#everyone in this universe seems to have them
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hitman au save me .. its been seven years ..
haven’t been able to draw/write much of this au lately but i want to write a few little scene snippets i have stored my brain :’D ill include them under cut
=+=
“This better be something good,” Scar muttered to Cub as they stepped out of the elevator. The hitman, while bound to his contract, considered ‘boring’ missions to be a waste of his time.
“I hope so,” Cub hummed. “Hope so.”
The ConVex swung open the doors to the NHO conference room, not bothering to check if their bosses were actually ready for their meeting.
“Holy mother of—! Knock next time, will you?” A man setting files down on the conference table jumped visibly as the doors slammed open.
“The Vex require a dramatic entrance, Beef,” Scar said casually. Cub snickered.
“Sure, whatever.” Beef furrowed his brow, used to this behavior. He didn’t have time for this. “Okay. Doc was supposed to do this briefing, but he’s busy with his machines I guess, because of course he is, so.” He huffed, composing himself. “Your new top-secret project. This one’s a doozy. Have a look.”
Beef slid the folder across the table. The hitmen flipped it open, absorbing its contents with hungry eyes.
What caught their eyes immediately were the photos. The person of interest looked nothing like a powerful crime boss or a dangerous anomaly. A young adult with glasses, dark eyes and short, sandy brown hair stared back at them.
“Who’s this?” Scar raised an eyebrow. Is the NHO asking them to assassinate some normal-looking university student?
“That is Grian,” Beef explained, both hands planted firmly on the table. “Grian has been with us at the NHO for months.”
“I’ve never seen him before,” Scar remarked.
“Grian’s case is top-secret. He’s been staying in high-security, private quarters… as well as our research laboratories.”
“I thought you guys seemed super suspicious lately! I knew they were hiding something from us, Cub,” Scar nudged his partner with a grin. Cub did not budge as his sharp eyes combed through the documents. He hadn’t heard a single word spoken to him.
“Cub? What’s the deal?” Scar asked. He preferred to let Cub read their mission files and summarize it for him, anyways. Dyslexia and top-secret government files were not a great mix. Oh, what would he do without Cub?
“Watchers?” Cub finally spoke, looking up at Beef with a quizzical frown. The other man nodded slowly. “You’re kidding.”
“After months of testing and analysis, we can confirm that this individual is the only currently documented case of a mortal possessing Watcher abilities,” Beef nodded slowly.
Scar had heard whispers of the Watchers only a handful of times. As a vex, he knew plenty about the realm of magic, the divine, the fae, you name it! But Watchers were said to be ancient entities, perhaps as old as time itself. So old that they were widely considered to be a myth.
“So this is not a hit,” Scar said after a moment.
“This is not a hit, Scar, good lord, do not kill this person,” Beef put both hands on his forehead and let them slowly drag down his face.
“Mortal, you say?” Cub raised an eyebrow.
“Yep,” Beef said. “She was a completely normal citizen until he got these abilities in some freak accident. Lucky for everyone involved, the NHO was able to take control of the situation before anything… dangerous happened.”
“So,” Scar narrowed his eyes slightly, “If this isn’t a hit, then what do you want from us?”
Beef sighed. “After months of testing to determine Grian’s situation, the NHO has decided that he is too important to return to life as a normal citizen at this time. Instead, we’d like to utilize his abilities in our goals to maintain order in Hermit City, and we need someone to train her how to be a special agent in the field.”
“You want the ConVex to train a Watcher how to be a hitman,” Cub said with a slight smirk at just how insane that sounded.
“Yep.”
“Huh.” Scar put both hands on his hips. “Well, that’s not what I was expecting.”
“I suppose we could give it a shot,” Cub said. Although the ConVex were bound by a fae contract to work for the NHO, the vex took every opportunity to feign control over their situation. There was no choice here. Beef had given them an order.
“Sure, sure! We are very good at our jobs, after all,” Scar grinned. Whatever happened, good or bad, would at least be entertaining, surely.
“You’ll come back here to meet her tomorrow morning,” Beef instructed. “Hand me that file back and be here by 9, will you?”
“Sure thing,” Cub replied coolly, sliding the file back to the man. Scar couldn’t help but grin wider when he noticed Cub’s hand casually in his pants pocket, some folded white paper barely visible in his grip.
“Don’t be late. I’m serious this time,” Beef called out as the hitmen turned and exited the conference room.
=+=
The conference room was tense that morning. Towards the end of the table sat the NHO - Beef, Doc, Etho, and Bdubs. On one side sat Cub and Scar. Across from them, Grian sat alone.
“So, how about introductions?” Doc clapped his hands together. “Er… Cub and Scar, this is Grian. Grian, this is Cub and Scar. You guys already know the deal. Grian is going to come with you on missions from now on.”
The ConVex hadn’t taken their eyes off of Grian since they entered the room, unable to resist their curiosity. They had both read the files, but still found it hard to believe the person before them was a Watcher. Grian sat rigid in his chair, fiddling with his hands, looking tense and exhausted. She eyed the vex curiously as well.
“Well hello there,” Scar greeted. “I’m Scar, and this is Cub.”
“Hey, hey,” Cub said quietly.
“Hello,” The corner of Grian’s mouth twitched in a possible attempt at a smile.
The three continued to stare at each other until Bdubs cleared his throat.
“Wonderful introduction. Now that we’ve broken the ice, let’s talk about your next mission.” The man picked up a small remote, and the large screen on the wall behind them illuminated.
“Before we send our agents out into the field, we meet like this to discuss the details and ensure that the mission is clearly understood,” Doc explained to Grian, throwing a disapproving glare in the ConVex’s direction.
A lengthy file on some high-profile criminal appeared on the screen, as Bdubs proceeded to read off the information. Scar slumped back in his chair. These mission briefings were the worst. It was time to zone out and have Cub tell him the details later with all the fluff cut out.
At about ten minutes in, Scar yawned absentmindedly.
“Oh, are we boring you, sir?” Doc interrupted Bdubs to shoot a piercing stare at Scar.
“Oh, not at all!” Scar said cheerfully, but slumping in his chair slightly lower.
“As I was saying,” Bdubs continued loudly.
Scar glanced over at Grian. Her eyes quickly darted back to the presentation when they made eye contact. Scar looked over at Cub and found he had still not taken his eyes off of Grian. Hopefully Cub was at least somewhat paying attention, because he sure wasn’t.
Grian continued to fidget with his hands. Scar felt a pang of pity for him. The vex were used to this sort of environment, but according to the NHO, Grian had a completely normal life up until a few months ago. Now suddenly, he gains these terrifying powers and spends months in a top-secret lab having tests run on her all day. Who wouldn’t be overwhelmed?
Scar yawned again, this time more intentionally. He earned another death glare from Doc, but Bdubs droned on. He glanced over and saw Grian rubbing a hand on his cheek to help hide a grin.
The art of annoying your boss was a delicate one. Timing is everything. Let enough time pass until they’ve forgotten, or they think you’ve stopped, to continue the game. Scar lets about ten minutes pass before his next yawn, bigger this time.
“Quit it,” Beef hissed. Even Etho glanced over. Doc kept his eyes on the screen, but his jaw was clenched. Grian let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
Five minutes later, Cub clears his throat rather loudly. Bdubs stutters over his words for a second, but because Cub is Cub, none of the NHO seems to be able to tell if that was a deliberate cough or not, and they decide to ignore it. Cub shows no emotion.
After an hour that felt like an eternity of Bdubs explaining every possible detail about the case, it seemed to be almost concluded. That was, until a rather loud yawn was heard throughout the conference room.
“WILL YOU LET ME FINISH, FOR GOODNESS SAKE?!” Bdubs finally erupted, whipping around in his chair to face Cub and Scar.
The hitmen stared back blankly. They glanced over across the table, and Bdubs followed their gaze, where Grian sat with both arms over her head in a large stretch.
“Sorry,” Grian said simply when all eyes were on him, lowering his arms. “Just had to stretch a bit.” He stared back at Bdubs innocently.
The NHO stood there, confused. Bdubs was at a loss for words, unable to get a read on the new recruit. He sighed and turned back to the screen. “Well, regardless, I think we’ve about summed things up,” he grumbled.
Scar made eye contact with Grian once again. The two cracked a smile at one another for a second, too quick for the NHO to notice.
Scar had a feeling that him, Cub and Grian were going to get along just fine.
=+=
#if i write more scenes ill probably combine them into one big fic that is just. random chau scenes part 57 or whatever#im better at writing silly character interactions than big plot stuff <- not a writer#convexian hitman au#grian#cubfan135#goodtimeswithscar#chau#hermitcraft#sketchbook#art tag#convex#grub#desert duo
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Since people seem to once again be having trouble remembering the order of operations, let me just remind everyone:
The ability Laudna possesses to feed Delilah is Hunger of the Shadow. In the fight with Bor’dor, Laudna used that BEFORE Orym’s head nod. Bor’dor attacked them and her response was to do the thing she knew would give power to Delilah. Matt even makes the sound of Delilah’s heartbeat.
The spell she used after the head nod? Whither and Bloom. The same spell she later attacked Orym with, which isn’t even a warlock spell.
And speaking of the head nod, you want to know what’s it’s prefaced with? ‘Laudna you can do whatever you want.’ And Marisha responds by saying that Laudna is ‘barely present’ because she’s having ptsd flashbacks to all of the times something horrible happened to her and she couldn’t do anything about it. So she kills Bor’dor because it makes her feel in control of the situation.
And yeah, the 4SD where Liam says Orym thought Delilah might come back. Except y’all somehow took that and made it seem like he’s the one who shoved Laudna over the edge when what actually happened is that Laudna flung herself off it because betrayal is triggering to her.
And the sword. The sword which apparently wasn’t triggering enough that Imogen contemplating whether the Vanguard were good guys didn’t cause any reaction. Or for that matter, make her object to Ashton’s ‘this is permission statement.’ But she saw Orym wearing it, got uncomfortable and then all it took was one sentence from Delilah for her to decide to steal it. Delilah, who mutilated her, murdered her, has been possessing her for decades, and who basically held her soul hostage when BH wanted VM to resurrect Laudna. But what Delilah didn’t do? Tell Laudna to steal the sword.
I wasn’t around for campaign 1, but in campaign 2 I definitely noticed a trend that people who were all ‘I love women! Female characters rock!’ would, the second one of their alleged faves did something controversial (or just something they didn’t like) would find a way to shift the onus onto someone else so she could remain blameless. And that is definitely continuing this campaign, and if anything is getting worse (which, not to get into speculation, but I wonder if it’s because all of the female characters this go round are more traditionally feminine than last campaign.)
I think the reason Orym’s been getting raked across the coals so hard by certain parts of the fandom is actually because of this. Because Imogen’s repeatedly gone ‘what if the Vanguard have a point’ and Laudna agrees with everything she says, whereas Orym’s been pretty consistently ‘no, the murder cult that murdered my family are bad guys.’ And well, can’t go around admitting that our faves did something wrong.’
And so we have a situation where Laudna attacks Orym, but somehow that’s Orym’s fault because the possibility of Laudna doing something wrong ruins people’s lesbian cottegecore fantasy. But the thing is, that whole thing was all Laudna. She chose to listen to her first murderer when Delilah said ‘maybe it’s cursed’ and then she chose to blanket the room in magical darkness (sorcerer ability, not warlock) chose to cast an area of effect spell to destroy the thing Orym was using to sheath the sword (sorcerer spell, not warlock) and, upon hurting Orym, chose not to drop said darkness, which meant Orym couldn’t see who attacked him. And when she got caught, she tried to downplay what she did, tried to say that because she didn’t mean to hurt him it didn’t count, refused to apologize for actually hurting him, kept shifting her argument (and even low key got called out on it by Imogen when she asked Laudna why she’s want its power inside her if she thinks it’s so evil.)
