#but yeah i mean you gotta figure Sonic’s a kid who gets put in life-threatening situations on the reg

[curetapwater]

English version of Sonic Forces: *throws in a single line about Sonic being tortured for months*

Angst fic authors: 🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂

[rayadraws]

The importance of positive reinforcement

This is a little “joint project” between me, @jenny-opm, @dechanique and also @bloodsbane!

This all started with me posting the following prompt at the OPM Discord server:

Concept: King obviously has a large collection of anime figurines and stuff we do not even need to discuss this. And let’s say there’s an equivalent of Nendoroids/Good Smile Company in the OPM universe who produces merch for different categories, so that probably includes heroes, too.

Genos hears about a new Caped Baldy figurine and starts looking around for it, maybe joining a forum to ask/find more info. There is an user in the forum who knows EVERYTHING about these figurines and offers all sorts of insight etc. And then after like, quite a bit of discussing things back and forth both of them go like

“Wait… Genos?”

”King? Is that you?“

…at least they’ll have something to talk about next time King comes over now.

We started brainstorming about this scenario and it uh, grew. Below is a near 2k “summation” of everything we came up with, kind of like a synopsis if you will? (If anyone wants to borrow this concept and turn it into something bigger/a proper fic or watever by all means do, just make sure to give credit where due - and give us links to the results, I’m sure everyone involved would love to see!)

Moral of the story, as summed up by Dech: Genos is the real winner and learned nothing.

King is definitely a moderator in said forum. If Genos ever misbehaves on there king probably gives Saitama a call like;

"Yo your roommate is trying to start an internet fight, get him to stop for me.”

Saitama tells Genos that ”King told me to tell you that if you don’t stop engaging with the trolls you’ll have your star point rewards taken away, whatever that means.”

Genos is visibly upset at this. He counters that King should come talk directly to him (knowing he’s intimidated by him) but the threat backfires when Saitama responds with ”’Kay, I’m telling him you don’t want your points or whatever" and there goes that.

“N-no, Sensei, no! Just… it’s just….”

“What?”

“They said mean things about you and how hard it is to get you to remain on your stand….”

“Is this all about that weird plastic action toy again?!”

It turns out Saitama is a bit weirded out by the idea of an collector’s figure of himself, maybe even by figures of real people in general.

This becomes even more evident when they’re walking past a display in a store one day (including at least three different designs of Demon Cyborg) and Sai just… gives them a Look

“Why are there three versions of you, though” Saitama asks.

“Well, I believe Amai Mask has at least 7 variants, Sensei, since he has been a hero for much longer than us…

”…Why would anyone need 7 of him?“

(the answer is that they make a new figure every time he gets a new haircut)

The fortunate side effect of Genos being away and busy explaining action figures to Saitama is that it gives King the opportunity to get the forum situation back under control - it’s a lot easier now that a main participant is away from the screen.

On top of that, to Genos’ dismay, by the time they return home, the forum thread has been locked. However, he has an idea and whips out his phone, texting King with simply “Why did you do that?”. When he receives the message, poor King just about throws his phone across the room.

Later, it is Saitama’s turn to receive a text message.

"Saitama, dude, you gotta stop him or we’ll have to ban him and I’m terrified of what he’ll do to me, he knows where I live!”

Poor King - all he wants is to keep the forum a safe and healthy environment for everyone….

—

One day King comes over to play video games with Saitama and at one point King’s phone beeps. He notices that there is a situation and thinks to himself that this has to be straightened out, a mod is needed here….

Of course, Genos remembers when King cheated him out of a glorious internet discussion victory and just starts staring at King, eyes narrowed, not even blinking.

Poor King doesn’t deserve this, all he wanted to do in his beloved forum was talk about anime waifus with his fellow otakus… It’s like a battle between Genos’ whirring core and the King engine thundering in the small apartment.

