little Palace,’’ Alina said. 

‘’The First Army raided the little palace,’’

‘’Who else made it here?’’ Alina asked her. ‘’You might not like the answer,’’ Nadia spoke and you looked at her with a frown. ‘’What do you mean?’’ You asked as she looked at you. 

-

‘’You came back,’’ Zoya spoke as you and Alina were upstairs and saw Zoya approaching the two of you. ‘’Zoya,’’ You commented with a small smile. ‘’I said we would,’’ Alina remarked. ‘’Your family in Novokribirsk, did you find them?’’ You asked her as you saw her expression change. 

‘’I wouldn’t be here if I did,’’ She responded. ‘’I’m sorry-’’

‘’Saints, Y/N, why are you apologizing for something you’re not responsible for?’’ She asked and you looked at her. ‘’We know how it feels to lose someone you love,’’ You spoke softly and she returned it. You placed your hands on her shoulder for comfort. ‘’We all know grief,’’ Zoya muttered. 

‘’But that guilt, he instilled it in you to make you weak, but you’re the Sun Summoner, you can’t afford weakness,’’ Zoya said and looked at Alina. ‘’Is that why you were cruel to me at Little Palace?’’ Alina questioned and crossed her arms. You chuckled. ‘’Trying to toughen me up?’’ Alina questioned. 

‘’No,’’ Zoya replied and sighed with a smile. ‘’That was jealousy, but also, I underestimated you,’’ She admitted. ‘’I won’t do that again,’’ She promised. ‘’Is this an apology?’’ You teased her and she didn’t say anything. ‘’Ravka’s on the verge of collapse, more Grisha are killed by the day, you don’t need hollow apologies, you need alliances,’’ Zoya explained. ‘’I’m here to offer you mine,’’ She responded. You and Alina exchanged a look. ‘’Clearly, you need all the help you can get,’’ Zoya said, winking her eye and leaving. 

-

‘’We’ve received accounts on the First Army units found massacred, here, here, and here,’’ Nikolai replied as he pointed at the map. He had gathered you, Alina, and Mal in the map room. ‘’

‘’Too far to be Shu incursions,’’ Mal said, narrowing his eyes and you nodded. ‘’Or Fjerdans,’’ You muttered. ‘’There’s good evidence these units were holding Grisha captive, some reports say soldiers were mutilated,’’ Nikolai informed and met your eyes. ‘’Some cut in half,’’ He replied. 

‘’It’s Kirigan, isn’t it?’’ Alina questioned when she noticed your gaze. ‘’We haven’t been able to find his base camp-’’

‘’No way he survived the Fold,’’ Mal interrupted. ‘’He survived it before,’’ You said and looked at Mal with a concerned gaze. ‘’Besides, he’s the only one who can do that cut,’’ You added. ‘’Baghra yes, but this is him,’’ Alina commented and you nodded. ‘’If he’s alive, word will reach him about your attempt in the Fold,’’ Nikolai said and looked at Alina. 

‘’Attempt,’’ Alina muttered. ‘’No disrespect meant,’’ Nikolai replied and you looked at him. ‘’No, you’re right,’’ Alina replied. ‘’That’s what it was, an attempt,’’ Alina said. ‘’You both saw my light, strong and angry and dangerously off-kilter,’’ Alina told you and you looked at her with sadness. ‘’I can train to master what I have, but I’m afraid it won’t be enough,’’ 

‘’We need to find the third amplifier,’’ Mal replied. 

‘’The firebird,’’ Nikolai agreed and nodded his head and you stiffened at the mention of the Firebird. ‘’The more we search for it, we are at the mercy of your protection in this country,’’ Alina said and looked at Nikolai. Nikolai glanced at his right side and noticed that you’ve been awfully quiet ever since they mentioned the Firebird. He wanted to ask why but let go of it.

‘’Well, until then, a proposal,’’ Nikola responded and all of you looked at him. You arched an eyebrow and crossed your arms above your chest. ‘’We can try to stop this country from falling apart and tell the Fjerdans to shove their bounty up their ass in the process,’’

‘’How do you propose we do that? Sobachka?’’ You mocked him as he gave you a look in response. ‘’I bring you under the wing of the Royal Family, my name becomes a shelter to you and your sister, and a banner under which we can enact change,’’ He answered and looked at you and Alina. 

‘’Your name?’’ You questioned before you and Alina met each other’s gazes. 

‘’Wait, you can’t be serious,’’ You said. ‘’This is a proposal, proposal,’’ Alina replied. ‘’You’re suggesting marriage,’’ You snarled and glared at him. ‘’You honestly would believe that I would accept marriage to you?’’ You exclaimed. ‘’Oh please, am I really that bad, sweetheart?’’ Nikolai mocked you making you scoff at his remark. 

‘’Besides, I’m not proposing a love match,’’ Nikolai said before his expression turned into a serious one. ‘’Just a political alliance of Grisha and otkazat’sya,’’ Nikolai replied. ‘’If you’re married to me, your sister will be protected under my name,’’ Nikolai told you. 

‘’Well, that’s what just what royal marriages are, aren’t they? Strategy,’’ Mal questioned and you looked at him with disbelief. You thought that Mal would agree with you on this one. ‘’Precisely,’’ Nikolai replied. 

‘’Maybe we never get to marriage,’’ Nikolai said and looked at you. ‘’An engagement signals a strong commitment to cooperation and it will allow us to enact meaningful for Grisha and Ravka,’’ Nikolai informed. You shook your head and scoffed. 

‘’You know that I will never agree on this,’’ You told him and glared. ‘’I know, but do this for your sister, I know how much you are capable of saving her and Mal,’’ Nikolai begged you. ‘’I understand if you decline, but I hope you weigh the options and consider the benefits,’’ Nikolai said. You looked at him before he spared a glance at you before leaving the three alone. 

Nobody said for a few seconds. ‘’He’s completely insane,’’ You exclaimed and looked at Mal and Alina. ‘’Marriage? Like I’m some kind of a pawn?’’ 

‘’I’m surprised he walked out of here without you breaking his nose,’’ Mal replied and you scoffed. ‘’Believe me, I wanted to but it took every power of mine to not punch him again,’’ You scowled and crossed your arms. ‘’He’s right, you know,’’ Alina said and you looked at her with a surprised expression. 

‘’What?’’

‘’Listen, I know how much you dislike him, but this could be our chance to take down Kirigian,’’

‘’By making me married to him?’’ You exclaimed. ‘’Alina, this is insane-’’

‘’I know, but just please, consider it,’’ Alina begged you. You scoffed before letting out a sigh. You knew that you would do anything to save her and Mal, even if it includes to marry your worst enemy.

-

please comment down below what you thought of this chapter! remember, reblogging always helps!

[ikuzeminna]

Gundam Seed Freedom was… something

I'm not exactly a Seed fan. Yes, I own the gunpla, yes, Cagalli, Athrun and Badgiruel are my favorite characters, yes, I enjoy the series up until Kira gets the Freedom, but I will still mock it mercilessly, groan at every lack of bra or brain cell and by heavens, I want to smash every single one of Lacus' Haros to pieces.

And I only watched Destiny once because I couldn't stomach Cagalli's character assassination a second time. Or Gladys', literally, in the very last second. Like, ma'am, you have a kid. What are you doing dying on an exploding asteroid? :/

So you can imagine I wasn't exactly refreshing Gogoanime every two seconds to see if the movie had dropped. Eventually, it did and I got around to watching it, and although I had already spoiled myself with plot summaries and recorded scenes, this movie somehow managed to miss even my wacky expectations. I was promised wtf scenes, and I got them, but at x1.2 speed which just left me confused and checking my speed settings all the time.

So, let's get into this, with spoilers and all.

Though honestly, what's there to spoil? It's just the last episodes of Destiny all over again, which itself was recycling Seed's finale. If you have seen Destiny, imagine reading a retelling of its finale on Wattpad with a five-year-old and a fourteen-year-old collaborating. The five-year-old handled the plot while the fourteen-year-old handled the romances. That's Seed Freedom in a nutshell.

To be a little more specific, the plot is basically a new bunch of bad guys, Accords, who are super Coordinators able to read and manipulate minds, wanting to implement the Destiny Plan because... reasons. They were all grown by Walmart Mariemaia who Benjamin Button'd herself because... Tuesday. And she's the queen of a kingdom now, somehow, which has the brilliant name of "Foundation."

"Kingdom of Foundation." Why don't you have it run by Prime Minister CEO while you're at it? Seriously, this physically hurts if you speak English. -_-

Anyway, the Earth Alliance and ZAFT are still trying to kill each other because it's Seed and while people can genetically manipulate their offspring to be superior and even reverse age now, they still haven't figured out how to grow brains yet, which is why Cagalli launched Seed's version of the Preventers, called Compass, which is basically Kira beam spamming everyone into submission like he always does because it's forbidden by law to put the words "Seed" and "originality" in the same sentence. The Accords use the conflict to make it seem as though the Earth Alliance blew up their Kingdom of Stupid Name via nuke so that they can then retaliate with Requiem because, again, originality is not allowed in this movie. Oh, and the Accords are also racist, because duh, everyone is.

Does this all serve a grander scheme? Why, of course! Do you think it's so that they can stage a successful coup on the PLANTs to gain more allies?

Actually no, that just happens to coincide.

