#I actually use it far more than any other charger

[deepsixsquid]

Gootubers need more love, imo

[carionto]

Ignition

Once the Galactic Coalition had (without other realistic options) given Humanity an equal position among the governing bodies, despite the fact they were a single planet race, the initial dread of what they would do eased. A little. When they showed how they powered their impossibly massive vessels, the fears of our ancestors who deemed the Responsibility Barrier a necessity reemerged a thousandfold.

The Humans, with a slight grin, said "Solar power, of course."

They took a delegation within the bowels of one of their smaller, civilian research craft, which was still bulkier, better armored, and more worryingly - better armed than most flagships of the other predator-races. Were we not able to see with our own eyes their actual, what they aptly call, Dreadnoughts, from distances you would normally need a telescope, we would have assumed this was their mightiest warship. Yet it was just one of hundreds.

As we passed through the ludicrously thick and seemingly excessive number of bulkheads and shielded and compartmentalized hallways, the ever present hum of raw power beneath our feet gradually became nerve-wracking. What is that? It reminded us of stories told by those who traveled near Black Holes - of the sheer vastness and infinite apathy they felt from the all consuming entities.

A dozen or so biometric gates later, we were greeted by a gigantic sphere, easily a hundred and fifty meters in diameter, an abomination of reinforced panels, wiring, heat pumps, and countless tubes, hanging from numerous power conduits in the middle of an even more massive chamber from behind our observation platform. A true, pure fusion reactor. And there were Humans, in full protective suits at least, working directly next to it within the ominous chamber.

"We wanted to give you a demonstration of our advances in the past millennia, so please observe as we turn on this one."

This one? As in... the power we were feeling was not from this monstrosity? We had to ask.

"Oh, of course not, this ship has three such reactors, we recently performed a full maintenance on this and decided to delay reactivating it for you to see."

The delegates' mouths (or equivalents) were agape. Sure, nuclear fusion is known far and wide, but due to it's high potential for cataclysmic failure, or worse, deliberate destruction, the vast majority of such reactors were mostly found in deep space stations where solar radiation was scarce. Background radiation converters, while efficient at what they do, were nowhere sufficient enough for anything more than as passive emergency battery chargers. And no civilization kept fusion reactors anywhere near populated or colonizeable planets.

Yet here they were, looking at one nearly five times larger than any other known or attempted. And there were three on this ship alone. They counted hundreds of similar size, a few dozen of their Dreadnoughts, thousands of smaller vessels ferrying between the stations, the surface, and other larger ships. Countless world ending bombs-in-waiting right around the Humans' only home.

"Yeah, us science ships get the biggest ones, kinda need the extra oomph for our projects. The military kids like their redundancies, so theirs are smaller."

A slight relief.

"I think their newest capital ship, the UGSF Caliban of York, has fifteen, each about half ours."

A few delegates passed out. Their attendants rushed to salvage some dignity, but Captain Knoslark of this vessel, The Radiant Dusk at Everest, didn't seem surprised or offended and simply waited for the delegation to regain composure before continuing.

"This is my favorite part."

He said quietly with a glint in his eyes, then his tone changed to a more formal and authoritative one.

"Chief Engineer Ira Tameki, status of Reactor 2."

"All green, Captain. She's ready to purr to life at your command."

"Good. Then," his tone shifted once again, to a far more theatrical one as he took a pose, half turning his body and extending his right hand towards the reactor, index finger pointing dramatically. As he pronounced every syllable of the next word, there was a silent resigned sigh from his crew:

"ignition!"

Outwardly, nothing of significance changed. The engineers clicked at their consoles, bars slowly rose and everyone was deliberately doing their best to make it clear they were ignoring the fact that the captain was still in the same pose.

There was a muffled thump from the chamber, then the hum beneath their feet became a rumble for a few moments before steadying back to a now slightly more intense almost-buzz. Physically, nothing all that noteworthy. Mentally, everyone in the delegation was in true shock as they fully understood what they had just witnessed done all too casually:

The birth of a star.

[humanitys-strongest-bamf]

"get me a damned matcha" | Chapter 11: April I

{{ Chapter 10: March I | Chapter 12: May I }} Chapter Directory

noooow y'all can understand why i had to rename the ex-boyfriend to zack instead of having him be porco because i made him too much of a dick skdjfksd

if you wanna get tagged for updates, fill out this form here!

✧ pairing ➼ levi ackerman x fem!reader, college x coffee shop x roommates!au ✧ summary ➼ After you find yourself plagued with misfortune due to struggles in your personal and family life, you find yourself needing to move last minute. As a junior in undergrad with little money and little social support, you considered yourself lucky when you found a sublease that was close to campus and was relatively cheap. Unfortunately, it seemed that your roommate did not seem to be so excited regarding your presence. ✧ content/warnings ➼ fluff, slowburn, mutual pining, idiots in love, the ex boyfriend that used to be porco that i renamed to zack, emotionally abusive behavior, negative self-talk, levi being kinda mean again, levi being bad at feelings ✧ word count ➼ ~7.2k

It was finally spring break. After the events of last month, you were more than ready to leave town and get a much needed vacation. Luckily, Hizuru wasn't far and was just across the bay, so you got a nice cruise ride in addition to your time spent at the resort. You decided to keep this trip just between you and Petra, spending the week with just the two of you to recharge and be ready to take on the rest of the semester once you came back.

Levi couldn't be more thrilled. The past few months have all involved something related to you that ended up distracting him from reading or writing. Having you gone for a week means he can finally catch up on work without being distracted by your shenanigans every other week. 

However, he currently found himself standing at the doorway of the apartment, glancing into the living room. He was thrilled for sure, but despite that, he seemed to have a heavy heart when he entered his empty apartment. It didn't make any sense to him. Why would he feel remorseful that you're gone when all you've ever done is be a pain in the ass to him?

He couldn't deny it. He missed you. Levi felt a confusing mix of emotions and he couldn't keep his mind off you all week. Given your habits with partying, he wondered how you were doing on your own in a foreign town. Sure, Petra was with you, but she could hardly count as a sober contact. If she was drinking with you, you'd have to rely on yourself to get home, which was unsettling to him.

He found himself both looking forward to and dreading you getting back home. It got to the point that when you did find yourself back home, Levi did everything in his power to ignore your presence. He was too confused and lost in his thoughts to want to be around you. He would have a mix of happy thoughts and distressing ones of confusion and anxiety while you were around. Thus, he barely said a word to you once you got home.

"Nice to see you too, I guess," you mumbled, a little taken aback by your roommate's increased level of aloofness. 

Ever since November and especially since January, the two of you had started to bond. Levi wasn't always referring to you as an annoying undergrad and you no longer saw him as just your "grumpy roommate". You understood each other more and there was some foundation of basic respect there, but none of that was to be seen at the moment. 

You awkwardly shifted around the house as you unpacked your suitcase from the trip.

"Hey, have you seen my phone charger?" you asked Levi, who was standing in the kitchen, brewing his late afternoon tea. 

"No," he said, glancing at you. "Why would I have?"

"You're the one that's been here all week," you said with a shrug.

"Yeah," Levi scoffed, "actually doing work, unlike whatever the fuck you were doing across the bay."

You frowned at him, slightly offended by his comment.

"Hey, I was doing work!" you said with a pout. "Whatever. Can I borrow your charger then? My phone's almost dead."

"What else is new?" Levi said dryly.

You were on your way to grabbing his phone charger when you heard him make that comment and you immediately halted, scowling while looking back at him.

"Okay, what the hell is up with you?" you said sternly as you walked back towards him. "You've barely said a word to me ever since I got home. Did I say something? Do something? Did I not clean something the way you wanted it?"

Levi responded with an overly exasperated groan.

"God, it's such a pain in the ass to have you back again."

You fell quiet at his comment. The fact that this was all he said in response to your questions over what you did wrong indicated to you that it was just your presence that he was pissed about. You weren't sure why his comment stung you as harshly as it did. He essentially thought the same thing when you first moved in and you didn't give a single shit—but now the idea of him hating you made you want to shut down and hide.

"Well," you spoke quietly, "I'm sorry being around me is so bothersome for you."

Levi didn't respond, which only confirmed your suspicions. 

You clenched your fists as you felt your emotions beginning to rise up and threaten to boil over.

He was an asshole. That's all he was and that never changed and you were a fool to think otherwise. He probably hated you for all the times he had to come rescue you from some dumb situation that you found yourself in.

"Whatever," you whispered as you walked past him and grabbed your phone and keys.

"Where are you going?" Levi said with a sigh as you opened the door.

"Getting some air, I guess," you grumbled before glancing back at him without fully making eye contact. "I thought we were over this."

~~~~~

You had stormed out in such a hurry that you didn't even bother to change into outdoor clothes. You were currently swinging alone at an empty playground that had been long abandoned for the day due to the incoming storm. The wind blew through your hair, which had come undone from its ponytail and you lacked the motivation to put it back up. You were wearing a loose t-shirt with a pair of sweatpants on. 

Normally, you'd feel a sense of shame for being out in public like this—but right now, you couldn't give less of a shit. You needed to get away from Levi.

Things had begun to improve ever since November when he took you on that drive after your aunt had decided to tear your entire life apart through a single phone call. You had reached some point of mutual respect. He wasn't the aloof asshole you thought he was, and you weren't the naïve undergrad that he thought you were. After January, it even seem like he cared for your well-being. He went out in the middle of the night searching for you and even went out of his way to care for you when you were sick. 

Yet, he seemed to have completely regressed after you came back from spring break. What if you were misreading him? What if his opinion about you never actually changed and you were just deluding yourself? 

Maybe I should find another apartment after all.

Levi's lack of a response earlier when you were trying to figure out what was wrong only confirmed your suspicion that he thought you were a nuisance. You had asked him what you did wrong so you can do better, and all he responded with was that he was sick of having you around. If it was a few months ago, you'd be more than happy to continue being a nuisance to him. With how grumpy he always was, it felt like a comedic job to you. 

However, after you had opened up to him about your dynamic with your aunt and even slightly alluded to your situation with Zack, you had hoped that dynamic would have changed or at least improved. The fact that it didn't seem to wear away at you. 

His comment had hurt you.

You gripped at the chain holding the swing onto the bar above it as thoughts of your inability to hold any type of long-term friendship began to swirl around in your mind. Oluo and Gunther were surface-level at best. You called Petra your 'best friend', but even that relationship felt shallow, as if she was just tolerating you. You were always the one reaching out. 

Being tolerated was a feeling you were used to. After all, that basically summed up your relationship with Zack. You had started off as high school sweethearts, but over the course of the three years that was your stormy relationship with him, you knew that he only tolerated your presence, which is why he was more than ready to kick you out in June.

As if he was listening in on your thoughts, you felt your phone buzz and frowned when you saw that you had received a text from your ex-boyfriend.

> [zack (3:45pm)]: we need to talk. i'll pick you up at the bar we used to go to. > [you (3:46pm)]: why > [zack (3:51pm)]: wtf do you mean why? plus some of your shit is still at my place > [you (3:53pm)]: wonder who's fault that was > [zack (3:54pm)]: the hell is up with this attitude? just get to the bar, i'll be there in 20.

~~~~~

Levi's day had been going terribly. Without even considering your little tantrum, he was already stressed about a research update he had to do in two weeks that he hadn't had the time to work on. 

The forefront of his mind blamed it on you. You came home and immediately began disrupting his life and bringing chaos home again—but he knew that wasn't true. It wasn't your fault. You were gone for an entire week throughout spring break and he still wasn't able to get anything done. His inability to work had nothing to do with you. 

Upon realizing that fact, he scrunched his eyebrows together, wondering if he had actually been a bit too cold with you once you got home. He had caught himself getting much softer with you throughout the last month, even allowing you to sleep in the same bed with him because you had a nightmare. That, itself, was already unheard of for Levi Ackerman. 

He brought out his phone. The time was a bit past 6:30pm. He had around two hours before he had to get to the café to pick up a closing shift from Onyankopon. He opened up his text message thread with you and frowned, wondering if he should shoot you an apology message.

Eventually, he decided against it. After all, why should he apologize to you when you were the one being a little shit? 

Still, you were gone for a while. It was around 2:00pm when you stormed out of the apartment, and it was starting to get late.

