#uses of super sucker machine

[supertechengineer]

How does a Super Sucker Machine Work?

Introduction

In the realm of industrial cleaning, efficiency and effectiveness are paramount. To meet these demands, the Super Sucker Machine has emerged as a game-changer. This powerful and versatile equipment has revolutionized the way industries tackle cleaning and maintenance tasks. In this article, we will explore the capabilities, applications, and benefits of the Super Sucker Machine, shedding light on its role in enhancing productivity and ensuring a cleaner and safer work environment.

1. The Power of Suction

The Super Sucker Machine derives its name from its exceptional suction power. Equipped with a robust vacuum system, it can generate immense negative pressure to extract various types of materials, liquids, and debris. Its wide-ranging suction capabilities make it a versatile asset in industries spanning manufacturing, construction, mining, and more. With the ability to handle both solid and liquid waste, the Super Sucker Machine offers a comprehensive cleaning solution.

2. Applications and Use Cases

a) Industrial Waste Management

One of the primary applications of the Super Sucker Machine is industrial waste management. It excels at removing hazardous materials, such as sludge, chemicals, and toxic substances, from tanks, pits, and storage facilities. Its powerful suction ensures thorough cleaning, reducing the risk of contamination and improving workplace safety. Moreover, the Super Sucker Machine can be utilized for the collection and disposal of solid waste, preventing environmental pollution and promoting sustainability.

b) Sewer and Drain Cleaning

Blocked sewers and drains can cause significant disruptions and health hazards. The Super Sucker Machine offers an effective solution for clearing these blockages. With its high-powered suction, it can remove stubborn obstructions, including debris, grease, and sediment, restoring optimal flow. By eliminating clogs, the machine prevents potential flooding and minimizes the risk of structural damage to underground infrastructure.

c) Spill Response and Cleanup

When spills occur in industrial settings, rapid response and containment are crucial. The Super Sucker Machine plays a vital role in spill response and cleanup operations. Its ability to swiftly and efficiently extract liquids, such as oil, chemicals, and hazardous substances, aids in mitigating the environmental impact. By preventing the spread of pollutants, the machine assists in safeguarding ecosystems and minimizing the financial and legal consequences associated with spills.

d) Construction and Mining Sites

Construction and mining sites often face the challenge of managing large volumes of waste material and debris. The Super Sucker Machine proves invaluable in these environments, facilitating the removal of construction waste, slurry, and other byproducts. Its powerful suction enables quick and thorough cleaning, enhancing productivity and maintaining a safe working environment.

3. Advantages and Benefits

a) Time and Cost Efficiency

The Super Sucker Machine offers significant time and cost savings compared to traditional cleaning methods. Its powerful suction capability enables swift cleaning, reducing downtime and enhancing operational efficiency. By eliminating the need for manual labor-intensive cleaning, it frees up resources and allows personnel to focus on other critical tasks. Additionally, its versatility across multiple applications makes it a cost-effective investment that delivers long-term value.

b) Enhanced Safety and Compliance

Maintaining a safe work environment is of utmost importance in any industry. The Super Sucker Machine plays a pivotal role in promoting workplace safety and compliance. By effectively removing hazardous waste and minimizing the risk of spills and contamination, it reduces the potential for accidents and health hazards. Moreover, it aids businesses in meeting regulatory requirements and ensures adherence to environmental standards. By utilizing the Super Sucker Machine, companies demonstrate their commitment to employee well-being and responsible waste management practices.

c) Versatility and Adaptability

The Super Sucker Machine's versatility is a key advantage. It can be customized and equipped with various attachments and accessories to cater to specific cleaning requirements. Whether it's cleaning underground storage tanks, removing sludge from industrial ponds, or maintaining oil and gas pipelines, the machine can be tailored to suit diverse applications. This adaptability makes it a valuable asset across a wide range of industries.

d) Environmental Sustainability

In today's world, sustainability is a crucial consideration for businesses. The Super Sucker Machine contributes to environmental sustainability by effectively managing waste and minimizing its impact. By efficiently collecting and disposing of hazardous materials and pollutants, it helps prevent soil and water contamination. Additionally, the machine can be used for recycling and reusing collected materials, promoting a circular economy and reducing overall waste generation.

Conclusion

The Super Sucker Machine has revolutionized industrial cleaning by providing unmatched suction power and versatility. From managing industrial waste and cleaning sewers to responding to spills and maintaining construction sites, this equipment offers a comprehensive solution for a wide range of cleaning needs. Its advantages, including time and cost efficiency, enhanced safety, adaptability, and environmental sustainability, make it a valuable asset for industries worldwide. By harnessing the power of the Super Sucker Machine, businesses can achieve higher productivity, improved safety standards, and a cleaner, greener future.

[roygbivvie]

-TF2 MERC KINKY HEADCANNONS-

*This is like my first time writing anything on here so have mercy on my mortal soul*

Nsfw warning obvi, so 18+..but also it gets pretty damn kinky in here so beware.

- [x] Spy

Spy in my mind is absolutely a switch. He absolutely has a daddy kink and a knife kink, but he also wants more than anything for someone (scouts mom) (or you ;0) to yank him down by his tie and force him to his knees. He likes surprises. These can be sexual in nature or not. I feel he would also like blindfolds regardless of who’s wearing it. covers your eyes and says “guess who” ass motherfucker. He’d growl too i think.

- [x] Sniper

many thoughts are to be had about this man in particular. For starters, by no means am i one to kink shame. My blog would be more of a testament to that if my likes were public. However, i simply do not think he has a piss kink. I think he puts absolutely no thought into pissing in jars besides the fact that it’s purposefully insulting to his targets in game. With that out of the way, his kinks. Do i even need to say primal kink? This fella read most dangerous game and thought: damn.. that’s kinda sexy. He wants to set you loose in the woods and track you down to fuck you. he wants it outside. he wants it dirty, sweaty, covered in blood and mud. He wants it animal style but literally. Aside from primal stuff, he loooves roadhead and hitting that thang from the back.

- [x] Scout

Now scout is a tricky one. Unlike basically all of the other mercs, i don’t think he’s super kinky. Here’s some thoughts anyways. He’d definitely start out kinda preformatively domineering, but the man has no ability to bluff. he’d ask constantly if he’s doing ok / if there’s something you want him to do. He is an absolute sucker for any praise. Compliment him on literally anything, and he’ll be a puddle in your lap.

- [x] Pyro

The mask STAYS. ON. during sex. The only way i could see them removing it is if they first blindfolded you. It’s not that they don’t trust you, they just refuse for absolutely anyone to see them. So i hope you have a mask kink, because they’ve certainly developed one. Other kinks they may have would be sensory play. I’m talkin hot wax, ice, feathers, incense, maybe even needles. basically the whole shebang. Pyro also has a love for fantasy, and i feel like Ovipositors would lend quite well to that. They probably have quite the extensive bad dragon collection.

- [x] Engineer

He absolutely makes you toys.. and them suckers are POWERFUL. He’d absolutely make a fuck machine, or several. I think he’s extra into having anything you use to get off be made by him. He’s mega into overstimulating you. He likes to watch his handiwork absolutely wreck you over and over. He may even want others to watch too. I think he’d have a size kink whether you’re bigger or smaller than him, I just think he’d like the difference.

- [x] Demo

I think he likes cuddlefucking and somnophilia. Nothin sobers him up faster than waking up to head. Now when he gets in the mood for it, it’s degradation BIG time. like so bad that he probably feels he has to apologize afterwards.

He also likes to spit on you. Also i don’t know how it would work, but there’s potential kink-ery with that ghost eye of his. I don’t know how, but the potential is there.

- [x] Medic

Oh boy this freak..

Did someone say knife kink? yea. yeaaaaah. And it’s pretty extreme. He’s not just threatening you, he’ll really do it. He likes to keep you strapped to a medical bed n shit too. I think he’d like to spoon-feed people. He gets off on giving you sugar pills to make you “feel better” wait.. were those really sugar pills? fuck. You’ll wake up sore with maybe an organ or two missing, but that’s the price to pay for those big sexy jugs he’s got. Don’t worry he’s a master at aftercare.

- [x] Heavy

Size kink outta the way, I think Heavy is into Dollification. He wants to take care of you, dress you in frilly outfits, and keep you on a shelf like a little collectible next to Sasha. He might even share you with medic.. take you in to get “fixed” if he ever brakes you..

……….. fleshlight position 0////0

- [x] Soldier

WAM!!! (wet and messy) for sure. I mean the honey in the comics certainly did something for him. wearing red, white, and blue? you won’t be wearing anything in no time. I feel like degradation is also a certain for him. Don’t tell anyone but he secretly wants you to put him in his place .. he definitely doesn’t want more than anything to follow someone’s orders..

[sminiac]

p1harmony as classmates who have a crush on you?

⋆ Y. Keeho

Keeho isn’t direct or loud about having a crush on you at all, especially if you aren’t already friends. I’d say he’s the type of person that puts in the effort to make it seem like he doesn’t even like you in general, let alone a crush, but it’s all an illusion so both you and everyone else will be completely thrown off track. He doesn’t want to be peer pressured, or rushed into something super serious, so he’ll start dropping the tiniest hints here and there, slowly building himself- as well as your friendship up before he even thinks about confessing. He’d start by simply saying hi, and good morning to you everyday, the more you start interacting with each other the more he wants to see you. Invites you to any of his important events, also frequently asks “Where’s Y/n?” Whenever you aren’t present at any hangouts.

Reminder of members under the cut!

⋆ C. Taeyang

Unlike Keeho, Theo doesn’t feel the need to completely hide his budding feelings for you, he’s just so comfortable around you that he’s quite open about his interest in you. He isn’t overbearing or overly shy, but the quick compliments he gives you at random are quite dizzying, sometimes you have to take some time to regain balance because of some of the things he says and does, they aren’t promiscuous or inappropriate in the slightest, you just don’t expect to be told that he likes every slight change to your appearance everyday from him of all people, or the way he lightly drags a hand at your waist when he abruptly stops to tell you.

⋆ C. Jiung

He’s very protective of you right from the beginning, especially if you’re younger than him— like, borderline territorial. You’re needing any kind of help with your work? Don’t even bother asking around for someone that’s available, because he’s right in front of you, look no further! Even if you’re in different classes he’s the kind of guy to go out of his way to help you out, and for the most part it’s an excuse to see you, of course, but his little crush starts becoming more apparent when he’s coming to find you every lunch break, taking you from class so you can eat together somewhere more (private) comfortable, even bringing you small snacks and drinks here and there as a surprise.

⋆ H. Intak

Uses his familiarity with sports to his advantage, what does this imply? Well, that he’s showing off whenever you’re in the same vicinity as him of course. You’re sitting at your desk, minding your own business and here’s Intak, juggling a soccer ball inside of the classroom. Fools around a lot just to get your attention, but at the same times he’s easily flustered when you’re actually watching whatever it is he’s doing, which— eventually he somehow ends up embarrassing himself, like he loses control of the ball from his nerves, resulting in him accidentally kicking it straight at your face. The apologies would be profuse, but you’d most likely sucker his school practice jersey from him in result of his stupidity, and a few vending machine runs together in return as a way for him to make it up to you ;3

⋆ H. Shota

Oh my gosh, the cutest thing ever. It’s the kind of situation where he knows he has a crush on you, you know he has a crush on you, and so does everybody else! Soul himself doesn’t think that he’s entirely loud or vocal about it, but he does go out of his way to include you in conversations, also says things that he knows will make you laugh, or does things he knows you find cool. Typically offers to do class chores/tasks with you, will whisper an answer to you if you’re struggling, always asks you first if there’s a buddy system being used for a project, you’re just his person for everything!

⋆ K. Jongseob

Teasing, love love loves teasing you and making you feel all hot in the face, or when he’s successfully made you nervous by whatever it is he’s doing, it’s even better when you start gaining the confidence to do it back. Will make eye contact with you even if you’re on the other side of the classroom just because he likes seeing how easily distracted you become by him, enjoys it even more if you start squirming . I know a lot of people would assume that bro has no game but he has game !!! I feel it in my bones, he knows something! He’s so “Yeah Y/n, pay attention.” Whenever you’re being called out for not facing the teacher, I also know some will find it corny but I live for this shit! He’s so school crush to me.

ᰔ sminiac’s P1Harmony M.list

[mostlysignssomeportents]

You can’t shop your way out of a monopoly

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

If you're running a business, you can either invest at being good at your business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love you – but they won't be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the latter. And if you're going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in quality at all?

For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about "lead gens" – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps (these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (especially a locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They'll take your call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo to come out and charge you four times the going rate for substandard work:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html

Some of them just take your money and they "go back to the shop for a tool" and never return:

https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/when-a-fake-business-used-a-real-st-louis-address-things-got-weird-32087998

Google has been promising to fix this since the late aughts, and to be fair, it's a little better. There was once a time when a map of Manhattan showed more locksmiths than taxis:

https://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/18/google-maps-proves-more-locksmiths-in-nyc-than-cabs/

But GMaps is trapped in the enshittification squeeze. On the one hand, the company wants to provide a good and reliable map. On the other hand, the company makes money selling "ads" that are actually payola, where a business can pay to get to the top of the listings or get displayed on the map itself. Zoom out of Google's map of central London and the highlighted landmarks are a hilarious mix of "organic" and paid listings: the British Museum, Buckingham Palace, the Barbican, the London Eye…and a random oral and maxillofacial clinic in the financial district:

https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie/status/1764711667663831455

Hell of a job "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful," Big G. Doubtless the average Londoner finds the presence of this clinic super helpful in orienting themselves relative to the map on their phone screens, and it's a real service to tourists hoping to hit all the major landmarks.

It's not just Maps users who'd noticed the rampant enshittification. Even the original design team is so horrified they're moved to speak out about the moral injury they experience seeing the product they worked so hard on turned into a giant pile of shit:

https://twitter.com/elizlaraki/status/1727351922254852182

Now, when it comes to locksmiths, I'm lucky. My neighborhood in Burbank includes the wonderful Golden State Lock and Safe, which has been in business since 1942:

https://www.goldenstatelock.com/

But you wouldn't know it from searching GMaps for a locksmith near me. That search turns up a long list of scams:

https://www.google.com/maps/search/locksmith/@34.1750451,-118.369948,14z/data=!3m1!4b1?entry=ttu

It also turns up plenty of Keyme machines – these are private-equity backed, self-serve key-cutting machines placed in grocery stores. Despite Keyme calling itself a "locksmith," it's just a badly secured, overcaptilized, enshittification-bound system for collecting and retaining shapefiles for the keys to millions of homes, cross-referenced with billing information that will make it easy for the eventual hackers to mass-produce keys for all those poor suckers' houses.

(Hilariously, Keyme claims to be an "AI" company):

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200114005194/en/KeyMe-Raises-35-Million-to-Further-Its-Mission-of-Building-the-Premier-Locksmith-Services-Company-in-the-Nation

But despite the fact that you can literally see the Golden State storefront from Google Streetview, Google Maps claims to have no knowledge of it. Instead, Streetview labels Golden State "Keyme" – and displays a preview showing a locksmith using a tool to break into a jeep (I'd dearly love to know how the gadget next to the Slurpee machine at the 7-Eleven will drive itself to your jeep and unlock the door for you when you lose your keys):

https://www.google.com/maps/place/KeyMe+Locksmiths/@34.1752624,-118.3487531,3a,75y,350.19h,90.21t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1ssHrtqjqvgFir3NBauMy13Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m15!1m8!3m7!1s0x80c2959cd65dbb1b:0x4b3744cf87492a71!2sBurbank+Blvd+%26+N+Hollywood+Way,+Burbank,+CA+91505!3b1!8m2!3d34.1750025!4d-118.3493484!16s%2Fg%2F11f37_3lq8!3m5!1s0x80c2951cedbf4d39:0xe8ff9fd5872e66e9!8m2!3d34.1755176!4d-118.349!16s%2Fg%2F11mw7nr4fx?entry=ttu

It's pretty clear to me what's going on here. Keyme has hired some SEO creeps and/or paid off Google, flooding the zone with listings for its machines. Meanwhile, Golden State, being merely good at locksmithing, has lost the SEO wars. Perhaps Golden State could shift some of its emphasis from being good at locksmithing in order to get better at SEO, but this is a race that will always be won by the firm that puts the most into SEO, which will always be the firm that puts the least into quality.

Whenever I write about this stuff, people inevitably ask me which search engine they should use, if not Google?

And there's the rub.

