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tender-rosiey · 2 years

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love, love, love | dazai drabble

ᴀ/ɴ: I finally posted; this was supposed to be a fluff request but when it turned to hurt comfort, I decided to post it alone 👩‍🦲 SORRY HOPE YOU LIKE IT GUYS also this isn’t proofread so good luck

love, love, love. a concept you longed for the longest time now. love, with all its situations, is very alluring, isn’t it? whether it’s a knight in shinning armor that comes to your rescue or a man who merely steps into your life to spread a smile on your face and make a fool out of himself just for your sake.

wouldn’t that be sweet?

you dreamt and dreamt of how it would be with that special person in your life. you saw those people all around you, so lovesick, so in love and it made you wonder: how would it be with you? would it the fairytale you have dreamt of or the nightmare you were escaping from?

love is a double edged sword, yes it is; however, you doubt that statement sometimes. how can you not when whenever his hand touches yours, you get flustered and your heart flutters. when he notices and points out those small fleeting details about you that no one seems to see.

it makes you feel cared for, and when his eyes are filled with clear genuine affection when he stares at you with a sense of longing. his heart that you can feel racing in his chest, a feeling he most of the time seems to dismiss, wasn’t he a man afraid of vulnerability?

but on one of the nights, when the moon was the only person keeping you company, your lover entered your room, instantly melting into your touch. the moment your hand makes contact with his face is the moment that you hear an airy chuckle escape his lips.

why was he laughing?

“i never thought i would open up to someone about this as much as i am doing with you right now, but before I tell you, my past is ugly, a dark slash of black in my seemingly white life. and if you choose to leave then i need you to know that i truly care for you.”

and so the words left his mouth like a never ending stream. however, they weren’t as smooth as they usually were. they were hesitant, with each word a look is directed towards you to check, are you gonna run away? are you going to leave? what will you do?

and when he is done with letting out the wicked symphony that was playing infinitely his mind, he looks at you, waiting for a reaction. anything? he prepared himself for the worst, so why aren’t you pushing him? why aren’t you screaming at him that he is a monster?

why is it that your first course of action is to hug him and cry for his pain? he doesn’t know, but he thanks his lucky stars that you are still by his side. he wants to think about the reason, to ask about the reason, but he doesn’t.

because love in its purest form is the willingness to give your everything without expecting anything in return. he laid it out for you, and you accepted all of him. you told him your thoughts and feelings and he worked to make you the most comfortable with him.

so no one can blame you when you tell them about your love. because your love is pure and love, love, love is a fantasy you don’t need to reach out for anymore. it has been wrapped around your finger for along time now.

“belladonna, i can’t wait to see you.”

taglist: @magenta-cat-drawingss @pompompurin1028 @scul-pted @dazaisdeathwish @requiem626k @nameless-shrimp @shinys-bsd-world-1 @sonder-paradise @ravenina14 @jessbeinme15 @todorokichills @ginneko @missrown @shrynkk @simplyxsinned

do not copy or plagiarize or you will be reported

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forever-rogue · 3 years

Note

If you're looking for Bucky requests, may I perhaps request something to do with Dad!Bucky? Like maybe he's surprised on how much his kid (I always see him with a daughter but that's just me) grabs onto his metal hand when they're walking or just gravitates towards it more than his flesh hand and he's always throwing major heart eyes whenever the child does this. 🥺

A/N: Dad!Bucky? Please I’m so heckin’ soft right now - no one touch me 🥺

Pairing: n/a

Word Count: 1.5k

Warnings: none

BUCKY MASTERLIST

MAIN MASTERLIST

»»————-　♡　————-««

"Daddy!" Bucky was pulled back into reality as he looked up from the ground. A small flock of pigeons had gathered around him as he fed them some seed. They were cooing and chirping happily at him and in some ways had become steadfast friends over the years. But when he looked up and found his daughter grinning and waving at him, his entire heart melted, "daddy! Come and catch me!"

Sofia displayed a gap-toothed grin, her dark curls windswept and blue eyes wide and excited. She was his little clone in almost every single way. You'd told him that since the day she was born and, almost as if you had a sixth sense, you'd insisted that she would cling to him like glue. You'd been right. Very right.

He couldn’t help but grin as he watched her running around, attempting to catch some butterflies as Falcon, the beloved family dog, followed closely behind. You’d had him since before she was born and they were thick as thieves. Quickly pulling out his phone, he made sure to snap a few photos of them to send to you before getting up and chasing after her. He was on solo-father duties today as you had a few things for work you had to attend to that day.

Of all the things in the world Bucky thought he would ever have, a family of his own was never one of them.

But as he ran after his daughter, making quick work of catching up to her little legs, and swooped her up in his arms, a wave of peace and calm washed over him. She squealed in delight as she tried to squirm out of his arms, Falcon barking happily at the two of them.

“I’ve got you, little monster,” he peppered gentle kisses over her face as she giggled and attempted to wrap her small arms around his neck, “so easily defeated, little one. One day you’ll be strong enough to fight me off.”

“I don’t want to, daddy,” she insisted as she snuggled against his chest, “I like when you hold me. Besides, my legs are getting tired.”

A lump welled up in his throat at her little declaration; in some ways he wished that Sofia would stay this young and carefree forever. But in others, he couldn’t wait for her to grow up and reach different milestones that he could help her grow through. He still struggled, here and there, with the idea that he was actually good and hoped in some ways that raising her would give him the chance to prove to the world he could do good. Perhaps it would prove it more to himself than anyone else, but that was beside the point. He just wanted to be a good father, just as he worked to be a good husband.

He already was - the best ever - you had consistently told him such. Nothing you’d ever done that had shown him otherwise. It was something he still found to be a miracle at times.

“That’s what happens when you’re a shrimp,” he laughed softly as he kissed the top of her head, “one day, you’ll be tall and running over me. But that’s a long time from now - want to get ice cream before we go home?”

“Yes,” she grinned and looked at him with wide, ocean blue eyes, “mommy said no ice cream though...she said I had too much when I went to Uncle Sam’s the other day.”

“Mommy isn’t here right now,” he put a finger up to his lips and whispered softly, “it’ll be our little secret, okay?”

“I thought secrets were bad, daddy!”

“Only when they hurt other people,” he slowly set her back down and smoothed out her wild curls, “we don’t keep important secrets to ourselves and we don’t do anything to hurt others, yes?”

“Yes!”

“Exactly - and us getting ice cream doesn’t hurt anyone,” he reminded her as the little girl nodded eagerly, “we’ll make sure to brush your teeth extra well and then we’ll bring some home for mommy too. She can’t be mad then, right?”

“She loves ice cream too,” Sofia insisted as Bucky laughed, “we can all get ice cream! Falcon too!”

“Maybe not Falcon,” Bucky into his jacket pocket and fished out Falcon’s leash before clipping it onto his collar, “he can’t eat the same food as us, baby. But we can stop and get him a special treat too at the pet store. We can do that first, get our ice cream, and walk home. Mommy should be back by then too.”

“Okay daddy,” as soon as he straightened back up, he held out his hand to her, expecting that she’d gravitate towards the warmth and gentleness his normal hand offered her. Instead, she reached for the black and gold vibranium of his left side and clung onto it without reservation. She held onto him as tightly as possible, giving him an expectant look with a happy smile.

In some ways, he shouldn’t have been surprised at all. She’d never, even as a baby or toddler, had shown any fear or hesitation when it came to his vibranium arm. When she was tiny, even smaller than she was now, she didn’t understand the difference. She just knew that daddy has a different arm, but she’s never questioned it or made any sort of situation out of it. Even when people would stare, whether they knew of his past or not, Sofia was never phased. In turn, it gave Bucky the confidence not to care either.

You’d started the process of slowly helping to get him comfortable with being who he was, not hiding from the world, and the small girl had aided as well. These days he was able to go out without fear or worry about how he looked. He wasn’t anyone or anything he was just...Bucky. Bucky the husband, Bucky the father, occasionally Bucky the sidekick to Capitan America. And it felt good. For once in his long life, he was just a normal man.

And frankly, that was all he had ever wanted. What a thought - the man that had been through hell and back, several times, and all he wanted was a quiet and peaceful life. It had been a long time coming, but now that he had it, he didn’t plan on ever letting it go.

“Daddy?” Sofia asked softly as she started walking and noticed he wasn’t coming, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” he promised softly. Bucky squeezed her hand gently before taking a step forward with her and Falcon quickly matching his stride, “Sofia?”

“Yes?”

“How come you never ask about my arm?” if he didn’t ask, curiosity would kill the cat. Typical Bucky Barnes, he knew you would say, asking a mere child for an explanation of something much more complex than anyone of her age would understand.

“Your arm?” her little brows knitted together as she looked up and gave him a confused look.

“You have to have noticed it’s different,” he shrugged as they walked out of the park, “it’s metal - vibranium - no one else has one like it.”

“That’s okay, daddy,” she stopped and quickly turned his hand over in hers, tracing over the palm gently, “it’s pretty. And it’s okay to be different! Mommy always says that and you do too. It doesn’t matter what anyone looks like, as long as they have good hearts. Right? If you’re kind and nice, nothing else matters!”

“Yes,” he felt himself getting choked up again as she started to race along the sidewalk, attempting to pull him with her. Sage wisdom from a five-year-old, “you’re absolutely right. I love you, little monster.”

“I know! I love you too, daddy,” she grinned, “now hurry up before they run out of all the good ice cream!”

»»————-　♡　————-««

Marvel Taglist (add yourself to a taglist here!)

@qhbr2013 @greeneyedblondie44 @april-showers-and-flowers @softboiipascal @im-an-adult-ish @patzammit @niki-xie @xxlovingfandomsxx @startrekkingaroundasgard @welcometothepedroverse @actual-spawn-of-satan @punkerthanpascal @lazybeeches @someday-when-you-leave-me @justgivemethekeys @salome-c @rosiefridayrogersunday @neptunesglow @artsymaddie @haildoodles @amneris21 @star017 @irepostthingsiwanttoseelater @its–fandom–darling @ayamenimthiriel @alyispunk @djarinbarnes @edencherries @ashamed23 @sunsetskywalkerr @nikkixostan @spookispunk @cable-kenobi

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you #Sebastian Stan #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan x you #dad!bucky #i am soft

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nishinoya-can-rolling-thunder-me · 3 years

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Guess Monster

Tendō Satori x Reader

Summary: you catch a certain guess blocker’s eye at the youth training camp that you were invited to help manage

Still getting in the swing of writing for Haikyuu lol

Masterlist

The sound of balls bouncing and zipping by had just become a sound that made up the usual ambiance that echoed through your ears and into your brain. Watching those balls slam down to the ground and rise to the ceiling was also such a sight that had become so normal to your bored gaze that stared on in your position to the side of the small gymnasium as you watched the first years selected for the youth camp continue their warm up besides the two coaches. Though one thing that you couldn’t get ahold of was the antsy red head beside you that stared on with such an intensity that it made a shiver travel through your body. It made every single hair of yours stand on end. Though also embarrassment also took hold as he only did just that. Stood by. You almost had to physically restrain yourself from facepalming at just the thought of knowing that Hinata really and truly did sneak into the youth camp held for these few selected first years to be trained and guided in the gym located on the vast grounds of Shiratorizawa. Not only that, but to be told that he would only merely be a ball boy and nothing else. He would be the one to help wash the jerseys and set them to dry, fix water bottles, and chase after any ball that tried to escape. Though now he helped you keep track of the score of the game between the trainees and Shiratorizawa’s own boy’s volleyball group.

You were merely only a manager of Karasuno’s team that was asked to come on to help take notes of each individual player and keep track of their progress, very much like Kiyoko had taught you to once the two of you had found the groove of being the boy’s volleyball managers and was now teaching Yachi. You were the unlucky one to be offered up to do such a task.

“Hinata...can you stop being weird?” You whispered out sharply to Hinata. Your sharp words only seemed to put a even stronger determined look upon his face as a whistle pierced through the air, you letting out a sigh as you reached a hand to flip the flaps of plastic tat had their bold numbers printed upon them, adding another point to Shiratorizawa’s team.

“What? I’m just being a ball boy.” He almost seemed to proudly announce, causing you to almost turn red from the second hand embarrassment that seemed to take over your senses. How cold someone just be....like that? Seemingly so immune to embarrassment or shame? You knew he felt fear by how he worried of Daichi’s lecture or how he explained the feeling of despair once Mr.Takeda had scolded him with his eloquent words, but that was at least normal and expected. Heck, sometimes you could see embarrassment over take him on the court whenever he would make a fool of himself, but off the court it was like he was immune. Though you had to admit, he was forever evolving with his skills and techniques. So maybe that intense stare upon the court was just a part of the process of evolution, though the blaring whistle sliced through your thoughts. The set was over and done with and now both teams were having a cool down to rehydrate and catch their breaths.

“I have to go do something...” Hinata finally mumbled out before rushing off, you only huffing as you leaned against the sign, watching the other ball boys clean up the court and hand out bottles and towels.

“So! You’re a manager at Karasuno, right?” A voice soon piped up, your gaze slowly and lazily moving to land upon the source. The person in question was now lazily leaned against the score board along side you, red hair spiked upwards and of course had a strange....appearance. That appearance was quite hard to forget. Tendō Satori was a force to be wreckoned with when it came to his guess blocking upon the Karasuno vs. Shiratorizawa match and the middle blocker’s appearance was unforgettable since it was a bit different and you would be lying when you said it wasn’t. You’ve also heard the rumors and the whispers about him too from friends that went to school to Shiratorizawa or other friends from different schools who heard things and whatnot, just horrible gossip that you would listen to and indulge in, but never truly believed a word of it.

But knowing his nickname was the ‘Guess Monster’ sent a shiver down your body. The name was just so...intimidating and terrifying.

“Yes I am, I’m a third year at Karasuno.” You spoke, the silence falling between the two of you. You guess he suspected you to say more, speak more, just something. Though once he realized you weren’t going to say more, he continued on with speaking. Judging by how quick he was able to find the words to continue speaking, it seemed like he had much practice with executing one sided conversations.

“Third year? Would have guessed right, then. You are all...mature and respectful...unlike that shrimp who keeps staring everyone down.” He joked as he shrugged his shoulder and shot a glance over to Hinata who seemed to be pep talking one of the other first years that were actually invited to the youth training camp. It was actually kind of amusing to see Hinata try to cheer up such a large, tall, and stronger looking guy. It honestly almost made you laugh. Almost if it weren’t for the conversation at hand.

“And you’re a third year, but honestly I seemed to find you loud and...disruptive.” You hurriedly quipped back. Just hearing him call Hinata a shrimp just shot a bolt of heat through your body, a flare of anger. It was funny whenever Coach would endearingly say it or anyone of the team. Heck, you didn’t even care if Tsukishima said it, it wasn’t out of character for him to just be sarcastic or a little insulting. Hearing someone you barely knew call him that behind his back to you almost in a....demeaning manor just set a scowl upon your face as your stoic glare moved to rest upon his surprised features.

