#WTIH Zero

[charcoalsdestiny]

First Impressions

@tmnt-ocxcanon-comp

Donnie and Zero first met somewhere in the "end of season one-start of season two" zone.

While mutants weren't unheard of, they certainly weren't common. Most people didn't believe they actually existed.

Zero had a lot of questions for Donnie, which Donnie was mildly annoyed by, but he put up with it because they were cute and not being disrespectful.

zero uses they/he/she pronouns btw! they're from my au, Where There Is Hamato (WTIH)

[myfandomincolor]

OK I do enjoy the comedy of Haarlep saying Raphael isn't good in bed. Taken at face value, it's fun to have such a suave, sexually-charged character actually be awful at sex.

But like, here's how I imagine it: Raphael always, night after night, taking a bunch of work into the bedroom because he has stacks of contracts to go over and loads of schemes to plot. Everything has to be in perfect order so he's well-organized and prepared to always have the upper hand, and he's gotta get up early and wreak havoc in some mortal's life after doing overtime again.

He's a workaholic who can't switch off. Haarlep will be trying to bone down and have fun and Raphael is like, "You can be in here but please if you could just sit still, I'm really trying to proofread this because a single error could cost me the whole deal."

That's the headcanon for me.

[neptunym]

guys will be like "ill defeat you with the power of friendship" and literally stab you in the back

[miss-anthropyxx]

casually spiraling and dont think there's anything i can do about it at this point anymore. i wanna just give up and let myself spiral.

[superlinguo]

New gesture Emoji in Unicode 15.1: Head Shaking Horizontally and Head Shaking Vertically (aka shake and nod!), and (finally) right facing emoji

Unicode 15.1 will be rolling out to phones and computers across this year. It will include lots of new CJK (Chinese Japanese Korean) ideographs, some new line-breaking rules for syllabic scripts, and a handfull of new emoji! There's a phoenix, a breaking chain, a lime and a brown mushroom, as well as new family silhouettes and a handful of existing emoji, but now facing rightward!

Below are illustrations of the set from a recent Emojipedia summary of the 15.1 update.

The two emoji I'm most excited about are Head Shaking Horizontally and Head Shaking Vertically. That's head shaking and head nodding to you! I wrote these proposals with Jennifer Daniel and the Unicode emoji subcomittee team.

Why the more elaborate names? Well, Unicode tend to describe emoji by form, not function. That's for very good reason, because a head nod might be agreement for you, but in other cultures a vertical movement of the head can mean disagreement. This has provided a double challenge for emoji designers, who have to both show movement and also facial features that aren't too positive or negative. Below are the Emojipedia pair. They've done a great job.

These two emoji are actually made by combining a classic emoji face wtih the horizontal (🙂‍↔️) or vertical arrows (🙂‍↕️ ) using a special Unicode character called a Zero Width Joiner (ZWJ, 'zwidge' to it's friends), which means that even though they're two characters they smoosh together to create one emoji. It's the same process that makes all the different flags, as well as the gender and skin tones.

In fact, all of the emoji in 15.1 are combinations using the ZWJ mechanism; including the phoenix (🐦‍🔥), lime (🍋‍🟩) and brown mushroom (🍄‍🟫 ). Those new right-facing emoji are a combination of the usual left-facing emoji and a rightward arrow🚶‍➡️ .

It's exciting that Unicode have decided to try this set of right-facing characters. Many emoji are left-facing, which is a legacy of their Japanese origins (the word order in Japan means that right-facing makes sense). I've been complaining about emoji directionality since 2015, and I'm glad that this update will mean that lil emoji dude can finally escape a burning building for those of us with a left-to-right writing system and Subject Verb Object word order. They've started with a bunch of people in motion. It will be interesting to see if this set is where it stops or not.

(no no buddy!! To the exit!!)

The use of the ZWJ is an elegant solution because it means that you don't have to make a whole new codepoint for the emoji, it just uses the old one. If someone doesn't have their phone or computer update to 15.1 then it should fall back to just showing 🚶‍➡️, which somewhat conveys the intent. That's the magic of a good ZWJ combination.

Earlier posts on emoji gesture

Gesture emoji: contributing to the Unicode standard

New Publication: The Past and Future of Hand Emoji

Gender Variations for Person in Suit Levitating Emoji - Emoji Proposal

New draft emoji include 3 proposals I co-wrote!