Google used predatory pricing and anticompetitive mergers to acquire a 90% search market-share. The company spends more than $26b/year buying default position in every place where you might possibly encounter a new search engine. This created the "kill zone" – the VC's term of art for businesses that no one will invest in, because Google makes sure that no one will ever find out it exists:

https://www.theverge.com/23802382/search-engine-google-neeva-android

That's why the only serious competitor to Google is Bing, another Big Tech company (Bing is also the primary source of results on Duckduckgo, which is why DDG sometimes makes exceptions for Microsoft's privacy-invading tracking):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo#Controversies

Google tells us that the quid-pro-quo of search monopolization is search excellence. The hundreds of billions it makes every year through monopoly control gives it the resources it needs to fight spammers and maintain search result quality. Anyone who's paid attention recently knows that this is bullshit: Google search quality is in free-fall, across all its products:

https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think it has a problem. Rather than devoting all its available resources to fighting botshit, spam and scams, the company set $80 billion dollars alight last year with a stock buyback that was swiftly followed with 12,000 layoffs, followed by multiple subsequent rounds of layoffs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

The scams that slip through Google's cracks are sometimes nefarious, but just as often they're decidedly amateurish, the kind of thing that Google could fix by throwing money at the problem, say, to validate that new ads for confirmed Google merchants come from the merchant's registered email addresses and go to the merchant's registered website:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Search is a capital intensive business, and there are real returns to scale, as the UK Competition and Market Authority's excellent 2020 study describes:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fe4957c8fa8f56aeff87c12/Appendix_I_-_search_quality_v.3_WEB_.pdf

But Google doesn't seem to think that its search needs that $80 billion to fight the spamwars. That's the thing about monopolists, they get complacent. As Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine the AT&T operator" used to say, "We don't care, we don't have to, we're the phone company."

That's why I'm so excited about the DOJ Antitrust Division monopolization case against Google. Trusting one company to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," was a failure:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-sues-google-monopolizing-digital-advertising-technologies

I understand why people want to know which search engine they should use instead of Google, and I get why, "There aren't any good search engines" is such an unsatisfactory answer. I understand why each fresh round of printer-company fuckery prompts people to ask "which printer should I get?" and I understand why "There are only six major printer companies and they're all suffering from end-stage enshittification" isn't what anyone wants to hear.

We want to be able to vote with our wallets, because it's so much faster and more convenient than voting with our ballots. But the vote-with-your-wallet election is rigged for the people with the thickest wallets. Try as hard as you'd like, you just can't shop your way out of a monopoly – that's like trying to recycle your way out of the climate emergency. Systemic problems need systemic solutions – not individual ones.

That's why the new antitrust matters so much. The answer to monopolies is to break up companies, block and unwind mergers, ban deceptive and unfair conduct. "Caveat emptor" is the scammer's motto. You shouldn't have to be an expert on lead gen scams to hire a locksmith without getting ripped off.

There are good products and services out there. Earlier this year, we decided to install a (non-networked) programmable pushbutton lock. I asked Deviant Ollam – whom I know from Defcon's Lockpicking Village – for a recommendation and he suggested the Schlage FE595:

https://www.schlage.com/en/home/products/FE595PLYFFFFLA.html

I liked it so much I bought another one for my office door. Eric from Golden State Lock and Safe installed it while I wrote this blog-post. It's great. I recommend both of 'em – 10/10, would do business again.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#vapor-locksmith

Image: alicia rae (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kehole_Red.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

--

Budhiargomiko (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wasteland.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

[ratstuckinamarble]

Introducing you all to my endless well of joy, made possible thanks to the pattern by @itsthebeastpeddler (whose blog you should check out cause she makes some really lovely things ^-^)

It's a slug!!! Fully hand-sewn cause doing so seemed easier than learning how to use our sewing machine... I'll do so eventually XD But it was actually fairly therapeutic.

Oh! Looks like they're friends now.

Camouflage slug... With a "snail" (he's in denial) friend I made some time ago >:) Dang she's making connections left and right :0

He's a big fan of strawberries, can't blame her. And as per the peddler's suggestion, I used a pipe cleaner for the eye stems! Now they're bendyyy

I knew keeping these suckers around for over a decade would be worth it... Also, the single progress photo I took.

This is my first time sewing a plushie, and I had a grand time. Learned a lot along the way, and the ladder stitch that always intimated me is actually super easy XD Wanna know what the best thing about making such a slug is though? The way the eye stalks wiggle about if you shake him sjshsj

A little slug kiss on your forehead for good luck <3

[mushroommanstan]

I’m OBSESSED with your creepy Tenko omg. I’d loooooooove to strap him down to his bed for hours with one of those automatic cock sucker pumps that just completely milks him until nothing else comes out and his eyes roll back and he’s drooling like in his favorite hentais. And maybe some sweet aftercare from the reader after he’s too fucked out to even speak<3. UGHHHHH he gives me cuteness aggression or something I swear I wanna eat him up

“Alright baby, just a little more.” You said, dabbing his forehead sweat with a towel as he jerked around. He was a moaning mess, his eyes rolled back into his head as the machine did its job, not even slowing for a second as he busted another load. You watched the thick white liquid being sucked through a transparent tube, before dripping into the thermos with the rest.

One could argue what you were doing was selfish, using your boyfriends body to make some bucks. But he agreed to it, and by the looks of it he certainly didn’t mind. So really what’s the harm?

You got the idea while having sweet sweet sex with your beloved Tenko. You needed the stress reliever after trying, and failing, to collect enough pocket money for the new limited edition Super Hero Bros game before it went away forever. It wasn’t enough, those games were always wicked expensive, and with finals coming up you couldn’t give it the attention it needed.

So, of course, you went to your boyfriend for help. You needed his long cock to pound the stressful thoughts out of your brain for a while. So happily, he accepted your invitation to the party between your legs, and began pounding into like there was no tomorrow, like usual.

You noted in your foggy brain how weird his stamina was. Like always, he kept cumming in short sporadic bursts of 2 to 3 minutes, but not even stopping for a second in between. It always left a waterfall of cum flowing out of you by the end, one that’s a pain in the ass to clean if you’re being honest.

Just think though, all those people with erectile dysfunction and stuff who wanna have kids, meanwhile you’re wasting the breeder of the century by just washing away his cum every time. Hmmm, actually… maybe… I wonder if?

Afterwards, after the both of you were satisfied to the moon and back, just barely awake you searched up on your phone if you could sell cum. The sperm banks rates immediately showed up and… oh man… that’s a lot. And-and that’s just for one little cup? Tenko could fill those up like a god damn dispenser. Damn, that’d be like printing your own money…..

Which is what led you to the present. Currently, you had Tenko strapped to the bed (the restraints were his idea) spread eagle with one of his old vibrating fleshlights on his spicy boner. You were able to use your engineering classes for knowledge and resources to attach a clear tube to the fleshlight that would collect the sperm and transfer it into one of your thermoses.

Despite him agreeing to this, you felt a little bad about using him like this for a profit, so you decided to make this as fun for him as possible. That, and well, you just like seeing him squirm. So while the expensive hand-less fleshlight did it’s thing, you put his scrawny thighs over your shoulder and just demolished his prostate with your fingers before grabbing his favorite strap on.

You two have been doing this for hours, pushing his body to the limits, and at this point he was reduced into a puddle of tears and “milk”. His eyes were rolled back into his head, his face a red mess, his eyes now waterfalls, and his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he screamed for you.

“C’mon baby” you said, stroking his cheek lovingly before slapping him, making him moan out. “Just one more then we’ll stop. You can do it.” Your hips were beginning to buckle, stiff and sore from the constant thrusting but you persevered. You couldn’t stop now, not when he was mewling so preciously for you, still moving his hips along with yours and thrusting into the fleshlight like a bitch in heat. Fuck, he was so beautiful like this, you almost wanted to leave him like this and keep him as the work of art he is. But you knew that wasn’t possible, so you instead savored every drool filled, eye rolling lustful second with him.

It didn’t take long before he let out a hoarse, reedy whine, signaling his closeness. You smirked, beginning to fondle his balls as you milked his body for all its worth. He whines out, his worn body tensing as the last of the cum in his balls is pulled from his cock in a flurry of white hot pleasure. He tries to scream, key word here is try, as only a few spurts of cum come out, the very last of the batch, something you thought you’d never see. You wait until it’s completely traveled into the thermos before you pull out, turning off the powerful vibrator attached to your hips.

It takes a few good tugs to get the pump off him even after it’s turned off, and his cock, now devoid of life to give, falls limp onto his stomach, shrinking slowly back into its dormant state.

You tighten the lid on the thermos before placing it into the freezer in his mini-fridge, right next to the frozen pizza pockets and vodka he keeps in there. Yeah, he’s a little naughty. Then you shoot a quick text scheduling the appointment at the “bank” before turning your attention to your sweet baby.

He’s completely drenched in sweat, the bedsheets too, but he’s too exhausted to move. So you grab some wet wipes and wipe him down till he’s passably clean before pulling his boxers back up and collapsing next to him.

You wrapped your arm around his chest, tsking as you felt him tremble. He was crying softly, letting out little hiccups as he tried to calm down. “Oh calm down, you big baby.” You said softly.

He didn’t look at you, his eyes still glued to the ceiling and exotropia’d slightly in exhaustion. You got a little worried, only teasing before, so you whispered concernedly “you doing ok?”

Your head, nestled into his neck, felt his chin bump into it as he gave the faintest of nods making you sigh in relief. You kissed his neck, fretting a little over the texture of the fresh scars, and slapping his shoulder not too hard and scolding him. It was clear from just one glance at his state that no words were going to stick, so you sighed, pulling the blanket over the two of you and promising yourself to punish him in the morning. Maybe some spanking? Yeah, that’ll do it.

You know he’s trying to stay awake a little longer, just for you. You could see his eyes straining as he waited to see if you had anything left to say. And while it was sweet, you knew he desperately needed to rest, so you decided to hit his natural snooze button.

You weaved your fingers in his dark hair poofs, and immediately his eyes fell shut like they were weighed down by rocks. His mouth fell open and the room was filled with soft, but reasonably loud snores. You didn’t mind though, not when he has just the cutest snores ever.

You fell asleep, cuddled up to him not too long after that, and when you woke up you were in for a shock. Turns out, dangerous, world ending quirk gene having sperm goes for A LOT. Mostly from people buying it so it doesn’t get in the wrong hands. You guys were actually able to get TWO games instead of one. So… score!

[jackwolfes]

demigodbeautiies' end of 2023 grishaverse fic rec list ✨

this list is a selection of grishaverse fics i read and enjoyed in 2023! i've also had the absolute pleasure of getting to know a lot of these writers and hope you enjoy any of these fics if you give them a read 😊

///

spring cleaning by CSHfic and VSfic: G, Gen. Nina and Jesper help Wylan redecorate. i'm such a sucker for post-canon fics and this is a very very sweet one

put up with the rain by tepesh (@voidfishersong) : T, Gen. Kaz and Inej learn something about Jesper. tastiest fabrikator reveal fic i've ever bloody read

those who pull us free by @the-jennnster: M, Wesper/Gen, hurt/comfort. Wylan deals with nightmares. super artfully written, short and sweet and the right kind of painful.

like gravity by @basicbard : M, Wesper, angst with light smut. Super beautifully written

the open door invites the thief by thegoldenkneazle (@wylanvanfeck): M, Kanej/Gen. Wylan ends up in the midst of something he shouldn't, shenanigans ensue.

when crows blush by talking-crow (@six-of-crows-hyperfixation): E, Wesper, Smut. Wesper work in an office together and fuck around. super fun, super hot.

the pleasures of altruism by dimtraces (@doorsclosingslowly): E, Kazper, Smut. look me in the eye and tell me jesper WOULDN'T fabrikate a fucking machine for his best friend

bite my lips (lover red) by the_lady_king: E, Wesper, Smut. i just think it's really fun and really hot so it's going on the list.

contrast ratio by anonymous: E, Wesper, Smut. Jesper and Wylan have fun with hidden cameras. i wont lie this fic rewired my brain a bit in a very, very fun way.

holiest thing i know by @chaosride: E, Wesper, A/B/O. omegaverse can be a bit of a marmite trope but this fic in particular plays around with ketterdam's worldbuilding in a very intriguing, well done way and it's also just really hot i'm ngl

screw top rose by calicomma: E, Wesper, trans!Wylan. impeccable tender domestic romance vibes.

///

and the shameless self promo zone below because i've written a lot of things i'm very, very proud of this year 💖

a choice of two locked doors: M, Wesper, arranged marriage au. my current magnum opus and general baby, incredibly proud with the way this turned out.

the bed we loved in: M, Wesper, immediately post canon hurt/comfort. just, very pleased with the vibes of it.

not just girls: E, Wesper, trans!Wylan character study. really gratified with how much this seems to have meant to people.

[astxrwar]

blunt force trauma [1/x]

SYNOPSIS: traumatized!Bucky x Brainwashed!supersoldier!reader.

Rating: M

Word Count: 5k

Content Warnings: Canon-typical violence and that is all (for now). Check out the tag "fic; blunt force trauma" for Content + ao3 chapter notes for extras if you're interested. <3

Read on AO3

[ 1 ] [2]

Bucky had known, is the thing. Before getting sucker-punched out of a fucking moving semi truck, before getting his ass kicked in a spectacularly fucking embarrassing fashion, before getting saved by two dipshits with government-financed uniforms and the most ridiculous fucking make-believe superhero names—

He had known that there were others like him.

Super-soldiers. Enhanced. Whatever.

Well—

He’d known about one.

~

The first time he sees her it’s March, nighttime, cold and dark and fucking raining, for like the fourth day in a row. He’s gone outside to take the garbage out, the last in a mundane and seemingly fucking endless procession of normal-human-being tasks that he is trying very hard to be comfortable in doing, day after day, the way he is also trying hard to be a normal human being in general, a concrete and intact person who attends his court-ordered therapy and grocery shops and goes outside semi-regularly and does not commit violence even when it definitely feels warranted.

He’s tired. He has a headache starting somewhere around his left temple, the muscles there beginning to tense and tighten and pulse, irritatingly, against his skull. He wants a fucking cigarette, and he’s going to have a cigarette— he keeps meaning to quit, because it’s really not a  great habit, even if he’s pretty sure the serum will keep him from getting, like, lung cancer, or something. He’d been a pack-a-day asshole in the 107th because they were free, and he’d stopped when he was him because he didn’t have wants or needs or desires as a soulless killing machine, so part of it is probably just— the way that it feels grounding, kind of, the acrid burn of the smoke and the bitter taste of tar and the gently flickering embers of the cherry this bright spot of red and orange against the endless black backdrop of the alleyway at night. It’s very human. Very selfish. Very not like the person he used to be.

He doesn’t see the figure standing there until the cigarette is already half-gone, presumably because they’d been mostly obscured from him by the massive industrial-size apartment complex dumpsters and also, more importantly, because they hadn’t moved at all in the entire time he’d been outside. And it’s something about that, the unnerving and inhuman stillness, something about the way that they’re holding themselves, the vicious and barely-restrained and entirely recognizable tension he can see— feel— even just in their silhouette, the way that they’re standing, it reminds him of—

Something.

Bucky can tell when the figure realizes he’s seen them; there’s this shift in the dark line of their shoulders, like an intake of breath.

He flicks his cigarette, scattering ash down onto the pavement, the flakes drifting in the puddles of dirt and oil and city grime, becoming waterlogged, sinking in until he can’t see them. 

They— she— she says his name. Her voice is quiet and hoarse and crackles like she hasn’t spoken in a while and like it had taken some amount of effort to do so now, and she says his full, legal, god-given name, like she knows him.

“How do you know who I am,” Bucky says, flat, a question, but not really phrased like one. He grinds the end of his cigarette against the brick side of the building until the ember is out, and tosses it into the open dumpster; he’s aware of her in his periphery, that instinctive part of him that he mostly tries not to think about tracking her presence and waiting for movement and anticipating, calculating, flexing the fingers of the metal arm at his sides and breathing in deep and slow and relishing in all of it a lot more than he knows he should be.

She doesn’t reply. He can’t make out her face, not with how dark it is, with where she’s standing, deep enough into the alleyway that none of the light from the buzzing and flickering street lamp closer to his end reaches her at all; there’s still something about the way that she’s holding herself that prickles with familiarity, recognition, but he can’t place it. He’s positive she’s not government or military, reasonably certain she’s not Dora Milaje, less sure she’s not some kind of HYDRA offshoot minion or some other kind of general bad news. 

“Are you going to try to kill me?” he says finally.