Saitama notices that something is up and tries to diffuse the situation, asking if Genos can go get the chips. Predictably, Genos does an immediate 180 and brightly asks whether Sensei wanted this one or this one..? He gets the bag of chips…

…And then goes RIGHT back to glaring at King. The relief was only temporary…

King desperately tries to come up with a solution to all of this. Maybe he can give Genos star points for every day he stays out of trouble..? But that’s not fair to other users… But this is a life or death situation, he needs to come up with SOMETHING..

Desperately, he begs Saitama to give Genos a good behaviour sticker book.

Saitama is uncertain.

“I dunno man…”

“Listen! I’ll buy you a book and deliver it here! Just… please… for me?!” King puts on his best puppy eyes.

“He listens to you!”

“I’ll subscribe to a monthly sticker service and send them all to you!”

King is desperate - but then again, he’s pretty sure it’s his life on the line.

—

A month later:

"Hey Genos! Look, this month’s theme is Gudetama!”

“!!!”

To King’s relief, the new system works and Saitama realizes he can also use the stickers for other situations… like not threatening strangers on the street or not losing parts during fights.

“You came back in one piece! Wow, awesome, here’s a sticker!”

A little positive reinforcement goes a long way!    

Other uses includes finding the BEST sale - Genos is so proud of that one that his sticker album just happens to lay open on the table when Mumen comes over for a visit one day.   

Mumen notices, of course.

“Oh, these are very nice! Are they a project for the neighbourhood children?”

“They’re… a project for one local kid…”

“All these stickers for one kid! This kid must be very good”

Genos looks so proud.

Saitama wants to say “he needs a lot of reinforcements” but he catches the look on Genos’ face and just can’t say it. Instead, all he says is “yeah” and Genos is so happy for the confirmation - and is on his best behaviour all day, bringing Mumen tea and crackers with a happy little smile - as well as going rather overboard.

“What temperature do you prefer your tea at, Mumen-san?”

Mumen is rather confused…

It turns out Happy Genos is almost as overbearing as Pissy Genos - just in a different way.

Thanks to being so good while Mumen visits, Genos earns himself two new stickers.

(This is all very unfair - King introduces the stickers yet it’s Mumen Genos is grateful towards. Well, life isn’t fair, King knows this. But it still hurts…)

—

On days when Genos is especially good he can pick which stickers he wants. He always picks the yellow ones.

When he fills a page in his book he can have a small reward. When he fills a whole book he can have a big reward!

It’s hard to think of good rewards, though.

”I dunno what to even suggest as a reward, d’ya have any ideas, Genos?”

”YES.”

Genos reaches into his pocket, puts on lip balm and closes his eyes, making the perfect kissy face.   

”What, a new chapstick?”

—

One day, Saitama unexpectedly runs out of stickers. Genos looks so sad about it that Saitama panics and instead gave his reward in the form of a really quick kiss on the cheek.   

And that’s the start of it - stickers will never be enough now.

Saitama tries to reason with himself - it IS cheaper than buying new stickers all the time, it’ll save money… right?   

A call to King.

“Yeah, you don’t need to send me any more stickers.”

From here on, all they need to do is draw hearts in the book to keep track.

—

King can’t believe how well behaved Genos is next time they meet.

When he finally comes over he finally realizes why he didn’t need to send any more stickers.

“Well… I guess… that works…” he mutters as he continues kicking Saitama’s ass at Street Fighter - not hearing a disgruntled “hmph” in the background every time he wins a match is a welcome change.

“More tea, King-san?”

Before he has even closed the door behind him as he leaves the apartment, he hears Genos calling to Saitama in the other room.

“I want to cash in my reward now!”

—

Give a mouse a cookie…

Over time, Genos becomes more and more insistent about his rewards.

“Sensei, there was variations among the stickers. It is only fair to also have variations among the kisses.”

He’s steaming out of his shoulders as he advances on Saitama and Saitama knows immediately that the end of his supposed heterosexuality is impending.

To his surprise, he is saved(?) by none other than Speed of Sound Sonic.

