#as i recently learned some navy stuff

[erigold13261]

How was Neon, an AFAB man, able to enter the navy and become a war hero?

"Don't ask, don't tell." basically. [Also, I am not FULLY aware of everything that goes on in the military/navy, so this all makes sense to me but might not be fully truthful to how things happen in real life. But hey, this is all fantasy so I could say whatever I want lol].

He was a very friendly guy and probably knew some people in the navy already. Or at least the toy maker he apprenticed under knew people in the navy and introduced Neon to them. I see Neon as being friends with one of the medical doctors who would later be the one to push Neon into doing the full cyborgification process.

So that guy was probably Neon's main medical person who looked after him and cleared him for active duty in a combat zone. And that would carry on to other medical practitioners where Neon's charisma just allowed him to get by some checks that would have denied him the ability to go into combat zones (which was technically a flaw in security, but it worked out for Neon lol).

There have been plenty of trans people who have infiltrated (probably not the right word to use here) the military and were able to serve but not in combat zones. They would be either nurses/doctors, cooks, secretaries, etc.

So there were higher ups who did know that Neon was trans, they just didn't say anything. Though some of them did try to make his life hell by forcing him to do more manual tasks as a way to punish him just because he was trans. Thankfully Neon works smarter, not harder (though he did work very hard) and was able to do everything asked of him.

It was his knowledge, quick thinking, and skill with machinery that allowed him to save his ship after it got hit and some of the boilers/engines were close to exploding. He did end up losing his right arm in leg in this instance (along with some function of his right eye), but it saved the crew.

His self sacrifice earned him a few medals, but also his medical friend offered Neon to get experimental cybernetics as a thank you from the navy. He thought Neon would take them and go back to being a civilian, he had no idea Neon would come back after recovery ready to get back to work and serve his country.

By that point Neon was very well liked by much of the crew he was part of (this was before he was a captain) and even by a lot of the higher ups from his actions and ability to be tested on. So they let him back in and he continued to work, even helping advance weaponry and cybernetics while he worked because Neon was never idle. Even helping create the bases of a lot of the warbots used in the upcoming war.

Once the war started it didn't even matter what kind of people were in the navy, as long as they were serving their country the military would take whoever they could draft and any volunteers. So Neon didn't even have to worry at this point about getting kicked out, though he did continue to keep his transness a secret/on the down low as best as possible.

He was also a lot higher rank than he was before by the time he was outed fully as trans to his crew. Being a commander at the time thanks to his improvements of machines, robots, ships, and more. So his rank, promise, and crew were all there and kept him in the navy for a few more years.

Things were going great until the captain of the ship Neon was a Commander on died along with a small but decent portion of the crew on board during an attack. Neon was able to take command and lead their ship out of enemy waters and to a rendezvous point where backup would be. This action would be what allowed him to be promoted to Captain and take over the crew that was left on his own ship.

Unfortunately, the luck Neon had would run out soon enough as his ship would blown up in enemy waters, but close enough to the shore that there were survivors who were able to make it there on life boats. At least the ones who weren't shot on their way to shore.

Neon and his closest 5 friends/crewmates (they were helping people escape and making sure Neon would make it off too and didn't go on a suicide mission) were the last to leave the ship after realizing everyone else is probably dead or not able to be saved. They were able to make it to shore.

At this specific point I am unsure on whether I wanted Neon and friends to become POW or them actually be able to fight back and try to make it to allied forces that were "kinda" close by. I think I am leaning towards them fighting back, which would be possible as I can see them having brought weapons along with having some cybernetics between all of them giving them a physical advantage to the enemies who did not have this kind of technology.

Either way, Neon was one of the only people to survive thanks to the help of a warbot(-s, maybe more than one) that made out of the water and helped protect Neon but was too late to save the other 5 crewmates.

The warbot(s) and Neon making it back to allied ground allowed him to give important information about the internal workings of some camps or something like that which helped in the end of the war itself. However, by this point Neon was exhausted and full of injuries which would later cause his other arm and leg to be amputated, face plates put on his head, and a full spinal reconstruction surgery.

So yeah, Neon really helped out the war efforts. Later on once he became a full cyborg he would also work as a sniper so that he could earn more money to give to his ex-wife and daughter while also keeping another war from starting.

At least this is the general stuff I was thinking about. Some things might change or be added, but for the most part this is how I see Neon's navy career going.

[compacflt]

question: how do you find your research/sources? yours and dancing disasters' icemav fics are so inside baseball i love it, but how do you go about doing research?

I just read a lot & google stuff I don't know & am curious about. not that hard to start learning. and in terms of reading I've been interested in military history & milfiction my whole life. mostly related to the US army, actually--im extremely new to naval history and naval literature; all of that interest was driven by top gun. I've also been fortunate enough to visit a lot of the places I write about--ive been to Pearl Harbor a couple times & San Diego MANY times, for instance, and I've toured a few aircraft carriers and military bases. I've also finally bitten the bullet and kinda shifted my career path towards aerospace, so I've been learning a lot just by working in the aerospace & defense sector/spending a lot of time with people who do.

that's obviously not to say that I am somehow Educated in all this stuff. im pretty open on this blog about me being young & naive & wrong much of the time about how the real world works. so, you know, a lot of shit I just Make Up according to my preconceived notions of the military & the world.

here is my recommended military/navy reading list, some fiction and some nonfiction.

someone also asked recently if I had read anything good in the last 6 months--yes!! three new additions to my reading list: a) Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain. So goddamn good. If you have to read only one novel about the Iraq War, make it this one. It's more about America than it is about Iraq. b) Redeployment by Phil Klay. This one is a collection of short stories about Marines in Iraq, written by a USMC vet, talk about inside baseball. Crazy amounts of jargon in here, basically a "to-google" list. won the national book award which idk if it deserved, but it's good. c) No true glory: A Frontline Account of the Battle of Fallujah by Bing West. currently reading this one, really well done so far, talks a lot about how fucked the US strategy was in Iraq with Fallujah serving as a metonymy/case study for the war itself.

again... this is all mostly close-quarters-combat (infantry) literature, I really am not that interested in the navy/Air Force that much outside of top gun lol

though I did recently remember that in early 2022, before I was into top gun, I read "Wingmen" by Ensan Case, which is actually a gay US naval aviator romance set in WWII published in 1979! it's really authentic and kind of sad, obviously, since it was a 1940s navy gay love story published in 1979. I don't actually think Wingmen influenced how I wrote wwgattai or how I think of TG/TGM but I just remembered that I read that book in February 2022 and going "oh my god they were wingmen" so maybe you might find that book interesting.

[aplaceinthedark]

chapter two: AFRAID to KNOW

Summary: Down in the Shenandoah Valley, there lay a court consisting of the Grim, the Drowned, the Witch, and the Watcher.

CW: supernatural themes, weed

Every chapter will have a different cw section. This is Bad Omens rpf, so obviously, I don't know all the little nuances of the members or their family members.

A/N: Some things are color-coded. If any of you are colorblind lemme know.

Granny hadn’t been kidding.

Later that morning, after I was done puzzling over what took the apples, the movers finally dropped off the rest of my furniture. I was contemplating where I was going to move said stuff, and like a sign from whatever deity, at noon sharp, there was a knock at the screen door.

The grandson was nothing like what I expected.

“I’m Nicholas,” he said with a small smile. I wasn’t expecting his arms and legs to be covered in tattoos, nor his long black hair to be in a messy bun, nor the large spacers in his ears.

“Taylor,” I said, because I was too much in shock to say anything else.

Once inside, he pushed his sunglasses up onto the top of his head. His eyes matched the cloudy skies outside. As he glanced around, he let out a low whistle. “It's been a while since I've been in the haunted house,” he admitted.

I raised an eyebrow. “Haunted?”

“Oh, it’s probably not,” he quickly backtracked. “A lot of us grew up thinking it was, since no one ends up living here for very long.”

I tried to remember what Granny had said about the previous tenants. She had made it sound like it had been recent, but I guess maybe it had been much longer than that.

“I’m learning a lot about this place,” I sighed.

He smiled sympathetically, his face slightly scrunching up with the movement. “Yeah, Granny told me she came by yesterday. She didn’t spook you too much, did she?”

“No, she didn’t,” I said. Honestly, if anything would have spooked me, it would’ve been the disappearing apples. I peered over to the massive pile of furniture, then to the empty space, and then to Nicholas. “Well, I'd offer a place to sit, but…” I waved a hand over all the cellophane-wrapped monstrosities.

“It’s fine. I need to smoke anyway. You're not against weed, are you?”

Outside, I learned that Nicholas was - go figure - a tattoo artist, dividing his time between here and a friend’s couch in Richmond. He spent all of his childhood here, and now he lived with Granny to help her around the house.

