#these games are like hilariously easy to pirate so I have them already but I still can't wait until the battle network legacy collection

[harpuiaa]

playing bn and music make me lose control

[hexagonalhavoc]

Can I request The reader falling in love With sado And Being embarrassed to tell her How they feel

Unheard Words

Sado x Reader 

Reader is gender neutral unless said or requested otherwise! 

[Author’s Note: Oh my god yes I love Sado! If she’s not in the next game I’m gonna cry, she’s such an underrated character

⚠️ This is a little angsty and Sado is a bit insensitive to reader’s feelings]

     Being a college student and working part time meant you were very frugal with your money. Because of that, thrift stores were your sanctuary. It was easy to find good clothes and even decor within those places. Sometimes you would go there just to look at all the books. You had gone there so often that you made friends with the cashiers and the other thrifting regulars.

Your best find happened to be an old, busted up laptop. You were in need of one and this one was extremely cheap. It was from a good brand and came with a charger. You enthusiastically bought this laptop and took it back to your dorm.

You were delighted to find that the computer already had some games downloaded on it most likely by its previous owner. Super Weasel Kid, Cooking Granny, Secrets of Legendaria, Combat Arena X, even the demo for Waste World! A lot of these games were hard to find now, most of them were taken off Steam and your only chance at playing these games was to pirate them from very questionable websites. Somehow you had gotten this lucky! 

After digging around your laptop and playing different games you found out that your laptop came with an unexpected surprise. 

She scared you at first with her uncanny appearance but she seemed harmless. She had total control over your device but she never did anything bad or breached into private information. You don’t know how it’s possible for something like Sado to exist but she was fun to be around. As long as you had your phone or laptop with you, she could go anywhere with you. 

“You’re not very good at this game.” Sado teases as she watches you play some puzzle game. As someone who had been in over a dozen different games, she could have helped you out but decided not to. Watching you struggle was funny. You roll your eyes as if you’re annoyed with her but she can see you resisting the smile that wants to spread on your face. “Oh come on, I’m trying my best.” 

Your friend hasn’t exactly lied to you but she hasn’t been very truthful either. She has feigned innocence, pretending that she doesn’t even know how she’s alive or what she’s been created to do. She smiles sweetly and plays games with you, she makes you think that she’s just some ai assistant. In reality Sado is much more than that. She’s a lot smarter than you think she is, a lot more malicious. Would you look at her the same way if you knew about all the things she did? 

Sado isn’t a fool, she knows how you feel about her. She knows what that goofy smiles means or how you get bashful when she compliments you. You’re in love with her and she finds it absolutely hilarious, you really think she doesn’t know how you feel? Oh Y/n, you aren’t as slick as you think you are and you’re terrible at keeping secrets. She wasn’t made to form attachments so she plays with these feelings of yours. She gets your hopes up and then talks about how she’s lucky to have such a great “friend.” She’ll praise you with sweet words and then pretend she doesn’t understand why you act so fidgety afterwards. Every time you think you have a chance to confess she’ll talk over you and change the subject. 

It’s Friday and both of your dorm mates are out with their own friends and lovers. It feels nice to have the dorm to yourself. You can finally relax after a long week. You flop on the couch and grab your laptop. Like always, someone’s face greets you whenever you open the lid. “Someone has been awfully busy, you couldn’t even make time for your dear friend?” 

“Oh don’t be so dramatic, it’s finals week and I don’t have much time to relax.” You’re still on your desktop, watching the miniature Sado float around your screen carelessly.

“That’s why I think we should watch a movie. I’ve pirated some good ones.” She says in a way that makes her sound proud of her misdeed. “It’s been so long since we’ve had a nice movie date.”

You know she doesn’t mean it like that but it still makes your heart feel light. You wish your friend wasn’t so flirtatious, she’s making it really hard for you not to swoon over every little thing she says. You wonder why you couldn’t fall in love with someone you could actually confess to, someone that you could actually tell others about. There were many eligible bachelors on your college campus and even more in your city but your heart had stubbornly chosen Sado. 

You wonder what having a date with her would actually be like. Would it be any different than the hangouts you have? Would she treat you any differently than she does now? You know that even if you two were together that you wouldn’t be able to hold her head or lay your head on her chest but you would still be fine with it.

“Yeah it has been.” You say after a noticeable pause, your hand on the mousepad as you look at the selection of movies you and her could watch together. 

Maybe it was time for you to confess. Everyday these feelings became stronger, pushing them away wasn’t something you could do anymore. You were scared at the chance you may ruin your friendship with her but you’ll never know how things may go if you don’t do this. 

“Hey Sado?” 

“Yes?” 

“…You can pick the movie, I’m just happy to hang out with you.” 

Once again, you back out of it like a coward. Maybe all the stress of finals was getting to you but you want to cry. You tried to tell yourself that you were just happy that Sado was your friend, that you didn’t need more from her. 

Maybe if Sado knew how much pain you were in she would be acting differently. 

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Another Age of Calamity 2

*Sometime after the battle to rescue the champions, in a secure location somewhere in Akkala Citadel …*

BotW Zelda: I can’t believe this is all really happening. Not only did we save all the champions and recover the divine beasts, but now I get to speak with one of my ancestors face to face!

Smash Zelda: Believe it girl! It’s all real.

Smash Zelda: I mean *cough* by deciding to interfere we may have inadvertently created yet another offshoot timeline.

Smash Zelda: But it’s all definitely REAL.

BotW Zelda: Um, this is a bit awkward, but can I ask who this woman is upon whose lap you are sitting?

Smash Zelda: Oh this is my girl, Eve! Yes, I know what you’re thinking, she is technically Dark Samus but I promise she’s completely harmless.

BotW Zelda: Forgive my apprehension, it’s just that in our legends “dark” copies of heroes tend to be creations of Ganon himself.

Smash Zelda: No, I get it. But I swear there’s nothing to be afraid of. She may come off as intense, but she’s actually a complete sweetheart. Isn’t that right, honey?

Eve: If anyone here harms one hair on your head I swear I will raze this kingdom to the ground until they are found and I can personally eviscerate their still-living body before their eyes.

Smash Zelda: D'aawww! <3

BotW Zelda: Yes … um, very … sweet?

——————–

*Meanwhile, in the Citadel’s war room …*

Impa: It’s great that we managed to thwart the Calamity’s attempt to overtake the Divine Beasts, but that’s far from the end of our problems.

Urbosa: Indeed, the enemy still has the guardians under their control, and what seems like a neverending swarm of monsters.

Impa: But our biggest problem is the meddling of the Yiga clan. They’re numerous and also tricky. It’s difficult to know what they’re planning.

Marth: Don’t worry guys, we already have our best spy on the case.

*Transition to the Yiga hideout, where Sheik is disguised in Yiga gear amongst a few other Yiga footsoldiers.*

Sheik (thinking): Alright, where would be the best place to find some juicy information…

Sooga, entering the room: Alright men, listen up. The Seer thinks there may possibly be a spy in our midst. So I need you guys to- … yes?

Sheik, with her hand raised: Yeah, are you guys lovers?

Sooga: What?!

Sheik: You and Master Kohga. Do you, like, make out and stuff?

Sooga: What is this? This is so ridiculous…

Sheik: It’s okay if you do. We’re totally cool with it, right guys?

Yiga Footsoldier 1: I mean, Kohga’s not really my cup of tea, but to each his own happiness.

Yiga Footsoldier 2: Omigods is my 235 page fanfiction actually coming true before my eyes?!

Sooga, somehow clearly blushing despite the mask: Okay you guys are clearly too stupid to be spies. I have to go … do something … elsewhere … *disappears into smoke*

Sheik (thinking): Yessss! Juicy gossip acquired!

——————–

*Meanwhile, under a bridge somewhere in Hyrule, Wolf is waiting alone.*

Isabelle, ducking under the bridge: Wolf! It’s me! I got your note.

Wolf: Isabelle. I’m not happy to see you here. You realize this is a war, right? This isn’t fun and games. People are dying here.

Isabelle: But I want to help! Besides, you don’t have to worry about me, they just have me helping out at the lab. Robbie and Purah may be brilliant but they’re horribly disorganized. I’m as far out of danger as you can get.

Wolf: Hmph.

Isabelle: Besides, what about you? What are you doing here?

Wolf: Ganondorf has me keeping tabs on this Astor guy. Dude is kind of an idiot though.

Wolf: What is up with that? First Zant, and then Ghirahim, and now this guy. Why are all of Ganon’s followers complete idiots?

Isabelle: *stare*

Wolf: I- I mean not us obviously!

Isabelle: *raised eyebrow*

Wolf: I mean yes, Bowser isn’t that bright, and K. Rool is a moron … Dedede is incompetent but he barely counts … and Ridley is supposed to be “cunning” but all he cares about is murder … and Wario’s obsessive greed makes him easy to manipulate … and Gruntilda couldn’t witch her way out of a paper bag …

Wolf: *pause*

Wolf: Holy shit, are we all actually idiots?!

Isabelle: Yes, but you’re my adorable idiot. <3

——————–

*Meanwhile somewhere else in Hyrule, one could find the scattered remains of a once army of bokoblins, moblins, and lynels, now nothing more than piles of corpses. On a hilltop overlooking their hard work sits two heroes having a peaceful victory picnic.*

Samus: This is nice.

Link: Yeah, the view from here is pretty great.

Samus: Well, yes, that too, but I was actually referring to getting to help you save Hyrule.

Samus: I’m so used to isolated missions. Doing it for the bounty or to keep pirates from abusing my adoptive family’s legacy. It’s nice to do something that helps people in immediate need, getting to see the smiling faces of the people for whom you’ve come to their aid. I’m genuinely glad that we decided to come help here.

Link: Wow, I didn’t realize how therapeutic this was for you.

Link: But, err … speaking of deciding to intervene, we’re not going to get in trouble for abusing the Mansion’s space-and-time thingy, are we? I feel like that might have been a big no-no.

Samus: I’m hoping by the time Master Hand notices it will be too late.

Link: Isn’t he going to notice that a bunch of us are missing?

Samus: I’m not worried about it. The assist trophy crew offered to run distractions for us.

*Meanwhile, in the Smash Mansion*

Master Hand: Where the heck is everybody? We have Smash matches to run here, people! Young Link and Daisy are supposed to be fighting in like five minutes!

Skull Kid, in a tunic: Yes sir! Young Link, that’s me! Best buddy any guy could have in the whole world! See, I have a sock on my head and everything.

Master Hand: Uh… huh… sure, whatever. Dare I ask about Daisy?

Skull Kid:

Oh she’s right here, see?

*drags somebody into the room*

Shadow, in a dress: I don’t know how you convinced me to do this but know that I will be ending all of you later.

Skull Kid: See? I’m sure she says that all the time.

——————–

*Much later, back at Akkala Citadel*

Sheik: So, what do you think?

Marth: Sheik, you were supposed to be gathering intel on the Yiga’s plans. What you gave me is a shipping chart of everyone in Hyrule.

Sheik: But it’s good, right?

Marth: SHEIK.

Sheik: Okay relax I’m just playing with you. The truth is, though, the Yiga don’t really have any plans. They just wait for this Astor guy to have a vision or something and then do what he says. And he’s obviously being set up by Ganon. Very dumb.

Marth: Alright, I guess you’ll have to keep and eye on that guy for us then. Good work.

Sheik: Oh and it’s probably worth mentioning I saw a suspiciously DK-shaped Yiga member.

Marth: Donkey Kong dressed as a Yiga? But why?

Sheik: Either he’s joining them for free bananas or he’s plotting to steal all their bananas for himself.

Sheik: Either way it’s going to end hilariously bad for them. I can’t wait.

[coffeeflavoredcookies]

Krbk OS (SFW) Fic Recs

These are all mostly SFW, even the ones rated M aren’t very graphic but do check the tags to make sure you know what you’re getting into. 

The order doesn’t matter.

Enjoy !

Little are the things we learn by newamsterdam. (probably the thing that got me into Krbk, just an analysis of their relationship through their classmates’ eyes)

It’s ideal by newamsterdam. (angels AU, very very good)

Cotton candy hands by Chonideno. (soft. So so soft. Just. Very soft)

Neon Season by Chonideno. (Road trip AU. Very very VERY good. The pinning, the feels! It’s just. GREAT. Also they shared a cookie and I died)

Avian by Chonideno. (they meet in an airport, it’s so so sweet).

Do you need me by All_My_Characters_Are_Dead. (Established relationship, Bakugo had doubts. very soft)

I’ll be your dead sea, you’ll never sink when you’re with me by Claus_Lucas. (Bakugo is very in love with Kirishima, and in awe of how amazing he is.)

There is going to be a party when the wolves come home by Claus_Lucas. (Domestic fluff with a little bit of angst because it’s Claus_Lucas)

One to ten by Crunchrapsupreme. (ten steps to get to Baku’s heart. Very funny)

How they got detention for a week by eggstasy. (Kami is worried about his bro dating Bakugo, hilarity ensues)

Downhill by eggstasy. (Kiri is the mom friend)

Marketable by eggstasy. (A girl from the management department gets interested in Baku’s career. Jealousy ensues.)

Give it rest by ellieb3an. (Kirishima pushes himself too much, baku is there to stop him)

The thing I wanted to say by ellieb3an. (aged up, pro heroes, confessions, fluff. Very soft)

Waiting for some peace of mind by ellieb3an. (Baku and Kami are worried for Ei and their friends)

The view from the peak by ellieb3an. (Aged up Bakugo thinks back to the road he took to make it where he is, and he’s happy Kiri’s there with him, at the top of his priorities)

And he might yell (they’re in love) by misilia. (we don’t talk nearly enough about this beautiful masterpiece, basically everyone is doubting krbk’s relationship, and it’s taking its toll on our angry boy. It’s really good)

This is getting kinda out of my hand (this is getting kinda out of my head) by multiclassmaps. (marriage proposal. Happy and fluffy)

Dream where you are now by multiclassmaps. (Bakugo makes Kirishima fly. They’re both very happy)

And I thought I was so smart by Slumber. (Bakugo looks at Kirishima. Set after the “I’m gonna make you eat my Horowitz” it’s very soft)

And my heart went boom by Slumber. (Kiri is a mechanic, Baku is weak and Deku is his best friend. It’s all very good. Like REALLY good)

Domestic life was never quite my style by Slumber. (they cook for each other, their classmates spy)

I think we’re alone now by tauontauoff. (they just make out after training, but this is the fluffiest softest thing ever. They’re in LOVE)

What to do about this and you by tauontauoff. (Bakugo tries to say what he feels, very soft)

Stay with me by tuslee. (Basically Kiri and Baku are perfect for each other with a side of shipper Deku)

Pop rocks by dynapunk. (Bakugo catches feelings, very soft, very good)

Peace, Love and Happiness by kkyojing66. (this is more of a mido/baku friendship centric, with hippies and a dead cactus (curtsey of Midokun) and hickies (curtsey of Kiri))

The hard easy by dirtbag. (kissing lessons, they catch feelings)

Wild blood by qactus. (Street Racing AU, I won’t be able to describe how good it is with my own words. Go read it)

A trial in patience by Meadie. (Kiri loves his husband, even at 50, very soft)

A soft morning by Teararesalty. (Kiri is just really in love with baku. They have a cat)

Things soft and precious by gloop. (mama bakugo watches her son fall in love with sunshine fashion disaster. It’s really sweet and good)

Fools by paxus. (Kiri and baku are in love, except bakugo bolts. It gets better)

Cheesy boritos by Mariano. (the boys are cuddling and happy and it’s very soft and sweet)

The force and the object by umisabaku. (a very short comparison of their relationship to the force and the object)

Bakugo can’t feel by Clocklessnight. (Bakugo doesn’t get feelings, he seeks help and it’s chaos)

Just want my head on your shoulder by littlelionvanz. (Bakugo is touch starved, Kiri is there, very soft)

I woke up in love this morning by tuisku. (Bakugo doesn’t wake up grumpy when he’s got a boyfriend to kiss him good morning. Very soft)

Cultivating something so divine by redriotinggg. (Vet AU. It’s a slow burn and it’s REALLY good, like nobody talks about it and idk WHY it’s so good!!!)

Touching and Touched by Plus3Charisma. (soft and sweet, kirishima just wants to love his Baku)

Legitness by generic_handle. (BakuCamie brotp, hilarious)

Matches by Rued. (Soulmate AU, it’s so cute)

Nobody but you by SlitherinsInSpace. (They get married as soon as they legally can. They’re in love, your honor)

Quake by MixBerkaan. (Kiri suffers the aftermath of a mission gone wrong where he accuses himself of not having done enough. A woman is there to offer insight. It’s very very GOOD. krbk implied)

oh shit, I’m the grown up by ohlookatthestars. (Established relationship fluff and humor, with todo as a neighbor. Very funny)

Solid and warm by justlikeswitchblades. (Baku is jealous of a tattoo. just soft and sweet future fic)

Beating in time by patster223. (Kiri is a vampire, Baku is oblivious. It’s Hilarious!)

Lay to rest by Cazuki. (Kirishima is not okay, and Bakugo tries to make his night a little better. Established relationship, pro heroes.)

Help me, Help you by cambarryshortcake. (they’re so in love and it’s very fluffy)

The tap of your fingers by peregrin_took. (they learn Morse code and communicate with it, it’s very sweet)

Wrap Me Up by zizira. (Kiri hurts his hand on his punching bag, Baku takes care of him)

The bound that hold us together by Punkakess. (Fantasy AU! Bakugo remembers the day they met when he’s in a pinch.)

10080 minutes and counting by starlitdreamscapes. (Kirishima tries to convince Bakugo that he should date him in a week.)

Even present; odd future by shizuumi151. (Bakugo and Kirishima head to the pool together, after Midoriya contacted them. Set in the pool episode in s3)

You’re mine by aheartbeatlikehurricanes. (Pirates AU. Kiri gets drunk and rambles. It’s very cute!)

Fermata by HuaFeiHua. (inspired by the “drop what you’re holding and catch me” thing. It has kmjr and it’s very cute and funny)

As long as it’s you by Ireokee. (established relationship. They go on a trip, and they’re in love and happy. Very soft and fluffy)

A tenderness you can’t let go by punchmonk. (it’s so so sweet, the pinning is so good, and you’ll never look at oranges without shedding a tear <3)

Built to last by Heronfem. (Bakugo gets the shovel talk, but really, everyone loves him. It’s very good)

Curry and PDA by CharWright5. (third year baku holds kiri’s hand under the table and it’s so sweet <3)

Five Times Bakugo Pretended To Date His Classmates And One Time He Dated A Classmate For Real by songofsunset. (hilarious)

Glow by argentConflagration. (Baku is very in love with Kiri, and they get together. It’s really sweet)

I adore you by a heartbeatlikehurricanes. (they watch fireworks as they cuddle on the sand. So soft, so fluffy)

Raise me up by Exborodokills. (soft kisses, so many kisses)

Say you like me by gasmask. (Baku thinks his crush on Kiri is unrequited, until he’s proven wrong. Very sweet)

Sleepless by Megasheep. (soft todoroki, with side tddk and krbk)

Such a funny pair by Ellieb3an. (Fantasy AU where little Baku runs from home for one afternoon and meets small dragon kiri and they become friends. It’s really cute)

Tag, you’re it by awareoftheconcept. (Established relationship, lots of teasing, they’re all having a game of tag and it’s very funny. The interactions are all really good)

Take my hand by imatrisarahtops. (Kirishima loves Bakugo’s hands, and Bakugo wonders how Kiri understands him so well. It’s really sweet)

The colour of youth by katarasvevo. (No quirks AU where they grow in the same neighborhood. It’s really good)

Words of affirmation by imatrisarahtops. (Bakugo tries to tell Kiri how he feels. Very soft)

You’ll have to take me down by pickledbrows. (Bakugo is a workaholic, Kirishima ain’t having none of it. domestic fluff, aged up, pro heros)

A matter of chance by Poteto. (Kiri wants to wait for his soulmate, until he meets grumpy boy. With a side of disastrous friends Mina and Tetsu. It’s so hilarious I actually cried)

Heaven has nothing on you by PoutyBats. (Angel and demon AU. It’s really sweet and amazing. A must read)

I’m going to the forest to kick my own ass by WannabeMarySue. (Todo slips a book on emotional intelligence for dummies under Baku’s bed. It’s very funny)

It’s not like that by Falahime. (Kiri is a little jealous of how Bakugo is always looking at Deku)

More than okay by imatrasarahtops. (Baku tries to grab Kiri’s hand as they go hiking together. It’s so sweet you’ll melt)

My worst enemy by Paperficwriter. (Bakugo and Kiri like kissing, but never bothered to put a label on their relationship until hot lion boy comes and Baku starts panicking)

So far, so good by lkaminaris. (Kami tries to match up Kiri and Baku, except they’re already together. It’s hilarious. Side kmjr)

Your warmth is all I need by drinfting_i. (fantasy AU. Baku saves a dragon, and they slowly build a bound. It’s very beautiful. Like, so beautiful I’m sure I shed a tear or two)

Blisters by eggstasy. (Bakugo learns to deal with feelings slowly, the way his dad thought him to deal with his quirk. It’s so sweet, and the way the story sort of flows, like every little detail matters. I’m in awe of eggstasy’s writing. I’m pretty sure I cried. Honestly, it’s eggstasy, like do you need any more convincing)

Against all odds, thriving by jettiebettie (Shiozaki and Bakugo end up working together on a photography project, Ibara ships krbk, it’s very soft, also quality Ibara content <3)

And quietly, easily, you’ve made a home out of my heart by earlygrey_milktea (kiribaku don’t realize they’ve been dating for years, it’s SO good)

At the beginning (with you) by EnchantedEmmeline (krbk get married, it’s absolutely hilarious!)

