#Boom crisis averted

[hiimcanadia]

I usually tell ppl that I don't really get dysphoric anymore but in reality it's just that I usually only get dysphoric over the dumbest shit these days. Like I can put on a dress with padded cups and a full face of makeup and have no issues but a few minutes ago I got really upset that my coughing sounded to feminine. Bestie what the fuck does that mean

[skyburger]

very funny to me that kaz is the one to say "they played us like a damn fiddle" considering the plot of every metal gear game is the protagonist getting played like a damn fiddle way more than little old kaz EVER did

[nnnneeev]

i mean, you know maybe they should've made it a lil bit nicer tho? right? ( low key i waited for the other story to show the apology for being harsh lol) i have a feeling that simeon did it for the sake of the trial 😣

oh definitely! him coming to HoL with simeon acting like we didn't break his hear earlier tells me that he already did the explaining for us (tho that doesnt change the fact that we hurt his feelings 😞)

[artzychic27]

Hi, I'm the anonymous who suggested the AU of Favoritism, and I had another idea for a while in my head and season 5 and you fixed it even more, what if Marc and Zoe were Ladybug and Chat Noir, Zoe with the miracle cat and Marc with the ladybug …. in this AU they would already be in school at the beginning of the year, they would not be akuma, and I think they would not make the same mistakes as the original duo (half of Paris' problems with akuma is because of the love square, and them not being in love would save a lot of headache), what do you think?

Did someone fancy Fancy Heroes au?! Let’s just pretend you did

Keep in mind, there’s gonna be some out of order episodes, so… Yeah, it’s an au. Not everything’s gonna match up, you guys

It’s Zoé’s first day at DuPont… And she’s terrified. Cue dramatic inner monologue giving a vague hint on what went down back at her old school and explains her slight trust issues and why she left New York

Fortunately, she’s got her half sister (Who’s not a complete mythic bitch because they’ve been DMing each other ever since Chloé took a dna test when she was thirteen) to show her around and occasionally translate if needed

While they walk to school, Zoé runs into an old Asian man about to get run over by a car, and quickly pulls him out of the way

After checking up on him, they leave, and fail to notice his hand slipping into their backpack

Zoé meets her classmates and keeps her guard up when they try to converse with her

Marc who was assigned as Zoé’s guide, meets up with her, and while they’re both sort of introverts, Zoé attempts and succeeds in getting a few words out of him, and even learns about his crush on a certain someone when she catches him eyeing a redheaded guy walking past their classroom

The first day of school is pretty normal. Mme. Mendeleive welcomes Zoé, goes over the lesson plan, the students go to study hall, and Cosette saves Zoé from tripping over some asshole’s leg and embarrassing herself on her first day

Cue lesbian crush becuase this pretty girl so much prettier up close, and is holding their hand!

While Zoé is busy chatting them up, trying not to be a disaster, Stoneheart suddenly appears and starts destroying everything on sight

Ismael: Nope! Nope! Nope, nope, nope, nope! *Speedwalks away* I’m out! Peace be with y’all!

The students evacuate and head home while Stoneheart hunts for Kim, and that’s where Zoé finds the box in her bag. And in them she finds a ring, and… A tiny cat

Introductions go as canon, with Plagg explaining her new role, talking about the misuse of the Butterfly miraculous, asking for cheese, and of course… She’s freaking out becuase she’s a teenager with the world on her shoulders!

But after a much needed confidence boost, he transforms into Apex Predator, and their outfit is just so distinguished lesbian punk

They head out to track down Stoneheart, and meet another hero named Mariquita. They communicate with each other as to what their power sets are, helping them to come up with a plan, easily turn Stoneheart back into Ivan, and purify the Akuma

Crisis. Averted. Boom.

Oh, but the cops try to arrest Ivan until Apex Predator fucking lays into them and gives them all a verbal lashing

Apex Predator: He’s clearly disoriented and has no idea what just happened! He was possessed by some maniac who preyed on his emotions! That’s the guy you should be arresting! So, leave this sort of work to us until you can get your shit together!

Mariquita: If I weren’t gay, I’d be all over you.

Apex Predator: Yo, same!

The next day, Apex Predator and Mariquita are all anyone can talk about, and Zoé is trying so hard not to blush when girls call her hero persona hot

She notices that Ivan isn’t around and makes a note to ask Mariquita to help her make a public statement when she hears people still blaming Ivan for something that was not his fault

And she may not have to wait long becuase another Akuma appears! And it’s Stoneheart again, becuase some assholes just wanna blame him

This time, Mariquita slaps a few police officers across the face with his glove for shooting at Stoneheart while he has captives, becuase that’s dangerous as hell!

Anyway, they save Ivan, Myléne, and Chloé, Miraculous Ladybug, all is well… Then Hawkmoth makes his appearance and blames them for the destruction

Apex Predator: Fuck you, you human condom!

Mariquita: At least we’re not preying on the emotions of hormonal teenagers, you creep!

Apex Predator: CREEP!

They’re turned into memes instantly

Apex Predator and Mariquita are an impressive team- No romance gets in the way, they communicate, and Mariquita doesn’t throw Apex Predator into danger without warning

Zoé and Marc get pretty close as friends, and this makes Marc friends with Chloé by association and the enemy of one Marinette Dupain-Cheng (Who despises anyone who’s friends with Chloé because of a childhood grudge)

One day during another Akuma… Let’s say Mime, Mariquita protects Nathaniel from getting hit by the invisible arrows (Cue Nath’s celebrity crush)

When the Akuma’s all taken care of, Mariquita and Apex Predator head off to transform back, but unknowingly go in the same directions and transform right next to each

Zoé: MARC?!

Marc: ZOÉ?!

Marc/Zoé: …

Zoé: … Wanna… Catch a movie, sit in comfortable silence and then talk when it’s over?

Marc: Yeah, alright.

I take you back a few weeks ago to the start of the school year!

Marc is a shy boy who prefers to keep his face in books, when all of a sudden!… He has to show the new student around and bear social interaction!

He dreads the walk to school, but is actually relieved he left when he did, because there is just this old man reaching for his cane, and no one is helping him. Because he’s not an asshole, Marc helps him up and heads to school, not noticing the extra weight in his bag

Stoneheart happens, he meets Tikki, freaks out, and to the present!

After getting some explaining out of the way, Marc and Zoé figure they can make this work. Besides, it’s not like the world will end if they know each other’s identities… Yeah, no it won’t… They’re fine

Anyway, school’s normal, no akumas in about two weeks now, Nathaniel’s drawing Mariquita, Marc notices and blushes because a pretty artist is drawing his hero self

Of course, Zoé has to tease him, and in retaliation, he teases her about her crush on Cosette

Zoé: It’s funny how we’re both gay punks in love with short artistic bisexuals.

Marc: Life is odd that way.

Let’s see… Oh, on the weekend, during the fencing team’s practice, and during the episode, Copycat, Lacey, a friend and classmate of Marc and Zoé spies Marinette sneaking into the locker room and follows her

There, she spies Marinette breaking into Adrien’s locker and swiping his phone

She snaps a picture of this, becuase this is highly disturbing!

Then on Monday~

Ismael: Whoa! That’s creepy!

Denise: And highly disturbing.

Simon: Amazing video quality, but yeah, I agree with Ismael and Denise.

Reshma: I have always had my suspicions about her. I’ve seen the way she’s stared at Adrien, but I assumed it was an innocent crush.