“She used to fill all our heads with all kinds of warnings about the woods,” he said.

“Did you believe them?” I asked.

“More than I’d like to admit.” He chuckled. “What about you? Where’d you come from?”

“Newport.”

“Lemme guess… Navy brat?”

“You know me so well,” I drawled sarcastically, motioning for the joint.

“This place must be completely new to you.”

“Well, anywhere is better than there,” I said, staring ahead to avoid his quizzical expression.

Moving furniture soon became a wonderful distraction, and despite probably being held at gunpoint to get him to come out here, Nicholas was a huge help. He actually did a lot of the heavy lifting, which was a relief for me. But he wouldn’t take payment, though he did eventually acquiesce to a sandwich and beers.

“What’s with the extra sandwich?” he asked, eyeing the plate I had left on the counter.

“That’s…uhm…” I trailed off as I tried to think of a better reason than ‘I'm experimenting on the wildlife to see what snuck up on my porch last night.’

“Saving it for later?” he asked.

“Yeah!” I just decided to go along with that.

I didn’t know if it was just me unconsciously reaching out to someone my own age, or if it was just because the whole situation was… odd, but I couldn’t tell him about the apples and the mysterious animal. Even if it turned out that I was feeding a family of wild raccoons, I couldn’t justify telling Nicholas about it.

Or I was just going local already, and I was only three days in.

Nicholas stayed and helped around the house for a few more hours after that, even after I had called a stop to it all. When we chatted over another joint, I learned he was actually pretty sweet. We both had a mutual love of cats and Star Wars. He even showed me a picture of his chubby black-and-white cat, Jerry, and his small calico, Lydia.

“I want to get a cat eventually,” I said wistfully.

“It’ll have to be an indoor cat,” he warned.

“Oh, because of the wild animals out in the woods?”

“Yeah,” he said, a little quieter than before. He then glanced out the window. “Shit. I better get going or Granny will be calling the rangers.”

“Don’t wanna get caught out after dark?” I teased.

“You have no idea.”

After exchanging phone numbers and goodbyes, he drove off. When I was absolutely sure there was no way he could be watching, I went inside to retrieve the sandwich.

The weather finally broke overnight; the low rumbles of thunder in the distance brought me out of my dreamless sleep. I twisted over and looked at my phone’s clock. 3:13. Fuck.

While still trying to stay sleepy, I groggily made my way to the bathroom, maneuvering around the dark using my phone’s flashlight. I was still learning my way around the house, despite the simple floor plan.

When I was heading back to my bedroom, I saw something move in the corner of my eye, almost like a shadow flickering in the light. I blinked, turning towards the movement. One of the curtains attached to the window next to the front door undulated in the breeze. Fucking hell, how did I manage to miss closing a window? As I padded over, I heard a noise that made me come to a screeching halt. Was that thunder? It sounded too close.

When I heard it again, I dropped to the ground like someone was shooting the place up. That was definitely not thunder.

Something was on my front porch.

As I slowly shimmied along the floor, I thought of all the scenarios of what could be on the front porch, and what would happen if they broke into my house. By the time I got to the window, I was almost certain that a psycho lumberjack was about to bash down my door to come in and murder me.

With my back against the wall, I slowly lifted my phone up to the windowsill, using the selfie camera as a periscope. Turning it various ways, I found I couldn’t see shit. So at least whatever it was wasn’t at my door.

I waited to see if there would be another noise, and when there wasn’t any, I got up onto my knees to peer through the bottom of the curtain. Nope, still nothing. I then reached up to slowly close the window.

The sound it made was almost unholy. The wood must have suffered some swelling, and the scraping sound it made against the window frame scared me. The reaction was immediate. Whatever was on my porch took off like a gunshot, and was gone.

I flinched, dropping back to the ground, thus not seeing what it was. After a few more minutes of unnerving silence, and despite my heart screaming at me not to do it, I slowly stood up and unlocked my door. With shaky hands, I opened it and poked my head out.

Almost immediately, my eyes fell down to the plate. It wasn’t where I had left it. It was upside-down a couple feet away from its original spot.

And the sandwich was gone.

Any recommendations on the nearest place to buy a security camera?

I woke up late, not being able to fall asleep until exhaustion claimed me when dawn came. After consuming my third cup of coffee, I texted Nicholas.

Nicholas 🐱: ? Already got porch bandits?

I wish I could’ve texted back You have no idea, but instead what I texted back was:

I put out a bird feeder and something destroyed it. I wanna catch the little fucker who did it.

A bolt of shame shot through me. My first possible friend and now I’ve lied to him twice already.

Nicholas 🐱: 😂 Good luck finding one within 30 miles of here. Your best bet is Prime at this point.

Grumbling, I started searching for nearby electronic stores or hardware stores, maybe both so I could knock out two places at once. Unfortunately, Nicholas was right, and I couldn’t go anywhere without making it an afternoon.

I sighed. Time to hook up my washer and dryer then.

“Fucking… fuck… There!” I cursed at myself as I finally got the dryer hooked up. I rolled over onto my back and let out a huge sigh of relief.

I laid out on the floor of the washroom for several minutes, letting the tutorial on how to hook up washers and dryers play out. Wi-fi had been the first thing I hooked up, which was a lot easier than… this.

The buzzer on the washer went off, startling me out of staring at the ceiling. With my hip protesting, I got up slowly.

Only having a few hours of daylight left, I hurried to hang up some of my non-tumble clothes that had been in boxes for way too long. I had strung up a rope between two trees temporarily, and pinned up my hoodies.

I turned back to go into the house, when I saw something in the woods that made me pause. Something that was a different color than the green and brown of the trees. It flapped in the wind, caught on a tree branch.

I walked over, plucking the dark fabric off the branch. It looked like someone's clothing got stuck and had been torn off… like they had to run before they got caught. I looked behind me to my house. The side of my front porch was directly behind me.

I looked down and saw the imprint of… something in the still soft mud. It looked too big to be an animal, but it didn’t look like the shape of a human shoe. Then I saw another imprint, but it looked different than the first.

That's when I noticed the trail that led from my porch to the woods morphed into something recognizable as an animal the closer it got to the woods.

I followed the trail to the edge of the woods, and then farther in. I was about to take a step into the tall grass when a large hand grabbed my shoulder.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

I yelped, twisting out of the hands grip and scrabbling away. I had to catch myself before I fell on my ass. Breathing heavily, I looked up into large, familiar black eyes.

“Hi, I'm Noah.”

Tysm for reading! Next chapter coming soon!

[abyssalaerlocke]

AO3 Masterpost

New to this, so no idea how I should format this

Most of the stuff on my account right now is old, completely abandoned, probably cringy, so explore at your own peril — but here's my more recent stuff.

(You can also ask my WIPs)

Baldur's Gate 3

FWB (Friends with Beets)

Default Dark Urge/Trans Enver Gortash

Dead Three's Dream Team

An AU where Ascendant Astarion is Myrkul's Chosen, Gale is Bane's Chosen, and the three of you had a relationship and formed the Absolute plot together.

Reader is Durge: AFAB, gender neutral, literally whatever vanilla race you want (make sure you read the notes and have the appropriate option active). Class is irrelevant.

Sexually explicit one-shots, with a bit of plot stringing them together. You can read as a series, or just one offs if only some interest you.

The Vampire Lord

Astarion/Reader, amnesia, virginity kink

The Ambitious Wizard

Gale/Reader, bloody sex, dom!Durge, service top Gale

Mirror

Astarion/Reader/Gale, shape-shifting, Astarion selfcest

Throne

Astarion/Reader/Gale, public nudity, spanking, throne sex

A Willing Sacrifice

AFAB, gender neutral reader, non-scaly tall race. Sexually explicit

Astarion/Reader/Gale, roleplay, god-lite!Gale accepts an offering in exchange for helping spawn!Astarion walk in the sun

Avatar

Learning to Breathe

Quaritch/Spider. Unrated (blurs the line between mature and explicit. This one's plot focused)

Role reversal AU, good Navi!Quaritch, hybrid!Spider, pseudo incest, ftm Spider

[boltlightning]

Oooh!! pre-proposal disaster ! Please tell me more 😍😍😍

aha...one day the pre-proposal disaster is gonna be a one-shot about james norrington psyching himself up to ask governor swann for his daughter's hand in marriage. it's one of those i want to be Perfect because it's going to be short. i wrote the whole thing at like 2am one night and decided i didn't like the flow, then got embarrassed and didn't revisit the fic until recently. it's a sorry state of affairs.

