#shoutout to new fans that continue to keep this place awesome

[butter1knife]

TODAY WAS THE DAY INVADER ZIM PREMIERED !!!!! 💚🩷⭐👽

I made art for this special day. Although the art has nothing to do with today's anniversary, it represents how long these two idiots have been at each other's throats. Ever since 2001, they've been at it and we've been cherishing it dearly.

Since the first moment I laid my eyes on this eccentric children's show, I have been completely hooked. And even in the year 2024, my love for it hangs around, strong as ever. This program has surprisingly helped me get through some truly challenging times, and whether you like it or not, it has become a source of comfort and a special interest for me. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to share my admiration for it with all of you here, and the support and kindness that I have received from this community has truly brightened up my days. It brings me great joy to see that we are still a thriving community of wonderful individuals, and I would like to extend my warmest wishes to everyone on this special anniversary.

[shurisneakers]

harmless (vii)

Summary: Bucky volunteers to go stop a small time villain, but nothing can prepare him for what exactly he has to deal with. (Bucky x villain!reader, drabble series)

Warnings: cursing, existential crisis, frustrated bucky, dramatic reader, lil bit of angst, clint barton being a lil shit

Word count: 3.4k

A/N: hey shoutout to @ugherik for suggesting a spin on the “A PLATYPUS!??!“ [perry puts his hat on] “PERRY THE PLATYPUS!???” thing. i used it in here, it’s a really small part and probably missable but i tried!! also i like the next chapter better than this one, i just wanted to put this here so it doesn’t seem abrupt <3333

here’s

my ko-fi

if you’d like to support my writing <333

Previous Part || Series Masterlist

Bucky can’t stop staring at the mirror.

He wishes it was for narcissistic purposes. He had enough reason for it to be. His age may be a hundred but he had the youthful exuberance of a very drained sixty year old.

But no, it wasn’t because of the steel cut jawline or thousand gigawatt smile.

After last week’s mini-spiral, he does what almost half the videos on TikTok warn him not to do.  

He got a haircut.

Everyone’s reaction stopped him from following it up with an ear piercing, but he can’t confidently say he didn’t at least consider it once. Maybe a neck tattoo. 

He pulls at a lock of hair. It’s not even longer than his finger.

What did he do-

“It’s just a haircut, man,” he says to no one in particular, almost like he’s trying to reassure himself.

He runs his hands through his hair. It takes lesser time than he was used to.

Steve had told him he looked good. But then again, Steve wore a fugly costume 90% of the time, what did he know?

Clint acknowledged it and didn’t outright call him ugly, which he supposed was a compliment. Wanda simply smiled at him.

“FRIDAY?” he reaches out.

“Yes, Sergeant Barnes?” comes the automated reply.

“How are you?” It took him some getting used to her, given that she was constantly listening to everything, and in general seemed to go against the universal idea of privacy. 

But his therapist told him he needed to form friendships. 

She didn’t mention it had to be human ones.

“As good as ever. Is there anything I can help you with?”

He wants to ask her what she thinks of his hair until he realises fashion advice from a faceless AI is a new low for him. Maybe ‘Do you think I should crawl into a pit and die?’ would be more appropriate. 

“Never mind,” he dismisses instead. “Any messages for today?”

“A reminder to buy a harder bed because you can’t keep sleeping on the floor.” Ah, that was on Sam’s recommendation three months ago, but he wasn’t going to stop any time soon. “And a text from a contact named Nuisance saying to meet them at the attached location in thirty minutes.”

“Where is the location?”

“The local sports centre.”

“Isn’t that closed today?” 

If he had to go out in public looking like this, maybe he could wear a cap and sunglasses and no one would recognise him. Unfortunately, as he was reminded several times before by anyone with an iota of common sense, it was a stupid disguise. 

Beanie it was, then. Bare minimum. 

“It is, yes.” Fewer citizens to worry about.

“Okay.” He hesitates in front of the mirror again, adjusting the hat on his head. “Thank you, FRIDAY.”

“You’re welcome, Sergeant.”

He stares at the little tuft of hair at the front that refused to stay down no matter how much he shoved it back.

“Come on, man,” he exhales in slight despair. “Whatever.”

____

The lock of the door leading to the pool is easy enough to pick. He can see how you got in without a hitch even though it was closed. 

The deck around the pool was absolutely drenched in water. No one was using it, there was no reason for water to splash out unless it was deliberately kept like this.

He catches sight of you easily, being that you’re the only two people there. You were standing at the end of the hall, head ducked as you scrolled through your phone.

The door closes behind him with a soft thud.

You don’t look up from your mobile when you start talking, “What do you think 6 year olds like?”

Because James Barnes, carbon dated to 1917 and therefore certified young person, would definitely know the answer to this question.

“I don’t know. Lego?”

“Just how much money do you think a teacher makes-”

You stopped mid-sentence, finally lifting your head to catch his eye. He stares back at you, steps faltering when you don’t move.

"Who are you?" you squinted.

What

"It's me," Bucky says, tugging off the dumb beanie and using it to gesture vaguely towards himself. Fuck, he shouldn’t have worn it, it was ridiculous anyway-

"You sound like him..." You narrow your eyes. “You don't look like him.”

Great

He rolls his eyes before putting on a mock scowl. Can't have Bucky Barnes without a sense of eternal disgruntlement.

"Oh hey, that is you." You grin. "You got a haircut."

“I did.” He suddenly feels the awkwardness increase. His fingers fidget with the beanie.

“Nice.” You nod in acknowledgement.

He wants to hit himself at the words that just spill out before he could think about it. “You hate it.”

“I never said that,” you snort. “And since when does my opinion matter?”

“It doesn’t.” But now he wants to know what you think since he didn’t trust anyone else to tell him honestly.

“Must cut down on time in the shower, huh?”

It did.

He shrugs. He shoves the beanie into his back pocket.

“Was it a crisis haircut?” How did you kno- “Are you going to get bangs next time?”

“Shut up,” he says lamely, a dull burn in his cheeks. 

“I know a place where you can get hair dye for cheap. Not technically FDA approved, but I think purple streaks are a good place to start-”

“What are we doing here?” he interrupts, sighing.

“Skinny dipping. Take off your shirt, Barnes.” 

“Funny,” he says dryly, eyeing your shoes when you straighten up.

Ice skates.

“Fine, pants then.” You don’t make any effort to move from your end so he does, walking closer to you. 

“What are those for?” He doesn’t hide the annoyance from his voice when he points at your feet.

“Oh, these?” You look down at them. “Yeah, I’m going to freeze the pool.”

That seems... mild compared to the shit show you wanted to do last time.

“For?” He halts where he is. 

“’M gonna take my friends ice skating.”

“Is that all?” He wants to make a comment about the fact that you have friends but bites it back.

“Today is just a trial run. Tomorrow I’m gonna go freeze the East River.” There it is.

“The East River is not your personal ice skating rink.”

“Not yet it isn’t.” You lift up a middle finger.

It was too early for you to flip him off, even by your standards.

He raises an eyebrow.

Your face scrunches in confusion. You follow his gaze to your finger. “Oh yeah, no, that’s a freeze ring.”

Only then he notices a ring around the finger. From where he was standing he could make out the blue stone that adorned it.

“Joy.” He rolls up the sleeves of his black bomber jacket. “Let’s get this done with, then.”

“No no, wait.” You hold up your hand and he complies, having nothing to lose anyway. You pull out your phone and press a few buttons before shoving it back into your bag and tossing it aside.

The soft sounds of a piano start playing from a boombox near the corner of the room. A child starts singing following a series of knocks.

His eyebrows furrow. “What the fuck is this?”

“The Frozen soundtrack.” You beam at him. “I thought it was fitting.”

He doesn’t know what that is and at this point, he’s too afraid to ask. He can vaguely make out the lyrics being about a snowman but he isn’t too concerned.

He takes one step forward. You immediately point your fist at the ground in front of him, forcing him to jump back when a blast hits right in front of his shoes. Suddenly he gets why the floor is covered in water.

It sounds like a series of cracks as the water starts freezing over, a layer of ice now separating him and you.  

"You ready?” The mischief was woven in your voice as the blasts continued throughout the deck, effectively turning the entire floor into ice.

Bucky takes a step tentatively forward. Not bad. He takes another. Okay.

The third one is when shit starts to hit the fan. His hands shoot out to hold onto his balance when his footing slips from beneath him.

His Nike sneakers aren’t used to snow. They’re used to well manicured lawns and pavement trips to Starbucks and marble floors of the compound. Not swimming pool decks covered in ice.

He can hear you singing in the distance and every time he looks up you’re a little further away, making sure every inch of space is frozen.

It takes him a while to get over the initial fear of breaking his skull and just move forward swiftly with short steps. A goddamn penguin is what he looked like.

“There you go, you’re getting it,” you chirp as you whiz past him. He reaches out to grab at you, only to miss by an inch. He staggers, arms flapping wildly to regain his stability.

He hears crackling beside him. He gets a second or two to watch ice crystals spread through the water before turning it completely solid. You step onto the now frozen pool, testing your weight with one leg before cautiously getting on.

A triumphant smile emerges on your face. “Awesome.”

He manages to press himself against the wall as a form of support. 

There is no point to this whole thing. He knows this. It’s been well over 6 weeks and there is genuinely no point to this.

He realises it again when he moves from side to side, body erupting into a waddle. 

Why is he doing this. He doesn’t get paid extra. He doesn’t get any kind of compensation. All he gets is more wisecracking geniuses, embarrassment and the mortifying ordeal of getting caught imitating a penguin.

The song changes to a woman singing about doing something for the first time, forcing him to pay attention to it. He hears something about ball room and balls and tunes right back out.

Bucky manages to find his way to the actual pool since that’s where you’re twirling around, opting to land on his mental arm in case things go wrong. He takes a sliding step forward, followed by another. Maybe he can do this. 

“If a 200 pound super soldier can stand on this, I suppose it’s strong enough,” you muse, watching him slip and slide as he tries to invent makeshift ice skating.

Unfortunately, his method doesn’t have any brakes, so while he’s too busy trying to move forward, there’s no way to actually stop. He finds this out very soon when he almost launches himself off the edge of the pool.

Something yanks him backwards and back onto the ice.  

“Honestly, this is utterly useless since you can’t really do anything but it’s the most fun I’ve had all week,” you admit when he goes sliding towards the middle, arms flailing.

“You had to pick fuckin’ ice of all things.” He thinks that maybe he’s getting a hang of this. He can definitely move faster than what he was doing like, 10 minutes ago. It’s not like you were going anywhere, anyway. 

“I like to keep things spicy.”

He stays where he is to glare at you. You mouth the words to the song, watching his every move whenever it interested you. 

Okay, change of plan; a temporary distraction till he figures out how to actually get the ring from you. He settles on skating towards the edge of the rink slowly, taking a step off, slipping almost immediately when his foot comes in contact with the deck. 

“Where are you going?” you yell over the music initially but immediately break into song when it ends in a crescendo.

He takes a knee, lifting his metal arm up before driving it into the ground. It shatters magnificently, leaving small shards of ice at his disposal. 

He picks up one of them, waiting for you to complete your dumb twirl. He takes aim, and-

“Ouch, what the fuck?” You stop your off key singing to rub your shoulder where the ice hit you.

He wordlessly picks up another piece to throw at you, hitting you squarely in the leg.

“Stop that!”

He may not be able to move as fast but he can definitely throw. 

“Give me the ring,” he commands, stretching his arm behind his back before releasing another piece to hit your forearm. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” There’s nowhere you can skate to avoid his stupidly good marksmanship. 

“You gotta do what you gotta do.” He shrugs, breaking another patch of ice to replenish his ammo. “Hand over the ring.”

“Over my dead body,” you shriek when a particularly big piece lands next to your feet. You knew he missed that shot on purpose.

“I feel like I’m finally acting my age,” he says casually, finding your darting about in order to avoid him more fun than he initially thought. “Can’t throw pebbles at meddling kids so this is the next best option. Thanks.” 

“If you acted your age you’d be in a casket, Barnes,” you hissed, finding that skating in zig zags helped your cause, but not by much. “I’d be- you bitch- I’d be more than happy to help you get there.”

You raise your arm, ready to send another blast to freeze the water that was starting to melt around him, hopefully, keep him where he was if it froze around him. 

He flinches. You notice immediately, hand dropping slightly when you realise what it looked like.

“I’m not gonna freeze you,” you say, softer than you intended. From what you knew, he had enough and more experience with that and you weren’t going to contribute to it. 

He swallows thickly, giving himself a little shake of his head as if to jolt him out of his train of thought. 

Another piece of ice hits you in the leg. You let out a string of curses at him.

“The more ice you make, the more I have to throw at you, Y/N.” He waits for you to regain your balance when you nearly take a stumble. 

“Shut up, you’re so immature.”

“Remind me whose plan this was again?” No point waiting for you to regain your balance when you fall over only a few seconds later. 

He gathers a few shards in his beanie, tucking it into his belt like a little makeshift rucksack just in case before venturing out on the main rink again. 

It’s more difficult for you to stand without railings to guide you, giving him enough and more time to make his way towards you, staggering and skidding. 

Both of you looked ridiculous. 

“Stay away, fiend.” 

“Ring first.” He holds his hand out in front of you. He even considered pulling you up if you just made things easier.

Next thing he knows he’s on his ass on the ice beside you. 

“I hate you,” he groans, watching as you inch away from him on your knees.

He doesn’t really have any other options so he shoves aside the humiliation and gets on his knees, using his arms to drag him along the ice.

“For the love of Christ, none of us are winning here. Just give me the ring.”

The bitch from the soundtrack sings about letting it go but he won’t. 

“Never,” you shout, sliding away from him as fast as possible. 

You make use of the fact that the top layer of ice is starting to melt, using the ring to freeze it again. His knees and fingers get stuck as the water freezes over but he has super strength. It barely takes him a second to free himself. 

“Great,” he huffs, just settling down on the ice, ignoring the sting of cold that was spreading through his limbs. Running after you wasn’t going to work; he needed a way to get the ring. 

“You won last time, I’m not letting you win again.”

“Are we seriously keeping score?” He watches as you scramble towards the edge.

“No one likes a loser, Bucky.” You use the pool stair railings to pull yourself up.

“Explain why you have friends then.” He can’t help himself this time. 

“Hardy har har.” You roll your eyes. 

He doesn’t make an effort to move. Instead, when you take a step back into the rink, he raises his arm and pummels it into the ice, just to annoy you. 

The ground damn near shakes, pushing you dangerously towards losing your balance again. 

“Are you crazy?” Your arm shoots out in front of you to keep you from falling headfirst. 

“No.” He does it again. This time there’s a crack in the ice. “I’m just very tired.”

“If the ice breaks we’re both gonna be underwater, you moron!”

“Fine by me.” He shrugs. “Freeze it again. I’ll just find different ways to ruin it for you.”

You glare at him. He raises his arm above his head again.

“Fine! Fine, stop.” You eye him as he lowers his arm. 

He reaches for his stash of ice pieces from earlier, throwing one at your shoulder again.

“Boy, I swear if you don’t stop doing that-” you duck when another one comes at you. You had no idea he could be this annoying. 

It suddenly hits him, like a lightbulb going off in his brain. He wipes his hands off on his jacket, getting on all fours before slowly managing to pick himself up again. 

He looks at you, tilting his head slightly like he was studying you.

“What?” you ask suspiciously, eyeing as he starts inching closer towards you. “What are you thinking?”

It’s like watching a newborn deer stumble its way through the world, albeit more gracefully, until he starts picking up speed. The motherfucker was going to mow you down.

The skates are useful but not so much when an extremely determined bumbling oaf is barrelling towards you, his speed beginning to match yours even without equipment. 

You don’t know why you’re running, you don’t know why he’s chasing after you but when you see the end of the pool you take a sharp left only to have him knock right into you, sending you both sprawling.

You land half on top of him, breaking your fall but it doesn’t stop the very loud groan that escapes your mouth. He’s already in the process of sitting up straight, giving you less time to analyse what just happened.

“What the fuck was that for?” you speak through gritted teeth. “Fuckin’ acting like the both of us have free healthcare.”

“You refused to give up.”

“So your plan was to tackle me like a quarterback?” You threw your hands up.  

“One part of it.” He drags himself to the edge, away from you. 

“There's more to your monkey brained plan?” He doesn’t look at you. The ice around the pool has more or less melted, letting him gain proper footing on the floor before he stands up. 

“Oh, yeah.” He turns to you. “The other’s a trick I stole from Stark.”

Bucky holds up the ring. Your jaw slightly drops, eyes searching your finger for the now missing piece of tech. 

“Suppose that’s two points for me?” 

You’re impressed. You also want to stab him. So you do the next best thing.

“When I imagined you holding a ring in front of me, the circumstances were very different,” you comment.

“Bye, Y/N.” He spins on his heel, not even giving you a second’s worth of reaction. You found it amusing.

He heads towards the door, clothes all wet. He empties out melted ice water from his beanie before stuffing it into his pocket. Just when he’s about to leave, you remember something. 

Do you mean it genuinely or just because it has an effect on him? 

“Just for the record, Barnes, about your hair-” you call out, earning his attention from over his shoulder. “I think you look really good either way.”

The world may never know. 

You swear you can see the corners of his lips quirk upwards before he turns around again. 

He slips on a block of ice, cursing and clenching on to the door to keep him upright, quickly yanking it open and leaving before he has a chance to embarrass himself further.

Smooth.

