#-general lack of mental strength got him out of that job. so he just became a baker and actually perfected the lud equivalent to pizza.

[buttercup-barf]

Since I Pizza Tower'ified my OC's, I decised to lud'ify Peppino! He is now Gedepizhelya or Pizhel Zradet.

I feel like this is also a great way to figure out the aesthetics of the lud's clothes and whatnot, when applying them to such a simple design. And draw him as a human('ish...) being and not a cartoon, sharing some of my headcanons on him!

#pizza tower #peppino spaghetti #if i hear a SINGLE word about homestuck i am stealing something out of your house. #the equivalent to his war trauma/anxiety here stems from a series of terrible experiences when he was trying to become a guard i think. #dude hung out at an outpost and protected his village but a shitty mentor + series of senseless fights against unbeatable creatures and- #-general lack of mental strength got him out of that job. so he just became a baker and actually perfected the lud equivalent to pizza. #like a motherfucking CHAD #thinking of doing the rest of the cast. brick would be such a fun beast.. #i love making up/changing names into some random bullshit. it's soooo fun. i love my little world and the little guys in it.

[gloster]

FAVORITE FANFICS OF 2021

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

2020 was a constant hell on earth last year. 2021 seriously tried to take me out, especially in terms of burnout. I went through the WORST slump ever. A massive creative slump. A massive mental slump.

Hoping that 2022 will be a much kinder year. That's the only resolution/wish I have for the new year. A kinder year & for my creative slump to finally crack.

While this story was crappy in many ways, I still had things to help carry me through from BTS (obviously), anime, kdramas, and of course fanfics. Every year fanfic writers that are favorites to me or new to me come through with the content. Just blow me away with their storytelling and I always do this tradition because GODDAMNIT fanfic writers deserve their flowers too.

If you’re interested in past lists, here is the 2020's list, 2019′s list and 2018′s. If y’all are interested in doing your own fanfic favs of the year, please do so and tag me. Always on the hunt for new favs.

Without further ado, here are my favorite fanfics of 2021:

1). the beauty of futility by wbtrashking (tododeku) aka @wtkdigest

Summary: Todoroki Shouto is exhausted.

He's miserable, really. He's ready to give up, to tell his older sister goodbye, to stop fighting and just close his eyes forever.

But life isn't through with him. Izuku and his adopted daughter stumble upon Shouto in his darkest moments and show him that there's something worthwhile in the world. They show him that he's more than his depression; that he can laugh and love and be happy.

At age thirty, despite all the odds, Shouto finally figures out how to live.

I read this story only once, but the way it stuck to me, the number of times I shared around my friends who got into the tododeku ship, the number of times I keep thinking about it....it was that GOOD. That great. That amazing.

Shouto's exhaustion with life, with himself, and living in general hit so hard-and almost mirrored my own mental stage. And in comes in Izuku, the sweet beam that he is, doesn't cure him- thankfully it's not that kind of story. But he shows him that are hidden gems in everyday, with the help of Izuku's adorable adorable daughter.

That's another thing I love about this story: single dad Izuku with daughter Eri, a trope I NEED MORE OF. I also love the tenderness of the slowburn. Just read please. So so so good

2). I'll be your biggest kept secret and your biggest mistake by sascake aka @sascake (tododeku)

Summary: Devastated by his lack of a Quirk and pushed to the limit, fourteen-year-old Midoriya Izuku takes Bakugou's advice and jumps from the roof of their school.

Ten years later, pro hero Todoroki Shouto can't stop running into a vigilante hell-bent on saving people, going after every villain he comes across, and causing a conflict in Shouto like he's never felt before.

I am warning you right now if you are a Bakugo stan.....please proceed with caution. Mind you, the author does an incredible of not outright bashing bashing him, but she also does incredible job of showing just how severe Bakugo's words and actions deeply impacted Izuku.

Every year I always seem to find that one author who sucks me in with just one story and next thing I know, I become OBSESSED. And I do mean OBSESSED with their work. @sascake became that author to me. @littlenightdragon & I just PLOWED through mostly everything under their ao3 profile, and honestly I was debating whether I should name this or (possibly, maybe) falling for you which I also adored but something about this one just STUCK TO ME.

First of all, the way this felt like....it could be canon if things were differently. If Izuku's self doubt outweighed his inner strength and self worth. If Bakugo was twice as nasty with his words. If there was no All Might to come through and help him. Like me and @littlenightdragon couldn't stop thinking or talking about how this seriously could've been canon.

The relationship between Izuku and Shouto is just so breathtaking and at some points heartbreaking, watching them go from uneasy allies to commrades and more. We also have an incredible friendship between Izuku and Shinso that just so amazing to read-made me crave more stories featuring that platonic relationship. Not to mention this has to be one of the best vigilante Izuku stories I've read so far.

Just every single aspect of this story from the relationships, the dynamics, the scars of trauma both Izuku and Shouto carry are handled so incredibly well. Also, this story-along with every story by @sascake is addicting as hell, so there's that.

Honorable mentions:

(possibly, maybe) falling for you

you are my sweetest downfall

hit me with your sweet love, steal it with a kiss

3). home is the shape of your heart by unreemarkable (tododeku)

Summary: If this is a dream, Shouto doesn’t want to wake up.

[in which shouto gets back what he lost, and he's both better and worse off for it.]

In this story we have vampire Shouto and ghost Izuku. Those were the two elements that immediately drew me in, especially vampire Shouto. I walked into this thinking it was gonna be a haunted mansion story, but it ended up being so much more.

Yes, there is a haunted house element but we have so much more. We have a ghost who doesn't remember anything about his own life, much less what led to his death. And a vampire, who knows everything and the weight of it kills him.

This romance, this love story, reminded me a lot of Kaz x Inej from Six of Crows, where there is very limited physical touch but the love and care linked between these two is so palpable like a live wire. This romance is so so so tender, you just melt reading it. The pining, the pining, the wanting and the PINING. It hurts so much. It was so good, it hurt.

Also please check out the prequel that shows how this story begins, and still i will live here

4). Like Moth to Flame by magisterpavus (sheith)

Summary: When Keith tries to save his dying father by making a deal with the vampire lord who has terrified his village for centuries, he's prepared for sacrifice.

He's not prepared for Lord Shirogane.

Mags is a GOD. A god I say when it comes to sheith. When it comes to just raising the bar for good content & hot smut. And this story was a knock out.

First off, vampire Shiro. I've read stories with vampire sheith but I don't think I've come across one quite as snarky and lovable as this Shiro right here because WOW. I loved him so much. I also loved Keith, our determined human who's willing to do anything to help his ailing father, even if it means being under the thumb to this creature who haunts his village like a nightmare.

This is a very slowburn romance, but every chapter, every moment we see the two come closer is just so delicious. So well done.

Honorable mentions:

only while the sun shines

Desperate Measures

5). The Water's Fine series by @goldentruth813 (sheith)

Summary: Keith's lifeguard tower offers a stunning beach view, but nothing steals his breath like the handsome stranger who runs by every morning. A chance encounter with hot running guy—Shiro, he soon finds out—reveals he's kind as well as gorgeous, but Keith's afraid to make a move. That is, until Shiro's in trouble, and Keith finds himself over his head.

Before we start, massive massive congrats to @goldentruth813. For making a spot on this list for the 4th year in a row.

you had me tell me that *spoiler alert* I would be so invested in a mermaid's relationship with a human...I would have some questions. Yes, I am a Disney girl. Yes, I grew up with the Little Mermaid. Yes, I am EXCITED AS HELL to see Halle Bailey play Ariel in the live action movie, but mermaids were never my favorite like that. Leave to Janel to drop a story like this and have me become completely obsessed with it.

There are 3 stories tied to this series. Each one, the relationship just gets better & better. It has heavy pining, it has sweet & epic romantic moments, it has mating, it has soulmates, it has sugar daddy Shiro, and of course massive fluff.

Honorable mentions:

The Naked Roommate

rush (into my heart)

Sticker Me in Praise

6). Love Letters & Coffee Grounds by @jlaw1105 (clexa)

Summary: Lexa wasn't sure what it was that drew her into the little coffee shop on the corner. Maybe it was because it was less than a block away from the front door of her new building. Maybe it was because it wasn't a Starbucks or some other large chain coffee front that cared more about profit than the flavor of their beans. Maybe it was the warm air filled with the soft scent of coffee, chocolate and cinnamon. But likely, definitely, it was the defiant little corner of the store that loudly rebelled against the norm.

It was early November and everything around Lexa was filled with red and greens or whites and blues. It screamed of Christmas and Hanukkah. Of buying gifts and consumer driven profit. But the back corner of the coffee shop was filled with oranges and reds and browns with a rather large sign written in an angry scrawl that said "It's not even Thanksgiving yet, assholes!" There was just something about it that, to Lexa, felt poetically beautiful.

A Clexa Coffee Shop AU.

First off, place bets right now on who you think wrote that sign at the coffee shop. Secondly, yes, I deeply deeply fell in love with this coffee shop AU.

Obviously, at this point, almost every pairing to every fandom has gone through the cafe/ coffee shop AU. It may be a simple trope to come, a cliche to many, but there is a reason why that trope continues to thrive in fandom- and in storytelling in general. It's such a popular trope that I consider it to be your first steps into fanfics.

And the way @jlaw1105 did this and more is pure CHEF'S KISS. We have Lexa, a bestselling author to this popular sci-fi series, is suffering massive writer's block with the latest book. We have Clark, part-time barista, part-time artist, and part-time crush that quickly becomes muse & more to Lexa.

This was just so so so so fucking good. READ IT.

7). There's Something about Potter by slytherin_nette (drarry w/ fem-Harry)

Summary: There’s just something particularly strange about Aria Potter this year. Unfortunately, the new 8th year Slytherins are determined to find out exactly what everybody's favorite golden girl is hiding. Post-DH semi-AU Hogwarts. DMxfemHP.

There are so many tropes and things that can pull me into a good drarry story: veela and fem-Harry. Veela is my favorite creature trope to read with drarry. Anytime I see the word drarry, I JUMP. Also I love me some genderbenting, so if there's one that offers the Girl Who Lived, I am on board.

So imagine my great surprise & delight that I stumble onto a story that delivers both. Done none other than the great queen of fem-Harry, slytherin_nette. Like when I say queen, I mean QUEEN. Every fem-Harry x Draco story she does is just amazing. Just incredible. Always slaps, and this is one is no expectation.

In this story, taking place after 8th year, we have Aria Potter returning to Hogwarts after not just surviving the war but also coming into a secret inherrtiance. We have Draco trying to keep his head down and survive the year, while also reminsicing about the dream girl he meets during the summer. Thanks to a Housing switch up, the two collide and all that they got through together is so much fun to read.

Story is available both at ao3 and ff.net.

Also, while you're at it, please also check out more of slytherin_nette's fem-Harry stories. She has more on ffnet than ao3, but all of them are worth a read.

8). Werk It, Girl by stardropdream (sheith)

Summary: Keith is a contestant on Coran's Drag Race, competing to be the next Drag Superstar. Towards the end of the competition, the girls are given their weekly challenge: adopt a drag daughter into your drag house.

And in walks Shiro.

Working together in a competition is one thing, but Keith could never be prepared for everything that comes next.

CALLING ALL RUPAUL DRAG RACE FANS IN THE SHIETH COMMUNITY! THIS ONE'S FOR YOU

And even if you're not familiar with the show or a fan of it, I still think you'll have a good time with this show, I know I certainly did 😊😉

But then again anytime you read a story by stardropdream, you're always guaranteed a fun time. Okay, well actually some of her stories may include angst, but always a fun time at the end of it. And this was a fun, fun time.

I didn't realize how much I needed drag queen Keith x drag queen in training until now, so thank you Robin for that.

Honorable mentions:

In My Veins

We are Perfectly Okay

Body Without Sound

9). right besides me series by @storybookprincess (tododeku)

Summary: "For as long as Todoroki could remember, touch was something to be avoided. Dodging blows in his father’s relentless training or curling in on himself and covering his face to try to hide from the merciless punishment for whatever transgression he had committed this time, touch was always pain, plain and simple. After his mother left, he was never held or kissed. No one hugged him or stroked his hair. People touched him to hurt him."

Or, Todoroki gets a hug and his whole world shifts on its axis.

Oh. MY. DEAR. GOSH. Oh. My. Dear. Heart. Oh. My. Dear. Dear. Shouto. Oh. My Sweet. Sweet. Izuku. And my dear gosh....go to hell Endeavor & kick rocks.

As you can guess by the previous sentence, this story made me feel many things.

As you can guess by the summary of the first part of the story, ever so gently, the feels come on so hard, so rapid, and you have no choice but to let the feelings consume you. Then the sequel, quid pro quo, comes in and finishes you in the best way. It certainly did with me.

This beautiful relationship starts with a hug. This story has severely touch-straved Shouto just in awe by Izuku, who was the first person to touch him gently in such a long time. Which starts this achingly beautiful, heartfelt pining.

This story has to be one of the best Todoroki Shouto's POV stories I've read. This also featured one of the softest, softest tododeku relationships ever. I do recommend this as a starter fanfic if you're new to the tododeku ship like I was. It was one of the first tododeku stories I've read and I still think about it.

10). Sourdough by @academicdisaster24 (drarry)

Summary: Draco writes romance novels and doesn't leave his apartment much. Harry bakes bread and sells it to Draco. Draco is quite weird. Harry might like that.

Fair warning: you will CRAVE soughdough bread like crazy. I know I did. At some points while I was reading, I was seriously tempted to get some bread.

And you will CRAVE to have that sweetness that Draco finds with Harry in this story.

We have Draco as a reclusive historical romance writer trying to write & baker Harry downstairs distracting him with the delicious scent of fresh-baked bread.

I don't think enough words can praise this story. Can show enough it was. Other than speculator, achingly-sweet, and just everything.

Honorable mentions that I seriously wanted to add to the list but this post is already lengthy. All amazing, all greats reads by various writers y’all should check out:

on sight by @phaltu (sheith w/established relationship, happily married, and everyone thinking Keith is the horn dog when his sweet-faced husband is the real culprit

Ready Set Hut by Neyasochi (sheith, friends to lovers following them meeting at high school & bonding over FOOTBALL)

With Great Yawns and Stretching by sugar_screw (drarry, with Harry finding Malfoy isn't only redeemed but is the proud owner of a coffee shop. With cats)

Thirst and Devour by SashaDistan (izuku x shouto x bakugo x Kirishima poly fanfic; all 3 obsessed with Izuku & his sweet ass. SO SO SO SO HOT)

This Hungry Work (Give Me Some More) by @rayshippouuchiha (tododeku w/female Izuku; possessive & protective Todoroki, just goodness all around)

Almost, Not Quite, Us by xxjinchuurikixx (narusasu; ABO verse w/ doting alpha Naruto & feisty omega Sasuke deep in his heat & in need of assistance. SO GOOD).

And there you have, ladies, gents, & nonbinary babes. Thus concludes this year's list of my favorite fanfics of the year, including honorable mentions I had to shout out to. Mind you, there's so many more but this list is already long enough as it is.

To the writers who created these incredible stories. I applaud you. I thank you for creating and sharing these wonderful stories. Anyone interested in doing the tag, please do.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, GUYS

#favorite fanfics of the year #fanfic recs #drarry #drarry recs #drarry fanfics recs #sheith #sheith recs #sheith fanfic recs #tododeku #tododeku fanfic recs #tododeku recs #sasunaru #sasunaru recs #clexa #clexa rec

[solalunar-eclipse]

Scars You Can’t See - Chapter 7

Chapter title: Exhaustion

Word count: about 3300 words

Author’s Note: Thank you all for being so patient with me during the months this fic was on hiatus...but thankfully, the wait is over! I hope you all enjoy!

No warnings for this chapter, though it is pretty dark.

First | Previous | Next

...

The team had been working nonstop through the past several days, spending hours upon hours at different libraries throughout Westopolis and the surrounding areas. They never used the same one twice, so they couldn’t be traced. Hopefully.

Loading the full video and an explanation onto the three different USB drives they had bought took up most of that time, since it required a lot of formatting and download time and they couldn’t stay in any one place for too long. Rouge was the most talented with technology from her hacking experience, but slow Internet connections were something even she couldn’t work around.

Shadow really wanted to be a major part of the process, but his struggles with the video itself had posed serious issues for his involvement. While he had eventually been able to view the other part of the film, he’d still had a strong reaction and then needed an hour to decompress afterwards, all while feeling frustrated at (in his words) his “lack of self-control”.

Rouge and Omega were strongly opposed to that wording, since it suggested that his trauma- because it was trauma, despite his arguments- was something that he could control.

In the end, Shadow was often forced to take a backseat during much of the work, or else his mental state would be a mess throughout the rest of the day. He still helped out in any way possible, though, even if it was something as simple as going out to buy food to keep Rouge’s strength up.

Today was the final day. Team Dark was fully prepared to make a post on three of their main social media pages, and all three envelopes with the USB drives inside had been mailed out (under the false cover of being simple job application letters). They were headed to three different media organizations, which- while not necessarily mainstream- were at least somewhat reputable and sympathetic to their current cause.

While it was still unlikely that the general public opinion would change after this information release, there would hopefully be enough supporters for this to mean something.

At exactly 12:00 p.m. on Oceanic Standard Time, ten days after Team Dark had stolen their original files and fled capture by G.U.N., the videos were released out into the world for everyone to see.

At 12:01 p.m., OST, as the team watched from a public computer, the Internet basically exploded.

All three of the team’s accounts were flooded within seconds, ablaze with accusations, conspiracy theories, and more. The best were the expressions of sympathy and support, though. Those boosted the general mood in the room while providing the three with enough bravery to actually write back to a few people.

There were a few particularly vocal supporters who the team members recognized right away… it seemed that the members of Team Sonic had grown tired of sitting around while their friends put their lives on the line and were now channeling all of their frustration into their keyboards. The team’s morale only rose higher. (However, considering the depths they had been in before, this mainly meant that they seemed almost normal again.)

Through it all, G.U.N. remained silent.

The team decided not to stay at the computer for long- the organization was always watching and probably had some of their best hackers on the case already. Shadow grabbed a couple of books before they left, but none of them really even had the energy to read at this point. They’d spent so many late nights going over and over the wording of everything they would say and every move that they would make, and the replies they’d given just now were carefully considered by all three of them as well.

As soon as they made it back to the hotel, Omega whipped out his charging cord and shoved it into an outlet, and Shadow fell face-down onto the bed. “Oh chaos. Oh chaos we’re really in it now, aren’t we.”

Rouge sighed, sinking into a chair and massaging her brow. “Yes, we are. It's worth it, though.”

“I know.” Shadow muttered into the bedspread. “It’s just…” he trailed off, uncertain as to how to express his thoughts.

“...exhausting.” Rouge finished his sentence for him. “It’s tiring to work so hard on something, all the time.”

The hedgehog pointed a gloved finger at her briefly, before letting his hand fall back onto the mattress. “That sums it up perfectly.”

They lay there for awhile, just allowing themselves to rest after the frenzy of the past few days.

Eventually, though, Shadow forced himself to sit up. “So what are we doing next?” he asked, a frown set low over his eyes.

Rouge got to her feet, exhaustion weighing down her movements. “I think we should probably take a couple of days before we do anything else, hon. That was a lot of work.”

“I know,” Shadow said quickly, looking down at the mint-green sheets of the bed. “I didn’t mean to suggest that you weren’t working hard, I just-”

“I didn’t think you were.” she said gently. “I know you want to stop them as soon as possible, and so do I. But...we’re not in any shape to do much like this- being tired always makes people sloppy.”

Rouge smirked faintly. “I learned that one the hard way.” she mused, recalling a particular heist that she’d tried to pull off after going 48 hours without sleep. It had not ended well, to say the least. 

“I’m gonna head down to that restaurant we looked at earlier. I need food.” the bat muttered quietly. Omega gave her a thumbs-up as she walked out the door.

Rouge wandered through the town, looking around. She saw so many different people, all of them going about their ordinary lives, and reminded herself that soon enough, the world would be just a little bit safer for them to enjoy. This raised her spirits, if only slightly. Just enough that she felt like being a little more friendly to the (likely overworked and underpaid) workers in the restaurant than usual.

In fact, she suspected that recently when she had gone out to eat, she’d come off as almost as sulky as Shadow- constant work and paranoia really took it out of a person. Today, though, her work was temporarily finished, and she could take a deep breath with, if not relaxation, then at least a certain amount of freedom.

Rouge got her food quickly, but with a (perhaps a little too) bright smile and a cheerful wave. 

