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thegnomelord · 5 months

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#23 with male reader and soap. After a mission m!reader helps him clean himself in the shower maybe because soap got injured on the field or just really sore. And he washes off the blood/dust/dirt and helps dry him off and it turns into something kinda fluffy. I just wanna play with this man's stupid mohawk so bad.

Honestly me too, I just see that strip of hair and get the urge to tug on it, completely forgetting the man's fictional 😅 Ended up writing washing his hair and showering together because hyperfixation lol Play the game HERE.

Prompt: Washing their hair

CW: NSFW but no sex, non sexual nudity, M reader, showering together, hair washing, just fluffy fluffy fluff.

As much as you care about Soap, you've got to admit he's a bit of a dumbass, a reckless dumbass to boot. You tell him to be careful and what does he do? End up falling out of a second story window and rolling down a good 60 feet down a muddy hill while chasing after a target. You hear him swear the entire way down from where you're tucked away safely behind the sight of your sniper rifle.

By the time you get back to base Johnny feels as miserable as he looks, covered in so much mud you can't see his skin and his entire back wreathed in dull throbbing pain, not to mention the numerous cuts and scraps. And that's on top of Price chewing him out about safety and Ghost and Gaz teasing him the entire flight back to base.

"Not a word lad," He growls, giving you the stink eye. "Price already yapped me ear off." Soap turns to his heel in an attempt to head to the communal showers, biting his lip to stop himself from swearing out god, king, and country when his muscles scream at him.

"Wasn't going to." You stop him, one firm hand tugging on his bulletproof vest so you don't jostle him too much, though even that has drops of mud splashing on your clothes. "Come on, you can shower in my room."

He looks at you skeptically, but it doesn't take much to sway his mind when you offer him simple comforts; privacy, warm hands to wash away the days pains, a warmer body to remind him he's alive. He follows you without a word, neither one of you caring about the mud you track— tomorrow's problems.

"Foooock." The groan comes deep from his bones, perfectly encapsulating all he feels as you methodically unclip his gear, taking the world's weight off his shoulders and dropping it haphazardly on the bathroom's tiled floor. "Feel like a fockin' hog," He frowns.

"Look like you rolled in a pig sty." You helpfully supplement, receiving a few words in Gaelic which you don't even attempt to understand, though the humor in his tone is crystal clear even when you take hold of the bottom of his shirt; the mud and grime had gone through every layer of clothing, leaving not a single inch of skin clean.

He attempts to raise his arms to help you, only to suddenly yell out a "Oh ye fockin' cunt!" when pain flares from his shoulder down the entire length of his spine. You swear you hear his spine crack at least a dozen times by the time you pull his shirt off his mud wet skin.

"You sound like an old geezer." You chuckle to lighten the mood, dropping to your knees to untie his shoelaces and take off his boots, then the rest of his clothes.

"Says the bloke who's left knee tells the weather." He bites back, a bit of teeth on display as he grimaces, another few curses leaving his lips when he has to lower his arm. "Or tries to, yer got as much accuracy as the bloody reporters on the telly."

"Starting to complain like one too," You add, not at all surprised when Soap proceeds to brush his muddy hand across your face. "Of you fucker," Your words gain a childish little giggle from him, and he lets you guide him into the shower.

Your bathroom's one of the few that has a tub in it —a relic of past tenants before the army remodeled the base into an actual military installation— you had to bribe Price with a lot of high quality cigars to get it, but every penny was worth it. There's a tap as well as a detachable showerhead up top that Johnny eagerly uses, turning the water hot and just standing under the stream while you disrobe.

The clean water turns muddy the second it hits his skin, brown muck swirling around your feet as you step into the tub behind him. "How's that sweetheart?" You ask, taking the soap bottle and squirting a heavy amount onto your hands, not bothering with a sponge and instead using your fingers to wash away the dirt on his skin.

"Heaven." Johnny sighs, his muscles fluttering beneath your hands, mud and blood washing away to reveal deep blooming bruises across his back. "Shite, that hits the spot." He leans against you, the slow but firm pressure of your fingers massaging the sore muscles around the blotchy bruises making him groan. You lean in to place gentle kisses on the darkest bruises, "So good fer me bonnie," he hums, using his arms the best he can to at least wash the mud off his face.

You two float in a sort of mindless space where nothing outside the shower matters, the sound of water running and Soap's occasional groan filling your ears, all your focus on the way your hands rub him down; from shoulders to his back, down to his feet and then back up to his face when he turns around.

Once the water runs clear again you turn off the shower and start the tap so the tub fills with enough water to keep him warm, maneuvering him to sit in the tub while you step out to dry yourself off and put on boxers.

"Don't need ta be pampered like a show mutt," He grumbles, the hot water easing the soreness in his frame and making his exhaustion prominent, Johnny's eyelids starting to droop despite his best efforts to stay awake.

"I know, but you hair's a damn crow's nest." You snort, running your fingers through the mess on his head and showing the gunk stuck on your fingers, hell, you even pull a damn twig out.

His eyes widen, "Well fock me," Soap grimaces, gives a bone deep sigh as you settle behind him, sitting partially on the tub. Cupping water in your palms you rub your fingers down the length of his mohawk, loosening the dirt sticking to the strands until rivulets of watery mud run down his neck.

"Maybe later." You both chuckle, squirting the shampoo Soap always loves to smell on you in your hand and lathering your palms up before bringing them back to his hair. Soap mumbles something, leaning his head into your hands whenever you scratch a particularly itchy spot on his scalp.

His head tips back as much as his aching shoulders let him, his eyes settling on your face. I got it made, he thinks to himself, desperately trying to keep his eyelids open so he can see how you focus on even a simple task like washing his hair. Every brush of your fingers across his dirty strands fills his chest with lingering warmth, every scratch of your nails across his scalp making his eyes droop just a bit more.

Johnny doesn't even notice the slight sting when you occasionally tug on a knot, your touch making his mind buzz pleasantly like the low background static of a TV on late nights, and Soap doesn't realize he's dosing off.

You notice how he leans against your leg, leaning over to see his eyes closed and chest steadily rising and falling. You let him sleep for a bit while you finish up cleaning his hair and then use the detachable shower head to wash the bubbly shampoo off.

"What is'it?" He mumbles when you gently shake him awake, eyelids fluttering open and shut.

"Need you to get up Johnny." You hum and it's laughable how easily he follows your instructions, needing a bit of help to stand up when his back still aches like hell, a shiver racing down his spine as the cold air of your bathroom nips at his skin. "Fock, do'ah look like a snowman?" He grumbles at the cold.

You chuckle instead of saying anything, silencing any other complaints with sweet kisses on his lips as you towel him dry.

Soon after you two are huddled under the covers, his body draped over yours and using your chest as a pillow. Your fingers card through his slightly damp hair, the soft brown strands like feathers against your skin and your touch making him sigh and melt against you.

"Hey lad?" He suddenly says, voice a gentle whisper; like he's about to reveal a secret kept from the world — something only meant for you.

"Yeah Johnny?" You ask, a few stars reflecting in his blue eyes from your window.

Your heart melts at the soft and goody smile he gives you, "Love you." he says, leaning his head into your hand that's in his hair.

You smile and lean your head to kiss him, "Love you too," You mutter against his lips, and when you pull away he's already drifted off to sleep like a babe, soft breath tickling your skin and arms possessively wrapped around your waist like you'll disappear.

But you catch the way he smiles in his sleep.

#Gnome's prompt game #gnome correspondence #cod mw2 #x reader #trinkets from the hoard #top male reader #male reader #john soap mactavish #john soap mactavish x male reader #john soap mactavish x reader #sub character #sub john soap mactavish #fluff #so much fluff

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jflemings · 13 days

Text

— rascal

pairing: jessie fleming x raso!reader

synopsis: in the hopes of convincing you to sign with chelsea, sam encourages you and jessie to get to know one another

warnings: none

a/n: this lil idea has been bouncing around in my brain like the dvd symbol so here ya go

it was no secret that you were one of the more outgoing players on the australian national team, having gained a reputation of being bubbly and energetic through your style of play on the pitch and personality. sam had taken quick advantage of this from the moment you joined the team, posting various funny videos and photos of you during camps and tournaments purely for her own entertainment.

the most recent video she had shared to her close friends story. you were distracted with pulling out your training kit from your suitcase when she had loudly announced herself as she walked into your room, the camera in selfie mode and held above her head.

“look who’s baaaaack!” she exclaimed causing you to turn around too quickly and get your foot caught on the leg of the bed.

“fuck!” you exclaimed loudly as you fall to the carpet floor, both yours and sam’s loud and infectious laughs filling the room as you processed what happened.

she stopped recording and caught her breath before captioning the video ‘the rascal diaries are off to a good start 🤣🤣’ and posting it so that her club teammates could see.

“you- you are impossible” she managed to say before another round of uncontrollable laughter erupted from her “and erin and guro are gonna find it so funny”

you huffed and unhooked your ankle from around the bed leg before sitting up “i’m so glad that you get a kick out of embarrassing me” you say sarcastically “it’s really the best part of seeing you”

sam smirks “jessie will probably find it funny too”

a blush makes its way up your neck at the mention of her canadian club teammate “shut up”

“you two should swap shirts, add a canada one to your collection”

“i’ve got julia grosso’s” you shrug uselessly whilst pulling yourself up by the sheets “and, i don’t know, i’ve never spoken to jessie before”

“you’ll be speaking to her a lot when you sign with chelsea” the striker hums “might as well become friends now”

you huff and stand, turning around immediately and pulling your kit out of your suitcase “i haven’t decided on anything. and you’re not the first australian to try to convince me to sign for their wsl team” you look over your shoulder and quick a brow at the older woman.

“as if you wanna play for arsenal or city! you’re a blue through and through”

“steph is pretty convincing” you sing-song earning a swipe from sam as you make a run for the bathroom. you quickly shut the door behind you and put all your weight against it

“don’t listen to steph!”

———

hayley, sam, kyra, macca and yourself are all lounging around playing an intense game of uno when sam decides to open her big fat mouth.

you smirk and place a +4 card down, raising your brows at sam when she gasps “y/n!”

hayley, who’s sitting to your right, holds her hand up for a high five. the two of you laugh as sam reaches for the pile of cards whilst angrily mumbling, her already stacked hand beginning to slip from her grip as she attempts to organise them all.

“fuckin’ rascal” she grumbles from behind her cards, sinking further into her seat “if you treat jessie like this when you come to chelsea, i’ll have your head”

you roll your eyes and go to answer before macca just about jumps out of her seat.

“you’re signing with chelsea?”

“why is she bringing up jessie fleming?”

you cringe at the sound of hayley and mac talking over eachother at the same time, kicking your feet out and hiding behind your cards. hayley reaches over and pushes them out of your face so she can look at you “why is she bringing up fleming” she questions again.

“who cares!” mac loudly says “why are you signing to chelsea? i thought you were coming to west ham!”

“yep” sam speaks up again, quite pleased with herself and the chaos she’s started “she’s gonna be a blue and she’s got a biiiiiig crush on jflem”

both women gasp. hayley kicks your ankle hard and throws her cards down onto your chest “you didn’t tell me that”

“because it’s not true!” you defend “sam doesn’t know what she’s talking about”

kyra, who has been unusually quiet, snickers “as per usual”

your captain frowns at the young midfielder before turning her attention back to you, a sly smile on her face. she pays your arm with fake affection “it’s okay y/n/n, they won’t tell”

“there’s nothing to tell!” you almost shout before lunging at her “and stop looking at me like that”

hayley grabs onto the back of your shirt and plants your bum back into your seat “she’s cute, y’know, totally your type”

“and she’s smart! like really smart. you’re into that, right? your last girlfriend was pretty smart”

“wasn’t she also canadian?” mackenzie pipes up smugly, side eyeing you and getting a peek at sam’s card whilst she’s distracted.

“she was american” you grit out “and yes, she was smart but that’s not the point! i’m not crushing on jessie fleming!”

“not yet” hayley mumbles before yelping as you push her off her chair.

———

“scrambled!”

“sunny side up!”

you and hayley argue over steph who’s sat in between you, the both of you paying no mind to the defender who’s wearing a flat look on her face. you’re dressed in your training kit with the sleeves rolled up, showing off your toned arms easily as you half flail around.

jessie finds herself smiling at her phone, her eyes not once leaving your face. in all honesty, she really enjoys the videos sam posts during international break. she finds herself being entertained whenever she sees your face pop up on her phone, unable to stop the smile that eventually adorns her face as you get up to your usual antics.

whilst she hadn’t properly spoken to you, she had heard nothing but kind things about your character. sure, you were an instigator and a bit of a smart-ass on the pitch but off it people claimed you were one of the sweetest people they had ever met.

“sunny side up? are you kidding, the only thing that’s good for is when you want the yolk all over your plate” hayley argues whilst pointing her fork at you.

“hayley” you begin you say, running your hand over your brows “the day you stop being wrong is the day macca scores a hattrick”

“you little—”

the video cuts just as hayley goes to slap you again

jessie loudly snorts at the abrupt cut off and rubs her hand over her face in an effort to stop herself from smiling, you really were living up to the rascal nickname that your team so affectionately called you. sam said that it was alanna who came up with it when you were eighteen and ‘feral’ as she says. not only did you make it your mission to annoy your older teammates every chance you got, but you were also known to be a bit of a wild child in your teenage years and early twenties. more than once sam had boasted about all the trouble the two of you got up to with a smile on her face, claiming that you needed someone to ‘put you on a leash’.

jessie chooses to not remember the way sam insinuated that she should be the one to do it.

‘scrambled vs sunny side up: who wins?’ the text on the screen reads. jessie doesn’t think about it as she swipes up on sam’s story with a reply

sunny side up always. tell y/n she’s right.