He placed his phone in his pocket, annoyed for even getting remotely concerned about your well-being for something as simple as you stepping out of the house for the day. He could feel himself getting attached, despite all of his efforts to get himself not to. The feelings that you elicited out of him were miserable to deal with and he knew the best way to get rid of them was to put a stop to any feelings of this newfound attachment. Why he was even getting attached to you in the first place was astonishing. It pissed him off.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he shut his laptop and got up from his desk, walking out of his bedroom. He grabbed his jacket off of the coat hanger as well as his car keys, deciding on going for a drive in an attempt to clear his mind from any remaining thoughts of you.

~~~~~

After an exceedingly awkward dinner and car ride with your ex-boyfriend, you finally arrived back at Zack's apartment. You felt an uncomfortable, dull feeling appear in your chest as you walked into the apartment that you had lived in for the first two years of your undergrad. It could hardly be even called an apartment. It appeared more like a loft that had multiple bedrooms and bathrooms and nearly triple the amount of the living space that you currently had in your apartment with Levi. It was obnoxiously luxurious and it ironically made you appreciate your humble lifestyle with Levi now.

You shuffled awkwardly as you followed Zack towards the dining room area. The t-shirt and sweatpants that you wore felt out of place and inappropriate. He rarely saw you like this, if ever. Even when you were home for the entire day, you were constantly wearing outdoor clothes, like a blouse and jeans, around him. That's just how you were. Appearing the way you did now around him felt wrong, although you couldn't quite explain why. It wasn't that you were uncomfortable with dressing more casually—you did that at home now all the time, but the minute that you stepped out the door of your home and into Zack's, you began to feel your anxiety rise up.

"Well, you certainly look like a slob," Zack mumbled, glancing at your outfit.

"Well, I didn't have time to dress up for you, Your Majesty," you retorted, frowning at him, "since you decided to text me last minute."

Zack was not used to this outspoken nature of your personality. When you were with him, you were much more pleasurable to be around—at least according to Zack. He did not appreciate this new facet of your personality that has suddenly arisen within the past few months.

He made a head nod towards a box of some of your stuff that was casually thrown into a corner of the living room. You looked over before taking a seat at the dining table.

"What did you want to talk about?" 

He sat down across from you.

"Listen," he began, and you immediately clenched your jaw, having a basic idea of where this was going. "I know I overreacted when we left off. I shouldn't have exploded at you like that. I shouldn't have kicked you out."

Your mind went back to the fateful interaction with Zack that led to you being forced to find an apartment last minute. No matter how you tried to rationalize it, you knew that Zack was controlling and prone to getting extremely angry whenever you resisted his wishes. Small grievances with him had built up to a penultimate point in which you confronted him and he reacted poorly.

If this was any other day, you'd likely immediately tell him to fuck off—but the events of the day that had happened earlier with Levi left you much more emotionally vulnerable than usual. You'd be lying if the idea of falling into someone's arms didn't bring even the slightest amount of comfort to your mind—even if that someone was Zack. 

However, as Zack continued to monologue about the potential of you moving back in with him, you began to pull up the reality of your relationship with him. You were definitely more unhappy than you were willing to admit to anyone and you knew it had something to do with his controlling nature. He had kept you pretty isolated from any potential friends—and now that you think about it, that could be why you struggled with making and keeping deep friendships now. 

No matter how desperate you were right now for some form of intimacy to make up for the turmoil swirling within you throughout the latter half of the day, the last thing you wanted to do was get back together with someone that felt the need to dictate your every move and action. 

"You're the one that kicked me out, Zack," you said once he finally gave you a chance to speak.

"Well, now I'm inviting you back in."

"What if I don't want to?" you responded, feeling your anxiety kicking in. Zack hadn't even done anything yet, but your instincts immediately dumped all of the reactions that constituted being anxious onto you.

"What the fuck do you mean you 'don't want to'?" Zack asked, scowling at you, the anger beginning to creep into his voice.

You took a deep breath, clenching your fist that was resting on your lap to maintain your resolve.

"I said what I said. You kicked me out and I'm over it."

At this point, Zack had fully realized that he can't control you anymore, which further irritated him.

"Whatever," he said, waving you off. "Just take your shit and leave."

"Gladly," you responded coldly as you began to get up. 

"I'm not driving you."

You stopped and looked back at him. You weren't that surprised by his comment, but you still felt a little off-put by his lack of remorse to just leave you stranded again.

"The buses around here aren't running this late."

"Sounds like a you problem."

You remembered this. If Zack got pissed at you and didn't get what he wanted from you, then no one was getting anything at all. 

"You really expect me to walk?" 

He shrugged.

"Or sleep on the streets until the buses are up. I don't really give a shit."

You felt your anxiety quickly turn into anger and frustration as you felt the corners of your eyes heat up. The last thing you wanted to do was cry in front of the person responsible for all of your recent misfortunes, but what was currently happening was representative of all the bullshit that you had to deal with for three years.

"Fine," you said quietly as you headed for the door, not even bothering to grab your stuff from him. "You're a dick."

As you walked out the door, you felt your breathing quickly destabilizing.

Recently, the only person you had been regularly referring to as a dick was your grumpy roommate. However, after having this interaction with Zack, you realized that Zack was actually a dick and that Levi was nowhere close to it. It brought up a slight sense of guilt regarding your hostility towards your roommate. You would choose living with Levi over moving back in with Zack any day.

Reminiscing about your attitude towards your roommate immediately reminded you of him, and although you were still mad at him for his behavior earlier, you knew that you could at least trust him to not leave you stranded. 

As a result, you immediately pulled out your phone and shot him a quick text, asking if he could pick you up as you continued to navigate your way out of Zack's apartment complex.

~~~~~

The rain had already started pouring. There wasn't too much wind, but the rainfall was heavy, which would have made it even more impossible to walk home if you were forced into that decision. Instead, you were waiting for Levi to arrive, seeking shelter under the canopy of Zack's apartment building to stay dry.

You glanced up as you heard the front door open and saw that Zack came downstairs with the box of your belongings with the intention of tossing it all into the dumpster. You watched as all of your former stuff disappeared into the green container of garbage. 

When Zack saw you on his way back, he scowled at you.

"When I said sleep on the streets, I didn't mean here. Fuck off."

"You fuck off," you replied, matching his scowl. 

The two of you held a staring contest for a few minutes until you heard a car drive up out of the corner of your eye. A feeling of relief washed over you once you saw that it was Levi's. You could finally go home and forget this nightmare.

He had arrived faster than expected, and part of you knew that this was likely due to a combination of the situation that had occurred in January and how far out you currently were. Plus, at this point, he was probably more than ready to expect texts from you to ask him to pick you up. It had become a pattern, although you weren't entirely sure how you felt about that fact.

You did not include in your text message the reasoning as to why you were trapped at an apartment that was a 20-minute drive from campus, so you weren't too surprised when you saw a look of concern on Levi's face as he saw you scowling at who he was able to deduce as your ex-boyfriend.

"You'd really call anyone to pick you up, huh?" Zack said to you as you began to walk off. "You're fucking pathetic."

If you were the same person that you were when you were with him, then his insult might have had some merit. If this was a year ago, you really wouldn't have had anyone to call. You didn't have any reliable friends back then, and that's likely what Zack still believed to be the case now.

"He's my roommate, you asshole," you said as you grit your teeth, "and a much better one than you ever were."

Your last comment must have made something snap within Zack's psyche, as he immediately grabbed onto your wrist before you were able to walk further towards Levi's car. 

In the split second before you were forced to turn around to face Zack, you were able to see Levi's face transition from one of confusion to one of immediate concern as he began to move out of the car to see what was going on.

"What, I leave you for less than a year and you're already hoeing around with other men?" Zack scolded. "Why the fuck would you get a male roommate? Did you do this shit-"

"Just leave me alone, Zack!" you yelled back at him as you yanked your wrist back from him.

"You're fucking pathetic, _____. I'm giving you maybe another two weeks before you come crawling-"

"Do you ever shut up?" a third voice said.

You looked up and saw that Levi had walked over from the car after seeing the commotion. He held an irritated look on his face that was directed towards your ex-boyfriend, able to fully deduce the context of what was going on.

Zack was caught off-guard by your roommate coming out of the car to come to your defense. He was almost half a foot taller than Levi, but Levi's commanding presence took up all the space between them, making it so that it took Zack a few seconds longer than usual to come up with a retort.

Levi rolled his eyes at him as he turned to follow you after you began to storm towards the car, not paying particular attention to Zack, who had begun to open his mouth to speak again. 

Any word that came out of his mouth was unheard, although you couldn't tell if that was due to your own thoughts overwhelming you or if it was because of the rain and wind that was rapidly picking up into a full-fledged storm. 

Once you finally got into the car and shut the door, you buried your face in your hands as the tears finally flowed out from your eyes and down your cheeks, eventually collecting in the palms of your hands, only adding onto the chaotic whirl of thoughts that were running rampant in your head.

~~~~~

Levi remained silent as you continued to sob quietly in the passenger's seat, giving you time and space to process whatever the hell just happened.

You peeked through your fingers as you felt your phone vibrate in your pocket. With how frequently it was vibrating, you were already able to tell that it was Zack spamming you with text messages.

You glanced at your phone, opening the texts, although you were barely able to see with your tears clouding your vision. You vaguely saw a string of text messages of Zack calling you pathetic, a burden, a waste of three years of his life, and everything in-between. You clenched at your phone as you felt more tears gathering up in your eyes and you shakily navigated to his contact information to block him before tossing your phone into the back seat of the car.

After a few more minutes, you felt your breathing stabilize and you rubbed at your now-swollen eyes.

"I assume that's your shitty ex?" Levi finally spoke, breaking the silence between the two of you.

"Wonder how you figured that out," you grumbled with a sniffle.

"Tch," Levi said as he clenched his jaw, more than a little annoyed with the attitude that was attached to that response. "Why'd you have to choose the one night that I have to work an extra shift to pull this shit? How the fuck does you 'getting some air' translate into this?"

While Levi's grumpy attitude and snarky remarks were something you were usually used to and barely fazed by, given the fact that you were already really emotional and vulnerable from what had just happened with Zack made Levi berating you hurt much more than usual.

"I'm sorry, okay?!" you yelled out. "I didn't know who else to call. You could've said no."

Levi glanced at you for a moment. He found himself getting increasingly annoyed.

That wasn't the point. He wasn't annoyed because he had to come out to get you. That was the least of his concerns. What had concerned him more was what could have happened if he didn't come to get you. What annoyed him the most was how reckless you were and how you were never able to see that.

"Why did you even go to see him anyway? You said he's your ex? The one that was dragging you around all over the place and-"

"I don't know, okay?!" you yelled out again, feeling increasingly frustrated with every word that was coming out of Levi's mouth. "He just texted me and said we needed to talk and as usual I was dumb enough to listen to him. I don't even know what the hell I was looking for. The minute I got into his car, I was able to tell that he wanted to do something along the lines of getting back together and I was enough of an idiot to believe even for a second that it was genuine—and then I saw how pissed he got when I said no and he kicked me out all over again and I'm always, always, always making these stupid decisions and it's probably just a burden on everyone around me: Zack, you, my aunt—hell, probably even Petra and Oluo and-"

"Cut that out," Levi said in an attempt to cut off your rambling.

"-and my aunt was probably right in that I'm literally wasting my life getting a degree in something that might not even get me a guaranteed job. Literally every single decision I have ever made in my entire life has been a fucking disaster and I bet you can't fucking wait to get rid of me once summer arrives, because I'd be wanting to get rid of me, too! And-"

"God dammit, cut that shit out, _____!" 

The storm was pouring down on you full-force at this rate, almost as if it was mirroring how volatile your emotions were.

As soon as Levi snapped at you, you clenched your fists, nearly trembling with rage.

After a few seconds of saying nothing, you decided you had enough. You immediately went to undo your seatbelt, fumbling around a bit more than usual due to the shaking that you couldn't seem to control.

"What the fuck are you doing?" Levi asked as he noticed your movements. 

His eyes widened and he had to slam down on the brake pedal as he noticed you open the door to the car as he was still driving. 

Luckily, he wasn't going very fast in the first place due to the storm, but you still ended up stumbling out of the car, nearly falling straight down onto the soaked concrete.

He slowly came to a stop right next to you, leaning towards the passenger seat as the door still hung open.

You shot him a glare before turning around and beginning to walk away.

"Where the hell are you going in the middle of this storm?"

You stopped walking and clenched your fists as you faced him again. 

"Anywhere but here!" you shouted. "I'm sorry I made you come out all this way. I'll find a cheap motel to stay at or something if I'm really that much of a bother to you right now."

You turned towards no direction in particular and began walking again.

"_____, come back."

You glared at him again.

"So you can just berate me again? Fuck off."

You continued walking.

"You're such a dumbass."

You halted in your footsteps as he blatantly insulted you again.

"Excuse me?"

"I said what I said," he said, frowning at you. "Did you really think I'd come out all this way if I didn't want to?"

You matched his frown.

"Well, it sure sounds like it with how pissed you sound."

"Because you piss me off."

You threw your hands up in frustration.

"Then why the fuck are you still here?!"

Levi let out an exasperated sigh.

"Yeah, I'm pissed beyond belief and I'm still here. Now get the fuck back in the car before you get all soaked and make a mess all over the seat."

You glared at him for a few more seconds before mumbling a "fine" and reluctantly getting back into the car.

He drove in silence for a bit, bewildered at the fact that you almost ran off into the middle of nowhere during a raging storm without your phone. If that wasn't the definition of reckless, then he didn't know what was.

"You didn't have to come out just to pick me up," you mumbled again. "I know I texted you, but that doesn't mean shit."

"Tch, did you not hear me?" he said, slightly shaking his head at your repeated commentary. "I came because I wanted to."

He glanced at you before speaking up again.

"Get over yourself, you didn't force me to do shit."

His grip on the wheel tightened as he looked back towards the road.

"You're not special."

He heard your breath hitch at that last comment and his finger tapped on the wheel gently as he felt a very subtle hint of guilt creeping up in the back of his mind. 

You're not special.

That thought kept running through your mind. You knew that you weren't special. The chaos that was your life was pretty indicative of that. Yet, why did it hurt so much when it was him that said it?

You finally opened your mouth to speak again. Your voice was quiet, as if you had given up on fighting against that comment. You'd accepted it, whether you wanted to or not.

"Then why the fuck are you so pissed off?"

It took Levi a moment to figure out the best way to respond as he continued to glare at the road.

"I'm pissed because you're always putting yourself in these situations without thinking for yourself. You're always going alone to get shit-faced at a party or staying out late enough that you're forced to walk home, or getting into shitty situations with shitty people."

You didn't respond, trying to figure out how to interpret his words.

"I'm pissed because you keep putting yourself in danger."

Ah, you thought as you came to a conclusion over what he was trying to say. He was saying that you were too dumb or naïve to take care of yourself.

Whether that was actually true or not didn't matter to you—that's what was going through your head. No matter what Levi was actually trying to say, you had now settled on the idea that you were nothing more than a nuisance to him and that he felt some weird sense of responsibility for you. Similar to everyone else in your life, you were nothing but a burden to him.

"I'm sorry," you whispered, your voice barely audible. 

Levi slightly looked over at you, noting that you were getting caught up in your head from the events of today. He knew that he was at least partially responsible, yet he still never imagined that he'd find himself in this type of situation again. He was used to picking you up from random places at this point. He was fine with that. However, picking you up from your ex-boyfriend's in the middle of what could be interpreted as a violent confrontation was not something that he was expecting to have to deal with.

By the time you got home, you were shivering from standing out in the rain. Levi had given you his jacket to wear and it hung off of your shoulders as you got up out of the car. It had provided you some warmth, but your shivering wasn't going to resolve itself if you didn't change into some dry clothes. 

As you walked from the parking lot into the lobby of your apartment, you saw Levi pass you your phone, having completely forgotten that you tossed it to the backseat of the car after blocking Zack. You mumbled a quiet thanks as you put it into your pocket.

The two of you walked into your apartment and you noticed that literally nothing had been moved since earlier in the afternoon. All the stuff you were unpacking was left in place, despite the fact that the mess was likely driving Levi through the roof. You gripped on his jacket, an uncomfortable bubbling feeling rising up within you. It was just another inconvenience that you unintentionally threw onto him.

He flipped on the light switch, allowing you to properly see the mess that you had made. However, within the next 30 seconds, a crash of lightning lit up the room before all of the lights fell dark.

The power went out.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Levi groaned as he tossed his keys onto the table. 

The night couldn't get much worse.