She left a sizable tip in the glass jar out front, all the while trying to ignore a little voice inside her head that whispered you should give that money to others, you won’t be needing it for much longer…

The bat hated trying to imagine just what G.U.N. was capable of, as well as the potential consequences of their actions. That was exactly why she spent the rest of the day relaxing in her room with Shadow and Omega, mostly reading or playing board games with them. As nice as it was to be able to relax and not obsess over sentences and file formats, they all missed being able to go about their ordinary lives, instead of having to control their every move in order to stay alive. She could feel it in the atmosphere of the room. 

Out of nowhere, Rouge felt the sudden fervent hope that Shadow’s motorbike and Omega’s weapons collection would be okay. She had seen the occasional picture of Club Rouge during her time spent working, and it was all cordoned off and dark and sad...she had made a lot of fond memories there. 

Whether or not some of those memories were of kicking particularly irritating patrons to the curb when their behavior went too far was entirely nobody else’s business.

Rouge hoped for another day or two like this before they had to do any more work- they needed it if they were going to succeed. Shadow had dark rings under his eyes and this was Omega’s first day in over a week where he hadn’t gotten a “power low” warning. If they tried to pull off the kind of heist she had in mind like this, they wouldn’t stand a chance.

The next morning, however, it became clear that Team Dark wouldn’t get that kind of luxury until their work was completely finished.

Allowing herself one quick yawn as she strolled downstairs (given that her fangs could appear quite menacing to those without them), Rouge traced a familiar path to the hotel’s breakfast buffet, planning to fill the gaping void that was currently her stomach.

Her shoes clicked across the tiled floor, irritating her tired ears, and the too-bright lights didn’t do anything to help her overworked senses. She seriously considered just going back upstairs and hiding under the covers for another hour or two, but the smell of pancakes and ripe fruit dragged her over to the long table that held the complementary food from the hotel. 

Filling her paper plate, Rouge began to think again about G.U.N. and the various...unsavory tactics she’d seen them use over the years. Often enough, the soldiers in particular were not above frightening or intimidating those groups of people they saw as ‘threats’ while simultaneously politely cooperating with those that didn’t. While she did her best to distance herself from those kinds of people, filing a complaint would only get you a reprimand or even a hint that you might be fired. No real action was ever taken against those who had joined the force to hurt instead of protect.

She had seen, though, that the commander was definitely trying to make the organization a better place- the raid on Space Colony ARK had clearly left an impression- but that didn’t mean he was succeeding. Over fifty years of brutality, violence, machismo and deceit were not so easily rooted out, not even if the person trying to create change was at the very top. The bat had seen a few too many people being beaten mercilessly by a soldier long after they’d shouted their surrender to think that G.U.N. was all good. Indeed, fighting first and asking questions later was ingrained in the very foundation of the organization.

But whenever Rouge’s mind went down these pathways, there was one thought that always rose above the rest…

While she may have seen what they did, Shadow had lived it.

Rouge sighed, trying to control her violent emotions that always appeared regarding that particular event, and took another pancake. The poor hedgehog had dealt with so much already, and now this...she truly felt for him. They were constantly on the run, always trying to stay ahead of the entire military organization, and despite his status as the ‘Ultimate Lifeform’, she knew that he was struggling. Shadow would insist otherwise, of course, trying to carry the world on his shoulders as he so often did.

She knew better, though.

Rouge glanced upwards to get another look out the window, the general paranoia that came with being a spy too deeply ingrained in her body to ever fade. There were plenty of times when it was just a nuisance, if not embarrassing, but right now those reflexes came in handy.

That was when she saw the five G.U.N. agents talking to the receptionist out front.

She took a deep breath, standing very still at the table. Panic would not help her now. Rouge took two very deliberate, very slow steps to the side, obscuring herself behind a helpfully placed tiered food display. 

The bat caught a snippet of conversation. One of the agents was talking to the man at the front desk, asking, “Have you seen someone matching any of these three descriptions?”

The receptionist frowned, leaning in closer to study the photos, and Rouge decided it was about time to get out of there.

She put her plate down slowly, and then walked purposefully but calmly back to the stairs. Once she was sure that they couldn’t see her any longer, she beat her wings and began to fly up the stairwell as quickly as possible.

Once she got into their room, she slammed the door shut, catching Omega’s attention from where he had been constructing a paper-clip chain. Rouge allowed herself two deep breaths before rushing over to the bed and shaking Shadow’s shoulder with surprising gentleness.

“What do you want?” he mumbled, his eyes only half open.

The bat beat down another wave of nostalgia for relaxing weekend mornings (focus, Rouge, your lives depend on it!) and instead gave him a sad smile.

“They’ve found us.” she said, shattering her teammates’ relative peace in an instant.

Shadow practically catapulted himself out of bed. “G.U.N.? What? When?”

“Yes, five agents, and just now.” Rouge said, beginning to pack up their few belongings.

“What shall we do?” Omega asked, an almost staticky tone creeping into his voice. It had the effect of making him sound rather more dangerous than usual, which was probably intentional. “I would be happy to burn this building to the ground. Just say the word,” he said, revving up his flamethrower.

“No burning.” Rouge said, and it was evident just how used to Omega’s antics she was that this statement was delivered in a completely calm tone of voice. “Here’s what I’m thinking. We split up- there’s only so many of them there. We’ll get out of here any way we know how. Meet up at 9:30 outside that waterskiing shop. Got it?”

“Yes.” Omega and Shadow said simultaneously.

“Alright, good. Omega, take the suitcases. Let’s go.”

She threw herself out the window as Shadow teleported the robot down into a nearby alleyway before vanishing again. Her wings folded tightly against her back as she shot down the side of the building, her fingers nearly skimming across the steel and glass. Rouge forced herself to trust in her wings, snapping them out at the absolute last moment before she could hit the ground and hoping that nobody in any of the rooms had seen much more than a red-and-black blur.

She almost laughed to herself- that used to be Shadow.

Laughing wasn’t something any of them did much anymore.

She stalked through a dark alleyway before rushing down a couple of blocks, trying to get as far away from the hotel as she could on foot without being too suspicious. By now, G.U.N. would have realized that the team did not look like they used to, which would make it a lot more difficult to escape their notice.

Rouge spotted Shadow moving quickly several blocks down, and made an immediate left to stay away from him. There was still over an hour until their rendezvous time, and until then it was best to stay away from one another. A hedgehog and a bat together would only draw the organization’s attention. 

Rouge forced her legs to take one step in front of the other- she had to stay moving. The bat was...a little too used to pushing through exhaustion when simple survival was her only goal. Memories of having to hide after heists, constantly walking to nowhere just to stay away from the police surfaced vaguely in the back of her mind. Rouge was still tired from nights of obsessing and writing and rewriting with Shadow and Omega, and this new stressor wasn’t helping at all, forcing her back into the same introspective cloud that always surrounded her whenever important things started happening.

Yet at the same time, she couldn’t bring herself to feel afraid of what could happen should she get captured. It was almost as though she wasn’t truly awake. She was worried for the rest of the team, it was true, but they were all already in such deep trouble that it almost felt as though she’d maxed out on stress.

As she walked, Rouge wanted to feel something more, some sense of a higher purpose to keep her inspired…

...but when it got down to the basics, change wasn’t always glamorous court battles or powerful arguments delivered to roaring crowds. Sometimes you just had to keep pushing and pushing and pushing until finally someone took notice and listened to what you had to say. It was tiny steps, day by day, almost like trying to grind down a mountain with a single stone. Despite being part of the catalyst, she couldn’t see any of the effects from here.

Was anything even changing? Rouge didn’t know.

She shook her head, trying once again to bury these thoughts in the back of her mind. This was just like a mission. Do the task, then think about the bigger picture afterwards.

The bat briefly wondered if this mentality was why the organization had gone downhill before forcing herself to focus. Right now, she needed to use her instincts. That was all.

…

After an hour, during which she had to hide behind a dumpster (in other circumstances, she would have laughed and called it cliche) to evade G.U.N. pursuit, she met up with the other two at the waterskiing store. Thankfully, Omega had managed to acquire a new car- their old one would have to be left back at the hotel and become more collateral damage, as much as they all wished otherwise.

They’d really liked that car.

Rouge and Shadow piled in, and the bat could only feel relief that Omega didn’t really get tired like they did, so at least there was low danger of someone falling asleep at the wheel. 

“We’re in the final stages now,” Rouge said encouragingly, trying to keep up morale. “Just this last heist to get more dirt on G.U.N., and then we’re free to do as we please…”

Shadow sighed. “I hope.”

“Perhaps…” Omega said cautiously, “...G.U.N. will get so busy with lawsuits that they will cease pursuing us after that. Their public image is...somewhat important.”

He didn’t sound like he believed his own words, though.

Rouge, feeling tired, had to practically beat her nagging thoughts off with a stick by this point. What if they never stop, the voice whispered. What if they just keep coming and coming until you give up because you’re just so tired of running-

“Rouge.” Shadow said quietly. “Are you doing the overthinking thing again?”

“What, hon?” she asked, feeling underequipped to have any conversation, let alone one about herself.

“The thing.” Omega called from the front seat. “Where you insist upon shouldering all of the burden simply because you’re the self-appointed team leader. That is not allowed in this car. At all.”

The bat smiled faintly. Even after all this work and exhaustion, they were still worrying about her. That kind of thoughtfulness was enough to relax her a little, and she leaned on Shadow’s shoulder.

“Let’s talk about stupid stuff for a little while.” she said firmly. “We should talk about something like, like- when we went to that one restaurant and Shadow ate like three bowls of their five-alarm chili in twenty minutes and won that T-shirt.”

Shadow smirked briefly. “It didn’t hurt at all and Sonic and Knuckles yelled at me for being a cheater. Having specially bioengineered taste buds has its perks.”

They reminisced about the good times, all three trying to keep the mood light and not discuss the elephant in the room (or car, as it were)- which was of course when they might be able to do that sort of fun thing again.

And then they were on the highway, and headed to what was hopefully the last place G.U.N. would ever expect them to be.

Central City.

#team dark #shadow the hedgehog #rouge the bat #e 123 omega #scars you can't see #sycs #as always i hope the characterization is good! #interestingly enough this fic has changed a lot since its creation #originally it was intended to be a fun action/adventure sort of thing #but now it's very different #much darker and more sad #it...could probably even be called a vent fic #at a stretch #this chapter in particular showcases that part of it #there'll be more action soon though #thanks for reading! #sol’s fanfiction

[shitty-marvel-fan732]

“I’ll Be Here”

Title: “I’ll Be Here”

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x female!reader

Warnings: Nightmares, insomnia, mentions of past trauma (nothing graphic)

Word Count: 4,800...because I have no self-control 

Summary: Y/N hasn’t been sleeping well, can Bucky find out why?

The first time I noticed Y/N's insomnia was during an early morning training session. 

She was off to the side, sparring with Natasha as I worked on strength training with Steve. The two women were on the mats, wrestling with one another. I should've been paying attention to the weights in my hands -- something Steve would no doubt scold me for soon -- but as usual I was more interested in watching Y/N. Not because I was totally infatuated with her or anything, just because she was acting a bit off. 

Right. 

Usually Y/N and Natasha were well matched; the two assassins typically sparred for nearly the entire session with neither one getting the upper hand for more than a few moments at a time. Today, however, Y/N was lagging. Natasha managed to pin her in just a few minutes. What's more, Y/N took a few seconds longer than usual to get back on her feet -- normally she was quick to hop up on the off-chance that she was knocked down, but today it seemed like she was moving in slow motion. Confusion rippled through me at the sight of the usually confident and collected assassin lying on the mat looking defeated and tired. Y/N and Natasha exchanged hushed words briefly before Y/N stomped off, grumbling to herself. 

I wasn't tired in the least -- namely because I hadn't even really been working for the last few minutes -- but I felt my curiosity slowly getting the best of me. I stalked off under the guise of getting some water, eyes trained on Y/N's hunched form. I sidled up to her as casually as I could manage and grabbed my bottle. She nodded curtly in recognition of my presence but didn't speak. 

I felt my eyebrows crinkle together in confusion. Y/N wasn't like the rest of the team -- impossibly chatty and self-assured, she was never crabby or tired during training. Realizing I hadn't kept up the act well at all, I sipped from my water almost robotically. While I sipped, I tried to subtly study her face, wondering what could possibly be causing her to act so out-of-character. I noted with concern the deep, purple circles under her eyes and the far off expression on her face.

I opened my mouth to question whether or not she was alright, but was abruptly cut-off by Steve's shout to get back to training. Rolling my eyes, I flashed Y/N one last look of concern before jogging off towards my friend. I'd have to file this encounter in my brain for later. 

After that I began to watch Y/N more closely, trying to figure out what it was that troubled her. She seemed to bounce back by the time I'd seen her later in the day, and I all but forgot my concerns. It wasn't until a few days later that her lack of sleep entered my consciousness once more. 

It was movie night in the tower, and I was bored out of my skull. Everyone had gathered in the tower's massive living room for the weekly event -- Sam and Tony were arguing over which movie to watch, Wanda and Vision were sitting practically on one another's laps as they chatted idly with Nat, Steve sat scribbling on yet another mission report, and Peter was hanging upside-down from the ceiling as he patiently waited for the movie to begin. I was sitting furthest from everyone else, keeping to myself and idly observing the various conversations, when Y/N wandered into the room. 

Though I still internally thought she was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen, it was instantaneously clear that something was wrong with Y/N. She looked similar to that morning in the training room -- large bags underneath each eye and a somewhat pained expression splayed across her features.  Maybe it was the way she seemed to move more slowly across the room or just her general aura of dishevelment, but whatever the case she just seemed off somehow. I felt myself growing more concerned by the moment. 

She plopped down into the spot next to me, and I instantly felt my heart rate pick up at the proximity. Heat flooded my face as my mind became a jumble, and I was suddenly thankful that the only other people with super hearing in the room were currently busy at the moment. I tried my best to stifle the stupid little flutters raging inside my belly as I murmured a 'hello'. Y/N rubbed her face tiredly before mustering up a smile and muttering a half-hearted greeting. 

"You doing okay doll?" I asked concernedly. She chuckled lightly, shifting a little in her seat so her head was leaning against my flesh arm. She settled into the position with an ease and familiarity that both warmed my heart and sent me into a panic all at once. 

It was strange, the effect Y/N had on me: on the one hand, she had this ability to calm my entire body with just a single touch, but on the other hand it also made my mind race with over-eager thoughts and feelings. Even now, the feel of the soft skin of her cheek through my shirt sleeve was enough to send tiny pricks of electricity throughout my entire body. But it wasn't the harsh, painful sensations my mind seemed to expect -- Y/N's touch was always gentle, welcomed. Even so, my mind raced with thoughts of why on earth she felt so relaxed around me. Was she just like this with everyone? Did it mean anything? 

"Just fine Buck," her half-joking reply broke me out of my mental musings. "Why, do I look ugly or something?" 

I immediately began floundering, shaking my head quickly and stuttering out apologies so fast I almost missed the soft giggles eminating from Y/N. Even though I was pretty sure she was kidding, I continued to ramble on, unwilling to let her think for a second that she was anything less than gorgeous. Thankfully, she only let me panic for a few moments before lifting her head fractionally and smiling at me. 

"S'okay Buck, I know what you meant," she chuckled amicably before settling back into my shoulder. "I'm alright, just tired as always."

If anyone would've asked, I would've sworn my face was on fire. I hummed lightly in response, not trusting my voice at the moment. Thankfully, Nat saved me further embarrassment by rolling her eyes and laughing. 

"Of course our little insomniac is tired," she quipped good-naturedly. "When's the last time you actually slept Y/N/N?"

I frowned down towards Y/N in concern. She just snickered at Natasha's question, flipping her off as she smiled sweetly. Nat chuckled once more, letting the subject drop and turning her attention back to her previous conversation. Evidently Tony and Sam had finally agreed on a movie, and the lights dimmed as the main titles began to play. 

"You're not sleeping?" I softly questioned. Even though she hadn't been moving before, I could still feel the way she stiffened at my question, and my concern grew. She recovered quickly however, turning her head just enough to look me in the face and shooting me a wary look. 

"Do any of us?" she questioned back. Her face was illuminated by the soft glow of the screen, eyes darkened with a look I couldn't quite place and features as vulnerable as I'd ever seen. The sight of her, so close to my face and so open all but took my breath away. I opened my mouth to respond --

"Hey lovebirds, can you quiet down over there?" Sam interrupted loudly. I tore my gaze away from Y/N to find the entire team looking over at Y/N and I with amused and expectant expressions. Y/N buried her face into my arm at the attention, clearly embarrassed. Unconsciously, my arm wrapped around her frame and pulled her deeper into my side. I glared at Sam and flipped him off with my free hand. He and the rest of the team chuckled before turning back to the movie. 

After the intrusion I was too distracted by the feel of Y/N being tucked into my body to question her any more. Also, she did end up falling asleep during the film, head resting gently across my chest and expression serene. She managed to sleep through the entirety of all 3 movies Tony insisted we watch. Normally I would've left part way through the first, but I would rather die than disturb Y/N as she peacefully slept. She clearly needed it, and the fact that she was cuddled up to me as she did it was just a happy coincidence. 

I chalked her lack of sleep up to a generational difference. Maybe millennials had just learned to get by with less sleep? I wasn't totally up to date with the ins-and-outs of this new generation, but I was fairly sure that insomnia was a common problem. People could say what they liked about them, but I was honestly blown away by the amount of shit that people in this age had to deal with. College cost more than a house would've back in my day, employers were getting pickier and pickier about who got a job, and there was a near-constant threat of some kind of world-wide disaster at any given moment. Not to mention the fact that apparently the arctic was melting? Global warming disturbed me to no end, especially since it was one of the only reasons Steve had been found in the first place. Of course people slept less easily these days, why would Y/N be an exception? 

Currently, we were on our way back from a routine mission. We were the only ones on the Quinjet, sitting across from one another as we flew home. Neither of us said much, both happy to decompress from things silently. 

Studying her face as we sat, I felt the familiar feeling of concern bubble up in my chest at the sight. Her eyes were almost bloodshot, lids weighing heavily as she leaned against the side of the jet like she was fighting to keep them open. The purple bags that I'd first noted all those weeks ago had only seemed to have grown, now sagging low on her face which seemed paler than usual. Her expression was flat, mouth and brows drooping into a very uncharacteristic frown. 

Though I was worried, I wasn't willing to break the comfortable silence Y/N and I had created in the jet. I watched as her eyes fluttered shut and snapped open for a few minutes before she finally succumbed to her tiredness and fell asleep. I breathed out a sigh of relief I wasn't even aware I'd been holding in as I watched her struggle. I wasn't a religious man, but I was suddenly thankful to whatever god listening that she was actually getting some sleep. 

Settling back into my seat, I watched as she slept and internally planned a way to bring her out of the jet without waking her. Seemed simple enough -- she'd slept soundly enough all those weeks ago at movie night that I was able to gather her up into my arms and bring her to her room without waking her. It wasn't exactly difficult to convince myself to help her once more. Outside of the fact that I was legitimately becoming concerned about the amount of sleep she was getting, I would be lying if I said I wasn't thrilled at the prospect of having Y/N in my arms once more. Last time she'd cuddled into me so tightly, like a kitten curling up on your chest. If I concentrated hard enough I could practically still feel her warm body against my torso. The mere thought raised a light blush to my cheeks and made my legs start to lose strength. 

I seriously needed to get a grip. 

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I almost missed the sounds Y/N was making. The soft whimpers reminded me almost like the sounds dogs make as they dream -- small, high-pitched noises that squeaked from her lips as she slept. Her body was still slumped against the metal frame of the jet, but with one glance I could tell her posture had definitely tensed. Her fists were clenching and relaxing over and over, eyes squeezed closed tightly, and every now and then her whole body would jerk around. Fear and guilt pooled in the pit of my stomach as I realized what was happening. 

Y/N was having a nightmare. 

I froze for a moment, unsure what to do, until Y/N let out another cry of pain and terror, louder this time. My body was instantly by her side without even checking in with my brain first before moving. I pulled her onto my lap gently and began rubbing soothing patterns around the expanse of her back with my metal hand while the flesh one delicately cupped her face. She was trembling all over and her fists immediately wound their way into the fabric of my shirt and clenched as she hung on for dear life. 

After a few moments I decided I had to wake her. Whatever was going on in her head was clearly causing her immense fear, and it felt like my heart was breaking with each jerk of her body or whimper of pain. I began softly calling her name, hands still moving gently across her skin as I tried to rouse her. 

It didn't work. 

My gentle prying hadn't woken her in the slightest. In fact her movements had become even more erratic -- she was now thrashing in my arms, futilely trying to fight off whatever she was facing in her dream. Mind whirling, I gripped her tighter and began calling her name louder. 

