#even science doesn't claim to know everything!!!

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

@allvalley100

Prompt: Ritual

Pairing: YasMoon

***

“You sure?”

Moon places an amethyst on Yasmine’s submerged stomach, other hand swiping lavender oil across her girlfriend’s cheeks. “You’ll feel better about yourself. More in control of your life.”

Yasmine blushes. Of course Moon pinpoints her most deep-seated issues with zero hesitation.

But if purple rocks, lilac candles, and lotus-and-violet-petal baths might fix them, so be it.

“So it really works.”

Moon laughs.

“Done this ritual a hundred times. Always clears my solar plexus.”

Moon peels off her tanktop, sliding in beside her. Their legs tangle together—thick vines to grow the flowers around them.

“Okay. You’re the expert.”

***

@karatecaulfield crystal time!!! This is what they do on dates <3

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Kelly and Zach Weinersmith’s “A City On Mars”

In A City On Mars, biologist Kelly Weinersmith and cartoonist Zach Weinersmith set out to investigate the governance challenges of the impending space settlements they were told were just over the horizon. Instead, they discovered that humans aren't going to be settling space for a very long time, and so they wrote a book about that instead:

https://www.acityonmars.com/

The Weinersmiths make the (convincing) case that ever aspect of space settlement is vastly beyond our current or reasonably foreseeable technical capability. What's more, every argument in favor of pursuing space settlement is errant nonsense. And finally: all the energy we are putting into space settlement actually holds back real space science, which offers numerous benefits to our species and planet (and is just darned cool).

Every place we might settle in space – giant rotating rings, the Moon, Mars – is vastly more hostile than Earth. Not just more hostile than Earth as it stands today – the most degraded, climate-wracked, nuke-blasted Earth you can imagine is a paradise of habitability compared to anything else. Mars is covered in poison and the sky disappears under planet-sized storms that go on and on. The Moon is covered in black-lung-causing, razor-sharp, electrostatically charged dust. Everything is radioactive. There's virtually no water. There are temperature swings of hundreds of degrees every couple of hours or weeks. You're completely out of range of resupply, emergency help, or, you know, air.

There's Helium 3 on the Moon, but not much of it, and there is no universe in which is it cheaper to mine for Helium 3 on the Moon than it is to mine for it on Earth. That's generally true of anything we might bring back from space, up to and including continent-sized chunks of asteroid platinum.

Going to space doesn't end war. The countries that have gone to space are among the most militarily belligerent in human history. The people who've been to space have come back perfectly prepared to wage war.

Going to space won't save us from the climate emergency. The unimaginably vast trove of material and the energy and advanced technology needed to lift it off Earth and get it to Mars is orders of magnitude more material and energy than we would need to resolve the actual climate emergency here.

We aren't anywhere near being a "multiplanetary species." The number of humans you need in a colony to establish a new population is hard to estimate, but it's very large. Larger than we can foreseeably establish on the Moon, on Mars, or on a space-station. But even if we could establish such a colony, there's little evidence that it could sustain itself – not only are we a very, very long way off from such a population being able to satisfy its material needs off-planet, but we have little reason to believe that children could gestate, be born, and grow to adulthood off-planet.

To top it all off, there's space law – the inciting subject matter for this excellent book. There's a lot of space law, and while there are some areas of ambiguity, the claims of would-be space entrepreneurs about how their plans are permissible under the settled parts of space law don't hold up. But those claims are robust compared to claims that space law will simply sublimate into its constituent molecules when exposed to the reality of space travel, space settlement, and (most importantly) space extraction.

Space law doesn't exist in a vacuum (rimshot). It is parallel to – and shares history with – laws regarding Antarctica, the ocean's surface, and the ocean's floor. These laws relate to territories that are both vastly easier to access and far more densely populated by valuable natural resources. The fact that they remain operative in the face of economic imperatives demands that space settlement advocates offer a more convincing account than "money talks, bullshit walks, space law is toast the minute we land on a $14 quadrillion platinum asteroid."

The Weinersmiths have such an account in defense of space law: namely, that space law, and its terrestrial analogs, constitute a durable means of resolving conflicts that would otherwise give rise to outcomes that are far worse for science, entrepreneurship, human thriving or nation-building than the impediments these laws represent.

What's more, space law is enforceable. Not only would any space settlement be terribly, urgently dependent on support from Earth for the long-foreseeable future, but every asteroid miner, Lunar He3 exporter and Martian potato-farmer hoping to monetize their products would have an enforcement nexus with a terrestrial nation and thus the courts of that nation.

But the Weinersmiths aren't anti-space. They aren't even anti-space-settlement. Rather, they argue that the path to space-based scientific breakthroughs, exploration of our solar system, and a deeper understanding of our moral standing in a vast universe cannot start with space settlements.

Landing people on the Moon or Mars any time soon is a stunt – a very, very expensive stunt. These boondoggles aren't just terribly risky (though they are – people who attempt space settlement are very likely to die horribly and after not very long), they come with price-tags that would pay for meaningful space science. For the price of a crewed return trip to Mars, you could put multiple robots onto every significant object in our solar system, and pilot an appreciable fleet of these robot explorers back to Earth with samples.

For the cost of a tiny, fraught, lethal Moon-base, we could create hundreds of experiments in creating efficient, long-term, closed biospheres for human life.

That's the crux of the Weinersmiths' argument: if you want to establish space settlements, you need to do a bunch of other stuff first, like figure out life-support, learn more about our celestial neighbors, and vastly improve our robotics. If you want to create stable space-settlements, you'll need to create robust governance systems – space law that you can count on, rather than space law that you plan on shoving out the airlock. If you want humans to reproduce in space – a necessary precondition for a space settlement that lasts more than a single human lifespan – then we need to do things like breed multiple generations of rodents and other animals, on space stations.

Space is amazing. Space science is amazing. Crewed scientific space missions are amazing. But space isn't amazing because it offers a "Plan B" for an Earth that is imperiled by humanity's recklessness. Space isn't amazing because it offers unparalleled material wealth, or unlimited energy, or a chance to live without laws or governance. It's not amazing because it will end war by mixing the sensawunda of the "Pale Blue Dot" with the lebensraum of an infinite universe.

A science-driven approach to space offers many dividends for our species and planet. If we can figure out how to extract resources as dispersed as Lunar He3 or asteroid ice, we'll have solved problems like extracting tons of gold from the ocean or conflict minerals from landfill sites, these being several orders of magnitude more resource-dense than space. If we can figure out how to create self-sustaining terraria for large human populations in the radiation-, heat- and cold-blasted environs of space, we will have learned vital things about our own planet's ecosystems. If we can build the robots that are necessary for supporting a space society, we will have learned how to build robots that take up the most dangerous and unpleasant tasks that human workers perform on Earth today.

In other words, it's not just that we should solve Earth's problems before attempting space settlement – it's that we can't settle space until we figure out the solutions to Earth's problems. Earth's problems are far simpler than the problems of space settlement.