Next part

[neshabeingchildish]

League of Extraordinary Geniuses || Chapter 6

I’d been trying NOT to, in case others wanted to read this story, but at this point, I’ve only seen fans of these fandoms interact, so there will be things mentioned that if you didn’t watch the shows, you’ll be lost about. So sorry if there are others here now, but I am mostly writing for those who have interacted and let me know their thoughts and feelings about this story and they’ve all been familiar with Lab Rats, Henry Danger, and The Thundermans, so… this chapter in particular has some things that it would be much too much to explain it all, from LR canon and a bit from HD too, and I’m sorry if there are readers unfamiliar with that, but y’all haven’t let me know that you’re here.

Y’all probably didn’t expect another update this soon, but what had happened was the last chapter would have been too long, so I found a point to cut it for that one. Also, a story line that I wanted to touch on this story, but didn’t realize how I would incorporate it until @kiddangers made a post about it either her or on her Instagram, can’t remember, and she sparked the topic and now it is a major story arc in this fic, which might be hella hurtful at some point, but... If you’re in for the ride, you’re in for it, Friends. 

@verified-dumbass @just-a-j-reallly I’ve decided not to continue tagging anybody else that hasn’t interacted, out of courtesy and just feeling awkward about tagging people that are nonresponsive to it.

What if I’m the Monster

Conspiracy theories were running wild and fortunately, all of the communities that had reason to think that they might be able to be linked to this scandal quickly took action to try to clear their records and discover who the real guilty party was. The bionic, supers, and non-super communities all began their own investigations as to what might have happened while the collaboration of Dystress, Shoutout, Thunderstrike and Chase Davenport were on the ground, assessing the scene themselves. Of course, Chase was the spokesperson and mission leader. That would put everyone at home at better ease. 

“Myself and a team of trusted heroes have been working practically nonstop since the torpedo attack to figure out what took place here. There were some recent developments that I’m not at liberty to speak about, which Davenport Industries had been handling, and one of our facilities was going to be attacked, when fortunately, a superhero stepped in and managed to save it and all surrounding innocents that might have been caught in the crossfire. We have recovered several remains, but they are as of this moment inconclusive. What I can assure the public of is that my current team and the Davenport brand will be working hard to get to the bottom of this tragedy and keep the citizens of Jamaica safe from any further threats…” 

He and Shoutout left the press conference and returned directly back to the crash site that Dystress and Thunderstrike were at. Thunderstrike had telepathically tunneled a lot of the water, froze it in pillars, and Dystress used her scanning systems for wreckage. With this tactic, they had found numerous parts of the jet and some torpedo shrapnel, but it wasn’t until Chase returned, with his hypersenses that they found the first possible remains of an assailant… “I don’t know how to say this,” he said. 

“With your words, perhaps?” Max offered. 

“That’s an android…” He sighed. Max unfroze the pillar, and Chase telepathically collected the android remains to them. The four looked down at it for a while. There was very little human DNA left to him. Some hair and facial components, a few fingers, and everything else was charred and shattered metal. “They’re starting to enlist them against their brethren,” Chase said sadly. “I don’t know why I didn’t think about that happening. Of course they would! Who better to go toe to toe with them than their own kind?” 

Max and Charlotte noticed that he was really upset about this. Charlotte beckoned over some Davenport analysts to quietly collect this, so that the three of them could inspect the body later. She also decided that they had been working too hard and would need a break. At the very least, Mika would, so she dismissed her and told her to try to get some rest.

“And, you probably should too. You’ve been out of your chamber for days,” Charlotte observed. Chase folded his arms and watched as the employees took the android away.

“I want to begin studying him, right away.”

“I do too, but we’re only human. We do need to rest.”

“We’re not ONLY human,” Chase argued.

“No, but we still need rest and we’ve earned it. You, especially.”

“Why, him especially?” Max asked. Charlotte just threw him a look. It was so smart of her to have a mask that covers her mouth instead of one that covered her eyes, because those looks were a weapon of their own. “Fine. But, if he’s resting, we all should rest and let the androids keep watch while the Davenport searchers keep collecting samples.”

“Is that agreeable, Chase?” Charlotte asked. 

Chase sighed and reluctantly nodded his head. He knew that she wanted him to get some rest and she had a point, afterall. The three of them went to the safehouse and tried to calm their nerves and settle in. 

You would’ve thought that they would be so drained that they would immediately all fall to sleep, but all were restless. Max passed by Mika and knocked on the door, “Hey. You gonna get some sleep, or what?” He asked. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked at him, the expression gesturing to the fact that she was clearly on a call. He waved his fingers at Chapa, on the screen and then pointed at Mika, “Sleep in, if you need to in the morning, but try to at least lay down for the night. You can talk to your girlfriend some other time.” 

Mika scoffed and shook her head, “Goodnight, Max.”

Chapa asked, “He thinks we’re girlfriends? Awesome.” 

Mika replied, “He said that just to be annoying. 

Max smirked to himself as he headed for the shower. Charlotte was in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and washing her face and such. She usually did that before getting into the shower, so he said, “I’m goin’ in,” and she nodded. It didn’t bother her, but he liked to at least be clear. He was in the shower, sort of zoned out and thinking while she sprayed her locs with oils and finished up her preshower things. They crossed paths switching up who was in the shower and didn’t even have the energy for some risque joke about it. 

Charlotte knew that it had to be just as heavy on their hearts as it was on hers… They freed the androids and now it seemed that at least one or some of them not only didn’t appreciate it, but might make it hard enough that they could be in serious trouble for even attempting it. 

When she came out of the shower, Max was still in the mirror, doing his thing. This was the one of the quickest times either of them had ever taken in a bathroom before. He was just staring into the mirror, holding his toothbrush, though. “Hey… You okay?” 

He blinked and then looked at her in her robe, holding a jar of body butter. He smiled and nodded. “How can I not be. I’m in the best place in the world - with you.” He came over and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s gonna be okay.”

She sighed, “It better be. You and Chase let go of a lot to be here.”

“I can’t speak for him, but a lot is here for me.” He cupped her face and pressed his forehead to hers. “I’m gonna make sure Mika’s got everything she needs, then I’m crashing in your room, if that’s okay.”

“I was gonna crash in Mika’s room,” she said. “She has nightmares sometimes after a stressful day and the last few days have been hell for me, so I can only imagine what they’ve been for her.”

“You could very well imagine. You’ve been a hero for a while, now.”

“I forgot how this felt. When something serious and dangerous is staring you in the face and you literally don’t know if you’re about to die. I feel… triggered. I hate that she has triggering memories now, and one of the scariest days in her life has taken place because she’s here for me.”

“Mika is where she wants to be. We all are. We chose you, Char. Come on. Let’s check on the kid and get to bed.”

They peeked into Mika’s room and Chase was in there, moving around. “What are you doing?” Charlotte asked in a whisper. 

“She was having a nightmare. I kept hearing her whimpering, so I’m trying to calm her down or something,” he said. He looked tired and irritated, but he was also concerned. Charlotte rubbed his back and took over. She put on some music, sprayed some fragrance, handed Mika her beloved plushie, rubbed some oils on her feet, tucked her in and strummed her scalp. After a moment, she was snoring and the trio left her to it. Charlotte would be back, but she had this grave nagging feeling that she needed to make sure that they got to bed too. She felt like this was her fault, no matter what Max said to try to smooth her over. They had followed her into this and this had become tricky. 

“I’m going to try to get us a bigger space when I have time, so that you two don’t have to squeeze into the same room,” she said, not knowing what else to say.

“It’s fine. I put my chamber in your room, so Max can have the spare to himself.”

“Nice try, but I’m crashing in her room. She’s got all the good sleepy time stuff like candles and… stuff and I’m sleeping in there, as well.”

“It’s fine. You two are always welcome to crash in my room. I’ll set the mood for you.” She similarly fixed the room as she had done for Mika, programmed some things into Chase’s chamber and when both her guys were asleep, she ducked out of the room and into a video call with Jasper and Henry.

“Char! Thank goodness! We’ve been trying to reach you for days. I was starting to think that the footage of Dystress on the news was altered and you’d been taken into some underground prisoner chamber!” Jasper worried.

“Nope. Just been taken to depression town. Was hoping you had some feel good stories about the kids or something to help me cheer up.”

Henry nodded, “Say no more. Jasper’s been making all of these musical fan videos of the kids and putting them on our DingDong account.”

“Oooh, I’m gonna check those out.”

“ALSO… We got the uh… shipment…” Henry said and looked more serious now. “They’re in the Dome. Wasn’t sure if they were capable of being at Budding Flowers.”

“They’re not defected. They’re free, and want to work with children. Your charity is one of the most successful ones in the world, currently. Androids are people too.”

Jasper winced, “Only… They aren’t… and… well…”

“Ray is freaking out about the recent news that androids now have autonomy, because if you remember, a Piper from the future came back to tell us that hell on Earth was a road paved by a robot takeover. They created ones that looked like children. Jasper and I just don’t feel comfortable, at the moment letting androids interact with kids that we’ve vowed to protect…”

“Wow. You two think that I’ve kickstarted the end of the world?” She asked, feeling absolutely worse than she had before she called them.

“No. We think that you would do anything to help others and to fix the world and that there are others out there who will take advantage of that, if they get the chance,” Henry offered.

Jasper added, “Schwoz’s friend from Davenport was telling us all about an android rebellion that once almost took place. His ex girlfriend’s models are the same ones that you designed yours after. Come ON, Charlotte…” 

“She intended for them to be used for evil. There’s a big difference in our work and the results. Wow… I’m going to go check on Mika. Have a good night.”

“Char…” Henry said.

“Good night, Henry!” She hung up, frustrated and ready to cry. Not because she felt like they were being mean or hard on her. Because, they had a point and she couldn’t believe that her messiah complex had allowed her to miss it beforehand. They didn’t even KNOW about the android remains that were found. Oh God, what if she was the figurative first horseman? Conquering the academic world, looking like a savior to all because of her penchant for improving lives and society and her solutions that help and bring about peace… only to also be the reason that war and bloodshed roll in, and then famine and disease and death… How on Earth she got from messiah complex to I am literally the antichrist, she was unsure, but that was where her mind was whenever she began to doze off. 

.

Mika woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare. She was gonna get some warm milk with lavender honey and maybe a patty, if there were any more in there. She found Charlotte, sitting on the patio, asleep with her head on her laptop. She went to get Max, but neither him nor Chase were in their room, so she checked Charlotte’s and there they both were. Chase in his chamber, Max in Charlotte’s bed, covered by pillows, with a sleeping mask on and the smell of candles and incense heavy in the air. She woke him up, “Charlotte fell to sleep outside.”

“What?” He asked, half asleep, but jumping out of bed, anyway. He collected Charlotte. Mika collected her devices and they put her back in her bed. Mika felt left out, and grabbed her blanket and stuffie and came into Charlotte’s room too. With her in Charlotte’s bed, Max made a little fortress on the floor and quickly went back to sleep. Mika was awake for a while, but Charlotte’s arm draped around her and she fell back to sleep. 

Charlotte got up and looked around the room. She didn’t remember coming to bed and now, she had Chase in his chamber, Max on the floor with half of her pillows, Mika in her bed and her own head was spinning, because, as she just recalled, she’d cried herself to sleep. Still, she was the first person awake and she started her day without waking any of the others. Eventually, Max and Chase came into the lab, where she was evaluating all of the diagnostics on the remains, listening to music, and talking on the phone, “Well, if I can get those remains sent to me, it will help me to determine how likely the root of that issue is and to ease your mind and maybe others,’ in the process.” Chase looked at the screen and Max went straight to the autoblender. “Okay. Thank you for your cooperation, and tell Douglas to learn to keep his fat mouth shut when he’s in the room with MY people.” She hung up and looked up, “Good morning.”

“What’s that about Douglas?” Max wondered, while Chase breezed through all of the research. 

“He was talking to Ray and Schwoz about Giselle Vicker’s plans to use androids for a hostile takeover and now, one of THEEEEEEEE STUPIDEST powerful men has ideas in his head about the free androids and a robot rebellion and… Anyway, Schwoz is gonna send me the remains of a robot from the future so that I can study it.”

Max and Chase both stared at her blankly, then looked at each other. “How long have you been awake, Charlotte?” Chase asked.

“I got enough sleep,” she snapped, shaking her head. “In another, idk 20 years or so, maybe less… there is supposed to be a robot takeover inspired by the Terminator movies. Thanks to Douglas having a conversation with Ray, he now thinks that I’ve somehow set things in motion for that to occur.”

“Well… If you have, it’s done now. Besides, the fact that you have a robot from the future to work on is all the proof you need that it was gonna happen anyway,” Max said, making a smoothie. “I wanna see the robot, though. Let me in on that.”

“You and I need to keep searching for remains,” Chase reminded him. 

“That’s not gonna take us the rest of our lives. By the way,” Max said to Charlotte as he poured the smoothie, “Told Mika to sleep in. Marx arrived today, so you can get him to do anything that she was gonna do.”

“Who arrived?” Chase wondered, because he was supposed to approve anybody that anyone was trying to bring into the loop and he hadn’t spoken with Max about anybody. 

“His personal android assistant,” a male voice said from the doorway and Chase gasped and prepared himself to attack. 

Max rushed to jump in front of Chase and said, “Sorry, sorry, sorry… It was supposed to be hilarious, but then things took a turn and I didn’t get a chance to explain to you. This is my personal android assistant, Marx. I made him in the Marcus model form to fuck with you, but I promise, he’s of no actual ties to your Marcus.”

“That you know of,” Charlotte said. “I tried to talk him and Douglas OUT  of this.”

“Douglas missed his son’s face and had some regrets and I wanted a personal android assistant. I thought it would be quite humorous to have him walk up to you one day, but fate had other plans,” Max said.

Chase was staring at the android. It looked JUST like Marcus. Why would Douglas allow this and not tell him? What if Leo had seen this thing? Marx was staring back at Chase, but he had a polite semi smile on his face. “Keep it away from me,” Chase said.

“Marx uses he/him/his pronouns,” Max said and patted Marx on the shoulder. “They/them/theirs, at the very least.” 

Chase smiled tightly, “Keep him away from me, and I MEAN that, Max Thunderman!” He stormed out of the lab and Charlotte shook her head. “I asked you to give Marx a different face.”

“I didn’t have time!”

Marx said, “If it pleases you, I could work on some programming to change my face, however, I don’t prefer to do so.”

“Naw, keep your face. Just… stay away from the little guy.”

“From Mr. Chase Davenport. Got it.”

.

Chase was livid. How could that POSSIBLY be seen as a joke? If he knew about Marcus, he HAD to know about all of the pain and terror he caused the family! That only made him feel a resurgence of hostility towards Douglas. Sure, they were on pleasant terms, but some part of him would always hold on to, at least a little bit, the things that he had been willing to do to his own. Really, he was the reason that Marcus was so terrible, then he just left him, for Giselle Vickers to find and… Chase was getting extremely furious thinking about this. Marcus had been one of the first major betrayals done to him. He thought they were friends, and not only were they actually enemies, but that was his brother who his father had turned against him and he hated that Max Thunderman would casually try to prank him by showing him such a face.

After a while, Max joined him, silently at first, but they both felt the tension there. They were silently working. A few times, a question came up in one of their minds, but neither of them wanted to break the silence, because it was uncertain whether it would relieve the tension. Finally, Max had to break. “It was messed up of me to make a Marcus model android with the intention to shake you up. I knew a little bit about the situation and not whatever it was that your memory tapped into back there. And, I really didn’t know you at the time, either. I didn’t think about how it would affect you like this and I certainly didn’t think you and me would be on the terms we are on right now. So, I hate that I took a joke so far, but it was all me. Douglas really just liked the feeling of seeing his son’s face again. And Charlotte, of course told me the entire time that it would be harmful. I just go too far sometimes.”

Chase was breathing heavy the entire time. Waiting on Max to actually apologize, not just list what happened. But, then again, why would he? He was obviously the type to get pleasure out of people’s pain and not even care about their personal trauma at the expense of a stupid laugh. He was much too smart to just “not realize it’d be that harmful,” so Chase wasn’t eager to listen to him and definitely not going to trust him. 

“I guess the perks of being raised in a picture perfect family don’t include having some respect for others who weren’t so privileged,” Chase said. And that was all he felt like he needed to. To dive deeper, he’d dig deeper into his own problems, and he still had work to do.

“My family wasn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t have wanted somebody to make fun of our problems either. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m sorry…” Max said, and it really sounded genuine. Chase almost let his guard down. But, he knew that he’d let his guard down with Marcus… With Sebastian… He’d been let down basically any time he ever let his guard down and Charlotte was the one exception to that thus far. He was fine with that fact. “Apology accepted,” he lied, and didn’t want to speak of it again. 

Max felt horrible. Chase looked like an angry little sad puppy. Like… Seeing Marcus’ face REALLY did something to him. There wasn’t a lot of information, so he only knew the highlights that had been shared with him from Douglas, and it honestly sounded like, from what he’d been given, that Marcus kinda got the shit end of the stick. Max was starting to see that Chase probably got those types of ends more than his persona of perfection revealed. “If anybody ever tried to do something bad to you, I’m gonna have your back. I’m shitty sometimes. I do mean stuff. I don’t always prove to be the best sort of human, but… You’re a good person, despite how annoying you can be and I’m still probably gonna let you down and give you shit, but… I honestly do have your back,” Max said.  

Chase sighed, “My back is fine. Can we please just finish this up?” Max got back to work, but he heard Chase mumble, “I’m not gonna be fooled again.”

.

All three of them were looking at what they knew to be EVERYTHING that could possibly have been left behind, while the other agencies went through the waters and the islands to double and triple check. Androids were surveilling them, to ensure that nobody planted anything, though Chase at this point trusted the androids about as much as he’d trusted the bionic army.

Max rarely trusted anybody, but he was trying not to waiver in his faith in Charlotte. 

