#it probably says something about me that im more interested in normal citizens like the ones ive drawn than like. the city-state leaders

[thenamesblurrito]

another set of Aventuri mecha! populating this planet slowly but surely

Trionic is utterly unremarkable at first glance. he has no inclusions, scoured from forging. he has no outlier ability, and is in fact completely dull, being susceptible to heat and cold and weakness like very few Aventuri are. for anyone else, this would earn pity or scorn. for Trionic, it earns respect. he is one of the oldest citizens of Divinex, a member of Exosphere's original crew and a survivor of the crash. nowadays he's considered wise, gracious, and a voice of reason among some of the more complicated dynamics of the Divinexi High Court, despite not holding a seat himself. in reality, he was a simple cabin bot before the crash and scrambled to fake it til he makes it as a mentor to a newborn civilization. without anyone older and wiser around, he resorted to trying to imitate what he remembered of Alpha Trion. clearly something paid off, for he's been a good--if secretly frazzled--influence on Divinexi society for generations

Alpenglow has been trying to ignore her discontent with her peers among Valian high society for decades now. it started with a raid, scores of alien ships targeting eastern Nova Spectra. all her life, Alpenglow had been taught Valian ideals of protection, duty, and glory in war. she expected her city-state to act in defense of their neighbors, for the raid was well within reach of Valian's militia, and yet the Prefecture did nothing. as a travel guide and manager of border routes, she saw firsthand what the Spectral refugees suffered as they fled to Valian territory, and as a noblemech she saw firsthand the pity and apathy of her peers. her powerful pyrokinetic ability and important role keeping the airways clear as a flightframe means her social status is all but guaranteed, and her polite but distant attitude combined with her pretty colors and colorchanging alexandrite inclusions makes her alluringly mysterious. and yet, her discontent grows, slowly but surely...

Longlight is a right tough old chap. he's sturdy, clever, quick on his feet, and has a mean right hook. he's also a perfect gentlemech, charming and upright, with many stories of his escapades in the wilds of the Crucible Crests in eastern Valius. right now he's a member of the militia of Fortress Vitus. he has a more relaxed attitude towards the concept of chain of command than the local guard would like, but no one can deny that when he goes haring off after a criminal or a threat, he certainly gets the job done. he is most effective when working with his partner Scopeseeker. the two of them make a deadly sniper team, with Longlight using his blindingly bright outlier power of blazing biolights to pinpoint targets for her with laser precision, or light up the eternal night with more lumens than the sun. even his clear gypsum inclusions refract light in sheets, and everybody can see his roadster alt mode driving down the street from miles away

Scopeseeker is the moon to Longlight's sun. she's quiet, focused, and deliberate, easily fading into the background while he steals attention. she's durable but has no other outlier ability, even though the terrifying precision of her shooting is sometimes considered a power. she used to be a tracker before the militia recruited her, and the isolation of the icy wilds has always suited her better. Longlight is really the only other person in Fortress Vitus she gets along with, despite their differences. her subtle, solid brown diamond inclusions suit her subtle, solid personality quite well. in root mode, she makes a fantastic sniper, especially with her partner's help, but in tankette mode she's nearly unstoppable. it isn't often she has to put her skills to use, but the Valian militia are always reminded of her value when she does

[keeweelyme]

I’m curious abt your thoughts on the phobia bosses if you don’t mind. i always interpreted them with their kinda sexualized monster girl designs as reflecting oersted and/or streibough’s kinda misogynistic views towards alethea where they put her on a pedestal but are also incredibly ready to turn on her and see her as a monster if she chooses not to love them or fails them in some way. I’m not sure if I can say it’s intentionally written like that, since the game is from 1994 and is sometimes pretty misogynistic itself in how it handles alethea, but that’s kinda how I think abt it. I’m interested in hearing your take :0

(also I love your art and it always absolutely makes my day whenever I see it!!)

i'm glad you brought this up because like a lot of people just don't think about this in regards to the BLATANT hints that streibough was actively gaslighting and lying to alethea while she was still hostage lmao. people blame her for whatever was strei's fault though so im not surprised

but also i really don't think a lot of people process WHAT exactly the phobias are named except for gyno for obvious reasons, that being acrophobia and claustrophobia are Here Too, and the fact that gyno was renamed hygrophobia in the remake's eng ver, note that while this gets a bit into hc territory i kind of think about lal too much to really not get into that a bit, and also for like 5 years i was the only one who thought about these girls more than people who jack off to them

the archon's roost is very blatantly meant to be a mountainous region full of dark corridors and tight spaces. this is probably the most obvious thing the phobias are meant to be, a glimpse into oersted's current mental state about his surroundings. he's terrified of what's around him, and that includes alethea up ahead. however before the remake came out the common consensus was that he was afraid of what alethea would think of him in the current state he was in, or that by the time he found her she'd have turn into something else, or that she would reject him. i do think this is the baseline. oersted's grappling with this growing paranoia and resentment in his heart for the things around him out of fear and anxiety. i think there's just a part of him that knows deep down that she's his last hope against both their wills, and everyone he knows has turned against him already, so why not her too?

however on this note i have basically never heard anyone else online mention how hydrophobia has been used as a shorthand for rabies (stay with me here), aka The Disease That Makes Your Brain Shut Down, causes aggression in animals, causes delirium and hallucination, etc. i know i'm reading too hard into a localization change but i personally saw this as a hint that oersted was starting to lose it before he snapped completely. beyond the paranoia his survival instincts were starting to kick in, hell maybe the phobias are in fact just hallucinations caused by him being unable to rest ever since he was thrown in jail and on the run constantly. maybe the lord of dark was beginning to manifest inside him the moment he stepped into the roost to begin with. maybe he's beginning to blame alethea for his circumstances and knows if she's alive, he'll have to drag her back regardless of her wishes. maybe he's trying to claw his way back to his normal life without realizing he's too far gone. who knows

this one is my biggest reach but execution via falling, drowning, and crushing are some of the oldest forms of killing someone in history. i feel like the most charitable in oersted's favor interpretation is the sinking realization and fear that he's about to die, be it at the hands of lucrece's citizens, at the lord of dark's hands, or at his own if he doesn't find alethea in one piece.

idk this was a bit of word vomit but i feel like people just overall boil this segment of the medieval chapter down to how sexy gyno is, or that they're just monsters like the rest of the chapter, when the medieval chapter + final chapter has a lot of symbolism (a lot of it i will admit accidental) regarding this stuff. msot of it admittedly in my own head but thats why im lalfan bunchofnumbers babyyy

[doomzday-zone]

It's like the thing with William Afton is that he kinda sees his kids as an. Extension of him. His pride and joy and when Davie died he was kinda like, well fuck me that was Thing Number 3 I cared about next to Thing 1 The Springbonnie Suit and Thing 2 The Springbonnie Suit again. Hell maybe his kids isn't even the top ten things he genuinely cares about but to an extent it hurt him in some way. Maybe a bruised ego idfk

I would believe that grief can lead you to doing Nutso things like starting to kill children because what if he killed Charlie out of jealousy, Henry has a kid, I don't. I fucking hate Micheal and David/Evan was the only one that mattered, even though he was being a bit of a helicopter parent to Davie anyways.

Killed Charlie, thought it was fun, does it again, found out some shit about Remnant/Agony and the idea that he could probably bring lil Davie back it was a one two combo for him to just go Insane. I say the thing about Evan/Davie because of the "I will put you back together again" line from FNAF 4

I mean there was also that part in the movie where Vanessa just has a picture of her dad in the suit and her holding Mike's lil bro bro's airplane so that was like. A sick twisted way of him keeping Garrett's toy like a hunting trophy and giving his daughter a "gift" because she's useful to him or something. Btw the Springbonnie suit matters above all else to him I think this is just canon

This man is a sick sick individual but he only really "cares" about his children when they're there to. Feed his big fat ego

That's kinda my take on how much he would remotely care about his kids

I'm sorry it's 2am and if I misconstrued something i wanted to share my own two cents on the topic of Will and his kids. And his murderyness.

Also i've been sending you a few things on anon so I'm just calling myself Ballpit anon as an indicator jdkwjdjw

first YEA def springbonnie is EXTREMELY important to William, people say springbonnie is an extension of him but its more like it literally just IS him. its the vessel in which he expresses himself, a second skin if you will. William afton and springbonnie r intrinsically tied to each other,,

second ermmmm yea im. im not interested in debating whether or not he does care about his kids or if hes capable of loving them r whatever etc etc. i think its obvious he does its just the WAY he does and how people want to protray that thats off and wrong to me. no matter what your opinion of him is you CANNOT put 'normal' principles and whatever onto him it just doesn't fucking work, he doesn't operate on Normal Citizen logic he operates on William Afton logic its just that shrimple to me.

i agree that he thinks of his kids as an extension of him, and most of his thing w even is an egotistical thing. idk how..... i feel about the charlie thing ............ just yet. ik in the books they made william an obsessive over henry and in that context it makes sense but as ive said before: i haven't read them. and i have yet to see where in the game text that he specifically has a weird thing with henry, at least in the same sense, yknow what i mean.

yea im not saying that like, grief cannot push you to do smth that drastic. like at all. im.just saying most people DONT. like as a guy whose unfortunately had quite a few child deaths in the family like, me or my relatives never became child murderers yknow ?!?! hsjshsbdb and besides that i just dont think it was that big of a motivation for william specifically, or else we wouldve gotten more of that part of him in the text ya know. like from what we know his grief, at least in the fandom typical sense isnt that relevant.

and the way its phrased in fnaf 4 too, i will put you back together. not i will heal you r smth, he sees people as objects, akin to machines. im just saying this doesn't SOUND like the average father sad that his human son died, this is like smth youd say to a toy that broke. in THIS CONTEXT, the way most ppl say he cares abt his kids is wrong to me. anyways

also the hating michael thing...... where exactly does this come from............ squints,,, i have onions i could share abt this but ill save it.

but anyways yea, this is basically what i was saying minus a couple of ur points. i think the evan thing is mostly a matter of ego than anything when looking at the games. i thumbs up 👍

[snootsnoot-fiction]

Your Gentleman

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x reader

Word count: 2.5k

Warnings: None really

A/n: My first marvel fic yay!!! I love that it’s Bucky as well☺️ This is a birthday gift for my dear friend who I love @inthatmomentwewereinfinite 🎉🎉🎉 you’re honestly one of the nicest people on the planet, I hope you have the best day you can ❤️

Summary: You haven’t seen Bucky in years…

The life of one James Buchanan Barnes was quite the tragedy. At least for the most part.It was a long, involuntary life, but to say he wouldn’t be the least bit grateful for the majority time skip would be a lie. Oh, there were things “Bucky” Barnes missed of course, but there was plenty to make up for it.