She woke with a start. Her bloodshot eyes flew open and she instantly attacked me. Her fists flew quickly and landed solidly against my jaw as she scrambled off my lap. She jerked away, back landing against the farthest wall of the jet and posture defensive. Her eyes were wild with a kind of dangerous fire I recognized all too well. 

 I raised my hands up in surrender, not moving an inch from my place. 

“Y/N, it’s me. Bucky. You’re safe, it was just a dream,” I explained slowly. “You’re safe.”

Her eyes darted back and forth for a few seconds, and I could practically feel the realization seeping through her. The fog of terror from her nightmare was slowly fading from her face, giving way to a look of vulnerable confusion. 

“Bucky?” she breathed. Her chest was still heaving with each breath she took and her voice was small. Y/N’s eyes were wide as she searched my face for an answer, and I felt a wave of sympathy roll through me at the panicked, bewildered emotions that were written all over her face. I nodded slowly and began to lower my hands. Y/N sucked in a breath as the final flash of recognition crossed her features and she let out a sob. 

I was up in an instant, arms winding around her shaking body and lips murmuring encouraging words into her hair. I could feel her tears starting to soak through my shirt as she clung against my chest and sobbed. A deep, unsettling weight made it's home in my belly as I listened to her cries. I pushed the feeling down as I comforted her, trying everything I knew to end her anguish. 

Eventually her sobbing slowed, and the jet was silent once more, save for a few hiccups and sniffles every now and again. My hands were still absentmindedly rubbing against her back, but I took her silence as a good sign and I pulled my head back marginally so I could look at her more fully. 

The sight of Y/N's face almost broke my heart in two. Her normally clear skin was now tear-stained and covered in red and pink splotches, and the area under her eyes was puffy. Her mouth was set in a deep pout that didn't suit her at all. Worst of all was the look in her eyes -- her Y/E/C irises looked like a storm cloud, pain and despair swirling within them in a way I was all too familiar with. They looked like the way I often felt during my more dark moments, and the idea that she was feeling anything close to that twisted the rock-like knot even deeper into my lower belly. 

"Y/N…" I murmured emphatically. She sniffled, pulling one of her arms away from its place entangled in my shirt to rub some of the errant tears away from her face. I guided her gently back to one of the benches and we both sat without detangling ourselves from one another.

"Sorry," she whispered almost robotically. "I just...I had…". 

"A nightmare?" I supplied quietly. She nodded, body beginning to lean away from mine as if she was going to pull away. My grip on her tightened marginally, unwilling to let her go just yet. She seemed appreciative at the silent offer of support, and her head rolled back into the crook of my neck easily. 

"How long?" I asked evenly. Though I couldn't see her face anymore due to our position I could feel the way her body tensed at the query. My hands began running up and down her back once more, almost of their own accord. After a few moments her muscles relaxed a bit under my soothing touch, and I breathed a silent breath of relief at the progress. 

"Since Ultron, I guess," she whispered so quietly I almost missed it.  I felt my brows furrow even deeper at the admission -- Steve had filled me in about what had happened in Sokovia, but if I was recalling correctly that was almost 2 years ago. Guilt flooded my chest at the sheer length of time Y/N had been struggling without any help. 

 “I watched...there was a kid, and he…I couldn’t”

“You don’t have to tell me,” I cut her off quickly. Her only response was to burrow deeper into the crook of my neck, seemingly grateful to be spared the task of reliving the nightmare. Though the feeling of the soft skin of her face against my neck was enough to send those embarrassing flutters through my body, my mind was still working in overdrive to try and figure out a way to reduce Y/N’s pain. 

"I'm so sorry," I whispered. "I...I want to help". 

I felt Y/N's small smile against my neck and I shivered at the gentle movement of her lips. 

"I know you do Buck, but there's nothing to be done," she mumbled regretfully. Almost immediately afterwards she yawned and began stretching her limbs like a cat around my frame before settling back into my embrace. I couldn't help but chuckle fondly. 

The only sounds that filled the jet now were the soft whirring of the engines and the sound of the air passing by the outside as we flew. For a moment I wondered if Y/N had fallen asleep again, but the steady thrum of her heartbeat and the quiet yawns she let escape every now and again told me otherwise. After a few minutes of silence I quietly spoke up once more. 

"I get them too you know."

Y/N's face turned upwards just enough so she was looking me in the eyes. Her expression was guarded, but I could see the spark of curiosity in her eyes. 

"Really?" 

Even though her tone was nonchalant I could easily tell that she cared more about my response than she'd like to let on. I nodded, swallowing thickly and glancing away from her. 

"Yeah. I used to get them back during the war, but they really started up bad after everything with HYDRA," I explained as calmly as I could manage. I could practically feel the holes her eyes were burning into my face as she watched me intently. 

"I still get them sometimes but not as much.”

“Wh-what did you do to make them better?” she asked curiously. I shrugged. 

“I dunno. Therapy and time I guess,” I supplied. Her hopeful expression faltered slightly and guilt fanned through me. “Sorry, I know that’s not exactly what you probably wanted to hear.”

Y/N shook her head, yawning. 

"S'okay Buck, you're just being honest," she mumbled against my shoulder. "Wasn't exactly expecting an answer anyways."

She let out another huge yawn. My hands paused briefly on their circuit up and down the expanse of her back as a thought filtered through my mind. 

"You should sleep doll," I murmured softly against her hair. "I can tell you're exhausted."

Y/N yawned once more and shook her head stubbornly against my chest. 

"S'fine Buck. I've been worse." her soft voice filtered up, slightly muffled by the fabric of my shirt. I frowned. 

"Y/N…" I warned disapprovingly. 

"Seriously, I'm fine!" came her sleepy, half-hearted protest. "Besides, if I do it'll just…"

She trailed off, but the weight of what she was alluding to covered the air in the jet like a thick, wet blanket. The tension in my brows relaxed marginally as I was hit with another wave of sympathy. I tightened my grip on her body into what I hoped was a comforting embrace. My heart lifted and those damned butterflies erupted into a frenzy as I heard her sigh contently. Not even a beat later I felt her burrow herself even further into my arms and I couldn't help but smile at the feeling. 

"It's okay doll. I'm not going anywhere, I'll be here if it happens again," I ventured quietly. After a few moments of contemplation Y/N lifted her head from my chest, and I felt a flash of fear tear through my body. Maybe I'd crossed a line? What if she didn't appreciate my nagging, or thought I was overstepping the boundaries of the tentative friendship we had? I opened my mouth, poised and ready to spew apologies for intruding, but closed it seconds later as I caught the look on her face. 

Her Y/E/C eyes were wide, unshed tears lining them as she looked up at me. Her expression was one of pure adoration, full of hope and cautious optimism. The sight of it almost knocked all the breath out of my body. 

"Yo-you will?" she breathed, voice small and hopeful. Warmth filled my chest and I smiled. 

"Promise." I vowed. Her face split into a lopsided grin and her cheeks flushed with the most adorable pink splotches I'd ever seen. She held my gaze for a few moments longer before her face disappeared into the confines of my chest once more. I settled back into the side of the jet with Y/N's form still gathered closely in my arms, utterly content and pleased with the way things had turned out. 

In no time at all I heard her breaths begin to even out and the beating of her heart slow as she fell back asleep. I sat back, hands still absentmindedly running along her back as she slept with my mind racing as it tried to process the last few minutes. Normally after even the briefest interaction with Y/N my brain would be riddled with self-doubt and anxiety, over playing each second over again and internally cringing at my reactions. But it was hard to form any thoughts that were semi-coherent with her cuddled peacefully against my body. Instead, my mind was occupied by scanning every visible inch of her form, working desperately to try and commit the sights, sounds, and feelings to my memory. 

It didn't take long before the jet landed back at the tower. I paused momentarily before carefully gathering Y/N in my arms and walking out. I made a beeline for her room, ignoring or silencing any of the team we met along the way with a single glance. After the struggle on the jet I’d be damned if one of them woke her. Not that they really tried -- everyone backed off pretty quickly once they noticed Y/N’s sleeping form, irritatingly smug smirks plastered across their features. If it weren't for the sleeping beauty in my arms I was certain that any one of them would've had a litany of teasing comments at the ready. Especially Tony. Poor guy looked like he might have an aneurysm if he didn't get to spit whatever sarcastic jab his brain was cooking up out soon. 

Eventually I made it to her room, and settled her gently into her bed. 

It wasn’t easy. 

Even asleep Y/N was still one of the most stubborn people I knew. She grumbled petulantly in her sleep, and I practically had to pry her off my chest to get her onto the bed. Once I'd successfully detangled my shirt from her fingers' iron grip, I removed her combat boots and brought the covers up over her curled up form. She'd pay hell in the morning from Tony for sleeping in her dirty tac-gear and ruining the sheets, but I sure as hell wasn't about to wake her to change. After I was sure she was settled, I took one final glance at her peaceful face before turning to leave. I made it all the way to the door, finger hovering over the light switch, before I heard her. 

"You said you'd be here."

Y/N was sitting up in her bed, eyes half-lidded and palms rubbing against them tiredly as she piped up. I smiled unconsciously at the sight of her sleepy expression. 

"That I did," I chuckled softly. She raised an eyebrow curiously. 

“So stay here...” she murmured. “Please.”

I nodded, crossing the room once more and dragging her desk chair with me as I went. I set it down next to her bed and settled in before motioning for her to continue sleeping. She blinked a few times, amusement and exhaustion lacing her features. 

"No, you old man," she giggled quietly, patting the empty space next to her. "I meant here as in here."

Now it was my turn to blink in confusion. 

"O-oh," I stuttered. "Is that -- I mean if you want…"

Y/N chuckled again, clearly as amused by my floundering when half-asleep as she was when she was awake. 

"Just get in here Buck."

No need to tell me twice. I shucked off my boots and crawled into Y/N's bed beside her. I paused as I pulled her blankets over my body, uncertain as to what to do next. 

I mean, she seemed like she liked being in my arms back in the Quinjet, but maybe it was different now that we were in her bed? It certainly felt different -- even though the space between us couldn't have been more than a few inches at most, it felt like there was an entire country between Y/N and I. Things were too close, too intimate. I was powerless to make even a single move under the crushing weight of the implications thick in the air. And yet my fingers were twitching against her mattress as they fought the urge to wrap her up in my embrace once more. 

Evidently, Y/N noticed the distance between us. 

She rolled over to her side so that she was facing me. Though she still looked like she was having some trouble keeping her eyes open, there was a glint of mischief and some other emotion in them as she surveyed my frozen form. I glanced down at her briefly, muscles completely stiff and immobile as I silently wondered what the hell I was going to do next. 

Y/N giggled once more, the sound sending the butterflies in my core crazy. She mercifully closed the space between us as she settled into my side. Her head nestled against my chest and her arms threw themselves around my frame like I was a pillow. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief, muscles relaxing considerably as I wound my arms around her and pulled her flush into my side. 

"Thanks," she murmured sleepily. Her eyes were already closed and I could feel her heartbeat slowing as she fell asleep once more. 

"Anytime Doll," I whispered fondly, nose nuzzling into the hairs atop the crown of her head. I yawned, suddenly extremely aware of just how tired I was. I leaned my head down against Y/N's and closed my eyes too, sure that for once I'd be guaranteed a good night's sleep. 

#Bucky Barnes #James Buchanan Bucky Barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky fanfic #bucky #bucky barnes x f!reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky barnes x y/n #bucky barnes x reader fluff #bucky barnes imagine #bucky imagine #bucky x reader #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #bucky x female reader #the winter soldier #the winter solider imagine #marvel fanfiction #marvel one shot #Marvel MCU #mcu x reader #mcu imagine #MCU

[causeiwanttoandican]

The Telegraph

How Harry’s very LA relaunch has only just begun

From Prince to campaigner and Silicon valley ‘tech bro’ what wider impact could the Duke of Sussex's new jobs have?

By Camilla Tominey, Associate Editor28 March 2021 • 6:00am

Jobs appear to be like buses for Prince Harry. Wait a lifetime for an opening and two come along at the same time.

The former Royal’s first foray into the corporate world has seen him take up the role of chief impact officer at Silicon Valley coaching firm BetterUp, while also sitting alongside Rupert Murdoch’s daughter-in-law on a commission aiming to fight “misinformation”.

Neither role appears to have required the 36-year-old former Army captain to submit a CV or go through the usual vetting processes as he adds mental health coach and anti-fake news campaigner to his résumé.

Yet in keeping with a new breed of “celebrity responsibility”, which has increasingly seen the rich and famous flex their corporate muscles for the greater good, the highly prominent positions look set to propel the cash-strapped Prince to ever more lucrative heights, as LA’s most sought-after recruit.

Just as when Jennifer Aniston became the ‘chief creative officer’ of a natural supplement range or when David Beckham backed a cannabinoid skincare company, these mutually beneficial ‘ethical’ tie-ups can be worth their weight in publicity gold. And not just for the company that gets their endorsement.

As showbiz agent Jonathan Shalit puts it: “Like corporate responsibility – this is celebrity responsibility. There’s been a shift in people’s mindsets. Two, three years ago the mindset was: ‘What’s in it for me, how can I get paid a shedload of dosh, how can I maximise my income?’ Now people desire to give back and give back support to the community.”

While pointing out that Harry is “above celebrity,” he adds: “Many celebrities are very responsible in trying to use the strength of their platform to help others.”

The announcement of both roles last week certainly played into the idea that this was more than just a money spinner for the Montecito-based ex pat – although there is no doubt all sides are set to benefit financially.

While BetterUp may be carrying out noble work in its offer of “personalised coaching, content and care designed to transform lives and careers” – it all comes at a price.

Having spoken about his struggles with grief following the death of his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, Harry said of his appointment to the “unicorn” tech firm: “(I) want us to move away from the idea that you have to feel broken before reaching out for help,” insisting he intends to use the job to “create impact in people’s lives”.

The Duke added: “Being attuned with your mind, and having a support structure around you, are critical to finding your own version of peak performance. What I’ve learned in my own life is the power of transforming pain into purpose.”

He said his goal was to “lift up critical dialogues around mental health, build supportive and compassionate communities, and foster an environment for honest and vulnerable conversations” and he hoped to “help people develop their inner strength, resilience and confidence”.

It might strike the cynical as Californian word salad akin to Aniston’s declaration, upon joining Vital Proteins, that: “Collagen is the glue that holds everything together. I’ve always been an advocate for nourishing your wellness from within.”

Yet as Alexi Robichaux, who co-founded BetterUp in 2013, points out, Harry does bring a unique perspective. “He comes from a very different background,” to other executives, he says, adding: “He’s synonymous with this approach of mental fitness and really investing in yourself. It was not a hard internal sale. He will obviously have the whole organisation sprinting to help him.”

Robichaux confirmed Harry was joining the company’s leadership team as an “officer of the corporation”, which suggests it is a paid role, although public relations expert Mark Borkowski thinks it “highly likely” he has been offered equity in the firm, which values itself at $1.73 billion.

“This previously unknown start-up has now got instant recognition,” he says. “I always said that if Harry and Meghan wanted to generate income, they should look to Silicon Valley. Getting eyeballs onto the company like this, with all the competition, is the hardest job in PR – but now the whole world is talking about it. That’s the effect signing up someone like Harry can have.

“If he’s got points in this firm and it goes gangbusters, he could make some serious money.” Borkowski cites the example of shares in Cellular Goods, the synthetic cannabis firm backed by Beckham, shooting up by 310 per cent after it launched on the London Stock Exchange in February following news of the star footballer’s investment.

“This is all about the ongoing narrative, now,” adds Borkowski, referencing the Oprah Winfrey interview in which the Sussexes raised serious concerns about the Royal family’s handling of racism and mental health issues.

“The impact of generating more connections to his brand is an ongoing struggle for him. But by taking that narrative, which is embedded with that interview along with mental health issues, then he can certainly have a credible corporate platform.”

Yet considering some of the discrepancies that have surfaced since the interview aired in the US on March 7, can Harry really be considered a reliable voice when it comes to combating what he has described as the “avalanche of misinformation”?

Critics have been at pains to point out that his appointment to the Aspen Institute’s new Commission on Information Disorder, a six-month project that will examine the “modern-day crisis of faith in key institutions” appears somewhat at odds with the Sussexes’ repeated insistence that they do not look at newspapers, magazines or social media.

Equally awkward is the fact that the Prince will be sitting alongside Kathryn Murdoch, who is married to James Murdoch, the former chairman of News of the World publisher News International, who resigned from his father Rupert Murdoch’s media empire last year.

As with Harry’s decision to appear on CBS, despite the US network once sparking outrage in 2004 for showing a “distasteful” photo of his mother after her fatal Parisian car crash, the move suggests the exiled Murdochs are now considered reformed characters thanks to their new found work on democracy reform and climate change.

As Harry himself put it, information disorder is an issue that demands “a multi-stakeholder response from advocacy voices” including, apparently, the wife of a man who was found by a Parliamentary report in 2012 to have shown “wilful ignorance of the extent of phone hacking” and being “guilty of an astonishing lack of curiosity” over the illegal practice that Harry, William and Kate were all subjected to along with Prince Charles, the Duchess of Cornwall and a string of palace aides.

It is not thought Harry is being paid for his work with the think tank, founded in 1949, which will look at everything from last year’s US election to vaccine safety and marginalised communities.

It is his listing on the Aspen Institute’s website, however, which perhaps provides the biggest clue to the sixth-in-line to the throne’s direction of travel as he settles into life in the US.

Referenced by his full title, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, the soon to be father-of-two is described as a “humanitarian, military veteran, mental wellness advocate and environmentalist.”

Despite his blood-born Royal status, Shalit believes this repositioning is actually intended to put him on a par with his high-achieving wife. For unlike her husband, who left school with two A-levels before training at Sandhurst Military Academy, it is Meghan – a Northwestern University graduate with a successful acting career under her belt – who is arguably the more employable of the two, on paper at least. As an American, the pregnant mother-of-one also doesn’t carry the burden of Harry’s complicated visa and tax arrangements, amid confusion over whether he is living and working in the US as a “diplomat” or as a person with so-called “special talents”.

“I’ve met Meghan on a number of occasions and she is a hugely astute woman, very bright, incredibly impressive,” says Shalit

“So for Harry to keep up with his wife, he’s got to find his own name and identity and this is the start. He doesn’t need celebrity. When you’re Royal, you’re the biggest celebrity in the world. But what this does is allow Harry to have relevance.”

When it comes to making an impact, Royal relevance is clearly going to be the jewel in the crown of Harry’s very LA relaunch.

[dungeons-and-divination]

WARLOCK FIEND Patron - TIEFLING Baalzebub heritage - City watch (Investigator)*

I know, a tiefling with a fiend patron is kind of cliché, but that’s what my random generator gave me. I just embraced what the tarots decided later on too. I think people that like to play grayer character will like this one, because if you have to go for cliché, might as well go all in, right? (PS: anybody notices a pattern with the tarots in the photo? Or is the quality too crappy?)

Name: Djitha (28 yo)

TAROTS

Mind: Seven of swords (upright) A card about mental manipulation as “mind” is a pretty harsh introduction. But I know some players enjoy very much playing these “on the line of being a bad guy” kind of characters. Anyway, despite that first impression of lies and trickery, let’s not forget that there’s as well an undertone of adaptability and sharp wit connected to this tarot. So despite it all, Djitha is very clever in the way she deceits people. She plans, she tries to always be a step ahead of the game, which is probably how she gets away with her bad deeds.

Body: Eight of cups (reversed) I usually relate this card to a low of self-esteem, but in Djitha’s case I feel like it’s more likely that all of the manipulating she does kind of made her forget to actually focus on her own emotions. She might be the kind of person that hides behind her lies for fear of being rejected,sure that there’s nothing interesting about her true self. So, at the end of the day we actually come back to some latent self-esteem issues in a roundabout way… For some reason I also had this very strong feeling that she would be the kind of person that strongly dislikes any kind of physical contact.  

Spirit: Knight of cups (reversed) And we even get an explanation for her “body” issues. A broken heart by another manipulator, someone that got her in a very unhealthy relationship and broke her “spirit” to the point that she decided that she wanted to become just like them so that nobody else would play her like that ever again. Full circle back to “mind”. This card also tells me that sometimes Djitha jumps to conclusions and has tantrums, so despite how smart she is and how much she plans… well, maybe she isn’t that wise after all.

Past: Five of pentacles (upright) Not surprising that in the past of poor Djitha there’s a tarot that is very much about hardship, bad luck and breakups. It’s pretty obvious that her life was not easy in the past but her background connected to this tarot and to her tendency to lie, made me really think that she had both a hard childhood, a nasty abusive relationship in her teen years, AND some kind of scandal related to her work when she was a grown up because of her manipulations and lies.