Charlotte was simply defeated and trying to think. “If I have to spend the rest of my life preventing it, I will.” She looked at a chip that was more advanced than her work, but definitely carried her signature and held her emblem. The robots from the future… The ones that would revolt and enslave humanity? They were connected to her work. She threw the chip across the lab in frustration and stormed out. 

Max and Chase waited. They looked at each other and Max wondered, “What do you think?”

“I think that it’s the androids. I think that they have autonomy and that humanity won’t allow harmony and that they will rise up against them after they’ve gotten tired of being oppressed. What I will never believe is that Charlotte is responsible. She wanted to do right for someone. It wouldn’t be her fault that they betray her.” He fumed and groaned, “Androids never should have been created.”

Max scoffed, “We could say the same thing about bionics! And how do we know that it isn’t something that a human tried to do? They always try to harm anybody different, especially if they read as more powerful. It could be one of the thousands of geniuses we’ve sought out over the past few weeks, or one of the… of her trusted employees…” Max tugged his hair a little and said, “Whoever it is… We’ve got to stop them. This can’t be the legacy forged for Charlotte’s good deeds.”

“I agree with that,” Chase said, and he meant it. He summoned the chip to himself and said, “I’m going to use every skill that I have to try to find a link to someone or something that answers these questions. But first, we’ve gotta make sure our woman is okay.”  He set it down and Max nodded his head. They found Charlotte near the Man Copter, hugging Mika and sending her away, for her own safety. Mika was crying and begging her not to do this, but Charlotte was definitely in a mode right now. There was no way she could let whatever was happening tarnish this bright young girl that she loved and cared so much for. 

“I won’t leave you out. I’m sharing everything with you. I just want you out of range until we figure out who tried to attack the place, okay?”

“Okay,” Mika said, ugly crying and nodding. She added, “But as soon as it’s safe, I come back, right?”

“At the very instant!” Charlotte told her. 

“Okay.” She waved at Max and Chase, who she saw watching, then strapped herself in.

“She’s going to one of my safehouses with the twins and their nanny, and will be working remotely. She felt like I was punishing her for this.” Charlotte shook her head. “Listen… I need some physical gratification now. I’m sorry if that seems toxic or foolish, especially considering how things are going at the moment, but I have to have release. I have to feel something primal and satisfactory. So… I’m going to head to Dystopia  for a little bit, but I’ll keep contact with you.”

“Dystopia? What’s in Dystopia that will give you what you need that you can’t have here?” Chase wondered.

“Her boyfriends,” Max said, sadly. 

Charlotte wiped her face, “I just… Need to connect and I need it ASAP. I’m sorry…” 

“Don’t be. We understand,” Max said. She could tell that he was furious, despite his words, but everyone knew that Henry and Jasper were where her home is and she did love Max and Chase, but they didn’t know how to handle everything she was currently experiencing. Plus, she owed the Defenders an apology, for questioning her, when it turned out that despite the fact that the idea came from a sensitive place, the worries were valid.

“We’ll come too,” Chase said. “We’ll stay out of the way, but I don’t think that the three of us should have that much distance between us right now. We need to stick together.”

“I agree,” Max said. 

“Yeah. Of course, if you two still are in it with me.”

“Charlotte, you may not realize this yet, but… Max and I are yours, too.” Chase said. He had blurted it out, and didn’t want to follow it up, but he meant it, and fortunately, Max didn’t argue with him. “So, to Dystopia, I guess.”

“I’ll show you around while they’re having their reunion. You only ever got to visit during crises, right?” Max said, relaxing a little as he turned to Chase, feeling closer to him right now than Charlotte, after this no matter how unintentional, but all too familiar form of rejection from her.

“Yeah.”

“I have some roots in Dystopia. We’ll have a Max’s World Day Out, yeah?” Chase didn’t want to do that at all, but he shrugged his shoulders in surrender, anyway. “To Dystopia,” Max said and wrapped an arm around Chase’s shoulder, walking him away from Charlotte. She gave them a smile, and for a moment, felt like maybe she didn’t need to visit Dystopia and see the guys… But then again, that little moment of complete comfort elsewhere? Well… She’d at least owe it to Henry and Jasper to let them know that maybe her heart had moved on...

[canyouhearthelight]

The Miys, Ch. 59

I am so, so sorry for the delay on this week’s chapter. My hours at work have changed, and on top of it I had to make a 16 hour round trip in the car this past weekend.

The good news is, I have the next 4 days off from work, so I should be able to post on schedule going forward.  Shoutout to @charlylimph-blog and @baelpenrose for checking on me when I didn’t post Tuesday. Y’all are awesome.

I woke up to a faint smell, reminiscent of chili, and the whir of atmospheric scrubbers working overtime.  Groggily, I sat up and looked around, trying to find a clock that I slowly realized I didn’t own.  Instead of flicking open my datapad and scorching my eyes with the light of a thousand suns, I rose to stagger after the sound of laughter coming from my kitchen. I rubbed my eyes as I stepped into the light, only to be greeted by a wolf whistle and a simultaneous cry of dismay.

Still fighting off the blessed sleep of medication, I looked around and tried to reconcile the people in my kitchen with the faces I was expecting. A man too short to live there was standing with his back to me…That must be Alistair.  He’s early. Tyche, check.  Antoine, check plus bemused grin?  Woman with rich, dark skin and flashing white teeth, laughing…

“Xio? Where did you come from?” My nose scrunched in confusion.

“I’m going to say the same place you left your pants,” she teased.  “Nice legs.”

I glanced down and realized I was only clothed in one of Conor’s t-shirts. That explained the noise and why Alistair was very pointedly not looking at me.  Shrugging, I looked at my sister. “It covers more than some of the clothes people wear on the ship. Should I put on shorts, just in case?”

“Yes!” my assistant yelped. “That would be much preferred, Miss Reid.”

Tyche smirked as I tossed up my hands in resignation and went to assuage Alistair’s modesty.  When I returned, he was still bright red but at least facing me. Xiomara broke the silence. “Who are we still waiting on?”

“Conor and Maverick,” Antoine supplied. “Then we’ll make Maverick’s dinner while he’s in the shower and we can all eat.”

Comprehension dawned on her face. “That’s right… the food thing.  He doesn’t eat curry, I take it?”

I shook my head. “Not a huge fan, no. Sometimes he can handle vindaloo, but he’s been stressed, so we aren’t pushing it. Falafel and papadums for him.” I braced for some remark, but it never came.

“More for me,” she grinned, leaning on the counter to sneak a piece of meat before having her hand swatted away by Antoine.

“Conor eats enough to make up for it, believe me,” Tyche fake-grumbled, just as the men in question walked in.

“To make up for – oh! Curry night!” He gave a wide but exhausted smile as he waved Maverick toward the cleaning unit. “Your turn to go first, mate.” Maverick just nodded and dropped a kiss on each of our cheeks before retreating to wash off the dirt and sweat he was covered in. “Is this mine?” Conor murmured in my ear as he tugged the hem of my shirt.

“Shorts are Mav’s,” I pointed out. “I took a nap and woke up to find myself invaded.”

“You weren’t invaded,” Tyche argued. “We all arrived on time, but Grandma Kim said to let you sleep and that she would be checking when you woke up to make sure.  Before you get upset – “ she held up a hand to stop any objection I had, “it’s just a medical alert, and well within her job to set one.  She isn’t here to sic Lyric on any of us, so I’m guessing you got enough sleep for her.”

Antoine cleared his throat pointedly. “Not quite. She asked me to have you take another dose two hours after dinner.”

“Antoine…” I whined with utmost dignity. “You’re her boss. You can override her request, right?”

All vain hope was dashed by the flat look he levelled in my direction. Guess not.

“Another dose? Of what?”

My stomach sank as I remembered the sweaty Irishman currently draped around my shoulders. “Let’s wait until dinner, and I’ll tell you and Maverick first thing. I promise,” I turned my head to look in his eyes. “I just don’t want to repeat it, and it’s not fair for either of you to find out before the other.”

Eventually, everyone was washed and seated at the table. As I started to spoon some curry and lentils on my plate, Tyche cleared her throat and gave a pointed look.  Rolling my eyes and dropping my head back with a sigh, I snagged a papadum before speaking. “I got sent home from work today,” I started. “I fell asleep after several cups of Xiomara’s coffee, had a nightmare that left me screaming and hysterical. A medical scan showed that I have severe vitamin deficiency and exhaustion, so I was sent home to chug a vile concoction from GK and take a nap. Hence the pajamas.” I waved at myself in demonstration. “Noah wanted me to go to a medical bay for IV treatment and monitoring, but this was the compromise.”

“And if you aren’t better tomorrow, you’re going to the medical bay,” Maverick stated in a tone that most people used to explain that water makes things wet.

Conor apparently agreed, judging by the enthusiasm of his nod. “I encourage this and will do so – “

“Physically if necessary,” I finished for him. “Noah said the same thing. I was wondering where he got that from.”

“I got it from Antoine.”

The sound of three utensils being dropped was followed by deafening silence. Tyche, Xiomara, and I gaped at Antoine as he became very focused on the food in front of him. “This tastes of caprine… is that what it is meant to taste of?”

“Yes, it’s supposed to be goat, and don’t change the subject,” my sister grumbled. “Who did you threaten like that?”

“I am a nurse, Tyche!” he defended. “I say that quite often to recalcitrant patients, especially the elderly.  They do not like being treated for ailments – they think it means they are falling apart in their old age.  They often do not realize or understand that they will live longer if they simply get the treatment they need.”

“Speaking of falling apart,” Maverick interjected. “We finished testing on the samples from the failed swimming platforms.”

Xiomara leveled her fork like a weapon, first at Tyche and Antoine. “You? Hush.” She turned to a cringing Maverick. “You, speak. Now.”

“Yes ma’am,” he gulped around an unholy mouthful of falafel and ketchup. “The researchers tested samples from every individual piece of each platform. They were able to determine that the accelerated failure of the pieces was the cause of an iron-eating bacteria, not any flaw in the manufacturing or construction.”

She nodded at this news. “This is good. Keep going… what’s the bacteria and how do we rein it in?”

“Grey’s people don’t know the answer to either of those,” he answered apologetically.

“So, run it through the Ark’s database.”

“We did. Twice. Even then, it isn’t recognized.”

“Wait,” I stopped them both. “If they don’t know what it is, how do we know what it does?”

Maverick scowled at me like I asked a stupid question and should have known better. “They observed it eating the iron molecules in the metal.”

Okay, so I did ask a stupid question and should have known better. The scowl was fair, point to Maverick.

“Is there any danger to the ship as a whole?” Xiomara pressed on.

“They are trying to determine that now,” he admitted. “Only iron molecules are being… eaten? Processed? Whatever it is, only iron is affected.”

Seemingly satisfied, Xiomara nodded. “Sophia, please consider taking tomorrow to find out whatever is going on?”

My thoughts whirling at the conversational whiplash, I only shrugged. “It’s probably related to the gravity change. You know, increased anxiety, nightmares, all that.” I glanced at Antoine, hoping for confirmation.

Once again, my faith was misplaced. He shook his head, “Non. Gravity changes will cause increased anxiety, yes. But not the level of malnutrition you mentioned.  I am aware you eat regularly, if for no other reason than seeing you eat. There is no easily explained reason for you to be in such condition, and as such, I would like you to have tests done if I am not satisfied with your improvement by the end of the day tomorrow.”

“Do I have to?” I groaned. “I hate doctors… no offense, Antoine.”

“I am a nurse, so none taken.”

I felt a tapping on my left shoulder and turned to see Conor leaning across Maverick. “Sophie. Love. I know you hate it. But you wouldn’t let any of us just skive off going to the doctor if we were sick.” He pointed around the table, including Alistair and Xiomara. “If one of us so much as looked a bit droopy, you know you would task yourself with barking at our heels until we were checked out.”

“You did drag me to the medbay when I cut my hand,” Tyche pointed out.

“Annnnd you brought in Antoine when you realized I wasn’t eating,” Maverick chimed in.

Traitors, I thought petulantly.

Silent through all of dinner thus far, my assistant cleared his throat. “Sophia. From what I have seen just working with you, they have a point. If I, for instance, were exhibiting the signs you are showing, would you allow me to continue attending my daily responsibilities and trust that I was addressing the issue outside of my working hours?”

“Blast and BURN it all, why are you all being so logical?”

“Guilt trips don’t work,” Maverick pointed out. “You’ll convince yourself that you are doing the right thing for us all by hiding your symptoms.”

“And working harder just to prove you’re okay,” Conor chimed in.

“Mother henning people….” Xiomara trailed off lazily before flashing a smug grin at me.

“Et tu, Brute?” I begged. “Even you won’t let me work when I’m tired?”

“One,” she ticked off, holding up a finger. “You aren’t just tired, you are somehow malnourished, despite the fact that you are the most social eater I have ever met. Two, I have let you work when you were so-called tired. You literally passed out in my office on multiple occasions – “ She held up a hand when I tried to interrupt and plowed on. “Twice, it was mid-sentence.  Three, I’ll even go with you and have tests done on myself, just in case it’s something impacting everyone.”

“Wait – “ I sputtered. “That’s your negotiation? You’ll have tests done on you, and submit to treatment if needed, just to make me go? I’m not a child.”

“Then stop acting like one,” Tyche muttered, glaring at me and knowing full well I heard her.

As much as I wanted to fire back at her, something inside of me wilted. Tyche would never say I was being childish if it wasn’t true. We had literal screaming matches in the past because I was too adult as a teenager. “Fine,” I spat, ashamed. “I’ll go, the day after tomorrow, if I’m still not up to snuff.”

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[meteor752]

Alright but like...what if a female clone was bred??

(Pssst! I made an continuation here)

How? I don’t know! Hiccup in the system or whatever! She just exists!

And it has been shown that Clones that are a little *cough cough* Defected, has been “Kept” (Enter, the bad batch)

But anyway, here we have CT-7526, a smol little babbu girl that no one knows what to do with. So they assign her to a squad, because what can go wrong??

So now poor Lil’ CT-7526 (T7, as she is commonly called) gets her first doubts, coming from the Reptile Squad (I have no fucking clue how they name these squads, so I just chose one for plot stuff), and she’s like ??? Rude???

And after that, her whole life is changed because I’m a fucking capable soldier! So she trains a little extra, and when she doesn’t she spends hours on her holopad watching previous battles and training sessions.

Let's just say she crushes her vods in the citadel challenge, finishing it by herself before her brothers are halfway across. Yeah, Commander Colt wasn’t too happy about that, and spoke words that literally changed her worldview and that she would repeat multiple times in her life

“A good soldier follow orders, a great soldier listens to orders”

Anyhow, Reptile squad graduates.

And let us talk about them!:

We have Turtle, the squad leader and squad sweetheart, Gecco, the hothead, Cobra, the tough guy, and Mongoose who just wants to take a nap.

They all are separated, and both Mongoose and T7 ends up in the 501st (Because PLOT), while Gecco’s in the 104th, Turtle in 327th and Cobra a coruscant guard.

T7′s first real meeting with Skywalker is...interesting, as it takes place after the second battle of Geonosis. It basically goes down as she marches up to him, throws her helmet on the ground and yells at him because you threw my brother over a wall?! Are you TRYING, to get us killed?!

And poor Ani is just. stunned. because why is she a woman. when did this happen.

Yeah, those news hadn’t quite reached the Jedi temple just yet.

Not long after that she is promoted to ARC-trooper. So yeah go T7!

And two days after that Turtle dies in battle. It was sad. Gecco and Mongoose cried a lot.

So now we have ARC-trooper T7, and since I can’t draw I will just describe how she looks. Mohawk, zick zack tattoo under her eyes, female symbol on the side of her forehead. Boom.

But anyway, not too much happens after that in her life. I mean, Gecco dies after his ship was shot down and Cobra in an explosion, but life is chill.

Her relationships with the others in 501st is...interesting.

She likes Kix. He’s chill

Jesse is tolerable, but he jokes around to much of you ask her

Hardcase is annoying, but she can stand him

Tup reminds her of Turtle. Everyone likes Tup

Dogma (Droidma) needs to stop following orders blindly (A good soldier follow orders, a great soldier listens to orders)

Echo is cool

Fives could go die in a hole and she wouldn’t care. They have a very stereotypical sibling relationship

Rex is awesome, nobody fucking hurt him yes that includes you Cody I don’t care if your his riduur back off!

T7 also has no respect whatsoever for Skywalker and Tano, because fuck them. She isn’t much for Jedi

Kenobi is a fucking boss though

Anyways, the battle of Umbara happens! This is where shit hits the fan for T7

T7 is easily one of the first to doubt Krell, because you’re killing my brothers how are you a General?!

And she absolutely helps Jesse, Hardcase and Fives with stealing the ships and blowing shit up. And no she did not cry when Hardcase died what are you talking about?!

After that she officially chooses her name, Tori, which translates to Victory. And after that she almost gets executed. Fuck You Droidma

Oh and after that Mongoose dies in the “Clone battle”. Yeah, that hurt

So she is more than happy to arrest (or kill) Krell, like let’s go boys!

Then Droidma kills Krell, and she gains at least some respect for the Trooper.

But Umbara was a hard blow for Tori. Not just the whole “Mongoose dying” shit, but also the realization that this is much bigger than any of them, and their lives are entirely in their Jedis, and she’d had enough of it.

So that night...she leaves. Rex catches her in the act, but after she explaines herself, he promises to keep her updated. Then she’s off.

Tori lands on some random planet, idk which, where she gets a job as a bartender just because.

She chats with Rex once a week for one hour, no more no less. Well, unless it’s an emergency. Like Fives and Tup.