Emoji as Digital Gestures in Language@Internet [Open Access]

Earlier posts on emoji directionality

Emoji Deixis: When emoji don’t face the way you want them to

Don’t run towards the fire (the on-going problem with emoji directions)

[magicjesuscup]

Cultural Difference

In Dia's route, Lou gets the idea that he can boost attendance at the C rank class from 50% to 100% if he makes everything paired exercises and groups the two that always show up wtih the two that never show up. It does make sense because this would pobably have worked in Japan and that's where the game was made. It's definitely an interesting cultural difference to me, because in my experience, this would've caused attendance to drop to 0%. Dia and Lance would still not show up, but now MC and Aquia would also skip because, "What's the point of going to a class where I know I won't be able to do anything because my partner's absent?" MC and Aquia would get zeros for the day and not be able to do the assignment whether or not they show up...so why should they bother?

[wonderlandmind4]

Not me getting a new full time job WTIH GREAT BENEFITS and heading towards a goal/dream job of mine that I’ve had for 13 years now, and my boss at my other job where I am on call and barely there anymore literally texting me from her phone saying how much they miss me……..

You miss me because i don’t give you the full time coverage anymore with zero benefits on an on Call status. You miss me because you took advantage of a situation that I KNOW was happening. You miss me because you missed your fucking chance at giving me that full time position and instead fucked around and tried hiring two part timers instead which backfired greatly.

So. 🤷🏻‍♀️ in the words of Shawn Spencer and Burton Guster:

[sunsetofdoom]

[commission by @stormytitan)

How do we feel about YET ANOTHER Ersa Lives AU

(This time with love tokens and Aloy being mystified by social interaction!

She turned around, and there was Erend; kneeling on the ground in the filthy rushes, his thick gloves working at the ropes on his sister’s ankles. Glyphs showed up in the corner of her vision, unobtrusive white text reading Ersa Ersa are you okay can you hear me why didn’t you take me with you it’s gonna be okay.

There was a blindfold cast onto the floor, sawn jagged by a clumsy cut from his dagger, and Aloy’s eyes followed the line of fabric up to Ersa’s face. Her cheeks were sunken, one eye swollen black and her lip split. Her hair was matted with blood. 

But her dark grey eyes were staring straight into Aloy with a terrifying ferocity. Aloy rocked back on her heels- like hiding right in front of a Watcher, waiting to see if it had noticed her, she wondered if Ersa was registering her as a threat, or if she was lost in pain and delirium.

She shifted backwards, and those steel-grey eyes followed, tracking her from where Ersa lay prone on the floor. Like a wounded animal, Ersa’s lip curled up to show her teeth.

[vlerian-root]

Apologies for the Potter spam but my pandemic hobby has become writing fanfiction and this is the universe it chose. I’m archiving stuff for future reference, mostly, but feel free to discuss anything! Love me some hp headcanons ♥

[risingsouls]

@electricstrikes​ said: “have you lost your mind?” - gohan @ vegeta

           Dust and smoke, rubble and destruction, marred the otherwise serene scenery of the lush, mountainous region Kakarot, his woman, and his brats called home. Wildlife fled the area in a cacophony of whines and squawks, the crater left in the wake of the prince’s weakened attack disrupting the calm of their habitation. Arms folded, he searched--visually and through ki--for his target. The boy was a disappointment, but if he couldn’t even survive a ki wave of such abysmal strength, he deserved to fall to a sneak attack like that one.

            There. His energy, along with his kid brother’s. He could still dodge, at the very least. Vegeta’s lips curled up wickedly in the face of the hybrid’s anger, his confusion at an attack from a supposed ally. He hadn’t learned. None of them had learned a damned thing: peace was temporary, and sitting back on their laurels like lazy livestock awaiting slaughter had gotten them all killed. If they refused to listen, especially Kakarot’s son whose power now paled in comparison to his level when he fought Cell as a mere brat, the Saiyan would take it upon himself to show them.

