#shes a scientist too a lot of her constructions are research

[thedeafprophet]

Josephine is honestly more of an engineer hen a scientist at some points but shhhhhhh

[popatochisssp]

tell us more about underfell fruition? :)

tw for confinement and medical abuse and abuse in general

Underfell Fruition

A young Sans’ attempt to escape his creator, the Royal Scientist, is a failure.

No one hears anything about it.

Life continues as normal for everyone Underground, with few exceptions.

A handful of shop owners around the Capital and the researchers working in the Royal Labs may notice that Dr. Gaster is sending a lot of new interns around on his errands instead of the young skeleton he had doing it, but nobody is especially surprised—the only surprising thing about it is that the guy had lasted so long.

The Royal Scientist gets bored of his interns easily, and everyone knows that.

Gaster is and continues to be a force to be reckoned with, a fearsome reputation and easily the power and ruthlessness to back it up.

They say he’s loyal only to Emperor Asgore himself, and he considers anyone less as utterly beneath him, minions to do his bidding and stepping stones along his path.

(Fodder for his experiments, the rumors say too, but there’s no evidence of that.)

(He’s far too careful for there to be evidence.)

Asgore allows the Royal Scientist the freedom to operate as he pleases, in spite of the doctor’s somewhat ill repute, for all the impressive work he does with the carte blanche he’s given, resulting in significant military advancements for monsterkind.

As the years go by, Gaster happily proves his worth, producing many innovations that will be invaluable when the time comes to seize the final human soul, shatter the Barrier, and take back the Surface by force.

His most famed creation is a device which produces magic limitlessly, boundless energy for its user to draw upon as if it were their own, infinite bullets and fighting potential without tiring or running dry—no one knows what it looks like save the Emperor and the Captain of the Royal Guard, but they vouch that it does exactly as advertised.

Gaster is still working on expanding the use of the device to more than one monster at a time, but its potential is clear.

In the meantime, while he gets the math to work on that, he hasn’t been idle.

His latest feat of engineering, painstakingly perfected, is a living war-machine that he calls 2P.

2P, while not truly sentient, is capable of comprehending orders given to it and employing basic problem-solving skills and intensive physical training to obey those orders with swift, devastating precision.

An army of monster-shaped weapons of its kind is a tantalizing prospect—soldiers for the upcoming war that won’t think or feel or do anything but drive forward, with unrelenting force…

But first, it needs a field test, to see if it’s viable.

Gaster lends 2P to the services of the Royal Guard, with instructions on how to command it and to report back when—not if—it satisfies all conditions of whatever tests and trials they put it through.

Captain Undyne is…far from satisfied.

Not with 2P’s performance, of course, for its strength and speed and obedience are everything the Royal Scientist advertised it would be.

But…

There are signs she’s seeing, things she’s noticing as she works with 2P that she…really wishes she wasn’t.

2P isn’t supposed to feel pain, but she’s caught it wincing or favoring something after a heavy blow.

It isn’t supposed to think for itself, but she’s seen it in Waterfall, gazing out over the glowing pools and sparkling crystals with an expression she can only describe as ‘thoughtful.’

It’s not supposed to be sentient…but she saw it, smiling when she told her soldiers a stupid joke during training—and she saw fear in its eye-sockets when it realized she was looking, before it went coolly, irreproachably blank again.

It’s only a suspicion, a gut feeling pushing insistently through the denial, but…

Undyne doesn’t think 2P is an ‘it.’

And if ‘it’ isn’t, that’s a very, very big problem.

She can’t report this to Gaster.

If 2P is more than a living construct meant only for battle, then telling its creator, the man with complete power over it, in charge of whether it lives or dies, is the absolute last thing she should ever do.

Emperor Asgore…

Well, she trusts Asgore, but…he’s a busy monster, weighed down by duty and grief as much as he’s always been and he trusts Gaster—as questionable a choice as that is. If it came down to the Royal Scientist’s word against her ‘gut feeling’…

She needs proof.

Something solid to open an investigation over, to really do it by the book.

Luckily, she may have an in.

One of Gaster’s assistants, a former intern, with rumors flying that she could even be his successor, if she lasts long enough.

Alphys is close to the Royal Scientist, and has clearly honed the ability to keep her mouth shut—which will be very useful for Undyne if it turns out that she’s trying to open up Pandora’s Box with her digging.

The young doctor is thankfully very willing to assist with the very very hot Captain’s covert investigation and freely shares all she knows.

Definitely only in the interest of cooperating with the law.

Yes.

But well, she is suspicious of Gaster herself and has been for some time—not because of 2P, but because of his ‘magic-creating’ device.

Alphys is a scientist and its never sat right with her, the idea of magic being created from nothing. It’s not possible, it should be coming from somewhere! But her boss always brushed off her questions, and when he started giving her looks, the same kind of looks he gave people who lost their jobs and were never seen again…she stopped asking questions.

Gaster is almost certainly up to something shady, and if the Guard is getting involved, maybe now they have a chance to figure out what.

Unfortunately, Alphys wasn’t brought in until well after 2P’s completion. She was never allowed to be involved in any of his training and refinement, so she isn’t much help there…

She does make an attempt to pull up its documentation, but what she can access is heavily redacted, and the rest is locked behind Gaster’s credentials.

The most she can find is a mention of an earlier iteration, a 1S, but nothing about it beyond it being put into storage, and nothing at all after that point.

It’s most likely just a failed prototype, but it could be a place to start, if they can track it down to wherever it’s been stored.

It takes a lot more digging, some risky exploration and a bit of hacking into systems she definitely should not have access to, but Alphys manages to find what she thinks is the ‘storage’ mentioned in the notes—an extremely deep basement level of the Royal Labs, far below the other floors and not shown on any blueprints, locked up tight.

She can’t investigate further…but Undyne can.

A gut feeling isn’t cause for a search, but a secret unsanctioned dungeon beneath the labs that no one knows about with such high security…?

That’s something that warrants the Emperor’s notice.

Asgore is not best pleased to hear that his Royal Scientist has kept such a secret from him.

He orders that Gaster be detained pending further investigation, and is quite unpleasantly surprised when—even at his order—Gaster refuses to cooperate and allow access to the elevator down.

Undyne takes Alphys and 2P with her to investigate anyway. If Alphys can’t hack the door, then 2P should be able to brute-force it.

Besides, whatever’s down there… 2P’s probably seen it before and can help handle it.

What they find…is not pretty.

There’s evidence there, the dust of monsters Gaster ‘disappeared’ because they got in his way, or simply because he could.

Shambling amorphous creatures that once were monsters, Fallen Down and resurrected with DT, only to melt into each other, amalgamated beings. ‘Impervious to damage,’ the Royal Scientist had written of the poor souls he kept locked away, ‘possibly useful, further testing needed.’

And…far back, in the very last room—barely the size of a broom-closet—a skeleton.

Another skeleton, strapped down to a chair and hooked up to more monitoring equipment than even Alphys has seen at one time before.

This one is nothing at all compared to 2P, short where 2P is tall, frail where 2P is sturdy, sickly-looking and seemingly half-dead where 2P is strong and healthy and alive.

“Th-this…must be 1S—”

“SANS.”

The captain and the doctor both jump to realize that 2P was the one who said it.

It doesn’t speak again though, for all that it’s staring very intently at the other skeleton in room, utterly frozen and immovable in the face of this sick and terrible discovery.

Because…the thing is…

………

He was just…gone, one day.

Their creator never spoke his name again.

He wouldn’t acknowledge him, that he’d ever existed.

And 2P…

He…forgot.

He tried to forget, because Sans wasn’t real.

Sans was never real, Sans was something he made up to pretend he wasn’t alone in a horrible place with a horrible man who said he wasn’t a ‘he,’ he was an ‘it’—and he had to forget any stupid ideas he had that he was anything but an object, a tool meant to take orders and obey and don’t think, never think, never want, never be anything but 2P.

Never be…

Papyrus.

He is…Papyrus.

And his brother is real.

Alive, though just barely.

1S—or, Sans, apparently, takes some time to come around from his heavily-sedated, comatose state, but all too eager to cooperate with the strange monsters hovering over him when he sees his brother is among their number.

The story as he tells it is this.

He and Papyrus were creations of the Royal Scientist, created from his body—his kids, if the man had been any less of a maniac, but since Gaster is indeed a maniac, he planned to keep them under his thumb for the rest of their lives and use them (but especially Papyrus) in all kinds of fucked up, illegal experiments, to mold them into whatever he saw as their greatest utility.

Sans tried to snatch his little brother up and run, but he got caught, and Gaster got to have his way.

Papyrus became the living war-machine dear old dad had always wanted, and Sans—who had fucked up by proving he was a stubborn, uncooperative jackass who no threat against him or his brother could seem to control—was repurposed.

See, he’d always generated magic at a pretty high rate, but after what Gaster did, he became a battery, a constantly replenishing source of energy to be drawn on at any time, an impressive little toy to win some brownie points with the Emperor and earn even freer reign to do whatever the hell he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Alphys has to double and triple-check the readings on the monitoring equipment around him to believe it, but he really is the source of Gaster’s impossible device, producing massive quantities of magic with such incredible range that (if she’s reading it right) Gaster or anyone else using it would be able to siphon his magic from miles away.

But that’s not the only thing Sans can tell them.

He also knows, and is more than happy to provide, several passwords and access codes that the Royal Scientist was too lazy or too cocky to change in the years since he put Sans under and locked him away.

Which is, of course, access to more than enough detailed and meticulously recorded evidence of Gaster’s crimes against monsterkind to shut him down.

Permanently.

The Royal Scientist is unceremoniously fired, convicted, and eventually, executed.

Alphys, who played a large role in bringing him to justice and is a brilliant and respectable scientist in her own right is ushered in as his replacement, and Undyne is given several honors for her dedication to uncovering and bringing down corruption at the highest level.

The skeleton brothers receive support—both official and unofficial—from the crown in order to integrate into society without undue hardship, after the significant hardship they already faced.

Life continues as normal, but maybe a little bit better now.

Carmine (Underfell Fruition Sans)

In poor physical condition at first due to how long he spent unconscious and immobile, but recovering mobility and independence as fast as monsterly possible (fuck the wheelchair, fuck the crutches, fuck soup, he is gonna walk his ass to a damn burger and nobody is gonna stop him)

Only vaguely aware of time having passed while comatose, but as his magic grew stronger and his range stretched, he developed an ability to poke into peoples’ heads. It’s very surface-level, mostly just skimming thoughts off the top, but he’s found himself drifting through enough monsters’ subconscious that these days, most people Underground might not recognize him but still get the feeling that he’s hauntingly familiar

Still overproducing magic at an extreme rate due to modifications made to his body, magic which he actually needs to use in large amounts regularly. If he doesn’t, he starts to physically overheat and things around him start to fritz a bit from the outpouring of excess magic, which is naturally something he’d rather avoid if possible

Eager to make up for lost time, open-minded to all kinds of new stuff he never got around to doing before he got locked up

A little bit cocky, loud and arrogant, but with just enough boyish charm and joie de vivre to pull it off…most of the time

Tank (Underfell Fruition Papyrus)

Extremely physically powerful due to biomodifications over the years as he was growing up, very tall, wide, and strong. His soul was also…adjusted, and he no longer takes damage from even the most vicious and lethal intent, only physical or magical attacks that land can harm him

Struggles significantly with free will and independent thought—largely due to how heavily punished and very not allowed any signs of choice or independence were. Slowly getting comfortable with being a person, and being allowed to be a person again, supported heavily by his brother and Undyne

Went a very long time under the impression that his brother was a figment of his imagination, and there’s some…complex feelings there, that he was real and alive and trapped the whole time and he didn’t do anything about it. Said brother doesn’t blame him in the slightest, but it may be awhile before the two of them aren’t a package deal everywhere they go

Likes things that are slow and with obvious correct ways of doing them—or at least no wrong way of doing them, so he can take it at his own pace and not be afraid of making a mistake

A little stoic and a lot intimidating, but (with a bit of patience beyond that first impression) curious and gentle and just starting to learn what it means to be himself

[gynandromorph]

someone asked what shiloh would look like as a nofna and i doodled an idea... i'm deciding on the name between "identifies," "statistically," and "pegging."

she is a retired alembic designer, best known for her premier pattern-seeking praxis that identifies patterns in a data set and categorizes or copies them, and its offspring, another alembic that identifies outliers in a specified pattern, used for a variety of purposes, such as finding typos, identifying cancer, lie detection, construction inspections, and so on. The pattern-seeking alembic allowed her to fabricate other alembics more quickly by identifying natural patterns that could be harnessed into tools.

she is considered old at 34 years of age, but she actually retired early from the success of her work, and as a naked mole rat living in society, she could live up to 60 or 70 years. she is also considered highly eccentric and introverted. she wears practically no clothing. imagine a scientist showing up to the lab in the sluttiest outfit possible. that's her. she is a little larger like most dominant breeding mole rats, and she has experienced pseudocyesis several times due to the strange manifestation of her repressed libidinous nature.

because body modifications don't exist much in NofNA, her tattoos are more like scarification. she could never figure out how to produce an alembic that preserves pigment in the skin because her specialty in mathematics and arch alembics didn't help.

her relation to legend is as a willing hostage, first taken to modify her praxis to comply with a standard style known by HIOT researchers which renders brain activity when she rejected financial compensation. the diamond ring on her neck, similar to the ones legend wears, is too small to actually be removed from her body. at this point she simply won't leave legend alone now because she wants to mount her and legend is obliged to tolerate her presence because she has let legend slide out of a lot of legal troubles by testifying that she was never held against her will.

[leavingautumn13]

Tell me about 'Rising Tide'?

rising tide is the first chapter of my pokemon emerald fic eye of the storm. i've talked about it a little bit already here. it's a bit of a slow chapter, as it's establishing may's circumstances, motivation, and the things that finally get her started on her journey.

one thing i've changed significantly from the game's text is brendan's attitude towards may--in terms of personality he's much closer to the characterization he had in oras. may's reluctant to open up to him at first, but by the end of the fic they're close friends. he's also the reason she catches a treecko in chapter four--his starter is a striped fantail treecko.