“Look I’m sorry, I was just trying to be funny.” He said with a laugh as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head as he looked down to you. It seemed like now you finally realized his towering, lanky figure as he allowed himself to straighten up for just a second before leaning back upon the score board. “I was just trying to make you laugh, but that really didn’t work....what a fail.” He said with yet another laugh as he looked to the shiny hard wood floor of the gym, watching the youth trainees being corrected and given advice to help strength their weakness or at least try to improve their weak points. “Kind of expected him to be invited to this thing...did he really break in?” Soon piped up his voice again, you only watching on ahead to the first years, lips beginning to move with your response.

“No he wasn’t...but he somehow got the bright idea to crash the training camp and I guess took on the roll of ball boy in order to not ruin his pride.” You muttered out, gaining a laugh from the other as your eyes watched the determined figure that belonged to Hinata dart after the escaping volleyballs, that strange look upon his face as he concentrated. Though the Whistle interrupted your words that were soon to continue, the coaches of Shiratorizawa calling over their volleyball team for a second match, Hinata now running back to his position on the other side of the score board, Tendo giving a little squinted look to the shorter and younger boy before looking back to you. It almost seemed like he was going to say something, but chose to just jog off instead to start another set with the trainees.

“Wow, you talked to that crazy guess blocker?” Hinata asked, standing at attention as he watched the first serve, eyes watching the ball sip back and fourth until the whistle blew. You nodded your head as you flipped the correct number, now looking over and to Hinata.

“Yes I did, wasn’t really much of a conversation though.” You admitted bluntly. Hinata of course gave a dramatic little huff as another sharp whistle sliced through the conversation, instructing you to once more flip the score board. “What did you expect? Him to relay all his darkest secrets to me?” You sarcastically added, but Hinata was already lost in concentration upon the practice match that went on with him.

The day was long and boring to be quite Frank. Your foot were tired from your constant standing beside that stupid little board and walking back and forth to keep an eye on all the players and of course on Hinata so he wouldn’t make an absolute fool of himself. Though the Guess Monster- or really Tendō had caught your eye many times. He seemed to cast his glances to you after a successful block, almost as in he was making sure you saw it. Then those few times he would totally be off with his intuition he would be checking to see that you didn’t, but you always seemed to catch a glance of his movements and game playing. It was the cliche thing that would happen in those cheesy American hallmark movies where those two people always seemed to be catching each other’s eyes and glances, though you did not think much of it all except for it being a big coincidence at the end of the day as you sling your bag upon your shoulders, bidding everyone farewell as you were prepared to walk back home alongside Hinata and Tsukishima.

“Hey! Ms.Karasuno’s Cool Manager!” Came calling out a voice. There, that red haired, atrange boy was jogging out of the gym and towards you, the two first years looking to you confusingly, though only continued walking forward as you waved them to continue, your bored gaze landing on Tendo, hands clutching onto the strange of your bag that slung over one of your shoulders. “I was wondering if I could get your number? We can maybe hang out sometime? Head out to town together?” He said with a hopefully look upon his face as he looked down to you, though he was only met with silence, the sound of your shoe scuffing up against the sidewalk was the only noise to he heard until finally you went digging into your bag, pulling out a pen before grabbing ahold of his arm and scribbling down a sequence of numbers before placing the pen away.

“Text me anytime...Tendo...” you said, a slight flush upon your cheeks as you shyly tucked a strand of hair behind your ears before turning away. “Tsukki! Hinata! Wait up!” You called to the two first years ahead of you, jogging forward to catch up with them.

“What was that for?” Hinata soon asked as he looked over to you, Tsukki in his own world along side the music that played through his headphones.

“Nothing....I just forgot something and he gave it back, just a silly old pen...”

#haikyuu #haikyuu!!#haikyuu headcanons #keishin ukai #tendou satori #haikyuu tendou #tendou hcs #tendou imagine #tendo satori #tendou satori x you #tendou satori x reader #tendou x y/n #tendou x you #tendou x reader #tendo x reader #tendo x you #tendou headcanon #tendo satori x you #tendo satori x reader

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bigg-city-riders-au · 3 years

Text

A Close Encounter

This takes place just as the two captains are getting ready to take off, and try to undo the curse. TW for violence, intense scenes, and some angst.

Captain Star made sure the supplies were secure in the small shrimping boat he had managed to buy at such short notice. Such an offer had been scarce since everyone else in the city had fled, either by car, bus, or boat. He looked back at the man in black, Captain Zero, his once competitor, now an unlikely ally as he stomps his cigarette out.

“Are we ready? Anything we missed? Might want to go over the list of supplies we have.” Zero narrowed his eyes at Star, who shook his head.

“We went over the list three times already. We need to get going as soon as possible if we are to get this taken care of before anyone else gets killed.” Captain Star sighed, looking back at the dark port. What was once a place of bustle and noise was quiet, and desolate. It was almost eerie. Captain Zero looked at the boat his hesitant ally had chosen. It was small, so it made it easier to get out of the port unnoticed, but was it enough to get them to where they needed to go? Only time will tell.

“Alright. Let’s get going while it’s still nighttime. We can use the cover of darkness to hide.” Captain Zero climbed into the small vessel, looking over the controls, and wheel. Deep down, he was afraid. Afraid of what may happen if they fail, or if one of the tugs manage to get out of the port, and cause more havoc. He pushed those fears to the back of his head. He couldn’t let his fear get the best of him. Otherwise, the port, and the citizens alike will likely be destroyed.

Captain Star nodded, and climbed into the boat, turning the engine, making the small boat start right up. So far so good. He could hear thunder rolling in the distance. Hopefully they can beat the storm, and get out of the port. He was almost about to take off before stopping when he heard the water being disturbed.

Zero immediately shined a flashlight where the noise came from, but saw nothing. Now he was on edge, looking around, and listening closely. The port was practically pitch black, with the exception of a few lights that remained undamaged in the tugs’ rampage.

“I don’t see anything.” Zero shined his flashlight in the other direction, and the color left his face at the sight before him, or rather behind the boat. The light illuminated the tug’s face. It was Hercules. He towered over them, glaring down at them with fangs bared, and venom oozing from his jaws, some of it landing on the boat. The venom easily corroded the metal shell within seconds. Zero was left trembling in utter fear as the ocean tug lifted his claws that looked similar to anchors out of the water, and slammed it down next to them, making the ground shake, and sending a shockwave through the water as Hercules snarled at them, eyes feral, and glowing with a ravenous hunger.

Star felt the impact, and looked back. His eyes grew wide at the sight of the tug, feeling both terrified, and heartbroken by how much of a monster this curse had changed the usual level headed Hercules into. He immediately turned back to the controls, and the boat took off at full speed. He didn’t dare to look back as he heard the deafening roar of Hercules. The whole port seemed to shake from the raw power from it.

….

Hercules let out a powerful roar before quickly taking off after the small boat, easily keeping up with it, and gaining on the two humans. He tried to snatch one of them right off the boat, but barely missed. Zero clung to the boat for dear life, terror clearly seen in his eyes. Oh how much did the ocean tug enjoy a good chase. Whenever the boat would turn, he would follow, easily turning on a dime. These new abilities… This new body gave him all the more of an upper hand over the two humans.

….

Zero can only scream as he watches Hercules easily rip through obstacles with his razor sharp claws. It seemed with every turn the boat took, Hercules kept getting closer, and closer. He could feel the tug’s hot breath beating down on him. It reeked of blood, and felt like a mighty blast from a furnace. Hercules opened his jaws, and unleashed a blast of flame at the boat. Zero immediately ducked and covered just before the flames would have burned him to a crisp. The heat was immense, hotter than dragon flame. If it were a direct hit, the boat would be destroyed, and they would be dead.

Star could see an opening leading to outside the port come into view, glancing back at the massive ocean tug, he immediately made the boat go to it’s maximum speed. Everything seemed like a blur now. One wrong move, and he and his colleague will be dead, and the curse will never be undone.

….

Hercules immediately stopped the moment the boat reached the open water, knowing it would be a waste of energy to pursue it now. He lets out one last roar for good measure before it dies down to a whine as the darkness within him lightens up.

He blinked, looking at the boat disappearing over the horizon before looking back at the port. He had left a trail of destruction in his wake, and almost killed his own captain to boot. He whines like a dog, and looks down at his claws, now feeling sick to his stomach, knowing what may have happened if he had been only a little faster. He lets out a choked sob. Why can't he be normal again? When will this end?

He never had wanted to kill anyone until now. The blood lust was simply insatiable, always demanding more than before. He didn’t know how much longer he could take this. He can only hope that his captain can fix this.

He lets out a screech as he feels the curse start to take hold again, struggling not to give in. He didn’t want this to happen again. He kept pushing the urges back until they finally overcame him. He closed his eyes, and sobbed, letting the curse overtake him once more. When he opened his eyes, his eyes were feral once more. The level headed tug was not there, only the beast remained. He snarled at the direction where the boat went, frustrated that he had lost a potential meal before silently retreating into the port.

#this is tugs #TUGS Hercules #TUGS Captain Zero #TUGS Captain Star #curse!au #tugs au #bigg city port #my writing

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va-3 · 3 years

Text

Part I

Second Half of my OC’s Information (the photo limit screwed me over)

The 1930s through the 1970s in Taika’s past is still a work in progress as well as the art soooo...probably a part three in the future?

Taika and Raspberry move to California the fall of 1986, although Raspberry finds a more permenant residence in Los Angeles while Taika finds herself on a more wandering path.

In the February of 1987 Taika wandered upon the town of Santa Carla, a town given credit for being home to those who wanted to disappear.

[side note: the jacket and jeans would be colored if only my damn markers hadn’t died]

Taika, a delinquent at heart as always, fit in like a puzzle piece. The punk-graffiti day life appealed to her like any adventure, and the smell of vampires lured her further into the town. She “cleared” a house (the act of killing the owners of a house and taking it for herself) as well as the garage. Taika acquired a 1987 Yamaha Virago via a rich douchebag she easily stole from and offed.

When the nightlife glowed at the boardwalk, it was apparent to the Santa Carla vampires that something was off, although they could not place it.

Taika did not make contact with the vampires for a while, seeming to distance herself just enough to make them curious about the uneasiness on the boardwalk since her arrival. Every now and then a body would turn up, a person snatched into an alleyway and partially eaten. It wasn’t until David met eyes with Taika across the boardwalk that it was clear to the Santa Carla vampires that there was another predator on their territory.

Taika’s aggressiveness and competitiveness are what pull the boys in first, that along with her scent, so much more intoxicating than any other human. A sort of playful rivalry grows between the calta and the vampires—who could last longer making trouble on the boardwalk without getting kicked off by Big Ed, who could score the biggest bonfire of surf nazis, and so on.

In the end it was Marko and Paul who put an end to the rivalry. Dwayne hadn’t thought he’d be able to really approach Taika and David was too prideful to do so. So the chaotic blonde duo took it upon themselves to invite her back to their cave as an act of trust as well as cease fire. David, no matter his pride, was quick to share about the fallen hotel made theirs. She was quick to catch on to the fact that they had been vampires much longer than they appeared. Dwayne brought it to her attention that she clearly knew what they were while they handn’t a single idea what she was.

With that question being asked, she explains what she is, and from there, their trusting relationship grows. The first time they hunt together is remotely terrifying to the vampires, considering she is a monster made for hunting them as well as other supernatural creatures.

The relationship between the boys and Taika blooms into something deeper, though it isn’t apparent to any of them at all at first. It was just small things they realized they loved about her, and her them. They fall in love with her odd little quirks, like how she always has change on her because it’s “shiny and distracting”, or how she’ll braid tiny braids into her hair and sometimes to boys’ hair, or how she makes beautifully delicate carvings out of the bones of their victims, or buys(steals) stuff for the cave while they all sleep, or organizes whatever she can anytime she comes the to cave, and really really likes coconut shrimp.

She steals the boy’s clothing whenever she leaves the cave during the day after a night of events, not that any of them complain. Marko’s crop tops are always her go to, while she wears Paul’s jewelry out and sometimes jeans that Dwayne doesn’t wear anymore. Sometimes Taika and David switch earrings, only because David is hesitant to give her any of his current clothing,. When he finds that he is more possesive of her than he’d openly admit, he gives her extra shirts of his to keep. Taika loves how the vampires smells mask her own; not only is it comforting, but it protects her from any lurking sevren(a post for another time).

Taika only needing three hours of sleep allows her to have a day life of her own, one that tends to breed chaos. Sometimes she’ll go surfing, something she’s become quite adept at, and show up the surf nazis on their own territory. Taika is the only member of the “biker gang” that the surfers ever see during the day, so they let out a lot of their aggression on her because they’re truly too cowardly to face the boys and her head on. The biggest mistake the surfers ever made was the day they decided it’d be humorous to steal her bike in broad daylight. She’d parked her bike(albeit illegally) on the boardwalk when she got to the beach, and when she returned later that day her bike was gone. Needless to say the surfers had invoked the wrath of someothing stronger than them on supernatural levels.

The boys knew something was up the instant they walked into the caves main area to find Taika waiting patiently at the exit. The only tthing she said was she needed a ride, one David gave happily. When the vampires had parked their bikes and Taika had muttered some words of reassurance to fill in her silence, she made a beeline for the carousel, following the ocean-spray smell of the asshole who’d taken her bike. He was standing in line with an arm draped over a girl who couldn’t have looked more trashy, his friends jostling one another as the line moved along. The four vampires followed behind the taller predator, their curiosity evident as they formed a half-crescent around her when she stopped. Taika was quick to clamp her arm onto the girl under the surfer and yank her out of the way, sending her flying onto her butt. Taika was mad, like, really mad. She hooked her hand into the collar of the surfers shirt, ignoring his protest when she yanked him to her.

“Where is it,” she hissed, putting forth minimal effort to keep herself from biting his face off in public. Marko watched in excitement, his thumb between his teeth as his eyes found the surfer’s. This guy was screwed. He raised his hands in surrender and feigned innocence, “Hey, I don’t know what your deal is lady, but I don’t know nothin about anything.”

His friends snickered behind Taika, clearly enjoying how angry they had made her. She narrowed her wild purple eyes, running her tongue over her teeth.

“Where’s my goddamn bike,” she demanded, her voice like ice down his spine. The vampires watched on, looking about occasionally to make sure Big Ed wouldn’t poke his nose where it didn’t belong. His friends burst into laughter again, shoving one another giddily. Taika had half the mind to throw the surfer in her hands at them like a bowling ball at pin, but she repressed her urges.

“You can make this easy or you can make it hard. Give my my bike and I won’t have to kill you.” He pressed his hands to the sides of his face and made a noise imitating a ghost. She stilled, silently in thought for a moment before she scoffed and let go of his shirt.

“Fine. I’ll find it myself. Boys,” she turned sharply on her heel and marched towards her vampires, hooking her hand into Dwayne’s in a way that was supposed to be gentle, but she was too mad. Paul slipped his hand into her back pocket and matched her pace.

“Yeah, run to your queers.”