The man thought he would lead a simple life; serve in the war, get married with Steve as his best man, maybe even die of old age. A far cry from the fate that really awaited him, for he found himself being part of the Red Skull’s experiment. An experiment that began his journey as who would infamously be known as The Winter Soldier. 

~~~~~

You were quite the artist to say the least. You lived and enjoyed a fairly quiet life as well. That’s not to say your talents weren’t sought out, for you were also quite the fashion designer. Sometimes you would simply consult. Create and draw up a design for someone else to make. Occasionally you would make the pieces yourself. It was an interesting way of making money, and you were happy to keep living your quiet life - your involvement usually kept secret in some way at your request.

Needless to say, one of the biggest things you ever worked on was the new suit for Captain America. You found his tale fascinating. You knew of the man, but it wasn’t until you heard he was back that you looked into him a little more. Strange things seemed to be happening more often.

The detail of his best friend’s supposed ‘death’ was another thing that interested you, but all anyone could assume was he actually was dead now. It didn’t stop you from wondering though.

You did work on occasion for people such as The Avengers, but aside from that, you were a normal citizen. So to say you were surprised when you caught the eye of Mr Barnes in modern day was an understatement.

Recognising him immediately, you weren’t sure what to do. He looked beyond exhausted, and it was clear to you he was trying to keep his head down. The man carried on, and despite thinking you probably shouldn’t, you followed. The next thing you knew, a cold arm was pinning you against a wall as the one and only James Barnes stared at you. Up close, his eyes looked even tireder, and you could see just how rough a state he was in.

“Why are you following me?” He huffed out. Anyone could see how tense he was. Almost afraid.

“I’m no-one I swear! I just recognised you and got curious… you’re Bucky?” He slowly let you go, but remained tense. “I don’t even know what happened… you look awful…” you frowned slightly as you gave him a proper look. You really had no idea what was going on, but you felt bad for him. Whatever happened to this man, you were glad to not know right now. 

~~ a few months later ~~

You wondered how people would react to finding out about you helping ‘The Winter Soldier’. The thought made you nervous sometimes, but you knew what you were doing to be right. Something in you from the moment you met him told you he himself was at no fault, but of course, not everyone would see it that way.

The day you met him, you had ended up giving him a fresh change of clothes that would help him to blend in more. You had offered more, even a meal, but trust would take time to build, and he didn’t want to stick around you too long. 

‘Too many innocent people…’ was all he muttered before giving thanks and leaving without a word.

‘I’m happy to help…’ you hadn’t been sure if he even heard you, but surprisingly it wasn't long before you saw him again; with time, the two of you built a sense of trust. Bucky would never stay too long, but when he did you would allow him to use your own facilities if he needed, You would make him a warm meal almost every time, and give him another fresh change of clothes if he needed them.

Trust takes time though, and you didn’t know much of the story of why he was even here. You didn’t want to push or pry, but you couldn’t help but wonder sometimes. 

Today was the day you’d learn.

The old soldier hesitantly stepped into your home. It always made you frown a little to see just how hesitant he was; whatever it was he was hiding from, you wish he didn’t have to.

“I know you don’t like to, but I made my sofa up for you just in case-”

“Sofa? The couch?” You went a little red and chuckled nervously.

“Yeah sorry, I didn’t grow up here..” and for the first time, you saw him smile. It was little, but it was there. It made your heart flutter just a bit, causing you to smile.

“I might take you up on that.” His words were quiet as he walked in to see the couch. You had set a single, plump pillow on one end, and laid your biggest blanket over the piece of furniture. Bucky had been so hesitant to talk even one word to anyone, nevermind taking refuge from someone, but he couldn’t even remember the last time he had a nice place or spot to sleep. Not only that, but you seemed genuine to him. Deep down he knew he could trust you. Your smile widened.

“Are you hungry?” At your question, he looked back at you with a small nod. The tired look in his eyes made you want to really look after him, but there was only so much you could do and you didn’t want to startle him.

That night, you sat on opposite ends of the couch as you ate a freshly cooked meal, some sitcom on the TV. Eventually you decided to ask him what had happened to land him here. There was no pressure to answer of course, and you were more than willing to forget you asked if he didn’t yet feel comfortable to tell his story… but he did. You listened patiently and quietly as Bucky talked about The Winter Soldier.

Little did you know just how far you had already fallen for this man.

~~ Avengers Civil War ~~

After hiding for so long, Bucky had to admit there was something refreshing about now being out in the open.Of course, the circumstances were most unfortunate, but whatever happened, he would no longer be in hiding. Therefore he wouldn’t be putting you in any more potential danger. The two of you had grown quite close, and if anything happened to you because of him, well.. he didn’t like to think about it.

People like himself existed and had been used to assassinate King T’Chaka, and now the group his best friend Steve had put together were trying to get to the guy behind all of this. Unfortunately Tony Stark had created an obstacle for them. The old soldier could see that both men were somewhat regretful, but firm in their beliefs. Before he knew it, the fighting had begun.

Bucky and Sam Wilson had hidden in the airport terminal to start when this kid in a red and blue costume came at them. Sam knocked the kid away, so Bucky ran after them, and when he reached them, he saw an opening and threw a chunk of metal at the weirdly flexible kid. Naturally this kid was able to throw it right on back before being tackled by Wilson again.

Reaching the both of them just in time, Bucky ran between them as the spider kid flung himself at Sam, landing both the men in the floor below and his metal arm in some sort of.. webbing. The old soldier hated the fact they ended up in this position because of a child who didn’t even sound as though he had hit puberty yet. That’s when the kid was thrown out the window by the little robot bird.

“You couldn’t have done that earlier?” he growled at Sam, genuinely annoyed with the guy.

“I hate you.” Bucky merely scoffed at the response. They were in the middle of something big, but for a brief moment he found it funny that Steve’s new friend was this guy of all people.

Despite all this, you were still there. In his mind. With everything now in the open, he hoped your part in all of this was still in the dark. He just wanted you safe. To live your life.

~~ present time ~~

To Bucky, it almost felt like his past had repeated somewhat; to skip from one time to the other was confusing and frustrating. At least this time around it wasn’t as far into the future as the last time.

For you, however, it was a lonely experience. With The Snap, you had stayed behind. You lived out those five years. You had found a connection with this older guy you absolutely adored, and then you find out he was snapped out of existence along with half the planet. Lonely was an understatement, especially at the start.

At least he didn’t physically die - a fact you turned out to be grateful for when suddenly all those who had been Snapped were back. Of course, you knew the type of life Bucky led beforehand, so you were still worried, but you hoped with time he would contact you again. That hopefully things had finally calmed down at least somewhat in the world now. 

Meanwhile, in the last five years you had moved to New York. With half the world gone, work had been a difficult adjustment for everyone, and you decided to start your own little business in The Big Apple; a prime area for you. It was just a little fashion/clothing business, but it turned out well enough to keep you afloat. Business got quite busy when everyone reappeared. It was stressful at first, but you managed to hire a few other people that helped. You were even able to start taking a little time to yourself occasionally in all due time. Eventually it became the norm.

With business and the world calming down, Bucky Barnes had been on your mind recently. You wondered where he was, if he was alright.

You were in your store. It was a weirdly calm day today, so you sat on a chair behind the main cash register. You heard the door open, but by the time you looked up, the person had disappeared behind one of the clothing racks. You thought about keeping an eye on them, ready to get up if it looked like they needed assistance.

“I got ‘im.” One of your workers said from behind you, offering a smile as she walked past you.

“Thanks.” You smiled back, watching her hover near whoever the customer was before looking back down at the book in your hands. You seemed to get quite into the book, because before you knew  it, a shadow stood over you, but you didn’t notice until he spoke.

“Hey..” the voice caused your heart to stop as your ears perked and a weird yet pleasant shiver flew down your spine. You knew that voice. You knew eventually you would see him again, but it was still a surprise.

Slowly, you closed the book, and your eyes dragged up until they were on that same face you had last seen way over five years ago now. His hair was short now, but it was him alright. It was Bucky.

The man offered a small smile and wave as you stared at him. You had no idea what to do.

“Uh.. this your place?”

“Yeah…”

“You’ve done well.”

“I’ve had a lot of time.” Your responses were automatic. Your mind was blank.

“Uuhh..”

“Bucky?” You stared at him with wide eyes, your voice triggered a slightly wider smile on his lips as he nodded.

“It’s been a while.” His words made you scoff loudly.

“You’re telling me!” The both of you chuckled. The last five years had felt so long for you, but the two of you were already falling back into your old dynamic.

“... Listen Y/N.. all that old stuff.. The Winter Soldier stuff… it’s gone now.” His words made you smile for him. You knew how much his past had troubled him. You doubted it was completely out of the way, but you knew what he meant.

“No more hiding?”

“No more hiding.�� Bucky smiled, a look of genuine relief on his face.

Just then, a group of teen girls walked in and your smile disappeared for a moment.

“I’m at work. I’m the boss but I still gotta work, we can’t..”

“I know a place we can go to later if you want? Catch up?”

“I’d love to! I close up around six today, we can go after then.”

“Perfect! I’ll come back and we can walk there together.” You smiled and nodded, too shy to say anything else right now. Bucky smiled before turning around, looking back at you as he opened the door to leave. You gave him a little shy wave.

You spent the next few hours constantly thinking about Bucky and finally being able to see and talk to him again. Excited was an understatement. You were happy. Bucky was back. You were always too shy to say anything about what you felt, but absolute adoration was another understatement when it came to that man.

The clock had finally struck six. Your employees were now leaving, and you decided to check the store, make sure everything was alright before closing up. The same employee that had helped out earlier that day came up to you as you picked up your things.

“Your gentleman caller is waiting outside.” She had a knowing smile on her face. She even seemed kind of excited and she stood there and waited as you blushed.

“Thank you..” you attempted to avoid her gaze as you packed the rest of your things in your bag.

“I’ll tell him you won’t be long.” At that, you offered her a smile before she left and you took a moment to relax before following.

Bucky wasn’t right there as you left through the front, but when you turned back around after shutting and locking the place, there he was just a couple feet away from you. A small flower bouquet in his hand. Your heart melted at the sight.

“I know you’re not much of a flower person, but I wasn’t sure what else to do.. You know… with the time gap and all.. But these are your favourites.” Bucky looked almost nervous. You shyly stuck your hand out to take the bouquet, your fingers brushing against his as you did.

“They’re perfect, thank you.” A small smile tugged at your lips again as you looked at them before looking back to the man in front of you.

“I’ve missed you Y/N.”

“Me too.. You that is! I’ve missed you, not myself.” You blushed as Bucky chuckled at your flustered self. He then held out an arm.

“Shall we?” You hesitated before taking hold of his arm with your free hand, a feeling of happy warmth washing over you.

“We shall.”

Tagging; @blondekel77 @book-hoardingdragon @mandosmimi

[raventrigonsdaughter]

I was looking into RE8 lore and i noticed something about Alcina. We, as a fandom, just generalized Alcina to be a noble woman and freaking RAN with it when... she wasn't? Thanks to a translation made from the japanese version of the game we have a more complete look(even if still not much) on how the process took place, know she was turned at 44 and that Miranda started experimenting after the 1910's, we also know Alcina was the 181th subject she infected with the cadou, that she had a congenital blood disease(most likely porphyria) all of those things we already knew, the difference comes now, while most translations simply says she's "of noble descendance" the japanese version makes it more explicit she is "the descendant of a FALLEN noble" and follows saying she's not from the village AND says that she's able to control her mutation which i found very interesting but that's a can of worms we should open only after this.

Now, and i will need someone to tell me off if im wrong, while i don't think she was your average romanian citizen in the 30's or 40's when she was most likely infected i doubt she was raised as or even had any type of connection to nobility... It feels more and more like she was just a normal woman living her life at the time, VERY likely as a jazz singer and DEF sickly due to her disease(And that's very likely the reason she accepted/was convinced to be one of Miranda's test subjects)

As you can tell its not a deep analysis lmao, im just curious as to why we were so quick to say she was a noble woman when she probably became "noble" only after Miranda made her a Lord.

[kingzephy]

Man. I just keep thinking about Dead Souls and how much I fucking love it. Im just gonna ramble about it under the cut

Im not finished w it yet im almost finished but. Its so criminally underrated and it sucks that it hasnt gotten a proper good localization or port that isnt janky and laggy. I dont regret buying or playing it in the slightest.

Yeah its absolutely got some issues and I could talk about them for a long time, but it scratches this itch for me that I just cant explain well. I love it. I love cheesy campy media thats so bad its good which is honestly a big reason why i like it. It doesnt take itself too seriously at all. In a way it almost reminds me of some games I grew up playing, like re4 and house of the dead in a sense. Its really nothing like those games but you know what I mean

I actually dont mind the controls too much (though to be fair I had to switch to the type b control scheme and that feels better to me). Not being able to do the auto aim and walk at the same time doesnt bother me as much as i thought it was going to but it’s probably cuz im used to that from re4. Thankfully theres multiple aiming modes which makes up for that and you can walk around with the strafe aiming which is actually mostly accurate and feels good to use

Some of the weapons like Majima’s shotgun or Ryuji’s gatling gun especially are really satisfying. Even if theres a few enemies in particular that drive me insane (the monkey boys and especially the molotov cocktail zombies are so annoying they are the bane of my existence) overall i dont have too many issues w the combat aside from. Heat snipes being difficult to trigger sometimes, the auto aim can be a little glitchy every now and then, and occasionally getting overwhelmed by hoards of zombies but thankfully theres good weapons and attacks for that. I like that they included shit like chainsaws and flamethrowers

I love all the characterization they squeeze in for Majima and Ryuji especially, Its always great getting to play as Majima of course and I kinda think hes at his best in this game in some ways for several reasons, despite the weird localization. Hes just out there living his best life and I love that for him. Its good getting to see him like. Actually kinda happy for once. Its always nice getting to see him interact with characters like Akiyama. AND it was good getting to see more Akiyama and Hana together ofc

I really love the hostess conversations and the nonchalant and casual banter, I eat that shit right up. So much interesting dialog. I really enjoy the substories quite a bit, some of them more than others but i love how they poke fun at certain tropes. Theres a few real stand out ones. The main story is enjoyable and funny in a ridiculous way, even if the pacing can be weird and the plot is objectively not done well but I love it anyway for its cheesy edginess. Theres a few scenes that have really stuck with me. I think its funny how a lot of the citizens are in denial or are straight up just unaware of the outbreak and act like life goes on like normal which is something that I think. Aged well. Given the current state of the world rn

As a fan of other survival horror games its fun seeing the very obvious references to other games and such (L4D, RE, etc). I like getting to see Kamurocho in a state of complete disarray, I think the idea of separating the unaffected areas and the quarantine zones is smart and a cool idea so theres not constant zombies everywhere, the game gives you a bit of reprieve (even if it means theres some backtracking and taking the long way around things sometimes). I like how the zones move and change over time as the story progresses and more areas get infected.

Anyway. I dont really care if a piece of media is objectively good as long as Im personally having a good time and having fun w it and I can definitely say Ive had fun. If I wasnt a yakuza fan I can tell you for a fact I would not like this game but. I dunno. I am not immune to its charm. If youre a big yakuza fan and you haven’t played it I recommend at least checking it out on an emulator or something

[amazingphilza]

DSMP!OC HEADCANNONS

i dunno if ppl on here make dsmp!ocs for themselves outside art but here’s my long list of headcannons?? idk what to call this, but assume all names have c! before it ofc :]

,, this is kinda messy & probably has a lot of plot holes but i just needed a space to write out all my thoughts LOL

also cw / ment of manipulation & ib: dsmp wiki <3

character origin :

previous life was the l’mantree :D

allegedly planted by schlatt, we will never know who’s my canonical parent(s)

reborn as a dryad after niki burns the l’mantree

i think being a dryad would fit especially since they’re typically nymphs of oak trees :]

appearance :

my character’s mc skin has long light brown hair & is seen wearing a flower crown with petals that are around the color of a pale violet and navy blue

clothing would consist of black shoes & a long light grey sweater that falls down to the legs and covers most of the hands which adorned with 2 black stripes on the upper arms

lore / history :

since my past life was the l’mantree, i would’ve known the ins and outs of the history when l’manburg was still standing, up until niki burned the tree

after witnessing everything, i’d hold a grudge on niki (+ allies?) and loyal to wilbur since he’s the whole person that made a meaning of the land of l’manburg

however i’d still be on edge w any side because i could sympathize with everyone to some extent after seeing some sort of distress from everyone at some point

i think seeing both sides of the spectrum when l’manburg/manburg still stood could change my perspective of some other characters

but at the same time, not everything was completely centered in l’manburg so i wouldn’t know the whole story of everyone’s character

i’m currently writing this just after tommy has left the prison & mostly everyone is treating him differently, so i’d try to befriend him by not showing that i dont care about his past & trauma but also not being fully faithful about our friendship ahaha,,,

he seems like the type that needs someone to see through his past history but tommy would definitely disapprove of my character visiting dream at the prison (i would do it anyway :))

vowing my current life to wilbur, i would help dream escape to revive wilbur & follow along with their plans of chaos

i don’t fully support dream but he is the only way to wilbur, making me comply with dream’s decisions

“growing up” in my past life and witnessing endless conflict, it is the only thing i know and understand; chaos

but i think during the process of helping dream & wilbur i’d keep my connection with them secret, being the person to obtain all the inside information they need

i could see myself as a type of equilibrium like ranboo but in a bad way, i don’t know how to explain it

but i would try befriending ranboo since he seems like he is involved in many things and would know a lot, despite his short term memory

unfortunately i’m not sure how much his character actually knows since i haven’t been able to watch his pov that much but i’m sure there’s a lot in his memory book...

to blend in as a normal person within the rest of the characters, i’d surround myself with connor a lot

not only because he needs more lore, connor is one of the “normal” citizens of the smp so i believe being with him doesn’t bring as much attention to myself, unlike people that’s related to the egg and their noticeable features after associating themselves with the egg

he is currently only on bad terms with techno which is rly good when comparing that to other characters and their relationships with other people

connor could probably sense my real intentions eventually & tell everyone else that i’m not who i say i am but if that’s my flaw & my downfall is caused by connor, so be it! sorry dream & wilbur

