#nny can be sort of similar to both

[frost-moons]

@chemistfail I agree with you that it’s really hard to pin point Nny since he can be pretty inconsistant and lacks control. I don’t think morally grey should be counted as a separate category from the rest though? My understanding of morally grey is just that your morals aren’t perfectly virtuous nor perfectly villainous. I think that anti-hero/anti-villain/villain can all fall within the morally grey category since those lables tend to be more influenced by their actions. You can have a morally grey character act as a villain or a hero for different characters depending on their perspective of the former. So Nny is definitely morally grey, if not morally inconsistent? He doesn’t seem to have too many concrete ‘i believe in this and nothing will change that’ morals and that seems to be at least a factor in why he lacks much consistency in his actions. He sways between character types depending on what in that moment is influencing his actions, rather than him ever having a strong moral creed to influence it.

Discuss:

Would Nny be an anti-hero, an anti-villain, morally grey, or just a plain villain?

[doctor-plagueis]

RWBY Booty Tier List

Hi I said it would happen so now it's gonna happen, time to rate asses and explain why I gave them that rating...

(also they are in order from flattest to phattest)

[This took way too long (T-T) ]

Starting with D TIER Aka Flat as fuck

Raven: Ya go to the lowest tier in D tier ya all-tits-no-ass having ass, you deadbeat fucko (I really don't like parents who leave their children, how'd you guess?).

Weiss : Sorry girl but even with all your dance training, your Sperm donor's DNA is in you, if it was just your mom's DNA you'd rocket up to A TIER, still more ass than Raven tho, which says a lot about Raven since Weiss is as flat as a wooden plank (sorry @naughtyweiss your girl has no ass).

All of team NDGO: these bitches show up once or twice, and, in the novels they do something bad? I didn't read it, but they like sacrifice some people to the Grimm or something? Anyways they have almost no ass too little to actually matter.

C TIER Aka Too much muscle

Pyrrha : Sorry unbeatable girl your life style is just too healthy, with all her exercises and no fat foods she has no cushioning, I'm sorry Pyrrha you just have too much muscle.

Reese : With all her skating she must have some muscle in the back, like literally, her muscles are trained to keep her on the board during combat so her ass is super firm, but that's a bit of a downside since it's too firm, kinda hard actually like really hard.

Also she gives me party animal girl vibes, that doesn't affect anything just thought I'd mention it.

Elm: Have you seen how tall and beefy that girl is? Now does this affect her backside...mmm...kind of? Her ass is just and, I mean just muscle which is bad because no cushioning.

But her thighs tho mm~mm delicious.

Yang : Yang is all about her upper body, she's proud of her tits and her arms, she is Miss "punch first ask later" after all, so i can actually see her skipping some leg days, like Reese her booty is alot of muscle but not so much cushion, sorry Yang.

Arslan : Like Yang, Arslan is all about working out and honing her body to peak physical fighting ability, however, this girl has genetics on her side, her tits aren't as big as Yang’s however, she make up for having a tentsy little bit of cushion for the pushin' not really enough to be B TIER though.

B TIER Aka Now were gettin' good

Penny Ver.2 : Penny Version 1 was pure metal (at least in my headcanon) so she was all legs no butt, however, Penny Version 2 (again in my headcanon) had synthetic skin, now I'm not saying Pietro is some weird pervert giving his child a fat ass, but he was "generous" which was inaccurate as...

Penny (human) : Penny as a human never had the chance to exercise [fuck you RT (T-T)], so her booty was a little lacking but it was still bigger and rounder than her robot body.

Ruby: Now you and I both know that with all the sweets Ruby eats she isn't exactly thin, good thing though is all the fat goes to her ass, Ruby has that fatty y'all!

Neo : I'm sure people will question this one but, Neo's height is a detrement on her ass, since she's so short her ass has to be proportional to her actual height, so for women her height she has so much ass but compared to the others in this list it isn't as much.

Coco: Coco takes care of her fashion and her body. She does squats often and keeps a balance between fat and firmness. Unfortunately genetics gave her a cute face but not a phat ass, sorry queen.

Summer: Same as Ruby except she has that MILFY boost to her hips and booty (she also has bigger tits but, oh well this isn't the Titty Tier list so...).

Winter : Training for the military helped null the taint of Jacques DNA in her, so she took a bit more of her mother’s blessed genes, her ass isn't exactly impressive like the girls in A TIER but it's nothing to scoff at either, unlike her sister (sorry Weissey).

Miltiades "Miltia" : both sisters wear heels, however, Miltia has bigger boobs than her twin while Mel has a bigger booty, still wearing heels and being as acrobatic as they both are requires a lot of lower body training, and also since they work at a club as security they do know how to seduce people, and that did affected their rating.

A TIER Aka Nearly perfectly fuckable

Harriet : Now to be one hundred percent honest Harriet has more thighs than ass, however, with her focus on speed and the training she does, she must have a nice fuckable ass, not the biggest or roundest but really, really nice.

Melanie: Both sisters are guards for Junior's club, but, I like to think that Mel also works as a Stripper or Lap dancer (Hooker if you got enough to buy her services and have a dick big enough, she's a bit of a size queen), so she worked on making her already fat ass even better and also took the time to hone her sex appeal, those being her twerking and lapdancing.

Velvet : Bunny gal has some phat Bunny Buns if ya catch my meaning, like go back to volume 3 and get a good look at her costume, girl's got hips and ass like she was bred for it!

Willow: Have you seen her in the newest volumes?? She has a chance (admittedly small) against the legendary bellabooties Gahtdayum!

Too bad she wasted it with a nearly sterile fucking shit pile of a human like Jacques, ugh... (How he managed to have 3 children baffles me, must've taken half the world’s supply of Viagra)

[Side note our favorite Schnee femboy took after his mom, if he was on the list he'd be just below Harriet hehe].

A+ TIER Candidates for the Bubble Booty Brigade (BBB)

Glynda : Glynda is a professional huntress, she is a teacher and she's decked out in dominatrix gear, can I make it any clearer?

Salem : Salem is the original MILF, the thiccest witch of remnant , and also, she has magic and is technically a monster girl sooo... that gives her extra points (who would've guessed I like monster girls hehe).

The next entry might be blasphemous for some and for that I apologize but...

Blake and Kali : I'm sorry kitties, even though the belabooties are know world wide they are not yet in the BBB. Blake has the firmer booty because of her time in the Fang but Kali has the MILF bonus.

Because of their similarities and their diferences they tie for top of A+ tier.

S TIER The BUBBLE BOOTY BRIGADE

The three heavenly asses of remnant, only three girl stand a top the mountain of the perfect Bubble Booty and they are in order...

May Zedong : May has been depicted by the fandom as being really curvy, especially the cow udders she calls breasts, however she hides her curves under her clothes. The same applies to the fucking badonk she hides in her baggy pants, so much so in fact, that May should be number two of the BBB but because she's so shy about her body she's demoted to number three, still, being a member of the Brigade is a blesing of itself.

Emerald Sustrai : As stated in the previous entry Em should be number three, but because May is so shy and Emerald isn't they swaped places. Em is number two because of one singular thing, she knows her ass is her best atribute, and she fucking flaunts it, she knows she can make men and futas pitch tents, and make women stare like horndogs just by walking past them. Not only that, but she wear clothes that accentuate her ass from short shorts to miniskirts, she knows how to make anyone undeserving cream themselves just by swaying her hips a little and winking. Her seduction skills boosted her above everyone else except one.