Aurore: I saw her drool over him. It was gross.

Cosette: So… What shall we do with this video?

Jean: Blackmail!

Denise: Jean!

Jean: I want free clothes.

Aurore: Okay, but let’s hold off on showing that video. Technically, Lacey broke a law.

Lacey: She broke it first.

Aurore: True, but let’s go through all the right channels, and get this bitch red handed.

Mireille: That’s my girl.

So, on top of superhero work, Zoé and Marc are working up the nerve to ask their crushes out, doing schoolwork, and exposing Marinette’s steadily growing list of felonies because her behavior is just becoming disturbing

When Lila arrives, the Science Kids can already tell she’s lying, but figure she’s only trying to fit in. It’s Marinette who’s got the real problem with her

Marinette: You all know she’s lying?!

Cosette: Could you not scream in my fucking ear? Yes, we know she’s lying, and we don’t care. Why? Becuase this does not concern us. She’s not in our class, and she’s just telling us about her “connections.”

Simon: Yeah, and if your friends believe everything she’s saying, I fear the day they come across a cult leader, but so far, Lila’s just telling tales of an extravagant life. No need to bite our heads off.

Marinette: B-but she-

Mireille: Has a crush on Adrien?… She’s become infatuated with the object of your obsession? Hm?… Yes?… I have hit the nail?… She’s somehow stolen the boy you cannot speak three words to?… Has she?… Yes?

Marinette: I didn’t not come here to be mocked-

Marc: What did you expect, then?

Marinette: Oh, you and Zoé are probably laughing with Chloé all about Lila humiliating me!

Zoé: No, just about how tacky glitter is. Oh, and Chloé doesn’t believe her, either. I laid down some facts.

Marinette: … UGH! *Storms off*

Zoé: You’re welcome! Can you believe that girl?

Denise: Uh, guys? She’s following Lila.

Lacey: She’s gonna murder her! I knew someone from this shit hole would turn out to be a murderer!

Ismael: We gotta stop her!… After lunch.

Mariquita and Apex Predator battle Volpina, and learn from an Akuma with no filter just how she got Akumatized

Mariquita: Why would you pretend to be a superhero, first of all and then go telling some random guy? That’s dangerous with Hawkmoth going around.

Apex Predator: Second, Marinette was in the wrong for how she reacted.

Volpina: That’s not all! She followed me to the park!

Apex Predator: … If you give up your Akuma, you can help some… associates with a sting operation to get Marinette of your back.

Volpina: DEAL! *Breaks her necklace*

So Lila’s not the antagonist, but Marinette still hates her even though she stopped lying… About certain things

She apologizes to the class for lying, and they (Except Marinette) allow themselves to give her a second chance

Really, this is all so Lila can be a spy for the Girl Squad’s Adrinette plans and report back to the Science Kids, and then use her powers of manipulation to slowly get in the girls heads on how Marinette’s behavior is disturbing and quite frankly, toxic. It doesn’t take long to bring Alix over to her side

Hmm… What else?… Oh, yeah, remember when Lila tossed the Grimoire in the trash? Well, Marinette found it and discovered a little something about the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. With the Wish, she can make Adrien all her’s!

She just has to get Akumatized and win

So, anytime there’s an Akuma near her, she makes a grab for it, but is real discreet about it and doesn’t go for one every day

Nothing can go wrong!

… Then Jean catches her reaching for an Akuma one day in Season 3. Fortunately, it got to Ikari Gozen first.

Reshma: This keeps getting better. Add it to the crimes list.

Simon: *Typing on his laptop* ‘Grabbing Akumas’. Okay, we’ve got breaking and entering, stealing, stalking, putting up an illegal ‘no parking’ sign, reading people’s private letters-

Lacey: Uh, guys? I caught Marinette making out with a wax statue of Adrien and then taking a strand of its hair… Then it turned out to be the real Adrien, and now I am going to have nightmares.

Simon: … I’ll add that to the ‘Disturbing Behavior’ list.

Mariquita and Apex Predator make sure to keep a nice close eye on Marinette from now on, but don’t account for her intentionally upsetting people so she can take their Akumas and look like the hero for keeping innocent people from getting Akumatized

Her latest victim? Nathaniel, already self conscious about being socially invisible and anxious after his classmates unintentionally left him behind during five Akuma attacks. She puts it in his head that it’s survival of the fittest and he’d just slow his friends down and put everyone in danger because he can’t keep up

Nathaniel: What the fuck?

Marinette: Or, and this is just a theory… Maybe it’s just that, they never liked you in the first place? Come on, you’re quiet, and it freaks people out. Sure, Juleka’s quiet, too, but Rose helps balance her out, you know, Nath?… Nath?

Nathaniel: …

Marinette: Yeah, good talk. *Leaves, but keeps an eye out for akumas*

Cue Akuma, but the next day, much to Marinette’s annoyance. Nathaniel is turned into Ultraviolet, an Akuma who can make himself invisible, and causes all sorts of chaos in his classroom- Flipping desks, scratching the chalkboard, breaking windows, and punching holes in the wall

When Alix realizes that the Akuma is Nathaniel, the students try to talk him down, but he refuses to listen and accuses them all of never caring about him, making them wonder where he got that idea from

Since they can’t just separate themselves from the group to go transform, Marc and Zoé attempt to talk to him and successfully assure him that his classmates do care about him

Doing so calms him down and allows Ultraviolet to reject the Akuma on his own while Tikki does the Miracle Cure

The first thing Nathaniel sees when he regains consciousness is a pretty boy looking concerned over him

When Alix goes to ask how he got Akumatized and where he got the idea that none of them cared about him, Nathaniel shuts down when he notices Marinette out of the corner of his eye

… Let’s skip

Okay, Marc and Nathaniel are slowly building their relationship, Cosette got tired of waiting an asked Zoé out since he’s obviously into them, and their list of Marinette’s crimes is slowly getting longer. Soon, they’ll turn it into the police and have the conduct an investigation. Oh, and they call new holders to help with Akumas (The Science Kids)

Marinette’s classmates, meanwhile, are becoming wary of her when they realize her “cute school girl crush” on Adrien is more of an obsession after Lila brings up the creepiness of the schedule

It’s late at night when suddenly, Marc and Zoé face their worst nightmares- Rejection, and Audrey

When they escape from their respective fears and run outside, they discover that this is the work of an Akuma, who just so happens to be Marc’s little brother!

To combat the nightmares being brought to life, they call in Jean to use the Pig Miraculous

Hamlet during his debut:

(I just wanted an excuse to use this gif, now let’s get back to the story)

Marinette is becoming more frantic with each passing day. Adrien still isn’t hers’, her friends aren’t doing anything to help her with her plans, there are rumors going around that she caused Nathaniel to get akumatized because someone overheard their conversation, and the Science Kids have been spreading rumors around that she supposedly committed several crimes! Fortunately for her, Alya is sticking around (Only to keep her grounded)

When Alya tells her that maybe it’s time to move on, Marinette becomes angry and yells at her to leave

While Marinette’s alone, an Akuma makes its way into her room, and she grabs it. She tells Hawkmoth (Yeah, he’s Hawkmoth because I ain’t calling him Shadow Bitch) what powers she wants, and cue Princess Justice

Her power allows her to bring back every Akuma Hawkmoth’s ever made, and they’re all under her control, and by extension, Hawkmoth’s. Only he won’t get tired from having so many Akumas active, so that’s a win for him

A swarm of Akumas invades Paris and brings back many of the past Akumas. And while they’re spreading chaos, she’s hunting down the Science Kids and by extension, Chloé, Lila, Nathaniel, and Adrien

The Science Kids take refuge in a seemingly normal massage shop and watch live footage of the Akumapocalypse on their phones

Ismael: This is how we all die. I-I always thought I’d die long after I turn sixty, or something!

