#i can be trusted with weapons lemme play with them!

[rodatirhaalo]

Man... I've been really wanting to get back into martial arts classes to help fight off The Depression, but it seems that covid really did kill them all off in my area... :(

[historicalvandal]

What would be casual acts of intimacy and trust with your choice of apes

Hello Anon! Thanks for the ask :PP Casual acts of intimacy you sayyy well lemme have a crack at it!

Casual acts of intimacy with Koba! So, with Koba he's not one for PDA openly, he's a private ape, keeps to himself all the time- Casual acts of intimacy with Koba usually happens when you both need comfort, a noncahalant moment of gripping your thigh whilst you ride on his horse, your arms around him from behind, sometimes he'll link his pinkie finger with yours during meals, he usually doesn't seem the type to enjoy a hug or much touch, but he possibly yearns from it if it is coming from his mate, so if you hug him upon his return from a hunting trip, gently press your foreheads together, or even press a kiss to his cheek he's usually somewhat happy unless it is in front of too many apes, he prefers to have sparing glances or touches, brushing a finger across your hand as you two go about your days! Usually an act of trust you'd mainly see between you and Koba is that you are allowed to stand on his blind side from time to time, he'll allow you to tend to his wounds, allow you to touch him or guide his hand.

Casual intimacy with Caesar - Like Koba he isn't big on PDA perhaps he will press his forehead to yours during big celebrations, his way of having casual intimacy throughout your days when your both a bit busy, if you two pass each other he tries to lock eyes with you share a look and small smile, he'll lightly touch your hand during hushed moments of speaking when the colony sit to eat together, looping his finger in your belt loops sometimes grounds him a lot, the stress of his days are usually worked out whenever he locks eyes with you, touches your hand, gently runs his fingers through your hair upon passing one another, riding his horse he prefers to sit behind you so he can keep one hand on the reigns of his horse and the other pressed firmly to your stomach, or your thigh, he's big on holding the more softer parts of his partner in moments of short passing. Acts of trust with Caesar would be allowing you to carry Cornelius, or to give Blue eyes advice, he will trust you when you hold his hand in front of many other apes trusts that you'll understand if he pulls away.

Casual intimacy with Blue eyes - Young love as Caesar has described it, usually you and Blue Eyes can't really help but touch each other, to have your hand in the others hand, casually you are allowed to sit between your legs during the times the colony will eat, the feeling of your back pressed to his chest as you both engage in conversation as you eat brings him comfort, a comforting hand on your hip as he guides you toward your next duty, he'll always have a hand on your back or shoulder whenever Cornelius is sitting in your lap and he notices you two playing, he'll casually brush hair away from your eyes, gently wiping away any tears you may shed if you get hurt or have a nightmare, feeling the softness of your cheek as he cups it in his palm running his thumb in a slow circle just so you'll meet his gaze, he's there, he'll always be there. Acts of trust would be teaching his little brother as he trusts you to teach Cornelius good things, he'll allow you to touch any of his weapons and to maintain them, another act of trust is that he'll trust you to go berry picking alone putting his faith in the skills he's taught you to keep yourself safe, even if berry picking near the colony.

Acts of casual intimacy with Noa - I personally think he's always touchy, not much experience with love yk? Well he'll hold the hem of your shirt if he's feeling nervous waiting for you to take his hand into yours, he'll have you eat at his side when eating communally with the clan probably feeding you some of his own food, tucking feathers into your hair or flowers, casually having a hand on your lower back when talking with other apes of the clan, whispering in your ear during meals, he seems like the type who may pull you into his lap during celebratory meals and keeps talking away to Anaya, his mother Dar or Soona, links his fingers with yours if his father is speaking with the both of you. Acts of trust - Allowing you to at some point do the coming of age ceremony with some other apes rather then with him, Anaya and Soona, he'd also trust you to keep his weapons clean, also one to trust you with keeping yourself safe if you've done so before becoming a member of his clan.

(actually have no clue why Proximus is so tidgy here oml-) Acts of casual intimacy with Proximus - You would borderline be his pet lmao- Not much intimacy is casual with Proximus, what he thinks is casual is having you sit on his lap from time to time, he pets your head playing with your hair if you sit at the foot of his throne, like I said nothing is that casual within the space of intimacy with Proximus, if you think having his hands all over you, touching prodding and poking, petting as well then that would be casual for Proximus, he has to have his hands on you of course he has too, your his, you are HIS pet.

Acts of trust - When he trusts you to groom him, he also trusts you to not run away when he takes you off your little makeshift leash, a massive act of trust is him allowing you to sleep in his nest/bed with him without any guards needing to stand by. Hope this is alright anon! Thanks for the ask <3

[callmearcturus]

Tips for Playing Persona 3 Portable

because i am (i think) a little over halfway thru and it's amazing, I am having a tremendously good time. here's all the stuff that made me go "well I wish i knew that from the beginning!"

this is geared towards people who haven't played a MegaTen. other folks, you know what you're doing, don't @ me.

TO PLAY:

You wanna grab the PPSSPP emulator, which is available for mobile and for PC. I need buttons to play, so I play on my Odin, but if you're the kind of person who plays Genshin on your phone, you'd probably be fine just playing it on your phone.

I'm able to upscale this to x4 resolution so it looks very nice. If you're on a super fancy phone or your PC, I bet you can push it higher if you want but I think it looks great at x4.

I'm not gonna pussyfoot around. You can find the game on a very helpful site. Rot13: ivzz.arg Great place to know.

I would have three save files. Slot One: the place you save daily or every other day, because you should do that. Slot Two: save here when the game warns you it's almost a full moon. If you make it to the boss and get utterly owned, roll back to here and grind more. (I haven't had to do this yet personally but the game is slowly getting harder, so maybe it'll happen.) Slot Three: Before events you might want to see multiple paths of.

PPSSPP supports save states. I mapped the "save state" button to my L3 click and I hit it every time I reach a new floor of Tartarus in case something goes catastrophically wrong. But I'm not the type of person who enjoys total party wipes and losing progress. I'm baby.

Oh and you need to trust me here: PLAY THE GIRL. DO NOT PLAY THE BOY, THE GAME IS APPRECIABLY WORSE. When you start the game it'll warn you to play Boy first. FUCKING IGNORE THAT SHIT AND PLAY THE GIRL. Also FemPC is the only one with a gay option to my knowledge.

TIPS FOR THE COMBAT PORTION OF THE GAME:

If you are not into MegaTen/Persona, just play on Easy. It's okay and no one is gonna judge you. And anyone who does it outing themselves as an asshole.

Your goal for the first tens of hours of combat is to knock all enemies down in a single turn. When all enemies are knocked down, your party does an All Out Attack and usually finishes off the fight. Hitting enemies with their weakness or getting a critical will knock them down and let you take another attack in the same turn. Keep chaining until everyone is knocked down!

You can find most enemies weaknesses by scanning them with Mitsuru/Fuuka. Do this for every enemy, it'll help later when you have seen 40 enemies and cannot remember who's weak to what.

Each party member has an elemental specialty but you the player can swap your pokemon persona once per turn. Lemme repeat: YOU CAN SWAP YOUR PERSONA IN BATTLE ONCE PER TURN. You don't have to wait to be out of battle to swap!

This is a game where its very worthwhile to, once you reach a new combat area, to upgrade all of your weapons and armor. The stat jumps are pretty significant. You'll get some equipment from Elizabeth's quests and in exploration but not a lot. So figure out who you're gonna use mainly and kit them out when new gear appears.

You unlock Akihiko in the second or third month of play (first 5 hours, maybe sooner depending on your playstyle). He was a small lesson for me as a player bc he spends HP to hit hard. Kind of scary at first but he'll be fine, let him be a blood knight. Yukari will heal him when he's in the danger zone. Also, if you are keeping everyone up to date on their equipment there are many times Akihiko does more damage with his normal attack than his Persona skill. He's like. Maddeningly useful. And he's the best boy. And I love him. ANYWAY.

Don't be precious about your personas. Fuse frequently. Also if you have one you REALLY like the skillset of, tell Elizabeth you want to register them in the compendium and you can summon them again for money. (You get the compendium early game, just chill until it unlocks.)

Oh yeah so when you start fighting, your party members will be on Full AI Mode. When you start to understand what you're doing, you can go into Tactics and switch them to being under your control. Or switch them back! Up to you!

FINALLY, THIS IS THE ONE I WISH I UNDERSTOOD EARLY. Once you start really breezing through combat, when you are in Tartarus and out of combat: JUST TELL EVERYONE TO GO EXPLORE. They will split up from you and run around finding items and will locate the exits. This makes getting through Tartarus floors easy. AND IF ONE OF THEM GETS INTO COMBAT? Stand nearby and if they start to lose too my HP, HEAL THEM FROM YOUR MENU. It's fucking great. I love this mechanic so much and I was too scared to use it for so long. USE IT!!!!

i think once you get Fuuka you can change the BGM while you are exploring. I like Track 4, it's very fun.

OKAY THAT'S THE COMBAT HALF OF THE GAME, LET'S TALK ABOUT THE REST OF IT:

This game is driven by your Social Links with people, series of little scenes in visual novel style. Having strong social links means your personas for that Arcana will be stronger. You can pick choices in many of these social link scenes that will make the person happy or sad.

There's a few social links where if you want to max them out you gotta suck it up and say the 'right' thing for that person. Rio does not want a lot of pushback or challenge to her ideas. Akihiko will clam up if you make fun of his interests and frequently misses sarcasm and jokes with his literalism. Saori wants gentle pushback against her isolation but not super aggressively. If you fuck up and feel bad, reload a save! It's okay.

Junpei is not a romance option. Knowing this made me like him a LOT more and he became my best fucking bro and my ride-or-die. Junpei is great. He'd be awful if he was a romance option.

A few characters are gated based on your stat triangle of Academics, Courage, and Charm. If you have a character you REALLY want to hang with, it's worth seeing what the requirements are. FOR INSTANCE: Akihiko doesn't unlock for hang outs until he recovers from his injury, which takes a while. BUT to even hang out with him, you need to reach Charm level 4. So my ass was grinding Charm until he opened up as an option. Later, I had to grind Courage to meet the Tower, who is awesome.

BEST WAY TO LEVEL ANY OF YOUR STATS: Charm (needed for Akihiko): work at Chagall Cafe Mon/Tues/Wed nights when you can. Also once you have enough money, the Print Club arcade game will give a huge boost when its available. Also giving Junpei the right answer in class will boost Charm. Academics (needed for Mitsuru): i'm still grinding this rn lmao but the Quiz Game at the arcade and the documentary movies at the cinema will give you a big boost. Also when the game offers to let you sleep in class, always stay awake for a small boost. Courage (needed for The Tower): Horror House at the arcade, but also doing karaoke at the mall. Also, when you are tired after fighting in Tartarus, go talk to the school nurse (this doesn't consume an action) for a Courage boost.

When I was initially looking up guides for this game, they were unified in one message. Just play the game naturally and you'll probably get close to who you like! Except Akihiko. Look up a guide for him. I didn't find him that difficult because I cottoned on fast that he's an shy autistic Team Mom who takes things literally a lot, and once I figured that out it was easy. But if you have your heart set on someone, look them up! It's a long game.

listen. some social links are great (Junpei, Fuuka, Akihiko, The Devil, The Tower) and some are not (Bebe, the Student Council). I think it's fine to just... not do some of them if you don't like them lmao.

Finally, when its your day off, sometimes people will call you and ask you out. I ALWAYS make a save state here, turn everyone down to see who I have as an option, and then load my state to pick who I want. I recommend doing that, especially for the Summer Festival because you will get multiple offers, but Junpei will probably be first. Sorry, Junpei, I wanna hang out with Akihiko. (Also: wear the yukata if you're going with Akihiko.)

Fairly far into the game you'll start getting gifts to give people. I'd save state-cheat these too in case you give someone the wrong thing.

I THINK THAT'S IT

please play persona 3 portable its good

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hi, I am suuuuuper new to Eruri and AoT but I immediately started shipping Eruri since like Female Titan arc? I love their dynamic so much and I think that ship makes perfect sense and everything isayama says about them sound like he also ships them? lol but people keep telling me it's one-sided in canon because while Erwin respects and admires Levi's skills obviously, apparently "he doesn't show any commitment to Levi and sees him as humanity's best weapon and that's why he wouldn't respect Levi's wish and let him die if the roles were reserved" people keep telling me that!! :'( like I am new lemme ship in peace sadfgdsdf sorry lol anyway I wanted to ask you that, since I am so new to Eruri, what do you think, do you honestly think they can easily be canon or do you just think "I just ship them idc"? And did you see the AoT game before? It's always like "Erwin completely trusts Levi!!" and "Levi: I will kill those titans before Erwin arrives!!" how do people expect me to not to ship them sdfsadf :( Excuse my poor English and if this ask is annoying pls ignore :( thank you <3

Don’t worry Anon, your English is just fine and there’s no such thing as an annoying ask, as long as the question is asked in good faith.  The first thing I would say is don’t listen to people who are hellbent on “disproving” your ship, and that goes for any ship, regardless of whether it’s canon or not.  There will always be assholes out there who would rather spend their time shitting on ships they dislike rather than enjoying media that they do.  The best thing to do is to block, mute, and ignore.  Don’t waste your time trying to change their mind, and don’t let them discourage you.  

I’ve had so many asks over the years about whether Erwin and Levi’s relationship is one sided, in fact I answered a very similar one just a few of weeks ago which you can read here and you can find a summary and links to previous asks on this topic here.

In answer to your question, I do firmly believe that Erwin and Levi’s relationship is canon and and this answer sums up why.

The thing I adore most about Erwin and Levi’s relationship is that it’s not a romance. It’s a mature adult relationship between two war weary veterans who have spent their entire lives fighting. Who, against the odds, have grown to trust, respect and love one another. Erwin gives Levi a purpose, a cause to fight for, and Levi gives Erwin his strength and support. Of course some of the trappings of romance are there too in the supplementary materials; the private dinners, the quiet moments watching the rain fall, the contraband tea, the gifts of fancy clothes, but it’s not the romance that matters, it’s the Deep Bond of Mutual Trust. It’s the fact that Erwin depends on Levi and trusts him enough to reveal his deepest regrets and desires. At the same time, Levi cares so deeply for Erwin that he willingly shoulders his burden and damns humanity to let him rest in peace.

Quite aside from shipping, Erwin and Levi’s canon character arcs are entwined throughout the series and their relationship and Levi’s vow play a pivotal role in the plot. 

If you’re interested, I’ve written loads of other posts on this topic, which you can find in my eruri relationship tag.  Hope this answers your question Anon and helps to set your mind at rest.

[cowboylikesubai]

bsd characters as taylor swift lyrics pt.1

lemme know if they were accurate 😚

atushi:

i've been the archer / i've been the prey... / who could ever leave me darling? / but who could stay-?

akutagawa:

and now that i'm grown, i'm scared of ghosts/ memories feel like weapons / and now that i know, i wish you left me wondering

i can't let this go/ i fight with you in my sleep the wound won't close/ stained glass windows in my mind/ i regret you all the time...

chuuya:

and I can go anywhere I want / anywhere I want, just not home / and you can aim for my heart, go for blood / but you would still miss me in your bones

dazai:

i wake up screaming from dreaming one day i'll watch as you're leaving/ cause you got tired of my scheming/ it's me, hi, i'm the problems it's me

kunikida:

you're not my homeland anymore / so what am I defending now? / you were my town / now I'm in exile, seein' you out / i think I've seen this film before

kyoka:

from sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes / i gave my blood sweat and tears for this

i looked around in a blood-soaked gown and i saw something they can't take away / cause there were pages turned when the bridges burned

kenji:

cause he was sunshine i was midnight rain / he wanted it comfortable i wanted that pain / he wanted a bride i was making my own name, chasing that fame / he stayed the same, all of me changed like midnight rain

^^^the manga readers know what i'm on about lol

yosano:

dear john, i see it all now that you're gone.../ don't you think ninenteen's (eleven) too young to be played by your dark twisted games / when i loved you so?

ranpo:

power went to my head and I couldn't stop / ones I loved tried to help, so I ran them off / and here I sit alone behind walls of regret / falling down like promises that I never kept

and I feel like my castle's crumbling down / and I watch all my bridges burn to the ground / and you don't want to know me, I will just let you down / you don't wanna know me now

tanazaki:

they told me all of my cages were mental / so I got wasted like all my potential / and my words shoot to kill when I'm mad / i have a lot of regrets about that

koyo:

ladies always rise above / ladies know what people want / someone sweet and kind and fun / the lady simply had enough..../ while he was doing lines, and crossing all of mine / someone told his white collar crimes...to the FBI

higuchi:

and they called off the circus, burned the disco down / when they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns / I'm still on that tightrope / I'm still trying everything to get you laughing at me

gin:

now you hang from my lips like the gardens of babylon / with your boots beneath my bed / forever is the sweetest con.

tachihara:

i never trust a narcissist / but they love me / so I play 'em like a violin and I make it look oh so easy / 'cause for every lie I tell them / they tell me three

^^ again, iykyk

fukuzawa:

cause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped-up jeans got to rule the world / long live all the walls we crashed through / i had the time of my life fighting dragons with you / and bring on all the pretenders / one day, we will be remembered.

should i do a part 2???

