#High speed duplicator | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

damienns · 9 months ago

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My GIF Making process: Screen capturing using MPV player, Organizing files, 3 Sharpening settings, Basic Coloring PSD + Actions set

This is a very long post so heads up.

I’ll try to be as thorough and true as much as possible to the way I make my gifs (I already use Photoshop Actions which I’ve long since set up but now for this tutorial I’m reviewing them to show you the exact steps I’ve learned to create my gifs 😃) and present them to you in a semi-coherent way. Also, please bear with me since English is my second language.

First things first. Below are the things and tools we need to do this:

Downloaded 4K or 1080p quality videos (let’s all assume we know where to get these—especially for high definition movies and tv series—so this post doesn’t get removed, okay? 😛)

Adobe Photoshop CC or the CS versions can work as well, but full disclosure I haven’t created gifs using the CS versions since 2020. I’m currently using Adobe Photoshop 2024.

mpv player. Use mpv player to get those frames/screenshots or any other video player that has a screen grabber feature. I’ve used adapter for the longest time but I’ve switched to mpv because the press to screenshot feature while the video is playing has been a game changer not to mention ultimate time saver for me. For adapter you need to play it in another video player (like VLC player), to get the start and end timestamps of the scene you want to gif which takes me ages before I can even open Photoshop.

Anyway! Please stop reading this post for a moment and head over to this amazing tutorial by kylos. She perfectly tells you how to install and use mpv player, both for Mac and Windows users.

One thing I have to share though, I had a tough time when I updated my MacOS to Sonoma since MPV is suddenly either duplicating frames or when I delete the duplicates the player seems to be skipping frames :/ I searched and found a solution here, though it didn’t work for me lol. My workaround for this in the meantime is decreasing the speed down to 0.70 then start screenshotting—it’s not the same pre Sonoma update but it works so I’ll have to accept it rather than have jumpy looking gifs.

Now, after this part of kylos’ tutorial:

you can continue reading the following sections of my gif tutorial below.

I want to share this little tip (sorry, this will only cater to Mac users) that I hope will be helpful for organizing the screenshots that MPV saved to the folder you have selected. Because believe me you don’t want to go through 1k+ of screenshots to select just 42-50 frames for your gif.

The Control + Command + N shortcut

This shortcut allows you to create a new folder from files you have pre-selected. As you can see below I have already created a couple of folders, and inside each folder I have selected screenshots that I want to include in one single gif. It's up to you how you want to divide yours, assuming you intend to create and post a Tumblr gifset rather than just one gif.

Another tip is making use of tags. Most of, if not all the time, I make supercorp gifs so I tag blue for Kara and red (or green) for Lena—just being ridiculously on brand and all that.

Before we finally open Photoshop, there's one more thing I want to say—I know, please bear with me for the third? fourth? time 😅

It's helpful to organize everything into their respective folders so you know the total number of items/frames you have. This way, you can add or delete excess or unnecessary shots before uploading them in Photoshop.

For example below there are 80 screenshots of Kara inside this folder and for a 1:1 (540 x 540 px) Tumblr gif, Photoshop can just work around with 42-50 max number of frames with color adjustments applied before it exceeds the 10 MB file size limit of Tumblr.

Sometimes I skip this step because it can be exhausting (haha) and include everything so I can decide visually which frames to keep later on. You'll understand what I mean later on. But it's important to keep the Tumblr 10 MB file size limit in mind. Fewer frames, or just the right amount of frames, is better.

So, with the screenshot organization out of the way, let's finally head over to Photoshop.

Giffing in Photoshop, yay!

Let’s begin by navigating to File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack…

The Load Layers window will appear. Click the Browse button next.

Find your chosen screenshots folder, press Command + A to select all files from that folder then click Open. Then click OK.

After importing and stacking your files, Photoshop should display the following view:

By the way, I'll be providing the clip I've used in this tutorial so if want to use them to follow along be my guest :)

If you haven't already opened your Timeline panel, navigate to Windows > Timeline.

Now, let's focus on the Timeline panel for the next couple of steps.

Click Create Video Timeline, then you’ll have this:

Now click the menu icon on the top right corner then go to Convert Frames > Make Frames from Clips

Still working on the Timeline panel, click the bottom left icon this time—the icon with the three tiny boxes—to Convert to Frame Animation

Select Make Frames From Layers from the top right corner menu button.

So now you have this:

Go and click the top right menu icon again to Select All Frames

Then click the small dropdown icon to set another value for Frame Delay. Select Other…

The best for me and for most is 0.05 but you can always play around and see what you think works for you.

Click the top right menu icon again to Reverse Frames.

I think Photoshop has long since fixed this issue but usually the first animation frame is empty so I just delete it but now going through all these steps there seems to be none of that but anyways, the delete icon is the last one among the line of feature buttons at the bottom part of the Timeline panel.

Yay, now we can have our first proper GIF preview of a thirsty Lena 😜

Press spacebar to watch your gif play for the very first time! After an hour and half of selecting and cutting off screenshots! 😛 Play it some more. No really, I’m serious. I do this so even as early (lol) as this part in the gif making process, I can see which frames I can/should delete to be within the 10 MB file size limit. You can also do it at the end of course 🙂

Now, let’s go to the next important steps of this tutorial post which I’ve numbered below.

Crop and resize to meet Tumblr's required dimensions. The width value should be either 540px, 268px, or 177px.

Convert the gif to a Smart Object for sharpening.

Apply lighting and basic color adjustments before the heavy coloring. I will be sharing the base adjustments layers I use for my gifs 😃.

1. Crop and Resize

Click on the Crop tool (shortcut: the C key)

I like my GIFs big so I always set this to 1:1 ratio if the scene allows it. Press the Enter key after selecting the area of the frame that you want to keep.

Side note: If you find that after cropping, you want to adjust the image to the left or another direction, simply unselect the Delete Cropped Pixels option. This way, you will still have the whole frame area available to crop again as needed and as you prefer.

Now we need to resize our gif and the shortcut for that is Command + Opt + I. Type in 540 as the width measurement, then the height will automatically change to follow the ratio you’ve set while cropping.

540 x 540 px for 1:1

540 x 405 px for 4:3

540 x 304 px for 16:9

For the Resample value I prefer Bilinear—but you can always select the other options to see what you like best.

Click OK. Then Command + 0 and Command + - to properly view the those 540 pixels.

Now we get to the exciting part :) the sharpen settings!

2. Sharpen

First we need to have all these layers “compressed” intro a single smart object from which we can apply filters to.

Select this little button on the the bottom left corner of the Timeline panel.

Select > All Layers

Then go to Filter > Convert for Smart Filters

Just click OK when a pop-up shows up.

Now you should have this view on the Layers panel:

Now I have 3 sharpen settings to share but I’ll have download links to the Action packs at the end of this long ass tutorial so if you want to skip ahead, feel free to do so.

Sharpen v1

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen…

Below are my settings. I don’t adjust anything under Shadows/Highlights.

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Click OK then do another Smart Sharpen but this time with the below adjustments.

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

As you can see Lena’s beautiful eyes are “popping out” now with these filters applied. Click OK.

Now we need to Convert to Frame Animation. Follow the steps below.

Click on the menu icon at the top right corner of the Timeline panel, then click Convert Frames > Flatten Frames into Clips

Then Convert Frames > Convert to Frame Animation

One more click to Make Frames From Layers

Delete the first frame then Select All then Set Frame Delay to 0.05

and there you have it! Play your GIF and make sure it’s just around 42-50 frames. This is the time to select and delete.

To preview and save your GIF go to File > Export > Save for Web (Legacy)…

Below are my Export settings. Make sure to have the file size around 9.2 MB to 9.4 MB max and not exactly 10 MB.

This time I got away with 55 frames but this is because I haven’t applied lighting and color adjustments yet and not to mention the smart sharpen settings aren't to heavy so let’s take that into consideration.

Sharpen v1 preview:

Sharpen v2

Go back to this part of the tutorial and apply the v2 settings.

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 20

Radius: 0.5

We’re adding a new type of Filter which is Reduce Noise (Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise...) with the below settings.

Then one last Smart Sharpen:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.3

Your Layers panel should look like this:

Then do the Convert to Frames Animation section again and see below preview.

Sharpen v2 preview:

Sharpen v3:

Smart Sharpen 1:

Amount: 500

Radius: 0.4

Smart Sharpen 2:

Amount: 12

Radius: 10.0

Reduce Noise:

Strength: 5

Preserve Details: 50%

Reduce Color Noise: 0%

Sharpen Details: 50%

Sharpen v3 preview:

And here they are next to each other with coloring applied:

Congratulations, you've made it to the end of the post 😂

As promised, here is the download link to all the files I used in this tutorial which include:

supercorp 2.05 Crossfire clip

3 PSD files with sharpen settings and basic coloring PSD

Actions set

As always, if you're feeling generous here's my Ko-fi link :) Thank you guys and I hope this tutorial will help you and make you love gif making.

P.S. In the next post I'll be sharing more references I found helpful especially with coloring. I just have to search and gather them all.

-Jill

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hannahbarberra162 · 6 months ago

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Opposites of Attraction (Kid x Reader, Enemies to Lovers)

No gods no masters only 1 million WIPs

A huge huge thanks to @nocturnalrorobin and @limitlesstildil for beta-ing this during the holidays for my needy ass.

18+ MDNI on Ao3

The other chapters

Kid POV

Walking around town on some shithole island he’d already forgotten the name of, Kid felt a strong pull towards the local dive bar. He and Killer had been going in that direction anyway, but the pull made him curious. He didn’t often feel them, it took a significant amount of metal for him to feel a pull that strong. With his Jiki Jiki no mi he could detect even trace amounts of iron, cobalt, and nickel but usually allowed the feeling to wash over him unnoticed. But this wasn’t a trace amount, this was something significant. And whatever it was, he wanted it. Even though he had complete mastery over his fruit, it relied on having metal to manipulate. In this part of the Grand Line, high-quality iron was difficult to find and Kid was working on accumulating as much as he could to prepare for upcoming battles. Whatever the metal was, he wanted it on his ship.

“A cannon?” Killer asked, seemingly apropos of nothing. After spending so many years together, Killer could read Kid’s microexpressions with ease and vice versa. On the battlefield it worked like telekenesis, helping the pair devastate whoever was in their path. During peacetime it helped them bed whoever they set their sights on with smooth talk and cheeky flirting, capturing and breaking hearts with ease all up and down the Grand Line.

“No, not a cannon, hafta find out,” Kid stated, throwing open the door to the bar. The air was heavy with dust and the smell of stale alcohol hit his nose as he scanned through the room. Nothing was amiss from a dive bar - there was booze, darts, a pool table, and various people drinking and talking loudly. There wasn’t anything significant made of metal at the business, only barstools, tables, and cups composed mostly of wood with only metal nails tugging at his consciousness. Locating the large amount of iron again, Kid found the metal deposit had moved locations and was now heading out the door as if on foot. Further intrigued, Kid attracted whatever the metal was gently, not wanting to damage it in case it was something precious.

Your POV

There was only one person you didn’t want to meet on the Grand Line. None of the high-bounty pirates bothered you in the slightest - except for one. If you died, well, it came with the territory of being a mercenary. You lived your life without fear, taking on jobs you wanted and turning down those you didn’t. It had landed you wherever you were at the moment on the Grand Line, looking for another job to take.

You were a fairly well-known mercenary on the Grand Line, notorious for using your Logia Devil Fruit in creative ways. As the owner of the Iron-Iron fruit, you had the ability to turn yourself completely into iron but also to make and manipulate iron as well. You could duplicate keys and pick locks in seconds, you could turn into molten iron and, of course, you could mold your arms into giant hammers and smash anyone in your way. You could protect yourself and others with shields, create shrapnel and expel it at rapid speeds, and even make your own silverware. You had worked hard to master your fruit and felt confident in your ability to fight for hire. Being so versatile meant you were able to demand a high salary if someone was seeking you out specifically. You were happy with your life as you’d made it, adventures of your choosing awaiting you at every turn.

Now, the one person you didn’t want to meet was across the bar, flexing his gigantic metal hand as he stood in the doorway, looking around. Quickly chugging the rest of your beer you slammed the glass down on the bar and hightailed it out the back door. You knew very well who he was - Eustass “Captain” Kid - and you had no desire to ever meet him face to face. Nearly sprinting out the door, you made your escape into the alleyway that led back to the town.

Or you tried to.

You were being attracted to Kid by his Devil Fruit power, being pulled against your will towards the Captain. You had feared something like this would happen - even without using your fruit power some amount of your essense was tied to the Iron Iron fruit, giving Kid the ability to magnetize you. Scrambling for purchase, you tried holding on to the doorframe of the back door but the pull was too strong. Your whole body felt like it was being pulled towards Kid and you had to let go of the doorframe or your fingernails would be ripped off. You decided to try for the dignified route and go to him instead of being pulled. Turning on your heel, you marched up to the Captain of the Kid Pirates faster than the pull was dragging you. It almost felt like you were flying as you moved with the magnetism instead of fighting it.