Cosette: That crazy bitch is gonna kill us all. We are fucking dead. So, I suggest we all pray for the cool hand of death to take us before she does!

Zoé: Babe, that’s dark.

Cosette: Because I’m scared as hell right now! She’s got a big ass sword, and I saw her pierce it through someone’s chest!

Master Fu: Can you all keep it down?

Science Kids: …

Jean: … Are we all seeing the same short Asian man?

Marc and Zoé realize they have no choice but to reveal themselves as Mariquita and Apex Predator.

Mireille: Knew it.

And Master Fu starts handing out the Miraculous for each of them to use. Jean gets the Pig, Denise gets the Turtle, Ismael gets the Snake, Reshma gets the Bee, Mireille gets the Mouse, Simon gets the Horse, Aurore gets the Rabbit, Cosette gets the Dragon, and Lacey gets the Fox

Their mission? Rip that Akuma from Princess Justice’s cold, dead hands!

Leonardo traps multiple Akumas in a massive Shell-ter, Lemon Bee freezes Dark Cupid so he can’t fire any arrows, Wyvern gathers up some lingering akumas using Wind Dragon, Bronco teleports those Princess Justice hasn’t slaughtered to safety, Minnie clones herself to break multiple Akuma-infected objects, Foxtrot distracts the Akumas with illusions of herself and the other heroes, and King Cobra stops many… Many horrible incidents

While battling some Akumas, Mariquita gets struck across the face by an unseen force and realizes that it’s Ultraviolet. He attempts to talk him out of it, but that only makes him angrier, so Mariquita says something to him that only Marc knows, momentarily distracting Ultraviolet enough for him to de-akumatize him

Nathaniel is just staring at him before Mariquita carries him bridal style to somewhere safe

Meanwhile, Princess Justice has found and kidnapped Adrien. Lapin’s not letting that happen, and goes back in time to whack Princess Justice over the head before yelling at her past self to get Adrien to safety and then leaving

Princess Justice is seething, and sends out more Akumas to akumatize more people while she goes to hunt down all those who betrayed her and put her sword to use

Eventually, Mariquita and Apex Predator corner her and give everything they’ve got against her attacks. However, when it looks like she’s about to win and cut their heads off, Hamlet swoops in and uses Gift on her. While she’s distracted by an image of Adrien being her devoted husband and having three planned kids, Apex Predator cataclysms her sword, and Mariquita purifies the Akuma, finally ending the madness

King Cobra: We lived, fuckers!

Lemon Bee: Oh, to hell with it. *Kisses Foxtrot*

Foxtrot: … Damn.

And while they’re celebrating, the police arrest Marinette because an unnamed someone emailed them a long list of her crimes, which include intentionally trying to get people Akumatized so she could take their Akumas

After Marinette is found guilty in a court of law, it’s a nice cozy jail cell countries away for her

Meanwhile~

Cosette: So… What now?

Marc: I guess we keep looking for Hawkmoth. I hear he’s got a new partner, now, and… Zoé and I could use more teammates if you-

Jean: Yes! For Daizzi and the outfit alone!

Cosette: Same, honestly.

Mireille: Is this happening? Are we doing this?

Zoé: We’re creating a superhero team! Fuck Fu’s shitty rules! And I’m gonna tell you guys so many fucking secrets about the Miraculous that Marc wasn’t allowed to tell me!

Marc: But then I told her! Fuck rules!

All I’ve got at the moment, but how am I just turning your prompts into pure Marinette Salt? Gimme another one, let’s see what else I can do

[thoughtlessarse]

Global emissions of methane, a powerful planet-heating gas, are “rising rapidly” at the fastest rate in decades, requiring immediate action to help avert a dangerous escalation in the climate crisis, a new study has warned. Methane emissions are responsible for half of the global heating already experienced, have been climbing significantly since around 2006 and will continue to grow throughout the rest of the 2020s unless new steps are taken to curb this pollution, concludes the new paper. The research is authored by more than a dozen scientists from around the world and published on Tuesday. While the world “quite rightly” has focused on carbon dioxide as the primary driver of rising global temperatures, states the paper published in Frontiers in Science, little has been done to address methane, despite it having 80 times the warming power of CO2 in the first 20 years after it reaches the atmosphere. “The growth rate of methane is accelerating, which is worrisome,” said Drew Shindell, a climate scientist at Duke University and lead author of the study. “It was quite flat until around 20 years ago and just in the last few years we’ve had this huge dump of methane. It’s made the job of tackling anthropogenic warming all the more challenging.” So far in the 2020s, global methane emissions have typically been about 30m tons higher each year than during last decade, with annual records in methane emissions broken in 2021 and again in 2022. While there is no single clear reason for this, scientists point to a number of factors. Methane comes from the drilling and processing of oil, gas and coal, with a boom in fracking causing a rash of new gas projects this century. The gas is also emitted from livestock, primarily through the burps of cows, and increased animal agriculture, as well as to a lesser degree expanding rice production, has contributed. Meanwhile, rising global heat is causing the faster decomposition of organic matter in wetlands, thereby releasing more methane.

continue reading

That last, i.e. methane from wetlands, is a feedback loop. The warmer it gets, the more methane is produced, the warmer it gets. And we should not forget the methane hydrate in the oceans which are becoming unstable, thanks to warming oceans whgich will lead to even more methane in the atmosphere.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

ari help me i binged intrinsic warmth last night and now i hate gojo HOW DO I RECOVER FROM THIS BC I STILL HABE TO WRITE MY CHRISTMAS FOJO FIC BUT I DESPISE HIS GUTS RN

LMAOOO i had to google intrinsic warmth to know what it is ….. its on on my tbr list but now im thinking i might just. Not PHSHDHF

I SUPER GET U THOUGHHH im v easily affected by fics too 😭😭 …. for me it goes away if i just block everything out and go back to the source material :’3 one time i read gojo fic where he was toxic so i just binged jjk s1 and went ”he would NOT say that” and BOOM existensial crisis averted <3

but riko … pls tell me abt the fic ….. what made u hate him im so curious

[erwinsarmrest]

haven’t read the manga so idk if there’s a reason that they don’t but jjk AU where after kenjaku possesses getos body nanako and mimiko just leave and go to gojo like “our dad is possessed uh oh. we thought maybe he just tricked you and faked his death but that thing is NOT our dad come help pls” and boom crisis averted AND accidental daughter acquisition pt. 2 for the girls everyone wins

[mamuzzy]

From your angst prompt list I'd like to ask for Fives x Deadshot! <3

With either:

"I'm the only one who gets to decide if someone deserves me, and I can confidently say you are that someone who does"

or:

"You're right, I do deserve better"

Depending on how much angst you wanna put into it 😈

Oooooooh boy. Oooooh boy. You really gave me a challenge here @ithillia. But you also made me write the first debut of my babyblorbo in a fanfiction, you can't imagine how happy I am that I could finaly made it happen <3 It took a time while I figured it out how I integrate the lines into the fic without sounding OOC or off but I think I'm satisfied with the outcome. I hope you will like it too <3 PREPARE FOR HEARTBREAK!!! So in the end I went with

"I'm the only one who gets to decide if someone deserves me, and I can confidently say you are that someone who does"

Summary: Captain Rex had enough with Deadshot's digging into the past and decided it's time to have a conversation neither of them wished to have. Word count: 2446 Rating: Mature, no explicit content, characters swear. Talking about a dead person and grief. Characters: ARC Trooper Deadshot, Captain Rex, ARC Trooper Fives Relationship: FivesShots (cloneship) Warning: Splitting. The characters are emotionally conspitated and have mentalhealth problems. NO BETA. Additional tags/tropes: Fives is Rex's adopted son, Fives and Shots is in established relationship, clones speak mando'a (just a little), Deadshot is a little shit. Amnesia due to recondition. AND ANGST. LOTS OF ANGST.