There is an alternate universe where Laudna wakes Orym up and they have what probably would have been an intense discussion about the sword (and that might even have been what Marisha was aiming for before Delilah got involved) and THAT truly would have been the ‘both sides are equally right’ scenario, but that’s not what we got. And you can say Orym shouldn’t have taken the sword unilaterally (but somehow Laudna’s allowed to unilaterally steal and absorb it?) or that she’s being manipulated by Delilah, but the fact is that Laudna’s an adult and is responsible for her own decisions. Yes, Delilah is a powerful and malign presence that they all downplayed/ignored, but, to use Marisha’s addiction metaphor, making amends with those you’ve harmed is a part of recovery for a reason. Because ultimately, you are the one who did that. Yes, it does immensely suck for Laudna that she’s been handed the cards she has been, but it’s up to her to make the best play she can.
Wow this got long, but my overall point is that Laudna is a character with her own agency and makes her own decisions (well, Marisha makes them, but at this point y’all should know she’s not conflict averse and is willing to have her characters make controversial character choices). And really, take all that away, what’s left? How much onus can you take from a character before you might as well go look at a painting?
#critical role#cr spoilers#long post#Like this is a Marisha character and a warlock. Do you think she’s going to sit there and be pretty#some of you would hate Fig Faeth’s ‘Complicated Women’ podcast#also this is the part where I say that the cast can say whatever they want on 4SD. If it contradicts the actual show I ignore it#anyway very curious to see what happens when they get to Aeor#Imagine what happens if Delilah tried to get her to eat the beacon
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Not Blue, Black
Everyone always assumes that Danny's eyes are blue. He’s shown pictures of his family before and his dad’s eyes are blue, and so are his twin brother’s and his daughter’s, and his big sister’s. So his must be too! Well, his mom seemed to have this weird purple thing going on so no one was too sure. And no one seemed to care either way, especially not Danny. Besides, why would anyone care about eye color when they had such an amazing young man working alongside them?
Danny was the perfect intern. He’s always on time, never giving trouble, always giving helpful suggestions, and good at not only his job but everyone else’s too, making it handy to have him around the office. He was also the workplace hottie, with many guys and girls hovering around him, desperately trying to make him theirs despite him announcing himself happily married the first day he got here. (Everyone knew who his husband and wife were since he couldn’t help but show them off every chance he got. Everyone knows they’ve got no chance, but one can dream.)
He also seems to light up just about whatever room he happens to be in. Just his presence alone made even their shittiest days in the office seem like just tiny inconveniences in the eyes of the universe. Unless he himself was pissed, which didn’t happen too often. But when he was, everyone felt it and knew to avoid him like the plague. But, other than that, Danny was an all-around good guy and was for sure going to get the job after he graduated from Gotham U.
You, on the other hand, weren’t too sure about your position in the company, as you were Danny’s antithesis, everything he was not. You were always late for reasons no one cared to understand. Just about every issue in the office was pinned on you whether you were involved or not. You couldn’t ever think about helpful suggestions and just rode off the backs of others. And compared to everyone else's good looks, you were the workplace monster.
You had a scar on your face and body you got as a kid. You got it in an accident and it deformed your right side quite a bit. It was challenging to adjust to yes, but over time you learned to live with and accept it. Others not so much. The stares you got almost daily, from everyone in the office to school, even random strangers on the street. All of them made you feel scared and sick. Like you wanted to dig off your skin and rip off your flesh and replace it all with something newer, better, more normal. But you couldn’t and had to live like this for the rest of your life. You had to live with the stares for the rest of your life.
Your only saving grace was this job, the one you were assigned to when you first got the internship. You were awful at it at first, resulting in many scoldings from the manager. But throughout the year you were here at this company, you dedicated your time and effort to be good at at least this one thing. And now you were proud to say that you were damn good at it. The best even! So good in fact that everyone decided that they would drop their workload onto you and let you handle it even if it meant extremely late nights at the office.
And that’s how you got to be here, on the company roof at 1 a.m., debating whether or not going home to actually sleep and eat would be worth the scolding you would get from the manager when you arrive to work ‘late’ again..., among other things.
You know having these kinds of thoughts was bad for your mental health (your therapist grilled it into you every time you even mentioned them to her), but it was freeing in a sick sort of way every time you thought of each scenario that could play out if you just-
“Hey!”
Jumping back to your senses, you turned around and saw none other than Danny Fenton standing right behind you. You two were never all that close in proximity before now so you only knew that he was big. You weren’t expecting the absolute unit that was standing behind you. You knew you were short but having to crane your neck to look at his face only put shit into perspective.
“Another late night?”
You only nod dumbly as he moves from behind to stand next to you, looking down at the bustling city below. A deep sigh came from him as he pulled a candy from his back pocket and popped it into his mouth. He was always eating candy. Did he have low blood sugar or just a sweet tooth?
“Same. It’s like we can never go home, huh?”
You couldn’t help but laugh at Mr. Perfect’s suffering just a bit until you realized what he meant. You scoffed and rolled your eyes.
“Come on Fenton, just because you’ve done a few late nights doesn’t mean you ‘never get to go home’.”
You settled next to him, also looking down on the city as well. He was on his phone now, the blue light illuminating his features.
“She really never sleeps does she?” He says laughing to himself.
You were kinda pissed off now. Who was he, Mr. Perfect Intern, Daniel Fenton, to compare his suffering to yours? You practically lived at this job now, once you weren’t busy with school or something else! You even bet that after this he’s gonna go home to his nice apartment and be met by a wrapped-up dinner on the table made by either his husband or wife. (HE HAS A FREAKING HUSBAND AND WIFE FOR FUCKS SAKE!) He was probably talking about his little girl just now, and how she’s up waiting for him. Maybe she was half asleep on the couch with the TV on since she was so determined to see her Dad come home. It’s Friday after all of course she’d get to stay up way past her bedtime. He’s gonna get a hot bath and wash off dirt and grim of work, and-
Danny’s laugh was low and deep, rumbling through the air, sending chills down your spine. He turned to you and smiled his pearly whites glimmer- Wait were those fangs?
“Dude you know you mumble out loud… right?”
There was silence between you two until a bright red crept up your neck, and ever so slowly engulfed your face. Shame flooded your entire being as you cradled your face in your hands. You sighed, feeling like more air wanted to come out but your very human lungs were empty and in need of oxygen. So sucking in a breath, you looked him in the face (why can't you see his eyes?). He was still smiling, his fangs (he has freaking fangs how had you never noticed before!) poking his bottom lips making little dimples.
“I’m so sorry, I’ve been stuck here for three days doing everyone else's work. I haven’t slept or eaten or taken a shower. I-”
“I know, I know. You’ve been busting your ass for a while now so of course you’d be grumpy.”
You don’t think grumpy is the word you’d use but it was close enough.
“So how long have you been here Fenton?”
“A week.” He replied cooly, popping yet another sweet in his mouth. (Okay he needed to stop, at this rate, diabetes would be the next one to put a ring on his finger) But you were surprised nonetheless.
You’re sure you would’ve noticed if he was here for the entire week. He must have been playing games with you.
“Am not.”
Okay, you needed to stop thinking out loud.
“Look, just trust and believe that if I didn’t want you to notice me, you wouldn’t have. But I did so…” He shrugged and looked off into the distance once more.
You think that what he said is impossible, everyone notices Danny Fenton. But the office was pretty small compared to bigger companies. And if he really was there for the entire week you should have noticed him at some point of the three days you were here. You didn’t hear him coming up behind you a few moments ago either. So maybe there is some merit to his words.
“What’s got you here for so long anyways Fenton?”
He sighed, his face looking more tired than before.
“You know the project that my group has, the one we got two months ago?” You nod and he continues,
“Well, it was fine at first. Everyone was pulling their weight, excited to get it done. But then it started, again, with ‘Hey Danny, I’ve got something important to do this afternoon, can you finish this for me?’. Then, ‘Danny I'm not coming in today, do this for me? Thanks!’. And ‘Hey, Danny’s good at this let him do it!’. ‘Danny I need help! Wait no…, I actually meant that I want you to do this for me.’
Danny’ll do this, Danny can do that, don’t worry Danny’s on it! Danny, you’ll finish the project… right?
That along with the other workloads that are trusted upon me by the managers and other employees, ON TOP OF MY OWN ASSINGED WORK!”
By the time he was done, you had already recognized that voice all too well. Danny was struggling, right on the edge of his line, using the shirt on his back the make just a little more. Danny was breaking and just barely holding it together, just like you were. You never realized it before, but you notice now that, Danny’s fucking tired. Just like you.
A wet laugh broke your train of thought. His face was a bit wet, his eyes (?) red from held-back tears.
“People think that I’ve got no flaws-” A pang of guilt shoots through you as you were one of those people, “- but I do. Metric shit ton in fact. One of them is that I can’t help but to help people, even if it’s detrimental to myself. And if my sister finds out about this she’s gonna slap me upside and force me to stay home for a month!”
Another laugh rang through the air, sounding just a bit too crazy for your liking. Even so, you couldn’t help but wonder, you just needed to ask-
“Why are you telling me this?”
His laughter stopped and he turned to look at you. Like really look at you. You realize that Danny’s eyes weren’t blue like you and everyone else were assuming. His eyes were black. So black. Blacker than the night sky and deeper than any ocean. And within those oceans swam thousands of bright lights, each burning 10x brighter than the earth’s own sun! Yet they could never shine through that great abyss. It was beautiful. Danny’s eyes were so beautiful.
“Because I’m gonna quit.”
“What?” Well, you weren’t expecting that.
“Yeah, I’m going to quit. And as your good friend-” Good friend? Since when!? “-I’m going to advise you to quit as well! I predict that this shabby ass company is gonna collapse in a few months and I DO NOT want to be there for that shit show, doubt you want to be there either.”
You feel conflicted. This is the first time that you and Danny Fenton have actually spoken to each other and after basically trauma dumping on you he tells you to quit! This has to be a prank! Some sick twisted joke!
“It’s not.”
CURSE YOUR BLOODY LIPS!
Danny smiled. He looked noticeably less human now that you could see fangs and eyes, and were his ears always pointy? Dear lord is he a part of the Fae!?
“Close but not quite.”
At this point, you were pretty sure you weren’t speaking out loud and he was just straight-up reading your mind. He handed you a piece of paper and clasped his hand over yours.
“Just think about it ok? The first one is my number, so just call when you need a friend to talk to. The second is my brother’s, he thinks you’re cute.”
“What?” You look up only to see him gone as if he was never there. Looking back down you expect to see the paper gone too. But it was still there, the flirtatious message next to the second number making the tips of your ears turn red. Once again you remember that, Danny if a fucking giant, one who was now gone without a trace…
“What have I gotten myself into?”
You decided to quit the next day.
Three months later the company ends up in a scandal so bad, that even the bats are investigating it.
You decide to give Danny a call.
All I wanted to do was write a prompt about Danny's eyes... The fuck!?!?!?
#dpxdc#dp x dc#dc x dp#dp x dc crossover#dp dc crossover#kinda sorta#danny phantom#there's so much lore baked into this thing it isn't even funny#inspiration hit me like a truck and draged me off the rails#if i write you one more time i'll break my fingers#i kinda want to expand upon this#dp x dc prompt#dc x dp prompt#come on me tf is this train wreck TT
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The String That Binds Us. (Chapter 1) | ln4, cl16
You fell in love with this sport all because of him. It would be selfish not to thank that boy for his help in getting you here today, even if you both ended on rocky terms. However, after finding yourself in the same paddock as your childhood bestfriend, your mentor, your first true love, and the boy who left you for the bigger picture, you realize that he wants nothing to do with you. So, as fate has it, perhaps you'll end up in the arms of someone else. Or maybe, just maybe, that string that has been tied to the two of you since birth will pull you back into eachothers lives.
