#from slowest to fastest it goes:

[protectorcraft]

my buuuuugessssssssssssssssssssss

[luckyartdrawer]

100 FOLLOWERS MILESTONE!!! MER AU!!!

Y'all chose the MER AU to celebrate, and so say hello to some fishy boys! They are all quite happy to see you, though some seem to show it more than others!

Cookie cutter shark Sun can't wait to take a bite- I mean- erm- rather a hug out of you! Either way he's quite excited!

Threadfin Eclipse would rather all eyes be on him, but he would settle for just yours! His colors shifts in every way, he's hoping your eyes won't stray!

Jellyfish Moon doesn't mean to be so imposing -- towards you anyways. He just wants to see you and everyone happens to be in the way!

This is technically a PT 1 to the celebration, as we have a Royal AU to roll out the red carpet for as well due to a tie in the poll!

PT 2 is made!

vvv Sketch/line art and yapping below!!! vvv

Sketch/Line art

Hehehe I just had to share. I am so proud of how the lines came out. Sketch cleaned up as lineart method my beloved.

Uagh I keep looking back and seeing so many things I could do. I might update the images secretly one day, but for now I think I need to let it be free in the world before I just never finish lol

Welcome to my yap sesh! Thank you all for being here, I hope the wait was worth it! <3 I am very proud of this and spent soooo so long rendering it. (What was i thinking doing 3 characters end my suffering /J)

Here's some random factoids about these sillies!

Sun: Born in the depths. He is a dime of dozen of cookie cutter sharks, all of them insistent of taking chunks out of anything and anyone they can find. Sun at least has some restraint when it comes to mers he likes, but he always wants just one nibble! Sun tends to warm up fast to mers that give him a speck of attention and care. Cookie cutter shark mers are known to link up with mates as soon as possible, but Sun insists that he hasn't found the perfect fit yet. No one is tasty enough for it! Everyone needs to compliment the other! Sun is the fastest of the 3, relying solely on his speed and jumping out of hiding spots to catch prey. His sharp claws pierces easily and the long webbing between his fingers makes it really easy to ensnare prey in his grasp!

Moon: Born in the depths. Jellyfish mers are rather uncommon, being known as a mostly solitary species. Unlike their animal counterparts, Jellyfish mer go alone after maturing, not even inclined to search for a mate, though they can if they so desire. They live the longest of any mer species. Their transparent bodies keep their form hidden from prey as their bioluminescence lures them in. Moon is the slowest of the 3, but it does not matter to him. To hunt, he floats in a comfortable spot, amping up his bioluminescence and fanning out his ribbons to attract prey. If a victim gets within his vicinity, his ribbons will quickly wrap and tangle around them, sending painful stings and intense damage to the prey. While effective, there are times the mer will sit in one spot for days having not attracted any food. He can hunt directly like other mers, but he'd have to rely on his transparency over speed in order to get close enough to catch them, his melded fingers make it even harder to grasp prey directly.

Eclipse: Isn't actually born a deep sea mer but spent most of his life in the depths after finding out how delicious specific creatures are and how much attention his looks get him. His skin and scales are iridescent and he loves to flaunt them when he can. Eclipse tends to be very carefree, though also the most gentle when interacting with other mers. He is inclined to view anyone as a potential friend or more due to being omnivorous, though no many has caught his full, dedicated attention. He's not territorial, not competitive, and doesn't care where he goes as he can eat just about anything. Hunting wise he is the most tactical, using his colors and thick ribbons to lure and confuse prey. He isn't the fastest nor the slowest, but his long hands increase his likelihood of catching prey he otherwise would have been a little too slow to grasp.

Yeah i.... I ended up having a lot of fun coming up with these guys

Especially moon, those of you who know KNOW, but man... my moon bias is so strong.

I even have this cute expression idea where he can control how his cap looks and uses it for his own protection. When sometimes when sleeping or defensive, he will tuck in his tail, arms, and sometimes his ribbons within the cap and then, like a string bag, it closes off his entire body from the world. He's in his own cap bubble!!! When embarrassed or trying to physically interact with someone without fear of hurting them, he'll tuck in his ribbons and scrunch his cap around his head. He'll look a bit silly, and you can't touch his face, but you can hug him safely and play with the soft round cap that now encases his head. (His tail/neck ribbons have no stinging abilities, they're just glowy for lure purposes!) his coloration is mostly inspired by the Man-O-War but his species is more fantasy then based off only that like the other two are with their respective fish, so that's why I just call him simply a Jellyfish for now :3

Sorry about that... I still love all 3 of these goobas and have ideas for them though! Maybe one day I'll get a fic going for them, not saying anytime soon because I have TOO MANY to work on rn, but just know they are swimming in my head.

So many ideas, so little time......

Once again THANK YOU ALL!!! It is so lovely to see y'all here despite my whacky upload schedules. I always tell myself I should make more simple things sometimes just so I can get the ideas out faster, but then my hands always do something else smh. Hope you all find this art and my future works quite delectable! <333

[typewritingyip]

The Arcturus Missions

Part Thirty One - Broken Realities

Part Thirty

———

Mecha originally were designed to just be giant weapons, to fight the Quintessons without question. A one man army, so to speak. 

It was only after the first cycle of designs were additional designs and operating systems added, some of which have been discontinued for reasons that are still being kept from the public. 

Currently, there stands four different classes of mecha. Each with different monitors across agencies and organizations.

MECHA has them labeled as; Striker, Hunter, Tanker, and Rescue.

The last two are more so designed for the more human elements of the work than the battle elements of the work. As for the rest, their roles are strict and designed to fit the compatibility of the pilot. 

A Striker class is assigned to the general comparable pilots, they make up a majority of active pilots and their suits are more likely than others to survive strenuous battle. They are by far the fastest, from connection time to deployment time, it is half of the next fastest class. All designed specifically to fight and destroy the foreign invaders of Earth, every pilot goes through the striker unit compatibility testing.

A Rescue class is significantly dwindling in its usage, generally used for evacuations and reconnaissance of an attacked area. They were a natural evolution to the technology in an attempt to shrink it for better access.  Around one in every five pilots is found compatible to be used in a rescue class unit. Known for disaster relief, they have been seen as more of a harm than a good through the eyes of the public. Select pilots are given the opportunity to go through rescue unit compatibility testing. 

A Tanker class was originally designed and held exclusively by the USSR, the heavier and denser cousin to the Striker class. Also the first to have an onboard nuclear reactor to power the mecha suit. Around one in fifty pilots are found compatible with tanker class, generally running in family lines and found with stronger connections to military service. They have the slowest deployment time, but have been known to cause on average more amounts of damage to the foreign enemy. Military is offered the ability to go through tanker compatibility testing, once someone is found compatible biological relations are sent notices with offers of testing. 

Lastly, the Hunter class which has the lowest number of suits and pilots, around one in every hundred pilots is found compatible. Their deployment times are not logged, their design to both study and destroy Quintessons, reporting data to the pilots given organizations at large. These are rarely seen by the public and limited information is offered on them, used for covert operations against the invaders. Select pilots are selected for compatibility testing, there is no offered opportunity for the hunter class units and it’s given compatibility testing. 

All four classes are found to be important, though it is likely classes will continue to fall off the previously longer list.

—

It was still dark out when they all sat down and it almost felt normal to sit around with other pilots over other mecha, but nothing was normal, not now.

He was still drinking the water, trying to feel human again even if for only a moment. Ignoring the worried expressions of his crew, Hound drained the last of one of his water pouches with a sigh, “My god Hound, I said drink some, not down the pouch.” Cracking a smile, he shrugged a bit. 

The nausea ebated for the moment and he was able to lean back, closing his eyes. 

Sunstreaker whistled lower, “Damn Hound, have you been fighting this whole time?” Hound didn’t feel like responding, keeping his eyes closed for a moment longer before sighing and looking back at the screens.

“How long have you been connected?” Breakdown was frowning at him through the camera, eating some of the familiar purple alien food from their makeshift bowls. For a moment, he really wasn’t sure when his friend would have had time to get the food. 

Sighing, Hound rubbed his neck, “Since middle of last night, I think.” He winced and his hand came away bloody, sighing again he got up and shuffled towards his cot. 

It felt wrong, being small and moving around, but he needed to keep grounded, “Hound, your overuse is the worst out of all of us, always has been according to the memo.” Sunny was frowning, looking worried, “You’re doing a lot.” Hound nodded, grabbing bandages and antiseptic, moving to sit back down while grabbing his bag of food. Jugging the weirdest collection of first aid and food.

He tilted his head forward and started to clean his implants and older surgery scars, “The sooner we get through the overuse, the better off we’ll be in the long run, like Jazz.” Hound winced again as the antiseptic burned, he bit the inside of his cheek hard. 