———

jessie watches your back and shoulders flex under your jersey as you grab the back of hayley’s neck in the tunnel. she tilts her head slightly as you begin to fiddle with your sister’s ribbon, untying it and retying it before hayley swats your hand away.

she’s played against you for a few years now and she always found it endearing how the two of you not only wear matching ribbons, but also wear the numbers sixteen and seventeen respectively. sam told her that it was a complete coincidence that you got number seventeen when you were first called up, but that the whole team found it cute whenever they saw you two walking together. raso and raso, sixteen and seventeen, forward and defender.

adriana places her hand on jessie’s shoulder and leans down into her ear “eyes forward jeff” she whispers with a smile “can’t get distracted”

jessie’s face burns and she scratches the back of her neck nervously “i’m not distracted” she quietly defends herself, switching her weight from one foot to the other.

adriana doesn’t move her head but instead takes her own look over at the pair of you just in time to see hayley smack you upside the head. she can’t help but snicker “she’s pretty” she hums “definitely your type”

the midfielder throws her elbow back into her teammate “drop it” she grits out whilst stretching her neck out of nervousness. “i get it enough from sam”

“i heard she’s signing with chelsea. arnold and cooney-cross were talking about it just before we lined up”

jessie’s lip quirks at the thought of sam successfully getting you to sign to the powerhouse club, especially after all the pestering she’s put you through once she heard you were looking to move to europe from america. it had only gotten worse once the blues had actually made you an offer.

she silently recalls a time she and niamh walked into sam’s place and heard her loudly listing off reasons why you would be a perfect fit for the team. the australian even going as far as trying to rope the her and niamh into joining her pestering. jess had politely refused whilst niamh offered a kind smile and an enthusiastic nod, encouraging the decision.

dri leaves her alone once realises she’s not going to get anymore out of jessie, leaving her to get back into the right headspace for the game.

———

the match was close and although canada had beaten australia by one— curtesy of jordyn huitema— sam still had a wide smile on her face as her and jessie stood talking on the pitch.

sam laughed at the way hayley pulled you into a headlock and began dragging you around, hopping and cheering as she went. kyra, of course, stood back and egged the two of you on loudly.

“they’re great” she tells jessie between laughs “i think you and y/n would get along”

jessie cocks a brow and hums, choosing to ignore the smile that she can hear creeping into sam’s voice. she crosses her arms and continues to watch the two of you tussle, smiling when you hook your foot around hayley’s ankle and take her to the ground.

sam bursts out laughing and almost doubles over when she sees kyra toss you a waterbottle so you can empty the remaining contents onto your sister’s head. hayley’s eyes go wide in shock and you push her further into the ground before grabbing kyra’s hand and breaking out in a sprint, laughing boisterously as the two of you try to find refuge in polks and emily.

hayley pulls herself up and watches the two of you run off. a deep scowl settles on her face as she combs her hair back with her fingers and stands.

“you doing okay ras!?” sam shouts with a smirk

hayley gets herself off the ground and brushes the grass off her bum, making her way over to the chelsea players. “no. that was so uncalled for! she’s such a shit”

“acting as if you’re not the same”

“you don’t have much of a leg to stand on, sam” jessie mumbles.

sam’s jaw drops and hayley claps in delight “fleming’s right, you don’t!”

the skipper rolls her eyes and pushes hayley’s shoulder “you” she points “are just as bad as your sister. and you” she directs to the canadian suddenly “need to go do something”

jessie looks to hayley before back to her close friend shrugging in fake cluelessness. sam’s shoulders go slack just as hayley leans on her, her expression both knowing and unreadable. the way the two australians are looking at her makes her nervous and she digs the toe of her boot into the pitch out of habit.

“she means go make a move on my sister”

jessie’s eyes nearly fall out of her head as she once again looks between the two of them. hayley’s lax attitude and expression doesn’t do much to ease her sudden spur of nerves, even after she drops the facade and smiles instead.

“no i don’t” sam starts “i mean go introduce yourself properly. you’re the last phase of my plan”

“same same” the winger waves off

“oh” jessie says dumbly. she doesn’t really know what the right way to respond was, or even if there is a right way. at this point she really can’t tell what sam’s motives are. jessie wasn’t stupid, sam had been dropping hints that she wanted her to get to know you but jess hadn’t done much besides follow you on instagram. “when did i get included in your plan” jessie questions carefully, to which sam tuts.

“when i realised you are exactly y/n’s type”

jessie blushes furiously and brings her hand up to her face in an attempt to hide it. she kind of wishes that the earth would just open and swallow her, or at the very least that hayley would remove herself from this conversation.

raso nods “to a tee”

sam takes charge of the situation and grabs the younger woman by her shoulders. she manhandles her club teammate until jessie has you in her eyeline “go on!” sam says before giving jess one hard shove.

jessie, for whatever reason, reluctantly follows sam’s orders and begins to trudge her way over to you.

“you’re such a pot stirrer”

“they’ll thank me one day”

———

you’re listening to kyra talk your ear half off about anything and everything that comes to mind, her hands not being able to stay still as she runs you through a story involving charli, harper and a tub of butter.

as you lean down to retrieve your now filled waterbottle from the ground the midfielder abruptly stops. the sudden silence makes your brows furrow and you lift your head just in time to see kyra’s cheeky smile. she blows you a kiss and waves quickly before running off to annoy mini, leaving you both confused and intrigued about the end of her story.

“do you wanna swap shirts?” you hear someone ask behind you, the unmistakable canadian accent catching you off guard.

you spin around and are faced with freckled flushed cheeks and a shy jessie fleming holding her hands behind her back.

“sure” you answer sheepishly, cursing yourself when you realise how small your voice sounds. you watch as jessie’s shoulders relax and she reaches for the hem of her jersey, pulling it off in one swift motion.

you pull your own shirt over your head before she can catch you staring. you definitely did harbour some type of romantic feelings for the canadian but you had always pushed them aside with the excuse that you didn’t know her beyond whatever sam had told you and the times when canada and australia would play eachother.

the truth was that jessie is your type. a pretty brunette with brains and talent? yeah, sign you the fuck up. you had admired her work ethic and determination from afar for years but hadn’t gotten the chance to exchange more than a few words with her at a time until now.

your usually outgoing personality has suddenly taken a backseat when you finally removed your shirt and saw jessie nervously playing with the fabric of her own. the two of you smile at eachother and swap, silently putting on one another’s jersey.

“sam seems pretty sure that you’re going to take the deal chelsea offered” she says whilst pulling her ponytail out of the collar of your shirt.

you shrug and mimic her actions, subconsciously fixing your ribbon “sam is sure of everything even if she’s wrong” you roll your eyes and tilt your head “but- um yeah. that’s the way it’s looking”

jessie smiles genuinely and you feel yourself becoming light headed “well, hey, if you need a tour guide when you get there i’d be happy to show you around”

“that’d be great” you smile back at her.

“a photo girls?” a man with a camera asks the two of you. you both smile at eachother and stand close together with your arms wrapped around eachother’s waists, proudly showing off both of your nation’s badges.

the camera clicks a few times and you feel jessie tense slightly under your arm. he looks at his camera before giving the both of a thumbs up “great thank you!” he says enthusiastically before walking off to take photos of other players.

“jeff!” someone yells. leon and sinc stand a little way away, both smiling and beckoning jessie over to them. the canadian lets go of your waist and turns to you.

“see you in london?”

words fail you for a moment before you snap yourself back into reality with a blush “yep”

you give jessie a small wave as she walks off and tuck one of your hands under the canada jersey. you can feel the heat radiating off from your face and you lift a palm to your cheek in an attempt to cool yourself down. letting out a breath you didn’t know you were holding, you relax your shoulders before you feel someone slap and grab you from behind.

“so i’ll see you at cobham then?” sam says cockily into your ear as she hooks her chin over your shoulder

“shut up sam”

#pegs woso #pegs writes #jessie fleming #jessie fleming x reader #jflem #jessie fleming fic #jessie fleming blurb #jessie fleming imagine #raso!reader #pegs matildas

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tendergraphite · 10 months

Text

Bunny Corcoran: Neglect In Plain Sight

Bunny was the baby of his family, and you'd of thought this meant he received endless fawning—In reality, this had been far from the case. Many emotionally abusive parents like to lament on how attentive they are, but in all truth the Corcoran's had purely been self serving: As Henry famously put it, Buns parent's were ''Like certain reptiles who hatch their young and abandon them to the elements.'' He hadn't received enough for textbooks, I find it hard to believe that hadn't extended to item such as clothes, or worst of all food.

It places a rather rancid lens over the comments on Buns weight, as he wouldn't have been fed consistently threw out his childhood; He'd have constantly been questioning himself where exactly he would be getting his next meal, and when you have experienced this type of consistent neglect you don't suddenly brush that of when your older. It wouldn't have mattered how much he ate now, or how often—Because what if this one would be his last meal?

It makes one wonder, has Bunny actually been taught how to do much of anything? His family saw getting a job as disgraceful, so he wouldn't have been taught invaluable life skills on how to get a job, only how he should/needed to mooch of others. Maybe that's why in so many scenes he's snatching things from others, and why he let's everyone else do the work (Does he know how to cook, even?) Richard had described how Bunny had a major habit of stealing, and when taken out of context from the rest of the above information it sounds as if he'd done it for the sake of doing so.

These ideas are shown to be even more so plausible when we take into account Bunny's Mother's eagerness for an autopsy—Something a family member should hardly want due to it's invasive nature: But she had requested one, because she feared her son would disowner the family; Not even because she feared foul play.

The family only cared for their image, not for the work it would've taken for that image to be true.

To add another layer, because Bunny never gained a job he never would've understood the value of money in the real world. No wonder he felt so free to request large sums of cash, he doesn't have an actual concept of money nor it's worth only that having an expensive taste is the right taste; and of course Richard whose had to work for a lot of his early life would look down on Bunny for such an action, he actually understands moneys worth and has to trifle with it for so long—Bunny was never taught moderation, so whenever given the chance to consume with no end, well what would you think likely to happen?

Now I must address the elephant in the room, Bunny's blatant homophobia and sexism. As distasteful as it was, it cannot be used as a reason to justify his murder—The entire group believed what he had, mayhaps not in the exact same way but in their own mortifying ways: Julian was classist, Francis sexist—All of these characters are just as bad as one another, one was just more vocal than the rest.

Take for example the ''Death is the mother of beauty'' Scene, where they'd all been describing how they'd be revered as Gods—But as soon as the comment of ''Common crackers'' Was made, that had crossed the line; Because it failed to fit into the idea of the picturesque.

Bunny was the bird that sung truth, and don't we all hate truth? For truth as Julian assures, is not a virtue./sarc

Abuse gets romanticised, let's admit it; if it cannot be wrapped up in a pretty box no one wants it—Whenever someone actually faces the effects abuse can have on a person, they squeal like piglets and run away from it because they cannot face how ugly abuse can make a person. No one magically becomes a dead beat, nor somehow is simply lazy by nature. We all want control over our livelihoods, but some of us believe we lack the capabilities to do so.

It's easier to be a Richard Papen, to demonise people like Bunny and say: At least I am not them, I am something better—When really, we should all be aiming to put ourselves on the same level as one another; because in reality, we are all equals.

That is not to say tolerating another's behaviour is the right thing to do, you are meant to speak up and set boundaries; to communicate and come to an equal understanding. But what is the one thing discouraged by Henry? Discussion; Richard isn't allowed to talk to Bunny ''Because he'll make it worse.'' Richard was an entirely autonomous person who'd been forcibly dragged into this situation, but chose to lay back and simplify Bunny to such a degree he could excuse murder; Richard picked a side, when there is no side.

But that's the wonder of this book, it convinces you murder was the only escape—That we should kill those who inconvenience us, who harm others with seemingly no reason. It's easier than patience, that's for sure.

#the secret history #bunny corcoran #henry winter #richard papen #dark academia

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shuttershocky · 10 months

Note

What Arknights modules are actually worth taking allll the way to level 3? Just got Saria to level 2, and I had to double check if there was any reason at all to bother with the last tier. (There's not, Saria is the only melee operator in the faction, what the heck.)

There's plenty I would say are actually worth it (though many are bafflingly on units that didn't really need the help). My recommendations would be:

Mostima X - Slow hits 90% at Level 3, Global Slow 18%. one of the most powerful module upgrades in the game

Skadi X - Lowered Redeployment Time critical for using Skadi as an Assassin

Specter the Unchained X and Y - Both of these are just stupid good. X for solo, Y for Abyssal team buffs

Ch'en X - Level 2 is good, but Level 3 makes Ch'en charge her own skills super fast

Dusk Y - Massive improvements to her SP gain and the strength of her Freelings, makes S3 actually usable

Gladiia X - 30% Phys and Arts damage reduction to all enemies for all Abyssal hunter units Omegalul

Rosa X - Literally double damage to enemies with a higher weight than 2 what the fuck, the numerically strongest module in the whole game so far

Hellagur X - Massive survivability upgrades for a guy whose gimmick is pushing it to the limit, incredibly good numbers

Ceobe X - Another massive number module upgrade, this one increases the bonus damage Ceobe gets from the enemy's DEF stat. Enemies with incredibly high DEF get mulched by her S2's new DPS.