Aka two deaths she takes hard because hello? That was my vod’ikas how dare they?? Rex also tells her about the chips Fives was rambling about, so she urged him to do more research.

And then...order 66. She of course has no contact with the emperor, so the order doesn’t reach her, but she gets to hear about it and just. collapses.

After that, she puts her old life entirely behind her. She wants nothing to do with the empire not the rebellion, she just stays put.

Until Rex accidentally stumbled upon her that is. Yeah, after like what, Seven years? he came into the bar and they talked for like thirty seconds before going “Hey wait a minute!”

After that, she sticks around Rex, have a reunion with Wolffe who she does not like, and meets Gregor for the first time.

And yeah, that’s how it is for a couple of years. They try to track doen any of their Vods that isn’t a mindless slave of the empire, but none is found.

Then the whole Rebel shit happens and Tori is really done with it, because hurray! More Jedi!

She do follow the Ghost Crew and going the rebellion though, but more as a trainer than a soldier. And she gets her first rank, say hello to Lieutenant Tori!

Tori Finally meets her doom in the battle of Yavin, where she’s one of the pilots who tries to blow up the Death Star. It’s tragic, sure, but that’s life.

Plus, she did fight beside a Skywalker one last time (Well, two, but we don’t talk about her), and this kid is a lot more responsible and less insane than you Ani! Got some Padme in him that’s for sure.

But yeah! That’s the story of the Female Clone! This could have gone in so many directions, but when I discussed this with my Clone Wars Squad, we all thought that this would be the most interesting direction to take the story.

Shoutout to Molly for coming up with her name and her squad, you really helped!

I might add some more shit to this who fucking knows

[hoodwinkedtoohoodvsevil]

sappy "i've loved my spesh for a year now" post

[[MORE]]

one year ago today, i got into twrp.

that's not to say i wasnt familiar with them before june 3rd, 2019. my big love was nsp, so i very much knew and appreciated them! i remember when nsp played on conan i was so happy for all of them and hoped twrp was getting just as much credit as nsp because they totally deserve it! i remember listening to guardians of the zone a couple years back in david's car and latching onto rock n roll best friends (my first favorite twrp song and still one of my faves!) and listening to that a lot. i remember the third starbomb album coming out last april and thinking, wow, this is definitely their best album musically because of twrp's instrumentation! and of course, like everyone else, i was obsessed with starlight brigade when the video came out, and recognized it was twrp's song featuring dan, not just a dan project. but i didn't have their names memorized, and for whatever reason, i thought they were all silent performers? like, i thought none of them talked and sung only talked/performed with talkbox. (i mean, i was like 60% right? at least at the time.)

on this day last year, i was showing my best friend arin and suzy's (gg) hot pepper gaming videos and then i noticed twrp's in the related videos. i was like oh my gosh! i didn't know twrp did one of these! and you can imagine my surprise when sung and meouch started talking fhfhdjdlfj i was literally like WAIT THEY TALK??? I REALLY THOUGHT NONE OF THEM TALKED. it's always really funny to look back on. and even though they spent most of that video suffering i thought they were so funny and likeable that i was like. maybe i should finally actually get into twrp.

and holy shit.

there's so much to twrp that i know i didn't do it all in a day. it's hard for me to get used to a band by listening to all their music once, so i took it album by album. i started with guardians of the zone, because i was already very familiar with it. listened to that on loop for a while, then moved onto together through time since it was their most recent album at the time. then, i went backwards from there.

i searched for all the lore i could. i read wiki pages, spent literal hours reading reddit AMAs, watched every video on their youtube channel and the hour long compilation of their instagram videos. this all took place over the span of like? a few days? a week? it's hard to say really. i fell so fast.

from that point on, i have so many stories, we would be here all day. i remember listening to believe in your dreams on repeat the day i became a d*sney trainer, and the literal day after that, they released hidden potential. then of course, the release of return to wherever, which i listened to nonstop for ages. the album is my jam because i love albums with a cohesive theme and songs that blend into each other. it's hard to beat together through time, but rtw comes really close.

i saw them for the first time live on july 30th, 2019. unfortunately, something happened that night that changed my life for the worse. but that wasn't twrp's fault at all. the show itself was incredible. i'd never been to a general admission concert of one of my faves, it was absolutely surreal that they were all right in front of me. and of course, they put on a hell of a show. they always do. god, i love them.

on august 9th 2019, i went to my first sung stream. it was a party stream and i'm on the east coast, so i stayed up until 3 AM to hear sung give me my first talkbox shoutout. i recorded it and still have the video. it made me smile in the early part of a very dark time in my life.

i made a lot of friends in that stream, we all shared twitters and i'm still friends/mutuals with all of them! and i've only made more friends since, especially at nsp10. nsp10 was incredible for many reasons, but a big one was that the three hours my fiancé and i were waiting outside the venue to be let in, we were just walking around saying hi to my twrp friends, meeting a bunch of them for the first time. and i made new friends! i remember standing in a group, shivering in my heart boner cosplay, and one of the guys saying "you're artie, right? i follow you on twitter, i love your cosplay!" he seemed like he was really gathering the courage to say it to me, he had no idea how happy it would make me! (shoutout to logan! you're awesome!)

really, if any of my twrp friends are reading this, i love you to pieces. meeting you has definitely been a high point of the last 365 days.

again, i have so many stories. but since this is already so long i'm just gonna cut to march 5th, 2020. that was the night i met them. now, i'm not a shy person at all, and over the past few years i haven't really been very socially anxious. i'm able to carry myself in conversation, even with strangers. but i've never met a fave before. let alone four faves at once. so, naturally, everything i had planned on saying completely left my brain. but they're literally the best, so it was still an absolute dream. the first thing sung said when he saw me was "hey you look great!" (my outfit was clearly inspired by his own, fancy orange hat and all, so he probs wanted to Respect The Drip but he was right regardless and also HOLY SHIT) and i had my baby porg gary with me (the sunshine of my life) and they all interacted with him and it was super wholesome.

they played two nights in orlando, and i went to both shows because of course i did. first night was great, second night was even better even though that was my GA show. they played life party on night 2, which might as well be my favorite song of all time. it has carried me through every bad moment since i first heard it. big and small. i have a lyric from it tattoo'd on my arm as a constant reminder that i'm alive, and that is something to be ecstatic about. i also had more room to dance and move around on night 2, and dance and move around i did. then, when the show was over and scatman played, i got out everything else i had. august-november 2019 was actual hell for me, and i was still dealing with the aftermath of it all. but that concert high made me realize, holy shit! all of it is over! it doesn't matter anymore! twrp carried me through one of the roughest periods of my life, and met me at the finish line with a fucking gold medal. i fucking did it. now i have none of the bad, and all of the good. it was one of the best feelings i've ever had, and one of the happiest nights of my life.

since then, twrp continues to keep me going. of course the world has been a total shitshow, but everyone's streams (especially the twrp show) have been the highlight of my week every week.

i've always considered myself a very positive person, but last year was a very bad year for my depression, as well as traumatic at times. and i've always had problems feeling understood. i still do. but twrp said hey! literally nobody understands us. not even ourselves! but that's okay! we want you to be happy and feel loved and supported no matter what. and i really can't thank them enough for it.

this part is mostly for another longer post, but i wanted to mention it since it's also really important. i fully came to terms with being a mlm last year after years of compulsory heterosexuality, and twrp played a big part in me exploring and accepting that about myself. and i was already very secure in my gender identity when i found them, but hearing "this song goes out to all the ladies, fellas, and everyone in between" shook me to my very core. i've never loved a band that literally said "shoutout to trans/nb people" at every concert. god. i love them so fucking much.

so this was even longer than i expected (and i expected it to be long bc yknow. spesh.) but i just have so much love and gratitude for this band. every day of my life i'm so thankful that doctor sung, commander meouch, lord phobos, and havve hogan exist and are spreading all this love and positivity to their fans every day. i've never loved a band like this, and i probably never will. they are truly special.

and it's only been a year!!!!

[artyrogue]

Blind Date Gaming: Magical Taruruuto-kun

I figured this dating journey of mine would open the door to a great many types of games. Classics, titles new to me, boring junk, unexpected joys, and, of course, some random Japanese titles that never made it overseas for one reason or another. Luckily, today's date was both of the last points in that relatively long and pointless list of adjectives. So without further stallin', lets go have an awesome date with Magical Taruruuto-kun!

To start, this is based off of an anime, but I've never heard of it. So, if you're a fan, please excuse my absolutely idiotic take on what's actually going on or who these characters are. The menu starts showing off some sort of miniature bat boy or something? I'll call him Li'l Squeaker. He has all the hallmarks of an anime character, including a cat-shaped hat, goggles, a cape, and a boy scout belt or something? Anyway, we only have 'START' as an option, so let's go!

You start with a story and dialogue between some characters. I don't know exactly what's going on, but I grabbed a shot of what I think is a quick overview synopsis. Since I don't know Japanese, I had to resort to online translation, an absolutely bulletproof method of understanding the Japanese language that is heralded by both Japanese speakers and true translators as the height of reliability. Several translation services online gave the following output. Pick whichever you think is best!

 It's a ghostly ghost that is said to have been repatriated. The secret of the situation. Shougun’s scrounger’s sword

A tattered tattoo that is said to be small. That's the best of all. Just as I was to be given a moment's silence.

It is said that it changed to Kodai, and it is said that it is a little bit again. Chizusachi. It's like I've been able to get a piece of ginger.

So, uhh...as far as I can tell, this game is about being sneaky to reclaim some phantom sword from a tattooed Shogun. Also, we need to somehow acquire ginger along the way, possibly because he has a stomachache?

The game starts and you're given control of Yugi from Yu-Gi-Oh, jumpin' around and punchin' stuff. The collectables are namely some sorta apples you get from punching the smallest friggin' powerup boxes I've ever seen. If you get enough apples, you summon Li'l Squeaker, who counts as an extra hit and can do some things sometimes when you muck around with the Select menu. I tried a few things there and got him to fly around and collect apples for me like some sort of binging fruit addict. I also found some mini-games that I think train you in stats?

The first is boxing against some fire guy on a capsized boat that's on fire -- you know, your typical stop in a training montage. All you gotta do there is crouch and punch him in the nuts; an easy win each time. Then you have a relatively simple version of Ski Free where you go super-slow down a slope collecting flags. Finally, there's some football game that I still don't know how to control. This was the roughest for me, and I usually resorts to mashing buttons and praying the ball went some direction other then straight. Beating all three raises some number on your HUD (I assume your level?) and you can keep playing the games until you get to level 8. Each time, the games get slightly harder. I really didn't see a change in gameplay, though, so I think this is optional?

Anyway, you end each level with a boss. The first was some floating lady that threw the most underwhelming fireballs I've ever had the pleasure of avoiding. Yeah, I just decked her a bunch and she told the main villain that he needs to pay her more if he expects her to really put up a fight in his stead. I don't think he took to this news too well because I immediately got a cutscene of him kicking a tree ripe with yen. He then got pummeled by the falling coins and maybe had a concussion? Not my problem! On to level 2!

I think apples and coins are somehow swapped in this universe. The fruits being the collectable only adds to this theory!

The next area is in a canyon. The enemies are slightly harder, as is the platforming. No matter! I'll just jump and punch my way through all obstacles in my way! At the end you get another cutscene, of course. This time some big-lipped guy pops up and uhh...

is that a helicopter

oh snap, this game just got wicked sweet

So yeah, you have to shoot missiles at Godzilla out of nowhere, a surprise that caught me so off guard that I just had this dumb smile on my face and rocketed this game into 'friggin AWESOME' territory. This boss is considerably harder, though he's still pretty fair if you focus more on dodging his attacks than being purely offensive. Beat him and you go to the next stage, which continues your helicopter tirade.

What is this frog? Why is he the size of a building? Why have I collected like 6 frogs up to this point? These are questions I'll never have answered, and I'm okay with that.

This stage can be brutal, namely because you can only take one hit now and there are birds kamikaze-ing all over the place. Pelicans pop by and shoot a few fish guts all over the screen, proving to me that Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds has a valid plot and that I really need to continue to be defensive. Eventually, you get to the next boss, a little pterodactyl. He goes down easy, but woah there, cowboy! Mommy pterodactyl won't take the slaying of her brood laying down!

I love the sonic boom attack. This game rocks.

After ensuring that dinosaurs STAY extinct, you have a final platforming level. This one is pretty tough in places, as the enemies have projectiles and pop up unexpectedly all over the place. Luckily there are invincibility stars supplied liberally, so you basically just speedrun the area with no sweat. Eventually you get to the final boss!

I always wondered what the damsels in distress do while the heroes quest to save them. I guess they just kinda sleep until you arrive?

He has your girlfriend! Hope you brought some ginger, 'cos this guy ain't messin' around! His indigestion makes him vomit fireballs, but if you manipulate him with positioning, he's easy to trounce. After your flurry of pot shots, you kick the Shogun to the curb and pick up your girl for that date you scheduled ages ago. Luckily, you've got enough fruit to pay for the movie and dinner, you gentleman you! Now go eat your coin dinner and lock your phantom sword up better so it stops being stolen.

Shoutout to Junk Man for being the most interesting guy in the credit sequence

Well that was a trip! I'd definitely suggest playing through this game if you've got a couple hours to burn and want to kind WTF your way through an unknown anime like I did. It's a solid game that gave me a lot of fun for sure! I'd go on a second date sometime, hands down. It might be cool if this ever got translated (like I may understand what the subscreen options actually are?), but I think not knowing and making up your own story makes this game pretty sweet, too. Speaking of pretty sweet, take this Sprite of Passage. It might just help you grow some yen trees of your own in your yard.

A walking straw-mouthed fish should be a staple in every game's bestiary.

[pkmnjesus]

Countdown to #PokeAni21

Day 7 - On a personal level

For the past entire week, I have shared some of my personal favorite moments of the Pokémon anime leading up to April 1st in Japan. Those are just a FEW of MANY moments that I can remember off the top of my head, which is why I just mentioned a couple per series. There’s just TOO many things to mention! 

This is a picture of 4-year-old me me wearing a replica of Ash Ketchum’s first hat in the original series. Unfortunately, that hat is lost somewhere in an attic (or possibly been given away...I don’t know ;_;) and probably doesn’t fit my head anymore. This was my first time in the United States as a tourist before permanently moving here 12 years later. I got this hat as a present and wore it around Knott’s Berry Farm and Lego Land (referring to the pictures...I think?). I wanna thank my dad for capturing footage of these early moments of my childhood to show proof how much of a fan I was back then. This just goes to show you how much I looked up to Ash as a kid. I can’t even believe I still remember loving Pokémon from many years ago.

To be honest one of the reasons why I still watch it is mainly because I grew up with this…as long as Ash is still there chasing his dream, I’m there with him for the ride until the anime gets closure.

In a critical point of view, the quality of the show has both progressed and declined in terms of story and continuity, in my honest opinion. There are a lot of holes to be pointed out from the show, but I always just try to focus on the positives and enjoy what I loved as a kid. Of course like most of everyone, I grew up watching the dub. I wish they didn’t re-cast the dub VAs after Advanced Battle. The new voices bothered me at first, but eventually I got used to it. Obviously I preferred the old voice actors I grew up with, but that doesn’t make me hate the characters they portrayed as. The new VAs are doing a wonderful job, and have been in the cast longer than the OG cast, and I definitely can’t hate on that. But if you are a new fan to the Pokémon anime, I highly suggest you just watch the subs instead. A way better experience IMO!

Whether you’re just a casual nostalgia fan of the original series, a late fan that tuned in just recently, or a fan who is still in this ride since the very beginning (like me), I just hope and pray that this community (specifically the toxic part of it) tries to be more lenient toward one another. There is definitely nothing wrong with critiquing something you dislike because you have every right to, but please avoid bashing! I also want dub watchers and sub watchers to not berate one another because of their watching preferences, for goodness sake it’s just the same thing everyone’s watching! In cases others even gang up on one persons opinion and harass with it. A friendly joke is fine here and there but people can get sensitive over those things. As for the rest, try not to get too sensitive that much over a tiny statement, I’m sure the person meant no harm.

I’m pointing all this out because I had so many bad experiences in the past when I first joined the fandom, trying my best not be rude online. I quit my Pokéforum life because of it, and I really just want this place (or any other websites) to have a friendlier environment (which I am seeing as of late so that’s awesome). Not to mention the shipping wars…there’s absolutely nothing wrong with healthy discussion, but let’s try and keep in civilized so new people that want to join in don’t get intimidated.

As my countdown comes to an end, I am glad to kick-off the PokeAni festivities in grand fashion by a week in advance. If you have time, definitely take part in @pokeaniweek because it’s a really fun activity seeing other people’s love for the Pokémon anime. Looking forward to seeing some of those Pokeani week posts soon! A huge shoutout to all artists and fan-fic writers out there, (even those unrecognized yet) who make lovely contributions to this community. Always remember that you guys are the real blogs people should follow compared to mine. My long posts is just for me to put my thoughts out there, but these are the types of things you just pass/skip your tubmlr dash. I am truly grateful for anyone reading this though, and the rest of my countdown posts.

Hope everyone has a Happy Easter, Happy Pokeani day, and April Fool’s day! I know I will 😏 Thanks for the memories Ash & friends! And keep ‘em coming…

▶ END.

[azuresquirrel]

OKAY FOLKS, MY INTITIAL HOT TAKES ™ ON STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, BEFORE I EXPOSE MYSELF TO ANY OF THE DISCUSSION OR DISCOURSE. UNLESS IT IS NOT CLEAR, THIS POST IS SPOILER-TASTIC.

