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hippolotamus · 2 months

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Eddie’s thumb hovers over the location dropdown in the weather app, just like every day. And just like all those other days he allows himself to click it. The list unfolds as he huffs a humorless chuckle at how much it’s grown.

When he got his first cell, the only place he ever needed was current location. Technically, it’s still the only one he needs. Regardless he’s continued adding to it through the years. Hershey, Virginia Beach, a couple random towns in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida. Fucking Sundance, Wyoming. All because he gave up pretending he doesn’t need to know.

It’s sunny, mid-50s today. A nice break for the time of year. Eddie scrolls through the upcoming week, noting a heavy snowstorm hitting in a few days. His nose wrinkles and he begins to worry his bottom lip between his teeth. Another thing born out of pure habit.

Not for the first time he types out a few messages before deleting them again. Eddie doesn’t even know if he’s got the right number. It’s been nearly three years since they exchanged anything at all. Not since Eddie could have manned up and told Shannon he could be a father, but not a husband. Not her husband, anyway.

He could have just been honest and said what he wanted when she finally decided to show up in her second trimester. He and Evan could have continued building a life together. But Eddie’s never claimed to be smart. Especially when it comes to all the bullshit his own dad drilled into his head about responsibility and honor and god knows what the fuck else. In the end it was too sticky to let go, trapping him like a spider web.

He can’t even say it was worth it because she loves him and they’re making it work for the sake of Christopher. Because why would that have happened? Instead all he got was a tour in Afghanistan, divorce papers (not that he’s surprised or blames her at all) and coming back to an empty house. Well, not totally empty. He’s got a son he’s still getting to know outside of a screen and shitty internet connection. A son he could have been raising with the love of his life this whole time.

Hope your coat’s warm enough, cowboy he types.

“Daddy!” Chris babbles from the floor, using Eddie’s pant leg to pull himself to standing. His toothy smile is on full display while he looks up at Eddie like he hung the goddamn moon and stars.

“Hey there little man.” Eddie tosses his phone to the side in favor of picking up his son and arranging him on his lap. Chris snatches up the yellow car from the next couch cushion, choosing to run it in a small loop over Eddie’s forearm, shoulder and chest. “Where are you off to today? Big race?”

Chris shakes his head vigorously. “Outer space,” he says as though that should have been obvious.

Eddie chuckles to himself. “Of course. How long until liftoff?”

There’s no answer as plastic wheels continue zooming along until Chris decides he’d rather be on the floor again. Eddie loosely assists as his son climbs back down. Some days are more difficult than others, but he tries to follow the physical therapist’s advice to let Chris do as much as he can by himself. She says it won’t do either of them any good in the long run. Eddie can certainly see the wisdom in that even if he’s constantly itching to roll Chris in layers of bubble wrap.

He blindly grabs for his phone, buzzing from the coffee table. “Hello?”

At first there’s complete silence and he winces thinking it’s yet another telemarketer. Before he can check he hears rustling, like someone’s covering the mouthpiece.

“Hello?” He asks again, more insistent this time.

“Uh, sorry. Didn’t think you’d actually pick up.”

Eddie thinks he might drop the phone. Or throw up. Maybe both? Probably both.

“Evan?”

tagged by the lovely and talented @monsterrae1 @spotsandsocks for Inspiration Saturday (go check their posts, I’m very excited) Instead of working on anything current, I wrote this instead. Not sure I have any actual plans to expand it, I just had to get it out of my system, y’know? So, bon appetit or whatever 💖

no pressure tagging (lmk if you want added or removed) @stereopticons @this-is-bwr @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @disasterbuckdiaz @wikiangela @tizniz @theotherbuckley @elvensorceress @apothecarose @barbiediaz @buckaroosheart @buddierights @chaosandwolves @daffi-990 @diazsdimples @eowon @fortheloveofbuddie @gayedmundodiaz @giddyupbuck @heartshapedvows @honestlydarkprincess @hoodie-buck @indestructibleheart @jesuisici33 @ladydorian05 @lemonzestywrites @loserdiaz @spaceprincessem @statueinthestone @steadfastsaturnsrings @the-likesofus @theplaceyoustillrememberdreaming @thewolvesof1998 @vanillahigh00 @watchyourbuck @weewootruck @wildlife4life @your-catfish-friend @epicbuddieficrecs

#evan buckley #eddie diaz #christopher diaz #alternate timeline #eddie is a great dad #hippo writes #buddie wip #maybe????#buddie ficlet #possibly???#idk #inspiration saturday #fic: you can plan for a change in the weather and time #divorced eddie diaz

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ratha-firesong · 5 months

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Blind Lucerys pt 4

The sound of the waves was deafening to Lucerys and he fought the urge to cover his ears since a hand was preoccupied with being held. Aemond’s grip was gentle and he slowly walked along the sandy beach where he said he wished to take him. It was a surprise his uncle informed him and one he wanted to give to him since he had returned to the Red Keep.

“How far now?” Lucerys asked curiously.

“Not far,” Aemond answered, voice excited, “and I bet you will know it before I tell you we are there.”

Strange, the blind prince thought. He didn’t quite understand what Aemond meant by that, but didn’t inquire further. He trusted Aemond completely.

The loud sound of sleeping breaths soon overpowered the waves and it dawned on Lucerys where Aemond was taking him - or more precisely *whom* he was being brought to.

Lucerys felt the heat of her body before they were close enough. The sensation of a great form looming before the pair of princes was unlike anything he had felt. It was nothing like Syrax or even Caraxes. It was almost mind boggling how intense this sense of knowing Lucerys felt when they stood before the massive expanse of Vhagar. Her breathing was heavy and was as if something caught in her throat, but he expected it was due to age. She was the oldest after all.

“Gods,” Lucerys gasped and almost stumbled in the sand as he swayed on his feet. Aemond steadied him with a soft laugh.

“I could image she feels just as intense as she looks.” There was a smirk in Aemond’s voice. His uncle could gloat all he wanted because he spoke the truth.

He felt Aemond gently guide him closer to the massive dragon and he heard the sand shift, breathing becoming more aware of their presence. The heat became stronger and before he knew it, Aemond pressed Lucerys’ palm over the rough scales of Vhagar’s hide. He felt the pulse of her blood under his palm, the beating of her heart, and the deep breaths of her inhale and exhale.

*You should remember Lucerys,”* Aemond spoke in Valyrian to his dragon as he pressed his chest against his back.

“It would be a wonder if she did.”

“She has a deep memory I suspect.” Aemond seemed deep in thought before he leaned in to whisper against his ear. “That night I could had been badly hurt because I claimed her, but you defended me and suffered for me, so I have a debt I must repay. You asked in the Godswood what it felt like to fly, well…I shall give you that experience since I know my words did it no justice.”

Lucerys’ jaw almost dropped, but before he could say anything, his uncle started to move him towards the long ropes and netting that made up the saddle. He was urged to climb, Aemond staying close behind and guiding him carefully up the massive body of the dragon. It took quite a long time before he felt the hard saddle and he hauled himself up onto it. Aemond was quick to move behind him and he felt a rope wrapped around his waist snuggly. When he turned his head back to his uncle with a questioning expression, he just laughed.

“Trust me, I almost fell off the saddle the first time. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

Aemond settled himself and he wrapped an arm around his waist. Just that feeling alone made Lucerys blush. For some reason this felt more intimate than just a simple ride.

*”Forward, Vhagar! Into the skies!”* Aemond commanded and the world for Lucerys fell from him.

The large wings sounded like gale force winds and Vhagar gave out a low roar as she bounded across the beach. He felt the shifting under the saddle and the great wings opening until finally his stomach dropped as they were lifted up into the skies. Lucerys cried out and his body was pushed back against Aemond’s by the sheer force of her liftoff and his hands scrambled to find purchase on the front of the saddle. The wind whipped around them and he heard the far off crash of the waves below them now. They were in the skies now.

Lucerys was flying.

The warmth of the sun felt almost closer and he could feel the air currents flowing like ocean waves under a ship. It was cooler up in the sky, but did not bother the blind prince. As Vhagar leveled out, his shaking hands let go of the front of the saddle and he dared to stretch them out wide as if he grew a pair of his own wings.

For the first time in a very long time, Lucerys laughed.

“Was it everything you imagined it was?” Aemond said, leaning in close so his voice could be heard over the wind.

“No!” Lucerys said as a beaming smile broke over his face. “It’s so much better!”

Lucerys felt like a god.

Aemond gave that to him.

To be continued???

#aemond targaryen #aemond x lucerys #lucemond #lucerys x aemond #lucemond fic #lucerys the blind #lucerys the blind fic #lucerys velaryon

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raaorqtpbpdy · 1 year

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Don't Crack Under Pressure

Written for the Phic Phight Prompt: (Not phantom planet compliant) Danny's finally an astronaut! He's somehow got through college, after barely managing to pull through high school. But after he manages to make it into a NASA rocket and travel to the final frontier, his helmet cracks. So how does he explain how he got through the entire day to the rest of the crew with a cracked helmet? (from @shadowpixel)

Chapter 1: Let's Take a Rocketship to Space (I hear it's a real swinging place)

AO3 Link

[Warnings for deep space and assumed character death]

Despite the nightmare that was high school, and just barely getting his diploma, Danny managed to get into college. By some miracle he got his engineering degree, and now he was achieving his lifelong dream of becoming an astronaut. His first mission was with a crew of mostly veterans to investigate a NASA probe that had been sent to Psyche, an asteroid in the Main Asteroid Belt which traveled between Mars and Jupiter.

The probe had sent signals indicating that it had collected samples and was processing data, but due to unknown circumstances, it had suddenly stopped transmitting information about Psyche's surface, even though it was still responding to the deep space optical communication signals. All efforts to repair or reprogram it remotely had failed. That was why NASA had decided to send the Eros mission.

Captain Simon Lao, copilot Denali North, engineer Danny Fenton, and geo-chemist Dr. Ivy Grace Carson were selected for the approximately 2 year mission. Their ship would use the same advanced communications system as the Psyche probe to communicate with Earth using optical signals transmitted via lasers, which traveled faster than radio waves, so they wouldn't be completely cut off from their friends and family, despite traveling farther than any manned spacecraft had ever gone before.