[schleckermaul]

PERMANENT PLOTTING & RELATIONSHIP CALL!

i truly do not think i've ever done one of these, so please bear with me as i juggle my way through it. this is a post meant to lay some groundwork for longterm plots and relationships, as well as making it easier for new people to interact with break! if any of the ideas and dynamics mentioned below interest you, feel free to like this.

and if you do, it'll open the doors for:

primarily, me hopping into your ims to plot, though you're free to come bother me first, as well

more spontaneous and unprompted starters and asks

generally me yelling about our muses whenever i can

a personalized tag for your muse down the line

... and more, probably, once i think of it

below the cut, peep some dynamics i have in mind. if you have any others you'd like to try out that i didn't mention, you can like this anyways and lemme know in ims!

FRIENDS. while break will absolutely refuse to call most people his friends, he's a lot more open to friendlier relationships nowadays. his standards for that are a little weird, though. he appreciates people that are also a little messed up, even if he doesn't know what exactly is wrong with them. if he thinks that you, given the chance, could match his level of sharpness, or could handle listening to his self-loathing, he's a lot more likely to actually trust you. he likes damaged weirdos, essentially, because he is a damaged weirdo.

he's not opposed to making friends with people who are happy and healthy and doing well, but usually, that comes with a default distance he consistently puts between the both of you, as to protect you from his own tomfoolery, as well as simply not having the energy to deal with that.

BRATS. this is such a specific vibe, but of course, people that are younger than break. he knows he's a godawful role model, and he absolutely sucks with kids, but he does have a habit of ... being a role model for kids. he's your weird uncle that you can call when you're in trouble and don't wanna call your parents, essentially. break absolutely plays favourites, as well, more open to an actually genuine relationship with youngins he feels are smarter and more confident than your usual run. if you don't hesitate to square up to him, even if he feels ancient compared to you, he'll be impressed.

SPARRING PARTNERS. sword nerd over here will bond easily over talking about swords, or just being asked about his sword. he'll have his cane soon enough, which is just a concealed sword, something he carries around all the time. (he rarely lets go of it and refuses to let other people touch it.) while this would require some type of bond in the first place, for break to reveal that he's carrying around a weapon at all times, once that's out of the way, he's delighted to talk about it. he's also open to training people if they're close enough to him. however, be prepared for him beating the shit out of you, he does not pull his punches.

FAMILY. basically a step up from friends. once break considers you an actual friend, it doesn't take a lot for him to essentially do anything to keep you safe and happy. this doesn't necessarily have to connect to specific familial roles, it's just break's inner, closer circle, that he'll trust with more information and show more vulnerability towards.

ENEMIES. this one is spicy, i definitely need more of these. to break, anybody who reminds him of himself is definitely gonna get treated roughly. there's a lot of people he's neutral towards, but enemies would be people he actively dislikes, goes out of his way to avoid and uses most opportunities to ruin their day if confronted with them.

when i say reminds him of himself, i mean people that are overly dedicated, to the point it becomes close-minded. break's motto is "people that misbehave for other people's sake are the ones i hate most", because that's what he did in the past. a lot of his arc is about not letting other people become what he became. if you're willing to throw it all away for one person and lose yourself in that purpose, he's going to be mighty suspicious of you. as well as general disregard of life, especially if it's motivated by some self-serving goal or desire.

dishonesty pisses him off, too. if you fake politeness around him, he'll pick up on that quickly. basically, if you're inherently disingenuous, break's gonna realize sooner or later, since he's an expert at being disingenuous, and he's gonna despise you for it. and, last but not least, if you remind him of people from back home that he dislikes, that's pretty much a done deal, sorry.

and that should be it! later down the line, i might add more dynamics if i think of more, but for now, these are all of them. thank you very much for reading <3

[spyridonya]

omg wait i didn't realize you had rb'd so many ask games! lemme hit you with a barrage seven forms of love: eros 1 3 5 for kadira! interview: kadira! what was it like growing up as a tiefling? micro story: in dreams! (you don't have to do all of these lol)

The micro story will be posted in a few, outside of this ask! 

OC Interview!

"You have to understand when I was born, Tieflings in Sarkoris and Mendev were still common as anywhere else in Golarion - but half fiends were far more common. You can't mistake a half fiend anymore at birth than you can a tiefling, if not more so - a half fiend heavily takes the traits of their fiendish parent than a tiefling does with their fiendish ancestor." The young woman's fingers twitch on her tail as she plays with it, her nervousness apparent. It takes her a moment to consider her words then frowns, "But not everyone knows that."

The tiefling gestures to herself, "Save for the lack of wings, I could be mistaken for a half succubus or incubus. And I was - by my biological father. According to Ma, he was... an elven mage and crusader with blue eyes. My mother looked like just any Sakorian Kellid, tanned skin, black hair, and gray eyes.

"Half fiends were common in my mother's generation, too. Common enough for my grandparents to know I wasn't a half fiend, so my mother was believed and they took us in. My aunt and uncle helped raise me as well, until they married and had children of their own. In the section of Kenabras where I grew up, Sakorian refugees were not so much tolerant as exhausted. I could play on the streets with other children when they stopped being afraid of me, and the brave ones mercilessly teased me.

“Kellids, as a rule, are very brave. But we still played despite me feeling like the other.

"However, outside our neighborhood, my grandparents required me to wear a veil or hood. That was one of the reasons why my horns were filed down, not because they were ashamed but they didn't want Ma or I to be assaulted by bored crusaders. Gramps took me to the Iomedaen temples for services and drilled me on how to be polite in Mendevian cultures. Again, this wasn't due to wanting to be patted on the head as one of the good tieflings, it was survival.

"The second Crusade began and my world shrank to just that cluster of streets the Sakoarian refugees lived in by the time I was ten years old.. Ma wouldn't let me go past our streets, even with an escort, and made me help take care of my baby cousins, help my grandparents, and did her best to teach me to read and do numbers... but she had to work, too. I could play only on my street with someone watching me - and there was always someone watching me. And that was a loss of money - Grams or Ma could be spending that time weaving or Gramps could be making weapons instead of jewelry for the Inquisition mages. We had neighbors who said they'd watch me but ... my grandparents didn't trust them, not fully. They sacrificed all that to keep me safe and I was so surly about it," She chuckles sadly, softly. "I... when I was 12, I was no longer a burden to them. By then, I was being 'raised' by Areelu Vorlesh."

A deep breath escapes the commander, her smile wan, "I know this story sounds different than Woljif's story, but Woljif's grandmother wasn't part of my grandparent's generation. I haven't figured out her age,  but I think Grandma Jefto might have been born in the two decades after I was, and that's when tieflings were starting to be born regularly. By the time Woljif was born, tieflings were common enough to have small communities on both sides of the law. Thieflings when I was growing up? Unthinkable - not because we had better morals but there simply wasn't enough tieflings create a gang of reputable power."

[limey-writes]

Hiiii your writing gives me ✨seratonin✨ so I wanted to say ty <3 also ! could you do engie, heavy, and/or medic being fatherly towards a new recruit?

Thank you <3 such a sweetie I appreciate you enjoying my work! Lemme see what i can whip up for you my good pal (:

Engie

- He is a very good caretaker when it comes down to it, supporting your hobbies and teaching you some of his tricks that you might use for battle.

- You always got a firm pat on the back before and after battle, whether or not it was won he always told you how proud he was of you.

- He teaches the recruit how to play a song or two on the guitar, telling them stories around the campfire and showing them a thing or two of how to make some of the very best Texan dishes he enjoys so much!

- If you were having a bad day, he's always there for you, giving you a hug and asking if you wanted to talk about it, if you say yes then he'd happily sit down with you and let you spill your heart out, hanging onto every word and giving you advice if you wanted it. If you decline, he'd still be around you, waiting for you to be ready to talk about what's going on and what he can do to help you feel better.

- He's always checking up on you, making sure no one is bothering you or making you feel uncomfortable, or if you need something from anywhere and if you needed help with anything.

- 10/10 really nice dad guy (:

Heavy

- He tells you stories of his family back home while cooking you big meals and listening to stories of your own.

- He always makes sure you aren't up to any bad activities, scolding you whenever you were playing pranks with Scout and worrying over you when Soldier decided to teach you how to rocket jump.

-He's an amazing listener, and always remembers all the things you like and dislike, he's a good protector and makes sure you're always safe even outside the field.

- During battle, he's constantly making sure you're by his side and Medic has you healed up over him any day. His terrifying glare to anyone, even people outside of the team sends everyone running the other way, let's hope you don't have to see what happens with them after they don't listen to either you or him telling them to leave you alone.

- He's very good to you, he gives you your space and still makes sure you're holding up well, he trusts you a lot, to the point he'd even let you touch Sasha once or twice.

- He also really loves to try and teach you some things in Russian, always very patient with you and happy to give you any pointers with what he can!

Medic

- He's still very crazy, maybe just a little less crazier around you.

- He's always having you nearby as he works on his experiments, even letting you help on a thing or two by either being his loyal assistant or just being a good conversationalist to have around.

- He totally lets you hang out with his birds, even letting you give a name to the newer ones that he somehow found and took in.

- He makes you your very own patch as his helper, even giving you a healing device along with your own weapons to use on yourself or someone else.

- No one is allowed to upset you, the protective medical man will shove a saw through their chest if they dare. You had to talk to him to not do that to everyone who makes you sad, including the mercs. Now he just sends them very harsh looks and occasionally yells at them in German to make them go away or apologize to you.

- He always tend to you first, making sure you're alright mentally and physically, you're always top priority to him, and of course he just had to be constantly on your case about every activity, but of course, he only does it out of care <3

[lettersnorth]

Prompt #26: Break a Leg

In the breathless moments after the gun had gone off, snarling and leaping in her hand like a wild thing, Aislinn wondered what it was like to be one of those people that believed violence was never the answer. That could trust that an equitable and reasoned solution to any situation could be found if one was patient and calm enough. It was a strange place for her mind to go in the tense moments before all hell broke loose but there it was. She’d like it if those people who spouted such platitudes had to come down and live a day in Ul’dah’s slums and then be forced to reevaluate that lofty sentiment. 

Because it sure was nice to say violence was never the answer. Until you were backed up against the proverbial and literal wall with a friend at your feet scream bloody murder, clutching his broken leg. 

She had gone in search of Kikirifi after his 5 minute smoke break had turned into 15. He said he’d wanted to get it out of the way before diving into the lengthy repair work they were facing on one of the cartel’s extractors. When U’Rahna had been alive she had always emphasized smoking outside the warehouse. Too many accidents waiting to happen when a lit flame met any number of the materials the cartel was handling. 

Aislinn had never taken to smoking but seeing as Sterling and Kikirifi both had, she was well acquainted with the dusty back alley that had long ago become the designated smoking spot for the crew. 

“Hey Kiki, how long…” She trailed off as she popped out into the sweltering alley, the thought dying on her tongue. 

Three men currently filled the narrow alleyway. Not just men. Hulking walls of muscle. So cookie-cutter and alike, anyone with any sense would have recognized enforcers when they saw them. These were the men more powerful people sent along to convey a message. Usually peppered with intimidating lines such as ‘do what we tell you or else.’ 

One of them had Kikirifi held up by the scruff of his neck, dangling in an undignified manner several fulms off the ground while a second had his leg in a vise-like grip. Aislinn didn’t understand the scene playing out before her at first. 

“I can pay. I can! I just need more time!” Kiki pleaded, a terrified pitch to his voice as he flailed.

“Not good enough.” The man ground out, twisting the leg he held until Aislinn heard the sickening crack of bone snapping with a heart-hammering jolt. 

What happened next, happened so fast. Kiki let out a blood-curdling scream of pain. Aislinn shouted, quickly drew the pistol at her hip and fired. Blindly. Though to be honest, the targets were large enough and close enough there wasn’t much aiming to be done. Even so, with her hand shaking so much her bullet merely grazed one man’s shoulder, leaving him uttering a sudden curse and clutching at the burn. 

Stark Oak had shown her how to fire the pistol and she’d spent plenty of time practicing down at the old train depot but she’d never fired at anything other than the depot’s weather-worn posts. In the shocked aftermath, one of the men was the first to move, barreling towards her with a yell. Her body jerked into action, half a beat too slow. She twisted the gun away from his seeking grasp but missed the follow up, the back of his fist that hit her hard enough across the face to send her sprawling to the ground. Ignoring the shrapnel of pain that exploded behind her eye, she moved to raise her weapon only to have his boot fall heavily on her wrist, grinding excruciatingly down on the bone.

He leaned down to pry the gun from her hand as she struggled like a fish on the end of a hook. “Lemme show you how to use this little toy, girly.”

One minute he was there. Then next he wasn’t. Shoved back flat on his arse by Stark Oak who’s sudden appearance was heralded only by the grunt of effort it took him to heave the bulky highlander back. But he hadn’t arrived alone. Snaking around him in the tight confines of the alley, rangy Cooper wielded a thick length of scrap wood he had surreptitiously found in the alley, bringing it down against the man’s head with a stomach-churning crack. Laid out like a sack of popotos, the man wasn’t getting up anytime soon. 

There was a pause in the brutal violence as the other two men remeasured the odds. 

Cooper took the moment to absorb the scene in the swift, assessing way a cartel leader should be able to; the sprawled out Aislinn, the whimpering Kikirifi cradling his broken leg, and then let out a low whistle. “They really send three of you to handle one deadbeat lalafell?” 

“Your friend’s run up a debt of over quarter of a mil of gil at the Jack.” One of the roegadyns growled. “Dijar’s sick of waiting for it. This is just a bit of business.” 

In the shelter provided by Stark Oak and Cooper’s solid forms, Aislinn slid back and slowly pulled herself up, gun still gripped tightly in her bruised hand as the pain radiated across her face. She shot Kikirifi a dark look. They all knew Kikirifi had a gambling problem. But the Jack of Spades was a notorious gambling hell run by the equally notorious Majar Dijar. What on earth would possess the lalafell to get in for a quarter of a mil to a man like that? 

“Breaking him so he can’t work ain’t gonna get him his money any quicker.” Cooper snorted, the broad scrap of wood now resting over one shoulder. 

“Problem out here?” As though summoned like the others by the sound of the gunshot, Sterling had appeared from out of the shadows of the warehouse’s interior, leaning against the weathered door frame with his icy gaze on the interlopers, hand resting idly on his belt of knives.   

Now that was four against two. Forcing the men, again, to reevaluate. 

“I’ve got a warehouse full of ‘em.” Cooper promised, seeing the flicker of hesitation in their faces and grabbing hold of it. “Grab your friend here and move out. Next time, you boys do your research before rolling up to handle business right in front of the Sehko’s house.” 

The two men shared a glance but decided taking Cooper’s offer was better than what would have followed, if he was telling the truth about standing on the Sehko cartel’s property.

And just like that, the violence was over almost a soon as it had began. No more than a punctuation in their day. 

When they were gone, Cooper let out a breath and tossed the scrap of wood off against the side of the building. “Thal’s balls, Kiki. The fuck you’ve gotten yourself in to Dajar for that much gil?” 

The lalafell could only whimper in reply. Cooper shook his sandy-colored head and eyed Sterling. “Go get the doc. Kiki here might as well be a dead man walking but he ain’t dead yet.” 

Sterling nodded and, after a swift glance at Aislinn, disappeared back into the shadows of the warehouse.

“Yer going to have to handle the extractor on yer own.” Stark Oak noted as he peered at the bruise beginning to blossom across Aislinn’s face.

“I gathered as much.” She said with a sigh.

[literaturehoeenergy]

Opportunity

pairing: Corpse_Husband x fem!reader

genre: fluff i guess?

warnings: none

word count: 1,118

a/n: this is my first fan fiction so please go easy on me. lemme know if you want anything specific!

