#and I'm gonna write the whole thing before I release any of the chapters

[drizztdohurtin]

not to spoil anything but I can no longer keep my secret; I have been working on a 9 chapter Rolan x Tav fanfic and I'm so excited to start putting chapters out, and give Rolan and Tav the love story they DESERVE

in the meantime, if anyone wants to share their favorite Rolan or tielfing headcanons, PLEASE DO - I love hearing them and would love to include things like that in the fic

#always feel free to dm or submit an ask for shit like this - i'm literally always down to talk hcs #I'm about 2.4k words into it - I think chapter one was 2k words? #It's gonna be a little hefty #and I'm gonna write the whole thing before I release any of the chapters #so that no one has to wait too long in between chapters #also I've been known to stop projects mid way so I'd hate to release like 4 chapters and then never come back to it again - that'd be ass #ANYWAYS #please look forward to it <3 #serena the yap-atron 3000 #rolan #bg3 #x tav

[anundyingfidelity]

I'M A RUIN — Soldier Boy/Ben (Part V)

Series summary: After the events of the Seven Tower, you present Grace Mallory a new secret project you're working on already to develop a cure to Compound V. The only problem? You need Soldier Boy for that.

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x female reader.

Word count: 2.4k.

Warnings for series: set after S3 (spoilers), some OOC!Ben, some depressed!Ben, angst, hurt/comfort, eventual smut, slow-burn, language, PTSD, reader has Compound V (she's no Vought supe tho), Soldier Boy being an usual asshole, reader is a fucking liar.

Warnings on this chapter: some misogyny and shit (you know who), psychiatry stuff, canon gore, blood, heads exploding, and violence?.

Notes: so I'm sorry for any mistakes during the psychyatric process, I go to therapy and take medication myself so that's all I know plus google research. And be aware of the gore descriptions, I tried to do my best I guess lol. Thanks for reading as always!

this fic tags: @k-slla @syrma-sensei @mostlymarvelgirl @cheynovak @drasticemotions @soldirboy @deans-spinster-witch

☕ if you like my writing, support me with a ko-fi !

get yourself in the taglist!

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | | Part VIII

GEN MASTERLIST! — SERIES MASTERLIST!

Part V: Blow Your Mind

With a deep breath, you reviewed the symptoms Soldier Boy barely 'gave' during your session. The list was kind of long on the pages and it read:

Always being on guard for any danger, self-destructive behavior, irritability, angry outbursts, panic attacks, feeling emotionally numb, not trusting anyone, not feeling safe, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, fatigue, muscle tension, headaches, back pain...

There was a weird silence surrounding both of you, mostly because of his mood and his change in demeanor from a somewhat friendly asshole to an irritated, unbearable jerk. Once you had started with the uncomfortably stupid questions, he felt threatened. Soldier Boy wasn't actually open to talk about his past and the traumatic experiences he had, and that meant it was difficult to get to know how his body and mind were reacting to all the stress and madness he went through in decades, adding those weeks after Billy Butcher had released him from his nightmare.

He was opposed to speaking directly about how he was feeling, but you knew better that Ben speaking out on his symptoms was not going to happen. So you had to ask each one of them and review some his most harsh experiences directly, in order to receive monotonous responses, limited to: 'yes', 'no', 'I don't know,' and finally 'what the fuck is that?' You took them all as an absolute yes.

He was being defensive and you knew better than to miss anything after he almost burned the whole damn building. And with the small but confident experience you had with psychiatry, you concluded that he needed medication and therapy. As soon as fucking possible.

"Yeah, you have PTSD," you said after a moment and your eyes found his unreadable gaze.

He raised his eyebrows with false surprise. He already heard that shit from Hughie before. "And where's the fucking drugs?"

"For that to happen, you have to stop the weed first."

"I've survived bricks of coke mixed with shit you probably don't know about and you want to take the only thing that's keeping me sane? Fan-fucking-tastic!" he fumed, but you didn't flinch. Not a bit.

"Look, my goal is keeping you safe and making you sane because you definitely are not. Not right now. And since I took you out, you'll follow my process, so stop whining."

He chuckled softly with a bitter grimace on his lips as he shook his head softly. "No, that's not gonna happen."

"I don't care if you agree with that, it's settled," you continued, a triumphant smile plastered on your face.

It was true, you didn't give a single shit. He had to be clean and quit any type of drugs to start the medication but most importantly, to use his blood. Eventually. You were more than aware that he wouldn't die easily, that was proved. And it was just a matter of time to get him to your lab to take samples of his blood and run the necessary research on them while you and your team still continued the studies with the Anti-V prototype. You were only hoping that day would arrive soon enough. Two months sober, that was all you needed from him. And the best part? Soldier Boy didn't have to really know the whole details.

Ben, on the other hand, clenched his jaw so tight and closed his eyes for a moment after hearing your statement. You really were a fucking bitch, letting him fall into the abyss of misery and torture that was his own wrecked mind. He considered your intentions internally, once again for the millionth time. You showed up there all dressed up, playing a rich doctor when in reality you were just a fucking slutty brat, just to tell him he had to stop his usual pot, which you also brought happily when he asked you to. And now, you were taking away the only thing that stopped him from ripping your head off. What a great move.

"That's not smart," he insisted.

"Why not? I have you under my own terms."

Ben tilted his head, studying you carefully. "You can't stop me, doll. None of you can. I'm only here because I find it suitable instead of storming out and catching unnecessary attention."

Ben saw you swallow down, he immediately knew it was because you were angry, not scared. You never really seemed scared of him. And you tried to restrain yourself from slapping him right away. "Are you blackmailing me again, Soldier Boy?"

"Is just a warning," he said, nonchalantly. "Wouldn't want to harm such a pretty thing like you, now wouldn't we."

"Oh well, just a reminder I can also turn on the damn gas if needed," you snapped. The arrogant smirk on his lips fell off and it was your turn to smile back. "We all have hidden cards, right?"

Such an arrogant bitch, he thought.

"So, what's your plan?" you switched the subject to avoid going further into what was troubling him.

"What do you mean?"

"Homelander. You want him dead, don't you? You must be getting ready to fight again..."

His body seemed tense once you pushed him to talk, looking away from you to calm a bit. "Isn't that what all of you want?"

"Any sane person would love that, trust me."

Soldier Boy narrowed his eyes. "Well, I can do it. If I wasn't here... You've seen what he's capable of. Jesus, I've seen it," he bitterly chuckled. "And the kid? He's a fucking menace."

"You've been watching the news, I take that—"

"The fuck I do! Wasn't gonna wait for you to keep me up to date of what the fuck is going on!" Ben shouted, his loud voice roaring in your ears despite the distance.

"I don't want you to stress out more than you do," you said, vacillating. "A lot of things take time, such as you adapting to the twenty-first century."

"I'd love to know when that'll happen," Ben insisted. "Or else, I might just break out."

With a tentative smile, you started to write down the report. "I'm so glad you're talking more during our sessions."

You barely said goodbye to Soldier Boy once you finished your daily session. Your head was aching as you walked down the aisle, barely leaving the empty wing of the building behind. Certainly he was hard to handle and was behaving defensively. Before you left he began asking, or better said, bossing you to get him whatever the kid Hughie told him he needed to learn how to use. Shit like the internet and GPS, he said. You told him he was not ready for it yet.

But you'd give him a golden star for trying and insisting so badly, even if he was against eighty percent of your methods. He was up to something, there was no question for that. He was a soldier, more or less like his given supe name. People like him always had a plan, and underneath his facade, there were more plans backed up with words of honor that you had to track sooner or later.

As you made your way to your office, greeting your lab employees and guards, a disturbing sensation grew up inside. Before crossing the doorframe you subtly looked around, focusing for some reason in the security camera, more time than you'd like to admit. You turned again to finally get inside, facing the entry of your office when hurried steps and a voice stopped you from doing so.

"Doctor!"

Once again you turned on your heels to see your assistant, tablet in hand. Those had to be the results.

"Hey," you began. "You have everything?"

Bianca nodded with a straight face and handed you the tablet. You noticed her tight grip and her somehow trembling fingers when you took the device from her hands. You eyed her a little, she remained with her hands intertwined in front of her, her attention seemed lost. With caution, you continued to check the file.

"Is the patient alright?" you asked, reading the profile of the supe who had the not so good luck of being tested previously.

Solaris was his supe name. And he had the ability to manipulate light and matter with his mind. He had taken part in the program for a month now and this was his first test. As always, each supe you had into the program was low-profile. You were thankful of your team keeping these supes under their gaze to offer them some sort of solution, even after all the deaths you tracked from time to time when a test of the Anti-V was run. More than a solution for them, it was a partial contribution to find it.

You quickly scanned the updated file that Bianca completed for you. He was doing better than projected, his powers were still gone with a forecast of probably coming back within a couple of hours. A deep breath left your lips. Now that was an improvement. It was the first time anything like that happened on any tests. The supe survived, he was weak but the powers were off for a bit. It was a small step closer to your goal. Just a little bit more maybe and it could be done, finally...

"He's resting right now," Bianca interrupted your thoughts. Your eyes were back on her face.

"This is great news, thank you. I trust he's doing okay."

She nodded. "He is."

"Great, I guess I'll see him in a couple of hours," you said about entering your office.

"Wait!" Bianca suddenly closed the little space between both of you. She breathed heavily before stuttering words out. "I, I have- I'm sorry..."

"Are you okay?" you inquired, knowing her behavior was unusual. She swallowed down, turning her gaze away, her hands shaking. Was she sick? "Bianca, what's wrong?"

You tried to reach her cheek with your hand, but she stepped back abruptly, looking at you like if you were a ghost with her eyes red and wet, and a fine layer of sweat adorning her skin.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I'm so sorry," she sobbed.

You walked towards her, worried about what was going on but every step you took, she also gave it back.

"Bianca, what's happening?"

Her back bumped the wall of your office, and finally, she started to cry. "I'm sorry. You have to go, please..."

Your heart started pounding heavily on your chest. "What—"

"Go now! Please... Please don't hurt me..."

"I'm not going to hurt you, Bianca," you whispered, trying to comfort her.

But she continued crying and mumbled incoherent words with eyes shut, while hot tears streamed down her face. She choked on her sobs as she pleaded for her life. But you didn't understand why. You tried to soothe her, reaching her shoulder with your free hand.

And when you placed your palm on her, everything became red. It all happened in seconds. Ropes of warm blood covered your face in an instant. A loud gasp fell from your throat. You felt every drop mixed with brains on the skin of your face, on your neck, and sliding down the skin under your blouse. It was shocking and equally disgusting. And your eyes remained shut, not brave enough to move or see the horrid picture in front of you.

Your palm was still on her shoulder when the remains of her body fell to the ground with a thud. Your trembling hand wiped some blood from your face to open your eyes anew. The wall was painted with her, as much as you were, and it left a trail of blood from where her corpse slid to the floor. Her head long fucking gone.

"Shit."

Shit. Fucking shit. Was it him? It had to be him. There was no reason to doubt it. It was him. And he complied with his promise. Had Homelander been controlling Bianca? Was she the only one? No. There had to be something more. Homelander wasn't easy and he wasn't merciful with anyone. You had to stop him and get Soldier Boy out of the building. Now.

You tried to control yourself as best as you could, walking away to reach anyone, crossing a corner on the hallway, where a guard was casually passing by.

He stopped on his tracks at your sight, covered in blood and meat. "Doctor?"

"I need your help," you whispered.

He nodded quickly and you began explaining with a low, shaky voice.

"I don't know what happened, my assistant was right there with me when— Fuck!"

You walked some inches away when his head exploded, just like Bianca's did. Luckily, or not, this time was inside his helmet. All the red brains and blood were catched by it. Still, you wanted to throw up right fucking there. The remains of his body fell to the floor with a loud sound.

With a deep breath you continued your way, finding guards, lab assistants and agents. If they were alive, their heads popped into your sight. And if it was your somehow lucky moment of the day, you just found their headless corpses lying on the ground, creating a pool of blood you tried to avoid.

The only thing on your mind was taking Ben out of the building. The alarm had been turned on and the annoying sound of it was driving you crazy. Your head ached more than ever as you made your way to Soldier Boy for the second fucking time during the day.

Since there was no time to open the heavy door properly, you used a force field around the metal, moving the door until it slipped enough to let you in. You found him standing in the middle of the room. Eyes dark and alert, with fists and frame ready to fight. He wrinkled his nose once you entered the place.

"What the fuck's going on?" Ben growled, observing your blood covered face.

"We need to go, now. Take your clothes off."

He blinked, taken aback. Before he answered you continued with an explanation.

"I'll turn you invisible, but can't turn your clothes," you ordered, looking in the closet for a sports bag you knew was inside and picking a couple of shirts, pants and boxers as quickly as time allowed you to. Once finished, you turned to Ben again.

"Mind to fucking clarify?" he insisted. You sighed, closing your eyes for a moment.

"Look, I'll tell you everything once we're out," you turned one of your hands invisible for him to see.

Ben snorted with laughter. How ironic, he thought.

"No fucking way."

"Strip. We're leaving."

#soldier boy x reader #soldier boy x you #soldier boy x female reader #soldier boy imagine #soldier boy x y/n #soldier boy fanfiction #the boys amazon fanfiction #the boys series #the boys tv #the boys amazon prime #jensen ackles fanfiction #soldier boy/ben

[theitgirlnetwork]

Better

Chapter 5: Don't Call Me That

Note: Thank you so much for all of the love, I appreciate it so much. I've been having so much fun writing this story and seeing everyone's responses! The kind words mean a lot. Two questions: 1) Would you all want my Lip x Charlotte Playlist? 2) I'm considering opening my requests to writing little one shots about things you all want for just Lip and Charlotte or Angel and JJ right now, and expanding as I introduce more of my little universe. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy.

The sun rose in Charlotte’s room, pouring through the wispy white curtains, shining down on Lip’s face. The woman next to him turned over after waking up, leaning on her elbow as she scans his features. He reminds her of some kind of painting, or statue. Strong features, chiseled chest and stomach. Curly deep golden hair. 

She’d woken up to his phone going off. Calls and texts. She had braced her hand on his chest to shake him awake but when she saw Mandy’s name on the screen instead of one of his siblings, she rested her hand softly on his skin, trailing her finger along the contours of his stomach, following the lines up his chest, past his jaw and along his soft lips. She holds her own breath as she scoots up a little more, smoothing her fingers between his eyebrows, feeling him relax his brow and release a peaceful sigh under her touch. She liked making him feel like that. Peaceful and relaxed. 

Charlotte was enjoying herself until she felt his muscles tense and a groan rumble in his chest as he stretches out his limbs. She panics, flipping back over on her side and squeezing her eyes shut as if she’d been asleep the whole time, trying to place a cute, peaceful look on her face. 

She feels Lip shift behind her, his body heat pooling even closer as he leans over her to look at her face. “Why’d you stop?”

Charlotte yawns dramatically, mimicking his stretching motion, accidentally (on purpose) pushing her hand into Lip’s face, before turning onto her back to look up at him. “Stop what?” she asks groggily.

