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hlizr50 · 3 years

Text

The Raven and the Songbird

Chapter 1

Read on AO3

The warmth of the sun wasn’t unwelcome. Azriel was the angel of death, wreathed in tendrils of darkness and mystery, but the summer sun was a balm to him. The light glittering off the stone of the training ring – the need to shield his eyes from the brightness – was a reminder that the Hewn City wasn’t his home, not his life. The light was a breath that whispered of life and potential.

He crossed his arms as he observed Cassian – brother in all senses of the word, save by birth. The sheen of sweat shimmered on his bare back as he paced around the ring observing the trainees, offering corrections verbally. And if that didn’t fix the errors he would ask permission to show them, to physically move their bodies to make the adjustment. That simple question was the reason so many more of the priestesses had chosen to join them in recent months.

Azriel scowled.

It was fucking disgusting that something so simple as consent was considered such a grand gesture. But it was a courtesy that hadn’t been granted to many of the females here.

It hadn’t been granted to her.

Gwyn.

His shadows danced over his shoulders at the mere thought of her. He needed to get that under control.

He had let his gaze slide to the priestess – the Valkyrie – too many times already. She glowed in the sunlight, even without the perspiration now dampening her face. It had reddened with her effort, but also from the many days they’d spent baking in the summer heat. The color suited her.

No matter how hard he tried, especially in the past two weeks, his attention always turned to her. She moved with such grace, her long legs strong and swift. The leathers fit her differently than they had a year ago – her body had changed. Lean cords of muscle had developed where nothing had been before. She had never been frail – he would ever use a word like that to describe her – but now she was…

Cauldron.

The Spymaster shook his head, willing his writhing shadows not to follow the dangerous path of his musings. He should not desire her. He didn’t deserve that bright spark that had begun to illuminate the male underneath the death and terror. He didn’t deserve her for the simple fact that death and terror and nightmares were what he was. But there was also the unspoken thing between them. The thing he’d done. The reason for the tension these past days and the reason he kept all of his leathers on under the blazing summer sun, relishing in the distraction of his discomfort.

Her eyes still haunted him.

The hurt that had dimmed Gwyn’s bright ocean gaze had nearly brought him to his knees.

Azriel hadn’t been party to the conversation, and he didn’t know how it had come about that Gwyn and Elain were both in the library, in the House, at the same time, in close enough proximity for Elain to notice the delicate necklace that hung from the priestess’ long, regal neck.

All of the satisfaction he had felt whenever he saw that gold chain tucked under her leathers or when she idly twisted the pendant in her fingers when she was reading… it disappeared when she had stormed through the dining room, desperate for the door, stopping short when she saw him there. His heart had cracked when he looked up at her.

Those beautiful eyes of hers, wide and glossy, swimming with hurt and anger. And embarrassment, further painted by her flushed cheeks, neck, further down. And still she had held that flower in her fingers, as if she couldn’t bear to let it go.

He didn’t get the time to register what must have happened. She scurried out the door, leaving a lingering breeze that smelled of water lilies and the salt of her tears.

The report he’d been reviewing slipped from his fingers and he made to go after her.

“Don’t you dare.”

It had been a long while since Azriel had felt intimidated, but Nesta’s voice had sounded to him much like he imagined his did when he was deep in the caverns of the Hewn City, pulling information from unwilling sources.

Cold. Measured.

Deadly.

Nesta’s eyes had all but glowed silver with her ire, even with her reduced power.

“What exactly were you trying to accomplish by giving Gwyn that necklace, Azriel?”

All he had done was stare back at her, unable to find his voice.

“Did you think she wouldn’t find out? Did you think about how it would make her feel when she did? That the treasure she hasn’t taken off for half a year wasn’t meant for her? That she was the afterthought when you couldn’t pursue the one you truly wanted?”

Nesta’s sharp words had opened a crater inside of him. That hadn’t been his intention, not in the slightest.

“That wasn’t my aim at all,” he had murmured. “I… would never want to do that.”

“Well that’s what happened, intentions be damned. Cauldron, Az, I know you didn’t want to hurt her. How could you be so fucking stupid?”

Nesta had left him then.

And he hadn’t spoken to Gwyn since that day, either.

But he still spied that thin gold chain around her neck.

Teal eyes snagged his gaze for a fleeting moment and a grin lifted her pink cheeks. Azriel only nodded and forced his attention elsewhere.

He had been avoiding her. It shamed him to admit it, shamed him even more to see her smile at him just like she had before. He had avoided her at night, as well. If he heard her in the training ring on those nights when darkness chased them both out of their beds he would retreat back into the house and go elsewhere. After all, he had other places he could go to work out some pain and aggression. He would not force Gwyn to relinquish the one safe space she had away from the Library.

He missed her, missed those nights where they understood each other without speaking, but bantered anyway. He missed sparring to the point of exhaustion so they could both find the rest they so desperately needed. He missed the nights where they didn’t train at all… when Gwyn just needed to breathe in the air and settle her mind and let the moonlit breeze dry her tears. Those nights she allowed him to just exist with her, silently support her. She’d trusted him enough to be there in those moments, to let him see beyond the vivacious young priestess with the irreverent humor and easy smile. She’d trusted him enough to let him see his darkness mirrored in her own.

He couldn’t imagine she would trust him with that now.

“Alright, ladies, that’s all for today.” Cassian’s voice broke him out of his reverie. “Take time to stretch and cool down. And hydrate. You’ve all been doing a lot of work out in this heat.” The training ring descended into female chatter and the sounds of clattering weapons being put away as the trainees were dismissed. Azriel saw the glint in his brother’s eyes and steeled himself as the general stalked up to him.

“You know, when I asked you to help with the Valkyries last year the expectation was that you actually train them, not do everything within your power to avoid a certain red-headed priestess.”

“I don’t know what –“

“Are you really going to try to lie to me, brother?” Cassian interrupted his automatic denial. “I can smell the tension on you. And you haven’t corrected anything she’s done in two weeks.”

“Maybe she doesn’t need it,” the shadowsinger ground out.

“Maybe she doesn’t, but that never stopped you before.” The Illyrian general gave him a wry smile and a wink. Azriel stared back at him, unamused at the insinuation – and the truth of it. His friend pursed his lips, the playful gleam in his eyes replaced with a softness that others wouldn’t match with the muscled male, the definition of a warrior. “You should just talk to her, Az. She’s not going to run away.”

“She should.”

“Az –“

“You didn’t see the look in her eyes that day, Cassian.” His voice was bitter and shredded as he returned his attention to Gwyn. Her smile gleamed as she laughed with Nesta and Emerie, copper locks riding the breeze. He felt Cassian’s broad hand fall on his shoulder.

“Brother.” Azriel turned back to him. “I may not have. But I know you, and I know Gwyn. So do you. She cares about her friends, and you are counted among them, at the very least.”

The Spymaster took a deep breath. Perhaps his brother was right.

“Nesta is worried about her,” Cassian murmured. “Says she’s happy but something is off. I can’t really tell, but I know better than to doubt her intuition.” The hand on Azriel’s shoulder squeezed once, then the general left him alone with his thoughts.

What could he say? How could he explain what he’d been thinking when he gave Clotho that necklace and asked her to give it to Gwyn? He had just wanted to make her smile without overwhelming her with his attention. Had she really never taken it off? And why was she still wearing it now?

Had he truly made her feel like an afterthought? Something second best? That guilt made his lungs burn as if he’d inhaled acid.

His thoughts were muddled as he surveyed the emptied training space. He could stand to work out the tension that had built over the training session, so he stepped in the direction of the small basket with long ribbons of material. The least he could do was wrap his hands before punching the padded wooden post into oblivion. At least he had that much sense.

His shadows whirled around him as the painfully familiar voice pierced the midday heat.

“So, are you ever going to speak to me again?”

Tag List: @tealnymph-writes @trashforazriel @secretlovelybeauty @meher-sumedha @imsointobooks @flora-shadowshine @positivewitch

#gwynriel #gwynriel fanfic #gwynriel fanfiction #gwyn x azriel #gwyneth berdara #azriel shadowsinger #fanfiction #ao3

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the-silentium · 3 years

Text

Featuring a Cyborg and a Magician

Masterlist

Pairing: Bad Batch x Reader, Hunter x Reader, Crosshair x Reader

Words: 5667 words

Warnings: Kayden is a warning of his own.

A/N: Let’s have some fun shall we? I decided that now was the time to include Echo if I ever wanted to include Omega.

Taglist: @clone-rambles / @mandaloriandin / @apathetic-catastrophie / @jenstar1992-2 / @haloangel391 / @lightning-wolffe / @cherrydemon5 / @and-claudia / @lackofhonor / @gaymasonjar / @depthsreturn / @koskareevesismyqueen / @leonidas-banana-phone / @mangoberry43

________________

"Ooooh can I come on this one too?" Kayden clapped his hands excitedly like a child, his eyes wide in anticipation and nearly bouncing on his seat.

As it turned out, taking him with you all wasn't hard. It only required a Batcher to have your wooden crest in their possession for him to be able to follow them in a 3 klicks radius and his presence on missions had helped on the two previous ones he slipped himself in.

Retrieving heavily guarded data was a walk in the park when you could have someone walk in there like a tourist, search around for his objective while ignoring the commands of the clankers surrounding him and laugh as the friendly fire killed a majority of the enemy forces.

He even managed to detonate a malfunctioning bomb by walking right up to it, press the button to blow up the whole base and pop back into the Marauder in a second, whistling like it was nothing. Correcting the error in the programming would have taken too much time and the chances of a Batcher being hurt would have risen exponentially with each passing second.

He was a precious ace up your sleeves… when he wasn't a shit digger.

Unsurprisingly, his not-so-hidden talent was to create chaos wherever he passed. It was true back in Alryan, it was still true in the Havoc Marauder. Many new rules were created to ensure that nothing too awkward happened and to keep a somewhat control over the situation.

Rule number one: Kayden had to be visible at all times when in the ship, the only exception to the rule being when people outside the Batch were around. Two: the barracks were off-limits as he didn't sleep and there were established relationships aboard that liked to have their private alone time. Then came rule number three: do not be a nuisance. This command encompassed the pranks, the whining and the fact that he couldn't be seen or else the Batch would be in deep problems.

"General Skywalker is a Jedi, Kayden. What if he can sense you? Or worse, what if he sees you? What do you want us to tell him?"

Cody's debrief has been short and a bit too vague to your liking. Usually, he was more concise but then again, you've rarely worked with Jedis before. In the nearly two years you passed with them, it only happened once and it was a memorable experience.

Watching those two peacekeepers fight from your seat in the Havoc Marauder left you in awe. Their movements and grace made a straining fight look so easy and- "Dunno. That he should stop doing spices?"

Kayden said it with such nonchalance that you nearly got whiplash at how quick you turned to face him, although you did choke on air at the mere idea of insulting a General that can use the Force.

"No. You're sitting this one out. We can't risk blowing her cover if he can link you to her and Fors." Hunter intervened while getting his armor on, just like the rest of the team.

"He could be useful during the recon part of the mission." Tech pointed out, adjusting his pauldrons. "There are still a lot of unknown variables in this operation and his abilities could be desirable on the field."

"Yeah what he said." Kayden's arms crossed at his chest. You rolled your eyes at his childishness and finished strapping your custom chestplate on to get to your rerebraces and vambraces.

"If you can refrain from pulling tricks on everyone and follow orders that is." Tech added with a heavy look. If it managed to get his attention away from his datapad, then it was a really important point.

"I can do that." You would have laughed at how definite he sounded, but Crosshair beat you to it.

"Right." The sniper sneered and you smirked. Now that he could get away with pretty much anything, Kayden often took pleasure in disturbing the grey-haired clone and rile him up until you had to intervene or Crosshair would blow a fuse.

"You ass-"

"The answer's still no. We successfully completed missions with bigger holes in them than this one. We'll manage." Hunter put an end to the debate just as he slipped his helmet on his head.

"Yeah cuz y'all like big holes, eh?" Since he was losing, he retreated to his old habits. You kind of felt bad for him. You knew he was bored of staying on the ship. Hells, even you who were the assigned pilot had more fun in this thin can because you could actually fly it. All he could do was watch all days long and wait all nights long.

"Better stop talking now." Crosshair too slipped his bucket on and grabed his rifle for a last inspection.

"Or you'll hit me?" Smugness dripped from each of his words, a daring look in his eyes.

"Let's not get there, shall we?" You showed him the Core between your fingers, that he knew you could control his density with. Wrecker happily tested your theory a while back.

"No thank you." Kayden conceded defeat, hands in the air and slumped in his seat behind you, arms crossed.

________

The recon went well if you based yourself on the fact that everyone was still in one piece, regs and Batchers alike. There was no denying that you were worried Crosshair would cause too much problem to the boys in blue. It seemed like there was tension between them and your abrasive boyfriend, but nothing too dangerous.

As the Marauder's pilot, you stayed behind with the ship and by extension, Kayden, who whined the whole time about not being able to enjoy his time as a ghost.

"I'm still young! Now's the time to enjoy myself! Not when I'll be an old rat like that chandeler."

"Chancelor." You'd correct him on the title, but not on the old rat. You had to admit that he did give off that vibe. As for his age, you actually had no idea if he was still aging or not.

You admired your work, the ship was in order, every supply has been replenished in the boys' absence, the fuels tanks were full to the brim and all that was missing for the ship to be complete was the crew of walking testosterone.

A couple of hours later they arrived and you fussed over them. None were injured, to your relief, and everyone headed to bed for a short night of sleep. Everyone who could sleep, that is.

You knew it'd be awkward to have a Jedi on board so you geared up quickly, wolfed down your plain food that the GAR dared call a breakfast and put your whole armor on, deadset on keeping your helmet on until the mission was over. Not even Crosshair managed to take it off you for a kiss.

"It'll be fine." He'd reassured you with that soft tone he only reserved for his time alone with you. The following keldabe kiss put you more at ease.

The effect only lasted an hour.

Shortly after, the General entered the ship with his Captain in tow and you set course on Skako Minor.

You had managed to lay low for a good part of the trip with your Bad Batch fashioned bucket on and some good old shut-your-mouth. The boys at the back kept all the attention, Kayden remained invisible and civilized, while you navigated the ship alongside Tech.

Everything was alright until you felt Skywalker's gaze taking you in, up and down slowly just like the two Jedis a year ago. He analyzed you the same manner they both did, with an attentive eye and- you couldn't see it but you were sure it was there- a small frown. Your heartbeat picked up again and you forcefully swallowed the lump in your throat.

Tech's theory about your origins being somehow mixed with the Jedis' must be true to some extent. Three out of three force users took a special interest in you and you were sure what got their attention was the weird wave of energy traveling between you.

He approached the front of the ship and you could now see his scrunched eyebrows, his head slightly tilted to the side, still trying to figure out what was special about you.

Heat raised to your cheeks under your helmet, every muscle in your legs contracted to keep you from listening to your fears of being separated from your newfound family and run away. There was nowhere to run anyway, you weren't in the jungle anymore.

Would he try to invade your mind like Wrecker said? Would he find out who you were? Stay calm. Keep your mask on like in the village and it'll be fine. Calm your mind.

After more than a year on this ship, you developed the useful ability to distinguish who was walking where with the mere sound of the person's steps. Each clone had a distinctive footstep and right now, it was Hunter who moved to your side to save your ass. The sore muscles in your legs started relaxing, followed by the drum in your chest. You'd be fine. Hunter will have it under control.

Then, right before Hunter could intervene, General Skywalker suddenly gripped his shoulder in a hiss, freezing the blood in your veins. The man looked behind him to find no one close enough to have hurt him and flee. All the others were minding their own business, while Hunter was yet not within arms reach.

"What…"

"General?" Captain Rex inquired after he approached at his CO's sound of pain, the confusion on his features reflected perfectly the one on the brunette's face.

The Jedi stood silent for a moment longer. You felt the energy around him shifting as he searched his surroundings for something. Please do not find him. Please do not find him!

Thank the gods Texh was actually piloting the ship, your attention so completely focussed on the General that you could have rammed into an asteroid the size of a planet.

"It's nothing." He shrugged it off and reported his attention on you. "I don't think no one mentioned a pilot. What's your name trooper?"

Talking to General Skywalker was inevitable and you knew it. You simply didn't think that you'd be stuck in a Kayden-induced stress while doing so.

"Not a trooper, sir." You removed your helmet to show him what you meant and offer him a sheepish smile. "My name's Y/N."

"My apologies. I didn't know the GAR assigned civilians to trooper squads." Again, he eyed you up and down, but you kept your cool this time. He didn't seem to be able to find what was wrong and didn't force an access in your head.

"It's rare but not unheard of. Her abilities with a ship made her a good match for our team and the," He paused to search for an adequate word. "Type of mission we usually do." Tech elaborated on your situation.

"And what type is that?" Rex came closer to get a good look at you and even offer you a hand to shake.

"Downright suicidal, Captain." You managed to genuinely chuckle while shaking his hand in a firm grip. "I'd recommend strapping in, the landing will be a difficult one." You announced as the first turbulence racked the Marauder.

You silently prayed that this situation with the blue-eyed Jedi would be the only difficult part of the mission. Helmet back on, you showed off your skills by landing the ship in a raging storm.

_______

There was very little you could do for Echo without using the Core. After reading through the whole Forsian book about its powers, you learned that it could be used to heal dying planets and basically anything in the galaxy.

Your desire to create or heal a planet was extremely low. However, your desire to heal your comrades was very high. Instead of creating life and whatnot, you used the Core to heal their wounds and keep them safe. So far, no one had been on the verge of death so the crystal passed its time tucked in your pocket that was now closed with a zipper to ensure that it did not slip out.

The book didn't tell whether or not using the Core affected the Force so you refrained from using the golden rock on Echo seeing as Tech and yourself highly supposed that it did, as it was said that the Force was connected to every form of life and the Core was the initial creator of life. There was no way you'd leave hints for General Skywalker to pick.

Echo went off a while ago, looking paler than Kayden, to barge in a strategic debrief with too many Generals for you to ever consider following him. Now that the ship was only composed of members of the Bad Batch, reprimands were in order.

"You hit the General?!" Despite keeping his voice down, the strength in his tone unconsciously caused you to press further into the cushion of your seat in the cockpit.

"I pinched him because he made her uncomfortable." Kayden popped on the Sergeant's left with a scowl of his own. To his credit, he did stay with you in the ship and followed Hunter's orders. You were sure he would have sneaked the crest on someone's backpack like he did on the very mission he attended.

"I was going to intervene." You let them bicker, instead turning to Tech when his hand fell to your armored shoulder.

"I get it that you've had another sort of connection with the General." His curious brown eyes met yours for a whole second.

"Yeah. It was more powerful with him than with the others." You recalled, remembering how the dull hum between you and General Skywalker was way more significant than the one flowing between you and the two previous Jedis.

"I highly suspect that the strength of the bond is influenced by the strength of the Jedi. General Skywalker is known to be quite strong Force-wise." He typed away at his vambrace too fast for you to keep up with his notes. Back-Up peered up at you with her dark eyes, her body wrapped tightly around Tech's vambrace to enjoy the warmth radiating from the electronics below the plastoid. "It seems like you can still feel a particular form of Force despite not being sensitive to it. Surely due to your legacy and your connection to the Core. It is the source of the Force after all."

You nearly yelped when a fist collided with your shoulder. Wrecker's playful punch didn't hurt as much as it scared the shit out of you. "Yes because she's a goddess!"

You sighed at the perpetual reminder that you may or may not be as normal as you'd like to be. Wrecker's excitement was cute and all, but you wanted to be their equal, not some deity that could be perceived as superior or something.

You knew your two boyfriends had been influenced by it at some point. He never told you, but you were certain Crosshair had been intimidated or would use the excuse of you being "better than he was" to belittle himself. He had started distancing himself a little, although you didn't let him the time to get too far and reassured him that you didn't care who or what you were, that all you wanted was to be his. Hunter found himself on the other side of the spectrum. He would often use the excuse of you being a "goddess" to worship you more than necessary. He didn't get it the wrong way like his brother, no, he used it to his advantage, whispering words of adoration and how he could venerate your body all day long. You blushed at the memory of your last worshipping session.

"Am not!"

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"You brought Kayden back! And you healed my blaster burn the other week and you helped that village on Ruusan when their entire crops have been destroyed by the clankers!"

You bit your lip at the reminder of what you did. Tech had been against your intervention, saying that miraculously reappearing crops would be awfully suspicious and could be easily linked to the team. You'd listened in the beginning, but as the day passed, you noticed more and more people hurting from hunger. Kids who couldn't understand why they couldn't satisfy their rumbling stomachs cried their hunger, mothers did their best to not seem affected but from a sharp, adult eye, their suffering was clear.

You weren't an idiot. New crops didn't magically grow back in under a minute. No, deep down you wished that there was a nearby undiscovered meadow, hidden in the dense vegetation, where juicy fruits grew in the trees and small preys liked to play. Edible fungus pullulated through the grass amongst the root vegetables that were already ready to be harvested.

It had been 100% unintentional. You'd thought that this could have been a good idea and the next thing you knew, a kid came back running with two round fruits in his hands, holding them like they were treasures and claiming that there was “infinite” more. Needless to say, the kid's overstatement gave you a heart attack and won you a lecture by not only Tech but Hunter too. Up to this day, you never regretted accidentally helping them. Not when the kids were cheering in glee at the food and the moms were relieved to the point of spilling some tears.

"She's a what who did what?" A voice rang out from the Havoc Marauder's entrance, sending your heartbeat and body heat through the roof.

Echo stood there in his new armor, courtesy of Clone Force 99's armor surplus from when Tech developed your own custom model, a deep frown deforming his tired features.

For a split second, everyone stood there, frozen in place, until Crosshair harshly pulled the clone inside and hit the buttons near the door to lift the ramp. Should have done that sooner. You could at least be relieved that he was alone and not accompanied by either his Captain or General.

"Who's that?" Echo added once he realized he'd walked in a confidential conversation and that everyone was wracking their brains to find a suitable lie. His features hardened from confusion to suspicion as he shook Crosshair off his arm and stood straighter.

Kayden, who was still poking Hunter's chest plate, clapped his hands once and kept them pressed together. "No one." There was an awkward pause as he met yours and Hunter's gaze and turned to Echo with a wink. "Don't do spices." He uselessly added before vanishing.