“I could totally catch one for you,” Brendan said, looking up from his plate. “Me and Striker are out in the field all the time for the prof anyway, and there’s a lot of stuff around here that could make a good starter.” He gestured with his spoon. “We could have you a new pokémon by tomorrow.” “Whoa, easy,” the professor said, chuckling and saving her from having to respond. “Let the girl have some time to get used to the idea first.” Brendan grinned apologetically. “Right, sorry.”

another brendan moment: he's doing field work for his dad and the gym challenge at the same time:

“What kind of fieldwork do you do?” she asked. Brendan’s face lit up. “All kinds, basically,” he said. “Monitoring the effects of human activity on pokémon populations is the big one, though. There’s all sorts of things that most people don’t even think about that have drastic effects on them.” He puffed up a little. “Birch Labs works directly with city zoning commissions across Hoenn to make sure new developments don’t negatively impact the environment. Like, last year there was going to be this tunnel dug through the mountain between Rustboro and Verdanturf, right? But our researchers discovered tunnel construction in the selected area would displace the largest whismur colony in the area, so the project was cancelled.” “What’re they doing instead?” “Putting in a bullet train rail that swings further south,” he said, twirling his chopsticks. “Over the mountain, instead of under. It’ll be faster than the tunnel, too. But it also led to the totally new issue of making sure the train’s slipstream didn’t damage nearby crops and other plants in the Verdanturf area, which would have affected both humans and pokémon. Everything’s connected somehow.” “That’s pretty cool,” May said genuinely. He grinned.

another snippet. trainer journeys, being something like an extended camping trip, are expensive, so most trainers get a grant from a gym or the regional pokemon league to fund their journey. gym grants usually require the trainer to put in time as a gym trainer after their journey, and league grants often require the trainer to work for a gym or the league itself. professor birch also offers grants through his lab, on the condition that while in the field trainers do research for the lab--basically functioning as citizen scientists.

may decides (somewhat impulsively) that field research is what she wants to do, and also signs up for online courses that will help her get a permanent job with the labs once she's done with her journey.

“You may also want to look into the grants the League offers,” the professor continued. “But bear in mind most of those will require you to at least attempt the gym challenge.” May’s heart dropped. She imagined her father, arms crossed and expression stoic on the other side of a League-standard battlefield. She didn’t even have a pokémon yet. “I don’t know if that would be for me,” she said, as diplomatically as possible. “Not planning on following in your father’s footsteps, huh?” Birch chuckled. “That’s alright. Pro training isn’t for everybody—though for what it’s worth, I think you’d do well, especially if you asked your old man to help you out. He’d be thrilled to bits, too.” He’d never helped her with anything a day in her life, but fucking whatever. She tried to smile. “Maybe I’ll think about it, then. The professor patted her on the back. “Definitely keep it in mind if you need the money. The Labs grant will get you by, but extra funding never hurt anybody. Trust me, I know.” He smiled. “If you want to talk to someone who has experience with it, ask Brendan. He’s doing the gym challenge himself. Has two badges to his name, now.”

[icarusisstillflying]

💥 writeblr intro 💥

hiii folks, this is gonna be my writeblr (hopefully we’ll see how motivated i am) so i want to do a little intro!!

about me

you can call me layne, or if u want to call me icarus, that works too

queer

they/them

disabled with like a million chronic illnesses

21 yrs old

i’m a college dropout with absolutely no plan ahaha

i work as a barista and am looking for music gigs on the side (i still need to get better at the music part oops)

currently reading: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

about my writing

i write mostly fiction/sci-fi/fantasy

almost all of my characters have powers or magic or aren’t even completely human

i like to write really cool fight scenes, i don’t care if they seem unreasonable, pretend it’s an anime idk. they have superpowers they can do anything

i like to explore the darker elements of these powers and worlds, so a lot of my work is nsfw bc of gore and stuff like that

like incorporating horror into my stories as well as just writing horror too

i write diverse characters and do the best research i can; if someone notices i’ve made a mistake or have accidentally written something insensitive, please let me know! i am always learning!

if i could draw i would make all of my works graphic novels as my choice of media, but alas, i am incapable of doing much more than staring at my tablet and getting angry when the picture doesn’t draw itself

my wips:

Generation Six

sci-fi, superpowers

a woman spends her entire life recruiting people known as Guardians to help protect the world from danger, but the biggest threat she’s ever faced is about to upend it all. not to mention the evil little shadow demon that lives in her head is constantly trying to overtake her and go on a murderous rampage. she’s a bit busy.

large cast, multiple povs

this series is on the back burner for now, i just am not sure where i want to go with it

an untitled pirate story

fantasy, magic gay pirates

the most feared pirates in the world is a crew of six people… and a magic cat? the captain is searching for the greatest treasure known to humankind, and she’d probably have it already, if they didn’t keep hitting all these roadblocks. seablocks? they’re on a boat.

small main cast

Murders of Crow Creek

western setting with supernatural/paranormal elements

a small town sheriff recruits an interesting group of people to help her solve a string of murders: a witch of the Dark Gods, a bounty hunter with a memory problem, a demon killer with a smoking problem, and a bartender with one arm and a hell of a lot of knives tucked in his boots. what’s the worst that could happen? ignore the all out war between gods that they accidentally get themselves into

small main cast

there’s ghosts, demons, angels, vampires, all sorts of supernatural beings just chillin in the wild west

personally love this one bc the main character, the sheriff, is just getting too old for this nonsense; she’s also a big time lesbian yeehaw

Kid Mother

sci-fi, post-apocalyptic

a disease has wiped out nearly the entire human population. if things weren’t already bad, this disease made it so that babies just. couldn’t be born. until one is. with the human population dwindling, and groups trying to speed up that process, our main character has to travel across the country with the first baby that’s been born in two decades so that scientists may be able to find a way to fix this entire thing. no problem.

very small cast

us vs the world trope

other info

i love answering literally any questions about my wips so pleeeeeaaaase ask away!!

i’ll probably also post any fanfics i write bc i have a lot of them, and i really need somewhere to share them oopsies

any advice about other places i can share my writing would be appreciated

please refrain from giving criticism unless it’s 1. constructive and 2. something i asked for :) sometimes i just Can Not Handle It

i do not tolerate any form of bigotry. if i see any clownery on any of my stuff, you will be blocked and reported. just don’t be an ass.

uhhh i think that’s about it? not sure what else to put in a writeblr intro, so if you made it this far, thank you so much! hopefully i will have more detailed posts about those wips up at some point before the year ends! follow if your interested, i’ll probs follow back :)

💥

[acaciapines]

….I can’t believe it took you less than a day. Anyways, I know so little about this show, but do the citizens of Ooo have daemons, or some other form of dust? Given that they aren’t human and all. (reply by @snarky-wallflower)

a post so i have more space to write. and uh. yeah it is truly so funny. it isnt actually as quick as it seems (ive been turning it over since i finished adventure time like, a week ago?) but still. im a joke and a parody etc etc etc.

anyways! i actually think most people of ooo dont have daemons at all! so lets explain why.

when i write daemon aus, i tend to write dust as a sort of, particle that kind of Exists in the world. it is created by people but it was also there before people and wouldve helped spark the creation of people, in a like, 'oh having a way to interact w this particle is really useful to do x y z, lets evolve to use it!' obvi im not a scientist and the details vary but this is how i sort of tend to see it as a baseline!

so, from there, all species that are. sapient? pretty sure sapient is the word, they all interact and connect to dust in some way. this can be via visual cues (actually perceiving it and its patterns) but mostly its through some other way, like how humans have daemons.

so, in ooo, humans do still have daemons! its just. theyre the only ones.

as for everyone else, they are all, somehow, connected to dust! they all have to be, its just a lot of them dont have daemons because nuclear war, magic bullshit, etc etc. im not 100% on all the lore behind the show but i imagine that The World Fucking Up drastically changed the way sapient species interact with dust. i like the idea that all magic-users are able to use magic bc magic is just interacting directly with dust and getting it to do what you want, so their connection to dust is just, magic. and to get there you lose whatever previous connection you might've had.

most people probably have something else. i think you could get real creative with it. i dont have answers for most people <3 i think you could give species daemon LIKE things, but i'd make em sightly different. not sure. how yet. plants? can't change shape? various things to do with range? specific places? some sort of hivemind? theres a lot of ways you can take it and none of my ideas would focus on that bc thats too close to making a whole au and im like. nah. im focusing on some MINI!! ARCS!! with a limited cast of characters!

as for people i DO have answers for....

marceline had a daemon, being a vampire fucked with that for a while. post-stakes she gets her daemon back.

finn has a daemon and theyre doing totally fine lol.

fern probably had a "daemon" but it was less daemon more another plant construct that was more just him than two people split across two bodies. he finds this out and Doesnt Take It Well.

simon has a daemon. ice king doesnt. simon doesnt get his daemon back upon being de-ice kinged. this is very bad for his mental health.

ditto for betty when she becomes magic betty. golbetty is doing great. they're together in there. no idk what that looks like.

jake has Something. not a daemon. no idea what. but he for sure has a tangible thing. prooooobly same for lady but she also might get magic-user rules and can see dust but this is just chill for her vs most magic users who get there by losing something along the way.

bmo is a computer. i dont think he has a tangible daemon but i think he's got something.

bubblegum has the whole mother gum thing so i imagine thats sort of like, a static place she visits sometimes. or maybe something with neddy??? whatever it is she doesnt have anything that like, follows her around or is on her person.

the candy people since theyre made by pb basically just have a whole mess of things she thought were interesting to experiment with. so there are candy daemons.

i think flame princess has something closer to a daemon than not but they arent a daemon. i'd need to do more research into. fire.

fionna's daemon is cake <3 before the events of the miniseries they Do Not Know This so it manifests as fionna bringing her cat literally everywhere, cake being way too smart for a cat, and neither of them thinking this is weird in any other way. (everyone around them is very freaked out <3)

nobody else in the fionna and cake universe have daemons or anything like it.

fionna: wait are you telling me you dont share dreams with your cat?? don't telepathically communicate with your cat? everyone around her: what the fuck are you talking about--

and thats what ive got whoo! for basic ideas. more detailed plots are for the stakes mini-arc + fionna and cake since i think theres an interesting story there, but thats not for this post.

[hbxplain]

Part 1.2: Pride

3,500 words - Tu, Tigh, Miss Lane briefly

No warnings

next chapter of seven lovely sins! i think this one's pretty cute. we get to see tu and tigh's relationship starting to develop, and watch tu battle with her own emotions--i don't think any of the other demons start liking their mortals as quickly as tu does... except for maybe ileao, who is secretly very soft.

anyway, here we go!

☼☼☼-

Tu looks at the date on the calendar, the 24th of May. It’s crossed off, along with every other date on this month.

She sighs and flips to the next page. She crosses off June 16th.

Okay. So things haven’t gone as planned.

The thing is, Tigh is really fun to hang out around. And with how much he and Sienne hype her up all the time, it’s hard not to get invested in the solid air construct she’s been working on for the past month. And Aeryn makes really great coffee, so maybe she spends half her time at CC Brews instead of cooking up new schemes to get Tigh to fall to his own pride.

Pride which he actually has absolutely none of, if Tu’s being totally honest. She understands why this is a cold case, now; the man breathes like he expects to have to apologize for it. Sure, he’ll infodump for hours about the very concept of eximium as the basis of all magic, or the various niche practices in use for training that magic, or whatever ridiculous new tech he’s working on. But it’s always with an unhealthy dose of self-deprecation, of “it’s really not that great” and “it backfired again yesterday” and “I wouldn’t have such high expectations” and “I just don’t want to make you think it’s anything amazing.”

Tu doesn’t get it. Sure, back when she was alive as a mortal, this tech wasn’t even being dreamed of… but still, even for today’s standards, his stuff is amazing! Sienne’s too, but where Sienne seems more focused on finding a safe way to augment her own body with tech, Tigh—who does plenty of augmenting research too, don’t get her wrong—does a lot more cutting edge eximium research. She still doesn’t completely understand what his current biggest project does, since he’s quite cagey about it, but she knows it has something to do with isolating eximium, which sounds groundbreaking as hell. Back in her day, they barely understood what eximium was—they just knew it was fucking important, because it gave them their magic.

Tigh, though, seems to understand each molecule. He knows where it comes from, what it’s for, its lesser-known properties, how to control and shape it—hell, he has jars of it in powder form on shelves along the walls, and he has a cube of solid raw eximium decorating his desk! Tu doesn’t know how a man like that can have such low self-esteem. Doesn’t he know he’s smarter than all of the scientists from Tu’s time combined?

Her phone dings. It’s Miss Lane—of course they wanted to style the ‘hellphones’ like smartphones, of course they did. “This is taking a while,” the message reads.

Tu scoffs. Of course they’d say that, as if they’d do any better. They just like being passive aggressive, Tu thinks.

“It’s a cold case. Chill out,” Tu replies. She feels very proud of herself, and then wonders if she’s ever made a pun before of her own accord or if Aeryn’s love for them is just rubbing off on her.

She scrolls through the news on her phone. There’s an article about a small section of a park becoming a protected landmark due to the fact that a popular magic user whose magic manifested as forced silencing had stopped a voice-based villain in that very park years earlier. Another article boasts how a famous magic family has moved to Clemen City so their son can get the best magic tutoring available. One more article about how a small village nearby was pleased to welcome a fire-based magic expert for a short visit before he continued his travels.

How can a world with so few magic users be so focused on magic? How can they favor magic over everything else when so few of them can actually do magic?

Tu loves her magic. Tu loves herself. But sometimes, just sometimes, she isn’t proud of either one.

☼☼☼-

Tu is sitting, alone, at a table covered by a tan tablecloth. She has arranged her silverware four times while waiting for Tigh to arrive, and she is getting bored.

At work earlier today, they were working on their respective projects—beside each other, of course. Tigh had been going on and on about some science shit, but Tu had been thinking “What makes a man more prideful than having a really pretty girlfriend?” so Tu had cut him off to say “Do you wanna meet somewhere after work? Just you and me this time,” and he had grinned and given her this weird, knowing look, almost like she and him were in on a secret together, and she’d said, “Great! What about that new landmark in the park, the one for the magic user with the anti-sound powers-” and he’d laughed and said “Hell no!”

And she’d blinked at him for a bit, just trying to process what went wrong, until he laughed again and continued, “Nothing against you, I just don’t like that hero. What about dinner?”

She’d been too relieved by the first aid he’d just applied to her bruised pride to care at all about how weird that was. She’d accepted.

And now here she is, and there’s no sound hero in sight (Tu can’t for the life of her remember that dumb hero’s name), but Tigh is late anyway.

“Table for two?” asks the waiter, in the passive aggressive kind of way that makes it clear he doesn’t think Tu’s second person is coming.

“Yeah,” Tu says, nearly a sneer with all the defensiveness that crops up in her chest. “He’ll be here soon. Give it a minute.”

She really doesn’t wanna have to go home and spend the whole night thinking about what went wrong. In a fully self-aware way, she’s not sure her pride could handle it. Also, she hates how much she cares. She knows this is just a job, that she’s trying to boost Tigh’s ego but shouldn’t be putting her own on the line. She shouldn’t be this attached, she shouldn’t be this invested, and she definitely shouldn’t be this vulnerable.