           “ I meant what I said when you fought Dabura, Gohan, ” he growled, arms released from his chest, posture adjusted to a battle stance. “ You’ve grown soft. Weak. It’s pathetic and it disgusts me. ”

           Golden energy flared around him, hair and eyes assuming lighter shades. Leather creaked as he tightened his hands into fists. “ If your lazy clown of a father refuses to teach you a thing about Saiyan pride, I’ll just have to take it upon myself to pick up his slack and beat it into you! ”

[charcoalsdestiny]

finally finished day one of Risebruary! Family! featuring designs from my WTIH AU.

i dont think i can keep up with risebruary, unfortunately. im sick right now, and im very busy with school and events :/

heres the list!

the tag limit means this isnt as through as id like but. here they are.

also WTIH is "Where There Is Hamato", my "future turtles (and CO.) come back" au.

[clonehub]

I wonder, do white people not know that something doesn't have to be explicitly motivated by racial reasons to be racist, and that doing something racist even subconsciously or not aware that it is racist is still racist? Or are they playing dumb to try and pretend racism isn't an issue? This is in regards to the guy on your Boba Fett post who says you have zero evidence Boba having Lighter skin was racially motivated. Really wish white people would either shut up and listen or at least be better educated and know what they're talking about before they decide to open their mouth and make a fool of themselves.

an annoying number of white people have bought into the absolute lie that racists rationalize their racism, so then anything racist that happens must be due to explicit and knowing choice to be racist. The concepts of implicit bias does not exist to them, and for other structural racism can only be rationalized on an individuals-choosing-to-be-racist level.

This also means they can absolve themselves of racism, because if and when they do something racist, they can hide behind the lie that since they weren't sitting there thinking "I want to be a bigot" then they can't possibly be a bigot. This also tends to sound like "I don't see color"

Hence why you get that cringey ass Brit saying wtih 110% confidence that no, it can't be racist becuse you can't "prove" racial motivation was the reasoning behind it. People like that guy also insist that things are either in place because of plot or racism, as if plots themselves can't be racist 🥴

And people like them like to try and start yelling at me about shit that wasn't said. Talking about "well in the show", thinking that "the show" was TBoBF and not The Mandalorian. I make efforts not to waste my time with people like them.

[milf-harrington]

me: *giving my sister shit for putting ice in her juice*

my sister, wtih zero chill: "youre starting to sound like a white person" (bc i was being judgy)

me:

[my-name-is-markus-with-a-k]

Hi! May I ask you what program do you use to edit your gifs? I'm dying to create some myself wtih added lyrics but I've zero knowledge how to do that best. Like make them look cool ;P , but also how to make them small enough to upload them to Tumblr while still keeping a good quality. Thank you so much in advance, Timebird84/Connor-sent-by-CyberLife.

I use PhotoShop, because I'm basic and I need things to be easy and PS looked to be the easiest option to use 🤣

There's probably better (and cheaper!) options out there but honestly, I've gotten so used to PS now that I don't see myself changing any time soon.

As for quality, I can sometimes spend hours making gifs in PS, making them look nice and crisp, only to upload them to tumblr and they lose so much quality. It's got something to do with pixels and dimensions but I haven't learned the magic formula as of yet. Tumblr also has an individual gif limit of 10MBs which is a decent amount to play in!

I'm extremely amateur, everything I've learned about making gifs I've learned from tutorials, and I've still got so much to learn myself, but if you ever have questions feel free to message me and I'll try to help as much as I can!

[thessalian]

Thess vs Final Review

So before I launch myself into Horizon Zero Dawn New Game + (mostly to just annihilate it and appreciate the story again - you can take your mechanical challenge and stick it because I hurt; I forever hurt and I just want the story and the wandering and the getting all the text datapoints and feeling like an unstoppable badass for once) in a bid to distract myself from being barred from work by medical mandate (which is probably entirely fair but capitalism and what it’s done to the concept of work ethic causes a psychological issue when I torture myself psychologically for not torturing myself physically in service to the Great God ECONOMY but never miiiiiiind)... Let’s talk about the game itself, now that I’ve hit the end of it.

I’m actually now a little pissed off that it was set in the USA. I mean, I do get why, but I’m fucking tired of the US being the centre of the universe insofar as entertainment is concerned. I mean, Guerrilla is Dutch. Then again, purchased by Sony and everyone caters to the Americans in this kind of thing because America is the centre of the universe insofar as entertainment media is concerned. If it’s English-speaking media, it has to be set somewhere that Americans will recognise and the assumption is that anyone who doesn’t live in the US will know or figure it out because, again, USA = Centre of Entertainment Universe (at least the English-speaking bits of it). I guess I just wish there’d been a little bit more focus on what Zero Dawn did to the rest of the world, at minimum. I mean, there had to have been Cradles around the world, right? They couldn’t just ignore every other land mass. I guess it’s possible, though, given that they were racing the clock at that point, and given they were expecting the next generation to have access to all the information they’d need to spread out across the globe via APOLLO.

