#this man seriously needs to just lob off a project because like. man if we’re gonna be this consistently behind i cannot keep living under

[livvyofthelake]

um i already want this week to be over. cordelia you were supposed to fix me wtf girl. (i have not even been reading cordelia. maybe if i had been i would be doing better)

[brighteyesillusionist]

Breathe Again

The slap to the face woke Tony up pretty quickly, which was pretty impressive considering how much he'd been drinking the night before. He blinked slowly, shaking his head a little to clear it.

Ow. Yeah, that was a mistake. Hangover was still a thing. Damn.

Rhodey was going to be pissed.

The second slap connected to his already stinging cheek and sent his head jerking to the side. Tony sighed and poked at the inside of his cheek with his tongue. It didn't taste like he was bleeding, but the flesh felt tender enough. Finally he turned to look up at whoever had decided to kidnap him this week.

He had to bite his tongue to keep from laughing.

“Did you guys actually go shopping at a freaking costume shop?” The man was wearing one of those plastic Halloween animal masks over his face with a black jacket and jeans to complete the look. Glancing around the warehouse room, Tony also saw a few other guys in the same sort of outfit. The main guy had a lion mask, while the others consisted of a bear, elephant, zebra, and a tiger that he could see.

“Anthony Edward Stark,” the man said slowly. “You're probably wondering why you are here.”

Tony rolled his head to try and get the kink out of his neck. No luck. “Not really. Mostly just wondering about the masks still. Seriously, is there a 'Kidnapping for Dummies' book or something? It seems like all you guys get your ideas from the same place. Masks, abandoned warehouse, seriously it got old after the first couple times.”

The lion guy chuckled and Tony raised an eyebrow. “I don't think you realize the gravity of your situation.” He raised a hand, palm facing upwards. One of the guys off to the side, the one with the elephant mask, nodded and turned to lift one of the large garage doors in the warehouse.

Behind it was a little girl.

Tied to a chair and gagged, her eyes were wide with fear. Tony could hear her breathing through her nose in uneven pants. Her dark hair, matted with sweat and grease, hopefully just sweat and grease, fell limp beside her face, framing equally dark eyes.

Lion dude walked around Tony and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Now. Let me explain. We know you won't do anything if it's just you're well being on the line. You're used to this sort of thing.” He chuckled again and placed a hand on his other shoulder and squeezed. “You also know that we're not going to hurt you too badly, because we need you. She on the other hand, is completely expendable.”

The elephant man walked over to stand behind her, placing his own hands on her shoulders. Tony could see his fingers pressing into the cloth of her shirt, slowly turning the pink of his knuckles white. She whimpered slightly.

“Do you understand?” The lion guy's breath ghosted hissed through the slit in the mask and hit Tony's ear, the combination making him shiver slightly.

“Yeah, I get it,” he said, biting his tongue to keep from saying anything more. An out of place remark now would do nothing but annoy them, and he didn't want to give them an excuse to offer a demonstration.

“Good.” Lion guy let go of his shoulders and walked around to face him again. “A little birdie told me that you,” he poked Tony's nose, “are the mastermind behind the new line of personal grenades that the military has recently started using. We want some of those.”

Tony grimaced. Those grenades were... not something he wanted anyone using anywhere near civilians. They were meant to be a last resort sort of thing, emergency use only and not available to common soldiers. They were precise, powerful, and inexpensive to produce. A great combination for Stark Industries and the Army, and really really bad if goons like these got their hands on it.

“I honestly don't know what you're talking about.” Tony shrugged as much as he could. “I've been focused on school.”

“Break one of her fingers.”

The little girl's scream echoed the sharp snap of her finger. Tony's eyes widened in horror as hers overflowed with pain filled tears.

“The hell man! I told you I don't know!” Lion guy snapped again in response to Tony's shout and another scream rang out as another of the girl's fingers were broken.

“I don't like being lied to, Mister Stark.” He patted Tony on the head condescendingly. “I already told you she was expendable. You have eight lies left,” he snapped. “Make that seven.”

The girl was sobbing through her screams now.

Sweat dripped from Tony's temples and he licked his lips. He didn't want to give them anything, but he also didn't want the little girl to be hurt more.