Just five years ago, it would have been a six year mission there and back, if not longer, but using improved ionic propulsion with a little ectoplasmic boost, partially designed by Danny, the speed at which they could reach the asteroid increased dramatically. Once the mission was green-lit, it still took months of testing and training and preparing before the Eros spacecraft could finally launch, but this was it. Today was the day.

"Communications test," Simon said into their headset. "Mission control, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear Lao," came the voice of Miranda in the mission control room. "Check ignition and prepare for liftoff."

Danny felt like he might vibrate right out of his skin in his excitement. He'd been to space once before, that time Technus took over a satellite, but this was different. This was an actual, real life, NASA mission, on a real NASA spaceship with a real space suit and everything. He'd finally made it big. He'd gotten to the place he'd wanted to be since he was two years old and watched the Endeavor launch on TV.

The time leading up to the final takeoff passed agonizingly slowly but at last the countdown commenced. The engines roared to life.

"Nervous, Fenton?" Ivy Grace asked with a smirk. Everyone else in the cockpit had gone on missions for NASA before, making Danny the only newbie, but he was the furthest thing from nervous.

"Not on your life, Doc," Danny responded with a grin. "I've been waiting for this moment as long as I can remember."

The thing about space was that it really wasn't all that far away. Hard to get to, yes, because straight up, and up, and up was not an easy direction to go, but it wasn't necessarily far. The ship took off, and less than ten minutes later it had escaped Earth's atmosphere. Danny stared out the window in awe at the planet Earth growing farther and farther away.

"Go ahead and unbuckle your seat-belts, and you are now free to move about the cabin," Simon said once the autopilot confirmed course and they were on their way.

Danny immediately got out of his seat, almost phasing though his seat-belt by accident in his frenzy, instead of unbuckling it. Long since used to zero gravity from his time in the Ghost Zone, Danny easily flew to the rearmost window to watch his home planet shrink into a speck in the distance while his crew-mates shook their heads fondly. And thus began the ten month journey to the asteroid Psyche.

The beauty of space was something Danny could never get tired of, even if this mission were to last a million years. Even after months in space, his crew-mates often found him floating by the window, just watching the stars outside for hours on end. Of course, Danny had plenty of other things to do, and he did them, but there were also stars. And they were breathtaking. The rest of the crew preferred to pass their time in different ways.

Ivy Grace spent most of her time isolating herself in her bunk to work on her manuscript with headphones blaring the playlists she'd downloaded for the journey. She was the type who never seemed to get lonely. No matter how many times they asked her, she completely refused to tell any of them what her manuscript was about, which led the rest of them to the obvious conclusion that she was writing hardcore erotica, probably involving tentacles.

Their captain Simon, on the other hand, took great joy in dragging the rest of them into social past-times together. Somehow, they knew a ludicrous number of party games and had packed a two terabyte hard-drive full of movies for the crew to watch during the trip. Simon couldn't seem to stand being alone for ten minutes if they were awake. At least they didn't mind quiet though, and sometimes they would sit in silence with Danny, just watching out the windows.

Lastly there was Denali. She'd been an air force pilot before applying at NASA, but only to pay for college. Originally, she had wanted to go to art school, but after discovering a genuine love for flying, she'd decided to go to NASA instead. For the Eros mission, she'd brought along six, cheap, empty sketchbooks, and requested as many pressurized ink capsules for her pen as she could get away with, since regular pens couldn't write without gravity. She was determined to improve her art skills while she was in space for months at a time, and often asked the rest of them to pose for her drawings.

Once a day, they'd receive communication from Earth. Mission control would call to confirm that they were still on course, and there were no problems on the Eros craft, and they'd get messages from their loved ones back home. Denali got to read her mother's updates on what was happening in the tight-knit community she'd grown up in. Ivy-Grace messaged back and forth with her girlfriend. Simon threw a full on party on the Eros when they got the news that their sister was pregnant and they were going to be an auncle.

Danny got to spend an hour and a half once a week decoding his sister's overly long ghost activity reports from Amity Park. Sam and Tucker kept him updated on how life was back on Earth and added vague statements at the end of their messages that told him things were fine in the Ghost Zone too, even though "all quiet under the green sky" looked like utter nonsense to mission control and the rest of the crew. Danny's parents managed to work in how proud they were of him in every single message they sent.

Ten months passed by slowly but surely. The four of them were already used to each other after their time spent in training, and they knew the importance of getting along with people you were stuck with for two years without escape, so no arguments or bad blood ever developed among them.

After a lengthy travel period, the Psyche asteroid finally came within sight, and the crew assumed landing positions.

"Alright, Denali, prep for landing," Simon ordered, slipping seamlessly into their serious captain mode. Denali flipped the appropriate switches to activate the automatic landing system, and prepared to take over manual control if something went wrong.

"Ready to go," she confirmed.

"Then take us down." It was a pretty smooth landing, with only slight jostling and no malfunctions or unexpected obstacles. Once they touched down on Psyche's surface, Simon sent a communication to Earth. "Mission control, this is Eros, we have safely landed on the asteroid's surface and are preparing to track down the Psyche probe for diagnostic, over."

Even at light speed, communication between Earth and the Main Asteroid Belt took several minutes. Eventually, the response came back. "Confirmed, Eros, keep us posted and let us know if anything happens. Good luck, and stay safe, over and out."

"You heard her, finish suiting up and lets go," Danny urged enthusiastically. He was already in his suit, fully ready to step out onto the asteroid, and just waiting on the other three. The plan was to get the Psyche probe and take it back to the ship to repair or reprogram it as needed, and to download the data it had collected on the asteroid so far.

The Psyche probe was a ways away from the ship, but that wasn't too much of a problem. Denali dropped their buggy onto the surface, and she and Danny headed out to pick up the probe while Ivy Grace collected her samples and Simon made sure that anything that might be needed to deal with the probe was ready to go by the time it got back. As the engineer, Danny would be the one doing most of the repairs, although Ivy Grace was on standby with some chemical tests to run, in case something like that was the problem.

As they drove toward the probe, Danny's feet tapped on the floor of the buggy with excited energy.

"Careful there, Fenton," Denali teased. "Looks like you're about to shake right out of your suit."

"Sorry, it's just... I'm happy," Danny told her. "If I were to call up five-year-old Danny and tell him I was driving on an actual asteroid right now, I think he'd be so thrilled his brain would explode and he would drop dead on the spot."

"I dunno, it kinda seems like I'm looking at a five-year-old Danny right now," she ribbed, and he laughed. "I guess it's a good thing you can't make calls to the past then, or else you'd never get here."

Danny laughed harder. "If you think a little thing like death would stop me from getting here, you're dead wrong." It wouldn't, and in fact, it hadn't.

The two of them talked a little more until the probe was in sight, then got out to give it a look. A preliminary once-over didn't reveal any obvious problems, like exposed wiring from a panel that had shaken loose, or significant exterior damage. They hitched it to the buggy, ready to tow it back to the ship.

So far, the mission had gone off without a single snag, and the crew had high hopes that it would stay smooth sailing the rest of the way. However, everyone knows the moment you start to think everything's going your way is the moment everything starts to go horribly wrong. It was at this moment, that things went horribly, horribly wrong.

The latch on the tow cable broke as Denali and Danny were headed back to the buggy. That alone wouldn't be a problem, because there were spare latches, and it was easily replaced. The problem arose when the cable retracted, and the broken latch slammed into Danny's helmet with a horrible crack that resonated through the headset in Danny's helmet and broadcasted directly into Denali's ears.

She gasped in horror and skipped to Danny's side as fast as the asteroid's low gravity allowed. "Oh my God!" she shouted. "Mayday! Simon, Doc, something happened, the tow-latch broke and hit Danny. His visor is cracked. Oh my God, oh my God."

"Denali, breathe," Simon ordered, their voice level but stern. "Assess the damage. If it's not too bad, he could still make it."

"Right!" Denali turned Danny over to get a cleared look at his visor. "Oh no..." she breathed out, eyes stinging with tears. "It's... it's broken, all the way through. There's a hole the size of my fist, oh my God, Simon there's no... there's no way he could've survived. He's... he's gone." Emotion made her words catch on her tongue, and she blinked rapidly to keep from crying. If she was going to drive back to the ship, she had to see clearly.

There was nothing to be heard in their headsets for a long time.

"Well, bring him back and we'll—" Ivy Grace started to say, but Simon cut her off.

"No," they said. "There's nothing we can do for him if his helmet is fully breached. We can't have his corpse decaying on the Eros during the return trip, and we can't bury him on a metal asteroid." No one had anything to say to that. Simon was right, of course, but they didn't have to like it. "Just... leave him where he is and bring back the Psyche probe. We should get to work if we're gonna have to figure out how to fix her without our engineer.

"At least... you know Danny," Ivy Grace said brokenly, "he'd probably be over the moon to die out in space and not on boring, old planet Earth."

"Y-yeah," Denali agreed, and they all politely ignored the way her voice cracked. "I'm pretty... I'm pretty sure I've heard him say something like that before."

"Yeah, me too," Simon said. "I thought it was morbid then, and I still think so. I'll make the report to mission control. They'll probably bring in an engineer to walk us through a diagnostic and repair."

"Right." Denali tried to swallow the lump in her throat as she changed the latch on the tow line and hooked the probe up again. Then she returned to the buggy to drive back all by herself. "I'm on my way back with the Psyche probe... alone."

Next Chapter

#phic phight #phic phight 2023 #danny phantom #astronaut danny #danny fenton #dp #fic #things i wrote #space #nasa #not phantom planet compliant #original characters

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lexosaurus · 1 year

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youtube

Went to edit my post and I realized I'd forgotten to make a post to begin with—oops!

Anyway, here is my final piece for @lexiepiper's fic The Void Yawns Softly, which is an AMAZING reveal fic where Danny works for NASA and must travel to space to rescue his crew!

All art was done by @k-beckerart (@quishaphantom), and you can listen to the first two pieces I made here: Liftoff / Vlad's Theme

The whole project was incredibly fun and I learned a LOT about orchestrating with midi and combining synths to traditional orchestra. This song in particular was a really great creative exercise in incorporating lots of little symbolism things and hidden elements from the fic!

I was so excited to have the opportunity to try my hand at making music to a fic, and I can't wait to do it again soon!