BUT here is a look at some of the content that's gonna get recycled when i come back to this:

Dinners at the Swanns usually end with whist now, but that was not always the case. James has been a family friend of the Swanns since they first arrived in Port Royal; the governor took pity on the poor fourth lieutenant of the Dauntless, a boy of ambition and manners well beyond his years. As his career began to escalate at an unusual and meteoric rate, James came to find dinner at the Swanns a welcome, steady reprieve. Governor Swann is a natural conversant, eager to get James’ opinion on politics and publications and oh, isn’t that bill that Judge Carew is pushing so vile? Elizabeth in her youth was always sharp, and recognized James as a source for sea stories, though James’ experiences in the Navy could never be as grandiose as the ones she read about in novels.  James was well-read and encouraged her studies. He thinks fondly of the time she was learning French. James himself had learned a passable amount from his mother in his youth, and though his accent is much better than Elizabeth’s, her vocabulary far surpasses his. They would try and communicate in French over the dinner table until both were conversational. To this day, she still tosses French sentences at him when she feels the need for discretion over afternoon tea with her father.

ask me stuff about my wips ✨

[unadulteratedkr]

Katherine’s OFMD Fic Masterlist

I decided to put this together because I’m avoiding writing the last chapter of my reverse big bang, and I’ve had this on my to-do list since... *mumbles*. Isn’t it amazing how productive you can be about stuff when you’re avoiding doing something else?

Below the cut, you’ll find all of my (Dialects_and_Costumes on Ao3) Gentlebeard OFMD fics with their ratings and their summaries. The fics are sorted from most to least recent! NOTE: Fics with M and E ratings contain sexually explicit content, so while the body of this post is SFW, those links will not be.

Chapter-Length Fics

you wrote me a lovely letter; now it’s my turn (Complete, Rated T)

Ed writes to Stede about their story

do you think I’d give up? (Complete, Rated E)

Ed has a new strand of pearls when Stede finds him again.

Between the Sand and the Stardust (Complete, Rated E) Written for the OFMD Reverse Big Bang, featuring art from @poorlyformed

Stede Bonnet has lived next to the Wall his whole life, and he's never crossed it before. No one has. It's the Wall.

But then a star falls.

On the opposite side of the Wall.

And it's time for Stede to have an adventure.

let it rain, ‘cause you and I remain the same (Complete, Rated E)

Fuckeries run rampant when a man puts out to sea.

Be it magic, an act of one god or of several, or a phenomenon purely created by those who venture forth on the unfathomable waves of the deep, the ocean keeps all those who traverse her narrow currents at her tempestuous mercy. Many a sailor has fallen victim to her deceptive pliancy; many a sailor has ignored the augurs in her violent seafoam.

For Stede Bonnet, the fuckery comes from a single-minded focus to find his way across the endless waters. He doesn't hear the warning cry, doesn't see the jibing boom swinging viciously towards the back of his skull, he just feels a black hole of pain before there’s no pain, just black.

For Edward Teach, it's a bottle to the head.

Stand to Face Me, Beloved (Complete, Rated E) Written for the OFMD Big Bang 2022, featuring art from @poorlyformed

Time has run out for Blackbeard and his crew when the Revenge is taken by the fearsome Captain Anne Bonny and Captain Mary Read. As Edward adjusts to life aboard Captain Read's ship, he learns Stede Bonnet has died. Ed navigates his grief as Anne and Mary continue to flee from the dogged pursuit of the English Navy, and right as the Navy swoops them up, Stede Bonnet sails back into Ed's life. Together, he and Stede build their way back to trusting one another as they plan a daring raid to rescue Mary and Anne.

I'll follow the echoes (Complete, Rated E)

When the Revenge is in need of some extreme maintenance that leaves the ship and its crew stuck in Nassau for a month, Ed finds himself returning to the piano at a small bar in town far away from anyone who knows him.

One-shots

waiting to see us once beautiful and brave (Rated E)-part 1 of “the princess Ed cinematic universe”, featuring art by @poorlyformed

"What did you want to be when you were young, my love?"

"I wanted to be a princess."

i loved my friend (Rated T)

He's gone.

something to hold in your hands (Rated E)

Ed offers to teach Stede something else that all the pirates are doing. No really. They're all doing this.

you know you wanna give 'em one more chance (Rated G)

Ed hasn't forgiven Stede yet, but that doesn't stop Stede from giving Ed pearls.

plunge me deep (Rated E)

After months living and breathing as the Kraken every night, Ed comes back to land.

in the winter wind, be my warm (Rated T)

When the Revenge sails north to escape a bounty on Jim's head, Stede learns to appreciate the snow through Ed's eyes.

And as I go along, I want you with me (Rated E)

Ed gives himself a tattoo to remember Stede by, and Stede likes it. A lot.

sin is sacred again (Rated E)

“Is this—is this new?” Stede reaches up, and touches the tip of a tentacle brushing hair away from his face. Yeah. Since—yeah. It’s new. It aches to hear the clipped way Ed’s voice echoes in his head. It aches even more to know he could have prevented it by finding this new strain of courage a few days sooner than he did. “Since I left.” The tentacles holding him steady in the water don’t tighten or relax in any way, but they begin to tremble. Since you left.

a mile of clean sand (Rated E)

It's an accident when Stede finds Ed again.

[ash5monster01]

Lessons of You Part 7

Pairing: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x FemReader

Warnings: fluff, mentions of depression, mentions of smut, broken reader, 18+

Summary: Blake Parker was used to running. When life got hard, she’d run. The idea of sticking around to end up broken was scarier then she’d like to admit. So she hid away, cut all ties, and lived contently on her own. She was done running because no one could find her there. That is until a Navy Pilot runs into her life, and she learns allowing yourself to love can be scary, but hiding from it can be even worse.

a/n: I’m soooo sorry it’s been so long. I dropped that smutty chapter and literally dipped. The Fourth of July is the busiest time of the year for me so I was preoccupied with that but here is the newest chapter. sadly our story is coming to a close, I have a feeling the next chapter will be the last. thank you so much for coming on this journey with me and reading along xx

word count: 1,871

Intro, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Final

Masterlist

It had been two days since Blake had heard from Bradley. She tried not to worry but it was hard. Going from a week of Bradley texting her every chance he got to being in her bed the night before he left, it was hard to go to complete radio silence. She tried to remind herself she knew nothing about the mission. Bradley never once mentioned how long it would be, how many days it could take, how far away it was, nothing. She prayed that it just meant he was still busy and serving his country. She had no other way to contact anyone to make sure he was alive. She kind of knew Phoenix but she didn’t have her number, and she could go back to the Hard Deck but if they had lost someone why would they have any need to be celebrating at a bar? So she waited and prayed that if she ever did recieve word it would be good news.

After her night with Bradley she had texted her Mom informing her she was ready to move back. Her Mom had already found an apartment, searching before Blake had even decided. It was a perfect little place and it reminded her very much of the one she was in now. The minute she gave her Mom the go ahead they got it all worked out, her Dad already fixing things in the apartment that it needed. So now Blake's life consisted of boxes, not many considering she didn't have much, but there was still stuff to be packed and taken with her on her self discovery journey. The idea of being home was exciting and nerve wracking all at the same time. She just hoped that when it was time for her to go Bradley will have returned.

"Almost done packing as we speak" Blake told her Mom over the phone as she looked at the living room stuffed with boxes. Her apartment had come completely furnished so majority of the boxes was clothes, bedding, and some dishware. Considering she did the same thing every day and didn't socialize much that wasn't even a lot either. Majority of the boxes were filled with books. Once she had finished she was surprised to realize what a small mark of hers she had left on San Diego, it was as if she took up no space at all.

"Are you excited, we can't wait to see you" her Mom cheered on the phone and Blake smiled, because she was excited but nerves twinged in her stomach over Bradley.

"Yeah, I can't wait" but her Mom heard it in her voice, and she knew something was wrong. She prayed she wasn't changing her mind.

"It doesn’t sound like it" Blake sighed and pressed a hand to her head.

"I am Mom, I promise. It's just I haven't heard from Bradley and last I knew he was picked for some dangerous mission. I will be more enthusiastic once I know he is safe" her parents knew of Bradley, considering he was the only thing to happen in her life recently that was worth talking about. The attractive Navy pilot with a heart of gold who brought their daughter back to them. They would be forever indebted to him for that.

"I'm sure he's fine sweetheart, he's trained for these type of things and they wouldn't of chosen him if they didnt think there would be a chance of him not coming back home" Blake nodded because she knew her Mom was right, she just needed to hear his voice. One last goodbye with the guy who made her whole again. He was a life lesson she needed, the one she was waiting for. The thing about life lessons though was usually after you learn them you don't need it anymore. That thought terrified her, because Bradley is the only reason she had felt something for the first time in years.

