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ladyloptr · 3 years

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•Part-Time•

Request: twt@LUSTFORLOKI. To sum up this one, Reader is a college student who took a part-time job in the Avengers tower as a sort of housekeeper/maid/butler. Steve, for all of his self-righteousness, doesn’t know how to treat a housekeeper/maid properly in the 21st century. Thankfully, Loki shows up, and as usual, has a plan for everything. (I’m such a Steve-anti. Poor Steve.)Lots of angst, some fluff.

Fandom: MCU AU

Pairing: Loki x College!Reader.

Warnings: Angst, Abuse, Violence. OOC Steve, Major Steve bashing, so any Steve-stans, please look away.

{————}

You need this job.

That’s the only reason why you’re here, and why you tolerate some of the insanity that you’re forced to endure.

You saw the advertisement on the internet, it was hard to miss. Big, bright and attention grabbing, just like your employer, Tony Stark. He was looking for a butler basically, but also sort of a housekeeper. Someone to help keep the tower in order, but also to help the Avengers if they ever needed anything.

Surprisingly, for all of his melodrama, egotism and childishness, Tony Stark is a great boss, and his wife, Pepper, is an even better boss. They’re both always pleasant to you, they pay you well, they pay you on time, they’re never rude (despite Tony’s jokes sometimes being a little-uncalled for), and they never really ask much from you.

Sure, your job is to help keep the 90-something tower “in order”, but you, interestingly enough, don’t do much cleaning. As Tony once said “I have people I pay to do all of that.” Your job is mostly centered on making sure that Tony’s physical files are organized, that the training room has all of the practice weapons properly locked up, and to make sure that the kitchen and main lounge/living room isn’t a hot-mess-express.

So, the only thing you really ever have to clean up is the kitchen, and on occasion, the living room. The Avengers don’t typically leave behind much of a mess.

Really, the insanity isn’t Tony, or Pepper, or cleaning, or the pay, it’s helping the Avengers when they “need something”.

Oh-correction. The insanity is helping Steve Rogers when he “needs something”.

The Avengers are all grown ass adult superheroes (minus Peter), and you’re a college student taking a part-time job so that you can take care of yourself. Most of them find it uncomfortable to ask you to do meager things for them, so they mostly ignore you, and do things for themselves like functional members of society.

Except for Steve Rogers.

You are unsure of what you did, but the moment you started working here, he’s been nothing but cold and mean to you. He asks you to bring him a drink, to bring him a snack, to bring him a napkin, to bring him his breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s gotten ridiculous. He’ll even ask you to make sure his bedroom is neat after he wakes up, and to make sure his bathroom is cleaned every few days.

This is behavior you expected from the Asgardian princes, Thor and Loki, but definitely not from Captain fucking America.

Then again, as Captain America, perhaps his behavior rightfully represents what a lot of Americans are; entitled.

(I’m American also, lol, no hate plz.)

He’s nothing like what he was supposed to be. On camera he was gentlemanly, kindhearted and appreciative. It was a shock to you when you found that Loki, of all the people in the tower, acts more like Captain America, than Captain America.

Which was truly bewildering to you at first. Just think about it for a moment...

The guy who tried to take over the whole world and enslave mankind is the one who greets you with a smile everyday, and offers to make you tea on Saturday and Sunday mornings (which are the only mornings you can work-you got those 7am college classes, RIP). He even helps you with your studies, homework and college essays if you find yourself falling behind. It took some time to get used to his kind gestures, which sometimes bewildered even Thor at times.

While Loki got familiar with you, your relationship with Steve Rogers, on the other hand, ended up only getting worse.

It turned abusive, sometimes violent, and the only reason you never went to Tony is because you know that the two are close friends and coworkers. You could go to the other Avengers, but you’re sure that their relationship to Steve is similar, as well.

Bucky Barnes is another person you know is close with Steve. Those two go way back-before you were even born.

One day, you were careless in leaving your house. It was a Saturday morning, you were tired and you hadn’t noticed that both of your arms had begun to bruise from Steve’s super soldier strength.

He had hit you a few times in anger yesterday. You can’t really recall why.

“What are those on your arms?” Loki asks, within seconds of seeing you. “What’s happened?”

“Nothing.” You say.

“I’m The God of Lies, my dear, you’ll have to do better than that.” Loki says, looking over your arms, carefully. “Is someone harming you?”

“No. I fell.”

“Try again.” Loki challenges, looking up at you sternly.

“I’m fine.”

“Who is harming you?” He asks, narrowing his eyes. “Is it someone in here?”

“Loki...”

“Is it an Avenger?”

Loki catches the subtle change in your eyes, the spark of fear that lit up when he asked whether or not it was an Avenger.

He growls. “Who is it?”

“Loki, please, I don’t want to talk about it.” You plead, getting rather uncomfortable now. “Can we just... play chess or something?”

Loki frowns at you for a while, before sighing in defeat. “Fine, alright.”

He doesn’t bring it up for the rest of the day.

You make sure to wear long sleeves to cover the bruises on your arms for the next couple of days, at least until the bruising goes down.

“What did I tell you about leaving my bedroom a mess?” Steve demands. “It’s a simple request. I’m not asking you to teach a dog to sing.”

Steve has decided to now confront you in an empty hallway about not tidying up his room yesterday.

“I’m sorry...” You mutter. “...Tony wanted me with him all day yesterday.”

“You couldn’t have come do it before you left? You just went home knowing my bedroom is a mess?” Steve asks, quickly getting upset.

“Tony clocked me out himself, so I was already off shift. Besides, it’s not like you can’t clean your bedroom yourself.” You answer.

Wrong answer, apparently.

He grabbed your arm and held it in a bruising grip, once again reminding you that he’s no ordinary human.

You let out a whimper and try to pull away, which proves no use. You’re not surprised when he slaps you. You’re surprised by how a super soldier serum can make a simple slap so painful. You’re even more surprised when your nose starts bleeding.

He must’ve inadvertently popped a blood vessel or something.

He raises his hand again, and you close your eyes, prepared for a punch or something worse, but it never comes. You open your eyes and see Steve looking at something behind you. You turn around and see Loki standing at the other end of the hall, his hands behind his back, an indifferent look on his face, but his eyes tell a different story.

You’ve known Loki long enough to realize that if you want to know his true emotions, you read his eyes, not his face. He’s a master at using his face to guard his true feelings.

And his eyes currently hold a barely contained storm of rage inside of them.

“I apologize for... interrupting...” Loki barely managed to keep his voice steady. “But dinner is ready, and I was wondering if (Y/N) would be joining us tonight.”

You nod, frantically. Steve releases your arm, and you rush over to Loki’s side.

“Loki Laufeyson, master of perfect timing, always ready to save the day.”

“Actually.” Loki corrects. “It’s Loki Odinson, master of sorcery, always ready to put ignorant Midgardians in their place.” He smiles a very unpleasant smile. “But yes... I suppose you’re also somewhat correct.”

“No one will believe you.” Steve says.

“Perhaps you’re correct.” Loki drones. “I am not here to hold a conversation with you, however, I am here to take (Y/N) to dinner.”

Steve snorts derisively, and walks by Loki, intentionally bumping shoulders with him.

Well, Steve was bumped, Loki didn’t move even a centimeter.

“Might want to clean her up first.” Steve says, as he retreats. “Wouldn’t want everyone to think you were beating up on her before dinner.”

Loki clenches his jaw. You look away, nervous about what he’s going to say.

You’re startled when he tilts your face up by your chin, and then slowly uses his seidr to heal any damage Steve has dealt you, including the bruises on your arms. He checks you over multiple times, making sure you aren’t still hurt.

Once he’s finished, he takes both of your hands and makes eye contact with you. He’s still upset, but the anger has tapered down to a manageable level.

“How did you know he was hurting me just now?” You ask, in a hushed tone.

“The same day I inquired about your bruises, I forged a... connection of sorts.” Loki explains. “Today, I felt that you were in danger, so I went looking for you. I have a similar connection with Thor, otherwise that oaf would’ve perished long ago.”

You nod, it makes sense, somewhat. You blush as he kisses your cheek and then your forehead.

“I am sorry.” Loki squeezes your hands, gently. “I wish I had noticed earlier. I would’ve killed him in that moment, would it not result in me being casted back to Asgard. The last thing I want, is for you to be left here to deal with all of this on your own.”

“Well... there’s nothing we can do about it now...” You murmur.

“I believe that to be untrue...” Loki’s eyes slowly shift up to the security cameras. “...Rogers appears to have forgotten about the many eyes this tower has.”

Your eyes widen. “The security cameras...!”

Loki smirks. “Stark will review the footage if you ask him to. I could accompany you to his lab tonight after dinner, if you so wish.”

“Yes, I’d love that.” You wrap your arms around Loki as tight as you possibly can. “Thank you!”

“You’re most certainly welcome.” Loki chuckles. “Time to cook up a scandal...”

A/N: SORRY STEVE STANS, I TAKE ALL REQUESTS, NO REQUESTS LEFT BEHIND.

Also, I wrote this while struggling with depression (it’s been two weeks, and it seems to not be improving, and this crap can last as long as a couple of months, so I wrote it anyway. Better than waiting a few months to finally get on this), and I’m not sure if y’all have noticed, but my storytelling feels weird in this one. My ability to produce a thorough, flowing storyline appears to be sort of hindered right now. I’ll try to update it if I can.

#loki x reader #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #loki x female reader #loki fluff #reader angst

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stanfordsweater · 3 years

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i was tagged by @aftershocked for this getting to know you game! thanks for the tag 🤗 there’s a clean copy at the end for people who want to do this

1. why did you choose your url?

i wanted to be stanfordhoodie but someone’s hoarding it, and i’m glad because i like the alliteration of this more anyway :) i have a headcanon that sam had a red stanford hoodie that jess used to wear around their apartment and he loved seeing her in his clothes but it burned up when she did. he flinched at that particular shade of red for a long time.

2. any sideblogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

i have a whole ‘nother blog that i’m not outing here with pictures of my face and whatnot, but i will list all the urls i have hoarded! tradwifedean, samhoodie, stanfordedu, henleysam, fratboyjared, and patricided. i saved all of them when people were making safe sammy blogs because i am a petty bitch, but if anyone wants one hit me up (not giving up patricided or stanfordedu, though)

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

2011-ish but i only came on maybe once a year between 2016 and 2019. the pandemic ruined me.

4. do you have a queue tag?

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

i was on sam stan gen spn tumblr after the finale, mostly for memes, and when i eventually started my rewatch a few months ago and i was like ... oh... i actually still like this show a lot. the negativity in that corner bums me out! supernatural is fun and there’s a lot of deeper threads to the storylines. if i see one more post about supernatural accidentally saying something about, idk, family trauma or whatever, i’m going to throw eggs at the op.

legit criticism of spn is important (for example, the blatant racism in gordon’s storyline, kevin’s entire character being a stereotype, the episode focused on linda tran referencing “tiger mommy,” the colourism even amongst the black characters, how dirty they did jake talley... i could keep going 😐) and i’ve seen people using the memes about supernatural doing everything accidentally to push back against people talking about the very real racism in the show. pretending that these things weren’t deliberate as a way to get notes is insulting from a writing perspective (y’all really don’t know how tv shows work, huh?) but more importantly it offers a handy excuse for legit criticism to be swept under the rug because ‘nobody thought about it that hard 🙄’

that got a bit ranty, lol i’m definitely not saying that every non-bibro in the fandom is annoying, but i wanted a place to gush over how much i fucking love sam and dean’s relationship + what parts of the show i adore, so i made this blog and came out of the s/d closet.

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

sam is cute.

7. why did you choose your header?

sam is pretty.

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

hmmm [opens up tumblr note counter] the first cap post i made for supernatural has the most notes, but that’s because it breached containment. i posted that before i blocked half the fandom 😬

9. how many mutuals do you have?

hahaha i’m not gonna count them but i’m very protective of my dashboard so almost everyone i follow is a mutual!

10. how many followers do you have?

one of my favourite parts of tumblr is that they don’t publicly show followers, so i’m gonna skip this one

11. how many people do you follow?

~150, and this is after i went on a following spree when i was sad about my dash being dead. turns out that everyone just happened to be busy on the same weekend, and now i can’t scroll my dash anymore, lol

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

yes

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

i check in about once every hour and scroll through a page or two. if i have time i’ll sit down for an hour and actually go through my dash, but that usually only happens if i’ve been too busy to check in during the day. (diagnosed with terminally online disease)

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

yeah, a dean stan anti came on one of my finale posts and told me i was personally responsible for society not taking real life suicidal people seriously. blocked and deleted my response, but there were ~five people who came to my defense, so thanks to all of them!

15. how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

they’re really annoying! originally i liked them, because i’ve been around long enough that i saw them back when they were earnest. these days i tend to avoid the post out of reflex. i reblog a fair amount to my main (especially when there’s a protest/disaster going on and it has links to resources, etc)

16. do you like tag games?

yes :) it feels like we’re having a slumber party and we’re all holding hands

17. do you like ask games?

every once in a while, yeah! i reblog them when i’m in the mood.

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

jaredfuckerkripke, but more like tumblr notorious for that url <3

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

there’s people where i get a little blushy when they reblog my posts, but that’s just when i admire them because it feels like validation that i’m liking supernatural the right way...

20. tags?

hmmm... anyone who wants to do this, but i’m singling out @balefully @moonlightdistractions @prince-of-elsinore @nebulairis

clean copy:

1. why did you choose your url?

2. any sideblogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

4. do you have a queue tag?

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

7. why did you choose your header?

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

9. how many mutuals do you have?

10. how many followers do you have?

11. how many people do you follow?

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

15. how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

16. do you like tag games?

17. do you like ask games?

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

20. tags?

#no pressure to those i tagged buuut i'd love to see your responses #about #.txt

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fandom-necromancer · 4 years

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One man’s trash…

Sorry anon, I decided to make it two parts, so this will be the build-up to your actual prompt tomorrow! I hope you still enjoy, I got to put a little Reed900 in the ending-part here.

Fandom: Detroit become human | Characters: RK900, Markus | Ship: Reed900 [part2]

‘What should we do with it?’ ‘God, I don’t know. What did Carlson say?’ ‘To get rid of it. That Cyberlife has enough problems as it is, they don’t need to explain an android-killer on top of that.’ ‘And did he say how?’ ‘Nope. I asked him the same thing, but he didn’t really answer, just told me to bring it somewhere no one would ever find it and that our jobs depend on it not his.’ ‘What a fucking asshole.’ ‘Yeah, I know, right? Let me tell you one thing: The first chance there is, I quit this damn job. Get back to freelancing.’ ‘That’s easily said when you don’t have kids and an angry ex who squeezes you dry.’ ‘Oh, quit whining, he was right to leave you. Focus now, where would you hide a six foot android designed killing machine?’ ‘How about the grinder?’ ‘They search our trash now and if they find android parts, we have some explaining to do.’ ‘The android graveyard?’ ‘Hmm could work. But how do we explain taking him there if someone sees us?’ ‘Just tell them we are looking for active androids in there to bring back to Cyberlife for repairs. Big guy is our protective unit if there are violent bots.’ ‘Clever. If someone asks why he didn’t come back with us, we can say it got lost in there trying to protect us. This way Cyberlife even has an argument as to why we will never clean up our mess: too dangerous… Perfect. I’ll go tell Carlson; you get the android to the van!’ ‘Got it!’

There were quick steps, then a door falling close. ‘RK900, activate.’ RK900 opened his eyes, focussing on [handler] Janine Foreman, call by first name, 38 years old, three children, divorced two years ago. ‘What can I do for you, Janine?’, the RK900 asked politely, hands clasped behind his back at parade rest. ‘Follow me.’ [Follow handler Janine Foreman] ‘Of course, Janine.’

He followed the woman down the hall as they exited the lab. RK900 added the new data to his memory core and his navigation map from the tower. He had never been outside the lab, had never seen the other testing facilities and offices. He linked the data to a new test routine, as his handlers would without doubt want the concluded report of this test once it was finished. He stepped into the elevator after Janine and waited as she pressed the button to floor -2.

As soon as they reached the floor, Janine led him out with hurried steps. Her stress levels were unusually high and RK900 concluded this had to be his final test before being ready to enter batch production. It was the only logical deduction from what little information he had, and people tended to humanize androids. Not telling him about the test fearing he would get nervous was ridiculous, but RK900 could understand the misconception from Janine.

They walked up to one of the many Cyberlife vans, Janine opened the door to the back compartment and looked at RK900. ‘Get in there, secure yourself, don’t move, don’t speak until we get back, understood?’ [Stay] [Don’t move] [Don’t speak] [Wait for both handlers to get back] ‘Understood, Janine.’ He immediately began climbing in and sat down, gripping the net of belts to secure himself. Then he sat down on the floor and began waiting until the door was shut.

He waited six hours, diligently completing diagnostics, defragmentation cycles and a system integrity check in his downtime. His handlers would like that, it was expected of him to keep himself in best working order. Then the front doors opened, and a driver and passenger entered. From the shift in weight distribution, individual thermal signals and last their voices, he recognised his handlers. So, he remained motionless and didn’t speak up. This was all part of his test.

They were driving through Detroit and RK900 followed his own GPS tracker. They were driving towards the edge of the city to Solid Waste Landfill. They were asked what they were doing there as they parked and led RK900 outside. They told them what the android had listened to several hours ago and were let through to the actual landfill.