“Oi. What do you want?” you asked, crossing your arms in front of your chest. Kid was taller than you’d expected, towering over you with a frown. He was massive, his wanted posters not doing justice to how solid he was. You resisted the urge to punch him with an iron fist for pulling you to him. For now. You could feel his magnetism still drawing you in as you continued to step closer to him. He didn’t step back.

“Who the fuck are you?” he asked, scowling down at you.

“You brought me here, shithead. You tell me,” you snapped back unamused. The Captain might have some kind of control over your body movements but he didn’t control your mouth. And yes, maybe it had gotten you in trouble before but with your Logia power, you never had a problem backing it up. By now you were practically stepping on his feet as he remained where he stood.

“The fuck you talkin’ about Squirt? You some kinda robot? And the fuck you doing?” he asked, looking you up and down while you were compelled to get even closer to him. You had to tilt your face up to avoid smushing it into his bare, muscled chest.

“You some kinda idiot?” you retorted, trying to ignore the weird position the magnetism had you in. God, if Kid was always this dense you weren’t sure how he’d gotten so far in life. Though if that wasn’t a pistol in his pocket, you could form a guess. You were completely flush against him, your chest to his front. His large body was radiating heat and you had a fleeting urge to hug him. As a Logia user, you didn’t really get cold but you didn’t often get to feel warm either. You avoided most touch outside of violence and sex, this may have been the closest you’d been to a man in a while. Kid smelled better than you expected as well, like well-worn leather and oil rather than body odor and stale piss like you’d imagined he would.

“She’s that mercenary,” the Massacre Soldier interjected, holding a beer in his hand. You idly wondered how he’d drink it with the mask on but he pulled a metal straw out of his pocket. It attracted and stuck to Kid’s metal arm as the pull was still going.

“Turn it off. I want to drink,” Killer requested calmly. The Captain grunted but finally turned off his magnetism and Killer grabbed his straw off his Captain’s arm before it fell to the ground. You were able to take a few steps back and glare at the man ruining your night and possibly your life.

“You that Iron Logia user?” he asked with a wicked grin.

“You already know the fuckin’ answer, dickwad. Why were you looking for me? And don’t call me Squirt, assface,” you said with a toss of your head.

“Got a mouth on you, huh? Don’t matter, join my crew - I can use your powers. You make metal and I could use it to make weapons and -” the Captain started explaining his reasoning as you tuned him out. He’d clearly already thought about some schemes and ideas for your future and you weren’t interested in finding out what they were.

“No,” you stated firmly, grabbing a large beer off a waitress’s tray as she passed by.

“Why the fuck not? It’s better than anything else you’d be doing. What, you need to escort more asshole nobles to a summer island for vacation or some shit like that?” he balked as you chugged the dark ale in one go. Wiping your mouth on the back of your hand, you dropped the mug to the floor and crushed it under your foot.

“Cus I don’t want to,” you said, taking another step towards the Captain. This time it was by choice you felt like getting in his face and confronting him.

“You’re already a mercenary, what’s the fuckin’ difference between joining my crew and anyone else’s? We’re a strong crew, my bounty is 3 billion, you can’t do better than that,” Kid demanded, his red-painted mouth sputtering with anger as if the idea that you’d refuse never occurred to him.

“The difference is I don’t want to,” you explained calmly as if you were talking to a child. It only enraged the Captain more as he turned as red as his hair. You had a feeling that if you stepped foot on the Victoria Punk, you’d never get off it. More than that, you didn’t want to be around someone who could control your body whenever they wanted to. You weren’t sure exactly what the limitations of your fruit were when not in use, but being around Kid meant your powers would just be an extension of his own - something he had already figured out. No, you wanted to keep your freedom and your life and that didn’t include being the metal monkey for one Eustass Kid and his gigantic ego.

But there was more to it than that. You’d heard about his personality and what he was like so you knew a working relationship wouldn’t be possible. He was crude, stubborn, brash, quick to anger, and so were you. You’d contracted with similar high maintenance Captains in the past and it had never worked out. You became a mercenary because you didn’t like taking orders or being beholden to anyone and someone like Kid couldn’t handle insubordination. His ego was larger than his already gigantic skull and you wouldn’t be able to resist butting heads every chance you got. Kid was the exact kind of Captain you refused to take contracts from, even without the Jiki Jiki no mi.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the Massacre Soldier watching the heated conversation while drinking his beer with the straw. The mask didn’t allow his expressions to show but you got an impression of amusement from the infamous first mate.

“Well, too bad for you Squirt. I don’t care about what you want and don’t want,” he said while mimicking your higher voice. “I need metal and you’re gonna make it. Now let’s get drunk,” the Captain stated, turning with a flourish to go to the bar, his cape billowing behind him. You made one more attempt to flee from Kid but before you made it two steps you were attached to his metal arm, held in place by a strong magnetic field. You felt like a decorative magnet as your limbs dangled helplessly off his arm while your torso was stuck to him. You took up nearly the whole metal contraption with your body but he paid you no mind. You tried wiggling and squirming but nothing was going to dislodge you from his arm until he turned off the field.

“Turn it off you fuckin’ cocksleeve! Put me down right the fuck NOW!” you demanded, making your fist into iron out of habit. As expected, it magnetized to his arm instantly with a loud clang before you could even pull back to punch him. Kid laughed in your face as you glowered at him.

“That was your plan? Turn into more metal for me to magnetize? Dumb fuckin’ idea, Squirt,” he said, reaching the bar. Kid jostled your entire body as he slammed his flesh fist onto the bar, cracking the wood in two.

“Oi! Barkeep! Get me a shot glass and some booze,” he bellowed across the room to the panicking barkeep. The Kid pirates were known for creating chaos at the slightest inconvenience, yet another grievance you had against them. Though you often felt like destroying things, it made coming back to any particular island more difficult. Following along with a crew or scoping out locations was considerably harder when the Kid pirates left an island as a decimated crater.

“Get me somethin’ too! Fucking cheap ass,” you grumbled, still attached to his arm. You were slightly impressed that he carried you like you weighed nothing, which gave you an idea. You turned your entire body to iron suddenly, causing him to dip on one side due to your immense increase in weight. If you caught him off guard, maybe he’d drop the field and you could get away. Unfortunately, Kid grunted but righted himself quickly, pulling his arm up to the bar once more. He was as strong as he looked, the muscles weren’t just for show, you thought to yourself.

“Quit bein’ so fuckin’ annoying!” Kid complained, taking his first shot. You tried grabbing the bottle of booze but he held it out of your reach easily. You felt like a kid who was being held back by their head, swinging their arms and legs in a futile effort to hit their opponent.

“Me?! Being annoying!? You’re kidnapping me you titty-twisted ape!” you yelled back, turning yourself back to flesh to talk. If being completely metal wasn’t going to work you’d at least be able to give him a piece of your mind before he took you to his ship.

“I’m not kidnapping you, I’m hiring you permanently,” Kid said with a snicker. Reaching over the counter and grabbing a few more bottles, Kid turned away from the bar. Popping the cork off some rum, he drank directly from the bottle. He handed the unopened bottle to the Massacre Soldier, who did the same but stuck his straw in it instead.

“And your contract starts now,” he said with finality, leaving the dive with the Massacre Soldier following. Everything in you wanted to flail and scream but it wouldn’t do any good, you were made of iron and he controlled magnetic fields. You assumed he was heading back to his ship to drink more and pass out. You had a similar plan until Kid had ruined it. Still dangling, you considered the masked man walking alongside Kid.

“Hi, you must be the Massacre Soldier. It’s nice to meet you. I’m a big fan of your work,” you said pleasantly, sticking out your hand. The man stuck out his own scarred arm and shook your hand with a firm grasp.

“Killer. Nice to meet you too,” Killer responded pleasantly. You smiled at him and hoped he did the same behind the mask.

“What the fuck? You talk nice to him but not me?” Kid said, shaking you slightly.

“Fuck you, you’re kidnapping me. I have no problems with Killer, why would I be rude? I’m not a dick to random strangers,” you finished with a hiss. It was getting tiring being carried around like a purse. Intent on resuming your conversation, you looked at Killer again.

“If you’re ever interested in becoming a mercenary, let me know. I think we’d work well together,” you continued, nodding at the handsome man as the three of you reached the docks.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP! You can’t recruit Killer while I’m recruiting -”

“Kidnapping -”

“Recruiting you!” Kid yelled into your face as he brought you up to his own. You narrowed your eyes. No one - no one - yelled at you like that and got away with it. Not anymore. You couldn’t hit him so you did the next best thing.

You spat in his face.

Kid POV

The glob of spit trailed slowly down his cheek as he stared at you incredulously, a growl escaping his throat. You pointed your finger at him defiantly and spoke quietly, nearly a whisper, undeterred by his reddening face and growing anger. You were either stupid or brave - he didn’t particularly care right now. Kid wouldn’t tolerate disrespect of any kind, especially not in front of his crew. Kid knew Killer was watching, waiting to see what he’d do.

“Don’t ever speak to me like that,” you said, your eyes flashing with rage. Kid was so shocked that he had yet to respond to you. He’d talk to you however he liked, he was the Captain of the crew and you worked for him now. Coming up with a quick plan, Kid smiled his most menacing grin at you. It didn’t seem to have the intended effect as you weren’t cowed in the slightest. He didn’t want to hurt you, he still needed you to make metal for him. Besides, you’d be on his crew now and he never hurt his own crew members intentionally.

“I’ll say whatever I want, Squirt. But I don’t think you can,” he sneered, using his magnetism with a little finesse. As expected, your mouth slammed shut, leaving you unable to speak or even move your lips. He hadn’t thought through all the implications of you being made of iron when he first met you but now he could really see the value in having you aboard. He could control your every movement if he wished, down to your lush little mouth. You tried showing him your anger through your eyes but Kid just laughed.

“Much better now, huh? Don’t have to listen to your bullshit yapping,” Kid said, sitting in the dinghy of the ship. Holding his arm over the side, he held his arm with you face down over the water as he repelled the boat towards his beloved Victoria Punk.

“Don’t piss me off too much or the last sight you’ll see is my sweet face,” he sneered. You flipped him off with your free hand, pissing him off even more. Kid decided to have a little fun and dunked his arm up to the shoulder (and you) underwater, just for a few seconds. Kid relished the panic on your face the moment before you realized his intention and the inevitability of being dipped in the water. His metal arm got wet but it was worth it to see you sputtering in indignation with your now sopping hair sticking to your face.

“Might want to let her open her mouth for a moment to breathe,” Killer suggested, tying the dinghy to the Punk as you breathed as rapidly as you could through your nose.

“Nah, you’re fine, ain’t you?” Kid asked, shaking off his arm. You, of course, didn’t answer. Kid laughed, enjoying the fury on your expressive face as you shook your limbs in an attempt to get off as much seawater as you could. You took in the ship adorned with a fish skeleton in front of you, your eyes skittering across the multitude of metal adorning the ship.

“Welcome to the Victoria Punk, Squirt.”

#kid x reader #kid x you #enemies to lovers #op x y/n #x reader #reader insert #killer op #kid pirates #this isn't kidnapping #it's more like #non consensual taking you to his ship #he just needs you to work for him #even when you don't want to #can you blame him?#he needs you duh stop being annoying

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huskybutart · 7 months ago

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Ok I don’t think I’ll remember everyone’s superpowers so I’m just gonna put them here? I’m not even sure what Joel’s power is.

Grian: Mimic

Gem: Astral Projecting

Joel: Slime (can do double and triple jumps)

Impulse: Teleportation

Pearl: Elytrain

Scott: Shapeshifter but with Animals (and they have to be in sight)

Cleo: Necromancer

Martyn: Heightened Hearing

Ren: DNA duplication (shapeshifting)

BigB: Creaking Summoner/Leader

Tango: Super Speed

Etho: Breeze (Can jump really high?)

Bdubs: Time Powers

Lizzie: Smoke Bomb

Jimmy: Invisibility

Scar: Can ride people and has knockback II or smth

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imjustsocute · 20 days ago

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The Claw is where the strong gather…

CLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE REPORT Agency: [REDACTED] Clearance Level: TOP SECRET Subject: Operational Assessment – The Claw Date: [REDACTED] Compiled by: [REDACTED] Distribution: Eyes Only – Tier 1 Command, Allied Intelligence Liaison

Executive Summary:

The Claw is a rogue paramilitary organization operating beyond the bounds of legal and state-controlled frameworks. Comprised primarily of former military operatives, the group has demonstrated capabilities consistent with Tier 1 special operations units. Their strategic pattern of engagement, combined with their disregard for international law, classifies them as a high-risk transnational threat.

Background:

The organization draws its members from individuals who have been abandoned or exiled by their respective governments. Many are combat veterans with extensive experience in classified and high-risk operations. Disillusioned and discarded, some have since been flagged as threats to state security.