Warnings : none
Pairings : Lando Norris x reader, Charles Leclerc x reader
Word Count : 1923
Poetry style | Story style
A/n: here, my lovelies, is chapter one. Not proofread srry lolsies.
Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2
one;
y/n.
There was something about it, something in the early morning rays reflecting off the cherry-red paint that just wiped away all exhaustion previously held in your bones. You were wide awake as you stared at the cars being rolled off the truck and into the garage. It was only five am but the sun had already crept over the horizon well enough to illuminate the sight in front of you. Golds and reds, blacks and yellows all mixed into a work of art nobody else could recreate. This is what you were here for. This is what you were living for.
“Gorgeous, innit’?”
You turned to your left, face to face with two others donning the same uniform as you. The woman who had spoken seemed a bit older than you, but now way had she yet reached her thirties. A man was accompanying her, although his eyes rested not on you, but on the tyres now being rolled out of the truck. He seemed close to her age, his deep-tanned skin a high contrast to hers.
You smiled at her before looking down at your lanyard. It was still so hard to process being here, on a Thursday morning in Bahrain, waiting for the weekend that was about to ensue. You were one of them now. You were an insider, a person that got to see everything on a deeper level. People dreamed of getting here, people worked their whole lives in hopes of getting here and yet here you were, 23 years old and face-to-face with Carlos Sainz’s car. It looked so much better in-person.
“It really is.” You sighed, looking back up. The truck was empty now, they were beginning to close the back door. “I still can't believe I’m here.”
The blonde lady leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of your badge. “Y/n y/ln? You're new, huh?”
You turned to meet her eyes, a large smile on your face. “Yes, I just graduated University.”
“What an amazing first job to have then.” She smiled back. The man beside her now looked at you as he adjusted the ballcap on his head. “I'm Bridgette, but everyone in the garage just calls me Bridge.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” You extended out a hand which she gratefully accepted.
“This is Lorenzo.” Bridgette nodded to the man who offered a toothless smile and his hand. “Enough standing around, we’ve got work to do. Walk with us.”
So you did. The garage wasn’t too far away, just around the corner, but Bridgette loved to talk; that you quickly found out. “Where are you from?” Was her first question.
“Bristol.”
“I hear it’s nice. They’ve got that beautiful river running through it, no?” She asked, looking straight ahead. You just nodded, unsure if she saw your response, but when she kept going you assumed she had. “I’m from Perth. Nothin’ quite like Australia, I must say.”
“Isn’t Lando from Bristol?” Lorenzo added. His accent was thick as he spoke.
You nodded again, this time opting to expand on the question. “He is, yeah. We actually grew up together.”
Bridgette turned her head to look at you. “No way! Why didn’t your mate get you a job over at Mclaren?”
A blush coated your cheeks. You didn’t know where it came from, maybe embarrassment, maybe fear, hell, maybe even sadness. Lando wouldn’t have put in a good word for you, not today. Perhaps seven years ago when the two of you were teenagers and on a completely different page, but not now.
“We don't talk like we used to. He was gone a lot but he moved away for good when he was seventeen. He never really looked back, either.” You sighed. An odd sense of pity hung over the three of you. In an attempt to lighten the mood you clapped your hands together and smiled at the two engineers next to you. “But he got me into cars and engineering! So, I owe him a thanks for that.”
Bridgette nodded and pressed her lips into a thin line. “There ya’ go.”
The next few moments were rushed. The three of you entered the garage where people worked on putting everything into place. You were introduced to management and owners, mechanics and bosses. Tyres were being placed on racks, tarps were being placed over backup cars, tool boxes were being passed around. It was thrilling, even if you were just standing on the sidelines watching as it all happened. Soon, however, someone called your name. You were sure it was Bridgette or Lorenzo, but it was someone else. Alessandro, Charles' chief mechanic, was heading straight for you, clipboard in hand.
“Have you been assigned a team yet?”
“No, sir.”
He smiled. “Call me Alessandro. No need for formalities. But anyways,” He looked down at the clipboard then back up at you. “Our front jack guy broke his wrist and I need someone to replace him. Care to run some drills?”
You couldn’t stop the smile that spread across your lips. “I would be honored.”
“Awesome.” He nodded over his shoulder. “Let's go get you a suit and helmet, then.”
x
“I’d be surprised if you didn’t get the spot.” Bridgette sipped her coffee. “You absolutely crushed it.”
You blushed, rolling your finger around the rim of your cup. The Ferrari motorhome was gorgeous with its meeting rooms and rooftop balcony, with its relaxation spots and cafe. It really put into perspective where you were and who you were working for.
“Thank you,” You said quietly.
The day had gone by rather quickly. The sun was already setting over the desert and exhaustion clung to your body just as tightly as the uniform you wore. You’d spent hours running drills, practicing the most simple yet vital job-jacking the car up. You did it over and over again, improving with every run. After that you were tasked with doing inventory. Sure, it was a small task, one that didn’t require you to get hands on with the car, but it was still important. You wandered the garage counting tyres, drills, wrenches, going through tool bags and drawers. It helped you get situated in the space, to learn the layout and whereabouts of everything. Once you had finished that, you were offered to help wash Charles’ back up car. You gladly obliged, happy to be finally touching the car at least. You washed the tyres, the halo, the rear wing and a bit of the body before standing back to revel in the beauty of the car. It seemed to shine, even in the dim garage lighting. You felt so fulfilled, so privileged, so at home.
“Alessandro likes to give everyone a shot, he doesn’t discriminate.” Bridgette continued. “Today might have been your lucky break.”
“I’d be happy even being a back-up jack, honestly. Just wearing the fire suit and helmet makes me feel all,” you paused looking for the right word to describe it. “Giddy.”
“Well,” Lorenzo began, setting his phone face down on the table. “He needs to pick tonight so we can have that person participate in tomorrow's practice. You should know if you got it first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Guess I’ll be tossing and turning all night, then.” You joked.
A small laugh cluttered the table. It was getting late, the track becoming more and more empty with each passing moment. The motorhome was silent, save for the three of you lingering around. “We should go grab the last shuttle to the hotel,” Bridgette stood, taking one last swig from her cup before tossing it into a bin. “Are the two of you coming?”
Lorenzo stood up, as did you. “I left my bag in the lockers. I can wait for the next one if you both would like to go.”
“It’s ok,” he said. “We can wait for you at the front gate.”
“Alright, then. I’ll be quick.”
You jogged through the paddock, grateful that the heat had subsided. Lights poured out of each garage, illuminating pit lane in a way the sun hadn't. The sun, harsh and bright, brought a form of intimidation onto the pavement. The lights however, soft and orange, seemed to bring peace. It was a gentle reminder that at the end of the day, everything would be alright.
You dodged into the Ferrari garage, running to the back lockers to retrieve your backpack. Although your head was almost completely submerged in the metal box, you could hear faint-chatter? You leaned back, wondering if Bridgette and Lorenzo had come to find you. No, it didn’t sound like them. The voice sounded much more familiar. It was like listening to one of your favorite songs after a long while.
Lando paused at the entrance of the garage. His phone was pressed into his ear. He stared at you, eyes squinted and eyebrows furrowed. Did he know it was you? Could he see you? Did he even remember what you looked like?
You swung your bag over your shoulders and closed the locker. As you approached, Lando lifted his brows, erasing the confused look on his face. He surely could see you now.
“Hey, I gotta call you back.” He sighed. “Yeah, everything is good. See you tomorrow.”
A few feet separated you and him. You debated on starting conversation, on asking how he’s been. But you decide just to nod and walk past him. That is your plan until he stops you.
“Y/n?”
You pressed your lips together in a flat smile. “Hey, Lando.”
He looked you up and down. You were uncertain if he found your Ferrari uniform insulting or fitting. What if you were wearing papaya? What if you were sporting orange instead of red? Would he be looking at you in the same way?
“So you really did make it, huh?” Lando crossed his arms over his chest, smirking as you avoided eye contact.
“I suppose so.”
“Have they assigned you a driver?”
You looked up for the first time since your conversation began. A bit of pride swelled in your chest as you said, matter-of-factly, “Yeah, Charles Leclerc.”
He blinked hard, shocked that you landed not only a job with the most infamous F1 team, but on their star drivers car. Maybe you were better than you let on. Maybe it was more luck. But deep down Lando knew how good you were. He was able to experience it first hand as a kid.
“Wow. Most people remain without a designated driver for their first year. They kinda’ just float around doing all the dirty work. At least, that's how it is at Mclaren.”
“Right.” You gripped your backpack straps like a kid. “Good thing I'm not over there, then.”
“Yeah.”
The two of you fell quiet, only the sound of nearby passing cars and people walking by filled the air. To any bypasser this surely looked sketchy. Lando Norris, Mclarens golden boy, and a new engineer for an opposing team, just staring at one another. How odd.
You broke the silence first saying, “Well I’ve gotta’ go. I have some friends waiting for me to catch the shuttle.”
Lando just nodded, staring at the ground as you walked by. As you passed Carlos’ garage, he called out, “I’ll see you tomorrow, y/n.”
You could barely hear it with the way he spoke so quietly. But you stopped, turning your head and offering a real, genuine smile. “Yeah,” You breathed out.
He smiled back. “Good luck.”
#f1#formula 1#f1 fanfic#f1 requests#f1 imagine#f1 x reader#f1 series#charles leclerc fanfic#charles leclerc x you#charles leclerc x reader#charles leclerc imagine#charles leclerc angst#charles leclerc#cl16#cl16 x reader#cl16 imagine#cl16 x you#ln4 imagine#ln4 x reader#ln4#ln4 fic#lando norris x reader#lando fanfic#lando imagine#lando x reader#lando norris#lando norris ff
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Spider-Woman, NOT Ghost-Spider
This is a tip for people who want to go as canon as possible WITH THE MOVIES, since I feel a lot of people do this mistake because they look into the comics and mix things up.
If you want to call Gwen, Ghost-Spider in your fanfic/fanart/etc because you think is cool, go ahead! Go nuts! I'm not the canon police.
BUT-
In the movies, Gwen still calls herself Spider-Woman.
An explanation as to why this is important in the read more.
(Spoilers about the Spider-Gwen comics, I guess because I am not spoiling anything that came after 2019.)
When I say "important," I mean it in the stick-it-to-the-details type of deal; if you care about technicalities you care about this, but I know that's not the majority.
However, I do want to bring it up because the reason why Gwen switched in the comics, or rather, why chose Ghost-Spider of all things- is really neat and interesting story line that I feel a lot of people skip over when they 'chose' to call her that without knowing why she chose that name.
If you think Gwen has it rough in the movies, don't read the comics because they put this girl through the wringer.
Let's go a little bit before she chose that name.
As you can see, Gwen feels that she has always been marked by death, some way or another.
First her mother, then Peter, and is now hitting pretty hard after losing Spider-UK (is not Hobie, or Malala, I don't think he has appeared in the movies,) Noir and Karn, though arguably Billy was the one who hit her the hardest.
She went to other dimensions to tell their love ones that Billy and Noir passed away; it is implied how this is her way to try to make amends to what happened, make peace with herself.
But is not really enough, the topic doesn't leave her mind,
Death and pain certainly follow her often; she almost lost her dad for good, and she was definitely shaken after Harry got gravely injured precisely because he was always there for her.
That last panel never stops hitting hard for me.
There is just some quietness to it, about how no matter what she does, how hard she tried, Death continues to follow, one way or another. Even when she tries to be a hero, to do the right thing, death follows her.
In the comics, Gwen switches her name because she is studying in Earth-616 rather than her own dimension, so she switches names in order to avoid stepping in any toes.
So, in the movies, is kind of hard to think the switch would happen. Sure, Gwen is interacting with Jessica and other spiders, but believe me, the multiple spider-man haven't changed their names, so having Jessica in the spider society doesn't change much.