Glancing up, both men were staring at him with worry, sighing slowly, he recovered the sores with bandages, “I’m alright.” Breakdown shakes his head, “It looks like you could sleep for a month.” Hound rolled his eyes, putting his helmet back on carefully, “We all probably could, but we’ll get time off once we’re adjusted to our new units.” 

He was getting the helmet adjusted when both the cameras of the others went out, he just got the audio hooked back up when his suit was nudged.

They couldn’t even have a moment to speak. 

It took only a second to get plugged back in, but he stayed on the floor, it didn’t take long for his visor to lighten at the audio cleared up, “Is he alright?” It was Optimus Prime, he glanced up at the frowning mech, “Uh, yeah, just tired.” Sunstreaker rested a hand on his shoulder. 

“Optimus Prime, sir.” Hound nodded slightly, “I apologize, I’ve been,” but Optimus was shaking his head, “You’ve been fighting for nearly two days straight, I’ve heard. You should rest.” Already shaking his head, Hound sighed deeply, “They need me out there, I will be fine for a while longer, sir.” Optimus frowned. 

Standing up, he stretches slightly and rests at parade rest, “Sir, where do you need us?” Optimus sighed slowly, looking at the horizon, “Where would you station your unit Hound?” Nodding some, he looks to Breakdown then Sunstreaker, “How much did you change the map in command, sir?” He hardly spared Optimus a glance through.

“I made adjustments to the line and placed my commanders and myself to the west, south, and east.” Humming, Hound kept an eye on the horizon, “I will suggest that Sunstreaker goes to the west and I’ll return to the east.” He brushed a hand over his head, sighing deeply, “Then Breakdown could cover your six, sir.” Looking over, he pauses for a moment.

Optimus was staring at him, much more intently than before, “Sir?” Optimus’s optics cycled once, then twice before he lightly shook his head, “I apologize, of course. Whatever you think is best.” Nodding slowly, Hound turns to the other humans, “You ready?” Both nodded.

Sunstreaker was likely smiling, “We’ll see you later?” Hound nodded, “You know what to do.” Giving a mock salute, Sunny was off at a run.

Breakdown sighed slowly, his shoulder cannon humming to life and turning, “I follow your lead, Optimus Prime, sir.” Optimus winced and sighed, adjusting his grip on his blaster, “This way, then.” He leads the way towards the west.

Taking a slow and deep breath, Hound turns towards the way he had come from, staring before starting forward slowly. 

—

The battlefield was chaotic, but Sunstreaker was gripping his controls tighter than he ever had, running straight at the enemy as if they weren’t something to be frightened of. 

Although the blades on his bracers needed to be sharpened, they would have to do for the current battle. Never in his life had Sunny seen anything quite like this, certainly never on Earth. The darkness didn’t help, but he was more familiar with the use of infrared against the enemy than most pilots. 

He collided with a Quintesson that a small group of bots was firing on, his fist and blade pulled back before striking at the face of the alien creature, satisfied with the smear of green covering his yellow in the dark. 

Fights like these reminded him of why he was a pilot, more than a dozen mecha behind him had been trying to hold off this thing and here he was grappling with it, to Sunstreaker that meant everything. 

For a second, the briefest of seconds, with the sand under the feet of his mech it reminded him of fighting back home. In the middle of the night, just him and a Quint on the beach, trying to tear each other apart.

The stars were familiar, just in the edge of his view as he tangled with the Quintesson, though it’s angle was different than he remembered, still the fight went a lot the same.

Fist hitting the side of the alien, blade slashing off one of the roaming tentacles and preventing it from wrapping around his suit. The voice in his ear though, that was a familiar one.

”If you don’t hurry up and handle that freak of nature it will try to get into Daytona Sunstreaker!” The voice in command was filled with a light static, something that he’d almost forgotten being so normal on Earth, “Alright, I hear ya!” He swore and tore off the tentacle that snagged his arm.

There was a quiet moment while he kept at it, ”I didn’t say anything.” That voice was clear and almost unfamiliar, he was too focused to listen to whatever else the voice had said after.

A crash of the thing to the ground made him drag air deeply into his lungs, gasping for air, “Your shifts not over yet Sonny, focus on the now and look forward to the later, alright?” Nodding slightly, he looked up and his vision cleared just in time to see another slamming into him.

They moved back several feet, his cockpit groaning with the force of it, the last of his visor shattering behind the protective cover and his cameras flared even in the dark. Spiderwebs taking over a lense or two of its own.  

It didn’t take Sunstreaker long to recover enough sense to start hitting and tearing at the thing, it was growling and screamed with every pull of flesh from it’s skeletal structure. He didn’t realize till the shot hit the Quintesson that he’d been yelling at it. 

Looking over his shoulder, he made eye contact with Bluestreak, who was perched up on a rock with a rifle in hand. Though as soon as the shot was clear, the light quiver to his hands returned.

Grunting with effort, Sunstreaker dove back on the fallen Quintesson as it tried to get back up, hands digging into the flesh of the beast. Tearing it apart in a vicious sort of way.

Deep down, he knew it wasn’t entirely the alien’s fault for the hallucination, it was a symptom of overuse. But they were the reason why he was experiencing overuse or why it even was a thing that pilots had to deal with. So taking his frustration out on it was better than on his friends. 

He kept tearing at it, until the ground was a pool of green and he was thoroughly covered in its gore. This was a time when he’d have to hit the wash racks, no questions asked.

Taking a slow deep breath, he straightened and looked about, there were other fights though they were starting to get further away. The push back of the few reinforcements was certainly helping. Turning, he looked back where Bluestreak had been, only having a moment to brace in the sand.

“You fragging idiot!” Bluestreak collided with Sunstreaker, holding him close as the remnants of his visor broke off into the cover over it. Sunny chuckled lightly, brushing a hand up Blue’s back, “I’m alright Blue, I’m okay.” But Bluestreak didn’t let go.

He held onto Blue, worry tearin at his gut while his friend clutched at him desperately, similar to how Sideswipe would hold him if after a mission almost went sour, how the few people he’d had relationships back on Earth had done. It hit him like a ton of bricks, or a direct hit to his cockpit would and he held tighter to Bluestreak. Sunstreaker took a slow breath, “So, this is what the inside joke is then?” He clutches Blue closer when the mech tries to pull away.

Though it was hard to breathe, he didn't want to let go, to face the war outside their embrace for just a moment longer. 

Closing his eyes, he just stands there, holding Bluestreak close, “I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon.” And Bluestreaks’ arms wrapped around Sunstreaker tighter, he sighed slowly, “I’m sorry.” Sunny chuckled lightly, “Don’t be, just, later.” Sunny slowly pulls back, smiling even though Blue couldn’t see it. 

Bluestreak’s face had changed color, infrared showing the dramatic shift in temperature, Sunny grinning pulled away knowing there was still more to be done, “I’ll see you later?” And for the first time, in all the time that they had known each other, Bluestreak was speechless.

Sunny made quick work of rerouting his vision to cameras without shattered lenses, one or two of the dozens, mostly hidden end by the cover protecting his bare head. It would be a horrific sight, he knew that deep down but now was not the time to worry or fret over it, running and sliding through the sand with that practiced ease. 

When the streak of yellow went running back off, Bluestreak vented slowly, “Fragging humans.” And he rubbed the plating over his spark with a grin. 

—

Dragging thrashing mecha while his cannon was booming on his shoulder felt weirdly familiar. Reminded Breakdown of his early days in the military, gun up and firing while dragging comrades hopefully back to safety. 

Except now he knew that the people he was bringing back would be alright, one of if not the best medic on Cybertron was planet side and screaming as just about everyone except for him. He wasn’t entirely sure what he’d do to not face the medics wrath but for the moment he was grateful. 

Leaning the mech against the mound in front of the newly dug trench, several other mecha reached over to grab him as Breakdown started back out into the field at a run. His footsteps shook the ground. 

It surprised him slightly, watching the Cybertronian’s in battle, the way it blew Breakdown away. Their kind knew and understood war, likely far too well, not unlike the people back home. 

Maybe it was the figure in the distance that actually blew him away. Back when they had crash landed on Cybertron, he hadn’t really noticed Megatron or Optimus Prime on the battlefield, to focused on being on a different planet. 

Now though, it was hard to direct his cameras anywhere else, to watch Optimus Prime tear apart their shared enemy unlike nearly any other Cybertronian he had seen. It was hard to picture someone like that on Earth being in the midst of battle, he couldn’t picture the president of the United States as they currently sat in power in the midst of a battle ensuring the safety of their citizens. 

Though that just might be his perspective on it, it seems far more normal to a number of the soldiers around to see the leader of their planet in the trenches with them.