~~~~~

You let out an exhausted sigh as you slid down the wall across the hall from Levi. The two of you gathered next to the balcony doors for what little light peaked in through the blinds. It seemed that the power only went out for your apartment building and the street lights were still functional. There was a small candle lit in between the two of you. 

You had stumbled into your room and changed into a hoodie and a pair of loose pajama shorts. You had your hands tucked into your hoodie pocket as you looked over towards Levi with a blank expression, unsure of how to process the events of the day.

He was sitting with his back leaning against the wall with his legs out in front of him as he matched your expression. The two of you were quiet for a bit, simply listening to the rain. 

The entire room lit up as another flash of lightning cracked through the sky. 

You felt yourself flinch and tense up at the sudden sound. You weren't particularly afraid of storms, but you were significantly on edge due to the events of the day. Every sudden movement or sound made your heart skip a beat. Your mind was on overdrive.

"How was your break?" Levi asked. He had noticed your reactions to the storm. Initiating conversation, no matter how frustrated he was at you currently, would at least provide you with a distraction.

You gave him a weird look before freezing up again due to another lightning crash. You rapidly shook your head to try to shake off the tension.

"It was okay," you finally replied. "Traveling was more annoying than the trip was enjoyable—honestly kinda wish I just stayed here."

Levi grunted at that last comment without acknowledging or dismissing it, which made you frown.

"Which I guess would've ruined your break. I assume you just spent the entire break reading and writing?"

"Something like that," he mumbled. 

In all honesty, he probably would have also preferred it if you had stayed for break.

You pulled your knees up to your chest and hugged them, resting your chin on them. No matter how much you tried, you couldn't get the events of the day out of your head.

"Lev', can I ask you something?"

"What?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"If you really didn't mind coming out, then why were you so pissed off?"

He blinked at you, not really expecting the question to be brought up again.

"I already told you."

"I don't believe you," you said with a frown. There had to be more. What he said and what he did was too contradictory for you to just accept without getting more information.

Levi gave you an annoyed scowl and clenched his jaw. After a moment, he parted his lips to speak again.

"Why did you go back to him?"

"What?" you asked, not expecting him to deflect your question with another question.

Levi looked you straight in the eye. He couldn't wrap his head around why you would've ever been involved with someone like Zack. A few months ago, he wouldn't give a single shit, but now that he's had a few months of knowing you, he legitimately could not understand why.

"Answer the question."

"Answer mine first," you immediately responded.

He sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Because you're always putting yourself in these shitty situations, _____," he said in an exasperated tone. "First, there was the thing with Floche, and now this. I can't even count the amount of times I've had to pick you up from somewhere and that's not even counting when I had to drive around the fucking city looking for you when you went out."

You fell silent, hugging your knees a bit tighter.

"I'm sorry I'm such a shitshow, Levi," you mumbled. "That shouldn't have to fall on you."

"Tch," Levi's eyebrows scrunched together into a frown. "Didn't I tell you to cut that shit out?"

"Cut what out?"

"Quit pitying yourself," he said as he leaned forward and gently flicked your forehead. "That's not what made me mad."

A pout appeared on your face as you rubbed at your forehead, although you finally began to understand what it was that he was trying to say. He was pissed that you kept finding yourself in these situations, but he never thought it was because you couldn't take care of yourself. You were more than capable of it, which is why he's pissed that you still found yourself in those situations.

"Your turn," he said, pulling you out of your thoughts.

"What?"

"I answered your question," he nodded towards you, placing his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "Now you answer mine. Why did you go back to him?"

You looked down, away from him as you contemplated what it was that you wanted to say in response.

Levi could tell that the topic was another sore spot. You had reacted similarly during Halloween when Hange brought up the topic of your parents.

"He..." you started speaking before trailing off.

"He what?"

You buried your face in your knees, clenching your fists as you pulled up those turbulent memories. You were more emotionally vulnerable than ever.

"He made me feel good about myself when nothing else would," you said, your voice muffled. "My parents had just died, my friendships at school were falling apart because I couldn't keep my shit together, and he just gave me whatever I wanted as long as..."

You trailed off again before lifting yourself back up and looking towards Levi, without really making eye contact.

"...as long as I gave him what he wanted, too. As long as I just shut up and listened to him, as long as I wore the clothes he wanted me to wear and presented myself the way he wanted me to present."

You recalled that Zack didn't even really let you hang out with anyone outside of school when you were dating, which heavily contributed to why you were so confused about navigating everything on your own now. 

Upon noticing Levi's lack of a response, you buried your face in your knees again as you felt the corners of your eyes heat up again from the tears building up.

"You probably think I'm pathetic, don't you?" you mumbled as your voice began to break up. The last thing you wanted to do was to start crying again, but the events of the day only added to any pre-existing thoughts of self-doubt and shame.

"Stupid? Yes," Levi began to speak. "Reckless? Yes. But pathetic?"

He paused as you looked up at him again.

"No, I don't."

You gave him a slight nod as you used the sleeve of your hoodie to wipe away any stray tears that were threatening to fall.

"You don't need that douchebag's approval—or anyone's approval, actually—to be worthy of love and respect, _____."

You felt your cheeks immediately begin to flush up at his statement. You were also able to see out of the corner of your eye that Levi began to awkwardly shuffle in place, as if he just realized what he had said. 

"So quit pitying yourself like that. You're valued more than you think you are."

You pressed your chin into your knees and wrapped your arms around your knees in a way that hid your cheeks that were rapidly heating up. You've felt nothing but guilt and turmoil the entire night, but his comment made something else pop up deep within you. You didn't know how to describe it. You didn't know if it felt good or bad, but there was something there.

Levi watched as you struggled to navigate your own reaction to his comment. He tapped his finger against his leg as he held his hands in his pockets. He'd be lying if he said that there weren't also confusing feelings that were arising within him as well. He remembered pulling up to Zack's apartment and feeling slightly distressed upon seeing you with Zack—maybe even a little jealous, although he would never readily admit to that—before feeling incredibly panicked as soon as he saw Zack grab you. 

He could no longer deny that you were not the shallow undergrad that he thought you were when he first met you in June. You weren't just a student dredging their way through college. Life had thrown misfortunes at you left and right and you were forced to try to navigate through that on your own. There was more to you than you had ever let on.

"Just promise me something," he finally said, waiting for you to look up at him. "Just, try not to get yourself into those situations again."

You looked down again, wondering if his intention was to tell you that he didn't have time to help you anymore when the time came to it. However, he didn't give you much of a chance to dwell on that thought.

"It'd be a shame for me to see something happen to you."

You immediately felt your cheeks flare up again. It was clear that he cared at least to some extent and that itself was enough to get you to question everything around you, including the nature of your relationship with him.

"Storm's over," Levi mumbled as he began to stand up. As he was pushing himself up off the ground, the lights flickered back on.

He held his hand out towards you and helped you get up off the ground.

"Go take a shower and get warm since you decided to casually run off into the rain earlier," he said, motioning towards the bathroom, letting go of your hand. "You were a pain in the ass the last time you got sick."

#: @levisbrat25 @gothgril69 @sckerman @berrijam @notgoodforlife @meowjaa @averysmolbear @roseofdarknessblog @bejewelledd @hhighkey @ayame236 @sad-darksoul @velouria17 @kamyru @l1zk4 @layenacreates @lamees004 @whoami-72 @highgoon69 @chaotic-on-main @levishotgf @nube55 @chosos-mascara @heichoucleanfreak @svftackerman @alexkibutsuji

[dareactions]

Can we get some headcanons for bull and dorian (separate) with a male lover whose in their first mlm relation ship?For sfw maybe their concerned about wether or not the relationship should work differently than mlw And for just tapping into nsfw (no need to go into it) their worried about not being able to actually do anything good, and they start considering simply telling bull and Dorian to go find someone else for such things?

if you saw this get posted by accident, you didn't. Tumblr's new shit system messed me over.

the nsfw-esque bits under the cut :) !

Iron Bull: It's kind of cute in a way, honestly. Bull can't remember someone being that anxious about dating in years, especially not when it came to him. But he also has to wonder what goes on in that brilliant mind sometimes that shit like this takes such a large space in his everyday thoughts. It all reaches a point where Bull puts a hand on the Inquisitor's back one day in passing, leaning down to speak in hushed sentences as they glance at the chargers training. ''You know you're overthinking, right? Like a fuck ton.'' He starts with a laugh, and the Inquisitor's huff is just a bit too fucking cute. ''It's not different whatsoever in the romance department, trust me. It's not like we have to follow those shitty stereotypes people like to make up- we have to just exist, not much more. So stop worrying so damn much, you'll knock yourself out at this speed.''