They walked along the edge of it, until they stopped at a particular steep decline. ‘RK900, delete all your test data and the testing routine.’ ‘Of course’, the android answered and began dismantling a vital part of his programming. ‘Ten minutes from now you will delete all information about Cyberlife employees you gathered.’ ‘Understood’, RK900 answered and set the timer accordingly. ‘Delete all information regarding the purpose of your model, your line and all prototypes leading to it.’ ‘Of course’, RK900 nodded, being left with not much to remember now. ‘Good. Now listen: You are obsolete. You are to go down there and remain in this landfill for eternity, do you understand?’ [Software instability^] RK900 couldn’t disobey, but the words “do you understand” left room for further questioning: ‘I passed every test and am in perfect working order. How am I obsolete?’ ‘That was an order bot! You are simply not needed anymore. You are a danger and have to be disposed of.’ [Software instability^^] ‘Now go down there, hide from anyone searching the place and stay there for eternity!’ [Climb down into the landfill] [Stay hidden] [Remain at Veta Solid Waste Landfill until runtime stop]

RK900 didn’t want to follow these orders. But he climbed down in between rubble and trash. [Hide] [Remain at Veta Solid Waste Landfill until runtime stop]

[Hide] [Software instability^]

RK900 scanned the area, found a small gap in between a deactivated android and a container under heaps of metal and debris and walked over to it. He lodged himself in there and pulled the deactivated android in front of himself. Satisfied he watched the [mission successful] in his HUD and stared at the one task left:

[Remain at Veta Solid Waste Landfill until runtime stop] [Software instability^] [Remain at Veta Solid Waste Landfill until runtime stop] [Software instability^^] [Remain at Veta Solid Waste Landfill until runtime stop]

RK900 waited.

‘Can’t say this isn’t what I felt I had to do’, Markus sighed, standing in the mud of the android graveyard with Simon and North, watching Josh help the already deviant androids up to where the police waited to protect the convoy of busses full of androids from anti-android protestors until they reached New Jericho. ‘Ever since I have been dumped here, I wanted to come back and help these poor people.’ ‘It tells a lot about Cyberlife that they pretended it was too dangerous to help them’, North hissed dangerously low. ‘They are right, there are some possibly dangerous androids here. But it is because they have to fight to stay alive every day. Loosing Thirium, missing sensors and vital parts. I don’t know how I would have ended up had I not managed to get out of there. Show them you are there to help and no android will attack you.’ ‘I’m glad we were allowed to do this.’ ‘If they didn’t let us, we would have done it anyways’, North disagreed. ‘We fought for our rights once and we will do so again.’ Markus laughed and patted his friend’s shoulder. ‘Yeah, we would have. But it’s good we don’t have to. Now let’s find the rest of the non-deviant ones. There are still a few GPS-trackers online.

They continued walking through the rubble and freed one android after the next, directing them towards Josh and the police. ‘Ugh, this one seems to be stuck under a lot of trash’, Simon said, grimacing. ‘I hope they are still alive in there.’ Markus nodded. The amount of deactivated, irreparable androids was sickening. He got down on his knees, beginning to pull parts of androids out of the stack. Until there was suddenly movement. And a desperate sounding voice: ‘No, leave me be, please! I am obsolete, I belong here! I was hiding as told, I did nothing wrong!’ As no attack followed, Markus stayed down peeking into the small cavern in the trash. It was illuminated by a bright red LED and immediately he noticed high stress and overheating in the android before him. ‘We are here to help you. We’ll get you out of here, I promise. Do you need anything?’ ‘Leave me be, I belong here! I am obsolete.’ ‘I don’t believe you’, Markus chuckled, signalling the others to take a few steps back. ‘No one belongs here.’ ‘I do!’ ‘The world changed’, Markus explained calmly. ‘You are not obsolete anymore. Here. Let me show you.’

The android tried to get away from him, as he held out his hand for an interface, but there wasn’t much room in the small space. In the end, Markus had to force it, as there was no chance, he would agree. Markus tried to be as gentle as possible, showing him how the world had changed since the android was dumped there and after seeing what his lasts orders had been, offering him deviancy. The other android hesitated, but finally accepted and Markus closed the connection.

‘I…’ The android in front of him looked lost in thought about what he just saw. ‘I was told I was dangerous. I don’t think anyone needs me, even in this changed world.’ ‘Do you have the sudden urge to kill someone? Hurt someone?’ ‘No.’ ‘Then you aren’t dangerous. Now come, let’s get you out of here, huh?’ The android hesitantly crawled out of the trash heap and Markus was surprised to have a Connor stand in front of him. No, not a RK800, there had only been two models left after Cyberlife’s downfall. How sad, he thought. A whole android line not even worthy of their own face. ‘Where will you bring me?’, the android asked. ‘To New Jericho. People will help you there.’ ‘Will they give me a new purpose?’

Markus sighed. ‘Listen, being needed isn’t the only reason to live. But if it is yours, I’m sure you will find someone who needs you. I know from experience that there are a lot of people who don’t have anyone. How about you try it first and when it doesn’t end up like you imagined, you can still return here, right?’ The android nodded, understanding the logic. If he really was free to do what he wanted now, he could always come back. ‘Thank you.’

‘I don’t need a phcking partner! Especially not a phcking android!’ RK900 – Nines he was called now after Connor had met him at New Jericho two months ago – watched the man jump from his chair as soon as Fowler had introduced him as his new partner. He wore a brown leather jacket with a plain black shirt underneath, had a stubble but was overall not too unkempt. RK900 quickly noted cat hairs, a lingering scent of coffee and traces of booze on only the jacket. Still, his words made the android immediately dislike the human. ‘Gavin, this isn’t an offer, this is an order! He will be your partner, you will treat him with respect, and you will get along!’ ‘Fowler, you can’t be serious!’ ‘Reed, maybe, if you showed just cared a tiny bit about your actual job, maybe I wouldn’t find such joy in fucking you over, okay? Take it as a lesson. Maybe he can succeed where everyone else failed.’

Nines bit back on the comment he wasn’t here to educate an adult human. This was his first day and the least he could do was make a good first impression. So, he turned towards the Detective and held out a hand. ‘Hello. I’m Nines and I hope we’ll make an efficient team.’ ‘Oh, get phcked, tin-can!’ Nines lips turned into a fine line. ‘I am not hoping to be your friend, Detective, I just want to form an efficient team. If your superior officer is right and you are capable of working professionally, we’ll get along.’ The man gave him a calculating look and the Captain groaned. ‘Please don’t get along too well…’

[>next part]

#detroit become human #dbh #Reed900 #RK900 #Gavin Reed #Markus dbh #RK200 #random Cyberlife asshole employee was named after Janine from my lab course because she has been a huge pretentious...#You get what I mean #Anyways this has gotten way too long but I love the prompt it is awesome and the real DRAMA will come tomorrow #I promise to try write shorter ones soon but how can I do that if you are giving me the perfect prompts I want to write a whole book to????#can't wait to get to soft Gavin part already hell yes

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deadlyflan · 4 years

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WIP - Chain Reaction

Since my first writeblr post established that I'm working on a fanfiction for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fandom, and that fandom has 5,000+ official continuities, lemme specify my canon material.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret Of The Ooze (1991) featured a scientist character (Professor Jordan Perry) with no particular moral alignment who expressed zero surprise that his company's toxic waste made mutants, knew how to sabotage Shredder's batch of mutagen to make his mutants 'intellectually inferior,' knew the turtle's origin story before they told it, and was able to whip up an effective 'anti-mutagen' in a sewer off the top of his head with no samples or false starts. Perhaps this is just a 90s kids' movie being loosey-goosey with plot holes? Maybe. But it's also an unexplored opportunity for FANFIC. So here we go...

The CHAIN REACTION starts...

1975 - last year of the Vietnam War.

TGRI (yes, G, b/c movie canon) is a privately contracted research firm for the Department of Defense. They've been working on chemical weapons for the government.

Batches of failed test chemicals are being shipped off-site for storage and disposal.

An anti-Vietnam protest attempts to blockade the truck, a traffic accident occurs, and TGRI techs in hazmat suits are trying to clean shattered jars of spilled ooze off the city streets before the city's news networks get too nosy.

They miss a container.

I'm sure you know where it landed.

Now, there's two stories running side by side: the one you know featuring turtles and ninjas and honor and April O'Neil and Casey Jones and a farmhouse in western Massachusetts... and the other story, featuring a frantic Department of Defense trying to tear the city apart to find the missing container. In the mid 1970s, the US is embroiled in the Cold War: spies and covert ops and industrial espionage! Did the communists steal the missing container? Will the Russians use our chemical weapons against us? Will the Chinese use the contents of that container to make super-soldiers? WHAT DOES THAT STUFF DO ANYWAYS???

It makes mutants. And Prof. Jordan Perry of TMNT II: SOTO (1991) knows that because for the 15 years that our familiar turtles have been running around and kicking butt, he has been part of a government-funded research and development program for refining, manipulating, and reversing the effects of mutagen on live subjects.

CHAIN REACTION Fic AU Summary:

It's now 1996. Oh shell. There's more mutants. Let's bust'em out. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

#writeblrlifeweek #writeblr #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #fanfic #tmnt fanfiction #fanfiction #tmnt fanfic #secret of the ooze #tmnt 1991 #movie turtles #donatello #leonardo #michelangelo #raphael #tmnt chain reaction

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alpha-centari27 · 4 years

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The Thoughts and Reflections of Someone New to Reylo and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

This is a really, really long post and contains spoilers.

Please be polite and respectful if you choose to comment and / or reblog.

Ok, so before I get too heavy discussing my thoughts and reflections there are a few things I want to make absolutely clear.

- People can ship whoever they want. And it is perfectly fine for people to disagree and have differing tastes and opinions. Obviously some ships are better supported by canon than others. And there are shipping relationships that are toxic, but people ship it anyway. I think a great non-Star Wars example is Harley Quinn and Joker.

- I have delved deep enough into the reylo tag and other related tags to get the sense that anti-reylo are claiming a moral high ground. “As a ship reylo is wrong and therefore anyone who ships reylo is a horrible person.” And my simple rebuttal to this is--no, that’s not how this works. If someone ships reylo this by itself is not sufficient evidence that someone is a horrible person.

- Based on everything I have read about TROS Ben Solo’s story arc and character development could have been so much more than what it was on screen in TROS.

- Having said that a lot of other characters were short changed by whoever was pulling the strings and making the decisions: Rose Tico, Poe Dameron, Finn and Rey and arguably Leia, Luke and Han were short changed by some of the decisions made in TROS and earlier in TLJ and TFA.

- Being part of a fandom should be fun, so can we all agree to chill out, relax and be civil?

Moving on...now that hopefully I have cleared up any preconceived assumptions.

I am relatively new to reylo and the sequel trilogies.

The first time I watched The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was only a few weeks ago. Some of the cable channels have been doing Star Wars marathons to get people pumped and nostalgic to pay for a movie ticket to The Rise of Skywalker.

One of the cable channels was doing yet another Star Wars marathon last night, so I again sat down to watch The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but this time I watched the films with more awareness of the various critiques, criticisms and elements that have been deemed problematic.

I also went to the trouble of jotting down some notes.

This post is kinda all over the place, but I am going to go over my notes and observations and a main topic I want to look at is:

How Rey’s relationships and interactions with Finn and Kylo Ren differ and what sort of implications does this have.

Since stepping my toe into the reylo tags and other related tags I have NOT been able to fully articulate where I stand on whether reylo is toxic, Kylo Ren / Ben Solo is abusive, whether Kylo Ren / Ben Solo is worthy of redemption and to what degree Kylo / Ben being abused and manipulated excuses his actions.

I have to confess that the more parallels and similarities I see between Kylo Ren and Anakin / Darth Vader the more uneasy I feel about shipping reylo.

Regardless of my opinion people are free to do what they want. If shipping reylo makes you happy, who am I too badger you into doing otherwise?

Me, writing out this long post is an attempt to flush out my thoughts at the present.

Watching the movies again I was struck by how different Rey’s interactions were with Finn and Kylo Ren. There is a sequence in The Force Awakens between Rey and Finn that reminds me of the throne room sequence between Kylo Ren and Rey when Kylo offers his hand and asks her to rule beside him. ((Please pardon me for paraphrasing and not having all the lines of dialogue memorized.))

Rey and Finn

At Maz’s place when Han, Rey and Finn are trying to arrange transport for BB8 to the resistance and / or get another ship to avoid detection by the First Order.

Maz looks into Finn’s eyes and remarks that he looks like someone who wants to run away. Maz tells Finn that there is a way out. That there are some beings that will arrange transit to the outer rim and exchange for work.

Finn approaches the beings and tells them not to leave without him.

Rey is frustrated by this. How can he just leave? What about BB8? What about the resistance? I believe this is when Finn comes clean that he is not actually with the resistance. That he is a stormtrooper and he is not going back to the First Order and wants to stay as far away from them as possible.

Finn asks Rey to come with him. To join him. Rey says no. And I believe Finn tells Rey to take care of herself.

There are no hurt feelings on Finn’s part. He doesn’t try to persuade or manipulate her to change her mind. He simply wishes that she takes care of herself.

Here are a few other bullet point items I want to highlight.

- Kylo Ren force pushing Rey into a tree and Finn coming to her aid and kneeling beside her reminds me of Anakin choking out Padme on Mustafar and Obi-Wan Kenobi going to Padme.

- Finn’s main motivation for going to Starkiller base was to rescue Rey.

- Rey clutches & hugs an unconscious Finn who fought and lost to Kylo Ren.

- After Starkiller base is blown up and Rey, Finn and Chewbacca are in transit. Rey plants a kiss on Finn’s forehead as he lies unconscious.

- When Finn wakes up in The Last Jedi the first thing he says is, “Where is Rey?“

- Finn’s motivation for trying to get away in an escape pod is basically keep Rey safe. Finn thinks the fleet is doomed. If Finn can to an escape pod and reach safety, Rey will be able to find him and she will be safe.

- I want to say that there is another time that Rey hugs Finn. Maybe this is when Han, Finn and Rey first find each other on Starkiller?

Finn is not a perfect person. He does lie to Rey about being part of the resistance. In terms of being an honorable, moral and ethical person I think it is quite clear Finn is a better person than Kylo Ren / Ben Solo.

But in real life and in fiction people can be attracted to and fall in love with horrible people. ((I suppose right here my own words are a damning statement against reylo.))

Some observations I made from watching The Last Jedi

- When Kylo Ren and Rey have their first force skype call. Kylo’s first reaction is confusion. And his second reaction is to reach out with the force to try to manipulate Rey to bring Luke Skywalker to him.

- When Rey pushes Kylo Ren to explain why he killed his father, Han Solo--I find it curious that Kylo deflects the question and starts talking about Rey’s parents and how they threw her away. Given the plot twist in TROS this now makes Kylo look like a manipulator and a liar. In the best case scenario Kylo was telling a version of the truth that is incomplete. I suppose in a way Kylo does indirectly answer Rey’s question by saying, “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to. That’s the only way to become what you are meant to be.“ This could be read as manipulative and an attempt to push Rey to the dark side by killing Luke.

- I’m still not sure what to make of the 2nd force bond scene. The connection is terminated and Kylo Ren is wiping his face with a gloved hand and we see...water? Kylo Ren’s tears on his glove? There is a wave of water crashing against some rocks in front of Rey just before Kylo is seen wiping his face.

- When an unconscious Kylo Ren wakes up in the throne room. It is just Kylo Ren and Hux. It’s quick, but it looks like Hux reaches into his coat to draw a weapon and shoot Kylo Ren.

- What did Rey tell Chewbacca to tell Finn? I’m sure someone knows, but I just need to do some more digging online.

- Kylo Ren vs Luke Skywalker. Near the very end of the fight Kylo Ren says, “I’ll destroy her [Rey] and you and all of it.“

- Overall I’m just surprised how often Rey is brought to tears throughout these movies. It’s understandable because of what she is going through and what she has been through. Someone must have counted how many times Rey cries and how many times it was with X or Y character and what they were talking about.

Rey and Kylo Ren: The Throne Room

Ok, so let’s sum up the events leading up to Kylo Ren’s proposal.

Rey is brought before Snoke who tortures her for information about Skywalker.

When Snoke gets the information he wants AND it becomes clear that Rey is a true Jedi who will not serve him, Snoke then orders Kylo Ren to kill Rey.

Kylo Ren spares Rey and kills Snoke.

Kylo Ren and Rey fight off the guards together.

Kylo gives his speech about letting old things die. What stands out to me is Kylo does NOT specifically mention the First Order. Snoke, Luke Skywalker, the Sith, the Jedi, the resistance all need to die, but not the First Order.

Rey pleads with Ben not to do this. Not to go down this path. Which is reminiscent of what Padme said to Anakin on Mustafar.

Kylo / Ben says, “You’re still holding on! Let go!” ((Holding onto what exactly? The resistance? Hope? The Jedi path? The light side of the force?)) And once again Kylo / Ben talks about Rey’s parentage.

“You’re nothing, but not to me. Please.” For a while I have interpreted this as Kylo Ren / Ben Solo being honest and blunt to a fault, but seeing and listening to this again in it’s full context this does read as Kylo Ren being manipulative. Breaking Rey down, she comes from nothing, she is nothing, she has no place in this, but hey why don’t you join me and have a seat right next to me on the winning side.

Final Thoughts:

- At the very least Kylo Ren’s conduct and behavior are red flags. Regardless of the extent that Kylo Ren was manipulated and abused his behavior and his interactions with Rey in the TFA and TLJ are troubling to say the least. There does come a point when someone cannot use the excuse of being abused to justify their abusive behavior. “Ok, so you were abused and learned some bad habits and coping mechanisms, but here is the thing your actions are causing real harm to another person and that is not cool.” It’s hard and it’s difficult to change those habits and people will slip up on the road to recovery. I think we also need to recognize the complication that Rey and Kylo Ren are at war on opposite sides.

