#//Cell will get with the program... Eventually

[anemcia]

@synthetixviola​ asked: TRUTH + How would you feel if Cyto decided to go against his father's plans for him? @ Honeydew

truth serum time ! - [ACCEPTING]

“You have no idea how long I’ve thought over this very subject.” She flatly remarks, visibly relaxed now that the truth can set the record straight. “...The way I see it? If ya live your whole life tryin’ to please other people, you’ll never live your own to the fullest. Cyto yearns for a life outside of followin’ his father’s footsteps; a fact Cell has a hard time adjustin’ with. Just because he felt that way at five years old doesn’t mean he still wants to 13 years later. People change, we all do... So imagine the super fun position of explainin’ that concept to my VERY stubborn better half. It’s a... Delicate dance between us, one I intend on winnin’ in the end.”

“In the end, I’ve spoken with Cyto in private about what he wants to do. Never squandered his dreams, never downplayed anythin’ he wants to see for himself. That need to spread his literal wings is somethin’ he got from me, yanno? Once our hearts are set on a journey, nothing will stop us from succeeding. All I want is for em’ to be happy... It’s all a mother can ask for.”

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Okay so we've done "Lazarus water is ghost booze", "Lazarus water is rotting ectoplasm", and even "Lazarus pit as spooky swimming pool" but consider:

Danny getting dunked in the pit waters and being contaminated with constant pit rage. He's destroying everything around him and his friends + sister+ clone must work around/ sabotage the JL, JLD and GIW in order to save Danny from them and get close enough to try to filter out the Lazarus water from his body using one of the Fenton Parents inventions.

The GIW keep interfering with the JL and JLD, hilariously insisting they have authority here and trying in vain to chase the heros off. Sometimes even actually fighting them. Or well, trying to at least.

Phantom doesn't exactly have the greatest reputation. Between the media blackout over Amity and what little that does get through painting him in a bad light thats not really a saprise.

Still, not everyone is convinced Phantom is a villian. Superman thinks Phantom is being mind controlled while most of the bats think the teenager was drugged and is on a rampage because of it.

Jason swears up and down that he felt the pit in that kid and he was swallowed up in pit rage the likes he had never seen before. Jason is determined to help this kid because if he can save this kid then maybe there's some hope for himself. Tim offers his help as well, suspicious of how similar Phantoms eyes are to someone suffering from the effects of the pit and at least partially convinced Jason is right.

It all culminates into Team Phantom saving Danny with the Justice Leages help and slapping the GIW all the way to thier new jail cells. Danny, after emptying his stomach contents into the ground, gets asked some medical questions, like his name and what day it was.

Turns out Danny thought it was the day everything started and had no memory of anything that happened while he was rampaging, which his friends and family thank thier lucky stars for. The boy can't handle much more trauma. Anywho, Danny gets placed in the watchtower medbay while they filter out any lingering L water and he's placed on an iv drip to replenish all the vitamins and hydration he lost while he was out of it.

Batman, Superman and others have all had talks with him, comforting him and actually listening to what he had to say. Something not many adults in dannys life did. Hood swiftly became friends with the kid and they bonded over being "Death Buddies" and Danny eventually told them about Vlad and Freakshow and his parents and how they all need to be stopped. He begged for leniency for his parents as they were genuinely insane and needed help.

Danny and his team get placed in a witness protection program of sorts and is visited by a lot of heros from time to time.

[etherealbelphie]

Can you talk about more of all the obey me characters having a group chat about MC and sharing pictures?

As headcannons plz

In case you don't know, this is in reference to this post.

Diavolo was actually the one to start the group chat, although it wasn't intended to go the way it did. Originally, the group chat consisted only of himself, Lucifer, and Barbatos.

It was a photo of MC, Luke, Simeon, and Solomon sitting in the student council room, working on decorations for the next school dance. It was accompanied by the message 'Look how hard everyone is working!'

Lucifer, of course, only focused on MC. It did his pride good to see how hard they were working to make this program successful.

Lucifer made the mistake of calling this out in the messages, and jokingly (?) suggested adding the rest of his brothers to the chat so they could see what hard work actually looked like.

Diavolo did not catch the sarcasm, and immediately added all of the brothers to the chat as well.

Lucifer's younger brothers saw what he'd said earlier, so there were varying levels of protests about that.

Then the group chat went dead for a while.

The next time someone used it, it was Mammon. Apparently, he'd been out with MC and lost track of them.

After everyone yelled at him for losing MC, they added the adults of Purgatory hall for best group organizing. (They didn't want to worry Luke.)

Why didn't they add MC to the group chat to try and get ahold of them? That's a good question. They've got one brain cell combined (Maybe even 2 if you count Barbatos), so maybe that's why.

Eventually, Mammon found them back at the shop he'd just come from. (MC was sitting at customer service like a lost child.)

He sent a picture of them to the group chat to prove they were alright, and then the group chat went dead again.

Until someone else lost MC.

You thought that was a one-time thing? No. That's a Tuesday. There have been at least 8 more 'I lost MC' chats.

This happened so often that Levi decided to make a meme about it.

This inspired everyone else to start making MC memes, with different people participating to different degrees.

Some people used meme templates, and some people were putting captions over photos they had.

This led to people getting jealous of some of the photos people had.

Simeon, in his infinite wisdom, decided the easiest way to stop this problem would be to share all the photos they had of MC.

And that's the story of how the group chat began.

[deliciouskeys]

What does it mean that Homelander is the only supe that has Compound V incorporated into his DNA? And that he can pass it down to progeny?

A short essay no one asked for (but inspired by @saintmathieublanc ‘s poll about whether HL and Ryan can be depowered)

Reading 1: literal

His DNA consists of Compound V. Which means that Compound V is a nucleotide analogue, a proteinaceous component of histones around which DNA wraps and gets packed into a chromosome, or some kind of non-organic chemical that binds to DNA (DNA intercalators). I actually kind of like the idea that Compound V is a part of histones, because you could handwavely imagine it gets incorporated haphazardly and affects the expression of random genes, turning them on or off, hence its varied effects.

Reason 1 none of these seem likely: DNA replicates constantly, not only during embryonic development but throughout your life. Having DNA be modified but not requiring a constant influx of new Compound V means that the DNA would eventually dilute out to become normal.

Reason 2 these aren’t likely: a proteinaceous histone component injected into infants wouldn’t really exert any effects. Wouldn’t even go into cells. A nucleotide analog or a DNA intercalator chemical could go into cells and effectively act as a DNA damaging agent (this is how some chemo works, in fact). Hard to imagine how randomly damaging DNA would result in gaining of abilities, but I guess formally possible if the damage is somehow directed. The randomness of powers gained could potentially be compatible with “random damage”. But what would then be the difference between Homelander and other supes? The Compound V would then be “part of the DNA” in both cases

Reading 2: which I favor

Compound V is a hormone. Hormones are something one could inject into a baby to exert profound effects, even if only done once. What’s not clear of course is why the hormone exerts such different effects in different babies. One handwavy model is that, unlike testosterone or estrogen or melatonin or adrenaline, with defined programs being triggered, Compound V is a hormone that creates artificial stresses in the body that tissue will respond to adaptively, and that this process is stochastic/random. This would be consistent with Compound V being better as something taken as a child- more tissue plasticity.

What does it mean that Homelander’s DNA “contains Compound V” in this schema? Hormones aren’t part of DNA. But they could have engineered a gene that encodes an enzyme (or a set of genes encoding a set of enzymes) that generate Compound V out of a common steroid precursor like cholesterol. They may also have encoded whatever receptor in the human body binds Compound V to be expressed more highly or in specific tissue in the body, but this is less crucial. This would even be somewhat realistic for 1981 era biotech. In this scenario, Homelander has been exposed to Compound V throughout embryonic development (earlier than everyone else), and has the ability to make more all the time. This would be consistent with it being heritable: Ryan didn’t need any exogenous Compound V, he had the genes to generate it himself.

If Soldier Boy’s radiation undoes the effects of Compound V out of people who have had one exposure, this would mean his radiation would be less effective on Homelander and Ryan: they would eventually generate more Compound V and with time presumably regain their powers. And that’s my final answer to @saintmathieublanc ‘s poll 🧐

[princess-of-thebes-1995]

A Life Bartered Ch 3

Yandere! Human Miles Quaritch x Mutant/Human Female Reader.

Set: Avatar 2009.

Warnings: Smut, Older man and younger woman, huge age gap, unhealthy love from men and Navi men. Foul Language. Attempt to impregnate. Painful Sex.

Four more nights till you will tie the knot to the Navi who 'won' you. To be Mated with Ebe. As to be his wife. Married and to bear his children. 

You gulped. Was it even possible for an advanced human being such as yourself and a Navi male to produce half breeds? 

Being a woman with natural maternal affection, you knew you would love any and all of your future children. You just wished your future babies would be sired by your ex lover. The Head of Security. 

You blew an exhale of loneliness. You still had little battery life left in your cell phone. You wished you took pictures of your handsome “boyfriend”. 

Or whatever he was to you. He treated you like his wife. But, because of your bitchy attitude, it was one sided. And he must have known.

You sometimes caught his hurt expressions when you didn't heed to his affectionate touches or gave him half assed responses. 

You resented him for abusing his power to get you into his bed for money. 

Come to think of it, you furrowed your brows in concentration. He didn't apologize to you after giving yourself in to get the funds back for the program, but he did more than his side of the bargain. 

His soldiers would accompany the other scientists in the wild jungle to study plants and gather resources. The cafeteria received more quality food. The heating system got upgraded. Nice hot showers and heated air made the science bunks and labs cozy and comfortable. 

And you, you got the lion share. You got the highest qualities of makeup, perfume, designer clothes from the magazine orders sent to and from Earth when supplies come in. 

And not only that. The Colonel would voluntarily brush your long hair whenever he was free from work or gym. And for some reason he was fascinated with your feet. He once complimented how tiny they were. He would always massage them.  But best of all, you liked his stares. When you applied makeup on the vanity mirror desk he ordered when you moved into his room. He would sit on his bed. 

And watch you doll yourself up. He would lick his lips and look as if he was in pain. You found it amusing. Then eventually, he would always ruin your lipstick. He would look as if someone punched him in the mouth.

He would use soap and water to scrub your lipstain off his face. But, removing makeup was not easy. So, some staff noticed. But, they were too scared to tease their superior. 

You smiled at the memory and stared at the stars of Pandora. You wondered if Quaritch was looking outside too. But, sadly, with all his work, gym, and extra work correcting the mistakes Selfridge would make. You assumed he was asleep and exhausted. 

That poor man. 

You treated him like shit. 

You felt like a homewrecker. 

A bad woman. 

You looked at Ebe’s sleeping form. He didn't rape you. Not yet. You were lucky. He was waiting for the wedding night. Maybe, you should be kind to Ebe. He seemed to love you like how Quaritch did. He is ugly. But, maybe he looked ugly to you because you loved and missed the Colonel. 

Closing your eyes you yearned to see the handsome face you took for granted. You hoped and wondered if the Colonel had pictures of you on his phone.

You dismissed it immediately. Even if he did have pictures of you, he probably deleted it. You don't deserve him. 