The boys would swear on their lives that they’d never seen her spin around and tackle someone as fast as she tackled that surfer. He was in the ground in seconds, and Taika was planting hit after hit, taking the few blows he managed to land on her ribs like they were nothing. The surfers friends sprang into action, attacking the boys as well as trying to pry Taika from the much bigger surfer. The surfer’s face was bleeding all over, and he was fighting to stay awake. Taika wanted blood. Her bike’s absence was a small inconvenience that ensured a meal later that night, but the insult to her boys was a direct blow at her. They could trash talk her straight to her face, insult her, whatever made them feel powerful, but no one, no one, says anything about her boys. At last, she was whacked across the face by the baton belonging to Big Ed. The blow stunned her if anything, although she fell to the side and off of the offending surfer. Paul and Marko were quick to her side, helping her to her feet while also readying to catch her if she tried lunge out at the bleeding prick on the ground. “Off the boardwalk. All of you! Now!”

David was beaming with pride as Taika walked to him and Dwayne, wiping the surfers’ blood from her lip. The surfers backed from the bikers as they walked forwards, parting away from them to avoid Taika who walked in front, acting as an active threat to anyone who dared to even think about opposing them. When the five were clear of the crowd, Paul looped his arms around Taika and pulled her in for a smacking kiss. “That was awesome babe. Like, so fucking awesome.”

She burst into laughter, dropping her head onto his chest.

“Hell yeah it was,” added Marko, yanking her to him and spinning her like they were dancing. “I’m like two-hundred percent sure that guy pissed himself!”

Marko and Paul exchanged a highly energetic high-five, feeling the energy of the fight reigniting itself. Dwayne silently pulled her into him and kissed her forehead.

“Good to know you care, kitten,”at David’s words she beamed. Dwayne released her, and she bounced towards David, latching onto the lapels of his jacket. “I hope you know that I would do anything for you,” her sultry accent sent a delighted chill down his back. “All of you,” she sang, letting go of David’s jacket and spinning into Paul and Marko’s arms giggling like a school girl. From within the blond vampire sandwich, she raised her hand in the air to make a point. “Now, let’s go find my bike!”

The car belonging to the surfer who’d stolen Taika’s bike was found strung up in a junkyard the next day. The sight had been stupendous apparently, and ended up on the news. The owner of the car and his friends had a been absolutely delicious. After he’d returned Taika’s bike of course.

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moonah-rose · 3 years

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King Takes Knight (Part 5)

Shawn gets just what he hoped for.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

(TW: Torture, captivity, ‘nails’)

This was a glorious day. Victory Day. Maybe he’ll make it a national holiday to commemorate the occasion. Every employee will have a microsecond less work to do than usual. He can be generous like that.

Shawn watches from the stage as a Bad Janet enters, bending the arm of that pesky mutated Good Janet in front of her as she marches her down the steps. Behind them are some generic demon guards who he will have to learn the names of, if only so he can reward them for grabbing a human each between them. The four irritating losers who are behind this whole mess.

He can’t help but laugh! How stupid can they be to have all come at once? Now there’s no one left to run their ridiculous experiment.

“Good evening, dickweeds!” He greets them cheerily, amused by the defeated looks on all of their faces - though Mendoza looks as gormless as ever; “So glad you could attend the show.”

“Oooh, what show? Is it Shrek the Musical?” Jason asks, lifting his chin up.

The large guard holding him gives his arm a painful tug, making the dumbass yelp like a cat with its tail caught in the door.

“I’m afraid not. But I’ll definitely be keen on making you sing soprano when I have them saw your balls off.” He gloats.

With a wave of his hand, he instructs the guards to walk the four of them forward, up the steps, and then force them to their knees at the front of the stage. The Bad Janet struts to stand next to him and Shawn allows her to give him a low five at his side in celebration.

Not that it took much effort.

“I applaud you for trying. But that really was a pathetic attempt to save Michael. You really thought we wouldn’t have Molotov-proofed the doors after last time?”

Tahani turns to tut at Jason; “Told you!”

“Well I told you guys it was a trap but none of you listened!” Eleanor hisses.

Oh, this is wonderful. He would be happy to simply lock them in a room and watch them blame and scrap with each other, just as Michael originally intended, rather than all this wholesome chummy crap that ended up happening. How ironic.

“Such a shame that Chidi couldn’t be here to join you all. I guess he’s busy getting all loved up with his fellow nerd Simone, right Eleanor?”

He grins as that hits a nerve and Shellstrop darts forward, looking to go for him, before the guard grabs her hair and yanks her back down.

“Don’t worry. I have to keep my word to the Judge, after all. So I’ll be happy to let the experiment carry on, with Chidi and the others under the ‘safe’ guardianship of my employees wearing your skin suits.” He taunts them, “They won’t even notice you’re gone...especially as they will, literally, be the same skin torn from your bodies!”

“You twisted wanker.” Tahani glares at him, the British brat suddenly baring fangs; “Where is Michael?!”

“Y’know, she’s so right...Michael should be here to watch us slowly slice that fat skin off of them, shouldn’t he.” Bad Janet sways her hips, looking knowingly to Shawn with that glint in her eye; “Want me to go fetch him and give him the front row seat?”

This Bad Janet must not have got the memo.

“Oh I wasn’t foolish enough to have Michael be here. I just needed these filthy rats to think that’s where he was by the video.” He brags, watching the shock quickly drain the anger on their faces into hopelessness; “I had Michael moved a nice, cosy location far, far away. You weren’t even close to getting to him, idiots!”

“FUCK!” Eleanor swears, not even looking as though she can enjoy the opportunity to curse; “I told you all, it was too easy!!”

“No biggie.” Bad Janet rolls her eyes; “I can still stream him the footage to wherever that dingus is, can’t I? I sooo want him to see us cut Tahani’s hair into an uneven bob.”

“No! No! NOOOO!” The wannabe princess screams until the guard gives her a slap.

The Bad Janet has a point though. It wouldn’t be worth torturing Michael’s precious humans unless he was there to watch it, even if the plan with the Michael-suit fell through. Damn Vicky and Glenn both being blown up meant he had no duplicate to use, especially as he forgot to share the design with other skinsuit manufacturers (shut up, Glenn!).

He’s certain there is very little of Michael’s awareness left after how much they’ve inflicted on him over the past few...well, it was only a handful of months but, thanks to Jeremy Bearimy, he’s endured a lifetimes worth of restraints, freezing, impalement, whipping, electrocuting, bad Adam Sandler movies, and soo much worse. There had been a time when he’d looked into those blue eyes and seen so much raw hatred. Now, whenever he took a glance at his wretch of a former employee, the light was flickering out, as if he’s conscious of nothing except the constant pain and loneliness.

Just like the humans he adores so much that end up here, where they belong. Because they’re terrible and that’s all that needs to be known. He should have left well enough alone.

At least now, finally, Shawn gets to have some entertainment.

“You’re right, Bad Janet. Set up a connection to the Tenth Circle, Sector B. I left one Bad Janet on duty there with Nicole who’s currently ‘taking care’ of Michael. And by that I mean making him very miserable.” Just in case the humans are too dumb to get the expression.

Bad Janet texts on her phone, popping another piece of gum.

“Tenth Circle...Sector B....Got it.” She raises her head, an oddly pleasant smile spreading across it, eyes suddenly bright and pleasant; “Thanks for that!”

“What-?”

The not-so-Bad Janet karate chops him in the side of the head and knocks him to the floor. He hears her make a shout, the theatre spinning around him, unable to find his feet quick enough before the humans get to their feet and surround him.

Shawn blinks, rapidly, as they proceed to take out some rope and tie his wrists and ankles together.

“What is the meaning of this?! GUARDS! DON’T JUST STAND THERE! GET THESE STINKING HUMANS OFF OF ME!” He rages, trying his best to break out of their puny hold but they’re, for some reason, freakishly strong.

The Bad Janet continues to smile at him.

“Oh they’re not your guards...and these aren’t the humans. You were being so smug that you didn’t see what’s right in front of you, did you?” She says.

Shawn frowns. What is she talking about?!

He glances up at Tahani leaning over his head, trying to spot the....Oh. Farts.

They’ve fooled him again. That’s no Bad Janet. And these humans have no auras. They don’t even smell! They’re the same as her. They’re...

“Meet my Janet Babies. I produced a bunch more to come with me. We just needed to know where Michael was really being kept and now we do. And I’ve forwarded that to our Team Two so, thanks!”

She gives Shawn a kick in the teeth before her group stand back at her command.

He spits, wriggling, bound and prone on the wooden floor.

The fake Jason stuffs a green stress ball into his mouth to gag him before all of them leave him there, muffled curses being hurled at them, before they lock the door and leave him in the empty theatre. He fucking hates Good Janets!

She likes to use the metal hooks to dig into his flesh and give them a tug, eager to get a reaction out of him despite his near frozen state. Every now and then she’ll manage to hit somewhere extra tender and a whimper will break out of his lips.

She has a schoolgirl's giggle.

“This is like ice fishing. And you’re my big piece of frozen shrimp.” She teases him as they sit in the inside of a giant glacier.

She doesn’t seem to be affected by the code, only wearing a pink slip dress. There’s not even any goosebumps on the arms of her suit..

The new one they’ve left with him is one he hasn’t seen before. She seems new to torture, possibly even new to the slim skinsuit she’s been given, still fascinated by the way her own fingers move. The way she caresses his face and sticks her tongue out makes him suspect she’s some kind of giant leech monster. The kind they used to let suck humans brains out with straws. Or cut their skulls open and lick them out like a kid with a bowl of cake mix.

Definitely not a fire squid, whatever she was.

“I bet Shawn’s almost finished making your buddies feel at home here. If you’re really good to me, Mikey...I might ask him to bring you their heads as a treat.” Nicole, as she said was her name, informs him.

He’s beyond attempting to beg for them to be left alone anymore. He’s beyond expecting any sort of mercy.

Everything he had tried for so long....everything he had hoped to avoid.

All of his efforts for the past few years were for nothing.

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry... He thinks as more tiny crystallised tears sting from the corners of his eyes.

A loud bang outside makes him start.

Nicole turns to the Bad Janet at the door; “What was that? Go check on it, will you!” she orders like a spoiled brat to her butler.

The Bad Janet rolls her eyes, flipping the bird and then doing as she’s told.

Nicole turns back to kneel in front of Michael.

He tries to escape into his hallucinations but she wants his focus on her. Her hand grips his cheek and squeezes tight.

“I dunno what you did to get the Boss to hate you so much, I don’t really give a toss about current affairs...But m’just glad I get this as my first job! Punishing a dirty traitor...” She runs the tip of an ice pick up his face, towards his nostril; “...And all the other dirty things I hear about you...My mate Kath said you had the hots for one of them humans...You creeps should keep that fetish on the internet where it belongs! Look where it’s got you now...”

She takes a small hammer out from her pocket and puts it to the bottom of the ice pick, shoving it up Michael’s nose.

“I wish you had a brain in there so this could get the same effect it does with those creatures...But the simulation is good enough.”

He wishes he could laugh through the binding in his lips. He wishes that her wish could come true. Give him a lobotomy? Take away his memories of constant failure? Make him oblivious to how he’d loved for nothing and lost everything? She would be doing him the greatest favour.

As it is, he’ll just sit there and take the pain of a nail through his fake skull. He’ll let her have her fix until she gets her reprieve and he’s left alone to his own personal inner torment. His guilt. His regrets.

Just let go, Michael. Just...forget.

Nicole leans in close, ready to fiercely tap; “Hold still. This will only hurt a-.”

She doesn’t get a chance to finish her taunting before her skin suit explodes, sending a wave of pink goo across Michael’s face.

He blinks. Something happened.

The ice pick and the hammer clatter to the floor.

Wha...

Eleanor Shellstrop stands at the door, clutching a Bad Janet marble in one hand, pointing Janet’s demon exploder in the other.

#whump #rescue attempt #angst #tgp fanfic #mini fic series

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jokerfan99 · 3 years

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My Top 10 Favorite Anime Heroes (Updated) by DarkChild316

“Guess who’s back…back again! DarkChild’s back, with 10 more friends!” LOL, sorry for that lame-ass joke, but I was listening to some Eminem earlier today. Anyway, my terrible sense of humor aside, I thought it would be a good time to give my list of “My 10 Favorite Anime Heroes” an update, figured since I did one for the villains I thought shit, might as well do one for the heroes too! Now once again, this list is strictly for the men only, if you want a list of my favorite anime queens, check out my list of “My Top 10 Favorite Anime Heroines”. But in the meantime, enjoy this updated list of my favorite anime heroes:

#10. Izuku Midoriya (My Hero Academia): One of the newest (and quite literally) entries on my list, Deku is a character who dreamed of becoming a hero in spite of being born without a Quirk or any kind of powers in a world dominated by heroes with them. Only to be chosen as successor to the greatest hero of the age, All Might. A humble yet caring fanboy at heart, if All Might represents the Golden Age of heroes, then Deku represents the future of heroes in the Modern Era. He may be a socially awkward cinnamon roll at the best of times, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that he’s not willing to stand up and do what’s right when the chips are down and the world needs a hero to stand for, no matter what form of villain is in the way! The only reason he doesn’t rank any higher on this list, is because he’s still relatively new to the scene and time will tell where he stands in the Patheon of anime legends.

#9. Inuyasha (InuYasha): He’s half dog-demon, half human: put it all together and what do you get? A sword-wielding hybrid who knows how to take care of business. Originally wanting nothing more than to become a full demon, his human heart trumped his selfish desires, leading him to fall for the modern-day schoolgirl he vowed to protect. Fighting through feudal Japan to recover fragments of the Sacred Jewel, InuYasha can be both cold and rude, yet heartfelt and compassionate. Plus, he makes us all laugh whenever we see this happen.

#8. Alucard (Hellsing): There have been a shitload of vampires in modern anime, yet all of them owe their debt to this tall, dark, well-dressed man. There has never been a vampire as delightfully sadistic as Alucard but unlike most vampires, there’s a method to his sadism that makes him truly brilliant. He isn’t truly evil, he’s just a monster who revels in destroying other monsters in any sadistic way he sees fit. And he truly revels in it, making his victims (most of which are evil Nazis and powerful demons) believe they actually have a chance by damaging them before regenerating and wrecking them in devastating fashion. This isn’t to say he’s totally heartless though, as he’s shown a great deal of fondness for the members of his team who are just as devoted to ridding the world of the evil forces that threaten it. Even though the anime version of Alucard mentions that he doesn't entirely understand humans anymore, he seems happy to work in the service of them, and to protect them from devils who aren't as honorable as he is.

#7. Kenshin Himura (Rurouni Kenshin): When I was a kid, Rurouni Kenshin was my favorite anime growing up and Kenshin was my favorite character. Having had a chance to revisit this anime recently during lockdown reminded me once again why that is, Kenshin is easily the most compelling character I had seen growing up as a kid and he was a refreshing change of pace in the samurai genre. Firstly, he was quite feminine to the point that many mistook him for a woman. He was also one of the politest characters in anime history, frequently putting others before himself and speaking to them with the utmost respect and patience. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think the guy would be better suited as a florist that a samurai. But underneath that smiling exterior hides a dark secret, Kenshin is a man haunted by the demons of his past. A former mercenary who killed countless foes, he makes a vow to never kill again, and is repeatedly tested on that vow time and time again as less virtuous people endanger the country’s peace. When Kenshin's hand is forced, he can go to incredibly dark places and fall back into the habits that made him known far and wide as the most fearsome swordsman in the land. Although Kenshin’s momentary lapses make him a complete badass and set the stage for some of the most epic sword battles ever animated, Kenshin always goes back to his sweet persona once the danger is gone. But in his solitary, quiet moments, he's gripped by his greatest fear; that one day he will permanently revert to his former self and become a manslayer once more.