Speaking of, since I was playing this with @true0neutral riding virtual shotgun, we’ve been debating what happened wtih APOLLO. Yeah, it was apparently entirely purged. Which, fair. But @true0neutral is desperately clinging to the idea that there’s a backup somewhere. I have significant cause to doubt it. I get the wanting to believe that, though. It’s like the burning of the Library of Alexandria but worse: the sum of human knowledge (minus a few bits of European torture porn), wiped out entirely. Still, I can also see why the individual responsible did it, even if I’m not sure I agree with it. I can see it both from the culprit’s perspective ... and from the plot-demands perspective, as well. There’s a general sense of the shape of the social, political, economic and cultural landscape hinted at in the text and audio datapoints that it’d be hellish to have to try to explain in terms of how we got to that point. Star Trek largely gets away with it by just not addressing it, but that’s not as easy when it comes to interactive media.

Of course, we’re also now on whether the proto-APOLLO - the one in space, with no checkreins or restrictions, which apparently blew up - is the cause of the subordinate functions being divorced from GAIA, and what this might mean for the rest of the subordinate functions; if HADES and HEPHAESTUS went nuts, what happens when, say, DEMETER or ARTEMIS do? I posited that there’s at least some checkrein on the worst of that because HADES was just doing what it was designed to do: reboot the world by wiping the slate clean. It’s tempting to see HADES as evil, but it was just following instructions ... unfortunately without one key piece of data: that the ecosystem didn’t need rebooting. Beyond that, it functioned exactly according to specs, doing whatever was necessary to get back to fully functional and eat the world. HEPHAESTUS, same deal. It was supposed to design whatever animals it felt the world needed ... but divorced from GAIA, it couldn’t necessarily tell whether it was safe to bring out the mechanical apex predators. Which brings us to ARTEMIS and DEMETER - land-based plants and animals respectively. Now, while they were both divorced from GAIA, the question becomes whether they were linked separate from GAIA - which would honestly have made sense from a coding perspective. After all, if you’re developing plants and animals, you’re going to need to balance both in order to have a functioning ecosystem, and someone like Tom Paech would not have been happy with even the slightest threat that ARTEMIS would have to function without DEMETER. He would have insisted on a redundancy in that instance. If ARTEMIS went crazy setting animals loose when the ecosystem wasn’t ready for them, they’d just die. ARTEMIS is still clearly waiting on the release of meat-and-bone apex predators because, if nothing else, they can’t eat machines and there aren’t enough boars to feed the big meat-eaters. Plus the human population, who would also be prey for apex predators, is having enough predation by machine life to be able to cope with, for instance, mountain lions hungry enough to hunt humans.

I reckon he’s probably right about the proto-APOLLO being the source of the signal that ‘freed’ the other subordinate functions, mind, if only because HADES knew things that were more in APOLLO’s bailiwick - which is why Sylens was so keen to work with HADES in the first place. I can say this now that I’m not in the run up to Grand Climactic Battle or Other Revelations, but I admit to getting a little snappy when I was trying to gear up for Big Boss Battle and I’m getting meta thrown at my head. (Sorry, Smeagol.)

But, see, this is what I mean about the game having so much fucking depth. I read some reviews where people were talking about “middle-of-the-road mechanics, same as any other open-world game, just shooting at enemies - not even a lot of variety in those, by the way - and sitting through pointless cutscenes”. POINTLESS?!? Dude, what game were you fucking playing? Why do some people feel somehow offended when story trumps mechanical challenge? What’s wrong with a story? Are these the same people that think that reading books is for wimps or whatever? Is this more of the anti-intellectualism that’s been taking over some aspects of society like some kind of plague?

Anyway. Point is that this game has a lot to say about a lot of things. How to build a world. How to build a society. How what you do is more important than who or what you are. The importance of knowledge, and its cost. Sacrifice. Respect, and when it should be given. (I was particularly fond of Avad going, “My hitting on you before was entirely inappropriate and I am really really sorry” before the battle, just by the by.) How sometimes it’s the little things that matter. (Teb, who remembers the kindness you did him even when it violates all societal laws and is there for you right at the very end.) Hope. Love. Trust, and when it’s not justified.