However, I do bring all of this because I think implementing this story line in the movies not only is feasible, it would be *amazing.*
The phrase "Death loves Gwen Stacy," not only hits hard for the Spider-Gwen in the comics, but for the movie counterpart too.
Think about it for a second; in the movies, Gwen feels she can't have friends because otherwise, they may lose them like Peter, she has convinced herself it can't work. And then. she goes to the Spider-Society.
And now she feels Gwen Stacy and Death always go hand in hand.
She learns how in so many universes, Peter is the one bitten, he is the one who lives, while Gwen Stacy dies, over, and over again. It almost seems like she is the outlier out of spite, how because she gets to live, everyone else pays the price.
Because Death loves Gwen Stacy, powers or not, that's not changing.
But at the end of the day-
And that's why, no matter what, she will continue fighting to protect her people.
#atsv#across the spiderverse#gwen stacy#spider-gwen#ghost-spider#spider-gwen comics#itsv#into the spider-verse#random spiderverse fact#I really hope people explore more this idea in the comics#is so good
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Nobody likes being criticized, but guess what? It's a part of life that we all have to deal with sooner or later.
Not all criticism is argued in bad faith, some of the criticism I've seen of Viv and her shows has come from her own fans.
It's easy to just cherry pick all the bad faith arguments and lump everyone who isn't a fan of Viv into the "hater" category, but that's just being disingenuous.
That's like saying that anybody who's critical of Steven Universe is just as bad as Lilly Orchard.
I'm not going to sit here and defend Viv's antis, as a lot of them seem to be looking for any excuse to start petty drama with her or her fans.
There's a very good reason why I try my hardest to distance myself from Viv's critics, it's because I have no intention of getting roped into petty bullshit.
No, I don't think that every single person who has ever worked on Hazbin/Helluva is as bad as Viv, a lot of the people she ends up hiring are just young impressionable fans who want to work on her shows.
And I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I don't think Viv is the worst person working in the industry today.
See the problem with tackling anything related to Viv is that you're always going to risk alienating her hardcore fans or haters.
Her fans and haters really want you to know how they feel about her, and nothing you say or do will change their minds.
Truth be told, I kind of hate the fact that some folks think I'm a Viv hater because I'm critical of her and her shows.
Like I said many times before, I only use the critical tags because they make it easier for folks who want to find a specific post.
Point is, no person or piece of media is above criticism. And you shouldn't let other people's opinions ruin your enjoyment of a thing you like.
#Vivziepop Critical#Hazbin Hotel Critical#Helluva Boss Critical#Spindlehorse Critical#Hazbin Hotel#Helluva Boss
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As another blog who accidentally got following for funny jokes and content creator by god you summarized how creating content feels on Tumblr nowadays. Like,
No one interacts but at the same time they'll complain that there's no updates, they'll complain that you disappeared but even if you post something no one interacts with. They treat as if people who post things about fandom are just there to be some kind of machine will post something to make them laugh and then reblog in silence.
There's no feedback, there's no community, and it feels weird like some kind of big brother. Where you spend your time and energy making something and then people throw you a like and you're just like blind??? 'Do they still like it?' 'am I doing it wrong?' 'did I lose the flow?' But nope. It seems like every person who makes something in this plataforma feels a different variation of that. And feels so weird talking about it as if you're 'seeking attention' and being too 'hungry' about it. But what are we supposed to do...? Just put our heart and souls by a grand majority that won't take a second to say something and just like and maybe reblog as if you're some advertisement?
Feels weird. I am sorry you feel like that too Sci, your ask-blog is great and you spent a lot of energy co-creating with people and using your creativity. I don't blame you for feeling demotivated. That's a weird era to be in where people don't know how to differentiate that there's someone behind a blog and nor a major corporation that will put something they're interacting or not. Very weird.
it's so very universal, i've seen it all the places, everywhere. i know it's not just a me thing... it's kind of honestly just the way the world operates now. running the blog really did used to give me such an excited feeling to be building this story with other people who were invested and everyone had a hand in pushing wade and peter into all kinds of directions and it was so, so gratifying. and when i left i was still craving that interaction - i wanted to create an interactive instagram account, but i kind of figured it wouldn't work, because the platform just isn't good for it.
something that's largely been absent from my life is community, y'know. it's so difficult to find it, in the city. and i kind of found it through the blog. but online communities feel like something that's dying too. nobody wants to be communal. i've had so many interactions where people are taken aback that i'm just some dumb, tired little human. i'm a tired human who made spider-man comics because it got me friends on the internet. i don't make money doing this. i do it for friends. i... sighs. i miss so many people that used to be around but they're not here anymore. i miss how it used to feel. i don't think i can get it back. i don't know where i can look now, but i don't think i'm going to find whatever i'm looking for here. i guess it's like - i know i have to leave the city because the city makes me feel small and lonely. and maybe i have to leave the internet too. it makes me feel small and lonely.
#sci speaks#and im not the only one!!#so many content creators are leaving the internet because it makes them miserable.#but i'm just so sad about it because it used to feel so good. it used to be so good. and i'm not sure what i can do about it.#i think for now i'm just going to focus on me. my surgery. getting healthy. getting sexy. keeping my brain good.#my career is going really well right now.#i'm making a Lot of Money. doing animation. really GOOD animation.#i didn't want my career to be my source of fulfilment but right now i guess it is.#i am making BANK. big cha-ching. i may look really sad on the internet but in real life? im mega ultra successful#i am the success story. i am big ultra success. making it rain.#everyone who meets me says “wow” in the best way because im so good at what i do.#im the best. in my career. not on the internet (anymore)#so i think i guess i'm just going to put my all into making money. maybe that will will the void in my soul.
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does anyone want to join me on the aventurine/argenti train. it's got all the perks of being as funny as any other argenti ship - especially given the random absurdity of their first meeting. what the hell was argenti doing in the depths of the nihility? who even knows anymore man. but like also i think it has the potential to be really sweet?
aventurine hasn't let anyone In since his sister died. he's long since forgotten how to Trust, and Love, and how to BE Loved. and this, combined with enormous amounts of survivor's guilt and trauma and being treated as an object, has really done a number on his self-esteem. he doesn't act like it (because he's learned that it's dangerous to be vulnerable; it's the one gamble he's not willing to take), but 2.1 gave us that glimpse into his inner dialogue and it is Bad in there
between his conversation with acheron, the note veritas left for him, and finding a sense of closure in the apparition of his younger self, he's on track to becoming better. we can see it in the way he pretty much immediately reaches out to the trailblazer to get some things off his chest once he gets his phone working again. and the way he's accepting what is basically a form of therapy from the doctors of chaos. but his self-hatred has been building up for years, and it's going to take a long time to unpack and unlearn all of that
so like, in comes argenti, right? he's a loud show-off, but he is SO earnest. he sees the beauty in everything and everyone. he's kind, and gentle, and so full of love. he also comes off as a bit... lonely to me? he's spent so much of his life chasing after idrila's shadow, and only catching a glimpse of them in his many near-death experiences (and isn't that something to think about...........). he's not like, secretly miserable or faking or anything - i think his exuberance is 1000% genuine. but humans are social creatures; everyone wants and requires at least some form of closeness and intimacy. to have a love to pursue in This realm... someone he can see and hold without needing to have one foot in an early grave . i think that would be good for him. that's all
anyway, it's clear that argenti was pretty enchanted by aventurine
like yeah that's kind of just how he talks normally but !?@,%&#& that's a lot of awfully romantic things to say about one specific person out of the several you apparently rescued (??????? god i love this guy he makes no sense. literally why are you even here bud). it seems that aventurine's more subdued state left an impression on him too, and well wouldn't it be pretty in character for him to start popping in randomly... as he does, because he can apparently just go wherever the fuck he wants. to check on this sad yet oh so beautiful peacock.. to try to bring a true smile to his face... to show him how kind and beautiful the universe can be......
i think aventurine might have a hard time laughing off offers of comfort and company and the beginnings of a courtship if it comes from someone like argenti. this man couldn't be disingenuous if he tried. he doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve as much as he rips it out of his chest to show you. it'll be a learning curve regardless - aventurine is too used to needing to constantly prove his worth to keep anyone around and to keep them from hurting him
but do you see it. do you see the vision. do you see how Sweet this could be. aventurine is about to receive more roses than he'll know what to do with
#i spent enough time on this that i think i can...#honkai star rail#argenti#aventurine#aventi... argenturinenope i hate this one actually#avegenti. dude i don't know don't ask me i'm just the messenger#like can i just say that what most ratiorine shippers are trying to squeeze out of that would be better found Here.#i don't mind the ship as much as i used to. veritas is kinder than i gave him credit for. i can even enjoy it if done right#but like#? veritas may be kinder than i originally thought but he's not that kind.#he's harsh truths and tough love. he started to soften after aventurine's unexpected death sentence and he has the potential to soften more#but guys i don't think a ratiorine relationship that takes place so soon after the events of penacony or god forbid BEFORE-#is going to go that smoothly#veritas has his head pretty deep in his own ass. it's going to take him a bit to get that out#he's more likely to hurt aventurine and send him right back into his defensive shell than he is to actually help him along his recovery#and/or aventurine is likely to dismiss any of his attempts to be more forthcoming with his feelings because of his perceived dislike for hi#and just how their working relationship always was Before#if you want to talk about that and the messy struggle to be better for each other after they stomp all over the other's heart#i'm all ears man.#but if you want something that's softer from start to finish and not so stressful... listen to me. argenti and aventurine is where that's a#i think both options are appealing tbh? in their own ways
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love your db analysis posts! i'd love to hear your thoughts on ultimate gohan, if you have any. between him having little to no reaction to finding out everyone on earth is dead, and randomly letting gotenks fight buu instead of himself, he did not seem to be the same character at all to me, and iirc even piccolo says so, i just... find it hard to believe a non-rage-triggered power-up would do that to him.
Much like Android 16, I do wonder if there were more plans for Ultimate Gohan that wound up being scrapped by the shift in narrative direction.
We're first introduced to the concept of Ultimate Gohan as the Elder Kaioshin is explaining his abilities.
Gohan's dormant power has long been a recurring attribute of his character. In fact, this isn't the first time he's had an elderly sage draw out his dormant power.
Teaching him to draw out and control his dormant abilities was (stealthily) part of Goku's training with him. That Gohan was finally starting to make it his own and tap into his true ki is the reason for why he was repeatedly unimpressed by Goku's abilities.
Gohan didn't even realize it, but through his mastery of the Super Saiyan, he'd also begun to take control of and internalize the tremendous ki he'd always had stored away in him. And as he came into his own ki, what he could sense of Goku's ki proportional to his own didn't make sense to him.
Super Saiyan 2 was, then, the culmination of Gohan's development. His full power, channeled through the Super Saiyan and its amplifying effects - both for better and, uh, for worse.
But it's been seven years and Gohan's been indulging in his true love of academia, in accordance with the agreement Goku and Chi-Chi made about his future.
Goku may have successfully escaped having to get a job by conveniently dying at the last possible second, but Gohan's future is set on a course. He's going to be an academic. It's what Chi-Chi wants for him, and it's what Gohan wants for himself; Even Goku acknowledges that.
Seven years of rigorous study and zero martial arts practice later, Gohan isn't the guy anymore. In fact, examining just how much Gohan isn't the guy anymore is the whole point of his fight with Dabra.
Goku eyeballs Dabra as being roughly around Cell's power. This allows Dabra to serve as a yardstick for Gohan, so we understand what it means for him when he fails to measure up.
Gohan that was a Zanzoken/Afterimage. Nobody even does those anymore. They became obsolete after ki-sensing was normalized, because everyone can now easily sense which "image" is the real one. The one other time we saw a Zanzoken return post-23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, it was against Frieza, who can't sense ki.