i feel like for being a young dryad, i’d still fool around with dream/wilbur & help give tommy an small “advantage” to defeating the two ?

like yes i’m supposed to be on your side but where’s the fun if tommy can’t do anything to begin with?

i honestly don’t know if wilbur was revived he’d actually be his vassal but let’s assume that happens, but either way i’m with wilbur on his decisions

but ya dream seems like the type to punish me for helping tommy and send me to the afterlife to learn & become smarter like wilbur had done or smth

in the end, i just want to give tommy bits and pieces that tease him from ending all the wars and problems he has been faced with

like here’s some info about dream and wilbur but it won’t be no where close to enough

but who knows, ghostbur said ‘villains are just heroes that aren’t convinced yet’ & maybe tommy could eventually grow on me & change my ways,,

maybe me fooling around & teasing tommy with answers he’s been searching for is a way to mask that i want to be a good person

ok but imagine after knowing so much about dream/wilbur, the revive book, & the afterlife & then i switch sides,,,

surely if tommy can’t put and end to them, dream would make sure i’m gone for good instead

but also if me & connor are in good terms & he’s canonically a necromancer & can bring ppl back to life,,,,

personality :

to all besides dream & wilbur, i’d try to act passive and friendly on the outside to get on everyone’s good side

however under the mask i am more mischievous & strive to cause more problems for everyone on the server from the inside out

in a way, i’ve taken up some of dream’s manipulative personality but still very understanding

i’d like to think of my character as a good listener,, trying to do less talking than others so i do not open up about my true self and intentions

i’ve seen rumors about schlatt & mexican dream also being revived along with wilbur & i feel like i’d have some soft spot for schlatt & pick up a few things from his own character, not sure what though

schlatt planted l’mantree theory, dad!schlatt au part 2 !! /j

because of my character’s closed off and quiet personality, i feel like i’d be pretty analytical

i would know how to slip between the cracks with some characters & notice the smallest things to make them question themselves

maybe my character is good at holding their composure, and not that susceptible to being “emotional” in a way so it’s easier to face people

like i understand when a situation is sad, etc but i can’t show emotion towards how i feel about it (i don’t know if that makes sense but ya!)

i wanna try to elaborate more,, like imagine my character before tommy visits the prison, i would be unfazed from when i found out he died to the point he’s released and we find out he’s been revived

everything is a constant blur hehe

i just can’t fully process everything i guess? i dunno if that’s helpful but yeah!

in the end though, my moral compass has been very tainted; despite wanting to show my loyalty, it can be slightly easy to sway me, making me internally feel guilty to other people

but me trying to get on everyone’s good side to impress wilbur/dream to seem useful to them would ruin me before i would even realize that i’m another “pawn”

we know damn well dream is faking it till he “makes it” but yk,,

but i’d be stuck in this kind of dilemma of not knowing what thoughts are my own or just something trickled down from wilbur or dream

there’s like maybe something that clicks in my head like “maybe i wanna think for myself for once” or smth

like who am i really?

powers , bonuses , etc :

since dryads can technically manipulate plants in some ways, theoretically i could control the blood vines to some extent ???

i’m pretty sure dryads can communicate with plants so i could understand what the blood vines are saying as well

maybe i could get a good sense of what the egg is all about and stuff

assuming that i understood anything that was happening with the egg in the first place but anyway—

i guess similar to ranboo like how he can’t really be around water without some type of amour or something, it would make sense for me to primarily reside in a type a forest or be near one ?? who knows

seems a bit morbid in a way because of the whole history but if i can somehow easily get rid of the blood vines without it affecting me (if there is still some there) i think it would be kinda pretty to build a tree base in the middle of the l’manburg crator (iskall tease)

like it can show a sign of some rebirth, not the same government repeated once again but a new era in general

you know how you see like destruction years after it the disaster or smth happened and it gets all overgrown with plants and stuff? ya that’s what i’m going for in my head (mumbo jumbo s7 tease)

i know it’s covered in glass already but i dunno, some broken glass and a giant tree emerging from the whole thing and all the rubble seems cool

i’m not a good builder but i have the vision LMAO

omg puffy is like a sheep human hybrid im pretty sure & like there’s a specific type of dryad that are a protector of sheep & other animals?? i’m not exactly sure but that seems like an interesting element to incorporate somehow

also glatt randomly planting a oak sapling in quackity’s lore stream yes pls feed my nonexistent dsmp character lore /j

i honestly dunno how to incorporate the fact dryads can turn shapeshift into trees when trying to escape something but i read something that if a dryad stays in a tree form for too long they’ll forget who they are and stay stuck as a tree?? which like woah that’s cool & some material but at the same time what—

since everyone’s backstory is kinda a mess, mr beast parent tease bc he planted a bunch of trees /hj

i have realized wilbur saying like “the whole reason i built this nation is gone” & blowing up everything or whatever is kinda a plot hole in like ‘why would i follow wilbur if/when he’s revived when he said this?’ but i’d like to think he was the one that made some meaning of the area lmanburg was on, which includes the lmantree

like he was the one that started everything and created that sentiment of that land, and however he views it now is how i would see it now

he gave meaning to my past life and now in my current life, i feel this obligation to repay him for it

not really lore bc i think it was cc!tommy talking to cc!ranboo about his height & age when he first joined but yk it would funny to make my dsmp character than his just to slightly spite him anyway

canonically 6’4 dryad yes . /hj

also i have no idea anything about hannah and her lore but we do be flower buddies :D

also omg like this isn’t at all important but the way ranboo can pick up grass blocks will just have me at awe, i dunno seems in theme with the forest/plant stuff

and i remember reading like there was something about dryads and apples but i can’t remember but i’d give tommy a bunch of apples /hj

apples am i right chat,,,,,

i’ll just have infinite apples in my inventory, like kill me in game, not like losing lives kinda deal but just in general and boom stacks of apples

“bee i get you’re half tree but do you just poop apples out like they’re nothing??” “girls don’t poop” /j

ok but like no matter how many streams i watch i cant grasp where everything is but omg but no if i was new to the server & stuff, canonically & not, i would feel my character to be the curious kind to explore everywhere

like besides a mini tour from some other person in the server, since my character only knows things in the bounds of lmanburg, i’d go off exploring different places like pogtopia, the sewers, showchester, etc

i feel like my character would be really into history, like they would have questions about what happened to lmanburg after the last war? what was life like before wilbur? what was the whole history about the antarctic empire? i dunno but reading a bunch of books from a library seems really interesting

oh but in theory, me and tubbo are loosely related if you wanna count schlatt as my “dad” because he supposedly planted the lmantree ???

i mean could make sense but it seems like a stretch

also if my character ever got close to schlatt, i’m not sure if this is canon, but i swear one time he mentioned how the whole dsmp sever is just a game/server in a game & he’s the only one that knows that ??? but like imagine if i found that out canonically,,,,,

big existential crisis pls

and i’m not 100% sure how dryad shifting works with like going from female to tree form and stuff but if i’m able to morph into different girls on the server & act as them,,,, the about of problems that can cause in the lore omg

lemme frame niki real quick and get inside information /j

oh ya and like hey bee do you support the government then? yes but no. whatever my “fav” person is canonically (assuming this is based in the beginning of this whole hc) whatever wilbur thinks, i think. head empty. but subject to change as the dsmp storyline progresses and stuff :]

ngl i wanna throw in some like random lore that doesn’t make sense to throw people off but i can’t think of anything

not actually really lore related but my choice of stream music like how ranboo has his undertale stuff that makes everyone cry, i will have in love with a ghost

yup i like in love with a ghost sm & i’m pretty sure their music is like not dmca too which yay but yk theoretically never gonna stream on the dsmp but still a fun aspect to think of bc i love listening to music & it’s very impactful to a story & associating something to it makes it more meaningful :D

like i could imagine the chill pop lofi piano stuff fits witha few lore streams of like exploring the whole smp before my character would really go out with being this lost villain in a way?

tubbo’s gangnam style who?

like i feel like i made my character bad/evil so they could have potential to get better in the future

on one hand, i’ll end up w dream and/or wilbur for the rest of my life, which is okay but i could also switch to be with tommy or even disregard all of them and be with techno/phil or quackity & potentially schlatt even who knows

also i cant wait for more connor lore tho, like as much as i tried to make my character give him more content i wanna see how everything goes with him having connections to schlatt & stuff

anyway i would’ve made concept art for my character but i honestly don’t rly like my art currently but who knows LMAO

and lastly if u read all of this ily /p

i might update this later when there’s more lore but ya

[straightouttaneptune]

Partner

Pairing: Natasha Romanoff x Reader

Warning: FLOOF, everyone except Tasha and Y/N is stupid, swearing, guns, fighting, that’s it bb!

Summary: Natasha is assigned a mission with an Agent she doesn’t know. So, she ends up dragging a civilian who she assumes is her partner into a highly-violent mission.

A/N: AHHHHH EVERYONE ITS MY FIRST FIC IN MONTHS IM BACK THANK YOU ALL FOR THE LOVE AND THE PATIENCE!!

—————————————————————

Y/N Y/L/N. You were just another citizen of the planet earth, not an inhuman, not an assassin, not a super, not a mutant and certainly not an Avenger. You grew up in an everyday household, went to school, had decent grades, led a good career, and overall life. 

So... how did you get here right now? To know this, we have to rewind time, to around a month ago.

-11:00 am, SHIELD office 09

"Agent Romanoff, sorry to do this to you." Nick Fury looked over at Natasha apologetically, while she herself remained stoic. "But you know that the rest of your teammates can be... unpredictable." To this, she let out a small chuckle.

"It's not a big deal, I know they can be dramatic." She slid the file on the table, opening it to examine the details of the mission. "Wait, this is a doubles mission?" The surprise was evident in her voice, as she assumed that this would be a one-woman job.

"She's a beginner agent. Don't worry, she's just there for support." Fury stated casually as if he didn't leave out one of the most relevant information. 

"Right, okay, can I meet her?"

"No. She's out at the moment."

"How do you expect me to work with someone I've never met?" Natasha inquired, confused beyond words.

"There's a description! And everything!" Fury defended himself, pointing at the file she held in her hands. At that moment, Natasha could see why he was the leader of the Avengers. Sighing in defeat, she retreated back to the training area.

Y/H/C hair, Y/E/C eyes, around her age, pretty, it probably wouldn't be hard to find this partner. And just like that, her mind wandered away from the mission, to her training regime for the day.

-5:00 pm, Y/N's apartment

"C'mon, Y/N! It'll be so fun, I'm telling you!" Your old uni friend pleaded over the phone, while you balanced the pros and cons of going out tonight.

"Mm, I don't know... I mean, I was going to have a Star Wars marathon." You pouted, glancing at your TV wantingly. Oh, what you'd give to cuddle up with a tub of ice cream tonight.

"Y/N, come on. You can't just couch potato every day." You ran out of excuses to give, reluctantly agreeing to her offer.

"God, I haven't been to a club in forever." You rummaged through your closet, only finding office clothes and comfy hoodies. In the very back, though, you knew that there was a little skimpy dress you used to wear back when you were in university. "... Fuck it. It's just one night."

You closed the door to your apartment with your heart hammering in your chest. You hadn't dressed like this in what felt like forever, you almost forgot how good you looked. Whatever happens, you had your trusty taser gun hidden in your thigh-high boots.

Feeling like an utter and complete boss b*tch, you entered the booming club with your friends in tow. "Y/N! I knew you still had it in ya." You rolled your eyes at one of your friends' comments, but your heart secretly swelled at her words. 

The start of the night was amusing, but as time flew by, your buddies were swooped away by unknown guys and girls, leaving you to drink all alone by the bar. Of course, it wasn't like you didn’t have dance requests and numbers asked, but none of them really interested you.

Natasha had arrived at the club a little later than you did, clad in a spy-dress and spy-shoes with various weapons hidden underneath, inside, wherever there was space. The infamous Strucker was reported to be here in this club tonight, but first, she needed to find her associate.

It wasn't hard to find you, as she assumed that an Agent would be somewhere that was easy to see, unlike the dance floor. So the bar. And luckily, by the bar, there was only one woman who fit the description given to her. You. 

To her surprise, you were way more distracting than she had expected. Your short dress hugged your curves just right, your effortless movements were eye-catching and elegant. And your smile, god. The way you smiled at the bartender made her wish she was him. 

But at that moment, she was an Agent of SHIELD, and she had a job to do.

You were just about to order another glass of your drink when a hand was laid on your shoulder. You looked back to see if it was another flirter, but was taken aback by the gorgeous woman standing there. She had her calloused hand on your shoulder, yet her eyes were not on you, scanning the crowd. 

"Uhm, can I help-" 

"How did you get here?" Natasha recited her code-word, to double-check if it really was her assigned partner.

"With my friends...?" You wondered if you were drunker than you thought, and hallucinating this beautiful woman in front of you, asking weird questions.

But the problem was, "With my friends" was the actual code-word. 

"Good. Agent Natasha Romanoff. I assume you already know about the mission. I've got intel that Strucker's up in the VIP lounge." She gently tugged at your arm and pulled you off of your stool, handing you an earpiece. 

"Oh, um..." You tried to ask this 'Agent Natasha Romanoff' what was happening, but she continued to talk about things you couldn't even start to comprehend.

"Come on, put it on. We might need it." She stared you down, in a quite intimidating manner, that you had no choice but to follow. You really didn't know what was happening, whether this was role-playing or something else, you had no idea. 

You really didn't have much else to do anyway, maybe it wouldn't be that bad to just go with it. You were a little tipsy, but not so much that you could be dreaming about this whole conversation. Maybe it was this woman's way of hitting on you? They say weird things happen in clubs, right? (They don't)

"We have to get through the 4 security details on the outside, plus the 10 estimated to be inside." You watched with your eyes glued to her smooth movements, as she checked her various hidden weapons. You were so entranced that with a little help from alcohol, you managed to completely ignore the fact that this didn't look normal. At all.

"It's fine, I know you just started. Just be on alert, alright?" Although Natasha felt her partner's whole attitude was a little off, she shook it off, reminding herself that she had just started out. "Say, what should I call you?" She asked, starting to walk towards the stairs leading to Strucker's location.

"Oh, uhm- Y/N's fine." You stuttered, suddenly pulled away from a trance-like state you were in. "Right, and where are we go-" 

Suddenly, as the two of you got to the top of the stairs, Natasha shushed you and slammed you on the wall before you made a turn around the corner. Your cheeks burned up at her roughness, and her close proximity to you.

"Okay, I've got visual. 4 men, not an issue. Stay here." She whispered, and before you could even respond, she was out of your sight.

"What the fuck?!" After a few moments, you peeked over at where Natasha had gone, just to be met with a sight of 4 bodies on the floor. You debated whether to just run away while she was distracted, but she had already gotten to you, pulling you by your arm.

"I know this is your first field mission, Agent. But I need support." You had no reason to comply, except for the shiny black gun she held in her hands. Your breath hitched at the weapon, your mouth unable to form words. Telling yourself that this will be over soon, you could only follow. At the very least, she didn’t look like she was going to shoot you.

From there, you experienced something you never thought you would, ever, in your life. As soon as Natasha kicked open the door to the lounge, bullets were flying, kicks and punches were being thrown everywhere, knives flying across the air, and whole lotta things that had you cursing in confusion and fear every 10 seconds. 

Natasha, in the corner of her eyes, saw the panic that flashed across your eyes. She shoved you to the farthest corner of the room, shielding the knives and guns that pointed your way. She usually would’ve been annoyed at an Agent’s lack of experience, but seeing you so small almost hurt her physical heart.

You were curled up by the wall, watching this intricate dance of deadliness. But even though the chaos, the woman, who called herself Agent Natasha Romanoff was like a magnet for your eyes. Her movements, her punches, kicks, even the way she held her gun was so rhythmical and controlled, that you almost forgot you were in the middle of a gun-fight.

That's when it hit you. 

She was a real Agent who mistook you for her partner. 

So when Natasha was going one-on-one and overpowered by who seemed to be the leader of the gang, you only had 2 choices in front of you. Either you run while all the other men are knocked out and the leader is distracted, or you toughen up and help Natasha.

It was perfect. The mafia-looking guy had his back to you, completely unaware that you were even in the room. All rational thoughts went out the window as you heard Natasha choke in his grip. You almost don't remember what you did after that. All you know is that you slid your stun-gun out of your boot, and shot him right on his shoulder. 

You stood still in your spot after that, watching as she cleaned up.

"Thanks for the last-minute save." Natasha's voice sounded like you were hearing her from underwater, your senses dulled from the shock. You fell to the floor, suddenly losing control of your legs. 

"Hey, what's the matter?" She dropped the knocked out and hand-cuffed body of the man on the ground, and ran over to you.

"Agent... I'm not who you think I am." You looked up at her with glossy eyes, not even knowing why you were about to cry.

-a whole lot of explaining later-

"You're a civilian." She fell down next to you, clearly horrified by this new revelation. "I don't even know how to apologize. I'm sorry." She cradled her head in her hands, cursing herself for being so irresponsible.

"Uhm, Agent Romanoff? It's okay, I think." You wiped away your stray tears, cry-laughing at yourself and this whole ridiculous situation. Natasha looked over at you with sympathy filled in her eyes, laying a hand over yours that rested on the carpet.

"Oh god, this is crazy." Natasha couldn't do anything but laugh. The two of you kept on talking and laughing about how today turned out as you dragged the handcuffed body out of the VIP exit, and into her police-car like vehicle. 

You had to let her take you back to her office, to check you for injuries and explain the situation to her boss. You must’ve received at least 50 apologies from the both of them, but you assured them that you were okay.

And... it turns out, not a lot of people can react like you did in a first fight. On top of this, the Avengers were actually looking for a support agent, who stays back at the compound and become that “girl in the chair”. 

And guess how all of that coincidence on top of a coincidence turned out.

That simple night out led you inside a gigantic tower that everyone in New York knew about, where the notorious Avengers lived, the Stark Tower. 

“Hi, my name is Y/N Y/L/N.” 

-a month later-

You felt emotionally fulfilled, looking out at the sight of the living room. When it was just you, it was always quiet, considering you used to lived on your own. But in a short span of a month, you quickly got used to the noisy mornings, the laughters and banters filling the room.

“Hi, принцесса.” You felt a pair of arms slide under your arms, and a small kiss planted on your bare shoulder. You giggled as Natasha twirled you around, sitting you down on the counter as she kissed you.

“Mm, good morning babe.” You whispered back. And in her strong arms, you felt what the people call love, in this fiery assassin. Natasha couldn’t ask for a better partner to share her deepest secrets with, to follow to the ends of the earth, and protect with all she had.

“Tonyyy, Y/N and Tasha are making out on your coffee beansss.” Clint yelled from his place on the couch, an evil smile on his face as Tony ran into the kitchen.

“Not my Tanzania Peaberry Coffee beans!” 

All is good. (?)

(The real Agent got shit-faced and was fired lol)

