#zeta (the second time today)?!!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

solar-wing · 7 months

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⚣ Captor & Captive 🦍

Check out Parts One💉 & Two🔥!

⚣🦍 A/N → The final installment! Fair warning. For those who read the original version, this one is going to be completely different. With my updating and revising the previous parts, this is the ending I originally pictured but decided to not go with at first so I hope you all enjoy it. As mentioned in the last part, the full NSFW version will be posted to Patreon. WARNINGS: MALE INTERSEX READER. Canon-Typical Violence. Bondage & Gagging. Manhandling/Rough Treatment. Emotional Feelings. Some Comfort&Fluff Vibes, etc! All NSFW warnings will be on the full version.

⚣🦍 Summary → The moment has arrived. Conner's finally got you where he wants you and is ready to tear you apart from the inside (literally). However, a timely arrival from your friends could offer itself as a last chance to escape his grasp before he is able to claim his prize. Are your teammates up to the challenge though with the Kryptonian's increased strength and full powers?

⚣🦍 Words → 10.2K

REBLOGS and replies are greatly appreciated, please! 💛

⚣ Full Version 🦍

⚣ ENJOY 🦍

Today was really not your day.

How you ended up in this situation? No one knows, but what or who could you have possibly angered to have something like this happen to you? No punishment in the world you imagined could be as bad as that time you got in trouble for acting out in school and they called your dad.

He could be a frightening man when he wanted to be.

But nope, this outweighed that by so much. And the day started out normal as usual.

Well, as normal as possible for a young superhero with pyrokinesis who was part of an elite team of other young superheroes and vigilantes.

Usual shit, you know?

You woke up, got out of bed, and ate breakfast with your dad before running (flying) off to your university. Classes were boring, you and your buddies acted like goofy idiots all day, and you burned a few kids on the ass for being assholes to other students.

At the end of the school day, you made up an excuse of why you couldn’t hang out with your friends before rushing off to the abandoned photo booth/zeta gateway in an alleyway of your city to meet up with your team. The second you got there, Batman called you all into the mission room to give details of Professor Ivo’s newest schemes before sending you all off in the bioship to discover what he was up to.

Arriving at the abandoned warehouse where Ivo was sighted, it wasn’t long before things had gone from calm to chaotic. The dusty and dirty building was filled with a bunch of brand new boxes that contained an army of laughing MONQI robots, Ivo’s annoying little robotic henchmen.

It was a trap, one you realized a little too late when you got nabbed by a couple of the laughing androids. Superboy came to your rescue only for you to realize the set-up was for him when he got injected with a purple serum. After you got your bearings, you managed to trap Ivo and take out the last androids, but Conner was out clean, and you had no idea what they had done to him.

Red Tornado was able to deduce what the mysterious liquid was when Conner woke up after you all returned to Mount Justice and he began acting very aggressive and animalistic towards you. Let’s just say your scent was ‘desirable’ to him, and he was very keen on keeping it and you to him as long as possible along with other things. Details aren’t needed, but from many of his actions, the wind-controlling android figured the Kryptonian was injected with a hormone-boosting solution.

Its intended use was for him to turn into an angry, instinct-driven savage and kill you and your friends. Thankfully, you knocked the vial out of him before it could be fully administered, but his instincts were still amplified. Only instead of a murderous beast, he became the superhero version of a horny and aggressive brute dead set on fucking you stupid.

Thankfully, your friends and mentors intervened and managed to get you away from ‘Caveman Conner,’ as you dubbed this new persona. However, he did not make it easy for them at all as apparently, that serum made him extremely possessive as well, leading to him holding you captive on his shoulder like a potato sack while fighting your friends and mentors like they were world-class villains for attempting to get you away from him.

Whether that was a Conner trait before the injection or one that was created after was something you didn’t think about though, considering he acted nothing like this when he was with M’Gann.

This entire ordeal led you to discover Batman’s apparent insurance policy for the Kryptonian, in case he or Superman were to ever go rogue. It made you wonder if the superhero had backup plans like that for all the other members of the league, your meta and magical teammates, or even you.

As far as you knew, there wasn’t anything that could counter your powers as long as you weren’t extremely cold. And it wasn’t like there was a member in the Justice League who shared similar abilities to you that Batman could test something out on. But, of course, as cruel fate would have it, the Dark Knight did indeed have an insurance policy for you which Conner had discovered and taken advantage of after shutting off the electricity and luring you to the garage hangar when you and he were alone after everyone had left out.

With the power and communications off in the Cave, your powers nullified and the dark-haired boy’s own amped up since he apparently unlocked his full Kryptonian abilities due to the effects of the serum, you were trapped inside, defenseless, and at his mercy.

Not only had he forced you back into the Cave after you almost escaped, but he smashed the panel that controlled the garage hangar door rendering it completely useless before proceeding to handcuff and gag you while giving a pre-show of his intended plans.

Now, you watched in anxious anticipation as the Kryptonian carried you down to the hall to wherever with plans to ruin your body for his own carnal pleasure.

Yep, normal shit.

Okay, you knew where you went wrong now; you got out of bed.

The tight pressure and soreness in your abdomen had become like a throbbing sensation with every step Conner took that would slightly cause a repeating push against your waist from your position on his shoulder. You did your best to keep your body upright to avoid the very familiar feeling of blood rushing to your head and swimming around in your ears, but it seemed Superboy was taking his good ole time and your upper body strength was getting weaker and weaker.

You also tried to keep your mind off the ache and tingles running up and down your arms as they rested against your back with the metal of the cuffs weighing them down. The Kryptonian chuckles at your futile efforts to escape his hold, with your weak squirming and struggling as he continued fondling the soft flesh between your legs with the same hand holding your thighs against his chest.

He loved the sounds of your muffled whines and cries, feeling like the most powerful person in the world as you were virtually helpless and at his mercy. You would not enjoy the boost to his ego that was guaranteed to happen, especially after his little preview of your night in the garage hangar which you prayed to whatever deity watching that the cameras throughout the base were powered down to and didn’t catch any of that on tape.

The last thing you needed was your friends reviewing the footage and seeing you get violently fingered against the wall and splashing a mess all over the floor.

Speaking of which…

WHERE THE HELL WERE THEY?

Kal, M’Gann, and Zatanna had left on a walk around Happy Harbor almost 20 minutes before you decided to pack your things and head out. Your fight with Conner, including his little pleasurable fun with you had to also have been at least 20 minutes itself. So, if you were doing the math right, it’d been almost a little over an hour since they had left. What, did they decide to make a stop in Gotham too?

What the hell were they doing and why weren’t they back yet?!

Who were you even kidding though? Conner virtually made sure there was no way to get back inside the base without him knowing about it. And of course, if they did manage to make it inside, he’d be alerted well in advance and have time to do whatever with you before going to deal with him.

Of course, you could fight or melt your way out, but with this stupid cooling bracelet on your arm, that wasn’t happening either. You were trapped inside Mount Justice and the only way you were leaving was if the Kryptonian allowed you to.

Why was that low-key kind of hot though?

Despite how embarrassing this whole ordeal felt, you couldn’t deny how erotic all of this was. If it wasn’t for the emotional mess this would eventually lead to, you would have played the role of the innocent and helpless virgin, ahem, victim from the beginning, no questions asked.

His possessive attitude, treating you like the most valuable piece of treasure in the world and not wanting anyone else to have it. The aggression and dominance in how he handled not just those who dared try and take you from him, but how he dealt with you and your ‘bratty’ behavior.

What’s that purring sound?

Suddenly, Conner came to a stop. You tried your best to turn and see where you were before everything moved in a fast blur as the dark-haired boy turned to look at the two companions that were following behind.

“Stay.” He commanded in a gruff tone.

Wolf nodded at your captor, before planting himself right next to the door you were facing, Sphere going to the other side of it. The Kryptonian entered the room shortly after.

It was dimly lit by the red emergency lights of the Cave, and as the door shut behind you two, it became even harder to tell where you were. However, when you saw a few piles of clothes, some workout equipment, and a bin of tools in different areas, you quickly found the answer: Conner’s bedroom.

Well, at least he was considerate in choosing a more private place this time to have his way with you.

A part of you was excited at the thought of getting to have sex with your crush. But, the other side where logic and rationality were still speaking kept you apprehensive. When all was said and done and Conner (hopefully) came back to his senses, where would you and him stand?

You didn’t want to risk losing your friendship with the Kryptonian if it turned out he didn’t harbor any romantic feelings for you and this was some sort of anomaly. How could you both even work on the same team together if there was an awkward air between the two of you?

He walked across the room before you felt yourself being nudged up, one of his arms coming up to your back as he gently lifted you off his shoulder and deposited you onto his bed, a slightly relieved feeling running through you from the release of pressure on your abdomen. It was a surprising change of pace from the rough antics you were used to.