Once he was to clear and mostly level space, he adjusted his stance and let his feet sink slightly in the sand till they hit the hard standing underneath. His cannon came online with an ominous hum before he brought his tracking system online.

It was already programmed to hit Quintessons, but he didn’t want it blasting apart mechs in battle, so he turned off the automatic feature, and started targeting. The cannon booming painfully loud on his shoulder every five seconds. Whine, hum, boom, silence, whine, hum, boom. 

And it would carry on like that till getting a medic ping or hearing the scream of a fallen soldier. 

Who he didn’t expect was the swearing of the commander himself, then the mecha who were quick to cover his retreat. Cannon disengaged, he ran over to be in front of him, “Optimus Prime, sir, I’ll provide covering fire.” He briefly assessed the injury, it was a sliced line, likely from the grip of a Quintesson tentacle.

An injury that he himself would have ignored, here through, it was different. 

“No, Breakdown, I’ll be alright.” Optimus’s voice was calm and he was scanning the horizon, “Sir, forgive me, the sooner that it’s patched up the sooner you can return.” He braced his feet, started to separate the landscape between the line and the enemy with dense firing, sending two pings.

One to the seekers who’d follow his line of fire shortly, and one to medical to alert them he was bringing another one in, “So, you have two choices, sir.” Breakdown was yelling over the sound of his cannon as the other soldiers spread back out, “You can come with me willingly, or you can be dragged there by me. It is your choice.” Optimus smiled and chuckled. 

Extending a hand at the next moment of silence, Optimus grasped it with his good arm, gun once again connected to his side. Shifting his weight, Breakdown was able to pull the larger mech up with an ease unfamiliar to Optimus. At least coming from anyone other than Megatron.

Breakdown stayed behind him, ducking his head out of the way as his cannon swiveled back around to continue laying down covering fire. Both their feet slipped in the blood covered sand.

It was a quiet walk, march, whatever they wanted to call it. Both men stayed silent as they went, Optimus choosing to stay quiet as Breakdown was focused on covering their backs. 

Only once they had made it to the trench line and past it, did Optimus start to speak up, “Breakdown, you seem… different from the others, not in a bad way. They seem to hold you in high esteem, but,” Smiling sadly, Breakdown nodded, “But I still stand apart.” He finally let the cannon die off at that moment, turning to walk with Optimus to medical.

With a sigh, Optimus nods and sits down on a crate, just outside of medical, “Do you mind me asking why?” Shrugging a bit, Breakdown knocks on the thin metal wall, “I am the oldest pilot, I also speak a different language from them. Our countries were at a standstill of conflict for decades, well, in a way.” He sighs and scratches below his implants lightly. 

“But to, as they say, make the long story short, I have been in this fight for longer than any of them. Almost as long as adding them together.” He sighs slowly, staring out back towards the battlefield, “I also was losing everything by coming on this mission. My parents, my brothers.” Breakdown’s voice wavered for a moment, “It was hard to accept.” He looked back to Optimus, shaking his head a bit, “But it’s the work.” He sighed.

Flatline came out of medical, “Optimus Prime, sir.” Was all he said before getting to work on the sliced line.

Breakdown watched, “It’s nothing to worry about, the four of us are human and the main connections we have to home.” He leaned slightly against the building before looking at the sky. 

Optimus stared, nodding slowly, “You care deeply,” Smiling a bit, Breakdown nods, “Yes.” Frowning though, Optimus shifted, “Yet you didn’t notice Sunstreaker’s visor.” Breakdown suppressed a chuckle, “I noticed it, it’s mostly covered.” He kept his eyes on the sky. 

“You seemed very concerned over Hound’s well-being, yet hardly commented on Sunstreaker’s shatters visor.” Optimus was frowning, he could see the corner of his optics crease ever so slightly and Breakdown shrugged, “Visors are easily replaceable on Earth, they are a common thing to break, it would be more surprising if none of us experienced it.” He shrugs lightly.

Optimus was still staring, “You speak as if this injury has become overlooked.” Chuckling lightly, Breakdown shakes his head a bit, “Sir, if you don’t mind. We are made to be replaceable, every part here,” He touches his arms and chest lightly, “Is replaceable. It’s by design, why all pilots have visors,” He honestly meant glass visors, but it wasn’t like they would be that specific on Earth.

That made the Prime look, it was hard to tell, maybe heartbroken, “We are meant to come apart and be put back together, mostly, and even the things at our cores have replaceable parts, though not removable ones. Once they are placed there after compatibility testing, new ones or what you have will always remain.” He lightly brushed a hand over his older generation implants, how much they stuck out compared to the others. 

“It is something you become accustomed to, our best scientists using us as science experiments.” He nods slightly and turns at the approaching footsteps.

Knockout was wearing a dark scowl, “Breakdown, please come help these poor idiots off the field and into the infirmary.” He only stopped when he saw the Prime, “If my Prime has no need of your assistance.” Optimus looked pained, “Of course not, please Breakdown, help Knockout with the injured.” Nodding a bit, Breakdown smiled behind his visor, “Yes sir.” He turned and started to follow Knockout, who shot him an odd look. 

Slowing down a bit, Knockout falls in next to Breakdown, “I hope you are healed.” Smiling a bit, he nods slightly, “Uh, yes, as much as I can be. Thank you for your concern.” Nodding too, Knockout toes the ground briefly as they walk, the firefight growing further away. 

As they walked, they fell into step comfortably, watching as the sky started to lighten with daybreak. 

The Prime stood back at the base of the line while Flatline was repairing the torn line, his trigger finger itching nearly painfully, both from anger and grief. Another species who didn’t see the cruelties of their kind was suffering across the universe, all while he watch some of their kin try and sacrifice themselves for his own kind.

———

A/N

I really wanted a Hound part at the end, but that would have made this chapter well over 4.5k and I think that Monday’s chapter deserves its special place.

Some stuff with Breakdown! I wanted the find the right moment to start diving into his character and I felt that it was finally to that point. Of course I still have everyone else to dive into properly but still.

Also, Sunstreaker being the least stupid (other than Jazz) out of the humans makes so much sense to me its not even funny.

Tags

@lunarlei68 @whirlywhirlygig @loop-hole-319 @pixillandjester @alek-the-witch @not-a-moose-in-disguise @goddessofwind8water @neurologicalglitch @dersereblogger @pixel-transformers @mrcrayonofdoom @wireplaces @twilightfreefaller @original-blog-name-2 @devilangel657 @robbin-u @miniartistme @starwold @tea-enthusiasm @valeexpris606 @celticdoggo @bird599 @agentsquirrelsgotrobots @aquaioart @thatwandercat @artdagz @seisha974 @halenhusky309 @leethepiper @cat-cassette @blue-wrens @sirassban @cosmique-oddity @garbageenthusiast @xervias @azulabutterfly @fryseem @spring-mc @echo-circuit @aghostsnail @wooblewooble @ask-glory-haddock-and-others @nonsscrapheap @magichats @iminahole247 @omgflyingderpywhale @thetrexartist @naaaafam @elegantmantaray @emichusai @waterlilykitty @diabolichare @ham4ponyo @osqindaxend @sunnyvibesanddoodles @ratatatata248 @ijustneedausernaneplease4444444 @sprook-children @fooolisher 

And once again thank you to @Keferon for this amazing AU!

Also thank you to @sightseertrespasser for your help with the Mecha classes. It meant a lot.

(I didn’t know I could only have 50 @‘s in a post… restructure of my tag list coming soon!)

[robinfrinjs]

Qualifying Week for the 109th running of the Indianapolis 500!

Hi everyone! The month of May has truly kicked off with the Indy GP, but now we leave the road course behind and kick off two weeks of action at the Speedway!

In this post I'll try my best to tell you everything you need to know, but if there are any questions after reading this, my inbox is always open!

How does Qualifying Work?

While the first time cars will head to track for qualifying is Saturday, Friday is already an important part of it. In the evening. after qualifying, the qualifying order will be drawn. This determines the order the cars will go out on track during qualifying on Saturday. This can be vital to a good qualifying spot. Due to things like track temperature, and teams and drivers learning from teammates making a run before them.

Saturday

The first day of qualifying kicks off with a short practice session. The grid will be divided in ‘Group A’ and ‘Group B’ and both groups get 30 minutes of practice time in the morning before qualifying starts.

Saturday will see the longest session with nearly 7 hours of running. All cars will get at least one attempt according to the qualifying draw, teams can decide on forgoing the guaranteed attempt.

Lane 1 vs Lane 2

After their initial attempt, drivers are free to try another run to better their speeds. Teams are able to choose between two lanes. The priority lane (Lane 1), also referred to as the fast lane. This lane means the driver gets priority access to the track and gets to skip ahead of those in Lane 2. However, when a team decides to choose Lane 1, they must withdraw their previous speed from the standings. Teams can be wary to select this lane. Because if the driver doesn’t better their previous attempt, they don’t have another time to fall back on.

