#and also nikita is here I GUESS.

[rugwurm]

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[calsrottencorpse]

would I hug, kiss on the cheek, kiss on the lips, or get 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝔂 with criminals

got bored..👅

Eric Harris

Ok.. realistically, I dont think he'd like me in the first place, but most people on here likely wouldn't either, but, if we ignore that, I'd give him a peck on the cheek, hes a cutie imo

Dylan Klebold

..even with all things considered, id still kiss him on the lips. Even if yes, hes got a foot fetish, and also a bondage enjoyer, but I could care less about both, shrug. I also think he's pretty cute

Leighton Allen Labute (DollyFlesh)

Believe it or not, I had no idea he was a criminal, at first I just thought he was another bobby lemon situation (funnily enough, they're both Canadian), but I looked him up and found out he was arrested for two accounts of murder and abuse (of animals). But anyways, what would I do? Nothing, at most maybe a hug.. but in all honesty I don't think I want to hug him, he's also not a looker, but i think thats because of his hair, it looks like a wig, specifically kinda like those wigs that George Washington and whoever wore but black

Elliot Rodgers

He's cute, but I think he'd be insufferable, I don't know much about him, or his case, but from what I know, I really don't think I could deal with him, then again, I have known people who are likely worse, and I honestly have a high tolerance (in my opinion at least) but im getting off topic. I would at least kiss him on the cheek.. but I don't think he'd let me anyway...

Adam Lanza

He freaks me out, he always looks shell-shocked, or like he just saw the worst thing imaginable. But he's not bad looking. But I'd probably only hug him..

Andrew Blaze

I feel like out of all of these people, she'd be the only one I'd get along with, even if just a little bit. Mainly because we share similar interests, but she also just seems like she'd be the only one who I wouldn't feel like I would get murdered, doxxed or threatened every day if i stopped being friends with them. Kiss on the lips, or perhaps freaky tiem👅👅

Ted Bundy

no.

Pekka-eric Auvinen

As much as I love him and his case, I don't think I'd get freaky, hell, I probably wouldn't kiss him on the lips, even if i want to, he intimidates me lowkey. At most a hug, or if I feel braver, kiss on the cheek

Artyom Anoufriev

i know just about jack shit about him and Nikita, so forgive me for not saying much, but I think id just give him a hug

Nikita Lytkin

Don't know much about him like I said earlier. Maybe a side hug, I feel like he spells horrible, I would probably try not to breathe though my nose around him

Jeffery Dahmer

I can't help but think of my half-brother who is also named Jeffrey, and gay. Maybe I'll give a hug .. he intimidates me, but he also seems chill

Brandon Hole

Only giving him a hug, funky looking dude, his head looks like an upside down pear that's starting to bruise. Probably smells. We share a few similar interests, I guess

Dylann Roof

I know a dude or two at my school who look like him and are completely insufferable. Don't know much about his case to be honest, but i think I'd give him a kiss on the cheek, he kinda cute.. kinda

Thomas Matthew Crooks

Oh.. it's freaky time for sure vro👅👅 (thats mostly a joke)

These are all the people I can think of currently👅

Extras!!

Cal

Hm... if this was earlier on when I first joined the tcc, I'd say freaky time, but I think i'll just give him a kiss on the cheek

Andre

That one scene where he gets on his knees with the shotgun in-between his legs while he conceals it... ughdjsj I converted from Cal to Andre.. I love Andre.. I don't think i have to say my answer atp

Alex (Elephant)

I didn't really get much from elephant when I watched it, I was very confused, started to understand and got confused again. But this is about Alex, not the movie he's in. He's good looking for sure, but I think I'll just kiss him on the cheek

Eric (Elephant)

hmmm..also kiss on the cheek

Dylan and Eric in Zero Hour

Sorta random but when I was trying to find the actors names, on the IMB page it says that Eric and Dylan themselves played as themselves😭😭🙏 like ah yes, they brought them back to life just to film this!! Anyways, they're both fine, though still probably just gonna kiss them on the cheek / lips

[justlikeeddie]

all of layton and nikita's strictly dances ranked CORRECTLY by ME

14. Samba, Week 1

unfair to have to rank this one really because nobody really knows what they’re doing in week 1. FASCINATING to go back and watch this though. obvs this is strong in the context of a first week dance! but knowing where they’re going to go from here… this is the one and only time you can see that nikita is dancing layton through the steps and keeping him afloat. they’re not yet a PARTNERSHIP here. they don’t KNOW each other!!! anyway good luck to these boys with navigating what they are going to experience over the next three months <3

13. American Smooth, Week 10

the infamous bottom-two dance. a result which i believe was undeserved!!! but the american smooth IS the most boring category on strictly unfortunately, so it’s a humble placing for this one. i did not love their outfits, for once! why don’t they go together. why does nikita look like peter pan. however, obviously i liked it when they both picked each other up and did a little skip in the air. also enjoyed how much craig enjoyed being bammed up by the ending.

12. Rumba, Week 12

controversial to place this so low in the ranking perhaps?? obviously this was a complex routine that they performed beautifully AND was very tender and intimate. but the rumba is the second most boring dance on strictly after the american smooth i’m afraid I’M SORRY. however, points awarded for nikita saying afterwards that dancing this felt like the rest of the world fell away and they were the only two people in existence. girl what

11. Salsa, Week 5

a great dance! fun! good vibes! their first lift! followed by a bit that i like where nikita has to sort of kick layton upright again. loses points ONLY for being perhaps their least homoerotic dance, which one of them, i guess, has to be.

10. Tango, Week 6

all the ingredients for greatness are here. TANGO. HALLOWEEN. layton is in high goth drag. nikita looks a bit like paul gross as geoffrey tennant as hamlet in the flashback sections of slings and arrows s1. but weirdly i don’t think this dance quite lives up to the level of drama i expected from it. having just rewatched it i think it’s because they’re ACTING like it’s a MELODRAMA, and it FEELS like they’re acting, as opposed to the way they usually totally inhabit the narrative of a dance. however. the switch from this vibe into the denouement - the BACKFLIP (fuck!!!) - and then the breathy, drawn-out final moment, which they suddenly ARE inhabiting, braced over each other and staring into each other’s eyes like they are ON GOD going to fuck in the middle of the dancefloor, is astonishing. once again i am asking the bbc if this is what they thought they were going to air

9. Cha-cha-cha, Week 4

okay. we are entering the section of the list where everything from here on down pretty much makes me feral. layton is everything in that jumpsuit. the THROW into the SPLITS. the raw sexual dynamism somehow contained within nikita taking layton’s coat for him. unbearable.

8. Charleston, Week 12

off the charts crazy. how can people move like this. they CARTWHEELED across the STAGE for what felt like YEARS. points only deducted for the fact that when nikita cried in the interview afterwards because he loved layton so much he had to do it in this extremely silly outfit.

7. Quickstep, Week 2

they danced the equivalent of a gay leyendecker illustration in week 2. IN WEEK 2 THEY DID THIS. they’re having so much FUN here. and to follow up on the week 1 ranking, the transformation from them feeling like a professional and a celeb to two people actually dancing together happens SO fast. it’s only a week later, but already something’s changed; layton’s totally at home in the routine and nikita’s REALLY enjoying it. it’s just so nice and i love them so much :’) also the quickstep is one of my favourite strictly dances because it’s inherently funny watching grown adults run full-pelt around a room and occasionally do a little skip. perfect 90 seconds of television.

6. Viennese Waltz, Week 3

ok so this is actually one of their lowest scoring dances on the show. but NOT according to my ranking. this ought to feel as faux-dramatic as the vampire tango but it doesn’t. something is HAPPENING between them in this dance and it’s real. i could write paragraphs about the eternities contained within the long, long seconds of them holding each other after it’s over, which goes on for long enough that the editor just has to like. give up and cut away from them. i’ve been linking to the bbc’s youtube clips throughout this post, but if you have access to iplayer i strongly recommend you watch this dance as aired (i have linked to the timestamp for your convenience) in order to see the full effect of this ending. there’s something about the combination of… the sincerity of the dance. the gender of it all. the refusal to break character. nikita’s slightly baffled-looking parents in the audience lending whatever the fuck is going on here a bizarre frisson. i’m completely obsessed with it

5. Jive, Week 7

the first thirty seconds of this dance genuinely make me feel like i’m coming up. overwhelming transition from the sexy sexy opening section (why are they dressed as little sailor boys? why are they touching like that?) into the supercharged beat of the side-by-side. people pay good money to feel like this. as has been pointed out, the jive is not a traditionally racy dance, and my question to nikita as choreographer is: why

4. Showdance, Week 13

cunt. cunt. cunt. cunt. the absolute fucking serve of the matching slutty magician elbow-length gloves. nikita dropping his hat while layton executes everything perfectly. obviously in the finale, homophobia won <3 but my god. they ATE. no notes.

3. Paso Doble, Week 11

i have said this before. but dancing to BACKSTAGE ROMANCE. in a show where i (facetiously) believe they may be experiencing a BACKSTAGE ROMANCE. seems illegal. anyway. this dance is insane. almost worth them being in the bottom two in week 10 in order for them to produce the unbridled energy of this comeback. as a category the paso doble has similarly melodramatic energy to the tango, but this performance is so unlike the slightly campy vampire number; they’re IN it, they’re living and feeling and breathing every moment. something about the mood of this dance, the power dynamics of it, nikita on the floor looking up at layton in awe as he emerges at his absolute fucking fiercest - happening in THIS week, rising above the stress of relegation and the overwhelming tide of online hate, is, like, pretty incredible, tbh. also the series of searingly erotic snapshot poses at the beginning of this routine are among the worst things i have been subjected to on this show, and as you may be gathering from this list, this is a crowded category.

2. Argentine Tango, Week 8

god it was a TOUGH GODDAMN CALL on these top two places. and tbh i think this is actually, truly, their best dance. the sheer SKILL here… whatever the move is where layton has to jump in the air and kick his little leggies around… stunning. i don’t really have a comical paragraph to write about this because i genuinely think it’s an incredible piece of dance and there’s not much more to add to that. however, extra points for the truly unhinged decision to do some dom nikita roleplay at the end? again, please watch this one on iplayer to experience the full unedited effect.

1. Couple’s Choice, Week 9

as i say. probably, technically, the argentine tango is better. but if i think about any element of this routine, i immediately black out. i cannot stress enough that he is standing on his back. he is STANDING. on his BACK. nikita choreographed this dance and he was like. i want you to stand on my back. PLEASE don’t worry about it. watching this routine is like looking into the sun. if i saw two men doing this in the club i would have to politely turn away to respect their privacy. also sorry to do this for a final time but i also need you to watch this one on iplayer because nikita stays on that pole at the end for so much longer than you are expecting and then does something sooooo unnecessary. this dance should be expunged from the internet so that i never have to contemplate it again.

[not-that-syndrigast]

The Haas and Uralkali situation explained

Some of you might’ve heard of it, those that didn’t should now. In the course of this race weekend, news came out that equipment and the cars of the Haas F1 team could be seized, as they owe their former sponsor Uralkali money, and as long as they don’t repay that money, their assets, in this case cars and equipment could be seized. All of this could lead to them missing the Italian Grand Prix, if not more, but what exactly happened and what will Haas do now? I’ll try to answer these questions and give my opinion on the situation, but i’ll preface all of this by saying that I am not legally involved in any of this, which means I can also only give you public knowledge and while i tried my hardest to research all the facts, it’s impossible to be sure that everything is correct, but more to that later.