The group's origins remain unclear, but the presence of former operatives from NATO, Warsaw Pact nations, and non-state actors suggests a broad, decentralized recruitment model. One of the group's senior figures, known by the alias Markov, is confirmed to be a defector formerly affiliated with the KGB.

Operational Profile:

Structure: Non-hierarchical cell-based units

Tactics: High-speed raids, direct action, sabotage, black-market contracting

Known Activities:

Contracted operations for private clients and non-state actors

Targeted raids on enemy strongholds, weapons caches, and covert installations

Engagements involving acts of piracy, smuggling, and tactical robbery when resources are low

The Claws exhibit strategic flexibility—shifting from high-level mercenary work to resource-based criminal activity without loss of cohesion or discipline.

Impact Assessment:

Since its emergence, The Claw has conducted high-value attacks against assets belonging to the CIA, MI6, and the FSB (formerly KGB). Their operations have resulted in significant personnel loss, data compromise, and mission disruption.

Field agents engaging with this group are advised to proceed under strict containment protocols. Hostile contact should be treated as black-level engagement: no quarter expected, none given.

Recommendations:

Elevate threat designation to Priority Black – Tier 1

Initiate joint tracking operation with Allied Counter-Insurgency Units

Classify The Claw as a Non-State Hostile Force (NSHF)

Restrict dissemination of intelligence beyond Tier 1 Command

END OF REPORT CLASSIFIED – DO NOT DUPLICATE

"Remember, kid, the strong survive, and the weak perish. There is no room for mercy in this world."

CONFIDENTIAL DOSSIER – EYES ONLY INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS DIVISION FILE No. 4267-A / CLASSIFIED SUBJECT: YURI MARKOV DATE: June 3, 1964 ORIGIN: Berlin Station / Field Unit 4 SECURITY RATING: LEVEL BLACK – PRIORITY SUBJECT

SUBJECT PROFILE:

Yuri Markov is a former Major in the Red Army and an ex-agent of the KGB, formerly attached to operations in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Known for exceptional tactical acumen and advanced psychological manipulation techniques. The subject exhibited strong ideological alignment during early service years, but appears to have become disillusioned following internal purges and ideological realignments post-1956.

BEHAVIORAL SHIFT / DEFECTION RISK:

Signals intelligence from intercepted field transmissions in Prague and Odessa suggest Subject severed ties with all former chains of command as early as late 1960. Further reports indicate possible mental destabilization due to operational overexposure and the loss of ideological clarity. Markov has since re-emerged as the founder of an independent paramilitary faction known as “The Claw”.

GROUP OVERVIEW – “THE CLAW”:

An unaligned mercenary outfit operating outside state control. Intelligence assessments suggest the group consists primarily of:

Former Warsaw Pact operatives

Expelled military specialists

Political dissidents and rogue elements

Modus Operandi:

High-speed raids

Arms theft

Strategic sabotage

Contracted eliminations

The group answers to no flag, ideology, or doctrine beyond personal gain and operational dominance.

SECURITY BREACHES / THREAT ASSESSMENT:

As of Q2 1964, confirmed involvement of The Claw in:

The raid on Safehouse Echo (MI6, Vienna)

Disruption of CIA asset extraction near Budapest

Interception of coded dispatch intended for French SDECE

Subject Markov is considered HIGHLY DANGEROUS. He operates with absolute autonomy and demonstrates military-level discipline within his ranks. He has no known family, no state allegiance, and is driven solely by control and survival.

ACTIONABLE DIRECTIVES:

Subject is to be tracked under OPERATION BLACK WOLF

Immediate escalation to INTERAGENCY PRIORITY LEVEL

Field operatives are NOT to engage without command approval

If contact occurs, the Subject is to be neutralized or rendered for extraction

FILE END TOP SECRET – DESTROY AFTER READING STAMP: [REDACTED / COLD WAR OPERATIONS UNIT – EASTERN BLOCK MONITORING]

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huskynotwolf · 7 months ago

Text

Ok I don’t think I’ll remember everyone’s superpowers so I’m just gonna put them here? I’m not even sure what Joel’s power is.

Grian: Mimic

Gem: Astral Projecting

Joel: Slime (Kinda like those little characters in video games? He can double jump and triple jump ect.)

Impulse: Teleportation

Pearl: Elytrain

Scott: Shapeshifter but with Animals (and they have to be in sight)

Cleo: Necromancer

Martyn: Heightened Hearing

Ren: DNA duplication (shapeshifting)

BigB: Creaking Summoner/Leader

Tango: Super Speed

Etho: Breeze (Can jump really high?)

Bdubs: Time Powers

Lizzie: Smoke Bomb

Jimmy: Invisibility

Scar: Can ride people and has knockback II or smth

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heian-era-housewife · 10 months ago

Text

Synopsis | Tired of being overlooked by your handler (and longstanding crush) Shiu Kong, you decide it's time to show him what a knock out you really are. Will a trip to the aquarium finally help open his eyes?

Content | g/n assassin!reader x shiu kong, fluff, swearing, cigarettes/smoking

Word Count | ~3.5k

Prologue ○ The Date ○ The Photos

Most assassins start out the same. Down on their luck. Blessed, or cursed perhaps, with a particular set of skills. Nothing that could be considered useful in a typical workplace, of course. Lonely. Desperate, maybe. A bit apathetic.

Then, one way or another, the opportunity presents itself. An offer that comes to them in their most vulnerable hour. A chance to meet two needs at once:

The first is money. Afterall, murder for hire doesn't come cheap. For someone who's had so little for so long, that kind of payout is hard to ignore.

The next is acceptance. Let's face it. The would-be assassin is usually a bit odd. And that "particular set of skills" mentioned earlier? They tend to fall firmly in the "red flag" category. So when those skills are met with intrigue and your peculiarity is given worth, you suddenly find yourself being valued. And who doesn't want to feel needed?

Yes, most assasins start out the same and you were no exception. These, plus your friendship with one Toji Fushiguro, are what led to your humble beginnings as an operative for notorious handler Shiu Kong.

You always had a knack for stealth. Sneaking up on people, going unnoticed, it seemed to come naturally. Perhaps that's why you always felt a little invisible. While Toji was a master of speed and weaponry, you could melt from the shadows like darkness itself. So, when Toji brought you in on a high-stakes heist, and you more than proved yourself as a capable (not to mention frighteningly lethal) ally, Shiu held out his hand and gladly welcomed you aboard.

Shiu was, in many ways, your opposite. Classy and sophisticated. A smooth talker with a gift for persuasion. Bit of a politician, really. You, on the other hand, were a classic maverick. Loose cannon with a loose tongue. Slipshod and off-color. You were friends with Fushiguro, after all. But, if you and Shiu had anything in common it was your keen eye for detail. He- an ex-detective with the skills to match. A regular Sherlock Holmes. You- a master of stealth and duplicity. A proverbial "fly on the wall". It became somewhat of a game to sneak up on your handler. What a thrill it was when the man who noticed everything was rendered flustered and shaken by your unexpected presence. It was through these little games, and your rapt observations, that you began to fall for the man who liked cheese and tropical fish.

And it was these same circumstances that led to your current predicament. Heart racing. Stomach in knots. Hand in hand in front of the Okinawa Aquarium with the very man you just kidnapped aprehended.

But now wasn't the time for nerves.

Pulling him along, you dashed up the long stairs before you, laughing as you looked back over your shoulder to see the sophisticated man stumbling along behind. He joined you in laughter, free hand grabbing at his fly-away tie, struggling to keep up. He looked boyish. Full of life. Hardened features and tired eyes giving way to playful innocence. Gaining his stride, he played along, chasing you the rest of the way up the stairs garnering a squeal from you where the toes of his dress shoes nabbed at your heels.

"Two please!" You gasped, catching your breath as you reached the ticket counter first.

"Please, let me." Shiu offered, patting his pockets. "Just gotta find my-"

"Money?" You finished, waving his own leather-bound wallet as you pulled it from your pocket with a cheeky wink.

"You little-"

"Thanks, boss!" You said with a wry smile. "I'll get us next time." Behind his annoyance, he could hardly conceal his smile. This strange date had barely begun, and he already liked the sound of "next time".

You reached for the pocket of his suit jacket, replacing the stolen wallet and swapping it for his pack of cigarettes.

"You know you can't smoke in there, you gonna survive?"

"Thief." He accused, snatching back the little red and white box.

"Addict." You shot back.

"Narc." He glared. "I'll be fine."

"Whatever you say," you shrugged, reaching up to fix his tie. Then, with a wink, "just let me know if that mouth of yours needs a distraction..." Shiu blushed a deep red that spread from his cheeks to the tips of his ears. "...'cuz I brought gum." You finished cheekily, unwrapping a stick and popping it into your mouth before snapping a small bubble between your teeth.

You really were dangerous, he thought to himself. Not just in the silent assassin sort of way, but in a way that could leave him more damaged than any weapon. You were a heartbreaker.

"What are those?" You asked, doing little to hide your disgust.

"I used to catch these. As a kid. Back in Korea." A distant look in his eyes reflected a memory you could not see. But that didn't stop you from imagining. You smiled thinking of the serious man as a young boy, exploring tidepools and combing the beach for shells. You wondered if his upbringing contributed to his interest in fish. You wondered what he was like as a child. If he grew up to be the man he wanted to be. You wondered-

"They're sea cucumbers, by the way." He said, pulling you from your daydream. "Crazy little things. No face, no limbs, just a digestive tract."

"Weird. So, what do they do?"

"Not much, really. Pretty much just eat, shit, and lay around."

"Oh, so just like Toji." You said with a grin.

That got him laughing. "You want to touch one?" He waved you closer. Truth be told, you'd been maintaining your distance for a reason. As an assassin, you had a high tolerance for the gross and grotesque, but something about the little turd-like creatures made you oddly squeamish. "C'mere." He said.

In an instant your hand was in his as he gently pulled it under the frigid water. Sliding his hand over the back of yours, he lifted two of your fingers and guided you down the length of the sea cucumber's back. It was soft and rubbery. Almost velvety in places, contracting like a muscle under your fingertips as you and Shiu drifted over.

Despite the unique sensation, you found it hard to focus on anything other than Shiu's touch. The warmth of his hand under the cool water. The confidence he'd gained just by entering the aquarium.

He was too rapt in the moment to realize he'd moved in closer. It was like a dream come true. Minus the slimy cucumber. But, you had to admit, even that was starting to grow on you.

The next hallway opened up to a kaleidoscope of bright colors and shimmering light. You had to shield your eyes a bit just to take it all in. Thousands of vibrant tropical fish swam in all directions, darting in and out of equally vibrant corals. A sign overhead read, "Sea of Tropical Fish". Your mind jumped to the image of Shiu's dating profile, "tropical fish" listed under his interests. His only interest.

Your chest swelled as you turned to look at him, hoping to glimpse the approval on his face. Instead, you found yourself standing alone, Shiu no longer behind you.

"Chromis viridis." You heard him mutter.

Where the hell was he?

"Chaetodon lunula."

Oh. How'd he get over there? The suited man was crouched, childlike, toward the floor of the exhibit. Entranced, it seemed, by what he saw.

"Zebrasoma veliferum!" He breathed in excitement.

"Boss...?" You approached slowly, not intending to startle him...this time. "Sh-Shiu?" You offered tentatively, never having used his given name before. It dripped from your lips like honey.

He spun around, eyes wide, a sharp frown hardening his handsome features. For a moment, you thought he might scold you for your breach of formality.

"Scarus spinus." He said jabbing a thumb over his shoulder at the tropical display.

"Come again?" You asked, beyond confused.

"Scarus spinus. The Greensnouted Parrotfish." He said thoughtfully. "I don't have this one at home."

"Wait, wait, wait." Your eyes shot open, gleaming in the brilliant light. "You've been over here spouting off the Latin names of all these fish??"

He nodded. A sense of pride washed over him as he awaited your words of praise at his impressive display of knowledge.

"Oh my God!" You stared at him in disbelief. "Shiu Kong..." His smile broadened. "I can't believe it! You're a gigantic fucking nerd!"

His face fell flat as you burst into raucus laughter. He stood, brushing his tailored slacks and turned to walk away, cheeks once again taking on a rosey hue.

"No, no, no, come back here, you!" You said, grabbing his wrist and halting his hasty retreat. "You don't get to walk away that easy. I came here to learn about fish, and you're going to teach me!"

He cast you a cinical look as you wiped a tear of laughter from your cheek.

"I'm serious." You said, smiling up at him. "Show me what you got, "Jacques Cousteau".

Setting his bruised pride aside, he told you the names of the tropical fish. Which ones he had, which ones he didn’t, ones that he wanted, and ones that were highly endangered.

You learned about mouthbrooders who held their babies, sometimes hundreds of them, deep in their mouth- throats and gills expanding to accommodate their many offspring.