Dorian: It's a relatable anxiety, in a way. There's not really any proper guides or books about it and he feels the gnawing need to do something but being unaware of what exactly to do. He knows that sometimes words aren't enough. But Dorian does know his lover, he knows his partner. So he gently takes his hand one night when they're sitting in the warmth of a fire and just lets the man he loves absolutely dump every piece of worry and anxiety on him about it all. Long winded sentences that make little to no sense make it into the mix and Dorian just stays quiet for a moment, sighing and smiling - because it's all a little bit funny in a way. ''It's not that different, really. We love the same, don't we? You're overthinking, an understandable thing, but you are overthinking this. A relationship between us are no more complicated than it would be if we were a man and a woman, maybe we'd get one less stare in our direction- and a few less scornful comments or whatever else. But this is as complicated as we make it, so get out of that thick skull of yours. We'll be fine.''

Iron Bull: Now, this fear he gets a bit more. While sex to him was about as scary and new as well- his reflection maybe? he gets it. He can recognize the anxious expression anytime his hands start wandering a bit too much and Bull will be damned if he doesn't know how to soothe anxiety regarding sex at least. ''Now, if you actually want this to be an open thing, that can be discussed- but I'm not just going to go fuck someone nilly willy because you're clearly not actually fine with it.'' He'd had arrangements like that in the past, in the end the romance department was more new to him than anything else. It's not like he had actually been in a relationship-relationship in the past really. ''But I'm not sure if you've been told this, but sex is awkward. It isn't going to click instantly, that's fine- the fun part is figuring things out and being able to laugh at yourself about it. You're going to do fine, you're going to learn and adjust and even if you figure out it isn't your thing sexually- we'll figure it out. Now take a deep fucking breath because I think you're about to pop a blood vessel.'' This was followed with far too many sex ed speeches, probably.

Dorian: When the Inquisitor suggests taking other lovers, Dorian almost feels a bit offended. Really? Other lovers? Did he look like he was that clueless to the Inquisitor's anxieties? ''You don't actually want me to do that, do you?'' He asks, glancing up over the spine of his book entirely unimpressed as the Inquisitor stares for a moment, glances away and shakes his head. ''That's what I thought.'' And he puts his book away and sighs. ''I understand being nervous, it's nerve-wracking with new partners. But I'm not quite sure if it's as complicated as you're making it out to be. It'll be a bit clumsy probably, for sure, but I think that's kind of fun in a way, don't you? Learning each others bodies, what makes the other tick.'' Well that is an interesting reaction there, the Inquisitor's nervous glance at his lips. Sadly Dorian had absolutely no intention of letting this go just for a quick make out session as tempting as it is. ''We'll talk through it, if you need to. I am actually an expert on gay sex, believe it or not- don't laugh, it's true. I'm an expert, we'll figure it out, one step at a time. Now get over here and lets figure out what concerns swimming in that skull of yours that I can quell.''

[thespianinthebackcorner]

Half of this theory's been around for ages I'm just adding more but

Is this anything. I know the theory of Toni Kensa (which could easily be short/nickname for Tataki Kensaki, making both canon) and the Squid Sisters being related but.

Is it any coincidence that one of the promo characters literally has the exact same name with the exact same spelling and coincidentally is seen using. A charger (Marie's weapon) in the Direct he was first seen in. I'm gonna call him Saki with this because what else can I do when he refuses to tell me if it's his last name or not

I'm already going too far with this but there's also the fact that he primarily wears greyscaled colours (cough Toni Kensa before the Kensa brand existed). And I've heard people say the hipster cut is a budget Marie cut before. So that's A Thing.

I don't know what's going on and we haven't seen Saki in five years anyway so I don't know why I'm theorising now but I just find it weird that. The family crest on Marie's kimono, Toni Kensa, and now some random kid all share the same name. Especially since S2's main story mode puts this emphasis on family (Callie & Marie). And the fact that everyone who's ever modelled for Kensa has used black ink, implying that Kensa himself probably has black tentacles (like Callie does) or even white ones (like Marie.) and the greyscaled tentacles could easily be a family thing that just happens as you get older. Especially with the family thing since we know it doesn't happen to everyone (Captain 3 doesnt have greyscaled tentacles despite being older now than the Squid Sisters were in S1.) If it's true then that would mean the greyscaling happens around at least 17 years, which explains why S2 Saki has regular colours because he'd be 15-16 at the time (S2 protagonists are two years older than S1 protagonists are.) (I just realised my logic on that one is way off base and they'd actually be around eighteen by S2 but roll with me here. It still works, he'd just be a late bloomer.)

Anyhoo ive been high on this theory for like an entire day now but suffice to say. (1) Saki should've been the protagonist of S2 (2) in my head it's canon that the Squid Sisters, Saki and Toni Kensa are cousins (3) wait that kinda fits because the gaudy pair of black bracelets on Saki's shirt feel very Kensa (4) I'm going insane help.

Having said that, if it is canon that raises the question why didn't Marie directly ask Saki for help with Callie- but she could very well have not wanted to worry him or put him in danger, especially since S2 was kinda his time in the spotlight as a turf war player, especially since that's the one point in the timeline where neither the Squid Sisters nor Toni Kensa were getting attention. Now that I think about it, there's no real confirmation that Cuttlefish's family stopped with Callie and Marie's parents, and them two respectively. For all we know, Saki is Marie's little brother or something like that. For all we know there could even be four cousins to the Kensaki clan instead of the two Squid Sisters.

I'm gonna write a fic based on this actually. Do y'all wanna hear more of my crack theories about the promo kids because I also have one highlighting the fact that (a.) Tof-U and Kensaki seem to be opposing each other a lot (second in command to their leaders and/or killing each other midmatch) and also the fact that Half-Rim and N-Pacer are literally what happens if you give them fanchildren

Yes I am insane

Sorry

[moosemonstrous]

(don't mind me cannibalising my own bits from before 😳)

Ghost Rider Pacific Rim AU - build your own nightmare

Yegor Ivanov is in charge of security on a large, well-appointed quasi-military base housing twenty thousand people – mostly J-techs and their families, but also a sizeable assortment of soldiers, scientists, medical staff, relief workers and support crew. It’s the most stable job he’s ever had. The general populace is just so grateful for the giant robots he deploys to fight the ever-nastier demons crawling out of the Breach, he barely has to pay any attention to the actual security part of it. His subordinates haven’t reported a single issue they couldn’t deal with themselves in years. His approval makes or breaks people’s careers. He has the respect of the international leaders for keeping Hong Kong off of their priority list. Somehow, in this beautiful, messed up world he managed to carve himself out an existence most people can only dream of. It doesn’t come without its share of headaches, though.

He has been pretty careful in building his strike team. He has the final word on every new ranger. He’s been saddled with a Stark from the very beginning, but while the current one is prone to sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong, there is a definite advantage to working with someone who can handwave away what would usually be weeks of financial advisory committees. That seems to be the balance of things – trade a tiresome but overall manageable personality defect for a fantastically useful professional benefit. If nothing else, Yegor is good at dealing with tiresome personalities.

Brooks is barely an effort – military history, some very helpful connections in the underground and, for the defect, as-of-yet undefeated idealism. He can't be trusted with the more... sensitive issues, but tends to stick to the point in meetings, which is why he usually leads on the tactical debrief. This, like most things, backfires as soon as Cho gets involved.

“We’re talking about positioning,” Brooks says. “We’ll get to the hindsight part later.”

“Not if you’re going to point fingers like that. I can’t tell for sure until I get the hide, but drone footage shows the scales opening under pressure, here, let me—"

“Gentlemen,” he interrupts before their argument devolves any further. “Before Mr Reyes loses consciousness, if you please.”

Reyes startles from where he’s been daydreaming in his seat at the table. Every now and then, when the light hits just right, his damaged eye seems to reflect it, like some sort of a nocturnal animal. Like he doesn't give Yegor enough creeps as it is.

There are vanishingly few advantages to having Reyes on the team, but Yegor only has himself to blame for this. Most of the old guard making decisions around Hell Charger’s fate ten years ago have either died or retired into obscurity; other than himself, there is scarcely anyone left to confirm whether the similarities he’s seeing are truly there or just a product of his imagination. Even the way he shreds the label off the bottle of water in his hands, a perfectly common nervous tick, or the way he fidgets like he can’t wait for the meeting to be over – everything is just a little too close.

Not to mention his uncanny overnight progress with martial arts. Or the way he used the chain to choke out a Cat-4 demon. The chain that, as far as anyone can tell, he never had any training with.

Eli was always so fond of his garrotte.

“Sorry,” Reyes mutters, and looks at the wrapper confetti in his hands like he’s only just noticed it.

“As I was saying,” Brooks shoots Cho an impatient glance, but if Cho can be relied on for anything, it is to switch his focus to the weirdest thing in the room and Reyes certainly matches that description. “The last three attacks confirm we need to shorten our approach time. The demons are clearly prioritising civilian targets over a head-on fight with the closest hostile. The jaegers were too spread out, and until the core replacement program gets going we don’t have the speed advantage.”

“I get that,” says Danvers. “But what you’re proposing gives us very little space to react without running into land.”

“Where the jaegers outperform a demon every time,” Brooks points out. “As proven yesterday – even a rookie like Reyes can catch one when the water only goes up to your knees.”

Yegor didn’t truly believe all of his problems would be solved by putting the kid directly in a line of fire, but some part of him is still disappointed. It’s like the universe conspires to ensure at least one Reyes is always a thorn in his ass, and removing it risks perforating a goddamn artery. On one hand, Razorback slithering right past Eden Assassin and making a beeline for the coast is certainly bad news – Yegor has by now learned not to underestimate it when the beasts develop new strategies. On the other, he can’t pretend he wasn’t hoping it will make a short work of Hell Charger before the others caught up to her. On one hand, he’s sure to get the credit for taking a risk on a new ranger and saving Taipei. On the other, the new ranger has so far evaded several ways his removal could be considered innocuous and if Yegor gets any more direct in his approach, someone will notice. Cho has already made him his new fixation, and Stark is like a dog with a bone – it was a mistake to play the hardass card with him to start with. He’s less likely to be helpful now that he’s fallen for the sad orphan routine. Yegor has been making too many mistakes around Reyes, and that on its own is also familiar.

“We have to run this by other Shatterdomes before implementation,” he says, mainly to head off further squabbling. He nods at Brooks. “Work with Reyes on his ability to follow a direct order until we get a confirmation.”

“That’s unfair,” Cho rallies to his pet project’s defence again. “What was he supposed to do, let that thing hit the pier?”

Amadeus Cho is a thorn all of his own. Yegor stopped worrying about him months ago, when it became clear that there was indeed nothing tying him to Banner’s untimely demise. This much interest in not just The Charger but her pilots, though... “Mr Reyes is present to defend his choices, if he so wishes.”

He could, too. Any ranger at the table would likely do the same thing – throw themselves at the danger instead of staying clear of it when told, like a functional human being. If either Yegor or Brooks were to really press the matter, at least one of the pilots would acknowledge it, and he isn’t looking to initiate any feelings of solidarity. Of course, in this one thing Reyes is more obviously like his father than like his uncle – he doesn’t run his mouth at every opportunity. If he spoke up, Danvers or Summers would try to assert their dominance, which would inevitably lead to an argument with the twins, who have been keen on preserving their lone agent status despite the circumstances. Yegor could use the resulting hurt feelings without looking like he has a stake in the game beyond what can be expected. Instead, Reyes merely shakes his head, further convincing everyone that he’s a harmless newbie rather than–

What is this kid, exactly? More than a liability – he’s a threat. Yegor panicked once already, hoping to engineer a tragic accident, and only ended up making the problem worse. He needs to keep a cool head about this. Reach out to Chau, maybe, see if he’s noticed any mutilated bodies showing up on the island. Refresh the surveillance kit so he doesn’t have to rely on Barton for everything. And put a better face on meanwhile – Hell Charger stopped Razorback from barging right into the coast, where it would’ve decimated the ground troops in a blink of an eye. The press is going to want in on the new hero, which will only make the whole situation that much more complicated. You can’t quietly remove someone whose mug is on every news report for a week.

Yegor doesn’t buy for a second that Reyes turned back up in Hong Kong after a decade purely by accident. Not when he’s clearly trained in all of Eli’s favourite moves. Not when he isn’t asking any of the obvious questions, like he already knows what the answers are.

Not when his mask slips sometimes, and he looks at Yegor like he’s only delaying the inevitable to watch him squirm.