Present: Two of pentacles (reversed) This card just confirmed my suspicions. The poor decisions she has made in the past probably left poor Djitha in a bit of a pickle financially speaking. And for a person like her that really likes to feel like she has control of everything, even a little setback is kind of a big deal that would make her spiral even more in tantrums and uncontrollable fits of rage for the things she doesn’t know how to control. She’s probably in the “trying too hard” phase after that mess. Which would probably mean lying a lot but in a very careful way (so, not a lot of speaking, really), lots of brooding and thinking way too loud (but overall a lack of actual organisation), and maybe a short fuse on those tantrums.

Future: The Moon (reversed) Once again, full circle and right back to the top. She will get out of that funk in the future, but it kind of seems it could go in two ways: either by deceiving even herself that everything is gonna be okay because her lies have already been discovered and she can build some new one on the ashes of those, or by actually admitting the truth and living with the consequences of her actions. Still, the major point of this tarot is that she’ll soon be dealing with mental issues. And I already pointed out how many Djitha has, of course. So, my suggestion is that whatever ends up happening while playing, this decision on which path to follow should also very much be related to how much her fears and issues are explored with the other members of the party. 

FULL BACKSTORY

Djitha was pretty much rejected from birth by her family. Her parents were both humans, and despite having two older sisters, Minea and Lahrysa, she was the only member of the Elair family of infernal heritage. Her father Haluk especially blamed Djitha for the sickness that made her mother Riette die prematurely when Djitha was just three years old. Haluk somehow also found a way to blame her for their life on the street, despite that being the way they always lived, dirt poor since Djitha had memory. Despite the hate she received from her family, Djitha was easily loved by others around her, especially because she quickly learned how to be a people-pleaser and how much she could gain if she just smiled a little bit even to those she didn’t necessarily like. It also helped to keep a semblance of peace with her father, who was pleased when she brought back food or some coin when she begged in front of shops. When she was around fourteen, her father pretty much abandoned her because he thought she was adult enough to feign for herself. Already used to a life of begging, Djitha was convinced that she could become a thief, but she was quickly caught red handed; like always, it was her attitude of manipulating the truth and people that got her out of the situation. She convinced the chief of the city guards that she could be more useful working for them, investigating the less reputable areas and reporting back suspicious activities, since she was so well know and loved. Because of her job and the sense of fulfillment she felt when she helped the guards to catch criminals, Djitha got involved with a man, Temithope Paquet, a bit of a celebrity of the local criminal syndicate (almost a criminal right under the nose of the guards that could not be caught because proof against him always had a way of being misplaced). He was way older than her, but Djitha was sure that she couldn’t be fooled by him. Either because Temithope was very good at persuading people, or because she was very young and lonely, Djitha actually fell for him pretty quickly and became his pawn that would give information on the guards activities so that the syndicate could do whatever they pleased. It only took a couple of months of abusive relationship filled with demeaning comments, before eavesdropping on one of his conversations with someone else from the syndicate made Djitha decide that enough was enough. Djitha finally saw how empty all of Temithope’s promises of easy riches and power were, and decided that she would no longer be his plaything. Trying to seek revenge, Djitha actually convinced the chief of the city watch that she had been trying to play the long-con with Temithope and gave them a bunch of proof of all the nasty things Temithope been doing in those months. With her abuser finally behind bars (despite him promising revenge for it), she was allowed to become officially part of the investigation team. At first Djitha thought that she would find a new purpose in her career. But she soon found out that she was still considered a nobody and that trying to do things “the right way”, by following the rules wasn’t gonna get her anything (especially nor riches neither power). Unlike breaking them, which she had somewhat positive experience with overal (she could actually order around people when she was under Temithope’s protection). So she started, once again, working with the criminals in the city. Djitha was sure she was doing alright; people in the guards were happy with her tips on meaningless goons while she protected people in high places in the criminal hierarchy. Everything was fine, and she was starting to grow a reputation again, until, during a massive investigation with people undercover, she was finally sussed out. Desperate to get out of town and find a way to keep being hidden, it was easy for Djitha to accept the offer her patron made her to give her the power she so desperately craved and that surely would keep her out of jail. She had things to do for her patron now, after all, it was in her patron’s interest to keep are hidden…

SUGGESTION CORNER

Suggested features Ability scores: High Charisma and Intelligence, Low Wisdom and Strength Skill proficiencies: Deception, Intimidation. *Instead of Insight from the Investigator Background, talk with your DM and ask if you could go for either Stealth or proficiency in thieves’ tools; I feel like it fits better with the complete story of being involved with criminals so much. Others: I suggest either pact of the Chain or pact of the Tome. I do think this character would be a very nice multiclass wizard, but spellcasting multiclass is kind of a pain, so I get why you might want to stay away from a thing like that. I decided not to go into details on the Patron. It’s very much a matter to be discussed with the DM in my opinion, so I kept as vague as possible on that matter.

Suggested Characteristics Trait: I think money is the true measure of appreciation and affection. Everything else is talk or an act. Ideal: Money and power can be gained more easily with a fake smile than a real opinion. I plan to gain as much as possible. Bond: My past mistakes cost me dearly. I’m actually, maybe, a little on the run for a crime. Flaw: People who can’t take care of themselves get what they deserve (something she actually “learned” from that abusive relationship and VERY MUCH applies to herself most of all).

#tarots #dnd #dnd character #dnd 5e #warlock #tiefling #fiend #city watch investigator #seven of swords #eight of cups #knight of cups #five of pentacles #two of pentacles #the moon #dungeons and divination #high charisma #high intelligence #low wisdom #low strength #never not gonna say I'm sorry for the crappy quality of those photos #still italian so if my english is weird that's why #backgrounds are mainly guidelines so I hope you are okay with the slight changes #i really wanted her to give the vibe of the corrupted authority figure

[life-in-prosper-city]

The Team

Under the cut are profiles of all the team’s members.

The Team doesn’t really have a name- in their own eyes, they’re just a group of people who want to help others. At the present time, there are eleven members of the team. Five of them are full-time active members, meaning they’ll respond to any type of danger at any time. These members are Cobalt Hunter, Honorstar, Silver Seer, Chlorothorn, and Kingdom Animalia. Three of them are part-time active members, meaning they’re being actively trained to fight, and they can come along on some calls. These members are Langley and Lyndon, the twins, and Zilla. One of them, Dr. Malcolm, is a full-time support member; he stays at the base, or nearby but not right at the fight or danger, as a support for Kingdom Animalia. The last two members, Spectre and Serena, are too young to fight, and are only part of the team because they have nowhere else to go.

Compared to the Safeguard Coalition, whose hub is located in Prosper City, The Team are more of a family; they all live in the same building, each having their own apartment but sharing common areas, and they all know each other’s secret identities. There’s a silent trust between all of them. 

In terms of principles, The Team prioritizes citizen safety and limiting collateral damage. They have a no-kill policy against the criminals or villains they fight, as long as they’re living or sentient beings. If they have to let a bank robber get away in order to save civilians, they’ll let the robber go; stolen money is not as important as people’s lives.

Cobalt Hunter/Grace Kearney (She/her) 

Part time museum curator, part time superhero, and part time team mom. Grace is the most responsible person on the team, and the official leader. She’s the one who makes the important decisions for the team, though she does take everyone’s opinions into account. Because she has the most demanding day job out of all of them, she makes sure that chores around the apartment building are organized and delegated to the others. Taking care of Spectre and Serena is also her self-appointed job, because the rest of the adults on the team just don’t understand very much about child care. She may not have superpowers like everyone else on the team, but she’s skilled at what she does and strikes fear into the heart of the criminals the team faces. 

Abilities: Professionally trained in archery, self-defense, and mixed martial arts since childhood; her strongest skill is her archery. Like many unpowered superheroes, she relies on technologically enhanced gadgets to fight powered supervillains. She has many types of lethal and non-lethal arrows, and her bow itself is customized for additional functions. 

Other skills: While archery is her main skill, she can also hold her own in CQC for some time, and she’s super beefy. A good understanding of technology; she can’t create her own gadget arrows but she can repair them. She’s very organized and has a good eye for detail. Though Casey, Honorstar, is the frontman of the team, Cobalt Hunter is also known to answer questions from the press and public; she isn’t as charismatic as Casey is, but she knows how to talk to people and lead conversations where she wants them to go.

Honorstar/Casey Lebeau (They/them) 

28 year old professional superhero, and spiritually the leader of the team. The main chef and general housekeeper, Casey inherited a great sum of money from both their parents and their two aunts (and their husbands), who never had kids of their own. There was no one tragic accident that killed their family; there was sickness, accidents, a suicide. Casey was 3 when they became an orphan, and 17 when all their aunts and uncles died. Still, they stay positive, knowing death has a place in the world, and defying it only brings darkness. Maybe it’s the loneliness of having no family, or the feeling of responsibility they have from their powers, but Casey’s compassion is shown on their sleeve, taking in strays, and working to save the innocent. 

Abilities: Superhuman, either from birth or something else, Casey doesn’t know. They have super strength, speed, stamina, healing ability, resilience, and dexterity. 

Other skills: Good at cooking and cleaning. Able to organize small to medium groups of people; enjoys being an emotional support for other people.

Zilla (They/them) 

 Zilla is a 15 year old former homeless kid, passed through the foster system like a library book until they ran away. They were saved by Honorstar from a battle they got caught in, and given a place to live with the rest of the team. Zilla isn’t very talkative, but as long as someone else is carrying the conversation, they’ll keep up. They’re still working on building up their social skills, after being alone for most of their life. They enjoy reading all types of books, and watching movies with the other team members. Somewhat defensive still, they quickly grew protective of the team as well- they’re the first real family that Zilla has ever had. 

Abilities: Can shapeshift into a monstrous, 10 foot tall, semi-anthropomorphic crocodilian, gaining the jaw strength, sharp teeth, powerful legs, and large lung capacity that are common to crocodilians. 

Other skills: Fairly strong even when not transformed; skilled but untrained in close combat fights without transforming, able to take on a few untrained fighters by themself. They’re resourceful and have a good sense of spatial awareness.

Kingdom Animalia/King (He/him, but he doesn’t care he’s a dog) 

King is a dog. He’s a good boy. He enjoys chasing ducks but he isn’t allowed to do it because Warren says it’s Mean. He likes to be a gecko when he’s at work with Warren. Warren and Casey tell King to be a human when strangers ask him questions. He has to pretend to be a human like mom dogs pretend to fight puppies when they play. King is not great at pretending to be a human, but he tries his best, and he gets pets when he makes bad guys go in cages or helps not-bad guys get away from danger. King likes helping humans even when he doesn’t get pets. They make happy sounds, and King likes that. 

Abilities: King is able to shapeshift into other animals. Without direction, he doesn’t have much of a use for it, but with Dr. Malcolm’s helping telepathy, King can use his abilities to aid the rest of the team in fights and rescues. 

Other skills: Very pettable, very cuddly, good at doing tricks for treats. King is good at search-and-rescue in his true form, and he’s the very best on the team for cheering up the other team members. He is a dog, and has all the usual dog skills that come with being a dog.

Dr. Warren Malcolm (He/him) 

 A 38 year old pharmacist with a kind and selfless heart. He worked with the team for a while before actually joining them, giving them medications they needed even without an actual prescription- It may be against the law, but it wasn’t harming anyone else, and it was saving lives. Once he rescued King, he moved in with the team and joined them full time as King’s “handler”. He’s the oldest person on the team, and his age shows. He doesn’t understand the video games the kids play, not for lack of trying. He prefers working with analogue technology where possible. He likes to read and do logic and word puzzles in his free time. He volunteers at various animal shelters and other animal facilities when he isn’t busy, using his ability to figure out what might need to change for an animal’s comfort. 

Abilities: Animal telepathy. For animals he’s unfamiliar with, he can only reach them from nearby. Animals he’s familiar with, he can reach them from a little bit further. Animals that he’s familiar with and they’re familiar with him and trust him, he can reach them from quite a distance. Animals in distress often unknowingly reach him. 

Other skills: As a doctor of pharmacology, Warren has more medical skills than anyone else on the team, and a better understanding of microbiology. As such, he’s often the team’s first contact for any sort of medical care. He’s a fairly logically-minded person, as well. He’s handy with a toolbox, too.

Silver Seer/Jordan Sun 

Jordan… Isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. He struggled in school, not for lack of trying, but seriously, school was so boring. His lack of academic success may seem ironic, given his superpowers are of the mental variety. However, his personal interests fall on the more physical side of things. Jordan is a bit of a gym rat and enjoys other physical activities too. He’s outgoing and playful, he gets along well with the younger members of the team. He tries to be responsible and do chores and help cook, but sometimes he just drops the ball. He’s good at focusing! But only on some things. 

Abilities: At the present time, he has many abilities, but they aren’t very powerful. He has prophetic dreams, glimpses of the future in his waking moments, and with strong enough concentration, he can purposefully see up to a few minutes into the future. He has sharp intuition; even without exact images, he can tell when something bad is about to happen, or feel when something is wrong either with a person or an object. He can see illusions for what they are, and can also tell if another person is under the effects of mind control. He himself is resistant to mind control, as well as possession and unwanted telepathic or empathetic readings or projections. With a willing target, he can make a telempathic connection between them or a few people; they can share thoughts and emotions with words, images, and other sensory projections. His strongest mental ability is his telekinesis. With his mind, he can exert twice the amount of force as his physical body; given he routinely strength trains, his telekinesis can reach almost incredible power. 

Other skills: Jordan is the mundanely strongest person on the team. With a history in school-level track and field, he also has good physical coordination and team coordination skills. He’s pretty self-sufficient; when he was living alone, he cooked most of his meals and learned how to do his chores.

Chlorothorn/Project Dryad Subject 14/ “Clair” (She/her) 

 Technically 5 years old, her mental and physical age resembles that of a human in their mid 20s. As her assigned name suggests, Clair was the 14th experiment in a larger project designed to create creatures using both animal and plant DNA. After escaping the laboratory, she met Casey, and agreed to live in his building. She enjoys all types of media, learning more about what humans are like through observation, and learning more about the world in general. She has a desire to protect life, which made her very suitable to join the team’s active roster. 

Abilities: Created as a human-plant hybrid, Clair has a humanoid body structure and face, the ability to speak, and a heart, lungs, and nervous system. Her plant DNA, however, mixed with the rapid cell generation chamber that was used to create her, gave her many plant-like traits, and abilities beyond the capacity of any normal human or plant. Her skin can absorb sunlight for photosynthesis, her arms and legs are made of many intertwined woody vines that she can extend and retract at will, and she doesn’t feel pain the same way humans do. She heals relatively easily, as her body’s structures are fairly simple, and she is sustained by a mainly liquid diet. 

Other skills: Clair has excellent short- and long-term memory and recall. She has knowledge of a lot of subjects, and learns more every day. She doesn’t have many talents as she hasn’t had much opportunity to attend classes, but she’s kind and polite and always brings a sense of cheer to the apartments.

Langley & Lyndon (Both he/him) 

These 18 year old identical twins consider each other their best friend in the world, even if they don’t always get along. They share their looks, their games, and the experience of a disaster that would change their life forever.

Langley Hayes 

Hardworking and dedicated, Langley never fails to get a job done, big or small. He’s somewhat more outgoing than his brother, preferring the company of many to the silence of solitude. Currently working at warehouse part time, and on the back-up roster of the team, Langley isn’t shy about showing his emotions or goofing around, often entertaining the younger kids. 

Abilities: Gravity manipulation, in the simplest terms. He can increase, decrease, or change the direction of the gravity in an area around him, and after some practice he’s nearly able to reach zero gravity. He may or may not use his powers outside of combat or emergencies, despite his brother’s lectures on being careful and not exposing himself as a super. 

Other talents: He has mad video game strats. He enjoys skateboarding, excels at math in school, and handles himself well in social situations. He can also handle spicy food very well for an Irish heritage white person.

Lyndon Hayes 

Responsible, dependable, considerate; Lyndon strives to be a good teammate and friend, but often indulges in fun and rebellious activities. Nothing too dangerous, though. Danger and fun can’t coexist, for Lyndon, though he does admit that the battles with the team are fun after the fact. He’s less socially-driven than his brother, able to enjoy some time alone to play video games, watch whatever holds his attention at the time, read a book, or come up with stories. 

Abilities: Magnetism. Though at first only able to pick up metal objects without actually holding onto it, Lyndon has trained himself to be able to use his power to attract magnetic objects from a distance, repel magnetic things from him, or attract or repel magnetic objects from a point of his choice. Though not yet strong enough to, say, bend a steel beam, he’s able to manipulate magnetic material through careful and precise magnetic forces. 

Other skills: Creative in his thinking, one of the top students in his physics class, and good at managing his emotions. He’s a good cook, one of the best on the team at explaining things to the kids in a way they understand, and he’s learned how to quickly read the team’s moods.

Serena 

Only nine years old, Serena lives with the team. Her powers manifested when she was young, out of desperation and fear. She used them to run away, and she ended up alone in Prosper. She met Grace by chance, and went to live at the apartment building with the rest of the team. She spends most of her days at home, learning from workbooks that Grace brings her and hanging out with whoever else is home. 

Abilities: Intangibility including invisibility and gravity immunity. Without a physical body she doesn't need to eat, drink, or breathe, and doesn't feel heat or cold. She’s immune to any physical effect, most magical effects, and some psychic effects. She also can’t have any physical effect on the world in this state, however. 

Other skills: She’s a little bit above average in education for her age, and she especially enjoys language arts and nature studies. She’s trained with Grace to learn some self-defense moves, and they plan to move onto offensive attacks soon. For someone her age, she holds conversations with adults well, even if she’s a bit shy.

Spectre (He/him) 

A six year old boy with a sad past that haunts him. Quiet and somewhat shy, it takes him a while to warm up to people. Because of his powers and his past, he has trouble sleeping when he’s alone, and tends to stick around familiar and trusted people as often as possible. He likes Pokemon, toy cars, bunnies, video games, and yogurt. He doesn’t like taking three vitamin pills every morning, or the permanent scarring to his throat, or that he might leave his body whenever he sleeps, or bees. 

Abilities: His soul and body exist with only a weak bond, letting his soul leave his body. He can possess and control other people for short amounts of time, as long as the target doesn’t have a very strong psyche, a lot of willpower, or some other protection against possession, mind control, or ‘ghosts’. While his soul is outside of his body, his cells go into a state of stasis, preserving his body until his soul's return. 

Other skills: He’s like 6 he doesn’t need to have other skills. He’s good at colouring inside the lines, though.

CREDITS

Picrews used: Jordan, Langley & Lyndon, Zilla; Warren; Spectre; Casey; Clair; King; Grace; Serena

Divider source

#original writing #character profile #life in prosper city #superheroes #the team #zilla #langley #lyndon #the twins #clair #spectre #king #warren #casey #grace #jordan #serena

[ice-cream-nekogirl]

I just wanna make you feel okay But all you do is look the other way, mm I can't tell you how much I wish I didn't wanna stay I just kinda wish you were gay ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bPEjcgytN8

Amy and Midoriya:

Believe it or not, Midoriya just might be another one of Amy’s most complex and complicated relationships, second to her’s and Fiona’s, which is saying something. The only thing Midoriya and Fiona have in common at all though is their closeness to the young witch and the fact that they both ended up breaking her heart. Midoriya is also living proof of how Amy can go from intensely loving someone one moment, to intensely hating them the next...

They didn’t always have a rocky relationship though, it just... got strained along the way but don’t worry! There’s a happy ending!

Amy met Midoriya as a child, and ironically, she ended up saving him from Bakugo when he was bullying him. She attacked him because he was picking on a defenseless Midoriya, which really surprised the latter since no one’s ever attempt to stop Bakugo from being a jerk. Amy took an immediate liking to Midoriya as they ran away from Bakugo and his friends at the time, and even already gave him a nickname ‘Greenie’. She sympathized with him since he was quirkless and although she didn’t tell him that she was really a witch and that her powers just emerged, she still comforted the boy when he said that he really wanted to be a hero. Amy expressed her faith in Midoriya, and said that he was going to be a great hero some day because he’s a nice guy. Their friendship was short-lived when Amy moved to New Orleans, but they reunited when she returned to Japan and met him again at the UA Entrance exams.

Excited, Amy happily greeted him and asked if he remembered her, and once he got a glimpse of her powers, he remembered her as the girl with the teleportation power much to her delight. Amy instantly clung to Midoriya and declared herself as his ‘new best friend’, which rather annoyed Shinsou, who she had also reunited with beforehand. In truth though, Amy’s fondness of Midoriya was actually a crush as she notes that he got ‘cuter’ 4 years later and was happy to see that he was still the determined and kind-hearted boy she met in the past. Although this ended up in her being very jealous of other girls, but especially Uraraka, who Amy often secretly pushed with her telekinesis whenever she got too close to Midoriya. Although she was perfectly fine with Hatsume and Toga whenever they were getting close to Midoriya, and she even happily chatted with Toga about how cute he was. 