[hypmicscenarios]

Help

Summary: You are going to help out at a community event that helps displaced veterans get back on the right track. It sounds simple and safe, however, you chose the wrong day to go and help Riou.

Warning: there is slight kidnapping within here, just incase its a touchy subject for people

request for @wenibo, hope you enjoy! as always, can read on ao3

“Alright, here we go,”you said. You made sure that you had your outfit in check, dressing in green clothing to go with the theme. The two of you were going to help volunteer at a center for Veterans to help get them back on your feet. Your job was to help serve and pass out food while the event was going on.

Besides, you knew Riou was going to be in his army uniform to help. You smiled as you thought about how important this was to him. He really cared about anything that had to do with the army. Although, he didn’t really talk much about it. Its not like you could push him though. You knew he was, at least, in the line of someone’s fire. Of course, you also knew what that did to people. If he wanted to tell you, he would. You knew he would.

To be honest, you had wanted to come help out earlier, but your job kept making that impossible. Finally, though, you had managed to get the day off. Right as you were about to put your army denim jacket on, that you had bought recently to go with your outfit, your phone buzzed on your bed.

Riou: I’ll be arriving in about 5 minutes

y/n: Okay!! Im ready

You waited by the door, checking your phone to pass the time until you heard a knock. smiling, you put your phone in your pocket and opened the door, seeing your lovely boyfriend standing there.

“Hey,” you said.

Riou stepped forward and brought you into a hug, kissing the top of your head, before you pulled away and looked up at him.

He smiled down at you and responded,”Hey y/n, are you ready?” You nodded your head and pulled away,”even dressed for the occasion but you still look better than I do.”

Riou shook his head in disagreement,”no, you’re very beautiful,”he said, raising a hand to place on your cheek,”thank you for putting consideration into you outfit.” Your heart skipped a beat and you let out a shy “thanks…”, only because you knew he would continue with the compliments if you didn’t except it.

Not that you didn’t believe him, you did every time he said it. His words had that much power. Riou really was like some prince that showed up at your doorstep. Sometimes you couldn’t believe he was real or that he chose you out of all people.

Despite your insecurities, Riou always somehow found a way to eradicate all of them. He made you happy.

Riou grabbed your hand and spoke,”let’s go.”

You followed behind Riou, holding his hand. As it was only about 15-20 minutes away, you decided to take the train.

Since it was a Saturday, it was a bit packed, so Riou had one hand on the handle as he held you close by your waist. Your face was up against his chest and you held onto him by wrapping his arms around your waist. This also meant that you were able to smell his scent. It smelled like he had just recently got out of the shower and his army clothes had definitely been washed the same day or the day before because you got a whiff of the laundry detergent.

Every so often on the ride, Riou asked if you were comfortable. You were because he made sure that it was. He held you tight and moved around when people were shuffling in and out so that you wouldn’t be hit by them.

Eventually, you had finally made it to your destination and got off of the train.

“Finallyyy, we’re off. It was too stuffy in there,”you said, stretching out your limbs.

Riou apologized,”sorry, If I would have known it was packed, I wouldn’t have suggested that.”

You smiled and spoke,”noo, its fine. I’m used to it, its Japan, there’s not much we can do about it, I’m fine. So, let’s go to the place,”you finished, holding your hand out for Riou to grab. He did, but he also lifted your hand and kissed the back of it,”yes, lets go.”

Riou led the way again and you tried to calm your heart that was beating again because of his romantic gesture. A small smile came on your face as you picked up the pace so that you weren’t behind him, but right next to him.

“It’s nice that you’re doing all of this. I’m glad that I could finally come,”, you said, looking over at him.

“A lot of people aren’t as lucky as me to be able to get back on their feet. We all deal with trauma differently and, for some, it hinders them to be able to live the way a normal person would. I want to help them as much as possible.”, he said, his eyes showed that his words were genuine and that this cause meant a lot to him. Now, it meant even more because it was so important to Riou.

Soon, the two of you arrived at the place.

You were given a nametag and told to write your name on it.

The whole center was filled with green. Some still choose to wear their uniforms, others were in casual clothing, moving about the place. There was a table set up in a line where the food was being prepared and setup, which was where you were instructed to go. You walked over with Riou and met with the person in charge.

Your job was the rice station and Riou was right next to you giving out the fish.

“Right, this shouldn’t be too hard, Its mid-afternoon too, so I’m sure the lot of them must be hungry,”you say as you placed some gloves and an apron on. Riou did the same. You had seen him with an apron on before, but you still would never get over the fact of how cute he looked in one.

You also noticed that Riou was familiar with a lot of the people there. What you didn’t expect, was to meet some of them, Riou introducing you as his significant other. You were even more flustered when you heard that, apparently, they had heard a lot about you. It made you feel nice though, regardless of your embarrassment, that Riou felt proud to be your boyfriend.

Soon, it came time to serve food. You wanted to try your best even if the task was so simple that a 2nd grader could probably do it. Just greet every veteran with a smile, tell them to enjoy their meal. You happily gave some more rice to those who wanted it too. It was all going smoothly until there was one veteran that gave you a weird feeling.

The next person moved in line and he spoke to you,”Nice face you have there, I’d be jealous of whoever got to have you.” He smiled. It was just a compliment, and you had received a lot that day, but from him it was just….it didn’t seem right. But, you weren’t going to to jump to conclusions, so you smiled and spoke,”thank you, would you like rice today?”

The old man chuckled,”are you on the menu? But yes, some rice please.”

You nervously laughed,”ha...ha..no im not but..here you go...I hope you enjoy,”you said. Riou had gone to tend to something else, so you couldn’t even rely on him to get you out of it.

Thankfully, the guy went away soon and moved onto the next person. You sighed internally before you picked yourself up again to serve the next person.

About an hour later, most of the people had been served. You got talking to some of the other volunteers as you stayed, just in case there was any stragglers.

“So Riou huh? You know, we’ve had our eyes on him for a while, but he never seemed to show any interest, what did you do? How did you two meet?”, many of the women questioned.

You laughed,”haha, I sometimes wonder why me too. I'm just an average citizen who works a regular job. Goes out with my friends when I'm not tired or lays around on the couch catching up shows. But….we met in a clothing store. I was on an hour break from work, So I decided to look around. Since my clothes had a name tag, he assumed I worked there, but I helped him out anyway since I frequent that store quite a lot.”

Riou always told you were beautiful and what not, which still made you feel extremely special. When he first told you he loved you, you never questioned why, because the way he said it didn’t leave you a chance to question it. The way he looked into your eyes, holding your hands, smiling at you, almost like he was about to cry. He meant it. You knew he meant it.

So, no, you never asked for a formal explanation. Riou never gave you a reason to ask for one but, of course, when people ask you like this, you felt like you needed to say more than “he just does.”

Riou finally showed back up, apologizing for keeping you. He asked if the two of you could stay a bit longer to clean up.

You chuckled as you looked at him and patted his arm,”Its fine, if they need muscle, you’re the one to call. I can barely carry my groceries up the stairs.”

Riou softly smiled,”its alright, I have enough for the both of us, so you don’t need to worry about it anymore.

“Go ahead and do your thing,”you said,”I can help out here.”

Riou nodded,”thank you, I need to go speak to someone again. Are you fine? Do you need anything? Im sorry we havent been together as much today I can-”

“No no no,”you said and pushed on his back,”all these people are very friendly, go do what you need to do, I will be fine. This day is for the people here, not so we could spend time together so go.”

“Where do these go?”, you asked the people in charge, holding a box of supplies in your hand.

“In the supply closet hun,”an elder woman said to you, then pointing you towards where it was.

You started to walk there, which was fairly easy since it was right around the corner.

However, when you arrived, you found that it was locked. You bit your lip as you spoke to yourself,”is it supposed to be locked...or am I not at the right one? No, they definitely said just around the corner. Hmm….”, you set the box down and went a bit further down, turning the corner.

There were a couple doors, but this was already way past the corner. You decided to ask just to make sure, but all of a sudden you felt a hand cover your face. It was a man. Your body quickly went into an immediate panic as you tried to furiously struggle in the man’s grasp, but he was way stronger than you. He started to pull you into another door, threw you in there, and shut the door.

You barely managed to break the fall with your hands at you looked up,fear in your eyes as you saw who the man was.

“Y...you!..”,you said as you saw the creepy man from before that you had served. Your heart was almost threatening to come up from your throat and you knew you should have stayed calm in the situation, but you were frightened. Your words got caught up in your throat as the man didn’t say anything and you felt tears threatening your eyes.

Just by the way you were so easily taken, you felt defenseless.

“What….what do you want? I-I have a-”, you were interrupted by the man’s voice.

“A boyfriend? I already know. He’s not here right now though…”, he said, the man digging in his pocket and then pulling out handcuffs.

Well….at least it wasn’t a knife...but what on earth could he want with you? Was he just purely crazy or just got his hands on the first victim he could get.

Seconds later, he also pulled out a knife. Maybe you spoke too soon.

There was no way you were going to go out like this.

You tried to open your mouth to scream, but the man pointed a knife at you, glaring,”yell and that's your throat.”

For now, you did as he said, although all you could think about was Riou, secretly calling him in your head. He should notice that you’re gone though….and look for something to defend yourself with. No….your hands would be immobile.  Stalling is also something one should do in these situations right?

Riou please hurry.

“Have you seen y/n?”, Riou asked, peering around and not seeing your face.

“Oh my...not in the last fifteen minutes at least. They were only supposed to go to the supply closet. There's no way it should have taken them that long,” the elderly woman said.

Riou raised an eyebrow,”thanks, I’ll go check, maybe y/n got lost,”he said, honestly hoping that was the case. He shouldn’t be worried, but he had this bad feeling building up in the pit of his stomach.

“Please be okay…”, he muttered to himself as he checked throughout, even entering the restrooms. He called your phone, but it went straight to voicemail, which was highly unusual. Riou knew you would never disappear on him like that without telling him. Something was definitely up, there was no denying it.

He started his search again, this time, shouting your name out, hands to the side of his mouth to make his voice louder and echo more so that, maybe, you would be able to hear him.

After about 15 minutes, he thought he heard what sounded like a yell. He stopped, honing in his sense, when he heard it more clearly this time. It was his name and it definitely came from a voice he recognized. Riou was mostly calm, hoping he would find you safe, but shouting his name was something that he never thought he should reveal to y/n.

It was his trigger.

From his time in the navy, his name being called outloud like that either meant that one of his mates was seriously injured, in immediate danger, or close to death. So, to hear the person he loved, scream his name in such terror, he felt himself going mad. His once calm eyes grew big, he bit down on his teeth, clenching his fists as tight as he could.

Riou arrived at the door that he figured the sound came from, taking out a knife attached to his leg. He managed to pick lock the door, his breath stopping as he saw you with a knife to your neck.

“I told them to shutup, but look who’s here now. Drop your weapon or its your throat.”, the guy said.

Riou quickly dropped his weapon.

“Y/n….just stay calm...you trust me….right?”, Riou said, his eyes calming down a bit.

The guy spoke,”quit your yapping! Now pick up those handcuffs and put it on you.”

Riou, again, did as he was told. He didn’t have a concrete plan. So, he put them on, then getting on his knees, as per the man demands.

Riou spoke,”there, now let y/n go and take me instead. I dont know what your end game is here, but, please, let them go.”

The man pointed the knife away from your throat to Riou,”you better not try anything funny or-AH”

You knew this was your only chance to retaliate, so you bit down as hard as you could on the hand that was holding your neck against him, then made a run for it to Riou.

You ran to Riou who quickly stood and spoke,”y/n! Get behind me.”,he said as he moved in front of you, moving one leg up, kicking the guy in the stomach and sending him back. Now that the man was a bit of distance away, Riou dislocated and relocated hand like nothing as he got out of the handcuffs. This definitely wasn’t his first time doing that.

He gently moved you off to the side, stomping towards the man who was wobbling, holding his stomach, definitely because Riou kicked it. Riou grabbed the man by the collar, threw his knife to the side, and pulled him against the wall. He was a completely different man now from the one you knew. His eyes looked like they were out for blood.

“What the hell did you do to y/n? You have no right to touch them or even put them in danger or even look at them,”Riou stopped as he punched the man at the side of his face, causing you to flinch a little at the smacking sound.

The man was scared already and was starting to apologize, but Riou continued.

“Scum like you are people who dont deserve. If you ever ever-” he said, emphasizing it by clutching the grip of the man's collar tighter, Riou speaking more as if he was growling under his breath,”lay your filthy hands on y/n again, I will not hesitate to end your life.”

The moment Riou punched him again, which knocked him out, you came to your senses. You quickly pulled your phone out and dialed 911, telling them of the situation. Your eyes stayed focus on Riou as he handcuffed the guy and you finally got off the phone.

You placed your phone in your pocket and stared as Riou walked up. Looking down, you saw how his hands were shaking and he looked at you, eyes filled with regret. You bit your lip before you walked and grabbed his shaking hands, holding them. You moved his hands towards your lips and kissed them,”its okay...im safe...and im not hurt…its okay...”, you said, staring into his blue and worried eyes.

He calmed down a bit after hearing that you weren’t hurt and pulled you into his chest, gently hugging you, his voice fragile and soft.

“I was so scared….something happened to you...I dont know what I would do if…i-im sorry I let you…..see that side of me..”,Riou said, trailing off. You started to rub his back, doing your best to relieve his tension a bit,”its okay Riou...im happy that you came to protect me.”

Riou continued to speak,”when you called my name….it reminded me of the time I was in the war. I just...I want to protect everyone. I thought you could die and there would be nothing I could do to save you because….thats just how it was. I couldnt protect everyone.”

You pushed on Riou’s shoulders so you could see his face clearly. He looked away from you, but you placed your hands on his cheeks as you spoke,”hey...look at me…”, you said and waited for him to do so.

“Riou….you’re not superman. Even if you were...that doesnt mean you fail if you can’t save everyone. You’ve already been my superhero multiple times, not just today. Besides, you knew something was up right? When no one else did. You know stuff about me that other people dont...thats why you were searching and that's why you found me. And I love you for that. I love you so much.” you finished off with a small smile, a lone tear running down your face.

You leaned up and placed your lips on his, softly kissing him.

The kiss helped calm Riou down even more, pushing into it, a hand wrapping around your waist. His hand went up to your cheek, wiping your tear away, continuing to kiss you.

Eventually, he pulled away and looked at you,”I love you….I love you a lot. You mean the world to me. I couldn’t be with anyone but you. It couldnt be anyone but you. When I first met you….there was just something that pulled me to you. Other than your kindness or how pretty you are. There was just some part of me that felt like if I let you go without getting your info I would regret. And Im sure I would,”Riou’s thumb lightly caressed your cheek as he softly smiled,”I dont have any regrets being with you. You make my days much more brighter, more than anyone else, y/n, and I love you.”

Your eyes wavered, starting to feel up with more tears. His words just seemed to strike a cord in your heart and you felt every single note that was played. You grasped at his shirt, leaning up to kiss him once again.

A smile came on your face as you pulled away, dabbing away tears that wanted to come out,”I love you even more Riou,” you said, then hugged him. Riou hugged you back, placing your head on top of his, lightly petting your hair,”I’ll always protect you,” then kissed the top of you head.

[vyladromeave]

Mr. Zvahl has updated!

Chapter 6: Forage and Found

(Read the full thing on AO3!)

(A/N: nbvGJDFSFSD THIS IS SO LATE IM SORRY. It was TECHNICALLY done like a week or so ago but it was under 1k words and i just couldnt Post It mnbdsfghfsd. ANYWAYS now its nearly 2k so hopefully thatll make up for the wait nfdsbghdjsf. i have been Neglecting Zoey so now you have to read So Much about my beautiful elf wife mndsfbhjsfdk. not much else to say, ill edit this if i can think of anything important. Also Once Again gentle reminder tht i would seriously reccomend reading this on ao3 instead because tumblr formatting makes the spacing Whack but whatever man u do u,,,, you do u,,,,,, dshjgsfd ANYWAYS Hope u enjoy!!)

.

They had been walking for some time now. She had explained on the way out there that the path used to be much clearer, but too much overgrowth in the area had made reaching difficult. It was still possible, it just took extra time. In their case, it had taken a good half-hour at least. (It could have taken longer, but he wasn’t too good at keeping track of the time these days.)

As they approached he wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but now that they were there, he realized it wasn’t actually that different from what he’d imagined. His only experience in portals were the ones that lead to the nether- it somewhat shocked him to see that this portal wasn’t much different. It was about the same size and shape, though the material was different and it gave off an energy that was much less malevolent. Even then, its aura made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and it wasn’t even activated.

“The portal leads to the Irene Dimension. That’s where we believe Aphmau, and all those that went with her, are trapped.” she continued.

He looked to her, silently asking permission if he could get a closer look, although she didn’t seem to notice. He took it as a yes. He approached the portal to get a closer look while she talked.

“I’ve been working for nearly a decade to find a way to open it again. Nothing has worked so far, but I’m getting close. I can feel it.”

“How so?”

She was somewhat thrown off by how direct his question is. “I- well- when I first started working on this… I didn’t really know what I was doing? I was just throwing things together, I didn’t understand any of it. And now… well, there’s a lot I still don’t understand, I won’t lie about that. Emmalyn was our resident Irene expert, but we lost her to the portal too. But I’ve also learned- I know what I’m doing now, I know the end goal. I just need to figure out how to get there.”

He nods, though his focus is still mostly devoted to the portal. He understands what she means now when she said there was a lot she didn’t understand- if he was in Zoey’s place he wouldn’t even know where to start. It takes him a solid minute to recognize that no, those “scratches” he spotted on the portal are words, and in some language he has no clue of recognizing. He shakes his head. He would love to help out, of course he would, but he isn’t cut out for this.

“Well, you’re the barrier magicks user. If anyone could do it, it’s you.”

She sighs and nods. “I suppose so. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Of course it’s a good thing. The town just needs to have faith in you.”

“It’s been ten years. There’s not much faith left to go around.”

“Well, what about you? Do you think you can do it? Bring them home?”

She pauses for a second, but nods. “Yes. I do.”

“Then that’s good enough for me. That settles it.”

She gives him a look and tilts her head, confused. “Settles what, exactly?”

“I think I’d like to stay here. In Phoenix Drop. At least until everyone returns.”

“Oh!” She smiles, but took another moment to process and “Oh.” Her face drops. “I- I mean that’s great, I’m glad you’d like to stay, but- this could take years. Decades. Centuries, even. You could be long dead by the time everyone is back here.”

“That’s fine. It’s worth the wait.”

She was startled by his ease in acceptance. “That’s- I mean- you could-“ she takes a breath to calm herself. “Alright. Welcome to Phoenix Drop, Mr. Zvahl.”