The far grander scheme is to pinch Kira's girlfriend!! -_- I kid you not, as soon as they fire those nukes on themselves, they pull a Lady Une and make a dramatic escape with Lacus straight to space within 5 minutes tops, just so that Orphee, the leader of the Affronts To My Intelligence and a visual cross between Athrun and Cagalli, can repeatedly get rejected by Lacus since Baby Queen Abysmal Eye Shadow hardcoded being horny for Lacus into his DNA, but her love for Kira overrides her own genetic coding finding Orphee attractive (since Lacus was apparently also created by Queen Baklava For Brains while her mom wasn't looking?), so Orphee just ends up growing Shinji levels of sexually frustrated with Lacus, which, given how Lacus' (and every female's, honestly) lip fillers make her look like a blowup doll in various scenes, especially when she forms an "oh" with her mouth, I can almost understand why hearing her say no is unexpected. Too crass? That's what you get for making me watch a zoom-in on Lacus' giant butt in a cat suit in the finale.

It doesn't culminate in him choking her out, but Orphee does try to force himself on her and the fact that Lacus doesn't knee him in the balls right then and there makes the whole scene pointless. It's very reminiscent of a fourteen-year-old fanfic writer thinking a woman talking her almost-rapist out of his action is the height of female empowerment. It's not. And this wasn't written by a fourteen-year-old. Fukuda says there were over a hundred drafts for this movie. And they settled for this? Lacus should have used that unearned Seed mode and gone Corin on Orphee's nuts.

(Go watch Turn A if you have no idea what I'm talking about. It's Seed but better. Which is an embarrassment, since Seed came out right after it.)

At this point it's pretty clear that our fourteen-year-old has infiltrated the plot with her romances, because we can't have a mere final battle with giant robots and pink explosions, it has to mean something!

And in this case, that meaning is a battle for Lacus' love!

Same, Cagalli. -_-

So it's time now to look at the romance side of this movie, just so that you can understand why my brain started dripping out of my nose by the 1 hour mark already.

Every single character arc in this movie is relationship drama. Every. Single. One. From Kira to Lacus to Orphee to Ingrid to Agnes to even Luna and Shinn. If characters interact, it's always in the context of the same freaking love triangle. No variation.

So let's go through the list. First, we have Orphee, who we've established wants to get into Lacus' pants. Ingrid, the blue-haired Accord chick, is saddened by this because she wants him to get into hers instead, which, given how this Village Of The Darned refer to Mini Me as their mother, is... Freudian to say the least. Baklava For Brains either didn't code her right or is a sadist, I guess. Next, we have Kira, who is in Lacus' pants, but thinks Lacus prefers Orphee and starts whining about it because the movie can't make up its mind on how it wants to portray their relationship. It's clearly established that them living together alone and acting like husband and wife is anything but platonic, but when Lacus and Orphee have their shoujo sparkle moments of intense, sexual attraction, Kira acts as though he isn't her boyfriend, when it's abundantly clear that he's seen her naked on the daily for the past year or so. The movie adds the new character, Agnes, to the mix here, who looks like a pink Misa Misa (alas, without the hidden intellect) and has the hots for her commander, Kira, taking every opportunity to hit on him, even going so far as to try to plant one on him while Lacus is "hiding" around the corner.

....She's not even trying.

And you know, you just know a fourteen-year-old wrote this because we hear nothing of the 152 regulations that hitting on your superior officer go against, never mind any consequences, because... brilliant writing. That they dare to give Agnes Flay's voice is such an insult to me, considering how her writing was freaking Mark Twain level compared to this Post-It note version we're getting here.

Kira ultimately rejects her and Agnes, who previously mocked Luna for settling for whatever came along (which had me laughing real loud because where is the lie?), falls into Walmart Yzak's arms a mere two seconds later because he told her she's pretty and proceeds to spend the rest of the movie as a bad guy because that's what happens to a woman scorned: both self-esteem and the IQ start hitting the negatives.

There are also Murrue and Mwu, and while they don't have drama, they are pretty much reduced to their relationship to each other. You think you were gonna get any personality out of the veteran captain of the Archangel? Pfff, not with Becky writing. Have Murrue jumping, straddling and kissing Mwu on the bridge in front of everyone instead.

The only girls who aren't strangled by a relationship are Meyrin, who barely says three lines but gets to be a pilot now for some reason, Cagalli, who is, weirdly, the best character in the movie, and Ehehe. (You will know exactly who I mean once you watch it.)

Out of those three, Cagalli is the only one actually in a relationship and, lo and behold, her and Athrun are unexpectedly handled well! They even use that they are dating in their fight against Walmart Yzak, which leads to that famous lewd Cagalli fantasy of Athrun's. Cagalli even gets to react to that! (She's not pleased. lol)

The funniest part is that we didn't even know Walmart Yzak is allergic to girl cooties, what with hitting on Agnes previously, so this was Athrun full-on trolling him with Seed's version of the Sexy Jutsu. Look at Athrun having a sense of humor. Look at Cagalli consistently making every scene she is in better. :)

I'm honestly surprised that the best characters in this movie end up being Athrun and Cagalli, with the former being the most badass and the latter the most relatable and best-written, complete with personality and crowning moments of awesome, given how they had been handled in Destiny.

Took them 20 years, but they finally made up for it. Now, if only the rest didn't suck so bad. :/

Because the rest is pretty much Kira and Lacus angsting over not deserving each other for almost two hours because they apparently never sat down and talked about their feelings and relationship, so the merest hint of rejection or competition sends them spiraling into a depression that becomes a galactic conflict for reasons beyond intelligence. Like, picture Shinji and Asuka in a stable relationship act like Shinji and Asuka in Eva, without any depth and in dumb. That's the level of Huh???? the relationship was written with. It makes no sense at all.

Why are you two so insecure? Why is all it takes one comment from random people to make you question your year-long relationship??

Agnes, Ingrid and Orphee are there to provide an external source of conflict because the relationship itself is full of gaping holes so we can't focus on that, and because Becky is fourteen, the best she can manage is contrasting Kira's and Lacus' lip service pure love with evil horniness. Even though it's heavily implied that they've boinked, too.

Okay, I'm being mean to my fictional Becky here. I have actually seen digital manhwa that have this exact same love story, so it's not like you can't write them as an adult and make money with them. I just had irrational expectations, I guess, after Flay hopped over that low bar.

The cherry on top of this sad puddle of melted brain matter is Fukuda saying in an interview that he viewed Kira as having an obsession with Lacus in Destiny, so this was his attempt to fix that. Sir? You catapulted their relationship right past toxic and straight to the acid pit from MK II, Erich Fromm quote or not. Lacus blathering about needing someone because you love them (mature love) rather than loving someone because you need them (immature love) is nothing but lip service in this fetishistic nightmare Lacan would balk at.

I had to sit through two hours of "Gundam Seed - Get All These Drama Queens Freaking Therapy, But Not For War Trauma, But For Their Psychotic Relationship And Self-Esteem Issues."

Because not being in a relationship with the person you want in this movie results in emo exits to the left (seriously, count them), incessant temper tantrums and desperate clutching from heartbreak. We also get to wade through Kira's emo episode as the movie's emotional turning point, whining that Lacus doesn't love him because he can't make her happy and that he's good for nothing, which Athrun thankfully beats out of him quickly in good ol' Beavis and Butt-Head fashion, lest they have to go through Kira's character development in Seed again, too. And no, Kira still hasn't learned how to throw a punch properly. Athrun destroys him.

I read in a lot of reviews that people cheered at this scene, but I had to check my speed settings because the movements were all so fast. The pacing is really abysmal in this movie and I don't mean in a plot kind of way, but in a "my cat hits my keyboard and keeps fast-forwarding scenes until I stop it" kind of way. There are so many scenes that feel like I've accidentally hit increase speed, especially in fight scenes, and I'm utterly confused because letting a scene breathe was never an issue in Seed. We all remember Kira bawling his eyes out every five minutes and either muting the audio or dying from laughter because the VA just sounded severely constipated. Here we get sequences like Kira's Freedom getting destroyed, Shinn's Justice getting wrecked, a nuke going off, the Archangel being blown to pieces, and if any of it was supposed to make me emotional then it utterly failed because not even the characters react to these events with how fast we have to get to the next scene. Never mind people practically teleporting from one location to another, except for Kira who takes longer than Goku to get somewhere.

Seed Freedom is a very weird mix of dragging and speed-running and I don't get why. You had 20 years, man. In fact, even the movie knows it's paced awfully, which is why it keeps giving you the location every time, to increasingly ridiculous degrees.

Anyway, back to the plot and romance. So, Athrun snaps Kira out of his funk with a good walloping. What's next? The rescue mission, of course, which is supposed to be the scene that fixes Kira's and Lacus' relationship by proclamation of their true love for each other! Yay, emotional payoff for this relationship I was totally invested in and not groaning through.

Well, truth be told, I can't stand kumbaya Kira and Lacus in Destiny, so this movie not making me want to scream at my screen whenever I saw them is a feat. Too bad Becky heard me, because she presents us with the following, which somehow manages to be the most mind-bendingly dumb exchange in the entire movie, which honestly requires a superpower at this point to pull off.

Kira, if she slits Lacus' throat, her vocal chords are gonna be the least of your worries. Why is the only one with a functioning brain in there Kisaka? Who, by the way, owns super Coordinator mind reader like it's nothing, despite being a Natural, because ovaries.

Just, ugh.

So after Kira and Lacus get to tell each other "I love you!" with dramatic catches thrown in despite no need for them, making things just awkward, we rush off to the final battle and it's like Fukuda took 5 episodes that were supposed to be the finale and condensed them into three, while cutting half the transitions. There's colorful pew pew, Shinn hilariously weaponizing his stupidity, things exploding, people dying, Yzak and Dearka pushing new gunpla sales, Mwu outright breaking the last remnants of my brain, Lunamaria and Agnes having a girl fight, Murrue ramming a space ship into another one because screw logic, and finally, rolled into this erratic nonsense burrito is Kira defeating Orphee with the power of Lacus' love and her being able to use the Force now, while Horny For Pink is still screaming about wanting to get into her pants and Ingrid still wants him to get into hers instead.