"I know, I just worry that maybe something did happen and not a single soul knows to contact me. Maybe he didn't make it and I would never know and have to come back home wondering whatever happened to the Navy Pilot I kind of fell for" this was Blake's first time admitting to any feelings at all, but Bradley was the first person to make her heart start beating in a long time and she couldn't just leave without knowing if he was okay.

"Blake honey, people are meant to be in our lives for a reason. Whether it's forever or only for one reason. Bradley met you for a reason and maybe you weren't meant to see him again, but it you are you'll know. Now don't worry so much, he is a professional after all" Blake sighed as she said this before nodding despite the fact her mother couldn’t see her.

"I'm gonna finish packing, I'll call you later Mom" Blake told her, not wanting to cry because she knew her Mom was right. Her Mom was trying to not break her heart if Bradley did never return. She would just have to remember him as something good that helped her through a rough patch of her life.

"Okay, be safe" her Mom responded and Blake ended the call uninterested in hearing anymore of letting Bradley go. She just wasn’t quite ready to pretend that the short time spent with Bradley was just that. A small shared moment between two broken people who helped each other learn that life goes on and it is as good as you make it.

It didn't take long to finish packing. She didn't have a lot and once she shut the last box she realized that there was nothing more to occupy her time then worry about Bradley. So even though she had told the publishing company she needed a few days she grabbed her latest shelf read and made her way to the porch to try and finish it. The sound of waves crashing, seagulls cawing, and kids screams from the beach was able to drown out her thoughts as she escaped into a different world. That was until she noticed the male lead in the book was an awful lot like Bradley. Dark and mysterious yet so full of love.

"Here I was thinking you'd be waiting at the door for me, worry all over you face, and instead I find you out here reading. Typical" Blake dropped the book in her hands, whipping around to see the beautiful mustached man standing in her doorway. She must've not heard the front door.

"Bradshaw!" without even realizing tears fell down her cheeks as she rushed towards him, him instantly engulfing her in a hug. "I was so worried, I didn't know what to think or who to call"

"It's okay, I'm here now" he comforted her, a hand running down her back and he instantly felt guilty knowing what had just happened on his mission.

"Was everything successful?" she asked, now backing away and holding his face in her hands.

"Yes, of course there were a few hiccups but we didn't lose any lives" he told her, afraid to tell her the hiccup was him pretty much sacrficing himself. Yet Blake saw all the guilt all over his face, her eyebrows instantly drawing together.

"You almost didn't make it?" she whispered, a thumb pressing out the crease in his forehead.

"Uncle Pete, Maverick took a hit for me and his plane went down. I couldn't just leave him so I went down after him" Blake gasped just slightly, possibilities running through her head like wildfire.

“You could have died” Blake fought the tears that threatened to run down her face, she didn’t want to be upset because he was here now. Right in front of her.

“I know, I know. I wasn’t thinking, just I saw him get hit for me. I thought I was a goner, and then I realized that when he went down for me that was the last family I had and if I didn’t do something I’d never forgive myself” Bradley told her, hands gripping her wrists as he tried to tell her everything was okay.

“Is he okay?” she asked and a smile cracked across his face.

“Yeah, lucky bastard and a little help from Hangman later but we both made it” he grinned at her and she chuckled, just knowing Hangman would hold that over him forever.

“I thought if you died I’d never know, I had no one to contact. I wasn’t sure what to do with myself while you were gone” Blake finally admitted and a tear rolled down his cheek at her confession.

“I gave Phoenix your number, she had specific instructions to call if I didn’t make it and give you any information you needed” Blake drew her eyebrows together in confusion.

“But you went down, they thought you and Pete were dead. She never called” Bradley chuckled through his tears, smile on his face.

“She knew I was still out there, I’m a tough asshole” Blake chuckled and shook her head as she pulled him back into another hug.

“Okay enough death talk, I’m just glad you’re here” she told him and he nodded on top of her head, arms wrapped around her waist.

“I saw the boxes in the living room” he said, immediately noticing the house was emptier than before when he arrived.

“Yeah. I um, found an apartment back home” she said pulling back, her eyes searching his face for a reaction.

“When do you leave?” he asked and Blake sighed, knowing it was too fast, that they only had such little time together.

“Tuesday” Two days. That was it. Two days and then she would be halfway across the country.

“Wow” was all he could bring himself to say, letting the information sink in despite the fact he wanted to pretend she’d be here forever.

“I know we only got a short time together but you taught me that you can lose people at any moment, life is full of regrets, and one of them shouldn’t be staying away from loved ones when you still have a chance to love them” Bradley smiled, happy he was able to give her that. Even if they knew each other for a small period of time, they still learned so much from one another.

“I’m happy I could show you that, you helped me too you know. I probably never would’ve allowed my Uncle back into my life if it wasn’t for you. So now when you leave I still have someone here for me” Blake smiled and hugged the boy tight again, knowing that this conversation felt final. Knowing that despite how hard they try, being across the country from each other wouldn’t keep them together.

“So, what’re you doing for the next two days?” Blake asked, her voice vibrating against his chest and Bradley chuckled, a wide smile spread across his face.

“Spending them with you, if you’ll let me” he told her and Blake smiled, her head tilting up to look at him.

“You don’t have to ask for permission anymore big B”

Taglist: @emma8895eb @aemondssiut

comment if you want to be added to the tag list :))

[yourdailykitsch]

Chris Pratt’s ‘The Terminal List’ Gets Second Season & Prequel Series Starting Taylor Kitsch At Prime Video

The Terminal List is continuing — and becoming a franchise for Amazon Studios. I have learned that Prime Video has finalized a Season 2 renewal for the hit series starring and executive produced by Chris Pratt, and also has picked up an untitled prequel/Ben Edwards origin series headlined and executive produced by Taylor Kitsch, from The Terminal List creator/executive producer David DiGilio. I hear other Jack Carr characters who have or have not appeared yet on The Terminal List, an adaptation of his 2018 novel, will be featured in the prequel, including Pratt’s Navy SEAL James Reece and Raife Hastings, a former SEAL pal of Reece’s whose potential arrival was set up in Season 1 of the mothership series. A rep for Amazon Studios declined comment. Talks about a second season of The Terminal List — which has been a big hit for Prime Video, reaching No. 2 on Nielsen’s weekly Top 10 streaming ratings chart — have been going on for months. I hear that during those conversations, Pratt suggested expanding the series with a prequel, which he is executive producing through his Indivisible Productions alongside Kitsch.

According to sources, also executive producing the offshoot are DiGilio, who serves as showrunner; fellow The Terminal List executive producers Carr and Antoine Fuqua; and producers include Max Adams, a writer who is a former Army Ranger; and Pratt’s longtime coach Jared Shaw, a former Navy SEAL. The prequel is described an elevated espionage thriller that follows Ben’s (Kitsch) journey from Navy SEAL to CIA paramilitary operator, exploring the true darker side of warfare and the human cost that comes with it. The Terminal List, a co-production from Amazon Studios and Civic Center Media in association with MRC Television, tells the story of James Reece (Pratt), a Navy SEAL who seeks to avenge the murder of his family. Following the outsized ratings success of the eight-episode first season, which launched July 1, Pratt hinted that more episodes are coming during a September appearance on Carr’s podcast Danger Close. “To the rabid fans of The Terminal List out there, you have nothing to worry about,” he said. “We love you and appreciate your support. It’s our life’s mission to make sure you can come back to the well. We are working away.” Added Carr, “There may be some cool stuff on the horizon being discussed.” Besides Pratt and Kitsch, the main cast of the conspiracy thriller’s first season also included Constance Wu, Riley Keough, Arlo Mertz and Jeanne Tripplehorn. Waco alum Kitsch will next be seen in the Netflix limited series American Primeval and Painkiller, both directed by Pete Berg. Pratt next will be seen reprising his role as Star-Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and heard as Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. His recent credits include The Guardians of the Galaxy: Holiday Special for Disney+, Thor: Love and Thunder, Jurassic World: Dominion and The Tomorrow War, which he executive produced.

[daincrediblegg]

2, 9, 11, 12, 22?

2. Do you read/reread your own fics? It really honestly kindof depends on the fandom on this one. Generally speaking when I put some creative thing out there of any kind I am loathe to re-watch or re-read it (with the exception of looking at my own fanart- unless it was especially bad I love looking back at some of my old stuff just for the sheer thrill of seeing how much progress I’ve made) BUtT!!!! There is the exception of when it’s like. I’m either in a fandom in which the character I like gets character assassinated in fics a lot of the time and I need enrichment from outside sources or my own. OR when I’m just in a fandom where people don’t write x reader fics that much for the character and I’m the only one writing them and I have to re-read myself bc that’s the only content out there (current predicament re; everything Jared Harris has been in and it’s a crime that I’ve spent the whole year trying to remedy lmao).