Her breath catches, like she’d choked on it, and it’s audible even over the muted sounds of TVs playing and casual conversation and arguing floating down from the scattered collection of open windows above the alley, even over the louder and more persistent dripdripdrip of water down from the gutters, the sounds of traffic that never fully relents drifting out from the road.

“No,” she says, with enough vehemence that it stuns him, for a second– he’s taken aback by the force of the word, and then also, a second later, by how absolutely uncertain she sounds. Like she doesn’t believe it herself, or maybe more like she really doesn’t know.

“Okay,” Bucky says slowly, after a pause. “Okay, so what do you—“

He makes a mistake, then— he turns, the sole of his boot grinding softly against the wet, dirt-streaked asphalt, and he takes all of an aborted half-step in her direction.

She stiffens.

Bucky trails off, his fingers curling into loose fists at his sides–

She flees.

He hadn’t been expecting that, fucking obviously, so he wastes an essential handful of seconds just processing what the fuck even just happened. By the time it occurs to him that she’d ran, by the time he moves to the other end of the alley and rounds the corner and stares out into the adjoining street, there’s just—

Nothing. Nobody. An empty stretch of pavement. She could have followed the road down past his field of vision, the line of it blurred in the distance by the gently misting rain; she could have gone down any number of nearby alleys, could have climbed a fire escape onto the roof. If he’d been expecting it, he could have followed fast enough to see, but—

He hadn’t. 

He’d honestly expected her to fucking attack him, not— run. 

“Fuck,” Bucky says aloud, to nobody. 

He turns back to his apartment building, kicks a rock and watches it skitter across the glittering wet pavement and into the shadows.

He lights another cigarette.

~

He’s wired and on edge for hours afterwards, meaning he doesn’t sleep well. That thing inside of him is itching for it, a fight, an excuse, something to break the painful fucking monotony of his life these days; his therapist keeps saying that he’ll get used to this, the boredom of normalcy, and while he nods and plays along during the sessions, he’s not sure that’s even the issue.

He is used to it. He has a routine. He cooks and cleans and does general life maintenance on a strict and unwavering schedule. He even goes out once a week, goes and gets sushi and drinks with Yori, and even if that might technically not count as a friendship, it’s– something. He has a life. A normal, boring, regular, semi-adjusted life.

He just– 

He just doesn’t fucking like it.

It sucks, right, because back in Bucharest he remembers wanting this so fucking badly, wanting to just be normal, to be able to go grocery shopping and cook meals and listen to the radio and do nothing. Be nobody. And now that he has it, for real, forever, it’s like his stupid fucking brain has decided nope, y’know what, I don’t really want this after all.

What he wants, honestly, is another cause to throw himself into. Another banner to follow blind. Something that would let him relieve some of this constant fucking pressure, this itch just under his skin, this feeling like he’s forcing down and holding back and choking on all the worst parts of who he is, with no outlets to turn to, no options, no hope for relief.

I don’t do that anymore, is what he says to people, the pre-programmed line another term for the conditions of his parole. 

What he doesn’t say to anyone: I kind of miss it a fucking lot, though. 

Bucky stares up at the slowly-turning blades of his ceiling fan until his vision goes blurry and it turns into this meaningless shifting shape in the dark, and then he closes them, finally, and tries to will himself to sleep.

He should tell his therapist.

There’s a lot of things he should tell his therapist. I have nightmares, still. I probably qualify as paranoid. I made friends with the father of one of the men that I killed, and I go out to eat with him every week, and I think I feel just as bad about doing it as I would if I didn’t. I still haven’t figured out how to work that TV in the apartment, even though I said that I did, and I don’t even really know why I lied. I miss hurting people. I can’t sleep. 

“How have you been, James,” she says, peering at him across a cheap-looking wooden table, her pen poised threateningly– okay, not threateningly, but, like, still, threateningly – over a blank notebook page. The chair he’s sitting in is straight-backed and uncomfortable and slightly too small, and he wonders if that’s on purpose. “Anything new happening?”

She always asks this, in the beginning, like an ice-breaker, or something, except it feels like the opposite. It always feels–stiff, and perfunctory, and performative. That’s another thing– before all this, he used to be great at shooting the shit, talking about weather and sports and who’s seeing who and all that meaningless, petty nothing; he missed it, too, when he first started coming out of the fucking fugue state. And then it’s like– all those disassociated and splintered pieces of himself reintegrated, fused, solidified into something vaguely resembling a whole person, and he found that actually, he couldn’t stand any of it, anymore.

“Nope,” he says, popping the ‘p’ and leaning back in the chair until it creaks, dangerously, like it might break. Fucking government office, you’d think they could afford decent and non-flimsy furniture. Doc glares at him like he’s full of shit and he makes a point to dial back the affected nonchalance, gauging her response to try to figure out the range of what might strike her as believable. “Nothing. Same old, same old. You know.”

Someone found me, yesterday. They knew me. 

She narrows her eyes. Scribbles something down. The scratch of the pen on paper sets his teeth on edge, makes a muscle in his jaw twitch, erratic and uncontrollable. He forces himself to stay very still, not to lean over, not to try to look. Forces himself to smile.

Wonders, vaguely, if it even looks like he’s smiling, or if it just looks like he’s baring his teeth.

~

Days pass. Then weeks. A whole month.

At first, Bucky maintains that alertness; his senses sharpen, expectant, the handful of times he ventures out to toss the garbage or have a cigarette at night, and he sleeps in short, fitful bursts, waking with a start at the sound of cars backfiring on the street outside or the building settling as the temperature drops or the radiator when it creaks, just a little louder than usual, as the heat kicks on. He doesn’t mind any of this, actually, and that’s another thing he knows he should probably tell his therapist.

Hey, Doc, I’m kinda thinking somebody wants to murder me, so I’ve started keeping a knife under my pillow again, and I’ve really only been sleeping for like, an hour or two at a time. 

Weird thing, though– I feel better than I have in weeks, and I haven’t had any nightmares.

He does not tell his therapist, for a lot of reasons. Part of that is because he guesses she’d want to have the military deal with it, whatever it even is, which is just–absolutely not necessary. He’s a grown man, a fucking ex-assassin, for god’s sake, he can handle his own shit; but then there’s also the fact that she doesn’t even really know he’s still having nightmares. She suspects, he’s pretty sure, but he’d started denying it the fourth or fifth appointment in, got tired of her saying stupid shit like let’s do an exercise; I want you to describe it to me and talking about it will help, James, and you should try establishing a relaxing bedtime routine. 

Planning contingencies in case he’s attacked in his sleep, he’s pretty sure, does not count as a relaxing bedtime routine, but even still. Whatever works, right?

And it does work, for the first week, and then the second week, and then some of the third week, too, but eventually that pervasive vigilance starts to wane in the absence of any actual threat, and there’s nothing he can do to maintain it– it’s instinctive, that response, and while he can force himself to go through the motions, the checking and the watching and the knives stashed in places, he can’t bring that feeling back.

She’s never there. He looks, at night, lingers for a while and paces aimlessly after he’s tossed in the trash and his cigarette has gone out, sometimes even lights a second one and stays out even longer, leaned back against the brick and waiting, still, silent, like maybe if he goes long enough without moving at all she’d just reappear out of thin air, like a magic trick.

That doesn’t happen, because of course it doesn’t.

Eventually he starts to run short on the drive for that, too. Humans, it’s just how they are– get nothing for long enough and they’ll start to lose interest in trying. Bucky used to be above those kinds of things, or beyond them, or something like that; he could maintain single-minded focus on something for months, years, when it was necessary. 

Bucky misses that, too, sometimes. But he’s human now, or some approximation of it, and so eventually he stops looking so hard. Just glances over at the spot where she’d been standing, tosses the trash in, finishes his cigarette, heads back inside. He sometimes tries to find her in the daytime, in the people he passes on the street, in the dark figures at the bar when he goes out with Yori, cataloging the stature and posture and the shapes of strangers, the way a girl holds her shoulders in line at the grocery store or how the bartender will sometimes stay leaned against the counter for a long while, perfectly still.

But he never sees her. Not once. He’d know, he thinks, if he did; he might not have seen her face, or really anything beyond her silhouette, but there was something eerily familiar and immediately distinctive about the way that she held herself, how she stood, how she moved. The pieces of that he sees reflected in other people are never enough to trigger that same automatic, visceral feeling of recognition.

That vigilance– it just keeps fading. 

He starts to sleep in larger and larger chunks, unbroken, and the nightmares come back.

~

“How are you doing, James?”

“I’m doing good, Doc, how about you.” He doesn’t phrase it as a question. He’s tired and his jaw hurts and his teeth feel weird in his mouth, loose and sore and wrong– he’s probably been grinding them in his sleep again. The thought aggravates him, the idea that his body does things now that he can’t control.

“Bullshit,” she says, and he tightens his grip on the armrest of the chair, a reflex, until he can feel the wood give a little under his fingers, like it might splinter into pieces in his hand. 

“Yeah, y’know what, I have a headache,” he says, mulish and stubborn and not in the fucking mood.

Doc just stares at him, lets the silence stretch and stretch and stretch– in the beginning, when she would do this shit, he’d just stare right back and say nothing for the entire forty-five minutes. Learned real quickly that just makes things worse, because she started making him come in twice a week. He’s down to twice a month, now, and would really like to keep it that way–ideally would like to make it less, even, if possible. 

Bucky sighs and he shifts in the chair and he runs his tongue over his teeth and gives up on attempting to tamp down the irritation that he knows he wasn’t doing all that great a job at disguising to begin with. He thinks about what to say, and it’s like threading a needle, kind of, trying to find that sweet spot, something that sounds like honesty without feeling like he’s being fucking– violated.

He ends up telling her about how he’d went and made a nighttime routine and that’d stopped the nightmares. He does not tell her that the routine involved checking the locks on all the windows and scuffing the hinges on the door enough to make sure it would creak if anybody opened it more than halfway, taping knives under the end table in the living room and on the inside of the door to the coat closet in the hall.

She looks– suspicious. Uncertain. Like she doesn’t trust him, but isn’t quite decided on whether or not he’s lying.

Bucky smiles, again. 

She relaxes, just a little.

He’s been practicing– how to do it and make sure it reaches his eyes.

~

It’s that same night that it happens again. He’s tired and still irritated and his jaw hurts, this tense, throbbing pain that comes and goes in waves and just pisses him off more, and he’s thinking about how much he fucking hates therapy and how ridiculous it is that anyone in the world would pay money for that, to be examined like a bug under a microscope, vivisected and picked apart until there’s nothing left. 

All it’s doing is making him a more convincing liar, he thinks, bitter and sour and mean.

Bucky stops in the alleyway to have a cigarette before going inside, because he’s pissy and wants one. He does that cursory once-over of the spot behind the dumpster and there’s nothing, which is expected, and so he leans back against the soot-stained brick and shoves one hand in the pocket of his jacket and sighs and tries to just– not want to commit murder. 

He notices it by chance. 

From here, he can see his own bedroom window, four stories up, the drapes shuttered. It’s like six at night, but it’s April, so it’s not pitch-black, the sky that sort of soft blue-purple color with the sun obscured behind the endless sprawl of buildings. It’s still bright enough for him to be able to see the shadows of the folds in the curtains. Bright enough for him to see them move.

It’s not a lot, just a slight shift of the fabric, the shadows rippling like the air had changed inside the room– it could have been a trick of the light, he reasons, he could be overstressed and underslept and kind of loopy off all of the half-second buzz he gets from the nicotine, seeing things. It could be the stupid fucking window, the fact that he knows the seal around the edges needs to be repaired; it had been drafty as hell all winter. It could just be that the radiator had happened to switch on at that exact moment, sent a rush of heat spilling up to the ceiling that swayed the drapes just enough to make him think that there’d been– something.

Those are all perfectly viable explanations. None of them settle his pulse. 

He thinks he can probably feel his senses heighten, like everything in his field of vision sliding into better focus, or maybe his awareness of them just amplified; same with his hearing, the din of constant city noise sorting out into isolated and individual sounds that he filters through as he stalks the length of the lobby hallway, takes the stairs two at a time, silent and barely breathing.

When he gets to his floor he stops on the landing. Listens. There’s the muffled noise of traffic outside, a horn going off that sparks two others in quick succession, all from different cars; the couple three doors down from his whose argument is devolving into yelling at each other, again, their voices overlapping and rising in volume; the echo of scattered, tinny applause from what’s probably a TV on in an apartment upstairs.

And then there’s this soft, unassuming thump that comes from his apartment; nonspecific, maybe just the building settling as the temperature drops, but Bucky still stops breathing entirely and holds himself very, very still and waits–

But there’s nothing else. Nothing important. 

He tells himself sternly not to get his hopes up, and then realizes a half-second later that he’s not even sure what that means– if he’s hoping that there will be something or hoping that there won’t be.

His doormat is crooked. Just a little, one of the corners closest to the hallway folded over, kicked up, something that could have just happened by accident, a misstep from someone else living in the building, but–

That’s way too many fucking coincidences.

He opens the door as quietly as he can, enough to slip through and into the foyer but not quite far enough for the hinges to scrape against one another in the places where he’d scratched divots into them. The lights are off in the apartment, his living room and the adjoining kitchen shrouded in that late twilight shade of purplish-black; he sees a solid shadow in the corner by the fridge and something inside of him lights up and comes alive and floods his entire nervous system with this immediate shock of energy and it’s like everything just sharpens, his awareness of the world around him, like everything had been fuzzy and gray and muted before and now it’s not, the shadows are darker and richer and the colors are brighter and he stops feeling like he’s watching the world slip past him in this monotonous and unending blur.

She doesn’t hear him until he’s almost all the way across the living room, and even when she turns he just raises his arms up, a gesture he hopes comes off as nonthreatening.

She doesn’t move.

Bucky steps into the kitchen— it’s an open floor plan, so, honestly, there isn’t really a strict dividing line— and realizes his mistake as soon as he gets his palms flat on the counter. He’d meant to close the distance and show her that he’s not going to hurt her, keep his hands open and within her line of sight, but he’d miscalculated by a fucking large margin. There’s nowhere for her to go, he’d trapped her in the corner, not even on purpose; the door and the window in the bedroom are her only exits, and he’d situated himself directly in between both of them.

The last time, she’d ran, when he’d tried to get close.

Belatedly, it occurs to him as he watches the stiffening line of her posture that if she can’t run, she’s probably going to–

She lunges for him and swings at his head and he sidesteps it, moving down further along the long side of the dividing counter. He’s not even between her and the door anymore, but it doesn’t matter, she just keeps moving towards him, and her face, when he sees it– her expression– her eyes, that violent and single-minded focus, the strange serenity to them, like her mind is blank and her head is empty except for the way that she’s tracking him, the steady steps that he keeps taking back, and back, and back–

“Listen,” he says, “I don’t want to hurt–”

She lashes out at him mid-sentence and he jerks back and hits the wall in the adjoining hallway; he’s operating mostly on an old and familiar instinct so he twists to the side when she tries to hit him again before he can think twice about it, realizes only afterwards that he’d been standing in front of a support beam and he should have just let her hit him, it’s not like she could hurt him, and she’s going to break her fucking hand–

She hits the two-by-four dead-on and he expects to hear the solid awful crunch of the bones in her knuckles or her wrist, but what he actually hears instead is the drywall crack as an impact crater erupts out from under her fist and the plaster crumble like wet sand and the two-by-four fucking snap, bow in on itself and splinter into jagged shards like a tree hit dead-on by a car veering off a highway.

“Oh, shit ,” he says, aloud, and suddenly a lot of that instinctive and unthinking recognition starts to make a lot of fucking sense. “You’re–”

She swings for his head again and he ducks and lurches backwards and catches her next attempt with the metal arm– he deflects it harmlessly to the side, but the angle is strange and he ends up absorbing a lot of the momentum and the force of the blow jars all the way up to his shoulder, and, holy fuck, yeah, she’s exactly what he thought, she has to be–

“Will you– just– stop,” he tells her, or tries to. She’s gotten close again and the sentence is cut off when she goes for his sternum with her elbow and he barely manages to move back, a few milliseconds from having the wind knocked clean out of him, and then a second time as she steps in to knee him in the ribs and he’s force to twist to one side at some strange angle that nearly has him off-balance. She’s fucking fast, Jesus Christ; he catches her arm when she swings at him again, grabs her wrist with his hand and presses the metal one out flat to the inside of her bicep and tries to force her backwards into the wall, but she steps in and closer to him before he can gather the momentum and this time she throws her elbow towards his fucking face–

Bucky makes the split-second decision to just let go and try to put some fucking distance between them, retreating back into the kitchen.

