#troop tape

[iliketigers]

[yokelfelonking]

Post 9/11 Trivia

Most folks on this site were either children on September 11, 2001, or weren’t even born yet.  But America went crazy for about a year afterwards.  Here’s some highlights that I remember that might not be in your history books:

There was national discussion on whether or not Halloween should be canceled because…fuck if I know why.  After planes crashed into buildings in NYC it follows that 6-year-olds in Iowa shouldn’t be allowed to dress up like Batman and ask their neighbors for candy, I guess.  (Halloween wasn’t canceled, by the way.)

On a similar note, people asked if comedy - any sort of comedy - was appropriate anymore, ever.

People sold shitty parachutes to suckers “in case your building gets attacked and you have to jump out the window.” There were honest-to-God news reports warning people not to jump out of the window with shitty mail-order parachutes because they wouldn't work.

As a follow-up to the attacks, someone mailed anthrax to some prominent politicians and news anchors - you know, famous people - along with some badly-written notes about “you cannot stop us, death to America, Allah is good” and after that every time some random dumbass found a package in the mail they didn’t recognize they thought that the terrorists were targeting them, too.

Everyone was similarly convinced that their town was going to be the next target, even if they were a little town in the middle of nowhere. "Our town of Bumblefuck, South Dakota (population 690) has the largest styrofoam pig statue west of the Mississippi! Terrorists might fly planes into that too! It's a prime target!"

People started taping up their windows and trying to make their houses or apartments airtight out of fear of chemical and biological attacks. There were news reports warning people that turning your house into an airtight box was a bad idea because, y'know, you need air to breathe.

"[X] supports terrorism!" and “if we do [X], the terrorists win!” were used as arguments for everything.  "Some rich Arab you never heard of donated to his organization that backs Hamas which backs al-Queda, and also owns stock in a holding company that has partial ownership of the Pringles company, so if you eat Pringles you're supporting terrorism!" "The terrorists want to tear down our freedoms and our way of life and rule us through fear! Eating what you want is one of our freedoms as Americans! If you're afraid to eat Pringles, the terrorists win!" (I promise you that this sort of argument is in no way hyperbole.) (This argument is how Halloween was saved, by the way.  “If we cancel Halloween, the terrorists win!”)

People worked 9/11 into everything, and I mean everything, whether it was appropriate or not.  If you went to the grocery store the tortilla chips would remind you to support the troops on the packaging. Used car sales would be dedicated to our brave first responders. You couldn't wipe your ass without the toilet paper rolls reminding you to never forget the fallen of 9/11, and again, this is not hyperbole. My uncle, who lived in Ohio and had never been to New York except to visit once in the 70′s, died of a stroke about 8 months after 9/11, and the priest brought up the attacks at the eulogy.

On a similar local note, on the day of 9/11, after the towers went down, gas stations in my home town immediately jacked up gas prices.  The mayor had the cops go around and force them to take them back down.  I doubt any of that was legal.

Before 9/11, Christianity in America - and religion in general - was on a downward swing, with reddit-tier atheism on the upswing. Religion was outdated superstition from a bygone age. The day after 9/11? Every single church was PACKED. (This wasn't a bad thing, but the power-hungry on the Evangelical Right saw this as a golden opportunity to grab power and influence.)

EDIT: By Popular Demand - Freedom Fries. I initially left these off because they came a couple years after the initial panic and most people thought they were kind of absurd (and I don't recall anyone really going along with it other than maybe some local diners here and there). France didn't want to get involved in our world policing so some folks were like "TRAITORS!" and wanted to call french fries "Freedom Fries" instead, so as to stick it to the French.

Besides dumb shit like that…it’s really hard to overstate how completely the national mood and character changed in the span of a day, or how much of the current culture war is a result of the aftermath. (9/11 was the impetus for the sharp rise in power of the Evangelical Right, who made themselves utterly odious and the following backlash helped the rise of the current Progressive Left, for instance.)

And if all of this seems batshit...well, it was. But I want you to think for a moment how people react today over even trivial shit. People send death threats over children's cartoons. They call for blood if the maker of a video game had an opinion they don't like. If someone made a racist joke a decade ago when they were a teenage edgelord, folks will go after people who even associate with them. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ALL THE HARM THEY'RE DOING!?"

Now take that same level of over-the-top histrionics and apply it to the unprecedented event of passenger planes crashing into crowded buildings in America's most populous city and killing thousands of people all at once. "DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND THAT WE WERE ATTACKED!?"

[frankenstein-ate-my-left-shoe]

just a little something for the darling @yournowheregirl to wake up to! it sounds kinda dumb and insignificant, but i always appreciate your tags in the fun tag games that come across your dash and for always being one of the first that ask something from those ‘ask me’ posts i reblog! it makes me feel appreciated and i am super grateful every time 🥰🫶🥹

There was meant to be two beds.

Steve specifically got a double king room for the goblins, and another room with two queens for him and Eddie.

So of course as soon as they got into Milwaukee the night before the D&D themed nerd fest, the (actually very nice) woman at the front desk says: “We had to swap around the rooms, but the two will still sleep all you boys, don’t worry!”

Whatever. That’s fine, right? They’ll all have a spot to sleep the next two nights they’re here for the kids’ (and Eddie’s) dragon game convention.

He gets back to their rented minivan and passes the key cards to Eddie in the passenger seat.

The van was just the first point of contention between him and the kids’ beloved Dragon Meister, followed closely by…everything else.

The first thing Eddie said when Steve showed up in the rented van was “King Steve is coming along on our journey?”, to which Steve could only respond with “This ‘super cool’ guy you assholes have been going on about this whole time is Eddie “The Freak” Munson? Really?”

Following closely behind are: the tapes and tapes of loud garbled ‘music’ Eddie insists on playing, his absolutely tragic way of unwrapping Steve’s burgers for him when they stop for lunch, the wariness Steve has in the first place about this being the guy Dustin wouldn’t stop talking so highly about…this nerdy, obnoxious, third-time senior…great.

“204 is the Hellions’ room, 207 is us.”

Eddie bends an arm backwards into the feral beast enclosure the second two rows have become over the last six hours and Steve’s surprised he still has his hand when it returns to the front.

Steve gets the van parked in the hotel’s garage, and they head up to their rooms.

“Alright, assholes,” he says to the somehow still rambunctious masses, “This is you guys, Make sure you’re up by eight so we—“

“Yeah Steve, we got it,” Dustin scoffs, “As if we’d risk being late to this.”

Steve rolls his eyes with a “Fine, goodnight.” and shuffles the few steps across the hall to his and Eddie’s door, leaving the troops to file into theirs.

The only thought in his head is of laying down and getting the fuck to sleep. It wasn’t even that late but—

“Oh you’ve got to be shitting me.”

So that’s what brings them here. To their one barely queen sized bed.

“I guess I’m on the floor then, huh?”

“I’m not about to let you sleep on the floor.”

“Oh, the King has chivalry does he?” Eddie rolls his eyes and throws his duffle onto the armchair in the corner.

“As much as you, asshole; I just want you to have the energy to corral the gremlins tomorrow.” Steve scrubs a hand down his face. “Look, we’ll just deal with it tonight and I’ll get another room tomorrow.” he lies. As if he’s got the cash for that.

Eddie looks him over, and seems to come to whatever conclusion he needs to because he says “Fine, but you better not be a blanket hog.”

Eddie’s the worst blanket hog Steve’s ever had the displeasure of knowing.

He thought Robin was bad, but this is something else.

Eddie’s fully a burrito within an hour of laying down. After a hearty, but silent, game of tug of war over the worn duvet.

Steve falls asleep angry and cold, and wakes up on a cloud.

He’s so warm and so entangled in the comforter, he can’t help but snuggle deeper into the pillow he’s clutched onto.

The pillow hums back at him and scoots itself under his chin with a sigh.

Steve squeezes tighter onto the pillow momentarily, but his curiosity of why his pillow’s making noise gets the better of him.

He cracks his eyes open, looking down at the thing in his arms.

It shifts as well, and Eddie Munson blinks up at him with those (holy shit…beautiful, deep, dark) doe eyes of his.

“Hi.” Steve breathes.

Eddie’s eyes flutter shut, and shuffles himself back into Steve’s neck.

Steve chooses to blame the still sleepy bit of him for curving himself back around Eddie.

“How’d you sleep?” Steve whispers into the now-bared hairline under the other man’s bangs.

“Fucking amazing…” Eddie mumbles, snaking an arm over Steve’s waist and settling a hand in the middle of his back. “How ‘bout you, Stevie?”

“Stevie, huh?” Steve chuckles.

It’s only then that Eddie seems to come to his senses, his head shooting up before he scrambles away, falling straight onto his back between the opposite side of the bed and the wall with an “Oof!” and a “Fuck!”

“Oh shit!” Steve shuffles off the bed and helps Eddie back up, ”You alright, Eds?”

“Yeah..yeah, I’m fine..” Steve gets Eddie back on his own two feet and (reluctantly) lets him go once he’s stable.

‘Reluctantly? Why reluctantly? What the hell??’

“Sorry I was all over you, not the greatest thing to wake up to, huh?” Eddie says, huffing a sardonic laugh under his breath.

Steve hums nonchalantly, “It wasn’t all bad, I slept pretty fucking amazing too.”

Eddie hums an acknowledgment, then: “I wouldn’t—“ Eddie starts at the same time Steve says “I should—“

“You go ahead,”

Eddie’s hands come up between them, spinning the rings on his fingers nervously. “I was going to say that…I.. Iwouldn’tmindifyoustayedtonight..too.”

Steve blinks. “Good thing I was going to say that I really should save my money.”

Eddie’s smile is slightly nervous, but there’s a hopeful tinge to it that Steve can only assume means what he thinks it does (hopes it does).

“Leaves me with more to spend on the Gremlins, right?” he shrugs.

Eddie beams. “Glad to know we’re on the same page, Harrington.”

also, if you haven’t heard it recently: Alice, YOU’RE DOING AMAZING SWEETIE 🤩

[ninoxwof]

Dragon Weapons Concept

Wanted to make unique weapon designs for each tribe's soldiers/guards. Most of them are polearms! These are free to use with credit :]

Seawings' double as harpoons, Mudwings have more so something that's like a bludgeon/mace, and Rainwings are their blow guns. The bead colors on the sandwing weapons can also indicate the sandwing princess they are allying with. (I'll probably make a sheet exploring that in the future as well)

Thank you to my friend SailorHC who helped assist with designing the sandwings and mudwings weapons.

[Image ID: Digital drawings of different weapon concepts for the pyrrhia dragon tribes in wings of fire. The first one is for skywings, it's a spear plated with black, copper and gold colors, with a red ribbon tied attached. At the spear's tip, the copper colored blade is shaped like a flame, with two bird wing shaped decorations at the transition. The second one is for seawings. They are a spear that doubles as a harpoon with a pearly pink conch shell as the blade. It has a blue staff which then transitions at the base to be thicker with rope attached. The third is Icewing's. The blade is light blue crystal ice like shards fastened up with blue ribbons and tape at the socket. The beam is silvery with a handle at the end. Sandwings' bardiches are brown beams with long serrated blades that loops around and shapes a crescent shape. In between the two sections where the blade is attached is a tassel woven with two beads. At the end of the weapon, is a rattlesnake's rattle. Nightwings' spears have an off white blade shaped like a diamond star with a gray diamond decoration that has a purple gem on it. It's fastened tightly into a socket. The beam is black with the end having a crescent moon shaped handle. Second to last is Mudwings. They have a mace like stick that's black, gray and brown. The mace has three dull short spikes visible and a disarming blade that curves. At the end the handle is shaped like a lily pad where sibling troops can carve their troop name initials. Lastly are Rainwings' blow guns. They are tubes made with fresh bamboo with leaves still attached to it and a mouth piece and end part where the blow darts fly out molded with clay. /.End ID]

[strangersteddierthings]

Imagine, if you will, that Steve gets Vecna'd during the weapons building portion of the adventure. They're parked far away from Hawkins to prevent someone stumbling upon them and there are like a total of 4 tapes in the RV, none of which have anyone's favorite songs on them.