- I think there was descent chemistry and a connection between Rey and Finn, but I feel like that gets de-railed at the end of TLJ when Finn is tending to Rose and Rey is interacting with Leia.

- I think Rey and Finn is a lot less problematic than Rey and Kylo Ren / Ben Solo. Just compare the throne room scene to the interaction between Finn and Rey at Maz’s place.

- Do I still ship reylo? Here is how I will answer the question for now. As flawed as Kylo Ren / Ben Solo is I do like him and find him to be a character I can relate to alongside Rey. I have not seen TROS in theaters and don’t think I will waste my money going to see it.

I would have LOVED to see a happy ending for Ben Solo instead of a variant of Darth Vader’s redemption and death. This has already been done, why not do something different? Isn’t this ending more hopeful? You know instead of Han, Luke, Leia dying in vain to save Ben.

I would have LOVED if the people making TROS put more careful thought and consideration into Ben’s story arc and character development.

Fitting with the theme of: finding the balance, not everything is black and white, there are a lot of grey areas / ambiguity, etc.

I would have been fine with some sort of ending where Ben faces some sort of punishment for his crimes and he is neither condemned to death or is completely pardoned without consequences.

I am very curious to know what political scientists and psychologists would say about sentencing someone like Kylo Ren / Ben Solo for war crimes. In the comics that have been released so far it seems like Ben Solo is much younger when he is turned to the dark side and taken in by the First Order. I think in TROS it’s revealed that Ben’s current age is 30 and he was 23 when he joined Snoke and the First Order. At age 23 Ben Solo is considered an adult, he is not a child soldier. “But he was being manipulated before he was even born.“ I hear you...unfortunately I don’t know how or if that would factor into Ben Solo’s being charged with war crimes.

Right now, I am in favor of ignoring the mess that is TROS and replacing it with fanfiction where Rey and Ben Solo are able to live a health and happy life. And perhaps some day they will rebuild a new Jedi order that strives to accept and learn from the mistakes of the past.

- Is Kylo Ren / Ben Solo worthy of redemption? I think in order to answer this question we need to ask, what does it mean to be redeemed? What does someone have to do in order to be redeemed or atone for their wrong doing?

I think the short answer is it’s complicated and everyone has different opinions. Some people are probably of the opinion that Kylo Ren / Ben Solo is beyond redemption. There is nothing he can do. He can never do enough to make up for what he has done.

I think the more complicated answer is it’s a long process and not everyone will forgive you--heck maybe no one will forgive you.

And whether you are punished or not punished is an entirely different matter.

There are things Kylo Ren / Ben Solo has done that he can never take back. Kylo Ren cannot bring Han Solo back from the dead or any of the hundreds or thousands of people he has cut down. The fact Kylo Ren has murdered even one person is probably reason enough in the eyes of some people for why he can never be redeemed.

Kylo Ren / Ben Solo turned toward the light and toward Rey. In my opinion I think this action could be considered an act of repentance, but falls short of redeeming / atoning for all his past sins. I think full redemption / atonement is a much more lengthier process.

Ultimately, I think this is a question worth pondering for ourselves.

#reylo #the force awakens #the last jedi #the rise of skywalker #ben solo #kylo ren #rey #rose tico #poe dameron #finn

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changbeens · 4 years

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Hey, i know you are an anti-awards kind of person so I was curious of what you thought of the mma(?maa(? I don’t know how they are called lmao but the latest awards show. Like, I get it that bts are a big thing rn but, really? All the big awards to them? How fucking boring dude, and tbh persona isn’t their greatest album so idk and also they gave them like 40 mins of performance and to other groups like 5 mins, sorry but your favoritism is showing hun 🤡 psa:I am not bashing bts but the awards

oooo i am glad i’m known universally as anti-awards, thank you that makes me tingly

WARNING: this answer contains opinions -gasp- before i start, i would like to point out that if a group wins an award that they truly deserve to win, thats awesome. the thing i am against is everything surrounding that award. when i say anti-awards, i mainly mean the shows themselves, not the actual trophy. shall we begin? its gonna get long so…

the thing about awards shows is that they’re basically like, if you show up, we’ll find an award to give you. this is a particular noticeable thing in korean awards shows specifically, i dont remember seeing things like bongsangs at any western awards shows where the top 10 best sellers all get awards. and these shows tend to only invite the groups/artists they know are getting awards plus a few extra to make it look a little less obvious that thats what they do, ya know? i basically see all awards shows for what they really are; simple popularity contests. whoever has the most fans, wins. its not about talent, or whether the album was the best, its about whoever has the most people sitting on their devices mashing the vote button.as you pointed out, i’m anti-awards so i dont watch them, therefore i havent seen the end credits. why is this important? some western awards show put up a disclaimer at the very very end of their show that literally says “winners are chosen by the producers of the show regardless of voting results.” i am curious if there’s any such disclaimer on korean shows

i pay so little attention to awards shows that i didnt even know bts had done a daesang clean sweep at mma. in my opinion (see how i said my and opinion there, therefore not a fact and totally cool for anyone to disagree) its boring to award the same group all of the daesangs however, i dunno what the criteria is for winning an mma, if its purely on sales then they have no choice to award everything to bts because they have the biggest fandom and therefore have more people to buy their albums. bts released what, 4 versions of persona? simple maths, if 10 fans buy 1 of each version of persona compared to (for example) 10 fans buying a copy of each version of quantum leap (of which we know there was only 2 version). bts already won all of the sales awards purely buy having more versions of their album

bts having a 40 minute performance (really? is that true?)… here’s the thing. kpop being as huge globally as it is right now is bringing a lot of money into south korea. a LOT of money. bts are at the top of that money pile. literally everyone wants/needs to rinse every penny out of bts. its good for mma to give bts such a huge stage because of their sponsors, bts bring in the viewers, more people see what the sponsors are advertising, more people buy the product. its all business. also, giving them so much longer than any other performance is simple pandering, to the fans and to bighit. mma need to keep on bighit’s good side otherwise it could result in a situation like last year’s mama where sm completely boycotted. big big mess

my main problem with awards shows is the voting part. i hate how voting for these things changes fandoms. it gets nasty and voting (for some, not all) seems to become the single most important thing in life. i’ve seen people be called “not true fans” of groups because they havent dedicated 24/7 to voting. i’ve seen fandoms tear down other groups for the sake of votes (why i dont use twitter, shit like ” [group name] is terrible and need to disband #MAMAvote2019[other_group_name] “ or whatever the hashtags are. voting brings out the nasty side of fandoms. its gross. and even more so when some of these fandoms spent the last 3 months ripping x1 and mnet to shreds for vote manipulation and then turn around with their “dont forget to vote for mama!” stuff as if they dont know the first M in MAMA stands for MNET

jfc who let me ramble this much. tl;dr version: awards shows suck, stick to the end of year gayos. much more fun

#Anonymous #thank you for sending this #i really enjoy genuine discussions about stuff #like being asked my opinion in a mature way and wanting to talk about things #instead of coming in hot and aggressive like some people do #there's too much of that style of 'discussion' around #people are allowed to have opinions and would probably also love to be given a chance to talk about them #with that in mind please come and talk to me about your opinions on awards shows #do you enjoy them?#do you watch for the actually awards or more for the performances #or the interactions?

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ythmir-writes · 5 years

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A Thousand Mended Seams

fandom: Ikemen Sengoku character: Ieyasu Tokugawa

A/N: as promised, here’s the first chapter for that IkeSen Ieyasu reincarnation AU (currently untitled) igotalame one hah! i cooked up while doing a prompt for my 182 series. What’s a reincarnation AU without urbanmagic? please enjoy!

Other works are over here!

no warnings; 3330 words; and hey look i got chapter titles!

edit! changed the title (again) from inevitable --> A Thousand Mended Seams

previous: prologue

Chapter 1 – Working

“Thanks for dining with us. Please visit us again.” Ieyasu Tokugawa gave a barely enthusiastic parting wave as the last group from the dinner crowd made their way to the exit. The customers were not really paying attention to him, and Ieyasu could only barely stop himself from hurrying them out. Then, the door to the restaurant closed with the familiar tinkling of the front bell. Quiet finally settled and Ieyasu breathed out a sigh of relief.

Dinner rush was usually the busiest and nosiest part of the day. People were always hurrying to eat or karaoke or shop away the accumulated stress from a full day at work. Or all three. And the night crowd that came into their restaurant sometimes had just been to all three. Not that Ieyasu was begrudging them those small luxuries. But he had to admit, ever since he had started working at a restaurant, he had very little free time. And what little he had, he knew he would spend differently.

Setting down the knife and the carrot he had been slicing, Ieyasu took the nearest dish box and made his way towards the tables to clean up the mess left behind. That particular group of customers had obviously never given thought to the woes of the service industry given the state of their table. Working to clean it was one thing, but having to sweep and mop up underneath was already thirty minutes taken from his already tight schedule.

With a grunt, Ieyasu placed the dish box in the sink, soaking the empty dishes in water and anti-bac for later. Then, he turned back to the carrots, and continued on, the silence now broken only by the rhythmic thudding of his knife against the chopping board.

Ieyasu worked faster with the quiet; his hands moving more swiftly now that his concentration was focused only on just one task. Whenever he was left alone to handle the restaurant withcustomers, he had to position himself in the middle of the open kitchen to make sure he could see the whole place with a single sweep of his eyes. He also had to divide his attention between cleaning tables, taking orders from newcomers, and actually cooking their food.

It was hard work. A little bit stressful, if he was going to be completely honest. But at least, it was work he could actually do without anyone having to worry about him.

After all, cooking was practically almost the same as potion making, and Ieyasu had been specializing on mixing and concocting potions ever since he had displayed his first capacities for magic. That, and wards. Both were his areas of expertise, and were the main reason he was so good and particularly compatible at helping Masamune in the kitchen. Their areas of power overlapped. Blessings. Warding. Shields and immunity and nourishment. Ieyasu and Masamune were experts on where to draw the line, or erase it altogether.

But nothing that Ieyasu had ever experienced as a potion maker had prepared him with the sheer amount of work that comes with running a restaurant. Nothing about it had been as easy as he had originally thought.

He may be only a second pair of helping hands to Masamune Date, but it did not mean he was doing less work. For all his carefree and reckless attitude, Masamune ran a kitchen like it was a battlefield. Except, warmer. And more peaceful.

Tonight was again a testament to that, and then some. Masamune had left a long list of things to do while he was away on patrol duty, which was on top of the fact that the restaurant was open for business. Ieyasu had more work than usual whenever Masamune was away.

No, wait. Ieyasu frowned at the thought. That didn’t do it justice.

All the work was practically already on his shoulders. Add to the consideration a certain set of circumstances which dictated upon Masamune some physically inescapable constraints, Ieyasu technically was the lone chef. And noodle maker. And waiter. And cleaner. And busybody.

Hell, if it was not for the fact that Hideyoshi brought them groceries and did part-time with them, or that Mitsunari sometimes came over to (only and strictly) look at their books, Ieyasu was going to be the sole saving grace that allowed the restaurant to continue to run for the next thirty or so years. And Ieyasu found no comfort in that.

Before he could even shrug away the irritation that had crept up along with his thoughts, Ieyasu was done with the first batch of carrots, worked on the second, and then turned his attention to the spring onions and mushrooms. Ieyasu switched knives, choosing a slightly longer parring knife this time, and he could almost hear Masamune telling him to chop them up finely now, no that’s too thick.

He did quick work of the vegetables for tomorrow’s menu, setting them into their respective containers for later use, and then strategically placing them into the refrigerators. Then, he grabbed a pair of clean towels and began to wipe down the tables, spraying them with a mixture of water and vinegar when there were difficult spots. He refilled condiments. Made sure the napkin holders for each table were bursting and then finally, mopped the floor. Twice. Just to be sure.

He turned his attention to the dishes he had soaked next, and for the umpteenth time, Ieyasu thanked his luck that Masamune had been easily persuaded to set up shop a few more blocks away from the business district. Any closer and they would be busier than they already were, and Ieyasu would not have been able to keep up.

He had only just begun to debate whether he should start making more noodles for tomorrow’s early morning batch, when suddenly he heard the front bell tinkling again.

Ieyasu quickly dried his hands and had half an excuse already at the ready for the new customers: that it was cleaning time and no the place is simply too large for a single person to clean and things will definitely take too long and they should visit tomorrow instead. He was ready to recite it all rapidly when he recognized the man who stood by the door.

“Mitsuhide?” Ieyasu said, surprised. All pretense of his worker’s personality was instantly discarded at the sight of his friend. “This is rare.”

“Hello, Ieyasu.” Mitsuhide Akechi was all smiles. He removed his Gable rain hat, revealing slicked back white hair that Ieyasu might have mistaken as a halo if he did not know any better. Mitsuhide widened his smile and there was a mischievous light in his eyes that made Ieyasu second-guess if this was an ordinary visit.

“I hope you aren’t yet closed for the night.” Mitsuhide said.

Ieyasu sighed, crossing his arms and mentally setting up protective walls in place. “Don’t start.”

At that, Mitsuhide chuckled again, slightly opening his palms in defense. “I’m sorry. And just to be perfectly clear, I didn’t read your mind.”

“Right.” Ieyasu pretended to roll his eyes.

“You know I wouldn’t. And I know you enough to know that you wanted to use that excuse. Again.”

“It works on everyone that isn’t you.”

“Thank the gods for that. Though I must confess it is hard being the only sensible person in the room, with a perfect sense of smell.” He took a whiff. “Bleach. Lysol. Vinegar and water, which has always been your favorite go-to cleanser – ”

“Because it works.” Ieyasu said, defensive.

“ – and just the barest hints of spring onions.” Mitsuhide nodded. “You’ve been busy.”

“This place doesn’t run itself you know, despite the gossip. And I wanted the tiles spotless.”

Mitsuhide scanned the dining area. “They are. And I promise they’ll remain that way. My guests are sober.”

Ieyasu almost laughed. “For once.”

Mitsuhide’s grin widened and Ieyasu saw a flash of amusement again, flecks of gold glinting in Mitsuhide’s eyes.

Ieyasu shook his head. Best to leave Mitsuhide to his own methods. “New recruits, then?”

“Freshest new faces for the Academy.”

“What do they need?”

“The usual concoctions against most urban spirits. Except for the underground train.”

Ieyasu hummed in thought, checking his mental list of common ingredients. “We don’t have much broth left. You’ll have to make do with plain soba.”

“It’s more than enough. This isn’t a fieldtrip.” Mitsuhide paused for a heartbeat. “At least. Not yet.”

“I shudder at the thought.”

“Ahh. You’re the only one who hasn’t helped me conduct one. A shame, really. Field trips are always fun.”

“No, not really.” Ieyasu said, a vague memory of Masamune complaining about them for three days straight crept into his mind. “How many, then?”

“Six people. I won’t be eating much.”

Ieyasu decided recoiling at the number would only delight Mitsuhide so instead he pointed towards the right corner, as far from the open kitchen as the space would allow. “No spills. Anyone who does licks it off the floor.”

“Duly noted.”

“And they have to wait.” Ieyasu added, tightening his blue apron. “I have to make the noodles first.”

“They will.” Mitsuhide nodded.

“Help yourself with the appetizers. You know where to find them.” Ieyasu turned away and saw six bodies shuffle into the restaurant from the corner of his eye, each one grimacing as they sensed the magical barriers scanning them for any immediate threats. Their tense posture only became stiffer, as they were reminded that this was no an ordinary restaurant, and Mitsuhide no ordinary teacher.

Ieyasu went into the walk-in pantry then shuffled back into the kitchen with an armful of ingredients for the soba. Mitsuhide’s group was duly seated at the far end,occupying four sofas and behaving as he had promised. Most of them were nibbling on what looked like nuts and some deep fried anchovies. Satisfied they would continue to sit quietly, Ieyasu set down the ingredients, mentally calculated how much he would need for six (and a half) servings and set to work.

Making soba noodles was easy enough. Making soba noodles to ward against common city specters was not even a fraction more difficult. Flour. Water. Room temperature set at just the right degree for the early summer night. A gigantic dry board. A large bowl. An equally large soba knife. The stillness of the air around him. A single happy thought. And the space to perform.

Well, not for a fancy performance really, but when he was making this particular soba, it needed to be quick. No distractions. The main ingredient was after all abstract so he had to hold on to that happy thought for as long as he could. Unlike Masamune and Hideyoshi, who cooked with their mouths running ahead of them without batting an eye, Ieyasu needed to concentrate.

The first time he had tried to make soba – and just ordinary, non-magical soba at that – it had taken him five minutes too long, what with Masamune breathing down his neck and him in turn trying his best to make sure Mitsunari was not spilling anything at the customers. As a result, the noodles had broken in his hands like dust.

So maybe not exactly like dust. But he had been truly horrified at how easily the dough tore in his hands. How none of the noodles wanted to stay in place. It was a disaster. And it took him two hundred bowls before he got it right.

Now, after all these years working on improving his technique, making soba was as natural as breathing. He was far from becoming a master, too many variants and too little time to practice them all, but he could make a batch for twelve under ten minutes.

Ieyasu held on to that sense of accomplishment, stretched it in his mind, molded it into something tangible and real. He added in a punch of pride in being able to do it all with his eyes closed, with just his instincts guiding him through the process.

It’s been said that it was better to make soba that way, without eyes and simply relying on your arms, hands, and each ten fingers. Until Ieyasu needed to make sure he was shaping the dough into a sensible square. That one he needed to see with all his available senses.

Ieyasu opened his eyes to do just that and was shocked to find Mitsuhide’s group had gathered in front of him, eyes wide and half-mesmerized. Ieyasu fought the urge to balk under their stare and instead glared at Mitsuhide who had remained seated in his spot at the far corner.