He doesn’t want to hurt her, not if he can help it, not with how she looks right now as she advances on him— there’s something in her eyes that he doesn’t just recognize, something that he knows, it’s like looking into a fucking mirror if mirrors could be fucking portals into the past, or something.

“Stop,” he says, again; they’re following each other around the long counter in his kitchen, now, her eyes fixed on his with this startling precision, staring him down like a cornered animal. And, god, he fucking gets that, if only she’d just–

She seems to realize after a few seconds that they’re just circling, because she leverages herself up on the counter and slides across it and nearly breaks his nose with her heel.

He catches her next punch dead-on and the look of blank fucking shock on her face is satisfying in ways that he knows, rationally, shouldn’t be. 

“Listen to me,” he says, and she doesn’t, predictably, but when she steps in to try to hit him and maneuver out of his grip like the last time he just uses her own momentum to get her turned around and pinned flat down to the counter with both of her arms twisted behind her back, held together with one of his hands, applying enough pressure to keep her there without tearing ligaments. She thrashes, violently, catches him with her feet a couple of times in the shins, but he’s running on adrenaline and the pain doesn’t even really register as pain at all, the way it used to, like it’s all just sensation, no more important than temperature or hunger or pressure or time.

“Listen,” Bucky says, again, trying to keep his voice nonthreatening but not sure how well he manages that, “Listen, alright, I don’t want to hurt you, just relax.“

The thing about the stupid counter in his kitchen is that it’s not really at waist height, even for him, which means when he’d forced her down onto it she wasn’t bent over at an angle deep enough for him to have the leverage to keep her there for long. The ideal position would be anything more than ninety degrees, an angle that would have someone stuck and unable to straighten against the pressure without the use of their arms; the thing about that stupid fucking counter being so high up and her being shorter than him by a meaningful margin is that the edge of it doesn’t even come close to hitting her waist and the angle he’s holding her at is incredibly fucking shallow. It wouldn’t be that hard, if she were to realize all of that, for her to drop her weight down and press into the counter with her knees to force him backwards; it wouldn’t even have to be far, there's a lip jutting out from the top that she's bent over, so there’s space between her and the side of it already. She’d only need enough room to brace her feet and push-- the legs are the strongest muscle group in the human body, and the impact when he hits whatever’s behind him would be more than enough to force his grip to loosen.

Bucky had been aware of all that, is the thing. Obviously. He’s a professional. 

He just thought it might have taken her a little longer to figure it out.

His back hits the fridge hard enough that it rattles all of the contents inside and forces the air out of his lungs with a pained and entirely involuntary groan and though he tries real fucking hard to keep ahold of her, he loses track of one of her arms.

She starts to turn against his grip on the other and from that look on her face he knows— intimately, personally, from fucking experience— what will happen next. Either she will keep going, keep twisting until she can hit him hard enough to escape and tear the tendon in her arm in the process, or—

Bucky lets go.

She scrambles back and away from him. He stays perfectly still, not moving his hand from where it’s still half-outstretched and open. 

She only looks at him for what’s probably less than a second before she makes for the door, but it feels like so much longer. That kind of glassy, thoughtless fog breaks, when she does, and her eyes widen a fraction and something glints inside them, fragile and expressive and aware.

It’s just that one second, and then she’s gone, the door to his apartment ajar and swaying farther open, pushed by the air that had moved when she’d slipped past it.

Bucky releases the breath he’d been holding, and slumps back against the fridge. 

~

That night he does a bug sweep for the first time in what feels like forever. There aren’t any, which is almost halfway to a surprise; he checks again for anything left behind, and again, more carefully, for anything out of place, but finds nothing.

Later, laying on his mattress and staring up into the dark, he thinks about calling Sam. He still doesn’t know anything about her, who she is or who she works for or what she wants, from him and then just in general; she’s had some kind of serum, and she moved like she’d been trained— like she’d been conditioned, how she hadn’t even hesitated at the thought of causing herself some pretty fucking significant damage to escape, the same way an animal in a trap gnaws off its' own leg. 

That’s a lot of fucking glaring red flags, and she’d broken into his apartment.

He should definitely tell Sam. Or anyone, really. 

The thing is, though—

He’d recognized something in her, the very first time. If he was going to tell anyone, he would have done it then.

No, this is— it’s fine. He can handle this himself, Bucky decides, and then closes his eyes.

He doesn’t sleep for long, but he doesn’t have any nightmares.

[thesadboisguidetolife]

My sweet angel @iamanimaginarybeing tagged me to post a selfie and answers some questions so here we go!!

Had to pull the shirt down because these trunks leave NOTHING to the imagination lol also because this shirt is one of my favorites

Are you named after anybody? I was actually given my name BECAUSE my mom didnt want me to have the "family name" lol

Do you have any kids? i do! i dont talk about it much though because its not my place to put out my kids info like that unless they're comfortable with it.

Do you use sarcasm a lot? Nooooooooooooooo. Not at aaaalllllll.

When was the last time you cried? Oh babe, i cry a good amount lol. there was a post i reblogged about the guy who went back to retake this picture in this old timey place that had me misty eyed. If we're talkin like haaaard cry..... a couple of weeks ago my depresso got kinda bad and i had me a little cry in the shower. but im good now 🥰

Whats the first thing you notice about people? oh God im gonna come across SUPER LA but, the vibes. Whether someones timid, loud, how they talk, body language, just the whole thing.

Eye Color? Brownish?!?! Ive been told i have little bits of green in them but please don't look into my eyes. I get embarrassed and feel uncomfortable in a comforting way if that makes ANY sense at all

What sports do you/have you played? Soccer and Basketball in teams growing up. Nothing much other than that lol

Any Special Talents? I can knit, crotchet, play guitar, bass, ukulele, im decent with a sewing machine, i can cook, i would like to think that im getting better at photography, i can pop my left shoulder out of my socket (?) haha this ones hard for me.

Where were you born? In the Antelope Valley, Southern California.

Scary Movies or happy endings? Scary Movies WITH Happy Endings. FUCK The Strangers. I love/hate that movie so much and i know it goes against my answer because it has one of thee most fucked up endings but.....damn lol

Do you have any pets? 2 cats

How Tall are you? a humble 5'6". lol

Favorite subject in school? Cooking, followed by French, followed by Weight Training lol

Dream Job? Cook at the Queer Commune lol honestly, i think im currently working on something id LOVE to do till the end of time but we'll see. I dont want to jinx it

Imma tag @sucker-for--anything-acoustic @campcrow2 @adamsmasher @floofiest-doof @beast-0f-lavendertown @circle-of-power @odeada-nightspawn @jambos6 @spider-boy1989 @skiingcows @snikt-yip @penismage @traumadumpling @chibi-masshuu @kaleidoscope-cosmic-power for now 🥰

[queen-of-writing-bad-things]

Henry Danger Reader Insert | Captain Man x Reader: SEASON 3

Episode 3: Scream Machine

~The Man Cave~

Life in the Man Cave had never been better. Ever since they'd confessed their feelings two weeks ago (with a little bit of help), Ray and (y/n) had been relishing their newfound love. So many years dancing around their feelings meant that now, they were more determined than ever to spend every waking moment together. It was bliss.

"Hey, we're here," Ray said to Henry as he led his girl to the main room, Schwoz close behind them. Wow, his girl, it was still so weird to think that she actually loved him, but he'd never complain. He just thought of himself as the luckiest man in the universe. 

"What's up?" (y/n) asked the boy cheerfully, unable to be in any other mood. His hand felt so right in hers and everyone had noticed that she kept looking at her boyfriend like he hung the stars in the sky. Not that they minded, it was great to see them finally be open, even if the constant kissing was a bit gross.

"Charlotte wants to show us the new project she made for the Gizmo Show." The teen replied from his place at the supercomputer and they turned their attention to a large box shrouded by a white tarp. Charlotte was still adjusting it and making some final adjusts, so all they could see was a Charlotte-esque figure moving under the sheet.

"Gizmo Show?" Ray asked in confusion as he wrapped an arm around his girlfriend and pulled her into his chest. He couldn't help but be extremely touchy, she was just irresistible and after years of holding back, he wasn't god give up any opportunities now. 

"What is Gizmo Show?" Schwoz questioned too. He was super into science and nerd stuff, but he'd never heard of it. Probably because it was for kids and teenagers.

"Oh, it's this huge competition they have every year, where kids bring all these cool machines and inventions they made--" (y/n) began to explain excitedly, making Ray look down at her fondly. She used to love the Gizmo Show as a kid and even in adulthood, she was a sucker for science and gadgets. Ray was a sucker for seeing her so cutely excited, so when Schwoz yawned in boredom, it offended him just as much as it offended her.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, Schwoz, was I boring you?" The young woman asked him in a sweet but sarcastic voice and the genius shrank under the stern gaze of his boss. 

"Yeah, a little bit," Schwoz mumbled back, feeling a little pouty at how Ray was even more protective of her now. Anyone who dared to put a foot wrong against his sweet girl was gonna get it.

"Don't yawn at my girlfriend, Schwoz. And you're just tired because you haven't slept in two days." Ray told him, making (y/n) smile at the ground bashfully when he called her that. How did she get herself a man as perfect as him?

"Ray, it's fine. I'm just a nerd, who loves the Gizmo Show because I won it like a million times when I was a kid." She smiled up at him to make his prickliness calm down and it worked. He couldn't stay mad with an angel in his arms, especially when she leaned up on her tiptoes to give him a sweet kiss, meaning they didn't hear Schwoz walking off with a yawn. 

"Why hasn't Schwoz slept in two days?" Henry asked the couple, making them reluctantly break apart. Looks like they'd have to resume that kiss later.

"Because he was binge-watching that mini-series about OJ," Ray answered and (y/n) let her head drop back on his chest. 

"Oh, yeah. The one about the big trial in the nineties." Henry nodded, thinking they were talking about the huge court case that had occurred years before. 

"No." Schwoz shook his head and Henry pulled a confused face. Was there another series about OJ on TV right now?

"The one about Orange Juice?" (y/n) prompted, but it wasn't ringing any bells for the boy. To be fair, only Schowz would watch a programme about damn orange juice.

"Yeah, it's called OJ, from farm to glass." Schwoz smiled, making (y/n) roll her eyes. It was a stupidly boring show and not worth the excited smile that was on Schwoz's face as he talked about it.

"Hey, have you seen the episode yet about how they remove the pulp?" Ray asked his handyman with a smirk on his face. Oh, how he loved to wind Schwoz up.

"Shhhhh! No spoilers!" He exclaimed with his hands over his ears. Man, all this fuss about orange juice.

"Was that the one where I fell asleep?" (y/n) looked up at Ray, the angle highlighting her lashes and soft, plump lips. God, he wanted to kiss her again.

"Yeah, you wouldn't let me go." He smirked down at her when she hid her face in his chest, feeling embarrassed at how she always clung to him in his sleep. Now, all the secret touches and nights sleeping in his bed made sense and they both felt silly at how blind they had been to each other's pining. Henry and Charlotte were right - what kind of best friends cuddled on the couch and held hands at every given opportunity?

Ray leant down to press his lips to hers again, but she turned her head at the last minute when the elevator came crashing down and Jasper stumbled into the room. Goddammit, he just wanted to kiss his girl senseless, was that too much to ask?

"Is it time to see Charlotte's thing?" The curly-haired teen asked breathily as he recovered from the elevator ride. It always spooked new people.

"Jasper?" Henry spluttered, surprised to see his best friend downstairs when he should've been upstairs, watching the shop.

"You're supposed to be upstairs in Junk-N-Stuff, working," Ray told the boy in an annoyed tone. His mood had been soured by the interrupted kiss; the man had gone so long dreaming of what her lips would be like, that anything that stopped them now was a real kick in the teeth.

"Dude, what if a customer walks in?" Henry asked, making (y/n) roll her eyes. Honestly, they made everything into such a drama, so what if Jasper came down for a few minutes? He was Charlotte's friend too.

"It's okay. I left a sign saying, be right back." He smiled at them, thinking that his sign would solve everything, even though temporarily locking the door and closing the shop would've been a safer option.

"Okay, Jasper, just make sure you're not down here for too long. We don't want anything up there being jacked." (y/n) told the boy kindly, being much more friendly than Ray was to him.

"And you, stop being so grumpy." She then turned to her boyfriend and gave him a teasing smile. He huffed at the insinuation, he wasn't always grumpy, just when teen boys interrupted the time they had together. Rolling her eyes at his pouting, the young woman placed her hands on his chest and pressed yet another sweet kiss to his lips and this time, they were able to linger for a few seconds. 

"And hello!" And then those few seconds were up. Charlotte came out from under the tarp, meaning that they had to end it there so they could turn and look at her invention.

"Okay, Ray, (y/n), stop kissing, because I'm ready!" She smirked at the couple, making Ray huff grumpily. It wasn't his fault that his girlfriend was so hot that he couldn't leave her alone.

"Go for it, Char." The young woman smiled at the girl and leaned back into Ray's embrace. She was more than excited to be remotely involved in a Gizmo Show again and she was gonna encourage Charlotte all the way.

"As most of you know, the last three years at the Gizmo Show, my project has won the second place prize." She started, addressing her friend confidently, but only one was really interested. Henry, Ray, Schwoz and Jasper all looked like they were gonna fall asleep, meaning they gave a half-hearted response to the girl's opening statement.

"But this is the year that Charlotte goes number one." She stated boldly. She wasn't gonna come in lousy second place again. This year, was Charlotte's year.

"So you're gonna pee?" Ray joked, making the boys burst into laughter as he mocked Charlotte's proud speech. They thought it was hilarious, (y/n), however, did not. She gave them the same annoyed and unamused stare as the young girl did and when they continued to cackle at the joke like hyenas, the woman wriggled out of Ray's arms to see him pout. 

"You guys aren't funny." She shook her head and Charlotte was glad to have her on her side. At least someone was taking her project seriously, even if it meant that Ray dragged his girl back into his arms with a whine. Okay, he got the message to be quiet. He didn't want to have his arms empty again since he'd been living like that for nine years and had hated it.

"I call my project...The Scream Machine!" Charlotte pulled off the tarp and revealed her invention, but at face value, it didn't look like much. Still, (y/n) was impressed, even if the boys weren't. Any kid who could come up with a cool science project and pull it off deserved some recognition.

"Clap, doofus." She told her boyfriend in a hushed tone as she realised that she was the only one who had decided to clap. Ray and the others gave a round of applause for Charlotte, who looked a bit sheepish under the praise, but she carried it off well. 

"Now, as we all know, the future of our planet depends on finding new ways to create clean, renewable energy, but where will our energy come from?" She asked them and Henry put his hand up with a suggestion.

"France." He answered, which Charlotte immediately dismissed as wrong. Relying on another country didn't count.

"Energy balls," Ray suggested with a sure smirk on his face. Wow, he thought he was so clever.

"What the hell is an energy ball?" (y/n) giggled at him, turning around to look at him. Such an adorable doofus.

"Orange juice!"

"Double-A batteries!" Schwoz and Jasper shouted out, irritating Charlotte beyond belief. All these suggestions were ridiculous and they were getting on her nerves.

"Shut up!" She snapped, sending her friends into silence. Okay, she was scary when she was angry.

"As you're about to see, my Scream Machine creates energy from sound." She told them calmly, moving on from the random shouting out. It was a pretty impressive idea; sound into energy could be a great development in the movement for clean energy.

"Wait, your machine can actually do that?" (y/n) looked at Charlotte incredulously, not believing that one child could have come up with such a good invention. If it worked, she would be immensely proud of her young friend.

"Why don't you step over here and you can help me test it out?" Charlotte smiled at the young woman, who excitedly accepted her offer. She couldn't wait to see this thing in action and was more than happy to help out, unlike Ray, who got antsy at the thought of her being in an experiment?

"Whoa, hey. Is this dangerous?" He asked the young girl as (y/n) stepped away from him and awaited further instructions. Schwoz, Henry and Jasper ruffled his hair and teased him at how soft he was. The great Captain Man was utterly enamoured with his girl and they were more than happy to playfully mock how he was more protective of her than ever.

"Raymond, I'll be fine." She smiled at him and he backed down a bit, although he would always be ready to spring into action if something went wrong. She'd never be upset and she'd never be unsafe, that was his promise.

"Put that mask over your face," Charlotte told the woman, who obediently did as she was told. If only she knew what was coming.

"Now, watching as I take this shock rod that Schwoz made and do this..." She held up the sparking weapon, making (y/n) and Ray widen their eyes in shock.