9. Do you write every day? If you wrote today, share a sentence of what you’ve written!

OK SO!!!! This was actually a couple of paragraphs I got down yesterday and it’s some of the more solid stuff I’ve put out in recent months, but I’m very proud of how it turned out:

Sinclair was never particularly fussy when it came to her appearance, which made changing for dinner a fairly brief affair. She had learned from an early age that there was certainly no room for such attentions on a ship, and in fact had great fun in witnessing first-time sea-faring ladies, passengers of course on The Demeter, who tried to keep their appearances in spite of the swell and sway of the high seas. She remembered fondly then, the laugh of Mrs. Rose Anthony. How she’d wished to hear it now and all these months gone past. She would have laughed to see Fitzjames on the deck this morning, with that ridiculous cloak flowing behind him like a peacock with his feathers at half mast. None of the men would see it as she did. Not that she was in too much want of friends among them. But fewer still would understand her sense of humor as Rose had.  Pondering this, Sinclair forewent her shirt and waistcoat- both of which were custom tailored, as it wouldn’t do for the navy to commission such a garment. But her father had, for her sake. One of his many parting gifts. The very same man whose picture Sinclair’s gaze drifted to as she buttoned the deep blue bodice that had also been part of the set he had purchased for her, this one long sleeved to match the deep blue flannel day skirt she kept on, and which had served her so well in the chilly climate. She’d missed too how well he’d been able to do her hair for an occasion like this, where Sinclair now only managed a bun tied fairly neatly to the back of her head (more than she’d dare to manage for her daily duties, she might add), but it suited her all the same for the impression Sir John, and indeed, most of the men had of her. Neat as a pin. Diligent. A fixture of a plain sort of beauty in the corner. Never the center of their attentions, but never quite ignored.

12. Do you have a playlist for your current WIP(s)? Share it!

As I said in the other ask I have like. Just so many. None of them coherent- but THIS ONE has been my instrumental inspiration for a little while so there you have it. Someday I will consolidate all my fave lady terror vibes into a proper playlist... but that is not today...

22. Do you know how your fic will end before you start writing?

I mean… sort of. Like in general I do like to have some kind of sense where something is going before I start it- if it’s anything I’ve learned from commercial failures like GOT and the Star Wars Sequels it’s that poor planning will fucking kill you because actually as it turns out narrative structure is important. But at the same time- I think this was a quote from George R.R. Martin that some writers are “builders” who have everything pre-conceived before they put anything down (in reference to Stephen King), and some are “gardeners” (like George) who let stories just grow as they go. For me personally I’ve never felt too tied to either camp, so I put forth my secret third option being: “chef”. I know what I want the end-product to be. I have a general sense of what it should taste like and how I should cook it-thematically speaking. But things still come up as I go. Sometimes it needs a bit more of one spice than another and I try to listen to those instincts when they tell me to add something to what I’m making. 

11 ANSWERED HERE

[zeebreezin]

Introduction —

Hi hi hello, I’m Astra (He/They) and welcome to my Fallen London Sideblog! I’m very new to the game, having picked up FL maybe a month ago as of posting, and not playing very frequently until recently, though I have played a good bit of Sunless Seas. My lore knowledge is pretty bad, I won’t lie, but I am 100% here to learn.

This blog is largely going to be about my OCs, as well as probably a bit of liveblogging about my personal playthrough of FL - the character I’m currently running as a PC is on the Nemesis! Ambition so I’ll probably have some thoughts about that once I’m a bit further along. I’m always open to talk about OCs and for interactions so just let me know!!

As a note, I’m way more comfortable painting backgrounds and stylized figures than I am drawing character portraits! Portraiture is a very new venture for me!

Currently, all of my FL characters reside in the same apartment, spitting the rent - with Shaw & B living there full time, and Verily largely using the space as a place to crash on land. The two main NPCs, Acumen and Beverley, exist throughout the world! I’m also developing Shaw’s Ex as another PC.

Characters (WIP!):

The Marked Examinant, August Shaw.

He/They, Somewhere in his Early 40s

An investigator by trade, Shaw is a prickly character who has a mildly extreme obsession with the various languages of the Neath, a fascination that’s gotten them into a good deal of trouble… and left them with a few strange quirks. Unscrupulous at the best of times, he is damn good at his job, when he’s not chasing a bit of escapism by any means necessary. While they’re seemingly a complete hardass, Shaw does have a soft side for a few things: Namely, his assistant, and the urchins of the city.

Watchful / Shadowy-Dangerous, Subtle / Ruthless / Hedonistic, Ambition: Nemesis!

My current PC!

The Reckless Playwright / ???, B.

Any/All, Early 20s (?)

B is an aspiring playwright and actor with their head in the non-existent clouds and a spring in their step. She always seems to be getting into a little bit of trouble, before charming his way out of it with a smile and a wide eyed look. Everything about their past is a bit of a mystery, though it can’t be denied that they have a good heart While searching for cheap lodgings in London, B ended up with the (mis)fortune of becoming Shaw’s housemate and eventual investigative assistant. The two have a strange friendship, but one that’s changed them both for the better.

B is absolutely, definitely not wanted by the Royal Navy.

Persuasive / Shadowy, Magnanimous / Daring / Subtle

If I play B as a PC, their Ambition would be Heart’s Desire.

The Everdrowned Oblation, Cpt. Verily

She/It, Mid 30s (Maybe?)

Once, a nameless captain offered up her body to her starving crew - her poor planning and lack of discipline leading them all to the brink of oblivion. After a prayer to the gods of the Zee, they took her up on her offer. However, that Captain didn’t quite die. She rose again, and again, and again. Each time with a different past, with different friends in port, with a different story that wasn’t quite her own. A dozen or more ships have taken her down, and each time, she’s risen anew. It knew that it was some boon from the gods - or perhaps, a curse. Either way, the zee will not let Captain Verily go, even after she’s been stripped of everything. One night after a long, long day upon uncertain land, Verily approached the office of a known investigator, a madness in her eyes. It only had one request for August Shaw - “Tell me who I am.”

Dangerous / Watchful, Daring / Steadfast / Forceful

Verily is my PC in Sunless Seas. All of them. Every time it dies, she comes back as the next. I am very bad at Sunless Seas. Verily Drowned Captains Counter: 16

Other Tags (WIP)

#low level liveblog is where I talk about stuff in game as it comes up for me, I’m still very early in (Pre-POSI).

While I probably won’t be posting or reblogging much outright NSFW, stuff leaning in that direction/kink implications will be tagged as #suggestive

The two major story antagonists for these three, The Ravenous Acumen and The Phosphorescent Engineer are tagged as #the ravenous acumen and #officer beverley respectively! One day I’ll sit down and update things I promise

Character relationships are tagged as follows:

#detective duo for Shaw & B

#best and brightest for B & Officer Beverley

#worst laid plans for Shaw & Acumen

[stoportotouch]

🦅😬🤩⌛💔?? 👀

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

i try to have a Vague Idea of where i'm going but that nearly always changes. it hurts to pray to god was certainly uh. one of those! i was originally gonna have hodge learn to play the accordion. at this stage i literally cannot even remember why but i think it was because his Issues were not originally gonna be uh. how do i put this. What They Ended Up Being. and little's Broken Skull was going to be the big thing. so he needed some enrichment for his enclosure.

😬 Which of your fics would you be most horrified for friends, family, or coworkers to stumble upon?

i fear that any of my recent writing might be a bit... worthy of raised eyebrows. but probably the Hodge/Irving Crossdressing Kink One. it's certainly more egregious than most of the rest of the stuff i've written. (or at least... that i have written and published >:))

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

hodgson! he's simpley my special little guy.

⌛ How long does it take you to write a fic, or a chapter?

uh. yes. honestly it depends! sometimes i also get into one of those "CANNOT DO IT!" moods that requires just. kicking myself into gear. to fix.

💔 Is there a fic of yours that broke your heart?

this thing, which i wrote in about three hours the night before i went to london to visit the Greenwich Navy Whatnot Museum. it's very depressing and it has very heavy religious symbolism! my favourite!