Tu glances at her phone. It’s only been half an hour since she got here, right on time, but it feels like longer. With a glance at the door and a long, tired sigh, she pulls up the messaging app to text Tigh something totally normal like “haha of course a big man like you had better plans,” except she can’t really figure out how to word it in a way that doesn’t sound bitter.

But then the elegant bell above the doors rings twice, and Tigh bursts through like he tripped over the threshold. “Hi,” Tu can just barely hear him saying to the wait staff, his voice interspersed with quick breaths. “I, uh- My friend Tu probably got a table—hopefully still has a table—uh, is she back there…?”

The waiter who’s been badgering Tu looks at Tigh like he’s seen a ghost. Tu takes great pleasure in the shocked bulge of his eyes. “You’re… late,” the waiter says.

Tigh huffs out a laugh. “Uh, yeah, trust me, I know. So…?”

The waiter shakes his head and points back towards Tu’s table, and when Tigh sees her looking at him, his whole face lights up and his entire body straightens. She can’t help but to wave at him when a tiny smile creeps onto her face despite herself.

“Tu!” Tigh says, hopping the railing to the raised platform her table is on. He slides into the chair opposite hers, and the chair’s legs rattle against the floor as it settles unevenly. “Hi, fuck, I’m so sorry!”

She laughs without entirely meaning to when he almost knocks the salt shaker off the table with his hand gestures. “Like the waiter said,” she says wryly, “you’re very late. I’m kind of angry, honestly.”

He grimaces, nervously playing with the tablecloth. “Yeah, I- You know what? That’s fair. That’s totally reasonable. I didn’t mean to be late, something blew up in my face, uh, literally, so I was running behind a little, uh, and anyway I totally get it if it’s too late and you have to leave.”

“You want me to leave?” she asks, raising an eyebrow. “Wait, no, go back to the explosion thing-”

“I do not want you to leave,” Tigh says, groaning and running his hand down his face. “Sorry, yeah, I think the explosion knocked my social hardware loose.”

“You mean you aren’t always like this?”

“Tu!” he laughs, relaxing a little.

She rolls her eyes, leaning forward to rest her elbows on the table. “Explosion?”

“Right, yeah, uh, my project kind of just… I mixed the wrong chemicals and then gave it way too much power.”

“Were you hurt?” she asks incredulously. She can’t believe he didn’t tell her the answer to that question first. She can’t believe she had to ask.

“Oh, uh- Well, not a lot,” he says, still showing her that stupidly genuine smile of his. “Might’ve knocked a few screws loose, y’know- That was a joke, by the way. I am not a cyborg. Uh, but I’m working on it.”

Tu laughs again, shaking her head. “What’s wrong?” she asks with a soft smile.

“Huh?”

“I mean, why are you talking at a mile a minute?”

Tigh’s eyes widen, his hands instantly falling to his lap. He looks almost stricken. “Oh. Sorry, my bad-”

“No!” Tu says quickly, a little too loudly in her haste. She wrinkles her nose and sits back, regaining her composure. “No, sorry, I was just… worried. It’s okay if you talk fast. But you sound kind of nervous, that’s all.”

Tigh’s posture slowly relaxes, and he nods in understanding. Tu finds herself relaxing alongside him. “Well,” he begins, slowly, “I guess it’s just…”

He’s nervous about going on a date with me, Tu thinks excitedly. She knows she shouldn’t be excited, but she is.

“I’m not the best at explaining things,” he says after a moment of pause. He’s looking down at his hands. “I’m just afraid I won’t be able to explain any of this shit to you without sounding like I’m speaking gibberish, and then you’ll lose all interest because of my shit explanations.”

Tu blinks. She narrows her eyes.

“…What?” she asks.

He tilts his head, the picture of confusion. “What’s wrong?”

Tu leans forward, just as confused. “What- What do you mean, explaining things!?”

“You wanted me to get you up to date on all the newest eximium research, right?” he asks, furrowing his eyebrows. When she doesn’t respond, he bites his lip for a second and then continues, a bit more uncertainly. “‘Cause I was talking about the eximium statistics for my project and you looked really confused, and then you cut me off and asked to meet up without Sienne. So I thought your last place hadn’t taught you any of the new-era eximium information, and you didn’t want Sienne to know you were confused, but you needed help. I- Was I wrong?”

Holy shit. He’s not even being prideful, thinking he knows more than her. He just saw she was confused, saw she wanted to be alone with him, and figured the most logical conclusion from those two facts together was that she wanted a crash course on science, without any embarrassment from the coworker she hates.

Good god, this man is an idiot.

“No, you were right,” Tu grits out, forcing a smile through clenched teeth. Maybe he isn’t interested in her after all. Then again, what kind of guy wouldn’t be interested in someone like Tu? Like, just look at her! Unless- “Are you gay?” she asks bluntly.

Tigh blinks. “…Bi,” he says simply. “Uh. You?”

“Also bi,” she says back. Huh. So then why the hell doesn’t he like her? No way he’s that insecure, he’s gotta at least know he’s good-looking, and the world’s leading eximium scientist to boot… Could it be that he’s really just a new brand of stupid?

“So,” Tigh says awkwardly, a light blush across his cheeks, “Where should I start?”

Tu sighs, resting her chin in her hand. “Wherever you want, babe.”

Tigh’s blush worsens—has she not used that term with him before? God, he’s dumb. “Right, yep, cool. So, skipping all of the old stuff you probably know and jumping right to present-day discoveries…”

“You know what?” Tu asks, on a whim. She’ll be here all night hearing nerd shit anyway, she might as well actually get caught up on all the discoveries that have been made since she died. “Start at the actual beginning. Tell me everything.”

Tigh looks surprised, but he shrugs and hurries on, his excitement growing visibly. What a nerd, Tu thinks a little too fondly

“Cool! Discovery of eximium, the first time humans realized we had metal in our blood…”

He talks for hours. Every so often, he says, “I’m not boring you, right?” and Tu says “No, of course not” even though she only understands about half of the words coming out of his mouth. God only knows why, but she doesn’t mind. She’s enjoying herself.

When they finally decide to leave—not because Tigh has exhausted his knowledge of eximium history, but because the restaurant is closing—Tu asks, “Split the bill?” and then starts rifling through her purse when he nods in agreement. Only after checking the inner pocket for the third time does she realize and admit to herself that she left her wallet at home.

“Fuck,” she says without thinking. Oh, god, how embarrassing. Tigh is definitely going to laugh at her. Fuck, she messed up—will she even be fit for the mission after this? There’s no way he’ll respect her after she made such an embarrassing mistake, she might have to tell Miss Lane she’s compromised-

“I can pay!” Tigh says, already handing his card to the waiter (a new one, since the other has long since gone home). “Buy me a drink from Aeryn’s sometime and we’ll call it even.”

He doesn’t say it snidely, like he’s judging her for not being able to pay. He doesn’t smirk afterward, like he thinks he’s better than her now. He doesn’t grimace, like he realizes she’s not worth his time.

“It’s fine,” he says gently, his voice carrying softly across the table and snapping her out of her panic. His smile is one of care, not cruelty. “Tu, I forget my wallet all the time. Can’t tell you how much I’d owe Nora if she ever held me to it.” He reaches across the table, lightly resting his hand over hers. “It was just a mistake, okay? Not the end of the world.”

“Not the end of the world,” Tu repeats, the fog slowly clearing from her mind. Her face flushes with heat when she fully comes back to herself, but she doesn’t feel as mortified as she probably should. Tigh makes it feel like it doesn’t matter. “Right, yeah, obviously,” she laughs, nervous but no longer scared.

At some point, the waiter returned with Tigh’s card. He squeezes Tu’s hand and then slips the card back into his wallet. “I can walk you to your car?” he offers.

She scoffs, trying to force up a playful tone to cover the dregs of her embarrassment. “What, you think I can’t take care of myself?”

He scoffs right back. “Please,” he says, grinning. “You could kick my ass into next week.”

“‘Into next week?’” she laughs, shaking her head and following him to the door. He walks backwards to be able to look at her, and his eyes crinkle with joy. “No one says that anymore!”

“Yesterday you called something ‘nifty,’ what the hell are you talking about!?”

Tu is still laughing when they step out into the parking lot. Tigh scans the pavement and then tilts his head, narrowing his eyes. “Hey, you did drive here, right? I don’t think any bus routes are active this late.”

“Nah, I just walked,” Tu says, waving off his concern. “On air. You know how it is.”

“Tu, it’s cold!” Tigh says, sounding exasperated. “And you’re not even wearing a- Jesus Christ, Tu, you’re a maniac.” Despite his words, he slips off his jacket and drapes it over Tu’s shoulders, and she feels warmth in her cheeks again as she pulls it tight around herself.

“Yeah, well, tough,” she replies, rolling her eyes and pretending her heart isn’t beating double time. She glances around the parking lot. “Anyway, looks like you didn’t drive either!”

Tigh pulls a ring of keys out of the pocket of his skinny jeans and presses a button on a car fob, and Tu hears a ridiculous vroom sound for several seconds before a hovering motorbike zooms around the corner and skids (metaphorically) to a stop in front of her and Tigh.

“You think so?” he asks with a shit-eating grin. She rolls her eyes again, and his smile turns softer. “Hop on, I’ll drop you off outside your apartment.”

Tu bites her lip, considering, but… well, why shouldn’t she indulge a little bit? Just because she’s Pride doesn’t mean she can’t have a little Gluttony, a little Greed, a little Lust, just for fun.

“Okay,” she says quietly, nearly a whisper. Tigh gives her a smile that makes her feel warmer just by looking at it, and then he puts one leg over the bike and dramatically revs the engine—such a theatre kid. He gestures for Tu to get on behind him, and she nods just to hype herself up. Then she hops onto the seat, immediately putting her arms around his waist for stability (just for stability, she swears) and leaning her head against his shoulder (that one’s harder to justify. Maybe she’s cold). “Helmets?” she asks after a moment, her voice muffled by his shirt.

“No fuckin’ way this bike is gonna let you get hurt,” he says, the most confident she’s ever heard him. “If you have so much as a scrape when we park, I’ll turn it into scrap metal.”

She’s pretty sure the bike can’t register threats, but then again, it’s clearly a custom job by Tigh. If any vehicle would respond to human pleas, it’d damn well be his.

“Fine, then. Show me what this thing can do,” she challenges him.

“Hold on tight,” he says playfully. She resists biting his shoulder just to be annoying, but before she can argue the pros and cons, he’s taking off.

The hoverbike flies across the streets, a foot or so off the ground at all times, the engine revving in a way that almost sounds pretty. When they come up too close behind another car, Tigh squeezes the handles and the bike rises further into the air, zipping over the car as though it were simply part of the road.

“Tigh, you criminal!” Tu yells over the wind, and Tigh’s laughter quickly joins her own.

“It’s not a crime if they can’t catch me!” he shouts back, and Tu laughs again and knocks her head against his shoulder.

“The cops would disagree!”

By the time they reach Tu’s apartment, it’s only been a couple of minutes, but Tigh’s hair is a windswept mess and Tu think she’ll be combing out tangles for days. All the same, it’s worth it for the glow of his smile, the rosiness of the cold air on his cheeks, the way he glares threateningly at the bike when Tu has trouble getting off.

“So?” he asks, a little breathless.

“So what?” she replies, turning her nose up.

He huffs, a smile on his face. “Tu, come on!”

“It was great,” she relents, too easily for her liking. “It was really, really great, Tigh. Thank you.”

His face flushes pink, and he looks down at his shoes. “Oh, I mean- Yeah, ‘course, you’re welcome. Any time.”

Tu can’t help herself. She leans forward, has to tilt her head up just a bit, and- and at the last second she redirects, kisses his rosy cheek instead of his lips, and quickly pulls back. She feels her own cheeks turning red, but she doesn’t let herself look away; she looks Tigh in the eye, now that he’s making shocked eye contact with her, and smiles confidently. “I might take you up on that,” she says. “See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” he says dumbly, his eyes wide as saucers. “Yeah, always.”

She shakes her head fondly and walks to the door of the apartment complex, buzzing herself in and heading toward the steps. She glances back just for a moment, long enough to see Tigh holding his hand over his cheek, looking totally shell-shocked even as a large grin spreads across his face.

The extra month was worth it.

☼☼☼-

taglist: @wildswrites, @ceph-the-writing-spook, @jezifster, @mallthologist, @original-writing