“Stop what?” he mocks in his attempt at her voice, the fact that his voice was lower because he just woke up didn’t do him any favors. “C’mere.” He grabs her sides, pulling her the rest of the way under him and tickling her sides, grinning as she squeals, kicking her legs and pushing him with her hands. Lip grabs her ankle to stop her motion, pinning her hands with the other and smiling down at her. “Huh? What’re you gonna do now, bunny? C’mon, slugger.”

Charlotte squirms for a little, laughing at how weak her attempts to escape were, and how little effort it was taking for Lip to keep her in place. His teasing murmur of ‘come on, baby’ pushes her to turn her head to the hand that was holding hers, arching up a little before sinking her teeth lightly into his arm.

“Fuck! Ow, Charlotte!” Lip hisses, yanking his hands back as she cheers victoriously, pushing her feet at his chest. “Yeah yeah. Fightin’ dirty and shit.” 

She cheeses at him, patting the bed next to her and Lip lies down on his back, turning his head to look at her. “Good morning. How’s your head? Your ribs? Emotional health?”

“Mornin. How’s your hand?” he asks, reaching down to bring her hand to his face, peeling back her bandage briefly to inspect for any damage. 

“I asked you first.” she sighs, watching as he ignores her, smoothing the bandage back over and rubs his face over it once. “Phillip?” she asks again, rolling her eyes when he just starts kissing the palm of her hand. “Mandy called a couple times. Texted too.”

“Hm, what’d she say when you answered?” he asks, wincing when she smacks her hand on the top of his head. “Ow.”

“Me answer? I’m not the one she wants to hear from. It seems like she still thinks you guys are together.” Charlotte says, pulling her arm from him. “Talk to her.”

“You want me to break up with her.”

“No.” Charlotte crosses her arms. “I want you to talk to her. If that ends with you broken up or together, we’ll be cool. I’ll be happy for you. But until then, no more sleepovers.” She goes to climb out of bed, rolling her eyes as Lip tugs her back in, wrapping his arms around, pulling her back underneath him.

“Just…fuck…fuckin’ relax, alright?” He murmurs, nudging her nose with his own, “I’ll handle it. Seriously, I’ll talk to her. Okay?”

Charlotte huffs, glaring up at him until he nudges at her dimple with his knuckle. “Okay.”

The two of them don’t even get to take a breath before the door creaks open. “Hey, Lottie, V wanted to know if you-shit!” 

“Kev!”

“Fuck!”

Kev swings the door all of the way open roughly, letting it hit the wall before stalking into the room. “What the fuck, dude what the hell are you doing here?!” 

Lip groans, backing away from Charlotte slowly, showing his hands, “Look, man-”

“No you fuckin’ look, man.” Kev growls, “I’ve seen you do this to other families but we’re supposed to be friends, you’re in here defiling our daughter-”

“‘M’not your daughter, Kev, we’re cousins. Through marriage. And even then not really!” Charlotte huffs, tugging on a pair of pajama pants. “And nothing happened.”

“Not that it’s any of your fuckin’ business.” Lip grunts, pulling his shirt over his head. 

“Uh, she is my business dipshit-V! Come here!”

“Jesus.” Charlotte whimpers, wrapping her arms around herself and plopping down on the bed.

V comes into the room with a mug of coffee in her hand, grumbling about Kev screaming so early in the morning and pauses with her drink halfway to her mouth when she steps in. “Oh, fuck no. Lottie, what did I say?”

“But nothing happened!” she whines, flopping back on the bed, sticking her tongue out at Lip’s snort.

“He’s in here trying to fuck our daughter, V!” 

“Not your daughter.” Lip interjects.

“You shut the fuck up.” V points at Lip then turns to Kev, “You’re delusional, she’s not our daughter, she’s my cousin.” She finally lands on Charlotte, going over to the bed and slapping the girl on the leg multiple times.

“Ow, Veronica get off!”

“My mom is not gonna kick my ass because I’m supposed to be teachin’ you to be an independent woman and you got knocked up by a Gallagher on my watch!” she slaps Charlotte’s leg one more time, dodging when the younger woman kicks her leg out at her. “You wanna have a sleepover, invite one of the redheads.” 

With that, V storms out of the room, Kev in tow, turning to yell out “Out, Lip!” 

The room is silent for a moment before Lip’s snickers start to fill the air. “It’s not funny. Seriously.” 

“I thought it was.” Lip laughs, buckling his belt. “You’re Kev’s baby girl now, huh? And V spanks you when you don’t listen?”

“I did listen. I haven’t slept with you have I?” she scoffs, pulling her scarf off and letting her silky black hair fall down over her shoulders, Lip’s smile slowly falling away as he watches her sweep her hands through dark curls and envisions his hand tangled in it instead. “V’s worried about my mom talking to her mom and Kev…he’s weird like that. Acts like I’m not 19, but he’s sweet and I’ve always wanted an older brother.” 

Lip continues to stare at her, the way the light from the window casts a halo around her as she smiles up at him brightly. Charlotte squirms under his gaze, feeling her cheeks heat up. “You heard my ‘dad’. Out, Lip.” 

That breaks him from his stupor. The blond stalks forward to where Charlotte is sat on the bed, gathering the fabric on the front of her t-shirt, yanking her up, ignoring her squeal and the sound of footsteps making their way back to the room. He plants his forehead against hers, watching her face closely before pressing his lips against hers, pulling her into a heated kiss and letting her go, causing her to drop down on the bed. “You don’t call me that.” 

Charlotte watches as Lip slips out of the room, calling back to her, “I’ll see you later!” giggling when Kev yells back, “Like fuck you will!”

“Honey! You’re home! You didn’t come back last night.” Monica cheers as Lip comes through the door. “Did my advice work?”

“Advice?” he asks, kicking off his shoes and slapping the back of Carl’s head as he passes by. “What advice?”

“About Charlotte!” Monica calls after him. 

Fiona rounds the corner of the living room and changes the channel to National Geographic so Liam can watch the television and fixes Lip with a look. “You’re listenin’ to Monica now? That why I’m hearin’ about Kev and V finding you in bed with Lottie?”

“Jesus Christ-”

“You were in bed with Charlotte? Fuckin’ traitor!” Carl huffs jumping off of the couch and shoving Lip before running up the stairs. 

The two older siblings make eye contact and the oldest girl shrugs, grabbing some dirty clothes off of the couch. “He’s got a crush on her. And you keep datin’ girls he likes. Not that you should be datin’ Charlotte.”

“When else have I dated a girl he liked?” Lip asks, choosing to ignore the raise of Fiona’s eyebrows when he doesn’t correct her about dating Charlotte. 

“He had a thing for Mandy, not that you noticed.”

“He has a thing for anyone with tits, I can’t leave him every woman ever.” Lip chuckles, grabbing a beer from the table. “He can have Mandy now if he wants her.”

Just as he says that Ian jogs down the steps, dodging a hug from Monica and guiding her to sit down on the stairs. “Real classy, asshole, still my best friend.” 

“Yeah your psycho best friend dropped Charlotte off at a whorehouse. Drive it through her head we’re not fuckin’ anymore for me will you?”

“Are you kiddin’ me?” Ian pauses, pulling on his jacket, “Fuck you, talk to her yourself, I’m not catching those strays.” 

“Fine. Fan-fuckin-tastic.” He sighs, shoving his feet back into his shoes and turning back around to leave the house. 

Lip walks the way to the Milkovich house smoking his way through three cigarettes on the short walk alone. It’s not like he’s uncertain about what he wants to do. No, he knows. Charlotte has made it abundantly clear that she has no intention of letting him get anywhere unless she’s sure he’s unattached. And not that his time with Mandy wasn’t great but…he’d already done that. 

And it was great. Mandy was a good lay, a good friend, a nice girl when she wanted to be but for some reason he could never make himself take it seriously. He was always cheating, whether it be with Karen, that creepy teacher bitch, random girls he met out. It wasn’t Mandy’s fault, he’s not a shithead, he knows that it’s on him.

He couldn’t make it up to her. Give her the one thing she wanted, him. He wouldn’t be a good boyfriend to her. He wasn’t dedicated. He knew what dedication looked like from him, and it wasn’t how he treated Mandy. Not when for the few times he even agreed to hang out with her since Charlotte came he either envisioned her while he had sex with Mandy or stared out of his window into Charlotte’s hoping she’d slip by.

That’s why he had to be honest with Mandy. And she shocked the shit out of him.

“Figured. Just needed confirmation.” she sighs, throwing her cigarette into the dirt and stepping on it.

“Cause uh…I think we needed time apart anyway, but that shit you did with Charlotte was really fucked up.”

“Oh my God.” she rolls her eyes, staring past him into the street. “Tell the princess I’m sorry.” 

Lip just works his jaw irritably, forcing back all of the angry expletives he’s had swirling in his head for her since it had happened. “Okay, so…”

“You either wanna fuck one more time to hold you over until you come back or you can go stalk Charlotte at her fuckin’ job like you like to do recently.” Mandy shrugs, climbing the stairs to her apartment, stopping in the doorway waiting for Lip to follow her up and wiping the tear that falls onto her cheek when she sees he’s already lighting a cigarette, walking up the street.

Lip stops by the construction site to pick up his check after settling shit with Mandy, and swings over to the bank to cash it so he could chip in to even out whatever the fuck Monica and Frank stole from them this time. After, he goes over to Charlotte’s job, checking the time on the phone to make sure her shift was ending. He’d promised not to make any more trouble that could cost her what’s left of her check.

He swings the door open and slides into a seat at the bar, waiting to spot her. He notices her boss Alan instead, drinking behind the wooden separator and nods to him. “Hey, man, she’s not here, alright?”

Lip furrows his brows. “Where is she?”

“Already headed out for the day, we were overstaffed and last one in, first one out.” Alan shrugs, openly ogling one of the girls as she squeezes past him and shaking his head when he notices look glaring at him. “What? That one doesn’t have a boyfriend comin’ down here every time she has a shift. Jesus, Gallagher, do you even work?”

“Yeah, when I’m not making sure you creepy fucks aren’t sexually harassing my girl.” He smirks. “Just tryin’ to make sure you assholes don’t forget my face, let your drunken dicks get confused and think you have half a shot with Charlotte.” 

“Well, your point has been made, between you beating the shit out of some of my best customers and calling her twice each shift. I need her out here on the floor, man, even if she’s not putting out, the face and the body bring in customers, it’s math Gallagher.”

“Yeah, you have your teenage son workin’ the register cause you can barely add and subtract, fuck you, Alan. I don’t call her during her shifts.”

Alan scoffs, grabbing a handful of peanuts and turning to head back into the kitchen, “Well someone does, and she always seems happy to hear from him.” 

Lip clenches his jaw as Alan’s snickers ring in his ears. Nothing in his mind but the same question over and over.

Who the fuck is she talking to on the phone?

Charlotte knocks at the door to the Gallagher household, cheerful as ever. She hears quick, happy footsteps jog over and is greeted with a grinning Fiona, with music blasting behind her. “Lottie, how are you?”

“I’m good, Fi, got off work early, wanted to know if Lip wanted to hang out.” she chirps. She smiles when Fiona makes a face, slumping her shoulders. “Really, just hang out. As in, you could join us. But it seems like you’re having a party of your own.”

“Girl, you should come in, V, your cousin’s here and I think she needs a celebratory shot!” Fiona grins, grabbing Charlotte’s hand and tugging her into the house. 

“Nuh uh, baby girl’s next shot will be on her birthday in two months. But she should come party.” V smacks her cousin’s butt. “Put on some of your shit, you’ve got better music taste than this shit Fiona’s stealin from Carl. Kev’s getting beers and Ian’s picking up Mickey. It’s gonna be fun.” she leans over to Charlotte murmuring in her ear, “Fi got a new job and we’re celebrating.”

“Is…um…Lip coming?” Charlotte asks, eyes wide as she looks expectantly at the two women. She frowns at the two of them as they exchange looks with each other, shaking their heads, “I like hanging out with him!”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that!” V sighs. “But I don’t want you to get all caught up and confused!”

“Yeah, Lottie, you’re just not from here. And I know Lip, he gets swept up in seeing a pretty girl and is interested for a little while before he moves on. He’s like any hood guy around here, he’s just got a higher IQ and won’t put his hands on you.”

Charlotte groans, tossing her bag on the couch, “I’m fine. I can take care of myself, okay? Your brother and I are just friends. Seriously.” The younger woman changes the music on the speaker and stands on one of the chairs to help hang one the ‘congratulations Fiona’ banner.

As she pushes the tack into the wall she lets her mind wander to the blond, something she’s found herself doing a lot lately. She meant it when she said she had no intention of being around him after the whole Mandy debacle, but she hadn’t accounted for him being him. 

Charlotte knows they’ve led different lives, and he has a bad reputation with women. Or…people in general. She’s heard plenty of stories about Lip since she’s gotten here. Half of the girls from her job had hooked up with him before, an embarrassing fact she’d discovered during her lunch break one day. Slept with them, and snuck out before the sun came up, screwed them over a bathroom sink in a dingy bar and never asked for their number, having sex with them one day and hitting on their sister the next. She’d seen that look that Mandy gave him when she came out of the house. Like he was her whole future. She looked at him like she loved him. Needed him. And Charlotte doesn’t ever want to get there. She never wants to be the type of girl V always warned her against being. She didn’t want to be standing there watching the guy she has feelings for give less than a fuck about her. 

She knows she should listen to everyone and be around him less.

But she can’t explain it. She really likes being around Phillip. 

When Lip gets home he hears the sound of music blasting and curses loudly, letting his head fall back and stare at the sky. He is not in the mood to push his way through whatever seedy, old fuckers Frank and Monica has coralled into his home just to get a simple beer while he tries not to lose his shit over whatever limp dick fucker has been calling Charlotte every fucking day at least twice. Speaking of.  

He turns his gaze over to the house next door and weighs in his head how likely he’d be able to get in through the big window in the living room and down the hall to Charlotte’s room without Kev or V seeing. Then he thinks about how his head has been since Alan ran his mouth. Should he even see her? He has a bad track record of fucking things up when he was feeling…protective? Possessive? Jealous? Lip shakes his head, rolling his eyes at his own thoughts. They’re not even together. She’s made that abundantly clear. That’s why she’s probably fucking some trash from Virginia. 

Yeah, no, he’s not ready to visit her right now. He needs to get his thoughts right, form them in a way that he ends up with what he wants and doesn’t sound crazy over a girl who hasn’t even agreed to date him.

Home it is. He thinks bitterly, climbing the rest of the steps and turning the doorknob. The door opens and the music fills his ears even louder, random 2000s rap blasting. Lip doesn’t even make it over the threshold before Liam toddles over to him, jumping into his arms. 

“Party!” the little boy yells, flashing his smile with missing teeth at Lip. The older brother smiles, catching the toddler and swinging him up further into his arms.

“Yeah, party,” Lip cheers back, nuzzling his brother’s cheek,  “You okay, buddy?”

“Yeah down.” Liam kicks his legs as Lip holds onto him, walking further into the house to assess the situation before letting his little brother go off. 

