#have both been seen not as people but as weapons of mass destruction | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bsxcrxts · 7 months

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mess

Luke Skywalker x fem!reader

(note: written with fem!reader in mind, but no gendered language towards reader. reader is afab with breasts)

MINORS DNI. AGE IN BIO TO INTERACT WITH MY WORKS. I WILL BLOCK YOU IF NOT.

word count: 5k shameless, shameless words. teehee

Contains: This is a sex pollen fic!!!! Very mild dubious consent due to those circumstances, but reader and Luke check in with each other multiple times. Reader calls themself a slut briefly but no degradation, the nickname "bunny" and "baby", cunnilingus, penetrative sex, unprotected sex (don't do this unless you want a baby lol), overstimulation, multiple orgasms, Luke is so babygirl

A/N: This takes place between ANH and ESB and may be the closest I've ever written reader's personality to my own irl; reader is pessimistic and self-conscious at times though it does not come up during the sex in this fic, just before and after. Not to worry, happy ending ;)

The Rebellion's cover on Yavin IV was completely blown, of course. You can't get away with obliterating the Empire's most impressive weapon of mass destruction and then trying to just stick around to find out what happens– it would be exceptionally bad strategy. The Rebellion has mere weeks to relocate.

You're just not sure why you raised your hand to be placed on the mission to scout the next uninviting and dangerous planet to build a base on.

Actually, you admit to yourself, that's a lie.

You are sure why you thought it was a good idea, in fact, you're very sure, and the reason is a blonde man around your age with the prettiest blue eyes you've ever seen. You've had a crush on him since the moment you saw him, and he had also volunteered for the mission.

The reason is Luke Skywalker.

You jump at the chance, thinking that being around him in a small group would be the easiest way to get to know him. To make him really notice you, not just wave in the hallway as he walks by. Except, coincidentally of course, the Rebellion could only afford to spare two people for the mission, and they stopped taking names once they wrote yours down.

So now, a mere week later, you're alone, on a transport, with Luke Skywalker.

And things have never felt so awkward in your whole life.

In fact, you're seriously rethinking the whole Rebellion thing in general; yes, the cause is deeply important to you, but how important is your dignity in comparison? Would disappearing into the woods back on your home planet forever be letting the Empire win?

It's just that in the three days and two planetary excursions you've spent together, you've fumbled over every interaction you've had with Luke, and it's killing you. You've spoken to him before, but only in short, passing conversations, the kind of thing that's easy to run from. But now? There's no where to run. You've bumped into him at least four times that you can count on the tiny transport and rushed out apologies every time, tripped over a vine on the first planet, slipped on ice on the second. Both times he caught you before you hit the ground. You could have died from the embarrassment, melted into the floor and slipped away.

Your small talk is weak, but at least you can always talk about the weather, since it's actually topical to the mission. You don't know what else to say, desperately trying to come off as normal around him, not like some over-enthused fan who just wants to get with him because he's the Hero of Yavin IV. Luke is either oblivious, or pretends not to notice, and keeps trying to make conversation anyway.

"I don't like Hoth for it. Too cold," he says, sitting down in his seat as the two of you rocket through hyperspace, heading to the next planet. "Actually, it's all the snow. How do you build anything in all that?"

What's worse about the situation is that the mission has been fruitless. The base has to be built on a planet that is next-to inhospitable, with no current population to disrupt. It's a short list of horrible places, but you have to make one of them work.

"Well," you hesitate, "Deyer is toxic, we couldn't even breathe the atmosphere there. Plus we saw Imps orbiting Anout, which we should probably tell someone about."

"Already sent Leia a comm on the secure channel."

You're quiet for a half second. Luke talks fast, and you have to answer quickly to keep up with him, but you aren't used to hearing General Organa's first name from other recruits. Of course he's close with her. Are you trying to compete with a princess? You have to wonder.

Luke sighs and leans back in his chair. "Just like places where it's hot, that's all."

"Cause you fit right in," you mutter, completely accidentally, and hearing yourself, your eyes widen. "Being from Tatooine, you're used to it," you rush.

Hardly your best save, but Luke smiles at you, bemused. You swear sometimes he can see right through your facade.

"You know, I couldn't wait to get off that planet," he says. "There was never any adventure there, not anymore."

"Really?" you ask. "None?"

"I guess I could have stuck around to bullseye womprats in my T-16 but I'd been doing that since I was a kid."

"Oh," you note. Honestly, you don't know if you're sure of what a womprat even is, though you can guess. "So, is this mission another adventure, then?" you ask.

"It can be," Luke says. "I have a feeling it's an important one."

You nod, not sure if you have the right to ask what he means by a feeling. That's the other thing about Luke, he has this power most people don't, this Force that everyone started whispering about after he arrived on base with certain things no one had seen in a long time; a lightsaber, luck, a certain type of faith.

As you're overthinking it, the transport shudders out of hyperspace, blue lines becoming dots of light as you drift into the orbit of the next world on your list to investigate. The two of you part ways as he takes over piloting while you go to prep the packs to bring with you on the excursion.

When Luke lands the small ship on the planet's surface, you hope that this is the perfect location, but something just feels... off.

These places that you and Luke are investigating are all supposed to be disagreeable by design. Something– be it the weather, the atmosphere, the creature life– is supposed to keep most people away, including and especially the Empire. Everyone should be unsuspecting that the Rebellion would ever chose such a location for their base.

The problem is that the ecosystem here is shockingly nice. Welcoming, even. You've landed in a little clearing, but just a few yards away the landscape morphs into nothing but fields and fields, valleys and meadows as far as the eye can see, and in every field grows delicate little wildflowers; with purple petals barely the size of the tip of your finger. They seem to grow on the wild grasses, some of them reaching as tall as your hips.

"We got the right coordinates, right?" you venture.

"Yeah! I don't understand," Luke answers. "This isn't unpleasant at all."

Nerthusa, if you remember the name of the planet correctly, didn't list any conditions in the records, just that there were no sentient inhabitants. Your atmospheric indicator is reading that it's safe, so the two of you take your masks off. There's an overtly sweet smell in the air that hits you right away when you do, obviously because of the flowers.

"There's gotta be some massive creature that lives here that's plotting how to kill and eat us right now. I mean, why else..." you trail off, still looking around for a threat or an incoming storm, but there's nothing.

Luke has done his own surveilling and apparently also come up with nothing in the immediate vicinity.

"We should explore some," he says, "y'know, before we definitely pick this spot instead of Hoth for the base," he jokes, smiling at you again.

For all the grief you gave him earlier, you're not too keen on the idea of living on Hoth either, and so far, Nerthusa is beautiful. Plus, you'd feel pretty bad if you signed off on it and then it turned out there were wild herds of vicious carnivorous beasts roaming around or something. A thorough investigation is only fair, you think, so the two of you grab your packs and set off.

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

For a while, everything was fine, but about a half an hour into your trek, things are decidedly not fine in a very unique way, but you would probably rather literally die than mention anything about it to Luke. For one, he was so hopeful about this place, and secondly... well. Let's just say your symptoms were unusual.

It started off with what felt like hot flashes. One moment you'd be perfectly fine in the afternoon breeze, and the next, your cheeks would be burning and you'd have the strong urge to yank your shirt off. In the beginning, it would come in waves, and pass over you, leading you to think you'd just been pushing yourself too hard through the field or something, but how could that be true? The landscape was hardly difficult to maneuver, and your pace steady but not too quick.

The flashes were slowly replaced by waves of a different type of heat, one that was much more difficult to rationalize. Shit, you know you're attracted to Luke, but you've never, ever felt like this, not in situations outside of your bedroom. And not even then.

You can't look at him for too long or you think you might lose control. He's thankfully trailing behind you now by just a little bit, your only reprieve that he can't see your face like this. When you do glance back at him, he's looking at the ground, but his cheeks are flushed just beautifully, his hair catching the light from the late afternoon sun. His toned biceps have a slight sheen of sweat and, and, and–

You rip your gaze away. You want him. No, you NEED him.

No, you're being insane, you mentally scold yourself, but it's getting more and more difficult to rationalize your way out of it. There's a perpetual feeling low inside you now, and you can feel yourself actually dripping into your underwear.

You're not sure how much more you can take, and when you pick up on the sound of Luke breathing heavily behind you, it doesn't make it any better. Is he feeling this too?

Your resolve to say something breaks when you find yourself beginning to imagine what would happen if you stopped walking and let him run into you, pushed your ass against his cock, let him bend you over and fuck you into the goddamn ground, right here, right now. You're thinking about having something, anything inside your cunt, but especially his cock. You have to snap out of it.

"Let's stop for a second," you rush out, not giving Luke a chance to protest. You start walking away from him, hoping to put some distance between the two of you as if that will cure your ailment, so you lean on a large rock a few feet off the side of the trail you'd been walking.

The atmosphere is sickly saccharine now, stifling your breathing. There's a low mist or something hanging in the air and everything feels strangely heavy. You close your eyes for what you thought was just a second, trying to figure out how to bring up that this planet is obviously poisoning you despite what the indicators read earlier, but when you open them again, Luke is gone.

For a second, you panic; your blood runs cold, and your system is too overwhelmed with the brief shock and fear that you can almost fight off the symptoms the planet is subjecting you to. You scan the fields rapidly, your mind searching. It certainly would be worse to lose Luke Skywalker on a random planet in the Outer Rim than nearly any other bad luck that could befall you, and it would mean you'd be alone here. Under any normal circumstance the thought would certainly unsettle you, but rational thought is quickly slipping from your mind's grasp, and you feel different. Maybe even abandoned.

You wheel around and finally see him standing in the valley, several yards away, with his back to you. Your relief is palpable; you feel your shoulders drop and your heart rate settle.

And then the other feelings are back, ten times stronger.

"Luke!" you can't help but call out as you practically double over, and then, fighting to straighten your posture, take a few steps his direction.

Luke turns around and puts his hands out like he's trying to corral a frightened bantha, and that's when you know he's feeling it too. The thought of Luke being as equally aroused as you are in this moment makes your knees buckle.

"Don't, um... don't come any closer, something's wrong," he says.

"I know. We have to get out of here," you shout, continuing to move towards him. "I think I'm... I think I'm getting sick," you insist. It's not a lie, necessarily. It's not the truth either.

"Yeah," Luke says, his voice trembling. "Yeah, me too."

At least both of you are determined to avoid what's really happening.

"It's the flowers," you say, stopping a foot or two away from him. "We're allergic to the pollen, or... or, something. We should take the reaction treatment in the medpacks and leave."

Luke is not listening to you. It's evident by the way he's avoiding your gaze entirely. His eyes wander briefly down your neck to your chest before he appears to zone out completely, gaze falling to the ground.

"Luke..." you trail off. No response. "Luke?" you insist. He doesn't react until you touch his wrist– it's instinctual, and a huge mistake.

"Mm?" he moans lightly as he seems to snap out of the trance he was in, but when he looks up at you, his face is flushed, his pupils blown wide. You probably look similarly messy, you imagine, as the touch of his skin to yours electrifies you. It dulls the ache, soothes the relentless arousal even just a tiny amount. Stars, it's bad. It's worse, because you could become addicted to the way his skin feels against yours right now.

You pull back your hand like you'd been scalded. You want him like you've never wanted anyone. You don't dare to look at his body any further down than his chest, knowing if your own state is any indication, that he's hard and aching in his pants, and you don't know how you'll hold yourself back if you see him like that.

"Sorry," you whisper. He doesn't say anything, just licks his lips subtly and nods.

"Luke," you protest, "we have to get to the ship, and soon. If this is... I don't know what it is," you trail off. Half-truths. You've obviously both been exposed to an extremely powerful aphrodisiac via the flower pollen, you and Luke know there's no denying that. But the extent of its symptoms, and how bad it will get if you stay, there's no way to know.

It pains you, staying focused like this. Your heart and cunt are screaming at you to just have sex with him, to just give in to the urge to use one other to get off. What's left of your logical reasoning persists in one singular thought; get away from the flowers.

"Okay," he says. "Okay, let's go back."

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

The walk to the transport is as silent as it is excruciating. You and Luke have an unspoken agreement to stay several feet away from each other, so he trails behind you once again. There's nothing to talk about, anyway.

The seam of your pants rubs against your clit with every step. You almost feel thankful for it, because if not for the merciful contact, you're sure you would have shoved a hand down your pants already. You can feel that there's a wet patch on the crotch of your trousers and you have never felt more humiliated, or more needy. Every few minutes, you sense Luke exhale a soft, barely audible moan behind you.

Don't look. Keep walking, you think. All there is to do is keep walking.

More lies, your mind supplies, like a screwed up dialogue with yourself. You could fuck him instead.

When you reach the transport, you dash inside like you're possessed. As soon as you're both inside, you seal the doors, hoping once you're out of the environment, things might change. You open one of the ship cabinets and rummage through the med supplies until you find the reaction treatment and quickly take the pill that's supposed to regulate your internal systems.

You turn to pass a pill to Luke, who's slumped against the wall, a hand conspicuously placed over the front of his trousers. You don't say anything, just watch as he also takes the treatment, then look away, seating yourself in the passenger side of the ship, crossing your legs, not knowing what else to do.

It's supposed to be instant, but nothing is happening. You wait a few minutes, hoping. Not a goddamn thing feels better.

"If you expect me to– I can't– I can't fly like this," Luke sounds almost irritated for a moment, which you suppose is fair, but you refuse to turn around to look at him. Your nails dig into the armrests next to you. If things hadn't been so damn awkward before, maybe there would have been some kind of resolution to this that involved you implying getting rid of the effects naturally instead of torturing yourself like this.

Distracted again at the idea, you imagine getting up and kissing Luke, pressing your body against him the way it craved. You imagined him pinning you to the wall, ripping your ruined pants and shoving his cock into you at a brutal pace, giving you everything you wanted, craved, needed right now.

Stars, you were on the edge of orgasm just thinking about it, clenching and relaxing your thighs rhythmically, hips doing tiny, almost imperceptible circles on your seat.

But you caught yourself before you could finish; you couldn't see your way out of it. You barely knew Luke, no matter how much you were into him, so you couldn't muster the strength to ask him if he'd consider it– if he'd consider you. You might die from this before you gave in, you thought. Maybe literally. You reluctantly uncross your legs, denying yourself release, and shifted in your chair.

"Fuck," Luke whines, suddenly across from you in the pilot's seat. "Don't do that."

"Do what?" you breathe. His close proximity is taunting you, and when you look over at him, his head is thrown back against the seat. He's absentmindedly touching himself, rutting his still-clothed cock against his hand as his hips jerk every so often, like it's not even on purpose but on pure instinct.

Animalistic.

"When you," Luke squeezes his eyes shut for a moment, "when you sit like that, I can, uhm–"

It's your turn to be a bit snappy with him. You're more than uncomfortable and there's no getting around it now. Mere moments earlier, you still thought you could ignore the problem and it would go away, but now Luke is grabbing at his cock over his pants right in front of you. Fuck it.

"Spit it out, Skywalker," you say, giving in and letting your own hand snake down your torso to cup your heat, pressing your wet trousers and panties against your pussy.

"Can smell how turned on you are when you open your legs," he rushes out.

"Oh," you breathe, barely above a whisper. It makes sense. Enclosed spaces. No longer the open field of flowers to mask the scent of your arousal or of his sweat.

When you think of it, your hips grind harder against your hand and the chair, and you let out a moan, frustrated, self-conscious, but unable to hold back any longer.

At this, Luke suddenly keens. His hips give one, two, three little jerks, and he bites his lip in an effort to stifle his own noises, his whole body tensing, blue eyes rolling back as he very obviously came in his pants, a wet spot forming on his trousers.