Alright. Here we go. :)))))

“Wanted to speak with me, sir?” asked Deadshot, and since he wasn’t given a permission to sit down, he stood before the Rex’s desk. For his surprise, he was offered a seat.

“Sit” said Rex without looking up from the paperwork.

Deadshot hesitated a bit, he wasn’t comfortable about sitting down to the sligthest but in the end, obliged.The flickering booming of the lights irritated Deadshot just as the silence they had between them, and he couldn’t be sure why he was called the first place. He watched as the captain signed the last datapad, putting away on the top of the organized pile at the right side of the anyway-pristine clean desk. Rex then looked up, straight into his eyes. Dark browns started to squint after the first few second, but in the end - as always -, Rex averted his gaze, cupped his face in one hand until only the furrowed wrinkles were visibe on his forehead which made him look so old, Deadshot almost almost felt sorry for him. Almost. By now everything was clear for Deadshot why was Rex was so hostile with him before but the sweet taste satisfaction and victory killed any compassion he had left for the captain.

“I want you to stop” Rex finaly spoken up, weariness in his tone.

“Sir?” Deadshot scoured the captain for messages wasn’t spoken out loud but he probably should have known without telling.

“This existential crisis of yours.” Oh.

“I have a lot going on, sir, you have to be more specific than that.”

This made Rex come out from hiding, expression exasperated, those dark eyebrows curled disapprovingly. “Don’t be a smartass with me.”

“Sorry, sir.”

Rex leaned in his chairs, hands now rested on the desk, fingers tied together and looked at him once more. And Deadshot stared back with his usual skeptical look on his face, ambery eyes ever-judgeful. He started to notice some patterns when the captain was able to maintaining eye-contact with him, irises shifted toward the left side of the eye, probably have found a spot to stare at instead of him. His ears probably.

“You got your answers now.”

Rex had not ask a question so this time Deadshot didn’t respond, just waited for Rex to elaborate.

“You figured it out, who you were. What have you done. What now? What else do you want?”

Deadshot considered his next words. Rex was right about him, he was still in investigation about his past but for entirely different reason now.

“I need to know why I had to die, sir.”

“You know it very well.”

“And I think that’s a lie, sir. I have a gut-feeling about it and…”

“I don’t give damn about your gut-feeling, Deadshot” said Rex harshly. Deadshot was tempted to say that he also didn’t give a damn about Rex’s opinion but, swallowed and just stared into those brown eyes, just to spite him in hope he can manage secure another victory of dominance again. But Rex didn’t turned his face away, not this time, because Rex continued speaking.

“These brilliant gut-feelings of yours will be our downfall one day. Have you ever considered what would happen if someone recognizes you? Do I really need to lock you up in the solitary everytime I can’t keep my eye on you? Maybe you had forgotten what would have happened if someone recognized you on Coruscant?!”

“Sir…?”

“You almost got us killed with that stunt.”

Deadshot couldn’t say anything. Deep inside his mind he knew Rex was right, right about this one at least, but still, the captain shouldn’t have to state it like he was deliberately wanted to ruin the muster with that panic attack. He felt those few bites of rationbars switching places in his stomach. He had to endure it.

“I risk everything” Rex continued. “Everything, my company, my men, my only son remained, the very trust of General Skywalker put in me, to cover your shebs.”

“I’ve never asked for this, sir-“

“But you are here, now, in the present. Now that you know why is it important to keep your identity a secret, you are still reckless. You are an ARC Trooper for fuck sake, and I get it, your duty calls you to work alone, but you have responsibilities toward the company and your personal agenda endangers your brothers every time you decide to going after your own head.”

“So convenient of you deciding when I’m one of you and when I’m just a walking ghost of-“

“DON’T!” Rex raised his hand to emphasise on his objection. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear his name, I don’t want to hear that name ever again. He is dead. He was dead to us even when he was alive.”

“So I’ve heard. And with all due respect sir, I don’t give a shit about it” Deadshot felt a sudden surge of confidence, probably came from his anger and he felt he really wanted to flood Rex with everything he got. “He was an asshole, I get it. For every sin he committed against the Republic, against you against his batchmates, I have to suffer ten times, wielding this burden like it was mine all alone and you know what? It is. It’s mine alone. Maybe I deserve to be treated like shit, maybe I deserve to be spitted on because the face I have or what it represent to those… what, like, three people who actually recognized me?” Deadshot counted on his fingers, gesticulating his inner frustration. “And didn’t gave a single cocksucking shit about me when I needed help? You are all cowards.”

Rex rubbed his forehead again, mouth pressed like he was in pain, stifled any emotion that was about to come out.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” asked Deadshot, confused.

“For not being a good commander for you.”

Deadshot expression distorted by spiteful bitterness faded away, left only cautios skepticism. He finally got to tell him everything this time. His anger, his disappointment in him, the words just flowed like sluice opened to ease the waters behind it before breaking out, under supervision and control. He never would have hoped for such opportunity. His whole body felt the tension, like his inner self scratched the surface of his skin from behind, but this time it wasn’t the crawling sensation in his veins, hoping for an easing scratch, more like, wanting to detach himself, because he wasn’t sure how would he able to handle these uncharted waters of… finally having the attention of Captain Rex.

“I wasn’t fair with you, right from the start. I have responsibilities toward my men but even if you are… YOU, you are my trooper too.” Rex talked slowly, as if the words were hard to spoke. He wanted to be elsewhere, it would have been better to be outside, fight a fight and dying in the process, anything but not to be here. “I don’t know how, or why, but you were given a second chance and you are wasting it away by chasing demons of the past. Like I said, your past-self is dead. You have to move on, HELL, I HAVE TO MOVE ON but I can’t. But I have to. So should you! You don’t have to live with the memories you don’t even have, but I HAVE by looking at you, the way you walk, the way you fight, the same way you stare with those fucking judgmental eyes, your fucking eyes…” and Rex look straight into those eyes.

And Deadshot couldn’t bear to look back. He lowered his head, watchings his own hands fidgeting furiously in his lap. The silence stretched, the lamp still flickered.

“I’m also aware that you fuck my ad.”

Deadshot nearly chocked on air, positioning himself into a more comfortable stance on the chair, and couldn’t help but let out a disbelieving laugh.

“What does Fives has to with this?” asked after he managed to spit out coherent words.

“Everything” stated Rex, more confidently than he was in the whole conversation. “If you choose to continue down this road instead of listening to me, I want you to leave Fives out of it.”

