#Time Bomb & Friends

[foreverdolly]

cherry bomb (pt 1) | fan!eddie munson x famous!reader

summary: eddie is devastated when he hears the news that his favorite guitarist quit her band with no explanation. he doesn't find out the exact reason until he runs into her. runs into you. temporarily moving in with your mother was never part of the plan, and staying in hawkins for any extended period of time is a nightmare, but she needs help taking care of her bar and tying up loose ends after the sudden death of your stepfather. "the hideout" is a dive on the outskirts of the small midwestern town- and it was your stepfather's pride and joy , and you intend on helping your mom upkeep it. your band gives you six months to change your mind about quitting. any later than that and they're going to be forced to replace you. that seemed like plenty of time to take a break from the fast paced life of a rock star. . . that is until you meet your biggest fan. that complicates things.

pairing: fan!eddie munson x famous!fem reader

word count: 6,135

warnings/notes: eddie is severely touch starved in this fic, and it's fuckin' adorable. i've seen a lot of fics where eddie is the famous musician, and i'm all about role reversals. basically you're a bad ass and eddie worships the ground you walk on.

“Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Gareth narrowed his eyes as he roughly swiped his drumsticks off of his father’s workbench. Summer was in full swing with fall right around the corner, so the garage was still stiflingly hot. Despite the fact that he had opened up the doors before the boys even showed up for band practice, it didn’t help cool it down any. He would have plugged in the big fan they had, but his mother complained about their amps possibly blowing out her circuitbox. It had happened one time two years ago, and she still talked about it every week. Gareth didn’t think that it was the heat that had Eddie’s panties in a twist though. He rarely complained about things like heat, especially since his uncle Wayne hadn’t purchased an A.C unit for their trailer until the year before last, and it was only because Eddie had gotten a summer job working at the record store in the Star Court mall. What the long haired boy hadn’t spent on a new amp, concert tickets, and a new spark plug for the van, he saved and squirreled away for Wayne to use as he saw fit. 

“You didn’t hear?” Jeff’s eyebrows pinched together as he slid the strap of his rhythm guitar over his shoulder. Gareth froze, his eyes widening as he realized that something big must have happened. The drummer was Eddie’s best friend. . . or, at least, Eddie was his best friend. He prided himself in the fact that he knew just about everything there was to know about the older male. “Did his dad break outta jail or something?” He lowered his voice, leaning in close to Jeff so that Andy wouldn’t overhear them. Jeff quickly shook his head. “No- Oh god, no. I’m pretty sure he would be halfway to Nebraska by now if that happened. You haven’t heard about the news? About Social Misconduct?” Now Gareth was beyond confused. Eddie was moving in what appeared to be slow motion, unlatching his guitar case, his eyes solemn. It looked like he hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep the night before. His hair was an absolute wreck, he had dark circles under his eyes, and he was wearing his old Social Misconduct shirt that Wayne had accidentally shrunk in the wash a few months back. “. . . No? Wait- don’t tell me one of them died, man. Social is one of my favorite bands and-” “Y/n left the band.” The second that Eddie heard his favorite guitarist's name, he let out a loud sniffle, his bottom lip quivering. 

Damn him and his sensitive nature. He’d been crying all night, having gotten a call from the venue up in Indianapolis where he had tickets to see their upcoming show. He was told that he would be mailed a refund, but none of that mattered. “You’re kidding. We were supposed to see them in November!” It was Gareth’s turn to let out a wail, his drumsticks falling out of his hands as he began pacing the expanse of the garage. “She was the heart of the band! I mean. . .” Eddie quickly joined in, standing up from the ground so that he could throw his own hands up in frustration. “She’s the entire reason why most people listened to them in the first place! I-I mean. . . She was a female thrash metal guitarist. She shreds. Is she going to join another band? What if she drops off the face of the planet and we never see her again. . . she’s a musical genius. I feel like my heart has been carved out of my chest.” He was rambling, tapping his fingers against his temples as he spoke. He felt like he was going to lose his mind. Social Misconduct had gotten him through some of the hardest years of his life. To say that he admired the guitarist was an understatement. She was his absolute hero. Females, especially in the metal and hard rock genre, were a commodity. Not only that but they were seen as the underdogs solely based on the fact that they were women. Y/n had managed to take that unfair stigma and smash it to pieces. Most metalheads worshipped her like a god, Eddie included. The “SM” shirt was absolutely tiny on him all thanks to his uncle- god bless his soul- so it fit him more like a baby tee than a regular shirt. It brushed against the top of his black jeans, and as he raised his arms, the hem of the shirt moved up his stomach, showing off the small patch of hair that grew beneath his naval and disappeared beneath his belt. 

Andy licked his lips, looking between the two fretting males, and decides that instead of comforting them, he’ll try to do the next best thing. Criticize them. “Don’t you think that the two of you are being a little bit. . . I don’t know. . . dramatic? The member’s probably got into a fight or something. We broke up for a month back when Gareth was a sophomore, remember?” Eddie’s jaw dropped, his brown eyes widening to the size of saucers. Gareth let out a deep groan, lowering his head into his hands. “Oh, you did not just say that.” The Munson boy mumbled quickly, shaking his head in disbelief. “They’re rock stars, Andrew. Professional rock stars. They just got done doing a world tour with Kiss. They wouldn’t just announce that Y/n’s leaving only for her to pop back up a week later.” Andy nodded his head, not noticing how stupid the point that he was trying to make was until the words had finally left his mouth. He bit his lip, throwing his hands up in surrender. “Yeah, you’ve got a point.” Jeff plugged his guitar into the amp, leaning down to fiddle with the volume. “Well let’s just get through today's practice, alright? It’s too late to cancel tonight’s show, and the last thing we want to do is make Miss Marie’s life even harder right now.” Eddie and Gareth sucked in a small breath, sharing a look before nodding in agreement. “No, no. . . you’re right.” Andy quickly held his hand out, gesturing towards the two boys. Both Eddie and Gareth were easy to motivate, so he was quick to raise an eyebrow at them. “What would Y\n do?” Gareth was quick to reach down, picking his drum sticks up off of the floor. “She’d probably get drunk and-” “No, no. . . what’s the other thing she’d do?” Eddie was quick to slide the guitar strap over his shoulder, clenching his jaw. “She’d play the show, no matter how upset she was.” Andy smiled, gesturing towards Jeff who gave him a thumbs up, letting him know that they were all set up. That had worked like a charm. “Well let’s do it then.” 

The Hideout was more of a dive bar than a restaurant. Sure, they had great food, but people went there for the booze, pool tables, and pinball machines. Some of the high school kids would stop by on the weekends to grab a greasy burger and play the machines until their pockets were devoid of all quarters, but the people that really kept the place afloat were the local drunks. The building wasn’t run down by any means, but most of the preppier Hawkins inhabitants liked to label the place as “unsavory”. They saw the motorcycles and muscle cars parked outside and turned their cheeks. It was situated quite a ways outside of town, far enough down the main road that it was within spitting distance to the interstate. A lot of truckers liked to frequent the place, and Miss Marie and her husband Stuart were nice enough to let them sleep in their trucks in the empty lot behind the bar. Speaking of Mr Stuart. . . 

“Are you guys going to the funeral?” Eddie asked, lifting up in his seat a little so that he could look at his friends in the rearview mirror. Jeff was quick to pop a cheese doodle into his mouth before handing the bag back off to Andy. “Of course I’m going. What about you?” Gareth let out a small sigh, stretching his legs from his spot in the passenger side seat until he heard his back pop. Eddie grimaced at the noise, giving the other male’s side a quick slap. “Gross, man. Keep your rickety joints to yourself.” Gareth was quick to flip him the bird as a response before turning to face Jeff. “I’m still trying to talk my mom into it. She never met Mr Stuart, so she thinks it’s weird that I want to go to his funeral.” Eddie knew that Gar’s mom could be a bit overbearing, and as aggravating as he thought that it was, a part of him was always a bit jealous. Sure, there were things that Wayne didn’t let him do before he finally turned twenty-one, but he never hovered. Eddie didn’t have a loving mother breathing down his back at all hours of the day, or a father that showed up to all of his baseball games as a kid. None of that is to say that he didn’t appreciate what he already had though. Wayne loved him when nobody else did, and that was enough for him. However, if he had hovered a bit more, last spring break might have never happened. At least. . . not with him so involved, at least. He gripped a little harder onto the steering wheel, fighting off the memories the best he could. He could feel the phantom pain from his many scars, rudely reminding him that they were still there and just as gnarly. “Mr Stuart is the only reason why we started playing live shows in the first place. Your mom should get that, man.” Andy folded the bag of chips up as he spoke, shoving them underneath the seat where Eddie was sure to find them weeks later, stale and full of ants. The chocolate eyed boy made a mental note to remember to throw it away once he got home, but he was positive that he would forget the second he got back into his car after the gig. “Let me talk to your mom. She loves me.” Jeff grinned at Gareth, who was quick to agree. “She loves you more than she loves me. Probably because you’re mister ‘full ride’.” Eddie smiled over his shoulder at Jeff, a silent ‘congratulations’ before facing the road again. 

Jeff had been waiting anxiously for the acceptance letters for what seemed like months, and made it the entire Hellfire Club’s problem. His GPA was great, his SAT scores were off the charts, and he was a dedicated young man that came from a working middle class family. None of the boys were surprised when the letter finally came back, stating that he had been accepted on a scholarship to the local university. The recent trauma had pushed Jeff in a direction that no one saw coming. Even Henderson had been stunned into silence when Jeff finally got the boys together and told them that he wanted to be a lawyer. Watching one of his best friend’s name get slandered had made him take a big step back, really honing in on what he wanted to do with his life. Anyone with half a brain would be able to see that the Munson boy was no murderer- it wasn’t in his nature. Jeff wanted to make sure that nothing happened like that again.

 Knowing that Eddie would eventually have to find a replacement for one of the beloved members of his band was a tough pill to swallow, but after a few days of wallowing in self pity, he learned to embrace the change. He’d been hanging posters up all over town, but no fishies had bitten the bait yet. Jeff was shipping off in two months, which meant he could kiss his dreams goodbye if he couldn’t find anyone soon. He was already twenty-two, and he certainly wasn’t getting any younger. He had wasted precious years repeating his senior year three times, and the possibility of getting signed to a label is higher when you’re young. Hell, Kirk Hammett had started the band Exodus when he was only sixteen, and joined Metallica when he was twenty-one. The talented guitarist’s golden years were ticking by. 

He might have been able to fight off demon bats, but time? There was no stopping that. 

Eddie parked right in front of the bar, turning his body so that he could face the boys all at once. “This is our first time seeing her since he died, so let’s stay on our best behavior.” Which meant that Eddie would not be buying Gareth and Andy beers, no matter how much they begged. The last thing he needed was for the two eighteen year olds to get wasted, stumbling around the bar like idiots. With the sweet middle aged woman in mind, the boys all piled out of the car, dragging their equipment right along with them. 

Forty-nine was too young. You didn’t understand how someone could be perfectly healthy one second, and then on their deathbed the next. It didn’t make sense to you. You hoped that being with your mother might bring you some closure, but all it did was make you feel worse somehow. Grief hits everyone in different ways. You found that it came in waves; the tide was either high or low. It struck you at random points of the day. You’d catch a whiff of a scent that reminded you of your step father, or stare too long at an old family photo that he had hanging up on the wall. Right now you were busy staring at the hole in a leather seat, your right knee propped up against the old booth so that you could wipe off the table tops. Your parents- the very same ones that had loved and raised you- had been busy trying to make ends meet, all while you were jetting off all over the world. You bought whatever you wanted, fucked whoever you wanted, and got paid to strut around onstage in leather outfits, doing what you loved. Your bottom lip quivered as you ran your finger over the tear in the upholstery, moving to shuffle back over towards the bar so that you could speak with your mother. “Why didn’t you tell me about how old the furniture was? I would have gotten you new seats made.” You rested your elbows against the varnished wooden bar, staring at her intently. 

She was setting up glasses behind the bar to get everything ready for the night. In about thirty minutes, once rush hour hit and people were off of work, the place would be packed. She waved you off with a flick of her risk, scoffing to herself. “You don’t need to spend any money on this old place. I’m doing just fine with the old furniture. People don’t care about what they’re sitting on. As long as I have good quality beer on tap, they’ll never stop coming.” That wasn’t the point and she knew it. Your mother had always been so against you helping them out financially. It drove her crazy thinking about you supporting her in any way. You were supposed to be her baby, not the other way around. You wanted your mother to feel proud of what her and your step father had built together. You wanted her to own a nice place. The Hideout was Stuart’s legacy, so you refused to turn a blind eye to all of the things that were going wrong in the place. “Mom. . . I have more money than I know what to do with. Honestly, it would make me happy if you let me fix some things around here. Just to give the place a little facelift- nothing major.” You assured, flashing her your most convincing smile. 

You never could understand why your parents had moved all the way to Indiana and bought an old building on the outskirts of a tiny town. You had already moved out by the time that they packed up themselves and left home. You had visited a couple of times over the last few years, but you never stayed long. Hawkins was small enough to where you felt claustrophobic after spending just a few days there. You regretted not staying longer while you still had that chance though. Now that your step father was gone, all you had left was a sinking feeling of regret. The least you could do was temporarily move in with your mother so that you could help her iron things out. You being there was the only thing keeping her together, and you could tell. She hadn’t fallen apart yet, but you’d be there for her when it finally did happen. At some point the levee has to break. 

The news of you leaving the band had already hit mainstream media. You were too scared to call up any of your old bandmates to check in on them, not wanting to know whether or not they forgave you for making such a brash decision. You knew that there would be offers to join new bands the second you got back into the swing of things- hell, Ozzy had already reached out to you. Ever since the death of Randy Rhoads, he’d been floundering to get back on his feet and find a good guitarist. You had half the mind to take him up on it. The boys had taken the news pretty well when you initially told them that you were quitting. Your father had died, and that was a good enough reason for you to take a break from the band. They had made it clear that they would leave the door open for you. As long as you gave them a call within six months, they’d be more than happy to take you back. Any later than that, they’d be forced to find a replacement. You had exactly six months to make sure that your mom was healthy and happy. 

“I just. . . I feel rotten about letting you spend your own money on me. I’m the parent. I’m supposed to be the one that helps you out, remember?” She gave your hand a soft pat, flashing you one of her famous smiles. It was painful, but you’d noticed that it didn’t quite reach her eyes anymore. You hadn’t said anything about it. “That’s the joy of getting old. It’s my turn to pay you back for all those years you took care of me. Being a single mom is hard, but you managed. Let me do something nice for you, ma.” You didn’t give her any time to object, rather you just turned on the heel of your boot so that you could make your way back into the kitchen to check on the cook. You wanted to make sure that he was fully prepped for tonight, and if not, you’d be more than willing to help. 

Your mother busied herself yet again with setting up the bar to perfection. She liked to have things neat and tidy. It made her feel less overwhelmed later on, and she was positive that her heart couldn’t take much more. “You boys need any help?” Marie looked up from her spot behind the bar, watching as the group of boys dragged their heavy amps through the front doors. “Nah, nah. We got it. We do this every Tuesday.” Eddie told her with a smile. He was a lot less animated than he usually was, and she was quick to pick up on the fact that it must be for her sake. He wasn’t sure how to treat her after the recent tragedy. “My daughter is here. You know. . . the one that I've told you that you’d like?” She always thought that you and Eddie would get along like a house on fire. She had been eager for you two to meet for years. She just wished that it wasn’t under these circumstances. Eddie hung back from the group as they began walking their way back out to the van, ready to grab another load of equipment. “Yeah? Must be good to have her home.” Eddie sauntered up to the bar, tapping his ringed fingers against the wood. He looked over his shoulder at the young couple that were seated in the opposite corner of the stage. They were deep in conversation, sharing a basket of curly fries. They were in for a rude awakening- Corroded Coffin played fast, hard and loud. “Where is she now?” There had never been any weird undertone in the way that Marie spoke to him about her daughter. You would have killed her if you caught wind of her trying to set you up with a blind date, and Eddie would have felt horribly embarrassed as well. 