Dabra is mocking you right now. He legit thinks you're so shitty at martial arts that you'll fall for this amateur-hour guff. And he's right.
I kinda feel Geets here. If I had to watch my last chance to ever fight my rival get wasted on this, I'd be losing my mind too. He fucking fell for a Zanzoken; Can I just take over already?
So. Yeah. Full Power Gohan isn't a thing anymore. He can still tap into the form - and for some inexplicable reason so can Goku and Vegeta - but this is no longer Peak Potential. Which is where the Elder Kaioshin comes in.
This is a classic formula of Dragon Ball. We've seen it in the RRA, Piccolo, Saiyan, Namek (twice!), and Android arcs. First, Goku gets the shit kicked out of him - sometimes even to the point of being presumed dead.
While the surviving cast members scurry about trying to find a way to face the bad guy, Goku - sometimes unbeknownst to them, sometimes not - is recovering and preparing to come back stronger than ever. This typically takes the form of some sort of godly trial or ordeal guaranteed to make him stronger than ever.
Then, at the 11th hour when all else has failed and all hope is lost, Goku makes his return to have one last epic battle for the fate of the world/universe/cosmos.
This is the Dragon Ball formula. Has been since the day the Four-Star Dragon Ball saved Goku's life from a lethal Dodonpa. Of course, getting Gohan back up to speed isn't going to be enough, since Majin Buu in his weakest form was able to do this to our Cell-adjacent yardstick.
I wonder what Dabra Cookie tastes like? I imagine it's like the wafer part of a Keebler cookie. Sugary and nice on its own but better with fudge.
So. Yeah. If Gohan's going to throw hands with Buu, he's going to need more than the power he fought Cell with. Fortunately, that's the Elder's specialty, and what makes this different than that other time Gohan had his dormant power drawn out.
That's right, we're limit-breaking again. Not the limits of human ability, the limits of Saiyan ability, or even the limits of Super Saiyan ability; We're limit-breaking Gohan specifically. Elder Kaioshin's abilities can not only draw out Gohan's full dormant ability but push it beyond Gohan's natural limits.
Full Power Gohan? Nah. This is Limit-Breaker Gohan. Not his full potential; Beyond his potential. Something entirely different from the Super Saiyan, but similar enough that he doesn't require much alternative instruction.
Kinda feels like a thing that shouldn't be able to exist, to be honest. After all the time that's been put into things like the strain of the Kaio-ken on a body, the effects of Frieza having power beyond his limits, or even what trying to use Super Saiyan 3 in a mortal body does to Goku in this very arc.
The idea of Gohan channeling ki beyond his limits seems like it should have some drawbacks, doesn't it? We do get some hints that something's weird about Gohan's new power. Piccolo can't even recognize his ki signature in this state.
This form is doing some weird shit to his ki. And, as Piccolo notes, Gohan's harder now. Gohan is here to take care of business, and nothing is going to get in his way.
But. Then. The switch happens. Suddenly, Gohan is no longer the protagonist and we need a way for Majin Buu to suddenly be too much for Gohan to handle. So we go from this:
To this:
In the span of two chapters. All so that Buu can ass-pull a brand new ability that's never once been mentioned before even though Kaioshin will later cop to having seen him do it twice, that will instantly make Ultimate Gohan stop being a solution to this problem two chapters after his debut.
A plan that, in fact, he began putting into place one chapter after Ultimate Gohan's debut. Never in the history of Dragon Ball has a brand new form or ability been obsoleted this quickly.
And then Gohan was basically thrown in the dumpster and this was never spoken of again, with Ultimate Gohan just becoming his new Strongest Transformation in follow-up products. You can feel the climactic final act being aggressively aborted around him, in favor of Goku and Vegeta's third act.
Hell, at one point, Goku even suggests bringing in Gohan to fight Pure Buu. Y'know. Since Ultimate Gohan is the strongest in the universe and all that. But Vegeta nopes it.
No explanation offered. He's just like, "That's not the plot anymore; Try to keep up, Kakarot." To be fair, Goku had a chance to bring Gohan into this too. They're both aggressively elbowing Gohan out of the spotlight here.
Mad disrespect.
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I've seen some people mention that at the end cutscene of 2.2, while everyone else in the dreamscape looks to be waking up/seems dazed, Ratio looks composed????? Like this is a normal Tuesday and said people said "what if he's been awake from the Order dream for actually a while lol"
Thoughts, o Aeon of Reading Comprehension?
Knowing Ratio, yeah, he probably figured out he was in a dream pretty quickly, perhaps even as early as 2.2.
There are two things that confuse this though:
It doesn’t linearly become Ena’s dream, there’s no specific moment in time where everything is no longer reality. Rather, the entirety of Penacony is slowly falling into the dream, with people like the Trailblazer going in first because of their sensitivity to Memoria. Honestly the Ena’s dream thing is very confusing, but what I’m trying to say is that it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly Ratio woke up, but we can make a few assumptions
We just don’t see shit from Ratio’s end like, at all. The amount of screentime he has versus his importance in the story is nuts, to the point where I think they are almost deliberately hiding what went down on his end. Like bro how did you figure out Dormancy, what happened 😭
However, even with these limitations I still have somewhat of an idea of what I think happened.
The Ratio we meet next to Aventurine and Topaz following our “defeat” of Sunday likely isn’t the real Dr. Ratio. Because well, look at him. And look at them for that matter 😭 “The IPC is going to leave Penacony alone” “I Veritas Ratio am working with the Genius Society” this seems more like wishful thinking on the Trailblazer’s end rather than something that could ever happen in reality, especially since in what universe would Ratio find the time to somehow convince and work with the Genius Society on a topic neither he nor they would care about.
Moreover, this scene is also meant to make the audience go “hmm, something’s up” so the twist that it was all a dream had more impact. However, in that scene, Himeko and Welt also comment on how weird their behavior is, which makes me wonder. Were Himeko and Welt (and by extension Dan Heng and March) also experiencing the same dream as TB, or are they also fake, and TB’s closer relationship with the other members of the Astral Express makes them more realistic in Ena’s dream, objecting to the IP3’s behavior in a way they would in reality?
Anyways, tangent over, the point is, that Ratio wasn’t real, so where is the real Ratio? I’d say he’s experiencing a perfect dream of his own, just like everyone else on Penacony.
Which is why he woke up so early. Sure, the memokeepers could have sensed he was useful and woke him up so he could help wake others up, something which we can assume he’s doing based on the singular frame he gets in that cutscene.
Just based on vibes, it looks like he just helped those two people in the back wake up, and now he stands up to look at the Hunt arrows/stars/meteors? Shooting across the sky.
However, I want to entertain the idea that Ratio woke up on his own, because realistically, he 100% could.
Ena’s dream, and well, Penacony in general offers a perfect reality, and that’s not something Ratio believes in. He would immediately notice everything is too good to be true, and that would cause the dream to fall apart. Interestingly, Ena’s dream also seems to tailor itself to the individual, so what would be too perfect for Ratio to ever believe it could happen in reality?
I’m sure you have already guessed the answer.
How was it, Veritas Ratio? Having the thing that unraveled your dream be the one thing you have wanted all your life? How does it feel, knowing that being acknowledged by Nous is something that could never happen to you in reality?
How was it?
I still think it could have happened in other ways, or maybe he avoided falling into the dream in the first place somehow, but ultimately, I prefer my idea the most.
I hope this satisfies your question
#dr ratio#honkai star rail#hsr#dr ratio hsr#i need to write a fic about this#Ooh the angst potential
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its something of a small thing but you know what I really liked in X-Men 97?
in a lot of the X-Men specific stuff, the other heroes of the Marvel universe don't often show up; if its a mutant problem, often the X-Men have to handle it on their own. And it makes it feel like the other heroes, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers and everyone else, doesn't CARE about mutant suffering; that the oppression of mutantkind, that there are roving genocide robots made specifically to kill them and incinerate their children or drag them away to detention facilities to never be seen again, is irrelevant to them unless retaliation from mutants is inconvenient to them.
Some writers take this as an in-universe thing, certainly, but its always been something that... bothers me.
And then, we come to X-Men 97. On the heels of the horrific Prime Sentinels (themselves able to work quite well for the fear of the disenfranchised that revealing yourself to one of the 'normal people', those that aren't LGBT or aren't on the autistic spectrum or are neurotypical, will get you killed because they might suddenly turn on you) reactivating and invading all over the world, seemingly normal people unleashing incredibly deadly and destructive powers against mutantkind.
And what do we see?
The most prominent sight of superheroes across the setting fighting the Prime Sentinels.
From Cloak and Dagger and Daredevil making their grant appearance in what seems to be an expanded Marvel universe from the 90s marvel cartoons, to Doctor Strange using his medical expertise in a depowered hospital, and perhaps most prominently T'chaka acting as the Black Panther to effortlessly dispatch Prime Sentinels invading Wakanda as well as urging world leaders to not rush to attack Asteroid M because they don't know the situation and what history will state if they make a panicked decision, we have the superheroes of the Marvel universe explicitly fighting against the Sentinels.
And what are Sentinels, if not walking representations of hatred, oppression and systematic death?
Maybe it's just because I've been reading long enough to see when the X-Men gradually started to be pushed away from being a major part of the Marvel Universe to being almost isolated, but it feels really good, and like a statement, to see the biggest inclusion of superheroes across the board being shown as they fight against the Prime Sentinels.
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Oh a ROTTMNT AU? Cool, cool. ...
wait a Tinkerbell Universe x ROTTMNT AU?
my inner child has awoken I love Tinkerbell and turtles heck yeah sign me up
going to debate whether or not I'll make fanart, you cool with it if I do?
-pcw
I'm glad we all have a collective nostalgia for the Tinkerbell movies, it's been so much fun seeing everyone remember them!! I was definitely a Pixie Hollow fairy kid lmao. It's crazy how many people seem to be having as much fun with this au as I am :DD
Fanart is always okay!!! IT MAKES ME SO GIDDY LMAO 🧡💜❤️🩵
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Reflecting on queer representation in X-Men 97 - and speculating on the future...
Before X-Men '97 was revealed, I made a post all about queer X-Men characters and the possibilities for this show... and now the show is out... so I figure I should do a follow-up! Let's discuss what happened and the possibilities for the future.
This is a long post, so I'll put my thoughts under the cut!
Part One: What We Got
Morph
The show's primary form of queer representation is in the character of Morph. They're the main "OC" of the original 1992 cartoon - they've always been important to the animated series canon despite not having much presence in the comics - so this is a pretty bold choice from that perspective...
They are a fairly unique type of gay by 2024 mass-market corporate standards. They're sassy bordering on mean in a way that would feel very typical for the 2000s but is sort of refreshing in the 2020s... They are non-binary, though their gender is never really discussed in the show itself - their voice actor sees them as being on a gender journey, though my personal reading is that they seem quite comfortable with themself and their gender already... Everyone who refers to them uses they/them pronouns thus far, though most dialogue is written to avoid gendering them entirely.
They are also notably attracted to Logan, something reflected throughout the show though most directly acknowledged in Episodes 3 and 10. They joke about showering with Logan and, when they think they see him in the showers, they give themselves Wolverine claws to help him reach the "hard-to-reach places"... Morph then actually says "I love you" to him in Episode 10, taking the form of Jean Grey to do it.
Whether a queer character pining for the "straight"* friend is good representation or an overplayed trope is subjective, but we will see where this arc goes in future seasons!
*Logan definitely isn't straight, but Marvel Corporate and Season 1 showrunner Beau DeMayo both say he is lmao.
Cipher + Boom Boom
I made an entire post about these two, but we also got a same-gender duo dancing at the Gala on Genosha... These are Cipher and Boom Boom - two characters who are not currently explicitly queer in the comics, but are interesting characters to read as queer IMHO! Cipher especially is a fascinating choice - the background gay is someone with the power to literally turn herself invisible lmao.