#6. Spike Spiegel (Cowboy Bebop): I’ll admit, it had been a long time since I’d seen Cowboy Bebop, so naturally I had forgotten about how cool a character Spike Spiegel was. Thankfully, this pandemic has allowed me to revisit it, and I find myself being just as in awe of Spike as I was when I was kid in the 90’s, he’s that awesome a character folks! Spike was an amalgamation of influences (from Bruce Lee, to Lupin III, and a little dose of film noir), and the result was a creation greater than the sum of its parts. In a series like Cowboy Bebop, which was itself a combination of cultural influences from around the globe, Spike was the essence of the story. Voice actor Steve Blum launched his career into new heights when he gave the performance of a lifetime in the English dub of the series, giving Spike a sense of smooth, effortless cool that many argue surpassed the original Japanese version.

Spike proved to be a versatile character; he was an expert pickpocket, a gearhead who worked on his own spaceship, a clever detective, a badass fighter, and even a bit of a philosopher. But what made Spike most interesting was his past as a gangster, and a man hopelessly in love. His relationship with Julia, and the tragic end of that relationship, haunts him throughout the series and shows us what truly mattered to him all along. When Cowboy Bebop reaches its powerful conclusion, Spike goes out in a blaze of glory that is unmatched in the history of anime (all I have to say is “Bang”).

#5. Ichigo Kurosaki (Bleach): The first of the shonen “Big 3” to appear on my list, you’d think being born with the ability to see ghosts would be enough, but not for this high-school bruiser. After a fateful encounter with a Shinigami, Ichigo gains the power of a god of death, and is tasked with defending his home from the malicious spirits known as Hollows. As his seemingly endless battle stretches to other planes of existence and some truly frightening enemies, both Quincy and Hollow, this orange-haired swordsman will keep fighting to protect what matters most to him no matter what.

#4. Monkey D. Luffy (One Piece): The second member of the shonen “Big 3” to make my list, this straw-hatted rubber-man takes my vote for his carefree spirit and his big heart. With the dream of grabbing the title of Pirate King, Luffy is a man who thinks with his stomach and fists rather than his head. Always in the pursuit of adventure, this happy-go-lucky guy may be the last person you consider when you think pirate captain. But you’d be wrong: You mess with Luffy’s crew and he’ll declare war on the entire world to save them.

#3. Naruto Uzumaki (Naruto): Talk about a rough childhood. After having a powerful demon sealed inside of him, Naruto was a social outcast in the shinobi village he grew up in; even though people despised him for being the vessel for the Nine-Tailed Fox demon he did not take the darker path in life nor did it deter him from pursing his dream of becoming the village leader to gain the respect and admiration of those who once shunned him. Naruto’s growth as both a ninja and human can be seen throughout the series, as it was this good nature of his and the will to protect everyone close to him that slowly changed the attitude of people towards him as the bonds of friendship he forges make his dream worth fighting for.

#2. Edward Elric (Fullmetal Alchemist): Wildly ambitious, wickedly smart, and wise beyond his years, Edward Elric entered the stage with a fresh, but interesting take on the modern shonen anime hero. Unlike those who came before him, he wasn’t this lovable idiot with a heart of gold. He was smart, calculating, arrogant, and shrimp sized. But most daring of all was the fact that Edward is technically handicapped, having had both an arm and a leg lost in a tragic accident fueled by love and hubris. In Edward we had a character who unlike most anime heroes was truly multidimensional. He could be comedic and pull off wild takes and sight gags. He could be placed in the most tragic circumstances and portray the deepest kind of sadness. He could be a complete badass, but he could also be the nicest guy on the planet. And most of all we saw Edward discover harsh truths about the world and learn that he didn’t know nearly as much as he thought he did.

#1. Son Goku (Dragon Ball): With the greatest respect to those like Luffy and Naruto, none of those characters would have ever been possible without this man (and the creators of One Piece and Naruto have even admitted this themselves). The prototype for shounen lead characters, Goku was somewhat of an anomaly back in his day. When the plucky, pint-sized kid Goku first appeared in Dragon Ball, the trend for male heroes was to have larger than life muscle heads (which Goku ironically turned into in his adulthood). Goku also grew up; another drastic change in a time when characters rarely changed much. But Dragon Ball Z is where Goku truly earned his fame. Goku isn’t even the most popular character in DBZ sometimes, but he is the foundation of the series. His heroism, strength, and dedication make him the perfect core for a kid’s show where the themes are meant to be pretty simple. He may not be the most complex character in anime history, but he’s perfect for the goal he was meant to accomplish. But Goku isn’t my top hero so much for his character complexity; it’s his influence that cannot be denied. He was, in many ways, a character that bucked the trends of his time and defined the direction of shonen manga/anime for decades, and that's why he's my #1 anime hero of all-time.

So that's my list, what did you guys think about it? Love it, hated it? Go on and tell me what you think and let me know who your favorite anime heroes are. See you soon!

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/darkchild316

#izuku midoriya #my hero academia #inuyasha #Alucard #hellsing #kenshin himura #Rurouni Kenshin #spike spiegel #cowboy bebop #ichigo kurosaki #Bleach #monkey d. luffy #one piece #Naruto Uzumaki #naruto #edward elric #Fullmetal Alchemist #goku #dragon ball

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tyrantisterrorart · 4 years

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Godzilla Gang Revised: Children of the A-Bomb

On this installment of the Godzilla Gang revised, we look at monsters made by atomic bomb tests and other experiments with nuclear power that occurred in the mid twentieth century - the first generation of modern atomic mutants, the children of the A-Bomb!

Ebirah: originally an ordinary sea shrimp, Ebirah was mutated by radioactive runoff from the secret base of the Red Bamboo, a terrorist organization responsible for many atrocities and abominations that plagued the world during the Age of Monsters. They controlled the creature with Soma berry juice, placating it when their ships were nearby, while leaving it irritable and violent due to its need for a fix the rest of the time. The crustacean was a good guardian for the wicked men, but eventually was disarmed (literally) by Godzilla II. Ebirah eventually recovered from its addiction and regrew its claws, and was given a home on Solgell Island in the Monsterland Archipelago.

Okondoru: created from the same nuclear runoff that made Ebirah, Okondoru wasn’t quite as big as its crustacean counterpart, and was less easy to control as it wouldn’t eat any soma berry juice. Luckily for the Red Bamboo, it was far less durable than most kaiju, allowing them to drive it off with conventional weapons whenever it started trouble. The bird barely survived its scrape with Godzilla II, taking decades to lick its wounds before eventually finding a home on Skull Island in the Monsterland Archipelago.

Kamacuras: whether Kamacuras was a relic of the various prehistoric atomic ages is a matter of debate - the insect was already unnaturally large in the modern day before its exposure to man-made atomic energy, though this may have been a result of it sharing an island with the dormant but still radioactive egg of a Godzillasaurus. Regardless, it did not become a full-fledged kaiju until human researchers tested an experimental nuclear device meant to control the weather, accidentally dousing the island’s athropods with mutation inducing radiation. What once was a dangerous mob of man-sized carnivorous insects became an army and monstrous arthropods that were almost the same size as Godzilla. Luckily, one of their natural predators grew as well, and the Kamacuras population was reduced to three female individuals before they could overrun the earth.

Kumonga: once a man-eating spider the size of an ox, Kumonga was already a terror before she was turned into a kaiju by a nuclear weather control device. The massive arachnid feasted on the population of Kamacuras once she was gigantified, but despite dining on dozens of individuals she never stopped killing and eating. The gluttonous beast finally met her match when Godzilla II came to rescue Minilla from her clutches, giving the spider a brutal beatdown that nearly claimed her life (though Kumonga gave nearly as good as she got). The incident apparently made an impression, as Kumonga’s aggressive nature notably cooled quite a bit afterwards, and the arachnid now lives in relative peace with her fellow arthropod mutations on Solgell Island.

Gezora: one of a handful of sea monsters produced by American atomic bomb tests in the Pacific, Gezora was lured to Selgio Island by the psychic call of Yog, an amorphous alien from a distant and, according to him, extinct civilization. Yog wished to wipe out all life on Earth, and tried to use Gezora to that end, though the cephalopod proved a failure once he forced it to clamber onto land, as Gezora quickly dried out and began to die. Gezora managed to drag itself back into the ocean once Yog relinquished control of it, and was eventually given a home on Faro Island in the Monsterland Archipelago along with the other Yog survivors.

Ganimes: a massive crab, Ganimes was the second monster Yog took control of, and proved more successful than Gezora, as it was able to last on land far longer and also had the protection of an armored shell. However, human forces on the island managed to defeat the monster by attacking its vulnerable eyes, blinding it and forcing Yog to get another kaiju slave while he waited fro Ganimes to recover. The crab eventually escaped Yog’s clutches and made a home on Faro Island.

Kameba: the third and final monster Yog took control of, Kameba is a distant relative of the mata mata turtle, and fairly durable despite its small size (for a kaiju). The turtle was the most successful of Yog’s enforcers, and came close to winning the day for its master once Ganimes recovered and was sent to back it up. Luckily, humanity figured out how to kill Yog himself, breaking the two kaiju free of his control, at which point Kameba and Ganimes turned on each other. Both survived their near-fatal battle, and Kameba went on to face Godzilla II himself in combat and (barely) live to tell the tale, before finally being placed on Faro Island to live in peace for the rest of his days.

Matango: the radioactive fungal colony named Matango initially stretched the definition of kaiju, as it would take a while for it to become a rampaging giant after its initial mutation. However, at the height of its power, it was one of the largest monsters on record, engulfing nearly an entire island and infecting all of its plant and animal life. Dozens of humans - sailors, castaways, explorers - became hosts to the monstrosity’s nefarious infestation, and it seemed the fiend would be free to consume whatever landed on its shores for decades to come. However, in a stroke of macabre luck, the space monster Hedorah would make landfall on Matango’s island, killing most of the mushrooms with its toxic slime. Those that survived mutated in response to Hedorah’s toxins, turning into a massive, shambling monstrosity that contained what remained of the consciousness of its human hosts. This incarnation of Matango pursued Hedorah and fought the smog monster to a draw, and eventually both would be imprisoned on Selgio Island in the Monsterland Archipelago. (If you’re wondering how I justify including Matango as a kaiju, it was a kaiju on Godzilla Island and in Godzilla: Monster of Monsters.)

Frankenstein’s Gargantua: the oldest child of the A-bomb, Frankenstein’s Gargantua is so named because it is a result of nazis trying to replicate the horrendous experiments in reanimation pioneered by Dr. Victor Frankenstein. They eventually brought their experiments to their allies in Japan in hopes of cracking Frankenstien’s secret, and the latest attempt at making a new Frankenstein monster was in the process of reanimating in Hiroshima when the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on the city. Nearly two decades later, a colossal beast would be unleashed upon the world: the radioactive Gargantua of Dr. Frankenstein! The mutant freak ran amok on the Japanese countryside before it was slain by the subterranean monster Baragon, though the combination of radioactive mutation and Dr. Frankenstein’s reanimating chemicals would ensure the horror was not quite over...

Sanda: one of two sons of the original Gargantua, Sanda mutated from a piece of the original’s flesh that was torn off by Baragon during their battle in the forests of Japan. He mutated further as a result of his tumultuous creation, gaining armored skin and a more muscular body than his lanky father. The brown Gargantua grew up to be a relatively peaceful and benign creature, having a soft spot for humanity in particular. Sadly, the same could not be said of his brother...

Gaira: born from blood spilled during the original Gargantua’s battle with an Oodako on the Japanese coast, Gaira the green gargantua was a vicious and bloodthirsty creature that viewed every other living being as prey, though he particularly enjoyed feasting on human beings above all else. Sadistic and ill-tempered, the green gargantua embraced humanity’s enmity towards him, and was more befuddled than touched when his brown-furred brother leapt to his aid during humanity’s first attempt at killing him. Though he allowed Sanda to tend to his wounds, Gaira eventually came to blows with his sibling when Sanda kept him from eating some humans that had come to check on them, and the two battled for hours before a volcanic eruption appeared to claim both of their lives. Decades later both monsters (or perhaps their regenerated descendants) would reappear, and eventually they were given homes on Skull Island, where Kong himself would keep their rivalry (and Gaira’s hunger for human flesh) in check.

NEXT TIME ON THE GODZILLA GANG REVISED: Children of the H-Bomb!

#Godzilla Gang Revised

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dragonnan · 3 years

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This is faaaar from a complete list and will be spotty at best but I’ve been pondering MCU characters a lot as I’ve been getting slowly back to work on my mega-fic. I LOVE minor head canons. Simple stuff like favorite foods or what music they listen to or were they ever a smoker or whatever whatever. So I’m gonna give myself the challenge of crafting some head canon and anyone else is very welcome to dive in! (some things are already established via canon)

~ Ethnicity ~ Faith ~ Smoker ~ Alcohol ~ Favorite food ~ Favorite cookie ~ Favorite animal(s) ~ Favorite music ~

Tony Stark: Ethnicity: Mixed European-American-Jewish (he refers to himself as a “mutt”) Faith: “No thanks” being the initial answer but if he feels like opening up he’ll admit to believing there’s likely “something” out there but at the same time figures that “something” stopped caring about humanity a long long time ago. Smoker? Never liked cigarettes but smoked a few cigars when he was younger due to Obie’s influence. He never was a big fan but wanted to fit in with his mentor. Alcohol: Influenced both by his father and Obie, Tony started drinking hard liquor semi-regularly as young as 14 (his Dad let him try his first sip at the age of 6). He pretty much sticks with Scotch or Bourbon but is not opposed to cheap beer at a ball game. In fact the cheaper the better - a requirement for any self-respecting American. Favorite food: hot dogs. Neither one of his parents cooked. Breakfast and lunch were whatever whenever for all three of them but dinner? You better be sure you were at that table before the plates were set down or you could go without (and Tony got a slap from his father when he’d observed that rule only seemed to apply to him). But on the nights he was sent to his room, Jarvis would slip upstairs, later, with a sandwich or, on really rough nights, a couple of hotdogs. Favorite cookie: Those Christmas wreath ones made with cereal and marshmallow with the cinnamon candies. Favorite animal(s): he likes all animals but if he had to pick one for a pet he’d get an iguana. Favorite music: well duh lolol.

Stephen Strange: Ethnicity: Mixed European-American (borrowed from Benedict Cumberbatch’s ethnicity and adding the American) Faith: Originally atheist but now closer to Buddhist. Smoker: Never. Even prior to becoming a sorcerer he has always been conscious of what he takes into his body; especially given the history of cancer on his mother’s side of the family. Alcohol: Wine, occasionally, though he isn’t really a social drinker per-say. Favorite food: The spicy shrimp and pork dumplings from a Thai place in Midtown. Favorite cookie: Hmmm.... not a big sweets guy but he won’t turn away a few ginger-pecan cookies with coffee. Favorite animal(s): dogs - unequivocally. He had a border collie growing up on his family farm in Nebraska. Favorite music: please don’t make this poor man actually have to choose.