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Building on the moon or Mars? You'll need extraterrestrial cement for that Sustained space exploration will require infrastructure that doesn’t currently exist: buildings, housing, rocket landing pads. So, where do you turn for construction materials when they are too big to fit in your carry-on and there’s no Home Depot in outer space? “If we’re going to live and work on another planet like Mars or the moon, we need to make concrete. But we can’t take bags of concrete with us — we need to use local resources,” said Norman Wagner, Unidel Robert L. Pigford Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Delaware. Researchers are exploring ways to use clay-like topsoil materials from the moon or Mars as the basis for extraterrestrial cement. To succeed will require a binder to glue the extraterrestrial starting materials together through chemistry. One requirement for this out-of-this-world construction material is that it must be durable enough for the vertical launch pads needed to protect man-made rockets from swirling rocks, dust and other debris during liftoff or landing. Most conventional construction materials, such as ordinary cement, are not suitable under space conditions. UD’s Wagner and colleagues are working on this problem and successfully converted simulated lunar and Martian soils into geopolymer cement, which is considered a good substitute for conventional cement. The research team also created a framework to compare different types of geopolymer cements and their characteristics and reported the results in Advances in Space Research. The work was highlighted recently in Advances in Engineering. Geopolymer cement Geopolymers are inorganic polymers formed from aluminosilicate minerals found in common clays everywhere from Newark, Delaware’s White Clay Creek to Africa. When mixed with a solvent that has a high pH, such as sodium silicate, the clay can be dissolved, freeing the aluminum and silicon inside to react with other materials and form new structures — like cement. Soils on the moon and Mars contain common clays, too. This made Maria Katzarova, a former associate scientist and member of Wagner’s lab at UD, wonder if it was possible to activate simulated moon and Martian soils to become concrete-like building materials using geopolymer chemistry. She proposed the idea to NASA and obtained funding via the Delaware Space Grant Consortium to try with the help and expertise of then-UD doctoral student Jennifer Mills, who studied terrestrial geopolymers for her doctoral dissertation. The researchers systematically prepared geopolymer binders from a variety of known simulated soils in the same exact way and compared the materials’ performance, which hadn’t been done before. “This is not a trivial thing. You can’t just say give me any old clay, and I’ll make it work. There are metrics to it, chemistry that you have to worry about,” Wagner said. The researchers mixed various simulated soils with sodium silicate then cast the geopolymer mixture into ice-cube-like molds and waited for the reaction to occur. After seven days, they measured each cube’s size and weight, then crushed it to understand how the material behaves under load. Specifically, they wanted to know if slight differences in chemistry between simulated soils affected the material’s strength. “When a rocket takes off there's a lot of weight pushing down on the landing pad and the concrete needs to hold, so the material’s compressive strength becomes an important metric,” Wagner said. “At least on Earth, we were able to make materials in little cubes that had the compressive strength necessary to do the job.” The researchers also calculated how much terrestrial material astronauts would need to take with them to build a landing pad on the surface of the moon or Mars. Turns out, the estimated amount is well within the payload range of a rocket, anywhere from hundreds to thousands of kilograms. Simulating space conditions The research team also subjected the samples to different environments present in space, including vacuum and low and high temperatures. What they found was informative. Under vacuum, some of the material samples did form cement, while others were only partially successful. However, overall, the geopolymer cement’s compressive strength decreased under vacuum, compared to geopolymer cubes cured at room temperature and pressure. This raises new considerations depending on the material’s purpose. “There's going to be a tradeoff between whether we need to cast these materials in a pressurized environment to ensure the reaction forms the strongest material or whether can we get away with forming them under vacuum, the normal environment on the moon or Mars, and achieve something that's good enough,” said Mills, who earned her doctoral degree in chemical engineering at UD in May 2022 and now works at Dow Chemical Company. Meanwhile, under low temperatures of about -80 degrees Celsius, the geopolymer materials didn’t react at all. “This tells us that we might need to use some sort of accelerant to achieve the strength we see at room temperature,” Mills said. “Maybe the geopolymer needs to be heated, or maybe we need to add something else to the mix to kickstart the reaction for certain applications or environments.” At high temperatures, about 600 degrees Celsius, the researchers found that every moon-like sample got stronger. This was not surprising, Mills said, given how the kinetics were hindered at low temperatures. The research team also saw changes in the physical nature of the geopolymer cement under heat. “The geopolymer bricks became much more brittle when we heated them up, shattering as opposed to becoming compressed or breaking in two,” Mills said. “That could be important if the material is going to be subjected to any type of external pressure.” Based on their results, the researchers said that chemical composition and particle size may play an important role in material strength. For example, smaller particles increase the available surface area, making them easier to react and potentially leading to greater overall material strength. Another possible factor: the amount of aluminosilicate content in the starting materials, which can be tricky to estimate when added solutions may also contain small concentrations of these materials and contribute to material performance. What does it all mean? Well, Amazon doesn’t offer two-day delivery to space, so designing the right formulation of starting materials to take matters. Understanding what affects material strength is important, too, since astronauts will be sourcing our topsoil materials from different places on planets — and maybe even different planets altogether. These results also can be used to make geopolymer cements on Earth that are better for the environment and can be sourced from a wider variety of local materials. Geopolymer cements require less water than is needed to make traditional cement, too, because the water itself is not consumed in the reaction. Instead, the water can be recovered and reused, a plus in water-limited environments from arid earthly landscapes to outer space. Today, two of Wagner’s current graduate students are exploring ways to use geopolymer cements to 3D-print houses and to activate geopolymer materials using microwave technology. The work is a collaborative project, funded by the National Science Foundation, with researchers at Northeastern and Georgetown universities. Similar to the microwaves you use to reheat your morning coffee, microwave heating can accelerate geopolymer curing and may one day provide a way for terrestrial builders — or astronauts — to cure geopolymer concrete in a targeted way. IMAGE....University of Delaware researchers mixed simulated lunar and Martian soils with a high-pH solution to create geopolymer bricks, then crushed the bricks to see how strong they were. The experiments are helping them work on ways for astronauts to create building materials in space. CREDIT Photo illustrations by Jeffrey C. Chase/ University of Delaware

[kudzucataclysm]

gimme the crash course on maya neow 🔫

IS THE THREAT REALLY NECESSARY…..☹️

Maya Fontaine is the 32 year old CEO of Fontaine Industries, a research and development company that primarily focuses on robotics technology and weapons research, and high level Promethean Society member (as well as one of its first). She’s the one who invented mechas in the world of SE, and due to her lack of morals she’s pretty much willing to sell her products to anyone willing to buy them which…if she worked for the DUSA government, then she’d be long dead lol

She’s also a combat cyborg and was initially raised inside the Promethean Society to be a super soldier of sorts but the people in charge (ie Lupe) found that she was a lot smarter than actually given credit for and was given a chance to become a scientist of sorts. She was best friends and classmates with Carson Keller and the two dated for a bit before they both had a bit of a falling out regarding the future of earth and shit…in which, Maya became something that she hated (ultra capitalist and detrimental to human society) while Carson is willing to subjugate large numbers of humanity itself to save it. among other things, etcetera

Maya stole Dez away from Carson btw. He was meant to be Carson’s mentee/protege when he got into Prometheus but Maya went “NU UH” to the board of directors over it and now that’s ignited a whole new spat between them, along with some controversy/rumors about Desmond. the poor boy can’t catch a break huh

other things:

megalomaniac

one of the richest people in the world

deaf!!

wine connoisseur

sort of Carmine’s boss but the two have a weird kind of hateful symbiotic relationship that’s so fascinating. like they’ll take any chance to talk shit on each other or sabotage each other but by god they wont rat each other out to the police or let the other person die. it’s so funny writing them interacting

bi/pan but honest to god prefers dating women when she can. wnv she finds a guy hot it’s like short term memory loss, “whoaaa i never usually find guys hot…” (<- says this every single time she finds a guy hot)

^on the same note. serial dater and/or one night stand haver. she’s too busy with work to properly date (and her personality is shit so 💀)

her god complex is entirely self constructed. it’s false but she’s deluded herself so fucking hard about it that it’s seeped into her very psyche

extremely controlling and manipulative, even more than Carmine. would be executing people daily for fun if she could

she knows Friday! they were both trained by Hammond but haven’t seen each other in YEARS

always wears pajamas in the lab. wears a lab coat over said pajamas and attends meetings with bunny slippers on

knows that Carson still has a crush on her and makes fun of her for it every chance she gets

Francis sees her as an insane person and keeps her distance/never says anything to her. which is tough cuz Maya hires Francis a LOT

always forgets what year it is when asked. her most common answer is that’s it’s 1994

and that is She!!

[pain-suffering-even]

modern AU jobs for the gang

what jobs/positions/etc would they have if the rulers and monarchs were never a thing? well...

(this list is a little long, just a heads up)

Choi Jong-In: arsonist Forensic scientist

Baek Yoon-Ho: I know in canon they mention him being a firefighter? which i kinda see, since he seems like the type to want to help people. but, besides that, I could also see him as a EMT or something along those lines

Min Byung-Gyu: He would 100% be a nurse. He gives me tired and slightly unhinged med student vibes

Cha Hae-In: Personal trainer perhaps? Or a martial arts teacher?

Lim Tae-Gyu: Competitive archer (probably won a few silvers and a gold at the olympics and afterwards he immediately retired)

Woo Jin-Chul: Accountant. or! or a math teacher! but i imagine he'd be too tired to deal with kids, so

Go Gun-Hee: The korean equivalent of a DA. i was gonna say judge but that doesn't seem up his alley, so

Yoo Jin-Ho: I mean... he's rich... that aside, he'd probably start a company with his money, probably for bioengineering research stuff. anything to help people, yeah?

Sung Jin-Woo: Well, he'd still be how he was at chapter 1, so... hm... maybe a librarian or something like that? i'd imagine he likes books a lot

Thomas Andre: Can you imagine this man in the real estate market... selling houses... "oh you're the construction worker?" "nah im sellin this house!" and the buyer would like. visibly pale. because this man would still be built like a brickhouse i can guarantee it

Laura: Architect/interior designer (she probably flips houses with Thomas and he splits the profits with her)

Christopher Reed: Marine biologist + animal/environment activist

Lennart Niermann: Hair stylist

Liu Zhigang: Blacksmith. he'd be so good at creating swords

Goto Ryuiji: Grumpy but diligent manager at an office

Reiji Sugimoto: Aspiring musician/singer

Akari Shimizu: Either an entomologist or a pediatrician, though i feel like the latter is too obvious since she's a healer

Kenzo Tanaka: PE teacher + school counselor

Atsushi Kumamoto: Probably part of a cleaning service

Ippei Izawa: Twitch streamer. he just. gives me those vibes. gaemer

Kei: Psychologist + profiler

Kanae Tawata: Tattoo artist

Minoru Hoshino: Works at the same office as Goto. one of the few to put up with his grumpiness

Mari Ishida: Lawyer. she'd either be loved or hated since she's a stickler for rules and procedures

Tatsumi Fujishima: He'd work as an engineer for NASA perhaps, or maybe try and start his own robotics company. You know those robot dogs? yeah. yup. he'd love that

[seat-safety-switch]

A gang of scientists burst into my small corner office, cramming themselves into the doorframe like the Three Stooges. They were excited to have observed a new phenomena, and constructed an elaborate experiment to test for its presence. All they needed was their favourite guinea pig: Little Miss Marbles. And once they fed her a little bit of celery so she could have a nice nap, the scientists came over to ask me to get in the fucking car.

Now, I've been working at the Institute for Honda Research since the mid-90s. At first, it was on a purely informal basis: I'd show up, pound a couple B-series to the redline, maybe swap in a Japanese import motor into a vehicle that didn't deserve it. Collect a cheque. As the economy went to shit, however, and people turned away from reliable and modest Hondas that they could no longer afford in favour of ostentatious Mercedes they definitely could not afford, there was not a lot of engine-swapping and stereo-adapter work left for me. Unless I wanted to be the test pilot, which I absolutely did.

What the eggheads had rounded up for me on this fine summer evening was a rarity: a 1999 Civic that was broken in. Somehow, they had managed to find a little hatchback with 572,000 miles on the odometer. Usually, they rusted away to nothing, or were crashed long before then, but now at long last the rings had finally seated and all the tolerances were according to the design that Soichiro himself had torn from the head of Amaterasu. It would be my job to change the oil for the third time.

About fifteen minutes later, I emerged from beneath the Civic with slightly stained hands. This baby is ready for another trip to the moon and back at least, I boasted, and maybe someone should put an MP3 CD player in here. The scientists didn't much like that proposal. Too many variables for them.

[eldritchqueerture]

Point of View - Original Statement Fic

Point of View (5004 words) by LadyNikita Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Original Statement Giver(s) (The Magnus Archives) Additional Tags: Statement Fic (The Magnus Archives), Original Statement (The Magnus Archives), this was intended as the eye but evolved into the vast as well, happens, cosmic horror, attempt at Eldritch Madness, unreality, Discussions of pointlessness and meaninglessness, Canon-Typical The Vast Content (The Magnus Archives), from the eps about space, Mentions of Death, Compulsion, discussions of free will (kind of), Dissociation, Panic, Mentions of addiction, Leitner Book (The Magnus Archives), except it was not possessed by Leitner, Pretty Colours <3, Neurodivergent Protagonist, Queer Protagonist, because I can project a bit as a treat, Can Be Read Without Prior Knowledge of the Podcast (I think)

Summary: "Humans crave understanding. They strive towards knowing more and more, that’s what all science is about, isn’t it? To study, to learn and understand; to seek answers to questions. But are we really equipped to handle the answers we seek? Even if we were able to reach them, are our minds advanced enough to grasp the truths about the world we live in? What if there are things just beyond our understanding, lurking in the shadows of reality, peeking into our world just enough to feed on us, on our uncertainty and our pathetic scrambling towards answers that would only bring madness?" --- Statement of Lyria Ellison regarding a different point of view and the dangers of knowledge.

Notes: Hiiiiii <3 I've been reading Lovecraft recently and as much as I hate the dude, The Colour Out of Space gave me so much inspiration that I immediately sat down and produced this in one sitting. I've been meaning to play with the concept of eldritch madness for a while; something about this trope is really appealing to me and I'm really enjoying my attempts at shaping it with words. Lyria is a preexisting OC of mine, I will give some background on her in the end notes because I love her very much. This is a form of practice for me; I'm playing with horror themes and I'd like to get acquainted with them to better incorporate them into my overall writing. Therefore I will accept constructive criticism if anyone wants to give it, but only in the form of DMs, either on Tumblr (your-queer-vampire-dm) or on Discord, if we know each other through a server. All of the warnings I think should be mentioned are in the tags, but if you think something should be added then please tell me!

Date: May 10th , 2018

Name: Lyria Ellison

Subject of experience: A different point of view and the dangers of knowledge.

—

How do you start telling a story that changed your heart, your mind, and your soul so profoundly that you can barely still function in a society? How do you say all that without sounding borderline insane? Nobody knows what I’ve seen, what I’ve been through. I know they would all say I’ve hallucinated it all and should seek treatment. But I know it won’t help. I know… I know so much now. Too much and not enough. Never enough. I know what happened was real . I don’t have proof so I’m guessing you won’t believe me either, but I need to tell someone about it. So I might as well tell you.

My name is Lyria Ellison and I’m a neuropsychology major. Ex-major, I should say. I dropped out after… Yeah. I dropped out; there’s not much point in continuing studying things about the feeble, insignificant human brain. Utterly pointless venture.

Humans crave understanding. They strive towards knowing more and more, that’s what all science is about, isn’t it? To study, to learn and understand; to seek answers to questions. But are we really equipped to handle the answers we seek? Even if we were able to reach them, are our minds advanced enough to grasp the truths about the world we live in? What if there are things just beyond our understanding, lurking in the shadows of reality, peeking into our world just enough to feed on us, on our uncertainty and our pathetic scrambling towards answers that would only bring madness?

Just a year ago, I was convinced I was going to finish my degree. I was so passionate about it too, eager to learn more and more, to research and seek knowledge. Curious and fascinated by the world around us. What a foolish thing it was to give into that drive. My mind was open to the supernatural, although I always approached it scientifically; I never said the supernatural existed, but I also never said it didn’t. It was plausible; all in all, every scientist must accept that there is still a vast amount of knowledge we don’t have about the world.

The ignorance was a blessing. But I shall not get ahead of myself.

It started around December last year; my dad had died, and my girlfriend, Shawala, and I were clearing out his house. There wasn’t really anyone else to do it; my mother had passed a couple years prior, I had no siblings, and extended family was out of the picture as well; and my dad had gathered a lot of things in his adventurous life; he was a traveller, and he loved the world, loved learning about it, just like me. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with it all; my dad meant a lot to me back then, and Shawala proved an excellent support at that first shock. She promised to do some first view assessments of the ground floor, while I went to scope out how things looked in the attic.