Battle Wounds by imatrisarahtops (“I’m mad at you because I love you”, so SO sweet)

Boys are stupid by deviance (that one where kiri gets a bf and bakuangst and pinning happens)

Distracted by Ellieb3an (baku’s new costume happens. The boys are so in love. I’m soft)

Guaranteed chemistry by mechanicalUniverses (they run through the rain and confess and it’s so soft and GOOD)

How to play hard to get according to bakugo katsuki by Claus_Lucas (he leaves kiri a map and makes him look for him to confess.)

Is there sunlight on your bed by poetic_leopard (kissing practice! Super poetic and sweet!)

It started with a kiss, so glad we end up like this by crackalackin. (social media au where kiri and baku are famous and their fans ship them)

Life’s a drag(on) by PurplePersnickety (baku meets a dragon and falls in love with his cute neighbor. It’s sweet and funny !!)

Lights, camera, love! By mobs (I read it a while ago and I remember this fic like in a dream? I remember it’s super soft, and domestic. They’re married and happy and everything is great)

Not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all by theroyalsavage (the 10 things I hate about you AU. Kiri fake dates Baku to help Todo get Deku. Very good)

(Not quite) proposal by imatrisarahtops (baku gets drunk and asks kiri to marry him in a funny way).

Once upon a dream by bleukitsune (kiri and baku meet in their dreams and fall in love. It’s perfect)

Past by imatrisarahtops. (“I came back to win you back”, really soft. Really good)

[please don’t] think of me by detectivelion (kiri gets hit by a mind reading quirk and everything hurts. But baku makes things just a little bit better)

Purple’s Kiribaku drabbles by PurplePersnickety (very soft drabbles, guaranteed to make your day)

Rotten work by theseourbodies (kiri misunderstands bakugo and deku’s talk, bakugo reassures him. It’s really sweet)

Seeing red by Ellieb3ean (a piece about Bakugo’s character growth and his friendship/relationship with kiri. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s my all-time favorite thing in the whole world. It’s so beautiful, I am IN LOVE)

So come one come all and see the show tonight by roxashighwind (krbk new year kiss from pinky and cellophane’s pov, so so sweet)

Social Climb by onceandforall (the media is sure hero partners Bakugo and Deku are dating, it’s hilarious, even Kiri and Todo think so. It’s just, really good!)

Sun send me the moon by Ellieb3ean (another masterpiece. Dragon and werewolf AU where krbk are star-crossed lovers! It’s so bittersweet and perfect)

the dawn is surely coming by Notspiderman (amazing take on the fantasy AU, with an immortal bakugo, and his life through the centuries. It’s. really good. I’m not kidding, it’s AMAZING).

The misadventures of pinky and blasty mcsplode by beebuzz (abslotely hilarious modern AU, where Mina sets fire to baku’s kitchen and kiri is the firefighter on call. It’s really funny and Mina makes things 1000x better)

The most opportune robbery by IronicVeghead (the one where Kiri is the MVP, saves the day on his way home after buying flowers for his Baku. Really soft and also cool, since Kiri gets to shine)

This mess is mine by QuirklessWonder (soft day out with Baku and his daughter, it’s so sweet, I melt)

Till death do us part by codename_bewareofthefangirl (the reincarnation AU that’ll tear your heart apart and fill the void with so many feels. It’s really good)

Unleashed by Mysecretfanmoments (Baku skips a class outing, then sees a vid of Kiri. He realizes he doesn’t want to miss anything from Kirishima’s life. It’s really good)

Yours, forever by MissPlacemat (Kirishima and Bakugo run away from their own wedding. It’s really good!)

Achromatosia by PurplePersnickety. (Soulmates AU where you only see colors after you meet your soulmate, but Bakugo is color blind!)

Almost by Julietwasanidiot. (Established relationship. Pro heroes. Bakugo gets seriously injured in a fight against a villain and Kiri takes care of him while being super angry at him. The end is super soft.)

Brain melties by PurplePersnickety. (Kiri catches a cold and Bakugo takes care of him. It’s really soft)

The best medicine by chezca. (Bakugo laughs and Kiri falls in love. It’s so soft and it’s canon compliant and makes everything 100% softer and better. An absolute must read)

If we jump farther by Ellieb3an. (Kiri and Baku meet in the wild a few times and then decide to stick to together and love happens. But also, the way she writes their relationship is always *chef kiss*. And the ART is so good. Honestly, go read it.)

Almost by Julietwasanidiot (Bakugo almost gets killed, Kirishima is pissed as he tends to him)

When a rock an a hard place love each other very much by Shizuumi151 (Bakugo and Kirishima talk about their feelings to Kaminari who finds himself stuck in the middle and he cares for them both so much. It’s perfect.)

It’s pouring out here by Shizuumi151 (man read the author’s name that’s all you need to know)

Silvermoon's Sparkling by roxashighwind (indirect kisses and dumb boys in love)

Quietly by chezka ( the softest friends to lovers fic ever. Also it’s chezka my friends)

the world you keep erasing by Slumber (the soulmate AU where they chose each other.)

done with having dreams (the thing that i believe) by futurehearts (it’s new years and the new hero rankings come out and Bakugo’s got an extra surprise for Kirishima. It’s very soft)

just you wait by Slumber (this one’s about the Bakusquad growing together and loving each other. It’s. super good)

neither rain nor sleet nor all these feels by shizuumi151 (it’s, as Kaminari describes it, the premise of a porn movie with mailman Kirishima and stay-at-home Bakugo hitting on him, except it’s just the fluff and humor)

A Creature Made Out Of Stardust by Stylish_Racoon (Bakugo saves a Merman who in turn (spoiler alert) saves his life. Very good)

Soul Impact by JinxedForever (Soul Eater AU where krbk are partners!)

Heart Made For Taking Flight by timetoboldlygo (Bakugo is royalty. He ran away from home and met Kirishima with whom he formed a soul bond, add some family drama and a dragon swiping in to get his husband back. It’s perfect)

Sometimes We Fall in the Dark by timetoboldlygo (no quirks college AU where gets into photography as a hobby and falls in love as he takes pictures of Kirishima)

astrum by popcap (soulmates AU where Bakugo’s in denial about not caring that his soulmate won’t like him because of his Mom. Really good)

No Secrets to Success by kingdoms (Kirishima’s a little late to joining UA so he befriends Bakugo before he gets there and it’s very sweet)

The Only Word by PurplePersnickety (krbk through the years)

Love language by cyanlana (they love each other in their own way. Kirishima by noticing the smallest little things, and Bakugo by taking care of him. The confession is really really sweet <333)

Things Unspoken by deviance (content and happy Bakugo, loving his friends and being loved, and also, he’s so in love with Kirishima, he just never thought Kirishima wanted to talk about it. It’s so soft)

Scales Ain't The Same As Feathers by Julietwasanidiot (Bakugo is an idiot who thinks a whole ass dragon is a chicken. Mitsuki and Kirishima play along. It’s funny and sweet)

Breathing Half A Breath (Since You're Away) by Julietwasanidiot (krbk got their separate ways after graduation, but they keep in touch. The longing, the craving, in this fic is like no other. By the time they’re standing next to each other again, you’re gonna feel as happy as they do. It’s a really good fic)

Renegade Quirk by threesipsmore (Bakugo’s hit by a quirk that colors people according to their moods. He realizes things. Very good. VERY very good. The getting together part is *chef kiss*).

Prove Me Right by MonocerosRex (Bakugo overhears Kirishima talking about his crush on him and wonders about what he feels regarding that. So he sets out to find out! It’s very very good)

What We Deserve by ThreeNicotinePatches (Bakugo gets the shovel talk from Kaminari and realizes he maybe hasn’t been treating Kirishima as well as he deserves. When a peek at his diary confirms that his boyfriend isn’t sure of Bakugo’s love, he sets to change that. It’s good)

Ocean of flame by Heronfem (Bakugo’s a captain and Kirishima’s a Master and Commander and they fall in love and are badass and they get married what more do you need)

slow to launch by evvi (krbk lose contact after UA but then they meet again and it’s a sort of meet cute and it’s very sweet) (Rater M)

Keeping score by indigonow (kirishima likes bakugo when he’s pleasant but really, kirishima just likes bakugo in general. It’s very good)

Don't ever put me second by cyanlana (they’re both a bit dumb but they figure it out, it’s a getting together fic and it’s sweet)

lionhearted by dearwormwood (Kirishima thinks they’re fakedating, Bakugo thinks they’re dating for real. It’s very good) (rated M)

come on crash into me, 'cause i want us to collide by rronanllynch (Bakugo’s an idiot who thinks his problem with Kirishima kissing other boys is him suddenly contracting homophobia. Turns out he’s just in love).

If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Don't Say Anything At All by Falahime (Bakugo gets hit by a truth quirk and he starts avoiding Kirishima. It’s vert good !) (rated M)

come home to me by aloera (krbk get hit by a quirk that lets them hear each other’s thoughts. Very noice)

Stitches (Three) by Stylish_Racoon (Bakugo’s a doctor and Kirishima comes for stiches and god, they’re so cute. Listen, it’s Stylish_Racoon why are you waiting to read it)

FBO by Falahime (there are attempted proposals, a date crashed by villains, and sweet sweet established krbk. Very soft) (Rated M)

It's Not Like That by Falahime (Kirishima is a bit jealous of Bakugo’s attention on Deku)

By Dawn, Promise Me by chezka (It’s chezka and it’s hanahaki. Do I need to say more)

u got smthn i want by fruti2flutie (Bakugo thinks Kirishima is dating Poney, but turns out she’s into him. He gets a new friend out of this deal, and a boyfriend. It’s very good!)

Just You, Me, and the Breaths Between Us by haha__gay (Bakugo’s got a sleep walking problem and Kirishima finds out and tries to help)

dancing girls (and snapping rubber bands) by gummyconcrete (a lot of feelings going on in this one. Don’t know how to explain it, but it’s GOOD) (rated M)

to have and to hold by aloera (krbk are married and own a restaurent together but their friends are dumb and don’t know they’re married. It’s very soft and sweet)

what we deserve by aloera (soulmate AU with timers. Full of Bakusquad loving and some good getting together)

pickup lines and valentines by aloera (krbk are dating and nobody believes them. Very good)

a godless society by aloera (the one where krbk are disgustingly affectionate and 1-A has had enough. It’s VERY good)

sugar cookies by aloera (krbk get married and they think it’s platonic. It’s REALLY not and it takes all of 1-A exasperatedly repeating it for it to sink in. Hilarious)

can't take my eyes off of you by aloera (Kirishima wears leggins and Bakugo loses his mind It’s very cute Kirishima isn’t as oblivious as he seems ;) )

Doodling the Daydreams Away by loki_dokey (Aizawa catches Bakugo doodling -ehem- things on his essays and well, it’s hilarious)

hero worship by amaranthinecanicular (This is one hell of an amazing fic. there’s no way to describe what it’s about without spoiling. It’s tagged as “creator chose not to use archive warnings”)

Breathe by CitrusVeins (A mission goes wrong and Kirishima proposes to a dying Bakugo, it’s very emotional)

symphony number nine by gummyconcrete (It’s soft. It’s so good and the krbk flavor is just, exquisite.)

my own soul's warning by obiter (future Bakugo barges into the present and Bakugo, who’s rejected Kirishima is jealous of their proximity. PH!Bakugo helps him figure out some shit. It’s very good and I really loved how they wrote Kirishima. It isn’t actually tagged as “creator chose not to use archive warnings” but I think it should be)

The Way We Love i_write_shakespeare_not_disney (This is just, so good. Krbk's interactions are so good and their friendship is just so damn important and they're so in love and so stupid (especially bkg tbh) and it's just. perfect. please, do yourself a favor and read it, it'll inject happiness straight into your veins).

[victorie552onepiecespeedrun]

Reading One Piece pt 311: Fight That Depression Ace

Chapter 559

Thoughts:

- Fpos/cs: “The giant tombstone on the outskirts of the ruins” Zoro and Perona! They’re exploring the island

- …oh Ace

- “What is it?”

“I don’t care what the future holds for me. I accept it. I reach out to the hand that offers me help… and I accept the blade that would execute me. I won’t fight it anymore. I’m sorry, everyone.” ...D:

- oh no, this is bad, this is horribly, horribly wrong

- so much depression, and for what? Technically it’s alright because Ace won’t fight against rescuing anymore, but it feels so very wrong…

- even Sengoku is like “…”

- silent fighting continues for the whole page

- lol, Buggy’s people are jealous Luffy is getting all the attention and want Buggy to do something cool. Buggy really walked into that one

- oh hey, Whitebeard noticed him :D

- hilarious :D

- “Are you here to take my head?” “… …Yeah!! Prepare yourself!!” ok, how will he get out of this one

- “You can take my head if you want, but… What will you do about the Navy afterwards? You can’t handle all of them yourself.” Solid point

- “And neither can I. I’m having a hard time.” you’re just standing there

- (or are you that sick it takes effort, Whitebeard?)

- “So what do you say? We’re both pirates. Let’s join forces and crush the Navy. You can have my head after that.” he’ll get lucky just like that?

- “Whoa!! Whitebeard really thinks of you as his equal! What an honor!” HE WILL HFGDHKAHGDH Buggy’s the luckiest mother****** in One Piece

- (looks like Whitebeard has a soft spot for idiot pirates. Thank you, Whitebeard, you saved Buggy’s day)

- let’s crush the Navy

- “He’s so easy to manipulate” technically yes, but practically you saved his ass

- Whitebeard Pirates have a plan

- they’re attacking warships. They didn’t before?

- MIND GAMES MIND GAMES MIND GAMES

- “He didn’t take the bait. I suppose my ruse was a little clumsy. But intuition alone won’t save him.” Sengoku! What did you planned?

- Jimbei defeated Moria!!

- “Straw Hat!” “Get out of my way, Tashigi!” since when does he know her na… oh, it was Smoker, nevermind

- oof, that sure was a punch

- wait, Smoker is winning. I don’t know why he wouldn’t, Luffy still doesn’t know how to fight against smoke, but I’m suprised anyway

- Hancock to the rescue!!!

- “How did you hit me? I’m made of smoke!” Haki, my man. And wow, another great panel, Oda really shows her legs

- lol

- Kuma vs. Ivankov? Will it happen?

- no Ivankov, fight him back! I know you were friends but he may have be one of the Pacifistas and don’t recognize you!

- “Heh heh heh… I don’t know how you two are connected, but save your breath, Revolutionary Officer Emporio Ivankov.” Doflamingo, were you just sitting there

- “You think he’s Bartholomew Kuma, right? But I have news for you! The real “Tyrant” Kuma …is already dead.”

What?

rOP 310  rOP 312

[supernova1us]

Sea of Thieves: A Pirate’s Life review

So I bought the game only last week simply because of the “A Pirate’s Life” expansion since im a POTC fan. Now that I’ve seen and experienced the 5 tall tales, it was worth suffering through the week of figuring out all the coordinating it takes to keep up with the game. So here are all my “novice” thoughts and opinions of it; spoilers follow.

-I have the dark warsmith skeleton skin so playing with that (and my undead parrot) was different but fun

-all the POTC references and stuff were great, especially when clarified that it takes place after the events of the films and is canon with them. It’s explained that because will turner being free from the Dutchman in the 5th film somehow allowed davy jones to return and reclaim the dutchman, filling in the after credit scene of that movie.

-Playing with and being with jack sparrow and part of his adventure is a dream come true, plus great seeing so many other POTC characters than I expected (gibbs, scrum, anamaria, ghost beckett, and mentions of will, elizabeth and even regetti)

-the castaway is confirmed and revealed to by calypso, which most people already kinda figured. Its very cool in the final battle to finally see them have it out over their past and relationship and see it resolved(in a way).

-the cursed skeleton captain was a super fun new character; I love when pirates are designed with all three impairments (hook hand, eye patch, peg leg)

-we are reunited with some beloved departed SOT faces in the tavern of the damned.

-a large part of enjoying the experience was purely from the music; whether new scores or remakes of old SOT or POTC music, it was always deep and able to elicit such emotion in me every step of the way to make it an astounding gameplay.

-all the levels were equal challenging and enjoyable, even those that were pretty difficult to get through; if I had rate the 5 tall tales on enjoyability, they’d be

1. Captains of the Damned

2. A Pirate’s Life

3. The Sunken Pearl(this was tied with dark brethren but won out because of the haunting singing/music)

4. Dark Brethren

5. Lords of the sea

-“A Pirates Life” and “Captains of the Damned” were great highlights that I know I will play multiple times for their easy and fun explorative gameplay and nostalgic inspiration from the ride.

-The Ocean crawlers, while hard to fight, look awesome and were great stand-ins for davy jones’ trademark crew.

-we get a bit of ominous world building with the dark brethren; gold hoarder being alive(and hilariously being gifted the cursed gold from the first POTC), captain warsmith(wanda) appears to be going solo from flameheart and is revealed to have been the masked stranger associated with the Reapers(edit-that was already known, but i have a lot of gaps in lore knowledge), and Duke, former associate of the Bilge Rats, apparently gone rogue.

-these also lead into serious consequences for future events in the game; davy jones is now imprisoned on the ferry of the damned(I wonder if we’ll be able to see him when we go there); the dark brethren are still loose; whether the ocean crawlers, ghosts, sirens and the kraken will continue to be enemies in the game; will the portal to the sea of the damned stay open; Rose and George being restored to life and joining jack’s crew and returning to his world. There is also the question of two mysterious unrevealed characters; first is the “her” that jack keeps mentioning he made a promise to regarding the treasure. The other is the mysterious “Captain” who evidently stole Jones’ heart, commanded his actions and is the grand mastermind of these events. i lrecently found out who “the captain” of SOT lore is and that its most likely him...but how did he gets jones’ heart from another world though? 

 Cons

-all the time spent in the sea of the damned, and we never get to see captain briggsy(my fav character)

-flameheart is talked about by the brethren in the past tense, as if he’s gone and no longer a factor; I sure as hell hope not, he’s the primary and best villain of this game, the guy’s awesome.

-3 of the 5 tall tales felt way to hard/complex except for the most skilled of players(thank god for crews).

-No Barbossa; Captains of the Damned mentioned him quite a bit and I thought we were building up to him being introduced but it never happening. A small part of me suspects he may be the mysterious captain with jones’ heart.(edit-found out the captain is of SOT lore tied with flameheart)

-Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush not reprising their POTC characters.

-wish we got to spend more time with the cursed captain

-I know it’s typical for this game and others like it, but not getting a bit more close up interactions with davy jones.

[itsthemoofacewriting]

Drowning in the night

Among us is quite popular at the moment (rightly so) and it’s Halloween, so I was really feeling this. It pushed aside all of my current WIPs in demand to be written.

There’s a lot of similarities with the game, but I did take some artistic liberties, so don’t come at me. If you’ve never played Among us, it might be worth looking up the rules/gameplay before reading- otherwise a lot of things are going to fly straight over your head. The ship is based on the Skeld map to give you a rough layout, but there are some differences.

Title is from ‘Burning Lights’ by The Weeknd, I listened to this a lot when I was writing.

Summary: The ship’s suddenly breaking down and crew members are starting to behave suspiciously. Bonds are about to be tested as suspicion rises of an imposter amongst them. ZoNami. Among us AU.   Rating: M- Horror, Blood, Gore

Can also be found on AO3 and FFN. 