Alrighty, before we get to the meat of the thing let me give ENTIRELY too many disclaimers:

-I would not consider myself a Star Wars Expert. I’d say I’m a fan and about a half-step up from the standard casual moviegoer. I love the movies, the original trilogy was a big deal in my childhood. I have encountered the EU in small bits – a novel here and there, an episode of a cartoon here and there. But I am decidedly not a person who is Keeping Up with the billions of Star Wars media out there so I want it clear that’s the perspective I’m coming from.

-Also my Overall Take on the movie is generally positive and I also think I will enjoy it more on a second viewing, whenever that may be. But I did go into it, given the non-spoilery rumblings I’d heard to either Love It or Hate It. I’d say neither is the case. I Liked it, which really is something of a disappointment, but perhaps that second viewing would move it up. Also I will likely be more detailed on the stuff I had problems with than the stuff I liked, but the stuff I liked did outweight the stuff I had issues with.

-As to “where” I would rank this movie in my personal rankings . . . bros, I don’t know. I have immense childhood built-in bias to Episodes IV – VI. Better than the prequels, OBVIOUSLY (which let’s be real, the prequels had SOME good stuff in the them but it sure is a lot of bullshit to wade through). I never really gave my Official Take on Rogue One because IT WAS THE DAY THAT CARRIE FISHER PASSED, and I honestly think it will take me a while to be ABLE to watch it again because I associate it so strongly with her passing. But here’s my Take anyway: it had good concepts and a goddamn killer third act, but the first two acts were a goddamn SLOG and I just could not find Jyn an investing protagonist for all that I tried. I’d rank The Last Jedi over Rogue One – I had a similar “when are we going to get to the fireworks factory” deal with it, but still the stalling period was more enjoyable in The Last Jedi than in Rogue One. And it falls short to The Force Awakens to me. The Force Awakens felt more focused, and it had more of what I personally was looking for – that “SHIT YEAH I’M WATCHING STAR WARS” feeling. The Last Jedi got there EVENTUALLY but it got there really really late. I pretty much enjoyed The Force Awakens the whole way through whereas I was feeling a good deal of FRUSTRATION a ways into The Last Jedi.

So, let’s get to specifics:

-Well, I mean I think it’s clear why I think a second viewing will improve my opinion on the film. I spent a LOT of it WAITING and FRUSTRATED and thinking “WHEN ARE WE GOING TO GET TO THE FIREWORKS FACTORY/THE POINT.” I had Concerns about things, not knowing where they were going (AND I THINK VALIDLY SO AT THE TIME), so since it largely ended up in places that I LIKED maybe I’ll be able to enjoy the waiting period a lot more in the future.

-Look, I know that Star Wars movies are Events and are never short but fucking, this movie was still TOO LONG. Felt the same about Rogue One (but less so here), didn’t feel that way about The Force Awakens.

-Well let’s see, in my mind there were basically four plots in this movie – Rey and Luke, Finn and Rose, Poe and the Rebels, and Kyle Ron Bullshit (I suppose some would argue that Kyle Ron bullshit was pretty much a part of the Rey and Luke plot. Technically, they are probably correct. IN MY NON-TECHNICAL MIND, IT IS A SEPARATE THING GIVEN I THOUGHT “OH THIS SHIT AGAIN” WHENEVER HE CAME ONSCREEN). The overall: Finn and Rose was GREAT THROUGHOUT, THE MOST MOVIE-ISH OF THEM AND THE MOST ENJOYABLE AND I LOVE THEM AND ALSO BB8. Rey and Luke I ALSO LIKED A WHOLE, WHOLE LOT, THOUGH I IMAGINE THERE MAY BE ~CONTROVERSY~ THERE. However I also felt a good deal of Frustration and Concern thanks to all the Kyle Ron Bullshit inserted there. Poe and the Rebels . . . . . oooooooooooooof. Yeah. That was a thing.

-On a more shallow note: one thing that was uniformly good throughout was all the NEW STAR WARS CREATURES. Icicle-foxes on mineral planet (and actually being of MINOR PLOT IMPORTANCE), stupidly adorable giant rabbit-horses, JUDGEMENTAL FISH NUNS, and the godawfully adorable merchandise mandate of the porgs. We didn’t get that much in the way of exciting new Star Wars planets/worlds, but the creatures made up for it.

-Okay I don’t count it as new because we saw it at the end of The Force Awakens, but I was extremely appreciative of Ireland: Luke’s picturesque Cranky Jedi Exile Planet. THE SOUTHWEST COAST OF IRELAND, LAND OF MY ANCESTORS, IS BEAUTIFUL.

-I HAVE A LOT OF EMOTIONS ABOUT LUKE SKYWALKER: MY DEAD GAY DAD/SON (courtesy of spaceoperetta, that joke). I just . . . loved . . . my heart . . . .

-OLD CRANKY LUKE HAVING RETIRED TO HIS ANGRY GAY PICTURESQUE EXILE PLANET BECAUSE HE HAD THE HUBRIS ™ AND FAILED ™. JUST. RELATABLE.

-REY JUST FUCKING FOLLOWING HIM FOR ALL HIS CRANKY EXILE DAYS, BEING JUST A FUCKING STUBBORN.

-All the stuff Luke had to say about The Force and why the Jedi were crap was just . . . GOOD. I APPROVE.

-And Force Ghost Yoda ends up burning the damn tree anyway, what a troll.

-. . . why do I have the feeling that Luke in The Last Jedi is going to become my new AA4 Phoenix? I just have a HUNCH. YES HE MADE SOME BAD CHOICES ™ AND IS OLD AND BITTER BUT. I GET IT. FOLKS, I GET IT.

-And the whole END when he ASTRAL-PROJECTS AWESOMENESS ONTO MINERAL PLANET. BEING AWESOME AND OLD AND SASSY. PULLING SOME STRAIGHT-UP AIRBENDER MOVES ON KYLE RON.

-I was keeping the tears back throughout the movie but the Leia and Luke scene BROKE ME.

-And then he dies (as I expected), looking out at the double sunset just like in A New Hope fucking forty years ago. I CRIED SOME MORE.

-I HAVE A LOT OF EMOTIONS ABOUT LUKE SKYWALKER.

-Okay REY. Somehow felt like there was . . . less of Rey in this film than in TFA? Like probably actually not but it felt like she got to do more STUFF in TFA. And the CONCERNS did not help. BUT YES, REY WITH A LIGHTSABER, REY PILOTING THE FALCON, REY MOVING SOME FUCKING ROCKS. REY!!!!!!

-Also can the third movie NOT go back on the conclusion that we came to re: Rey’s parentage from this film? Her “coming from nothing” having just regular-ass junker parents, she DOESN’T have that ~special Skywalker blood~. PLEASE. PLEASE DON’T GO BACK ON IT, SERIES. BECAUSE I LIKE IT. She “doesn’t have a place in this story” in the Multigenerational Skywalker Family Drama. BUT SHE IS REY!!! SHE IS HERSELF AND CAN BE GREAT ANYWAY!!!! THE FORCE IS NOT “A POWER TO MOVE ROCKS” AND IT’S NOT MIDICHOLIRAN BULLSHIT, IT ISI WITHIN HER AS IT IS EVERYTHING! THAT STRENGTH COMES FROM HERSELF DAMMIT.

-(okay bad joke time, you all know I was totally thinking “YES REY, FIND YOUR GAY DESTINY IN THE GIANT SEAWEED VAGINA” re: the Empire Strikes Back ripoff cave that only shows you your own face).

-Before I get to The Issues – FINN AND ROSE WERE GREAT AND I LOVE THEM!!!! I AM GLAD THAT ROSE ARTICULATED THE REBELLION SO WELL!!!! THEY WORKED GREAT TOGETHER!!!! FINN CONTINUES TO BE A JOY!!!! BOTH OF THEM ARE THE HOPE OF THIS REBELLION!!!!

-AND SHE SAVED HIM AND I HAD THE EMOTIONS. AND I WORRIED SHE DIED BUT THANK GOD SHE DID NOT. AND THAT KISS WITH THE EXPLOSION IN THE BACKGROUND! FIGHTING FOR THE THINGS WE LOVE! EMOTIONS!

-ALSO SHOUTOUT TO FINN FOR HAVING MY REAL FIRST “SHIT YEAH I’M WATCHING STAR WARS” MOMENT WHEN HE GOES AT CAPTAIN PHASMA IN THE FUCKING BURNING DOWN SHIP. THAT WAS GOOD SHIT!!!!

-ALSO FINN RALLYING EVERYONE IN MINERAL PLANET BASE WITH HIS HOPE – YOU ARE THE TRUE FUTURE OF THE REBELLION!!!

-(okay but for the next movie can we have more than like two minutes of Maz Kanata? PLEASE?)

-Okay so circling back to Rey because of KYLE RON BULLSHIT. You can probably tell what my Concerns were. Like . . . I mean geez, I want to root for that hopefulness but CHRIST, COME ON HERE.

-I was happy that it turned out that their stupid ~connection~ was forged by Snoke, who is unimportant anyway and dies, that was frankly a bit of a relief.

-OKAY, BASICALLY I HAD WORRIES ABOUT THE SHIP I DARE NOT NAME, BUT LUCKILY REY IS GOOD AND KYLE RON CONTINUED TO BE AS HE IS, AS I EXPECTED. But can you blame me for the CONCERNS about their ~omg special Force connection~?

-But . . . . honestly it IS a problem with this new trilogy that I don’t care about Kyle Ron. So much of these movies are hanging on the fact that we have some investment in his decisions and his fate and I . . . don’t. Like when Leia was reaching out to him with The Force I should have Felt Something and I did not. I perhaps should have been slightly less “eh, can you really blame him” at the reveal that Luke did indeed for a moment consider offing him.  He is so important to so many of the characters but I just . . . . they’re trying to make him into a Zuko but he ISN’T. HE’S JUST SHITTY. I DON’T CARE ABOUT HIS SUPPOSED ~CONFLICT~. AND HONESTLY THAT’S A PROBLEM. HE *SHOULD* BE A COMPELLING VILLAIN THAT YOU FEEL CONFLICTED ABOUT. YOU SHOULD *WANT* HIM TO BE REDEEMED LIKE HOW YOU WANTED LUKE TO SUCCEED IN REACHING VADER LIKE IN RETURN OF THE JEDI. BUT I JUST. DON’T. CARE. HE’S JUST A SHITTY WHINY SPOILED MANBABY.

-So like on the one hand I was happy that SNoke and his stylish gold robe essentially ended up being UNIMPORTANT. He dies and it made little difference. Because I didn’t really care!

- . . . but then again, isn’t that similar to the Kyle Ron problem? Because like . . . if the whole dealio of this plot, that Kyle Ron was corrupted to the Dark Side and Sith Ways thanks to his Andy Serkis CGI fucker, then SHOULDN’T it matter a bit? WHO IS THIS GUY AND WHERE DID HE COME FROM? WHAT IS HIS MOTIVATION BESIDES “EVIL?” WHERE DID THIS SITH FUCKER POP UP FROM AFTER PALPITINE WAS OFFED? Like . . . I don’t personally care but for the story itself it SHOULD matter. Instead it’s just “and then Kyle Ron became Dark Side because The Evil Guy said so.” If you want something actually compelling you need to fucking put MORE into it.

-So then the part where we needed to care about the tracked and almost out of fuel Rebel Forces. One would think I would given that Leia was there (for like five minutes and also SHE USED THE FORCE TO SAVE HERSELF AND I HAD THE EMOTIONS) But. Well.

-Oh, and pausing to point out that Star Wars is getting BETTER with women as it has more women onscreen than ever but like – I was concerned about Rose dying with ALL THE DYING ASIAN WOMEN ONSCREEN. Yes the bomber ended up being her sister and important and it was a badass scene but like – could we not have killed her off IMMEDIATELY? Also was that Jasika (I’m not sure) who got unceremoniously blown up in her X-Wing? I’m just saying, STAR WARS STILL HAS SOME WAYS TO GO EVEN WITH REY AND ROSE.

-Also movie thank you for ultimately validating Purple-Haired Laura Dern as a good leader and a badass but I somehow doubt that will be the takeaway that most people have.

-BECAUSE I GUESS DREAMY POE DAMERON OF THE FORCE AWAKENS IS GONE AND REPLACED WITH A HOTHEADED CLONE WHO HAS A PROBLEM WITH WOMEN IN AUTHORITY OR SOMETHING.

-Like . . . why was it necessary . . . for this plot . . . for Poe to talk over and mansplain to and disobey orders from his fucking commanding officers who all just happen to be women.

-And I guess we’re not supposed to find him a rank hypocrite at the end when Finn disobeyed his orders to pull off from the Death Star But a Battering Ram (???) even though THAT’S WHAT POE’S BEEN DOING THIS WHOLE FUCKING MOVIE.

-Like god cutting back to those ships every time was TIRESOME and frankly I’m glad I did not have a ton of investment in Poe as a character before this or else I’d be RIGHT PISSED instead of just annoyed that the movie turned this character into a sexist and pretty much did not do ENOUGH to refute his ways. STILL ANNOYED THOUGH.

-Also is there any problem that the Empire/The First Order has encountered that they didn’t go “throw a Death Star” at it? I think a barked a laugh when they were like “IT’S MINIATURE DEATH STAR TECH.”

-Other disappointments – I THOUGHT KYLE RON WOULD STRAIGHT UP MURDER HUX AT LIKE TOO POINTS AND HE DIDN’T. I would’ve at least appreciated that ginger asshole getting murdered (especially when he slapped Finn I thought “M U R D E R”), but NOPE, KYLE RON MUST BE A DISAPPOINTMET IN ALL THINGS.

-THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE LEIA!!!!! AND NOW WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH THE NEXT MOVIE!!!!! BECAUSE CARRIE!!!!! I AM VERY UPSET!!!!!!!

-Oh Christ, this is so long and I’m kind of trailing off into shitpost territory, SO IF I HAVE MORE SHITPOSTY THOUGHTS I WILL HAVE THEM LATER.

-So good movie but I had FRUSTRATIONS.

-In conclusion: I LOVE LUKE SKYWALKER, MY DEAD GAY DAD/SON.

[just-another-winchester]

You Need To Take The Plastic Off!!

Request?/Not really

Pairing/ Dean x reader

Warnings?/ fluff,

Word count/3,378

Plot/ Dean tries to cook a turkey while its still wrapped in plastic, derived from a prompt.

A/N: This was written for @spn67-sister for her 700 follower challenge! I know I strayed a bit from your prompt darling but I hope you love it as much as I loved writing it!! I think you’re amazing. Also shoutout to my awesome editor @impala-dreamer for saving me from posting this unreadable mess! I hope you all love it! Thank you!!

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out how to cook a turkey.

Or at least you thought it didn’t.

It was November, your second Thanksgiving with the guys, and you had spent the majority of October teaching Dean how to cook a damn turkey. The man could cook, he’d helped you make dinner plenty of times. He’d grill burgers, cook bacon, stick a roast in the oven, the works, but aside from grilling burgers and frying french fries, you knew the man was somewhat lacking in the cooking department.

For Thanksgiving this year, you had invited Jody Mills and her girls Alex and Claire Novak. You had also invited Garth, but were unsure if he would make it as he hasn’t said anything yet. You had asked him to give you a heads up so you would know whether or not to put cow heart on the table… actually no, that was a bad idea. You had wanted to invite Chuck, but you weren’t sure how to send the invitation. Should you pray? You were pretty sure that God didn’t have a P.O Box address.

All the same, you were excited, the bunker finally wouldn’t feel so empty; you would have friends and loved ones around you to make the holiday a good one. Still though, with all the joy of having friends around, it left you with the reminder of a few missing friends.

Cas for starters; the loss of your angel friend had been a hard one. You and Dean were caught in a loop where you would have your moments of missing your wonderful winged companion, and then there were other times where you would be there for Dean or Sam. In the long run, it was a rush of pain that you couldn’t avoid.

Still, you decided to look forward. You chose to believe Cas wouldn’t want you to dwell, and the thought that he wouldn’t want you to dwell was the only reason you were able to help Dean and Sam; it was partially why you had chosen to have this dinner. Sort of a memorial to everyone’s favorite fallen angel.

You pushed aside your sad thoughts, reminding yourself, Good vibes, Y/N, good vibes.

You had been sitting at the large table in the bunker, books surrounded you as you continued to read a few recipes you wanted to try for Thanksgiving. Even though few people were coming, you wanted to make sure no one went home empty handed. Besides, when you were a child, and still had a normal life, Thanksgiving leftovers were your favorite thing. They could last until the next Thanksgiving it seemed sometimes.

Suddenly, an aroma filled the air. You smelled it, at first just in passing, until it clouded the air. You scrunched up your nose at the smell before looking to the kitchen, remembering you had stupidly left Dean in the kitchen… alone… with an uncooked turkey. After telling him he couldn’t cook the turkey.

Oh no.

The moment you realized what was happening, you heard a voice from the kitchen.

“Y/N! A little help!” You heard Dean’s gruff voice call out to you.

You rushed to the kitchen to see Dean with oven mitts on both hands, the oven door open, and smoke billowing from the appliance.

“Dean!” you called out, frustration lacing your voice as you said his name. You rushed over to him. You had to admit, the scene was funny, seeing the broad man in his red flannel shirt, standing there with an apron and oven mitts. His only weapon was a wooden spoon, which you really wished he would keep away from the coming fire.

You groaned at the man as you approached the oven, the smoke lifted in the air, surrounding you. You coughed as you grabbed the spoon, tossing it to the sink before grabbing the oven mitts right off his hands.

“Go see if you can find a fan somewhere!” you told him, waving at the smoke as you bent over, trying to grab at the contents of the oven. You reached out, grabbing the pan that the turkey was in. Surely it couldn’t have been in the oven for very long, the smell only came about around a minute or so ago, but the pan was completely heated. You grabbed at the pan, but the heat soaked through your mitts, and you felt it burn on your hands.