The second lane is the ‘slow lane’. This lane means the driver has to wait until Lane 1 is empty to try and better their time. In this lane, they don’t have to withdraw their previous attempt, meaning that if the driver does not improve on this lap, they will still be classified with their previous fastest attempt.

Places 13-30

All qualifying attempts on Saturday will set race positions 13 through 30. The Top 12 and 30th through 33rd are decided on Sunday. The 12 fastest times will advance to Top 12 qualifying while those with the bottom times will fight for only three spots left in the race.

What is an attempt?

To set a qualifying attempt, drivers get two warm up laps followed by four laps at full speed. For every lap the average speed is counted and the average of those four laps determines a driver’s qualifying speed. Last year, pole position was won by Scott McLaughlin with a 234.220 mph average.

Sunday

On Sunday there are two extra practice sessions. First, a session dedicated to the drivers advancing to top 12 qualifying. And directly after that there’s a session for the last chance qualifiers.

Top 12 Qualifying

The fastest 12 cars from Saturday will each get a single 4-lap attempt to post a qualifying attempt. Cars go out from slowest to fastest, so P12 from Saturday posts their attempt first, all the way through P1.

During this session, positions 7-12 are decided for the race. The top 6 advance to the next session later in the day where they will fight for pole position.

All drivers in the top 12 will get championship points based on their position. P12 will earn a single point while the driver that ends up qualifying on pole position will be given 12 points.

Firestone Fast 6

The Firestone Fast 6 determines the first two rows of the grid. Each driver gets one four-lap attempt, just like the Top 12, the slowest driver in the previous session goes out first. The fastest car in this session starts from pole position.

Last Chance Qualifying/Bumping

An hour after the Top 12 qualifying session, the slowest cars from Saturday will take to the track. A one hour session decides which of those drivers does not get to race at the Indianapolis 500 this year. Every car will be guaranteed a single attempt. After that any driver is free to make a new attempt until the clock runs out.

A driver that is classed in 34th place will likely try their best at another attempt, if they improve position, that means the driver previously classed as 33rd will not be guaranteed a spot in the Indy 500 anymore. This process is sometimes referred to as ‘bumping’ as a driver will be able to bump another driver out of the race.

Why are there only 33 spots?

The fact only 33 drivers are allowed to participate in the Indy 500 might come across as confusing, but there’s an actual reason for this rule

After the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, the sanctioning body, the American Automobile Association (AAA), determined the 40 car grid was too large for the track. It was decided each car should have at least 400 feet of track to itself, therefore meaning only 33 cars could participate. Only in 1934 was this truly implemented as 1933’s race saw 42 cars compete. The rule was set in place with an exception of the USAC-CART split years. CART was given an extra day of qualifying where 2 additional cars would make the field, expanding the grid to 35.

In previous years even getting the grid to 33 cars was tricky, but just like last year, we will have 34 drivers attempting to make the race. This means one driver will be without a spot on the grid at the 109th running of the Indy 500.

Schedule

Times in CEST & EDT

Tuesday 13th May

18:00 / 12:00pm — Practice Day 1

- 18:15 / 12:15pm — ROP & Refreshers (2hrs) - 20:15 / 2:15pm — Full-field practice (3hrs, 45mins) - 00:00 / 6:00pm — Broadcast ends

Wednesday 14th May

12:00pm — Practice Day 2

- 18:00 / 12:00pm — Full-field practice (6hrs) - 00:00 / 6:00pm — Broadcast ends

Thursday 15th May

12:00pm — Practice Day 3

- 18:00 / 12:00pm — Full-field practice (6hrs) - 00:00 / 6:00pm — Broadcast ends

Friday 16th May (Fast Friday)

12:00pm — Practice Day 4

- 18:00 / 12:00pm — Full-field practice (6hrs) - 00:00 / 6:00pm — Broadcast ends - 00:15 / 6:15pm — Qualification Draw

Saturday 17th May (Qualifying Day 1)

14:30 / 8:30am — Practice

- 14:30 / 8:30am — Group 1 (30mins) - 15:00 / 9:00am — Group 2 (30mins) - 15:30 / 9:30am — Broadcast ends

17:00 / 11:00am — Qualifying Day 1

- 17:00 / 11:00am — Qualifying runs - 23:50 / 5:50pm — Qualifying ends - 00:00 / 6:00pm — Broadcast ends

Sunday 18th May (Qualifying Day 2)

19:00 / 1:00pm — Practice

- 19:00 / 1:00pm — Top 12 practice (1hr) - 20:00 / 2:00pm — Last Chance practice (1hr) - 21:00 / 3:00pm — Broadcast ends

22:00 / 4:00pm — Qualifying Day 2

- 22:05 / 4:05pm — Top 12 qualifying (1hr) - 23:15 / 5:15pm — Last Chance Qualifying (1hr) - 00:25 / 6:25pm — Firestone Fast Six - 01:00 / 7:00pm — Broadcast ends

[paper-mario-wiki]

scout how do i get into tf2. i want to play but i'm intimidated

u can choose one of the 9 guys, and theyre all fun to play.

first guy is the fastest and jumps twice, but has low health. he has a strong shotgun as his primary that can kill people from full health in 2 shots if youre close enough and aim well enough

second guy is kinda slow and has a rocket launcher, which does a lot of damage (but not enough to kill anyone in a single hit like other FPS games, unless you get a crit), and hes got a lot of health

third guy is my favorite one and is one of the more mechanically complex. u can do a lot, but for now think of it as area denial. not very much range, but high output and leaves them on fire

fourth guy is like junkrat: he launches grenades that explode on impact with a target, but if they hit a wall or the ground they wait out their natural timer before exploding. he can also leave bombs that he can detonate at any time. hes also pretty slow but has more health.

fifth guy has the most health and the strongest gun, but is also the slowest and one of the easier guys to pick off from a distance. hes got a big gatling machine gun

sixth guy specializes in utilities. he can deny an area by putting down a sentry that fires automatically and be upgraded twice (faster firing + rockets with levels 2 and 3). he's not great in 1v1s but he can hold is own if you play smart.

7th guy is the main healer. you point at a guy and click on him to heal, but after youve connected to him you dont need to keep looking at him the whole time; as long as youre within a certain distance and you keep holding down the mouse button you'll keep healing. he also passively regenerates health slowly, but as the worst offensive options in the game

8th guy is broken. you can instantly kill anyone from any distance as long as you click on their head. not super great in close combat but has optional weapons that can enhance his survival rate when he's rushed down

9th guy goes invisible, can disguise as enemy teammates to fool them, and can instantly kill anyone with a backstab, but he's also easy to kill and has poor defensive options if he's caught out by himself.

the game is free to download, and once you do i suggest queuing for casual selecting any maps that look good

i suggest Harvest, Badlands, Sawmill, and Viaduct for King of the Hill

i suggest Badwater, Upward, Frontier, Snowycoast, and Borneo for payload

i suggest Turbine, 2Fort, Double Cross, and Landfall for Capture the Flag

go have fun. dont worry about being bad. just play and find joy in any way you can.

[howlsofbloodhounds]

I don't have any headcanons to drop but instead a question.

What do you think Killer is even experimenting on or for? For what purpose? I need ideas 😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈

I just need to an excuse to draw Killer in a lab coat so bad

Probably things to do with Determination, strange souls, and of course; codes. He will probably try to find a way to see if any other monster can naturally develop levels of Determination by placing them in scenarios that directly mirror his experiences; aka he will probably torture them psychologically.

He could try to convince them to do something that goes against their beliefs and self concept. If someone deeply values loyalty, he will experiment with what it takes to make them do something to betray whoever or whatever they’re loyal to, or the other way around.

If someone values kindness, he will tempt them into doing or saying unkind things—or anything that makes them believe others are being unkind to them to provoke paranoia. (Drug use? To induce hallucinations and then make them believe certain things are true?)

A lot of this is curiosity, and fulfillment of sadism and power. But a lot of it may be reenactment to either make sense of what happened to him, or to see if it can be replicated, or simply to prove that there’s truly nothing he could’ve done to change anything—like. If even weaker lesser things like the test subjects fell for what he fell for, then it’s proof he was weak before and therefore couldn’t have done anything, but he’s stronger now because he wouldn’t fall for such easy cheap tricks.

The next most obvious may be messing around with fusion, soul fusion. Taking and mixing and matching, seeing what could or couldn’t result from it. And if it’s possible to force a fusion.

Uh. When it comes things like humans, he will definitely try to understand their anatomy—and he will also probably experiment with pain and death. How much can a human or monster body and soul take before death? He might carefully time and measure these things. He will probably come up with various creative methods and ways to kill—what is the easiest, the fastest, the slowest, the most painful.