Enjoy!

Nami’s looking at the charts on the screen in front of her and frowned. The ship’s slightly off course. She’d plotted that just this morning and the weather nodes hadn’t detected anything for concern, there was no reason for the shift. She shrugged it off. Sure this was the first time it’d happened, but this wasn’t the newest ship anymore. She’d check the weather nodes shortly and keep an eye on things.

For now though, she made the adjustments and as she did, she caught Zoro dozing off at the far wall near the door. He’d been hiding away in here for most of the morning and if she hadn’t already known about him dealing with stray asteroids this morning on his watch, she’d be moaning at him about being lazy. Give it another 10 minutes and she still might.

But then she stopped and gave him an assessing look as an idea came to mind. He hadn’t moved for the last 10 minutes, he was probably in a deep sleep by now, and that thought made her hand twitch for the permanent marker that she knew was in her desk drawer. She’s done it before, and it’d been hilarious. He’d walked around the whole day with a moustache and pirate patch without knowing. Some would say it’s mean but she believed it was fair play.

“No,” he said, one eye cracked open to glare at her.

How the hell did he do that?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She smiled at him far too innocently, hands behind her back, and his other eye opened to properly glare at her.

When it was clear he wasn’t buying what she was selling, she huffed and turned around to get back to her task and Zoro readjusted to get comfortable again as he let his eyes slip shut.

Nami and Zoro had been travelling together for years, along with Luffy, Usopp and Sanji. Only recently had they been joined by Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook. In all honesty, Nami wasn’t sure how they coped without them. Running a ship was difficult at the best of times and before, they’d been doing with only five people and no mechanic- Usopp could only do so much. Franky had blanched when he’d seen the state of the ship.

She’d just finished her adjustments when the communicator in her ear suddenly started to screech and it’s so deafeningly loud there’s a moment where she can’t do anything other than clutch at her helmet. From the corner of her eye she can see Zoro having the same reaction, no longer snoozing against the wall.

In the next moment she’s trying to tear off her helmet, except she can’t get the final clip to undo at the back and the more desperate she was becoming, the harder it was to do. Her eardrums felt like they were about to burst any second and there’s tears collecting in her eyes from the pain.

But then it’s over. There’s another pair of hands pushing hers away and smoothly unclipping the helmet. Not a moment later and she’s clawing out the earpieces to throw them across the room. There’s still ringing in her ears but it’s fading quickly now there’s silence.

“You alright?” Zoro’s voice is rough, no doubt from his abrupt wake up call. He’s looking down at her with concern, like it hadn’t just happened to him too and his thumb is wiping the stray tear that fell.

It’s a soft gesture, especially for him, and it’s like it suddenly dawned on him what he’s done. He coughed, face flushing and took a step back, avoiding eye contact. Nami smiled to herself, he was doing more and more things like this lately and it was becoming more apparent why with each passing day.

In the early days of the crew, Zoro and Nami had spent their days viciously arguing with each other and if it hadn’t been for Luffy gluing them together back then, she wondered if they’d still be travelling together now. Their arguing had ceased as time had passed and they’d got to know one another. Now they bickered instead and it’s harmless, even if they do anger the other occasionally give it half an hour and they’re back to normal. It was easy for Nami to call Zoro one of her best friends. Because he is. He understood her and although it worked against her sometimes, she’d have it no other way.

But lately. Lately things had shifted. She couldn’t put her finger on it. More time spent together and soft looks that he thinks she doesn’t see. Yet, it’s hard to tell with Zoro. He doesn’t do anything overly romantic and as for flirting, she doesn’t think she’s ever seen him do it. He doesn’t seem like the type and that’s fine, but it made it hard to be sure. Maybe he just viewed her as a friend, or worse, as a sister. She knew that Luffy did.

When Nami nodded in response to his question, it should be awkward, Zoro still refusing to look directly as her and her cheeks were warm from his gentle touch, but the communicators were still screeching, and it could be heard from across the room. Frowning, Nami walked over to pick them up. It’s the first time it’s ever happened in all her time on board and paired with the drifting ship, she can’t help the suspicion that’s brewing.

Maybe their ship had seen it’s best already- a thought that Nami didn’t want to entertain too much. There were so many memories on this ship.

There’s a commotion outside that halted her thoughts, feet thumping through the long corridors and voices calling out to Franky. Zoro’s nodding to her then, gesturing towards the door that they should also go.

Unfortunately, Zoro took the lead.

“How many times do I have to tell you? It’s right out of navigation to get to the cafeteria!”

Zoro turned on his heel and stomped past Nami, face flushed in embarrassment. “I’ve gone that way before,” is his only defence.

Nami rolled her eyes. “You can go that way, but it takes twice as long and, knowing you, you’ll end up taking another wrong turn and do a whole lap around the ship.”

Based on his silence, that is what he’s done before.

She truly wondered about her sanity sometimes, falling for a guy that has no sense of direction. An idiot.

They’re the last ones to arrive when Franky’s explaining the issue. Something about a system that’s probably fried, although he doesn’t understand why it’s happened yet. Just that he’ll investigate and get back to them and that sounded reasonable enough to everyone as they nodded along. Franky collected their earpieces.

“Back to shouting then,” Nami sighed, imagining the chaos and noise this’ll bring. Luffy on the other hand is thrilled, and everyone knows he’ll spend the rest of the day running around the ship.

They’re breaking apart after that, back to their previous activities, and Sanji’s shouting after them about lunch being soon, which immediately stopped Luffy from leaving to tail Sanji back to the kitchen instead.

“I need to check the weather nodes, our course altered for some reason and I need to make sure they’re performing. If they’re not, I can’t anticipate any weather patterns that’d affect the ship’s course,” Nami explained as they walked back to navigation. Although as soon as she did, she realised she’s discussing this with Zoro, of all people. He’s never understood any of this and she’s sure it just goes in one ear and out the other.

Nevertheless, he nodded and wisely kept his mouth shut. At least he understood she’d need someone with her to do that. It wasn’t wise to step outside alone; there were old wives’ tales of people going missing when they went outside the ship alone.  

“After lunch. The cook’s bitching at me about cleaning the garbage shoot.” Despite his words, he still settled back down into his previous spot by the door and she knew there’d be an argument kicking off soon if he didn’t move himself.

Before she could tell him as much, the lights above them flickered and there were voices throughout the ship shouting “Usopp” and “electrical”. Usopp could be heard loudly groaning in response and his feet dragging through the ship.

Zoro grunted his goodbye shortly afterwards and Nami shouted “turn right”, but it was too late. He was gone and she knew him well enough to know he’d turned left instead. Idiot.

Nami was typing away at the screen, downloading this morning’s data and making a note to head over to admin to do it there as well. If she didn’t, it was unlikely anyone else would. Although Robin might, she had been known to do it occasionally. That woman was a blessing. Nami honestly didn’t know how she’d survived all this time with those idiots, even if they were her idiots, they drove her insane at times with their laid-back attitudes.

She’s still downloaded data when she suddenly heard a rumbling sound behind her, far too close for comfort, and she jumped, turning as she did but nothing was there. It was quiet for a moment and she could feel a cold sweat breaking down her back. It was ridiculous, she’d always felt safe in this ship but there was something about this morning that was getting to her and she’d never heard that sound before. It happened again and one of the vents rattled.

Not a second later, she was running out of the room, feeling like a spooked child, and swiping her key card to lock the door behind her.

A shiver ran down her spine but before she could do anything else, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the ship. Her head whipped towards the direction and she was running before she could even think it through, she knew that scream anywhere, but she’d never heard him like that before.

“Usopp!”

She was passing through storage when a voice shouted after her. “Nami! What the hell happened?” Zoro asked, catching up to run alongside her.

“No idea. I’m hoping he just electrocuted himself.”

But for all her wishful thinking, Usopp wouldn’t scream like that over something so menial and Zoro must have thought the same as it was written all over his face.

Along the way, they’d picked up Brook and Robin and as they narrowed in on the room, from the opposite direction was Chopper, Sanji, Luffy and Franky.

The door flew open and Sanji was the first to ask, “What the fuck was that?!”

The room looked trashed, wires haphazardly dangling from units or snapped with electricity sparking from them. Usopp was in the middle of the chaos.

“Something grabbed me! It tried to drag me across the room,” Usopp said, his voice shaking and on the verge of hysterical as he sat on the floor hunched over and clutching at his ankle. His face was as white as a sheet.

Despite the state of him, and the room, the crew were aware of Usopp’s rather… theatrical storytelling.  

“Sure it wasn’t just a rat? Maybe its tail touched you or something,” Zoro suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

Nami grimaced at that thought but she nodded. “As much as the thought pains me, it probably was a rat. You guys hardly clean very much.” Something she would make a point of nagging them about from now on.

“What’s wrong with your ankle?” Chopper inquired; he’d been quiet thus far but as the ships doctor, he’d noticed Usopp’s odd position.

Usopp cringed as he removed his hands from his ankle and the crew blanched. The yellow of his suit was ripped open and his hands were covered in blood. The skin around his ankle had a deep handprint that cut through the skin. The most disturbing part was the claw marks surrounding the handprint, the skin raw and red around the scratches. Clearly there’d been a struggle.

“Oh shit,” Sanji muttered under his breath, eyes going round.

Because not only was Usopp hurt, but that was a handprint on Usopp’s bloodied ankle.

One that looked very human.

The room suddenly felt far too heavy.

It was then that Luffy spoke. So far he’d been quiet but his frown had only grown. “Cafeteria,” he ordered, his voice firm and a stark contrast from the happy-go-lucky captain they were used to.  

“This hardly seems like the time to eat,” Franky trailed off, rubbing the back of his head as his eyes trailed from Usopp to Luffy.

“There’s multiple exit points,” Robin supplied, catching on to what Luffy meant.

That set the mood. Suddenly everyone seemed on edge as the reality of the situation settled. Luffy was being serious. This was serious.

Sanji and Zoro wrapped one of Usopp’s arms around their shoulders and they were hauling him up to follow after Luffy towards the cafeteria. Chopper scuttled after them, saying he’d stop by the medical bay for supplies before meeting them there.

Nami stood there, trying to comprehend just what was going on as everyone filed out.  

Robin walking over to touch her lightly on the arm. “If whatever this is was dangerous, it would have killed Usopp on sight without leaving a trace of him,” she reassured.

That at least got Nami out of her stupor and she gaped at her friend in horror. “That’s so dark Robin!”

.

.

.

The atmosphere in the cafeteria was tense, no one had spoken, not even when Chopper had trotted in to start working on Usopp’s ankle.

Sanji broke the silence. “Did you see anything?”

“No.” Usopp shook his head. “One minute I’m elbow deep in wires and the next I’m on the floor being dragged.”

“Full story, go from the start and tell us exactly what happened.”

“Okay, so I’m in the corner because for some reason the wires looked frayed and I thought I heard something but when I turned there was nothing. I turned back to continue but then there’s something grabbing my ankle and pulling me across the floor.” He paused then, his body shaking slightly. “It came from behind and that’s when I screamed. I started kicking and thrashing around, grabbing onto whatever I could and then it just disappeared. It was like nothing was even there in the first place.”

“Where was it dragging you?” Nami asked. She had a hunch.

“It didn’t get very far but I think it was towards the opposite corner.”

“Where the vent is?” She could feel dread filling her… surely not?

“Yeah!”

The crews gaze swivelled on Nami then, waiting for her to explain why she would guess something like that.

“There were weird sounds in navigation and the vents were rattling just a few minutes before you screamed but I ran as soon as I heard it.” She shivered at the thought, that could have been her.

“You think it came through the vents!?” Chopper squeaked, there was vents in the med bay too. There were vents in almost every room and that knowledge didn’t settle anyone.  

“What the hell is small enough to fit in there and move around so quickly?!”

“Also, the ship’s behaving strangely. It was off course this morning just after I’d plotted it out, then the communicators breaking and then the lights?!” Nami said and with each passing issue she listed, the feeling of dread grew.

“What are you suggesting?” Robin calmly asked.

There was a moment of silence, because this moment was inevitable, and they’d all been trying to delay it. Where someone would have to voice what everyone was starting to think.

That someone in this crew did it.

“Where’s everyone been this morning?” Zoro asked, solemnly.

Everyone’s rattling off their locations and, so far, they’d all been with each other, apart from Usopp. But it’s then that Nami realised, Zoro had left just before it’d happened. He’d left to go and clean the garbage shoot and by the sounds of it, never made it there as Sanji didn’t say anything about seeing him.

“Me and Zoro were in navigation.” Zoro shot her a look and she’s not technically lying but if she gets found out that he had left briefly, it’d looked suspicious as hell. But there’s no way Zoro did this, one of the foundations of this crew along with her and Luffy, their longest standing member, their second in command, and she’s not about to have people pointing fingers at him.

Zoro’s shooting her looks that she decided to ignore but he doesn’t challenge her. If he did now, not only would he put himself under suspicion, but it’d also take her down with him. It’s the last thing either of them needed.

“Then something else must be on the ship,” Sanji offered, unwilling to point any fingers.

“How? We’ve been travelling for weeks and it picks now? Sounds too sophisticated for something that’s not human and how’s it not been spotted? It’s gone around undetected all this time?” Zoro questioned.

“So what? You’re suggesting it’s one of us? The vents are too small!”

“Unless someone in this room isn’t who they say they are,” Zoro continued and although he was off to the side, he had the attention of the whole crew. “The ship suddenly breaking when it’s been fine all this time and getting around undetected. This needs knowledge, something that can be learned by being around us all.”

“There’s rumours about this. They’ve never been confirmed though because ships and their crew disappear without a trace, never to be seen again,” Robin chimed in and it had Nami, Usopp and Chopper looking at her in terror. Franky shook his head next to her.

“That’s old wives’ tales!” Usopp said, but there’s a wobble in his voice that doesn’t make it believable. “Right?”

“Had to come from somewhere and we did just pick up new recruits,” Zoro said and his scrutinising gaze is aimed at Robin, Franky and Brook.

“You better not be suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” Sanji growled, no doubt sticking up for Robin.

“Coincidental, no?” Zoro’s eyebrow quirked.

“I think everyone needs to calm down,” Brook said, his hands held up to avoid confrontation.

“So you’re accusing Chopper, too right? Because he’s just as new as the rest of them,” Sanji argued, ignoring Brook, to call Zoro out his favouritism. It was no secret that Zoro had taken the young medic under his wing.

They both started arguing and soon enough, the rest of the crew’s chiming in to either argue for one side or try to calm everyone down.

Nami agreed with Brook. They weren’t going to get anywhere sitting around pointing fingers at each other with no proof. “Luffy, say something!”

Her plea to the silent captain cuts through the argument and everyone’s turning towards Luffy for his verdict. He had yet to weigh in on the argument, but now wasn’t a time for silence. They needed their captain to take charge.

“No turning on each other,” is all he instructed, face serious and arms crossed from his position on the table.  

“Luffy-” Zoro started, no doubt about to try and talk some sense into him as second in command.

“What if you’re wrong?” Luffy fired back, not letting up and he made a good point. Not even Zoro would forgive himself if he was wrong.

“And if I’m right?”

“Lot of ifs flying about,” Usopp jumped in.

“We’ll deal with that if the time comes.” There’s a finality in Luffy’s voice that said this part of the discussion was over.  

“Franky, what are the routes for the vents?” Nami enquired, eager to move away from that topic. They needed to move forward anyway, not in circles. “Maybe we can avoid them until we find… whatever this is.”

Franky sighed, his shoulders slumping, “I connected them all together a few weeks ago… It made more sense for ventilation.”

Nami cringed in response, it’s a bad answer and one that put him on the receiving end of a few sharp looks. Robin rubbed his shoulder consolingly, but it didn’t do much to alleviate the tension in the room. It was like everyone in the room just put him straight into the number one position for most suspicious and he knew it.

Zoro was about to open his mouth but instead of words it was replaced by an angry shrieking of the alarm and red lights suddenly started flashing above their heads.

“What the fuck is that?”

“It’s the reactor!”

“So it can’t be any of us, we’re all here!” Sanji exclaimed, shooting Zoro a sour look as he spoke and Zoro returned the look tenfold.

“Not the time for that!” Nami barked, in no mood to break up a fight right now.

And then the lights cut out and they were in pitch black for a few seconds before the dim of the emergency lights flickered to life. They were far weaker than the main lights and the result was poor visibility- everything would be so much harder to do like this. The intermittent flash of red didn’t do much to help either.  

It was just one thing after another.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Nami presumed that was Sanji based on the language and the chair that was just kicked across the room.

“What do we do?”

“I’m going to deal with the reactor.” Franky shouted, already making his way to the door with Robin on his heels. “The lights shouldn’t go off like this unless there’s multiple breaks in the wires, you need to find where the broken wires are, it’s most likely in multiple places.”

He’s almost gone but he stopped at the door when Nami shouted after him, “Franky, did you fix the communicators?”

“Not well but they’ve stopped screeching, it’ll have to do for now.” He quickly grabbed the small devices from his suit pocket, chucking them towards the crew.

And then he was gone.

“Everyone in pairs, do not leave anyone alone and we’ll meet back here after!” Luffy ordered.

Zoro was instantly by Nami’s side and Sanji looked like he was about to argue until Usopp clung to his side, telling him he needed the most protection out of anyone else. Although Sanji bitched at him to get off, Sanji’s face softened as he looked at the younger man.

“Keep Nami safe, Marimo!” He shouted as he ran with Usopp towards electrical.

“Idiot, he needs to worry about himself,” Zoro grumbled, folding his arms.  

“Let’s go, we need to find any wires that are frazzled, we’ll start with the right wing.” She explained, taking off towards the exit of the cafeteria with Zoro hot on her heels. “Well… just follow me, you probably don’t even know where that is.”

“Oi! I know my left from right.”

Nami grabbed Zoro’s hand just as they entered the corridors and as much as she told herself it was so that he didn’t get lost, it wasn’t convincing enough to stop the flush from working its way up her face. Especially when Zoro squeezed her hand in response.

“So we don’t get lost,” she supplied.

Zoro snorted in response but for once, didn’t say anything back.

The peace from this morning was long gone and was replaced with thumping footsteps and shouting as the crew descended into chaos, scattered across the huge ship trying to stay alive. At one-point Brook, Chopper and Luffy ran past them and Nami was left shouting after them because it looked like they were running around with no real ambition.

It didn’t take long after that for Nami to find one of the breakages and she was left gaping at it. It looked like it’d been chewed apart, the metal was torn open with sparking wires hanging limply.

“Focus,” Zoro said, nudging her arm. “I’ll cover you, don’t worry.”

In that moment Nami was happy to have him with her. He kept a cool head in dire situations, and she needed that right now. She needed to not think about someone… something, on their crew trying to destroy their ship and kill them all. She took a deep breath in and a deep breath out to centre herself. Fix the wires first and everything else would come second, she told herself.

She clicked the light on the shoulder of her orange suit to illuminate the wires in front of her as her helmet was still clipped around the belt of her suit. No one had put theirs back on since the communicators this morning.

She was making good progress and she only had two wires left to reconnect when both her and Zoro’s attention was stolen by the communication doors closing just a few feet away. What the hell? No one was down this part of the ship.

The hallway suddenly came alive as doors started closing and opening randomly.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Someone’s tampering with the wiring or the controls.” Dread was building in her stomach; it was one thing after another. They were being sent on wild goose-chase after wild goose-chase- a distraction to keep them busy.

A crackling was heard through her communicator and she was struggling to keep up at everyone’s broken words.

“Someone- admin-”

“Not right- still- someone else-”

“I’m- route,” Brook crackled through and by the sounds of it, he’d be dealing with it.

They could hear feet running down the hall close to where they were and that reassured Nami that Brook was close and that the issue would be resolved soon.

Except that reassurance soon disappeared as Nami heard a familiar sound and it made her stomach drop. As quickly as she could, she was reattaching the last wire and stumbling over her words to tell Zoro what was about to happen. “Zoro, it’s the rumbling of the vents, that thing is on the move. Think of a room for us to hide in without a vent so we can go as soon as I’m done.”

Zoro was quiet for a moment and Nami knew how absurd it was to ask that of Zoro, he barely knew the layout… well, he thought he did, but that was an entirely different issue and Nami couldn’t think of everything herself right now. But then his hand was on her arm, ready to pull her as soon as she was ready.

As soon as the last wire was in place, she was almost pulled off her feet as she stumbled to keep up, running past communications as the door was still closed and into the woman’s room next to it.