Steve Rogers: Ethnicity: Irish (as per comics) Faith? Irish-Catholic (as per the comics). Smoker? Prior to the serum there was no way he could safely do so with his health issues. After he started traveling with the performers all of the girls in the group smoked and he tried it out a few times but never developed a taste for it. Alcohol: he drank A LOT - easy enough to do as it never had any real effect on him. He enjoys scotch and bourbon (a taste he picked up from hanging around Howard Stark). Steve seems to low-key always have the munchies (like most enhanced) and once Tony picked up on that there are always a variety of snacks scattered here and there throughout the compound (also of benefit for Bruce, Peter, Thor, and, later, Bucky). Steve’s favorite foods typically remind him of his mother’s cooking. While they’d never had much (especially after his father died) his mom could do a lot with limited supplies. She used to make a fantastic meat pie with ground beef or tongue. He hates SPAM. They ate it in the Army, constantly, and just the smell will occasionally send him back to those days and not in a good way. Favorite cookie? Oreos. He can clean up a family sized pack in like 10 minutes. Steve loves animals but is especially fond of horses and dogs. There was a dog in his unit in WW2 and Steve, like most of the other men, would share bites of his rations with it. Steve is nostalgic about music from the 40s but finds that 70s rock really resonates with him.

Bucky Barnes: Ethnicity: Romanian-American (borrowing a little from Sebastian Stan’s ethnicity) Faith? Possibly agnostic. Smoker? Heck yes - both cigarettes and cigars. Like Steve, the serum he received (via Hydra’s experimentation) means he gets to dodge the detrimental side effects of smoking. Alcohol: He likes to drink but is almost exclusively a beer drinker. He has a big appetite but refuses to eat around others if he can at all help it. His favorite food is corned beef with cabbage. Steve’s grandmother was an Irish immigrant and would make it every Sunday before the war impacted rations. Since both Bucky’s parents were dead he’d often have dinner with his best friend. Also, unlike Steve, he actually likes SPAM. But then, arguably, he isn’t terribly picky about food in general. Favorite cookie: molasses. Favorite animal(s): birds - eagles in particular - though he doesn’t look too deeply at the psychology of their ability to just fly away. Needless to say a crafty observer might spot a former Winter Soldier tossing seeds towards the pigeons. Favorite music: He’s pretty eclectic though he shies away from anything too loud like death metal. He finds classical very soothing.

Peter Parker: Ethnicity: Mixed American-Scandinavian-German-ish Faith: Protestant upbringing but unsure where he currently stands. If pressed he’d say he’s “leaving his options open” Smoker? “Oh gross!” Alcohol: “Um, too young to drink, thanks! But if I WERE to... you know, try it just to taste it there was this mudslide at one of Flash’s parties that was super good...” Favorite food: spaghetti and meatballs. Lots of meatballs. Favorite cookie: chocolate chocolate chip with chunks. Favorite animal(s): NOT spiders. And NOT birds given how many rooftops he’s traversed layered in pigeon ick. He’d probably say cats. Favorite music: The B side of techno rock - especially Depeche Mode.

Peter Quill: Ethnicity: Half mixed American and half celestial. Faith: His Dad was a god and he killed him so he figures he probably isn’t on the best terms with the Big G God should He... or She... or Them... be out there. Look he just wants to do his thing and cause a little trouble without mixing it up with any other celestial types but if they DO wanna throw down he’d like to point out that he’s 1 for 1 and willing to rumble. Smoker: He would not say no to a really good cigar and may have possibly lifted a case from Yondu’s stash when he struck out on his own. Alcohol: Anywhere any time and in large quantities. Favorite food: A thick steakhouse bacon burger with potato chips right on the patty. Extra cheese please! Favorite cookie: He’s a simple guy with simple tastes. classic chocolate chip no frills no fuss and fresh from the oven. Favorite animal(s): He likes dogs - who doesn’t like dogs? But he really likes cows. Just maybe don’t mention the burger thing. Favorite music:

Thor: He’s a Norse god of legend so I figure we can forego the ethnicity/faith questions lol. Smoker: He has never understood this human custom nor has he felt any inclination to try it himself Alcohol: Beer, mead, and anything capable of knocking him on his ass. Favorite food: chili with ghost peppers. Though nowhere near as hot as the fire chilies of Muspelheim (which would be instantly fatal for humans so its just as well). Favorite cookie: strawberry cheesecake with macadamia nuts. Favorite animal(s): It’s a tossup between bilgesnipe and whales. Favorite music: The mighty horns of battle! He also enjoys old school country, much to Tony’s disgust. The story aspect of that music is what appeals to him.

Bruce Banner: Ethnicity: Italian-American Faith: Catholic in his childhood; currently Atheist or maybe agnostic. Smoker: He tends to avoid any substances for, you know, obvious reasons. Alcohol: See previous. Favorite food: Waffles with sliced mango. Favorite cookie: Oatmeal. Favorite animal(s): Mantis shrimp - “did you know they can generate so much power in their attacks that they can briefly super-heat the water up to 7,700 °C??” Favorite music: Indian- especially Krishna Bhajan.

Clint Barton: Ethnicity: Mixed European-American and Panamanian. Faith: His parents were both Protestant but he’s never latched on to any specific faith and hasn’t really devoted a lot of thought on the matter. He has a sorta loose idea of “maybe something out there” but that’s all the further he’s gotten on the subject. What he tells anyone who asks it’s that his religion is coffee. Smoker: Briefly when he was a teen. Alcohol: Beer - he’s a fan of dark lager. Favorite food: Coney Island dogs, Pizza, and pickle flavored potato chips. Favorite cookie: Monster cookies with the mini M&Ms. Favorite animal(s): Dogs Favorite music: 80s rock and some country.

Natasha Romanoff: Ethnicity: Russian. Faith: She was not given much choice when younger and was raised as “state atheist” (per comics). In the years since escaping that life, however, she has tried to discover more about herself. Her parents were both Russian Jewish and there has been a pull to discover more about that faith - especially since meeting Wanda - who is Jewish. Smoker: No. Alcohol: Some vodka - that’s a given. But she actually prefers wine; and honestly her favorites are wine spritzers. Favorite food: Favorite cookie: Krumkake filled with creme and berries. Favorite animal(s): Favorite music: Overall she listens to a pile of little-known bands and whomever is playing at whatever bar in whatever city she happens to be in. She also is a huge fan of old school Spice Girls.

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exkernal · 4 years

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Philosophy Class for Rock Bottom Demons: 1/3

A/N: I don’t know why I’m finally getting around to posting this old fic now, but I’m in a hellstrop mood

As Michael watches the humans snipe and scurry about (he doesn't care what Eleanor says, that cockroach analogy was on point) he thinks, this is rock bottom. A demon begging his torturees for help; that's as low as it gets.

Then Eleanor tells him he has to take philosophy class.

Does she forget whom she's dealing with? He's not some zit-speckled check out boy who will "remember" that he already scanned her margarita mix if she yells enough. Despite his appearance of bespectacled innocence, at his core he is pure immortal evil that has been torturing humans since before her grandmother's grandmother's grandmother's grandmother was even conceived, thank you. Does Eleanor know how much force is needed to pry the nail from a grown man's big toe? Does she know the sound a human makes when tossed into a giant juicer? No--but Michael does, and she'd best not forget it.

Except maybe he's the one who's forgotten whom he's dealing with, as Eleanor throws his words back in his face until he's well and truly cornered.

So now he's taking philosophy class.

Now this, this is rock bottom, Michael thinks, as Chidi, in all of his sweater-vested glory, hands out their neatly printed syllabi.

"Right. Now that we all have our syllabi--"

"Oh, dip," Jason says, his eyes impossibly wide. "Are you sure that's safe?"

Chidi blinks. His forehead scrunches up in that way it does.

"Pardon?"

"I mean aren't those those weird monster thingies that make you like mad horny?"

Michael catches Eleanor's eye, and they quickly look away.

"I--you're--no. Jason, you're thinking of a succubi. These are syllabuses." Chidi winces, as if the improper grammar physically pains him.

It doesn't clear things up.

"Chidi, man, if you need to see a doctor I know this dope one in Jacksonville. She accepts food stamps as payment and doesn't ask questions if you come in with jellyfish stings around your ding dong--"

"Jason, you're thinking of--you know what, never mind."

Then again, maybe it won't be so bad if he gets a front row seat to Chidi being tortured by his students.

* * * * *

The syllabus is garbage. Human philosophy is garbage. Every higher being knows that, even the stuck up angels farting around in the real Good Place.

(Not that Michael's actually met an angel before, but still).

He'll just have to fake it. Put on his best face, lure the humans into trusting him.

It'll be easy.

* * * * *

This is rock bottom, the knowledge of existence's fleeting nature. Of the expanding, gaping maw of the abyss that will devour them all as easily as dog-spiders devour human eyeballs. How can anyone expect him to go on like this, knowing the fate that almost certainly awaits him (because let's be real, Shawn will find out eventually)? Why was he even created all of those eons ago if this is his ultimate fate? How can existence even continue without Michael, who's always existed before? How can--?

It's okay. Eleanor's showed him. If he can just push those feelings down, and keep pushing and pushing and--

Eleanor's towering above him. Huh. Usually she's not because she's so ridiculously tiny. He remembers the reboots where she got so angry she physically attacked him--it was hilarious, like a chihuahua barking at a grizzly bear. Her eyes are more blue than green tonight, maybe because of her dress.

"All humans are aware of death," she says,"so we're all a little bit sad, all the time. That's just the deal."

"Sounds like a crappy deal," he mutters.

"Well, yeah, it is," she says, sitting down, "but we don't get offered any other ones."

Eleanor's gaze is absent of any judgement or mockery or disdain. He can't recognize what he sees, because no one's ever looked at him that way before, not humans or demons or Janets. It's not sad but not happy either; it's more like she somehow knows what he's feeling even if he doesn't say it, and that's okay. Her eyes tell him that it's okay.

It doesn't make it better, exactly, but maybe it's not rock bottom either.

* * * * *

"It's so forking stupid! 'How can you tell if an action is good or bad blah blah blah?' Because of the points, dummy! The points tell you if it's good or bad, Professor Know It All."

"I feel you, bud," Eleanor says, lounging with her feet on the coffee table, a notebook propped up against her legs. "But--and don't rip my head off or whatever you guys do--"

"It's rip your head off," Michael says.

"Right. I'm just saying, maybe things would go a little better if you didn't rip the pages out of every book Chidi gives you."

She might have a point there.

* * * * *

"In this experiment, people continued 'shocking' patients even after they heard them beg and scream. The influence of authority was too strong, and overrode their moral instincts. So the question this possess is how do we stick to our morals in the face of conflicting authority? Yes, Michael?"

"I don't understand the problem. When your superiors tell you to up the voltage, it's a good thing. Why wouldn't I want to use the shocks--why are you all looking at me like that?"

All four humans stare at him like his human disguise just slipped.

Chidi squints. He rubs his hand against his forehead. Michael can see the sweat beading on his face.

"Michael, you're still thinking like a demon. From a human perspective, we don't want to torture people. I think you need another ten lines."

Michael sighs, but he doesn't question it.

"People good," he mumbles, as the chalk screeches against the board.

"Keep it up, bud," Chidi encourages. "You'll get there eventually."

* * * * *

"Why did you give me Les Miserables? That thing's almost as long as your stupid thesis!"

Chidi frowns. "Thank you, once again, for casually insulting my life's work."

"Come on, man, you gave Jason Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret."

"Did you seriously just compare your intellectual abilities to those of Jason Mendoza?"

"...fair point."

* * * * *

What was Chidi's problem?

Michael searches for Eleanor's eyes. She's good at explaining things; out of all of the humans, she makes the most sense. But Eleanor won't look at him. She actually looks away from him, following wordlessly after Chidi.

Michael doesn't understand.

* * * * *

"I can't high five that!" Eleanor shouts. "No matter how much I want to."

Michael turns away, laughing. She seems like she's mad at him too, but then he gets her laughing with the reddit story. Things can't be that bad if he can still make her laugh.

It doesn't last for long.

Eleanor tells him that this is entirely up to him to fix, then leaves, before he can think of a retort. He's left alone to wonder how the here he can worm his way back into Chidi's good graces.

Wait, what? Why does he even want to make it up to Chidi? He should be thrilled; he didn't want to attend those stupid, worthless, stupid, boring, stupid classes to begin with! Now he can have his proverbial cake (teaming up with the humans) and eat it too (no dumb classes). This is perfect.

Now he has more time to write fake torture reports instead of reading up on those old farts. Or complaining about reading with Eleanor and Jason and sometimes Tahani. Or seeing Tahani's shocked delight whenever he shares some surprising tidbits about her celebrity pals. Or trying not to laugh at the expression on Chidi's face during yet another of Jason's long winded anecdotes. Or sitting besides Eleanor, occasionally cheating off of her, each doing their best to make the other laugh. Now he doesn't have to waste any more time with any of that nonsense.

It's perfect.

* * * * *

There's something wrong with his chest as he watches Tahani clutch her diamond and Eleanor gush over her shrimp dispensary. It's warm, not warm like whenever he got too close to the fire pits, but softer, and not exactly unpleasant. He still doesn't get Chidi's deal, not entirely, but he's back on Team Cockroach, so everything's fine.

* * * * *

He's on his best behavior for his first day back to philosophy class. He doesn't rip the pages out of his book, doesn't talk about torture or mention humans' stupid anatomy. He doesn't even laugh at Eleanor and Jason's many jokes about happiness pumps, though that's partly because he doesn't get most of them.

* * * * *

Chidi passes back last week's philosophy papers. "Everyone's made great progress since we've started. You should be proud."

Eleanor leans over to Michael. "What did you get, bud?"

He shows her.

"Dang, A. Good for you, Michael."

"Well, I am a superior being," he says, rubbing his leg and smiling like a dope.

"Hey, we should celebrate. Do demons celebrate? Or is that just torture for you guys?"

It's just torture. He knew better than to ask Eleanor if he can have a go at one of them (like forcing Jason to listen to a blow-by-blow recap of every Jaguars defeat). Besides, he doesn't really want to, anyway.

Huh. Imagine that.

Instead he says, "In some of the other reboots, you would try to distract me from investigating the neighborhood anamolies by doing fun human stuff. We played aracade games, sang karaoke, went bowling--"

Suddenly, Jason jumps into the conversation. "Laser tag! Did you play laser tag?"

Michael thinks. "No, we never got around to that."

"Yo, homies, we have to play laser tag. I am a beast at laser tag. Me and Pillboi would do a bunch of shrooms and then go crazy all over the place. Also, I think I shot a mall cop once. Or maybe that was a dream."

Eleanor nods. "Laser tag could be fun. Don't know about the shrooms part."

She eyes Chidi, silently asking him.

"Definitely not," he says.

Twenty minutes later, thanks to Janet, Michael finds himself wearing purple plastic strapped over his chest and carrying a fake gun, surrounded by enough multi-colored smoke to fork up the humans' vision but not his. Without ever explicitly agreeing to anything, he and Eleanor have formed an alliance. He saves her from Jason's sneak attack, and together they shoot him in the chest twenty times.

"Yes!" Micheal shouts.