Steve, in his mind, hears Robin say she has a bad feeling, and it twists to be that she cruelly says Steve's the reason it's going to end badly. If Steve were a better, smarter, less pathetic person, they'd need him. He should just leave before he fucks this up for them all. Nancy piles on how he's bullshit, has always been bullshit. Dustin asks why he's even still around when they've already replaced him with Eddie. It's a bad time.

Meanwhile, Robin is freaking out because Steve just froze in the middle of making Molotov's. "Steve. Steve! STEVE!" Her shouting draws everyone and someone asks what his favorite song is and Robin's freaking out, but she thinks she knows this. "Bohemian Rhapsody! We sing it all the time together!"

"We don't even have a Queen tape!" Dustin is shouting like they don't know that already.

"Then we sing it!" Lucas suggests. "It's Bohemian Rhapsody. Everyone knows it, right?"

Robin wastes no time. She starts the song, slightly off-key, "Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?"

And slowly, everyone joins in. It doesn't sound great, and they don't really fall into a good rhythm, though Eddie does move to tap out the rhythm of it onto the side of the RV in hopes of keeping them all somewhat in time with the song.

Robin, Eddie, and Erica, surprisingly, are the only three that know all the lyrics in the correct order. The song has some long guitar solos they can't recreate out here, so the just jump into the next lyrics.

Cannot emphasize enough that it does not sound good.

But it works.

The noise of it breaks through, reaches the part of Steve's mind that is separate from where Vecna has Steve trapped. That little portal thing Max described forms, but it's not the music that breaks Steve from his mind. Not really.

Both he and Vecna turn towards the portal because whatever they're hearing is fucking awful but Steve can see, like Max saw, that everyone has gathered around him. They are all singing, off key and as loud as they possibly can, at him. To him.

For him.

He watches as Eddie bangs out a tempo for them to follow on the RV side, as Robin sings into his chest because she's wrapped him in her arms as tightly as possible, Dustin and Erica on either side of Robin (Scoops Troop reunited). Lucas and Max are scream-singing, Max with one ear out of the headphones and a hand clutching Nancy's as even Nancy sings along.

It's the worst singing Steve's ever heard.

It's the best version of Bohemian Rhapsody Steve's ever heard.

The plot twist is this. It's not even his favorite song. It's just a song he likes well enough.

He breaks free of Vecna not because it's his favorite song, but because it's his favorite people singing it, doing their best to save him because they care about him.

[in1-nutshell]

Silver Aid the sparkling (long version)

SFW, Platonic, Romance, Slight Famialal, Cybertronian (techno organic) reader

TFA

“WHERE IS SHE!?”

“I THOUGHT SHE WAS IN THE ROOM!”

“SHE’S JUST A SPARKLING, SHE COULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN TOO FAR!”

“HOW DID SHE EVEN GET OUT OF THERE!?”

A few hours before the incident…

“Megatron are you sure this is… wise? We don’t know its full extent; it could be dangerous.”

“That’s why we are testing it.”

“I know the reason Megatron…”

Megatron looked over at Silver Aid.

She had made her way to his side with one servo clutching her med kit. Her optics scrunched a bit in concern and curiosity. Probably wondering who she was going to fix up once this ‘experiment’ was done.

The Decepticons had recently uncovered a ‘relic’ of sorts. It emitted a high energy level, possibly enough to power the spacebridge for longer periods of time. If this worked, more supplies and troops could be sent through the bridge.

“Everything will be fine.”

“You don’t know that Megatron, its dangerous to gamble with relics.”

“It’s a gamble we must take.”

Silver just sighs and closes her optics.

Megatron let a small smile on his face and gently pulled her to his side. He smiled more seeing her fight a growing smile on her face.

“You’ll see my dear. Everything will turn out right.”

Silver Aid huffed a bit giving him that small smile.

“LORD MEGATRON!”

Megatron and Silver Aid jumped apart at the sound of Lugnut’s voice.

Megatron sighed, while Silver Aid giggled a bit at his dismay.

Lugnut walked in front of the pair and bowed a bit to Megatron.

“Lord Megatron! The device is ready for testing!”

Megatron nods.

The three walked behind the safety tape. Megatron moved slightly in front of Silver Aid, who swatted his servos in response.

“Its fine Megatron, or are you going to admit I was right about this being slightly dangerous?”

Oh, Primus she was smirking at him!

Taunting him!

He was not going to lose this round.

The warlord turned to Starscream and Blitzwing who were at the side of the device.

“Proceed with the activation.”

Starscream grumbled under his breath before starting up the machine. He and Blitzwing soon flew to the group on the safe side of the safety tape. The team waited in anticipation for the device to start working.

The device started glowing and whirling with life. Bits of sparks flew, but otherwise remained steady. According to the levels in data pad, the energy it was putting out was increasing rapidly. Soon enough the levels were starting to go above the estimated levels.

Silver Aid tugged at Starscream’s servo and pointed at the increasing levels with a worried look. If anyone here was going to agree with the danger of the surge in power levels, it was going to be Starscream.

Starscream’s optics widen and went to tell Megatron.

BOOM!

The entire group was thrown back from the explosion.

Megatron and Starscream were thrown on their backs; Blitzwing landed on his chassis with Lugnut landing on his wings; Silver Aid had been thrown on her side a few feet farther than the rest.

Silver Aid rubbed the side of her helm groaning.

“Sound off, anyone offline?”

Muffled yelling was heard from underneath Lugnut causing Starscream to wince a bit.

“I think Blitzwing will if Lugnut doesn’t get off of him.”

Lugnut quickly rolled off the Triple changer, his cursing much more audible now.

Megatron slowly sat up popping one of his back struts turning to her.

“Are you alright?”

Silver gave him a smile before it was replaced by a frightened one.

No one had noticed the stray energy beam that had been produced from the explosion. Neither did they realize the beam heading straight towards Silver Aid before it was too late.

Megatron got up and reached out to her.

“SILVER!”

“MEGA--!”

BOOM!

The Decepticons were once again thrown back from the smaller explosion. Once the ringing stopped in his audials, Megatron stood up looking back where Silver Aid had once been. In her place was a bunch of rubble and some pieces of equipment.

“Silver Aid!”

Megatron sprinted to the rubble and immediately started digging through.

Blitzwing, Lugnut and Starscream soon came to his side and started digging.

Starscream muttered under his breath as he continued to dig.

“I swear if you offline and leave me here with them…”

He swore in his mind he was going to personally offline her if she was terminated by a measly blast! The Second in Command’s servos started to shake the more time passed and not a single sign of life was found.

Blitzwing, for once, had settled on one face to concentrate on the digging.

Hot Head was screaming and wanted to blast the rocks so he could find her. An idea that Icy heavily argued against doing.

Random was strangely quiet.

Icy was the most composed and just kept on digging.

Lugnut was getting even more anxious the time went on. He knew as well as the others that Silver Aid was not as durable as they were, curse her softer organic side! He should have done something! Strika would have!

Megatron looked emotionless as he dug.

Inside, however, kept on playing the fearful look on her face before the blast hit her chassis.

Why did these things happen to her!?

What else did the universe want to punish her for?

What did she ever do to offend it!?

He needed to get her out as quickly as he could… she didn’t like cramped spaces.

His digits brushed something warm, the warlord didn’t hesitate to pull it upward.

Megatron was not expecting to be holding… a sparkling?

The sparkling with a familiar color scheme…

The other Decepticons had the same dumbfounded look on their faces.

“What… the… f—”

THWACK!

“Hey!”

“You never swear in front of a sparkling! That’s a new low even for you Starscream.”

Starscream rubbed his helm glaring at Blitzwing.

“Just you wait until I—”

“Enough.”

Megatron stood up with the sparkling in his servo. The little one just blinked while looking around curiously.

“We need to figure out how… this happened. And as soon as possible.”

Lugnut steps up and gently pokes the sparkling on her tummy, a little giggle escaped from her.

“And who should be in charge of watching her?”

Megatron paused thinking about Lugut’s question before he looked down again at the sparkling.

She blinked again.

“Eeta?”

No one knew what that was. Must have been sparkling gibberish.

“Nel?”

Yes, just sparkling gibberish. Megatron shook his helm.

“Everyone will take turns in watching her. In the meantime,”

Megatron walked over to his habsuite and emerged with a crib.

All the Decepticons gave him mixed looks.

“Is that—”

Megatron cut off Blitzwing.

“Silver Aid wanted to try building contraptions out of the left-over scrap that wasn’t safe to have in the base.”

“Sure…”

Megatron carefully puts her down.

She whined a bit before finding a coloring data pad in the crib.

“Decepticons, move out and find that cure!”

Blitzwing and Lugnut waved a bit at the sparkling before leaving.

Starscream shrugged but did eventually leave with a little smile on his face.

Now it was just Megatron and Silver Aid.

“Oppy?”

Megatron looked down at her.

“What?”

“Oppy?”

“I don’t understand…”

The sparkling made an annoyed sound and sat down with her coloring data pad.

Megatron sighed and sat down.

This was going to be a long day…

It had been a couple hours and the babysitting system the cons had was going exceptionally well… until they completely forgot to tell the other it was their turn to watch Silver Aid.

Silver Aid just looked around bored.

The nice bots that were around earlier were nowhere to be found, o one wanted to play and still no sign of Oppy!

…Maybe Oppy, Nel, and Eeta were in trouble!

They were always in trouble when she wasn’t with them. That was the only explanation to why they weren’t with her!

She had to find them!

Good for her, Silver had quickly learned this new webbing thingy was stretchy and strong, maybe if she hit it o those rocks over there…

With one go, the little sparkling was flying across the room and landed a bit roughly on the damp floor.

Wobbly, she stood up and began to walk around until she found an exit.

At the opening, Silver Aid saw a bunch of lights in the sky

Colors red and blue.

Just like Oppy’s colors!

That’s where Oppy must be!

Carefully Silver Aid started making her way down the entrance and followed the pretty colors in the sky.

It was a couple minutes later before all four mech suddenly appeared in the same room.

“Lord Megatron? I thought you were watching Silver Aid?”

“No, was it not your turn Lugnut?”

“No, I thought it was Blitzwing.”

“No, it was Starscreams turn.”

“No, it was Megatron’s turn.”

There was a silence before they all ran to the crib to find it empty.

 “WHERE IS SHE!?”

“I THOUGHT SHE WAS IN THE ROOM!”

“SHE’S JUST A SPARKLING, SHE COULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN TOO FAR!”

“HOW DID SHE EVEN GET OUT OF THERE!?”

[hauntingkiki]

Hi! I was wondering if you can do venture waking up from having a nightmare about reader dying and readers like lying right next to them and hears venture crying but reader try’s to comfort venture? Just some angst fluff please :c

OMGGG AWWW, IM SO EXCITED TO WRITE THIS!!

Hellish Night

Venture x Reader

Overwatch

2nd POV

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

venture scrambled into their room, tears poured out of their eyes, rolling down their cheeks and dripping on their clothing, skin and the wooden floor beneath them. “oh my fucking god.” they shakily sobbed, their mind backwards as they immediately forget where everything was located around their room.

their knees gave out from under them, catching themselves on their desk with a sucked in breath. their heart hammered against their chest, the scene from a few hours ago replaying in their mind.