On his side, Midoriya was both happy to see her and have her as a new friend but was also extremely flustered by her physically affectionate and hands-on attitude as she frequently hugged him and held his hands, arms and shoulders and overall made him very nervous. Nonetheless, Midoriya began to view her as a good friend and someone that he can rely on despite her flightiness as Amy proved to be a good help whenever she gave him emotional support and cheered him up by being her silly self especially when she hung around him, Uraraka and Iida.

Midoriya became used to Amy’s personality and knew that she could be relied on to lighten up the mood since she was almost always smiling and being funny, which he admired. Midoriya notes that Amy is a good person and good in a tense situation because she can bring the laughter and smiles back on people’s faces. But Amy also ends up surprising Midoriya though during the USJ incident and when she showed up to help him, Iida and Todoroki fight off the Hero Killer Stain as he was amazed by her fighting spirit and skills with magic. Midoriya had and still has a lot of respect for Amy because of her skillset in witchcraft and the power she has, although he is also bewildered by her tendency to be lazy and preference to goof off. Despite this, Midoriya’s respect for her grows when Amy proves to be reliable both in and out of battle and Amy was amazed by his strength and kind heart. 

Sadly, their relationship slowly began to skew as Midoriya began to grow as a person and start prioritizing his new goals to become stronger above most of everything so he can become a better hero. Amy was aware of Midoriya’s goals but was oblivious to his gradual maturation as she continued to joke around and entertain him which only made her look much more immature in comparison and she ended up becoming clingy. She slowly became grating towards Midoriya because of this, but he was too polite to turn her away and merely humored her because he liked seeing her happy and still regarded her as a good friend.The Kamino Ward Arc is where their relationship began to slowly sour when Amy gets captured with Bakugo, and discovers that he, Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida and Yaoyorozu went to rescue them on their own without any knowledge of the pro-heroes. While Amy was impressed that he broke the rules, she was also irritated with the fact that his main priority at the time was Bakugo, and that he didn’t think far ahead given that Amy and Bakugo were trapped with 7 dangerous villains at the time and Midoriya and his friends were still merely novices at the time. She irritably chides him for being reckless and when she was rescued by Madison instead, she also asks him if he even knew that she was alive. A shocked Midoriya doesn’t answer, and Amy leaves without a word. 

Amy did want to forgive Midoriya for unintentionally forgetting about her, and as she spent her time interning with Mallory and Madison she expressed the hope that maybe confessing her feelings to him would improve on their relationship. And when she returns after the Internship arc and expresses pride in Midoriya initially for taking down Overhaul and rescuing young Eri, but that pride gets instantly dissipated when she hears more details surrounding the entire rescue operation. When she hears how it resulted in the death of a hero, several heroes getting injured and some of their friends, including their teacher, getting injured all for the sake of one that they didn’t even know well Amy gets very upset. To the point where she starts yelling and calls Midoriya an idiot for his recklessness and states that he has no idea what he’s doing, and the two of them get in a verbal fight as Midoriya tells Amy that she has no place to speak since she’s just as reckless, if not more so than he is. But Amy remarks that she’s not reckless to the point of sacrificing her friends’ lives for a stranger he just met, only for Midoriya to point out that it’s a heroes job to protect the innocent lives. 

However, Eri’s rescue also negatively enlightened Amy as she compared her own rescue to the former’s less than meaningful and positive one, and the witch realizes that she never received that kind of care, nor did the heroes showcase that kind of determination to give her a better life as they did for Eri, which greatly angers and hurts her when she recollects what kind of harsh life she had ever since she was rescued by the heroes and later given away. Amy rants this newfound knowledge to Midoriya, who although is sympathetic to her plight, can’t understand her on an emotional level and instead urges her to let go of that since she is here now as a hero-in-training and needs to be above all of that. But Amy doesn’t want to hear it as she laughs off his words, and then callously disregards Eri, as Amy says that she herself matters. Disgusted and horrified by Amy’s lack of empathy, he chastises her for being cruel and calls her out on her selfishness and reminds her of the ‘kind, sweet girl’ she used to be, which shocks the young witch when it becomes clear that Midoriya isn’t happy to see how she truly is behind one aspect of herself. And when Midoriya ends the conversation Amy is left unhinging and hurt from having the boy she likes speak to her like that and point out her flaws. 

Amy acts much colder and emotionless during the Culture Festival, which her classmates noted and likened her to Todoroki, who was more concerned than amused by her strange and distraught behavior. To make matters worse Amy refused to join the class dance out of spite towards Midoriya and also Aizawa; who she also began to hate since he started to take care of Eri, something she begged for him to do for her, but he didn’t when he could have. And when Midoriya pleads with Amy to be a team-player and help them she refuses and tells him to go to hell. Instead, Amy goes to the General Studies to be with Shinsou, who’s well aware of her anger and does what he can to ease her. Unfortunately, when the Culture Festival comes to an end and she sees her entire class looking happy without her, and especially Midoriya, she starts hallucinating Fiona, who reminds her that she has no place in Hero Society, which causes her to suffer a mental breakdown.  Incensed, heartbroken and now bubbling with rage, Amy sets up a plot in motion for the next day and attacks Aizawa and UA. The pro-heroes fight back, but Amy planned ahead and instantly defeated them with her telekinesis and Concilium, and also put her friends to sleep with a sleeping potion to spare them from her wrath. Midoriya notices this and quickly steps in to try and stop her, and the two of them engage in a fight when the insane and hostile Amy mocks and unnerves him with her psychosis. 

Midoriya attempts to calm Amy down by saying that their friends and shouldn’t be fighting each other, but a pissed off Amy angrily tells him that she’s not in the mood for his ‘hero speeches’ and continues to attack him. He has no choice but to fight back as he tries desperately to remind her of their friendship, only for her to say that he isn’t seeing from her point of view. But as Amy goes on tirade about how Hero Society has abandoned and failed people like her and points out all of the flaws, Midoriya tells her that she’s starting to sound like Stain. Amy doesn’t heed this though, only further angered, but when Midoriya gets the upperhand and pins her down, she breaks down crying. Feeling guilty, Midoriya gently requests for her to stop what she’s doing, but Amy tearfully begs for him to let her go and to listen to her, and confesses that she’s only doing this because she loves him. However, Midoriya was extremely taken aback by her confession, and because of his insecurity with girls and belief that Amy doesn’t truly mean it, he angrily yells at her to stop playing around and that she really is crazy if she’s doing this out of some twisted idea of love. He then goes on to say that she can’t blame Hero Society for her own shortcomings since he himself didn’t despite the system being against him, and harshly reminds her that only she’s to blame for her what’s happening because she let it get to her instead of rising above that. 

Midoriya had good intentions, but those words are what served as the final nail into the coffin and Amy’s Sentio Compassios awoke into a stronger, more enraged form ‘Sentio Furia’ which both surprises and scares Midoriya. Scorned and heartbroken, Amy’s power fueled by her unbridled fury overwhelms and dominates Midoriya as she tosses him around like a ragdoll and grabs him with her enlarged form and prepares to crush him. Horrified, remorseful and frightened by this new rage that he realizes is caused by him, Midoriya begs for Amy to stop and apologizes for what he said, but Amy says that she hates him and attempts to crush him. At least, until Shinsou arrives and sadly looks up at Amy, which she notices and upon seeing Midoriya’s tears, Amy remembers her human heart and memories with him as she slowly comes down from her high and lets him go but leaves him to writhe in pain with broken ribs. She heals his internal bleeding but backhand slaps him one last time with a scowl, much to Midoriya’s dismay when she leaves with Shinsou.  

At the end of the battle and destruction she caused, Amy is pardoned by Cordelia and she’s freed of any punishments that would have been planned for her. But because Amy felt too upset and hurt by the pro-heroes, she quits UA which shocks all of her classmates but especially Midoriya, who feels partially responsible for her departure. Amy isolates herself in her mansion in an attempt to numb the pain of her heartache caused by both the pro-heroes and Midoriya as she thought about him, both positively and negatively as she frequently ranted to Shinsou, Madison, Mallory and Coco (who took care of her) about her newfound hate for him. In truth, Amy didn’t really hate Midoriya, but still didn’t like him nor was she able to feel any affection for him for a long time. Even as Midoriya visited her at her mansion and attempted to apologize to her with an All-Might gift (suggested by Shinsou), Amy was still upset and rejected his apology, dismissed it as garbage and crushed it before she menacingly told him to get out. Hurt, Midoriya would continue his school life sadly and upset with himself for failing Amy and not being able to get through to her.

Amy’s newfound grudge against Midoriya remains for quite some time even when she eventually returns to UA as she treats him coldly and refuses to speak to him. Although, she did end up having to talk to him during their internship with Endeavor, but many of her words were unfriendly and she even punched him in the stomach for innocently, but insensitively dismissing her when they talked about Todoroki, which highly amused Bakugo, who liked her new attitude towards Midoriya. After Natsuo is rescued, Amy and Midoriya finally have another conversation after he asks for her to talk to him, and Amy confesses that she’s not mad at him anymore, but doesn’t look at him the same anymore. She confesses that her confession was real and that her feelings for him were real, which flustered him a bit, until she said that she related to him and felt a connection to him since they were both outcasts. But then she expressed her disappointment in him for no longer being able to be on the outside and look in as he has forgotten his former quirkless self in favor of his new power, while Amy embraced the things that made her different from society. Shocked but also regretful over this new realization, he apologizes to her oncemore, but Amy sadly says that ‘sorry’ isn’t going to change anything.

While Midoriya does keep his priorities, Amy remained in his mind and he couldn’t stop thinking about how he failed her, and there were many times where he did try his best to repair or at least patch up their relationship once Amy slightly lessened her grudge. Todoroki and Shinsou offered him advice by telling him to not push it and to let her forgive him on her own terms, but Midoriya was still willing to do whatever he could to get to forgive him. Later, Amy takes 1-A (plus Shinsou) to New Orleans as a field trip since she felt guilty for what she did to UA and the class was ecstatic to visit America. However, an ambush by witch-hunters takes them by surprise as they are forced to fight and when Amy is killed by one of the hunters Midoriya is crestfallen and cries for her. At least, until she is quickly revived by Misty Day and Cordelia, and Amy happily hugs everyone, including Bakugo, but doesn’t do the same for a very dismayed Midoriya. Sensing their tension, Cordelia sends both Midoriya and Amy on a mission to infltrate and stop a cult of Satanists in New Orleans who are framing witches and killing innocent people. Amy isn’t happy to be with Midoriya, but takes her mission seriously to protect her coven and Midoriya is more than happy to help.

The mission is rather awkward as Amy tells Midoriya that they’re going to be disguised as an illegally married teenage Satanist couple which greatly flusters the boy and amuses Amy. Throughout the entire mission though, Amy does most of the heavy lifting and uses some very underhanded tactics to take down the cult from the inside out and just tells Midoriya to stay out of her way even when he’s trying to help her and is constantly on edge by her brutality. And when he yells at her for not letting him help and for her savage murders, he is quickly intimidated by her cold glare as she reminds him that he shouldn’t be getting mouthy with the girl who’s not above murdering people. However, when Amy starts to get overwhelmed by the amount of power and Satanists, Midoriya rescues her before she can get killed and he kind of scolds her about letting her anger cloud her judgement. 

And Amy reluctantly agrees that she shouldn’t have silenced him but then tells him that feeling ignored and dismissed isn’t a nice feeling and Midoriya reflects on how he made her feeling. Amy then tells him that she’s not going to be the kind-hearted girl he wants her to be. Midoriya tries to assure her that he’s not asking for her to be that girl, but Amy doesn’t believe him. Although, Amy does still express her concern and worry for Midoriya when he gets injured by the leader of the Satanists and she lets go of her negative feelings towards him momentarily. Together they both put their differences aside and they are both able to destroy the cult together, although Amy’s way of going about it is more brutal but Midoriya says nothing on it.

As the cult is destroyed and later killed by Satan himself in a very gory fashion, Amy is amazed but not fazed upon seeing Satan as he gives both her and Midoriya an impressed nod at how they defeated the cult that failed him. A horrified and blood-soaked Midoriya asks her if that’s really what she grew up with and she casually says ‘yes’ and that there’s more blood than normal. But later Midoriya goes into shock upon having several other people’s blood on him, and Amy finally shows her gentler side and takes him back to the coven so he can recover both physically and emotionally as she stays by his side the entire time. Midoriya tells Amy that if that’s truly what she’s grown up with, then he can understand a little bit more why she is the way she is today and she awkwardly smiles and says that it wasn’t easy and she tells him more of her past stories. Sympathetic and also shocked by what she went through, Midoriya nonetheless expresses more respect and awe towards Amy’s resilience and reassures her that while she’s more ruthless than she used to be, that he knows she still has a sympathetic heart despite all of that. Touched by his words, Amy finally forgives Midoriya although she breaks down in tears as she apologizes to him for everything she’s done and for how she’s acted, but he quickly forgives her as she tightly hugs him, and for once Midoriya returns the favor and hugs her back as the two of them cry together.

That’s... their relationship. Rocky, complicated but also close because while Amy and Midoriya have had a fairly shaky journey together, they learned a lot from each other nonetheless. Midoriya learned to remember where he came from and Amy learned to be more forgiving towards others and he ended up inspiring her to make her own place in society since that’s what he did when he made his mark and showcased himself as no longer weak. For better or worse Amy’s new goal is to make her mark and further integrate both witches and heroes, but Midoriya believes that she’s still heroic at heart despite her issues. So in the end... Amy and Midoriya patched up their relationship, and while she’s not in love with him anymore she still has real love for him. 

Likewise, Midoriya still holds Amy in very high regard and cares for her deeply, although he is a lot more afraid of her anger now and secretly admits that he doesn’t ever want to fight her again. And also, he still gets flustered by her especially when she goes back to the way she was by hugging him and holding his arm as Amy begins giving him affection once again. It’s implied that there’s a mutual attraction between the two, but overall, Amy and Midoriya have fixed their rocky relationship and are back to being good friends, even though she still likes to tease and prank him, and there is still some awkward moments since Amy started a relationship with Bakugo, and the latter is still very jealous of him whenever he’s even close to Amy, much to her amusement. 

I didn’t intend for Amy to have this kind of friendship/relationship with Midoriya but he IS the protagonist of BNHA so... it only makes sense that she has a unique and impactful relationship with him right? XD I think so... and they’re still friends thank goodness, and will continue to be friends even if they come from two different worlds, they do maintain their close bond. 

I just kinda wish you were gay...

#midoriya izuku #deku midoriya #mha midoriya #bnha izuku #mha izuku #izuku x oc #midoriya x oc #deku x oc #amy martinez #bnha x oc #american horror story #american horror story coven #ahs coven #coven #witches #ahs oc #american horror story oc #american horror story original character

[fuck-customers]

I suffer from severe depression, anxiety, and PTSD. If this bothers you then this isn’t your cup of tea to read. It will be brutal. It will be honest. It will be graphic.

I had my symptoms almost completely under control for years. I have wonderful kids and a supportive husband. For some reason a switch flipped in my brain. I no longer had my hands on the wheel no brakes to stop it. The nightmares, flashbacks, bouts of depression, never ending anxiety, and more were returning full force.  It’s not like they ever went away, they were just not as big of a demon it is now. It actually got bad enough that I voluntarily committed myself to a mental health care facility.

Despite that help I only got worse. Self harming started with scratches, then deep wounds, until I was using blunt objects until I bruised. Any kind of physical pain somehow made the monster in my head weaker. During that time I also became increasingly suicidal. I began to miss work because I was just clutched so tightly within the jaws of mental horror. Obviously my husband began to stay home with me to ensure my safety.

This was making our financial situation harder and my mental health worsened with it. Like a sick joke one led to the other led to the other until I was unable to get out of bed most days of the week. When we lost Medicaid and were unable to afford insurance that also made a huge impact on my well being. We couldn’t afford for me to see a therapist, go to the doctor, or get my medication. We had to limit these things that are a very crucial part of my past, present, and future.

We did what we could to get my medication and do minimal visits to the doctor. We couldn’t afford a therapist, so that got neglected.  I needed all of it, though. My quality of life suffered as did my family’s. The days missed from work piled up between the two of us. All because of this strong inescapable force that is a part of my every waking and sleeping moment.

Before I go further, yes, I know being absent a lot is reasonable terms for termination. But where do you draw the line? Where does understanding come into play? Where is your compassion, Walmart?

Things were looking up for a brief time. My loyal online friends helped make sure that my kids still got a Christmas despite our hardships. I was so moved that I felt like things could get better. Wrong.

A week before Christmas and all through the store Walmart decided we were too much of a chore. Both my husband and I were fired. On the same day. A WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS! I became numb at first thinking that surely there was something we could do. We were both loyal employees and did our jobs well. So my husband and I decided to speak with the store manager about our options.

She was the most cold, robotic human being I have ever met. She sounded completely scripted and devoid of any soul as she went through the reasons we couldn’t keep out jobs. We sat and watched her as if she was giving a power point presentation and how horrible we were as employees.

I started hypo ventilating and crying in front of her. With that same robotic practiced voice she asked if I wanted her to call for an ambulance. My chest got tighter. She then asked in a monotone if she needed to call a doctor. My husband had to lead me out of the store as my breath became almost impossible to catch.

Still crying when we got home I suddenly felt that overwhelming urge that I’ve had so many times before. This time, though, I knew it was the day. I was going to do it. I had a point where I wasn’t able to provide for my family, we could become homeless, starve, and worse. The monster finally snapped it’s jaws shut with a final nudge from that conversation.

I waited until my husband fell asleep. We were both stressed enough that we had a couple of drinks. With a belly full of vodka I climbed up the stairs to my bedroom. I gathered every single pill bottle I could find, vitamins included, and choked all of them down. All there was to do now was get in bed, fall asleep, and wait.

I woke up blind, scared, weak, and confused. The ground felt like a sea of tiny legos that I sank into the more I struggled. I felt no pain, but I could hear my husband yelling at me to get into bed. I had fallen at some point, but try as I might I couldn’t claw my way up. He dragged me into the hallway and redressed me. I have no memory of having ever removed them, so it almost felt as though I was being stuffed into a body bag. His voice sounded so far away as he called 911. The darkness pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go.

In the ambulance I screamed as if possessed for water. I felt like I had gone for weeks without hydration. The more I was denied, the more I howled and pleaded. I begged as they strapped my hands down so I couldn’t fight for a single drop anymore. I finally began to figure out some hazy figures. To my left was for sure my husband, holding my hand and crying. To my right were a bunch of people I didn’t know. Still immobilized I screamed! Water! Please give me some water! All I heard were echoes that I couldn’t have any.

As time went on I began to feel as though my husband was drifting away from me as these people surrounded me and mocked me. I thought they were telling me to sit up, so I kept trying. They held a straw to my mouth just out of reach. It was too dark to see and they kept playing a game of “keep away” with the straw. I remember writhing and shrieking because of the feeling that I would never be able to taste water ever again. Just as hope was waning I saw my little brother. Impossible, I thought, he lives clear across the country. With him taking my hand my body stilled and my consciousness slipped.

When I once again came to I was still out of it, desperately thirsty, and strapped down. Never have I wanted to escape so much. My memory isn’t clear from here, but I’m sure that I managed to work one of my hands out of the restraint before intervention occurred. I was medicated to calm me down and sled back into a sort of unaware purgatory.

Upon waking again I was more level headed. I was told that my husband found me naked, convulsing, and trashing around in an effort to get back into bed .I had stitches in my head, bruises over pretty much 40% of my body, broken toe nails and finger nails, scrapes, and a deep wound behind my ear. My bedroom is quite small, so the amount of movement and strength I was putting into everything caused quite a lot of damage. For the next few days my vision went from triple, to double, then blurry before coming back to normal. I spent that time learning how to walk again so that I could simply walk to the toilet. Unable to do so I was humiliated by the necessity of a bed pan.

Where is this silver lining of all of this? What does this have to do with Walmart? I’ll start with the good things I have taken away from this whole disaster. I found help. I found people. I found love. I found the resources I desperately needed but did not know existed. I could finally get back on the road of recovery, no longer a snack for the jaws of depression. I met so many kind and generous people. I was visited by a Chaplain who lent an ear and offered me a gift card to a grocery store so I could feed my family. A local women’s charity group brought two boxes of food and intend to bring gifts and coats for my kids as well. Once again my online friends came to my rescue. For the first time in almost a year I feel good for a change.