Northstar
Marvel's first openly gay superhero made two cameos in X-Men 97 - he appears in an X-Men recreation of A Different World in Episode 4 and with his fellow Alpha Flight members (plus Cipher and Psylocke) in Episode 10. He doesn't do anything of note really, but his hair colour is correct at least - the original show mistook his hair having white streaks as a trick of the light in some famous books and comic covers as him actually black-and-white hair in-universe...
Pixie
I'm not 100% sure if this should count, but the ever-perky Pixie turned up on Genosha in Episode 5 alongside her fellow New X-Men. As of writing, she's more of a queer-coded character than a capital-C canon queer in the comics... but she is solicited to be in the next Pride book alongside Bling! and Anole, who are canon queers, so I feel like her long-implied (and confirmed in an AU) bisexuality is likely to be canon in a couple weeks... so yeah - Genosha had a queer fae on it! Good for her.
There were a couple of other background gay characters, but nobody recognizable from the comics - there are some theories Blink and Husk were presented as a couple, but the "Blink" character appears to be a shapeshifter, so I would guess they are just OCs...
Part Two: Who is Teased
Like any modern Marvel project, we ended on a bunch of teasers... Two big explicitly queer names appear in those final moments - let's chat about that...
Iceman
After a season of appearing in the portrait of the O5 X-Men in Xavier's office, Bobby appears in Forge's DoFP-style board of potential future teammates at the end of the show.
In the comics, he famously comes out as a result of time-displaced versions of the original X-Men team showing up. A teenage Jean Grey reads the mind of a teenage Bobby Drake, who has been obscenely remarking on his very-real totally-not-fake attraction to Magik, and tells him that he is gay. This... probably isn't going to happen in the show, but I could see them taking this as a chance to do another take on Bobby's coming out.
They also could adapt the older story where Emma Frost possesses Bobby's body and, among other things, informs him that he will not be able to master his powers to their full potential until he works through his internalized identity crisis - though she doesn't say that he is gay at the time (the Comics Code prohibiting such things was still in effect), just implying it.
Bobby's had a lot of pairings in the comics, but in the show I think he is likely going to be Morph's actual love interest. He's gay. He's also a queer jokester. They'd probably get along and enjoy ribbing each other. We'll see what happens, but that's my guess...
Rachel Summers
Mother Askani was a shadow that lingered over the entire show and finally revealed herself in the final moments. The woman who raised Cable in a distant future alongside a cult of her worshippers, Mother Askani is a variant of another Summers-Grey child, Rachel Summers from Days of Future Past.
After decades of queer-coding, Rachel was finally confirmed as queer in 2022 when she kissed Betsy Braddock. This coming-out took around a year to be approved by corporate, but it did indeed finally happen and she even has a story in this year's Pride special. So I am hoping that she will be doing some queer stuff in the show itself...
Rachel's younger form was already present in the original show, albeit as a non-verbal cameo, so my prediction is that she has done all her time-travelling stuff and got split into her Askani and Mother Askani forms off-screen... but we will see how they adapt this character - Rachel's never really had a chance to be multi-media before, so I'm unsure how much they will streamline things.
Part Three: Askani's Partners
Rachel Summers has only had one textual girlfriend, but she's somehow still gotten around... Let's discuss some possibilities!
Betsy Braddock
Betsy Braddock is Rachel's current and thus far only textual girlfriend. Not unlike Rachel, Betsy has some... complicated lore. While she is currently the leader of the Captain Britain Corps, she spent a lot of her publication history with her mind trapped in the body of the Japanese Ninja Kwannon, operating as the assassin Psylocke.
Yes. That Psylocke. Most Psylocke appearances are actually a white British woman inside of a Japanese woman's body. I am sorry if anyone had to learn that this this way.
In a not-so-hot take: I think the show should just skip the body swap... but with rumours of Captain Britain in the MCU and the Captain Britain Corps being a multiversal entity (it is basically the Spiderverse movie's Spider Society, but done in the 80s) there may be some red tape around the use of Betsy. I hope there isn't though as I would like to see them in animation!
Kitty Pryde
Rachel's other big queer love interest in the comics is Kitty Pryde. Chris Claremont, the architect of what most people associate with the X-Men, has gone so far as to say that she is the "primal love" of Pryde's life and tried to imply that they had gotten married and had kids together in his epilogue for the X-Men brand, X-Men: The End. It's never been textual, but they are pretty darn gay in plenty of the Claremont stuff - including his Excalibur, the run that Kitty Pryde's design on the Episode 10 billboard is taken from.
Kitty Pryde is a complicated character when it comes to queerness. In 2020, Pryde kissed a girl and plenty of news publications ran stories about how she is finally canonically bisexual... and then, uh, nothing really happened in the comics? She has continued to be bi-coded since, but it doesn't seem like Marvel Corporate considered that kiss to be a coming out at all? Which is wild as it is, uh, a same-gender kiss, but she hasn't gotten to be in a Pride book or anything since then... I am unsure if '97 would be able to make it explicit when the lower-stakes less-widely-read comics are currently struggling to do so, but we will see?
Though speaking of Kitty Pryde being queer...
Illyana Rasputin
Cameoing in Episode 3 via Morph and appearing on the DoFP billboard as well in Episode 10, the marvellous Magik seems set to make her 97 debut! She's Kitty Pryde's OTHER roommate who she has a soulbond with. Yeah, uh, Pryde got two of those. We love that for her.
Like Rachel, she's also a long-queer-coded woman with a history of violence, having her autonomy taken away from her, and deep-rooted insecurities which Pryde uniquely is able to help her through...
I'd be surprised if either Illyana/Rachel or Pryde/Illyana managed to happen in this show, but this is one of my favourite X-Men pairings so I had to mention it... I am a sucker for soulmate "Our subtextual queerness gives us EXTRA SUPERPOWERS" stuff and Illyana and Pryde have had some truly S-tier moments like that that I'd love to see in animation. Honestly, I'd even take it if they were just "soulmates" and they played it in a campy Xena-y way too...
Concluding Thoughts
I feel somewhat mixed on the queer rep of 97 in general. The show is super bold politically and thematically, but feels below the level of queer representation projects like Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur or even Hulu's Runaways provided. The show thematically is so invested in queer experience, using mutant metaphor to tell a number of incredibly well-written and resonant queer stories via several characters (especially Sunspot), but it doesn't seem as interested in explicit direct queerness.
I'm optimistic we'll see more in the future seasons though... but we'll see if this post ages any better than my last one lmao.
#x men 97#x men 97 spoilers#morph#cipher#boom boom#northstar#pixie#iceman#rachel summers#betsy braddock#kitty pryde#illyana rasputin
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notes after rewatching fallout s1 ep4
• cooper and lucy wandering the desert and mans start coughin', somethin' settin' in
• whoa i just realized you could hear roger roaring from outside
• roger was at a clinic, probably trying to find something to help him ☹️
• i wrote a whole entire post on this scene but anyways can i say we see full blown uncooked cannibalism hardly ten minutes into episode four like is everyone ok
• the fact this scene is presented with a lot of tension, like a horror film and truly it's just a guy named roger fighting to stay not feral
• i wonder how cooper met him? ghouls tend to know each other after a while [on account of the discrimination], i'm sure he was checking with this man every now and then tbh. perhaps. a friend.
• cooper asks roger how he's feeling and he says "you know... it's hard out here. dang smoothies can be so unkind" and i just 😞
• "i see you got a smoothie of your own" ding ding ding ghoulcy this one's for you
• you know what's particularly sad about ghoulification is for example that roger has had to isolate himself from others, even ghouls, because he was turning
• roger asking for a vial and cooper looking at lucy [cooper, you botched the using lucy for bait, come on]
• firmly in the camp that if cooper had vials left, he would give one to roger. cooper has shown himself to be crude and cruel seeming at times but i just know he went there with purpose
• roger accepting he's turning and telling cooper and lucy to leave as a warning, roger seemed so nice, why and how did he get like this
• "i did ok" 😞
• going from standard human to turning into a feral ghoul in less than twenty eight years in the fallout universe is insane and idk if there's a lot of lore on why someone could end up like this and someone like cooper not
• the difference in cooper's and roger's symptoms are pretty stark--- not entirely sold on him coughing and passing out is from ferality and more inclined to think chem withdrawals but i digress
• "say, you remember how good food use to taste?" post war life is so bad, nobody in the wasteland remembers when food use to food 😭
• because roger is really nice and having a conversation, roger turns, speaking to lucy. cooper using this as an opportunity to kill roger seems so sudden and a betrayal until
• look at cooper's eyes and his reaction after pulling the trigger--- not exactly the expression of someone who is in "for the love of the game", in fact, i have come to view this act as a mercy kill
• which is ironic of course because as we've all come to see, lucy does the exact thing for her own mother four episodes later
• once feral, ghouls roman the wasteland operating on two instincts alone: hunger and defense. they are a threat to all those around them and i don't recall much on reversal. that's no life. roger would've turned feral and harmed them or others, it is sad
• cooper mercy killing roger was in some ways compassionate, he had a sweet conversation with roger giving his last thoughts something warm and nice. cooper then going on to butcher and consume his flesh was an uh choice 💀
• and lucy immediately confused was like "wait?, why'd you do that? he was sick." i don't know if she entirely understands ghoulification, seems she thought maybe he could be helped
• lucy is basically confused, begging cooper to not like, eat this guy 😭
• i'm gonna have to agree that he didn't have to eat roger, radroaches is everywhere and for free, still pondering if he did this to fuck with her or because some reason i am missing
• cooper asking lucy what her name was [hold on, why he care about that?" and lucy so nearly coming this close to finding out what hank did and who cooper is [since she didn't ask his name]
• "sometimes a fella's got to eat a fella" is my all time favourite quote in season one of this show lmao
• cooper be funny as fuck for no reason like this man's brain is cooked
• i would personally like to ask walton whose idea it was to go "mmm. mmm." while eating irradiated human flesh like that, like why is the pre war actor cooper howard like this
• lucy is incomprehensibly disgusted but then goes on a thing [a vulnerable thing] about vault 32 starving [in the great plague of '77] and that she lost her mother during this time and that her father never resorted to cannibalism. there's some time and memory discrepancies here
• "well there's what people say they did and what they really did" i wanted cooper to be wrong so bad here when he went on to clown hank by saying "i'll bet your daddy was first in line at the cookout. i bet he had a bib with a drawing of his neighbour's ass on it"
• lmao they gave all the best lines to cooper, i'm sick, he was right
• lucy, have had enough and not finding cooper's humour being used as a way to cope like this asks this disturbed little man
• "how do you live like this? why keep going?" and for the briefest moment, and i do mean brief, cooper feels the crushing weight of who he is when lucy confronts him like this
• of course he shakes off a moral inquiry and transfers it to another as he asks "why the fuck am i doing all the work?... ass jerky don't make itself." and forces lucy to do it instead
• twice now this man has talked about ass in less than ten minutes and for everyone's sake i'll move along 💀
• woody basically trying to interrogate the raider prisoners and getting nothing, meanwhile--- i think they already starting to be poisoned
• ooo ok but betty letting norm he's the last standing maclean in the vault so his words carry and people listen. it occurred to me maybe he inadvertently inspired the poisonings of the raiders but it's also occurring to me that because they couldn't just all he shot outright, being poisoned was the best follow through method, nobody notices until it's already too late. now who is sneaky enough for that?