Back to the problem; where did all of this start?

Uralkali ‘is a Russian potash fertilizer producer and exporter’ as stated on Wikipedia. It’s a pretty big company with a lot of assets, in 2018, they had assets worth roughly $8 billion. With these big numbers in mind, Uralkali became a sponsor of Haas in 2021. I’ll make a separate post about  sponsors, but important to know for this is that sponsors hold contracts with the teams. They give the teams money that's needed and in return, depending on how much they gave, they get things back from the team. As you’ve probably guessed, Uralkali gave quite a big sum of money to Haas, they became title sponsor, so for 2021, Haas was officially called ‘Uralkali Haas F1 team’, their cars livery was in the russian flag and they signed Nikita Mazepin, son of Dmitry Mazepin who’s one of the most influential Uralkali shareholders. It’s not quite clear how much money Haas got, but multiple sources talk about roughly $12 million, which makes sense if you take all factors into account.

From the money Haas made, they bought equipment and parts for the cars, so as far as sources state, all the money they initially got has been used up.

In 2022, following Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, many business people and oligarchs were sanctioned. I could not find clear statements of Uralkali itself being sanctioned too, but considering that most of the owners and shareholders are, I would assume that that puts the company also under certain sanctions. The important part here is that both Nikita and Dmitry Mazepin have been put under sanctions. These sanctions consist of asset freezes and travel bans, which resulted in Nikita Mazepins contract and the sponsoring contract being terminated by the team. 

Now this is where the problem starts; by contract, there's usually a clause that does not allow one party of the deal to just withdraw, at least not without paying their shares back. Due to the sanctions, though, it was not possible for Haas to pay the money that they owed back.

According to multiple sources, there was an arbitration court hearing in June in Switzerland, in which the court ruled that Haas needs to pay back the money that they owe Uralkali. Again, different sources talk about different amounts of money, since the ruling was kept private, but Uralkali states that by contract, they are also owed "a team race car from the 2021 season”. It’s difficult to rule out what really happened as different sources state different things, but they all have in common that Haas did not meet the required time to pay back whatever they owe, may that be because of the sanctions or because they lack the money, the important point is, Uralkali proceeded with a bid to get their court ruled money in assets. This race weekend, Haas has been apparently visited by bailiffs to evaluate what assets are of what value that could then be owed to Uralkali.

All of this is pretty irrelevant to the dutch grand prix, as it has been made sure that the valuation and official proceedings do not happen during the day and Haas has been ensured that this race weekend would continue, this could change though for the italian grand prix. If bailiffs decide which assets are worth the amount they owe Uralkali, these could be kept in the Netherlands until Haas pays or be taken as substitute for the money, although I am not sure where the legalities would lie there with what Uralkali is allowed to do with the assets then. 

The big problem for Haas right now, is paying. It's unclear if Haas has the money to pay it back, if they do it would obviously be a big setback because we are talking about millions of dollars here, but there is another problem; due to the sanctions, Haas states, the process of paying is difficult; “Haas has been working with its lawyers to ensure payment will comply with all relevant US, EU, UK and Swiss sanctions and regulations.” Uralkali states that this is not a good reasoning, but politics are difficult to follow, so even with extensive research I cannot guarantee you that paying is even a possibility without breaking sanctions by certain countries. For Haas the problem stays; they need to pay before Monday, or their assets will not be allowed to leave the Netherlands.

Due to this, rumors have surfaced, saying that this could be the end of Haas. Even if they pay the money and can compete in Italy, a lot of people expect it to be the final hit for Haas and possibly result in the team leaving or being bought up by Andretti, an American company that has tried to get into F1 for a while now. As of now, i cannot answer these rumors based on proof, but i can share my thoughts; leaving the sport completely is not as easy as it seems, there are contracts and rules, depending on the contracts, just leaving could cost Haas even more. Although selling the team would bypass these rules, selling a team takes time. Andretti could benefit from Haas being cheaper to buy than it would usually be, if the owners want to leave they’ll want to do it fast and for a team like Haas, you really cannot ask for much. In the end I do think though, that the rumors are unwarranted. If Haas gets sold, it's because they got a good offer, not because they suddenly want to leave when things get hard, especially since things were never easy at Haas to begin with.

I hope I explained and summarized the whole situation properly. As always, I'm open to explain my thoughts further and for comments and what you guys think of the situation and in this case rumors.

[daydreaming-en-pointe]

Meet my OC Spider-Weaver (Spider-Woman, Earth 50513)

For the next few paras I’m gonna rant abt my spidersona :D this might not make any sense at all bc I’m just rambling at this point but here we go anyway! (a small warning, this is going to be a LONG post)

All images are from Pinterest!

TW: Mentions of death, some queerphobia/homophobia (judgemental aunties suck)

Name: Nikita Raina (pronounced Rhi-na like rhino but with an ‘a’ at the end instead of an ‘o’) (yes she’s South-Indian and yes this is me projecting)

Alias: Spider-Weaver*

Basic stuff to know:

-She’s loosely based off of a golden silk orb-weaver spider! I’m not going to attach an image but if you don’t mind staring at spiders then I suggest you look them up, they’re actually really pretty!!

-She’s been learning ballet since she was 3, picked up gymnastics for 2 or 3 years and then quit

-South-Indian

-Complete empath

-INCREDIBLE at knitting/crocheting/macramé knotting - basically anything involving thread + working with your hands. She literally works magic with yarn. She crocheted matching gloves for all of the Spiderteens one day after finding out that Hobie’s universe is COLD and his fingers are COLD and if she’s going to be holding his hand when it’s like that then she’ll freeze

Fighting Style:

Her fighting style is more aerobic and dynamic than the regular Spider-Man swings; she incorporates jetés and leaps from ballet into it while also using mid-air somersaults and other high-speed flips she picked up from gymnastics. She also teaches herself kalari adimurai (a South-Indian martial art similar to kalaripayittu) later on so she uses a few moves from that as well.

*The reason behind her alias being Spider-Weaver is that her web style has more of a lacy crochet feel to it than a regular spiderweb. This is what one of her webs would look like:

Her webs are bionic and on her web shooters she has built-in settings for the thickness and stretchiness of the crochet web. For example:

She can also switch up the style of her webs depending on how she feels yk? Like if she’s not vibing with any of the more plain ones she can switch to ✨ fancier ✨ stitches like

Arcade Stitch:

Lacy Stitches:

Fan Trellis Stitch:

And lots more. She’s basically got almost all crochet stitches as different settings on her web shooters. An added bonus is that they’re not only unique and quite pretty, but they’re also stronger and more durable than the average single-thread (unwoven) webs.

Backstory:

(canon events will be in red)

-She was bitten at 13. Her older brother (he’s 20, they have a 7 year gap) Ravi figured out something was wrong fairly early but she played it off as nothing, put his worries to rest and found her way as Spider-Woman on her own

-She was best friends with her universe’s Gwen Stacy since they were in kindergarten. She started freaking out few years into their friendship (they’re in middle school now) once they had become basically inseparable because she started feeling giddy and bubbly and getting butterflies around Gwen.

-Poor girl was basically terrified because her aunties (mostly her mother’s sisters) would constantly pressurise her by asking her if she had her sights set on a boy yet or discussing how her marriage to a boy would go once she was older - those prodding conversations and speculations only reinforced her fears that she wouldn’t be accepted and instead would be frowned upon if she told her family that she had a crush on a girl. So she became more withdrawn and distanced herself a little, so as to not to lose the favour of her family.

-Nikita is 14 at this point

-One day she accidentally told Ravi and she went quiet, expecting him to shame her or mock her but instead he just hugged her and told her he loved her no matter what, and guess what,, he’s queer (pan) too :D

-Fast forward to a few weeks later after an almost-death scare as Spider-Woman fighting her dimension’s Vulture (she slipped up, miscalculated a leap and almost got herself killed) she finally worked up the courage to tell Gwen because it seems like she returns her feelings too! So she goes up to her and they hug and they’re talking and she’s about to confess- But noooo

-Green Goblin attacks in the middle of the school day, during a student art & drama exhibition thing (the parents are all there) and hahaha guess what Gwen’s right in the middle of it

-So Green Goblin basically splits the school building in two and she’s on the terrace and she falls down almost 15 feet because the whole thing’s cracked and Nikita doesn’t have enough time to swing to reach her since there are so many people and she’s on the far, far side and-

-Gwen hits the ground at full force. Niki gets there just in time for her last breath and it’s a little bit like the Gwen-Peter 65 scene from ATSV (Niki’s Gwen slowly figured out that she’s Spider-Woman, she just didn’t say anything) yeah I might write out this scene sometime idk

-She manages to deal with Green Goblin for the moment but she loses her dad in the chaos too (basically instead of losing her uncle she lost her dad)

-So she lost her best friend and her father in one go

-She closes herself off and withdraws completely into herself and distances herself from everybody (except Ravi),, & starts going to ballet more to take her mind off things and to get lost in ballet, with the graceful, controlled movements so she doesn’t have to think of how everything’s gone wrong

-During the mourning period she and Ravi grow closer; they both start leaning more on each other and are able to tell each other anything

-Ravi has also started training to be a cop at this point

-Her relationship with her mother grows slightly strained and shaky the older she gets, because of how closed off she’s become

-Fast forward to when Nikita is 16 and a half and the Vulture attacks particularly viciously one day, right on the bridge (the Brooklyn Bridge variant in her universe)

-Her brother (who is now a police captain, despite being a little young) is in the middle of the maelstrom of cars being flung and buildings at the end collapsing. He - a police captain close to Spider-Woman - dies saving a child from falling rubble.

-That does a number on Nikita mentally and she just. Shuts herself down in terms of feeling emotion for a bit

-Like she just goes numb, like she’s in denial about how many people she’s lost in such a short time

-Terrified to make friends or get attached because her losing someone she cares about deeply seems to be a recurring pattern

-The only one she has left is her mom, and she’s grown really distant from her

-Little bit irrelevant but she takes up psychology. She studies how the emotional part of brain works, studies some basic therapy and other think-y stuff like that, and some of her Spider-Woman ‘jabs’ (not really but I can’t think of a word for them rn) are things like “did something formative happen to you as a child? yeah I thought I sensed some childhood trauma, would you like to talk about it?” And stuff like that (she’s pretty genuine about it too, if they start talking instead of just attacking her then she will sit down with a mug of chai and just listen to them rant)

-Anyway fast forward to a year and a half later when she’s 18

-Jessica Drew ends up following an anomaly she’s been tracking into Nikita’s dimension, the anomaly manages to get the upper hand on her and has almost overpowered her when Nikita finally swings in (probably during/right after a psychology exam too) and uses the element of surprise + her speed to get the upper hand on the anomaly and web it up

-She was recruited into the Spider-Society by Jess after she saw how capable and quick-thinking Niki could be. She saw her as someone who could be a useful asset to the society.