~~

“SLOAN!” you screamed, struggling against the strong hold that was around your waist. you threw your fists into the back of your kidnapper, trying to wiggle out of their hold.

sloan chased after you, stumbling as they tried to keep up with the pace. “Y/N!” they cried, reaching a hand out in your direction.

your kidnapper turned his torso, grabbing his mini gun then firing at sloan, dropping the weapon back to his side as he continued to make his way to the get away helicopter that drowned out the loud mini gun sound with the obnoxious whirling of the propeller.

venture was lucky that all the shots missed, punctuating the ground that was at their feet. venture came to a halt, skidding against the orange dirt as they started at the flying machine in front of them.

your attacker threw you off of his shoulder and onto the metal floor, enemy troops snagging you off the floor, trying to detain you but struggling as you kicked and bit, wiggling around.

venture covered their face with their arm, turning their torso away as the wind around the helicopter pushed them back slightly. when the wind slowly stopped, sloan peeled their arm away and cocked their head up towards the pink and orange sky, wide eyes, horror completely washing over their body as they watched the helicopter zoom off. they faintly noticed you reaching out the open side of the vehicle, getting pulled back by the troops inside.

“SLOAN!”

~~

it kept playing in their mind.

over and over and over again.

a hand shot over their mouth, wide eyes as they gagged, but thankfully swallowed it down. sloan started at the wooden floor beneath them, the wax having a faint reflection of themself.

they felt so stupid.

they could’ve prevented all of this from happening.

sloan should’ve been more cautious about the situation, they could’ve warned winston about their past encounter so he could’ve been kick out of overwatch.

sloan knew what he was capable of. fuck, they’ve seen it first hand! back at illios, talon and some of his troops came into the sight, including mauga.

groaning through gritted teeth, sloan pulled themselves off of the floor, whipping their head around to find the needed supplies they were going to need for this journey.

their eyes landed on their canteen that was hanging on their doorknob. ripping it off of the door, they stormed out of their room and into their kitchen, placing it onto the island before walking off.

they did this for about 15 minutes, going into different rooms and grabbing things that they were going to use.

letting out a breath they didn’t even notice, they stood in front of the island, glancing over all the items that were scattered around the countertop.

a first aid kit; full of gauze, wrapping tape, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol wipes and a lot of other shit sloan didn’t even know were medical stuff.

a canteen with backup water bottles.

a few snacks; crackers, chips, small baggies of fruit and some assorted sweets. anything to give them and you fuel.

a pistol that their grandfather gifted them with boxes of backup ammo.

and their drill.

with backpack in hand, they started to pack, trying to organize everything so it would fit into the pouch the best it could.

just as they finished filling up their canteen, a knock echoed through the room. turning the tap off, they twisted the lid on the metal container, gently placing it on the counter as they walked over to the door.

“angela?” sloan gasped when they opened the door, revealing the medic. their eyes looked around her face, brows knitting together. “what are you doing here?”

angela peeked behind sloan, getting a glimpse of their backpack and their drill. she sighed when they stepped over to the side, blocking her view from inside, even though they were too late. “venture, you can’t go there alone.” she muttered, adjusting her glasses before reaching out and grabbing their calloused hands. “lucio’s getting winston now; we’ll all go with you to save y/n.”

venture turned their head to the side, eyes glued to the ground. “i can’t wait, angela.” they huffed, looking her in the eyes, watching as her face slowly softened at their words. “she needs me. she’s my girlfriend for christ’s sake!” they chuckled faintly at the end, shrugging their shoulders.

the two fell silent, angela letting go of their hands with a nod. “go get her then.” she whispered, nodding in approval. “just…stay safe. and bring her back safely.”

venture started at her with slightly wide eyes, their lips parted at her words. they nodded faintly before nodding eagerly. “i will.” they reassured, running a hand through their chocolate locks. “when winston gets reported of it, you guys can head straight there.”

angela hummed in agreement, giving them a quick hug before running down the hall to alert the others about the situation at hand.

venture quickly put the backpack on, then their canteen around their body. they grabbed the gun and put it in their waist band before dragging their drill and walking out, making sure to grab a pair of keys with them on the way out.

locking their door, they made their way over to all the hero’s vehicles, speed walking over to their motorcycle. they got their drill adjusted onto the back of their bike before they hopped on, putting the keys into the keyhole and started up the bike. revving the engine a few times, they slowly drove out of their parking spot before accelerating and driving off.

•••

coughs and hacks filled the room, the sound of liquid dripping into the floor faintly made it’s presence. shoes clicked around you as one of the soldiers walked around your hunched over body, all of the soldiers who took you hostage watched with chuckles and smirks as blood slowly started to cover the floor from their torture.

tears pooled into your eyes, your attention glued on the blood and spit mixture that dribbled down your chin and into your legs, rolling down your skin and spreading onto the concrete. you slowly turned your gaze over to mauga, your body shaking as you watched one of the soldiers try to coax him into joining the torture, but thankfully for you, he declined, staying in the shadows with his arms crossed.

“i’m going to ask you again!” a male voice spat, baton in his right hand. he got onto one knee, grabbing a fistful of your hair and yanking your head up, making eye contact with your wide, tearful eyes. “WHERE is the ffFUCKING ARTIFACT?!”

you shook your head against his hold, blood and spit rolling down your chin. “i don’t FUCKING KNOW.” you spat, blood spattering onto his mask that was covering his identity.

he let go of your hair and spun the baton in his grasp before swinging, landing a clean hit on your jaw.

you cried out, your head snapping to the right. you scoffed faintly, opening and closing your jaw before you spat out some more blood.

the soldier pushed you over with his boot, making you whimper as you landed on your fresh cuts and bruises. you brought your knees up to your chest, hissing as blood gushed out of your abdomen from one of the many stab wounds you’ve received. he raised his arm over his head, getting ready to hit you before pausing.

everyone froze, turning their attention onto the doorway as faint gun shots echoed throughout before a booming drill sound followed.

then silence.

your heart fluttered in your chest, pushing yourself up from your laying down position. you knew that clunky drill sound from anywhere.

venture walked into the room, blood slightly dripping off their drill and off their coat.

your eyes went wide, shuffling forward as tears started to pool into your eyes again. “VENTURE!” you sobbed, your body violently shaking as you wailed.

“GET EM!” a soldier from behind you called out, the rest of the soldiers (besides the one that’s next to you and mauga) started to shoot at the archeologist.

sloan dived behind a pillar, using the pistol to pick off some of the soldiers, groaning when they remembered they left their bag full of ammo back with their bike. tossing the gun to the side, their hands wrapped around the handles of their excavator before they burrowed under the concrete.

you watched your partner with a twinkle in your eyes, your lips parted slightly with a faint smile.

you were going home.

mauga slowly walked over to the soldier who stood a little ways behind you, clearing his throat to gain the man’s attention. once he had his gaze, he jerked a thumb over towards you. “she, uh…she won’t say anything.” mauga admitted, rubbing his neck as he glanced over to you before turning back to the soldier. “we just need to find someone else to tell us.”

the soldier’s eyes landed on a dagger that mauga was holding out to him. he gently took it from the inked up man, caressing the blade between his fingers, being careful to not cut himself with it. he slowly nodded, getting a comfortable grip on the handle. the soldier inched his way over to you, kneeling behind you and-

your eyes shot open, the coldness of the blade entering your skin before it quickly left. you slowly and shakily looked down, blood oozing out of your skin, soaking into your shirt. you felt the liquid trickle from your chest and your back, seeping into your pants.

breathing quickly became hard to do, making you put all of your energy onto a simple task.

the two men behind you quickly left, the dagger staying behind on the floor a few feet away from you.

sloan had their back towards you. their chest fell and rose rapidly, sweat building up and collecting in the blood that spattered onto their skin; they were covered, almost head to toe.

sloan snapped out of their odd state, turning to you with a grin before it quickly slipped of their lips, fear washing over. “y/n!” they gasped, dropping their drill as they ran over to your laying down frame. they slid on their knees when they got to you, rubbing a bloodied hand through their hair. “no…no, nonononono.” tears collected in their caramel eyes, gently lifting you up and holding you in their arms.

you wheezed, coughing as you felt the blood pool into your lungs, time quickly running out for you as you were drowning by your own blood. your own body was killing you.

slowly, you reached a freed hand towards your partner, sloan meeting your hand halfway as they leaned their head down into your touch, placing their bigger, calloused hand over yours.

tears were flowing out of venture’s eyes, dripping onto your face as they slid down. “i love you, cariño.” they whispered, their shoulders shuttering as they sobbed. “don’t leave me…please.”

you smiled meekly, caressing their cheek with your thumb, the blood on their face and on your fingers smudging into their skin. “i love you too, baby.” you muttered, taking a deep breath before slowly exhaling, your eyes closing for a brief moment. “i…” you sighed, before going quiet, falling limp into sloan’s arms.

•••

sloan let out a gasp, clawing at the bedding that was placed over them as they shot up. their hunched over frame stared at the base board at their feet, their chest rising and falling quickly.

sweat rolled down from their temple, their shirt was drenched in the salty liquid, so they quickly tugged the shirt off, some of the left over sweat sticking to their chest from the shirt, but it seemingly disappeared once the ac kicked on.

their vision was a haze, impossible to see in the dark. they blinked a few times and their vision got adjusted to the darkness. they glanced around the room they were in, their eyes stayed glued to the right side of the room first. a bunch of maps, drawings, rocks and gems, history books and other things littered the side of the room; their side of the room.

slowly they turned their head to the left side, their eyes immediately shot down to the bed that they were in.

there you were. sleeping peacefully, your lips slightly parted as you lightly snored, your hands gripping at the sheets and comforter that coated your body.

sloan immediately broke down at the sight of you, relief quickly washing over them when they realized that it was all a dream, a nightmare more than a dream. they threw their face into their hands, their back pressed against their pillows and the head board.

their hics and weeps were quick to wake you up, your hand rubbing the sleepiness out of your eyes as you let out a yawn. “babe?” you yawned, fluttering your eyes open once you were done rubbing them with your knuckle. you let out a gasp, pushing yourself up into a seated position as you leaned over to the person sitting next to you. “sloan?! w-what happened? are you okay?” you panicked as you turned on the small lamp on your nightstand, the soft light casting a gentle glow onto the two of you.

your eyes darted around the backs of their hands, scooting your way in between their legs so you were front of them.

sloan peeled their hands away from their tear stained face, choking on their sobs as they struggled to make eye contact. “i…i had a nightmare..” they admitted, almost embarrassed that they were sobbing like this over a nightmare.

you nodded, showing that you understood, sincerity lingering in your eyes. “okay..” you whispered, your hands rubbing gently along their bare, muscular arms. you would be lying if you said you didn’t blush a little at the sight of their bare chest, a small skull with your favorite flowers in your favorite color on their left side immediately catching your eye. you shook your head, scolding yourself at the thought. you can think like that later, you cursed to yourself. “what happened in the nightmare?” your left hand reached out towards their face, gently cupping their cheek as you gently made them look at you, a worried look twisted at your face.

sloan swallowed thickly, their hand atop of yours. they also linked their other hand into your free one, immediately getting a reassuring squeeze from you. “you were taken by talon…” they started, their eyes flickering between your eyes as you watched them. “and you were killed.” they whispered, you almost didn’t catch it.

you let out a huff, a frown tugging on your lips as you brought sloan into a hug. “oh, you poor thing.” you muttered, rubbing a hand in circles along their bare back as your other hand got lost in their thick curls.

sloan dove their face into your chest, gripping at your top as their body shook once again, sobbing into your pajamas.

you shifted around as you comforted your partner, your legs straddled their hips as you gently shushed them, your chin atop of their head as you gently pressed kisses against them every now and then.