You learned about corallivores. Fish that eat coral through a variety of adaptations. Some, called "excavators", even had human-like teeth and molars.

You learned about parrotfish who make mucus coccoons before they sleep to protect themselves from parasites and predators.

Most importantly, you learned that Shiu was so much more than what meets the eye. Smart and patient, charming and quirky. His serious nature and mob boss persona all just a front for a man whose essence was smoother and softer than silk.

"So, do you name them?" You asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Your fish! Do you name them?"

He laughed, waving off your question with a look that would fool no one. Certainly not you.

"You totally name them!" You jeered, nudging his ribs with a teasing elbow.

"One. One!" He caved, finally. "My first fish, 'Lucky Strike'."

"Like the cigarettes?" You said incredulously.

"Like the cigarettes." He agreed. "He's a silver arowana. Some people call them 'cigarette fish'. Maintaining their health is said to bring you luck."

"Hah!" You laughed. "How fitting. You said he was your first?"

"Mhmm. 15 years and still young. We've been through a lot together."

"That's...really sweet, actually."

Display after display led to more illuminating moments.

Your favorite areas were those that were dark and hushed. The dim light casting everything into monochrome, filtering through the water in soft lines like a film noir. Shiu's warm breath fanned your ear and neck as he spoke, low and quiet in these muted spaces. His face so close you could smell his aftershave. His hand now a constant presence in yours, as though he feared letting go might mean losing you to the shadows.

It was in one of these darkened hallways, bathed in dreamy blue light, that you caught your first glimpse of a massive spotted fin.

Gliding noiselessly by a large window, a tail, inky black and as tall as you, blocked the light momentarily as it drifted by. You tensed, startled by the unexpected sight, shrinking wordlessly into Shiu's arms, his chest shaking softly against your back with silent laughter at your trepidation. But as the hallway ended, the laughter stopped, both of you forced to hold your breath at the sight that followed.

From the second floor of a gigantic room, glass stretched wall to wall, floor to ceiling, you watched as two gargantuan whale sharks slid past each other in lazy circles. The creatures were stunning. Each the size of a city bus, they dwarfed the hundreds of fish that shared their tank and the dozens of people who had come to see them. Their beauty was unrivaled. Their magnitude, unbelievable. Every upturned face hung, slackjawed, in their shadow. Every awestruck eye was on them.

"Hey," Shiu hummed, lips intoxicatingly close to your ear. Goosebumps sending shivers in waves over your skin as he spoke. "Did you know there are over 80 species of coral in this tank?"

"Shiu Kong, you absolute nerd!" Your words came out as something of a choked whisper. "You're the only person here who cares about the damn coral!"

"You think?" He asked sincerely.

"I think you're missing the bigger picture." You laughed softly, gesturing to the giant fish before you.

"Or maybe," He said, bringing his cheek to rest against yours as he held a hand out indicating the tank's entirety, "you're only seeing part of it."

As you pulled your eyes away from the sharks, you began to see more of what he meant. An entire world of oceanic technicolor, rich in intricate detail, each as fascinating and beautiful as the next. Maybe you really did need to broaden your view.

Or maybe, you thought to yourself, settling further in Shiu's embrace, the best view was standing right behind you.

The tip of Shiu's nose was mere inches from yours. Steely eyes gazed warmly into your own as you stood, captivated by one another. Every feature, every crease, every striking detail as clear to you as ever. You felt like you could reach out and-

Bonk

"Crazy, right?" He said, stepping out from behind the 2-foot-thick acryllic.

"It's like it's not even there!" You shook the pain from your fingertips where your hand had jammed the crystal clear material.

The acryllic pillar was part of an educational area beyond the main ocean tank and served as an example of what the tank itself was made of. Despite its thickness, it appeared as thin as the average window and was so clean you could easily fool yourself into believing it wasn't there at all.

Beyond this lay a room of other hands-on displays and activities including-

"Origami!" You chirped, bouncing over to the station clearly intended for younger participants.

"Yeah...I don't think we need to-"

You shot Shiu the most soulful puppydog eyes you could muster, sidling up to the small table where a friendly attendent stood, teaching kids and parents how to fold tiny paper sting rays. He was utterly powerless.

20 minutes and several crumpled pieces of paper later, Shiu held in his hand a perfect paper sting ray and you- well... yours was... you tried.

"Stay close." Shiu said, not giving you much of a choice as he wrapped his arms around you. "Don't want you disappearing on me," he whispered into the shadows.

The final section of the aquarium, "Journey to the Deep Sea" was an immersive exhibit with almost no light, housing only those creatures who lived on the sea floor. Tank after tank featured deepwater sharks and wide-mouthed groupers, fish with no eyes and luminescent corals. Each creature more alien than the next, so bizarre they seemed like the work of fiction.

You were about halfway through this final floor when you noticed a shift in Shiu's behavior.

At first you chalked it up to nerves. Perhaps the real reason he held you so tight was not for concern of you slipping away, but for fear of the dark that he dared not mention, or an uneasiness brought about by its grotesque inhabitants.

In time, shaky hands became shaky arms. Squinted eyes against the darkness took on a pained expression, and his speech changed from informative quips to downright nervous rambling. "Mr. Composed and Sophisticated" appeared to be slowly falling apart, and it wasn't until his jittery hands left yours in order to take up desperate search of his pockets that you understood the reason.

The poor man was in dire need of a smoke.

“Shiu.” You said gently, working his hands in your own. “We're almost done, okay?” He looked confused. Hurt, even.

“I…don't want to be.” He admitted, an unsteady hand grazing the back of his neck.

“Me neither.” You smiled.

It wasn't the whale sharks or the giant manta ray that got his attention. Not the dolphins and their tricks, nor the many types of exotic sharks. It was the tiny spotted garden eels emerging from their sandy burrows. The glass shrimp that were nearly invisible with their transparent carapace. He liked the small and nameless fish you could find at any pet store. Even the sea grass, which you doubted anyone had ever cared about, earned a look of admiration from the modern-day mobster. He had an eye for the unseen and a heart for the unfavored. It was no wonder he had been such a skilled detective.

As you watched him take it all in with wide-eyed wonder, you realized too late you'd been tossed overboard- swept out to sea. Caught up in the tides of affection and left drowning in the deep. Without even trying, he had you- hook, line, and sinker.

It was both to your horror and your unwavering joy that you found yourself desperately, hopelessly, shamelessly, and inescapably in love with Shiu Kong.

Choosing his words next words carefully, he mused, "So…remember that gum you mentioned earlier-"

His eyes went wide as your lips interlocked, your palms on his cheeks, fingers framing his ears. Then, closing his eyes, he pulled you in hungrily, passionately. One hand on your back, the other on your hip. Drinking you in with an unquenching thirst. You wondered if others might condemn your indecency, then realized you didn't care. This is why you brought him here. This is what you wanted. All these years of playing "gun-for-hire" it was all for him. The man who was tired of drinking alone. Who smelled of fine whiskey and cheap cigarettes. Who was so full of contrast and contradiction. The one who found beauty in the the places no one thought to look.

The man who liked cheese and tropical fish.

Shiu stirred, throat dry and eyes bleary.

What time is it?

Twilight shone through his parted curtains, bathing him in deep blue. For a moment, he felt like he was back in the dewey atmosphere of the Okinawa Aquarium.

The Aquarium.

Shiu scrambled out from under the covers, looking for his phone. 5 am. No messages. He looked down to see his usual sleepwear- a white t-shirt and pair of boxers.

Was he losing his mind? Had he dreamt the whole thing?

In the bathroom, no amount of face-splashing nor mirror-staring could help him recall how he'd gotten home, what happened after the date, what happened after the kiss...

His entire ride to work was a dreary blur. Memories of stingrays and jellyfish swam through his mind's hazy periphery, but sitting at the forefront was you. You with his wallet and that cheeky smile. You with your hand held warmly in his. You with your eyes so full of the ocean's depths. Surely it wasn't all just in his head.

Right?

At work, Fushiguro made no mention of his absence. Everything was exactly as he had left it. Staring blankly at his computer, worthless dating profile still up on the screen, he stiffened as you melted from the shadows behind.

"Still on that old thing?" You gestured to the screen.

Shiu stared, lips parted, scanning your features.

"Speechless, huh? I get that a lot." You winked. "Did'ya do anything fun this weekend?"

He gulped. Mouth dry. He thought he had. Now he was forced to admit it had all been some maladaptive daydream. A desperate wish conjured up by his own drunken loneliness.

"I...I don't know..." He said with a faraway look.

"Ah well," you said with a wave as you bounced toward the door in a cheerful saunter. "They can't all be memorable."

Casting his gaze downward, a small black and white something caught Shiu's eye.

A bit of paper sat upon his desk. In the low light of the office it looked like trash at first, something he had crumpled up in frustration. But as his eyes adjusted, he was able to make out the vague features of a small, poorly folded bit of origami in the shape of a-

"Sting ray..." Shiu whispered to himself, thoughts firing fast.

"Pardon?" You paused in the doorway.

Confidence returning, a growing smile flickering across his face, he asked, "Do you want to grab a drink with me later?"

A bashful hand flew to your mouth as you feigned your reserve. "Mr. Kong, are you asking me out on a date?"

"You can save the theatrics." He said with a sly grin. "This one's on you, remember?" He said, searching his pockets.

"Looking for this?" You held up the leather-bound wallet with a teasing wink.

"You little-"

Darting from the room in a fit of laughter, Shiu went to give chase before pausing and returning quickly to his computer. He hovered for a moment over the still-open dating profile, considering, before making up his mind.

As he ran from the room, long legs quickly catching up to your stride, leather dress shoes nabbing at your heels, two words remained on the illuminated screen:

Account deleted.

Special shout out to @heian-era-househusband who not only came up with the idea for the ending of this story, but listened to me gripe, moan, and reread this horrendous tale for WEEKS until we were both blue in the gills.

Fun fact (if you're still here): Mr. Househusband proposed to me at an aquarium, in an underwater tunnel, surrounded by sea lions. He is now and forever more my one and only aquarium date. And I have been known to steal his wallet on occasion.

Fin.

#jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk fic #jjk fluff #shiu kong #kong shiu #jjk shiu #shiu kong x reader #shiu kong x you #shiu kong x y/n #shiu x you #shiu x reader #shiu x y/n #shiu #jjk x reader

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radioactive-earthshine · 2 months ago

Note

Just found your blog, love the way you talk about Bart Allen (plus konbart lol)

I got some questions if that’s ok?

1: what’s some of your favorite facts about Bart Allen?

2: what’s some of your favorite headcanons of Bart Allen?

3: what voice do you hear for Bart every time you read his speech bubbles?

4: do you have your own universe/Earth?

Hi! I love seeing you in my notifications! I hope you're enjoying your time here.

1: what’s some of your favorite facts about Bart Allen?

I can only do a few of these otherwise I won't stop talking.

He has a lot of zeal for life and curiosity.

He's always willing to give almost anything a try when it comes to his media which ranges from liking shows like Patty Duke to R Rated movies like Pulp Fiction.

His creator Mark Waid didn't intend to write him so well as an autistic character, in fact he had never even heard of the term until many years after he stopped writing for him, but since he's become more familiar with autism he supports people seeing Bart as autistic. Will he canonize this? Doubtful but you never know.

Bart really is the most teenager character ever - he's not immature for his age he's literally a teenager. It's not his fault all other teen characters are held to so high a standard.

He is without shame or bias.

2: what’s some of your favorite headcanons of Bart Allen?

He uses video games to SLOW DOWN and calibrate his own speed. No matter how fast you push a button, a video game can only go so fast - he cannot make the video game go faster so he has to slow down to play them.

He's a White Flash and a very special type of speedster.

Because he was born in an interstellar mixed society, it is very unlikely that he genetically 100% human. It is very likely that the Thawnes in their long history on Earth had interspecies reproduced with one of the many, many aliens humanity had formed a relationship with. This could explain why his eyes are yellow but that could just be the Speed Force.

I personally think he might have a little bit of Cargite in him because of his ability and ease to create Speed Force duplicates. He might not be able to duplicate himself at all biologically, but the Speed Force clones come naturally to him. (This will only make sense to LoSH fans).

He's demiromantic, pansexual. He's not going to be interested in ANYONE until they know his own personal lore and he makes a significant connection with them - meanwhile he will walk down any street just so long as the view is nice.

He has future education and knowledge that clashes a lot with the education he had to choke down in the 20th century - particularly when it comes to sex education as he is from a future with genders we cannot begin to conceptualize across multiple species as (once again) his birth time is a mixed society.

Wally was mildly annoyed and overjoyed when he tried to give Bart "the talk" as his cousin closest to his age (Max REFUSED) only to have Bart give him a very perplexed look because he already knew everything he needed to know, and more than him anyway. Does Wally know about Xudarian "estrus" cycles? No, no he does not. Does this information help Bart? In this time, not really. But he knows it.