He wasn’t exactly. . . Mr Popular. Not by any means. Unless it was his friend Robin, he never talked to girls. He practically repelled them. “She’s in the back doing something. She’s been staying busy these last few days. She’s so used to constant chaos. . . I think she misses it already.” She joked, wrinkling her nose a bit. Marie had never gone into too much depth about you, so he had no clue who you were, where you lived, or what you did for a living. What he did know was that the two of you dressed similarly and had the same taste in music. He was intrigued to say the least. It wasn’t every day that someone get’s the opportunity to meet a girl that’s actually into thrash metal. You were also the only real reason that Marie and Stuart allowed Corroded Coffin to play once every week. They were desensitized to your fast paced, heavy music. If anything, they actually had come to really enjoy it. “Chaos? What kind of chaos are we talkin’ about here? Does she live in a city or something?” Your mother nodded, turning her attention to the lemon that she was currently slicing up for garnishes to be used later. “Los Angeles. She moved out there the second that she graduated from high school. The girl saw a chance and took it. She’s always been independent like that.” Eddie felt a pang of jealousy. Sure, it was nice to be able to finally financially help Wayne out after all those years of constant care, but he would have liked to be able to move out and be on his own. There was a large part of him that was too scared to leave Wayne though. The man worked the graveyard shift at the plant, so Eddie had been the one to do the grocery shopping, cooking, and tidying up (even though the trailer was often a wreck). How was he supposed to do all of that by himself while he worked as many hours as he did? 

“In all the years that we’ve been coming here, I’ve never seen her. Is she that busy out in LA?” That came out a lot harsher than Eddie wanted it to, and he couldn’t help but flinch, snapping his mouth shut so hard that his teeth clattered together. He had never been good at socializing, and had a hard time picking up on social cues most of the time. His cheeks heated up with embarrassment, but Marie simply nodded her head. “She’s actually in a band. I mean. . .  she was in a band. She’s going to be staying with me for a few months to help tie up loose ends now that Stuart is gone.” The long haired man could have punched himself. He had gone out of his way to lecture the boys earlier about not bringing up anything too heavy around Marie, and here he was, pointing out her only child’s absence and reminding her of her dead husband. All it took was a two minute conversation, and Eddie had already blown it. “A-A band? What kind of band?” He tried to change the subject, flashing her a smile in the hopes of lightening the mood. “It’s your kinda music. Maybe you two could get together some time and “jam” out,” He cracked another smile, a laugh shaking his broad shoulders. Marie smiled back, giving his arm a small smack. “Or whatever it is you kids say.” “Play. We can play together.” Marie mumbled a quick “yeah, yeah” at his correction. Eddie was a good kid, and reminded her a lot of you. Maybe that was why she loved him so damn much. 

“Is she a good singer?” Marie gave him a look as if to say ‘are you crazy?’ “That girl can’t carry a tune to save her life. She plays-” “Electric guitar. Lead.” You called out to them as you walked through the double doors of the kitchen, tossing a dish rag over your shoulder. You hadn’t heard the entire conversation, just the tail end of it. Giving the boy a quick once over, you made a mental note that cute boys did live in Hawkins, before turning to face your mom. “You’ve gotta eighty-six the the onion rings. Jim ran out of panko, and the next shipment isn’t until tomorrow.” You turned to face your mom, slowly raising an eyebrow at her wide smile. It was practically splitting her cheeks at this point. “Y\n, this is the boy that I’ve been talking about the last couple of years.” Ah- right. She had told you about the town reject that she had taken under her wing. You were impressed to hear that he had started up his own metal band all the way back in middle school. From what you heard from her, he seemed to be a pretty talented guitarist himself. “Uh. . . Freddie, right?” Your rings caught the dim overhead lights, your sharp, black lined eyes locked on him. 

He felt like he was going to piss himself. Or throw up- maybe both. Fainting was also on the table too. There was no way this was real. Eddie was probably still in his room, having a dream about you after crying himself to sleep due to the unfortunate news. He had conjured all of this up somehow. This was the most lucid dream that he’s ever had. “E-Eddie.” He squeaked out the correction, brown eyes wide as he stared at you. He wanted to have the opportunity to properly check you out. He’d stared at pictures of you for years- hell, he had a poster of you hanging up on his wall, right beside his bed for. . . well, obvious reasons. He couldn’t take his eyes off of your face though. Even in person, you were the most beautiful female he had ever seen. No questions asked. Girls like you didn’t exist. Couldn’t exist. He didn’t expect for you to be so tiny though, especially compared to him. He wasn’t the tallest guy around, but working with heavy equipment all day had caused him to build up a fair bit of body mass over the last year since graduation. 

You didn’t seem intimidated by his form though. You were a female in a mainly male dominated genre. You were known for your snarky comebacks and quick witted humor. He would know. He’s seen every interview you’ve ever done. It was easy to spot a look of recognition in somebody's eyes. You expected him to at least know your band name, but the look on his face told you everything you needed to know. The kid was freaking out. That and the fact that he was wearing a shirt with your band's logo on it. You shot him a small smile, reaching out to give his chest a quick poke. “Like your shirt, man.” Your mother blinked, her eyes widening as if she was just now putting two and two together. “So you already know who she is then? Oh, wow. That’s great! Now that formalities are out of the way, you guys should be fast friends.” You weren’t the type of person to take advantage of your status. You knew a lot of guys in the music business that took advantage of fans. Sure, your band had plenty of groupies, and you’d be lying if you said that you hadn’t gone on at least one date with a fan. You weren’t about to tease Eddie for it though, especially not in front of your mother. So you merely nodded your head, offering him your hand to shake. “I’m here all night, so I’m excited to see you play.” He seemed to move in slow motion, reaching out for your hand. His plush lips parted, mahogany eyes blown out wide. He looked like he was having a heart attack. After what felt like minutes the boy finally clasped his hand with yours, giving it a firm shake. His hand felt nice in yours, and his calluses were no joke. The guy was a religious player, you could tell just by the feel of his hands and the shape of the calluses. “R-Right. We go on in just a few minutes.” He spoke dazedly, his eyes bouncing over your features. He was trying to commit them to memory. “Yeah. . . I know. . .” You shot him a playful smile before motioning back towards the kitchen. “I’ve gotta help our cook with a few more things, and then I’ll be back out.” And with that you took a few steps backward, giving him a small wave before disappearing in the back. Marie was about to turn and face Eddie again, but when she moved to face him, he was already gone, the front door swinging closed. 

Gareth watched Eddie with wide eyes as the man collapsed to his knees on the side of the building, dry heaving loudly into the nearest bush. The drummer had only seen Eddie puke a handful of times, none of which had been because of stagefright. The long haired brunette could play the guitar in his sleep. Not to mention the fact that they weren’t planning on performing any of their newer material. Today's gig was routine. “Hey, are you alright, man?” Gareth approached slowly, not wanting his sneakers to get puked on. Eddie gave up after a few seconds, realizing that he was just nauseous due to shock and nerves, and that his lunch would remain in his stomach. “How do I look?” Eddie rushed to ask, stumbling to stand up so that he could brush his pants off. Gareth’s head reared back, his eyebrows drawn together in utter confusion. Eddie was acting weirder than usual, and that was really saying something. Maybe this was some sort of a test? Was Gareth supposed to go out of his way to compliment him or something? The mousy haired brunette had a girlfriend two years ago that would ask how she would look in the hopes of being fervently complimented. “You look great?” It sounded more like a question than a statement, and Eddie lurched forward, gripping the smaller boy by the shoulders so that he could give him a shake. “Seriously, dude. How do I look?” Gareth slowly looked down at Eddie’s black combat boots, trailing them up his ripped black jeans, to his favorite handcuff belt, and then to his shirt. Sure, the top had shrunk in the wash, but Eddie was in shape. He knew that some people might even see him wearing a tighter fitting shirt as androgynous and daring. He was wearing the same accessories that he always did. Same rings. Same chain bracelet, and the same guitar pick necklace was dangling from his neck. 

“You look like you always do. Why? Did you get a haircut and I didn’t notice or something?” Eddie’s shoulders slumped, taking a step back from him so that he could take a few seconds to calm down. He was positive that he was dreaming up until the point that you shook his hand. You felt very warm and very real. He was a nerd that spent his free time playing the guitar, planning dungeon and dragons campaigns, and reading fantasy novels. The metalhead wasn’t afraid to admit that he was the type of person that daydreamed on a regular basis. This wasn’t how he had imagined this situation would go down. He met you while wearing your t-shirt. He looked like an absolute asshole. Eddie hadn’t deluded himself into thinking that he actually had any sort of shot with you, but he at least wanted you to think that he was cool. “This needs to be the best show we’ve ever played.” He quickly called out to the boys, grabbing the wires from the back of his van before slamming the door shut. “What the hell is going on, man? You’re acting weird.” Jeff told him, finally joining in on the conversation. The wavy haired man held his arm out so that he could motion towards the building, keeping his eyes locked on his friends. “Marie’s daughter? The one that we’ve never met before? It’s fucking Y/n.” Gareth let out a small laugh, kicking at a rough patch of gravel. A few rocks flung across the parking lot, clattering loudly. “Come on man, cut the bullshit.” Eddie blinked, moving his arm up and down more wildly. “I’m not fucking with you, man. That's the reason we’ve never met her. Think about it- she leaves the band suddenly with no explanation? Her dad just died.” Andy shook his head. “Maybe she just looks like her? Her and Marie don’t have the same last names.” Eddie’s arms fell to his sides. “Stuart wasn’t her real dad. He was her-” Jeff snapped, pointing at Eddie as he finally clued in. “Stepfather.” Eddie pointed right back at Jeff, nodding his head. “Exactly!” His excitement quickly waned though, the ugly truth tickling at the back of his brain. 

He had made a horrible first impression. 

He had just stood there, gaping at you like a mouth breather. He was sure that his palms were dripping with sweat too. Was it too late to turn back around and just go home? He loved performing, but playing his guitar in front of you? He wasn’t sure whether or not he could make it through a single song without messing up, let alone an entire setlist. Gareth was quick to march away from the boys, off in the direction of the front door. He wanted to see whether or not Eddie was just seeing things due to his grief. The taller male reached out to grab the small drummer by the back of the shirt, effortlessly yanking him back. “Hey! What are you doing?” He hissed out, his eyes wide. “Are you crazy?” His voice raised an octave in his panic. “I just want to see her? Besides. . . we all have to go back in at some point.” The long haired brunette slowly loosened his hold on Gareth’s black W.A.S.P shirt, mumbling out an apology. Eddie stalked past the group after sucking in a shaky breath, pushing his way through the front door.  “Holy. Fucking. Shit.” Gareth’s voice is incredibly loud as he walks through the front doors, staring at you from across the bar. You had changed into a fresh shirt that didn’t smell like chili dogs and french fries, what with your mother living on the top floor above the bar. You had been busy talking to the middle aged cook, who had stepped outside of the kitchen to grab a drink. The second that you heard Gareth’s voice you looked up, your plush lips twitching up into a smile. You said something under your breath to the cook, giving his back a quick pat before walking over to them. “So this is your band?” You looked over to the stage, squinting your eyes so that you could read what had been painted onto the bass drum. “Corroded Coffin. Huh. . . Nice.” The youngest looking member of the group looked like he was going to explode, his cheeks a bright pink and his eyes wide. “Just pretend like I’m not here, guys.” Eddie ruffled the back of his hair, looking down at you nervously. “Yeah. Totally. We’re excited for you to hear us play.” More like they were dreading it. If you thought that they sucked, none of them would ever be able to live the embarrassment down. Suddenly Eddie felt like he was in the upside down all over again, performing like his life depended on it. . . because it really felt like it did.

[pandorafallz]

Some things were never meant to leave Earth…. or be known about. Let alone being introduced to a whole new world, new life and a species called the Na'vi that probably didn't understand that there were worst things that came from Earth than Humans with technology. Jake knows the Earth was a harsh place, well aware of the dangers it had and the monsters it had as well. No one cared, nothing would matter and….so what. If they thought of him of nothing, then why not take himself, his avatar and his friend and fuck off into the wilderness of pandora. If he can screw over the RDA and its resident parasites, then bonus points. Grace isn't thrilled.

Chapter 33

“How many people are here?” Alejandra asked curisouly.

“As in defectors in total, twelve that left the RDA, then we have two avatars that were assumed dead and one human also abandoned that leaves us to sixteen. With all of you, that’s… twenty-eight”

Alejandra frowned and then shook her head. “Then there’s at least two unaccounted for. You got Kung? I see her spawn by the butchers.”

“Yes, we have the Kung’s.” Certainly colourful choices of words in regards to Bree. However… “Who are we missing?”

“A couple. Leah and Jodi Brooks. They ditched when Kung Jr bombed the fence out. They took advantage of the distraction as well.” Alejandra said, “One’s a repair mechanic for AMP suits and the other worked as an Engineer technician.”

Jake frowned, passing a look to the Olo'eyktan. If two had ditched along with Kung then that was a lot of time for two small unaccounted humans to be out in the wild. Although the fact that Bree had bombed something did throw him off a little, he refocused on the important parts.

“Any indication of direction?” He asked, hopefully. It could give the Na’vi a starting point if the miners got a good amount of gossitsup after the fact.

“None useful. Headed west, the opposite of Hometree but they could be anywhere at this point. I thought for a moment they might be part of one of your groups. Leah’s a good friend of mine.” She looked a little disappointed but shrugged it off.

“We will keep our eyes further out. The Sky people have ventured closer into our territory than we expected. I doubt that will stop but we will ensure they’re not close to the camps of those with Uturu.” Eytukan spoke firmly.

[theramblingsofadork]

Okay—~⭐️!!

I promised I would share about some of my AU for Dr. Starline-or, how things could have gone a bit earlier in his life, and even though I’ve decided to rework a few things to make sure I’m making the story as good as I can make it, here’s a bit of it.

(…WHO AM I KIDDING, THERE’S A LOT OF IT.

But please give it a read anyways! I promise it’s good!)

I don’t really have a name for this AU, yet (if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!) but it takes place before the IDW comics, probably by a few years at least.

⭐️ Premise: Dr. Starline enters a competition of inventors and innovators with the hopes of using it to gain Eggman’s attention, and finds something there that he was not expecting to.

As I have it, Starline is not quite the level of mad doctor we see of him from the comics quite yet.

He’s still poised and a lone wolf, sometimes trying to mimic Eggman in his way of thinking, but hasn’t reached the level of “try to murder hedgehogs with a bomb” or “Operation: Remaster” yet.

So.. still redeemable.

At this point, he’s already attempted to get the Doctor’s attention multiple times over the years, but has had little luck each time. However, this completion has a big tech name backing it, and he expects Eggman will be closely paying attention to it as a result of it. A perfect opportunity to get him on his radar.

While there, he meets Rivet, a sly and energetic cat inventor who he seems to naturally click with. And over the course of the prelims, a surprisingly friendly rivalry grows between them to get into the competition and win the top spot.

⭐️(Side Note: This is because Starline’s not too worried about losing to her, but he admires her tenacious spirit considering her origins were largely non-technological.)

Unsurprisingly, they both get in, and it’s announced that those who made it in are now going to have to form teams. Of course, Starline— having his ego, as well as a reluctance to work with others due to his upbringing being comprised of him being bullied and treated poorly for his interests—isn’t thrilled.

But, not ready to give up his dream yet, he does his usual, “What would Eggman do?”, and decides to team up with people who he thinks might have the most potential and be the easiest to manipulate into doing what he wants.

⭐️ (Side Note: He does not have his hypno glove at this point! That would make things too easy.) (.. Despite him probably having it before the warp topaz in canon. MOVING ON!)