-It’s there where she met Hobie, Gwen, Pavitr, Margo, Miguel and Peter B. + a few other spiders she became friends with (I’ll expand on their relationships in a different post)

Suit design:

(I will be drawing this out properly sometime soon, don’t worry!! Feel free to skip this part if you think it’s too complicated ^^ I really have no idea how to describe it in a simpler way lmao)

-mainly shades of gold, black highlights

-on her arms there are black “cuff” markings like a golden silk spider’s legs

-on her wrists she has black bangles (more like cuffs bc they fit around her wrists, they aren’t loose & dangly)

-wears black fingerless sleeves, they look a little bit like Gwen’s but they have black splotches (a little bit like spray paint blobs) instead of spiderwebs

-has a black spider on the front of the suit

-wears a necklace! it’s colourful and has some mismatched colourful beads on a chord and two pendants in the centre, one pendant is a paint-splashed red electric guitar, the other pendant is one of Hobie’s rings

-wears black ballet pointe shoes

-the eye outline is black, the ‘eye’ inside is pastel golden

-black 🕸️ patterns on the side of both of her shoulders (like painted pauldrons)

Abilities:

-Along with the super-strength, super-speed and accelerated healing of the average Spider-Person, she can sense emotions and thoughts.

Not mind-reading exactly but if she focuses hard enough she can sense whatever emotion is radiating out of that particular person’s mind (she used to get very overwhelmed in middle school bc of the sheer amount of envy and insecurity and other emotions in raging hormonal teenagers’ brains and somehow studying psychology helped her figure out how to tune it out a little bit, since every time she can sense too much of intense emotions it’s like constantly blowing a dog whistle around a dog,, and she also gets horrible migraines and headaches from it)

She can even read thoughts if the emotion associated with it is strong enough.

An added ability that stems from being able to sense emotions and thoughts (to some degree) is that she can sometimes predict the moves that an enemy might make before they actually make them. It’s not 100% accurate every time but it’s still pretty useful

I’ll write out her relationships (everyone already knows that Hobie’s no. 1 on that list lmao) and the world descriptions later, but for now here’s the character that’s been living in my head since I saw ATSV :D

Oh also she’s besties with @hobiebrownismygod ’s sona Maitreyi :D desis gotta stick together yk (putting this here so I don’t forget to mention it in the relationships post ^^)

[universal-casey]

Hello again. I want to apologise to have bothered you from my previous asks again, and I hope you’re doing well. The $wap AU and Sovime AU have been a joy to read about. I also have to say your design choices for each give them such a distinctive difference, that I would love to know your inspirations.

(Also I’m sorry saying the wrong height in one of my asks. I didn’t mean that Soviet was 2ft but 2 meters. Even though 3 meters would be more correct…? I don’t know much. But I’m sorry for making that small mistake.)

—

(Explanation with sources:)

As you may know. Norway is the country that gives the Nobel Peace Prize. (To Swedens dismay or happiness.) And it’s quite a big deal.

And well, at the end of the Cold War. Someone got it. Someone quite important.

You might know them as President Mikhaïl Gorbatchev. The last leader of the Soviet Union. Why did he get it? Well, it was because he ended the Cold War. Or as the Nobel Peace Prize committee themselves stated:

“Prize motivation: “for the leading role he played in the radical changes in East-West relations””

“In 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, and the Cold War between East and West was brought to a halt. In 1990, the Nobel Committee gave President Gorbachev the main credit for this by awarding him the Peace Prize.”

Here is a video of when he came to Norway lol.

—

I have read your AU, and while I obviously know you took liberties in certain aspects of history. And that this is Countryhumans. I can’t help but ask you. Even if Norway, if I am correct, got *invaded* because of the small but important river up on their border. (Seriously though, Pasvik river???? That’s what got the final straw??? Not the U-2 spy plane crash, (which caused Nikita Khrushchev to threaten Norway, with what you have probably guessed, A-Bombing all *airports* in the country.) Not the disagreements of WW2. Not even Leon Trotsky (which was threatened out of Norway) NOT even Svalbard was the cause… but the river????? The measly river…? It’s just too hilarious. And Soviet made Norway the nuclear power house??? That one??? The one that put Germans after WW2 in cages and threw rocks and tomatoes at them… (Depending on where you were at the time.) That’s the country he gives nuclear power plants too??? The one he actually liberated once (WW2 the Liberation of Finnmark.)????? No wonder then, that he would have gotten paranoid in 1995, when Norwegian scientists released a rocket to take samples up in the stratosphere… and everyone thought it was a missile. Sorry, it’s just too funny. I couldn’t help but ramble.)

I just want to say I respect what you’re doing. This is in no way to offend you. I couldn’t care less of what you make of Norway. After all, he is just an unimportant side character. (Idk.) And while I love my country, I know we are unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

However, I must know. (Since I assume Soviet is the one who would have gotten the Peace Prize in your AU. With them being the leaders or something.)

What did he do with it lol?? Please, I beg you. I must know what he did with it. (Unless Norway got *invaded* before that. Then poop.) It is a necessity for my being to know. Like, what happened to it lol. Go crazy with it. I just must know. Please 🙏 You don’t have to tell me what Norway thinks. I can probably guess. But I need to know that medals lore in your AU.

Well, neither Soviet, nor the human leaders in the Soviet Union, ever got a Nobel peace prize for ending the Cold War, since it is still ongoing into the 2020s thanks to the takeover of America!

Norway was taken over because of the nuclear power, not in spite of it. Not sure where the river idea came from lol.

I’m sorry for not answering your asks sooner!! It’s just they require a lot of research and I haven’t been in the mood to do extensive research as of late lol

[prerodinu]

New Muses: The Bunnies

The Bunnies are one organism. They are one whole entity made up of several components.

The Bunnies were created by a witch (her lore is here when I make it) who was created as a manifestation of friends for her for a time. Little bunnies she had found and then changed into humans by a process that only she knows. That only she can do.

The Bunnies changed with time as she grew. Sometimes the Bunnies would freak out and other times they would be too docile for her. Sometimes The Bunnies would be her lovers, while she couldn't get the downstairs to work, she was trying to figure that out.

Until she came across a witch beating her familiar. Something she deemed punishable by not only death but a very very slow one.

Thus this current Managiarie of The Bunnies was born.

These Bunnies changed from the animals that she took from witches who abused them and changed them. Changed them into men.

Fully functional men.

Which was the difference between The Bunnies before and the Bunnies now.

For her transformation process, the witch picked out different literature that best matched them. This was also designed to make sure that anyone who came upon them, female or male, would want them. Would desire their sweet words or their surly attitudes.

The Bunnies themselves have different supernatural features, designed to be alluring like vampires are to drag you closer to them. And when you do get closer to them, they morph into your every desire. Every want.

The Bunnies although loved by the with (who is named Bunny) she never actually gave them names. She didn't feel it was right to do so. Especially since so many people could come upon them and the desired name for said Bunnies might differ from person to person.

So when you ask your Bunnies their name. They will ask YOU what you think their name is. They will make you guess so many names until your eyes dilate and you find one that brings you lust, joy, or pleasure and that is the one that they pick.

Each Bunnie has a different personality, each made with a different piece of literature that makes up their core, their middle, and their outside.

Their core is the spark that brought them to life. Their middle is the deeper things, not surface level but slightly more into them. Their outside is the surface level. The things they seem like but change when you get to know them more.

The Bunnies are as follows.

Made from: A Miniature Lop Bunny.

Core: A poem called 56 by Dawn Lanuza (find it here) Middle: A poem by Louise Kaufmann ( find it here) Outside: Pieces of him scattered across every gym you have ever seen a himbo at heart a dazed expression on his face whenever he sees you. The Mark: Their eyes. Both of them are a milky blue-green swirl, often you won't see them and it's covered by their hair.

Made from: A Carrion Crow

Core: A poem by Edgar Allen Poe (find it here) Middle: A piece of the Poem a Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (find it here) Outside: Every man you see walking past you with a scar you wish to trace with your finger-tips. Every man in a mask you wish to uncover but find you don't want to ruin the surprise for yourself. The mark: their wrist, always has their wrist covered and or very long sleeves.

Made from: A D'Albertis/White Lipped Python

Core: Apollo to Icarus by Nikita Gill (find it here) Middle: A poem by Atticus (find it here) Outside: The man who stands up for you in a bar, who smiles that fanged smile before disappearing off into the night. The man you dream about with jawbones and you joke to friends he just might have pointed ears but you are unsure. He is the man from every Fae movie and tv show you can't help but fall in love with. The Mark: their thighs, the back specifically. They are always going to wear pants or shorts to cover it.

Made from: An Arctic Wolf

Core: Hades to Persephone by Nikita Gill (find it here) Middle: A quote from Kurt Kobane (find it here) Outside: Every male lead in the 90's who wasn't good enough for the main lead. Think Dean from Heathers. A man you want to want but find him scary. Who smells of blood, incense, and forest. He scares you with his grin but you want him nonetheless. The Mark: the inside of their palms. They are almost always wearing gloves or covering their palms from view.

Made from: A Artic Fox

Core: every time you take a breath of cold air and feel it solidify in your lungs as you move through the forest. Blood of a fresh kill and the soft northern lights. The softness of watching the snow fall from inside as you snuggle up with someone. Middle: A Poem by Perry Poetry (find it here) Outside: Introvert by Ritika Jain (find it here) Their Mark: their right ear is scared, they always have their hair to cover it.

Please know that these Bunnies will act differently with everyone. They are going to try to be everything you want at their core. They need it to survive. If you do not give them or feed them what they need. They will leave.

Each bunny also has a part of them they always keep covered. A mark of their transformation. Some it's their hands. Other's its their wrist or neck. Sometimes it can even be an eye. Most likely they will never show you and if you go to touch it. They will back away.

[ppenguinpperson]

Please tell us about the thoughts on patho! Sanya and patho! Yura. Please

of course, thank you for the ask!! i will preface this by saying that these roles might (and are likely to) change, like the bachelors role did - and that thats ok!! this is all just for fun <3 and i also want to say that im gonna alter the world of patho a bit, which, i think is also fine, since its an au !! fun times:) thoughts under cut

so, i'll talk about yura and arthur, then sanya (and sergei, sorta), and then them as a trio/duo.

patho!yura takes on the role of andrey stamatin. its a bit odd, but it fits. i changed yuras pants because i dont like andreys pants. its as simple as that. yura, like bachelor!dmitry and patho!arthur is from the capital. he studied with arthur and all that. young geniuses, you could say. though they haven't worked on as many architectual structures as the canon stamatins have, the few that they Have worked on are well known! whether or not they're liked is a whole different story. i wasn't sure who to put as the stamatin brothers, really, as the only brothers in pafl are nikita and kolya, i think? or tsar and arthur, sorta, iirc ferrys said a time or two that they think of each other as brothers or something like that. but! nikita and kolya will have.. different roles.. and tsar doesnt strike me as an an andrey nor a peter... so !! yura beletsky and arthur sokolov (his surname was in that one character sheet) are. the. umm. i dont know what their name would be but i think they're 'partners' - or at least, yura calls them that. (because of their colleague status, of course, since they work together so much. they can be gay too i guess. sigh. long live yaoi) yuras personality is pretty much the same as in canon, but hes a bit. hm. well, id say he acts like he's better than you, but hes just overcompensating. still very sad and depressed and all that.