[koalaforlife]

Questions

alias/name: /Adela

birthday: July 2nd

zodiac: Cancer

height: 165 cm

hobbies: learning foreign languages, playing videogames, reading, doing yoga, cooking/experimenting new recipes, taking long walks while listening to music, and more often than not wasting time on youtube.

favorite color: black, red, and navy blue

favorite book: I don't think I can choose only one book but for the sake of answering I'll write "When I was a Work of Art" by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt.

last Song: Snooze by Agust D feat. Ryuichi Sakamoto and Woosung

last movie/show: watched episode 1 of season 9 (latest season) of Endeavour yesterday, which is kinda like a movie anyway :D (1hr and a half lol). Great show, I think it's my favorite crime/detective series.

recent read: I'm reading Chris Broad's "Abroad in Japan" nowadays and I absolutely love it. Also reading Kit's fics on the side though I think I finished all of them already *sniff sniff* (also, go read Kit's fics, Levihan people! :D)

inspiration: hmmm when I see some nice fanarts or beautiful shots of some people, I save them so I can draw them later...but I almost never get to it :( I started a mini project a couple months ago, I wanted to draw three anime characters I identified with to some extent and I barely finished 1 and a half of it lol. I'm so bad at this... :D so I don't think I can fully say I get inspiration or do something with it...

story behind url: at the time I created this account, about 10 years ago, I had this "koala" personality thing going on with my boyfriend at that time. So I wrote "koalaforlife." I've since outgrown it but it's still here as a reminder of one of the past versions of me, I guess :)

fun fact: .....I don't have any? I don't know, can't think of anything... :)

Thanks for the tag, @this-is-krikkit :)

I'm taggiiiing @micia-posts-stuff @nekopeachymare @megillien (I don't know if you're still around nowadays tho) @krysyuy (same T_T) @abjcfandom-blog-blog (saaame T_T I miss my people orz) if you feel like it :)

[irishanimefan]

One Piece Anime Watchalong: East Blue Saga 6/6

Loguetown (Eps 45-53):

Started: 15/7/23 Finished: 16/7/23

So here we are at Loguetown, the final arc of the East Blue saga! Luffy has now got a bounty of 30 million berries on his head after beating some of the biggest threats in East Blue like Buggy, Krieg, and most recently Arlong. News of his newly acquired bounty has spread rapidly across the East Blue. I liked how the episode popped back to the previous locations Luffy has been to so far. We get to see how many of the characters are doing since then. We see Coby working hard as a marine, Kaya is striving to become a doctor, the Baratie has the wanted poster plastered over the restaurant, and we see Shanks celebrating with Mihawk over the news that Luffy is a certified pirate. I also watched the two episodes that adapt the first cover story that focuses Buggy's adventures after Luffy had flung him halfway across the world at the end of Orange Town. From what I've heard, these are somewhat considered to be episodes that people tend to skip over despite their canon status in the manga, and even then not all of them get adapted apparently. I thought they were fun, lighthearted episodes that were a nice bit of comic relief after the bleakness that was the previous arc.

Onto the main plot, in which we find the Straw Hats head to the city of Loguetown to stock up on more supplies before heading out into the Grand Line. The city is also well known for being the city of "the beginning and the end", referring to it being birthplace of Gold Roger, the former King of the Pirates, and also set as the place where he was executed. The Straw Hats are mostly separated and doing their own thing.

Starting with Nami, who doesn't contribute that much to this arc. She's just kind of chilling here, buying loads of stuff for herself. It's pretty fun. I think after Arlong and the trauma that she endured in that arc, she needed to treat herself, and I can forgive her not doing a lot in this arc because of it.

I felt bad for Usopp. It's almost like he was forgotten about for the majority of this arc. However, we did get a pretty good standalone episode with him facing off against the famed bounty hunter Daddy the Parent (I cannot get over how funny this name is!) in a duel. And it's through this episode that we get to know more about the kind of person his dad, Yasopp, was like. This is displayed in flashback where Yasopp wins in a duel against Daddy who, prior to the duel, has never been defeated. Instead of killing him, Yasopp spares him because he saw Daddy's pendant with a picture of his daughter. This scene resonates with Usopp, who is vows to be more courageous, which is put to the test when Daddy challenges him to shoot the weathervane or risk losing his life. It was a triumphant moment when Usopp did manage to just about hit it.

Sanji is kind of in the same boat, but he at least got a bit more screen time than Usopp. He too gets a standalone episode where he faces off against Carmen, a chef who proclaims herself as the No. 1 Chef of East Blue. She's a pretty hysterical and camp character with her over-the-top persona and flamenco flairs, which made the episode a breezy fun ride. However, unlike Usopp, we don't really learn anything new about Sanji, other than knowing that his goal is to find the All Blue.

There's quite a bit that occurs around Zoro. The first that's beneficial to him is having three swords again, with him now knowing about the Wazamono swords There's also when he comes into contact with the Sergeant Major of the navy in Loguetown, Tashigi. From her appearance, her short blue hair, down to her position as an exceptional swordsman, Zoro is taken aback by how much she reminds him of Kuina. I wish we would have explored this aspect a bit further, but I'll get more into that later. Also him using his three sword style on some mops when he briefly worked for the navy was hilarious!

Most of the important plot points that are revealed to us revolve around Luffy. We get to know more about Gold Roger, how he ventured across the Grand Line, and how he was executed. It was interesting to hear this story being told, from the old bartender Luffy stumbled upon, and how it puts the rest of the pirating world into perspective; it seems that a lot of pirates that have emerged after Roger's execution don't have the honour in what it means to be a true pirate. We also get to see Buggy who is also accompanied by a newly revitalised Alvida due to her eating the Smooth-Smooth Devil Fruit, as they try to get their revenge on Luffy for what he did to them. I'm really fascinated to see how these two will play off each other, as we didn't get to see much of them together, again more on that later. Finally, we have Captain Smoker, the vice admiral of Loguetown who has the reputation of preventing pirates from entering the Grand Line. He's not so much of a villain but probably more of an antagonist trying to thwart Luffy's goals. Out of all of Luffy's adversaries in this arc, he's probably the most complex. He witnessed Roger's execution as a young lad and he's had some kind of admiration for him as he watched Roger die with a big grin bearing on his face. But, despite this admiration, he still has a duty of catching pirates that have substantial bounties on them and protecting the people of the city. He's also the only naval officer, that we know of so far, to also have Devil Fruit powers, his being Plume-Plume that made his entire body out of smoke and is able to use the smoke to grab onto solid objects. He actually had Luffy in his grasp but only failed due to a mysterious hooded figure that goes by the name of "Dragon". My theory as to who this guy is that he may be one of the seven Warlords that was alluded to earlier in the saga. I may be completely wrong on that, but we'll have to keep watching to find that out.

While I did end up liking the arc, there was a glaring issue over it that kept me from enjoying it even more. It felt like one giant set up, as certain plot points, such as Zoro and Tashigi's fight, Alvida and Buggy's revenge plot, and Smoker's grudge against Luffy, are cut short with the intention of being resolved later. There's nothing inherently wrong with doing that, but it makes this entire arc kind of limp as a whole, because we don't have that satisfying conclusion. Even though East Blue is structured like a prologue before the "proper" story kicks into action, but many of those arcs had three-act structures that can be watched on their own, isolated from the main story but can still be enjoyed. With Loguetown however, it had those first two acts in place but lacks the third , and thus it doesn't hit as hard as those previous arcs. Nonetheless, I'm still looking forward to how these plot points and character beats are resolved in this kind of extended version of a third act, or maybe this could sprout in a whole new direction.

If you want my preliminary ranking of all the arcs in this saga, here's what I've settled on: Arlong Park Syrup Village Baratie Romance Dawn Orange Town Loguetown

idk if this ranking is controversial or not, but that's what I'm feeling at the moment

And there you have it, folks! I finished all of East Blue (excluding the filler arc at the end, I'll get around to the filler arcs at a later date)! The main thing to take away from this is, not that I ended up getting through multiple episodes of One Piece, but how surprising it was that I was able to go through it so quickly! When I first set out to watch OP, I set myself a target of getting through at least 3 episodes a day. That way I'll be able to make it through all the series while also being set at a comfortable pace to consume the anime. But, somewhere down the line, around Syrup Village, I kind of threw that out the window because of how engrossed I was in the story! As a result, what I thought would've taken me over a month to get through this saga took me less than 2 weeks. One Piece is one hell of a drug!

Anyways, onward to Alabasta! I'll see you soon!

[thetruearchmagos]

Terror Immortal

Crush Depth: A Compilation Thus Far

Hey folks! I was reminiscing over some old stuff I wrote, when I recalled this old gem. It was a fun little WIP at the time, and one day I'll probably get back to it. This is a compilation of three different excerpts all put together, with a little editing. Enjoy!

Tagging @hessdalen-globe @caxycreations @athenswrites @theprissythumbelina @lividdreamz @thatndginger @dogmomwrites @wip-nook @the-stray-storyteller

Had her boat's maiden operational voyage come even a day earlier, Captain Evelyn Wen Hui might have regretted wearing the full regalia of the United Commonwealth Navy's No. 1 Dress. The sweltering tropical climate of the Southern Hailian Sea in the throes of its monsoon season had left most of the crew struggling to acclimatise for their first weeks there, and wearing three layers wouldn't have helped her, tradition or otherwise. But today was a perfect blend of clear skies, calm seas, and cool, salty, fresh air. All in all, Evelyn couldn't have asked for better weather to start off a long haul stay at sea, and it seemed her fellow sailors appreciated what seemed to be a good omen as much as she did.