This lands him on Rivet, her brother Charge, a tiny rat named Hex, his bulldog friend Lug, and a firefly named Cello.

Starline assigns himself as the leader of the group, due to his elevated knowledge and experience in the three fields they’re working with— robotics, chemistry, and biology. But as he attempts to get them on board to.. essentially let him run the whole show, tensions and conflicts quickly mount as they begin to push back.

At his wits end after a few days of arguments and fights, he ends up confiding in Rivet and Charge to ask for their insight, seeing as they themselves have been a team for a very long time. The Amp Twins explain to him what teamwork actually is and how to accomplish it, which Starline realizes is a completely foreign concept to him because he’s always worked alone.

Despite his ego hating having to make sacrifices to get this team to work, Starline gives in and takes their advice by changing his tactics. Tracking the team down one by one to talk to them and try to understand why they’re fighting him.

To his surprise, it works! He lets them express themselves and in doing so, discovers that.. these people aren’t so different from him. All of them have great skill, but have been hurt in a similar fashion as he was, and are here, just trying to accomplish their dreams.

The conversations make him sit with his thoughts. He empathizes with them. Encourages them, because that’s what he himself wished someone had done for him. And.. while the depth of his reasoning for doing so is still very much selfish and because he wants to win, he still finds he’s also being.. genuine.

Needless to say, he reluctantly gives up some control to let the others bring their ideas to the table, and his plan works. They all end up working.. surprisingly well together, and even end up teaching him a few things.

Huh. That’s new.

Over the next few weeks that pass, Starline slowly grows more and more relaxed, softening up around the edges as he experiences what having a good supportive group of like-minded people around him is like.

They.. appreciate him. They.. respect him. They treat him well.

And he’s.. not used to this. Not used to people wanting to hear his ideas. Not used to being able to have scientific debates with someone who understands what he’s saying. Not used to being dragged out of the lab by a cheerful purple cat to join her and the others for a dinner in the town. Not used to his smiles being real.

By end of the competition, they’re all quite close as a team, working together in comfortable tandem.

Starline at one point even admits to himself that he actually would consider the group to be.. his friends. They make him feel welcome and appreciated like no one ever has, which is—at the depth of who he is as a character—what he has always wanted and yearned for.

But.. there is still the matter of Eggman.

One thing I want to establish very firmly is that, while Starline opens up more to the others and has moments of being a genuinely sweet person, he is still very much an Eggman fanboy whose dream of working by his side one day has not disappeared.

This is his struggle. His Achilles heel, so to speak.

Because throughout the whole competition, Starline never actually tells the group WHO his inspration is.

They know he has one. They know that’s why he’s here; to gain the attention and recognition of the man by winning the competition. They’ve heard his excited rants about this ‘genius’ and all the brilliant and inspiring things he’s done.

But they don’t know it’s Eggman.

At first Starline keeps his fascination on the downlow, only because he knows he’ll be working with people in the competition who have been affected by the Doctor, and doesn’t want to sabotage his chances of winning. But as he meets the others and gets closer and closer with them, it becomes more about fear and guilt.

He doesn’t want to admit it— Him? Afraid? Guilty?? Never.

But.

What if they were to find out? They’d turn on him for sure. He’d get dumped by the group, just like before when he was growing up. Shamed and left isolated and alone.

Again.

By getting too close, he’s caught himself in a trap. He’s torn between two different lives he could lead. He finds himself slowly beginning to question which one he wants more.

It makes him hesitate when they ask him to form an official team with them after the competition is over. Prevents him from being able to be as open and honest as he might like. Keeps him from being closer to Rivet like he knows they both want.

And even though they know there’s hesitation there, they (particularly Rivet) never stop trying to reach out to him.

Eventually though, the truth does come out and he has to finally make a drastic choice..

…But I think I’ll leave that bit for next time ;)

[audioaperture]

The Dirty Nil: Des Moines, Iowa – 6.22.24 show review and "Free Rein to Passions" album review

The Dirty Nil’s latest album, "Free Rein to Passions," is an explosive amalgamation of punk rawness, stadium rock grandeur, and metal intensity, all served with a hefty dose of tongue-in-cheek humor. Hailing from Ontario, the trio has once again proven their prowess in crafting infectious anthems that are as lyrically sharp as they are musically ferocious.

The album kicks off with "Celebration," a high-octane track that immediately sets the tone for what’s to come. The riffs are heavy, the drums relentless, and Luke Bentham’s vocals are as gritty as ever. The production quality is polished yet retains the raw edge that fans of The Dirty Nil have come to love. Each track is a testament to the band’s ability to blend different rock subgenres seamlessly. From the punk energy of "Undefeated" to the Anthemic metal-infused "Am I the Menace” the band showcases their versatility without losing their distinctive sound. "Free Rein to Passions" explores themes of rebellion, individuality, and the absurdity of modern life, all wrapped up in a package that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The humor is a vehicle for deeper commentary, making the album both thought-provoking and fun.

One of the band’s stand out features is their lyrics. The Dirty Nil has always had a knack for injecting humor into their music, and this album is no exception. In "Stupid Jobs," the band takes a jab at the monotony of everyday life with lines like, “No offense to my friends in the workforce / I’m just saying what we’re all thinking / Fuck’em.” It’s a humorous yet relatable take on the struggles of the modern working class, delivered with a sneer that only The Dirty Nil can pull off.

Another lyrical theme is positivity in the face of existential dread.  On the title track," Bentham sings, “’Cause if the powers that be / Drop the bomb on you and me / I’m gunna sing with a big old grin / What a beautiful life it’s been.” In “I am the Menace, Bentham declares “Do some living while you’re able / try not to be ungrateful for the gift of suffering / the light, the void, everything”  It’s this kind of clever, biting humor that elevates The Dirty Nil’s lyrics, making them not only entertaining but also memorable.

Like the album, their live show is a wild ride from start to finish, filled with headbanging anthems, razor-sharp wit, and infectious energy. It’s a must-listen for fans of punk, metal, and rock alike, offering a refreshing take on these genres with its unique blend of humor and intensity. Luke Bentham, sporting his signature guitar moves, commanded the stage with the swagger of a rock deity. His solos were electrifying, his riffs sharp and relentless, each note echoing through the packed venue with the power of a thousand amps. Bassist Sam Tomlinson and drummer Kyle Fisher provided a thunderous rhythm section that could have filled a venue ten times the size. The chemistry between the three was palpable, their synergy on full display as they powered through their setlist with the intensity of a band playing to a crowd of 60,000 rather than 500.

The Dirty Nil's set was a barrage of anthems and rock star moves that simply couldn't be contained. "Celebration" and "Am I the Menace" had the crowd jumping, their choruses designed for mass sing-alongs. Even in such a small space, the energy was immense, each song a call to arms for rock fans. The connection between the band and the audience was electric. When they launched into “Nicer Guy,” Bentham’s cheeky lyrics resonated with the crowd, particularly when Bentham sings “can I get an Amen?” to which the crowd responds, “Fuck you!”  This struck a chord with the audience, many of whom undoubtedly related to its humor and biting social commentary.

Whether playing to 500 or 60,000, The Dirty Nil performs with the same unrelenting passion and exuberance, making every show feel like a stadium rock show.

The Dirty Nil’s album and live show isn’t just music; it’s a celebration of the chaotic, the rebellious, and the downright fun.

[scumbag-monthly]

The Young Ones - Bomb 💣

Original air date: 30.11.82

Reviewed by: @smashingblouses

Back in the early 80s there were a lot of anti-nuclear protests going on. It’s a particularly prominent memory for me because my parents were friends with some of the women who had protested as part of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camps in the 80 and 90s. Not only is Bomb one of my favourite episodes (Interesting being up there too) it also reminds me of that time, the people I met growing up and even some of the events I went to.

Bomb aired right around the time that the first peace camp happened at RAF Berkshire in December 1982. The episode is a farcical statement attacking government implemented nuclear weapons but also a gentle prod at some of the very people protesting the weapons. Something The Young Ones is always so clever at; ridiculing all sides.

The episode opens with a shot of a fighter jet dropping a huge atom bomb. The scene is set, the credits roll and we open on the bomb gently resting against the fridge, undetonated, in The Young One’s kitchen. 

We see the boys are all asleep, undisturbed by the destruction the bomb has caused, apart from Rick who, like the goodie two shoes he is, is awake and squeezing his spots in the bathroom mirror. Once he realizes the camera is on him he takes the opportunity to show us how great he is by giving us a private rendition of his latest piece of crap poetry. He sets the narrative by letting us know his political agenda for the day; cleaning up pollution and bombs. Little does he know, the perfect excuse for some good rants and political activism awaits him downstairs.

Neil awakens to the sound of his dying alarm clock. The death of household objects is a recurring theme through the show and later on the kettle explodes as it, quote Neil “would rather die than be used by me”. Neil seems to kill household items simply by depressing them to death. As a little aside it always amuses me to see the fake “Martial” amp in Neil’s room. A fun easter egg for any guitar players out there!

Down in the kitchen Vyv asserts his “weaponized incompetence” so that he doesn’t have to help Neil with any of the chores, leading to a farcical plate toppling, lentil spiling disaster, Mike tricks Rick into letting him into the bathroom by distracting him with one of his surreal jokes.

The morning unfolds and no one has actually noticed the atom bomb in front of the fridge. They play and fight around the kitchen completely oblivious to its presence. It turns out that Vyvyan apparently knew it was there all along but failed to mention it to anyone. Even an atom bomb in the house fails to worry Vyv.

Rick finally comes down stairs to see Vyvyan is eating cornflakes and ketchup as a result of there being no lentils for breakfast. Rick asks why he’s eating ketchup with his cornflakes and Vyv explains there’s an atom bomb in front of the fridge so he can’t get to the milk.

Suddenly they all notice the bomb that has been sitting right in from of their eyes and panic ensues. The boys each start to hatch their own plans as to what to do about said bomb. How will each character deal with such a conundrum?

True to character Rick decides to use the bomb to take down Thatcher and save “The Kids”. Dressed in British Army fatigues with trousers pulled up to nipples (an early precursor to his Bottom outfit) he sets off to the Post Office. His plan to send a telegram (wow that dates the show!)  demanding Thatcher’s cooperation. Whilst waiting in the queue Rick reveals his toxic hypocrisy, ranting and raving about how awful everyone else is. Beautifully or is that terrifyingly echoing the modern day Karen - was Rick the original Karen?

Meanwhile Mike is trying to sell the bomb to Libyan revolutionary Colonel Gaddafi via Reggie Balowski but in true car salesman style Balowski turns down the deal due to it not being the right colour and proceeds to scam Mike into part exchanging for a dodgy Robin Reliant - a car that “usually” has 3 wheels.

Vyvyan just wants to see the bomb explode and makes various attempts at setting it off. He finally whacks it with a sledgehammer bending it in the process, which apparently does nothing, before Mike locks him in a cupboard to protect his asset.

Neil goes about a very useless attempt at building a bomb shelter, and painting himself white to “defect the blast” this provides the perfect set up for one of Rick's great lines;

“Oh well that’s just great, racial discrimination, even in death!”

In fact this episode bares a lot of Rick's great one liners.

“People who don’t pay their TV licences against the Nazis!”, and “I can’t go to prison! I’m too pretty! I’ll get raped!” to name just two.

By the time Rick gets back from the Post Office he finds Neil hiding in his shelter and Mike has bought supplies for everyone. A great little example to show the family dynamic of the sitcom, Mum makes the home - Neil makes the bomb shelter. Dad goes out and gets food - Mike comes back with pizza and a Wimpy.

Rick rejoices to the boys that all “social prejudice and hatred” will be over by tomorrow, due to his amazing bomb threat plan, then promptly tells Neil he hates him garnering one of the biggest laughs of the show.

Finally we hear a strange ticking sound. The boys start to panic and dive under the table/bomb shelter pushing Neil out of his own creation - even Vyvyan is panicking. The bomb slowly cracks open like an egg and out pops a tiny aeroplane that whizzes around the room and flies out of the window. A surreal moment that reduces the viewer to gasps of mild annoyance and the notion of nuclear weapons to ridicule. One could say a huge anti-joke (A Rik and Ade special) but ultimately the message was conveyed, probably one of Ben Elton’s (blame Ben for the politics) finer non-preachy yet political moments.

[avionvadion]

*inhale* hoooooo my god this was the hardest boss fight I’ve ever faced in a Zelda game, and also the most epic. The first bit was awesome, fighting the demon kings army with the sages by our side, and then that moment they all stayed behind to fight the bosses again made me think Link would have a slight panic moment, remembering the last time a group of his friends went to face great evil (they never returned). Then the fight with Ganondorf himself, when he turned into the demon king and his health bar just kept going. Not to mention attacks that PERMANENTLY LOWER YOYR MAX HEALTH for that battle at least. Huuuuuuh I ended up just cheesing the fight with bomb arrows because he kept backflipping away from my sword. And then. THEN. THAT FINAL DRAGON FIGHT. LINK TRAPPED IN HIS JAWS. AND HERE COMES ZLEDA WITH THE STEEL CHAIR. Just fighting that giant dragon on Zelda’s head, how even with her losing her sense of self she still comes to Link’s aid and ends up fighting by his side for the final battle. AND THAT ENDING CUTSCENE. I’m not sure why they took my shirt, but Sonia and Rauru coming to their adopted daughter’s aid to help her restore her humanity, Link catching her and cradling her as they fall. THE PARALLELS TO THE START OF THE GAME, HE COULDN’T REACH HER THEN BUT HE DID THIS TIME. HE REACHED HER. HER HEARTFELT “IM HOME”

THE FINAL FINAL CUTSCENE WHERE MINERU PASSES ON AND THE NEW SAGES SWEAR FEALTY TO ZELDA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Also the thought came to mind of when Link is swept up by Draganon, if Ilia ends up flying up with him, poor Sidon has to watch his wife get swept away by evil incarnate. I also like how Draganon kind of resembles Calamity Ganon fromBOTW

IT WAS SUCH A GOOD BOSS FIGHT ALDJSKJSKSJSSJ

Not gonna lie I just ran around grabbing the dropped weapons and items, lol, and let the Sages take care of the big baddies because OOF. Ganondorf was an absolute delight of a boss fight though. I panicked so hard in the phase with the extra long healthbar that I forgot my OoT training until he knocked me down to six hearts.

DRAGON GANON VERSUS DRAGON ZELDA

Yooooo that was soooo cool!!! I loved it so much. The whole Ganondorf fight was such a fun mix between OoT Ganondorf and SS Demise, and then they amped it up like crazy. 10/10.

Also Sidon is absolutely going to see Ilia get swept up in evil incarnate alongside Link, and then he’s just gonna see her plummeting alone because Link and Zelda were both enveloped in light, and Ilia is gonna sailcloth into some water and Sidon’s just gonna be booking it to her because man is both terrified but also absolutely certain she’s okay because she’s Ilia but also oh gods she just got swept up in a dragon’s jaws and was then falling from like three hundred feet.

Chaos!

[audio-luddite]

The Times make a difference.

Back when I was young and developing a taste for good sound I became familiar with Audio Research Corp. They were relatively new and were steadfast defenders of the vacuum tube faith. My good friend had an Sp3-a1 preamplifier which at the time was considered the very best there was. As it was the definition of best that was the sound I came to search for in my stereo system.

But like that English Monarch who earned the title of "defender of the faith" things changed.

They had started out as a service and repair shop under a different name in the 50s and 60s then became modifiers of units like Dynaco tube amps and preamps. Up until the 1970s vacuum tubes were still pretty common. But as the 1970s rolled by supplies of new tubes for Audio Research were getting scarcer and scarcer. Factories in the USA and western Europe were shutting down. Consumer electronics was going solid state and markets for glass dried up. Boutique gourmet products were few and expensive and not big enough to support manufacturers of glass devices on the scale of the old days.