3: what voice do you hear for Bart every time you read his speech bubbles?

You know, Jason Marsden really was the perfect cast. Otherwise I just hear my own voice in a lower pitch (people tell me I sound like Leela from Futurama but idk).

4: do you have your own universe/Earth?

I feel like it is very hard for a fan of comics to not have their own little personal canon and world that they like to dream on. Sometimes it is made of of multiple details across media or sometimes a collection of canon or omissions of details - and I am no different really.

I have a lot of AUs in combination with my own little personal canon (Bart never became The Flash, and if he did he wasn't aged up he was just 16, fuck that BS).

Right now the two main AUs that are picking my brain the most right now are the Runaway AU where Wally tried to take Bart in and Bart ran away, and the Black Zero continuity that is canon but we don't have any information on Bart.

Bart does not survive that one sadly and BZ is very upset. We all need one fucked up story, it's antiseptic.

Oh, I also did my own little AU in my fic Sunshine. Falling. but it was more for Fira than anything that is a mix of details they personally love a lot and so do I to an extent. My tastes have shifted a bit since I published it but it's still a fine world I think. If I rewrote it today though it would be quite different.

Thank you so much for the questions! It was a joy to ramble about this speedy boy.

#bart allen

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kyunghwannie · 2 months ago

Note

If they really had their powers from the Signal MV, how would they try to use those powers in a NSFW way?

KYUNGHWANNIE'S "TWICE: SIGNAL BUT MAKE IT SMUT" – A VERY NSFW SUPERPOWER FANTASY

(Disclaimer: This is 100% horny, 200% unethical superpower usage, and 300% sparkly degeneracy. Let’s begin.)

1.) NAYEON – TIME REVERSAL

The Power: "Oops~ Did you cum too fast? Let’s try that again."

The Depravity:

You finish embarrassingly quick. She pouts, taps her watch—and suddenly, you’re hard again, her lips wrapped around your cock like nothing happened.

"How many times should we redo this, oppa?~" she teases, reversing time every time you’re about to climax.

Result: You’re a sobbing, overstimulated mess, begging her to let you cum.

2.) JEONGYEON – TIME FREEZE

The Power: "Stay. Right. There."

The Depravity:

She freezes time mid-thrust, leaving you trapped inside her, her walls clenching around you while she adjusts her angle.

"You’re mine now," she growls, unfreezing just long enough for you to jerk before stopping time again.

Result: You’re desperate, hips twitching helplessly as she edits your pleasure like a damn video.

3.) MOMO – SUPER SPEED

The Power: "Fast enough for you?~"

The Depravity:

She vibrates on your lap, her pussy a blur of heat and friction. You see double, feel triple—every nerve overloaded by her speed.

"Cum for me, quick~" she giggles, doubling her pace until you’re screaming.

Result: You black out. She high-fives herself.

4.) SANA – INVISIBILITY

The Power: "Guess where I am~"

The Depravity:

You feel lips on your neck… then your chest… then lower—but you can’t see her. Just the wet sounds of her mouth working your cock.

"Found me yet?~" Her tongue flicks your tip—then she’s gone again.

Result: You’re frantically grabbing at air, moaning her name like a prayer.

5.) JIHYO – X-RAY VISION

The Power: "I can see everything."

The Depravity:

She stares at you, watching your cock throb inside her, your muscles tensing as you fight not to cum.

"You’re close. Don’t hide it from me," she purrs, squeezing just where she knows you’re weakest.

Result: You explode on command, her eyes locked on your pulsing dick like it’s her new religion.

6.) MINA – HYPNOSIS

The Power: "Look into my eyes…"

The Depravity:

One glance, and you’re hers—obeying every whispered order. "Touch yourself." "Beg." "Cum only when I say."

She rides you lazily, her hips rolling as she controls your pleasure like a puppet.

Result: You’re mindless, drooling and chanting her name like a mantra.

7.) DAHYUN – SELF-DUPLICATION

The Power: "More of me? Okay!"

The Depravity:

Suddenly, there’s three of her—one riding your cock, one grinding on your face, one whispering filth in your ear.

"Which one’s your favorite?~" they all giggle, synchronized in their movements.

Result: You’re drowning in Dahyun, her moans echoing in stereo.

8.) CHAEYOUNG – TELEKINESIS

The Power: "Hands off. I’ll do it myself."

The Depravity:

Her mind pins you down, an invisible force spreading your legs, lifting your hips, jerking you off without her touching you.

"You’re so easy," she smirks, her thoughts stroking you exactly how she wants.

Result: You cum hands-free, her laugh ringing in your ears

9.) TZUYU – SUPER STRENGTH

The Power: "I could break you… but I’ll be gentle."*

The Depravity:

She flips you like a ragdoll, pinning you beneath her with one hand. Her thighs crush your hips as she bounces, her strength making every thrust earth-shattering.

"You like being manhandled, don’t you?" she murmurs, squeezing your wrists until you whimper.

Result: You’re bruised, exhausted, and addicted.

FINAL VERDICT:

✨ "iam doomed. But what a way to go."

— KYUNGHWANNIE (Iam just a poor boy for their pleasure) 💎🔥

P.S. "Yes, I volunteered as tribute. No, I don’t regret it." 😈

#twice smut

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smashy-headcanons · 4 months ago

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So, going off of that group of Classic Mode clear pics and challenges pics- since it would be pretty funny if some of these were things the characters actually did or at least posed for a picture for, do you have any headcanons for what's happening in some of them?

The bat Luigi had was not the actual Home Run Bat, it was just a foam duplicate. Still perfect for bonking, though.

Everyone mistakenly assumes that Navi has healing powers despite being a guidance fairy, and she's had to slip out of people's grasps more times than she can count.

There are few things Mewtwo trusts less than a man in a lab coat, so when it got sick once, it resisted Dr. Mario's help. And, of course, when Mewtwo feels threatened, it goes on the offensive, at full power. It took the Wii Fit Trainers' help to get it taken care of, but they suffered several (thankfully short-lasting) bruises as a result.

Prior to Smash 4, Roy Fire Emblem never rode on a motorized vehicle like a car, not even during his Melee days. It was only when Roy Koopa convinced him to go for a test ride on his Clown Car. The ride had Roy Fire Emblem equal parts excited and nervous.

The female Wii Fit Trainer has a secret talent for magic tricks that she doesn't show off very often.

Pichu likes huddling under small spaces, and frequently chills with Snake under his box.

The more familiar other fighters get with the Mario reps, the less they really understand what the dynamic is with Mario and Bowser anymore. Everyone else, including the Mario reps, fully believe that Mario & Bowser are simply nemeses and don't understand where the confusion comes from at all.

The only one who knows about female!Wii Fit Trainer's feelings for Bayonetta is male!Wii Fit Trainer. ...Okay, him and Bayonetta.

Having once uncovered the head of a broken down R.O.B. for Olimar, the Pikmin followed a similar procedure when they found a fully constructed R.O.B., and fortunately for them, this one wasn't too big to knock down and carry. Unfortunately for R.O.B., Pikmin are both very strong and not smart in the slightest, and therefore didn't realize that simply knocking him over so he couldn't move was not, in fact, the same as killing him. Fortunately, Alph was quick to help R.O.B. stand back up after they released him.

Ryu lost a bet once. The Ice Climbers made damn sure that he followed through with what he agreed to.

Seeing Crazy Hand flying Greninja around at high speed for funsies, King Dedede managed to climb on top of Master Hand and tried to get him to do the same. Master Hand wasn't having it.

Mega Man once got busy doing a little too much indoor work and his battery depleted. So, naturally, Master Hand took him outside to recharge.

#too many to tag #smashy headcanons #super smash bros #headcanon #ask #basedstoutland #mine #shipping #long post

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starflungwaddledee · 3 months ago

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I couldn't help but notice you color your line art sometimes. Do you have any tips on colored line art?

hiii there! thank you for asking!!

just a heads up that i'm notoriously bad at "teaching", and i'm assuming an amount of general knowledge of art programs + layer modes!

i actually don't often "colour" my lineart, at least not in the way a lot of other folks do! i'm used to working as streamlined as possible and developed quick-fire workarounds for most steps during my time in webcomics!

i also have multiple lineart styles! a more textured one with thin lines which i typically use for more polished pieces, and a soft-brush sketch style (inspired by my pal @moonverc3x's lovely lines) that i generally use for less detailed works, though i sometimes get carried away 😅💦

my textured lines don't lend themselves well to those nice and thoughtful coloured lines most folks do. but here's a quick breakdown of my techniques using the soft-brush style!

lines and flats 1) make lineart + flat colour it. my lines are never at 100% opacity, so already some of the colour shows through them anyway! 2) set the lines to multiply mode. because my lines are typically in a colour and not black, this usually works well enough for me, as you can see in the second image! i frequently just call it done here!

hand coloured lines a) if i do want to take the time to colour the lines individually- often things like metals, especially warm golds, require this added detail to really help them pop- i'd just lock the layer opacity and pick a colour that suited and apply where needed. this is fairly standard! b) a second version of the same technique, with higher contrast/more saturation to suit my tastes and a little extra finessing (especially around the eyes). this is very much a "to taste and time/energy" thing! sometimes at this stage i'll add high contrast slaps of colour such as bright purple or blue

my overlay-lines technique a) the second technique that i use is actually very fast and usually gives an okay-enough look. it's what i use for high-speed professional webcomic work (with my textured lines) to give the illusion of individually coloured lines for basically zero effort. so starting with the base lines set to multiply, as seen in (2), then, b) duplicate both the lines and the colours (with shading, if you have it). clip the colours to the duplicated lineart layer, ostensibly "colouring" the copied lines the exact same colour as the colours. set this duplicated layer to overlay, and adjust opacity as needed

you can kinda see that the overlay lines method is not as specific in colour as the hand-picked ones above, and it will suffer from overlap based on where your flats come to underneath the lines. but i find it helps especially when you have high contrast light colours in the work (ie starstruck's face mask) as the lighter colours brighten up the linework in those places significantly.

for highly polished works i would come back and still pick out areas to finesse individually. there's ultimately no quick substitute for spending more time on your work!

there's about a thousand and one other combinations of these effects you can do, such as using the duplicated lines on multiply instead, or further painting over the top, etc etc. but duplicating the colour layer and clipping it to the lineart is one of the techniques i developed that sped up my work process most significantly over the years!

#starflungs process tag #my art #starstruck dee #asks #i don't typically talk about my method because it's pretty sloppy and i really am just not good at teaching!#been told it repeatedly over the years so you get what you get sorry! 😅💦#fwiw i'm working in paint tool sai. most programs should have these kinds of features and layer modes.#if yours doesn't i'm sorry but i don't know how to help!#starstruck is also a somewhat biased example for this sort of thing due to the fact she's quite monochromatic in colour #if you put pink lineart on her she looks good because she's basically just pink all over. when you have high contrast designs-#it's harder to make these quick techniques work and you have to spend a bit more time fiddling around at the end to fix edges.#anyhow! hope this helps some folks!! lmk if it helps you out!