As I read the Weinersmiths' critique of space settlement, I kept thinking of the pointless AI debates I keep getting dragged into. Arguments for space settlement that turn on existential risks (like humanity being wiped out by comets, sunspots, nuclear armageddon or climate collapse) sound an awful lot like the arguments about "AI safety" – the "risk" that the plausible sentence generator is on the verge of becoming conscious and turning us all into paperclips.

Both arguments are part of a sales-pitch for investment in commercial ventures that have no plausible commercial case, but whose backers are hoping to get rich anyway, and are (often) sincerely besotted with their own fantasies:

https://locusmag.com/2023/12/commentary-cory-doctorow-what-kind-of-bubble-is-ai/

Both AI and space settlement pass over the real risks, such as the climate consequences of their deployment, or the labor conditions associated with their production. After all, when you're heading off existential risk, you don't stop to worry about some carbon emissions or wage theft.

And critically, both ignore the useful (but resolutely noncommercial) ways that AI or space science can benefit our species. AI radiology analysis might be useful as an adjunct to human radiological analysis, but that is more expensive, not less. Space science might help us learn to use our materials more efficiently on Earth, and that will come long before anyone makes rendezvous with a $14 quadrillion platinum asteroid.

There are beneficial uses for LLMs. When the Human Rights Data Analysis Group uses an LLM to help the Innocence Project New Orleans extract and categorize officer information from wrongful conviction records, they are doing something valuable and important:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

It's socially important work, a form of automation that is an unalloyed good, but you won't hear about it from LLM advocates. No one is gonna get rich on improving the efficiency of overturning wrongful convictions with natural language processing. You can't inflate a stock bubble with the Innocence Project.

By the same token, learning about improving gestational health by breeding multigenerational mouse families in geosynchronous orbit is no way to get a billionaire tech baron to commit $250 billion to space science. But that's not an argument against emphasizing real science that really benefits our whole species. It's an argument for taking away capital allocation authority from tech billionaires.

I'm a science fiction writer. I love stories about space. But I can distinguish fantasy from reality and thought experiments from suggestions. Kim Stanley Robinson's 2015 novel Aurora – about failed space settlement – is every bit as fascinating and inspirational as "golden age" sf:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/11/02/kim-stanley-robinsons-aurora-space-is-bigger-than-you-think/

But still, it inspired howls of outrage from would-be space colonists. So much so that Stan wrote a brilliant essay explaining what we were all missing about space settlement, which I published:

https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html

With City on Mars, the Weinersmiths aren't making the case for giving up on space, nor are they trying to strip space of its romance and excitement. They're trying to get us to focus on the beneficial, exciting, serious space science we can do right now, not just because it's attainable and useful – but because it is a necessary precondition for any actual space settlement in the distant future.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

[max1461]

I *think* the deal with Gödel's incompleteness theorems is that it's just a cardinality thing, it's like a pigeonhole principle thing (in spirit; it's not literally the pigeonhole principle). Like that's sort of what diagonalization arguments are, and Gödel has a diagonalization argument. If you set up some system of rules, there will always be consequences of that system that you can't prove because you're limited to "too few possible proofs". I think even Gödel himself said something to this effect somewhere but I can't find it.

It's like. Imagine some sentence in PA that's like ∀nP(n), right. Well it might be unprovable in PA. In fact, Con(PA) is of exactly this form: "∀n(n does not encode a valid derivation of a contradiction)" or whatever, and it's unprovable in PA. But from the outside ∀nP(n) is still true in the sense that, well, no matter how many numbers n you check, you'll never find one that doesn't satisfy P. In fact, any statement of the form ∀nP(n) which is unprovable must be true, because if it were false we could find a counterexample. But we can't make that inference from within PA, we have to make it "on the outside".

I find this sort of unsettling because...

Nevermind. I don't find it unsettling any more. I think it's normal and no big deal. There are definitely interesting issues around this but I think in itself it's kind of no big deal. Especially if you're like, a Curry style formalist and you think of math as the empirical study of the behavior of systems of rules and proofs as repeatable experiments (reducing math to metamath, and making it a science).

It's just all, all Gödel is saying is that mathematical systems are "too small" to directly tell you everything about themselves. Again, *I think*. It's like, no more mysterious than the halting problem, because it literally is the halting problem. I don't think the halting problem is that wacky either. Ok there's no algorithm that tells you whether other algorithms will halt. Sure, an algorithm for a decision problem is a pretty restricted sort of thing. It's not really a surprise that there isn't one that does that.

Anyway the upshot is I don't think Gödel forces us to be any more Platonist than we already are. Like in general, even without Gödel, if you want to be a game formalist, say... and you claim "I've proven φ from the axioms of PA", and you want that to be interpreted in roughly the same way as "I made the move ke4 in a chess game", or whatever... well, to interpret the latter claim, I have to ask questions like "what's a chess game?", "what does it mean to make a move?", and these still get me into the territory of ontology of abstract objects and semantics of claims about abstract objects. So game formalism doesn't save you from this sort of thing. And conversely I don't think Gödel produces any more issues of this kind. If I claim "∀nP(n) is true but unprovable in PA", the thing is it might be hard for me to know I'm right (because ∀nP(n) is uprovable, so I have to investigate empirically, à la Curry's idea), but if the trouble is over the semantics, well, I'm still just making a truth claim about an abstract object (the system PA), so it's like. We're semantically in no more dubious territory than with the claim about making a move in chess or the claim about a totally non-Gödelian proposition proved in PA. It's just that it's harder to establish our claim as true.

[snickerdoodlles]

so you know that semi-popular convention in KimChay fic where Chay introduces Kim to omegaverse fic and scars his brain? we deserve a scenario where Kim discovers omegaverse fic and gets stupidly, embarrassingly horny over it.

like. who knows how Kim finds out about this, he's probably just being a guy on the internet and accidentally stumbles into this, or maybe he watched the omegaverse show currently airing after prime tv in Thailand rn. whatever, who cares, the how is not important. but after his incredibly baffled "what the fuck????" introduction to it, Kim is reading up on it and telling himself this trope is fucking weird (the babies come from WHERE?!), its fucked up (trans people??? exist????), its rebranded bio-essentialism with new flavors of crack science, etc etc.

he's also about to squirm out of his pants because he's so fucking into it.

Chay??? being so into him he couldn't NOT claim him??? special scents to mark your partner??? mating bites?????? we haven't even touched on the regularly reoccurring marathon sex yet.

Chay's on the other side of the couch watching Kim getting progressively redder as he dives into the deep niche of this particular internet crevice like 👀 how you doing there P'Kim 👀 got anything you want to share with the class 👀

Kim: knotting is stupid and so impractical

Chay: ...but it's hot?

Kim: ......it is SO hot T_T

Kim is desperately trying to nitpick everything about this genre to convince himself he doesn't like it. but permanently smelling like Chay? oh god yes please. a mark on his neck that would scream to the world he's Chay's? bite him until he SCARS Chay please please please. don't even talk to him about nesting, he already sneakily swaps their pillows to snuggle Chay's on Chay's early mornings, he's about to become the cutest person on earth when he gets permission.