Conner brought his face directly above yours, staring into your own pupils with an expression that made you feel as if you were in trouble, which considering the previous events, you probably were.

What you didn’t expect was for his hand to rub down the side of your face in a soft caress, his calloused fingers somehow feeling soft to the touch. His eyes slowly traveled across your face, seemingly taking in every detail they could while you definitely did not snuggle your face into his hand.

You know what, you could have this moment. Just for a little bit.

Your soft whimpers were the only sound that was heard as the Kryptonian stared at your shiny, wet eyes before he leaned back up while his hands moved down to the front of his pants.

This was it.

The moment you fought so hard to avoid had finally come. You couldn’t deny the many parts of you that felt excited, the anticipation at knowing you were about to get something you’ve wanted for so long. Well, a part of something at least.

You could recall times when Conner and M’Gann were still dating and you’d feel jealous at the sight of her lips upon his. The Martian getting to touch and caress the Kryptonian in ways you thought you would never be able to. It was a bittersweet thought.

In the end, you did get to have something she may have never had (at least to your knowledge), but at what cost? When all was said and done, and the serum was fully out of Conner’s system, who said he would still see you the way he does now?

He could end up resenting you for tempting him with your desirable scent. Of course, that would in no way be your fault, but it was still a possibility.

Just as much as it was possible that he actually may feel some sort of feelings for you. It would explain why he was attracted to you out of everyone else, especially M’Gann, and why he’d act so aggressively when anyone else would try to take you away from him.

It was a nice thought, but in your mind, it was highly unlikely.

Just as he was about to unzip his pants, the sound of mechanical whirring and things powering on hit your eardrums. Your sight was blinded for a quick moment by the sudden return of the ceiling lights, illuminating the room where you could spot more details and items you couldn’t before.

‘Someone turned the power back on.”

It would seem Conner had the same realization given the enraged look on his face as he looked around the room. He hopped off the bed, you watching his tensed muscular back as he marched to the door before yanking it open and leaning out. He stood there for a few seconds before turning around, the look in his eyes even more irate as he stomped his way back over to the bed which could mean a lot of things, but more than likely one.

Your friends had returned.

The realization brought immediate relief to your body, but you didn’t have much time to celebrate as the Kryptonian lifted you into his arms in a bridal hold. You fought back as hard as you could with a renewed fight and energy.

Your goal wasn’t necessarily to escape this time (though it was still your end objective), but more so to create as much noise and commotion as possible to alert your friends to your location. And though he’d probably never admit it, the Kryptonian had a much harder time holding you still as he walked you over to his closet which was surprisingly tidy, unlike the rest of his room.

He had to keep your legs still with you kicking wildly while placing you gently on the ground in the closet. When you were fully inside, he gave you a stern look. His way of telling you to be quiet or else.

You had no plans to adhere to that warning. The second he closed the door, you swung your body around as best as you could and started kicking your legs against the door only to almost get singed by the red blast of the Kryptonian’s heat vision.

He was searing the door shut like he did with the garage hangar door to keep you trapped inside, and more importantly, keep anyone but him out.

You’d almost forgotten about his upgrade in power with the serum unlocking his full Kryptonian abilities. Now, not only did he have super strength and invisibility, but he could fly, had full x-ray and heat vision, and inhuman speed.

Your friends had no idea what they were about to walk into. Even though you held your own against Conner for the most part, it was easier to try to escape than fight him head-on, and that was when he just had his normal abilities. It’d be almost suicide to try and fight him if he was fully equipped, which he was in more ways than one…

Hey! No dirty thoughts!

You could hear him zapping his bedroom door closed, creating two fortified barriers in the event someone managed to figure out where you were. Even if you kept kicking and knocking yourself against the wall, all you’d do is manage to hurt yourself.

The only one who’d be able to hear you was Conner with his super-hearing which you’d bet money was enhanced as well from the serum.

Trapped once again and left in darkness, the only hope you now had was that your friends could subdue Superboy long enough for them to find and free you. Potentially, with all four of you, there could be a good chance of taking him down or if need be, calling Batman to find out where his supply of Kryptonite was.

‘C’mon guys, don’t fail me now…”

“Do I even want to know what that mess on the floor is?” Zatanna asked, pointing to the wet ‘spill’ on the floor and pieces of clothing scattered near the wall.

“Probably not. What I want to know is why the door panel was not only smashed to bits but the entire door welded shut and the power shut off.” Kal said while inspecting the crumpled piece of machinery.

“Who do you think could’ve done this?” M’Gann wondered.

“I have my suspicions, but we won’t know until we check the medical wing or at least find Y/N if he’s still here.”

“I’ll go check the mission room and see if the Zeta Tube logs show any transports to his city.” The Martian volunteered.

Kal instructed her to go in stealth, just in case whoever did this was still here and watching them. He and Zatanna started searching the different halls and rooms, hoping to find something, anything that could help them figure out where their friends were and what had happened.

When they reached the medical wing, Kal's suspicions were confirmed the second they spotted the empty medical bed.

“Great, so if this was Superboy’s doing and he still has the serum affecting his mind, there’s no telling where he could be.”

“What if he followed Y/N home? Red Tornado said Conner was focused on…mating with Y/N. If he left before or right as he was waking up, he could’ve followed after him.” Zatanna said, a visible disgust coming over her face at the mention of the mating part.

“Then, why was the door blocked and the power off? He couldn’t use the Zeta Tube if the power was down. And would he even know how? Red Tornado said Conner's mental thinking was reduced to that of a primate. I’m not sure how much they knew about computers and gateway technology back then.”

“Guys!”

The two turned around to see M’Gann flying up to them with a distressed look while holding something in her hand. She was breathing hard while checking her surroundings before she looked at her two teammates and whispered something they couldn’t hear.

“Huh? Say that again.”

She huffed before checking behind herself. When whatever she was checking for was clear, she turned back and leaned closer, this time speaking a little louder but not loud enough for them to understand.

“I’m sorry, we still can’t hear you.”

The Martian girl rolled her eyes before they went wide with realization.

‘CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?!’

Kal and Zatanna covered their ears in shock before giving an annoyed look to the green martian, “Yes, we can hear you, which ow, by the way.” Zatanna retorted.

‘Good. Sorry, and don’t speak out loud! He can probably hear us. Use the mental link.’ She instructed.

‘What are you talking about? Who can hear us?’ The sorceress asked, now also using the mental link as well.

‘Conner! He’s still here, and so is Y/N. When I went to the mission room, I checked the gateway logs and found the last transport going out to Y/N’s home city failed due to a power outage. Plus, his backpack was sitting next to the console.’

Kal and Zatanna's eyes both went wide as they looked at each other with realization.

‘Okay, kind of a smart move on his part. What better way to keep your captive from escaping than to lock them in an indestructible powered-down fortress?’ Zatanna said before something down the hall caught her eyes.

‘Indeed, a bit too smart for my comfort level. But, then why would Y/N seal the doors shut? He’s the only one who could weld it to the wall and floors like that.” Kal pointed out.

‘Guys…’

‘Maybe Y/N managed to escape and melted the doors to keep Conner from escaping.’ M’Gann suggested.

“Um, guys…”

‘Possible, but why was the panel smashed and why didn’t he come to find us?”

‘Guys! All legitimate concerns, I agree. But, we’ve got bigger problems!’ Zatanna shouted over the mind link before pointing towards the entrance to a very shirtless, very pissed-off Kryptonian.

They barely had time to react when Conner charged at them. He swung a punch aiming for Aqualad but only managed to hit the ground before they each ducked out of the way.

‘M’Gann, try and establish contact with Y/N now!’ Kal commanded while pulling out his water bearers to create twin swords.

‘Y/N? Can you hear me? Y/N, this is M’Gann!’

Not even a second later, they heard your voice screaming into the link, ‘CONNER HAS HIS FULL KRYPTONIAN POWERS!’

It prompted them to look up just in time to see Conner shooting his heat vision at them. Zatanna muttered a defensive spell that blocked the crimson beams from hitting Kaldur just in time while they turned and decided to run back towards the garage hangar.

‘Thanks for the warning,’ Zatanna said in the link.

‘No problem. Conner locked me in the closet in his bedroom and he used his heat vision to sear both the doors shut.’

‘That won’t be an issue for me. I can use the teleportation spell I used to get us inside.’

‘Alright then. Zatanna, you go and free Y/N. M’Gann and I will do our best to hold Conner off as long as we can.’ Kal said just as they reached the hangar. They heard a shattering sound and an angry scream, meaning Conner broke through the shield. Zatanna muttered a spell before she blinked out of sight with a small shimmer of light.

Just as she disappeared, Conner came flying around the corner looking more angry than before. Things were about to get serious.