Being the little cousin of a famous YouTuber had its perks. Sean was friends with a lot of the gamers I was a fan of, so I got to interact with them a lot. They even invited me to play games with them from time to time. I was never really good at them, but it was fun to play. 

I was in the middle of the 1980 Friday the 13th when my phone lit up on my coffee table. 

Sean: Hey Y/N! Wanna play Among Us with me, Felix, and some friends?

I grinned and agreed, turning off my TV before making my way to my little office and powering on my PC. I clicked Sean’s Discord invite and smiled as I heard all the ruckus already. “Y/N!” Sean said cheerily. 

“Hi you guys,” I said meekly.

“Y/N, I’ve missed you, when are you coming to visit me?” Felix asked.

“Visit you? She’s my cousin!”

“She’s my cousin!” I laughed at their stupid antics.

“I want to come visit soon, maybe after this semester ends.” Another person popped up in the Discord call named “CORPSE”. CORPSE? That’s a scary name. I thought to myself. “So, I’m still terrible at this game, but I think we will have fun.”

“Oh, Y/N, this is Corpse.”

“Hello.” A very deep voice came through my headset. Woah.

“Hi, Corpse. I’m Y/N, Sean’s cousin.”

“It’s very nice to meet you.” I felt myself blush at the “very nice”, but shook my head and changed my character color to light green and put a flower on before the game started.

CREWMATE

Thank god.

I went around, doing all my tasks cheerily, humming to myself. I tried to stick with either Sean or Felix since I knew them and trusted them. While I was in the middle of Simon Says, Sean left me to finish his tasks and when I was done Corpse was in the room. I got nervous and stood there, my little character looking at his. He stepped forward so our little eyes were touching, and then I saw the kill animation pop up.

I gasped loudly, laughing as he ran away and I was now a ghost. I sighed, doing more tasks until I was found. Charlie reported my body, and the meeting started. “All right, who killed my cousin?” Sean asked jokingly angry. Everyone mumbled their innocence, and Corpse finally spoke up.

“Charlie probably self reported it.”

“Oh my god, not again,” Charlie groaned, chuckling. “What tasks did you do this round, Corpse?”

“Uh… My memory sucks,” he said. “I went up to admin table, I did trash, I fixed the lights.” He trailed off before piping up again. “Where was Rae?”

“I was in weapons. Where’s the body?”

“Reactor,” Charlie said. “We can skip this round, but I’m super sus of Corpse, just saying.” They all skipped, and I went back to my tasks. Card swipe first try, yeah baby. I saw Corpse walking down toward shields, and I followed him until he made it to electrical. The lights were out, and I knew he was going to wait for someone to fix the lights. Poor Poki was the first to the scene, and he murdered her and vented to med bay. 

Rae reported her body and the meeting got called. “Who was where? Corpse where were you?”

“I was doing med scan and then I was going out toward cams.” 

“Likely story,” Charlie said. “There’s a vent from electrical to med bay, he could have easily killed her and vented.”

“That’s true, but where were you Charlie?” Corpse asked.

“I was in nav, actually.” I wonder who the other imposter is… They kept arguing, and Lily spoke up meekly. 

“Uh, I have some information.” Everyone quieted down. “I saw Felix fake a task.”

“What!” Felix exclaimed. I laughed as he tried to defend himself, but he was lowkey sus. They all agreed to vote him off since Corpse apparently had this power of redirection and they didn’t talk about his suspicious activity again. The round started and the chat bubble popped up.

pEWds: I’m innocent!

Y/N: omg wait who do you think it is

pEWds: I think it’s Lily and Corpse.

Y/N: it’s def Corpse, he MURDERED me right after I finished Simon Says

pEWds: disgraceful

We ghosted around to finish all our tasks so we could follow Lily and Corpse. Corpse was stalking around, faking tasks. One of them sabotaged the O2, and they all made their way over to fix it. Sykkuno was alone on the top O2, and Lily killed him and ran up to weapons to fake that task. Sean reported his body, and they all argued and didn’t vote because there were seven, but they all seemed really sus of Lily. 

The round finally ended, and the crewmates lost because of Corpse. “I cannot believe you killed me first, we just met!” I said.

“I saw the opportunity and I took it, Y/N.” I laughed.

“Sorry Y/N, I should have told you that Corpse is #1 imposter.” Sean laughed.

“You can’t see me right now but I’m pouting.”

We played a few more games, and thankfully I never got imposter. I yawned and stretched my arms up. “Hey guys, I’m gonna go. I’m tired and I have an exam in the morning.”

“Awe, well good luck, I’ll call you later,” Sean said.

“Bye! It was very nice to meet you, Corpse.” He chuckled.

“It was very nice to meet you too, Y/N.” I smiled and clicked off the Discord call and the game, grabbing my phone and plugging it in before hopping into the shower. 

Corpse’s POV

“I think I’m gonna call it a night as well,” I said.

“Oh, so now that Y/N is gone, we aren’t good enough for you?” Sean said. I laughed, shaking my head. 

“Nah, I wanna work on some stuff.” They all said goodbye as I logged out. My Discord was still up and Y/N’s name was staring me in the face. Should I add her? Is that weird? I took a deep breath and pressed the add button before covering the window with something else and working on a video.

Y/N’s POV

I towel dried my hair and threw on a big t-shirt and some shorts. I grabbed my phone as I plopped on my bed. 

Discord

Corpse_Husband sent you a friend request

I caught myself grinning as I unlocked my phone and looked at the request on Discord. I hesitated a little bit before I clicked accept. I sighed, scrolling through Twitter until I got another notification.

Discord

Corpse_Husband: hi there, Y/N

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Let me know if you want a part 2 to this!

[britishth0t]

Hyperactive (With slight homicide)

This is my first post on Tumblr (not my first post overall as I have Wattpad, but I'll post my username here when I've added my Klarion one-shots on there unless people want it lmao

You grabbed his interest when you were hanging out with your friends near the old cinema.

He seemed intrigued at first when even Teekl became slightly amused by your hyper personality.

Klarion may or may not have stalked you for a bit because of that

Eventually, Klarion did admit you seemed fun to Teekl, and wanted to get to you know you better in person.

Both of you finally met each other when you were walking around the harbour, taking photos of the sea and the horizon even if you knew you would delete them later.

Teekl thought this would be a great time for Klarion to introduce himself to you.

She half prayed that Klarion wouldn't freak you out, and the other half wanting you to not make Klarion too annoyed.

Somehow, it went really well.... A bit too well, as you two then talked as if you had known each other for years

Lets just say, you're both extremely hyper. I mean, it's Klarion.

You being a hyperactive person and him having chaos magic while also wanting mischief? It's a perfect yet dangerous match.

Teekl rethinks her choice about you two being together, as she now has to deal with two children and not one.

This also means that the Light have to deal with another 'kid' as well, since Klarion will definitely bring you to at least one meeting.

They're a bit cautious about you on first impression, not too sure if you're using Klarion to get information about the Light

But after a while, they see how much you deal with when you're with Klarion, and figure out that no one can put up a façade for that long

Yeah, even the Light know that you're one hyper son-of-a-b*tch

I wouldn't say you're obnoxiously loud, it's just being in a Light meeting no one is really talking except you, so it's dead quiet other than that. Nevertheless, you can be extremely deafening without realising it

Klarion's magical powers gives you a lot more freedom when being with him. Like, a lot more freedom, he's a lord of Chaos, you basically have no limits.

You can now do all the crazy sh*t you've ever wanted to do with Klarion by your side, and he's more than willing to join you in whatever ideas you have

A couple of times Teekl has to warn him that you're still a mortal, so he does lay off a bit from time to time to avoid getting you seriously injured

If you do get hurt, Klarion is gunna freak tf out, trying to play it off cool but failing

All adventures go out the window if you get hurt. And if you try to get up saying "I'm fine", he'll magically trap you in your bed to rest.

Don't test him, he will do it

A lot of things may break, and it's whether or not Klarion will fix it with his powers or not after... Probably not, it's not like either of you really care

If the Young Justice team do meet you, it's because you were in a forest with Klarion, messing around while climbing from branch to branch in the trees while Klarion floated next to you

The two of you were ambushed by the team, as Zatanna had sensed Klarion's power in that area while the team were nearby

They would have saved you, but you're surprisingly very good at climbing trees for any of them to grab hold of you, something that actually made them impressed

Klarion was very unhappy, so unhappy that you had to mention about going back home to hang out there to calm him down

Couple of times you'd wander off too far that Klarion isn't able to find you and would have to teleport you to him in order to know where you are, the only big thing that does get him slightly annoyed.

^ If you can make Klarion take responsibility (other than over Teekl) and act like a parent, my respect goes to you

You two don't have any rules apart from when you're injured, although there is one thing that bugs you both

2 hyper devils + "Calm down"= Death stare with Klarion hexing whoever said that

No one is allowed to tell you guys to calm down

Klarion x homicidal hyper reader ⚠️Mentions death⚠️

You met each other like the first one, except that you seemed more wanting to go into danger and edge your friends into doing bad things than actually have fun

This time, Klarion was intrigued before Teekl

He noticed your cold yet intense gaze on everyone that was near you

Something about you was odd. Klarion knew that but he didn't know what was making you seem so odd

It's not until you become best friends that he finally realises your love for murder

While you got along with Klarion before him knowing this, wow he's ecstatic that he finally knows what seemed off with you

He tempts you into murder as well, seeing that you showed to be very refrained from not doing anything about your homicidal thoughts

Catches on very quickly how manipulative you can be with your friends, friends that Klarion now wants to be your first kills

Unsurprisingly, it doesn't take that much convincing from Klarion to make you agree to killing your soon-to-be-dead mates

He helps of course, trapping them all and giving you all sorts of weapons to use on them

It's like a holiday for both of you

You even asked Klarion at one point to make their screams quieter since they were annoying you

And after you had finishing butchering your friends, Klarion realised that he like-liked you and confessed right there

Yep, Klarion did just admit to liking you while standing in the middle of dead bodies scattered around at your feet

Soon after that, you both start doing more destruction together

Limits? F*ck no

Hell, if you asked for half of the moon to be destroyed, Klarion would snap his fingers and bam, moon gone.

One time you asked Klarion to give you powers like superman, just so you could fly and mess around in the city

It started off as just throwing cars as far as you could, not exactly caring if people were inside or not

Which then turned into full blown 'lemme jump/crash into one sky scrapper to another', looking like a monkey swinging from vines in a jungle

While the heroes didn't enjoy your hyper and destructive personality nor Klarion, the news loved you. The amount of reports you and Klarion got in the news just boosted both of your ego's

"Double trouble strikes again!" "Witch boy causes havoc with anonymous villain" "League fail to stop villains, have they met their match?" "Criminals cause devastating downfall on the city" "61 lives lost in under an hour" You felt prideful in the last one, a new record in your books

If you two ever go out to have dates, it'll 100% always end with something, mostly a building, being completely destroyed

Whenever the 'kiddie' team as Klarion calls them, or the Justice League come; they're always too late to stop you two

Even if Batman claims they were so close to stopping you, he's wrong. The heroes don't even manage to get you two to notice them arriving, already going off to have some fun somewhere else

You've mentioned about wanting to kill at least one of the heroes out of spite and because you felt like it on multiple occasions

Klarion would love to snap his fingers to have every hero there for you to choose from, yet he couldn't do that because of Vandal wanting some of them alive. Especially Lex with Superboy.

You get along nicely with the Light, as they trust you enough to know that you can calm Klarion down and that you're classed as a criminal

Occasionally, you have unnerved them with the gory deaths about some of your kills, Klarion kissing your cheek out of pure happiness from hearing the defined details

Teekl doesn't really care about it as long as you get the blood off her fur if you get any on her later.

A lot of lives are lost when you two are together... Which is all the time

(Secretly, the young justice team have envied how much freedom you get when with Klarion-> This is after they have to tidy up the mess you two make)

Sorry if this isn't very good, literally made this and posted it the same day. I've loved Klarion's character for quite a long time now and saw that, although the fanfics are good, there isn't a lot of them. I'm down for requests, but right now I don't think I can do many. You can send me stuff and I'll write it down, just don't be upset if I don't post it in the next week or two. If this isn't up to your standards then srry aha, I realise I don't add much fluff and focus more on the storyline, but there's always room for improvement tho✌️

[bluebellhairpin]

I Am Back with Some PacRim AU Content That No One Asked For. Again. Because I Self-Indulge. A Lot. 

Masterlist

In celebration of my apparent need to hop back onto the AoT PacRim AU bandwagon, I’ve decided to put together a list of the Jaegers from my fic-verse. 

The Current Jaegers are the ones that are operative at the time of the fic. The Retired Jaegers are the ones no longer in use, due to damage or the Pilots dying. The Jaegers that are In-Construction are the ones that we could see in later fics. 

In the PacRim-verse, there are two pilots to a Jaeger, and they are incharge of a majority of one hemisphere in the Jaeger’s ‘brain’. The Pilot of the Left hemisphere is known as the more ‘in command’ of the two pilots. Listed below are the Pilots with each Jaeger, and the first pilot listed in the one in control of the left hemisphere. 

Current Jaegers; 

Freedom Scout (Rebuilt) (Mark-5) - Piloted by Hange Zoe and Levi Ackerman 

Warrior Titan (Mark-6) - Piloted by Reiner Braun and Bertholdt Hoover 

Eagle Eye (Mark-2) - Piloted by Miche Zacharias and Nanaba Zacharias 

Saint Wrath (Mark-6) - Piloted by Armin Arlert, Eren Jaeger, and Mikasa Ackerman

Servo Niner (Mark-5) - Piloted by Connie Springer and Sasha Braus

Retired Jaegers; 

Freedom Scout (Mark-3) - Piloted by Erwin Smith and Levi Ackerman

Blue Kiss (Mark-2) - Piloted by Levi Ackerman, Fulran Church, and Isabel Magnolia

Rebel Riot (Mark-1) - Piloted by Kenny and Kuchel Ackerman 

Bone Breaker (Mark-1) - Piloted by Erwin Smith and Maria Wall 

In-Construction Jaegers; 

Shock Stain (Mark-7) - To be Piloted by Levi Ackerman and (y/n) (l/n)

God’s Hammer (Mark-7) - To be Piloted by Zeke and Eren Jaeger 

Icarus Fallout (Mark-7) - To be Piloted by Annie Leonheardt 

Below I’m going to list some traits/headcanons of the Jaeger’s, and I’m putting them under the cut because this could get lengthy - especially for those who don’t want this. So for those who enjoy my offering to the Tumblr Void, here -

Freedom Scout (rebuilt version) 

Overall Achiever. These guys get’s shit done, by any and all means.

Hange is the Pilot, and Levi is their co. Honestly they weren’t drift compatible in training, but as time went on things changed. 

They both actually work very well together. 

Scout is a very sleek Jaeger, good for maneuverability and fast attacks. Quick. Clean. Just like Levi likes. And Hange lets him because he let’s Hange be messy every once in a while. Vary rare once-in-a-while’s. 

Warrior Titan

Yeah yeah yeah I’m very shameless with the naming of this Jaeger. 

It’s only natural that Reiner and Bert get a Jaeger together, considering out of all the canon-verse characters they do get along best. 

Their Jaeger is very durable. Mainly defencing offence, and keeping Kaiju’s at bay rather than efficiently fighting them. If it’s a higher-level Kaiju, they’d be deployed to wear it down and they’d do that easily. 

It’s an Armoured Jaeger, guys. That’s all I’m trying to say. 

Eagle Eye

Miche and Nanaba are currently on Maternity Leave in the fic-verse. 

A side-effect of the neural handshake needed to pilot a Jaeger, both pilots can get a thing called ‘ghost drifting’. Miche get’s it all. The. Time. Especially when Nana is going through her blood-filled monthlies.  

You can only guess how haywire it is rn. 

They’re Jaeger is very tactical, and it is one of the Marshall’s favourites for this reason. 

They’re not afraid to back down from a fight and ask for help. They prefer keeping things easy rather than taking risks.  

Saint Wrath

Jaeger’s piloted by three people are very rare, even in the pacrim-verse. But they do exist. 

Usually there’s a reason behind that - an extra limb (See: Crimson Typhoon) or some sort of more advanced weaponry (See: Titan Redeemer) - and in this case it’s just because it’s so fucking big. 

Like it’s called a Saint cause those Kaiju’s better start praying, ya know? 