These things were still made in countries the USA had problems with. Russia as in the Soviet Union and Red China still made vacuum tubes, but they were still on the other side of the cold war. It was a serious war with billions spent on nuclear bombs and rockets and jets. It was a problem If you needed new made vacuum tubes.

In a really strange twist the North American Air Defense command in Colorado had a massive computer system to combine and correlate the threats of Communist Bombs and missiles and that computer used vacuum tubes up until the 1980s. The US military actually set up shadow companies to buy Russian tubes to keep those machines running and defending us from Russia.

The times were a changing and the writing was on the walls that tubes were going the way of Dinosaurs and the Dodo. If Audio Research wanted a future they had to adapt.

There was hope in things called FETs. They were solid state devices but worked rather like vacuum triodes but with no vacuum. Today my ARC amp and preamp have a lot of FETs as well as tubes.

So the founding saint of the company W.Z. Johnson came up with some solid state modules to replace the tubes. These are the "Analog Modules". Long and detailed development and testing went into these things. His goal was to keep the voice, but do it with transistors.

FET is the acronym for Field Effect Transistor. As I understand it uses electrical potentials applied to a solid semiconductor face to modulate current flows. A Vacuum Triode uses electrostatic repulsion to modulate the flow of electrons from a cathode to an anode by changing the voltage on a grid placed between them. They are conceptually very similar.

Golden Ears have described FET sound in similar fashion to tubes. If you dig deep there is mention of FET fuzz and Tube Haze in many places. In contrast to that I have found mention of solid state detail and clarity. There are also terms like tube warmth and transistor coldness in used contrast. They use those things to describe their preferences when things get near to the edge of reason.

It is completely understandable that ARC wanted to survive and wanted to build product once there were no more tubes to use. They had no idea that West would win the cold war and the companies in Russia, Eastern Europe, and China would be desperate to sell them whatever they needed. That was in the future.

It is curious that many people bought ARC equipment BECAUSE it had tubes in it. They loved the idea of old technology being used. (I call myself a Luddite too). Take out the tubes and many customers felt betrayed and adrift.

ARC thought that given enough time the goodness of the product would win out. In 1977 ish they released the D100 a pure solid state unit. It had the ARC voice, and was excellent, but.....

There was a Stereophile review 1n 1977 that expressed this confusion.

The jungle drums went wild. Apparently people with Fulton J-modular speakers were upset and didn't like it. With almost every other speaker it was great. Fulton Js are notorious and frankly not that good in hindsight. They had very hard to drive cross-overs as well as finicky electrostatic tweeters. I heard a pair of Js and they were impressive.

Tellingly J. Gordon Holt was conflicted eventually and downgraded it according to a slight preference for a pure vacuum tube beast also made by ARC.

On the basis of sound it was very good and ARC thought it was their best effort yet.

So lets get back to the Analog modules. I recall there being 4 types. All in potted blocks to hide the contents. Most simply put they are OP-Amps made from discrete components. Apparently they use a lot of FETs and high end components. I think they wanted to create an aura of mystery by keeping it all secret. Today ARC has lost the schematics and cannot make replacements anymore. I think they just wanted to forget the whole thing.

The surviving units are orphans and boat anchors if the modules fail.

Over the years people have tried to hack them and decode them. Apparently a recent post in a forum on Audio Science Review indicated somebody has. There is a niche market there.

ARC itself did not fully abandon solid state for a while. Several power amps were made that were pure solid state without the modules, just fully visible discrete parts. They were not as popular, and you sell what people will buy. Eventually ARC relented and has returned to the fold of vacuum and electrons flying through space.

The ARC units with modules were heavily discounted. Ads from two years ago ask for $300 and $400 bucks for a working D100a. Dead ones are scrap. The recent ad I saw locally asks $1700 for one benched and made good. It is desirable as it sounds nice. Also the module saga will have been forgotten or never known by not old people. ARC has brand value.

Of course the transistor amps do retain the ARC "house sound" which means some numbers look less than great. The Audio Science Review tested an ARC D100.2 from 1998 and rated it poor compared to their ideal. I think that is basically the D100 but with no secret modules and exposed parts. It sits near the bottom of the list beside all the tube amps.

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Daily Devotionals for May 18, 2024

   Proverbs: God's Wisdom for Daily Living

Devotional Scripture:

Proverbs 16:26-30(KJV): 26 He that laboureth laboureth for himself; his mouth crave it of him. 27 An ungodly man diggeth up evil: and in his lips there is as a burning fire. 28 A froward man soweth strife: and a whisperer separateth chief friends. 29 A violent man entices his neighbor, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. 30 He shutteth his eyes to devise froward things: moving his lips he bringeth evil to pass. Proverbs 16:26-30(Amp): 26 The appetite of the laborer works for him, for the need of his mouth urges him on. 27 A worthless man devices and digs up mischief, and in his lips there is as a scorching fire. 28 A perverse man sows strife and a whisperer separates close friends. 29 The exceedingly grasping, covetous, and violent man entices his neighbor, leading him into a way that is not good. 30 He who shuts his eyes to devise perverse things, and who compresses his lips (as if in concealment) will bring evil to pass.

Thought for the Day

Verse 26 - One of the principles of life that God established, is the principle that man must work for his food (Genesis 3:19). After the fall of man, all of mankind is subject to laboring to eat. Because some men are lazy and idle, it takes hunger to drive them to work so they can eat. In the New Testament, we find this admonition. "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their bread" (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12).

Verse 27 - Those who dig up evil about others are like a wildfire scorching everything it touches. Our culture is guilty of this sin. Some make a living by finding dirt on people and broadcasting it through all the gossip channels in the media. As Christians, we should not be a part of writing exposés and spreading gossip. Only God knows the real truth. Love does not expose, but covers sin (1 Peter 4:8).

Verse 28 - Through gossip, a perverse man can separate close friends. As Christians, we should not listen to gossip, since that makes us a party to it. If the one that is being talked about is not there to defend himself, it is not a fair conversation. If there is cause for a true accusation, the issue should be taken up with the offender. If he does not repent, two or three witnesses should be brought along and the offender should address the issue again. If he will still not repent, it should be brought before the church, but at no time should a person discuss someone's fault with anyone besides the person at fault (Matthew 18:15-17). To do so is to participate in gossip and slander.

Verses 29-30 - Evil men are not content to sin by themselves; they try to influence others to join them. We need to avoid people like this. We must also resist evil, giving no place to the wicked one. We can do this by keeping our minds on wholesome things (Philippians 4:8) and casting down every imagination that would exalt itself against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5).

Prayer Devotional for the Day

Dear heavenly Father, thank you that I am well and strong and able to work. I do appreciate the work You have called me to do. Lord, sometimes I do get weary, but help me not to complain. I am most blessed to be Your child, and I thank You for Your abundant blessings in my life. Many lack the blessings I have. I am grateful that I am not hungry, and I do not have bombs going off above my house. Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters in the world who are experiencing those trials. Protect them and provide for them. I will not complain of my light afflictions when I think of many in the world who do not even have the essentials of a secure home. Lord, use each of us who are Your children to reach out to those who do not have the blessings that we have. I ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen. From: Steven P. Miller, @ParkermillerQ, Founder of Gatekeeper-Watchman International Groups GatekeeperWatchman.Org Friday, May 17, 2024, Jacksonville, Florida., Duval County, USA. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Sparkermiller.JAX.FL.USA, https://www.facebook.com/StevenParkerMillerQ Instagram: steven_parker_miller_1956, Twitter: https://twitter.com/ParkerMillerQ Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gatekeeperwatchman, https://www.tumblr.com/gatekeeper-watchman,

Pinterest: @gatekeeper-watchman, https://www.pinterest.com/GatekeeperWatchman1/ Tags: #GWIG, #GWIN, #GWINGO, #Ephraim1, #IAM, #Sparkermiller, #Eldermiller1981

[fractallion]

Just One Story From The Aftermath Of Maui

I wouldn’t call Avi Ronen a friend, we met a few times on Maui, he being one of those musicians that call Maui their home. This is his post on Facebook.

—

Our house is gone All the beautiful memories All my guitars over a hundred All gone lines of truss rods standing Like sad soldiers my amps pedals  All the custom guitars I’ve build and kept All the acoustic guitars that KP made for me all gone I’m so devastated beyond words We’re safe my girls are great stronger than me I’m so sad Our town looks insane it’s so horrible Everything gone The only thing that’s left in lahaina town is my shop still standing I don’t even know what to do next I’m so devastated So many lives lost in our town The damage is absolutely insane Looks like an atomic bomb blew up in lahaina It’s so sad heartbreaking Sorry I had to share this I want to wish peace and love to everyone we are so heart broken over our sweet town My house all the memories And all my guitars so heart breaking

🌺

[dhr-ao3]

Bristles Bombs & Betrayals

Bristles Bombs & Betrayals https://ift.tt/NQYKGDZ by LenaCatalina Post-war Dramione fluff with angst, mutual pining, misunderstands, and eventual smut. **** “You can’t just traipse through the halls half-naked! How would you feel if I did that every night?” She regretted it instantly. If he hadn’t had her trapped between the sink and the wall, she would have bolted out the door and straight off the Astronomy Tower. Where’s the bloody Time Turner when you need it? ****** Words: 3141, Chapters: 1/30, Language: English Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M Characters: Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley, Blaise Zabini, Harry Potter, Theodore Nott, Pansy Parkinson, Luna Lovegood, Ron Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter Characters, Lucius Malfoy, Narcissa Black Malfoy, Hermione Granger's Mother, Hermione Granger's Father, Severus Snape Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood/Pansy Parkinson, Ginny Weasley/Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott/Harry Potter, Hermione Granger & Draco Malfoy, Lavender Brown/Pansy Parkinson, Ginny Weasley & Blaise Zabini Additional Tags: Enemies to Lovers, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Dark Draco Malfoy, Sweet Draco Malfoy, Fluff and Smut, Eventual Smut, Gay Panic, Post-War, Pre-War, Flashbacks, Memory Loss, Mystery, Eventual Romance, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Slow Build Draco, Blinny, dramione - Freeform, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Post-Canon, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Sexual Content, Occlumency (Harry Potter), Draco Malfoy is Bad at Feelings, Drama & Romance, Slytherin Common Room via AO3 works tagged 'Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy' https://ift.tt/ZCBVGk0 December 08, 2022 at 11:18AM

[ludosgd]

Unfinity Update to the Un-tensity Scale!

Hiya everyone! Some time ago I compiled the complete Un-tensity Scale for the un-cards from Magic: the Gathering. These cards don’t work under the normal rules, so I compiled the list to divide them into how close to being rules-compliant they are, from the ones that could work without a problem to those that require you to balance cards on your head. The latest unset, Unfinity, came out a few days ago, so I updated the list! In this post you can find the placements of the Unfinity un-cards, but you can also check out the complete Un-tensity Scale if you want!

Un-tensity Scale for Unfinity acorn cards:

Level 1: Basically Black Border — Cards that perfectly work under the current Magic rules.

White: /

Blue: Fluros of Myra’s Marvels

Black: /

Red: /

Green: Killer Cosplay, Tug of War

Multicolored: /

Colorless: Gallery of Legends

Level 2: Almost There — Cards that would require minimal amount of tweaking, either in their rules text or in the Comprehensive Rules, to perfectly work in black border.

White: /

Blue: /

Black: Scooch

Red: Goblin Blastronauts

Green: /

Multicolored: /

Colorless: Nearby Planet, Gift Shop, Push Your Luck

Level 3: Experimental — Cards with experimental mechanics, most of which have varying levels of rules issues, but are generally fine when played.

White: Far Out, Solaflora Intergalactic Icon

Blue: /

Black: Animate Graveyard

Red: Omniclown Colossus, Trigger Happy

Green: Icing Manipulator, Sole Performer

Multicolored: Claire D’Loon Joy Sculptor, Grand Marshal Macie, It Came From Planet Glurg, Truss Chief Engineer

Colorless: Urza’s Fun House, Centrifuge, Log Flume

Level 4: Printed-card Specific — From this point on, cards can care about things black border can’t: art, watermarks, lines of text… Gameplay-wise, things start to get more silly.

White: Assembled Ensemble, Bar Entry, Jetpack Janitor, Katerina of Myra’s Marvels, Knight in ________ Armor, Leading Performance, Main Event Horizon, Park Re-Entry, T.A.P.P.E.R.

Blue: Busted!, Decisions Decisions, How Is This A Par Three?!, Treacherous Trapezist

Black: Disemvowel, Gray Merchant of Alphabet, Haberthrasher, Nocturno of Myra’s Marvels, Rat in the Hat

Red: Aardwolf’s Advantage, Don’t Try This At Home, Goblin Girder Gang, Ignacio of Myra’s Marvels, Vorthos Steward of Myth, Well Done

Green: Alpha Guard, Hardy of Myra’s Marvels, Jermane Pride of the Circus, Plot Armor

Multicolored: Angelic Harold, Lila Hospitality Hostess, Meet and Greet “Sisay”

Colorless: Greatest Show in the Multiverse, Park Map

Level 5: Physical/Vocal/Outside-the-game Requirements — Here, anything goes, from outside assistance cards to physical or vocal components to any kind of outside-the-game interaction.

White: Form of the Approach of the Second Sun, Get Your Head In The Game, Gobsmacked, Hat Trick, Impounding Lot-Bot, Now You See Me…, Surprise Party, Trapeze Artist

Blue: Animate Object, Astroquarium, Bag Check, Blufferfish, Focused Funambulist, Mobile Clone, Octo Opus, Phone a Friend, Plate Spinning, Super-Duper Lost

Black: Exit Through The Grift Shop, Knife and Death, Photo Op, Questionable Cuisine, A Real Handful

Red: Amped Up, Art Appreciation, Carnival Barker, Devil K. Nevil, Goblin Cruciverbalist, Juggletron, Opening Ceremony, Rock Star, Ticking Mime Bomb

Green: An Incident Has Occured, Mistakes Were Made, Pie-Eating Contest, Spelling Bee, Tchotchke Elemental

Multicolored: “Brims” Barone Midway Mobster, Pietra Crafter of Clowns

Colorless: Standard Procedure, Autograph Book, Blue Ribbon, D00-DL Caricaturist, Souvenir T-Shirt, The Big Top, Cover The Spot, Dart Throw, Guess Your Fate, Memory Test, Scavenger Hunt, Squirrel Stack, The Superlatorium, Trivia Contest

Changes:

Do-It-Yourself Seraph and Socketed Sprocketer go from Level 2 to Level 1, thanks to Exchange of Words and Centaur of Attention respectively being black bordered!

Thoughts on some placements:

Fluros of Myra’s Marvels (level 1): While this card technically works in black border, it is acorn because the whole partner cycle is acorn, as they decided to be consistent with this cycle’s acornness. However, I don’t think this one has power level issues.

Killer Cosplay and Gallery of Legends (level 1): Both can make copies of creature cards. While the mechanic can work in black border, it has slow play issues, because it asks you to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the 20000+ cards that exist in the game, and, especially in the case of Killer Cosplay, it is a dangerous ability to make legal in Legacy/Vintage.

Tug of War (level 1): another card that technically works within the rules, it’s acorn because now subgames are deemed acorn. I can understand that: subgames can be a logistical nightmare in black border games, where the participants probably want a less messy experience. In acorn games however, this card is a blast, just like all other subgame cards!

Scooch (level 2): Scooch can’t be black border because you can’t target dice rolls! However, in a wordier way it might work outside of acorn, so in level 2 it goes.

Goblin Blastronauts (level 2): This card asks you to copy spells or abilities that already resolved, so it doesn’t work within the rules, even though it’s extremely intuitive and probably closer to black border than the level 3 stuff.

Nearby Planet (level 2): Nearby Planet has some rules issues from what I understand, but it’s acorn mostly because it might have been a dangerous card to put in tournament formats, as its level of synergy is super high.