~~~

She had agreed to take him out to the portal if he would do some work for her in return. Nothing too strenuous, she wasn’t cruel, but it was nice to have help every once in a while.

For as good as he was in navigating the forest, he knew next to nothing about the plant life within it. Or plant life in general. She spent a solid ten minutes explaining to him what they were looking for, “Four leaves, notched edges, somewhat pointy at the ends. You’ll know you have the right plant if the base of the leaf is much thicker than the edges.” His understanding seemed to be shaky at best, but he didn’t want to waste more time when they were supposed to be gathering. And so he wandered north, she went a bit south, and hoped that he had at least a basic understanding of what they were looking for.

She hadn’t found too many- but she figured as much. It took some time to get to the better spots where the plant often grew in, which they had instead spent observing the portal (as if she didn’t spend enough time on that blasted thing already). So she paid it no mind when he was late meeting back up by a couple minutes. And then ten went past. Then fifteen. It was just enough time to make her start to worry when she’d spotted him returning. That was another odd thing about him, sometimes he was easier to spot with your eyes than to notice with your ears. He was oddly quiet, inhumanly stealthy. She’d wanted to say he was just good at that sort of thing, but what kind of person can disappear in a forest but can’t tell an acorn from a rock? Either he was oddly talented, or there was something even odder going on here, and it bugged her a bit too much.

Her mind was taken off the question when he’d stopped in front of her and she got a good look at him. She understood now why he was late- he seemed uncomfortable, and kept shifting the rather large pile of plants he gathered around. It was a bit hard to tell with the gloves he wore, but she swore she could see splotches of red creeping up his arms.

“Is this stuff we’re gathering… supposed to be itchy?”

And just like that, her suspicions were confirmed. “Well- yes, that is normal for that plant. But it’s also not the plant I told you to gather.”

“It’s not?” He said, looking down at the bundles of leaves in his arms.

“No, it isn’t. I sent you to gather lushsprout. The plants you’re holding look like poison ivy.”

A blank expression slowly grew on his face as he stared through the plant he’d gathered and into the middle distance. A look Zoey could only describe as regret took hold, and he dropped everything he had spent so long gathering as the name finally registered in his brain.

“One moment.” he said and rushed off in the direction of what Zoey could only assume was the nearest water source, a desperate attempt to wash off the red splotches that had already begun to form on his skin. Zoey couldn’t help but snort- it was the most emoted she had seen him ever, and yet it was all so comical.

Well, there was nothing comical about poison ivy, she supposed. It was mildly annoying at best, and painful at worst- but judging by his seeming unawareness she figured he would be alright this time. It would certainly make a good story for later, at least. They had done enough herb gathering for the day.

~~~

They made their way back to Phoenix Drop, recuperating at Aphmau’s house. He washed his hands and arms once again, as well as his gloves in order to make sure they were completely poison-ivy-free. (He’d gathered too much to be completely unscathed, but it was something he could deal with.) Zoey made him tea once again, and Vylad didn’t have the heart to turn her down. Of all the citizens of Phoenix Drop, he’d grown to like her and Dante the most.

She was kind and thoughtful, and understanding of his quiet demeanor. Where Dante often barged in and forced conversation, Zoey understood the importance of silence. They hadn’t physically talked much, though he discovered that he’d somewhat enjoyed just hanging out around her, helping her gather herbs, looking at her miniature garden, whatever trivial way they decided to pass the time. She was certainly more suspicious of him than Dante was (so perhaps she was smarter too), but Vylad figured it was justified and tried to not let it bother him much.

In a strange turn of events, he ended up the one to break the silence.

~~~

“...Just how often does Kawaii~Chan bake?”

“Well, she’s been doing it less often lately, since she’s got a child to look after now, but…”

“So not too often, then?”

She could’ve sworn he sounded almost disappointed. “Gods no, Kawaii~Chan is an unstoppable force when it comes to cooking. The day there is a force strong enough to prevent her is probably the day the world ends.”

She chuckled a bit at her own joke, Zvahl never laughed (or reacted much to anything at all, she’d noticed), so she did for both of them. Maybe it was a bit conceited, but in her eyes it let them both enjoy it, even if he was reluctant to show such feelings. “Why, were you hoping to get some of her sweets yourself?”

“Uh-”

“Have you ever even had her cooking? It’s very good, I’m just not sure why you’d be so interested…”

“Yes, I did. At that breakfast, about a week ago.”

“You’ve been craving her cooking for a week? ”

“Well-”

Any form of excuse was interrupted by more of her laughter, this time it was entirely for herself. Was he so reserved that it had taken him a week to ask about something as trivial as baking? She glanced over him once again to make sure she wasn’t missing anything- only finding what she decided was a hint of embarrassment. He opened his mouth to speak, and she nearly found herself laughing again when he closed it and glanced away.

She stifled her laughter to save him from any more embarrassment, and gave him a knowing wink. “Don’t worry, I’ll put in a good word with her for you if you want. She loves to bake after all- I’m sure she’d be happy to make you something.”

It was muffled by the scarf which most of his face had retreated into, but through the cloth she swore she heard him give a mumbled, “... Thank you...”