Armin focuses on where to move the damn thing and how to do it and Eren and Mikasa just get it done. Like, two Braincells, and Armin has half of each. 

Eventually, Jean replaces Eren. 

Servo Niner

It’s a small Jaeger but good grief does it bring forth the chaos. 

Like think of a chainsaw, a crocodile, the feeling you get late at night, and whatever red thing was in ‘Crimson Peak’ all in a room together and you’re about halfway close to thinking of what Sasha and Connie do to the Kaiju’s. 

It looks like a Jaw Titan. But big enough to fight a Kaiju. 

You can hear them playing ‘MIC Drop’ by BTS as they slaughter the children of the Precursors. 

Like lemme in on that action guys, you make it look so fun. 

Freedom Scout (OG)

Before Erwin lost his arm, he Piloted this Jaeger with Levi as his co. 

Having both been in a Jaeger before they were rather experienced. 

Levi trusted Erwin quicker than he did Hange from their training days, hence why they piloted together sooner too. 

But then there was a Kaiju, and the Jaeger took heavy damage, Erwin lost his arm, and the rest is history. 

Blue Kiss

Levi, Furlan and Isabel piloted the first three-pilot Jaeger, in the fic-verse, and most of the reason behind that was because they’re so inseparable. 

They entered training as a trio of childhood friends, and exited as legends in the making.

Furlan and Isabel died with that legend marked on their graves, while Levi was the one left behind. 

The Jaeger was more of a prototype than a real-deal Jaeger, which is why it didn’t last very long or rake up many kills before it was bested by a Kaiju. 

Rebel Riot

Kenny and Kuchel were two of a three-person trial run. Their cousin was not chosen to complete the trial runs and was sent home. The trials were then known as a two-person trial run. 

The two didn’t really get along, or agree, but they often compromised with what they had to do in order to get the jobs done. 

They were very deadly. However, due to the side-effects of the ‘trial run’s’, Kuchel had a blackout while piloting, and the event caused Kenny to have to pilot alone. 

They didn’t pilot again. 

Bone Breaker

This Jaeger was one of the first produced, however sat stagnet until Erwin and his co-pilot Maria came along. 

During a fight with a higher-level Kaiju, this Jaeger and another piloted by Maria’s sisters - Rose and Sina - was damaged beyond repair. Maria died, while Rose and Sina didn’t want to ever pilot again. 

Erwin was determined to not let Maria’s sacrifice go to waste, and after a couple months he decided to look for a new co-pilot. 

Alongside Rebel Riot, it was a Mark 1 Jaeger. Now it’s restored helm is in a museum, and can be visited by anyone who wishes to see what it could be like to be inside a Jaeger’s ‘head’. 

Shock Stain

The first of the Mark-7 Jaegers, this is another that could easily count as an ‘all-rounder’. 

It’s name comes from it’s weapons - a set of electrically charged wrist guards - that can be used to stun and disorientate the Kaiju’s.  

Levi and his pilot work insanely well together - so much so that it could be considered more than simply ‘drifting’. 

As of yet, they don’t pilot together, bu in the near future they will, and they would be unstoppable. 

God’s Hammer

Eren decides to traide up the three-person Jaeger for another. One with his Brother. 

Dumbass ends up getting border-line brainwashes before he pulls a uno reverse card on Zeke. 

Despite the mighty name, the two aren’t actually that great, and they end up getting pulled out of piloting after a few drops. 

They’re replaced by Pieck Finger and Porco Galliard. 

Icarus Fallout

The first of it’s kind - a Jaeger small enough to be piloted by a single person. 

Again for emphasis - it is very small - however it’s use is to be an aid to the larger Jaegers. Serving as a extra weapon of sorts. 

Despite it’s size, it is very strong, and it is very maneuverable and a fair amount faster than the other Jaegers too.

Annie was chosen to pilot this Jaeger, mainly because she doesn’t trust easily at all - but also because she works exceptionally well on her own, and can read situations very easily. 

[toomanystoriessolittletime]

Sugar Bunny 2/3

Summary: Meeting August Walker, CEO one of the most successfull real estate agencys in the states in a coffee shop of all places, turned into one of the best things that could have happened to you. You became his sugar bunny and against all your willpower you fell in love with him. Oh if only everything would be so easy, and if only August was really only a CEO of a company…

Pairing: August Walker / Reader

Wordcount: 2.3k

Warnings: Smut (dirty talk; unprotected sex, anal play), Angst 

Masterlist

previous chapter

2 years later

“August we can’t. It’s my first day at the new job.” You wiggled out of his arms.

A lot had changed in the last couple of years. He still was your sugar daddy and took care of you, but he was around more often and this unspoken affection had grown between you two.

“I only need 15 minutes.” He hummed as you finally sat on the bed. Looking over your shoulder you saw him pouting at you. The soft sunrise diving his handsome face in pink light.

“You never need only 15 minutes.” You winked at him, getting up from the bed.

“And this is your office. Since our leading interior designer is about to leave the company, you will spend most of your time with her in here.” Robert from HR explained to you.

Sitting down at your new desk you smiled.

“Thank you so much. I’m gonna get settled in.”

“You’re welcome. If you have any questions just drop me a message.”

“Will do.”

He was about to walk out when he turned around again.

“Oh, before I forget, Boss wants to see you.”

Looking up, you nodded and when Robert was out, you dialed August’ number.

“Hey Bunny.” His deep voice welcomed you.

“Hey. Do you have any idea why the boss wants to see me?” You asked.

“Well he didn’t get the blowjob he wanted this morning…”

“You’re unbelievable.” You huffed, rolling your eyes.

“Stop rolling your eyes or I will make sure you remember what the consequences are.” He growled.

“Yes, Sir.” You whispered back.

“Good girl. Well, come see me when you have time. I’d like to take you to one of the estates we are going to sell in the next few weeks.”

“Only me?”

“Only you. You are going to be the new leading interior designer. Have to get to know you better, don’t you think?”

“I think you probably know me very well already.” You grinned. “When are you leaving for New York?”

“After dinner. Be in my office in an hour so we can leave?”

“First day, and already taking time off.”

“You’re with the boss. You have to be a good girl for him or he will be disappointed.” You could see August’ grin in front of you.

“Well then boss. I’ll be there in an hour.”

“This is breathtaking.” You said in awe, leaning with your back against August’s chest as you stood at the balcony of the master bedroom. You could overlook the whole estate, even the small lake.

“It should be. It’s around 15 million.” August said. His arms crossed in front of you, his nose in your hair. “How would you change it?” He asked.

“I would tear down all the walls downstairs, make it more open. Only the most expensive materials, marble or hardwood floors. I have to see the floor plan first.”

“Sounds good. Do it.”

“What?” You turned in his arms.

“Take this as your first project. The house should be sold by the end of the year, so you have around 2 months before we have to put it on the market.”

“You’re serious?”

“Of course I am. I trust you.” He said.

“You do?”

“Bunny…” He smiled, one of his hands brushing your cheek.

“You have no idea what you mean to me.” August leaned down, kissing you softly at first, but it grew more demanding until both of you had to part for some air. “Take your clothes off.” He whispered.

Without arguing, you pushed your skirt down and pulled off your top, leaving you in only the white sheer underwear he had seen you put on this morning. He pulled his shirt off.

“I want you to ride me…” He hummed, pulling his pants down. “Right here.”

He sat down on the balcony, reaching for your hands. Sucking your bottom lip in, you smiled, taking his hand.

“But first lemme get a taste.”

He leaned back, motioned for you to stand over his head. He kissed up your thighs and the thin lace over your pussy. Looking down you saw him look up at you, as you felt his fingers pulling your panties down. As you stepped out of it, he grinned up at you, his eyes on you as his skilled tongue got to work. Your hands flew into this soft hair, holding on as he ate you out. You noticed that he loved to be in charge, but sometimes… Sometimes August Walker wanted to just please you.

“Tell me what you want bunny?” He whispered.

“I…” You sighed. “I want to cum on your tongue. And…”

“And?”

“And I want your finger in….” You bit your lip and felt him smirk against you, one of his hands sneaking up your ass, one of his fingers massaging your other hole.

“You want my finger in your ass, bunny?” He asked. You nodded, moaning when his finger slowly pushed in.

“Oh my god….” You whimpered. His lips closed around your clit, sucking. He knew exactly what he had to do to make you fall apart.

“Yes… Just like that…” You moaned looking into his eyes. His finger pushed deeper and that was your undoing. With a cry of his name you came, holding on to him, struggling to keep yourself standing.

“What a cute little bunny you are…” He hummed. His tongue licking up your juices, until you felt him pull you down to straddle his lap. You were still in your high, barely aware of how painfully hard he must have been, when he made you sit down on his cock, earning a cry from your lips.

“Fuck. So wet.” He groaned, while you fell down on top of him.

“Fuck me August.” You whispered against his ear, your arms crossing behind his neck. You felt his hands on your ass as he began to thrust into you.

“You have to come to visit me in New York next weekend…” He groaned, thrusting faster. You nodded, not even arguing.

“I want you to be mine.” He growled, slapping your ass.

“I am yours.” You whimpered. One of his hands spread your cheeks, one of his fingers pushing into your ass as his thrusts got harder.

“Fuck.” You moaned. With all strength you pulled your head up so you could look at him.

“Harder.” You pleaded. Kissing him he swallowed your moans, pumping into you like a machine while his finger was buried deep in your ass.

“I’m gonna….” You sighed, leaning your forehead against his as your orgasam took your body over, melting into August.

He followed you only seconds later, buried deep inside of you as he spilled his seed. You looked at him, the words I love you on the tip of your tongue, instead you kissed him, before you could say them.

“You’re so fucking perfect. More than I ever dreamed of.” He whispered against your lips.

Almost two months had gone by since the day he first showed you this house. He was stunned with your plans and gave you his okay to do whatever you wanted. He had been gone for almost a month, but would be back this evening.

“What are you doing?” He asked. He was on the phone while you were about to open the house for the last inspection. You wanted it to be perfect when you showed the end product August tomorrow.

“Just checking the house so it’s ready for you tomorrow.” You smiled.

“I saw the pictures, it’s gorgeous.” He said.

“You only say that because you want to get into my panties.”

“Is it working?”

“Hmm… I bet it would be if I would be wearing some.” You grinned, hearing him curse.

“You’re picking me up from the airport, so I can fuck you on the side of the road?”

“Sounds perfect.” You said, moving deeper into the house and frowning as you heard voices. “August, I think someone’s here. I didn’t see a car or anything…”

“What? Get out of there.” He said. Looking around she could see guns stored around the room.

“There are guns all around here. August, I…”

“Get out of there, bunny. I’m gonna send someone.”

You could hear him talking to someone on the plane as you were about to turn around, you felt a hand on your shoulder.

“And who do we have here?” A man asked and you screamed, letting your phone fall to the ground.

Tied up to a chair, you didn’t know how much time had passed until you woke up. You didn’t know what had happened. You only knew that your head hurt, and that August would have to explain a whole fucking lot.

One of the guys joked about Walker now sending whores to secure a deal. He had slapped you across the face when you had dared to ask if they were talking about August Walker.

“Who else did you think we’re talking about, slut. He’s our biggest business partner.”

You jumped when the door was shut with a bang. Looking up you could see a furious August walk in.

“What the fuck is going on in here?” He asked looking around the room, until he found your eyes.

“We got your whore. Not sure what to do with her. She seems a little feisty.”

“Did you lay a hand on her?” He asked, already walking over to you.

“No boss.” One of the guys said. August kneeled down in front of you, his fingers tilting your chin up. You turned your head away from him, too angry to look at him.

“Did they hurt you?” He asked quietly.

“Take these handcuffs off of me.” You whispered, feeling hurt and cheated. The gentleness of how his fingers opened the fetter, nearly brought tears to your eyes.

“Are you okay bunny?” He asked, when he freed you. Finally you looked at him, your eyes hard.

“Fuck you, August.” You growled quietly before you pushed yourself up and pushed him away. You weren’t even out of the door, when you felt his hand on your wrist. Turning around you slapped his cheek, catching him by surprise.

“You lied to me. From the beginning. What are you? A mob boss?” You asked, tears running down your cheeks.

“I can explain…” He said, taking a step towards you. You took a step back.

“What can you explain? The weapons? Your employees assuming you send me as a whore?” You screamed and he looked at you like you had slapped him again.

“I’m….” He began. You shook your head.

“You should have told me from the beginning.” You looked up at him. “Because I desperately searched for a reason not to fall in love with you, and that would have helped.” Silent tears ran over your cheek.

“Bunny…” He pleaded.

“I’ll grab my stuff when you’re gone for Europe next week.” You said, looking up at him. Unshed tears were in his eyes.

“If you just would have to be honest with me…” You shook your head, looking for one last time at him, before you turned around and went to your car.

He had called you hundreds of times in the next few days. You had ignored him every single time. After a couple of days the tears had stopped. You had put the last of your cash in a hotel room and you hadn’t left it. Until today. You knew August would be away, because there was a meeting with a company in Madrid he couldn’t miss.

Opening the door of the place you had called home for the last years you felt like crying again. Everything seemed to be the same. But it wasn’t. Walking in you saw the flowers on the kitchen counter. A huge arrangement of sunflowers. Your favorites.

Sitting down in front of it you sighed. He really had been too perfect to be true. Grabbing the letter that was propped up in front of the flowers, you let your thumb brush over the envelope that only read your name.

Bunny,

I should have told you. I know I should have, but I’m a coward. I didn’t want to lose the best thing that ever happened to me. You are not only beautiful, you are the most intelligent and caring woman I have ever met. You are only 24 years old and you are so much more grown up than I ever will be.

I am no mob boss. I started out with a dream. And when the dream came true I wanted more. More money. More power. More… I don’t even know.

But then I met you. You are so much better than I ever could be. And that’s why I have to let you go.

This penthouse is officially yours, and I signed over all the company rights to you. You are now the CEO of Walker Real Estates.

I tried to reach you, to tell you this in person, but you didn’t pick up the phone. I probably wouldn’t have either. I was working with the FBI for a long time to give them the real mastermind behind every weapon deal in the States. For my help I will only have to serve 10 years in prison, instead of a lifetime.

Just do me one favor. Be happy. You will never have to think about money ever again. That’s the least I could do for you.

I never told you that, at least not when you were awake, but…. I love you, bunny. And I always will.

I hope one day you can forgive me

August

Even after reading the letter three times, seeing the contracts and reading your name in them you still couldn’t believe it.

Looking up at the sunflowers, you sobbed.

You fell asleep in the middle of the king size bed you shared with August, hugging his favorite sweater.

[il0veyoujk]

The secret is out.

Summary: Nefeli (14) has a secret tickle blog on Tumblr and her brother, Hoseok, finds out about it...

Warnings: None

Notes: None

This is a tickle related ff, if you are not interested in it, please keep scrolling

Lots of love Nef 💕

I think everyone has their little secrets. Especially from their siblings. Like Nefeli had from her brother, Hoseok. The teenage girl had a tiny miny guilty pleasure, she loved tickling. And that had to be kept as a secret. But she had a bigger one. Nefeli had a blog on Tumblr where she was writing fanfics about tickling, where the members of Got7 were tickling the reader. It wasn’t a huge one, but she loved it. However, this had to be kept as a secret. No one knew about it and no one would ever know about it!

Nefeli was currently lying on her bed in the hotel she was staying with her brother and his bandmates. Being a brother of a super idol sometimes sucks. You have to follow him to every tour he was going and deal with all the crazy fans. But now the tour was over and the boys plus the 14-year-old girl were just having their holidays.

And after a long day, Nefeli had finally the opportunity to relax. They had gone to museums, restaurants, monuments, everywhere. They had walked too much and they had eaten whatever they could, so they were all too tired.

Hoseok, was with the boys in Yoongi’s and Taehyung’s room, playing video games, while Nefeli was alone in her room, writing a new fanfic with Mark and the reader.

She was lying on her stomach on the bed, swinging her barefoot legs back and forth. She was too concentrate on what she was doing to notice her brother was finally back, right behind her and reading what she was writing, with a huge grin on his face.

“What are you doing?!” he playfully yelled behind her, scribbling on her feet fastly, taking her by surprise.

“AAAAHAHAHAHA NAHAHAHA!” she screamed and fell into fits of hysterics and started kicking dangerously fast as her feet were being tortured. “HAHAHAHSEOHAHAHAK!” she yelled and he let her go.

She was lying there, panting and rubbing her feet with each other, trying to get the ghost tickles to vanish. “Youhouhouhou are mehehean” she giggled and rolled onto her back to have a better look at her brother, who was giggling along with Nefeli.