#danny phantom #the void yawns softly #music #my music #please read this fic it is INCREDIBLE #danno works for NASA is a trend i've recently fallen in love with #so this fic gives me that Good Food™️#Youtube

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 1 month

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NASA delivers science instrument to JAXA's Martian Moons mission

On March 14, NASA handed over its gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer instrument to JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) for integration onto JAXA's MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission spacecraft and final system-level testing.

NASA's Mars-moon Exploration with Gamma Ray and Neutrons (MEGANE) instrument, developed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, in collaboration with colleagues from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California, will play a major role in the MMX mission, which aims to characterize and determine the origin of Mars' moons Phobos and Deimos and deliver a sample from Phobos to Earth.

Scientists suspect the asteroid-sized bodies either are remnants of an ancient collision between Mars and a large impactor or are themselves asteroids captured by Mars' gravity. By measuring the energies of neutrons and gamma rays emitted from the surface of Phobos, MEGANE will let MMX "see" the elemental composition of the moon's surface and help peg the likely origin of the moon.

"MEGANE will be a key instrument on MMX, making a big contribution toward the goal of understanding the origin of the Martian moons," said Thomas Statler, MEGANE program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "NASA is glad to see MEGANE ready for integration, another step in NASA's continuing collaboration with JAXA on this groundbreaking mission."

The instrument team received the green light last fall to ship MEGANE (pronounced meh-GAH-nay, the Japanese word for "eyeglasses") after the project's standing review board evaluated the device's readiness. That milestone marked the end of a demanding 6-year design and development process, which met NASA's cost and schedule constraints.

"Passing the pre-ship review and delivering the hardware are significant steps for all those working on MEGANE," said APL's David Lawrence, the instrument's principal investigator. "Like all spaceflight builds, we have had challenges getting to this point, but we are excited to see how MEGANE works with all the other spacecraft components for this exciting MMX mission."

APL staff members Erin Hoffer and John Stinchcomb were in Japan to participate in the handover of the MEGANE hardware to JAXA and the spacecraft manufacturer Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) on Wednesday.

MEGANE is the latest in APL's growing list of neutron and gamma-ray spectrometer instruments developed for space missions, which include NASA's MESSENGER mission to Mercury, the Psyche mission launched in October 2023 and the agency's upcoming Dragonfly mission.

With MEGANE now in Japan, the MMX team will begin integrating the scientific instruments, including MEGANE, with other spacecraft components, before putting the entire system through a series of tests in preparation for launch, which is scheduled for fiscal year 2026, aboard a JAXA H3 rocket.

"For me personally, I'm looking forward to all the integration and test operations that are to come," said Sarah Bucior, a space systems engineer at APL and the MEGANE I&T Lead Engineer. "I love rockets, so I'm really interested to see how they build their spacecraft and then follow it along to launch operations and liftoff."

IMAGE....U.S. and Japanese team members gather around and discuss the gamma-ray spectrometer portion of the MEGANE instrument during its development at Johns Hopkins APL. Credit: NASA/JAXA/Johns Hopkins APL/Ed Whitman

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #astrophysics

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go-river-flows · 1 year

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Welcome back to the Avatar Programme

Part 5 of ?

Summary: I was part of the Avatar programme. Simple as that. Then that changed after the schoolhouse incident.

Warning! More sad, more mentions of Tom Sully, relationship reveal between (Y/N) and Tom

Helping Norm carry some gear to the flightline, he followed behind. Trudy already there, she waved as we both approached. Wainfleet already there, his arms resting on the rifle on the side door, blowing a whistle as he lay his eyes on me

“Hey (Y/N), nice to see you back in Avatar form again,” Trudy gave me a fistbump.

“This is Norm,” I gestured to Norm’s avatar form who gave a small wave, despite him holding two of my cases for samples. Putting the gear into Trudy’s Aerospatiale SA-2 Samson, whom she called ‘Baby’. Grace arrived not long after with Jake in tow. Hopping in, Trudy piloted us out of Hell’s Gate at 0900.

After flying for some time, watching the lush green scenery, flying with some of the Pandoran wildlife, near bodies of water and waterfalls almost like a sightseeing cruise, Norm and Jake’s expression of wonder and excitement plastered on their faces. Our long braids billow in the wind. We finally arrived at a spot in the jungle. Wainfleet and Jake hopped out first to clear the area with the rifles as we followed suit. Grace motioned for Trudy to cut the engine as we were going to stay for a while.

“Norm! your pack,” Grace raised her voice over the whirling blades. Norm turned back to grab it as I grabbed two of my four cases. Sitting down on the ledge I took my boots off, feeling the blades of grass between my large blue feet.

Grace gestured for Wainfleet, “Stay with the ship. One idiot with a gun is enough.”

“You the man, Doc,” Wainfleet responded.

As they wandered into the surrounding jungle, I headed to work. Not straying too far from the Samson. Coming across some recognisable plants I began taking samples of it, opening my case I opened the clear cylindrical containers, adding flora and herbs I could find within an arm's reach. Even going back to the Samson to get another case after filing the two cases worth of samples.

Grace, Norm and Jake somewhere off in the jungle talking about how everything is connected and the connection to Eywa. I could hear them, not too far away when the call of a hammerhead titanothere vibrated through the air. Loud thumping coming from the same direction. I stopped what I was doing to listen, getting up on my feet, I made my way to the same direction. Hearing some rustling from the brush, I watched as a thanator crept up behind them. The titanothere charged toward Jake, as he roared back.

“Grace! Thanator!” I yelled out to them, as the large feline-like animal snuck up behind them. Grace and Norm turned to look, now even more nervous. The thanator leapt over Jake, hissing at the hammerhead creatures. Turning back to Jake letting out a terrifying howl.

“So what about this one? Run? Don't run? What?” Jake questioned, his rifle pointed at it.

“Run! Definitely run!” and with that, Jake took off. He weaved through trees as the large feline viciously charged at him, running into the brush out of sight.

“Oh my god!” Norm freaked out, “What the hell was that?!”

“Thanator, get back to the Samson,” I told them.

“I'm not letting you go after him, (Y/N),” Grace yanked my arm, as I was about to leap over a fallen tree trunk, “You're not equipped to fight.”

“Someone has to. I know how to track. And I have some medical gear, in case To– Jake gets injured,” I say, pulling my arm from her grip.

“No,” Grace simply said, tightening her grip, “We’ll look for him together. Let's head back.”

I sigh, looking in the direction that Jake ran. We headed back to the Samson, picking up my case on the way back. All hopping in as Grace explained what happened to Trudy and Wainfleet. After liftoff, we started searching for Jake from the sky, unaware of what was going on below us. We searched until the sky slowly turned to dusk.

“I'm gonna have to call it, guys,” Trudy says over comms, “We’re not allowed to run night ops. Colonel’s orders.”

Grace sighed, removing the binoculars from her eyes. Norm and I continued to keep our eyes peeled on any movement down below.

“I'm sorry, Doc, he’s just gonna have to hang on till morning.”

“He won't make it till morning,” Grace states, clicking her tongue. Trudy turned the vehicle as we made our way back to Hell’s Gate. Landing her Baby on the flightline, Norm and I carried the cases to the science drop off zone.Then returning to the Avatar Compound, as the sky turned darker. Changing into more comfortable clothes before settling into the hammock. I stared at the empty bed Jake’s avatar rested the night before. It reminded me of my final moment with Tom. The soft kiss he gave lingering, I traced my lips with my finger at the memory. Tears falling from my eyes. Remembering those smiles he gave when I walked into any room he was in. His eyes smiled too as he stood opening his arms, giving me a big bear hug. He’d kiss my temple, as I asked him what he was doing. But now I can only grieve his loss and absence, the only reminder of him was his avatar, and hell, his own damn brother. Feeling the same pain when Anuk passed away. I silently cried myself to sleep.

Waking up back in the cradle, I opened it and sat up, rolling my neck as Ruth approached, handing me a cup of water. I downed it before standing up. Approaching Jake’s cradle I stood over it. Unaware of his encounter with a certain Na’Vi. Grace met me at his cradle as we both debated whether we should bring him out.

“No, we can't. Not right now. What if he’s in danger? It's his first time surviving the night out there,” I blocked the tablet to access his cradle, “We can't just pull him out, if it means putting his avatar in danger.”

“(Y/N), I know. But we don't know where he is, and that's even worse. As soon as we know where he is, we’ll put him right back in and we’ll go get him,” Grace argued back.

“I can't let you do that,” I fumed. She looked at me, a bit miffed but trying to understand.

Grace looked at me with concern, “I know you’re still grieving someone you love, and that Tom’s avatar is a constant reminder,” she pulled me into a hug, “I know what it feels like to lose someone you care about.”

“Three,” I say into her shoulder, “This is three times now. I miss my mom. I miss Anuk.” I raise my head to look at Grace, “I miss Tom…And Jake is not Tom.” I wipe the sad tears. “I love him so much. He was all I had left. And now he’s dead. He promised me, he promised me,” I say, just barely a whisper, my facade breaking. “I can't just forget him,” I mumbled into Grace’s shirt.

“Sweetheart,” she rubs my back trying her hardest to calm me down, as I was on the verge of tears. “We’ll wait until midnight, then we pull Jake out.”

Part 6

taglist:

@sleepilysworld

@drinking-tea-and-be-obsessed

#avatar #avatar x reader #avatar x you #avatar x y/n #avatar x human reader #jake sully #jake sully x reader #norm spellman #norm spellman x reader #grace augustine #avatar fanfiction #avatar fanfic

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nicolewoo · 7 months

Text

Super Earth

A one night stand?

Pairing: Roman Reigns x female reader.

Warning: none

I’d snuck out of his bed before he woke; only allowing myself one last glance before leaving his room. He was stunningly gorgeous! Tall Samoan, strong features surrounded by long dark hair, which had been in a bun when I met him. I’d enjoyed undoing his bun and running my fingers through his hair as he bit my neck.

I hesitated. He had been so sweet, so funny, so sexy; this one night stand. Yeah, there was sex, but not until after we’d been talking for hours. And after sex, we’d talked more, laughed more, relaxed more. He was hot for sure, but I’d developed a crush on him because of his brains, his heart.