"Eat that!" Eleanor screams.

"Aw, man," Jason says, with the same dejected look as when he popped Pikachu.

He and Eleanor high five.

Then his chest lights up.

"Ooh," Tahani says, smiling like she can't believe her luck. Michael can't either. "I'm starting to get the hang of this!"

She notices the murderous glint in Eleanor's eyes, and bolts into the smoke.

"Don't worry, I'll avenge you," Eleanor tells him, then she shouts after Tahani, "You're going to die, you sexy skyscraper!"

That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to him.

* * * * *

So he can't marbalize Janet. And also may have teared up in front of her, despite no known demon ever crying before. So what?

* * * * *

Eleanor Shellstrop is an enigma. Nothing about her behavior on Earth indicates she should be able--or willing--to sincerely change, and yet she has. She has a limited human brain yet she keeps outwitting him. No one can rile him up like her, yet no one understands him quite like her, either.

Also, he made him a paperclip bracelet that one time.

That's why he visits her instead of Chidi when he's feeling frustrated with ethics. Because even if she is a human, she understands him more than his own kind ever did.

They sit across from eachother. In the artifical light, he can't tell if her eyes are more blue or green.

They talk a while, and in the end, she tells him that she believes in him. That she believes it will all work out. He doesn't fully understand why, but the words stay with him long after he leaves, keeping a smile on his face that he can't wipe away even if he tries. He's still smiling when he walks into his office and sees Shawn at his desk.

* * * * *

Shawn tells him it's everything he ever wanted, and he can't disagree. Because it is. As an apprentice, toiling away on others' designs, he dreamed of the moment that his own work would be recognized. Micheal the Architect, senior staff member, exhalted in the Bad Place.

It would be so easy to snatch the pin, place it on his lapel, and pretend that the last few months never happened.

He's not sure what will happen to Janet, though. It's not like they can realistically sneak her back to the warehouse. Maybe they'll reboot her, and reuse her for a replica neighborhood. As for the humans, he knows exactly what will happen to them; they'll be tortured forever. He tries to imagine it. For some reason, he keeps going back to the moment that Trevor threw his arm around Eleanor, prepared to take her to the "Bad Place," and the way she looked, resigned and disgusted all at once.

He remembers stretching his hand out to her, and her accepting. He remembers leading her back to the fake Good Place.

It turns out he's already made his choice.

He doesn't even regret it.

* * * * *

He collapses into Eleanor's arms like a puppet whose strings were cut, resting his chin on her shoulder.

"I was so worried for you! You're my friends and I wanted to save you!"

Eleanor whispers that it's okay. He wishes he could believe her, he really does, but he can't escape the fact that they're completely and utterly forked. The humans still think he can get them to the real Good Place, but he knows that they don't have a chance. They're at the end of the road. They've seemingly run out of options.

But maybe he can figure it out, if he stalls long enough. He's done it before when he thought he hit rock bottom, and he can do it again. He always figures something out.

* * * * *

He doesn't figure it out.

* * * * *

The Shellstrops are right about one thing: drinking really does help.

He tells stories about past reboots that get everyone laughing. Someone (Eleanor or Jason, he can't remember which) suggest Never Have I Ever. Michael figures out the trick after two turns, getting everyone, even Janet, out with gems like "never have I ever been rebooted," "never have I ever smashed food holes," "never have I ever had a beating heart," and "never have I ever been to Earth." By the time they try to gang up on him ("never have I ever tortured humans," "never have I ever worn a fake human suit," and Jason's "never have I ever worn a bowtie", which gets both Chidi and Tahani fuming because Micheal and weird turtle dealers aren' t the only one's who wear bowties, Jason) it's already too late.

"That's not, that's not even fair," Tahani says, swaying sligtly. "How do we even know--can you even get drunk?"

"I can," Michael says with dignity. "It just takes longer."

"Prove it!" Eleanor starts up the drunken chant, getting the others to all chime in. "Prove it! Prove it!"

So Michael downs an entire bottle of whiskey in one go.

In retrospect, that might not have been his smartest decision.

* * * * *

In the end, Eleanor's the one to come of with the crazy, bound to fail plan. The humans slowly trickle back to their beds, since humans need to be well rested before facing off against impossible odds, until it's just him and Eleanor left sprawled on the blanket, their legs stretching out before them. Eleanor rests against his side. Tonight, in the Michael-made starlight, her eyes look more green than blue. There's a pleasant buzz in Micheal's brain, leaving him light and (despite everything) happy.

"Micheal," Eleanor says suddenly. "Do you think there's something wrong with me?"

"Not particularly," he says. "Why?"

"You said that me and Chidi were 'in love,'" she starts to use air quotes but gives up halfway. "But now we're not. Or he doesn't feel that way, or can't decide what way he feels, I don't even know. I don't know if it's me--if there's just something unloveable about me."

Something about that statement hurts Micheal, but he's not sure why. He's no good with feelings talk--he only just learned what 'guilt' means. But Eleanor was there for him when he needed it (a smile across a table, a hand patting his back) so he gives it his best shot.

"Chidi's just Chidi," he says. "He's trapped in his own Chidi world, which, just between us, is what made torturing him so fun. There's nothing wrong with you. Whatever Chidi's dealing with, it's not beccause you're 'unloveable' or whatever."

They're quiet for a moment.

"Hey, Micheal? Do you really think kissing is that gross?"

His face twists in disgust. "Yes. But to be fair, I think a lot of human bodily functions are disgusting."

"Cuz we're like cockroaches," Eleanor nods sagely.

That's not...entirely right, but he can't figure out why.

"Sooooo," she says. He knows that look in her eyes. "Does that mean you wouldn't ever try kissing? Just to say you tried it?"

He barks out a laugh. "When would I ever get the chance to try it?"

"Well, we could. Right now. If you want."

Michael feels too warm again. He's having trouble meeting those more-green-than-blue eyes. He's suddenly aware of how close they are, pressed together like this.

"Why--would you--you, you actually want to?"

"Sure."

He's always trusted Eleanor before when it came to human things. And he can't lie to himself: he does like the feel of her in his arms, pressed so closely that he can feel her heart beat, away from everyone else. He doesn't want it to end.

"Okay," he says softly.

It's a little awkward at first, because Micheal doesn't know what to do while Eleanor shuffles around, positioning herself in front of him. She closes her eyes, so he does too. Her hands are on his back and her lips press against his. It's...nice. Her lips are soft and warm and not as gross as he expected.

She pulls away too soon. She leans forward, like she wants to sit on his lap, but loses her balance. He catches her before she faceplants the grass.

" 'm okay," she says.

A voice in his head, which sounds suspiciously like Professor Buzzkill, tells him she's not.

"Okay, it's time for bed," he says. "Sleep it off."

She lets out a disappointed whine, but she doesn't fight him. He pulls her to her feet and walks her back to the clown house. Just as they reach the door ("Ya know," Eleanor slurrs, "tonight I'm not even gonna mind the creepy clowns watching me sleep."), a terrible thought occurs to him.

"Eleanor? Was I a rebound?"

"What? Pff, no. You're not a rebound. You're...you're Micheal."

He pretends that he knows what she means.

* * * * *

Why didn't he grab another pin? Stupid, stupid. Eleanor watches him fumble through the jackets, trying not to freak out, but he can feel the tension radiating off of her from the seventh dimension.

It's too late. Shawn's on the balcony. He has two options. He could go through the portal after the others, leaving Eleanor behind to be torture. Forever. Or he could give her his pin, be retired for sure, while Eleanor has only a slim chance of winning her case.

Once, there wouldn't have even been a choice. He doesn't want to be retired. He remembers his existential panic when Chidi explained death to him. He thought it was the worst possible fate.

Now, peering into Eleanor's panicked face, he can think of another.

She doesn't understand as he explains the trolley problem, not until he removes his senior staff pin and pins it on her dress.

"No," she says.

"Take care of the others," he says. He is sad that he won't get to see them all on the other side, but he knows that they're all in good hands if Eleanor's there to guide them.

"Goodbye, Eleanor," he says, pushing her through the portal. He's tempted to kiss her before she goes, because that warm feeling is building up in his chest and it needs an outlet, but there's no time. He hopes she understands all of the things he doesn't say, because he sure as hell doesn't.

She vanishes. She's safe now, he thinks as he waits for Shawn to reach him. He knows that he's facing rock bottom--in all of eternity, only eleven demons have been retired--but he can't find it in himself to care.

#the good place #hellstrop #michael x eleanor #eleanor shellstrop #michael (tgp)#fanfic

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eleventhdoctorsangel · 4 years

Text

Too young too dumb to know things like love

Summary: I fell from a rift of reality. No memory of what my life was before. The only thing I seem to remember was my name. Now I live with the Winchester, Jack and Castiel. Along with training both Jack and I to become hunter I help Jack control his powers.

I decided to change out of my clothes while we were coming up with next step of action. I wasn’t the only one Sam, Dean and Jack change out of their suits. I was sitting on the couch in between Jack and Cas. I was helping Jack do more research on the case. Dean took a beer out from the fridge and opened it. “Can I just say that I’m getting real sick and tired of fighting things that look like other thing?” Dean said as he threw the bottle cap of the beer into the trash. “Maybe the ghoul is this Athena.” Cas suggested. “Yeah. A ghoul who owns a mortuary. That’s smart but.” Sam said. “No. She’s got access to the bodies before they’re ever in the ground. Anything she wants she would just take. She doesn’t have to dig ‘em back up.” Dean said. “Right.” Sam said. “I think I found something. I tracked the plates on the stolen truck from the crime scene and I went through the city’s traffic camera footage and look. This is it.” Jack said turning the laptop around to show Sam and Dean. “From yesterday before the deputy was killed. “ Jack said. “Well then who’s driving?” Dean asked. Jack pressed a key to zoom in. “Holy crap. That’s Dave Mather.” Dean said. “Who?” Sam and Cas asked at the same time. “Dave Mather. Cowboy. Outlaw. One of the Dodge City gang. “ Dean said going up to take a picture off the wall and handed it to Cas. Both jack and I looked at the picture. “He was one of the greatest gunfighters ever. I mean he died in 1886 which makes this a little weird but… Mysterious Dave Mather. I’m gonna get my boots on. One of the best gunslingers ever! Whoo!” Dean said as he hurried out of the room to get his boots on. I couldn’t help but smile and shake my head. “How bad is this going to be?” I asked. “I don’t know but whatever happened you need to stay behind one of us.” Sam told me. I just nodded my head. “So our ghoul ate some old west gunfighter and stole his face?” Dean asked as he walked back into the room with two guns and handed one to Sam. “That’s what it looks like.” Sam said. “Ha.” Dean laughed. “I think I’ve seen him before. There was a picture at the mortuary. Y/n do you remember?” Jack said. The more that I looked at the picture of him it hit me that there was a picture of him with Athena at the mortuary. “He’s Athena’s boyfriend.” Jack said. We all left the hotel room and got into the impala as we made our way back to the mortuary. Jack, Cas and I stayed in the impala while Sam and Dean went to go talk to Athena. They were gone for about ten minutes before they gave back and told us where Athena told them where Dave went.

When we got to the bank Dean told me what Sam had already told no matter what happens to stay behind one of them. I stayed close to Jack and Cas like I have been. I watched as the ghoul walked out of the bank. “Dave Mather. Robbing a bank. That’s a bold move.” Dean said as he pointed his gun a the ghoul. Dave remove the bandanna from his face as he made his way to his car. “You must be the hunter?” Dave said and pointed at Dean. “And you must like to play cowboy.” Dean said. “It’s my favorite suit. You know I like to keep a little piece of old Dave on me just to gnaw on.” Dave said. Sam cocked his gun which made him notice us. Dave laughed. “Let’s make it two, three, four Hunters! And look you have a little shrimp with you.” Dave said as he looked at us. I knew the little shrimp comment was meant towards me. “Whoo! Must be my birthday.” Dave said. “Look why don’t you come with us someplace else? We can do this quick and quiet.” Sam said. Dave just smirked as he pulled out and a gun making Sam shot at him hitting him in the shoulder. Then a shot out started to happened. I felt Jack grab my hand as pulled me over to the carriage so that we could take cover. “Are you two alright?” Cas asked the two of us. “Yeah.” Jack said and I nodded. “Okay you two stay here.” Cas said. “No, It’s okay. I’ve got this.” Jack said getting up and made his way over to the gunfire. “No Jack. Jack!” Cas said as he went after him. I wanted to go help but I decided it would be best for me to stay where I was since I was safer right here. “Hey!” Jack yelled to catch Dave’s attention. “Jack! Jack!” Cas yelled trying to stop Jack. I looked to see Jack get shot twice. I put my hand to my mouth as I screamed in horror. “What the Hell?” Dave said. Then this surge of energy left Jack making Dave and a security guard from the bank who happened to walked out and the wrong time back. The security guard hit his head on a metal column. I could hear a crack from where I was I knew that it’s wasn’t going to be good. “No.” Jack said as I got out from behind the carriage to go over to where he and Cas were. “Check the guard!” Dean said to Sam as he went after Dave who left on foot. “No!” Jack said as he ran over to guard and I ran after him. The guard was severely bleeding from the back of his head. “Cas I-I didn’t mean to. Castiel you have to heal him.” Jack said look at Cas with a pained looked on his face. Cas kneel down putting a hand on the man’s forehead. I then started to hear a ringing and thunder. Then nothing happened. Cas stood back up and looked at Jack. That is when I grabbed ahold of his hand knowing what Cas was more than likely about to say. “I can’t.” Cas said. “W- why not?” Jack asked. Sam checked to see if the guard had a pulse. “He’s dead.” Sam said as he looked up at us. I felt Jack squeeze my hand tightly.

After making an excuse of what happened we went back to the hotel. I stayed close to Jack because I knew that he was still really upset about what happened. We were still holding hands and my head was on his shoulder. It started to storm. I could tell that Sam, Dean and Cas were watching us as I comforted Jack. “Come on you two. We’re heading back to the bunker.” Cas said as he walked up to us. I looked over to Cas and nodded. “Come on Jack you heard Cas. It’s going to be fine.” I said as I took my head off of shoulder. Jack looked at me giving me a small nod and got up from the couch getting his things ready. I followed right behind him and packed. Dean left to go take care of Dave while Sam, Cas, Jack and I got in another car and started to journey back to the bunker. Jack and I both sat in the back seat for the ride we still were holding hands. Jack has barely let my hand go since it happened. I saw Sam look back to us. “Jack you uh. You okay?” Sam asked. Jack didn’t say anything he just keep looking forward. “Jack. I’ve killed people who didn’t deserve it my friends. I’ve killed people I loved. I wish I could tell you that it- that it gets easier that with time it hurts less but that would be a lie because it never gets easier. And those moments they never stop hurting. But that doesn’t mean that you should stop fighting. Doesn’t mean that just because you made a mistake and that’s what this is Jack. It’s a mistake. That doesn’t believe that you can’t- can’t be better do better. I believe that. I have to believe that.” Cas said. “And we still believe in you Jack. We uh-.” Sam said. “ Stop. Just. Please Stop.” Jack said as he squeezed my hand tightly.