Hoseok was tickling Nefeli since... well, since forever. He is her brother after all. He knows all her sweet spots and can drive her crazy in a matter of seconds. However, he also knows that Nefeli secretly enjoys that. Truly much. Nefeli never says ‘stop’ when Hoseok is tickling her, only when she is reaching her breaking point.

His eyes fell again on her laptop screen, reading the fanfic she was writing once again and smirking hugely. The teenage girl spotted what her brother was doing and shut the screen fastly.

“What are you writing there, sunshine?” Hoseok asked as he took a seat on the bed next to his sister.

“N-Nothing Hobi, really, it’s nothing” she stuttered.

The young lad rose an eyebrow “Neffie are you lying to me?” he asked and Nef shook her head too fast to convince her brother. But she didn’t do much. “No! I am telling the truth!”

“Hm,” Hoseok murmured under his breath and jumped onto his sister, sitting on her hips. Classic way to get her to admit everything.

“Noooo, I swear! Lemme go! I didn’t do anything!” Nefeli tried to escape the upcoming torture, but it was useless. He was way too taller and older than her, nothing could save her.

But lemme tell you, Nefeli is truly stubborn when she wants. And if she wants to keep a secret, nothing can make her spit it out like that. They have to make a lot of efforts to make her speak. And there was no way she was gonna admit she loves tickling and that she writes stories about it

But let’s not forget he is her brother. He knows her since she was born and has lived his entire life with her. He knows her buttons than Nefeli herself.

Hoseok grabbed her hands and pinned them above her head, with no difficulties at all, still smirking “Last change Neffie, tell me or the tickle monster is gonna get ya” he sang and started wiggling his fingers right above her bare armpit, making them look like claws.

Nefeli started giggling and trying to squirm away “Nohohohoooooo, I didn’t do anything! I was just scrolling through Wattpaaahahahad!” she lied and tried to pull her arms down, but without avail. She was trapped under Hoseok and his wiggling fingers, which were ready to attack her.

“Okay, you are asking for it,” he said as he launched his hand on her armpit, clawing on them fastly.

She burst into loud fits of laughter, thrashing around on the bed, trying to pull her arms down like a madman, but she couldn’t. Hoseok had an iron grip on her wrists.

“Aw you are so cute when you laugh Neffie” he smiled and nuzzled her cheek with his nose, which was ticklish as well. “Do you have to tell me something now?”

“NAHAHAHAHA HAHAHABIHIHIHAHAHAHA!” she laughed loudly as she felt the fingers scribbling and pinching her armpits and hollows without mercy.

It was like tiny bugs were running up and down her soft skin. Nefeli’s brother was grinning down at her in the most teasing way he could, driving her crazy. Ah, that boy was born to tease his little sister.

“No?!” he playfully yelled and gasped loudly, moving his hands to her ribs, spidering there fastly, his teasing grin still on his face “Then I guess you need to rethink about it”

All the nerves in Nefeli’s body were being destroyed one by one as Hoseok was sliding his fingers furiously up and down her rib bones, giving more attention to her sixth and most ticklish rib. She shot her now free arms on her torso, trying to protect her sensitive self, but she was just making everything worse.

Nefeli started squirming and bucking her hips in the air, trying to get Hoseok off of her and make the feeling more bearable, but nothing was working.

“AHAHAHAHAHAM NAHAHAHAHAHAHAT DOHAHAHAHAHING ANYHAHAHATHING!” she cried and grabbed his wrist, trying with all her strength to battle them off. But guess what? They weren’t going anywhere!

“Hm really? I think my little sunshine is lying to me! Now that’s not nice, I feel like crying” he smirked, not ceasing his rib-tickling.

If Nefeli’s eyes could go wide they would. She knows perfectly well what that means...

“NAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NAHAHAHAHAHAHAT THAHAHAHAT!” she pleaded and shook her head side to side frantically.

The young lad smirked for some seconds before he wore his sad face and rose her t-shirt, to reveal her chubby tummy, leaving her enough tortured ribs alone.

“Nohohahahaha Hobihihihi!” she giggled from anticipation as she saw her brother’s face inching towards her exposed belly.

“You are making me even sadder now sunshine” he tried to swallow his own chuckles but he wasn’t doing much. “I think I need to blow my nose,” he said and Nefeli’s eyes grew bigger in fear.

“Nohohohoho Hobihihihi noooAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” she cried and brought to the surface her loudest belly laughter as Hoseok blew an abnormally ticklish raspberry just above her belly button. He even added fake sobs to add to the torture.

Raspberries and mouth tickles in general were a huge weakness of the poor girl. They were driving her crazy. She just couldn’t stand them. No, never, for no reason at all.

Hoseok then nuzzled his face in the warm skin of her belly, blowing tiny raspberries on it, like he was actually crying. Nefeli was trying with all the strength she had inside her to push his shoulders away, so he could at least have a break, but Hoseok was going anywhere.

“HAHAHAHAHASEOAHAHAHAHAHAK!” the little girl laughed loudly and was punching the mattress as hard as she could so as she would be distracted from the unbearable sensation, but it was useless.

Suddenly the door opened widely and Taehyung rushed inside, with fear in his eyes. He must have heard the screams and the loud laughter, along with the rest of the boys.

Hoseok stopped and looked up towards his friend, leaving his sister panting on the bed hardly. Sweat was all over her face and she was tryna catch her breath. Her face was as red as a tomato and she could still feel some ghost tickles on her belly.

“What’s happening? The boys and I got really worried, I heard Nef screaming” Taehyung asked, raising an eyebrow at the panting girl on the mattress and his grinning friend.

Nefeli got really nervous. She thought Hoseok was gonna expose her just like that in front of his friend and that Tae would tickle her as well.

“Oh nothing much, Neffie is just really ticklish and I was just playing with her” he grinned, pinching her belly softly, making her flinch and giggle loudly.

She mentally sighed in relief. If it was to expose her Tickle Blog to someone, at least that someone had to be her brother. The person she trusted the most.

“Oh okay, lemme know when you are done, we wanna go out for a movie and diner” Tae smirked and exited the room, leaving the siblings alone again.

“Nohohoho mohohohore” Nefeli giggled, covering her belly and looking at the ceiling with half-opened eyes.

“Oh come on sissy, I saw that you were writing something on your laptop,” he said mischievously, as he placed his hands on her still bare sides. However, Nefeli hadn’t understood what was happening because she was looking at the ceiling. “I just wanna know what it is!”

“Nohohohohothing!” she kept giggling uncontrollably.

“Then I guess I just have to get out the secret weapon” he smirked and started squeezing her sides faster than the speed of the light, sending her into loud fits of hysterical laughter and making her squirm like a fish out of the water.

“NAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! NAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAT THAHAHAHAHAHAHARE!” she screamed and fell back again in her franticly laughter, as Hoseok was killing her- I mean squeezing her side.

“Coochie coochie coo, Neffie!” he teased and moved to the spot where the sides are connecting with the ribs, clawing there.

Nefeli felt electric shots hitting her and every hair she had on her body tensed from the torturing sensation. And all the teasing was not helping at all. “Y’know Neffie, you never say stop. I am starting to think that you may like it!”

“NAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHA DAHAHAHAN’T!” she yelled in between her hysterical laughter as Hoseok was kneading furiously her sides.

Her mouth had started aching from all the smiling and laughing. Her face was looking like an alive tomato and her belly was hurting. However, she didn’t want it to end. She was having too much fun, considering the great love she hides for tickles.

Hoseok just chuckled deeply and nuzzled the crook of her neck with his cute nose, chuckling against her skin as he heard Nefeli’s laughter going up at least 20 octaves.

“Neffie you are so sweet I could eat you! But I guess that’s what I have to do then!” he smirked and bend down inching towards her lowest ribs “Last chance sunshine. Tell me or the tickle monster will eat you aaaaaall up!”

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” she laughed loudly, afraid the boys would come back to check upon them.

She didn’t give the answer her brother wanted tho...

“Beep-beep! Too slow! Now you’re gonna be my meal for tonight!” he said and he fastly dive in her bare ribs, sending her in the most hysterical laughter she had ever experienced while he kept squeezing her hypersensitive sides.

Nefeli left an incredibly deafening scream and she started kicking her legs in the mattress and trying to push Hoseok off of her with all her might, her head shaking left and right like a madman.

The ticklish sensations were the most intense she had ever received all those years she lives with Hoseok and his merciless tickles. Her ribs were not too ticklish but when it comes to nibbles, they become her worst spot. More than her sides.

Nibbles were her number one weakness. She just couldn’t stand them. They are always evil, extremely ticklish and they were making her hella sensitive.

“MAHAHAHAHARCAHAHAHAHA STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAP IHAHAHAHAHAHA’LL TAHAHAHAHAHALL YAHAHAHAHAHA!” Nefeli cried as her lowest rib was being tortured and her sides were burning and her laughter after that went silent.

Hoseok saw that a sign for him to stop and let her breathe. He lied next to his panting sister and wrapped her in a tight hug, rubbing her sides to vanish the ghost tickles.

Soft, airy giggles were leaving her as she started calming down and catching her breath. Her face was returning to her official color and her spots were not hurting anymore.

“You know, I already know you love when I tickle you” he whispered into her ear, tickling her again, but only enough to send shivers down her spine and bring some leftover giggles.

“Hahahahahohohohow?” she asked blushing and hiding her head in Hoseok’s chest.

The young lad chuckled and rubbed her back affectionately, helping her calm down completely. “When you were mmm... around 5?? I think?? You told me you never wanted me to stop tickling you” he laughed at the memory.

Making her even shier, Nefeli pushed herself onto Hoseok hiding, her whole self in his grip. “So... Can I read those little fics of yours?” her brothers asked, poking her cheek, making her crack a smile inside his chest. And lemme tell you Hoseok loved her works.

Nefeli was so glad Hoseok didn’t judge her about her blog. She knew that there was nothing she would be embarrassed about, but she was just feeling weird about her guilty pleasure. However, she was not gonna give up what she loves. She continues writing what she wants and she keeps having fun with them till today.

Writing is a way for everyone to snap out of the world, and when someone loves writing, they never leave it. As you are writing, you explore and finally find how you want your fics to be. Guys don’t leave your dreams and what you love doing for anyone and anything. You can always improve your writing skills and not give up. Have faith in you!

[psychewithwings]

The Canary Pt. 2 Todoroki x F!

hi, this is pt 2 of my Shouto Todoroki x musician!reader where its a hot mess bc its kinda a love triangle with Enji????

Listen if ya missed pt 1... its here

TW: anything on my page is 18+, fuck outta here children and get some juice... manipulative relationships, messy love situation/ love triangle, hints at abusive relationship (between reader and her ex), her ex is also a drug addict... and a criminal... if you're wondering why this is such a messy fic its inspired by my watching the show euphoria... 

and lemme address this: i know enji got a redemption arc but i wanted to write him with a similar vibe to nates dad from euphoria... to explore the manipulative sides of age gap relationships or relationships with clearly unbalanced power dynamics, my portrayal of him here is not what i would deem perfectly canon but more a vessel for the plot and ideas i want to explore with this piece and the complexities within it, now... that being said... i give you a long awaited pt 2 to The Canary

You watch as Shouto opens the front door and slips away into the night. The door closes and upon hearing the latch click you realize you’d been holding your breath. You exhale long and slow, still stunned by Shouto’s vulnerability. He worries he will never be able to save himself. Yes, you very much relate to that problem. There is something about Shouto that scares you, looking at him in person, it feels like he is someone you’d known forever, that you should have memories of him but the place in your mind that they should be, is blank.

How he feels about you is still incredibly unclear. You had been very aware of how carefully he watched you during your meal, his eyes seemingly tracking each of your movements and committing them to memory. Dinner was uncomfortable, you had wanted to hide and simultaneously prove yourself to him; that you were different from his idea of who you must be considering the circumstances. You knew what he thought; that you were just some shallow girl dating his dad for the money. But that wasn’t the truth.

Maybe someday you and Shouto would learn the truth of who the other was, your pasts, desires for the future, and maybe what that feeling was that made him seem so familiar. You could easily picture yourself trying to make him laugh on a warm spring day and you smile to yourself.  

“Well I’m glad to see you smiling,” Enji remarks as he sits next to you on the couch. “Shouto can be a bit harsh, I apologize…” Enji murmurs and wraps his arm around you, a protective and comforting gesture. “No, it’s okay, it’s only natural for him to feel suspicious or confused,” you console. You pull your legs onto the couch and snuggle into the cushions.“I’ll talk to him about it,” he offers but you shake your head. “No, it’s really okay, I think he’s warming up to me.” Enji raises an eyebrow at you and smiles slightly. “Shouto doesn’t warm up to others easily… or at all,” he dismisses and kisses your cheek. You look up at him and blink. “I’m not worried ‘bout it… best to just give it time,” you smile. Enji gives you a single nod before his expression falls stern.  “As much as I enjoy your optimism, we need to discuss Friday, I won’t be able to go and I don’t want you going alone.” You inhale slowly and hold your breath until you can figure out the words exactly.

“Enji, I told you, I can take care of myself for a night, I don't need you to watch over me every time I do a gig.” His gaze bores into yours, eyes piercing. “And I’ve asked  you nicely not to play this weekend, you’re sophisticated now, a place like the Viper Lounge should be considered beneath you.” You move away from his touch, crossing your arms. While Enji is more supportive than anyone else about your music career, he still didn’t understand. He had been a hero, a place like The Viper is considered scummy in his circle but for you it’s the holy grail of performance venues. You explain time and time again and the words are becoming dull and grey with repetition. “It’s one of the best places for someone who’s looking to get scouted to perform… and the Viper  invited me, that's a big deal.” Enji shifts to face you, “I know this feels big to you but it’s just a small set in a shitty dive.”

A part of you wanted to cry hearing those words, but the tears didn’t come. Just a small, sad smile. “There’s going to be talent scouts and agents there… just to see who was selected for the line up and I’m the closing set… It's a pretty big deal.”  

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Shouto walks from the house, his head filled with thoughts of you. Your smile, your voice, that ridiculous yellow guitar. Your eyes, their inquisitive nature. He thinks back to his answer to your question, “I'm afraid that no matter how many people I save, that I’ll never be able to save myself.” He sighs, he can’t remember the last time he could be so honest with someone, let alone someone who was practically a stranger… But there is something about you that seems oddly familiar, though for what reason he felt this way was unclear.

He is about halfway to his car when he feels how light his pants pocket is. His phone… he must have left it inside somewhere, maybe the kitchen? He sighs, he doesn’t want to return to the house, to have to look at you again after being so honest. He had been bold in hopes of- well he isn’t all that sure why he had said something like that so openly, all he knows is the heat is creeping to his cheeks. He takes a breath before hesitantly opening the door. He collects himself, hoping you wont be able to see his embarrassment.

“I told you, there will be plenty more opportunities and you won't have to perform in such a dump,” he hears his fathers voice. He knows that voice… Shouto opens his mouth to call out but shuts it again hearing your icy tone, “you’re not listening... Enji.” Shouto’s eyebrows raise in surprise, you’re not as childish as he first thought. In fact, it seems you’re holding your own against his father in an argument of sorts. He hears Enji laugh mockingly, “I’m not listening? What about Kai?” There’s a long pause, the sound of cicadas filling Shouto’s ears while the name Kai tumbles around his mind. He knew that name from somewhere. “What about Kai?” your voice is so low he can barely hear it. “Is he going to be there?” Enji pushes. Your voice raises slightly in aggravation, “I don't know, I don't talk to Kai, I haven’t said a word to him since the day I left.” Enji scoffs, “Really? It’s suspicious that the Viper Lounge invites you to perform when you’re almost a year out of that scene, he has connections there, what if he’s just using this “gig” as an excuse to get close to you? C’mon y/n, use your head.” Enji’s tone is viciously condescending. Shouto clenches his jaw, waiting for your reply. “I’ve thought about that possibility, but it's an event to showcase new upcoming artists and I haven’t performed there solo before, so I don’t find it totally unbelievable they would ask me.” For once Enji has no rebuttal and you take that as your cue to continue. “Kai isn’t even in the line up… and even if he was, I’m going because this is important to me, this has nothing to do with him.”

Shouto couldn’t keep standing outside listening, he had to get his phone now. He briskly steps inside and shuts the door loudly behind him. “I left my phone,” he announces as he walks through the house to the kitchen. The silence that follows his interruption makes him worry you both figured out he had been listening, though perhaps you were both just embarrassed to be caught arguing. He finds his phone by the kitchen sink and pockets it quickly, before heading back towards the door. He nods towards you both before turning his back.