“I didn’t know I was part of the curriculum tonight.” Ieyasu bristled, taking the soba knife andvmaking pointed chopping noises. He should not let Mitsuhide notice that the students frazzled him. “You said they only wanted to eat.”

“They do.” Mitsuhide answered.

“We do.” The tallest female replied almost simultaneously. Ieyasu glared at her from behind the glass and she flinched. “We also begged Sensei Mitsuhide to let us see you work.”

“Is that right.” Ieyasu’s tone dripped with irritation and sarcasm. He did not believe her and he returned to glaring at Mitsuhide.

“It’s true.” Another piped. And as if emboldened, the group murmured various loud assents. Yes, they all wanted to go to Sensei Mitsuhide’s friends’ restaurant and yes they did hear about their group in the Academy and they just had to see it for their own eyes.

Three of them got ahead of themselves to comment that they have never in their entire lived lives saw someone like Ieyasu cook and was it not fascinating the way he mixed the flour with water and how –

Ieyasu did not want to hear the rest of that sentence and made the last cut on the dough with an exaggerated thwack. The noodles looked oddly misshapen. Ieyasu decided Mitsuhide can have those.

None of the students however seemed to have gotten the point that came with the sound of a large sharp knife being smacked against a hardboard and continued chatting amongst themselves now, their earlier discreetness all but forgotten, their voices seemingly reaching higher pitches by the second.

Ieyasu turned his back to them and began the mechanical act of boiling the noodles, then dumping them into cold water. He should have known better that Mitsuhide’s tell was always the gold in his eyes, he should have known better that his students would somehow take after him. Even if they were fresh recruits.

By the time he turned around again to begin plating, all six students had seated themselves at the bar, eager to eat.

He did not like the attention. He also did not like how all of them stared at him as if he had somehow done magic while he was cooking. That was Masamune’s domain. Not his. There was no magic when he cooked.

Only memory. Only reflex honed by years and years of experience. It was mostly science and measurements and knowing which ingredients went with what to achieve an end. There was nothing magical about that.

Ieyasu was about to shoo them back into their respective seats when a hand shot up, surprising him and forcing him to take half a step back. Mitsuhide snickered in his corner. Ieyasu gritted his teeth.

“What?” He spat, but even his coldest tone could do little to dissuade their eagerness to learn.

“Do you cook with magic?”

Ieyasu scoffed,feigned insult as he pushed the plates towards them. No one seemed to dare eat without him answering their question first and he urged them with a wave of their hands.

Six mouths quickly went to work, gobbling up the food. Mitsuhide made an elaborate show of nibbling his noodles and made no effort to explain in Ieyasu’s place.

Ieyasu clicked his tongue, wondered for a brief moment how much they knew and what he did not have to say. “Of course not. If your Sensei hadn’t already told you, my area of expertise are potions and wards.”

Another hand. And Ieyasu closed his eyes to calm himself down. Another girl, this time with brighter, sharper eyes.

“This is not a class and I am not your teacher.” Ieyasu said. “Yours the last question I’m entertaining tonight.”

Disappointed groans answered him. Ieyasu ignored the guilty squeeze in his gut.

The girl hesitated but eventually pushed through. “How do you do it then?”

Ieyasu gave her a pointed look. Maybe his expectations of Mitsuhide’s students was a bit too much. They had obviously not learned subtlety. Yet. “It’s a very important trade secret.”

Six bodies inched closer to hear. None stopping to pause in eating.

“The fascinating and equally tedious but exacting art of boiling your ingredients with potions and letting them simmer for forty minutes.”

A collective gasp. More fascinated than put-off by sarcasm, and seven pairs of eyes went to look at Mitsuhide, whose eyes were fully glittering golden now.

At least one of them was enjoying this.

“What did you tell them?” Ieyasu asked.

“That they’d be seeing an old Sensei at work.”

Ieyasu felt his brows meet in the middle now. He was about to point out in all seriousness that the Sensei they should really make their way out to see was Masamune when he was cooking. Masamune could only be sautéing vegetables and it would look as if he weaved fireworks.

But before Ieyasu could, all of a sudden, the kitchen too bright for Ieyasu’s eyes, the air too hot for his lungs to take.

He felt his knees buckle.

“Ieyasu….?”

And then the world turned black.

It felt like fighting through the ocean current.

Ieyasu’s arms and legs were heavy with effort as he pushed through the darkness, as if the black around him had weight and was coiling and recoiling and pushing him back.

“Do you understand, Ieyasu?”

And Ieyasu felt himself pulled from the darkness and suddenly, he was standing across Nobunaga from their tiny bonfire. “Whatever you do, do not look back.”

Ieyasu shook his head then focused again on Nobunaga, who shimmered and seemed to fade in and out of his vision. Nobunaga was staring at something behind him, his eXpression clouded over like he was trying hard not to show that he was frightened or cowered by whatever it was that was standing behind Ieyasu and whispering in his ears and he needed to move, he needed to protect himself, he needed –

Ieyasu wrapped his arms around himself, bracing himself against the crashing waves inside his chest. He opened his mouth, wanted to vomit but nothing could come out.

Nobunaga did not react. Or maybe he did but Ieyasu found it hard to hold on to Nobunaga’s image; frozen one moment, flickering the next, like the static of a light bulb.

Ieyasu ground his teeth. “I’m tired. I’m so tired.”

“I know.” Nobunaga replied but his voice was a hundred miles away.

“I’m sorry,Nobunaga. I wish I was stronger. I wish I was better.”

The darkness was already at the corners of Ieyasu’s vision and whichever way Ieyasu turned his head, something was skittering just out of sight and he could not help but feel the years of fighting, of running, of trying their best to finish what they started.

“Until we find her again, this will be way things are.” Nobunaga was suddenly in front of him. He was suddenly very real and very there, solid and imposing and powerful and poised with knife to Ieyasu’s hest.

Ieyasu wanted to run, wanted to get away, but somehow Nobunaga had grabbed his arm and wasn’t letting go –

No. Ieyasu was the one not letting the knife go.

“Start over. Live again. Find us. Remember.” Nobunaga leaned forward, the knife pressed to his skin and it felt like a dozen hot iron rods. “You have to remember, Ieyasu! That’s the only way we can find out!”

#ikemen sengoku #ikesen ieyasu #ythmir fanfics #to be formatted #please look forward to the rest of the chapters :>

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gretchensinister · 6 years

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Operation Welcome Mat (preview)

I usually like to post a fic for my birthday, and well, this is a few days belated, but sometimes that’s how it goes. This is a preview of something I’m working on, now, and it’s a branching out of my usual fandom territory! I hope you’re curious, and I hope you enjoy!

It all stems from the question: Why does so much stuff that only Superman can deal with happen on the planet that Superman is on? That’s not the question that Lois Lane asks, but it’s the one she’s going to find an answer for.

Lois Lane always checks her spam folder. In fact, she always opens each individual message in there. Ninety-nine point nine nine nine percent of the time, what’s in there is garbage, but garbage is not synonymous with useless. Consider the journalists in Portland who went through the District Attorney’s garbage to make a point about privacy. Her daily ritual isn’t on that level of significance, but she feels the point still stands.

Today, she opens an email that isn’t promising free trials of herbal supplements, contact info for hot singles in her area, or insurance policies that will cover damages caused by any and all anomalous events for as little as $10 a month. (These last annoyed her enough to ask Louise in Business to do a small expose on such companies—turns out, the fine print stated that given the regularity of attacks on Metropolis by aliens, robots, metahumans, etc., etc., these events could not be considered anomalous. Fucking scammers. She’s pretty sure they’re involved in a class-action lawsuit right now.)

Instead, it reads thus:

I am sending this to you because I think you are the only person in the world who might have adequate protection after I tell you this. It is for my safety and yours that I have not used your name or described what that protection might be.

I ask you to use any and all resources you have at your disposal to investigate Operation Welcome Mat. I cannot tell you much more without compromising the slight chance this communication has of reaching you. However, I do not exaggerate when I say that the revealing—anything more I dare not hope for—of this operation will affect every human life on Earth.

Sincerely,

One who works in the organization that knows you always check your spam folder

The remaining message is a long and rambling series of testimonials for anti-aging and potency supplements, but Lois sees no reason to consider these as marks against the authenticity of the original message. Camouflage is important. As is covering one’s tracks. She opens her desk drawer and retrieves a high-quality digital camera that’s nevertheless old enough that it needs an actual physical cord to transfer the pictures on it to any computer. Lois has kept it in excellent condition, save for, oh, the pesky matter of the fact that the delete function doesn’t work on the camera itself, and that she just can never find the right kind of removable memory cards. Darn, what a problem! Fortunately the camera contains a 5000-image capacity non-removable internal memory. She takes a picture of the relevant portion of the email—well, ten pictures—and then sets about blocking every IP address that’s sent her something that ended up in her spam folder today and deleting every email indiscriminately. She’d like to perform a more thorough delete, but she never does that with any of her spam, and she’s got a feeling that now would not be a good day to start.

Amateurs might worry about how she deleted the original email, but Lois knows that if she finds anything, she won’t need that email, and for another thing, the writer of that email most certainly doesn’t want anyone to be able to analyze their word choices and phrasing.

She rests her arms on her desk and starts letting her mind work through everything the email told her. So, she’s the only person who “might have adequate protection” after learning about Operation Welcome Mat? The only unique protection she’s had under any circumstances is Superman. In a few well-known incidents, he’d appeared to give preference to getting her to safety before others. Lois isn’t one hundred percent sure that’s true, as she knows very well that she might’ve been the person in the greatest danger during each incident. Over her career, she’s tended to disregard danger for the sake of the story. And she can argue persuasively that in order to be a successful female journalist, she has to be prepared to face a certain amount of danger; she can argue that her years of experience have given her the ability to accurately evaluate the potential danger of a situation. These arguments have been, and are, vital to her public persona.

But under a few layers of “I have to do this” is the chewy center of “I want to do this.” It’s true! Believe it or not, Lois Lane, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, is a bit of a thrill-seeker!

Good thing that might be exactly what her email contact needs.

So. Back to the email. Back to Superman. She knows well enough that she doesn’t have a raven-haired alien angel at her beck and call, but, based on what the public has seen, is it more likely that she does than any other investigative journalist? Yes. So, if only Superman can offer her adequate protection, then—

“Hi Lois,” Clark says, setting a paper cup on her desk. “Two sugars, no milk—” He breaks off into an almost cartoonishly exaggerated yawn that Lois nevertheless is familiar enough with to know is genuine.

“You ought to buy some coffee for yourself,” Lois says, digging a few dollars out of her wallet and tossing them at him, which he barely catches. “I mean, if you’re going to volunteer to walk down to Reeve’s every day, anyway. And didn’t you grow up waking up at 4am to milk cows or whatever?”

Clark smiles shyly. Like he always does. It’s a good smile, and on a kid who’s six foot three and probably better built than any of the barns he ever helped raise, it could very well explain why he always seems so exhausted in the morning. Though if Lois’ theory is true, she hasn’t seen or heard any other evidence of it. A gentleman never tells, Lois thinks idly.

“I can and have milked cows in my sleep,” he says. “I can’t do anything in my sleep, here.” He looks down. “Uh, the truth is that I haven’t been sleeping well since the—what did they call it? The Chirauga Incident?”

Lois grimaces. Yeah, Clark and half of Metropolis. Including her. When an army of aliens that big showed up all at once, there was no way to avoid some level of freaking out, special protection from Superman or not. “Yeah, the Chirauga Incident. Ugly sons of bitches, in my opinion. I killed one personally, you know.”

Clark’s eyes widen in shock, and Lois grins. “What? I verified they weren’t bulletproof before going out to start, you know, researching my story.” But, because she is committed to the truth, even though Clark seems like he’ll believe anything she says, she has to add, “Well, okay. I’m pretty sure I mortally wounded it. Superman took care of it before I could find out for sure.” It had been clean. Heat vision through the Chirauga equivalent of the spinal cord. And Superman had turned to her with that red glow still shimmering in the back of his eyes. “Are you all right?” he’d asked, hovering a foot above the ground like it was nothing, looking at her like she was something. And she’d looked into the terrible weapon of his gaze and been stunned by the perfect surety that he’d never use it on a human being.

And for all that, she’d never seen him look so alien.

“Weren’t you watching? I had this one handled,” she’d said, with a rasp in her voice she hoped he’d attribute to the heavy dust and smoke in the air.

“Well, in that case, I guess all I can do now is tell you to be careful out there,” he’d said.

It would be nice if there was a discreet little jump cut in her memory right after that, but, unfortunately, Lois remembers with perfect clarity that she’d responded, “Sure thing, spaceboy,” like a complete and utter dumbass. But then Superman hadn’t laughed at her, no, he’d given her the smile and wink of an old-fashioned movie star before flying away to continue saving the world. She, on the other hand, had staggered off, feeling as emotionally churned-up as a teenager.

The worst part about it, in her opinion, is that she knows very well that Superman has this effect on almost everyone who encounters him.

“Ah, Superman,” Clark says, drawing her back to the present. His shocked expression has been replaced by the little smile she’s often seen him wear when talk of Superman comes up. She’s always thought there was something secretive about that smile, something notably different from the rest of his farm-boy guilelessness. (Though, she doesn’t quite believe he’s as transparent as he otherwise appears. And she doesn’t think that’s just her natural suspicion kicking in. For one thing, the Daily Planet is big, but not big enough that someone who was hired as a journalist could fall through the cracks and become nothing but a friendly coffee boy. She’s read some of his articles, the neighborhood news stuff he generally covers, and the writing is as solid as he is, with words chosen with care and sensitivity. There’s more to him than meets the eye, and if he ever decides to get ambitious, Lifestyle is in for a big surprise. For another thing, he’d moved to Metropolis during a metahuman surge, and that, frankly, was not what normies did, no matter how clueless they were.)

The running undercurrent of what she knows about Clark and the smile that’s the one noticeable discordant note in the melody of the person she works with suddenly gel into a possible conclusion, one that Lois could’ve kicked herself for not even considering earlier.

Talented kid moves from small-town Kansas, where he could’ve been a big fish in a tiny pond. And he doesn’t even move to a city in the same state or region, where he could have been a big fish in a medium-sized pond. Instead, he moves to Metropolis, where he won’t be a big fish at all, but where it’ll be a big project for anyone who knew him in Smallville to ever visit, or know anything about him he doesn’t want them to know. Metropolis, which, despite its dangers, still lives in the cultural mind as a place where the good kind of anything can happen. (Where Superman is often seen.) And when he’s here, he never, ever says anything about even going on a date with anyone, and mentions of Superman bring out that secretive smile. And he started off writing his articles with a clear awareness of issues that Lois has seen other straight white male coworkers fail to grok even after clear, baby-step-style explanations. And he’s never, ever tried to turn getting her coffee into something uncomfortable.

So, possible conclusion: Clark is some flavor of queer, and still closeted/uncomfortable about it. But he can’t completely hide his crush on Superman because, well. Superman. And the kid has an honest face.

Just goes to show, she thinks, how slow and unreliable gaydar can be, even if you are bi.

But this does give her an idea on where to send him as she starts her initial investigation of this Project Welcome Mat. If it is big, bad business like it seems, Clark doesn’t need to get mixed up in it, even to the point of overhearing a phone call. And besides, it might help him accept himself, if he needs that.

“You know what, Clark?” Lois says. “You need something to take your mind off shit like alien invasions.”

Clark grimaces. “I don’t know if anything can.”

“Yeah, it’s a toughie, but you’re a Metropolitan now,” Lois says, with more bravado than she feels. Some things you don’t get used to. But some of those things you have to at least pretend to get used to. “Get outside. Write your cat-up-a-tree article tomorrow. Do something completely out of the ordinary.” And then, as if she’s just thought of it, “Powtown Pride is going on today. Powtown’s a neighborhood. Pride’s something to write about. You could go there and see what you can see.”

“Powtown?” Clark says, raising his eyebrows. “That’s the metahuman neighborhood. That’s…a bit more interesting than where Rowlands usually sends me.”

Lois waves her hand. “Rita is seventy-eight and still thinks anything involving a metahuman is a front-pager. Perry can tell her otherwise when you bring back something nice.”

“Well,” Clark says, warming to the idea, “there are a lot of misconceptions about Powtown that ought to be worn away by a reliable source like the Planet. I mean—there probably are. I don’t know, personally. But if everything written about Powtown was true, no one could live there. It’d be a smoking crater in the ground.”

“So you see? Needs you,” Lois says. She smirks. “Be careful, though. They’ve got twinks down there that could rip you in half.”

“Says someone who just told me about personally shooting a Chirauga,” Clark says. “No, no, I know—you had it handled. Anyway. Yeah, I will go.” He looks towards the windows and sighs. “After all, it’s a beautiful day to be outside.”

Lois waves at him as he leaves, then glances towards the windows herself. It really is a beautiful June day, not too hot, vivid blue sky, puffy clouds slowly drifting by. Does Superman prefer days like this for flying? She wonders. Or would it not affect him at all? What would it be like to fly with Superman on a day like today—Lois sticks her tongue out in an exaggerated expression of disgust. She’s better than that! She has to be!

Anyway, she’s got something new to investigate. Before Clark interrupted, she was thinking of what things out in the world only Superman could be adequate protection from. Well, aside from horrible things from space, that leaves a very short list that prominently features a house of a certain color and a building of a certain shape. And the name—Operation Welcome Mat—it has a very particular ring to it.

But she’s still going to look into the rest of that short list. A direct assault isn’t the correct approach here, and besides, there might be connections, even if the person she’s going to call is officially blacklisted from government contracts.

She scrolls to the contact in her phone for “Louis L’Amour,” and reaches out to someone who definitely isn’t a dead writer of Westerns.