“Liam! Where’d you go? I need my dance partner. I like this song” The voice makes the tense feeling in Lip’s chest immediately come rushing back, and it takes the edge off of the annoyance too. “Oh, hey.”

Lip can’t help but mimic Charlotte’s bright smile as she leans against the wall, clasping her hands behind her back. He steps further into the house pushing into her space. “Oh hey.” he says mockingly, relishing in the giggle she offers him. “You uh…in here hijackin’ my family?”

She shrugs absently, looking toward the living area where Fiona and Kev were taking shots and V was dancing with Ian and Debbie. “Maybe. Mostly dancin’ with Liam, he’s a good dancer. Right, sweet boy?”Charlotte coos, holding her hands out and snagging the little boy from his brother. Liam all but leaping out of Lip’s arms.

“Liam, you traitor.” he says, clutching his chest and quieting the absolutely fucking insane thoughts that swim in his head while he watches Charlotte bouncing his brother in her arms. 

“Say, leave me alone, Phillip!” she encourages, pressing her cheek against the toddler’s. “Tell ‘em.”

“Phillip!” his little voice yells, reaching out and squeezing his brother’s nose. 

“Oh yeah?” Lip smiles even more, narrowing his eyes at the boy, “She’s gotta go home sometime buddy. Don’t burn all your bridges, she won’t be here to bring you your cheerios in the mornin’.” 

“We’re not listening to you, we’re gonna go dance.” she chirps, whipping around and letting her hair smack Lip’s face, ignoring the shiver she gets from the low chuckle she hears behind her and saddling up next to Ian.

“Gimme my brother,” the redhead says, “He’s not gonna be part of your weird foreplay.” 

Charlotte gasps, shoving his arm, “Um where’s Mickey? You’re less annoying when you’re feeling up your boyfriend.” Her eyes trail over to Lip hugging Fiona, offering her congratulations and taking a shot with her. 

Ian snorts, bouncing Liam on his lap, “Maybe. But he’s wearing you down.” 

She bites her lip, letting her head fall back on the back of the couch, watching Debbie attempt a cartwheel with V trying to help her legs over. “Didn’t hold out very long, did I? You think I’m stupid too?” 

“Yeah you’re stupid.” he chuckles. “But, uh, he likes you. Spoke to Mandy for you today.” 

Charlotte looks at Ian with wide eyes, the redhead refrains from mocking the hopeful look on the girl’s face. She works the muscles in her cheeks, trying not to smile, dropping her gaze to her lap. “Not for me.”

“Yes for you,” Ian nudges, letting Liam down to go get the door again when it starts to open, Mickey putting down the case of beers he brought to lift the little boy, flipping him upside down. “Look, as your friend, I’ll tell you that you can do better than my brother.” 

Charlotte nods, letting her eyes trail back over to Lip, blue meeting brown from across the room. “And as Phillip’s brother?”

Ian shrugs, moving to push off of the couch and greet Mickey who was impatiently gesturing for him to come over. “He never used to let anyone call him Phillip.”

“You seeing that?” Fiona points with the wine opener to the opposite end of the house where Lip is sitting in a chair, grinning as he watches Charlotte dance in front of him. Raising his eyebrows when she pokes him on his nose and each cheek.

V pauses in her dancing as she hears her cousin squeak as the blond boy grabs her by the waist, pulling her down onto the seat with him, both laughing loudly as she chair tilts back, threatening to fall. One of Lip’s hands shooting out onto the floor to stop the fall, the other going to protect Charlotte’s head. The girl is all but crying from laughter, her hand gripping the front of Lip’s shirt to keep him from tilting. Fiona groans as Lip’s beer spills on the floor, him chuckling out ‘Look what you did’ as he rights them, resting his chin on Charlotte’s shoulder. “I’m seeing. Any chance he’ll just lose interest?”

“Any chance that she will?” Fiona asks as the two women watch Charlotte all but fucking skip over to get Lip a new beer before climbing back into his lap on her own. “I love him but,” she passes V a glass, clinking them together in cheers. “He’ll fuck it up.”

“So you take them apart and put them back together?” Charlotte’s brows are furrowed as she tries to understand. Her fingers absently toying with Lip’s down by their sides. The party was slowly starting to die down. Carl and Debbie were put to bed, Kev, V and Fiona had started to clean up. Ian and Mickey were flirting in the kitchen. 

Lip nods slowly trying to figure out how to explain exactly what he does without sounding like a criminal. Sure he scams privileged college kids out of a couple hundred bucks in exchange for fixing their computers. And maybe the real assholes get told that their shit is broken beyond repair and Lip keeps the pieces for his own collection, even though mostly, they just have a virus from watching some seedy porno site. “Uh, yeah. I like computers. Robotics mostly. Kinda into science too.”

“Hmm, noted.” Charlotte smiles, leaning back against the wall. 

Lip has been having a great time hanging out with Charlotte. They’ve laughed, they’ve drank, her soda, him beer. She danced, which was a highlight of their night. But mostly they were just together. Talking. Laughing. It was like having her here brought some light into his dim, depressing ass home. He usually hates being home, despite his love for his family. The mold filled, worn down walls were a source of trauma for him. But he wasn’t thinking of any of that. 

He was happy. 

Aside from the constant fucking ringing of her phone.

“Your uh…phone’s ringin’ again, wanna answer it?”

“No, we're having fun.” Charlotte smiles, flipping her phone over and laughing at Ian dancing  with Mickey in the kitchen. Lip just intertwines their fingers, begging himself not to fuck things up as the ringing stops only to start again. 

“Uh, they’re callin’ again. At 1:34 in the mornin’ must be pretty fuckin’ important, wanna answer?” 

Charlotte stops to look Lip in the face, seeing how serious he looks and nods, grabbing her phone. “Okay, I’m gonna go upstairs where its quiet.” she moves to go up the steps, only to be pulled back.

“Gimme kiss.” Lip mumbles, holding her loosely around the waist, waiting for her to come to him. Charlotte glances around at their distracted family members and pushes up on her toes, kissing him deeply and briefly. “Thanks, bunny.”

She presses her lips to his cheek before running up the steps, Lip’s sharp blue eyes following her the whole time. 

When he tears them away he locks eyes with Ian who’s mouthing to him ‘don’t do it’. 

He wishes he could avoid it. But his feet are already moving. Trailing after her. It feels like he does that a lot lately. Lip stands in the doorway of his room and watches Charlotte giggling on the phone, walking back and forth, tossing her head back and laughing. Giving the smiles he’s been working his ass off for to some fucker who didn’t even make sure to be here to reap the fucking reward.

Charlotte pauses, turning toward the doorway and finding him there, mumbling a sweet goodbye to whoever was on the other line. “Hey. Sorry, I know I didn’t ask to use your room-”

“Who the fuck was that?”

#fiona gallagher #ian gallagher #lip gallagher #lip gallagher x oc #lip gallagher x reader #oc #kevin ball #shameless #veronica fisher #gallagher #charlotte fisher #love #lip gallagher x you

[thunderon]

i asked you a while ago whether the next tidbit of TLT content would be the nona paperback short story and you gave a very nice well-formed answer summarising what you expected... and you were right... and now i'm back again because i can't find the post and i'm also losing my mind trying to figure out when we'll get a taste of alecto. do we know when tamsyn finished writing nona relative to cover reveals and things? we were so spoiled with harrow + as yet unsent + like 6 preview chapters back to back we barely had to wait. and now it's been a year and a half. and she's still writing. are we going to see a thing before 2025?

im guessing it’s this ask?

when i read htn in 2020 i was assuming we’d get alecto in 2021 (haha) so honestly ive been waiting so long that im just chilling these days. for me, alecto is just gonna get here when it gets here and i take it as it comes. i don’t have any real information on any of this other than past experience, but since my last post turned out to be correct here’s some more of my guesses:

genuinely have no idea if we’ll see anything pre-2025. id imagine that tor will release ~something~ just to keep the hype going, but who knows. to answer your question, nona was originally part i of alecto and so im assuming muir had finished the vast majority of ntn by the time it was announced the trilogy was splitting into a series, and then the cover release happened in january with the book release following in september

i believe the alecto cover has been confirmed finished for a while now, so really it’s just whenever they decide to release that, but i think they’ll follow a similar timeline to the nona the ninth cover release approx 9 months prior (with snippets following). but with the huge gap who knows maybe they’ll throw us some extra stuff.

overall: id imagine the whole release schedule of everything all depends on how close muir is to a finished product, which is anyone’s guess

#asks #this is vague wish i could give a better timeline #but im just wildly speculating here #mostly taking the watched pots never boil approach tbh #im just patiently waiting these days #the locked tomb #alecto the ninth

[emperorbubblegum]

This is gonna be another long-ish spoiler post for F/SR, so don't click if you haven't learned Rider's True Name yet

Also slight spoilers for Fate/Extra CCC Foxtail and maybe Shimousa but those are old enough that I doubt people care

I really need to hear the opinion of someone who doesn't know much about Fate play Samurai Remnant. I feel like most of us where able to guess a lot of the new Servants based off connections they had to pre-established ones. Rider's probably one of two exceptions because her reveal is supposed to be this huge "what the fuck" moment - and it is, but I feel like that mostly hinges on the player knowing Fate's version of Minomoto-no-Raikou.

Ushi Gozen has been teased for years. Raikou's always been one of the many Servants that mentions how her Berserker Saint Graph isn't the only one we might aee of her (edit 1: I didn't play FGO when it first released so I didn't know this, but apparently Ushi actually shows up in the same event Raikou's introduced in). In Foxtail, we see her used as a prarallel to Suzuka, since both have connections to Oni. The most prominent tease is in Shimousa, where we actually see Ushi Gozen appear, but with the same design as Raikou for budget reasons I guess (edit 2: No we don't, that's just Raikou, but she has the Rider class so I misremembered her there as Ushi Gozen). And now she's actually here! She gets her own game! And she looks...

Girl what the fuck happened to you

I really like both of her designs to be honest. She's one of the few Servants to be wearing actual samurai armor, and she's the first to wear the helmet too I'm pretty sure. Then after Saber kicks the shit out of her, the armor falls apart and we see that she's in a much worse state than any of us expected. Her hair's cut short, her eyes are dead with noticeable bags, her skin's paler than it was before, and she barely looks like she's eaten anything. Those last two could also be said about Raikou (Raita for the love of god learn to draw human women properly) but on Rider they're noticeably worse. Also she seems crazier than her Berserker form, albeit a different kind of crazy.

When we fight her the second time in Chapter 5, she shows up with these awesome robot-like spider legs reminiscent of what Ushi-oni are usually described with. She doesn't look human because her humanity was seemingly beaten out of her. Raikou tends to suffer from what I like to call "the Altera Problem", where if used right she can be a really genuine and badass character, but 90% of the time she's used for jokes and to get people's dicks hard. However in things like Foxtail, or Shimousa (which is even more apparent in the manga), or Heian-Kyo we get to see her for how she really is, which is A) terrifying and B) a hero worthy of going down as one of humanity's best. Rider is only that first one. No jokes, no big tits, just pure unadulturated "you're gonna die" energy.

Rider's the first Servant we ever see in Samurai Remnant. She's the first one Iori encounters, leveling his house in the prologue and acting as the tutorial boss to show the player "hey you can't fucking take these guys on", and in the teaser trailer (which shows that scene) she's one of three Servants who are actually shown to us - the other two being SR's Saber and everyone's favorite bisexual dimension hopper, Musashi. I could write a whole other post about Shousetsu and Iori (maybe I will who knows) but Rider follows their dynamic. She's a strong parallel to Saber. Fuck she basically is Saber if they didn't have people like Ototachibana-Hime and Iori to keep them grounded.

All of the new Servants are super cool (with the exception of Caster that bitch ass nerd), but I think Rider's possibly the coolest. I mean, I've been wanting Samson since I got into Fate and you haven't seen me make any real posts about him because Minamoto-no-Raikou, one of my least favorite Servants, has got me in a vicegrip. I don't know if she's my favorite, but I'll definitely be saving for if she ever comes into FGO

#fate series #fate samurai remnant #fsr #fsr rider #fate samurai remnant spoilers #fsr spoilers

[stardusthuntress]

EnigmaTech - Ch. 4

My Tech Lives AU! (see prior chapters for summary)

Chapter 4 - A New Perspective

Tech x female!reader (pronouns only)

Word count: ~8.3k 

Chapter Summary: Picking up right where we left off, the lost 3 and the regs now freed from that creep, Hemlock, are in need of a chance to heal. And, as Tech would say, the human body is fascinating, and especially puzzling when driven by the emotion center instead of the logic center.

Also, Tech may or may not end up shirtless at one point! Kinda needs a warning of it's own, hehe! <3 I recommend referring to the following fan art pieces by @amorfista (here and here) and @lightspringrain (1; 2; 3) and @bruh-myguy-what (here) and so many more, but these were the ones that have been on my mind lately!!! <3 love you guys!!!

TW: mentions of Tech's injuries again. I'm not a fan of the way shows show a character getting injured and then in the next episode they're fine. It's just so unrealistic. So, Tech is gonna be recovering for another chapter or two beyond this. It won't be gruesome tho. No descriptions of grossness. Just mentions of where Tech's mods are.

A/N: I am not a medic, nor do I know a damn thing about medical treatment! Nothing gross. Nothing angsty. A touch of jealosy, but that's it. Tech figuring out what the fuck it means to flirt. Reader's callsign still used intermittently.

It's been so long since I've added to this story! I've been so busy. Lift took a turn I did not expect, but I think it's actually gonna be a good change! Just needed some time to figure out what to do with the curveball. I've had most of this chapter pretty much ready to go for a while tho, so it's time to release this to the world! Doing my best to getting back into writing these, I miss writing so much!

Tech dividers: @/djarrex

“Tech, let’s give those meds a few more minutes under observation to bring your system back to a somewhat normal level before we do anything else, just to make sure you’re stable. Okay?” Spitfire checks in with her patient. 

“Yes. That is an excellent idea. I will inform you if I perceive any changes in my current state of being. Perhaps it will provide adequate time for my brothers to receive medical attention as well?” 

“Certainly,” she nods, beckoning Wrecker over. “Wreck, the left shoulder?!? Again???!!! Your poor left shoulder, Big Guy! That’s at least the third time you’ve taken a hit to your left shoulder since the Empire became a thing!” 

“Tech told me once that it’s better that it’s my left rather than my right because I’m right handed.” Wrecker’s voice is quiet. 

Spitfire sighs, “He’s correct there, but either way, less hits to any of you at all would be ideal. Let’s get you patched up, Big Guy.” 

“Awwww, no I hate medical stuff. Do we have to?” 

“Yes, we want it to heal. It will be over before you know it. Tech and Crosshair are getting patched up too. I won’t do anything that might hurt if I don’t have to, I promise.” She pats his arm, trying to reassure the large man with touch as well as words. 

Tech didn’t remember seeing Wrecker take a hit to his shoulder, but he’s glad someone noticed. 

She has finally managed to sit Wrecker down and has started rummaging through the med pack Echo got out to use on Tech and Cross. Out of the corner of her eye, she notices Wrecker fretting. 