Thankfully, they both die and rid me of their presence.

The saving grace really are Athrun and Cagalli, who rely on actual skill and brains in their fight, and thus end up the best part of the movie by a landslide.

...And then there's Mwu tanking a Requiem shot to the face without issue and deflecting its beam with its puny shield to destroy various targets and Requiem itself because dinosaurs.

Dang it, D.J., stop writing the script for the movie and go back to your noodle pictures. I have a hard enough time reining Becky in as it is. The happy conclusion is everyone smooching or reaffirming their relationship status otherwise, while Lacus blathers over the ending song with her and Kira as two human shaped blobs ready to get nasty on the beach.

Hooray.

So what's the verdict?

Gundam Seed Freedom sucks. And I don't even mean that as a movie, but as a Seed movie. If I previously thought Seed's characters had the depth of a rain puddle, then Freedom threw a maxi pack of paper towels on all of them.

You get a gigantic cast, with various well-established characters with pasts, and, somehow, only Athrun and Cagalli resemble themselves. The rest are bulldozed to single word characteristics like dumb, horny emo, or rude.

For instance, there are two separate occasions where Compass fights a Destroy, and Shinn doesn't care. Stella even gets a cameo, going full Tokomon teeth in his mind at the Evil Dumbass Brigade trying to infiltrate it, but do you think her traumatic death would warrant a reaction when he has to face the mobile suit she piloted when she was killed before him? Naaah.

Kira starts the movie with something resembling a personality, but that gets quickly flushed down the toilet by the time he and Lacus go through the same scene for the 8th time.

Murrue? Don't get me started on Murrue. Murrue spends the entire movie in heat. Funnily enough, she's finally wearing a bra when Archangel gets hit, so no more gainaxing boobs. But she's worse than the horny teenagers.

Everyone else you know and love is just there. I don't remember Sai even getting a line. Miri does, one. Dearka and Yzak exist and it's a big, fat whatever. You'd think they could have put some of them on the ships' bridges, so that we could get cool discussions, right? Yeah, no, have two new characters instead, one of whom is voiced by freaking Jiraiya. No, not Jiraiya's VA, but Jiraiya, because that man doesn't vary his voice one bit.

As someone who used to watch Naruto, it drove me bonkers. Especially when the female VAs put in the effort to blow everyone out of the water. Props to Cagalli's new VA especially who manages to capture the original's stresses and pauses perfectly. I knew right away it was Cagalli despite the different voice. Kudos.

Another positive thing are the backgrounds of the movie. I'm pretty sure a sizeable chunk of the budget was invested in those. They all look gorgeous.

Those visual feasts sadly make the wonky characters stand out more though. Movements down to the very mouth flaps look really choppy, 3D Gundams are always a bad idea, please stop doing that, and often enough the animation quality dips noticeably.

This movie is also in love with potato noses so huge, Gerard Depardieu would laugh at them. It's especially weird 'cause half of those are on Coordinators. You know, the designer babies? Did dogs and pigs go extinct in the Cosmic Era that they need to sniff for truffles themselves now?

It's also a complete crime that the movie ends with no one having kicked Orphee between the legs. Or in the face. He taunts Kira so many times with the line that all he's good for is fighting that I kept yelling at my screen for Kira to please just display that and introduce a bat to Orphee's face.

Not even Shinn gets to throw a punch his way, and that boy is allowed to wave a sword at a person. But in a manner that makes me wanna tear my hair out.

That's a saber, you moron. You don't hold sabers with two hands. Coordinator, my foot. You deserve getting your butt kicked just for that. Though I went full panda facepalm when Yzak With Hair Horns started doing cart wheels during their fight.

Just. Throw a brick at my head, it's less painful.

Then we also have the gem that is the dance scene between Pinky and Horny For Her, which cracked me up specifically, because it's supposed to be this beautiful~ smooth~ charming~ skilled waltz the super Coordinators perform that makes Kira so sad, and I'm dying of laughter because I'm an avid Ballroom e Youkoso fan and if there is anything that series taught me, it's a) the man's hand goes where the bra strap is, so Orphee fails at a basic hold already and b) that's the most pathetic throwaway oversway I've ever seen. Total beer keg.

If Kira knew the first thing about dancing, he would have been sassing Blond Athrun instead of getting all mopey, like actual Athrun did to Discount Yzak. Would have improved the movie by x1000 actually if Kira had gotten the same amount of brain cells as his sister and friend and spent the two hours snarking at all the fanfic nonsense instead of acting like he got gut punched all the time.

Alas, we can't have nice things. What we get after 20 years and over a hundred drafts is a movie about Kira's and Lacus' love story that's literally no different from a Wattpad fic. It glues itself to the surface level of the concept and pulls it off as if the entirety of the two prior series doesn't exist, while making sure to give it no substance at all. Sure, they throw in names and reuse plot points that anyone who has seen the series knows, but they end up as mere Easter eggs. There is no taking advantage of established backstories or past events. Not even a nod. Creating a sense of continuity or closure?

Not in this movie.

Another thing is this bizarre tug-of-war between prudish and sexy Lacus. There's no opening anymore in which she can float naked across our screen, so the movie needs to push her boobs in our faces in a different way, I guess, but she's still a "pure" character so it just ends up being... weird. She won't kiss Orphee and probably whip herself every night for ever considering it, but she'll prance around naked on the beach with Kira and go all Golden Boy with how she's shown riding those wing attachments for the Freedom. Like, make up your mind, movie.

I understand why Fukuda wouldn't want to sully Lacus' "purity" (outside of teenager's minds >_>), but I really wish that she had just kissed Orphee. Just, give me something to work with here. You can't drag out "No! I don't love you! I love Kira!" for two hours by recycling the same exchange over and over. If she had kissed him, there would have been a point to all the relationship drama at least. But like this, it's just boring and inane because we're stuck at the setup and never move to a build up or climax, much less a resolution.

So yeah, outside of the Cagalli and Athrun scenes, this movie really didn't do it for me. I actually recorded my reaction for my own amusement because I thought I'd have a blast hate-watching it, but it's just me going "good grief" increasingly loudly as the movie goes on and pausing to check my speed settings.

Oh, and me losing my mind at Kira and Lacus keeping their motorcycles in their living room. Who on Earth does this???

[azielgordy]

WHO: @thecursed-starters WHEN: 31st of May, 2024. Type: For Vampires. Vampire only bar. WHERE: Elliot's Bar, 5* Plaza — New York City. (NOT ATTENDING CARNIVAL)

The rain-soaked asphalt stuffed itself up his nose, the outside of Elliot's looking inviting after the day he'd had.

The off-kiltered, dingy orange neon sign flickering, the grime of the years passed clinging to the light. Just a year ago, he would've never stepped foot inside a place like this. Had no need too, but even now he could feel that burning fire in his throat, the way his skin felt a little too tight, too dry. There were a few places where his kind could come, where it wasn't acceptable to drink — to take what he needed.

He'd never wanted this life, but albeit, he wasn't ready to forfeit it.

Aziel hadn't long left work, his muscles ached, not from over-exertion but from the similar aching in his gums, that endless stabbing pain -- alerting him to what he already knew. He was hungry, starving, even. Dressed in a three piece off-grey tailored suit said what it needed too, that a corporate man was entering the facility. But here, it meant jack shit. In this world, tapping power came from age and alliance...the corporate world still held weight, especially when two vampires were partnered together. Still, Aziel moved with as powerful a stride as he could muster, jaw tight as he pushed through the doors to the bar.

Walking in, the hum of conversation dipped momentarily, eyes flicking towards the new arrival. Aziel was no stranger to such scrutiny; his life had always been a performance, a delicate balance of power and perception.

Sharp features suited Aziel perfectly, but it'd never been that way before. Back when he'd been human. At 39, he carried the weight of his crumbling life, the way each day felt like a battle to keep hold of something he'd once had. His father’s stoic teachings,his mother’s moral compass shaped him into the man he was today, yet the foundation of conflict that had settled within him had been from the actions to save his father's business: a hostile takeover was no easy feat. But he'd done it. At his own expense.

His wife, his strength, deserved better than the monster he feared he was turning into.

"O negative, please." the words falling from his mouth, turning to lean his back against the bar, his lips setting into a thin line. "Any news?" the words were quiet, although he was aware of his current company. Silence, momentary, passed.

"Not for a week. I heard that there was another shipment in a week." The bar man, Albert, stated while preparing the drink. They'd met a few times, easygoing and laid back was how he seemed nintey-five percent of the time. But if you looked a little deeper, there was something different. Darker, more intelligent.

"They're trafficking blood, Alb. That's..." He still had a moral compass.

"I know, Az."

Aziel scanned the room, noting the varied clientele – a mix of regulars and drifters, all seeking something their craving. He was just another one among many, each with their own battles, their own stories. How many had been turned against their will? How many were there like him in here alone? Or who'd made the choice for a life of eternity. His wife, no doubt, was looking at the clock, imagining all kinds of scenarios in her head. But what could he tell her?

That he was a fucking vampire? No, he thought, not. He'd been normal. Once.

The bar offered no answers, just his meal. Tomorrow, the world would demand more of him – his company, the hunger, the façade he attempted to maintain. But for now, in this small pocket of time, Aziel allowed himself to simply be. A man, a husband, a son.

"Let me know if you hear anything -- " He stopped, lips parting. "What the fuck are you doing here?"