arthur in this.. he's more depressed than angry in this one. i dont know. i havent thought of him all that much, truly and also !! youve only asked me for my thoughts on sanya and yura !! not arthur !! i dont have to tell you anything.... i WILL one day. believe me. but only when i have better thoughts

sanya! as you may have noticed, she's still albino in this au.. and, heres where my lack of knowledge on town on gorkhon comes into play !! so ! imagine that the steppe is like, zone-esque, or something. again, this au is just for fun, and though i Do think about it a lot, i dont think about it enough for me to have coherent thoughts. so! sanya. the townsfolk, i think, claimed she must be related to the worms in some way since shes an Albino and Strange and Defiant and a Rebel. so i think that at some point they started making that worm connection as an 'explanation' for her behaviour. so. i think, at a young age, rather young age, her father (and sergei sorta, i guess? but hed have been .. in his teens at the time, at least.. and since sanyas mom dies in childbirth no matter if shes a mutant or not, shes dead in this, too) sorta sent her to the cemetery. sanya is grace <3 she hangs around and maintains the cemetery a lot. its better than dealing with judgement and such. at first, at least. when shes a kid. soon she starts getting lonely, wishes to engage in society, to make friends, but, well. town on gorkhon is a small town. im sure she has some friends, though. 'friends'. maybe the little kids in the town and the like, yeah? maybe the kid gang? but i doubt shes close with them in any way. this is the first iteration of patho!sanya that i like in any way. its possible, likely, that ill change this, some of it at least, but! this is how it is for now.

during patho's main events, the stamatin brothers have already been in town for a few years. in this au, the architect bros are in town for 2 years before the plague breaks out. during those 2 years, sanya comes to 'admire' yura. envies his way of life. maybe they hang out a bit... since sergei is away studying to become a surgeon, he wouldn't be there to spoil their friendship - but, he also wouldnt be there to introduce them in the first place. .. but also, just bc sanya spends most of her time maintaining the cemetery and such doesnt mean she never goes out to town, for shopping and such, maybe. so. i think they start hanging out. not a lot. yura thinks shes a bit lame maybe. cringe. but, they start hanging out!! i thinkkk . ivan could be bad grief if i dont find anyone else. so, i think, sanya would get to meet him, too, and therefore also yana. shes not all that close with them, but, she does think theyre cool... and the gang thinks shes fine. shes there!! yana still thinks of her as "baby", arthur still thinks of her as "why are you even here", yura still thinks of her as "heheheheehhehe wont stop teasing you".. idk where tsar comes in but hes also "you are alright!!!"... only diference is. she doesnt fight all that much with ivan:( so sad

a lot of this is just incorehent thoughts ! but thats all i can muster up at the moment.. hope its enough !! and if its not !! my askbox is always open:D ask whatever whenever 👍

looks left looks right. ferry if you see this im sorry for doing cocomelon shit to your ocs..

[sirowsky-stories]

Collision

Part 6

Description: Niki learns the story behind Pero and William. Meanwhile, Pero is trying to keep the government from discovering their location, something made increasingly difficult by the ever-tightening noose around the safehouse.

Warnings: Pero Tovar x OFC, no reader insert, conspiracy, cursing, angst, mentions of graphic violence, mention of wild animals being kept as pets, friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, secret identity, AU fic. Rating: Mature/Explicit 18+ONLY Word Count: 6800 Series Masterlist

Author's Note: Again, lots of conversation here, and most of the chapter is from Niki's point of view. I do wonder if I'll ever be able to write a series with short chapters...

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   He’s been gone for three weeks, and it’s been twelve days since the Chinese private security team had found them, which is why there’s been no communication since then.

   Pero had checked in daily before that, making sure they were all okay and reassuring them that he was making progress on keeping the US government off their trail.    But when Will’s tracking system had come online and he’d seen that their other enemy was way too close for comfort, he’d activated a digital kill-switch, disabling all possibility of contact with the outside world, but also making the house undetectable electronically.

   Unfortunately, that hadn’t been enough to hide them. The team had already narrowed down their search grid enough that they could visibly scout the remaining wilderness, until they’d found the house, masquerading as a clifftop, complete with trees growing on the roof.    And since the tracking system had also been taken offline, the hunted had been unable to see the hunters coming.

   Nikita hadn’t known about the toxic gas, so when the nurse and the man she’d never seen before at that point, had come running into the bedroom and fumbled through a closet by the door, she’d been utterly confused.    But she knows the sound of a hermetic seal locking in place, and she could guess what the loud hissing throughout the rest of the house might’ve been about. Especially when it had been quickly followed by strangled screams and then thumps of bodies hitting the floor.

   Gillian had been distraught for most of the six hours that they’d all been trapped in that room while the house had ventilated itself clear of all toxins, and once the door had opened, it had only gotten worse.    The gas must’ve been something corrosive to biological materials, because the smell of the bodies had been a blend of melted plastic, burnt skin, and the strangely sweet but utterly disgusting smell of decaying human remains.

   Niki had still been too weak to help clean up, but she’d gotten well enough to be able to stand on her own two feet by then, and had seen one of the intruders, the semi-liquefied remains of which had been partly responsible for creating that smell.    The combination of the sight and odor had made her vomit, which had prompted the nurse to order her back to bed. She was, and still is, too vulnerable to be able to afford losing meals.

   But she’d felt bad about not being able to help them drag the barely cohesive bodies to the furnace in the basement, or even to help scrub the blood and half melted remnants of skin and flesh from the floors.    She’s quite sure that Gillian will never fully recover from having had to do that. The poor girl clings to her professional persona to cope, using the fact that Niki still needs her help to go to the bathroom and get dressed, to keep the darkness away from her conscious thoughts. But there’s no escaping them at night, which is why the nurse has barely slept since that day.

   The man, William, doesn’t either, but that seems to be part of his normal routine. He hasn’t spoken much since Pero left, despite Gillian’s attempts to get him to talk about how the two men know each other. And Niki suspects that it’s because he’s ashamed.    His behavior makes her think ex-military, and probably not the kind that sits behind screens. More likely, he’s been on the ground and seen truly horrific things, evident by how measured and controlled his reactions to the almost melted bodies had been.    But Tovar has never been in the military, so that can’t be where they met.

   Without his computers, he seems so lost. Like he has no use or purpose in life unless he’s tapping at keys and looking stuff up. So, he probably doesn’t do much besides those kinds of things these days, and that makes her think he suffers from PTSS. Although, she can’t possibly know how severe his problems might be.

   Today though, twelve days after the intrusion, it isn’t the potentially frail former military man that’s responsible for the latest drama. Instead, it’s Gillian who finally reaches her breaking point.    She has just helped Niki to have a shower and get dressed when she suddenly announces that she can’t stay in this house for another minute, and heads for the front door.    Both of the other houseguests let her leave, despite knowing that she could actually end up getting lost and dying out there on her own. But they know how much she’s been suffering, and that maybe this is what it’ll take to keep her from going insane here.

   While they wait for her to hopefully find her way back, Niki and William stay together in awkward silence, sitting in the amazingly comfortable living room sofas and playing cards to try and pass the time.    But the silence leaves her fighting to stay awake, so after about half an hour, Niki starts trying to get a conversation going.

   “Which branch of the service were you in?” she asks, hoping that the question isn’t intrusive enough to trigger any bad reactions in him.

   He doesn’t seem surprised at her assessment of him as former military, but he also doesn’t look happy about it.

   “Army,” is all he replies, so she doesn’t push the subject.

   His tone isn’t harsh, but it’s clipped enough that she knows to steer clear of any follow-up inquiries on the subject.

   “And now you do research?” she leaps into the present instead, to see if he might be more comfortable talking about that.

   “I have my own company. Kinda like a private investigator, just specialized on digital analysis. Most of the time I do background checks for corporate hires.”

   “Oh, so you make sure that people aren’t hiding things from their resume that might come back to bite the rich company executives in the ass?”

   “Basically,” he agrees.

   “That sounds kinda boring,” she carefully admits, hoping he won’t take offense.

   “Sure,” he shrugs. “But I’ve also been hired by city councils and courts, police departments and fire rescue services, to ensure that the people hired to keep us safe, are actually good people. And it pays the bills and lets me stay in my house.    I’m not good with… the outside world. I stay away from it as much as I can.”

   “Nothing wrong with that. The world isn’t that nice of a place for people with any kind of trauma.”

   He offers no objection to her words, so he apparently agrees. Still, she decides not to carry on with that line of inquiry.    She wants to ask him about Pero, about how their paths could’ve crossed when their lives seem so far removed from one another, but she doesn’t know how to phrase it so that he might feel okay with talking about it, when it’s clearly a subject that bothers him. So, she remains quiet instead.    But then…

   “You wanna know about him, don’t you?” Will asks unexpectedly, after a couple of minutes of silence.

   It’s his turn to deal and he’s gathered up the cards, but he’s just shuffling them slowly between his hands, without any sign that he intends to start up a new game. His head is bowed, watching his own hands, probably too uncomfortable to meet her gaze as she observes him.    Trying to figure out how much she can ask for, how triggering this might be for him, she looks for signs of agitation in his features. But he seems calm. For now.

   “Yes,” she admits, and he squirms, only just enough that she can see it.

   “Even if you won’t like anything you hear?” he posits, clearly ill at ease with the subject, but somehow still willing to endure that if she asks him, which seems odd.

   It’s not like he owes her anything.

   “Yes,” she repeats.

   He takes a deep breath then, before slowly putting the deck of cards on the table and then clasping his hands together, as if trying to prevent them from doing something else.

   “Ten years ago, I had the world at my feet,” he starts, speaking low and sounding unfathomably sad now. “I worked on Wall Street, and I was good. I was rich, powerful among my peers, respected and admired.”

   He pauses and makes a little disgusted sound in the back of his throat, shaking his head almost imperceptibly before he continues.

   “And I had a gorgeous young fiancé. A trophy. Someone I told myself that I loved because of the status it afforded me to have her on my arm. The envy that it sparked in every man I met, but especially in my rivals.    I felt like such a king,” he says, and then scoffs. “I was so stupid.”

   He’s wringing his hands now, rocking himself back and forth where he sits a few times, as if trying to chase away something unsettling from his frame.

   “Tovar found me because of the people that I’d hurt to get to where I was. The lives I’d destroyed.    He’s really fucking brilliant at that. Seeing people’s shadows, no matter how well hidden they might be. It’s like he doesn’t even needs to look for them, he just sees them, as plainly as other people see what you’re wearing or what car you drive. He just knows.”

   She’s aware of that side of Pero too, although he’s never turned that skill on her, so far as she knows. But she’s seen him at work. Watched him a few times when he’s been introduced to new coworkers.    Sometimes he’d looked at them with utter indifference, as though they couldn’t have been less interesting to him, while other times… one glance had been enough to turn his gaze hard and his eyes dark.

   “His thing was that whenever he found someone who was cruel, who disregarded other people and their pains, he would punish them by robbing them of something they cared about. Money or possessions mostly. And he took on anyone. He was relentless.    He created this character, Mr. Hood, who would be the only one that his victims ever interacted with, and never in person, always over the phone.    That was how he protected himself, and that was how I first encountered him,” Will explains, but then falls silent, seemingly lost in memories.

   “He targeted you?” she asks, to encourage him to continue.

   “Yeah. One day I get a phone call from an unregistered number, and the voice on the other end says ‘Hello, Mr. Garin. My name is Mr. Hood, and this is a robbery.’ I made the mistake of laughing at him, assuming that it was a joke, because I was a king. No one could touch me.    He gave me five seconds to let me pretend that I had any sliver of control left over the situation, and then he took over. And once he did, I had already lost. But of course, I refused to realize that, right up until the bitter end.”