Kim: this trope is full of shit you don't need a BIOLOGICAL IMPERATIVE to make babies to be a soft and caring person

Chay: or a biological capability to get pregnant to want to be pregnant

Kim: Kim: *BRIGHT RED*

just Kim being absolutely mortified by the number of kinks omegaverse hits for him and Chay gleefully fucking with him (and just plain fucking him) about it.

[gojicorps]

I've been trying to make this post for a while... This is my OC "master post"

This is Ltw, if you dig stories of super heroes with a bunch of teenager drama and high school tropes, this isn't the story for you! Sorry, but this gender is already really saturated so I tried to mix and match different tropes across the medias to create a weird love letter to Comics, Tokusatsu and anything that I really enjoy. It's a coming of age story about Hart Lee Valentine, who chose to left his father house to live with his uncle in a city called Saint Expedite, famous for crimes, urban legends and some of the worst pizza you can ever imagine, an absolute paradise for someone who really wants to have a fresh restart in life.

The cast consists mainly of this 5 characters.

Hart Lee Valentine: He's the son of the smartest man alive... But this is just a media claim, his father helped cure one of the weirdest illness know to mankind. But that doesn't matter at all, Valentine is already living under the shadow of his only parent alive (wink, wink) he starts as a calm and collected person but gradually starts loosing his manners, becoming an unhinged not so crazy science. He has an odd sense of justice but he's MOSTLY a pacifist who will try to talk before throwing hands around.

His favorite animals are moths and ducks, dor different reasons, in his opinion moths are our saviours from the monstrosities called butterflies. And ducks because he loves how versatile they are, he identifies with that Jack of all trades style.

Sadako Atsuko: She's the local emo weirdo girl of the class, nobody knows much about her and her brother Helis, they live together in a mansion in the middle of the city, she's always tired, not in the best mood and usually sassy. People don't know but she's actually heiress of The Atsuko family, one of Japan's most advance tech companies, she's also a city vigilant who uses fear to stop crime... Yeah she's basically my universe version of the Batman, her character is driven by masks and alter egos, she feels incapable of leading a normal life since she's shattered between personas, not knowing who's the real her, not knowing how to express her true self. Those burdens started to get louder to the point she started playing instruments, as a therapy, but this basically turned into another problem, her days are getting too short to accomplish all her desires.

Her favorite animal is the bat, the long eared ones! So yeah she's basically using a fursuit to fight crime.

Helis: Sadako's adoptive brother, he's basically the group heart, trying to make their maniacal schemes be a little more unhinged, he's the protector and the tallest one of them. Those responsabilities are instantly forgotten when he's near Valentine, something about him makes Helis adopt a more act first think later persona, but they usually have fun with that. He's the one that gives unsolicited advices with the bestest intentions he wants to know more about his origin and maybe who's his real family but that's more a monkey palm situation that doesn't goes well when he meets his father and sister. He usually helps Sadako in her schemes, usually to treat her wounds while calls her irresponsible, dummy or anything in between those lines (she doesn't even get a cute animal band-aid...) oh he has an abnormal strength and light based power's, but that doesn't matter much to him.

His favorite animals are giraffes, he likes that they have the strongest kick, and besides their pattern is beautiful.

Ettore Zanchini: the definition of overcompensate! He simply is a tryhard in absolutely everything, he has a rivalry with Helis, Sadako and sometimes even Valentine, everything he does is trying to be the best. He likes classy outfits and good manners, he's a true gentleman with a short temper and overachiever, even though he doesn't need to prove himself that much. He's the best athlete of the school and won several fencing medals, he usually fights using two rapiers for the simple reason that this is a really dumb idea, so it's a good exercise.

He really likes Wolves and Stags, specially because they're the princes of the forest, he definitely cried with Bambi but keeps it hidden.

Stefanny: Starting as a villainess, Stef is the last one to join the crew, she's really unused to a bunch of stuff the others enjoy but tries her best to get ahold of everything, she's not the warmest person and can be really misunderstood, she's gruff and goes direct to the point in most of her interactions, some have the audacity to call her impolite, BUT SHE'S NOT! She's just not used to have conversations longer than 45 seconds or with people that aren't psycho's, she and Sadako get along pretty well, perhaps because of all their battles and training, oh and even though she's all cool and collected... She has fire powers, yeah they are neat I guess.

Her favorite animal are salamanders, she loves those little moist dragons!

[adelrambles]

Tips on Writing Bishop

I've been asked a couple times for advice on how to write a good (03-style) Bishop, and I'm well-aware he can be a bit tough to get a grasp on. As someone who's studied him specifically to learn how to write him as accurately as possible, I figured I'd compile some thoughts in case it'd be helpful to anyone else. I know a lot of Rise takes on him are basing off the 03 version, so maybe this could help generate ideas, too. SO!

Big Overall Points!

At the core of EVERYTHING Bishop does are two primary motivations. The first: the protection of the earth. What this means to him can get tricky, because it doesn't necessarily mean protecting the people, at least not all of them. But it will be better understood alongside the other:

The second: The protection of his sense of safety. Bishop has been deeply traumatized, and everything he does is born of a want to avoid that pain ever again. In his mind, earth is a safe area, a controllable factor, and anything outside it is a danger that must be eliminated. This is why he will still be willing to put himself and other people on the line in service of this; any sacrifice is worth the greater goal. (It's worth noting, Bishop will claim the first as his motivation freely, but is likely not consciously aware of the second.)

Bishop deals in Big Picture ONLY. Another reason Bishop will willingly throw away anything, including the lives of the people he claims to protect, is that he seems incapable of understanding things on a small, individual basis.

Bishop is a cold personality. He does not have strong displays of emotion. He does emote, but for the most part it's muted, so I recommend using emotional bursts very sparingly. (In my own writing, as an example, I try to limit my use of exclamation marks in his dialogue as much as possible.)

At his core, Bishop is afraid, and his response to fear is aggression. This also makes it particularly difficult to talk him down, if he's put in an emotional state. His response to not being in control is often violent retaliation.

With those basic tenants understood, let's move next to some major personality traits:

Bishop is a controlling personality. This is a direct result of his trauma response. Things that can be controlled are safe, therefore he must control everything. If something cannot be controlled, it's a threat that must be eliminated. If he doesn't know why something happened, he becomes angry (including even when it benefits him.)

Bishop is very low-empathy. When writing him, I try to keep in mind that he cannot put himself in the perspective of others. (Or if he can, he doesn't care to.)

Bishop is a sadist. He gets personal enjoyment from hurting others.

Bishop likes fighting, but only when he's winning. He will quickly leave if he can't see a guaranteed victory.

Bishop is paranoid. This is probably self-evident, but it's the reason he's often so well-prepared even when things don't go to plan.