“You remind me of another trooper I once worked with, Big Guy,” she starts, “I was working with the 104th at the time. The man’s name was Numbskull.” 

“Hah! how’d he get a name like that?” Wrecker asks. The room is quiet, all the men listening to her voice in an attempt to keep their minds off of the horrors they found within the walls of Hemlock’s facility. 

“By doing the same thing you do, Goofball! He took so many hits to his shoulder that he eventually lost all the feeling in his arm.” 

“His whole arm?” Wrecker seems stuck somewhere between amusement and worry. 

“Mmhmm. After enough hits to the pressure points and the spaces between the gaps in his armour, he said all he felt was a tingling in the back of his skull when the doc tried the good old pinch test.” 

“Where you pinch his arm to see if he can still feel it?” Once Wrecker started trying to think his way through the story, his worry began to fade.

“Exactly, all he felt was a little tingle in the base of his skull. And then eventually he lost all the feeling in his arm completely. But he could still use the arm like normal, he just couldn’t feel it.” 

“That doesn’t sound so bad. I’d rather not feel any pain.” Wrecker’s shoulders relax. 

Tech and Echo laughed, exchanging glances beside her, as she continued her work on Wrecker. The idea isn’t so bad to them either, a numb Wrecker would certainly be a lot easier to deal with during medical exams, thats for sure. 

She smiled. Her story was working, distracting and calming not just Wrecker, but all the boys, while she patched them up, but she was only getting started. 

“There was this one day where Numbskull was fighting a battle down a seppie hallway. The boys had managed to take out the main power generator, so the whole base was running on backup power. Now, this base was enormous! Definitely ended up a lot bigger than the Seppies intended it to be. So much so, that the entire base was really struggling to function on backup power. Doors would only half open and then get stuck, and blast doors could easily be pried back open without much effort. Battle was going surprisingly well. Turned out they were trying to empty the base anyway, probably because it got too big and was only good as a diversion anymore, so it was just a skeleton crew there. And Numbskull’s squad was one of the ones assigned to work their way through the hallways and clear out any droids they found.” 

She pauses to glance around the room at their faces to see if they want to hear the story before continuing, “Just his luck, Numbskull managed to find a room chock full of fully functional B1’s. Now, Numbskull liked to wield 2 blasters, one in each hand, like Tech over here.” 

Tech smiles, surprised she was aware since he had clearly not been doing that during today’s escape. 

“Numbskull’s preferred tactic was to plant himself in the middle of the driods and extend his arms in a T-pose so he could take down droids on either side at the same time, or so he claimed.” She demonstrated with her body: holding a pretend blaster in each hand, one outstretched on either side of her, pointing 180 degrees away from each other. “He thought that was the most fun way to take the droids down. After a while it kinda became his signature move.” 

By this point, all the men are engaged in the story, various expressions of amusement on their faces and in their stance and posture, not paying much attention to the medical checkups she and Echo were conducting. Even Omega was listening from Hunter’s lap, and Hunter seemed relieved that she was so entrenched in the story and was getting a little of her mojo back. She’d grown rather quiet since their return to the ship. Meanwhile Hunter conducted a discrete medical scan of his little girl with one hand while the other comfortingly petted her hair. 

“I was working with the Commander in the control room when the call came in. Numbskull’s squad had managed to draw the B1’s into the hallway, and Numbskull planted himself right in the middle of all the droids and pulled his signature move,” She’s laughing a bit as she tells the story. “The men were laughing so hard they could barely call it in. Turns out, Numbskull hadn’t noticed the blast doors closing, he’d been so focused on one blaster, he forgot to look back over his other shoulder at his numb arm too. You know how the blast doors close in a spiral so the last spot to close up is right in the center? Well, by the time he remembered to look at his other hand, his numb hand, his arm was stuck. The blast doors had closed around his wrist. It was a good thing the whole base was only functioning on low power, or it would have just taken his whole hand clean off and he wouldn’t have noticed a thing. In the end, he was fine, just some minor bruising. That was the day his squad knew they’d picked the right name for him.” 

Wrecker howled with laughter, and the rest of the room wasn’t far behind. 

“You should have seen the Commander’s face when the squad finally stopped laughing enough to tell him what had happened and that Numbskull was stuck and in need of an extraction.” 

Echo paused, halfway through a procedure for Crosshair, earning a glare from his patient as he turned towards the woman, “Wait, did you say you were working with the 104th?” 

“Yup!” She confirmed. 

“That was the Wolffepack?!” Echo’s disbelief echoes in the small room. 

“Yup!” she was laughing too. “So you know how Wolffe never smiles, and definitely never laughs?” 

“Yeah…?” Echo’s disbelief has turned to skepticism, but it’s quickly fading, she knows too much about Wolffe for this to be completely made up. 

“That was the closest that man has ever come to a laugh that I have ever witnessed. He could not believe the dumb shit his men had gotten into. He just stood there looking pained and staring into a corner for a second (though I think he was focusing all his effort on not laughing), before snorting in annoyance (or laugh that broke through his composure) and leaving the room. He told us later he had to ‘borrow Master Plo’s saber to get Numbskull out’. The control room was still on a holo-call with them when the second bout of uncontrollable laughter that came through the comms a few minutes later turned out to be the squad’s reaction to the way Wolffe just walked in and stood there, glaring at Numbskull’s arm for a solid minute, muttering something about ‘my circus, my monkeys’ and ‘definitely my idiots’ before he ignited the saber and took the doors outta commission.” 

Wrecker laughed again, loud and proud, and clearly relaxed. 

“All done, Big Guy!” she patted Wrecker’s uninjured shoulder, and he got up and walked to the cockpit. Omega jumped up and went with him, Hunter’s favorite soft blanket wrapped tightly around her shoulders.  

Tech looked around the room. Spitfire had clearly done that to relax more than just Wrecker. His whole family (Omega was right) had clearly enjoyed the story. 

Echo declared Crosshair done, and he stood to leave the room. He’d been so tortured, he wasn’t exactly up for walking on his own yet, and she let him put a hand on her shoulder for balance. She discretely helped him up and passed him off to Hunter who was standing at the ready for him. But before Crosshair let go of her shoulder, he gave it a quick squeeze of thanks, and a barely noticeable nod. He too had appreciated the distraction. 

Echo joins her as they begin a scan of Tech’s injuries. 

Still laughing softly to himself Echo shook his head in disbelief, “I still can’t believe that’s a Wolffepack story,” he snorted, pinching his nose. “Does Rex know this one?” 

“Na. Never found the time to tell him. And somehow I don’t see Wolffe ever wanting to tell him that one either. But I sure hope he learns the story someday!” She had moved to helping Echo patch up Tech. 

Tech notices how easily she and Echo converse, not to mention the indicators of a shared history that seems to go back to Echo’s 501st days. Tech wishes he had something like that to help him figure out what to say to this brilliant Mandalorian woman. Tech lets his mind drift a bit as they continue their tests and scans, realizing this is only the second time in his life he’s felt this way about someone. 

Eye’s still glazed over, he begins to subconsciously turn towards the woman whenever she says something, but hardly reacts at all to anything Echo says. 

“Uhh,” Echo looks over at her, “I think this part will go a lot faster with two hands.” He holds out the next patch Tech will need. 

She smiles and takes it, “You don’t need my help, but since you’d rather I do this, I will.” She laughs, which makes Echo smile back. He always did love the sound of her laughter. 

Echo smirked, glanced between her and Tech, and left the room. 

Tech felt his own logic replaced by a sudden bashfulness, his mind nearly as blurry as his vision, but this time he gets the feeling the haze in his mind is from emotions rather than an unstable body in an environment designed to keep it off kilter. But he realizes her story was meant as more than just a way to calm them all down. She also liked it when her actions and words had many meanings, much like he did. She’d just given him a conversation starter. 

“Thank you,” he muttered, unable to look at her as she finished patching him up. “For calming down the whole… family with a story. You’ve no idea how much they needed that. Wrecker can be quite the handful during medical exams.” 

She laughs and nods, “Oh, I know.” 

It’s not long before they arrive at the medical facility. 

Medics determine that whether or not Tech needs a replacement eye is TBD, he needs to heal a bit first and they need to run a few more tests. So they send him back to his family and the Marauder. 

In the meantime, they are quite overwhelmed removing the chips from the hundreds of clones now roaming the hidden medical facility. To help process them all, Rex volunteers those who have previously had their chips removed and the Mandalorian to aid the processing. 

Naturally, she volunteers to help as much as she can. They assign her to work with Echo to monitor Tech’s state of health, and give her rotations of state of health checks for the other new rescues before and after chip removal, usually during Tech’s more intensive medical checkups with a real doctor. 

This also means she needs to be more familiar with the specifics of Tech’s injuries. Back on the Marauder, she, Tech, and Echo set about constructing more detailed notes about every new mod now adorning Tech. 

“I’m going to need you to take off your shirt for the next part so I can see the mods the medics mentioned on your torso, maybe add some fresh bacta and replace the bandages, you know the drill,” 

Tech obliges without question. It is a logical request, she is only doing her job and intends to help him to the best of her ability as he adjusts to life with his newly modified body. 

However, he finds himself sitting on the hem of his shirt. So, to make it easier, he simply stands up to take it off. 

She turns back around, having just traded out instruments in her hands, doesn’t realize that he stood up to remove his shirt, and nearly faceplants into his bare chest. 

Not that she’s complaining. 

She does everything she can to NOT visibly react beyond simple and expected surprise, but boy is that hard! Tech is ripped. The man has very chiseled muscles. Clearly, Wrecker and Hunter weren’t the only ones hitting the gym frequently. It made sense, they are military men after all. Being in good shape was a logical choice for war. Getting a lot of exercise was a given anyways, and was common amongst the battle-hardened Mandalorians she was used to as well. But somehow, all that had slipped her mind, until Tech took off the tops of his blacks, that is. 

She blushed and hoped her little inhale when she turned around and came face to face with his chest wasn’t audible. She does her best to concentrate on her work, but it’s hard given how attractive and intelligent this man is. 

Wrecker grins at Echo from the doorway. Her reaction wasn’t lost on him. 

Echo takes this as their cue to excuse themselves and return to the others in the cockpit. 

“Oop, sorry! Didn’t realize you stood up!” Is all she says. Fortunately, without his goggles, it wasn’t likely that Tech would notice if her cheeks were heating up. Unless he touched her face, which he had no reason to do, so nothing to worry about, right? 

“Ah, my apologies. You switched out tools more quickly than I anticipated,” Tech tried to look down at the blurry shape he knew was her. 

To verify that the medbay station has not shifted - since it’s not like he can just look at the wheels to see if it is locked in place - Tech turns slightly and leans to place a hand on the medbay station he had been seated at. 

Realizing only too late that she’s still in his personal space, she quickly attempts to shuffle back to a reasonable distance for two new acquaintances, only to find herself dodging his shoulder as he turns to place a hand on the pad. 

Tech freezes when his shoulder brushes past soft hair. He can hear her shuffling around quite close. “Oh, forgive me, I should have warned you I needed to locate my seat, so that you knew not to start yet. Now that I am once again seated, you may begin.” 

How sweet of him to assume she was simply eager to continue on with the state of health check. Of course that’s all it was. She tried to convince herself she had not just gotten distracted by his abs. 

Thankfully, Echo and Wrecker had returned to the cockpit with everyone else, so no one was there to witness the full extent of her embarrassment. As such, there’s nothing much that can be done except to plow on though the medical exams, so that’s what she does. 

Her hands are, once again, cold. So, she rubs them together in an attempt to warm them up before she begins. 

“I take it your extremities are usually cold?” Tech inquires. 

“Yeah, sorry. Not so great when I’m acting as a medic instead of a warrior.” Tech notes that this is the first time her voice has sounded a little shy. 

Following the sounds of her, he reaches out for her hands, and takes them in his. 

His touch is gentle, soft. Surprised that he reached for her hand at all, she is shocked into silence. 

“That hardly qualifies as cold. You may begin, if you are ready,” Tech states. 

“You know it will feel colder on the skin that is usually hidden beneath your blacks and your armor,” she points out, partially on autopilot, still trying to process the face that Tech just took her hands in his and that he just gave her permission to touch him. 

“Yes. I am prepared,” Tech assures her. 

“Alright, here goes,” she shrugs off her feelings as best as she can. 

Gentle fingers examine the lines between machine and man, searching for bruises and tender spots in the hopes that the internal damage is minimal and was well patched up. 

Tech is amazed by how gentle this woman’s touch is. There are moments when he is barely even aware that her fingers still rest on him. 

And he quite likes having her hands on his chest and arms. He’s never enjoyed touch so much, nor had he ever liked touch directly on his skin so much before. In fact, he usually didn’t like it. He’d been trained to wear blacks and gloves whenever he did anything - building things, warfare, even when typing. He didn’t like things on his skin. His blacks provided a welcome barrier between him and the strange textures of the world around him. 

Hunter had often placed a hand on his shoulder, and he’d noticed Captain Rex did the same. Even during medical assessments, the Kaminoans only touched the clones if it was absolutely necessary. Clone medics were a different story, many used touch to reassure stressed and pained brothers, but Echo, the medic of the 99th, knew Tech didn’t like touch. 

Wrecker’s touch often annoyed him though. Wrecker often forgot how strong he was, and roughhousing wasn’t uncommon around him. Tech didn’t like it when Wrecker would shove his shoulder, but Wrecker meant well, so Tech didn’t say anything about it anymore. 

But then she had touched him. And it was like she had known he was repulsed by, and unfamiliar with touch, so she kept her touches as light and barely-there as possible. As she works on a panel on his shoulder, her palm rests on his pec. 

Tech quietly revels in it, resisting the urge to place his hand upon hers and hold it there flat against his chest for a moment. Was this why Wrecker and Hunter liked touch? No, it couldn’t be. Her touch was not like any other being Tech had ever come into contact with, pun intended. She was special, but he barely knew anything about her. He could barely even see her… and though physical attraction had never been important to Tech before, he found himself aching just to know her face. It hadn’t helped that Echo had made a point to describe her as cute when he introduced her to Crosshair. He wondered what Echo considered cute… if only he could see, then he might understand the comment. 

Fixated on his ability to see, or rather lack thereof, Tech’s mind begins to spiral. He’s so used to being able to see the world around him, and so much of what he does depends on it, a few hours of blindness felt like an eternity. 

Much of what Tech did depended on his ability to see, but now he’s going to have to learn alternatives just to live. 

He can get a walking stick, or a guide massiff, though it’s not likely Hunter will allow the latter. They don’t need one more mouth to feed. Normally, he would just build a robotic one, but he can’t safely construct anything if he can’t see what he is doing. Gonky could help a bit as a proxy guide-massif, but there is a lot he can’t do, and he’s slow, Tech needed fast. 

Speaking of speed, would he ever be able to run again? It’s hard to move quickly if you aren’t aware of your environment. He wouldn’t be much help on missions if he can’t move quickly… and he definitely wouldn’t be able to fight with just his hearing to rely on. 