“i don’t want to let go.” they muttered against you, loud enough for you to hear it. they pulled away from your body, looking up at you as your hands cupped their cheeks, thumbs grazing under their eyes.

“you don’t have to.” you whispered, kissing their forehead. “i’m not going anywhere.”

sloan sniffled, nodding their head against your hands as they leaned into your right, kissing your palm. “i love you.” they whispered, hands snaking down to your waist as they pulled you closer. “so much.”

smiling, you bright them into a kiss, their lips chapped from the cold air that was being blasted into the apartment. “i love you too.” you muttered against their lips, pulling them into another hug.

•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•

oh…my…god…

that took so long to write holy😭 but totally worth it! (if you couldn’t tell, they’re my favorite character to write) i hope you enjoyed!

[jeyuwuso]

Just realized I've never posted my very elaborate Always Sunny ACNH island on here

Description below the cut:

(Note: Harry, Jared, and Roy are OCs that I added to my island when I first started. I repurposed them for this theme)

Human Residents

Alli - Random Philadelphian

Jared - Matthew "Rickety Cricket" Mara

Harry - The Lawyer

Roy - Z

Villagers

Gruff - Duncan

Barold - Frank Reynolds

Gigi - Artemis Dubois

Quinn - Deandra "Sweet Dee" Reynolds

Raymond - Dennis Reynolds

Punchy - Charlie Kelly

Mac - Ronald "Mac" McDonald

Bea - The Waitress

Hazel - Margaret McPoyle

Shino - Carmen

Villager Homes

Gruff - Duncan's apartment

Barold - Under the bridge

Gigi - Love dungeon

Quinn - Dee's bedroom

Raymond - Dennis's bedroom

Punchy - The dump

Mac - Mac's bedroom

Bea - Coffee shop

Hazel - McPoyles' apartment

Shino - Honestly this one isn't from the show, it's just me self-indulgently giving Carmen a nice little house with her baby bc she deserves nice things

Labeled Map

Harry's home - Charlie's presentation (upstairs), fish factory (main room), lawyer's office (left), the tunnel under the Holiday Inn (right), Pop Pop's hospital room (back), Guigino's (basement)

Alli's home - Paddy's Pub. Includes: Bar (upstairs), Dayman production (main room), Charlie's bad room (left), bathroom (right), back room (back), basement (basement)

Roy's home - Frank and Charlie's apartment (upstairs), movie theater (main room), Family Fight (left), convenience store (right), public pool (basement) [back room unavailable]

Fallen piano and scratcher

Project Badass recording

Park

Eagles tryouts

McPoyle-Ponderosa wedding

Jersey Shore

Wrestling for the Troops

Fight Milk commercial taping

Invigaron presentation

Basketball court

Sting operation

Bus station

Range Rover

Boat

The castle and Frank's dinner

Cheese mongrel

The bog

Shelley Kelly

Woods

Abandoned pool

Paddy's Wagon

Italian market

The slopes

Train

"Staged" crash

Shipwreck

[empressgeekt]

Trolls - Accidental Crystal Knight (FoF au au)

So, I was looking over the different aus that have made an appearance on Ao3, and The Crystal Branch was one of them. So here's my attempt at combining it with the FoF au (don't worry I haven't forgotten about the end of the world au for FoF).

We start on a less then routine patrol for the Forest Guard. It's dark a storm is beginning to come in. Branch stayed out along with Tresillo, since the troop they left with were investigating giant footprints in the south part of the forest. If their dealing with Giant issues Branch wants to be on top of it, even if it's just a Bergen that wandered into their territory. Despite the brewing weather, the two are having a very casual conversation about the guard uniform, because Tresillo is on the fence of whether or not to wear the armor since most of his moves are dance based. It's when the rain starts that things go south. Branch sees the hand reaching out for Tresillo before the former bounty hunter does (Pop trolls kind of have a sixth sense for giant hands at this point, Branch especially), and throws Tresillo out of the way. The reggaeton troll falls through the Brambles of the forest's low brush, getting cut up and hitting his head, but hidden. And Branch is taken away.

Keith immediately knows something is wrong when Branch doesn't come home that night. Poppy knows it too, sure she knows that he's takes possible giant threats seriously, but he knows to get back to the bunker before really bad weather sets in. By morning, and after a meeting with the troop that left earlier, a full blown search party is deployed. They find Tresillo, knocked out but Blood clotting saved his life. Still no sign of Branch. They keep searching the forest, but after three days they get the full story from Tresillo who finally woke up. Poppy is horrified that something might have taken Branch, under her orders and the rest of the Guard's lieutenants suggestion, she beefs up security around Trollstopia and on the trading networks between the Kingdoms just in case. All while still looking for Branch.

Meanwhile, Branch was currently being transported to who knows where in the troll world's equivalent to a cat carrier, and he is not happy about it. He doesn't recognize they type of giants that caught him, but he's narrowing down their weak points. No visible joints, probably exoskeletal shells, but there eyes are large and probably sensitive, considering that their practically nocturnal. Branch does not let them think he's and easy catch, he keeps escaping the cat carrier, and attacking them. The female slams him usually to disorent him and shove him back, and try to proorly re-enforce the carrier. Seriously, He has a sword he will cut thought duck tape no matter how much you use. At some point they make it to mount Rageous, Branch tries to escape one last time there, because he hears the twins yelling at someone about how a "better cage" wasn't complete. Needless to say Branch is not sticking around for that. He's about to get into the vent when he pauses at the sight of a troll trapped in a bottle. A hand grabs him and squeezes his breath out of his lungs, next thing he knows he shoved into the bottle with the other troll.

Floyd had been trapped in the bottle for who knows how long, disassociating has become his new hobby, Crimp sneaks him food and water, and the only thing he wants to do is take a shower and sleep in a bed. He barely reacts to when the Twins come back from their little trip, he's horrified another troll was captured, but he doesn't react. He doesn't have the energy. Until the second troll was shoved into the bottle with him. At first he's startled, but he quickly turns his attention to helping the Troll catch their breath. Floyd doesn't recognize the odd armor their wearing or the weapons they had.

"You're going to be okay, just breathe. Everything's fine."

"*huffs* Fine? I've been kidnapped and carted half way across the continent! It's not fine!"

"Doesn't mean getting upset will help. Believe me pissing off Velvet makes it worse."

"Yeah I'll be the judge of that. Those noodle limb idiots aren't the first Giants I've had to fight off, next time that lit opens I'm taking out both of their eyes."

"*mildly concerned* Uhm, My name's Floyd..."

A masked face just turns to the red-headed troll and, "Fuck my life."

Branch does not want to talk with his long lost brother. Floyd was a liar who abandoned him, that's all Branch needed to know. However, Floyd is making the not talking thing very difficult. Every other word out of his elder brother's mouth is either an attempt to make up or utter words of comfort that Branch doesn't need he's a grown troll who licks his own wounds thank you very much. At one point he thinks Floyd's worse then the fucking Spritz. Honestly he's this close to punching out the smaller troll's teeth. It's when John Dory shows up that Branch thankfully gets to load off some steam.

When JD got the letter about both his baby brothers in danger, of course he set off for mount rageous. He finds them in a diamond bottle, Floyd seems happy to see him, Branch however remains on the floor of the bottle silently watching. John isn't even sure it was Branch because of the mask, but Floyd confirms it. It isn't until Floyd starts to talk about the harmony that John hears branch speak, and it wasn't like the sweet little bitty B he remembered.

B: oh for madonna's sake will you both shut up! We all know that the fucking harmony won't work.

F: Branch it will work, don't worry.

J: Yeah bitty don't worry we got this

B: *rolls eyes and stands up* First, don't call me bitty, second we couldn't even pull that myth off when we were still a family, what makes you think we can do it now?

F: Branch, we're still family, we can do it.

B: Please Floyd, we haven't talked to each other in 20 years, I know my neighbors better then you, and i live in the middle of the woods. John, You need to go north of bergentown, there you'll find Pop village, it's hidden deep in the forest but it's there. Get in contact with Queen Poppy, if you tell them I sent you they'll listen to you. She has contact with the Funk tribe they can make an alternative that can save us if they don't have one already.

J: Bits don't worry we got this!

B: John! For once in your miserable life just listen! If your so instant on the damn harmony then do it, but get in contact with Queen Poppy first! If you ever gave a single crap about me, then do this...please.

J: *taken aback and sharing a glance with an equally shocked floyd* Okay, B. I will.

Back in Pop Village, Poppy is besides herself. She had reached out to the other tribes asking if they had any kind of kidnapping (they hadn't, but their on high alert), and asked Gristle to look into forgein connections asking if any sort of giant nation is buying/selling trolls. She's keeping herself together best she can, especially since she's now Keith's primary caregiver, with Branch missing. Speaking of the trolling, things haven't been good. It's the middle of summer so the trolling was on a break from school, however instead of spending time with his friends or working on his book, Keith was spending his days searching the forest. Looking everywhere for his brother, all while wearing Branch's lest vest (he doesn't usually wear it underneath the uniform). Tresillo has been a godsend in this time. EVen if he's out of the hospital he's still not on active duty yet, so to keep busy he's been going with Keith to make sure the trolling's safe, when Poppy can't. The reggaetón troll kind of feels guilty about what happened, even if he wasn't sure what was attacking them. So he's taken to protecting what Branch cared for most, his woman and child. It's on one of these excursions when All three of them come across a Troll and his armadillo bus.

John Dory did decide to check out the forest that Branch asked him too, with how desperate his baby brother sounded how could he not. He ends up stumbling upon a small group of trolls, two adults and a child. He introduces himself, but quickly get side tracked at the sight of the Kid's vest. He knows that Vest. His dad wore that vest, and then he wore it as did everyone in his family, Floyd being the last one he remembers having it, as Branch was too small. Floyd didn't have the vest at Mount Ragous, neither did Branch. The kids eyes were blue, and so was his hair....Holy crap no wonder Branch was so insistent that John come here, he had a family. With how clingy and nervous the pink troll was with the kid no doubt who was the mom, or just Branch's partner and the kid was a case of an ace egg. Either way, bitty had a family that he was worried about. (also how old was branch we he got a kid? This little guy was at least 8 and Branch was what? late teens? early twenties?)

Poppy is a little suspicious of the John Dory at first, after all he's looking at her little Keith in an odd way, but then he mentions Branch and she's all ears. To her horror he tells her, that her Branchifer was currently being held captive. To her surprise he tells her that he's Branch's brother (and that he's brozone, she'd fangirl if she didn't have a scared trolling in her arms). Thankfully John Dory also offers her a plan to rescue Branch. She's about to say yes, when Tresillo pulls her aside and makes cautions her. Go with him is she has too, but Tresillo urges her to contact the other tribe leaders about this matter since this is technically a war crime since Branch is on the council as head of security, not to mention that with his experience in musical combat he knows that the PFH is something that's nearly impossible to pull off, it might even just be a myth so they need a back up plan. Poppy has John Dory drive them back the to the village, before heading out. She gets the other royals involved and asks for their help. Funk is already working on a way to break diamonds before the day ends and the other's (along with the Bergen kingdom) are trying to get in contact with Mount Ragous officals to get them to do something.

John Dory is not happy about waiting for Queen Poppy (His baby bro scored a queen, great job Branch! Also this adds to further theory that the kid isn't actually hers but she and Branch got together after the kid was born...and did that mean his baby brother had to deal with a pregnancy and newborn on his own?) to finish with...what ever she was doing. All he knew was that it was taking time (barely a few hours), and he needed to get this show on the road. Apparently she wanted a back up plan, and he couldn't understand why, the PFH was a perfect plan. Eventually, she's ready to go, though John is worried about the guard who insisted on accompanying her. That is until Tresillo says, "She is a queen who is going into a territory who's people have proven dangerous to trolls, You think we're going to let her go with out protection?" John relents at this, perfectly fine with a third member of this rescue team, at least until Rhonda hits bump and a tiny green trolling falls out of one of the kitchen cabinets.