“Good bye, My Love.” You whispered as you stared at the dark sky. 

…………

The Colonel walked up to the quarters of his trusted sidekick, Corporal Lyle Wainfleet of his Marine Squad.

He remembered a crucial detail of you. He caught you talking and giggling with that female pilot that worked with Lyle. Judging by how many times you socialized with her, the Colonel assumed you two were close friends. Not as close as Grace. Better than nothing. 

The harsh knock made a grumpy Lyle open the door with a mean look in his face. He was about to cuss out whoever woke him. Then he straightened when he saw his superior. 

“Colonel?”

“Your pilot is a personal friend of Name, right?”

Lyle was taken back at the mention of your name. Since those Savages took you, no one dared to utter your name in the Colonel's presence. 

After affirming the Colonel's question. The blonde man felt less tense and actually happy since that text you sent him. 

Lyle missed you. He hardly spoke to you much. Besides greetings and how orders the Colonel gave him to you like to meet him somewhere or go to his office. 

Lyle couldn't not notice not only your beauty but your personality and intelligence. He was smitten and jealous that the Colonel got to you first. But, you knew that the Colonel would steal you from him even if he didn't meet you before him. 

Lyle guessed you were not fated to be with him. 

Lucky bastard. 

“Get that Pilot. We will get Name back. Only the three of us know.”

“Yes, Sir.” The Corporal wasted no time. Lyle was scared that you were perhaps either dead or almost dead after being raped. There is no way a pretty face like yours can't get taken advantage of. Navi or human. You were just that beautiful. 

He still pitied you. 

…………

Trudy was the same way when Wainfleet knocked on her door in the middle of the night. She was about to yell but Wainfleet whispered harshly and explained the rescue mission. Trudy was ecstatic. 

Since Trudy was dating Norm, she knew the situation. That you were forced to be with the Colonel. And an evil Navi warrior wanted you.

She knew like all beings not all are totally bad or good. But the Navi man who took you. Damn, she hated him. He was no better than Quaritch. 

Trudy dressed up in her pilot suit and jogged with the armed Wainfleet to her chopper waiting for them was the tough man Quaritch. 

He was ready with his mask and machine gun.

Shit will go down.

Quaritch printed the tracking area code and picture of where you were located by his cellphone. 

He gave the paper to Trudy. Starting the chopper, they finally set off. 

The Warrior out to save the damsel in distress. 

………

Trudy landed the chopper away from the intended area as the orders of the Colonel. Lyle and Quaritch jumped off the plane with their guns ready to kill. The night vision built in his mask indicated body warmth of two individuals. A Navi and a human sleeping under the abyss tree. 

It must be her. 

Colonel Quaritch nodded to Lyle. Taking the cue, Lyle threw the grenade to the far left of the field and it landed on a plant that had some kind of nest. Like a hornet nest. 

Boom. 

The flame engulfed the grass and the yells of those damn savages made Lyle and the Colonel crouch down to hide. The same ugly ass Navi came from under the Tree and was yelling in his native tongue.

Then Quaritch saw you. You came out obviously in shock from the commotion. Your eyes widened at the awful site. Fire burning the beautiful shrubbery and plants of the area. 

What a shame. While feeling sorry for the lost wildlife. A hand covered your mouth. You were too unhealthy to struggle. You then turned to see the man you are aching for.

It was dark for you to see. But the fire showed some light. It was him. 

He let go of you. You stared in disbelief as he put his finger to his lips and picked you up bridal style. 

He ran to the chopper and he made you sit next to his seat before strapping you. He frowned when he noticed how even lighter you were in his arms. You lost too much weight. Were you even fed? That monkey probably tortured you. 

Quaritch clenched his teeth with rage. Lyle hopped in and quickly ordered Trudy to go. The Colonel noticed your shivering form. He took off his Marine jacket and covered you. He held you close. He tucked you underneath his chin and wrapped his arms around you. 

You couldn't hold it in. You burst into sobs. The Colonel felt his tank top wet. “I thought you were dead.”

You mumbled. “ Might as well.”

The Colonel heard it clear then sighed. 

Lyle, on the other hand, watched the two of you with pity.

 He was also impressed by you too. He expected you to be haggard. You looked perfect as ever. Just sad and sick. Too skinny. Your hair was still glossy with no flyaways or frizz. 

 And your skin looked like it was filtered with Photoshop. With your blood red lips and pink cheeks you still had your natural makeup.

The oversized nightgown made you look oddly cute. But it was thin as fuck. The white dress was too big and not your size. Looked like the Navi who demanded you must have stolen the fabric materials when the cargo that arrived from Earth was to be sent to the base. 

The chopper landed on the parking lot and Trudy waited for you to come out of your seat. The Colonel hopped out then grabbed your lithe hand and settled you to the firm ground. Trudy didn't hesitate to engulf you in a hug.

The Colonel and Corporal Wainfleet watched you hug back. Shaking his head, the Colonel had to return his weapons to the supply room. He ordered you to be sent to his room. Quaritch gave his room key to Trudy. 

Quietly as mice, you and your friend snuck inside the luxurious room of the Colonel. You noticed how there were broken furniture and holes on the wall. 

Trudy wasted no time turning on the hot shower. You didn't want to further burden your friend, so you did your best to shampoo your long hair and use soap on your body. 

You forgot how long you were taken away by Ebe but you didn't want to know. It felt like years. Time went so slow. It was nice now. You felt a little invincible. You cheated death and escaped the true punishment of your wicked crimes against the Colonel.

You sure dodged a bullet. After that, Trudy wrapped you with the Colonel's shower towel and led you to his bed. You didn't notice but all your items were still in his room. 

Your clothes, books, makeup, everything. The Colonel gave the cat equivalent pet he caught for you to the science pukes. Obviously, he couldn't take care of it. He wasn't cruel to starve an animal. 

Those science bitches seemed to be thrilled to have that weird creature. Not that he was complaining. Quaritch didn't admit it, he was jealous that you showed more affection to that pet than to him before he gave you up. 

“You may leave.”

Both women's heads turned to see the Colonel in the doorway without his combat gear. Trudy stood up but stopped when Quaritch held out a paper. 

Turned out it was a check. You saw your friend's eyes widened as she read it. Must been a large sum of money. Trudy thanked Quaritch and disappeared. 

You looked confused. Quaritch said nothing. He stripped himself and threw his clothes to the floor. 

Sitting next to you, you didn't say anything when he brushed your long wet tresses. Like old times,  He would stop and sniff them by gently grabbing the ends of your hair to his nose then continue brushing.

He finished and laid down on the bed and made you rest on top of him. You cling to him like a wounded animal. Quaritch felt you shaking and still cold. He wrapped your lithe frame closer to his heated body. 

“Were you …?” 

The Colonel couldn't bring himself to say it. You said not yet. The blonde man blew an exhale. That blue monkey was so lucky. If he did rape you. The Colonel would have made you go to the doctor regardless of being seen. And check if you were pregnant with a half breed.

And squash that fetus beneath his foot. 

But, that fuckin’ Navi was planning on it and wanted to. The Colonel decided to not give him that bad of a painful death. 

Noticing how still you were. He peeked down to see you asleep. What a night. 

Corporal Wainfleet punched in the ticket for his superior . He announced to the staff today was the Colonel’s day off.

Quaritch didn't care what time it was when he woke from his peaceful slumber. He felt light as a feather.

He stroked your long (hair type) hair as you continued your slumber. You were still as a rock. Damn. You must have been really tired. Normally, you would toss and turn around nine times in bed.

With pity in his eyes the Colonel watched you breathe in and out. He wondered if you ever dreamed of him like he did of you. Or even thought of him.  But, the memory of you texting him confirmed his curiosity. He screenshot your message and saved it to his photos on his cellphone.

Gently, he removed himself from your grip and off the bed. He hurriedly showered and dressed in his uniform to enter the Marine cafeteria. 

He as usual was greeted with respect but he didn't want to look suspicious. He hoped no one would notice him gathering extra food to his tray. 

He normally wouldn't eat luxurious food. Luxury makes a man weak to be lazy and pathetic. But, you lost so much damn weight and feared you might be sick. 

He will go to the hospital wing and his own personal doctor will check you. 

Quaritch will swore him to secrecy through bribes and also threats. As a Marine, you are to never trust no one. Unless proven greatly otherwise. 

Like you. Quaritch didn't trust you before but now. He knew you changed. 

He forgave you. 

It was no surprise you were still sleeping. He placed the tray on his table and then leaned down to dip his face. He kissed your cheek and gently rubbed your shoulders. 

You stirred and opened your lovely eyes in confusion before blinking. It was cute. You looked surprised to see him and looked around your area. The Colonel smirked. He made you sit up before wrapping his bathrobe around you. 

He cut the Salisbury steak and pressed the fork to your lips. You were confused. You didn't eat meat. But, you knew the reason. If the Colonel got only plant based food for you. It would look suspicious. You assumed you were to be hidden until further notice. 

And you needed muscles and gain weight. 

You let him feed you like a toddler. You remembered how he ordered you to feed him while “dating” him. 

He would tease you calling you his tradwife.

You felt offended and labeled him a toxic masculine man. Now, you realized you were foolish to not understand he was joking and you were the one toxic. A crazy witch.

As mentioned before, the Colonel would massage your feet whenever he had free time and brush your hair. Most important, he would take care of you when you were on your period and voluntarily feed you.

You cooked and cleaned out of duty but that was it. Few times he made you feed him and you complained. The colonel noticed your attitude then stopped asking you to feed him and other affectionate gestures. He became grumpy. He wanted you to act like a real girlfriend but was meeting him half way in the relationship. Like you didn't want it to work.

It reminded him again you were forced to be with him for the sake of the avatar program.

It added more guilt inside your chest. He didn't say if he forgave you or not. Then again, you apologized in the text and not in person. 

You wanted to say sorry in person but the Colonel continued feeding you. He then took a few bites himself from the same fork and made you drink water. When you watched him drink from the same glass after you. 

You felt… flattered. It was intimate without being sexual. Like real romance rather than superficial lust.

You blushed but sadly Quaritch didn't notice. He was too worried for you. 

Ebe tried to feed you but you would always vomit your food later. Maybe it's because you would feel hopeless and sob later. 

Now that you are much happier. You could stomach the delicious food. You may not eat meat due to pitying the animals, but you cannot deny it tastes good. 

You would cook meat dishes for the Colonel at the base and your family while on Earth. And to be precise, you would taste your own food to make sure it tastes good. Meat or not. 

The Colonel knew you were trying your best to not complain about eating. He set the plate away then caressed your cheekbone. 

You looked at him confused. Quaritch explained his doctor will secretly come here to check you up. No one is to know of you. 

So it's true. You realized that the Colonel acted on his own to rescue you. If Selfridge found out…

There was a hesitant knock. The Colonel knew that voice. A middle aged man walked in with a medic bag. Like the old days, this doctor visited you instead.

The Colonel stood back with his arms crossed and leaning against the wall and watched the doctor examine you. 

“She is malnourished.” The doctor looked over his shoulder at the Colonel. “She needs a blood transfusion.”