The sorcerer appeared right in the middle of Conner’s bedroom, taking a moment to collect herself before she looked around the messy room.

“Ugh, boys…” She muttered before rushing toward the closet. “Y/N, are you in there?” She asked.

All she heard was muffled sounds and screams in response. She uttered another spell that would force the doors to fling open while hearing your warning screams in her head all too late before she got the shock of her life.

“OH MY GOD!” She screamed, before covering her eyes at the sight of your bound naked body.

The embarrassment you felt right now definitely exceeded what you felt earlier when your friends had to first rescue you from the Kryptonian. In your defense, you tried to warn her before she opened the door, but the girl didn’t listen.

You could hear her uttering another spell under her head before a new tank top and pair of shorts appeared on your body. When the dark-haired girl confirmed you were indeed clothed, she knelt down to untie the gag off your mouth.

“Not one word of this to the others,” You said the second you could spit the torn piece of your old shirt out.

“Agreed.”

Zatanna helped you out of the handcuffs before helping you to your feet. It took you a minute to get your balance back since you hadn’t been on your feet for a while with Conner always choosing to carry you every fucking where on his shoulder.

“What took you all so long?! Conner freaking shut off the power and trapped me in here, and then basically molested me in the garage hangar. He was just about to get his grand prize before you guys showed up. My therapist is gonna be banking off this for the next year.” You all but shouted while trying to get the cooling bracelet off your wrist.

“Okay first off, TMI. Second off, we would’ve been back a half-hour ago but we were stuck outside trying to figure out why the door wouldn’t open. Now, we know why. Speaking of which, why didn’t you just blast him or fly away and come get us?”

“Oh, you don’t think I freaking tried that?! Conner waited to surprise me with his new powers just as I got out and then as a bonus, decided to slap one of Batman’s insurance policies on me. This freaking cooling bracelet is blocking my powers, and I don’t know how to get it off!” You groaned while trying to pry the thing open.

“Ugh, hold still,” Zatanna said while grabbing your wrist.

You heard her speaking backward again before you saw the blue light on the bracelet suddenly turn green before it snapped open, falling to the ground. Just as earlier when Conner first put it on and you felt a rush of cold air, the second it was off, a familiar heat spread over your body as you conjured two fireballs in your hands.

“Have I mentioned how much I appreciate you?”

“No. But, if you order me my favorite takeout for dinner, I’ll consider it all forgiven.”

“Deal.”

Just as you both began to make your way to the door, you could hear M’Gann calling out to you on the link.

‘M’Gann, what’s wrong? I just got Y/N and we’re about to be on our way back.’

‘Don’t. Conner’s on his way to you now. Get to the mission room and use the Zeta Tube to get out of here. Kaldur took some hard hits. He wasn’t as harsh on me as he was on him, but I think he figured out our plan.’

As soon as she said that, the door was blasted off its hinges as the Kryptonian made his way through. When he saw you weren’t in the closet anymore (pun not intended) and that you were free of your cuffs, you immediately knew you were in for it by the vicious snarl he let out.

Thankfully, you had no plans of letting that happen.

He pointed his finger at you before pointing at the ground in front of him, reminding you of earlier when you first broke out of his hold. When this entire mess began…

You moved Zatanna behind you while staring at the Kryptonian in his blue eyes, formulating a plan in your head.

‘Zatanna, when I give the signal. Teleport us to the mission room.’ You instructed.

‘What about Kal?’

‘M’Gann will take care of him, I’m sure. But Conner won’t even waste his time on him. He’ll be too focused on chasing after me.’

‘Alright.’

Just like earlier, Conner could somehow tell you were up to something. You were counting on the hopeful fact he hadn’t noticed you were free of the cooling bracelet, which was met with joyous truth as he reacted too slowly to you blasting your own heat vision right into his eyes as you did earlier.

He shouted in pain while you yelled “NOW” to Zatanna who immediately grabbed your hand while uttering the spell. However, he recovered faster this time than before and immediately tried to charge at you in hopes of snatching you back before you could get away, but was too late as you both blinked away, popping into the mission room in a flash of light.

“Nice one,” You said while immediately running for the console and punching in the coordinates for your city.

Just as you finished typing, you heard an animalistic growl from behind you, turning to see a flash of white fur before you were suddenly knocked to the ground. A pair of snarling teeth were in your face as you felt Wolf’s paws on your body while Sphere held back Zatanna from trying to help you.

“Ugh, I forgot about you two.” You groaned.

He must have sent them here to hold you off, probably knowing if you managed to get free, you’d try to transport your way out of here since the garage hangar was blocked.

Out of patience at this point, you mentally apologized to the canine before letting your body be consumed in flames to force him off your chest. Yet again though, as the day was proving over and over, you couldn’t catch a fucking break.

The moment you were off the ground, Conner rushed in and immediately charged for you. One second, you were standing free and ready to make a break for the teleporter, the next you found yourself slammed against the wall with him gripping both your arms while he pressed himself against you to prevent you from moving.

A familiar rush of cold air spread over you, the Kryptonian not wasting any time slamming your good ole wrist jewelry back on.

“Oh, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” You snapped while Conner had his arrogant smirk before tossing you back over his shoulder, not bothering to cuff your hands while making his way to the Zeta Tube.

“Zatanna, a little help!”

“I’d love to, but I’m kind of busy not becoming a bowling pin right now!”

You didn’t have time to throw back a witty remark before you felt yourself lifted and tossed into the open portal. The familiar tingle you always got when using the Zeta passageways came over but was stronger this time. Probably because your body was colder than its normal temp from the cooling bracelet, so it had more of an effect on you.

When the flash of light passed through your eyes, you found yourself inside the photo booth in the alleyway of your city. Knowing Conner would be right behind you, you figured one last-ditch attempt wouldn’t be too worthless. Maybe you could find a place to hide or catch someone’s attention to give you a hand.

Yeah, of course. Just grab the next random person’s attention and let them know a super-powered caveman Kryptonian is after your sweet little hole, and you need help escaping in their Toyota Prius or Nissan Altima even though he can move faster than the car.

Real smart idea.

Well, actually the Altima may not be a bad thought. Those fuckers never obey the speed limit.

The moment you exited the photo booth, it lit up again with your captor promptly exiting and smashing the booth to pieces, preventing your friends from being able to follow behind.

Because why fucking not?

You barely had a chance to turn around and run before he had you back in his grip, his smug look returning to your sight before you were lifted into a bridal hold with him taking off in the air.

‘Oh, god, I’m so fucked…’

The sound of waves crashing against land was the first thing you recognized when Conner finally landed somewhere. A salty sea smell assaulted your nostrils as you looked up and took in the deserted beach. The city lights in the distance added some illumination on the dark shore as well as the shine from the moon in the clear sky.

You could remember countless times when you’d come out here at night whether with friends or just yourself to fool around or listen to the sounds of the waves. It helped you relax, helped you think. It was where you made some of your biggest revelations and decisions, like when you first discovered your powers.

Ironic a person with pyrokinesis first thought was to run to a place filled with water. Actually, maybe it was kind of smart. If something went wrong, like you accidentally set yourself on fire, you had a quick way to put it out.

There were a lot of great memories with this place. It was comforting. It was peaceful…

He brought you up to a lone standing tree before setting your on your feet positioning you between it and him leaving you no place to move. He held your waist tight in his hands while pressing himself against you, staring down deeply into your eyes.

The shadow around his face made his strong chin and jaw look more prominent, but more than ever, his blue eyes seemed to shine brighter than the ocean right behind you two as he stared down at you with an adoring gaze.

Wait, adoring?

“Co-Conner? Is that you? Like, actually you in there?”

He stared at you quietly, his usual frown in place which only made you more nervous until the corners of his lips turned up into an all-familiar cocky grin, immediately putting you on high alert.

“Well, depends on your definition of ‘actually me’, but if you mean am I back to a regular state of mind, then yeah, seems so.” He responded.

Pardon?

“I- uh, I’m sorry, huh?” You stammered, words slowly escaping your mind.

“Think I can get a couple rounds in before the others show up?” He asked while taking a hand and palming around your stomach.

Bitch, what?

“Hold the fuck up!” You exclaimed, your hands fully planted on his chest as stared down at you with an amused raised eyebrow. “The hell you mean was that enough?! Were you actually conscious of everything this entire time?”

You may have sometimes been a little naive, a bit clumsy, and you often ran your mouth before you thought about what you were saying, but you were no fool. Boo-Boo was nowhere on your birth certificate last time you checked.

So, when Conner’s lack of confusion and surprise at the current ‘circumstance’ you were in failed to show, assumptions were made on your end. And they were not good, not in the slightest.