Zoro pulled out his key card to close the door after them and she felt her patience thinning when he failed on the third attempt. Third!

“How the hell can you still not work your key card after all this time?!” She whispered huffily, pushing him aside to swipe her own key card and watched the door slide shut.

“Shut up, it’s tricky and you know it!”

“Maybe at first! How long have you been here?” Sarcasm dripping from her voice.

A scream ran through the ship afterwards and it sounded like Brook. It didn’t take long for Nami to piece together. He was in admin. There was a vent in there.

Nami choked on her sob.

Suddenly there were hands on her shoulders, and she was looking Zoro in the face as he peered down at her with a stern expression.

“Pull yourself together. Brook’s tough, he won’t go down easily and even if he does, you reacting like this isn’t going to help anyone,” his voice was firm and he squeezed the top of her arms, she presumed in an effort to comfort her. “Besides, you’re with me, don’t insult me.”

He was trying to reassure her and in doing it in his own weird way, it worked. She felt herself relaxing, well, relaxing as much as she could in a situation like this, and Zoro was rewarded with a wobbly smile. She couldn’t help herself as she pulled him in for tight hug, clinging to him as he gave her silent reassurance, and he hugged her back just as tightly. He was so warm, and, in that moment, it made everything feel better.

After a second, she pulled away to look up at him. “Okay, let’s go! There’s more wires to reattach,” she told him, fire back in her eyes and Zoro smiled at the change.

The doors slid back open and Zoro tentatively poked his head out, Nami followed suit, looking down the other end of the hallway. She frowned when she saw a purple suit at the end of the corridor, what the hell was Robin doing by herself?

Nami nudged Zoro to get his attention but just as she was about to call out to her, the middle of her suit split apart into a mangled mouth and a long, black tongue oozed out to lick the wall.

Nami felt the blood drain from her body. What was that thing?!

And was it trying to find them through taste?!

Nami squeaked before Zoro could clamp his and the thing was whipping around to peer down the hallway. Zoro just managed to pull her back in before they could be spotted as the doors slid closed behind them.

“You alright?” Zoro whispered, his hand still covering her mouth and she realised he was making sure she wouldn’t scream. Nami nodded and his hand fell away.

“I fucking knew it. She was fishy from the moment she stepped on board,” Zoro hissed, his expression furious.

“I shared a room with her,” Nami said, except there was no heat behind her words, only sadness. It was silly, Nami didn’t know her, clearly, but Robin had been her friend and she felt like she was mourning the loss of that.

They descended back into silence as footsteps could be heard thumping closer and Zoro’s hand was over Nami’s mouth again when they stopped outside the door- not that it was needed, she’d already stopped breathing. She wondered if it was trying to taste them again and a shiver ran down her spine. It was a long moment before they could hear the footsteps retreat from outside the door, but they still waited until it was gone to sigh in relief.

“I’m calling it in,” Zoro informed quietly and Nami nodded back at him as he clicked the side of his communicator.

“Everyone, it’s Robin! Keep your distance, she’s the imposter! She’s not human.”

Although Nami could hear Zoro saying it, she was in too close a distance to Zoro to be able to hear what the rest of the crew were able to through the communicator. She presumed from what she heard earlier from the others they would have received a jumbled message.

All they got in response was a variation of, “What-,” “-Robin-,” and “-Here-,” and that confirmed her suspicions.

Nami put her hand on Zoro’s arm to get his attention. “It’s no use,” Nami sighed. “We’ll need to find someone else and spread the word. We need to meet back at the cafeteria. We need a plan.”

This situation was looking grimmer by the second.

Nami stood then, determined to put an end to this as she started to make her way to the door but then Zoro stood and caught her elbow.

“Wait a second.”

And she did.

She waited but he still stood there saying nothing as he peered down at her. He looked intense and for once she couldn’t read the look on his face, it was oddly unnerving. She hadn’t had that problem with him for ages. She raised an eyebrow, challenging him to speak but his eyebrows only furrowed further. What the hell was he thinking about? Since when did he think through what he said?

But Zoro was not a man of words, he’s a man of action, so instead he leaned down to press a brief kiss to her cheek, as if that explained everything.

Nami gaped up at him but all he offered in explanation was, “Should’ve told you a while go.”

She’s still trying to get her brain to work, wrap around what he’s just done and said. She managed to string together words after a brief pause. “That you like me?” She asked tentatively.

He’s stubbornly looking at the wall, his ears bright red and he spat a “Yes!” at her.

“But you didn’t?” She had no idea why she asked that, but honestly, she’s not really thinking right now. At this point, the words are tumbling out her of mouth without any real filter. She’s still trying to wrap her head around what’s happening. This is the last thing she expected.

“Did you hear me say any of this sappy shit before?” He’s still looking at the wall but now he’s crossed his arms defensively.  

“Well, you’ve barely said anything now, so it’s hard to say.” If he wanted to be a brat about it, she was more than happy to tease him.

He rolled his eyes at her and finally made eye contact, “Fine. I like you. In a romantic way.”

Very romantic when he basically gritted his teeth through the whole thing. Yet she could still feel a blush working across her cheeks. How is this working on her?

“Why now?” She asked, trying to distract from her reaction.

“Better late than never.”

Something about that didn’t still well with her. Why was never even an option right now?

“So you’re backing down on your word?”

He doesn’t say anything but looked down at her in confusion.

“That we’re getting out of this alive,” she explained and waited for him to catch on to what she’s referring to. She can almost see the moment the bulb goes on over his head.

“No. You’re coming out of this alive.”

Her stomach knotted at his words; he didn’t mean…?

“…But you’re not?” She hesitantly asked, did she really want to know the answer to that?

“Don’t know yet,” he muttered.

This should be a happy moment. The infuriatingly annoying guy she’s liked for a while has confessed, but the reality is they’re currently being hunted and there’s no guarantee any of them will come out of this alive.

But she’d be damned if he went down without her, so in her mind it’s either both of them or neither.

And then it hits her, they may not have another moment together like this.

So for once in her life, she stopped thinking and without hesitation grabbed his face to crush his lips against hers. He yelped at the abruptness, but it was soon muffled. She couldn’t stop the amused smile spreading across her lips at his reaction.

It was by no means the most romantic kiss, neither of them had much experience before this and the mood is hardly set by the looming possibility of death, but Nami regretted nothing as they exchanged clumsy kisses. Zoro tentatively settled his hands on her waist, like he was waiting for her to tell him off, but she didn’t, instead she’s slipping her arms around his shoulders to draw herself in closer. They’re only closed-mouth pecks that occasionally linger for longer but that’s okay for right now, they can hardly start a make out session and honestly, Nami’s not prepared for anything more right now, her stomach already feels like it’s going to burst open.

They broke apart shortly afterwards but didn’t move away from each other.

“Idiot, how long?”  

“Hah?” He asked stupidly against her lips.

Christ, what an idiot.

“How long have you liked me?” She clarified.

“Probably from the fifth argument, but I didn’t realise until much later. You pissed me off a lot, but I realised I didn’t want anything else.”

That still told her nothing, they squabbled constantly, but yeah, she could relate. It’d just hit her one day too.  

“You wasted a lot of time,” she accused.

“You were hardly forthcoming yourself!”

“Forthcoming? That’s a big word for you, trying to woo me?”

“Clearly don’t need to, do I?” His voice was impossibly smug as his arms tightened around her to make his point, and it grated her slightly. “Besides, you’re the navigator, aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be guiding?”

“Arse. I can’t do everything, you know. Navigate, repair wires, open doors for you; you have to pull your weight too,” she countered, her smile broadening as he glowered at her.

He didn’t grace her with a response, but she didn’t mind when he pulled her back into another kiss. It wasn’t as clumsy this time, and that was probably because she wasn’t trying to crush Zoro into her face. It was still just as insistent, but they found their rhythm quickly and mouths were tentatively opening for tongues to brush against each other’s. Distantly, Nami wondered if she’d ever be prepared for something like this. Her hands buried themselves into his hair and she stood on tip toes to get closer.  

All of that came to a grinding halt as another siren started going off, alongside the reactor alarm and they pulled apart. Nami flushed when she realised just what they were doing, in the middle of a crisis no less. They were making out in the girl’s room whilst their ship was falling apart and being hunted by Robin. She was mortified and when she looked up at Zoro he looked nothing but smug.

She didn’t feel bad about elbowing him in the ribs.

Their communicators crackled to life and they could hear Franky rushing through his words, “Shit- O2- down- someone- fix-”

“-helmets-”

That was only a few rooms away from them and although she hadn’t said anything, Zoro was nodding his head at her. They were both taking their helmets from the belts to put them on but Nami stopped Zoro before he could put if over his head.

“To be continued,” Nami whispered, pressing one last kiss against his lips to make her point, “because there will be a next time.” She delivered that line firmly because neither of them was dying before she could do this again.

He didn’t look convinced but that’s fine, Nami was adamant about it enough for the both of them. They finished clipping their helmets on and it’d be enough to supply them with oxygen for the next half an hour until the machine was working again.

“Roger, roger,” Nami spoke clearly into the communicator, hoping someone caught that.  

For the second time, they were peering out into the corridor and they were eerily silent. Nami pushed through any of those thoughts, she’d think about that later, and took Zoro’s hand as they cautiously made their way through the hallways.

The doors behind them suddenly started snapping closed one by one.

And now the doors were being tampered with. It was trying to split them up.

“Run! We’re going to get locked in!”

As they took the last corner, just making it before they were sitting ducks in a part of the hallway with a vent, Nami could see the O2 room in the distance. She watched in horror as the door started to slide close. If she didn’t make that there was no telling if she’d be able to open it anytime soon and before she could think it through, she was dropping Zoro’s hand to sprint towards the door and slide through just as it closed behind her.

Heavy footsteps thumped from the other. “Oi! Are you okay!? Open the door,” Zoro shouted, banging on the door and as she swiped her key card to let him in, her hunch had been correct. It beeped angrily back at her; the door wouldn’t open. She would be stuck in here for the foreseeable future.

“I’m fine! The door won’t open, go find the others. Tell them about what’s going on and fix the door system, I’ll deal with O2.” He stayed silent and she knew he was about to argue with her, so she continued. “There’s no vents in here, I’ll be okay. Go!”

“Shit. Okay.” She couldn’t see him, but she knew he’s be running his hands over his helmet, wishing it was his hair. “I’ll be back as soon as the doors open again.”

And then she heard footsteps running away and she breathed out slowly. She could feel her eyes welling up as desperation set in but then she remembered Zoro’s words from before. It wasn’t over yet and he’d been right, if she got inside her head now, she wouldn’t be able to do this, and they’d all suffocate.

She had a job to do.

Cracking her fingers, she got to work on restoring the O2 and hoping everyone was piecing everything else together whilst she was busy.

Her fingers were furiously gliding over keyboards, bashing in key codes and watching bars slowly fill back up on the screen. Another few minutes and she’d be done- crisis averted. In the background, she could hear her communicator crackling with a few words scattered in but none of it made sense and she couldn’t waste time trying to piece it together.

The doors still hadn’t opened by the time she’d fixed the O2, she wasn’t sure how long she’d been in here, but it’d been a while and it was hard to tell what was going on outside.

This had been the longest day she’d ever experienced so far; it’d all started before lunch and as her stomach growled, it’s just dawning on her that she never got to eat. Oh god, she sounded like Luffy.

From the corner of her eye she could see some empty canisters, she figured she might as well pass some time filling them just in case and it beat sitting around grumbling about eating and unopened doors.

Just as she finished with the last canister the doors were slowly sliding open… except, Zoro’s not back yet and she’s caught between wanting to find everyone and waiting here for him. But then she’s just a sitting duck and the crew might need her.

She steeled herself to go out, but the lights still hadn’t been restored yet, and all alone it somehow felt even darker. Just as she’s about to leave, a spare steel rod caught her eye by the door and she’s picking it up. She had no idea whether it’d work against a thing like that (she refused to call it Robin), but it’s better than nothing.

Her communicator came alive then and there’s a frenzy of voices, she can’t quite pick out everyone but there’s enough voices to at least reassure her that the crew are okay.

“Nami- cafeteria-”

“Idiot-”

“No- engine- Nami.”

… What?

All the voices were talking over one another and with how poor the quality was she’s struggling to understand what she’s being told. From what she’s gleaned from the limited information it’s: go to the cafeteria, avoid the engine room. It’s slightly concerning that there’s still squabbling going on- but in truth, when is there not?

Before she had to make any hard decisions, a green suit comes into view down the hallway and she let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Zoro. He’d come back for her, just like he said, and maybe he’d have some idea about what’s going on.

“Zoro!” She whispered as loudly as she could, running towards him and he turned, his head nodding to acknowledge her. “Is everyone in the cafeteria?”

He grunted as she grabbed his hand and took off towards the cafeteria with him following closely behind. Although he’s normally quiet, he’s a bit too quiet considering the circumstances. She was expecting some scolding over her reckless move earlier.  

“You okay?” She looked back at him, eyes quickly scanning along his body and didn’t see anything of immediate worry. Green suit intact, helmet firmly in place.

He nodded back at her and she figured the day must be taking a toll on him. She could certainly relate to that.

Shortly afterward she’s bashing in her key card for the closed cafeteria door but stopped short when it was empty. Where is everyone?

Before she could ask him, she could hear footsteps thumping from behind the opposite closed cafeteria door and she smiled to herself. So they were just early, for once.

As the doors opened, she started to walk forward and went to speak but her jaw abruptly snapped closed. Her eyes rounded and it felt like the floor was falling from beneath her.

She watched in horror as a green suit appeared through the opposite door.

Another green suit.

As in, there’s currently one next to her that she’s holding the hand of and one in front of her, that has also stopped dead in their tracks. They all had their own coloured suits for a reason, so they were easily recognisable with their helmets on.

Oh god. One of these suits is that thing.

And with that knowledge, she’s ripping her hand away from the green suit next to her and walking back slowly into the centre of the room, never turning her back so she can put equal distance between the two green suits and see them without having to turn her head.

From the corner of her eye, one of them moved, trying to slowly walk towards her like you would a spooked deer and instantly she felt adrenaline coursing through her as her body tensed. She’s reaching into her pocket then, pulling out the steel bar to clutch it in front of her.

“Back off,” she tersely told one of the suits

The advancing green suit halted immediately and took a step back, hands raised.

Her mind’s in pieces and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s in control of the room right now, both suits watching her from their positions but she knew that could change any moment and she doesn’t know what to do.

Suddenly the events of the day come rushing back to her.

Zoro had left navigation and then Usopp had got hurt.

Zoro sleeps a lot during the day and does basic tasks, like cleaning the garbage chute and heavy lifting tasks. Something anyone could do.

Zoro can’t open the goddamn doors!

She’d just kissed him- it!

Everything had been a lie.

Who the hell could she trust after this? Zoro was supposed to be it. It!

That thing can clearly shapeshift, going from a purple suit to a green one, but then, who said there’s only one of them?

Then she remembered earlier Luffy and Chopper had been running around aimlessly and Brook had screamed, and he was with them.

Luffy told them not to turn on each other.

Franky connected the vents together.

What ifs are flying around in her mind, as all of these thoughts come together. Seriously, who was she going to trust after this? Everyone looked suspicious.

Her breathing’s erratic and her heart felt like it’s going to jump out of her chest and her stomach’s rolling. Oh god, is she about to have an anxiety attack? Seriously, now of all places?! She’s about to lose her cool and control of the room. She needed to think.

One of the green suits that had appeared from the opposite door is ripping it’s helmet off, throwing it onto the floor, and she’s looking at Zoro’s face again.

“Nami, take a breath, I need you to calm down. A lot has happened since we last saw each other, but I need you to trust me right now and come over here.” His hand’s outstretched towards her but he’s not looking at her, his gaze is locked onto the other green suit that she had just been holding the hand of. Like he’s trying to size it up, to anticipate its next move.

Nami’s eyes flickered between them, sizing both of them up and god, did she want to trust the talking green suit, but how could she?! The other green suit is looking at her blanky, head tilted, and she just needed to confirm something before she made her move.

“Take off your helmet,” she shouted, jutting her steel bar at its helmet.

There’s a second where no one spoke or moved, and it felt like Nami was stuck in one of those crappy western standoffs. The one with the helmet still on tilted its head again and it’s looking between her and the other green suit without its helmet on.

Its hands come up to its helmet and for a moment Nami thought she’d be screwed if it actually took it’s helmet off because then she’s back to square one and the tension in the room can’t possibly get any higher without anything actually happening.

But Nami doesn’t have to go back to square one because it pulled its hands away without taking off the helmet and Nami watched in horror as the mask split apart to reveal a gaping mouth with razor sharp teeth and a tongue that came curling out with saliva dripping from it. It’s similar to what she saw before in the hallway but not even that could have prepared her for seeing it up close.  

She’s frozen on the spot and it started to run towards her with what she can only describe as a screech of joy erupting from its mouth as it does. Except there’s another pair of feet running towards her too and she’s suddenly pushed down by Zoro as he covered her body with his. Zoro lifted his hand and the next second the thing is screeching in agony as he set off the blow torch in his hand.

Since when did he have that?  

The thing reeled back, hands coming up to cup it’s scorched mouth and tentacles erupted from its back to lash out in its moment of vulnerability. One of them whipped towards them and Zoro’s falling back on her heavily. One look at him has her gasping and trying to sit up to get a better look.

“Zoro you’re eye!” Nami cried out. She didn’t see it happen, but she can see the blood that’s dripping from his eye and her stomach rolled. That’s because of her.

“No time, we have to move.”

And he’s right, the thing was still stooped low, sludge dripping from where it’d been burned but it’d only be a matter of time until it was on its feet again and they needed to regroup.

Nodding, she grabbed his hand and he was hauling her up onto her feet. She pushed him aside as they got to the closed cafeteria door, but her hands were shaking too much and the keypad denied her. She’d swiped too fast. She didn’t dare turn around when she heard a much less pained screech and, thankfully, Zoro didn’t rush her.

Second swipe and they were through the doors, but it wasn’t the homestretch yet. Nami could hear metal being torn apart and better judgement be damned, she turned around.

That thing couldn’t pass as human anymore. At this point it was more mouth than body, claws erupted from the suit and tentacles furiously swiped the air around it.

The next moment is disorientating as she’s suddenly swept from her feet and manhandled to sit at Zoro’s hip on one side. She clung to him in fear of falling off and it’s not exactly the most comfortable or stable position, but it freed her up a bit.

“I can’t drag you about as you stare, you’re too slow,” he explained as he ran.

“Just don’t drop me,” she told him, eyes narrowing in determination. He can run and she can keep it at bay. To his credit, he doesn’t even break a sweat at the extra weight, but she’d give that some more thought later.

The thing started to gain on them, screeching at them and when one of the tentacles came rushing towards them, Nami’s raising her steel bar to smack it away.

What she didn’t expect, was for the tentacle to absorb the bar.

“It took my bar!” She said, outraged.

Below her, Zoro grunted and his free hand is reaching into his trouser pocket. “That doesn’t work on it, use the blow torch.”

When the thing tried again, Nami aimed the torch and watched as the flame licked away at the tentacle, black sludge falling onto the floor below it. It stopped in its tracks then and Nami watched it slowly disappear from view as Zoro kept running and rounded the corner.

“It’s stopped chasing us,” Nami informed him, slightly confused why it’d give up so easily. Then she’s looking at the blowtorch, it either didn’t like fire or the light. Maybe it was both.

Then another thought came to mind. “When the hell did you figure this out?” She couldn’t keep the wonder out of her voice when she asked, she was impressed.

“I told you, a lot happened whilst you were locked in O2.” He took another left.  

“Ah, so you spoke to Robin then.” She nodded to herself, the woman was sharp minded and no doubt, with the rest of them chiming in, they’d have worked something out quickly.

“Oi! I worked out that fire might work,” he grouched at her, offended that she was so quick to dismiss him.

“You came to save me on might!?” Of course he’d do something so ballsy and reckless.

“Some gratitude would be nice! What happened with your bar again?”

He had a point. Not that she was going to tell him that.

“I’ll give you that later,” she said lowly. It’s not fitting for the mood at all, but she couldn’t resist and maybe she needed some normality right now when they’re being hunted. Especially when she’s rewarded with an embarrassed flush working angrily up his neck.

“Okay, we can’t keep running around in circles. Where are the others?” He took another left and she frowned. If he wasn’t careful, they were going to end up back at the cafeteria and right now, they had no idea where that thing was.

“In the upper engine. They stayed behind, couldn’t have everyone running around with a shapeshifter on the lose.”