"Did you–" you go to inquire, but think better of it. It's obvious what just happened. "Did it help?" you ask instead. Your face is burning with embarrassment and intense arousal. The look on Luke's face when he cums is not something you ever intend to forget.

"No," Luke sighs, "no, I'm still– it's still– I think we can't get rid of it on our own. It... it's worse than before."

When you don't say anything, he keeps talking.

"Really want you," Luke says softly, and then he's sliding off his seat, moving to kneel right in front of you. His hands come to rest on your thighs, gently spreading your legs further open. Your eyes have to be as wide as saucers when he kisses your inner knee and inhales deeply before pulling away.

"Please? It's hurting you, too, isn't it?" he asks, his gorgeous blue eyes looking up at you, begging you silently.

In more ways than one, you think. You're being haunted by all the complications of this, no matter how badly you want him. You could fall in love with him, but Luke doesn't owe you anything; you're not dating, you've never even had a conversation longer than ten minutes before this week.

He doesn't even owe you this, and yet he's offering to give it to you.

"Yes," you breathe shakily, "I want you too."

No sooner are the words out of your mouth than Luke is pulling on the belt loops of your pants. "Take them off," he whines, and you rush, shoving your trousers off in haste. It feels good to give in to the effects of the pollen, feels right. You mind gets clouded, thinking only of Luke's skin on yours.

The flowers must be similarly affecting Luke, because before you can divest yourself of your panties, Luke's shoving his face against your clothed pussy, tonguing you lewdly over your already ruined undergarments. The feeling is amplified by whatever the two of you inhaled earlier, and you throw your head back, your hips leaving the chair as you squirm, at the mercy of the mess of a man on his knees in front of you.

"You're soaked," Luke moans against your cunt. Your mind is empty, filled with the base desire to feel his mouth against your bare cunt, and you shove your panties off your legs hurriedly. Luke helps, yanking them down.

"Oh," he whines, "These are so pretty." He's holding your wet undergarment up and staring like he's won a prize, momentarily distracted by the lace trim and the smell of you on them.

"We ruined them," he laments. "I'll get you new ones, bunny."

Luke doesn't give you time to respond, or to react to the new nickname he's given you, before he's practically pushing his face against your cunt. He doesn't hesitate; there's no teasing, no build-up, just the feeling of his tongue firm against you, starved in a way you've never felt before.

You can't help but writhe on his tongue. At the start, you try to avoid fisting your hands in his pretty blonde hair, but you can only hold yourself back for mere moments before you're tugging at him, pushing his face into your cunt and grinding your hips across his mouth.

And Luke likes it, moans into your cunt below you, panting. His big blue eyes find yours when you tug particularly hard and you swear you see his eyelashes flutter. He's doing his best to get as close as humanly possible to you, too, grabbing your thighs and pulling you forward onto his mouth, the wet sound of your cunt urging him on. He licks and sucks on your clit, and you sob.

It's heady. It's disgusting. It's going to make you cum. And somehow, he knows.

"Yeah?" he barely pulls away to answer you, "You like that?"

"Luke," you cry, pushed over the edge, grinding against his face as you let the aftershocks overtake your body, expecting your body to relax as usual into the bliss of the afterglow.

Except, the desire doesn't fade. The symptoms don't go away. If anything, they've intensified, and you moan frustratedly. The orgasm Luke has given you on any other day would have sated you completely, but not now.

Luke looks wrecked on his knees before you, pupils blown so wide that his eyes look dark. His mouth shines with your release, his cheeks a bright red.

You give into your urges.

Sliding off the chair, you situate yourself so you're also on your knees on the floor of the ship with him. You lean over, crawling into his lap, and claim his mouth, kissing him the way you've only ever dreamed you might one day. It's the first time you've kissed, you realize somewhat embarrassingly, mind reeling that he's had his lips on your pussy before your mouth.

"That was so good. You're so good," you compliment him between kisses, and he lights up at the praise, smiling against your mouth, hips grinding against yours, and you can feel how hard he is.

"D'you feel better?" Luke hesitates, almost like he's too nervous to ask.

You shake your head. "No...I-I need more."

"Me too," he answers.

"Let me help you?" you ask, trailing a hand over his cock, hard and thick in his pants. He shudders and bucks his hips, nodding.

You're quick to pull him from the confines of his pants, underwear just as soaked as yours was from his earlier orgasm. You can't even think to tease him about it though, because his cock is gorgeous. Long and pretty, flushed so much it must be painful– you know it is, just as much as your cunt aches to have him inside you.

You meant to take him as quickly as you could, to satiate the pollen, to cure yourself of the beyond intense desire you feel. You don't mean to toy with him, but you can't help it, you're mesmerized. The way his cock is leaking precum makes you stop and just watch, letting him fuck your hand, twisting your wrist a bit at the tip to make him moan and keen and cry out and– and–

He's cumming again, all over his open pants, all over his shirt, all over your hand. You've never seen anything like it. Your cunt twitches and flutters around nothing as you watch him finish.

His little noises, his "ah, haah, mh!" sounds almost send you over the edge.

"Oh, baby. There’s so much,” you gasp, eyes wide at the way he's literally dripping with his own spend. His cock refuses to soften, twitching in your hand even as you pause your ministrations– the pollen has completely eradicated his refractory period.

"I needa be inside you right now, please," Luke begs.

By now the feeling inside of you is debilitating too, impossible to ignore. You rip your own shirt off, pawing at Luke's clothing that's stained with his cum and help him take everything off before you're quickly straddling him, pinning him to the floor.

Selfishly, you wish you had time to marvel at his body, to slowly worship him, to mark his abdomen with love bites and kisses instead of jumping to this point, but the need for him is overwhelming. You sink down onto his cock, and you feel like the air has been punched out of your lungs.

"F-fuck!" Luke exclaims as he feels the tight heat of your pussy clench around him for the first time, overwhelmed. You would love to take your time with this one day, too, you realize as you look down at him. He's cute beneath you, staring up at you adoringly, eyes darting from where his cock is buried inside of you, to your tits, to your face. Maybe he'd react well to being teased, but it isn't the time.

And the way he's desperately thrusting his hips up into you now isn't so bad, either. His hands grip your hips, fucking you on his dick as you grind down on him, the two of you working in tandem.

You don't know if it's because it's Luke, or if it's because of the pollen, or a little bit of both, but you feel amazing right now; there's a comfortable warmth spreading throughout your body, and everywhere Luke touches you feels addicting. The pace is fast and rough and perfect.

You may never get this again, you realize. You've got to make the most of it.

"So pretty," you tell him. "Look so good like this."

Luke moans underneath you, his breathing shallow and stuttered, hips never ceasing to roll perfectly against you. You notice the way his gaze continues to linger on your breasts and can't help yourself.

"Touch me," you whimper, pulling his hands from their place on your hips to your tits. "You like them, don't you? Seen the way you look at them."

Luke practically worships your breasts, running his hands along your body.

"You're perfect," he whines. "A-all of you. Feel like a dream around my– uhm, uh! L-like you're meant for me."

The idea does you in. "Oh, oh god," you cry out, clenching on his cock and cumming for the second time in a matter of minutes. It wracks through your body, making you shudder and collapse against Luke, who redoubles his efforts, holding your body against his as his hips continue to fuck against yours, which is all the better for you; you can't believe it, but you still feel that your body needs more.

It's obvious that Luke is losing all concentration, lost in his own pleasure. He chases his own orgasm, rutting into your body like a man possessed, until you feel him erupt inside of you.

“Ccan't stop cumming..." he whines as you feel his cock twitch in your cunt, and now you're dripping in a different way than before, "Again, bunny, I n-need it again.”

"Fuck yes, me too," you cry out.

No sooner have the words left your mouth than Luke is flipping the two of you over, throwing your legs around his waist. You cross your legs behind him, drawing him even closer, and throw your hips back towards him, desiring to take everything he can give you.

He gasps sharply as he sheathes himself inside you again, overstimulated, but still absolutely insatiable.

"Does it hurt?" you ask, your own pussy sure to be sore soon, you knew.

"A l-little but it feels s' good," he whines. "Can't stop. Don't wanna stop."

"Then don't, baby. Fuck me hard," you insist.

He listens, his pace brutal, completely drunk on your pussy. Under any other circumstances you'd want to tease him for it, but you were much the same for him. His moans were relentless, whining and gasping at every thrust as you ran your nails down his back, clinging to him. One of his pretty hands comes to play with your swollen clit, rubbing against you gently but firmly.

"Y'like it?" Luke asks.

"So much," you answer. And then, because you're feeling a bit brave; "Feel like such a slut f'you," you say, sultry, hardly above a whisper.

Luke's eyes go wide for a second before he suddenly kisses you deeply.

"Y'wanna be my slut? Is that it?" he asks against your mouth.

"Yeah," you cry out as his cock perfectly hits that most sensitive spot inside of you.

"That's really hot," he whines. And then, like a silly little afterthought, "We're kinda both sluts right now," he huffs out with a laugh and you can't help but to smile as you kiss him again.

Hardly thinking anymore, you kiss at his neck, yet again wishing in a possessive way that you could mark him more permanently, but this would do for now. Luke shudders against you, crying out.

"Ah, oh, m' c-close. Y'gonna make me cum again for you, bunny."

"Yeah? Good," you say, and grab a handful of his beautiful blonde hair, tilting his head back so he's looking at you, "Want you to cum inside me again."

"Oh, unh, I ccan't hold it," he babbles, "cumming."

Luke sloppily ruts into you as he finishes; there's so much it's practically spilling out of you. He's falling apart, and you are too, following him over the edge mere seconds later.

You can sense that the pollen's effect is waning, but it's not yet gone from either of your systems. Luke's cock, despite having just pumped you full of cum, remains hard inside your pussy. You still ache for another orgasm, not yet content.

"Oh," Luke whines as he shifts inside of you, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes.

"Baby?" you ask, "are you okay?"

"Uhn," he chokes out, "yyeah, just, oh, ffuck, sensitive s'all."

"Just one more, baby, it's gonna feel so good. One more time," you coax, despite your own aches and pains.

This time, it's much gentler; not romantic, not quite, it still feels like there's an urgency, but the two of you are well-worn out, bodies nearly giving out despite the influence of the pollen; his cock oversensitive and your cunt full to the brim of him.

Luke presses a soft kiss to your forehead and you freeze, just for a split second. It shouldn't change things, but it does. It's not the time to be caught up in the logistics of all this, but your mind is beginning to be released from the brain fog caused by the flowers and suddenly there's nothing else to think about.

He must sense something about the change in your behavior, because he holds you close, and rocks into you softer. It makes you like him even more, makes you so fond of him you could cry. You don't. Instead, you pull his face towards yours and let yourself kiss him tenderly in return, unbearably erotic, tracing his skin as you moan quietly into each other's mouths, a mixture of sensitivity and pleasure mingling.

It's not long before the two of you are close to cumming again, and in a moment of greed and blind arousal, you pull him closer by his hair and bite and suck passionately at his collarbone, knowing it will bloom into a beautiful, dark mark that he'll hopefully remember you by, at least for a while. He liked it earlier, you remember. And he likes it now, you observe. Luke absolutely melts, gasps and moans delightedly, and spills inside of you for a third time, triggering your own orgasm as you clench around him.

Finally, you feel spent. Your cunt flutters with aftershocks, but there's no uncontrollable lust accompanied with it anymore. Luke slips out of you, his cock softening at last. The two of you lay on the floor of the transport for a quiet moment, breathing together, your muscles only now feeling the burn of your exertion.

Reality has set back in.

"I'm sorry," you blurt out when you can finally think of anything to say, grabbing your clothes from the discarded pile nearby and holding them in front of your nude frame, as if there was anything Luke hadn't seen that evening.

Luke, who's been lounging on the duristeel floor quite comfortably, sits up and furrows his brows.

"Sorry? Why?"

You look at him pointedly, and gesture vaguely. "Kind of a mess, isn't it?"

"Oh, we can clean up," Luke says, his mild confusion obvious.

"I... I don't know if I meant literally," you say slowly, "I mean, the whole mission has been a mess. I'm a mess. This is a mess."

"I don't think you're a mess," Luke wagers, his tone careful yet reverent, and it shakes you. "and I don't think this mission has been all that terrible either. 'Cept for Hoth, really, but that's besides the point."

You're silent. The air might as well have been punched out of your lungs.

"If you want to pretend all this didn't happen, that's fine," Luke continues, "but I like you, and– and if you feel the way I feel, maybe you'd think about going on a date sometime? After we find a planet to put this stupid base on?"

Something in you relaxes, despite the fact that your heart is pounding. "Yeah. Yeah, I- I like you too. We can do that," you can't hide your smile.

"This is going to make a real funny story one day," Luke says, smiling back. "I told you. Adventure."

"Yeah, well... I don't know if we should put it in the mission report."

Luke actually laughs then. It's a sound you hope you get to hear for the rest of your life.

"Share the sonic?" he asks, "You weren't kidding about this mess," he says, gesturing to your shared fluids on both of you.

"That tiny shower? We'll be pressed against each other like sardines," you tease. "I'll probably slip and fall and break my ass."

"I'll catch you."

"Well then, how could I say no?" you wink.

"I guess I'll see you in there," he jokes back, starting to walk down the small corridor to the refresher. When you join him, you were right, there's barely space for the two of you to even turn around comfortably, but you wouldn't change a thing.

“One more thing," you say as you step inside, "There's no way in hell we can put the base here.”

Luke sighs, an over-exaggerated thing, and pretends to roll his eyes.

“Hoth it is.”

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

a/n: holy shit guys. I finally did it. two years in my mind. three days to write. here it is. I hope you love it.

#luke skywalker smut #luke skywalker x reader #star wars smut #luke 💛#becca’s bs

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hussyknee · 11 months

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youtube

(alt included in all images)

Another thread by Senator Ben Ray Luján here.

A book on the subject (haven't read it myself):

One of the sources in another one of Alisa's furiously impassioned twitter threads have been debunked, so I didn't include that. But she claims that her own family was caught in the fallout zone when her mother was a baby, which eventually led to her and large numbers of her community developing cancer. It's human for that kind of grief to be caught up in inaccuracies. People are already being ghastly and racist to Hispanos and Indigenous people criticizing the hype for the movie. They're not attacking Oppenheimer for being Jewish, they're criticising the erasure of the human cost of these bombs and the continued valorisation of the U.S military's actions in World War II as some kind of moral saviourism.

While Oppenheimer himself believed that the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were morally justified (they had planned to drop them on Germany except they surrendered before they could), he also felt had blood on his hands and regretted his role as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb". He spent the rest of his career vehemently opposing further development of thermonuclear weapons and the hydrogen bomb accurately predicting the concept of mutually assured destruction. This eventually made him a victim of Senator McCarthy's Red Scare and his clearance was revoked. I haven't seen the movie (Christopher Nolan is the kind of casual white racist I avoid on principle) but people who have seen it say that it doesn't glorify nuclear weapons and depicts the man himself with the complex moral nuance that seems to be accurately reflective of his real life.

The backlash to Indigenous and Hispanos people's criticisms and to people pointing out that Hiroshima and Nagasaki were genocides is also frustrating because...both world wars were a clash of genocidal empires. The reason they were world wars is because the countries colonized by Japan, China, the European powers and the US were all dragged into it, whether they wanted to or not. Jews were one of the many colonized peoples that suffered in that time, who were left to die by everyone until they could be used to frame the Allied powers as moral saviours, establishing a revisionist nostalgia for heroism that powers the US military industrial complex to this day.

As early as May 1942, and again in June, the BBC reported the mass murder of Polish Jews by the Nazis. Although both US President, Franklin Roosevelt, and British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, warned the Germans that they would be held to account after the war, privately they agreed to prioritise and to turn their attention and efforts to winning the war. Therefore, all pleas to the Allies to destroy the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau were ignored. The Allies argued that not only would such an operation shift the focus away from winning the war, but it could provoke even worse treatment of the Jews. In June 1944 the Americans had aerial photographs of the Auschwitz complex. The Allies bombed a nearby factory in August, but the gas chambers, crematoria and train tracks used to transport Jewish civilians to their deaths were not targeted.