NORA VALKYRIE THE ONE TRUE BUBBLE BOOTY OF REMNANT

Every single step a jiggle, every single jump or tiny hop and the world stops to stare, every time she passes by jaws hit the floor, every man woman and futa either wants Nora or wants to be Nora.

Nora's voluptuous cheeks are legendary and the worst part of it all is: She does know the effect she has on people, and she gives zero shits about it.

Because no one is worthy of her divine ass cheeks, except for two men: Jaune Arc and Lie Ren.

She's found her studs the ones who care for her, love her, give her the world AND the ones who have huge bitch breaking cocks to fuck her into the sheets like rutting animals.Every.Single.Night.

Every day of her life is one big teasing session for her studs, she purposefully wear skirts just short enough to see the glorious bounce, she always finds excuses to bend over, she sits on their laps as often as possible.

Just so she can have the mind blowing three ways she has every night.

All hail Booty Queen Nora Valkyrie.

Now everyone thank you for being patient this was something i spent a few days writing (like 3-4 days) and I only wrote this for that time so I hope y'all like it.

Some chacters are missing I know, but I really am comfortable with how it is now.

As always this SHOULD NOT AFFECT YOUR WRITING.

This was a thought experiment of mine, and like I always say in this sort of thing WRITE HOW YOU WANT TO WRITE I hope this was clear.

Thanks for reading and please if you so desire share it with friends.

But for now see ya!

[jonathanrook]

legally i have to give you intern 2

em you have awoken an ungodly beast inside me so i need to warn everyone that this post is. incomprehensible. but so is mymusic so i guess we're all used to it.

How I feel about this character:

i watched mymusic as it was airing/running/coming out specifically bc i'm a jack stannie, and as a kid melvin was my second favorite character (w scene being in first, obvs) for mostly that reason. he basically hovered around this ranking until my most recent rewatch in the summer of 2020, which was actually spurred by some events in my personal life that vaguely reminded me of scene's season two arc w jeff, and i thought it'd been a funny/nostalgic way to get my mind off things.

(i want to side note here that -- i know you didn't ask, but -- i love jeff. i have since i was a kid. like, obviously not as a person but i think he's honestly the best written character in the series, w indie close in second. idk what it says about the f*nes that their most interesting and well rounded characters are the villains, but i digress. to this day i'm salty that jeff never got added to the theme song and wasn't really included in promotional merch.)

however, in said rewatch, certain things about how he was written started to really get under my skin, and certain moments in particular have really stuck out to me in a negative way. like, for the entirety of season one and a good chunk of season two he's one person, and then he leaves mymusic and we have an entirely different person, but not in a nuanced character building sort of way.

i've said a few of these points before but i'll repeat them here regardless. at the risk of sounding like i've put on a tin-foil hat, it's my sneaking suspicion that scindie was supposed to be endgame, but since fan reception to it was pretty neutral, and scenechart stans were, at the very least, more vocal, changes were made to the intended finale, which is why in the last scene he's basically just. indie. like, if everything about the show was exactly the same but indie was the one who had ended up w scene in the end that would have made so much more sense since a) scene had a crush on indie that he/everyone knew about and b) indie was kind of a dick despite the half-assed attempts at redemption, so both combined make it slightly less weird/out-of-nowhere that he kisses her w/o her consent (since, even though like. implied consent is not real at worst and a fuzzy subject at best but you could argue that scene would want indie to kiss her); and this isn't even taking into consideration that c) melvin is heavily queer-coded in both seasons, with his friendship with nerdcore being, dare i say, homoerotic at times, and his arc about leaving the company and changing his name mirroring nerdcore's almost perfectly (with nerdcore being a character who b*nny [at least] has all but confirmed is actually gay).

i've also been on the fence about melvin's behavior in that final scene making more sense for indie's character being an intentional decision as a way of shoe-horning in a theme about the lasting effects of abuse/cycles of abuse/the corruption of power but i also don't think the f*nes are smart enough for that. however, for the sake of defending my straw theory, i also point to the scene where indie comes to visit the acid factory after melvin told him to shut up, and we see melvin use reggie as a foot-stool, going as far as to say that it feels good to do so (which, in all honesty, i think is a bit that was entirely improvised, since the f*nes were "notorious for never saying cut" [paraphrased from a bts video], but work w me here). he's also given a seltzer mug that perfectly resembles indie's kombucha mug. in these moment melvin is directly emulating the behavior of his previous abuser, purposefully or not, literal moments after being promoted to an equal position of authority, which was totally just included as a joke, but could also be argued is meant to show that he's becoming indie; or, if we acknowledge that the f*nes have no fucking clue what they're doing and were just directing like chickens with their heads cut off, it at least shows that melvin's new position of power is leading him to understand where indie was coming from, which is supported by their conversation in the finale.

the following contains a couple brief mentions of irl sexual assault so if that's something you'd like to avoid skip to the next section!

HOWEVER, that alone isn't what i have a problem with, since i think melvin is completely justified in being a dick to indie (and also reggie enthusiastically consents to being used as an ottoman so good for him i guess). the issue comes completely in how he treats scene in the scenes where the f*nes clearly thought what they were writing was super romantic. like, the fact that the only thing he's got hung on his cubicle wall is a single picture of scene taken from the fucking opening credits (like. how hard would it have been to have. literally any other photo[s] esp since there's an abundance of cute bts pics of the cast in costume that could have been put there) and him scrolling through her twitter at work really creep me out (and at the risk of oversharing the weird, like, social media stalking angle really fucks w me bc that may or may not have been the exact fucking thing i was trying to escape in rewatching mymusic in the first place). also, having him sexually assault scene as a means of comforting her after she had just been sexually assaulted in the same way by someone else was... a choice (which is also, uh, personally familiar).

again, i recognize that demonizing melvin wasn't what the f*nes were trying to do here, and i perhaps seem hypocritical for opening liking jeff, but what makes jeff work is he's intentionally "the bad guy." having melvin do the same things as indie and jeff uncritically only proves further that the f*nes can't write for shit, and ruins his character which had, up until he quit mymusic, been unironically good. like, it's obviously not beneficial that the exact asshole things he does are personally triggering, but the character would still be a mess and i would still dislike him regardless.

i want to say though that jack delivers a surprisingly great performance despite how shoddily his character is constructed and how little experience he has as an actor. like, it's clear he was having a lot of fun on set and i would love to see him in something, like, good; i think he could pull off even like, guest television roles, which is a lot more than can be said for other youtubers.

-----

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

nerdchart should have been canon i'm sorry. i know that close, nonromantic male friendships are valuable, esp between queer men, but also gd wouldn't it have been baller to have a canon interracial mlm ship. like. c'mon. and they could have been such a good friends to lovers story! we already got to see how melvin was the only person nerdcore could really be himself around so it would have been so cool if melvin's self-advocacy arc/flowchart arc had revolved more around nerdcore with a little role-reversal! and then they kiss! like god intended!

also i ship him and indie bc i'm a grubby little gremlin man ohoho. enemies w weird sexual tension? sign me up. not even enemies to lovers i'm not saying this one should have been canon i just love the vibes. do you think melvin and indie ever explored each other's bod-- *gunshot*

-----

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

i wish him and scene had just been bros. god remember in season one when they were just bros that was the life.

alternatively, i wish we'd seen more bonding w him and metal, as a means of reconciling that. uh. moment from season one. along similar lines i would have loved to see him get closer w rayna in a similar way to how she bonded w nerdcore in season two. i think that could have also worked to show how she'd grown between the two seasons.