“Sir, maybe I shouldn’t be the one you lock up in the solitary” Deadshot grinned nastily. “Wherever I go, he’ll follow. Nothing I can do about it.”

“Yes, that’s what I’m talking about.

”Sir?” Deadshot suddenly felt sick, the nauseous feeling that the known world is suddenly crumbling around him piece by piece again made his stomach turned 180 degree with a violent slam. Endure.

“With that face of yours and death lingering around, you’ll never have a chance to get promoted. Not if we want to keep your identity safe. Not if I want to keep my men alive. Fives, he has bright future ahead. Has potential to become a leader one day, much better than I ever was. Don’t take this away from him.”

Endure. Endure. Endure.

“But, sir…” Deadshot’s voice rasped, almost like a whisper. “But you just said…”

“When the war’s over, I can reassign you to somewhere else. Soldiers always needed, especially away from the Core. You can live in peace, nobody would bother you, nobody would search for you, we can… Cody knows a vod, he would just erase your whole existence from the database. This is… is the only thing I can offer to help you.”

If Rex told him anything after that, Deadshot couldn’t remember. Rex wanted to hide him. Away from his friends, his vode, his… FIVES, the very thought of being separated from Fives made him think swallowing a thermodetonator, this time, to finish the job the clankers couldn’t do last time but he also had to remind himself, that the clankers never shot him, the clankers never blown him up, it weren’t the clankers who gave him amnesia in the first place -endureENDUREENDURE-, but whatever, killing himself was a better option than living a solitary life away from his loved one!!! It’s not about the promotions, not about being treated specially, it…

He believed, he genuinly wanted to believe in Rex that maybe… maybe there was a future for him even without his memories, they were actually having a normal conversation for the first time and it turned out it was actually an elaborate “nice commander talk” to… to what…?

But despite all of this, Rex was right, Deadshot knew it deep in his gut. The fucking gut-feeling. It’s logical. Completely understandable concern. Fives is daddy’s little boy, even with all the mischief and fooling around, Fives still had a chance to become someone great, if not from his own, then he got protection, from Rex, from the General, from the Chancellor himself, this elaborate network of interest could make it happen for Fives to have a good life after the war while the same network could destroy everything, not just for Fives but for everyone if he didn’t stay put… and he… and he… He was supposed to be dead to begin with.

— x —

0500 standard, his inner clock was always punctual. Deadshot laid on bed, eyes open, stared at the bunk wall. He wanted to sleep but his thoughts already raced into his darkest part of the mind right after being conscious, felt empty yet so weary at the same time, he just couldn’t make himself move and get his gear to visit the shooting range. He just couldn’t. The others were still sleeping, Jesse’s sudden snorts and Tup little pup sounds while turning to his other side broke the silent darkness.

Someone moved eventually, fumbled with the blankets, then barefooted steps, a mild sway during walk… Fives, thought Deadshot. Steps became louder as Fives approached his bed. The mattress slumped under one knee and Deadshot’s felt his own blanket lifted and the sudden cold made him shiver, cowered himself more with his hands. But the cold feeling faded as Fives’ hot, naked upper body pressed onto his back, carefully cover them with the blanket to keep the remaining heat inside and comfortably snuggled to his lover’s nape. When Deadshot’s stiffened body loosened in his touch, Fives embraced him, fingers slowly entwining on the former’s chest.

“Hey” Fives whispered, not to wake up the others and breathed a little kiss on the neck. Deadshot didn’t answer.

“You are skipping the morning routine again” Fives pushed.

“I don’t feel like it now.”

“Four days in a row” and since Deadshot was nitpicky about what to answer, Fives continued. “And you’re avoiding me.”

Endure, Deadshot reminded himself. Endure. He felt a familiar, hot stinging in the corner of his eyes. Fingers between fingers, Fives drew calming lines into the calloused skin.

“Alright. I won’t push. I… I just miss you. And wanted to tell you” Fives lifted himself a bit, positioning himself to reach Shot’s ear. “I love you.”

Deadshot began to tremble, he needed all his willpower not to open his mouth and let his sobbing out like an explosion. He didn’t wanted to be heard, he didn’t want Fives hear him, and definitely didn’t want the others hear him. He felt Fives hand tightening, his head bored to his, whispering calming words.

“Hey, hey, cyare, what’s wrong? Shhh… it’s okay… it’s okay…”

It wasn’t okay, nothing was okay.

“I don’t deserve you” said Deadshot with weak whimper through gritted teeth. Fives gasped at this declaration in disbelief and concern, his calming touches stopped for a moment. Tried to take it heartlightedly, take is as Deadshot usual “crisis-thing”.

“Hey… what’s with that answer?” He chuckled. “You have to say it back.”

But Deadshot couldn’t. The trembling won’t stop, every sweet reassuring words were daggers pierced through his chest, his brain, his teary eyes. The same hands kept him safe for a moment but now he only felt numb inside the embrace. Deadshot’s soundless cry, stiffled sniffing made Fives heart ache for him.

“You know what?” Fives spoke again with the same patience. “I’m the only one who gets to decide if someone deserves me, and I can confidently say you are that someone who does.” Fives hoped maybe his lover become eased by the little joke, maybe saying back something snarky, unimpressed remark about he is able to compliment HIMSELF while compilenting others, but it didn’t happen.

The ARC trooper smalls repressed hiccups turned into miserable whimpering, and his grip on Fives’s hand became so strong, it started to hurt, but Fives didn’t pulled his hand away, this pain was so little what must had Deadshot felt right now, Fives knew in his guts. He decided maybe… maybe he would just stay here, a voiceless-support until Deadshot was ready to talk.

[depravity-n-savagery]

Vampire!Dad!Eddie Munson Blurb 🦇

Eddie Munson x (fem)Reader ♡ 100% fluff

♡ A/N: You're only mentioned in the blurb. It's pretty much just Eddie being adorble with the baby.

"Heyy there, little vampire." Eddie cooed at the mass of tousled chestnut curls, peeking his head out from under a pile of fluffy blankets and pillows. The child yawned, opening his mouth so wide it almost took up his entire face - showing off two sharp little baby teeth. The kid was still mortal, due to Eddie knocking you up before the shenanigans in the Upside Down. Before he technically 'died', only to be brought back as a bloodsucking creature of the night.

The small child, only two years old, opened his eyes with heavy lids. Still fighting off the strength of a good afternoon nap. One by one, his brown eyes met the identical ones of his father. Well, only identical currently because he was fully fed. When he's thirsty, the familiar chocolate brown becomes tinted with hues of crimson. He never wanted his son (or you for that matter) to see him that way. Eddie was careful to never be around the little one when he needed to feed. If anything ever went wrong-

A pinch on Eddie's hand drew his attention back to the child, watching with amusement as he lifted Eddie's hand toward his mouth and chomped down on the skin between his thumb and index finger. "Ouch!" Eddie played up the pain in his expression, even though the bite didn't really hurt him. "Easy there. With fangs comes responsibility."

"Boo-boo?" The child pouted, pointing to the teeny tiny indents his teeth made in Eddie's hand. Bottom lip trembling as if he might start the water works.

"No no, don't worry. No boo-boos. See?" A vibrant smile lit up Eddie's face, calming whatever little guilt he might've unintentionally caused. Crisis averted. Instead of wailing and waking you out of your sleep in the other bedroom, he took interest in the designs on Eddie's shirtless body. Eyes curiously studying every inky image and the scars that permanently marred his skin. An unfortunate reminder of his transformation that even vampirism couldn't get rid of.