"Hey, wait a minute---Owwwww!" She yelped into the mask and to everyone's surprise, the more she screamed, the louder Charlotte's machine played Hawaiian music and made a little hula doll dance. Well, at least it worked.

"Sweet girl..." Ray swiftly stepped forward and brought his whimpering girl into his arms. The small burn mark quickly healed on her arm, but he soothingly rubbed his palm over it anyway. Any excuse to touch her was good in his mind.

"Remind me never to volunteer for Charlotte again." She groaned, but then refocused on the girl's project. Through the pain, she could sense her wonder at how the machine worked and Henry, Jasper and Schwoz were equally impressed. 

"Whoa, what made it work like that?" Henry asked his friend as she smiled proudly. Their flabbergasted faces were worth all the mockery, even if she did feel a bit bad about zapping (y/n). She'd be fine anyway, one kiss from Ray and it would be forgotten.

"Sound! See, when (y/n) screamed, these magnetic nodules, converted the sound vibrations into energy, which this kinetic transformer transformed into electricity, which made the hula girl dance!" She explained excitedly, thoroughly impressing her friends. 

"Wow." Henry smiled and even grumpy Ray had to admit that it was a good invention.

"That's fantastic." He told her genuinely, encouraged by the woman in his arms. She was fine, a zap on the arm was nothing to her, especially when it was for science. 

"Well, Charlotte, I have to say I'm shocked. Literally." She giggled and enjoyed a squeeze from Ray as he chuckled at her joke. He had no idea why he had been so scared to tell her how he felt, she was perfect and so lovely, he just wished he hadn't spent so many mundane nights in the arms of other girls. He could've been with her all along and couldn't bear thinking about how lonely she must have felt when he flirted with others left, right and centre.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. So when someone makes a sound into this, how much electricity can it create?" Henry asked Charlotte, suddenly feeling very interested in her science project. Maybe it wasn't so lame after all.

"It depends on how loud the sound is and how long the sound lasts." She replied, knowing that her gadget had limits. Still, it was an amazing first prototype and who knows, maybe she could improve it to create tons of electricity.

"Oooh, I want to try something!" Schwoz gasped and pushed Charlotte away from her machine.

"No, no, no, no--" She panicked, but he wasn't listening, even though it wasn't his to test out. 

"Schwoz, don't, you'll break it!" (y/n) warned him as the girl freaked out. Her machine was so delicate and only a science fair project, nothing like what Schwoz was used to building. 

"Schwoz, that's not a good idea--" Henry added, but the little man was too stubborn. He picked up an airhorn and pressed it next to the mask. The loud noise made (y/n) jump into Ray's arms as the Scream Machine began to work at maximum power, which kinda impressed Ray.

"Yeahhhhh! Hula, hula, hula!" He chanted happily and wiggled his hips to (y/n), but she just rolled her eyes. Yes, seeing him move like that was sexy, but he shouldn't have been encouraging Schwoz and his hair-brained ideas.

"Schwoz!" Charlotte screamed as the circuits began to smoulder and the excessive electricity running through them meant that they were on the point of combustion.

"Schwoz, stop!" Henry ordered the genius, who wasn't much of a genius at that moment because he happily continued to press the airhorn into the mask until Charlotte's beloved invention exploded in a flash of light and a puff of smoke. Wow, that was a smart move. 

The resulting shock wave made everyone fall to the floor as the smell of burning plastic and electronics filled the air. Oh god, what was Charlotte gonna do now? The machine sparked and fizzed a little more, making Ray shield his girlfriend with his body as she cowered against the cold tiles. Having his heavy frame on top of hers was sinfully pleasant, especially when he let his head fall into her neck and absentmindedly pressed his lips to her sweet spot, but this was no time for passion.

"Schwoz, you dickhead, it's on fire!" The young woman cried and scrambled out from under Ray so he and Henry could run for the fire extinguishers. Ugh, why did she have to move so soon? He was enjoying the way she quivered under his touch.

The superhero duo each grabbed an emergency fire extinguisher and sprayed the burning machine with the gas until they had been smothered. The charred table then promptly collapse due to the fire damage, making Charlotte's bottom lip wobble. Her lovely Scream Machine...

"Don't blame yourself," Schwoz told her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, but it was no comfort. The disaster was his damn fault and his lack of taking responsibility for his actions enraged her.

"You're so dead." (y/n) told him as she saw the girl shake in anger and she cautiously tiptoed past her to the supercomputer so she'd be out of the way for when the killing began. 

Seeking sanctuary in her boyfriend, she took a seat on his lap and watched as Charlotte looked at Schwoz with fire in her eyes. Henry passed around the drinks as she tackled him to the floor and began to painfully bend his leg backwards, making (y/n) squirm in discomfort at his screams.

"Stay still." Ray hissed in her ear, hating and loving her movements and what they were doing to him.

"Why?" She smirked, letting on that she was innocent and pure, even though she was anything but. She took a swig of her soda and ground her hips backwards, making his free hand fly to her waist. Thank god, Henry was too enthralled by the fight to notice anything.

"You know why." He growled and tightly wrapped his arm around her waist so she was immobilised. Aw, she was having so much fun seeing him get all riled up and desperate.

"Four months! I worked on that project for four months!" Charlotte shrieked at Schwoz and yanked his ankle into an unnatural position. To be fair, he deserved it. He'd ruined her work recklessly so she had a right to be angry, but she couldn't be allowed to break his leg, even if he was a little shit.

"Be a good boy and help me calm her down." (y/n) purred in Ray's ear and stood up from his lap before he could tease her back. She'd waited years to have him all to herself and now, she was finding her confidence in making him wait for her.

"Okay, Charlotte, come on," Ray told the girl as he, Henry and (y/n) approached her. Sure, it was fun to watch Schwoz get beat up, but they needed him to be able to walk.

"All right," Henry added and they each took an arm so they could lift her off the repairman, her legs kicking out as they did so. God, she wanted to rip his leg off for what he did to her invention.

"Schwoz, get up." (y/n) told the small man, not offering any sympathy to him. It was hard to hear him scream for mercy, but she knew that she'd want to kill him if he'd destroyed one of her Gizmo gadgets. Ten-year-old (y/n) could be vicious when she wanted to be.

Schwoz looked at Charlotte. Charlotte looked at Schwoz. Both now feeling incredibly angry, they lunged for each other, intent on starting another fight. If it wasn't for Ray gripping the girl's wrists tightly and Henry and (y/n) stepping in between them, they probably would've killed each other.

"Okay, let's all just calm down." The young woman told them sternly, not fancying cleaning up any blood off of her shiny floors. 

"I was finally gonna win first prize at the Gizmo Show, finally! But Schwoz had to go wreck my scream machine and ruin my chances!" Charlotte ranted bitterly as she walked away from the possibility of a fight. Although, just because she wasn't going to beat him up, it didn't mean she wasn't close to tears.

"Look, just calm down," Henry told her, but she was too mad to listen. 

"Hey! Never tell a woman to calm down." She hissed at him, making Henry look to (y/n) for help. Was it just Charlotte or was this a general rule that he didn't know about? Ray cringed at his sidekick's mistake, knowing that ordering girls about never ended well.

"Sorry, I was just trying--" He told his friend nervously, but Charlotte was insistent. She didn't want her anger to be dismissed so easily, she was upset and wanted to shout.

"Never tell a woman to calm down!" She reiterated in a sharper tone, making the boy gulp.

"Okay..." He whimpered, making (y/n) giggle as she watched in amusement. Henry should've known better than to mess with Charlotte when she was angry.

"Say it with her!" The young woman joined in, smirking when the dark-haired girl grabbed Henry's jaw and wobbled his mouth around so he'd say the phrase again. Ray and Schwoz were watching too, although they were choosing to do the smart thing and stayed quiet, the former preferring to slide his hand into (y/n)'s jean back pocket.

"You get it?" She snapped, releasing his jaw so he could stand straight.

"Yes, I promise!" He cried, feeling as though he'd thoroughly learnt his lesson. Jeez, she really was mad.

"Hey, Charlotte, this really isn't the disaster that you think it is." Ray piped up, making (y/n) look at him weirdly and it wasn't because of where he'd cheekily chosen to put his hand.

"Well, the Gizmo show is in what, two, three days? And Charlotte's project looks toasted, how is this not a disaster?" She asked him and he stepped in front of her and Charlotte so he could explain his theory, although not before giving her ass a cheeky squeeze.

"Schwoz is a scientific genius and he has all weekend to rebuild your Scream Machine, which he will. And you, sweet girl, are so good at fixing stuff and you're so kind that you'll help him, please?" Ray instructed Schwoz and then turned to his girl so he could give her his best puppy-dog eyes. They still melted her heart, but Schwoz, not so much.

"Nooooo! This weekend, I'm supposed to get my colonoscopy." He whined, thinking about how he'd been waiting for his appointment for weeks. 

"Reschedule it!" Ray exclaimed, ordering his assistant to fix the machine he'd so cruelly ruined. He made the mess, now he had to clean it up.

"Fine, I'll reschedule it." He conceded, rolling his eyes at the order. He didn't like it, but he needed this job so he'd begrudgingly do it.

"But rules say every kid has to enter their own gizmo, without help from a parent or other adult. It has to be my work!" Charlotte told her boss, thinking that if she let Schwoz and (y/n) rebuild the machine, it would technically be cheating, even if it was due compensation.

"It is your work!" Ray insisted. Loopholes, they were so great. 

"Yeah, see, Schwoz and (y/n) are just gonna recreate the project you made. Okay?" Henry added, knowing that Charlotte had completed the work herself and had built the thing previously so she'd put the effort in. Now, Schwoz just had to put the same amount of effort into rebuilding it.

"Okayyyy?" Ray and Henry said together, wanting the sceptical girl to agree. No one would know, it would be fine.

"Ugh, I guess so." She shook her head and grudgingly agreed. She had no choice, honestly. It was either this or no Gizmo Show at all and she knew which one she preferred. 

"All right, then we're all good." Ray clapped his hands, but (y/n) was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Hold on, doofus, I never said I'd help rebuild the Scream Machine. He broke it, not me." The young woman pointed out, debating internally whether it was unfair or not to make her work on something that wasn't her fault.

"Oh, please, please, please. It'll get done much faster." Charlotte begged her, trusting the woman to get the job done properly without any hiccups. Schwoz was likely to throw in some curveball and with her present, she'd keep him on the straight and narrow. It would be boring, but there was a silver lining to the offer.

"Okay, I'll do it if I get a kiss." She smiled at Ray, who happily welcomed her into his arms and cupped her face with his warm hands. Sweet lips met hers and even though they'd been kissing at every given opportunity, every time felt like the first. Fireworks, literal fireworks exploding into a combination of honey and mint, putting on a display which was exquisite to them and sickening to the teens.

"Gross!" Henry wrinkled his nose and Charlotte pulled a similar expression as they repulsed their boss's display of affection. Yeah, they were so happy that they were finally together, but that didn't make them any less mushy.

"Hey, I never say that when you kiss a girl." Ray mocked his sidekick once he'd pulled away and (y/n) savoured the taste of him on her tongue. Well, a weekend of tinkering with Schwoz would be worth it if that or more was her reward.

"Okay, I'll do it. Oh and Charlotte, don't worry about the adult thing. Schwoz will be doing most of it and he's, like, pint-sized, so I'd say in terms of height, he's a kid." (y/n) told the girl, who smiled at her sass and the prospect of her being on board with the project.

"Schwoz, now it's just up to you to make sure everything--oh my god." Ray trailed off when a snore from Schwoz told him that the man had fallen asleep again. Goddammit, this was important, he needed to stay awake.

"All right, I got this." Henry declared and walked over to the airhorn that was still sitting on a tool trolley. Seeing what he was about to do, Ray put his large hands over (y/n)'s ears so she wouldn't jump, just in time for Henry blaring the horn right next to Schwoz's ear. He awoke with a start and fell forward onto his face, making his friends look down at him in amusement. 

"Who did that?" He snapped, standing up in alarm like he was ready to attack whoever woke him up.

"None of your business!" Charlotte hissed back, feeling pretty pissed off that he'd fallen asleep on the job when he was supposed to be grovelling for an apology.

"Okay...good for you, don't calm down!" He told the girl, thinking that he was being pretty smart by using her earlier warning as his defence. He definitely didn't want to see her angry again.

~Later that evening, in Ray's car~

Schwoz had whined to (y/n) about needing spare parts and not wanting to spend all weekend with him moaning about it in her ear, she'd then whined at Ray to drive them to a store. So, here they were; driving in Ray's convertible through Downtown Swellview, looking for any shop that just might happen to open late. To be honest, it was a rare trip out for them, so rare that (y/n) had forgotten that Ray even owned the car, not that she was complaining.

Henry and Schwoz were in the back, trying to decipher Charlotte's blueprints in the passing light of the streetlamps. She'd planned thoroughly, but some of the equipment was quite technical, even for Schwoz. (y/n) was sat in the front passenger seat as Ray drove calmly with one hand on the steering wheel and the other resting on her upper thigh, his thumb occasionally rubbing the material of her jeans soothingly. 

"Hey, can we stop and get ice creams?" Schwoz asked from the backseat, his voice lighthearted and bouncy like he was a five-year-old child. Henry was so annoyed that he had to sit next to him for the whole trip, but he daren't split Ray and (y/n) up by making one sit in the back with him. The pouting would be immense.

"No...No ice cream until later. Right now, we just gotta get to the hardware store." The young woman sighed in the front. It was like travelling with a child; constant "are we there yets", toilet stops and now, ice cream. It was a thirty-minute drive, he could wait.

"I hate going to hardware stores," Ray grumbled, his hand gripping tightly around (y/n)'s thigh, which in turn made her clench them together as a surge of desire rocked through her body. 

"Well, I need extra parts if you want me and (y/n) to recreate Charlotte's stupid Scream Machine," Schwoz complained, making Henry roll his eyes at the man sitting next to him.

"Well, you both wouldn't have to recreate Charlotte's Scream Machine if you hadn't airhorned that hula girl," Henry argued, setting off a round of bickering between the boys.

"Stop making me feel bad--" Schwoz countered, but Ray had something to say about that. After all, it was his fault.

"You should feel bad! So just keep studying Charlotte's drawings, make sure you know everything you need to get!" Ray growled, momentarily removing his hand from his girl's thigh so he could poke at Schwoz and the blueprints. 

"I can't look at Charlotte's plans right now!" Schwoz whined, deepening Ray's anger at his complacency. How could he be so uncaring right now?

"I can't look at Charlotte's plans right now!" Ray mocked his voice, not realising that his hand was slowly creeping higher and higher up (y/n)'s thigh, making the girl shiver and her breathing go harder.

"Okay, everyone, calm down, we'll get nowhere arguing." She snapped at them all, trying to keep her voice level, even though her heart was racing. Taking advantage of a gap between the streetlights, (y/n) snaked her hand down to where Ray's was on her thigh and rested it on top, making the man aware of how it had climbed closer and closer to where she secretly wanted it.

For Ray, all of the air in the car had suddenly become close and warm as lust pumped through his veins. He'd picked up on how he was making her feel and had retracted his hand instantly, ending the contact that was teasing her into madness. But now, he was the one with a problem.

"I'm hot...is it hot in here?" He asked suddenly, not knowing how to deal with his desire without indulging it or hiding it. Deciding to opt for the latter, he took (y/n)'s hand and placed it on the wheel so he could quickly and clumsily take off his zip-up hoodie and throw it on her lap. The things she did to him and the things he did to her; the new sight of those biceps fanned her burning desire too.

"It's hot, I guess," Henry commented nonchalantly, not picking up on Ray's random behaviour. He'd understand when he was older or maybe he'd just get more observant one day.

"You know what, it's my car, I'm gonna put the top down," Ray told his friends and pressed the button that made the convertible roof fold back over their heads. The couple were glad of the cool night air, it let their skin cool down from days' worth of untouched desire and provided the perfect distraction. Ray was sure a kiss wouldn't cut it this time, his carnal instincts were craving more from his girl.

However, the sudden change in wind wasn't good news for Schwoz, who struggled to keep his little mitts on the paper as it danced around in the strong breeze. Henry tried to grab onto it, but he was too late, the blueprints flew from Schwoz's fingertips and were left behind as Ray carried on driving, he and (y/n) unaware of what had just happened.

"The plans! The plans!" Schwoz cried as he and Henry panicked. If those plans were ruined, that was it, game over. Ray and (y/n) frantically looked back to see that their hands were empty, making them freak out too.