“Yeah, I get that, but why send you?” Yeah okay, it wasn’t helpful in this situation, but she had to ask.

He huffed but stayed silent, only adjusting his grip on her thighs.

“You ran off before they could stop you, didn’t you?”

“That’s not the point,” he replied indignantly, huffing. “Found you in the end, right?” It’s said with too much pride for someone who got lost constantly but she still found fondness building in her chest. Maybe they’re both idiots.

“Not hard when you told me to go to the cafeteria.”

“Don’t remind me, what idiots.” He came to a stop just down the hallway from upper engine and let her down. “We’d trapped it there and Franky had managed to block the vent but with how sketchy the communicators are I don’t even know why anyone bothered mentioning the cafeteria.”

“That vent isn’t blocked anymore, by the way, it got out,” Nami frowned, a thought coming to her, “It found me, I thought it was you, but the weird thing is, it didn’t kill me. It followed me.”

Zoro didn’t say anything in response, but he looked as perplexed as she felt. It’d attacked Usopp on sight but followed her willingly.

Those thoughts came to an abrupt halt though as she properly looked at Zoro for the first time since she’d met back up with him. He looked awful. His left eye was closed, and she didn’t know whether it was to keep the blood out of it or whether the eye just wasn’t there anymore. She couldn’t see the damage with so much blood oozing from the cut.

“Zoro, your eye,” Nami lamented, her hand coming up to cup his jaw and thumb soothing across the patch of cheekbone absent of any blood. She could only imagine how much that hurt right now. And he’d done it for her. The knot in her stomach tightened at the thought.

“It’s fine, stop fretting.” He tried to play it off and his hand grasped her wrist to gently pry it away from his face, but she wasn’t ready to let go of his face just yet.

“We’re not being chased right now; I can fret as much as I like.”

“I’d do it again,” he said gruffly, and it sounded like he was trying to reassure her about the wound so she wouldn’t feel guilty about it, but that didn’t detract from how sweet he sounded.

“Zoro,” she cooed, and he flushed a brilliant red when Nami’s other hand mirrored the action of cupping his jaw.

With her helmet on, she couldn’t lean in to kiss him like she wanted; for his sweet words, for her relief that he wasn’t a monster and that, so far, they were both alive. Instead, she’s leaning into him until she’s bumping her helmet against his forehead. It’s not nearly enough, but for now it’d have to do. He didn’t have any complaints when he leaned into her and his hands slid down her arms to cup her elbows to hold her close.

And that’s how they’re found. Standing around in the hallway, Nami cupping Zoro’s face and leaning into each other, a private moment that was suddenly very public.

“See! I told you I heard their voices,” Usopp stage whispered, eyes wide at the affectionate display.

Both of them paused, a hairsbreadth away from kissing, before whipping around to see Usopp and Sanji peeking out of the upper engine. Sanji looked outraged until his eyes locked onto Zoro’s bleeding face.

“What the hell happened?!”

Zoro groaned next to her. It was truly a testament to how bad it looked for Sanji to show such outward concern. They normally hid their affection for each other behind heated arguments and physical fights.

“Let’s all freak out over Zoro when we’re with everyone else,” Nami ordered. They were still standing in the hallway like nothing was currently happening. Zoro shot her a glare at that suggestion, something that didn’t hold much heat when he looked like that.

When they entered the upper engine room, it was empty. Just as she was about to voice her confusion, Zoro was pushing her towards the little broom cupboard in the corner.

As the door closed behind them, the small bulb in the room illuminated the rest of the crew, who were all looking worse for wear themselves. What the hell had been going on whilst she was trapped in O2?

It was a tight fit, as everyone huddled together, but it wasn’t important as her eyes jumped around familiar faces, taking in each one by one and doing a small role call in her head.  

… 7, 8 and “Brook!”

“Brook! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see you before in my life!” She’d definitely trod on someone’s foot to reach him, but she didn’t care as she flung her arms around his neck.

“Yohoho, this sounds like a backhanded insult, but I’ll take it!”

She allowed the hug for a moment longer but then she’s pushing is head out of the way, as he whispered a “so harsh”.

There’s a sudden commotion at the door then and it’s because Chopper’s just seen the state of Zoro. A pink suit is rushing towards Zoro, disregarding the rest of the crew as they start murmuring their own concerns, and he’s slinging his medical bag from his back to the floor to start pulling out things he’ll be needing.

“It’s fine Chopper! Just stick a plaster on it!” Zoro interrupted, swatting his hand to stop Chopper’s panicking as he started to examine the eye.

Chopper squawked at the suggestion and started laying into him, lecturing him about the danger of infections. Seeing as Chopper was no longer panicking and had started to clear away at the wound, Nami tuned it out in favour of getting some information on what the hell was going on.

“Right, someone needs to get me up to speed,” she stated and as an afterthought added, “And why are we huddled in the upper engine broom closet?”

“No vents in here,” Franky answered.

“Also, I don’t think the thing knows this room exists,” Usopp added as an afterthought.

“Not surprising, this is where all the cleaning supplies are and since when does anyone do that?” Nami sighed, but she couldn’t focus on their filthy ship just yet. Well, that wasn’t entirely fair. Sanji and Chopper kept their respective rooms clean, but that was it. The kitchen, med bay and the women’s room were the only clean places on board.

Nami’s comment was ignored as Sanji started to explain, “We don’t know how long its been on board, but Robin thinks it’s-”

“Morph,” Luffy cut off Sanji, looking far too proud of himself. When all she gave him was a baffled look, he explained further, “The thing. Its name is morph.”

As much as Nami was happy to see Luffy back to his normal self, so much so he was naming a blood thirsty monster, it was so incredibly unhelpful in the grand scheme of things. Before she could scold him, Usopp intervened.

“We didn’t name it Morph; you did!” Usopp accused and Nami was glad that he hadn’t become sucked into Luffy’s actions. “I still want Nightcrawler”

Urgh. Forget it. Of course Usopp wouldn’t be of any help.  

“What happened to Rampage?” Zoro chimed in.

“No, we ditched that as soon as you left.”

“It was a stupid name,” Sanji sneered.

Nami could only stand there in disbelief and watched as the rest of the crew in front of her started to squabble about what to officially name that thing that was trying to kill them all.

“I quite like Selkie; they used to trick humans by transforming into them before mercilessly killing them. Quite like our situation, no?”

Nami barked a short laugh. Even Robin, her most trusted ally, the woman she could rely on when the boys descended into new levels of idiocy, had been sucked into naming this thing. She even noted that their lives were in danger and was still taking part. Was she going insane?

“Is this what you’ve been doing all this time? Naming this thing instead of figuring out how we’re going to survive?”

All of them looked at her, her voice cutting through their playful bickering and they all had the audacity to look at her like she was the one suggesting names in a dire, bleak situation. Maybe she was insane. She was in their books, based on the looks she was receiving.

“Don’t be stupid,” Luffy said, like he was the voice of reason here. “We did it after, when we were waiting for you.”

Ah yes, of course. She was the issue here.

She should be angry; she should throttle him but the day’s taking its toll on her and all she does is throw her head back and laugh. It’s a hearty laugh, right from her gut and it felt good. This situation is just so laughably hilarious.

“I think she’s lost her mind,” Usopp muttered and Chopper nodded next to him, looking at her cautiously.

Everyone’s looking at her as she started to calm down, wiping tears from her eyes. All she offered as explanation was, “I like the name Morph.”

Zoro caught her eye then and he smirked at her.

Luffy’s cheering then, arms thrown up in the air at his victory as the others mumble and moan about their loss. Apparently, everyone had their own name offered and with Nami voting for Luffy’s it was the clear winner.

“Right, so as I was saying, we don’t know how long Morph- I can’t do it! It’s a ridiculous name for such a serious situation.”

“Maybe that’s what we need right now,” Robin said and Nami couldn’t agree with her more. It’s why she liked it, it’s easier to deal with a shapeshifting monster with razor sharp teeth and tentacles when it’s named something so cute.

Luffy’s frowning, not budging as Sanji looked at him. “I won. Its name is Morph.”

“Nami liked it,” Usopp added and that’s enough to get Sanji talking again, seemingly accepting the name with no further complaints.

“Robin was thinking Morph’s been on board for a while because it seems to know where to go and what to tamper with to break the ship.” Sanji looked towards Robin, prompting her to take over from him.

“My theory is that it’s sophisticated enough to learn basic tasks and work out what we’re doing but Morph can’t learn complex things like language,” Robin speculated and Nami nodded in agreement, remembering Morph’s silence in the hallway. “I don’t think it likes light and that’s the reason why tampered with the lights before appearing fully. Space is very dark after all… and cold.” She’s looking towards Zoro then. “Did your theory work, Zoro?”

Zoro nodded back as Chopper was putting the finishing touches on his bandaged eye. “It seemed to hurt it and it backed off when it started chasing us.”

Robin and Zoro’s conversation held no tension like it did earlier from the cafeteria and Nami’s glad to see it. A lot seemed to have happened since then. No doubt she’d get the details from Usopp later.

“So what are we going to do now?” She’d got enough information about that thing- Morph, she corrected mentally, but now she wanted their plan of attack.

Except her question brought a hush over the crew and she’s looking at each of them to try and figure out what she’s said wrong. Usopp looked pained and Franky’s resting a big hand on his shoulder.

Luffy looked solemn and Nami hated it already, as much as his happy go lucky behaviour might irritate her sometimes, she wanted it back desperately in this situation.

“We’re leaving the ship,” Luffy said.

What? This was their home, where everything had started. “What? How can we-” She started.

“The decision’s been made,” he stated firmly and when Nami looked at Usopp, someone who would definitely agree with her, he looked downhearted but on board. This conversation had already been talked through at length it seemed. “Franky.” And Luffy’s nodding towards their mechanic to continue.

“The ships on its last legs. I’ve just barely managed to hold together the reactor, but we don’t have long, electrics are fried and on top of that there’s a monster out there making it worse,” Franky explained and as much as it pained her, she’d been out there, she’d seen the state of the ship.

“We’d have to find it and kill it, that’s even if it hadn’t tampered with the ship before we do.”

“Even then, something still might trip.”

“It’s too risky.”

Nami sighed and ran her hands through her hair. She understood but it was a lot of take on board. Ultimately, they were right. Their lives would be at risk and she remembered back to earlier when she was uncertain about how many of them were still alive.

She wanted them all to come out of this alive.

“What’s the plan?”

They’re huddled tightly into a circle going through the last few details. Franky and Usopp have prepared the emergency ship, it’ll be tight for all of them, nothing compared to their current spacious ship, but it’s good enough for now. It’s only there until they can land and find something else.

“I’m heading to the kitchen to get supplies,” Sanji informed them and Brook next to him is offering to go with.  

“I need to go to the medbay,” Chopper added and Robin’s volunteering to accompany him.

“You need a helmet,” Nami said, pointing at Zoro. His was sat in the cafeteria and its current state was unknown. Everyone else’s were clipped to their belts safely. “If O2 goes out again, you’re screwed.”

“If you’re going that way, pick up extra helmets and suits,” Robin suggested and it’s a good idea.

“Someone needs to go to O2 to get backup oxygen,” Franky told the group, the emergency ship only had so much stocked into it and seeing at they’re abandoning the ship, they might as well take all they have with them.

“They’re already filled, I did it whilst I was waiting for the doors to open. Someone else needs to grab them, I’m going with Zoro.”

No one argued that and they’re all nodding. It was in their best interest to have the navigator with the permanently lost. Zoro didn’t argue it, even though he knew the reason behind it but now wasn’t a time for bickering.

“I’m going to the reactor to grab my tools,” Franky said and seeing and Luffy and Usopp are the last ones left, they’re going with Franky.

With everyone allocated to a task and paired off, they all agreed they’d meet back in the cafeteria in 10 minutes. It was a get in and get out job, no side tracking and if a pair didn’t come back- there would be a search party. No one was being left behind. Franky didn’t have many, but he had enough blow torches for one per group, should they come across Morph on their short trip.

It was then that Nami realised they’d been in the small cupboard a while with no disruptions but before she could voice her concern, the reactor alarm was blaring again. She hung her head, it felt like she’d jinxed them.

“That’s our countdown,” Franky informed them. “I stabilised the reactor as best as I could, but we only have twenty minutes before it’s done for. We need to be gone before that.”

With that last warning, the groups are filtering out of the tiny cupboard and spreading throughout the ship. There’s a shout of helmets off until they leave and Nami had no problem with that, it’d take away the element of surprise, because as far as she’s aware, Morph can’t imitate their faces.

Nami and Zoro run next to each other through the corridors with no hesitancy. There’s no time for it and at least they’re armed now. The cafeteria’s empty and neither of them bother to check if Zoro’s helmet is intact- no side tracking. They pass by Sanji and Brook as they make their way into the kitchen. They’re running past admin and they only have to make it through storage to reach the women’s and men’s rooms next to communications.

As they made it into the men’s room, Nami gets a bad feeling. All of this is far too easy. There’re no crackling voices in her earpiece, there’s no yelling or frantic feet and despite the reactor siren going off, it was almost peaceful. It didn’t sit right with her.

“Zoro, I have a bad feeling,” Nami told him as she grabbed a bag to start shoving spare space suits into.

“It’s too easy,” he agreed with her, taking another bag to put spare helmets into and then clipping another helmet onto his belt. “But I won’t complain. Maybe it backed off because we found it’s weak spot.”

For now, she could only agree with him and hope it was just good luck as they moved into the women’s room the other side of communications to repeat the process.

Nami doesn’t have a watch, but as they finish packing, she’s sure they must be getting close to 10 minutes.

There’s a loud commotion towards O2 and Nami and Zoro are shooting each other a look. They don’t need to verbalise anything before they’re running towards the sound- if any of their crew was in trouble, of course they’d rush to help.

Except when they arrive, there’s nothing there. It’s silent. There’s nobody in sight, they can’t hear feet running nearby and there’s no sign of a struggle.

“False alarm, let’s go,��� Zoro said and he’s walking towards the door.

Nami nodded and went to follow him out, except out of the corner of her eye she can see a spare O2 bottle. She frowned, she’d definitely filled all of them and she’s not sure how someone had missed that one. Despite the voice in the back of her head that told her ‘no detours’, this technically isn’t one. They might end up needing that and she’d kick herself for leaving it behind.

As she picked it up, it’s far too light compared to the others she filled earlier and when she turned the canister around, the bar’s empty.

It’s then that it all clicked into place; no sign of Morph, the sound of a struggle only to find no one’s here and a strategically place O2 bottle to distract a passer-by.

A trap.

Zoro’s already left the room and she’s running after him, shouting for him to stop, not caring how loud her voice was right now. He’s almost into the weapons room when he whipped around, alert and ready for whatever she’s about to say but it’s too late. The doors between them are closing.

They’re both running but Nami knows it’s useless, there’s no way she’s going to make it through. With the last crack left, she’s throwing through her bag to Zoro and watching the doors shut on his panicked face. She imagined hers didn’t look much better.

Shit. He had the blow torch.

The keypad angrily denied her when she swiped her key card and her stomach’s sinking at the knowledge that she’s truly vulnerable right now.  

There’s a loud thump followed by a silent curse from the other side of the door but it barely budged. Zoro’s trying to break down the door. It was no use; they’re made to withstand extreme conditions in the case of an emergency. Nami laughed at the humour, this is an emergency and now she’s in danger because of it.

“Zoro, go back to the cafeteria, drop the bags and get someone. Someone must be back by now. I’ll try the other door to the cafeteria.”

He had no choice but to agree and he left her with a, “Be careful. No reckless moves.”

Too late for that advice, she thought bitterly.

Nami turned to face the dimly lit corridor in front of her. Without Zoro here, it looked ominous, the shadows looked dangerous all of a sudden and every sound had her jumping out of her skin. But the longer she stood here, the longer she’d be alone. She clutched the O2 cannister in her hands for some form a reassurance and, as a last-minute decision, she clipped on her helmet for an extra layer of defence.

She started a tentative jog down the hallway, a stark difference from the quick and confident one she had with Zoro. She stopped at corners to peer around them, to make sure the coast was clear and yes, it did slow her down, but she needed caution right now.

It’s the home stretch when she reached storage and she wondered if her brain was playing tricks on her. Maybe it wasn’t a trap and the ship really was just on its last legs, like Franky had explained.

Just as she’s passing admin, she can hear heavy footsteps from behind her. She’s wanted to continue forward, but it also crossed her mind that it could be Zoro. He wasn’t far from the cafeteria before and if Franky or Usopp was there, they’d have the door opened swiftly.

Tentatively, she backtracked and as she peered around the corner, the relief is almost crippling.  

Zoro.

He’s standing in the doorway of storage, looking around for her and then she’s jogging towards him, a cheerful, “Zoro”, coming from her mouth.

The joy’s over when he turned to face her and she’s looking back at two steel eyes. Not a cut or bandage in sight.

That was not Zoro.

She faltered slightly but remembered earlier when Morph had followed her after approaching it like nothing was wrong. She fought down the urge to flee and plastered a wobbly smile back onto her face to continue her walk towards it.

Except this time, Morph’s not curious, Morph’s hungry. It doesn’t keep up the pretence of a human and the moment Nami sees a mouth, she’s flinging the O2 cannister at it and darting away.  

“Help, help, help,” she’s pleading into her communicator but its only static that responded back.

She was well and truly on her own.

She doesn’t dare look over her shoulder to see if Morph is chasing her, but her arms are stretching out for anything within reach she can knock over and hopefully buy herself time. As she smacked something behind her, she peeked over her shoulder and terror is almost choking her. Morph’s not close, but it is chasing her as it used its tentacles to propel it forward.

The thumping of her own footsteps is deafening, and her legs are burning as she ran down the empty corridor between electrical and lower engine, but she can’t let up her pace for even a second if she wanted to get out of this alive.

She skidded as she took a sharp turn and it definitely lost her some distance. It’s confirmed when there’s footsteps behind her, heavy and loud, and she can practically feel its breath on her neck. She didn’t dare to look over her shoulder again because she knew she’d be greeted by the sight of Morph practically on her back.

One second she’s looking at the familiar sight of upper engine just in front of her and she’s so close to the cafeteria, then the next she’s eating the floor. The impact has her face crashing into the shield of her helmet and so much for extra protection, she thought, as her nose smarted and started trickling blood.  

Her feet are pulled from beneath her and she’s being dragged back. She doesn’t have time to register the pain in her face as she flipped over to watch as the tentacles around her foot pulled her slowly towards the towering monster. Morph’s grown and there’s multiple mouths erupting from the green of the suit

She kicked her free foot out, trying to stamp on the tentacle wrapped around her ankle but it’s quickly caught by another tentacle and then she’s being dragged closer even quicker.

Morph settled over her when she’s pulled underneath it and the weight of it had the air rushing out of her lungs. If it doesn’t kill her quickly, it’s going to crush her instead.

That doesn’t stop her from throwing a fist out to punch its face- she may be about to die, but she’s not dying easily. The image of Zoro’s face distorted from the impact before reforming, but it doesn’t stay that way for long as its face split apart to form a long stretching mouth. A tongue slithered out and licked across all its teeth as saliva dripped down onto the front of Nami’s helmet. It’s enough to get Nami moving as she squirmed underneath it, hands pushing and feet kicking desperately so she can shimmy out.

She cried out in pain when a tentacle from behind it’s back stabbed through her shoulder to pin her down to the floor beneath and there’s a clawed hand digging into the side of her waist. It’s enough to stop her squirming, as tears rolled down her face and her hands are at the tentacle in her shoulder to try and relieve the pain.

But the pain is nothing compared to watching its tongue slink out of its mouth down to her helmet and lick a long stipe across the glass. She’s helpless as the tongue started to undo the latches on her helmet and its claw dug even further into her side, as if expecting her to struggle.

She can’t believe she’s about to die at the hands (or mouth) of something that looked like Zoro. There’s probably something poetic in there but now’s not the time to be thinking about that.

As the last latch clicked loose, her helmet’s thrown to the side and she’s face to face with the monster on top of her (It turned out, Morph wasn’t a suitable name. She wished she’d gone with Robin’s option). Its tongue snapped back to its mouth, but her eyes are screwing shut as it stretched to lick a long path across her neck and face. There’s so much saliva that it dribbled down the rest of her face and she can’t believe this is it, this is her last few moments.

It growled in her ear, but she can’t bring herself to open her eyes, even when she heard its teeth snap just above her. She doesn’t want her last moment alive to be looking at an imposter of Zoro. She’d much rather remember the real Zoro’s dazed face after their first kiss.