"Where are you goin'?"

He was on a mission now, totally fixated on a particular part of Eddie's abdomen. Pulling himself along across the bed they were occupying until he was crawling right into Eddie's empty lap. "Boo-boo?" This time he placed a tiny palm on one of the scars. An angry-looking jagged one that started on his side where the flesh was ripped out, then spread out across his abdomen like bolts of lightening.

"Yeah..." Eddie's voice was soft. "...but it's an old boo-boo. It doesn't hurt anymore."

Following a cure you often handed out for every bump and scrape you witnessed, the child pecked a gentle and drooly kiss on the scar. "Bettah now!" The cure was sealed with a little squeeze as tiny arms tried to wrap themselves around Eddie's body.

Bigger, stronger arms closed in around the child. Snuggling him close enough to revel in that precious sweet new-baby smell. Though he was careful enough to mind his supernatural strength. He didn't want to crush the kid. "Maybe you'll be a nurse someday, like mommy. Then you can help lots of people with their boo-boos. And sneak daddy some of the good stuff." He smirked, reminding himself to have a little 'breakfast' soon. The mini-fridge usually filled with bloodbags was going to need a restock. "Speaking of mommy. Come on, little vampire. Lets go make her some pancakes before she wakes up."

♡ A/N: Completely self-indulgent so I don't even care if it sucks. 🤣 My kid lost his two front baby teeth, leaving just the canines on top so I called him 'little vampire' and BOOM. Blurb idea popped into my head, haha! 💞

Masterlist, Ao3 ☆

[apoptoses]

Did no one send you Lestat/Daniel for ship bingo? I'm sending you Lestat/Daniel.

no they haven't which is a CRIME and i am so happy you rectified this issue

(EDIT: I fucked up idk why the attempted murder square is filled hahaha whatever maybe it's an inside joke between them NVM FIXED IT)

Look when it comes to these vampires mixing friendship with physicality I really think these two have the chance to be the least fucked up. Like. Think about it.

You've got Lestat who has zero chill, who wants to do anything and everything and he wants to do it now! And Daniel has run the gauntlet of that behavior with Armand, he has it in him to be spontaneous, he's literally always down to clown. So the two of them together? Chaos in the best way, it's like two Tiggers in a room, it's gonna be fun.

But then also I think Daniel has the potential to rein Lestat in (in a way no one else really can). If Lestat is like hey, get out of bed loser, we're flying to London because I wanna turn the Queen before she dies and see what happens, Daniel isn't gonna argue with him. He's gonna redirect. He'd be all sure, that sounds wild but wouldn't it be funnier to take a hair dryer, loosen the glue on Louis's paperbacks and swap the covers around and then wait for him to notice?

Boom! International crisis averted!

And under all the winding each other up I think they have the potential to just be really nice together. Like fuck buddies, obviously. At least once a month they go out and drink off some drunks and then while buzzed they fool around.

But also they're just comfortable with each other. Lestat has no sense of personal space, Daniel lost his sense of shame decades ago, if Lestat is gonna go pester anyone while they're in the shower and not get kicked out, it's Daniel he can do that with. Daniel can toss his feet into Lestat's lap. When they walk down the street Lestat can put his arm around Daniel's shoulders and it's fine, there's nothing weird.

(and Daniel? Totally into the fact that he's like two inches shorter than Lestat and is the smaller one, it's a novelty for him)

So like one day if they're out and some mortal asks what they are, and Lestat says oh he's my boyfriend? No big deal. Actually it makes sense, because 'guy I fool around with and see shitty movies with and who fucks my boyfriend and sometimes plays with my hair' isn't a title and Daniel can't be fucked to explain all of that so. Boyfriend it is.

Are they ever gonna be super sappy? Probably not. Are they gonna be a solid person the other can call when aggravated or stressed? Absolutely. They're there for each other and it's the weirdest, most normal relationship at the Chateau.

[queenofbaws]

Well good morning darling! Hope yours has been going better than mine considering that I managed to completely leave my phone on the bus not even an hour ago. And thanks to the whole 'oh shit literally everything important is with that thing not even counting the fact that it's my alarm clock for work' panic, I'm now in a Chris Hartley phone addict mood for some reason lol. So do with this what you will fhdjskdhd

(oh and i got my phone back don't worry. I realized literally the second i got off the bus that it wasn't in my pocket and my neighbour was nice enough to let me use her phone to call it like not even ten minutes later. And thanks to extremely good luck the people who had found my phone were happened to be at the Tim Hortons that was ten minutes from my house to I was only without it for like 30 minutes at most. Crisis successfully averted in record time!)

"DON'T SIT ON THAT COUCH!"

Feeling like a deer in headlights for...yeah, mhm, what was most definitely the first time in his life, Matt froze in the precise position he'd been in when Chris's voice boomed out through the lodge: namely, locked in a half-squat over the sectional. "Uh...o...kay...?" he managed, hoping against all odds that whatever tear Chris was on, he'd get over before his thighs started burning from the squat.

He came bustling over from the dining room, grabbing one of the cushions and tearing it off the couch with a look that seemed to suggest someone had just punted his new puppy across the forty yard line. "I-I-I lost my fucking phone," Matt thought he heard as Chris proceeded to tear the couch apart, "I was sitting here earlier and I'm thinking maybe i-i-it, I don't know, fell between the cushions or something, but I..."

There was one problem with that, however, and one that Matt was only too happy to point out; he straightened up (trying his best to make it sound like he was grunting with effort instead of snickering to himself), grabbed his own phone off the coffee table and called Chris...whose back pocket began ringing almost immediately.

six sentence sat(or)sunday!!!

[talentdelunecomic]

Arc 2.5

(Part 2) (foreword)

“...Nice one, Chu,” he mutters a couple minutes later, squashed into the corner of the elevator shaft. You’d think a booming business like this could build wider elevators, damn. “We can kiss that dream budget goodbye thanks to—” He gestures at the blood on Ambre. “—all this.”

“Sorry for having scruples,” Sarah grumbles back. The adrenaline crash has left her disappointed and low. She’s stuck in close quarters with two people she’s quite upset at, currently, and she still can’t even see.

Ambre seems to lean over, audibly shuffling in place. “Are you mad at us, Sarah?” She seems younger than she is, like this, her voice disembodied and childish. Granted, Sarah really can’t vouch for her maturity, and that’s not even considering the child-rearing acumen of a top-secret, governmental, child-soldier factory.

When she thinks about that too hard, a buzzing sense of anxiety rises in her chest. Is she a hypocrite, for raising a stink about Talent technology restrictions while averting her eyes from the moral crisis of Ambre’s entire thirteen years of life?

“I’m kind of mad at you,” Sarah responds, curling tighter into a ball and clutching her suitcase like a blanket.

Ambre huffs unhappily.

“Mostly I’m mad at Penwood.”

He’s unbothered. “Great, ‘cause I’m mad at you too. We can all be mad at each other.”

He’s infuriating, sometimes. Sarah has never expected emotional heavy-lifting from Penwood, not even when they first met and she didn’t know him—he was her boss, after all. He was practical and unconventional enough to immediately promote her to the highest position he could bargain for, but it had nothing to do with sentiment. Though he seems to have grown fond of her over these past six years, he hasn’t changed. He’s as stubborn and selfish as ever.