“Conner whatever your fucking middle name is Kent, I swear to whatever deity is listening to me right now, if you don’t explain what the fuck is going on right now, this whole beach is going to turn to glass in the next 10 seconds. Because if you’ve been playing games this entire time, pretending you were in some primal state of mind just to make a fool out of me, you’re going to realize that Batman is not the only one who has different ways of kicking your ass. And I promise you, that if-”

Your rant ended in a sudden ‘mmph’ sound when he pulled you into a sudden kiss. Out of all the times the hero managed to shock you into silence, this has to be one of the most surprising and satisfying ones.

There was a latent level of shock in your body, your wide eyes reflecting this, but the soft feel of his lips had them closing and you giving in to him within seconds. Despite his initial rough approach, there was a tenderness in the way he kissed you.

Before you even knew it, your lips were dancing right along with his. There was passion and longing in that kiss, leaving you more confused than 10 seconds prior.

The way he held and treated you was definitely different. The possessive grip he had around you didn’t falter at all. But, there was a newfound gentleness in his touch, like you were a prize to be cared for. Even if that was what you technically were earlier when he was in his conquest mode, this was not the same as that.

In those moments earlier, you were the kind of prize meant to be conquered. Here in this moment, you were rather something treasured.

Before long, your human lungs started giving you their red alert. Conner broke away the kiss not a moment later as if he already knew before you did. Your lips chased after his though, and he chuckled at your reaction before lifting a finger to your chin to tilt your head up toward him.

“Does that explain enough for you, or do you need a little bit more demonstration?”

Despite the blush written clear across your cheeks, there was a small smile appearing on your lips, as you took a few seconds to process what was going through your head and heart.

Satisfaction, physically speaking.

Nerves and adrenaline.

Ultra flamboyant giddiness.

Completely normal.

Yet, that nagging little voice in the back of your mind got louder with every fluttering heartbeat that pumped blood and butterflies throughout your veins.

What did this all mean?

“Hey,” You heard the Kryptonian speak, noticing the concerned look on his face, “What’s wrong? Did I do something?” There was a nervous tone in his words, almost vulnerable if you were listening hard enough which would be very different compared to the stark, smug confidence he showed you whenever he managed to toss you on his shoulder or dig himself inside your guts. Even before this serum fiasco, he may have been standoffish at moments and quiet, but rarely had you ever heard him talk like he was afraid of being hurt.

You felt for him in that moment, you really did, but you were also at risk of being hurt. And, rather than sit there and pretend like everything was clear and simple, you had questions that needed answering. For your own sake, and quite frankly, your own sanity.

“Conner, I-” The words seem to get stuck in your throat, with you trying to find the right thing to say, but what that exactly was couldn’t form a clear sentence in your mind. So, out of options, you just babbled.

“I don’t know what the heck is going on right now, and truthfully, I rarely ever do know what’s going on. Uh, wait, what was I saying? Oh right! This morning, we were friends, nothing more, then the warehouse happened, and started acting like a caveman and treated me like your prey or prize or whatever, not like it wasn’t super hot, because it definitely was and I shouldn’t have said that. Either way, you’re confused! No, wait, that came out wrong. I meant you’re confusing and I’m confused. Either way–

“Y/N!”

Conner shouting your name with a slight squeeze to your ass was an effiective way of shutting you up. Rude and hot, but effective nonetheless.

“I know. I was aware of everything going on.”

Now, that had you wordless.

“Well, actually, not everything. And I wasn’t in control of my actions at all. Well, not completely. Okay, now I’m confused.”

“You and me both.” You muttered under your breath. He responded with a light growl and a pinch to your ass.

“I’ll spank you.”

“Like you haven’t already done worse.” You said back with a challenging tone.

A stubborn grunt was let off before he gave you another small thrust as punishment for your smart quip, pulling a light whine from you. You could feel his cum dripping out of you slowly since his dick kept you plugged and everything inside, which you had a slight feeling he was doing on purpose.

“Alright, before any more smutty shenanigans ensue, can we talk about what exactly this is, and more importantly, why this even happened in the first place.”

Conner let out a sigh, looking down at you through his eyelashes before leaning down and giving your neck and shoulder light kisses. The giddy feeling in your stomach almost managed to cloud your rationality, almost being the keyword.

“Hey, don’t try to distract me.” You chastised him with a slight slap against his naked arm.

“I’m not distracting, I’m just enjoying the moment.” He said while giving you a few more light kisses.

Eventually, he moved you both over to the sand, setting you both down a little bit closer to the water while sitting you in his lap. However, you suddenly found yourself missing the warm contact of his skin pressing against yours.

When he finally had you both in comfortable positions, you resting against his chest and him nuzzling your hair, the intense beating in your heart that you had become used to from the day’s excitement had gradually started to slow down. You felt yourself nuzzling into his embrace more than you would admit out loud, but the man was comfortable.

After a few beats of silence, you heard Conner clear his throat. Though you didn’t want to move from the warm spot, you’d rather look the Kryptonian in the eyes as he explained himself. For your own sake.

“I was aware of what I was doing,” He started, which had your chest tightening and a sullen look appearing on your face which he noticed, “Only after you guys subdued me the first time, and like I said earlier, I still wasn’t in full control of myself.”

You could feel the confusion start to return to your mind, but rather than start rambling again, you just nodded to him to signal you were listening and let him continue.

“When I first woke up from the serum, Tornado was right. I was completely out of my mind and acting on pure animalistic instinct. All my senses were amplified even more than they usually are with my powers and all. So the onslaught of different smells and scents triggered me and I was about two seconds away from trying to kill you all, then I caught your scent out of everyone else’s, and the next thing I knew, you were all I could think about.”

Huh, nice to know you were what was stopping the team’s arguably most powerful member from murdering you all by just smelling good. Something you never thought you’d be thinking in your life, but there was a first for everything as they say.

“It started as a general curiosity, since at the moment, all my mind could think prior was anger and murder. But, of course, curiosity turned to excitement, and let’s just say I suddenly only had one goal in mind.”

“Doing me in front of friends?”

“I’d rather call it ‘mounting my claim.’ You know, animal terms and all that stuff.”

You rolled your eyes at his corny joke, before going silent again to let him continue.

“But, yes, for a lack of better words, all I could think about was shoving my dick inside you. You just smelled so good in that moment, you always have, but, the serum just suddenly made your scent feel almost irresistible to me, and all I could think of was capturing you in my arms and not letting anyone take you from me. Granted, I might have gone a bit far.”

“A bit? You call slinging me over your shoulder for half an hour while you leap, run, and fight our friends going just a bit far? Not to mention you choke-slamming Wally against the wall and damn near strangling him.

“Okay, one, you enjoyed that. I have the dried evidence on the shoulder of my shirt to prove it, spanking and all so don’t try and deny it.”

He got you there. Blushing cheeks (face and ass) and all.

“Second, I told you. Animal state of mind. In my head, I claimed you as my mine, and everyone else was a threat to that. What animal have you ever seen not defend their territory?” He asked, which you had to admit, he got you there as well.

Also, why was that kind of hot?

“You know I can still smell your arousal right? And the fact that you are in my pants and covered in my scent is not helping.” He said, to which you noticed the familiar feel of his throbbing organ below you wanting more action.

“Mind your business.”

“You’re currently sitting on my lap half naked while wearing my pants and covered in my sweat and cum. I think it’s safe to say you are my business at the moment.” He responded while tightening his hold around you.

Seriously, where did he get this smart (and hot) mouth from? That serum had to have more side effects than noted. But, you weren’t easily defeated in the sass factor. Conner may have you beat when it comes to raw strength and physical force, but wordplay? That was your forté.

“And who’s exact fault is it, that I’m even in this position?”

“Dr. Ivo.”

“Okay, well, after him.”

“Batman and Red Tornado for not making sure I was properly secured before leaving.”

“Okay! After them!”

“The others for not showing you the backdoor out of the Cave.”

“There’s a backdoor?!”

“Yeah, you didn’t know? M’Gann showed it to everyone on their first tour of the base. The garage hangar is considered the front door, and there’s a back door just in case. You didn’t think we’d only rely on the vehicle hangar or the Zeta Gateway if we had to make a fast escape did you?”

“I- … No comment.” You sighed in defeat, Conner chuckling at your tone while rubbing your back. You’d be having a word with your friends later when you got back to the Cave. Many words…

“It’s okay, I really didn’t give you many options either way. And even if you did manage to make it out the back, I would’ve just followed right behind as you already know.” The Kryptonian reassured you, which reminded you about the nagging question in the back of your mind.

“So, on that note, I’m assuming when you said you were aware of your actions, it was then?”

It was his turn to sigh after you asked your question, immediately knowing where this was heading.