-----

My unpopular opinion about this character:

HIM. AND. SCENE. SHOULD. HAVE. JUST. BEEN. BROS. (though i think my general dislike of him is pretty unpopular, lmao).

when the show was coming out i don't think it's unfair to say that scenechart/scenetern 2 was the most popular ship (aside from potentially techstep whatever) but luckily we're all gay and have better taste now. unfortunately i totally fell into this camp and scenechart was even my otp for years (until it was arguably more unfortunately usurped by reddie in 2019) and i didn't even realise that it's a hot mess until, again, the summer of 2020.

when actually watching the show the choices the f*nes made in regards to how the ship actually became canon are so odd and out of place, too? okay, so, on one hand everyone just shipped scenechart bc it was the whitest hettiest ship in the show (esp in season two when idol left) aside from scindie (and we already discussed what's wrong w that). but, on the other hand, lainey and jack clearly also just got along? and i suspect that lainey probably also admired jack's work and was happy to be working with him bc we have so many shots throughout even the first season when the ship wasn't the intended endgame of lainey scene looking really fondly at jack melvin at times when it doesn't make much sense at all, esp since she's smitten w indie? this trend continues into the second season which arguably works but it still seems really out of place for him to be the one to ultimately make the first move on her since it's clear she was the one crushing this whole time and also he's gay! this bitch is gay what the fuck!!

-----

One thing I wish had happened with this character in canon:

at this point i'm struggling to think of anything i haven't covered yet. oops.

i've talked at length before about how he should have been a woman/lesbian, but the tl;dr is that it would have solved a lot of the queer-coding "problems" that just didn't get resolved in the show. if he'd been a lesbian then not only would the friendship w nerdcore still made sense, but scenechart would have as well (not even mentioning that both of scene's other relationships w men make a lot of sense as comphet anyway).

[tearinglight]

Venus

A/N: Y’all know Zee-Zee is @devnny’s! If you’re in this tag, y'all know! Dear Venus,

Hi. I know I’m only six and that everyone says I’m too young to have a wife, but I want one anyway. 

My teacher and my mom both have wives, so I think that it’s only fair I have one, too. Today I found three pennies that I’m sending with this letter that I know will prove to you that I’m extra, extra sure about this wish! 

So, if you can, can you give me one? My book says you’re the goddess of love and Mom says you get married for love and that’s where wives come from so you’ve gotta be the best person to ask! 

I don’t really mind what she looks like, but can you maybe give me one that really, really likes me? Like, she’ll still like me, even if I do something wrong? Even if I’m not handsome like the baseball players at my skool? Like, if I was the ugliest, most terrible baseball player ever and did everything wrong...could you make it so she still liked me?

And she’s got to be really tough, too! So she could beat up the bullies at my skool. I wouldn’t let her do it on her own, either. I’ll protect her, I promise. She’ll be the bestest treasure I’ll ever have, even better than all of the ones I have in my art box!

She should like art, too. Me and her can doodle together at skool and everything!

Thank you, 

Johnathan

PS: Could you give her green eyes? That’s my favorite color.

Devi sipped her coffee as she looked over the yellowed, crinkly paper in her hands. It had been looked at a lot, judging by the creases. There was even a ring stain from a cup of coffee just like hers in the corner. A smile played on her lips, her eyes figure skating across the scratchy script before Nny walked in. 

“Devi, why are nail boxes all op-” He stopped, his hands freezing mid-wave when he saw the stacks of paper, letters and other sorts of knick-knacks that were strewn around the room.”What is all of this?” “You, apparently. Or the you before all of…,``she sipped her drink, motioning the mug up and down his form. “That.” “You just gestured to all of me.” “Exactly, “ She smirked, putting her cup down and motioning him to join her on the couch. “I got interested if there really was just nails in those things and surprise! I found these squirrelled away. I can’t believe you’ve never thought to look in these before.” Nny looked like he was being shown a rare animal the way he leaned over her on the couch to see what she had dug up. Devi wordlessly handed him a picture she found, one that she had thought was endlessly adorable. At first, she had assumed it was Squee but at second glance she noticed the blue hair that clearly meant it was Nny. He was at the same swingset that Squee liked to use, glaring at the camera with the same expression he held now to look at the picture years later. A confused scowl.

“I don’t remember this.”

Devi was about to say something, but much like a well-timed siren Zee-Zee started crying from her bedroom, making Nny jolt up like a meerkat. Before she could stop him, he was out of the room with a rushed ‘I got it!’. Devi swore that the two were conspiring together against her at night to cleanse her of the dreaded sleep they both seemed to share a hatred for. The front door swung open and shut and a half wet, sulky, teen, mirror image of Nny stalked in. 

Ah. The third sleep hater had arrived.

“Welcome home, Squee.” A non-committal whimper was his reply. She didn’t ask him how skool went. They both knew it was awful. The boy shuffled over, dropping his backpack on the floor and flopping onto the couch, his head in her lap. 

“...whatcha got there, Mom-Vi?” The young man sighed, closing his eyes when she stroked his hair. “Nny’s old nail stuffs?”

Devi shot Squee a questioning look, the teen’s face having it’s own open and curious expression. It seemed that no matter what Devi did, Squee always ended up with the upper hand in their family when it came to Nny. He could calm the maniac down even faster than she could, would coax Nny into the most mundane of family practices, had endless correct theories on what Nny would do…

And, apparently, had explored a past that even Nny didn’t know at some point. 

“You know about these?”

“Well, some of them. Never got around to this many,” He pushed himself off her lap, lifting up the photo that Nny had been holding a second ago. “Most of it was in the basement, ya know, where I’m not allowed? So I was only able to find so many things...like this picture here. Taken with a 33 millimeter Polteroid.” “Where did you learn that?” Squee said stuff sometimes, things a teenager couldn’t possibly know. When others looked into the doe brown eyes they probably saw innocence, which was true. Yet Devi couldn’t help but see a fox’s cunning stirring just under the surface.

“Dib. We know because we flashed at least a million cameras at Zim until it looked similar,” He checked his nails, the purple nailpolish glittering in the light. “Or at least he said that’s what we were doing but he was probably just wanting to blind Zim. Pepi thought either was possible.”

“And that concluded what, Watson?”

“That either Dad’s family were the owners of a really old camera or that Daddy is from at least 1994, Holmes.”

Devi smiled, ruffling his hair. “Good work, Squee.”

Nny walked in, cradling the smallest member of this weird little family in his arms. He looked up, backing away when he saw the evil smirks they had on their faces.

“Nny, my dear,” Devi held up the envelope the Venus letter had come in, it’s return address clear as day. “I believe we are about to find your origins.”

[snappedsky]

Fanatics Adventures in Space Part 26

Finally, the Battalion returns home. Previous! Next!

--

Return

           “I repeat: arrival to Earth in T-minus 20.”      

           The announcement rings out across the ship as the Battalion scramble around their room, excitedly packing everything up.

           “I can’t believe it’s finally over,” Squee says.

           “I know,” Dib agrees, “it went so fast.”

           “Or not fast enough,” Gaz argues.