Gift Shop and Push Your Luck (level 2): Both are level 2 just because the Teddy Bear token is pink. Literally just that. So, my thoughts about them are similar to those on Water Gun Balloon Game and Sword of Dungeons & Dragons: play them, and if you don’t like pink just rule it to be colorless or some other stuff ;)

Astroquarium and Juggletron (level 5): While these two cards care about their own art (and caring about art is level 4, not 5), the specific way they do is, I believe, over the line. First of all, they reward specific dimensions for the stickers, but most importantly they reward specific placement too, which arguably falls into dexterity issues. I can see the argument for them being level 4 though, and I would absolutely allow them in level 4 games.

Memory Test (level 5): Normally, in Magic, you can note stuff that is revealed and then hid again, as a memory aid: face-down creatures that have been looked at (Smoke Teller), cards revealed with a spell like Duress, the list goes on. However, Memory Test specifically asks you to play a game of Memory (which is the reason it’s acorn in the first place), so in level 5 it goes!

Conclusion:

Unfinity looks like a blast and I can’t wait to play it; thanks for reading! I hope you found this post interesting and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Enjoy! I will return now to my usual tomfoolery :D

Complete Un-tensity Scale

In-depth Explanation of the Un-tensity Scale

[pandorafallz]

Vampire AU | New problems, old Stories

Quaritch stared at the fence. His hands were on his hips and a disgruntled expression on his face that hadn’t lifted since the alarms had been cut off and this had been their next problem; the fucking fence.

The deserting women that had legged it after locking in the brig guard and the two love birds from the maintenance that also flew the coop in the chaos. He was waiting on the inventory reports but…he was very pissed off that they had left with a bang.

Literally.

The outer fence had been taken out by a mine explosive attached to its main support, not including a small fire that had caught the trees but it seemed fate had been kind that it hadn’t gotten out of control before they had turned on the waterworks and put it out. What was left was a huge space of burnt metal and debris and he had put two armed amp suits to keep it protected as the manufacturing rig in the factory got to work and built them a new one which had to wait until morning for the machines to wake up—safety measures forced them from overuse so night time gave them the time for them to cool down. This was still becoming a long ass day within the first few hours of it.

How did someone get their hands on explosives to do this?

Major Kung, he knew very well with her years of service to the RDA. She had run the mining operations with an iron fist before her deceit came to light. It made more sense where she could have gone her hands on mining explosives. Except given Kung had been in the cell at the time, it made it hard for her to set it up at the fence as well.

In all honesty, he was surprised that the other one would follow her mother's footsteps and aid her escape. He knew very little of Bree Kung given she was only qualified for her excellent xenolinguist skills and fast learning, also the matter being she was the youngest person on this base. No combat training of any kind, despite her mother’s long history of veteran lifestyle. How did she get her hands on bombs when she wasn’t cleared for anything less than a dumbbell?

In total, four more female staff went within the night.

This meant he was gonna have to do a lot of checking into their medical and personal files for any potential reports that were removed before he was notified, which he hated to have to do but it was something he had to set as a precaution for all those bailing now with so much shit suddenly passing him by.

“Sir,” Wainfleet called, coming up beside him. “Samson’s come back; they followed the sidewinder for about five miles before the tracks vanished into Omatikaya territory and…it looks like any further trails looked to have washed away from the rainfall this morning before daybreak.”

“So…no leads.”

“No, sir.”

Quaritch let out a heavy exhale, wondering for a moment how long Selfridge was gonna rant and rave about this before he nodded. He could probably hold off on visiting the guy by checking in with the other departments. The MineOps certainly needed tending to given no doubt everyone knew Kung and that she had bailed on them. He should stomp down any rumours and get order properly re-established before anyone thought it was a good idea to follow after friends.

Yes, that was the next best thing and certainly would take up time before he’d get inventory reports and personal files and Selfridge would probably have to wait in his lectures for him to do his job.

So Quaritch did just that, taking a trip to the mine with Lyle. At first, it wasn’t overly fruitful, but he talked to Captain Hale who had temporally taken over the head of MineOps since Kung was arrested who had given them a tour around and talked with various staff.

Captain Hale looked very at home in her new place, though she lacked the cold steel of command that Kung had, there was an…edge to her that set him alert as she talked through complaints the Miners had, not that Quaritch paid it too much attention as he strained his eyes across the whole pit; the machines that were toiling away at the earth and soil for its rich veins of ore of each of their paychecks.

“...I’m just surprised that Kung didn’t try to bash Selfridge’s face sooner.”

He refocused back to the Captain in surprise. “What?”

Hale looked at him, an eyebrow arching behind her mask very innocently. “Sir?”

“What did you say Kung would do?” Quaritch said, because…he had a growing sinking feeling this was a matter that was beyond simple daughter bailing mother out of trouble. What was problem common knowledge here? Would that bite them in the ass later? “I knew Kung was entirely loyal to the RDA before she backstabbed us. Why would she want to hurt him?”

Hale blinked at him for a moment then hesitantly looked about. “Let’s go to my office. That’ll be…easier. We found some things of interest, since you’re here already I didn’t have to send it to you.”

She led the way from the mine side and to a stack of moveable, shack modules set off to the side to overlook. Once inside the airlock, they all took off their masks before Hale headed towards her desk.

“Sorry, it’s…a bit of a mess. Still organising stuff.”

Quaritch eyed the office; noting how pristine the place was and how orderly things were displayed; the walls were covered with pictures and stuck-up pieces of paper of reports and general schedules. Clearly, they weren’t seeing the same thing but he opted not to question it as Hale went to her monitor.

“It was a huge surprise when you arrested Kung two weeks ago,”  Hale was saying, “Kung is many things, some wouldn’t speak of her fondly but she’s also paranoid and smart. Enough to leave paper trails on shit she thinks is important in her absence to back up necessary claims. Purchases, orders, signed contracts…. Hell, even tool specifications. Including the safety check tools that were recalled and repurposed.”

“I thought I had everything from Kung?”

“Only what was local servers on Hell’s Gate and what’s sent to your systems at the time. Mine Ops has connections to Hell’s Gate but a different server. Kung had a personal memory drive in the server for everything hidden in the MineOps operation console.” From the woman’s desk drawer, she pulled out a large case and flipped it open. Inside were three long, green thin memory cards. Easy to miss, he realised if put into a computer system.

“How did you….” Lyle lent forwards. “How’d you find that shit?!”

Hale shrugged, “Wasn’t in the server specs. We double-checked before removing them. Shen helped route it out for me to what they were and that they weren’t dangerous like viruses. Nope, just extra memory.”

Quaritch reached forward, taking one of the memory slides. He’d get the rest of the servers checked for extra shit like this. Shen was a wild card to call to aid but she was brilliant and inheritably scrappy. This wasn’t in her job description but…Hale had long since outranked Shen so she was perfectly in the right to get the woman’s help.

“Do you know what’s on them?”

“A little. The typical records that I mentioned but…she also seemed to have complied scientific papers for Pandoran medical remedies for Earth Diseases or illnesses, her contract, Bree and Raina’s contract and… medical experimental requests. Every reason for her betray the RDA is on that, no doubt.”

“A little, huh?” Lyle poised.

Hale just flashed the guy a very pearly grin. “I have a good memory.”

Quaritch sighed heavily but put the chip back in and took the case. “I’ll look into it. Anything else?”

Hale shook her head. “Our production has slowed since Kung’s gone. Stress is building and we’re running out of tools we need to check the mine walls. I’ve requested to Selfridge last week for funds for replacements but I haven’t heard back. It’s making my men nervous.”

“We’re not messenger birds, Captain.” Lyle spoke heading back towards the airlock, “We have the system for a reason.”

Hale’s lips pursed though her eyes narrowed at the guy for a moment then slid to Quaritch. “It’s a matter of security, Coronel. No checks are being made and if one wall fails then we lose good men who happen to be in the fall way. There’s been a lot of…accidents in the last couple of years. My men aren’t forgetting that. ”

Quaritch just signed but added it to his To-do list that was ever going. “I’ll look into it.” At least nudge Selfridge into it; he didn’t want Hale to get on his ass as well. He always had one red-head on his ass about shit he couldn’t care less about and he certainly didn’t need another. 

 -

Grace once again set herself up in the smallest lab as the lunch called others away and left her with only a few and allowed herself to continue to work rather than join the others and waste food without question. Her thirst was burning softly at the back of her throat as a reminder she’d need to feed within the next day or so if she didn’t tonight. She was in no particular mood to get welcomed into someone's bunk or sneak into someone's bunk when they were asleep either so she’d wait for now.

The only two scientist with her was Molly and Choi who were also busy and giving each other goo-goo eyes that Grace wasn’t particularly fond of witnessing but she had no reason to send them away yet. They were still working after all.

“..So, a new sample would be better to get. Cryo storage isn’t perfect. There’s mild decay in the cells.” Molly complained to Choi, allowing the Xenobotanist to take a peek.

His lips pursed a little. “You’re not wrong but we’re only seeing this in more detail given our eyes are better. The human ones can’t see the dead cells that well; even through a microscope. I doubt it’ll interfere with the results.”

“Maybe it’s cold damage?” Grace suggested, not looking up as she picked up her pipette. “Not all plants are adapted to cold, even for preservation.”

Molly considered her words, though seemed to direct her next sentence to Choi rather than reply back. “That’ll be a good test to run still. Getting new samples tomorrow, and do a comparative test. Masterson and his team are the closest ones in their link shack to more. We can ask them to collect and we can swing around to pick it up tomorrow.”

“I’ll drop him an email.” Choi said, “Though Grace, can you authorise my holiday? I’ve emailed you some days next week I want to book off for personal reasons.”

Grace spared him a look. “Holiday?”

Choi nodded and adjusted his lab coat as he left Molly to her microscope. “It’ll be…officially four years since I turned. Kinda like a birthday…” He stared. “I want to celebrate.”

Grace set her pipette down into the holder and then leant towards her monitor to check. “You’re not exactly able to eat cake…” She wondered, “What’s there to celebrate? I’m sure most of our turnings were traumatic and non-consenting.” No one really…talked about how they came to be unless you were there to be witness to it. Grace didn’t ask and it felt awkward too. Her own turning was brutal and…she had no intention to celebrate that. Everyone knew what happened. But, each to their own. If he wanted to celebrate it, it was his business.

Choi hummed, and he returned to his station. “Did I ever tell you how I turned?”

“Maze got bored?” Grace suggested idly; she knew who sired who in this weird undead living situation they were all in. Maze in question chuckled under her breath in the link room but couldn’t retort back as she wasn’t alone.

“No.” Choi chuckled, “She overindulged one evening. Accident. Remember when the cooks got a fresh stock of garlic in that year; almost everyone was eating garlic meals for weeks in one form or another.”

Grace winced sympathetically. The garlic meals were the worst in the Mess; the viable blood was servery shortened until the human bodies processed it all out. They couldn’t eat well, if at all on those people. She must have been starving to drink too much.

“I didn’t eat garlic, so I was in the all-clear. Kamath and Walker had already fed from me the day before before Maze got too temped.” He shook his head fondly. “My body hadn’t replenished fast enough in that time, she took too much than normal as well.”

“Ouch,” Grace said, finding the email buried under the mass of other emails and notifications on what passed through her department. She swiped the request form onto her datapad and signed with a stylus.

“It wasn’t fun but… well it’s something that happened to me and…there’s no point in hating the event. Its part of what I am now. Why not make something of it?” Choi shrugged.

“You do you, Daniel.” Grace said, “But I’d rather not celebrate my turning for many, many reasons.” It was the worst and last day of her life. Why remember it in a good light?

“Fair. Maybe you could celebrate something else? You first human prey? Finding your shtick? First human to sleep with?” His suggestions sounded more like a joke though unit made her wrinkle her nose.

“Three ‘No’s and I haven’t slept with a human since I turned.” Grace pointed out and it wasn’t for the obvious reasons that the others would think. A dull throb rose at the side of her temple at the reminder; skirting her away from thinking about it. Nope. “And first prey? Really?”

“Hey, we all had our firsts.” Molly pointed out, drawn away from her work to talk. “I mean, there’s something to remember; you’re finding trust with your own body and instincts; building confidence…making sure we don’t end up killing anyone by accident.”

That was something, she supposed. She knew her first almost went sideward given she had underestimated her own strength with the man. Blood bags were one thing but…fresh and from someone alive…was a whole new area. Quite the learning curve and she had long since had to abandon self-consciousness that she had started off with into this new life.

“Who was your first?” Choi asked Grace curiously. “I wasn’t about for it.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “Why does it matter?” She turned her attention back to her monitor.

“Doctor Patel.”

Grace turned and glowered sharply at Molly who looked very intently through her microscope and doing her best to ignore her withering look.

“My first was Alejandra Castro, MineOps gal.” Choi announced with fondness and without prompt, “freshly showered from a gym visit; very good diet… also very easy to convince her to let me into her bunk. She was very horny. Not surprisingly, she was a week away from her period. That aside, she’s very sexually active.”

Grace rolled her eyes.  “We all know that.” The woman’s habits hadn’t changed.

“Who was yours, Mol?” Maze had decided to join in with the lab and came to lean against one of the benches. “Mine was Deke Harrison, a guy from SecOps. He repairs the AMP suits and has a habit of jogging around the base alone before bed. Very…fit.”

“Also very gay. You’ll never have a chance of bedding him.” Molly pointed out with a sly grin reflecting off her monitor.

“I know, he turned me down once and told me.” Maze sighed wistfully. “He’s still a good snack. So, Mol?”

Molly didn’t turn their way through Grace eyed the woman with a suspicious look at her non-answer after all of this stupid, personal talk. “Molly?”

“I’d rather not…talk about my first.”

“You literally outed Grace’s here.” Maze snorted, less than impressed. “If you’re gonna out that information, you’ve really got to share your own shit here as well.”

Molly wrinkled her nose.

Grace’s eyes narrowed a little, watching how Molly didn’t seem to meet her eye as she tried to get back to work now. But the fact the woman was staying quiet said that she was worried or self-conscious about her first. Molly had been a vampire at least a year before she had been turned so the window of option was still vast. If it was someone not known or personal, she would have said something. Then Grace had a sinking feeling given…how the woman was refusing to look at her.

“Me? I was your first?” She groaned. “I thought Shen’s attack on me was my first bite.”

Molly flashed her an apologetic look. “I—yes, you were my first but in my defence…you were very easy.”

Choi snorted in the back of his throat, turning around to his bench.

Grace just gave her a very unimpressed look but...in all honesty, Grace could be mad about it but…the reality was that…someone had to be their first prey. Unavoidable. However, she didn’t like being called –“Easy? Easy?”

“You were alone, in the lab late at night.” Molly pointed out as if it was a simple observation. “Plus, your back was to the door.”

“How many people fed from me when I was human?”

“A few, as we said, you were a very easy target.”

Grace inhaled deeply, leaning away from her bench. “Ugh.” She tried to think of when this could have happened; a lot had happened that year. A few…painful things –one that she didn’t want to think about. “When?”

Molly chewed on her lip. “So… you know when you fell asleep at the lab that February and broke your arm falling off the counter…”

Grace stared, a little unimpressed. It had been a difficult break to deal with when she had come to that night; one simple snap but there had been also a lot of micro-fractures around it that had been weird. The same arm Shen broke the night she lost her life. She hadn’t questioned the incident; she had felt awful and weak but she put that to the injury and exhaustion.  She had spent most of that night in medical and drugged up to the land of the Dinosaurs. Didn’t question why Dr Solis had given her more supplements and an injection—probably Erythropoietin to up her red blood count and to cover their asses on what was drunk away.

“You broke my arm.” Grace wrinkled her nose. “I kept feeling the twinges of pain through my avatar for most of that time as I healed. It was really weird.”

“Sorry.”

“Why don’t I remember it now? Surely as a vampire, I should recall all your tampering.”