“Yes. After Batman knocked me out with the Kryptonite, the serum lost some of its effect on me, but not as much as Red Tornado predicted. Kryptonite doesn’t just weaken my abilities, it affects everything in me, including my immune system. By the time I woke up, I was still very much under its influence, but I was slightly back to myself and could think and focus on more things other than sex and fighting.”

It made sense. You remembered the moment during your fight with Conner in the vehicle hangar when you realized how convenient and well-planned everything seemed. It was truly when your doubts and insecurities about everything started taking root, thinking all of it was just some game with you in the end being the actual loser.

Now, the time to find out if you lost was here, and you weren’t sure if you wanted to know.

Some would think that paying attention to Conner’s actions and words before this, would negate some of those concerns in your head, but, as life has proven many times in the past, things aren’t always as they seem.

But, that doesn’t mean it’s always in a bad way though…

“So, you were awake then, huh? When Wally and I were talking in the medical hangar…”

He looked down at you at that moment, his eyes softening as if he could sense the growing mental and emotional turmoil in your head and chest. You wanted to focus on his words, and his words only, but it was hard with the way you could feel him pulling you in closer, doing his best to comfort you as much as possible.

It was the fact that you couldn’t tell if it was for making you feel better in the moment to alleviate your worries or cushion the eventual blow that you were expecting to come soon.

“Yes, I was. I was actually up that entire time. The Kryptonite did weaken me enough to where I couldn’t react or respond like I would’ve if I could, but I wasn’t asleep or unconscious. Truthfully, after Batman and Tornado had left and it was just you and him in the room, I was planning to just surprise you both right there. Incapicate Wally in any way I could, grab you, and run for one of the exits.”

“What stopped you?”

All day, you’d been subjected to prideful smirks, arrogant grins, and cocky looks from the Kryptonian. An annoying, but definitely attractive sub-trait of his overwhelming confidence and stalwart courage. So, seeing his blushing cheeks and undeniable shy look on his face had you sitting up very suddenly.

Conner didn’t like it since it meant you could see his face more clearly, and unbeknownst to you, you were further away from him, and he liked the feeling of you cuddling against his body.

“Why are you blushing?” You asked, not letting him pull you back in his arms like he tried. It helped you were sitting on his still very erect penis at a slightly awkward angle which limited his movements. One wrong move, and he’d be in a very uncomfortable position.

“Would you stop it?” He pleaded, clearly already uncomfortable with the metamorphic spotlight that had been placed on him.

“Answer the question, and I will.”

“I thought actions spoke louder than words.”

“And suddenly, I can’t hear. Answer.”

“How will you hear the words?”

“I’ll read your lips. Answer the damn question.”

You were staring into his blue eyes by this point, fully waiting for your answer. The Kryptonian looked right back into your own before his hands grabbed the sides of your head, pulling you into another smashing kiss like the one against the tree earlier.

This was similar but still very different from the previous one. He wasn’t trying to shut you up (considering you weren’t even talking), but merely trying to communicate the words he couldn’t bring himself to say. Ironic how he has no trouble expressing how he feels in any other scenario whether it’s his anger about a mission or irritation with an order from Batman or your comrades, but this has him fumbling.

Yet, you were not complaining about how you moved your lips against his, bringing your hands around his neck. You could almost physically feel everything he was pouring into the kiss, and it was mind-numbing, to say the least.

Once again, your human lungs reminded you of their need for oxygen. Thankfully, Conner did the work for you and pulled away from your lips with you chasing after them. He placed another light kiss on them though, while opening his eyes to your closed ones, enjoying the pleasant view in front of him.

When you opened yours back up to him, he smiled at you, placing another peck on your lips while finally scooting you back closer to him, and re-adjusting himself into a more comfortable position.

“Does that answer your question?” He asked. Though there was no trace of sarcasm in his tone, you could still spy it in his face with the humorous glint in his eye.

“Maybe. I might need another one though just to be sure. I always like to double-check my answers.” You responded with your own smile.

He laughed at you before feeling himself nuzzling his face into your neck, taking in your scent which you now could admit was actually very comforting. Still weird, but you’d grown used to it by this point.

Your doubts had been quieted, and you felt you could trust his words without second-guessing or overthinking, something that was not an easy feat to do. That’s why when a few moments of silence passed, you decided to ask one of the other questions that had been nagging in the back of your mind.

“How long?”

“Since you joined the team. I was never good with my feelings, let alone expressing or even understanding them. It took some time for me to figure out what they were, and when I did, I was nervous and scared that you didn’t feel the same about me. I knew you liked guys, but I didn’t know if you liked me. And, even if you did, I didn’t know if you would like me for… well, me. So, I stayed quiet.” He admitted, immediately knowing what you were asking.

Thinking about it from his perspective, you could see his reasoning and why he chose to hide his feelings. If you were in his shoes, you’d probably do the same. However, it was clear neither of you was good at picking up signs considering he missed all the ones that showed you were into him. Not that you were trying to, but there were moments where it was plainly obvious, enough for Wally to pick up on them which led to him finding out.

Idiots in love, the both of you.

“When I heard you and Wally talking in the medical wing, and his little teases and performance, it was all the confirmation I needed. If it wasn’t for that, like I said, I probably would’ve just waited for the right moment to snatch you away from the others and find a way out of the Cave without alerting them. But, after hearing that conversation, I figured why not make it a little bit more challenging and fun. Didn’t expect you to put up as much of a fight though. Glad I had insurance.” He explained, his typical smirk returning to his face while he marveled at the accessory on your wrist.

Hold it.

“Back up. You mean to tell me you trapping me in the Cave, fingering me in the vehicle hangar, and locking me in your closet was all for fun and a challenge? I’m nervous to ask what your ideal idea is for a first date.” You stated. He gave you an unimpressed look while nudging his still-hard member against you.

“Don’t act like you didn’t enjoy any of it. Remember, I could hear, taste, and smell your arousal through everything.” He teased while nipping at your ear.

You ignored the horny pang in your stomach from that while pretending to be annoyed, “Whatever. Well, I hope you weren;t planning to try and do me raw. Last thing I need is to end up pregnant.”

“What if I want a kid? No better way to trap you with me than with a baby.” Conner mumbled while still giving you soft kisses behind your ear and neck.

“Then you can explain to my dad what happened if I end up knocked up. And I gotta warn ya, Kryptonian powers or not, that man is scary.” You chuckled, turning your head to look at the superhero, who would never admit that slight nervous look in his eyes at the mention of your father.

A slight laugh bubbled up your chest before you turned looking out to the sea. The feel of the cold piece of metal on your wrist became prominent and the silence and you looked down at the device, still slightly shuddering from the chill running through your body.

“How did you even know about this thing in the first place?” You asked, pointing to the cooling device on your wrist.

“Dick let me in on a few little secrets about the Bat, though he never did tell me where he keeps getting and storing all that freaking kryptonite. Anyway, when I heard you and Wally talking about Batman’s insurance plans, I figured if he had one for me, then he had to have one for every meta on the team and in the league. While you and the others were in the lounge room hanging out, I went searching through the libraries and rooms and found some of Batman’s secret compartments.” He explained.

You raised an eyebrow at that. “Hmm, so is that when you discovered your unlocked abilities?”

“Actually, no. Right when you managed to make it out of the door, I originally was just going to do the same as I did before and well… leap after you. Even if you got away, I could track you down since your scent is alluring, but definitely not subtle. Fire powers and all,” He said with a smug little chuckle.

“Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. Heat makes smell more noticeable. Gosh, you and Wally sure love harping down that tree.” You retorted with an actual annoyed eye roll this time.

“Hey, I said you still smell good. Either way, when I jumped after you I noticed instead of falling back down to the ground, I was still in the air flying. It didn’t take much for me to realize what was going on and I just flew into action, literally.”

“So the whole welding the door shut and almost barbecuing our friends?”

“Yeah, I might have overdone it on that one, but animal instincts were still in control. There was only so much I could do to hold myself back. Every time you fought against me or got away or the others intervened was another boost to my aggression and anger, prompting my hasty reactions. And it wasn’t just my instincts fueling all this. Like I said, there was a reason your scent stuck out to me the most. Your conversation with Wally just confirmed it was returned and it made me a bit more crazy to an extent.”

“To an extent is a stretch,” You muttered under your breath. Conner let out an annoyed grunt while giving you another playful nip on your ear.

“Super hearing, remember?”

You were fully aware of his ability, but, for his sake, you played along.

“Right, sorry.” He gave a kiss to your neck as a way of saying he accepted the apology. With a little time to process everything, you felt most of your questions answered. However, there was one that was remaining at the back of your mind. Probably the most pressing one to be honest.

“So, is that why you and M’Gann…”

“We broke up because I realized that there wasn’t any real spark between me and her. What started between us was curiosity, considering I didn’t know what romance and feelings and everything else was. I just went with what I saw and observed. Sometimes it was nice, many times it was confusing, and many times, it felt wrong. So, I broke up with her. She was upset about it a little and figured it had something to do with you. She was always suspicious, but never had confirmation until this happened.”