The rest of the ride was quiet. By the time we arrived back to the bunker dean told us that he got ride of the ghoul with the help of another officer. Dean didn’t come back until, the afternoon of the next day. Jack hasn’t let me leave his side. He pushed Sam and Cas away whenever they tried to talk to him about what happened. Jack and I were sitting at a table by ourselves. Jack’s arms were crossed on the talbe and I had one arm linked with his and my head was on his shoulder. I heard the door open then closed. “Hey.” I heard Sam say to dean. “Hey.” Dean said back as he was coming down the stairs. “How’d it go?” Sam asked him. “Usual. Killed the bad guy saved the girl. “Dean said. “What about the uh-?” Sam asked. “Took care of it.” Dean said. “Good.” Sam said. “Good? How is that good? I killed someone.” Jack said getting up and started to walk towards the guys. I got up and followed him in hopes to calm him down if this goes south. “What was his name? The guard? Did he have a family?” Jack asked as he climb down the few steps that lead to where the guys were. I was standing by his side. “Jack don’t do this to yourself.” Cas said. “No did he?” Jack asked. “Yes he did.” Dean said. I went to grab his hand but he yanked it away before I could. “Jack look this life what we do it’s- it’s not easy. And we’ve all done things we regret.” Sam said as he walked slowly towards Jack. “Just don’t.” Jack said angrily. Sam put in hands up in defeat and slowly back away. “You’re afraid of me.” Jack said as his voice started to break. “Jack no.” Cas said. Jack turned around slowly walking away. “Jack please.” I said. “No maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m just another monster.” Jack said with a pained look on his face. “Jack no you are no monster do you hear me.” I said as I slowly walked towards him. “Just stand back y/n please.” Jack said making me stop in my tracks as tears started to form in my eyes. “No you’re not. I thought you were. I did. But. Like Sam said we’ve all done bad. We all have blood on our hands. So if you’re a monster we’re all monster.” Dean said walked over towards us. “No you don’t. Every time I try and do something good people get hurt. I thought I was getting better. I’m not…I don’t know what I am but I know I can’t make the world a better place not like this. I can’t even do one good thing. And I know that if I stay I’m gonna hurt you. All of you. And I can’t. You’re all I have. “Jack said. By then tears were running down my face. “Jack listen.” Sam said. “I have to go.” Jack said. “No Jack.” Cas said. “Jack please don’t.” I pleaded. “I’m sorry.” Jack said as he raised his hand.

I was flung back and was slammed against the floor as I heard a whooshing sound. “Jack.” Cas said. The guys all got up and started looking for jack while I stayed on the floor in tears. “Jack!” Cas yelled. “He’s gone.” Sam said standing were jack just was. I started to cry and that is when Sam came over to me. “Hey it’s ok y/n.” Sam said kneeling down to me pulling me into his chest as I cried. “I have you. It’s ok we’re going to find him ok.” Sam said putting a hand in my hair and started to stork my hair in hopes to calm me down. I felt Sam pick me up setting me in a chair that was by the table he and Cas were just sitting out. “Are you hurt kiddo?” Dean said as he walked over to me. I shook my head as I continued to look down at the ground. “Look at me y/n.” Dean said as he kneeled in front me. I looked up at him with hair front of one side of my face. Dean reached out and moved the hair that had fallen in front of my face so he could see my face clearly. “Jack is just upset about what happened ok. We are going to find him. Everything is going to be fine.” Dean said. I nodded. Dean kissed my forehead.

Taglist: @darkqueennox

Overall taglist: @the-broken-halo-writer

#supernatural imagine #jack kline imagine #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #kelsee's works #Do not reblog unless it's from me

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junker-town · 4 years

Text

Here are 9 of the most badass animals ever to swim

Art by Tyson Whiting

Say hello to some horrifying sea monsters

This article was originally published on SB Nation a while ago, but was always intended for a Secret Base-y audience. So if you haven’t seen it yet, here you go!

The Earth has some very cool aquatic predators swimming about. Thanks to their intelligence and pack-hunting techniques, orcas are, perhaps, the most dangerous hunters ever to swim the ocean. Saltwater crocodiles are bulletproof murder tanks. And the great white shark, of course, needs no introduction. But now that we’re talking about terrifying underwater murder-beasts, why just settle for just the ones we have around now?

Underwater murder-beasts have a long and distinguished (pre-)history, and I thought it would be fun to introduce y’all to some new pals. TO THE IMAGINARY TIME MACHINE!

Temnodontosaurus eurycephalus

Grumpy croco-dolphin

Ichthyosaurs evolved 250 million years ago. In the aftermath of the Permian extinction, which killed off a frankly horrifying number of creatures, a group of terrestrial reptiles took to the depleted seas. Fast-forward a little bit and you have primitive ichthyosaurs, creatures so well adapted to oceanic life that they ended up looking like a cross between a crocodile and an extremely ill-tempered, extremely large dolphin.

Fast-forward even further, to the early Jurassic (175 million years ago), and you have Temnodontosaurus eurycephalus. It’s not the largest ichthyosaur ever to grace the seas, but it’s up there, and it’s a far more developed predator than its giant forebears. Somewhere around 30 feet long, T. emnodontosaurus was a powerful swimmer with strong jaws, well-equipped to chow down on other Jurassic swimmers. One closely-related species possessed the largest eyes of any known animal, perfect for hunting in deeper oceanic waters; another has been found with the remains of a different ichthyosaur in is stomach.

This monster considered 13-foot oceanic reptiles a delicious snack. It was also fast. Spare a thought for the poor ocean-going creatures minding their own business before one of these huge assholes rams into them from below at speed, opens those long, toothy jaws and turns them into lunch.

Deinosuchus hatcheri

Dinosaur hunter

Take a saltwater crocodile. Actually, it’s probably best not to. They are, after all, 20-foot, 2,000-pound apex predators more than happy to eat anything they come across, including you. Salties are strong, fast and surprisingly smart. They are at home in the open ocean as well as along the coast. Like all crocodiles, they’re ambush predators who use water as cover to attack their prey. Unlike most crocodiles they’re capable of jumping clear out of the water to get to it. They have the strongest bite of any living animal.

Right. Now that you have a saltwater crocodile in your head, make one, oh, twice as big. Yeah, like that. Decently boat-sized. Terrifying teeth in terrifying, dino-crushing jaws. Armored skin thick enough to turn aside more or less anything.

Your terrifying vision is Deinosuchus hatcheri, a crocodile adapted to more or less the exact same situation as a modern saltwater but in a world inhabited by giant dinosaurs. During the late Cretaceous (80 million years ago), North America was split by a shallow sea, the Western Interior Seaway. D. hatcheri was present on both the western side of the seaway (a slightly smaller species dominated the east), happily chowing through dinosaurs who were foolish enough to get too close.

Anomalocaris canadensis

Nightmare Shrimp

So far we’ve had a dolphin analogue in Temnodontosaurus and an actual crocodile. Cool, but nowhere near the sort of weirdness the past can provide. So let’s go to the deep, deep past, revealed wonderfully by the Burgess Shale. Here we shall find the NIGHTMARE SHRIMP.

One of the problems with studying the very earliest phase of animal life — we’re talking half a billion years at this point — is that it’s squishy, and squishy is not of much benefit when it comes to preserving fossils. Thanks to a fluke of geology, the conditions that produced the Burgess Shale were also capable of preserving soft tissue, giving palaeontologists a rare chance to look into what the seas looked like during the first days of the animal kingdom.

They looked extremely weird. The fauna found in the Burgess Shale was almost obnoxiously uncategorisable. One famous example is the worm Hallucigenia, which so confused everyone involved that it was reconstructed upside-down for the better part of a decade. Another is Opabinia, which looks sort of like a five-eyed miniature vacuum cleaner. I promise I am not making this up.

Anyway, all these critters were apparently food for the ocean’s first proper predator.

With good eyes set on flexible stalks and a surprising turn of speed, Anomalocaris canadensis cruised the Pre-Cambrian seas in death-shrimp mode. It was a full meter long, dwarfing most of its companions in the Burgess Shale. It was also delightfully strange-looking. It is so odd, in fact, that when it was discovered its various body parts were assigned to several different animals.

A. canadensis would be higher on this list if we could be sure of what it actually ate. Long-held to be a trilobite-hunter, recent studies have shown it would probably have had to restrict itself to soft-bodied prey due to relatively flimsy mouthparts, and therefore could only have actually eaten a trilobite just after a moult. But it’s much more fun to imagine this guy roaming the seafloor chomping down on everything, so that’s what we’ll do.

Disclaimer: an old friend of mine is a paleontologist who specializes in the Burgess Shale fossils. I did not contact him for this story, because I am consumed by envy whenever I so much as think about him.

Cameroceras

Spiky death-squid

Back in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic, cephalopods were armored critters, much like our modern nautilus. The most famous of them, and one of the most widely known extinct animals ever, is the spiral-shelled ammonite. Since they had hard shells, they’re extremely common in marine strata. They also got surprisingly large. The biggest-known ammonite was two meters across. Imagine that thing trying to swim.

Ammonites weren’t the only armored cephalopod prowling the ancient seas, however. The orthocones were straight-shelled versions, and some of those got really, really big. Like Cameroceras. Current estimates put Cameroceras’s shell at upwards of six meters long. That’s three average-sized men stacked on each others’ shoulders.

Somehow this monster was still able to get about in the Ordovician seas. It’s quite hard to imagine it chasing anything around, so it presumably surprised trilobites etc. at nighttime or dug it out of the mud, but since paleoecology is at least in part about imagination, right now I’m enjoying Cameroceras retracting its head deep into its shell and pretending to be a cave before trying to eat whatever entered. It wouldn’t be quite big enough to swallow the Millennium Falcon, buuuuuuuuut ...

Carcharocles megalodon

The shark that eats planets

Megalodon needs no introduction. The great white shark has a profound hold on popular culture, but its long-gone big sister isn’t far behind. Megalodon made even the most vicious shark in today’s seas look like a toy. Since sharks are mostly soft tissue, they don’t fossilize as well as we’d like, but their teeth do, and Megalodon’s tell a terrifying story.

Megalodon died out only relatively recently. It wasn’t quite contemporaneous with human beings, but its extinction was recent enough that there are plenty of folks willing to tell tall tales of how it might still be swimming somewhere in the depths of the ocean. If it was, probably best not to get anywhere near it — a Megalodon may have had a bite force of up to 10 times the strength of a great white. That’d be a bad day.

What were those huge jaws for? Whales. Apparently, these things liked to swim up from underneath its prey and bite through their chest to reach their internal organs. The ability to kill a whole-ass whale with one bite is honestly horrifying, even if whales in Megalodon’s day were a little smaller than the current batch of great rorquals.

Jaekelopterus rhenaniae

Sea Scorpion

Did you know ‘sea scorpions’ were a thing? Sea scorpions were a thing. Since eurypterids (to give them their proper name) went extinct hundreds of millions of years ago, we don’t have very good comparisons for what these things were like. So let’s get creative. Let’s take a lobster. Despite their ferocious armament, lobsters are relatively placid creatures. They’re not averse to grabbing a fish here or a mollusk there, but they’re not built for hunting. Let’s make the required tweaks.

We need to add eyes. Let’s make them big and sensitive and set for stereoscopic vision, which allows those pincers to be used more effectively to grab prey. Let’s make them better swimmers, too — we’ll add some paddles for agility and short bursts of speed. Let’s make their claws spikier, just for sheer scare value.

Oh and let’s make them 10 feet long and perfectly happy to eat you alive. Now you have a Jaekelopterus. Aren’t you glad they’re dead?

Dunkleosteus terrelli

A, uh, fish-tank

When evolution first came up with bone, it got a little bit carried away. Well, a lot carried away. The era of armored fishes is one of the most fabulously strange in the entire history of the planet. (A personal favorite of mine is Lunapsis, which looks like a fish had a baby with Batman’s utility belt.) With bone-plated heads and upper bodies, these fish probably didn’t swim very well, but who cares? They looked cool as hell, and with that body armor they were well protected against predators.

Which, as it turns out, is the sort of inspiration nature needs to come up with some better predators*. Enter Dunkleosteus, a monster armored fish with a set of jaws which could rip straight through the armor of any other fish slowly swimming through the Devonian ocean. Known to be 20 feet long, it didn’t really have teeth so much as a huge bony beak, which honestly makes the whole contraption even more frightening, like some sort of mobile oceanic guillotine.

*I’m being overly teleological here. Forgive me. Nature, of course, does not ‘come up with’ anything.

Mosasaurus hoffmanni

For whatever reason, the fauna of Cretaceous period got big. Really, really big. On land, we had Tyrannosaurus Rex. In the skies, azhdarchids the size of small aircraft coasted from thermal to thermal. And in the shallow seas, we had another monster: Mosasaurus.

Mosasaurus was essentially an enormous — estimates have it as almost 60 feet long — ocean-going lizard. Its legs were replaced with bladed paddles for maneuverability and it had a powerful tail for direct propulsion. Mosasaurus ate everything it could get in its mouth, which was a) double-hinged for extra capacity and b) already pretty capacious to begin with.

It would have hung around near the surface of the ocean, where there was an abundance of prey. Mosasaurus could have waited for other marine reptiles (such as Archelon, the largest turtle known) to come up to breathe, grab low-flying pterosaurs on fishing expeditions, or simply have picked off the many large fish that swam the Cretaceous seas.

Livyatan Melvilli

Moby-Dick’s even-scarier dad

In 1820, the Essex was lost in the southern Pacific Ocean. The ship had been sent out to hunt for sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus, since you asked), but soon had the tables turned when it was attacked and sunk by a ferocious bull. Of the 20 crew, only eight survived, and the incident went on to inspire a famous book about whales which you may have heard of.

What you probably haven’t heard of is Livyatan. Modern sperm whales are enormous creatures, but very rare boat attacks aside, they’re only really dangerous to their favorite prey, deep-swimming squid. But not so long ago, geographically speaking, there were also a group of ‘macroraptorial’ sperm whales. These didn’t eat squid. Instead, they competed with Megalodon to hunt other great whales.

Livyatan’s teeth are some of the most awe-inspiring fossils in the world. The biggest ones are 12 inches long and look like artillery shells. Estimates have Livyatan as sitting a touch smaller than its modern friends, but those teeth indicate that it would have been significantly more vicious, fully capable of cutting a sperm whale into very bloody chunks.

It’s not clear whether or not Livyatan hunted alone or in packs, like a modern killer whale, but it had the power and size to be able to plausibly compete with Megalodon even solo. The crew of the Essex found out that a bull sperm whale could be a formidable opponent; one suspects Livyatan would have left even fewer survivors.

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disasterbiquentin · 5 years

Note

For the dialogue prompts list: 'if you love me, you'll get the hell out of my kitchen'

Eliot Waugh did not learn to cook from his parents.

For one, that would have been considered far too girly in a court of small-town-Indiana public opinion. The only thing he and his brothers were allowed to do in the kitchen was stack up the dirty dishes, or fix the pantry shelves when they periodically collapsed. For another, his mother was a good cook, but in an Indiana sort of way; lots of cornbread, big slabs of meat and potatoes. She didn’t know how to rise a soufflé or make delicate shrimp puffs, turn quail eggs into an entree without breaking the shells or pipe tiny, pastel coloured macaroons which would have looked at home in a Parisian window. That was the sort of cooking Eliot liked to do, and he’d learned it in college, with the help of a lot of internet recipes and trial-and-error dinner parties for his friends from the art department.