“Stop it! Okay,” Tony said. “I designed the stupid grenades, okay.”

“That wasn't so hard now, was it?” The lion guy squeezed Tony's head before letting go. “This is how it's going to work now. We'll bring you supplies, and you build them while we watch. The girl is going to stay with you the whole time. Do anything we don't like, and well I think you know what's going to happen.”

Tony nodded and he felt one of the guys untie his arms from the chair. He pulled his hands in front of him and rubbed his sore wrists. The bear guy and zebra guy brought a table into the room and set it in front of him.

“Let's not waste time.” With a final squeeze to Tony's skull, lion guy walked away to stand against one of the far walls.

Looking at the contents of the table, Tony frowned. These guys actually did know what they were talking about. Everything here was exactly what he needed to build the grenades. There could be a couple of reasons for that and Tony didn't like any of them. The plans for the grenades were saved his his personal server, so conceivably they could have hacked into it. That option was doubtful, Tony was utterly confident in his programming, especially with the new AI he was developing. Also, there were a few other projects there that were close to completion, each more powerful or versatile than the grenades, and they hadn't mentioned those.

The other option, of course, was a leak at SI. Someone was dealing under the table and sold information to these guys. He'd have to investigate that when he got out of here.

He took a deep breath, and reached out to the materials on the table. Biting back a grin, he got to work.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He'd built five of them before they noticed anything was amiss. One for each of them. Honestly, it was pretty easy after that.

The first one he tossed at the guy with the elephant mask. He'd relaxed a little, leaning against the wall rather than standing directly behind the girl now. The grenades weren't exactly explosives, and they weren't technically lethal, but the concussive explosion was plenty effective at knocking the man out.

Tony stood and lobbed two more of them, one at the zebra and bear guys standing near each other, and the second and tiger guy who stood up on the walkway above everyone. They collapsed quickly and Tony turned to grab the last two grenades.

“I wouldn't do that if I were you.” Tony turned to look at Lion guy. He stood with the girl, still in her chair, in front of him. His gun pressed against her head. “Set those down and walk over here.”

Tony gently set the grenades on the table and walked slowly over.

“Good.” Tony could hear the grin in lion guy's voice. “Those were not what we asked for. I told you I don't like liars.” He pressed the barrel harder against the girl's head, getting a whine in response.

Tony stood in front of the man and ground his teeth. “You asked me to build grenades, I built grenades. You didn't tell me not to use them.”

“That is true,” the man said. “Lucky for you, that little demonstration was rather impressive. So I'll tell you what, build me more of those on top of the ones I already asked for, and maybe her punishment won't be quite so... permanent.”

Tony bit his lip, almost. So close. “And if I say no?”

“I think you know the answer to that.” He pulled the gun away from the girl and pointed it at Tony.

Tony grinned. “Yeah, I think I do.” In his pocket he hit the remote detonator button he'd rigged for one of the grenades. It exploded behind him, distracting the lion guy enough that he was able to grab the gun and pistol whip the guy across the temple. He fell with a groan, his head bouncing against the ground as he landed. Tony sighed, and stepped behind the girl to untie her.

“You okay?” He asked quietly, untying her arms from the chair. She nodded and as soon as he'd finished untying her she threw her arms around him in a hug.

“Hey. It's alright. Um...” Tony grimaced. “What's your name kiddo?”

“Lilly,” she said quietly, huffing breaths against his shoulder.

He nodded. “Lilly. Okay, pretty name. Um, I'm going to get you out of here, alright. We're gonna call some people to take care of these guys.”

She nodded quietly, and Tony took a deep breath. “Okay, yeah. Sorry kid. It's all over, alright. I know it hurts. Take a deep breath, alright? Just breathe. It's all over.”

[rainforestgeek]

If you lose your strength to stand (I'm gonna reach for your hand) pt. 2

ao3 link to the story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14440329/chapters/33353805

Part 1

Part 3

As it turned out, the little green gremlin herself had already broken into his room. He heard her boisterous yelling through the doors before they even swished open. Pidge was coiled in a half-crouched position, fingers flying over the controller in her hands and a gleeful look on her face. The lights were off, so Lance could only see her by the harsh blue glow from the monitor she’d rigged up. The light shined off her glasses and hid her eyes.