Quaritch nodded. “I will give her my blood.” He didn't hesitate.

The doctor then looked at you. He asked if you ever knew you were pregnant before. 

Your eyes widened and the Colonel kept his calm face but was also surprised inside. 

“I am afraid you lost weight not only from starvation but miscarriage.”

You couldn't help it. You clutched your face and began to cry quietly. That explained you always vomiting in the jungle. The moodiness. 

You remembered your last period. It was more painful than usual. And you felt weird when bathing. Ebe gave you a bucket to wash yourself. While doing so, you felt like something slide off between your legs when cleaning. 

No. 

Your poor baby.

Damn you. It was your fault. 

The Colonel's breath hitched. No doubt that baby was his. After fucking you last before giving you up, you didn't pack anything. Including your pills. 

He killed his own child. Damn him. It was all his fault. 

The Colonel watched you sob he wanted to punch the wall again and make another hole. 

“I will prescribe her depression and insomnia pills.”

The doctor stood up and whispered to the Colonel.

He said he suspected you to be suicidal and should be under all supervision.

The doctor left. Quaritch had a hazed look in his beautiful blue eyes. The doctor will return to start the blood transfer process by bringing the tubes and syringes.

The Colonel made sure to heat up the room even more. He sat next to you after dressing you up in your skirt and blouse. He didn't dress you in your underwear. He was sad as you were to care. While waiting for the doctor to return, the Colonel grabbed your hand and kissed your cold delicate fingers.

It used to be the opposite. He was always the cold one and it would compliment against your warm feathery touches. A knock came again and the doctor started the process. 

Quaritch made sure you got extra blood but the doctor said he cannot do it all at once. Daily with regular transfusion and healthy eating and sunshine will make you good as new again. 

But, since you were a mutant. It will make you recover quicker. Being alone finally, the Colonel stroked your hair. 

“You're very young, and a mutant. You conceived because you didn't pack your pills and missed them for one day. It's impossible to not get knocked up again.” He tried to cheer you up.

You looked out the window. Then looked back at him with more tears. You told him how none of your future pregnancies can replace any child you lost before.

The Colonel said nothing about your answer. He kept his face to the normal stern look. Inside though, he felt warm by your morally right response. He was right about you all along. You didn't show it at first, being a spoiled brat. Rude to him too. 

Maybe it was because he scared you to run to him at first when he almost shut the program. Not to mention, people stereotyped you all your life for always being the most beautiful girl. Assuming you had an easy life and were a snob. 

The Colonel said nothing. He gently made you lay down on the bed and he hovered over you with his biceps caging you and he finally kissed you since the farewell kiss at the fields where he dropped you off. 

He couldn't kiss you with that damn mask he was wearing when he rescued you. 

You felt his callused hands hold your face against his. He immediately snuck his tongue inside and to his surprise, you responded and was bat shit crazy for him as he was for you. You must have been hungry. 

Continuing kissing you. He kicked off his trousers and boxers. He then trailed his lips against your neck. He gently bit you. Then sucked the bruise. He knew you also wanted the same. 

The Colonel moved out of your reach and looked down at your form.

He sighed and shook his head. If someone saw his neck, it would be suspicious. You huffed in disappointment. The Colonel gave you an apologetic look. He removed his tank top. Being bare and ready. He began attacking your perky tits. 

You were so impatient. And he knew it. He wanted to suck your cunt. But to hell with it. Later. He sheathed his cock inside and bullied his shaft inside your wet hole.

He groaned in pain. He knew you didn't get laid in almost three months. But, this is torturous. It was like you were raping him. You looked at him with worry. Quaritch ignored you and dug inside deeper to loosen you up.

Finally, all his inches went inside. Already you felt your juices overflowing your womanhood.

He must have stopped masturbating. You wondered why. 

Moans of pain and not pleasure escaped your fat lips and your nails dug in the shoulder of your lover. You hissed in pain. “Please slow down.”

Quaritch cursed again. “If I stop you will be even tighter before tomorrow.”

Having sex after months of celibacy was hell. Oh, well. As long as you don't get raped. You won't complain. 

“Oh, my fucking God.” The Colonel clenched his jaw. 

Quaritch saw the blood coming out of your vagina. It was working. Hopefully next time it will be easier. He needs to loosen the stronghold clutches of your cunt. 

The Colonel cummed inside and spilled his hot seed. His and your breathings were ragged. With great difficulty, Quaritch slowly pulled out from your greedy vagina. His dick was swollen and red from the pain and not from the blood. 

Damn. That was painful as fuck. It was like his penis was about to explode from the harsh friction. 

He didn't blame you and shouldn't complain. He laid back on the bed next to you catching his breath. He pulled you to his muscular chest.

“We’ll try again.”

You let out a “hmm” as you clung to him. You went back to sleep. Quaritch kissed your nose then closed his eyes again.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring. 

AU: I know I said I am taking a break. But, I forgot I already typed this on my old google docs. I do not want to torture my followers. I will post Anti-America and Anti Israel and Pro Palestine pictures. I am working on my new Yandere! Gellert Grindelwald x Reader. A new version of Lowly Desires.

I will call it Dark Desires. Just to spoil it. I will not add a love triangle. Credence may love Reader Chan but she does not love him and will not have an affair with him.

[fortheloveofwonderland]

Midnight | Chapter 10 | S.R

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

Chapter Summary - Luke becomes suspicious and starts his own investigation in your whereabouts.

A/N - this chapter is entirely about Luke and the BAU. We resume our regularly scheduled programming soon. Also Luke’s birthday isn’t mentioned in canon so I used Adam Rodriguez’s birthday for the sake of this chapter.

Pairing - unsub! Spencer Reid / Fem! Reader

Category - dark angst | smut | very eventual happy ending

Warnings - overprotective Luke, swearing.

WC - 4.4k

Chapter 10 - Why Worry?

Luke Alvez was not a naturally suspicious person. Despite his years in a job in which he was trained to be apprehensive, to keep his guards up and not take things at face value, he was on the whole an exceptionally trusting guy. 

It wasn’t like him to jump to conclusions, but the current situation was an exception to his rule. Maybe it was because it pertained to you, one of the few people in this world that Luke would go to the ends of the earth to protect. He had real sister’s he’d never felt he needed to look after the way he did you, possibly because they were older and always made it clear they could handle themselves.

But you could most certainly take care of yourself. You were one of the toughest people Luke had ever met in his life. You were fearless, he’d always admired that about you. But it had also never stopped him from wanting to shield you from harm since the day he met you. 

It sometimes felt his job was just as much an FBI agent as it was your very own personal protector. If he allowed himself to dig deeper into that he would probably realise it was because he had feelings for you that went way beyond simple found family. But he would never admit that even to himself. 

After receiving the vague phone call from you three days ago, and then the strange text, he’d thought of nothing but while the team had been away on a case. Everything was adding up in his mind, all the odd little details of your leaving the BAU and the new cell phone and he didn’t like the answers he was getting. It was like constantly trying to calculate two plus two but somehow making five. Nothing made sense to him. 

He wasn’t proud of his decision to call your father but he needed answers. He’d met your parents several times over the years and he knew your dad was quite fond of him, so he hoped he wasn’t completely overstepping any boundaries. 

You dad answered on the third ring as Luke was pacing his apartment a few hours after wrapping up the BAU’s latest case. Roxy watched him from the couch, clearly perturbed by her owner’s inability to stand still. He answered in a chipper voice that Luke had grown used to from your father. 

“Oh hey, Mr Y/L/N, it's Luke. Alvez.” Luke scratched the back of his head, feeling a little foolish for this.

“Luke, hi. How are you?” Your father sounded surprised but not disturbed to hear from him. 

“Yeah, I’m not too bad, thanks.” Luke continued his pacing. “Say, I was trying to get hold of Y/N but her cell phone keeps going to voicemail. Could I speak to her, please?” 

The outcome he desired was that your father would hand the phone over to you and you would rip him a new one for his paranoia. But he was almost positive it was not what would happen. 

“Uh,” your dad’s confusion was evident. “Y/N isn’t here, Luke. She hasn’t been home in months.”

And just like that, Luke’s heart fell into the pit that had formed in his stomach. He wasn’t exactly surprised, but it didn’t make the news any easier to swallow.

“What’s going on? Is everything ok, Luke?” Your dad sounded suddenly concerned and Luke scalded himself for worrying the older man like this. 

“Yeah, uh…I’m sorry to have bothered you. I must have gotten my wires crossed somewhere.” Luke pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Is my daughter ok?” 

“Yes, yes she’s fine. I just…I must have misheard her. I thought she said she was taking a few days off to come out to visit you but now that I think about it I think she was visiting some college friend.” Luke tried desperately to cover his tracks. 

“Do you want me to call her for you?” The older man still sounded concerned. 

“No, honestly it’s fine. Please don’t worry about it.” What the fuck am I doing? 

“You’re sure? Do I need to be concerned, Luke?”

“No! No, of course not. Clearly I’m just a really bad listener.” He forced himself to laugh. “I’ll get hold of her. Please don’t worry about it.” 

It took a few more minutes but he managed to talk your father down from the ledge in which Luke had led him to in the first place. He mentally berated himself once he was off of the phone for bothering your father like that. But it did confirm that you were not in fact in Philly like you’d said. 

And before Luke could think much of it, he was leaving his apartment again after giving Roxy a little pat on the head and promising the dog he would be home soon. His investigation wasn’t over yet. 

***

After getting off the phone to your dad, Luke tried to contact you on the cell number you’d called him from but found it was switched off. Then he decided to drive over to your apartment. 

He let himself in with the spare key you’d given him several years ago. He was tentative as he opened the door, not sure what he expected to find. 

It wasn’t entirely surprising that upon first glance, the place looked completely normal. You weren’t the tidiest person in the world so the half empty coffee mug on the kitchen counter, or the jacket over the arm of the chair weren’t out of place. Neither was the pile of washing up in the sink or the towel he found thrown on your unmade bed. 

On further inspection he found some empty hangers in the closet and a couple of items of clothing he knew you loved were missing. Your favourite pair of jeans which you always told him made your ass look incredible, something he never admitted he agreed wholeheartedly with, your college hoodie which you almost always wore when you were home and a few t-shirts you wore frequently were gone. Your toothbrush was missing from the bathroom, as well as your hairbrush. A few other items seemed to have been taken too so you’d definitely gone somewhere. 

He found your cell phone on the nightstand, its battery flat. He located your charger and plugged the device in, sitting on your bed while he waited for it to charge enough that he could switch it on. A few minutes passed before the little white Apple logo appeared on the screen and then he was being promoted to enter the passcode.

Your passcode had originally been your birth month and day because you were useless at remembering any other dates. He remembered telling you how easy it would be for someone to hack if you lost your phone and you’d rolled your eyes and huffed as you set a new one at his insistence. 

You’d changed it to the only other date you could think of at the time: Luke’s birthday. It wasn’t exactly the most secure four numbers, but he’d been mildly flattered that you remember his birthday in the first place and so he didn’t argue it. He quickly tapped in the code, 0402, and the screen sprung to life.