She also looked forwards to starting up with her new mission. UCS Carnivore was as fresh to the Fleet as Evelyn was to command, a six week long work-up in the warm waters of the Grunemeer Sea still fresh in their memory even as the nuclear-powered attack boat set out for her first operational deployment. And so, as her predecessors had done for a little under a century in this subsurface service, the skipper on the boat's first stay at sea was clad in full Dress, her modest assortment of medals and all.

Here on the shores of the fledgling Republic of Hailian, the recently reactivated 14th Fleet had just raised its Admiral's Flag, and the Carnivore would take on the mantle of being the armada's first permanently stationed fleet submarine.

Evelyn looked forwards to getting down to work. So did her Executive Officer.

"Lovely weather, eh? Shame it'll be the last time we see it for a little while."

"Well, if you're getting second thoughts, Rob, I can always write a letter of recommendation for a transfer. How'd you fancy hunting subs instead of sailing them."

Commander Robert Carruther's short, sharp laugh said enough about that. It seemed an invariable rule that the hunters and those they hunted --- and both submariners and the surface fleet saw themselves as the former--- viewed the other as an enemy beyond reproach, even in their own service. Both officers had worked hard to get where they were now, and where they were going the weather would not matter terribly much.

"Time to get going, XO. Hope there'll be good fishing out east."

----------------

UCS Carnivore

----------------

“So, how’s old Mister Dial-2 holding up?”

“Barely, Skipper. She’s got screw problems, poor bastards.”

As unfortunate as the Dial-class coastal patrol submarine’s propeller troubles likely were for its crew, Captain Evelyn and her own were grateful for it. The damned things were tiny, and sneakier than the briefings said they'd be, something she’d make sure to correct once they pulled back into port. Even Soundsman First Class Manish Singh, who’d been at his instruments for the past eight hours, had trouble finding them in the first place. The young man prided himself on just a few things in life; His family back home, his permanently slicked back hair, and his ability to hear a whale take a piss from several miles away.

Evelyn ducked down to the tracking station, bending over him to get a look at the readout herself. Gently swirling her mug of midnight black coffee in one hand, she could just about make out the faint, vertical line passing down the sickly green “waterfall” display, roughly along the thirty degree bearing.

Singh shifted in his seat, placing a finger on the display. He’d long since learned that the Captain wasn’t the sort to bite your head off for being casual, but something about her always put a little awe into him.

“That’s our track. There’s an odd bit of jitter to 'em, hence why we’re pretty sure they’ve got a screw loose, but aside from that Dial-2’s one sneaky submarine. In the past three hours she’s been moving along all slow like, running close to the surface and heading roughly parallel to us. It’s a good thing we’re too close to shore for a Layer, or we’d have probably lost her.”

She stood back up, satisfied. A blessing indeed, but the lack of a thermal layer cut both ways. A horizontal barrier impermeable to sound and formed by differences in the water’s temperature and subsequent density, a boat in one layer would be nearly deaf to an acoustic source in the other. As things were, the shallow depths of this particular hunting ground left that factor out of play.

“Right, Manish, good work. Keep up the track and update if we get any more company, let’s try and avoid a nasty surprise.”

“Aye, Skipper.”

---------

They’d driven on for a good three hours more, and with the Dial-2 showing no signs of any change in her speed the Carnivore had made good her overtaking of the submarine, and was awaiting her carefully tracked quarry’s arrival at the border. By then the atmosphere on the bridge had begun to warm up a little, and by her tally Evelyn had somehow found time for a fifteen minute gap of shut eye and two trips to the head by the time something interesting happened.

“Conn, Sound-Ops, we’ve got some fresh signatures bearing zero-three-zero at fifty naut-miles out, designate one probable Mask and one confirmed Plank.”

“All stop, quiet the boat!”

It was as if someone had flipped a switch, as every sailor within earshot went as still as stone. Within less than a minute the boat was a tomb, and Evelyn wouldn’t have had trouble hearing her own pulse.

She was back at the tracking station in half a heartbeat, and at once the attack party began plotting their new contact. Her mind was brought back down to the present, racing over the trickles of data it was fed. First checking up on their old friend, Dial-2’s signature was faint on the neon green screen and aft of the boat, and hidden behind the Carnivore’s propeller baffles she was next to invisible to her boat’s bow mounted acoustic sensors. Their target was moving faster, and louder, than before, but as long as she remained to their rear Evelyn was reliant on her towed array to maintain the track, a smaller set of hydrophones at the end of a wire half a kilometre long that trailed off her stern.

As for their new guests, from what she knew of the Masks, the twenty thousand tonne guided missile submarines were more suited to blasting surface ships out of the water than defending themselves against her own breed of hunter. Still, Evelyn reminded herself, with their twenty Quartz anti ship missiles with half tonne warheads they would be good enough at the former. The Plank was of far greater concern, since despite its diminutive weight the corvette was said to be a damned fine sub-hunter, and with her own towed array and suite of rocket-launched torpedoes she’d make a nasty opponent. 

“Sound-Ops, Conn, aye. Keep listening in on her, and listen out for any further contacts. Helm to one third speed and move us in closer to shore, then cut speed to station-keeping. We'll be sitting tight for a while.”

Now with their orders, the bridge crew seemed to loosen up and get down to the business at hand, and soon the boat was moving at a creeping pace, and inland.

The XO was back on the bridge in a minute, Rob still walking off a short stint of sleep as he downed a paper cup of coffee and walked up to the attack centre.

“We got a new contact, boss?”

She nodded, turning to face him.

“Indeed we do. Singh’s calling it one Plank and a likely Mask, which makes today our lucky day.”

Evelyn addressed that to the whole crew as much as to Robert, and his smile answered on their behalf. So much for a quiet cruise, but the Commonwealth’s best didn’t come aboard the submarines for those.

With that, the game was set. Already running their silent routine, for as long as Evelyn wanted them to the Carnivore would stick to it, gradually manoeuvring into an attack position on their new contacts and all the while staying perfectly hidden, “smoking their kippers” on their smokestacks without ever being heard. It was a hard game, and against one guided missile hauler and her modern corvette escort even harder, but to the Carnivore, stalking prey was the most natural thing in the 12 Worlds.

Then, the shrill ring of a bell came over the intercom.

Evelyn’s gaze shot aft in an instant, annoyed at the sudden noise at a time when even careless whispers threatened to give the game away. The sound was soon followed by one of the Signals technicians, with a slip of printed paper in hand.

“Flash message, Ma’am! It’s from the Admiral.”

The fresh faced rating handed over the folded communique, and backed away as if she feared her skipper would bite. Before she could comment on it, she opened the signal, and quickly found herself with a far more important issue at hand.

[grandgillygaupus]

It’s been days and I’m still thinking about the season 5 finale of Puppet History.

Okay so there’s this show called Gilligan’s Island.

(I promise this’ll loop back around to Puppet History eventually, hear me out)

It aired between 1964 and 1967, and then ran in syndication for a decade or three, so it’s one of those shows that a lot of people remember watching when they were younger, but it’s not recent enough that its premise is anything more than a vague mishmash of concepts to most people. And that’s all well and good, that’s just what happens to TV shows after a while even when they’re incredibly popular.

I’d like to preface this with the disclaimer that I’m talking about a show made in the 1960s. There’s some not-great stuff in there, and I’m not here to condone the racism, sexism, transphobia, fatphobia, etc. that happens in this show. There are parts that are uncomfortable to watch and it’s not something I’d recommend to my friends to show their kids unless they’re willing to watch it with them and have some necessary conversations about the content.

I say all of this because I love Gilligan’s Island very much, and I want it known that this does NOT mean I love everything about it.

What I do love about it, however, is that it’s got a banger of a theme song that explains the premise, and it’s a situational comedy, which means it wears the inspiration for each week’s plot like a very loud and egregious t-shirt. Every week the castaways either try to get off the island and fail, or they spend the episode interacting with someone (or something) that has arrived on the island.

So what’s the plot device of the week going to be?

Well, what was cool with the young folks in the 60s? Rock music - we’ll do an episode about The Beatles, call them The Mosquitos, and get the Wellingtons to play them.

What are some major events going on in the world right now?

Oh yeah, the cold war.