• "when clever boys like you are angry, you're lucky not to have seen where that can lead." so... was betty present for shady sands? hmm
• betty asking norm to tread lightly is very... not a threat, but she's watching him, right
• ok! we have that second water scene. it's confirmed here cooper is fetching water from an irradiated source [hence why denying lucy any makes sense] he puts it in his canteen and drinks it just fine. lucy is obviously mindlessly thirsty because she defeatedly drops down to drink the murky, stagnant irradiated water. it's so irradiated, her pip boy is going crazy, she literally gags in the scene
• "now you're getting it. how does this golden rule jibe with what's going through your head now?" well i mean we knew cooper been fucking with her the whole time and showing her the wasteland streets but it is also unlikely she would have found a clean water source where they are, i guess her getting radiation poisoning may have been inevitable but cooper denying her water kept her from being sick
• after another insane string of sentences from this centuries old movie star, lucy finally asks "what are you?" and it's more like "what the fuck is wrong with you?"
• "oh i'm you, sweetie, you just give it a little time" is majorly menacing after everybody just drank stagnant rad water like it's koolaid
• cooper felt so smug then was zapped with karma again because he has a coughing fit directly after telling lucy this lmao
• walton has such a good old man cough ❤️
• lucy takes cooper coughing up a lung as an opportunity to run [where i don't know but]
• cooper uses his lasso skills he used to use at kid's parties to pull lucy back and then says some shit like "where you think you going? you ain't going nowhere."
• so we have arrived at the infamous and intriguing finger biting off scene--- can i just say she bit his finger off with such ease and then! cooper doesn't even act like it hurt, he seems... pleased he got that kind of reaction out of lucy. he's like into it 💀
• "there you are, you little killer" i'll keep this pg13 and say cooper really wanted to get a rise out of lucy, to bring the dog out of her, huh
• he... then proceeds to cut her [corresponding hand's] finger off. ironically applying the "do unto others as you would have done unto you" tit for tat, if you will
• i was surprised he did this because like ok, she spat it out? pick it up and reattach it, fella 😭 but there's more under the surface here because
• cooper says "now that right there is the closest thing we've had to an honest exchange so far." and he's being framed in a close up so close, you can see his dainty eyelashes, sun shining in the background, his hazel eyes sparkling--- this is not accident ☝️ gdgkdkfd
• there's a lot of symbolism to be had but for now, i'll save that for next episode notes when cooper does the thing
• ah chet! and steph. i kinda am of the idea she strategically got with him but anyways! who wouldn't! chet hot as fuck! and steph look like an assassin
• bert's shoes so small gldgldfl
• steph is definitely angry and sad dealing with bert's death in her own special way [trying to fuck chet]
• excuse me but why they turned an almost sex scene into a birthing scene 😭💀
• lucy been walking the wasteland without a shoe, how she do it 😭
• i did not pick up on cooper bartering lucy for two months' worth of vials [thanks subtitles]
• "mint condition" [looks at a bloody stump on hand] "near mint condition" now who fault is this?? lmao
• "you got problems out here too, sweetheart" like, shut up 😭
• cooper every time he interacts with a mr. handy is one of the only few places he gets to hear a voice of this old friend
• "best you try your luck behind that door" well at least he untied her
• this is like the third time he's gotten instant karma with lucy because either he pretended to keep it together until she went in or genuinely didn't know he was going to pass out but
• went through the five stages of grief trying to figure who he sold her to because i deadass was thinking the same thing lucy was 😭
• lucy being given the finger of like, a corpse or something because it's grey 😭 forever changed by the wasteland, always carrying a little bleakness and death with her ❤️
• lucy never experiencing real cotton [or maybe only rarely]
• lucy calling cooper a creature 😭
• "he put a leash around my neck and made me drink from a puddle water that i'm pretty sure was some kind of animal pee" sending 😭 she talking to this evil mr. handy like it's a person
• her recounting her captivity with cooper like he was simply being mean to her is just
• "and i thought i was here to be a sex slave." "what?! no! what a disgusting idea. i'm simply going to harvest your organs." damn, fallout which one is worse, like fuck---
• hope the jello cake veronica got wasn't poisoned...
• "what are you looking at?" "a murderer in a cage, paying the price for what you did to us. for what you did to the innocent people in vault 32" and norm gets circumstantial evidence from a raider by accidentally cross examining one of them with it being than anything woody could coax out of them
• one thing about the macleans, they smart
• i also think it's excellent writing that intrigue was spurred like this by a raider saying vault 32 wasn't innocent because they were running an experiment like all the vaults did, everything isn't so black and white
• norm reads every situation correctly because why he read chet by saying chet came along to investigate because norm reminds him of lucy fkdgkdkg
• still piecing together the full extent of vaults 31, 32, 33 together but at first i couldn't understand why it looked like so many took their own lives--- apparently them discovering what vault 31 was about started a rebellion but two years seemed so recent to me. curious how this overlaps with shady sands if it does
• they showed the spooky ass rat utopia experiment still playing on the tvs in there but i wasn't sure if this was explicit about that being vault 32's experiment
• lucy being prompted to continue on because of a flashback from her mom upon awakening 🥲
• "lucy sweetie what are you doing out here?" and those were her memories on the surface [nevermind cooper calling her [[condescendingly]] sweetheart]
• i did not realize the ghouls were being kept in the freezers but it looks like they either only sell ghouls or keep the ghouls "on ice" [not unlike how dom pedro would keep cooper and cut pieces off of him] and collect the organs of standard people right then and there
• "sir, you can't do this. please, i need my organs" lucy, it's just a robot bulter, hey, he's not a real guy 😭
• the way lucy got out of this pickle quick, almost got snip snipped but short circuited the murderbot
• lucy putting her murdercap on and putting drano in the murderbot's syringes, clever girl
• it was so "star wars" of her to treat mr. handy like a person and then the guys running the organ trafficking scheme going "you might as well be holding an air conditioner hostage" 😭
• the organ traffickers running the super duper mart ring are so dull and banal evil types, it's so satire
• i just registered those two organ trafficker guys got a camera and can see cooper laid out in front of the store
• lucy freeing the ghouls 🥲and one even thanking her [even the feral ones 💀]
• poor martha, i peep how we see lucy's grey finger and it being shown used to defend herself against martha in her feral state
• organ traffickers got ate up bless
• nothing lucy did besides shoot was going to honestly stop martha , sometimes your pacifist playthrough doesn't go as planned•
• the pip boys still being on and running on the not alive people in vault 32
• "death to management" and it's directly the reference to vault 31's experiment, right there
• lucy walking out of there with mismatched shoes but two shoes nonetheless ☝️
• i guess lucy sincerely did not comprehend cooper is a ghoul or ghoulification, i suppose most vault dwellers literally would never know, that's post war history, wow
• lucy asking cooper about if the vials keep him from going feral and he cannot even speak, he can only nod, from a prone position, on the ground--- the power/framing trade off is excellent
• lucy bends down, briefly rolls the gun in her hand, while cooper lies helpless, she delivers a fatal line
• "i may end up looking like you. but i'll never be like you" harbouring not enough ill will against him despite mistreatment, she gives cooper several vials, directly near his hand. didn't have to do none of that shit!
• if i as cooper, i'd be scared as hell of this lady, she took down an organ trafficking ring in a grocery store ran by two armed guys, a murderbot, with some feral ghoul hostages, all of the bad and dangerous people fucking died
• she really could've ended cooper right then and there, his devotion in season two gone be unmatched lmao
• i truly think he had a hint of a smile on his face after she helped [save his life] by anyways
• lucy walks into the proverbial sunset meanwhile this man shambles into super duper mart about to go on the biggest bender the wasteland has seen since the bombs dropped
• cooper gets so fucked up, i lost count how many things he ingested, king said all of 'em
• cooper is so goddamn famous, his film "the man from deadhorse" is just sitting next to a tv
• you could say here is where cooper has a crisis of conscience whereupon he holds the tape in his hand but truly we know already he had that centuries ago when he filmed "the man from deadhorse"
• cooper watching the scene, the very moment in his life where things started to shift--- he tries to cock an invisible fun, being unable as he remembers his trigger finger is hone [neutral, disarmed, here's where i think he decides he wants to sew on lucy's finger to his hand] it's like he's starting over, a moral rebirth but with his trigger finger
• they really made cooper say "you commie son of a bitch" in a wester, just ugly propaganda
• let's examine "feo, fuerte, y formal" again! "ugly, strong, dignity" does post war cooper have two out of three on that front? is this his step into regaining dignity again?
• cooper was always playing characters, it was expected of him and he got paid for it. it feels like a wall is being torn down, something is being shed here. and maybe it's this character he's masquerading as
• cooper and lucy both having revelations in the super duper mart--- lucy realising you can't always reason and logic out of a situation and cooper being confronted with the fact you can keep your morality and sense of self intact and a horrible place and situation doesn't have to change you
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I have theory that J used to be some kind of business drone or at least a secretary to a business man before her time at the Elliot manor, and that's why she's so abrasive outright abusive towards others (side not that this is not me making an excuse for her behavior, this is just me having to many 3am thoughts on why J knows so many business terms and making a theory as to why).
It's quite obvious that J was not made to be a full one servant drone like she is in the Elliot manor, with the 'Marked for Disassembly' tag openly being obviously shown on her upper arm, and because who would ever give a maid drone a personality like J has. Granted she's rather quiet and shows submissive behavior when Ms. Elliot comes to give Tessa a 'talk,' but J is quite awful to any fellow drone whenever her 'masters' aren't anywhere around. It simply doesn't make sense for a maid drone to have the capacity to be rude at all, because what if they were to accidently be rude to their master?
And then there's all the business speak she knows. Her knowing these words obvious aren't because of the solver, because the solver tells N in ep 7 that the three DDs we know have kept their personalities from the time in the manor, and we see J speak in these terms in the manor as well. So how is it that J even knows these terms?
Well, I think it's pretty clear that J used to be involved in the business world at some point. Maybe she was a manger drone with drone employees under her, put in that position by a CEO of some sort, and was programmed to be that hard-ass boss everyone hates (because lets be honest, humans haven't exactly been shown in the best light in the MD universe, and even in out world bosses kind of treat employees like cr@p). Or maybe she was the secretary of a hard-ass boss, meant to file paperwork that had all these business terms or maybe she just heard them whole lot.
So...How would J end up at the Elliot manor? Obviously Tessa took her out of the dump, but the question here is how does J get thrown out in the first place? Well, if we take the promo for the merch that dropped after ep 7 seriously, J seems to be utterly terrified of making mistakes. This could just be out of perfectionism, but what if it was worse then that? What if J got thrown out after making a mistake? What if that's why she hates N so much, with him making mistake after mistake left and right, but never getting thrown out and seeming to be Tessa's favorite despite that? She's could be jealous that N gets to be this massive screw up, but she had to be perfect.
.
#md confessions#murder drones#serial designation j#tessa james elliot#serial designation n#j and co.#//;again not sure if that tag fits here but ehhhh
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Down the Rabbit Hole Chapter 5
Chapter one here, two here, three here, four here
Pairing: Walton Goggins x You
Rating/Warning: As always minor get out. Little angst, lots of fluff, handholding,kissing
Slow build like novel damn length okay, Very Fluffy, Pinch of Angst, Relationship Development, Hurt/Comfort, Older man/ Younger(30s) women, Alternative universe, fictional work (IDK WHY BUT I AM PUTTING IT) Probably more as I go.
Synopsis: Working in film as a make-up artist is hard enough, but then Walton Goggins requests you, well it's way too easy to fall down the rabbit hole.
Note: they are both single, all for fun.
I think I may have an ending now. Posts will continue to be 2-3k long. Every other day more than likely.
*As always thank you so much for the love. I have another AU brewing, as well as some fallout stuff. So please be sure to stick around to see what's next. *
***
Three weeks go by quickly. Time always flies when you are busy. Liz has gone back to her usual snot-nose self. Basically avoiding you at all costs unless you have to swap information. Katie had also taken the same stance on things. She was much more curt and would regularly give you side eyes. It hurt. You'd always like Katie, she may not have been a friend but the cold shoulder was rough. You'd also been traveling a lot more. The nice thing was Trevor and you would share rides. If you were slated to travel south of town you'd pick him up. North and he'd pick you up. Most mornings you'd try to snooze a little on the drive. He never pushed things, not that there was anything to push. But it was still nice not to have questions about your lackluster love life. Instead, you would just talk about him and Decon. They were getting on famously and had talked about potentially moving in together.