To Genos’ credit, he tries to stay calm around Panic (”Oy, worthless, poorly named sorry excuse for a ninja… do you want tea?” “What?!”). But unfortunately the sticker street is one-way - Sonic has no incentive to be nice.

The fight is inevitable.

”You cost me a kiss!”

”For fecks sake what’s wrong with you today tin can?!”

Afterwards, Saitama can tell that Genos is upset so he strikes a deal. He won’t lose any of his points, but he won’t gain any new ones either.

”You didn’t immediately attack him but you did call him a shitty excuse for a shitty shithead… so let’s call it even…”

—

”Hey Genos! If you get every sale item on this list you’ll have your choice of a smooch or two stickers!”

“!!!”

We know what he will choose. Having said that, he might try to barter - ”Maybe a quick smooch and one sticker?” - because stickers can be traded in for longer kisses later.

Getting more and more courageous, Genos starts demanding his rewards in public too. He has never been so excited to tag along to thrift stores to find “new” clothes before.

“Wow, what an awesome deal! You did so good Genos. This is definitely worth a big reward.” Genos moves closer, crowding Saitama, face dark and shoulders steaming.

“I would like that reward now, Sensei.”

Saitama sweats, takes a half step back. "R-right now??”

He steps closer, “Yes.I found Sensei the - shudders slightly - cheap used crocs, it is only fair.”

The first time Genos gets a public reward happens when they accidentally forgot the sticker book at home - after that, Genos “forgetting” them at home becomes a very common occurrence.

King has no idea what he has started. The day media explodes with the picture of Demon Cyborg and Caped Baldy kissing in public - Saitama texts King saying “I blame you” and King is so confused - but at least Genos is too busy to bother him or anyone else in the forum any more.

All in all, a happy ending for everyone.

[tenroseforeverandever]

Dear Father Christmas... Chapter 10: December 24, 2025

MASTERPOST

Characters:  Tentoo; Rose Tyler; Jackie Tyler; Pete Tyler; Tony Tyler; OC Hope Tyler-Noble; OC Charlotte Tyler-Noble; OC Wilfred Tyler-Noble

Rated: Teen

Tags: Family!Fic; Kid!Fic; Pete’s World; Letters to Santa; Christmas Fic; Family; Fluff; Hurt/Comfort; Angst; Romance; Love; gun violence; violence resulting in death; life-threatening injury; life threatening situations

Summary: When Rose Tyler was little, she always wrote a Christmas wish list to Father Christmas. As she grew older, the wish list became more of a letter to someone she could confide in once a year, but she fell out of the habit somewhere along the way. Now, as a new mum, celebrating her daughter’s first Christmas, Rose takes up writing her Christmas letter to Father Christmas once again.

Rose’s Christmas letters are excerpts from her life with her beloved Tentoo and their children in Pete’s World, written once a year, for each of 31 years.

Chapter Summary: For Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth, there’s nothing quite like the adventure of saving the world, until one Christmas, the adventure becomes far too dangerous and puts Rose’s life in jeopardy. 

Notes: Trigger warning for serious, life-threatening situations, violence, life-threatening injury, and violence resulting in death.

My darling betas, @rose–nebula and mrsbertucci. How can I possibly thank you enough? I appreciate all that you do. You are wonderful!

Thanks to @doctorroseprompts for their 31 Days of Ficmas prompts. A reminder that I am using the prompts very much out of order, but I intend to use them all. The prompt I used today was Family.

Also read at: AO3; FF.net; Teaspoon

December 24th, 2025

Dear Father Christmas,

Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth. That’s me! (Somehow it always sounds grander when the Doctor says it, though.)

It’s been so brilliant this past year to get back out in the field and feel like I’m making a difference. There’s nothing quite like that feeling of saving the world. Yeah, the Doctor and I have our TARDIS, and we go travelling all around the universe on the weekends, visiting all sorts of places and times with Hope, Charlie, and Wilfred. But it isn’t quite like it used to be when it was just the Doctor and me, yeah, living by the seats of our pants, leaping from one adventure to the next.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s still an adventure! Especially getting to watch the brood learn about all of space and time. When the time comes, the TARDIS will be theirs to inherit, and they need to be armed with all the knowledge they can possibly cram into those bigger-on-the-inside brains of theirs. It’s just… I know it sounds mental, but I miss the danger; the adrenaline rush; that thrill that comes of well… saving the Universe and barely escaping with your own life.