Pidge didn’t even flinch when Lance flicked the lights on, but he yelped in surprise at Hunk sitting on his bed. He had the other controller and looked thoroughly put out.

Pidge glanced at him. “Hey Lance! You’re just in time to see me kick Hunk’s ass!”

“You could at least let me know before breaking into my room,” he grumbled.

“Change your passcode, then.”

“Why bother? Either one of you could override it anyway.” Lance worked at the clips of his armor to take it off and put it away. Pidge joyously trash talked at Hunk with language she’d probably never use around Matt. Once down to his bodysuit, Lance opened the bathroom door and started unzipping.

He heard a startled choking sound behind him, followed by a victorious whoop from Hunk. “Ha, got you now! Suddenly off your game, Pidge?”

“Lance, what the fuck! Close the door before you start stripping!” He turned to see Pidge pointedly glaring at the screen away from his bare chest, her cheeks bright red. Her fingers fumbled over the controls. He put his hands on his hips.

“Hey, this is my room. You can leave if you’re embarrassed. And we shared a locker room for months at the Garrison, Pidge, what are you getting all flustered about now?”

“Shut up,” she grumbled. Lance rolled his eyes and left his friends to their game.

A hot shower was just what the doctor ordered. The heat loosened his muscles and the steam was wonderful in his lungs. He felt properly cleansed by the time he walked back into his room, wearing pajama pants and toweling his hair dry. Hunk and Pidge were still there, but seemed to have abandoned the game in favor of taking it apart and arguing. Hunk said something about Pidge being a sore loser. She lobbed Lance’s matching pajama top at his face.

“I was gonna play that tonight, you know,” he complained, pulling the shirt over his head.

“We’re just making a couple improvements,” Hunk reassured him. Lance sighed dramatically and collapsed onto his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes.

Pidge shot back at Hunk, “The game wouldn’t be lagging in the first place if you hadn’t messed with the CPU. Do you have any idea how hard it was to build that component from scratch? On an alien spaceship?”

“Hey, the lag is not a hardware problem. The operating system’s been going on the fritz, you need to double check the code.”

“My code is flawless! There’d be nothing wrong with the console if you’d just stop touching – ”

“How about you both just stop talking?!” Lance snapped.

Amazingly, they both shut up. A large blunt elbow gently poked at his side from where Hunk sat on the floor by his bed. “You okay, dude?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Lance doesn’t feel like talking?” Pidge eyes went comically wide. Coupled with her big round glasses she looked like startled green owl. “Shit, Hunk, the whole fucking universe is ending.”

“Did Matt ever wash your mouth with soap when you were growing up or is this a new development?”

Hunk, the traitor, played along with Pidge. “Prepare for the four horsemen to descend from the heavens.” He squeezed his eyes shut, clutched his heart, and fell over sideways, narrowly avoiding crushing their homemade game console. That earned him an irritated smack across the forehead from Pidge.

“Really? A year ago we found out Keith is half human half purple cat-alien, but this signals the apocalypse?”

“You’re not exactly the secretive type, Lance.” Pidge resumed disassembling the console.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Hunk climbed onto the bed and wrapped an arm around Lance’s shoulders. “Hey, chill out, it’s okay man. You just seem really upset and it’s not good to bottle it up like that. You know you can trust us, right?”

Pidge nudged his knee with the back of her hand. “Talk to us, Lance. For the sake of all creation,” she joked, quirking an eyebrow. Lance snorted a laugh. That seemed to please her, because her playful smirk softened into a real smile. That and Hunk’s warm hug, more than anything, were what made him relent. “Allura just rejected me. Like, about twenty doboshes ago.

“So? Doesn’t she do that all the time?” Lance’s heart dropped into his stomach. He glared at Pidge. She was frowning down at her project.

“Pidge, not helpful,” Hunk snapped, to both his friends’ surprise. Their little green paladin turned bright red.

“Well, it was for real this time,” Lance retorted. “I said something about being in love with her, which apparently she didn’t know because ‘I’m not the only girl you’ve flirted with out here.’ I mean, she’s rebuffed me before, but this time was so…final.”