(Source)

Uncritical consumption of World War II media is the reinforcement of imperialist propaganda, more so when one group of colonized people is used to silence other colonized peoples. Pitting white Jewry against BIPOC is to do the work of white supremacy for imperialist colonizers, and victimizes Jews of colour twice over.

Edit: friends, there's been some doubt cast on the veracity of Alisa's claims. The human cost to the Hispanos population caught downwind of the nuclear tests is very real, as was land seizure without adequate compensation. However, there's no record I can yet find about Los Alamos killing livestock and Hispanos being forced to work for Los Alamos without PPE. There is a separate issue about human testing in the development of said PPE that's not covered here. I'm turning off reblogs until I can find out more. Meanwhile, here's another more legitimate article you can boost instead:

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paymechildsupport · 2 months

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Puppet Boy // Suguru Geto x M!Cursed!Reader

In which: Reader is a cursed ‘puppet’, a product of another Cursed User’s CT that happens to end up in Geto's grasp.

-!! M!Reader (usage of the word, 'boy'), -- AMAB --> Reader as a dick (creative liberties can be taken though for any non-dick havers 😋)

--------

-!! explicit warnings: oral / praise / degradation / dacryphilia / coming in pants / shoe grinding

——✩‧˚︶꒦꒷꒷

'You were created to be used as a puppet, a tool of mass destruction. The creation of the same people that were the higher ups of Jujutsu Tech, (a government bio weapon, essentially) You were a masterpiece, on the road to becoming the most powerful cursed entity in the modern day of Jujutsu. However, once ‘refinements’ were beginning to be made you couldn’t help but question yourself, — your masters. You began to question: ‘why?’ Why must you follow their orders? Why must you accept sleeping on the cold floor while they get the nice beds? Why do you eat only scraps while they massive feasts? Why must you go back in your cage once your need for use is up while they get nice houses, nice beds,— nice lives?

You despised: and just as you began to refine your sense of self, your human consciousness— did they make a move to destroy you. Scrap you. You were a failed prototype,— a being that got just a lil’ too human for their comfort.

But you had just gotten your consciousness, and you’d be damned if you’d just lie there and let them take it away from you.

So you ran, shattered your chains,— and sprinted as fast as you could from jujutsu society.

And you ran, and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran,— far, far away. So far, in fact, you managed to find yourself in the domain of the most wanted man alive; ‘The Most Dangerous Curse User’— Suguru Geto.

He was entranced, completely infatuated with your existence, and charmed by your burning hatred for the same higher ups as he had.

Geto had to have you,— and you were half certain he would turn you into a nice compacted orb and swallow you whole— he sure looked like he wanted to. Yet he didn’t.

He had other plans for you…

——✩‧˚︶꒦꒷꒷

You choke pathetically, letting out a strangled whimper. The noise only prompts Geto to grab your hair harder, yanking your head upwards to meet his smirking face, a smug look plastered.

“You’re doing so good pretty darling,” he cooed, rich saccharine voice pushing you closer and closer to the edge, “c’mon, isn’t this what you were made for? To be used for?” His tone turned slightly condescending, only making your raging erection throb if anything.

How did you get here: a shiny tool, made by the greatest sorcerers of the century, a weapon of mass destruction, turned into a fleshlight by the most wanted man in the world?

Your determination to live, despite being scrapped and left for dead by your masters, sparked something within Suguru Geto. Something he had only ever seen in himself. He had to admit, the moment he laid eyes on you he had been dreaming of this, and not just as a ‘fuck you’ to those insufferable, monkey sympathizing higher-ups, —(well, maybe a big part of it was that— for both him and you)— but that so similar look of pure hatred and malice that Geto had only ever seen in the mirror caused something to stir. It seemed his teenage hormones had finally caught up with him.

You were left in nothing but your boxers, grinding pathetically on the Cursed User’s shoe. You were already soaking, as he was very aware.

“Fuck, oh just like that….— ha…., good boy” he groaned, the praise going straight to your cock. You moaned in response, the vibrations of your throat against his dick were almost enough to send Geto flying over the edge.

He paused, his iron grip slightly loosening on your head. You look up questioningly through your teary lashes, his cock still hanging in your mouth, rock hard.

Geto inhales sharply, “ha… did.. I say you could stop..?” His glare sends a shiver down your spine, “useless puppet, can’t even do a simple task on his own without orders from his master” he sneers, fisting a handful of your hair once again, this time moving your head up and down himself.

Your body went slack, pure bliss pumping through you to be used in such an erotic way. You grind yourself harder against his sandaled foot, abs flexing as you strain to milk as much pleasure as possible. A wet spot already forming on your boxers.

Geto was so close, his cock twitched uncomfortably in your mouth, precum crying from his tip, pooling and dribbling down your chin. He groaned at the absolute filth of the act, only turning him on even more, his movements sped up.

“What a good little whore,” he huffed, “just imagine the look on your masters’ faces if they were to ever see their— fuck,... hah… — tool used as a mere pleasure toy for such a disgraced individual such as myself….” his movements grew rapid as dirty talk and filthy words continued to flow from his lips, “huff, — they would be absolutely .. revolted at you whoring yourself out to me,..-- hah… hah,.... - my good, — good, boy” he moved at a grueling pace, desperately fucking himself into your mouth.

Your moans were almost pornographic, nearly causing Geto to paint your throat white right there. He carefully angled his foot upwards, hitting your obsessive rutting right on your prostate. You gasp as you come, hard, – soaking his throbbing cock even more with your spit as you choke. You look up with worship through your hooded, lust clouded eyes, tears streaming down your face.

You might just be the most beautiful thing Geto has ever seen. He’s never wanted someone else in such a way, but now, it dawned that he wanted you so much more passionately and desperately than any other person or worldly possession.

“Holy fuck,... baby, my beautiful baby-,” the praises tumble from his mouth before he even knew what he was doing, his mind turning to mush from how fucking well you took him. You really were made just for him.

“God, you… gasp… you—“ Geto starts to slur like a drunk, “I didn’t even need to touch you, and you, - ha-... came– aha.. Ah~.. - all on your own… g-god you’re so fucking perfect… mmmhmmmm~... my perfect, perfect little — oooOOH~.”

Geto is sent over the edge, moaning lewder than a fucking pornstar, his white hot cum shooting down your throat and painting your mouth white. You take it all, eagerly lapping him down, milking him for every last drop. Geto can only watch you in awe as you swallow every drop, some dribbling out of your mouth and down to your chin, mixing with heaps of your drool.

He huffs in amusement, reaching out and wiping your chin with his thumb.

God, you really were made for him, almost like it was prophesied and written in the stars.

“Fuck,.... did they make the biggest mistake letting you go, .. my pretty puppet. You’re mine..

… all mine.”

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[A/N]: I had this is my drafts for a while so it's lowkey kinda old, -- still really like the idea of a cursed 'puppet' though: a curse that didn't stem from a human's negative emotions, -- but rather bioengineered by the higher-ups, -- who then went rogue / broke away after gaining consciousness. In this particular instance, the puppet was a very undercover top secret hush hush kinda thing, -- they didn't trust Gojo or really any of the other teachers -- but mainly Gojo, cuz well, he's a lil' goofball and who knows what kinda shenanigans he could get up to. (Plus, Geto would've been thinking of Gojo while smashing the puppet, you can't tell me otherwise 🥶

This was done at like 4am, -- I could definitely refine it a lot more -- lemme know if you want me to do more wit this. Like, have numerous characters x puppet!reader, -- I have a lot of ideas for Sukuna, Geto and Gojo (or even both, Satosugu).

( Srsly tho, i have a lot of ideas 🥶 just lmk :3 )

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greetingfromthedead · 3 months

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Vash's Moving Castle (Vash x Reader)

Plot: A strange building made up of old spaceship parts, moving around on two legs across the wasteland of the desert, it hisses and creaks and fills the heart of many with fear... That castle is home to the magnificent tech wizard Vash, infamous for both his gunmanship and for being a womanizer—or so the rumor goes in your city. You're the eldest child of a gunsmith and as such don't expect much from your future. However, your simple life takes a turn for the exciting when you're ensnared in a disturbing situation, and the mysterious tech wizard appears to rescue you.

Pairing: Vash x mostly GN Reader, occasional she/her pronouns, the use of "girl" etc from quotes directly from the movie. I tried making it completely GN, but my flu ridden brain short circuited on some very specific parts so I gave up.

Raiting: Everyone

Tags: Howl's Moving Castle style AU, no use of "y/n", Vash is a tech wizard, I have both brainrot and the flu, idk what else to put here, Howl is cute, Vash is cute, I tried my best.

Word count: 3.7k

Author's Note: Got the idea yesterday, yall seemed interested and the flu ridden brainrot I had to endure all day today was simply debilitating so I wrote a little something. I hope you like it, not sure if I will continue or not even though I have quite a few HC-s for this little AU situation.

The 6th city, May, is decorated more than usual. After all, May Day has arrived. Even though it is still early in the afternoon, the streets are bustling with people. The aroma of baked goods reaches your nose through your open window, and it makes you think about your sister, Meryl, who is working at the very popular doughnut shop on the other side of the city. She must be very busy today with the rush of customers coming in for their celebratory pastries. For you, it's a free day. Today, your little weapon's repair shop, which you inherited from your father, is closed. You decide to take advantage of the downtime and visit your sister, whom you haven't seen in a long time.

You put aside the little handgun you have been tinkering with and stand to close the window. Your little shop is situated quite high, and the workshop has the perfect view to look out over the roofs of all the other houses. Your eyes glance over the familiar sight—the scrappy buildingd made out of old spaceship parts and in the distance, you see the wide open desert. But today it is slightly different. You heard the commotion this morning when the people first noticed the addition to the landscape. With fearful and hushed voices, they talked about the monstrocity looming on the horizon and the kind of calamity it might bring.

"It is Vash's Moving Castle!" The people on the streets whispered and pointed. "Do you think the horrible Typhoon has come to lay waste to our city?"

You knew very well the rumors about the gunslinger and tech wizard named Vash the Stampede. He is said to be a ruthless demon specializing in murder and wide-scale destruction. Apparently, he kills without mercy—men, women, and children alike. He has wiped whole towns from the face of the planet, and his infamous castle is created with the sole purpose of being a weapon of mass destruction.

As you pull the window closed, you look at the mass of metal outside of town. Calling it a castle is a gross overstatement. You can't imagine how such a heap of scrap gets to be called anything so magnificent. It consists of layers upon layers of old spaceship parts, jutting out at odd angles and covered in rust and wires, its massive turrets and spires reaching towards the sky. It has two large legs underneath it, much like a tomas, that the building uses to move across the desert. This is not the first time Vash's fortress has passed by May City, and you think the excitement is unwarranted. Sure, the gunslinger has a reputation, but nothing catastrophic has happened so far. You can't help but wonder why everyone gets so worked up every time the castle passes by; he would surely go to the bank or somewhere else where he can get easy money. You are just a small shop owner; as long as you don't get in his way, it seems unlikely he would take any interest in you. He might be a womanizer, but he only has eyes for pretty girls.

You get quickly ready and close the shop. The streets are decorated with colorful ribbons, and you hear cheers coming from all over town as the annual parade begins. You have chosen a truly awful moment to try and make your way across the city, but you are determined to see Meryl. As you push through the crowded streets, you catch glimpses of the parade. People are showing off their inventions and talents. You see giant hydraulic pants marching down the street. Exo-suits and new kinds of weaponry. On other streets, you see entertainers dancing and singing in colorful costumes. Some are juggling fire, and others are performing daring acrobatics. This world truly is a marvel.

You make it to the gondolas and squeeze into one with some other people. It takes you over the winding roads, and you see the flags and market stalls lining the streets. The smell of freshly cooked food wafts up to you as you take in the sights and sounds of the bustling marketplace. May is filled with all kinds of people; for days, the sandsteamers have brought in travelers from all over, and it shows. The whole city is alive with excitement and energy.

You get off your ride on the slightly calmer side of the town, and you know the familiar route you need to take to get to the doughnut shop. The quiet side streets are nearly empty; just a few people mingle on the sidewalks. You try to avoid them as much as possible and turn to an even smaller ally as a group of drunkards head your way. You hold your breath and hope they don't notice you, looking nervously over your shoulder as you hurry along.

"Hey, it looks like a little mouse lost its way," you suddenly hear, and as you look back ahead, you see you nearly ran into a man who has just come around the corner. He is grinning mischievously, blocking your path. He is a lot taller than you, and you can see his rifle slung across his back. Surely he is a bounty hunter; you see them a lot, and with all the people flowing into town, you would think they have their hands full.

"Oh, no. I'm not lost," you say, shaking your head and recoiling a bit, leaning away from the man.

"This little mouse looks thirsty. We should take her for a cup of tea." The man continues like he didn't hear you at all. You try sidestepping him, but as you do, a second man appears from behind him. He is just as large with a big mustache, and he looks at you curiously as he leans closer, blocking your way further.

"No thanks. My sister's expecting me." You avoid looking directly at them, instead trying to think of a way to escape. They make you very uncomfortable.

"She's pretty cute for a mouse." You try to keep your cool and find a way to politely excuse yourself from the situation, but the mustashed man is leaning even closer, his face level with yours.

"How old are you anyway? You live around here?" The first guy leans toward you too. Neither of them sounds menacing, but they fill you with dread.

"Leave me alone!" you say with as much bravery as you can muster, taking a step backwards.

"You see? Your mustache scares all the girls," the first man nudges his comrade.

"So? I think she's even cuter when she's scared." the other replies, not taking his eyes off you.

"There you are, sweetheart." A different, smooth male voice speaks up behind you, capturing the gaze of the bountyhunters before you. "Sorry, I'm late. I was looking everywhere for you."

He speaks close to your left ear, and a hand gently rests on your right shoulder. It's not a voice you recognize, and his touch makes you stiffen up. Your body had been ready to run for your life, but now you find yourself sandwitched between two unknowns. Yet something about the man behind you is comforting, or maybe it's just that you see the upset glint in the eyes of the men before you.

"Hey! Hey! We're busy here!" The man you had run into first speaks and looks like he is puffing himself up to look more menacing. His companion, too, straightens his back, ready for a violent confrontation.

"Are you really? It looked to me like the two of you were just leaving." The calm voice beside you speaks with a hint of amusement. You feel him shift slightly, but you don't turn your eyes away from the bounty hunters in front of you. You see their gazes move over the man, their eyes widening at something where his left arm would be, and you see them freeze up and then nudge each other. They look very uncomfortable.

"This is not worth it," one of them whispers nervously to the other.

"Yeah, we better get going," the other answers with a whisper, and they start to shuffle away from you, back into the alley they had come from. As they get further away, their step hastens until they take off running. You watch them disappear into the darkness, wondering what caused them to have such a reaction.

"Don't hold it against them," the soft voice next to you says, and you finally turn to look at him. He is a tall young man with a soft smile on his lips. You see his pretty blue eyes behind orange tinted round glasses, and his blonde hair is about shoulder length. A tight golden hoop hangs from his left ear. He is truly very handsome, and his expression is warm and inviting. He wears a pillowy white blouse that flows down to his slender waist. A pendant hangs from his neck, and a red coat covers his shoulders, but his arms are not in the sleeves.

"They aren't actually all that bad," he says, continuing his thought from before, and his eyes capture your gaze again. "Where to? I'll be your escort this evening."

"Oh, I'm, um, just going to the doughnut shop." You pull back a little from his closeness, but feel his hand firmly on your shoulder.