But then it’s all gone, the weight’s gone and she’s gasping in pain when the claws in her side and tentacle are ripped out.

There’s a battle cry above her head and she opened her eyes just in time to watch Luffy jump over her body and a massive flame erupt from his blowtorch. She can’t be sure, her viewpoint from the floor isn’t the best, but she’s pretty sure there’s a massive grin etched onto his face as he launched his attack.

She felt like she was hallucinating as she watched the monster reel back and try to avoid the flames as it screeched in pain. She’s sitting up to watch but it’s blocked as Zoro knelt in front of her. His mouth’s moving and distantly she heard him saying that he shouldn’t have left her but she’s too busy looking at his face, soaking in the downward turn of his mouth, his remaining steel coloured eye searching her face and the green of his hair.

She wondered idly if she’s died and this was hell and she’s being forced to watch what her rescue could have looked like if it hadn’t gone all wrong. Zoro did always tell her she was going to hell when she died. She can’t wait for him to join her so she can rub it in his face that he ended up there too.

She’s pulled out of her scattered thoughts when Zoro’s softly wiping at her face with his hands, wiping the saliva on his suit and it’s the most worried she’s ever seen him; his face is pale and drawn. “I thought you were dead,” he breathed out and she came to the conclusion that she doesn’t like that look on his face. “With that thing over you and you were so still,” he continued and he’s still looking at her like she might die any second.

“Get a grip,” is all she told him and it’s worth it because he barked a laugh and it felt like they were back in her navigation room bantering with each other.

“You’re a mess,” he said bluntly and they’re falling back into their normal routine, so she decided not to take offense. His gaze does a circuit around her face, shoulder and side.

“You too,” she joked and although it wasn’t funny, she laughed lightly. Whether it was because she was alive, or he was or that this wasn’t hell after all. Maybe it was all of it.

He didn’t laugh back; the mood dropping suddenly, and she knew it was because he was feeling guilty. That this should’ve been him, not her.

Her hand cupped his jaw and her thumb’s running along the seam of the plaster over his eye. “You’ve done enough, have to do my part too, right?”

His expression instantly told her he doesn’t agree with that sentiment but before he can respond, Luffy’s next to them again.

“We gotta go,” Luffy said, breaking them apart and he’s throwing his empty blow torch down as the black puddle down the hall started to slowly reform. “You can make kissy faces when we’re in the ship.”

Nami spluttered angrily, embarrassed but Zoro just nodded and his hands are under her armpits then to help her stand. She cringed as she jarred her shoulder and pain lanced through her body. Its yet to stop bleeding and if she’s not careful, her orange suit is going to start rivalling Luffy’s red one.

“Put pressure on your shoulder,” Zoro said and she’s being scooped up to sit at his hip again, the wound at her waist facing outward so it’s not angered.

She’s giving him a funny look before cringing as she tried to clamp her hand over the wound on the shoulder that felt like it suddenly had a pulse. Zoro understood what she meant and answered, “Chopper’s lectured me enough, some of it had to sink in.” His free hand smothered over hers to press down on the wound and she’s borrowing her face into his neck at the pain. She almost doesn’t know what to do with herself. He muttered a “sorry” lowly but didn’t let up.

“Luffy, I’m changing my vote, Morph is a stupid name. I’m siding with Robin,” she murmured, exhausted as the adrenaline started to wear off and in need of a distraction herself from her wounds and the monster that was after them.

Luffy laughed brightly as he ran next to Zoro, no doubt happy to see her alive and arguing again. He tried to dispute her change of confidence, but she refused to hear any of it.

Behind them there’s an angry screech, it’s far off into the distance and when Nami looked behind them, there’s nothing there. It’s odd but she couldn’t give a damn right now.

Instead she’s asking, “Where is everyone?”

“On the ship, waiting for us. Franky’s getting everything ready so as soon as we’re there we can go,” Luffy answered.  

“Curly cook said we’re not allowed on if we don’t come back with you alive.” Zoro’s doing his best to stop his jog from jostling her too much. It’s thoughtful but honestly doesn’t do very much.

She snorted. “I’m super tough, doesn’t he know?” It’s meant to be a joke because honestly, look at the state of her, but Zoro and Luffy only look at her with pride.

“You did really well,” Zoro murmured and his hand under her supporting her squeezed in reassurance.

The rest of the run to the cafeteria was uneventful and they should probably be questioning that but Nami’s too exhausted to bring it up. She’s hungry, in pain and bleeding. All she wanted to do was lay down and sleep.

As soon as they enter the cafeteria, the crew’s there waiting for them just before the small hallway that’d take them to the emergency ship and their faces shift from anxious to relieved.

It’s a short-lived celebration when the vent at the bottom of the cafeteria exploded open and black sludge poured out.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, doesn’t it know when to give up?” Zoro griped and his grip on her tightened.

They’re being ushered then down the small hallway and onto the emergency ship. Franky and Robin are at the front getting ready to leave and Chopper’s flitting around Nami, working quickly to staunch the bleeding. She wondered just how bad she must look when he didn’t immediately panic at first.

They’re watching as from the outside the black sludge was slowly growing bigger as it reformed, and she wondered if Luffy’s previous bombardment of fire had worn it down.

There’s an explosion in the distance that rocked the ship. Not only has that thing found them, but the reactor it sabotaged earlier has finally packed in.

They’re out of time.

“Uhh, Franky, we gotta go. Now,” Sanji warned as he stood at the back door with Luffy beside him and Zoro left her side then to stand with them just in case.

“I’m moving as quickly as I can!” And it’s true, Franky’s hands are furiously flicking switches and pushing buttons as quickly as he could with Robin co-piloting next to him.

Usopp’s down by her feet tinkering with something and Nami almost wanted to scold him that this wasn’t the time for that, but then her eye caught the ripped up top and fluid-filled bottle.

“Are you making a gasoline bomb?” Nami tiredly asked, her head lolled to the side to watch to distract away from the pain as Chopper worked on her shoulder.

“Yeah!” Usopp said proudly. “I started working on it when we were waiting for you three, y’know, in case.” His hands are quickly working as he soaked the top in alcohol (Zoro wouldn’t be happy about that later) and plugged it into the bottle.

“Franky,” Zoro barked.

“I need another minute! Stall!” Franky barked back.

When Nami looked outside she could see why Zoro and Sanji were panicking, Selkie’s almost fully reformed (Nope, not even Selkie’s the right fit). There’s still hints of different suit colours on its body, around the mouths (Nami shuddered to herself), but it doesn’t bother standing on its feet now, instead using the tentacles and long black nails slide out of its hands. She had no idea how something without a face looked enraged and furious, but it did as it screeched.

There’s a commotion at the door as Zoro stepped out, he’d pushed Luffy and Sanji out of the way and was trying to close the door behind him. Nami tried to get up too, but Chopper’s there to push her back down and it doesn’t take much to keep her down.

“Just go,” Zoro shouted, taking a step out of the ships door and facing the monster that’s only advancing by the second in front of him.

“If anyone’s going to be the knight in shining armour, it’s me!” Sanji exclaimed, puffing out his chest to stalk towards the door. Brook just managed to snag his suit to pull him back in.

Luffy’s frowning and Nami knows it’s because he’s not going to let anyone be left behind. Usopp’s calling towards Luffy as he was making his way to the door with instructions to get him inside and duck on his command. Sanji instantly stopped struggling as he pieced it together.  

Not a moment later, Luffy’s wrestling Zoro into the ship as he’s shouting at him and honestly, it’s an amusing sight. Zoro who’s almost twice Luffy’s size being overpowered so easily.

As soon as they’re inside, Usopp’s shouting, “Duck!” and they’re both hitting the floor as Usopp’s lighting the gasoline bomb.

Usopp threw it just as that thing made it to the top of the small hallway and the glass shattered on impact, gasoline spreading over its skin and it’s reeling back as it caught alight, its screeching was almost deafening.

“Close the door!”

Sanji snapped the door shut and then the little ship was blasting off. If the monster hadn’t been hurt enough by Usopp’s gasoline bomb, then it certainly was by the flames that erupted from the back of the ship.

Everybody paused what they were doing, even Chopper had stilled, and watched in silence as they slowly drifted away from their ship. The left side of the ship was slowly melting away as the reactor exploded in on itself and it wouldn’t be long until nothing was left of it.

Nami wasn’t sure how to feel. They’d all escaped with their lives, so this should be classed as a win, but it somehow felt like a loss as she watched her home slowly destroy itself. A few tears were threatening to bubble over at the sight, but she didn’t dare look over at Usopp or Franky.

The feeling was chased away when Zoro sat down next to her, taking her hand and squeezed it.

…

“I still like the name Morph.”

Usopp slapped Luffy.

------------------------------------------

Huge respect for Oda, I hated juggling just 9 characters and he does it with an even bigger cast.

Also, sorry if anyone’s disappointed that there’s no deaths or a ‘real’ imposter. I’m weak. I want happy endings always and I can’t do that if I kill off parts of the straw-fam.

As always, please excuse any errors- especially as I rushed to get this done in time.

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween!

[cateringisalie]

Village: Resident Evil ramblings

(Some spoilers)

Ethan Winters is a goddamn idiot.

I say this without a shred of nostalgia; I first encountered him in RE7 and feel less than nostalgic towards the guy. RE7 without the benefit of the former entrants was a FPS horror and pretty good. Though you couldn’t escape that the characters you remembered were the Baker family and Mia; Ethan was a walking camera with a gun and some very simplistic emotional responses (fear, rescue wife, escape, swear occasionally). Having now run through the whole sequence of games, Ethan stands out starkly as the blandest and least interesting protagonist the series ever produced. He is possibly worse than Piers. Village updates Ethan’s personality. A bit. Well. Not really. Still got that fear, still got the swearing. Still got a mind to escape. But rather than rescue his wife, it’s about rescuing his daughter. I mean; Mia was gunned down and shot a further 9000 times by infuriating series stalwart Chris Redfield a little under ten minutes into the game proper. Not that Ethan really comes to terms with the trauma. By minute fifteen of the game the van you’ve been shoved in by Chris (who doesn’t shoot you for no reason he feels like explaining) has crashed and Ethan’s daughter is missing. Mourning Mia doesn’t actually enter into Ethan’s thought process. Goddamn idiot. Not to say that life with Mia was exactly picturesque; a few years after RE7 the couple are now somewhere nebulous in Eastern Europe in a very lovely house with a distressing number of empty wine bottles in the kitchen. A happy marriage this does not seem to be given Mia doesn’t want to get into the events of RE7 anymore, but Ethan does – but also failing to understand that the cover-up of the incident might be why no one is talking much about the whole mess in Louisiana and that bringing it up both distresses and angers Mia. But; the inciting incident has occurred and we’re propelled into our new scenario. Ethan; once again fish out of water, and its not like we have a choice. This is not to say Village does not repeat the same narrative trick of changing POV character, but there is both less of that, and the Half-Life-style regimented first person view jarringly completely goes out the window in the last quarter. It was less than consistent at points, but sparingly when occasionally and jarringly camera angles shifted to depict an introduction. But the game is also perfectly happy to render whole FPS sequences with gun visible and everything as it plays out a story beat, so... I don’t know? Fortunately Ethan’s environment and the setting are much more interesting. The unnamed Village is a satisfying knot of tangled streets, locked doors and environmental obstacles. Enemies don’t respawn per se, but additional enemies are added on subsequent visits to the effective hub of the game. There’s livestock to kill and give the Duke – the merchant playing a similar role to the pirate-like guy from RE4. Duke’s an entertaining character (some have objected to his physical and hugely overweight depiction); chatty and far more knowing than he will let on. He has a dangling thread come the end so perhaps will reappear elsewhere. He’ll sort the gun upgrades, supplies, let you sell treasure and point you towards your next destinations. Which is just as well as the human population of the village dies out somewhere between the first and second hour. No one left and any futile attempts to save people end in almost hilariously disastrous tragedies (no Ethan, don’t go higher in a building that is on fire). Leaving you with Lycans, zombies and gargoyles to fend off. Occasionally there’s some bigger foes on the level of the Executioner from RE5 but nothing on the level of the Tyrants. That kind of thing is left to the Village Lords. The villagers – before they all die – have a curiously unfamiliar religion and praise a figure known as Mother Miranda. She reportedly kept the village safe, but something has changed and now the Lycans run amok and without restraint. Not hard to pin that the reason for the change is Rose’s arrival (or could it be Ethan? COULD IT? No. Man is a goddamn idiot). The only door out of the village you can open is to Castle Dimitrescu and... It feels unnecessary to even get into what awaits. Given fandom have been so noisy about the tall lady and her vampiric daughters since the first trailer. She is so very, very tall. The castle is the first mode of Village. Possibly closest to RE7; Dimitrescu’s daughters are vulnerable based on certain environmental details (read the notes!) but otherwise should be fled from. Dimitrescu herself is invulnerable to everything bar one weapon and you need to work at getting that, so she needs to be fled from. Otherwise, explore the castle, find treasure. Sneak. Solve puzzles. It all looks suitably gorgeous and you get multiple chances to see if as you loop through the rooms and unlock more doors. The Village macro mechanics wrought as micro here. There’s a canny hint at a late reveal in the blunt utility of in-game mechanics to be had too. But – really should have been obvious given their prominence in the trailer – given Castle Dimitrescu is the first level, it means we must say goodbye to the very Tall Lady with knife hands and move onto someone else. In between levels, we get the first reinforcement of a tease from the trailer; the symbol of the Umbrella corporation. Its engraved into a location called the Ceremony Site. Its daubed on a cave wall as high as the Tall Lady. Its on the strange structure you insert the yellow flasks each Village Lord guards. And it means... almost nothing. RE's meta-plot has always been a mess and everyone’s favorite pharmaceutical company hasn’t been so active for a while, so the idea that we might be getting into some interesting weirdness with them again is oh so appealing. And yet – I was disappointed. Despite the repeated glimpses of the familiar white and red logo, the connection ultimately comes down to one letter I found at about 7/8s of the way through. Oswell Spencer – founder of the company – visited the Village years ago and saw the cave painting and adopted it as his logo. Oh. That’s... underwhelming. The same letter does at least prod at wiring Village’s latter reveals into the formation of the company along with tying in some parts of RE5 but if you thought this would be the company or the family dynasty origins or anything like that, you are in for a disappointment. It’s a tease and one that goes nowhere and does little. Oh we might now see how Spencer got into the whole inadvertent zombie making mess but its not a factor in the plot of this game nor does it really change the stakes of the previous. Perhaps I should be glad it’s so frivolous given other retcons in certain other franchises, but it feels so suspect to have drawn the attention and then shuffle the implications out the side-door. At least the other village lords have their own appeals. The second level is RE once again stealing PT (the PS4 demo to announce Silent Hills) given Konami outright don’t care about it anymore. Stripped of your guns and inventory, it’s a claustrophobic puzzle level requiring you to hide with mechanics familiar to both Evil Within and Alien Isolation. That same loop of rooms as you seek out puzzle solutions and hide from a staggeringly distressing malevolent entity. The third is combat light until the final confrontation; the fight staged in a flooded village – oh and Chris who still doesn’t shoot you but refuses to explain anything. And the fourth cheats. Heisenberg is thoroughly entertaining and grabs two levels for his own; an assault on a stronghold and his horrible cyborg factory outside of town. He has Magneto metal powers. Heisenberg is the camp villain to outdo the other camp villains. He’s having fun, he kinda likes Ethan and is oddly on his side. He found time to put together massive signposts to direct Ethan onto the last two levels (a good thing too given his lack of sense). But both levels are lacking. The Stronghold is a relentless firefight against hoards of mook enemies; the factory is overly long and maze-like. I am as tired as Ethan when he exclaims “What more?” And after Heisenberg is dealt with; the long, convoluted lurches to the ending. First person goes out the window. The game dabbles in characters toying with your understanding of what was going on but in a strangely limited way and completely ignoring the other implications of the reveal. Suddenly you mow down more and more enemies than ever before, bullets scarcely a concern. The final reveals of who/what/where/how come through. Not exactly explicable for what’s on-screen, but the effort’s been made to tie Village’s overt supernatural tendencies back into a world setup in RE. Its not magic and those are not truly werewolves. And the villain’s motivation is! Hugely disappointing. Connected as it is to the Umbrella letter, you might hope for something completely out there, but its unsatisfying and feels pretty sexist too. Or at least lacking in imagination to an astonishing degree and yet here we are. The game feels sloppiest as the final boss fight arrives flitting between characters without the shaky but workable character hand-offs RE7 deployed. Back in first person mode to talk to Duke one last time before engaging in.... a relatively simple boss fight. All the boss fights have been pretty easy – there’s nothing on the level of RE6’s sometimes horrendous contextual fights, or the annoying two-player RE5, nor the demanded accuracy of hitting specific weak-points as in RE7. And I don’t mind that. Unload all your weapons and keep your health up. And victory. There are fix-it fics already, but really, I don’t see the point in trying to fix the issue these people have. There’s an obvious setup for a game past this one with a strange throw-away reveal in the end-sequence (whither RE9, Revelations 3 or something else there are no clues as yet). There’s a spoiler for the sting given the end-credits lists a character who didn’t appear in the main game. The sting itself might wind up drawing on the sting from Revelations 2. Village is not RE at its best, but is at least more in the spirit of goofy, campy nonsense than 7. It at least is more at home with playing with the trappings of horror while not actually trying to be outright scary. As with 7, the villains are more interesting and more memorable than the good guys. And – as I found out after completing the game – we were robbed of Ada Wong dressed up like a Bloodborne character somewhere in the game. And that I think is the biggest shame of all this.

[nakunakunomi]

Meet The Squad?

Contemplating posting this for such a long time now, I am pretty private when it comes to selfship, OCs (be it self insert ones or nah) and OC ships and such. But you all have been pretty supportive, and I wanted to share a little bit.  ╰(*´︶`*)╯Still a little self conscious cause these are nowhere as fleshed out or cool as some of the OCs I see pass by, so please bear with me as I carefully tiptoe back into properly creating OCs, something I haven’t even done properly since I was 16 or so UwU. 

Anyhowwwww... heres my 4 One Piece Ocs, some half worked out, some actually getting super fleshed out. Eventually I want all 4 of them to be 100% fleshed out with their own story. Most of these were born out of RP Ideas or something similar. (Or I just wanted a certain DF, oops) All these visuals were made with the Missangest Avatar Creator (in the google app store). 

Click keep reading for a short introduction of my 4 girls and a kawaii a/f picrew I did today UwU. See this as a teeny introduction to their general looks and stories, and Im pretty sure you will get to know them all better soon! (but one in particular). 

Top Left: Tae 

Fox Zoan user (I wanted a Kitsune actually, but then that was taken in series, I’ll probably die mad about it) - she is blind, and an absolute brat. Lives for mischief, and loves small time crimes. Is attracted to the pirate life for the freedom (and the crime). 

She has a big mouth that gets her in trouble often, usually cause she does not know when to shut up exactly. She likes playing pranks on the wrong people, is a master at thievery, and prefers snacks over dinner. Playfighting > actual fighting, but no worries, she will rip your throat out if needed. Actions over words, and 20/20 hindsight. oops. 

Top Right: Mayu 

Mayu is an ex-slave Doctor. She’s never been treated horribly since she and her medical knowledge were always useful to the troops occupying her island, but she has definitely seen enough death and misery to last her a lifetime. 

Her story definitely involves some revolutionary freedom fighters and she’s going to join them as a medic for the Revolutionary Army. 

More of a strategist and a thinker than a fighter. Only way she can fight is with a scalpel, knowledge of where the arteries are and enough luck to actually launch an attack because if she’s overpowered, which is 100% easy, she’s helpless. She’s not meant to be fighting anyway. Calm and generally quiet, definitely a pessimist, but how would you be after a good few years living oppressed? 

Bottom Left: Charlotte -  call her “Lott”  

Okay I have a love-hate relationship with this OC, cause much like Tae, she’s born out of a Devil Fruit Idea more than a character idea, but Lott’s DF idea is a bit more complicated. It’s a paramecia temperature type of fruit and I have yet to figure out the exact uses and limits for it. 

Even though she’s a devil fruit user, she’s not much of a fighter, and has very little interest in becoming one. She’s the mom (tm) on board of a pirate ship. Initial thought was getting her to be part of the Spade pirates, I’ll hopefully be reading the novel to make sure that is even possible. (or make it possible lmao). 

She’s a little naïve, but it’s mostly because of young age. Other than that she’s a little ball of sunshine. Which is why I am very inclined to throw a big bucket of angst on there, nothing like some trauma to give your OC more character. Who knows, she’s the least worked out I’d say out of all these 4. 