“Shit!” you yelled, dropping the pan. You checked the oven mitts, they were charred, but not burnt through at all, the heat must have just seeped through the thinner fabric.

Dean came running in at your shout, a small desk fan in his hands as he looked at you, silently asking if you were okay.

You coughed, waving the smoke away from your face as you pointed to the fan above the counter.

“Turn them on!” you yelled at him, wishing you had remembered to turn on the kitchen fan earlier. You saw the steaming mess on the floor, gagging a little at the smell as you ran to grab a couple of kitchen towels. Keeping your mitts on, you proceeded to gear up by wrapping the towels around your mitt covered hands, and then got to the floor, picking up the pan and whatever else you could.

You could feel the wind from the fans and hear them whirring together as you rushed to the sink, dropping the pan in and turning on the faucet. You coughed, continuing to wave the smoke away. You turned back to the floor to see that the turkey had fallen out of the pan, and groaned as you hurried to the large bird. You quickly shot Dean a dirty look as he came over., He had prepared himself by copying you and wrapping kitchen towels around his hands. He picked it up before you had a chance to, and dropped it quickly in the sink. You let the water run over the ruined bird as your Y/E/C eyes pierced into Dean. He turned to look at you and frowned.

“What?” he asked, seemingly calm now that the commotion was over with.

“What!?” you demanded. “You just set a turkey on fire and all you have to say is what!?”

Dean scoffed, “Oh come on, Y/N. I’m not the only person in the world who set a turkey on fire! At least I was trying to help!” he argued.

“I asked you not to cook the turkey without me! What did you do anyway? Turn it up to broil and just think ‘I’ll check on it later!?’”

You could see Dean clench his jaw as he looked away. You groaned slightly. You loved the man, but he drove you up the wall. Seriously though, what did he do?

“Okay, Dean… just tell me what you did with the turkey? I showed you how to cook the damn bird, what did you forget or neglect?” you asked him calmly. Dean didn’t answer, and for a minute you thought he was ignoring you. Finally, you heard his voice.

“I did what I remembered you telling me. I put the turkey in the oven and set the temperature, I checked the timer. It was only in the oven for about thirty minutes before I started smelling something that… I didn’t think it was supposed to smell like. Next thing I know, there’s a fire in the oven and smoke pouring out like a burning building,” he said to you.

You sighed as you looked up at him, cocking your head.

“You just put the turkey in the pan, then put it in the oven?” you asked, making sure you heard him right.

“Yeah, what am I speaking Enochian or something?” he said, his green eyes studying the mess.

“Okay first… I would be concerned if you began speaking fluent Enochian. And secondly, Dean- YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO TAKE OFF THE DAMN PACKAGING!” you yelled at him.

Dean turned to you and frowned as though he had no clue what you were talking about. You sighed, “You left the plastic on the turkey! I told you three times, you have to cut the plastic off the turkey, Dean, it’s literally common sense,” you muttered, feeling exasperated.

Dean looked at you and smirked, a small scoff coming from him yet again.

“I knew that,” he said, and you gave him yet another one of your dirty looks.

“I swear to Chuck, if I didn’t love you I would be frying your face up for Thanksgiving dinner.” You grumbled, taking off the kitchen towels and the oven mitts. “Alright, come on,” you said, looking at your hands and seeing they were unharmed aside from skin that was a tad bit red and heated.

“Where are we going?” he asked, following you as you left the kitchen.

You grabbed his keys off the table and tossed them to him, watching him catch them without a second thought. “We need to go to the store and get a new bird,” you answered him.

--

Once you got to the store, you grabbed a small cart and walked to the medicine section.

“Where are we going, Y/N? I thought turkeys were in the freezer section,” he said, walking alongside you.

“There are a couple other things that I need,” you answered him, stopping once you found the aisle that had what you were looking for. You let your eyes scan through all the names, the different products, the different name brands. They finally settled on burn cream, grabbing the cheapest you could find and tossing it in the cart.

“What’s that for?” Dean asked, his hands in his pockets as he watched you.

You turned to him, feeling annoyed at the fact that the man was acting like a child. Whats this? Who’s that? How come? You swore you were ready to strangle him, but you held back.

“It’s a precaution,” you answered him, turning your cart to go to the kitchen section to get thicker oven mitts.

“A precaution?” he asked, looking down at you with a confused frown.

“Yes, Dean, a precaution; kind of like planning ahead. When we get home you are helping me cook the turkey. I should have just done that in the first place instead of explaining things to you. You’re clearly a do first, listen later kind of guy,” you said to him, grabbing a couple nice thick mitts before turning to head to the meat section.

“I thought you liked that about me,” he said, giving you a confident smirk. You turned to look at him, a frown plastered on your face. You gave him a very unimpressed look, but he hardly seemed to notice as he smirked at you.

“You know what I really like about you Dean?” you asked him. Dean raised his brows in question as you smirked. “When you’re silent,” you whispered to him. “Now come on, everyone is going to be here by tonight, we’re running out of time,” you said, leading him through the store.

You found the poultry section of the store, going straight to where you knew the turkeys would be. There was a decent sized bird for only about twenty dollars, and you knew that would be enough to feed everyone and provide them all with leftovers.

“Here Dean,” you said to the broad man who had been drooling over the T bones. He turned to you and moved to help you lift the large bird, placing it in your cart.

After grabbing the turkey, you also chose to grab a few vegetables you hadn’t gotten last time, just to put inside the turkey to add a little more flavor. Finally, after pulling Dean away from the steaks again, you dragged him to the checkout lines, placing the burn cream, oven mitts and vegetables on the line as you had Dean hold up the turkey so she could scan it.

After paying, the woman wished you a good day and happy Thanksgiving. You smiled kindly and returned the words as you and Dean walked back out to Baby.

After helping you get the bird in the back seat, you placed the other bag of groceries beside it before climbing into the car.

Once you and Dean were both in the car, buckled and ready to go, he turned the ignition and the Impala roared to life. With a satisfied look on his face, Dean  reached over and turned on the radio. Don’t Stop Believing by Journey came on, and, seeing as that was your favorite song, you couldn’t hold back. Or, more accurately, you weren’t even going to attempt to hold back.

You bobbed your head to the music, your frustration from earlier disappearing as you spotted Dean getting ready to play along. This was one of your favorite things: when you and Dean were riding along in Baby, singing along to whatever music was playing on the radio, whether you knew it or not, although you would prefer to know it.

“Just a small town girl! Living in a lonely world! Took the midnight train going anywhere”

Dean started off the sing along as you grinned brightly.

“Just a city boy! Born and raised in south Detroit! Took the midnight train going anywhere.”

You followed Dean’s lead, the most accurate way to describe yourself at the moment, with a song in your heart.

You and Dean sang along to the lyrics, Dean tapping the wheel along to the beat, you pretty much bouncing around like a four year old. But it was perfect, you lived for moments like this as you and Dean sang together, your voices merging together as you both hit the long note, both of you holding it.

By the time the song had finished you had arrived home, letting out a breath as you smiled.

After getting everything inside, you walked to the kitchen.

“Dean are you ready!?” you called to Dean. He had gone to his room to grab something, and you smiled as you saw him reappear. You frowned suspiciously when you saw something in Dean’s hand, squinting your eyes at him. “What’s that?” you asked cautiously. He simply smirked and held up an eight track.

“If we’re going to do this together, I want some insurance. I know how much you like music, Y/N. I’m hoping maybe if you get mad at me, you’ll be too busy singing and dancing to the music to do anything about it.” Dean smirked, and you looked up at him with a grin.

“You’re betting your safety on some decent music? Boy, you better have picked a good one then,” you laughed. Dean smiled down at you before walking to the radio you kept in the kitchen, since you liked to listen to music while you cooked or did the dishes. He popped the tape player open and inserted the eight track before pushing it back in and pressing play. At the sound of the first song, you laughed out loud.

Any Way You Want It, again, by Journey.

You knew exactly what he was playing. It was your Journey playlist. Damn, he’d chosen the perfect shield for himself.

He gave you a grin. “Do I pass?” he asked with a smirk.

“I guess we’ll find out!” you smirked, grabbing his hands and pulling him over to you to set to work on the turkey.

First things first, you made Dean take off the wrapping. After making sure the plastic was gone, you proceeded to defrost, soak, and baste the turkey, all while listening and dancing to, and singing along with your Journey playlist. By the time the two of you got the turkey in the oven, you were having way too much fun to just stop dancing and singing around.

You were tapping your feet, swinging back and forth around the kitchen in Dean’s arms, just acting like goofs.

“Sleepless nights, losing ground I’m reaching for you, you, you.” Dean sang.

“Feeling that it’s gone! Can’t change your mind. If we can’t go on! To survive the tide, Love divides! Someday, love will find you, break those chains that bind you, one night will remind you.”

“HOW WE TOUCHED AND WENT OUR SEPARATE WAYS!”

---

It seemed like no time had passed at all while you two were dancing around and singing along to the ultimate Journey playlist; you were simply enjoying yourself. Sam finally had to come in and alert you that Jody and the girls were here. Even Garth ended up showing up with his wife, they had eaten their dinner already though, as they had only come for the fellowship.

It seemed like it had been years since you had a good day, a good holiday anyway, and that night eating turkey and potatoes, all the good stuff, including pie of course, reminded you that even though things suck sometimes, there’s always something to look forward to, whether you can see it or not.

As you ate, you, Sam, and Dean had recalled your most recent hunt with the others; Claire sharing her own recent experiences. The conversation ranged from animal hearts and silver bullets, hunts and killings, to simple things, like how Alex was doing in nursing school.

Finally, by the time the night was over, Jody and the girls had chosen to stay the night, all of them already in their rooms as you cleaned up the mess. It wasn’t that bad, especially considering Garth had been kind enough to help before he and Bess left. It had been a long time since you felt so full, but it wasn’t just food you were full of, it was joy and love. This night, this entire day, had been one mess after another, but it was all one beautiful mess.

“Hey.” You heard as you set the dishes on the rack to dry while you scrubbed them. You turned to see Dean with a satisfied smile on his lips.

“Hi,” you grinned brightly. “I hope you’re proud of yourself, that turkey wasn’t half bad,” you complimented him with a grin.

Dean chuckled. “All I did was remove the plastic,” He said, walking over and grabbing a clean, dry towel, beginning to dry the dishes for you. “You did the heavy lifting.”

“No actually you did that too,” you laughed. “That thing was freaking heavy. I could almost picture what it was like when it was alive. I could see it being the heavyweight turkey champion.”

Dean smiled, shaking his head at you as he chuckled, “Thank you, by the way.”

“For what?” you asked softly as you scrubbed the plate in your hand.

“Being patient with me,” Dean answered, looking down at you with his glorious green eyes. “I really screwed up today with that first turkey, but I’m glad we ended up cooking it together.”

You looked up at Dean with a smile, shaking your head softly. “Dean, if I wasn’t patient with anyone where would I be? I made mistakes worse than that when I first started cooking, holding that against you would be hypocritical.” You shrugged, “Besides, I love you too much to stay mad at that face.” You grinned brightly, finishing the dishes as you handed the last one to Dean and emptied the sink. “Today was fun, I love cooking, but I really enjoyed doing it with you, nice choice of music too, by the way.”

Dean smiled, looking down at you. “You had fun cooking with me? Guess it’s a good thing that I left the plastic on, huh?” He smiled, finishing drying the last dish before putting it up in the cabinet and leaning down, wrapping you in his arms. “Have I ever mentioned I love you? A lot?”

You smiled, reaching up and pulling him down to your lips.“I’m very aware, Mr. Winchester,” you said, chuckling slightly at his reaction to what you called him.

“Thanks for a great holiday, Y/N, you’re amazing.” Dean smiled, kissing you softly on the forehead.

“Thank you for the great holiday Dean, I love you,” you muttered before giving him a soft kiss against his lips.

And it was, the best holiday ever.

[chiisana-sukima]

I got interested in this topic because there’ve been a couple threads recently about the alternate dimension in 12x23 as textual absolution for Sam in regards to the Apocalypse. Opinion seemed split as to whether anyone thought Sam was at fault in the first place, and whether or not it mattered at this point anyhow, seven seasons later.

Time will tell whether it matters to SPN’s story arc anymore, and I suppose one could take the amazing response to this survey (thanks, everyone, including signal boosters!) as evidence that it still matters to at least some fans, but as to whether people think Sam was at fault in the first place, let’s find out!

An awesome 289 people responded to the survey! The split between fans whose favorite was Sam, Dean, or Cas was pretty even, with a smattering of people who had dual/triple favorites or whose favorite was a supporting character. Respondents also varied by whether they listed a single causal factor (for example “friggin angels” or “Michael’s existential crisis”), or multiple causes (for example, “Sam and Dean”, or- in response to Who Let Lucifer out of the Cage?- “who hasn’t?”).

Fans whose favorites were either Dean or Cas were more likely to assign causation to a single factor (see above). Fans whose favorite was Sam, or who had multiple or supporting favorites, were more likely to assign causation to multiple factors. I really have no clue why this would be, because I didn’t write enough questions to ever proffer a theory, but it’s weirdly fascinating, and if I didn’t think I’d blown all my survey cred on this one, I’d try to figure it out.

Before I get to results, a very important and serious shoutout to the respondents whose favorites were Baby (both of you), Andy Gallagher, and “SAM COULD RAIL ME WITH THAT MASSIVE MOOSE COCK ANY DAY OF THE WEEK”. I very much want to take a road trip with all four of you (and Sam). Call me. :D

I’m happy to see that 50% of us think angels are dicks with wings and had some role in the Apocalypse, and that 16% assigned them total responsibility. 30% of people who assigned multiple causation also included demons as a causal factor, although basically no one thought they were wholly responsible (1%).

24% of respondents assigned Sam some role in causing the Apocalypse, and 10% assigned him the only or most important role. The “technical” proviso is because some fans said Sam technically caused the Apocalypse, but was not to blame for various reasons (for example “technically Sam was the cause, but he was manipulated by Ruby”).

22% of respondents felt Dean had a partial role and 6% felt he had the most important or only role. I would never have guessed even 6%, and it just goes to show that people are a rich tapestry of ideas, and we can always keep learning from each other. This response was definitely not just bitter Sam fans either, because Dean fans were harder on Dean than Sam fans were.

Lucifer cracked 10% of respondents for partial causation, and God just hit the 10% mark, though neither scored as high as Sam and Dean, which is a whole second post on my part- so I won’t get into that atm. Lucifer got 6% of votes for complete causation and God got 4%. Ruby and Lilith are also represented, as above, and there were a lot of great individual responses that didn’t get many votes that I didn’t include because I had to fit the chart on the page somehow. Cas got a few votes here and there, but not enough to include on the chart.

There were also an amazing amount of long, semi-essay responses that I wish I had a way of including. They were pretty much all about complex causation, and many of them were really brilliant. Thanks, everyone. 💕 

This chart came out a little over-complicated, so sorry everyone. Along the bottom are respondents’ favorite characters. The darker of each color is Sam and the lighter is Dean. So dark blue is any causal role for Sam, light blue is any causal role for Dean.

As an example of a whole column set, the group on the leftmost edge is how people who picked Sam as their favorite evaluated Sam and Dean’s role in the Apocalypse. 30% of Sam fans assigned both Sam and Dean some causal role. 4% assigned Sam a major or complete role and 3% assigned a major or complete role to Dean. No Sam fans at all said Sam was the sole, unexcused cause of the Apocalypse. 2% said Dean was.

Consistent with their tendency to pick single factor causation over multifactorial causation, fewer Dean fans assigned either Sam or Dean a partial role in the Apocalypse (21% and 10% respectively), but more Dean fans assigned both Sam and Dean sole, unexcused causation (9% and 3% respectively). Cas fans were especially unlikely to choose partial causation for the boys (14%, 9%) and unexpectedly (at least to me) were equally as likely to assign Dean total causation as partial causation (9% in both cases).

The columns for fans who picked Dean and Cas as equal favorites and TFW as equal favorites are in lighter colors than the others to signal people to please be careful when considering these numbers, as there were too few respondents to generalize fairly from (only 6 Dean/Cas and 7 TFW respondents). I have no explanation for the massively outlying numbers for Sam (and Dean too, but particularly Sam) from the 6 Dean/Cas fans. I was pretty reluctant to include them tbh, because I don’t want to cause fandom strife. I would have subsumed them into the “other” category, but there were enough when combining them and the TFW fans to throw off the “other” numbers. So please be especially careful with confirmation bias when looking at these numbers- they are a nonrepresentative statistical anomaly of Dean and Cas fas, most of whom ended up in either the “Dean” or “Cas” categories.

If one is thinking about ships, probably the most representative of destiel fans would be the “Cas” category. Most representative of wincest would be the “Sam” category. Dean is probably split about 50/50 (although of course there are no doubt people in all categories who are nonshippers too).

Last but not least, I have a chart here of who respondents thought was responsible for letting Lucifer out of the Cage. There is some unknown amount of error in this (although I don’t think it’s much), as I failed to specify that I meant the first time. There were 20 responses that I couldn’t be sure referred to the first time. I left them out, but this does still introduce some error that is beyond my knowledge of statistics to figure out how to quantify or minimize further.

Not surprisingly, Sam wins out by far as the biggest cause of Lucifer getting out of the Cage (77% partial, 50% major/sole, 33% sole unexcused). I don’t have much commentary to add here, beyond the statement that it appears to me that with these high numbers, this is likely a big piece of the feeling on the part of some fans (and Jared) that Sam suffers from continued guilt feelings about the Apocalypse. The fact that some people *didn’t* choose Sam shows that there is actually more than one way to conceptualize the situation, and issues with survivor guilt (which is what any guilt feelings on Sam’s part in this case would be) often thrive in this sort of murky causal atmosphere.    