It’s strange really, because, of the two of us, you’d think it would be the Doctor who was missing experiencing that high. But it turns out he’s really enjoying tinkering and experimenting at Torchwood for the time being, and he’s so involved with the kids’ educations. Sometimes he comes on missions with me (those are the best missions, running with his hand in mine!) and the kids stay with their Gran and Grandad, but he’s mostly content to do the school run and go to work at Torchwood, these days.

I think a big part of it is him wanting to make sure that at least one of us is safe at all times. I get that. This spring, a laser from a skittish, crash-landed Jumjumut grazed my left shoulder as I was diving for cover. It hit very close to my heart. We actually lost one of our operatives on that mission, before we had a chance to subdue the alien. Isabel Stokes was a good woman, single mum of two. Fortunately, her parents were able to step in and look after her babies, but it really struck home: my job can sometimes be very dangerous.

The Doctor held onto me really tight when I got home the next night. He made love to me like he was etching the memories in his mind. Maybe he was. He never asked me not to return to work though, but in the morning, he passed me my travel mug of coffee and told me he loved me. Then he told me to come home safe. What could I say to that? I just kissed him and whispered in his ear, “I’m never going to leave you.”

That’s become our morning ritual since that day.

On my birthday, this year, he gifted me with my very own sonic. A gorgeous sonic wristwatch, programmed with all the settings of his screwdriver. He said it would make him feel better knowing I had it at my disposal, because you never know… I guess if he couldn’t be there himself, a sonic he had crafted was the next best thing.

Life’s been busy. Most of the missions weren’t dangerous at all. They weren’t even proper missions at all. A lot of the time, I was just checking in with pensioners who thought they’d seen a UFO. We had to follow up, of course, because you never know. Usually, though, it was the things hidden in plain view we had to watch out for. Tracking those babies down sometime took days. There were times when I had to miss some of our excursions on the TARDIS, which broke my heart, but the Doctor managed on his own with the brood.

But I had never yet missed an important occasion: I had made it home for birthdays anniversaries, concerts, recitals, holidays, the whole bit. I even booked a month off to spend summer hols winging through space and time with the loves of my life.

But here I am, Christmas Eve, stuck on a stakeout in Cape Town waiting for some well-known alien arms smugglers, the Dintashi, to try to make a deal with a rebel group of Sontarans who have been hiding out on Earth for the last month. They’d thought Earth was a dead-end planet with limited knowledge of extraterrestrial life, and for the most part, they were right. They liked it for its extensive communications networks, though: easy to tap into. Also, easy for us to trace once we figured out what we were looking for. They’d underestimated Torchwood and we’ve been watching, waiting for this deal to go down.

Unfortunately, I drew the short straw for the week over the Christmas period. I’m scheduled to be here five more days, which means, if I’m very lucky, I’ll be home in time to ring in the New Year at the Annual Vitex New Year’s Gala.

I have to tell you Santa, stakeouts are mind-numbingly dull. We know something is going to happen soon. It’s just coordinating terrestrial and extraterrestrial calendars can be a bit dodgy sometimes so, a lot of the time we have to wait, and play it by ear.

Me and my partner, Arjun Sreeram have worked together on loads of cases. We train together, so we know each other pretty well. We’re camped out in a vacant flat across the street from the Sontarans’ building. He’s just gone out for a coffee run, and I’m sitting here by the window dictating this diary. I have to keep this thing private, though. I’d never hear the end of it if Arjun ever found out I still write to Santa every year. Oh, I see him. He’s coming back. I gotta go!