He will probably take advantage of his Reset, Load and Save here too. Will they be able to recognize that they have died before? Will they feel deju vu? Will they just think they’ve been drugged or gone insane? Will they not notice at all?

He will likely test a lot of these things on himself as well. How much can this body and soul take before it collapses. He might be fascinated to realize that his tolerance for death and pain far exceeds most normal people, and if this remains true while he experiments on other versions of himself as well, perhaps this would only fuel his sense of superiority.

He may mock and criticize victims for crying and being dramatic—either because he’s being an asshole, or because he’s genuinely so far removed from these concepts that it doesn’t get why they’re all screaming and blubbering. They aren’t dead yet, and they’ll be fine by the next Reset.

Or alternatively, he may be curious and fascinated by their reactions—and deliberately do and say things to gain reactions and responses. If he’s experimenting on someone he’s found himself kinda sort liking, such as Color for example, perhaps he’d do the traditionally comforting actions—petting their head, kissing their forehead, gently rubbing or patting limbs while dissecting, praising them, telling them how pretty and beautiful they are bloody/crying/tied down/being good for him/etc, perhaps promising itll be over soon and they’ll feel better soon.

I think it’d be cool if he somehow finds a way to dissect a soul like it’s a heart.

And those are all the ideas I have right now. Im not a scientist person, so everyone feel free to chime in!

{ @toffeebrew }

[evangelineshifts]

“electricity is the speed of light, which is the speed of thought. there is no through. you’re already wherever you need to be.”

“i can’t ’think’ in executable code-“

“Oh, my god! you ARE the code. stop thinking like a programmer. use your imagination!”

- Pantheon (2022)

just heard this in the show i’m watching and immediately ran to write it down cause they are so real.

going more in depth about things below the cut cause I'm a thought daughter 😕

Awareness is considered to be faster than consciousness. It is your awareness you’re shifting and not your consciousness. You become aware of your DR before any of the conscious stimuli even reaches your body, before you can hear, see, smell, touch, etc. you are aware of your DR. That might sound confusing (trust me, it’s confusing for me too as I’m learning this right alongside you) but this is why it is so stressed in the community to just let go off everything like that shit is done and dusted swear 😭. Symptoms, 5 senses, focus, none of it really matters in the grand scheme of things cause as soon as you shift you attention to your dr you’re there. 

“According to current neuroscience understanding, awareness is generally considered to be faster than conscious perception;

meaning that the initial detection of a stimulus, or "awareness," can happen before the full conscious experience of that stimulus is formed, which takes a bit longer to process in the brain.”

Now I personally like to believe that awareness is the first step in perception so when you think you have a failed attempt or that nothing happened when you laid down to do your method remember how you envisioned your DR, how you mapped it out in your mind, for those with aphantasia; how you described to yourself where you were, know in your heart of hearts, that right there was the real fucking deal and I’m so serious. I know everyone is always waiting for the external stimuli and we aren’t gonna pretend like thats not what we’re doing this for but those bitches are like running as fast as they can and they can NAWT run very fast dawg 😭😭😭 smell and taste are the slowest senses, the fastest being hearing. 

You know all those stories of people saying they “minishifted” and the way they knew is that they heard someone from their DR? Have you ever read one of those and been like “that’s fuckin bullshit it was probably just someone in their CR that they mistook for their s/o or something.”? Have you ever heard one of those stories and just sorta 🤨cause subconsciously you associate actual successful shifting with seeing and feeling? Well let me tell you the list goes; hearing, touch, sight, smell, taste for how quickly they perceive new stimuli so I wouldn’t put all my eggs in those baskets fox and friends cause those bitches are tripping on their shoelaces trying to catch up 😕

“Based on reaction time, the human senses from fastest to slowest are typically considered to be: Hearing (fastest), Touch, Sight, Smell, and Taste (slowest);

with hearing having the quickest response and smell and taste being the slowest to perceive new stimuli.”

Here is some other things I found about the way the brain processes things for all the scientific homies (note: I’m barely fact checking these. Its 8 am and i’m doing this cause i saw a scene on netflix 😭i also thought it was 6 am so pardon me):

“When a sensory signal enters the brain, it goes through various processing stages,

with the initial detection often happening at a subconscious level before reaching full conscious awareness” 

If you’ve ever gotten that feeling that you shifted and you swear on your life and your grandma’s kitten that you did but like you have no physical stimuli to back it up it was

probably your subconscious alerting you to the shift in spatial awareness before your consciousness caught up. Kinda like the brains automatic threat response;

“The amygdala, responsible for processing fear, can react to a potential threat very quickly, registering awareness of danger before conscious perception of the threat itself.”

You can become aware of things before you even realize what’s happening. In the shifting community you’ll find examples of that in shifting stories when they don’t even realize that they’ve shifted until they take the time to actively think about it. There have been incidents where people have spent full days in their DRs before realize cause it’s just that natural. It’s instinctual.

“Studies have shown that brain activity related to a decision can be detected before a person consciously reports making that decision,

supporting the idea that awareness precedes full conscious experience.”

Anyways that’s all for all the girls, gays, and theys who think to much like I do! Happy shifting mwah 💋🍓

[apas-95]

wait what are the most important things to be on top of a first aid kit/trauma kit? i did first aid training fairly recently but havent had cause to use it yet, pls share ur wisdom! c:

All kits are gonna differ as to what specifically goes in them because of different use-cases and contexts, but generally you pack for:

Urgency of access

Order of access

Frequency of access

Principally, equipment that will be needed urgently will be packed so it is immediately available. It should be the fastest thing to access and unpack. This does not just mean it's on top, it also means it has a consistent location that retains it during transport. Again, this is dependent on use case, but generally these are immediate life-saving interventions.

Within that, though, if equipment needs to be used in a given order procedurally, then it should be packed in that order of access - the first thing needed should be the first thing available, and the immediately-available item it reveals when removed should be the next item needed. This doesn't just mean that a tourniquet should be available before the marker to use on it, but also that trauma shears should be available before bandages.

Lastly, the least-used items should be placed at the slowest to access parts of the kit, or in any places that require partially unpacking and repacking the kit to access. Conversely, items that are not urgently needed but still used often, such as simple band-aids, or, again depending on the context, blood glucose monitor lancets or seasickness pills, should be in easy-to-access spots, albeit only to a lesser degree than urgency items.

Further, breaking up kits into separate levels of urgency can also significantly reduce issues - keeping an urgent trauma kit separate from a more long-term iodine-and-pills kit means that the urgent kit doesn't get cluttered, but also that the less urgent kit gets to put, like, electrolyte rehydration solution in the quick-access spots.

[thephooka]

Happy Webcomic Day! My webcomic White Noise is a labor of love--according to Procreate, this page took me 15.5 hours to complete.* Here's a look into that process!

Some other notes:

The thumbnails are done on graph paper and I script while I do them--there is no separate written script for White Noise. I usually spent a couple hours on weekends as needed thumbnailing, sometimes at a coffee shop or at home listening to records.

I then set up the file in Photoshop, so I can lay in the text and use the template I have with bleeds already set up. The text is rasterized and I shuttle the file over to my iPad via Airdrop.

The bulk of the actual work is done in Procreate, which records timelapses that I sometimes share to my Patreon. I usually spend a couple hours most nights after my day job or on the bus commuting doing this.

Once everything art-wise is done, I shuttle the file back over to my desktop to re-set in the text, add a stroke around the speech bubbles (Procreate doesn't have that took fsr) and do the resizing/exporting for web.

On Sunday mornings I get up, queue the page and write the page descriptions. I don't spend any time on the page descriptions outside of that.

Also, this process goes for the whole first arc of White Noise. I'm done with that arc (which means you can binge the whole thing I'm js!!) and am experimenting with some different methods these days, but my workflow is still generally the same.

*Some more talk about the labor (and burnout) involved below the cut:

This particular page (and most of the pages I did in 2023) took a lot longer than normal because I was heading into a burnout period that I'm still lowkey in/recovering from. It's obvious to me now in retrospect watching the timelapse here and seeing how much noodling I'm doing and how much I'm struggling with the process, but at the time I was just very frustrated generally. When I'm not burned tf out pages take maybe 10 hours max.

2023 was a pretty stressful year--lots of big life changes, uncertainty, pet death, health issues--so it's no wonder it propelled me into burnout, but it just goes to show that even the slowest and steadiest pace is not sustainable forever. I've been doing one page a week following this general process for over a decade! And I stuck to that pace because I knew it was one I could maintain. But even so, by the end of this arc I found myself working more and more slowly, not really looking forward to the work, feeling anxious about being behind, unhappy with the finished work, and extremely annoyed with myself for not being able to give it my all right there at the finish line.