Bishop genuinely seems to enjoy science. He's shown to be far more lenient with scientist characters than anyone else, and he seems to involve himself in his scientists' projects to a degree. Enough to, at the very least, understand their work. (Given he was the one set to dissect the turtles, it might also be argued he has some medical or biology background, himself.)

Bishop is an opportunist and scavenger. He can roll with failures as long as he can find something to get out of it. If he's presented with an opportunity to stab someone in the back, and he has something to gain? He'll take it without a second thought.

Bishop is deeply self-blind. For all his perceptiveness and strategic prowess, Bishop is not very self-aware in the slightest. He is completely blind to his own hypocrisies, and thoroughly confident in his own righteousness.

Bishop adapts fast. He accepts situations for what they are and acts (Though he may still be angry about them, or what have you.) This is likely a skill developed via longevity; the world around him has changed rapidly, but he doesn't feel out of place at all.

Bishop will take extreme risks and thinks wildly outside the box. Also self-evident, if you're familiar with the plans he enacts throughout the show. He'll put a lot on the line if he thinks the reward is worth enough, and he's willing to go to extreme lengths to get what he wants, even if his plans would be considered crazy by normal standards.

Bishop is persistent. If he wants something, he won't stop until he gets it. If he fails, he'll retreat, make a new plan, and try again. It is very difficult to convince him to back down (and certainly not on moral grounds.)

Habits and triggers I've noted:

Being restrained of any sort puts Bishop in a panic. He is more likely to have an emotional response in these scenarios, and seems to have (an albeit muted) desperation to escape. (See: Leatherhead restraining him in the first encounter; His reaction to being trapped on the surgical table in Head of State.)

When being duplicitous or suppressing a reaction, Bishop will go to adjust his tie. This could possibly be considered his tell.

Bishop seems to have a particular fear of aliens blending in as humans. His slayer project was built around the assumption that this is a common threat. (Worth noting: This makes The Shredder the model of the exact threat Bishop is afraid of. Technically, Bishop himself may also fit the description of a threat shaped like a human.)

Writing considerations:

In 03's narrative, Bishop is EPF and EPF is Bishop. Narratively speaking, any organization Bishop is head of acts as if it is an extension of his will and character.

Bishop is shown to strike fear and/or discomfort into most characters he interacts with. Anything beyond this is an outlier, and will draw a reader's attention.

Dialogue-wise, Bishop is generally succinct and blunt. He does dabble in gloating, though, and especially likes to upset others. If he's given a chance to be mean, he'll usually take it. It can help to consider he has a Mission Mode and a Normal Mode. When it comes to Mission Mode, he gets straight to the point and hates unnecessary talking. Otherwise, he's still not very talkative, but will take the time to make pointed jabs or talk through a plan. A lot of his sense of humor seems to be rooted in how He's Better Than You (And You're Going To Die Painfully.)

It's a common pitfall that Bishop is depicted as seeking out the turtles. In 03, once he gets their DNA, he's done with them. Any encounters after that are incidental. Bishop does not care about anything that won't effect his greater goal. If he's targeting another character, it should have to do with a greater plan.

Bishop is an extremely competent combatant, shown to be able to handle up to 7 opponents at once. For a breakdown on his fighting style check out my other post on that!

Bishop is hard to kill, and oftentimes he accidentally contributes to his own defeat. (The hook from Bishop's Gambit is an example I get a LOT of mileage out of, as a perfect symbol of his self-defeating prophecies.)

We almost only ever see Bishop in the context of his work. While it could be construed that he depersonalizes himself, it's much more clear that the narrative depersonalizes him. As far as we, the audience know, Bishop's work is all that he is.

It's unclear if Bishop was released from his abduction or escaped. Depending on which you ascribe to, this can have ramifications for his mindset on how to deal with the alien threat. (Personally, because so much of his inability to cope hinges on a feeling of helplessness, I believe he was released. If he escaped on his own power, that undercuts it, somewhat.)

Thematically-speaking, Bishop parallels both his own torturers and his own victims at the same time. He has perpetuated the cycle that traumatized him in the first place by trying to fight fire with fire. (In that vein, I don't think he's capable of understanding that, not seeing aliens as people in the first place, just dangers. Considering how deeply ingrained his trauma is in his worldview and actions, it would probably ruin him, if he were ever able to actually grasp it.)

Bishop and EPF are likely a commentary on the military of the time 03 was coming out. This can be something worth keeping in mind, when figuring out his greater themes in your story, though it can just as well be discarded if it doesn't fit.

Adding to that, Bishop has an extensive american military background. His skills and knowledge will reflect that.

Bishop also plays on and references a number of real-life alien conspiracies. It can be worth digging through conspiracy history to drum up ideas and themes, too.

The ethical and philosophical quandaries of Bishop's body-hopping and humanity tend to not hold too much weight, because Bishop, himself, doesn't seem to care.

If I think of more I'll certainly be adding on to the reblogs of this post! Or, if you have more thoughts, please feel free to add! If you're in the mood for more Bishop ramblings, that's practically most of this blog atm, but this post is a particular favorite. If you're interested in Fast Forward!Bishop, specifically, consider this post! (also read Taking Pawns. slipped in that self-promo, nice.)

[sl-vega]

0.2; abandonment issues personified

project: love liason! - a scaramouche smau

scaramouche:

childe's childhood best friend and former next door neighbour

moved around a lot as a kid before getting taken in by his aunt due to his mother always being away on business trips

mona's academic rival, saw her as a nuisance before recently developing feelings for her (not that he'd ever admit it.)

was childe's neighbour up until they were sixth grade and scara's aunt passed away, so he ended up moving abroad to live with his mother

doesn't say it out loud, but he's grateful that childe did whatever he could to keep in touch with scara while he was living overseas

moved back just in time for freshman year of highschool

has a pet gecko that his aunt gave him before she died, he named him durin

only uses durin as his pfps

childe:

real name is ajax but childe was more of an inside joke/nickname that way too many people caught on to

guy of many talents, and part of many extracurricular activities around campus

essentially a walking wallet for the rest of the group due to his family having many connections

doesn't mind paying for everyone and that is frequently abused

albedo:

albedo is basically that one cousin/friend that your parents always compare you to

honour roll, member of the student council, as well as the science and art club, not to mention a trusted tutor

sometimes people who have crushes on him fail tests on purpose just on the off chance that they can get him as a tutor

venti and childe thinks it's funny af but he got pretty annoyed by it after a while

his block list on all his platforms are mainly made up of people who pretended to be failing just to get his attention

poor guy doesn't gaf about their grades he just wants some alone time

venti:

drunk without alcohol friend

chronic band kid, frequently tries to convince new students to join any of the band courses

always mooches off of childe whenever the rest of the group goes out

met scara after childe introduced them to each other during a school dance that everyone was forced to attend

heizou:

the FBI friend of scara's group

just like navia he knows everything about everyone, except he actually charges people for his services

has a questionable search history at best

a SHIT ton of burner accounts on all his social media platforms for "research purposes"

has blackmailed a teacher into giving him an extension once

kazuha:

recently transferred midway through sophomore year

knew scara while he was living overseas and fate brought them together again

the actual dad of the group regardless of what childe claims

works part time at his local book store and is a MAJOR literature and poetry nerd

is part of several book clubs with a bunch of sweet old women

additional notes:

profiles are finished and done!

taglist is still open so just lmk if you want to be added <3

𝜗𝜚 SYNOPSIS: you're head over heels in love with childe, and scaramouche is (begrudingly) smitten with his "rival" mona. and, by sheer divine coincidence, you both happen to be the best friends of each other's objects of affection, so you strike a deal with each other. if scaramouche helps you ask out childe, you'll set him up with mona. so with the annual spring formal right around the corner, the two of you vow to be each other's wingmans so you can end your junior year on a high note (and maybe even kick off your senior year with a new relationship!). between, scheming, planning, and researching, you and scaramouche find yourselves developing a new relationship via helping each other out. now the real question is whether this friendship will remain as a pure platonic bond, or blossom into something more?