It’s always either basements or attics, isn’t it? I used to read horror, Lovecraftian was my favourite – how ironic, isn’t it? How stupid . How utterly ignorant. The hubris of the human race at its finest.

Anyways, the attic was half-lit from the small windows in the roof, and dust was swirling in the faint light of the afternoon sun. It was cold here, but I didn’t pay much mind; the house was old, and it wasn’t surprising that there was draft. To say the space was cluttered would be an understatement; I could barely walk around the numerous boxes, old furniture, crates, and overflowing bookshelves; all of which made something in my chest curl tight, bringing tears to my eyes. I steered my steps towards the nearest bookshelf; I’ve always been a bookworm, fascinated by nearly any tome I came across; I’ve been reading popular science books since I was eight. So naturally, I was drawn to the books, taking huge steps above the cardboard boxes and careful not to hit anything else.

The books were old, of course, and dusty. Some of them had loose pages, and I treated them very gently, almost reverently. I have a little bit of a bookbinder streak, and I decided I would take them home and try to put them back together. As I rifled through them, I saw they pertained to a vast variety of subjects, from poetry, drama, and history, to science, metaphysics, and maths. The deeper I looked into this stunning collection, the more reverence rose in my heart; at my fingertips I had the oldest and the biggest accumulation of knowledge I had ever seen. I saw some books dated back even two hundred years ago.

At that point Shawala called me to check if I was alright. I put the book I had in my hands back and my knuckles brushed against the black leather cover of the next one on the shelf. I felt pleasant tingling in my palm at the touch and my heart leaped at the prospect; I didn’t know why –  the book seemed ordinary enough on the shelf and there was no title on its spine.

I sometimes wonder if I could have just left it there and gone downstairs; chosen to come back later and then maybe, it wouldn’t have enticed me as it did. If, by that point, I had had any choice left on the matter.

Alas, intrigued by the book, I placed my palm on the spine and took it out. The leather was soft and smooth, probably sheep, with familiar subtle grains all over the texture. I remember it striked me as odd that it was warmer than the rest of the books in the drafty attic, but I shrugged it off. The front cover had a title, small but visible in the centre, etched in gold – Punctum Visus .

I, by all means, cannot read or speak Latin, but I figured it was something to do with vision. I opened the book, an unknown anticipation buzzing in my stomach. The pages were worn and old, their texture was slightly rough but pleasant under my fingertips; as I opened the front page, I saw the title again, this time in thick but still elegant, black letters, and the smell came up to my nostrils.

I tried to describe it in my head countless times after. I always loved the smell of old books, and I knew it very well, so it came to me as a surprise to realize it wasn’t the only smell I could feel from the book. It was… cold, somehow, distant but prickling at my nose, a little bit the way peppermint tastes. It reminded me of the night sky and distant stars somehow. The smell awakened an unease within me, as I couldn’t quite place what it was and why it seemed so weird , but it wasn’t by any means unpleasant. It was… enticing. Like a promise of a mystery.

I breathed it in again through my nose, closing my eyes, and for a moment I lost all feeling in my body. I was untethered and immaterial, somewhere in deep darkness that seemed to envelop me whole. It felt cold on my mind, stretching it thoughtlessly in the empty vastness, and I saw distant flickering lights of stars. Before I could form a coherent thought, I was back in myself, panting and shaking, staring at the front page of the Punctum Visus . I looked around with shaky breaths; the attic looked the same, and Shawala’s steps on the stairs reached my ears, with her voice calling my name. A shiver passed down my spine, causing goosebumps to bloom on my skin; was it the draft, the dread, or the excitement I couldn’t tell.

I knew I had to read this book, no matter what it took for me to do so.

I took it home, almost forgetting about the rest of the books upstairs. It had spent the next month laying in my room, as I dealt with the formalities and moving the rest of things that weren’t sold from the house either to my place or to charity. After the day we left the house for the last time, I collapsed in my bed, exhausted, but instead of closing, my eyes fell on the book unassumingly waiting on my nightstand.

A surge of excitement passed through me, waking me right up. I sat up and reached for the book. It was still warm; I couldn’t tell if it was good or bad, but warm it was. I think it made me subconsciously assign it more… being? Like, even before I knew anything, I somehow subconsciously accepted that it was more than just an object; that it was, in a sense, alive on its own. I brushed my fingers on the cover, feeling the texture of the leather and the etching of the letters. In the meantime during this month I had checked the meaning of the title – Point of Sight; a position from which a thing is or is supposed to be viewed. It makes so much sense now.

But then I didn’t know what dangers it held; or I didn’t want to think about them. I do remember feeling anxious, my hands trembling every time I opened the cover, but it was so mingled with exhilaration of the certainty I was discovering something important that I must have disregarded it. As I turned the pages, I wasn’t surprised to find the text in Latin; though I still felt a pang of frustration that it meant I couldn’t read it for now. I rifled through the pages, looking curiously at the letters that formed words yet unattainable to me. There was a hunger inside of me; a hunger to Know. As I turned the pages past various symbols, illustrations of the constellations, and of Earth, I determined it must be some sort of a metaphysical work. The point of view on the world around us.

Normally I just skim through works like this and leave them. While they are an interesting read sometimes, they’re not my favourite genre and, looking objectively, putting in the effort of learning a whole language just for the sake of reading a treatise on the meaning of cosmos by an unknown author seems strange at best. But somehow it seemed obvious to me that I had to read it. It called to me, sang into a part of my being that begged to be filled, promising knowledge that would finally leave me satisfied. I know now that it’s impossible. Once you’ve tasted the hunger for knowing, you will never find satisfaction; it’s like an addiction. You just crave more and more, and the knowledge never ends. After a certain point you know too much and when it all connects, when it starts to make sense… you slip. I didn’t know that, even though maybe I should have. I didn’t know what those things I was feeling meant then and I didn’t stop to question them; I gave into it as soon as it touched me. I was stupid.

What followed were a busy couple of months. Every waking moment that wasn’t spent keeping up the pretence of being interested in my major (back then I only thought it a brief hyperfixation, of course, and wouldn’t have called it a pretence at all), I was learning Latin online or staring into the incomprehensible words on the pages. This period of my life is a blur; I remember my friends checking up on me if I was alright, since I wasn’t particularly social anymore. Shawala got progressively more worried, but it fully escaped my mind to care. I know that staring thoughtlessly at the book took up more and more of my time; once, I remember, I returned from my classes at three PM and took the book out; when I came back to myself it was well past midnight. That’s when I started to feel truly uneasy about it. It was the second half of April; I looked back on what I’ve been doing these past months and this cold dread started creeping up to my throat. I realized I didn’t know why I wanted to read the book so much and I remembered the “vision” or the hallucination I had that first time in my dad’s attic. I had set it aside completely as unimportant, and I couldn’t wrap my head around why. I started shaking and theorizing in my head about the book being able to influence my mind somehow, to control it. Had my actions not been my own? How much of it was my own will and how much was the book? Was it even possible for it to influence me like that; could it be that it was supernatural in some way?

The house became cold, unnaturally so. It was dark and all the windows were closed, but a chill draft managed to find its way into the corridor I was in anyway. I sank to the floor and hugged my knees, trembling in panic. I was all alone in the flat, everyone I knew was surely already asleep in their homes, and I was small and weak in the face of something that maybe could have controlled my mind. I suddenly became aware of the leatherbound book in my hand, and I threw it along the corridor at the front door with a whimper, as far away from me as possible. The book thumped against the door, then the floor, and opened on a random page.

I’ve read enough horrors. I knew that the page would be significant, and that knowledge made me sob and hug my knees tighter. I didn’t know what was happening; I felt like I’d just woken up from a months-long dream… and perhaps I was right. The recent past felt alien.

I felt tears sting my eyes and that’s when the smell reached me. Again that mixture of old paper and peppermint cold, distantly sweet but freezing the blood in my veins. My breath came in ragged and shallow, and tears streamed down my face as I stared at the open book that was calling me in an inaudible whisper. The logical side of my mind was trying desperately to make sense of it, to assign the dissociative feeling to my father’s death and yeah, it was plausible, but somehow it just didn’t feel right. The whispers sounded again, swirling around my head, the golden sound almost touching the back of my neck, making me wince. It was enticing and promising, but this time, I felt terror instead of excitement. Disregarding how my mind was trying to rationalize the situation, I knew the book was cursed somehow. I knew that I was its victim. And I knew that I would not be strong enough to resist it.

I don’t know how much time I sat there, trembling, and sobbing into my knees, before I calmed down from the panic and decided I had to do something. I had to find out what this book was and how it found itself into my dad’s library. I couldn’t remember seeing anything in his diaries that would mention it at all, but then again, I didn’t read them all cover to cover. On wobbly legs I carefully made my way back to my room and searched the Internet until the sun started peeking out of the window; I found nothing about any book titled Punctum Visus . I tried all the libraries that I’d known of, that had their assortment online, all the research databases; nothing.

So, at the crack of dawn, with a fast-beating heart, I stood in the door of my room, staring out into the corridor, where the book still lay by the front door, unmoving. The golden strings of a wordless melody made it to my ears; it promised an explanation; that this time if I looked close enough, I would find what I was looking for.

What was I looking for?

Where else could I find the answers if not in the book itself?

I could feel its cold fingers slowly wrap around my mind, steering me to come closer. It called me with a hypnotising voice that awakened all the red signals in my brain, telling me to run and hide, but I didn’t. The voice meant danger, but I knew it also meant knowledge.

Dangerous knowledge. The pull dragged me through the corridor step by step; I hadn’t been fighting it as strongly as I could have had and I was about to start, since I was getting closer to the book, but suddenly I felt the chill of the influence let go, hovering close but out of reach. It was still compelling me to come, to Look, but I could move my own limbs. I had a choice to make.

Knowledge of danger. Did I believe my own warning thoughts that I would regret looking into the book? Did I take my own logical, rational side seriously? Was I ever good at resisting my own impulses?

I’ve never been addicted to anything, but then again, I never really had the opportunity, as it were; my friends were more of a no-alcohol types and I really ever smoked cigarettes once. I’ve never seen drugs in real life. So who’s to say if I’m not an addictive personality? And this, this was addictive. The thrill of mystery, the exhilarating process of learning, the anticipation of the answers.

Was it ever really my choice?

No supernatural force guided my steps that night; no cold fingers made me kneel next to the book and carefully cradle it in my arms, looking at the page with a shaky breath and tears in my eyes, as if I was coming back home like the prodigal son. But I’m sure it was by some paranormal means that this time I could understand the text on the pages.

I honestly don’t remember what it said. As I read the unfamiliar words, the meaning presented itself in my mind, not entirely unlike that first “vision” I had in the attic; as soon as I started reading I knew that I had made the choice and there was no turning back. That cold draft enveloped me, sat on my skin, and started to bite; I felt that smell again, stronger than ever before, something intangible but unmistakably inhuman . It was then that I realized that’s what had felt wrong to me about the smell since the beginning. It was inferior and alien. My hands started shaking as my eyes, glued to the text, moved now on their own down the page, drinking the words in. I was terrified out of my mind, but the pleasant tingling along my nerves was back, the anticipation of the promised understanding.

My mind was drowned with the tide of knowledge. This was just a prologue; a true discovery would require preparation, but I was almost ready. The voice said I was chosen, that I was a perfect candidate to bring It what It needs and that I would be rewarded. I cried tears of amazement and horror at the sheer scope of the voice – it seemed to encompass the entire world. I couldn’t comprehend it, but I didn’t know then that it was a blessing. I wanted to know, I craved to know what It was and how I could be of use to something so powerful, so huge. Divine. That was a word that crossed my mind, as much as I don’t like that. I don’t like many things, but I can’t change any of them.

The voice said I’m on the right path. I would Know and Understand. First, I needed to do something. As It told me what that was, doubt started to creep up to my mind. What was I doing? What was happening? How could this be real?

I came to on the floor by my front door, the cursed book in hand, with a tear-stained face and a bloody nose.

I knew what I had to do to get ready and, as I calmed down and went over everything in my head, I was surprised by how trivial it was. Honestly, by this point I was kind of afraid It would tell me to hurt someone, so I was glad this was just about reading a bunch of words in a specific location at a specific time. I was aware of the fact that this was most probably a ritual, and I was quite apprehensive. I kept arguing with myself in my head, over and over whether I should follow through, but deep down I knew that I would, no matter what I told myself. This part, I think, scared me the most; how compelling the promise of knowledge was, how reverently I’d found myself thinking of the book and its owner (which I assumed was the voice), how fanatical some of my thoughts sounded. I’ve never been religious, never really felt idealistic either. I was always focused on facts, on the here and now. Can knowledge be an ideal? Can you be a fanatic of Seeing and Knowing?

How much had I changed since I’d found Punctum Visus in that old attic.

I found a good, quiet spot, on the north-west side of the New Forest National Park near Southampton. I told no one about this, deeming it unimportant. I would come back after my big discovery, I would explain everything. I laugh at myself now; at my naivety.

The night of April 28 th was clear, and the starry sky looked back at me as I parked my car on the road in the forest and locked it. I tied a piece of a long red string to the wheel, not to lose my way in the forest, and started to walk forward. I held the book close to my chest, as if it could protect me from the dark, eerie outlines of the trees, swaying gently on the wind and whatever the darkness around me held. I didn’t light the torch; the moon was nearly full, bathing everything in its gentle light, and besides, for some reason it seemed that the crude yellow light would somehow break the sanctity of what I was about to do. I could see the ground in front of me and managed to lose sight of my car and everything else besides trees pretty fast.

I stopped when I found a small clearing. The moon was high in the sky, shining down on me like a big eye; I didn’t know why this comparison seemed the most fitting, but it did. I took a deep breath, feeling a chill plant little dots all over my skin, making my hairs stand on end. The wind died down and the trees froze, as if in anticipation. I felt something watching me closely; I was not alone here anymore.

The realization made my breath catch in my throat and the last streaks of sanity broke through my thick skull. Run! Drop the book and run! I didn’t. My hands trembled, my muscles tensed, and I stood there, frozen with fear as something stared at me, seemingly for eternity. Something bigger than me, bigger than anything I have ever seen was watching me, waiting. My eyes dropped to the book in my arms. The black leather was warm, as always, but this time I felt a pulsating sensation from it. A heartbeat.

I screamed. The book landed discarded on the ground, and I stumbled backwards and tripped, landing in the grass as well. It was cold and wet, and it glistened with something in the faint moonlight. At first I took it for water, but upon closer inspection I saw it was the grass itself that glittered – a shy rainbow, glowing iridescently in an impossible way. I froze, stunned, for I have never seen such colours before. It seemed utterly alien, something unfitting for the human eye to see; simultaneously beautiful and horrifying.