As for Walmart’s part in my sad adventure?  Their lack of empathy and sheer disregard for an employee in pain. They talk real big about family and caring about their employees. That is a lie, as my family learned. It was the last lie that I just couldn’t stand. The reason that I am sharing this is because I know I am not alone, my husband isn’t alone either. We are both victims in retail hell. Yes, again, we called off so much that we did have it reasonably coming to us. What I’m upset about is that no one asked why I was missing so much work.  They didn’t even ask if I was okay or how to help. Instead the grinches decided to fire us the week before Christmas.

Everyday there is an employee out there hanging on by a thread in any retail store, but I am speaking about my experience with Walmart. They are more than willing to snip those scissors over that thread you’re clinging to. Walmart, like so many other corporations, does not care. It’s that simple. We are not people to them, we’re not even machines. We may as well be the crap they scrape off the bottom of their shoes.

Merry Christmas, Walmart! Thank you for nearly killing me with that good old fashioned Sam Walton pride. My name is Heather and I tried committing suicide on December 18th, 2018 after a very cruel discussion with the store manager of Walmart store 802. I know that I am not alone with this event. I didn’t want to learn that I am not alone through this method, so I implore you. Do not let your job be that last straw when it comes to your mental well being. Cling to that straw. I just barely clung and I’m lucky to have survived. I am here to tell you that it is not worth it. You are cared for by a lot of people, more than you’ll ever know. -Abby

Yes, I know I full on just posted the store name and number. But they have really really REALLY deserve this one. -Abby

#tw suicide #suicide #graphic #trigger warning #death #walmart #ptsd #self harm

[hahnfamily]

But, Are You Sure?

The past (if we’re being honest) 3 1/2 years have included the most intense change and growth of my nearly 40 year old life. This adoption journey (with a unexpected move thrown in the mix) has stretched me past the point of discomfort. Change and growth are both positive and often framed like something that will feel good. But that has not been my experience. I liken it to a rubber band that’s just barely too small and you think it could break at any moment. It is gradually stretched farther and farther, and just when you expect it will snap, it is stretched a little more.

God brought me directly to the journey that I have been on. He saw Ben and He saw me and He said ‘You should be together. You have been prepared for this. You have what it takes.’ Through the year long process before we brought him home, I was confident of that. I knew that I was chosen to fill a need for this beautiful boy who had suffered tremendous adversity and needed a Mama. And I was at such peace about it. That is how I knew that it was orchestrated by God. Otherwise, how does a person who likes routine and predictability feel at peace about such an endeavor? In my mind, though, my peace had parameters. And what I knew about our son at that time fell into those parameters. I was sure that I wouldn’t be a good mom to a child who struggled behaviorally. Anger and aggression are tricky for me. I work with children who externalize and do fine at work but was certain I would flounder trying to parent through anger and defiance. It dysregulates me to observe or hear of my child hurting another child. None of the above was listed in the file of this captivating boy who grabbed my heart. Phew. We knew to expect the unexpected but figured that if it hasn’t been an issue in 4 1/2 years, it probably wouldn’t be in the future. God surely chose me as a match for this child because he is also a good match for me and my strengths and limits.

And then we went to China and I became Ben’s mom. I was as cool as a cucumber during a time that was justifiably tumultuous for all of us. I was sure that once we got back to the comfort of home, things would settle down. And we made it home but, as time passed, I felt increasingly less settled. And then I started to wonder. All signs pointed to me being the one for this job but maybe we both got it wrong. ‘But are you sure, God? We’re here and I’m not going anywhere but you might have picked the wrong person. I am highly dysregulated by the irritability and anger that this little darling often is consumed by. Are you sure I’m the one? Are you sure I can do this?’ I focused on the fact that he was newly home and convinced myself that the big challenges would pass. Because they had to. ‘This version of me isn’t the mom that I need to be and I’m not sure how to be her in these new circumstances. I don’t know how to be the right one for this job.’

Years ago, long before this particular journey started, I recommitted to Christ and recommitted to being an ambassador of Jesus. I said ‘Use me. Bend me and break me for your will.’ Which is exactly what He did. That’s a good thing, right? When you are actually broken, though, it never feels like it is where you are supposed to be. It feels like burning hot water that you can’t find a way out of. And as it stings and you want to crawl out of your own skin, you say ‘But why, God? Why did you bring me here?’ I’m clearly failing. You picked the wrong person.

I am generally patient and kind but anger and irritability are my kryptonite. I am empathic and I absorb the energy around me. Irritability, anger and confrontation put me into fight or flight. (Except when at work. ‘Work Carrie’ has it together.) Historically, I have had the option of flight. But now, there is a boy in my home that I call my own who is at the mercy of childhood depression. And when he is feeling low, his depression makes him irritable, angry, confrontational, and defiant. His low moods make it hard for him to tolerate people existing in his vicinity and his impulsivity sometimes manifests as aggression toward others and verbal threats. Flight isn’t an option when the low moments sometimes last for weeks and my fight response looks like a raised voice, a lack of patience and an inability to summons any of what I know about how to help someone who is dysregulated. Neither fight nor flight is helpful to the little person who needs my help. Ben needs a mom who can weather his depression gracefully.

Over and over, I affirmed ‘I can’t do this job. I’m failing.’ But He said ‘You can and you are.’ I have said no less than 500 times ‘But are you sure?’ And He has assured me that I am the person for the job. When I am stretched to near devastation, I find a new book or have a good conversation with his therapist or read a good article or miraculously find another level of peace or understanding.

The woman who now looks back at me in the mirror has grown. She is more compassionate. She is learning more about mental illness. She still has a long way to go but she doesn’t often feel hopeless anymore. She worries. She struggles. She makes mistakes and tries her best to figure out how to do better the next time. She works on herself and is learning to stay regulated amongst intense dysregulation. She understands that these challenges will persist over time and is processing what that means for the future. She stretches and bends and breaks but knows it will be ok. Because she is the person who was chosen for this job. He has been sure from the beginning and, finally, so is she.

[kynimdraws]

FINALLY....after months of art block I finished the post-game Team Nina gijinkas \o/

To the newer followers who may not understand the whole Team Nina thing, please check out the nuzlocke comic, which is named “Myths of Unova.” Here are some links

[ Deviantart | Smackjeeves | Nuzlocke Forums | Tumblr Blog ]

With that out of the way, here are some bios about the team in general under the cut btw if you are interested.

This team gijinka is set about....5 years after Nina beats Ghetsis. After a year or two of rehab, Nina does rebuild the team with the PC mons she has had + a Larvesta egg that Alder gives (ingame it was just that NPC egg I had hatched but did not find a good way to incorporate it into the main nuzlocke story)

FYI some of the info stuff are more gijinka-verse based

Zach: 

His general optimistic personality has not changed drastically despite the near-death experience with Ghetsis’s team. If anything he has definitely matured more.

He isn’t as fight-happy as he used to be, but is totally okay with sparring just to test his strength without too much risk. 

After years of the creator being too lazy to draw him proper Samurott facial hair, Zach also started to grow facial hair (his lack of it during Myths of Unova was an anomaly for his species), which made him happy. Laila fusses over it since the first time he let that grow out it was rather messy.

The eye injury required surgery for removal...Zach sported a nice eyepatch during the recovery period before discarding it when the area scarred over.

Laila: 

After facing Ghetsis, Laila has gotten less prickly around her closest friends and teammates, but you will have to earn that status first to see it yourself

She quickly became the new mom of the team, taking care of everyone. 

Laila and Zach finally got together and started to make a family by adopting some of the younger Pokemon that Nina would catch, adopt, or just find somehow.

Like her husband, she doesn’t fight much. She has found that she is a great dance instructor and teaches younger grass-types Petal Dance and some bug types Quiver Dance.

Her family, who was basically nobility, found Laila’s new job a bit too low for her position. But seeing her happy made them stop complaining about it (and Laila would tell them off too)

Momo:

The youngest of the new team, hatched from an egg that Alder gave to Nina after the Ghetsis incident. 

She was named Momo as a homage to Mimi and Jojo (the team agreed to this, and if she had been a boy the name would have been different but still a homage to their fallen teammates)

Zach and Laila’s first of many adopted Pokemon kids. Momo adored Laila, despite her tendency to scorch her mother’s possessions (Zach, who was better at tolerating burns, would always have to come to the rescue)

Laila eventually taught her to control her fire powers through dance lessons, which helped Momo immensely when she evolved into Volcarona. Fiery Dance and Quiver dance are second nature to her

She calls Izzy as “Aunty Iz” and Boo as “Uncle Boo.” She is particularly fond of Boo since he plays with her more than Izzy.

Boo

Boo was the first Pokemon that Nina sent to the PC and one of the first Pokemon that joined Team Nina when it was being rebuilt

While most fans were upset over the PC-benching, this break helped Boo come to terms with the fact that he had died and reincarnated as a Yamask (before Nina found him, he had just died as a Darumaka after being attacked by the Krokoroks/Sandiles in Desert Resort)

The reason why Boo is marked in asterisks is that that was the name that Nina gave to him. Due to the shock of his death, Boo’s real “living name” was never brought up until Boo eventually pointed it out (his real name is Alejo). But because Boo did not mind being called by either name, the teammates still mostly call him Boo. Momo in particular always calls him Boo because as a baby she could not pronounce Alejo.

He is still rather shy and reserved but not as completely withdrawn as he used to be when he was first found by Nina. 

Boo is most open around Momo, who really loves playing with him. Her favorite pasttime with Uncle Boo is to swing around on his scarf

The scarf that Boo gained upon evolution are just spirit-hands that he can control. This article of clothing is how he grounds himself whenever he gets overwhelmed with everything (Boo is in the autism spectrum)

Izzy

The last member that joined the new Team Nina. After hearing about the Ghetsis incident, Izzy was unsure on joining the team since a member of her kind had given Nina so much trauma and grief. 

Izzy became the therapist Pokemon that helped Nina work through the PTSD induced by Asha. While Nina insisted that Izzy did not need to help like this, Izzy kept on going. She even underwent training to become a regular service therapist Pokemon certified by the Pokemon Center

Due to this job Izzy undertook for Nina, she is rarely around the other members of Team Nina. While Momo finds that annoying (she did not fully understand the situation), the rest of the teammates understood the situation

Izzy only evolved to a Hydreigon after she was confident that Nina would be mentally stable upon seeing another Hydreigon after years of therapy. Nina did have a panic attack, but it was minor

While many Hydreigon gijinkas either grow literal extra heads or gain dragon familiars to represent their three-headedness, Izzy instead gained two dragon spirits that float around her and protect her. 

#pokegijinka #myths of unova #nuzlocke #artists on tumblr #pokemon #team nina #ENTIRE TEAM #zach #laila #momo #boo #izzy

[dragon-ball-meta]

Ohhh boy... -cracks knuckles- Let’s do this, shall we?

30. HIS DESTRUCTO DISC WAS THE STRONGEST KI ATTACK IN THE SERIES How does that not make sense? You’re starting your list off by not even framing your complaints correctly, as your beef isn’t the attack’s power, but that it’s underused. But even that’s explained. In short, the Kienzan takes up a LOT of energy. To form, to get it spinning fast enough, to throw, takes a bit out of the user. It’s also got several drawbacks, including, but not limited to, being quite loud. People can hear it coming and adjust accordingly. One can make a slightly weaker version they can steer, but that reduces its effectiveness.  Really, the Kienzan is only feasible in certain scenarios, at least until Krillin managed to gain the ability to control it without sacrificing power. 29. HE THOUGHT ANDROID 18 WAS DATING HER TWIN BROTHER Uh... ok? I mean I’m not sure how that ‘makes no sense’ but yeah, he made a mistake. Whoops? 28. HIS BODY MEASUREMENTS Bear in mind a few things here. Namely, that while Toriyama does depict these characters as “muscular”, it’s also lean. So the idea he should be ridiculously jacked is also a bit off. I believe the weight estimate also originally came back when the “Z” arcs started, so there’s that. Otherwise, this is probably one of the only legitimate points on this list. 27. THE REASON WHY HE SHAVES HIS HEAD ...again, how does this make no sense? He shaves his head as a sign of dedication to his practice of the martial arts and because he was taught it aided in the flow of ki in one’s body. That’s explained full well. Just because he ASSUMED Roshi shaved his head doesn’t make this not make sense. 26. HIS ABILITY TO BREAK THE FOURTH WALL It’s a comedy manga at heart. There’s jokes like this throughout. In Goku’s rematch with Yamcha, Goku hits him so hard that he actually breaks one of the borders between the panels and bounces off of it. It’s a thing in the series. Also, Idk why you’re referencing movies when they’re clearly not part of Toriyama’s continuity, but I’m reasonably certain that “lasted a season” was meant in terms of time passed, not “seasons” of a show. Especially as DB never had “seasons”. 25. HE NEVER TRAINED WITH WITH KING KAI Now this is what annoys me about this article. Y’all will take the anime and even movies into account when making this list... and yet with this complaint, you even have a screenshot of where he trained with King Kai in the anime. Yet you say he didn’t do it. Also, “with all the time he spends in the afterlife”? lol really?  24. HIS HEAD DOTS You... you literally explain this in full. How is this something that makes no sense? Literally how? 23. HIS REDUCED FIGHTING PRESENCE IN THE CELL AND BUU SAGAS Again, you explain this in the first paragraph of this entry. Yet you also talk about his activities in both arcs. So... how does this not make sense other than the fact that complaining about it makes no sense? I mean he still has a role, it’s just primarily non-combat. He carried the meat of the story in the Cell arc. 22. HIS BIZARRE CHILDHOOD "A lot of the pasts and families of Dragon Ball’s characters have been shown before (including Frieza's), but Krillin’s remains a mystery.“ Actually, no. They’re not. By and large, we learn very little about the pasts of any of these characters. We have only the vaguest details about anyone not Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, or Bulma, discounting the people we actually see born during the series. Kami’s past, even his name, is a complete mystery. Tien? No one knows his background outside being taken in by the Crane Hermit and training alongside Chiaotzu. This is not uncommon. But we actually do know a bit more about Krillin’s past in that he was raised at Orin, and he was abused. Daily. Frequently. It left him with a complex that lasted well into his adult life. He ran away one day in tears, determined he was gonna prove he wasn’t weak or worthless someday. That’s a good sight more than we’d gotten about most characters til recently. 21. HE NEARLY BECAME AN ANDROID You guys are reaching into arcade path endings from video games. Why am I not surprised? 20. HOW HE DEFEATED GOHAN DURING TOURNAMENT OF POWER PREP This is easily one of the worst offenders on this entire list if only because this is very, very easily explained. Hell, it was the point of them doing it. Gohan was operating with the wrong perspective, that Krillin going one on one vs a powerful opponent would, by necessity, be outclassed and overpowered and thus couldn’t be an asset. He was also under the assumption Krillin had gotten much weaker, unaware he was stronger than ever. Couple these things with both the fact that Gohan himself wasn’t near as strong as he used to be, and Krillin simply out-planning Gohan and beating him by using the rules of the arena against him vs trying to actually overpower him, and Gohan losing there makes perfect sense. Krillin simply overwhelmed all his senses, dropped out of sight and detection, and then simply knocked Gohan off-balance and shoved him out of bounds. Simple. Literally nothing hard to understand about that. 19. HE’S THE FIRST PERSON FROM UNIVERSE 7 TO LOSE IN THE TOURNAMENT OF POWER He’s the first one out because he actually ditched the safety of the group strategy and rushes out to rescue his wife, who was nearly eliminated first herself. He then teamed up with her for a bit and even took out a particularly skilled enemy himself by using his head. Then he was tripped out of bounds because he was distracted by (sadly) rare praise. It happens and it’s not indicative of “strength” or “power” at all. 18. HIS BATTLE STRATEGY AGAINST FRIEZA'S SECOND FORM Lord, here we go. Imma say this again: The Kienzan takes a LOT of energy to form and use. Krillin had just thrown like, twenty of them in a row and then had to run at top speed. The odds of him being able to produce a Kienzan in time are slim to none This is why, upon blinding Freeza, he was yelling for Vegeta (who was still FRESH, mind you) to attack Freeza now. But Vegeta was too paralyzed with shock and fear to act. I’d also like to point out that blinding Freeza wouldn’t have been super effective with an attack that Freeza could easily HEAR coming. He heard it at the last minute even over Gohan’s screams of agony, pretty sure he’d have heard it off to the side where it was just them too. 17. HE LEAVES HIS DAUGHTER IN THE CARE OF KIDS Yes. Apprehensively. At the insistence of his wife, who assured him she’d be ok and could take care of herself. Y’all really tried to use this to imply he’s a bad dad, wow. 16. HIS REGRESSIVE PTSD IN THE FOREST OF TERROR I’m not sure if I’m happy someone finally admitted it’s PTSD (#DragonBallAintDeepBro) or pissed off someone called this “regressive”. Wait no, I know exactly what I am, and frankly... WTF is wrong with you? How on God’s green earth is that Regressive? Are you, by the body of this entry, implying PTSD is a thing that exclusively happens to people who aren’t strong or “strong enough”? Either way, you missed the entire point of the episode, which you simultaneously admit was good character development. A development arc hinted at since the Buu arc really, but really kickstarted back in the BoG arc. The Forest of Terror was never about just strength or ability. Truly, the enemies seen there were only as strong or weak as Krillin empowered them to be by his fear and the ki he poured into them as a result. The point is they were a personification of Krillin’s own fears. His self-doubt and self-loathing. The condition was slowly killing him, his confidence was next to nothing, and it was affecting his life. His job. His family. It’s why 18 gave him the kick in the butt to start training again, to try to regain some of his confidence. It’s why Roshi sent them there; he saw the lack of confidence in the man. He saw his student in anguish, hating himself for not being more than what he was, but also fully believing he never could be. That he just wasn’t good enough. It’s why, even when facing enemies that his rational mind KNEW were weaker than himself, to say nothing of dead, he still panicked. His PTSD was triggered, vivid memories of what they’d done to him, the pain he suffered, came rushing back. And removing it was what finally allowed him to reach into his truest potential, and become even stronger than he’d ever been before. I also love the realistic way the series handled the condition, in that even as he tries to improve himself, he still has moments where it starts to kick in and he has to fight it off, will himself not to lose it. His wife knows it too and takes extra care (for the most part) to not let him slip back into it. But he refuses to allow it to control him anymore. How the hell that’s somehow a negative, let alone something that “doesn’t make sense”, is a mystery to me. 15. HIS "FULL POTENTIAL" THAT THE GRAND ELDER NAMEKIAN GURU UNLOCKED How is this really confusing? It simply allows him to tap into potential, power, that was blocked off. There are many factors that can contribute to it, be it limitations on time, plateaus, mental blocks, etc. The Grand Elder removed those and awaken that potential. It’s why Gohan and Krillin started to make the gains that they did at the rate they did, going from only about as strong as Goku had been on Earth to strong enough to help Vegeta overpower and potentially kill Freeza in his first form. 14. HIS YOUNGER CHARACTER TRAITS Y-you do realize you’re literally complaining about character development... right? Krillin grew up in an abusive environment where he felt he could trust no one, everyone was out for themselves, and that he had to do whatever it took to get ahead and be accepted as one of Roshi’s pupils so he had a chance to be... anybody, really. And yes, over time, between the influences of his friends and general maturing and growing up, he became a very kind, compassionate, and caring individual and a true friend. THAT’S. CHARACTER. DEVELOPMENT. And to present these traits as a “mistake” is to somehow suggest they came later. They were his original traits. 13. HIS BULLET INJURIES DURING HIS POLICE JOB Literally explained in Resurrection F, both the arc and the movie. Emptying one’s body of ki leaves it vulnerable. It should be his instinct to do so right away, but he doesn’t. He’s becoming careless and distracted. It’s part of his PTSD. Hell, Goku’s clearly not getting “that weak” and yet he also  got lightly bruised by a bullet because he didn’t keep his energy up, a sign he was falling out of practice due to his inability to find a training partner, or to leave to a place that would really push him in his training due to work. Also, if one being vulnerable to gunfire means they shouldn’t be a police officer, or any like job where there might be danger... well...  That’s dumb, my friend. 12. HE CAN PERFORM THE SPIRIT BOMB AND KAIO-KEN ATTACK Stop using video games to pad your list! SERIOUSLY! And how does “performing the Spirit Bomb” make no sense? Goku and King Kai both instructed him how to do it, and Krillin’s always been especially gifted at both energy manipulation and learning on the fly. Besides, it’s not as if he knows how to summon said energy himself, just wield and form it. 11. HIS ROMANTIC NATURE NEARLY DESTROYED THE EARTH Hot Take Time: Krillin’s decision not to kill 18 stemmed from general compassion, not just the fact that she kissed him, and his decision would have had NO impact on Cell had Vegeta followed through, done what he was supposed to, and killed Cell. Even if Vegeta, by some bizarre chance, failed? Trunks was there, and just as powerful. There were two people there capable of killing Cell. No, what nearly destroyed the Earth was Vegeta’s VERY conscious decision to actually HELP Cell reach his Perfect Form, something Krillin never imagined Vegeta would be stupid and selfish enough to do. And even then, Krillin told her to get lost and hide, and even offered to help her move 16 so she could. 10. HIS EARLY DISMISSAL IN FORTUNETELLER BABA'S TOURNAMENT ...IT’S A COMEDY AND HE GOT HIS WHOLE HEAD BIT INTO BY A VAMPIRE, WHAT’S HARD TO UNDERSTAND? FFS He’s still weaker than even Yamcha at that point. His quick thinking is also all that saved Yamcha’s ass from getting whupped into submission. 9. HE PASSES AWAY THE MOST... EVEN THOUGH HE’S EARTH’S STRONGEST HUMAN Oh lord here we go... a. He wasn’t at the time of his first death. b. That kinda doesn’t mean much when you have to fight an alien lizard or ancient demon who could dust you with their pinky. This only makes no sense if you utterly ignore any and all context. Vegeta, for example, has actually died just as many times as Krillin now (Freeza, Buu, Freeza again)... and he’s the second strongest in the roster. Goku has also technically “died” just as many times now too (Piccolo, Cell, Hit), as well as Piccolo (Nappa, Buu, Freeza).  Mr. Satan and Bulma have died the least of anyone. Hardly an indicator of power. 8. HE LIVED WITH HIS FAMILY AND MASTER ROSHI IN THE KAME HOUSE It’s housed Roshi, Oolong, Krillin, Goku, Yamcha, Umigame AND Launch in the past. Housing Krillin, 18, a baby/toddler, and Roshi is hardly filled to capacity. That said... they move. They move as soon as they can afford their own home, which is shortly after 18 gets her fall money from Mr. Satan. 7. HIS FUSION WITH PICCOLO I’d just like to state for the record that this is literally complaining about a fun drawing Toriyama did of what Krillin and Piccolo would look like Fused. That is all. 6. HE CAN ABSORB SPIRIT BOMBS AND USE THEIR ENERGY Aaand we’re back to video games. 5. HE’S THE STRONGEST HUMAN ON EARTH Ok now this one? This one is utter BS. Krillin outpacing Tien makes perfect sense since it’s been happening since Tien first appeared. When everyone came back for the 23rd Budokai? The gap between those two shrunk. A lot. Krillin had not only taught HIMSELF how to fly, how to steer energy after firing it, and more, but he’d improved to the point of Piccolo not only using his true power to beat him, but he managed to survive a blow Piccolo assumed HAD to have killed him... and made Piccolo question whether or not he was even strong enough to conquer this world even if he DID beat Goku. When the Saiyans came? Even smaller gap with the exact same time to train. And Tien even had the benefit of having Chiaotzu as a partner, Krillin was off finishing his training solo. And the Grand Elder awakening his dormant potential, as well as the combat experience on Namek, finally sealed the deal. After all, Yamcha was still intently training at that time too, and Krillin surpassed him. Why then is it so hard to believe he could surpass Tien? It also doesn’t help that Tien doesn’t actually train nonstop, despite what anime filler would have you believe. He runs a dojo and a farm to boot. Tien is also demonstrably still weaker than Krillin in Super and lasts longer in the Tournament because he and Roshi are taking cover and surprising targets to knock them out while they’re off-guard. So there’s that. 4. HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE EXCITING FOIL TO BORING GOKU He was created as a rival character to play off Goku and give Goku something to measure himself against. That doesn’t exactly mean he’s meant to be “more exciting”, but to bring an element of entertainment to the series that had been missing, as well as give Goku someone his own age to grow with. Nice dig at the character at the end though. Top notch. 3. HE NAMES HIS DAUGHTER AFTER HIS EX-GIRLFRIEND For the last time: Maron. Is. A. Filler. Character. Toriyama did not create her. Toriyama did not name her. Toriyama named Krillin’s daughter “Marron” because it’s French for “Chestnut”, which is a play on the fact that the first syllable in Krillin’s Japanese name, “Kuri”, also means chestnut. It’s not at ALL indicative of “lingering feelings” for a character that Toriyama didn’t even make, let alone doesn’t appear in his manga or continuity at all. 2. HE NEARLY ALLOWS VEGETA TO GAIN IMMORTALITY Well, it was more or less that or let the kid he’d sworn he’d keep safe die. I don’t really blame him for at least entertaining the idea at that point. An ultimately bad idea? Yeah. But one born of desperation. Hardly the first for characters in this series. And finally... 1. HIS MISSING NOSE ...wow. It’s... it’s a physical deformity. I’m not sure what about that doesn’t make sense? This list was even more of a dumpster fire than usual.