The gloved hand flying to your forehead was purely unintentional. Idiot!

"What was that?! Where did he go?" The clone took a step backward, his eyes moving around frantically.

"He's- eh-" Hunter was the first to attempt to defuse the situation. He was a good liar. Knew what signs to avoid, how to keep his vitals as normal as possible and had quite a quick reply. The thing was, Echo had had enough time to see that Kayden wasn't just the fruit of his imagination and the moron even talked. The alarmed expression on Wrecker's face wasn't helping either.

Considering all the factors, you decided that Hunter's lie would not do. "Echo, calm down. Let us explain." You abandoned your seat to get closer.

"How can I trust what you say when you hide things from the GAR and that- the man that was there- he…" He tripped on his words and guilt washed over you. The poor man passed years at the Techno Union's mercy, was brainwashed, butchered up and patched back up with mechanical pieces. He was already lost and confused and what he overheard wasn't helping.

"Big words coming from you." Your jaw tightened as soon as Crosshair cut him off, the toothpick between his lips moving from one side of his mouth to the other.

Echo bristled at the attack. "What does that mean?"

"You've been a Separatist puppet for quite some time, selling the GAR every time you could. Now, how do we know you won't be selling us out?" He grabbed his toothpick and threw it with a flick to the white and blue chestplate before you could even lift your hand to stop him.

"I wasn't in control! I'd never betray the GAR and my brothers!"

"Cross, stop." You put yourself between the sniper and the once reg, your right hand falling on the grey plastoid to keep him at bay and maybe calm his arrogance. You knew his whole demeanor was because he was worried you'd be taken away if Echo decided to report you and what happened with Kayden. You were worried too. Scared even. But it wasn't Echo's fault and you couldn't hold it against him. Talking about such things when still on base had been stupid and reckless.

Crosshair didn't meet your eyes but you knew he'd not interfere when the muscles in his neck relaxed. Your hand fell to your side and you turned to Echo. "My instinct tells me that you're trustworthy, so listen. What I'll tell you must not be repeated outside the Marauder and to no one else."

"Y/N-" Hunter tried to talk you down from telling the truth, a hand softly grabbing on your shoulder to catch your attention.

"It's alright. Echo's a good one." You smiled warmly at the tattooed clone. "I'm not a goddess," You shot a look at Wrecker who nodded his head in contradiction. "But I can create some things at will. Like crops and such." You intentionally forgot to mention the Core. You trusted your gut, but let's not forget that the Lumsins fooled you once. "And the guy you saw was Kayden. He's- eh…"

"Your brother." A voice rang out from nowhere and everywhere, scaring Echo who jumped and hit a console with his elbow.

Silently wishing he did not hit his funny bone, you continued. "Adopted. But yeah. He's that. And he's technically dead."

His eyes grew wide and once again, he seemed to struggle to find the right words."Wh- Did you say dea-"

Sharp knocks on the side of the ship cut the conversation short. "Permission to get in? I hope you're all ready in there!"

Everyone straightened, multiple pairs of eyes fell on the 501st trooper to see how he'd react. Against a majority of the expectations aboard the Marauder, Echo kept his mouth shut.

"Of course General! Sorry about the ramp!" You answered the man outside the door before quickly glancing back at Echo. "If you keep this for yourself, I'll explain more later." You promised and even offered your hand to seal the deal.

After looking at the boys behind you that you were sure looked back at him with hard looks and maybe some distrustful gazes, he nodded once, shook your hand and stepped aside so you could lower the ramp for the blue Captain and his General.

"Welcome back." You smiled before hurrying away to your seat, away from the weird buzzing energy that roared to life once the Jedi walked up the stairs.

______

Flying right towards a Separatist fleet messed with your nerves. Even though you'd previously mentioned trusting the robot-clone, Kayden could easily feel the doubt snaking its way into your mind. Despite everything, you remained calm and focused on your task. As soon as the droid called your permission to land on their big-ass ship, the brunette felt a new wave of pride wash away your worry.

He had to admit, so far your guess had been right. The clone kept his word and didn't mention Kayden or the fact that you were a goddess to any of the men that radiated authority more than testosterone. Because yes, you were a god damn goddess despite you denying it like a vegan that claims to have never cheated on their crazy diet.

So far, you were the only member of the Bad Batch who trusted Echo. Even Wrecker was still torn between accepting the new guy or following his brothers' judgment. As usual Crosshair was nasty towards everyone, Hunter was more on his guard than anything else and Tech, well, Kayden didn't like feeling Tech's emotions. They were so fast and too much was happening at the same time that it gave him terrible headaches. From the look he exchanged with Hunter, though, it was easy to tell how he felt about Echo.

Guess they're like that for every outsider that joins the bubble, Kayden thought. He watched as you landed upside down under the belly of the cruiser and gave your signal to the rest of them.

Time to go!

Sneaking the crest into Wrecker's backpack had been terribly unchallenging. Everyone was concentrated on the mission or on Echo, leaving him all the time in the world to fetch the necklace from under your pillow- yes, he wasn't supposed to be in this room but who listens to rules anyway- pass through the barracks doors and discreetly make his way to Wrecker. No one saw the flying piece of wood and now he could get off this damn ship and maybe even enjoy his time outside.

Kayden jogged and ran with the group, staying invisible for any mortal and mechanical eyes. He watched as Echo proved his loyalty to the Republic and got zapped when he pushed his luck.

So far, he'd been pretty disappointed. He thought a cruiser this size would swarm droids of all sorts, giving him some reason to be out and about. Then Skywalker ran away and the action began. He didn't know if he still had veins and adrenaline, but Kayden felt a surge of energy flow through his whole being. Let the fun begin!

He walked two corridors down so he would not be seen by Rex still following the Bad Batch and messed with the droids' internal circuits. He discovered that his new ghost status allowed him to disrupt electronic systems. Tech wasn't too happy about his learning method, but it was a necessary process.

To his delight, the droids fell like flies under his ministrations and he got to return invisible before the clones even turned the corner. He waited for them, leaning onto the wall with a smug grin on his face. Hunter will love this.

"What happened here?" The blue trooper's steps faltered as he took in the scene. Hunter shook his head with a low grunt while Tech crouched to assess the nearest robot. The Bad Batch already knew what happened, but needed to put on a show nonetheless. The wave of displeasure radiating off every single one of them minus Wrecker nearly made him laugh.

"They seem to have malfunctioned, somehow." Tech provided his best half-truth. There wasn't time to ponder more on the matter as more droids marched their way and thus, Rex accepted the explanation and passed to the next problem.

"There's too many of them!" Kayden scoffed at Rex's statement. Not for this team, bud.

To Kayden's joy, Wrecker got into position. This was his cue.

"Mind a little help?" He smirked at Crosshair who was currently sniping through his body to hit some targets behind him. From his place right over the corner, there was no way Rex could see him. It wasn't the case for Hunter.

"Hell yeah!" Wrecker cheered before charging the first droid.

"Kayden, no." Hunter growled so low he nearly missed it.

"Kayden, yes." He laughed as he popped at the other end of the hallway filled with droids. Wrecker charged at the B-1s, quickly making his way to Kayden's position as he walked between the yellow robots and worked his magic.

He was taking down his 7th victim when movement and loud approaching steps caught his attention. A large pile of droids charged his way and would have knocked him over had he not made himself intangible.

He couldn't control the laugh bubbling out of his mouth at seeing Wrecker throw the droids everywhere. Since the last enemy standing was shaking in fear, Kayden took it as his cue to disappear once more.

"I heard someone." Rex peaked in the scrap-filled hallway, his head moving right and left to try and identify what caught his ears.

"Wrecker?" Hunter asked with an impeccably innocent voice.

"No, not him. It was a laugh. But it wasn't Wrecker." The man was on edge, his senses alert and gun at the ready.

"Didn't hear anything, Captain." Hunter turned to meet Echo's frowning gaze. Brownie points right there! The peak of gratefulness escaping the long-haired clone was subtle, just enough to breach through his irritation. "Perhaps a defect in your helmet, sir."

He knew he'd be in trouble later but it was worth it. Doing nothing on their ship was boring him out of his mind. Maybe he should ask you to get him some wood and wood scissors so at least his nights would be interesting instead of playing with his thumbs and doing castles with the toothpicks he found here and there.

Kayden stayed behind with Crosshair, still invisible to not disturb the guy. Not that he cared, but he was curious to see how the small mirrors he threw on the walls would help. Knowing the sniper, they were all placed perfectly where they should be even if the pattern seemed random.

He may not like the hard-ass clone very much, but he wasn't ashamed to admit that his skills were impressive. They got to the infiltration point where the others were waiting, Skywalker amongst them, and Crosshair got into position. The thought of moving the first mirror passed through Kayden's mind and prickled at his fingertips.

Hunter was a nice target to pick on. Crosshair, not so much.

The mirror stayed in place, allowing Crosshair to execute his awfully impressive shot and take down every single droid marching their way. Without an ounce of doubt, Kayden knew his face was mirroring Wrecker's.

Back in the ship, it didn't take long for Crosshair to find the crest in Wrecker's bag and shove it into Hunter's hands who closed his fist around it. Oopsie.

You piloted the ship back to the GAR base and gracefully landed in the hangar, something Tech never learned to do or didn't care to execute.

Rex and Skywalker exited the ship, the rest of the troops slower to follow.

"Nice job cyar'ika." Hunter carefully touched your helmet with his, once the two men walked out. Both your foreheads touched for a whole second and Kayden felt the bile rise in his throat.

"You boys did all the work as usual." You laughed, your hand lifting to cradle the side of his neck.

From his invisible spot near the door, Kayden saw Echo do a double-take in the corner of his eyes before following Rex down the ramp, Wrecker and Crosshair behind him.

Hunter threw the crest in the barracks, clearly hoping to keep Kayden in the ship while they had to follow their superiors.

Joke's on you! Kayden internally laughed as they stopped within his 3 klicks radius and received their praises.

Just because you were there and still felt uncomfortable whenever weird people with weird energy were around, he remained from doing shits around the hangar. Then it was time to pack up and go. He did look forward to being visible again, it did consume more energy and was a bother to not be able to pull pranks as he did before, but he could interact with people and it was worth it. Hunter's lecture would be a hassle though.

Maybe he should look around for a crate to push on someone before the fun time was over.

Echo, who apparently decided to trust you all despite not knowing the whole truth about you and him, joined the ranks of the infamous Clone Force 69. Watching you all salute, Kayden entertained the thought of kicking Crosshair behind the knee and admire him stumble to the ground. As hilarious as it seemed in his head, he couldn't find the courage to do it.

You all got in, Wrecker removed his armor, Hunter disappeared in the barracks, Tech helped you pilot and Crosshair hovered over your seat. You removed your helmet and briefly smiled up at him. He kept watching you do your stuff until the Marauder was in hyperspace and the autopilot was engaged.

Echo was still looking around, wondering what to do with himself. Kayden walked up to him, still too ghostly to be seen and waited for the right moment.

You stood up to smile once more at the grumpy clone.

"Now kiss!" Kayden loudly broke the silence as soon as he made himself visible and scared the cyborg. He closed an eye and moved his fingers so he was pushing yours and Cross' heads towards each other.

"Why are you the way you are?" You rolled your eyes with an exasperated sigh and moved around Crosshair to get to the barracks with the sniper in tow, a too familiar glare hardening his gaze.

"Do not make fun of me because I was dropped!" Kayden laughed at your retreating forms.

"Wait… I thought she was with Hunter…" Echo trailed off, confused.

"She is! But she's a girl so she's predisposed to love triangles. Ya know, like in their anatomy. Boobs, south pole. Triangle." He traced a triangle in the air, using your body as a reference.

"And wh-who are you again?" Echo inquired, frowning too deeply for his fragile features.

"The Dimwit." He winked with the most suspicious grin on his lips before vanishing into thin air.

Echo ran to the cockpit and stayed close to Tech for the whole evening.

#bad batch x reader #crosshair x reader #tech x reader #wrecker x reader #hunter x reader #sergeant hunter #dimwit's tale #fors #star wars #Clone Wars #clone force 99 #the bad batch

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xbladekitkat85 · 3 years

Text

Do You Remember Now?

Summary: It's Peter's birthday and everyone is planning on a surprise when he wakes up. Except there's a huge problem. Peter's gone missing.

Word count: 4k+

Warnings: Descriptions of violence, swearing, ANGST, mentions of dealing with grief.

A/N: I haven't really written angst before so I don't know how hard it's going to hit. I did tear up at one part while typing so maybe it's a bit heavy???

Peter's disappearance happened when everyone least expected it. It was the morning of his birthday, and all the heroes of the universe were going to be there. It would have been the first reunion in over 5 years where everyone was available to come, Asgardians and Guardians as well. Everyone was going to sneak into Peter's room to wake him up with a collective shout of "SURPRISE!" and pop an unnecessary amount of party poppers all over the room.

Tony peeked inside first to make sure that Peter was still asleep before beckoning everyone inside. But he felt a cold draft flowing from the crack between the door and the doorframe that shouldn't have been possible due to the picture windows.

He entered the room to find the window cut open and various items belonging to Peter scattered on the floor. There was no sign of Peter himself and the excited feeling that Tony had all morning quickly twisted into something he had felt only when Pepper had been taken years ago by Killian.

It was the feeling of debilitating fear.

Tony felt a wave of nausea hit him as various scenarios all ran through his head, each with Peter hurt, scared, or possibly even dead.

Pepper was the first to notice Tony hadn't come to get everyone. He came out of Peter's room after a few minutes more of waiting. But he wasn't acting like the excited father he was only moments before.

"Tony, what's wrong?" She asked, feeling anxiety building up with each second of silence.

Tony turned to look at everyone with a haunted look in his eyes. Pepper recognized it as the same expression he had when he had returned from space after fighting Thanos. Something was horribly wrong, and it had to do with Peter.

"Tony, talk to me. What's happening." Pepper asked gently despite the worry she felt.

"Peter's not there." He whispered hoarsely and turned to look at her. "Pep, we can't lose him again."

Morgan, Carter and Harley had heard what Tony said and they all felt a sharp stab of fear and worry. Morgan felt tears burning in her eyes, and buried her face in Carter's shoulder for a moment to compose herself. Carter held her close and stroked her hair while Harley walked into Peter's room to see it for himself.

Harley looked around the entire space. He checked the closet, the hammock near the ceiling, and the bathroom adjacent to Peter's room to no avail.

"FRIDAY, show me the tower's security activity from 11pm last night up until dad opened Peter's door." Harley requested.

But to everyone's shock, there was no familiar response of, "Sure thing boss." from the speakers throughout the tower.

FRIDAY was out of commission. That meant that somebody had been able to shut down an AI made by Tony Stark, which is no easy feat. This meant someone skilled was behind it and most likely planned the kidnapping with extreme scrutiny.

Nothing about the situation was remotely close to how everyone thought this day was going to go.

"We need to get Friday back online ASAP." Morgan shakily said. "If we are able to access the security cameras, there's a chance we might be able to find a clue."

Carter glanced at Morgan and saw the pain and worry in her eyes, and gently took her hand and squeezed it to reassure her. She squeezed it back to acknowledge his presence.

"Morgan, Harley, and Carter, come with me to my lab. Nat, you reach out to any contacts who may know something. Carol, this is a long shot, but I want you to ask off world allies if they have any clues as well." Tony ordered. "Everyone else start looking around the tower for clues of any sort. If you see anything remotely suspicious, make a note of it."

*Time skip*

Nobody had been able to find a trace of a clue regarding Peter's whereabouts.

Not any of Tony's extensive connections had an idea. Natasha's contacts hadn't heard any chatter about a kidnapping or hostage. Carol came up empty from every person she had asked but that wasn't unexpected.

Morgan had been back to school and Carter was supportive whenever she needed reassurance. But after a month of no news, or leads, she was starting to lose the little hope she had left. Peter would promise her before every mission, that he would come home safe and sound. But this time he hadn't come home. She didn't even know where he had gone.

Harley became fixated on building tracking devices, scanners, homing beacons, anything that could help find his brother. Harley had promised to always help Peter if he was in a pinch, regardless of how annoying he could be sometimes.

Tony had shut himself in his lab to fix FRIDAY and go through everything he could think of that could offer some sort of sign, a clue, a word, literally anything to bring Peter back home. He had invented time travel to bring him back so why couldn't he do something as simple as finding a clue? Peter would probably point out an error in his work that would solve his problem but now that wasn't possible.

Pepper busied herself by concentrating on running Stark Industries. Whenever she got the chance, she would drag Tony and Harley out of their labs to eat meals with her. God knows those two would forget to eat if nobody reminded them that food and water was an essential part of living. Peter would usually take care of that but since his disappearance, she took up the job.

Everyone felt a piece of their family was missing. But nobody said his name out loud, even though everyone thought about him.

It just hurt too much to hear his name knowing that by now he was likely dead. That he was never coming home.

And time would continue to pass, as the pain of losing Peter would too.

Until one day, on a mission, everything changed.

*6 months after Peter's disappearance*

HYDRA had suddenly resurfaced with no warnings whatsoever.

They had set off Tony's alert system designed to warn of threats, and a group immediately suited up. Having HYDRA stirring up trouble was never a good sign, especially since they were supposed to be gone. But as the saying goes, "Cut one head off, two more take it's place."

The team that had gone to check out the threat consisted of the original 6 Avengers as well as Harley, Bucky, Kate, and Wanda. Upon arriving at the location that had set off the alarm, they noticed that another group of people were there as well. One person among them in particular stood out to the OG Avengers. Before anyone could make a move, all the Avengers were suddenly knocked down, and tied up so they couldn't move.

"Hey, I found these guys lurking around. Who are they?" An unfamiliar voice asked.

"Yo-Yo, you can let them go. We're friends. Well, at least most of us are, those three I haven't met. It's alright."

All the OG 6 Avengers felt a cold shock run through their bodies. That voice belonged to someone they thought was dead since the Battle of New York.

"Agent Coulson?" Tony asked in shock.

"It's former Director actually and yes, I'm alive." Coulson replied, as everyone was untied by Yo-Yo.

"There's no way." Natasha said as she stood up. "Fury would have said something sooner. And when were you Director of SHIELD?"

"I'm sorry, Nat, but he meant to keep it a secret from all of you. Me being resurrected." Coulson said with regret in his voice. "Said that if you knew, it would have distracted you from your goal."

"Steve, who is this guy?" Bucky asked in confusion.

Coulson's eyes widened in a very comical way when he noticed who had just spoken.

"Sergeant Barnes. It's an honor to meet you." He said, holding out a hand to shake.

Bucky took Coulson's hand to shake and noticed that his hand was not a real hand.

"Your hand... It's mechanical isn't it?" Bucky asked curiously.

"How much has happened with you since we last saw each other?" Steve asked.

"A lot. And we'll talk about it later after we take care of this HYDRA base. I assume that's why you're all here." Coulson said, gesturing to the other group.

"Yes, well, let's introduce the new members of our teams and then make a plan." Steve said.

Coulson informed his team of the change of plans. Everyone on Coulson's team met up for introductions.

"Daisy Johnson, aka Quake. She has the ability to manipulate natural vibrations as well as generate concussive blasts of vibrating air. Elena "Yo-Yo" Rodriguez. She is able to travel at superhuman speeds within the timeframe of a beat of her heart before she bounces back. Hence the nickname, Yo-Yo. Melinda May, expert martial artist, pilot and empath. Mack, Deke, and FitzSimmons are on the Bus right now. You'll meet them later."

Everyone on Tony's side acknowledged their names and took note of their abilities and powers.

"Ok, for the new faces on our side, we have Barnes, the Winter Soldier, who you already know, Wanda, she's got telekinesis and can read minds, Kate, she's Clint's protege, slash eventual replacement and Harley, my oldest kid, who built his own suit." Tony said, introducing the group.

Daisy leaned over to Yo-Yo.

"Tony Stark has kids?" She whispered.

"How the hell would I know?" She responded. "I'm not the former groupie member here."

Daisy glared half heartedly at her.

"I said it was one time!"

"Not my fault you got drunk and told me that story." She shot back.

"Hey, focus we're not here to argue." May interrupted. "We have a mission."

Everyone quickly formed a plan and they all entered the base.

Yo-Yo ran through the halls to assess the amount of security as well as any potentially dangerous weapons. When she was done, she gave the report to Coulson and Tony so they could split their team accordingly.

"May, Harley, Kate, Captain Rogers, Wanda, and I will be one group. Daisy, Yo-Yo, Nat, Clint, Sergeant Barnes, and Tony will be the other. " Coulson explained. "Dr. Banner will be here on comms just in case. I've synced the signal our comms travel on so we're on the same channel. We're going to be split up, so only call for help if necessary. We have about equal amounts of power on each side, so take advantage of every opportunity if need be. Let's go."

Everyone nodded and headed off with their respective groups to raid the base.

(A/N Tony's team will be written in bold and Coulson's team in regular text to avoid unnecessary writing)

Wanda lead the group through the hallways, with May taking out the first few guards easily. Coulson shot ICER bullets at the ones May couldn't focus on while Harley made sure every guard was unconscious. Cap and Kate ran ahead to scout out the next few corridors and the rest of the group quickly followed.

Daisy knocked down the first wave of guards and Yo-Yo tied all of them up while Nat, Clint, Tony and Bucky advanced deeper into the building. A group of guards wielding batons and handguns immediately appeared in their path, blocking the way. Clint shot arrows into the walls that released smoke to obscure the soldiers vision and aim. Tony took advantage of their disorientated state and used heat signature seeking taser blasts to knock them out.

Cap almost got a punch to the face while he rounded a corner but he leaned to the side, barley avoiding it. Kate quickly rushed in and used the man's momentum to flip him over her shoulder into the wall while Cap recovered and punched another soldier trying to attack Kate from behind.

"Thanks." She said, a bit out of breath.

"No problem. Incoming from both sides, get ready." He replied, standing nearly back to back with Kate.

"You got it, Cap." She said, readying her bow.

He threw his shield at the closest guard while Kate shot multiple electric arrows at the hallway in front of her, effectively creating a bolt of electricity that hit multiple targets. They quickly rotated in sync and they repeated the same attacks as before, with Cap taking out the last of the soldiers in his way and Kate knocking out hers.

Tony watched Yo-Yo as she sped forward to scout the next hallway. He couldn't help but think of Pietro Maximoff, and how similar their powers seemed to be. Of course, Yo-Yo bounced back while Pietro didn't. He just kept going forward and never looked back.