As I looked around, I noticed that everything alive in the forest – the trees, the grass, the bushes, the plants – had taken on that iridescent mixture of faint light that prickled my eyes and sent a shiver of terror down my spine. It was beautiful, utterly gorgeous in a way that nothing a human eye can perceive could be. It was horrifying in how different, alien, and other it was. My senses could tell this is not of the Earth; not of this reality, not of this world; everything in me that still had common sense tried to recoil from the inferiority of this magnificence and the danger it brought, but I had abandoned common sense a while back. Maybe even when I touched the book for the first time. I stared then, breathless and trembling, at this scenery as if from a fairy tale and decided to lock away my rational thoughts. I wanted to See, to Know; I wanted to experience and if this was the death of me then hell, it was a pretty good way to go. To behold such a sight, I thought, was a reward in and of itself.

Of course, I had no idea what any of it meant. I slowly rose to my knees and patted the ground down until I felt the book. It still pulsated with this heartbeat and the letters etched in the leather glowed with golden light. My hands were sweaty, and I didn’t know whether I was shivering from fear or the cold. I opened the book on the first page.

What I saw was not what I had expected. I remembered that the first page, after the titular one, was the beginning of the introduction, that much I had understood, but now it was a big picture in black and white; a night sky, with an almost full moon and strewn with stars. It was a shot from the ground and treetops could be seen at the edges of the picture. As the book swayed in my hands, the stars glittered, and the perspective shifted ever so slightly, as if it was in 3D. Stricken by a surge of dread and cold certainty, I looked up. My suspicion was right – the picture in the book depicted the exact image that was now above me. I gasped quietly and looked down at the book—

And this is where things started to really go horribly, horribly wrong.

The book was gone. What’s more, the ground was gone too and suddenly everything was not where it should have been. I blinked but it did nothing to ease the dizziness; and when I composed myself enough to register what I was seeing I froze, the most intense horror I have ever experienced crushing my body from all sides and inside out.

I realized that I was Seeing. I was finally Seeing, and I Understood it all.

I don’t know how to convey in words what I saw. I don’t believe it’s possible; humans were never made to see and understand such things. I should have never touched the book, I should have never asked for knowledge. All my life I believed that knowledge was the point; it was a tool, and it was power. I don’t know what I think anymore. I think some knowledge should always be hidden because we were not made to know everything. We can’t , it’s physically impossible for us to comprehend.

For one moment in my life. For one moment I became something else, and I saw the world in the way It sees the world. For one moment I shared a mind with an eldritch being, a thing that is Fear itself, and I saw the Earth through Its Eye. I can’t… I can’t tell you just how horrible it is. How… How meaningless; we’re all intertwined things, guided by strings of web that lead us through life, and we’re all connected in this maze of fear . We’re not individuals; we’re not special. We don’t have souls and none of our experiences matter. We’re just fear. These… These entities are a part of all of us. They’re our fear and they live inside of us, inside of every living creature that can feel fear. Can you comprehend that? How can you be sure you are yourself when there’s a cosmic entity, a power as old as life itself, living you ? And no one has any idea. Nobody knows and if I tell someone they’ll think I’m crazy. Sometimes I think I’m crazy. But deep down I know what I saw. I know it was real. And I’m terrified. I’m terrified because I know that this Being of eyes that I became a part of watches everything I do. I feel Its presence here very strongly, and I guess it makes sense. It will never leave me. It’s a part of me, just like the rest of them; just like they’re all a part of every one of you, yet you have no idea. But I know. And I know I’m all alone with that knowledge, the knowledge that I can’t comprehend, but I know I could in that one moment. It’s a very lonely place to be and I’m scared.

I’m scared as I have never been before; this fear doesn’t leave me anymore. Every second of every day I’m aware I’m watched by something as great as cosmos. I’m aware I shared my mind with that being and it makes my skin crawl.

I don’t know what to do now, but I don’t expect any advice from you. I’m leaving the book with you, as proof. Its heart doesn’t beat anymore, and I’ve seen what I was supposed to.

Don’t read it.

Notes: If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving me a comment!! For people interested in a little bit of background: Lyria is a D&D character I have created that still awaits her chance to play in a campaign. She's an arcane scholar that has a dark little secret of actually being a warlock of a being she doesn't know a lot about. She's in love with knowledge and she seeks to learn about her powers as well as the world around her. I'm currently DMing a Ravenloft campaign and I just couldn't miss the fact how much potential for a corruption arc she has. Then I listened to TMA and I was like, she would definitely become the Avatar of the Beholding.

[just-dreaming-marvel]

Out Of Time ~ 106

MASTERLIST

< previous chapter

Word Count: 3,350ish

Summary: Y/N gets a call. (Yep, that’s it.)

Summer came and went. Tony and Y/N spent every second that they could together. And when they weren’t together it was because Pepper had forced Tony into meetings and Y/N was at the new facility training.

Talks of having children never came up again, but that’s also because Y/N was doing everything in her power to avoid it.

Before they knew it, it was October. Y/N and Tony were currently laying in bed after another round of sex. They were both shocked when FRIDAY interrupted their peace with an announcement.

“Excuse me, Boss,” the AI started, “but someone’s trying to reach you using the private line.”

“The private line?” Tony repeated.

“Only one person uses the private line,” Y/N stated. “After six months, now is when he decides to call? Not impressed.”

“Ignore it, FRIDAY.”

“I have tried,” FRIDAY said. “But it had been ringing off the hook for the past hour.” 

Y/N groaned, burying her face into Tony’s neck. “Just answer it,” she said quietly.

“Y/N? You there?” Coulson’s voice filled the room.

“She’s here,” Tony replied. “Have you decided to finally call and apologize?”

“I have bigger issues right now.”

“Really, Phil?” Y/N questioned. “Like what?”

“Simmons is missing.”

~~~

Coulson went on to explain that Simmons disappeared about 6 months ago, after looking into the rock, the monolith, that was on Gonzalez’ ship. Fitz had been trying his best to find a way to reach her, but nothing. Coulson decided that he needed Y/N’s help on this one, to at least bring Fitz back to reality. That Simmons may never be coming back.

Y/N and Tony quickly dressed. Tony ordered for all the information to be sent to him so that he could also work on it. He gave her a kiss goodbye before she went through a portal to Coulson’s office in the base. 

There Phil also explained what had and was happening the Inhumans. Jiaying had killed Gonzalez, trying to start a war. Cal was forced to kill Jiaying in front of Skye, who was now going by Daisy. The crystals had fallen into the ocean and were absorbed by the fish. Causing people to start unlocking there Inhuman DNA without the risk of others dying.

“I do want to apologize,” Coulson finished off his briefing. “You didn’t deserve any of how you were treated. I’m so sorry.”

“Where is everyone?” Y/N asked.

“Skye—Daisy,  I mean, Mack, and Hunter are on an extraction mission right now. An Inhuman after terrigensis.”

“Do they know you’re bringing me in?”

“Not yet. Thought it might be a welcome surprise for them.” Coulson checked his watch. “I’m actually running late to meet them. You wanna come with me or stay here?” Coulson began leaving his office.

“You said you were just bringing me in to help Fitz.”

“Yeah, well, I have a new plane. You wanna see it?”

~~~

Y/N was in awe off the new plane, Zephyr One. It was definitely more suited to the team’s needs than the Bus was. Coulson told Y/N to stay hidden while he went to talk to Daisy. She couldn’t help but follow them.

“How’s he doing?” Coulson asked, speaking of the man in the containment module.

“Okay,” Daisy answered. “For now.” 

“Third incident already this month, but at least we were able to get our hands on this one.”

“The rate of new cases is increasing.”

“We knew it would after the initial reports.”

“A new inhuman could emerge anywhere, without having any idea what’s happened.”

“Only in the continental US so far. Plus, this new aircraft can stay in the air much longer than the old plane. Days, really, so rapid response anywhere is—“

“You love your new toy, don’t you?”

“I ver much love my new toy. But even with the mind-boggling range of this puppy—“

“Inhumans are still disappearing.”

“This is the first one in a while we’ve been able to secure.”

“Well, it’s no mystery who’s taking them. That black-ops group was there before us.”

“I know.”

“Again. Whoever they are. How many do you think they’ve taken?”

“We know of at least five sightings. Five individuals who vanished before we could get to them. But the real mystery is, who’s running that group?” Coulson and Daisy walked over to the monitors.

“Not if you did your part. How did it feel to join the paparazzi, Phil?”

“I think I might have missed my calling. I have every body, every piece of software, tasked with identifying that woman.” He pointed to the woman on the monitor. “So we can figure out where she’s taking inhuman and what exactly she plans to do with them.”

“Sounds like you need me for more than just hutting down Simmons and calming Fitz then,” Y/N stated as she walked up behind them.

“Y/N?” Daisy gasped with surprise. “How— why—“ She ran up to hug her. “I’ve missed you.”

Y/N welcomed the hug. “I’ve missed you, too.” She pulled back to get a look at her friend. “Well you sure have changed. Chopped your hair off and are going by a different name? Sure sounds like I missed a lot.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I called her in,” Coulson responded. “To help Fitz.”

“Anyone else know you’re here yet?”

“No,” Y/N replied. “Not yet anyway.”

~~~

Everyone was surprised to see Y/N back. But no one risked questioning it, not wanting to get on her or Coulson’s bad sides. She followed Hunter and Coulson to his office, waiting for instructions.

“They’re not HYDRA,” Hunter stated. “You know, I’ve been digging, and my street sources tell me HYDRA’s gone silent. Eerily silent.”

“Really?’ Y/N questioned.

“Yes, but—“

“Yeah, the HYDRA finances we track are static,” Coulson interrupted. “No money’s changing hands.” 

They entered his office, where Mack was waiting for them with pictures of the woman they were tracking up on the monitor.

“And by the looks of the hardware these gung-ho nutters are using,” Hunter added, “they’re well-funded.”

“So if this woman’s not HYDRA, what is she?” Coulson asked.

“Everything else,” Mack answered. “I mean, look at this.” He motioned to the monitor. “Two years CIA.”

“Is that MI6?” Hunter wondered.

“She really gets around,” Y/N muttered, reading off the monitor as well.

“Yeah,” Mack continued, “under which time, she was consulting with the CDC, apparently.”

“All under different aliases,” Coulson stated.

“Oh, I like her,” Hunter commented.

“Me too,” Y/N added with a smirk.

“Yeah, but how are you supposed to track down someone like this?” Mack asked. “We can’t look everywhere.”

“If we can trace that hardware,” Coulson said, pointing to the gun Hunter had brought in, “that could give us a place to start. Take that down to Bobbi in the lab.” Coulson moved over to an open briefcase underneath a red axe. “Have the team analyze it.”

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no,” Hunter quickly refused. “No, no, I’m— I’m…. Not going anywhere near Bobbi.”

“Really?” Y/N questioned. “Again?”

“Fine,” Coulson conceded. “Y/N and I will take it to her. Wouldn’t want you to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable.” Suddenly, Coulson twisted off his left hand.

“Hold up! What is that? And when did it happen?” Y/N pointed at Coulson’s fake hand. “You lost your hand?!”

“Did I forget to mention that?”

“Uh, yeah.” 

“I know that’s sarcasm,” Hunter continued with his rambling. “And I’m choosing to accept your thoughtfulness at face value.”

“Mack, you should head downstairs,” Coulson ordered. “Assist Skye with intake.”

“Daisy,” the other three corrected.

“Daisy. Damn it. Hard for us to get used to, huh?”

“Mm… no.” / “No, just you.” / “I just found out and I seem to be doing okay.”

“Okay. So, what do we know about this Jose Gutierrez?”

“He goes by Joey,” Mack answered. “Construction foreman, motorcycle enthusiast.”

“Appears to be able to liquefy certain metals spontaneously at a distance of up to 3 meters.”

“Good thing I kept Tony home then,” Y/N commented.

“Yeah,” Mack agreed. “And understandably, that development has scared the living crap out of him.”

~~~

Mack headed down to help Skye while Y/N and Coulson made their way to the lab. As they entered, the base shook.

“New readings on the monolith?” Coulson asked Bobbi.

“Nope,” she responded. “That was Daisy firing a warning shot.” She turned to see Y/N standing next to Coulson. “Good to have you back, Y/N.”

“I’m not back,” Y/N responded. “Just visiting.”

“Anyway, there’s been no new readings, no new anything on the monolith in months. Fitz even stopped sending automated probes into that room. No one’s stepped foot in there since… Simmons was swallowed up by it.” 

Coulson was staring at the monitor, showing the fed of Daisy and Mack with Joey. “This was fish oil again?” He asked.

“What can I say? We pulled the product off shelves, but we can’t track down every bottle sold. The good news, if you want to call it that, is the deadly metallic elements sank to the bottom.” Bobbi led them to another part of the lab. “So the chemical contaminating the sea life isn’t deadly to humans just game-changing for inhumans. The bad news—“

“It’s not just in the fish oil. Where else could it have spread?”

“Other sea life. With ocean currents, it’s dispersed into the ecosystem.”

“I need to know how wide a range we’re talking.”

“Fitz and I have the team working on a computer simulation.”

“That biology degree’s finally coming in handy, huh?”

“Leaving me stuck staring at screens in here for all eternity.”

“I get it. Rehab’s a bitch. At least you’re not hoping your knee will grow back.”

They had stopped in front of a few scientists working and a glass box with a hand clutching a crystal in it.

“Is that—“ Y/N started. “Is that your hand?”

“Yep,” Coulson answered.

“Sorry,” Bobbi said. “I’m just frustrated. The simulation’s taking a while.”

“Have Fitz look into this, too.” Coulson handed her the gun from earlier. “If we can figure out where it came from—“

“We could narrow the search on the mystery girl.”

“I’m sure she’d prefer mystery woman. Oh, and by the way, where is he? Y/N’s been brought in to help him.”

“Fitz?”

“He requested yesterday to do some research at SHIELD archives, but I haven’t seen him all day.”

“All call him in. He’s chasing down on last lead on the monolith.”

“I’m guessing he’s had a lot of last leads,” Y/N said.

“Yes.”