As with most shows, Gilligan’s Island is best viewed with the context in which it was aired in mind. Learning a little bit about the social and political environment of the time and place in which a show was on the air is a great way to better understand where that show was coming from and what it was trying to do with its premise. Easy enough with the stuff that’s currently on TV, we’re living it, but let’s back up to 1963 for a bit. The history of television’s development as a medium is wild and messy and steeped in politics, but the important part is that even in 1963, broadcast television was a relatively new and emerging technology. That year, the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island was filmed. The episode wouldn’t air until well after the show was cancelled, but it was as they were wrapping up the filming of this pilot that the cast and crew learned of JFK’s assassination.

Basically, Gilligan’s Island is a show that was developed while folks were still dealing with the emotional, social, and political fallout of World War 2, the threat of nuclear annihilation was hanging over everyone’s head, and the president had just been assassinated. So, why does the context matter?

Well, show creator Sherwood Schwartz has never been shy about calling Gilligan’s Island a “social microcosm”, or an allegory about the nations of the world learning to live with and understand each other.

Skipper’s a WW2 veteran.

Gilligan was in the Navy. He saved Skipper from being crushed by a depth charge that came loose from its moorings.

There’s an episode that revolves around a WW2 underwater contact mine washing ashore.

There’s an episode dedicated to Skipper’s depression and how he blames himself for stranding the castaways on the island.

There are several episodes themed around espionage and distrust in the people closest to you.

This is a comedy.

A lot of this stuff wasn’t treated with any sort of gravity, but it wasn’t necessarily trivialized, either. This was just the characters’ reality.

(I could go on about how comedy is one of the most effective ways to get an emotional response out of your audience but that’s a topic for another day)

In any case, the number of times the castaways’ lives are threatened is frankly ridiculous, but every single time, one thing remains the same: they care SO MUCH about each other. And ultimately, that’s the point of the show. It’s about a group of people that come from different backgrounds who not only learn to live with each other, but love each other. This is a found family story.

So I’d like to highlight a relevant episode that kind of brings all of this together.

The eighteenth episode of the first season, “X Marks the Spot”, deals very directly with the fear of nuclear annihilation. The castaways hear on the radio that a California air force base is going to test a new warhead the next day, and Skipper determines, based on the given coordinates, that their island is where the missile will land. Now, because this is a comedy, we - the audience - are informed that the explosives in the warhead have been removed due to a technical issue, but they’re going to launch the missile anyway to test the guidance systems. They don’t broadcast this on the radio, so our castaways have no idea they’re safe. They spend the time seeking each other out, discussing their lives, their regrets, and they make a point of being kind to one another.

They do everything in their power to catch the attention of the scout plane as a last-ditch attempt at rescue, but when this fails, that’s it. What do you do when there’s nothing you can do?

They watch the missile come down, and they be with each other.

Of course, this isn’t the end of the episode. The missile doesn’t explode, they try to disarm it anyway because they don’t know any better, and they think Gilligan’s been lost at sea inside the missile for about five seconds before he reappears soaking wet but otherwise fine.

But this episode always stuck with me. It speaks to a very real fear, a fear that manifested in comedy as a coping mechanism on a national scale because, well, no one was safe. No one felt safe. Yet it ends with an assurance that our castaways are okay, they’re going to be okay, and you get a good hearty laugh out of the deal. And you know what reminded me of this episode? The Puppet History season 5 finale (YEAH BRINGING IT BACK AROUND, BABY)

‘Cause you know that bit where Ryan thinks the Professor’s lost forever for about five seconds before he suddenly appears a little bigger than expected but otherwise fine? Yeah, that’s a good bit. And then that part where his parents are okay, and they’re all going to be okay, and we get a good laugh out of it? Chef’s kiss.

Anyway, I don’t know if I had a point to make. There’s a lot of horrible things happening right now, everywhere you look is more death and bad news. Will the world as I know it still be around next year? I’ve always been excited to grow old and grey, because it would mean I made it that far. Will I get that opportunity?

Is this what it felt like? Back in the 60s.

And it’s not the same, the circumstances are different. But the immense amount of catharsis wrought from that final song and the meteor’s monologue made me remember what’s important, and that was probably the point. “Tell the critters that you love that you love them, that’s enough.” We’re not alone, we’ve never been, and we’ve done this before.

What do you do when there’s nothing you can do? You watch the meteor come down, and you be with each other.

And in the meantime, you make some damn good comedy out of it.

Thanks Shane.

(No seriously, thanks for giving us the Professor’s parents after tearing our hearts out. King shit.)

[wiitchkins]

Hello!!! okay obviously your knowledge of and taste in fashion is INCREDIBLE, we ALL know this, it is ELITE AND SUPERIOR - my question is, what's your background in fashion? what influences do you consider very important in your art? you mentioned in your most recent drawing of marinette that guo pei's couture is some you really like, so you clearly Know Some Stuff about fashion!! p.s. your art is *waves hands around* i would let it eat me

Ahhhhhh!! Thank you thank you thank you this means so much to me to hear! As for my background in fashion…

I am sorry to say I actually have basically 0 actual background in fashion aside from watching almost every season of project runway as it was airing (dropped off a few seasons after Tim and Heidi left) and a long standing appreciation of fashion as an art form.

I’ve never been particularly fashion forward or stylistically adept and I would say pretty much up until I started college I was pretty. Unstylish. Anti-stylish? In my own wardrobe. Nowadays I actually mostly present in way that leans more butch and I do have a defined style I’m both comfortable in and actively enjoy, but it’s very very different from what I like to draw and design.

As the internet evolved it became a lot easier to find stuff and for the past mmm five or so years I try to keep up with the seasonal runways, a lot of which you can find literal photos and recordings of on Vogue.com. Couture is… deeply fundamentally different from “ready to wear” in that it’s often simply unwearable in everyday life, but I think the way it emphasizes certain shapes, forms, and movement is, simply put, absolutely fucking sick (it is however not without its problems as in my experience mmm some Couture fashion folks can be extremely pretentious and intolerable 🙄 not to mention the space itself is highly inaccessible, favors certain features/body types/skin tones, and is inherently classcist, etc etc)

To keep up with what’s currently “fashionable” (as in what people are actually wearing) I honestly just scroll through Instagram to see who’s wearing what and going through different tags and knowing keywords for what different groups elf describe as helps. “#streetwear” is gonna give you a different feed than “#it girl” is gonna give you a different feed than “#office fit”. I also like to scroll through instas and tumblrs that are literally just interviews and photos with random people op finds out in the world- you see personality in how things are put together in specific. What makes a look personal to them? What is practicality and what is fashion, and how much of each does each individual desire? I don’t think everyone is the same kind of Fashion Forward (or even is fashion forward) and I think it’s fun to find different niches and mix and match while still applying design theory Ive learned elsewhere. Even a character who is specifically Not Fashionable is that way in a specific sense, and could still have an appealing design. Also studying fashion at all gave me the ability to draw fabric which is a huge skill.

Without saying too much about my actual job, I am not a character designer at the moment, but I do think having this general knowledge of costume design and vested interest in keeping up current fashion (both ready to wear and couture/runway) is extremely important in my profession and wish it was more emphasized as I think it would be. Very helpful. The character design in Apple TV’s/Skydance’s Luck drives me absolutely bonkers because it sucks so much and the main characters looks like an old navy ad circa 2010. The same could unfortunately be said for our fav girl Marinette. She’s allowed to be less aggressively Fashionable because she is in fact a child, but I’d love to see a bit more attention to detail and understanding of what teens wear nowadays, let alone what they were wearing even 5 years ago. Her look was a tiny bit dated when the show was first released, but it’s even more egregious now. Not that they’re going to change it anytime soon but they had an opportunity in the movie to at least play with proportions since the jacket’s.. cut I guess and pink capri jeans are the most egregious. Maybe I’ll do a redesign that keeps the general idea/pieces in tact… idk. God. Please character designers learn fashion.

Anyway now that I’ve written an essay here’s some stuff I’ve liked and have been thinking about recently:

Guo Pei (as I said, Spring 2019 rules, but Spring 2017, 2018 and Fall 2019 are my favs)

Zimmerman Fall/Winter 2022

Heaven Gaia Spring 2022 Couture

Clio Peppiatt x Annie’s Ibiza current collab collection

Lawrence Basse (all her work tbh)

Zuhair Murad Fall 2022

Tran Hung Fall 2017

Alexander McQueen Menswear Fall 2022 and 2018

Christian Dior Resort 2023

Janelle Monae’s Pre-Dirty Computer Era

Thierry Mugler (his entire body of work tbh but rn I like Resort 2021)

Hawwa (@hellohawwa)

Jarvis Aivali (@jarvisaivali)

This is not to mention my love for pre-colonial Filipino textiles, 1920s butch lesbian fashion, charro suits, whatever the look is called with the giant oversized floral button shirt and the jeans is, bright colorful floral/and or embroidered suits, ami thompson’s knight and princess characters, and the catholic met gala specifically.