Perhaps she was wrong. He had plenty of emotion. Zoey would just need to learn where to look.

~~~

[dbssh]

🖊!

im going to use this as a convinient excuse to talk about the better-than-overwatch superheroes ive been buzzing about for the past five hours. im on mobile and cant do readmores so. buckle the fuck up!

so the general idea of it is that theres this group called the Citizens of Mankind Protection Agency (CMPA) that starts out as this disaster relief agency mostly focusing on upholding peace and prosperity through a group of allied human nations through the solar system(called the Earthling Pact/Unified Earthling Pact)

BUT after about 100 years of corruption and war (with different groups of robotic and alien lifeforms) the CMPA has basically lost any trust or respect from the general public, essentially being a privatized corporate police/military force.

after a PR disaster or two in which the CMPA fails to do its job of, yknow, protecting people, it decides it needs a new 'public face'

this leads to the development of the Compatriot program! its a campy, showy, gimmicky styled team of superhero types thats meant to operate as underdog style heroes that the public will root for and enjoy and trust

this team is led by the bushy-tailed rookie, Hilda Beckham (codenamed: Operative). Though inexperienced, Operative was chosen for her quick mind and general positive, friendly air. She's scrappy and good at using her environment to solve problems, and is a confident leader. Young as she is, she genuinely believes she can use Compatriot to make the world a better place and to heal the corruption in CMPA. (her playstyle would probably be a dps player similar to s76 and tracer, a quick-moving midtoclose range damage dealer. plain, no real superpowers, though she has more advanced melee things than others(sprint, dodging, tuck and roll kinda things. maybe a stun blast)

she goes on a recruitment mission, seeking out retired/defected/former CMPA members as well as new and gifted young people to make up her team.

her first catch is a young person named Angelo Brady, codenamed Bubble! their power is basically what it says on the tin, they can create bubble-like surfaces to use as protective sheilds(for themselves teammates, and fixed points/objects) as well as platforms to jump around on, giving them higher manuverability and a bit of technique. They'd probably be a more defense-oriented character, with a long range primary(maybe a zarya sort of splash damage), as well as a short-range secondary, and more focus on moving around and sheilding than melee fighting. their ultimate would maybe be something kind of hammond-ey? a spread of bubble bombs thrown around a certain point? or maybe sticky traps? who knows. not me

their design would be very pop-ey, bold colours and shapes taking inspiration from murals, street art, and pop art. very young, maybe around 16?

second she grabs up Arthur Braveheart, codenamed as King Arthur. A former CMPA member that was discharged during the wartime, citing that his "code of honor" interfered with his ability to follow orders. he's kind of grouchy and very jaded but follows a strict code of morals for how he fights and conducts himself.

hes a knight-themed tank hero that has a very sword-and-sheild playstyle, with high health and additional armor. He fights melee, with no long range capabilities. His primary weapon is a bigass sword that like can light on fire and stuff. Has some sheilding capability, but only for himself. Secondary attack is a sheild bash. His ultimate gives him a horse that moves at 2.5x his normal speed and doubles his weapon damage, as well as knocking you prone if he "charges" you with the horse (ult. lasts 10-15 seconds. the horses name is Excalibur.)

third she goes after Revenant, a nameless and elusive former CMPA member that really only exists in rumors, for the most part, serving as a sort of vigilante type in the desert areas of america and mexico. Revenant was a victim of brutal genetic experiments by CMPA, in attempts to make the perfect soldier. she can go into a werewolf-style rage transformation thingy, and was believed to have been killed in battle, shot with an enourmous energy blast clean through her stomach, only to get back up and keep fighting. she's virtually unkillable.

shes heavily melee-focused, a lot of physical attack abilities combined with shotguns(primary weapon). one of her secondary abilities is called "undying", which allows her to regain up health as she deals damage for 10-15 seconds. her ultimate is a winston-style damage dealer where she increases 1.5x in speed and deals 2.5x damage for 15 seconds, as well as instantly being brought up to 60% health if she was below.

she turns down Operative's offer, saying she'd rather die than do anything for the CMPA.

she travels with a young woman known as Vaquero,a mexican girl with a cowboy aesthetic and a knack for sharpshooting. She's a windowmaker sniper-type, using a lasso-thingy to hook her to points and pull her towards them. She has a smoke bomb+shadow-sneak ability that essentially turns her invisible and gives a 1.5x speed boost for twenty seconds, and can "take cover", drinking a thingy that regains up to 50 health. her ultimate allows her to jump to the nearest visible group of two or more enemies and high-noon them, slowing time aim-focusing up to three headshots.

Vaquero & Revenant have a really cute mother-daughter style relationship even though Rev is a very stoic, tall dark & brooding type. her only weakness and care in the world is Vaquero, and she'd follow her to the ends of the earth.

V & R are classified as rogue, unalined characters, but their primary goal is to take down CMPA and the compatriot program (Revenant would also like violent revenge on the doctor who tortured her)

SPEAKING OF! the good doctor is a woman named Ilyana Glasse, a morally ambigious medical doctor interested in cybernetic & genetic enhancment engineering. shes very much just Moira two bc im in love w moira.... but a bit more sadistic and just fucking weird to be around.

Glasse actually seeks out Operative, as a high-ranking scientist in CMPA she very much wants to be involved in this team of experimental, incredibly talented soldiers.

THERE ARE PROBABLY A LOT MORE I JUST HAVENT THOUGHT ABOUT YET. I WANNA GET IN SOME ROBOTS AND SOME MARTIANS AND SOME SPACE-DWELLING HUMANS TOO BUT AHHH THATS A LOT OF STUFF

NEways i just. love superheroes and i love the *concept* of ovw so much the execution just. suuuucks.

[scaryscarecrows]

Roots and Leaves, Pt. 6

DC did it first. Take your grievances to them.

Jason and Sheila e-mail back and forth for about a week before she says that she has Thursday off so if he has Thursday off does he want to meet for lunch again?

Last time wasn’t bad. Not a lot of staring or people or anything. He can…he can probably do it again. And it’s a few days away still, so he has time to psyche himself up or, worst case scenario, fake his death and move to Canada.

And it’s been a week and she hasn’t pulled out the Pity Card on him yet and maybe…maybe this’ll all work out okay. She might never be Mom, because Catherine’s always gonna be Mom, but…but she could be Mother, maybe. He can see that in the distant (or not-so-distant?) future.

But he’s not going to rush into things, that’s what got him here in the first place. Patience, grasshopper.

Thursday rolls around and he hasn’t faked his death and moved to Canada, so he has no choice but to put on jeans and a hoodie and resign himself to a couple of hours, easy, of no sunglasses and no e-book shield.

Sorry, any small children who might come out of this traumatized.

Okay. He brings his Kindle anyway, and his sunglasses for the journey, and sticks to his normal Civilian Weaponry-couple’a knives, one pair of brass knuckles tucked into a hidden pocket in his hoodie. Last thing he needs is for someone to pick up a bullet, match it to the Red Hood’s, and come knocking on his door. His luck is bad enough that’s exactly what would happen.

Besides, it’s noon on a Thursday, and even in Gotham that’s a slow hour. Bank robbers gotta eat, too.

The monorail ride there is literal Hell (three fighting couples, two crying kids and old man with no personal spaaaaace!) and he’s literally gasping for air when he stumbles out of the car. He likes people. Honest. If he legitimately hated them all, he wouldn’t risk his life to help them. But interacting with them…he could do without that, mostly.

Whatever. Whatever. It’s over, he lived, he’s had worse.

(And no, he doesn’t hear faint cackling in his head, and that’s final.)

It’s windy today, the type of wind that buffets people every which way and is determined to keep his hood off his head. He fidgets with the drawstrings until it’ll stay and buries his hands in his pockets. Wind sucks. He can feel pollen and dust and Gotham Grime being blown onto his skin.

“Jason!”

Is he there already?

Sheila…looks a lot more haggard than she did before. He tries to remember if she’d mentioned being horribly busy, doesn’t think she did, and figures that to be fair, he hasn’t mentioned the bruise that goes halfway up his back.

She smiles, her awkward driver’s license smile, and waves. Yeah, she doesn’t…it must’ve been a long week, or maybe a rough drive or something. She looks tired.

“Hi.” He’s not sure what to call her, still. Miss Haywood is too disconnected, Sheila’s too personal, and it’s way, way too soon for Mother. Names are a pain. “I’m not late, am I?” He knows he’s not. “Monorail was packed.”

“So was the subway. Can I…?”

Her arms are half-out and he figures she’s asking for a hug. He can do a hug, as long as it’s a short hug.

“Yeah. Thanks for the warning.”

Holy crap, she feels frail. But to be fair, barring Dick’s tackle-hug, everyone’s felt frail since…since. So it could just be him. Hugs are weird now.

(“HUG YOUR DADDY!”)

No. Not today. Everything’s fine.

It’s a sort-of short hug, short enough, anyway, and he wonders, abstractedly, if a day will ever come that he’s used to that sort of thing again. If it even matters whether he does or doesn’t.

It does. Of course it does. And the day will come, in time, and he’ll be better, be normal, be what people want him to be.

Little steps.

* * *

They’ve fallen into a companionable silence and for once Jason’s not jumping whenever someone walks by in a purple sweater or anything when Sheila forces her lips out from between her teeth and says, “I know you were Robin.”

Well. That’s, uh, there’s that out of the way.

“Yeah.” There’s clearly no point in denying it. She probably put it together when Batman came knocking. “For a little while, yeah. I was.” He tastes blood, wonders how long he’s been doing that, and wishes he had gum. Or a mint. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right off, I just…old habits die hard, I guess.”

“Oh God, no, no, I didn’t mean-” She takes a drink. Her hands are shaking, she’s shaking and he doesn’t know what’s wrong. “I just. I thought I should probably make it clear that I did know, so you wouldn’t…I know I was absent, but I don’t want…you shouldn’t feel like you have to hide things from me.”

Oh. That’s. He doesn’t know what to say. Bruce, God knows, has the emotional capabilities of a Himalayan Salt Lamp. Thankfully Jason hadn’t been the type to go through crushes every two weeks, or he probably would have been in Hell. He certainly wouldn’t have…it’s not like he would have shut down the conversation, but sharing and caring? That would have been awkward and best not repeated. Alfred was the go-to for that sorta thing.

All right, then. Since they’re dropping sudden bombshells ‘n all…he has to know.

“You worked for Joker.” There. It’s out. He said it.

And now he kinda regrets it-the self-loathing on her face is a pretty good match for his own, and he can’t tell himself it’s anything less than deep, deep wishing to have made better choices.

“I did.” She straightens up, begins tearing apart a piece of bread on her plate. “Briefly. I’m not proud, but he had a line to my mother, knew where she lived, knew her schedule…knew.” She swallows hard. “Knew she had to rubber-band her jam jars because she couldn’t open them otherwise. I panicked. But it was only for a couple of months-pills, he wanted pills, as much as I could get him. And then he just…went away. I don’t know what he did with them.”

Honestly, after everything, he can’t…he doesn’t have the right to say much. And honestly? There was that one guy, who accidentally cut the fucker off in traffic and couldn’t get away from him.

And look at him. The first man he killed, that wasn’t…oh, sure, he probably had it coming, at least a little, but Jason wasn’t thinking about that or considering it like he does now, he just…he wanted to kill Bruce. Because that was right and reason at the time even though he knows it’s insanity now.

No, he can’t say much.

“I’m sorry,” he says softly, and it’s suddenly easier to look at his hands. “I didn’t…that sounds awful.”

“No.” She tips his chin up and it’s an effort not to pull away and to remember that it’s fingers, warm human fingers, and not the pointy end of a crowbar against his skin. “You deserved to know. It’s only fair.”

Truth be told, it’s a relief to know that she hadn’t…yeah, technically she could’ve…maybe done something different, but she hadn’t wanted to work for him. She wasn’t like the ones he’d christened Dumb and Dumber that…they enjoyed that kinda work.

Lunch is finished in relative silence after that, though, and he’s wondering what’s going to happen now when she rifles through her purse and swears.

“Damn…I meant to grab an old photo album I wanted to show you, with some old family pictures and things.”

Pictures of Willis? Yeah, he’s good. Pictures of other people might be interesting, though.

“Next time?”

“My apartment’s a few blocks over.”

Something feels off. He’s paranoid, he knows he’s paranoid, but something…she’s been shaky and weird all afternoon and he doesn’t…

Calm the fuck down, you freak out when someone window-shops for too long!

“Is everything…is everything okay?”

Or maybe something is wrong-she pulls a napkin over and there’s suddenly a pen in her hand.

“I really do want you to see these pictures, Jason,” she says, but her hand is moving and there’s the ever-so-faint skrit-skrit of pen on paper. “I swear you got my mother’s eyes.”

The napkin slides over to him and he glances down. Her handwriting’s spikey and awful-doctor writing to the bone-but his is no better and he can read it well enough.

An old colleague has been hanging around the hospital lately.

Oh.

That explains a bit.

“Sure.”

Her shoulders drop and she crumples the napkin, nails picking it into shreds.

“I’m sorry to do this to you,” she says softly, nearly too soft for him to hear, and he’s quick to shake his head.

“No, no, I don’t mind, I’m glad you…if there’s anything I can do to…”

Shit, she looks like she’s going to start crying and that is indeed PANIC in his throat. Tears are not good.

“You’re a good boy.” Her voice is watery but there are no tears to be seen. Thank Jesus. “I promise next time we have lunch it’ll be normal.”

Oh, good, things haven’t plummeted down to fiery Hell because of all the revelations flying around.

“Everything’s gonna be fine,” he says, and whoops that’s his ‘all will be well, citizen, never fear!’ voice. But it must work, because the about-to-cry look disappears. “Um. Do you wanna…it looks like it’s gonna rain, should we get going?”

And so they do.

* * *

The wind has picked up and it smells like rain. He’s not looking forward to patrol later.

The wind’s not so bad, though, to stop Sheila from lighting up with a self-depreciating, “I know I’m a doctor and should know better, but I honestly don’t care.”

“I can’t really say anything.” He holds up his own pack and rattles it before pulling one out. It’s not as calming as it usually is and he doesn’t know why.

Eh. It’s been a long day, that’s all. He’s not used to interacting with people on a personal level anymore, which is his own fault and probably not necessarily a good thing.

The first few drops have started to fall when they arrive at her building-big, square, and simplistic. She fishes out her keys while they’re in the elevator (which smells like new car, for some reason).

The hallway is deserted. It’s a little creepy, to be honest-his own building might be crap, but there’s always activity. And then, of course, there was Arkham’s hallways, or what he could hear of them. Noisy. Always noisy. But this? Wayne Manor was silent like this. It unsettled him then and it unsettles him now. Call him a city boy, whatever, but he needs noise.

The brass knuckles and knives in his jacket are warm and comforting and he knows he’s not gonna need ‘em, but they make up for this creepy-ass silence.

Sheila opens the door and motions him inside. It’s dark inside-blackout curtains, probably-but he can hear the rain. It smells like new car in here, too, and he wonders, off-handedly, why-

-it’s not empty. He’s walked into one too many ‘empty’ buildings to be very, very attuned to the sound of somebody breathing. Okay. Be calm, back out and shut the door.

He’s about to do exactly that when the light switch clicks and bathes the whole place in stark white. White walls, white floors, white furniture.

Which only makes Harley Quinn stick out like a sore thumb in all that red and black.

“BAY-BEE!” She could never hope to match Joker’s grin, but she gives it a good go, stretching her makeup. Okay. Change of plans. Get Sheila out of here (and preferably out of the building), deal with Quinn. “It’s been a whiiiiile!”

He takes in the mallet leaning against the couch and the shotgun (are those fuzzy dice? Really?) in her hands and comes to the conclusion that great, she’s riding the crazy train.

But maybe she hasn’t seen Sheila yet. Where’s that goddamn light switch?

He moves, only a little, only to feel the unmistakable press of a gun against his lower back.

“Don’t. Move.”

And the world drops out from under him.

No. No, no, no, she said she quit, it was over, she said they’d let her go, she said-

The door shuts. He twists so he can still see Quinn in his peripheral. Sheila’s face is a blank mask-no tears, no joy, no nothing. Just quiet determination and he doesn’t understand, she said…

“Mom?” The word feels thick and wrong in his mouth, but maybe…maybe she’s brainwashed or hypnotized or something, maybe she doesn’t…isn’t…

“Sorry, kid.” The words are harsh but her tone isn’t. Quinn giggles in the background but she sounds so far away and Sheila’s still pressing a gun against him. “It was you or me, and, well…it had to be you.”