   “But if he was just a voice on the phone, how’d you end up meeting him?” she wonders, and he lets out a deep sigh.

   The kind of sigh that’s a lot more than just an exhale. The kind that she can feel in her own chest, even though the weight it carries isn’t hers to shoulder.

   “My arrogance knew no bounds, so when he demanded a hundred thousand dollars to keep quiet about the twenty people which he’d found out that I’d scammed out of their life’s savings in order to further my own career, rather than accept my punishment and move on, I took it as an offensive insult to my character. And I couldn’t possibly let that slide.    That kind of money was pocket-change for me at that time, so you’d think that I would’ve just happily paid and hoped that he kept his word. But no. Out of sheer spite, I had to put him in his place.”

   He closes his eyes for a few beats, and he somehow looks a decade older. As though the pain of his own past is eating away at him so mercilessly that his body can’t keep up.    Clearly, he wasn’t always a good person, but she didn’t know him then, so she can’t judge his past decisions. For now, she feels only sad for him.

   “I knew people,” he continues while slowly opening his eyes, although his hands are restlessly traveling from his thighs to his neck and back again, over and over. “People who could locate most anyone, for a price. The local cartel had a network of spies within the homeless community, keeping an eye on the movements of law enforcement to give them a heads up on raids and such. So, I hired this kid, Billy, to stake out the money drop.    Mr. Hood had instructed me to leave the money at a specific location and then walk away, and told me that if I did that, I’d never hear from him again.”

   “Let me guess; something went horribly wrong?” she infers, but he shakes his head.

   “No. I dropped off the money and left, trusting Billy to check out who would come to collect it. What I hadn’t anticipated, was just how determined Tovar was to keep his identity a secret.”

   “He sent someone else to retrieve it?”

   “I’m afraid it was even more complicated than that,” he tiredly grumbles, clearly uncomfortable speaking about this, but he doesn’t stop. “The guy that Billy saw retrieve the money was actually a runner for the local mob, but the kid obviously didn’t know that. So, he gave me a cell phone pic of this guy and I used my computer skills to track him down.    I was able to catch up to him when he was walking into a rundown old house which I now know was a drop-point for money heading to their launderer. But back then, I just thought it was where this asshole lived, so I came at him like a raging bull.      Obviously, he tried to defend himself and it turned into a fight, ending with me killing this guy with a fucking steak knife.”

   She refrains from commenting on this unexpected development, but she has to bite her own tongue hard, because Will looks absolutely horrified at the memory.

   “It took a while to calm down after that. I’d never killed anyone before, although Tovar would disagree, since one of the people whose money I’d stolen had ended up dying because they couldn’t afford medical treatment. But I’d certainly never deliberately taken a life before that night, and not with my own hands.    Once I got my adrenaline under control, I started looking through the house and found a duffel bag full of money on the bed, so I grabbed that and left. And I was actually kinda proud of myself when I got back to my car. That I’d beaten this asshole, that I hadn’t let him hound me around, that I’d taken back control.    But then… my phone rang. An unknown number.    I answered it, and that same deep voice said: ‘I really wish you hadn’t done that.’ Then he hung up.”

   Impossibly, he seems to turn greyer before her eyes now. His entire body looks like it’s shrinking with each breath, and his skin is losing color. All of which tells her that whatever happened next, this is the part he’s ashamed of. The part he regrets, probably more than anything else in his life.

   “Turns out that the mob has real-time surveillance on these places nowadays, to discourage stealing among their employees, so by the time I was getting back in my car, they’d already identified me. And since they’ve got their enforcers strategically placed all over the areas where they operate, they got to my apartment a full hour before I did,” he has to stop and clear his throat, but his voice is still broken and weak when he speaks again. “Christine… was still warm when I found her on our bed… They’d taken their time with her. To send me a clear message.”

   “Oh, god,” she whispers, feeling her own throat go dry and a lump form in her stomach at the mere thought of what they might’ve done to that poor woman.

   “At first, I blamed Mr. Hood for everything. But I couldn’t prove that he even existed, so naturally no one believed me,” Will picks up the thread after a minute, and it sounds as though he needs to keep talking to not have a total breakdown, so she sits quietly and listens. “Still, in my own head, I wasn’t to blame for any of it.    It wasn’t my fault that I’d been blackmailed, it wasn’t my fault that the money drop had been another layer of deception, and how the hell was I supposed to know he’d set me up to get caught by the fucking mafia… I had an excuse for all of it. Refusing to accept that if I’d just been willing to part with one percent of my wealth, everything would’ve been fine.”

   By the time he stops to breathe, trying to hold the tears back, he does sound calmer, and she wonders if this might be the first time that he’s ever talked about this.    He seems spent, though, and there’s still a lot she doesn’t understand, so she tries to give him a nudge to keep talking.

   “Okay, that all makes some kinda sense, but one thing I don’t get is, if Pero set this up so that the mob would get involved if you tried to investigate, how was he supposed to get his money in the end?”

   “He had a system. To protect himself, the money he extorted from people never actually passed through his own hands. I never managed to figure out that system in its entirety, but I know that he would’ve siphoned his money out of the pot that went to the launderer, somewhere in transit, and probably through someone else’s hands, even then.    He really is a god damned genius. If he hadn’t decided to quit, he could’ve ruled the world,” he explains, and his tone has traces of admiration now.

   “Do you know why he quit?” she asks, wanting to uncover as much as she can about the man that she’s grown to love, even though she knows almost nothing about his life.

   “No. I never asked,” Will replies, deflating her hopes a bit.

   He’s been talking for a while now, but throughout this entire story, the only thing she’s learned about Pero is that he was a career criminal for a while. That he was plagued by the injustices of the world and felt compelled to do something about it.    That’s it.    For a man who’s clearly had a profound influence on William’s life, the veteran seems to know no more about him than Niki does.

   “You still haven’t told me how you came to know the man behind Mr. Hood,” she prompts, still hoping that there might be more to the story.

   “Uh… Well, after Christine, and everything that followed with the legal investigation, my life fell apart. Whether I was able to admit it or not, I was drowning in guilt. So, I enlisted in the army and went to war in Afghanistan, thinking that putting my own life on the line would somehow make up for it. Predictably, however, killing more people did nothing to lighten the crushing weight on my soul.    And when I came back, I was even more fucked up. But by then, I’d at least figured out that I couldn’t run from my demons and that I just had to learn to live with them.    I started my company and got to do some real work, actually help people in a visible and tangible way for a change. It made me a hermit, but I didn’t much care since there was no one in my life that would miss not seeing me.    Then one day, I get a text from an unknown number, asking if I can find someone. And not just anyone. This person wanted me to find one of the FBI’s ten most wanted criminals, which at first thought seemed ridiculous, so I declined and that was that.    But the next day, the phone rings.”

   “Unknown number?” she guesses, and he fixes her with a peculiar look in his eyes.

   “I’ll never forget the chill that went through me when I heard that voice again after four years,” he says, shivering at the memory before shaking his shoulders, as if trying to shed the feeling. “He wanted me to find this criminal and he was willing to pay for it, but I was freaking out just hearing from him again, so I just hung up on him.    And what do you know, the next morning there’s a knock on my door, and there he is. The ghost that destroyed me without even trying. All he said was my name and I had a full-fledged panic attack right there in my own front hall. But the bastard just waited me out. Standing there in the doorway like some fucking vampire waiting for an invitation.    Once I’d calmed down, he crouched beside me and said: ‘If you wanna make up for your past, help me serve some misery to some real assholes.’ Then he got up and left, closing the door behind him.    I had no intention of helping him do anything, he was the last person in the world that I was ever gonna trust. And if I’d simply ignored him, he might’ve left me alone eventually.”

   “But you saw your chance to learn more…” she deduces, and he half-smiles in a nervous sort of way.

   “Yeah. I made the same mistake all over again, thinking I could best him. That if I could work out his real identity, I’d be able to expose him and get some retribution. Which was, of course, exactly what he was expecting me to do.    So, the next day, there was a package waiting for me on my kitchen table. It was an envelope containing every scrap of information that could be found about him, and even with a copy of his birth certificate and driver’s license, it all fit onto one single piece of paper.    He had no credit cards, no social media accounts, he’d never owned a phone or Bluetooth device that could be tracked, never been arrested, never had his prints taken. Nothing but a home address, a few hospital visits, and a barely used bank account to his name.”

   “Hm. That tracks with the man I know today too. And I guess he wouldn’t have deposited any stolen money into a bank account, eventually someone would question where it all came from.”

   “Absolutely, it all made perfect sense with what little I knew about him, but I was still determined to get back at him, now that I’d gotten it into my head that I might have a chance to accomplish it. And it wasn’t like I was gonna take that information at face value, I still checked everything out myself before I believed that it really was all that could be learned about him from afar.    Then, I made my next major mistake, by trying to expose him online, sending out a spam email with his picture and real name, along with a red label warning saying that this man is a dangerous criminal.”

   “Why do I get the feeling that he didn’t take that very well?” she asks, cringing involuntarily at the mental image of the perpetually private Pero finding out about something like that.

   “I learned two hard lessons that day,” Will admits, and the look in his eyes has already told her that she's correct in her assumption. “Firstly, that I wasn’t the only computer expert he had access to, because the email was sucked up into a virtual vortex the moment that it was sent, never reaching a single inbox. Which has to mean that he had anticipated something like that and had digital safeguards put in place in advance, triggered by anything that directly uses his name or picture.”

   “That sounds like something more or less impossible to pull off. Or is that just my ignorance on all computer matters, talking?”

   “It’s not the simplest coding in the world, no. But it’s not impossible.    The second thing I learned, is that when you piss this man off, he doesn’t settle for threats, he makes you feel his anger, even though you can’t see him.    For two full weeks after I’d tried to expose him like that, I got emails, phone calls, and letters, all telling me things like my payments weren’t going through, or my house was up for sale, or my bank had gotten reports about supposed illegal activities that I was engaged in, and was closing my accounts. The police showed up on my front steps three times in those two weeks, and my house was searched from top to bottom twice.    It was constant, relentless stressors and anxiety triggers, culminating in a final call where I was informed that my house had been condemned due to asbestos having been found in the basement, and that it was being scheduled for demolition. And it was all legit.    Then it suddenly just stopped.”

   “His way of telling you that he was still the one in control,” she summarizes, and he nods.

   It does occur to Niki, as she’s listening to all this, that perhaps she should be worried about potentially having a child with a man who clearly knows how to terrorize people. But she isn’t.    Whether because she understands his reasoning, or because she just doesn’t care what those reasons might’ve been, she can’t tell right now. What she does know, is that hearing all this is giving her more comfort than one would expect. Because it’s reassuring her that Pero really might be able to keep her safe from everything that hunts her.

   “Exactly, and that he could crush me without even breaking a sweat,” Will answers, and then continues, apparently hellbent on sharing everything he can about this, no matter how much it tortures him to say it. “He showed up again after that, sat me down in my kitchen and explained to me that if I didn’t wanna help him all I had to do was say no. And that if I kept insisting on trying to hurt him, he was gonna use the power that he’d accumulated over a decade of digging out people’s dirtiest secrets, to make every second of my life one endless panic attack.”

   “A threat which he’d just proven that he absolutely can make good on.”