He admittedly didn’t feel good about this but he was desperate. Again he didn’t know what he expected to find but he had to check. He went through your recent text messages and calls and found nothing out of the ordinary, most of which in fact were to and from him. He supposed you could have deleted something if you didn’t want it to be found, but he didn’t think you’d have a need to do that. 

Nothing was out of the blue, nothing that would suggest where you might have gone and why you’d gone there in such a hurry. 

He unplugged the device and left it where he found it in case you came home, before he was heading out as quickly as he arrived. His last stop before he went home was to check the parking garage around the back of the building because if you’d gone somewhere, wouldn’t you have taken your car? 

He didn’t know what to think when he found your vehicle sat in its usual spot in the garage. Of course you could have flown somewhere, but it still felt strange that your car should be here. He didn’t have a good feeling about this. 

***

The following morning when he got to Quantico, the first stop he made was in Penelope Garcia’s bat cave. She was sipping from her unicorn mug when he entered and she glanced at him with a roll of her eyes.

“May I help you?” She grumbled like helping him was the last thing in the world she wanted to do. 

“If I gave you a phone number,” he spoke quietly, like he was imparting a secret. “A pay phone number to be specific, can you find where it is?” 

Garcia pulled a face and set her mug on the desk, shaking her head in frustration at Luke.

“Newbie, when will you learn that I can find just about anything regarding anything. My superpowers are so much more advanced than your macho fugitive hunting brain can handle.” She scoffed, turning to the computer screen and hovering her fingers over the keys. “Give me the number.” 

He opened his phone and found the number you’d called him from a few days ago and ignoring Garcia’s slight against him, read it out to her. Her fingers flew across the keyboard and soon enough a map popped up on the screen along with a loading bar which quickly finished its search and zoomed to a point on the map.

“Looks like that particular payphone is located on the corner of Troy Road and Oak Hill Manor in Edwardsville, Illinois.” She looked up at him to see him frowning at the screen. “Why am I looking at this? This isn’t part of any case.” 

“One more favour,” he pulled up another number on his phone. “Could you look this up?” 

Penelope rolled her eyes again and with a sigh that told Luke she wasn’t happy about this, she tapped the number into the computer. 

“It’s unregistered. Probably a burner.” She shrugged. “What’s going on, Alvez?” 

“Thanks, Garcia.” He ignored her question and turned on his heels towards the door.

“Newbie, don’t you dare walk away from me!” She called after him. 

“Gotta go, thanks, really.” He flung open the door and before Garcia could scald him further he was gone. 

***

Luke felt stupid when he’d explained to Emily in great detail about how he’d completely invaded your privacy. Saying it out loud made him feel like a jealous and overprotective boyfriend and punctuated most of his sentences with “I know I shouldn’t have” and “I didn’t mean to”. 

By the time he was finished he was slightly out of breath and Emily was staring at him with her mouth slightly ajar in a combination of confusion and mild amusement. 

“So yeah,” he exhaled. “She was in this little Podunk town in Illinois and I have no idea why but I just feel like something isn’t right, you know?” 

Emily closed her mouth and rolled her lip between her teeth while she mulled over Luke’s words. 

“So, what are you asking me here, Alvez?” Her brows furrowed. “Do you want to go out there?” 

“Would it be a huge inconvenience if I said yes?” 

“It certainly wouldn’t be ideal.” She rubbed one eye. “But I agree this all sounds a little suspicious and I don’t think you’re going to be fully here with the team until you check it out.” 

“You mean…” His face started to light up. 

“I can give you a day. Twenty four hours. But that’s all I can offer you Luke. I need you back here. And you’ll have to make your own way there, I can’t let you take the jet.” She laid out her orders but Luke was already grinning, bouncing up and down a little on his feet.

“Thank you Emily, thank you so much!” 

“I mean it, Alvez. Twenty four hours.” She told him sternly.

“That’s all I need.” He nodded. 

“Don’t make me regret this.” 

“I promise.” He continued to nod as he backed towards the door, wanting to get out before she changed her mind. 

He would book the next available flight down to Illinois and with any luck he would be able to get hold of you and find out what was going on. He needed to see you, until he did he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop thinking the worst. 

Little did he know the worst that he could think of didn’t even come close to the reality you’d found yourself in.

***

Luke arrived in Edwardsville, Illinois that afternoon after a 2 hour flight from Washington National Airport to St Louis and then a thirty mile drive back to the small town. 

He found the pay phone with relative ease thanks to Garcia’s impeccably detailed directions. It was located almost directly opposite a quaint looking B & B and figured if you were staying here then calling him from that specific pay phone made sense. 

He made his way over to the farmhouse style building and followed the hand painted signs to the lobby. A blast of air conditioning hit him in the face as he entered and a shiver ran down his spine thinking it was not quite hot enough to warrant AC. But oh well, it wasn’t his electric bill.  

He strolled over to the counter where a plump older woman greeted him with an amiable smile.

“Good afternoon, sir, can I get you a room?” She beamed. 

“Uh, no.” He fished in his pocket and pulled out his credentials which he flashed at the woman. “I’m SSA Alvez with the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit. I’m looking for someone.” 

“FBI?” She gasped. “Oh wow, we don’t see much of you around these parts. We’re just a quiet, small town.” 

“I’m investigating a potential missing person.” He knew Emily would have his head for treating this like a proper investigation but he also knew he was more likely to get answers this way. 

“Ok.” The woman toyed with the sleeve of her cardigan. 

Luke got out his phone and pulled up a photo of you he’d taken about a year ago but you hadn’t changed much since, and turned the screen to show her.

“Have you seen this woman? We have reason to believe she used the pay phone out front a few days ago.” 

The woman scrutinised your picture for a few seconds before shaking her head. 

“No, sorry. I don’t recognise her.” 

“Do you have security cameras?” 

“Sorry, no. Like I said, we're a small town. We don’t get much trouble. No need for cameras.” She shrugged sadly. 

“Can I see your guest log?” 

She nodded and reached under the desk for a battered old notebook which she handed to Luke. He flicked back to Tuesday, the day you’d called him and saw only a handful names down as checking in on that day. Martin Collins paid cash and stayed one night. Laura and Hugo Perez paid by credit card and stayed for two nights. Andrew and Rose Burnett also paid cash and stayed one night. 

He sighed and handed the book back to the woman with a half-smile of thanks. 

“Is there anything to do around here? Somewhere someone out of town might hang out?” 

“We’ve got a couple of bars around here but if you’re looking at Tuesday night, your best bet is the Corner Tavern, it does two for one shots on a Tuesday. It's about 4 miles north of here. Take Troy Road up about a mile and take a left onto Illini Drive, which will turn into Plum Street which will turn into Main Street. Keep going for about three miles and take a left on Union.” She spoke quite fast and Luke made a mental note of the directions even though his car had GPS. 

“Thanks.” He nodded, pulling a business card out of his pocket and sliding it across the desk. “If you happen to see anyone who looks like her, call me, please.”

“I will.” She nodded, taking the card. 

Luke trudged back outside to his car, praying to god he would get a better lead at the Corner Tavern and that he hadn’t completely wasted his time coming out here. 

***

The Corner Tavern appeared to be closed and if the sign on the saloon door was to be believed, it didn’t open until six pm. Luke was most certainly not waiting that long. He nudged the door with his hip and found it open and saw a light on inside. 

He tentatively walked inside, quickly spotting a long haired man behind the bar cleaning glasses. He glanced up when he heard footsteps on the floor and waved a hand at Luke.

“Sorry pal, not open. Read the sign.” He called over flippantly.

“You open for FBI?” Luke retrieved his creds and flashed them at the slightly greasy young man who pulled a face and put the glass down on the counter.

“We ain’t doing nothin’ illegal here. We’re a legit business.” He smiled a crooked smile across the bar top.

“I often find, legit businesses don’t have to proclaim their legitimacy.” Luke glared at him. “What’s your name, kid?” 

Kid? Jeez I sound like Rossi. But this kid is at least twenty years younger than me.

“Connor. Connor Danvers.” 

“You have any kind of seniority here, Danvers?” 

“I’m the duty manager.” He looked pleased with his title. “So what does the FBI want with the legit Corner Tavern?” 

Luke pulled out his phone and showed Connor the same photo of you he’d shown the woman at the Heartland but Connor barely glanced at it before shrugging. 

“She may have been here Tuesday night.” Luke tried to jog his memory. 

“Lotta people come through here. ‘Specially on a Tuesday. It’s our busiest night, what with the two for one shots and all.” He grinned that smarmy smile was rubbing Luke the wrong way. 

“Look closer.” Luke spat, moving the phone closer to Danvers face. 

“I don’t recognise her man! Sorry.” He pushed the phone away. 

Luke clenched his jaw and huffed out a breath. One of many things that hadn’t been sitting right with him was the close proximity in time in which you and Spencer left the BAU. Was there more to it than simple coincidence? On a whim he found a photo of Spencer and turned the screen back to Connor.

“What about him?” 

This time, Connor took a closer look, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he scrutinised the photo. After a few long seconds he shrugged. 

“He kinda looks familiar.” Connor agreed. “There was a guy in here on Tuesday that looked a little like him. Definitely an out of towner, I’d never seen him before. But that’s not usual on a Tuesday. He was making out with some blonde but then another girl came in, maybe the one you showed me, and they started having it out. Assumed it was his girlfriend or his wife or something. Anyway they started arguing and she stormed out. He followed her and that’s the last time I saw him.” 

Luke pocketed his phone and took in the information as he glanced around the bar. 

“I suppose it would be stupid of me to ask if this place has security cameras?” 

“We do not.” Connor chuckled. “Owner forked out thousands on redoing this place like a year ago but never sprung for cameras. Truth be told, we don't get a lot of trouble. Tourists are usually on their best behaviour and locals know better. Sure we get the occasional scuffle out in the parking lot but once they walk through those doors, ain’t our concern anymore, you know?” 

“Of course.” Luke spoke sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. “You’ve been a great help.” 

Luke turned on his heels and headed to the door, not feeling much lighter than when he walked in. He got back in the hire car and called Emily. She put him on speaker with Garcia and he filled them both in what he’d found. Or more accurately he supposed, what he hadn’t found. 

“You think she’s with boy wonder?” Garcia gasped. 

“I mean the timeline fits.” He shrugged. “And they were good friends.” 

“I tracked Y/N’s credit card and it hasn’t been used since last Saturday night at McCleary's.” Garcia told him a little sadly. 

“Yeah I was with her.” Luke pinched the bridge of his nose. “What about her passport, has it been used lately? Her car was at her apartment, but she must have gotten to Illinois somehow.” 

“Checking, checking.” Garcia tapped away on her keyboard for a moment or two. “Nada on her personal or department issued passports.” 

“How about Reid’s?” 

“On it.” Garcia started typing away rapidly. 

“Y/N doesn’t need a credit card. In the FTF agents usually have certain provisions set aside, you know if we need to suddenly disappear. Weapons, money, cell phones. They’re virtually untraceable. She could have gotten her hands on a fake passport pretty easily too, I just don’t know why she’d need to.” He filled Emily in while Garcia continued her research. 