What?

“Aww, come to mama, baby!” Quinn giggles again before straightening up and scowling. “Now.”

His feet drag him forward, sneakers scuffing against the white carpet an’ Heaven’s s’posed ta be white, innit, so why does this feel like Hell and what’s going on she said she said-

For once horrible, desperate second, he wants Bruce. Bruce wouldn’t…yeah, he’d thought, at first, that he’d left him but he knows that he didn’t, he really didn’t, he just…

Bruce wouldn’t have pulled a gun on him, he wouldn’t and God, if he’d just fucking talked to him-

“I did what you wanted, Quinn.” Sheila’s voice is so, so flat and is this all she wanted from the beginning? Is it? “Now call your man.”

Quinn doesn’t even look at her. She’s looking at Jason like she always did-like she’s torn between wanting to rip his head off and wanting to wrap him in a blanket and keep him.

This is his own goddamn fault, he just thought…just once, just once-

“Quinn!” Desperation now, and the gun wobbles against his hoodie as she steps out from behind him. “I did what you said! Call your man!”

Okay. Okay.

He forces himself to take a few deep breaths that taste like that last cigarette outside and says, voice as steady as he can make it, “Let her go, Harley. Leave her alone, I’ll. I’ll do what you want, just. Just let her go.”

“Aww, look at you!” Her pigtails sway and he finds himself oddly hypnotized by the movement. “I knew ya had to be Robin for a reason.”

Yeah. Yeah, he was Robin and that’s all he’ll ever be, the one that fucked up.

“Please, Harley.”

“Nyeh…” She adjusts her grip on the gun, finger dancing near the trigger, and looks down at her knuckles. “Eeny, meanie, miny, moe, catch a Batman by the toe. If he hollers, let ‘im go, eeny…meanie…miny…moe!”

He sees it before she does it, but there’s no time-he’s moved maybe half a centimeter before the gun goes off-

-and Sheila.

Falls.

His ears are ringing. They’re ringing and everything’s so white except her, all blonde and blue and so fucking red because Harley didn’t miss and if he’d been quicker, he should have been-

“Aww, don’t be sad!” Harley’s not alone, of course she’s not. He should have known from the start stupidstupidstupid. “Doncha know what happens to people who know too much?”

Her eyes are open. They’re open and they’re looking at him like this is his fault and it is if he hadn’t…

S’like Joker said, once.

“Good boys know how to lay down and DIE.”

“Mistah J had a spot for ya, baby.” Huh? “But you up an’ left us before it was time! So since it’s his birthday-” The fucker has no birthday he just appeared one day too evil for Hell. “-I thought I’d get my puddin’ somethin’-” She winks. “Real nice.”

And they’re on him.

Harley’s goons are dumb, but they’re also big and they manage to drag him down for a minute before he gets a knife out of his sleeve and drives it into the nearest jaw.

“Andre!” Yeah, Andre ain’t comin’ back from that any time soon. “I thought we taught you manners!”

He reclaims his knife and scrambles back up and okay okay maybe he can get outta this-

WHAM!

Lights out.

[littlemisssquiggles]

RWBY Musings #64: A Squiggles Meister’s Views on the potential parallels between the RWBY V3 and V6 finales.

I’ve been saying this for a while now but I believe the CRWBY Writers might be gearing us fans up to have the V6 finale pay homage to the epic V3 finale or at least that’s my theory. So if I had to guess the parallels to V3 that might pop up during the V6 finale, here’s what I think they’ll be:

 Grimm Rampage through Vale ------ Grimm Rampage through Argus

During V3, the City of Vale got rampaged by hordes of Grimm including one colossal Grimm Dragon. I have been wondering what the point of the Wall of Argus was alluding to. I still stand by my previous hunch that something is going to come from beyond the wall to rampage the city. Either that’s the case or the one in my next parallel.

Grimm Dragon from Mountain Glenn ----- Grimm Hecatonchire from the Wall of Argus

A bit of a stretch but what if… there’s secretly a Grimm Titan like a Hecatonchire Grimm that’s secretly hidden inside the Wall of Argus. Since Cordo preached about her Atlesian ancestors helping to form Argus, imagine if those same ancestors put Grimm inside the Wall of Argus or built the city around one that’s been dormant for centuries just like the Grimm Dragon.

In the series, Attack on Titan, it was revealed in a later season that there were Titans in the actual walls that were supposed to keep humanity safe from the Titans. Imagine how cool it would be if a Grimm Hecatonchire suddenly immerged from the Wall of Argus in the same fashion as the Grimm Dragon in V3 and similar to its Dragon counterpart, it also brings forth legions of Grimm to prey on the innocent civilians of Argus, forcing the Argus Military to cease their pursuit of our heroes and take immediate charge to protect the citizens of Argus.

Huntsman vs Atlesian Paladins-----Huntsmen vs Atlesian Megazord

In V3, we got all the main huntsmen from different academies working together to defend Beacon against the swarm of corrupted Atlesian Paladins. Now in V6, it seems C10 set up out heroes who, may not be from different academies but represent the diversity of the kingdoms in a sense (minus Vacuo) going toe to toe against Cordo and her Atlesian Megazord.

Weiss Summons Armor Gigas against the Paladins---Weiss summon Armor Gigas against Cordo

In V3, we got Weiss summoning part of her Armour Gigas for the first time. Right now, Weiss’s trademark summon is the only thing that can grow to a size big enough to give Cordo’s giant megazord a run for its money provided she has the aura levels to do so. I’m sure if Jaune were to amplify Weiss’ aura, the same way he did with her last season and at the start of V6 with Ren, we could get our first ever giant robot vs giant armoured summon fight in the history of RWBY.

Velvet Weapon Reveal ----- Oscar Weapon Reveal

Need I say more? V3 was the first time we saw Velvet’s weapon and her semblance I think too in action. Who knows? If we play our cards right we might finally see what the Oz-cane can do at its true power because as a Pinehead, I have definitely been wondering what tricks to the Oz-cane Oz was talking about back in V5.

Cinder killed Ozpin ---- Neo kills Oscar

Now before my fellow Pineheads come at me with them pitchforks for daring to even theorize this, let me explain my hunch. What if…on the same level as Adam’s reappearance, Cinder Fall also shows her face in Argus and she targets Ruby as expected. So Cinder overpowers Ruby with Neo’s help and just as Neo is about the deal the final blow to Ruby, Oscar jumps in and takes it for her, right through the heart.

I have been hearing this whole thing about Neo doing something to make the fandom hate her going around for a while and I’ve even had one or two fellow FNDM come to me with the theory of Neo harming Oscar. Well here’s my rendition of that theory. What if…Neo goes in for the kill on Ruby but Oscar daringly jumps infront of Ruby to shield her and takes it. So Oscar is there on the ground on the cusp of death. Maybe to make the situation even more dramatic, he straight up does die in Ruby’s arms, shocking her and the fandom.

Then after Oscar technically dies, instead of going to the afterlife as one would expect or reincarnating, Oscar shockingly winds up in the Realm between Realms where he meets the God of Darkness, similar to how God of Light met with Ozma. To Oscar’s surprise, a reluctant Ozpin is also present. The God of Darkness then offers the two souls something neither could refuse. He offers them the chance to undo what his brother did centuries ago. As it turns out, the whole reincarnation thing was all Light’s idea because he still believed in humanity and that they could change.

His brother felt the opposite but he did want to entertain himself a bit with his brother’s immortal pet. So he offers both Ozpin and Oscar the chance to undo his brother’s curse so that they may return to their normal lives free of having to be revived to continue his brother’s dirty work. 

But he only offers the deed to one. In order to decide who gets to return to the land of the living, God of Darkness forces Oscar and Ozpin to fight each other one and one to see which soul gets revived only. And to Oscar’s surprise, Ozpin actually wants to fight him so that he can finally be free. So the two souls fight. Of course, Oscar wins and gets to go back but this time he’ll be revived by himself as himself. No longer will he have Ozpin’s voice inside of his head. He’ll be his own person again. He’ll be…alone; a comment made by a grief stricken Ozpin.

It’d be interesting if we could get an equivalent of Oscar calling out Ozpin in the same manner Ruby did to Qrow in V6 C10. Oscar scolds Ozpin for his words implying that he’s never been alone. He’s always had his people. His friends and so does Oscar and so long as they accept him and wish to keep fighting, so will he until his dying breath. His last dying breath in his now only life.

The God of Light’s curse was bestowed so that Ozma was never alone during his cycle but Oscar would be revived as himself without Ozpin. He will be the last incarnate. The last life. The last Wizard of Light. So as Ozpin goes to the afterlife, Oscar returns to the real world where he returns as himself to continue the good fight.

This parallel will probably not happen at all. Definitely not. But as always, I wanted to toss it out there just to entertain myself at the possibility, y’know what I mean?

Team JNPR dies with Pyrhha ---- Team JNPR is reborn with Oscar

Ya’ll know I’ve been saying this since the beginning, right? Ya’ll know how much I want that Team JNPR Revival with Oscar replacing Pyrhha right? I feel like these past two episodes are slowly gearing up to have this happen. Though I didn’t particularly enjoy C9, it did give me my biggest indicators of Jaune asking Oscar to join JNR. 

That Pyrhha closure for JNR. Jaune mentioning in his own words how valuable Oscar is to the team. Bruh, at this point, I’m just waiting for this to come. I’m waiting on this conversation.

Cinder killed Pyrhha----Jaune kills Cinder

This one I’m a little iffy about. I know I’ve been waiting for Jaune to have Justice for Pyrhha moment with Cinder but after C9 I don’t think Jaune will be as angry to kill Cinder anymore. I mean, if Cinder turns into a Grimm monster or gets eaten by a Grimm only to fuse with said Grimm making her less human. Then I can see Jaune being the one to deal the final blow on Grimm Cinder. I’ve said this before too. If anyone deserves to kill Cinder, it’s Jaune.

I doubt the Writers will make him kill her as human but…if she turns into a Grimm then it’s a bigger possibility but that’s just me.

Adam vs Blake and Yang ----- Adam vs Blake and Yang The Remix

Duh. Just duh. This doesn’t even need to be on the list because it’s something the season has been alluding to all volume. Plus C10 already showed it happening. The only twist I can think of from this fight is if Adam dying at the end. I know some people like Adam as a character (like EruptionFang) but I really feel the Writers might be setting up for V6 to be Adam’s curtain call.

I can’t see Adam moving forward, not after the focus he’s been given this season. It’ll be interesting if Adam ends up dying in a similar fashion to Gaston from the Beauty and the Beast. Like he tries to stab Blake but ends up missing and falling to his death. Or maybe he ends up caught on the ledge and Blake tries to help him. Like I’m picturing Adam on the ledge with Blake offering him her hand only for Adam to refuse and fall to his death or something. That’s my hunch.

Then after the Adam fight is one and he’s no longer a thorn in their lives, the Bumblebee could finally have their closure with that. Who knows? Maybe they might make Bumblebee have a moment in the V6 finale. Instead of Blake crying over Yang getting hurt, it’s the two smiling at each other after being found safe together. Maybe they might even kiss, who knows? I’m not a Bumblebee shipper but if a kiss somehow happens between these two gals, I won’t be shocked. I can expect Yang to kiss Blake revealing she’s in love with her.

Again, I ship BlackSun but Bumblebee peaks my curiosity particularly with how Yang sees Blake. I’ve always viewed the Bees as being a ship driven by Yang mostly. Ironic since Yang’s motorcycle is also named Bumblebee. Any Bumblebee hints or vibes I’ve gotten throughout the seasons came mostly from Yang. I think Yang might care for Blake in the romantic sense. Blake I’m not sure about.

I don’t know if Bumblebee is in the cards. All I know is that I think the series has kind of dropped one or two hints about Yang’s true feelings that I’m waiting to see addressed in some shape or form in this remix rematch battle. If all the Bees do is hug then cool. But if they kiss, I’m just saying I won’t be shocked. But that’s just me.

 Arkos First Kiss ---- Renora First Kiss

Nothing serious, I just want to see these two kids kiss finally. And what would be great is if Nora and Ren kiss after the group save Argus. The Arkos first kiss was bittersweet because it was Pyrhha’s last chance to let the boy she loves know how she felt about him before she sacrificed herself. A Renora after battle kiss would mean hope and happiness. For Pete’s sake, it’s been six seasons, let these two kiss already you cowards!

Alrighty then, I think that’s all the parallels I have in mind. If I think of anymore I’ll add them to the list later. For now, enjoy guys!

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2018)  

[mnstermade-blog]

[ cisfemale, she/her ]. did sujin dae just walk by? the 25/52 year old familiar with the form of a fox is known for their demure, diligent and timid, secretive behavior. that explains why they resemble im jinah. doesn’t brief fresh cut grass, half-full coffee cups, strawberries and cream remind you of them?

hello, back again. did you miss me? ...what the hell am i saying. anyways, still isaac, still really excited to be here, and still down for plotting. give this a like if you’re interested and i’ll hit you (again, probably -- man i’ve done a ton of plotting with faelan).

* INTRO !

sad child, though she always tries to keep a smile on her face.

her mother had sought out a demon for the sole purpose of having a child -- a familiar. she had a son that hadn’t found a familiar yet and she had hoped, that with shared blood, sujin would be perfect for him.

she was treated like a second class citizen from the time she was born -- more a servant than a daughter. from an early age, she was tasked with helping her mother and brother. she was educated only in what she needed to serve them. she was not yet a chosen familiar, too young for such.

their was a long period where sujin didn’t know there was anything amiss with her life. but as she grew older, as she met others her age when running chores, she began to see.

until that point, she had loved her mother and brother. but upon realizing the truth, that love cooled and hardened into loathing. they were too powerful for her to defy but it wouldn’t stop the hatred that burned in her heart.

the time was drawing close when her brother was supposed to ‘choose’ her. desperation began to set in. yes, this was a life she would never be able to escape but she wanted nothing more than to her escape her family.

that was when she met a vampire. she was desperate and holding onto her sanity by a thread. she’s not sure why she spilled her life story to them and she’s not sure what inspired them to help her but her mother and brother wouldn’t live to see the dawn.

the fate of her family is something she’s kept close to her heart. never can she tell. but she’s never wished that it didn’t happen.

she left korea as soon as the investigation went cold, moving to nuxvar.

there was never a chance she wouldn’t become some witch’s familiar. she was chosen in nuxvar and, while she’s never been thrilled about it, anything is better than being a servant to her brother.

* CONNECTIONS !

the vampire who ‘helped’ her.

her father.

the witch she serves now.

friends.

she’s much friendlier that faelan.

unrequited crush.

yeah. basically someone she has a crush on. whoever it is probably doesn’t know she exists and, if they do, they’ve never thought twice about her. but she cherishes her crush because it’s normal.

bad influence.

she’s pretty nice, after all. she has to do whatever her witch tells her to but she’s otherwise free to enjoy herself. could be someone who takes advantage of that free time to mess with the familiar.

[swampgallows]

it’s becoming harder and harder for me to find solace in places. the guilt inside me is becoming heavy. i know that if i want something, i need to make it happen, but i am so exhausted of having to do everything myself. and the things i do get help with i feel grateful, of course, but then so guilty that i’m needing to be helped that it’s incapacitating. i’m just so late in the game to everything. i’m so outside of life and what other people are doing. i’ve always felt that way, though. i’m never gonna snap into place like they want me to. 

i need to pick a career and stuff. i just have to like shot in the dark pick something at this point because there isn’t going to be some divine calling, my pittance from art commissions is not gonna be enough to sustain me (and i dont think i can get to a point where it will), im just so bogged down knowing that everybody is fuckin poor. 

part of me wishes i could wake up and just ‘be normal’. that i could throw away all the weird stupid shit in my life. the trashy little kid bracelets, the clown clothes, the nerdy interests, the ugly monsters (what on earth is an ‘orc’?), the hundreds of heavy and just plain weird records that are sooo boring and irritating and repetitive and loud and obnoxious. all the shit i’ve internalized about stuff i am beyond passionate about, the only fuel that keeps me alive and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning. i read once about brain trauma, that someone suffered an injury and when they woke up, all of their interests changed completely. they were a classically-trained musician, iirc, and ended up just selling all of their instruments and getting rid of all their books etc because it had absolutely no value to them anymore. they were completely changed. i dont remember what their new interests became, but... the thought of that has haunted me for over a decade. maybe someone will hit me in the head just right until i wake up and be a normal person who cares about normal, accessible things instead of all this fringe and abrasive fantasy bullshit. what if i woke up one day and became a devout christian? i roll over and my room is foreign to me, along with everything in it, and then i just throw it all away? i start over, stripped clean. tabula rasa. i get good interests instead. relatable adult things, like gourmet food and backpacking. i titter with the girls at the office and wear pencil skirts and focus on landing me a tall dark and handsome. 