   “Yeah. So, I stopped fighting him. And that’s where this story takes an unexpected turn. At least, it was entirely unexpected to me.    But when I started working with him, even with how rarely he needed my help with something, that’s when I started to heal. That’s when the guilt stopped being so absolute and began to become manageable. That’s when I started feeling like a worthwhile person again, even if it was just for those little increments of time.”

   He pauses, taking a few deeper breaths, and finally seems to stop shrinking, finding strength in the unexpected positivity that this story apparently ends with.

   “It’s like he knew… Like he sought me out specifically because he knew that it would help me,” he ponders, looking puzzled. “Why, I don’t know. Maybe he feels guilty too, on some level. But I know that he already had good computer people working with or for him before he came to me, and I can’t think of any other reason why he would replace them with me, when they were clearly doing a good enough job.    Honestly, I’m not sure if he even knows this himself. I get the feeling that he’s always frustrated around me, and I know that he always expects nothing but hatred from me. But I don’t hate him anymore. I’m not even sure that I ever did. I just don’t know how to tell him that in a way that he might understand… or believe.”

   He ends on a tone of sadness, which clicks something into place for Niki, regarding who this man is at heart, and what drives him.

   “That’s why you came here, isn’t it? Because you need him to be safe. Because despite everything he’s put you through… you think of him as a brother.”

   She says it softly, and watches his gaze drop to the floor in silent agreement.

   “The only thing that he put me through was the loss of that tiny amount of money. Everything else was my own doing. And do you wanna know the most pathetic part?” he asks before looking up to see her nod once, so he answers. “I still have millions.    Millions of dollars just sitting there, collecting interest, untouched, unused. I could live anywhere I want. I could buy almost anything I might fancy, but at most, I spend a few hundred dollars on new computer parts each year.    Hell, I don’t even have anyone to leave the shit to when I die.”

   “Why not give it away? There’s plenty of people in need all around us,” she suggests, already certain that he’s considered that, but curious to hear why he’s holding on to his fortune.

   “Yeah, I know. But I just…” he cuts himself off, and it sounds like he was about to say something he might regret. But then he seems to change his mind and continues anyway. “I want Tovar to have it, but I know that he’ll never take it.”

   Ah. Of course, that’s what halts him in his tracks. But Niki knows something that William doesn’t, which might come to change both men’s perspectives on this matter.

   “Don’t be so sure,” she cautions with a small smile. “Given that we make it through this crap, he might be about to become a father, and that could very well make him rethink a gift like that.”

   “You’re pregnant?” he asks with raised brows, but they soon fall again when his eyes trace the pattern of visible injuries on her body.

   “I don’t know. I was before the attack and they thought that it was still alive after my surgery, but there’s no telling if it still is,” she explains, and his expression turns sorrowful.

   “I hope it is. What’s happening to you is atrocious. If it costs you your unborn child too…”

   He doesn’t have the words to finish that sentence, and neither does she, so they just sit there in silence for a while, thinking to themselves.    And then there’s a knock on the door, making them both jump. There’s a hidden camera on the left side of it which doesn’t work right now, since all non-essential electronics are still being kept off, but the camera has a clever feature specifically for situations like this.    There’s a peephole directly behind the lens. Ordinarily, the casing behind the lens prevents it from being see-through, but if the kill-switch is activated, that casing slips down and the lens becomes a tiny window.

   Since Niki is still slow to move, Will gets up and reaches the door before she’s even managed to turn in her seat. He beckons for her to slide down a bit, where she’s less visible, while he sneaks up to the peephole.    It sits at chest height, so he has to bend down to look through it, and once he does, his shoulders drop in relief, and he unlocks the door.

   “Welcome back,” he greets as Gillian comes through the opening, hugging herself and shivering slightly, and then he quickly closes it behind her.

   “Thanks,” she quietly responds before making a beeline for the bathroom, where Niki hopes that she’ll be taking a hot shower.

   Given how long they’ve been trapped here together, she hasn’t learned much about the sweet nurse either. Their conversations have mainly revolved around Niki’s recovery, or the problems that they’ve all been facing on a daily basis.    She wonders how long it’ll be like this. How long they’ll have to endure this isolation and perpetual disconnection from the outside world.

   She’s never been one to lament being disconnected. It’s usually been something she’s sought after voluntarily. But now, when she has no choice, the lack of information and ability to assimilate to the rest of humanity, feels strangely similar to a wall being built around her.

-=<>=-=<>=-=<>=-

   He hasn’t heard from them in twelve days, and it eats away at the back of his mind like sharks on a whale carcass. He knows that the kill-switch has been activated because when he tried to make his daily call to Will, the number was suddenly invalid. Not just offline, but the actual phone number has been scrubbed, so that even if the phone is turned back on, it’s no longer connected to any network and can’t reveal the safehouse’s location.

   There’s only one reason why that switch would’ve been activated, and Pero has to fight himself every second of every day, not to race back there and find out if everyone made it through what he can only assume was the Chinese discovering their location.    Whoever that private radical is, they’ve clearly got pockets deep enough to utilize only the very best technology that money can buy. Most likely, they’ve managed to trace the truck part of the way and then extrapolated, or they got lucky and caught sight of Will, unwittingly guiding them the rest of the way.

   The only thing he knows for sure is that it couldn’t have been his own government that attacked, because he’s got enough eyes and ears among them now to have at least a basic grasp of how their search for Nikita is going.    Mr. Hood has been working hard upon his return to the world, but he knows that the voice on the phone won’t be enough to persuade some of the more seasoned professionals, which is why he’s looking them up in person.

   The Qwerty brothers had been easy enough to find, thanks to Huang’s list, but after a day of observing them, Pero had realized that they weren’t an immediate threat right then. They are clearly on standby, either waiting for new orders or a new job to come their way.    After their failure at the hospital, which they both unfortunately survived, their contract may have been revoked. The professional assassin business is surprisingly competitive, so someone else could’ve already been hired to replace them.

   He hopes not, because that would mean new faces for him to track down. But in any case, he remains close to the brothers while he works on establishing an information network around project Amazon and everyone who’s currently taking an interest in it.    For almost three weeks he’s been watching them, studying their behavior to learn their secrets, so when the time finally comes to confront them, he’s well prepared.

   Going at them one by one will only waste time, so he approaches them when they’re on their way home from their most frequented bar, in the small hours of the morning.    Earlier that evening, he’d seen one of them receive a message and then instantly show it to the other one, which had made both men shift behavior. From casual drinks and playfulness among the local regulars, to suddenly keeping to themselves and quietly boosting each other’s confidence in clear preparation for a mission.

   They might not be going after Niki again, but he can’t take that risk. He has to know either way.    They’re both sure on their feet despite the alcohol, when he steps out in front of them, blocking their way to their car.

   “Good evening, Mr. Bloom and Mr. Bloom,” he greets, nodding to the men as he addresses them each.

   They stop in their tracks at first, but there’s no question that they recognize him from the hospital, and they’re not happy to see him.

   “You,” the Tom Cruise wannabe growls, and then both men come towards him.

   “You can call me Mr. Hood,” Pero calmly answers, not moving an inch as he sees the realization hit them both at the same time.

   There aren’t many people among the rich, famous or corrupt that haven’t heard of him, and among the larger criminal elements in the country he’s almost legendary already.    He takes one measured step closer to them, and the brothers almost reflexively step back.

   “I have a proposition for you,” he continues, standing still now to make sure that they’re paying attention to his words. “Work for me as double agents against your employer, and I won’t tell the lovely Miss Grenoble about the cat.”

   Both men flinch and then quickly glance at each other. They know exactly which cat he’s talking about, they just can’t understand how the hell he knows about it.    If they had any doubts that he might be bluffing about being the real Mr. Hood, it vanishes with the understanding that he knows even their most closely guarded secrets. And that’s all it takes to flip their loyalties.    Most assassins are, at their core, primarily concerned with their own lives first.

   “It was general Hayword who hired us,” the Mark Wahlberg guy says.

   “And what was the message he sent you tonight?” Pero questions, to which the other man picks up his phone and reads the message out loud.

   It’s a set of coordinates only about thirty miles from the safehouse, along with a sternly worded order to search the entire area, even if they have to trudge through marshlands and cross rivers on foot.    This is bad news. It means that the government is closing in on them, probably aided by whoever it is that’s already attacked. And at this point, that means it’s only a matter of time before they’re found and that all he can do is delay the inevitable.

   “Alright, here’s what you’re gonna do,” he firmly declares, staring the brothers down with a hard glare. “You’re gonna go to those coordinates and you’re gonna look around. Only one of you is going to remember to bring a phone or other trackable device and it’s gonna end up lost in a puddle of mud or at the bottom of a river within the first hour. And then the two of you are gonna park your asses on a rock somewhere, for at least two days.    Now, I don’t care if that rock is an actual rock, or if it’s a hotel room a hundred miles away, the point is that you’re gonna let the general think that you did search that area and came up with nothing. Understood?”

   “And when we call from a payphone miles away from the search area and Hayword orders us back out there because we’re apparently idiots who don’t know how to close a fucking pocket?” the Wahlberg guy counters, but Pero just throws him a snide smile.

   “He’ll believe that you really are that stupid, because you somehow managed to mess up a simple hospital kill, turning it into a public spectacle, and then completely failed to reacquire your target, forcing the general to do the legwork himself.    He’ll be angry, for sure, but he will buy it. Hook, line and sinker. So, you’re gonna say ‘yes, sir’ and keep pretending to search until I say otherwise.”

   He leaves without waiting for them to confirm their compliance. He knows that they’ll do as they’re told, the threat of Miss Grenoble is much more sinister than it sounds.    She may be the epitome of a crazy cat-lady, except that her cats are of the wild, three to six-hundred pounds range, and she adores them more than her own children. She has and will feed live humans to them if she gets angry.

   But he also leaves because there’s a crawling under his skin now. An urgency. He needs to get back to the house as quickly as possible, to work out a plan with the others for how, when and where they’re gonna go to avoid the efforts of general Hayword.    Unwanted images of blood staining the polished, soft brown of the wooden walls, floods his mind. Walking in to discover bodies, tortured and mutilated… His head has a tremendous capacity for conjuring up dark scenarios and displaying them to him.

   He just hopes that he hasn’t somehow developed clairvoyance in the past three weeks.

-=¤=-=¤=-=¤=-=¤=-=¤=-=¤=-

Part 7

Thank you for reading, and remember: I have no taglist anymore. Follow @sirowsky-stories and turn on notifications for updates on my writing :)

[boys-with-gunss]

Introduction/вступление

English:

My name is Nikita, I'm 17, I'm friends with Vic and really only made an account on here because Vic had one, and it seemed cool. You can call me Andrey if you want, it's part of my middle name (and also my dads name), a lot of people call me that, but I really do not care either way. I'm a Russian American and I'll post in both Russian and English.

I like Zero Day, DUCK!, Petscop, metal and rock music, knives, Banksy, street racing, and other stuff I guess.

I'm just sort of trying this out, don't know if it's gonna be a thing I'll actually do for long. I get bored easy. 

But this is pretty cool, so we'll see.

. 

Русский:

Меня зовут Никита, мне 17 лет, я дружу с Викой и завел здесь аккаунт только потому, что он есть у Вики, и я подумал, что это круто. Если хотите, можете называть меня Андреем, это часть моего второго имени (а также имя моего отца), многие люди называют меня так, но мне все равно, какое имя вы используете. Я русский американец и буду писать как на русском, так и на английском.