Keith felt bad about sneaking on to the transport critter, when Poppy asked him to stay with her dad, but the trolling wasn't going to let them rescue Branch without him. Especially, since all of branch's bio brothers would be involved, no way was Keith going to let them hurt Branch again. Poppy can't send him back at this point, and then JOhn Dory drives them off a cliff....yeah Keith was coming along.

Meanwhile in the Diamond prison Branch was beginning to feel the effects of imprisonment. He's started having nightmares of Poppy and Keith trapped in a bottle in Velvet's clutches, and they're impossible to hide from Floyd, because even if Branch tiled the Bottle onto its side they're still practically sleeping on top of each other. Floyd keeps trying to get Branch to talk about it, but all he gives his red-headed brother was that "Just dreams about horrible things happening to people I actually care about." It isn't until a dress rehearsal that Branch finally cut's Floyd some slack. The spritz hurts but the knight manages to recover quickly. Floyd not so much. Branch isn't sure if it's due to Floyd's longer imprisonment, the fact that he's trying to push the little food and water that Crimp and Veneer are sneaking them on to Branch, or the lack of sleep. Still once he watch's Floyd's feet crystalize do major alarm bells start ringing in his head. Though, he waits until Crimp and the twins were gone until doing anything.

B: Sit down.

F: What?

B: Sit down I'm checking you out.

F: Branch don't worry I'm fine.

B: Don't give me that crap. You and I both know you're feet turning into rocks is not normal. Sit down I'm checking you out.

F: *sigh* fine

B: Do they hurt?

F: no, they just feel cold.

B: *mumbling* could be messing with blood circulation...

F: Did you become a doctor?

B: What?

F: did you become a doctor? You seem to know what your doing.

B: No, just field medicine, first aid that kind of thing.

F: so first responder?

B: No.

F: then why....

B: *rolling his eyes* if you must know it's an occupational requirement. And no I'm not telling you why for what my job is. Can you feel this?

F: Feel what?

B: I'm pressing the sharp end of my gauntlet tip into the ball of your foot. You can't feel it?

F: N-no...what does that mean?

B: Well either, you're foot is dying or what ever this is is damaging you're nerves.

Back with the rescue Squad, John Dory's post card is not well received, but Tresillo actually recognized the island so they're not shooting completely blind. Still that didn't mean he agreed with getting them nearly drowned. Though, he and Keith do like John's machette. Keith asks if Tresillo had ever been to the island, nad sadly the reggaeton troll hasn't, his squad's hunts mostly stuck inland.

Bruce is surprised to see John Dory, but it happy to see his brother, even if they parted on bad terms. He also recognizes the vest, and takes notice of Keith's hair color, drawing the same false conclusion. When Poppy introduces her self as Branch's Girlfriend, all he wants to do is congratulate his baby brother on such a beautiful family. All he feels is horror when he learns about Branch and Floyd being kidnapped. Once given the okay from Brandy, they leave to look for Clay.

Finding the middle brother is harder then they thought, it's a good hour or two, of Keith making a clue board, calling Tresillo's old informants, Bruce driving since he doesn't know the first thing about tracking, until Keith remembers how wolves track and finds the funderdrawers. Yeah everyone is grateful to john for keeping them, but are incredibly grossed out. The only shared thought between the whole group when they enter the golf course is "Someone was murdered here"

Meeting Viva and Clay is a little different in canon. Poppy is already stressed out by her boyfriend being in danger, so she doesn't react all that well when viva is revealed to be her sister, and kind of has a little break down with Keith in her arms. This leads to Bruce and John explaining the situation to Clay and viva, still under the impression that Keith is Branch's kid and Poppy is practically the kids mom, and how the two youngest are in danger. Tresillo isn't apart of this convo to correct them, becasue the putt putts are giving him bad vibes and he's not going to slack on his protection detail here. Viva wants to convince Poppy and Keith to stay in the golf course, safe, and spends the next hour trying to convince her to stay. After all, while she feels bad for Branch, Giants got him, in viva's mind he's as good as dead. Clay starts working on their escape, planning on using Poppy and keith as a distraction while they run out to get Branch and Floyd. Tresillo objects to this, after all did they even think that Poppy and Keith would be okay with such a plan. Clay asks why would that matter they would all be coming back here. This sparks a conversation about how Poppy, Keith, Tresillo and Branch had lives outside of the golf course and they couldn't stay. Bruce has to agree with the reggaton troll much to Clay's disappointment. Viva tries to tap them, but this only makes Poppy more upset, Keith unlocks the gate and they get out of there. Poppy's hurt that she and viva didn't get along, but she has to think about more then just herself, she has to worry about Keith, her kingdom and of course Branch. She can't loose her Branchifer.

Back in the bottle, Branch is getting more desperate. Whatever those shoulder pads did was 10x worse then the bottle, and while Branch hasn't had anymore symptoms other then exhaustion and some bruising from the rough handling, the same couldn't be said for Floyd. The crystalization had spread to his hands, legs and even hair. The elder brother is half asleep most of the time and constantly freezing. The shivering gets to the point where Branch feels bad enough to take off his armor, shirt helmet and gloves to try and keep Floyd warm by giving it to him, also to protect Floyd from hurting himself since he can't feel much of his body anymore. This reveals the scar the chef gave him and Floyd is horrified Branch still refuses to tell him what happened but that is enough to know it's bad. They try to escape with Floyd playing dead and Branch calling out for help. The moment the bottle opens Branch jumps out and attacks Velvet with his sword, cutting up her face and using his hair to choke her while telling Floyd to run for it. Floyd doesn't get far, as he turns back just in time to see Velvet Rip Branch off her and throw him to the floor before kicking him into the wall. In the end the attempt fails, and without his armor to protect him Branch suffers severe injuries.

Inside of Rhonda practice is happening (Tresillo's driving since he doesn't want to be involved). From the start it's a disaster. Poppy is pulled in as a practice substitute for Floyd and John tries to get Keith to play Branch's role, but Keith doesn't like to sing. Poppy steps in and tells John to back off when he pushes. Very quickly everyone looses track of why they're doing this by picking at each other's old wounds. The rising tension and shouting, finally pushes Keith over the edge. The trolling starts sobbing about how Branch is going to die and none of them care. Poppy rips off the puffy vest and runs to the trolling's comfort. They all make half hearted apologies but then "Mission the mission, after this we go our seperate ways". Poppy has some chose words for them.

Poppy: I don't know what happened back then. But what happened after? You're all at fault. I used to think could caring Branch was towards everyone, wanting everyone safe, was just him having a good heart. But no, its because no one did that for him, and the one person that did...may Madonna bless your Grandmother soul because she must be turning in her grave if she knows what's happening right now. No wonder Branch never told anyone about you.

Tresillo pulls over and they (Poppy, tresillo and Keith) leave. they meet up with Marimba and Tambora with the plan to get Branch and floyd out of there, before bringing them to the Funk trolls to get them free. Infiltration is easy for three former bounty hunters and Poppy and Keith are fast learners. they find Branch and Floyd easy enough. Poppy and Branch reunite with hapy tears and Keith and Branch hug through the bottle, while the reggaton trolls try to find a weak spot in the bottle. They don't find one and their too small to get the lid off. they have to retreat back into the vents, just as the twins come back.

The car chase is utter hell for Branch. He's fairly certain he has several broken ribs and a concussion, every jump and jostle is a whirlwind of Pain. Even worse Floyd is barely conscious at this point, and to keep him aware Branch is answering any mumbled question his elder brother asks. Mostly Floyd wants to know who the Pink troll and green trolling were. Branch answers but still keeps certain things private, it's only when Floyd starts talking like he's on his death bed does Branch get really concerned. He might not be on best of terms with Floyd but he doesn't want him to die.

It isn't the harmony that frees them, instead it's the proper authorities stopping the boat and arresting the twins at the end of the ride. Poppy Breathes a sigh of relief knowing that Essence and Quincy were successful in getting the mount rageous leaders to help and make a device that could undo the lids of the bottles. Cooper arrives in a smaller shuttle to take them to the hospital in Vibe city, and with Floyd still half out of it with crystalized limbs and Branch developing a collapsed lung, they don't object. (they take Rhonda with them in a separate shuttle).

Branch is taken to get scanned and eventually the surgery table to fix internal bleeding, but over all his prognosis is good. Poppy and Keith wait at his bedside almost never leaving. Tresillo pop in and out, but he's there when Branch wakes up. "You came for me?" "C'mon hermano, I couldn't let you hold saving my life over me for too long."

It's Floyd everyone is worried about. During the transit he lost consciousness and eventually slipped into a comatose state. the doctor's set his fractures and put him on supportive measures, a feeding tube, IV, and breathing tube, but there's little they can do for the crystallization at the moment. He spends three days in the ICU before the doctor's notice a small improvement with the crystal creeping back.

With Floyd not being allow visitors until he's more stable, three panicking older brothers turn their mother-hening towards Branch. The Knight is not happy about it. Poppy was sadly pulled away since she needed to help with all the legal matters of the scandal, being Pop queen it was her tribe was directly threatened and she needs to be present in the meetings with the Mount Rageous leaders. Branch also makes Keith go hang out with cooper for a few hours a day so the kid isn't just sitting in a hospital room. He can't really move due to the chest tube, but he is very tempted to leap out of bed and smack his bio-family up the head, when they act like they know what's best for him. Needless to say they are force to air the dirty laundry and Branch lets them have it. The brothers know they have a lot to make up for and they are willing to make it work. Branch with some prodding from Keith allows them a chance, but he calls the shots. He also sets them straight regarding his relationship with Keith (they are all a little embarrassed by that misunderstanding). Eventually Branch is let off th chest tube and allowed to go home with strict orders to rest and go to a hospital the moment anything felt off.

Life goes on another two months, Bruce left and came back, Clay helped convince some of the putt putts to move to Pop village, Poppy and Viva reconcile, the twins are given a life sentence and use of trolls for talent enhancement is outlawed, John Dory sticks around the village to make sure his brothers are safe, Keith is getting used to have more then one Brother. Eveything seems to be getting better...except for Floyd.

Three months pass, Floyd still hasn't woken up. The crystal is gone, but his limbs remain thin and pale, and the roots of his hair remain stark white. He was moved to the hospital in Trollstopia for long term care. The doctor's aren't hopeful. One day Branch is visiting, his brother's hand cold in his, "If you don't wake up, and make all our hard work to save you worth nothing, then I'll never forgive you."

Floyd's hazy eyes open...

----

Well here's this idea. I think this was a great idea to celebrate the end of the summer semester. Once more ask all the questions you want. I really need to go to bed.

[vickybiblecampsurvivor]

Autism rant time

Part one:

Let's talk about why the designs are different based on philosophical reasons and the war at the time. The star destroyer is a representation of oppression, Its sign is designed to oppress worlds and destroy worlds from orbit or at least destroy bases and cities. It has no front facing turbo lasers and if it does they're extremely weak. All the turbo lasers face downwards towards a planet or a base of some kind. It is meant to show up the strength of the empire and to keep people in check, always reminding that in a single notice could wipe out your existence. In addition The hanger bay that houses all the transportation for shuttles used to distribute soldiers, heavy armor, light armor and artillery of all kinds, making it very easy to release a swarm of imperial might onto a planet to oppress or conquer a world. This Represents The empire's philosophy of control: you'll have 1 officer in control of everything, all the goings on in the ship, maybe a separate force commander used to command the troops on the ground, maybe they would be on the bridge Usually once the battle begins they would be on the ground. 