"Schwoz! Where the hell are the plans?" (y/n) asked the genius as Ray focused on the road. Dear God, please, don't let it be what she thought it was gonna be.

"Heh..." He and Henry gave her a nervous look and her eyes widened at what they were suggesting. Oh god, no plans, no ideas, what the hell were they supposed to do now?

~Monday~

It was the day of the grand Gizmo Show and it had been a very stressful weekend, to say the least. Schwoz had been working overtime to whip together something for Charlotte and he'd told (y/n) that it would be exactly like that he had read on her plans, but suspiciously, he hadn't let her see the actual machine. She assembled parts and soldered circuits, but all of the main construction had been left to him, so she was essentially working blind as to what he was creating and that made her nervous.

"Oh, god, we are so late!" (y/n) panted as she, Ray, Henry and Schwoz sprinted through the halls of Swellview High with Schwoz's/ Charlotte's project. A couple of last-minute tweaks had made them fall behind schedule and they were only just bursting through the doors and into the hall where the show was being held.

"Coming through, 'scuse us, make a hole!" Ray parted the crowd as they rushed across the room with the new machine covered in a white tarp. 

"Where've you guys been?" Charlotte asked them as they tried to catch their breath. If she only knew the shit they'd been through.

"We got here as fast as we could." Henry breathed raggedly as everyone recovered from the sprint into the school. (y/n) had found that with her super-healing she could run faster and for a lot longer, but even still, she was beat.

"We wanted to stop for ice creams," Schwoz told the girl, making (y/n) roll her eyes. Of course, he'd bring that up.

"But, (y/n) wouldn't let us," Ray added, making his girlfriend look at him in offence. Schwoz was always a snitch, but why'd he have to rat on her as well? He was supposed to love her...

"Et tu, Brutus? I told you, we'll get ice creams later." She looked at him and then Schwoz with a stern face, daring them to argue back. They'd barely made it, if they'd made an ice cream stop, Charlotte would've been disqualified.

"Here come the judges. Move that table out of the way so we can put my Scream Machine there." Charlotte told her friends and Henry and Schwoz lifted the table together as (y/n) and Ray rolled the gizmo to where it should be. Ray pulled off the cloth to reveal...a completely different machine, making Charlotte and (y/n) look at it in horror. Was that what Schwoz had been hiding from her all weekend?

"Whoa, where is my project?" Charlotte asked the boys, who were nervously fidgeting as the girls took in all the different components, tubing and wires.

"What the hell is that? You told me you were building Charlotte's machine!" (y/n) hissed at Schwoz, who gulped at how angry she looked. Ray was adjusting the gadget whilst she was giving the genius an earful and he hoped that he wasn't next on her list.

"Technically, I told you I was working on a machine. I didn't say it was Charlotte's." Schwoz told the woman nervously, making her give him a clip round the ear. Honestly, she felt lied to and irritated that she hadn't seen it coming. Next time, she'd demand to supervise everything because obviously, he couldn't be trusted.

"Listen, listen, I need to tell you something...we lost the plans to your Scream Machine," Henry whispered to Charlotte as he took it upon himself to be the one who took the telling off.

"You lost them?" Charlotte yelled loudly, making them all shush her before the judges could hear. Even (y/n) didn't want that to happen.

"Okay, never tell a woman to shush!" She snapped, but this time, she really did need to be quiet.

"Charlotte, I wholeheartedly agree, but please, be quiet!" She whispered to the girl as she folded her arms and stood next to her.

"We're sorry!" Ray told both of them, not liking how tetchy his girl was now. Did that mean she wouldn't kiss him later? A whole weekend of working on a machine she didn't know about had kept her busy and therefore left him high and dry, with no relief from the scorching desire he'd been feeling since Friday night. He was wound up, to say the least, and a moody girlfriend meant he'd be on the receiving end of nothing.

"So many rules." Schwoz puffed out his cheeks as he learnt something new about women. He didn't know how they worked, which probably explained why he was so bad with them.

"Now, I know why you had to literally build your own girlfriend, you suck at women, dude." (y/n) shook her head at his bewilderment. Girls just want guys to be nice to them, is that too much to ask?

"Look, Schwoz and (y/n) tried to rebuild the machine, but--" Henry started, but the woman didn't like that her name was being dropped into the mix.

"--But without the plans, he couldn't get it to work in time so..." Ray trailed off as (y/n) gave him the side-eye and he felt it best to be quiet.

"So, he tricked me into helping him build the new...thing." (y/n) finished, realising that she didn't know anything about what she had helped make. Instantly, she was as curious as Charlotte to know what it did, although she wasn't as upset. 

"Then what the jack is that thing?" The teen girl snarled, pointing to her new gizmo with rage and disgust. 

"It's a little project I've been working on so, I got (y/n) to help me finish for you!" Schwoz smiled at her, but it didn't make anything better for Charlotte.

"Well, I can't pretend I made this." The girl hissed, knowing that she wouldn't be able to show off a machine that she knew nothing about.

"Well, it has got your little disco ball from your actual project." (y/n) tried to lighten the mood by poking the ball to make it wobble around. Ray even did his little hula dance, which made the young woman giggle, but Charlotte didn't find it so funny. She yanked the disco ball from the machine and threw it across the hall, making Ray gasp in horror. Not the disco ball...

"This isn't my work. I don't even know what it does." Charlotte groaned, rubbing her forehead in frustration.

"Okay, what this machine does---I don't really know what it does--" Henry tried to explain, but he didn't know and the judges were coming their way, meaning Charlotte was suddenly thrust forward to explain her invention.

"Okay next...ah, yes, here's the young lady, who's no stranger to second place ribbons." The head judge told her companions as they strolled up Charlotte, who smiled bitterly at her words.

"Steady on, love." (y/n) commented, not believing that a woman who worked with children could be so cruel. Second place wasn't terrible, sure, first was better, but still. 

"How are you, Charlotte?" The brunette woman ignored the sass and focused on the teenager in front of her, who was suddenly incredibly nervous at being branded a cheat. 

"Oh, you know, good. Little nauseous." She answered honestly, feeling her stomach do somersaults as the judges looked her up and down. Jesus, she'd never been this nervous at a Gizmo Show.

"Great, you wanna tell us about your project?" Was the one's next question and it left Charlotte stumped. She didn't even know where the on switch was.

"I'd rather not." She'd quickly mumbled into the microphone, causing the woman to switch tactics.

"Okay..would you like to demonstrate your gizmo?" She asked and Charlotte knew that she had no choice. It was either that or disqualification and she wasn't waiting another year to come first place.

"Yeah, okay." She apprehensively agreed as Ray stepped forward to make a witty, but unnecessary comment.

"Yeah, 'cause what else would she do? Not demonstrate it?" He laughed to himself, but he was the only one who found it amusing. 

"Sorry, he's a bit...y'know." (y/n) told the female judge nervously and looped her arm through Ray's so she could pull him away from the mic. Honestly, she couldn't leave him around anything, goofy doofus.

"All right, Charlotte. What does your gizmo do?" The woman asked, leaving Charlotte to stumble and look at Schwoz for help.

"Well, uhhhh, I should probably start by turning it on and to do that I just...uhhhh, I push this." She looked at her friends, who were coughing suspiciously and shaking their heads. Okay, so not that button.

"I mean, I pull this..." She moved onto the next lever and was met by another round of covered-up coughs. Next button.

"Actually, I just turn this nob..." She giggled nervously and was overjoyed to learn that this time, she was on the right thing. She twisted the button and the machine illuminated into a bright blue, wowing everyone around it.

"And next, I---uh..." She looked right for help, not knowing what the next step was.

"Arghhh, tap the screen, arggghhh." Henry, Schwoz, Ray and (y/n) coughed and she got the message. Jeez, they were sounding really ill at this point. After pressing the screen, Charlotte was alarmed to hear the machine power up until a beam of light came out of it, hitting Jasper, who had just been standing around and minding his own business. Everyone was flabbergasted to see his body being sucked into the machine and then rematerialised on the other side of the room. Oh. My. God. What had Schwoz built? 

"Wasn't I just over there?" Jasper asked the astonished crowd, but they were too speechless to reply. 

"Good Lord, did your device just transport your device from there to there?" The head judge asked Charlotte, who was also completely baffled at what Schwoz had given her.

"Y--y--yeah. I guess so." She answered, not knowing how to respond at all. 

"We should stop this competition now because Charlotte's device isn't just the best gizmo at this show, this is mankind's most impressive invention of all time!" The judge announced and everyone applauded Charlotte and her "success", but the girl was feeling anything but proud. 

"Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, it's not so great. Look at that pancake flipper! I wish I had thought of that." She chuckled humourlessly, wishing that her device was about one million per cent less impressive so she wouldn't have to explain herself to the entire world about her revolutionary technology.

"Are you kidding? You have created instant teleportation. This technology could end the need for cars, aeroplanes, shipping. It could help preserve the Earth's entire ecosystem. Charlotte, you are going to be the most famous person on this planet." The judge explained, making Charlotte's stomach drop to the floor. Holy shit, what had Schwoz done?

"Someone call the government!"

"Call Fox News!"

"She's gonna win the Nobel Prize!"

"Yeah, take that China!" Ray added to the random things being shouted out by people in the crowd, not realising that he was contributing to the utter fear being felt by his young assistant. 

"Well, Charlotte, I hope you're proud that--where'd she go?" The judge cut off when she noticed that her star inventor was no longer standing by her side, in fact, she'd disappeared completely.

"Oh, here she is, hiding under the table." Jasper pointed her out and Charlotte whimpered under all the attention, fearing what this newfound fame would mean for her.

"Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte!" She smiled awkwardly as a man lifted her onto his shoulder and the crowd began to chant her name. This wasn't how she wanted things to go at all. 

"Okay, okay. Okay, thank you. I need to get down now. Yeah, okay." She patted the man on the head and he gently placed her back on the ground. Signalling for her friends to come over, Charlotte walked over to a secluded spot as everyone admired "her" teleportation device.

"Hey, kid, what's this thing you built?" She asked a boy around her age, thinking it looked perfect for a secret chat.

"It's a soundproof booth." He answered and that was just the answer she was looking for.

"Cool. In here." She told the gang and they all crowded in, not caring about the protests from the booth's inventor. A small stunning laser from Henry's whiz watch soon sorted him out.

"Yeah, that's my gizmo," Henry smirked at Ray, who happened to overhear his line and loved it. The large man made room for his sidekick as (y/n) stood next to him, ready to grill her friends for what they had unleashed on poor Charlotte.

"Right, I need you guys to listen." The girl looked at them all, knowing that she only had a few minutes before the crowd came looking from her.

"I know what you're going to say so you're welcome." Schwoz smiled at the girl, thinking she was gonna lavish praise and gratitude onto him for sharing his awesome technology with her.

"I'm not welcome! Everyone out there thinks I'm in this scientific genius, who just created this most important invention in the history of the world!" She pointed out in a stressed voice, feeling the pressure again. 

"Once again, you're welcome!" Schwoz smiled at her, but he didn't see that it was actually a very bad thing.

"Idiots!" (y/n) sighed at his blatant stupidity.

"People are calling the government, Fox News!" She gasped, trying to get her head around all the madness.

"So? They're fair!" Ray told her, questioning the girl's worry, which got him a slap on the chest from his girl. Sometimes, he was so dense.

"And balanced!" Henry added, earning a punch on the arm. Idiots, (y/n) and Charlotte worked with idiots.

"And what happens when they wanna know everything about me?" Charlotte prompted, but she still wasn't getting through to them. Looks like they needed it dumbing down.

"Listen, idiots, people are gonna find out she works at Junk-N-Stuff and then reporters are gonna come poking around to talk to her. How long will it take them to figure out that's where Captain Man lives with Miss Danger and works with Kid Danger?" (y/n) explained, making the boys throw their heads back against the booth's walls in frustration. It was inevitable, reporters were always sneaky and shifty.

"They're right. This is a problem, we need to make it go away." Ray groaned as he let his forehead flop down to rest on the young woman's shoulder. Why was life never easy?

"How? I mean, everyone out there just saw her device work." Henry pointed out, gesturing to where the demonstration had just taken place. 

"Yeah, people ain't that stupid. We can't just tell them that Curly's teleportation was just a trick of the light." (y/n) sighed, raising her hand to Ray's head so she could run her fingers through his silky hair. She was still a bit annoyed at how much of a mess had been created, but having him so close...was it getting hot in the box or was it just her?

"We need to get rid of it," Ray told them all, lifting his gaze just enough so he could see over (y/n)'s head and look at that damn teleporter. 

"My machine?" Schwoz asked sadly, not wanting to see his beloved creation destroyed. Now, he'd know how poor Charlotte felt on Friday.

"Yeah, your machine." Ray mocked him using his Schwoz voice, making his girl giggle. He loved how his goofiness always made her laugh, even in the gravest of times. 

"Okay, dude, there's, like, a billion people out there. How are we gonna get rid of it?" Henry asked his boss, but (y/n) had already come up with an answer.

"All we need is a plan," Ray said mysteriously, leaving a few seconds for anyone to come up with one. Of course, (y/n) could have just come out with hers straight away, but seeing him look so serious was hot.

"Which is?" Henry looked at him expectantly, not knowing what he was waiting for. Surely, he had a plan.

"I don't know, Henry. Is it not enough that I pointed out that a plan is what we need?" Ray asked his sidekick in an annoyed tone and that's when (y/n) decided to jump in before any fight could break out.

"I have an idea." She told her boyfriend with a pleasant face, making him cran his neck so he could get more on her level.

"Is it a plan?" He asked, his mouth dangerously close to her neck. God, at this point, he had to be teasing her.

"Yes."She confirmed, making Ray look at Henry with a smug smirk. She'd just ignore that.

"Okay, all we need is for Captain Man, Miss Danger, Kid Danger and a criminal." She said, smirking at Jasper as she formed the idea in her head.

"You want me to be a criminal?" He asked her, to which she slowly nodded her head. 

"Oh, yeah, will you do it?" She asked, using her best fluttering eyelashes, but they only worked on Ray.

"Do I have to whack someone?" Jasper asked, hoping that he'd get to be in on some action.

"No, but you do get the opportunity to impress Captain Man." She offered, knowing that the boy's love for her superhero boyfriend would be enough to sway him.

"I'll do it!" Jasper exclaimed, ready to help Captain Man in any way he could. 

"Good, now, all you have to do is dress up as a criminal and come attack the device. Then, we'll come in and get you, but sadly, the teleporter will have been destroyed in the fight. Easy-peasy, squeeze the lemon." (y/n) explained as they all huddled around her and they all nodded in understanding once she had finished. 

"Okay, we better get into our positions," Henry told them all and Jasper was the first to leave. His costume had to be perfect if he was gonna "fight" Captain Man.

"What about me?" Schwoz whined, suddenly realising that he hadn't been given a job, but there wasn't a lot for him to do. This was a job that didn't need his genius coking it up.

"Just go outside and look normal. You can give us the signal if you want." (y/n) hissed, shoving the small man through the door as Charlotte prepared herself to go next. Honestly, he was such a baby sometimes. Once she was out there, no one would notice Swellview's greatest crimefighters sneaking around. Popping a gumball into their mouths, Henry, Ray and (y/n) started to chew as Charlotte peeked out of the door.

"Okay, here I go." She whimpered and stepped out of the booth, only to be immediately swept up in a tidal wave of people vying for her attention. Wow, being famous looked like hard work. Seeing that they only had a small window of opportunity, the superheroes started to blow their bubbles and transformed into their super suits. 

"Henry, you go first, then we'll follow after." The young woman told him, thinking it would be better if they split up rather than moving as one big group. Plus, she wanted an excuse to be alone with Ray, even if it was just for a second.

"Right, right." Henry nodded and as soon as the hoard of Charlotte-lovers had passed the door, he was creeping out and over to a small table to hide. Good, at least they had some cover. Now, alone together, the young woman turned to her boyfriend with hungry eyes.

"Before we go, kiss me." She told him, putting her arms around his neck so she could pull him close. They had no time at all, but she really wanted to taste those lips one more time before they had to go do their duty.

"Why, sweet girl?" Ray smirked down at her, holding his head back so it was slightly out of her reach. She'd teased him, now, it was his turn.

"Because, I've never told you but, you look so hot as Captain Man." She bit her tongue when his eyes grew darker before surging down to press his mouth to hers hungrily. Hot, wandering hands slid down to the backs of her thighs as he lifted her to put her legs around his waist so she wouldn't have to angle her neck awkwardly. It was a bit uncomfortable navigating around his utility belt, but she was too distracted by his bubblegum taste to care. Now at his level, she freely ran her hands through his slicked-back hair, mussing it sightly as he pressed her tightly against the wall. Thank god it was one-way glass. 