“When you turn, your memory isn’t restored…and we can’t suppress other vampire memories or resurface them.” Choi said, “Probably for the best.”

Grace scoffed. “I want my memory.” She at least deserved to know when she was one of her group’s Happy Meals here. She had…long since thought her attack from Shen was the only time she was bitten but…perhaps she had thought too innocently. Vampires had been here for a long time. “How can I get it back? Surely there are ways to do that?”

“The telepaths might help better than us.” Maze suggested, “Hale will be around after dinner. Kamath has double shift with dozers.”

“Alright.” She’ll bother Hale about it. Kamath was more experienced but Hale was a fast learner with the art of the mind.

Telepathy, while Grace had that, it wasn’t something she ventured into more than she had to with her meals. She knew it was secondary in nature after her telekinesis in terms of their Vampiric abilities but it wasn’t her primary. She knew she should venture into her other gifts a lot more. She could hold a vapour form for a short period of time and a bat form but never more than that. Paz morphed a lot when Spider was doing tummy time in her quarters to entertain him and she had a lot of forms mastered. Hearing the baby giggle and try and grab what his mother was shaped as was pleasant music to her ears. She was also ninety-seven per cent sure Molly and Choi had literally fucked around in non-human forms as well for the fun of it.

Grace spared a glance at the clock and then peeled off her gloves. “I’ve…got to go. Meeting with Quaritch and Selfridge.”

 -

Shen happily checked through her monitor as she flicked through the data and made sure it all mirrored Martin Duncan’s own coding. Everyone’s method of coding was unique; small tricks and tells and subtly that, if she was a human, she could have easily missed in making to pass off as someone else’s. She made this to even convince Duncan he had done it himself.

It was worth the extra bucks to do this and it was easier getting the blame on someone else than having a loose end with a question mark. With a final look, she closed the programs and terminated her monitor’s connection with the server to scrub it offline.

“Ugh.” The door opened behind her though Shen didn’t turn as Angela came in and flopped onto her bed. “Humans.”

“I dread to ask,” Shen said, turning the screen off once she was done to turn her attention to the British blonde who lay about across the covers, arms and legs spread.

“I hate doing fucking nothing while our food escapes out into the wild,” Angela grumbled. “You were right, Midori has the best blood….I miss that already and it’s been a week!”

Shen snorted a little, running her fingers through her locks of dark hair. “Free range meals?” Shen suggested. “I mean… it’s just a longer trip out, just make sure you’re not caught.” The thought of…going out and actually…hunting down these humans sounded more thrilling than seducing them into a private area and going for some flesh. She liked the idea of the chase and the sweet victory on her lips at the first bite.

It was one of the few things she…enjoyed. Hell, even when she got Augustine a few years back, it was a thrill to remember, even if her impulse control and rationale were elsewhere; she retained the memory despite that frenzy. She wasn’t…really that sorry for it; only sorry for getting caught so publically but Midori’s blood had been far too tempting. It wasn’t her fault she metabolised blood far quicker than the others. Something about seeing Augustine run flicked a switch in her predator brain and… if it hadn’t been for the fact the woman had been so close to hitting the fire alarm, she knew her hunting self certainly would have let Augustine run for longer; let her think she was getting away then to get her at the last second when she got to her bunk, grab her and drag her back then just…sink her teeth in.

That would have been glorious.

It was a want she desired again but Mansk’s stupid rules kept them far too restrained, even with their mutual wellbeing in mind which was annoying sane. She liked living on the edge; it was safe to know the shelf and the fall and teetering on it was what made her feel alive. Sure, it got her turned but that didn’t change much.

Angela snorted a little. “I suppose. Finding them won’t take too long.”

“No, you two, keep to the ones in Hell’s Gate” Mansk’s voice echoed in dry annoyance somewhere in the amour bay.

Shen scoffed a little, slinking off her chair though she rolled her eyes. She could continue to live with what she wanted and fantasise about her ways of hunting. She eyed her girlfriend thoughtfully before a sly smile crawled onto her lips as an idea sprung to mind.

Angela eyed her expression, rolling her head to face her. “What? You wanna fuck now? My break ends in five minutes. I got a shift with dozer escorting with Fike and Kamath. Aren’t you also skiving off?”. That was not a ‘no’ between them, just a ‘sure if you’re quick.’

“Not...now. I’ve got a few ideas for tonight.” Shen said, licking her lips. “You might…enjoy it.”

Angela tilted her head curiously, “I damn well hope so if you’re looking at me like that. I do like your attention after all.”

 -

The meeting was…boring as Grace expected. Most of which she knew in overhearing but they didn’t know that. Grace had ignored the plate that was offered for when meetings went over meals as per usual though Selfridge’s anxious nibbling from his plate grated on her nerves a lot.

“Any word from your blue teams?” Selfridge finally asked when he got to her. “You have two link shacks operating, not including the ones that left us.”

“No, nothing.” Grace said, “I suspect we’re being watched when we’re taking samples but I can’t prove that just yet. They’re experts at hiding their footsteps and presence. It’s possibly they’re assessing us and what we’re doing but haven’t decided if we’re worth making contact with.”

Selfridge let out a frustrated huff. “Then make a better effort. You need to find ways to force an interaction.”

“I can’t force the Na’vi to cooperate.” Grace fired back sharply. “That has never worked in the past and certainly not any time soon. They need to see us work and respect the land but that’s hardly going to happen overnight.”

“It’s been a month. Since you’ve upped your expeditions. More than that, even.” Selfridge huffed indignantly.

“They’re not monitoring us every visit, Parker. Having my teams out there has helped in our research but it’s going to take time for the people to make contact with us. Their last contact with us, officially was when the RDA gunned through my school and killed some of their kids. You think they’re gonna jump to meet us?”

“It’s been two years. They’ll get over it.” Selfridge said, waving it off. “But we’re here to make progress. So be creative here that doesn’t wind us burying our men and that they’re out of that tree by the time we get to it.”

“Maybe we should try a new angle?” Quaritch suggested, “Site 26’s still available.”

Grace’s head snapped towards him sharply. “What?”

“That’s one angle but that’s hardly going to help,” Selfridge said, not that convinced either.

“It might. We don’t know what they’re thinking and that worries me. If they’re not trying contact because the science groups are coming to and from Hell’s Gate, then another approach must be considered. If Augustine sets up at Site 26, she’ll be surrounded by forest and easier to approach at any time of the day. I doubt they’ll miss the fact you’ll be living there after a few trips out.”

“I am not agreeing to move out just yet, thank you very much.” Sure, there was a lot of what she wanted at Hell’s Gate but the feeding situation was what was keeping her from jumping on board with this idea. “I’m Head of SciOps and the Avatar Program, I have a lot of shit to organise before I can leave Hell’s Gate for long periods of time, even if I do decide to go.” She had the power to decide, even if these two jerks were for her going.

“How long would it take to organise?”

“A month.” She gambled, over-inflating the timeline for the sake of it. Selfridge didn’t need to know the real-time. “Getting new working systems in place and getting people to take on new responsibilities takes time and an adjustment period. That’s if I decide.”

“A month.” Selfridge scoffed, “That’s too long!”

“What? It’s not like your dozers are gonna be any closer to Hometree. It’s been a month and it’s barely a fifth there.” She pointed out. “Now, I don’t plan on leaving so let’s move on. I’m sure MinOps has some riveting information in their progress and gossip about little Kung pulling a mission impossible?”

Selfridge’s face flushed angrily.

 -

Quaritch’s steps were easy to follow behind her when they had finally left. Grace tried to lose him, which was poor given she couldn’t use her speed to do so with the number of people around and active cameras and the fact he sounded like a man on a mission didn’t help.

He finally caught up to her as she tried to duck towards the Ladies’ restroom.

“Augustine.”

“What?” She turned with a dark look.

“We both know you love Site 26 and would jump ship at a moment’s notice to get away from Selfridge and his bullshit,” Quaritch said knowingly. “Why are you stalling?”

Grace raised an eyebrow at him. “Excuse me?”

“I know you heard me correctly. Why not? You could be there tomorrow and be happy. You’ll no doubt take Norm and another researcher with you.” He said, “You’ve never missed an opportunity to jump to the mountains before.”

Grace’s jaw clenched. “It’s not that easy. The last time I went to site 26, do you know what happened?”

Quaritch’s hardened expression fell, softening up. “That was over a year ago, Grace.”

“So was what? All three of us could have died, Miles. It took three hours for your idiots to roll up and pick us that rogue mountain after the crash.” Grace knew this was a dirty tick to pull; using that horrible day as an excuse but…if it bought her time to think up some other alternative options, she’d use it. “I’ll know when I’m ready to take that trip and that’s not any time soon.” She made to move around him but she barely held back the gasp as she felt his hand grab her wrist, the metal ring he had on felt like it was burning into her wrist before she yanked her hand free, her other hand coming to pull down her sleeve.

Fuckin’ sliver.

“You can have Trudy Chacón as your pilot. She knows the mountains better than anyone. Even Socorro. She won’t crash.”

“Thanks but…I need time.”

She didn’t wait, moving on and quickly before she spared a look down to her wrist; a light and irritated discolouration band looked to be cropping up over the affected skin.

Fuck. Good to know Quaritch had silver on him.

Ass.

 -

Jake was at Hometree with most of his camp, aside from N’deh who had elected to stay behind. Nadine was at the fire, practicing Na’vi with the cooks again in going over what they were making. Morgan was at the weavers with some more kids making slings or just weaving shit—Jake couldn’t tell from his angle. Kim was hunting with Neytiri and Jerome was with him carving new arrow shafts while Jake made wooden beads.

He kept himself parked in plain sight of the spiral for the new arrivals and when they came, he made sure to wave.

The neck brace woman was in her avatar and the oldest woman of the group was not present with the group. Zeke and Ruby were the only ones from their camp also arriving with Tsu’tey.

Tsu’tey went off to find the chief and the group seemed to give pause as he was noticed before the avatar snorted first and broke the awkward tension.

“Sully, of course, you’re here.” She said, her hands on her hips, “Though…no Avatar?”

“I use it every other visit here, trying to balance its use every day.” Jake explained, “That said, welcome, nice to see a few more human faces around. Eytukan will direct you to places but a good portion of kids speak English, even if the adults don’t but enough that you two can get a message across.”

“Kendra?” Jerome set down his tools, rising from the ring with a wide grin on his face which exposed his naturally long canines.

“Rome?! Holy fuck!” The Japanese woman moved around the avatar with vigour, “You blended straight in! I didn’t even recognise you!”

Jerome grinned down, crouching down to accept the hug she offered. “Still tiny, I see.”

“You’re still weird looking.” Kendra prodded back and leant away. “You’re making it work, I suppose.” She reached up to tug the man’s loincloth a little to make a point.

Jerome just snorted, “I suppose. Kim’s out hunting right now so she’ll be back around noon but she’s looking forward to seeing you.”

“I’ll look forward to it. I heard what happened to ya, sorry man.” Kendra carried on, her hands coming to her hips. “Also, congrats on the baby.”

Jerome nodded his thanks, “Thank you.”

“Babies. Plural.” Ruby pointed out, from the side.

Kendra gawked at that. “Oh, good luck.”

“Children are a gift.” Jerome reasoned.

“Hm, yeah. The real gift being woken six times at night for food or a change.” Harper added in, a little sarcastically.

Just then, Eytukan arrived to get involved and began directing the six new faces to other areas. Jerome returned to the bead-making and Jake got back to it.

Zane was put to making beads with him. Jake’s smaller hands made it far easier for the man to copy than it was a Na’vi though both remained supervised so he wasn’t teaching him the incorrect methods. Jake learned the names of everyone at the camps when they began to talk.

Ashley Sloan was the avatar driver, Eliza Drennek was a surgeon who was at the camp and currently looking after Ashley’s human body in the link bed, Mingxia Wu was a Valkyrie pilot then the ones he already knew, like Ruby Carr, Zeke Hodge, Trinity Harper, and Kendra Midori.

Jake found himself fascinated a little as Zane spoke about his life on Earth, how he wound up coming to Pandora and even what his parents did as well.

“You see… my parents run a few of the wildlife reservations.” He was saying, “Africa took less of a brunt of the polluted air but…high levels of sun that scorched the land. Large areas of our roofs were developed to use as Solar fields to use the space to retain our family’s job maintaining the parks. Using the Sun’s power and less smog, my family’s expenses were cut straight down to afford things more comfortably. When Pandoran plants finally reached the Earth side. They made sure to purchase some of them and hired some of the scientists to put the plants to reviving the land.”

Jake’s eyebrows shot up. “It worked?”

“From what I last heard in my last family transition there’s…signs of new growth but it’s slow going; the plant had to have some adaption to survive our atmosphere.”

“You are using our plants to…fix yours?”  The voice of Ten’nel, the main bead maker asked as he eyed Zane curiously. “How come it got so bad to require from Ewya’s child?”

“We have to. That’s…why there are scientists so interested in your world. Your plants have grown and thieved in what Humans would think as…unsuitable in terms of high carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide, both are poisonous to us and don’t exist in high concentrations in an atmosphere..” Zane spoke, “Our…plants don’t know how to adapt, and we changed our world faster than nature could keep up. Plants died, and as a result, the soil became…laden with minerals that can’t support growth. Your…plants can absorb these minerals, and toxins and breathe new life back into the soils, and your plants can clean our air, and filter out the toxins. Earth has suffered greatly and in most because of humans, but….it’s on the basis of how our culture formed around a concept called capitalism and mass population growth and demand of food and shelter that humans demanded more from our planet than it was able to support naturally.”

“Humans built areas to produce things like clothes and food in mass and quickly,” Jake added in, “Like… making beads, machines would make thousands of beads a day to be traded for supplies and it’s cheaper and faster and no waiting time. Instant demand met and trade. Humans use a concept called Money. A trade of goods and services for this Money. Humans on Pandora are here for service, in return when they get back they get money. Money is used for food, shelter and entertainment. Now, these built areas are called factories; they create but there’s waste that comes of their creation. Like these wood chips.” He nodded down to their laps where they were they were covered.

These chips, Jake had seen would be put to use; going into the fire when it needed a little more of a kick into life. Bones fragments would be turned into paint, or ground into bone meal and stone would returned to the soil or ground further to help sand down wood with a brush. They had little waste.

“The waste from the machines are not like wood chips.” Zane pointed out dryly, “It…depends on what’s being made. But to generalise on a global scale, machines produce waste that can’t be reused; be it unsafe minerals or toxic smoke. Humans didn’t know where to put the waste so the smoke was left to rise, water waste was returned to the water, and earth waste was put into water and to the soil. Out of the way and life continues on. Humans thrive, make more babies, more demand on food and supplies and so, more factories are built to support them, and more waste is put into the world. It builds up and up and…well we’re depending on another world plants to fix the problems that are still ongoing because we need those factories to survive”

“That sounds….awful. Did your Earth mother not teach you methods of how to look after your world?” Ten’nel asked, a little horrified like a few of the others.

“There’s no Earth version of Eywa.” Jerome piped up, ears pinning back sadly. “No connection, no mother and so, no teaching. Humans had to figure stuff out on their own. No one to tell them not to mine, no one to tell them not to set stone upon stone, or to create the turning wheel. Earth is harsh, even when our world was filled with plant life and thriving animals.”

“Well, Earth has had at least five mass-extinction level events, humans didn’t survive that by praying to the ground for help that’ll never come. You’ll sooner be dead.” Jake pointed out. “Survival of the fittest and natural selection and all.”

“You all sound like you’re having a horrifying conversation.” Ashley’s voice called as she passed them towards the spiral “You do realise Na’vi don’t have a concept of extinction.”

“Ugh,” Jake wrinkled his nose. Yep, that was on him for that bit. Of course, this world didn’t have that. “Right…”

Zane just chuckled at him. “Maybe that conversation is for another day.”

“Yeah,” He rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “Hey, at least we explain why humans are the way that we are. A little.”