Before he could even blink she had returned to the group.

"There's about a dozen guards outside a set of reinforced double doors." She said. "They're guarding something important."

"That's why we're here though. HYDRA has some weapon or something they plan on using, right?" Daisy asked. "Why else would they have resurfaced?"

"It's never a good sign when there's that much security outside an already pretty secure door." Clint added.

"They couldn't have possibly made anything more dangerous than supersoldiers." Bucky muttered.

"I wouldn't put it past HYDRA to find a way to do it." Nat said. "We got to make a plan. We can't just charge in."

Coulson's group had reached the end of the last hallway on their side. There wasn't anything at all to take as evidence or to destroy.

"It can't just be a dead end." Coulson said in disbelief. "There's gotta be a secret door or something at least."

Harley snorted at his complaint.

"I mean that's would I would have done." Kate said thoughtfully. "There wasn't anything of importance on our side of the base. So it makes sense that there's something we're missing."

Cap walked forward and proceeded to rap his knuckles on the wall.

"Whatcha doing there Cap?" Harley joked. "Hoping the secret door will open if you politely knock?"

Cap had moved to the left wall and knocked on it as well.

"He's checking to see if any of the walls sound more hollow than the others." May interjected. "It's a smart idea. It could reveal a hidden room or passage that isn't visible to the naked eye."

Wanda turned to Harley with a raised brow.

"Hey, can't you scan through walls with your suit? That would make this go a lot faster." She asked sarcastically.

Harley froze and everyone turned to look at him.

"Yeah, that would have made this a lot easier." Coulson said wryly.

"I'll get on it." Harley said sheepishly.

He scanned all the walls around them and eventually started walking in another direction.

"This way. There's a room further this way that I can't see through with the scanner. It seems to be lined with lead, which means x-ray scanners won't do the job. Whatever we need to find must be there." He said.

Everyone quickly followed Harley's lead as he walked down the halls, eventually leading them to where the other group had gathered in front of heavy looking doors. The soldiers that had presumably been standing guard were incapacitated on the floor.

(End of bold/regular text switches)

The entire group was preparing to enter the room they stood in front of. Whatever HYDRA had been working on had to be here. Nowhere else in the building had anything significant and this was the final stop.

The door had a keypad that required a passcode as well as a biometric scan. Of course, they could try using the guards to try to pass the retinal scan but there wasn't any guarantee they had access. Of course, they had to deal with the code as well. Maybe physical force would work.

Tony scanned the door's material and found that it was capable of taking the strongest hit from his and Harley's suit combined.

"All right, does anyone else have any brilliant ideas on how to enter this room?" He asked "I don't have enough firepower for this door."

Coulson turned to Daisy and nodded his head.

"Do your thing." He said.

She rolled her eyes and approached the keypad to the door and forced the device to open, revealing circuit boards and wires.

"What is she doing?" Harley asked in confusion. "I thought she could blast through stuff?"

Daisy took out a small tablet and hooked it to the keypad, quickly typing out code and breaking through the security.

"You're lucky I still carry a tablet, Coulson. We would have been in trouble otherwise."

Tony was impressed and slightly scared of how fast she broke through HYDRA's mainframe of security. He made a mental note to update his security system as well as FRIDAY's firewalls.

After a couple minutes of rapid typing, the door opened with a hiss of cold air.

"Remind me to change all my passwords on my social media." Harley said to his suit's AI.

"All right, lets see what HYDRA has been working on." Coulson announced. "Prepare yourselves for anything."

They walked into the room and immediately, everyone noticed the change of temperature compared to the rest of the base.

FRIDAY informed Tony that it was 10 degrees in the room and understandably, everyone was shivering.

Tony walked a bit further and then stopped suddenly. He felt his blood run colder than the room itself.

Coulson had said to be prepared for anything but he clearly didn't have this in mind of the things he needed to steel himself for.

"Oh my god." Kate whispered. "Is it?"

"Peter?" Harley asked in disbelief.

Tony's son was in the corner of the room, curled up in the fetal position, and unresponsive to the world around him.

"FRIDAY, scan for any vital signs." Tony asked desperately.

"He's got a pulse, but I believe he may be in a comatose state. He is also dehydrated and malnourished."

Coulson's team didn't know who this Peter was, but they knew based on everyone else's reaction that he was someone who had been missing for a long time.

"FitzSimmons, do you read me?" Coulson said into his earpiece.

"Yes sir, what's wrong?" Jemma's voice replied.

"We need you to set up the medbay immediately. Get an IV drip sufficient for dehydration as well as malnutrition." Coulson ordered. "We also need heat lamps, if you got any."

"Right away sir." She replied.

Steve picked Peter up and everyone followed him out of the base, back to safety.

*Time skip to returning to New York*

Morgan had been in the middle of a meeting for student council when her watch buzzed. Although it wasn't unusual for that to happen, this time it was buzzing in a pattern that meant there was an emergency that she could not ignore.

"May I be excused to go to the bathroom?" She asked the teacher, who nodded her approval.

She grabbed the hall pass and made her way to the bathroom and checked to see what the message was.

The message was from Harley and what he had sent broken down the walls of composure she had been building for 6 months.

Morgan, we found Peter. We're almost back to the tower and mom's picking you and Carter up. We'll tell you more when you get here.

She sank to the floor and started to sob.

How was this possible?

Where had he been?

How was he alive?

Was he still alive?

More and more questions ran through her head and she finally calmed down enough to exit the bathroom without looking like she had just had a breakdown. When she walked back into the classroom she was handed a summons to leave early.

She arrived at the attendance office and Carter was already there, waiting for her with Pepper by his side.

They all hugged for a good long while and they all cried a bit before Happy started to drive to the tower to meet up with everyone.

"Mom? Is he alive?" Morgan asked hoarsely.

She was silent for a bit before replying.

"He's alive but he's in a coma of sorts."

"Do we know why?" Carter asked.

"Dad said it was extensive exposure to frigid temperatures and that the spider DNA caused him to hibernate because of it." She answered.

"Do we know when he's supposed to wake up?" Carter questioned.

"I don't know honey." Pepper said honestly. "We have to hope for the best."

Morgan felt her heart sink in her chest as they pulled into the parking garage.

Everyone got out as soon as the car was parked and rushed to the elevator.

"FRIDAY, take us to the medbay where Peter is." Pepper said.

"Right away miss." She replied.

They made it to the medbay in record time and rushed to Peter's bedside, where he was still asleep.

Morgan almost didn't recognize that it was Peter in the bed.

His face was unnaturally pale and gaunt and he had lost weight, his frame looking thinner and weaker because of it. His hair was longer than she had ever seen it before and was tangled in knots. He had multiple bruises scattered around his body that should have been healed.

Tony and Harley walked into the room soon after and Morgan hugged them both extra tightly as she let out months worth of fear and anxiety in the form of tears.

"Shhhh, Maguna, it's ok, he's home." Tony whispered. "Breathe, you have to breathe."

"I thought he was dead." She sobbed into his chest.

"I know, but he's here now, everything's going to be ok." Tony reassured her gently.

Carter and Pepper joined in the hug and they all comforted each other.

Peter was finally home, where he belonged.

And he was about to wake up from his slumber.

"Hello?" a voice said, cracking in the middle of the word. "Where 'm I?"

Harley turned his head towards Peter so fast he almost gave himself whiplash.

"He's awake!" He said.

Everyone let go from the hug to gather around Peter's bed.

"Peter, are you ok? How do you feel?" Carter asked.

Peter turned to look at Carter.

"Who're you?" He asked confusedly.

Peter looked at all the people standing by his bed.

"Who are you guys?" He asked. "What am I doing here?"

Everyone's hearts collectively sank at his question.

Peter didn't remember anyone in this room. He couldn't recall his family. What had HYDRA done to him?

"Peter, we're your family." Morgan explained shakily. "I'm Morgan, your little sister. That's Harley, your brother, Carter, my boyfriend. That's mom and dad over there. Don't you remember at all?"

Morgan's voice broke as she asked him that question.

Peter looked at everyone's faces, one by one, trying his best to remember them but he couldn't. His memories were blank with a capital 'B'.

"Maybe photos or videos might help?" Carter offered weakly.

"FRIDAY pull up video footage from the folder, Family Shenanigans."

FRIDAY displayed footage from the timeframe that the Avengers were playing pool in the rec room.

Tony was on a team with Carter and Harley and Morgan were on the other. Peter and Pepper were watching them play from the side.

"Come on Harley, you can do better than that!" Tony teased as he put chalk on his cue stick. "Morgan's been carrying your team the whole game."

"No way, I've hit at least half of our balls in the pockets!" Harley protested, even though he knew he was spouting bullshit.

"I've done two behind the back shots and made them, how many have you done?" Morgan piped in, absolutely decimating Harley, the Roast King himself.

Everyone burst out laughing at her comeback and Tony immediately fell to the floor from laughter and pounded his fist on the ground.

Morgan had never seen her dad laugh so hard at something, let alone everyone else, including Natasha, who usually never let more than a chuckle out when she found something hilarious.

"WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON ANYWAY?!" Harley yelled at her over all the laughter.

"That's my sister!" Peter said proudly, with tears of laughter in his eyes.

Friday played other videos taken during random moments, as well as displaying photos. Everyone took turns explaining what had happened that day and why it was special. Peter asked questions here and there and everyone answered patiently and with extra detail to help.

Eventually, they had gone through the entire folder and Morgan glanced at Peter to see if there was a flicker of recognition at all.

"Do you remember now?" She asked him softly.

Peter had tears in his eyes as he answered.

"I'm so sorry." He said.

Morgan wanted to scream her heart out. He still didn't remember his family. She didn't know if he ever would.

"I've been gone so long, and HYDRA erased my memories. But you guys were able to find me before they could finish the job for good." He said, finishing what he had wanted to say. "I do remember you guys. I can't believe I ever forgot how much everyone here means to me."

Pepper let out a gasp as she nearly tackled him in a hug. Everyone felt a huge weight lift from their shoulders as Peter laughed weakly at everyone's faces.

"Peter, don't you ever scare us like that again!" Harley scolded with tears running down his face.

"That was a shitty thing to do, seriously." Carter said, annoyed but mostly relieved that Peter was back.

"Peter, never forget how much we love you." Tony said, wiping a tear away from his cheek.

"I can't believe you're back." Morgan said, smiling despite the fact she was still crying a bit.

"I'm here, and I won't be leaving you guys like that again." Peter replied. "I mean, I'm bedridden at the moment anyway."

Everyone groaned at his joke before a group hug formed around Peter.

Everything was as it should always have been.

A/N: Here's a little fun fact about this chapter, the part where Morgan roasts Harley is based on something that happened within my family a couple years ago. In my family's version, I was on a team with my cousin and my dad and another cousin were on the other team. The dialogue is basically word for word what happened. I roasted my cousin, and my everyone started laughing, and my dad literally fell to the floor and was pounding his fist on the ground.

Taglist: @frostedgiant

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writingmyheartsout · 3 years

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I’ll be good..(..for all of the times that I never could)

Another fluff December story...this one is sweet and a bit sad...and long (for my own standards). Although the length, it’s an easy read like the rest of the series...i just get wordy sometimes..

An au where Dogma doesn’t get to prison and gets reassigned to the Coruscant Guards.

There may be errors but @plexflexico said it was good so i trust her <3

warnings: sadness, light mention of war, tears

pairing: Dogma x reader

words: almost 2k (so the full story is under the cut)

prompt: standing/sitting quietly together

so anyway, Dogma never had a tag number canonically, so for the sake of the story i made it up.

Flashbacks in italic

As soon as the news was made public, the first thing Dogma thought was to see you, to hold you, to be soothed just like you were able to do... so, as soon as it was possible, he left his station, in spite of orders, and ran, ran through the narrow streets of Coruscant, past all the different levels of the city until he found himself in front of your door, but he didn't have time to even knock that you opened the door.

There were no words, you just stared at each other for a moment and the second after he hugged you there on the doorstep, holding you against him as if he was afraid you might disappear at any minute, burying his face in the crook of your neck and finally breaking into tears. He felt overwhelmed, by everyone and everything, and being in your arms right now was the only happy place he could think of wanting to be. Celebrations would surely follow but none of those mattered to him now, he just craved silence and warmth after all the chaos he had suffered.

When you two first met it was purely by accident, he was on his way to his reassignment to the Coruscant Guards after the whole mess that was Umbara and you were there to make a complaint. In fact, right after the last sweep on the lower levels, your diner had suffered some serious property damage and you were looking for a solution, even if it meant going up to the ground level and pestering some troopers.

Both of you were in the lounge area, you had just done yelling at some young boy whose armor wasn't quite red enough yet, who assured you that one of the Commanders would come down to talk to you and that he was sorry for the whole thing, he was just waiting to be received by Commander Fox himself, with his new armor as pristine and white as the first time he was off Kamino.

"What did you do?" you asked as soon as you entered the room, bored and tired of wasting any more time.

"Excuse me?" he answered in confusion, barely turning his head to look at you and trying to figure out if he had seen you somewhere before.

"I mean, did you break any laws or ... code that all you guys have?" you repeated, not entirely interested in what he might have to say, you were just looking for something to help pass the time.

"They're called regulations" he pointed out in annoyance..." and I don't think it's any of your business why I'm here" he added then, with a visible frown on his face.

"Alright...okay" you gave up, raising your hands in mock surrender "...it was just a question".

He didn't answer you further, due to the fact that another soldier showed up right after, his armor red from head to toe, who called him into his office.

"CT-5390, Dogma..come with me, I already have your new assignment," he instructed authoritatively, he had his helmet tucked under his arm but he still instilled fear.

Then he turned to you briefly, looking you dead in the eyes.

"I heard about your complaint, I'll let you know that Commander Stone will be here in a minute" and with that, he turned around and left.

Dogma, in response, quickly stood up and followed him but not before looking briefly in your direction and politely saying...

"good day, ma'am" followed by a slight nod of his head.

"Are you okay?" you asked him moments later.

He was still in your arms, hugging you as much as he could, refusing to let go of you and he didn't care how tired he might feel, he needed to feel whole again.

"No..." he cried, another sob slipping from him.

"What else can I do to make you feel better?" you pressed again.

" Just hold me... I don't need anything else right now..." he answered quietly, his words slightly muffled by your shirt.

"Okay... but you might catch a cold out here..." you stated.... " get inside, come sit on the couch at least."

"Okay..." he replied, pulling slightly away from you.

He was tired, you could see it on his face, but there was also some kind of relief underneath, a renewed hope that hopefully would turn into a new beginning with him.

Once he was settled on your couch, you remained up in front of him, arms around his neck, watching him softly.

"So tell me, what exactly happened?"

The second time you saw him, he was out patrolling your level with a new squad of troopers, nothing much just overall security, considering that all the main battalions had been sent off to war and two of the Commanders were unavailable, there wasn't much else to do.

You were late for your shift, the second time this week, by this point you already knew that your friend and business partner was going to be very pissed.

It was just a week since you had reopened and things still weren't going so well.

As you tried to send a message while picking up your pace, you didn't notice what was in front of you and soon ran into a hard surface that turned out to be a trooper's armor

"oof...sorry" you quickly apologized..." I didn't see where I was going...I was in a rush"

"Don't worry, ma'am...are you okay?" the trooper in front of you promptly said, taking off his helmet quickly.

"Yeah...I guess," you started to say...but once you got a better look at him, you realized...

"Dogma?..." it slipped out of your mouth even before you could stop yourself, however when you saw his confused expression you added...." I... sorry, I'm good at memorizing names, I remember them very quickly and you probably don't remember me either...".

For the first time in your life, under his curious gaze, you were feeling slightly self-conscious.

"I... I have to say I feel like I know you..." he stuttered out at first, only to regain his composure shortly after"... I'm sorry, I'm still on duty, ma'am... we have to finish our shift for today..." he then said putting his helmet back on.

"Well, yeah sure... I have to get going too anyway, but if you... or the others are tired later, come by my diner, you can't miss it, it's the only one with the bright green sign with a snake on it..." you offered, addressing them all but with your attention still on Dogma, only to run off afterward.

After that he stood there for several seconds more, watching you leave, still baffled that anyone could even remember his name...

That very same night, after they finished their shift, the entire squad came over to your diner and although Dogma was still a little hesitant to let himself go, you still were able to get him to relax a bit.

He heartily smiled at your question...

So much had happened since you'd last seen each other, he'd been gone for weeks and everything had changed in a matter of seconds.

"Where do I start?..." he said.

"Wherever you want... anything you want to tell me," you just told him ... "I'm here to listen, Dogma...like I always do."

Oh, how he had missed you, your patience, the way you talked to him, the way you actually listened no matter what he had to said and the love you had for him that he felt like he didn't always deserve.

"The war is over... but you already know that," he stated.... "it seems like it's always been an inside job," eventually adding more, trying to better explain.

You just nodded to his words, giving him the time to process all the things he had been through.

" Alright, are you okay? And how is everyone else?..." you tried for more, without overstressing him.

"I...I'm fine, I guess," he admitted, wrapping his arms around you again and placing his head on your stomach..." as for the others... I actually don't know, I just...I just heard that all battalions had been ordered to return."

"...and that's good...now, what do you need?" you again asked .... "what can I do for you?"

"I just want to sleep...and keep hugging you, please" he mumbled, eventually calming down.

His pure confession made you chuckle at how honest and lovely it was but watching him relax in your arms made your heart a little tighter.

After that, you met again, rather by chance.

It was at the Guard's general offices, the time he was stationed there handling paperwork and you were there with yet another complaint. What had happened was pretty simple, one of your suppliers was blocked just off the planet and had been denied landing, making your job a lot slower and almost impossible. So the best solution you could think of was going straight to the source and asking what was going on.

When you arrived, there was no one around and the offices were mostly empty except for one, so you tried your luck and went to see if anyone could help you out and fix this mess...

"Hi, is there someone I can ask about a complaint?..." you inquired, peeking into the room.

"Nature of the problem? ..." the trooper replied, visibly annoyed...

"Security...I think..." you began to explain and as you quickly stepped inside... "one of my suppliers has been denied access to the planet, I would like to know why" you continued, asking the man in front of you, although his attention was still on the report in front of him.

"Suspected smuggling most likely...but it could be worse" he vaguely stated.... " freighter model and cargo description?" he then added further still without ever looking up.

"A VCX-100, an old model actually, and it was just my monthly supply of Meiloorun juice and Corellian beer" you pointed out...". Roj is not a smuggler, I've known him since he was a little boy" you replied a little more vehemently, putting both hands on the desk and getting closer to the trooper.

"Now, take a good look at me, and help me sort out this little problem... partly because I don't want any more hassle with you."

"Listen, ma'am..." he began, lifting his head and finally looking at you.... going speechless for a brief moment.

It was you once again, and even though he was dead tired... he felt strangely happy to see you.

"Oh..." you yelped, taken aback to see that it was Dogma "...sorry...".

"No, please...I'm...I was just really tired..." he quickly apologized.... "please, take a seat and tell me again about what happened."

Despite the initial rough start, your problem was quickly solved and on that same day, you also learned how, the trooper called Dogma, was indeed nice and quite talkative, despite an initial wariness. You left the office a few hours later with a smile on your face, but not before leaving him your personal contact…

Days passed after that night, many others after the day that changed all, things around you were now beginning to shift and improve for the better.

When others only saw a traitor once, someone who wasn’t worthy enough love and attention, you saw a man who loved too much and ended up broken, a man who needed directions and assurance, not just orders and rules, a man who now was free from everything that used to hold him back and ready to live once again.

For this personal fluff December i wanted to do more, but time and real life is not by my side...so that means that there will be just another one (i have to choose who..) Unfortunately i don’t cope very well with stress so i usually write small...

Anyway, hope you like it :)

reblogs, comments or just generals interactions are welcome :)

#star wars the clone wars #star wars #current fandom: star wars the clone wars #dogma x reader #dogma needs more love #dogma is underrated #i love him very much your honor #clone wars fanfics #star wars fanfiction #star wars writing #writemyheartsout's writing

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self-loving-vampire · 3 years

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Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny (1988)

Summary

Ultima 5 is what you could call Ultima 4′s edgier but “cooler” sibling. The gameplay has gained in complexity, dialogue has been greatly expanded, and the ground-breaking system of virtues and morality from the previous game has been twisted by the tyrannical Lord Blackthorn following the disappearance of Lord British.

Ultima 5 also introduces more of a day/night cycle to the proceedings with the introduction of NPC schedules, enabling a level of world simulation that was very new at the time of release. It goes on to make good use of this system by casting the player in the role of an outlaw fighting against the new government, meeting with members of the resistance in the shadows, and going around the martial law that has been imposed.

Freedom

Just like in Ultima 4, you are dropped into an open world right from the beginning, and your tools to explore the world have been expanded.

The inclusion of more complex systems also enhance the feeling of being able to interact with the world with less barriers, as there is now furniture you can use, barrels you can search, etc.

Like with Ultima 4, there is only one way to win and a list of absolutely required steps that must be taken to reach that victory, but the order in which these steps can be taken is rather flexible, allowing players to create more of a personal narrative as they follow clues they picked up on wherever their instincts or whims took them first.

It is worth noting that there are actually some optional quests dungeons this time around, which is always nice.

Character Creation/Customization

While it is very nice that you can import your character from Ultima 4 into this game, I would say that this aspect of the game has taken a step back in a sense even as it has made progress in other ways.

The eight classes of the previous games have been reduced to four: The standard Fighter/Mage/Rogue Bard trio plus the Avatar class the main character belongs to, which is an all-rounder. As before, there is not really any customization beyond equipment either.

However, the positive of this is that equipment has been greatly expanded from the previous game. While in Ultima 4 you were limited to merely choosing your character’s weapon and armor set from a very short list, Ultima 5 not only enlarges the list but also allows for equipping multiple armor parts (such as a helm or amulet) while also providing a secondary hand slot.

What this means is that two-handed weapons now also give you a trade-off between their big damage and the option to use a shield in your other hand, or even dual-wield.

This greater variety of equipment allows a greater degree of specialization for your party members, though by modern standards this still isn’t much. The supremacy of ranged weapons also continues here, as magic axes are undoubtedly what you should be equipping everyone with later in the game, and now that class does not restrict equipment every single one of your party members will end up in plate with a magic axe.