Now for the venerator, The venator is based in the philosophy of the republic which is strength through unity and freedom, The best example used with strength of unity  and freedom is the 2 bridges designed 1 bridge controls all the going on the ship the other 1 controls the district distribution of fighters and transports. this allows for an easy and equal distribution of power, Now factoring in they usually there would be a some type of Jedi general on the ship and they would be controlling everything going on in the ground or they would substituting for the other naval officers that would be controlled the fighters depending on the Jedi's style and the battle going on but you would have 1 naval officer controlling the ship. Needs and then 1 Jedi  or naval officer controlling the fighters and their needs. Seldom would a Jedi have control over a ship It was rare and generally frowned upon. 

Now let's talk about the other designs And why They were different  for starters the venerator came first of course it's going to.be different and the type of war was different while both were a clash of ideologies the wars were fought drastically different. The empire was trying to oppress its people as well as crush a rebellion. The republic was Trying to reunite the separating systems And generally wanted to build a ship that was great for offense and defense and all of its cannons, well almost all of them. Were frontwards facing  And the hanger containing fighters Was directly in the center (that little red part that red line opens up for anyone that hasn't seen it before) It would open up and all the fighters and transports would come out of that But a lot of times When a battle was over they would just land and release most of the soldiers that way. But the vanguard would be dropped off through shuttles and gunships.

 This perfectly shows the difference of war, I will reiterate, both were clashes of ideologies. The difference is the rebellion was trying to overthrow an empire that was corrupt and oppressive. While the republic was also corrupted and oppressive, But so was the confederacy of independent systems. So it was a much more equal conflict And it was fought that way, With tons of ships battle battling With tons of ships battle, side-by-side trying to constantly 1 up the other. when the empire would just send out a super weapon to crush a small fleet Ships held together with duct tape and a dream. Continuing this The empire Again wanted to crush their opponents And remind everyone their place. While the republic  Wanted to crush their  Opponent Through Strategy and tactics to show why they were the better choice. 

[mariacallous]

A new documentary about Benjamin Netanyahu premiered at a major film festival this week, at a moment when he is facing intense global scrutiny. But filmgoers in the Israeli prime minister’s own country may never get to see it.

That’s because “The Bibi Files,” produced by Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, makes extensive use of leaked police interrogation tapes from Netanyahu’s ongoing, years-long corruption scandals — footage that is illegal to screen in Israel. But it’s still causing controversy in Israel and testing its restrictive media laws. 

In an attempt to block the film’s release, Netanyahu this week sued the state of Israel and Raviv Drucker, an Israeli journalist he has long seen as a thorn in his side and who serves as a producer on the film. The suit claimed that the film violated Israeli law by making use of unapproved interrogation footage. It claimed that Drucker, a credited producer on the film who has published damning investigations of Netanyahu, was the leaker (which the filmmakers deny).

But a judge dismissed his case, because it was filed hours before the film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on Monday. The version that premiered in Toronto was a work-in-progress cut of “The Bibi Files,” and had been added to the festival schedule only days before. 

Those in attendance described a searing indictment of its subject, with some issuing a plea for the film to make its way, somehow, to Israeli audiences. (Transcripts of the interrogations themselves have previously leaked to the press.)

​​“Take this film and airdrop it over Israel,” one supportive audience member said, according to a Deadline account. “Because otherwise, I’m afraid people won’t be able to see it there.”

The film currently has a sales agent but no distributor. Bloom told the Toronto crowd she was still working on figuring out the ending. The film festival’s opening night was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, who said the Royal Bank of Canada — a main sponsor of the festival that has also been targeted by Canada’s Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement for its dealings in Israel — “funds genocide.”

Earlier this week, thousands of Israelis thought they would be able to watch the film after all, via a channel on the social media platform Telegram that promised a “complete and exclusive copy” of the movie. Those who joined the channel reportedly included former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who appears in the doc (and was himself convicted and imprisoned on corruption charges).

But according to Israeli media, the founder of the channel backtracked on that promise after uploading a few clips (including one where Netanyahu reportedly says, “Liars!” and bangs on the table), citing “a legal restriction at the moment in Israel, by agreement with the source.”

The film has become the latest flashpoint in an Israeli media climate that, according to the World Press Freedom Index, has only gotten more restrictive since the outbreak of war with Hamas. Israeli officials in recent months have briefly confiscated Associated Press equipment and shut down Al-Jazeera’s operations in the country, in both cases claiming the organizations were publishing information that supported Hamas or endangered Israeli troops. On Thursday, Israel announced it would revoke the press credentials of individual Al-Jazeera journalists. 

Additionally, analyses of Israeli media reporting on the war in Gaza have shown that Israelis rarely see footage of the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed by the Israeli military. (Palestinian news sources, by contrast, have shown little of Israeli suffering on Oct. 7, 2023, or afterward.)

Meanwhile, a pro-Netanyahu influence effort has allegedly proffered false Israeli intelligence to international news outlets as part of an influence campaign to justify his wartime leadership. The Jewish Chronicle, a British Jewish newspaper that initially reported on the false intelligence, said on Thursday that it was investigating the credentials of a reporter who covered the purported intelligence.

In recent weeks, Netanyahu has faced mounting street protests drawing hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are opposed to what they see as his recalcitrance in ending the war and bringing Israeli hostages home. But the nearly year-old war isn’t the focus of “The Bibi Files.” Instead, the film covers another Netanyahu scandal that has received far less attention abroad and has faded even in the minds of Israelis: his multiple trials for corruption, which have been ongoing for years. 

In the film, director Alexis Bloom focuses on the corruption cases that long predate the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks. The police footage comes from interrogations of Netanyahu conducted between 2016 and 2018 and focuses on the extensive allegations that he engaged in bribery and political favors during earlier stints as prime minister. 

“You could see this pattern of democratic backsliding going on worldwide,” Bloom told the audience following the screening. “You see parallels with what’s going on in Israel, in Hungary, in Russia, with this sort of strongman syndrome. That’s what interested me.”

Bloom could not immediately be reached for comment, while requests for comment to Gibney’s production company were not returned. Gibney’s extensive filmography includes previous explorations of Israeli state secrets: his 2016 documentary “Zero Days” was an investigation of the American-Israeli malware program Stuxnet, which targeted Iran’s nuclear program.

To Bloom, whose previous films include documentaries about Roger Ailes and WikiLeaks, the interrogation footage was a key part of the portrait of Netanyahu in wartime. 

“Those recordings shed light on Netanyahu’s character in a way that is unprecedented and extraordinary,” she told Variety ahead of the film’s screening. “They are powerful evidence of his venal and corrupt character and how that led us to where we are at right now.””

And it’s not just Bibi himself in the footage. Other Netanyahu family members and allies are also interrogated. Netanyahu’s wife Sara and son Yair, outspoken figures in Israeli discourse who are seen as villains by many of Netayahu’s critics, feature in the film; so do pro-Israel Republican megadonors Miriam Adelson and her late husband Sheldon, as well as Israeli billionaire and Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan, who is central to the corruption allegations. 

Bloom, whose father is Jewish and who was born in South Africa but is now based in the United States, uses the footage to paint Netanyahu as craven and power-hungry. She links his attempts to evade his corruption charges to his handling of the war in Gaza. The film also links Netanyahu’s fight against the corruption charges to his other heavily scrutinized decisions in the lead-up to the attacks — including his alliances with far-right parties in his governing coalition, and his endorsement of a controversial and so far unsuccessful plan to weaken the Israeli court system.

She and Gibney said that the aftermath of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack motivated them to finish as much of the film as they could, hoping to turn public tide against Netanyahu and push him out of power.

“We felt it was important, and frankly, our duty as world citizens to make our story known as soon as possible because people are dying every day,” Gibney told Variety.

[gtsdreamer2]

"Ahhh~ We're here!" Your step-sister exclaimed, bursting through the threshold of your home. She leaped towards you uncharacteristically, as if hoping for an embrace. You instinctually wrapped your arms around her thin frame, eliciting a happy squeal from her lips.

"Welcome to my house" you said meekly to your sister and parents. It was the first time you had invited them over officially, and there was no better time than now for Christmas. You got them seated in your living room and made sure they had access to all your appetizers and beverages.

"So what took you so long to have us over?" Your step-mom started. "And how come you missed last Christmas?" You father finished for her.

"Well, truth be told, we've been working on a massive project at work, like literally years long, but we're finally nearly finished. I can't really get into specifics, but it's for the military and it's going to help the ground troops. It's really cutting edge stuff. Literally the reason I went to college for." You were beaming with pride and filled to the brim with want to tell them all about the project, but the only one that seemed to look even semi-interested was your step-sis.

She had never made much of an impression on you when you two were living together, and she was far from any step-sibling fantasy growing up. But it had seemed like she had finally come into her own since moving out on her own. She was still rail thin, for the most part, and her face cleared of all her teenage acne. She HAD developed a rather sizable rear, but you could tell that it was from hard work rather than being inactive... not that you were staring. Looking back now, you realized that you hadn't been keeping in touch with your sis or your family much since you started your job at the military research facility.

"It hasn't been from lack of wanting to reach out to you guys, the job has just been really demanding since the get-go." Your excuse didn't seem to work too well on your parents.

"Well, I missed you and I'm glad you're here now." Your sister chimed. "And look at this big fancy house you live in now thanks to all the hard work you're doing! I bet they're paying you really well too!" Her praise was scratching an itch in your brain that was undeniably inflating your ego a little bit. This was very awkward coming from someone who mostly kept to herself when you two shared a house. She did seem interested in the same research that you were and seemed passionate about your dreams and goals, but she for sure didn't pursue the same dreams or actually understand the science behind it. She was always supportive of you reaching your goals though.

As the night wore on, your parents finally decided to bow out and head home, leaving just you and your sister, facing each other on opposite couches. She leaned in closer. "So tell me," she whispered, as if anyone else was in the house to eavesdrop. "what's really going on with your research? I know when we were younger, all you would talk about was making tech to make 'super soldiers'. but did you actually do it? You did, didn't you? You can tell me." Her words seemed almost manic, as if begging for information. You couldn't hold it back any longer.

"We did! It's so exciting. Like, you don't even know. All my research, all the grants, my whole team, it all came together perfectly as a culmination of my dreams and hard work. What we've created and what it can, in theory do, are just mind blowing." You were beaming and gushing at this point, like a parent, boasing about their child. "I can't wait for you to see the practical applications of it in a few years after it had gone through all the safety testing and red tape." She seemed defeated after hearing that last part. 'It's always the waiting' she thought to herself.

"Whaaaat?" She sighed, audibly protesting. "I don't want to have to wait years to properly see my brother's hard work! I want to see it now!" You sister whined like a child when she wanted to get her way, and now was no exception.

"The tech is solid, and the prototype is finished, but there's still lots of hoops to jump through and safety tests to perform before we can just start putting people in it, silly. I still wish you could see it, but it's just not there yet." Her ears perked up at the thought of her opportunity presenting itself.

"Well clearly I've had too much to drink to be able to drive myself home tonight. I think I just need to spend the night on your couch and then I can go home tomorrow." She turned on her side and laid her head on the arm rest, feigning fatigue.

"I have to work in the morning, so you need to be gone before I am, I don't have any spare keys or anything like that." You told her sternly.

"Maybe I'll just come with you to work then, so you can show me what you've been working on and I can praise you properly." Your sister said, filling your cup with more alcohol. You hadn't noticed, but clearly she was trying to get you drunk.