Now Tech wished he had the force. He’d heard tell of Jedi who learned to see through the force, but that wasn’t in the cards for a mere clone. The Kaminoans seemed certain that the ability to wield the force could not be cloned, and as far as Tech was aware there was no reason NOT to trust their knowledge there. After all, cloning was their expertise. 

As she continues with the health check, she notices his demeanor falling again - he’s so used to being able to see the world around him. 

In an effort to both cheer him up and bring in their other resident expert in modifications to living beings, she calls Echo back into the room. As it stands, they do have a lot of similar mods now. She asks Echo a few questions about various attachments now adorning Tech as they run diagnostics and make sure everything is interfacing with Tech’s own body in ways that won’t do more damage than good. 

As they work, they place Tech’s fingers on each mod so he can “see” it, warning him of buttons and asking questions about what he can control. 

“Echo, does this data port look familiar to you?” She is working on a mod behind Tech’s ear at the base of his skull. 

Tech lifts his hand from his lap “Show me.” 

She obliges and gently places his fingers on the port. Meanwhile her fingers drift off the metal and settle ever so gently on Tech’s own skin, remaining near the piece she is working on. 

Tech twitches. 

She quickly pulls her hand away. “Sorry, I know my hands got cold again.” 

“It is quite alright, I was simply not expecting it,” Tech just hopes she misses the blush on his cheeks. He’s doing everything he can to keep his heart rate down too. He’d quite enjoyed her touch actually. Gentle and soft, despite the well-calloused fingers from years of working on wiring and machinery and armor. 

But it wasn’t just that. Tech was learning all sorts of things about the human body he had never even considered before today. One of which, is that there seems to be an erogenous zone just beneath the ear. Right where her fingers had so gently brushed. The softness of her touch had sent a spark through his veins and a shiver down his spine. Truth be told, that was why Tech had flinched, not the temperature of her hands. But he needed more data, not to mention time, in order to prove whether it was simply the long-lasting effect of whatever drugs Hemlock had used on Tech, before he even came close to admitting the real reason why to anyone. 

Unbenounced to Tech, Echo had noticed. Echo knew knew what it looked like when Tech flinched when he was startled. And the way Tech has straightened up instead of shifting away like he usually did looked a hell of a lot more like an aroused shiver to him. So a mind like Tech’s could be aroused after all. But Echo also needed solid proof before he’d believe it. And he was standing next to a very attractive woman. Afterall, the man was a Domino. So, naturally, there was one way to get more information quickly. He would flirt with her as the conversation continued, and watch Tech’s reaction. 

“I wish I could see the port,” Tech’s voice is quiet, “I cannot quite tell what it is with just touch.” 

“Yeah, it’s quite a small port and it’s recessed into the panel a bit.” Echo answers, no hint of mischief in his tone. Fives and Rex hadn’t nicknamed him ‘silver tongue’ for nothing. 

“Hmm, I swear I’ve seen a cable with that end on it around here somewhere…” Her thought trails off as she looks around. “Any chance you remember where we should look to find a plethora of cables we could try, Tech?” 

“If I could see my surroundings, I could probably think of the many places I keep assorted cables, but I do not know how things have been reorganized or shifted around since I was last on the ship…” Tech’s voice trails off with a sigh. 

The room falls quiet for a moment. Tech can hear them rummaging around. He never thought losing the ability to see would affect him so much. In fact, he never really thought about losing his sight at all. His mind was not made to process emotions well, in point of fact it was made with the intent of avoiding the cumbersome ordeal of emotions so that logic would drive him in stressful situations. But even the Kaminoans couldn’t remove all the human pieces, so Tech still had emotions… he slouched forward, resting his elbows on his knees and hung his head. 

Just a glimpse would be all he would need. He hadn’t realized just how dependent on sight his life was. No matter what happened, whether they were able to get him a prosthetic eye, like Wreckers, or whether they could not, he would make a point of learning how to cope in a world where he could not see, just in case. But for now, he was living in a world of VERY blurry shapes. He sighed heavily. 

“I know,” her voice piped up from right beside Tech. He hadn’t realized she was still right next to him. He turned towards her, though it wasn’t like he could SEE her. He suppressed another sigh. And felt a light touch rest on his shoulder where a soft, very familiar material was draped over his arm; his blacks. He reached up for his shirt and she placed it in his hand. 

“I know. It’s hard to lose a sense that you had previously depended on so much. We will find a way to get some of your sight back. We can also find other ways so you don’t have to feel so dependent on seeing the world around you, if that would help?” 

Tech nodded, “Thank you,” he replied quietly, placing a hand over hers on his shoulder. “And, for the record, your hands are not that cold.” 

“Oh,” her voice took on a teasing tone, “so they are a little cold, huh?” She nudged him with the hint of a laugh in the air between them. 

He let out a little chuckle too. Tech found himself unknowingly leaning into her touch a bit. He couldn’t see, but he could feel - touch as well as emotions. He’d learned that much from his interactions today. 

But the happiness on his features quickly faded, the weight of his current predicament too great to allow simple distractions to last for long. 

“Maybe you don’t need to see it or touch it to figure this out. What do you feel?” Her voice dragged his wandering mind back to the real world. 

“WhAt?” Tech’s heart raced. Had she already figured out he liked her touch? Had he been that obvious? Internally, Tech went into panic mode. Externally, he did his best to keep his cool, like he always did. 

“Can you access the port and tell us what kind of data it is programmed to receive?” She asked. 

“Ah, excellent idea,” he replied, cool and nonchalant. Of course that was what she had meant, Tech’s panic subsided. He put his shirt back on and took a moment to search for the device driver in his operating system. 

“It seems to be set up to take in all media types: text files, binary files, audio and video files, a wide variety of map files, anything a typical datapad can handle.” 

“WAIT!” Her voice was laced with a revelation. 

Tech jumped at the excitement in her voice, and he could hear Echo stop his rummaging. He had likely stopped to turn and look at her. 

“What is it, Gorgeous?” A teasing smirk graced Echo’s features as he looks at her, watching Tech in his peripheral vision, knowing full well Tech can’t see the look on his face, “another useful factoid on the tip of your tongue?” 

She laughed. Tech wished he could tell if she had also smiled at Echo or not. She likely had. It was a fairly common reaction when someone was flir—Wait! Was Echo flirting with her? Tech found himself getting angry. Illogical, he barely knew her! But he did like her touch, as well as her demeanor, not to mention her wit! She was kind, gentle, and had so far proven to be his equal in mind. She had, as Hunter described it, been the one to sift through Tech’s notes and make sense of them, and figured out he was still alive. He felt like he owed her his life as much as he owed it to his brothers. 

And yet the way Echo had called her ‘gorgeous’, and the ease with which they communicated in half-formed sentences while searching the room, as well as the shared experiences implied by the story earlier, would suggest they had known each other for quite a while. 

We’re they partners? And if so, in what sense of the word? Had he finally found his equal in mind, the kind of person he’d finally allowed himself to dream of having as a partner, only to discover that her heart had already been given away to someone else? Tech desperately hoped that was not the case. Though, if it was, Echo was a lucky man indeed. 

Tech was lost in his thoughts, his mind racing away in a split second, missing that he had not hidden the pinch of his brow when Echo called her ‘Gorgeous’. Echo took it to mean that Tech was upset that he couldn’t even see her face. 

“Video files! Tech! You brilliant man! You already solved it!” She exclaimed. 

“Pardon?” Tech was confused. He wasn’t holding anything. He hadn’t been fiddling with anything had he? 

“Where are the goggles?” He could hear her excitedly shuffling around him. 

“Goggles won't do much, I’d need ey—“ he stopped, realizing exactly where she was going with this. “My recording device! Do you think you could make it into a prosthetic eye? I could provide instructions, if need be.” 

“First, let’s just see if this is gonna work. Ah HA! Here they are! Echo, do you remember where we put the cable for them?” 

“Yeah. That I kept safe. It’s over here,” Echo’s footsteps walked past Tech, towards Echo’s special spot where he kept his important belongings. So that much had stayed constant during Tech’s leave of absence. 

“Okay,” she started, again at Tech’s side. “I repaired your recording device, and Echo made sure there’s no trace of the Empire’s meddling left on it. So, in theory, all we have to do is plug it in. Tell me if something doesn’t feel right, and we will unplug immediately and start a diagnostic. Okay?” 

“Excellent,” Tech replied. “However, if anything goes wrong, I suggest you have a mild sedative on hand to knock me out, and a set of cuffs ready just in case the Empire tries to take my mind back.” 

She sighed, Tech felt a new touch on his shoulder. Definitely her touch, but not like a touch he’d felt before. Echo could be heard retrieving the necessary preparations in the background, while Tech sorted out this new feeling. Then her hair brushed his bicep. She was resting her forehead on his shoulder! She laughed quietly. 

“You really do think of everything don’t you?” She’d said it quietly, so quietly it was likely that Echo couldn't hear exactly what she had said. 

“It is wise to be prepared,” Tech could feel his finger rising to accentuate his point, automatically. 

“Yes, but I seriously hope we don’t have to use them,” she muttered quietly, to him alone.  

“As do I,” He agreed. 

Echo returned with the cable and Tech’s suggested in-case-of’s. 

Tech sat there, waiting. Nervousness painting his features. He might be able to see again, momentarily! And if he did, would it be enough to make him useful again until he could teach himself alternative methods? Would it be enough to allow him to continue to participate in their chaotic lifestyle? Questions danced around his mind. But he took a deep breath and refocused himself on the here and now, on the senses he could still use. 

He could tell that she now stood side-by-side with Echo. Echo in front of Tech, while she returned to her post at Tech’s side. He tilted his head to give her better access to the data port there. 

“Let me take the remaining fragments out of the lenses. Maker, why didn’t we do that ages ago? Why did we let this sit here with shards of transparisteel in it?” She muttered. 

Tech noted that she seemed nervous too, though he was not sure why. He could hear the pieces entering the waste receptacle as she removed them one by one. Tech waited patiently, doing his best not to tap his foot. He needed to stim, but he didn’t want it to come across as impatience. 

“It’s okay if you need to stim, Tech,” she must have noticed what he was doing. “I understand this is a big moment, if you need to move to process it, don’t stop on my account.” 

Tech let a small smile cross his features, as he let out a sigh he didn’t know he was holding. “Thank you,” he said to the floor. He took a deep breath to let his nerves around her out - it was actually sort of helpful that he couldn't see her yet, it became significantly easier to let go when he was only vaguely aware of her presence - and allowed his foot to resume its rhythmic tapping. 

“Alright, you ready?” She asked. 

Tech nodded. “Ready when you are.”

“I’m going to put your goggles on you first, over the bandages.They’re gonna be very loose though, we don’t need it creating more injuries while these heal. You adjust them as needed so it feels comfortable, then when you’re ready, I’ll plug it in. I don’t know how it’s going to interface with your operating system, but I bet Echo can give you some tips on that if he hasn’t already. He’s standing right in front of you so he will be the first thing you see. Okay?” 

“Understood.” Tech held as still as he could, his anticipation palpable. 

“Here goes. Goggles going on…” 

He felt the band slip over his head, and reached up to adjust it as she had suggested. His fingers brushed over hers. He felt that new spark again, racing from the point of contact between their hands to his core. But right now he was too excited to see again. He pushed the spark to the side, hoping he would have time to focus on that later. 

“Ready to receive data,” he told her, closing his one good eye to avoid the juxtaposition of one blurry and one clear image confusing his brain. 

“Plugging in… there.” 

She and Echo watched the red light on the side of Tech’s goggles blink to life, and then go a steady red. 

Tech remained still for a moment. 

She and Echo exchanged hopeful glances. 

Then, Tech’s brows rose and his chin lifted, pointing the camera up, towards Echo’s face. 

“Hello, Echo,” Tech chirped, relieved to have some sight to work with again. Though this new perspective - from the side of his face - would take some getting used to. 

For the first time in a while, Echo smiled. “Hello Tech! Good to have you back, ol’ buddy!” 

Tech looked slowly down at his lap, and raised his hands, getting adjusted to the side-shifted perspective. 

Next to Tech, she giggled. “Oh you brilliant mind, you!” And she pressed a quick kiss to Tech’s temple. 

As heat rose to the surface of Tech’s cheeks, he was suddenly struck by the fact that he still hadn’t seen her face. He didn’t know why that made him nervous though. 

Echo laughed. Her surprise kiss to Tech had caught even him off guard. 

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t even think about it, I just did it. Was that okay? I’m sorry if I overstepped!” She babbled. 

Tech opened his mouth to answer, but found his mind vacant of any coherent sentences. It was all he could do to try to refocus on his surroundings to ground himself once again. 

So he focused on Echo, who was still standing in front of him. It had been a while since Tech had seen Echo laugh like this. And their reactions would clearly indicate that Echo and Spitfire were clearly not ‘together’ as his brothers would say. But the nerves quickly took over Tech’s mind again as he realized she had withdrawn her touch from him while she waited for his answer. He did his best to reacquire his ability to speak. 

“It is quite alright. I do not mind,” Tech replied. Odds were, he was not hiding the warmth in his face now. He had completely lost control of it. Oh well, at least it was appropriate in such a situation. And it gave him an excuse to look at her. 

Slowly, so that his new perspective wouldn’t make his stomach spin like his head currently was from her kiss, he turned to look at her, hoping his naturally emotionless exterior would swoop in and save him from further embarrassment. 

But it seemed his subconscious wanted to make him suffer today. It took extra effort to hide his reaction. Echo was right. She was gorgeous. Tech had known she was smart, at least as intelligent as he was if he had to wager a guess. He was well aware that he liked the gentleness of her touch. And he had known that she had a pretty voice, and an even prettier laugh. But she was also very physically attractive. Especially with the flustered expression currently adorning her face as she bit her lip and looked nervously at him. 

Once again, Tech didn’t have words, he just looked at her. He didn’t know what he expected, all he knew was that her natural beauty threw him off guard. 

Beside them, Echo was trying to contain his laughter; though admittedly, he wasn’t trying that hard. 

“Brother, you’re staring,” Echo chortled, shaking Tech’s shoulder to snap him out of it. 

Tech started and snapped his gaze back to Echo. Too fast. He could feel the nausea rising in his gut. He tried to close his eyes and then remembered his real eye was closed and this new ‘eye’ didn’t have eyelids. He got the feeling his face was likely draining of color. 

“You okay?” Concern laced her voice. 

“Unplug,” Tech managed, swallowing hard, “please.” 

She hurriedly unplugged the device. “What’s up, everything okay?” 

Tech sat still and breathed for a moment. Well, all things considered, it does make sense that a new point of view would be disorienting. However, since they had decided so quickly to try this, it was not an outcome he had yet thought through. 

One more swallow and a long deep breath and he was ready to speak again. “Yes. Thank you for unplugging quickly. The point of view of my recording device is a little too far to one side. I moved too quickly, and became disoriented and slightly nauseous.” 

Next to Tech, Echo was not even bothering to hold in his laughter anymore. 