           “It’s gonna be so good to be home again,” Pepito smiles, “I miss my mom.”

           “I miss my own room,” Devi grunts.

           “Same,” Johnny adds.

           “It was fun though,” Tenna grins, “y’know, for the most part.”            “I wouldn’t call it fun,” Zim grunts, “but…it is good to be back.”

           The door opens and Kio walks in. “Make sure you don’t forget anything because you likely won’t get it back.”

           Once everyone has packed up their stuff, they leave together and head through the ship to the cargo hold. Along the way, they run into Skoodge, Gir, Minimoose, and Shmoopy.

           “It took me a while to find them,” Skoodge says as he holds onto Gir and Minimoose.

           “I can’t believe you guys are finally leaving,” Shmoopy sighs, “I’m…gonna miss you.”            “Aww, we’ll miss you too, Shmoopy,” Pepito coos.

           “But we can always talk through Zim’s computer,” Dib points out.

           “Yeah,” Shmoopy smiles.

           Everyone chatters excitedly about what they’re gonna do when they’re home or what happened during their adventure. It all seems to be wrapping up so nicely. But as they near the cargo hold, the ship lurches, like it stopped suddenly, and everyone stumbles to regain their balance.

           “What was that?” Kio asks suspiciously. They all share a look before racing for the bridge.

           “What’s going on-oh no.”

           They skid to a stop, their faces dropping from fear and concern as they enter and see the Irken Armada outside, all hovering around the Massive.

           “They beat us here,” Zim growls.

           The Resisty cower around their consoles, barely able to look through the front display. They all jump when a ringing sounds from Lard Nar’s seat.

           “They’re hailing us!” he squeals.

           “Answer!” Zim orders as he marches forward.

           The Tallest appear on screen, grinning smugly. He glowers at them.

           “Did you really think you could escape us?” Purple scoffs.

           “You guys really have been chasing us this whole time?” Pepito snaps, “don’t you have like an empire to run or something?”

           “Dealing with you is more important,” Red growls.

           “Wow. That’d be flattering if it wasn’t so terrifying,” Dib comments.

           “Here’s what’s gonna happen,” Red says, “either you turn yourselves in peacefully or we destroy you and your precious dirt planet too.”

          “What’s stopping you from destroying the Earth if we do surrender?” Squee asks sceptically.

           “Nothin,” Purple shrugs.

           “Yeah, we could totally do that. And we probably will,” Red nods, “anyway, make your choice.”

           “Neither!” Zim barks, “you’ll destroy the Earth over my lifeless husk!”

           “I mean, that is the plan,” Purple points out.

           “And I won’t let that happen,” Zim declares, “Nar, hang up on them!”

           He does so and the screen closes on the Tallests’ annoyed faces.

           “Well, we’re dead,” Gaz grunts.

           “Not yet we’re not!” Zim booms as he faces his team. “Here’s the plan. I’m gonna go out on an escape pod and keep them distracted. While I’m doing that, the Battalion will sneak onto the Massive and shut them down. And Kio, you get the Resisty out of here.”

           “What?” she exclaims, “we can’t just leave you.”

           “You’ve done enough already,” he insists, “and if the armada attacks, you won’t survive. You have to stay alive so you can keep resisting.”            “He’s right, Kio,” Nar agrees, “the ship won’t be able to withstand a direct attack from the armada. We’re no good to anyone as space dust.”            Kio hangs her head but nods. “Okay.”            “Good. Everyone know what they have to do?” Zim asks.

           “Yes,” the Battalion nods.

           “Then let’s do it.”            The Battalion races out of the room, Kio and Shmoopy close behind, while Zim heads to the escape shuttle.

           “Zim,” Nar says, catching his attention before he can enter. “Take this,” he says, handing him an oval-ish device with a flat bottom and a big button on top.

           “What is it?” Zim asks.

           “A power amplifier, able to increase the power of all technology within its vicinity,” he explains, “including your PAK. Just in case. Good luck.”

           “Yes. You too.”

           Zim tucks the device under his arm and climbs into the shuttle.

          Meanwhile, Kio and Dib lead the rest of the group through the ship. Along the way, Dib, Gaz, Pepito, and Squee quickly change into their space suits while Skoodge gives Johnny, Devi, and Tenna their own vacuum bubbles.

           “Really didn’t want to be putting this on again so soon,” Gaz grumbles as she tugs at the material of her suit.

           “Hey, how are we getting to the Massive anyway?” Devi asks.

           “We’ll be taking our new ship,” Dib replies, smiling excitedly.

           “Ooh, are we finally gonna see it?” Pepito asks.

           “You would’ve seen it now regardless,” he says, “it’s how we were gonna get to Earth; a sort of ‘maiden voyage’.”

           They hurry into the cargo hold. It’s filled mostly with large, metal boxes with alien writing on them. But the middle of the room has obviously been converted into their own little garage. Spare parts of varying sizes and multiple tools surround the project Zim, Dib, and Kio have been working on the last six months.

           “Behold,” Dib says dramatically, “the Epic.”            The plain black cruiser Rory gifted is near unrecognizable. It looks much more similar to an Earth sports car with four tires with chrome rims, chrome bumpers, side view mirrors, pink LED headlights and brake lights, and a pink racing stripe along both sides and two going up the hood. Along with the hatch-like doors on the driving and passenger sides, there are now two regular car doors for the backseat and a hatch door on the back. Inside is pretty much the same, but now with a leather bench backseat and a center console complete with cup holders for the front and back and seatbelts.

           “Wow, it looks awesome!” Squee chimes while the others nod agreeably.

           “Why’s it a car?” Johnny asks.

           “It can change from  a car to a ship,” Dib replies, “this way I can have my own car and I don’t have to borrow my dad’s all the time.”            “No time for long goodbyes, I’m afraid,” Kio says as she reads from her tablet. “Zim’s shuttle just left so we have to as well.”            She grabs Dib and Gaz’s shoulder and squeezes them into Pepito and Squee, pulling them all into a group hug. “Be safe.”

           “Yeah,” Dib smiles.

           “You too,” Squee adds.

           Kio looks up at Johnny, Devi, Tenna, and Skoodge. “You guys too.”            “Thanks,” Tenna chirps while Devi smiles and waves and Nny nods.

           “WAAAAAHHHH! I’LL MISS YOUUUUUU!” Gir wails as he squeezes Shmoopy’s head.

           “I’ll miss you too, Gir,” she smiles and kneels in front of Skoodge. “Help me please.”            “Come on, Gir,” Skoodge says as he peels him and tucks him under his arm. “We have to save our home.”           “We’ll call you when we’re back on Earth,” Pepito promises as everyone climbs into the Epic, Dib driving, Pepito on shotgun, Squee, Gaz, and Johnny in the backseat, and Devi, Tenna, and Skoodge- with Gir and Minimoose- in the very back.

           “We’ll be waiting,” Kio smiles softly as she and Shmoopy wave goodbye.

           “Okay. Everyone buckle up,” Dib orders and fires up the engine. When the hatch of the cargo hold is open, he pushes forward on the yoke and the Epic drives through the room and out the door, stopping abruptly as it hits zero gravity and floating.

           “Uh, Dib?” Pepito questions.