Story/Setting

This is, in my opinions, one of the most interesting things about the game. Ultima 5 takes all of the virtues from the former game and turns a corrupted form of them into the law.

The game is pretty explicit about this too. Early in the game, in the town closest to the shack you start in, you can find a man in the stocks together with his son. The man is being punished for failing to donate enough of his income to charity as the Law of Sacrifice demands, while his son (who is barely breathing at this point) is being tortured for not reporting his father to the authorities.

Throughout your travels, you meet many kinds of people. From victims, to resistance fighters, to supporters of the regime and everything in between. Throughout your interactions with these groups you will have to discern who can be trusted (generally easier than it should be since the bad guys tend to be meaner or even cartoonishly evil at times) and learn how to fight Lord Blackthorn and the Shadowlords who corrupted him.

The Shadowlords are, incidentally, the part of the story that I don’t quite enjoy. Fantasy is full of one-dimensional ancient evils and dark overlords. By making the events of the game the result of an unambiguously malevolent supernatural force rather than human failings of the type that are not uncommon in real life, the game makes those events feel more distant and less complex.

This very series already has had plenty of “Defeat this one evil force and everything will be fine” plots. They are generally devoid of the moral complexity that the series is now aiming to explore and I want to know what this game would have looked like without the Shadowlords.

Fortunately, however, this effect is not too pronounced. Blackthorn remains a misguided man with good intentions. He admires you a lot, actually, and seeks avatarhood himself. He has such a positive view of the virtues that he sought to enforce them by law.

(Then again, his actual plans for the shrines make this apparent idolization feel dishonest, or at least inconsistent.)

And there is a real type of authoritarianism that functions a lot like this. Even on this site there are many who would be in favor of things like surveillance, police brutality, and harsher punishments. Even on this site there’s a whole lot of people who seek to punish others over stupid things like shipping the wrong fictional characters.

The people I grew up with even went as far as yearning for a dictator who would unleash death squads to execute all the “bad” people. This is a wish that I still see in many people, even those who grew up outside of the circumstances of my country of birth.

This is not an error that humans need supernatural corruption to fall into.

Other than that, I find the dark twist on the existing setting from the previous game to make for a spicier world to explore.

This is also the section where I should point out that Ultima 5 introduces a rather large and dangerous “Underworld” map that is easy to get lost in. While it is mostly barren, you do have to visit various parts of it as part of the main quest, and I just find the concept of a massive dark world beneath the earth to be a super interesting one (I mean, I have even run D&D campaigns based primarily in the Underdark).

I kinda wish there was more to it other than some items and a companion to collect. Something like a town would have been interesting.

Immersion

This is one area where the jump from Ultima 4 to Ultima 5 was massive thanks to the day/night cycles, NPC schedules, expanded dialogue, and even the addition of words of power to the magic system.

But the best thing I can say about it is really that it calls on you to actually roleplay and engage in the world as if you were actually there, at least to a degree, and it does so through a combination of atmosphere and gameplay.

You will not only want to be careful with your words when talking to certain people to avoid being reported to the regime, but you can also learn the resistance password and use it to get help and information from other members.

While these systems are all still pretty rough here, they still come together well enough to make this a lot more immersive than the average JRPG.

One thing that does feel really off is that the guards are not only superhumanly tough but you also lose karma for attacking them. They also behave strangely in that even though you are a wanted outlaw they don’t actually hunt you on sight, only trying to arrest or kill you if you refuse to pay tribute (as if they didn’t recognize you or your companions at all). This despite wanted posters.

So there’s definitely some rough aspects to the crime system in this game.

Gameplay

Massive improvements have been made in this area, and I don’t just mean the above-mentioned expansion of items and the addition of NPC schedules.

For one, enemies now drop things other than gold, such as food and armor pieces. The magic system has also been improved so that you can now mix multiples of a spell at once instead of having to do it manually every single time.

Additionally, spells are now cast using a consistent language of magic composed of several words of power, which you can chain together to produce effects.

But I would say that the single most significant improvement in the gameplay is the simple fact that most NPCs now have significantly more keywords that they react to in dialogue, including many that do not come up through normal conversation with them. The system is still not perfect, but you can have more of a conversation with characters now and switch from topic to topic relatively easily.

In terms of combat, you can attack diagonally now (only monsters could do that in Ultima 4) and random overworld encounters are much easier to avoid now, cutting down on what eventually starts to feel kind of like padding in the previous game (but see below).

Despite the fact that the material rewards from combat have been increased and items are much cheaper now, Ultima 5 is actually significantly more difficult than Ultima 4. Not only do you have less health, enemies also seem to do more damage.

Dragons and daemons in particular are a nightmare, as they can summon more daemons (who can posses party members) and are extremely durable. A single dragon is a very tough challenge for an unprepared mid-level party, and even after giving most characters magic axes they still prove tough to take down while also being extremely damaging. Trying to fight multiple ones at once without blowing powerful spells or glass swords is costly at best and foolish at worst. Dragons are best thought of as boss-level enemies probably.

I am pleased to report that the dungeon crawling is better in many significant ways. Not only are the graphics more pleasant and immersive but also fully cleared rooms no longer respawn endlessly the moment you step out of them (in fact, they may not respawn at all).

It is not all positive however. The descend and ascend spells seem to be nearly useless this time around and the spell to instantly exit a dungeon is gone entirely. This can make getting out of the underworld such a pain at times that you might even prefer to literally kill yourself in-game and lose some XP instead of doing that. Fortunately you can now dig up and bury moon stones, so you can create moongates down there to quickly escape that way.

There is one problem in terms of balance though. While obtaining gear is significantly less of a problem now due to many enemies dropping tons of torches, gems, and keys, your experience will lag far behind your itemization and your quest progress. This means that to actually reach the 8th level and unlock all of the ultimate spells you will need to either explore all the dungeons thoroughly while focusing XP on one character, or otherwise just grind a lot.

Enemies just don’t give enough XP for a smooth progression otherwise. This would have been solved entirely by making significant main quest events (such as finding the artifacts of Lord British or destroying the Shadowlords) grant experience, but no such luck.

This makes for a strange endgame where you’ll have so much money that you run out of worthwhile things to spend it on while at the same time still feeling forced to grind out enemies, even if you imported your Ultima 4 character for an XP boost.

You do want to have access to these 8th-level spells too, as the final dungeon can be brutal without them or items that replicate their effects.

Adding to the experience issue is the fact that you can’t level up at will in this game. You have to camp and hope that an apparition of Lord British will appear and level you up (if you have enough experience). He does not always show up, and as far as I can tell he does not appear at all if you sleep on a bed or camp inside a dungeon. It has to be out in the wild in the overworld (and possibly also in the underworld).

I wish leveling up was just not tied to him at all.

Aesthetics

As is often the case for this series, the game looks and sounds really good for its age. The jump from Ultima 4 is particularly notable, as the level of detail is on a whole other level, particularly within the dungeons.

As with the previous game, the aesthetic core of the Ultima series (after the first trilogy) lies in the virtues. While there is still a karma system involved, it is much simpler than having to maximize eight different virtues. The karma system determines how much XP you lose on death and how much shops charge you, encouraging players to behave (or at least atone for their misbehavior).

But the biggest impact on the feel of the game is the above-mentioned corruption and tyranny affecting the land. Some of my favorite moments were early on, when I was just starting to get involved with the resistance and investigating what was happening around the overworld.

That said, I think that if the guards did actually recognize you on sight and hounded you more aggressively after spotting you the atmosphere could be even better (assuming they were balanced a bit better).

I think some of the music some versions of the game have is quite good too.

Accessibility

This game manages to up the complexity from Ultima 4 while not being any harder to play. Chances are that if you’re importing your Ultima 4 character you will need only a little bit of adaptation to do fine in Ultima 5.

As before, you will need to take many notes throughout the game. More so than in Ultima 4 due to the greater size and density of content. However, if you played Ultima 4 and took notes for it, this is somewhat alleviated. The mantras for the shrines remain the same, and the world’s geography should be mostly familiar (though there have been changes there as well).

You will also still need to consult the manuals and map frequently, at least early on.

The difficulty has also increased dramatically. You will likely end the game with about 200-ish HP rather than 800 and every enemy is much more deadly. Both the early game and the final dungeon will challenge the improvident.

For these reasons, the game is not that easy for newcomers to pick up but I would not call it obscure or complex.

Conclusion

I would say that the positives definitely outweigh the negatives on this one. The story and setting are interesting even if I don’t agree with all of the decisions made in crafting it, and the rest of the game is usually tolerable at worst. Nothing nearly as annoying as Ultima 4′s Reaper and Balron sleep spam (in fact, a plot-relevant item you can find renders Reapers pretty much helpless).

My primary complaint about the game is that the balance is poor. You will end the game loaded with all the items you could ever want while struggling to reach level 8 with even a single character even after doing nearly everything you need to do before the final dungeon.

I know there is a remake of this game made using Dungeon Siege, which I have not played. I think this is a good thing and I’d hope that it fixes some of these issues, but even apart from that I wish there were games that set out to achieve the core concept of this game.

What I am talking about is an open world RPG in which you play an outlaw who must hide from the state and meet other rebels in the darkness, but with complex and mechanically-competent systems to enable all the interesting possibilities this should enable.

I do not assign numerical ratings to games with these reviews, but I can definitely say that I liked Ultima 5 better than Ultima 4. I think it is worth trying even today despite the late game grind.

#vampire reviews rpgs #ultima 5 #warriors of destiny

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thebibliomancer · 4 years

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Essential Avengers: Avengers #228: TRIAL and ERROR!

February, 1983

AT LAST! The trial of Yellowjacket!

Its been over a month in-universe and about a year out of universe but here we are. The Trial of Hank Pym.

Although the time getting here was mostly farting around with other stuff while Hank sat in prison. Can you believe Scott Lang is the only person we see visit him?

The Avengers found time to experiment on an immortal child who thought jumping into the sun was a good idea but not to visit Hank?

I’m not saying that Jan should have had to put herself through that and Tony is clearly feeling too guilty over the whole thing. But Cap didn’t visit? Hawkeye didn’t? Mr. Lets Bust Hank Out?

Possibly they did off-screen. The Hank arc has been kind of suffering from Shooter’s inability to balance writing and EICing. I feel that if redone, there would be more to the arc.

Anyway, the trial!

We skipped the first two days. Its the third day of the trial now.

The graphic guy went above and beyond for that Sad Composited Hank graphic.

I like the AN AVENGER’S DARKEST HOUR thing.

I also like the setup for recapping the necessary details.

Ex-Avenger attempts to heist the government would be big news so all the information is conveyed as this news report.

INCLUDING COURTROOM SKETCHES

God, that’s good.

That’s good comicing. Amazing.

Look at Thor in a courtroom sketch. Superb.

Look at that cheesy graphic for the coverage. Does anybody in Marvel even use a domino mask?? Everything about this is amazing.

People may say that Frank Miller revolutionized using media talking heads for social commentary in his comics. Maybe. Maybe so. But how many courtroom sketches did he include? Huh?

So apparently the reason why we’re on day three of the trial is that days one and two were entirely debates over whether Hank was even fit to stand trial.

I’d’ve thought they would get that out of the way ahead of time.

And Hank wants his day in court. So who was arguing he wasn’t fit to stand trial? The prosecution?

Apparently, the prosecution tried to argue that Hank’s history as a hero made his crimes more heinous, as a legal argument.

Which, uh? Um? Uh?

The defense objected that this was prejudicial but they were overruled.

The news recap ends when She-Hulk turns off the television angrily for reminding her of her legal career.

She-Hulk: “Leeches! I haven’t met Henry Pym, but he can’t be the creep they’re making him out to be! And that prosecutor -- ! I know it’s his job, but do they all have to be sanctimonious?! I hated that when I was a practicing attorney, and I don’t hate it any less since I’ve become She-Hulk!”

Reminds me that her nemesis in her original Savage She-Hulk book was an Assistant DA called Buck Bukowski who was a real sexist douche.

He mellowed out over the course of the book, mostly by learning that a death he blamed She-Hulk for was sorta his fault, but I wonder if she left LA so she wouldn’t be tempted to throw him out to sea.

She-Hulk is also still super bored (in New York??) and wanders downstairs to see if anyone is up to anything interesting.

Downstairs in the gym, she finds that the Caps are training.

The Captains America and Marvel.

Cap(tain America) is doing some combat training with Captain Monica Marvel.

This will not be at all confusing to have them on the same team.

Anyway, this training sequence is amazing so lets just have it all:

Cool stuff, Caps.

The training has to be cut short because Cap(tain America) has a prior commitment but still good stuff.

She-Hulk applauds Captain Marvel’s showing but Marvel waves it off as thanks to Cap(tain America)’s training. Which Cap(tain America) waves off as thanks to her being a quick study.

Its like a self-perpetuating modesty loop in here.

Cap excuses himself to go to his prior engagement.

Captain Marvel: “It’s easy to see why he’s called a living legend! He’s very good! And his grasp of strategy is second to none!”

She-Hulk: “Yeah, he does pretty well for a guy with no powers, but I could take him!”

What a this era of She-Hulk thing to say, She-Hulk.

Captain Marvel tells She-Hulk hey maybe not! Cap has stood up to some pretty tough customers, including Jen’s cousin the Hulk.

Which She-Hulk didn’t know!

Y’know, after Bruce (or recently implied to be Joe Fixit Actually??) started Jen’s origin story, the Hulk has not much further relevance in the Savage She-Hulk book. Jen doesn’t even give any indication that she’s keeping up with his exploits.

Not surprising, since the book was trying to be its own thing. And Jen’s life just starts to implode not very far into her solo so she doesn’t have time to also worry about Bruce.

Captain Marvel mentions that all of Cap(tain America)’s run-ins with the Hulk are recorded in the Avengers computer archives and She-Hulk concedes she should give that a look.

Hey, she finally has something to do in New York!

Captain Marvel also tells She-Hulk that she’s going to head home.

She-Hulk: “You have a place in the city?”

Captain Marvel: “Not this city... New Orleans.”

She-Hulk: “NEW ORLEANS?!?”

Captain Marvel: “Sure! It’s a snap to commute -- when you can travel at the speed of light! Take care!”

And then she nyooms off!

NYOOM!

It’s a good point! I hadn’t considered it but yeah, Monica can just commute. No need to uproot her life to become an Avenger.

I guess that’s why the decision was so easy for her to make.

She-Hulk is still at the window, wishing she could lightspeed to Malibu, when Thor and Janet arrive from court.

Janet thanks Thor for coming to court with her. Which he says no big to because “Time given to one’s friends is well spent. Would that I had given more time to poor Henry before this.”

You’re a cool guy, Thor.

The mention of Hank has Jan break down a little.

Jan: “Oh, Thor! Why has this happened to us... to all of us? We’re Avengers!”

Thor: “But still we are human -- aye, even a ‘god’ such as I! None of us are immune to wounds of the spirit. We err... we misunderstand. Janet? Is there anything more I can do?”

Jan: “No! No... I’m all right! We mustn’t dwell on the past. The future’s all that matters!”

Thor: “But...”

Jan: “I don’t want to talk about it anymore!”

Geez.

We’ve seen how affected the Avengers have been by what Hank has done and what they think he has done. We’ve seen Jan is more messed up by it than the smile she puts on lets on.

But the plaintive questioning of how this could be happening to the Avengers still hits hard.

Thor respects Jan’s wish to end the discussion to the frustration of She-Hulk who has been watching this conversation from the upstairs window.

She’s frustrated that Jan won’t just let it out, that Thor just let the subject drop.

She-Hulk: “It’s that blasted Avengers’ tradition of ‘respecting the privacy of members’ personal affairs.’ The founding members carry it too far! Can’t they see how it hurts them? And Jan -- ? Why does she hold in all that grief and heartache? Why doesn’t she cry and scream and shout and get it out of her system?!”

Jen and Jan are two very different people!

But She-Hulk, and Hulks generally, are about letting your feelings out. And Jan van Wasp has long been about playing the flighty sprite.

I’d crack joke about She-Hulk being this invested in the drama of the Avengers already but Jan is her friend. They presumably went car shopping together.

And She-Hulk has very few friends and almost zero female friends. Her one female friend died in a convoluted car accident and then She-Hulk mostly had a male supporting cast. Thank goodness she’s here on the Avengers with its two whole other women.

Meanwhile, at Stark International, Cap(tain America) has come to pay a visit.

He hasn’t been able to reach Tony in days. And Tony’s secretary told him that Tony has locked himself away in his private lab and that he doesn’t want to see anyone.

But if he didn’t want to see anyone, he should have thought twice about making it so that the security system will let in any Cap that flashes an Avengers ID.

Cap is particularly worried because of that nasty argument they had about Tony dating Jan. Tony has been pretty down since they broke up and Cap doesn’t want to see him fall apart like Hank did.

And.

Tony is. Doing. Maybe not okay.

He’s sweating a lot and unshaven and monomaniacally focused on a project.

Cap finds him holding up an enormous piece of machinery and doing SCIENCE.

This is the final evolution of Tony’s guilty conscience regarding Hank Pym.

Iron Man: “Remember how Moondragon used her mental powers to mess with our heads? Well, it’s my theory that she’s responsible for Hank’s recent troubles! I aim to prove that with this cerebral scanner! This baby should tell us whether or not Hank did the crazy things he did because of some outside mental influence! I hope I’m right!”

I mean, he raises a fair point! I don’t think its the case because what would it have benefited Moondragon to make Hank do what he did? And if its an inadvertent thing, she mind controlled a lot of people when the roster change-up was happening back in #211 so why did only Hank get affected? Plus, it doesn’t really match up with what both Hank and Jan have been saying about his behavior deteriorating before then.

But, Tony is going to Tony. And he, like many fans and writers and editors, just want a simple nonsense explanation that can make a distressing thing go away.

Cap points out that the ginormous machine can’t exactly be dragged down to the courthouse but this is just the prototype. Tony is going to have a miniaturized version ready by Monday.

Cap: “I see. Tony, how long have you been up?”

Iron Man: “I don’t know... 30... 40 hours, maybe. What difference does it make?”

Cap: “It makes plenty! You’ve had some rough sledding lately... You can’t keep on driving yourself this way!”

Iron Man: “But I have to do something for Hank. I feel that I let him down... In so many ways.”

Cap: “You can’t help him if you kill yourself in the process!”

Tony is going to Tony. I think that in some ways he might have a more overdeveloped guilt complex than Peter Parker or Matt Murdock.

For Reasons, I’ve taken a look at how things are going in the Iron Man book around this time and oof. Poor Tony.

Over in Leonia, New Jersey, Vision and Scarlet Witch are watching the trial coverage on the news and-

Okay.

1.) How do you make watching the network news so moody and dramatic, Vision? Do you ever actually relax?

2.) Do you two just wear your costumes around the house? Surely you must have other clothes? Vision? Do you have other clothes?

Some other stuff is that Wanda has been holding up Jan and Hank as the ideal marriage so this whole thing has been weirding her out. Although Vision has had a less rosy opinion of it, having been there for it with all of the marrying the split personality nonsense involved.

Although I don’t know why issue #68 is referenced. I don’t think that had anything to do with anything. Issue #60 is where the wedding happened.

Bet whoever put that caption wishes they had access to the internet.

I kind of wish we got more stuff like earlier, got to see Avengers not currently on the team and other heroes that worked with Hank Pym reacting to his disgrace exit from the team and then arrest. Wish we could have had Vision and Wanda try to visit him in jail.

Meanwhile, Long Island Sound.

A LOCATION OF EVIL

A suited man arrives and knocks on 13308 McKinley.

He is Dr. Chen Lu and he is expected.

Moonstone/Dr. Karla Sofen meets Dr. Chen Lu at the door and shows him in to the secret science basement where Egghead is running an experiment with the latest scientific equipment that can be begged, borrowed, or stolen.

I’m figuring... mostly stolen? Right? Like Egghead’s plan was to steal all the resources he needed? Because, ugh Effort?

Moonstone interrupts Egghead to let him know Dr. Chen Lu has arrived and Egghead is thrilled! He rushes from his seat to shake his hand.

And the sentiment is returned by Dr. Chen Lu who is eager to join Egghead’s project.

Y’know, Egghead is a jerk and is stealing all of his resources but his project will hugely improve medical science and he’s getting criminal scientists off the street and into some actual science jobs they can be excited about.

Dr. Chen asks how Egghead isn’t dead because he was pretty sure he was told Egghead was dead. And Egghead sure has a tale to tell!

In Defender #43, Egghead set up Cobalt Man to reach critical mass and explode to distract the Defenders so he could steal a magical star. When Cobalt Man found out, he was pretty pissed and decided to blow up Egghead.

Egghead: “We had a bit of a falling out, you might say... and he ended the situation most dramatically. Witnesses actually assumed we’d both perished. In actuality, I had been teleported by an experimental mechanism to relative safety in the New Jersey swamps... and unlike death, one can usually return from the state of New Jersey!”

Damn, Egghead! Criminal genius that you are, you’ve found the only New Jersey joke I’ve ever laughed at! Fiend!

I think its the glasses adjusting what does it.

Anyway, Egghead’s and Dr. Chen’s cool conversation gets interrupted by Tiger Shark and Shocker bursting through the ceiling fighting.

Beetle flies in after them and apologizes for the mess but says ‘really Shocker had it coming, man, fuck Shocker.’

Beetle and Moonstone jump in to separate the two.

Hey, you might be wondering how the Masters of Evil are out of jail when last time we saw them was getting arrested after attacking the Avengers like dumbasses?

Check that panel where Iron Man is lifting a really heavy thing. There’s a news broadcast about a bunch of prison escapes. Good job on the same issue setup, Stern!

Shocker complains that Tiger Shark called him a two-bit hood but Tiger Shark says in his defense that Shocker IS a two-bit hood (Not inaccurate...) who nearly screwed up the isotope heist. But Egghead says that Shocker is an important part of the operation.

Then Tiger Shark notices Dr. Chen Lu and says a slur.

C’mon, guy. Don’t be like that.

Dr. Chen Lu: “Speaking without thinking seems to be second nature to you, Tiger Shark. In the interest of our future partnership, I shall excuse the insult to my race... this time! But I warn you, do not use that word in my presence again, or you shall answer to -- THE RADIOACTIVE MAN!”

Tiger Shark hurriedly says that obviously he didn’t mean to offend. Because Dr. Chen Lu Radioactive Man fwooshed into his green skin (dammit comics whats with you and Asian people and green skin?) radioactive form and costume.