<PREV ll MASTERLIST ll NEXT>

🎀 - taglist!;

@agaygothicmushroom, @035814, @freyao7, @sketcheeee, @tsukimara, @shyentsmissingink, @justpeachyteastea, @aries-afk, @lxkeeeee, @sakiimeo, @sugxryratz, @shutingstar, @lalaloveallmydays, @bellflower1257, @haruumei, @kichiyosh1, @littlemisssatanist, @dee-zbignuts, @candyescapism, @crimxeorcremeexistspeacefully

[nevesmose]

I don't know anywhere near enough about Sanguinius to metaphorically crochet him into a little finger puppet for my primarch fics but how about a little baseless speculation about him and Fulgrim? Please note that this is all based on how I view them in the universe of my silly little stories and is in no way a claim about knowing how they are in canon / lore.

I would probably a) portray Sanguinius as a genuinely sweet adorable cinnamon roll too precious for this world and b) have Fulgrim utterly loathe him because of this.

I tend to write Fulgrim as being a pleasant and charming person who, deep down, is about 50% a deeply broken overthinking ultra-perfectionist and 50% really jealous and vindictive. Please understand that this isn't me saying he's just evil and always was because it really really isn't. It's entirely possible for someone with these traits to function perfectly well in society and not be a bad person in any meaningful sense.

However.

One of his formative experiences as a primarch was almost losing his entire legion due to the Blight corrupted geneseed that almost wiped them out right at the start.

He had to build them up himself from nothing with the constant threat of annihilation both in the sense that "if I fuck up a war and lose however-many thousand Astartes in a terrible accident on the double-ended dildo planet I have no reserves or replacements" and also "every use of our geneseed is a gamble against the horrific mutation coming back and destroying us all over again". In that context the solution he turns to, and the only one that probably makes sense based on his prior experience on Chemos, is perfection.

Make no mistakes, ever, anywhere, because the cost of failure is incalculable, even if it means committing science-treason so you can purge all weakness from your own space dudes. It's not a desire for perfection based on arrogance, although he is of course immensely arrogant in a lot of ways, but one motivated deep down by fear.

People like to clown on Fulgrim based on Jaghatai's infamous "I hear you do strange things to your warriors 😂👌" sick burn, but to be honest, viewed from his context, what Fulgrim's doing is somewhat understandable.

That is if we assume that the Khan isn't just making a cheap insult but rather is implying he knows a lot more than would be preferable about Fabius dicking around with Astartes genetics in order to detect and eliminate carriers of the corrupted gene-seed so that the III Legion, one of the smallest of all numerically, can still survive. And then a lot of other things too because, like Fabius could believably say in one of the weirder McNeill stories, forbidden science is akin to the ancient Terran delicacy known as Pringles. Once you pop you can't stop.

With that in mind it feels like a lot of Fulgrim's post-heresy actions, not just the snake orgies but the general distance and lack of care for his sons, comes from revelling in just finally being free of that level of stress and pressure weighing down on him at all times. Even Perturabo doesn't withdraw from the Iron Warriors that much and he's a dick.

Anyway, back to pre-heresy days. He has all this going on and then in comes Sanguinius with his giant fucking angel wings who everyone loves and who turned his legion into One Direction (not really but you know... perceptions vs reality and no one in this setting actually communicates with one another since they'd probably have a lot in common regarding fears of being mutants etc)

It's the kind of thing that I think would feel like a dagger in the heart to someone like Fulgrim. Directly highlighting and literally embodying all of his fears about mutation and imperfection and yet somehow appearing to get away with it while he has to exercise constant control and do horrible things simply in order for his legion to exist.

So for that reason I think he would absolutely hate Sangy and do everything he could to undermine him.

"Oh no, brother! I've accidentally spilled this entire Big Gulp cup of bright red Tizcan wine all over your beautiful white wings, and only moments before you were due to make a speech to ten million people about how wonderful the Imperium is! Let me help you clean it up."

And then he pulls out a Looney Tunes sized bottle labelled Fabius's Finest Molt-O-Matic Guaranteed Feather Remover and starts spraying it on him.

[weird-an]

Billy is everywhere, even when he's not with Steve.

His red shirt lies on the floor, his hairspray sits on the kitchen counter leaving Steve to wonder what he's doing with it next to the fridge. An eyeliner on the sink Billy claims isn't his. All the doors are always open, even when they go to bed. Billy insists on it. He also smokes in bed sometimes when he thinks Steve doesn't notice, but Steve always smells him on the sheets and hates himself for smiling in his pillow.

Sometimes it helps. To remind Steve that Billy isn't gone, when he's not showing up. To remind Steve that Billy will come back.

Billy isn't coming over today. It was supposed to be their lazy Sunday. He had a cough yesterday and red rimmed eyes. But of course, he was "fucking fine, Steve". He never calls, even though Steve told him a million times that nobody is home except him.

So, when the phone rings Steve expects Dustin to blab into his ear about some science stuff Steve doesn't really get. Instead, it's Max.

"He's really sick," she says without saying hello. "I don't know what do to. My parents are gone for a few hours."

Steve knows it's just a bad cold. He puts away the hairspray Billy left in the kitchen and grabs everything that could be useful against stuffed noses and fevers. He still floors the gas pedal on the way to Cherry Lane, heart racing in his chest.

Billy's room is so void of... all the things that make him Billy. Sure, there is a dartboard and a poster of a girl in a bikini. But nothing that screams Billy, nothing with a personality. The white walls make Steve shiver - and so does Billy. Curled up in a thin blanket, only his mullet sticking out.

"Hey there," Steve whispers. Keeps his distance until Billy realizes it's him. His side still throbs from the last time he tried to wake Billy from a nightmare.

Billy sits up in his bed. "What the fu-" A cough rattles his chest.

He blinks at Steve.

"This is a fever dream," he tells him. "You can't be here."

"Obviously I can." Steve holds up the cough syrup he brought. "I'm just checking on you."