Hunter appeared in the doorway, the laughter having drawn his attention from the cockpit, as Echo piped up, “Of all the things I thought might happen when we got out your goggles, ‘Tech getting distracted by a beautiful woman, and then allowing his own jumpiness to make himself sick’ was certainly not on the list.” He laughed harder, “I can’t wait to tell Rex this story.” Now Hunter was laughing too. 

Tech’s cheeks blazed with heat. 

“Are you sure it wasn’t the fact that I’m NOT actually attractive that made him sick, Echo?” 

The room fell silent. 

“WHAT!” Hunter and Echo’s voices suddenly filled the ship’s hold, reverberating off the durasteel walls. 

“Why would you think that?” Hunter asked. 

“Don’t coddle me Hunter, I’m used to it.” 

Hunter and Echo sat there fishing for words like fish out of water. Their mouths opened and closed, but no sound came out. 

Tech could hear only silence in answer. That was not okay. Why weren’t his brother’s saying something? No matter, Tech would do his best to remedy the issue. 

“Then allow me to put your concerns to rest,” Tech butted in, “For I AM certain that it was my startled reaction to Echo bringing me out of my reverie. I was indeed distracted by your beauty. I have rarely ever encountered an individual of your caliber. I must admit, while the first thing I noticed about you was your voice, it was your mind that truly caught my attention. But now that I have seen your face, I can confirm that you are indeed quite a stunning woman as well.” 

She spluttered for a moment, struggling to find words of any sort. “I… well… umm……… thank you, Tech. That’s… that’s very sweet of you.” She rested her hand on his shoulder again, and this time Tech happily reached up and placed his over hers. 

“He’s right, you know. I don’t call just anyone Gorgeous,” Echo flirted. Tech could hear Echo moving towards her, and desperately wished he could see what they were doing. But wait, that could work! Though he didn’t quite know why he was so desperate to keep Echo from flirting with her - was this jealousy? All he knew was that he was going to act on it regardless. 

“Will you, um,” Tech pointed to the side of his head. “I would like to see the rest of my brothers now,” he finished while she reconnected the cord. “We will have to find ways to do this differently in the future, but for now, at least I am not totally in the dark.” 

Off to the side now, Echo chuckled quietly to himself. So he had been proven right. Tech was already quite taken with her. 

“I’ll go get the others then,” Echo volunteered to give them a moment to themselves, already heading towards the cockpit. 

Tech sat still for a moment, and she watched the light blink and go steady again. And then Tech’s hand reached to the side, towards her. She knew he could not see her where she was standing, but it surprised her when he found her hand and gently pulled her in front of him, so he could look up at her again. 

“Yes.” Tech said, eyes wide. “You are indeed quite attractive, My Dear. Now, if only I could quantify that for you to prove it.” He smirked, “perhaps I can, though it will take time and deliberation to develop a good system. You are not something that can be taken lightly.” 

The surprise on her face pleased him. But his emotions were becoming very confusing for his analytical mind. He felt a rush at having so successfully complimented her on his first try. But he also felt nervous that he wouldn’t be able to best that compliment. And he felt ‘screwed’ as Wrecker would describe it… there was no way to avoid falling for this woman. But somehow, knowing that he was fated to fall for her was… thrilling? Emotions were complicated… and not at all logical… and so rarely ever came one at a time anymore. but alas, those were issues for later, he reminded himself again. Right now, he wanted to see his brothers, and sister! 

“My Dear,” he practically purred, he could see Hunter raising his eyebrows at him in the doorway behind her, “Would you help me to stand up slowly so that I can look my brothers in the eye when I greet them?” 

“You might want to wait on that one,” Hunter was now leaning against the wall just outside the main room, looking over his shoulder towards the copilot's seat as a blur of blonde dashed out ahead of Wrecker, Echo, and Crosshair. 

The woman stepped aside as the blonde dart zipped in for a hug. 

“Tech! I still can’t believe you’re alive!” Her voice was muffled as she refused to raise her head from his chest to speak. “Echo said you can sorta see now?” She uncurled herself from his chest and backed up so she could see his face. “Ooooh! Are you using the recording device on your goggles as your new eyes?” She asked. She seemed impressed. 

“Indeed. Good observation, Omega.” 

“COOL!” 

Tech couldn’t help but smile. Behind her, Hunter’s grin was the biggest of them all. Though Wrecker’s teary one might surpass that quickly. 

“Tech!” Wrecker blubbered from over Omega’s shoulder, “I’m sorry I couldn’t get you outta the railcar fast enough. If I had, maybe you wouldn't be dealing with this now.” 

“Wrecker, there was nothing you could have done. But it does not matter. I am here now, and we are finding solutions, just like we always do.” Tech’s voice was matter of fact, as always, but in a way meant to reassure Wrecker. 

Wrecker’s tears subsided a bit, and he tilted his head to the side, realizing he was standing directly in front of Tech, but Tech’s new eye was off to one side. By tilting his head, he could more directly look his brother in the ‘eye’ so to speak. “Is it… like normal… or is it… offset?” He asked. 

His observation impressed Tech. 

“It is offset. So much so, that if I move too much or too quickly it will make me feel nauseated.” Tech explained. 

“So, no sudden movements?” Wrecker tucked his arms in, resisting the urge to hug his brother. 

“Correct.” 

“That’s why you were laughing earlier, right?” Hunter asked Echo. 

“Yeah,” Echo answered, taking the opportunity to fill Wrecker in, “he made himself woozy when I startled him because he got distracted by her.” Echo used his thumb to gesture at Spitfire. 

Wrecker smiled, and had been about to further Tech’s embarrassment when Crosshair stepped forward, and for a moment the room fell silent. 

“It does not look like they treated you well, Crosshair.” Tech observed. 

“You could say that,” Crosshair drawled.  

“I wish there was more I could have done to prevent that,” Tech spoke up again. “I was connected to the main system at the base, but it seems Hemlock did his research well, and learned what not to do from our mission to break Echo out of the Techno Union’s control. I suspect Spitfire already told you as much… In short, the effect on my end was that I could see you two, but I could do nothing to protect you.” 

Crosshair shrugged and looked away. He was surprised that Tech still wanted to protect him. After they all kept their blasters trained on him while he rescued Omega from the sinking wreckage on Kamino, he had thought he’d lost their trust forever. 

“However, I could access your record,” that earned a side eye from Crosshair as Tech continued. “I am sorry about Mayday. Though I am proud he was our brother too. I would have acted much the same as you, had I been there in your stead.” 

Crosshair retreated into himself, jaw clenched, but nodded subtly. 

The other’s exchanged glances, that name was new to them. Omega opened her mouth, questions on the tip of her tongue, but Hunter shook his head, and she fell silent, understanding that that meant that Crosshair was clearly not ready to talk about it. 

“Have you received the medical attention you need since returning to the ship?” Tech inquired. 

Crosshair nodded, doing his best not to show how grateful he was that Tech had diverted the topic at hand, but Tech’s observational nature noticed every detail. 

“Echo made me his nurse!” Wrecker chimed in. “Don’t feel bad waking me up for anything Cross, I’ve got ya!” 

Tech let a half smile sit on his lips. He was back home with his brothers and sister again. Everything was going to be okay. And there was a highly intelligent, highly attractive woman, whom he was willing to believe was flirting with him, if her sudden kiss to his temple earlier was anything to go off of.

Please don’t steal my work! I pour my heart into these so if you like it please reblog to share instead of reposting it!

taglist: @bambambunny @amorfista @originalcollectionartistry (I hope I got everyone, and if I messed up and added someone who wasn't supposed to be on the taglist, dm me and I'll fix it!)

#EnigmaTech #zenith writes #tbb tech x reader #tech tbb x reader #tech lives au

[simplylove101]

FANFIC TAGGING GAME

I got tagged by my lovely bestie @backtothestart02. Thanks for thinking of me, hun. <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? - 11 (and at least 4 on ff.net, though I had a few I deleted as well, including my longest story on there out of embarrassment lol)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

168, 530 words

3. What fandoms do you write for?

On Ao3, it was strictly Gertchase from Runaways (Marvel) but I've also written for Gossip Girl & Harry Potter as well.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Most of them are my earlier stuff but there's one that was more recent that people seemed to like my take on a scene. 1. A Place Isn't Home - it's my baby, my first dip into writing fic in YEARS & for a ship that I'd only just gotten into. I put a lot prep & care into it beforehand so I'll always be proud of it considering it's centered around one trope - sharing a bed. lol 2. Lost Moments - doesn't surprise me now since there were lots of missed opportunities for good Gertchase content in S2 so I just had to do a missing moments fic for them 3. Over & Over Again - inspired by the Runaways promo team releasing the first few minutes of S3 before the season dropped & gave me the opportunity to write in Chase's pov which I love since it's easy for me. 4. Maybe I'm Falling - based on the teased bed talk with Gertchase before S2 dropped (which is still a cute scene) but I kinda prefer my version lol And 5. It's Your Call - my two different takes on Gertchase's S2 kiss scene written right after the trailer had been released. And guess what? Neither one was at all like what we got. lmao

5. Do you respond to comments?

Most of the time. Considering kudos are usually the only way I know if people are liking a fic by me, getting any comments on one is kinda a big deal to me cuz I love getting them. lmao

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Angstiest ending... Well, even when I write angst, there's generally some kinda hope since I like to write angst with a purpose even if it cuts hard. But since you were my home but now i'm (so) lost is about Future Chase reflecting on Gert's death & deciding to save her, I guess that's the automatic answer. But also, Lost Moments technically since it ends with Gert deciding to get over Chase after his betrayal (I was proud of that chapter tbh)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Ummm, basically the majority of them are happy like I said. lol Maybe I'm Falling is the purest tho since the whole thing is fluffy. hell was the journey but it brought me heaven was pretty cute too imo.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not on Ao3 since like I said, I hardly get comments as it is. But on ff.net... Trust me, I got some flames. It wasn't pretty. lol

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Before I wrote love doesn't know what distance is, the answer would have been a hard no. Mostly because I would always chicken out before I even got started. lol Somehow I convinced myself to get it a proper try on that fic and I didn't hate it??? Do I think I'm the best at it? Still no. But I'm not as scared now. It's pretty basic but at least I did it. lol

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Not with my Gertchase fics cuz I suck at that kinda thing but during my Harry Potter days I used to experiment with AU ideas that never went too far before I deleted them. I remember I was gonna use a Real World (yes, the reality show lol) concept for a Harry/Ginny fic that never made it passed Chap 1. lmao

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of...

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

No.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Oh, this is so hard these days because younger me would always say Chuck/Blair and they are still up there.... I think Cole/Cassie from 12 Monkeys might be my most epic ship tho, despite me never having written for them before (I wouldn't know where to start tbh) And my heart will always belong to Ron/Hermione too. I love Gertchase but at the end of the day they might actually be more of a top 10 ship for me, I just am able to be inspired to write for them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

The ultimate WIP for Gertchase for me is a post-canon fic that initially was gonna be just a simple proposal but then I wanted to include other stuff like Gert getting pregnant, etc. so it could be a mini fic. But I've just never written it because of lost inspiration (the real life drama of the cast did kinda taint the show a bit at one point but also, the fandom's pretty dead too) That said, never say never. Maybe one day I'll do it. There's scenes I had written for it that I still have somewhere so it's possible. We'll see. lol

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue. lol I know it is because that's how I start writing my fics. I tend to write scenes out like a script first because it's how I'm able to start visualizing the rest of it. Rarely does a fic of mine not start with a quote or at least a train thought by a character. I also like to think that when I do write angst I'm not afraid to go for the jugular so to speak because it's meant to hurt BUT I do always want it to have a purpose and move the story along. Also, apparently when I'm really feeling a chapter I'm not afraid to have a big word count. I can't help it. lol

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

The actual writing process. lol It doesn't always come naturally to me. I don't usually write anything all in one go unless I'm truly feeling it. Also, descriptive stuff. There's a reason why dialogue is my strength. It's writing around all that I struggle with a lot.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

Um, it's intimidating. lol I did consider doing it a few times because Gert is fluent in Spanish & she was supposed to tutor Chase for it so I always thought it would be fun to tease that in a fic or two but never did. I don't want to get the translation wrong.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter. Because I was obsessed with Ron/Hermione. And yet if you looked at my old ff.net account you'd assume it was Harry/Ginny because I deleted all my RHr related fics. lol

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Omg, the hardest question. lol Most of them are all my bbs for different reasons. I do think my mini The College Woes trilogy is some of my strongest work to date tho because all of that is pure me going for it since it's all post-canon. I did research and had fun with the process.

Anyway, I don't really have anyone to tag myself because I don't know who follows me and wants to answer these questions but hey, if you write fic and see this, consider yourself tagged! Also, even tho I haven't written in a while & might never again in the foreseeable future, if you like Gertchase, my A03 account is When_the_Day_Met_Night21 :)

#i enjoyed this #fanfiction #fic tagging game

[msmargaretmurry]

I hated HIM soo much!! something about the way the authors wrote gay and bi people rubbed me the wrong way and I could never get over it. But I will say I loved heated rivalry (the game changers book) with my whole heart, even though the other books in the series were not for me. The main couple never reminded me of sid/ovi mainly because it’s impossible for me to visualize sidney crosby in any kind of sexual scenario :/

✨🌟💕💖HIM haters unite!!!💖💕🌟✨

scream, sorry to sidney crosby but this is so funny to me. i support you. you're so valid.

i told someone else that when i answered this ask that i'd elaborate a little on why HIM didn't work for me, but i'm going to put that stuff under a cut in case there are secret HIM fans on here who are getting really tired of me dragging a book they like, lmao.

ok so it has been a while since i read it so i might not remember all the details, but here were my biggest turn-offs for that book. some of these are things i would let slide if other parts of the book were better. like, i WILL let clunky writing slide if the story/characters are really good (but if the story/characters are also bad i just get more pissy about it the more i read). some of these though... eesh.

the writing. sorry, the writing was not very good!! if i am reading a book and i can't stop line-editing in my head as i go, the story is gonna have to do some really heavy lifting to win me over. the worst part for me was how there were a whole bunch of instances where i would read a sentence and go "hm, that's a weird word choice" because the word choices were just like... slightly off of what they were probably supposed to mean? like someone had pulled then from a thesaurus without actually understanding the nuance in meaning between the synonyms. it was really distracting.

the pacing/worldbuilding. this book constantly did the thing where it introduced a person, place, or concept the moment it became important instead of building those things into the story along the way so that when they became important it didn't feel like it was being made up on the spot. once again, really distracting!

the protagonists. the first few chapters made an attempt at developing distinct voices for the two protagonists but that was all out the window by like a quarter of the way through. they had minor personality differences but other than that were near-identical cringeworthy sports bro stereotypes.

the way every woman was treated in the story???? gross

the way bisexuality was treated in the story?????? GROSS

the HOCKEY. this book actually lulled me into a sense of false security because the first few chapters did a decent job with the frozen four, but after that? absolute nonsense. the main characters are college prospects the summer before they go pro and the book had NO grasp of how that process looks or works. like for example one of them is a goalie and his big existential crisis is "i don't know if going pro will be worth it if i'm not immediately the starting goalie for the nhl team i sign with." WELL BUDDY YOU'RE NOT GONNA BE. BECAUSE OF HOW DEVELOPMENT WORKS. WHICH YOU AS A HOCKEY PLAYER AT THIS LEVEL WOULD DEFINITELY KNOW ABOUT. HOPE THIS HELPS. just, no idea how the player-agent relationship works, no idea how the agent-team relationship works, no idea how the prospect-team relationship works.

the sex scenes read like the author(s) learned everything they knew about gay sex from reading mediocre fanfiction published in 2012

(!!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!) the part at the end when whats his face comes out to his nhl team's pr guy and the pr guy is like "no problem buddy we actually already knew because we cyber-stalk all of our prospects! we actually drafted you because we'd been getting some heat for letting all our players of color go and thought a gay player would show we value diversity! so when you wanna come out publicly we already have the press release done!" and whats his face is like huh kinda weird but cool ok! ABSOLUTELY B O N K E R S. not that i wouldn't put it past an nhl team to be like that but oh my god don't act like it's cool and normal instead of total nightmare fuel??

okay. sorry. i'm done now. i buddy-read this book with a friend and she couldn't even finish it because she also hated it. i know a lot of people liked this book according to goodreads, and obviously people are allowed to like things that are not to my taste but lordy. what a bad time for me personally!!!