But with Radioactive Man on the team, the Masters of Evil are finally complete and ready for the next step of EGGHEAD’S BOLD PLAN.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye returns to his apartment from his day job, kind of looking a steady paycheck in the mouth. Sure the big wad of bucks is nice but its sooo boring. Thank goodness he has Avengersing to keep things exciting.

He then sings a short bit about “Best of both worlds -- !” because Hawkeye.

Hawkeye sees the news broadcast about the Hank Pym trial and even though he hasn’t been called to testify (because he wasn’t part of the team when Hank was caught with his hands in the government’s cookie jar) he figures what the heck, he’ll go to the trial anyway to show moral support.

And he does! In full costume!

In fairness, so are Thor and Captain America.

I guess Captain America and Hawkeye don’t have publicly revealed identities. But they couldn’t have thrown a suit on Thor?

Please put Thor in a suit. For reasons.

She-Hulk and Wasp are wearing nice court clothes.

Although She-Hulk seems uncomfortable in her nice court clothes.

(By the by, She-Hulk showing up at all makes Hawkeye warm up to her a little, since he figures that in her own way she cares about being an Avenger as much as he does.)

By the way, notice who wasn’t in that picture? Hawkeye leans over to whisper to Cap where is Iron Man? Annnnd Cap thinks maybe he just got wrapped up in his cerebral scanner project.

At this point in the trial (day 4), Hank has finally been called up to the stand to testify on his own behalf.

So, of course, given Hank Pym’s luck, the courtroom explodes.

What a dynamite conclusion to this arc!

The Masters of Evil (Moonstone, Radioactive Man, Tiger Shark, Shocker, and Beetle) jump into the court through the exploded ceiling, grab Hank Pym, have Shocker blow up the load bearing wall, and then run out while the Avengers are distracted holding up the entire ceiling!

An action scene fast enough that I can believe, yes, the Avengers didn’t have time to react to it before it happened.

But Thor is strong enough to hold up the ceiling, so Wasp orders Cap to get the crowd to safety and has She-Hulk and Hawkeye follow her to go after the Masters.

Cap: “Jan’s really coming into her own as group leader! Even Hawkeye’s snapping to at her orders!”

Good. I’m glad that people keep telling me that Wasp is doing a good job as Avengers leader.

Seriously. Given the way that the Avengers book handles teamwork and the idea that the Avengers even have a leader sometimes, I’m glad that the book is explicitly conveying that Wasp is doing good.

Hawkeye net-arrows Tiger Shark, She-Hulk tackles Radioactive Man, Wasp confronts Beetle, and nobody confronts Shocker because its just Shocker.

Beetle scoffs at Wasp trying to stop him but has to eat his words pretty soon. Her Wasp stings being souped up in this recent stretch of comics hasn’t stopped being a thing.

Beetle: “Ow! Maybe I was the one who spoke too soon! Even with my armor, I can feel a little of the Wasp’s bio-stings! If I can’t shake her, she might blow my micro-circuits!”

Very glad that Wasp continues to be an effective fighter in her own right and not just the distraction ‘fly around and pester people.’

She-Hulk just throws Radioactive Man out of the panel, mocking him for being green as her without any of her sweet moves.

Tiger Shark wants another go at She-Hulk after the way she stomped him in #222 but.

Oops guess I shouldn’t have mocked Shocker. Since he was ignored, he can sneak up behind She-Hulk and use HIGH INTENSITY VIBRO-SHOCKS to rattle her bones to dust.

Except, no. I should have mocked Shocker, a little.

Because even though the HIGH INTENSITY VIBRO-SHOCK rattles She-Hulk so that she chatters out “T-t-think a-a-again, y-y-you w-w-walking q-q-quilt!”, she grabs Shocker’s hands and holds him up in the air for Hawkeye to short out Shocker’s gauntlets with a couple of magno-volt arrows.

Shocker crumples, confused because one of the other Masters was supposed to be covering Hawkeye.

Radioactive Man tackles She-Hulk so She-Hulk just belts him away.

So Radioactive Man concedes, well, okay, She-Hulk is stronger than him. But brute force and being green aren’t the extent of his powers. He’s also radioactive, radioactive.

He hits She-Hulk with a controlled burst of gamma rays, which shifts her back into Jennifer Walters.

Hey, Jen! First time you’ve appeared in this book in this form.

She’s less than pleased. In fact, she starts screaming “No! Not this!!” and begging someone to help her.

Thankfully, the Masters put her out of mind as not a problem anymore.

And the dominoes fall.

Tiger Shark smacks Wasp out of the air, freeing Beetle to blast Hawkeye. And nobody can stop Moonstone from nerve pinching Hank Pym and pulling him into a truck.

Thor and Cap run out of the courthouse, presumably having gotten everyone to safety.

Thor: “Ho, villains! You’ve not won the day yet! Not as long as a single Avenger stands!”

Thor do what Thor do and what Thor do is throw Mjolnir.

Exceppppt its at Radioactive Man and Radioactive Man can still deflect Mjolnir with energy fields. Radiation can do that. Mjolnir doesn’t exist in real life so we can’t prove that radiation can’t do that.

Radioactive Man deflects Mjolnir right at Captain America. He gets his shield up in time but it still knocks him on his ass.

The Masters all book it into the truck while the Avengers get to their feet.

Wasp orders Hawkeye to shoot out the tires to the truck. But before he can and before it can be fruitless, a getaway truck explodes out of the truck and flies off more quickly than the Avengers can chase.

And by “the Masters all book it into the truck” I mean, “except Shocker” because they ditched him.

With the Masters escaped, Wasp turns on the shocked Shocker and rips off his mask and demands he tell them where the Masters are going.

But the shocked Shocker is too shocked to answer. He seems out of it, really.

So Wasp changes the question. Who is behind this? Why did they want to kidnap Hank Pym?

Shocker: “Why? It... it was his idea! Dr. Pym’s idea... He arranged for us to free him!”

DUN DUN DUUUUU- no wait we know thats not it

whats your game shocker

Sometime later, Hank Pym wakes up in Egghead’s lab. And, of course, immediately leaps up to kick the shit out of Egghead as soon as he sees him.

Alas, Tiger Shark holds him back.

Egghead: “Don’t restrain him too tightly, Tiger Shark! He’s of no use to us injured!”

Hank Pym: “I’ll ‘use’ you, Egghead! You’re responsible for ruining my life! You manipulated me into stealing that government adamantium... and set me up, when your scheme failed! You’re mad if you think you can make me help you now!”

Egghead: “Pish-tosh!”

Good rejoinder, Egghead.

God, this also cracks me up.

Egghead says that he’s in the middle of a great experiment and that he needs the world’s greatest biochemist, Hank Pym.

Hank is still on the ‘why the hell do you think I’ll help you, I hate you so much.’

So Egghead has the tv turned on.

Anchorman, Non Burgundy: “... Authorities were stunned by the news that Dr. Pym had planned his own abduction! The Avengers refused to comment on the Shocker’s confession, but polygraph experts confirmed --”

Egghead explains that Shocker was a patsy. His gauntlets were secretly rewired with special circuits that brainwashed him into believing what Egghead wanted him to. So thoroughly that it fooled a lie detector.

Egghead: “As far as the world is concerned, Henry, you are now most assuredly a criminal. No one will believe otherwise. Not the police... not even your former friends. You have no one to turn to in this world... except us! Join the Masters of Evil, Henry! We will give you a new life!”

Hank Pym: “All right... I’ll do it!”

DUN DUN DUN!!

Wow, so I guess Egghead wasn’t just being petty. He was also systematically destroying what little was left of Hank’s life to force him to work on SCIENCE project with him.

Proving his innocence and ‘getting his dignity back’ was all Hank had left to him.

Geez, sucks to be Hank Pym!

Psst, follow @essential-avengers? Like and reblog?

#Avengers #Egghead #Masters of Evil #Hank Pym #the Wasp #She Hulk #Hawkeye #Thor #Captain America #Captain Marvel #monica rambeau #Iron Man #not doing so well #essential avengers #essential marvel liveblogging #SUPERHERO LEGAL DRAMhaha just kidding it gets interrupted #lot of interesting trajectories the avengers are going on in this issue #so far so good on the Stern run

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isladeroda · 3 years

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Chapter 1 - Heartbeat of Steam

It was one thing to hear the location described in the debriefing. An underground base of sorts, forged entirely out of brass and running on steam. True to what the group had been told, exposed cogs and pumps were visible the moment the beheld the entrance to the lair of their enemy. The hiss of steam could be heard from deeper within, and already, the amount of noise filling the air made it clear that communicating within the structure was going to be difficult. Luckily, that had been discussed ahead of time, and hand gestures had been practiced for many different situations.

Doctor Clara stepped tentatively towards the entrance, her hand-picked team of Operators at her sides and front. Operators Cuora, Alcatraz, Heat, Scavenger, Shirayuki, Projekt Red, and Perfumer had been selected to take part, but another guest had been selected - Rhodes Island’s own Head Engineer, Closure. Her presence was deemed necessary in case the group ran into any unfamiliar machinery, and the Head Engineering Officer was deemed the best fit - no doubt in part to her eagerly volunteering for a chance to check out the unusual engineering in play.

“Wow, despite how archaic the technology seems, this is actually pretty advanced...” As the group got closer, the Sarkaz took every opportunity she could to examine the machinery, nodding to herself a few times. “Already I can tell there’s a number of redundant systems, not out of laziness, but to pick up the slack if any one part fails... And how they manage to get them all to work together when the primary function is unnecessary is astounding... Hmmm...”

The group stopped at the entrance, not just to let Closure look a little closer at the machinery, but to gauge things immediately. If the enemy group had learned they were coming, they’d either ready an ambush, or try to bait them deeper in... And the Doctor knew the latter was unlikely, so after a few moments, the team proceeded to push in further.

“Agh, I can barely hear myself think...” Cuora complained from her place near the back of the single-file formation, her voice nearly drowned out by all of the noise. Similarly, Projekt Red was clearly uncomfortable, only in part from the noise, but as the temperature had clearly rocketed up at least another 10 degrees, Red had already regretted bringing her heavy coat. Shirayuki, befitting her usual modus operandi, had disappeared above them, presumably traveling by means of the pipes that hung overhead. Everyone else, thankfully, seemed more comfortable in the heat, yet the knowledge that they wouldn’t be able to communicate traditionally hung over the group.

The hallways themselves were thin, but rather than typical, solid metal, they were clearly more along the lines of maintenance catwalks, the heavy steel mesh that served as their footholds and the railings that kept them from falling off the side were all hung over more exposed machinery, likely for the sake of ease of access in case any of the seemingly-delicate machinery failed. Now and again, a square of walkway that split into multiple other hallways would “circle” around an important-looking piece of equipment that Closure would pause briefly to examine before the group could continue their exploration.

And yet, Doctor Clara was totally on edge. The lights were literally still on, but nobody was home. They hadn’t seen a single foe since they began to probe deep into the facility and explore, no signs of security... Nothing to stop would-be intruders. Occasionally they came across a locked door with no way to open it from their side, and had to turn back, but that was the only real security measure, and one easily subverted, as there had to be a way to open the doors - a control panel or the like.

Eventually, the team exhausted all of their options, and began traveling down one final path, before eventually coming to a room with a series of conveyor belts that crossed overhead and underneath, carrying metal scrap and unusual-looking parts. Was this a manufactory of sorts? And who was using it? Perhaps this was the group supplying weapons to Reunion... However, unable to make anything other than an educated guess, the group soldiered on, eventually coming to another locked door...

All seemed hopeless before Shirayuki appeared before them and, using hand motions, submitted the idea of using the conveyor belts to travel. The openings were large enough for a person to fit through, though they’d likely want to avoid the ones with scrap on them - those were likely being melted down, and the group would definitely not want a death by melting in molten metal. The group nodded unanimously, before they found a conveyor belt matching their prerequisites, and leaped down onto it.

Curiously, the sound of machinery began to quiet as they followed the conveyor belt, though it was still ever-present. Soon, it opened up into a larger room where mechanical humanoids were clearly being assembled... By nothing other than automated tools, cranes, and mechanical arms on an assembly line. As the group hopped off onto the floor of the assembly room, Closure in particular excitedly examined the various pieces of equipment while everyone else was on-guard.

"There’s no workers, no guards, not even any repairmen... This is beyond strange.” Heat stated, his eyes narrowed and his hand firmly on the weapon at his side. “Even a place like this can’t run fully automated... Can it?” Alcatraz and Scavenger nodded in agreement, very clearly on-guard while Projekt Red and Cuora kept close to Closure, both making sure to keep her safe while she made her observations, and also a bit curious as to the goings-on, themselves.

“You’re not wrong.” Closure eventually spoke up, turning to the group. “Even automated systems need someone to monitor them, moderate them... Ensure that they’re all working accordingly and fix them when they don’t. And for a system with this many moving parts to it, there would have to be at least some repairmen or engineers we’d have encountered on the way...” The group pondered on this idea for a brief moment, only to be interrupted by Perfumer voicing her thoughts.

“Um... I know this might be a stupid question, but... what if it self-repairs?” The group looked between each other as Closure thought to herself before checking a piece of machinery and looking closer. For a few moments, the others weren’t sure what she was looking for, before she stood up straight again and wore a grim expression on her face.

“You... might be right. Less so fantastical as self-repairs, like... It’s not just magically fitting everything back into place. There’s no Originium in these machines, as far as I can tell to facilitate something as absurd as artificial Arts, but... It’s possible they even have an automated repair system.” Scavenger was the first to ask what that meant. Did they have repair arms in the walls behind the gears or something?

“No, nothing so unnecessary... It’s likely that there’s automated drones that fly - or more likely walk or drive - out the moment an error in the system occurs.” Closure spoke with an air of near-certainty. The more she thought about it out loud, the more and more it all seemed to fit neatly into place. “The redundant systems can keep the facility running at partial capacity, while the drones repair the primary functions... It’s like a backup generator for any given piece of machinery. Frankly, it’s genius. There’s just one small problem...”

“...Someone still needs to moderate all of it. Even just check up on it once in a while.” The Doctor spoke up, looking over to their engineer. Closure nodded in agreement, her arms crossed over her midsection in thought, a grim expression on her face.

“So we’re likely to meet whoever we’re looking for deeper in the facility.” Doctor Clara said, speaking to the rest of the group. “But we still need to locate a control panel or something similar from which we can begin to operate the doors in conduct a full search. So for now, that will be our goal. Understood?” The group verbalized their understanding before beginning to move out once more, quickly locating an operable door and walking through.

On the other side was another, brief hallway, that soon lead to a set of stairs going up. Following the staircase, and one more door later, soon the group was treated to a large room with numerous bits and pieces of machinery on the walls, operating at a much quieter volume than the other areas of the facility. It almost felt like a break room for the team, if not for the fact that a terminal and a set of monitors was located on the opposite side of the room that the group quickly rushed over to.

“Well, that was easy! Thank you, sensible lair design~” Closure had already begun to work with the keys and buttons, quickly figuring out their purposes as she went through the data on the terminal. Soon, she realized she was into more important files, including one labeled “Doctor’s Reports”. Had she perhaps just discovered the jackpot? The personal files of someone part of the R&D team responsible for this place, perhaps? “There isn’t even any internal security, which is - ”

The Sarkaz had clearly spoken too soon, as the machinery on the walls suddenly came to life violently as an alarm began to blare throughout the room. The floor opened up near the walls, almost immediately followed by Terran-sized containers rising up through the holes. With gushes of steam that briefly filled the room and soon dissipated through the vents throughout it, the containers opened up to reveal a number of mechanical humanoids wielding various weaponry, from bows and swords to axes and spears.

Immediately the group drew out their weapons and prepared to engage the enemy on the Doctor’s orders. Looking back to Closure, who met her gaze and nodded, Doctor Clara began to issue orders to her group, holding off the advancing robots while Closure began to work through the system and turn off the security systems.

The waves of robots seemed almost endless, but after a minute or two of fighting, the alarm finally died down and the containers that dived down and rose back up with new soldiers finally retreated for good. With the final robot defeated, the Operators all breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sorry about that~!” Closure looked back with a wink and an apologetic grin. “Must’ve tripped something, because I think I’ve got some really good stuff here... Sadly, it’s all encrypted, so I’ll have to get it backed to Rhodes to get it analyzed, but from here, I can totally access the rest of the facility! We’ve got our ticket in, folks!”

“All right.” Doctor Clara nodded to Closure, who began to upload the files in question, before looking to her team. “We’re gonna regroup to Rhodes Island, everyone. Likely adjust our team formation, now that we know more of what we’re dealing with, but I think you’ll all still take part in further exploration of this facility. Understood?”

Replying in the affirmative, the team prepared to leave as Closure finished up her copying of the files. Even as everyone began to talk about the possibility of what may lie ahead, Doctor Clara’s sinking feeling didn’t fade just yet... What was this place for? It seemed way too complex to just be a weapons construction facility, not to mention the lack of intelligent personnel... And on top of all of that...

...Why did it feel so familiar...?

#reading the reports || story post #the brass prison || story 1 #I promised the drabbles would be longer from this point on -

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consummate-deviant · 4 years

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I reckon I’m gonna talk about Hordak for a minute

So, I feel the need to talk about Hordak. This is, perhaps, not unusual. Once upon a time ago, writing stupidly long pseudo-essays about characters I rather liked used to be my thing… and it’s still a bug that bites me from time to time. The timing certainly seems right! Homeboy has been the topic of conversation lately, thanks to the recent release of She-ra season 4, and the manifold feels associated with it. I’m fond of Hordak, as it were, so I don’t mind sharing my perspective on the subject, since there’s some confusion as to his appeal.

The two stances I see taken on Hordak most often, by those who don’t like him, I should specify, are as follows:

A.) He’s an irredeemable villain who has done terrible things, and I don’t see why anyone would like him.

And

B.) He’s a lame, nonthreatening villain.

I’m not going to be engaging with mindset ‘B’ quite as much as with mindset ‘A’ in the following post, in part because the reasons why he’s so lame and nonthreatening are kinda tied to what I’ll be discussing by implication, but mostly because my response to mindset B can be summed up with the following: “You are not wrong, at all. However, that’s literally the entire point of his character, so while you aren’t wrong to be disappointed if you were hoping he would be a more measured, megalomaniacal sort, it’s also not a failure on the part of the writers, since his lack of suitability for the role he was trying to play was always going to be what his story was about.”

Mindset ‘A’, though... well... that’s a bit tricky. Ultimately “irredeemable” is a personal value judgment. The threshold a character must cross before one audience member feels they no longer deserve forgiveness can vary quite wildly from another, and while trying to pass one’s personal opinion off as an objective fact is something of a pastime on the internet, I am- and I cannot state this emphatically enough- NOT your dad… probably. At least, I hope to god… Look, odds are really good that I’m not your dad, so… you do your thing and shine like the crazy diamond you are. I probably can’t change your mind, and considering I don’t even know you, it’d be kinda creepy if I thought I could! What I can do, though, for those genuinely curious how anyone could consider him redeemable, is share my own perspective on the character, and why I think redemption is the direction the story is going, based on how I’ve read the text thus far… So I’m gonna do that. Let’s go over Hordak as he has appeared in the She-Ra reboot.

Part I: Season 1 Hordak

Now see, when we kick things off, I totally get where both the ‘A’ group and the ‘B’ group are coming from. Hordak, as he appears in season 1, seems ruthless, intimidating, and single-minded. Hordak doesn’t carry the conflict in season 1, serving as more of a background presence while Catra and Shadow Weaver, who have a more personal investment in the central narrative, do all the heavy lifting of antagonizing the heroes and angsting.

This keeps the attention off of Hordak, which is precisely how he likes things. When people aren’t going out of their way to interact with him, then it’s easy for him to control what few interactions he does have. That’s what season 1 shows us: Hordak, when he has perfect control over his own narrative. Every scene that features him is shot with a low angle, often with his form either concealed in shadows or with his face partially out of frame. When he speaks, he’s always calm and distant… but calm in that ‘he could totally fly into a rage at any instant’ way that keeps people on their toes. Pragmatic, taciturn, perfectly measured and groomed,… pretty tall! By any metric a reasonable person can measure a competent, intimidating villain, Hordak circa season 1 seems like he’d pass the test.

Part 2: Season 2-3 Hordak

Here’s the thing... though... about season 1 Hordak... that we learn pretty quickly when we transition into season 2: Season 1 Hordak is a massive fraud. Like, seriously, he’s a fabrication created out of necessity to hide a single, prevailing truth: Hordak is an awkward dork who is kinda terrible at being an evil overlord.

I’ve seen some people describe Hordak’s season 2-3 character development with the expression “You thought I was Ozai, but I was actually Zuko this whole time!” Now, I like this expression fine. I’ve borrowed it a time or two in the past, but with regard to Hordak, I prefer to phrase it like this: “You thought I was Emperor Palpatine, but I was really the Wizard of Oz this whole time!” The former expression gives someone an idea of the tropes of the character pretty well, but the latter does a better job, I feel, of showing the relationship between season 1 and later seasons with Hordak. Hordak is a competent, unflappable, all-seeing leader… hey, hey! Pay no mind to the man behind the curtain! Hordak’s past… as a mindless clone created to lead other mindless clones in a mindless clone army… has left him laughably unprepared for the task of leading others. He’s smart, like, in a general bookish sense, but he has no charisma, no interpersonal talents to speak of, and doesn’t really seem to have any grasp of how to motivate his underlings, save to reward talent with promotion.

Out of necessity, Hordak keeps his true self buried underneath multiple layers of protection. The first layer is the season 1 illusion: Delegate direct command of his soldiers to a single adjutant, interact with that adjutant just enough to keep them in line, and remain in his sanctum all day, like the geeky shut-in he is.

The first layer is pretty nice, and seems to have bought him quite a few years running the horde… but what happens if, say, some uppity Force Captain decides to pester him with personal status reports… or some absent-minded inventor decides to raid his lab for a six-sided hex driver? Personally interacting with his minions for too long will reveal the illusion he’s been hiding behind! Well, fear not... This is where the second layer of protection comes in handy.

Yes, Hordak’s second layer of defense: blustering, shouting, and intimidating. Threaten them with dire consequences for bothering him, let them visit the planet with nearly-enough-atmosphere for a few seconds… do everything in his power to frighten them so badly they never want to directly interact with him again. What should happen if this second layer fails him, though? They learn of the most terrifying secret in Hordak’s entire arsenal.