Siege Y - Recommended only if you have Bagpipe, Siegepipe with Siege Module Y level 3 is Flagpipe levels of DP generation vs lots of small enemies, while also being able to actually fight

Kal'tsit X and Y - Both are incredibly good upgrades to Mon3tr, which baffles the mind as they are already Kal'tsit and Mon3tr

Dorothy X - 20% chance to deal double damage with a trap is funny, but you want the module upgrade because it literally doubles her bonus damage from +20% to +40%, putting her over 1k ATK without any buffers, so her traps deal massive damage even without crits

Lin X - Level 3 makes Lin completely immune to physical damage with a DPH of <1250 while also boosting her SP gen, making Lin one of the best physical tanks in the game. Disgustingly good. Carnelian cries herself to sleep hoping HG would love her like that

And now for the lower rarities

Andreana X - Abyssal Hunter unit. Duh.

Bibeak X - Increasing her ASPD also increases her SP gen, while also getting +ATK per stack is a very nice damage boost too. A must-have for Unlimited Bibeak Works enjoyers

Firewatch Y - Adding "Enemies that don't attack" to her list of targets she deals bonus damage too is a big deal, as this adds a surprisingly large amount of enemies to her kill list. It's good for both her S1 and S2.

April X - Even more reduced redeployment time for the Fast Redeploy Marksman? Don't mind if I do. Also strangely reduces her DP cost too, making her even more effective. While Level 2 to level 3 only subtracts 3 seconds from her redeployment time, every second counts in harder stages.

Perfumer Y - Perfumer's global regeneration talent is great. Upgrading that talent? Busted. To this day Perfumer's biggest competitor in her niche is Skadi the Corrupting Heart, a limited 6 star.

Ethan X - Most modules upgrade one thing, maybe two things that an operator actually wants. Ethan's upgrades three, giving him an AOE slow within his attack range, better bind chance, AND better bind duration. The strongest 4 star module and one of the best Module Level 3s.

Gravel X - Another powerful module for a unit that never needed it, Gravel's Level 3 module reduces Kazmierz ops redeployment time by 5 seconds every time she deploys, making her a support unit for Nearl the Radiant Knight and Wild Mane. Speaking of which...

Wild Mane X - Reduces redeployment time, a great combo when Wild Mane wants to jump around the map with her S1. Not really worth it most of the time, but if you like to run NTRK then definitely get Iwona's level 3.

#Arknights

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daddyharrington · 2 years

Text

We missed you too, Steve

second story I’ve ever written/posted, yikes!

in this little number, Steve returns home after almost a month away(!) and is stunned to see how much you and the baby in your belly have changed while he’s been gone. I firmly believe you have to be the story you want to read in the world, so here’s my take. love you for reading, bbs.

warnings: pregnant reader, reader with afab anatomy, discussion of weight gain, body worship. as always, if I’ve missed something please let me know and I’ll add it!

---

your gaze swept the parking lot as you pulled the maroon beemer into a spot near the stop where Steve’s bus was due to arrive any minute. there were a number of buses unloading right now, and you weren’t sure which direction to look first.

you couldn’t believe Steve’d been away for nearly a month. you’d talked on the phone every night, but you were very relieved he wouldn’t have to go away on any more business trips for the foreseeable future.

when he’d originally committed to the trip, you both knew it would be tough but worth it in the long run because of what it could mean for Steve’s future at the firm. that had been months ago. months before you’d realized Steve wasn’t going to be leaving just you back home. months before that perfect plus sign had appeared on a pregnancy test and turned your world upside down. it had taken everything in you to convince Steve not to back out of the trip for his own sake. it was the longest you’d ever been apart, and you were more than ready to have him back, because this rapidly-growing baby was already taking a lot out of you.

you opened the car door and your face was immediately met with the chilly January air. your movements were a lot slower these days, especially getting up from a seated position. you eventually heaved yourself out of the car, readjusted your long winter coat, and tightened your scarf under your chin. closing the car door, you began to make your way over to where all the passengers from the most recently-arrived bus seemed to be congregating and resurrecting their luggage from a chaotic beige and black pile.

“Y/N!” you heard a familiar voice from amongst the muddle. turning your head to follow its sound, you could just make out Steve’s hair, the top of his forehead as he bounced up and down, trying to get a clear eye-line, and his hand, waving wildly back and forth over the crowd. you beamed. just a few inches of Steve was enough to get your heart racing after so many weeks apart.

normally you’d run to him, but that was easier said than done now. you did your best, increasing your pace as fast as you could, meeting Steve in the middle of the parking lot. before you could get a word out he’d dropped his bag and had one hand gently but firmly pulling you towards him by your lower back, the other cradling the nape of your neck. your lips met in a kiss that Steve immediately deepened, your hands had reached up to caress either side of his face without even realizing, instantly falling back into muscle memory, everything fitting back into place between the two of you like it always had.

or, well. almost everything. apparently you had grown more than you thought in the last month, because you couldn’t get quite as close to Steve as you normally did. everything was just about 20° farther apart than it used to be.

Steve’s eyes said it all when you finally came up for air. “Hi, babygirl,” he finally greeted you, smiling from ear to ear. “Hi,” you replied. so relieved to have him back, but slightly shy, too. It seemed surreal to actually have him here in front of you, rather than imagining him sprawled across his bed in a hotel room, over the phone.

“worst month of my life,” Steve said, beaming as he brushed a stray strand of hair behind your ear. “I can’t believe I left my girls all alone for that long.” “we missed you too, Steve,” you laughed. “but we did okay here. very glad to have you back now, though,” you admitted, as you gave him another peck on the cheek and reached for his duffel bag.

“woah woah woah, what do you think you’re doin, sweetheart?” Steve admonished, quickly stepping between you and the bag so he could pull it onto his own shoulder instead. “helping you with your bag, Steve! it’s what polite people do when they pick loved ones up after long bus rides!”

“not people who are busy growing babies in their bellies!” Steve tutted, patting your bump as he starting steering you back towards the car which he’d already spotted in the lot behind you, “you’re carrying enough as is.” “oh please,” you huffed, “I’m not even that big yet. I think I can manage a bag of your dirty dress slacks and boxers, Steve.”

“I dunno, hon, I hate to say this but…” he paused in place, observing you from behind as you continued towards the car, “I think your cute little walk has turned into a waddle.” “what! you’re imagining things, Harrington,” you said, rolling your eyes as you tossed him the keys and made your way over to the passenger’s side.

“there you go again, pretty. you think you’re opening that door for yourself, don’t you?” he asked, as he slow-jogged over and opened it for you, with a little joking bow and a stupid grin on his face.

“you’ve been gone for weeks, Steve, and believe it or not, I did manage to get into this car without your assistance during that time,” you sassed, as you made your awkward way back into the car. unfortunately, between the cold outside and the baby inside, your actions spoke louder than your words. there was an awful lot of grunting going on as you got situated, and by the time you’d gotten the seatbelt extended as far as it needed to go to circle your belly, Steve had an incredibly smug look on his face. “I just call em like I see em,” he teased, as he leaned in to give you one more peck on the cheek before closing the door behind you and hopping into the driver’s side, getting the heat turned on so his girls could defrost asap.

---

you’d decided to stop on the way home to pick up some groceries—you were mostly out of the things Steve considered staples since he’d been gone, and you had a few other items on your list that you figured you might as well get while you were there. you hoped Steve wouldn’t notice that they were slightly irregular, given the season.

Steve immediately went to grab a cart as you unfolded your list, planning to meet back up with you in the produce section. unfortunately, inside the grocery store was much warmer than it was outside, and you were getting too hot for all the layers you’d needed just two minutes ago. you tugged your scarf off and, realizing that wouldn’t be enough, began to remove your heavy winter coat as well.

Steve was just walking back with the cart as you were in the middle of unzipping. when the sides of your coat parted ways, he was stunned to see the new bump that was obviously poking out between your now wider hips—his eyebrows shot up as he took it all in.

“Y/N!” he exclaimed. “way to bury the lead, babe!” he eyed your middle in amazement. “what, Steve?” you tried to feign innocence, knowing it was no use. “don’t you ‘what?’ me, Y/L/N! look at you!” he reached out, hands gripping either side of your belly. “you’re huge. when I left you were just starting to get your little speedbump, but now… tell me the truth, babe. how many kiddos do you have in here?” he asked, half joking, half serious, gaze still locked on the bump protruding between his palms.

you knew most women would be self-conscious about their boyfriend calling them huge, but you were actually proud of your growing belly. it was tangible proof that you were taking good care of your and Steve’s future daughter, and you’d be lying if you said you didn’t know where the extra weight had come from. baby girl’s growth spurt had kept you ravenous all month—everything you ate just tasted incredible, so between her appetite and your cravings, it wasn’t a shock to you that there was a lot more to love right now. what you hadn’t considered was how much of a difference a month would make to Steve. your belly had popped and then some since he’d been gone, going from looking bloated to unmistakably pregnant in the intervening weeks.

you sighed as you looked down at your swollen belly. you’d figured this was coming, but you’d hoped you wouldn’t have to have this conversation until you got home… ideally once you could sit down and put your feet up.

“I know, I know,” you admitted sheepishly, groaning slightly as baby girl chose that exact moment to kick into your side—you rubbed at the spot, hoping to settle her down some. once it ebbed, you let one hand reach around to support your lower back, while the other stayed put on your belly—a new posture that had quickly become habit, but only served to emphasize your bump even more. Steve knew your body better than anyone—at times you thought he might know it better than you did. you’d felt your baby growing and your body changing, but having Steve notice it made it finally seem real. “I feel huge. baby girl has been really hungry this month, Steve. I can barely keep up with her. actually, you should hear some of the things she’s been hungry for. now that’s going to make your head spin.”

“cravings too, huh?” he asked, still stroking your belly, only half paying attention to the conversation. “I’ve missed so much already,” he realized sadly, looking down at you with his big brown teddy bear eyes.

“you could say that, yes,” you huffed. “although, not all of the, uh, cravings have been food-related,” you muttered out of the corner of your mouth, hoping the words would only find Steve’s ears.

his head immediately sprung up, perky as a puppy again. “oh yeah, sweets? well you know, now that I’m back, I think I might be of some help in that regard,” he grinned mischievously.

you were glad you’d been able to lift his spirits so quickly, and you still had one more card to play. you leaned in close, this time whispering into his ear, “you think my belly’s huge, babe? just wait til you see what this pregnancy is doing to my tits.”

Steve gulped, eyes instantly searching your sweater for signs that his favorite parts of you had benefitted from the new arrangement of fat on your body. “h-honey where’s that list you brought? let’s get these groceries and get outta here so you can bring me up to speed on everything I’ve missed, okay?”

“sure, Stevie,” you winked seductively, sashaying your hips playfully towards the kiwis which, out of season or not, baby girl was absolutely demanding. “soon’s we get home, I’ll give you the full tour.”

#steve harrington x pregnant reader #steve harrington x pregnant!reader #pregnant reader #stranger things #steve harrington #dad!steve harrington x fem!reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n #steve harrington x one shot #pregnancy #body worship

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razzmothazz · 1 month

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wxs physical build headcanons for me to draw later!!

before and way later on after joining wxs edition

cw: mention of a lot of different eating habits and small mentions of body image issues

TSUKASA!!

before: a bit underweight, i imagine he got a bit too into eating "healthy" at times and would refuse a lot of foods he deemed unhealthy, which caused him to not get certain nutrients at times even tho he needed them, add to that his forgetfulness especially when it comes to taking care of himself and you can see why hes skinny like that. i also imagine he would often burn more calories than he consumed in a day with all his practicing and just running around in general, which is definetly not that good when youre already underweight. he would often wonder why he seemingly just cant gain any muscle and assumed its just kinda how he naturally is, tho he didnt mind much since his build was similar to a lot of his idols

after: he gained some healthy weight!!!! yippieee!!! with wxs constantly reminding him to take care of himself + with emu bringing some food/snacks nearly everyday he gained some healthy weight, hes now pretty average with maybe a bit of chub in some places. he also finally started building some muscle thanks to all the practice and ruis "training"? if you can call it that? he does get a bit insecure about it at times, wishing he would be back to his build that was like his idols, but wxs are quick to remind him that the best star is a happy and healthy one!! his natural state definitely wasnt skinny, at least not as skinny as he was before

NENE!!!!!

before: you already know she was malnourished and looked like she barely saw the light of day... she had a very weak appetite and her horrible sleep schedule didnt help. she tried to eat well but she struggled with it a lot, tho she never exactly knew why, she would just very quickly feel full and wouldnt feel hungry untill way too many hours later. she would eat like. 2 small meals a day and maybe some snacks in between.

after: you guessed it she gained weight and is chubbier!!!!!! yayayyaa!!!! i think she would hear others motivate tsukasa to eat better and seeing him want to improve on that motivated her to do the same. because of the low appetite thing she struggled pretty hard at first but with time she managed to figure it out and now eats more and is feeling good!!! this is thanks to mostly emu who would love to bring foods and snacks nene loved so they can share it any time the 2 would hang out, but also thanks to the practices and stamina building she was able to kinda feel like she was burning the unnecessary calories? i imagine she struggled pretty hard when she realized how much weight she put on thinking its a bad thing, but with a lot of support and care from wxs she realized this is way healthier for her than wherever she had going on before!!! she doesnt gain muscle easily tho, so not much of that going on + she does focus more on stamina itself rather than gaining muscle and physical strength

EMU!!!!!

before: chubby, obviously. fat even!!!! definetly overweight and not bothered by it at all! she definetly thinks it makes her look cuter :3 my girl loves foods and snacks and nobody can ruin her mood for those. she also had a fair bit of muscle and liked that its not visible so shes strong but nobody can tell, and she can suprise them with it for funsies

after: still pretty much the same!! tho since she started training and working out even more i imagine a bit of her weight turned into more muscle, so shes even more muscle now!!!! she loves it!!! its still not visible unless she flexes, which makes the muscles pretty prominent and she LOVES jumpscaring people with that because nobody expects it for some reason, despite how athletic she is. besides her arms i imagine her legs are pretty built as well seeing how much she runs, especially from one school to another in a matter of minutes to visit her friend. what can i say my girl loves to eat and run around!!! her love language is soooo sharing a meal with her friends btw. its canon i just know it.