“Ok, Spencer has not used his credit card in weeks. His last purchase was for a worrying amount of scotch at a liquor store near his apartment. His cell phone is off, no surprise there it has been for a while, and it last pinged off a cell phone tower near his home. No activity on his passports either.” Garcia sounded downtrodden. 

“What about his car? Has anyone seen it at his apartment? I can’t remember if it was there or not when I went.” Emily asked them both. 

“I don’t remember.” Garcia agreed. “I think Jayje is going over there this weekend to check on him, I can ask her to look.” 

“Thanks Garcia.” Emily spoke and then she sighed and was taking him off speaker and he heard footsteps. She didn’t speak until she was in her office with the door closed. 

“Luke, I know you care about her but just take a second here.” She sounded mildly frustrated. 

“What do you mean?” Luke frowned at the device in his hand. 

“I know in our line of work it's hard not to jump to the worst possible conclusion but did you consider she just wanted to get away? You’re hearing hoofbeats and jumping to zebras.” 

“No,” Luke was quick to counter. “She tells me everything. Something is wrong here, Emily. I know her. She wouldn’t do this.”

“The evidence is not pointing to anything suspicious, Alvez.” Emily exhaled loudly. 

“Not suspicious?” He scoffed. “She lied about where she was going, she’s using a burner phone. She got down to Illinois without her car or the use of her passport. My gut is telling me something isn’t right, Emily.” 

“I’m sorry but I need you home, we’re swamped as it is. I’ve given you leeway on this, but it’s time to come home.” 

“Yeah, I know.” He agreed sadly. “I’ll catch a flight later today. I’m gonna keep trying to call her on the off chance I can get hold of her before I leave.”

“Good idea. Stay safe.” Emily agreed. 

“Bye.” He disconnected the call, feeling thoroughly downtrodden. 

Something really didn’t feel right in his gut. And Luke Alvez always trusted his gut. As the sinking feeling really started to set in, feeling like a gaping hole in the pit of his stomach, he stared at his cell phone and begged it to ring. 

Tell me not to worry, Y/N, just call and tell me not to worry. 

But of course the phone didn’t magically start ringing. This worry wasn’t helping anyone, it was only causing him to feel sick. But he wouldn’t stop until he’d gotten to the bottom of this. 

This sinking feeling sets,

It feels just like a hole inside your chest.

I know you're thinking,

No, no, no, no, it is easier said than done.

But please let me attest,

I know it's hard.

You're feeling like you're trapped,

But that's how you react,

When you cannot see the light.

But try and see the light,

I'm tellin' you,

No, no, no, no.

You're the only one,

Standing in your way.

Just take a breath,

Relax, and tell me,

Why?

Please tell me why do we worry?

Why?

Why do we worry at all?

Why?

Just tell me, why do we worry?

When worry is never helping,

Tell me why, why worry at all?

Why do we insist,

On crossing bridges that do not exist?

Let's take these issues,

Step by step by step, to work it out.

Day by day by day we're falling down,

But life goes on.

I've got some questions,

Are you sick of feelin' sorry? (Uh huh)

And people sayin' not to worry? (Uh huh)

Sick of hearing this hakuna matata motto,

From people who won the lotto,

We're not that lucky.

Have you noticed that you're breathing? (Uh huh)

Look around and count your blessings (Uh huh).

So when you're sick of all this stressin' and guessin' I'm,

Suggestin' you turn this up and let them hear you sing it.

Why?

Please tell me why do we worry?

Why?

Why do we worry at all?

Why?

Just tell me, why do we worry?

When worry is never helping,

Tell me why, why worry at all?

Chin up, quit actin' like you're half dead,

Tears can only half tell how you're feelin',

Don't worry, be happy baby.

Stand up, life is too damn short,

That clock is ticking.

Man up, if ya feel me,

Everybody sing it,

Why?

Please tell me why do we worry?

Why?

Why do we worry at all?

Why?

Just tell me, why do we worry?

When worry is never helping,

Tell me why, why worry at all?

Why?

Please tell me why do we worry?

Why?

Why do we worry at all?

Why?

Just tell me, why do we worry?

When worry is never helping,

I'm not buying what they're selling.

So if worry is never helping,

Tell me why, why worry at all?

@andiebeaword @dreatine @matthew-gray-gubler-lover @people-whatabunchofbastards @justreadingficsdontmindme @spencer-reid-wonderland @thebloomingeagle @bubblebuttwade @jay-2s-world @daddy-dotcom

[inquisitor-apologist]

Thinking of another Star War AU I Will Not Write. This time, it’s an Imperial Ghost Crew one:

Sabine Wren fails to escape the Imperial Academy, and is, for some reason, forced into a mentorship program with Hera Syndulla, an extremely competent and talented new ISB agent coming out of a decorated career in the Imperial Navy. Sabine hates her on sight. She attempts to run away at least five times a day (Hera always seems to know where she is), and makes no secret of how much she wants to join the rebel terrorists they are currently hunting. The only upside to the situation is Agent Syndulla's ancient, borderline illegal droid (he doesn't want to go through Imperial reprogramming, and Hera won't make him) who lives for chaos and is absolutely willing to hack into a Star Destroyer’s comm system to blast the Republic anthem and smuggle in smoke bombs.

Hera Syndulla was captured in an Imperial raid when she was a kid (11-12) and placed in an Imperial reeducation facility. She graduated top of her class at the Imperial Fighter Academy and served as one of the Empire's most talented TIE pilots until she was promoted to the ISB. And now she has to wrangle a teenage Mandalorian whose favorite hobbies are high treason and vandalism. Sabine's relentless rebellion starts to change her mind on the Rebellion, especially when Sabine tells her about the Duchess and what the Empire's done to Mandalore.

Chopper, of course, goes where Hera goes, even though the Empire is far too orderly for his tastes. He somehow found her after her capture and reeeducation, and covertly replaced her astromech at the Fighter Academy. He commands an army of Mouse Droids on the Star Destroyer, and takes great pleasure in using them to sneak bugs and smoke bombs into Officer's quarters. In his opinion, Sabine is the best thing that's ever happened to him--she's an excellent gunner, a fellow chaos lover, and she's gotten Hera to loosen up a bit, so it's easier than ever to sneak off with her codes to prank the Admiral.

Ezra was captured with his parents on Lothal and put into Project Harvester, where he was eventually transferred into the Inquisitorius as a Junior Inquisitor. As such, he is extremely repressed. Sabine takes one look at him and decides he's her new best friend, and by the Force she is going to radicalize him. They become fast friends, and are soon the bane of every Senior Officer's existence. But no one can track the mysterious disappearance of all of Admiral Konstantine's pants back to them, of course. They bond over shared Imperial Trauma and eventually decide that they need to get out of here as fast as fucking possible.

Kanan was captured after Order 66 and was tortured into the Inquisitorius, so he's even more emotionally constipated than Ezra. He is Struggling with attempting to parent a teenager because Vader and the Grand Inquisitor's solution to everything was torture, and for some strange reason, he doesn't want to do that with Ezra. Also, he's extremely confused whenever he looks at Hera because he gets Feelings other?? than unquenchable rage??? and he does not know how to process this At All. He ends up covering for Ezra and Sabine's shenanigans because they're just kids and he doesn't want to see them punished. So no, Admiral Konstantine, he has no idea how all the security tapes for your room on the night your pants were stolen disappeared, it's a complete mystery.

Zeb and Kallus are the leaders of the Rebel cell they're trying to capture, because there's absolutely no way Zeb would ever be Imperial. Kallus and Hera were friends back at the Imperial Academy so they've got that best friends to enemies dynamic, and Zeb and Kanan have a really old rivalry--Zeb has a habit of sneaking Force Sensitive kids out of the Empire's reach, and Kanan's been halfheartedly hunting him for years. They are absolutely kriffing, and keep asking Hera and Kanan when they're going to finally do it. Kanan is so embarrassed he can't speak, and Hera looks straight down for so long that the rebels make their getaway unchallenged.

[wolveria]

The Raven's Hymn - Ch 38

Pairing: SCP-049 x Reader

Series Warnings: Eventual smut, dubcon, slow burn, violence, horror, death, monsters, human experiments, dark with a happy ending

Chapter Summary: "Reasonable? You're fucking insane!"

AO3

It wasn’t long until the guards came.

Fear leapt up your throat. Were they going to make you do it already? You hadn’t mentally braced yourself for it, for the debasement and humiliation, some part of you hoping it could be staved off. Maybe Dr. Puli would come through and find intervention.

Instead, lavender drifted from the ceiling and the doors opened, enough for the guards to step inside and pull you back by the arms. They fit the Class III Humanoid Restriction Harness on 049 and hooked shackles around your wrists.

They weren’t forcing their program on you yet. Or at least, not here.

With one guard on you and three surrounding 049, they led you both to a room somewhere in Heavy Containment. It was not a containment cell itself, but a standard interview room. There was only one person inside, and the sight of his face boiled something hot and sharp inside your gut.

Leahy didn’t have any guards with him. There was a calculating look in 049’s eyes as he sized up the Site Director, perhaps weighing how plausible it would be to kill him before the guards could intervene. That’s what you were certainly doing.

But Leahy didn’t seem the least concerned. He merely stood next to the interview table, a tablet in hand as one of the guards brought in something that looked like a cloth muzzle. The guard slipped it over 049’s beak and belted it behind his head.

049 immediately sank to his knees, hunched forward as he fought to keep upright.

You rushed toward him without thinking, but your own guard held you with little difficulty, dragging you to the table and running your shackle links through a metal bar on its surface.

Were they going to begin the program right here, in front of Leahy? Force a sedated 049 to mount you like a breeding animal?

You tugged at the shackles but couldn’t get free, panic overriding common sense. Your wrists were beginning to hurt.

“What did you do to him?” you squeezed through your teeth.

Leahy watched the guards exit the room, the door shutting behind them, leaving you and 049 alone in the room with him.

“Between the layers of cloth are dried sprigs of lavender,” Leahy answered evenly. “Very potent, especially when applied directly to the senses. I’m afraid SCP-049 is helpless to do anything but listen. And listen it will.”

You glared but said nothing. It was better to put on a brave front, even if your fingers trembled within clenched fists. Leahy would be able to sense your fear like a shark searching for blood in the water.

He stared at you for a long moment, then gave what he probably thought was a pleasant smile.

“I’ll skip over the boring parts as relayed to you by Amin. I hate having to repeat myself. What you need to know is what I expect from you, and what I expect is for you to be pregnant within the next three months. I feel that’s a reasonable amount of time.”

Until that moment, you’d still held out hope there was a chance. That Dr. Puli was lying, or you were hallucinating the whole thing. But it was all horrifically, monstrously real. Hearing it from the source left no more room for denial.

“Reasonable?” you breathed out. “You’re fucking insane!”

Leahy frowned.

“Do you know how the Foundation was founded?” he asked with a tilt of his head. “Many think they know the tale, but they are mistaken. You’re the closest anyone has gotten. Do you recall what you said about SCP-914?”

“I remember.” But you didn’t know what the machine had to do with anything.

“Well, you were right. I don’t know how you figured it out, but it was constructed in the Factory. Even has a stamp of origin on the side, but it was welded over long ago. Do you know what the Factory is?”

You said nothing. He didn’t need your participation to lord over your ignorance.