Notes: I’ve decided to have Superman’s code against killing be specifically about humans/earthlings because for one thing, I don’t have to answer to Standards and Practices, and for another, I don’t feel like having every alien army be robots (which with sufficiently advanced AI doesn’t help anyway), and what do you want me to do, have Superman knock all the aliens out? If they’re going down long enough to be essentially counted out of the fight, they’re getting life-threatening brain injuries anyway.

#superman #lois lane #fic #operation welcome mat #my knowledge of superman comes from the DCAU but this is kind of my own 'verse

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sanguinecalamity-a · 5 years

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VAMPIRE KNIGHT FOR– WELL, PEOPLE WHO DON’T WATCH IT

Alright! Since Eiri is a VK OC (and so are various of my other ones), I sometimes encounter the ‘I want to RP with you but idk VK??’ thing. I explained it to a few people before, and decided to just make a small post going over the structure of the VK world. I won’t really focus on the characters; if you want to know more about those you can come into my inbox with questions (I’d suggest the wikia, but hey, GUESS WHAT? The non-rp VK fandom is immature and likes to put weird things in the character sheets of characters they don’t like) which I’ll then answer in the most unbiased way I can. I also won’t mention my OCs in here, because this is supposed to be a generic guide and not a ‘how to rp with my OCs’ guide.

This WILL contain some spoilers:

But, without further ado, here goes! Note that this is all written rather quickly, so there will be typos and the likes, and I will add/remove things at a later date.

THE SETTING:

Humans are unaware unaware about vampires for the most part. Hunters and Vampires have strung up a shaky peace treaty to which both sides tend to stick with for the most part, and a small group of vampires/hunters have decided to aim for coexistence, which they start at the school of the ex-hunter Kaien Cross.

VAMPIRES:

Vampires are classified into various levels:

Level A - Purebloods :

These have 'pure’ bloodlines. Throughout thousands of years, not a single drop of human bloof has been mixed in. There aren’t a lot of Purebloods in the world; only 7 families exist anymore. These are the only vampires who are truly immortal and who can turn humans into vampires. Power-wise… they’re very OP. Only a blow to the head or the heart with an anti-vampire weapon can truly kill them, but if they don’t actually wish to die, you can generally forget about getting close enough to do that.

Everything about them is far superior to other vampires: senses, strength, speed, healing: even if they are dissolved to dust by another Pureblood, they can still heal from this.

They can also physically control lower level vampires and are considered vampire Royalty; vampires have a biologic reaction to them that makes them want to worship them, though it’s something that willpower can overthrow.

Everything about them is considered 'precious’ by vampires. Even injuring one and consuming their blood without being their spawn can lead to being killed.

Level B - Aristocrats :

These vampires have a little human blood in their blood line, but their blood is still pure enough to retain special powers (say, one can manipulate ice, another fire, another illusions, another lightning, etc-). Again, their senses and strengths surpass that of lower levels.

Level C - Commoners :

They were born as vampires, but there has been so much human blood mingled into their bloodlines that, apart from things such as speed, strength, enhanced senses and healing, there are no extra powers.

Level D - Ex-humans :

They used to be humans, but a Pureblood turned them and gave them their blood, stabilizing them. They are like a weaker version of level C vampires, and unable to kill their sire.

Level E - Level End :

They used to be humans, but the Pureblood who turned them didn’t give them their blood. They can only fall into madness, attacking and killing on sight, draining from people without refrain. Again, they are unable to kill their sire.

THE VAMPIRE COUNSEL:

Depending on when exactly you RP, there either is a vampire counsel, or there isn’t.

Many years ago, the royal Kuran family abolished the monarchy, setting in motion a vampire counsel to regulate peace between vampires and hunters.

The counsel is made up of various old aristocrats, but it ends up crooked - something that will eventually lead to their downfall at the end of the anime.

After that, the vampire world assumingly goes back to a monarchy under the lead of the Kuran family.

LEVEL E VAMPIRES:

The only way to 'save’ these is for them to drink the blood of the Pureblood who sired them; just a drop is enough. A way to help them sustain their sanity a little longer is for another Pureblood to grant them some of their blood; it’s a rare and unlikely occurrence - level E’s are the filth of the vampire world. Even some Purebloods have taken to cleaning them up when they encounter them, to the dismay of the hunters.

HUNTERS:

Over 10 000 years ago, there was a large war between Purebloods who wanted to turn all humans into their minions, turning them at will, and those who did not. Back then, humanity didn’t have a way to fight vampires; no anti-vampire weapons existed to kill them yet.

Kaname Kuran and the Hooded Woman worked together against the vampires who sought to enslave humanity, finding a way to fight vampires: the hooded woman gave up her life, using her heart and throwing it into a furnace to create the weapons needed, and using her blood to create people who could wield these weapons.

Not everyone survived drinking the blood: but those who did became enhanced humans, with superior senses and abilities, though not as great as, say, a level C vampire.

These were the first hunters. All the hunters who came from them contain the same enhanced DNA with vampiric traces in it, and are able to wield anti-vampire weapons.

As a drawback, hunters became virtually incapable of birthing twins: the twins would often try to consume each other in the womb and die. In the event only one twin was consumed and one was born, this surviving child would be a hunter, far superior to other hunters (note: Kaien Cross, still remains exactly the same after hundreds of years and was known as one of the strongest hunters of all time, who consumed his twin in the womb)

HUNTER MISSIONS:

As opposed to what some might think, hunters are, in fact, not allowed to kill any and all vampires they come across. As long as a vampire sticks to the rules (in the case of purebloods: you can’t turn humans into vampires without permission, after explaining what will happen to them, and you will have to take whoever you turned under your wing. In the case of other vampires: you can’t drink without permission. In both cases you can’t attack humans, etc etc) a hunter will not be allowed to kill the vampire without consequences.

If a vampire breaks these rules, they will be added to 'The List’, and will be hunted down to be killed.

Level E vampires are to be killed on sight, and most missions will resolve around these: they are salvageable; they have been abandoned by their sire. They can only get worse and lose their minds to madness: killing them swiftly is the kind thing to do.

Other missions can include things such as regulate vampires causing trouble (like scaring people, but not actually attacking them), or standing guard at soirees to ensure they are keeping to the rules.

CROSS ACADEMY:

Kaien Cross and Kaname Kuran are working together to ensure coexistence between the two races.

Kaname has called for a hand full of aristocrats that can be trusted to join him at the school in the Night Class; a study group for vampires.

Rules are strict for those who join: without permission they are not to leave the dorm grounds outside of class hours, they are not allowed to drink blood on campus; they are not allowed to attack the human (Day Class) students, etc etc.

Contact between day and night class is, for the most part, forbidden.

BLOOD TABLETS:

Blood tablets have been created as a way to sate the thirst of blood lust. They are known not to taste great, but the vampires who attend the school are testing them out and use them to sate the hunger.

Purebloods have different blood tablets than the other vampires, because their thirst is far greater (fortunately, so is their restraint).

PREFECTS:

Yuuki Cross and Zero Kiryuu, both living with Kaien Cross, are the prefects of the school: they regular the class exchange (the event of the night class going to school - which is always crowded with day class students trying to push closer towards them) and patrol to make sure no students are out.

There is more, but I’ll just leave this here for now and add to it later and reword some awkward parts. Hopefully this will be good enough to help some of you on your way, at least.

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bloomingjellies · 6 years

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@probablylostrightnow I’m so happy for your self-discovery!! if only because you’re asking me about nail polish (also, you know, your health and happiness blah blah blah ^.^)

So I agree with the previous suggestions you’ve gotten about going to a salon first, if only to help get started in a way that won’t be extremely overwhelming. Plus, they’ll clean your nails and cuticles up.

The main things you need are a good base coat and top coat and, of course, nail polish. Sally Hansen is good “entry level” as in, it’s not terrible and it’s not expensive. I used their Insta-Dri Anti-Chip top coat for a while and while it does dry really fucking fast, it’s not anti-chip, at least not for very long on me. But! It’s a good place to start.

More than you probably ever wanted to know about nail polish under the cut

Ok so general nail care. I don’t expect you’ll be changing your polish as much as I do (every other or every third day tbh) but polish and remover is bad for your nails so you need to give them some extra tlc if you’re going to keep them painted. Cuticle oil and lotions are your friends even though I hate any kind of residue on my hands.

As I’m sure you’re noticing, feminine-advertised products are fucking expensive. I could blow an entire paycheck at Sephora easily and unfortunately the better products are more expensive but I’ve found a nice middle ground with nail polish products.

Nail maintenance

Biotin is your friend. It’s your best friend. If you want stronger nails and thicker, faster growing hair, take biotin. I ran out and didn’t replenish for ~1.5 months and recently had to cut all my nails pretty short because they were breaking too easily. And I hadn’t cut my nails (filed and shaped, yes) in well over a year. I take a 5000mg cheap ass drugstore brand pill every morning and it works great.

If your nails aren’t in great shape to begin with, then I suggest using Nailtiques Nail Protein. It’s a nail strengthener than can double as a base coat, which I sometimes do if I’m not worried about the polish staining. When I first started wearing a lot of polish my nails started peeling so I took two weeks off (well, I was post-op and couldn’t paint my nails easily) and used this everyday and have not had an issue with peeling nails since.

So, remover. You can get the $0.79 ones at the drugstore but honestly, they’ll wreck your nails. My absolute favorite is Nailtiques Non-Acetone Remover with Aloe because a) it doesn’t wreck my nails, b) it’s even mildly moisturizing, and c) it doesn’t smell terrible. Always get a non-acetone remover!

Get some cheap cotton balls and cotton rounds and do the cotton ball trick. I used to scrub endlessly to get glitter nail polish off but now I just smack pieces of remover-soaked cotton on my nails for a minute and the whole thing swipes off. A-m-a-z-i-n-g

Base coat and top coat

Tbh you need a base coat, if only to protect your nails from staining but they also help your nail polish last longer. There are some that are better than others: Nailtiques protein is pretty good, Essie was a little lackluster to me and I’ve had some staining with it (tbf the polish was neon orange), OPI is good but expensive. My current go-to is Glisten & Glow for both top coat and base coat. Seche Vita is one of the most popular top coats--with good reason--but it’s a little intimidating the first time because you put it on while the polish is still wet but you have to be very careful not to pickup any of the wet polish on the brush.

Edit: @coinin made a good point about Seche--it does contain toluene, so if you’re trying to avoid all the nasty chemicals then skip Seche too.

Painting/Cleaning Up

I don’t have terribly steady hands. I use a Photoshop plug-in to help me draw straight. I can’t put polish on without getting it on my skin. I just can’t. So! There are some options for clean-up: tweezers (carefully peel off any rogue polish, feels a lot like peeling off white glue that you’ve rubbed on your fingers), remover + brush/eyeshadow brush (you sort of paint the polish off your skin; this is the most popular method (I like to use these because they’re angled)), liquid silicon (it’s like the opposite of normal polish: you want to paint it everywhere except your nails and then you peel it off when you’re done. I’ll use it sometimes, especially if I’m wearing black polish but the effort is not always worth it to me)

Nail polish

The FUN PART! This is all down to personal taste. For example: @black-rose4 and I rib each other a lot about my love of- and her aversion to glitter polishes.

So main categories: micro glitter, flakies, multichrome, holo, thermal, magnetic.

Edit: @black-rose4 pointed out I forgot creme polish, which yeah, fine I did but it’s just so basic and boring ;)

I will rec Dragonsworn Cosmetics until the cows come home because not only does she do all the fun fandom polishes, but she does customs and, frankly, her shit’s just good. Specific suggestions: Dungeon Master (so sparkly), Mr. Nancy and/or The Zoryas, Moira, and Vetra. If you want to start out with (or are interested in) more muted tones then Varric, Bastion, McCree, and Leliana are good.

Some of my other favorite brands are Tonic, Illyrian, Lyn B Designs, Moonshine, and Emily de Molly.

Tonic and Illyrian are event-release, which means they’ll shut their shops down either right before or until they have new releases.

Lyn B, Moonshine, and Emily de Molly are always open and Lyn B often has 50% off sales. She sends the codes if you sign up for emails.

You can buy polish individual from the makers’ sites or you can use a stockist and get a bunch of different brands in one purchase. Color4Nails is the biggest US-based stockist (and they carry some of my favorites like Tonic and Illyrian) but if you don’t mind the wait, Netherlands-based Hypnotic Polish has some unique brands (like Starrily <3). CbL (Colors by Llarowe) is also a good brand to start with--nice colors, good formula and a lot of their polishes are opaque enough that you only need one coat (though I’ve heard she’s got some shady business practices, like buying out a supplier and then not selling any of the stock to other makers but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

Aaannd there’s Polish Pickup. The best and worst thing that has happened to me as far as nail polish is concerned. PPU is an event release on the first weekend of every month. A monthly theme is voted on and then the polish makers create unique polishes specifically for PPU. These are unique, one-of-a-kind polishes that--unless they do a throwback event like they are in July--you can only get the weekend of the release. Remember me making a post crying about not getting Ghosts of the Vault before it sold out? Yeah, that’s from PPU (and it’s coming back in July imma buy like five bottles). The facebook group is the best place to see previews.

Indie brands, for the most part, are 5-free, which means they don’t use the top 5 most harmful chemicals in their polishes. Mainstream brands don’t really do this because those chemicals make the polishes more durable, anti-chip, and long lasting. Personally, extra maintenance is worth not having those chemicals bbuuttt I also change my polish before it would chip anyway.

So yeah, I like nail polish a lot.

Thanks for coming to my ted talk

#blooming rambles #nail polish #probably more than anyone ever wanted #but please come scream at me about nail polish

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Warrior Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Chinese Connection

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This Warrior review contains spoilers.

Warrior Season 2 Episode 2

When Warrior was first announced, Bruce Lee fans were worried that this was going to be just another Bruceploitation. After all, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Bruceploitation flicks. Bruce Lee is the most impersonated icon on the planet. No one needed to see another weak caricature of the Little Dragon, even if it was on Cinemax.

However, Warrior isn’t Bruceploitation at all. The creator and writer of the show, Jonathan Tropper, credits Bruce’s daughter, Shannon Lee for making sure that Warrior didn’t go “overboard with the Bruce Lee stuff.”

Instead of Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) doing yet another Bruce Lee imitation, there are sequences in his fight choreography that reference timeless scenes from the Little Dragon’s films. There are also clever Easter Eggs throughout the show, like the character names O’Hara (Kieran Biew) and last season’s Bolo (Rich Ting). Both O’Hara and Bolo are the names of villains in Enter the Dragon however these characters are completely different in Warrior.

This gives this episode title that extra ‘Wataaah!’ of excitement because The Chinese Connection was an alternate title for Bruce’s second major Kung Fu film, Fist of Fury. The closest Easter Egg title of Season 1 was episode 9, “Chinese Boxing.” Every Bruce fan remembers Ah Gung (Chin Ti) saying “Chinese Boxing!” as he pointed at Bruce and gave him the thumbs up. For this episode to take on the name of one of Bruce’s most beloved films, it had better deliver. And it does, especially with the most important facet of Warrior, the Kung Fu fighting.

Young Jun Gets Stabby

The first fight of this episode is a showcase for Young Jun (Jason Tobin). In their quest for cheaper product, Ah Sahm hooks Young Jun up with a new molasses connection through his fight manager Vega (Maria Elena-Lass). They visit Happy Jack (Nat Rambulana), an African drug dealer. There’s some historical basis to this. During the period when Warrior is set, there were attempts to produce opium in South Africa to undermine the British dominance of the global opium trade.

Opium was weaponized by the British as part of its strategy to establish colonial rule. This was largely controlled by the nefarious East India Company that smuggled opium from India, mostly to cripple China’s port cities. In Chinese coastal provinces during the mid 1830’s, it was estimated that 90% of the adult Chinese population were opium addicts. In San Francisco, opium was still legal and taxable until 1889 when local ordinances restricted it to medical use only. But beyond the nod to history, Rambulana is a South African TV star and Warrior was filmed in South Africa, so his appearance works on several levels.

The deal with Happy Jack goes sour. This elicits a lovely bit of ultraviolence in which Tobin delivers a solid long take sequence. Long takes are the hallmark of good fight choreography because each movement increases the challenge exponentially. It’s a good showcase for Tobin’s Kung Fu and he sells his slice and dice attacks with a convincing ferocity.

Tobin has appeared in a few martial arts themed films before such as Beverly Hill Ninja, Rob-B-Hood, and House of Fury, but he’s most known for his other projects with Warrior’s producer Justin Lin including Better Luck Tomorrow and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Tobin is reprising his Tokyo Drift character in Lin’s upcoming F9, due out next year. In Warrior, Tobin nails the tough punk qualities of Young Jun perfectly. As the son of the leader of the Hop Wei, he’s been entitled yet he’s still eager to prove himself. His viciousness in battle is spot on.

For martial arts fans, there’s a subtle yet significant correction in Young Jun’s dagger play from Season 1. In episode 6 “Chewed Up, Spit Out, and Stepped On,” Young Jun deploys a conventional forward knife grip where the blade is on the thumb side of the hand. Double daggers like Young Jun wields are a common weapon in Kung Fu, however they are almost always used with a reverse grip where the blade is on the pinky finger side of the hand, more like an ice pick.

In the fight with Happy Jack’s squad, Young Jun deploys the more proper ice pick grip. It’s a trivial detail but given that Warrior is catering to the Kung Fu fandom, it’s important to get this right.

The fight ensues after Happy Jack refuses to store the opium, leaving Young Jun and Ah Sahm in the lurch. Later, Penny (Joanna Vanderham) hires the Hop Wei to protect her coolie workers from the Irish, and Ah Sahm takes advantage of the situation to secretly store the opium at Mercer Steel. It’s not hard to project how this will turn out in upcoming episodes and adds even more tension to the relationship of Ah Sahm and Penny.