...There is no third layer…

Nope. If a minion is plucky enough to peak behind the curtain of his grand illusion, and then bold enough to stand their ground at the explosion of hot air that follows… he has basically no follow-up left. One of my favorite nonverbal scenes in the entire series is the moment where he realizes that his screaming is having no visible impact on Entrapta. There’s a look on his face that seems to say ‘What the hell am I supposed to do now!?’… like, it’s clear the dude has never needed a third step to scare someone away before.

Ah, but you, my savvy reader, have no doubt cottoned on to the error in my argument thus far. Establishing that Hordak is an awkward, introverted nerd doesn’t really change the fact that he built the Etherian horde. The fact that he’s not especially competent doesn’t change the bad deeds his committed! Well, rest assured, you beautiful person who can claim no paternal relation to me, I agree! However, characterizing Hordak like this goes hand in hand with the other big reveal of season 3: his backstory.

Now, cards on the table, I’ve been taking Hordak as he comes, and up until this point I didn’t really have any strong idea of whether they were going the big-bad or redeemed-bad route with him. It wasn’t until season 3, when his origin was revealed, that I genuinely began to suspect that the redemption path was where the writers were headed, because it re-frames his actions in a subtle, but pretty important way.

With no Horde Prime, when one looks at Hordak, they see a man who orchestrated a corrupt and oppressive system for his personal benefit, who holds others in disdain due to self-aggrandizement, and is motivated by a desire to be seen as greater than everyone else. That is a character who would be very hard to convincingly redeem. While I’m loathe to raise the specter of Steven Universe discourse here, it’s a lot like the notion of redeeming the Diamonds… and, while I have no strong feelings about that show one way or the other, suffice it to say I can at least see why their redemption is controversial.

Horde Prime shifts the context of Hordak’s actions, though. Now, Hordak is a man who perpetuates the very system he is, himself, a victim of, because it’s the only system he knows. His conflict with others is born from the projection of his own self loathing. Said self-loathing comes from his chief motivation, which is to be acknowledged as worthy by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in ever offering him that acknowledgment.

Such a character is still flawed and villainous, because of course it is. If a character has done nothing wrong, they don’t need redemption in the first place. It’s a lot easier to accept the struggles of a flawed character if they’re a victim of oppression rather than its source. To borrow the SU comparison one final time, the Horde Prime twist reveals to us that Hordak isn’t a diamond, he’s just another one of the countless gems caught in their system.

By the by, does “perpetuates a system they, themselves, are victims of, suffers from conflicts born of projected self loathing, and desire to be acknowledged by an authority figure who has no interest or desire in providing said acknowledgment” sound familiar? I hope so! It ties into my final point of the day.

Part 3: Season 4 Hordak (aka “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc”)

Now, implying similarity in the character arcs of Hordak and Catra has, historically, been a fraught endeavor. Even I, Hordak stan extraordinaire, felt that we needed to see a bit more of where the writers were wanting to take Hordak before we went and made comparisons. Then season 4 happened… and guys… the subtitle of season 4 may as well have been “Hordak and Catra have basically the same arc.”

Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification. Catra had people she could perceive as her peers, which granted her a social circle outside of her direct superiors whom she could feel camaraderie with, which added a dimension to the emotional turmoil she felt, but in broad strokes it seems to be a comparison that the writers are inviting us to make. Their alliance in season 4 is based around their commonality. They motivate one another by feeding into the insatiable hunger both of them feel for external validation… in that regard, they bring out the worst in each other, and thus season 4 ends with both of them brought to their lowest point.

At the end of season 4, if the princesses had never arrived, and Double Trouble hadn’t been there to finally force her to confront the emotions she insistently projected onto others, Catra would have assumed the mantle she claimed from Hordak. She would have ruled the horde, devoid of satisfaction or happiness, and any children she took into her numbers she would have treated in exactly the same way Shadow Weaver treated her, and the same way Horde Prime treated Hordak.

To escape that fate, she needed her chance to face the system that oppressed her, and then the chance to face herself… and only once she had done both, could she start to move forward again. That’s why we see the start of her recovery in the final scenes of the season. Catra did unspeakably terrible things- by the end of season 4 her atrocity count easily rivals Hordak’s- and not everything can be blamed exclusively on others, but we, as an audience, have seen enough of what made her the way she is… that’s why most of us are onboard with her eventual redemption.

Catra is, beneath all the layers of spite and illusions of who she thinks she should be, a sweet kid who ultimately wants to reconnect with a friend she fears abandoned her, and to be respected and appreciated by the authority figures in her life. Hordak is, ultimately, a hikikomori dweeb who, not too long ago, was content to spend the rest of eternity with his gamer girlfriend in his lab, pretending to put together a portal machine.

The villain of She-ra is Horde Prime, and the system he put into place to feed his arrogance at the expense of those trapped within it. For those inside that system, like Catra or Hordak, they don’t cross the line and become truly irredeemable until they are given a clear and unambiguous chance to escape from that system and change their life for the better… but refuse to grasp it. Even then… sometimes it takes them a little while to see the hand being offered to them… and sometimes that hand is in the form of a fist.

In conclusion

Look, guys, I’ll be real with you… I made a play at pretending that I wrote this for some point or another… but I kinda didn’t. When I get into a fandom headspace, words get stuck in my head, y’know? When they do, they buzz around like bees until I write ‘em someplace… so here we are.

I’m not so arrogant as to assume I can change anyone’s mind with my 4 AM word vomit about the emaciated bat villain in my favorite children’s cartoon. This is just a thing I wrote! Maybe if you agree with it it makes you happy, and if you disagree with it then it doesn’t get’cha too worked up! I was gonna include Hordak’s relationship with Entrapta into the proceedings… but honestly, that would have doubled the length of this thing, and would have been kinda tangential to the point. I may do a more shippy essay thing later on… but if there’s one thing I learned from the last time I wrote a bunch of these… it’s that planning them out never works well. I guess if people wanna see it I can write it though.

Anyway, I’m rambling, so I’m gonna letcha go! Thanks for listening to my TED talk. Remember, villains are an artform, people are complicated, and hot cocoa is the best winter beverage. I’m going back to fanfic writing until the next bout of insomnia!

#she ra hordak #entrapdak #hordak #she ra 2019

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jodanmarketer · 3 years

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Technical SEO: Every Thing You Need to Understand

Technical SEO could be the procedure of making certain that how well a search engine spider crawls a site and indicator articles. In order to improve organic research ranking, the technical sides of your website should meet the prerequisites of modern search motors. A few of the most important elements of Technical search engine optimisation comprise running, indexing, making, site design, site rate, and so on.

What's technical search engine optimisation important?

The principal aim of technical SEO will be always to improve the infrastructure of an internet site. With technical search engine optimisation, you also can simply help search motors access, crawl, interpret, and indicator your own internet site without any hassle.

Which exactly are definitely the most significant components of specialized search engine optimisation?

Technical SEO plays a significant part in impacting your organic and natural search rank. That's why it is considered a foundational section of search engine optimisation. In this section, I'm going to be covering all those elements of technical SEO that helps to improve web site visibility at an internet search engine.

Make an XML Site Maps

Building XML sitemaps in WordPress

Basically, a site is a XML file that contains all the critical pages of the website. A easy analogy may possibly be your resident street connected from your most important road. If someone likes to go to the home they simply will need to follow the path created from this source. Sitemaps is essentially a pathway for crawlers to find all those webpages of one's website.

Even more, a site informs a crawler that pages and files which you think are important inside your site, and also provides invaluable info about those records: for example, once the page was last updated, how frequently the page has been shifted, and some other alternate language variants of your typical page.

Before generating a sitemap You Need to Be Mindful of:

Settle on which pages in your site should be crawled by Google, and determine exactly the approximate variant of every webpage.

Decide which sitemap format you would like to use. XML site is suggested for web crawler where as HTML site is to get user navigation.

Create your sitemap available to Google by adding it to your robots.txt document or directly publishing it to Hunt Console.

How to create a site?

If you are a WordPress user, you most likely have found on the Yoast SEO plug in. Yoast automatically generates a site of your website. Just like all of the additional SEO plugins, they can do it mechanically.

You can easily view a sitemap from Yoast simply by clicking on (Search Engine Optimisation >Standard >Characteristics >XML Sitemap)

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/jQ29mGfH53u7t1hJ1MoFEJfxayqA2hva5rNGYIDrXwhP39hQkMvkGXsAUhgFgbTSNgvbnSTnwqGRMK_hxc7SW6JP6XO1J7I-IU1Gm4azDBaCi_ApAC9jdPkVKSgxqB-ahf3WiwzR

You might even produce a site-map manually using third-party tools such as screaming frog and online with a sitemap .

Assess for robots.txt

Robots.txt file lives from the origin of one's site. It educates web spiders commonly called search engine spiders just how to crawl webpages in their websites.

Robots.txt guides the webcrawler which pages to access and index also then pages never to. As an instance, disallowing admin login path into your Robots.txt. Keeping the search engines from accessing certain pages in your website is critical for the the solitude of your website and for your own search engine optimisation. Learn much more on optimizing robots.txt to get SEO.

For those who haven't established robots.txt, then you can certainly do this easily with Yoast, if you're a WordPress user. Only go to (SEO>Applications >File editor). After clicking to document editor, then the robots.txt file will be generated automatically.

An optimized robots.txt

You are able to also only develop a robots.txt manually. Simply produce a notepad file with. Txt expansion along side valid principles on it. Then upload it right back to some servers.

Generating robots.txt manually in server

Installation Google-analytics

Establishing google analytics

Google analytics is just a web analytics agency which on average used for tracking and reporting traffic. Setting up google analytics is the very first stage of SEO where you are able to interpret data like traffic supply, and even page speed. Interestingly, additionally, it functions as an search engine marketing tool to ensure google punishment or standing modification simply assessing traffic history.

If you're simply beginning , kindly visit this particular guide on establishing analytics up.

Installation Google Hunt Console

Google Lookup Console can be a free tool offered by Google which makes it possible to to track, preserve, and troubleshoot your site's existence in Google Search benefits.

Google-search console error report example

That you never need to sign up for Search Console to become contained in Google Search results, but the Lookup Console helps you recognize and enhance the way that Google sees your internet site. The principal cause to work with the tools because it will allow visitors to check indexing standing and optimize visibility of their sites.

If you're new to GSC, please follow these steps before setting up an account.

Decide on a preferred Domain version of your site

You need to check that just one single variant of your site is browseable. Technically using numerous URLs for the very same pages contributes to replicate content concerns and negatively influences your search engine optimisation functionality.

For instance,

http://example.com

http://www.example.com

https://example.com

https://www.example.com

From the aforementioned example, there's a chance that anybody can sort any URL from the address bar. Be certain that you maintain just one searchable variant of URLs (as an instance https://example.com) along with the rest must be redirected (301) or must employ canonical URL pointed into a preferred variant.

Make Your Site Connection Secure (through HTTPS)

An internet site having an implemented SSL certificate

Before, Google was not significantly concerned about HTTPS in every website. In 2014 Google declared that they wished to see 'HTTPS anyplace', and that safe HTTPS sites will be given preference on non-secure kinds in hunt effects. From right here Google indirectly wishes to express having SSL may be Ranking sign. Utilizing SSL doesn't mean you might be optimizing for Google, it ensures you are focusing on users info solitude also, and your internet site stability.

So, if you're still employing an unencrypted variant of the URL(HTTP), it is the right time for you to switch to https. This can be accomplished by setting up a SSL certificate on your own internet site.

Learn more on configuring SSL certificates for your site.

Internet site Structure

Site framework or architecture tells the manner in which to arrange your website contents. It is much better to have a solid understanding of a design site prior to working on it. Site construction ought to reply the query just like:

How internet site articles is sprinkled?

Just how are they associated?

Just how is it obtained?

Proper site architecture improves user experience and ultimately boosts a site's natural search rank. Google hates internet sites which are poorly managed. What's more, keeping an easy SEO friendly blog design helps spider to crawl entire content without difficulty.

As Google stated in their official website" Our first duty is to coordinate the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Google rewards web sites which are well preserved.

Utilize Bread Crumb Menus & Navigation

Now a breadcrumb menu is a set of connections at the very top or underside of the page which lets users navigate into a desired pages which may be homepages or group webpages.

A Bread Crumb menu serves 2 Chief functions:

Easier navigation to some particular page without needing to press the back button on their browsers.

It will help search engines to comprehend the arrangement of a website.

Implementing breadcrumbs is outstanding in search engine optimisation because they're exceptionally suggested by Google.

In the event you do not curently have bread crumbs permitted, make sure that they are enabled. If you are a WordPress user, then you can add Breadcrumb Navigation using bread-crumb NavXT Plugin. Here's a fast manual on configuring bread crumbs.

In case in the event that you are looking for for an internet advertising agency that delivers a broad array of SEO services, then Orka Socials is very happy to help you.

Utilize the Right URL Framework

The following item on your technical search engine optimisation list is to help keep the search engine optimisation friendly URL structure of your website. From URL arrangement we suggest that the format of your URLs.

Very best Search Engine Optimization clinics dictate the subsequent about URLs:

Use Lower Case characters

Use dashes (--) to different words from the URL

Avoid having unneeded personality like underline(_) at URL slug

Make them brief and descriptive

Use your target key words in the URL with out key word stuffing.

If you are a WordPress user, you will make it SEO helpful by browsing (Setting>Permalinks) and choose URL structure by name.

Generally, as soon as you define the structure of one's permanent link arrangement, the only thing you'll need to do is always to optimize your URLs when publishing content that is new.

Boost Your Site

Google clearly stated that site speed is just one of those standing things. Google is mentioning the value of rate at their SEO recommendations and studies make sure faster websites perform better compared to slower web sites. Google likes to observe websites which provide a excellent user knowledge.

Bookmarking site rate is actually a specialized matter and it requires making changes to your site and infrastructure to find fantastic outcomes.

The Very First things will be to Identify your site rate Working with the very popular instruments:

Google Web Page Rate In-Sight

Gtmetrix

Web-page Test

Pingdom

The aforementioned tools will provide you some recommendations on what you need to change to advance your speed but since I mentioned previously it's really a technical dilemma, also you also may have to hire a programmer to assist you to.

Image Supply: CrazyEGG

Generally Speaking, below are Some Suggestions on optimizing site rank:

Improve your own server to use 64 bits operating system

Upgrade to the latest version of PHP

Maximize the dimensions of your images. You can find programs to help you do so without even losing quality.

Minimize usage of plugins that are unnecessary

Update WordPress along with all plugins for the Hottest versions

Use Minimalist/Lightweight WordPress Concept. Better to invest in habit made subject.

Boost and minify your CSS and JS Data Files

Leverage an Internet Browser caching plugin

Avoid adding a lot of scripts in the of One's Site

Utilize asynchronous Java Script loading

Do an safety audit and repair loopholes

Mobile Friendliness

Possessing a mobile-friendly website is compulsory. Most probably the majority of the users are around mobile sufficient reason for the coming of the mobile-first index by Google, if you have no an easy, mobile-friendly website your positions will likely sufferfrom

Mobile-friendliness a section of technical search engine optimisation simply because after you get a mobile-friendly motif, that's precisely configured, so you really do not need to address this again.

First matter to do is to check the mobile-friendliness of your website working with the Google Mobile-Friendly examination. If your site will not pass the test, you own lots of job todo along with this should be your first concern. Also should it pass the evaluation, there certainly are a number of issues you will need to know about portable and also SEO.

Your cellular internet site needs to have precisely the same articles as your desktop computer site. Using the debut of the mobile-first indicator, Google will try and position mobile websites predicated on their own cellular content hence that any content you have about your desktop should also be accessible on mobile.

Think about Using AMP

Image Source: Relevance

Accelerated Mobile webpages can be really a comparatively new concept introduced with Google in its own attempt to produce the cell website faster.

Essentially, using AMP you will find a edition of your website utilizing AMP HTML that's an optimized version of normal HTML.

The moment you make AMP webpages for your web site that these are stored and served to consumers by way of a unique Google cache that loads more quickly (almost immediately ) than mobile-friendly pages.

AMP pages will be simply reachable as a result of the Google Mobile results or by way of other AMP services such as Twitter.

There was a long debate in the search engine optimisation community concerning if you should embrace AMP webpages, there are both advantages and disadvantages to applying this particular approach.

Eradicate Dead Hyperlinks

A 404 mistake or useless connections implies that a webpage may not be obtained. That is normally caused by links that are broken. These errors prevent people and internet search engine robots by accessing your own pages , and may adversely impact both user expertise and search-engine crawlability.

This may subsequently result in a decline in traffic driven to your site. If a web page returns a error, get rid of all links resulting in the malfunction web page or substitute it with a different resource using 301 redirection.

Use Rel=Canonical on Duplicate Webpages

With canonical label example

Webpages are regarded as copies if their content is 85% indistinguishable. Obtaining duplicate articles could significantly affect your search engine optimization efficiency.

Google will typically show only 1 copy page, filtering other instances from its indicator and look for outcome, and also this particular page might well not function as precisely the main one that you wish to position.

Add a rel="canonical" link to a few your repeat pages to inform search engines which webpage to reveal in search success. Make use of a rel="next" as well as also a rel="prev" url attribute to repair pagination duplicates.

More, educate GoogleBot to manage URL parameters otherwise with Google Search Console. Generally in e commerce websites, donating URLs parameter can be a daunting task together side navigation. Within this instance, you can readily ensure it is seofriendly constituting some URLs parameter out of Google Hunt Console.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/WqiRncQRb5kcMHVLvQ8i0Il_xh-EHMEMF-dVTvS5tSkFkmEkTTG_FW9cPWLaSOR_bZ6Ya2kS_3zrrwxMyZJKCpqu6fMpgrmrUoJGunmJZ7P7rZlYNFSFJtE8EwrvE4Z5SCErhvIG

Use Hreflang For Indices Websites

Hreflang is an HTML attribute used to define the language and geographical targeting of a webpage. In the event you've got several variants of the same page in different languages, then you may make use of the hreflang label to share with search engines such as Google on those variations. This permits them to function the proper version for your own users.

Correct implementation of hreflang for multipurpose website

Image Source: Moz

Implement Structured Information Markup

Structured data or Schema mark up is increasingly gaining increasingly more essential within the last couple of years. Lately it's been greatly used by research workers comparing into this past.

Essentially, structured info is code you are able to increase your online pages which is visible to search engine crawlers and also helps them understand the context of one's own content. It's an easy method to spell out your data to search engines at a language they could know.

It's a little technical and also regarded being an facet of technical SEO since you have to simply add a code snippet so it could be reflected in research effects.

If you a WordPress user, you can easily execute even without schema markup plugins.

What is the benefit of utilizing ordered info?

This can help you boost the look of one's listings from the SERPS either through featured snippets, knowledge chart entrances, etc, and boost your click-through-rate (CTR).

Final Thought

Technical search engine optimisation covers a extensive array of locations that have to be optimized to ensure search engine spiders will crawl, render, and index your content together with relaxation. In the majority of the situations when it's done properly depending on SEO tips that you have no a problem through the comprehensive web site audit.

The phrase"technological" is based that you want to have a solid understanding of specialized features for example robots.txt optimization, page speed optimization, AMP, Structured data, etc. Thus be mindful at some time of execution.

Have you got some questions regarding technical search engine optimisation? Don't hesitate to inquire over the remark below.

Happy Reading

Source : OrkaSocials

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truckinggrowththings-blog · 4 years

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Select The Best Trucking Accounting Software For An Easy Access

The group business is an old company and has long been around for a while now. This business-like every other business traditionally used the high number of individuals. Different individuals had been handling diverse departments like managing truckloads, journey statement, vehicle expenses, monitor earnings and IFTA trucking and reporting. Typically the manual approach has been always time-consuming and prone to human errors. Manual approach to any business also demanded a large slice of earnings to become given to any workers. Because the competition grew larger so does the prevalence of manual approach went lower. The situation altered with all the coming of IFTA software within the trucking industry.

Any business owners that were established for decades gradually began transferring their particular accounting system to the truck bookkeeping software. What was astonishing could be that the work which got months to finish currently took a while in order to finish, that too with zero mistake. The one-time expense sounds so interesting for the trucking owners that they without a doubt started switching their own accounting system. The ideal IFTA software is actually an important blessing to the transportation business. Many will help to run trip studies, control expenses, paying individuals in addition to file the Quarterly International fuel tax agreement (IFTA). Let us look into some of the resources in short of the actual IFTA software.

The IFTA software will certainly be synced with altering guidelines which help compute the required taxes perfectly for you personally. The trucking account software will certainly help inside generating a comprehensive expenses after shipping. The IFTA software will aid within managing a statement that contains vehicle upkeep and mileage. The actual cover individuals as well as IFTA reports are usually also added to the reports. The trucking accounting software will certainly monitor parking, energy sources, tolls and other expenditures of the vehicles. The trucking accounting software is definitely designed in such a manner it can certainly incorporate into existing accounting software. Any days of manual work is long gone. The trucking owners don't have to worry about long wait times as well as doubt.

The ownership of transportation software program will help within the reduction of paperwork, extra time, administrative problems as well as repetitive data entry duties. Looking at the above points it is apparent that the trucking accounting software changed the fleet business. The ever-changing rules, penalties because of an error in submitting and huge labour cost are no longer a concern for your trucking business. Just by adopting efficient trucking software removes all ambiguity. You can just focus on other aspects of the business using the software. There's a range of trucking software available in the market. You need to choose which of those qualities you need for your business and then opt for the one.

Seamless integration with your existing accounting is the only quality you can't compromise when choosing accounting software. Software that may be integrated with your existing account is the one you should go for. Firms From all around the world started valuing the trucking software. If You haven't already used the software it is the high time to perform So. Just get the best software and restructure your Business to achieve the greatest goals.

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colesbarbeque · 4 years

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Top 10 Best Gas Grills under 200 in 2020

I think the $200 rate point is among the trickiest to shop for when it pertains to grills. Allow me to discuss this: Best Gas Grills under 200

This is the variety in which most new grillers feel comfortable investing to obtain a home grill.

That suggests, manufacturers flooding the marketplace with grills at this cost point, all with the same or almost the same functions.

Looks like a good idea right?