           “Hang on,” Dib says and pushes a button on the top of the yoke. Immediately, the car starts rumbling as the wheels fold up into the undercarriage and four rocket thrusters extend out the back. They light up and the ship rockets away. The force shoves Dib, Pepito, Gaz, Squee, and Johnny into their seats as they exclaim excitedly, while completely knocking over Devi, Tenna, and Skoodge in the back.

           Devi groans as she grabs the backseat and pulls herself up. “Remind me how we got this raw end of the deal.”

           “Someone had to get it,” Nny points out, grinning.

           “Approaching the Massive,” Dib announces as they slow down and near the appropriately named ship.

           “Won’t they see us?” Squee asks nervously.

           “The Epic has cloaking,” he replies, “as long as Zim keeps them distracted, no one will see us coming.”            They all watch through the windows as Zim’s little escape shuttle flies by the Armada and faces the Massive. After putting on a vacuum bubble, he pops the hatch and stands up.

           Inside the bridge of the Massive, the Tallest eat a bag of chips as they watch him on the display.

           “What is he doing?” Red scoffs.

           “Tallest!” Zim screams, “if you wanna destroy the Earth, you’ll have to destroy me first!”

           “Uh, yeah,” Purple snorts, “that’s the plan. Fire up the Planet Exploder.”

           As the Epic pulls up alongside the Massive and Skoodge starts cutting an entrance into the hull, the giant laser gun extends out of the underside and aims at Zim.                        “That’s not good!” Tenna exclaims as it fires. They whip around and watch as the laser flies right for Zim, shouting in fear.

           Zim activates the power amplifier and creates a shield with his spider legs. Immediately, he feels a flare up of power in his PAK and his shield triples in size. When the laser hits, the force nearly knocks him back, but he stands strong and holds back the laser.

           “WHAT!” the Tallest exclaim, throwing their chip bags in bewilderment.

           “He’s holding it back…” Dib breathes, just as stunned as the rest of the Battalion.

           “Amazing,” Kio sighs as she and the rest of the Resisty watch from their ship. “But I guess that’s Zim for you. Now let’s get out of here. Hyper drive!”

           The Resisty ship disappears without any of the Irken Armada noticing.

           Zim growls with exertion as he holds back the continuous laser, his legs in danger of buckling. His PAK may be more powerful, but he’s not sure how much longer his body can handle this.

           “He needs help,” Pepito observes as everyone jumps from the Epic to the Massive. “I’m gonna help Zim! You guys stick to the plan!”

           “Pepito!” Squee exclaims as he spreads his wings and takes off, landing behind Zim.

           “Pep…” Zim painfully grunts in surprise.

           “I got your back,” Pepito says as he lifts his hands, placing them against Zim’s force field and creating one of his own. They mix together, creating a black and pink shield of magic and science. Zim immediately feels some of the exertion let off and it’s almost a relief.

           Meanwhile, Dib, Gaz, Squee, Johnny, Devi, Tenna, Skoodge, Gir, and Minimoose have safely transferred over to the Massive. The corridor they’re in is empty but they can hear frantic Irken voices in the distance.

           “Skoodge, how do we get to the bridge?” Dib asks.

           “See those signs?” Skoodge replies as he points to signs with Irken writing next to arrows pointing in either direction down the corridor. “The big letters are pointing to the bridge.”            “Good,” Dib nods and points at him, Devi, Tenna, and Johnny. “You guys go to the power room and shut down the Massive. We’ll go confront the Tallest. Gir, Minimoose, you come with us.”            “Woo!” Gir cheers and lands on Dib’s head.

           “I’m coming too,” Johnny declares.

           “You should go with Devi and Tenna in case they run into trouble,” Squee argues and smiles softly. “We’ll be fine.”

           Nny is hesitant but complies. “Fine.”            “Meet back here when the Massive is shut down,” Dib orders and the two groups split up.

           Dib, Gaz, and Squee with Gir, Minimoose, and Shmee race through the corridors, following the signs to the bridge. They pass by ship engineers, too surprised to respond, but don’t run into any trouble until they near the bridge. Three armed guards are blocking the door. They lift their laser rifles at the sight of the kids.

           “I got this,” Dib says and raises his gloved hand. He fires a blast which blows through the guards and the door.

           Everyone in the bridge is surprised by the explosion and whip around.

           “Ugh, what now?” Red groans.

           “Tallest!” Dib barks, “turn off your Planet Exploder and leave our galaxy now!”

           “Mmmmm nah,” Purple replies.

           “Then we have no choice but to destroy your ship.”

           “Ha!” Red scoffs, “what makes you think-?”

           “Gir, destroy!” Dib orders.

           “Yay!” he cheers and immediately throws himself through the wall.

           “Hey!” Purple exclaims.

           Gaz lifts her Warhammer of Swine and smashes a nearby console while Squee drives his knives through another.

           “Hey!” Red snaps.

           The engineers band together, ready to fight back, but Dib blasts them away with his glove while Minimoose fires a blast of his own through another wall.

           “HEY!” the Tallest shout.

           “That’s it,” Red snarls as two metal tentacles extend from his PAK. Purple does the same and they float up higher, their appendages raised menacingly.

           The Battalion stand side by side, ready to fight back.

           Meanwhile Skoodge leads Johnny, Devi, and Tenna to the opposite end of the ship, where the power core is. It’s a lot more heavily guarded than last time and they run into guards every few seconds. But Johnny tears through them without even breaking his stride.

           “Here it is!” Skoodge exclaims and opens the door. They’re immediately greeted by a group of over twenty armed guards and immediately jump out of the way of the lasers.

           “Guess they’re a little bit more protective,” Tenna comments.

           “We don’t have time for this,” Skoodge growls, “stay back, guys.”            He jumps back into the doorway, his spider legs extending, and fires a massive laser into the room, immediately destroying all the guards. Johnny, Devi, and Tenna poke their heads around the corner to make sure it’s safe.

           “Wow, nice one,” Johnny comments.

           “So same deal as before?” Devi asks.

           “Pretty much,” Skoodge replies as he enters the room. “But this time I’m gonna make sure to do more damage. Hold off any guards.”            “You got it,” Johnny nods and lifts his knives as Skoodge starts firing lasers.

           Back in the bridge, the Battalion is holding their own against the Tallest. Red flings a sharp, metal tentacle at Dib who narrowly dodges then blasts it to pieces. Purple tries to do the same to Gaz, but she smashes the appendage into the floor. Before either the Tallest can attack again, Squee uses his rocket wheelies to zip around to their backs where he and Shmee grab their antennae. They both freeze up, their PAK appendages going limp for a second.

           “Now, Minimoose!” Squee barks.

           The little moose charges up a blast. Squee and Shmee get out of the way just as he fires, blasting the Tallest point-blank.

           The Battalion pant as they meet up and wait for the dust to clear. Before it does, Squee feels a chill shoot up his spine.

           “Watch out!” he cries just as a dozen metal appendages shoot out of the dust. The kids barely dodge, getting cuts and scrapes all over their body as the limbs stab through the wall behind them.          

           The look up as the Tallest rise out of the dust, some burns and tears on their cloaks but otherwise unharmed. The two groups glare at each other.

           Before anyone can throw another attack, the ship suddenly lurches. As everyone stumbles to regain their balance, the lights go out and emergency lighting switches on.

           “No!” Red barks and looks outside. The Planet Exploder has stopped firing and Zim and Pepito are still standing, exhausted but alive. They both collapse into the shuttle.

           “They did it,” Dib smiles.

           Red and Purple are both furious as they glare at the kids.