I’m going to post now, because as usual everything is slower and more complicated than I initially planned. I’m hoping to do a second post with an analysis of my initial hypothesis and results around that. It’s a potentially more divisive issue, and I don’t want to mix it in with the more general results (not to mention, the incredibly long length of this post already). I do tend to get distracted by new shiny things, but I swear I’ll do my best to actually follow up!

In the meantime, I always welcome further thoughts or analysis in reblogs or comments. I love conversation, so don’t be afraid to add!

[cullenappreciationweek]

A personal thank you

Mod Daisytje here! *waves* I’ve had the privilege to caretake Day 2 and Maker, what a fabulous day it has been. There have been so many wonderful fics, art, videos, gifs and screenshots of Cullen today and I‘m absolutely loving the fact that, nearly three years after Inquisition was first released (eep!) so many of us are still here, coming together to celebrate our Commander. I for one have taken such pleasure in seeing people sharing beloved older fics and art, as well as taking the opportunity to explore Cullen from a new perspective thanks to the fantastic themes lined up. We’ve still got five whole days ahead of us and I can’t wait to see what lies in store.

I won’t go on about what Cullen means to me personally, but let’s just say he holds the no 1 spot in my heart for eternity <3 So this is my shoutout to a wonderful community of fans - artists, writers, Photoshop whizzes and especially you awesome bloggers sharing and reblogging and keeping the Cullen love alive for us all to enjoy.

It’s bedtime in my corner of the world, but the queue is up and running and we’re still checking for your submissions on a regular basis. Feel free, as ever, to drop us an ask or a message if you have an enquiry. You’re in excellent hands with the lovely group of Cullenites moderating Cullen Awareness Week.

Thank you all very much for making this fandom such an amazing and inspirational place to be - long may it continue!

[velkynkarma]

Fic recs? Fic recs!

For Fandom Fic Rec Days because this is a fantastic idea. These ones will be for Voltron, but if people want fic recs for other fandoms I’ve clawed through extensively (Batman, FMA, Young Justice, One Piece) I can do those too. (Also, sorry to any writers who aren’t tumblr-tagged. I am terrible with names and probably don’t know you’re here. But I’ve still linked to your fic profiles in this case!) AUTHOR SHOUT-OUTS: a.k.a. “you should read everything they do it’s all quality okay” @maychorian Okay look, if you are in any way excited that I’m in this fandom, you owe maychorian a big ‘thank you’ since she was unwittingly the reason I decided to stick around after watching S1. Boom Crash The Sound Of My Ship was one of the first fics I found after wandering into the fandom and holds a special place in my heart to this day. I have fond memories of eating up the whole series by staying up late or sneaking chapters at work on my breaks. I once hid in my car during my lunch break to read a chapter right after it released? Recs all around, just read all her stuff. @bosstoaster You’ve probably read BT’s stuff already because who hasn’t but I don’t care I’m reccing her stuff anyway. BT writes everything. Like, everything. With a Shiro focus primarily, but she’s got a great handle on the other characters and will tackle such an insanely crazy variety of prompts I am continually stunned by whatever is produced next. Known for making you suffer but will make you laugh or feelz too. Special shout out to Spark to Ignite which is probably my favorite. Is this cheating because it was an exchange fic for me? Hell no. This was my One Thing that I desperately wanted to see in the fandom and it was not anywhere. BT did a fantastic job making it come to life and making me suffer but I asked for it so it’s okay and I reread this one all the time.

@butteredonions Where do I even START? So much good fic, guys. Onions fills my cravings for all things AU and she has such an insanely wide variety. If you like AU’s there is something there for everyone and they are always so well thought out and still fit each character so well. Also (in)famous for smol!Shiro, and I’m not actually partial to a lot of deaged!chars fics because people have a bad tendency to write toddlers and young children so innacurately, but this one is gold and so it’s great. But my personal fic shoutout is gonna go to The Throne In The Hall which is just all around amazing. Gorgeous imagery, great setting, solid plot, beautiful characterization, and badass fight scenes, this whole thing is just a delightful treat from start to finish. @ashinan Has some great works all around and you should read it! I can’t speak for Ash’s ship fics because I’m not really into ships, but people swear by both Ghost of a King and Bombs and Bullets, so I assume they are top quality for ship stuff. Me? I’m gonna rec you all Something Strange which is the most best, shut up, I will fight you on this. Amazing piece that is the modern supernatural cryptids-and-ghosts AU I didn’t know I need until I read this. Amazing characterization and so many little details that I just love picking out of the narrative and basking in. This fic is both hilariously entertaining because of the group shenanigans and frightfully haunting because of the ghosts (pun sort of intended?) Ash has also hinted at maybe doing more for the series and I’m clawing at the walls waiting for it. Read now. Do it. @mumblefox Rounding out the Think Tank, mumble’s work is worth checking out too! Like ash, a lot of mumble’s stuff is tagged for ships, which I don’t really do, but I absolutely adore Reconnaissance which is all I need to tell me mumble’s got top quality word weaving skills. Mumble does character dynamics wonderfully and I love watching Pidge and Keith work together in this, playing off each other both in the safe Castle environment and the heat of battle. There’s gorgeous imagery all throughout this fic and tons of little details buried in the narrative that just add so much character to the story itself. Also, I am a sucker for building any kind of alien culture or worldbuilding in general, and it’s here in spades. GriffinRose: I don’t see this fic writer recced a lot? It’s a crying shame, they’re good at what they do. Lots of Keith-centric stuff but not necessarily in a shippy way (which is usually what I see for Keith-centric stuff), but they also tackle some other characters too! My favorite is actually Mama Holt because we see a lot of Matt and Sam hanging around the Castle with the paladins in fics but Pidge’s mom? Not so much. This is a sweet little piece that hits all my found family feels, in which Mama Holt ends up on the Castle of Lions and slowly ends up adopting absolutely everyone in it, and I love every word in it. Yes. Check out Griffin’s stuff, you won’t regret it. INDIVIDUAL FIC RECS: a.ka. the “holy shit I found this amazing story I love and you should read it” section You Can’t Take the Sky From Me by isabeau225 Voltron fan? Firefly fan? This fic is the fic for you! Now a series and too damn adorable. Shiro’s not expecting any kids but somehow he just keeps getting more, and somehow he’s okay with that. Again, one of those fics that does child characters well. After I read this I squeed for half an hour and melted onto the floor.

Accepting Amelioration by XILVerify Daemon fics are my other weakness...when handled well. The problem I see with a lot of daemon fics is that writers will include the daemons but they are there more as a prop then as another character. This fic does a GORGEOUS job of avoiding that pitfall and a BEAUTIFUL job of writing the daemon concept in space with these characters and I fell in love with it. Also has some very interesting interpretations of daemons that differ a bit from the novel, but in ways I really enjoy...like breaking some of the standards for what animals mean what personalities, or making touching another’s daemon less of a sexual interaction and more of a close trust or strong platonic bond kind of thing. Beautiful work. Check it out.

One for All, All for One by KaijuDork Absolutely gorgeous Shiro-centric (but also team based) fic. Hurt comfort in spades as Shiro tries to help the paladins and they try to help him at the same time. Some beautiful and haunting imagery in this one. Still a WIP, but I’m hoping the writer can finish one day. I believe in you :) Of a Sort by hameru For the sickfic fan. Shiro is really, really sick, and the others do their best to help him out. Also a WIP but the first two chapters are just...quality sickfic and will fill all your hurt/comfort needs by themselves. (Still will be excited when/if more posts though) Empty Spaces by Oreramar Kind of a modern AU without the space stuff. Shiro loses his arm in an accident and things start to go downhill from there, until he unexpectedly finds the perfect new career...in daycare. Again, one of those rare fics that handles kids well (although they’re kind of there peripherally in this one), and the modern AU aspect is handled really skillfully too. Makes you feel all happy inside when you’re done reading it. The kind of fic I would love to see more extension on, although I’m content with this too. Shadows of our Dreams by KUG Because sometimes you just need a cuddle pile. This one fills the niche for both cute and fluffy as well as angsty and hurt comfort. If you need all kinds of feels all in one place this is your one-stop shop. Lean on Me by GlassSoldiers Wouldn’t be a good fic rec without a good 5 times! This is one of my faves. Shiro looking out for all his team, and his team looking out for him. I’m a big fan of this theme, obviously, so this one really hits the spot. Everyone gets a chance to shine, which is great :) how to win friends, influence people, and form voltron by brosura A WIP but a very worth it WIP, holy crap, read this. An AU in which Keith doesn’t get booted from the Garrison, and ends up slowly integrating with the rest of the Original Trio. Primarily Hunk’s PoV too which is awesome. Double awesome, it literally just updated as I was writing this list, which means there’s a new chapter, which means I need to find time to read it. AAAAAH. These are amongst my favorites. Good job to everyone on the list, and thanks for making my nights and work breaks exciting, for making me stay up late to finish just ONE MORE CHAPTER, for giving me something to read while eating, for giving me something to motivate me to get my own work done, and for giving me things to look forward to after terrible days. Love you all and this fandom has been amazing to me so far. :) ~VelkynKarma

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Robotics, Pokemon & Sonic the Hedgehog

Here they come, blowing up your phone, getting funniest looks from, everyone who hears;, hey hey it’s the Nerds. That’s right folks, look out, strap in and enjoy the ride of yet another fantastic fun filled episode of chaos and laughter. Also I know you started to sing along with us in that opening sentence, just go with it and enjoy. First up we look at a robot using origami to pick things up. It is truly spectacular! The boys get Nerdy and geek out over this and the applications it could be used for. When you look at what it can do you will understand.

            Then as we wander through the show the DJ giggles constantly like he fit to burst, we aren’t sure what was in his milk that morning but hey, it worked. The next stop on our magical mystery tour is Pokemon and the Brain, that’s right folks Pokemon and the Brain, not Pinky. Although this has been more successful in taking over the world then Pinky; note, we need to copyright that idea before….too late. Anyway, we take a look at how watching pokemon is affecting people’s brains, and we don’t mean the crazy people running out in traffic to catch Jigglypuff.

            The DJ continues to giggle as he tells us about Sonic the Hedgehog and the change that is happening to rectify the massive failure that was released to so much anger. This is serious folks, some idiot somewhere is trying to make something look even more ridiculous then Will Smith in body paint…and that is a really hard thing to do. Then as normal we have the shout outs, remembrances, birthdays and events of the week, which has some pretty funny moments for your enjoyment. We apologise if this is too informative for some listeners, also hello to the NSA, CIA and the rest of the alphabet soup, we know you are listening. Also we wish to acknowledge the Penguins as the Earths Alien overlords, they rule the galaxy. As always, take care of each other, stay safe and keep hydrated.

EPISODE NOTES:

Robotics and origami - https://www.sciencenews.org/article/origami-design-helps-robot-lift-delicate-and-heavy-cargo

Pokemon and brains

- https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/theres-a-brain-region-for-pokemon-characters-if-you-played-a-lot-as-a-kid/

                    -https://www.futurity.org/pokemon-players-brains-2054662/

Sonic the Hedgehog movie character changes - https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2471298/sonic-the-hedgehog-co-creator-thanks-fans-for-pushing-to-change-movie

Games Currently playing

Buck

– Assassin’s Creed unity - https://store.steampowered.com/app/289650/Assassins_Creed_Unity/

Professor

– Minecraft - https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/

DJ

– Apex Legends - https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends

Other topics dicussed

Facehugger (Alien monster)

- https://avp.fandom.com/wiki/Facehugger

Spot (Boston Dynamics robot)

- https://www.bostondynamics.com/spot-classic

Farmbot - Backyard robot for a fully automated garden

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqYrAWssrrY

2019 video games hall of fame inductees

- https://www.worldvideogamehalloffame.org/games

Windows 1.0 (Operating Software)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_1.0

Grandmother Cell also known as Jennifer Aniston neuron

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother_cell

China having more gamers than the American population

- https://www.pcgamer.com/China-PC-online-game-market-report-2019/?utm_content=bufferc26c7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer-pcgamertw

Stanford University

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_University

Various Stanford university experiments

- Stanford prison experiment - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment

- Mozart effect - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozart_effect

Baby bump headphones

- https://www.amazon.com.au/BellyBuds-Baby-Bump-Headphones-Bellyphones-WavHello/dp/B01A6B3H9I

Detective Pikachu director’s opinion on the Sonic the Hedgehog

- https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/3/18528628/detective-pikachu-sonic-the-hedgehog-cgi-live-action-pokemon

Sonic the Hedgehog fans redesign live action Sonic

- https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/6/18253330/sonic-the-hedgehog-live-action-fan-redesign

Mario movie in the works

- https://www.gamespot.com/articles/nintendos-mario-movie-gets-a-release-window/1100-6464748/

Nintendo movies Phase One

Image link - https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D5nCFkUXsAERrAG.jpg:large

Tweet - https://twitter.com/AwestruckVox/status/1124143052287815683

Apex Legends losing momentum

- https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/12/18300950/apex-legends-content-decline-update-patch-fortnite

- https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2019/04/26/respawn-has-a-very-good-reason-for-why-apex-legends-updates-are-coming-slowly/#7323db327d9e

A Dangerous Method (2011 movie)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Dangerous_Method

Sigmund Freud Museum

- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sigmund-freud-museum

Edward Jenner - pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Jenner

Ali Maow Maalin - Last person known to be infected with smallpox

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Maow_Maalin

The Shane Oliver Experience (TNC podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/shaneoliverexperience

Shoutouts

5 May 2017 - “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” becomes the highest grossing Indian box office film ever earning $120 million - https://deadline.com/2017/05/baahubali-2-the-conclusion-record-box-office-india-imax-north-america-worldwide-prabhas-1202079770/

8 May 1885 - Suicide Woman floats safely - 22-year-old Sarah Ann Henley decided to end her life by throwing herself off the Clifton Suspension Bridge, originally designed by the great Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It stands 101 metres (331ft) above the River Avon and spans a 400-metre wide gorge. It has been considered an engineering marvel ever since it was opened in 1864. Sarah, a barmaid and a follower of fashion, was wearing a wide crinoline skirt, popular at the time. And according to the Bristol Magpie Newspaper: “There being a breeze blowing on Friday the young woman’s clothes were inflated and her descent was thereby considerably checked and the wind also prevented her falling straight into the water, and she was carried into the soft mud on the side.” - https://www.onthisday.com/articles/suicide-woman-floats-to-safety

6 May 1994 – The Channel Tunnel, latest wonder of the world,linking England and France, was officially opened on this day, nearly 200 years after the idea was first suggested. There were many misgivings, the sea having protected for centuries what Shakespeare described as “this precious stone set in the silver sea . . . this fortress built by Nature for herself against infection and the hand of war”.  But the demands of modern commerce prevailed and the completed tunnel – stretching 31.4 miles under the sea – was hailed as one of the “seven wonders of the modern world" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. They rated it alongside the Empire State Building, the Itaipu Dam in South America, the CNN Tower in Toronto, the Panama Canal, the North Sea protection works in the Netherlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It took six years to build at a cost of £4.65 billion – £12 billion ($17 billion) in today’s money. There is no facility for vehicles to be driven through – everything and everybody goes by train. Up to 400 of them pass through the tunnel each day, carrying an average of 50,000 passengers, 6,000 cars, 180 coaches and 54,000 tonnes of freight on the 35-minute journey. The average depth of the tunnel is 50 metres below the seabed, and the lowest point 75 metres below. To accomplish the task, 11 boring machines were used, each as long as two football pitches. They weighed a total of 12,000 tonnes, which is more than the Eiffel Tower. One of the machines remains buried under the sea while another, amazingly, was sold on eBay in 2004 for £40,000 ($57,000). - https://www.onthisday.com/articles/latest-wonder-of-the-world

Remembrances

30 April 2019 – Peter Mayhew, English-American actor, best known for portraying Chewbacca in the Star Wars film series. He played the character in all of his live-action appearances from the 1977 original to 2015's The Force Awakens before his retirement from the role. Mayhew was not in Star Wars: The Last Jedi but was listed in the credits as "Chewbacca Consultant". Mayhew retired from playing Chewbacca due to health issues. Joonas Suotamo shared the portrayal of Chewbacca with Mayhew in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and then replaced him in subsequent Star Wars films. He died of a heart attack at 74 in Boyd, Texas - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Mayhew

2 May 2019 - Chris Reccardi, American cartoon director, graphic designer, animator, character designer, producer, writer and storyboard artist. He is best known for his work on the Nickelodeon animated series The Ren & Stimpy Show, and storyboarded many shows, including Samurai Jack,The Powerpuff Girls, Tiny Toon Adventures, and had directing duties on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! and SpongeBob SquarePants. He was also the supervising producer for the first season of Regular Show and creative director for the short-lived Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. In 2007, he co-created and developed a pilot for Nickelodeon called The Modifyers alongside Lynne Naylor, to whom he had been married to since 1994. He died of a heart attack at 54 in Ventura, California - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Reccardi

6 May 1992 - Marlene Dietrich, German-American actress and singer. Throughout her long career, which spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s, she continually reinvented herself In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in The Blue Angel (1930) brought her an international profile and a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in Hollywood films such as Morocco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), and Desire (1936). She successfully traded on her glamorous persona and "exotic" looks and became one of the highest-paid actresses of the era. Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she still made occasional films after the war like Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Dietrich spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer. Dietrich was known for her humanitarian efforts during the war, housing German and French exiles, providing financial support and even advocating their U.S. citizenship. For her work on improving morale on the front lines during the war, she received several honors from the United States, France, Belgium, and Israel. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich the ninth greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema. She died of renal failure at 90 in Paris, France - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlene_Dietrich