I should never have spent the night. After the sex, before sleep….. that was my rule. Feelings developed during the intimate time between sex and sleep. I’d told myself not to stay, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t pull myself out of his arms. I didn’t want to.

I didn’t want to leave now, but I had to. My entire life would be a wreck if I didn’t go. People were relying on me. This man….. this stunningly beautiful man…. I could fall for this man. If I was being truthful I already did. I tried to will myself out of the room, but I couldn’t.

For a second, I was positive I’d leave him my number, but what would that do? I shipped out this afternoon. In a couple of days I’d be out of communication range, and I wouldn’t be back for at least a year.

TOI-1452b, or Super Earth as we’d nicknamed it, was a planet covered in water. Despite that, our colonists had managed to make a floating settlement. Fields of rice and seaweed and other water crops surrounding the edges of the settlement. The colonists had harnessed the movement of the ocean and used the tides to create energy. The colony was a success, and now it was my job to fly an international group of scientists to Super Earth, stay for 3 months and bring them home.

3 months on an alien planet far away from my cheating ex and both of our families, who complained incessantly about the money they’d spent on our “failed wedding”? Failed….. as if I’d done something wrong. I wasn’t the one who had a three way with strippers 2 days before our wedding.

The truth is, I was done. Done with men. Done with family….. “A year long adventure to an exciting new planet” my best friend had dubbed it, and it sounded like exactly what I needed. I basically got a three month vacation to explore a new world.

With one final exhale, I forced myself to leave his room. It was the right decision. It wasn’t fair to start a relationship and leave the next day.

If it was the right decision, why did I start crying when I got in my car?

I checked the time. 2 hours until I had to report to the base. 3 hours until the final medical checkup, and 5 hours to liftoff. Then I was free. So why did I keep picturing him? Smiling, laughing, sweet kisses, getting lost in his arms and eyes?

I shook it off, distracting myself with one last call to my parents. I Dialed the number before I started driving. It was awful. A ten minute mash up of complaining about how I was leaving behind an expensive disaster and sobbing uncontrollably about how their baby girl was going to die in space. Ugh!

Truthfully, the second I walked into the building, I felt like a weight had been lifted. “Captain Y/L/N” the young man behind the front desk said as he came around the counter to grab my bags. “Is this all Captain?” When I said yes, he told me that the bags would be waiting in my cabin.

The next hour was a blur of meetings with my crew and coordinating the equipment from the scientists and the supplies to go to the colony.

As expected, I aced my medical, and now it was time to meet with the scientists. Juggling the papers in my hand and trying to gracefully open the door with my keycard failed, and my papers ended up sprawled across the floor. My co-pilot Jamie was helping me pick them up when I saw him!!! Mr. Last night. Mr. Was-supposed-to-be-a -one-night-stand. I sat stunned as I picked up the page with his face on it. Dr. Roman Reigns. I scanned the page further: from the USA…. Studying the feasibility of growing tropical crops on Super Earth. Oh no! No No No No! This couldn’t be!

“Y/N?” Jamie asked as she handed me the rest of the papers. “Something wrong?”

I recovered my composure, hopefully fast enough that it didn’t seem suspicious. “Yeah!” I said standing. “Just thinking about my family.”

“They still riding your ass?” I nodded. “Shit. Sorry, but hey! One year away, and most of that will be out of communications range.” She chirped. “Good afternoon everyone.” Jamie said when we opened the door.

I didn’t even need to look. I could feel him in the room. He dominated the space, as I assumed he did everywhere he went. When my eyes met his, they found him as shocked as me. We stared too long at each other. Everyone else was settling in, but we just stared…. Equally surprised.

“Let’s get to it then.” Jamie said as the door closed behind us.

@mindofasagitarius @lclb13 @serenityfiretrash @lustyromantic @reigns-5sos @bigpsychicbagelauthor @omg-im-such-a-masochist @marlananicole @wickedsunfire @starwithaheart @spookys-girl @pitlissa22 @snowpanda18 @thesamoanqueen

@sassginaswanmills

#roman reigns #roman reigns fanfiction

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shadamyheadcanons · 2 years

Text

Headcanon #277

This is an extended version of Headcanon #227.

Cross-posted on AO3.

Remember when Sonic got locked up on Prison Island in SA2? This is the explanation for it in the English dub...

...but in Japanese, it’s this:

No idea why they got rid of that in English. It’s so Sonic.

Amy bit her nails and shifted in her seat aboard the space shuttle, feeling her heart pound as a robotic voice counted down over the intercom.

TEN...NINE...EIGHT...SEVEN....

That golem was awfully big, but if there’s anyone who can handle it, it’s Sonic! He’ll make it in time...

SIX...FIVE...FOUR...

...right?

Tails pressed a few more buttons on the control panel and hopped into the seat across from Amy, and Knuckles clambered into the seat next to her. All three of them watched the open door on the side of the shuttle.

THREE...TWO...ONE...SHUTTLE LIFTOFF!

Amy heaved a huge sigh of relief when she heard the unmistakable sound of Sonic’s rapid footsteps on the metal platform leading into the shuttle, barely audible over the roar of the rockets. Within a second, he’d swung the door shut, skidded to a stop in the cabin, and leapt into the seat next to Tails. He buckled his harness in the nick of time and met their relieved expressions with a brilliant grin as the shuttle started its ascent.

“You guys weren’t actually worried about me, were you?”

“Of course we were! I was worried sick!” Amy scolded, shouting to make herself heard over the rockets. Tails fidgeted and nodded in agreement.

Knuckles crossed his arms and smiled wryly, clearly not as concerned. “Had to wait until the last second, didn’t you? I thought I’d have to go back out and save you.”

Sonic shrugged off their concerns. “Nah, I could take him. Just got off to a rocky start.” He snickered. Knuckles rolled his eyes good-naturedly, and Amy couldn’t help but giggle.

It wasn’t long before the rocket boosters detached, dropping the volume level considerably. Amy sighed in relief. Finally able to hear herself think, she started up a proper conversation. “When are we supposed to get there, Tails?”

“It’ll only be about an hour! We’ll be leaving the atmosphere soon!” Tails piped up, clearly excited.

Amy perked up, happy she wouldn’t be stuck in the shuttle for hours on end. She counted the time on her fingers. “So that’ll give us a little over two hours to stop Eggman before the cannon can fire again.”

“No problem! We can deal with him in half that time,” Sonic bragged. Amy’s heart warmed at his confidence.

Tails jumped back to the previous topic, apparently unwilling to abandon the shuttle discussion so soon. “At first I thought it was just a normal rocket. I saw a documentary on the Discovery shuttle not too long ago, and this looks just like it!” His tails waved excitedly. “You can tell it apart by the materials used on the fuselage!”

Amy grinned. She’d always found Tails’ enthusiasm for technology to be contagious and kind of cute. Sonic was used to Tails’ fixation and didn’t mind humoring him, so he lounged back in his seat to let Tails excitedly explain the unexpectedly comfortable interior that allowed them to sit normally instead of lying back like in most shuttle cockpits.

Knuckles, on the other hand, had no patience for such things. He held a hand to his forehead, closed his eyes, and sighed.

Sonic caught the look. A mischievous smirk spread across his face, and he turned to Tails when his rant started to wind down. “Hey, Tails, how are we supposed to walk on that station, anyway?”

Amy caught on. “Yeah! Won’t the lack of gravity be a problem?”

Tails’ eyes brightened further. “That’s a great question, Amy! I did some research on the ARK’s design a few years back, and the science behind it is fascinating!”

Knuckles hid a quiet groan behind his gloves. He lowered his hands to level Sonic with a heated glare. Sonic just shrugged innocently. Amy held in her giggles as best as she could while Tails happily infodumped about space and artificial gravity. Knuckles turned his grumpy scowl her way, but his frown turned milder as he squinted at her quills. He reached over and plucked something out of them. “What’s this?” he asked, interrupting Tails without hesitation.

Tails pouted. After a moment, Amy’s eyes widened. “Oh! That must be a quill from that black hedgehog I met!”

“‘Black hedgehog’?” Knuckles and Tails chorused.

“Yeah,” Amy said, nodding. “I ran into him on Prison Island. He must have left just before you got there, Tails.”

“Be glad you missed him,” Sonic cut in, crossing his arms. “What a piece of work.”

Amy tilted her head, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Sonic side-eyed her. “Uh, my impostor? The fake hedgehog? He’s a jerk!”

“What? No way! He seemed nice to me,” Amy insisted, side-eyeing him right back.

“Oh, come on. He attacked me!”

“Why? What’d you do?”

Tails and Knuckles exchanged looks of confusion. Sonic gawked.

“Well...the first time, I guess I just ran at him because he had that Chaos Emerald, but--”

“Why did he need a Chaos Emerald?” Amy interrupted.

“How should I know?” Sonic grumbled, irritated.

“So you just assumed he was up to no good?” Amy asked, clearly unimpressed.

Sonic choked. “He stole it! Of course he was up to no good. And I’m the one who got blamed for it!”

“If we needed a Chaos Emerald to save the world and it was being held at the federal reserve bank, would you just give up on it?”

Sonic opened his mouth, then stopped and narrowed his eyes at her. She smirked. Not to be deterred, Sonic moved on.

“That’s not all. After I got out of prison, I ran into him on the island, and he attacked me!”

“Why’d he do that?” Tails asked.

“I called him out for the faker he was, and then he had the nerve to call me the faker, and then he attacked me!”

The other three were silent for a moment. Tails opened his mouth to reply, but Knuckles shook his head, silently warning him not to get involved.

Amy had no such reservations. “Are you sure that’s exactly what happened?”

Sonic opened his mouth, then paused. He averted his eyes. “Well...I guess we kind of argued and attacked at the same time...but it was still definitely his fault!” he tacked on hastily.

Amy crossed her arms. “Sooo...let me get this straight. You just met this guy. All you know is that he needed a Chaos Emerald--maybe for something important! Then, other people happened to mistake him for you, so you called him a faker and picked a fight with him?”

She was tapping her foot rapidly. Sonic pouted. Knuckles and Tails glanced between the two of them with wide eyes, wisely staying out of it.

Instead of acknowledging her statement, Sonic narrowed his eyes. “Why are you defending him so much, anyway? He’s been nothing but rude so far.”