--ooOoo--

December 30, 2021

Hi Santa, I’m back. I hope you didn’t think I’d forgotten or something. I just didn’t get a chance to finish my story until now. Hope you had a happy Christmas!

Where did I leave off? Right, I was waiting for Arjun to come back to our flat. It took him a bloody long time to come up the stairs, and by the time he got there, I was famished, hungry enough to down the lukewarm coffee and rather disgusting egg salad sandwich he brought me in a few gulps (better that way, anyway, so I could barely taste it.)

Right then, I got a ping on my mobile. It was the Doctor. Arjun said he’d be fine doing surveillance if I wanted to take the call. The best part was it wasn’t just a call! It was a videochat! From Yultidia, nonetheless! The kids and the Doctor were at the top of the snowtubing hill. They were just about to go down and had wanted me to join them very badly. They decided if I couldn’t be there in person, I could at least be there virtually. The Doctor shouted “Allons-y, Rose Tyler,” and we were off down the hill. It was wonderful to hear their shrill, little voices, screeching in delight, and see the big grins on all their faces as they went careening down the hill, but it was all I could do to hold back my tears. I wanted to be there with them more than anything!

“We’ll call back later,” the Doctor told me, “to say goodnight.” And then he said, “Rose Tyler−” And the line went dead.

I tried really hard not to dwell on the memories that that unfinished sentence dredged up, because I knew exactly what the call cutting out meant: something was about to go down.

Arjun argued with me. I told him to shut it and just keep an eye on things. Any people walking by, cars moving. Anything. Even a stray animal. He kept insisting he saw nothing amiss, no sign of a transmat anywhere in the vicinity. But I knew. I’d sonicked my mobile so it would drop everything at any sign of a transmat within a 50 kilometre radius. And that’s just what happened.

I don’t know why I did it (some instinct niggling in the back of my mind, I guess, that prickle of suspicion you just can’t ignore) but I surreptitiously peered out over Arjun’s shoulder just as two lean bodies slipped into the shadows around the side of the Sontarans’ building. It was the Dintashi, I was sure of it, even though they looked perfectly human. The Dintashi were well known for using Shimmers. Arjun had to have noticed, and he hadn’t bothered to tell me. Something was very, very wrong.

I confronted him, and he got this really scary look on his face. Accused me of messing things up for him, saying that I should have just kept my nose out of it. He even pointed his gun at me. I didn’t really have time for his crap, to be honest. I needed to catch the two the Dintashi and the Sontarans across the street. But now, I realized, I had absolutely no back up.

We had two other operatives in the flat below, but there’d been no communication from them since Arjun had come back from the coffee run… And then it clicked. It had taken him an awful long time to come up the stairs... I had to assume he had subdued them, and now I didn’t know if they were alive, dead, or incapacitated, or maybe even  involved in this scam somehow. Whatever the case, they certainly weren’t going to be around to help me.

Arjun aimed the gun at my head. I was so frightened, Santa! I just kept the images of my laughing children and husband replaying in my mind as I moved toward him. If this turned out to be the last thing I would ever do, I wanted that to be my final thought. Them. Always them. Only them. Forever.

Sorry, Santa. Give me a mo’. I’m crying again. I promised I wouldn’t do that…

Anyway, so he’s pointing the gun at my head, and I knew I had to do something unexpected. Arjun knows the way I fight. But there was one thing he wouldn’t be expecting. I activated my sonic, and pointed it at him. It shone an incredibly strong light in his eyes, temporarily blinding him. While he was reeling from that, I knocked him out cold with a solid lead punch right to the side of his neck, just behind his ear, and once he was down, I kicked the gun from his hand.

Of course, I confiscated all his weapons, but I just left him there, unconscious, ‘cause frankly, I needed to focus on apprehending the Dintashi and Sontarans. I called Dad as I ran down the stairs. Told him to mobilize anything in the area. But he said it would be a while before anyone could get to me. They were all a few kilometres out. He also ordered me to wait before engaging. Well, I’ve never been one to follow orders and if I didn’t act, the weapons exchange would go down, unhindered, and then where would we be? Earth would be getting a reputation for being a place for holding these sorts of transactions. It was dangerous and needed to be nipped in the bud.