Zane hummed, though not fully convinced but thankfully they got back to a less intense discussion and allowed the group that had listened to fully digest their sudden wave of information without being subjected to listening to more earth horrors.  Ten’nel looked…uncomfortable but not horrified or disgusted though he didn’t seem to ask for more.

 -

Jake watched as Kim arrived and Harper and Kendra immediately went to her; to hug and to coo over her pregnant belly a little. Kendra though more refrained but was still happy for her nonetheless. Jake finished up with the beads faster than Zane so he was set to help Mo’at as the new guys filled the positions he would have been going to, like the weavers.

Inside, he was surprised to see Ashely’s avatar dormant on the mat as he was set down. Mo’at was examining her with interest as well, though less vigorously as she had with his Dreamwalker a few days ago.

“She unlinked?” Jake asked, settling his legs out onto the mat.

“Indeed. She said she needed to tend to her sky person form for a few hours given her injuries. The healer at her camp has strict rules while she is still healing and one that I find myself agreeing with given the nature of her wounds.” Mo’at replied. “Her Dreamwalker does not exhaust but her mind does. Apparently, she was stubborn enough to come before she was healed to do so.”

Jake snorted a little. “She looks like someone who wanted to know what she was getting into first than wait around and see. Grace said drivers have to go through link sessions to prepare the mind for long-hauls in the link. Though I’m surprised she’s putting her human body through the wringer than just come here human.”

“She informed me that cannot wear a smaller mask for long periods of time because it doesn’t protect her eyes. Our air can irritate your eyes with long exposure, does it not?” Mo’at asked, tilting her head at him.

“Hm, yeah. It stings.” He supposed that made sense. “As long as she’s okay and you’re good with the arrangement…”

“Indeed. She said she’d have the healer with her come down and speak to me next time they come here.” Mo’at said, setting the avatar to rest more comfortably on her back and hands on her stomach. “I look forward to that. I haven’t examined a sky person’s form properly, so it would be nice to understand our differences with an expert on functions. The Dreamwalkers have been enlightening, yet they are too like Na’vi and only seem to hold a part of Sky-people in them.”

“You were never shown a sky person’s body?” Jake raised an eyebrow at that. “Didn’t Grace show you diagrams? Pictures?”

Mo’at shook her head. “As I have mentioned before, my error with my interactions with Grace was never asking such questions back. The children at the school may have seen pictures but their parents never wanted them to bring the education to them so directly. Most need not worry.”

Ah, so leave school at the school and or leave it at the doorstep at Hometree. It was familiar in families that didn’t approve of other’s opinions or education. Kids might like it but…kids lived in their own way of logic. Still, it seemed weird to not want to spread the culture around as much but…maybe that was one of the reasons why the adults were less open to change.

“Maybe they’ll change their minds, they’ve got humans coming and going every other day. But… it sounds like you and the doc could get along with your shared interest.”

“Indeed.” Mo’at agreed, “For now, I want to test my stronger medicines on your skin. Your skin looks and feels to be thinner than ours. We’ll find out swiftly what works for you and what doesn’t.”

“You didn’t ask the others?” Jake asked, his hand coming to roll up his sleeve.

“It’s their first day here, Jakesully.”

 -

As Jake worked with Mo’at, he talked through what he had spoken to the bead makers about and then some. A Tsahìk’s perspective would seem useful to understand human history. They found that human skin did absorb a lot quickly but he had only a mild reaction to a select few ingredients which made him a little groggy. Mo’at grumbled a little on how to edit the receipt to make it safer with fewer side effects.

While his body cleared that out, he was allowed to return down to the others after Ashely linked back with her avatar. He was uncertain about having a new person lift him down but he held his tongue as he clambered into his chair.

It was the soft patter outside that pulled his attention, He sighed deeply at the sight of rain then he wheeled slowly towards Ruby, Harper and Kendra who were trying to learn how to clean, part and spin a cotton-like puff ball into thread with a few of the weaver kids.

 “If it rains like this into the night, we’ll probably have to wait till morning to return,” Jake said as he got close enough.

“Like…spend the night?”

“It’s unsafe to travel in heavy rain. Mud, potential for thunder strikes and flooding so… yep.”

“Oh fuck, I don’t think my Exo-mask has a big battery for another twelve hours!” Ruby gasped, her hand coming to her filter in alarm, checking it over as if it was in an immediate risk of shutting down.

“Relax,” Kendra spoke, patting the bag pack she was leaning against. “I got spares.”

“Oh, thank god!” Ruby relaxed a little.

“Thank me, more like it. I’m a little paranoid so I also got a few spare masks, filter sheets and a med kit with me.”

“Little paranoid?” Harper asked with a smirk. “I'm pretty sure I saw you put in your laptop as well.”

“And now we can watch a film before bed so you are welcome,” Kendra answered back nonchalantly, pulling a face as she lost the thread.

“Oh, what films you got?” Jake asked out of curiosity, “I mean, I got a load of films but if you got stuff that I haven’t and vice versa, we could mutually download copies?” He pushed himself around a large root.

“I favoured TV series over films. A few Marvel Series and films, Star trek, Star Wars, Walking Dead, The Home Alone film series, Buffy, Interview with a Vampire, Merlin—“

“Wait, was the last one?” Jake asked before he could stop himself.

“Merlin.”

“Before that?”

“Oh, Interview with a Vampire.” Kendra said bluntly, “bit bloody but a good watch. I got the book version downloaded. Did you want a copy?”

Jake met Morgan’s eye across the ring who had been passing with a basket of nut-shells though he looked a little uncomfortable; rolling his head to his shoulder a little a motion not unmissed by Harper who frowned in confusion.

“No…it’s…just threw me off.” Jake said, “I’ll…look into it later. I should really get back to work.” He was sure he’d get around to telling the new guys about vampires. Tomorrow before they left, once they knew he wasn’t just a nutcase. He’d need someone to help back him up on this.

Tsu’tey was serious enough….if he was willing to be there.

Masterlist

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbr.com/mcu-winter-soldier-not-a-hero/amp/ wtf to like 90% of this.

Oh wow, what a load of bullshit! This is the worst article I've read in a long time, was that written by a Stark crazy fanboy because hoooooooooooooooly shit. Buckle up, folks.

9 times Bucky proved he's not a hero (yeah the title is promising)

As you can imagine most of the reasons the idiotic writer gives to portray Bucky as a villain were things he did as the Winter Soldier (he tried to kill Fury, he shot Natasha, he assassinated two dozen people in 50 years, he killed Yori's son bla bla), and he says this:

As The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reveals, Barnes is likely responsible for many more unaccounted ruthless casualties than the intelligence community acknowledges.

I don't think it was their intent but thank you for acknowledging that TFATWS victim blames Bucky.

But there's more:

Bucky Ran After He Was Framed For The UN Bombing

A devastating bombing in Vienna during a U.N. meeting set to see the Avengers sign the Sokovia Accords for which Bucky is framed for puts the highly dangerous super-soldier at the top of everyone's hit list.

Highly dangerous? What was Bucky doing while he was being framed for the UN bombing? Oh right, buying plums. Such a dangerous guy. Hiding in an apartment, buying plums, writing in his diary... such a threat.

When Rogers and Sam Wilson finally track Barnes down in Romania with the help of Sharon Carter, the Winter Soldier is reluctant to turn himself in.

He refused to turn himself in for a crime he didn't commit, how dare he?!!

Another one:

Bucky Murdered Howard And Maria Stark

Among the many assassinations that the Winter Soldier completed over the years was the murder of Tony Stark's parents. A belligerent Stark proceeds to relentlessly attack Rogers and Barnes in blind rage (albeit justified).

JUSTIFIED????!!!!!!

while Bucky was brainwashed by HYDRA at the time, it doesn't lessen the atrocities of his actions

While Bucky had no agency and he had been brainwashed and didn't know who he was or what he was doing none of that lessens his responsibility for his actions. WTF dude.

Another:

Bucky Stole SHIELD'S Super-Soldier Serum For HYDRA

the 1991 mission the Winter Soldier undertook wasn't even about killing the Starks; rather, Barnes' HYDRA superiors sought S.H.I.E.L.D.'s super-soldier serum they happened to be carrying in their trunk.

Oh they happened to be carrying it in their trunk, it's one of those things that can happen to any of us, you head to your car, open the doors and all of a sudden bam! a bunch of vials fly into your trunk.

Not only do Barnes' actions lead to the death of someone he might've once considered an ally or even a friend, the super-soldier serum inadvertently leads to the deadly expansion of HYDRA's own program in Russia.

Barnes' actions, not Hydra's. How subtle. And Howard was a friend? The same guy who hired Zola, the man who had tortured Bucky, to work for Shield? That Howard? He was a friend?

Following the wild events of Endgame, Barnes finds himself shockingly pardoned by the U.S. government

Shockingly, I'm telling you! Why isn't this guy in jail already, let's bring Stark from the dead so he can murder him and JUSTIFIABLY so, huh?

Another:

Bucky Helps Sam Reclaim Captain America's Shield

Following the disaster that was John Walker's Captain America, Barnes and Wilson make a controversial choice in forcing the U.S. operative to give up the vibranium shield

Controversial?! Are you kidding me? Did you forget what Walker had done right before that scene happened? And I see we're conveniently leaving out that he stole a vial and injected himself with it.

Barnes and Wilson ultimately get the upper hand, but they're forced to literally break Walker's arm in order to detach the shield from him, leaving him screaming in pain. While Barnes' heart was in the right place, the unceremonious method he used to take back his old friend's shield was anything but heroic.

You know what wasn't heroic? Murdering an innocent, surrendering and unarmed man with the shield in front of everyone then not only refusing to take any responsibility for it but doubling down and going to Lemar's family to lie to them in their faces by claiming he had killed the man responsible for his death.

You know what's not heroic? That the only consequence for Walker is he's demoted and no longer Cap, nothing else. You know what would have happened if Sam had done what Walker did? Straight to the Raft.

Also, I love how this idiot says Sam and Bucky fought him and broke his arm, etc when the very first thing they did when they approached him was try and avoid a fight at all costs, Walker was the one who initiated it.

The only reason they give that's right is this one: "Bucky Frees Helmut Zemo To Help Find The Flag Smashers" because yeah, that's what he did. But everything else in this article? 100% victim blaming.

Go kiss Stark and Walker's ass and stop writing about Bucky, dude.

[literallymechanical]

Thinking about art.

Thinking about your first poetry class, sophomore year. The assignment was haiku. Your friend works at a laser engraving shop, you get him to laser-etch your poetry onto some autumn leaves you gathered from the sidewalk. The professor says he’s never seen something so pretentious. He asks if he can keep them.

Thinking about when the machine vision system you spent 8 hours hacking together out of an old Kinect and four of the cheapest ultrasonic rangefinders money can buy actually WORKS and your autonomous robot navigates the obstacle course and your group gets an A.

Thinking about finishing your final thesis, a science fantasy novella, writing and re-writing the same paragraph over and over until suddenly the third act clicks and you put down 8K words in one sitting. You get a little teary when you finish. Your advisor has all her advisees over for dinner, and all you talk about is fantasy.

Thinking about soldering the heaviest gauge wire you could find to the biggest power transistor you could get for less than thirty bucks, praying that the high-power battery you scavenged from a vape won’t blow it up at 25 amps. The whole contraption is held together with cardboard and electrical tape, and your test subject says it gets warm when you strap it to her arm under the robes, but you’ve made the world’s jankiest portable light-up smoke machine and she has the best wizard costume at the Halloween party.

Thinking about sending your first real short story to a sci-fi magazine. It’s cold and beautiful and razor-sharp and you’re so proud. It gets shortlisted for publication. Three months later they tell you they won’t be buying it, but they don’t send a form letter — the editor wrote you personally, gave you real feedback and wants to read more. You never show that story to anybody again. You’re still proud of it. You keep writing.

Thinking about your first job after college. It’s a tiny startup and the laboratory is an old dance studio with the floor torn down to bare concrete, but you have three million dollars of government money and the CEO knows what he’s doing. Your team spends a year hacking together a carbon nanotube synthesis machine — literally hacking, you carved out more than one piece of aluminum with a hacksaw. You power it up for the first time. The chemist plugs her bottle of carcinogens in one end, and gauzy nanotube aerogel pours out the other. You all cheer. The ammonia in the air gives you migraines. Worth it.

Thinking about taking a plumbing torch, a broken chunk of firebrick you scavenged from lab, a few bits of metal, some solder from the hardware store, and making little steel sculptures. You give some to friends, you keep some for yourself. You can only make them in the summer, because your workshop is your little scrap of back lawn and it gets too cold in winter.

Thinking about being tired all the time. You can’t think straight. The words stop, the nanotubes stop, the soldering stops, the art stops. Your stomach hurts. Maybe it’s the flu? One day you fall asleep and she can’t can’t wake you up. You don’t remember how you get to the hospital. You’re there for a month.

Thinking about being sick. Real sick, the kind of sick where your lifespan is measured in months, then weeks, then days. They give you three options — surgery, the medicinal equivalent of a neutron bomb for your immune system, or go home and pray. You take the surgery. You get tattoos over the scars.

Thinking about the slog to recovery. Three surgeries. A new job — you’re building fusion reactors. You get to crawl inside one, touch the graphite and molybdenum shielding tiles with gloved fingertips. Years of blazing heat and radiation give them a glossy, iridescent sheen. Nuclear plasma paints the walls with silver rainbows.

Thinking about bleeding again. Your stomach hurts. You stumble into a bathroom stall so you don’t faint in front of your coworkers. You’re dying again. More surgery. You think about what to ink over the newest scar. You want something a bit different. Something classy, or bold? A splash of color? You should commission a design from someone who knows what they’re doing. You’re an artist, but not that kind of artist.

Thinking about art.

[you-have-been-frizzled]

I loved your Sandor post it was such a cute headcanon,, do you have anymore of Sandor headcanons? (Or rlly any bodyguards)

Sophie has had night terrors since the day she came back from being kidnapped, she woke up screaming once a week.

the first few times Sandor after he woke her up he would go downstairs to get her parents to calm her down because he felt like it was their job not his

but after the fifth or sixth time Sophie begged him not to wake her parents because she didn’t want to worry them, he tried to convince her that it was oaky and they would want him to and failed.

knowing how much she hated anything that made her drowsy, he sat with her and taught her breathing exercises to help her calm down, and how to ground herself so she felt less out of control.

he made sure to do his job when she was attacked by the Neverseen when her abilities where reset he made sure to amp up her protection

he still helped her work though her nightmares, with the methods he was taught in school, but if he couldn’t calm her down he would get her parents

he mentioned that he did it because he felt like wasn’t able/allowed to comfort her in the way she needed and he didn’t want to cross any lines,

they where a story below her and couldn’t hear when she was having nightmares, he was closer and could comfort her in any way she needed

he still felt like he wasn’t allowed to do any more than that, as much as he wanted too he told himself that he was her bodyguard not her parent. he felt like it was against the rules of his job

but after he was thown off the mountain and Sophie tackle hugged him when he came back, he realized that he didn’t need to be so worried the rules that may or may not exist, he cared about her and he would protect her whether he was assigned to her or not.

that night she woke up from a night terror screaming his name, he came into the room and sat on the foot of her bed telling her, he was safe and so was she.

he walked her though the breathing exercises an she was refusing to even consider going back to sleep, because she had a nightmare about him getting killed and she didn’t want it to come back

so he asked her if she wanted to hear a story about when he was a kid to take her mind off of it, she nodded excitedly and grabbed Iggy and Ella off her pillow and sat right next to him

he told her that he was never very popular as a kid because he was the teachers pet, glasses and all he would remind them of homework and tests

but he had one friend who was the daughter of one of his parents friends, she was the school troublemaker and he was told to be a good influence on her

it’s not like he had any other options for friends, but much to their parents dismay she ended up influencing him and got him into trouble

he didn’t like getting into trouble, but he had a crush on her and wanted her to like him back, so he did whatever she said, and she knew this and took full advantage of it

she would call him Sir Goody Two Shoes among other things and drag him into her elaborate plans

she was incredibly competitive and would set up contests where the loser would owe the winner a favor, or do something embarrassing, she was a sour loser but always kept her end of the deal and so did he

even if it meant doing something that would definitely get them in trouble, once he lost a obstacle corse that she set up and the deal was that the loser had to dress up in a unicorn onsie and glitter bomb the principals office

so that’s what he did she gave him her unicorn onise, two dozen glitter bombs filled with the finest glitter, and the keys to the principals office. which she refused to tell how she got her hands on.

so he went into the office when principal was on lunch brake and set up the glitter bombs to go off when the principal entered the room what they hadn’t done is figure out when the principal would return

right as Sandor had finnished setting up the bombs, but he hadn’t had time to leave the room so when the principal opened the door glitter exploded over the two of them covering ever surface in the office in a layer of glitter.

he was given detention for the rest of the year, along with his friend because when he got into trouble she was always involved somehow

when Sandor finished telling the story he looked down at Sophie she was curled up with her head on his lap sound asleep

he smiled and pulled an extra blanket out from under her bed tucking her in, he was going to be here a while

[caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma]

Caught Recommendations

Author’s Note: I’m trying to keep track of the amazing BTS-themed series and fics that I’m reading on Tumblr, so I decided to create this post with some short reviews (so I can have them all in one place). These writers are amazing and they keep me coming back for more. They are all smutty as hell and full of amazing characters and conflicts.  This is by no means a comprehensive list, and I will be adding them as more catch my eye. Check them out if you get a chance!