Steve stays with Billy the whole day. Holds him, rubs his back, listens to his whining - and boy, there's way more whining than he expected.

But what makes Steve worry isn't the cold or Billy's whining. It's this terrible room, bare walls, grey carpet, all lifeless and joyless - all that Billy isn't. It's the lock on the inside of the room which answers Steve's question on why Billy sometimes bails on their dates last minute.

When Steve gets home, he puts the hairspray back on the kitchen counter. He wants Billy to feel at home here. To be himself. He'll give him a key, so that he doesn't feel locked in, and always keep the door open.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for asking my friend to stop saying 'me too' whenever I'm talking about my problems?

My friend is someone I'm relatively close with and I know has anxiety that she struggles with, so I'm not saying she doesn't understand pain or issues. But every time I muster the courage to mention the trust issues that I have because my mom passed away when I was 10 and I just have this permanent fear of losing everyone, she's just like 'I know right, like I literally don't trust anyone. It's like a problem' And then proceeds to spill her guts to me for like an hour. Which is perfectly fine, I'm glad she trusts me, but she also does this whenever I'm talking about how I don't like to talk about my own emotions. Another trauma response honestly, since the last thing my parents needed when I was a kid was my stupid emotions and none of the other 2nd graders wanted hear about my dying mom so I learned not to talk about it. But she just treats it almost as a joke, an offhand remark about how much her life sucks. Like she talks about how she never sleeps and science homework is the worst thing in the world. I don't want to sound like I feel superior, but I feel like our world views are just different. It's rare that things bother me, since I feel like I just understand that there are more important things, and the way she compares her important things to mine just feels unnecessary. And all this really rubs me the wrong way. I find it very hard to be anyone but myself, and I don't want to ruin our friendship, but I also can't go on just pretending her actions don't bother me and make me clam up even more. So would I be the asshole if I tried to bring up my concerns with her?

(Btw, I only brought up the personal reasons behind my issues to give more context as to why I felt offended she was acting like our situations were one in the same, not to try and get you to pity me or anything. Please don't take that into account. I just know she talks to me about almost everything in her life, and none of it truly seems like it would cause many of the issues she claims to have but never really showcases. She could still have these issues, obviously, but she just really doesn't seem to and never brings it up unless I do first and then cuts me off to mention herself)

[m00nlight-ramblings]

Eddie Munson Boyfriend Headcanons

I love Eddie. Here are some fun things I think happens when you start dating him!

First things first, I see this starting either as a friends-to-lovers, or enemies-to-lovers. Eddie isn't one for trying to find people to date, the people he dates are already in his life, and they develop into something more.

Friends-to-Lovers: classmates in school, you were always kind to him. Never judged him, and got to know him and his friends. He'd talk to you about metal and D&D (even though you may not know much about each), and you'd talk to him about your interests, too. Being friends in school turned into hanging out on weekends, or talking on the phone until late at night, and eventually, you both naturally fell into a romance.

Enemies-to-Lovers: again, classmates in school, except Eddie was a little apprehensive to befriend someone who was so different than he was. Maybe it was because you were close to valedictorian, or maybe it's because you called Metallica stupid one time, but ever since then, you rubbed him the wrong way. But when you were paired together for a science project, you finally got to know each other outside of school, and you both realized there was something more there.

Eddie isn't necessarily the most romantic guy - definitely not a poet with his words - but what he lacks in words he makes up in actions.

He carries your books, he'll tie your shoe lace, he'll remember to bring a sweatshirt for you because you'll get cold (even though you claim you won't!)...he loves to do things for you.

PDA. HE LOVES IT. If he's not holding your hand, he has his arm wrapped around you, or is hugging you from behind, or is peppering you with kisses. He does not shy away from affection - not only because he loves you, but also because he wants everyone to know you're his.

A perfect date that you two do often is setting up a projector and watching movies outside when the weather is nice, projected onto the back of his trailer. He'll get snacks and sodas and you bundle up on sleeping bags under multiple blankets, watching scary movies under the stars. Sometimes you even fall asleep until dawn there too.

Eddie loves to play around and be dramatic - if he opens a door for you, it's immediately followed by a bow and him shouting "M'LADY!" as loud as possible.

Another thing you two love to do is listen to music while he writes his campaigns and you read. Just being in each other's presence - even if it's not doing something TOGETHER - is something you two find comfort in.

Eddie will be big spoon, but he loves little spoon.

Eddie can sleep through anything (and also snores). However if you ever find yourself anxious at night, or having a nightmare, even though you have to wake him up, he'll immediately wrap his arms around you and hold on tight.

You two love to pass notes in class, and often get caught because his hand/eye coordination is awful and will often drop them (again, very dramatically).

NICKNAMES. Pookie. Sugarbabe. Honey bunny. Lil' love. Angel Baby. The list goes on.

You are both each other's biggest cheerleaders. You support each other in everything you do, whether it be homework, or music, or college applications.

Eddie loves when you braid his hair, but he'll never tell anyone.

He loves when you wear dresses. He'll take one look at you, and like clockwork, will shout, "ALRIGHT EASY ACCESS!" Before doing a stupid little dance he always does when you were dresses that he calls "The Dress Dance".

(Even though he doesn't think of you in terms of access or not, he actually just thinks you are the most beautiful creature to walk this Earth and will also tell you that).

You two exchange media that you love with each other - Eddie tells you about a great song he wants you to hear, you tell him about an amazing book you just read, etc.

While watching movies, you often fall asleep in his arms, which is something he always lovingly teases you about (but he secretly loves it).

Eddie often daydreams about your future together, and will always vocalize the daydreams he has about you two.

------

Ta-da! I hope you all enjoyed! I could've gone on for a loooooong time...does anyone want a Part 2?

REMINDER: my inbox is open for suggestions, so I'd love to write some stuff!

[notur-dreamboy]

Assinging the endless to dead boy detectives characters because I can. (With explanations using a mix of comic and tv show lore)

Edwin - dream This was a hard choice, and while Despair was the more Canon choice as she claimed him as her friend in the 7th episode. Alternatively, I like exploring the similarities in dream and Edwin's character arch. In the comics edwin died in 1916 and escaped hell in 1989 much like the show, in the comics dream was kidnapped from 1916-1989 as opossed to the show where he escapes in 2020 or 2021 (I am unsure as to which one) they also both go through archs of finding companionship/acecpting people into their life and finding a greater purpose/finding peace with the one they're given. They're also both the bitchy intellectual type and hate most people.

Charles - destruction. I see so much fan content with him and desire, and while I see the vision, I have to disagree. (I also wanted to save them for the much more obvious choice) Destruction abandoned his position after he saw science being used as a tool for destruction because he didn't want to be the cause of massive devastation or obliteration (paraphrased from destructions page on the sandman wiki) and if that's not so incredibly Charles I don't know what is. Charles arch, we see him deal with this destructive type of anger he wants nothing to do with, so much so he represses all of it with a smile until it becomes too much.