RUIIII!!!!!

before: barely eats doesnt sleep much, just a mess honestly. he doesnt rlly have friends atp and yet still he takes care of others more than he does himself..... needless to say hes tall, lanky, underweight as hell and palest of them all despite not staying inside all that much. lives off of whatever his parents make him if he remembers to eat it and random store bought/school cafeteria foods. malnutrition for sure too like fym u eat no vegetables and ur fine??? bro doesnt even take any vitamins atp to make up for it

after: gained a bit of weight!! hes still skinny because thats just kinda how he naturally is, but hes getting tricked into eating veggies or at least stuff that can replace veggies with the needed nutritions otherwise. he also started taking some vitamins to make up for that too, and despite being naturally pale he did tan a bit!! he still forgets to eat way too often but wxs make up for it with tsukasa always being willing to share his food with him [at times even bringing bigger portions just in case rui needs it] and emu often bringing food to share with them all!!!!

can u tell im a little bit obsessed with gaining weight as a sign of healing. because i am and i love that trope. with the power of love you will stop being underweight and malnourished god bless.

#pjsk #pjsk headcanons #wxs #wonderlands x showtime

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axyer · 15 days

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Now, I have the dilemma of being both a scrawny Heart and a chubby Heart fan.

My taste in men is scrawny, short and meek, don't get me wrong; and my only taste for chubbier people is very specific, so naturally making my second-favourite character of all time be the latter option seems rather unlikely, but believe it or not I'm capable of liking a character even if they're not my type! Just because I love pathetic twinks doesn't mean rounder characters aren't cool and deserving of love too. :)

However, strangely I just love chubby Heart. I love it when depressed characters are overweight because it adds a special layer of realism; depression can cause overeating, depression can cause a lack of exercise, antidepressants can cause someone to gain weight, someone can become depressed because of insecurities about their weight, etc.

I think we need more characters that are chubby for reasons besides loving food, because there's a lot of complex reasoning behind it! Plus, representation for bigger people is wonderful. But while I could rant about this for hours, that's not what I'm here to talk about!

I made a compromise for my Heart with my love for both headcanons. However, it's not in a way that would be traditionally realistic for humans, it's written with fictional evolution in-mind!

Ids, Heart and Mind (and kind of Soul)'s species in my little canon-divergent AU I share with Grimm Grimm, are strange animals meant to survive in mild conditions, namely forests.

They are not meant to survive the cold; in-fact, bundling up with several layers of clothing won't keep them warm enough, like how a human would.

Instead, they have two solutions that work in coordination: By eating a lot, ids can release a significant amount of that energy as heat, whilst also putting on a lot of weight to help insulate their bodies.

Ids do not have fur (in-fact, they somehow have less than a human does), nor do they know how to start fires in the wild, with their IQ-of-a-five-year-old in their natural habitat. So, they get plumper and spent the coldest hours of the day in a den, snuggling up to one another to preserve and share as much warmth as possible, and rest through much of the colder temperatures, before going out to hunt and forage for plant-based food to help maintain the weight and heat they need.

Heart and Mind are the rare case of civilised ids; ids raised by a human. This means that they don't technically need to do this, as a nicely-heated home can do the trick, but they still have the instinct to get chubbier to help warm, especially with the outside temperatures posing a threat, and the imminent risk of hypothermia even in good conditions.

Heart is not at all bothered by having a heavier size during the colder months, even having a bit of fondness of it due to sating his body's needs. With this compromise, half the year Heart is scrawny, and half the year he's a decent bit chubby– for a reason I think is pretty cool! He's an animal going by animal instincts.

I apologise if this is bad somehow! I have no intentions to hurt anyone's feelings. I just simply like the idea of Heart and Mind getting bigger in the winter months because, well, they're animals, and it's their way of keeping warm. I've always been a massive zoology nerd, so I thought it'd be pretty cool. :)

That's all! I hope you enjoy my little ramble about my little evolutionary anomalies. :)

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heliosthegriffin · 7 months

Text

Shadow Knight, and Magic Girls V

Chapter 5

Jaune exited the bathroom awkwardly, followed by Amber and Vernal. "You two really didn't need to do that." Jaune said blushing.

"Look, it was only the top-half, you took care of the bottom half. I just needed to make sure your stitched didn't get wet." Amber said unable to make eye-contact with Jaune, before looking at what would be several feet of nylon string stretched out, currently keeping his body together.

He was healing fast, faster than anybody else she had seen, the skin had practically closed, in a few days they could take out the stitches. It wasn't superhuman, in-fact she suspected it was just the fact he cleared out her refrigerator, paired with being in peak-physical condition.

But, it was damn scary, in fact it was preternatural, extraordinary, but also, nothing that couldn't explained away as good genetics.

"Yeah, thanks." He mumbled, unable to keep his focus anywhere at the moment.

Vernal had a shit-eating grin. "Any time, Tiger." She had longer moved past any hesitation regarding flirting, if she was going to be his nurse she was owned some privileges. "Plus, if you fell down in there, Amber isn't hauling you up on her own, hell, how much do you weigh? Your arms feel like they're shaped from stone."

"I don't know, I probably under 240lb, I guess?" Jaune muttered, he did not like this attention.

Vernal kicked over a scale. "Might as well find out, we'll keep it on record."

Jaune stepped on it.

The scale creaked, feeling slightly self-conscious.

Amber's eye's widened. "255lb?"

"Shit, boy's heavy."

Jaune stepped off. "I'm 6'4 by the way, if you need to know my height. My dads the same height, and we're eye-level."

"I'd never have guess you were so dense when you had all those clothes on. You look so much taller, and leaner."

Jaune laughed. "It's neat trick, shadows distort how you see things at night. I also pad my shoulders, and my boots make a bit taller, it helps keep people from guessing my identity sense they can't match up the body." He hummed. "My gear probably adds another 15lbs on me, so it also gives a incorrect weight to work with."

Amber nodded. "You've put a lot of thought into this."

Jaune frowned. "I have too, what if this gets linked back to my family, my friends? I have no idea of the scope of powers or conspiracy at play here, I need to take every precaution possible."

"That means, you took a huge liability by letting us in on it." Vernal said weakly. "A secret is only as safe as the amount of people that know it."

"You saved my life."

"And, you mine. Honestly, I was out of line." Amber said sadly. "You owed me nothing, it was just a equal exchange."

Jaune leaned against the wall. "Well, it's done now, no use crying about it, and," He led.

"And?" Vernal continued.

He gave a boyish grin, one that was fitting for him. The two women felt a wave of warmth hit them, it was ... it was hard to put into words what they were feeling.

To see a boy so put on by his own sense of duty, and the circumstances of the world, to be nearly destroyed on a nightly basis, only to go out into the uncaring world with no-reward to be gained, other than words of gratitude and another chance to sacrifice himself another night.

For him to be pushed into the mold of a man, and pushed so far beyond what any one person should be expected to give.

To see him smiled, to see him look like a boy should look, act like he should act.

It was heart-breaking, and it was inspiring. Most of all, it was right. It was how things should be. Boys should be able to smile. Jaune had the right to smile.

It was the way things should be.

Then the door blew open in a spray of gunfire and smoke.

"You fucking bitch!" Came a gruff voice, as a brawny man entered the house. "I knew it, I fucking knew it, should have never -" The man didn't get a chance to finish his line.

Jaune in a moment of preternatural physical ability grabbed Amber and Vernal pushing them into the bathroom, before diving forward and kicking up the hardwood coffee table, and then kicking it forward.

It exploded in gunfire, but Jaune was nowhere to be seen, a window broken near it.

The man who blew open the door crept forward, being followed by no less than ten men in ski-masks and dark suits.

"Amber, Amber, fucking Amber!" The man called out. "I am so disappointed in you, you little slut!"

"Junior please, I can explain!" Amber called from the bathroom.

"I know you have The Knight in here! You think you can hide dick or shit from me?! I am the eyes and ears of this city!" Junior said in one breath, anger radiating off his very being. "Do you have any idea how much trouble this dip-shit hero-wannabe has caused me?! How many men he's crippled, how many he's killed?! Do you Amber?! Because, I do!" "Junior please! He saved my life, I was only trying to uphold the code of honor!"

"Don't you fucking talk to me about honor, girl! If you knew anything about honor, I wouldn't have had to ship you and that Branwen bitch in cargo-boat from Haven to here! If you weren't such a valuable asset, I'd have just burn this fucking house to the ground, and collected the insurance!"

"Junior, I'm sorry, just, I-" Junior fired a shot up into the ceiling. "Shut up. Here's what's going to happen. I"m going to kill that bastard. Then I'm going to take you, break your legs and put you in a wheel-chair for the rest of your life, and keep you at base as our personal doc until you die of old age, and you should be thankful, I'm being merciful here!"

"What- What about Vernal?" Amber asked voice wavering.

Junior smiled the type of smile that only belong on predatory cats. "The boys need a prize after battle, don't they? Don't worry, you can have her back, whatever's left of her, that is."

"You bastard." Amber whispered. "I should have just died last night, just like I was planing too."

Junior neared the door, reaching for the handle, tommy-gun at the ready.

Then the lights went out.

"AGHT-" Came a cry that went muffled.

Lights went on, but there was nothing were the sound had come from.

"Ted?" Came a concerned voice. "Ted's gone, boss!"

"Shut up, not the time, form a circle in the living room, don't leave any blind spots. This fucker is playing games with us, good, cause I love winning." Junior spat, as he made a sweep with his weapon, a flash-light feature having been activated.

The came a cracking noise. They did not get a chance to preapre for it.

"Ugh,"

Junior turned his head around, to see one of his men being dragged away into darkness.

He opened fire without mercy.

His man fell over dead, eyes full of horror, plugged full of holes.

A blur rushed out of the darkness, bullet followed his trail, but the monster was just one step ahead of them, and unforunately, they were in his clutches now, and his men were domino's waiting to be knocked down.

A towel tangled around one of his man's arms, jerked down hard, as knee rose up and met a ski-masked face.

The blur let go of his man, who fell down still as stone. The pale creature disappeared, before he came back out again behind another of his goons.

That pale rag he held was turning pink, it whipped and hit another man in the eye, he winced, taking his eyes off, and then came a kick so fast Junior's eyes didn't process it.

He didn't need too, to see the effect. There was a crack, and the man's head spun slightly, then feel at a 90 degree angle.

Two his men rushed forward unasked, they had known these men, worked with them all they're career criminal. They were brothers.

All the unrighteous rage they burned with meant nothing, however.

These men were big, they were strong, and experienced.

But, at the end of the day, also just bullies. They picked on the weak, always came in numbers, and sure risked they're lives on occasion, but they were not warriors.

What they were fighting wasn't either. It was a man who turned himself into a monster, and to kill a monster, you needed another monster, or a hero.

These men did not qualify.

The towel flashed again, pulling a man by the arm forward into a fist straight into the chest, there was a very wet crack, followed by wheesing. He didn't even get a chance to point his gun.

The other man did.

The towel wrapped around his hand, and jerked upwards, a score of bullets hitting the ceiling, the pale creature wrapped the towel harder around his fist, then moved behind the man, and then pulled hard.

The arm dislocated. The man screamed, falling to his knees, a kick forced him to the ground. Then came a stomp to the head, and then another, and another.

Junior grimaced at the sight, drew a bead and fired. But, the bastard was evasive and disappeared into the dark.

Junior sighed. "Outside, we're burning the house do-urgh!" He let out a strangled voice, as a towel was pulled around his neck and he was lifted off his feet.

Jaune leaned hunched behind him, pulling down on Junior neck using all of weight on a corded up towel, all while naked and covered in blood from head to toe.

"Call them off," He pulled the towel tighter. "Or, you all die." He pulled it just a bit tighter, not enough to break his neck, but enough that the big man was sure to feel it was about too. "Now." Jaune whispered, his voice hollow, inhuman.

Then he eased the pressure off, though keeping the towel around Junior's neck. The big man taking gulps of air like a he had been dying.

Which he was.

Junior feeling the pressure weaken, tried to slam the stock of his gun into the boy.

Jaune sighed, pulled the towel tightly, then with a heave spun in place, swung the towel, and therefore Junior with great effort, at the remaining men.

Junior was dead before he was even thrown, his neck broken like a cheap pencil, but his men on reflex filled the body being thrown at them with lead.

Not that it help them, as all 300 hundred pound of Junior slammed into them, knocking them to the ground in a heap.

Jaune stood over the men like a horror of a child's nightmare, like some sort of boogeyman. His eyes were dilated to the maximum in the darkness, his body dripping with blood, and his lips stretched into a thin line.

In either hand was the towel or a cheap kitchen knife.

The man struggled to get up, but they were tangled under the body and each other's limbs. Jaune snatched up a sub-machine gun, turned off the safety, and did his work.

He took a moment examining them for any sign of life, then fired again. He did not take chances on things like this.

Bright lights came on behind him, pouring in through the windows. He saw shadows move along the walls, dozens of them.

"Boss? Junior? What's going on? You get those bitches, yet?" Came a snarky feminine voice.

"Yeah, we got shit to do tonight." A near identical voice followed.

Then came in two black-hair girls in white and red outfits respectively.

"Shit." They both said in tandem upon seeing the crime-scene.

Jaune drew a bead on them, face shadowed and mostly hidden. "So, what do you thinks going to happen next?"

Then before either could react, the floor exploded. A giant ursine face with glowing red eyes staring at them, then pulled itself out.

Jaune sighed.

Of course.