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markantonys · 3 months ago

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How do you make your gifs such high quality?

first of all, thank you! my giffing method is definitely not the most HQ way to do it, other gifmakers are out there making beautiful stuff from like super-ultra-4k episode downloads, but my method is easy and low effort (and low storage space on my computer since i only record clips rather than downloading entire episodes) while still looking pretty good even if not AS good as others, so i'm content with it haha i will share it below!

required tools (this is the only way i've ever made gifs in my entire life, so if you don't have these tools then unfortunately i can't be of much assistance):

high-quality video source (the highest quality you can get is best, but i myself am content to use just Normal HQ rather than going the extra mile to obtain The Most HQ Version Ever Possible)

screenrecording app (i use the free windows xbox app)

photoshop (i use version CS5)

general knowledge of gifmaking and photoshop. i'm giving a broad overview rather than detailed step-by-step, under the assumption that you're already a gifmaker yourself!

quality of source material is always the biggest contributor to gif quality, in my experience. this is where the super-ultra-4k downloads come into play for other people, but for me, i keep it simple: all i do is screenrecord the show i'm watching using the free windows xbox app

so for WOT for example, i will have the episode up in prime video player and screenrecord it directly from there. unfortunately, they've cracked down on screenrecording & screenshotting, but so far i've been able to get around it by using firefox and unchecking the below firefox browser settings, which are checked off by default. the downside of this method is that without this setting, the picture gets a bit choppy here and there and i might have certain portions of a gif that are unusable because the picture jumped too drastically between one frame and the next, but for the most part it's Fine (i must again emphasize that i follow the Low Effort Giffing Method haha)

next i go into photoshop. i've always used the "import video frames to layers" method for giffing, wherein you select that option in photoshop, pull up the video you're using, and highlight the portion of the video you want to turn into a gif, and then photoshop converts it into individual frames for you (i get the sense that the screencapping method is more popular, but it seems so confusing to me, so i've never tried it!)

the downside of using the "import video frames to layers" method instead of the screencapping method is that it might pull in the occasional duplicate frame, so you have to diligently click through every single frame and delete any dupes, otherwise the gif will look laggy in some places.

for the frame speed, i usually set it at 0.06 seconds (but will make it slower if it's a really tiny gif with a very small number of frames, such that the normal speed makes it look too fast, though this is more of a concern for giffing miniscule shots from trailers rather than normal shots from full episodes!)

once my frames are all set, i click "convert to timeline animation", select all the frames, and do "layer->smart objects->convert to smart object". this makes it so that all the individual frames are condensed into 1 single photoshop layer (while still displaying properly as a series of individual frames in the gif itself; if you convert to smart object BEFORE converting to timeline animation then it will make it so that only the first frame is visible for the whole gif, which we don't want), and that way i can apply sharpening and coloring layers in bulk instead of having to do it frame by frame.

i won't get deep into coloring here since that's less relevant to the picture quality of a gif, but i generally take somewhat of a "less is more" approach to coloring, because i find that the image quality does get pixelated if i alter the shot's natural colors, brightness, and contrast TOO drastically. for example, here is the below gif with and without coloring (but with sharpening for both) - you can see that it's pretty similar, i just enhanced what was already there by increasing the brightness, increasing the vibrance, doing a bit of color manipulation to make it more warm-toned and less green-toned (personal preference), and adding a touch of contrast (though not much since this is already a naturally-shadowy scene; contrast is finicky depending on the original lighting of a shot, sometimes i increase it a little, sometimes i increase it a lot, and sometimes i decrease it). definitely NOT my favorite example of my coloring, good god how i hate white tower interior lighting haha but it was the most recent psd i still had on hand and it gets the point across!

next, these are my sharpening settings (using photoshop's "smart sharpen" filter, applied onto the smart object i just created). the one on the left is my usual setting for gifs, which is a more dramatic sharpening, and the one on the right is my milder sharpening settings, which i tend to use for screencaps/still images. for the more dramatic sharpening, i might sometimes play around with it or decrease the % amount if i'm feeling that it looks too harsh on a particular gif.

for an example, here is that same gif with and without sharpening (but with coloring for both). i used the lefthand more dramatic sharpening settings, although i ended up decreasing to 200% because the 300% looked a little too harsh on this particular gif. but most of the time 300% looks fine to me.

these are the settings i use when saving it as a gif. don't really know what half of them mean, i probably just pulled them off some tutorial years ago!

also, dimensions! the proper tumblr dimensions are:

1 gif across: 540px width, any height

2 gifs across: 268px width each, any height

3 gifs across: 177/178px width each, any height (technically, the right and left gifs should be 177 and the center gif should be 178)

max filesize for tumblr is 10MB

after saving the gif, i open the new gif that was created and readjust the frame speed to 0.06 seconds because converting to timeline animation and then saving will cause the speed to slow down, for whatever reason. so gotta make sure to open the final gif and resave it with the correct speed so that it doesn't turn out too slow.

potentially important tumblr-specific trick! this was years ago that i first heard it so i have NO idea if it's still relevant, but i always do it for every gif just in case: make 1 frame a different speed than all the others, and this (maybe) will prevent tumblr from compressing the gif and decreasing the quality, or something like that. i don't fully remember the purpose of the trick and no clue if it still works or is still needed, but regardless, i always set the entire gif at 0.06 seconds except for one frame, which i instead change to either 0.07 or 0.05. it's not noticeable at all, and it helps avoid tumblr wrecking the quality (if that's still a thing and i'm not just making up random stuff).

#anonymous #answered

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cinder-aj · 7 days ago

Text

It’s a long drive from your workplace in the city to your quiet home in the sticks. The sun went down around an hour ago, but it’s already pitch black out. Your headlights don’t seem to illuminate enough even with high beams, and you’re feeling sleepy following the twists and turns of the forested road. Speed limit: 50.

You’ve been this way thousands of times, but every night it’s made unfamiliar. You round another corner and suddenly see an enormous long-legged shape standing frozen before you, its eyes blazing white. You slam on the brakes and- CRASH! You pull over to inspect the damage to your car and the animal. You wince at the smashed windshield and dented fender, but your heart pangs with guilt at the sight of the creature. It’s breathing heavily and its limbs are twisted in unnatural ways… but it doesn’t look quite right for a deer. It has too many limbs, and its eyes are slitted and predatory. Instead of matted fur, its body is covered in thick scales. Its broken legs end in claws the size of your hand.

Whatever guilt you had couples with a fear as paralyzing as your headlights when the creature struggles to get up. In the polarizing spotlight, you get a glimpse of just how enormous its wings are. A creature so alien and yet at the same time so familiar in legends and pop culture that you can immediately recognize it. Its throat glows a dangerous orange and it opens its maw wider than any deer should with teeth that are way too sharp. The brimstone smell of flames hits your nose, and you dash back to your car. That is not a bear, not a bobcat, not a coyote or wolf, and that is NOT a deer.

I'm most proud of the wings and antennae! They turned out perfectly, much to my surprise. What I like the least is how splotchy the texture/color looks in some parts. I must have duplicated a mesh on accident while modeling, but they're merged, so I couldn't do anything. Ah, well. Pretty good for my first project with the program, right?!

School art project! Attempted using Blender for the first time in order to create a scene of my Castaway oc, Aloe, in highbeams.

Inspired by found footage and the Starflesh aesthetic, I thought my beginner-level modeling capabilities would lend well to the horror and uncanniness of driving at night and an animal suddenly crossing your path that isn't what it's supposed to be.

#oc #original character #wings of fire #dragon character #alien #alien oc #original world #blender #dragon #wof #short story #story #horror #found footage

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chaoxfix · 2 years ago

Note

tails + "how long do you think you could hide that" perhaps

The Sonic Boom really should have been warning enough. However, growing up around them meant that Tails had more or less tuned them out. Sonic coming and going at his own speed (Mach 2) was simply a fact of life.

Plus, Station Square had always been pretty noisy. There could have been a thousand reasons that the sky suddenly shook. Especially since Extreme Gear had just crossed the speed of sound, and plenty of teenagers were using them more often despite them being restricted. (But like, who was going to catch them at that speed? Sonic? Even if the mayor asked him to, he’d just give them a high five.)

So no, Tails did not react. He’d learned to tune them out when working years ago; most of the time, he could even sleep through them.

Fatal error number one, really.

But Tails would never have expected Sonic to turn up here.

After all, despite being gifted a New Station Square penthouse, Sonic never came here.

At best, it was a place for Sonic to store all the Sonic-The-Hedgehog-themed gag gifts his friends gave him over the years.

(And yes, Tails is a little creeped out by the sheer amount of it, despite being the one to purchase at least a third of it. When he arrived at night, he’d tried keeping the lights off so he could pretend it wasn’t as decked out as it clearly was in the daytime, but the glow-in-the-dark shower curtain jump-scared him. His tails had stayed bushy for a full half-hour after. Ugh.)

Sonic hadn’t been able to get out of legally owning it, either. So despite still being a nomad in name and practice and worldview, Sonic T. Hedgehog officially had an apartment in New Station Square. Which meant to save face he would absolutely, never, under any circumstances, come here.

And he especially wouldn’t come here looking for Tails.

That’s what Tails thought, at least, until, a minute after the Sonic Boom, the door burst open.

Tails, clad in an oversized Sonic Sez T-Shirt, blinks up at him. As embarrassing as the shirt is, he’s glad he’s wearing it, because what’s underneath is way worse.

“Way to check in,” Sonic says, in lieu of hello. “‘Yeah, I definitely am going home after this,’” he mimics. “‘I’ll just be working on some software updates for Tailsblr, don’t worry, you can go check out the Spagonia ruins, I’ll be fine!’”

“I don’t sound like that.”

Sonic arches a brow.

“I don’t!” Tails, embarrassed, scrunches his face up in a pursed-lip pout. It’s incredibly tough-looking, he knows. “What are you doing here, anyways?”

Sonic glances around at the Sonic-themed apartment. “...Are you going to make me say it, or-”

“Never thought you’d call this ‘your’ apartment,” Tails mumbles.

“Okay, point.” Sonic leans in the doorway, effectively blocking Tails’s only exit, unless he busts open a window. Which he doesn’t want to do. The Sonic-themed-stained glass would be almost impossible to duplicate, and Amy paid good money for that birthday… ‘gift’. “You gonna tell me what you’re doing here, though? And why you haven’t checked in with anyone?”

Tails crosses his arms over his chest. He definitely doesn’t look petulant. Wincing ruins it, but he does his best to play it off, putting on an annoyed expression he’s not sure Sonic totally believes. “...no.”

Sonic, predictably, eyes Tails. And the shirt he’s wearing. “I came all this way though?” he says, faux casually. “Nice digs, by the way.”

“I figured it would be good camouflage.”

“Hiding from me got that serious, huh?”

What is there to say to that, exactly? Tails huffs, but ruins it with the way he toes his foot against the ground. Unsocked, because his usual ones are washing – and he couldn’t, surprisingly, find any Sonic-themed socks among the mess. He could’ve found slippers, but his paws were big enough as it was.

Sonic, as always, takes it upon himself to fix it. He steps closer, unsubtly poking around him trying to find an injury.

Tails turns away, trying to avoid Sonic getting too close, but it’s a losing battle with a decisive defeat when he winces again. Sonic sees it, because of course he does, and capitalizes on it immediately.

“We really have to do this the hard way?”

It sounds almost petulant. Tails huffs. “I don’t know what you’re talking about-”

“It can’t possibly be more embarrassing than hiding here of all places.”

“Who said it was embarrassing?”

“Then you’ve got to give me an explanation, because otherwise that’s what I’m going with, bud.” Sonic intentionally challenges him, maybe knows deep down that it’s something else. When Tails doesn’t offer an explanation though, Sonic just sighs. “Alright, guess I’m just gonna assume you’re hiding out here licking your wounds…”

Tails grimaces. There’s no putting it off or getting out of it, is there?

With a sigh, Tails finally stops squirming away, though his tails continue to swish in annoyance. But the battle is over, and he knows he’s lost. So with a grand, over-dramatic sigh, he lifts the shirt, which loosely conceals bandages, and more importantly, a back brace.

“I have to wear it for another week,” he grumbles, lowering the shirt back down, because an oversized Sonic Sez Stay In School! shirt (...did they even ask Sonic before they made that slogan?) is way less embarrassing than the medical brace. “More, in theory, but by then I’ll be mobile enough to make myself a cool exoskeleton so I can go back to helping.”

Sonic raises both brows. “I, uh,” he starts, looking for a moment at a loss for words. He stares.

Tails decides to cut him a break. “I’ve been using the sketch pads here to draft out all the important parts of the exoskeleton,” he continues, “And honestly, I’ll probably keep using it for a while after this heals, because it’ll be useful for heavy artillery. Similar to what I used around the time we met Shadow, just with actual support, because it was pretty uncomfortable-”

“Okay, that’s great, but, I fail to see why you’d… hide that?”

Tails’s whiskers twitch. “It’s hard to move. Meaning I can’t help with anything going on.”

“Yeah? And that sucks, but it’s not– you should’ve told me.” How long did you think you could hide that, anyways? It's not a big deal, not to be on missions, but- I mean, there's more than matters than just that."

“It's not a big deal, injuries just suck,” Tails cuts in, cutting Sonic off from any other unnecessary worry, or so he hopes. Sonic stares at him blankly. “Besides, you would’ve felt like you needed to check in a ton, and you- you’ve been itching to go and do things again. And it’s important to stop Eggman’s newer plans. I’d just have slowed you down.”

“Slowed me down.” Sonic tilts his head to the side. “I guess, from a certain kind of view, I could maybe, sort of, see that logic.” Tails almost feels relieved, before Sonic adds, “You know, if I was heartless. Which you know I’m not. So I'm serious, please tell me it's something else.”

Tails squirms under the scrutiny. He shrinks in on himself, crossing his arms tightly over himself despite the ache it causes. All the while, Sonic is still looking him over, puzzling it through. Letting Tails’s silence and inability to refute that speak for itself.

Tails sees the exact moment Sonic notices. He cringes. This was exactly what he was hoping to avoid.

Because the thing is, Sonic always hid away when he was injured or sick or dealing with too much. Sonic was all about the power of friendship, sure – but that was for Eggman. When it came to interpersonal problems, or god forbid physical weakness, Sonic was suddenly a cool loner. He’d always make some offhand comment about seeing a part of the world he hadn’t seen before (a dwindling number every day) and then they wouldn’t see him again for days, weeks, or months.

And, well.

It wouldn’t be the worst trait to pick up on. The whole world agreed that Sonic was a cool role model – the whole apartment around him agreed! Why would he be a bad role model here, too?

And if Tails was ever going to be a hero in his own right, too, well… Shouldn’t he learn to take care of himself?