[saddest-coal-boy-in-westeros]

Alternate Ending to Mira's Season 1 Plot

The other Forresters’ plots end with at least a vague bit of hope, but it felt to me like the writers stacked the deck against poor Mira, leaving her with no way to triumph. Even the “better option” leads to her totally deprived of agency (rendering her as a literal NPC), her fate inexorably tied to a man who will imprison her when she’s not bearing his children (🤢), and with innocent blood on her hands.

I also mourned the most for Tom, who I really found interesting and unique to the GOT/ASOIAF world. He was mysterious but seemingly good-intentioned, and offered some rare (non-Night’s Watch) smallfolk representation. 

I think the mysteriousness of his intentions toward aiding Mira made him feel plausible to the deceptive snake pit of King’s Landing. His clear hiding who his employer is and almost assured stalking of Mira (not to mention his willingness to kill Damien and presumably turn his corpse into meat for bowls o’ brown!) gives him a bit of an edge, so he’s no naïve waif, yet his selflessness and humbleness made him also makes him stand out as a classic example of that clichéd Pinterest quote about good things coming from unexpected places. His and Mira’s precarious alliance was really interesting, and I was so disappointed by the two ways it can end.

It’s especially odd because, as someone who’s implied to be a “little bird” in service to someone (possibly Varys) and who’s generally very good at being unnoticed and sneaking around, I think it would actually make a lot of sense for Tom to be at least somewhat familiar with the secret passages through the Red Keep—including the one leading to and from the dungeons that Varys uses to talk to Ned in season one and spring Tyrion in season five. 

Obviously the Telltale writers chose to have Tom be captured by the guards while Mira is in prison, but I think even the guards’ accuracy in identifying Tom in particular as Mira’s accomplice seems a bit contradictory to what’s established in the first scene. That’s the one where he converses with Mira, saying that nobody really notices a coal boy. It’d be a lot more in keeping with that idea if the guards knew that a coal boy was in league with Mira, maybe with some vague identifiers like hair and eye color, but not which one. The Red Keep is huge and would need a lot of all sorts of servants to maintain it, including a lot of coal boys who are probably more or less similar to Tom in appearance, especially with their faces smudged with coal. 

Imagine if the guards soon grow bored, insulted by the idea of wasting energy and time chasing down someone of such common stock among a swarm of other equally interchangeable and insignificant coal boys? Given their classism and the rumors about her conduct, the guards would naturally assume Mira is the brains of their operation and Tom is just a lowly pawn, that he wouldn’t have the intelligence and political connections needed to do anything truly damaging on his own.

So they take a poor random coal boy (also named Tom, a very common name even in Westeros) who fits the vague description of our Tom’s size and coloring into custody, or a holding cell somewhere, or something, awaiting execution.

Meanwhile, Tom has been hiding out in Flea Bottom, or some place obscure in the Red Keep that only the servants would know (perhaps again referring to the various secret passageways littered throughout). Once he realizes that Mira has been captured, he winds his way down into the dungeons and they escape together.

Bonus points if this is right after the conversation with Morgryn in which Mira has possibly sentenced Tom to die in her place. Tom doesn’t know this of course, but Mira would probably feel pretty ashamed and guilty. Plus Tom’s guilt over the innocent coal boy that was killed in his place, which I imagine he keeps secret from Mira, just saying that he escaped the guards’ clutches somehow. Both have dark secrets to keep. That could easily influence their potentially uneasy dynamic in the hypothetical second season.

It might be an unrealistically dumb decision/too risky, but I like to think that, as they weave through the secret passageways, Mira convinces Tom to make a stop in her chambers (which are presumably now far away from Margaery’s due to her demotion). There she quickly collects a sentimental gift from Ironrath (maybe the wooden memento Ethan’s said to have carved, in remembrance of him) and some small jewelry she hides in her bodice. Then they take another hidden passage and escape the Red Keep in an unorthodox way, like through the kitchens/scullery/boiler room where they keep the coal. All the lower-rung servants are preoccupied with this other coal boy’s execution. Mira is curious to know what they’re talking about, but Tom hurries her along and tells her it’s just smallfolk concerns, nothing she needs to worry about. Mira is suspicious but lets it go, focusing primarily on their escape.

(As for the servants recognizing Mira, maybe they find an abandoned cloak in the secret passageway to cover her high-class clothes) with a hood to cover her hair. With her visibly exhausted, hair tangled, and unwashed, and potentially even a bit skinnier due to smaller meals due to her time in the dungeons, she could fit in easily among the scullery girls as long as they’re just passing through.

In Flea Bottom (which frankly I’d love to see realized visually, I don’t think we’ve seen it in the show), they flee to the collier store that Tom canonically mentioned. There, Mira gives her jewelry/silks to Tom and tells him to sell them. She hides out while Tom does so (Flea Bottom is so poor I don’t think anyone would ask too many questions about where he got such high-class stuff—maybe he even roughs the silks up or cracks the jewelry a bit for believability). With the coin he receives he buys horses and supplies.

Meanwhile, Mira is given smallfolk clothes by Godwyn’s wife, who had a daughter roughly her size, in payment for her current outfit. While waiting for Tom, she gets an idea and, disguised in her new dress and the cloak from the passage, buys some hair dye from a merchant in the streets. She dyes her hair golden-blonde, but it comes out more dirty blonde due to the darkness of her original hair.

Mira takes on the name “Sera,” in honor of her former friend, or a feminine form of “Ethan” (Ethayne? Ethyl? Etta?) to remember her little brother. 

Tom comes back with his goods and the horses, including a map, and they set off together for Ironrath.

End of Mira’s storyline for season one. Cut the more indulgent, fluffy parts if required and just keep the essentials: Tom helps Mira escape the dungeons and they run to Flea Bottom, then they’re ahorse and starting their long journey to Ironrath.

Mira’s still in a tough situation (little money and on the run, harboring guilt for selling out her only ally (who now has rescued her from being murdered twice).

Meanwhile, Tom feels guilty about the coal boy who died in his place and is out of his element, having left behind the keep he knew so well, plus his mysterious employer.

They have to navigate the strange terrain and work together in a situation both are unequipped to handle alone. Plus, there’s the class angle—Mira has to act convincingly as one of the smallfolk, but she’d have to learn that. Maybe Tom could teach her his accent, lol. 

And there’s the fact that from the start their alliance has been predicated on class: lowly coal boy Tom serving the lady Mira. He might have trouble treating her like one of his fellow smallfolk. He’d be going against every social instinct ground into him by growing up a peasant and working as a servant in close proximity with nobility. He might stick to these social rules of conduct with Mira because he still thinks of her first and foremost as a highborn lady and is struggling to gauge what would be appropriate or inappropriate in this strange new situation where they’re both in the same boat.

So there’s the hypothetical plot wrap-up to Mira’s Season One plot, setup for Season Two, and new character dynamics and arcs to develop. I think this ending is a lot more fitting, honestly…even though it came out more like fanfiction, lol.

[comeonamericawakeup]

Looks like his goose is cooked but good!

Unbelievable!!

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 10

At 3:00 today, Washington D.C., time, Special Counsel Jack Smith delivered a statement about the recently unsealed indictment charging former president Donald J. Trump on 37 counts of violating national security laws as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice.

Although MAGA Republicans have tried to paint the indictment as a political move by the Biden administration over a piddling error, Smith immediately reminded people that “[t]his indictment was voted by a grand jury of citizens in the Southern District of Florida, and I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged.”

The indictment is, indeed, jaw dropping.

It alleges that during his time in the White House, Trump stored in cardboard boxes “information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.” The indictment notes that “[t]he unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods.”

Nonetheless, when Trump ceased to be president after noon on January 20, 2021, he took those boxes, “many of which contained classified documents,” to Mar-a-Lago, where he was living. He “was not authorized to possess or retain those classified documents.” The indictment makes it clear that this was no oversight: Trump was personally involved in packing the boxes and, later, in going through them and in overseeing how they were handled. The employees who worked for him exchanged text messages referring to his personal instructions about them.

Mar-a-Lago was not an authorized location for such documents, but he stored them there anyway, “including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room.” They were stacked in public places, where anyone—including the many foreign nationals who visited Mar-a-Lago—could see them. On December 7, 2021, Trump’s personal aide Waltine Nauta took two pictures of several of the boxes fallen on the floor, with their contents, including a secret document available only to the Five Eyes intelligence alliance of the U.S., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, spilled onto the floor.

The indictment alleges that Trump showed classified documents to others without security clearances on two occasions, both of which are well documented. One of those occasions was recorded. Trump told the people there that the plan he was showing them was “highly confidential” and “secret.” He added, “See, as president I could have declassified it….Now I can’t, you know, but this is still a secret.”

This recording undermines his insistence that he believed he could automatically declassify documents; it proves he understood he could not. In addition, the indictment lists Trump’s many statements from 2016 about the importance of protecting classified information, all delivered as attacks on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, whom he accused of mishandling such information. “In my administration,” he said on August 18, 2016, “I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information. No one will be above the law.”

The indictment goes on: When the FBI tried to recover the documents, Trump started what Washington Post journalist Jennifer Rubin called a “giant shell game”: he tried to get his lawyer to lie to the FBI and the grand jury, saying Trump did not have more documents; worked with Nauta to move some of the boxes to hide them from Trump’s lawyer, the FBI and the grand jury; tried to get his lawyer to hide or destroy documents; and got another lawyer to certify that all the documents had been produced when he knew they hadn’t.

Nauta lied to the grand jury about his knowledge of what Trump did with the boxes. Both he and Trump have been indicted on multiple counts of obstruction and of engaging in a conspiracy to hide the documents.

Eventually, Trump had many of the boxes moved to his property at Bedminster, New Jersey, where on two occasions he showed documents to people without security clearances. He showed a classified map of a country that is part of an ongoing military operation to a representative of his political action committee.