“If I’m that troublesome, why not just let me get killed?” Sarah attacks, and then immediately regrets it. She sounds like a moody teenager. She sounds like his disregard for her objections hurt her. It’s true, but it’s pitiful.

Penwood seems to soften, just a bit. “You’re both troublesome, but I’d get bored if either of you died or disappeared. You’re more important than fully-funded mad science.” He says the last bit with reluctant resignation, but as a whole…

Those were pretty kind words, coming from Penwood. Sarah cracks a smile.

“Yeah,” she says, “you guys need me around to keep you in check.”

“Aww, I hate being in check,” Ambre sighs.

“So what now, kid?” Penwood asks. “You’re the one with the sense of propriety—you decide what we do next. We’re essentially blind, definitely trapped, and every single person in this building wants to track us down and kill us.”

Ambre grins. “The dead ones don’t. Want me to make them all dead?”

Penwood contemplates it.

“Not this time,” Sarah says, and her smile begins to grow as she gets to her feet. “I’ve got an idea.”

---

Sarah stands before the Power Room. The only thing between her and that plasma is a 20-character passcode and three feet of solid steel.

…That sounds more intimidating than it actually is.

Hey, the three of them made it out of that elevator shaft and down to the basement with zero tools!

A little clumsily, perhaps, but they made it down. Now they just need to get inside that room.

Sarah examines the digital lock, Penwood and Ambre hovering over her shoulders to watch. She doubts she’ll be able to guess the passcode, even if she did catch a glimpse when Sec. Malla let them in on the tour. She’s going to have to crack the mechanism open manually and determine a course of action from there.

“Ambre.” Sarah turns to her. “Help me with–”

“Wait.”

The three of them freeze.

“…Just let us do this,” Sarah pleads.

Secretary Sarah Malla offers no sympathy, dry and unforgiving. “What are you planning to do in the Power Room?” she asks.

“You know it’s not right to give this tech to people who might misuse it.” Sarah steps forward and Sec. Malla moves the gun in her direction. Ambre tenses, glances between them, and deliberately untenses. Sarah slows way down.

“When you say things like that, it makes you sound like a child,” Malla says. Sarah is quietly offended. She’s 23. “You think the government won’t misuse your technology? You think they aren’t misusing it right now?”

“I…”

No, she wants to say, I trust them. They’ve taken care of me since I was 17. But even without saying it aloud, suddenly the words don’t feel good enough.

“I’d still choose one group with scary-ass lasers over two.”

Sarah turns, surprised. Penwood ambles forward, hands in his pockets and genuinely pretty unconcerned by the gun. He sighs at her. “You’re catching flies, kid.” She closes her open mouth.

He continues. “The FHTC’s not perfect, but our boss is actually a total goody-two-shoes. It’s annoying, but in terms of—” He rolls his eyes and finger quotes. “—society’s ethics, she’s a decent person, I guess. And a hard worker.”

Sarah’s heart warms. He’s actually kind of getting it. He’s actually trying to help.

“Well! None of that matters to me,” Ambre chirps, “but Sarah is a grown-up woman! Don’t call her a child, she tries really hard to be responsible!” By the end of the sentence, her voice goes affronted on Sarah’s behalf, and she drops into a rare angry frown. “You’re a woman too, so you should know it’s annoying when people act like you don’t know anything while you’re trying to make a point.”

Malla stares at all of them, unwavering for one heartbeat, two. Then she stops aiming at them and lifts the pistol like she’s showing it off. It’s got the safety on, Sarah realizes. Malla was bluffing.

She sets the gun down and points at the door to the Power Room. “Don’t mess with the digital lock. If you input the wrong code or force it open, it’ll tase you.”

Sarah breaks into an incredulous laugh. Ambre is already grinning, and Penwood huffs in amusement. “So you’ll help us?” Sarah asks, just to be sure.

Malla shrugs, and a small, warm smile settles on her face. “We do have the same name,” she says.

Sarah’s cheeks hurt from smiling in return. “I suppose.”

---

A loud thud echoes through the chamber. Then again, and again. With a lot of repetitive effort, the main door finally slams open.

“Goodness, people!” Bright shouts, beaming angrily. “Take a little longer, why don’t you? How hard can it be to ram down a door?!”

“It’s three feet of solid, electrified steel,” a security guard points out.

“Regardless!”

A crowd of employees and guards swarm into the Power Room, sweeping through the aisles. Bright follows, dusting off his already immaculate suit. “Find Sarah Chu and her little friends,” he commands. “And for god’s sake, watch out for that red-haired gremlin! She’s ruthless!” He shudders.

“Hey, Bright!”

His head snaps up, and then his expression drops with dawning horror.

“How’s it going?”

“Now hold on…” Bright is sweating. “We can talk this out!”

Sarah’s jerry-rigged the control panel for the plasma vats. With one press of a button, the glass covers preventing their contents from ‘evaporating into the air and wasting a million dollars’ will pop open.

“I apologize for trying to kill you!” Bright calls to her, inanely. “Why don’t we renegotiate? I’d love to have you on my payroll, even now! And…and we would be very responsible with your technology, oh yes! Tell her, Malla!”

“He told me he wanted to make Talent suppressor water-guns,” Malla says. “For the youth.™”

“I never said that!” Bright lies. “Listen, I don’t think you understand how much money we’re willing to offer you! You could do anything you wanted! No rules, no restrictions, no one standing in your way. You’d be set for life; your great-great-great grandchildren would be set for life! You don’t need to worry about anyone else!”

Penwood and Ambre listen to his speech, open-mouthed. Of course they would; as much as they care about Sarah on a personal level, Bright’s pitching them their wildest dreams. But this decision isn’t up to them, it’s up to her.

They may be selfish, but Penwood made things clear—they like her better than mad-science and power trips.

And that sort of selfishness is just fine with her.

“No one’s forcing me to worry about people,” Sarah calls down. “No one’s forcing me to worry about anything! And all those rules and restrictions, they don’t bother me. If they make the world a better place, why would I have a problem?”

“They…!” Bright sputters. “They make the world a boring place! They make it a safe place! Don’t you understand, Ms. Chu?!”

“Yeah, better than you!” Sarah yells. “And that’s Doctor Chu!!”

She pushes the button.

Bright clutches at his skull, gibbering in disbelief while his employees freeze at the loss of guidance. Ambre laughs and tries to grab at the mist like a child. Penwood sighs, grumpy as usual, but he watches the air glow with a sort of wonder. Malla nudges Sarah’s arm.

“Hey. Is this stuff going to poison us?”

Sarah chuckles, “Probably not!”

“How reassuring.”

The air is still purple as the four of them descend to the main floor. Bright is scrambling, trying to push the glass covers back into place, for all the good they’ll do now.

“You…” He turns to Sarah, his expression the utter picture of despair. “Look what you’ve done. I’ll— I’ll sue you! I’ll ruin your life! You’ll be fired!!”

Sarah crosses her arms. “Of course I won’t,” she huffs. “You literally tried to kill me.”

The words seem to spark something in him, and Bright lunges for a nearby guard’s holster. He shoves the gun right in her face, hand shaking with rage, and Sarah’s stomach drops into her feet.

If moments like this move in slow-mo on TV, Sarah realizes that in real life, they’re like a blur. She catches glimpses, Penwoods hair in front of her, his elbow jabbing into her side on accident. Ambre’s hand outstretched, close to the barrel, about to throw his aim up to the ceiling.

Before Bright can fire, however, a raised voice gives him pause.