And if you people think that Solas was a grand betrayal, you have not played this game and met fucking Sylens. I AM JUST SAYING.

Yeah. Gonna play this one again. I know how it ends now. Don’t care. It’s like rereading my favourite book over and over again. (And yeah, I tagged for spoilers but let’s face it - half of these are more temptation to play the game to find out what I’m talking about than giving that much away.)

[vagrantblvrd]

jeremavinwood wtih battle buddies?

Hmmm.

Okay, so.

I’m going to do this with FAHC AU because look, okay, look.

That one FAHC AU where Michael’s just starting out with this whole life of crime business. Hired muscle for whoever wants to hire him and not much else. (No one wants anything else, and he’s fine with that.)

Somewhere along the way he meets Gavin, you know. Little bastard working for a crew that hires Michael on.

Some kind of hacker or tech guy and completely ignored by the other hired muscle and most of the regular crew because he’s this scrawny little British fuck.

Michael’s just there for whatever job he’s been hired for, so he doesn’t plan on getting to know Gavin or the others, which is his own mistake because Gavin?

God knows why Gavin is !!! about Michael almost from the start, zeroes in on him whenever he’s around and pestering the fuck out of him. Will make a beeline for him when Michael’s around and it turns into this odd little friendship after a while because once that job’s over they have these moments where they’re working for the same crew or just run into one another at random times.

And, okay. Gavin’s not the worst person to talk to with the odd way his brain works of his bizarre/ridiculous questions. The way he just plonks himself down next to Michael when he’s eating and starts rambling on about something or other for the longest time, but they’re not friends okay?

They’re not.

(...but maybe???)

Anyhow, Michael works crews and gangs whoever will hire him. Gavin’s this annoying thorn in his side and life is somehow not completely terrible.

Michael’s just starting to think he can have something good here if he’s lucky, careful, so of course that’s when things go wrong.

He’s working for some asshole and he’s got a bad feeling about it the whole damn time but it’s not like he’s got a lot of options open to him if he wants to pay his bills and the whatnot.

He’s definitely not surprised when shit goes wrong in the worst way and he has to make a run for it. Too much too fast and just enough time to warn Gavin to keep an eye out, maybe leave the city. (Just in case, because people know they know one another and it’d be a shitty thing for him not to warn Gavin.)

Michael ends up running all the way to Los Santos, loses whoever was chasing him in the city. (Loses part of himself too, but that’s not important because hey, he’s still alive, so yeah.)

And then, okay.

And then.

While he’s busy making a life for himself there he keeps running into this one asshole – wonders if it’s something wrong with him that this shit keeps happening, but whatever – who has the worst fashion sense Michael’s ever had the misfortune to witness with his own two eyes.

Moron who calls himself Rimmy Tim like that’s a real name and talks real big for someone so short. (Good thing he’s got the muscles to back that mouth of his up, though.)

This Rimmy Tim, guy, though.

He’s not like all the other goons and thugs in the city. Doesn’t really move like them although Michael can tell he’s trying to.

Yeah, no.

The guy’s got real training, right. Maybe former military or some law enforcement behind him, but whatever it was he’s not talking. Would rather wax poetic about some sweet new car he’s got Plans for one day, and all the way he’s going to ruin it with his hideous color scheme.

Drag Michael out to a bar and buy him drinks until they’re both too drunk not to get into a bar fight (or two, or more) and have to run from the cops that get called in to deal with the drunk assholes fighting over the stupidest shit ever.

Maybe, kind of falls into bed with him every so often, all these bad decisions and a life that probably won’t let them grow old and hey, why the fuck not you know?

Michael’s got his regrets and Jeremy’s (yeah, no, he’s shit at keeping the Rimmy Tim thing straight even when he hasn’t had a few) got his and anyway, anyway,  this thing between them isn’t serious. Just a friends with benefits thing, even if they really aren’t friends, you know?

Like, sure. Eventually they get a place together because they’re tired of living in shitty little apartments and if they put their money together they can afford someplace halfway decent because Los Santos can be stupid expensive.