------

Ren covered his face, blushing and on the verge of having a mental breakdown.

"I hate all of you." He muttered darkly.

Nora whined.

"Except, Nora."

"Oh shush, you look beautiful." Ruby said, tying Ren's hair into a braid, while Yang did his makeup.

How?! HOW?! HOW DID HE GET TALKED INTO THIS?! NORA HADN"T EVEN BEEN THE ONE TO SUGGEST IT?! Ren thought very calm and reasonably.

Blake was comparing different shades of eye shadow, while Pyrrha was going through dresses that would fit him.

They had somehow managed to take over the drama club and ransack they're closet of outfits.

The other girls had started dressing up, and then turned on him, he should have known better than to let it slip he used to play dress up with Nora.

He had been 10! It have been 7 years, and now, by forces beyond his comprehension, Yang, Blake, Ruby, and Pyrrha had exchanged looks that had said the same thing.

'If he's this cute dressed normally, how much cuter could we make him?"

He blamed Jaune for this, he wasn't sure how, but he knew this was his fault.

Not that Jaune would have been able to help him, considering Yang had grabbed him with one arm and hoisted him over shoulder without any effort on her part, something that was almost blatantly superhuman.

All it would have induced is Jaune sharing his fate, and face.

But, as the saying went, 'Misery loves company,'.

"Stop frowning, you look so much prettier when you smile." Yang said, almost like a big sister.

Ren didn't even want a big sister! Nora was enough to deal with, and took the brunt of that when he was around!

"Yeah! Smile! Smile! Smile!" She repeated like a chant, which Nora quickly nodded and repeated. "Renny smile! Renny Smile! Smile Renny!"

Internally, Ren started sweating. Is this how a cult works?

Then Pyrrha came over with a dress and devious grin. "You would look so cute in this."

Ren knew his fate was sealed with that smile.

The best he could hope for is that this wouldn't awaken anything in him.

Shit. That was a lost cause the moment Yang started tossing him around like a ragdoll.

Blake turned around to the others. "Ladies, presenting Ms. Lily Ren."

Ren blushed in his idol outfit.

"Now we can finally start our own idol group!"

"Oh oh! Let me join, I love dance numbers!" Nora begged.

"Sure!" Ruby agreed.

As they talked, Ren swore, that he'd make everyone in this room suffer. If. It. Was. The. Last. Thing. He. Did.

------

Imagine if you would.

A naked and rugged statuesque blond, running around covered in blood, while firing pot-shots at a giant-demon bear, while some hit-squad goons ran around dying.

Pretty easy, right?

Now living it, that was the hard part.

"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck," Came one hysterical voice.

"What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck," And another one in stereo.

Jaune rushed forward, with them hung over either of his shoulders. It had been a spur of the minute decision, the Shadow-Bear had charged, and there had been a girl.

Well, Girls.

Women.

Whatever.

They were probably here to try and kill him, and if the circumstances had been slightly different, they'd be dead on the floor.

But, he also had no proof of that, and just because they were here, didn't mean he was going to let the Shadow-Bear get them. That kinda of went against what he stood for.

Plus...

Jaune turned having to peer over a very nice behind, to see the bear was very close behind him, and much, much larger than anything he had fought this far.

He needed every hand here to put it down.

"Can you shoot?" Jaune asked the girl attached to the nice rump.

"What the fuck?!" The one in a red track-suit exclaimed.

He turned to the other, the one in a white track-suit. "What about you?"

"What. The. Fuck?" She said slowly, then turn to him. "What is that?!"

"Demon-Alien-Robot-Bear thing, I don't know." Jaune answered, running past a van, which got total as the bear punched through it. Several goons got crushed.

"That's helpful!" She snarked. Jaune nodded, that was a good sign that she could make a comeback.

Bullet glanced off it's armor, but chunks of dark flesh went flying when bullet hit the black-skin.

Still, it wasn't slowing down. It'd take concentrated fire to put it down, and they couldn't do that without ... a distration.

"I have a propistion." Jaune offed.

"Oh, this ought to be good, what could possibly have to offer me right now?" Despite being carried like a sack of flour, The Girl in White managed to sound imperious and arrogant.

"Well, it's not much, but, how does a chance to live through tonight, sound?"

She blinked and considered it. "Well, considering my other options." She gestured to handful of goons barely staying alive. "I'll say you have a deal, Mr. Knight."

"Good, now, are you a good shot?"

She chuckled. "No dear, I'm more ... leg focused, Militia over there on the next shoulder over, is much more arm oriented. Mil!" She said to her babbling sister.

She kept babbling.

"Ugh, I hate when she gets like this!" The brought down her hand on her sister ass in a sharp slap, which Jaune got a great view of, which earned a sharp yelp from the babbling girl.

"What the fuck, Melanie?!" She seemed to regained her sense, noticing Jaune. "Who's this? He's hot." She smiled at him. "You come here often, Sugar?"

"Cut the horny, Sis. We need you to do some shooting." She turned to Jaune. "Not that you aren't, Dear."

Jaune shrugged. "No offense, but not the time, or place, thank you though."

He pushed the sub-machine gun into Militia's waiting hands. She took it like it was old-friend. "Oh, this has some kick to it, Junior really wanted to kill you."

"Hmm. 5/10, had better."

Melanie nodded. "Yeah, that's about right. His dad's going to pissed, though."

"Yeah, Big Hei Xiong, isn't going to take this well." Militia said offhandedly, then patted Jaune on the shoulder. "Nice knowing you. Unless, you fancy eloping?"

Jaune looked at the quickly catching up demon-bear. "Sorry, but, I have a duty to take care of. I can figure out who I'll survive tomorrow after I figure out how I'll survive tonight."

"I noticed you didn't say us." Melanie added with suspicion.

"Because, I'd die before, I'd let it get you two." Jaune added casually, bluntly, and more of all, truthfully.

Melanie and Militia looked at each other, a faint blush. "Well, thank you." Mel added.

"So, here's the plan." Jaune said. "I'm going to distract it, you gather up your boys and concentrate fire on it, go for the eyes, or concentrate on one limb until you break it off, now..." He tensed his muscles, and took a grip on the hems of they're clothes, and tossed them up into a tree just high enough for them to be caught by.

Jaune continued to run straight, while the Shadow-Bear followed hot on his trail.

The twin girls started slightly transfixed, as they realized he was quite naked.

"It's quite the view, Mel." Militia took aim with the sub-machine gun. "He's quite trusting fellow, isn't he? I could blow his pretty little head all over the lawn."

"Yes, it's quite the sight." She jumped out of the branches landing in a crouch. "But, spare me the drivel, we can figure out what to do about him after the monster's dead." Melanie said casually, before taking off at a dead sprint to her remaining men, to straighten them out.

-----

Ok, Ren thought, maybe this isn't so bad.

The boy moved in sync with the girls, though they struggled to keep up with his practiced movements.

"KEEP UP LADIES!" Ren bellowed. "Do you want to be Idols? Or do you want to be I-dolts?!"

"Idols!" The girls yelled.

"Then picked up the pace, hussies!" Ren swaying and rotating his hips like he was a gyroscope, the girls were runing out of breath, but Ren had just begun.

"1 and 2 and 3 and 4, Jazz-hands!! NORA! I DON"T SEE JAZZ HANDS!"

"I"m sorry, Renny!"

"It's Lily on stage, you dolt!"

"I'm sorry, Lily!"

"Damn right, you are! Blake shake what you momma gave you, or so help me, I will rip it off you and give it to Weiss! You know she didn't get her figure from her mama, it came from her flat-ass father!"

Blake turned to Yang, who was also struggling. "What have we unleashed upon the planet?"

Yang turned to her pale and hopeless. "Lily the Star of Vale, the conquer of worlds."

A bag dropped on the ground, as Weiss and two Brunettes walked in, one wearing sunglasses and other had large rabbit ears.

"What did you say about me?" Weiss asked icily.

Lily pointed at her, still dancing in time. "I think the bigger question is, what is it, I could say about you?" Then drew a very unflattering shape of Weiss in the air, while fluttering her (His?) eyelashes innocently.

The brunette with sunglasses took a sharp intake of air. "She's perfect."

"I think that's Lie Ren?" The rabbit-girl said, not that the sunglasses girl heard, too focused on Lily's dance and swaying mini-skirt.

'Oh boy, there she goes again.' The rabbit-girl thought, then sat down and opened a book.

It was full of nothing but pictures of the Shadow-Knight. Though, it had no pictures of Shadow-Monsters, only managing to catch him fighting criminals, or as a barely visible blur.

There was also, a second notebook, that was full of her thoughts on the Shadow-Knight.

Ranging from Height and Weight, to Goals as to why he did what he did, and where he strike next.

6'6ft was her best guess via estimations and the few pictures of him standing still next to objects of known height. His weight was around 280lbs give or take ten pounds, but some of that was definitely his gear, so taking that off, it was probably closer to 260 naked.

He was definitely a Vale born natively, as a few pictures had caught some skin, that was pale as milk, and he understood Vale's dialect perfectly from the few interactions people had with him.

There was no styles she could link to his fighting style, which she had taken to calling as Dark Chivalry, the idea of using any means necessary to protect the innocent. So, seeing as he had no true fighting style that ruled him out being a martial artist, a ex-soldier/military/mercenary, and put him in the category of either being self-trained, or someone thrown in the deep in.

Seeing as how fast he recovered from injuries that had been recorded, he had to be young and athletic and good health, it made her lean towards him being self-trained as he only showed up a year ago, so it made it all the more plausible that he was just teenager, who happened to get dragged into this by accident.

However, that was only one theory, the other was that he was secret project by a cabal of the highest members of the society, empowered to fight against some unknown, shadowy threat that could dismantle all of society, while working with several others of great power every night to fight evil.

She shook her head. "That would be ridiculous."

Fingers snapped in front of her face. "Vel, Vel, Velvet! Stop your hero-worshiping! I need your camera,"

"What for Coco?"

Coco had a delirious look on her face, as she gestured to where Weiss was being forced into idol clothes, breathless after she was beaten in a dance off by Lily, who looked haughtily at the heiress.

"We have stars in the making! That's why, and we can take them to the top!" Coco's eyes crawled over Lily. "Or the bottom."

------

Jaune ran.

Cold, sticky sweat stuck to him, while a nearly silent monster kept pace with him, it's heavy paws making loud thumps behind him, it was as big as mini-van and weighted more, probably.

So, it had no problems crashing through ... anything. Jaune lept over fences, slid over cars, scaled brick walls, jumped ditches, and slid under dump-trucks.

It kept pace.

By effortlessly crashing through anything and everything in it's path, it's red eyes focused entirely on the pale human in front of it. To catch and rip him apart.

In the dark, it was nearly invisible, aside from it's bone plating and red eyes, but even those could be hidden in the dark. It was a near-perfect killing machine.

Jaune kept running though, feet leaving bloody footprints behind him, running barefoot this entire time. Blood dried across the rest of his body, thankfully none his own, but bruises lined him all over from all the rocks and pieces of debris that hit him.

Still he kept running, he done his best to limit damage, to minimum success, but he had at least kept it from going through any houses. Though, he still felt sour that this was happening at all.

Jaune had a goal in mind, though.

Smiling, ahead was an army of orange cones and yellow caution tape.

Ahead was the ugly decaying body of a concrete building, a old office building condemned to death.

Along with plenty of hazards to one's life, including a unliving shadow demon.

Ducking underneath the tape, Jaune vaulted over railing into the site, bloody feet hitting packed dirt, and he winced, but kept moving.

The shadow-monster barreled through, making a bull in a china-shop look absolutely sad by comparison.

He made a be line towards the rebar, knocking over buckets of nails, bolts, anything that might slow it down, or do some damage.

Daring to peek behind, Jaune was disappointed and slightly horrified to see the nails mostly crushed into the ground, other than a few lucky ones that impaled into it's paws, not it notice or cared.

'Stupid lack of blood and internal organs.' He thought cursing the monster.

Swing past a street post, Jaune turned too fast for the monster, with that much weight it lacked the ability to turn on the dime like he could, and it kept going forward.

Straight into a foot-think concrete wall.

It punched straight through, going beyond into it, leaving a gaping hole into the decrepit building, small bits of concrete falling from the edges, leaving a dark mouth into the body of the building.

Jaune peered in, noticing that the line of destruction just kept going. Then he saw cracks begin to spread over the walls, and the building started to shutter, it's top floors sagging.

"Crap." Jaune muttered, then ran grabbing some sharp looking rebar nearby, saw a face mask and some safety glasses left around, and then dove behind a dumpster, as several hundred tons of building came crashing down, along with a decades of old dust and smoke exploded out.

He could feel the force in his bones, as the dumpster slid back, despite already being full of several thousand pounds of concrete, metal, and wood, pressing him against a truck.

Jaune covered his face, as smoke and dust and other unpleasant grossness hit him from under the dumpster, he felt his skin burn, and eyes water, mouth go dry, and very dizzy.

Minutes passed, and for a minute he dare to hope that it had brought down the beast.

He got up shakily, tiredly, and saw nothing but grey, dust air covering everything an a hill made of rubble.

It moved.

"Crap." Jaune sighed, forcing himself forward, clutching the rebar.

An armored head forced it's way out of the junk, it was thankfully, damaged, finally.

Half of it's face was gone.

It pulled out the rest of it's body, it's armor was cracked, and there was glass, metal, and rock stabbing all over it's body. It was also missing a front leg the same side where it's face was gone.

It looked like shit, and Jaune smiled with malice, feeling like he actually had a pretty decent chance of taking it on now.

Then frowned, looking at all the rubble, and then at his bleeding barefoot. He was just asking for tetanus, or worse, now, wasn't he?