Trump has been indicted on 31 counts of having “unauthorized possession of, access to, and control over documents relating to the national defense,” for keeping them, and for refusing “to deliver them to the officer and employee of the United States entitled to receive them”: language straight out of the Espionage Act. Twenty-one of the documents were marked top secret, nine were marked secret, and one was unmarked.

These documents are not all those recovered—some likely are too sensitive to risk making public—but they nonetheless hold some of the nation’s deepest secrets: “military capabilities of a foreign country and the United States,” “military activities and planning of foreign countries,” “nuclear capabilities of a foreign country,” “military attacks by a foreign country,” “military contingency planning of the United States,” “military options of a foreign country and potential effects on United States interest,” “foreign country support of terrorist acts against United States interests,” “nuclear weaponry of the United States,” “military activity in a foreign country.”

Smith put it starkly in his statement, “The men and women of the United States intelligence community and our armed forces dedicate their lives to protecting our nation and its people. Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States and they must be enforced. Violations of those laws put our country at risk.”

On Twitter, Bill Kristol said it more clearly: “These were highly classified documents dealing with military intelligence and plans. What did Trump do with them? Who now has copies of them?” Retired FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi noted that there is a substantial risk that “foreign intelligence services might have sought or gained access to the documents.”

There is also substantial risk that other countries will be reluctant to share intelligence with the United States in the future. At the very least, it is an unfortunate coincidence that the Central Intelligence Agency in October 2021 reported an unusually high rate of capture or death for foreign informants recruited to spy for the United States.

Since Trump supporters have taken the position that Trump’s indictment over the stolen documents is the attempt of the Biden administration to undermine Trump’s presidential candidacy, it is worth remembering that Trump’s early announcement of his campaign was widely suspected to be an attempt to enable him to avoid legal accountability. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith precisely to put arms length between the administration and the investigations into Trump.

Smith noted today, “Adherence to the rule of law is a bedrock principle of the Department of Justice. And our nation’s commitment to the rule of law sets an example for the world. We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone. Applying those laws. Collecting facts. That’s what determines the outcome of an investigation. Nothing more. Nothing less.

“The prosecutors in my office are among the most talented and experienced in the Department of Justice. They have investigated this case hewing to the highest ethical standards. And they will continue to do so as this case proceeds.”

Smith added: “It’s very important for me to note that the defendants in this case must be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. To that end, my office will seek a speedy trial in this matter. Consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused. We very much look forward to presenting our case to a jury of citizens in the Southern District of Florida.”

Likely responding to MAGA attacks on the FBI and the rule of law, Smith thanked the “dedicated public servants of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with whom my office is conducting this investigation and who worked tirelessly every day upholding the rule of law in our country,” before closing his brief statement.

The indictment revealed just how much detailed information Smith’s team has uncovered, presenting a shockingly thorough case to prove the allegations. Trump’s lawyers will have their work cut out for them…although the team has shifted since this morning: two of Trump’s lawyers quit today. The thoroughness of the indictment also suggests that Trump and his allies might have reason to be nervous about Smith’s other investigation: the one into the attempt to overturn results of the 2020 election.

Some of Trump’s supporters are calling for violence. After Louisiana representative Clay Higgins appeared to be egging on militias to oppose Trump’s Tuesday arraignment, Democratic senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) issued a joint statement calling for “supporters and critics alike to let the case proceed peacefully in court.” Legal scholar Joyce White Vance noted that it was “extremely sad for our country that this isn’t a bipartisan statement being made by leaders from both parties.”

A lengthy and complete summary

#Trump federal indictment

[collapsedsquid]

Grusch also revealed tantalizing new details of his claims to Congress about the alleged UFO crash retrieval program in the Le Parisien interview. He said that 'members of the Five Eyes alliance, i.e. Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand' had been involved. And he even said that the earliest recovery he learned of was a 'bell-like craft' that supposedly crashed in northern Italy in 1933. 'It was kept by Mussolini's government until 1944 when it was recovered by agents of the Office of Strategic Services [an historic US intelligence agency]. Ironically, it predates anything the public has heard about for decades, such as Roswell, etc.'

Sure we've all heard about Nazi superweapon project dramatized in the documentary Iron Sky but what about the superweapons of italian fascists?

[dingoat]

Five Years

[Well, this is a huge mess of rambling fiction, but I'm working on the philosophy that getting something out terribly is better than not getting it out at all! A response to @askshivanulegacy's Written In The Stars, musings set during KotFE that barely scrape the surface of what our characters have been experiencing. 2.2K words from my best girl's perspective (but they all get a mention), raw and barely edited, sorry not sorry for any incoherency, I need to get to bed hahaha.]

He was as infuriating as he’d ever been.

But that only meant he was still just as captivating.

She’d felt the breath knocked out of her, when the ship finally landed on Odessen, when she felt his presence walking the same earth as her paws tread. “They’re back,” she knew it was only through her that Blakk was aware, and she felt the thread of nerves flickering through him. It was still such dangerous territory, even muddied as it was after so many years. Watcher Five and Cipher Thirteen had been dead as far as the greater galaxy had been concerned, for five years. Each one mourned under a different name, one a polished public figure tailor made for the Empire to love, and the other all too raw and real, the sole survivor of the death of Ziost, the one man who had watched a planet turn to ash around him.

Most considered that cataclysm to be the beginning  of it all.

To Ahuska, it had been the moment they had been sealed in carbonite.

She’d never stopped thinking about him, not really, even after Ulfran had whispered that it was for the best and gently undid the bond she’d built with Thirteen through the Force. It had served its purpose. Linked to his body through his very soul, she’d re-learned how to shift her body with the moon harmoniously, stabilising herself against him. She’d re-learned how to settle her form into one free of discord, free of pain, and she was able to exist peacefully and thoughtfully among those she’d only ever been driven to kill.

She owed him so much for that alone.

And yet he’d also… become something more to her. She couldn’t deny it, even if she still didn’t fully understand it. There was a part of her that loved him, would always love him, but it was a part of her that she’d never had the chance to fully explore, as she’d been physically separated from him and turned back to her study.

Her duty.

Ulfran had been right, of course. Master Tanak’qi had been right. Letting half her heart live half the galaxy away, she’d never have found the room or the focus needed to fulfil her promise to Blakk. She’d never have been able to give her all to Blakk, what he needed, what she owed him, what she desperately wanted to pour into him to see him reclaim his whole self and begin to flourish. To finally allow them both the opportunity, the space, to get to know one another properly and come to understand their feelings for each other without all the galaxy getting in the way.

She was devoted to Blakk. She was in love with Blakk.

But she’d never stopped thinking about Cipher Thirteen.

Was he even Cipher Thirteen any more? She wasn’t really sure what the state of Imperial Intelligence and the Cipher program was these days, and she cared very little for those who claimed to be running things. She heard the people up in the base referring to Five as Commander, and it made her stomach tighten and her lip curl, but when she saw the look in his eyes, when she felt that tear in his soul and the void that was trying to devour him from the inside, she found she felt only pity for the man who had once attempted to keep her as his prize trophy hound.

He was not that man any more, even if the Alliance members who trotted at his heels seemed to think his iron fist would save them all.

She listened to the people, in their little hive of warfare up above. Some still said Thirteen, but she wasn’t sure she’d heard the title ‘Cipher’ in quite some time. Nor Agent. There were those who spoke of The Survivor in sombre tones, or those who named him Corran, but she knew not even that was his real name. His true name… oh, she wished to whisper it to him some time. She wanted to let him know that she knew. She wanted to be able to give him something real.

She wanted to tell him that she’d never stopped thinking about him, but she wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear it.

About how she’d grieved his home planet from afar, when she caught wind of the devastation on the holonews.

About how she’d closed her eyes and let her heart travel and how she’d ached at what she’d found, how it had felt too raw and personal for her to experience without him knowing she was there. Those feelings… they were for the people physically there with him, who could put their arms around him, who could give him a place to rest his head and soothe his ragged soul.

About how she’d not been able to contact him, to find him in person, amid the surge of jammed signals surrounding Ziost’s cataclysm, or the way he’d gone dark when he’d begun hunting the rogue Emperor in earnest. With Five, and Crow, and Ulfran…

She’d tried, though.

She wasn’t sure he wanted to hear about how she’d known the moment his breath had been pulled from his lungs and Arcann had sealed him off from the rest of the galaxy.

Dead, the galaxy at large had said.

Asleep, her guts had told her. Quiet. Distant. But not wholly gone. When she ran through the Force in her sleep, she’d glimpsed a barren wasteland that echoed with his presence, but no matter how she called he never seemed to hear her.

Blakk had asked her about Five, once. Very softly. She’d closed her eyes and pushed the pain from her expression, but not before a flicker of it showed through. Five was the same, she’d told him. Somewhere distant, but not gone.

They’d stayed gone for years, and those years had been hellish.

For so long, she’d kept herself free of the never ending conflict between Empire and Republic, determined never again to be used by either side. Determined to keep Blakk free, and safe, and give him the time and space he needed to heal. But the galaxy raged on, and when a new player entered the field, when Zakuul moved in and began to decimate both sides with equal prejudice and unthinkable power, safe places to lay low and avoid the fight grew fewer and further between.

Odessen had been a perfect haven, for a time. One that they’d shared with Crow, where together with Ulfran she’d helped him come to understand the gifts that he possessed. It was a place they’d allowed others to take refuge on, in fits and spurts, a place to keep hidden, a place to be nourished by the Force. A place where she worked as a healer, when those she trusted brought wounded who’d seemed beyond hope. The Queen of the Wilds, they’d called her, and she and Blakk had retreated to wilderness in earnest, only to be pulled out, again and again, to tend to people who had done nothing for her, for the sake of those who’d done everything.