##

(in the highly probable event this doesn't come across clearly, Razorback managed to slip past the jaegers and would've hit a beach if Robbie didn't react. He was ordered not to engage, bc that was the agreed tactic and the others were only minutes away. For ~some reason~ he decided to catch himself a demon instead.)

(yes it is my experience that 90% of any major operations is meetings that could've been a quarter of the time if people stuck to the point, Amadeus would be my enemy at work. I've also cut out his entire aside about ecological impact of trying to curtail urban run-off so that will probably show up elsewhere in a good time)

[wazzappp]

I am thinking. About Robbie purring. Again. (Adding a read more because my thoughts really started zoomin with this one godamn)

Thinking he just finished fighting a lot of people and is actually feeling a little satiated, a little more satisfied for the moment. He’s walking back to the car when he notices the sound of another engine but it’s far far more muffled, and sounds happier (?) than the hell chargers violent background drone. Then he realizes it’s actually him. And it’s. Weird. But he’s already on fire and has a leather suit instead of skin so why the fuck w o u l d n t he make weird rumbley noises ghost rider is weird already.

So he snuffs out and goes home to Gabe, who just figured out how to do some kind of math problem by himself and is so excited to show Robbie. And Robbie is just. So proud. Gabe asks him for a hug and OF COURSE he gives one. And things just seem kind of right for the moment. His more violent needs are actually sort of satisfied (for now), Eli has shut the fuck up for once in his life, and Gabe is happy and learning and. There it is again. He can feel it in his chest this time which is extra weird because he can feel his lungs and his heart and his entire godamn ribcage VIBRATING.

Robbie immediately shifts too PANIK because he’s supposed to be HUMAN right now and HUMAN PEOPLE can’t make that fucking NOISE. But it also just won’t stop and dear god is it getting LOUDER? Gabe is confused but just keeps hugging his brother until his breathing goes back to normal and he stops radiating heat like a damn furnace and all thats left is what has grown to be a very comforting sound.

I’d imagine Gabe kinda loves it. Partly for sensory purposes because cat purrs are proven to help calm people. But primarily because it’s an easier way to read his brother. Very easy to tell when someone is actually happy when they have a noise dedicated to it.

Robbie is freaking the fuck out and actually starts to question how human he actually is even when he isn’t burned up. Scars and weird eye colors are… fine. But what the f u c k. What if other stuff starts leaking through (I personally think other stuff already HAS and if you x-rayed him he would be weird as fuck) He tolerates this though because of Gabe. If there was any other instance where he started purring elsewhere he would be fucking mortified.

Eli is m a d. The godamn indecency of it Robbie, why did you make us come back so fucking w e i r d. Well obviously its your fault I’m the one who knows what I’m doing. We are not a fucking CAT- oh wait that’s a really nice knife, great polish very shiny you should buy it

[britcision]

Because I can, have some DAI cooking headcanons

Iron Bull: very good at it. He doesn’t cook for the Chargers, but he enjoys it once in a while and he knows how to make plain food taste good, and he’ll compromise on his less local spices for the good of the group

Cassandra: surprisingly skilled. Her uncle made one comment, once that cooking was beneath people of their class. She went straight to the kitchen the next morning and learned everything she could

Leliana: doesn’t do it often, especially these days, but she used to enjoy it and it might be good for her to cook more. She’s good at it and it involves way less life or death

Varric: doesn’t advertise, doesn’t volunteer if someone else speaks up first, but he’s pretty good. Makes plain food taste good, middle of the road tastes that isn’t too much for any palate

Blackwall: actually a little less good than people expect. He can cook on a fire and make it work, but he punishes himself with plain food and he never cooked for anyone else, so he can cook things the way he likes them, and if you don’t like them that way you’re fucked

Solas: excellent cook, this far down the list because he will 1000% over season to spite whoever else is with him, double especially if it’s Dorian or Vivienne. He learned he had a higher spice tolerance and now he only cooks with ghost peppers

Sera: competent cook, got her own recipe in the reference books (it’s for corn), but she can will and does whip out the most random flavour combinations. Some of them work

Cullen: has very expensive tastes and is 1000% incapable of meeting them himself. He knows this though, and will therefore never complain unless he’s paying for a meal and expected better. Has burned water

Josephine: has travelled enough through various stages of her life to understand the importance of buying good supplies and hiring a good cook. Leliana has tried to teach her more than once… Josephine still jokes it’s Leliana’s only failure

Vivienne: used to pride herself on never having needed to learn; has absolutely no idea how the hell ingredients become food, especially because she usually only eats fancy food. Insists on trying to approach cooking as a form of alchemy. It really, really doesn’t work

Dorian: started out very into the “adventure” of eating rations and preserved travel foods. Insists he still is solely to seem better than Vivienne and so he will never be asked to cook and accidentally reveal his secret: he can NEVER successfully tell the sugar from the salt. Underseasons in self defense

Cole: has dangerously flexible ideas as to what counts as food. Banned from cooking or helping cook to prevent loss of life

And our Four Heralds AU beans, just because I know y’all don’t care about them But I Do!

Corin Cadash: the best of the four by a mile. Good grasp of flavours, genuinely enjoys the experience (and distraction from their chronic pain), considers anything done in 20 minutes of effort or less an acceptable depression meal and knows what seasonings need to be cooked to be good and what can be added after to personal taste

Séamus Trevelyan: competent, doesn’t usually burn things, the taste of food is generally at least a little improved by his cooking it. Not fancy, but knows what he’s good at and sticks to it

Tavi Adaar: a little over-flexible on what is considered edible to non-qunari, but nothing worse than a stomach bug. Can break down and butcher a carcass like no other, but not the one you’d ask to cook it

Lluciano Lavellan: knows every single plant on Thedas, where it comes from, how to grow it, and every single use for it. Grew up with parents whose idea of cooking was “boil it white”, so if it can be eaten raw without dying he will. Only slowly being convinced that cooking can actually make food taste good. Bites raw onions and potatoes if not stopped

[thewertsearch]

Asks Compilation 25/07

[ god I wish this was true 😂 we don't get any deliberate ones really, but a lot of accidental ones I have to catch lol - C ]

People have spoiled future Aspects, but that's OK, I told them to!

As far as I’m aware, Hiveswap is one of the few Homestuck tie-ins which is actually canon to the comic. 

I’ll probably liveblog it - after I’m done the comic - but I’m not sure if I’ll do it immediately afterwards, or wait for the whole thing to release first.

It's fun - the more Homestuck lore I get in the liveblog, the more I can expand the lore of the adventure! 

The charger sword sounds sick, actually. I wonder if Sahlee uses chargerkind, or if she had something else to hand when she was assigning her Strife Specibus?

I like the idea that she’s really into Troll Star Trek. Since it was produced in a military empire, it probably has a very different tone to Human Star Trek...

“Space. The final battlefield.”

In other words, Life finds a way.

AA, the kidsona, pirated the game and just started messing around with it. Unbeknownst to her, TT, the trollsona, connected as her server player and deployed her starting gear.

TT hasn’t entered yet, and is currently still on Alternia. Let's hope she can get in soon!

Oh what? That's cool. These guys seem less and less human as we go!

Oh, I can definitely see it. 

It’d be nice if she got Rei’s 'I am not a puppet' arc - although hopefully it won’t end with her turning all of trollkind into Faygo. 

I can understand the Mind and Doom associations. Coding is a pretty cerebral task, and the most prominent programming language in the comic is Doom-themed.

Dunno about Light, Space and Time though. I guess you could say coding = computers = electrcity = electromagnetism = Light, but that’s very tenuous. 

But... whatever about its paradoxical status,  Davesprite's timeline is still canon, right? It was depicted in the comic, and its consequences are driving the plot. Seems pretty cut-and-dry to me. 

I’ve picked up a lot of Classes and Aspects over the summer - twenty-one, in total!

The known classes are the Heir, Seer, Knight, Witch, Rogue, Sylph, Mage, Page, Maid, Bard, and Prince. 

The known Aspects are Breath, Light, Time, Space, Mind, Rage, Void, , Doom, Life, and Blood. 

I think the coolest-sounding title I can come up with is the Witch of Void.

Interestingly, this would imply that your Class can change over time. If it’s based on your life experiences, it sort of has to change, since you keep gaining more life experiences. 

Would baby Players even have classes, in this case? If you made a second clone of John the Player - one not destined to play Sburb - would he develop a Title, too?

[ anything that builds Vriska hype is approved - C ]

Oh, I'm so ready.

[ https://youtu.be/U0m-k6qZMx8?t=150 they know... - C ] 

Screw it, let's check this out.

...heh, this is all very early 2000s. It’s weirdly nostalgic to go through, even though I never watched these as a kid - and even though I wasn’t even on the internet in 2000. I started in about ‘04, with Runescape. 

Yes, and it's fucking great. 

I love how it means there's a small chance that Undertale and Homestuck were started on the same computer.

Of course. Just like in every universe, the great visionary, John Cusack, is destined to develop Linux. 

Thanks!! It’s actually really nice having asks to point out stuff I missed, so I can fully understand what it is I'm seeing.

We won't know for sure until the Homestuck movie comes out in 2035, and we can hear their canon pronunciations.

Oh, ok, that actually makes a lot more sense than my interpretation. All the prototypings we’ve seen so far would then conform to the rule, and a kernel with nothing dead in it would be as rare as it’s supposed to be.

Sollux didn’t even release Vii on Alternia. 

Fuck all those other trolls, this editor is for himself and himself alone. 

Nah, AA's is just as easy. I think I'm just starting to remove quirks a little overzealously, lmao

Prototype them both in a sprite together to create The Ultimate Player.

Glitches as horror is so underrated. 

What if this happened to Future Rose and Dave? What if their broken session started to yield broken items?

I'd love to have seen some of this early speculation. Cat mentioned the Homestuck forums have been irreparably destroyed, which really fucking sucks. Hopefully at least some of it got archive.org’d. 

Ayyy!

Oh my god, do you think AG is the type to be like...

“It's all in your head!!!!!!!! Mental illness isn't real, you just need to fight it off with willpower! ::::)”

[retphienix]

I haven't played too much today thus far since I'm confined to solo queue and solo play today (oof) but some opinions on some of the adjustments.

Short version: Looking forward to much much more and thoroughly enjoying what I've tried on difficulties 4~8 range (I don't like soloing helldive since I feel tunneled to stealth and jack of all trades loadouts- so not bothering)

Punisher: MUCH better place than it once was and arguably is just where it should be in terms of how primaries are balanced. It does it's job and does it well as an ammo stable slightly harder hitting but slightly more accuracy demanding Breaker. I think I love it? But I am still holding out for the pseudo med armor pen of the slugger once I get that thing (bought it while typing this).

Heavy Laser: MUCH more fun and useful than it was. I actually never considered the "intended use" the devs claimed for pre-patch, it was a damn poor version of a Machine Gun- infinite ammo or not. But as a medium armor pen weapon it definitely shows a lot more promise and effective utility in a loadout.

But.

It kinda still falls into a middle ground between "swarm clearing" and "heavy targeting" that's a bit awkward- definitely has potential in a squad but not something I would recommend to anyone playing solo like I was.

It instantly melts through any medium armor targets like hefty bugs or most bot targets, but it's still entirely useless against heavy armor and as such struggles to tickle chargers outside of post-charge which is the same period of time when literally any weapon can tear them down so- it has found "a place" but that place is strictly medium armor clearing and slight ammo efficiency buff to your other weapons. DECENT buff, definitely needs some more in my opinion- perhaps a complete rework of lasers in general would help as some have posed that "heat" weapons should melt off armor with extended contact. Purely hypothetical, but that'd do it.

Stick to unsafe-charged railguns for heavy stuff, if you're so inclined. (or any other option, I'm just pointing at the recently-brought-in-line-but-still-extremely-effective option)

Flamethrower: 10x more fun and effective, still demands team play or it slacks. The thing does nearly immediately kill anything in its flames that isn't heavily armored. Not sure what people claiming it does well against chargers are on about- unless they mean in team play where nothing else is involved.

In a "literal 1 v 1" with no distractions I think it'd do alright- it acts like the arc thrower in just "doing damage" and not super caring about the armor, but just like the arc thrower it's not an armor destroying monster- it takes TIME to kill the charger (10~ shots of an arc thrower can do it and I find that far more reliable than using a flamethrower).

But, I was solo and dealing with swarms AND chargers, so maybe in that 1v1 scenario it can melt their health bar reasonably, I can't say after 1 field test.