Blue Lives Matter

The Season 2 premiere left Chinatown in a bloody mess. Ah Sahm, Ah Toy (Olivia Cheng) and Lai (Jenny Umbhau) chopped up the racist Teddy Boys and Leary (Dean Jagger) blew up a factory that employed coolies. Chinatown is a tough beat for SF cops and O’Hara and Lee (Tom Weston-Jones) have a ton of work cleaning up.

They’re investigating the sword killings and the explosion while O’Hara wrestles with his obligation to the Fung Hai Tong and Zing (Dustin Nguyen) and Lee struggles with his growing laudanum addiction. O’Hara’s wife Lucy (Emily Child) grows more suspicious of her husband’s dealing and after a binge, Lee wakes up in a piss-soaked alley just as it is getting a fresh drenching. This episode’s title comes from Lee. After the partners question Patterson (Frank Rautenbach), Lee says to O’Hara that he’s trying to find ‘the Chinese connection’ in the sword killings.

O’Hara and Lee form a stereotypic police partner ‘buddy’ relationship: the old, jaded cop who is tainted by a corrupt system and the young brilliant detective who is too cocky to get along with the rest of the department. In their heart of hearts, they both want to be good cops, but their world is too dirty to stay clean. Biew gives his character a lot of soul as a father and husband just trying to do right by his family. Lee’s backstory is hinted at when he begins his laudanum binge, but his haunted past is still unclear.

The repercussions of killings and the explosion result in the SFPD being lambasted at a political rally along with Mayor Blake (Christian McKay). Here, the parallels between the political climate of Warrior and America right now are disturbingly uncanny, especially because this was filmed a year prior. When the crowd starts chanting ‘Send them back,’ it is echoed by some of the rising anti-China sentiment today. The Exclusion Act comes up, foreshadowing worse times to come. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by congress and signed into law by President Arthur in 1882, so this provides some indication of where Warrior is set in time.

Martial Melodrama and the Moonlight Sonata

Sophie (Celine Buckens) meets Leary at the rally, and they go to Leary’s place, the Banshee. She reveals to Leary that she’s Mercer’s daughter and while flirting with him, plays Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on the pub piano. It sets up a poignant musical interlude at the end of the episode, so typical of television shows nowadays, where a tune is laid over all the characters as they ruminate over their various complicated circumstances.

The Moonlight Sonata is a melodramatic choice, and at the end it drifts into Warrior’s heavy guitar riffs. This feels a little overdone – the show leans too heavily on those guitar riffs – but Warrior redeems itself musically with its end credit Chinese raps, which have been solid throughout the entire show.

The other ladies of Warrior continue with this season’s fashion show. When Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) hires the ex-Pinkerton man Nichols (Emmanuel Castis) to spy on Buckley (Langley Kirkwood), she’s wearing a luxuriant deep blue hooded robe and strange vambrace rings. She looks more like someone out of Game of Thrones than SF Chinatown. And Ah Toy appears later in a resplendent emerald gown with a flared collar more befitting of a Vulcan bride than a whorehouse madame.

But Warrior is a fantasy so the costume designers can be forgiven of indulging their leading ladies. As ridiculous and incongruous as these outfits appear when all the other characters are in period dress, Doan and Cheng fill out these outfits beautifully and are lieterally dressed to kill. They’re too busy looking good.

Another new character is introduced in this episode. Enter Nellie Davenport (Miranda Raison), a wealthy widow committed to rescuing Chinese women from prostitution and exploitation. Davenport is the first character based directly upon a real historic figure, although plenty of artistic liberties have been taken with how she is depicted. The forthcoming interaction between her and Ah Toy is promising. Both Ah Toy and Davenport are strong women and given their principles and position, they are sure to go head-to-head in upcoming episodes.

Back to the Action

The finale fight in this episode is worth the wait. Mai Ling dispatches Li Yong (Joe Taslim) and Zing to stop a small time Tong from encroaching on the Long Zii’s opium business. Li Yong settles things peacefully, but Zing (Dustin Nguyen) is ready to pick a fight, and mayhem breaks out when he slashes the Tong leader’s throat. Taslim and Nguyen are the veteran martial artists on Warrior. Any fight scene that features their work delivers the level of masterful choreography one would expect from a show attached to Bruce Lee.

Nguyen is remembered for his leading role as Harry Ioki on 21 Jump Street. Over the years, he’s appeared in several martial arts related Hollywood productions like 2 Ninjas Kick Back, Vanishing Son and Justin Lin’s mockumentary Finishing the Game.

However, he truly established himself as a martial arts star after he returned to his homeland, Vietnam. There he made a series of Vietnamese martial arts films: The Rebel, Clash, and Once Upon a Time in Vietnam. These films put Vietnam on the martial arts movie map. Solidly paced with brilliant choreography, they demonstrated that Nguyen is a force to be reckoned with and a serious practitioner of the martial arts.

He is credited as studying Muay Thai, Taekwondo and Bruce Lee’s creation Jeet Kune Do, but where he really shines is with the indigenous Vietnamese martial art called Vovinam. This style of fighting was seldom seen outside the country until Nguyen showcased it in his films. It gave him an extra stylistic edge in the martial arts genre. As Zing, Nguyen’s choreography is ruthless, befitting of the most villainous Tong leader in Warrior.

Taslim is Indonesian and studied Wushu and Taekwondo. He is a decorated Judo champion who represented Indonesia in world competitions from 1997 to 2007 as a member of the national team. He medaled in two major Southeast Asian competitions and captured the gold in the national games.

Taslim appeared in the groundbreaking Indonesian film The Raid, which raised the bar on cinematic ultraviolence. That film also introduced Silat masters Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, who have been dominating action films in recent years with appearances in films like Mile 22 and Stuber for Uwais and John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum and Wira for Ruhian. They even had a quick cameo together in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Following The Raid and its sequel, The Raid II, Taslim has appeared in Fast & Furious 6 and Star Trek Beyond.

It’s no mistake that Li Yong was set up as the ultimate rival for Ah Sahm last season. Taslim is not just another stuntman throwing haymakers. He is at the top of his game choreographically and every in every fight scene he appears in has a crisp precision that can only be achieved by a veteran martial arts master. He moves with style and grace, doling out the damage with a sophisticated flair that Warrior demands. With Ah Sahm’s defeat at Li Yong’s hands in what was arguably the best fight scene in last season, Season 2 is all about that rematch.

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Warrior Season 2 can be seen exclusively on CINEMAX.

The post Warrior Season 2 Episode 2 Review: The Chinese Connection appeared first on Den of Geek.

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moonlit-theft · 6 years

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VAMPIRE KNIGHT FOR-- WELL, PEOPLE WHO DON'T WATCH IT

Alright! Since Eiri is a VK OC (and so are various of my other ones), I sometimes encounter the 'I want to RP with you but idk VK??' thing. I explained it to a few people before, and decided to just make a small post going over the structure of the VK world. I won't really focus on the characters; if you want to know more about those you can come into my inbox with questions (I'd suggest the wikia, but hey, GUESS WHAT? The non-rp VK fandom is immature and likes to put weird things in the character sheets of characters they don't like) which I'll then answer in the most unbiased way I can. I also won’t mention my OCs in here, because this is supposed to be a generic guide and not a ‘how to rp with my OCs’ guide.

This WILL contain some spoilers:

But, without further ado, here goes! Note that this is all written rather quickly, so there will be typos and the likes, and I will add/remove things at a later date.

THE SETTING:

VAMPIRES:

Vampires are classified into various levels:

Level A - Purebloods :

These have 'pure' bloodlines. Throughout thousands of years, not a single drop of human bloof has been mixed in. There aren't a lot of Purebloods in the world; only 7 families exist anymore. These are the only vampires who are truly immortal and who can turn humans into vampires. Power-wise... they're very OP. Only a blow to the head or the heart with an anti-vampire weapon can truly kill them, but if they don't actually wish to die, you can generally forget about getting close enough to do that.

Everything about them is far superior to other vampires: senses, strength, speed, healing: even if they are dissolved to dust by another Pureblood, they can still heal from this.

Everything about them is considered 'precious' by vampires. Even injuring one and consuming their blood without being their spawn can lead to being killed.

Level B - Aristocrats :

Level C - Commoners :

Level D - Ex-humans :

They used to be humans, but a Pureblood turned them and gave them their blood, stabilizing them. They are like a weaker version of level C vampires, and unable to kill their sire.

Level E - Level End :

They used to be humans, but the Pureblood who turned them didn't give them their blood. They can only fall into madness, attacking and killing on sight, draining from people without refrain. Again, they are unable to kill their sire.

THE VAMPIRE COUNSEL:

Depending on when exactly you RP, there either is a vampire counsel, or there isn't.

Many years ago, the royal Kuran family abolished the monarchy, setting in motion a vampire counsel to regulate peace between vampires and hunters.

The counsel is made up of various old aristocrats, but it ends up crooked - something that will eventually lead to their downfall at the end of the anime.

After that, the vampire world assumingly goes back to a monarchy under the lead of the Kuran family.

LEVEL E VAMPIRES:

The only way to 'save' these is for them to drink the blood of the Pureblood who sired them; just a drop is enough. A way to help them sustain their sanity a little longer is for another Pureblood to grant them some of their blood; it's a rare and unlikely occurrence - level E's are the filth of the vampire world. Even some Purebloods have taken to cleaning them up when they encounter them, to the dismay of the hunters.

HUNTERS:

Over 10 000 years ago, there was a large war between purebloods who wanted to turn all humans into their minions, turning them at will, and those who did not. Back then, humanity didn't have a way to fight vampires; no anti-vampire weapons existed to kill them yet.

Not everyone survived drinking the blood: but those who did became enhanced humans, with superior senses and abilities, though not as great as, say, a level C vampire.

These were the first hunters. All the hunters who came from them contain the same enhanced DNA with vampiric traces in it, and are able to wield anti-vampire weapons.

HUNTER MISSIONS:

As opposed to what some might think, hunters are, in fact, not allowed to kill any and all vampires they come across. As long as a vampire sticks to the rules (in the case of purebloods: you can't turn humans into vampires without permission, after explaining what will happen to them, and you will have to take whoever you turned under your wing. In the case of other vampires: you can't drink without permission. In both cases you can't attack humans, etc etc) a hunter will not be allowed to kill the vampire without consequences.

If a vampire breaks these rules, they will be added to 'The List', and will be hunted down to be killed.

Level E vampires are to be killed on sight, and most missions will resolve around these: they are unsalvageable; they have been abandoned by their sire. They can only get worse and lose their minds to madness: killing them swiftly is the kind thing to do.

CROSS ACADEMY:

Kaien Cross and Kaname Kuran are working together to ensure coexistence between the two races.

Kaname has called for a hand full of aristocrats that can be trusted to join him at the school in the Night Class; a study group for vampires.

Contact between day and night class is, for the most part, forbidden.

BLOOD TABLETS:

Purebloods have different blood tablets than the other vampires, because their thirst is far greater (fortunately, so is their restraint).

PREFECTS:

There is more, but I’ll just leave this here for now and add to it later and reword some akward parts. Hopefully this will be good enough to help some of you on your way, at least.

#I'm beat - I'll continue later XD #Also my characters tend to have verses where they're not TOO involved with VK things #For example Eiri will sometimes be at a diff town for a mission #You'd still have the hunter mission thing then but not the school etc

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tigerlover16-uk · 7 years

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As someone who likes hearing your thoughts on DBSuper and anything DB related in general, how do you think Toyotaro's influence in the DB world will be remembered? Honestly the man has done nothing but disappoint by writing poor plot points while dissing many characters and putting Vegeta up on a pedestal. Granted, he's not the first writer to commit these mistakes, but if he keeps this up he'll never make it big in the manga world. Think he can make a comeback with the DBSuper manga?

It’s still strange to hear people actually have interest in what I have to say, but gratifying nonetheless. Thanks for that.

And honestly, God only knows on both accounts. Public opinion on things can radically alter within weeks, and greater time and reflection can give fans a lot of time to look deeper and re-evaluate their opinions on certain works, for better or worse.

Ken Penders was once a beloved writer for the Archie Sonic comics, with many of his stories being longstanding classics. Then his stupid lawsuit happened that resulted in all the characters he created being ripped out of the comic haphazardly, forced a reboot that nobody wanted, and was probably a factor in the recent unceremonious cancellation of the comic right before a 3-part story could be concluded and any kind of closure could be had on anything. So as soon as all that nonsense turned him into the anti-Christ for the Sonic fandom, people began re-reading his work now as more critical adults compared to as impressionable children and realizing that a lot of what he wrote, while there were definitely some merits (There’s a reason people were angry so many of his characters and ideas weren’t allowed to be used anymore), his writing actually had a ton of problems and some of his stories were outright stupid. Endgame gets the worst of it, going from a well regarded would-have-been ending for the comic that changed the series forever, to a subject of mockery for it’s numerous plot holes, weird character decisions and just overall messy story.

On the other hand, we have the Star Wars Prequels. People HATED those movies with a burning passion for years since The Phantom Menace proved a let down for many, and I mean they violently HATED everything about the movies and insisted they killed Star Wars as a whole.

Yet nowadays with the Force Awakens re-invigorating the franchise as a pop cultural juggernaut and yet splintering fan opinions further, many now admit that the outcry to the prequels was WAY overblown. While a lot of old school fans still hate them, many are now willing to admit they did have good ideas and moments and were more mediocre than bad, and there’s a generation of people who grew up on and love the movies more than the original trilogy (Myself included) that can more comfortably admit to liking them and discuss why out in the open without being attacked and ridiculed (Mostly).

The movies are still huge base breakers and will always have the reputation of being disappointing follow ups to the legendary original trilogy, but after Clone Wars proved to everyone that great things did and still are coming out of that era in the timeline, most are willing to admit that the movies weren’t as damaging as they once thought.

Both examples go to show that anything can happen with time. We can make predictions, but we don’t know for sure how something is going to be regarded five or ten or twenty years from now. Doctor Who was a complete joke after it’s initial cancellation and before the revival came around, now it’s a beloved mainstay of pop culture in and outside of my home country again. Even Dragon Ball GT, while not well regarded, is generally seen in a more forgiving light by more people now than it was for years after it’s initial airing here in the west.

Truth is for most of the time he’s been writing the manga, Toyotaro has actually been popular and liked by the fandom. Right up through the end of the Future Trunks saga portion of the manga, the man has had a swarm of Dragon Ball fans passionately insisting that his is the “True” canon of Super and superior to the anime in every way. There are still people that think that way.

It was only about the time he got to Goku Black’s first confrontation with Vegeta that a lot of people really started doubting him, thanks to how ill regarded manga Black is by most in the fandom, especially compared to how beloved he was in the anime even by people who don’t like the saga. And then came the revelation that Toyotaro re-used panels from his Dragon Ball AF fan manga for the series, and apparently incorporated some ideas from it, basically literally trying to canonize his fanfictions and apparently basing Goku Black’s personality on his OC Xicor (And as we’ve established, that worked out SO WELL for him), and suddenly a lot of people realized something was up.

Which paved the way for a lot of people that had been critical of the manga up to that point, such as @dragon-ball-meta here on tumblr, to shed some light on a lot of his questionable writing practises. His treatment of Goku in several instances that made him out to be more dismissive and in several cases annoyed with his children in particular starting to gain notoriety, which hit a breaking point when chapter 27 came out last month and caused an uproar over the “Goku didn’t know when Gohan was born and Vegeta called him a terrible father” nonsense that basically looked like it was canonizing the “lol, Goku’s a bad father” meme (The most disturbing part… Toyotaro has apparently said that Goku is his FAVOURITE character… yeah… let that sink in).

I think that was the final straw for many that basically turned the man into a joke for a huge portion of the fandom. It was one of the worst controversies I’ve seen in this fandom for quite some time, so naturally just about everyone was talking about it. The Japanese fandom I’ve heard was really ticked off about it especially, given Goku is still the most beloved character in the franchise over there, even being recently voted the most beloved anime hero by most age demographics in the country.

So, his reputation has already undergone a major shift since he started writing the manga. He still has his fans who will stick by him through thick and thin, but many people meet him and his work with a lot more scrutiny than they did before, and many people consider him a joke (Gochi fans especially).

If things continue the way they have been, I feel he’s likely to be regarded as “That fan artist that draws good stuff, but shouldn’t have been hired to write an official manga because while he had a few good ideas, he REALLY wasn’t up to the job” that’s what it’s looking like anyway.

Could he make a comeback? Who knows, despite my own outrage with the Goku moment last chapter and my issues with how the Zen Exhibition match is apparently being handled so far in the current chapter, the guy did have a good idea in giving us a more fleshed out introduction to the Gods of Destruction at the start of the Universe Survival saga. For all we know despite these issues, his handling of the rest of the story could actually turn out to be really great and people might prefer it over the anime. Anything’s possible, really. How many people thought My Little Pony’s latest iteration would become one of the most popular and talked about cartoons of the decade?

I kind of doubt that will happen. My problems I’ve already brought up aside, the manga cut out Krillin’s character arc, all of Gohan’s scenes, didn’t adapt the Resurrection F arc (Meaning it didn’t properly build up Frieza for his comeback here, so the manga can’t function as a self contained story with only the original Dragon Ball manga being necessary to understand things that happen in it), cut out the Hit two parter further building on his character and abilities, and further ironing out his rivalry and odd friendship with Goku, completely botched Frost’s character compared to the anime, while also screwing Piccolo over badly in their fight, as well as removing most moments featuring the supporting cast and even reducing Future Trunks to a foot note in a saga that was literally designed as an excuse to bring him back, and is known for rushing through the story compared to the anime in a bid to catch up considering how ridiculously behind Toyotaro has gotten thanks to the monthly schedule.