I did stop for a while after the epilogue and took a more or less complete break from drawing for about a month--the longest I have EVER gone without drawing, much less working on White Noise--which did help, but these days my ability to work is...inconsistent. I should probably take another total break, but I'm reluctant. What if my passion never comes back? What if people forget about WN? It's already pretty obscure, and with the general social media collapse, it's harder than ever to get people to read my work. Now that I've left Hiveworks, WN doesn't even get the benefit of being linked to other comics (although objectively very, very few readers actually got referred to my comic that way.) And frankly, I'm also just too proud to go too long without comic updates. I've always told myself, I might not be the best artist or the fastest worker or make a popular comic, but I'm consistent. Difficult to let that go.

This is all to say that webcomics are hard. We do them because we love them, we have stories to tell, we are seized with the human compulsion to create. We spend hours of our time, almost always on top of the paying work that allows us to eat, to make something that we then give away for free. It has consequences on us that the reader doesn't often see, no matter how careful we are about it. If you ask me, webcomics deserve to be valued more.

Happy Webcomic Day! Read webcomics!

[sillybillymillyrilly]

More Shuu lore!! (+ Diasomnia?)

just me yapping about what I think would happen/headcanons about book 7, I guess? please read it!! uh

SPOILER WARNING FOR BOOK 7

────୨ৎ────

-What happened?

I imagine that in book 7, around the end where Mallues is almost free from his overblot. He would try to keep the people she most cares about to stay in a last ditch effort. So I think he would maybe use/ make some sort of thorns to trap the people he cares about. The thorns would wrap around Shuu's, Silver's, Lilia's, and Sebek's limbs. Keeping them from moving for a short while. But would end up ruining something else for a longer while.

────୨ৎ────

-The aftermath?

Everyone who got attacked by the thorns would have to go to the hospital. I'm not sure how long it would take to heal the marks from the thorns. Since they all have different marks + the thorns are magical/are controlled by magic.

────୨ৎ────

-Where are the scars?

Shuu's: Her left arm, the scar starts an inch and a half above her elbow to the end of the hand. And her right leg, the scar starting at her shin to her foot.

Silver's: His right arm, the scar starts at his right bicep to his wrist. His right leg, the scar starts at his knee to his Achilles tendon.

Sebek's: His left arm, the scar starts his left bicep to his wrist. His left leg, the scar starts at his thigh to his calf.

Lilia's: His left arm, the scar starts at his bicep to the end of his hand. His left leg, the scar starts his thigh to his Achilles tendon. And his right leg, the scar starts at his shin to the end of his foot.

────୨ৎ────

A little random but I think from who would heal the fastest to the slowest it would be, Lilia, Sebek, Silver, then Shuu. Because I think fae have tougher skin then humans and Lilia is fae, and Sebek is half fae they would heal fast. Silver's next because he's lived in the woods and is a retainer he probably has tough skin.

But I think who would actually heal first in the situation would be Sebek, Silver, Shuu, then Lilia. I imagine that Malleus also controls how tight the thorns are Lilia would have some pretty deep marks. Since it was the last time he was going to be in NRC.

────୨ৎ────

-What's their relationship with Malleus after the overblot?

Shuu: She slightly hates him. Every time she looks at the marks she gets a reminder about the overblot. Giving a whole bunch of emotional turmoil. Malleus is her friend right? Why would he give her these marks? She knows he wasn't in the right head space but still. Why? She just avoids him now. Having anything to do with him makes her upset and slight angry.

Silver: He's upset and has mixed feelings. He tries to be understanding toward Malleus but seeing how Shuu has changed because of Malleus. It makes him unsure how to act. But he does try to be help both sides.

Sebek: He's upset and confused. Someone he idealized and deafened, hurt. . . him. He does understand Malleus and will still be by his side and defend him. But there is an uncertain feeling when he's around him.

Lilia: He is very understanding towards Malleus. He understands him and also understands how people could have a distaste for Malleus after the overblot.

────୨ৎ────

-Miscellaneous parts of lore!!

The marks are a lasting reminder of the day of his overblot and the pain and hurt she felt when she got those marks. Would ruin her mental health.

Shuu wears bandages over her arm and leg to cover the scars when she goes back to NRC.

Silver and Shuu bond over the marks. Silver comforts her when she starts to get upset about the marks or is feeling emotion turmoil.

Sebek and Shuu become better friends after the overblot, by also bonding!

Lilia really likes his scars and shows them off.

Diasomnia + Shuu has a "I survived Malleus Overblot!" shirt. They do and I will be drawing them in their favorite shirt. Well at least Lilia's.

────୨ৎ────

Have a good rest of your day! And thank you for reading all of that!!

Also thank you Quartz for helping me out with the lore!! You give really good ideas!!

Please let me know if anything was out of character!!

I will probably be doing more posts like this!! So if you like them, please stay around!!

[ghosttoastx]

Apart from walking and hitching a ride on a friend, any other ways elffein goes from place to place? I can almost imagine them using a hook and string to get around almost like hornet (hollow knight)

Your pretty much right on the nose!!

Walking is the easiest way of getting around, though it is also the slowest. Despite Siffrin still being super speedy and fast and stuff, they’re only speedy and fast in comparison to other elves

Siffrin would swing around using their needle pin and a thread spool (Spiderman style) in order to get around a lot faster. It makes travel a lot more convenient, as well as gives him more of an advantage when in combate with larger foes.

The way I imagine them getting around is definitely very similar to Hornet!! I imagine Siffrin moving around all super nimble and fast the way she does, at least when fighting and stuff.

They are still the fastest in the party when getting around, but only due to having lots of experience in maneuvering with their needle and thread.

[nvxzaa]

── .✦ Summer Coffee

Pairing : no¡idol!Kim Seungmin x oc

Word : 2.1k

Genre : fluff

Warning : none

Sohane loves absolutely everyone. She's uncomplicated, whether as a student or just as a person.

But there are three things she hates - in this exact order:

1. Being away from her family

2. Her manager

3. Her job

Despite it all, she keeps smiling. Because deep down, Sohane has this uncanny ability to always find an ounce of light, even on the worst of days. Maybe it's because she knows that her family is waiting for her somewhere, or maybe she's secretly hoping that her manager will eventually change (spoiler: no).

In the meantime, she goes from class to class, low-paid shifts to pointless meetings with an almost suspicious patience. All, of course, with a cold cup of coffee in hand and dark circles that tell the story of her life better than any diary.

Every morning, Sohane puts on her uniform - white skirt too short, tight top and white boots like a shop-window doll - wondering whether she's a waitress or an extra in a dubious music video. The bright, chic café smells more of overpriced perfume and hypocrisy than roasted coffee.

Two floors of demanding customers, meticulous orders, and above all, two floors to escape the heavy gaze of her manager. Always "passing by" as she climbs the stairs, "checking to see if everything's all right" by staring a little too low. A look she knows by heart, and ignores with the icy elegance she's built into her armor.

But sometimes, between two frothy cappuccinos and an order of oatmeal latte, she finds herself dreaming. Of another life, another job, a place where uniforms are a choice, not a marketing strategy. In the meantime, she smiles. Because she's learned that in this café, smiles earn more than tips.

And then there's Seungmin, who has always worked in this café, at least since he started his sports scholarship at university. He's been there long enough to know all the customers' habits, the weaknesses of the cash register system, and above all, to have seen more than one employee come and go... including Sohane.

At first, he didn't like her. Perhaps because of her overly clean British accent, her right wrist full of bracelets that jingled with every gesture, or the way she took a customer's order as if she were presenting a play. Too flashy, too self-assured, too different.

But the days went by. He noticed how she discreetly stroked his wrist when the manager got too close. How she took sexist remarks in stride with a smile too polite to be sincere. And how she always left a hint of sweet perfume in the air when she passed by him.

He never said he understood her. But he stopped judging her. And one evening, while cleaning the espresso machine beside her, he said a simple:

- You've got a lot of bracelets.

She smiled, a little surprised.

- One for each city I've left. There'll be one for here soon, I suppose.

He nodded, and has been looking at her a little differently ever since. Maybe not with tenderness... but with a discreet, almost imperceptible respect. A kind of fragile peace between two worlds that weren't meant to meet.

Summer has arrived like a cardboard promise. Customers linger on the terrace, ice creams melt faster than tips, and the sun beats down on the café's large windows as if to remind everyone that there is life outside - except for those who work there.

Sohane and Seungmin are stuck here, in this luxury two-storey café that smells of artificial vanilla and postponed dreams. Along with a few other colleagues on short-term contracts or vacation hardship, they form a strange team, a little shaky, but functional. There's Minji, the fastest to serve but the slowest to get a joke; Daeho, who pretends not to understand French whenever a customer is unpleasant; and then there's them, the unlikely duo.