It’s just a smart move on their part, really. Cuts down on expenses and other shit and if it means sometimes they just sprawl out on the couch watching some shitty movie together instead of hitting a bar and getting into fights all the damn time for no real reason, that’s a price they have to pay.

(And, like. If  “falling into bed together” sometimes means they don’t do the do and just sleep, that’s their own problem, isn’t it.)

But then because reasons shit happens.

They get hired by this asshole that neither of them can afford to say no to – offers they can’t refuse and by this point they’ve kind of gained a reputation for themselves. The kind that assholes can take advantage of because Michael and Jeremy are idiots and not as subtle as they think they are, and anyway, anyway.

This asshole has a problem and they’re just muscle hired on to help him with said problem.

This creepy, spooky bastard that’s just starting to make a reputation of his own here in Los Santos. Vicious bastard who wears s fucking skull mask (who does that?) and has taken to picking off their new bosses people/allies/etc.

Real vendetta kind of bullshit, and it’s gotten to be a Problem for the guy.

Enough that he’s hiring the best people he can get his hands on (threaten) and somehow Michael and Jeremy are grouped in there.

And then, okay.

Shit gets weird.

Because there are all these rumors and stories floating around this Vagabond character that just don’t add up? Things he’s done (said to have done) that one person, no matter how skilled, could have pulled off.

Michael and Jeremy are positive he has to have at least one partner working with him, if not more.

No other way to explain how he’s supposed to have dealt with a weapons deal up in Blaine County the same time he sniped a fucker in La Mesa. (Hell of a shot and while no one’s saying he’s not up to it, it’s   impossible for anyone to be in two places at once.)

More and more stories like that come rolling in as Michael and Jeremy work for this asshole, see the way the other hired muscle is getting picked off. The way their boss keeps losing allies and whatever else to the Vagabond. (And his partner, even if everyone else is so damn certain this guy’s a lone wolf or whatever.)

They’re pretty sure it’s a matter of time until they get picked off, because of course, and are making half-assed plans to run for it before that happens.

No loyalty to their current boss, and anyway, neither of them plan to die for someone like him – so of course, of course, that’s when they have their first run-in with this Vagabond asshole, you know?Checking on an operation their boss is getting antsy about and oh, hey, there’s that fucker with the skull mask.

Flesh and blood and not this bogeyman the stories insist he is because Michael clips him with a shot when the guy gets the drop on Jeremy.

Lucky shot, really, because the bastard’s too busy staring at Jeremy to notice Michael until the last moment and it’s a clusterfuck, really.

Jeremy with his own little flesh-wound from one of the Vagabond’s knives and Michael freaked out at the close call. (At Jeremy going all quiet and locked down from it, and Michael was too worried to push because he’s never seen Jeremy like that in all the time he’s known him.)

Their boss is not pleased when they tell him what happened, because by the time they got there everyone else was dead or managed to escape and it was just the Vagabond waiting for them, and the clusterfuck that followed.

They get yelled at, because of course, and go home to lick their wounds in private and wait for their boss to call them for the next job.

Michael’s worried because Jeremy’s acting weird okay, even for him. Doesn’t say a damn thing until Michael’s patching him up and then it’s.

Fuck, it’s Jeremy’s Tragic Backstory, isn’t it.

This whole mess of a story of a government agency Michael's never heard of and a partner (that whole bit about Jeremy and his regrets) Michael’s pretty sure Jeremy was involved with or wanted to be, and this suicide mission they were sent on to cover up their agency’s dirty little secrets.

One that got Jeremy’s partner killed and damn near killed Jeremy, had him faking his death and hiding out in Los Santos and eventually meeting up with Michael and the whole downhill ride from there. (Because really, okay, really.)

Jeremy just. Telling Michael everything about his past this this weirdo partner of his he definitely loved even if they never Talked About It and Michael having the worst feeling why -

“And, uh,” Jeremy says, worst kind of smile on his face as he stares down at the floor, drops of his own blood while Michael was patching him up, “I’m pretty sure he just tried to kill me.”

Awkward laugh as he looks up at Michael. “Us, I mean,” because the Vagabond took a swipe at Michael before he ran, tossed a throwing knife his way although thankfully it missed.

And Michael, okay.

Just.

“Great,” Michael says, because what else can he say? “That’s awesome.”

Anyway, anyway.