Morning came in a flash as you could barely hear your alarm from your bedroom. You awoke on the couch, not sure of how the night had gotten away from you. "Morning sleepyhead." Your sister teased. "I couldn't move you from the couch since you're too heavy, so I slept in your bed, I hope you don't mind. Also, since your alarm is going off, I assume that means we have to go to work now." She slid a cup of coffee into your hands as the brain-fog began to lift.

"Huh? We? What are you talking about? I can't take you to work with me." Clearly you hadn't been tough enough on her last night.

"What do you mean? You told me last night that I could come see it! You said you were happy to show it off to me and that no one would be there so there shouldn't be any issues! You promised!" You sister started to huff and pout, crocodile tears filling her eyes. Had you promised her that? It WAS true that you were going to have the lab to yourself.

"Did I really promise? I mean, I guess..." You trailed off, knowing already by the smile growing on her face that you had lost and she had won. Grab your things, let me get ready. It'll be a short day and then I'll treat you to lunch." She giggled to herself at your suggestion of buying her lunch. 'That's right you will. It's working!' She thought to herself giddily.

As you strapped into your car, your sister did the same. Turning the air off and making sure the windows were rolled up as she did. The drive was short, but the air was stifling. You moved to turn the air on, but your sister cut you off, blocking the knob. "I don't want to get chilly. Leave it off." She said it as a command, and your body froze. You nodded your head and reluctantly returned your hand to the steering wheel. 'That was a weird reaction.' You thought to yourself, remarking that as the drive wore on the stale air seemed to get sweeter and sweeter. Suddenly, you became hyper aware of your step-sister. You had never been attracted to her in any physical capacity, but suddenly, her feminine charms seemed to be turned up to eleven. The heat rising in the car and your increased heart rate suddenly made you break out in a sweat, and the outside world seemed to fade to grey as you continued driving to your place of employment on autopilot. All the while, you couldn't help but steal glances at your sister. She wasn't oblivious to this in the slightest as she adjusted her low-cut top, revealing her small amount of cleavage. She rubbed her legs together in her fuzzy leggings that clinged to her just tightly enough to leave nothing to the imagination. You started to pant from the blood boiling under your skin.

"What's wrong bro?" She asked teasingly. "You seem kind of hot and bothered." She put a hand on your thigh and electricity jolted through you. You could feel yourself growing hard only inches away from her hand as thinking became harder and more frustrating.

'Focus on the road' You thought to yourself, unable to vocalize any thoughts out loud between pants and stifled moans. Moans? 'Why am I moaning? What's wrong with me?' As you approached a red light, your step-sister grabbed the back of your head and shoved your face against the nape of her neck. As you breathed in her heavly scent, you were sent nearly over the edge.

You could feel your member surge longer, reaching maximum length. Your heartbeat throbbed through it, resonating at the tip, and you felt ready to burst at any minute. Suddenly, your sister pulled you away and turned your head back to the road. "It's green, dummy." She said cheekily. "Are we almost there?" You nodded, trying not to dwell on the fact that you were almost there in more ways than one.

Finally you pulled up to the facility, the gate cam scanning your registered plate and swinging open. You pulled into your parking spot and finally were able to shut the car off, throwing the door open and clamoring out for some fresh air. As you took deep breaths out in the open, you could start to feel the fog in your mind lifting ever so slightly. You were just starting to regain some composure when your step-sister came from behind and put her arms around you, forcing herself too close to you and refilling your lungs full of her alluring aroma.

"Let's go inside, it's chilly out here." You nodded, your eyes clouding over and her control over you reasserting itself. You flashed your card at the door and it clicked open. Your sister opened the door and ushered you through. You shambled after her with her leading you by the hand. It seemed like she knew exactly where she was going. Suddenly you found yourself in the testing room with the tech safely on display in its glass case. Right in the center of the room was a jet black suit that looked like latex. Although very unassuming and more than slightly lewd looking, this was the culmination of you and your team's hard work.

Upon seeing the black suit in the case, Belle immediately dropped your hand and sprinted up to it, placing her hands and nose right against the glass. The suit seemed to shimmer and shiver in response. "So while you're getting everything ready, how's about you tell me what exactly this is and how you made it?"

You cocked your head to the side before trying to shake out more of the fog that was clouding your thoughts. "Get what ready? I'm still trying to figure out how I agreed to bring you here. And what happened to me on the way over." You took this chance to slump into your chair at your control desk and take in some more air away from Belle, who was already quickly rushing over to you.

"What do you mean?" She said in her whiny voice as she perched herself on your lap, throwing her arms around you and placing her neck, once again, in range of your nose. "You told me last night that you'd bring me here and show me your lab and the tech and tell me how it works! You even told me that I could try it out!"

That didn't sound right to you. You wouldn't compromise your project that hadn't even been tested on humans yet. You especially wouldn't risk harming your step-sister...and yet. "Did I say that?" You asked, half slurring your words while reentering your trance."

"That's right. You told me that I could be the first super soldier and that you'd make your little sister grow big and strong." She pouted and snuggled against you, rubbing her scent on you and forcing another wave of arousal to surface. You could feel your bulge pressing into Belle's thigh, and she giggled knowing that she had you back under her spell. "Be a good boy for me and start getting it set up while you tell me all about your project." She whispered in your ear, her hot breath sending chills through your body. She got off you then and walked back over to the case as you turned to your control panel and started pushing buttons and entering codes.

"So basically we found this organism. It's unlike anything from our dimension." you began, telling a speech that you'd been rehearsing for months just for this big reveal "So we theorize that this thing came through a Mandela hole, which basically is a crack in our dimension that leads to a parallel one...but that's not important." As you were speaking, your sister quickly got naked, leaving her clothes in a messy pile on the floor. You were far too engrossed in your trance to notice. You pulled a lever and the glass of the case receded into the ceiling, leaving the suit exposed to your sister's quick clutches. She immediately grabbed it and started to put it on while you continued your procedures.

"So we quickly found that this organism was still tethered to its home dimension and that by binding it to some cutting edge technology, we could channel that energy into a host that the organism more than willingly bonded with." Your sister didn't seem all that interested in the science of it all as she was sliding into the suit that seemed to vibrate and slither further onto her.

"Why is this thing so tight if it's meant for big strong men to put on?" She asked, trying wriggle herself into it. You instinctively pushed a button that sent an electrical pulse through the tech, causing it to immediately expand and envelop Belle, covering her just like an inorganic body suit would. This, however, was not inorganic and seemed to quiver and purr in the satisfaction of being united with other living tissue. "That's better!" Your step-sister squealed, checking herself out and feeling herself up.

You pressed a few more buttons and twisted a big red dial as the screen lit up with your step-sister's biometrics. The screen displayed her vitals and the organisms output, showing just a measly tenth of a percent. As the suit fully bonded to your sister, she made an uncomfortable noise. "OW! It feels like i just got poked by needles all over my body and...and...oh. Now I feel better. Now I feel...kinda good."

"I just need to...need to...Why am I doing this?" With the suit covering your sister's skin, the scent in the air began to quickly fade. You finally looked away from the panel long enough to realize that your sister was fully bonded to the suit. "Shit, Belle. What the fuck? We need to get you out of that right now!"

"I think it's a little late for that, bro...mmmph. I can feel my body being fed that energy that you were talking about. It's ever so slowly entering my skin through those little needles that I got pricked by. And it's just making me feel so good." You could see now that the suit that had coated your sister was pulsing as it was being fed and, in turn, feeding her, forcing its host to absorb the energy that was being transmitted. You looked from her to the screen. All vitals were improving rapidly. 'This is valuable data,' you thought to yourself. 'but this is way too dangerous to continue.'

"I think we might need to pump the breaks here, sis." You said, trying to be the voice of reason. "You got to try it out. You're super healthy and strong now already according to the vitals monitor. It looks like you're already way stronger than me judging by the muscle density scanners."

"Is that so?" Your sister said, enthusiastically. She sauntered over to you, making sure to sway her wide hips with every step, the fluorescent lights of the lab creating a sheen against the body suit as she did. She was suddenly sitting in your lap again. The suit being on her combined with her increased muscle density made her noticeably heavier than when she sat on you only minutes before. But it was more than that. Her whole form seemed larger. This was a theoretical side effect of the tech, but you still were in awe of getting to see and feel it first hand. "You know..." She started, putting a hand on your chin and forcing eye contact. "I worked really hard to save up the money to get the pheromone concoction that I used on you last night to get you here. Sneaking it into your drink and downing the control agent myself. Forcing you to be in the car with me on the way over to make you even more susceptible to it. It wasn't cheap and it wasn't easy, but it got me here. It's just a little hiccup that my body stopped pumping it out when I bonded with this suit." She gestured to the pulsing blackness that coated her body, running her hands up and down herself as she grabbed two handfulls of her tits. "God, even these feel bigger and better. You have no idea how long I've fantasized about this. ever since you told me about your dreams of making big strong soldiers. Maybe even before that. I've always wanted to be bigger. And now you're making it happen!"

She readjusted herself in your lap as she stalled you with her speech while the energy continued to flow into her. "I can feel my body changing by the minute. becoming more and more and more and...mmmm...I'm so much stronger than you now and growing bigger and stronger still...I could just make you do what I want now." For the first time in your life, you had become genuinely afraid of what used to be your little step-sister.

"Belle, let's talk about this. It's true that you're bigger and stronger than me now, but that's enough right? How tall are you now? Six? Six and a half feet maybe. That's huge. And your muscles are so tight and toned now that-

"I know!" She cut in, flexing her muscles which rippled and defined themselves against the suit as she did. "I can FEEL how strong I'm getting! It's amazing! This truly is marvelous technology that would have revolutionized modern troop warfare. But it's mine now. And it feels way too good to stop. And your definition of huge and mine are way different. So I need you to be a good brother and turn up the juice. I'm tired of being drip fed this energy. I need you to flood me with it." With that, she got off your lap and skipped back to the center of the room, before twirling around to face you. "And before you even think about trying to say no, just know that even if you were to shut off the whole machine now, it's too late. I'm warning you. I'm so much bigger and stronger than you that you wouldn't have a chance, and I would be far too angry to hold myself back. So it's really your only option. I'm counting on you bro."

"Right..." You uttered, completely defeated by your newly monstrous sister. 'the fucking pheromones' you thought to yourself as you started to play with the controls again. 'that's how she got in my head and made me give her everything she wanted. I wonder if I have any other options here.' You looked at all the controls and came up with only too paths to choose. Path one would open the flood gates like your sister asked and make her an extra bulky bitch in no time, side effects be damned. Option two would be to reverse the energy flow and drain all of her new power back into the organism. That option came with too many risks to calculate. What would happen to the organism with that much energy in it? Would your sister return to how she was, or would she waste away? You were running out of time, and all the while your sister was still being pumped, albeit ever so slowly, full of energy. "Ok, fine. You win. I'll turn up the output. I'll make you stronger. I don't know what else will happen to you though...we haven't even run simulations on this kind of output. Are you sure you don't want to stop?"

"Come on! I need it! Hurry!" She was growing more and more impatient by the second and you didn't want her to end you, so you started to type in codes ignore warning screens and type in more codes to get to the most advanced settings.

"Here goes." You said, voice quivering with fear, and admittedly a little excitement, about your project being used to its full potential. You cranked up the dial from one tenth of a percent to ten percent all at once.