“So, you sensed where 914 was from, but nothing more than that. Well, let me fill you in,” he said, proving you correct. “The Factory was a massive enterprise. Truly, it was a small town rather than a place of employ. Thousands of workers lived and toiled there decades ago. Blood literally oiled the gears, and the machines always worked more efficiently after a limb dismemberment. Deaths were a constant. Accidents, they were called, but they were sacrifices to keep the hungry machination sated. No one questioned it, or at least, no one bothered to care, because the Factory made the best products on the cheap. And not all of them came from machines.”

You listened against your will and better judgement, able to picture the place with horrifying detail as Leahy continued.

“This place of misery didn’t just create consumerist-fuel for the American public, it churned out a staggering number of anomalous objects. And the Factory didn’t just produce mechanical SCPs, it created biological ones as well. Far below the Factory were the breeding pens. Women, even young girls, chained to the walls and bred repeatedly with whatever SCPs could be found. The results were… well…”

Leahy pulled off his glasses and took out a cleaning cloth from his pocket.

“We’re fairly sure that’s how 173 was created.”

You tried not to be sick, your stomach churning and tightening into a hard ball. Leahy took his time cleaning his glasses, letting his words sink in.

“The point is, the Factory was eventually taken over by a group of anomaly hunters, and they used it for themselves. Those hunters, or at least some of them, eventually became the first O5 Council. Thus, the Foundation was born. Our roots came from the idea of using human suffering to create weapons that would safeguard the world. What I’m doing is the very spirit of the Foundation to its core.”

It was hard to argue with that after all you’d endured in this facility, but it was a cold comfort. Leahy didn’t seem especially triumphant with this knowledge. He simply glared at you.

“Do you know how fortunate you are?”

“…Excuse me?”

“With your abilities, I could have chosen any number of candidates. 096. 106. Maybe 073 or 076. Hell, if I knew how to get 682 out, I’d have the lizard take a shot.”

Anger and humiliation crept up your cheeks, and your jaw tightened enough to ache. Leahy must not care about 049 knowing of 682’s existence, because he plowed forward, his voice dropping into an unpleasant growl as he stepped closer. There was already a large height difference between you, made worse as you were forced to remain seated.

“That would be the smart thing to do. Pair you off with one of the unfuckables. After all, 049 is quite the pliant, docile subject when you apply some lavender and restraints. Any ordinary D-Class could become impregnated from that, no special powers required. Only its hands are lethal, and it’s not its hands we need, is it?”

The nauseous hit you worse than when Leahy had threatened you. You glanced at 049, barely conscious as he tried to hold himself up, eyes half-lidded behind the muzzle around his beak.

“Is that what you want?” Leahy pressed, tablet forgotten as it rested on the table, his hands braced on the edge. Too close. “For 049 to be strapped to a gurney and milked like a cow? We wouldn’t even need to have the surrogates there; we could use an automated suction device and store its sperm for later. And when we need more, we strap it down and do it all over again—”

“Stop.”

He did, but then he sat on the edge of the table, peering down at you with his hands threaded in his lap, as if he were a diligent teacher and you were his wayward pupil.

“Or perhaps it would be easier to tie you down, bent over a table, and parade through every SCP we can, just to see which ones can impregnate you the fastest.”

Chains rustled, faint and weak; 049’s unsuccessful attempt to move. Leahy gave him an unimpressed look.

“Your choice, Reid.” His gaze returned to you. “Do it the easy way, or the hard way.”

It was horrific, obscene, and you wanted to agree to the whole unsavory arrangement just to spare 049 that fate. But you held back.

“Why give me a choice at all? You can do whatever you want.”

Leahy gave a half-shrug.

“The paperwork is a lot simpler if I only have one donor instead of a dozen. And while I could have you restrained and forcibly inseminated, would you believe that I would rather… not?”

“No.”

He frowned.

“I don’t brute-force things that don’t need it. This is going to happen, whether you want it or not. You know this. I’m giving you the chance to decide how it happens.”

His whole pragmatist approach was infuriating. This wasn’t some unpleasant task he was asking you to perform, it was a monstrosity. An unthinkable nightmare. And he was acting as if he was doing you a favor by asking you to volunteer.

“Should I be thanking you?” You sneered. “Is that what you want? My gratitude?”

His expression darkened, and there was finally some real anger there.

“I’m giving you the opportunity of a lifetime. The chance to create offspring with the power to one day heal any malady—or stop dangerous anomalies with a simple touch. Not only that, it’s with a… thing that I suspect, given time, you would be inclined to fuck anyway.”

You launched upwards and headbutted him as hard as you could.

Leahy’s head snapped back, blood gushing from his nose before he clamped a hand over his face. Even though the crown of your head hurt like hell, you grinned with savage satisfaction.

The guards poured into the room. One of them shoved you down against the table and jabbed something into your neck. You yelled, tried to throw him off, but an invasive paralysis spread through your limbs.

You were unhooked from the table and dragged out the door. 049 was still kneeling on the floor, guards surrounding him, and you reached out a weak hand as your vision darkened.

Regret was immediate for the impulsive action that may have doomed you both.

Next Chapter

[akiizayoi4869]

I just got finished watching Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, and I think this might actually be up there in my favorite Dragon Ball movies. I wasn't sure how exactly I was going to feel about it at first because of the animation style, but I loved this movie. The humor and chaos was on point as always, and I never got bored watching it. My favorite moments had to be the new transformations:

I never thought that we would get to see Gohan and Piccolo get another power up, since the plots usually center around Goku and Vegeta saving the day. Speaking of which, that was actually a breath of fresh air for this movie. I love them, but sometimes it's good to let other characters have the spotlight. The last time I can remember that happening was in DBZ movie 11: Bio Broly, so I was pleasantly surprised to see the other characters getting the chance to save the world for a change. Another thing that I loved about the movie is this:

Piccolo and Pan's relationship was so cute and wholesome😭. A stark contrast to how Piccolo was with Gohan back when he was training him to fight the sayains (which makes sense since Piccolo didn't have nearly as much development as he does now). The ending where she showed him that she could finally fly was so cute. Piccolo's relationship with Gohan in this movie was another highlight that I loved. Even though Gohan has long since surpassed Piccolo, he still needs to be reminded that he needs to keep up his training. And who better to do that than the person who made him into a warrior to begin with?

Also wanted to talk about these guys:

It was nice to see them bring back the Red Ribbon Army for this movie. I always wondered if there was more of them hiding in secret somewhere. Dr. Gero actually having a grandson was a surprise. Definitely was not expecting that. Speaking of which, I love how Commander Red's son and his lackey was able to manipulate Dr. Gero's grandson with the most bs lie ever to get him to do what they wanted him to do xD. I didn't think he would actually believe it, but this is Dragon Ball after all, lol. Gamma 1 and Gamma 2 were really cool and interesting characters to introduce. I liked how they thought of themselves as the "heroes" (even though they obviously weren't) thanks to Dr. Hedo's programming, and eventually realized that they were all being lied to. When Gamma 2 died I actually felt sad, which was something else that I wasn't expecting to happen🤣. Don't really have too much to say about Cell Max. He was nothing more than the final boss that you have to defeat to win the game. I do like how they brought Cell back though, even if it wasn't actually him. I wonder what would have happened if he never got released. Would he have stayed in confinement and grown stronger like the Cell that we all know did, before he eventually broke out? Or would Dr. Hedo have done something about him?

Two of the funniest moments to me in the film would have to be when Bulma used the remaining two wishes for freaking cosmetic surgery, and Beerus having a crush on Cheelai😂😂😂. Like, I know that I shouldn't expect much from Bulma when it comes to wishes, but damn😭. And I never thought that a God of Destruction would ever have a crush on someone, lol. All in all, I absolutely loved this movie and I will definitely watch it again.

[outofcryo]

keep them in your mason jars || (closed with jemmagentofshield)

@jemmaagentofshield

They told him that they had broken the programming, that they had found and snipped all the little threads that Hydra and the Russians had stitched into his brain. And it had felt like they had plucked a bunch of seams sometimes, as though they'd split the material of his mind and left him to figure out how to put it all back together again. It wasn't a pleasant process, and it sure as hell wasn't a quick one. The therapists kept telling him it would take time, that he needed to be patient. Patient with the process, patient with himself. They had at least agreed when he'd told them he needed something to do while he was putting all that patients into practice.

Their initial assessments had cleared him to go back in the field, under strict supervision, or else trying to make a 'normal life' in an incredibly abnormal world, under strict supervision. It hadn't really felt like much of a choice when they'd given it to him. He'd picked going into the field, he'd be able to do some good in the field. At least the supervision wouldn't be hidden surveillance. He'd had enough of that in his life.

Finding a place for him had taken a bit of time.

Eventually, they'd told him they'd found a team for him. People with the right kind of experience dealing with people with enhanced abilities. They had the right kind of experience with rehabilitation, too. They had a biochemist, who was also an MD, they had an engineer, too. The fact that they also had a prison cell that could hold him helped a lot. Wouldn't take much with two operatives, a biochemist, and an engineer to wrangle him in there if they were wrong about getting all the programming out of him.

So, he'd packed up his duffel, made arrangements with his therapist to have remote sessions. His file and transfer had been sent ahead of him, so they wouldn't be surprised by his arrival at least. Getting dropped off at the air field, Bucky had looked up at the large airplane and walked over to the lowered ramp.

"I'm looking for Doctor Simmons?" Bucky ask, getting pointed to a lab space. The door had been left opened while ground crews were resupplying the plane.

He probably should have looked for Agent Coulson. In the Army he would have gone looking for his commanding officer. Getting the medical stuff done first… He was still a little uncomfortable around doctors and medical staff. They'd poked and prodded enough at him for all of their assessments, drawing blood, running tests, wanting to see and understand how the serum and cryo freezing had affected him. Probably wanted to try to reproduce it too.

Knocking lightly at the edge of the door to the lab, Bucky looked between the two women in the room. "I'm looking for Doctor Simmons?" he repeated. "The ground crew pointed me here."

"Uh. You're Sergeant James Barnes. Hi," the brunet woman said. She turned to the other woman with a very low, under her breath "wow, hot" to her companion. He heard it, though he kept a straight face. Even his handlers in Hydra hadn't really appreciated how good his hearing was. Mostly because he wasn't used for information recon. He was used to not reacting to comments people thought he wasn't going to hear. But part of him appreciated the lack of fear in those words.

[tgrailwar-zero]

Izou. Let's not kid ourselves here, you are absolutely not good for it, even if you win you are just going to go all in again to try and make it bigger. What we are getting out of this is entertainment.

IZOU: "Haah? Why're you talkin' to me like you know me, huh? Big ass smug shadow, I'll kill you."

He rattled his swords as you saw MUSASHI gently rest a hand on her own blades.

Swiftly stepping in, DURYODHANA spoke up.

DURYODHANA: "Maybe they heard tell of the brand new sellsword of Her Radiant Majesty. You've slaughtered enough Enemy Programs alone to make a name for yourself in the short period you've been summoned. Still, if your gambling skills are as well-known as your combat skills, then you better watch out. People might start taking you for a rube."