“Ah,” Sonic says, eloquently. He opens his mouth, presumably for a speech, and comes up short again. He shifts a hand to his chin, clearly thinking hard.

“I think I smell something burning,” Tails says.

“Does no one trust me to do speeches anymore?”

“I honestly think you’ve gotten worse.”

Sonic levels a half-hearted glare, but the tug at the corner of his mouth tells Tails he’s not actually offended. Sonic reaches for his bangs, half-heartedly ruffles them. “Yeah. That’s why I’m trying to take my time and think this one through.”

Tails doesn’t duck away from the affection. But he can’t help but shrink into himself, just a little. Not in a bad way – but he hasn’t felt shy in ages. He feels like a kid again, which is exactly what he was trying to avoid.

Sonic must pick up on it, because he frowns a little. Then, punches Tails’s shoulder, light enough not to jostle his back. “Growing up doesn’t mean not leaning on your friends anymore,” he finally says. “We’ll always be around. You know that, right?”

Tails has a lot he could say to that – about being around.

He wisely keeps his mouth shut.

Sonic reads into it, sighs despite himself. Of course Tails should’ve guessed it was written on his face. They’d managed years without words. “Okay, yeah, but that’s an extreme circumstance – and you could’ve… should’ve had our friends around,” he says. “If I had actually kicked the bucket – that’s what I would’ve wanted. Our friends looking out for you.”

The unfairness of it all burns. “It's not an extreme circumstance when you already almost died again.”

Sonic rakes a hand back through his quills. “I really have gotten worse at speeches,” he mutters. “I don’t know. I’ve always been like this, though, keeping... issues to myself – but you haven’t.”

On account of being four years old, Tails chooses not to point out.

“Yes, okay, don’t look at me like that, I know you were a kid and kids need help and that’s okay! Good, even! But I always thought it was nice you didn’t get mad when I did stuff for you, even when you got older.”

Tails scuffs his goes against the floor again. “Because you like doing nice things for other people.”

“Sure,” Sonic agrees. “But it’s not like… -I always chose to look after you. Could’ve stopped whenever. Vanilla offered, sometimes. But I didn’t even let Knuckles babysit you unless it was like, an emergency-emergency.”

Tails’s face feels hot at the mere idea of being babysat at all. Impossible standards, he knows, for being four.

“I didn’t think you even minded being looked after, since we were always friends, not just… you know.” The word that doesn’t exist, Tails thinks, for their exact kinship. Siblings is closest, but there’s both more and less there, that the word doesn’t always fit. It's a puzzle piece that only mostly matches. “But then you were getting so good at things that had nothing to do with anything I taught you. Doing your own thing, being your own you,” Sonic continues. “...I guess I just never thought you’d take after me so much. I'm surprised, that's all.”

Tails ducks his head. The shirt is in his field of vision though, and it strikes him as the most absurd thing about all of this. Having a heart-to-heart, after all these years, in a room absolutely suffocated in Sonic merchandise.

Tails clearly isn’t the only one with a hero worship problem. The whole world seems to agree that Sonic's a role model.

He can’t quite find the words to say, ‘How could I have possibly taken after everyone else?’

“You’re giving yourself a lot of credit,” Tails says, managing a small smile, despite everything. “...Deserved credit, but still.”

He jerks a thumb over his shoulder, where he knows a gigantic Sonic head plush (six feet tall and just as wide) is looming. A gift from Vector.

“Saying I’ve got a big head?”

“I think they actually made it to scale,” Tails says with a grin. “But the important thing is… You don't need to think it's all you. You said it yourself, that I have all my own good traits. So I can’t let you act all guilty for my bad traits. Maybe I would’ve been like this anyways, who knows. But you don’t need to take credit, okay?”

Sonic blinks at him.

“I’m growing up. And maybe I didn’t need to hide away, or at least I could’ve told you where I was going,” Tails acknowledges. “But those are my mistakes to make. Okay? Not your responsibility.”

Sonic still looks surprised. But he seems to chew on that, still deciding whether or not to agree.

But Tails is older now. About as old as Sonic was when he set out against Eggman.

It’s only fair to give him a little leeway, right?

So Sonic finally nods, still looking contemplative. “Just remember you’re not on your own,” he says. “You’ve got your own thing to figure out – I respect that. But I don’t want you to forget that we’re here because we actually care. What I was saying earlier… the thing is, we’re your friends. It’s not babysitting or looking after you anymore. Even then, we liked you and wanted you around. But now? You’re with us because you’ve got skills, and we want you there. I want you there. So remember that, okay?”

Tails’s chest feels warm. Pride, he thinks. The pride of knowing he’s made Sonic proud.

“Okay,” he says, feeling a little more confident.

Sonic smiles, lopsided. The same smile on most of the trademarked merchandise around them.

It’s such a perfect match for the poster behind him that Tails has to suppress a laugh.

“What?” Sonic asks, turning to follow Tails’s eyes. “What’s- Oh, very funny. I can't help that that's my good side. I'm not even doing the thumbs up!”

Tails grins, but there’s no malice behind it. “Thanks for coming here to check on me,” he says sincerely. “I’m okay though, just sorry for worrying you.”

Sonic ruffles his bangs again. “You’re never going to have to be sorry for worrying me,” he promises. “I’d miss it too much if I stopped.”

An hour ago, Tails would’ve felt worse, hearing that. But it doesn’t sting. Sonic can both worry about him, and know that he’s growing up and can make his own choices.

“C’mon,” Sonic says, officially ending the heart-to-heart. “I put some sonic-shaped cereal in here the other day when I saw it in a store. Five rings says it turns my tongue blue?”

“You’re on,” Tails agrees, knowing it’s a losing bet.

#chaoxfix chaoxfics #sonic the hedgehog #tails the fox #miles tails prower #chaox writes

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talonabraxas · 7 months ago

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How to Transmute Human Consciousness into Buddhas Wisdom

1. The Ten Mysterious Gates

There are ten gates of wonderful manifestations as taught by the Hwa Yen School. I have omitted four of them which duplicate other ones. One may meditate on the six gates of mystic manifestations as follows:

(a) The mysterious gate of perfect yoga of the co-relation and co-existence of all things both in space and in time. As the nature of all Dharmas are Sunyata, every condition of every Dharma relates freely, moves freely, is united freely and plays freely. It is just like a great plain which does not belong to any ego-centered individual, and every person may play there. Hence the mystic circus brings their lions, elephants, horses, monkeys, bears and dogs with their girl and boy members to play there freely. So in the great Dharmadhatu which is of the great Sunyata, all Dharmas may play together and the space of four or ten directions and the time of the three periods may be united or separated, interlocked or interwoven at the meditators will since his mind has been sublimated by the Sunyata.

(b) The mysterious gate of sovereign power in connection with all the Dharmas. As oneself is Sunyata so are those other than self; as a being lacks self so does a thing lack self. Whenever the self is void where the power of the mysterious gate or rooms are opened, one is in all and all may be in one, too; one behind all, all may be behind one, too; small in great, great may be in small; low in high, high may be in low also. Thus all elements of beings and things are mutually identified. A universal identification forms an unlimited and ultimate freedom. Those American hippies who ask for more freedom by laziness onlybeard may be unshaven, clothes may be unwashed, girls may be sexually enjoyed without being married, drugs to enhance sex may be taken often, school lessons may be left but picnics should be frequently takensuch freedom is only a kind of suicide. One who really wants the great freedom should lay more stress on this meditation.

(c) The mysterious gate of performance of manifestations of either appearance or disappearance. When something appears, it appears in the Sunyata; when it disappears, it disappears into the same Sunyata. When the atom was only a potential, scientists treated it as superstition but Buddhists knew it could be broken up, 3000 years before the scientists. When the atom was made up into the atomic bomb it was not a new thing to the Buddhists. The atom and atomic bomb are one thing, but the former holds the potentiality of its disappearance, while the latter its appearance. Both form the complement of the whole entity of truth.

(d) The mysterious gate of sovereign power in different and opposite formswide or narrow (2nd gate), one or many (3rd gate), subtle or gross (6th gate). These pairs may interpenetrate one another commutably, freely, and uninterruptedly. Is not the finger narrower than a mountain but sometimes when held in front of ones eye it may hide a mountain in the distance. Is not the atomic bomb powerful and can destroy gross or great matter but it is invisible, as subtle as a spirit, when it is not split. Buddhists found out this truth approximately 3000 years earlier than the scientists. Are not the lungs 600 square feet larger than the body when they are extended; but they occupy only one small part of the body! Are not there 200 billion nerve cells in only one small brain? These examples are common things. If by the power of Sunyata, the mysterious and supernatural maya becomes much more inconceivable, yet it may actually be realized through this meditation.

(e) The mysterious gate of the various performances of separated Dharmas in the ten periods. Each of the past, present, and future also contains three periods. To the whole one, if these nine are added, it will make up the ten periods. By the speed of gnostic light, Buddha sees the things of the future and remembers things of the past. Time seems to go in reverse which is known by the theory of Einstein in these days, only Buddha knew it 3000 years earlier. Such a vertical connection completes the interconnection and interlocking of the separate beings along the nine periods. The precious five gates are mutually penetrated in the horizontal plane. When their vertical connection of time is added, it becomes four dimensions, which was known to Buddhists almost 30 centuries earlier than Einstein. Two dimensions may be symbolized by a plane. Three dimensions by a cube. Four should be symbolized by a ball fully encircling a cross. But there is the fifth dimension when it is added causes a mysterious penetration, and this may be symbolized by this signcrossed vajra non-limitation of time and of space. Things only occur with length and width in mathematics, materials adding height are solid geometrical materials. Adding time again are durable materials, yet they are physical. With the addition of the Sunyata mystic emergence it then becomes metaphysical. Hence philosophically length, width, height, duration and Sunyata emanation form a fifth dimension, as I newly make this term.

(f) The mysterious gate of completion of virtues of the master and family working together harmoniously and brightly. If any one of the Dharmas or persons is taken as the chief one, all other Dharmas or persons might work agreeable as his retinue. For instance when the practitioner is practicing Ahimsa, all his neighbors follow his good example and out of great compassion send birds to their natural state from their cages, fishes to the ocean from their tanks, doves to the sky from their prisons. Remote neighbors follow their close neighbors, the village follows the remote neighbor, the town follows the village, the city and the whole nation and whole globe will follow one by one and the third world war will not happen. No matter how the facts really appear, one should meditate like this as if it is so fortunately becoming true. By the addition of the time dimension, the three periods may unite as one whole, so here and there, all persons of the whole world will eventually become kind, merciful and peaceful once and for all.

As Sunyata has no ego, it enables oneself to be united with all others. When one practitioner, Mr. A., takes one person as the master, all other persons of the ten Dharmadhatus, may be his family. At the same time, another practitioner, Mr. B., C., D. or so on may take someone in the family of Mr. A as his master and all other persons other than that master may be his family. Thus, master yet family, family yet master, they all have the philosophic emanation. Wonderful and inconceivable incarnations would happen without limitation. Again one master has his inner family and outer family, small family and big family, appeared family and disappeared family, small family in the big family, big family in the small family. Their transformations are at the will of the master without any confinement.

Alas! Very few persons know that Sunyata is not negativism. A philosophic, mysterious positive potentiality is within it. Still very, very few practitioners or scholars know the discriminations between the ten goodnesses and six paramitas which I am going to deal with below.

2. To Distinguish the Six Paramitas from Ten Good Conducts and Diligently Practice the Former Ones

(a) The liberatable way of charity. To give alms to the poor even frequently in an amount more than the whole world can contain is goodness which may get one a good rebirth in heaven, but to be liberated from heaven or earth one should give alms with the Sunyata which has no giver, non-giving, and non-objects of giving. In doing this liberatable charity, one is able to approach the liberation of Buddhahood. Buddha taught it in the Dragon Palace with the following stanza:

"Give all things till the ego remains, Give the ego till others remain, Give the others till Dharmas remain, Give Dharmas till Buddha to attain."

(b) The liberatable way of holding the precepts. All silas, vinayas or commandments should be kept with wisdom, as Buddha taught on some occasion:

Holding the Silas not depend upon Body, speech and mind, or depend upon Three periods, two sides, or depend upon Delusions, or awareness but by none Dependence is precepts holding the precepts on.

(c) The liberatable way of patience. To be patient on the occasion of misery or to the harmful person or at difficult work does good which is not sufficient to be liberated by the paramita. He who practices this should follow the main meaning of the stanza taught by Buddha on the same occasion:

Patience never knows there is I or you Neither keep the idea of mine and yours All men, things and views should be purified When all Dharmas become pure its patience.