"Oh fuck!" Belle cried out, falling to her knees and then lying down on her back. She immediately started to convulse as the suit pulsed and purred around her, pumping massive amounts of energy into her already enlarged form. "I feel like I'm going insane! There's so much being forced into me! It feels amazing! Umph! Bigger!" You watched as your sister began to pulse larger and larger with each pulse of the suit. As you looked back at the screen, the instruments for her vitals were completely nonsensical. She was literally off all the charts and growing fast. eight, ten, twelve feet went by as she moaned in pleasure. "More more more! Turn it up higher! I can take it!" You cranked the dial to twenty percent and your step-sister doubled in size, orgasming as she did. She felt herself gush hard, her whole cunt clenching as her clit rubbed against the suit while she bucked her hips in ecstasy. Every part of her seemed more sensitive in the most pleasurable way. She felt herself up reveling in the sensation of her nipples protruding against the suit. She rubbed her fingers over them and felt them grow even harder in response. As she twisted and pulled and squished them against her already bigger breasts, she could feel them swell under her fingers, growing faster than the rest of her and evening out her hourglass figure. "That's it! I love this! I feel like I'm ascending! Like I'm finally going to be as big as I've always meant to be!" As your sister became more in tune with her growing body, she could feel the pheromone concoction still in her system. Forcing tiny holes in the neck of the suit to open, she told her body to produce more of the pheromone, and it complied. Immediately, you were overwhelmed.

"Turn it up. All the way." Your sister commanded, still writhing on the ground in growing bliss between constant climaxes. unable to resist, you cranked the dial all the way. Rapidly running out of room, Belle ballooned up to an impressive eighty feet and exploded out of the building, her giant suited foot shielding you from the rubble as it plowed right through your control panel, destroying the connection to the suit. She hardly noticed outgrowing your lab, but the feed of energy being severed left Belle with a sense of longing. She lifted her foot and the surrounding debris away from you before scooping you up into her hand. "Fuck you're tiny." She said, standing up to her full height of one hundred feet. "Everything is tiny. But it could be smaller. I could be bigger. I should be." Using her connection to the suit, free of tech, she reached out to try and find a source of energy. She could feel something in the distance, outside the city. "Where did you say this thing came from? A Mandela hole? I think I can sense one. I want to drink from it." Your big step-sister opened a hole in her suit exposing her vast cleavage and dropped you in. "Lets go 'little bro' I wouldn't want you to miss the show." She began walking towards the source of energy, all the while her suit purring and hungry, just like its host.

[yanderecookierunkingdom]

For the Valentines Love Letter event: I’d like a romantic letter for Financier Cookie. Reader is inspired by Financier Cookie’s strength and firm commitment to her faith and fell in love from seeing her during one of the Elder Council meetings while she stood beside Clotted Cream. The reader, one of the Oyster knights, couldn’t stop themselves from looking in Financier’s direction through the whole meeting. But they probably stopped once Oyster Cookie caught on. In the middle of said meeting is when the love letter was written and sent, all being done very discreetly so that none of the elders caught reader.

[There's a gentle knock on your door before footsteps fade away before you can get there. You open the door, and gently tape to your door is a soft yellow envelope. You peel it off and open it, where a soft yellow paper is within.]

Olympia Oyster Cookie,

I couldn't help but notice that during the meetings with the Elders as of late, you steal glances my way. While at first I have thought nothing of it, recent conversations and revelations of my own feelings led to me writing this letter during the last meeting.

I'm not blind to your admiration of my comittiment. However, I, too, admire you. Whenever we are allowed to spar or I see you commanding the troops under your lead, I can not help but be amazed. You care deeply for them, and you have faith that is as unshakable as mine.

I ask that you meet me sometime soon, so that I can truly show how much I love you.

With a hopeful heart,

Financier Cookie

[carnelianwings]

I take back what I said about not having much to say about Lacus in Seed Freedom, because the more I think about it the more I found myself empathizing with her and rooting for her throughout the movie (where I was largely neutral on her before).

Spoilers behind the cut (as you'd expect)

Seed Freedom opens with Lacus living with Kira, taking a more active role on the world stage, and a legitimized role on the world stage for once. Every other time she's taken action in her own name, with her self-titled "Clyne Faction", it's always been as a rogue, third party of like minded individuals, who are funded through non-government means (whether it's her just ... outright stealing the latest prototypes, or secretly developing them through Terminal and the Factory, and I'm not sure if it's even stated where the actual money for the latter comes from), and as such, isn't bound by the usual red tape and bureaucracy of having to answer to government officials and keeping things "on budget". It didn't matter that Kira would trash the suits for both sides to stop an active war zone, costing billions, because the Three Ships Alliance was never beholden to such world governments.

The difference is, COMPS is.

And thus Lacus struggles, now that she has to defend and legitimize Kira's actions on the field in a way that she never had to before - she's no longer able to just speak in philosophical terms, she can't just say "What Commodore Kira Yamato did is right, he stopped the fighting and he stopped your people from committing war crimes", she has to keep reality in mind (not just the ideal world she wishes for) and in reality, at the end of the day, money talks. And having to expend money and resources to replenish troops and equipment is a drain on the world governments, and no government is going to just disarm themselves at this point when there's still active skirmishes/smaller scale wars going on. (The fact Orb has kept an armed force in all of Seed says a lot about the world.) And it's a struggle she's never had to deal with, because she knows where Kira is coming from, understands why he made the decision he did in that moment, and fundamentally agrees with what he did, and so she can't just "throw him under the bus" by blaming him and saying what he did was wrong.

She can't just stop him, not when she agrees with what he's trying to do, and most certainly not when she wants him to be able to choose how he lives his life and what he does with it. Even if she herself wants nothing more than a quiet life on a secluded island, just her and Kira and all her robots, no war, no politics, no idol performances, no Being a Symbol for the People. Because she knows if she did that (and Kira would most certainly go with her) and it wasn't a choice Kira also made, wasn't something he also wanted, he'd be equally unhappy, torn between what he thinks he should do (because he can so he has a duty to) and what he wants to do, even if he's slowly burning out and self destructing from overworking himself.

But she also equally doesn't want to abandon him (because that's what she feels like she would be doing she didn't join him on the world stage) nor does she necessarily want to leave her "position" as "Icon of Peace" open (she's still haunted by what happened with Meer). She's supported him ever since he's gotten the Freedom (even if she's not a pilot and can't directly support him the way Cagalli can for Athrun), she's had his back for so long because she fundamentally agrees with what he wants to do, and she, too, at the end of Seed Destiny feels like she can't just Let Someone Else Take Care of It, because what if another Gilbert Durandal comes along?

So she takes the mantle of "Inaugural President of COMPS", and (just like Cagalli before her in Seed Destiny) struggles, wrestling with herself for the opening arc of the movie (before Orphee comes in and makes everything worse). Because for the first time in all of Seed, Lacus isn't sure if she made the right choices, made the right calls in the heat of the moment, and most certainly doesn't have all the cards in her hand before engaging in verbal warfare on the world stage. She's no longer in a position where she can just sweep in, Be Lacus Clyne Doing Lacus Clyne Things, use her charisma to "smooth things over", and even though she has a staunch ally in Cagalli (who is the one who proposed the idea of COMPS) at the end of the day, she's still the one who has the make the tough choices and the hard calls and take the "middle of the road"/compromise option where she didn't have to before.

And in the end, what she decides is she really just wants to be "Lacus Clyne Doing Lacus Clyne Things", and what Lacus Clyne Really Wants is to go live out in the middle of nowhere with her (very traumatized but very in love with her) boyfriend and maybe have hot beach sex once in a while, where neither of them have to fight anymore, because there's other people who are just as capable at this, who have been taking up their mantle, and more importantly are as equally as invested in this (glances at Cagalli and Athrun) that neither of them have to be the ones to pull the weight anymore as "the ones everyone relies on and looks to to Stop The Fighting".

Like I said before with Kira, if this is where her arc ends, and they're both relegated to flashback/Big Damn Hero moments after this, I'm fine with it. Because at the end of the day, both Kira and Lacus never really wanted to be there front and center in the first place (he fell into the cockpit, she ended up getting symbolized by the public), and it's high time they got their well deserved (peaceful) ending out of the public eye, as they both wanted since Day 1.

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today - May 13th, 1977 - Queen Story!

Queen played Congresscentrum, Hamburg, Germany

'A Day At The Races' Tour

🔸Record Mirror, May 21, 1977

A NIGHT at the Congress Centrum Hamburg, where escalators take you to the concert hall and the bouncers wear suits and ties.

It's been three years since Queen played Hamburg, but it's a near sell-out in a hall which looks like a giant lecture theatre with rows and rows of cushioned, spotless white seats. The stage is tiny but somehow the roadies have managed to squeeze on the batteries of lights.

It's a late start. Backstage, a giant roadie paces up and One week down like an expectant father outside the dressing room. Classical music floats gently over the audience.

Then darkness, lights, action and The Queen Machine rolls into action. Lights explode through the gloom and Mercury stands like Rudolph Nureyev.

He's dressed in a white jumpsuit and May, in wandering minstrel gear, blasts out the opening chords to 'Tie Your Mother Down'. For a guy who shows comparatively little emotion when he plays, the effect is still stunning. The number finishes with a drum solo and tarticle

g bass rising to the top of the sound mix. The Congress Centrum has great acoustics. You could have been sitting in a recording studio.

Most of the audience are caught like a fish on the end of a hook. It's the old Queen policy of 'grab 'em by the scruff of the neck and don't let go for a second'. The lights dim again, there are same tailed some taped sounds and spotlights shine out from the stage. May's knife - like guitar announces 'Ogre Battle'.

Explonding

Mercury makes an-other grand entrance in a chequered cut suit, pointing his mike stand at the audience like a gun. At the end he's lost in a mass of exploding smoke bombs. • The band's speeches are embarrassing. They always sound so self-conscious. "Thank you every-body and welcome to the party," says Freddie —like an embarrassed scoutmaster addressing his troop. It's 'White Queen' and the dynamic duo of Mercury and May are caught under criss-cross spotlights. Mercury tosses his head back as if he's in agony and sings the mystical lyrics before leaping around like a bizarre ballet dancer. Spotlights play on a crystal ball and May stands in the corner, framed in the half light like a Renaissance portrait. He takes to the catwalk at the front of the stage for a riveting solo. Considering the rapid-fire notes he's turning out, he always looks so relaxed. Mercury returns to the stage and the number taste-fully ends as he hits a high note and a solitary spotlight plays on his head and shoulders. "It's really nice to be here in Hamburg," he announces before 'Somebody To Love'. His playing misses the light opening touches of the record. The band try to make the tune more funky — maybe trying to keep the live excitement going, but it sounds cheap.

Half the German crowd are start their British Jubilee tour, ROBIN SMITH went to Germany and found that the Hamburgers were well pleased. Yes, they played a . . .

Good Old Fashioned . . singing along but the remainder keep their seats, showing no emotion. Eventually Taylor's drumming gets the crowd going. The reserve is breaking . . . May walks across to the microphone and clicks his fingers. Mercury's piano chords announce 'Killer Queen'. This time the playing is more laid back, capturing the true sensuous feel of perhaps the most subtle and skilful song Queen have ever produced. Mercury even managed to work in a line about Hamburg.

RAGTIME

The numbers followed by the gloriously ragtime 'Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy' and Mercury's voice is showing no signs of strain. In times gone by, especially at one concert at the Rainbow, he seemed to have been lisping and struggling, but no complaints this time.

The party atmosphere is continued with 'Bring Back That Leroy Brown'. May strumming away on banjo.

It's back to Queen at their most sinister with 'Death On Two Legs', Freddie spitting out the lyrics backed by cold guitar, rumbling drums and bass.

He sounds like Christopher Lee.

"Queen would like to drink a special toast to all of you here," says F'reddie. He sips champagne delicately but - tut, tut - it's not a proper champagne glass - the real thing is tulip shaped. He passes the booze down to the audience.

FRENZIED

Time for 'Brighton Rock' - frenzied riffs stab out and May indulges in some feedback before strutting around che stage. He indulges in a deluge of rising and falling notes and then the nagging riff start, again, bouncing off your eardrums.

Source article ➡️ queenconcerts.com