Crystal - destiny. I gave her destiny because her arch and plotting in so intertwined with Edwin and Charles's it feels like it was nothing but destiny. Without her they wouldn't of even noticed the Becky Jackson case, the start of everything. Nothing would've happened without her. Because of her charles faced things he was hiding from himself for years, edwin let other people into his life, they wouldn't of saved niko if Crystal never had that quick interaction with her in episode one. She is so intertwined into everything I wouldn't be surprised if she was crafted by destiny himself.

Niko - death. There are multiple reasons why I gave niko death (including and in spite of the obvious). The biggest one is her future role as the principal, an employee of the afterlife and death. This is also another case of the personalities lining up. Death is seen as welcoming and kind despite being hated and feared as a concept. Death is also seen as wise and understands her role in life she is also the endless dream is closest with. On the sound of her wings when dream is feeling down about his quest for his tools being she allows him to shadow doing her job and offers him advice about his own state. I also just think death and dream's relationship is so similar to niko and Edwin's.

The cat king - desire. Really, this one is obvious. I don't know what you want me to say. His kingdom is all about want and pleasure, wuth is literally desire. His entire role is just to wake edwin up to his own desires. This is such a common concept that the most popular head Canon for him is that he is desires child.

Jenny - despair. I almost gave despair to edwin along with dream given their Canon interaction, but I decided otherwise. We don't know much about Jenny's backstory, but things can be assumed and interpreted certain ways. She owns her family's butcher shop but no family is ever mentioned (outside of a quick anecdote about her father in episode 5 but more on that later), she doesn't seem to have any friends or a social life for that matter. The letters, she reads them and follows up on the but is immediately off put on the idea of a date, which ended horribly. Her father, described as an acholohic and raging narcissist, couldn't have been a man who provided a great childhood either, yet she still took up his butcher shop. We can assume he's out of the picture for one reason or another as Jenny runs the shop herself. The first piece of advice she offers essentially boils down to people who are selfish, it can be assumed this is pulled from personal experience. Jenny is a character surrounded by despair and has grown so comfortable in it she doesn't even notice it anymore.

Tragic mick - delirium. The only endless to have 2 forms, delirium used to be delight before she evolved to delirium for reasons unknown to even destiny. Mick initially seen as comfortable in his human for until we learn about the washer woman. Niko gives him a piece of sea glass in hope it will help but instead we see him descend further into the quite madness he's proven himself into. Then we hear his story, a tragedy about a walrus forec to live the rest of his life as a human because of a bad decision. He's winds up mad (or delirious if you will) by thus decision, now wanting nothing more than to go back to being a walrus.

Bonus (Esther, monty, and the night nurse as various sandman characters) (little explanation, sorry)

Esther- the Corinthian. Created (or blessed) by a god-like deity for a certain purpose but took it too far out of pure selfishness

Monty- Mathew. Simply because they're both anthropomorphic birds.

The night nurse- lucienne/ lucien. A loyal assiant to their respective endless. Certain events cause them to drift from what they've always done or thought.

[fatuismooches]

dottore brainrot hit me right in the middle of my poetry class so I'm making it everyone else's problem

dottore with a poet s/o. he's a logical man, he doesn't go into the arts, let alone decipher and examine them. would challenge dottore to decipher their poems. he's STRUGGLING bc how was he supposed to know that "the running water loves the land that hugs it" was meant to represent his hugs?? sometimes the segments can hear him muttering to himself and reading the poem aloud over and over again. but when he figures it out?? he melts(internally) bc it's just so sweet. 100% would support his partner's art

OH YM GOSHHH I FREAKING LOVE THIS. As someone who always adored writing but sucked at poetry like THIS IS SO CUTE BDWQHDWJ ILY FOR THIS ANON (Nah fr though... Dottore probably handed all the literature homework over to you to do for him in the Akademiya because he couldn't be bothered or interested enough in stuff like that 😭)

But even all these years later he still claims to be able to understand it if he tried (lies) so you decide to whip up your own poem to put him to the test. He easily accepts the challenge with his usual confident grin because how hard could it possibly be? He deals in complicated ancient texts relating to science, math, and all these other matters. Surely he can figure out a poem. (He turns out to be wrong. So so wrong.) For such a smart man he couldn't seem to interpret the hidden feelings, or the metaphors and poetic devices used in these poems or writings as quickly as he thought he would. He's POURING over every word, every punctuation mark, stanzas, line breaks, everything trying to understand what's going on. There are literally whole notes, underlining, circling, and more scribbled around the poem. And you thought you made it pretty easy too... of course your poem would be about your love for him!

Despite how much it looks like he's suffering trying to understand what's going on, it's enjoyable to Dottore. Like a stress relief. He knows he's not the easiest person to be around so he wants to understand you and your hobbies too... although he isn't adept at them at all. After a dozen pages of brainstorming he finally reaches a conclusion and he just gets so excited and cocky, like how he does when he finally makes a breakthrough in his research. Dottore will come up to you with his confident smirk again and tell you in plain words what exactly you want. Acting as if you didn't make his brain short-circuit a few times.

"The running water loves the land that hugs it" was meant to represent his hugs??" IS SO SO CUTE IM EVAPORATINGGG AHHH

[doobnnoob-tf2]

How do you think the mercs act when they're drunk?

Scout: No one knew it was possible, but even more obnoxious than before. Louder than before. More stupid than before. He laughs at anything when he's drunk. He talks to everyone about everything in nothing more than partial sentence rambles. He grabs people to try and pull them along into whatever horrible plan he's come up with. But the team is thankful because he's a lightweight and will black out soon enough and then someone (mostly Spy) will drag him off to his room to let him sleep

Soldier: He usually only drinks beer, and never to the point he's drunk. If he's getting drunk, the team can usually tell how he's feeling depending on what he's drinking. And that'll determine how he is when he's drunk. Sometimes he's simply irritable and wants to be left alone, sometimes he's eerily quiet and wants to just sit outside and stare out into the desert, sometimes he's having a great time and there's not a single thing alive that'll stop him from jumping off the very top of the base into the above-ground pool set up below

Pyro: They simply don't drink. They don't like the way it tastes and it makes them anxious more than anything

Demoman: The real question is: what is he like when he's sober. And the answer is, he's usually sober because he's upset over something. When he wants his mind clear of anything so he can think and probably end up spiraling mentally. He's a functioning alcoholic, no one knows his reasons why but the team doesn't mind because he can do his job and it makes him happy

Heavy: He doesn't usually get drunk since it takes a lot for him to in the first place. But when he does, he'll sit in the middle of a crowd and loudly tell stories about his time growing up in the middle of the Siberian wasteland. The only problem is it's all in Russian, and there probably isn't many people around that can understand him but it's fine because they're listening anyway

Engineer: He usually wakes up the next morning to his workshop a wreck. And some abomination of a science project sitting in the middle of it all. He never can figure out how it works or what it's supposed to do. And then he's just miffed because his drunk self wasted blueprints to scribble on like a toddler. Drunk engineering isn't as fun as it sounds, even if it was fun in the moment