Ray broke free from the kiss and moved his lips to the right, trailing them across her jaw to under her ear, where he nipped sharply at her skin. A moan tore from her lips and Ray couldn't help but move further down her neck, wanting to see what other noises he could get her to make.

"Fuck, you're so hot and all mine, sweet girl." He panted against her neck, making her whine as she realised how long they were taking. What a shame that this couldn't last forever. 

"We have to go." She whimpered, clutching his shoulders tightly as he growled against her skin. He didn't want to go, he just wanted her.

"Ray, Henry's waiting and Charlotte's being ambushed by reporters. We have to go." She repeated and he reluctantly moved away from her skin and released her legs from his hold. 

"Later." He told her in a low voice and she nodded breathlessly as he placed a final sweet kiss on her plump lips one last time before they stepped out into the hall. The reporters were still swarming around Charlotte, who was looking incredibly nervous and then, they spotted Henry, who looked incredibly pissed off at how he'd been hiding on his own for five minutes.

"What took you guys so long?" He asked in an irritated tone as they tiptoed past some unsuspecting bystanders and joined him behind a pop-up table. Did he really want to know?

"Something came up." (y/n) smirked, her chuckling growing even louder as her comment went over Henry's head. He was so innocent, it was cute.

"Where's Jasper?" She followed up, wanting to know where the boy was considering the reporters were getting more and more excited with Charlotte. The poor girl looked like she was gonna pass out. Not knowing where his best friend was either, Henry took out his cell and dialled his number as Ray took out his handy compact mirror and a small comb.

"Jasper, where are you?" The boy asked his friend whilst Ray groomed his hair back into perfection. Normally, he'd keep it messy to show off that his girl had chosen him to be the one she wanted, but Captain Man had to appear immaculate and tidy, even if it made him look a little vain.

"I'm right outside, I found a great disguise in the dumpster." Jasper's faint voice could be heard from the speaker, although in some places it was a little patchy due to the noise from the busy. crowd. (y/n) saw the way Ray was admiring himself in the mirror and she rolled her eyes. Yeah, he looked great (telling him that definitely inflated his ego), but there was no time for staring at himself.

"Okay, just get here and follow the plan," Henry told him, accepting the fact that Jasper was probably gonna smell like a dumpster. Nice. 

"Can I whack someone?" He asked, still holding onto the hope that he'd be allowed to get in on some action.

"No, you can't whack someone, just get here!" (y/n) hissed into Henry's ear so Jasper would hear her and the boy promptly ended the call. Looking out over the table, Ray saw Schwoz wander into the middle of the room and then flick his nostril with his thumb. That must have been the signal. Ray repeated the action back to him and that's when Jasper came bursting into the hall in a very wacky costume. It had a cardboard mask, a trash bag sash and a grungy hoodie.

"Ahhhhhhhh, quick! They're after me! I need a place to hide!" He shouted at the crowd, pointing a cut-off garden hose at them so he could pretend it was a gun.

"Ahhhh, it's that bad guy! Somebody do something!" Schwoz yelled in a bad acting voice, signalling for the three superheroes that that was their cue.

"I'll do something!" Ray exclaimed as he and his sidekicks ran out from their hiding spots. It wasn't the most epic entrance ever, but then again, Captain Man could make anything cool.

"And I'll do something...also!" Henry quipped too, pointing a finger at Jasper as he gave him a sharp glare. Wow, his clothes really stank, they were a few feet away and they could still smell them.

"I'm also here...to do something!" (y/n) smiled at the crowd, feeling like her line wasn't as cool since she was the last one to speak. Obviously, she was there, they'd all seen her.

"Dad, look! It's Captain Man, Miss Danger and Kid Danger!" Piper cried as she gasped at the sight of her favourite heroes. Maybe this science fair wouldn't turn out so bad for her after all. The superheroes smiled bashfully as the crowd cheered at their appearance and Jasper took it to ask Schwoz what was the next step. 

"Hey, what do I do know?" He asked, having forgotten everything that had been said earlier.

"Run to Charlotte's table," Schwoz answered in a hushed voice. At least he had been paying attention.

"Right...Ahhhh, this man can't stop me!" Jasper replied, but his need to whack someone was too great. Seeing an opportunity, he punched Schwoz in the nose, making the poor guy drop to the floor unconscious. Honestly, (y/n) said no whacking.

"Uh...hold it right there!" Ray improvised, not expecting Jasper to deviate from the plan and actually attack someone. At least it seemed more real now, maybe.

"No! I'm not...holding it anywhere! Ahhhh!" Jasper turned and sprinted to where the teleporter was and Henry, (y/n) and Ray wasted no time in running after him. They circled the machine a few times as they pretend to care about what he was doing.

"Sir...I urge you to give up." Henry told the "criminal" confidently, acting as though this fight was difficult. 

"Eat feet!" Jasper hissed back, making the crowd gasp at the stupid insult. No one spoke to Kid Danger like that and got away with it.

"Oh, okay, that does it, punk!" (y/n) shouted, looking at Ray for their next move. It was probably gonna hurt, but if it destroyed that damn machine, it was worth it.

"Let's get him!" He cried and the three released a battle cry before jumping over the teleporter, crushing it to pieces under their combined weight. Well, that was easy. 

"Charlotte's gizmo!" The head judge cried like she was in actual pain as she watched the world's greatest invention be destroyed by some two-bit criminal. The crowd couldn't believe it, the revolutionary technology was in bits just like that and it got even worse as the heroes stood up and trampled through it to get to Jasper.

"Ahhhh!" They growled, stamping and throwing bits of the machine around so they could properly destroy it whilst also looking like they were ragging Jasper around. They continued to whack components around as Schwoz got to his feet and (y/n) couldn't help but feel like she was wasting all the work she did at the weekend. Oh, well.

"It's such an odd fight!" The head judge told the man on her left as they both watch Kid Danger and the criminal stamp on the plastic tubing. Well, duh, it was odd. because it wasn't real.

"All right, punk. Next stop for you..." Ray said as he and Henry held Jasper up by his collar, the boy pretending to have been defeated by a particularly hard hit from a circuit board.

"Jail!" Henry finished, looking out at the distraught people watching. Well, they were upset but convinced.

"Oh, I hate jail..." Jasper complained in a dramatic voice as Ray and Henry began to lead him away roughly.

"Tough...well, we better go..." (y/n) hissed and they quickly shoved Jasper out of the hall before any questions could be asked. Let's just say it was a resounding success.

~In the car~

Finally, Schwoz had gotten his hands on some ice cream. (y/n) had relented on the way back from the Gizmo Show and had told Ray to pull into a drive-thru ice cream parlour so they could all grab a cone. It was a tight squeeze in the car for six people, but they'd managed it. Ray was at the wheel with (y/n) snuggled into his side as she sat in the middle of the front bench next to Henry and then in the back, Schwoz, Jasper and Charlotte were crammed in, but thoroughly enjoying their ice creams. It was cramped but cosy.

"Over your shoulder, you know that I told ya, I'll always be picking you up when you're down, so just turn around." They all sang along to an old song. It was something from the early 2000s and (y/n) was surprised that the teens remembered it.

"Hey, babe, can you hold this for a second?" Ray turned to (y/n) and held out his ice cream for her to hold.

"Uh, yeah, sure. What are you--" She asked, but her eyes nearly popped out of her head as Ray unfastened his seatbelt and opened the car door. He rolled out onto the road, forcing (y/n) to grab the wheel before the entire car crashed into the oncoming traffic.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Henry yelled in alarm as the car swerved from left to right and the gang who were still present scrambled to brace themselves for an impact. Luckily though, (y/n) was a competent driver and soon had everything under control, but that didn't mean she wasn't angry.

"That moron, I'm gonna fucking kill him!" She screamed as Schwoz, Charlotte and Jasper tried to see Ray's body lying on the road. She could feel her dropped ice cream seep into her jeans and she promised herself that she was gonna sleep in her old room tonight, even if she preferred to be with Ray in his room. What was so urgent that he felt the need to do that, especially when his girl was in the car? What an idiot.

He definitely wasn't getting any tonight after that stunt.

[brucenorris007]

“Game Sonic doesn’t have it in him to kill Eggman.” -Someone on IG comparing Movie Sonic to Game Sonic per something written in StH 2′s script. Have... have you played or even seen the Sonic games? Especially those prior to Forces and Frontiers?

Okay, maybe that’s somewhat unwarranted. Still.

He doesn’t prioritize killing Eggman the way Shadow occasionally or Omega (always) do, but he’s not exactly opposed to seeing, ah, spilled yolk on any sort of principle, either. Eggman just doesn’t occupy anymore space in Sonic’s mind than he warrants at any given moment; the doctor might be obsessed with crushing this teenager who keeps humiliating him, but the reverse?

Sonic at one point says, when asked in Sonic X where Eggman is on a day he’s not actively destroying things or hurting people:

“I don’t care.”

Newer iterations of the blue blur confuse it a bit–starting around Lost World, I believe–but let’s go down the Games timeline; explore the evolution of Sonic’s general attitude toward killing and by extension, cracking the egg.

Classic Sonic is a younger, less powerful and perhaps more unhinged hedgehog. Like I said in another post, Sonic’s first priority is doing what’s Cool; stomping Eggman’s machines and rescuing his animal friends have fit his personal definition of cool from day one.

Every time Sonic and Eggman clash, Sonic stops attacking once Eggman does; that is, once his contraption of the week gets thrashed. Eggman’s smart enough to flee by that point, and while Sonic would keep fighting if the doctor attacked him again, striking an enemy in the back while they’re running away doesn’t fit his definition of Cool.

Sonic doesn’t go out of his way to kill an enemy who isn’t actively trying to kill him, but neither does he go out of his way to save Eggman from falls that could easily end his life. (Refer to: The conclusion of most fights between Robotnik and Super Sonic pre-Dreamcast era)

A trend that carries through at least Sonic Unleashed; if Sonic had a truly immovable stance against killing Eggman, he wouldn’t just stand by and watch his contraptions fall to pieces around him until the doctor spirals in just a pod or console seat at terminal velocity per Sonic 06. I wouldn’t be surprised if Eggman keeps Heal Units on hand for personal use when cartoon physics aren’t enough to prevent grievous injury.

I predict this is going to get longer than I expected; have a cut.

And Eggman knows this. After so many years as arch-enemies, how could he not recognize the pattern? Factor it into his schemes and calculations, his fail safes, however much he loathes the idea of losing again?

There are two Mobians in the franchise who consistently hold back and put a check on themselves out of consideration for others. Two Mobians who, should either snap, are capable several times over of wreaking untold havoc across the planet and ending the doctor’s career in evil permanently.

Knuckles, and Sonic.

This echidna is strong enough to trigger a fault line that can sever an entire zone off of Angel Island with a single blow; who, coupled with his familiarity with chaos energy and channeling the merest fraction of the M.E., can sucker punch someone out of their Super state. Destined Child’s self-control of his strength is a more significant act of kindness than just about anything else he could do.

And Sonic’s maximum speed, in his normal state, cannot be accurately measured even by Eggman’s machines. Oh, he can work out medians and means for the hedgehog’s typical velocity, enough that his robots can put up a decent fight and track/predict the blue blur’s movements.

But Sonic pulls stunts that should not be possible even in the fantastic world of Mobius on the daily; he’s fast enough that he can and has joked about light speed being casual for him, and at one point in his career he outran a black hole for upwards of half a minute. Again, without the aid of his Super state.

Sonic’s reasons for holding back coincide with Knuckles’ somewhat, but they don’t match one to one. A) He holds back for others’ sake and safety: pulling a friend along when he pours on a speed boost, pacing himself when he’s carrying someone (often, though not limited to, princesses...) and, one can infer, limiting himself to just fast enough to break the sound barrier most of the time so he doesn’t constantly destroy/reshape the terrain he’s running on. Sonic’s a rebel, and he enjoys breaking stuff, but only when he’s making a point through the stuff he’s breaking. Aimless destruction isn’t quite his wheelhouse.

And B) he holds back for the sake of having more fun. There are a lot of reasons Sonic’s persisted as a character for three decades now, and one of them, setting him apart from a lot of other ‘cool’ stoic characters I could name, is that Having Fun falls under his definition of Cool.

This is the only way Sonic’s approach to things in the Riders games, his rivalry with Jet in particular, makes any kind of sense; he chooses to race using Extreme Gear because the sport, the banter, the push toward the finish line alongside his best friends are fun, he enjoys all those things. If beating Jet or proving that he’s faster was truly the highest priority for him, he’d ditch the board and just break a half dozen laws of physics on foot like he always does.

Like I mentioned, Eggman’s aware of that; of the fact that Destined Child and Some Guy are, 99% of the time, exercising self-restraint. And factors it into his schemes. He doesn’t quite fear Knuckles snapping as much, since there are years of evidence proving that taking advantage of the echidna’s naivete isn’t enough to make him lose it, and because he understands that Knuckles sees himself as a Guardian on and off of Angel Island. Born to protect; only harming in service to that role, and certainly not to kill.

Compared to Knuckles, Sonic’s conditions for losing it, for going berserk are much more apparent; namely excessive, grievous harm to his friends. In particular, his best friend Tails.

There’s a reason why Eggman ejected Sonic from the ARK in a time bomb space pod in SA2 before facing off with the fox, and it wasn’t simply because he was outnumbered. He was holding Amy hostage with Tails in the room well before Sonic arrived. He could have demanded Tails exit the Cyclone and killed the fox. He didn’t need two hostages.

But he knew better than to think he could predict how Sonic would react to seeing his sidekick (in Eggman’s mind) motionless on the floor of the ARK. Worse case scenario, four bodies end up careening in free fall towards the Earth’s atmosphere.

Eggman knows Sonic has it in him to kill; are other Mobians more likely to try killing him? Yes, but the possibility still figures into Eggman’s plans and is one of the reasons the blue hedgehog occupies most of the doctor’s attention, second to his obsession with returning all the humiliation Sonic’s visited on him over the years.

All that being said, there is a moment in Sonic’s career that marks the beginning of a shift in his attitude toward killing.

Emerl.

Gemerl’s predecessor and the focal point/main character of Sonic Battle, for the uninformed.

Sonic found this battered robot, abandoned by Eggman in a fit of impatience and frustration; this machine designed to be the ultimate combat weapon, capable of observing and evolving based on those it interacts with like a whole-ass person would. In the penultimate chapter of the game, Emerl acquires the seventh chaos emerald and achieves a perilous state where the right words might make or break the world, and Shadow picks the right ones that allow Emerl to function autonomously without posing a danger to the planet.

Obviously, in the ultimate chapter, Eggman has to come and fuck that up.

With Emerl out of control and beyond the reach of words or reason and only minutes between him and the planet’s destruction, Sonic has no choice but to destroy–to kill–this robot he practically raised like a child of his own to save the world.

Sonic doesn’t hesitate in doing so, though it’s clear he doesn’t want to. And of course, it affects him.

It’s that moment that begins to change his attitude from “I don’t kill in cold blood/don’t kill anyone with their back to me or running away” to “I don’t kill if I can help it.”

Make no mistake, though: Sonic wouldn’t shed a single tear for Eggman’s funeral. At most, he’d consider life marginally more boring without an arch nemesis and then get over it.

Sonic is capable of cracking the egg; he prefers avoiding it, but under the right circumstances, avoiding it falls way down his list of priorities.

To this day in the games, Eggman doesn’t go after the hedgehog’s friends in earnest until he believes the blue blur has been dealt with first.

That is very, very intentional on his part.

@generic-sonic-fan

[thatgrumpybxtch]

Hi! I saw that you write Avatar 2009 stuff and one thing (well, one person) came to mind: NORM SPELLMAN. I’ve always been an absolute SUCKER for adorkable nerds in any media so obviously, 11 yr old me fell HEAD OVER HEELS for this boy. I’d like to request Norm with an s/o who cares the world for him and gets incredibly anxious and protective when he gets hurt, even when it’s a minor injury (This could be either before or after his avatar gets shot down, your choice).