Now, the flamethrower does not in any way need to be an armor killer, I'm just mentioning it as it's one of the two things I tested against. It's MILES better against adds now, but it's not magically a charger killer- it just "can" do the job. Good buff! Still holding out that they implement some CC to fire damage so that enemies are staggered/scared by flames!

120kg barrage: Eeeeh. It's definitely 300% better than it was, for reference the 120 and 380 were fucking useless prior- their gimmick of "A barrage of explosions over a HUGE area" just didn't serve a real purpose in gameplay- not to mention they didn't even, you know, "barrage" an area, they kinda just went "This 9000 square feet area? We're gonna drop... hmmm.... 3 fire crackers in there randomly. Hope that helps!"

NOW, the 120 is actually pretty nice at softening up some objectives because it actually stayed near the intended target area. I tossed one onto 2 different egg batches and saw it genuinely soften up the area- nearly solo'd one 40~ egg batch on its own while killing a lot of the enemies in the area and even knocking out a nest or two I believe. It ACTUALLY serves a nice purpose of "slightly big area getting softened up".

Now, the utility of that depends on what other strategems people bring, but I know my preference for such things would pick something like the orbital barrage for its spammable cannon spray over this thing- but at least it WORKS now- I can see this actually helping!

Shield backpack: It's still insanely good. I genuinely think this is "almost" the perfect nerf because I can't say I think it's entirely overpowered anymore, but I can say it's still an incredibly versatile "get out of jail free" card that skips staggers and damage more often than it doesn't.

I genuinely think increasing its recharge delay in and out of "shield break" did well to make it no longer a borderline invincibility tool that you feel obligated to have at all times on higher difficulties- opening the way to more backpack options in my opinion. Kinda.

Because I said "almost". It's still an insanely useful tool and I still can't rightly say I'd prefer a backpack weapon over it, but perhaps I'm being a coward for disliking sudden slows from hunter tongues. In truth, that's a skill issue now ain't it, I simply think until we have more options to avoid stagger/slow or "ignore a damage source every now and then" like the shield does- the backpack will remain HIGHLY valuable to almost-if-not-certain overpowered degrees.

Still a good nerf in my opinion.

Liberator Concussive: It just got a name change don't go expecting anything. It's still bad and nothing changed beyond getting a much better name.

Railgun: I don't use railgun like at all, but I know what it did (and used a handful of times) prior to the patch and I have seen/heard what it does post patch. Sounds like it now HAS to overcharge to unsafe ranges to accomplish the same thing it did pre-patch in safe.

So like.

That means it's literally the same as it was pre-patch except you have to put some skill, timing, and positioning (to have time to charge) into using it, lol, sounds like a good nerf to me. If you want backpack-less armor pen with ammo to spare then it's still the tool to pick, you just have to use unsafe all the time now which seems more than fair when every other weapon has to be used intelligently to succeed. lmao

Breaker: It literally lost 3 rounds and some max ammo, big whoop lol

Still need to test the 380 and I plan to run the railgun for a few 7-8-9 runs to get a real feel for this new "actually try" era of railgun, but overall I like most of what we got adjusted.

Oh, and the spray and pray, but I'm not holding my breath much. I mean it's DEFINITELY gonna be better than the unusable state it was in, but it's also just not the weapon I'd strive to use much anyway so I'll certainly test it but I don't expect much.

I'm still looking forward to MUCH more in terms of balance adjustments, as I think many are, but I enjoyed what's here.

Also armor works now. It's underwhelming, but I'll be completely honest, I kind of expected as much because speed > armor in 90% of games so I figured armor would get fixed and still not really impact higher difficulty play much.

Maybe later adjustments will make it matter more? But for now it's still "Be fast, bro." and that's fine enough.

[madeinabyssxatomicheart]

Chapter 8: Victor Petrov: Dead or Alive

P-3 walked towards the odd device. Slowly, but surely, he approaches the machine, no idea of what it is capable of. Upon approaching, the machine begins to whir and turn on. Then it suddenly opens its doors, and out comes the wires. The wires came from all sorts of directions, all of them latch on to P-3 and toss him around. “Ooh, I haven’t been with such a man, much less a stud like you!” The machine said, “Such strength, such durability, Men like you really turn me on~.” Shit, P-3 thought to himself, If this continues any further, he’s gonna be mincemeat. “Char-Les, what do I do?” P-3 asked. Char-Les replied, “Get me close to her connectors, I’ll try to calm her down.” P-3 struggled against this mad machine's tentacles, finally pulling free one arm to grab one of the wires. He then freed the other arm and held Char-Les close to the wire. He emitted an electric shock to the machine. This however seemed to sexually excite this improper fridge, who only intensified her violent tussle. P-3 continued to try to subdue this mad creature. After a few shocks later, the beast was finally tamed. P-3 was gently put down and allowed to talk to the fridge.

“Well sugar, I’m dearly sorry for tuffling you up a bit, it’s just been so long that I’ve been with such a succulent specimen such as yourself.” P-3 felt weird being called that, “Thanks, but I’m not interested ma’am.” “No worries darling, no matter how far you walk away, you’ll always come running back to me~,” the fridge said saucily. P-3 hopes he really doesn’t have to, “Well, pardon me but you’re supposed to be a manufacturing unit?” “Yes darling, but that name is such a drab title, I’d prefer Elanora,” answered the machine. P-3 thinks that is actually a nice name, it’s better than calling her a machine. “Well, Nora, I need an upgrade to my weapon,” P-3 requested. Nora complies, “Certainly major, just put your big tool inside me~.” P-3 really wants to get this over with. He puts his axe inside Nora. Nora takes it and shuts her doors, in the meantime, a whirring and clunking sound happens inside her. After then, hee doors open again, and Nora presents P-3 his new and improved swede.

Good, P-3 grabs the axe and checks out its new features. His improved weapon now presents a pick attachment. Now he should be able to swing this thing around more easily. “You know sugar, I can also upgrade your glove too,” added Nora. P-3 stared at Nora with interest. A compartment in Nora opened up in Nora. P-3 wasn’t sure if this was some sort of trick, but she did give him an upgrade, so might as well take the chance. He puts his left hand inside her. The compartment closes shut, and Nora begins to work her magic. To P-3, the sensation was weird, almost felt like his hand was burning, but at the same time, not. Then Nora was done, P-3 pulled back and observed his hand, nothing seemed to change, but it feels different all the same. With the upgrades all said and done, P-3 issued a thank you, and left to find Petrov.

P-3 walks up to a closed off gate. There doesn’t seem to be any sort of way to open it, then P-3 looks up and sees the electric chargers. Char-Les whirs awake, “comrade major, point me up to the chargers, then think of electricity.” P-3 complies, pointing him up and thinking. Suddenly, electricity jumped out from the palm of his hands and activated the chargers. P-3 was taken aback, guess Nora did give a handy upgrade. He walked into the next room. Upon arriving, he heard a voice, he hid in the shadows and listened in on the conversation.

“Larisa, are you ok?” “…Ok, good, that’s great to hear.” “Listen, you need to be careful, Sechenov has sent one of his lap dogs after us, be wary of a man in a gray jumpsuit!” “Wha … What do you mean you met such a person? No, how could you have not known it was him.” “You should have left him for dead!” “… sorry, I shouldn’t have said something like that. It’s just that … this plan is going to shit too quickly.” “Well then, we have to move quicker to get the truth out then.” “Alright now, hanging up … love you.” … “No, I’m not giving that thing my regards!” “I don’t care, I’m not treating it like a son!”

P-3 finally buts in the conversation, “Having relationship issues?” The man turned around suddenly, shocked, that man being Victor Petrov. “Who the hell are you?,” inquired Victor. P-3 replies, “I’m that soldier you wanted dead, dickhead!” Victor couldn’t believe it, he’s here and now present, “You … you keep away from Larisa!” “Relax, you and your girlfriend will just be taken in and given the appropriate punishment for what you and only you have done,” threatened P-3. “You keep Larisa out of this, she had done nothing wrong,” relented Victor. His back up against the open door, and thankfully, and a candle next to him. He quickly grabbed the candle and bolted through the door. P-3 tried to pursue, but the door shut in front of him. Then an alarm went off, a tube in the wall turned on, and a small pchela popped out. Then another, then another, until P-3 is up against an entire hive. The machines swarmed around P-3, taking turns to poke P-3 with their stingers. P-3 has a couple of pierces, but he turns the table around. Taking his axe out, ready himself, and swings his weapon in a complete spin, taking out all of the flying machines as they fall and break apart.

P-3 harks, “Crispy critters, he got away,” frustrated that his target had run off and escaped. Char-Les hopped in and assured P-3, “Easy now major, you may have lost the battle, but the war is yet to be over.” Befuddled, P-3 says, “… What!?” Char-Les clarified, “You may have lost him P-3, but we can still catch him if we hurry ourselves before he can properly get away!” P-3 relents, “The prick locked the door behind him, how are we gonna get him now?!” Char-Les answers, “Simple, we look for a candle and put it in the socket, that way the door reactivates and opens for us.” P-3 understood the assignment and told Char-Les okay. He went on to find a candle, and continue his pursuit of the traitor. Because once he gets his hands on Victor, there is going hell to pay!

[webbywatcheshorror]

We Need to Do Something (2021)

We Need to Do Something is a movie about a family trapped in their bathroom during a violent and possible unnatural storm. The premise really set my expectations high, but left me pretty disappointed, to be quite honest.

Don't let the little blurb at the bottom of the above poster fool you- if you're expecting anything like the Saw franchise, you're going to be let down. (That said, Jigsaw would definitely put the dad character in a trap and I'd pay to see it.)

Review under the cut, and as always, SPOILERS ahead!

It starts off with some promise. A storm is coming, gather your family into the safest room in the house until it's passed. I've done it plenty of times in my life and I daresay I'll do it again- so I have what you might call some experience. Which, clearly, this family lacks, as they bring absolutely NOTHING by way of supplies. Not snacks, not blankets and pillows, not spare chargers, NOTHING. Aside from Dad's thermos with what appears to be an alcoholic beverage of some sort and a few board/card games.

The bathroom itself is nice and big, which makes me wonder about the rest of the house, but we never actually get to see it. With the exception of a few flashback scenes, the entire movie takes place in the bathroom. (I'm officially calling it- Bathroom Horror is now its own sub-genre. I'm going to make a list.)

My one complaint about the bathroom is but a simple one- why in the name of CAD does the only door open OUTWARDS? Go ahead, look at all the bathroom doors in your house for me. Hell, ANY of the doors in your house. They all open inward, do they not? This simple issue is what causes the rest of the movie to unfold the way it does, so it's not like it was an oversight or anything. It's just baffling to me.

Now onto the characters. I couldn't really feel much attachment to any of them, but I did feel sorry for the kids. Dad's an alcoholic asshole, Mom's a passive aggressive adulterer, and they spend most of the movie bitching at each other at the slightest provocation. The kids are better, they're just fairly typical kids. Sister's a teenager who snarks at her kid Brother (age not stated that I recall, but he's younger than 11 I'd say? I genuinely cannot estimate people's ages.) who pokes fun right back at her. Fairly decently written siblings.

I spent most of the movie waiting for things to get weird, to get creepy, but almost the entire time is spent watching them slowly just unravel- which could have been fine and dandy except I was promised something MORE. And it would have been fine if we were given any indication of how much time has passed, because otherwise they start losing their shit about ten minutes into the storm.

The storm brings down a tree directly through the roof of whatever room the bathroom is attached to and blocks the door, which, again, opens outward for some reason. The 'windows' are far too small to be of any use, and Dad claims the walls are *checks notes* SIX FEET THICK. Now, I never actually used my drafting training to actually make anything, but I'm pretty damn sure nobody builds houses with walls that are six feet thick.

There are so many hilarious moments, but I get the sense that they weren't intended to be funny. But how else am I meant to respond to things like the World's Most Aggressive Rattlesnake and the demon not!dog? Or when, in some kind of fit of madness, Dad starts whipping Mom with the dead rattlesnake after having bitten its head off? ('Like Ozzy,' he says, because 'snakes are just bats that can't fly!')

Most of the dialogue is weirdly phrased or just unrealistic in general, as well as their decision-making. Not once do they search for anything to try to unscrew the door hinges. Towards the final scenes, Mom is able to bust through a part of the wall that leads... Elsewhere? But they didn't bother with doing that anytime beforehand, only after two of them are dead and demons kill the only other people they hear from.

But by far the most unrealistic part is when, in complete seriousness, Daughter confesses that she and her goth gf might have summoned the demon storm with a spell they found on the internet and then didn't even do right. And her parents BELIEVE HER lmao. Like, right away, even. No 'oh sweetie that's ridiculous' or anything.