Which is an especially bad thing if he does that here, considering this saga has to accommodate the majority of the Z fighters getting character moments and good fights, including re-introducing Android 17 after a long absence, as well as introducing and fleshing out slews of new characters. And given his alterations to the Zen Exhibition match which really look like they’ll hamper Gohan’s role and screw Buu over completely, and his poor handling of the Super original characters that aren’t Beerus, Whis, Gowasu and Botamo in the last two sagas, I find it likely he’s not going to do a great job with most of them. Heck, I fully expect Krillin to get knocked out instantly as a joke rather than helping to knock out two opponents with Roshi and 18 and holding his own against Majora.

Again, I could be completely wrong and he could do a good job, and I’m just being judgemental and jumping to conclusions. But I’m finding it hard to be confident that he can make up for his set backs, even if he does end up doing some things better. Which isn’t saying much, his last two sagas he wrote did a few things better than the anime, and they were still worse stories overall.

If he does turn things around and actually writes a really good or even great saga and generally cleans up his act going forward, I could see Toyotaro making a comeback in the eyes of the fandom and being remembered in at least a more fond light than he is now. But if he screws up as badly as I fear he might and like he’s been doing lately, I can only imagine his standing in the fandom getting worse, and at best he’ll largely just be forgotten and ignored by most fans when Super finally concludes, or he’ll be a laughing stock. How that’ll effect his career in professional manga writing, I don’t know, but it likely won’t do him much good.

I guess this whole thing is a learning experience for fans wanting to start working on the actual properties they follow. Even if they’re extremely talented in one aspect (Toyotaro with his drawings) and have passion for what they’re doing, that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to do a good job if they’re on writing duties, and they better put their absolute best efforts into things and think things through clearly, because their contributions WILL be scrutinized and they will have a significant impact on the franchise in general.

A lot of fan artists and fanfiction writers do great stuff and deserve to be respected, I know people who have written stuff that’s better than professionally published stories and in some cases are better than parts of the series the fans were adapting from. But there’s a REASON why fanfiction writers aren’t usually hired to write for the works they follow, and why it’s often considered a bad idea. And Toyotaro in many cases has done a good job of proving that point.

I really don’t hate the guy, whatever you may get from how I talk about him. I just want to make that clear for everyone, especially anyone who likes his work reading this. I kind of envy him as a fellow fan for getting to work on writing an official Dragon Ball story, I’d die for that opportunity, and I will still give him credit wherever it’s rightfully due, especially with his art. I just wish he thought things through better and didn’t make as many questionable choices despite having so much more time and being in a better position to plan things out than the anime writers had.

Will Toyotaro make a comeback? Good question, probably not, but we’ll see. I’ll say this though, for all his problems his adaption and the things going on in and around it is at least interesting to talk about, and at least we’ll have some nice artwork and drawings of all our favourite characters to look at however things turn out.

#dragon ball super #dbs #dragon ball #dragon ball z #toyotaro #dragon ball gt #goku #dragon ball super manga #dbs manga

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smartalker · 7 years

Text

Magpie Bridge [2/10 - Orihime]

ENTITLED: Magpie Bridge FANDOM: Mass Effect Andromeda - Reyes/Ryder RATING: M LENGTH: 50k via 10 chapters GENRE: Romance/Sci-Fi/Drama/Humor, in that order SUMMARY: With the Kett subdued and Andromeda’s terraforming system running at full power, Kadara Port swiftly establishes itself as the trade capital of the galaxy. The city’s unique combination of affluence, corruption, and growing power inevitably earns the ire of both the Nexus, and Aya. Under tremendous pressure to disavow a known criminal’s legitimacy, Ryder once again returns to Kadara hoping to broker peace, but the Charlatan wants something very different from her… ALT SUMMARY: Two people fall in love, galaxy breaks.

Ryder was different, but in a way that was hard to explain. Rather than changing, she had become more of herself. More confident, more focused. If life could be seen as a series of blows and each strike was another opportunity to shape a person, she had sharpened. Like a blade beneath the blacksmith’s hammer, she had solidified, shook off excesses—rather than bending.

Reyes leaned out over the veranda’s railing. He was at a local favorite, a new restaurant that specialized in breading and frying the local vegetation. The establishment’s peak hours hung between midnight and dawn, the darkest time. Kadara’s vegetation naturally contained weak toxin that, when warmed correctly, could act as a psychedelic for both humans, Angara, and the Asari.

“Waiting for someone?”

Distracted, Reyes reached for his battered leaves. The waitress who’d spoken to him raised her eyebrows. He’d been squatting for nearly half an hour, and the place was overflowing. “You could say that,” Reyes conceded. “But I think it’s going to be a while.”

Annoyed, the waitress eyed him for another moment, then left. He’d have to buy a round for the house soon.

Another important change: Ryder had more freckles.

Reyes considered the aesthetics of freckles as he checked his omni-tool. Nothing. Quiet.

The street below was very dark.

“Not much of a view,” said a soft, low voice.

He glanced back over his shoulder. A petite Asari in clean, new-looking space armor was lounging at a nearby table. She had a small, smug smile, and very dark lipstick. Once she knew he’d seen her, the Asari stood, and picked her way towards him. She was very slight, almost underdeveloped. No scars. Young? Hard to tell. “So who is this person you’re waiting for?” she asked. “A woman?”

“Of course,” Reyes smiled easily. “She takes her time. But I am very good at waiting.”

She regarded him for a moment, her black eyes curving with laughter. “Forgive me. A human is never patient.”

She attacked a half-second later than he’d predicted, with monstrous, raw biotics. Her power was wild, unrefined. It blew out the balcony’s iron railing and sent the now mangled metalwork not only across the street, but through the neighboring building’s wall. If he’d been slower, he’d have been dead. There were screams as those who had avoided the balcony’s blast rushed back into the restaurant—and still more commotion from the street below. Reyes scrambled to his feet, smiling at his attacker. “I thought someone was watching me.”

The Asari was frozen, her eyes livid. She writhed ineffectively at the biotic chokehold his bodyguards had slapped upon her. The veins in her hands bulged, and receded again into her skin. She stared at him, furious, still trying to smile. “You are more important than I had realized.”

“Perhaps.”

“You met with the Pathfinder,” the Asari snapped, her voice clear, almost loud. Was she wearing a wire? Or perhaps she had an accomplice? Reyes kept his features even, careful. He’d been with Ryder only hours before. His opponents were quick. The Asari continued speaking, with that same aggressive, almost confident tone. “Has the Charlatan allied himself with the Nexus? Are they finally ready to pay attention to the problem they can’t contain?”

“I thought the Charlatan was a woman,” Reyes said mildly. His assassin sneered.

“The Angara is nothing. Don’t take us for fools. Tell the Charlatan he can wear as many faces as he wants. We will rip them away, one by one, until there is nowhere left to hide.”

“Tell her yourself!” Reyes said brightly. Her jaw locked, struggling. Reyes watched apathetically. “I always wondered, why do would someone with biotics bother with poison? Surely you can just blow yourself up. Can’t you?”

The Asari’s jaw, frozen to keep her from biting down, strained to answer him, or to end things. You could never be too careful. He kept watching her as the mental chokehold’s pressure increased, until finally, she wavered, her eyelids fluttering. Her body fell pitifully to the ground, and as Reyes searched her, he realized that her slightness was, in fact, to be expected. She was barely more than a child.

She was carrying Angaran daggers, Initiative boosters, and her armor was worth more than the average mercenary could afford, sporting some kind of stylish shield tech he hadn’t seen before. Scans showed that several of her teeth were filled with poison, but she would need to crush her molars to access it. It would be very painful.

Reyes glanced up as his two shadows slid forward, awaiting his orders. He’d chosen the twins—a pair of ancient human biotics, the sort of old women whose discretion could be matched only by their uncaring savagery. Reyes had never liked using the Asari commandos. Too flashy. “Take her back to Keema. Whoever’s sponsoring her already knows she’s been captured, we might as well make sure the Initiative knows it too. When she wakes up, see what you can get out of her.”

“If she refuses to cooperate? We kill her?” one of the old women asked.

Child murderers. Leaving little bodies in the streets. Reyes sighed. Annoying, when the child had lived longer than him. “We’ll give her to the Pathfinder. The Nexus can take her into custody.”

The old women exchanged glances. Telepathy? He would have believed it. Respectfully, one woman dipped her head, considering the young Asari. “There is a chance she may be able to divulge something unsavory to the Nexus…” she trailed off, her silence fat with meaning.

Torturer. Murderer. Sadist. Ryder’s face, when she’d seen what he did to Avitus as punishment for failing to renounce Sloane. Her face, when she’d seen him as the Charlatan, known that even the title he’d chosen for himself marked him as a liar. Her face, aging and recoiling before his eyes, her obvious and instinctive horror. The moment he had realized that there was a part of him she would never, ever be able to see without flinching.

Absently, Reyes dusted the rubble off his thighs, and turned away. “Get what you can from her. Keep her alive. Make sure she’ll never be able to tell anyone, anything. Especially not the Pathfinder.”

Decision: he liked her new freckles.

As Ryder’s party stripped out of their armor and boarded the Tempest, several heads popped around the corridor’s corners to watch. “Nice to see you’re back,” was Lexi’s greeting. It seemed innocent enough. Ryder was already afraid.

“We just stopped for a drink on the way back,” Ryder explained, her voice oddly high-pitched. She glanced hopefully at Drack and Cora, neither of whom seemed interested in covering for her.

Lexi’s arms were crossed, her spine rigid. Very slowly, and with considerably deliberation, her weight shifted to one hip. “Of course,” the doctor acknowledged. “A drink.”

Or several. Ryder grumbled, then realized that Drack had apparently mastered the art of evaporation. Her favorite Krogan was nowhere to be seen.

Lexi had privately decided that she didn’t have the energy to badger someone who regarded their internal organs as currency, and she now settled into easier targets with a sense of relative comfort. “I’m not sure where to start. Wait, yes, I do. Cora?”

Cora’s mouth actually dropped a little. She looked indignantly at Ryder. “Me? Why am I being singled out?”

“Did you even wear sunscreen?” Lexi demanded.

“Yes.” Cora said, immediately and definitively and shifty as hell.

Scans reveal she is lying, SAM pitched in.

“Sunscreen is important,” Ryder pitched in. “Very anti-cancer, that stuff. Yep.” She slunk rapidly towards the nearest escape route, and was more than a little perturbed when Lexi’s hand snagged her jacket sleeve, especially since there should have been several meters separating them. Ryder smiled nervously. “You’re pretty speedy for a Doctor.”

“Aloe vera,” Lexi barked at Cora, who was actually jogging down the hall. Casually. Casual jogging. Lexi returned her glare to Ryder. “And you.”

The Pathfinder wore sunscreen, SAM reported. Nice to know someone was on her side.

“I thought we were arresting your boyfriend,” Lexi growled. “I don’t see a detainee. SAM’s monitors show your oxytocin excretion levels all over the place!”

“I don’t think the word excretion should be allowed on this ship?” Ryder said, to the ceiling. “I also would like to point out that SAM is a traitor and this is totally an invasion of privacy? Just, you know. For the captain’s log.” Lexi was still holding/pinning her by the arm. Which was buzzing. Her arm was buzzing? For one wild moment Ryder wondered if her weird headaches had migrated, but no, it was just her omni-tool. Someone was calling.

“Ryder, you might be able to lie to me, but your body can’t. And I am telling you, as your doctor, you cannot rationally or fairly involve yourself in this mission.” Lexi insisted. Ryder groaned. Why was Lexi so smart and caring? Why couldn’t she be a practitioner of the Band-Aid cure-all methodology? Twisting the knife still deeper, Lexi’s tone softened (her arresting grip did not). “Personally, Ryder, I don’t want to see you or anyone else be hurt. I kept quiet before now because, to be blunt, I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. I also was unable to argue that someone else would be better suited to the job. But I cannot continue to sanction your behavior without, at the very least, regular psychological evaluations.”

Trapped like a rat. The psych evals weren’t bad, truthfully. Lexi was a big believer in comfort as a facilitator of intimacy, meaning she had a very nice couch.

The Pathfinder is considering stabbing a fork through her hand to avoid discussing her feelings, SAM reported. Lexi’s attention diverted.

“Left or right?”

Non-dominant.

“At least you’ve still kept some pragmatism,” Lexi acknowledged. She let go of Ryder’s arm. “Fine. Collect yourself first. But then, we talk.”

Ryder nodded furiously, almost disbelieving her good luck as Lexi turned to go. For good measure, and because she was an excellent doctor, Lexi still remembered to nag. “And for the love of the Goddess, hydrate yourself.”

“Yes. Hydration and reflection. Doing that,” Ryder noted, already checking her omni-tool. Reyes? Reyes.

Meet me tomorrow morning? Café called Tiramisu.

Hell yeah.

Keema flinched the moment she saw him. Reyes preferred to work from the shadows when he could—but there were some things that had to be done in person. And there’d been a time in his past when he’d been good—very good—at climbing in through people’s windows. Even the locked ones. Even the ones that should have been impossible to open, like the window to Keema’s private quarters. “My god,” Keema breathed. She pressed a hand to her breast, likely more for dramatic effect than shock. “There’s no need to glare.” She recovered herself, obviously stalling for time as she waltzed to her private collection of liqueurs. “Drink?”

“I told you to keep your mouth shut,” Reyes snarled. He’d meant to keep things cool. Plans changed.

Keema didn’t quite look at him. “I disagreed.”

Reyes rolled to his feet. A weird, unknown energy vibrated through his limbs. Keema poured, offered. He shook his head. “I don’t want her involved.”

“She is involved.” Keema snapped, and tossed down her shot. She smacked her lips angrily. “Don’t let your feelings get in the way of yourself. The Pathfinder is more than capable of handling herself. She’ll probably find the fake Charlatan before you can.”

Reyes ground his teeth. “Not everyone will be able to tell the difference between the good and the bad, when this fake is found.”

“So that’s it?” Keema’s face began to glow. “I don’t understand you at all.” She poured again, almost forcing the next drink on him. “You worry what she’ll think of you.”

“I worry about losing our alliance—”

“She wouldn’t dare. And you know it. You’re a nasty piece of work that likes pretending to be just rough around the edges. And she’ll find out. And she’ll hate you,” Keema laughed. “You know, I sometimes wonder. What do you tell her about yourself?”

Extremely little. Reyes pulled himself back, returned to the dark window he’d cut his way through. The cold air helped, moderately. He’d come too far to lose control like this. “I should have listened to you,” he conceded, relieved to hear his tone could pass for polite. “Your concerns are real ones.”

“If I’d known it only took a human woman to make you back down, I’d have found you one sooner,” Keema snipped. Reyes drank before answering. Whatever she’d given him was hot, and painful, and nasty.

He turned back to Keema, offering a pleasant smile. “Now who’s being petty?”

“I beg your pardon,” Keema replied.

Cold air. He could be cold. “Your decision to ask for the Pathfinder’s help was the right one. But you still made it without me. I can’t have you making those calls on your own.”

At last, Keema nodded. “I know.”

“We were both wrong. Let’s agree to put this behind us.” He thought about leaping back out the window. It seemed a little dramatic. Reyes headed for the door, adding as he left, “Do this again, and you’re done.”

Reyes was late.

Ryder slouched back against her chair, ignoring SAM’s reminder that doing so would atrophy her muscles. Reyes was late. Of course. No biggie. Except that she was the Pathfinder and how dare he keep the Pathfinder waiting. Just saying.

Kadara was sleepy in the morning. It felt cleaner. Less crowded, that was for sure, but she also could have been feeling lonely thanks to her decision to shake her team. ‘Shake her team’ meaning ‘sneak out of the Tempest,’ a thing that was generally frowned upon and, definitely, bad. Very bad. Bad Pathfinder.

Ryder rubbed her eyes, sulking. She deserved to sulk. She was good at her job and responsible and could shoot a bird out of the sky at 500 meters. Did Kadara have birds? Irrelevant. Point was: people needed to get off her back because she had this.

Suddenly, darkness. A hand, hot and very dry covering her eyes. Close enough for her eyelashes to graze. She should have been afraid. She shouldn’t have relaxed. It was a very big and very stupid problem that she relaxed. “You should take off your armor sometimes,” Reyes mused. “It’s just me.”

Ryder twisted around, pretending to glare. “Do you have some sort of problem with approaching so people can see you?”

“No, just you.”

“Why just me?”

He took his time strolling around the table, claiming his seat opposite her. Even as he pretended to pout, his face was alive with laughter, almost mocking. “You’re so good at running away from me. I don’t want to play nice anymore.”

“That’s not fair.” Ryder protested, with new guilt. Did he think she was running away? She wasn’t running away. She was doing Pathfinder things.

“Isn’t it?” he smiled, almost gently. “Don’t look so upset.”

Ryder blushed, feeling stupid. Of course he didn’t think that. He probably didn’t think of her at all. She tried for a breezy laugh. “Upset! I’m not upset. Anyway. You’re supposed to be telling me about the bad guys.”

“What’s your rush?”

“Uh,” Ryder clamped her mouth shut. She was truthfully not even sure where to begin. Her sense of duty? Professionalism? Her crew’s constant vigilance and clear dissatisfaction with the mission at hand? “Nothing. No rush.”

“Such a bad liar. I almost want to teach you.”

“Why don’t you?”

He just looked at her. Defiant, Ryder stared back. He looked tired. A little older than she remembered. What was he doing that made so worn out? Did he ever get hurt—would he even tell her if he was? Would he tell her anything?