They try to carry on best they can after that, go through the motions when it comes to their boss although now they’re less worried about what he might do and more interested in why the Vagabond’s going after him so fucking hard.

Do a little digging – Jeremy knows a hacker in Matt, and Michael knows a guy who knows almost everything there is to know in the city in Alfredo – and then they make the worst goddamned choices ever.

Go looking for the Vagabond and whoever he’s working for and it ends up with them having these altercations where the bastard thinks they’re trying to kill him.

Clearly working for the bastard he’s going after for whatever reason, and the fact they’re looking for him means they want him dead and it’s just. Worst Scooby Doo shenanigans ever.

Results in more close calls and flesh-wounds and Jeremy getting all worked up because okay, yeah, that is definitely that asshole Ryan and goddammit, he just wants to talk, so fucking stop shooting at him!!! (Also, quiet mopey Jeremy with Michael off to the side wondering why the hell his life is the way it is.)

One night Jeremy takes off to find Ryan without telling Michael, so of course it goes horribly wrong, you know?

Michael and Jeremy’s boss being suspicious of the two of them not putting their hearts into working for him and putting a tail on them, and anyway.

Jeremy finds Ryan and actually gets to talk to him without the two of them shooting at one another or getting involved in another stupidly awesome knife fight. (Like, hardcore awesome because Ryan helped train Jeremy in knife fighting back in their agency days so it’s all that training Ryan gave him plus whatever Jeremy’s picked up on his own since and the two of them being almost evenly matched, but I digress.)

And, okay. Some of that did happen, but Jeremy managed to talk to Ryan, get him to listen and just when he was making some headway into getting Ryan to believe that Jeremy and Michael don’t want to kill him their boss and his flunkies show up and drag the two of them off to “have a discussion”.

Michael is like, goddammit, when he realizes Jeremy ran off because he knows where he has to have gone, even if he doesn’t know where. Is about to call Alfredo or even Matt for help when he gets a text.

Unknown number and suspicious as hell. Just an address and something about knowing where Jeremy and Ryan are, but he doesn’t have a lot of choices.

Goes to the address and it’s definitely a trap. Shitty apartment in a rundown building and the kind of place people disappear all the time, and that’s when he hears footsteps behind him and a gun being cocked and turns to see that little bastard Gavin, of all people.

Looks a hell of lot different from the last time they saw one another. Older, thinner (not in a good way) and exhausted as hell.

Holds the gun in his hands like he knows how to use it, and this edge to his smile Michael doesn’t remember seeing before.

It sucks, it does, because what's happened since they last saw one another can’t have been good to have Gavin looking at him the way he is. Like he’s not sure he can trust Michael, even though there was a time Michael knew he did. (The way he trusted Gavin.)

Still.

Jeremy and Ryan and all that.

(And that’s a hell of a shock, realizing Gavin was Ryan’s partner in all this...whatever the two of them have been doing. The sniper who killed that asshole in La Mesa while the Vagabond dealt with a weapons deal in Blaine County and so many other things. Shit Michael never thought about Gavin doing, even though some part of him knew with the shit Gavin used to say.)

This uneasy truce until they get Jeremy and Ryan back (and not wanting to think about what happens then, because talk about confusing and mess as hell) and just.

Work together to figure out what happened. Go to Alfredo and Matt and piece shit together and then cobble together some incredibly risky, half-assed plan to get their idiots back.

(Because Gavin talks about Ryan the way Michael does about Jeremy and oh, man, that’s another kick to the chest because way back when there was a part of Michael that wanted to have Plans involving Gavin, if they ever got lucky enough to be in a position they could have plans, you know? But anyway, focus on the now and Jeremy and Ryan and deal with everything else later.)

Shenanigans and terrible plans that almost get them killed, so it’s a relief when Jeremy and Ryan meet them halfway through them after escaping from whatever locked room they were being held in. More shenanigans in all of them escaping and leaving the building to burn to the ground behind them and then, like.

Talking.

But also patching one another up, and Ryan watching the way Michael’s careful with Jeremy and vice versa. Michael watching Gavin fussing over Ryan and seeing the look on Jeremy’s face and oh, Jesus Christ, this is definitely nothing Michael ever expected in his life because fucking Christ, what even is this?