"Don't get alarmed, but I'm being followed," he says, leaning closer to you. His hand moves from your shoulder and instead hooks around your arm. "Act normal."

You avert your eyes, but he ignores your awkwardness completely and starts walking along the street with your arm intertwined with his, like it's totally normal. Your body is still stiff, a slight fear lingering in the back of your mind, yet this is exciliating in a way you never expected. You find yourself surprisingly comfortable in his presence, despite the fact that he is a total stranger. His pace is somewhat brisk, but you can easily keep up. The unknown of who could be following him is a bit frightening, and you find yourself pressing into his upper arm for reassurance.

As you walk past some dark and narrow alleys, you start to suddenly hear commotion.

"There he is! Go! Hurry!" You hear shouting, and it sends a shiver up your spine. Yet the man beside you keeps the same pace and, for the moment, seems unbothered.

"Sorry. It looks like you're involved," he says calmly as you try to glance into the alleys where the commotion stems from. You see a mob of gunslingers squeeze themselves hurriedly into the narrow gap between the buildings and start to rush towards you. It is frightening to you, and you grab a tighter hold of the man's arm. Your right hand grasps his shirt, your heart pounds in fear as your body stiffens. More voices start to echo from up ahead, and a few people stumble onto your street.

"This way!" he whispers insistently, and the man pulls you into a side alley, his pace getting faster as he leads you away from the gathering crowd. You struggle to keep up with him so you have to start running, your mind racing with questions, but you hold onto him tightly, and you feel certain that everything will be alright. He keeps going faster and faster, and you can see the main street ahead, but suddenly your view gets blocked by more armed men appearing to block our path. You feel a surge of panic rising in your chest, and the reassuring hand sliters out from your weakened cluth as you have trouble holding on while you run.

"Come on!" The mystery man's voice is soft and insistent, with a hint of amusement as you feel his arm wrap around your waist, both of you running straight towards the angry looking mob. You see that some of them have drawn their guns and have them pointed straight at you, but the thundering footsteps behind you tell you that they are unlikely to shoot here in this narrow alley to avoid hitting anybody else. Your confidence in getting out of here wavers, but suddenly you are tightly pulled against the man's side, and his other hand takes yours. It feels cold and hard; you catch a glimpse of blue, but you are too distracted by the fact that your feet are no longer on the cobbled street. You rush through the air, seemingly kept up by the mysterious blonde.

Instinctively, you curl up, looking around for an explanation. The coat that covered his shoulders before hangs over his left arm, and from his back protrubes a pair of giant feathery wings. You've never seen anything like this. Is this a new invention? Has he come here to present his masterpiece to the masses during the parade? Who is this man? He has to be a brilliant inventor. Your mind is captivated by him; you want to understand his mysterious contraption, and your gaze moves along him, down his left arm, and you see it's not a real arm at all; it is made out of strange blue metal, the hand holding yours is made out of the same material. The forearm is mostly covered by his coat, but you're sure that everything from at least his elbow down is a prosthesis; the rest is hidden by the flowy sleeve. You feel his fingers move so organically that you're sure this must be lost technology. What a strange man! You've never seen anything like this.

"Now, straighten your legs and hold on tight," you hear the man say gently, and you follow his command. You relax your legs and grab tightly onto him. His strong arm around you presses you into his side, and you wrap your legs with one of his to make sure you cannot slip away from his grasp and plummet to your death.

You are still mesmerized by his wings, how large they are as they stretch out behind him, allowing him to fly effortlessly through the air. You feel a rush of adrenaline as you soar higher. The streets beneath you look so small; people are just specs moving around. You let out a gasp of amazement, and it makes the strange man chuckle. He flies you both over some rooftops, and you see the familiar doughnut shop come into view.

"You're a natural." You hear him praise you, but to you, it makes little sense; all you do is hold onto him for dear life. But you can't deny the exhilarating rush of flying through the sky. You have never felt so free. The wind whips through your hair as you soar above the city. You feel like you could touch the clouds. You relax a little bit in his grasp, hearing his feathers rustle in the wind as they allow you to glide through the air. To your surprise, very few people pay any attention to you. Most of them are too focused on the parade passing by. The ones who did notice you stared in awe, not believing their eyes or perhaps mistaking you for a worm.

You get closer and closer to the familiar shop, and you realize he is aiming for the second floor balcony. He lands gracefully on the bannister and gently guides you onto the floor, like you weigh nothing at all. His hand holds onto yours for a little longer as he bows closer.

"I'll make sure to draw them off, but wait a bit before you head back outside." His voice is low and gentle, with a soft smile dancing on his lips and in the glimmer of his eyes.

"Okay," you say, still stunned by what had just happened. Your fingers gently grip his as he straightens up and pulls his hand from you. His wings fold down behind his back and disappear before he takes his coat and drapes it over his shoulders.

"That's my girl," he says with a low and husky voice, a hint of pride in it. He smiles brightly and takes a step back, making you gasp as he falls into nothingness. You rush to peek over the railing, only to find that he has disappeared into the crowd with no hint of anyone noticing him at all, so he must be alright. You breathe a sigh of relief, grateful that he is safe.

You linger on the balcony for a little while longer. It all seems too incredible to be true—almost magical. Never would you have thought something like this could happen to you; you are so used to your dull life of being the eldest, but then again, that's what it means to be a responsible and reliable older sibling. Or perhaps you have caught some nasty disease and are just imagining all this during a fever dream. Either way, you enjoyed this. The realization prods you in the side as you remember that you didn't even ask the gentleman's name. Perhaps you will get lucky and see him introducing his invention at a parade in the future. Or perhaps this encounter will just remain a peculiar memory in the back of your mind.

You turn to enter the hallway and see a wide-eyed young woman staring back at you. She is frozen, like she has seen a ghost, and she looks at you with a hint of mistrust.

"Hello," you say, trying to strike up a conversation. "I'm here to see Meryl; she's my little sister. I'm sorry to have just barged in to the staff's quarters. Could you tell her I'm here? I'm in no rush; I'll wait till she has time."

She still stares at you and seems too frozen to say anything, only giving you a stiff nod and heading downstairs, where you hear a lot of commotion. You turn back to look out the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of the man again, but he's nowhere to be seen. The sweet smell of doughnuts and jam fills your nose as you patiently wait for your sister.

You fall deep into thought, only to be awoken by some loud running footsteps heading your way and Meryl's voice calling out your name. She rushes to you and grabs your hands, so you turn to face her.

"Meryl!" you say with slight apprehension as you see the surprise in her face.

"What's going on? Someone just told me you flew down into our balcony!" She says it with disbelief. It takes you a moment to process her words before responding.

"So that did happen. That wasn't a dream," you say with a mix of confusion and sadness. You hear a different voice speak to Meryl as you turn your gaze out the window again, not registering what they talk about. You relive everything that has happened to you within the last half hour in your head, trying to commit every detail to memory. Meryl looks at you with concern as you look away so apathetically and then drags you with her to the backrooms of the kitchen to sit down with you on some boxes in the storage room. She presses you until you open up and tell her everything about your track here and the strange man who saved you.

"Wow! He must have been an inventor then!" Meryl exclaims as you finish your story with how he disappeared into the crowd.

"But he was so kind to me. He rescued me, Meryl."

"Of course he did! He was trying to seduce you! You are so lucky! If that inventor was Vash, he would have done much worse right then and there! He is an awful womanizer!"

"No, he wouldn't. Vash only does that to beautiful girls."

"Ah, don't give me that! You need to be more careful! It's dangerous out there! Even the infamous Millions Knives is back on the prowl." She looks at the side of your face and leans closer. "Are you listening?"

But you are so consumed by your thoughts, you barely realize what she is saying. Your gaze had been fixed by a giant tub of custard.

"Huh?" You finally turn to face your sister again.

"Argh!" Meryl lets out a disgruntled sigh. You see it from her face that she's about to start lecturing you, but a young man informing her about a new batch of dougnuts being done saves you from it.

"Okay! I'll be right there!" She turns a touch more cheerfully toward the cook.

"Alright! I better get going then. I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay." You stand up, ready to leave, to both avoid getting Meryl into trouble and getting an earful from her about the horrible danger that is lurking outside the city walls.

Meryl sees through you immediately but chooses not to lecture you this time on that topic. She leads you to the backdoor, where a man is carrying bags of flour.

"Now," Meryl comes close to you again. "Do you really want to spend the rest of your life in that gunshop?"

"The shop was just so important to father, and I'm the eldest! I don't mind." You try to keep your tone cheerful as you look into her concerned face. But deep down, you know her words stir something up.

"I'm not asking what father would have wanted. I want to know what you want," she continues insistently.

"Well," you start to answer, not sure about what to say, but the man who carried in the flour comes back to say goodbye to Meryl, and your sister turns to him to wave goodbye. You take the opportunity to start to walk away and say, "I better get going."

"It's your life! Do something for yourself for once, will you?" she says, hoping that you will finally prioritize your own happiness.

"Bye, Meryl!" you say over your shoulder with a slight smile as you head home. Your head is still filled with a million thoughts, and Meryl only added to them. Yet you are glad she seems happy with her new life after she left your family's gunshop. You can't help but wonder if you'll ever find the same peace and contentment. But it matters little; you're the eldest, and you have a duty.

Did you like this? Go check out my MASTERLIST and drop a follow for any and all future projects!

#trigun #trigun stampede #trigun manga #trigun 98 #trigun maximum #fanfiction #fanfic #tristamp #plant boi #writing #humanoid typhoon #vash the stampede #x reader #vash x reader #cashxreader #studio ghibli #howl's moving castle

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spikes-got-anger-issues · 2 months

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i was in a history class the other day and it just. Hit me. How weird of a title lab rats is. Like don’t get me wrong i get it, i get the joke, i get how it’s very on brand for disney xd but also. I don’t know how to explain it but it’s so weird to me. Like i feel like we should have gotten a literal rat-based problem at some points, or with disney being as wholesomely cheesy as they are they’d have a character dress up in mouse ears or something, or they’d make more rat jokes. Also lab rats has a kind of negative connotation, like titling something with rats seems weird? I’m not complaining it’s whatever i just,,, need to know if i’m the only one who’s thought about this lol

I'm so glad you brought this up because I've actually been thinking about this and how Lab Rats fit into Disney (across both channels) and Nickelodeon shows at the time!

Now I haven't finished watching the show yet (currently at the end of S2) but as far as I know of, correct me if I'm wrong though, the only "lab rats" related thing/gag is in the very first episode when Chase says "All we do is eat, sleep, and train for missions. We're like human lab rats" and then it cuts to Adam running on the wheel like a rodent/rat. So at least through Chase's comment, we can assume that the siblings view themselves as lab rats.

Another thing is how they were fed food pellets, and especially in which the manner they were originally given to them which was through a dispenser in their capsules (though we do see that they can eat them outside of their capsules as seen in "Death Spiral Smackdown") .

I'll be on the lookout for rat related things though as I continue to watch! If anyone else on here knows of anything else rat related in the show, let me know.

As for the term "lab rat" I do agree that typically it's a negative connotation, where it's associated with experiments and technology and cruel treatment. I think it fits for the Davenport siblings though since they are experimental human beings with not only their bionic chips, but a bunch of technology in the form of their bionic infrastructures shoved inside of them (like in the picture below depicts their bionic infrastructures relating to their main abilities). Most of the time we can also see that Chase has wiring inside of his head when it shows his bionic hearing, and not to mention the usb in his finger and that he has an entire computer system in his head.

And I know it isn't meant to be interpreted this way, but I do believe that it totally could be applied as a darker more negative meaning towards the Davenport siblings. The Adam, Bree, and Chase that we see in the show as bionic heroes weren't meant to exist that way. Douglas was going to raise them as bionic cyber-soldiers, weapons of mass destruction meant to do other peoples' dirty work and even capable of starting world wars. So we could think of them in a negative light that way, almost as "dirty" rats

#also hiiii 👋 I saw your url and thought ''omg it's you!''#I hope this makes sense. I feel like I want to add more but I need to go to bed but if I think of anything else I will circle back to this #side note I love that one of the notes for Adam is ''piercing eyesight'' that bitch will burn holes through you!!#disney lab rats #lab rats #adam davenport #bree davenport #chase davenport #ask

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intersectionalpraxis · 7 months

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so, genuine question, i'm also pro-Palestine just to be clear: what do you know abt Hamas? i've seen you adamently speak up for palestinians repeatedly but ive never seen you really speak abt hamas specifically. is that because you just don't know much abt them or what?

I'm not sure what you're referring to specifically? I have my own posts (and re-blogs) that address Hamas directly (both historically and to their current context), and they are available on my page (so if you'd like to scroll, you're more than welcome to -but it will be a lot since I have been talking about this for weeks now). I know how they were founded, how they got into 'power,' and who joins them (usually the most vulnerable in Gaza city). I would also like to state here, clearly, as I have in many of the posts I did (some of which I have replied to anons and posted them), that I am tired of Zionists throwing the word 'terrorist,' around when, they themselves, are terrorizing and ethnically cleansing Palestinian people with weapons of mass destruction (and being backed by a world military power, being a 4th 'best,' themselves).

Nelson Mandela was also considered a terrorist by the US government and was on the FBI watch list until 2008. The Black Panthers were considered terrorists, as well. There are plenty of double standards that the US/western imperialist powers hold because they have (and still have) considered any form of resistance to colonial-settler/white supremacist violence to be a threat.

When Palestinians resist, they're called terrorists, but when the IOF does it they're just a 'democratic country defending themselves," despite UN resolutions stating that ANY occupied territory has a right to defend themselves against a violent occupied force.

Nobody is saying ANY civilian loss of life is acceptable anywhere in the world; most of us are calling out the 'loss of life arguments,' a lot of pro-Israel people argue, while completely denying 1) Palestinians the right to defend themselves and resist this ongoing violent occupation and 2) Saying that somehow Israeli civilians deserve more pity -and that is often based on the very fact pro-Zionist Israeli Jewish people grow up learning how to dehumanize Palestinian people.

So if you want me to link more articles about Hamas in one big post, I can make a post for folks who are interested in knowing more about them. That could take some time, in-between my updates here, and also some personal things I have going on, but if you would like this, you can clarify in another anon.

#feminist #feminism #palestine #social justice #freepalastine🇵🇸#israel is an apartheid state #israel is committing genocide #free palestine #from the river to the sea palestine will be free #israel is a terrorist state #israel is a war criminal #israeli apartheid

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papirouge · 1 month

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"which is is worse"

I really wanna ask OP what Christian or Muslim country is currently getting "passes" in bombing and mass deporting hundreds of thousands people in the span of few years🤔Do I need to remind them that a MILLION people killed in Irak based on suspicions of mass destruction weapons that turned out to not even exist? do they call that a "pass" too?

The atrocities committed by Israel have been documented for MONTHS and hardly any country asked them any accountability. And those who did been criminally demonized (South Africa) and called ally of islamists. Still a "pass"?

I also wanna ask OP what Christian or Muslim equivalent there's to a Jewish state that gives prerogatives based on RACE (FYI unlike Judaism, Islam and Christianity are both multi ethnic religion that transcended race)?

I want OP to tell me what they define as a "Christian religious state" because last time I checked, it didn't really exist. Only the Vatican checks out. I think the USA is seen as a country with the strongest Christian influence, but the majority of western countries have a Christian culture - they are not Christian theocracies.

Unlike Israel, most European countries didn't build themselves over a religious book. I'm french, our first Christian king (Clovis) was baptized in the 5th century. But before that, he was already battling with other pagans leaders to build the territory that became France. Even after WWI & WWII countries came & went and frontiers changed regardless of religion. It was only my motivated by politics, money and a lil bit of tribalism (Balkans).