#ask #hockey for ts #i try not to be this much of a hater on main usually but we can blame the painkillers #also i don't think the title is actually supposed to be stylized in all caps as HIM but it's such a silly title i can't help myself

[ennyxythegalaxyfreak]

DLC TALK HERE!! No spoilers till under the cut tho.

SO!!!

While I said that the new chapter of the fic is FINALLY coming this week(or veery early next week) after having to write it, scrapping parts and doing a bit of a rework and a rewrite as well...

What I really wanna say is. I had the fortune of being able to play the DLC myself right on release instead of watching a letsplay as my first impression, which would be a first when it comes to FNAF! YAY!!

I just finished playing through it finally(still missing the tird ending tho), and my mind is a scramble trying to make sense and assemble puzzle pieces on a sleepy brain. Without going into detail, I feel like it neither confirmed NOR denied any of my personal fears on it and it just leaves me in a picky spot of observations, assessments, ideas, hypothetical possibilities of explanations that could go either here or there...

In other words, I enjoyed it, I had a lot of fun despite all my reservations, but story-wise(and as a person not the fondest of book lore or a couple fan theories) I'm in not even sure how to sort my feelings appropriately xD

In any case thankfully it didn't make me change my opinion on lil Gregs to be quite frank, tho he does have me thinking him over more now.

Now a lil more detail under the cut, with SPOILERS this time!!! Still not too much tho.

First, Eclipse had me FREAKING jfnjngrde I did NOT expect to see him there, that caught me SO off-guard.

Second, the V.A.N.N.I. thing still has me curious, but damn i loved that visually tho. Happy to see a Helpy in some shape way or form. With an "i" instead of "y" lol

Then there's Roxy. Though she's not my fave, I still love her to bits, so I was SO VERY HAPPY to see the way she was treated in the DLC. The bond with Cassie was just so qwq

Then oh god, the headless Freddy thing... At first I was abt to get sad abt it. Then I was like, what he doin in Fazer Blast if this is the Burntrap ending. And then I read the word "prototype" on his foot and was like, ooooh. Okay xD

I do wonder how our good old Fred is doing tho, hope he's fine, since we didn't actually see a hint of him in the game. And on the same note as that is Vanessa of course.

Okay next is the whole thing with the comic panels. Not rly a fan of basically saying all the other endings except one are less of an alternative timeline type of thing and more of, well, fiction, kinda as a much smaller extension of my pet peeve of "it was all a dream/fiction/whatever" but oh well. Don't think it's gonna stop anyone tho, least of all me.

Curious about the one that had two Gregory's in it(I know it's one of the ending panels but like, interesting choice of a panel there xD) but I suppose it could be a bit of a thing hinting to the fact that there ARE kinda two, "Gregory" guiding us being a sham

The whole thing with Gregory supposedly being stuck or trapped reeked of suspicious way before any of the Mimic stuff became known to me, since way back when I first saw the poster. Him guiding Cassie to Roxy Raceway in the game I was guarded on it the whole game, even just the littlest things like a weird and unnatural-sounding tone on a word or two and the everything... Doesn't take a genius is what am sayin. So my bestie who had to tolerate watching me play and ramble on about what i think may be happening being my witness, the reveal was an "i knew it" moment

Then post reveal when he says he's not even in the Plex anymore, there's a small part of me that is like "but what if it's also a fluke" still but under the assumption he IS the real one... He said "we" and "us" and there was someone with him, wonder if it's Fred or nah... Honestly never sure abt anything with this franchise and I'm not a big lore person or a theorist either.

And the whole betrayal thing... Not saying what he did is right, but considering the threat of the Mimic I can't really entirely blame him either. If it's genuinely him and him in his right mind (we don't talk abt ggy here thanks), and even if it's not the case, I can already smell people hating on a child cuz of a decision like they like to do

Is prolly not all and not best formed by am not home, my laptop is on 9%, my phone is not logged into tumblr and I didn't take my passwords here, soooo.... Thank you for coming to my ramblings if anyone actually read this lmao! Just needed to get these raw thoughts outta my system before going to bed.

[b0rderbunny]

Coincidence? PT2

(A/N) For those who have not read part one ill link it here but just know that this is not in order and these are just sneak peaks to my new fic that will be posted on my Wattpad.

Part 1

The girl looked around and decided to be hopeful that she could find information on it. “It's like finding a needle in a haystack.” (Y/N) said as she looked through the labels on the shelves looking for anything starting with the letter “S”. 

‘What if shifting does not exist in this world? How am I supposed to find out if what I'm experiencing is really shifting? What if I just hit my head really hard and died? What if I'm in a coma?’ All types of ‘what if’s’ circled the girl's head as she finally made it to the ‘S’ section. 

And ironically it happened to be a whole aisle almost 15ft long. 

“Oh kill me now”

⋇⊶⊰❣⊱⊷⋇

The girl's eyes widened when she finally found what she was looking for. 

INSTRUCTIONS AND HISTORY ON SHIFTING

“Yes!”

The girl happily hopped over to one of the desks and sat herself excitedly on the stool with the book open in front of her. 

╔══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╗

CHAPTER 1: HOW TO KNOW IF YOU’VE SHIFTED

This part comes down to you and how you want to be made aware. Quite a few people script something that indicates they’re in their desired reality, some examples being a specific smell or somebody waking them up. Some people even script that they immediately open their eyes after shifting, so as long as you have an intention to be made aware, there’s no need to worry about knowing you’re actually there. 

If you haven’t scripted any specifics, you can usually tell you’ve shifted through a change in atmosphere. Many shifters state that the atmosphere changes around them, and they know they’re there. It’s hard to picture this until you feel it personally, but if you feel like the atmosphere has changed or you’ve shifted, you probably have. The way the atmosphere changes will be different depending on what you’ve scripted. For example, your desired bedroom may be a little colder than your bedroom in this reality, or you may have scripted that you’re waking up next to someone. If you feel this weight on your bed as planned, or perhaps feel a drop in temperature or notice a subtle noise you weren’t aware of before, this is the change you’re looking for.

╚══ ❀•°❀°•❀ ══╝

‘You're supposed to write scripts?! I wasn't informed of that…shit ‘

(Y/N) continued on reading, mumbling a few things as she continued. 

The girl was suddenly snapped out of her reading as she heard a creak of a door. She placed the book down and stood up, head in the direction of the noise. 

“What the fuck?..” she whispered under her breath as there was a small glow being emitted from the aisle that the noise had come from. 

(Y/N) slowly approached the noise, grabbing a nearby broom for protection. ‘I swear to god if it's some ghost ass shit I'm gonna feed myself to a titan.’ she thought as she neared the corner. 

“OH SHIT!”

___________________________________________

(A/N) Hey guys i am currently working on trying to write the first few chapters so i have something to upload when i release this book. sorry I'm taking so long, I'm just tryna balance school and work but when my book is released you will be able to find it on my wattpad that is on my bio. Thanks!

#attack on titan #levi x reader #levi aot #shifting #reality shifting #shingeki no kyojin #snk levi #aot x reader #levi ackerman #levi attack on titan #Spotify

[bottlecaprabbitgames]

Weekly Update for 3 April, 2023

Hello, everyone! Welcome to the first weekly update of April!

Mind Games: Trepidation

So, where are we with MG:T?

As of earlier this week, I fully finished fleshing out Scene 1/4 of Chapter 6! I'm also on the very last choice of Scene 2 and it'll be finished, but it is a rather varied section as it changes depending on a choice you made earlier in the chapter, so it might take me a hot second to finish it off. Very exciting, however!

I'm also half-way done with Scene 3's roughdraft, and then all we'll have left is Scene 4, but Scene 4 is an alternate POV so there likely won't be any choices to write, just some variations, if any. We have only a little left to get through, so I'm very hopeful that Chapter 6 is still on track to be released this month!

Chapter 6 is also sitting at a little over 10,000 words! My goal is to hit at least 12,000, but I do feel this will be a shorter chapter, which is totally fine! There's quite a bit I want to go back later and add to, but for now, I am happy with how things have gone so far. Super happy, actually, as almost all the choices I've written so far will have impact as the series progresses, either from you guys setting up more customization or by what you choose to reveal... or keep hidden. And some other interesting things, hehe.

But, overall, I am very satisfied with how Chapter 6 is progressing, and it will all be released as one major update (might also add some other stuff to update along with it, maybe more achievements, other stuff tbd). We will be following the same update pattern as last time: Patreon, Discord, public. I'm really excited to get it out to y'all, as the friend I drop snippets to and discuss stuff with to brainstorm has been STOKED the entire time we've talked!!

Now, as a fair warning, progress this coming week is very likely to be slow. As I posted on here before, my mom has only been home a few days after a 16-day stay in the hospital as she developed gangrene near her broken hip, and she has a lot of care we have to give her. I'll be going this week to finish my training on how to change her bandages (I actually know how to do it, there's just one specific part I'm not so good with, so her wound care nurse is gonna make sure I have that down pat), as I will have to do so on the weekends and any day her home health nurse or wound care nurse are unavailable. Quite a bit of pressure!

And, I also know most of you guys are aware The Wayhaven Chronicles by the amazing @seraphinitegames (just in case you aren't) has its third book releasing this week, and I am gonna be very honest, I'm gonna be absorbing it through my very eyeballs LOL. I am going to be diving in whole-heartedly to enjoy Mason's route and possibly A's or Nate's.

I've also really been in the mood to play games lately, so I'm planning to take time out to indulge a little bit, as I took a good... 5? 6? months or more away from gaming much outside of recording, and given I have Fatal Frame 4 and the OG Resident Evil 4 to lets play... WELL, I am definitely considering dropping loads of time into both and just relax when I can this week!

Alright, I'll see you guys next Monday!

#weekly update #mind games: trepidation #mind games #interactive fiction #if

[construingseacats]

Ahoy! Just going to make a quick housekeeping post before we get cracking in a few days.

I'll be keeping the reread thoughts organised per chapter, and posting at a pace of around once per day. Note that this won't be uniform, so it might be closer to posting about 2-3 chapters twice per week. I'm aiming to read about 5-6 chapters a week, so that's the pace we're looking at. Needless to say, we're gonna be here for a good few months.

While Umineko has stuck with me for all these years, my memory isn't perfect, so there'll probably be a fair few points I've forgotten about until I'm refreshed on them. Obviously I know the "culprit", but I don't remember the finer details of the cases off the top of my head. I might refresh myself with Will's solution from Episode 7, but that'll be the extent of it.

That being said, very importantly for this reread, Death of the Author is in full effect. I know things were further clarified in the manga, and Ryukishi has gone on record saying that those were the canon answers. I know of Our Confession et al. I'm not taking those into account for this - we're going full purist, so if it's not in the original Episodes 1 through 8, it's fair game. I feel part of the magic of Umineko is that the catbox is never opened (I mean, isn't that the whole point of Episode 8?), so I'm not going to taint that with media that was released after the fact.

That also means this commentary is going to be for Episodes 1-8, and that's it (I say "that's it" as if going through the 1.1 million or so total words are a trivial affair, ha). If there's enough interest I might push into Last Note of the Golden Witch as an addendum, and I wouldn't be opposed to going through Purgatory of the Golden Witch as an afterword. Friendly reminder that Uminetta is a shining star in the community and one of the kindest, most wonderful souls out there.

Also, some quick information about me! Umineko is a very personal story, so what you get from it is drastically effected by the kind of person you are. The first time I read Umineko, I was a 17 year old kid from England getting ready to study Mathematics at University, who'd watched the anime at way too young of an age and wanted to read the proper story behind it. I was really interested in the mystery, but fell way too deep into the fantasy elements (even missing the obvious hints in Episode 3), and still didn't really get the truth of it even after Will's section in Episode 7 (even though I'd encountered the true identity of the culprit). I also fully knew I was asexual, and I'd kind of heard about transgenderism, but didn't really understand it. 10 years on, I'm still very much a writer at heart (and much better equipped to actually write well), a cog in the machine of capitalism desperately trying to escape and pursue more creative endeavours, and not quite sure what's going on under the hood but definitely not cis. I think pretty much all the gender themes went over my head on my first read of Umineko - it'll be interesting to see how much stuff hits close to home this time.

Anyway - starting on Wednesday. Will be going through the Prologue up to the end of Epitaph on the Portrait, then around 6 chapters a week from there, only stopping once we've gone through all 8 Episodes. I'm estimating we'll run for about 24 or 25 weeks, although that's assuming we don't stop for any breaks. Itll be a long journey to the Golden Land - so to anyone who ends up joining me on this, be it as it happens, or some time in the far future, I hope you enjoy it with me.

#umireread

[willshipanything-blog]

I'm going to make one further post about this, then I'm done. I'm not going to change people's minds if they're already convinced otherwise. I've already been found guilty in their eyes.

Other people can make up their own minds on the matter.

I'm just gonna go in order of the issues addressed in the posts calling me out (this will not be as lengthy as that).

Yes, I started this fic, in part, because of Penny. I loved the film, the character of the Grabber. But there were not many fics that weren't based around the boys (which is…not for me thanks). Her fic Into the Black was brilliant, and there were a few more that really inspired me to write a grabber x reader. Most of the fics I read on AO3 are dark ones, usually involving the same sorts of themes as that. I'd been wanting to write for ages, and I thought I could add something here. I wanted to do a Stockholm syndrome type route as I find it really fascinating. That was always the plan. Obviously, that's a slow burn to do accurately so yes, those initial scenes are similar, but also similar to other Grabber x Reader fics. Grabbers gonna grab, you know?

So yeah, Penny's fic and others were a springboard for the idea, but not style. I don't know how to emulate writing style. I can't say it any other way- I write how I write. Sorry if you perceive it as similar.

Now I don't want this to come of as cruel, anything but. You've gone from nauseous to angry. I've gone from upset to genuinely incredulous, and find it quite funny. Sorry if the use of that word lessens it, but that's how I feel how absurd this whole thing is.