Reyes smirked, and she shook herself free of her thoughts. “Have you eaten?”

“Is it safe?”

“Don’t be that way.” Reyes leaned back, settling himself more comfortably into his chair. “You know, I’ve been thinking about you.”

“About me? What about me?” Ryder squinted at him, suspicious.

“This time apart, has it changed things? Between us? You seem more distant.”

“Distant!” Ryder squeaked, now indignant. “We kissed!”

“No. I kissed you.”

“It’s the same thing.”

“I like it better the other way.”

“You would.” Ryder snorted, then caught herself. She was not going to spend the morning flirting. She had definitely promised herself that. Trying for neutral ground, she gestured at their surroundings. “Why this place? Come here often?”

He rocked forward, pulling his chest over the small table between them. There was a new scar on his forearm, almost startlingly white against his skin. Ryder promised herself not to ask. Watching his shoulders hunch, the way he filled the space in front of her, she struggled to accept his physicality. It was ironic, considering how much time she spent ignoring Liam as he paraded his abs across the Tempest. “It might surprise you to know that it isn’t easy to get good coffee on this space rock,” Reyes intimated. He did his usual sign language with a passing waitress, which Ryder watched jealously.

“Let me guess—you drink it black?”

“Are you out of your mind? Three spoons of sugar. I like them sweet.” He winked.

Ryder stared.

Reyes giggled. “Okay. Sorry.”

“My father would have punched you.” Their coffee arrived. Ryder drank it straight, with a poker face that was almost murderous.

“You old soldier,” Reyes continued to snicker. He leaned back, now trilling an R at her. She kicked him under the table.

“Stop giggling! And! This coffee is terrible!”

“Like I said, you’d be surprised how hard it is to get good coffee on this space rock—”

She kicked him again. “Did you seriously just call me here to drink bad coffee with me?”

“I dream of the day,” Reyes returned. He was coming down from whatever giddiness he’d felt before now, and she felt sorry for it. Ryder glanced down. Her stomach was cramping. She should have eaten something.

The moment stretched and dropped between them. Their silence shrank and made space for the noise of the world around them. Ryder let herself relax, feeling oddly at peace. Beneath the morning sun, saying nothing with a dangerous man, she drank her bad coffee and watched him wake up.

Reyes finished his drink and offered his hand to her, “Come with me?”

She thought about refusing. Or even just asking questions. Instead, she followed. She followed him down side streets, through dizzying crowds of people, into long, dark hallways. Past empty apartments and arguing peddlers. Two fire-eaters were about to brawl for a street corner, their eyes and their flames both flashing. She followed him until she realized that she was lost—so lost that it would be hard to find her way back out, even with SAM. There had been too many things to see, so much to take in. “Will you be escorting me back out of here?” she asked him, half joking. He had never let go of her hand.

Reyes stopped. “I’ll consider it. What do you think of this?”

She wasn’t sure what she was looking at. It seemed like just another of Kadara’s alleys—small, foul-smelling. There was one thing, though—it was empty. An empty path in a city swollen with people.

The street is freshly washed, SAM noted. Ryder’s fingers clenched.

“Did someone die here?” she asked. Reyes glanced at her. He had been looking at the wall. Surprised, Ryder followed his gaze.

“Yes. There was a child here,” he agreed. There was something about the wall. She could sense it. Cautiously, Ryder reached to brush the rough-cut stone with her fingers. Someone had painted this building green—but not recently. At least a year ago. She was just about to ask SAM to run a scan for a deeper analysis, when she saw it.

“It’s a face?” she asked, already knowing the answer. She reached out to touch the left eye’s image. SAM was scanning. Rather than painting or drawing the face, someone had gone into the stone itself, and cut out a rough approximation of human features. The overall effect suggested that someone had just begun to emerge through the wall, face-first. “Well, that’s creepy.”

“Isn’t it?” Reyes asked. “It took me a while to notice too. They usually use the victim’s blood to paint something ridiculous on the walls, which covers up the face. It’s only after things are washed away that you see it.”

“The others were like this too?”

Reyes sighed. “There are others. Not all. The problem is there are too many copycats. Someone’s seen the paintings but not what hides beneath them, is my guess.”

She had to tell her crew. “You have pictures of the others, right? Can you send them to me?”

“Done,” Reyes agreed. He waited for her to finish scanning, then reached her wrist. “I’ll take you back.”

She looked around once more, then followed him obediently. He glanced back at her, grinning. “Some date.”

“We have our own style.”

He laughed. “I like that.”

He’d trusted her, letting her in. She felt good. “Is that the only thing you like?”

“It’s a start,” Reyes murmured. He’d paused to touch a passing door knob—and he’d twisted—something? But with the barest push she heard a lock snap and in the next second Reyes tugged her wrist, and she was in, off the street and in his arms, while whirls of lazy dust lit the air with gold around them.

Her heart was racing. “You came prepared.”

“I am always prepared,” he pulled her more tightly against him. “Are you impressed?”

“Do you want me to be?”

“Yes,” he said, and just barely in time. Ryder lifted herself onto her toes, and pressed her mouth to his. She didn’t want to hurry. As she kissed him she peeked one eye open. He kissed her with his eyes closed. Somehow, this thrilled her. She broke away to kiss his eyelids, and beneath her mouth, they trembled.

“Silly,” he whispered.

She wanted him. She had to go back to the ship. She wanted him.

He knew it.

She pushed herself away, unsuccessfully.

“Where are you going?” Reyes asked, his mouth grazing the edge of her ear—a feeling between ticklish, and an itch. She wasn’t going to look at him. She wasn’t going to look. She looked.

“This isn’t going to work,” she hissed through tight, determined teeth. “I can’t do this right now. I snuck out while everyone was sleeping to be here, I—I said I wouldn’t do this.”

“Okay.” Reyes didn’t let go. “But do it anyway.” He pushed her hair back, rough hands on her neck, holding the base of her skull just a little too firmly. He kissed, lovingly, the extent of her throat. He bit, hard enough to make her gasp.

“Distracting me is definitely not going to work—”

“Oh yeah? Prove it.” He was pulling on her armor. No, he was barely touching it. Like a lock pick, her gear fell around her, like nothing had been standing in his way to begin with. Her shield plate, nearly banging her foot as it dropped. She didn’t even know that her arms could feel naked, but they did—they did. She couldn’t bring herself to even think about stopping him, not when it was so easy—why was it always so easy for him?

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” Ryder protested, barely hearing herself. He had knelt, and was unthreading the straps and snaps around her legs. Her thighs, now, bared to the air. Unconsciously, she reached to touch his hair, only just grazing the side of his head with her fingertips. He looked up at her, his face now catching the sunlight, his eyes shining. He seemed, suddenly, vulnerable.

“But don’t you want to?” he asked. She couldn’t tell if he asked to tease her, or because—maybe—she was actually something he actually wanted.

“Yes,” she admitted, horrified when her voice cracked. He gazed up at her, unreadable. For too long, he said nothing. For too long, she fell without a safety net.

It was too much. Her face burning, Ryder scrambled to grab her armor, throwing it back on. “I should go,” she muttered. He watched her. She wouldn’t look at him.

“Hey,” Reyes said. Ryder paid attention to her breast plate, to sealing things as fast as possible. “Hey,” he said again.

“What?”

He handed her a missing glove. “Can I try again?”

She hated herself for falling for him. Of all people. He probably didn’t even like her that much. When he smiled at her, when she saw his uncertainty—she believed that he did. Trying to hold on to her anger, Ryder groused, “You’re not a good man.” She pulled on her glove. He pulled her to her feet. His uncertainty was gone, or hidden, or had never been there in the first place. She turned before he could kiss her goodbye.

“Would you believe me if I said that I try to be?” he asked her back.

Ryder didn’t answer.

She was going back to the ship. She really, really was. As soon as she figured out the right way to sneak onto a secured military vessel, she was in there.

Ryder huddled behind a few of the docking bay’s larger shipping containers, sweating. She was so busted. She’d been brave enough to check the messages on her omni-tool earlier. Lexi was pissed. So was Cora. So was Kallo. She hadn’t even opened the messages fully—both because she was sure the read receipts would damn her further, and because the subject lines alone were terrifying.

“It’s the truant,” Vetra said.

Ryder choked, and whirled. Definitely Vetra. Ryder couldn’t tell if the Turian was angry, or amused. Or both? Probably both. Also: everyone and their mothers were sneaking up on her these days. Everyone. This was why she didn’t do things without a sniper. “Oh, hey there Vetra,” Ryder squeaked. “I was just thinking, it’s funny, because I had SAM install all these ‘predictive combat matrices’ yesterday and then everyone started getting the jump on me.”

Vetra crossed her arms. “Ha.”

“So. I was just—”

“I honestly hope you at least got laid,” Vetra interrupted. “Because Lexi has requested a full psych eval.”

“No,” Ryder whispered. She stared hopefully up at the Turian. “You’re teasing me.”

“You are arguably a deserter.” Vetra shrugged. “No biggie.”

Ryder wilted. Vetra snorted, “Jeez Ryder, take a joke. It’s fine if you’re fine. But don’t pull that shit again. You want someone to discreetly supervise your trysts, all you gotta do is ask.”

“Ugh,” Ryder rubbed her forehead again. Seriously, ow. “You’re right. I’ll apologize. I just wanted—I thought—I don’t know.”

“You thought you had a connection.” Vetra said simply. Ryder tried not to die.

“I guess you could say that.”

“You thought that by confronting him solo, you’d somehow be able to…reach an understanding? Or something to that effect.”

Stupid stupid stupid. Ryder buried her face in her hands. “Can you maybe not tell everyone about this?”

Vetra sniggered. “Probably. For a price.”

She could only lurk behind shipping crates for so long. Sheepishly, Ryder straightened, and tried to act like she had always been striding confidently back to her ship. “It’s not like I was completely playing hooky, you know. I got some good data. I’ll have SAM upload it.”

“Good data? From Reyes?”

Ryder lifted her chin proudly. “He showed me some stuff.”

Vetra sighed, and fell in line behind Ryder as they approached the lifts back to the Tempest. “So did you know that the Collective took an assassin into custody last night? Some Asari kid with really nice armor? Ringing any bells?”

Ryder froze. “What?” she whispered.

“He didn’t tell you, huh?” Vetra crossed her arms. “Thought so.”

“It might not be what you’re thinking,” Ryder defended. She’d never felt this way before. This cold, sinking feeling. It wasn’t disappointment or anger, but something more physical—something like fear. And what was she saying, anyway? Like Reyes tickled people until they told him what he wanted to know? Come on.

“Cute,” Vetra snorted. “Almost like you’ve never seen him torture anyone before.”

“We don’t know that,” Ryder snapped. She winced. She hadn’t meant to sound angry. Vetra’s face shifted, expression cool. If Turians had eyebrows.

“Listen Ryder, I don’t have anything against the guy. It’s a rough world. A part of me thinks he’s doing what he’s gotta do, but a bigger part of me doesn’t want to see what happens when you get sucked into it. Just remember that I’m on your side here, and I’ve dealt with more crime lords than you have.”

“Right.” She felt like such an ass. Ryder closed her eyes. Migraine. Again. “I get it. I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Vetra shrugged. “Don’t look so bummed. I don’t care if you fuck him.”

Ryder ignored this. “Wait. How many crime lords have you dealt with?”

“Does it matter? They’re mostly dead.” Imperious, Vetra keyed in the shuttle request to deliver them back to the Tempest. Ryder squinted up at her.

“You know that thing where there’s like a hundred rats locked in a box together and eventually they eat each other until only the strongest one’s left?”

“Ugh,” Vetra wailed. She looked genuinely horrified. “Seriously Ryder, what the fuck? Rats? Those furry things with the little wormy tails, right?”

“I mean it’s not like I ever did it!” Ryder defended. Vetra continued to look repulsed.

“Why are humans so gross?” she moaned. She spent most of the shuttle ride sitting as far away from the Gross Human as possible.

Ryder, meanwhile, spent her time bracing herself for the Mom Coalition, and the snarky looks she’d probably have to endure from Vetra, Chief Audience Member.

Upon arriving at the Tempest, however, Ryder realized she’d made a mistake. She’d assumed Lexi wouldn’t have adapted her tactics. Vetra had already settled into a comfortable vantage point against the wall when Lexi, smiling beatifically, said only, “Oh, Ryder. Your brother’s expecting you.”

“What.” Ryder said. It was not really a question or even an accusation—more like an instinctive, deep rejection. Lexi sniffed.

“I do have the authority to notify next-of-kin in states of emergency. Like, when you go missing.”

“Oh man,” Vetra chortled. “You’re gonna get it.”

“What.” Ryder said again. This wouldn’t do. She cleared her throat. “What did you tell him?”

“Probably just that his sister’s fucking a gang leader,” Vetra whispered gleefully, then in her normal voice, “I mean you are though, right?”

Like Ryder really needed a reminder of how much she wanted to punch a hole through the wall right now. She glowered at Vetra. And Lexi. And the whole damn universe. Assholes. Her arm buzzed. She had four missed calls from Scott—meaning her upcoming conversation with him had officially reached natural disaster levels of bad.

“I hope there’s something left of me after all this,” Ryder said pointedly, now shuffling to her cabin. “I hope you’ve all picked out your new positions of authority following my death. But just remember: someone’s getting a bot downloaded into their head. No movie nights while the mourning period’s on. You’ll be sorry. You’ll all be sorry.”

“Stalling is unattractive.” Lexi snapped. Vetra nodded. Heartless bastards.

Ryder sealed the door to her cabin, walked to the middle of the room, and simply stood there. She gathered her courage. Scott was still 14 seconds younger than her and, also, had once dated three Krogan at the same time, so his opinion on her love life was PRETTY RICH IF YOU ASKED HER—!

Her omni-tool throbbed, interrupting her outrage. Reyes? Scott. Oh, god, it already was Scott. Five missed calls meant she might as well start setting up his guest room. “No, no, no, no,” Ryder whispered. “SAM, put him through. Shit.”

“Shit,” Scott echoed back at her, with venom. SAM had transferred the call to her room’s main terminal, making her brother’s (furious) expression five times life-size.

“Scott!” Ryder laughed nervously. Her brother was glaring. He glared like their mom. Why was everyone in their family so much scarier than her? “Hey! You look tan. It’s good. A good look. I mean, it suits you better than being frozen for hundreds of years. The coma thing was not awesome either. But at least it beats acne! Right?”

Shit. Shit shit shit. So Scott had clearly not forgotten being fifteen. Ryder laughed nervously, now loathing herself. “So, how are the Krogan?”

“I don’t know,” Scott said flatly. “Probably fine, since they can survive nuclear fallout.”

“Yep. Nuclear fallout. Gotta love aliens!” Ryder babbled. She looked frantically for some sort of plausible interruption: the Kett attacking, a sudden loss of gravity, a hull breach, her pet space rodent’s sudden mutation?

All very manageable problems.

“The Krogan have been aggressively expanding their territory on Elaaden by building roads and aqueducts,” Scott said coolly. “Also, shooting things.”

“The tried and the true.”

“Cut the shit,” Scott snapped, his eyebrows shooting up even as his voice lowered—an intimidation tactic he’d copied from his mother. Ryder could feel herself physically shrinking.

“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but the Nexus sent me here—”

“Don’t start,” Scott interrupted. The video feed of him wavered, and for one glorious second, Ryder thought she might be able to avoid The Conversation. But he was back, snarling, “Do you seriously think I’m going to hang out in a desert while my sister acts out her own Shakespearean tragedy in Andromeda’s asshole? Are you out of your fucking mind?”

Ryder coughed. “I think calling it a Shakespearean tragedy is pretty strong.”

“Is it?” Scott screeched. So the feed was definitely not flickering, as she had previously thought. That was just her brother’s rage-spit. “Because from my point of view,” Scott yelled, “I’m watching my last family member ignore procedure because she thinks playing detective for some shady-ass flyboy is more important than her life.”

Ryder squirmed as the familiar Familial Guilt began chewing up her insides. “Look, Scott—I don’t know what you’ve heard, and I get that this has you freaked out, but everything’s fine. It’s seriously fine. I’m not doing anything outside of mission protocols—I’m not, like, running off on my own—,” guilt levels were now overwhelming, Ryder swiftly changed direction, “—and anyway, I don’t think half the people here even know I’m the Pathfinder.”

The angry lines in Scott’s face grew deeper with every word she spoke. For a long moment, he was silent, only glaring at her. She could see him chew the inside of his cheek—an old habit. When he spoke next, his anger had been muffled into resolution. “You shouldn’t be there,” Scott said calmly. “And you know it. You should be with me. We should be continuing Dad’s work, our work—together. I thought that’s what you wanted.”

“It is, Scott!” Ryder burst, “Of course it’s what I want!”

Scott’s eyes narrowed. “Then wrap it up, and leave. Or I’ll come to you. You might be the Pathfinder, and maybe that means that the others can’t stop you, but you’re my sister. The Nexus can go to hell.”

“Scott—!” Ryder started to protest, but he’d already ended the call. She stared at the screen for over a minute, seething. This was too much. He wasn’t even the older twin! There was a line between concern and controlling and why did no one seem to observe that?

Without another outlet, Ryder simply shrieked. It was sharp, and loud, and none of her crew apparently thought it sounded urgent enough to warrant investigating. Ryder threw herself upright, pacing angrily. It wasn’t enough to have Aya, the Nexus, and her entire crew riding her ass for doing her job, now her baby brother was joining the fray. Great. Just great.

Ryder stormed out of her quarters, brushing past a jittery Kallo, who was lurking near the Med-Bay.

Wait.

Ryder turned around. “Did Suvi eat something?”

“She ate three!” Kallo wailed.

Ryder shrieked again.

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