If he tried running through all that, he was practically asking to never recover properly. He paused. What was he if not reckless? If he didn't take this thing down, then what would happen if he didn't. Jaune was more than willing to give his life over this, so what?

But, that didn't mean he had to be dumb about this.

Jaune slammed the rebar on the ground, getting the monsters attention. "Over here, fatso!" Jaune bellowed.

It turned to him groggily, as though it was surprised he was alive too.

Keeping up the pace, Jaune swung again and again at the dumpster, he was going to keep monster him no matter what.

Turning to him, it moved at much more sedate pace than before, losing a leg does that to you, but still fast enough to turn him to mush.

Stopping his banging, Jaune turned the rebar in hand like a spear, then hurled it, at it's remaining eye.

It moved like dodging was an alien thought to it, it had never dodge in it's life, well, unlife, so it wasn't going to stop now.

Of the five feet of rebar, half of it buried into it's skull.

This didn't deter it in the slightest, as it kept moving where Jaune was.

Then turned to where Jaune was going, it might not be able to finely track him, but it's monstrous nature still allowed it to sense negative feelings.

Jaune, calm as he was, internally was burning vividly with all the dark elements of mortal-kind.

It charged again.

Jaune dodge, moving to it's blindside. Striking the other rebar into it's stump, digging the metal pole into it's red inside.

Not that it seemed to bother it, and now, Jaune was unarmed.

He thought he could hear voices, as he dodged under a paw.

The boy pulled back, taking stock of the creature, and noticed the rebar he thrown into it's head, and looking for any other weapons.

He thought he heard the voices getting closer, and did he hear a car?

There was no other weapons, but ... what if?

Jaune grabbed a rock, and jumped up, grabbing it by the shoulder, hauling himself up single handedly. The monster bucked and shook, but Jaune clinged on, it jumped and then charged, it wasn't panicking, it wasn't capable of that.

It was, however, clueless on what to do. It never had been climbed on before.

Jaune grabbed it by the ear, steadying himself, not wanting to fall and get crushed by it's paws, brought his arm back, and then brought the rock down on the rebar.

It went in just a bit further. Jaune smiled, then did it again, his hand stung as he did it, but the rebar went in inch by damn inch. Jaune wasn't sure what he hoped to achieve by doing this, it had no organs, but it was better than nothing, maybe though, it would do something, maybe it'd do just enough damage for it to fall apart.

Then the bear suddenly stopped, it had slipped, Jaune realized, those palls he had thrown around earlier had done they're work, and now it feel prone on the ground, and all the remaining force it had left went into a unwitting victim.

Jaune.

It flung him through the air, out of the demolition zone and a dozen yards out. By luck, or by some sort of divine intervention, he hit soft grass instead of rough concrete, finally stopping as he landed in the bushes.

He rose slowly, bleeding from scratched. "Today, pfft" He spat out some grass and leaves. "Sucks."

A car then pulled up next to him, where four familiar faces, each armed with a sub-machine gun stared at him.

He gave a salute. "Howdy, Ladies. Mind giving me a hand?"

Amber gave him a worried smile, and nodded. "Get in the back, please."

Jaune obliged, sitting in-between Vernal and Militia. "At this rate, you're never going to get my blood out of your car," He turned to Militia. "At this rate, she'll be the prime suspect of my murder, instead of you, or your sister."

She chuckled. "She'd be a great patsy,"

"Hey!"

Vernal nodded. "Yeah, she would, she can not speak in public to saver her life."

"Vernal!"

Militia shrugged. "Anyway, we can worry about that after, we get down with thing."

Jaune nodded. Sounded good to him.

The bear was still laying down when they got there, it seemed like it didn't have the strength to get up anymore, likely do to not having the support of it's front let, or enough sense to figure out how to do so.

Jaune got out, gesturing to it's head. "Focus fire there, don't stop until I say so, ready? Go."

Shadow-Bear didn't have any last thoughts or words, it wasn't that aware. Though, even if it did, the amount of lead being pumped into it's head, wouldn't let get think past one syllable.

Jaune held his hand up. "Alright, that's good." He said, the body already disappearing, everything stuck into it's body was falling to the ground, held up by nothing, and not even stained.

He peered into the car, seeing the clock. 12am.

Smiling at the girls, he asked. "Anybody up for breakfast?"

----

Flying over the sky, Red blushed, the other girls did too. They had gotten a bit too caught up in they're idol training, now they were late for patrol.

Who had known Ren, uh, uh, Lily she meant, internally fearing her wrath, could be such a demanding task master?

"My feet hurt," Red whined.

"My back hurts." Yellow added.

"I need a aspirin." Black added.

"My ego needs a band-aid" White said sadly.

"I feel fine." Crimson said pleasantly, getting a quartet of glares.

Things were slight for a moment.

"I blame Jaune for this." Red added, to a course of nods from the rest of the magical girls.

"Yeah, he is to blame," Blake continue. "Who knew he was keeping back two such monstrous forces, no wonder he's tired." She paused. "I always assumed it was drugs."

The rest nodded, then paused uncomfortably. "Ok, good to know I wasn't the only one who thought that." Yellow said. "Not that I think that now, he's a saint as far as I'm concerned, since he holds back Nora and Lily from the rest of the world."

"Definitely," White agreed. "I take back every bad rumor I started about him."

Crimson gave a chilling glare at White. "Is that so?"

White hid behind Red, who was also glaring at her, so she then hid Yellow. "I am sorry, I'll apologize tomorrow."

"Yes, you will." The two girls said eerily in tandem.

"It's not like he noticed, though!" That gave the girls pause.

However.

"That excuses nothing." Black said after a moment. "Like you can't go around saying he has a mammoth trunk down there. That'll ruin his chances with getting any good women."

White's mouth hung open, silent in shock.

Then added. "That's not one of mine, in fact, I thought one of you started it. To you know, make him get with a loose women to ruin his reputation ... more so. Actually, that would probably improve it."

"So, if none of us started it, who did?" Yellow asked.

Red rose a hand. "I didn't, but I heard it from the boys as they're were coming out of the locker room, I heard never seen anybody look so defeated." She also didn't put two and two together till now, then she blushed. "Oh."

Yellow blushed. "Oh."

"Oh." Black repeated.

White stared far into the distance. "Oh."

"Oh." Crimson added, though internally she yelled 'Jackpot,'

They stopped for a moment. Then White continued. "Could you imagine how much damage those two could do with our powers?"

Yellow paused thinking. "Oh, you mean Lily and Nora? Yeah, that would be insane, the world wouldn't survive!"

"And, Ms. Purple says we're bad," Red added.

Black nodded. "We really are the best option."

Crimson stared off into the distance, looking at a drifting cloud of dust.

The other girls noticed.

Then Yellow added. "When did we do that?"

#jaune arc #fanfic

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sweetestpopcorn · 2 months

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one of the things i find really interesting about your au is the fact that al****t found a sense of superiority to rhaenyra because she was skinny. like because she was not curvy like rhaenyra, she was more “holy”? besides from their differences in dressing yet she also kind of judged aemma for being a twig yet aemma was still winning over alicent because she had better kinds lol

Hi there 😊 and like almost always, sorry for this delay.

So this idea is not original. In the books, Gyldayn himself as well as Mushroom do make this comparison between Rhaenyra and Alicent, saying that Rhaenyra never fully lost the weight she gained with each pregnancy and that Alicent maintained her elegant figure even after four pregnancies. The author even places doubt on how many men would fight for Rhaenyra now that her body has "thickened" after six pregnancies.

Spoiler: A LOT did.

It made sense to me that the Greens themselves would comment on this, and Alicent too, as it is made obvious in Fire&Blood that her life revolved around Rhaenyra and what she was or was not doing (and insulting her whenever she had a chance). Likewise, the Greens and Alicent would use this like the narrative does - as something to make her look superior to Rhaenyra.

It is a common theme to make a character gain weight to show a sense of "corruption" and decadence, and George has plenty of examples of uses of this theme. Conversely, maintaining one's weight, or even losing, is seen as having other concerns and plenty of times associated with a sense of holiness - George himself is guilty of doing this with a variety of characters too - of being in control. Western society sees being above weight as lacking control, being lazy, amongst other negative attributes, and being thin is associated with mostly just positive attributes. In the Catholic and Christian faiths - ones I can comment on since I was baptised as Christian and raised Catholic - gluttony is considered one of the Seven Deadly, and strongly associated with an inability to overcome temptation and suffer to bring yourself closer to God - which is a common theme in Catholicism, you have to suffer to bring yourself closer to God and the Divine.

This would be the contrast between Alicent and Rhaenyra, someone who is fully in control of herself and thus associated with positive attributes, and someone who is not in control and thus is associated with negative attributes... or this is the message the Greens and Alicent would like to pass, reality is that while, yes, Alicent likes to maintain her weight to feel superior and uses this to add to her beauty, Rhaenyra is someone who enjoys pleasure and life and who has nothing to prove, even because, she continues to be considered the most beautiful woman at court even after she stops being as slender as she was when she was a maid. Her beauty is not dependent on how thin she is, and this is just one more thing amongst a larger theme that Alicent resents her for -> that she is not held to the same standards as Alicent is and does not need to do X to get Y; and in Alicent's eyes it just adds the feeling that everything is just given to Rhaenyra even when she breaks the rules and it results in more and more hatred.

Of course that Alicent is self-serving in almost everything she does, and her opinions will change depending on what the need dictates. When it fits her being too thin is negative - as was the case with Aemma. However, we see this hypocrisy in plenty of other spheres, for instance, she fears Daemon and thinks he is another Maegor, yet her sons are just fierce and young. Even with Rhaenyra's own weight, both Aegon and Helaena are much heavier than her, yet for Alicent this is not a problem and they just have "healthy appetites". Daemon is a creep for liking virgins and cheating on his first wife and seducing Rhaenyra, yet Criston who was obsessed with Rhaenyra's purity and tried to seduce her is fine and a true knight. Obeying men is something women should do, except when she disobeys Viserys to do what she wants to do.

Thank you so much for the ask I really enjoyed answering this one 😁

PS: Please note my fics are based on the asoiaf books only and consider only the asoiaf characters, not any of the events, characters or the like from a certain lizard redacted show.

#rhaenyra targaryen #asoiaf rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #asoiaf alicent hightower #the rogue prince #the princess and the queen #fire and blood #the blacks & the greens #dance of the dragons au #popcorn answers

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cambion-companion · 1 year

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WE are NOT the ones “uwu-ing” Aemond. The showrunners took book Aemond and wrote him into a way more complex character. Yes, they did that by amping up his trauma. That’s how a lot of people like to write their “tragic downfall” characters.

They made it a point to show him looking sad as a kid, they made it a point to show him being bullied and lamenting to his mother, they said multiple times in interviews that he was “bullied mercilessly, treated cruelly, made to feel powerless,” and THEN, they added more trauma on top of that.

They had him lose an eye unfairly instead of how it was in the book (Luke actually did save Jace from being cruelly beaten in the book. It was self-defense). But in the show it’s Aemond that gets jumped by four kids and fights them off. He gets his eye cut out after being disarmed by sand in his face.

Then the writers decided to give him daddy issues by having Viserys ignore his injury in favor of Rhaenyra. They had Viserys neglect all of his children with Alicent, leaving those kids with clear issues because of it. Aemond’s cold look up at Viserys when the old man demands answers as his king was no throwaway shot. That kid hated his father.

But the writers weren’t done yet. They then decided, “Hey! Aemond has childhood bullying, physical, and parental trauma? Let’s give him sexual trauma too! Hahahaha!”

It was his 13th birthday when Aegon took him to that brothel. Kids can’t consent. Once again, Aemond is a mirror of his mother in that he was pressured into inappropriate sexual relations in his early teens. He was 13. Alicent was 14-15. And people think his discomfort around that older woman at the brothel isn’t real. The writers just threw that in and they ultimately didn’t have to, but now it messed up Aemond further.

And the cherry on top? Because these writers apparently hadn’t had enough with their “uwu” fav? They made Luke’s death an unintentional consequence of Aemond’s angry outburst. It was a mistake, and now Aemond has to go through even more as he is branded a kinslayer, likely ruptures his relationship with his mother, loses his toddler nephew and his sister to madness. He’s going to snap under the weight of his guilt and agony. THAT is when you’ll all get your book Aemond, the maniacal cutthroat that burns the Riverlands to ash.

But even then, I doubt he’ll be completely unsympathetic. His relationship with Alys Rivers will likely be another way to add depth. Even crazy book Aemond was smitten with Alys, so something’s gotta give.

Again, this is the writers. Not us. We’re just talking about it and speculating. Show Aemond was shown to be kind and loving with his mother and sister. He was shown as being reserved and quiet as a kid, not cruel. They made his dragon claiming scene feel heroic.

He even seemed willing to be friendly with Jace at Laena’s funeral, and his famous “lost an eye, gained a dragon” line was softened by his, “Do not mourn me, Mother.” That changed the line from being a boast to being a consoling statement for his mom, who had sworn to him that he would have a dragon one day. The version of show Aemond is a beautiful and tormented character, destined to have a tragic downfall. People should be celebrating this, not getting mad at it.

😍 hi Anon, I'm kissing you on the mouth rn.

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maliciousalice · 19 days

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👕 & 🍽️? For the trek ask game

Heheh thanks for Asking Meg!!! All aboard another long winded ramble about my wife ST: Voyager!!!!!

👕 Character whose fashion you like.

While I answered in the last one, I think I'll add to it by saying I love the Ds9/Voyager Uniforms--Infact I'm a HUGE sucker for them--At least to me, they feel like THE signature trek costume rather than TNG or TOS ones. Plus, they are fun to draw! I love how they look on the actors with the structured upper half, and loose, high-waisted pants that give everyone the illusion of height.