           “You’re gonna pay for this,” Red snarls.

           “We’ve heard that before,” Gaz grunts, rolling her eyes.

           “Sorry, but it’s time for us to split,” Squee says as he draws a Flashy Bomb from his bag. He activates it and tosses it at the Tallest. It goes off, surrounding them in a blinding white light.

           “Augh, my eyes!” Purple cries as they cover their faces, and the Battalion slips out of the room.

           They race through the Massive and arrive back at the Epic at the same time as Skoodge, Johnny, Devi, and Tenna.

           “Nice work, guys,” Dib comments, “now let’s get out of here.”

           They all jump back over to their ship and take off towards Zim’s shuttle. They pull up alongside it and peek inside. Zim and Pepito are sprawled out on the seat, sweating and panting but conscious.

           “Need a lift?” Gaz asks. They both chuckle weakly.

           Everyone helps Zim and Pepito inside and lies them down in the back. Then they take off for Earth.

           As they start to near the atmosphere, a bulb on the dashboard starts flashing and beeping.

           “Oh, we’re getting a call,” Dib says and presses a button. A holographic screen appears over the dash, displaying the Tallest, their eyes squinty and teary.

           “Found you, you little-ah! The screen hurts my eyes!” Purple cries as he turns away, rubbing his eyes.

           “This isn’t over! This isn’t a victory for you!” Red barks.

           “Really? Cause it sure feels like one,” Squee grins and Dib and Gaz nod agreeably.

           “We’ll be back!” Red snaps, “you can’t stop us! We’re the most powerful force in the galaxy! We’ll destroy you and your little mud ball planet too! You can’t stop us-!”

           The transmission cuts out when Zim’s spider legs stabs the dashboard. Everyone looks back at him with surprise.

           “Sorry,” he grunts, rubbing his head. “I can’t stand listening to them right now.”

           “Lookee lookee!” Gir exclaims, pointing behind them. Everyone watches as the Irken Armada flies away, towing the powerless Massive and they all cheer and high five victoriously.

           “Nice work, team,” Zim says, “now let’s go home.”

           Dib flies the Epic to Earth. They break through the atmosphere with relative ease and arrive at their city within a few minutes. One by one, he drops everyone off by their homes- Devi and Tenna first, who trudge into their building and immediately collapse in Devi’s apartment.

           Johnny and Squee are next. Colton races out of his house and greets them almost immediately, grabbing Squee in a tight hug while Johnny lumbers up their house. When he opens the door, Granny Cammie is sitting on the couch with Nugget. Both happily perk up and he smiles softly.

           Next up is Pepito. He drags his feet up to his front door and lets himself in, feeling like he could collapse any second. But when he hears his mom happily call his name, he feels just enough strength come back to give her a big hug.

           Dib drops himself and Gaz off next and lets Skoodge take over, deciding to leave the Epic at Zim’s house for now. They enter their house and start to head upstairs to their rooms, when they run into their dad in the kitchen. He exclaims joyously and they smile as he brings them into a tight hug.

           Finally, Skoodge parks the Epic outside Zim’s house. Gir cheers excitedly as he flies across the yard closely followed by Skoodge and Minimoose while Zim uses his spider legs to carry his tired body up to the door. They enter and he smiles as the house lights up.

           “Welcome home, Master.”

[idreamofdraco]

Of course I want the long rambling in-depth answer to the shipping question!

Oh geez, you asked for it. Here is a long, rambling, probably uninteresting and irrelevant history of idreamofdraco shipping DHr and DG, which kind of, sort of explains how I, idreamofdraco, can possibly ship both DHr and DG:

DHr was my first true OTP. It’s the ship I latched onto when I discovered fan fic in 2004. It’s the first pairing I wrote for, a love which spawned a 140,000-word fic and its 55,000-word sequel. (I linked to them, but you probably shouldn’t read them. They are Embarrassing and Not Good, but I was 13-17 when I wrote them, so give me a break hahaha.) My only reason for liking them back then was because bad boy/good girl pairings are hot and, even more simply, because Draco was Harry’s main/overarching antagonist (besides Voldemort, okay), and Hermione was the main female character. I did not have complicated tastes when I was 13.

In 2006, my eyes were opened to the complexity of Ginny’s character. Every time I finished rereading CoS, just like Harry, Ginny being possess by Tom Riddle’s soul fragment never crossed my mind again. So when I read Dark Directed and realized how interesting and unexplored Ginny’s character was, I jumped on the SS Fire and Ice. I wrote my DHr fan fic while reading and eventually writing DG. The only difficulty doing this was sometimes I accidentally typed Ginny’s name instead of Hermione’s. Pretty sure I caught them all before posting chapters.

It’s as easy as that. That’s how I can ship both. Both ships were interesting to me, both were entertaining, both made my heart pound, made me squeal out loud, cry, and inspired me and my imagination. That’s all I need to ship a ship.

I kind of lost interest in reading DHr after the WIPs I was reading were completed/never updated again, but I continued to write my DHr story for two years after I stopped reading the pairing. I didn’t dislike the pairing; I was just consumed by DG. I began to actively dislike DHr whenever I saw its fans hating on DG. The dr*nny tag used to be full of DHr shippers talking about how disgusting DG is, which blew my mind because Draco is the character who is coded as racist/antisemitic, yet DHr was not a problem but DG was????

The hate made me realize how similar these two ships are. Of course, the most important thing they have in common is Draco. ;) Ginny and Hermione both have reasons to hate Draco, and he to hate them. So there’s that fiery/feisty antagonism and competitiveness that is so popular in both pairings.

Draco hates Ginny because her family is poor and full of blood traitors. Draco hates Hermione because she’s a Muggleborn and way too smart for her blood status. They both hate Draco because he’s a bully and a bigot and he’s always picking on Harry and Ron. Both Ginny and Hermione can be written as brash and feisty. They’re Gryffindors. Hermione follows rules UP UNTIL she decides they no longer apply to her. Ginny, too, will break rules if she deems them unworthy of being followed (not being allowed to play Quidditch with her brothers, for instance, so she practices by herself - that wasn’t a rule, but you get the idea). Both are competent witches: Ginny stands up to Malfoy in Flourish & Blotts at the beginning of CoS and she uses a Bat Bogey Hex on him in Umbridge’s Office in OotP. Hermione, as we know, always verbally fights back against Draco, and she physically slaps him in PoA.

They can both be written as vulnerable, too. Ginny face a traumatic experience in CoS, which she doesn’t mention again until OotP and HBP, but no doubt she suffered with what happened to her and what she did in silence. Hermione has insecurities and cares about what people think of her (in GoF, she was very upset by what Rita Skeeter wrote about her being a heartbreaker and the responses she received as a result of Rita’s article/s). Just because she’s intelligent doesn’t mean she’s not afraid to fail, and as a Muggleborn, failing for her would be an even bigger disaster because she’d just be proving people like Draco right, that she’s not cut out to be a witch. (Okay, that one is slight interpretation or fanon, I don’t even know at this point.)

Anyway, the list could go on. The ships and the dynamics between both witches and Draco are very, very similar.

But I only became interested in DHr again when I found a new aspect of Hermione’s character I’d never explored before: she’s not very likable. She’s bossy and logical and annoying and overbearing. The movies glossed over that part of her, and I think it happens in fan fic, too. Once I remembered her flaws, I started finding her interesting again, and Draco is probably my fandom bicycle, so I figured I’d give DHr another try.