Medic: He comes up with his worst experiments when drunk. Not worse as in shock and horror. Just bad ideas. Wondering what it would be like to cut someone open and do nothing more than place a brick inside them, levels of bad. The only good thing is when he goes to write them down he never can read his own handwriting. And that's only half the time. The other half, he's clinging to whoever he deems is his best friend for the night (mostly Heavy) and can only speak in slurred German as loudly as he can directly into his ear

Sniper: It's surprisingly hard to get him drunk, not that he ever enjoys getting past blissfully buzzed anyway. When he gets drunk, he gets ballsy. Someone could mention the dumbest idea every that would certainly get the person hurt if they attempted it.. and he'd do it. He also really enjoys getting into barfights when he's drunk and the complains the next day when everything hurts (he says it was worth it)

Spy: He will do everything he can to never get drunk. He claims it's because he hates the feeling, but the truth is he knows he gets talkative. Very talkative. Sometimes if he's lucky, in a language the person he's talking at won't understand. But that's not a gamble he's willing to take. The only times so far he's ever gotten that drunk while around anyone on the team was with Sniper, who thankfully has never told a soul anything Spy has drunkenly uttered to him

[sheeple]

I'm not the best at these kinds of things (headcanons) but I just had to put it out into the world before I go crazy. This is mostly inspired by DEATH by Melanie Martinez (link). It's half-baked and has no real end. Do with it what you want Warning(s): death / wonky use of past and present tense Part 2 (ish)

Okay so I've had this idea of a soldier (you) that's a human experiment done by the government 

And through science or something you are immortal and heal really quick

Like a stab wound is nothing, a bullet is maybe an hour or two

Very indestructible

You get bounced around different squads and countries 

And when it's time to move on, you get from their handler the signal that they have to fake their death the next time you go on a mission 

It has been like that for years until the 141

At first, the boys don't trust this random soldier Laswell claims is needed until they actually see the absolute beast that is you (you know how to fight and fight well)

Price likes you because you're a fighter. You know how to follow orders and have great discipline

Ghost is iffy at first, but when you take a bullet and a knife to the shoulder for him he sees that you're not just some rando that's temporarily placed with them. He also feels like he owes you

Gaz and Soap are happy to have your company

I feel like they are the most likely to actually talk to you. They don't trust you immediately (Soap does after what you did for Ghost)

Soap is also happy to no longer be the youngest around

It's honestly a surprise to you that you mesh with the Task Force so well

Because most soldiers see you more as a hindrance than an asset

And you're honestly glad to have not received a message to move on

Days turn to weeks, and weeks turn into months that you're with the 141 

This is the longest that you've been with one team and you feel at home

You train with Ghost and celebrate every time you manage to beat him. The man actually laughs when you flop him onto his back and you jump up and down

You help Gaz with cooking when it's his duty. He's a horrible cook, but with your help, his pasta doesn't taste like dog piss

You keep Price company while he does paperwork. He takes your cup of steaming coffee with a grateful smile before turning back towards the file. You take place on the chair in front of his desk and read

You and Soap are often found outside playing soccer together or on the shooting range. He teaches you about explosives and you improve his reloading speed

Everything is fine and you actually feel like a member of the 141. You even think they forgot about you until you've got called into Price's office for a secured phonecall

Price eyes you as you receive the news to get yourself KIA on the next mission and report to your handler

The captain raises his brows and you lie that it was a message from your family. Something about a cousin getting married. 

You even joke with the guys before the briefing about how your parents felt the need to go above and beyond to bring you the news

The mission is simple; get in, extract the hostage, and get out.

You're quiet on the way towards the location, your mind racing a million miles an hour about how you're supposed to leave this

How you're expected to leave the first people who felt like home to you since... ever

You don't notice that a tear has escaped you until Soap has laid a hand on your shoulder. You quickly wipe it away and give the sergeant a smile, reassuring him you're okay

The mission went smoothly until Ghost radioed in that the hostage had a bomb strapped to their chest

You see your opportunity and make your way over to Ghost. He's concerned when you tell him you can free the hostage from their vest

And you do so, successfully

The hostage is free and Ghost is leading them away

You grab your chance and mess with the vest, making it display ten seconds until detonation

"Ghost... Run..."

He turns around, his eyes wide behind the mask. They flicker between you and the vest in your hands

Seeing that the lieutenant isn't moving, you take your own initiative and start running

Away from Task Force 141

Away from your guys

The vest explodes and it makes the building above you collapse and burn. You manage to crawl out under the rubble and get to the rendezvous point that your handler has given you

A chopper is already waiting for you once you get there

Teary-eyed, you watch the buildings grow smaller and smaller until you're too far away from them

Meanwhile...

Soap tries to dig you out from under the rubble but gets pulled away by Ghost

He fights the lieutenant as tears stream over his face

Task Force 141 is sombre once they arrive back at the base and give you an unofficial burial 

One of the hardest things Price ever had to do was report your death to Laswell

Months pass before the boys are a semblance of okay. They are no stranger to death and they know they have to move on, but you were something else

There is a you-shaped hole in the team's heart that won't close for a very long time

You are being bounced around again to different teams all over the world

Until KorTac

You've received word that KorTac bought you and that you've got a new handler

That being König

At first, he isn't thrilled about taking care of you. That is until he sees how capable you are

Where König goes, so do you

It's one of those missions that the unthinkable happens

You're scoping a building, clearing a path for König when you spot familiar figures at the end of the hallway

"Shit", you curse, pressing yourself to the wall

König looks at you with raised eyebrows before peeking around the corner

At the end of the hallway stand Soap and Gaz, and you have no way of escaping without hurting them

[luzxii]

New Spookymonth AU intro!!!!!

Messages from the Stars AU 👽💫

This AU follows Stel/Stellar (Skid) and Puls/Pulsar (Pump), two little boys who are obsessed with everything space and science fiction (instead of being obsessed with Halloween). Stellar wears a green alien costume, while Pulsar wears an astronaut suit. Simaler to how Skid and Pump claim it is "Spooky Month" in each episode, they claim that there is a celestial event taking place such as a solar eclipse or a medeor shower, even when there isn't.

Instead of a Cult, an intelligent alien race works behind the scenes to eradicate and take over the planet. Stellar's father is the leader of said species, making Stel half alien. He is unaware of his father's extraterrestrial origins and believes him to be human, Lila on the other hand is a lot more complicated. She doesn't seem to recall key details of her husband, including his appearance or what exactly happened to him.

The "cult members" of canon Spooky Month within' this au are aliens disguised as humans, this includes Evermore, Bob, Garcia, and of course Skid's Dad alongside any other canon cultists.

Radford takes a Kevin-like role in this au, he works at a videogame/DVD store and is a huge conspiracy theorist. He knows that aliens are amongst them, but nobody seems to believe him except a select few. Radford is tortured less by the boys and more by his inability to prove his theories whenever an alien or monster appears.

Anyways HERE have the Stel and Puls designs for said AU 😈