“He was nice to me!”

“Pfft! Shadow, being nice?! No way!”

Amy’s eyes lit up. “’Shadow’...so that’s his name!” She thought back. “It suits him. He seemed so mysterious...”

“Hang on.” Amy focused back on Sonic just in time to see a smug smirk spread across his face. “Now I know what’s going on! You like him, don’t you~?” he sang teasingly.

Amy gasped, indignant, while the others laughed. “I--of course I don’t! I barely know him!”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Sonic replied, still grinning smugly. “You think I don’t know an Amy crush when I see one?”

“He is kind of the expert,” Tails pointed out. Amy choked on her words, unable to argue with that.

“Hmm...” Everyone turned to Knuckles at his inquisitive noise. He was examining the black quill in his hand. “How’d this end up in your quills anyway? What were you two doing?”

Amy balked and snatched the black quill out of Knuckles’ hand. Sonic snickered. “Yeah, Amy, what were you two doing? Were you cuddling~?” he asked, his voice turning sickeningly sweet.

“N-NO!” The other three flinched at her sudden shout. Sonic smirked, and she puffed out her cheeks. “It was an accident! I thought he was you, so I ran up and hugged him.”

Sonic’s smirk faded into something disgruntled and disbelieving. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Even you?! He doesn’t look that much like me. We’re different colors!”

“Y-you weren’t there!” Amy stuttered out. “The sun was in my eyes, and his back was turned!” She pouted. “I was just so excited to see you. I was really worried about you, Sonic!”

Sonic crossed his arms and grumbled something incoherent.

Tails shrugged one shoulder. “She’s not exactly the only one, Sonic. The entire military confused you two,” he pointed out. “The footage on satellite TV was pretty grainy, and it was nighttime. I wasn’t sure myself. I only came to Prison Island because I couldn’t picture you doing those things.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sonic allowed. He stayed quiet, seemingly mulling it over, but then his eyes widened. “Hang on! Amy, are you okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

Amy gasped and held a hand over her heart. “Aww, Sonic, you do care!” He rolled his eyes. She brushed off his lukewarm response. “You don’t need to worry, though. He didn’t hurt me. I pulled away on my own.”

He uncrossed his arms and squinted at her. “Really? Nothing? He didn’t shove you away or anything?”

“Nope! He even smiled at me a little when he turned around.” She gazed down at the quill cradled in her hands. “I basically sneak-attacked him and clung onto him, but all he did was wait around and then smile at me once I let go.” She looked up with a determined expression. “That’s how I know he’s a good person. He was so gentle! He can’t be a bad person if he was that kind to me!”

Tails and Knuckles made skeptical noises, and Sonic snorted. “Amy, you’re too kind for your own good.”

She clasped her hands under her chin. “You mean it?!”

“Ugh.” He dropped his head in exasperation.

Knuckles laughed briefly. “If he was that nice to you and you thought he was Sonic, I’m surprised you let go of him at all.”

Amy crossed her arms and looked away. “I did figure out it wasn’t Sonic eventually. After all, he didn’t try to push me off or run away from me.” Sonic averted his eyes, almost looking guilty, and Knuckles and Tails sucked in air through their teeth awkwardly. Amy moved on. “He didn’t feel like Sonic, either. His chest was nice and soft, and he smelled really nice!” She sighed at the memory.

Sonic cocked his head. “Do I smell bad?”

She froze and started to fidget. “N-no! Of course not! You just...smell like you run a lot...?” She grinned sheepishly, and Knuckles tried to hide a laugh. Curious, Tails leaned toward Sonic and sniffed. He immediately leaned back and tried to hide his grimace. Sonic sniffed his own armpit, then shrugged obliviously.

To Amy’s relief, Tails shook off his distaste and changed the subject. “I still want to know how in the world you got to Prison Island in the first place.”

“Wait, didn’t you give her a ride?” Sonic asked.

Tails shook his head. “She actually beat me there.”

Amy nodded proudly. “I did my daily tarot reading this morning, and the cards told me I had a destined encounter with someone who needed my help!” She sighed dreamily. “With that description, I knew it had to be you, Sonic! I found out you were on Prison Island. It wasn’t too far, so Big brought me part of the way on his fishing boat, and when the waves got bad near the shore, Cream flew me the rest of the way. I told them to go back home afterward because I knew it wasn’t safe, and I was right!” She nodded with authority, then winked at Sonic. “You should be thanking me, you know. You really needed me today!”

Sonic wagged a finger. “Not quite.”

“What?! You were on an island that exploded!” Amy protested, clenching her hands into fists. Knuckles and Tails recoiled, but Sonic was unfazed.

“Not exactly. Didn’t I tell you I got caught on purpose?”

“You were still locked in a jail cell, Sonic. You definitely needed me!”

“Tails was there, too,” Sonic pointed out. “He was on his way to save me.”

Amy turned her glare on Tails. He winced and shook his head furiously. “Oh, no! Don’t drag me into this!”

Amy glared right back at Sonic. “My tarot cards are never wrong! Who would’ve needed my help more than you?”

Sonic thought for a moment, then chuckled. “What about your new boyfriend?” Amy cocked her head, then choked when she realized who Sonic meant. Sonic smirked once more. “He’s sweet on you, isn’t he? Maybe you’ll save him with the power of love!~”

“That’s...that’s not how it works! I don’t even know him!”

“Hmm...this sounds kind of familiar,” Knuckles said, sounding suspicious. “Hey Sonic, didn’t she act like this around you on the day you met?”

Sonic’s eyes lit up. “Oh, snap, you’re right!” Before Amy could argue, he started counting off the similarities on his fingers. “Let’s see...we’d never met, she said we were soulmates because her cards described a ‘destined encounter,’ she hugged me right off the bat and trusted me immediately...and then I had to fight a rampaging lookalike, Eggman was trying to destroy a whole planet--”

Amy suddenly gasped in realization, surprising the other three. “Oh, no! Shadow was on that island, and it blew up...” Her face paled in horror.

“Good riddance if you ask me,” Sonic mumbled. At Amy’s withering look, he shrugged. “I wouldn’t worry about it. He knew about the explosion, and he can teleport. He definitely got out of there.”

Amy sighed deeply. “Thank Chaos!” After a moment, her expression turned from concerned to impressed. “Shadow can teleport?! Wow...not even you can do that, Sonic! Maybe you could learn a thing or two from him,” she teased.

Irritation crossed Sonic’s face, but then he turned thoughtful, as if he were considering something.

Before anyone could ask, Knuckles chimed in again, much to Amy’s chagrin. “So Shadow can teleport himself while you can teleport objects by summoning them, you’re both hedgehogs, he actually likes it when you cling to him...maybe you two are soulmates!” He snickered, and Sonic and Tails joined in.

“Knuckles! Oh, you guys--!”

The teasing continued until Amy was red and flustered from embarrassment. It only abated in the last five minutes of the journey when Sonic and Knuckles started bickering about who should land the ship, even though Tails was clearly the best option for that. Amy sighed and examined the black quill in her hands.

I know there’s good in you. I just know it.

Aboard the space station they were approaching stood a conflicted black hedgehog. He frowned down at the pink quill in his hands.

I hope she made it out alright.

He shook his head.

No. It doesn’t matter. That planet needs to die, and she’s still going to be on it. This is no time for second-guessing.

His face turned pained.

But she seemed...so sweet...

Before he could dwell on it any longer, he heard a pair of high-heeled shoes echoing down the hall. He raised his hand, fully intending to toss the quill aside...but he hesitated. He gazed at it for a moment longer before tucking it back into his own quills where he’d found it, trying not to think about his conflicted feelings.

#shadamy #shadow the hedgehog #amy rose #sonic the hedgehog #hc #Knuckles the Echidna #Miles Tails Prower #sonamy #only one-sided though #i was doing a bunch of research on space shuttles and artificial gravity to try and get the details right #and then i realized i could just have tails do the thing #this is one of my favorite types of headcanons to write btw #little unseen between-scenes that Absolutely Happened and no one can convince me otherwise

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roguesidea · 1 year

Text

Hello, hello! I've been working on a closed species called Neumats for the past year, and they've just launched!

Neumats are a species of self-replicating space robots, built to map the galaxy. After a mysterious update severed their connection with their inventors' home planet, they have taken to forming their own communities, dedicated to progressing Neumatkind and pursuing newfound passions!

If you like robots, spaceage/atompunk aesthetics, and sci-fi, I think you might be interested in Neumats! Your first MYO is always free, and the launch event comes with some other free goodies- check out the Neumat toyhou.se world for more info!

Alongside the Neumat species itself, Neumats are launching with a currency system known as Databits, five upgrades known as Patches, and a companion species known as Neumites! Additional Neumat subspecies, new Patches, and more companion species (known collectively as Neupets) are planned for the future!

All of the Neumat art, adopts, concepts, lore, and world code so far have been made by me! This has been a one-man (one-bot?) project, and I'm excited to finally make it public!

The Launch thread has additional information on launch event freebies, raffles, et cetera! Neumat Launch Event: Liftoff!

#closed species #cs #robot art #mechanical #robot #original species #robot species #species launch #rogues (ideas) gallery #neumats!!

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kisskissbanggang · 1 year

Text

Jumpspace Renegade - ep. 3 ✨🚀

[2.1k words, 10 min. read - Stray Kids Multi Fic, Scifi!au, Choose Your Own Adventure - SFW/Smut in Later Chapters - Meeting the Gang, Shady Characters, Locked in the Brig, Cybernetically Enhanced Anatomy, Different Levels of Asshole, Always Check the Tags]

[Episodes on Fridays 7pm pst, Polling closes Saturdays 7pm pst]

[Series Masterlist | Come Say Hi!]

It was admittedly difficult to enjoy the liftoff, considering how there were no windows or portholes in the cargo bay of the mercenary ship.

You'd never been to space. Unlike luckier convicts, you’d served your time right in T’kaarm.

Maybe you should've done something more severe, Klave used to joke, much to your chagrin. Maybe fraud or conspiracy.

No, you had to experience your first liftoff from the darkness of the cargo hold. The ship shook and rattled on its standing gears while it made its way to the runway. Outside, you could hear the booming voice of the boostway operator over the intercom.