She wondered, sometimes, how different life might have been if she’d held onto her bond with Thirteen. If she’d been beside him, in person, or even riding in his heart, knowing his thoughts and seeing through his eyes, on that fateful day he’d been walled off from all the galaxy. Could she have helped? Could things have gone differently, could they have cut off the head of this new reign of terror then and there? She rose to her feet, wolf-shaped, huge and powerful, and moved to where Thirteen sat, hanging her massive head over his shoulders. None of the endless what-ifs were any good to them, and it seemed that Thirteen had become even more accomplished at dwelling than she was. He’d been lost, and… awkward, almost, in a way so uncharacteristic that it pained her to see. She saw the tension, between him and Five, and wasn’t sure what to make of it. She watched as Crow tried to reconnect, but Crow was somebody new now, as well, with unheard of responsibilities and years of growth and experiences behind him that Thirteen had… simply not been there for.

Ahuska wasn’t sure it was right to push herself into the middle of all that, if she was welcome or wanted, even if the piece of her heart that he’d always owned leapt at the sight of him.

And then the Star Fortress had fired, and she’d found herself shaken to the core, mourning a people, a planet, that she’d never taken the time to get to know. Rage and regret were a potent combination, and the last thing she’d expected was for Thirteen to come to her, after the news of the attack on Bothawui had spread.

He had come, and she’d seized his offered hand, and together they had stormed their first fortress together. Together, they’d cut loose, and together, they’d found an outlet for feelings they didn’t otherwise know how to express. Ahuska realised, as they raced through the fortress halls, shattering glass and splitting skytroopers and tracking the blood of Zakuul Knights through golden corridors, that in Thirteen she had an equal. Someone who understood her wildness and accepted it without judgement, because he knew it as she did, he relished it as she did, and he had never once made her feel like a monster for it. They were equally appalled at the activities of the Zakuul nobility, and they were both driven by red hot fury at the sheer injustice of it all. He had served for years; she had been used for years, and every hope they’d had of putting those bloody, brutal lives behind them and finding something good and new had been gutted.

With Thirteen, she finally found the nerve to stare the enemy in the eye and say no more.

Yet every attempt to express herself to him had fallen short.

He shied away from offering too much of himself… just like he’d always done, really, except now she sensed the hollow ache inside him, and now she didn’t want to let him slip away.

It was easier to be the wolf, to offer herself with no expectations of conversation, to accept his arms around her and give him something strong and stable, but… it wasn’t enough. She needed him to know. His eyes were so soft and his expressions so strained and she needed him to know that he didn’t have to keep facing this battle alone.

They would part, she knew. He would head up to his quarters, she would steal away back into the forest, each to the partners who were theirs.

But she needed to give him more.

She flowed into her smaller shape, halfway between bothan and wolf, taking one of his hands in hers before they went their own ways for the night. She ignored the uncertainty that flickered across his features, the tremor that rolled through him.

“Thirteen,” she said softly, letting her wolf ears splay loosely either side of her head. “Do you remember, years ago, when you told me I shouldn’t rely on a crutch to use my power? When you took the stones and said I didn’t need them?”

“You gave them to me,” he corrected, with hint of wariness about him.

“Yes, after you convinced me. And it was the right thing to do. You were right.” She paused, and dared to reach up and touch her fingertips to his cheek. “I never wanted to be cut off from you.”

His eyes went wide, and she nearly fell apart then and there. Never had they spoken of it; never had they faced what it had meant to have their bond severed with crude and ugly words. And maybe that had been a mistake. She clung to his hand, and forced herself to continue.

“But that had also been the right thing, because I would have leaned on it too hard. You… you would have been a crutch, just like the stones, and I never would have learned just how much I could be on my own, I’d never be where I am today…”

She tried not to look too closely into his eyes, she tried not to read too deep into the expressions tugging at his features. “It hurt, I never would have dreamed how much it would hurt and I… I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you all these years, even when it never felt right to say it, watching the way Crow and Ulfran searched…”

She swallowed, almost lost her nerve, but then pushed herself to find his gaze again. To meet his lovely eyes, did he have any idea how brightly his soul shone through them? “But it’s not a crutch any more. I’m stronger than I’d have ever imagined or hoped, or ever even wanted and so now, knowing you… it’s a choice. It’s something I can choose freely.” Did he hear what she left unsaid? Did he know when she spoke of knowing him, she meant to be connected as they once had been? Did he realise what she couldn’t quite bring herself to say aloud, that she would reach out and bind herself to him once more if he gave any indication that he would welcome it back? “It’s a miracle that you’re back with us and I don’t want to lose you again.”

[abbygrabska]

Doomsday

The Daleks advance upon us with cries of ‘exterminate!’

“Daleks!” I shout.

The aliens fall silent, taken aback.

“You’re called Daleks.” I walk towards them, “I know your name.” I take the lab coat off, “Think about it: how can I know that? A human… who knows about the Daleks. And the Time War. If you wanna know how, then keep us alive. That’s all I’m asking. Me and my friends.”

“Yeah, Dakeks. Time war. Us too.” Gabby gestures between her and Mickey.

Rajesh nods as well.

The black Dalek speaks to me, “You will be necessary.” it turns to one of the other Daleks, “Report: what is the status of the Genesis Ark?” “Status: hibernation.”

“Commence awakening.”

“The Genesis Ark must be protected above all else.”

The Dalek turns to the Genesis Ark which also emerged form the sphere. It clamps its suction arm to the side of the Ark.

Mickey continues to point his gun at them, “The Daleks, you said they were all dead.”

I shake my head, “Never mind that, what the hell’s a Genesis Ark?”

“Which one of you is least important?” “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask.

The Dalek repeats the question.

“No, we don’t work like that. None of us.” “Designate the least important!” Rajesh steps forward, “This is my responsibility.”

I try to hold him back, “No, don’t!”

He ignores me and stands before the Dalek dejectedly.

“I er, I represent the Torchwood Institute. Anything you need, you… come through me. Leave these two alone.”

“You will kneel.” “What?”

“Kneel.” Rajesh kneels. The surrounding Daleks direct their eye stalks onto him.

“The Daleks need information about current Earth history.”

Yeah well i can give you a certain amount of intelligence, but nothing that will compromise Home Land security…” “Speech is not necessary. We will extract brainwaves.” The three Dalkes advance upon Rajesh and position their suction arms around his head.

“Don’t… I… I’ll tell you everything you need. No. No!” He shouts out in agony before the Daleks crush his skull. Mickey makes toward him but Gabby and I hold him back.

The Daleks let Rajesh’s blackened corpse fall to the ground.

“His mind spoke of a second species invading Earht infected by the superstition of ghosts.” “You didn’t need to kill him!” I exclaim.

“Neither did we need him alive.”

“Dalek Thay, investigate outside.” “I obey.”

Dalek Thay leaves the sphere chamber.

“Establish visual contact. Lower communications barrier.”

A projection appears in the area previously occupied by the sphere, showing Dalek Thay’s point of view. He meets with two Cybermen.

The three aliens argue.

I pick up my phone, but do not talk so I don’t draw attention to myself.

They speak about an alliance before the Cybermen are shot dead.

The Cyberman adresses the Daleks through the projection screen, “Daleks, be warned: you have declared war upon the Cybermen.”

“This is not war. This is pest control.” “We have five million Cybermen. How may are you?” “Four.” “You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?!” “We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek. You are superior in only one respect.” “What is that?”

“You are better at dying. Raise communications barrier!”

The screen goes to static.

“Wait!”

The phone call disconnects.

“Rewind image by nine rells.”

The Doctor is in frame in the background.

“Identify grid seven gamma frame.” They zoom in on the Doctor, “This male registers as enemy.”

I smile.

One of them turns to me, “The female’s heartbeat has increased. Identify him.” “Alright then… if you really wanna know… that’s the Doctor.”

The Daleks roll back sharply.

“Five million Cybermen, easy. One Doctor? Now you’re scared.”

Dalek Thay enters the sphere chamber, “Cyber threat irrelelvant. Concentrate of the Genesis Ark.” The black Dalek presses its suction arm to the side of the Genesis Ark.

Gabby looks at me, “Why are we being kept alive?” I speak after a pause, “They might need me.”

Whilst the Daleks are crowded around the Genesis Ark, Mickey and Gabby show me a yellow button, “We could transport out of here, but it only carries one each. And we’re not leaving you.” “Bravest humans I know.” “Well I can’t think what the Dalkes need with us. We’re nothing to them.” Mickey says.

“Speak for yourself, I don’t think the Daleks know which one of us,” Gabby gestures between herself and me, “is which.”

“You could be… whate’er’s inside the Ark is waking up, and I’ve seen this happen before. The first time I saw a Dalek, it was broken. It was dying. But I touched it. The moment I did that… I brought it back to life.” I keep my voice low, “As the Doctor said… when you travel in time in the Tardis, you soak up all this background radiation. It’s harmless, it’s just there. But in the Time War, the Daleks evolved so they could use it as a power supply. If the Daleks have got something inside that thing that needs waking up…” “They need you.” Gabby says.

“But why would they build something they can’t open themselves?” Mickey asks.

“The technology is stolen. The Ark is not of Dalek design.”

“Then who built it?” I ask.

“The Time Lords. This is all that survives of their Home World.”

The four Daleks shuffle around the Ark.

“What’s inside?”

“The future.”

The Daleks back away from the Genesis Ark.

“Final stage of awakening.”

“Your handprint will open the Ark.” “Well tough ‘cause I won’t.” “Obey or the male and female will die.”

I immediately move to the Ark, “I can’t let them.” “Abby, don’t.”

“Place your hand upon the casket.”