Those that are dressed in the uniform are portrayed with a respectable heft and a pleasant, overall shape. I know it's not the case, but they look like they are really practical. This is fully intentional as the lead costume designer said they wanted the suits to appear modular and have advantages in different environments. That's why sometimes they are unzipped or twisted around, depending on the narrative.

I could go on and on about them. I act feral over how they look when when all the actors stand together, turned in various ways, posing so that that folds pucker on their joints, or when subtle differences in their body sizes take up screen. It just looks so cool! I'm a big fan of squad-based, colour-coded uniforms and clean silhouettes.

Most importantly though, it gives them all BODY-ODY-ODY!!!

youtube

AYO WHICH LOCATION THEY AT??? CW: GORILLA DUMPIES!!! 👀👀👀 😳😳😳😳

🍽️What alien food/drink would you want to try?

I wish I could find the video but I've seen bits and pieces about how they designed the food on the sets and I think it's super charming!

Lots of effort went into considering the cuisine. It just about decorates every set and It was important to the show. Voyager engaged in a lot visual gags, or dialog discussing food. It was in a comforting way that would present the characters with their personal ideals of home.I find that subtext of world-building really endearing.

Many scenes involved characters bonding in the mess hall, socializing around food, or isolating with it to gain a sense of self. In contrast, it's used as a device for diplomacy, or to make settings seem more alien, unnavigated and removed from regular comforts. It's even incorporated into main plot points, such as with Tuvok in ''Riddles'', when he gains a newfound skill around cooking after a serious accident, and he solves the plot by decorating a code on a cake. Through food, we saw a lot of what it could be like to be a crew member on the ship, and live inside their Universe. It wasn't always pretty but they made it work.

We have a really rich food bowl and diverse food-culture In Australia, I love noticing exotic food that are used as set decoration of as props--I am used to seeing tropical fruit or Asian ingredients around my community, so it's fun to see it transformed. And much like the characters in Voyager, I relate to the comfort and the charting of new territories when it comes to seeing/ eating food.

I suspect being a chef / working in hospitality would be an interesting occupation in Trek. Everyone complains about the lack of authenticity from replicated food, so I'm sure being a good Chef would be worth your while.

I genuinely want to try Old-mate Neelix's cooking. He seems so creative and passionate about what he plates up, and he CLEARLY (they all put on weight haha) kept the crew well-fed. ''Bitches make do'', but you can tell he cares by the questions he askes everyone, or the detail he places into his recipes. I'd like to see what all the fuss is about with Leeola Root Stew. I bet it's not that bad! (I like bitter food) Or better, serve me up a Jimbalian Fudge cake! It's so quaint how there is an evolution to his work as he gets more integrated with everyone.

(crying over this ^) Neelix Nation Rise Up!!!!

#SOBBING I LOVE STARTREK VOYAGER SO MUCH!!!!!!#thankyou if you read my thoughts again lmao the other one is popping off hahaha #i did not proof read this at all so sorry if it's a fucking mess (not much unlike my other textposts lolololol)#now i just want to redraw frames of the body music video with the command crew lmao #i think about this stuff & how it's so underrated in the way that the the REAL subtext behind the characters is right there but y'all slee #instead people are busy infighting or making up stuff little truth behind it when it's actually alot of sincere material is available #dont mind me being a FREAK over their visual language and body dimensions idk #i fucking love just SCANNING the frames and being like YUM A CURVE ON THEIR ARM or a WOW THE SHAPE OF THEIR WAIST #TY MEGGG I HOPE THIS ISNT A BAD RESPONSE IM SO BAD AT PROSE LMAO #neelix #kathryn janeway #chakotay #tuvok #star trek voyager #startrek voyager #st voyager #SORRY ANOTHER BIG TEXT POST #theartmeg

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kataiki · 1 year

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Back in August of 2022, I went and got diagnosed with ADD at the age of 36. The diagnosis was a surprise to nobody and was largely just a formality, if I'm being honest.

It's kind of amazing what I got away with growing up with ADD. I felt like people just kind of let me do my thing and it just kind of worked out. It's funny thinking back on the habits I had that most people would be disciplined for.

I was drinking like 6-10 sodas a day like it's no big deal. My parents didn't think it was a problem because I was active (Dance Dance Revolution), was desperate to gain weight (120lbs at 5'10), and did well in school (graduated with honors). Looking back, I was definitely self medicating with caffeine, but like, so what?

I think I would've had a harder time if someone was like "no more soda for you!" without considering how it was helping me along without the need for prescription drugs. I also didn't like coffee at the time (before they became milkshakes), so I probably would've struggled.

I can't believe I got away with the fidget toys, the ones before they were called fidget toys. I think I always had some kind of toy in my hands, and for some reason the teachers let me keep them. Mind you, I went to Catholic school for most of my life. Discipline was paramount, and yet I was just... allowed to have my toys.

My favorite was a plastic... snake ball puzzle? I guess it's a "Rubik's Twist", but I got it out of a vending machine for like 50 cents and I loved it. It was small, quiet, and kept my hands occupied during class. It feels like the kind of thing that would get confiscated, but for some reason I was just allowed to play with it.

The worst toy I got was in high school when I discovered those kneaded gummy erasers. I sketched a lot during class (another thing I was allowed to do for some reason), but the eraser was a toy. I would sculpt things in the middle of class, and do stuff like roll out pieces to make flowers. My hands smelled like rubber, pencil lead, and dead skin all the time. It was awful and I loved playing with it.

Even in college, I had my DS out all the time. I got my minor in mathematics while going through Super Princess Peach and Mario Kart DS (twice, I lose my save at one point).

My friends were jealous of my ability to multitask, but that's the funny thing, right? I was only really able to do well because my brain was engaged in these "distractions", which gave room for all the learning to really be absorbed. It wasn't really that I was able to play and do schoolwork at the same time. It was more like... I'm only able to do schoolwork while I play. Play was necessary for learning, and for some reason I was always allowed to do that.

I remember in grade school, we had a poll in the class about "how much TV were we watching", I think it was in context of advertising or something. A lot of the kids were like 1 hour a day or a few hours a week. I asked if it counted if the TV was on while I was doing other stuff, and it did, so I clocked in at least 6-8 hours a day.

I love my mom and dad for just letting my sister and I to enjoy things. I think I always had a TV in my room, including a small 12" CRT with a VCR built into it. They didn't care what we watched, either. I think their thought was that they wanted us to learn English, but they didn't know how to teach it. They learned by watching TV, so they figured my sister and I could learn by doing the same.

I remember using my TV as an alarm by setting it to turn on automatically in the morning. The guitar riff from the Pokemon Theme Song is a great way to juice up your adrenaline every morning. 10/10, highly recommend.

It was the golden age of Edu-tainment, too. Everything from Seseme Street, Eureka's Castle, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, Blue Clues, Captain Planet, Power Rangers, Animaniacs, etc etc was made for learning. It was mandated, and it was great. I kind of miss those days, especially when Cartoon Network turned into nothing but Gumball and Teen Titan's Go by the time I stopped watching them. There's a certain artistry in making learning fun in a way that doesn't feel like an animated classroom.

I just... don't know why all of this was allowed. Half a case of Soda a day. Video games during class. TV all day, every day. I feel like I'd be a suburban mother's nightmare, but I think it was what I needed. It's not like my parents knew anything about ADD, not that it mattered so long as the grades were good. They just let me go on auto-pilot while I jumped from interest to interest and enabled me when they could. Inadvertently, I think they did what I needed from them, even if it was against the grain of what everyone else thought would be "healthy parenting".

#add #adhd

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booklin · 1 year

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Bidders x Preg! Fem! reader

Fandom: KBTBB

Rating: E-10

Genre: Fluff

Tws: Pregnancy

Notes: If I throw this in as a scene in one of my books and you happen to notice.. NO YOU DIDNT

Baby Files

You and the bidders had been dating for quite a while, things had gone smoothly. Sure, there were ups and downs but that’s with any relationship. All and all, things were calm. Except… they weren’t. Not anymore. Despite how much you shamed yourself, you couldn’t stop eating sweets. You had to have a sweet with every meal. Considering you rarely ate sweets, always self conscious about gaining weight, everyone was taken aback. In fact, their looks were causing so much paranoia you stopped eating anywhere near them. Only eating sweets in your room now, they didn’t fail to notice your other new habits, such as sleeping and becoming stressed over everything. Lately, your work ethic has been terrible, constantly falling asleep. Even your boss couldn’t keep covering for you anymore, alerting Eisuke.

“Okay, I think we can all agree Y/n has been acting strange.” The others nod to Baba’s concern. “She’s been eating sweets everyday. I asked the Chef.” Soryu adds, causing Eisuke to chime in. “And she’s been avoiding us. What could be wrong?” They weren’t sure, and putting their heads together didn’t seem to come closer to finding answers. You were frightened by this new change as well. What could be wrong with you? “Maybe you’re pregnant?” Your friend says after listening thoughtfully to you worries, then laughs. Though, you weren’t laughing. “Pregnant?” You repeat, spacing out at the thought.

Immediately, you rush out of the cafe, leaving your friend behind. What if it’s true? It would explain the cravings. And emotions. And tiredness. And now, a new symptom to add. Throwing up when worried. What a nice cherry on top. Despite not wanting to believe it, you, reluctantly, go to a pharmacy. In disguise, wearing sunglasses, a hoodie, wig, and everything else to keep your identity undetected. Then you grab a test and ask to be rung up in a strained whisper. After discreetly exiting, you shove the box in your pocket before sprinting back to your apartment. You have been spending a lot of time there lately. With what’s been going on, staying away from them, as not to explode or do anything else embarrassing was a must.

Anxiously, you rip the box open then, after drinking plenty of water, go into the bathroom. Shaking the whole time, you nervously wait for the results. Two lines… your heart drops, and so does the pent up emotions inside you. Sobbing your eyes out, you fail to notice the knocking at your door. “Y/n? Are you in there? We want to talk.” Nothing, yet the door was locked. They had a bad feeling, after debating on whether your privacy was more important than safety, Baba agreed to pick the lock. Though, Soryu is impatient, deciding to break the door instead. “Y/n, are you here?” They hear a distressed cry suddenly come to a halt. “I- I’m fine-!” Your voice shakes, barely coherent, it was hard to hide. “Y/n, are you okay?” Ota asks, taking a seat next to where the sobs came from, the bathroom.

“Yes…” Your voice becomes quiet, sniffling any residue onto the tissue. “Can we talk?” Shaking your head, you remember they can’t see you and manage another reply. “I don’t want to.” You hear a small sigh, the voice getting close. “Y/n, we just want to know what’s wrong. We’re all worried about you.” At the moment, you were tied between embarrassment and wanting comfort. Was it worth them seeing you like this? A mess? About to side against it, something in you that yearns for their touch breaks loose. Without giving it a second thought, you open the door before you could change your mind. That sight was shocking to see, on their part. A teary eyed, broken down, head hung, nose running, messy hair partner, appearing miserable as she runs out to hug the first person her hands reach.

Rambling incoherently, you sob some more, this time into Soryu’s button down shirt. “We can’t understand you when you talk like that.” Going on, though everything is heard in more of a whine, he manages to make out a few words, however not enough to piece together what’s wrong. “Why don’t we take some deep breaths?” Baba suggests, his tone gentle and face softened. Facing towards him, you quickly turn away, shaking your head no. “Y/n, come on, I know you can do it. I’ll do it with you.” Without hesitation, he begins taking deep breaths and eventually you repeat after him. Steadying yourself, you’re finally able to say all at once, “You’re going to hate me! I’m going to have to raise our kid alone and I’m not going to have enough money to support us, then we’ll be sleeping in a box on the street, eating out of a trash can, and drinking water from some old guys sweaty socks! Please don’t leave me.”

You become worked up, sobbing once more, while you shake Soryu’s body back and forth, continuing to plead. “Wait, what?” Eisuke says, shocked at both the scenario you’ve come up with and the news. “You’re pregnant?” You stop crying long enough to shake your head yes, then immediately begin again. “Woah woah, it’s okay.” Soryu says, rubbing your back. About to pick you up, Eisuke snatches you away, being the one to pick you up instead. “Baby, it’s fine. We’re not highschool boys, we wouldn’t leave you because you’re pregnant.” Ota nods before saying “And how would you end up homeless?” He laughs lightly, “It just wouldn’t happen.” Finally starting to calm down, you sniffle, rubbing your teary eyes before saying “Because I’ve been doing bad at work, and now you’re going to fire me.” Looking at Eisuke, he shakes his head. “I wouldn’t fire you without reason, and even then I would take care of you. Technically, you don’t need a job. You were the one insistent on keeping yours.”

You give a small smile, thinking about the memories when you first began dating. Suddenly, a hand ruffles your hair, looking at the culprit, Mamoru gives a small smile back before sighing. Then, running a hand through his hair, he shakes his head. “Just relax kid, we’re not goin’ anywhere and you’re not in trouble.” The support was all you needed to calm down, shaking your head to acknowledge you heard Mamoru. “If anything, I’m glad you’re not upset with us.” Baba says, to which you look surprised. “Why would I be upset? If anything I’m ecstatic. We’re having a baby! I hope they look like one of you. They’re sure to be beautiful.” Thinking about it more, finally done crying altogether, you show them the pregnancy test. “We should make the gender a surprise! Do you think they’d like bears? Or are bears too scary? Maybe ducks? Oh, I know! Cats! Wait, what if we make their room ocean themed?”