“Booster Concourse 2, Bay 5, Slipdock Charlie, en route to Victory Meridian, your lane is clear for takeoff in 10…”

“You may want to use that jumpseat on the wall,” Minho cheekily suggested in the dark. You quickly felt around for the fold-down seat and collapsed into it the best you could manage with no boots to magnetize you to the floor. To make matters worse, you were dealing with a rat's nest of a seatbelt.

The roar of the engine cones behind and above the cargo hold roared to life for a moment, before you felt the ship lurch again. Something firmly gripped the standing gears and you could recall now that these were the ‘boosters' of the booster course, the guided track assisting in accelerating ships to cruising speed for jumpspace clearance if so desired.

Your fingers were in your ears while you tried to keep count, which really didn't help the fact that you still hadn't gotten the damn seatbelt harness to work. You’d already counted 10. And if you’d already hit 0, why hadn't you moved–

It appeared you were a second too fast.

You were pasted to the back corner of the cargo cage in a heap through takeoff. It felt like it lasted for hours, and that awesome power of achieving space flight that you'd never experienced before was a little lost on you, unfortunately.

When the ship lurched forward in deceleration, Minho was already back up on his feet. He offered one of his cuffed hands to you and you reluctantly took one. Surprisingly, his fingers warm against your own. He sat back down and, by the miniscule help of the work lights, you sat down beside him, if for no other reason than to get off your still aching legs. You held yourself down onto the bench.

“So I take it you've never been off-world,” Minho casually observed. You kept quiet, just as you’d decided you would. “Pretty exciting,” he continued. “I remember my first big trip. Went about as well as this one is going.”

From his pocket, Minho produced a small utility knife. How the crew let him get away with that, you had no idea, but you could somewhat make out his hands fiddling with it. He was trying to pick open the cuffs. If you'd seen correctly before the lights went off, these were just standard issue, nothing special. You'd actually seen Klave get out of a pair yourself after you’d used them on him, the first time you ever ran.

Minho didn't shut up for a solid thirty minutes, trying to get you to divulge anything.

He had no family.

No partner.

He was from a small town in a farming colony in the Daedalus system.

But was any of this even true?

“Are you staying until Victory Meridian?” he asked, finally getting your attention. You briskly shook your head, but suddenly realized he might not have seen–

“You shouldn't,” he confirmed, chuckling condescendingly as you sat up more in attention, clearly puzzled that he saw your response. “Quit acting so surprised. You're lucky the pilot up there only has one enhanced eye. Seems pretty recent too, judging by the patch. I can see everything in here, which actually leads me to my next question. You pawning that ring or are you only transporting it?”

Your hand instinctively flew to where the ring was sitting on a chain between your collarbones.

“Yeah, dummy,” Minho snickered. “That one.”

He had gotten up maybe 10 minutes before, and had been simply pacing around the cargo cage. Now he stopped in front of you. You scrambled up to your feet but fell back onto your ass with your lack of footing. The small but unmistakable glint of red glow in Minho’s glare held your gaze as he leaned down and into your space. One hand delicately picked up the ring to inspect it more closely. You attempted to lean back as much as you could, even sinking into the wall as much as possible.

The bauble had only recently fallen into your possession. Your last employer, a miserable little landlord, gave it to you as payment for your last gig before ratting you out.

“You don't even know what this is, do you,” Minho laughed under his breath, surprisingly soft and gentle for how undeniably intimidating this felt. “This is Clessorian Ore. Think about why that’s weird.”

If you weren’t so on edge, Minho’s impatient frustration would’ve been at least a little funny. His grip on the chain got a little tighter when he drew you closer.

“Come on, dummy,” he rudely teased, “Clessoria was destroyed a couple hundred years ago by now. Anything, let alone the ore from a mining planet and all the artisans that lived there, is going to bring in huge bucks. And you’re the one who randomly turns up with this? Completely unfair. You don't even know what you’re sitting on and–”

Minho finally shut up, now noticing that you manually overrode the handcuffs while he was distracted. Pinching the sensor on each cuff and the link in the middle was a bit of a stretch, but Minho had made it pretty easy by getting so damn close. The bounty was thoroughly impressed. Stunned into silence, he massaged his free wrists. Maybe he was struggling to thank you, but you somehow doubted that.

But this was important. You had to say your piece, so to speak.

Just as you heard him about to say something, Minho cursed instead when you nonchalantly snapped the cuffs back onto him. You held in a laugh as he was stunned for a second. He finally, frustratedly sat back down on the bench.

“Fine,” he bristled. “You do know what you're doing. And I'm being a bit of an ass.”

“A bit?” you teased, finally speaking.

Minho tried not to look surprised. “All the more reason for you not to come to Victory Meridian. It's going to be messy.”

It seemed you’d not only earned some valuable info, but Minho’s silence as well, as the man remained quiet for you for another stretch of time. You considered all of this, the foreboding that Minho was assuring you was on the way, the supposed value of the ring you'd been casually wearing as a necklace. As a precautionary measure, you slipped the chain off and into your bag, but instantly bobbed off the bench more than before. How dense was this little ring?

Really, you almost lulled yourself to sleep, could've gotten some rest if the lights in the hold didn't snap on.

It took a second for your eyes to readjust. Outside the cargo hold was the blonde from earlier, Hyunjin, accompanied by another young man watching while he fiddled with the lock.

“Dammit,” Hyunjin muttered, “I can never get this thing. Jeongin, you do it.”

His companion’s fox-like features softened into an amused chuckle while he easily punched in the combo.

Curious, that you didn't recall Chan having to input a combo. Maybe he had a key you didn't see?

The duo were waiting expectantly for you. “Well?” Jeongin asked.

“What,” you warily countered. “Done already? Thought I had a lot of entries.”

“Right,” Hyunjin rolled his eyes, “but you didn't tell us you're boring. Who hasn’t done some light robbery or stolen a couple vehicles? I did like the thing you did with the art dealer, though.”

“Thanks?” you responded, unconfident. “So what now?”

“We said you'd be out before the end of the day cycle, didn't we?” Hyunjin sighed. He did, however, pull on a warmer smile when you finally stepped out of the cargo cage, your socked toes brushing the ground. The boys each took a second to take turns amusedly bobbing you up and down a couple times before leading you to the stairs. You turned back, sharing a parting glance with Minho before the lights went back out.

The relative cool of the cargo bay immediately melted into a comfortable warmth as you ascended the stairs. You emerged into a decent galley, with a table in the modest lounge area and a kitchen just beyond another doorway. A spiral staircase led further up, to where you were apparently heading. It shouldn't have been surprising that the ship was far bigger and nicer than it looked from the outside.

Your gasp immediately made you self-conscious. As it turned out, this path led you to the bridge, and outside the large windows arcing around the room was just...

Space.

Always being surrounded by crowd, always being subjected to stimulus, the sensation of seeing space up close was jarring, to say the least.

“Hi,” came a gentle greeting over your shoulder. You jumped, scaring both you, and Jisung who was apparently the culprit.

“Hi!” he tried again with a laugh, more confident now. “I was trying to let you have a second. You’re going by Nova, right? Cool. So… This is the Ambler. She’s not much, but she’s home–”

“You son of a bitch!” a voice jovially roared in the back of the room. A man climbed down a ladder from the ceiling. “She’s not much, dipshit says. Shows how much you care about all the work I've put into her.”

“This is Changbin,” Jisung introduced, only partly mortified by the exchange. “He does, actually, keep everything running around here, including the speedsters in the garage.”

Jisung motioned towards the small office occupying an alcove in the back of the room. “This is where you'll usually find Hyunjin, and Seungmin, our nav specialist–”

“What?” called a voice from the office. The same man with the glasses from earlier popped into the arched doorway of the alcove.

Jisung vaguely gestured towards you. “I'm, er – I was just showing Nova around–”

“Oh,” Seungmin grinned, finally noticing you. “Hi!”

Before you got a chance to return the greeting, he turned right back to his work.

“He’s, uhm,” Jisung laughed helplessly, “he’s always busy. And, hmm, what else. Oh! I usually live up here.” The pilot proudly showed off his chair at his console. “We’re not all bad, I suppose,” Jisung humbly shrugged while he counted off his fingers. “I guess Hyunjin already ran off again. His bunk is actually down in the hold where you just were. He’s sort of our appraiser, he knows how much everything’s worth. Literally everything. It’s nuts. Jeongin is kind of our cabin boy, we just sorta picked him up one day. Chan is captain, obviously, and he’s off doing… Something. And Felix? Where’s Felix?”

“Felix,” Changbin piped up again, lowering himself from where he was still tinkering in the ceiling, “is in the workshop. He was clearing out the spare bunk for Nova.”

“For real? You're doing that after all?” Jisung laughed. “Chan’s gonna kill you. You know he wants to dump her at Sentury Station – oh! That reminds me.”

The pilot ducked down, rummaging under his console. You thought about what he just said for a moment. Sentury Station? That was only halfway to Daedalus. But if it was supposed to get messy in Victory Meridian, a port you weren't even sure you wanted to head for to begin with…

Jisung came up with a pair of boots, expectantly holding them out for you after fussing with his eyepatch.

Your heart pathetically skipped a beat.

But apparently so did Jisung’s.

“Er, it was Chan’s idea, after I mentioned the state of your current shoes,” he babbled, cheeks tinted red and everything. “And Hyunjin thought these would fit you.”

You immediately knelt down and pulled the boots on, marveling at not only Hyunjin’s correct guess, but how naturally these held you to the ground. Changbin startled you somewhat when he approached, handing Jisung a flashlight he'd apparently borrowed.

“Crazy,” Changbin shook his head. “Can’t believe Chan wants to abandon her at Sentury. Felix is right, we should take her as far away from wherever she's running.”

“Thank you,” you gratefully acknowledged. “And Felix is right, it’d be appreciated.”

“Thought so,” Changbin beamed. “Wanna meet him? Our bunks are that way and I can show you yours–”

“Well, I was just about to offer a tour,” Jisung butted in, falsely apologetic. “There’s some amazing views,” he offered.

You considered these proposals, both the tour and the direct escort to your bunk sounding alluring, but also realized a third. Hyunjin was the appraiser, wasn’t he? You could head back down and really see how much your ring was worth.