“Hey Shouto?” The sound of your voice stops him in his tracks. He shifts carefully to face you and sees your eyes glinting with mischief. “You own a hero agency right?” Shouto nods, watching carefully to see where you were going with this. “I’m sure then that you would have a hero capable of a simple bodyguard job, for just this little gig I’m doing on Friday, I know it’s last minute so if you don’t have anyone… I’ll be fine.” He had to play this carefully so as not to expose himself for eavesdropping. “Where’s the gig?” “The Viper Lounge,” Enji scoffs. His father must be furious that you’ve now involved a third party. If there was something Enji Todoroki hated, it was airing his dirty laundry. Shouto was careful not to laugh… you were far smarter than he initially gave you credit for.

“I’ve performed at the Viper before… tons of times-``''You have, but only with Kai Chisaki.” Your face tells Shouto that name hits a sore spot. Hearing his whole name sparks Shouto’s memory and he realises who Kai is. Kai Chisaki, an underground rapper… face tattoos and some nasty habits that earned him a hell of a rap sheet; burglary, assault, possession of unlicensed weapons, public indecency, drug counts too high to keep track of… He’d been arrested again a few months ago, but just like the last, he was bailed out and the charges were dismissed.

“But the Viper asked me to be a part of this gig for showing off upcoming talent… Enji’s just worried for me because he can't be there and my ex has a reputation- ``''That’s putting it lightly,” Enji interrupts, “he’s scum, deserves to rot in prison.” You rub your palms on your thighs and smile gently at Shouto. “I just think the situation would be more comfortable for everyone if I had some protection… Maybe you know of someone that could watch out for me for the night?”

Shouto resists the urge to volunteer, though the temptation of hearing your voice again is overwhelming. “Tch- as if I would trust any of the foolish heroes Shouto babysits to watch after you in that cesspool…” You gaze at Enji with big doe eyes, your body turning, hands inching towards his father’s legs. “You trust Shouto don’t you?” Enji pauses, before he sighs “I do.” You give him a winning smile, “then he’ll pick someone fit for the job.” Enji’s brow creases pensively, “Shouto,” he addresses. Shouto meets his father’s eyes, his heartbeat quickening as he realises what he’s about to ask. “What are your plans Friday? Could you take her?”

Shouto pretends to consider it, but really he counts the seconds until he can agree. He didn’t really know what it was about you that made him want to go with you so badly to this gig. It’s a separate part of himself that Shouto was unfamiliar with, a part of him that wasn’t thinking but desired only to know you… or understand you? There was just something about you. That was all he knew for sure. He nods, trying his best to hide his true feelings. “I could make arrangements to accompany y/n, as long as,” he looks at you, “you’re comfortable with that.” You hold out your hands defensively and shake your head, “if you have to move things around- you’re so busy- I-I don’t wanna cause you any trouble.” Shouto dismisses your statement, “it’s not trouble, I wouldn’t agree otherwise.”

You shift uncomfortably, “as long as you’re sure…” Shouto turns towards the door, facing forward as he leaves you with these words. “It’s important to you, right? Just accept my help.” He opens the door, and holds the frame tightly. He knows he shouldn’t, he hears the chorus of voices telling him not to look back, but it's that one part of him again that takes control and turns his head. He can’t help but smile slightly seeing your expression. Mouth parted and brow raised slightly in surprise. Beautiful.

“We’ll connect about details sometime during the week,” he confirms, “see you Friday.” He hears you call out your gratitude as he closes the door and makes for his car. He slides into the driver's seat and turns on the engine and looks towards his childhood home. The light from the windows casts a glow onto the grass. He finally exhales and with each new breath he gains more clarity about the situation. He shouldn’t care about you, he can’t let himself get any closer. He would help you with this gig and go back to avoiding family dinner like the plague. Shouto leans his head back into the seat and puts the car in reverse. He tries his best to shake off these thoughts but that little devil on his shoulder keeps cackling and whispering suggestions he chooses to immediately ignore.

He pulls out of the driveway and onto the road, pushing thoughts of you away and doing his best to find another topic to think about, something to distract him from the confusion of his swirling emotions. But as much as he tries, he can’t stop thinking about you.

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[heartofsnark]

Can You Feel The Sun? (Chapter Six): Do I Sink or Do I Float Now?

Notes: Still posting my little backlog of chapters!~  In this one we get Maelstrom, along with some Vik and Misty interactions that were really fun to write of course heavy on our precious boy Jackie too. 

Word Count:  9004

Chapter Warnings: Canon typical violence, cursing, installation of cyberware.

If you haven’t yet, you can read the previous chapter here!~

With a tightness in her chest and a heavy sigh, V answers Dex’s call. She’ll play it by ear and maybe wait until they’re in person to drop the news about Evelyn. The client really had to drag her into this bullshit, didn’t she? 

“How're things lookin', Miss. V?”

“Client had a recording that helped us out, Konpeki Plaza.”

“Beautiful. T-Bug already called, said she's workin' her magic. And the Flathead?”

“On it now and quick question, how are we getting into Konpeki?” 

“Through the front door, how else? I'm no leadhead. Ain't gonna leave no trace for them to follow 'cause we gonna do this clean an' on the hush-hush,” Dex confirms her beliefs, she needs cyberware, something. 

“Got it, on my way to get the Flathead, now.” 

“T-Bug says no chance at the chip without that bot. To work, then, Miss V.” 

He hangs up and V leaves Lizzie’s bar, night air cold on her exposed skin. She’ll swing by her apartment, drop by Vik’s, and then meet up with Jackie at All Foods. V makes a beeline to her car, starting a call and patching a call to Jackie through the radio speaker. 

“Jackie,” she signs one handed as she drives, “Met the client. Her name's Parker. Evelyn Parker.”

“OK. Whatcha waitin' for? Gimme the deets. Who is she? What's she like?”

“Shady as fuck. Doll, I think, fucks Yorinobu Arasaka and now she wants to fuck him over.” 

“Don’t seem that odd.” 

“She’s...off, Jackie. Hiding something, big, I just. Don’t trust her, don’t think she’s a bad person, just… not to be trusted.” 

“Yeah, sounds like nerves talkin' to me. Makes everyone seem suspect. Stress can kill you, y'know.”

“Yeah, yeah, so you tell me.” 

“What about Militech?” 

“I met with the corpo.” 

“V… “ 

“Hear me out, woman gave me hell and a spiked chip, wanted me to pay on Militech’s dime but the chip would have fried Maelstrom and left us cleaning up the mess.” 

“Of course, I told you, V.” 

“But, I managed to crack it. Maelstrom plays nice, I got a clean ten grand off of Maelstrom. Chrome snorters pull bullshit; we fuck them and send a middle finger to Militech while we’re at it. We can talk it out more when we meet.”  

“Alright, waitin' for ya at All Foods, ya know. Not gettin' any younger.”

“Well, grab something to eat, going to be a while longer.” 

“Chingada madre, V, what now?” 

“Konpeki Plaza, hotel we got to get into. They have a no weapon policy and way Dex talks that the only way in, is through the front door. “ 

“And?” 

“And, if shit goes sideways, I don’t want to be caught with my pants down,  in a gunfight without a weapon. Need cyberware, something they can’t confiscate, so I’ll be ready for worst case scenario. So, I’m grabbing my savings and making a trip to see Vik.” 

“Stress stress, all you do is stress, but I’m glad you’re finally spending your fucking money. What you trying to get?” 

“You’ll see when we meet up, who knows, might end up using it on some Maelstrommers.” 

“Hehe, see you soon, V.” 

V hangs up and parks outside her megabuilding, sliding her mask off and into her bag before running in. She keeps her head down and doesn’t talk as she rushes to just get her stash of cash out from under the bed. Willing the elevator to move faster and annoyed when she presses her hand to the intercom to unlock her door and it takes a second too long for the lock to validate her SID chip. She opens the under bed  compartment, finding her money stash next to her toy stash. Then it’s back out to her car and driving out to Vik’s. 

She parks in the same place Jackie did that morning, keeping her head down as she wades through the crowd, trying not to stare at the strippers in the club window across from Misty’s store and avoiding eye contact with Gary; the slightly crazy homeless man who likes to yell about conspiracies.  V peeks into Misty’s shop and smiles when she sees the woman at the little register and desk. Her face lit by the cyan neon sign advertising her prices for chakra readings. 

“Hey, V.” Misty smiles at her, she’s the cutest little thing, granted she’s a bit taller than V. A short airy chin length bob of bleached hair, heavy black makeup, and big green eyes. 

“Hey, Misty,” V signs as she walks in, her choker translator already turned on

“Heard you and Jackie have a new job.” There’s a hint of something sad to her voice, a pain to her eyes. 

“You don’t seem excited.” 

“Just...worried; bigger jobs, bigger risks.” 

“I know, I’ll do my best to watch out for him, promise.” 

“I know you will, V.” 

“You’ll have to read our cards when you get the chance.” Its become a tradition, the little peek into the future easing some of Misty’s nerves. 

“Please, Jackie’s heart chakra was a little out of whack and his aura needs tending. Keep him away from mean reds, if you can.” 

“I’ll do my best.” 

“Speaking of which…” 

“Oh no.” 

“You need to let me adjust your chakras, V!~” 

“Yeah… I don’t know about that one…” 

“Your crown and throat chakras are so messy, heart chakra too actually, you’re just spiritually kind of a wreck, V.” 

“You can tell that just by looking at me.” 

“I could tell after my first conversation with you.” 

“Funny, I’ll think about it. For now, I got to see Vik.” 

“He’s in the clinic, go on in.” 

V gives Misty a pat on the shoulder as she walks around and goes out the back door of the older woman’s store into the alleyway behind it. A soft meow rings out, just before the stairs that go down to Vik’s is a little sphinx cat with big golden eyes. The merc crouches down and scritches it’s back, smiling at the cutie, softly meowing back at it. Its such a cute kitty. One more little pat and she separates herself from the cat and goes down the stairs to Vik’s clinic. She’s not sure how Vik can stand to stay in the dank basement level clinic all day, but she’s thankful he’s always easy to find when she needs him. Through the little metal gateway door she can already see him at a workbench, watching a boxing match on a small TV. 

“Viky! How’s my favorite ripper?” She greets him as she walks through, grinning as the older man spins his chair to look at her. 

The ripper’s eyes drop down for a second seeing the box she has held to her stomach with one arm. He smiles softly, the expression forming wrinkles around his eyes. He’s an older man, dark hair just starting to thin on the back of his head. Tattooed forearms with memories of his boxing days and tinted glasses on his nose. 

“Good to see you too, V. It's been a while. To what do I owe the pleasure today?”

“Got a new gig, new fixer, sure Jackie’s already talked your ear off about it.” 

“Dexter Deshawn…  Known quantity, from the Afterlife. No denying you're movin' up…” Vik tells her but there’s a drag in his voice, V is starting to get the distinct impression that no one is as excited for this as her and Jackie are. Hell, she’s not even as excited as Jackie, Evelyn’s offer still heavy on her mind. 

“Something you’re not telling me?” 

“Keep your guard up, that's all. I've heard some things about Dex. He's not as "chill" as he makes himself out to be.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she nods, Dex doesn’t seem to shady at the moment, but she trusts Vik’s opinion, “as for right now, plan is for me and Jackie to get into a hotel, pretend we’re guests. Hotel’s got a strict no guns policy, so… need a weapon they can’t take off of me.” 

“That so? You finally caving and getting the projectile launcher?” 

“No, I was thinking Mantis Blades, actually. Quieter, if shit goes off the rails it’d be better to have something that doesn’t tell everyone where we are.” 

“And you get to add two more blades to your collection,” Vik teases, knowing her affinity for swords, knives, and daggers over firearms. 

“Hey, doesn’t hurt to stick to what I know, besides with shit getting real… need better tech.” 

“Well alright,” Vik stands and kicks away his wheeled seat, walking towards his work station, and getting the injector, “but lemme guess- hasn’t paid you yet.” 

“No, but, I brought what I got. I know it’s not enough but, if you’re fine with me paying so much now and the rest later, I-” 

Vik puts a hand up and stops her from pushing the little box of cash at him, a soft smile on his face. Jackie likes to say Vik has a soft spot for her, sometimes she doubts it but when he gives her that soft almost kind fatherly look, she can’t help but think Jackie might be right. 

“Keep it.” 

“No, don’t be ridiculous, I should at least give you something upfront, I-” 

“We'll work something out later. Right now I'm just out to make sure you get back in one piece. Keep that back for now and we can figure it out once you get paid, alright?” 

“Got no idea what I did to deserve you, Vik.” 

“Who knows?” He laughs and shoots an injection into his forearm, to help steady and loosen up his organic hand, flexing the fingers on his ripper glove, “go ahead and get comfy.” 

V nods and puts her cash stash in her bag before climbing up into the doctor’s chair, taking a deep breath. Even with Vik, the only doctor she trusts, she always finds herself nervous in his chair. She’s slowly grown more accustomed to the importance of cyberware and tech in Night City, but it still just feels overwhelming at times to think of carving out pieces of herself for it. V is fairly sure other than monks she’s one of the only people past the age of eighteen who doesn’t have optics, kids carving their eyes out as soon as a doc is willing to do it. This is important, she needs to be prepared for the worst case scenario, but she is about to have a significant portion of her arms removed to be replaced with swords. The gravity of that still sits heavy on her chest. 

“Jack in and lay those major league arms down for me.” 

Vik pulls up two tables on each side of the chair and V lays her arms down for him, trying to steady her breathing. Her eyes linger on the brand on her left wrist, the one that marked her place within her nomad clan.  She wonders if that part of her arm will be taken off, skin removed with synthetic Real Skin stuff.  He sits in his little wheeled stool, looking over her scans. 

“Looks like you’ve actually been taking your meds.” 

“Got an alarm on my phone now, nearly forgot just this morning,” she switches to spoken English, though her hands twitch to sign, she doesn’t want to move them just in case. 

“Whatever helps, last thing you need is your body trying to kill itself.” 

“But it's so good at that.” 

“Oh I know it is,” he pushes himself to get to the other side of the table, pushing a sharp injection into her arm just below her elbow, “a bit of anesthetic.” Then he pushes her sleeve up higher, so he can reach her bicep, another shot. 

“What’s that one?” 

“Anti-anxiety, though judging by the wide eyed look on your face, it’s gonna take a second to kick in.” 

“Oh, yeah… sorry.” 

“It's okay, know this ain’t your thing. Most arm cyberware is fairly invasive, but I got some tricks up my sleeve. Do my best to give you the tech you need and leave as much ‘ganic material intact as I can.” 

“I know, I trust you.”

Slowly, her body numbs. The strong anesthetic spreads into her blood and impacting every inch of her. Her breathing feels more stable and her heart rate seems to slow back to normal, a sense of calm coming over her. Vik is a good man, she knows that, he’d never do anything that isn’t needed and wouldn’t ever try to hurt her. He starts to roll out the tech to carve her arms open and put blades inside. 

She closes her eyes and lays her head back, because she doesn’t want to see, it will just freak her out more. Put her trust in fate and more importantly Vik to take care of it. V feels nothing, only soft whirrs of tech. 

“Feel anything?” 

“Never do. Ask me that every time, you know. Not as if things are gonna be any different today.”

“Sure thing, kid, I mean not like there's any risk of a stroke or paralysis. But... heh, what do I know? I'm just a doctor.”

“Okay, okay, I getcha.” 

“You got your contacts with you?” 

“Yeah, in my bag.” 

“Once we get your blades in, I’ll take a look at them, think we can bump them up with some Kiroshi tech.”

“You’re the best, Vik.” 

“So, I’ve heard.” 

“Oh, nearly forgot, you’ll get a kick out of this. Coach Fred in my building wants me to do some fights.” 

“Does he now?” 

“Mmhmm, really tried to sell it too, he believes in me. Dude, I’m fucking five feet tall, but okay.” 

“Well,” Vik chuckles, “to be fair, you may be small, but I’ve seen you take down guys twice your size.” 

“That’s merc work, Vik; don’t think they’d let me stab my opponent in the ring.” 

“That is usually frowned upon.” 

They make small talk as he works, the chatter easing her nerves, the little traces of anxiety the medicine can’t touch. Vik tries to convince her she could hold her own in a boxing fight, though unlike Coach Fred, it feels less like a sales pitch coming from Vik. From him it feels more like a dad trying to convince their kid they’ll be good at soccer if they just get out there and try it. 