If anything, such messages betray the embarrassment of pro Israel shills to address any criticism without pointing fingers towards other countries or religion. As if Christianism and Islam weren't the ones that already had the bigger share of anti religious sentiment....

Let's get real, it's nearly impossible to criticize Judaism without being accused of antisemitism. Religious Jews would get a nervous breakdown if they had to bear an ounce of the criticism Christians or Muslims get over their religion everyday. If anything, Israel has got MANY passes so far. People like OP are just getting shook bc this special treatment is now getting dimmer by the day and act like it's victimization. They are not - they're just being removed from their intouchable status. And it hurts.

#papi watch #israel #antisemitism #Palestine

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matsaysyes · 2 months

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I’m going feral over Sonic Battle right now. The beginning story intrigued me and while the middle story was fun, it ultimately felt more like filler than anything.

Now I’m in Shadow’s story. It’s my favorite by far. While we don’t get all of team dark we do get a lot of nice friendship moments from Shadow and Rouge. Like Rouge taking him to her house to heal up after he gets hurt and then Shadow calling her his ally (so close to friend).

I’ve been playing this game with my friend and she guessed that Emerl was the equivalent to being Shadow’s adopted brother of sorts. With him being taken in by Gerald and everything. Once we got to the Shadow story our theory was confirmed. They had a bond over both being weapons of mass destruction which neither of us had seen coming.

Afterwards, we get the absolute best conversation in the whole game between Sonic and Shadow. Shadow tells Sonic that he needs to get Emerl because he’s a weapon and giving him all seven chaos emeralds would cause mass destruction. Sonic then argues that Shadow was supposed to be a weapon and he still sacrificed himself to save the world. This is the part where it gets interesting.

Shadow says that was only because of Maria. By her mention alone you can tell this is quickly becoming an emotionally charged conversation. Sonic saying that must have really hit something for Shadow.

Sonic then says that saving the world for Maria shows that that he has a heart just like Emerl. Weapons aren’t supposed to have hearts. Sonic is trying to tell Shadow that whether he agrees or not, the truth is that Shadow cares. And people care about shadow too.

This conversation isn’t really just about Emerl. It’s about Shadow.

Shadow then says, “If the world ever wants peace, they must destroy us.”

That is how Shadow views himself. As a weapon that is dangerous, that doesn’t deserve love, one that needs to be destroyed before it does more damage to the people who he cares about. Like Maria.

You can tell this leaves Sonic in shock because he immediately caves into Shadow and lets him have Emerl, at least before saying that he doesn’t believe that either of them has it in them to kill.

After that conversation you could easily get the wrong impression. The impression that Shadow didn’t care or listen to anything Sonic said. That is wrong. Later in the story, we see him contemplating these questions.

Why did he, someone made to be a weapon, have a heart, a soul, the capacity to love.

Rouge then appears, answering his questions. She had done research on Eggman’s computer. The truth is that Shadow was made to bring happiness and hope to all. G.U.N. wanted to use Gerald’s research to create a weapon of war. That is why Shadow has a soul identical to Maria while seemingly being made with the sole purpose of destroying.

Afterwards, Rouge decides to take my job of psychoanalyzing anthropomorphic animals from a kids game from me. She says that Shadow is afraid of his own powers. The truth is that he never used his power recklessly or selfishly.

This is the truth of Shadow the Hedgehog. A truth that, unfortunately, seems to have been forgotten in recent times.

#sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #emerl the gizoid #sonic battle

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sleepyorchidmonster · 2 years

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We reach the final battle where the Abyss Order is using the Gnoses to power up a weapon of mass destruction, all of our allies are fighting, but Mondstadt is nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, a powerful explosion of Anemo tears through the sky, right next to Old Mond, the same kind of event that only happens when a god dies.

The Archons and other mythical beings, who know exactly what happened, begin fighting even harder, fueled by grief.

Then, we see a shadow, and Durin descends, right next to the Abyss Order's main leaders.

The dragon was transporting Kaeya and Albedo, who get down from the monster, and claim to have destroyed Mondstadt, along with their Archon and the Four Winds.

Everyone is stunned, the archons are gathering enough energy to pulverize both traitors, everything could have ended right there.

That is, until Kaeya's father comes up to his son, puts his hand on the captain's shoulder and says " Looks like my failure of a child finally did something useful for his true nation, I really thought you had been deceived by those redheaded fools!"

Diluc plunges from the sky, attacking and yelling at Kaeya's father for abandoning his brother and insulting his family.

Another beat of silence.

Albedo facepalms "There goes the plan... ALRIGHT EVERYONE, YOU CAN COME OUT NOW".

The rest of Mondstadt plunges from the sky alongside the Four Winds, wreacking havoc in the enemy's forces, that are still to stunned to speak, let alone react.

Right next to Albedo, Venti appears, Gnoses in hand with Klee blasting people at his side "GOT THEM LETS GOOO!!!!"

And that's how you make an entrance (and almost give a heart attack to an entire continent).

The main con of this strategy is that the city of freedom is now surrounded by a sea of enemies, luckily, all of the strongest fighters can teleport, and everyone else has been filled with the determination to protect their crazy allies (so they can berate them for thinking of this plan in the first place).

Mond also has two dragons and all of Albedo's siblings, so another point for them.

#The explosion was just one of Sucrose's experiments mixed with a tad of Venti's power and Klee's special jumpy dumptys #The plan was for Venti and Klee to get the Gnoses and blow up the enemy's commanders with Dvalin and the rest as an emergency getaway #but Diluc had other plans...#The other archons don't know whether to laugh cry or yell at Venti #Zhongli: why would you fake your death to mess with us...wait (Venti snickers)#genshin impact #mondstadt #venti #diluc #kaeya #albedo #klee #Mondstadt as a whole is not allowed near the frontlines anytime soon after this stunt #they all get a jade shield too

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sol-consort · 4 months

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Man FUCK that bitch ass fucking assassin motherfucker I hope he rots. Sorry he pissed me off to no end.

Also yeah FemShep’s VA is considered the better VA of the Shepards which makes sense MaleShep is voiced by Mark Meer who hadn’t done much voice work before, his biggest role being Cyric in Baldur’s Gate II, and FemShep was voiced by Jennifer Hale who had been at it for almost 20 years at the time. It wasn’t just Jennifer Hale either, Anderson being Keith David and Joker being Seth Green who had both been doing it over 20 years. I liked MaleShep’s voice though and never had a problem with it because it’s very main heroy and recognizable like I’d instantly know that it was Shepard if I heard it.

I knew that the series wouldn’t be exactly up with the times because it was 2007-2012 but Jesus I had no idea that FemShep gets harassed so much.

I didn’t get a reconcile scene on the Citadel since I didn’t romance anyone in ME1 I went into the series with Tali on my mind as my definitive romance.

I don’t think Thane praying for you instead himself is unique to his romance? Or at least I remember something similar happening maybe it was his son.

You can’t hit on EDI as MaleShep I’m pretty sure don’t remember that being an option however you can still hit on Joker as MaleShep I remember seeing that option and going “why would I say that?” Also I’m surprised you never mentioned the Joker segment of Mass Effect 2 where you sneak around the ship as Joker that section surprised the shit out of me.

Oh yeah a fun little fact, remember the show Once Upon a Time I’ve mentioned a couple times when talking about fairy tales? The actor who plays Kaiden was in that show and played the show’s version of Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio. I don’t remember what happened to Cricket in the show though. He may have just stopped being relevant so they never brought him up again since the show just fucking loved doing that.

Is the hot assassin guy supposed to be unlikeable? I liked him so far, like ngl, plus he's pretty cool. Evil living weapons of destructions, my beloveds.

And yeah, i really like femshep, but it is pretty cool of them to give maleshep VA a chance for such a big character. Sure, it could've been better, but he probably did the best he could with the skills he had at the time, and it did appeal to some people!

And man I'm just lucky I actually enjoy these things ingames, like I am down to being a whore and flirting with everyone so it doesn't bother me when the npcs forcefully flirt with you bc you picked a woman. What bothers me is that the fact it's only bc you picked a woman, and just because I wanted it doesn't mean other people do and it might make them very uncomfortable. There are several mods to remove the sexual harassments femshep gets, I wish there was one to remove it for EDI tho.

We should all have a choice, is what I'm saying. It feels like femshep was made to appeal to straight guys who might play her as an outsider observer. Same with some lesbian characters, too, ngl- not all of them, but the game has its moments where it makes me realise oh this was put here for a straight dude to gawk at. Meanwhile, maleshep feels the proper self insert badass at times. Really hate that.

That's why I like picking NB options whenever they're present, you're free from expectations and the devs aren't sure what to make of you so they don't try to appeal to a certian demographic and just write your character as a character.

You did Tali romance? Hell yeah she is an amazing character and her relationship with Shepard feels phenomenal. Like a scientist princess and her knight in shining armour, amazing. Plus she is all adorable when she talks about engines and how we get to help her so many times.

Apparently her and Garrus end up together if you don't romance her, but I haven't seen it yet. She always felt close to Shepard, especially in the second game where she is the first friendly face you see.

I haven't met her yet in ME3, still doing side errands. I am very very broke and everything is very very expensive and I miss sugar daddy illusive man pls take me back, the alliance became more stingy than I remember or inflation is hitting hard.

Fuck I hat like 999999 something credits in the first game, why couldn't it tranfer over??

And Thane!! My heart! He even prays for you when he's not romanced??? That's it, he is legit the most precious character and no one else comapres. I would die for Thane, I would kill everyone on the Normady for Thane.

But I know Thane would forgive me If I picked Grunt over him bc my son which just makes Thane the most amazing man ever, DRELL ARE SUPERIOR I TELL YOU.

Also so far Drell worship Hanar (kinda) and Hanar worship protheons (kinda) and Javik likes humans(he is all current protheon population)

So by association! Drell and Humans are conncted, and no, I will not give up my tank of copium. Go buy your own. Idk what overdosing is, I have insomnia I forgot.

And aww we can't hit on EDI :( i would've treated her better than Joker.

Yeah I had the same reaction to the flirting with Joker line but just went for it because what's the worst that can happen? He says no and we laught it off.

Imagine if the worst was him retiring from being your pilot and you get soma rando driving the Normady around who now runs at half the speed and takes twice as much gas plus occasionally breaks down and you have to pay 100k credits for repairs.

Oh also then there is this one thing I am sure is exclusive to femshep.

You can sleep with Javik. The protheon. Yes.

But it's not a full romance :"(

He has four eyes I wonder if he has four-

I heard about once upon a time, the show. But never watched it.

I did however watch a random person talk about it in a video essay because I prefer that over watching shows.

This one.

It was fun, I'm not big on fairytales but I enjoyed hearing about it.

The Joker sneak section in ME2 didn't resonate with me much for some reason. It was nice but I didn't feel the pressure at all and with EDI constantly talking it got annoying and I just wanted it to be over.

His jokes were nice but the moment of trusting EDI didn't hit the same way it should've. It didn't feel endearing or earnest.

The sudden flip in their relationship afterwards was too jarring.

I prefer ME3 EDI and Joker dynamic over ME2. However I hate how EDI is becoming a "born sexy yesterday" character by the game when her core as a character is so profound and genuine. She wants to know her purpose, what it means to be alive and all the other characters mention about her is her body which is bleh.

Even some of her dialogues with Joker is just overplayed sex jokes. It's all of her amazing writing vanishes the moment it's not just her and Shepard in a conversation.

Kaidan's voice actor is great! He even stood out to me in the first game. You notice how much more convicnising and immersive his delivery was over the other characters, almost outshined ME1 femshep even.

It's like the dialogue and the way he delievers it fit perfectly. If I just read it, then I get a completely different impression.

The game doesn't have bad voice actors it just has very bad delivery from some characters. It's when someone keeps a constant tone and doesn't portray any emotions or adds any personalisation into the dialogue. It feels tone deaf a lot when what the character is speaking about is something intimiate, yet it sounds the same as asking about the weather.

Still, it is nostalgic in a way, this was extremely common in older games.

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dragonuv3 · 2 years

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Arekkz Scrapheart and lore building an arms forger

First Picture drawn by the lovely @kobold-kurios

All other images drawn by me.

So let me start this off by saying that I’ve never been THIS in depth with actually writing and drawing lore for a DnD character. Especially during a setting where magic (initially) is limited to clerics and paladins to a disaster in the first season.

Arekkz scrapheart is a Gnoll Artificer in the second season of Kobold’s Bards & Blades campaign. To describe him in a few words: driven, intelligent, exciteable, and intuitive. From his rural tribe to a big city to learn how to be an articifer, he’s managed to make a name for himself as a skilled artisan of the Stonecutter’s guild in Tulpio (the city both groups start in). He also is the sole proprieter of a shop called the Gnoll’n Arms.

Now getting into the main drive of this post.

Arekkz’s LOVED watching his people forge weapons ever since he was a pup, and took it upon himself to build his first makeshift weapon. And getting to the city of Tulpio, where he’s seen the people there try to replecate magic through alchemy and steampunk technology, his drive in life is to learn more about magic by “sciencing the shit out of it.”

Cue the MO for how he ends up making his weapons for people. Since I was building an artificer in a world without magic, the challenge would be to figure out certain limitations with how he earned his living, and how he cast spells in unconventional ways. I took a lot of inspiration from the usual aesthetics of gnoll weapons, and a lot from Austraila and Junkertown in Overwatch, while still trying to keep it classy enough for customers to want to come and get an excusive of Arekkz’s work. His trademark being bite indents made on the metal before the final treatment process.

The hardest part for me was to make the weapons he make seem almost like he got things from a junkyard and managed to make something not only functional, but aesthetically pleasing in a rough around the edges kind of way. The “boom stick” on the far right being a failure that didn’t mesh well. Not to mention I want to be able to explain just how they work in some instances without having to leave it to DM disgression. And I even started writing some notes about them in character.

Two of them I’m most proud of. First being the Spark Knife

Arekkz personal weapons are all able to help him with his special brand of spellcasting when not being exclusive to other alchemical components and mixtures (or specialized grenades). The Spark Blade in particular coming in a breakthrough for a personal project of his. A way to cast the Green-Flame Blade cantrip. The handle has compression switches on either side of the handle that causes a spark to emmit from just behind the blade that would ignite flammable vapors that (to the current session) Arekkz would spray and release from a vial.

The concept would actually help get an idea for how to make it work with a longer blade. In character, he had trouble replicating what he could do with the Spark Blade due to short swords and longswords either warping, losing sharpness, or not getting the right amoutn of destructive force needed while stress testing them. He ended up going back to the drawing board to figure out what about the Spark Blade worked, and he realized that the metal had enough mass and surface area to survive being used as a “spell focus”, and the materials used managed to keep it from falling apart.

With that in mind, he ended up forgoing the smaller swords and worked with a slab of metal to get a proper greatsword. And the result...

A successful prototype that survived multiple stress tests, and with it, finally given a name: “The Scrapyard Runt Mk.I” (A personal hommage to how HE started with forging). It’s still a work in process, but leaps and bounds farther than what he was able to do before.

I’ll post more weapon sketches as we go deeper into the campaign, as Arekkz’ll probably be commissioned to do work for both HIS party and the Side A party that goes the day before us.

#dnd5e #dnd art #artificer #dnd artificer #blurb #gnoll #Arekkz Scrapheart #weapons #worldbuilding #headcanon #gnoll artificer

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cruelfeline · 1 year

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I've seen it said, fairly commonly, that Forspoken's story is lackluster. And I can understand that take if one just... focuses on the very basic main story the game provides. The whole "become Cipal's hero" bit. I can agree that it's a bit meh and not something that resonated with me in any special way.

But! To me, that's not the story to pay attention to. The actual story - the one that has my brain in little frustrated knots - is the one that hasn't properly been told yet. The one that's hinted at in lore snippets and in Cuff's behavior.