Conner pointed his fingers between the two of you, and the reminder of your earlier indecent actions had you blushing and smiling all over again. You had to admit, it was a nice feeling knowing that most of your doubtful and questioning thoughts were for nothing.

Well, it’s better to be cautious than to fall in blindly and get hurt. But, the satisfaction and happiness you felt in your chest bloomed over all of those past feelings.

Thinking about the day's events and how everything ended up happening, you had to say you were fine with how it all played out. However, you definitely would admit you imagined you and Conner getting together in an entirely different scenario.

Saving each other on a mission, getting into an argument and blurting things out, or even just the cutesy little moments where your friends stick their noses in and try to get you together were all ideas that came to mind. This scenario however with you sitting on the beach after he acted like a caveman and chose you as his new mate was not in the tarot cards for this category.

Though, the end result had you more than satisfied; both physically, mentally, and emotionally.

If there was anything to learn from this, you should listen to your instincts more, no matter how primal they are.

“So, are you going to take this off anytime soon?” You asked, once again pointing at the wrist jewelry you were currently wearing.

Conner smiled down at the item and you mischievously before running one of his hands over the device.

“Are you going to try and fight me again? I kind of like you being defenseless and helpless.” He joked though a part of you knew he was also partly serious.

Though, now, considering all that was said and done, it was your turn to have some fun.

“Well, considering you had to take away my powers to be able to catch me, I’d say your victory wasn’t really much of a victory at all.” You taunted while tracing a finger over his chest.

You could feel the vibration from his irritated growl under your fingertips, letting you know you hit the right button. Caveman or not, Conner both loved and hated being challenged.

“I mean, to me, it says that even with your full Kryptonian powers, you needed some cheap little trinket to be able to actually subdue me. Guess I’m just that tough of a prey to catch.” You continued your teasing, sneakily taking glances up at the Kryptonian, catching his hard and lustful stares at you.

“Is that so?” He gruffly spoke into your ear.

“It would seem so, at least to me, and anyone else watching. Don’t think you can say you claimed me if you couldn’t manage to beat me fair and square. But, it’s okay, I get it. Maybe you’re not up to the challenge. Maybe someone else will come along and prove their merit without needing to cheat.”

You barely finished the sentence before the sound of the clamp opening hit your ears. That familiar rush of warmth came over you again as your fire returned to your body. While you were distracted, Conner ripped the shorts off and his pants off of him before standing you both up, now fully naked to the world, minus your shirt.

“I dare you to say that again.”

You were really in for it now.

☀️ | Conner Kent/Superboy | ☀️

☀️ | Masterlists | ☀️

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amalgamasreal · 10 months

Text

On G-Witch and the "Giant Space Laser"

Seeing a bunch of new fans who's first experience with Gundam has been Witch from Mercury be either confused or even angry at the big laser:

So I thought I'd take some time to explain the history of Space Lasers and Gundam and how every long time fan has basically had it on our bingo card since the show started. Note: I'm not including Victory's Keilas Guilie or G-Gundam's Statue of Liberty Cannon.

The first one was called the Solar Ray and it appeared in the original Mobile Suit Gundam in 1979, it was a converted colony from Side 3, and used by the Principality of Zeon during the One Year War:

The second one appeared in 1985's Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam as the Colony Laser and it was called Gryps 2, it was created out of the husk of the colony of Side 7 and used by the Titan's during the Gryps War:

The next time we'd see one was in 1996's After War Gundam X, an AU timeline which was almost a "What If?" universe of the original Universal Century timeline that asked the question "What if Char had succeeded during the counter attack?". The colony laser in question was created out of one the abandoned colonies left over during the 7th Space War. It also had one of the coolest destruction scenes in a show IMHO:

2002's Mobile Suit Gundam SEED has not one, not two, but three different stand-in's for the old Colony Laser in the form of the the "Cyclops System", which was a powerful targeted array of microwave satellite weapons that vaporized all water it was pointed at, this included inside of human bodies. The effects in the show were graphic.

The second from SEED was GENEIS or Gamma Emission by Nuclear Explosion Stimulate Inducing System, which was essentially a huge gamma ray cannon that used nuclear explosions as the fuel to generate the gamma ray bullets. Just like before the results of it firing are VERY GRAPHIC.

Moving on to the third from SEED we have Requiem, which was a large cannon installed on the dark side of the Moon and used reflecting relay stations positioned around the Earth to hit targets with pin-point accuracy:

Leaving SEED behind finally we move on to 2007's Gundam 00 and their Memento Mori system, which in a departure from previous superweapons in Gundam was mounted to the Earth's orbital ring and used by the Earth Sphere Federation organization A-Laws to destroy basically the entire Middle East. Silly fact: because it was mounted to a ring the first one had a conical field of fire which gave it a blind spot that they could sneak up on.

Circling back to the Universal Century we have 2010's Gundam Unicorn trotting out Gryps 2 again, and in a scene that Witch From Mercury directly pays tribute to: a character face tanking the blast to save their friends and family:

youtube

And now we're at today and Witch From Mercury has used the reference wonderfully.

I hope this explains a little bit of the history of these things and how they fit into the Gundam Franchise and how they don't come as a shock or surprise to the long time fans. Rather if anything it's like seeing an old friend back in the mix.

#mobile suit gundam #gundam #mobile suit gundam the witch from mercury #g-witch #gwitch #g witch #gundam the witch from mercury #gundam witch from mercury #universal century #after war gundam x #mobile suit gundam seed #mobile suit gundam 00 #mobile suit gundam unicorn #long post #gundam history #Youtube

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thedragonsmaug · 5 months

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Just a lil Drabble I wrote for @nlghtw1ng and her beautiful art, go look at it!!!!!

https://www.tumblr.com/nlghtw1ng/735122459561459712?source=share

Hal sped up as the watchtower came into view, it’d been a long six months in space. All he wanted to do was go home to his husband and sleep for a week without letting him go. Unfortunately for Hal the second he set foot on the space station he was dragged into the latest world ending crisis.

After hours of battle the weary heroes dragged themselves aboard the space station once more.

“Who’s up for a celebration?!” called Ollie excitedly, as he headed for the rec room. The other heroes groaned.

“No one wants to drink your shitty liquor and watch you make up drinking games again Arrow. We’re all tired and want to go home so let’s get this debrief over with” Goddamn did Hal love his husband. He did feel a little bad for Ollie though so he gave the sulking blond a commiseratory pat on the shoulder as he walked to his seat.

True to his word Bruce kept the debrief short and soon they were all being dismissed. Practically before Supes even finished wishing them all a good night Hal bolted for the Zeta tubes, eager to get home. Because the league didn’t know he and Bruce were together, much less married, they had to stagger their exits so as not to create suspicion. Usually Hal lingered for a bit chatting with Barry while Bruce exited immediately upon conclusion of the meeting. Today though he couldn’t wait, and he knew Bruce wouldn’t mind.

After Zetaing to the batcave he showered quickly while waiting for Bruce. As he stepped out Hal spotted Bruce exiting the Zeta. Bruce had just enough time Hal took a running leap into Bruce’s arms. Bruce caught him (like he always did) with a small smile. God, he finally felt like he was home. How could he not with his husband’s arms wrapped securely around him and Bruce looking at him like he hung all the stars in the sky?

#batlantern #bruce wayne #hal jordan #bruhal #Smaug writes

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sofia-not-sophie · 2 days

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In honor of Jason's death day I am posting a bit of a wip that will eventually turn into a Red Hood Bruce AU. (Yes there is only half an hour left today shhhh). Let me know if anyone would be interested in reading more of this kind of thing!! (Character Death tw for the whole of the text coming up, also minor panic attack of a non pov character)

Presenting:

Crossing That Line

Dick frantically punched his security code and the code for the watchtower into the zeta. Batman had sent multiple distress signals using his justice league and batcave beacon in the last ten seconds. Then all of his biometrics trackers went offline and new distress beacons stopped coming in. Bruce had been dealing with a justice league level threat for the past few days, so Dick had been taking the opportunity of a Bruce-less manor to spend time with Jason. He wasn’t looking forward to staying to babysit an injured Bruce, but at the same time Bruce was his sort of not really dad, right?

Dick wasn’t sure how long he had frozen once he saw the biometrics readings stop, but his training kicked in eventually and he was now on his way to see what he could do to help. Even if that was just standing by while someone else handled Bruce’s injuries.

He reached the watchtower and ran to the medical wing. The Justice League were all inside. Superman was sitting in a chair with yellow sunlamps trained on him, a bloody set of tears marring his suit, clearly his own blood, as Dick could see the injuries on his skin slowly healing themselves under the sunlight. He looked quite literally green around the gills, kryptonite then.