Some parts felt too rushed through, and some felt too drawn out, and some I wished were handled differently. There was a lot that could have been done with this story, and it really did have some good beats, but overall it felt awkward and kind of boring. And the worst part is the ending- it finally got interesting! Mom comes back from checking what was going on outside (absolutely COVERED in blood by the by) and outright refuses to say what she saw, then there's Sounds coming from the hole she crawled through, they scream, and it ends. We never even got to see the Demon whose tongue they (for some reason???) decided to eat.

I really did want to like the movie, I did, but you can't promise me a supernatural storm and then make me sit through a whole lot of pointless, baffling family drama when there's demons and shit out there. I give this one four outta ten ghosts. It just didn't work for me, but it had me laughing whether or not it meant to. Both times I watched it, I could not help but laugh when the kids are excitedly letting the 'dog' that's just out of their view lick their hands and asking 'oh who's a good boy?' only to be horrified when it answers, gleefully, 'I'm a good boy!' as it licks them.

[addicted-to-dc]

Red Hood’s Little Monster (Part 8, END)

Jeeze, it only took 2 years to finish it, but it’s done. Getting back into writing is nice, and I hope to continue to do this when college starts.

Word Count: 1052

Angst, mentions of abuse. Fluff. The good ending.

Laying out your batteries across the lawn, you connect each one with their solar chargers. It would take a whole day for them to charge up, but it’s all you have. Besides, another day meant more time to get used to your true form. You’re too spent from the other transformations to change anyways.

The spare time also allowed you to take in the farm and truly understand why it is a place of peace. It’s so far away from the regular world, giving a peace that you never felt before. It reminds you of your time in the League of Shadows, but better. It’s simplistic, but not for nefarious reasons. You can’t put your finger on it, but it reassures you that there is hope for some type of future. There will be no more running. Fear will not take the reins of your life away from you. While it may take time to recover from nearly a week of running and overusing your powers, your extended stay is welcomed with open arms when the Kents return home. Kara did not have to explain a single thing. They knew when someone needed help, and you couldn’t hide a thing from them.

It took a few days, but you felt ready enough to talk with Jason. During your entire time with the League, they never told you exactly who Jason was, but they made sure that he was key to your existence. You were a clone, or at least a modified one that soon became unrecognizable. You don’t look like him or possess any similar qualities, but for some reason, you are always traced back to him. Even before you met the man, he was always with you. No matter how many shifts, no matter how they tried to make them as important as him. He’s the only constant you had your entire life, and now he wants to actually talk?

You’re afraid. You finally can admit that to yourself. There was always the question if you finally met him, what if he was just as bad as the League? What if he thought you were the monster that you were forced to be? What if the only mercy that he could give you was a bullet through your head?

Kara left you alone to speak with him, guiding his friends into the house with an offer of tea. You didn’t bother wearing your suit even if you fully charged it. The exhaustion from the chase was more than physical. The mental exhaustion alone ruined your focus on hiding your true form. It was like a muscle that was constantly flexed. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

The spare clothes given to you are loose, but you don’t mind it. It’s a start, but you’re feeling comfortable again. You may need time to recover and heal, but this is a nice safety blanket for now.

You ended up rolling your hoodie sleeves just as he sat down, but he didn’t mention the scars. The tea Kara left in your hands burned your hands just enough to keep you grounded. You opted to keep your hood up, giving you some time to get used to talking it out.

“I’m tired,” you start, clenching the mug. “Tired of running to protect others from what I might become. I don’t want to go back to what I was, not when I’ve come this far.”

You stare at the fields in the distance. The peaceful greenery whose swaying in the wind kept you grounded.

“I was made to be a clone of you, just a pawn to spite Batman and his family of heroes,” you continue, eyes watering. “No matter what they did, you were always important to me. You are the reason why I’m here, even if you didn’t know about it. I wished that our paths wouldn’t cross so I could never do the things I was created to do.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, looking over at you. “I didn’t know.”

“I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard from the other teen supers, especially the clones.” You sigh, thinking back on so many cursed stories. “It never goes well. There’s rejection, abuse, and always manipulation. We’re used against the original, even if they don’t care about us.”

“I care, (Y/N), more than you realize,” Jason admits, running his fingers through his hair. “Do you want to know why I died?”

You finally look at him and softly nod.

“I was looking for my family, or what was left of it,” he replies, his eyes glazing over. “I was so desperate for some type of connection I let my guard down. Then I was blown up. I don’t want to be that for you, I want to be better.”

You exhale and pull the hood down, “I’m not like the other clones.”

There’s a brief pause before his hand is on your shoulder, squeezing it slightly, “I sure as hell hope so, wouldn’t want a boring one anyways.”

A laugh escapes from your throat unexpectedly, and you relax. You allow yourself to have one sip of the tea. It’s lukewarm by now, but it’s enough.

“I know it’s too much to use the ‘dad’ label in this sense,” Jason starts, “but I would love to have something with you. You are blood after all.”

“What are you proposing?” you ask, casting a curious glance at him.

He shrugs, “There’s always the Young Justice.”

“No,” you immediately respond, sighing. “I don’t belong in a group like that, I…”

The sound of Kara laughing in the house catches your attention, and Jason catches onto it immediately.

“Maybe just a team of two then,” he smiles, finally understanding.

“Yeah,” you smile, “a team of two.”

“So, are we good?” he asks, holding out his pinky.

You hook your pinky around his, your smile growing wider as he dramatically shakes his hand. He stands up and extends a hand. You take it. He pulls you up, and he finally gets a closer look of your face.

“Yup, spitting image of me,” he nods and continues in the building. “My little monster.”

Chuckling, you enter the house and sit on the couch just in time to hear Roy complain about the knife to his foot.

----

Thank you so much for sticking with me even when I faded into the void. It’s good to be back.

[squid-ink-symphony]

im really liking story mode and splatoon 2 in general so far, and i just got to the 4th area, so here are some random thoughts i have on it in no particular order.

I rlly like that Marie is basically the only other character here. I may be biased cuz she's my second fav character (shiver is number one ofc) but i just rlly like her commentary. But not have Callie here to also say random stuff is kinda sad..... Like at first i was like yessss lets go only Marie(no offense, i love callie). But i miss her :(

I may be one of the few sheldon enjoyers as someone who actually likes reading all his dialogue, so i appreciate him also being here.

THIS IS HARD. I know i suck at video games... but some of these levels just feel so LONG. And making me fight enemy octolings with a charger is evil. Anyway yeah i need some easier levels spread out between these like splat 3 had. Cuz this is..... not good. I have to keep taking breaks cuz the long levels do be mentally taxing. Like hello this is funny squid game i cant be bad at smth intended for kids. I havent straight up failed a level yet but ive come close.

Hello?????? The ruins of ark whatever its called salmon run map is so cool????? Why dont we have this in splat 3 yet. Its so fun.

speaking of salmon run, not being able to throw eggs or have the movement of splat 3 is so cursed. like, what do u mean thats not a thing????

Yeah the not being able to do the lil charge thing up wallls is so unsatistfying.....

I had to play as a guy cuz i wanted my splat 3 hair. (the ponytail) which i dont usually care about in games, but the girl inklings have cuter voices.... Oh well i am a dude now lol. Luckily gender is a game to me so i dont actually care other than the voice difference

Pearl and Marina my beloveds.... HOW COME WE DONT DONT GET STAGE SPECIFIC DIALOUGE IN SPLAT 3????? not only do deep cut not get many chances to speak in story mode they also have repetitive news segments...... so sad.. its ok i still love them. But yeah i love these funny creechurs. why are they like that. they say so many insane things. pearl and marina are so funky :D

Forcing me to use the hero charger for certain levels is so evil and messed up. I only like dualies, rollers, and sometimes brella. They cant do this to me.. I cannot aim....

As with splat 3 i am enamored with the backgrounds in the story mode levels themselves. i love just wasting like 5 mins just staring at them. I want to make literally any of them my desktop background but idk how to get a good pic of them.... man especially the upside down city looking one in 3. its so pretty and just UGH ITS SO GOOOD/

I am so poor..... what do u mean clothes cost money/?? i have to play the game??? all i want is to dress up my funny lil squid... i need a splatoon spinoff that is just a casual game thats like a dress up/room decoration game. maybe w like a cooking minigame too. thats ideal. like animal crossing or smth but squids. Shooting ppl is stressful.... (dont ask me why i play splatoon if i dont like combat cuz its scary. i couldnt tell u)

WHY ARE ALL THE INK COLORS IN THIS GAME SO MUCH PRETTIER THAN THE SPLAT 3 ONES???? ITS NOT FAIR. Some of these blue's are so pretty... i want...

none of the multiplayer maps have rlly stuck out to me in any way. Like they all just kinda feel the same lol. I think like maybe one or two i thought were cool? but idk the names. i def like the aesthetic of a lot of them.

I wanna just try all the weapons and specials but noooooo i gotta level up. just gimme everything ok

i also wanna explore the stages but as far as i know there isnt recon. I was just gonna do a private battle but turns out u cant do those w one person. And i was so excited cuz there were splatfest stages availbe too...... so sad i just wanna check out the maps but idk how to/if i can do that.....

the amount of times ive fallen off the map in the main level select area of story mode is more than i can count. its not even funny at this point

I also just cannot find some of the scrolls/sardines in some levels despite playing them mulitiple times. Not to just expose myself as incompetent over and over today, but i am 100% gonna need to look up a guide cuz i do not have the patience for this.

Also the rhythm game is surprisingly one of my fav things so far??? Like i am having the most fun ever with this thing. I want it in splat 3 so bad w all the new songs. Its actually just so fun. Like idk maybe better than story mode somehow. Maybe i just have my priorities wrong tho lol

Anyway yeah tats all i have 2 say for now... I think. idk im having fun w the game so yeah

[ikatako38]

thoughts on splatoon 3?

Thanks for giving me the chance to rant about this! I stayed up way too late the last two nights grinding multiplayer and story mode, and I have a lot of thoughts about it! I’m going to break it down into three parts: multiplayer, story mode, and music. And don’t worry, I’ll keep this totally spoiler-free!

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is a lot of fun! Lets start with the new weapons! So far, I’ve only tried the Splatana Wiper and the Tri-Stinger. I used the Splatana Wiper throughout most of the Splatfest, and despite the steep learning curve I’m really loving it. It feels sort of like an Octobrush combined with a Carbon Roller, which is great. The step-forward with a vertical swings is very cool and useful but has also gotten me in trouble a couple times (like stepping into a bomb). However, as I started playing Ranked Anarchy Battles (it’s going to take a while for me to make that switch), it didn’t seem to work quite as well for me s some of the weapons I was more familiar with. I had some decent success in Clam Blitz with it, though.

I bought the Tri-Stringer to use for Tower Control, and it’s been working pretty well. It feels like a charger, but it’s a lot more forgiving about aiming. The bomb-arrows can be especially useful for getting people off the tower, although to be honest that plan didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped it would. I still need to go used to the horizontal vs. vertical shots, and adjusting my aim when I jump for a vertical shot. I’ve made some pretty great splats with it so far, though. Overall very happy with it.

The only other thing I’ll mention about main weapons is that I like the new sound effect for the Rapid Blaster (and, presumably, all the other blasters, too). It feels somehow cooler. I’ve been using my Rapid Blaster primarily for Rainmaker like in Splatoon 2, but I’ve also surprisingly had a lot of success in Splat Zones with it, too.

I haven’t tried the Angle Shooter sub yet, so I can’t say much about that. As for specials, I think they seem decently balanced with each other, although I think they’re generally more powerful than the Splatoon 2 specials. I assume this is part of what contributes to the ridiculously high splat counts I’ve been seeing. The only flaw I’ve found in the specials so far is that Big Bubbler feels a little bit OP when placed on the tower in Tower Control. Zipcaster is really fun and especially useful on Tower Control, but I’m guessing it’s going to follow Splashdown down the path of Cool Looking Specials That Become Useless at Higher Levels After a Few Months Because Everyone Knows How to Counter It. Splashdown was my favorite special when I first started playing Splatoon 2, and Zipcaster is my favorite now, but I’m worried that theyre going to have the same fate. The Zipcaster counts on catching the opponent off-guard, but it’s so easy to see when someone is Zipcasting because of the glowing ink. Also, without Special Power Up, the special isn’t long enough to reasonably have a chance of splatting more than one target in different locations. However, I did just learn that the Zipcaster actually does up to 60 damage on impact if you land on an opponent, and that might be its saving grace. Also, while I haven’t personally used it, I think the Inc Vac is pretty tame. You’re out in the open for a really long time, exposed from the back, and it just makes a little explosion in a predictable location. Since I started playing (including the Splatfest), I still haven’t been splatted but an Ink Vac even once.