It actually makes the purchasing procedure much more difficult due to the fact that now you have a lots of alternatives, all declaring to be spectacular, but you don’t know which ones actually meet the hype.

So let me break it down for you, below’s what to look for and also what to prevent:

At $200, a quality grill isn’t going to have all the bells as well as whistles like a built-in rotisserie set, flavorer bars and a lots of area. But, if you pick the ideal one, it must satisfy it’s primary function like a champ as well as grill continually and smoothly.

Disregard the discounted bargains at Walmart that include whatever imaginable. That’s specifically how to wind up with a cheaply-made grill that barely reaches desired temps and also rather than laying down some wonderful sear marks on your steaks, leaves you with a drooping, unevenly cooked piece of meat.

The Best Gas Grills under 200

Char-Broil Standard 360 3-Burner – B01HITNEEE

The Char-Broil Standard 360 3-Burner is a top-performer for the under $200 category delivering 3 burners and also a powerful, dependable experience deserving of the greater rate arrays. Occasionally you can snag the 4-burner variation for under $200 throughout a sale and also can check right here. If you can that is a take for the top quality. The first point that jumps out is how much cooking area you obtain for the rate, in addition to just how much power they’ve packed in. It is the biggest grill in our top 3 and you can see exactly how spacious it is simply on initial glance.

Overall chef power on the 360 is a solid 30,000 BTUs, with 360 square inches of main cooking space and 3 burners. It likewise provides 170 square inches of porcelain-coated cable warming up shelf (excellent for corn or vegetable grilling) for over 530 square inches of overall cooking area.

The side tables on this grill are roomy as well as terrific for any preparation work you require to do and for keeping crucial tools while you remain in the grill zone.

The digital ignition makes grill start up quickly as well as easy, as well as the stainless steel inline burners provide top longevity for a lengthy grill life.

Like the other two grills in our top 3, the Char-Broil uses porcelain-coated cooking grates for very easy clean up and excellent warm retention and also transfer. It also features porcelain covered steel cover and firebox for boosted durability, particularly in bad weather condition months.

This grill is likewise on a strong cart with 6″ cart-style wheels so you can relocate around your backyard or into the garage for storing throughout winter season. The side tables do not fold down and also are stationery, so if you are searching for something that can minimize in dimension for an extra small area, this isn’t the grill for you.

It is additionally essential to note that this grill has 3 burners, yet no committed side burner. If that is a crucial must-have on your listing, after that look a little closer at the grills in the second as well as third places on our list for a better fit.

For optimal worth for your budget plan, this is an outstanding grill that will certainly execute with the best of them.

Cuisinart Grillster Portable Barbecue Grill

Grill masters everywhere seem to settle on something: this smooth Cuisinart Grillster is among the very best portable barbecue grill on the marketplace, particularly for its cost. Evaluating in at just 10 extra pounds, this little person can conveniently survive on a balcony or barbecue table as well as can rise to 600 degrees in a matter of mins, placing lots of grilling power at your fingertips. As well as because you desire about 72 square inches of cooking surface area each, the Grillster is also a terrific option for individuals or pairs, as it has 146 square inches.

Char-Broil Performance 300 2-Burner Best General Grill B01HID4Y7Q

The Char Broil Efficiency 300 is the most effective propane gas grill under 200, which supplies two heaters that provides 24,000 BTU of heat throughout its 300 square inch of cooking space.

This cabinet sort of grill actions around 15.9 inches by 18.5 inches with porcelain covered actors iron grates. This makes the part immune to rusting while avoiding food from sticking to the grates making it a lot simpler to clean up.

The durable heaters have the ability to offer solid heating efficiency that equally chefs your food.

In addition to that, it features an electronic ignition system that terminates up your grill quickly with a mere snap of a switch. This trustworthy product features two steel side racks that supply an added workspace for your grilling devices or the marinate itself.

If you have no use for them, they can be quickly folded up down to the side. There is a bottom storage cabinet for your gas container that maintains it safely tucked inside.

Pros

Features adequate cooking space that can accommodate as long as sixteen hamburger patties.

It comes with highly durable stainless steel that can hold up against rough weather condition and also the examination of time.

The one hundred square inch swing away warming shelf is best for warming up buns and also other sides. It is also an excellent area to keep your barbequed rewards cozy.

This features a temperature scale that has been installed on the cover to help you see as well as manage the temperature level with ease.

Cons

This features a less-than excellent user’s manual, which may make it difficult for you to figure out exactly how to run things.

The wheels of the grill seem rather lightweight, so you have to move it meticulously.

Do not make the error of keeping the side shelfs due to the fact that they feel flimsy. Hang on to the body itself if you intend to move your grill.

The regular cost of this grill is a bit more than $200, so you require to wait on sales to get this one for under 2 hundred bucks.

Blackstone 1517 B009971BM6

This cooking station by Blackstone is greater than a normal gas grill: at 28 inches, the frying pan flat top has the ability to tackle large amounts of food at the same time as well as provide even warmth distribution, delivering well-cooked meals each time in addition to making grease upkeep much easier.

As a full-size frying pan, this barbecue grill station significantly expands your food selection options. The flat-top allows you to include even more detailed morning meal food dishes to your everyday diets, such as omelettes, clambered eggs, smoked cheese, French toast, quesadillas, as well as far more.

In regards to conventional celebration foods, you will have the ability to take pleasure in making juicy steaks and other meats along with your preferred Mexican recipes, hash browns, corn, and also Japanese-style grilled treats.

This Blackstone frying pan uses common 20-pound gas storage tanks as well as includes 2 different heat control knobs on the front panel, permitting you to regulate each burner individually. The overall outcome of dual heaters reaches up to 30,000 BTUs, making it a powerful yet adaptable griddle top. You don’t need any suits to start the grill since the ignition is automated.

According to Blackstone tradition, the flat-top is made from cold-rolled steel made to withstand long years of use, while the frame is reinforced with powder-coated black steel made to power via any outdoor problems. The burners are made from stainless-steel for added protection from early rust and wear and tear.

Functions:

Dimensions: 44.5″ x 19.5″ x 33.5″

Food preparation location: 470 square inches

Number of heaters: 2

Power: 30,000 BTU

Weight: 75 pounds

Pros:

Easy to clean up and also keep

Built for durability in any kind of weather condition

Durable building and construction

Flexible cooking surface area

Additional lower rack for utensils and gas tanks

Side table increases work area

2 side wheels for mobility

Royal Gourmet Deluxe 4-Burner Propane Barbecue Grill with Side Burner

If you like to keep your barbecuing celebration in your home, this grill is ideal for a larger household or a group of friends. Trendy, yet able to handle hefty barbecuing, the added huge food preparation surface area will give you enough area for everyone to appreciate their meal at the very same time.

Supplier’s Specifications

Fuel type: Propane gas.

Variety of major heaters: 4

Ignition kind: Automatic ignition.

BTUs: 57,000.

Primary food preparation location: 469 square inches.

Secondary food preparation location: 156 square inches.

Total food preparation location: 625 square inches.

Develop products: Porcelain-enameled cast-iron grates, powder covered steel lid, stainless steel burners, handles and control board.

Dimensions: 22.4 inches by 52 inches by 44.9 inches.

Service warranty: One year.

Pros

Big cooking area.

Easy to begin.

Durable as well as reliable products.

Solid side tables supply workspace.

Integrated thermometer.

Individual control over burners.

Easy to put together.

Cons

Some individuals reported that the gas pipe is on the brief side.

Product packaging could be enhanced, with some pieces able to stir during transportation.

This grill is excellent for a warm summer around the pool with family and friends. It provides you a lot of space, along with adequate heat control to cook all food for a tool sized party simultaneously and enjoy the food with each other.

To find out more on this prominent barbecue grill, click here.

Char-Broil Traditional 360 3-Burner Barbecue Grill– Editor Option B01HITNEEE

Functions of Char-Broil Standard 360

Item Measurements: 24.1 x 51.2 x 43.5 inches

Food Preparation Area: Main 360 square inches, Swing-Away Warming Shelf 170 square inches

BTU: Total amount 30,000 BTU’s, 10,000 BTU’s per burner

Stainless Steel Inline Burners

Piezo ignition system for fast start-ups

As the name suggests, this 3 burner affordable lp gas grill is a classic. It features a large quantity of 360 sq. in. The surface area is huge sufficient to prepare for the entire family. To aid with the even cooking, it has 3 stainless steel burners that can distribute as much as 30,000 BTUs externally, so you are not entrusted any raw sides of the meat.

Plus, they supply high performance and also durability with exact warmth controls that are constantly practical.

Moreover, it has porcelain-coated grates, covers, as well as firebox. That way, it provides unbelievable durability to stand up against any type of deterioration or climate condition.

Likewise, you will not need to stress over the food sticking to your grate. Besides that, you can rapidly sport around the warming rack to and fro, while providing a suitable toasting area for buns, loaves, as well as whatnot.

For meal prep work, this broil already comes with large steel side racks, so you do not need to go back to the kitchen area each time. Another attribute worth discussing is the Piezo ignition system.

With this, all you need to do is press the start switch, and also it instantly fires up, making it extremely effective. Additionally this broil comes in handy as well as mobile many thanks to the extra two 6-inch wheels for simple transport.

Pros

Porcelain-coated for resilience

Quick startup

Easy mobility

Great grill for the rate

Cons

Problems with ignition

Char-Griller E3001 Grillin’ Pro 40,800-BTU Gas Grill, Black B001H9RPNI

The Char-Griller 3001 Grillin’ Pro Barbecue Grill is a larger grill that still drops well listed below the $200 mark. With a durable sturdy develop, this grill is produced years of usage for every little thing from tiny gatherings to medium sized groups.

The Grillin’ Pro has over 400 square inches of barbecuing area with another 192 square inches offered over the grill for keeping food cozy as soon as its been prepared. Customers additionally have accessibility to a side burner to help prepare added recipes while grilling.

This grill is additionally fitted with porcelain covered, cast iron grates for added non-stick security and also lasting sturdiness. A side shelf and also energy hooks offer space for food preparation and also storage space for utensils as well as other items.

At about 50 inches wide and also tall, the Grillin’ Pro is an excellent fit for the majority of backyards and outdoor patios and also would certainly make a terrific grill for families or a couple of pals.

Requirements:

Over 400 square inches of barbecuing space

192 inch warming rack

Side burner supplies extra food preparation room

Electronic ignition

Porcelain covered cast iron food preparation grates

40,800 BTUs of power

Pros

Sturdy building and construction

Lots of power for burning and high-heat food preparation

Extra side burner helps with preparing sauces or various other recipes

Cons

Barrel designing might be a turn-off for some

Tool dimension might not be big sufficient for large gatherings

Char-Broil Efficiency 300 2-Burner Cabinet Fluid Gas Grill B01HID4Y7Q

The Char-Broil performance 300 grill is a straightforward and top quality grill that is made to last with two stainless steel burners for toughness and distribute 24,000 BTUs throughout 300 Square inches across the main food preparation surface area with 100 Square swing-away shelf. Its grates are made with porcelain-coated cast iron which makes the grill non-stick and improves the corrosion standing up to capability of the grill.

The grill includes a side-folding rack that offers adequate room, a detachable oil pan for simple cleaning, and a quick ignition system for a very easy startup. It likewise consists of a cabinet for storage space of tank and other cooking tools, a temperature level scale, and wheel wheels for easy activity.

Top attributes

Two stainless steel burners with a large temperature level span to pick from and a cover installed temperatures determine for exact warmth control.

Large cooking space of 300 square inches and also 100 square inch warming rack.

Dual foldable side racks for enough workspace.

Big cabinet for storage space of cooking devices as well as four caster wheels for the very easy activity of the grill.

Fast as well as dependable electronic ignition and a greased pan which aids in very easy cleaning of the grill.

Char-Griller 3001 Grillin’ Pro Gas Grill B001H9RPNI

The 3001 Grillin’ Pro is made by Char-Griller, a Georgia-based charcoal, and griller that creates Japanese style ovens and kettles also.

This grill is extremely well built. The look on it is type of a barrel made grill, however it is extremely great. You would believe it is a rather much more expensive grill. But the price point is just listed below $200.

It is a very capable grill, with a rather huge food preparation surface and it also consists of a warming up rack with a side heater, so you can barbecue as well as prepare a side meal at the exact same time. This is surely a grill you can do a lot on. It additionally has a side rack that can be used as an useful work space. Utensil hooks on the rack will leave you all the vacuum that you require to prepare your food prior to preparing it. This grill is for the extra sturdy grillers available.

As we claimed, the build top quality on it is extremely wonderful, with porcelain layered, cast iron food preparation grates as well as a body constructed from steel which is powder coated for longtime outside usage. This grill is constructed to last. It will certainly withstand the examination of climate as well as time, also when excluded in the snow without any cover on.

This grill can supply the power to warm up quite quickly and obtain you barbecuing in no time with its 3 huge burners to cover all the grill area. The deal with on the cover stays cool so you can conveniently look at exactly how the cooking is going at any time.

However you will certainly require to have a lot of space since this grill is not small. It is likewise on the heavy side at nearly 90 extra pounds, so you probably will not be relocated around that typically.

Pros

Perfect for outside usage

Quality food preparation grates

Lots of room

Cons

Complicated Temperature level control

Inconvenient gas gain access to

Complex Assembly

source https://colesbarbeque.com/top-10-best-gas-grills-under-200-in-2020/

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skyeguides-blog2 · 4 years

Text

Preparation Your Home Renovation

As many people know, without a strategy, the most basic of jobs can get really untidy, extremely quickly. The old adage, "fail to plan; strategy to stop working" has actually lost none of its knowledge despite the wear and tears, and has never been more true than when it comes to your home restoration.

Planning is by no means easy, and producing detailed plans for complex jobs can be prolonged, and at times confusing.

The following standards cover the fundamentals to ensure your renovation project goes as smoothly as possible:

Prioritize - a brand-new kitchen or basement might be what your heart desires, however take a good take a look around and search deep in your soul. Exist more pushing renovations your house requires which if not tended to may cause structural damage? As asking professional renovators for advice, hiring an independent home inspector can be a great way to assess what is urgently required in your house, as well as understanding if the remodelling you desire is really possible. Make sure you check credentials, recommendations and proof of errors and omission insurance, and get a written report. You can then talk about the outcomes with your specialist at a later stage.

Know what you want and why you want it - is it as basic as a fresh coat of paint, or is it a more complicated task? Is it resale worth you're interested in (in which case, kitchen area and bathroom renovations are the most profitable) or does that not come into the formula? Make some sketches, rough out some floor strategies.

- not doing correct research study in this location can lead to much distress later down the line. Depending on the task, this can consist of the generation of in-depth drawings, scheduling examinations and application submission, and can take several weeks to finish. Your remodelling contractor can often help get you through this often tricky phase.

Develop a budget - if cash was no object, life would be easy (or at least much easier). Think hard about just how much you want to invest and where that cash is coming from. Shop around and look out for sales at your regional hardware shop. Exist parts of the project that you can do yourself? Provide yourself some cushion room also - you may want to alter things during the remodelling that are more expensive which you hadn't initially thought of.

Know when you desire it done - having guests this summer? Start a cost savings plan and stick with it for a year - plan the remodelling for when you have a comfy quantity tucked away.

Select a professional - if there are some parts of the job which are too complex or time consuming for you, a trusted, flexible professional is a must. The key to picking a professional is trust: do you feel that you can deal with these people, and have them in your home on a daily basis? Do they have the skills to do the job as you want it and when you desire it? They might be able to talk the talk, but can they stroll the walk? Check referrals, have a couple of meetings, ask lots of concerns. Get several quotes to help make your choice, however don't simply go with the most affordable if you're not comfy with the contractor - it'll end up costing far more in the long run. Once you have actually selected who to go with, a composed contract is essential so that both parties understand what's anticipated of each other. It will solidify the relationship in between you and your contractor, and give you peace of mind going into the task. Do not begin working with a contractor without an agreement - you are just asking for problem.

Establish an understanding - if you're opting for a professional, do some research online. Talk with individuals who have had comparable work performed on their home; buy a Do It Yourself book - you may even discover you decide to do the work yourself. A little understanding is an effective thing, and it provides you control of the circumstance.

Move junk out of the basement for a basement remodelling and hire storage if requirement be; keep pets well out of the way, and much better still out of the home entirely. Living with an on-going restoration can be unclean and very dirty. Utilities might have to be shut down at particular phases of the job, so know when this might take place and plan accordingly.

Be versatile - the very best laid plans of mice and guys (and home-owners who are remodeling) frequently go awry. Somewhere along the line modifications to the strategy will be needed, for a variety of reasons, and the more flexible you are, the easier it will be to deal with those modifications and make the right decision.

Communicate - open lines of communication with your specialist are the secret to an effective renovation. Don't let things fester - if you're not delighted with something, let in charge know. If you desire something done a various method, much better to state now than to wait a couple of days when undoing the work may be much more costly.

Take your time, follow these standard standards, and do your research study, and you will avoid a number of the typical pitfalls that beset homeowners who till unprepared into their home remodelling. Do not plan to fail.

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canumoveurseatup-no · 5 years

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Outlaws

Summary: It's easy for a good girl to go bad. But once they're gone, best believe they're gone forever.

Pairing: Loki x Black!Witch!Reader; Avengers x Black!Witch!Reader

Requested by: @blackreaders-assemble

WC: 3.1K

Warnings: mentions of black magic, witchcraft, blood, transition of good to evil, homicide, nerve gas, angst, major character(s) death, slight smut, Bonnie and Clyde kinda deal.

A/N: I have classes everyday starting Monday (Jan 28) (obviously other than Saturday and Sunday) so I will try to upload as much as I can. If you like this, please comment. Feedback means a lot!<3 I also don't know much about witchcraft, I wrote it based off tv.

“See our faces on the posters by the roadside?,” you pointed. You knew you were the wanted ones long before the ink dried.

Loki smiled at you, hand gripping yours as he looked at the road ahead, “We’ll be fugitives running from the mundane,”

Bringing your hand up to his lips, kissing it.

“You and I... we were just born to live in this lane,”

————

You’d been on the team for years yet they still treated you like the red-headed stepchild. It irritated you to the core and you begged your ancestors to give you the strength to keep pushing or to send you a better opportunity where you’re wanted and can thrive.

They accepted Wanda so why not you? They had more that one guy with the bird gig, more than one person with the fucking bug gimmick and pretty much two different Iron Men. No one’s ability or power was that different anymore.

Maybe it was because your magic was a birth given right, passed down from generation to generation and it was black magic. They didn’t understand that black magic is fine as long as the person knows how to properly use it and you obviously did. You learned it all from the time you were born to now. Two decades you practiced, learned and read. It was all trial and error but you were exceptional with your abilities now.

The more they underestimated you and pushed you to the side lines, the more you felt your grip on your powers loosen as you would just want to shut them up and prove them what bad you could really do since they wanted to believe it so bad in the first place without being open-minded. The only ones who actually cared about you was Sam, Tony and Wanda.

“Y/N, we need you on the East wing,” Steve spoke into the com.

You ignored his orders as you saw Natasha and Clint needed your help more right now. Running West, you saw the two trapped in a shit storm of agents from the opposite side. Helping them in the fight you heard Steve still yelling for you but you were too busy to reply. The agents kept swarming and you saw only one solution. Kill them before they even get close enough to try and kill you. With a wave of your hand, you pushed Clint and Nat out of the room shutting the door leaving them completely lost at what you were doing.

“Hello, boys,” you winked, “Now, I knooow you kinda hate us but I’m sick of fighting so I’m just gonna burn you to crisps is that okay?,”

The men raised their guns at you and started shooting, you put up an invisible force field and looked at your nails and yawning, “Aalllright. I’m a bit bored, goodbye,”

Your palms facing to them, raising your arms back you let the power of your ancestors flow through you and push your arms forward, a wall of fire standing before you as your eyes went blank.

Once the smell of burnt flesh passed, you dropped your hands to your sides before sighing, “This all could have been avoided has you just surrendered. But now I’m gonna get a never ending lecture,” you spoke to the skeletons laying before you.

You strolled nonchalantly out of the room and saw no one in he hallway.

“Y/L/N, quinjet now!,”

Steve’s stern voice boomed in your ear and you rolled your eyes knowing what would happen. You’d get yelled at and removed from the next couple of missions. It’s happened before. You saved the people that needed more help than him and he took it as you disobeying him, what a crock of shit honestly.

—————

“What about go East do you NOT understand?!” Steve was seething and you couldn’t see why. You just sat there uninterested.

“You don’t have to talk to me like I’m dumb. I went West because Natasha and Clint were getting swarmed. If I could fuse the two places together and make ‘Weast’ so I could help you all at the same time then I would. But I saved them from being mauled to death,”

Surprisingly Clint had admitted they did need the help and he was thankful you did help but Steve wasn’t hearing it.

“Why not use that magic of yours to make two of you then?,”

You sat back in your chair and glared at him and his stupidity.

“Not how it works, dumbass,” you tried to keep your cool but the more he ran his mouth the more you just couldn’t take it.

“Why am I even getting yelled at by you?! Who the hell made you leader and why? If I need to be getting yelled at by anyone it’s Tony. He’s the real leader here,” you tried to walk away but Steve grabbed your arm which was a really bad idea. Your ancestors always looked after you and flowed in your veins so when it felt like you were being threatened, they took it into their own hands.

When Steve grabbed your arm he ended up getting thrown back, hitting the door of the the quinjet, knocking the wind out of him. This action did not sit well with Steve at all.

“I’ll be contacting Fury to discuss your termination,”

Anyone else would be upset, but after all the unnecessary pressure he placed on you, it was a relief honestly.

—————-

“You blasted Rogers into the door of the quinjet?,” Nick scolded. He had so much faith in you since day one but Steve and his unnecessary complaining put a bad taste in Nick’s mouth. On all the reports Steve would score everyone else well but you, you wondered how you weren’t terminated sooner.

“I don’t know why he’s out for me! I haven’t done a single fucking thing to that peewee baby,” you rolled your eyes in frustration.

“I won’t terminate you but you are on probation. I’m placing you on a babysitting job,”

“Nick, you know I despise children,” you stomp your foot and whine just like a child.

“Though he can act like one... he’s not exactly a kid,”

——

“Out of all people... you want me to watch Loki? it’s LOKI!,” waving your hand at the cuffed man.