The others were around in various states of injured, but none of them were as severe as Superman’s injuries. Flash was helping Green lantern wrap a wound that probably had already been stitched up, but everyone else looked fine.

Then Dick noticed that Diana was standing at the end of a bed that had a sheet over it. There was clearly a body underneath. And Batman was the only person unaccounted for.

“Dick.” Clark said, his voice breaking.

Dick couldn’t say anything, he wordlessly moved over to the bed and pulled back the sheet. The cowl was still over Bruce’s face but it was severely damaged. Burns and scrapes and soot covered what parts of his face were visible. Dick put his ear by where Bruce’s heart should be and listened for a heartbeat.

Nothing.

Dick checked Bruce’s pulse.

Nothing.

“What happened?” Dick asked, becasue if he didn’t he might just get lost in his own thoughts and memories.

“Lex and the Joker.” Clark said, “They were making some sort of space laser together. I’m not sure to what end. I went to confront them while the others handled the guards. B, he went to dismantle the weapon. But there was a failsafe bomb. We couldn’t— We weren’t able to get to him. Not until after.”

A beep sounded someone arriving at the zeta station. A few seconds later Jason burst in in his full Robin outfit. Wait, Dick was still in his sweatpants. Not even a mask. What would Bruce say?

Dick wished he could hear Bruce tell him off for being in civilian clothes in the watchtower.

“I saw the distress record and your zeta logs.” Jason said, “What happened?”

“Jason.” Dick started and stopped, trying to put himself in between Bruce’s body and Jason.

“Can I at least see B? He’s my dad too you know.”

“Jason something really bad happened.” Dick felt the words spill out.

“What’s wrong? Where’s B?”

“He’s gone, Little Wing.” Dick bent down slightly to meet Jason’s eyes, or rather the white lenses of his mask, at level.

“No! He can’t be. He’s Batman.” Jason then seemed to notice Bruce’s still uncovered face on the bed. Jason ran the same tests that Dick had, adding in checking for breath fog on the edge of a batarang for good measure.

Jason finally pulled the sheet back over Bruce’s head and turned from the bed, he looked about three shades paler than normal. His breathing was racing and Dick noticed Clark looking at Jason with concern.

Shit. What did Bruce normally do to help with the panic attacks?

Dick silently tugged Jason to sit on the floor with his back against a wall. “Breathe, Jay. It’s gonna be alright.”

“Where am I going to go?” Jason whispered, still in a panic. It seemed to be more to himself than to Dick but Dick answered anyway.

“Breathe. You’re not going anywhere. You stay at the manor, I’ll move back in. You’re not going to get kicked out. Can you take a deep breath with me?”

Dick guided Jason’s hand to the front seam of the Robin costume so he could feel his own diaphragm move. Dick counted as he breathed in and out and slowly Jason’s breaths started to match his own.

“He’s gone.” Jason whispered.

Dick didn’t know what to say.

“How do we tell Alfred?”

Dick hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“I can tell him.” Clark said, “You kids shouldn’t have to worry about that.”

Dick nodded. Where was his voice? Part of him wanted to say that he should deliver it, he’s family, or maybe that he wasn’t a kid anymore.

“What do we do then?” Jason asked.

“Let’s go home and get you into some pajamas.” Clark said.

“I don’t want to leave him.” Dick said, looking at the sheet covering Bruce. “Alfred should have codes for the zeta to use in case of this specific issue. Have him bring the contingency files for a code dark night.”

Clark nodded and stood up. He still looked uneasy on his feet, but he got Jason to the zeta point. The rest of the League took the hint and made themselves scarce, leaving Dick alone with Bruce.

The sense of deja vu was sickening. It brought him back to the first minutes after his parents’ fall. Dick was the first one to get to them and for what felt like hours it was just him and his parents’ bodies in the middle of the ring. It hadn’t actually been that long until there were police and someone else in the circus, Dick couldn’t even remember who, was pulling him away and trying to comfort him. And then there was Bruce. Who Dick had talked to briefly that day, back then he had just been a random stranger offering condolences. Now…

Dick looked back at the sheet.

Bruce was dead.

What the hell was Dick supposed to do now?

#this is still wip so it's a bit messy still #but I wanted to share something since it's been forever since I've posted writing on here #Crossing that line au #batfamily #bruce wayne #batman #jason todd #robin #dick grayson #nightwing #red hood #dc comics #dc #appie is a writer!

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katnissdoesnotfollowback · 3 months

Note

WIR Everlark are hot-hot-hot. But I wonder could we have a little something about finding out Katniss pregnant. First or second time. I love parents-storyline of that fic just as much as Peeta being horny.

How about a little of both? Lol. No graphic smut here, but there are some very adult themes and language in this piece. Fair warning: sometimes, being pregnant is not fun.

Also, I have one more request for pregnant Wrapped in Red Katniss, and that piece will feature much later down the pregnancy road.

A refresher on ages before we get started. For this piece: Karina - 19 Avery - 15 Olive - 13 Cole - 7

** Karina **

“So is Katniss preggers yet?” Meaghan asks as she half hangs off my bed, painting her nails a deep shade of purple. I watch as several drops of polish land on the towel I laid out on the floor under Meaghan’s hands when she got started on the impromptu manicure.

“Not yet. At least, they haven’t said anything,” I tell her and reach for the polish but retract my hand. “Can’t you do that sitting at my desk like a normal person?”

“No, I really cannot,” Meaghan says happily. “I need some childish insanity like this. I spend too much time at school, stressing over my grades and making sure my dad doesn’t find out too much about my life there because he’d never let me leave the house again if he knew about Jack.”

“And Bryan… and Trevor… Drew,” I tease. “Really half the Zeta Psi house.”

“What?! I’m only nineteen. It’s not like I’m gonna repeat my parents’ mistakes. I’m not settling down to have a kid with The One anytime soon… I’m just… enjoying myself before I get around to finding him. And the Zetas are easy practice for making myself irresistibly charming to the future Mr. Hawthorne.”

I purse my lips and look away. I know she doesn’t mean anything by it. Talking like this. Meaghan’s mom was nineteen when she was born, just like mine when I was born. And my dad, too. But unlike mine, Meaghan’s parents stayed together. Not that I would have wanted my parents to stay together. Exactly. I mean, from where I sit now, it’d be stupid to wish that. Especially since we have Katniss now.

“But my dad is…” Meaghan makes a face and I can’t help but laugh.

“Overprotective?”

“To say the least,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “Oh my god, I didn’t tell you about this one,” she starts, finally screwing the cap back on the polish and handing it to me. I shake it a little and peel off my socks, starting in on painting my toes the same shade.

“What?” I prompt.

“I forgot I was doing my laundry earlier today, and I guess Dad decided to move it for me. Not sure if he was trying to be helpful or impatient, but whatever. And he started yelling for my mom like he was on fire or something. She came to me with my basket of dry clothes and told me that I should probably make sure to keep track of my laundry if I’m going to be washing my thongs at home…so my father doesn’t get traumatized.”

We stare at each other with matching, wide eyed, shocked expressions until we can’t hold it in anymore. Then we explode with laughter and screeches of mingled horror, embarrassment, and amusement.

We’re still screeching when someone knocks on the door, and before I can say a word, Dad pokes his head in. “Kare-Bear, we have really loved having you at home for the summer but--”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry, Dad. We’ll try not to wake Cole again,” I say. He sighs softly and runs his hand through his hair.

“Or Katniss.”

“Mom’s already out for the night?” I ask and Dad nods. “Again?”

“Yep,” he says. “So please keep it down just a little.”

We agree and I sigh too as my dad closes the door. “I’m worried about her,” I admit to Meaghan, only half paying attention to my toes as I swipe on the polish. “I can’t remember her ever sleeping this much before.”

Meaghan snorts and snatches up the bottle of clear top coat. “And your dad sounds frustrated as hell.”

It takes Meaghan waggling her eyebrows at me for it to sink in what she’s saying. I grab the nearest pillow and whack her with it as she laughs.

“What? It’s the truth. He’s a total horn dog for Katniss, and you know it!”

“Ugh!”

“You wanted to set them up!”

My cheeks are burning and I shake my head. “That doesn’t mean I want to think about them having sex, let alone talk about it!”

“And you wanted siblings! How do you expect to get those siblings if there isn’t some bow-chicka-bow-wow between your parents?”

“I was fine with adopting them,” I insist and Meaghan guffaws.

“I think they’re cute. It’s obvious how in love they still are. I figured you’d appreciate that and all given…”

She trails off and I fight the urge to snap at her. She’s not being mean. We’ve talked a lot over the years about how awful the last few years were before my dad and Glimmer finally realized they just needed to get a divorce already.