“When you called me, Chu, I can admit I was hoping to discover that the mess you three have landed yourselves in was the result of a misunderstanding. Clearly, my hopes have been dashed.”

All of them turn. Framed in the main doorway is Miriam Bosser, the head of the science division, and Sarah, Penwood, and Ambre’s direct supervisor.

The goody-two-shoes.

“Stand down, Brandon Bright,” Miriam says. From behind her, FHTC officers file into the room, and the Bright employees quickly surrender their weapons.

“This is…ridiculous,” Bright wheezes, the gun dropping from his hand. Sarah spares it a glance, then does a double-take. Oh yeah, he’s an idiot. It’s got the safety on.

Malla sets a hand on Bright’s shoulder. He stares up at her, pleading, like she can summon up a miracle and fix the disaster he caused.

“Mr. Bright,” Malla says. “I resign.”

Bright’s head drops down in defeat.

It’s over.

---

“You are not getting off scot free,” Miriam says sternly. “Not this time.”

The chaos is settling down. Sarah’s heart rate has returned to normal. Ambre is back to being bored. All in a day’s work!

“Sure, sure,” Penwood says, obnoxiously. “Just give us a slap on the wrist and let us get back to work.”

“I don’t think you realize the magnitude of this screw-up,” Miriam insists. “Bright Industries is our main supplier of Talent Plasma, and guess what they no longer have any stock of? Crale is going to rip my head off for allowing you three to run around unsupervised.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sarah asks, offended.

“You’re like children. When the three of you join together, the results are explosive. You’re the black sheep of the FHTC. If you weren’t so important, we’d have fired you—”

“Okay! Damn, that’s harsh!”

Miriam sighs. “My head is going to be ripped off.”

“Sorry for being so troublesome!”

“Don’t apologize.” Penwood grins. “You talk a big game, but you like rushing into danger as much as me and Ambre do. That’s why Miriam’s lumping you in with us.”

“That’s silly,” Sarah sputters. “I do not like danger!”

“You were the one who wanted to destroy all that plasma,” Ambre muses, “instead of running away.”

“I just—!”

Miriam’s eyes laser in on Sarah. “Is this true?” she asks, low and dangerous.

Sarah freezes. No other choice. She turns and runs. “Maybe-it’s-true-but-you-can’t-judge-me-I-was-under-duress-okay-see-you-later!!”

“Sarah Chu!” Miriam yells after her. “Get back here! You are actively being troublesome right now!”

It’s easy to forget her worries, with Ambre and Penwood cackling and the wind in her face and the adrenaline of the day still simmering under her skin. It’s easy to ignore the questions she faced and the answers she couldn’t give.

When you say things like that, it makes you sound like a child. You think the government won’t misuse your technology? You think they aren’t misusing it right now?

Hey, she said it herself! Sarah isn’t the most righteous person in the world.

Eventually, she’ll have no choice but to face herself. She isn’t quite sure what she’ll do, when that day comes. Will she run away again? Will it be right to run?

In the meantime, a few more mistakes can’t hurt.

---

Later that month, Sarah will have her first encounter with her dream girl. …Maybe her nightmare girl. How ironic!

Well, she does like danger.

[cas-coding]

okay my speech is returning so heres a post abt it. i struggle with temporary speech loss and it all depends on a lot of factors. but usually my mouth kind of feels weird and then my thoughts slow down. starts as a “eh i kinda feel like being quiet” to a “fuck i cant speak or think clearly” thing in like ten minutes. sometimes preceded by a burst of lots of thoughts before “going dry.”

this time it was a burst of thoughts before i started losing speech, couldnt even lipsync my favorite song :( typing is hard too during these episodes, so maybe it’s more of a language or thought loss but i’d have to look into that. it’s difficult and slow to generate thoughts so i can still type fast in theory, but my brain has ahard time spelling and picking out words to type.

when this happens i just give in. speaking can be very painful and disressing and make it worse so if i don’t have to speak i don’t. simple. i also remove myself from environment and check myself for injury. i have a bodily disassociation constantly where some sensations, including certain types of pain, do not register in my brain. cute, huh?

i removed myself from my kitchen and went to my bedroom, and in the process my knee gave out on the stairs. put my knee brace on and five minutes later, boom. thoughts are returning! speech takes a bit longer, but i don’t need my voice tonight so maybe i’ll just rest it since my body wanted to earlier.

tldr: my speech was temporarily gone, i did my routine my therapist advised, and it is now coming back. problem solved, crisis averted, goodnight.

[i-am-a-megalodon]

All of these are some pretty big inconsistencies, but there are some more that need adding to the list:

That whole "Harry has to compete in the Triwizard Tournament" thing. Like, how is that magic cup's choice actually binding? The council could've said "he's too young and we already have three champions, so he's not participating", and boom, crisis averted.

The inconsistencies in what non-magical technologies they know about and/or prefer. They don't know what cars are, but there's a magical emergency triple-decker bus? They use quills instead of ballpoint pens and pencils, but they're okay with cameras?

The fact that the only reason Harry was the Chosen One was because Voldemort saw Harry as the threat and not Neville.

The fact that dental offices don't exist, but hospitals do.

[iknowthislooksbad]

late to the game, but if Youtube ever weeps about you using an adblocker, just refresh the page and boom. crisis averted.

[iromero]

Chapter 8

This chapter is an important link in how we understood government policies throughout the Covid-19 crisis.  The Federal government continues to run record deficits, originally in an attempt to avert or minimize a recession/depression, but apparently ongoing as the original rationale (the pandemic lockdowns) has ended.  Look back at this chapter and discuss how large annual Federal deficits should affect the market for loanable funds.  Is that what we have seen happen (where is the equilibrium interest rate now - up or down?)  Now, how is inflation factored into interest rates? What are your expectations with respect to interest rates? Why?

Large annual Federal affects the market for loanable funds by a government increased borrowing to finance its deficit can cause increase the demand for loanable funds making it have an effect in interest rates. It can also increase investment and economic growth, leading an increased demand for loanable funds from private borrowers that can also increase interest rates. What we have seen happen is that the government has taken measures to keep interest rates low by doing this it can encourage borrowing and stimulate economic activity. As of now, it is difficult to determine since there is changes in economic conditions and government policies. What I can say is that since inflation has increased, it can lead to higher interest rates. Since when inflation expectations ae high, lenders demand higher interest rates to compensate for the loss of purchasing power of the money they lend. With respect to interest rates, my expectations are to go high. This is because inflation is happening, the interest rate has to go higher to control inflation.

How does the loanable funds market help define/choose which investment projects are funded each year?  What do interest rates have to do with ROI (return on investments)? Expected ROI tends to be lower during a recession than it is during a boom.  How does that affect demand for money during a recession? During a boom? And finally, how does all of this affect economic growth in the long run? Why? How does this affect your personal plans?

            The loanable funds help define the market in helping allocate financial resources by balancing the supply of savings with the demand for funds. Equilibrium interest rate in the market reflects the level of savings and investments in the economy. By having low interest rates, it becomes more accessible for business and governments to borrow money to fund projects. Return on investment, is something that has to be carefully considerate since investors seek to minimize their ROI, and with higher interest rates in can lead to higher returns. Expected ROI tends to be lower during a recession than it is during a boom, it affects the demand for money on a recession by lowering it since investors could be less willing to borrow and invest. All of this affect economic growth in the long run by making it difficult to invest.