“Because she knew you were serious this time,” Hunk filled in gently.

“So she responded seriously, yeah. I could… I know she doesn’t like me like that, okay? I do. It still sucked to listen to her say it’ll never happen, she loves me like a brother, doesn’t want to hurt me, the whole nine. So excuse me if it takes more than half an hour to get over it, Pidge.”

Pidge opened her mouth, closed it, and awkwardly placed a small, warm hand on his knee. Her eyes stayed downcast as she murmured, “I’m sorry, Lance.”

He sighed deeply. “It’s okay.”

Her thumb rubbed back and forth in what was probably meant to be a soothing gesture. “It’s…I – I don’t, I don’t know how to…comfort people.”

Well, if that wasn’t just adorkably sweet, Lance thought. He picked up her hand and squeezed it. “I’m sorry for yelling earlier. Hunk’s right. Burying your feelings is how you end up like Keith – quiet until he turns red and explodes. Like a volcano!”

Pidge cracked up. Hunk did, too, but to his credit did try really hard to cover his laughter. “Hey, be…be nice…to Keith. Poor guy…’s got a lot of…issues!” he huffed.

Hearing his friends laugh – at someone other than his expense – made Lance feel even better. “That’s exactly my point!”

They laughed until Pidge started to yawn. Hunk’s mom friend instincts kicked in and declared it was her bedtime. She mumbled something about him not being her dad, but she packed up what was once a video game console into her backpack and let Hunk carry her to her room. She looked like a tawny kitten all curled up in his big arms. Lance bid them goodnight and proceeded to his own nighttime routine.

[junker-town]

The Bulls got themselves into this mess. Can they climb out?

The locker room drama in Chicago has reached a boiling point. We work through the franchise’s options going forward.

There are a lot of angry stars in the NBA right now, but no franchise is in as much locker room upheaval as the Chicago Bulls. In this week’s FLANNS & ZILLZ, we work through the Windy City drama.

ZILLER: Oh for the halcyon days when the Chicago Bulls looked like a normal franchise fitting in under the expertise of Dwyane Wade and immense talents of Jimmy Butler.

Last week, Wade and Butler ripped their entire supporting cast, earning subtle snipes back from some of the younger players. Rajon Rondo was not subtle, lighting into the dynamic duo in an Instagram post. (Rondo doesn't really do subtle.) Then the Bulls started leaking like a reused milk carton, with players complaining to the media that Wade rarely practices with the team.

Meanwhile, Rondo has continuously lobbed snark at the coach, and GM Gar Forman is admonishing the team while refusing to take questions from the media. The Chicago Bulls, ladies and gentlemen!

FLANNERY: You left out Fred Hoiberg, which is appropriate because he's been left holding the bag. I'm not blaming him for this entirely -- lord knows there's enough of that to go around -- but this is one of the things that can happen when you make a dramatic change in temperament.

Tom Thibodeau held everyone accountable, perhaps to a fault. Hoiberg is laissez-faire, perhaps too much. Change sounds great in theory until you get run over by a freight train and no one knows who's in charge.

Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports

Let's take this bit by bit here and start with the players. Butler has had a great season. Wade has been good. They're Chicago's two best players and vocal leaders. Did you think calling out unnamed players was wrong?

ZILLER: It's not the best practice, certainly, but Wade and Butler are hardly the first stars to take beef public. It's a problem because Wade is supposed to be the model leader here, and his comments rubbed the more impressionable teammate the wrong way. If he wanted to inspire the young guys, he obviously failed. Zito Madu had some good thoughts on this in his piece on the debacle.

Wade seems unable to reach the Jerian Grants of the team. Is it because, despite his rings and résumé, he's a newcomer? Should it then be on Butler to provide some positive leadership, or on Wade to work with long-tenured Taj Gibson? I think the answer is "yes" to all of the above.

And I do think Hoiberg is becoming a bad fit on a Butler-led team. Jimmy has asked for greater team-wide accountability in the past, and there's no evidence the coach is offering it.

My vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team. My vets didn't pick and choose when they wanted to bring it. They brought it every time they stepped in the gym whether it was practice or a game. They didn't take days off. My vets didn't care about their numbers. My vets played for the team. When we lost, they wouldn't blame us. They took responsibility and got in the gym. They showed the young guys what it meant to work. Even in Boston when we had the best record in the league, if we lost a game, you could hear a pin drop on the bus. They showed us the seriousness of the game. My vets didn't have an influence on the coaching staff. They couldn't change the plan because it didn't work for them. I played under one of the greatest coaches, and he held everyone accountable. It takes 1-15 to win. When you isolate everyone, you can't win consistently. I may be a lot of things, but I'm not a bad teammate. My goal is to pass what I learned along. The young guys work. They show up. They don't deserve blame. If anything is questionable, it's the leadership.

A photo posted by Rajon Rondo (@rajonrondo) on Jan 26, 2017 at 3:03pm PST

There's also the matter that Rondo is OBVIOUSLY trying to get waived.

FLANNERY: Yeah, so that was the most Rondo move of all the Rondo moves I can ever remember. From the moral righteousness, to the bluntness of his critique, and the praising of the 2008 Celtics while leaving Ray Allen out of the photo was so perfectly Rondo.

And you know, he does have a point here. Close teams keep that stuff in-house and the Bulls are obviously not one close.

ON THE OTHER HAND.

He's not a good player anymore and it sure seems like there's an awful lot of dysfunction that follows him wherever he goes. How telling was it that people not only fell for the fake D-Wade response, but we're like, “Yep. Nailed it.”

Sidebar: Assuming he does get waived, you think he winds up in Cleveland? Cause I'd be interested in who takes what side on that one.

ZILLER: Having enjoyed the Rondo experience thoroughly last season, I would wholly recommend the Cavaliers go a different direction. Three different disaster seasons under three different coaches? That's officially a trend.

What good Rondo did is get it all out there -- to hell with a Cold War, figure it out before it's too late. Hopefully Wade can turn the conflagration into a source for unity going forward.

Mike DiNovo-USA TODAY Sports

I am, however, a little worried about Jimmy. He's never played better, but this isn't his first drama rodeo either.

FLANNERY: That's the whole ballgame right here. D-Wade will move on eventually. Rondo's probably gone. Players come and players go. Hell, Michael Carter-Williams is already on his third team in four years. But Jimmy's the one to keep if you're serious about building a team around the guy.

Let's be real about this: The Bulls don't seem that interested in doing that. If you're committing to a franchise player like Jimmy Butler, you don't go out and add two more ball-dominant guards and you don't keep dropping his name into trade rumors. Say what you will about Larry Bird's strategy in Indiana (and I'm not a fan of his recent moves), but at the very least the word is out that Paul George is off limits. That's what you do in that situation.

That said, Jimmy does have a bit of drama in him. Last year was a learning curve. This year is, man, I don't know. I mean that. I'm really not sure whether his leadership style will be a positive or negative influence. I do know that he works his ass off and competes every night, and that's a great start.

So, do you keep him and commit to a full rebuild while empowering him to take charge, or do you flip him at the height if his value?

ZILLER: The Bulls don't have a whole lot beyond Jimmy in terms of youth, so it'd be a project, thus wasting key years of Butler's prime. Wade has been pretty good, and the team's actually not awful. So I think you lose Rondo, try to kumbaya it up, and do your best to improve the team in the short term. The worst that happens is it doesn't click while Wade's there, Hoiberg doesn't take, and you try again in a year or so.

Unlike with, say, the Knicks, the stakes are not actually precipitously high in Chicago. There's no reason to shop Butler, and I'm guessing just losing Rondo on the next interstate flight will improve morale. But man has that bizarre front office got to stop poking Jimmy in the eye.

FLANNERY: That would be my play too, but I think you could take what you have and build smartly in rapid succession around Butler.

This whole conversation takes us back to the same place, and that's the front office. They desperately need capable shooters to put around Jimmy. I know that's hard to find in this day and age, but they didn't have to add a whole bunch of non-shooters. This is their mess, from the coaching change to the roster decisions to the team culture. I think that's where you start.

But these are the Bulls and they probably won't do that. So, they're stuck.