Bottom Right: Layla ‘backstabber’ Thornes 

Saving the best for last, Layla is actually my most fleshed out character so far, and simultaneously the one I am most eager to write about. She has that full on backstory, as well as half of a huge a/f character sheet filled in. She was born for a DnD campaign tryout and well, for that you already gotta give them more specific skills and such, and thus, the train of thoughts started and never really stopped.

Layla is an ex-marine, who was trained from a very young age to become at the very least a marine captain, hopefully even a Vice-admiral. It was all fun and games until she started thinking more and more about the cover-ups the marines did for the world government and vice versa and how the whole justice system may not be as full of justice as it seemed. I’ll spare you the details (for now) but one day, she rather dramatically made her exit and has been on the run ever since. 

From there on out, Layla’s story is still open, there’s a few directions I’ve got in mind for her, but she can go many a way. One thing is for sure. She’s not going back to the marines. 

She was raised to be polite, soft spoken, well mannered while being ruthless yet feminine on the battlefield. Needless to say, she went the ENTIRE other direction the minute she ‘left’ home. A foul mouth that gets her into trouble and manners that only manifest out of habit than her own volition. Like hell she’s going to be polite in a world where pirates distrust you and marines chase you. Quite confident in her abilities, even though she is not a devil fruit user. Very proficient in haki and sword fighting though. She is also rather small, especially for One Piece standards, which helps in dodging attacks. speed over power, but don’t think shes weak, hecc she’ll punch you in the face and break your nose for a cornchip. Oh, and a random fun fact, she’s a terrible drunk. It’s hilarious. 

---

Once I get the time to properly write, Ill be spending a good few hours filling in those xxl OC sheets and maybe do some OC ask game... If y’all would be interested in that, that is? Most I have for all ‘cept layla is looks, personalities and a vague sense of powers and I’ll be working that out soon! 

Oh! And before you ask, they all do have potential love interests to go into their stories, but I am not sure if I want them all to have a love interest in the end? So there’s some ideas floating around, but nothing set in stone? This will probably come as I write and think about it more? yall can try and guess though lol

For now, enjoy this picrew that I made this morning of these lovely ladies!  (its cut off but Layla is definitely giving yall the finger, Im sorry she’s rude)  https://picrew.me/image_maker/321535 

Hope y’all liked this teeny tiny introduction a bit? Expect more content with Layla for sure! And I know myself, once I write out the backstories for the other three I will fall in love as well, as I do with all my DnD characters now, and Ill have a whole collection of fictional characters living in my head that I am needlessly emotionally attached to. *sighs dramatically* such is life... 

Stay safe, healthy and hydrated my loves!  Sending you all much love, and kisses and all the good vibes you may need!!  Hazel out! 

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

I don't know if this could be taken the wrong way, so let me just say that I'm approaching this with the utmost respect and admiration for you work: would you ever consider writing a "how to" kind of tutorial for how to structure a smut fic? I love your fics and would love to get a sense of your process, since mine apparently does not work for me anymore.

Okay, phew, this took me far longer to get to than I’d hoped, my apologies, nonny! I’ve never considered writing a “how to” before, since I don’t really see myself as an expert or a teacher, and everyone’s process is very personal and subjective. But I hope this sort of slap-dash tutorial will help you in your writing endeavors!

Warning: NSFW and “crude” language ahead, since I’ll be damned if I’m bothering to use a bunch of euphemisms while I’m literally talking about writing sex scenes.

So You Wanna Earn that “E” Rating: One Kinky Idiot’s Guide to Writing Smut

(Shut up, I’m hilarious.)

First Steps: Before You Write

Okay, so, I say this pretty much anyone asks me for writing advice about something, no matter what the topic might be: start with research.

Shocking as this might be, I have not had sex with a vampire, a dragon, or a werewolf (yet, hit me up, I’m single). This is pretty easy for the reader to assume, since most of us have not met a vampire or any other supernatural creature (alas). But a lot of the other sex stuff I write about I haven’t done, either, and same with a lot of other writers. For example, I have never given a blowjob to an uncircumcised man. Garcia Flynn is from Europe, where it’s a lot more common for Gentiles (non-Jews) to be uncircumcised, so it made sense for him to still have a foreskin (compared to Wyatt Logan, being American where most men regardless of religion are circumcised). So when writing sex scenes, especially blowjob scenes, I had to know what the fuck to do with the foreskin.

RESEARCH!!!!

Research can also be kind of helpful in the erotic sense. Most articles such as “how to use a vibrating dildo” can be very straightforward and clinical, but the detail of their descriptions can help you to start picturing the sex scene you want to write.

So before anything else: if you don’t have the hands-on experience, RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH. This includes reading other smut fics that have whatever it is you want to write about! I read a lot of gay smut before I wrote two men getting it on, seeing as I am not a man (I am as swift as a coursing river and have the strength of a raging fire but, alas, do not possess the force of a great typhoon and I am the farthest thing from mysterious as the dark side of the moon).

Another thing some fellow smut writers have found helpful is watching porn. They’re much more visual than I am, and so seeing things acted out, even if they’re acted in a cheesy way, can help them to get creative juices flowing and visualize what they want their characters to do. I do not like porn, since I am a fucking snob and criticize the lighting, the script, and the camera angles the entire time.

Yes, I’m a great time at parties, thanks for asking.

Also? Masturbation. YES I’M SERIOUS. Think long and hard (ha) about what turns you on when you’re touching yourself. I don’t just mean that fantasy about the pirate captain, I mean literally, what parts of yourself does it feel good to touch? Do you like to tease and take your time, or get right to it and be a little rough? Do you prefer big dildos that fill you up or a small vibrator that concentrates on your clit?

What you like and how you want to be touched is a great way to start.

Part Two: How to Get Your Blank Word Doc To Stop Mocking You

I usually start my smut scenes one of two ways. The first way is generally for my oneshots: WHAT KINK ARE WE GOING TO GET EVERYONE INTO TODAY??? LET’S SPIN THE WHEEL!!! *game show theme music*

The second way is more for my multichapter fics, which is: what is the purpose of the sex scene? Why are these characters having sex?

Everyone has times where they have sex just ‘cause they wanna have it. That’s what PWPs are for. “I’m horny and I want to read someone getting two cocks in their vagina/being tied up and made to orgasm five times/fucked against a wall.” Great! Excellent. Wonderful. For those cases I ask myself, “well, if I were in Character A’s shoes, what would I find hot?” I consider the person’s personality, and then roleplay in my head what would feel good to me to do. Then I swap and do the same thing through Character B’s shoes.

For example, I am very submissive in bed. I want my partner to tell me what to do (not all the time but when we’re getting kinky). I do not want to be the one giving orders. Lucy Preston, however, is dominant in bed. She wants to be in control. So when I write sex scenes I can’t just say, as Lucy the woman, “oh I want him to hold me down and fuck me,” because that doesn’t fit her characterization (at least, not the characterization I see for her). That’s important to consider, always.

CHARACTERIZATION IS KEY!!!! I can’t tell you how many damn good fics I was into until I got to a part where a character was acting OOC and it took me completely out of the story. Most recently, I was reading this hilarious and sexy smut oneshot that I was absolutely in love with–until I got to the end, and Character B, who is known for being very taciturn and not good with words, started spouting off all this really earnest and romantic stuff.

Look, there are ways that a taciturn person, who isn’t good with words, can be earnest. Having them say cliche romantic stuff is not it. I was completely taken out of the story and that saddened me because I loved it up until that part.

***Interlude***

A good example of this is pet names! Pet names that characters call each other really showcase their personality. For example, I have Flynn call Lucy moja draga and moja ljubav which are Croatian for, respectively, “my darling” and “my love.” But he calls Wyatt moj tigriću which is Croatian for “my tiger,” because it just doesn’t fit the snarky, chaotic, initially-adversarial Wyatt/Flynn relationship for them to call one another “my love” or “my darling.” Wyatt calls Flynn “babe” in a way that started out sarcastic and became a habit before he could stop it.

I could go on (the trio has a lot of pet names for each other) but my point is, the pet names fit their personalities and their dynamics. Gotta do the same for your sex scenes! People don’t just become porn stars when they have sex, they’re still themselves!

***Interlude Outro***

Okay, so that’s PWP But what if it’s in a longer fic? What if this is the sex the characters have been building towards for 50k, 100k, 200 FUCKING THOUSAND WORDS WHAT THE FUCK–

*ahem*

Anyway, if you do that, then of course it’s not just about “hey I’m horny and have a thing for being spanked.” There have to be reasons why. Consider the circumstances. Is it a release of tension? Did they just have an argument and they’re running high on adrenaline? Did one of them just suffer a loss and they want physical intimacy to feel comforted? Why are they having sex now, instead of at another time, and once you figure that out, that’ll set the tone for the whole thing.

This was something I really struggled with in The Thing With Shadows Is (They Come From Light, From Somewhere). The setup for that fic is that Lucy was a dominatrix at a BDSM club, and needs to become one again to go undercover and get personal information on Rittenhouse members. To maintain her cover, only one person will be in contact with her, by posing as a client and doing BDSM scenes with her. The person chosen is Flynn.

This was a bit of a shameless excuse to have Flynn and Lucy fucking every chapter, but having characters doing sexy stuff to each other every chapter can get boring quickly. So every chapter I was thinking, why are they doing this. Why are they being sexually intimate? What are their emotional states? What do they want, and what are they not saying to each other? What is coming out through the sex because they’re refusing to use their words?

The why will immediately dictate what sex stuff actually happens in your scene. If a character is, say, grieving the death of a loved one and wants intense physical comfort, they’re probably going to want to be on the bottom (missionary position) so that the weight of the other person on top of them grounds them. Or, perhaps they would like to be on top, so that the other person can wrap their arms around them, and they feel held and cared for. Perhaps they want to do it with the other person behind them, kneeling, arms around them, so that they feel held but they don’t look at the other person’s face, because they can’t handle that kind of intimacy right now with all the emotions they’re struggling with.

But on the contrary–maybe they want to be fucked hard and rough, taken out of their heads, made to not think about anything at all! All of these are viable choices based on the character, and it’s up to you!

Comparing it to yourself can really help. How would you want to have sex in that given situation?

Is the sex tender? Is it explosive? Is it frantic and on the floor of the foyer with their clothes mostly on because they can’t get enough of each other and they’ve waited too damn long already? Or is it done slow and soft in a bed, fully naked, their hands interlocked, staring into each other’s eyes? What the characters are feeling and why they’re having this sex now, here, will help with that.

Figure all that out, then projectile vomit it onto the page.

Part Three: Revision, or, Taking Your Darlings Out Back and Shooting Them

Once I finish vomiting unleash my first draft, then that’s where the research comes in. I read the scene over again and go, okay, well, this and this and this are very hot, but this position here isn’t physically possible. Or I can add in bits of realism like, okay, here’s a part where I can describe the safeword, or how she tied the knots, or what the vibrator looked like.

Your first draft is where you just vomit up whatever you find sexy. Because if you keep stopping along the way to interject realism or to double-check everything, you’ll never get finished. Save that for the second draft.

And by the way–I’m using the word ‘vomit’ for a very important reason. The goal of your first draft is for it simply to exist. So often we want perfection immediately, and that’s not gonna happen. If you aim for perfection, your story will never be finished. It doesn’t matter how crappy your first draft is. What matters is that it exists.

So. Revision time. Now, fanfiction can be, say it with me folks, ESCAPISM.

LOUDER FOR THE PURITANS IN THE BACK!!!

FANFICTION CAN BE ESCAPISM!!!!!!!

So sometimes that means your sex is a little too good to be true, sometimes the BDSM practices are a little unrealistic (who the fuck is going to survive ten orgasms without a break, the closest I got was five and I got a fuckin’ UTI out of the deal), and so on. But! Don’t break the rules until you know what the rules are! Learn the rules! Do your research! Then you can break them without breaking your readers’ sense of realism.

For example, I have read fics where the person was tied up and had an unreasonable amount of vibrator orgasms, and yeah, probably in real life, there should’ve been a pee break in there somewhere, they should’ve stretched their limbs, taken a breather. But it was a damn good fic to fantasize.

On the other hand, I was rudely jolted out of a fic I read once when the dom fit his FIST inside the sub’s MOUTH.

I tried it, guys. My hand is not that big. It did not work. I was literally reading the fic screeching YOU’VE DISLOCATED HIS JAW, HIS JAW IS NOW DISLOCATED, OH MY FUCKING GOD.

So yeah. Do your research so that you know how to break reality in fun ways that enhance the sexiness, not in weird random ways that take your readers out of the story.

Going back in and looking at your sex fantasy (because that’s what your first draft was, a sex fantasy) through the lens of your research and your critical eye ensures that you can add in details that make it more realistic, and sexier.

When you’re three fingers deep (or jacking off, I don’t know, whatever your genitalia is) and you’re picturing your favorite actor fucking you, you’re not thinking about the details.

Unless you’re me in which case you halt halfway through because no no we should’ve taken our shirts off in the hallway and then she could pick me up–rewind, let’s take it one more time from the top…

And that’s good! You’re flooded with endorphins, you’re chasing an orgasm, who the fuck cares about logistics! But it’s an experience that’s just for you, in your head. When you’re writing a story, you’re giving that experience to someone else, so you have to provide them with as many details as you can so that they can experience that fantasy, too.

Of course, all rules are meant to be broken. There are times when a lack of detail is good, and fits the mood. My smut scene at the end of Love You Like a Killer (I Want To Make Your Heart Stop) was very mood-oriented, very emotional, very much about release and the connection between these characters. I had them make love during a goddamn thunderstorm of all things. So I didn’t go into huge detail about whose throbbing cock was where and so on. Because going into too much detail would’ve ruined the dreamy, emotional, romantic-music-swelling mood I was going for.

But yes, revisions, add in all those lovely realistic details about logistics (I have drawn stick figures in the past to figure out sex positions, do what you must) and things I learned from my research, and ta-da!

Part Four: Random Information I Find Helpful

Variety is the spice of sex. Be careful not to overuse words. This is something you tackle after you revise, when you’re on the more nit-picky stage. If you find yourself using the word “yet” a lot, or you’ve drawn attention to someone’s “massive” cock three times in the last paragraph or said that she spoke “breathlessly” a dozen times… grab the thesaurus.

Fanfiction is often escapism, that means it’s okay to sometimes leave out mundane details like “hey are you on birth control,” using a condom, peeing right after sex, tying your hair back so it’s not in your mouth while you eat them out/blow them, etc. You can use those details! But don’t feel shackled by them if you feel they take the reader out of the moment. Use your discretion.

Cock and dick are the words to use. Prick is okay but it depends on your audience–it’s a very British/UK term, but as an American it’s kind of a weird word to me (it always makes me picture his dick as like three inches long). Use your discretion. “Shaft” works if you’re stroking it or blowing it (i.e. she swallowed around his shaft) and don’t overuse the word. Personally I find “cock” is more erotic than “dick” so I tend to use dick for non-sexy moments and cock for when I’m trying to turn on the reader, but again, that’s personal preference.

For the love of God just call it her entrance, her pussy, her cunt. None of these ridiculous euphemisms. “Her lower lips”? What the fuck. Be careful not to overuse pussy/cunt though because those are unfortunately also used as insults so if you use it too much, readers can find it too crude. Find a balance. Yes it sucks. (Or y’know generally avoid using any term altogether which is what I do yes I’m aware I have a hangup stop looking at me like that.)

Common sense should always prevail. Know your biology. A 40 year old man is not going to get it up again five minutes after coming. A 20 year old man is going to have shit stamina. Characters should not be having athletic sex after they’ve been stabbed. Nobody can deep throat a cock without choking on their first time. And so on.

Don’t bite off more than you can chew. If you don’t know how to describe the knots you’re using to tie your character up, then don’t describe it! Just say Character A tied them up! A good rule of thumb is if you don’t know how to describe something logistically, focus instead on how the character feels while it’s happening. Are they exhilarated by being tied up? Nervous? Describe that instead.

 It’s okay to write something you haven’t done. I was writing smut (well praised and enjoyed smut) long before I ever had sex (on a similar note, hey, it’s okay if you don’t have sex until your mid-twenties or even later, you do not have a “sell by” date, okay?). Don’t be afraid to ask questions of people you trust, if you want first-hand information.

Take. Your. Time. Don’t rush it! Savor it. Enjoy it. Really dive into it. Nobody likes rushed sex in real life and nobody likes rushed smut.

And last but not least, have fun! This should be fun, titillating, this is your fantasy about these two characters. Enjoy it. Maybe your kinks aren’t someone else’s kinks, but your goal isn’t to please everyone (that’s impossible) or even to write what you think will be the most popular. It’s to write what you want, and what you find sexy. So experiment! Enjoy!

We all have moments of writer’s block. But the more you do it, the easier it gets. I hope this was all helpful, dear nonny, and I hope that you’ve having a wonderful day and that you get your smut writing mojo back!

yes that was an Austin Powers reference I’m sorry I couldn’t resist please forgive me

[vaguely-concerned]

Mass Effect: Annihilation thoughts

TL;DR I fucking LOVED IT, a balm to my heart after struggling through Nexus Uprising! Also canonical lesbians! The sweetest quarian & his badass grandma! Elcor Hamlet except this time it’ll make you cry!!! 

- Aaaaaah the audiobook reader is Tom Taylorson (so male Ryder)!! Fryda Wolf (female Ryder) read the two others and did a nice job, but man I’m soft for his voice in a way only rivaled by (...outside-of-Overwatch!)Jennifer Hale and Nicholas Boulton haha. He also has a much better handle on the pronunciations and voices for the different alien species -- delightful, I’m still cackling over his pitch perfect elcor impersonation. (Bioware please give him more Scott Ryder to voice I miss my son)

- I’m only about half an hour in and this is already SO much better than Nexus Uprising, it really does feel like a brave new galaxy haha. Very funny, very warm and smart and engaging in how it does its characterization and Valente clearly has affection for the setting and the universe, she and Jemisin both do incredible jobs with these. 

- I’m fucking crying laughing at this cross-species near-brawl over a flower arrangement, god I love Mass Effect SO MUCH (what a neat idea though. something blooming quietly even when no one can see it. impractical as hell and hilariously including a high-nutrition celery now, but still neat)

Taylorson continues to wonderful things with the voices, that volus suit sound is so good. (he’s just generally really good at comedy) also a volus bellowing insults ‘moments before punching an anti-bouquet batarian in the groin’ sdafhjklsahfsjadkhfklajshdfkjlsadhf

- a high as a kite elcor... what a time to be alive, to get to read this book

I have already reached the ‘I LOVE EVERYONE IN THIS BAR’ stage with these characters, hard boiled drell detective lady and sweet sweet quarian first officer and manically enthusiastic elcor doctor TOT I would die for any one of you!!!

- The quarian/multispecies ark was built for long-term habitation, potentially over multiple generations. So what you’re telling me is that the quarians are the only ones who fucking thought this through and the rest of the Initiative probably should have listened to the people who’ve essentially been living on arks for ages. Who’d’ve thunk huh lol. (I guess the in-universe explanation is that people like the mysterious benefactor just wanted those arks yeeted to Andromeda ASAP, no time to get fancy in case the Reapers changed up their schedule. Fair enough)

- ;n; petition to let senna have a SAM pls (also uh. how happy do you think the stringently anti-AI quarian pathfinder will be when he finds out about everyone else’s SAMs lol lol lol he’s going to PASS OUT FROM RAGE upon meeting ryder. well he sounds like an asshole, I hope he dies so senna gets a chance)  

- I can’t BELIEVE yorrik is an anti-stratfordianist, i am betRAYED! disgraceful, how can I still love you knowing this (and yet I do he is extremely funny and sweet)!!! (at least his theory is that this so-called ‘shakespeare’ was actually an elcor, which makes it better somehow lol. anything so long as he’s not an oxfordian tbh)

senna and yorrik’s friendship is so good and wholesome 

- I really love the consistent alien POVs in this book, mass effect should indulge in this more -- everyone loves this universe so much, bioware, stop making us squint through a human lense to look at it!!  

- oh of course quarian ‘pirates’ exist, the people who’re thrown out of the fleet must be doing something huh. 