Still, as much as I wanted to go in there and take them all down, myself, I do have a bit of common sense. I’m pretty good at my job. I can be tough and have good combat skills. Dad wouldn’t have given me the position of Field Commander if I hadn’t been good. But that also means I know when I’m in over my head. This was one of those times. I might have been able to handle just the Dintashi, but the Sontarans were another matter.

But I wasn’t just going to let this go. And there was only one person I could call on who I knew could help me, and be here right away. My Doctor.

I quietly snuck into the room where the aliens were negotiating the details of their transaction (they weren’t that hard to find with my sonic), and sent the Doctor a signal from there so he could easily lock onto it. They heard it, of course, and turned to face me. One of the Sontarans shouted at the Dintashi something along the lines of “…you assured us we wouldn’t be interrupted…” He had his rifle pointed at the arms dealers who looked like they were making to transmat out of there. I shouted for them to stop. They couldn’t escape now! Then, before I could react, another of the Sontarans fired at me with his disruptor rifle.

Unprepared, I went down. All I remember is the disruptor blast cutting across my torso, dropping me, and everything started to go black. I could just make out the sound of the TARDIS, and in my mind, I clung to my vision of the laughing faces of my family, smiling at me.

The next couple of days were hazy. I kept trying to fight out of the darkness but it kept sucking me back under, and always before it did, I would see my  family grinning at me as they snowtubed in Yultidia. I didn’t know why, but I just knew I had to hold on to that image.

Then I remember seeing the Doctor. It was only for a second. The lights were so bright and he was all back lit with spiky hair and his face in dark shadow, but I could see his eyes. They were full of the aftermath of the Oncoming Storm: so unsettled and sad. I was falling under again, the darkness claiming me, and suddenly his hand grabbed mine and his thoughts washed through me. I love you. Come home safe.

And I told him I’d never leave him.

I finally woke up properly yesterday in the medical facilities at Torchwood. I’d missed Christmas entirely, and ruined it for my family. They were all staying on cots in empty rooms nearby. They’d decorated my room with a tree and garland (even some of that garish stuff from Yultidia!) All the presents were tucked under the tree. No one had opened even one. I feel so guilty about that.

We’re going to open them tonight, though. I wasn’t up to it yesterday, but I’m feeling a bit better today. Turns out the disruptor broke several of my ribs and sliced open my abdomen. My intestines had to be stitched back together, but the doctors couldn’t do much for my uterus. They did a hysterectomy, saving as much as they could. We hadn’t been planning on having more babies, but now that the choice has been taken away from me, I feel a bit empty. I was told I had been very lucky that no other major organs were involved, though. So I’ll just have to keep focussing on that.

The Doctor had taken the Sontarans and the Dintashi to Torchwood for questioning and to be kept in detention there. The Dintashi, not unexpectedly, have a ship close by and a contingent is expected to arrive to negotiate for the release of the prisoners. Being a rogue faction, the Sontarans are on their own. Back in the Prime Universe, the Doctor would have handed them directly to the Shadow Proclamation, but he hasn’t done much research into that organization’s presence in this universe, yet. Until he does, the Sontarans will remain prisoners of Torchwood. Arjun is in lock up. He’ll probably be retconned after a thorough interrogation.  The other operatives he (thankfully) only incapacitated are back home, recovering with their families.

As for being Defender of the Earth… I think I’ll be quite happy to lead a quieter life for a while, not that I’ll have much of a choice until I’m properly healed up, which could take some time. Anyway, the title doesn’t seem so grand anymore, even from the Doctor’s lips. For now, the greatest adventure I want to have is spending time with my family, and always holding onto each memory as though it’s going to be my last.

Until next year, Santa. I hope Mrs. Claus and your family of elves and reindeer have a safe, happy, and healthy year.

love, Rose