Thank you for the request!! Apologies that it has taken me forever to get too

Headcanons for Norm Spellman having a super protective and anxious s/o:

Going to Pandora was a dream come true for both you and Norm

It was beyond exciting to be able to work on a whole different planet

However it was insane how quickly things grew to be unstable

Quaritch had his plan for bulldozers to take down home tree, of course you all didn't know it was really happening until it happened

After that everything went down hill

Quaritch and his men were pulling people out of the link machines without warning

This immediately put everyone on edge, especially you. It was dangerous to just disrupt a session in the link machine

You didn't want that happening to Norm

At this point you had your fair share of arguments with Quaritch and his guys over the safety of Norm (and others ofc)

Of course Norm is the one who is standing there holding you back from starting fights with a bunch of marines

As things escalated, so did your anxiety and protectiveness

Quaritch had basically dragged you all into a jail cell, they had to consider sedating you to put it lightly

During the escape you never left Norms side, terrified that if you did something would happen

Then the subject of war was brought up. You were a mess. You didn't want Norm to fight, tried everything to get him not too

But he insisted. He knew this was the right thing to do and you knew it too so you settled for fighting along side him to help protect him

He wasn't too crazy about the idea of you fighting either

It was intense. There was gun fire, smoke, and yelling everywhere

You got separated from him for a split second, trying to help one of the Na'vi escape safely

When you tried to look back for him... he was no where to be seen

So you used the microphone piece to try and reach him, he didn't answer.

You kept asked for him, begging for him to say something so you knew he was okay. You sprinted through the forest, searching everywhere

You finally saw his avatar, laying face down on the ground with a bullet wound. He was unconscious, barely breathing, a slow pulse. An injury this bad could kill him, not just his avatar.

You couldn't bare to leave his side. With teary eyes you put pressure on his wounds, praying and begging that he would make it.

But the avatars breathing slowed and stopped along with the heart beat. He was gone...

Neytiri and Jake had managed to track you down after everything was over, they mourned with you and managed to get you up and moving after what felt like an eternity

You wanted to see him, to see his human body, to officially say goodbye to him

When you got there he was laying on the ground of the lab, broken glass everywhere... but he had his mask on and somehow by some miracle he was breathing... he was alive!

It wasn't until days later that Norm had awakened, after getting proper medical care, you were beyond relieved and thankful and definitely hugged him a little too hard :)

You were never letting him out of your sight again

[zavbees]

Y'all help. We Happy Few has me in a damn choke hold now. Apparently my list of favorite genres now includes "WDYM there's something wrong? Nuh-uh, take your happy pills" and i-

Idk what that says about me.

Just something about it scratches my brain so good. Like the aesthetic is so fucking good. Genuinely thinking about a society like that is fascinating to me. Like, people being almost forced to forget everything negative. I Utopian Dystopia. I am such a sucker for stories where everyone is happy (like really fluff heavy), and I am a sucker for angst and characters being put in tough situations. So like. Thinking about it I'm not surprised this is as exciting as it is to me.

It is a horror that isn't gore and super dark. Like, don't get me wrong, the game is plenty dark, but not in the way horror usually is. It's dark partially BECAUSE of everyone being "happy". It literally gives me the dark aspects I crave in the fluffy casing I need in order to be able to fully connect with it. And it's so fucking refreshing.

Also, I really want to make something about if Arthur took his Joy in the beginning of the game (so like he isn't a downer, at least not fully. Idk it's just interesting to me) and he and Sally reconnect. Like, it's just and Every Man being just a normal cog in the machine, and then this woman who he used to be closer comes back into his life. Maybe by that point he barely remembers Percy, because of his Joy use, and the moment that he would have remembered him by is denied (since he takes the pill instead). Then, once he has to choose to either turn Sally in or keep her secret, ESPECIALLY with her having a baby, I think that would also be enough to nudge him off of Joy. Even if it's purely becuase of the moral delema of a long lost friend taking a different path, so now he has to examine his own thoughts.

Like I find the world so fricken cool that they built in this game, but I really want to know what it's like as someone who's IN civilization. Downers are outcasts. That's just how they are. But what about the Wellies who take their Joy every hour on the hour and live in relative bliss.

I think it's just I really like angst, and the best way for this particular flavor of angst to hit best imo is to show just HOW good things are as a "normal person" for a decent length of time, then getting hit with the complete opposite of what you've been hearing and realizing you've been lied to for the past,,, 10 or 20 years??

Idk man. I've been hyperfixating hard. I just started playing the game like 3 days ago because I randomly remembered it existed like last week and now it's all I can think about.

And I'm loving it. I'm Snug like a Bug on a Drug.

[euphorbic]

Off the back of my photo dump post, here’s the detailed bit.

First, anyone that follows me should likely know that one of my Special Interests ™️ is motorcycles. Second, others follow me for ball-jointed dolls (BJD) stuff. BJD are just big action figures for me.

Concept

Motored Cyborg Runner (AKA 少女発動機) is a line of 17.5cm action figures, which are a mashup of “girl” and motorcycles. These designs are based on AF Kuro’s work.

I am n o t a fan of his barely-pubescent t¡ts and aśś and pυbis mons work. (Someone call the Hawkeye Initiative on this weird and gratuitous twät shot.) BUT I DIGRESS!

Here’s a pallet cleanser:

As you can see: basically sportbike gajinka. My (very gross) hero!

The details

Sen-ti-nel and Goodsmile teamed up to create action figures based on these designs. I’m assuming that this design is Tsujigiri. (I use Hepburn spelling, despite all packaging and marketing materials using Kunrei-shiki: Tsu-zi-giri. Why? Because there is no “zi” sound in Japanese and because I love you, of course!)

Onward! Have a recap photo:

Here’s where the motorcycle enthusiast in me gets consumed with glee. The motorcycle details. Starting with the removable fuel tank backpack. The tank shape isn’t motorcycleish, but from this angle? Yes, yes it is. It’s like looking down at your fuel cap from sitting on the seat.

Then there’s the torque wrench settings. On race bikes and cars, torque settings are painted next to bolts so nobody has to remember how many newton meters (N/M) is needed for each one.

Sorry, this shot sucks because I just used my phone all these. The warning label on this one reads: Caution, hot surface. The black arrow points up to the engine, but more specifically the engine’s header. Caution is appropriate: I don’t know a single motorcycle tech that hasn’t been burned on a header.

The single cylinder engine is very accurate to a motorcycle. Even the silver cover combined with the darker case is iconic. It’s so accurate that I can’t help but question why anyone would go with this single cylinder 4-stroke model when they could go with a 2-stroke? Better choice in my opinion… on a completely made up future that has internal combustion still in existence.

And, of course, we have the 4-stroke style collector/silencer/muffler. If I had some Akrapovic, Arrow, or Yoshimura decals in the right size, I’d slap that sucker on. The figure comes with two silencers, but the other one is very short.

Not a motorcycle thing, but look at this tiny QR code on the arm pocket! Adorable.

So there’s my word vomit on motorcycle things that make me half the target audience for these figures. Just one more thing, to mention, I guess. Scale.

Scale

Have a super crappy, backlit photo:

Pictured with:

Masterpiece (MP) scale Starscream

Classified scale Cobra Viper

Figma Utena Tenjou

The figure is the same sort of scale as Classified G.I. Joes if you compare them knee-to-knee. Tsujigiri has a lot of height in those wheels.

If you don’t mind that her height obliterates the illusion of “massive machine” she scales very well with MP scale Transformers.

Go to the photo dump post

[myaoiboy]

Hi I saw that you answered an ask* the other day and I wanted to know if you continued with your analysis or if you could continue. I was really interested and curious to know more about it. I really wanted to know what you had to say, seriously, I could read a bible of Death Stranding reviews!

*https://www.tumblr.com/myaoiboy/739740134244794368/death-stranding-gender-talk-you-say-count-me-in?source=share

Hi! I totally can keep talking about Death Stranding forever (I know it's a very divisive game but imo on the whole the writing is like a well-oiled machine in ways that MGS just barely started to scrape askdjfh)

For the most part I haven't talked a *ton* about it at length because the series is just getting started and I feel weird making assertions that are likely to be fully subverted within a year or two. MGS has like. well, now, 25 years of shit going on. Sequels, prequels, fanon, etc., that Death Stranding...hasn't really had time to grow into yet.

I also tend to intentionally only post for dead series because the fandoms tend to be chiller lmao

Plus the fact that I got into DS right around the time that DS2 was announced, so I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs knowing that there's about to be more content and context that I just don't have access to yet. I already feel like there's a lot more to be learned about the first game, just from the latest trailer drop.

Honestly I think the thing that really gets me with DS is that despite the borderline insanity of the setting, to me, there's a lot of dramatic irony and meta knowledge that makes DS pretty easy to follow compared to, like, any single MGS game. Maybe I'm just the exact target audience that the writing was intended for, but most of the big reveals felt less like a sucker punch and more of a dramatic swell.

Some reasons for this (please be gentle i am taking cutscene SCs from youtube videos, they're gonna look like shit):

First of all, this is basically frame 1 of being formally introduced to Amelie, we see...this lens flare. Look familiar?

...how about now?

We are introduced to her instantly with a sign of danger. A pretty one, but a sign of danger nonetheless. The fact that it's an inverted rainbow is important! It shows up around timefall because of chiral air disturbance. We don't know that yet in-game, but if you know about how light works you know that there's something Wrong(tm) about this.

A regular lens flare shouldn't be causing an inverted rainbow if it's causing one at all. I think in this cutscene Amelie's presence is causing that inverted rainbow. Throughout the game, people come up with various theories of their own to excuse her connection to the beach. Little do they know at the time how right they are...

She's also heavily backlit, which hides her features in an unsettling manner. In fact, I really can't think of anyone else that this happens to throughout the game (if anyone knows of another example PLEASE let me know!!!)

She gets pretty damn close before that rainbow disappears, but this is where I very quickly lost my initial trust in her (as the player).

I jokingly called called this her "Fox News reporter look," but it's very much constructed in a way that made me suspicious.

Let's talk about that red dress.

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Kojima fucking LOVES using color language, especially red, blue, and gold. It's been super obvious and explicit since like 2012.

The fact that we meet her wearing a red dress is not a coincidence!!! It's a great big flashing warning sign! It says "hey, this person is going to betray you! Do Not Fucking Trust!!!"

Compare Amelie's name card to Paz's from Peace Walker:

The art styles are different, but there are a couple of main throughlines. Namely, both have an emphasis on the color red, both are young (looking) women who are lying about their identities in order to ask the main character a favor. Characters vouch for them, from trusted advisors, to the main character himself in DS. And then they try to bring about armageddon.

Basically what I'm saying is that they're both the embodiment of white woman tears a wolf in sheep's clothing, if the sheep's clothing was still dripping in blood. We (characters, and maybe the players) believe that she's on our side because we want to believe she's on our side, and because other people that we ostensibly trust tell us she's on our side, while the extremely dissonant narrative and imagery of the scene are SHAKING US BY THE SHOULDERS TELLING US TO SNAP OUT OF IT.

Add to that the fact that we kind of vaguely, through that intro cutscene post-central knot explosion, know that the beach is connected to dying somehow, and that amelie seems to be on it, doing very stereotypical little girl in horror things there, like singing nursery rhymes slowly while walking into the ocean.

So we've basically been told that Amelie is Not Good, but we have to spend the game piecing together what kind of Not Good she is. The first hint is (surprise!) also in this cutscene!

I don't recall off the top of my head if I knew at the time how heavily egyptian mythology plays into DS, but I do remember this cutscene giving me a bad gut feeling about the concept of the West.

Very few Big Concepts in these games (the West, strand(s/ing), patriotism/nationalism, etc) are only symbolic of one thing. That's also true across the board in basically all art, but I feel the need to point that out in public posts because I don't want someone to eg, think that I say something means one thing, and then back that up, and then people think that means it can't mean something else! It can (and often does) mean both! and sometimes that additional meaning is super important!

Anyways, Die Hardman refers to Amelie going West. We don't really use that phrasing much, so it stuck out to me as euphemistic. Especially since we saw her after we died, and there's so much euphemism going on from the bridges team anyways. I mean, cufflinks "symbolize our connection?" Girl, you locked me to my bed with them. You drain my blood with them to turn into weapons. Call 'em what they are.

You'll even notice in the same cutscene that Amelie says "we made it to Edge Knot City" and Sam replies with "all the way to the Pacific?" Not "all the way to the west coast," or even a single question about why she was on the/his beach.

If you know anything about egyptian mythology, you might know that west is considered the direction of death and the underworld. ancient egyptians buried dead people on the west side of the nile river. Osiris, god of death and mummification, and king of the underworld, is referred to as "foremost of the westerners" among his epithets.

So the vibe that I got instantly was "Amelie is already dead, she led her team to die, and they are basically sending Sam on a suicide mission" though I didn't realize exactly how I was right at the time.

The other big thing I recall setting off my alarm bells as the game went on was the fact that nobody you meet has ever met Amelie in person. It's a very slow reveal, especially since most people seem to see online meeting and in person meeting to be mostly the same, and we're told that she set out with bridges one. That she went west. Turns out that...also wasn't literal.

I don't remember exactly when I started wondering if *sam* had ever even met her outside of the beach, but I do remember thinking that there was something off. For a little bit my guess was that she was entirely fictional, some sort of AI (pretty influenced by all the "dead person brought back by AI/hypno bullshit ngl), or maybe that Higgs could somehow disguise himself in the Beach in ways i didn't understand yet.

But I didn't feel *worse* for being able to figure things out ahead of time, I felt clever that I could piece together all the little hints and have a good idea of what was going on. It made death stranding feel more like a coherent sci fi narrative rather than a cheesy action story that's expected to follow certain strict genre conventions.

Not that I'm saying mgs or action in general are bad, but rather that imo Death Stranding feels...more mature and confident in some ways (and also isn't bogged down by 20 years of previous work. which. i don't even like my own shit from a year ago half the time, i cannot imagine having to write within the constraints you created TWO DECADES prior kjhksjfh). Maybe it's that it feels like less of a genre subversion and has more genre utilization? dunno. Now I'm thinking too much like an english major lkajshdf

But yeah anybody who wants to talk about anything totally feel free. Or if you want to give me prompts to write about. I will always be willing to talk about things for way too long on the internet. I just don't always reply quickly because I start rambling....Like This.

[mermaidsirennikita]

I'm on a Lorraine Heath kick thanks to your recommendations so I'd love to know your Top Reads of hers!

Aaah I'm so glad! Lorraine is really so good. A true icon.

My chief favorites include...

Obviously, When the Duke Was Wicked, which feels stupid to say as I'm word vomiting about it right now, but in case someone is in my recs tag later, I love this book and I think it's probably one of the most well-executed romances I've ever read.

Waking Up with the Duke is one that I think has risen among Lorraine fans to be upheld as one of the best, and if I think about everything I've read by her... There's one thing that I think is, in terms of dating and the way we talk about romance, worth critiquing. But in terms of the quality of the love story, her prose, the plot, the EMOTION, it may be her best yeah. It's really moving and really angsty and it takes a truly bizarre plot and plays it so straight and gives you SO MUCH feeling. I just really love this book.

The Earl Takes All is Gorilla Twins, so you've kinda gotta read it, but it's also genuinely a great book. Like, the entire plot is incredibly wild lol, but the drama and twists are done so well. The way she does the REVEAL is not what I think anyone would expect when reading this novel. And it's so messy. God, I love it.

The Duke and The Lady in Red is another one I think we could discuss on some levels but damn did I love it. It's sooooo romantic, and Avendale is honestly a difficult hero because he's such an asshole beforehand, and he has a genuinely super rough backstory. This one made me cry, but I also found it very sexy and like, full of tension throughout because our hero and heroine do initially have a very transactional relationship that gradually becomes more genuinely emotional.

Between the Devil and Desire is one I'd argue could possibly rival Waking Up with the Duke for the crown, because it just hits every beat. A snappy, rough hero who doesn't seem to care about anyone; a chilly, bitchy (yet incredibly horny) widow who sees him as a threat on every level. One of the only children in romance who WORKS and that's because Jack Dodger is the ULTIMATE father who stepped up in romance, imo. Fabulous.

The Scoundrel in Her Bed is a recent favorite. It's second chance, it's extremely angsty, and it destroyed me emotionally. Like. This one probably made me cry the most out of any of the Lorraine books I've read because it just really luxuriated in how like. Sometimes love doesn't fix everything that's gone wrong because love isn't a time machine, but we can still move forward and so on and so on. Also, I'm a sucker for a second chance romance, especially one where they like, took each others' precious flowers and then got separated and are both now SUPER BITTER TBH.

Scoundrel of My Heart is another second chance one where it's like "what happened to us, what did we lose, can we get it back" (no but you can get something new!!!) and obviously I love that shit. It's also one of those second chance books where they were separated when they were just beginning, and they never got to have sex, and now they're back in each other's orbit and it is TENSE.