It was part and process of what Eliot joked was actually his undergraduate thesis project; turning himself into himself. Into the sort of person who could host dinner parties that a particularly sexually liberated French dignitary would have felt welcome at, and do it all without spilling a drop of cooking wine on his perfectly folded cravat. By the time he graduated the arts program and received his interview at Brakebills, he was far enough through this process that he felt comfortable announcing his incredible cooking skills to the whole Physical Cottage once he was assigned there, and swiftly stole the role of overlord of all social activities at said cottage by power of his high tea parties and a rather constant flow of chocolate eclairs. After a few months, he began mixing more cocktails than cake batters, but that was okay, because by then everyone knew exactly what sort of man he was. It was all part of the Eliot Waugh package, and that had to be an impressive package, no matter which way you looked at it.

Quentin Coldwater learned to cook from his father, which is to say that he never learned to cook at all.

He tries, though, so very seriously, which is the most endearing thing in the world. He tries and he genuinely doesn’t understand why his instant noodles mixed with beans doesn’t, like, blow Eliot’s mind. The first time he tried to cook a romantic dinner for Eliot, it all ended up charred to the bottom of Eliot’s favourite frying pan, and Eliot actually left the house. “You’re such a bitch,” Q had complained when Eliot came back with arms full of takeout instead, but he was laughing, and Eliot would have stuck to his guns regardless.

And now —

“Q, if you truly love me, you’ll get the hell out of my kitchen.”

Quentin rolls his eyes, immune as ever to Eliot’s complaining, and continues slicing cheese right onto the counter with entirely the wrong sort of knife.

“I’m serious,” Eliot plunges on. “You even being in here will make things burn. I still haven’t decided whether I think someone put a particularly inventive curse on you or whether you’re just that tragic, but I will not let you ruin this dinner.”

“I’m just making a grilled cheese, El. Nothing to do with you. I’ll be out of your hair in a second and then you can get on with your — is that blood?”

Eliot rolls his eyes. His boy is so charmingly dumb. “It’s pomegranate juice, darling. I’m making it into a citrus glaze to go with the — okay, listen, you’re doing that wrong.”

Quentin gives a huffy, furrowed-brow look which, on his face, could indicate either begrudging amusement or extreme irritation; only the fact that he’s turned it on Eliot suggests the former.

“Okay, to repeat myself, it’s grilled cheese, El. I have made it a thousand times before. I know I’m not the best chef, but, like, not even you can make grilled cheese too complicated for me.”

After at least four years of knowing each other and possibly fifty-four depending on how you look at things, Eliot thinks Quentin should have more faith in his ability to class up anything he gets his hands on by now. “I absolutely can. Call it a vegetarian croque monsieur; sourdough bread, a layer of bechamel sauce with garlic and bay leaves, a hint of nutmeg. Topped with baked gruyère and a sharp white cheddar. Fried rather than toasted, of course, just enough to make everything melt but not quite enough to char the bread.”

Quentin grumbles, “I think at that point it’s stopped being a grilled cheese and started being a way for you to jerk off over your own culinary expertise,” but he’s looking a little forlornly down at his pile of unevenly sliced yellow cheese.

Eliot, because he is hopelessly in love, and because it has only been three months since he got to step into his own body again and make his grand declaration and then mess things up a bit more before slowly finding their way into this, a rhythm of taking-it-slow while also being very aware of just how deeply they love each other and never spending a single night apart, sighs. He abandons his pomegranate-citrus glaze and the duck it’s going on for later, and steers Q away from the counter with both hands on his shoulders. Q only protests a little bit as he goes.

“Just let me do it, baby. I promise I won’t sneak in any ingredients you can’t pronounce, but I’ll at least make the cheese slices even.”

Quentin makes a few half-hearted comments about how he is, actually, a probably 24-year-old man (because with how much time they spend in different worlds, nobody’s really managed to figure out how they should keep track of birthdays anymore) and doesn’t need Eliot to do everything for him, but he takes a seat at the island even as he’s complaining, watching Eliot pick out a sharper knife and finish up what he started. Eliot doesn’t deign to respond to Quentin’s grumbling, but he doesn’t really need to, because the knowledge hangs perfectly clear between them: Eliot likes taking care of Quentin.

Quentin doesn’t need it. His skills in the kitchen are tragic, but he wouldn’t straight up starve without Eliot there or anything. It’s just that. Well. That. Eliot just likes taking care of him. And it’s been a long, long time since he got to do that, so he’s making up for it now. He doesn’t like how Quentin noticeably lost weight while the monster had Eliot, how when Eliot came back one of the first things he noticed was that Quentin was now smoking more than he ate, more of an Eliot coping mechanism than a Quentin one. He doesn’t like how everything else about Quentin seems just a little bit damaged since El’s been back too; how he never seems to sleep more than a few hours at a time anymore, how he’s a little quieter, how it’s clearly been a long time since he had a real conversation with any of his friends. Now that Eliot’s back and everything’s growing towards being some semblance of calm again, Q is gradually doing better, but Eliot wants to help speed that process along in any way he can. So. He traps Quentin in bed with his own limbs to make him sleep, and invites all their friends to hang out whenever possible, and feeds him. A lot. Even if all Quentin wants to eat are things so simple that Eliot’s offended by having to make them.

So. He cuts neat slices of cheese, and makes sure the sandwich is toasted evenly in a dash of herbs, and cuts it into neat little triangles with a flourish. He hopes Quentin hears the I love you in every action, because it’s there, it’s all Eliot’s thinking.

“Et voila,” Eliot says when he’s done, trying to cover up the fondness in his voice, and clatters the plate down in front of Quentin. Quentin looks tired, sat at the island with his head propped up in his hands, shorter strands of hair flopping in front of his eyes, but not as tired as he did a week ago, and certainly not the week before that. Eliot’s heart goes warm. “One grilled cheese for your unrefined palate.”

Quentin rolls his eyes, but he leans across the island and angles his chin upwards anyway, halfway between offering and demanding a kiss. Eliot obliges.

He lets himself sink into the kiss for just a moment. Chaste, close-mouthed, but so sickeningly domestic that it’s almost more thrilling than the filthy kisses they shared in the darkness the night before. Eliot’s had a lot of passion in his life before, still does, but rarely has he ever had this. Someone to kiss over a sandwich, just for a moment. Someone so special that you’re just glad they’re there, even if they’re serving no great purpose. It’s warm and comforting and so, so small, but Eliot can feel the fracture lines in his weathered heart healing every time Quentin sighs a little breath onto his mouth.

He lets himself enjoy it for a couple more seconds, and then pulls away. Picks up his pomegranate again, and then raises a pointed eyebrow when Quentin sets about to eat his sandwich right there.

“Hi, Q? This is nice and all, but I wasn’t joking before. Get the hell out of my kitchen.”

#this got away from me SO MUCH #i apparently have a lot of feelings about cooking #queliot #queliot fic #the magicians #the magicians fic #my fic #quentin coldwater #eliot waugh #anon #maia answers

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choiminjae0325 · 5 years

Text

Antidote

I’m sorry, but I can’t write in second person, so this will be in third person with two of my OCs as main characters. Please give me lots of feedback, I would greatly appreciate it!

Main Characters: Choi Minjae, Choi Juyeon, and Stray Kids

Chapter One (1.6k words):

The world is truly unforgiving. The Choi sisters learned this at a young age when their parents divorced. The girls were forced to move to Seoul to live with their father who was rarely home. He worked at a laboratory as a scientist, his specialty unknown to them. They joined various after school activities to avoid going home. The only things they did at home were eat and sleep.

“Unnie, are you practicing archery or soccer today?” Juyeon looked to her elder sister as they walked through the halls.

“We have a big game coming up so we’re scrimmaging against the neighboring school’s team.” Minjae barely looked up as she shuffled through her bag, searching for her phone. “You don’t have any clubs today, right? Want to come watch?” She looked up to see the hesitance in Juyeon’s gaze.

“I don’t know… I should go to the library-”

“The guys will be coming.” Minjae interrupted and smiled as soon as she noticed the bright smile on her little sister’s face. “All of them.”

“Well, I guess taking a break from studying could do me some good.” The girls giggled together before separating as Minjae went to the locker room and Juyeon made her way to the bleachers beside the field. The air was brisk as it pushed passed Juyeon. She pulled her sleeves over her fingers and searched the area for familiar faces.

Once she reached the bleachers, she found her friends and began the trek to the top row of seats. As she approached, Juyeon could hear the rowdy boys more clearly.

“Who do you think would win in a fight, Chan-hyung or Minjae-noona?” Jeongin asked, grinning jokingly at the elder boys.

“Definitely Minjae-unnie.” Juyeon bumped her shoulder into Chan’s once she was close enough. “I mean, have you seen her muscles? This shrimp couldn’t even compare.”

“Ya! How many times have I told you to respect your elders?” Chan put her in a choke hold, ruffling her hair.

“Oppa, stop! It took me forever to pin my bangs up this morning.” Juyeon whined, brushing her hair down once she was released. A small pout adorned her lips and Woojin waved her over, gesturing for her to sit in front of him.

“Here, let me fix it.” He smiled and began running his fingers through her bangs after removing the bobby pins.

“Hey, Juyeon, how did you do on the chemistry test yesterday?” Jeongin asked, turning to speak to her.

“Of course our baby passed with flying colors, right?” Seungmin pinched her cheek, cooing as he did so. “You aren’t at the top of the class for nothing.”

“I missed a few questions, but I think I did fairly well.” Juyeon smiled as Woojin finished fixing her hair. “Thank you, Oppa.”

Suddenly, Juyeon shivered, but not from the cold this time. She looked to her right and found a group of girls glaring at her. They were mumbling under their breath, no doubt, mocking her.

One of the more bold girls spit out, “Look at her, soaking up all the attention. She really does get around.”

“Maybe you should fix your own insecurities instead of insulting my sister.” Minjae appeared out of nowhere and shot daggers at them with her gaze, quickly silencing them.

Behind her was the remainder of the group, Minho, Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, and Felix. Minho had Minjae’s duffle bag slung over his shoulder while he held her bow case in his other hand.

“Why did you even bring this with you today?” He asked, holding the case up a bit. He set everything down and plopped into the seat at the end of the aisle.

“I practiced this morning.” Minjae said, digging through her duffle.

“You’re going to tire yourself out at this rate.” Felix said and sat down next to Minho. Jisung sat down as well. Juyeon moved, making room for the remaining boys, but couldn’t stop the pink dusting her cheeks when Hyunjin chose to sit beside her.

“What are you looking for now?” Chan laughed at Minjae struggling.

“My water bottle- oh, found it.” She sighed, opening one of the side pockets.

“You can be such ditz sometimes.” Changbin joked, laughing at her scowling features.

“That’s why I need my reliable boyfriend to look after me.” Minjae pecked Minho on the lips before turning around and making her way back down to the field. “Cheer for me loudly, okay?” She yelled, throwing her fists into the air.

The boys laughed at Minho’s blushing cheeks and he swatted at them lazily.

Another gust of wind blew through the air and Juyeon shivered again. She felt a hand on her shoulder and was pulled closer to Hyunjin’s side. He smiled at her before continuing his conversation with Felix.

Both teams moved onto the field and the captains met at the center. Minjae shook hands with her opponent and smiled.

“It’s been a little while, Jimin.” Minjae spoke, a small glint of competitiveness shining in her eyes.

“It has, but that doesn’t mean you can go easy on us.”

Minjae and Jimin have been friendly rivals since middle school and go to each other’s games whenever they get the chance.

Minjae excelled at every position, but she preferred forward as she could show her ferocity best. Each time she made a goal, loud cheers could be heard from the top of the bleachers.

Juyeon watched as her sister made yet another goal. Cheers surrounded her and she felt a vibrating coming from her pocket. She pulled her phone out to find she had missed calls from her father. That’s strange.

“I’ll be right back.” She told the boys and most of them hummed their acknowledgment. She turned around when she felt a hand on her wrist.

“I’ll come with you.” Hyunjin walked down the stairs, keeping his hold on her wrist.

They moved a bit further away from the crowd so Juyeon could hear her father as she called him back.

“Thank god, Juyeon.” Her father sighed in relief once he answered the call.

“What’s wrong, dad?” Juyeon could hear the stress in his tone, worrying her. He usually spoke in monotone and his words rarely held emotion.

“I need you both home now. Something happened and I can’t explain it right now, but I need to know you are safe at home.” His stern tone returned once again and before Juyeon could ask, she heard screaming from the other end of the call. “Juyeon, my sweet daughter, please just trust me. Go home and do not leave. I will send you further instructions later.”

“Okay…” Her voice trembled as she noticed the urgency in his words. “We’ll leave now. I love you.”

“I love you too, both of you.”

Juyeon’s eyes widened as she heard him say those words for the first time in years. Her father used to say them all the time, but once their parents split, he didn’t express his love through words anymore.

The call ended and Hyunjin pulled her back to the field just as the last whistle blew through the air, signaling the end of the game.

They met the others at the bottom of the bleachers, words of congratulations being thrown at Minjae.

“We have to go home.” Juyeon and Hyunjin’s somber expressions startled the others.

“Okay, let me just tell everyone I’ll be leaving-” Minjae jabbed her thumb back towards the remaining members of her team before being cut off.

“No, we need to go now.” Juyeon spoke firmly.

The group made their way to their cars and drove to the Choi household. On the way there, Minjae checked her phone to find a string of text messages from her father, explaining that he wanted her to shut and lock every single window and outside door at the house, before setting the alarm system.

She always wondered why the alarm was so high tech, but just figured it came with the perks of her father’s well-paid job.

Once everyone was locked in the house, Juyeon called her father again to ask for further instructions.

“Juyeon, is Minjae with you?” He spoke through the speaker of her phone.

“Yes, I’m here, dad.” Minjae approached her sister and took the phone from her hand.

“Minjae, I haven’t always been honest about my job, but I need to tell you what is happening right now.” His serious tone returned once more. “My team and I have caused and created many atrocities which have come back to haunt us now. There’s been a breach at the lab and a few of our experiments have escaped. It is not safe outside right now. They carry a very contagious disease and-”

“Dad, what are you saying right now? I don’t understand.” Minjae snapped at her father’s rambling.

“We created flesh-eating monsters.” He said, going silent after.

The room was so quiet, Minjae swore she could hear his heart beating through the phone. None of the boys in the room spoke and Juyeon was shocked silent as well.

Minjae broke the silence, “You mean, like, zombies?” She scoffed, denying the words even though they came from her own mouth. “There’s no way!”

“That’s exactly what they are. You are no longer safe outside. The disease has already started spreading. A few of my colleagues and I have locked ourselves in the lab, but we don’t know how long we can last here. I needed to make sure you were safe and I want you to know I love-” Their father was cut off as screaming blasted through the phone’s speaker and the call ended.

#stray kids #stray kids au #zombie au #lee minho #lee know #hwang hyunjin #bang chan #kim woojin #seo changbin #han jisung #lee felix #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #i.n #antidote stray kids

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