“Call him in. Tell him I’m here. If you need to, put me on the phone.”

~~~

Daisy, Coulson, Mack, and Y/N were all in the common area, watching their new inhuman, Joey, on the monitor.

“He’s going nuts,” Daisy said. “Joey’s have a tough time. The change is hard enough physically. But emotionally, it’s a whole other thing. I tried talking him down, but I blew it in here. And Mack is not exactly coming off as a teddy bear.”

“You just told the guy I’m a teddy bear,” Mack defended.

“And then you told him the best case scenario was his head blown off.”

“Yeah.”

“I need help, and there’s one person who’s better at that than anyone.”

“Lincoln?” Coulson guessed. “You really want to go there again?” Coulson headed out of the room, the others following.

“He could help with intake. Plus, he understands the physical change. He’s a doctor, whereas we don’t even know what medical treatments to give.”

“Daisy’s got a point,” Y/N agreed.

“Last time you tried to sell him on it, he wasn’t exactly buying,” Coulson said.

“I’d like to try again,” Daisy said.

“Mack, what’s your take?” The paused in the middle of the hallway.

“I voiced my feelings about letting Lincoln roam free,” Mack responded. “I’d gladly drag him in here where he can’t hurt anyone. But if Daisy can talk him in… he might actually do some good.”

“Both of you go. Requisition a flight team and a quinjet.”

“You wanna come?” Daisy asked Y/N.

“I’ll pass on this one since I’m technically here for something else,” Y/N answered, throwing a glare Coulson’s way. “But that plan doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Now I’m wondering if this was all a ploy to get me back on the team.”

“Hey, Coulson,” Bobbi called from the lab. “Got her.” Y/N and Coulson followed Bobbi into the lab. They stopped in front of a screen with the woman pictured on it. “Weapon is a DARPA prototype. We tapped surveillance at multiple DARPA facilities, got a hit. The DC branch office. She visits every few days.” 

“A routine,” Coulson said. “Tell me there’s a window where we can get to her.”

“It’s a small one. Every night she visits, she leaves at approximately 9:00 pm, with a small security detail. They’re all three dropped at the metro station on 12th. Half an hour later, her escorts buy her a coffee on the walk to the platform. But she boards the 9:35 train alone. Sits in the middle, drinks her coffee, and answers e-mails. It’s the only time she’s alone all day.”

“You’re going in to talk to her aren’t you?” Y/N questioned. “Phil, where the hell is Fitz? And why the hell am I here?” 

“To help Fitz,” Coulson answered.

“Yeah, then where is he?” Suddenly, Y/N could feel Bobbi’s mind.

“Shit,” Bobbi thought, “Fitz is causing some real trouble. If only he would have stayed back like I told him to.”

“I don’t know where he is,” Coulson replied. “If I did, then you’d be helping him.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Y/N said. “It appears that I’m a little tired. While you are off meeting the woman, I think I’ll stay behind, rest and search for Fitz.”

Coulson was put off by the quick change in Y/N. “Okay… you do that. Let me know how it goes.” Coulson walked way and Y/N spun around to face Bobbi.

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bobbi responded.

“Cut the crap, Bobbi. Have you forgotten that I can read minds? Where is Fitz?”

“He found a lead in Morocco,” she whispered. “I’ve been covering for him.”

“Is he safe?”

“Lost contact a few hours ago.” 

“Damn it, Fitz. Give me his number. I’m tracking him down.”

“Y/N, I think that—“

“I was literally pulled out of my bed to come here. And I was really enjoying retirement. So, you either willingly give me his number or I force it from you.”

~~~

Unfortunately, for Y/N, she had never been to Morocco. So she wasn’t able to create a teleport to get to Fitz. She was working on a tablet in the common area, when the team turned on the tv. President Mathew Ellis was on it, doing a press conference from the White House.

“Good evening,” Ellis greeted. “I’m here tonight to address growing concerns among out citizens of the threats we face that are not of this world. I don’t need to remind people of the catastrophes in New York, London, and, most recently, Sokovia. Tragedies that seem to be growing in number and scale. And the organization we had in place to protect us, SHIELD, brought airships raining down in our nation’s capital.”

“Every day, new dangers present themselves,” Ellis continued, “filling our peaceful streets with chaos. By executive order, I have created a special task force to neutralize these alien threats on our soil. The Advanced Threat Containment Unit, or ATCU, will be given full license to act with whatever authority is necessary. The laws of nature have changed. And until the laws of man change to reflect that, we must do what we feel is right.”

“I’ve never liked Ellis,” Y/N muttered. 

Her tablet finally showed Fitz’ flight. He was coming back. And so she’d wait. Coulson found her that night, waiting alone in the lab and joined her. Neither of them said anything. Suddenly, Fitz came through the doors, tearing off his suit coat as he worked on the small object in his hands. Rolling up his sleeves, Fitz turned and noticed the other two. They slowly come closer to Fitz.

“We’ve been waiting for a while,” Coulson said.

“Had to be done,” Fitz responded. “It’s my last shot.”

“What’s supposed to be in there?” Y/N asked, looking at the object on his desk.

“The answer.”

“You’ve thought you’ve had the answers before,” Coulson said. “I think you’ve considered every possible answer… except the obvious one.”

“That’s why you brought Y/N here, isn’t it?” Fitz continued to work as he questioned them. “To change my mind?”

“I’m only here to help,” Y/N stated.

“You thought Simmons was trapped inside the monolith, but every instrument scan showed the stone was solid all the way through,” Coulson explained. “After hearing about the Pym Technologies disaster, you even thought she’d been reduced to a microscopic level. But no evidence supported that. And now… 

“And now I think—I know—it’s a black hole,” Fitz said, frustrated. “It’s dark matter made solid. It can warp space-time. It— look, regardless— okay?” He picked up the object he’d been working on. “This is gonna tell us exactly what that monolith is. So…” 

Fitz slammed it down on the desk, breaking it open. Coulson and Y/N shared a worried look. Fitz took out an old, rolled up piece of paper.

“Should we scan it?” Coulson suggested. “See if the computer can decipher what the—“

“It’s Hebrew,” Fitz answered, not looking up from the paper. “It’s just one word.”

“What does it mean?” Y/N asked, stepping closer to look at it.

“Death.”

“Fitz,” Coulson carefully called, “I’m gonna make the trip to Sheffield. Jemma’s family to deserves to know that she’s MIA.”

“Ohh,” Fitz scoffed, getting emotional.

“They need to be able to move on. And so do we. You have shown so much heart, never giving up on Simmons, and I will always, always respect you for it. But look around. We need you. We need that big brain of yours and that heart here. Okay? I miss her, too. I’m having a hard time accepting it. All of it. I-I’m on my third hand. But nothing feels normal because nothing will feel normal. Y/N went into retirement, and I know she’s mad I brought her back. May took off on vacation and never came back. So I lost my right hands, too. We have got to accept it, to say goodbye. We need to say goodbye.”

“Jemma would want us to do that, Fitz,” Y/N quietly added, her voice filled with emotion. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

Coulson walked away but Y/N stayed back to watch Fitz. He was clearly struggling with this. He paused at the door on his way out of the lab before quickly going in the direction of where the monolith was being stored. Y/N rushed to follow him.

“Fitz!” She called. “What are you doing?”

He grabbed a gun off the wall and marched towards the room. Fitz tore the caution tape away and broke into the room.

“Fitz! Stop!”

Fitz shot at the container, successfully breaking through the lock and straps.

“Fitz!” Y/N rushed up to him, standing in front of him. “I don’t know what you think you’re doing. But it’s not smart. Just think about it for a second!”

Fitz shoved her aside, causing her to fall to the ground, and quickly opened the door to the monolith. He stepped inside it.

“Do something,” he ordered the rock.

Y/N couldn’t do anything but watch. She knew and completely understood how bad he was hurting. It was the same when Bucky fell.

“Do something!” He shouted, breathing heavily. “Do something!” He screamed. “Do something!”

next chapter >

For those who didn’t know, on the series masterlist there is a section that contains the one shots and answered asks for the series. One shot requests and questions are always welcome for this series.

NOTES: from now on the taglist when be added by a reblog. I will reblog it using my second account, @just-dreaming-marvel-2​. Just so that my main page doesn’t get too cluttered.

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[harryspet]

little doe [5] peter parker

[Warnings] peter parker x oc, multiverse oc, fluff, angst, filler chapter, mentions of needles, little editing

A/N: This is going to be the second to last chapter in this series! The support on this story has been great and every like, reblog or comment really makes my heart all warm and fuzzy. 

Like, reblog and let me know what you think!

In which a kiss makes her forget her pain. 

word count: 2.2k

2 MONTHS LATER

“It seems the pills are keeping all her vitals normal,” Pepper unstrapped the blood pressure device from around Doe’s arm. Doe wasn’t sure what all the devices were for but Peter had insisted that Pepper was just making sure she was healthy, “Blood pressure is normal, temperature is higher than average but that’s to be expected. You’re a very healthy girl, Doe.”

Doe grinned, understanding that she had passed whatever test was just given to her. Pepper handed her a blue lollipop and Doe eagerly accepted it, popping it into her mouth. It was Doe’s first time back at Stark Labs and it made her wonder how her life could’ve changed so much in three months. 

“How is she at home? How are her powers?” Pepper asked Peter who was leaned against the wall. The small white office was starting to make him feel a bit claustrophobic. Peter felt a bit anxious which he hated since he knew that Pepper would never hurt her. Still, he felt overly protective whenever Doe left the safety of his apartment. 

“She’s great at home. The beginning was a little rough but we’ve gotten to know each other,” Peter’s eyes raked in Doe’s appearance, how she’d insisted on wearing that bright blue dress that she claimed made her feel like royalty. She turned heads whenever they were in public but it was best for Peter to let her be, “And her powers … it’s clear they’re much stronger when she’s sad or angry.”

“Ah,” Pepper had a light bulb go off above her head, “A true drama queen. I’ve had people doing some research, trying to narrow down what version of earth she might hail from but, without Fury’s top-secret information, I doubt we’ll have much luck.”

Peter tensed up at the mention of Fury, his arms crossed, “You’re not thinking about contacting him, right?”

Pepper sighed, “No, Doe is adjusting well so I don’t see a need to. You’re doing a good job, Peter, I know it must be stressful,” Peter was usually hypercritical of himself and, even though he knew Doe was happy, he still couldn’t help but feel like he’d made mistakes, “Could you hold onto her? I’m going to have someone draw her blood so we can test it and make sure we didn’t miss anything.”

Peter nodded, moving from the wall to where Doe was sitting on the lab table. Pepper grabbed her clipboard and filed out of the room. 

“I did good, Peter?” Doe asked, her English having improved astronomically with MJ teaching her all the time. 

“You did,” Peter assured her, “But we have to do one more thing before we go home. One of the scientists is going to take your blood. That means they have to prick you with a needle.”

“It will hurt?” Peter nodded, tucking a strand of her bright hair behind her ear, “I no want to.”

“You have to. It’s to make sure you’re healthy so you can keep staying with Peter.”

Doe thought it over but she wasn’t fully convinced and soon there was a man in a lab coat that entered the room, “Stay still, okay?” Peter grabbed ahold of Doe’s hand as the man began the short procedure.

Doe’s heart began to race as the man tied the band around her forearm. She began to panic even more as she saw the needle, “No, no, no can’t, Peter! Peter, no!”

The man flashed Peter a concerned look and Peter continued to try to console Doe but she had shut her eyes tight, “Peter! Peter! No, no, no-” Peter smashed his lips onto hers and she stopped her tantrum immediately. He felt Doe’s body relax and Peter held her lips on his as the man pricked her arm with the needle. 

Peter pulled away when her blood had filled the vial. Doe blinked, staring up at Peter in a daze before looking down at her arm. The man was about to open a band-aid when Doe interjected, “Pink color, please?”

The man grinned before picking out the neon pink band-daid, placing it down on where the blood was just drawn, “There you go, dear.”

“Thank you, please. Sorry for yell,” Doe apologized, happily gazing at her new band-aid. All of her little mannerisms made Peter blush. 

As soon as the man left the room, Doe pulled Peter in again for another kiss. He stood between her legs as her lips moved against his. She felt him reach between the waistband of his pants and he had to grab her hand to stop her before she began something that Peter would have to finish. 

“Not here,” Peter rushed out and Doe pouted. Another thing that she couldn’t wrap her mind around was that they couldn’t do certain things in public, “Let’s go home, Doe.”

+

Their trip to Stark Labs lasted longer than Peter initially anticipated and it was dark out by the time they made it to his side of town. Peter shifted the vehicle into park, looking over into the passenger seat to see that Doe was close to dozing off. He looked around the almost empty parking garage and got an eerie feeling. 

“Stay here,” Peter whispered but Doe only moaned something tiredly, nuzzling into her leather chair. Peter opened his door slowly, wanting to take a look around. 

Peter took a few steps and the feeling he had got even worse. He gripped his emergency web-shooters as the sound of screeching tires flooded his ears. A series of black escalades appeared from nowhere, circling their car in the empty parking lot. 

Peter wasn’t worried about taking them down, he could easily do that with his superhuman strength. He was worried because he knew exactly who was going to step from that black car. 

“Look who I’ve run into,” Fury spoke, his usual ‘I am all-knowing’ look on his face, “Peter Parker.”

Peter’s lips pressed into a thin line, “What do you need, Fury?” He wouldn’t have made such a big entrance if he didn’t have some life-altering news for him. 

“Fine, I won’t beat around the bush,” He adjusted his jacket, looking over Peter’s tense appearance, “I think you’ve left some big information out in the last few calls we’ve had.”

Peter shook his head, his arms crossed as he pretended to search his memory, “No, I don’t think so.”

“You’ve grown a lot the last few years,” Peter knew already that he wasn’t the same bumbling, innocent boy he used to be. “I admire that about you but I think you’ve gotten a little too big for your britches. You’re dealing with something you couldn’t possibly understand the future ramifications of.”

Over the last two months, Peter had thought a lot about this very conversation and the future he wanted with Doe. They had only known each other for a short amount of time but Peter already knew her. He knew what he wanted them to be.

“Peter?” His heart stopped as he heard her tired voice. Soon, that voice grew worried as she appeared from around the car, Peter was quick to be at her side. 

“Doe, go sit in the car,” Peter winced as the girl didn’t budge, looking past Peter’s shoulders to see Nick Fury standing idly by. 

“Bad guy?” Doe asked, an otherworldly power was dancing on Doe’s fingertips and she was ready to protect Peter at all cost. 

“No, not a bad guy-”

“Multiverse Being #165, believed to be from Earth version 482,” Fury interrupted and Peter turned, an eyebrow raised in confusion, “But it seems Peter has given you a new name. It’s nice to meet you, sweetheart.”

Peter grabbed her hand as Doe moved to stand beside him, “M-My name is Doe.”

Fury’s eyes wandered to wear their hands held each other, “I can tell she’s adjusting well.”

“She’s not going anywhere, Fury, if that’s what you’re here for,” Peter stated firmly, “And she won’t be apart of whatever scheme you’re planning next.”

“I don’t plan schemes, Parker. Everything I do is for the benefit of the entire planet.”