#Krillin #Screen Rant #ScreenRant #DBZ #Dragon Ball #Dragon Ball Z #Dragon Ball Super #DB #DBS #Dragonball #Dragonball Z #Goku #Son Goku #Vegeta #Android18 #Android 18 #c18 #Android Eighteen

[indigodice]

START AT THE VERY BEGINNING, A VERY GOOD PLACE TO START

i’ll probably edit this gradually out of this being too much to read in one sitting maybe that means this should be more than one post what a mistake i’ve made its time to iron out some kinks in this blogging thing

For us the beginning was probably in high school. On and off games of Traveller and Shadowrun which weren’t overtly terrible, just unmemorable. I can only remember a handful of moments but they largely weren’t tied to a particular narrative. They were very singular drops in an ocean of wasted time. Maybe they were terrible after all. From early on there was a sense that combat was taking up hours while actual role playing was taking up minutes.

The most memorable thing in Shadowrun was the infiltration of a mansion by circulating rumors of a rave and party supplements. The plan had two parts, a coordinated dispatching of the mansion’s guard and relocation of the guards that hadn’t arrived yet. It was a largely successful, noisy, but bloodless smash-and-grab. We had time for another module which the GM then randomly generated using the random generation rules. We tried to replicate this plan with moderate failure, destroying a wyvern’s eggs then turning in look-alikes.

This form of random generation was most of what we did in Shadowrun, and probably the reason the experiences were unmemorable. We gathered to role play, and ended up wargaming. As things go on we have particular problems separating role playing from wargaming and expression becomes narrowed down to mechanics decisions on our character sheets. Compounding this problem is the lack of even binary choice in the narrative. When Mr. Shadowrun says we have a mission, it’s a single mission instead of a selection, so the extent of our choices are constricted within that predetermination. We’re our character sheets. And that means players rebel. Given our not-a-choice my character convinces another character that its suspicious a Mr. Johnson found our HQ so quickly, so we explode our HQ and have to find work elsewhere.

When Mr. Traveller is pushing us through events, we’re only given what he comes up with to work with, the narrative didn’t care about what our characters cared about. Eventually those games wound down as that groups’ GMs disappeared. We met someone willing to GM consistently, only we weren’t aware of his mental instability. And when we became aware of it, most of us recognized we weren’t equipped to handle such a someone. I didn’t share that thought because I was naive, but luckly I went with the group decision to cut him out and maybe we’re the better for it.

I might have brushed that aside, but that mentally unstable GM hosted an AdvancedDND module, Caverns of Chaos, which was meant to be an introductory look at ADND. During which we added players which the GM accepted in word, then rejected through gameplay. The game was a party and everyone was invited. Our complaints of the game moving slowly were responded to by accelerating rewards through a sentient reward room that responded to our whims. As my whim was suspicion it became a curse room. Our complains of the slow momotonous wargaming became an accelerated wargame where they were revealed by a wizard to be the machinations of a mind flayer. Then the wizard to transported us to another place where our skills were arbitrarily needed. Maybe a day had gone by in the game. But outside, months had gone by.

Then a combination of player drama resulted in the GM’s mental instability reaching a breaking point through rather violent expression. And so the group was reformed. Following that we had a few attempts to salvage that now lost campaign. Each player was given a chance to GM to salvage the game, and eventually we decided on restarting, scrapping the old characters for new ones. We picked up a new system called Pathfinder. Before our first moments role playing we’d looked at 3.5 books and heard Pathfinder was supposed to be better supported. So we began.

This worked for a while, as the new GM brought us though the Crypt of the Everflame. We reached the next town after a few months out of game. Crypt of the Everflame was intended to be a few sessions. The GM was experiencing burnout and never told anyone. From a personal standpoint I resent how that was handled, since it resulted in the group meeting, playing maybe an hour of combat, then everyone splitting off to do something else. Sometimes we wouldn’t be informed until arrival that nothing had been prepared, or that the GM wasn’t feeling up to it. Due to circumstances, this GM reached his own breaking point and was going through a kind of personal transformation, and dropped out of the group.

Those that remained tried to continue on. We hosted more one-shots trying to continue from those Pathfinder characters. After reaching the next town SEPIADICE creates one of my most memorable moments. The town had reached a breaking point because one of the partymembers was hellbent on creating mischief. Another decided the problems within the town were because of their systems of governance and took to trying to rally them against their leadership. The de facto town leader didn’t have the strength of his knights that usually kept the peace. We’d been sent here to retrieve them. He’d been trying to maintain the peace with martial law. And so he banished our party fearing more mischief. My character was infuriated that the de facto leader transgressed a rule of hospitality as he’d been on the road because of his own town’s leadership, and so my character confronts this town’s leader. He was steadfast in his decision since we were outsiders to him. We’d gained entrance because of a squire’s word. The fight first in words comes to blows. Another party member supported me with her magic, and the squire comes to the leadership’s aid. At that moment the fighting stops, and we make our escape.

The casters of the group splinter off, while those that remained travel presumably with the squire to retrieve the knights. The game ends and is never picked up again. We have a round of one-shots and eventually we decide we want a consistent game. We vote on the next GM. Notably I voted against SEPIADICE because the other would be GM was the more experienced, and I was hoping for something sustainable. So she wins four to three. It turns out her game has the same problems all the prior GMs had. Eventually SEPIADICE gets his turn to GM and does an adequate job. And I realize where I wanted to build on the other GM’s experience, she didn’t actually have the potential to change. While the muddle of one-shots never became anything particularly memorable. Sometimes we’d make decisions that felt meaningful, but then the one-shot would end and we wouldn’t get to witness the outcome of those decisions.

If SEPIADICE had continued I’m sure his game would have been enjoyable. As a GM he’d produced most of the memorable moments I enjoyed. But he’d become frustrated because I hadn’t managed to leave the headspace of the character I was playing, and consequently decided on playing that character in his setting. Causing two other players to also choose prior characters that had been there with him. So it became a cascade of insolence that I both didn’t see and didn’t dissuade by not seeing it. The difference was that I had asked and they hadn’t, but the result was the same. Old characters with old ties that didn’t fit the requirement he’d set down for character creation.

From the start of pathfinder up until the very end theres this looming question about what makes unable to role play, or why we’re bad as a group. There are answers ranging from “our group is too big” to “we’re probably just bad” to “its the ruleset we’re using.” Actually I’ve cherrypicked the ones I believe. I don’t remember the rest. From beginning to end our groups tended to be too large which muddled other problems. It was hard to role play because everyone needed some time in the spotlight and it was easy for us to get distracted either by the many bored players. Realistically the GMs shouldn’t have used combat as a crutch to stretch the time we were playing. It wasn’t fun. But it didn’t help that we were playing in a game that revolved around combat and the flow around actual role playing was snuffed out both by needing wait for long stretches of time for anything cohesive to happen. Things got gradually better after the Crypt of the Everflame because players started losing interest. But at the core we didn’t as a group understand what made role playing games good.

They certainly had potential, but most of what we did was wargame, and frankly video games were better for that. We couldn’t tap into what made role playing games good. Except for that moment where SEPIADICE banished our party. That was a damn good moment because that was a man with his back against the wall trying to give himself some more space, only he accidently makes things worse. The conflict they had against each other was not something they could resolve, it wasn’t either of their fault, and they both refused to bend. So they fight. And they fight because they refused to bend, and that’s how violence happens in reality. And so much of the violence in our role playing games has that weird circumstance of oh they show up while you’re travelling so you have to fight now. That’s not giving violence any respect. And any expression during that kind of violence falls flat when there’s nothing tangible at stake. Sure you could die, but you’re not really dying if you don’t have any connections to anything. Dying because you have too much pride feels better than the nothing of a random bear encounter. And to be honest SEPIADICE you should have died when you encountered that bear, instead you bit it and it ran away because the GM thought we would run, but adventurers aren’t reasonable people.

So maybe that’s one of our problems with role playing. Adventurers aren’t reasonable people, they encounter unreasonable things, and are expected to act unreasonably to resolve unreasonable things. Oh god there are so many paragraphs now and why is there only personality at the end who the heck is going to read all of this?

#dnd #rpg

[a-mad-scientist-approaches]

Dad, Probably

Well, I've had quite a stressful time, and I really needed a whole lot of happy, self-indulgent fun, so enjoy my entry for Diptember, Week 3: Mysteries.

A VERY short amount of time ago - Dipper can't stress that enough - Mom got a job as a travelling journalist and now, in the absolute epitome of convenience, she's gonna be pretty much constantly on the move for anywhere between 2-6 months. So, him and Mabel need some place to stay.

What better place than this . . . this . . . Mystery Shack.

Which belongs to a friend Mom hasn't seen in years.

Who looks kinda . . . terrified?

Oh boy.

AO3

“I like it,” Mabel decided brightly, staring out the car window at the tourist trap.

It was old. It was gauche. It had been owned, operated, and inhabited for a long time and looked it. The self-proclaimed “MYSTERY HACK” nestled in the woods as naturally as a toadstool in a library and as yet Dipper hadn’t been inclined to autocorrect the ramshackle spelling. The fact that Mom was going to dump him and his sister here for the rest of the foreseeable future didn’t help his mood. He glared at the floor.

“I think that’s the guy.” Mabel nudged him, tilting her head towards the view she had. Sparing a glance, Dipper saw a large group of overly-excitable tourists rounding the side of the building and being herded inside by a man in a suit and a fez, directing them with some sort of cane like a Maestro. Mom approached as the last of the crowd disappeared inside, calling out an indistinct greeting. The man turned, immediately stepping forward with a wide showman’s grin, only to falter. He became significantly more awkward as Mom approached, and by the time she stopped in front of him the smile was more a grimace of politeness. Dipper frowned. This was not encouraging.

He watching glumly as they talked for a while. When the guy’s jaw dropped, and his head snapped around to look at the car so fast he must have gotten whiplash, eyes going wide and face draining of colour at Mabel’s happy wave, Dipper sighed and turned back to the floor. To the backdrop of a very loud “Oh God. Oh my GOD,” he thought, Great. She doesn’t tell us she’s got the travelling journalist job, she doesn’t tell her friend beforehand that he’s going to be putting up two kids for a while, what’s next on the agenda?

“I think he’s excited!” Mabel cheered.

“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH-”

“Very excited,” Mabel maintained blithely as Mom shut the guy up before he could say (or, more accurately, shout so loudly the windows rattled) something he’d really regret. She was pretty big on the no-swearing thing.

“Is he about to throw up?” Dipper wondered, eyes drawn back to the scene against his will.

Mabel paused, inspecting the view. “He might be. Oooooorrrr he might be really interested in the grass! He sure is bending down close to it,”

“I think ‘doubled-over’ is more accurate,”

“Haha, cool words. Ooh, what about now, what’s the word for that?”

Dipper looked closely.

“I’d say that’s a ‘row’,”

“‘Row’.” Mabel turned it over in her mouth. With cheerfulness that possessed the tensile strength of a steel cable, she said, “It rhymes with ‘wow’! This is gonna be great, I just know it! Woop, here they come,”

Mom was walking back towards them, the guy following her like his legs weren’t working properly. When she motioned for them to hop out, Mabel did so in an “eager” way, while Dipper went for more of a “resigned” look.

The four of them met in a square of grass. There was a daisy growing in it. Mom looked at the guy. The guy continued to gaze speechlessly at the kids. The kids side-eyed one another. Mom sighed.

“Kids, this is Stan.” She introduced. “He’s okay with you staying here for a while until I get back.”

Riiiiight, Dipper thought, mentally raising an eyebrow. In his experience, Mom usually ended up getting what she wanted regardless of what other people were okay with. He and Mabel considered it both an awesome and frustrating superpower, and this was a case where Dipper was sour enough to be leaning heavily towards the latter option.

“He’salsoyour-” she added, lightning quick, but the speed with which Stan’s head cracked around to nail her with a panicked glare was still fast enough to stop her in her tracks. And ‘cracked’ was perhaps an even more suitable term than Dipper had originally realised. Now that he was closer, the guy did look old – but not definably so: he could have been anywhere between five and fifteen years older than Mom; the hair that was visible under his fez thick, but very grey, and his face lined, but more of the stress type than the age type, if Dipper had to guess. The cane seemed to be for show rather than support, and everything he’d heard of his voice so far was . . . well . . . atypical, Dipper decided with some restraint. Really gruff (possibly the roughest thing he’d ever heard), but what it lacked in pleasantness could more than be made up for in strength of volume, as he’d already demonstrated.

“I’m sorry, I mean, he’s also my . . . very good friend,” Mom finished eventually, rolling her eyes. Stan relaxed slightly, which was to say he looked like a marginally less tense bowstring.

Now, Dipper wasn’t an idiot. He was very proud of that fact, and he was determined to keep it true. As such, he’d only had to listen to one of Mabel’s overly-embellished explanations of this in his whole life, when certain things came up, and since then he’d been able to put together clues himself. Mom had never been married, had never wanted to be as far as he knew, and had had no one serious enough in her life for Dipper and Mabel to know about since they’d been born. That being said, they would, occasionally, encounter and be introduced to someone who had been, at one point, Mom’s “very good friend”.

i.e. Someone she’d dated or something. Mabel was generally more interested than he was in prying for details.

So. Another one, then. One that he and his sister would be crashing with.

Could this really not have been planned better? Or at all? He thought desperately.

During the silence Stan’s gaze had gradually been drawn back towards them. Dipper managed a weak grin. Stan matched it, even weaker. It stayed that way, before becoming something more genuine. Another moment, and Dipper would call it downright infectious.

“This is a long silence,” Mabel said airily, also grinning widely.

Stan laughed.

“Anything you want to say?” Mom asked him expectantly. That brought him back to reality. The grin dropped, and he suddenly looked like he wanted to run away again. Mom grabbed his arm.

“Excuse us,” she said to them, her smile brittle. Stan got dragged a few steps back to the Mystery Shack.

“This is not going well,” Dipper said flatly.

“You’re right,” Mabel snapped her fingers. “This old man is gonna need some ultra Mabel cuteness if we want this to be the best summer-slash-undefined-length-of-time-that-probably-won’t-exceed-six-months ever!”

“-of course I’ll tell them! Yes, I will I swear, I just- I need some- I gotta sort some things out first!”

“That’s not exactly what I meant,” frowned Dipper, trying to subtly edge closer to the adults and eavesdrop on their hissed argument better.

“-it’s a lot for a guy to take in, is all I’m saying!”

“Hey.” Mabel tugged at his sleeve.

“What?”

“Did you see that?”

“-the hell wouldn’t you tell me?!”

“Uh huh, sure,” Dipper said vaguely, craning his neck to try and make out the expression on Mom’s face.

“Dipper. In the forest, look!”

Mom was saying something matter-of-factly back now, but she was much better at keeping her voice quiet than Stan was.

“It looked like a hawk and an octopus had a baby together!” Mabel said ecstatically, peering further into the forest.

“Right, right – what?”

“It was a . . . wait for it . . . hawktopus!” She grinned dazzlingly, eyes wide and amazed.  

“What? Mabel, stop messing with me, what did you really-” He stopped dead at the shadowy shape he saw moving high in the trees. There was a clear bird head, and a hint of feathers, and . . . well, could those really be vines, dangling below it? And from its beak, as well?

One whipped out and snagged a nearby critter, dragging it up to the tentacled beak to be swallowed whole.

Dipper felt his jaw drop open.

“Alright kids, I’m gonna head off now,” Mom said unceremoniously. Mabel turned away immediately and dashed over to give her a bone-crunching hug, which was readily returned.

Dipper continued to stare speechlessly at the forest.

“I’m going to miss you so much,” Mabel whined.

“I know honey, I’m sorry, but it’s only for a little while and I’ll be back as soon as I can. I love you so much. Dipper Pines, get over here and give me a hug good-bye!”

“Oh, right.” Dipper shook himself and tore his gaze away, heading dutifully over to Mom, remembering when he was halfway there that he wasn’t happy with her and appropriately reschooling his expression. He still gave her a hug, though, and hugged tighter when he realised he might not be seeing her in person for as long as six months – but it wouldn’t actually be that long, right? Just until things became a bit steadier, which couldn’t take too long, right?