(d) The liberatable way of diligence. To exert ones energies to do good and to leave no stone unturned to forbid evil, these are profane merits by which alone one does not reach the thither shore of Nirvana, but following the teaching below one does:

As men are in their nature so am I As Dharmas are in nature so is my Lord, knowing there is no thing to gain It is the real diligence so high

(e) The liberatable way of concentration. Sitting straight, thinking of nothing, neither sleepy nor disturbed in ones mind, this is a common attitude of a religious person. One does not abide in the truth unless one can follow the stanza taught by Buddha Gautama correctly:

Mind is not inside Nor outside nor bide Holds nothing but a void Dhyana can not hide

(f) The liberatable way of wisdom. Even one who is wise as a serpent or as Solomon and can see as far through a brick wall as anybody but sees no Sunyata, gets no realization thereof. One would not be liberated at all. Hence the ultimate Prajnaparamita should be practiced under the guidance of the following stanza:

All Dharmas are so plain Has neither goal nor vain There is view without sight But not view it as light No request no volition Pity on fools is real wit.

3. To Distinguish the Sunyata Identification with Bodhicitta from that Dry Sunyata without Bodhicitta

The wise one does know that the Sunyata does not stand alone. The ancients called those persons who had little recognition of Sunyata and mistook it as a thing of voidness separate from everything else as men of dry wisdom. Hence one should develop five kinds of Bodhicitta.

a. Bodhicitta of Will

When one is still in the Course of Hinayana, one finds out that he is in transmigration and suffers many kinds of pain and one then has pity on those who are suffering with the same pains. A strong sympathy arises in his mind. He might think that if I were a Buddha I might save them. So he keeps such a good will to become a Buddha for the sake of saving mankind and every sentient being trapped within the same transmigration. Every day he should frequently think like this. He might write down his special good wills in some ten provisions or more. Every day he should repeat them and practice every good Dharma for their accomplishment and ask his Protector to help him until this aim is reached.

b. Bodhicitta of Conducts

When the above mentioned wills are developed, one must perform with the six paramitas many myriad conducts of goodness to carry on all the good wills and actually benefit all sentient beings. Thus all the eight right paths of Hinayana and the six paramitas of Mahayana and all the Vajrayana precepts thereof under this guide or basis will be fulfilled.

c. Bodhicitta of Victorious Signification

To get rid of the volition of Bodhicitta, to flee from the demon of compassion, one has to develop the victorious signification which is thoroughly fixed with the Sunyata of nature. One of my stanzas on Bodhicitta may be introduced below:

The best significant Bodhicitta Is without any kind of work or data There is no real mind to arise it Nor is there volition to hold it.

There is neither pleasure nor pain, neither sufferer nor enjoyer, neither agreement nor sympathy, neither I nor he. One may know this well but one has to have some Bodhicitta to pity them who do not know that the Bodhicitta and the person who has been pitied are both of Sunyata. One is still in the Sunyata.

d. Bodhicitta of Samadhi

When one has passed the study of exoteric doctrines and starts to learn Vajrayana, ones Bodhicitta is no longer confined to mentalization but always keeps ones mind identified with the materiality. Thus Bodhicitta is symbolized by the moon. One must visualize ones Bodhicitta as a bright moon which is situated in ones heart and on a lotus in the middle of the heart. From the moon many rays of great compassion are emitted to sentient beings through all of transmigration.

e. Bodhicitta of Kunda

When one has studied Tantra and gets progress in the Anuttarayoga, one is enabled to practice the vajra love. One then has to develop this kind of Bodhicitta of Kunda which is the gnostic semen containing both the Sunyata of nature and the great compassion and great pleasure. Through the good karmas held in the lotus of the Dakini, the ultimate salvation may be fulfilled. This is the final and highest, deepest Bodhicitta.

The first three Bodhicittas are known to every scholar of exoteric doctrines but the next two are only known to the students of the Tantra and they are never systematically emphasized as I do.

Under the first two kinds of Bodhicitta, adding thoughts of impermanence and the pains of transmigration, one may practice again great compassion toward sentient beings and things or Dharmas. Adding the Sunyata meditations, through the third Bodhicitta of Victorious Signification, one practices the great compassion of the same entity with all sentient beings and things and that of non-condition. That is, without any particular connection with others, one should have great compassion towards every being and every thing.

Thus the human mind which was acting in a self-centered psychical sphere now is sublimated by the Bodhicitta and great compassion and becomes the mind of a Bodhisattva who is the prince of Buddhas and acting in the accumulation of Holy Karmas.

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victoriadallonfan · 1 year ago

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Victoria and the Chocolate Factory

“Signatures detected.”

“All of them?”

“All. Alive too, but the signal is getting weaker. We don’t know if it’s due to the technology he uses or because… well, you know.”

I grit my teeth and nodded. I knew all too well. I’d read all the files, and seen what had happened in the aftermath.

The broken homes. The broken kids.

In some ways, it was worse than Cradle, because this fucker seemed intent on humiliating the kids just as much as he wanted to make them hurt. “We found him,” Dragon said in my ear piece. “His duplicates have been detected and targeted in London and Bath. Your strike team is clear to go.”

The cold air of Oxford whipped over my forcefield as I descended, feeling the chime in my ear as Dragon disconnected and my eye lit up with gold. A quick rush of information poured into my vision and brain from Kenzie’s camera, logs of teams communicating where they didn’t feel comfortable speaking, coordinating battle plans and sharing files on the targets.

I had to ignore it all for now, blinking rapidly to swipe through vision modes, until I had the highlighted figures in view. Gold for allies and deep red for targets, the camera giving me a very basic outline of the building’s interiors and possible sources of egress.

Coming down through the clouds, I decided to leave those areas to my team; I had a means of making my own entrance.

The gun chimed above my head, lines of circuitry along the barrel and handles alighting in gold as the charge readied itself, aimed near the largest red target. A top-hat symbol with a crescent grin beneath.

Traced by whatever power source the new gun used as a battery, the gold laser tore through the sky as I flew down, illuminating wisps of moisture from the clouds on my forcefield.

It was smaller, tighter, and more concise than the original gun. The new gun was more like what Win had made to fight the Simurgh, more compact in use.

Size mattered not though, my eye camera noting how the beam of light tore through several floors of the building in mere moments.

I cut off the beam as I approached, a few hundred feet away.

I flew down at an angle, collapsing my forcefield to a near skintight level and held the gun so that it trailed behind me like a straightened scorpion’s tail, just so I could lose that extra bit of air resistance. With the angle of my flight, and my narrowed profile, I slipped into the glowing hole I made at full speed, the rings of melted steel flickering past me like a descent into hell.

I came to a stop where the laser had hit near my target, a deep smoking crater that smelled of burning licorice and cinnamon. I turned to where the red symbol stood, both of us obscured by smoke.

“I've always wanted my factory to have that rustic, industrial look. How very avant-garde of you.” The smoke began to fade, the blood red top-hat and crescent smile flickering out of focus as my target became visible to the naked eye. “At least the new ventilation will help with the smell, young dear.”

Wonka, I thought with absolute loathing. The smile on the man’s face didn’t reach his manic eyes, casually leaning on a cane, seemingly unbothered by a lightspeed spear hitting the ground not even fifty feet away from him.

Cloaked in a purple velvet jacket and adorned with a vibrant orange vest, he didn’t look much like a cape. Dark Society, the Ambassadors, and the Suits went with the professional look - even Limerick added splashes of messy color - but this didn’t feel like reinforcing a costume with high quality attire.

Which made a level of sense. He had never advertised himself as a cape.

Curly brown hair jutted out from under his hat, and a golden goose-handled cane that felt more than a touch on the nose as he loomed over me on a small circular pedestal. A perfect match for the description of William Wonka.

One of the Wonkas, at least. The others had situated themselves across the United Kingdom of Gimel, portraying themselves as kind, loving, benefactors to the community.

That had been before the missing families hit the news. Before the children were found, sans parents or guardians, dumped in alleyways or in the woods.

None of them were dead. We couldn’t even call it a mercy, with what he had done to them.

Last I had heard, Tattletale was trying to pull in favors from Semiramis to try and revert them to normal. Riley was looking over them too, asking about getting help from Chris for his parole.

A dark fucking irony, considering what his original had done.

“You going to surrender?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer. More of the factory was coming into view now; giant candy carrots with leaves that looked glossy, almost like they were made of rubber. More alien looking plants and oddly designed pillars were strewn across the floor, looking more like a greenhouse from a TV show than anything that a professional business would have.

The grass beneath our feet looked normal, but the smell of the burnt ground made me doubt it.

"Surrender?” His voice was soft and calm. He brushed some burned dust off his shoulder. “My dear, I'm afraid you misunderstand the nature of my work," he replied, twirling his cane with an eerie grace. "How nonsensical of a question to ask. Well, I suppose a little nonsense is relished for a reason. I must say, your entrance was quite spectacular, if a bit lacking in finesse."

I ignored his taunts, my gaze unwavering as I aimed the gun at him. He tapped his cane and a glass tube flashed up to encase him, glittering in the factory lights. The way the light was refracting off the glass gave me pause and the madman tipped his hat, “Little surprises around every corner, but nothing dangerous. To me, at least. For you? Well…”

A flick of his wrist had a silver flute in his hand-

I fired a warning shot, the laser missing the tube on purpose, wanting to slow down whatever he was planning.

-and continued to play the instrument, a small melody, unbothered by the attack. He gave the instrument a twirl and it vanished beneath his coat.

Distorted echoes of laughter and screams seemed to linger in the air as the melody and blast of my laser died down, accompanied by music and the stomp of feet.

“Your fucked up game ends here," I declared, rising up and flying closer to the glass tube. “The heroes have you surrounded. Your duplicates are being hunted down.”

Wonka merely tilted his head. "Oh, my dear, you're not here to end anything. Can’t you hear it? The sound of dreamers and their fitful nightmares? Here they come, right… now."

As he spoke, the shadows within the factory stirred. Short men appeared, their skin orange and hair a sickening shade of green. Each one bore an expression devoid of any emotion, their eyes dead, even as they sized me up.

Some of them were marching, while others somersaulted or vaulted from behind the candy colored jungle, adroit for their small size.

They sang, and music seemed to emanate from nowhere, reminding me of Nursery’s power.

Oompa Loompas, doopity doo,

Here's a lot of trouble, coming for you.

Oompa Loompas, doopity dee,

If you are wise, then now you must flee.

I turned and opened fire on the minions, only for them to cartwheel out of the way. Others were quick to put obstacles in the beam’s way, including the candy carrots that seemed slower to melt than solid steel.

We’d captured a few of these Loompas in the past few days, canvassing the remnants of his artificial wilderness in the sewers of London. The ones we let our guards down were quick to duplicate as the song progressed and were surprisingly adroit. Cruel as well, considering what they did to their still-living victims.

The Loompas that weren’t eradicated were quick to calcify, turning into what was best described as hyper-dense rock candy. Apparently, other locations would have different variations of the Loompas.

Another blast at a group of Loompas trying to aim a fire-hose sized vine my way, scorching chocolate spurting out before being vaporized.

Fast little fuckers.

And they were quickly surrounding me by the dozens.

What do you get when you mess with fate?

A clash of powers, a bitter debate.

What do you get when you challenge the stars?

A battle unfolding, bearing new scars.

You've entered our world of whimsical glee,

But beware, dear Victoria, of the chaos you'll see.

Heroes and villains, in a dance so divine,

Yet meddling too much might- “Gack!”

One of the Oompa Loompas fell to the ground, thrashing as barbed wire exploded out of his mouth. Pieces of a glass marble embedded his eyes.

“Wham! Bam! Shazam! Kablam!” Finale shouted, launching her own barrage of musical blasts, sending the small minions flying about as their empowered song was thrown off-key.

The other Majors were arriving, Withdrawal blasting Loompas with goop that seemed alive, latching onto anything that moved. Caryatid was acting as a shield for Finale, unharmed as a trio of Loompas tried to bash her head in with a giant lollipop.

Sveta was in the rafters, tossing things at any unaware minion. Children were in her grasp.

The survivors.

“Oompa Loompa, doopity dee,” Limerick sang with the most bored teenage voice I had ever heard, putting away his slingshot. “Here's a new phrase, now listen to me. Oompa Loompa, doopity doo. You can’t do jack shit when we say fuck you.”

He tossed back a knife so casually that one almost would have thought it was reckless, had it not impaled a Loompa through the temple, causing him to fall atop a nearby squad and douse them all in a burning candy puddle from one of the laser blasts.

Loompas turned to him, and I got the distinct impression that his singing pissed them off more than the killing.

I turned to Wonka; chin raised.

“They say that looks can kill,” Wonka tutted. “But it seems being blindsided is what has done me in.”

He smiled suddenly, “Come then. You and I have so little to do with so much time.”

I charged him, gun at the ready, Fragile One baring her teeth.

His child victims called the factory a ‘world of pure imagination’.

I would make sure to wake him up to reality.

#parahumans #wildbow #ward #ward web serial #worm #wardblr #victoria dallon #antares #glory girl #ward fanfic #charlie and the chocolate factory #willy wonka #oompa loompa #charlie and the chocolate factory fanfic #catcf

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