Ryan and Gavin telling him and Jeremy how they happened to meet up in Los Santos a few years back. Gavin having wandered over after a series of events he glosses over in the most infuriating way (and Michael being weirdly, exasperatedly fond about it) and oh, hey, that’s a creepy bastard in a cheap mask,  is it?

Ryan thinking Jeremy was killed on the suicide mission their agency sent them on and faking his own death and just. A lot of shit involving conspiracy theories and the whatnot that resulted in the Vagabond coming about because mission of vengeance and the like.

Ryan coming to Los Santos because the last people behind the conspiracy were here, and meeting Gavin and the two of them teaming up because why not. (Mostly Gavin not leaving Ryan the fuck alone, and maybe needing something to focus on himself, and he liked Ryan, didn’t he.)

And then, just.

Shenanigans.

The two of them working together, no one knowing about Gavin because Ryan was the focus, wasn’t he? Wanted people paying attention to him – especially the ones he was hunting – and it was better (safer) for Gavin to stay in the shadows.

And then the whole clusterfuck with Michael and Jeremy and everything that happened afterward until this most recent bullshit and just.

Where to go now that Jeremy and Ryan know the other’s alive (And wow, that’s going to be a lot of Talking and Conversations in the future for them, assuming they survive to have them.)

Also Michael and Gavin and their whatever is going on there. (More of this Talking and Conversations, one assumes.)

Ryan trying to get Jeremy and Michael to leave town, leave everything to him and Gavin, as if that would actually happen and Michael watching Jeremy tear the Vagabond a new one. (Gavin trying and failing not to laugh, because Ryan really is an idiot.)

Michael shrugging when Ryan asks him what he thinks because fuck if he knows, you know? But it’s obvious to him Jeremy’s not going to let Ryan and Gavin tackle this mess on their own anymore, and he’s kind of invested in Jeremy not being dead, so.

Yeah.

The four of them working together to bring this asshole (and the others Ryan and Gavin have been targeting) down, and all these Feelings springing up as they do.

Those quiet nights spent staring at whatever plans they’re working on. Other sleepless nights where Michael finds Ryan brooding or Gavin working on something on his computer. Jeremy working the heavy bag – because of course there’s one set up wherever Ryan and Gavin are working out of – and Ryan wandering down to watch him.

Wistful glances and all that good stuff. Lingering touches and so on. Patching one another up after a fight or going after another target.

Michael picking up on Ryan’s restlessness and goading him into a fight – sorry, sparring match – even though he knows he’s outmatched.

(Jeremy got hurt earlier and Gavin took him to a discreet doctor they know and it’s the two of them in whatever base Ryan and Gavin are using and it’s a mercy, what Michael’s doing even though he knows he’s going to get his ass handed to him.

And, sure. It looks that way at first, but eventually Ryan gets his head out of his ass and realizes what Michael’s doing/did, and it goes from being this potentially dangerously idiotic thing Michael instigated to. Like. Something almost fun?

Ryan teaching him some hand-to-hand moves he learned in his agency days, and Michael managing to throw/pin him just as Jeremy and Gavin get back and it’s awkward as hell because wow, compromising position they’re in?

But it just gets a thoughtful look from Jeremy and Gavin – the two of them sharing a look before smirking and laughing at Michael and Ryan and just what the fuck is that about, huh? - and other such things.

Final battle/whatever with the baddies and close calls and all that and the four of them being all ??? about what to do now that things have been settled?Because look.

Feelings and emotionally constipated assholes, right?

Someone proposes that it wouldn’t hurt if they continued working together – the Vagabond’s reputation and ones Michael and Jeremy have earned for themselves. Gavin working from the shadows, watching their backs and looking out for them and they really do make a hell of a team.

Picking up jobs/heists that Alfredo and Matt toss their way, and the slow realization that oh shit, they’re hot they face on a near daily basis because Feelings and lack of jealousy and general appreciation for the other three being unfairly attractive assholes until they get their shit together.

Because reasons.

ALSO.

ALL the cats, because Gavin and Jeremy and the stray population in Los Santos. (Also a pupper or two,  because Michael and Ryan and the stray population in Los Santos.)

At some point Geoff and Jack happen along, and when the Fake AH Crew becomes a thing they need a hacker and some asshole who knows almost everything that happens in Los Santos and just.

It turns into a mess, is the thing, a horrible, horrible mess. (The worst.)