Мне нравятся Zero Day, DUCK!, Petscop, металл и рок-музыка, ножи, Бэнкси, уличные гонки и другие вещи.

Я просто пробую себя в блоггинге, но не знаю, надолго ли это. Мне легко становится скучно.

Но это довольно круто, так что посмотрим.

[book-girl4evaaa]

I got over 20 notes on a previous post (thanks @hijabi-desi-bookworm :D) so here's the Aru Shah one-shot for new years!

(it's also on my wattpad book so you can read it there if you want.)

So, *clears throat dramatically * here we go!

~12~

Aru layed back on the school roof, looking at the sky. Next to her was an incredibly reluctant Mini.

"This is a good idea because?" Mini asked, hugging her knees.  She was right in the middle, and sat on a blanket she bought up.

"Because the view is incredible. Just look!" Aru turned around to Mini, who was hugging her knees very tightly to her chest.

"I guess," she began, "and the roof is flat so that minimises the chance we'll fall..."

"Exactly!" Aru agreed. Mini skooted forward to sit next to Aru properly.

"The earth is so cool," Mini muttered. Aru agreed. Ever since saving the world, she had a much bigger appreciation of it. It was crazy and hectic as ever,  but still managed to be beautiful.

The fireworks went off, sending sparks all over the sky.

"Happy New Year, sis." Mini told Aru, holding up her elbow for a bump.

"Happy New Year." Aru elbow bumped her back

~13~

"You guys ready?"

Brynne bolted down the stairs holding multiple bags of chips. "Yup! Who's got the Oreos?"

"Me, naturally," Boo said, holding the packet in his talons.

"Ok everyone," Mini called, waiting at front. "Please mind your arms and legs while entering the elephant."

"This is epic." Aiden said, looking down at his camera. "Do you think they'll have fireworks?"

"Probably," Aru replied, "but like, extra-magiky."

"Is that a word?"

"Probably not."

They entered the Night Bazaar to see the both sides of the sky-roof dotted in bright, colourful stars. They flickered and moved like fireworks and were even more beautiful. Aiden snapped a quick picture.

"Told you it would be extra-magiky." Aru smirked and tossed a chip into her mouth.

"You were right, Shah," Aiden agreed, "super magiky."

Aru smiled.

"Come on everyone, group photo!" Boo announced, pushing everyone into shot. "Say happy new year!"

"Happy New Year!" The potatoes chorused, grinning for the photo.

~14~

"...And that is New Year's in the human world" Aru finished. "It's an annual tradition."

Rudy thought for a moment. "So humans throw rockets in the air, set them on fire and blow them up because they look pretty? All to celebrate another year of existence? That's wild."

"Did you know that the word annual comes from the word annualis, which is Latin for year?" Kara added.

"Nope but that's cool?"

It was the first year that Hira, Nikita, Sheela, Rudy and Kara could all be there to celebrate, so Aru had decided to give them the rundown before they watched it in the human world. And that started with watching Australia's fireworks in the theatre, which were set off 16 hours earlier than the USA's.

They all filed in, holding hot cocoa and sat in a 2 rows: Niki, Sheela, Rudy and Mini at the front; Brynne, Hira, Aru, Kara and Aiden in the back.

When the live feed began, Rudy practically leaped out his seat.

"It's so loud! Who made it that loud!" He said over and over. Mini tried to comfort him while her sisters cackled.

Kara watched quietly, before turning to Aru.

"Happy New Year." She said, beaming.

"Happy New Year right back." Aru replied, but Kara had already turned to Aiden to say the same.

Aru looked back at the screen, stirring the cocoa slowly as the lights covered the digital sky.

~15~

"Why didn't we just go back to your school's roof?" Mini complained.

"Because Home Depot's roof is bigger!" Aru answered, grinning.

"Hold up," Aiden said, "you've done this before!?"

"Yup!" Aru reached up kissed him on the cheek. He blushed bright red and held up his camera to try and cover his face.

They laid out all of the blankets, put Rudy in the middle so he wouldn't fall off the roof when he freaked out over the noise, and brought up all the snacks they could carry.

"This is great! Look at the views!" Brynne commented, as she grabbed a handful of her homemade cookies.

All of them got settled. Aru rested her head on Aiden's shoulder as colour exploded over the sky.

"I guess fireworks are another good reason to save the world." She whispered.

"I guess so, Shah. Happy New Year."

"Happy New Year wifey."

And under the New year's sky, she drifted off to sleep.

[sibunaranks]

rank peddie kisses?

Okay i waited on this because this is SO IMPORTANT. I rewtached them all and here is their ranking (i would love to give all of them 10/10 but i didn't let myself)

This is my child. I took it way too serious. Also I included Almost Kisses and Piper Kisses. Sue me.

First Kiss - 1000000/10 - Okay this one is perfection for so many reasons. Starting with the aesthetic of the double leather jackets. Perfection. Then you get to the deep down. Eddie is pouring his heart out and he is so desperate and she is ALSO desperate for a totally different reason (to just tell him how she feels but she can't cuz the hex) and both of them are just feeling so much urgency and he's about to give up on her but he doesn't want to so he's being more vulnerable for her than anyone else in his whole life and she does the only thing she knows and kisses him HER FIRST EVER KISS and the kiss itself is so sweet and so satisfying to finally get. So good they go in for another one (that doesn't happen) but yeah it's the start of an era.

The Almost Kiss- 4/10 - VICTOR THE COCKBLOCK RODENMARR HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO US. Anyway the "guess you could call me fearless." was smooth but the rest was Eddie being a total cringy boi trying to "play cool". Stillit's sweet so it gets some points. ALSO points for asking her if he can when he knows she's struggling to communicate. Also, their disappointed faces are so cute and saddd. Thoughtful boy in love. Girl in love too.

The Piper Kiss - 1/10 - THIS ONLY GETS A POINT BECAUSE OF THE SET UP. The way he looks at her when he's talking to jerome is just HEART EYES. He's so smitten. but like him kissing piper is soooo awkward and theres no chem (how can jade and burkley have sooo much chem and nikita and him have zero?) and OFMG who THE FUCK on the writing team wrote "smackeroo?" i hate that word SO MUCH.

The ALMOST Piper Kiss - 2/10 - Same thing no chem but OMG THE LEAD UP AND THE COMEDY. Like the hand holding, the "your a big part of who i am" the "Be you." I AM MELTING. Then the comedy ofc with Patricia like OMFG DEAD and Eddie instantly knows which she is gets one of the top eddie cute moments ever.

Pretty much Alone *Eyebrow waggle* (tunnels)- 5/10 - DEAD. TOO FUNNY. NOT EVEN A KISS BUT HOLY SHIT THIS IS THE BEST SCENE IN THE WHOLE SHOW AND THE ALMOST KISS IN IT NEEDS A RANKING. Was i bias giving it a 5? yes. Do i care? no.

Eddies reward (Library Kiss)- 7/10 - Not my favorite but we get some good camera angles and the lighting in the library is chef's kiss. Simple kiss. Not much to say.

House of Rainbows- 8/10 - Parralels the first kiss so well but because the first kiss was better (imho) I couldn't rank this as high. Still8 out of 10 is good because this is the SIMPtricia kiss. She's smitten after she's done being mad. Also me and my friends used to quote the ever hysterical "good question! I was kidnapped!" forever so bias. ALSO one of the best parts of the parralels is that in the first kiss she kisses him because she can't talk and in this one he kisses her because she wont shut up. cuties. :)

Friends - 6/10 - I WANNA ENJOY THIS KISS SO MUCH MORE BUT THE AFTEMATH OF IT IS SO BAD. Like sheinstantly gets mad again and it's all ruined but boy without that this ones a keeper. Short and simple but so pretty.

Gatehouse - 9/10 - I wanted to give this 100000 because of eddie (he legit runs the whole thing) but i can't give it higher than 9 with the fact that Patricia isn't Patricia. Still THE SPEECH. Ugh if you know you know.

Fireworks- 10/10 - ALWAYS WAS AND ALWAYS WILL BE ......a ten. It's perfect.I love it. Best of the season.Eddie loves her so much and she's so insecure but he would never not let her know how much he loves her. and they're just THEM like the games the insults the everything! True power couple.

TOR - 9/10 - This one omg has my heart. She's worried about him, and rightfully so. They might never see eachother again but they won't let that come to their mouth in words. They speak there maybe goodbhye through their kiss and wow are they so in love it's craazy. Super couple Peddie we love you. Would get a 10 if it was a lil longer or had better angles tbh.

[vendetta-if]

hello dear author, im here just to let you know THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR IF!!!!!!!! no seriously, I've meaning to write this to you ever since the day i stumbled across your game and INSTANTLY fell head over heels for the characters and the plotline 🥰 i have been following this if ever since it had only the first chapter out, and i knew damn well that it was going to be helluva ride to be a part of, and i was ABSOLUTELY CORRECT ✅

this IF has been a key part of my life for a while now, i have played it countless times and have loved every single character (although i might be biased towards the og family, i.e. luka, ash and gramps) your characters are some of the most realistic and loveliest ones i have ever met and probably ever will! the ROS are so unique in their own way and i just cannot describe how much i love them and how pained i am to know that i cannot form my own harem 😂😂😂 would love to have them all fall for my MC cause that's how much i love them, sad that i can only have two but i guess i can accept it 😁

as for the side characters, aside from yvette (whom i SLIGHTLY dislike) i have come to love them all, including thoma and ivan and boris! they too need some love ❤ especially gramps, luka and jackal! (I swear i will be so sad when gramps is no more, I felt the same sort of love that my own granny gave me before she left when gramps patted my MC Nikita's head for a good boy, I TELL YOU IT IS ILLEGAL TO MAKE SOMEONE SO EMOTIONAL WITH SIMPLE WORDS SOB) im so happy that i found your IF and if it weren't for my sheety home situation i would've loved to become a part of your patreon! but dw as soon as i get some cash in my hand i'll join my fellow vendetta lovers! 😍

anyways that's all for now, but do know that i'll come by to leave some asks here and there every once in a while to lighten up the mood whenever i can! 😆

AGAIN THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR MAKING THIS BEAUTIFUL IF!!!!!!

Aww, anon, this is so sweet ☺️ And I’m honored that you still stick around from day one and that you consider my story to be a key part of your life for a while now 😭❤️

I’m glad to see that you’re loving all of the characters, even the side characters too, like Ivan and Boris 😄 As for forming harem with all the ROs, believe me, it would be a headache for your MC down the line 😂 Other than Ash and Rin, the others have different views and moralities and values that will make them all clash against each other sooner or later.

And aww, I’m happy that Grandpa’s affections remind you of your own grandma’s 😊 I was also pretty close with my grandma and I get the feeling 🥺 It also makes me really sad to think that one day, Grandpa gotta go as well… 😔

But, I think I’ll try to make him live as long as possible, maybe… I think he deserves some happy years near the end of his life after the deaths he had endured… To be able to see MC marry and maybe even have their first child.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful words and kind compliments, anon! 🥰 It really made my whole day ❤️😊

[richardsphere]

Leverage Redemption Log: The Bucket Job

Title makes me think "bucket list"? either that or Keeping Up Appearances? (had to google "that show with the bucket woman" to remember the name) --- bells are playing and there is a giant semi-hollow pipe-structure of a snowman outside the building we're in. Its Christmas Special Time.