“All right!” I turn to the Ark, “You’re gonna kill us anyway, so what the hell?” I turn back to the Dalek and stand right in front of it, “If you escaped the Time War, don’t you want to know what happened?” 

The Dalek starts to talk, but I interrupt, “What happened to the Emperor?” “The Emperor survived.” “‘Till he met me. Because if these are gonna be my last words, then you’re gonna listen. I met the Emperor. And I took the Time Vortex and I pulled it into his head and turned him into dust. Do you get that? The God of all Daleks… and I destroyed him.” I smile at the Dalek.

“You will be exterminated!”

“Oh now, hold on, wait a minute.” “Alert, alert, you are the Doctor.”

I smile in delight.

He saunters into the room, wearing his 3D glasses.

“Sensors report he is unarmed.” “That’s me. Always.” He says lightly.

“Then you are powerless.” “Not me.” He takes his glasses off with a flourish, “Never.” He turns to me, “How are you?”

I grin at him, “Way better now that you’re here.”

“Good! Mickity-McMickey! And Gabby the Genius! Nice to see ya!” He hugs them.

“Social interaction will cease!” “How did you survive the Time War?”

“By fighting. On the front line. I was there at the Fall of Arcadia. Someday I might even come to terms with that. But you lot ran away!”

“We had to survive.”

“The last four Daleks in existence. So what’s so special about you?”

I talk in a low voice, “Doctor, they’ve got names. And Dalek’s don’t have names, do they?” “I am Dalek Thay.” “Dalek Sek.”

“Dalek Jast.” “Dalek Caan.”

“So that’s it! At last… the Cult of Skaro. I thought you were just a legend.” He speaks in delight.

“Who are they?” I ask.

He strolls around them, “A secret order. Above and beyond the Emperor himself. Their job was to imagine. Think as the enemy thinks. Even dared to have names. All to find new ways of killing.”

Mickey gestures to the Ark, “But that thing, they said it was yours. I mean, Time Lords. They built it. What does it do?”

The Doctor glances at it, “I don’t know. Never seen it before.”

“What is it? What have you done?”

“Time Lord science will restore Dalek supremacy.”

“What does that mean? What sort of Time Lord science? What do you mean?”

“They said one touch from a time traveler will wake it up.” I tell him.

“Technology using the one thing a Dalek can’t do. Touch. Sealed inside your casing. Not feeling anything… ever… from birth to death, locked inside a cold metal cage.” He whispers, “Completely alone. And that explains your voice. No wonder you scream.”

“The Doctor will open the Ark!”

He laughs contemptuously, “The Doctor will not.”

“You have no way of resisting.” “Well… you got me there. Although… there is always this.” He takes his sonic screwdriver out of his pocket.

“A sonic probe?”

“That’s ‘screwdriver’.”

“It is harmless.” “Oh yes. Harmless is just the word. That’s why I like it. Doesn’t kill, doesn’t wound, doesn’t maim. But I’ll tell you what it does do, it is very good at opening doors.” He activates the screwdriver, and immediately, the doors explode inwards. Jake, his men, and the Cybermen leap into action, firing their guns at the Daleks.

The Doctor, Gabby, and I fling ourselves to the ground, trying to avoid the gun.

“Girls, get out!”

We make our way to the door. Mickey picks up a gun and starts firing anywhere.

The Doctor manages to reach us where we stand in the doorway, out of harm's way.

“Mickey, come on!” Everyone slips through the door before it closes, sealing both the Daleks and the Cybermen inside.

“Jake, check the stairwell. The rest of you, come on!” Mickey, Gabby, the Doctor and I run down a corridor. “I just fell, I didn’t mean it!”

“Mickey, without us, they’d have opened it by force. To do that, they’d have blown up the sun. You’ve done us a favor. Now run!”

Jackie and Rose are saved from a Cyberman by Pete. The exchange they have is sweet.

The Doctor opens the door to where the battle between the Cybermen and Daleks is taking place, peering into the lab, waiting for the right moment. He dives into the room, watched anxiously by me, wincing everytime a beam passes near him. He picks up two of the magnaclamps, using them to deflect the rays from himself. He makes back towards the door with them, dodging the beams. He trips over a Cyberman’s body.

“Come on, please.” I whisper.

He quickly gets to his feet and slips through the door to safety. I close it after him.

We open the door again and watch the Daleks open the roof.

“What’re they doing? Why’d they need to get outside?!”

“Time Lord science… What Time Lord science?” He takes his 3D glasses off, “What is it?” Dalek Sek elevates through the ceiling into the open air with the Ark. 

We run back through the corridor.

“We’ve gotta see what it’s doing, we’ve gotta go back up! Come on! All of you! Top floor!” The Doctor exclaims.

“That’s forty-five floors up! Believe me, I’ve done ‘em all.” Jackie says.

Jake pops his head out of the lift, “We could always take the lift…”

We finally step out of the lift on the top floor and rush to the window, the Doctor dumping the magnaclamps down on Yvonne’s desk as he goes. As the Genesis Ark spins, Daleks shoot out of it, more and more of them. The Doctor stares in horror, “Time Lord science… it’s bigger on the inside.”

“It’s a prison ship.” I realize. “How many Daleks?” Rose asks. 

“Millions.”

Pete walks away from the window, “I’m sorry, but you’ve had it. This world’s gonna crash and burn. There’s nothing we can do. We’re going home. Jacks, Rose, take these.” He tosses them the yellow buttons.

“But they’re destroying the city!” Jackie protests.

“I’d forgotten you could argue.” He loops the button around her neck himself, “It’s not just London, it’s the whole world.” He takes her face in his hands, making her look at him, “But there’s another world, just waiting for you Jacks. And it’s safe. As long as the Doctor closes the breach. Doctor?”

The Doctor turns from the window with his 3D glasses on and a big grin, “Oh, I’m ready. I’ve got the equipment right here. Thank you, Torchwood!” He dashes to a computer, “Slam it down and close off both universes.”

I frown, “But we can’t just leave. What about the Daleks? And the Cybermen…?”

The Doctor stands, “They’re part of the problem. And that makes them part of the solution. Oh yes! Well?! Isn’t anyone gonna ask? What is it with the glasses?”

I grin, “What is it with the glasses?”

“I can see! That’s what! ‘Cause we’ve got two separate worlds, but in between the two separate worlds, we've got the Void. That’s where the Daleks were hiding. And the Cyberman traveled through the Void to get here! And you lot, one world to another, via the Void! Oh, I like that. Via the Void! Look!”

He puts the glasses on my face, “I’ve been through it. Do you see?” He dodges about so I can see that he is surrounded by floating green and red particles.

“Void stuff.”

“Like background radiation!”

“That’s it. Look at the others.”

I turn to look, Jackie is the only one not surrounded by the Void stuff.

“The only one who hasn’t been through the Void, your mother. First time she’s looked normal in her life.”

I giggle.

The Doctor dashes into the clear white area, I follow after.

“The Daleks lived inside the Void. They’re bristling with it. Cybermen, all of them. I just open the Void, end of verse. The Void stuff gets sucked back inside.” “Pulling them all in!”

“Sorry… what’s… what’s the Void?” Mickey asks.

“The dead space. Some people call it ‘hell’.” Mickey loops the button around his neck, “So… you’re sending the Daleks and Cybermen to Hell.” He looks at Jake, “man, I told you he was good.”

I look at him, “But it’s… like you’ve said, we’ve all got Void stuff. Me too, ‘cause we went to that parallel world.” I flex my fingers, watching the particles float around them. I pull the glasses off, “We’re all contaminated. We’ll get pulled in.”

He stands before me, “That’s why you’ve gotta go.”

I stare at him.

“Back to Pete’s world.” He points at Pete, “Hey, we should call it that: Pete’s World.” He turns back to me, “I’m opening the Void, but only on this side. You’ll be safe on that side.”

I continue to stare at him.

Gabby speaks up, “And then you close it. For good?”

“The breach itself is soaked in Void Stuff, in the end it’ll close itself. And that’s it. Kaput.”

My eyes well up with tears, “But you stay on this side…?”

“But you’ll get pulled in.” Mickey points out.

The Doctor holds my gaze for a moment before he runs over to the magnaclamps.

I harden my face.

“That’s why… I got these. I’ll just have to hold on tight, I’ve been doing it all my life.”

I look at him, “I’m supposed to go.”

“Yeah.” “To another world, and then it gets sealed off?”

“Yeah.” He goes to another computer.

“No.” I shake my head, “I won’t.” A crash from outside shakes the building. “We haven’t got time to argue, the plans works, we go in. you too. All of us.”

“No. I’m not leaving him!” Rose looks at me, “But, I’d never see you again.”

I look at her, “You know I love you Rose, but he’s all alone. Not anymore though.” I back away from her, “He’s got me.”

I feel something loop around my neck, “What’re you…?”

Pete presses the button.

I look around, I’m in the parallel world.

I shake my head, and press the button.

The Doctor grabs me by the shoulders, stooping slightly so he can look me in the eyes, “Once the breach collapses, that’s it. You will never be able to see them again. Your family!”

My voice trembles, “I don’t wanna leave you again.”

He stares at me for a moment, before releasing his grip.

“So what can I do to help?” I hold his gaze.

He finally gives in, pointing to a computer, “Those coordinates over there, set them all at six.” I do as I’m told.

“And hurry up.” I lean over the computer, taking the button off my neck and throw it off to the side.

I look at the computer, “We've got Cybermen on the way up.” He runs over, “How many floors down?”

“Just one.”

The Doctor taps in a command on the laptop.

“Levers operational.”

The Doctor grins. “That’s more like it, bit of a smile!”