“Alright, we’re done, kid. Take a look.” 

V takes a deep breath and does just that, Looking down at arms that still seem to be very much her own but with silver detailing from her knuckles to her elbows. They look nice, the Mantis Blades and Projectile Launcher are the better looking arm cyberware options in her opinion. Like accents, little detailing, rather than making arms look more tech than flesh. It’s her nails still, painted her favorite bright blue, she can still see her freckles. And when she twists her forearms she finds her brand still there. 

“Wow, really did save as much skin as you could.” 

“Mmhmm, still you, just a few added touches. The blades act on intention and reflex, stand up and give it a try. Just don’t cut anything I need.”

V gets out of the chair, taking a few steps to the most cleared off portion of the room. Vik scoots himself back on the stool. Just what she’d need, to finally get cyberware beyond the basics and end up accidentally gutting her favorite ripper. With the thought and a tensing of her forearms, the blades extend out. 

“Woah.” 

She marvels at it, the way her flesh has opened up, can see the metal compartment almost where the blades were stored and hidden inside. Carefully, she retracts the blade in one arm to touch the other. Curiously she touches where the skin meets metal, nerves in the flesh still, but when she touches inside of the compartment she feels nothing. She presses down into the steel and when she does so hard enough, she can feel it start to put pressure on real organic tissue. She pulls her fingers away and retracts the blade; extending and pulling them back a few times, getting the feel for them. 

“Take it you’re a fan?” 

“Its so cool.” 

“Still wish you got the Launcher instead?” 

“Maybe a little bit,” she tests out signing, thankful the metal additions don’t interfere with her ability to do it, “I’m good with knives and katanas, so having a cannon in my arm would add a bit of variety.”

“Maybe your next job.” 

“You can take them out and do that?” 

“Mmhmm, now-a-days even the military grade stuff is designed to be adaptable, you can rip ‘em out and change it up whenever you see fit. So, you can have whatever new tech you want when you want it.” 

“The innovations of consumerism, huh?” 

“Something like that,” he laughs, “hand me your contacts and I’ll upgrade them for you.” 

She does just that, watching him take the contacts and put them in a device. While he tinkers with those, V keeps playing with her new toys. Making sure she knows exactly what will and won’t trigger the blades. Flexing alone won’t extend them, folding and twisting her forearms. It requires the intention too, linked to she assumes her neural plants and cyberdeck.  Which means she should be able to hug someone without decapitating them, a skill she does occasionally enjoy having. Even if Jackie says her hugs are half ass.  Got to hug people like you’ll never see them again, because in Night City that might be the case; according to him. 

“All done, test them out,” Vik hands her back the contact case and she carefully places them in. The interface lights up for a moment, adjusting to the new tech.  She looks around, her vision a bit clearer. 

“Image looks clearer.” 

“Installed threat detection and weak spot detection tech too. Anyone who isn’t known to you, who the soft picks up as an enemy sees you, it’ll highlight them and tell you what their weak points are.” 

“That’s awesome, I don’t know what to say Vik, this is incredible.” 

“Figured, if you needed the blade for some hotel, you’d probably have to ditch the mask. So, it doesn't hurt to bump up the contacts.” 

“Yeah...oh…guess your right, can’t play corp hotel guest in a mask, can I…” 

“Just now realizing that?” 

“Maybe… but more importantly. The blades, the contacts. I don’t know what to say, Vik, I…”

“Say you’ll take this and remember the dosage. Two whiffs now and another two in an hour,” he hands her a medicine inhalant, “mild stim. Should boost neurotransmission in the short term and muffle some of the side effects while the implant takes.”

“Thanks Vik, seriously, I owe you big. You sure you don’t want some cash up front? I really don’t mind, I-” 

“Won’t hear it. Go on, kid. Show 'em what you're made of,” he grins at her, rolling back over to his desk, “And once you hit the big leagues, don't forget where you came from.”

A part of her wonders if it’s meant as a joke or a serious concern, knowing how much he seemed to worry about her getting a job from Dex. No matter if she hits the major leagues, Vik will always be her go to ripper. She comes up behind him where he’s gone back to watching TV and throws an arm around his neck in a sort of hug, squeezing him close. The kind of hug Jackie would mock, but full scale embraces are still...weird. 

“Couldn’t if I tried, Vik, thanks again.” 

“No problem, kiddo,” he pats her hand where it sits on his chest, “grab your candy and get going.”  

V giggles, and  pats his shoulder as she pulls away. She wonders if any of his other patients end up grabbing candy from the bowl on his desk. If Vik does the same joke with anyone else now that she kicked it off, a part of her hopes not. She grabs a handful of honeyed candies, popping one in her mouth as she leaves his clinic through the metal gate. The cat is still there when she gets back out to street level, she gives it a few more scratches, then takes the pathway back through Misty’s shop. 

“Vik take care of you?” The bleached blonde greets V as she comes in. 

“Sure did, I got swords in my arms.” 

That gets a giggle out of her, V showing off the indentations and designs of the Mantis Blades. Misty runs her fingers along them, smiling at the merc. 

“Very nice, take it you’re off to meet Jackie, now?”  There’s still some worry in Misty’s eyes, a sadness to her tone. 

“Yeah, got to get a combat bot. Shouldn’t take too long, Maelstrom isn’t anything we haven’t handled before. You know that.” 

“I do, I do,” Misty fiddles her fingers together, “its not them I’m worried about, it’s just this whole… thing with Dex and this heist. Just got a bad feeling. The bigger your jobs get, the more risks, you know. I’m sorry...sure you don’t want to hear me whine.” 

“Hey, hey,” V touches Misty’s shoulder, “its not whining. You love Jackie, it’s only natural to be worried.” 

“Thanks, Jackie thinks this job will set us up for life, that he’ll finally be able to take care of me like I deserve… “

“And what do you think?” 

“That is dreams are gonna get him killed one day and he doesn’t seem to care…” 

“He cares, he does. He just...thinks the risk is worth it, that if he does this he can build a better future.” 

“I know, just can’t shake the feeling he’s flying too close to the sun, I guess,” Misty says, wrapping her arms around herself. V knows that anxiety well and can’t say she even has the best feeling about this job. But, this is too good of an opportunity to pass up. 

“Hey, want to go ahead and do that tarot reading? Might make you feel better, see what the fates got in store.” 

“Yeah,” Misty smiles softly, “I’d like that.” 

Misty grabs her deck, the one V and Jackie picked out for her, as the merc comes around to the other side of the table. Jackie and V will be with each other the whole time, so if V’s future comes up clean, it means he can’t be too bad off. If nothing else, it offers a little distraction from anxiety and it won’t kill Jackie to wait just another ten or so minutes. 

“If my future’s clean, Jackie’s won’t be too bad. Guy’s always had better luck than me, anyway.” 

“I think he’d say otherwise,” Misty laughs, shuffling the cards, “now, focus on the recent past and what you expect in the future.” 

First card down, a man walking towards a cliff with a dog trotting along after him. 

“The Fool, that’d be you.” 

“So the cards think I’m an idiot, cool,” V rolls her eye, not missing the shadow of a smile across Misty’s lips. 

“The Fool symbolizes the beginning of a journey. You brim with enthusiasm, yet remain unaware of both your capabilities and the threats you face.”

“So...the cards think I'm an idiot.” 

“Just a little bit,” Misty teases, laying down the next card, “The Wheel of Fortune,. The danger is greater than you think. It will come suddenly, without warning. Conflict is unavoidable.”

“Fair enough.” 

Another card down, this one upside down. 

“The reversed Chariot reveals that such danger is tied to your love of risk. Do not aim too high, V.”

“I’m short, got nowhere else to aim.” 

Misty looks up at V under her brow, despite the hint of a smile, the meaning is clear. This is serious and V should take it with some level of seriousness. But, if she’s honest, V’s just happy to see Misty smiling at all. 

“And finally, The Magician… interesting.” 

“Why’s that?” 

“You may meet someone fascinating, someone charismatic. Maybe even someone you will grow to love?”

“Ew.”

Misty laughs as V makes a face at the word love and how Misty dragged the word out; the implication clear and gross. Why the fuck is fate concerned with V’s romantic life when she’s about to pull off a heist on Ara-fucking-Saka. 

“You can’t ‘ew’ fate, V!” Misty scolds her between giggles, smile now wide and bright. 

“I can when fate is being fucking gross.” 

“Love isn’t gross, V. It's beautiful.”  

“Ew.” 

“Get out of my shop,” Misty laughs and rolls her eyes, putting the cards back in her deck. 

“Talk to you, later.” 

Misty waves her off and V leaves out, content that she lightened Misty’s mood if only for a moment. She avoids eye contact with Gary as she makes a beeline back to her car, putting her new contacts back in the case and that in her bag. As useful as they are, she’ll use her mask for the Maelstrom job. For the usual reasons; enjoying her anonymity and well, people tend to take her a bit more seriously when they can’t see her baby face.  

V pulls up outside of All Foods, an abandoned food plant that Maelstrom has turned into their newest HQ.  Jackie is already parked sitting on his arch, poor guy has been waiting on her for entirely too long.  She puts her mask back on and hops out, walking up towards him, seeing his posture brighten up when he spots her walking down the street. 

“About time, V. Mi madre always said patience pays off, but christ.” 

“Sorry, a lot of shit to take care of. Most prepwork we’ve ever had to put in.” 

“Well, fill me in.” 

“Ran through the BD with the client and T-Bug, know where the chip is and where we’re trying to get too. But we need the bot from Maelstrom to nuke the hotel’s subnet and make sure we don’t catch lead from a turret. Dex paid them for it, but we got no idea if they’re going to honor that.” 

“He paid up front, hijole.” 

“Yep, I met up with the Militech rep too. Gave me the spiked chip, but I reworked it. Got a chip with clean eddies on it and a newly...adjusted… chip that will spike Maelstrom and Militech.” 

“So, what’s the play?” 

“Doubt they’re going to just honor the original buy, but if they play nice, figured we return the favor. Give them the clean eddies and call it done.” 

“But Maelstrom don’t play nice.  Gang world ain't too complicated, Might's right, the strong survive. Either you fuck others, or you get fucked.”

“Then we fuck them over right back, they want to play dirty, give them the spiked chip and take what we want. Spike chips in my left pocket, clean one in the right,” she pats her pockets, “so if you see me get the chip from the left, get ready.” 

“Understood and the new chrome?” 

“Mantis Blades, like I said, hotels got a no iron policy and if shit goes wrong, I want to be ready. And, hell, if Maelstrom plays dirty, I might get a little practice tonight.” 

“How the hell you swing those?” 

“Vik, gave me chrome on credit, again. Too nice for his own good, I swear.” 

“Pff,” Jackie laughs, “only when it comes to you, chica.” 

“Don’t know why.” 

“Told ya, he says you got a good heart. Probably give you a second one for free just for that.” 

“Enough, enough; lets get this taken care of.” 

“Into the borgbeasts den, then.” 

“Onward.”  With that Jackie climbs off his bike, leading the way and she follows behind. 

“I hate these 'borg fuckers. Just had to be them…” 

“Gang like any other,” V tells him. 

Night has fallen over the city, lit by streetlamps and fires in a trash can. Northside all but abandoned, one of the only places where the night isn’t colored by neon citylights. They walk past trash and shrapnel, towards the door. An intercom button on the wall. 

“Take the Valentinos. They follow God and the Santa Madre. Honor means something to 'em. You know what they want, how they get it, and what pisses 'em the fuck off. With Maelstrom, you just never know.”

“Think you might be a touch bias?” 

“Heh, maybe,  go on, let 'em know we're here.” 

With the V presses the intercom button waiting for it to ring, a few moment pass before a low growl of a voice finally responds. 

“Hm, don't know you.”

“Dex sent us.” V is increasingly thankful his name is easy enough to quickly finger spell. If they keep working with him, she may have to come up with a name sign though. 

“Main room. We been waiting,” the Malestom member tells her and the front doors slide open. 

The first room is dark with only a fluorescent light and the red glow of active turrets within it. There’s a distinct stink of mildew, rot, and mold. The stench of it choking V as she steps in after Jackie. 

“Cozy place. Could use a few plants, though,” Jackie makes a snide remark, as his heavy steps ring through the room, tech lines the walls and is stacked up on shelves, “Oh yeah. They look damn well prepared.”

“Food factory turned into a fucking armory, lovely.” 

“Gear from the Jacked convoy, gotta be… Must've been all over it like maggots on dead meat.”

“Everything’s marked Militech,” she confirms as they take a corner and walk down a short flight of stairs. 

“Psycho borgs chromed out with military-grade hardware worth millions... Should be fun.”

“Yeah, a real party.” 

They take a turn past a cluster of steel lockers, grime coated, with old abandoned anti-contamination suits still inside. Another turn past a neon red lit elevator shaft, the old factory is a mechanical maze. No doubt a reason why the chrome gang picked it; walls covered in their graffiti. They walk up another staircase; mines on every step, deactivating before them. 

“Anti-personnel mine,” V comments, “directional shrapnel spitter.” 

“Subtle…” 

Around a corner, through another passageway, and up another flight of stairs. Each step echoes, the entire place dark except for blips colored by red and the odd white fluorescents. Jackie stops when the steps lead to a door. Nodding his head at it, giving V the go ahead to open it. She rolls up the shutter door and is suddenly blinded with bright stark white light, chill curling around her and creeping through her thin cropped top. It makes sense, the former meat packaging plant needing a room to stay cold. 

“Stay cool… They’re just tryin’ to spook us,” Jackie tells her as she steps forward. 

Bright yellow forms patterns across the metal floor, spot lights, and stacks of crates marked Militech. Security cameras and she sees the first glimpse of Maelstrom members since they’ve stepped into the plant. One sitting on a crate, armed and watching with their signature red glowing optics. Another on a platform over seeing them. 

“Get in the elevator, fuckin’ sheep,” the Maelstrommer barks at them. 

“Thought those cabrones only swiped a couple crates, not a whole fuckin’ semi,” Jackie comments under his breath as they walk past the crates and to the end of the room. Double doors open up to a freight elevator. 

“This is going to be a hoot, ain’t it?” The doors to the elevator close and it starts it’s journey upwards. 

“It’s all right, keep chilled, V. Remember, we're on their turf.” 

“Yeah, because I’m the one who loses their chill.” 

“I’m always chill-” 

The elevator comes to a stop before Jackie can finish his though, the door on the other end opening and a Maelstrom member staring at them. He has the red glowing spider like optics and little mechanical dreads on the back of his head. What’s visible of his arms and chest is a mishmash of scar tissue and metal.  Over his shoulders, she can see two other gang members. One holding a shotgun and the other plugged into a netrunner chair, glowing under the light of red screens. 

“What do you want?” He’s the guy who spoke to them over the intercom. 

“Got a bot we need, model MT0D12, Flat Head. Our fixer already paid for it, we’re just here to pick it up.” 

“Hmm, names Dum-Dum,” he points to the side with his gun and starts to move back into the room, “Now, couch. Plant it.”

She walks into the room, and it seems like this could go well. They’ve been mostly chill, gruff sure, but nothing bad. In the center of the room just before a large roll up garage door is a table and two torn up red leather couches. Another Maelstrom member sits on the table. She doesn’t hesitate, sitting down on the couch closest to her, looking at the bright vending machine the gangers have graffitied over. Dum-Dum puts one foot up on the other couch and follows his line of sight to Jackie, who moves a little slower, his arms crossed as he moves next to the other couch and only stands. 

“Ahh, well, shit. Goes for you too,” Dum-Dum tells him and she expects Jackie to listen, he said himself this is their turf and they should keep try to stay chill. 

“I'll stand.”

Or… he’ll let his pride get the better of him and refuse.  Its hard to read the emotions on a Maelstrom member's face, so chromed you can tell what the hell is going on. But the shift in volume is telling enough. 

“This so fuckin' hard? Fuckin' ass on the fuckin' couch!”

“Make me,” Jackie says, voice low as he gets into Dum-Dum’s face. As much as he can while being nearly a head taller than the Maelstrom member. 

“Thought you'd never ask. Sit your ass down 'fore I plant a bullet in your skull.’

“Jackie,” she signs with one hand and pats his shoulder,  catching his attention, “think it’d be best to just sit down, keep everything chill, remember?” 

“This ain't gonna end well but… shit…” And with that Jackie finally sits down, sinking into graffiti covered red leather. 