I like DHr, and I have no good reasons for not liking it as much as I like DG, even though it was my first love and I just typed out that list of similarities between HG and GW as love interests. The only thing I can figure is I’m still a little bitter about all the unnecessary DG hate I’ve seen/used to see from DHr fans (a small number of them, but still). When I started getting back into DHr in 2014, every DHr fan I spoke to was wonderfully, wonderfully kind and welcoming, but, IDK, I guess bad feelings linger.And the DG community is just so small and cozy (DHr feels so huge in comparison), so I think there’s a level of comfort in DG that I don’t have in DHr. I don’t read much fan fic anymore, so I interact with each fandom with my writing, which is more personal than just going out and reading a ton of fics and gushing about them with people. But if I just focus on my stories, on what is interesting and exciting to me about the characters and the plots I come up with, then I have no problem shipping both. :)

So there’s that. Is that better?

[shaledirectory]

Those French Fuel Riots and the “Great Wall of Cuomo”

Tom Shepstone Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

…

…

The French fuel riots demonstrate what can happen when ordinary people are denied the basic necessities of life by “let them eat cake” elitists with agendas.

The French Revolution is hardly a thing to be admired, given its ultimate consequences, but it was the natural result of a “let them eat cake” elitist mentality on the part the country’s monarchs. Ironically, Louis XVI, was a liberal monarch by the day’s standards, but he was too slow to understand the force of what was happening and had a completely tone-deaf wife. They both lost their heads as a result.

Today, there is another French revolution of sorts taking place as “Yellow Vest” protesters and anarchist rioters are turning Paris upside down to oppose fuel prices increases mandated by a similarly tone-deaf French President Macron. The President is committed to the climate change battle because that’s what European elites are expected to do and has implemented a number of measures designed to discourage driving and the like by French “roturiers” (commoners) as the upper classes fly to global warming conferences in private jets. The French people are having none of it.

Could New Englanders revolt in a similar way when high natural gas prices hit again or the heat goes off due to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pipeline obstruction? Could the “Great Wall of Cuomo” come tumbling down, rhetorically speaking, as New Englanders armed with pitchforks attack?

Tearing down the Berlin Wall. Could this be New Englanders and New Yorkers tearing down the “Great Wall of Cuomo” as some label his pipeline obstruction?

The pitchfork image, of course, is way out of date. Massachusetts seems to be mostly home these days to stuffy elitist types whose thoughts are in complete sync with the New York urban gentry class to whom Cuomo constantly panders. They’re more likely to be holding plastic placards aloft to dishonestly signal their virtues on the subject of fossil fuels, than pitchforks. Crisis has a way of changing attitudes, though, doesn’t it?

Yes, when the wallet is emptied, the heat can’t be turned up and there’s only government to blame, people of every class tend to get angry and look for scapegoats. Andrew “Corruptocrat” Cuomo is nothing if not a perfect scapegoat. No one especially likes or trusts the man. He simply has the power for the moment and in his Machiavellian world that’s all that matters.

As long as things are going well for the elites, urban New Yorkers tolerate him and there aren’t enough upstaters to make a difference. He gets by quite nicely by positioning himself as the alternative to far-left wackos and other spineless, vacuous opponents. Will they tolerate him when things go bad, though? I doubt it. And, New Englanders surely have no debt to him. It’s a recipe for political disaster when things go wrong and they’re going very wrong.

Here’s what I mean, from Energy Global’s World Pipelines:

From New York to Maine, the lacking natural gas infrastructure will have a huge impact on consumers’ natural gas and power prices this winter, write Chris Amstutz, Risk Management Associate, and Matthew Mattingly, Director of Natural Gas Services, at Choice Energy Services (USA)…

It is no secret that politics have played a heavy hand in setting up this situation. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been active in denying new energy infrastructure in his state. This year alone we have seen the denial of the William’s Constitution pipeline and the William’s Transco expansion. These projects would have collectively brought about 1 billion ft3/d in new supply New York, while freeing up additional supply to New England…

The Eversource project would expand the Algonquin pipeline system through Connecticut and would bring an additional 1 billion ft3/d in supply to the region. It is uncertain as to whether this project will be approved, but a supply shortage this winter would certainly help its chances. Planned investment through New York to New England is likely to slow further, as the Great Wall of Cuomo will likely be continued after the recent election.

So how dire is the situation this winter? For power generation, ISO New England is openly acknowledging that they are one supply disruption away from issuing rolling black out orders in the region, if an extended cold event were to occur. Last year during the New Year’s Day arctic plunge, ISO operators were forced to bring on aging, and potentially unreliable, coal fired plants to meet base load electricity demand. It is estimated that during the peak of winter cold,

New England uses 4.5 billion ft3/d of natural gas. There are currently enough pipelines to supply 4.7 billion ft3/d of gas. Without additional pipelines, every state to the northeast of New York will continue to rely on the Algonquin and Tennessee pipelines for domestic supply. Therefore, the remainder of supply comes from Canada, and from the LNG facility in Everett, Massachusetts. It is also important to note that any LNG imports will have to be from other countries at a heavy premium (Russia mostly) due to the Jones Act of 1920…

Historically, how elevated can prices get? Last January we saw daily Transco Z6 NNY gas prices top US$125 MMBtu, and daily Algonquin prices top US$79 MMBtu. With storage levels in the region 10 – 20% lower than last year at this time, the situation could be much worse assuming a similar type of cold event. Real-time power pricing in Massachusetts also spiked to over US$500/MWh.

The straight average of Mass Hub Real Time power for the month of January 2018 was US$108/MWh. These prices serve as a reminder to end users of the importance of hedging against winter uncertainty and the volatility that follows. Both ISO-NE and natural gas suppliers are going into the winter with the mentality of “not if, but when” will natural gas deliverability constraints become an issue.

The “Great Wall of Cuomo” is a nice description of what Corrupotcrat has done. I suspect he hoped FERC would overrule him so he’s win both ways but in the case of the Constitution Pipeline that didn’t happen, at least not yet. The courts and FERC did rescue him from the Millennium and Northern Access situations but the main pipeline needed to serve New England was the Constitution and his political play has left him entrapped on that one. Perhaps the Feds will yet save his rear end on that one, but there’s no guarantee.

If they don’t save him, we may see yellow-vested New Yorkers and New Englanders attacking the “Great Wall of Cuomo” with picks and crowbars, if not pitchforks, just as happened to the Berlin Wall.

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[inactive-revenge-may-vary]

[S] Red Miles to Go ==>

Part 1: [S] An Unbugged Conversation ==>

Enroute to the Resisty ship, Nny had set up his own computer station. Using the spyware that he was able to encode in Addie’s communicating device, he was able to not only track her location, but also access messages, chats, and voice calls. He had been keeping an eye on her whereabouts, alerting the rest of the quartet when there was a change.

And then this morning, or rather what might had been an Earth morning, he had gotten activity on her messages. Opening up the chat room he saw that Chance was trying to lure her away from the ship, to meet her face-to-face.

The trajectory was changed to a nearby planet called Tayelle, where an event was taking place. Discouraged that he wouldn’t be able to get much more information outside of location updates, he remained vigilant in making sure she was still a blip on the radar. Until she wasn’t.