Mafia AUs

The Birdcage  & the sequel The Lion’s Den by @untaemedqueen

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU; Jimin x Reader

What You Need to Know: Jimin-heavy series (and sequel) that dives into Seoul and Busan mafia underground, violence, guns, knives, bombs, pregnancies, and OH so much drama - the writer creates some fascinating characters that we root for and fall in love with over and over again.   

Thou Shall Not Steal by @xherxx

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, OT7

What You Need to Know:  The richest mafia lord in the industry throws a huge yet twisted deal before he retires and every gang out there wants to get their hands on his riches. - The drama is real in this one and there is plenty of hot, steamy scenes that will make you tingle. 

Don’t Care If It Hurts by @hollyhomburg

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, Jimin x Reader

What You Need to Know: After a rival gang makes an attempt on your life, Your older brother, the infamous leader of Seoul’s largest gang; Kim Namjoon, gets you a guard hybrid; Park Jimin, The reigning champion of Seoul’s underground hybrid fighting ring. - Yeah, this is also a hybrid series, but the mafia background is much more prominent. The OC is also smart as a whip and Namjoon as the angry leader and older brother is something to behold. The other members feature as well skilled companions and are very good at their jobs.

Omertà by @lamourche

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, Namjoon x Reader

What You Need to Know: A story about an unlikely mob boss and his mafia princess wife. This is a love story set in a brutal world. - Namjoon and his crew are tight knit and set to take over the mafia underground. In a true Romeo and Juliet twist, you are from an opposing family and are desperate to get away from their oppressive clutches. As an added bonus, you and Namjoon fall in love and build up his empire together. 

Blackjack by @kpopfanfictrash

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Mafia AU, Jungkook x Reader

What You Need to Know: Bangtan is one of the most vicious mafias on the west coast. Only six members are known by name though, with a mysterious seventh member dubbed only as 'the shadow.' When you become indebted to the worst of the worst - how, exactly can you find a way out? - Jungkook is such a gem in this fic and the action is amped up to 11 throughout the series. 

College/Business AUs

Thesis-It (and the sequel) Prove It by @xherxx

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, College/Career AU, OT7

What You Need to Know:  “When life gives you lemons, make cocktails! It doesn’t solve any problems, but then again neither do lemonades. Besides, it has the word cock in it, just like what the Bangtan boys have on them. So, why don’t you just suit yourself?” - This series was a ROLLERCOASTER of emotion, even when it hurts, you keep going back for more. The sequel takes place AFTER college, but the characters still act like college idiots. LOVE THEM!

Fear & Dumplings by @softyoongiionly

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, College AU, Yoongi x reader

What You Need to Know: You’re in your final semester at University when your Abnormal Psychology professor assigns you a partnered project surrounding your greatest fears. Lucky for you, your partner just so happens to be a cute boy named Min Yoongi. - The build up to this relationship is just wonderful and you will be completely enamored by Yoongi in this fic. He’s such a soft precious bean and I want to ruin him. 

The Gentlemen by @honeymoonjin

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Reality Show AU, OT7

What You Need to Know:  Sick of unsatisfying hookups, boring relationships or the company of your own hand? Apply today for the chance to be on bangasm.com’s very first reality show! Seven attractive young gentlemen will be vying for your choice of who is best in bed. All from different backgrounds, these men claim they’ll be able to rock your world, so don’t hesitate! Apply now! - BEST REALITY SHOW EVER! The characters are vivid and entertaining and the smut scenes are on point. I dare you not to fall in love with every single one of these eligible bachelors. 

Tease by @adonis-koo

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Stripper AU, Jungkook x reader

What You Need to Know:  You came with the intentions of your best friend landing a job as a stripper. You never meant to catch the eyes of the king stripper of the establishment- Jeon Jungkook, yourself. With what was supposed to be a harmless way of paying off college debt faster you find yourself falling into a very odd and passionate relationship with your new mentor. Between infidelity, passion and jealousy there’s never a dull moment at Cherry Bomb. - Jungkook starts off arrogant and difficult, but as the relationship progresses, he starts embracing his softness for his new trainee. There is also some hot Big-Little action going on here. 

No Strings by @kpopfanfictrash

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, College AU, Jimin x reader

What You Need to Know:  You voice your concern that you are bad in bed and Jimin offers to test that theory. What ensues is an angsty friends with benefits situation that threatens to tear your friend group apart. You may want to smack Jimin around a bit, but I promise you will not be disappointed in the end. 

The Holi-Date by @kpopfanfictrash

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Career AU, Taehyung x reader

What You Need to Know:  When your ex-boyfriend becomes engaged to his new girlfriend at your annual Holiday party, you admittedly are not in the best place. Which explains why you down six shots of alcohol, enthusiastically drop it low on the dance floor and - oh, yeah - tell everyone you are also dating someone. The only problem? You are obviously not. Good thing your neighbor happens to be cute and in need of a ride to work every morning. - I absolutely LOVE Taehyung in this fic; he’s playful, sweet, passionate, and funny. 

Hybrid AUs

The Mark of Yun-Ki by @ladyartemesia

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Historical Hybrid AU; Yoongi x Reader

What You Need to Know: This story was wonderfully crafted and if a Tiger-hybrid Yoongi full of ferocity and passion and admiration doesn’t do it for you, I don’t know what will. 

Reasons Wretched & Divine by @hollyhomburg

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Hybrid AU; Namjoon x Reader x Jimin x Yoongi

What You Need to Know: You live on an isolated but sprawling farm with your abusive husband, but things start to change for the better when your husband adopts a retired police dog hybrid named Namjoon. - There are definitely some trigger warnings you should read at the top, but the series is full of mental and physical healing that endears the characters to the reader. The other members are also present as side characters and are hella sweet. 

Abundance by @angelicyoongie

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Hybrid AU; OT7

What You Need to Know:  You never expected that you would end up adopting a hybrid, and if someone had told you that you would end up with seven? Well, you would have thought they were crazy. But here you are, with three different packs of hybrids that don’t get along – but all want to stay with you. Yeah, turns out crazy is an understatement. - This is a sweet complicated hybrid situation where three different groups have to find a way to live together. It takes some time, but they all eventual pull together as a family. 

Jackrabbit by @jamaisjoons

Genre: Pure Smut; Hybrid AU; Jungkook x reader

What You Need to Know: On a university-wide Easter egg hunt, Jungkook decides to educate you on just how wrong you are about him. - this one shot will have your thighs rubbing together vigorously wishing that you could get a few minutes alone with this domineering bun (just don’t call him that unless you want to get punished).

Strawberry Cream & BBQ by @thatmultifandomhoe

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Smut; Hybrid AU; Hoseok x reader

What You Need to Know: Your best friend knows she can count on you for anything, so when she asks you to watch her hybrid while she’s gone for a study abroad trip for four months, you can’t say no. But when these four months are over, things have changed in a way no one expected. - The relationship between Hoseok and the OC is so sweet and the drama that erupts after they get together pulls on the heartstrings. 

Sci-Fi AUs

Void by @btssavedmylifeblr

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Space AU, OT7

What You Need to Know:  You are the only female crew member on a 12 year space mission with seven handsome men. - The sexual tension is real, y’all. The OC is sassy and hilarious, the other crew members provide colorful commentary and conflicts that keep the reading salivating for more. 

The Turing Test by @fortunexkookie

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, Android AU, Jungkook x reader

What You Need to Know: You are an engineer who created an advanced form of Artificial Intelligence named Jungkook, but with every technological advance, there are always some bugs to work out (and not all of them deal with the creator or the creation). 

Parenting AUs

Gingerbread Man by @btsracket

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Jungkook x Reader

What You Need to Know: Jungkook (a recent widower) is a fantastic baker who owns his own shop. The reader bounces in to place an emergency order and fate takes over from there. Jungkook’s son, Jude, is absolutely adorable and all of the angst and drama derived from moving on from an unexpected spousal death makes for one incredible recipe for success. 

The Stand-In by @yoonia

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Namjoon x Reader

What You Need to Know:  Gaining the courage to leave a loveless marriage was hard enough, but is it really a good idea to run to your best friend for help? And would you refuse him when he offers you another kind of ‘help’? - The themes revolving around infertility and then a sudden pregnancy catapult these characters into a wonderful relationship full of love and possibilities. Plus, Daddy Joon is always a yes on my list. 

Intro: Her by @jamaisjoons

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Namjoon x Reader

What You Need to Know: You enter Namjoon’s life in the most unexpected of ways, but will you be able to stay, especially when he comes with three adorable but chaotic children, even more chaotic best friends and a bitch of an ex-wife? not to mention your own emotional baggage. - Namjoon is raising his three boys Jimin, Taehyung, and Jungkook as you enter his life as a marine biologist. The kids are sweet and sassy, Namjoon is a total mess, but a sweetheart. I never wanted to be a mother to children more than these tots, and the bonus would be snuggling into Daddy Joon’s arms. 

Idol AUs

Let Me Hold Them by @jjungkookislife

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; OT7

What You Need to Know: An OT7 series that includes mxm, threesomes, open relationships, polyamory, and angst.  Please read at your own discretion & the warnings on each chapter. - It starts off small, and then it escalates quickly. I promise, you will not be disappointed. Read on!

Slight Changes by @jiminimoon

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Taehyung x reader; Jimin x reader

What You Need to Know: Your relationship with Taehyung takes a nose dive when his infidelity is exposed. Luckily, the other members (especially Jimin) step in to make sure you don’t suffer alone. Prepare for angsty chapters and a lot of soul searching in this fic. 

The Studio Sessions by @getitinbusan

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Yoongi x reader; OT7 x reader

What You Need to Know: It’s Min Yoongi’s birthday and you’re ready to give him whatever he wants. When he makes a sarcastic wish while blowing out the candles he didn’t think you’d take it seriously. But he’s glad you did. When word spreads about these special “Studio Sessions” everyone wants to collaborate. - You start with one and work your way through the rest without blinking an eye. It’s a smutty paradise. 

Love Well Done by @oraclemarie

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Yoongi x reader

What You Need to Know: You are the executive chef of your very own fine dining restaurant. A big company makes you the offer of a lifetime, setting you on a path straight to Min Yoongi-your drunken hook up. - once these two start admitting their love for one another, it ups the drama; people can let jealousy turn them into monsters. 

Soulmate AUs

A Thousand Springs by @whitesparrows97

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, OT7

What You Need to Know: Life is short. Eternity is long. Why you in particular are approached by a super attractive man in a club, you did not understand. You understood even less why he wanted to kill you. Fortunately, seven young, also incredibly handsome men show up to help you with this little problem. Purely by coincidence, of course. Or do you really believe in fate? - This fic is action packed with crazy conflicts, special powers, and spicy smut scenes. 

The Immortals by @bang-tan-bitches

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff, OT7

What You Need to Know: Sometimes, you find your destiny. And sometimes, your destiny does whatever it takes to keep you. - There are some amazing things happening in this fic and I just want to crawl onto that giant bed with all of them and their mysterious golden powers.

Fantasy AUs

Blood Moon Rising by @yoonia

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Vampire/Werewolf AU; Jimin x Reader

What You Need to Know: As beings from ancient times, the Vampire Clan has undergone numerous changes to thrive in the Modern Age after surviving the Ancient Blood War. As a part of the traveller family in his clan, Jimin has parted ways from the coven until the day his Lords warned him of the lurking danger from inside the clan. And all so suddenly, he was pulled out of his solitary, only to have given the responsibility he had never wished to have, along with the threats that come as a part of the deal. 

Born as youngest yet having lost so much, you have given your family your loyalty, your protection, and had been given their love and support that had become the only thing that keeps you going. But what happens when the only people you have put your trust in only repay you with betrayal?

This series expands beyond this world and into a whole universe of shifter characters. This storyline also includes characters from her other Shifter Series. The storylines are rich and beautifully crafted, and you will love the way the characters stick together on this magnificent adventure.

Of Fire and Love by @hollyhomburg

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Dragon-Hybrid AU; Yoongi x Reader

What You Need to Know:  When Dragon Yoongi finds baby Jungkook in the wreckage of a house he burned down, he can’t bring himself to kill the child. Months after someone drops off a baby at your door, you start to notice something- or someone, lurking at the edge of the woods. - This fantasy world just keeps growing in each chapter and you also get to enjoy a baby Jungkook and a baby dragon Hobi. Beware of fairy Jimin - they’re a sneaky one. 

Faerie Realm by @ddaengyoonmin

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Fairy Video Game AU; Jungkook x Reader

What You Need to Know: Your mother gifts you a video game set that allows you to fully enter the brand new virtual world of Faerie Realm on the first day of its launch. You lack any of the skills or knowledge of playing video games, but you end up having fun thanks to skilled player you meet named Kookie! You are lucky to have met him, because this deadly game is not what it seems.- Based on Sword Art Online, but I think it’s better. The other members become a part of the group and drama ensues. 

Sweeter than Sweet by @gimmesumsuga

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Vampire AU; Jimin x reader; OT7, eventually

What You Need to Know: You never would have expected someone like Park Jimin to notice you. As handsome and beguiling as he is deadly, you’re enthralled from the very moment you meet. Addicted to his kiss and his bite, Jimin opens up your eyes to a whole new world of love, lust and seduction. - this is a LONG series, but it is TOTALLY WORTH IT. Once you dive into the story, there is no resurfacing until you finish. 

A Court of Curses & A Court of Moonlight by @readyplayerhobi

Genre: Angst, Smut, Fluff; Vampire/Witch/Werewolf AU; Hoseok x reader; Yoongi x reader

What You Need to Know: (ACOC) For millennia, the vampires and witches have hated one another and war has raged between the two. When tensions flare up once more and spill into neutral land, peace is forced upon the two by the faeries. The price of peace sees the Witch Queen married to the Vampire Prince. One hundred years later, how have things changed? (ACOM)  As Prince Hoseok’s personal attendant, you travel with him on a diplomatic visit to Lunatis, home of the werewolves. There, you meet the enigmatic and intriguing werewolf prince, Min Yoongi, and discover more than you expected as a mere attendant. - this world is so full of magical wonder and I am so invested in seeing how everything comes together. It also makes me soft when I see how loving Prince Hoseok is toward his family. 

Caught-in-a-seesaw-stigma’s MASTERLIST