To me, the story is one of a longstanding war whose cause remains a mystery, one that has resulted in the creation, use, and binding of a sapient weapon of mass destruction with an inexplicably pompous temperament. It's a story of an orphaned sorceress having to somehow cooperate with and withstand that weapon while navigating a conflict that has had terrible consequences for reasons no one seems to know or understand. And it's the story of two people on opposite sides of that conflict who are both very similar and very different, bound in an incredibly intimate relationship while also being at severe odds with one another.

It has so much to offer. So many unanswered questions and chilling potentials.

Like... it's just. Good. It's really good.

#forspoken spoilers #cf plays forspoken

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roseofblogging · 10 months

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I've now seen Barbie twice and Oppenheimer once. They both left me with a lot of thoughts. It's also interesting how this cultural moment has got us comparing them due to releasing on the same day despite how different they are.

But not for the reasons we thought!!!

And I have my own thoughts!

I mean, yes, I knew going into Oppenheimer I was going to leave feeling heavy. I'm no expert on World War II history (I focused my history studies on the Cold War, and specifically Central/Eastern Europe), but we know the US bombed Japan, changing Japan forever. I've also watched the original Godzilla film in Japanese, Grave of the Fireflies, and plenty of other films focused on Japan's response to that traumatic and horrible experience. I can't shake all of that going into Oppenheimer.

I've seen some responses that the biopic goes too easy on Oppenheimer and the US, and while I never expected the film to have a specific anti-war bent (that would have been at odds with the person the film this is centering), it really effectively communicates the weight of the US possessing weapons of mass destruction. The pounding of the auditorium steps after the successful Trinity test, the shots of Oppenheimer imagining the audience dying as well as him stepping onto and breaking a charred body, the cacophony of cheers and terrified screams and stomping, and just...it was so, so much. I felt myself folding into myself, just so overwhelmed. It's such a good scene that carries through that emotional weight for the rest of the movie as Oppenheimer transitions into strongly advising against creating the hydrogen bomb in a race with the USSR. Not to mention all of the tension that underlies all US politics post-WWII in the era of McCarthyism, which still influences us today. Oppenheimer is not an easy film to watch.

But it's also strangely dreamy. Oppenheimer was a man who was wrapped more in ideas than in people themselves, and there are so many unreal, beautiful shots of particles, ripples on water, etc. There are also plenty of awesome (in the old sense of the word) shots of violence and impact from the atomic bomb.

Oppenheimer as a film is both complicated in how it portrays a complicated man, but it's also pretty straightforward in its morals and messaging, whereas Barbie hit me in ways I wasn't really expecting.

Barbie starts off incredibly dreamlike, and it sells the fantasy of Barbieland very well. The willingness to commit to the bit is one of the film's strengths in how it depicts that world (and then Kendom). But the movie, in my opinion, becomes less about Gender and more about our place in the world. Yeah, you can look at that through a gendered lens (both for the Barbies and for the Kens), but it's Margot Robbie's Barbie who decides to become a Creator, a Dreamer and not the Idea that others make. There's actually something very powerful about being an idea, but people will always be more complicated than ideas (maybe that's Oppenheimer the character's issue with women?). On her first foray into the Real World, Barbie sees that things are nowhere near as sunny as she expected. Women are of course not treated well, but even beyond that, from her spot at the bus stop, she sees a couple fighting, kids playing, two men laughing together in joy, and a person in intense concentration, ambiguous to me as to whether he's reading something and focusing or grappling with a heavy decision internally. The complexity of the world hits her as a tear rolls down her cheek (and mine!!!).

When I talk to people about Barbie, we all have such different thoughts on the film--especially for us women, nonbinary people, and both trans men and trans women. The doll is such a huge part of our culture and impacted us in different ways. Barbie has a complicated history that Greta Gerwig actually does a pretty good job of addressing. The Oppenheimer movie does not particularly look at the atomic bomb and its history with the same level of complexity; rather, Oppenheimer himself pivots from singlemindedly leading the research and creation of the bomb "for science" to then later singlemindedly protesting the hydrogen bomb. Yes, it shows him as a human capable of changing his mind, but doesn't get into the more specific nuances of it. He's first very for the atomic bomb and then very against the hydrogen bomb. Barbie, on the other hand, represents SO MUCH. Femininity both as power and as critique. Being everything (all of the different Barbies as a group) vs being one thing (Barbie as an individual, the character; made for a specific idea). Barbie as the trappings of gender roles vs. Barbie as uplifting. Barbie is everything, good and bad.

Yeah, there are issues with both films. Oppenheimer has some very weak dialogue, and Oppenheimer himself is, uh...problematic, as we say? Barbie has pretty paper thin Feminism 101. It never gets into how capitalism specifically impacts feminism and seeks to uphold gender roles and gendered expectations. It's definitely not Marxist, h aha. (But I also never expected it to tackle that. After all, it's still produced by Warner Bros and Mattel.)

I didn't expect Oppenheimer to be so dreamlike. And I definitely didn't expect Barbie to give me so many emotions about mothers and daughters and becoming your own person, going beyond the story made for you. That's what made me cry in Barbie during the final montage of childhood memories from all the staff/cast members on the project.

#rose rambles #rose reviews #I guess we're making that a tag now for me to ramble about stuff I watch and play #not so much a review-review as it is just my rambley thoughts #oppenheimer #barbie

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roseverdict · 2 years

Text

Unreal Superhero Three

Alternate Title: Variant Hero Timeline

Well, the good news was that Henry's new implants were absolutely baller.

The bad news was that he had no idea if Ellie had managed to get away.

Even if she had, it was likely she thought he was dead.

He would probably never see her again.

He probably couldn't go back to find Charles without his condition and overall health sparking an international incident, and knowing how touchy people in power could be with their weapons of mass destruction…it wasn't worth it.

One man's happiness wasn't worth the world. Not when it was Henry Stickmin's.

(or: oops i tripped and spilled my sticks everywhere! guess i'll throw a bunch of timelines in a blender!)

He sat at the bar, tapping his fingers along the wood.

The bartender, used to him after the weeks of his constant presence, simply slid him a plate of his usual order as she puffed on a cigar.

He nodded to her- he'd pay her back like he usually did, with a shift in the kitchen later tonight- and started eating.

The door opened, and a voice he hadn't heard in weeks spoke. His Russian was still a bit sloppy, but he could still make out most of it. "Excuse me, miss. Have you seen this man?"

He turned to the voice and looked at the poster in the newcomer's hands.

His own face looked back at him in the form of a mugshot, with the Russian words for "Henry Stickmin: Reward for Location of Body" visible underneath it and the actual reward amount obscured by the Wall officer's lower hand.

Luckily, Henry had found himself a purple scarf and face mask within a few days of his initial escape, and nobody here had seen his face underneath it.

Of course, he wasn't exactly completely recognizable under it, anyway.

"Still nothing, much like every other time you come in, Grigori," the bartender scoffed. "When will you learn? That man is gone to the bottom of the sea!"

Grigori scoffed and rolled his poster back up. "Rule number one of my job: never underestimate a criminal. Stickmin is capable of a great many things. He could be right under my nose this very second!"

Henry kept from flinching back with the ease of practice.

Grigori turned to him. "Have you seen Stickmin?"

Henry shook his head and said one of the few Russian words he trusted himself not to screw up: "No."

Grigori sighed at the sound of Henry's voice, the digitized overtones to it rendering it unrecognizable to the man who'd only heard Henry's grunts of pain. "Well, if you see him, make sure to report his whereabouts, yes?"

"Yes," said Henry, exhausting both his ability to easily speak aloud for the day and his Russian vocabulary.

"Good." Grigori turned on his heel and stormed out, muttering under his breath about something or another.

Henry couldn't help the way his shoulders relaxed slightly as he went back to his food. The longer he stayed put, the more likely it was that he would be discovered.

But where could he go? His arrest had to have been done with the assistance of someone in the US military, otherwise there was no possible way for him to have been going to bed one day and waking up in the Wall the next.

Still, living life on the run was still better than being trapped in the complex for the rest of his days.

Henry wondered if Ellie had gotten away.

When he finished eating, he stood up to head back to the kitchen, but the bartender held up her hand.

Henry stopped in his tracks. Though she couldn't see it, he blinked owlishly at her.

"You cannot stay here, Henry," said the bartender in accented English. Then, before Henry could bolt because she knew his NAME, "Not everyone here agrees with Wall's way of doing things, but not everyone disagrees, either. You should start finding your way out of here."

Henry almost signed at her before remembering that ASL likely wouldn't work outside of America. Instead, he picked up a napkin and one of the pens in the bartender's little mug and wrote in Russian.

How do you know my name?

The bartender looked at it for a moment, then used the lit end of her cigar to set the napkin ablaze. "Drifter comes through here right after prisoner escapes Wall for first time in over 50 years? I notice things, Henry."

Okay, that was fair.

"I watch news, you know. Two prisoners fled that night," continued the bartender. "What happened to her?"

Henry sighed and managed to force out a quiet, "Escaped, hopefully."

"What, did she leave you?" asked the bartender in dismay.

Henry shook his head quickly. "Not her fault."

The bartender hmm-ed to herself, but thankfully dropped it. "Well, whatever case may be, I recommend you leave as soon as you can, да?"

Henry nodded.

"Good. Now go," said the bartender. "It is on house tonight."

Henry nodded again, this time shooting her a thumbs-up and a hidden grin, then headed for the door.

3 weeks earlier

"Ooh, see that there?" hissed Ellie, pointing out at the docks. "If we grab that dinghy, we can be out of here before they even realize we're gone!"

Henry nodded with a smirk. They just needed to sneak over and nab it, and they'd be home free!

He dug through his pockets and found a few brown leaves. These, however, were no ordinary leaves.

He grinned and passed one to Ellie.

"Ooh, tanuki flight! Sick!" she said in that special tone of voice reserved for Excitement When One Had To Be Quiet. "Let's go!"

The pair of them quickly crushed their leaves in their fists, and with the tails that appeared on each of their bodies, they floated silently over the top of the two guards posted on the docks.

When they landed, however, things went wrong.

Henry landed face-first, as his luck tended to dictate. Ellie landed on her feet, because she was just that cool.

Ellie just so happened to land on her feet on Henry's back.

Henry squeaked and threw his hands over his mouth.

Ellie tried to apologize quietly, pulling him to his feet.

The guards looked up at the commotion.

"Hey, you!"

Henry and Ellie shared a single panicked glance and bolted for the dinghy.

"Nicolai, radio the others!" ordered one of the guards. Then, at the fleeing prisoners, "GET BACK HERE, INMATES!"

Henry just shoved Ellie into the dinghy before leaping in after her and yanking the engine cord once, twice, thrice-!

The engine roared to life, and they shot away from the dock at top speed!

Ellie and Henry were quick to take up positions in the front and back of the boat, but for all their teamwork, for all the sick tricks they pulled off to avoid getting shot out of the water, they were just two escapees against an entire complex of jailers who wouldn't hesitate to end them.

It was almost like Henry forgot that last part until the very last second.

There were shouts and gunshots ringing across the water, and their stolen dinghy was racing along at the speed of freedom-

-but then Henry saw a glowing red dot appear on Ellie's back.

Henry's voice failed him.

It was too dark to see his hands.

He couldn't tackle Ellie out of the way without knocking one or both of them overboard.

So Henry shot to his feet.

Thunder rumbled.

Fire burst through his chest, and Ellie squawked a split second later, whirling around to gawk at him.

He managed to stay conscious just long enough to watch her eyes flick between Henry and something behind him, then grow wide.

He smiled and forced out a weak, "Keep goin' 'thout me."

Whatever Ellie did next, though, Henry didn't know.

There came another burst of fire in his skull.

The world toppled to one side before becoming cold, dark, and wet.

Someone's voice was screaming in the distance.

He hoped it wasn't Ellie.

In the Present

Henry carefully sipped at his tea, making sure to keep every possible inch of his face covered as he did.

"I thought I told you to get out of town," said the bartender in Russian with a fake lightheartedness that could barely contain her nerves.

"I will," Henry said quietly, the better to keep his voice from distorting. "Think I found something. Just wanted to say goodbye."

The bartender relaxed slightly at that. "Well, then, I hope you enjoy yourself, sir."

"Thanks," said Henry, using the word he'd just learned the other day.

Before anything else could happen, there came shouts from outside, and Henry poked his head out the door to have a look.

There were three Toppats and a safe, and there were two government agents of some kind facing off against them.

Henry whipped out his knife- the one someone had stuck in one of the tables in the bar and never reclaimed- and flung it at the nearest Toppat, pinning them to the wreckage of a probably-stolen truck by their shirt.

His intervention drew shocked glances from the Toppats (and probably the agents, though he wasn't looking their way right then), but then a freaking beam of light hit the two remaining thieves and their loot.

Henry gawked as the two Toppats he hadn't hit were whisked away with their stolen safe, but quickly recovered to take his knife back and tie the third Toppat's hands behind her back.

Only once that was done did he step away and actually look at the government agents.

Charles and Ellie stared back at him, shock clear on their faces.

For a moment, Henry let himself hope that they would realize who he was, and he reached up in preparation to remove his hood.

"Those were some slick moves there, stranger," remarked Charles sunnily, holstering his gun.

"I'll say!" Ellie agreed. "Dude, we've been trying to catch one of these guys for weeks! How'd you manage it on your first try?"

Henry froze up. On autopilot, he fed the TTS engine in his implants the phrase, "Beginner's luck."

No, no, why would he say that? That implies he's the stranger they think he is, not their long-lost friend-!

Henry bit his tongue. He just…needed to find the right moment to tell them. It'd be fine.

This totally wouldn't backfire on him.

"Really?" said Charles. "Well, if you're as good as you were just now, we might be able to give you a job. We kinda need all the help we can get with the Toppats, anyway. You interested?"

Henry weighed his options.

On the one hand, he should probably stay legally dead. He was shocked that tensions hadn't boiled over with Ellie's apparent team-up with the American military, but it was possible that she'd kept what she'd been through to herself.

On the other hand…being a part of a team with both Charles and Ellie was a dream come true. Surely it couldn't hurt to just…go for it, right?

Right.

Henry nodded silently.

"Good," Charles said.

"C'mon, let's get this gal back to base," said Ellie, hefting the Toppat over her shoulder like it barely even winded her.

Charles nodded. "Now there's a plan. C'mon, stranger. Hope you're good with heights."

Henry nodded right back and set off after them when they turned to head back to a waiting helicopter.

This…would be eventful.

"You got a name, Purple Guy?" asked Ellie once they were in the air.

The stranger shrugged and shook his head, and the automated voice replied, "Not anymore. I don't really have a preference, either, if you're wondering."

Charles glanced back at the two of them in mild surprise. "Really? Because if you leave it up to me, I'm calling you Hank. Y'know, like that one guy from Nevada me and Ellie here keep hearing about?"

The stranger snorted quietly, the sound as digitally distorted as the robotic voice he used, but he still said, "You can call me Hank if you want."

Ellie found herself snorting, too. "Hank. Yeah, okay. Great idea as ever, Charles."

"Why, thank you!"

Charles flew them home in relatively companionable silence. Usually she and Charles would be ribbing each other over little things all the way back, but with Hank in their midst, Ellie didn't really feel like doing that.

…at the same time, Hank's silent presence wasn't exactly unfriendly, either. Whenever Charles started humming to himself and tapping his fingers along the yoke in front of him, Hank pressed a hand to where his mouth was covered by his mask, almost as if stifling laughter.

The stranger was an enigma, to be sure, but by the time they landed back at base, the sun that had just been coming up in Russia was already more than halfway across the sky. If they were going to be rested up for the big mission the next day, they had to push past their jetlag fast, not worry about what the deal was with the stranger in purple.