“Oh, fuck.” he said, only getting louder, “OH FUCK. Addie’s location just dropped! I’m not getting any signals from her at all!” He began to frantically tap keys on his keyboard, but it was to no avail as all of the tabs began to shut down, messages, voice calls, everything was disconnected.

Dib was silent.  “...Takship. We can call Takship. I put one of her special tracker’s in the bat Purple gave to me. I gave it to Addie… please… please she just has to have it with her. Please I’m begging you Addie, you can’t have left it on the Resisty’s ship.”

Tak grits her teeth.  Takship is still a bit of a sore spot.  “It’s a good thing you did.  But also - you owe me a trip to a ship dealer, Dib.”

Tak sharpens her sword and checks her guns.  They’re ready.  Her knives are sharp.  “Call my ship Dib.  She’s our best bet.”

Dib’s eyes narrowed.  “Listen I think she’s her own ship now. Seriously. She’s just you but a ship. Actually I feel she’s more in tune with earth memes than you. ANYWAYS-”

“I need you to give me a solid punch in the back.”

“OR you DON’T get punched,” Zim sat at a console and scanned the monitors he’d decided to manage, ready to alter the ship’s flight path.

“I will patch us through,” he said, and spun a dial and flicked some switches, tuning to Takship’s frequency. He was concerned for Addie, yes, but he’d have been lying if he said he didn’t get a bit of a rush out of being in a sort of ‘intergalactic mission’ setting again after so long.

“Please do not punch your brother, Tak.” 

Nny had no idea what a Tak ship was, until he recalled the many times that Tak had bemoaned her lack of a space vehicle. He was confused as to how it had ended up with Dib, but shrugged it off. He looked at his empty screen and closed the laptop, waiting for Zim to achieve communication with this Takship.

To pass the time he makes sure he can conjure the weapons he needs, holding out a fist as ice forms into a knife, a sword, and so on.

Takship connected immediately.

[ Ok. Who the star blasting fuck is dying this time? ]

“Addie got kidnapped because she wouldn’t listen to any of us, Takship.”  Tak paused.  “You lost our accent a little.”

Deep down Zim felt a little off at the idea of this being Addie’s fault entirely, but it didn’t really register with him. He leaned back to talk.

“Do you have her coordinates? The bat,” he clarified.

Nny’s eyebrows rose high up when he realized that this supposed ship sounded almost exactly like his daughter, or at least painstakingly similar.

Nny gave a pointed glare towards Tak, “Addie was coerced and led into a young man’s arms with the sole power of unadulterated admiration and affection. She’s in a vulnerable point of her life right now and unfortunately she did not heed any of our warnings. No one is at fault except for that Chance persona.”

“And I mean it, Tak, the last time you punched your brother his face broke…,” A pause for emphasis, “in pieces.” 

Takship had to talk over Dib complaining that “it was ok because he’d asked Tak to punch his face, and that it was fine because she superglued him after!”

[ Which Bat? I got trackers in both of e- aaaaaaaaahhhh I see now nevermind. ]

[ The one I believe you’re looking for is in The Articulus Quadrant near The Scorpion’s Heart Nebula. ]

[ Oh and Dib? ]

[ No fucking dying this time you incompetent shit-brained meatbag. ]

[ K chow! ]

And with that, she cut the connection.

“…You know, it’s sad that this is a family where that needs to be said?”

Tak tilts her head. “And that’s… new.  And not any of my Personality Core in there.  Dib was right… not sure if I like that.”

Zim was already punching in the name of the location to pull up more exact coordinates. A holographic visual of the nebula, a small red dot where the Articulus quadrant apparently was.

“That’s pretty far,” Zim notes, and glanced down at some data that scrolled across a screen down by his hand. “…And this says that this ship’s hyperdrive has never been engaged.”

Zim stares at the screen for a moment before grinning and reaching over to a lever labeled hyperdrive on his left and pushing it all the way up.

“Did that ship just say-” he was cut off by Tak’s remark which only further plunged him into a good amount of concerned bafflement. 

He looked up ahead at what Zim was doing, always amused at seeing Irken technology when he had the chance. His eyebrow arched when he overheard Zim’s musings. He silently strapped himself in even tighter at the mention of a hyperdrive, clutching at the interior of the ship in anticipation. He didn’t know what to expect, so better safe than sorry.

Dib didn’t have time to respond to Takship’s constant stream of sass considering he was flung straight into the back of the ship as Zim kicked the hyperdrive into gear. All that could be heard from him was a loud and strangled sounding screech.

Tak is unphazed by the skip to hyperdrive, given that she’s more than used various kinds of ships - Takship, the freighter she hitched a ride on once, the messily-built transport that she had used to get to Purple and Red in, the various Irken ships she had been on-

Her eyes narrow.  “Zim, if you could NOT damage the organs of my brother and father, I would MUCH appreciate that.”

“I’m NOT, TAK,” Zim yelled over the roar of the engines. “One of them is, You Know, my MAT-“

Zim was cut off as the ship abruptly halted. They were here, then.

The inside of the nebula was undeniably a sight to behold. All different hues of blues, greens, and purples faded together. A distance in front of them, though, was what was undeniably another ship.

Nny opens his eyes after clenching them shut for a moment as they seemed to have sped through space. It wasn’t as bad as he had expected it to be, but he was still dizzy. In fact when he first looked out the window he was sure that what he was seeing was just vertigo-induced kaleidoscope vision, but after shaking his head and blinking a few times he realized that they were just in the midst of a very pretty looking.. nebula.

He tried to stand and immediately found himself toppling to the floor but shortly after let out a ‘Wow!’ at the sight. He’d have to get a picture for his roommate later.

Johnny got to his knees and hoisted himself to look out the window, “Someone beat us here?”

“Christ- look at the hangar doors. The emergency shield is over it but the doors themselves look busted inwards. Who the hell caused that?! Is it Pik maybe? Or are they still onboard with the rest of The Resisty?”

Dib couldn’t help but stare at the emergency lights faintly flicking from within the ship. Something was certainly going down already. Perhaps it was Addie?! He had a sinking feeling in his gut. If anyone had touched his niece, oh they weren’t even going to live to regret it. He hadn’t felt such a deep rage like this since… Nevermind. Best not to dwell on the past. He didn’t want to get distracted when they were about to walk straight into pure chaos.

Tak grimaced. “We need to get in there.  Arm yourselves, get your weapons.  Also - can anyone bring us in?”

“Getting in is the EASY part,” Zim said over his shoulder before turning back to the console, and with a flick of a panel then were speeding right towards the ship’s hangar.

Zim quickly tapped something else and a loud *clunk* resonated from the side of the ship as it unfolded a large gun. It shot blinding yellow beams at the other ship’s emergency field which flickered angrily at the hit before dissolving away.

Their ship continued careening towards the doors until it smashed through and into the hangar.

“See,” Zim swiveled around, proud grin on his face. “Their shield was proton-based, you could tell by the field. That laser beam is electron - electron plus proton equals no shield.”

Nny glared towards Zim, grounding himself with some ice he had created, cementing his feet into two ice-mounds. He released them, waving away the ice while somewhat grinning at seeing Zim so proud of himself.

“Good to know we have a scientist on board, now, are we ready?” He tensed his fingers, flurries already coming off in sparks.

He was saving the machetes for… later.

Tak narrowed her eyes.  “More than.  Let’s get in and moving.”

Next: [S] Make Him Pay ==>