They don't talk much, Seungmin and Sohane. But they understand each other with their glances, silent gestures, and little phrases uttered half-voiced in quiet moments. And over the weeks, there have been details they can no longer ignore: the way he always keeps a fresh bottle of water next to the cash register, or how she brings him a coffee just the way he likes it before he even asks for it.

One evening, after closing, as they wipe the tables in soothing silence, Sohane says softly:

- You don't seem to hate bracelets after all.

Seungmin looks up, a little taken aback, before shrugging.

- I never said I hated bracelets. Just... what they hide.

She stares at him for a moment, then lets out a little laugh. That kind of discreet, tired but sincere laugh. And for the first time, he doesn't look away.

It's a long summer. It's hot. The work is repetitive. But there are these moments, stolen, suspended. And little by little, between orders, capricious customers and too-short uniforms, something unexpected is being born.

-----

First day of summer vacation. The kind of day when the sun is beating down at 9 a.m. and the streets are full of overexcited tourists and exhausted locals. At the café, the blinds are half down, but that's not enough: the air is heavy, almost sticky, and the coffee machine makes more noise than usual, as if it too were grumbling about having to work during the vacations.

Sohane arrives ten minutes early, as always. Her bracelets click gently as she ties her apron. Her hair is done in a hurry, but she keeps that pink lipstick that gives the illusion that she's slept more than four hours. She says nothing, but her eyes scan the room as if assessing the battlefield.

Seungmin, on the other hand, arrives right on time, with his slightly nonchalant look, his T-shirt peeking out from under his shirt and his half-frowned, half-asleep gaze. He gives her a simple "Hi" as he passes her to grab a tray. She responds with a slightly amused nod.

- How much do you want to bet we've got a bunch of English tourists asking for a "flat white like back home" before noon?

- Five bracelets," he replies without looking up.

The day gets off to a slow start, but it doesn't last. The café fills up too quickly, orders come in, and the manager is already prowling up the stairs to "supervise service". Sohane dodges his glances, changing rooms three times to avoid him, while Seungmin keeps a discreet but constant eye on her movements. He says nothing, but she feels his presence. And that's enough for her.

At break time, they sit on the fire escape at the back, where no one comes. She removes her boots to let her legs breathe, he sips his soda in silence. The sun is beating down, but the air is milder here.

- What were you planning to do this summer, if you hadn't gotten this job?

He thinks for a moment.

- Sleep. Train. Maybe travel. But what about you?

- Back to London. See my brother. Eat a real fish & chip.

- At least you'll get that," he says, pulling a puny punnet of French fries out of the bag.

She laughs.

- You're silly.

They eat in silence, in this fragile bubble they've built in spite of themselves. First day of summer. There's still plenty left. And although neither of them admits it yet, deep down they're beginning to think that maybe it won't be so bad.

The break ends too quickly, as always. They go back inside, back to the hustle and bustle, the shouted orders, the clinking cups, and the increasingly stifling heat. The manager, sunglasses resting on his skull like an accessory of power, stands at the bottom of the stairs, arms crossed, waiting... or spying.

Sohane raises her head, meets his gaze and immediately looks away. Her professional smile returns, more mechanical than sincere. She goes up to the second floor to wait on a table, her bracelets clinking against the tray. Behind her, she feels the manager's gaze slide down her legs. Again.

Seungmin sees the scene from the cash register. He says nothing, but his jaws tighten. This isn't the first time. It won't be the last. But today, perhaps because of the heat, or the fact that it's finally summer, he's had enough.

Later, when she comes back downstairs, she finds him behind the counter, obviously arguing with the manager in a low voice. She doesn't understand everything, but she picks up bits and pieces:

- ...not a zoo here...

- ...she's doing her job, let her breathe...

- ...you're going too far, seriously...

As she approaches, the manager strides away without a word. Seungmin says nothing either. He wipes the worktop a little too insistently. She stands there for a moment, unsure whether to thank him or pretend she hadn't seen anything.

Finally, she whispers:

- Are you going to be my bodyguard now?

- You didn't sign up to be a showman," he murmurs, his eyes still downcast.

- No, I didn't. I signed up for a lousy salary and tips in red coins. Not for this.

The silence that follows is heavy, but not unpleasant. It has a kind of necessary weight. Like taking a stand, turning a corner. And when their eyes meet, there's something new in the air. An affirmed respect. A more open complicity.

And maybe, just maybe, the start of something else.

The sun has been down for a while, but the warmth remains trapped between the café walls like a last gasp of the day. The customers have left, the chairs have been returned to the tables, and a jazz playlist is looped at discreet volume, just enough to mask the sound of mops and tired sighs.

Sohane is crouched behind the bar, sorting tea bags and towels, while Minji swirls the mop and sings off-key. Daeho is bent over the till with Seungmin, one hand on the back of his neck, the other recounting for the third time.

- It's still 7,000 won short," he grumbles.

- It's probably a customer who left without paying.

- Or Seungmin who stole a cookie," says Minji from across the room.

- I wouldn't steal them. They're as dry as your repartee.

A general laugh erupts, finally breaking the tension built up all day. Even Sohane laughs softly, her forehead still beaded with sweat, her hair a mess.

She gets up and joins Seungmin by the cash register. She holds out a 10,000 won bill from her pocket.

- It fell out of a tip earlier, I was sure I'd put it in the jar.

- Are you serious?

- Let's just say I have a professional conscience. Or just want to go home.

He stares at her for a moment, then takes the ticket without a word. Their fingers brush briefly. He puts the money in the till, closes the drawer, and blows:

- Shitty day.

- But we survived," she retorts, stretching.

The others continue to tidy up, but all around them, the café is almost quiet. Almost peaceful. Sohane sits on the counter, legs crossed, bracelets sliding down her arm. She looks at him, tired but light.

- Thanks for earlier. With the manager.

- Someone has to say what everyone else is thinking.

- You know you almost look cool when you defend me?

- I always look cool. You're just realizing it now.

She raises her eyes to the sky, but a smile hangs on her lips. It's no longer just complicity: it's the beginning of comfort. Something more intimate, softer, despite the fatigue, the hours on their feet and the sticky ground beneath them.

Minji slams a drawer to the back and says, yawning:

- If anyone wants to adopt me so I can live a real life this summer, I'm available.

- Too late," says Daeho. It's hell, we're already in it.

They all laugh a little. And in this half-weary, half-tender atmosphere, Sohane slips gently, almost to herself:

- Hell isn't so bad after all. Especially when you've got a team like that.

She doesn't look at him as she says this. But Seungmin doesn't take his eyes off his bracelets.

Masterlist

—> Next part

[kindheart525]

Coming back to the Smiling Friends next gen with some more kiddos!

Meet the Pimlings! Pim has always dreamed of a big family and he got it, but it’s way more work than he bargained for. He can’t just sit back blissfully with his partner and watch his little ones play when it takes all he has just to keep them from injuring themselves or someone else. He wouldn’t trade them for the world even on his hardest days, but he sure has his work cut out for him. Baby fever lied to him when Dottie was little, making him think that parenting would be easy when really Dottie was a statistical outlier adn should not have been counted.

Pim does have a wife and his kids do have a mother, he talks about her all the time! She’s the love of his life, he says, more than he could have ever asked for. But none of the other Smiling Friends have ever met her, not even once. And Pim brings his children with him everywhere he goes, as if he’s a single father. Charlie and Zoey trade off Dottie duties all the time and so do Glep and Marge with their kids, but nobody has seen Pim’s wife share parenting duties with him. He insists that he’s giving her a break, but who will give him a break?

As for the kids themselves:

Kip (pink) is the girly girl, the spitting image of her estranged Aunt Amy in appearance but not in personality. She’s a social butterfly who makes friends easily, an optimist after her dad’s own heart. Her best friend is Dottie, who has her own friendship bracelet to match the one Kip’s wearing now. 

Ell (yellow), to contrast her sister, is an active little tomboy who loves to show off her iconic Pimling speed. She’s the fastest runner of all her siblings, but even the slowest one seems to be able to run faster than the speed of light. She puts that energy to good use on various athletic teams as she grows older! 

Nee (green) and Dur (red) are a couple of little shits, or silly little rascals as their dad would put it. They both have Mr. Frog brainrot and unfortunately both look up to him as someone to emulate, which spells bad news for everyone around them. The fact that they’re twins and super in tune with each other only amplifies the chaos they cause. Pim has not gotten a wink of sleep since they learned to crawl and he probably will not sleep again for the rest of his life because of them /j

[midnightsun-if]

How does one go about forming a mate bond? is it like an oath or something else?

Also! if this isn't too spoilery, how long would it take the ROs to ask MC to form the mate bond (like fastest to slowest I guess)? And would any of them wait for MC to ask them?