“And everything I do from now on is for her,” Doe looked up at Peter, not catching every detail of the conversation but understanding how serious the conversation was. Even when she had caused trouble around the apartment, she had never seen him this tense, “So I decide what happens.”

“And if earth needs her? For the greater good?”

“I decide,” Peter stated again, knowing it would be a long time before she was ready for anything like that, “If she trains if she doesn’t. Just trust me, Fury.”

Fury thought for a moment. Although he was constantly questioning Stark’s decision to trust him, Fury decided to back down, “Remember I got my eye on you, Parker.” After an intense staring contest, Fury was off and Peter had won for now. 

Doe stared up at Peter and as he saw that same innocence in her eyes, he squeezed her hand tightly. 

+

Doe despised Peter’s video games. Especially when Ned would come over and they’d sit on the couch for four hours straight playing them. Doe’s love and attention meter dwindled by the second but she couldn’t do what she normally did. If she threw a tantrum she wouldn’t get a sticker on her “Good Behavior Chart”. 

She stared up at the fridge where it was displayed in all its glitter and construction paper letters. She could get a reward at the end of each week for having good behavior every day and today was day seven. 

As the clock above the stove turned to midnight, Doe grabbed the chart off the fridge and marched into the living room where Peter was still playing a video game, “Peter,” She called his name, knowing he couldn’t hear her through his headphone, “Peterrrrr.”

As Doe came into a view, Peter quickly shouted, “Just one more game and then I’ll tuck you in. One more.”

Doe’s shoulders fell before a light bulb went off in her mind. Since today was technically over, she didn’t have to be on her best behavior anymore. Doe took a seat by Peter who was playing shirtless and in his boxers. She set the chart to the side before crawling beneath his arms and into his lap. 

She nuzzled her face into his neck, her hands running over his strong chest and then his biceps, causing Peter to pause the game. Doe grinned as Peter set his controller to the side, and she straddled his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. His hands slid over her bottom, gripping the flesh there as she leaned in to kiss him. 

Peter had already closed his eyes and when their lips never met, he opened his eyes, “Sticker please?”

Peter’s head tilted back in realization, “You tricked me!”

Doe giggled, grabbing the chart to show him, “No trick. Peter and video game is bad. Peter and Doe is good . . . Doe and sticker is very very good.”

“Fine, you’re the boss,” Peter complied, swooping Doe up as he stood from the couch, “I guess you’ve been a good girl all week … if you don’t count the smoothie incident.” Doe pouted, thinking back to how she didn’t know you had to put the top on the blender. The smoothie still ended up tasting good which was all that mattered to her. 

Peter carried her into the kitchen and set her down onto the counter as he began ruffling through drawers, “Ah, here they are,” He opened one to find an assortment of stickers, “Which one do you want?”

This was Doe’s favorite part and she had practically ranked them all for her favorite to least favorite. She pointed to one shaped like a rainbow and Peter proceeded to place it onto the Sunday square. Doe clapped in excitement, knowing she was only a week away from filling up the entire month. 

“Gift now?” She asked, biting down on her bottom lip, as Peter placed the chart back on the fridge. 

Peter yawned, “What would you like this week?”

“Sex.”

Peter’s mouth parted in surprise, “What?”

“Like Game of Thrones.”

Peter blinked, confusion evident in his expression, “When have you been watching Game of Thrones?”

“MJ watch with me. She like when people-” Doe made the motion of a knife being stabbed into her stomach. Peter grabbed her hands, pulling them back away from her stomach. 

Peter shook his head in disbelief, “I really need to change the locks and you shouldn’t be watching shows like that.”

“Sex is bad? But we do sex-”

“Yes but-” Peter cut himself off as his thoughts interrupted him, “It’s just different, Doe. And we do a lot of things but we haven’t actually ... “ It was a line that Peter had yet to cross and he was still quite satisfied with what they already had. 

“Peter?” Doe held his face in her hand, wanting him to reassure her. 

“The first time you have sex … it might hurt and I-I don’t wanna hurt you, Doe.”

Doe’s face softened at the look of worry in his eyes, “Like the nee-dle?”

Peter nodded slowly, “Kinda like that, yeah.”

“Then Peter will kiss Doe and make feel better,” Doe grinned and a smile stretched on Peter’s face as his eyes lit up with happiness. Doe leaned into him and Peter did the same. The touch of their lips sent sparks through them and fireworks seemed to explode in the kitchen. 

As Peter pulled away to catch his breath, he stared at the beautiful creature before him with gratitude, “I love you,” He thought his heart my race or that he’d sweat nervously but Peter had never been more sure of something. 

“I … I different kind of love Peter.”

+

Hope you enjoyed this! If you have an idea for something you wanna see in the last chapter then feel free to send me an ask!

[theouroborosart]

Cyberpunk AU Weald/Ruins

Weald Despite government orders for military clone models, contract employees were still much cheaper. A special program called "Heaven" was offered for them. For the rent of their own body by the state for military purposes, those who wished were given the opportunity to place their consciousness in virtual reality, their own little paradise, in which they could arrange anything and communicate with anyone from people connected to the network. For many, such a life was the best solution, an escape from the problems of an unfriendly world. A person who agreed to this procedure was losing control over his body in the real world, taken over by commands from control systems, usually called "The Marks". In the inactive time, the bodies were stored in tanks with a special chemical composition, while the host's consciousness was in virtuality. But during the blackout, the Heavens fell, and the minds of the people in it were erased forever. Following unknown orders from the Darkness, their unconscious bodies have awakened from their slumber and for some reason are now wandering around one of the city's districts. Hag A scientist who for some time worked with an Ancestor on the composition of a complex chemical combination of drugs that can practically stop the process of muscle atrophy, and even aging of the body immersed in them. The Ancestor needed this combination to keep the clones preserved as long as possible. The Hag directed this research into the possibility of a long-term transfer of consciousness into virtuality. The use of test samples of combination greatly affected her body and mind, and due to the constant jumps between reality and virtuality, she completely lost the line of differences between them. The Ancestor broke the cooperation contract with her, and the army bought out the project. Brigand Pounder Bandits are everywhere, and this city is no exception. At a time when rumors of the Ancestor's illegal activities in the field of artificial intelligence were gaining momentum, he hired one of the criminal groups to intimidate and get rid of journalists or other overly active residents of the city. But it was this gang that was most often called military deserters, engaged in sales of stolen military weapons.. One of their exemplars is really impressive. Rumors says that when the city was in chaos, they returned to their favorite activity and went to one of the military warehouses. Ruin The invention of a chemical mixture for long-term storage of clones created a lot of prospects for the Ancestor. In the old district of the city, he planned to launch the production of clones with a large number of mechanical implants and then sell them to the future users of Heaven's transfer of consciousness so they can move into a much more useful robotic body, which would increase their survival rate in war. But the project did not pay for itself. Now the assembly machines, awakened by the cybervirus, disembowel the bodies of clones that have not yet awakened, and sometimes the inhabitants of the city, assembling an army of combat robots from parts of implants. Necromancers To implement his idea of mechanized bodies, the Ancestor invited a group of foreign scientists to work. Since the creation of combat robots was prohibited at the state level, the Ancestor needed to automate the process to prevent bad rumors from spreading among the staff and to not attract attention. After the scientists have completed their work, the Ancestor decided to kill them as the last witnesses and start the production process. Prophet A recognized journalist with a solid reputation, usually working for the Light. He began to raise questions in the media about the Hamlet corporation, surprisingly knowledgeable of its activities. As a result, after several unsuccessful attempts at assassination, the Ancestor offers the Prophet during a personal meeting to interview the AI himself as a journalist. AI locks the Prophet's mind in virtuality forever, leaving his body only to madness. And, for some inexplicable reason, the construct of the Prophet's personality settled in a large machine in the old city after the blackout, broadcasting about the imminent destruction of humanity. @apply-force-too-begin You asked about Paracelsus in this AU.  While studying in medical university to become a pharmacist, she gained interest in the research in the field of chemical weapons and broke the rules by doing tests on her colleague. She was quikly expelled from the university and became one of the backstreet doctors who make flash bombs, biohazard weapons and medpacks to sell to criminals and thugs, as well as provide them with medical care for less than the corporations charge.

[juhihuji]

do u have any random facts or things about Depth of heaven and ur characters (sfw or nsfw 🤭) even if what you want never comes to light, I really enjoy reading the concepts and asks about ur OCs

Hehehe I haven't thought about the characters and their story in a long time, until recently...but I never put a huge amount of thought into them before either! I kinda just knew I...wished I could make something cool that had everything I wanted in that kind of game lmao. Even if it doesn't happen, I felt like I wanted there to be twists and secrets...if it never happens then nobody but me will ever know about them, huh! But, if it does happen then I'll spoil stuff for later! What to do...ah I'll share about it! But I'm giving it a spoiler warning for something that doesn't exist anyway lmao Also I'm not a writer or a scientist this is all wacky world rules ok xd also there might be inconsistencies idk I never wrote anything down I'll tell u their heights! June: 5'4 Puzzle: 6'3 Koa: 5'6 Adam: 6'1 Keizo: 6'7 Lloyd: 5'11 Static: 6' Cyril: 5'9 Holly: 5'7

In high school June and Puzzle were da weeaboos who listened to vocaloid on their phones at lunch. Puzzle wore cat ears, big headphones, and tutus to school. I think....I decided that because of her old bad design lmao. I thought I had a drawing of her in cat ears but I can't find it 😔 June prolly just wore hoodies and graphic t-shirts. They were each others prom dates! June wore a tux! Okay spoilery stuff ahead!

I have a general idea what I want the story to be, but right now I just see it as disjointed scenes in my head. I posted some June and Puzzle wearing dresses where I wanted a scene to happen in a casino on the ship. Cruise ship casinos are kinda lame though lol, but it'll be as big and cool as I want >:•3 and it's an excuse to have everyone in cool formal wear cuz that's always fun! The cult leader calls for a big party on the ship and everyone has to attend! It's also where he culls the herd...because not everyone is worthy of going to heaven...apparently Koa likes playing video games! He's on the top of the leaderboard for one MMO, and during one event the top prize was blueprints for an in-game item: roller skates! It would make for cool merch to put on your wall or something. There was a rumor among the playerbase that the blueprints could make skates that function as they do in the game. Koa won the prints then used them to custom build his own skates (they look kinda generic now but I haven't put a lot of thought into their design lmao). The combination of materials used and construction give them a magical quality that allows him to skate faster than any human could! He's always pushing his limits, and sometimes it gets him in twubble xd Keizo has an issue with bad dreams...at night he replays all the times in his life where people were rude to him or each other, how he needs to keep peace between them, he just really hates assholes! He has nightmares about them treating him badly and there's nothing he can do, because at his height and with his strength he'd come off as the bad guy no matter what! They push and push 'til he's about to snap...then he wakes up! The rage super heats his blood and his skin glows red and steam pours out his ears! His hair is all wacky cuz it holds it's shape on the pillow from all the heat lmao June and the rest of them find out about it when they see steam coming out from under his door at night. Don't wake him up though! If he's still glowing hot he'll sleep walk while in a berserk state. First, it makes him really rude himself lmao. He'll say all the nasty things he won't when he's awake! Second, if he sees someone doin' shit he don't like, they're gettin' these 🤜🤛 In his happy ending you'd see him with his hair flat for the first time wouldn't that be nice :•3 Adam is always doing experiments on himself, kinda just for shits, kinda because he wants to discover something amazing....!.....?!?!??! When he was younger, his sister, who he loved v much, died. He wanted to become a doctor, not because he wanted to find a cure for the thing that killed his sister...because she died in an accident! He wanted to find a way to make people invincible! He's always injecting himself with stuff hoping it'll make him stronger. He likes Keizo as a friend, but to Adam Keizo is a perfect specimen of an indestructable human. Adam's been fascinated with him for a while, but Keizo also just makes for a good subject for testing against! Also, they met when Adam was studying abroad and Keizo came up on a motorbike and attacked the wheels on Adam's scooter. Cute! :•) Keizo used to be a bad boy :•( Other experiments Adam's done: Eyesight like a HAWK Cat ears but for real Jelly bones(?) Longer ween 😳 Lloyd is a stinky tech wiz who likes playing around with AI's and robotics! He has myassive myega brains and he monitors many of the functions of the ship by himself in his server room. When the captain is captured and thrown off the ship, Lloyd uses his know-how and special accesses to make sure the cult doesn't make a mess of everything. He knows about and can see everything that happens on the ship...for fun he likes video games toooo! And plays with Koa! He likes buildin' lil gadgets n tings for fun too! They can come in real handy! nsfw! Stuff past here!!!!!!!!! June, Koa, and Lloyd are all inexperienced!

As a lover, Keizo tries to be gentle...but once he gets into it he can be a bit rough! If you're into it, just enjoy! Or speak up and he'll slow down! Hmmm I was inspired by a scene from the film Crying Freeman (which I haven't actually watched 8•|) of some ppl doin' it in a closet(?)...it's all dark and cramped and humid and their skin is so shiny and glistening it's probably the thing that awoken me to drawing people super sweaty. I just can't help myself 😳 def wanna give Keizo a scene like that. This doodle was inspired by it actually lmao

Adam is patient and gentle! Lots of kisses and verbal reassurance and checking in w/ u. He's aware of his age and he doesn't wanna come off badly so he'll let you do all the pursuing. And June will pursue him hard if she has to! He's also gonna make you beg and ask, just so he's sure sure :•) He loves to sit her up on the examining table n do things wit his mouf n fingers 😳 I'd probably make it an option to call him daddy in certain scenarios...up to u if u choose it find out what happens for urself idk 😳😳😳 or don't

Koa likes to tease you, maybe bully you a lil, but when it comes to intimacy he's a wimp! I just like the idea of making the bully bend to your will, but he likes it. It just feels good to wipe that cocky smile off his face! Step on him! Make him whimper! I know June's a virg too, but Koa is just so easy to tease it makes it feel like second nature. BUT the more time they spend together, the more confident Koa becomes. So! Enjoy havin' him under your thumb while you can cuz it might not last forever! Lloyd tries to stay composed when June starts showing an interest. He's usually alone in his server room, but secretly appreciates her company when she comes by. At first he'll act like he's too busy. He's not used to being around women! As his interest in June grows it becomes harder to hide his feelings! So June notices...and teases him! Cuz it's just so easyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyYYYYYYY 😩 Seeing his serious expression crack when you put ur hands in his pants is lots of fun :•3 And he shows you a voice he's never shown anyone else before 🤤 He does his research and with your help he'll learn exactly how to worship u 😌 IF it ever happens there has to b a new game plus where u unlock threesome scenes with Koa/Lloyd and Adam/Keizo :•x That's all 4 now! Sorry I'm fuckin' gross and don't know how to type :•|