#stray kids fanfiction #stray kids fanfic #stray kids smut #skz fanfic #skz smut #ALWAYS CHECK THE TAGS #SPOILERS #all three of these options are fun tbh #one or two will bring another tiny taste of spicy tension #one will introduce some competition amongst the ranks #and one's just really sweet mmkay a little fluffy chap

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radiantlyrey · 5 months

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Doctor Who: The Star Beast (quasi-recap and review)

I haven't been this excited about Doctor Who in freaking AGES, so it's a delight just to be here, writing about it again, it really is. This is gonna be partly my thoughts on the episode, partly a recap, so spoilers shall abound. BE YE WARNED, etc.

We start off with a quick recap of how we got to where we are and the Situation, as it were, with the Doctor and Donna (namely Donna cannot remember the Doctor again or the metacrisis in her brain will kill her). There's some nice little call backs to Series 4 stuff, and honestly despite the weird "Doctor in front of a planetarium show" thing, it does a nice job of summarizing things for new viewers.

LOVE the new opening credits. Use that Disney money, use it good!!! I love that the basic gist of it is "Series 5-7 opening credits, but give me MORE"--nice little callback to that era of the show, but with newer twists and turns.

And then we have a typical RTD opening (at least as far as some specials are concerned), with the Doctor happily wandering about a crowd of people in London, and then he spots someone having trouble with a load of boxes and happily goes to help--except it's DONNA!!!!! I do love that little bit of comedy with the boxes, where the Doctor puts the boxes back, that was hilarious.

Classic Tenth Doctor "Hwhat?!" moment with Rose's introduction (she seems so sweet, I love her already!!), and then things go flopsy when a freaking SPACESHIP careens across the sky right in front of them, but not in front of Donna because she's on a mission to get Rose's boxes all stacked correctly, and she misses it! Of course!! Why not!!! (I do love this though, tying right in with the "Donna misses the Big Events" thing from her intro in "The Christmas Invasion." Love to see a little callback.)

And then we get a proper look at Shaun Temple as a character!! We didn't get a terribly good glimpse of him in "The End of Time", but he seems pretty nice, and ready to roll with just about anything, so good for him!!

Okay, trying to pull out a bit with this, since I've been mostly recapping so far… What I really like about this episode so far is just… the comedy aspects? the callbacks to various things? I like the energy of the episode through and through, it feels like a brand-new adventure, but with new aspects we haven't considered before, while still keeping the old Doctor Who spirit. It's refreshing in a great way for someone like me, who sort of fell away from the show a while back and never really got back into it. It's really Just Like Old Times, and I wonder, a little, if that isn't on purpose. (I have SO MANY theories about Neil Patrick Harris' Toymaker, all right??)

Since I haven't kept up with the show, I don't know how accurate this overly militaristic version of UNIT is to recent appearances, but no matter! The Doctor sneaky-beaks his way inside with the sonic, and sort of strolls in to get a look at things. And here's the first hint that maybe something is off: the "crashing" spaceship landed upright, as though ready for another liftoff. Interesting! So there's something to chew on for a little bit, right?

As we cut back to Donna and Rose, we have a moment that is… what it is, I guess? Basically some of Rose's classmates pass by and deadname her. On the one hand, it… sucks that we have a trans character in Doctor Who, who almost immediately after her intro gets deadnamed. But trying to see this moment as it functions in the episode as a whole, and also on a meta level… I feel like this moment is meant to establish an aspect of Rose's character that we see a little later on, where she's lonely and a little outcast (the "I feel like I'm from a different planet" line later on comes to mind). On a metafictional level, I think this moment is doing two things: 1. trying to evoke the audience's sympathy for Rose as a character both by showing her hurt and moments later with Donna's full-throated support of her; and 2. basically putting a narrative foot down against transphobia, which is getting worse all over the world, but especially in the UK. So it sucks that we have this major trans character getting deadnamed, but it's good that the writing comes down firmly on the side of trans rights. So that's my thoughts on that. (As a person whose relationship with her gender is.... apathetic at best. I'm only "cis" because doing anything else would require Effort and Money I do not have.)

And then we see Sylvia again!! She's a lot less… I guess catty? than she was in Series 4 and so on? Like, she isn't constantly picking at Donna, and is more openly concerned for her (with good reason). I also like the little conversation she and Donna have about Rose and getting it wrong sometimes, because that does happen.

And then Donna has an absolutely heartbreaking monologue about missing the Doctor (without knowing she's missing the Doctor), and that made me tear up. The writing is just excellent like this all through the episode; the pendulum swings between comedy and drama so effortlessly, and I love it.

And then there's some business with a neighbor friend of Rose's and an escape pod from the crashed ship--and then--THE MEEP. The Meep is adorable! The Meep is in trouble!! The Meep needs help, and Rose is suprisingly down for this kind of thing (which makes a surprising amount of sense given later developments), and sneaks the Meep into her shed out back of the house.

Meanwhile, back with the Doctor and UNIT… the Doctor makes the acquaintance of one Shirley Anne Bingham, a science officer for UNIT. (Also an aside: I love that the sonic can suddenly make floating holographic display surfaces. Gotta put that Disney money to good use!!) She and the Doctor have an interesting conversation about the recent events, and Donna, and the Doctor's returning face, which is a mystery even to him. (Another aside, but I love that this Doctor is not NEARLY as emotionally constipated as Ten was, because good grief that would have been annoying.)

In re: the Doctor's returning face: I have my theories about what might have caused it (they mostly concern the Toymaker), but I will hold my tongue until the other two specials air. Part of me wants to see if I'm right…

A plot thing happens to some UNIT soldiers, with bright light and swirling eyes, but meanwhile, the plot at large is converging on Donna at home!

So this whole sequence with the Meep and everyone else is a frankly hilarious piece of comedy, all spinning plates and moving parts. Sylvia's being pulled two directions at once, trying to keep Donna from remembering and trying to keep the Doctor out; Donna is freaking out a little bit about the Meep; Rose is trying to get everyone to calm down and failing; and then the Doctor is… being the Doctor and intervening when he knows he very well shouldn't. And all this chaos ends with the perfect button: Shaun walking in and seeing the whole mess, and reacting with a great deal of rolling-with-it poise. Like, he sees all this weird stuff, and decides that is A Problem for Later, and it's hilarious and I love it.

The next scene is a quiet moment after all that chaos. The Doctor tries to extricate himself and the Meep from this situation (with Sylvia helping), but Donna wants to know what's going on. There's a lovely little moment about pronouns that I think was handled wonderfully, and a moment about Wilf (who I know we're going to see in one or the other of the next specials) that tugs the heartstrings. We also get some backstory from the Meep.

And then the plot crashes down again with the arrival of the "infected" UNIT soldiers and also the Wroth warriors (Roth? Wrarth? I need to watch with captions next time…). Here's another indication that things aren't quite what they seem: the UNIT guys, who were apparently going after the Meep, start firing on the Wroth, rather than the two teams working together to capture the Meep.

On the whole, I feel like this whole firefight sequence goes on a bit too long, both inside the house and later on the street. I like the Doctor's escape plan, though, that's pretty good stuff. Love to see that Disney money getting used for ridiculous stuff (both the sonic's shields and the pyrotechnics in the street); it's so interesting to see Doctor Who with a big budget. I love the "resonating concrete" bit calling back to the Ninth Doctor (!!!), and the bit of comedy with the sleeping guy as the group sneaks out of the house. But on the whole… I feel like maybe this sequence should have been maybe a minute or so shorter? There's too much going on and not a whole lot of delineation between the sides, unfortunately.

We get some more subtle signs that things aren't right: the Doctor's confusion when he checks the pulse of the downed UNIT soldier, and the fact that the Wroths' guns don't put a scratch on the taxi as they drive away. And indeed, the Doctor's first action once they're well away is to put the Meep on trial to try and untangle the truth. It's so ridiculous, but it has just the right amounts of camp and tension that it works. We get the actual truth from the Wroth--the Meep is the last of its kind, but only because its entire species was annihilated in a war the Meep started. And indeed, when the Doctor asks the Meep to speak in its own defense, the sob story act vanishes and we get a look at what the Meep is really like.

Some side notes on the Meep: Love Miriam Margoyles' voice work throughout, sounding just the right amount of sniveling and pathetic at first, before switching to hammy, over the top villainy once the penny drops. The puppet work on the character is also immaculately done; it's just real enough that you believe it, and while you can see that some of the puppet work is replaced with CGI as the Meep reveals itself, the CGI is incredibly well done (making good use of that Disney money, again). I love the narrative use of the Meep's design, too; the way the Meep weaponizes its own cuteness to win sympathy and aid, which works on the audience as well as the characters in the story.

Donna's family and the Doctor are captured, and we see the first signs that Donna's starting to remember when she explains why she gave away the lottery money, which only expands after Bingham saves them and they're escaping. Donna then calls the Doctor by name (or "name", I guess) when she goes back to help him, when he has up to now avoided introducing himself to her.

Another side note: Aboslutely ADORE Bingham as a character. She's not overawed by the Doctor at all, and she has weapons built into her wheelchair like a total badass. I love that her disability is just accepted by the narrative at large, and that it doesn't make her "less" of a character in any way.

Getting back to the story: this entire sequence in the engine room is breathtaking. It's got action, it's got drama, it's amazing. It's fun to see David Tennant throw himself around the set like he hasn't aged a day since he left. And then, when the room gets bisected, the real drama begins. The Doctor has to do the one thing he's been trying to avoid this whole episode, because there isn't any other way to save everyone except with Donna's help. And he doesn't want to, but Donna's willing to do anything to save her family and the 9 million people who will die if the Meep's ship launches. We see, with the Doctor, that his memory wipe on her back in "Journey's End" didn't just take her memories of him, but also the self-confidence and self-esteem that she had gained by traveling with him. She's so certain that she's no one special, and the Doctor looks absolutely heartbroken to hear her say that. And then, with pain in his voice and regret in his eyes, he starts saying the word sequence that will unlock her memories and start the metacrisis back up. And it's heartbreaking, and moving, and then…

DONNA'S BACK, BITCHES. FUCK YEAH.

I love that before she saves the world, Donna has to rip the Doctor a new one about the metacrisis making her soft like he was as Ten, making her give away all that lottery money to help people. It's just very HER, and it's such a fucking DELIGHT to have her back, it really is. UGH. I'VE MISSED THIS SO MUCH.