Going on about the endless possibilities with clothes, room design, and how great parents you would be, Eisuke sets you down. “We have to get parenting books! What type of parents should we be? We could be intense, strict, free-range, french, or-!” You just keep going on, and they intently listen to every word, the smile never leaving their face. After that they had you take time off of work, you finally weren’t as embarrassed to eat sweets around them, they were always kissing, holding, or hugging you, saying how much they loved you. Baba loves rubbing your belly while you sleep, and together they get you anything and everything you could ask for. Eisuke is no longer brutally honest about how he thinks you look. He’ll tell you if something looks better than other outfits, but never critiques such as “it makes you look fat.” Overall, they all turned into soft, loving boyfriends who are always worried about you and the baby.

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shuttershocky · 1 year

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Any 4/5* you feel that are stuck between their stronger 6* and their more efficient 3/4*? I really like using Executor, but I often feel like Pinecone/Chalter (for a lack of better words) invalidate him.

Oh boy do I have some candidates

Reed

Reed has the great misfortune of being both an early, experimental unit, and being part of the Charger vanguards. Here's the thing, nearly all the Chargers are objectively great units with their high ATK, fast attack speed, and ability to refund their original DP cost. However, the issue is that no one really uses them, with the exception of Bagpipe, who acts as the mighty servant of the vanguard goddess, Myrtle.

Whenever a Charger DOES get used for actually doing their intended job of picking off trash for easy DP, the 3 star Plume does a swell job, while 4 star Vigna is just straight up hitting above her weight class by combining a big ATK buff with a crit talent.

This has made 5 star Chargers very sad as they're stuck between not being bagpipe while not being nearly as efficient as Vigna, but Reed is ESPECIALLY sad because the other two 5 star Chargers are both Free operators, and better than her. Grani can block 2 while increasing her DEF to make her decently tanky, while Wild mane has redeployment CD reduction on her module and synergy with the Dubstep Polish Horses team, while Reed has.... RES, and an ASPD bonus if she takes Arts damage, when her gimmick is that she's the Charger with Arts damage (enemies that deal Arts are likely to have high RES).

Glaucus

Unlike poor Reed, Glaucus isn't notably weaker than the rest of her Decel Binder class, but just like poor Reed, she's a weird, experimental unit that is sandwiched between stronger and more efficient options, namely Podenco for the 4 star and Angelina and Suzuran for the 6 stars.

Podenco offers a lot of versatility for cheap investment. She can heal allies with her skill 1, or throw a poison vial that constantly slows and silences enemies inside its range, very useful in IS. Meanwhile, Angelina and Suzuran are Angelina and Suzuran.

Poor Glaucus specialized in being an anti-drone unit when many flying enemies stopped being drones, while all the actually dangerous drones were Arts drones that had RES and needed to be taken down by Marksmen. She's still not terrible if you want to use her (the AOE of her S2 is huge), but objectively speaking it's hard to justify her most of the time.

Franka

Until the advent of modules, Dreadnoughts suffered pretty badly from an opportunity cost issue: their 3 star Melantha was way too fucking strong for her rarity, and could do most of what you would use a Dreadnought for anyway, so why would you bother raising the rest? 6 star Skadi was maligned as the worst 6 star in the game for this reason (though she still had her uses as a very big stat stick now and then) until even sadder blue girl Mostima came about.

But then modules and their upgrades arrived, and Hypergryph decided if they were going to be obvious about being Bloodborne fans, then they might as well go all the way and made the Abyssal Hunter squad one of the most bullshit busted teams in the game, with Skadi receiving massive buffs both from the modules, the upgrade effects, and the upgrade effects of the other Abyssal Hunters. She's now very strong when part of the AH squad. Dreadnoughts also saw another stupidly strong unit join their ranks with Nearl the Radiant Knight, whose ability to ignore deployment limit has led to her even being called a cheat.

Meanwhile, Matoimaru's stock rose with the module upgrades, with the upgraded stats both giving her more base HP, while increasing the HP gained from her talent, leading to a very cheap operator with a truly gargantuan HP pool, and thus gave her a special niche away from Melantha as a raw HP tank.

Add that to True Damage becoming a real damage type in the game (Franka doesn't actually deal True Damage, she just ignores DEF instead, which is an important distinction now that phys damage reduction and phys evasion are both things that exist) and Franka already struggling to justify her existence when an entire subclass of guards do Arts damage which also ignores DEF, and she's just not having a good time. Her best use case is as a counter to enemies with low health but extremely high DEF and RES such as the Originiutants from Originium Dust, or Plastic Knight and his shielded groupies, but then, you can just use actual True Damage to get around that too.

But there's one last operator I have in mind. Someone truly sandwiched between a rock and a hard place

Mr Nothing

Poor, poor Nothing. There are only 3 Merchants in Arknights, with the 6 star being an incredibly powerful counter to stun mechanics, and the 4 star being one of the strongest operators in the whole game.

Nothing has... nothing... going for him. He has the very baffling trait of having a gacha roll for his S2, where you can randomly get one of three different effects and if you don't get the right one you need to turn it off and reroll, while his S1 makes him stop blocking entirely and take a nap.

His stun from his talent can be useful now and then, and some dedicated fans out there have definitely found ways to actually make Nothing do something, but out of all the units I've mentioned so far, no one's as sad as Mr. Nothing.

#Arknights

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pudding-parade · 6 months

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Get to know you - Sims Style

@rstarsims3 tagged me for this a while back, and I'm finally posting my answers, which took me a while to compile because 1) Blabbity blab blab blab, as usual, and 2) Still needing lots of rest and stuff, so no sitting at a computer for hours on end.

But here we go! I'mma put my blabby answers and my tag list behind Ye Olde Cut.

What’s your favorite Sims death? What an odd question, especially to lead off… Well, I guess if I had to pick one, it'd be the one from TS2 where cloudwatching occasionally brings a satellite down on the cloudwatcher's head. But generally, mine die of old age, if they manage to get that far. I play with long, but realistically proportional, life stages, mostly because I'm almost always playing "experimental" saves where I'm "road testing" rulesets and such, so I need a lot of time to work out kinks and test ideas and stuff.)

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? I land on a combination of more-realistic (but not ultra-realistic) stuff for CAS, but for everything else, like with furniture and deco and stuff, I tend to prefer CC stuff that visually fits in with the EA stuff in terms of style and textures and whatnot, so that the CC doesn't stick out like a sore thumb when combined with EA stuff. In fact, my "go-to" CC for build/buy is stuff that adds on to EA stuff, like more doors/windows that match an EA door/window.

Do you cheat your sims weight? What, to make the fat ones skinny? The skinny ones fat? The skinny ones buff? No. I don't see why I would. It's easy enough to make a sim gain or lose weight without cheating, which I'm assuming means just using the sliders.

Do you move objects? Is there anyone who doesn't? That's a serious question. Is there any one who doesn't? I want to know.

Favorite Mod? I'm leaving aside the NRaas mods because I don't see them as mods so much as things that are just essential to make the game playable in the often-weird ways that I play. There are others that I also consider just essential for when I'm playing in certain styles, especially for more primitive settings. But for ones that are optional and just pure fun, I'd nominate all of @thesweetsimmer111's baby- and toddler-related ones.

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? I know for TS2 it was Seasons. For TS3…For a long time, I had just the base game, which I got when it came out, but didn't play beyond trying it out and then going back to TS2. Then, years later, I got a new computer and decided to give TS3 another try, but I couldn't find the CD or DVD or whatever it was, so I bought a combo pack with the base game, Late Night, and the High End Loft or whatever it is stuff pack, so I guess it would be Late Night. Other than that, I bought all the other TS3 EPs in one go when EA had them on sale for 50% off via Origin, which that combo pack forced me to install. (But which I am now free of again. 🏴‍☠️)

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? As aLIVE. Because that is when the game is live. Games do not live, but they can be live. See, this is one reason why English sucks.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made? Here's a thing about me: I don't really get attached to the pixel people. For me, they're just tools. I'm guessing it's because I'm not a storyteller when it comes to Sims, so I don't see sims as characters. Sure, sometimes I find one endearing for one reason or another. Usually, they have traits that make them assholes, and I like to watch them create chaos and ruin wherever they go. One of the founders of the Random Legacy that I will get back to one of these days is one of those. But I find I like other people's sims more than mine, though that's more of a testament to those simmers' story-telling skills than anything else.

Have you made a simself? Only by accident. A few times I've just been randomly moving sliders around and somehow I ended up with something that looked like me at some stage in my life. It stayed that way for a minute or three, before I yelled OH GOD NO! and quickly slidered the horror away.

But to be honest? I find the entire concept kind of creepy, at least in terms of putting a self-sim in the game and playing them as a character. That would just feel weird to me. That said, I suppose it might have been something that would have appealed to me if I had played when I was a kid, but the game didn't exist when I was a kid. Computers didn't exist when I was a kid, at least not in a form that regular people could own and that could fit on a desk. I was in my 40s when I started playing the game. My daughter played TS2 when she was a kid, and she had a self-sim inserted into the stories she would play, so…yeah. Maybe it's a younger-person thing. Or maybe I'm just weird. Yeah, it's probably that second option.

Which is your favorite EA hair color? Probably the black, but even with that I have to add some highlights to it because otherwise the hair just looks like a creature from the void eating the sim's head.

Favorite EA hair? None of them. They all need to DIAF.

Favorite life stage? I don't have one. I have a least-favorite, babies, because they're basically just objects, but once they're actually sims, I enjoy playing sims of all ages equally.

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I originally bought TS2 just to build in it, and for a couple of years, that was all I did. I only started actually playing the game later. Now, I enjoy both building and actually playing the game, depending on my mood. Usually, I'll have a binge of building, but I eventually come to a point where I'd rather do anything other than build. Then I play the game. Then, eventually, the urge to build comes back. So it's a back-and-forth.

Are you a CC creator? I made lots of stuff for TS2, mostly object retextures/recolors. I've made a few minor things for TS3, and I retexture hairs and add preg morphs to clothing for my own use, but I wouldn't consider myself a CC creator for TS3. In fact, I'm actively resisting learning how to make stuff for TS3 because I really don't want to go down that rabbithole again.

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? Friends in the sense of "people I enjoy talking to and sharing ideas with and sometimes arguing with here on Tumblr?" Sure. Are those the same as friendships that develop face-to-face in the real world? Nope. But, sometimes I like talking to my Simblr friends a lot more than talking to my real-life friends, so make of that what you will. Y'all are less draining sometimes. LOL

Do you have any sims merch? No official merch, but my brother-in-law is into making pottery, and several years ago he made me a big stoneware mug with a plumbbob on it. Which is ironic because when I play the game I turn off the plumbbobs because I hate them. LOL But I love the mug. It's heavy enough that neither cats nor wagging dog tails nor giant snakes (though he could do it if he focused all four of his brain cells on the task) can knock it off of tables, but not so heavy that I can't comfortably lift it. I use it for eating soup and the occasional mug cake, and also for drinking the awful herbal tea my husband makes me drink, though since the recent surgery, I don't have to drink that anymore! *dances* So now it will just be my soup or cake mug. Or one for tea that I actually want to drink.

Do you have a YouTube for sims? I don't have a YouTube for anything. Well, OK, I have a YouTube account for watching other people's stuff and making playlists of things I want to watch, but I don't post videos on it, and I don't really watch video game-related stuff on YouTube, either.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? It hasn't, really. I've pretty much always just come up with wacky scenarios to play and see how they go. In fact, for me, coming up with the scenario and figuring out how to make it work in the game and then inventing a ruleset to govern it is sometimes more fun than actually playing the scenario. LOL

And my Sims all look like the game made them because…the game makes all of them. I just poke the random button until it produces something that doesn't look too much like a freak of nature, then I hit up a couple sliders to remove or tone down any remaining freakishness. (Though I confess that I will spend an inordinate amount of time sculpting the titties of those who have them. Why? I have no idea, other than I just like me a nice pair of titties. Too bad there aren't any sliders for male titties…) Then I just slap on a different hair, maybe change the eye color, and slather on some makeup and facial/body hair and shit until they don't look too stupid, and then off I go. From there, they're all born in the game, and I just leave them as-is, mostly because I can't be bothered. "I can't be bothered" is pretty much my philosophy of life.

Who’s your favorite CC creator? I hate this kind of question. I feel like all they do is disappoint and discourage people if they're never picked. I refuse to do that over something so trivial. So, my favorite CC creator is you, the person reading this. Yes, you. Even if you don't make CC. It doesn't matter. You're the best.

How long have you had Simblr? I started my TS2 one in 2013. (I can remember that only because I know that I started it the same year I met my husband. LOL ) I started this one….2 years ago? 3? Something like that.

How do you edit your pictures? Other than basic cropping and resizing and maybe adjusting brightness/contrast a bit if the pic is too dark or whatever, I generally don't. I don't even use Reshade all the time anymore, only in certain situations, though I do have an NVIDIA profile for the game that adds ambient occlusion and better antialiasing and shit like that. Sometimes, though, I'll decide to photoshop scenery pics, and then I just kind of stab at it with various tools and filters and layer blends and shit until I like I how it looks. There's no actual process involved. I'm random like that.

What expansion/ gamepack is your favorite? I gotta go with World Adventures. Bits of it are a bit, shall we say, culturally problematic, but man, I never get tired of doing those stupid, stupid tombs. LOL Plus, I love that NRaas Traveler allows you to "travel" to any world, and I don't think that mod works without WA, so…. Yeah. WA.

Tagging: I have no idea who's done this, so I'll just tag a few random people, off the top of my head. Feel free to do or ignore, as you choose. No pressure from me! So...@nectar-cellar, @happy-lemon, @erasabledinosaur, @esotheria-sims, @lilleputtu, @littlefrenchsims, @anamoon63, @lazysunjade, annnnnnnnd @papermint-airplane.

#it's all about meeeeee!#memes memes glorious memes

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