And before we move on from weapons I’ll also bring up Squid Roll and Squid Surge, I guess. They’re useless. That’s all I have to say. I had high hopes for them, but I really don’t see any way they could consistently help anything. The Squid Surge takes too long, and the jump you get is… what, maybe a few inches higher than without it? It also does work on low walls. I can only see two instances where it would ever be useful: if a wall isn’t full inked (but still inked just enough), or possibly on Blackbelly Skatepark. And even in those cases, only with certain weapons. As for the squid roll, it requires you to be swimming through your ink at a speed that’s impractical during battle. Even one tiny dot of ink can slow your momentum, and if someone is shooting at you, you’re quickly going to lose mobility. Not to mention that you can only jump between about 120 to 180 degrees of the direction you’re swimming in. I can only see one instance where this one would be useful: to avoid a bomb you’re swimming toward.

Ok, moving on from weapons. The new stages all seem great so far! I’m also especially happy to see Museum d’Alfonsino and Wahoo World returning. The only big thing I’ve noticed so far about the maps is that the Inkblot Art Academy map for Clam Blitz has replaced with the stairs right in front of the basket with a ramp. It’s definitely an interesting choice and makes scoring a lot easier. It also makes it possible to use the Reefslider or and Ultra Stamp to open a path to the the basket, where it was very difficult to effectively use a Baller, Ultra Stamp, or Splashdown. Other than that I haven’t noticed any major changes to returning stages.

I touched on this already, but let’s talk about… stats, I guess? For one, I’ve noticed that splat counts are WAY higher across the board, on both teams, even. As for the “Awards,” I really down understand them at all. What’s the difference between “#1 Overall Shooter” and “#1 Enemy Shooter”? What on Earth is “#1 Record-Breaker” (it was something like that) or “#1 Point-Scorer (which I got in a Tower Control game where I was backling with the Hydra Splatling and never touched the Tower once). It’s fun and all, but I’d like to know what they actually mean, especially if they’re figuring into my Rank. Also, it’s SO nice that they included the times splatted so that I don’t have to check Splatnet after every single battle. They still didn’t break down the splats and splat assists, though, so you still have to go to Splatnet for that. (Really, how hard could it be?)

I’m really happy that they brought back all the Ranked Modes. I was especially worried about Clam Blitz because it gets so much hate, but it’s actually my favorite mode so I’m glad we have it. I did hope to get a new fifth Ranked mode, but I’m happy enough with what we have. The four modes seem unchanged except for Rainmaker’s inclusion of checkpoints and Clam Blitz’s change from 10 clams to a power clam to 8. I think the checkpoints for Rainmaker are a great idea. It gives the defending team some time to respawn to that a wipeout in the first few seconds doesn’t automatically mean a loss. Also, it narrows down the routes you can take, which gives the offense a sense of direction while making it more predictable for the defense. It gets a little confusing for stages that’s have two checkpoints, but as far as I can tell you can just s pick one or the other.

The 8-Clam rule is interesting… to be honest, it doesn’t really affect my formation of clams much (one clam short is still one clam short), but one thing that I do think is worth mentioning is the scoring. In both games, a clan is worth 3 while a Power Clam is worth 20. However, 10 clams on their own would be 30 points, which means that you sacrifice 10 points every time you make a Power Clam. The tradeoff, presumably, is that you get all 20 points in one quick toss. I’m Splatoon 3, this disparity drops to 4 points instead of 10. This means that, if the opponent’s basket is already open, forming and tossing in power clams instead of regular clams doesn’t have as much of a negative effect.

Okay… I just talked about multiplayer for WAY TOO LONG. The next sections will be shorter, I promise.

Story Mode

I was a little nervous when I first started the story campaign because it starts just like Octo Valley and Octo Canyon, but I should’ve known there’d be some sort of twist. Lore-wise, I did find it unnerving to hear Cap’n Cuttlefish using Octoling slurs to my face. (Especially because my New Agent 3 is an Octoling!) I guess the character development we thought we got in Octo Expansion didn’t really happen? Then again, there was some very brief interaction between Cap’n and DJ Octavio that I’m sure got the Cuttletavio shippers excited. While personally I don’t ship it strongly, it was sort of exciting.

I sort of screwed up my Captain Three because it was really hard to tell what color the little splashes actually were without actually seeing them on his body, so his skin tone ended up being clearly a shade too dark, but it’s fine I guess. I understand why they did what they did when you try to talk to him, and, honestly, I’m kind of glad because if they gave him a really distinct personality it might be at odd with my Three. But it’s still frustrating to just watch him sit there while Callie and Marie talk to you over the comms and follow you around. Having Captain Three talk to us over the comms during missions would have been so cool! So, naturally, I’m probably going to have to write about it. I don’t have any ideas yet, but assuming the TPWCH sequel is also set post-canon, I pretty much need to finish the story mode and probably the DLC too before I can even start thinking about it.

Also, there’s no sign of Four or Eight yet, and I kind of doubt they’ll appear. I’m guessing Eight may reappear in the DLC, though, possibly alongside Four.

As for the structure of the campaign… the best way for me to sum it up is that it feels like a ripoff of Octo Expansion, but at least it’s not a ripoff of Octo Valley or Octo Canyon. The Alterna Logs are pretty cool, at least.

I also think it’s kind of bizzare just how low percentage completion they allow you to move forward with. I cleared up to Site 4 last night, and k only had to do like 1 or 2 levels from each Site. I’m definitely going to go back eventually, but I really was wanting to binge the plotline at the time.

The boss battles are cool from a lore standpoint, but from a mechanics/difficulty perspective, they’re rather average. They’re pretty similar to the kinds of bosses we’ve fought throughout the other two games, and they’re not all that difficult.

I’m guessing there’s going to be another big twist once we’re finish all 6 Sites, and I hope they pulls through! So far though, I give it maybe a 6/10 for both mechanics and lore.

Music

I did want to do a quick section in the music, too, because WOW! The battle music is amazing. Every single song is an absolute banger. It’s fun to hear Pearl and Marina singing in normal battles, too! Definitely nothing to complain about there.

I’ve never really liked the Story Campaign music all that much in the other games, it just seems kind of drab to me. Return of the Mammalians isn’t much better. I still prefer the Octo Valley music the most, actually. Oh, and there’s that one track in the new campaign that sounds like there’s an opera singer in the background… why? I hate it.

And finally, can we talk about the music in the Battle Lobby? Because sometimes I swear it’s normal, and then all of a sudden there’s these really funky noises going on. Also what exactly is the purpose of the Copy Machine? It seems completely useless.

On that lovely note, I’ll wrap it up. Overall, I’m totally overjoyed for the game! I’m definitely going to spend almost all my free time playing it, and Splatoon 2 (sadly) is getting demoted to a Nostalgia Only game. I love the graphics and the music of the new game so much, and the new weapons/specials are really exciting! I’ll also post an update once I’ve tried out Table Turf (which I’m really excited for!) and Salmon Run.

I’ll leave you off with a picture of my adorable lil’ Octo UwU (I love that the Hero Suit is a crop top for both “styles”)

[xtruss]

Sales of electric vehicle sales are growing, and the U.S. federal government is investing in tax credits and infrastructure to encourage consumers to make the switch from gas-powered cars. Photograph By David Guttenfelder, National Geographic Image Collection

Interested in an Electric Car? Here's What You Should Know Before You Buy.

The number of electric vehicles purchased in the U.S. is projected to skyrocket. But the coming revolution still elicits concerns, from drivers' "range anxiety" to environmental angst over battery manufacturing.

— By Kieran Mulvaney | June 15, 2023

The electric vehicle (EV) business is booming.

Globally, 14 percent of new cars sold in 2022 were electric, an increase from nine percent in 2021 and just five percent in 2020. Through the first quarter of 2023, sales were up 25 percent over the same period last year.

The attractions of EVs are clear: they do not run on environmentally taxing gasoline or ethanol. They have zero tailpipe emissions. They are quiet. They require less maintenance than gas-powered vehicles. Some can, in a pinch, even provide electricity for your house.

But the new wave of EVs is not without its downsides. The batteries that power EVs require intensive mining, and the electrical grids juicing up cars are often powered by fossil fuels.

Still, many—from the federal government to environmental groups—say EVs are the future.

Plus, says Fred Lambert, the lead writer for Electrek, a news and commentary site reporting trends in electric transport, “they’re so much more fun to drive.”

Who’s Driving EVs?

China accounts for 60 percent of global EV sales, with Europe and the U.S. the second and third biggest markets respectively, but sales, although small, are also increasing in newer markets such as India, Thailand, and Indonesia.

EVs have made a far bigger dent in some countries than others.

In Iceland, for example, EVs account for 60 percent of new car sales, while in Norway that figure is in excess of 80 percent. In contrast, a mere 4.6 percent of new vehicle buyers in the U.S. bought EVs in 2022, although closer to 20 percent did so in California; but analysts have predicted that in a little over a decade that figure could be more like 45 percent.

How Far Can They Go?

Not everyone is convinced that EVs are for them.

One issue that is frequently cited as a concern is "range anxiety"—the fear that an EV will simply run out of charge during a long journey. That anxiety is exacerbated by too little charging infrastructure—there are about 46,000 charging stations in the US, compared to about 150,000 gas stations—and some of those charging stations can be unreliable and prone to malfunctions.

However, Tesla has begun the process of opening its superchargers, which are considered the most reliable, to other EV brands; and the Biden Administration is providing $7.5 billion for a massive increase in a reliable American charger network.

The range of many EVs has also increased: the Lucid Air offers a claimed range of 500 miles, while several other options are available with ranges comfortably in excess of 300 miles.

Lambert has successfully driven a Tesla Model 3 Performance on a road trip that spanned from Montreal to New Orleans.

“And I had no problem, never had any range anxiety at all, and that was almost 2,500 miles,” he says.

Most people, he notes, do not need to drive that far; the average commute in the U.S. is approximately 30 miles a day.

Plus, adds, Jim Motavalli, auto columnist for Barron’s, “when people buy EVs, they’ll find that 85 percent of their charging is at home anyway. You’re not actually going to need or want to use public chargers most of the time.”

Do EVs Have an Environmental Cost?

Some studies have shown that manufacturing their batteries and constructing the cars themselves can create more greenhouse gas emissions than that of a traditional gas-powered vehicle.

Battery production alone can account for as much as 60 percent of the total carbon emissions in an EV’s manufacture. However, the majority of carbon emissions generated by traditional vehicles are a result of the fuel they consume over their lifetimes; once they have rolled off dealer lots, a gas-powered car’s carbon footprint soon greatly exceeds that of an electric vehicle.

Electric vehicles also only reach their full sustainable potential when the electricity powering them comes from renewable energy. In most locations, the electricity used to charge vehicles is generated at least partly by coal or gas.

Additionally, there are real concerns about the environmental and human impacts of mining components such as lithium for EV batteries

Improvements in mining techniques and battery production could mitigate these concerns, as well as the development and increased deployment of new batteries that last longer and hold more charge. Additionally, argues Lambert, the EV battery recycling industry has potential to grow over the coming years, and new cars could be built with recycled metals.

Too Many Cars on the Road?

Another criticism is that aiming to replace traditional cars with EVs doesn’t address the fact that there are too many cars and thus too many roads and highways and too much suburban sprawl—an argument with which even electric vehicles’ most ardent defenders tend to agree to with.

“Unfortunately, EVs Don’t Solve the Gridlock Problem,” Says Motavalli.

But, as writer Noah Smith notes, transitioning to EVs and reducing sprawl aren’t mutually exclusive. He argues that, in addition to making suburbia denser through, for example, changes in housing policy and the development of commuter rail, “we should take advantage of the EV revolution to add electrified buses, e-bikes, and other alternative modes of transportation to make suburbs easier to get around.”

Even with more transportation options, he notes there will still be a lot of cars—car ownership is high even in densely-populated, mass transit-rich nations such as Japan and the Netherlands. Switching from gas-guzzling to electrified transport not only makes sense, it’s inevitable, he says.

“I tell people to go drive one and see for themselves,” says Lambert. “Do the math. And let your logic take over. When you do, you’ll always end up with electric vehicles. It's the more logical solution every time.”