And maybe they should actually get the OK from the General to bring Hank along.

That was probably important.

"Okay, I'm gonna go break the news to the General that we've got someone new to help out," Charles said, getting out of the pilot's seat. "Hank, you mind staying in here until getting the all-clear?"

Hank nodded and flashed them a thumbs-up, and Ellie helped Charles bring the Toppat down from the 'copter and into proper custody.

The General nodded proudly as the Toppat was led past, then smiled at them. "Nice work, you two. We were starting to think the Toppats were untouchable."

"Well, thanks, General, but we can't take all the credit," Charles said modestly. "We actually got some help at the last second."

"Oh, really? From whom?" asked the General.

Ellie and Charles nodded to each other, and as Charles headed back into the helicopter, Ellie explained, "He said he doesn't have a name 'anymore,' but we've been calling him Hank and he doesn't seem to mind."

The General's eyebrows rose, but that was the moment Hank followed Charles out into view.

"I swear, it's like my gut is telling me we can trust this guy," Charles told them.

Ellie nodded. "Yeah, I feel the same way."

The last time she'd felt that gut instinct, she and Henry were fleeing the Wall together, and Henry had proven her right by taking not one, but two bullets for her.

She refused to let Hank meet the same fate as Henry.

Hank's hand slowly came up to his chest, then he ducked his head and looked away. If Ellie had to guess, it looked like he was probably beaming under that mask of his.

"Mind letting us see your face, young man?" prodded the General.

Hank's shoulders shot up to his ears, and in his robotic voice, he said, "If it's all the same to you, General, I'd rather not. Please."

Ellie's eyes widened. That was right, if he had some sort of cybernetic implant to use as a voice, then the odds that his face still looked like his face were…

The General seemed to come to the same conclusion, because he sighed and nodded. "Fair enough, I suppose."

"C'mon, Hank, we need to reset our sleep schedules before we head out to space!" declared Charles, grabbing Hank by the arm and dragging him off in the direction of his and Ellie's apartment.

Hank made a surprised laugh, this time in a voice that sounded like it had been organic before being digitized, but let Charles yank him along.

"You're sure you can trust him?" asked the General quietly.

"Positive." Ellie nodded. "When Charles and me were going after those Toppats in Russia, all three nearly got away. If Hank hadn't stepped in to help apprehend one of them, we'd have come home empty-handed like every other mission."

The General frowned thoughtfully. "…well, trust worked out well enough with Henry. If you believe we can afford to extend that same trust to Hank, then we will. He'd best not make us regret it."

"We'd make him regret it first," assured Ellie. "Thanks, General."

Henry sat on the cot Charles had set up for him and tried to keep from exploding inside.

He really should have told them who he was from the get-go.

Now they were treating him like a stranger. A friendly stranger, to be sure, but there was none of the rapport he'd gained with Charles over infiltrating the airship. There was none of the bond he and Ellie had forged on their escape from the Wall.

For all they knew, he would leave once the job was done.

Henry groaned quietly and buried his still-covered face in his hands.

If he tried to tell them who he was now, then they might get mad at him for hiding it to begin with, to boot!

Oh, he'd really screwed himself over now.

Way to go, Stickmin.

With his cybernetic ear, he could hear Charles and Ellie talking quietly in the kitchen. Maybe they were being too quiet for a normal human to hear them, but Henry's augmented hearing picked up their discussion with ease.

"I know it might just be me trying to read too much into things, but it's almost like Henry's still here," Charles was saying.

"Yeah," Ellie agreed. "…hey, he mentioned you when the two of us were getting out of the Wall, but he never got a chance to explain how he actually knew you. Could you give me your side of things?"

A sad chuckle from Charles. "Well, there's not much to say. We brought him in for a raid on the Toppat clan's airship division, and he actually listened to my plans when I suggested them. Only other person who does that is the General, really."

"And me," prodded Ellie.

"Heh, and you," Charles conceded. "What about you, huh? How'd you meet him? You never really went into detail."

There came a beat of silence, then, "We were put in the same holding cell."

"Woah, no joke?" Charles gasped. "So how'd he get to the Wall in the first place? We pardoned him, and I thought the rest of the world had, too. The enemy of the Toppats is my ally, y'know?"

"He never told me, but from what I overheard of the warden, the guy doesn't believe in pardons," Ellie bit out. "I'd say Henry more than earned his, though."

Another beat.

Charles swallowed. "When…when I first saw you, you were in prison clothes…with blood on them that wasn't yours."

"…and cranial fluid," Ellie mumbled. "The tests got back to me the other day."

Charles took a shaky breath.

"Jerks were aiming for me," Ellie muttered. "Henry stood up in the boat we were escaping in to block the shots. Fell out and disappeared into the sea. No body was ever found."

Charles made a choked noise, and there was the rustling of fabric.

Henry squeezed his eyes shut and forcibly shut himself down for the night.

He'd so screwed up this time.

2.5 weeks earlier

The next thing Henry saw was a blonde ponytail and pink glasses.

"Ah, you are awake," said she in a Russian accent. "Here, sit up, sit up- carefully."

Henry did so with a groan, only to freeze up.

The voice that had just come from him was not his voice.

"Easy, easy!" the woman said, carefully holding his arms at his sides. "Your voice is different now, да, but it was necessary in order to bring you back to life."

Back to-?

BACK TO LIFE?!

Henry shot her a panicked look.

"You were gone for short time there," confirmed the woman. "Luckily, I was able to repair what had been destroyed. Would you like mirror?"

Henry swallowed, then nodded.

The woman nodded back, then picked up a mirror from a nearby table and gave it to him.

Henry couldn't stop staring at the reflection that was allegedly his own. Metal covered the right side of his face, and the eye on that side was now a series of LEDs in white and blue. The metal continued down his neck and shoulders, encircling part of his torso and expanding over part of his left arm.

And yes, his throat was completely made of the stuff now, it seemed.

"-water inhalation, and there was frostbite damage to deal with, and you suffered serious gunshot wounds on top of that," the woman was saying when the ringing in Henry's ears died down. "Still, you pulled through surgery in record time. Your will to live is astounding!"

The memories of what he'd just been doing came rushing back, and Henry gasped, stumbling for the door.

ELLIE!

"Oh-! What did I just say?" the woman said, exasperated.

Henry could only gawk at the open ocean outside the boat he found himself on.

The woman cleared her throat to get his attention. "I could tell from bullet patterns- you had run-in with Wall, да? Brutality of their methods is rather unique."

Henry nodded, glancing over at her pleadingly before gesturing wildly at the bright daylight sky.

Thankfully, she got the message. "You have been on my boat for three and half days. First day was surgery."

Henry found himself ghosting his fingers along the metal side of his face. Right, surgery. The surgery that had apparently been necessary to save his life had ended with him becoming a freaking cyborg.

"Please, come back in," said the woman. "We can make introductions, then I can show you functions of cybernetic implants."

Henry swallowed, then nodded.

Maybe he'd be able to ask if she'd seen Ellie once he calmed down a bit.

In the Present

"That's a spaceship," said Hank's robotic voice.

Charles beamed and nodded. "Yeah!"

"That," said Hank again, gesturing with his whole body, "Is. A. Spaceship!"

Charles nodded even faster and bounced on the balls of his feet. "Yeah!"

"Pretty sweet ride, right?" Ellie agreed, slinging an arm over Charles's shoulder with an easy grin. "And this guy is gonna fly us up there."

"What can I say? I'm just that cool," Charles said, totally nonchalant and definitely not buzzing in excitement.

"When do we plan to leave?" asked Hank.

"With luck, we oughta be in the air by noon," Charles responded. "That'll give us time to eat, drink, use the room, that sorta stuff."

Hank glanced down at one of his implants on his left wrist, the only one that extended that far down his arm, and tapped a button. A digital readout of the current time appeared in front of him: 10:54.

"We'll wanna be back here in about half an hour to go over pre-flight checks and stuff," Charles explained. "In the meantime, was there anything you really wanted to do?"

Hank shifted his weight to one side and tapped at his chin for a moment.

A few yards away, one of the other doors to the hangar opened up, and Charles beamed. "Oh, hey there, Dr. V! What brings you over to the spaceship hangar?"

Hank stiffened and spun on his heel to look.

Dr. V smiled, though she did shoot Hank a distinctly unimpressed look for some reason. "I heard one of my patients was on base. Thought I would give him checkup before he launched into space. That is not problem, да?"

Hank shook his head. "That's no problem. I wasn't expecting to see you again, but since you're here, I kind of have a few questions to ask, too."

"Come along then," Dr. V said. "Let us make sure cybernetics are at full function."

"Meetcha back here in half an hour, Hank!" Charles chirped.

Dr. V's eyebrows shot up, but she wordlessly led Hank outside, likely going to the medical center for his impromptu checkup.

"We're spying on them," Ellie said matter-of-factly.

"Wh-? No?" spluttered Charles.

"C'mon, man, that whole interaction was weird, you gotta admit," pushed Ellie. "Besides, I wanna know a bit more about Hank anyway. This way you get to supervise!"

Normally, Charles would be completely against eavesdropping.

However, Charles had been working with Ellie for the past couple of weeks.

"Okay, but if we're spotted, I'm not taking the blame," he stated.

Ellie shrugged. "Fair enough. C'mon!"

The two of them darted after Dr. V and Hank, and they came to a stop just under a window as they heard the doctor's voice.

"…and I just can't take this seriously. Hank?" she demanded, as if the name itself was more of a question than anything else. "When you were on my boat, didn't you tell me-?"

"I know, I know," said Hank. "I know what I said. It's still true, I just…"

Hank's actual voice groaned before he continued. "I screwed up, Doc. They didn't recognize me at first, and then by the time I realized I should just get over myself and say it, I'd already dug myself into a hole. If I tell them now, they'll just be mad at me for keeping this to myself!"

"As they very well should be," sniffed Dr. V.

Metal clanged, and Hank squawked.

"However," the doctor continued, her voice softening, "I believe they will be happier to know who you are and that you yet live. I've been here week now, you see. They have bonded over shared experience, this is true, but there is hole in each of them. You know how hole can be filled."

Hank didn't speak for a moment, then swallowed. "I'm not sure I can, but…for them, I'll try."

"Good. That is all anyone can ask," said Dr. V decisively. "Now, let me see your throat. You told me yourself you do not speak aloud much, but I can already tell TTS has had workout. Let's tune that up, да?"

Hank chuckled at that, but Charles put a hand on Ellie's shoulder and gestured back with his head.

Ellie swallowed silently, her eyes wide, then nodded.

They crept away, only feeling brave enough to speak once they were all the way back in the hangar.

"So," Charles croaked.

"So," Ellie stated.

"There's no way."

"Absolutely none."

"Just a coincidence."

"Definitely."

"People don't just un-die."

"Of course not."

There was a moment where neither of them spoke, then Ellie forced out in a rather high voice, "…but Dr. V is the greatest at her craft-"

Charles immediately crumpled into a ball, barely balancing on the balls of his bouncing feet as he stifled a wordless shriek of excitement with his knees.

"You good, buddy?" Ellie managed. Then, before Charles could answer, she groaned and slapped her hands to her face. "Oh, who am I kidding, of course you aren't! I'm not either! I've got half a mind to pummel that man-!"

"No, you don't," squeaked Charles.

"No, I don't," agreed Ellie without hesitation as she began to pace. "How long has he been out and about? Why was his default reaction to lie even though he wants to tell us the truth?!"

Charles took a shaky breath and pushed himself back into a standing position. "Well, he was presumed dead for the better part of a month, and he was still in the Wall's territory. Maybe that had something to do with it?"

Ellie nodded thoughtfully. "Probably a reflex, then. And do we know if he's got any kind of anxiety?"

"He's selectively mute, but I don't think that counts," Charles tried. "Um, he always seemed really confident in the airship on that one mission? But I don't think I actually saw him relax until it was all over and everybody but me had left the helicopter, so I dunno."

"And he seemed pretty cool-headed at the Wall, at least right up until he took two freaking bullets for me," Ellie added. "Ugh, self-sacrificial idiot's gonna be the death of me, gonna give me a heart attack-!"

"We should probably let him tell us when he's ready," Charles suggested.

"Hopefully he tells us soon, otherwise I think I'm gonna have to just wring it out of-" Ellie began.

The hangar doors opened, and Charles and Ellie scrambled to compose themselves.

"Hank" glanced at them, his head tilted questioningly, but he simply said, "The doc cleared me to fly. Uhhh, what's with him?"

Charles wasn't quite sure what "Hank" meant for that last part, but then Ellie jammed an elbow into his gut and-

-oh, he'd started beaming uncontrollably at the sight of their friend. That'd do it.

"Ignore him," Ellie lied coolly with a roll of her eyes. "He's just becoming a space case as we speak."

Charles rolled with it. "I'm just so excited! Can you imagine it? Fly me to the moon, let me PLAAAY amongst the stars-!"

"Hank" tried and failed to stifle a laugh.

Charles's beam returned in full force.

2 weeks earlier

Well, the good news was that Henry's new implants were absolutely baller.

The bad news was that he had no idea if Ellie had managed to get away.

Even if she had, it was likely she thought he was dead. According to Dr. Vinschpinsilstien, the bullet he'd gotten to the head had skimmed his cranial cavity closely enough to actually send some of the fluid flying. Miracle of miracles, his brain had survived unscathed, but since Ellie had only had dark silhouettes and bloodied prisonwear to go by, she probably didn't know.

And even if she did, most people who got shot in the head and fell in the ocean didn't live to tell the tale anyway.

He would probably never see her again.

One man's happiness wasn't worth the world. Not when it was Henry Stickmin's.

Henry looked up at the sky- a stormy white now, not the clear blue of the day he'd first reawakened- and ran one last diagnostic, the text flashing in his right eye's field of view as it ran.

Shoulder online.

Throat online.

Heart online.

Brain online.

Weapons systems online.

Flight systems online.

Chaos systems online.

Henry took a deep breath, then let it out.

The good doctor came up next to him and leaned on the railing. "You are planning to leave now."

It wasn't a question, but Henry nodded anyway.

"What will you do?" asked Dr. V.

Using the text-to-speech feature in his implants rather than his altered voice, Henry said, "I don't know. Let my friends know I'm alive once tensions with Russia die down? Find something I'm good at that isn't illegal, maybe."

Dr. V. nodded, then glanced at him. "Good luck, Henry. In whatever you choose."

Henry smiled, then did one of the few signs he'd managed to teach her over the past few days. "Thank you."

"It was no trouble," Dr. V. said with a smile of her own. "Now, go find yourself, кибервор."

Henry grinned and activated the jet wings in his back, taking flight and slicing through the sky.

He'd find land, first.

After that…

…well, he'd work it out.

In the Present

"There it is," Charles breathed.

Henry couldn't help but nod in agreement. The Toppat's base would be going down in flames if they had anything to say about it, but dang if it didn't look cool.

"Alright, how're you bringing us in, Charles?" asked Ellie, leaning over his shoulder to peer at their destination.

"You're both in your suits, right?" asked Charles by way of answering.

Henry nodded, as did Ellie.

"Great! Get in this ball of trash!"

Henry glanced at Ellie, who looked just as unimpressed as he felt.

"What."

Charles grinned back at them. "It's a good idea, trust me."

Well, Henry trusted him, and clearly Ellie did, too, because she shrugged. "Welp, guess we're garbage now."

Henry snorted and nodded, burrowing into the side of the trash ball opposite Ellie. Once they were both secure, Charles started hitting buttons. "Once you're there, I'm gonna fire a super accurate laser shot in the hull to make an entry hole for you. Get in, sabotage the engine, and get out of there so I can pick you back up."

"You got it, Charles," Ellie said, her voice muffled.