OK. Words. Vocab? In a 60,000 fic and counting, I shouldn't use words? None of these words are unknown to me. Penny's fic uses words I've had to literally Google. Every single word I've written has either come from my head, or my best friend thesaurus.com. And some verbatim phrases? I don't think I've ever used the word "wreak" without "havoc", "brute" without "force/strength". Words like particularly? Quite? Whilst? I no longer have words with which to retort. These are basic adverbs/conjunctions.

Scenes. Most scenes in my fic, and others to be honest, are quite literally a bingo cards of clichés. Bathroom scene? Check. Creepy stalker/watching asleep? Done. God forbid when I release my chapter of a candlelit dinner and slow dancing….

Some motifs within my story were planned well ahead. I've written 60K words in two months, because I have a detailed plan that took 2 weeks before writing Chapter 1. The rings? Always part of the plan. The unmasking, the same. When I read that part of Penny's fic I thought, shit, I'm planning that too. But I'm not changing something that's a major plot point of my story.

Agreed, most of these scenes aren't original because 1. They're based very loosely on what I saw of the grabber in the film and 2. All kidnapper x reader stories have these tropes. No one is as original as they think they are. I don't get the obsession of being original- this is FanFiction. It's based off others' intellectual property. No stories or art are ever truly unique. (By no means a confession that I've taken words out of anyone's mouth, but just a message I thought to share). It's not high art. It's a plotted, yet smutty story based on a popular horror film, adding in my own personal kinks. Why complicate things?

The other main thing seemed to be structure. I've talked about this- it's commas, colons, dashes, paragraphing and parenthesis (brackets). If I don't use these, with my run on sentences, it doesn't read well. Also, I like the style of long sentences, the way they flow, the way they contrast against shorter ones straight after. Like this. That's how rhythmic writing works.

And there it is. Likes and comments. If you think my work is ripped off yours, add my likes and hits and comments to your tally. I'm happy to get comments on my fic, and will always respond, but like I said, I started this fic for my pleasure. As an aside, many of the comments pertain to the stockholm syndrome element and how this affects the reader in the story. People like the trope, as do I. I'm also posting frequently which helps. The same happened over summer when Into the Black got a huge amount of interest from what I remember. And from what I can see, Penny's stories have, like, tons of likes and in-depth comments? So that seems a moot point. Again, sorry that you feel like you "deserve" the comments my fic has gotten.

I'm gonna say it one last time. I have never stolen or copied work. I'm a grown fucking adult with very few fragilities. I'm not pathetic enough to rifle through fics looking for phrases or ideas to copy. I'm proud enough to say I like my story and I think my writing has improved since starting this fic.

Read my fic. Read Penny's. Read both or neither. Make up your own minds, it's now out of my hands to convince anyone and I'm washing my hands of it, not throwing anymore fuel into this fire.

For all fans of all types of fanfics out there, happy reading! (Whatever it is that you wanna read)

X

P.s. I'm not reblogging this, reposting or replying here. Just spam me a message if you want to chat, always happy to talk! ✌️

#black phone fanfic #the grabber #the grabber x reader

[shaewithyou]

10 - flustered thanks

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"You killed it, dude! I told you it'd be a nice choice to sing that song," Beomgyu exclaimed, pulling poor Huening Kai into a headlock.

The audition was over and we were told they'd contact us once the results for band recruitment has been made. As for right now, the attention was on Huening Kai. "You never told me you could sing that well!" I nudged his shoulders playfully once he was released from Beomgyu's headlock. "I mean, pfft, I knew you were gonna pull something out of your sleeves but 21 Guns?!" I chuckled, unable to hold back the awe I had for him after witnessing him sing for the first time.

Huening Kai's face flushed red, averting his eyes to the ground with a sheepish smile on his lips. "It was nothing," he muttered. "Nothing you say?" this time it was Yuni who yelled, almost offended by Kai's humbleness/shyness. "You literally sang the vocals, backup vocals, the drums, the bass - THE WHOLE ENTIRE THING!" Yuni emphasized her points with dramatic waves of her arms.

"Okay, that's a exaggeration. He only did the vocals," Beomgyu raised an eyebrow at her which ensued the two bickering with one another. Huening Kai chuckled, amused. "Yuni's right though," came my reply but only Huening Kai heard me, turning his attention to me with a quizzical look.

I smiled, "You're talented."

"Oh," he muttered, eyes widened slightly. For a moment, he seemed like he forgot to breath before he composed himself.

"Oh! Yeah. Uh- um, yeah. Thanks," Huening Kai nodded, one hand behind his neck as his neck and cheeks grew redder. Eyes fixed to the ground in a flustered panic.

His reactions intrigued me but I decided not to say anything - he already seemed like he was struggling with his confidence to sing for this audition so I didn't want to comment further. At least, he acknowledged my compliments I gave him.

"Oh, right!" I exclaimed, having remembered something. Someone. "Taehyun was here while I was on stage earlier," I stated, Yuni and Beomgyu's attention immediately on me. My eyes searched for Taehyun among the crowd who came but found no traces of the blond. "Taehyun? I don't see him," Huening Kai said. Being the tallest among us, he easily scouted the place.

I let out a huff, disappointed that I couldn't greet him properly and curious why he had come. Did he know that I'd audition today, because the only people who knew were these three friends of mine and my brother. "Odd, but never mind," I shrugged.

Huening Kai's eyes lingered on me for a while but he didn't say anything. "C'mon. Let's go, everyone's leaving," Beomgyu said, leading us out of the audition venue.

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taehyun watched her sing. her talent was no doubt honed and her charisma evident. then she pointed at that blond guy she always hand out with. his brows raised, the corner of his lips tugged wider in a grin - interesting, he thought to himself. he left right after her turn was over. after all, his focus was solely on her. for her.

tags list! ❤️:

@yooniiesstuff @hyyhyuka @wonioml

DM me to join the taglist!

A.N: short filler-ish chapter. I've started playing genshin (dottore playable when) ...........I'm not gonna say anything about my hiatus or make any more promises to write new chapters. it's like a jinx whenever I say I'll update because I'll end up not doing it. read at your own risk T-T anyways, thank you so much for reading my story. <3

Note to myself: please proofread, add pics. thx.

#shaewithyou #shaewrites #sk8erboihueningkai #hueningkai #hueningkai fluff #kang taehyun #i need to get my shit together #tomorrow x together fluff #txt #txt imagines #txt fluff #taehyun #txt scenarios #hueningkai x reader #hueningkai imagines #hueningkai txt #txt hueningkai #huening kai #hueningkai smau #hueningkai x you

[valleynix]

So I have reached the final chapter (for now it is)

The lvl of stress when Reader wanted to leave the room but Dani was blocking the door 🔼🔼🔼

Daniela, I love you but MOVE.

Anyway, LUNATIC IS GETTING SOFT????

It would be cute to have them see the Dimis through Reader's eyes and slowly grow fond of them 😭

And Dani mentioned before that sometimes Reader's scent is different, when they blackout and Lunatic takes over their body, so basically Lunatic sometimes hangs out with them.

It breaks my heart and makes me sad when Lunatic's all beaten up calling for mother, but Miranda couldn't care less :(

I wish they would join forces with Reader.

This chapter was full of pain too but thank you for the sweet family moment with all of them at the end 😭

Pls the sisters bickering and Cass' conversation with Alcina were so cute I was giggling the whole time.

I do hope tho, that Reader will have a conversation with all of them and at least briefly explain that there may come the day that they'll be in danger. Because rn they simply don't believe Reader would harm them or are like "we won't let anything happen to you🥺" while it's them that may die😭

It's also hard to listen to Reader and just do what they say to stay safe if they're kept in dark and confused.

Like if Dani knew what was going on perhaps she would just let them out of the room the first time they tried to fix things.

Anyway, my journey came to a stop for now, unfortunately. There's no other way than to patiently wait for the next chapter to be released (I hope I won't forget the events till then😭).

So let me say again that I love how you wrote the Dimis. It's actually my first fic with Alcina being a more significant character so I didn't come across any awful way she was written but I heard that some people say she's a bad mom so I'm glad to see her caring for and being soft with her lil fly babies. Because she does in canon too, clearly.

I didn't have any issues with Bela in fics either. But hell I am tired of the way Cassandra is, so I absolutely adore the one in the universe of your fic, I think she certainly is unique.

And Daniela. We know well about Daniela😭 So thank you so much for showing the world the Dani you created. She's such a sweet ball full of joyful energy and she does seem different from her sisters but girl's not stupid and understands what's going on around her.

And I will say again that I like the way you write in general, it's a pleasure to read it and don't worry, it does make sense :)

listen, i promise to have the next chapter out relatively soon?? i’ve been so busy with school and just in general being unable to focus :’)

BUT ANYWAY

*poor baby didn’t understand the urgency and why they couldn’t take time to explain everything :( she’s trying her best and that’s all that matters

*i feel we’re definitely getting into some territory where maybe, just maybe, Lunatic is starting to realize Miranda may not care as much as she claims to. like you said, the angst in them crying and calling out for her, only for her to not even spare them a glance? yeah, they definitely noticed (although in the moment, it became rage directed at Reader instead)

*i can tell you with certainty that Lunatic has hung out with them unintentionally 😭 they don’t ever do anything without Miranda’s orders, so they’ll just sit there all stiff with their lip curled. meanwhile, Dani sees and smells that it’s not really them, just watching them with a “what the fuck” face

*hehe, i tried to make it softer toward the end :D and give Cass some motherly love that most people don’t ever give to her. i need more of them just being a family rather than whatever the hell some people do to them 😭

*the irony of the “we won’t let anything happen to you!” 💀 like, yeah, nothing WILL happen to Reader, but y’all are gonna be in danger pls. but we’ll start to slowly see where they do notice things and start to put pieces together (as Bela is actually doing in chapter fifteen as of now), and a certain someone has already pieced together that they’re not all they seem, that maybe there’s a reason they smelled so strongly of Miranda…

*definitely! i have something special with that planned this chapter, though i won’t say who ends up knocking some sense into Reader (though you can probably guess who)

*hehe, i’m really glad you like it so far!! and i am hoping to not have as much angst with the next like, 1-2 chapters. still some because i’m incapable of writing a chapter without it apparently, but nothing as bad as what happened in 13&14. i have about 5k rn and there’s a bit of angst in the beginning and i have some planned later, but it’s all good for plot, i promise 😎

ack, i hate how much people just think or assume she would mistreat them for any reason whatsoever. and the people who make her hurt her lil babies for the sake of a Reader/OC… i have some words to exchange with them, oh my god

i do try my best to write them as “canon” as possible, even if there are a few moments here and there where they may be OOC. they still all have their own interests and hobbies outside of whatever Reader is doing in their spare time, and i feel plenty of people don’t do that well enough ?

i have such an issue with the way people write Dani and Cass, my god 😭 Dani may be a little out of touch with reality and may struggle with the concept of personal space sometimes, but she’s still smart and an adult, not some toddler that doesn’t understand a single thing going on. and people writing Cass like she’s nothing more than a cold-hearted, horny, sadistic person with absolutely no care for her family or partner is so bland. let the girl be aloof on the outside but care deeply once she lets people in!!

it’s been so fun to read your thoughts on what’s going on and the interactions between everyone, and i look forward to what else you’ll have to say when i (eventually) write chapter fifteen :-)

i might post an actual excerpt later, but in the meantime, here’s a cute lil snippet of a scene i have planned with our very sweet but very energetic Dani <3

#asks #to promise the moon #it’s been so refreshing having someone understand what’s going on 😭 #plenty of people do but also plenty misinterpret it #which is okay ! #i mean it is confusing #but i dunno it’s nice skdbs

[totaldramafan-lauri]

2023

The year that kept on giving and giving.

While not everything was great, I can confidently say that this year was overall positive for me, and thank god, since the last few months of 2022 left me so depressed and exhausted that I was legit pessimistic about recovering from it.

And I did.

Despite some lingering feelings, I'm happy to say that I'm mostly over it. I've chosen not to dwell on it anymore, and I accepted that I can't influence the thoughts of other people I have no control over. All I can do is...improve.....and I have. I've improved a lot this year. Which....actually, that WAS my new year's resolution for 2023, wasn't it? Just to get better? In that regard....can I be proud of myself....? I know it isn't much, but...

I have a lot to thank for making this a good year for me. My interests were VERY kind to me, from Eurovision being great this year, Helluva Boss releasing a LOTTA episodes including three that I absolutely adored, getting to fight on Team Shiver in Splatoon 3 and winning, ushering in the Era Of Shiver, and finally.....CRK continuing to not only be my comfort game all year, but then not only topping itself, but BLOWING MY MIND with releasing Golden Cheese and me reacting SO STRONGLY to her that I'm STILL r-reeling from it....o/////o

Not only that, but....I'm still writing. I can be proud of that, too.

I know things will never quite be the same as they were, but....that's fine. I'm still in a pretty good place.

Three characters that made my life better in 2023 (if you're reading this, did you have any?):

As for 2024....I have two goals for this year, but technically, one isn't all up to me right now, and it's more personal, so I'll save it for (hopefully) later when I'm ready to share.

And the other one is pretty simple, and that's just Finish The Damn Fic.

---You can stop reading here if you don't care about this topic---

Seriously, this thing has been an undertaking, and working on it DAILY since October has been both tiring and fun at the same time. At this point, even if no one reads it, it's gonna feel SO GOOD when it's all done. SOOOOO GOOD! >.< Like I said before: I don't think this'll be my fav fic I've written (Naivete is just so special to me), but it'll be the biggest project I've EVER put my name on. I don't wanna rush any part of it.......I wanna get it as good as I can.

Cuz....H-Her Radiance, she....d-deserves it....

Regarding the fic, for those who care, I have two bits of good news! One is that, according to the outline of the chapters I have yet to write and the number of scenes in each one.....I think- I THINK- I'm near the halfway point of the story. That, or I JUUUUUST reached it. I'm working on the longest chapter. Once I finish chapter 3, I have three more full chapters, and I think 4 and 5 are gonna be shorter chapters than 3, with 6 being definitely the shortest.

Which leads me to the other point: I'm coming up on a good stopping point for chapter 3. It isn't the ending I WANTED, but the chapter is just so big that I'm gonna have to stuff all my leftover ideas into chapter 4.

This means that, yes....in the next few days, you guys are getting the next chapters.

P-part of me is nervous about this, since....again, it isn't the ending I wanted....b-but I don't wanna wait to post until I finish the WHOLE NEW CHAPTER 4 I didn't plan for. I dunno how long that's gonna take, and....

Well, something I'm looking forward to is coming in a couple weeks, and I wanna enjoy that thing and give it my attention without stressing about the fic too much. I wanna post on AO3 sometime in January, then release the rest of the chapters as I finish them.

It's looking like 2024's gonna be starting out on a good note....I'm nervous, but excited at the same time.....>__<

I really hope that I'm ready for this.....

#lauri talks to herself #happy new year #seriously 2023 was great in many ways #heres hoping 2024 builds on it somehow