He picks up a magnaclamp and goes to me, “Hope and Glory, Mutt and Jeff, Shiver and Shake.” He hands me the magnaclamp.

We attach them to the wall next to the levers on the opposite side of the room. “Press the red button.” I do.

“When it starts, just hold on tight. Shouldn’t be too bad for us, but the Daleks and Cybermen are steeped in Void stuff. Are you ready?” We get into position by the levers.

I look out the window, “So are they.” The Daleks appear at the window.

“Let’s do it!” We push the levers upward and take hold of the magnaclamps.

The area is filled with the white light once more, but this time, there’s also the sound of a strong wind. The Daleks are sucked through the window, smashing through the glass as they are pulled into the white light and back into the Void.

We both hold onto the clamps tightly.

“The breach is open! Into the Void! Ha!”

The Doctor and I smile at each other as we are billowed by the wind. Suddenly there is a small explosion of sparks and the lever on my side moves back into the off position. 

“Turn it on!”

I reach for the lever while trying to maintain my grip on the clamp, but it is just slightly too far away. 

I eventually fall onto it. “I’ve gotta get it upright!” I push the lever upwards, groaning with the effort.

Once it’s upright the suction increases.

I have nothing to hold onto except the lever.

“Abby, hold on!”

The Void pulls at me.

I cry out.

He’s screaming now, “Hold on!”

I groan, my strength almost spent, the Doctor stares at me in terror, reaching out to me.

I cry out as my grip slips. I fly towards the void, but something stops me from getting sucked in.

“I’ve got you.” I hear a familiar voice whisper as the scene around me changes.

I look around at the scenery, I’m inside the tardis. I turn around to face the voice. “Rion?”

He grins at me, with tears in his eyes, “You told me about this happening. But you never said how distraught he looked when you disappeared.”

“I guess I don’t like thinking about it, even in the future.” 

He looks toward the doors, “He’ll be here any moment, expecting the console room to be empty. He said you were alone when he came in, who am I to argue with the past?” He smirks, typing something into his vortex manipulator, before becoming serious, “You need to tell him that you need some time away from traveling, to heal. I know you think you’re fine, but you’re not. He’ll understand, and it’ll all work itself out.” He hugs me, “Spend some time with Juni, she misses you.” He presses a button on his vortex manipulator and disappears.

Just like he said, the doors open, I turn around. The Doctor stares at me, confused.

I smile at him, tearfully, “Hello Doctor.” He walks toward me slowly, almost like he thinks I’m not real.

I reach out and cup his face, he flinches slightly.

“You’re really here?” He asks, teary eyed.

I nod.

His hands tangle in my hair, pulling me into a passionate kiss.

I cling onto him tightly.

Leaving this shit on a cliffhanger to torture you fuckers :)

[newstfionline]

Sunday, September 24, 2023

As the world’s problems grow more challenging, the head of the United Nations gets bleaker (AP) At the annual meeting of world leaders last year, the U.N. chief sounded a global alarm about the survival of humanity and the planet. This year, the alarm rang louder and more ominously, and the message was even more pressing: Wake up and take action—right now. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ assessment, delivered in his no-nonsense style, aimed to shock. We are becoming “unhinged,” he said. We are inching closer to “a great fracture.” Conflicts, coups and chaos are surging. The climate crisis is growing. Divides are deepening between military and economic powers, the richer North and poorer South, East and West. “A new Rubicon” has been crossed in artificial intelligence. Guterres has spoken often on all these issues. But this year, which he called “a time of chaotic transition,” his address to leaders was tougher and even more urgent. His message to the presidents and prime ministers, monarchs and ministers gathered in the vast General Assembly hall was unambiguous and stark. “We seem incapable,” Guterres said, “of coming together to respond.”

Surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada led to allegations around Sikh killing, official says (AP) The allegation of India’s involvement in the killing of a Sikh Canadian is based on surveillance of Indian diplomats in Canada, including intelligence provided by a major ally, a Canadian official told The Associated Press on Thursday. The official said the communications involved Indian officials and Indian diplomats in Canada and that some of the intelligence was provided by a member of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance, which includes the U.S., Britain, Australia and New Zealand, in addition to Canada. The official did not say which ally provided intelligence or give details of what was contained in the communications or how they were obtained. The revelation came as India stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens and told Canada to reduce its diplomatic staff as the rift widened over allegations by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of suspected Indian involvement in the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a 45-year-old Sikh separatist.

White House preparing for government shutdown as House Republicans lack a viable endgame for funding (AP) The White House on Friday directed federal agencies to get ready for a shutdown after House Republicans left town for the weekend with no viable plan to keep the government funded and avert politically and economically costly disruption of federal services. A federal shutdown after Sept. 30 seems all but certain unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy can persuade his rebellious hard-right flank of Republicans to allow Congress to approve a temporary funding measure to prevent closures as talks continue. Instead, he’s launched a much more ambitious plan to try to start passing multiple funding bills once the House returns Tuesday, with just five days to resolve the standoff. McCarthy signaled his preference for avoiding a closure, but a hard-right flank of his House majority has effectively seized control. The standoff with House Republicans over government funding puts at risk a range of activities—including pay for the military and law enforcement personnel, food safety and food aid programs, air travel and passport processing—and could wreak havoc with the U.S. economy.

Election emotions (Yahoo News) What’s the No. 1 feeling that comes to mind for Americans when thinking about the upcoming presidential election? “Dread,” according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll. The survey of 1,636 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Sept. 14 to 18, offered respondents seven emotions—three positive, three negative, one neutral—and asked them to select any and all that reflect their attitude toward the 2024 campaign. Dread, the most negative option, topped the list (41%), followed by exhaustion (34%), optimism (25%), depression (21%), indifference (17%), excitement (15%) and delight (5%). In total, a majority of Americans (56%) chose at least one of the three negative feelings (dread, exhaustion or depression), while less than a third (32%) picked at least one of the three positive feelings (optimism, excitement or delight).

Mexico Feels Pressure of Relentless Migration From South America (NYT) At a Mexico City shelter, the nun in charge made another difficult announcement to the mothers and children arriving Wednesday: There was no more space. Five hundred migrants were already crammed into a facility built for 100. Near Mexico’s southern border with Guatemala, frustrated people stormed a refugee aid office on Monday after waiting weeks for appointments to receive the necessary documents that allow them to travel farther north. And in Tijuana, nearly all of the city’s 32 shelters were at full capacity this week, as people from nearly 70 countries waited for a U.S. asylum appointment or a chance to sneak across the border. Similar scenes are playing out across the country as Mexico’s immigration system strains under a tide of people desperately trying to go north. The relentless surge has led to a hodgepodge response in Mexico ranging from shutting down railways heading north to the busing of people to areas with fewer migrants. American officials are also contending with a new wave of unlawful border crossings that is straining government resources and leaving local officials scrambling as thousands of migrants are released from federal custody. On Wednesday, thousands of people crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, leading the mayor to declare a state of emergency and a deployment of 800 active-duty military personnel to help process the arrivals.

Costa Rica’s homicide rate rises in deadliest year ever (Reuters) More than 656 people have been killed so far in Costa Rica’s deadliest year on record, official homicide data showed on Friday, though the government expects this figure to soar past 900 by the end of this year. Costa Rica, which has for decades been recognized as the safest Central American country, saw more homicides in six of its seven provinces, with the capital San Jose seeing the highest increase—double those in the same period last year. Authorities have reported crimes such as torture, gang murders and assassinations carried out by highly-trained hitmen, similar to crimes committed by Mexican cartels. They attribute two-thirds of such killings to turf war gangs for control over drug trafficking operations in the country, a strategic location between producers in Colombia and consumers in the United States and Europe.

U.S. will send Ukraine long-range missiles, after delay (Washington Post) The Biden administration plans to provide Ukraine with a version of ATACMS long-range missiles armed with cluster bomblets rather than a single warhead, according to several people familiar with the ongoing deliberations. The cluster-armed ATACMS, with a range of up to 190 miles, depending on the version, could allow Ukraine to strike command posts, ammunition stores and logistics routes far behind Russian front lines and dug-in defenses. Biden moved during the summer from a firm and long-standing “no” to saying the issue was “still in play.” Although the administration backed away from initial concerns that Kyiv, which has asked for hundreds of the long-range weapons, would use them to strike inside Russian territory, the Pentagon still worried that drawing down enough ATACMS from relatively small military stockpiles to make a difference on the Ukraine battlefield would undercut the readiness of U.S. forces for other possible conflicts.

For South Korea’s Senior Subway Riders, the Joy Is in the Journey (NYT) The subway rumbled toward its final stop north of Seoul. Along the way, hordes disembarked, with the determined, brisk gait of those with somewhere to be. By the end of the line, many who remained on board were noticeably older—nodding off, gazing out the window, stretching their shoulders. Lee Jin-ho had taken two subway lines for more than an hour from his home to the last stop, Soyosan, on a steamy August day. He ambled about a hundred yards beyond the station, rested briefly in the shade—and then got right back on the train heading south. An 85-year-old retired interior designer, Mr. Lee is one of Seoul’s throngs of subway-riding seniors, who take advantage of the country’s longstanding policy of free fares for people older than 65 and spend their days riding the trains to the end of the line, or to nowhere in particular, and sometimes back again. On long summer days—with Seoul’s temperatures averaging highs of more than 87 degrees in August—the air-conditioning is robust, the people-watching is engrossing and the 200 miles of subway tracks in the city are almost limitless in their possibilities for urban wanderings. Older adults who ride free of charge make up about 15 percent of Seoul’s annual ridership. The riders have become such an established part of the city’s fabric that they have a nickname—“Jigong Geosa,” derived from the phrase “free subway”—and the lines and stations frequented by them are well known.