Henry lifted a thumbs-up from within the ball of garbage before pulling it back in.

The trash ball bounced, then shuddered…and then it was like he wasn't even moving.

"Testing comm frequency A113, come in Trash Pandas," said Charles's voice from Henry's ear.

"Trash Panda Red standing by," said Ellie with a giggle.

Henry stifled a snicker, but still radioed in. "Trash Panda, um, Robot standing by."

"Aw, c'mon, man, can't you think of anything better?" groaned Ellie.

"Wait, wait, wait, hang on, I got it!" Charles exclaimed. "You can be Trash Pandaborg!"

Henry grinned. "Sounds good, Trash Can."

Ellie burst out into laughter (possibly hysterics? Maybe she was just nervous about the mission) at that while Charles spluttered.

Henry let the moment take root in his chest like a warmth that would never go out. His two closest friends were playing off each other like they were made to be a team, and even though they didn't know who he was, it was easy to fall back in step with them.

He would tell them after the mission, he decided.

The moment came to an abrupt halt when the trash ball hit the Toppat station, and Henry quickly grabbed onto the nearby light to steady himself.

Ellie wasn't quite as lucky.

"Woah, woah woah woah-!"

Henry gasped at the sight of her floating away, then glanced down at his besuited left hand. His arm wasn't fully cybernetic, but Dr. V had clearly put in a good word at the last second because the suit had a port connected to the wrist-integrated grapple hook in his implants.

He grabbed tighter to the light with his right hand, then shot the grapple at Ellie.

The moment it hit her arm, he closed the hook and reeled her back in. Only once she was able to grab onto the light under her own power did Henry allow himself to relax. "You okay, Red?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay," Ellie panted. She gave herself a little shake, then shot him an oddly-heavy smile. "Thanks for the save back there."

…why had she said it like that?

Before Henry could ponder it for too long, Charles piped up. "Good catch, Borg! Now, lemme just find a good spot to…actually. Y'know what? Naw. This calls for some bold action."

Henry knew in an instant what Charles was planning to do. He'd only gotten to hear him talk about it countless times before his brief tenure at the Wall, after all.

Their UFO came barrelling in to Charles's excited fanfare.

"I'm the bold action MAAA-!"

Metal squealed (probably) and Henry found himself clinging to Ellie's wrist as they went flying into the rocket and tumbled to the catwalk inside.

"WARNING: CRITICAL DAMAGE TO CORE. PLEASE EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

The world grew fuzzy for a moment, but Henry quickly shook himself back to the present and pushed himself to his feet.

Ellie groaned and rolled onto her side. *"Charles, I take back what I said earlier. You're the idiot."

"I'll take that as a compliment!" Charles declared, laying facedown on the ground for a moment before shakily standing. "I've always wanted to do that."

"Of course you have," grumbled Ellie as she tugged her helmet off. "C'mon, we gotta get outta here before it blows."

Henry detached himself from his own suit, grimacing as his helmet caught on his facemask.

The right side came a bit loose, but he was fine.

Really, he was.

"Charles, your headset!" Ellie gasped.

Henry turned to look and stiffened.

Charles's headset was beaten in, dented, and broken. The microphone dangled by just one wire, but as Henry watched, the wire snapped.

"Eh, better my headset than my head," Charles said simply. "Now let's beat feet!"

Henry nodded and ran after the other two as they sprinted from the core of the station. They quickly skidded to a stop in front of a mostly-shut door, however.

"Don't tell me. This is our only way through," deadpanned Ellie.

"Got it in one, sister," Charles said with a grimace. "Anybody have any ideas?"

Henry considered brute-forcing their way out, or maybe having one of them hack the nearby keypad, but then something else caught his eye.

"What about the vent?" he asked, gesturing to the air duct in question.

"Ooh, good thinking!" Charles declared.

Henry reached down and pulled the grate clean off with his cybernetic strength, setting it aside, then stepped aside and gestured grandly to the opened vent. "Official government agents first."

"Why, thank you, my good man," said Ellie in an overly-posh voice as she clambered in.

"Most gentlemanly of you," added Charles with a giggle as he followed.

Henry grinned, then crawled in after them.

After a short while of wriggling through the vents, the alarms blaring outside, Charles started singing under his breath. "Craaawling throoough the veeents…"

"This staaation's gooonna blo-ooow…" chimed in Ellie.

Henry pressed his lips together to keep from laughing, but when the metal beneath them bucked in time with a loud bang elsewhere on the station, it became a lot easier to keep the giggles in.

They came to a stop, and Ellie hissed, "Toppats in the hall, give it a second."

After the promised second, she scrambled from the vents and turned around to pull the other two out and up. "There's gotta be escape pods around here somewhere, right? Every self-respecting space station's gotta have escape pods."

Charles glanced around for a second, then nodded. "I know where they are. Follow me!"

Henry found himself running after Charles and Ellie as they darted through the station, then came on a row of three still-unsent pods.

As they watched, a Toppat fled into the furthest one still usable, but between the one labelled "Luxury" and the one with a cracked window, they didn't really have the best options to choose from.

"I ain't dealing with the Toppat elites today," said Ellie, walking right up to the pod with a cracked window.

Henry shrugged and stood next to her as she pressed, then smacked, then punched the button to open the pod's door. He did his little 'operatives first' gesture again, but Charles and Ellie pushed him in front of them, situating him in the seat opposite the door before they went to sit down.

…weird, but okay.

"Man, what a rush!" said Ellie, sinking into her seat.

"Can't wait to get back to-" Charles started.

"Heh…" snickered the Toppat in the hall as he yanked Charles out of the escape pod.

Henry was moving before he even fully realized what had happened.

Body-check the Toppat-

Grab Charles under his arms-

Hurl Charles back in the pod-

Realize distantly that his mask came off-

Taze the ever-living daylights out of the Toppat, no mercy-

Watch the escape pod's door slam shut-

"HENRY STICKMIN, DON'T YOU DARE!"

Ellie's furious shriek snapped him back to himself, and Henry whirled around, wide-eyed.

Ellie and Charles were both pounding on the door now, but neither of them seemed surprised to see Henry standing there. They mostly seemed terrified.

Oh, right, they were in the only escape pod in reach and-

-yep, there it went.

Henry's earpiece crackled, and Ellie's voice came back. "DON'T YOU DARE DIE ON ME AGAIN, STICKMIN, DO YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Seriously, dude, you gotta find another way outta there!" added Charles.

Henry took a shaky breath and spoke. "You…you knew?"

"Only since Dr. V gave you a checkup," Charles said mournfully.

"It was my idea to eavesdrop," said Ellie. "We wanted to let you tell us in your own time, not-"

A choked sob.

"Not this!"

The computerized voice of the satellite spoke. "T-minus 30 seconds to self-destruct. Better hurry."

"If you die on us again, I'll, I'll strangle your ghost!" Ellie snapped.

Henry scrubbed at his eyes and sniffled. Before he could say his goodbyes, however…

"T-minus 20 seconds."

Henry squinted at the metal on his arm, then gasped.

His implants!

Dr. V, you mad genius!

He raced forward and started beating on the door that had sealed once Ellie and Charles had been ejected.

"15, 14, 13,"

He was denting the metal, but it wasn't enough-!

"12, 11,"

Henry roared from the effort, from the fear, from the determination he felt welling up in his chest-

"10,"

He broke through to the outside.

"9,"

He tore the hole he'd made open even wider.

"8,"

He stepped back to get a running start.

"7,"

Further…

"6,"

Further…

"5,"

NOW!

"4,"

Henry slapped a button on his arm and sprinted for his life.

"3,"

Mechanisms in his back and arm unfolded rapidly.

"2,"

A handlebar extended from his left wrist, and a steering column shot down from its middle.

"1,"

Henry leapt from the station and grabbed the other side of the handlebars while a thin platform folded out from the steering column.

"0."

He revved the engine.

"Goodbye."

And then there was light.

3 weeks ago

Charles had been on a routine patrol (and definitely not another search for Henry) when he saw the Russian military corralling a redheaded woman.

Considering the fact that he was currently flying over American soil, that was a big no-no.

He pressed his intercom button and descended. "Hey, there, neighbors! Can't help but notice, uh, you're on American property. Um. Why?"

Instead of answering, the Russians fled. One of them tried to grab the redhead, but she jabbed an elbow into his gut and made a break in Charles's direction, waving her arms frantically.

Well, Charles would be happy to oblige.

He dropped lower to the ground and opened the door. "Quick, get in!"

The redhead leapt up into the helicopter and rolled all the way to the other side.

"Pilot, if you take girl, you take prisoner of Wall!" barked one of the Russians.

Charles glanced back at his new passenger, noting how bloody and roughed-up she seemed, then zeroing in on a familiar-seeming face.

He hit the intercom.

"Actually, I think I'm bringing long-lost American citizen and information specialist Ellen Rose back home," Charles quipped lightly. Then, with forced cluelessness, "You guys wouldn't happen to know how she disappeared off the face of the earth, would you?"

That got the Russian leader to back off. He was visibly seething, but he didn't make any further moves to stop them.

Charles flicked off his intercom with a self-satisfied, "That's what I thought."

He turned on the autopilot and set a course for the base, then hopped from his seat and helped Ellen sit up. "You alright, ma'am? You look pretty beat-up."

"Blood's not mine," Ellen said shortly. Then she shook herself and offered a weak grin. "Thanks for the assist, flyguy."

Charles swallowed, but decided to hold off on asking whose blood it was that stained her prisonwear. Instead, he gave her a light slap on the back. "No prob. Just doing my job."

The radio crackled, and General Galeforce's voice came out. "Charlie, why're you coming back so soon? Your patrols are usually longer than this."

"Ooh, I gotta take that," Charles said with a grimace.

"Go on, I'll be fine," said Ellen, waving him towards the cockpit.

Charles squeezed her shoulder, then headed back up. "Oh, uh, heya, General. I didn't, um, find Henry, but I did find somebody else who'd gone missing. Apparently the Russians had her in custody and-"

Ellen's voice was almost too quiet to hear. "You knew Henry?"

Charles's heart sank like a rock, and he slowly turned back around. "Why did you say it like that? Why the past tense?"

"Henry Stickmin, right? He got captured and taken to the Wall," Ellen choked. "He helped me break out, but, but-!"

The world shattered.

"No," Charles breathed.

"The blood on my clothes isn't mine," repeated Ellen. Her face screwed up in a valiant effort to keep herself from breaking down, but it didn't help. "I'm, I'm so sorry-!"

"Dear God," breathed General Galeforce, who had apparently heard every single word.

Charles stumbled to the side of the helicopter and crumpled to the ground, unseeing and unhearing.

Ellen scooted over and placed a tentative hand on his shoulder, and he broke.

In the Present

The Toppat station exploded in a burst of light that was as beautiful as it was terrible.

Ellie couldn't look away.

"C'mon, Henry, you've beaten death before, c'mon!" chanted Charles under his breath.

Ellie searched the wreckage frantically, begging to see some flicker of motion going against the flow.

For a long, horrible moment, there was nothing.

Then-

"I see him," breathed Ellie. Then, louder, as she shook his shoulder, "Charles, I see him!"

"What?! Where?!"

"There!"

Ellie jabbed a finger at the window, and Charles crowded in to look-

-and there he was, weaving between scraps of metal and heading straight for them. There was a faint blue glow from his right eye that only grew brighter as he approached, and-

Charles laughed breathlessly. "His dumb scooter from the Tunisian Diamond heist! Dr. V must have souped it up and put it in his implants or something!"

"I am never gonna underestimate that lady ever again!" Ellie crowed.

Henry got close enough to the pod to be visible as more than a dot, and he immediately shot them a teary, cheesy grin and started doing scooter tricks in the sky.

"Henry, do a flip!" cheered Charles, stealing Ellie's comm.

Henry did a kickflip. Then he did an aileron roll, just for the heck of it.

Charles whooped and fell back onto his seat with his arms in the air.

Ellie laughed until she cried, only stopping when the escape pod began to rumble from re-entry. She took her comm back. "Wait, Henry, the atmosphere-!"

Henry flashed them a thumbs-up, then hit a button on his souped-up scooter. Metal plates rose up around him, and suddenly his scooter was a very small, very sleek pod of its own.

The two pods fell to the Earth together, with Henry's orbiting slowly around the other.

"He's alive, he's alive!" Charles repeated, his hands flapping fast enough to blur in Ellie's vision.

Ellie could only laugh.

The Toppat pod ejected a parachute after a few minutes of falling, and Henry quickly pulled his own back up to rejoin them. Now that they weren't falling at terminal velocity, he had the scooter-pod retract back into his implants in favor of the jet wings he apparently had, the better to do loop-di-loops in front of the window.

Ellie snorted thickly. "Henry, the General's gonna have your head."

"Eh, not if we get it first," remarked Charles conversationally.

Henry managed to sign to them as they fell- ooh, had he been avoiding signing to try and act like a different person?- with a cocky smirk. "You'll have to catch me, first!"

"You're on!" Ellie cheered.

They came to a landing in the forest, and Ellie downright kicked the door off its hinges and tackled Henry clean out of the air before he had the chance to even pretend to fly off. "Gotcha!"

"Ooh, yeah, dogpile!" Charles whooped, leaping on top of both of them.

Henry laughed, and he laughed, and he laughed a bit more, tears starting to fall. The TTS voice he'd been using kicked back into gear, though distorted and damaged-sounding. "You'rrre not m-m-mad?"

"Oh, I'm downright furious!" said Ellie brightly. "You should have just told us, you dweeb, absolute peabrain, empty-headed, no thoughts-!"

"I'll probably be annoyed later," Charles said. He tugged Henry to his feet ("Hey-!" protested Ellie as she fell to the ground) and engulfed him in a bear hug. "Right now, I'm just glad you're alive."

Ellie gulped down the lump in her throat and nodded, throwing her arms around both of them and burying her face in their combined shoulders.

When the General came to find them, he'd learn Henry's identity and alive status, and Henry would get ripped a new one.

For the moment, though, Ellie just clung to her two closest friends and didn't let go.

3 weeks and 1 day ago

"If we could get you up there, you could get in and open this door," Ellie said, tapping the door to the security office for emphasis.

Her silent companion nodded thoughtfully, then gestured for Ellie to lift him with the Force.

Ellie nodded and focused, levitating him to the ceiling and letting him drop.

A second later, he fell face-first onto the ground. Ellie winced, but he just beamed at her before scrambling to his feet and inspecting the buttons.

After taking a moment more to check the buttons over, he pressed one, sliding open the door to the security office.

Ellie glanced back, but the guard on the next floor up didn't seem to have noticed.

She hurried into the security office with a grin and followed her fellow escapee to an empty elevator shaft. "Good job, dude."

Her friend smiled, then cautiously moved his arms in-

"Ooh, sign language?" Ellie realized.

The other prisoner nodded in relief and repeated himself. "My name is H-E-N-R-Y."

Ellie grinned. "Nice to meet you, Henry. I'm Ellie, and I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Henry beamed.

MISSION COMPLETE

RANK:

UNREAL SUPERHERO THREE

#rosie writes #henry stickmin #ellie rose #charles calvin #valiant hero #presumed dead #convict allies #ghost inmate #revenged #with a slight sprinkling of that one fail where henry sits down on the train and doesn't get up because Anxiety™#BREAKING NEWS: rosie finally writes something without any actual curse words for the first time in years!#the stick figures just don't have the Vibe to me (though ellie gets closest) dfsajlfdashlfkj #wait hang on more timeline tags #triple threat #special brovert ops #cleaned 'em out #(not really that last one as much but the component ranks (gspi and gi) are there. ellie and charles are the brovert ops here though fkdsj)#ellie gets to be the #international rescue operative #how many timelines can i combine into an amalgamation without it losing all coherency? survey says This Many

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