Famous Birthdays

5 May 1921 - Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Americanphysicist and co-inventor of the laser with Charles Townes. His central insight, which Townes overlooked, was the use of two mirrors as the resonant cavity to take maser action from microwaves to visible wavelengths. He shared the 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics with Nicolaas Bloembergen and Kai Siegbahn for his work using lasers to determine atomic energy levels with great precision. He was born in Mount Vernon, New York - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Leonard_Schawlow

6 May 1856 - Sigmund Freud, Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. In creating psychoanalysis, Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of free association and discovered transference, establishing its central role in the analytic process. Freud's redefinition of sexuality to include its infantile forms led him to formulate the Oedipus complex as the central tenet of psychoanalytical theory. His analysis of dreams as wish-fulfillments provided him with models for the clinical analysis of symptom formation and the underlying mechanisms of repression. On this basis Freud elaborated his theory of the unconscious and went on to develop a model of psychic structure comprising id, ego and super-ego. Freud postulated the existence of libido, a sexualised energy with which mental processes and structures are invested and which generates erotic attachments, and a death drive, the source of compulsive repetition, hate, aggression and neurotic guilt. In his later works, Freud developed a wide-ranging interpretation and critique of religion and culture. Though in overall decline as a diagnostic and clinical practice, psychoanalysis remains influential within psychology, psychiatry, and psychotherapy, and across the humanities. It thus continues to generate extensive and highly contested debate about its therapeutic efficacy, its scientific status, and whether it advances or is detrimental to the feminist cause. Nonetheless, Freud's work has suffused contemporary Western thought and popular culture. In the words of W. H. Auden's 1940 poetic tribute to Freud, he had created "a whole climate of opinion / under whom we conduct our different lives". He was born in Freiberg in Mähren, Moravia,Austrian Empire (now Příbor, Czech Republic). - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud

6 May 1915 - Orson Welles, American actor, director, writer and producer who worked in theatre, radio and film. He is remembered for his innovative work in all three: in theatre, most notably Caesar (1937), a Broadway adaptation of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar; in radio, the long-remembered 1938 broadcast "The War of the Worlds"; and in film, Citizen Kane (1941), consistently ranked as one of the greatest films ever made. Welles was an outsider to the studio system and directed only thirteen full-length films in his career. He struggled for creative control on his projects early on with the major film studios in Hollywood and later in life with a variety of independent financiers across Europe, where he spent most of his career. Many of his films were either heavily edited or remained unreleased. His distinctive directorial style featured layered and nonlinear narrative forms, uses of lighting such as chiaroscuro, unusual camera angles, sound techniques borrowed from radio, deep focus shots and long takes. He has been praised as "the ultimate auteur". In 2002 Welles was voted the greatest film director of all time in two British Film Institute polls among directors and critics. Known for his baritone voice, Welles performed extensively across theatre, radio and film, and was a lifelong magician noted for presenting troop variety shows in the war years. He was born in Kenosha, Wisconsin - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orson_Welles

8 May 1828 - Henry Dunant, Swiss businessman and social activist, the founder of the Red Cross, and the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The 1864 Geneva Convention was based on Dunant's ideas. In 1901 he received the first Nobel Peace Prize together with Frédéric Passy, making Dunant the first Swiss Nobel laureate. During a business trip in 1859, Dunant was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern-day Italy. He recorded his memories and experiences in the book A Memory of Solferino which inspired the creation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863. He was born in Geneva, Switzerland - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Dunant

Events of Interest

6 May 1937 - Hindenburg Disaster, The German passenger airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed during its attempt to dock with its mooring mast at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in the United States. Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and 61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities. One worker on the ground was also killed, making a total of 36 dead. The disaster, caught on newsreel coverage and in photographs shattered public confidence in the giant, passenger carrying Zeppelins and marked the end of the airship era. - https://www.onthisday.com/photos/hindenburg-disaster

7 May 1946 – Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sony

7 May 1952 – The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey Dummer. - https://www.wired.com/2010/05/0507integrated-circuit-concept-published/

8 May 1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

- http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm79sp.html

                - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7044193

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.com

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[thrashermaxey]

Ramblings: Draft Analysis, Weekend Trades and Signings

Draft Analysis, Weekend Trades and Signings

First off, I just wanted to give a shoutout to Peter Harling, Cam Robinson, and the rest of the Dobber Prospects team for some amazing work at the draft (and for Cam for actually dropping a Ramblings to boot – these things don’t take five minutes to write, you know). It was awesome seeing the Dobber brand showing up on the Sportsnet ticker as each big name fell off the board.

As significant as the Dobber presence has been in Dallas, next year might be even better, with the 2019 draft coming to Vancouver! Will Quinn Hughes receive the honor of announcing his brother Jack as the first overall pick and his new teammate? Wait just a minute Canucks fans… you seem to have forgotten about the crummy luck that you have in the draft lottery every year.

By the way, I’m ecstatic about the Hughes pick. I can say that a puck-moving defenseman is something that the Canucks have been missing since, well, ever. I think the one takeaway from this draft – at least the first round – is the type of defensemen that were drafted. After years of teams drafting bigger and bigger, the smaller defensemen were all the rage as teams move toward a faster style that stresses the importance of moving the puck out of your zone and keeping up with the play. Here’s the height and weight of the first seven defensemen drafted in the first round:

Rasmus Dahlin (BUF): 6’ 2”, 181 lbs.

Quinn Hughes (VAN): 5’10”, 173 lbs.

Adam Boqvist (CHI): 5’11”, 165 lbs.

Evan Bouchard (EDM): 6’2”, 195 lbs.

Noah Dobson (NYI): 6’3”, 176 lbs.

Ty Smith (NJ): 5’11”, 176 lbs.

Ryan Merkley (SJ): 5’11”, 167 lbs.

Not one of these defensemen is over 200 pounds, and there are more that are under six feet tall than over. Of course, these are still kids who could continue to grow and should also fill out a bit more. But the trend of blueliners scoring more should continue, while fewer enormous-bodied stay-at-home defensemen will be able to survive in the NHL.

What made this draft fun is that after the first two picks, it didn’t seem to proceed according to plan. It’s easy to criticize Montreal and Arizona on their off-the-board picks, but the fact is that we’re putting faith in 18-year-old kids and perceptions will change. Let’s check back in ten years to find out how these picks really turned out. Maybe these Habs fans will become huge Kotkaniemi fans one day.  

Habs fans are not happy about their 3rd overall pick pic.twitter.com/EVIbIcXrg4

— Hockey Central (@HockeyCentraI) June 23, 2018

There’s certainly a lot to unpack from the past two days, so let’s get started.

*

I’ll start with a question that was asked to me this weekend. Some keeper leagues have an entry draft in which draft-eligible players can be drafted by teams. So if you have the third pick (or are simply ranking draft-eligible players), who would you choose? Assume Rasmus Dahlin and Andrei Svechnikov will be picked first and second overall. This person was initially thinking Filip Zadina, but with Jesper Kotkaniemi being picked third overall by the Habs, he wasn’t so sure anymore. Should the third overall pick in fantasy drafts be Zadina, Kotkaniemi, or someone else?

Settings and team needs could determine who you pick, but just because a certain NHL general manager decides to go off the board to pick the player he wants doesn’t mean that you also have to. And there’s a reason that the Kotkaniemi pick was considered off the board. Zadina obviously fell down at least a couple teams’ draft boards, but picking a real-life team is different from picking a fantasy team. Zadina says he will “bring the goals” to Detroit, something that he did in the QMJHL (44 goals in just 57 games). If you like fantasy goals on your team, he’s the guy I’d look to add at number 3.

For you (and for my own benefit, since I participate in one of these leagues), I will produce a draft list during the summer of draft-eligible prospects. But I’ve started with those three. Who would you pick after that? Or would you include someone else in your top 3? Remember that if you don’t want to wait and/or require far more detailed prospects analysis, you’ll want to pick up your copy of the Fantasy Prospects Report.  

*

Dobber himself provided the Fantasy Take on the Ilya Kovalchuk signing, which includes how top-6 forwards in LA might be impacted. I’d expect Kovalchuk to be a decently productive fantasy option next season, but at age 35 he’s already seen most of his peers his age drop off from their prime (or drop out of the league by now). As productive as Kovalchuk was in the KHL (over a point per game over his last two seasons), I can’t help but think that someone like now-34-year-old Rick Nash is a comparable at this point in his career. And Nash isn’t someone you should be reaching for in next season’s drafts. But don’t get me wrong, I’d still rate Kovalchuk over Nash.

Another point I’ll add: After the Kovalchuk signing, the Kings are left with just over $3 million in cap space. They don’t have much work left to do (possibly extend a qualifying offer to Tobias Rieder), but barring any other moves to clear cap space, they probably won’t have enough room to bring back Slava Voynov. And they may not be planning to bring him back.

From The Athletic (this article is free):

Sources indicated that the Kings trading Voynov’s rights is likely the most plausible scenario.

This article, written by Katie Strang, describes both what would need to happen in order for Voynov to be reinstated, as well as the details of the events that led to his contract being terminated by the Kings. Although the 28-year-old Voynov could provide a team with an all-important right-shot defenseman who can deliver some offense, I don’t imagine that his acquisition will go over well with a significant portion of any team’s fanbase.  

With Kovalchuk now off the board, John Carlson getting close to a deal in Washington, and John Tavares still considering re-signing on Long Island, could July 1 be kind of a “meh” day? Diehard hockey fans will no doubt tune in to the programming on TSN or Sportsnet (at least in Canada), but for the most part we’re not talking about franchise-altering players. Lots of over-30s who have had productive careers, though. You can check out the list over at Cap Friendly.

Speaking of Tavares, he is set to meet with five teams ahead of free agency. According to ESPN, those teams are expected to be San Jose, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Vegas, and Dallas. And according to David Pagnotta, the Islanders’ initial offer to Tavares is an eight-year deal worth $88 million.

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Dobber also gave you the Fantasy Take on the Calgary/Carolina blockbuster. Fantasy-wise, this trade has a major impact on the Flames’ top line, with the forwards swapping places on it.  

Bill Peters says Lindholm is penciled in on the top line w Gaudreau and Monahan already and will take draws on his strong side. Said he spoke to him but kept it short as Lindholm was attending Sweden’s World Cup game when the call came.

— Eric Francis (@EricFrancis) June 23, 2018

As far as the trade goes, I’m going to concentrate on the forwards in the deal.

I really like this move for Elias Lindholm – more so than anyone else involved in the deal. The previous relationship with Peters should result in Lindholm receiving at least a long look with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan. There was no real continuity when it came to Lindholm’s linemates last season, but both Gaudreau (1.05 Pts/G) and Monahan (0.86 Pts/G) scored at a higher pace than any Carolina forward. This is a significant upgrade for Lindholm. If Micheal Ferland can score 21 goals while (mostly) playing on that line, then the more talented Lindholm should score at least that many. Lindholm has never scored more than 17 goals in a season.

Conversely, the main reason I decided to take a flier on Ferland last season was his place on the Flames’ top line. Of his 41 points last season, 35 were even strength. And of those 35 even-strength points, only three were without either Gaudreau or Monahan. There could be more turnover with the Canes’ forward group, particularly if Jeff Skinner is traded. But for now Ferland is buried among a large pile of wingers, which means that he should probably only be targeted in leagues that count hits.

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One day after being traded to the Avalanche, Philipp Grubauer has signed a three-year contract worth $10 million total (Fantasy Take from Mike). I know one Semyon Varlamov owner that is livid right now, as he was counting on Varlamov again after bouncing back to fantasy respectability last season. Given that Varlamov has started 50+ games in four of the last five seasons even with an injury-prone reputation, I don’t think this turns out any worse than a 50/50 split for Varlamov. But it might be better to bet the under than he will play 50 games again in 2018-19.

This probably goes without saying, but the Grubauer trade all but assures that Jonathan Bernier will be headed to unrestricted free agency. The UFA goalie market is thin (you can check out that group at Cap Friendly), but Bernier should be considered a top-5 option in that group. That probably should net him a goalie timeshare situation of his own at best, with the more likely scenario of him being signed as a team’s backup.

As for the vacant Washington backup goalie job, recently signed goalie prospect Ilya Samsonov is expected to play a lot in the AHL next season. That would make Pheonix Copley the little-used backup behind Braden Holtby. The native of North Pole, Alaska (maybe he has met Santa Claus!) has played in just two NHL games – both with the Blues.  

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For more fantasy hockey information, you can follow me on Twitter @Ian_Gooding.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-rambling/ramblings-draft-analysis-weekend-trades-and-signings/

[stephenlibbyy]

Rewind & recap: OCP Summit 2018

As you probably know, Cumulus Networks is an active contributor and enthusiastic member of the OCP community. So naturally, we couldn’t bear to miss OCP Summit 2018! The summit was held in San Jose from March 20th – 21st, and believe us, if you’re into open source anything, it was THE place to be. From BoF sessions to engineering workshops and everything in-between, there’s so much to talk about — but we’ll spare you an essay-length article and keep this short blog limited to our absolute favorite Cumulus OCP Summit highlights from the event. So whether you’re an OCP fan that couldn’t make it or you’re an attendee that wants to reminisce, check out these stellar moments from OCP Summit 2018.

Cumulus’ OCP projects

It was great to hear Omar Baldonado from Facebook give Backpack a shoutout during his keynote address. With the support of OCP, we’ve teamed up our OS with Celestica’s hardware to bring this project to fruition, and what better place to highlight this venture than at OCP Summit? As Baldonado points out, “Cumulus also has been a very long standing partner and contributor and driver within the OCP community,” and we intend to continue those efforts. (He also mentions Yahoo! Japan’s presentation about their experience with Backpack, but we’ll get to that later!) We’re super excited to be included in this partnership with OCP and can’t wait to see how the industry’s first commercially supported open chassis develops and revolutionizes the data center.

Speaking of “industry firsts,” Backpack isn’t the only OCP project people are talking about — Cumulus Linux is also the OS for Voyager, the industry’s first open optical routing platform. (If you’re hearing about Voyager for the first time, check out this blog series that discusses Voyager and DWDM transponders.) For the summit’s lucky attendees, CTO JR Rivers whipped together a live Voyager demo at our booth so everyone could see it in action, up close and personal!

Networking with S.O.U.L’s grand debut!

You know what legacy vendors are lacking (aside from innovation, scalability, efficiency, etc.)? They don’t have any S.O.U.L! The open networks of the future are breaking boundaries with Simple, Open, Untethered Linux (get it?). We’ve got all kinds of great new resources to teach you about S.O.U.L available, but OCP Summit was our first chance to rock our S.O.U.L in front of a crowd — our first stop on S.O.U.L’s worldwide tour!

In addition to getting people to hop on board the S.O.U.L train and rocking some awesome t-shirts, we raffled off free guitars at our booth to some very lucky attendees. So congrats to our lucky winners — now you can rock your network AND rock out at home!

Yahoo! Japan and Backpack: the dream team

And we’re back to Backpack! On the second day of the summit, OCP enthusiasts were treated to a presentation from Yahoo! Japan about their network developments and some of their recent efforts. When discussing building their own network, Yahoo! Japan mentioned that not every company has a team as large as cloud giants like AWS to design a custom network — which is why they turned to Cumulus Linux and Backpack chassis to help them build at scale. In fact, Yahoo! Japan was so confident in this solution, they actually purchased the first two Backpack chassis ever! Don’t believe us? Check out the serial numbers in this photo:

Traditional chassis couldn’t provide Yahoo! Japan with what they required for their custom, cost-efficient and scalable network. According to Kenya Murakoshi, traditional chassis incurred additional expenses because they “have large overhead and need more optics and cables.” Thanks to Backpack, Yahoo! Japan was able to avoid these complexities and reduce their CapEx by 75% — wow!

Interview time with Cumulus and friends

Between the guitar raffle and our awesome free swag, the Cumulus Networks booth was definitely a fun place to hangout. But that didn’t prevent us from stopping by some of our friends’ booths and chatting with them about all things OCP! We had a great time talking to our partners about trends in networking, their latest projects and everything open source. Check out this interview we did with Marsour Karam from Apstra about automation, working with Yahoo! Japan and more!

At the @ApstraInc booth, talking to @mansourkaram about enabling automation and open networking! https://t.co/iCotZVIFEm

— CumulusNetworks (@CumulusNetworks) March 21, 2018

If you want to see even more of our booth conversations at OCP Summit, including companies like Broadcom, head over to our Twitter!

Adobe looks toward the future

For Adobe, OCP Summit 2018 was the perfect place for them to discuss Project Greenfield. Their presentation focused on this project and how they were building a next generation data center — and who better to do that with than Cumulus? After explaining how they narrowed down their choices for hardware, software, etc., Stegen Smith mentioned that Adobe settled on Cumulus Linux for their operating system because, “Ultimately, it was a bigger name to sell as a brand and an easier transition with a similar CLI with Linux.” Stegen also went into greater detail about the benefits that they were able to leverage with Cumulus in one of his slides, shown here.

It was hard to say goodbye to OCP Summit 2018 when all was said and done, but we had a blast! We hope you enjoyed checking out the Cumulus OCP Summit highlights. Huge shoutout to our partners, the OCP community and the fine folks who stopped by to say “Hi!” to Cumulus. This event rocked, and we can’t wait for next year!

Even if you didn’t win a guitar at OCP Summit, you can still amp up your network with S.O.U.L! Check out our website’s S.O.U.L page to learn more about the movement and access our new resources, including an ebook and an awesome video!

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