As for Walton, he was his usual goofy self, but there was something off. He doesn't touch you as much. No hand on your elbow, or quick cheek kisses as he leaves the trailer. He wouldn't drag his chair over to make sure he sat beside you so that he could show you something funny he found on Instagram. Instead of sitting himself a little further from everyone, he seemed to have distanced himself from most of the crew. You didn't realize how much you noticed all the little things until they were gone. You've taken to eating lunch in the makeup and hair trailer. Trevor has been hanging with Decon and the rest of the props department. As much as you enjoy the company you can't help but feel like a third wheel. So eating alone while reading a book is just easier. Plus the book took your mind off the fact that you felt a heart-sick. Even though nothing had transpired, you had been more hopeful than you had realized.
So instead you‘re busing yourself, already lining up another show for when this one is finished, which is a huge relief. Having a show slated ahead of time can be daunting and it depends on who you vibe with more than your talent. Thankfully your name has gotten out there, untarnished by Liz and you've clicked with a few heads of departments who are happy to have you. Your year is full, you even let yourself look over apartment listings. A good half of them are way out of your price range. The other half is several cities away, and with how expensive gas is, the lower rent wouldn't matter.
You let out a sigh checking your watch. Another fifteen minutes before the trailer would be swamped with people. You briefly wonder if you could get a nap in. The last week of night shoots had worn you out. A knock on the door pushes that thought away.
“Come on in.” You call out expecting an AD or maybe Costumes to come in.
The door opens and Walton comes in, hat and sunglasses blocking out the unusually sunny day. You felt slightly annoyed that you'd have to redo his face, and Trevor would have to unflatten his hair. Your heart speeding up pushed that out of your mind.
“Hey, Walton.” You say, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the butterflies in your stomach along with your elevated heart rate.
“Hey, gorgeous,” He says with that wicked grin as he settles in the chair across from you. The nickname makes you straighten yourself up.
“You're a bit early. But I don't mind,” You say, reminding yourself that you need to keep your distance if you are going to make it the next few months.
“I am actually here to ask you a question.” His hands adjust his clothing. You wonder for a moment if he is as nervous as you are. The morning from nearly a month ago playing out, the thought of him full of jittery energy as you sat with him.
“Oh?” You ask, taking a sip from your water bottle to hide your smile.
“Would you like to come out for dinner with me?”
You worry at your lip for a moment. The man had barely spoken to you for almost a month and now was suddenly asking you out. It really didn’t make much sense.
“Sure, who else is going?” You ask, having convinced yourself that he must have arranged a get-together like the weekend previously. There was not a snowflake in hell chance he was asking you on a date.
He looks down at his hands fiddling with his watch and taking off his shades to look at you. “Was kind of hoping it would be just the two of us,”
Now your face is flushed, was this happening? “Oh- umm- like a date?”
Walton's cheeks turn pink and he rubs the back of his neck. Damn, you'd missed how bashful he'd get about you. “Yeah, a date. There's a sushi place close to me that I've been wanting to go to.”
“I would love that,” the words fall out of your mouth before you even have time to think. He grinned, his whole face lighting up, making the monetary lack of judgment worth it.
“Could I pick you up at your place around seven?”
You have a smile breaking across your face. “Now here I was worried about giving some ‘random man’ my address.”
His hundred-watt smile lights you up and you are half tempted to go kiss the dang fool. “I promise to only drive by a few times.”
The door opens and Trevor is coming in. You swore the man had both the best and worst timing.
“Hey, you.” His face changes as he sees Walton. If thought bubbles were real you were certain ‘oh shit’ would have hung over his head. “I seem to have excellent timing interrupting you both.”
“No, you're good,” Walton waves his hand at him, a small smirk still pulling at his lips. “Was just ready to get myself looking good for the next scene.”
***
Trevor has been trying unsuccessfully to get you to spill the beans. But you refuse to tell him anywhere near where people could overhear you both. You'd rather avoid any more scoldings from Liz. The last thing you wanted was for her to get even more pissed off than she already was.
The day is finally done, and you're anxious to get home and change. Trevor follows you to the parking lot chattering about his plans with Decon. You can tell it's taking everything in him not to pester you for more details.
“So are you going to tell me? Or do I need to follow you home?” He finally gives in. Part of you doesn't want to tell him, the rumor mill could feed itself. But this was Trevor, someone who you actually liked as a friend. He wasn't going to spill the beans on you.
You sigh, unlocking your car and dropping your purse into the front seat “I am just going out for dinner.”
Trevor's face lights up, and he all but screeches, “Really!?”
You tap his shoulder and he immediately calms down. Looking around you are relieved no one seems to have heard his excited chatter.
“Really, you're actually going out on a date with Walton?” The man is so excited he is vibrating. He may be more excited than you are.
You do your best not to laugh at him “Yes, we are, the first date. It's nothing serious, just going to eat sushi.”
Trevor's eyebrows narrowed, confusion gracing his face.“Wait. It’s your first date?”
You turn back to eyebrows scrunched, “Yeah. He's barely spoken to me until today.”
Trevor looks surprised, “Wait. Hold on. I thought you two had just taken things” He makes indistinguishable hand motions. “Outside office hours.”
“What? No. He's practically avoided me since I broke down a month ago.” You are shocked that he hadn't asked about this before.
“Holy hell. It took him that long to get it together.”
You groan looking at your watch. “Stop it. I have to get going. Please don't tell anyone.”
Trevor made the zipper motion over his lips. “But you better text me when you get home. I want all the details.”
You roll your eyes but nod as you finally get in the car. Knowing full well you'd have a novel worth of text to read by the end of the evening.
***
Once home you jump in the shower. Braiding your hair like Trevor had taught you, two braids on either side meeting in the middle and down the back. Mascara, eyeliner, and some tinted moisturizer go on. It’s quick and simple but does the job. Once you are mostly dry you move over to your stand-up wardrobe. You curse at the fact that eighty percent of your clothes are either black or stained. Throwing caution to the wind you find a pair of black denim jeans and loose loose-fitting purple top. It's not like you're walking the red carpet. You wanted cute but functional. Digging around you're surprised when you find a pair of non-scuffed boots. They fit relatively well and shouldn’t give you blisters if you end up going for a walk.
A black handbag is filled with bits and bobs. Lip Chap, hair elastic, wallet, phone, a charging cable, a small container with Tylenol, mints, and ginger tablets. You also grab a black leather jacket that's light enough to carry but warm enough to protect you from the evening winds. Years of running on fumes have taught you how to move quickly and travel lightly. Most of the time problems could be solved with what was on hand.
A few deep breaths and affirmative thoughts and you feel significantly better. It was going to be a good evening you repeated to yourself. Phone buzzing, you grab it out of your bag.
“Just downstairs.”
You quickly reply that you're ‘Coming downstairs’
Grabbing your keys you lock up and head out. Trying to calm your mind as you rush down the stairs. It was just a dinner date, sushi, and some chatting. Just because you haven't been on a date for almost six years doesn't mean you need to be full of anxiety.
Being single and working in film meant you either dated folks who also worked in film or you didn't date. Unfortunately, you didn't have a bisexual bone in your body. Not to mention that most men that seemed interested were, well, slimy. So you had given up the ghost and thrown yourself at work. Now here you were walking down the hallway to get picked up by a man. Not just any man either, Walton Goggins, a man that could pull anyone and he had certainly pulled you. It felt a little surreal and frightening.
You stop at the door and try to still your mind. Then you push through and he is parked right outside. Leaning against his vehicle like he doesn't have care in the world. He's wearing a loose-fitting navy shirt, several buttons undone at the collar, with black pants, sunglasses, and a hat. Walton’s face breaks into a crooked grin when he sees you, his body unfurling as you come closer. You'd be lying if you didn't want to find out what was under that shirt.
“Well, aren't you looking good?” He says licking his lips and watching you come towards the vehicle.
You blush as you meet his shade covered eyes. “Not too bad yourself.”
He chuckles, and opens the door, “After you, m’lady”
The drive is relatively short, being later in the evening meant that most traffic was gone. You both chat about the week, minor set annoyances, and future plans. Walton’s hand never leaves yours, his eyes occasionally glancing over at you. If he had asked you to just drive around you would have agreed. Walton parks the car in the parkade, and the two of you get out. He laces his fingers in yours as you walk down the sidewalk.
The sushi place is tucked back off the main street in an old historical building. The sign is worn and the door hasn’t been painted in years. It was going to be good food. The server places you both in a booth in the back corner of a relatively empty space. The lights are dim and it feels cozy. You two sit beside each other and look over the menu.
“Have you ever had Takoyak?” He asks, pointing at some deep-fried balls on the menu.
“No, I haven’t. They are squid right?” You ask.
“Yes, they are delicious. I would recommend them, oh and okonomiyaki.” The fact that he can pronounce half of the words is impressive.
“Do you want to share a few things?”
“I think that is a marvelous idea.”
The two of you order a table full of various goodies and some Saki. You share them and talk about the different foods you’ve tried. You remember vaguely the discussion you had a month ago, and he fills in on some of the more foggy details. You have no idea how long the two of you had sat there, most of the food has disappeared and you’ve found yourself thigh to thigh with the man. You lean back and hum, feeling slightly overstuffed and most definitely sleepy.
“You worn out?” He says, his hand tracing patterns on your knee.
“Mmm, a little bit,” You lean your head against his shoulder, he’s warm and you can’t help how comfortable you feel.
“Why don’t we get out of here?” He says quietly kissing the top of your head.
You nodded in agreement, really you’d go anywhere he’d want to go.
Outside the cool night has settled in, and you shiver slightly, tucking yourself into your jacket. Walton grabs your hand and leads you down the way. Around the corner, there is a little path that leads down to the ocean. Once there you both stumble down the sand until you find some driftwood to sit on. Looking back toward the lights of downtown.
“The city is so beautiful at night,” He says, hands still holding yours.”All the lights reflect off the mountains and the seas. Looks like a painting.”
You wiggle yourself down the piece of wood so you’re resting against him, Watching his eyes sparkle as he looks at the light. Walton turns to you, watching your face, eyes going down to your lips before back up to your eyes.
You take the hint and lean into him, finally, kissing him. It feels like it’s taken so long to get here, your heart is racing and you can’t help but let yourself linger. He pushes back against you, hand coming up to hold your face. It’s over so fast. He pulls back, and you just look at him. Sharp jawline covered in stubble, slanted nose, kiss redden lips, eyes watching you.
“I want to kiss you again,” He says breathlessly, so you lean in scooting and push up against him, legs slotting between each other. You can taste the sushi and saki. If this damn man pulls away again you are going to lose your mind. But he does, you’re both breathless like two teenagers.
“It’s been a lovely night,’ He hushes his thumbs brushing over your cheeks. “I wish I could stay out here with you all night.”
You smile at him snuggling closer. The two of you wrapped around each other watching the night sky. Large freight ships move in and out of the harbor, cars drive past, and other couples wander by. It’s peaceful in its own way, just the two of you holding hands and stealing kisses. You want to ask him to go back to his place. Wanting to make the first move, but you hold off. Taking things slow, and steady. It was after all your first date.
***
Chapter six
**As always thank you all so much for the love. If you'd like to be tagged for future chapters let me know! Comments, like, reblog fill the void of my writer's cold dead soul. **
#walton goggins#fanfic#writer#writing#fan fiction#fan art#fantasy#au#alternate universe#fandom#fluffy#hurt/comfort#soft Walton
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