And then they save the whole of London, and then the metacrisis kicks in and Donna falls down, and the Doctor holds her as she dies, and Tennant's sad puppydog eyes get a workout here. This was honestly the most devastating part of the episode for me, I was nearly in tears as he held her close. UGH.

AND THEN.

The controlled UNIT soldiers wake up. And there's a big combined "what." from everyone--INCLUDING DONNA. Who is NOT DEAD. Because it turns out that a biological metacrisis is something that can be passed down to one's children, and the Doctor unlocking Donna's memories ALSO unlocked memories in ROSE. Who with a flicking of switches and pressing of buttons, foils the Meep's plans and saves the world just as much as her mum. And isn't that beautiful!! RTD took Disney money and BBC money and freaking said LOUD AND CLEAR, "Oh yeah, btw, trans folks are gonna save the world," and GODS BLESS HIM FOR IT.

And so it's seemingly happily ever after! Some of the other Wroth warriors come to arrest the Meep, who says something cryptic about two-hearted species and "the Boss" that the Doctor doesn't like at all. (My current theory? The Boss is the Toymaker. Maybe. We'll see.) But the metacrisis, while it is split up, is still gonna burn up Donna and Rose, and the Doctor has to fix it, but then these two wonderful ladies do something different: they let go of the Time Lord power instead, saving their own lives and keeping their own memories in the process.

My only quibble about this bit is that it maybe shouldn't have been about the male-female binary, especially since we'd just established that the Doctor is male and female and neither and more? Like… it just seems kind of unnecessary and weird to frame it that way. (Maybe a Time Lord vs Human binary would have been better? I don't know.)

That said: was this resolution of the metacrisis a bit contrived and a little ridiculous? Oh, certainly. Do I care that it was contrived and ridiculous? NOT ONE IOTA. Donna's BACK and she's SAFE and she REMEMBERS, AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. I have achieved Doctor Who Zen: I don't care how silly it is anymore! I'm free to enjoy it as I like!!!!!!!

And then we move on to the TARDIS and the Doctor trying to needle Donna into one last trip to see Wilf and there's so many little funny bits here--Sylvia's flat-out "no"; Donna IMMEDIATELY nixing Rose going inside because she knows how that'll end; Shaun not being the least bit worried about Donna with the Doctor. And then we get to go inside the TARDIS.

I LOVE THE NEW SET. It's SO BIG. It's like the best parts of Eleven's first TARDIS interior (big and expansive, with paths leading off that make it feel like the set goes on forever) and the Classic Who designs with the white and the round things. Another thing I noticed is that there are no stairs. If, say, Shirley Anne Bingham were to come inside, she'd be able to go anywhere without any trouble at all. HOW COOL IS THAT. A wheelchair-accessible TARDIS. Now all it needs is some homey touches, like maybe some furniture? And chairs, too? Not all of us can stand forever, you know. ;)

Everything about this little scene is just… UGH. It's beautiful to see the Doctor and Donna together again, and Donna asking the Doctor if he might try having some friends this go-around, and the Doctor acutally agreeing. I love them screaming excitedly about how gorgeous the TARDIS is. I love that tiny heartbreak of the Doctor saying he remember every second with Donna, and how it killed him (certainly an inkling that even he knew what he did to her was not necessarily the right thing to do). The coffee machine in the console!! All these lovely little touches that really bring a TARDIS set to life!

And then…

The TARDIS: here's a coffee machine for you to have coffee with~~ (✿◡‿◡) Also The TARDIS: Also If You Spill Any of That Coffee On Me I Swear to God I Will Explode Donna: *spills coffee* The TARDIS: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻

and so!! Off on another unwilling adventure, the Doctor and Donna Noble careen into next week's episode: Wild Blue Yonder!!!!!

And I, for one, cannot WAIT.

#doctor who #donna noble #fourteenth doctor #the star beast #dw 60th #dw spoilers #SERIOUSLY #DO NOT CLICK THE READMORE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE THOROUGHLY SPOILED #I'm a little *SIGH* about using the Fourteenth Doctor tag #for a character that is essentially just Ten With Bits Added #but WHATEVER I"M EXCITED ABOUT DOCTOR WHO AGAIN THIS IS ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS

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dmarchives · 1 month

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I wrote a whole ass essay on the new songs in a reddit comment, figured I'd crosspost:

Warning: this comment lived its own life and is very long and grumpy. I yell at clouds because they just don't make 'em like they used to.

Yeah, I'm Norwegian. And I love this band, I don't want to sour the mood. Especially since I'm the type of fan that never likes anything new right away. It's true for every book series, show, and band I've ever been into. But I've also missed this band every single day for a decade (I know I sound hyperbolic, but really, I have), and I feel let down. So I'm gonna break my two rules of the internet: Never let it get you in a bad mood and never say anything you wouldn't say to someone's face. Here's the thing:

- DGDEN was just not the sound I was expecting. It sounds like the solo artist Janove we've seen the past decade, with a Kaizers guitar riff jammed in to distract you from the fact that this isn't a Kaizers song. However, the song has grown on me, like they always do. The riff slams. It's still not my favorite, though.

- Kaleidoskophimmel doesn't bode well. It's a Violeta reject and a ballad. Nothing wrong with a ballad, but they usually don't put them front and center like that because they rarely find them to be their most interesting work. The fact that the song from the (rumored) new album they chose as a single is a reject ballad has me worried what the rest is gonna be like.

- It takes an agonizing 2 minutes and 24 seconds for Kaleidoskophimmel to even lift off the ground. And honestly, that single liftoff is the only exciting thing happening here. It's repetitive, musically bland and uninteresting. I can't think of a single other Kaizers song I'd ever describe as either of those things. Even the longest Volum3 songs have a drive to them, Kaleidoskophimmel doesn't.

It all boils down to this: For over a decade, KO had fans that were so devoted to them that people moved to Norway, learned Norwegian, created a forum/social media site for other fans to use, and we used it. a. lot. Some went to well over a thousand concerts and became so familiar faces that the band could pick them out in a crowd of thousands. I went to my first concert when I was eleven. The next 5 years I spent convincing my parents to chaperone me to "just one more, dad, pleeeaaase?" I was devastated when they were gone.

We waited. For a decade. And then they came back. When they released their tickets, fans spent millions. The Oslo concerts alone brought in 38,4 million kroner on ticket sales. Three more cities, but I don't know the capacity of the venues, so I can't do the math on those.

Honestly, after all that, I think we deserve more than a Janove song and a Violeta reject. We've been loyal to them, and I feel let down.

However, I've always been a grumpy goose. I've never liked change. And of course they've changed, it's been ten years. They're allowed to grow, I know. But they still have good taste and good ears, and I don't buy for a second that they think those songs are up to par. And they went ahead with them anyway. Which feels kind of like a betrayal.

#kaizers orchestra #my boys #bands #rant

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lexosaurus · 1 year

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youtube

Here's my first piece for The Void Yawns Softly (chapter 5) by @lexiepiper with art done by @k-beckerart (@q-gorgeous)

As a HUGE fan of media like The Martian (I've read the book I think 5 or 6 times now?) and the Interstellar soundtrack, I was beyond excited to see this fic for @invisobang. The fic is AMAZING and I tried really hard to do it justice!

This won't be my only piece for Lexie's fic, so keep your eyes peeled for more in the coming chapters!

#danny phantom #my music #the void yawns softly #invisobang 2022 #i redid this piece like 4 times im not kidding #it was so hard to nail down!#not like the [redacted] theme which came together in 2 days....no spoilers from me!#Youtube

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 9 months

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NASA’s Psyche Mission Enters Home Stretch Before Launch

Engineers and technicians at Cape Canaveral are preparing the Psyche spacecraft for liftoff, which is slated for Oct. 5.

With less than 100 days to go before its Oct. 5 launch, NASA’s Psyche spacecraft is undergoing final preparations at Cape Canaveral, Florida. Teams of engineers and technicians are working almost around the clock to ensure the orbiter is ready to journey 2.5 billion miles (4 billion kilometers) to a metal-rich asteroid that may tell us more about planetary cores and how planets form.

The mission team recently completed a comprehensive test campaign of the flight software and installed it on the spacecraft, clearing the hurdle that kept Psyche from making its original 2022 launch date.

“The team and I are now counting down the days to launch,” said Henry Stone, Psyche’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “Our focus has shifted to safely completing the final mechanical closeout of the spacecraft and preparing the team for operations. The team is conducting numerous training activities to ensure that we are prepared and ready. It’s a very busy time, but everyone is very excited and looking forward to the launch.”

Psyche is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy (the first interplanetary launch for that rocket) from Space Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center at 10:38 a.m. EDT (7:38 a.m. PDT) on Oct. 5, with additional opportunities scheduled through Oct. 25. After escaping Earth’s gravity, the Psyche spacecraft will use solar electric propulsion to accomplish its six-year journey to asteroid Psyche.

Measuring about 173 miles (279 kilometers) at its widest point, the asteroid Psyche presents a unique opportunity to explore a metal-rich body that may be part of a core of a planetesimal, the building block of an early planet. Once the spacecraft reaches Psyche in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, it will spend at least 26 months orbiting the asteroid, gathering images and other data that will tell scientists more about its history and what it is made of.

Next Steps

But first, a team of 30 or so engineers and technicians will wrap up the assembly, test, and launch operations phase of the mission. The team recently finished several weeks of functional testing of the science instruments as well as the spacecraft hardware and software.

After removing the last of the cables that snake around the hardware for testing, they’ll “close out” the spacecraft by reinstalling some exterior panels that had been removed for access and complete the thermal blanketing. Later in July, they will integrate and test the deployment of the enormous solar arrays. Then, in mid-August, a crew will begin slowly loading all 2,392 pounds (1,085 kilograms) of propellant – the neutral gas xenon – onto the spacecraft over the course of a couple weeks.

Luis Dominguez, the systems and electrical lead for assembly, test, and launch operations, is usually based at JPL but has been working full time at the Cape since early June. “We are moving forward,” he said, “and we’re confident that when we’re on the pad, we’ll be ready to hit the button. For all of us, we’ll be excited to launch this bird.”

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #psyche

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