DURYODHANA: "Now that's an idea. Izou?"

IZOU: "Ah, fine. As long as you're buyin'... but get me somethin' hard. This Solar Cell booze is no joke, it can even get Servants sloshed. It's not like I need to wake up early for the Bout. Early rounds are for weeding out either people who are newbies or late."

IZOU: "What's your poison, Saber? Rich Girl?"

MUSASHI: "They got any shochu? And I'm sure the princess would probably want to take a look at whatever the wine list here is."

Vaguely offended, NERO huffed.

NERO: "...I would, but that's besides the point. I'm not a princess, despite being as dainty as one. I'm an Emperor."

After the drink situation had gotten settled and ordered, eventually the waitstaff served you.

...As one of you had taken the initiative and picked the pina colada, and the rest of the table didn't seem as familiar with your... multifaceted tastes, that was the drink you found yourself stuck with.

Honestly, you weren't sure if you could get drunk, or if alcohol would do anything. You had gotten pretty smashed via CONSTANTINE when you had him drink that pulque as a test of courage against QUETZALCOATL, but this was different.

In that case, then a sweet drink like that was probably a good call. It'd taste good, even if it didn't do anything else.

Well, it wasn't like they were asking you to chug it.

DURYODHANA: "Cheers, to new arrivals! Let's show our new friends a welcome worthy of the Megalopolis, yes?"

[kusagrasskusa]

Erron Black X Reader - “You’re gonna be a daddy”

Summery: Short little wholesome story where Erron Black comes home from a long bounty, and seeing his woman outside their little home. She looks at him and greets him in a strange way, and whenever he asks about it, he hears something he never expected to here. Read the last paragraph before getting to the story!

TW: Miscarriage

This is something that hits a little closer to home for me. Almost a year ago, I was gonna have a baby sister named Willow. I was at my boyfriend’s house and called my mom for something, but she sounded upset over the phone. When she picked me up later and I asked what it was about, she looked at me and said, “there wasn’t a heartbeat.” She was so depressed for months over it and we eventually discovered she has something called MTHFR, a blood clotting disease that results in pregnancy loss. Oh and just buy the way… My mom is going through a program to help her have one last kid, so the story has a happy ending.

In this story, Y/N has lost her children to this blood cell disease and was thought to never be able to have a family.

—————————————————————————————

The sun was bright and the unearthly birds chirped along with each other as they flew around the heated realm known as Outworld. A cute little deserted farmhouse was stationed quite a bit away from other civilians, but relatively close to the empire which Kotal Kahn resided in. A lovely pond was situated near the farm house and little gardens grew from the pond water. It was surrounded by woods, but a safe part of the forest. A lovely woman would go outside everyday to take care of the animals with her pet Outworlden cat, C/N. It was like a mainecoon and a demon had a baby, but it for the most part had the sweet maincoone personality. The woman had began to wear lovely loose white dresses lately, even in the bright and hot sun. But every single day had been the happiest day in her life ever since two months prior to when this story would take place.

But, she didn’t know this would be the happiest of even the happiest days. At least for now.

“Ooo,” she breathed out, holding onto her back as she sat down on a rock near the pond and garden for a quick break. She breathed in heavily, the morning air refreshing her skin but maybe a little too much so. She gazed over the beautiful own she built with her husband, remembering their dreams of starting a life together the way it felt it should be. Building a lovely little home and marrying there, and although it was just them at the wedding, they would later on find out they would have had another member of the family.

Her eyes gazed over the four tombstones on the other side of the pond. Y/N almost wanted to cry more for each second she looked at them, but those days would finally be behind her. She would always be a mother of those four, buried beneath the ground, and she would soon be a mother of five. Her first baby had died unexpectedly, and when she lost the third one, her husband spoke to his boss about what could possibly be wrong.

He was a blood god, god of war, and god of the sun- and the ruler of her realm. When he first laid on eyes on the girl, he felt pity for her; her gloomed face moving his heart enough to take time out of the day to help her. Each baby had died from high levels of homocysteine levels and eggs not being able to fertilize correctly- and it broke her heart more and more. Even the Kahn was upset for days after the meeting and allowed her husband to stay home for some time.

But, that was a year ago and her husband was off to complete a difficult bounty. Erron had been gone for about 3 months now, and the night before he left had been the night she would conceive her next child. She didn’t know she was pregnant until 2 months ago, and she had been seeing Kotal Kahn every single day for him to use his abilities on her and rejuvenate her. She wanted to badly to have her child- and her baby had lasted longer than any other. This one was going to survive.

C/N meowed as it chased after a bird that soared through the skies. “C/N!” The lady called out for her animal, “you’re gonna step on the flowers!” She huffed as the cat tripped over a watermelon vine- but this was an Outworld watermelon vine, so it was like tripping over a stubborn tree root.

“That cat’s gon’ get us killed one day,” a voice called out from behind her. She whipped her head around, her eyes widening at the sound of that familiar voice.

“Erron!” She called out, standing up and running into her husband’s arms, who chuckled while squeezing her under his loving grip.

“Hey there, baby doll,” he greeted, suppressing just how happy he really was to see her. Those long trips were always painful to go on, but the upside is that he gets more happy to see his girl’s beautiful face. “Y/N, baby, don’t cry,” he chuckled as he released her, grabbing her chin so she looked up at him. Tears flooded down her face more than usual, making her giggle as well.

“Haha, I told myself I wouldn’t cry this time,” she sniffled, brushing her hair out of her face. She instinctually put her hand on her stomach as the adrenaline died down which made her remember that her back was hurting. “Mmm,” she grunting as she backed up into the rock again, sitting down. Her husband followed her and sat down with her, wrapping his larger arm around her.

“Are you okay, suga’ plum?” He asked, glancing over at where she laid her hand. 3 months was still too early for a noticeable bump, but she was heavier than what she used to be if only by a little bit. Y/N sniffled, more tears pouring out as she looked at him.

“You’re gonna be a daddy,” she cried out, wrapping her arms around her husband. “This time, you’ll be holding your son in your arms happily! This one’s gonna make it!” Erron’s eyes widened as he blinked out in shock.

“I’m,” he started, chuckling, “I’m gonna be a daddy?” Y/N laughed, wiping more tears of joy while Erron wanted to hold his in.

“Yes! I already have his room made a-and-“ she stuttered while her breathe hitched. “I’ve been seeing Kotal everyday so he could rejuvenate and tell me what was going on with our boy. He’s as healthy as can be!”

That night, dinner was extra special. Along with whenever they went to bed later that night- they slept in each other’s arms that night, cuddling in their sleep. Little do they know in a few months, they wouldn’t be able to sleep that close together if they could sleep at all. Let’s just say S/N is gonna have his daddy’s fighting spirit.

Especially in his sleep when he kicks and punches his baby limps at those stupid monsters in what most kid’s would call a nightmare. To him, those nightmares are battlegrounds where nothing can escape his wrath.

[entropy-game-dev]

Phylogenesia Automatorum Post-game Devlog #4: Content & Balance

In the final stretch of development, I had finished implementing all the various systems and now it was time to make content to fill it all out!

If you haven't tried the game out yet (it has a web version now!) please do if you want to discover the different plants and their behaviours for yourself. You can also rate it here if you have an itch.io account, otherwise read on!

So at this point in development I had 4 plants I was happy with:

Conway Grass: Default/standard plant that needs a critical mass to thrive based on the Game of Life ruleset

Nullberry: A sporadic plant that has a small chance to pop out of nothingness, and disappear just as quickly

Creeping Mold: A hardy plant that can easily take over the field but generates low amounts of life/death points

Overhedge: A plant that rarely dies or propogates, but generates a fixed amount of points when or if it does.

Starting with the Overhedge was very difficult but doable with some luck, and all other 3 plants were about average difficulty. At this stage, I needed the other plants in the game, so I could see what sort of points should be generated on average (irrespective of plant).

And thus, the other plants I conceptualised were:

Crossthatch: A plant with a very limited spawn/sustain range such that it only grows in lines or diagonals.

Dynamite Tree: A plant with more "explosive" growth style compared to Conway Grass, more permissive in spawn range, but with only a chance to spawn more trees, and a high chance to die each turn.

Shrunk Violet: Supposedly a "shy" plant that spawns a bunch at simulation start, then the entire mass shrinks away, layer by layer. The middle of the clump does not die due to the high min/max sustain range.

Shocklily: A plant with similar characteristics to the Dynamite Tree that would spawn and perish unpredictably. Where this plant differed, however, is that it can randomly persist and spawn over ticks.

Paradise Bird: The second M:tG reference (the first was Creeping Mold). With the way I tuned the birds' spawn and instant death chance, you get a really nice pattern where (sometimes) you will see a flock of birds migrating across the field.

0range: The story of the 0range goes something like this: "I need an orange plant to fill out my rainbow of plants, and it needs to be a pun. Oh I know, I will replace the "O" (letter) with a "0" (number), and turn all of its stats to 0 :)".

On the first few playtests, the meta was choosing a plant with a low spawn minimum, and fishing for an upgrade that reduces the minimum spawn to 0. This in effect makes the plant like a Nullberry, allowing it to spawn on any unoccupied tiles, BUT, unlike the Nullberry, most other plants have a 100% chance to spawn. Thus, every turn, all empty cells would be filled with plants, and on the next would immediately die off, only to repeat the cycle. While this was cool, I decided that you could only get to a spawn min of 0 on a critical upgrade roll.

The second problem was that the the shrinking violets were incredibly oppressive late game. In the early game they wouldn't generate enough life/death points to be worth choosing as a starter, but whenever you had an established field, they would choke the life out of all the cells except the very border, and would not leave. Lucinius and I eventually determined that the violets needed to die off randomly, and I also reduced their sustain max from 8 to 7, such that a completely surrounded violet would die off. They are still, by far, the most unbalanced plant, but they aren't run ending now at least.

The third problem was that some plants were just way too weak and variable in how they generate points. Lucinius had the great idea of giving players 5 free restarts (instead of 1 like I had originally programmed), and this not only served to smooth out early-game point gain but also give me a metric by which I was going to balance the game!

Within 5 runs, all un-upgraded plants should be able to generate AT LEAST 5 death points (enough for the first plant upgrade), and at most 14 death points (enough for the first two plant upgrades. Of course, these were just rough guidelines on average, and some plants will be stronger starters than others. However, as I have set it to ensure Conway Grass always appears on the starter plant roll (and the 0range never appears), one can always have a playable game.

It was still quite easy to get to a state where the points generation vastly outpaced the costs of the upgrades, but this was a more fundamental issue that, if I tried to address it by tweaking numbers, would result in an absolutely brutal early game that would be no fun to play, and promote only a single type of strategy. I'd prefer the game to be more lenient, as it lets people try out different starter plants, and different sorts of builds, without worrying too much about their turn count.

I did end up adding way more stats to the end screen so that if people wanted to compete for lowest amount of runs/mutations, or highest points they could do so, without making the game unfun for those (basically everyone) who wanted to play casually!

And that's it for the last part of the post-game devlog, thank you so much for reading (and for playing)! Stay tuned for the post-mortem! I have lots I want to discuss regarding what went right, what went wrong, and future directions for the game!