“Oh please, you’ll be just fine. You just have toooo... keep him under control until Steve feels you’re worthy enough to come back,”

“Steve can shove it!,” you crossed your arms as Nick shook his head and paced.

“Does he need to be fed?,”

“I am not a dog,” Loki’s tone was laced with offense.

You’d honestly rather just be kicked off the damn team than sit and watch him for however long they want you to.

“Nick I don’t wannaaaaa,” you whines but he wasn’t having any of it. He gave your shoulder a pat and smirked before walking to the door.

“I’ll be checking in Ms. Y/L/N. I’m sure you two will get along just fine,”

You two and everyone else were in for quite the awakening.

——-

Two month. TWO WHOLE MONTHS you two had been around each other and though you two bumped heads a lot. You couldn’t deny you two were a good pair. You were similar in so many ways, always misunderstood, pushed to the side lines.

Every morning at two o’clock you’d come to his cell and sit with him just talking about nothing. You realized he wasn’t so bad. Under his hard exterior it was just someone who needed to be heard and you heard him just like he heard you. Most nights you wouldn’t even return to your room, you’d stay with him so he didn’t feel lonely. He hated being alone and you wouldn’t let that happen as long as you could help it.

You’d bring your dinner down to eat with him. You brought your TV so you could watch sitcoms and have something to judge together.

You guys were like two peas in a pod but instead you were two cynics in a cell.

“Let’s run away.” You huffed. You sat with him in his room. You figured you’d never get the chance to get back on the team and the more you spent time with Loki the more you realized it just wasn’t worth it.

“I beg your pardon?,” out of all the people, you wouldn’t peg Loki to be hesitant.

“Let’s run away. I’ll take your cuffs off, we take a car and run and never look back. This hero life is not for me,” you were certain. You were forced into this, you had been on SHIELD’s radar far before they even approached you. They didn’t want to risk you becoming a threat so they gave you an ultimatum. Join or stay locked away into confinement forever where you can’t put anyone at risk. You didn’t want to live in a forced cage anymore.

Loki looked straight into your eyes looking for any doubt before raising his cuffed wrists to you.

“Once we leave... we can’t come back. We have to go off the grid,”

“Loki, I’m sure of it. You know the life you and I were meant to live. Let’s live it,”

———-

“Loki they’re gaining on us!!!!,” opening the sun roof of the SUV you placed your sniper on the roof, kneeling on the dash as you looked through the scope.

You and Loki had be wreaking havoc on New York and SHIELD was not too happy about that. News stations referred to you two as the modern day Bonnie and Clyde.

“Bingooo,” you whistled when the bullet shot through the agents windshield hitting them right in the shoulder, making them steer off the road. The next car came and you easily shot the front tire making it flip over and over like a tumbleweed.

“Alright, sweetheart. Time for the real show,” Loki called up at you. You smirked and climbed out of the roof. Bullets from the agents not even touching you. All the time you spent with Loki had helped you reach your peak in your magic. You were practically unstoppable and the Avengers’ worse nightmare.

Loki open ya side door and pulled the grenade pin. With you jumping off the roof and him jumping out of the car, you teleported him and yourself to the roof of a skyscraper to watch it all unfold. The agents skid to a stop when your car blew up, some of the others sliding right into the blast. Some civilians getting caught in the shit storm as well.

You felt Loki's hand wrap around your waist and he pulled you into a strong kiss. You never would have expected your life to turn out like this. You're not complaining about it. You'd rather live like this... putting your life on the line, living risky and taking chances of your freedom being taken away from you rather than to live inside a box with a boring cliché life.

But with Loki by your side it makes this whole adventure even better. You both were once trapped souls and now you were are free. It's fun when the adrenaline courses through your veins and your heart pumps faster when you get away with another crime. You love laughing at the TV when the authorities think they're so close to catching the modern day "Bonnie & Clyde". You're precise with your work. No one is quite sure who they're looking for yet as you guys change your appearance but SHIELD and the team know, they're the ones leading the searches, but they're not disclosing any information until they catch you.

They've been trying to catch you for months now. You call Tony from a payphone and he always tells you to stop before you get caught but you wear a big smile on your face every time-

"We're too good to get caught,"

-------

"Fury, they're pretty much causing Armageddon. What can we do?," Steve was in distress, pacing the room.

"Have we traced her calls? Thor you can't find Loki?," Bruce was pacing as well, he knew if it came down to it, he'd have to bring out the other guy and he wanted to diffuse the situation quickly before it got to that point.

"Loki and Y/N have fused their magic to disguise themselves. Not even Heimdall can see them and that is unheard of," Thor sat with a scowl, thinking hard.

"Their attacks... they're strictly twelve days apart at the twelfth hour and they're always at an important land mark that is specific to New Your. What place haven't they attacked yet?," Clint read over the case file and discovered the pattern.

Everyone thought about his words when realization hit them.

Tony took in a deep breath and his eyes widened in horror, "Here. Their next attack is here. The tower,"

-------

You walked inside the tower with a delivery uniform and a cart full of boxes. You've been tracking their deliveries and you knew they were expecting something. You had disguised yourself as the original delivery girl.

"Delivery for Mr. Stark, Mr. Rogers aaaand Ms. Romanoff," you smiled and showed her the clipboard even though it was a bunch of nonsense. She buzzed you win and let you go through to the elevators. While in the elevators, you used your power to distort the frame. You went into the boxes and set the timer. You don't even need these. You could always just use your power but you'd rather watch a domino effect. Setting it all off and then attacking. Loki was waiting for you in the delivery truck.

You went all the way up to Tony's floor and knocked on the door. You did hate doing this to him as he was one of the few that actually cared about you. But you didn't want to leave any room for liabilities. Knocking on the conference door where they all sat, you knew they were discussing you and your now husband as you two eloped. They were expecting you, but didn't know how you'd come in with attacking.

"Hello, Mr. Stark, I have a few packages for you,"

"O-oh you can leave them by the door," he waved his hand, fully engrossed in the file.

"Okie dokie," you said happily.

Tony paused, looking up at you as you placed the boxes down. No one else that he knows just says "okie dokie" no one except for you. He's interacted with the delivery girl, she never says that. Though it was simple, it was a crucial hint.

"Y/N." he deadpanned.

The team stopped and followed Tony's gaze to you.

"Pardon?," you smiled. Tony noticed the glint in your eye and he knew for sure it was you.

"Y/N, don't do this," he raised from his seat slowly. You frowned and tilted your head at him.

"I'm not quite sure I understand,"

They all stood, ready to attack and you sighed, rolling your eyes and letting your disguise falter pressing your ear piece so Loki could listen in on the conversation.

"Y/N, stop whatever you and my brother have planned," Thor pleaded, It was honestly adorable.

"It is too late for that Odinson," you smiled and Steve sent his shield flying toward you but you didn't flinch as it went straight through you, you looked down and tsked as they all looked surprised and confused.

"It turns out, Steve... that I can be in more than one place at one time," you pointed out the window and they saw the original you standing there on the roof of another building, waving.

"Why are you doing this?," Natasha questioned, hand on her gun on her hip.

"You can shoot me if you want, I am at my peak and I can not come down. My ancestors have blessed me and I now know the full extent of what I can do. So go ahead and try. You will regret it," you looked at the boxes and knew time was winding down, "In these boxes are a nerve gas that not even your god status can protect you from. It is efficient and to those who cared, you have your leader to blame," turning to look at Steve.

"Y/N, I am so sorry. I should have been a better Captain to you. There's no excuse,"

"Of course there isn't," you smile was sick and evil, "Now that I finally have my hands on the wheel you're begging for your life," you laughter sent a chill through them

"Sweetheart, they're sending reinforcements," you heard Loki state through your earpiece.

"By the time they get up here, you will have already been knocked out. First, the gas will paralyze you, then it will feel like all your nerve endings are on fire. Then is my favorite part," you smirked at the ground, "You'll start crying blood from all the pain. The opaque red covering your eyes in a film and you can't even blink it away. Your lungs will collapse, suffocating, then finally, you'll just choke on your own vomit,"

The real you had already gotten in the delivery truck and you guys drove off but the apparition was still standing there,

"Y/N, Stop it!," Thor sent Mjolnir flying into the boxes and then the pretty magenta colored gas started seeping across the floor.

"That was a bad idea, Thor," you waved a finger at him, "You still had a few extra minutes but look at what ya done did. It's sad that such a pretty thing can be so deadly," you laughed hysterically like you did at those stupid sitcoms.

Hulk came through and tried to break out of the glass to save him and Banner, "Black magic. You can't break out, bud,"

Hulk came over and tried to attacked you but his fists just kept going through you. Wanda started coughing and you watched it begin, "I better get going, as much as this would be a wonderful sight to see... my husband is waiting for me. Thanks for trying to make me good. But you pushed me to the edge and there is no coming back from this. Goodbye,"

"Y/N NO STOP THIS!,"

-------

Loki kissed up and down your neck as he thrusted deep inside you.

"You did so well, baby,"

After every successful attack he fucked your brains out. He slow stroked hard and deep bringing you closer to cumming. He kissed all over your neck, making sure to love you all over.

"Fuck, Loki," you whimpered as you came around him, setting off his orgasm as well. Staying still for a few, you two just gently kissed as the news played in the background notifying the world that Earth's greatest defenders are now dead.

You know how people fuck to slow jams or whatever? The news broadcast was the music to your ears instead

"Did you ever imagine this happening? Starting off having to babysit me like a sick child to us causing hell like this?," Loki asked as he held you in his arms.

"At first no.. But I wouldn't have it any other way,"

----

I AM SORRY THIS IS SO BAD? PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISN'T THAT BAD?! This is not my best work.

I WANNA CRY UGH, I hope you guys liked this though. I'll do better with my upcoming pieces

Please leave feedback <3

Tags- @sideeffectsofyou @chonisberonica @majikmelanin @babybubastis @scarletlingeries @mirajanestrauss1999

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trillhouse-lh · 5 years

Text

You Pervert

> Loan sighed, half-heartedly watching the screen as she lazily browsed an anime streaming site. Normally, she would stick to more legitimate sources, but she’d already watched everything that interested her on Crunchyroll… and quite frankly she just wasn’t in the mood to play any games at the moment. Granted, she wasn’t really in the mood to watch anything either, but she was bored and needed SOMETHING to occupy her time. As if on cue, a knock at the door snapped her from her stupor. > “Wh-who is it?” Loan called out. The door opened to reveal Liena, standing with a laundry basket in hand and a kind smile adorning her chubby face. “Oh… hello, Liena.” She said, returning her younger sister’s smile. Liena nodded in acknowledgement, silently walking over and setting the basket down on Loan’s bed. “Thank you… um, y-you didn’t need to go through the trouble, I would have gone to get them...” > (It’s okay.) Liena signed. (I had to.....Lemy.....dirt.) Loan cocked her head in confusion, and Liena thought a moment before trying again. (Lemy clothes smell bad.) > “Oh… I see,” Loan said with a laugh. “Well, thanks again.” Liena grinned, giving another small nod before hurrying out and shutting the door behind her. Loan looked at the laundry basket, finding that the clothes within were already neatly folded and ready to be put in the closet. It was easy to forget just how much Liena did for the family… Loan hoped that she took some time for herself every now and then. In any case, at least she had something to do now. > She looked back at the screen with a frown, quickly picking an anime at random… ‘Boku no Pico’. The name sounded familiar, but beyond that she had no idea what it was actually about. Still, it was more for background noise than anything, so she simply shrugged and put it on before sliding off the bed.

> Once, Loan may have procrastinated with chores such as these, if she even bothered doing them at all. But as long as she was living under her father’s roof she was determined not to be a nuisance. Besides, she wanted to get better, and sticking to old habits would do nothing to help that. > Loan got to work as the video started, an overly-cutesy theme song quickly filling her ears. ‘So it’s a shoujo series,’ she figured, taking a quick glance up to confirm her suspicions- > ...Oh. It was one of THOSE animes. > Barely a few seconds into the opening theme, the entirety of the frame was taken up by a close-up of a young girl’s butt as she rode her bike, wearing what could only be described as the tightest clothing ever conceived. Loan rolled her eyes. Fanservice was one thing, certainly something she’d come to expect from anime in general... but to get this risque THIS quickly was a clear sign that it wasn’t for her. With a shake of her head, she got back to work; she’d change it to something better in a moment. > Or… perhaps she could give it a chance, at least? After all, it wouldn’t be the first time an anime’s OP was misleading. She frowned, taking another glance at the screen only to be met with yet another close-up of the girl’s butt. She let out a sigh and massaged her temples. She’d seen a lot over the years, but never an anime THIS shameless. > ...Wait. What was that? > Almost as soon as she had noticed it, the scene changed to another. Loan blinked, unsure if she had really seen what she thought she had. Between the girl’s legs, she could have sworn she saw a small bulge… but no, it couldn’t be. She shook the thought aside; it must have simply been an animation error- > Oh, no.

> After a few more quick cuts, an image filled the screen: the girl bound up bondage-style, her skirt hiked up to reveal her white panties… > ...Sporting a clear outline of something a girl should most definitely NOT have. > “O-oh my God,” Loan gasped, her face turning bright red. She was frozen in place, her mind struggling to process what she was looking at. The ‘girl’ in a wet t-shirt. Topless on ‘her’ bed, wearing naught but panties as she pulled off her stockings. Various shots of her completely nude, naughty bits conveniently hidden from view. > Embraced from behind by a very clearly older man, blushing demurely as the man reached around to stroke his... > “...AaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” Loan shrieked, snatching up the controller and frantically trying to stop the video. She couldn’t watch this. Hell, she couldn’t even have this in her history. Was it even LEGAL?! So flustered was she that she managed to do naught but pause it before dropping the controller to the ground. “Oh come on!” She hissed, stooping down to pick it up. > “Loan?! Did you just scr-” Loan froze, her blood running cold and the controller dropping from her hands once more. She slowly turned toward the doorway to find none other than Lyra standing there, staring at the screen with a look of horror and disgust plastered across her face. > “L-Ly… LYRA?!” Loan sputtered, frantically waving her arms as she attempted to explain herself. “I-I swear this isn’t what it looks like…!” Whatever she may have said to defend herself, Lyra wasn’t listening; her lips pressed tightly into a thin line, her hands balling into fists and shaking with anger.

> Lyra had always had her suspicions about Loan. For a girl her age to spend all her time cooped up inside playing games and watching cartoons was unusual to say the least, not to mention the company she chose to keep. > As far as Lyra could tell, the woman had no friends her own age, instead preferring the company of their younger brothers. Well, TWO of them at least: Bobby and, perhaps even more worrisome to the teen, Lemy. She claimed to simply get along better with kids, but then why did she never spend time with Lacy, or Lupa, or Leia? Clearly something was afoot, but despite Lyra’s best attempts she’d never managed to catch her in the act… until now. > “You… you PERVERT,” She hissed, making Loan wince. > “I-I’m not-” > “I always knew you were up to something,” Lyra pressed on. “I can’t believe I’ve been letting you bring Lemy and Bobby in here unsupervised.” Loan’s brow furrowed in confusion, only for her eyes to go wide as the accusation set in. > “W-wait… WAIT! I-I never… I’m not like that!” She pleaded. > “What in God’s name is THIS, then?!” She spat, pointing at the screen. “And a cartoon, no less… looking to indoctrinate them into your sick fantasies, are you?!” > “I-I didn’t know what it was!” > “Oh, I’m sure you didn’t,” Lyra sneered. “You just HAPPENED to put on this pedophilic smut, then?” > “I’m NOT a-” > “You listen here, Loan.” The teen strode up to her sister, making the older woman shrink back in fear. “If you EVER go near any of our brothers again, I’ll make you regret it more than you could ever imagine. Do you understand me?!” > “I-I didn’t…” Loan whimpered; she looked as though she could burst into tears at any moment. Scared of being exposed for what she really was, no doubt. With one final warning glare Lyra turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

> Lyra stopped in the hallway, taking a few deep breaths to compose herself. She often had to remind herself that Loan was a very troubled girl, and had to give her at least some leeway compared to the others… but THIS was a different matter. Despite her warning, a big part of her wanted to report the issue to their father and Ronnie straightaway. Well… their father, at least. Lyra didn’t want to think about what Ronnie might do to the girl. > She groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose. She needed to calm down and clear her mind before considering her options here. With a sigh, she made her way downstairs. As she reached the bottom step, however, the front door swung open. > “-tellin’ ya, dude, they ain’t so tough.” It was none other than Lemy, Bobby following closely behind. “If either of ‘em had the balls to take me on one-on-one, I’d totally wreck ‘em.” He boasted, puffing out his chest haughtily. > “Yeah… I’m sure you would, Lemy.” His unconvinced younger brother said with a roll of his eyes. “Haven’t you and Hayden already… oh, hi, Lyra.” > “Huh? Oh, hey. ‘Sup, Ly’?” Lemy nonchalantly greeted his sister. The girl crossed her arms, looking down at the two with pursed lips. > “What’s all this about fighting?” Lyra asked disapprovingly; her little brother simply shrugged. > “Hypothermically.” > “...Hypothetically, Lemy...” Bobby corrected him. > “Yeah, that one,” The boy said as he stuck a pinky in his ear, wiggling it to clean it out much to Lyra’s disgust. > “Lemy, for goodness’ sake, go use a q-tip. We’re not living in a zoo,” She chastised him. Lemy huffed and popped his finger out of his ear, examining it for any stray wax. > “Yeah, yeah… c’mon, Beej,” He grumbled, heading past his sister with Bobby in tow. > “See you later, Lyra…” Bobby said. The girl waved, only for something to cross her mind.

> “Wait… wait you two, one moment,” She said; Lemy let out an exaggerated groan, stopping mid-stride and shooting her a look of irritation. > “Alright, alright… what’d I do this time?” Lemy asked. “‘Cause I swear I’ve got an explanation.” > “...I don’t know… what DID you do, Lemy?” Lyra fired back, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. The boys exchanged a nervous glance before an unconvincingly innocent smile crossed their places. > “N-nothing… um, what’d you need, sis?” Lemy asked in a faux-polite tone. Lyra sighed, shaking her head in resignation. She just couldn’t be bothered with it for now. > “Right, well… you two spend a lot of time with Loan, yes?” > “Yeah, why?” Lemy replied. > “I-is something wrong?” Bobby asked nervously. Lyra was about to answer in the affirmative, but she caught herself. > “Has Loan ever… done anything strange?” She asked. Lemy thought about it for a moment before shrugging. > “Not really.” > “I mean… she’s kinda strange anyway, isn’t she...?” Bobby pointed out. “I-in a good way, though.” > “No, no, I mean has she ever done anything that made you feel... uncomfortable?” Lyra clarified. The boys each cocked an eyebrow, exchanging another glance before looking back to their sister. > “...Uncomfortable how…?” Lemy asked. > “I mean, DONE anything… said anything inappropriate, or put her hands somewhere she shouldn’t-” > “W-wait, you mean like ‘bad touch’?!” Bobby gasped, his eyes going wide. “N-NO! Of course she hasn’t…!” > “Yeah, what the heck Lyra? Loan’s not like that,” Lemy agreed. “I mean, she likes to snuggle, but not like THAT.” Lyra frowned and kneeled down to their level.

> “Look… I won’t tell anyone,” She promised. “You can be honest with me. If she’s-” > “She’s NOT,” Lemy repeated, seemingly irritated by his sister’s accusation. > “Yeah… she’s nice,” His brother chimed in. “I like being with her. S-she’d never do anything like that…”Lyra hesitated a moment, her brow furrowing slightly as she studied their faces. Finally, she got to her feet with a sigh. > “...Alright. That’s all… you two can go,” Lyra said. Her brothers exchanged one final look of confusion, shrugging before they turned and made their way upstairs. Lyra watched them go before turning and heading out the door herself. > Lyra sat down on the patio with a huff to mull over the situation. Had she been wrong…? She’d SEEN what Loan was watching with her own eyes… but who would watch something like that without locking the door? > Plus, the woman had been adamant that it was a misunderstanding, and Loan had certainly never been a very good liar. The more Lyra thought about it the more it didn’t add up, and the worse she felt about how she’d treated her older sister. > “Ugh… nice, Lyra. Nice,” She scolded herself, burying her face in her palm. God, no wonder Loan had looked so upset… she’d accused the poor girl of something awful, not even letting her plead her case. Suspicions or not, she should have at least heard Loan out. But no… once again, Lyra had jumped to conclusions. She groaned and dragged her hand down her face. Her mom and Lemy were right; she really WAS too uptight for her own good. “...I should go apologize, at least...” She muttered as she got to her feet.

> Upstairs, Loan sat downcast at the foot of her bed, staring down at her lap sadly. She wasn’t sure what she should do, or say, or even think about the current situation. Not that she could blame Lyra… were their positions reversed even SHE might not have believed it. WHO WOULD LISTEN TO A NUTCASE LIKE YOU, ANYWAY?

> Loan sighed and shook the thoughts away. Whatever the case, all she could do was let Lyra cool down and try to explain herself again later. For the time being she still had laundry to put away, and she certainly needed SOME sort of task to keep her mind off things. May as well be something productive, right? > The young woman got to her feet and got back to work. However, as she whittled down the stacks of cleaned clothing, she spotted something out of place: all the way at the bottom lay a faded, purple tank top, far smaller than any of the other shirts. > “Is this Lemy’s…?” She muttered; with so many people living under one roof, it wasn’t unusual for some of their clothes to get mixed together by accident. Indeed, the shirt did look to be one of Lemy’s… the baked-in stains were a dead giveaway. “Has this even been washed?” She said with a grimace, bringing the shirt to her face to take a sniff. > ...And, as if on cue, the door swung open. > “Hey, Loan… listen, I…” Lyra trailed off as her gaze fell on Loan; the girl had her face buried in one of Lemy’s recently-worn shirts, taking in a big whiff of the young boy’s scent. Loan sighed as she lowered she shirt. > “Yeah, that’s definitely not… um…” Loan’s eyes met Lyra’s and, for some time, neither moved or said a word. Then the tank top slipped from her hand and she raised her palms in submission, giving a small, nervous laugh. “U-um… I swear, th-this isn’t what it l-looks like…” She stammered as Lyra grit her teeth, her face turning red-hot with fury. > “Y-YOU PERVERT!”

#loan loud #lyra loud #lemy loud #bobby loud #Bobby Jr.#sin kids #trillhouse #fanfiction #my work #greentext

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