Librarian is giving the children some classic reading recomendations based on his knowledge of their likes (the girl likes pirates, which is a nice little gender-stereotype breaking to sneak in there without drawing attention to the subversion. Love it when shows feel confident doing that without the need to detract by boasting about it.) Young Man used to get Sherlock Holmes.

And the librarian is having a heart-attack... --- Harry is calling his daughter. His daughter doesnt want to spend the holiday with him because Mom is going on vacation to some resort (I think Aspen is a resort town in the states?) Ok either he has a son as well as a daughter, i am misremembering him as having a daughter, The daughter might be trans, or Nick is short for Nikita/vero-Nic-a, or Nick is more gender-neutral as a name then i thought (wouldnt be the first time, i went years thinking Sam was exclusively a female name because the only "sam" i ever heard of was from Totaly Spies). I am not sure which is the case. (im gonna place money on its a shortened-nickname though) Ok Sophie confirms its a daughter.

Elliot has been cooking, Parker is taking the long-distance part of Long Distance Relationship a bit hard around the holidays.

Knock on the door: its Doyledude. He's asking for Elliot by full name (sus). --- Doyledude's gay and his dads a preacher who didn't aprove of "woke" books like Charlie and the chocolate factory. (Yes Christians are that bad. Source: My dad got a chainletter that refered to the antichrist as an "avatar" of satan once and "The last airbender" and the blue smurfs were both insta-banned from the household forever).

--- "I am totally fine with revenge it allows us a range of outcomes the mark deserves". good line.

"Guess theres a lot of maurice's out there" KNEW IT, the moment they named him "blanche" i suspected we were gonna be getting a Maurice Leblanc reference. (of course they'd go for Arsene Lupin in an episode about the importance of libraries)

Harry's "so do I" is a simple joke but it lands well. 8/10.

I think we found todays villain: Its the guy harassing a homeless man for using the library. (fuck that guy) Ok ominous cut of someone taking pictures of Elliot. --- Sophie is walking around the theatre loading 100 checkov's guns at once (confetti cannon, Parker is booking a helicopter, red sportscar, Harry has a cane)

Sophie does a speech about the team needing to remember that this is a good person.

Elliot has gotten some of his old budies to work stuntmen. Parker is asking the very crucial heart-attack related question. Our safeword is Winnebago (google says its a campervan? Honestly, if it werent for the whole "automobiles are deathmachines I dont trust myself with" angle, i'd like one.) --- Librarian dude takes one look at the red sportscar and just thinks "dafuq kinda spy are you?" before stealing a regular car like a sensible person on the run from crooks would.

So, clearly the guy is either a someone bad upbringing who brought himself around, or an actual retired spy himself, who reads those books primarily out of nostalgia.

Ok its misspent youth, also the way he casually tosses the phone out the window. Love this guy. --- Im gonna be honest, while i apreciate the consistency of parker still being the Christmas Monster, the way her characterisation has mellowed out to using store-brand santamugs after she was first introduce as off-the-wall enough to use priceless jewelry as garlands is weird to me.

Breanna carelessly dismisses an attack on their own firewalls and servers. Harry's moustache is bad but the eyepatch is worse. --- Four stars? Comeon man. (good improv)

Actual Goons are here! "take spencer" knew it! no way that Doyledude would know Spencers full name. Mr Blanche has stolen a sportsbike. --- Turns out yeah, he was a former spy. Its RIZ bitch (did we get a name? I dont remember) she's looking for "the ledger" (presumeably a list of secret identities. We're looking for a book kept by a librarian. Its in the library. Probably that book samurai book he's been reading regularly) Ok so this is definitly becoming a recurring thing with the way she first used Elliot to find which guys to hire and is now talking about making him an instructor. Is she the secret person he's been phone-ing that breanna was asking about this whole episode? (i thought it was the Supercop from Arlo) --- Blanche has a gun pointed at our heroes. PTSD in a bottle, cause thats a thing that exists now. Wilson is still holding old job secrets from them? Thats... weird. --- Wait, Elliots dad is alive? But I thought that the episode ending implied otherwise? (Might be me being bad at understanding the subtext of that scene, might be a retcon) --- Mr Blanche has already beaten all the guards in the time it took a drugged out Elliot to break a chair. (Pretend to be the new guy, classic "heavy object in a sock" prison-improv weapon. 8/10, guy knows what he's doing, but is also a bit rusty and forced into improv mode) --- Turns out, he didnt retire because he wanted to retire but because no one would believe the ledger was destroyed. Luckily floppy disks suck at long-term storage.

Harry is talking with his old boss, trying to be the angel on his shoulder while the boss is trying to be the devil on his. (still really odd that we went through the trouble of establishing our heroes broke in to find Harry's ledger of old sins and that we're now going the "Harry wont tell them his old sins" route.) --- Copperhead and Elliot are talking. Copperhead does not want to go out by cancer. (we're faking his death and assigning him to International arent we?) --- Confetticannons are a go-go! (they're meant to simulate pages being shot by guns)

Blanche got disarmed and shot with his own gun. (definitly a death-fake) --- Huh, RIZ-woman doesnt actually kill the guards who fail her objectives. She just blackmails them into following their NDA's. (profesional)

Yup it was in the big samurai book. (obviously) and he's getting the rental.

OK so Hardison sent the library boy. (explains why he knew Spencers name)

Ok So Elliots dad is alive just not around for the holidays ever.

[lingeringscars]

@asuffocator liked for a starter / pairing: harper & birkhoff

"everyone is always telling me how good I am for you." there's a point, she promises. she knows he knows her well enough that he won't question the abrupt conversation. she's good at being in silence with him, really, she is, but sometimes she just needs to speak, to process whatever is going on inside her with the person she loves most in the world. with her best friend. the person she feels like she's failing. "you. nikita. alex. even bellamy and michael. everyone at division did, i think." she's less sure about that, but she got enough questioning looks because how could she, harper mcintyre, be so kind to, so in love with, seymour birkhoff. she gave them enough reason to question it, but they were never able to doubt it once she came back. she wouldn't let them.

"it's bullshit." she says this every time. "i didn't change you. i didn't have anything to do with that." nikita corrected herself, but she was still wrong. it wasn't her love that made birkhoff blossom or whatever she was getting at. she didn't make him feel safe enough to be the best version of himself. he was already on that path. "you saved michael and bellamy before you ever knew my name. you saved nikita and them before you could think twice. you saved me before you knew my name. you bought nikita a beach house because she loves it and would feel safe and comfortable there before you ever knew i liked the beach so don't say i also like the beach and that's why you did it because that wasn't true." maybe the second time, but she still thinks that's more about hindsight--a word he taught her-- than anything else.

"they're wrong about that. but i do know you better than anyone. i do.. i do understand you better...and...god." tears fall before she can blink them away. "baby, i have no idea what to do." and that crushes her. "i don't know how to help you. i was missing when you needed me." missing. what a lovely euphenism for kidnapped by the CIA. "when you really needed me." wiping at her tears. "i feel so out of my depth here. i hate your fucking father." he knows this. he's used to the cursing. "or, hated, i guess." she still thinks amanda would have made sure birkhoff was aware he was dead. she's an asshole like that. "i'm sorry." because she wasn't there. because she's a shit wife that getts shittier every time he needs her to not be a shit wife. because he's hurting. How can she be good for him when she has no idea what she's doing? Has no idea how to help? When every time he needs her, she falls short? He always knows exactly what to do and say for her. He's the person the makes everything better. Always. And she's incapable of returning it.

[your-absent-father]

Okay so... I might have done a false gods drabble to just play around with the characters a bit and to find their footing. They turned toxic, petty and clearly horrible people. I love them. You can find the introduction to them here

Tw: alcohol, refrence to sex, problematic characters, usages of bitch as an insult, mention of a future crime, drinking

False Gods drabble:

before a consert

Baz looked at herself in the mirror she held up to her face, looking at every detail of her makeup, made to look like Stevie Nicks herself would have painted her, but for the more modern day. Baz looked at the mask in her lap and frowned. "I hate this stupid mask." 

Nikita rolled her eyes. It wasn't the first time she heard those same complaints and she knew it wouldn't be the last. "I hate your stupid complaining. You are barely even hidden. A child could recognize you under that mask, unlike mine." 

Baz rolled her eyes. "That was your choice. It isn't my fault that beauty like this shouldn't be hidden under marble." Baz winked her eye towards the other woman. Nikita just snarled at her group mate. 

"Maybe I am the more sensible one. We are literally robbing a bank after this charity consert thing." Nikita crossed her arms and looked at her sister, begging moral support with her eyes. 

"Maybe I want to be an outlaw who performs in front of tens of thousands, and disappears before the cops arrive." Baz said, and looked at Stevie for her moral support. Louis, the only one not forced into this conversation, tried to sink himself deeper into the seat of the limo. 

"Not gonna lie, I would kill for a dramatic exit before the cops arrive." Stevie laughed and finished off the bottle he was drinking. It was only 8 pm before a show and a bank robbery. "They would make a kick ass historical movie out of it. Only problem is… I know they can't find anyone more handsome than me as a lead." Stevie raised his class to Baz who seemed to have forgotten any snarky comment towards her in the last few minutes. She scooted next to Stevie and took the last few sips of his beer. 

"Okay, if you could choose, who would play you in the aurora four biography." Baz looked around the limo. Elize, who had just been focusing on her phone, raised her eyes when Baz sat down next to Stevie, which Baz clogged immediately. To tease their former manager, now assistant, more, she put both of her legs to Stevie's lap and started playing with the man's hair. Elize tried to look away but she was almost glued to the two best friends so close with each other. Baz found it hilarious. 

"Ben Barnes, definitely. A hot guy who can look sexy in a band t-shirt. He also has that cool charisma as I do." Stevie winked his eye to Baz and looked at Louis. "What about you, our dear Jester?"

Louis felt like he had been in a trance that was now broken. He looked at his bandmate and stuttered. "I don't know. I guess Korea has a lot of actors active right now that could do it. I think-" 

"I think thinking about these things is stupid. It's like we are wishing to be caught" Nikita snapped at Baz, who giggled like she was watching the most fun tv-show she had witnessed. 

"Don't interrupt Louis, bitch", Baz said smiling, only to turn serious when insulting the other woman.

Before the whole limo could turn into chaos, the limo stopped. Nikita was the first one to put on the mask and leave. Louis was the next one. Stevie left the next, leaving Baz to put on her rose mask perfectly. She looked like a goddess, and felt like one. The dress she was wearing was form fitting, almost see through, if you didn't count the roses covering up the most parts people wouldn't find appropriate. Perfect to perfom in.

Before Baz walked up to the red carpet between the arena and the limo, Baz leaned closer to Elize's ear. "You know, he really likes it when you are desperate for his touch and not this dense. You're not in power anymore. Use more lipstick and bend those knees if you really want him that much." Baz didn't really care at all who Stevie dated with, or just fucked. There were probably a lot of people, women, men, non binary people, Stevie has hooked up with. None of them were interesting to Baz. What Baz liked was seeing Elize's face turn fully red while she walked towards the adoring fans screaming her alias.

Roseblood

Roseblood

She was in power. Not Elize Grant, not anyone else. She, Beatrix Jones, was the most powerful person in that red carpet in her mind.