- haven’t written that many notes in a while just because I’m enjoying myself so much, I keep forgetting 

- lfsdkhfsajkldhfskadjhfsjakdfhsdkjfh communist volus!!!! this is not a drill, communist volus! I am completely and utterly charmed by this entire book

- the quarian ancestor VI is so interesting and weirdly touching. senna is adorable (and relatably neurotic lol)

grandma AI smoking T___________T I love everything about this, she’s so cool. the worldbuilding being done around pre-geth revolution rannoch here... exquisite 

- way to make me cry about batarians cat valente ;_______;

- the voice acting is SO FUCKING GOOD! I keep forgetting it’s one dude reading all these characters haha, I caught myself wanting to look up who voiced this dying batarian. (special shoutout that he does so many wonderfully distinct and specific female voices!) 

- haHA I KNEW the quarian VI was a full AI (or near enough that it makes little difference tbh)!!! this fabulous grandma was self aware the entire time b i t c h e s !!!!

- the running joke of borbala’s ‘you need ______? I can make _______ happen’ is SO satisfying hahaha

ooooooh serious femslash vibes!!!! initially I thought batarian ex-crime matriarch was too old for drell PI, but this is undeniable. (I don’t think we actually ever get to know how old annex is, anyway, come to think of it) I guess if asari get to be five times older than everyone else and still fuck freely this isn’t really that weird lol

- “don’t look! it’s not so bad if you don’t look!” ofhsdalfhskldlsfjas oh senna baby boy 

hey qetsi? qetsi both senna and I love grandma liat more than you. stand the fuck down 

- NOOOO GRANDMA LIAT ;______________________________________;

- do you think SAM could meet liat (either ship!liat or just grandma!liat).... and have... a friend ;_________; (a cool laidback friend who isn’t a murderous angaran ai who might very well go the murder suicide sort of friendship route lol) 

anyway I miss SAM a lot and love him??

- yorrik noooooooooooo this is awful everything is bad and terrible I love all of them so much why must senna be sad and watch everything he loves fade away 😭😭😭

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand?” He realized he’d forgotten to preface the words with an emotion. Now they wouldn’t understand what he meant.

Oh. Oh what a way to drive home the sadness and loneliness of this moment f u c k  (and again the emotion taylorson brings to it jesus cHRIST) 

I’m destroyed over how much senna and yorrik love each other, cross species found family out here wrecking my heart in true mass effect style 

- yorrik is such a great character though. he’d be so easy to make a one-note joke character (like most elcor have been in canon lbr), but there’s nuance and depth and just enough satsifyingly believable alienness there. (I love the staunch elcor ‘you can’t call anything love that hasn’t lasted at least two centuries’ perspective haha) his memories of his childhood and disappointment with his profession and everything... goodnight sweet prince indeed :(

- they went and made elcor hamlet heartbreaking how dare they 

(to be real for a second I think some of the human culture references are a little bit clunky, but the elcor hamlet stuff is perfect. contextualizing a throwaway joke from the original trilogy and giving it emotional depth, helping us see it from the elcor perspective and how frustrating and lonely it is to be so fundamentally not emotionally understood or seen on a level most of the other races are, despite their other differences, even though you have all these feelings and want to communicate... its very good.)   

fun additional fact: both mordin and yorrik have played/wanted to play polonius in a production of hamlet! though I guess mordin is the slightly problematic fave in that duo and yorrik is a sweet melancholic angel who has never done anything wrong in his life, I would say protect him but I guess it’s too late for that D:  

- qetsi giving off some real ophelia vibes here, I wish yorrik was here to see it, he’s the only one who’d properly appreciate it despite it all

- I. am. SO FUCKING HUNGRY for more mass effect after this (well even more so than usual) I’m so hyped!! I love this universe so much! I want a new andromeda game with senna as quarian pathfinder and grandma liat as the ship’s AI and see how they interact with ryder and SAM! (honestly though I feel like senna might be the one who’d translate the most cleanly into a game, I think there’s a lot of potential in him that’s barely being realized towards the end there with his deep righteous rage cutting through his uncertainty. also I just want nice things for him. is that so much to ask. he is a good boy, yorrik was so right.)

- aaaah not just femslash vibes, canonical lesbians, this is not a drill! I can’t wait until they propose... ‘we get shit done together, want to be in good cop/bad cop with me until the day we die y/n?’  

- the ME universe doesn’t feel quite itself without all these ‘background’ species hanging around, I suddenly realize. I dream of an Andromeda sequel with all of them on the board and in play again Y-------Y 

- potential Liat and SAM dynamics are so fucking interesting though! if she becomes/is confirmed as a full AI (all I hope and dream of), you’ll have two artificial intelligences with such different starting points but not that dissimilar goals? Liat was an organic person once who’s looking out for her family even now, and SAM is completely artificial but also intimately tied to and protecting His People. (and pulling a whole lot of symbolic weight re: the strength of familial/interpersonal relationships to boot; he’s the best way alec ryder managed to connect with his children. even though he was dead. because as established alec ryder was a disaster of a person)  

- I enjoyed the loose murder mystery structure of this quite a lot, but that might also be because nexus uprising is so shapeless and meandering by comparison that I’d be relieved by anything else (sorry I’ll stop ragging on NU soon it just. took some hours of my life I can’t get back)  

- jemisin did great stuff for characters already in andromeda (cora, SAM, alec ryder) and valente made me remember just why I love this universe so much and desperately want these aspects brought to andromeda too... and now I’ve exhausted all the fresh mass effect content I had available to me and will sit here consumed with lust for the rest of the time it takes for a new game to be announced thank you and goodbye  

[gamestreamingsetup]

Guide To Twitch Streaming

Who wants to sit and watch people play video games all day? Millions of people, it turns out. Live-streaming website Twitch is one of the biggest things in games, with 15 million daily viewers who come to watch the wealth of professional tournaments, gaming talk shows and casual solo sessions that the site's 2-million-plus broadcasters offer.

Twitch's biggest streamers are a new breed of Internet celebrity, with legions of dedicated fans who tune in daily to watch them dominate Fortnite matches or hilariously scream their way through horror games. Many of these personalities have a litany of sponsors and hundreds of thousands of social media followers — two traits more typical of a pro athlete than someone who plays video games for a living.

But while only a lucky few make it to the NBA or the NFL, anyone with a decent gaming PC or modern game console can be a Twitch streamer. If you want to take a shot at Twitch stardom, here's everything you need to know about how to become a Twitch streamer, from basic hardware requirements to tips from the pros on keeping viewers happy.

What You Need to Become a Twitch Streamer A Good Computer

Although there are a few exceptions I'll outline below, you'll likely be doing most of your streaming from a gaming laptop or gaming desktop PC. As far as specs go, Twitch recommends having at least an Intel Core i5-4670 processor (or its AMD equivalent), 8GB of RAM and Windows 7 or newer. (Don't worry; you can stream from a Mac, too.)

If you're streaming PC games, you'll need a graphics card strong enough to support whatever you're playing and, ideally, one that supports DirectX 10 and up. The faster your Internet connection, the better — you should probably aim to have an upload speed of at least 3MB per second, which should be attainable on most home Internet connections or even via mobile.

While we recommend streaming from a desktop if possible, going live from a laptop is totally doable with the right specs. If you want to go the mobile route, be sure to check out our guide to streaming to Twitch from a laptop.

One PC or two?

While Twitch's core system requirements are pretty forgiving, streaming and playing graphically intense games at the same time can put quite the load on your computer. Some popular streamers remedy this by using two PCs at once — one for gaming, and another for broadcasting. If that sounds too complicated, you can check out desktops such as CyberPower's Pro Streamer, which houses two complete PCs in a single body.

Fortunately, thanks to to recent strides made by Nvidia, creating a high-quality stream from a single PC is becoming more feasible. If you own a gaming desktop or laptop with one of Nvidia's new RTX graphics cards, you'll be able to take advantage of Nvidia's dedicated hardware encoder that's built into each card. This essentially relieves your CPU of having to do too much of the heavy lifting.

Open Broadcaster Software, which we'll touch on below, is optimized for the new Nvidia cards, meaning that it's quite easy to get a smooth single-PC stream going so long as you've got OBS as well as a system with an RTX 2060, 2070, 2080 or 2080 GPU.

A Twitch account

You can visit Twitch.tv to join for free, and you should probably add a custom avatar, banner and description so that viewers can learn a little bit about you. If you want to make sure that all of your broadcasts are temporarily archived for later viewing, you can head to Settings > Channel & Videos > Archive Broadcasts.

Streaming Software

The most essential part of any streamer's tool kit, broadcasting software lets you show your gameplay to the world. The two most commonly used streaming programs are Open Broadcasting Software (OBS), which is completely free, and XSplit, which has a highly intuitive interface but requires a paid subscription in order to use its key features.

Regardless of your choice of software, setting up your stream consists of the same general steps: picking your sources (such as your computer monitor, gameplay feed or webcam), laying out how they'll all appear for the viewer, and finally, syncing up your Twitch account and going live.

Microphone and Camera

While you can technically get by with a gaming headset, you'll want a dedicated microphone so that your viewers can hear you clearly. The $129 Blue Yeti is our favorite USB mic thanks to its crisp audio quality and adjustable pickup modes. If you're on a tight budget, consider the $36 Samson Go Mic; for something more portable, check out the $99 Blue Yeti Nano. For more on microphones, be sure to also check out our podcasting guide.

If you don't already have a webcam and want to show your face, the $49 Logitech HD Pro C920 is our top overall pick thanks to its sharp 1080p capture quality and wide field of view. The $99 Logitech C922 offers the same quality but with automatic background removal, which allows you to superimpose yourself onto your game without the need for a green screen. There's also the $99 Razer Kiyo, which is similarly sharp and offers a built-in ring light for illuminating your face.

Streaming from Consoles

If you're wondering how to become a Twitch streamer without any fancy PC hardware, both the Xbox One and PS4 let you stream directly from your console, without any extra devices or software. On Xbox One, you'll just need the free Twitch app; on PS4, you can go live right from the system's Share menu. Folks on Xbox can also stream directly to Microsoft's Mixer platform, which is just as easy to set up. While you won't get to customize your stream the way you would from your PC, console streaming is still a great way to get your feet wet.

If you want to stream from your Nintendo Switch or any other console (or just want more control over your broadcast), you'll need a capture card that records your console gameplay to your PC.

The most popular capture card option out there is the $129 Elgato Game Capture HD, which seamlessly records 1080p video from Xbox One/360, PS4/PS3, Wii U and just about any other system with an HDMI output. It also has a Component adapter, in case you want to stream from one of your dusty retro consoles. If you want smoother, 60-frame-per-second streams, you can step up to the $151 Elgato HD60.

Twitch is home to a growing stable of bona fide gaming celebrities who make their living broadcasting — but not just because they play the latest games or have a fancy stream setup. The top Twitch streamers are true entertainers; some are known for their incredible Call of Duty headshots, while others are famous for blowing through entire Zelda games in 20 minutes. But more than that, they're just great personalities.

"[Our top streamers] are humble, friendly, highly interactive and treat the people in their chat as if they are the stars of the show," said Chase (yep, just Chase), Twitch’s director of public relations.

If you're looking to get into the finer points of growing an audience, popular Hearthstone player Jeffrey "Trump" Shih's "Streaming 101" video is an excellent place to start. Shih neatly breaks down the core components of streaming into an acronym he calls OPTICS (Opportunity, Presence, Technology, Interaction, Consistency and Skill), noting that focusing on any number of these factors could help you make a name for yourself.

Grow big enough on Twitch, and you just might be offered a partnership, which allows you to get a cut of broadcast revenue and offer your viewers exclusive perks in exchange for a monthly subscription fee. No matter what level of Twitch stardom you're shooting for, here are tips from some of the streamers who do it best.

Find Your Niche / Games You Enjoy Playing

How do you stand out among Twitch's 2 million streamers? For Burke Black, all it took was a pirate hat and lots of patience. After two years of steady streaming, Black is now a partnered broadcaster with more than 23,000 followers that tune in to catch his late-night, swashbuckling-themed antics.

Fire up any of Black's broadcasts, and you'll see him in full brown-and-beige pirate garb, complete with a skull-and-crossbones bandana and an epic beard to match. The 36-year-old is the farthest thing from imposing, though, as he giggles and cheers his way through anything from Grand Theft Auto V to Pirates! (naturally) while enthusiastically chatting with his viewers.

"I consider it a show, not just some dude streaming games," Black said. "People come in because they like the atmosphere … [it's a] nice friendly environment where they can come and have a good time with some cheesy pirate stuff going on."

Becoming a pirate isn't the only way to stand out on Twitch. Perhaps you're exceptionally skilled at the world's most obscure platformer, or you have a really cute dog you can put in front of the camera while you blast through Counter-Strike matches. Find your specialty, and run with it.

Be Consistent

Consistency is crucial — just as people tune in to their favorite TV shows at the same time every night, they should know exactly when you'll be live on Twitch. Whether you broadcast in the afternoon or the wee hours of the morning, stick to your schedule, and make sure it's prominently displayed across both your Twitch page and social media sites.

"You will never get the same viewers if you stream at random times when you are just starting out," said That's Cat, a 26-year-old streamer that specializes in survival games and has almost 30,000 followers.

Make Some Friends

Sonja "OMGitsfirefoxx" Reid is one of Twitch's biggest stars, with more than 631,000 followers and her own merchandise store. While much of her success can be attributed to her unfiltered sense of humor and constant interaction with her viewers, one of her biggest breaks came from working with others.

"We started a daily Minecraft stream, with the idea of just playing some Minecraft with friends and hanging out," said Reid of "Mianite," a series in which she and other popular Twitch stars broadcast their daily hijinks in the popular crafting game. "It blew up, and turned into a huge series, which is going into its third season."

That's Cat also made a name for herself by playing with other broadcasters. In fact, the streamer had 500 Twitch followers before she even went live on her own channel, simply because she made plenty of friends beforehand.

"I ended up having over 80 viewers [on] my first stream, because of my presence in the community prior to streaming," said Cat, who got offered a partnership after just three months of broadcasting.

Be Very Interactive w/ Your Audience

What sets Twitch streams apart from other forms of entertainment is that the audience is almost always a key part of the experience. All Twitch broadcasts are accompanied by a chat room, which allows streamers to interact directly with the people who support them. The more you make your viewers feel like they're sitting on the couch with you while you play, the better chance you have at building a loyal following.

Reid affectionately refers to her fans as her "foxx family." Even with hundreds of thousands of followers, she makes sure to keep things personal.

"I get to know a lot of my [viewers], and remember what's going on in their lives and chat with them about it in stream," she said. "Having a community that really feels like a family is really important to me."

Audience interaction is a top priority for Black, who has a monitor dedicated solely to viewing his Twitch chat. Black also does frequent giveaways, which, according to the streamer, helps encourage fans to come back every night.

That's Cat's following has grown so loyal that she can count on having viewers no matter how obscure the game she's playing.

"I literally played Barbie's Dream house and still had my entire community cheering me on," she said.

Don't Stress About Your Gear (At First)

Just because your favorite streamer has a super-sharp webcam and a fancy green screen and streams from two high-end PCs at once doesn't mean you have to — at least at first. Twitch's system requirements are quite lenient, which means you should focus on growing an audience before you spend thousands turning your bedroom into an all-out studio.

MORE: The Best Gaming Keyboard You Can Buy

"I started streaming on an old HP laptop that overheated to the point of burning my hand, and an old foldout chair from Walmart," said Reid, who's been able to upgrade to a decidedly better setup as her channel grew.

Be Patient, and Have Fun!

As with any type of success, "making it" on Twitch takes lots of patience and hard work.

"If you're doing [this] just to make money, you'll usually fizzle out in the first three or so months," Black said. "For the first six months, it was just awful because I didn't know what I was doing. Try not to get discouraged, because everyone's been that way."

Black's patience is now paying off; the streamer is closing in on 24,000 followers, and his Twitter feed is full of pictures of loyal fans wearing T-shirts with his name on them. Black, who currently works in photography, is considering becoming a full-time streamer once he hits 500 paid subscribers.

Reid stressed the importance of relishing every viewer, no matter how few there are in the beginning.

"Even if you have three viewers, or 30 or 300, there are people that are choosing to hang out and watch you," Reid noted.

In the end, it's important to remember that we're all still playing video games. Whether it's a hobby or something you hope to make into a career, streaming should be fun — the more you enjoy yourself, the more everyone watching you probably will, too.

[ccaleb-widogast]

Please expound on the “one sided disasters” (other than the obvious Beau for Yasha) because that sounds juicy

(Anon is referring to me mentioning that the only ships I see happening in the Mighty Nein at the moment are some one-sided disasters and I am here to explain what that means to me.)

OKAY this is absolutely just a theory so far and I have to start with a brief analysis on how I see Jester where the series is right now.

Jester is probably on her way to getting over Fjord. And I don’t think Fjord is into Jester, and I haven’t thought that for a while. Not since the Mighty Nein left the Empire, actually. Fjord had done a great job showing that he has a lot of flaws to his character during his arc, and that is completely natural. But Jester has been fantasizing about him as this perfect being that she fancies herself in love with and wants a perfect happy ending with. She even talked about it with Caleb to an extent as she started realizing that Fjord isn’t perfect.

Jester is going through some really important character development, and I’m not forgetting that, but she’s still a fairly naive woman who was very sheltered before she left Nicodranas to travel into the Empire with Fjord and join the Mighty Nein. Essentially, the Mighty Nein are the extent of her life experience outside of The Lavish Chateau. What we have seen of her is that she is a romantic at heart and a woman that wants a storybook romance, or is at least attracted to the idea of one. Except, she doesn’t have very much real life experience with initiating or maintaining that kind of relationship. 

Jester is definitely not a manic pixie dream girl, which apparently some people have tossed the accusation of around. She’s definitely not aiming to be the light and life of anyone specifically, especially one of the men in the group, even if she was specifically pursuing Fjord as a romantic interest. What Jester is, is a cleric of a chaotic trickster deity who has specifically manipulated her into believing that she must continue to act cheerful, unpredictable, and chaotic, or else she will lose his favor. With that attitude, she will always be happy bubbly Jester. 

All the same, she’s struggling with what they’ve just gone through (the entire pirate situation, especially the fight with the dragon). She feels like Fjord is being selfish and everyone else is kind of banding together in solidarity behind that.

So moving on to my theory. I will briefly reiterate that Jester is still a romantic, but she’s feeling a little down and feels that maybe the books she’s read don’t all have it right. But she’ll just keep to her friends and they’ll stick to the roads and get back to the Empire and see what’s happened while they were away.

But Jester is a romantic and it’s hard not to love a little too much when you have a heart as big as hers. 

Anyway you’ve seen this ship gaining a lot of ground in the fandom lately as a full ship. My theory is that Jester is absolutely going to go from crushing on Fjord to crushing on Caleb. 

They already have a very sweet dynamic going on with their friendship. I don’t think it’s going to be ruined or anything! Laura and Liam are very good actors and they would resolve whatever tension developed out of this after some wonderful drama. But I think Jester might go a little too far in interpreting some of Caleb’s nice gestures, especially because he can be so awkward with his acts of kindness. It’s easy for them to be accidentally taken in a different context, and he’s not very good at explaining himself.

Additionally, Jester does like her tropes and romances, and she might fancy herself a girl that can help “fix Caleb’s heart” if she draws the wrong conclusion as to why he’s so sad when all that she knows about his past is that he had a lover named Astrid and that he is obviously no longer with her. This would, of course, cause some really awkward situations that might also prompt Caleb to dump his full backstory on Jester to explain why her plans would never succeed to begin with.

And on Caleb’s side! He’s older than her by a decent shot, but not too old, I know. It’s totally possible that in the long run, they could become a thing, and I’ve considered them here and there before. With some more recovery and growing, I think they could make a very good and stable couple. But it would be miles down the road and after a lot of development for them both. Right now? Within the next few weeks in-game and the next couple of episodes? It would be a disaster. 

Caleb is in no place for a relationship with anyone right now. He’s too determined in his current quest to turn back the clock. Right now he’s as shady as Fjord is acting and even more subtle and manipulative about it to boot. He does love the Mighty Nein, and he especially loves Nott, but he would still prioritize his through action above them in a heartbeat. This spells disaster for any kind of healthy relationship. And Caleb doesn’t strike me as someone who would be actively or passively interested or searching for a romantic partner regardless, so an accidental “oh shit I’ve caught the feels” is unlikely, beyond how he already feels for Jester. 

At least, until she develops a little bit more. She has some really good growing to do, and I think that later on she could actually have some really great potential with Caleb. But in the near future, I have a sense that it’s just going to be a messy (attempted) romantic disaster with the two of them that could end up hilarious for the audience and also make us cry a little.

Mostly because Liam and Laura are good at doing that to us.