[tamelee]

hi tamelee!

I'm here to ask for a little bit of advice if that's okay (: about a month ago I bought a Wacom drawing pad so I could start experimenting with digital art. artists like you here on tumblr have really inspired me to start making art. but I feel kinda.. lost. I've been mostly drawing naruto manga caps and I'm getting better but I guess I don't know where to go from here. coloring and shading scares me lol. I'm using clip studio paint and it's just a little.. intimidating. I feel discouraged, like I won't be able to do it. how did you do it tamelee? did you watch a lot of tutorials, or did you experiment until you figured things out? any advice you'd have for a beginner artist I'd really appreciate.

thank you veryvery much for your time ^^

Hi Nonee! 🧡 Sure!

Oh I think that’s a very good place to start. As well as drawing subjects you like ^^! Hmm, tbh I’ve just experimented a lot, but I don’t think my way of having done things was the most efficient. You might want to follow tutorials step by step? You can try coloring only with flat colors until you feel a bit more confident with that as well as cell-shading (toon-shading/non-realistic, like in anime) instead of rendering further as that can all be confusing at first. I personally never truly understood shading until I studied cell-shading and made my art a lot more readable. A lot of Anime uses this; 

You see how there is a base color, a darker color for shadows and highlights? (Sometimes not even highlights.) 

When you start to study it from existing work you’ll start to notice things like color always being in the same area of saturation and when you suddenly have a color that is way more saturated than the other it can look off. (See example.) But this is a guideline, not a rule. In your own art you can especially use saturation and brightness to help aid you to direct a viewer's focus and even tell a story.

I LOVE ‘How to train you dragon’ and ‘Kung Fu Panda’ for this because their coloring is so inspiring and if you truly want to learn from professionals... well those are the type of media to look for of course! I have an entire folder to inspire me just based on those.

Do you see how calculated those color combo’s are?!?! Here you see both analogous and complementary schemes and it is actually through looking at the things I like that I learned it >< The orangey colors stand out and are bright which helps you to focus on that area whereas the complimentary scheme is used to bring characters together.

If drawing Manga-caps is something you love to do, then maybe for coloring you can study screen-caps from Anime or even other animated films. I’d recommend to take it step by step, though I haven’t really applied it myself, from the video’s I’ve seen and artists I’ve followed it is always advised to have an art-goal that you can work toward. Maybe you first want to focus on lineart and then laying down a base color where the colors are harmonious and next would be cell-shading maybe and then you can start adding another light-source etc- eventually you can decide to create more depth or practice with monochromatic coloring, maybe even greyscale to learn values. But right away that can all sound a bit intimidating doesn't it? Find things that you like and then maybe you can open them in your program and just study. Find a brush you like, put on some music or a show on the background and for a moment play around with it without needing to create a finished piece. This is also how I learned how things like adjustment layers work or what all the different kinds of tools do. I have to agree with you, CSP is intimidating for me as well >< so this is kinda how I approach it as there are so many add-ons and additions within it but I try to only learn what I need for that moment so I don't overwhelm myself.  I definitely try to find video’s that can help me with creating Manga though! ^^ There are plenty!  It'll get easier eventually, you'll learn the program and you start to recognize placements for shadows and you will get a feel for the coloring- no worries 💪 Learning something new will always stay intimidating, every time I open up a new document I feel it too. It's not easy at all, but you kinda have to allow yourself to experiment and even make mistakes because practice is never perfect. I have some beginner tips written here- I hope any of this is somewhat helpful 🌷🫶

[den-ai-d]

Ooof...a decade on this site eh?

Oh no, story time incoming!

10 years and yeah, so much has happened already. Originally, I made this blog back when I was in high school as a place to post my drawings; back then, it was all just pencil drawings on paper. Looking at them now...well it was obvious I still had a long way ahead of me LOL. And to think some people assume that everyone skilled enough in art must have had some innate talent for it. CLEARLY, they don't know what they're talking about because I was terrible at it early on!

But I mean, I didn't really think that of my art, did I?

No. In fact, I'm pretty sure that kid me was very much impressed with his own works. See, that child had a very bloated ego and a high opinion of himself. You should ask his poor friends; I'm sure they'd agree that the bugger could take a few lessons on humility with how he'd be sharing all of his silly sketches to them and pontificating on and on about how nice he thinks they are. Yeah, I was an insufferable kid.

But I do think that overinflated ego of mine turned out beneficial for my growth as an artist because without it—without my love for my own art—I wouldn't have stuck to it.

And stuck to it I did.

Went to college soon after that and took a program majoring in biology. Not much of a surprising choice since I've always liked the sciences and figured it would later on give way to a stable career; funnily enough, while I was very passionate about making art, I never thought it would be a profitable source of income. But that didn't mean I'd stop doing it on my free time though! Actually, this was when I got myself my first tablet! And what better way to start my digital drawing experience than to buy a FUCKING EXPENSIVE cintiq!!! With the extra motivation coming from the monetary pressure of such a purchase, you bet your ass I used the hell out of that thing. I was so intent on making use of it that—would you look at that—I still use it to this day! (Wow, they really made those old wacom tablets to last, didn't they?)

Obviously, college work ended up taking a lot of my time so I couldn't really draw as much as I did a few years ago. There were even times when I could only make one painting throughout a whole month; a far cry to my previous output. But even so, I never wavered in thinking that making art—being an artist—was something that was part of my identity; it was something that I always will come back to, no matter how much busy I got contending with course work.

And speaking of which, fuck that! Got my first honest-to-goodness mental breakdown because of all the studying I was doing at one point. See, I'm the type of student that likes getting good grades because BIG NUMBERS so I made it a point to be studious. To the point of insanity, apparently.

Anyway, I got better eventually and it all turned out nice. Even snagged all the awards I could've gotten for my thesis by the end of it! Yes, I am bragging. I deserve it, thank you very much! (For anyone curious, it was a study about plant pigments and using them in solar cells).

After that debacle, I found myself whisked into Adulthood which meant I finally had to find a job. Guess I was lucky since I didn't really have much of a hard experience searching for one. Got accepted into a cosmetics company for a lab position. Hmm, in hindsight, I think they just wanted a fresh graduate who wouldn't demand a high salary and that was me so I got in pretty easily. And honestly, the work was AWESOME. My job ended up with me coming up with formulas for new products. I got to make lotions, shampoos, soaps (ugh, I hated that one), perfumes, toners, balms, scented candles, and—oddly enough that one time—glue! It was a wonderful experience for me since it blended my interest in science and art with how it required me to think of creative ways of applying technical solutions in order to make products that needed to look, feel, smell, and perform a certain way.

As a bonus, I even got to make stuff for myself! I was particularly fond of making creams with menthol. The soothing chill on the skin is just so nice!

It wasn't all good though. I mean the menthol was fine and dandy, I assure you, but even if I was enjoying myself with the work, it just so happens that it just wasn't giving me enough money to provide for the family. Also, there was that one time I splashed chili oil on my eye. A very eye-opening and spicy turn of events to be sure.

With the bills stressing the hell out of me, I then thought to myself: if only I had a marketable skill that I could use in my off time as a way of engaging with a hobby whilst earning money.

Yup, I started my singing career!

LOL no. I opened art commissions for the first time!

It was a very scary experience, mind you. I don't consider myself a social butterfly and the prospect of talking with other people in a transactional context was a big reason why I haven't even considered doing it all this time. Turns out being poor and running out of money outweighed such concerns. Also, my keeping up with art and posting them online all these years seemed to have payed off well; my twitter having then recently crossed over a thousand followers which meant I had a decent pool of potential clients!

And so I bumbled through my first few commissions trying to appear professional and all put together in front of my clients while consistently shitting myself on the inside. Just like all well-functioning adults!

It was October last year when I started. I figured that I wouldn't have much in way of commissioners—what with being new to the business—and that was fine since I didn't have much time to put on them anyways since I did still had to go to work on my day job. What mattered was that it gave me enough of a financial buffer so that I didn't have to worry too much about going under.

This continued to the turn of the year where I was able to juggle both my job and doing commission without much of a hassle. In fact, I noticed that people were actually really interested in getting commissions from me. So much that at one point...I actually made more money in a month than what I would've with my monthly salary! At that point, it was so over! Like, I originally was planning to at least observe how things went within this year and then decide after if I would just keep it as a side gig or go full-time with art. Turns out I was much more impulsive than I expected.

It was on a bright sunny February morning (no cinematic storm clouds in sight, unfortunately) that I decided on a lark to approach my boss at work and tell them that yup, no joke, I was gonna be leaving. I handed my resignation letter a few days later.

I would've liked to say that it was a tearful goodbye with my cherished co-workers whom I've spent the last five years of my life with but...COME ON, I barely talked with those people! Instead, it was a lukewarm farewell between people who just happened to work in proximity to each other. Eh, like I said, I wasn't much of a social butterfly and no one really made an effort to get to know me so oh well. MOVING ON!

Actually, I couldn't just up and leave because there are laws around these kinds of things so I worked there for another month but all that was a blur. Soon enough, I was officially unemployed!

So like I mentioned earlier, I full on did not expect doing art as something that would bring in much in way of income. My parents too thought the same. They said that yeah, art was a good hobby but as job? Let's be serious here! Well, turns out we were wrong all this time. With me fully dedicated to commission work, I was able to take on a larger volume of clients. Not as many as some of you go for (I'm looking at you, people who take ten or more commissions per batch, you monsters!) but enough that I was actually making a stable living! And yeah, WAY more than my now previous job. What an absolute shock to everyone involved; me most of all.

Now it's almost the end of the year, my plans having all but shattered into tiny pieces. Tiny pieces that scatter with the wind as I look back on the past ten years that has led me to where I am today. A lot of time has passed. I graduated high school, college, then got a job. Then graduated from that too. Certain people have come and gone. Some more permanent than others. I've lost friends and made new ones. Tumblr got fucked. Twitter got fucked. The world stopped for two years. For some, it's still stuck in those two years. I made glue in a lab. Almost lost an eye in a lab. I bought chips with my very own money for the first time. I loved people. Hated them too. Things have happened. Things have changed.

I certainly am very different from that kid who was having troubles fitting in with others from his class, what with being bullied and suffering through a particularly angsty teenage (oh my god I was CRINGE). A kid who often sought drawing as an escape to all of those terrible things out of his control.

I guess I'm happy I can still relate to that kid.

[deusvervewrites]

Oracle Cell: so, since you have teased that AFO is the big bad of the first arc/equivalent to the first game, how does that eventually come to a head?

Also, does Midoriya still get to interact with his family and the Bakugous? I would say friends, but he didn't really have any before, and he wouldn’t really get any while in the program except perhaps the other members of the special unit.

Midoriya would still get to interact with other people, especially other members of Fenrir outside of the special unit. There's nothing stopping him from spending his downtime between missions with friends and family.

As for AFO, he would eventually mutate himself into a giant Aragami monster thing, probably with his human body still present there somewhere, with the goal of psionically controlling all Aragami into an army. Eri wouldn't be affected thanks to her humanoid nature and her bonds with Midoriya and the others, but it would put quite the damper on Fenrir's activities.