the thought of becoming that thing is heartwrenching. painful. but it’s all obvious, of course, why i would ever have that masochistic fantasy of completely disowning my worthless oblong self. a me that isn’t ‘ruined’. 

i went through my kandi stash the other day trying to find all my kandi with bells on it (I could have sworn i had more). and going through a lot of it was a flood of memories. high school, college, raver days. when i was in high school, all by my lonesome, the only candy kid or rave-associated ANYTHING in my 4000+ fellow students, i had to wear a lot of my own kandi. and i did so as a beacon, a lighthouse, hoping that i could be a beaming signal to any other candy kids who might be in hiding. and i got so dizzy and self-consuming with my repressed interest that i became a zealot about it, being extremely rude and elitist about my interests because i felt a need to protect them. i felt the pressure of them looking to be watered down or erased. i was the same with warcraft. 

ten years later i’m not as rude about it, but i feel exactly the same way. in high school i had to wear my own kandi, would have it ripped off of my arms in big fistfuls by those who ostracized me, and had to be tongue-in-cheek and submissive about my passion, my very real and non-ironic DEVOTION to this. thank god on tumblr i can write 4000 word dissertations about garrosh hellscream and some of you crazy fucks actually bother to read it, but sometimes i still feel like that kind of pariah for having a very niche and very specific fixation. 

even people who played warcraft when i was in high school told me i took it too seriously because i roleplayed; and even roleplayers in the game told me i took it too seriously because i didnt want to sit around for 6 hours pretending to drink alcohol and trying to get laid, except as an elf. the fact that i really wanted to discuss the lore and delve into the story and the universe of azeroth, of how it would feel to be in that place, to live that life, ostracized me even from the people who claim to feel the same way. but roleplay was never about focusing on how our veins dont surge anymore as undead, how your digestive organs need to be removed post-undeath so they dont explode and rupture and hang out of your bowels like the abominations in the Undercity, how the undead are technically still the same citizens of Loraderon but are being ousted by their living counterparts in neighboring kingdoms. it was just “haha im a funny dead pirate man and i’m going to womanize 12 blood elf women at once behind all of their backs.”

in trying to become a gabber dj too, i felt like i had to take it upon myself because nobody else plays the music that i like. but alll of these things... it feels like i’m just building a house by myself. i feel like nobody truly, at the core, appreciates the intersection of interests that i have, or can only smile and nod at my fervor but not really understand it. and it’s nobody’s fault, nobody is obligated to feel what i feel. 

i’m glad people enjoy the garrosh posts and art that i make. and i’m glad that my friends make kandi with me now and encourage me to play gabber. i’m happy when i get some really good RP, even if i have to be the one to walk up every time. i’m glad that people want me to “do the thing”. i just feel like... there is no payoff once it’s done. everyone gets glad that it’s finished, and they enjoy it then, but then it dissolves. nobody is invested in it but me.

i know the solution is to be more accessible, but i can’t seem to imagine anything other than swinging the pendulum in the opposite direction. like, all or nothing. either you take all of my german expressionism with the warcraft meta and the rave shit, or you get nothing. i dont know how to dilute myself and that’s part of what was killing me at my job. i felt like a novelty. a doll. but it wasn’t their fault.. they couldnt relate to what i was talking about and passionate about, and it’s not their fault. they liked me because i was well-spoken and funny and a diligent worker, which are all nice and accessible things, but when nobody can cathect with me, really empathize with me, i feel like a jester. a consumable. 

my college roommates would tell me that they loved me because i was so funny. and that’s it. i existed as entertainment, but anything human about me—my passions, my interests, my insights, my memories—meant nothing. even my family will ask me a question and then cut me off in the middle of my sentence, expressing more of just their disbelief or confusion about something than actually seeking information. it’s why i stopped answering customers when they’d ask “how did you dye your hair?” and, like an idiot, i attempted to explain the process to them, thinking they actually wanted to know. but a few words in and their eyes glazed over, probably because they weren’t expecting a “real answer”. i began to accept that any questions directed toward me were closer to passive acknowledgements of me just standing there and existing in their field of vision than any sort of actual desired input from me. it’s like when people ask “how are you?” and you are obligated to say “fine” because it is the rote response. if you actually start talking about how you are doing, you are violating the socially agreed upon script of pleasantries. 

i cant do small talk. i cant do scripts. i dont get it. it doesnt make sense to me. and i think retail killed me because of that. i wasn’t a person. i wasn’t even an NPC. i was just a doll. an actor. a pull-string action figure with 5 fun phrases. i was so wacky and weird with my green hair and my silly bracelets and funny observations. ho ho what fun it is to work here with our personal jester to tell us funny stories about her cuh-razy antics she gets up to!

like how nate said “the craziest thing of someone’s year will be seeing someone play the legend of zelda theme on an accordion at a convention and for us that’s just like a walk down the street”. 

my feet straddle two divergent worlds and i cant pick just one but im about to fall in the crevice.

man i fuckin love ratatouille man. i fuckin love that film. i cant choose between two halves of myself. even when the halves want the other half dead.

i need a liaison. where’s MY linguini????

[jamest-kirk]

omg since you reblogged the gif-set i just realised how much i need another part of the Almost Human McKirk AU so if you want to, please do it, it's just simply perfect and i love it

ALMOST HUMAN AU. 

Part 1 | Part 2 |  Part 3 |

Living with J.I.M. (or just Jim) isn’t even so bad. Initially, Bones insisted Jim charged himself in his own private room, but after a while of them getting increasingly more intimate at home, Bones one day just moves Jim’s charging station to the bedroom. When Jim finds out, he scans Bones’ face curiously, but he’s all too happy to reward his detective boyfriend for that afterwards.

They’re on a case, back with another murder occurring around androids in the sex industry. They find out it’s because some underground clan started combining human DNA with these sex ‘bots, and it makes them go a bit loopy. Murdering and manipulated loopy. After they catch the culprit, the android in question, unaware as she is, has to be shut down. Bones catches Jim’s glance at that, reaching out to rest a hand on his shoulder. “You okay?” he asks. Jim doesn’t immediately respond. He looks at Bones, slowly nodding. “I would like to be there, when she’s shut down. “Are you sure?” “Yes,” Jim replies.

Bones watches Jim quietly talk to the girl - who has absolutely no idea what’s happening to her or why she’s being shut down. “I promise I’ll remember you,” Jim says softly to her, and then he watches the engineer shut her down. Jim seems quite upset over the whole ordeal, and he doesn’t want to go out for a drink. So instead, they sit at home. Jim quietly sits next to Bones on the couch. “Do you want to talk about it?” Bones asks. “I just… what if something happens to me, and you’re gonna have to shut me down?” “That’s not gonna happen,” Bones says. “But what if-” “It’s not gonna happen,” Bones replies firmly. Jim turns to look at him with both fondness and interest in his eyes. “You care about me,” he says, and Bones huffs, resting his hand on Jim’s leg and squeezing it softly. “We all make mistakes.”

Having lost a leg in an accident, Bones’ synthetic leg doesn’t often calibrate right. When it doesn’t, it causes an annoying dull ache that just kind of stays, and his leg doesn’t always functions so well. For some reason, Bones is also an annoying shit enough so that he never actually fixes it. And so at night, Jim has to listen to Bones grunting under his breath, squeezing the skin of his leg just above his synthetic. It takes a long time before he feels comfortable enough to walk around in just shorts, showing off his synthetic leg. It takes even longer for Bones to be comfortable enough to take it off and let it re-calibrate. It drives Jim nuts, because he’s an android himself, why would he even care about a synthetic leg? “C’m here,” Jim says, after listening to Bones try and stifle his own discomfort. Not just that, the synthetic occasionally beeps and says a: “Calibration Incomplete”. “No,” Bones says, “I’m fine.” “Come. Here,” Jim repeats through gritted teeth, grabbing Bones by his shirt and pulling him in closer, both his hands on both sides of Bones’ leg. “You don’t have to-” “Ssh,” Jim hushes him quiet, “you’re driving me insane.” His fingers dip into Bones’ skin, massaging the sore skin. “You gotta look after yourself, Bones,” Jim says, continuing softly, “your leg needs care, and needs to be charged frequently in order for it to calibrate properly. He explains it for a little while, but when he looks up, Bones has fallen asleep.

Things take a turn for the worse quite suddenly. Bones is in the supermarket to buy food, and mostly to stock up on liquor. Jim is tagging along despite not eating things, because he likes to interact with people, and correct Bones’ unhealthy eating (and drinking) habits. “I’m thinking fries and ribs,” Bones says, and Jim frowns. He doesn’t reply, and Bones mostly ignores it. “D'you want to swing by Spock later? We can see if he has updated charging stations,” Bones suggests, grabbing a small box of coleslaw for good measure. As soon as he turns back to Jim, though, the other looks different. Blue eyes a little darker, and his expression mostly just blank. “Jim?” Bones asks, stunned when the other reaches out for Bones’ throat and throws him backwards against the shelves. “Jim–?!” he asks, but then Jim punches him again. And again. And again. Until finally, Bones reaches out with his good leg, kicking Jim backwards.

“Spock, I need a little help here!” Bones shouts into his phone. “What’s the problem?” Spock asks. “I don’t know- Jim’s malfunctioning,” Bones says, shielding away from Jim trying to attack him or other grocery shoppers. “His system’s been rewritten,” Spock says after a few seconds of silence and Bones hears nothing but the typing on his computer. “Okay, so what do we do?” “Turn him off.” “Okay.” “Permanently.” “What? Spock, no,” Bones says. “Leonard, someone’s accessed his data and is rewriting it as we speak.” “Then stop them,” Bones hisses, “you’re not going to shut down Jim permanently.” “I have to follow protocol,” Spock replies, then he’s silent for a few seconds, “but if you can knock him out, I’ll see what I can do for you to postpone shutting him down.”

Bones does manages. Barely so, and with significant damage done to the grocery store. Jim has a temporary off-switch, like all models, though it’s hard to find and even harder to switch. Bones has to keep Jim trapped to the ground so he can find it. And when he does, and Jim powers down, Bones feels horrible. Not just because of the probable concussion from being hit in the head multiple times, or the possible broken nose, but because he watches the light go out in the eyes of his best friend. It sucks. “C’m here, buddy,” he says, pulling the lifeless body up in his arms, “I’m gonna fix this.”

He watches Spock try for a few days. But every time he turns Jim on, the other seems to be more violent and less responsive to commands. Bones, however, refuses to let him power him down permanently. “Tell me what I can do,” Bones says, “is there another body we can transfer him to? There’s multiple J.I.M.s stored away.” “It’s not the body, it’s the CPU,” Spock says, “if we transfer that, the problem will just happen again but in another body. If we don’t transfer it, you’ll be with a different J.I.M., who has no memories of you, whose synthetic soul might react to things differently. It’s a whole different person, just in the same body.” “Then tell me what I can do,” Bones insists. “I… I guess, if we could track down his maker,” Spock says, running a hand through his hair, “but the one who created these Synthetic Souls, he’s been underground for a long time.” “I’ll find him,” Bones says, grabbing his jacket so that he can get to work immediately. “Leonard,” Spock says, “you and I both know these androids are second class citizens, and they’ll always be treated as such. Loving one, even someone as real as Jim, it’s never going to be accepted. These things are against the law.” Bones narrows his eyes a little, but doesn’t say anything. “All I’m trying to say,” Spock says, “is be careful. Not with falling for an android, but with having other people - the wrong people - find out about that.”

Tracking down his maker takes long. Too long, Bones thinks, and every day he’s worried Jim’s not going to wake up the same again. But Bones finds him. Christopher Pike; a retired robotics engineer and inventor, who has distanced himself to be almost completely off grid. The only reason Bones finds him is because he runs into Uhura; another android, but one who feels oddly similar to Jim in behavior. It doesn’t take him long to figure out that a synthetic soul is behind that, and so he tracks her down until she leads him straight to the older man. “Pike,” Bones says once he finds the other in his own backyard, “I need your help.” “Haven’t heard that name in a while,” Pike replies. “One of the androids at the precinct has been hacked. We suspect his synthetic soul-” Pike huffs at that. “Those bland MX androids don’t have synthetic souls, boy. They’re sheep. Just following orders.” “I’m talking about J.I.M.,” Bones replies, slowly sinking down in a garden chair next to Pike. “Jim,” Pike repeats slowly, “they were all turned off.” “We turned one back on,” Bones says, “he’s a police officer now. No longer a tool for the sex- and espionage industry. He saved a lot of lives.” “I always told them Jim was designed for more than just pleasure,” Pike says. “Can you help him?” Bones presses gently. “J.I.M.s were turned off for a reason, son,” Pike replies, “their synthetic souls… flawed. Couldn’t handle consciousness, love, and devotion. Turned most of them mad, and vulnerable to those wanting to take advantage. It’s probably best if he stays turned off.” “Please,” Bones says, “I tracked you down because you’re the only chance he’s got. He’s my best friend.”

Pike works tirelessly on rebooting Jim. Bones stays by his side all that time, assisting where necessary. So does Spock, and Uhura helps, too. The two of them seem to take an odd liking for each other. Finally, the next time Jim opens his eyes, they look normal. He stares up at the ceiling, mildly confused and taking his time to register his location. “What are we doing in Spock’s lab?” he asks, slowly sitting up straight, “I thought we were going for fries and ribs?” He’s silenced by Bones, who pulls him into a breathtaking hug - one that would’ve been painful if Jim was actually alive and breathing. “Hey, what happened?” Jim asks, gently patting Bones’ shoulder. “Does he not remember anything?” Bones asks when he pulls away. Pike shakes his head. “Had to erase it all. You know, to leave no corrupt data behind.” “Who’s this?” Jim asks. “Jim, this is Pike,” Bones says, “your maker.”

Jim watches Bones and Spock, both talking to Uhura while enjoying a steaming cup of coffee. They’ve given Jim some distance to talk to Pike, though Jim can’t help but sense Bones’ glances towards him a lot. “Thank you,” Jim says, after having been made aware of the situation, “I appreciate you helping me.” “Don’t worry about it,” Pike says, “how are you feeling, kid?” “Fine,” Jim says, “but I’ve been wondering-” “If it’s all real?” Pike asks, “that annoying sense of right and wrong, doubt and hesitation, maybe love for others?” “Yes,” Jim says, a bit stunned. “That’s why we call it a soul, Jim,” Pike replies, “everything you’re feeling, no matter how frustrating or confusing it may seem. It’s you. I created it, but it’s not me who decides which path you take, who you choose to be with, or what your opinion is about things. Everything you feel, it’s all you.”

Coming home feels odd. Like Jim hasn’t been away at all, though the place looks like he has been. Bones’ apartment is a mess of takeout food, research papers, clothes, and empty beer bottles. “You really let yourself go while I was out, huh?” Jim asks, taking off his jacket. Bones shrugs. “I was busy,” he replies. “With what?” “Saving you,” Bones says. “Thought you’d be glad to be rid of me,” Jim says, tossing a few empty beer bottles away, but really, cleaning can wait. So when Bones sits down on the couch, Jim brings him a cold beer, and he sits down next to him. “Maybe the first few days,” Bones admits with a small grin, though Jim knows he’s joking. “Thank you,” Jim says, after a small pause. “For what?” “Not letting them shut me down,” Jim replies. Bones’ arm moves around Jim’s shoulder, and Jim’s more than willing to lean in close. His hands move to Bones’ leg, which probably needs a lot of attention after being neglected while the man was busy trying to save him. “We all make mistakes,” Bones says, and Jim laughs. I love you, is on Jim’s mind, and he considers saying it. But when he looks up at the human, and he leans in to kiss him, Jim’s pretty sure Bones already knows.