He caught sight of the garish building again.

No way that we’ll have to stay here for six months. Right?

“Promise me you’ll at least try to have some fun?” Mom said, pulling back and looking at him in concern.

He didn’t want to have bad memories of his last hug with Mom for definitely-not-a-long-time. With this in mind, Dipper only used about a quarter of his sarcasm reserves in his answer.

“Well, you said spending some time outdoors would be good for me, so I suppose it’ll happen whether I like it or not,”

“That’s the spirit. I’ll be back as soon as I can,” she promised them, and then got back in the car, honked a goodbye, and left. Unnecessarily rapidly, in Dipper’s jaundiced opinion.

With nothing left to do, he turned back to Stan.

And the forest.

And the hawktopus!

All concern and resentment was flushed from his mind in an instant: he wanted to know what the frick-frack was in the trees and what it looked like and how big it was and if there were more and was it really a hawktopus or was it just something normal after all? That would be disappoint-

“‘Pines’?” said a dazed voice.

“Uh, yes?” Mabel smiled at Stan, who was blinking like he’d been hit on the head with a your-life-is-now-changed stick. “That sure is our last name, and it sure does seem to have a lot of significance to you!”

He cleared his throat and seemed to hurriedly pull himself together. “Right. Of course. I just, y’know, was under the impression that your mom’s last name was . . . er, something different. Right?” He looked at them uncertainly.

Well, this guy mustn’t have lasted long, Dipper mused privately. He doesn’t even remember Mom’s old last name. So of all the exes she could have loaded us with, why this one?

“Yeah it was,” he explained, still itching to run over to the boundary line between the trees and the car park and examine the dark, tentacled shape further. “But she didn’t want us to have it because it was so awful, and then she changed hers to match ours as well a few years after we were born,”

“Right! Yeah, that makes sense, ‘cause, yeah, her last name was definitely cra- cruddy, that . . .” Stan trailed off.

“Pea-Nez!” Mabel filled in helpfully.

“Pea- what?” He looked pretty startled. Dipper felt his cheeks warm up and nodded grimly.

“Yep. Some people still call her by it, but at least now the spelling’s different,”

“Yeesh, no wonder she used mi-,” Stan said reflectively before abruptly cutting himself off. “Uh, well, better get you two inside, huh?” He crouched down to pick up Mabel’s bag for her.

Immediately, Dipper saw his chance to investigate the thing in the trees starting to vanish. He looked urgently at Mabel, and she leapt into action, just as curious about it as him.

“Wait!” she shouted.

Stan jumped violently and snatched his hand back, stricken.

“What?!”

“We want to explore!” she beamed.

“Specifically the forest!” Added Dipper eagerly. “Is there something in there? That, like, possibly has never been discovered or seen by human eyes before?”

“Like an entire forest full of magical creatures?” Mabel enthused.

“You saw something?!” Stan whirled around on his knees to face the trees, one hand unmistakeably closing into a fist.

“Yeah!” Dipper said excitedly. “It was like this huge hawk, but it had tentacles for a beak and more tentacles for legs and it reached out and just grabbed this squirrel and it ate it whole and it’s eyes, oh man, they were-”

“-so beady!” Mabel picked up. “Like it had a hunger that could be satisfied only by the blood of the innocent! But other than that it was totally cute. Its squishy little tentacle face! Awww!”

“I wonder if it squirts ink! Wait, wait – if it inks, then it must have a predator! But it was huge! How big could its predators be? How dangerous? Mabel, we need to check this out!”

“You mean, go after the crazy deadly animals that hunt hawktopuses for food and maybe fun?”

“Yes!”

“Well, duh! What else are you supposed to do with the wonders of nature! Haha, I doubt we’ll get eaten or anything,”

“Stan!” Dipper’s heart was starting to beat faster and he already picture all the cool photos he could get if this was really happening and not just some awesome dream he didn’t want to ever wake up from. “Is the supernatural real?!”

After a moment, Stan turned back to them, hands spread in a what-can-you-do gesture, a shrug in his shoulders and only the barest hint of strain in his grin.

“Nope. Sorry, kid. The only weird things around here are the idiot tourists, who, believe me, are much easier to scam out of their money than the effort making a moving hawk-octopus hybrid thing requires,” he dismissed, taking hold of Mabel’s suitcase and reaching over for Dipper’s as well.

“Wait . . . you mean it’s a robot or something? You made it?” Dipper frowned.

“Awww, what?” said Mabel disappointedly.

“Got it in one,” Stan said easily.

“But I could’ve sworn it was . . .” Dipper moved to the side so he could see around Stan, who was blocking his view of the hawktopus.

“Well it wasn’t,” Stan said shortly, his arm coming up to grab Dipper’s shoulder and keep him in front of him. “Alright, let’s go find some room for you in the Shack, huh? Indoors. Away from any hell-bir- robotic hell-birds. I think the attic’s got some free space. You with me, kid?” He waved a hand in front of Dipper’s wandering eyes, bringing them back to him – which made Dipper notice something.

A very familiar pair of brown eyes.

Dipper blinked and frowned a little, looking more closely into the man’s increasingly confused gaze.

“What, I got something on my face?”

Dipper looked over at Mabel – or more precisely, her eyes; the same brown – but he supposed brown eyes weren’t all that unusual, and even if they were also a similar – no, exactly the same shape that didn’t necessarily . . . mean anything.

Mabel had tilted her head and was looking back and forth between him and Stan, inspecting them thoughtfully.

“What? What is it?” Stan and Dipper said together. Then they looked at each other. Then they scratched the back of their necks in bemusement, mirroring each other.

Stan froze. Dipper lowered his hand hurriedly.

“Okay, this is gettin’ weird,” Stan said after a pause. He retook his hold on Dipper’s suitcase and stood with both their luggage. They followed as he strode perhaps a bit quicker than necessary back to the shack, the thought briefly crossing Dipper’s mind to make a break for the forest before it was dismissed. He was getting more curious about Stan, which . . . kind of undermined his strength of cynical conviction.

They were in a crowded giftshop. Tourists milled about near clothes racks and counters, fawning over snow globes and souvenirs. Stan grinned and talked and gestured grandly, upping prices with practiced ease. Dipper had to admit that his guts were impressive – he was certain that no snow globe could be worth eighty dollars, no matter how well-made or “one-of-a-kind” (despite there being another twenty on the same shelf). With every gaudy and obviously fake attraction he saw, like the jar of eyeballs on the desk, Dipper became more and more suspicious of the creature he’d seen outside. It had appeared significantly more . . . real than anything inside so far. The tourists called Stan “Mr Mystery” as he passed. Dipper was beginning to think that name fit him.

They reached the back of the room. The thought that maybe all wasn’t as it seemed was once again entering Dipper’s head. If it was true . . . well, maybe this hopefully-only-a-summer (although if this town was a nesting site for the supernatural, maybe six months wouldn’t be so bad) was going to be a lot more interesting than he’d imagined. Question marks were filling his head.

“Hey, who are you two little doods?” said a friendly voice.

Tweaking the hinges of an “Employees Only” door was a large man with an affable face, a toolkit belted around his waist, and, huh, a question mark across his dark green shirt.

“Hi!” Mabel said brightly, sticking out her hand. “We’re here for an epic summer romance!”

“She’s here for an epic summer romance,” corrected Dipper.

“Our mom dropped us off to live here, in this place specifically, for no discernible reason except that she somehow knew Stan,” Mabel continued happily. “I’m Mabel Pines, and this is my brother Dipper!”

The man laughed, shaking Mabel’s hand. “Oh man, what a coincidence, huh? Mr Pines, they’ve got the same last name as you!”

“Same last name?” Echoed Dipper. He looked narrowly at Stan, who was very interested in the ceiling all of a sudden.

“I’m Soos, by the way, the Mystery Shack’s mysterious handyman – or not really, I guess. If you want real mysteries you’ll probably have to go into the forest,” Soos said amenably.

“Mysteries in the forest?” Dipper repeated, perking up.

“Soos, can I talk to you for a minute?” Stan interrupted, making the request sound more like a demand.

“Sure thing, Mr Pines.” He added to Mabel though, “No discernible reason, huh? Then I’d guess you’re in for some life-changing and probably unexpectedly heart-warming personal revelations. That’s the way it always goes.” He nodded knowledgeably.

“A room, Soos! We’ve got to set up a room for them!” Stan said, some desperation creeping into his voice.

“Oh, sure. Can’t have you sleeping on the floor – unless that’s what’s you like. If that’s not what you like though, we should probably get you some beds. I don’t know if there’s any more in the Shack, actually. But hey, I’m sure Mr Pines’d let you have his bed if it came down to it! After all, you guys have the same last name, and you look a little similar, and your mom knows him, so you’re practically fam-”

“Now, Soos!” Stan quite literally dragged him into the next room, carting away Dipper and Mabel’s bags with him.

Dipper stared at the door, feeling a little bowled-over. He licked his lips.

“Hey Mabel?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you . . . do you think Stan’s our da-”

“Probably.”

“Huh,”

Well, I guess that’s one mystery down. Only a hundred more to go.

I wonder if the hawktopus is still out there?

#gravity falls #fanfiction #anyone got a name for this au? #for now i'll just call it #dad au #whatever works #dipper pines #mabel pines #stanley pines #soos ramirez #almost typed soos pines #but that's true too #diptember2018 #week 3 #mysteries #my writing

[thescrletspeedster-blog]

FILE 001 :// THE FLASH

BASICS.

GIVEN / BIRTH NAME : Bartholomew Henry Allen NICKNAME / PREFERRED NAME : Barry ALIAS(ES) : The Flash, The Fastest Man Alive, The Scarlet Speedster BIRTHDATE / AGE : March 14th, 1985 // 33 years old PLACE OF BIRTH : Fallville, Iowa CURRENT LOCATION : Central City, KS GENDER IDENTITY : Cis-Male, He/Him SEXUAL / ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Bisexual/Biromantic  ETHNICITY / RACE / CULTURAL HERITAGE:  Caucasian/Orthodox Jewish  MARITAL STATUS : Single OCCUPATION : Forensic scientist for the Central City Police department, specializing in forensic chemistry.  RELIGIOUS BELIEFS : Agnostic

CHARACTERISTICS.

HEIGHT : 6″3 WEIGHT : 180 BODY TYPE / BUILD : Mesomorph/Long and lean EYE COLOR : Blue HAIR COLOR / TEXTURE : Blonde, with a gentle wave through it when he actually bothers styling it.  RECOGNIZABLE FEATURES / SCARS : Barry lacks the scars that would typically identify him as a hero, because his advanced physiology allows him to heal quickly. He has a few from just being a kid--particularly on his knees because he was really tall and didn’t learn how to control his limbs well until he was in his late teens. He used to have a scar on his arm from the night of his mother’s murder, but it’s since faded.  SPEECH PATTERNS / ACCENT : Barry doesn’t really have much of an accent or particular speech patterns, having lived in Central City his entire life. He will start to speak faster than people can comprehend if he isn’t careful--which was a real problem when he first became The Flash.  LANGUAGES SPOKEN : His first language is English, but he can speak a lot of languages conversationally--if he’s particularly bored he’ll speed read and work on learning a different language. So far he’s best at Hebrew, French, and Spanish.  POWERS / SKILLS / ABILITIES : The nickname of The Fastest Man Alive is well earned, as Barry is potentially one of the fastest beings in the whole of the universe. He has superhuman reflexes due to his speed, which allow him to react to events in a seconds and fractions of seconds, as well enhanced mental processes which allow him to process information at an accelerated rate as well. He has an enhanced metabolism, which allows his body to heal at abnormal speeds. Barry is also able to generate electricity, and phase through objects by vibrating his molecules.  OVERALL HEALTH : Barry is in excellent physical health thanks to his enhanced metabolism allowing him to heal quickly, and the constant exertion of running at high speeds. He suffers from anxiety due to the speed at which he processes information and runs through possible outcomes, and this causes him to suffer from chronic insomnia. He also suffers from PTSD from the murder of his mother when he was a child. 

RELATIONSHIPS.

ORDER OF BIRTH : Only child NUMBER OF SIBLINGS : Zero FATHER’S STATUS + RELATIONSHIP : Henry Allen // Alive and incarcerated in Central City Penitentiary. Barry has always maintained his father’s innocence, and the relationship between them is good despite the complications of physical distance and the years that Henry has missed in his son’s life. Their relationship is also complicated by the fact that Joe West is the man that fulfilled all of the duties of a father in Barry’s life, something which frustrates Henry and makes Barry feel like his loyalties are being pulled in two different directions. Any relationship they do have is with a pane of glass between them. MOTHER’S STATUS + RELATIONSHIP : Nora Allen// Murdered by a mysterious figure in yellow. Barry was very close with his mother growing up--she was more present in his life than his father, who worked as a doctor. She is the person who instilled in him the values that he abides by as an adult, always emphasizing that it was more important to be a kind and open individual than to be physically strong or the most intelligent person in the room. Her death is the singular axis point in Barry’s life, and her absence has always been felt keenly by her son.  SIBLING STATUS + RELATIONSHIP : Not Applicable LOYALTY / AFFILIATION : JLA, Flash Family

PERSONALITY.

MBTI : INTP / The Logician  HOBBIES : Laying on his couch and watching terrible history channel documentaries, falling asleep listening to podcasts, purposely reading at a slow pace so that he keeps the information, cooking (elaborate meals that are for more than just survival), running for his own enjoyment, he also loves trying his hand at solving famous unsolved cases.  BAD HABITS : Pacing with no awareness for the space at large, talking too quickly for people to understand, falling asleep in public spaces.  THREE POSITIVE TRAITS : Kind, Intelligent, Loyal THREE NEGATIVE TRAITS : Anxious, Self-Destructive, Forgetful  MORAL ALIGNMENT : Lawful Good 

ASSOCIATIONS.

ONE SONG : Stray Light at Cloud’s Hill // Shearwater  ONE QUOTE / PIECE OF ART : “you’re on the phone with your mother again,   but in this dream, you are                                   screaming                    endlessly                                               endlessly                       endlessly. no words careen          out of your broken mouth                       just guttural,                                   wounded sound.                                               you are           ceaseless, you give                                                           no room for her to respond, but in this dream,           she doesn’t feel the need to.                                                                         in this dream,                                                                                  she understands.”--Wanda Deglane

ONE FEAR : Barry’s biggest fear is that his entire life is based on something he misremembered, or that wasn’t real--every decision that he made was based on seeing the man in yellow murder his mother, but he is the only one who actually saw that event take place. He was only a kid, what if his brain somehow created some kind of boogeyman, or what if it was really his father and his mind distorted it? So far he has no proof, only his absolute faith that there was a third party present that night, who possessed the same abilities that Barry now has.  ONE STRENGTH : Barry is incredibly giving--if you ever need a couch to sleep on or haven’t eaten a warm meal in days, he’s got both ready and he’s already at your front door with them. He sees so much cruelty in the world thanks to his day job and his nights as the Flash, and he wants to be a force for good--it also helps distract him from his own issues.  ONE OBJECT : Gold ring with a lightning bolt insignia  ONE PLACE : The couch at Joe West’s home in Central City.  ONE FOOD : Chocolate chip cookie dough PopTarts  ONE SCENT : Burnt rubber  ONE LUCKY CHARM : A small tattoo of an Iris on his ribs, before an advanced healing factor made tattoos impossible. 

#united task 001 #I WAS JUST A GUY CHASING JUSTICE || ABOUT #shows up late with starbucks

[fluffpuffnstuff-blog]

HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT BOI FINALLY GOT A COLORED REF? :D (The second one is the colorscheme that wound up rejected).

Name: Miji Fukujou

Alias: Damage

Quirk: Name pending...but you can find info on it here.

Hair: Metallic grey

Eyes: bright mint.

Personality: Miji has a habit of smiling regardless of how he’s feeling in an effort to cheer himself up. When around others, at the start of things he tends to withdraw, look down, and attempt to hide his face and messed up parts of his body. When he get’s older, however, he stops hiding the results of his quirk, feeling more “free” and finding confidence in his newfound role as a villian. Despite harsh treatment from peers and the trauma he’s had to deal with, he was a friendly, if withdrawn kid in his early teens. Often going out of his way to help those he noticed who where having a difficult time, and more often then not getting berated for being “nosy” and never thanked.

In his older teens, however, while comparatively not the most merciless villain, his upbringing under two heroes is only evident in the twisted sense of honor he has when fighting. Never attacking from behind, and focusing attacks on heroes, rarely if ever engaging civilians unless they they have weapons. He’s that criminal who may help the tired mother get her groceries inside, but not hesitate if he get’s a job to kill that same women later.  His beef is against heroes, not normal folks, but a job’s a job.

Bio: 

Miji was born the child of two small-time heroes. One of his parents had a restoration quirk, while the other had a quirk that increased their strength according too how hard they were hit/how much damage they took. These two quirks combined into his own, however, Miji’s parents were very doting and protective, and as Miji didn’t get injured much if at all as a child, his quirk remained unknown...

...until one very fateful day.

Miji and his parents were kidnapped by a pair of villians too strong for the small-time heroes to handle. The family was tied up in a warehouse with a timebomb that was slowly ticking down. This was done as a message to heroes, and unknown to the family, the event was infact streamed live on several cameras throughout the warehouse, broadcasted to the various hero headquarters. 

Still, while the bomb ticked down, the villians who had captured them continued to run around, causing chaos and leaving clues to the family’s location...however, assuming the heroes could save themselves and that the brazen villian pair was too dangerous for them to split their attention between the family and the villians, no hero came to the family’s aid. The clock ticked down, and the parents were able to just barely loosen their restraints enough to throw themselves over Miji as the bomb went off. Their last and final act being to protect their son. However, the bomb was still too strong, and had it not been for his quirk, Miji would have died from his injuries that day. But because of it, he was spared...and while the camera’s were knocked out from the explosion, perhaps one or two from where they lay broken on the ground caught the image of a young boy climbing out from under burnt corpses and rubble. Shakily limping off to the side. 

He was found by the police who later came to investigate the scene...still silent and shaking, staring at the bundle of bodies that were not long before his loving family...and asked a cop what was wrong...he’d been waiting but one parent wasn’t healing and the other stayed down instead of jumping up, stronger then before. Why weren’t they getting up...? They always got up before...nothing brought them down...nothing...

...but this did. 

Miji was moved to fostercare, and resumed school shortly after...but while his quirk had healed him, he remained...burned looking. Infact, his quirk had terribly discolored his skin, and took the color from the hair that grew back. His entire body now in constant pain, and his sleep plagued with nightmares from the trauma and the pain of the explosion revisiting him. His eyes, even his one normal one becoming sunken from lack of sleep. His schoolmates barely recognized him, and his strange, even grotesque appearance led to him being teased and harassed. The harassment only escalating when it became known that his quirk healed him, leaving no evidence of violence on his small frame, and allowing them to get away with worse, and thus enact worse bullying upon him. Despite all this, Miji still attempted to make friends before withdrawing entirely into himself. Focusing on playing with action figures of heroes, and deciding to become a hero. To make his parents proud, and honor their memory, and perhaps even once again be accepted by his peers. 

Going from foster home to foster home, finding himself rejected and alone almost everywhere he went, Miji only became more and more determined...becoming a hero became his whole world. Only for that world to come crashing down when the boy, now in middleschool, learned the truth of that one tragic night. That the heroes knew, but none had come. That all he had been through, lost and suffered was not only on the villians who did the deed, but on the “heroes” he once so praised standing by idly. The one hope he’d had and clung to dashed, Miji succumbed to the physical and mental strain he was under. He developed an dependency on strong pain killers in order to cope with the pain his quirk leaves, and attempted to take his own life on a few occasions only for his quirk to save him. Even still, when he found a classmate crying, he could not leave her alone, and did his best to help her. This was how he met Chumki...

He hadn’t expected Chu to come to his aid when he attempted to jump from the school rooftop. Not at all. She even began hanging out with him, the two becoming close friends, and she even managed to push him into swearing that he wouldn’t die without her permission. A silly promise between friends he agreed to, having realized that he now had one person, at least, who would cry over him.

As time wears on, Miji’s despair turns to blame, and then resentment and hatred towards heroes in general, and while Chu moves on to attend UA, Miji instead begins provoking stronger individuals to attack him, gaining strength and pain, becoming more and more a monster as he bides his time. 

Yet, Chu remains convinced that the boy she knew is in there, somewhere...under the mutated, warped skin.

Miji’s Playlist

#my art #miji fukujou #my oc #bnha oc #oc #bnha #villian #referance #miji