“Well, all right,” Dum-Dum gets a drug inhalant from his pocket, sitting down on the table in front of V and offering it to her,  “Come on, gotta lighten up. Take a hit.”

The inhalant is red and purple; if she had to guess, Black Lace. An upper that’s high is said to feel reminiscent of manic Cyberpsychosis. Corps used to feed it to their troops by the gallon, cuts off pain receptors and made everyday men into unstoppable killing machines. 

“Appreciate the offer, but weed’s the hardest shit I touch,” V dismisses the offer as politely as she can. She knows it’d endear her to them, maybe, but… drugs aren’t really her thing. And when it is, she prefers mellow to mania. 

Dum-Dum huffs the inhalant, dipping his head back and smoke billowing from his nose. Then exhaling a steady stream of it. She can see Jackie cringing and trying not to breath in the aftermath of Dum-Dum’s high. 

“Whatever you say, straight edged princess.” 

The member sitting next to Dum-Dum moves as nother brings out a large Militech case, black with a yellow lock. It’s put down on the table with a heavy thud. 

“Here we go. The Flathead, model MT0D12.”

“Need to see it.” She’s not going go off of good faith, assuming it’s all there and works. 

“Suit yourself.”

He opens the case and she sees the spider like bot inside, it's almost cute, Dum-Dum shakes the control shard at them as he talks. 

“Fuckin' tricked out this thing. Dynamic, thermo-optic camo armor.”

He puts the control shard into a slot at the base of his skull, all but the middle of his optic eyes going dim as the bot comes to life within the crate. It stands at attention, moves it’s head and shimmies it’s legs. Just a cute mechanical spider; why did they make military combat tech cute? 

“Full cognitive immersion with a Raven controller.”

The bot goes invisible which is impressive, but V’s eye is drawn elsewhere. A steady creak and she sees the garage door behind Dum-Dum is starting to roll up. Screens and the back of a leather chair, a man sitting down visible. She can’t truly tell, but if she had to wager a guess, Royce. 

“Pimped out, prototype actuators made of titanium-vanadium-Kevlar composite.” 

Dum-Dum continues to sell them on the bot as the door fully opens behind him, the chair turning and her seeing that she was right. Royce, the newest Maelstrom leader looking into the deal with the same glowing red optics, though his set so far back in his skull he’s missing gray matter. 

“'N' watch this,” Dum-Dum says he sends the bot to move around the base,  “Fully integrated link, too, so when the spider starts crawlin' up walls, danglin' from ceilings…” He starts to sound sick, his stomach churning as he sees the view of the bot. 

“Could lose your lunch?”  V can’t help but tease, Royce is up now, one hand on the garage door. Like he’s waiting,  ready to pounce the second he hears something he don’t like. Those red optic staring V down. 

“So, what you think?” Dum-Dum asks as he returns the bot to its case.

“Exactly what we’re after, we’ll take it.” 

“Preem, sure, yeah,” Dum-Dum puts the control shard back in the case, “let’s see your cred.” 

“Brick already got paid for it.” 

A metal boom rings out, those words snapping Royce into action as he punches his fist against the door. Stomping forward and Dum-Dum jumps, rushing off the table as Royce marches towards V. 

“Brick got it…heh,” the red shine of metal, a gun pressed to her head, “I don't see any fuckin' Brick around here, do you?!”

“Fuck Brick then, lets cut a new deal,” she doesn’t hesitate, refuses to flinch or show fear. 

He presses the gun in tighter, leaning down into her face, the red optic nearly blinding. So close she can see the scars around the tech and just deeply imbedded they truly are, He lets out a low hum as he leans in, testing her and she doesn’t pull away, doesn’t break eye contact. Then he pulls back. 

“Hah! Now that's good business sense! All right, you want the Flathead? I better see some eddies.” 

She reaches into her left pocket. She would have done this clean, would have paid and been on her way. But Royce wanted a fight, wanted to put iron to her head and try to shake her down. So, she’ll burn his whole goddamn operation to the ground. 

“Got them right here,” she hands him the credchip. 

“Just like that? Without battin' a fuckin' eye?! Hahah!”

“Need the bot, just take the cash and hand it over, no trouble needed.” 

“Look at this fuckin' girl scout! You know all your knots, got all your badges?! Hahaha!”

“Hilarious, you want the money or not?” 

“Y'know, ya never did say who sent you, never did say who you're workin' for?” 

“Yes, yes I fucking did, Dex.” 

“Dexter DeShawn… The lard ass who punching-animal-fucked half of Pacifica? Mean he ain't dead?”

“Swear to god, I’m going to blow my own brains out before you can! You want my fucking money or you want to bore me to death?” 

“Fine,” he starts to grab the chip when there’s a shake in metal, a rumble and an alarm starts to blare. Walls of the factory shake, the faint sound of gunfire. 

“What the…? Shit Militech!” Dum-Dum yells out, they must have known the corp was on their tail. 

“Rusty fucking cunt,” Royce curses and the Maelstrom members start to rush out and V moves; grabbing the Flathead case and stuffing it into her backpack as soon as eyes aren’t on them.

“Shit, Militech got antsy” Jackie tells her over the alarm. 

“Who gives a shit, we got-” 

“Hey!” Dum-Dum yells back at them, from a higher platform, and for a moment she thinks he’s going to fight them for the bot, “lets get the fuck out of here, follow me.” 

Her and Jackie exchange a look, V just shrugging, if he wants to help out why not. V quickly climbs up the yellow ladder up to the platform, following behind Dum-Dum, Jackie not far behind her. Dum-Dum opens a door and it opens into what a room with consoles and the stench of meat hanging in the air. 

“Ay, huele feo, this meat! Ack.. I can taste it,” Jackie sounds like he’s on the verge of puking his guts up. 

“Production line, besides, thought you liked meat?” 

“We'll ride the line. Flip it on.” 

V follows behind Dum-Dum, climbing up a set of crates and onto a scaffolding. The production line is blocked, unmoving in years she’d assume. But on a console is a large red button lined with yellow, she punches it and metal sheets moves from the way, production line whirring to life as red lights color the metal passageways.  Dum-Dum jumps across the small gap and climbs down the ladder. 

“Hey, Doo Dum or whatever your name is, why you even helpin' us??” Jackie asks as V jumps the little gap and platforms but skips the ladder, jumping down the short distance. 

“I'm not. Helpin' myself. Soon as the shootin' starts, I got two walkin' bullet sponges with me. Sponges who'll shoot back.” 

The three walk through the narrow corridor, production line billow steam at them as the pathway opens up to another raised section of scaffolding, a section of it missing and allowing them to drop through and down onto another that surrounds a large hangar, gunfire rings out. Malestrom and Militech soldiers screaming at one another. 

“C’mon let’s go!” 

“You say come on one more time!” 

Dum-Dum rushes down the platform and into the thick of it, quick to fight alongside his fellow Maelstrommers. And god, she’s not a fan of the gang, but watching soldiers with military grade armor and equipment trying to shoot down the group of mini-borgs… Maybe she just hates corps that fucking much.  They could sneak out, let Maelstrom and Militech tear each other part, run with the bot and the eddies. 

“That whackjobs got no chance,” Jackie says, “maybe we give ‘em a hand.” 

“Lets.” 

And she jumps the banister of the platform, landing clean onto a Militech soldier’s back and extends her Mantis Blades. They slice cleanthrough his neck and he goes limp underneath her, bleeding onto the production floor.  V is up the next instant, running full charge into another man’s chest, knocking him off his center of gravity, landing on his chest and stabbing her blade through his heart before he can throw her off.  Back on her feet and fighting in the next moment. 

There is no stealth here, no technique or strategy, just kill or be killed. She moves quick, swinging a blade up to slice a soldier navel to throat. Bringing a blade clean down into another’s shoulder. Takes another’s legs out and they slice clean off, the tactical armored clothes like butter to the Mantis Blades. 

A Militech boot lands square on her chest before she can slice through them, the kick knocks the air from her lungs, staggering her backwards Her head collides with a metal door, Mantis Blades retracting as she hits the ground. The Miltech worker points his gun at her. But before his finger can pull that trigger, a machete is brought down into the junction between his shoulder and neck, ripped back out in a spurt of blood. The man goes down, Jackie behind him. 

“Got you, chica.” He says, pulling her up, a layer of blood has started to stick to both of them. And as she gets to her feet, she catches a glimpse through the window in the door. Bright red lights of servers, a large computer. 

She looks past Jackie into the room, a large swath of Militech agents taken down. Maelstrom still battling the few left in the area. She doesn’t know what will be waiting for her when she breaks through, Meredith’s promise of seeing her soon if V pulled anything like this. 

“C’mon,” V opens the door and quickly yanks Jackie into the server room. 

“The hell are you doing?” 

“Want to check something, bargaining chip, just in case,” 

Blood coated fingers swipe open the computer screen, pulling up the messages and files Maelstrom has saved. A message named Transports- LOA catches her eye, any Nomad worth their salt knows LOA is used by corps who intentionally “lose” their cargo.  She opens it, the message from Anthony Gilchrist telling one of the gang members how to get their hands on the convoy. Meredith has her mole.  V jacks into the console and downloads the fill to her neural implants. 

“What’s up?” 

“Militech rep wanted to find her mole. She tries to get payback, I got intel,” V jacks out of the terminal, “lets go.” 

They rush out of the server room and throw themselves back into the fray, slicing through Militech soldiers, as if they were never gone. V goring a soldier with both blades as Jackie blows the brains out of the last one. 

Dum-Dum leads them through the rest of the plant, turns and curves and stairways, a maze of metal. The three cutting their way through Militech soldiers one body after the other, clearing the room after room. Until they open a door at the top of a stair case, showing what may have once been a massive garage portion of the plant. 

“I’ll melt your fuckin’ skin off!”  Royce screams and laughs from inside a Militech armored exoskeleton, using it to fire off a massive gun that bursts flames around the feet of the soldiers. They shoot and fire at Royce along with a large automated robot

“We gotta help him!” Dum-Dum yells out, rushing into the fray to help his boss, Royce cackling as the soldier try to shoot him. 

“He's fuckin' happy! That's almost contagious!” Jackie laughs, him and V jumping in to help. 

Dum-Dum, Jackie, and V focus on the soldiers; trying to get their fire off of Royce, so he can focus on the heavy duty robot blasting back at him. Pure reflex as bullets fly, blades slash, and body after body falls down at their feet. Chaos, adrenaline; Royce’s manic cackling making them want to laugh too. Last bit if human soldiers down,  Its all on taking down the hulking robot that, it’s armored outside burned and damaged, but not destroyed by the heavy fire Royce blasts it with. V sheaths her blades within her arms, getting her gun from it’s holster and firing round after round into the tech. Jackie and Dum-Dum do the same; five guns, it sputters and sparks, one finally piercing the core of its circuits. The heap of metal collapsing. 

“Khe. The hell're you still doin' here...?” Royce scoffs when he sees Jackie and V are still there. 

“Helping, apparently,” V signs in response, she doesn’t expect much in the way of gratitude. But a little acknowledgement that her and Jackie did a lot of heavy lifting here would be nice. 

“Take your fuckin’ bot and go.” 

She was going to anyway, not caring about nor needing his permission to steal what they need, but the fact that he’s giving it to them is not lost on V. Maybe it’s his own odd way of showing gratitude for helping tear through Militech soldiers. Or maybe he’s just too tired to give a fuck. 

“I'll walk 'em out,” Dum-Dum offers.

“You here to kick our asses out” 

“Huh? No. Wanted to let you know I like your style,” he points them down a hallway, a door marked exit, “here you go.” 

“Can’t fucking believe that guy,” Jackie grumbles as him and V start out the towards the exit. 

“What is your problem with him? First the couch and now this?” 

“Don’t like the fucker’s tone,” Jackie says opening the exit door, “guy rubbed my dick the wrong way.” 

“Well, maybe you should stop letting random dudes rub your dick,” V teases him for his choice of words as they finally get a breath of fresh air, well, as fresh as Night City air gets. 

“Fuck- oh shit.” 

“Oh fuck.” 

Outside the All Foods gateway is Meredith Stout, surrounded by Militech marked vans and a handful of guards. They block the only exit, standing between the mercs and their vehicles. Meredith’s eyes land squarely on V; lips pulling back in a sneer, eyes brimming with contempt. 

“That the Militech bitch?” 

“Un-fucking-fortunately.” 

“You.” Meredith all but snarls, glaring V down as the mercs walk closer, standing before the corpo. 

“Me.” 

“Hmm, bet you didn’t expect to see me here, did you? Thought you could fuck me over, kill your tail and you could just do whatever you wanted?” 

“You gave me a spiked chip, were going to leave me cleaning up Militech’s mess. You tried to fuck me over first.” 

“And somewhere at the start someone fucked the corp, but in the end the corp always wins. Try as hard as you want, all you’ve done is proven I got nothing to lose by getting rid of you.” 

“Oh but you do,” V’s word make Meredith’s eyebrow raise, “I mean, if you want to know who your mole is.” 

“You know?” 

“Yeah, Maelstrom was so busy trying to fight off your men, didn’t even notice me looking through their computer. Got the file on me, could send it to you, but if you’re just going to kill me, not much point.” 

“Send the file and I’ll let you go.” 

“And how do I know you won’t blow my brains out the second it goes through?” 

“You don’t, but you do know I’ll kill you if you don’t send it.” 

V rolls her eyes and her mask interface lights up as she sends the data to Meredith; the corpo woman’s eyes glowing a bright blue light as it transfers. 

“I fucking knew it,” Meredith blurts out, “Gilchrist you sack of shit.” 

“We good?”

“I got what I needed… you know, this was pretty clever of you.” 

“Was it?” 

“Throw me off, get me to attack the plant, get Maelstrom on your side, but get the info to keep Militech happy too. Bet you’re ten thousand eddies richer and got your bot, didn’t you?” 

“Maybe.” 

“Mind like that, maybe a couple years down the line, you could be standing where I am.” 

And V’s stomach churns, her actions being compared to corporate skullduggery and backstabbing. V did what she had to and in the end she didn’t side with the corp. She bites the inside of her lip and she glares through her mask at the corporate cunt. 

“Think I’d rather ride a sandpaper dildo, actually.” 

Meredith scoffs, “let them through.” 

The sea of Militech soldier parts; the two mercs allowed to walk through. Jackie all but collapses, leaning against his motorcycle, there’s still blood sticking to his hands. She’s still coated in a heavy layer herself. 

“Not going to lie, wasn’t sure we’d make it out of that one. But, hey; no begging, no debt, eddies in a pocket and we got the bot. That’s the way to do biz, V.”

“We make a good team, plus I’m starting to think we’re just really lucky.” 

“Ain't you a ray of sunshine. But, V, it ain't a matter of luck. You decide, chica. Remember that, part of why I love this town. The city of endless opportunity. And brotherly hate. But if you got the cojones and know how to use ‘em, you can do damn near anything.”

“Or die trying.” 

“Even then you go out with a bang! And the street'll talk, the street'll remember. Win-win.”

“Rather the street talk about me while I’m alive to hear it, but maybe that’s just me; so what next?” 

“Call up Dex, let him know we got his bot for him.” 

V does just that, pulling up Dex’s contact and calling him, patching the call into Jackie’s too. Her friend’s optics glowing as the holophone rings. Dex answering after just a moment, puffing away on a cigar in the video panel. 

“How're things lookin’, Miss V?”

“Managed to grab the bot.” 

“And how’d it go? Run into any trouble? And what about the Militech angle, Bug told me you hacked some sort of cred chip?” 

“Course there was trouble, but ended up not even needing the chip. Was ready to spike Maelstrom, when Militech got antsy. While they were ripping each other’s throats out, we got the bot and an extra ten thousand eddies for our trouble.” 

“You got some balls, Miss V.”

“So, what now?” 

“Now, we get to work on doing the job I hired you for- grabbing that biochip. Get some sleep, you and Jackster. Because tomorrow, we start prepping for the real heist. Have a car picking you up in the morning.” 

With that, the fixer hangs up, Jackie and V exchanging looks. 

“What you think he’s got in store for us?” 

“I don’t know, we’re gonna have to play corpo to get into that hotel, should be interesting.” 

“Either way, I’m off for the night,” Jackie says, climbing onto his arch, “hasta luego, V.” 

She waves him off, watching him drive off down the streets of Night City. Her body and mind feel tired, limbs heavy and still caked with blood. But, she’s not sure how well she’ll sleep tonight. Nerves and excitement, there’s no telling what tomorrow will hold.