It depends on which supernatural species in question! For vampires it’s fairly straight forward— though there usually are parties for the more affluent members of the vampiric race to celebrate the new bond— as it’s a bite on the neck (usually around where the neck meets the shoulder). It’s something that has to be mutual— you can’t force a mating bite, and you have to have the intent of forming a mating bond for it to stick. So, you wouldn’t have to worry about bonding prematurely with Scarlett if she were to bite you or vice versa. For shifters it’s a bit more drawn out due to the fact that both the human and animal side has to agree that the potential mate is a good fit; if you’re rejected by one, then it’s something that’ll never be broached again. For mermaids there’s usually a lot of festivities and different ceremonies that the prospected couple goes through. Dragon shifters, unlike other shifters, usually have various trials that will show that they’re the perfect protector for their potential mate.

It truly just depends on the species! It’ll all end with a mark, somewhere, that showcases the both of you are taken and the intermingling of scents that will ward off other supernaturals from even trying to approach.

Koda: I think it’s something that Koda would just bring up casually. Something that he wouldn’t use to pressure the MC, but simply showcase how he hopes the relationship is heading towards. I think, after a period of time, he’d be the one to bring it up first, but he wouldn’t mind if the MC also did so.

Scarlett: The moment you enter a deep relationship with her she already sees you as her mate (just without the actual mark to showcase it). However, she wouldn’t bring it up until you did because she’s been burned once before when she thought what she felt had been reciprocated… She paid for that mistake and will never make it again. (Even though she knows the MC would never be the same.)

Cyrus/Cyra: They’d be the fastest mainly due to the fact that if you wish to be truly accepted into House Aurelia, you need to be their mate. Or else you wouldn’t be trusted enough to be brought to their most sacred areas. You’d be welcomed to a degree, but it wouldn’t be anything like it could be. So, they’d bring it up rather quickly to tell you that’s expected of you both.

Quinn: They’d wait to see how the wind blows. They know that they feel a connection with you, know that it’s something so much deeper than simple infatuation, but they don’t want you to feel like they’re forcing you into anything just because both they and their wolf have come to an agreement. They’d entirely let you bring it up, but they’d be giving subtle hints along the way.

Caden: Absolutely would not bring it up. They’d never presume to make such an assumption about you both. Do they wish to form said bond? Absolutely, but they’re fine with waiting until you bring it up.

Sloane: They’d be having an internal battle with their wolf about it— not because they didn’t agree, quite the contrary— but they wouldn’t be able to imagine anyone else matching up in the same manner. Could never imagine their human side agreeing with their wolf in such a way again. They’d probably be sullen about it, in their head more, before they’d finally just bring it up completely out of nowhere.

Blake: They’d completely avoid the topic. It brings up bad memories for them, but if it’s something the MC wanted to broach then they’d be 100% in the conversation, but you’d have to be the one to bring it up. They want nothing more than to be mated with you, but it’s hard for them to actually start said conversation to make it happen.

Reginald/Regina: They’d bring it up mainly to ask you questions, but the more they learn about the more they’d want to become a reality. They couldn’t imagine a better scenario then spending the rest of their life with you in such a way. It’s something they’d tell you, rather bluntly, but they’d let you take the lead in the grand scheme of things.

[sadboyayeron]

Can someone make a fanfic about a record holding Track Athlete from a rival school (I don’t know.) Calling out PSU for being slow and for no reason bringing up Neil Josten literally on a different sports team saying “Yeah he may be the fastest on the court but put him on the track he’ll get smoked.” And medias all over it cause no way you just called out Neil “attitude problem” Josten on TV not expecting him to clap back.

Fast forward reporters ask Neil how he feels about the statement and all he says is, “Give me his best event and two weeks, I’ll see him on the track.” So Neil joins the track team, practices with them for about 2 weeks just to learn track running technique. Qualifies for one of the biggest collegiate track events not even trying. Qualifies for the finals with the slowest time purposefully, then gaps this man on the track beating the Meet record and the Guy talking shit.

The foxes all watching Neil look at the board smirking when he sees his name and record beating time, looks then straight into the camera his face plastered on the board for the whole stadium to see. And all he does is put his pointer finger against his lips and goes shush 🤫.

All to prove a point. So the haters stay quiet.

(I would honestly say the event would be either 200m, 400m or both maybe even through in a 4x1 or 4x4 relay)

Ik Neil has a lot of endurance but I wanna see him really demonstrate his speed surprising even the Fox’s.

Just imagine the Neil in a Clemson Track compression Uniform (PSU), but instead of orange and purple, it’s orange and black/White with Neil wearing orange arm bands with fox paws and a orange Nike head band.

[snailmp3]

no one asked, but i thought it looked fun so im gonna do my own ao3 wrapped ♡🐌 ↑template by @spicedrobot

words written: 68,414 → aiming to write/post 100k this year! im also going to try to draw more this year, so we'll see how that goes 🤔

works published: nine

fandoms written for: two! borderlands & jujutsu kaisen♡

longest work: Any Greater Meaning (38k & counting)

shortest work: Mind the Gap (423, for now)

fastest work (per word): Not Every Haunting is for Horror (impulsively wrote that shit in about an hour)

slowest work (per word): Any Greater Meaning

number of wips im bringing into 2025: seven… and they're all for jjk. im planning to prioritize AGM & Y,CoD!!

→ Yuuta, Child of Divorce (posted: 8.5k, 3/13 chapters / ~10k written)

→→ [Divorced, Never Married] (outline only)

→ Any Greater Meaning (posted: 38k, 8/29 chapters / ~60k written)

→→ Heliophilic (~2k written)

→→ Counting Back from Ten (posted: 1.2k, 1/11 chapters / ~2.5k written)

→→ Cigarettes, Strawberries, Sunsets, Fields (~5k written) 

→ [unnamed itafushi fic] (outline only)

favourite character to write: gojo!! i like to lean into how mean/rude he can be & pair that with how tragic he is as a character. his interactions with other characters (like megumi or nanami or geto) are VERY fun to write. hes silly. its fun.

favourite fandom to write: jujutsu kaisen♡♡ ←my current hyperfixation (watched jjk last january and caught brainrot immediately)

favourite moments written: (under the cut for brevity)

from Any Greater Meaning chapter 6:

“Sensei?”

Satoru turns from where he’s considering the logistics of opening Megumi’s door with another application of blue when the door next to it opens and Yuuji pokes his head out. He stares a bit quizzically at them for a half second before his expression turns a bit concerned.

“Yuuji-kun, you’re up awfully late.” Satoru says; Megumi stirs slightly against his shoulder.

“I was waiting for Fushiguro to get back; is he okay?” He steps fully out into the hall, closing his door behind him. He’s dressed down for the night, but he clearly wasn’t sleeping. What a nice boy, waiting up for his friend.

“Right as rain, he’s just a little sleepy, is all.”

“Oh.” Yuuji grins, “And you’re carrying him to bed? That’s really nice of you, Sensei.”

“Sensei is the best!” Satoru shifts his hold on Megumi so he can throw a thumbs up in Yuuji’s direction.

“Ugh, stop talking.” Megumi grumbles. He rubs his face against Satoru’s shoulder in a sleepy movement.

Yuuji muffles a giggle with his hand.

“Ah, but I’m just having a nice conversation with Yuuji~ Shouldn’t you be nicer to your classmate?”

Predictably Megumi goes stiff in his arms.

“Put me down.” He grits into the fabric of Satoru’s jacket.

“Hmm? What was that?”

“Now.”

from Carrion Birds:

Suguru stops a bit closer to him than he normally would, breaching the gap between them the way Satoru does without care. He grabs Satoru’s free hand, linking their fingers— Satoru’s eyes drop to their hands then flick back up to his face.

Suguru leans in and presses a kiss to his cheekbone, “Hey.”

On the way over he’d imagined kissing Satoru the way he’d been kissed in his room. This is about all he can manage, right now.

When he pulls back, Satoru’s mouth is parted slightly in shock, which makes Suguru feel a bit nervous— were those other kisses just a moment of excitement thing?

“I was thinking,” Suguru pushes the anxiety away; he fights curses on the daily, this shouldn’t be the thing that makes him flinch, “That we should visit that new crêpe place this weekend.”

Satoru blinks.

“You—” He closes his mouth. Opens it. Closes it, then, “Crêpes, yes, we should totally— Wait. Just you and me?”

“Yeah.”

“For real?”

“Yes?”

“Hell yeah!” His fingers tighten around Suguru’s, and he pushes into his space until the careful inches he’d left are eaten up. He must have dropped the can of soda because his other hand weaves with Suguru’s as well.

“You should definitely kiss me better than that, though.” He says, grinning, “I want a real one.”

i appreciate everyone who has supported me & my writing this year♡ hopefully a lot more to come in 2025