“Maybe,” I counter, “but unless you wanna talk about your parents getting frisky with each other--”

“Pffft, old news,” Meaghan says with a roll of her eyes. And she really does sound so blasé about it. It truly doesn’t bother her at all, and I wonder what that must be like.

“God I hate you sometimes,” I mutter with false venom and she shakes her head.

“No, you don’t. You--” She stops talking abruptly and her eyes round out, saucer wide. “Holy shit.”

“What?”

“Holy shit!” she practically squeals, but she does it under her breath.

“What?!” I ask again and she motions me closer.

“Okay, you cannot freak out about this, but when I was downstairs, getting snacks and things, they were in the laundry room, and your dad was pawing at Katniss--”

“Really, Meaghan?” I ask, wishing I wasn’t blushing this much.

“Shut up and listen,” she retorts and I snap my mouth shut. “He couldn’t keep his hands off her, and I swear to god, I heard him tell her that the shirt she was wearing made her tits looks amazing and that he wanted to--”

“Does this have a point?” I try not to screech. Don’t get me wrong, I really do love that Dad and Katniss are so in love with each other. So happy together. And that their romance still seems to be going strong, chemistry still sizzling, all those are good things. But that doesn’t mean I want my friend witnessing or sharing graphic details.

“Yes, this has a point. Because he’s right. I noticed it, too. Haven’t you?”

I open my mouth to protest but then I stop. Because I did think the other day that the shirt Katniss was wearing stretched a little tighter, dipped a little lower than anything I remember her wearing before.

“Oh my god,” I whisper as Meahghan starts nodding.

“And she’s tired all the time now…”

“Oh my freaking god!” I squeal again. “I’m gonna be a big sister again!”

We dissolve basically into excited chaos. It’s only when someone knocks on the door again a few minutes later that I realize how loud and squeally we’ve gotten. We silence ourselves immediately, and I call out a timid, “Come in!”

It’s Katniss this time and I have to purse my lips the whole time she’s standing there, with her arms crossed over her chest, only making it more obvious.

“Really, girls? I know you’re enjoying your newfound independence at college, but please. There are people trying to sleep here.”

“Sorry, Mom.”

Katniss smiles softly at us then and notices the nail polish. “Alright. Just try to be considerate while you enjoy your girl talk. I think Dad is planning to make his spinach and feta croissants for breakfast, Karina.”

“Yes! We’ll be awake for it,” I promise and Katniss looks askance at us.

“Uh-huh. Sure.” She slips out the door, closing it behind her.

** Katniss **

“See?!?!” I hear Meaghan hiss through the door and I pause for a moment. “Either your mom got a boob job recently or she’s totally preggers.”

“Do you think they know? And why haven’t they told me yet?” Karina asks and I’m thrown back to years ago, when Meaghan knew that her own mother was pregnant when Madge had only told Gale and myself.

Maybe I should’ve put on Peeta’s sweatshirt before I went in to see them, I think with a sigh. Although it sounds like they already suspected.

“I dunno. But there’s all kinds of reasons why they might not be ready to say anything yet. My parents kept it to themselves after Mom had a few miscarriages.”

“I guess. They were trying for a really long time.”

“Yep. Exactly. But it’s so obvious now. No wonder your dad wants to slide his dick between her tits.”

“Meaghan!” Karina squeals and I almost join her. I can’t believe Meaghan witnessed Peeta saying that to me without my knowing. I can’t believe she’s talking about it. As the girls dissolve into more chatter and laughter, I make my way back downstairs to where Peeta is taking care of a few last cleanup tasks before bed.

“Hey,” he says, clearly surprised to see me. “Thought you were asleep.”

“I am. I think I’m sleepwalking. That or college girls gossiping while on break woke me up,” I tell him and he sighs.

“I warned them to keep it down.”

“Hmmm but how can they with such juicy material like Gale having heart attacks over discovering that Meaghan wears thongs and—“

“What the fuck?” Peeta freezes and stares at me in shock. I blink and bite my lip, trying to hold back his clearly smoking brain as he makes the next logical leap. “You don’t think Karina is wearing thongs too, do you?”

“Love. I would never betray her trust in me and tell you what sort of undergarments we’ve gotten for her. But do I have to remind you that you used to be okay with this sort of thing?”

“I know, I know,” he says and I sit gingerly in one of the barstools at the kitchen island and he moves to stand next to me. “I guess I just… she’s nineteen and I know we’ve taught her to be careful but I still worry she’s gonna get caught up in the moment with someone and—“

“And what?” I prod and his shoulders slump.

“Maybe I should be grateful that the daughter I had at nineteen turned out to prefer girls,” he says and I snort.

“We still could wind up dealing with broken hearts.”

“I just wish she felt like she could tell us,” he murmurs and I set one hand on his cheek to reassure him.

“She will. In her own time.”

“I know, I just… I guess I worry that we’ve done something to make her doubt how supportive we’d try to be, or to make her not trust us.”

“All we can do is keep being there for her, and be there for her as much as we can when she does tell us. And then we’ll definitely be dealing with a whole other host of issues,” I remind him.

“I’ll take them. I like my chance of intimidating a girl better than I do the meatheaded frat boys Meaghan’s been supposedly chasing.”

“Poor Gale,” I say and can barely contain my chuckle. Or my feeling of vindication, knowing what I do about his tendencies before he started seeing Madge. “Too many to count,” he’d once told me.

“But really, Peeta,” I soothe and slide my hand up his arm. “I think you'd be much better at intimidating horny college boys. I mean, you know exactly how they think.”

“Or don’t think,” he offers. “That’s half the problem. Most of them are too young, dumb, and full of cum to be afraid enough of Daddy to do us any good. I was, at least,” he pouts, and I laugh slightly.

“Except you have an advantage.”

“Oh?” He perks up at this and ever so subtly flexes his arm muscles.

“You’ve been acting like one of them lately, according to Meaghan. Wanting to slide your dick between my tits and all.”

He stares at me for a moment and then groans, hanging his head in embarrassment. “She heard that?”

“Yep. And apparently, my amazing new boobs are what clued Meaghan in about our new little one.”

“So the girls know?”

“Yeah,” I say.

“So much for keeping it low key.” Peeta’s laughter softens as he pulls me to my feet and slides his hand soothingly over my belly. I’m still nowhere near showing, but I still love the way he touches me even now. Almost reverent.

“God I can’t wait to meet them,” he whispers and we share a meaningful look. We’d almost given up. We’d been trying for over a year with no luck. Then we stopped trying specifically to get me pregnant and decided that we’d just set it aside, revisit the conversation six months later and decide if we wanted to give fertility treatments a go or if we’d just accept that it wasn’t meant to be.

But four months after we stopped actively trying, I missed a period. Then two. And my boobs started to feel heavy and the thought of drinking milk turned my stomach and then Peeta made a comment about my shirts looking a little tight as things got heated one night. He peeled my shirt off and stared at my breasts, gaping at me and then suggesting I take a pregnancy test.

It came back positive. But it had taken us so long to conceive that I wanted to see a doctor before we told anyone. And then, shortly before our appointment, the nightmares started. Horrifying, violent images that make me question my sanity and drive me to a near paralyzing fear of losing our child. Peeta’s child.

Of course, Peeta has been a rock through the whole thing, waking me from the terrible visions and holding me while I sob. Going to the appointment with me, and when the doctor confirmed what we already knew, Peeta went into what I have dubbed his nesting phase. He’s constantly cleaning the house and reevaluating the safety of it. He’s constantly touching me as though he can’t believe I’m still real, and he’s always checking on me, verbally demanding reassurance that I’m okay. He pampers me like nothing else, too. Back rubs, foot rubs, fragrant baths. All the smallest of tasks that he’s suddenly taking care of so I don’t have to. He brushes and braids my hair for me almost every day. Cooks almost all the meals unless I chase him out of the kitchen with a spatula.

But my food has become a battleground over what’s the most nutritious and has the least empty calories versus whatever the fuck I want to eat without feeling like I’m gonna vomit. But even that, I know, stems from his love for me and our child.

And there’s this, the way he so effortlessly reassures me that everything is going to be okay. We’ll have each other, and our already formidable brood of kids. And it’s okay that Karina still hasn’t technically come out to us. She’ll do that in her own time as well.

“You’re already an amazing mother. I can’t wait to witness you slay at this form of motherhood too. Can’t wait to parent our baby with you from day one,” he tells me.

I smile as he whispers words of love and loop my arms around his shoulders. I’m still smiling and stifling my own girlish giggles when he carries me upstairs and lays me out naked on our bed.

** Peeta **

I’m already awake when I feel Katniss stirring beside me. I couldn’t go to sleep, even after. Wrestling with my own fears and unable to articulate them to Katniss just yet. Maybe I shouldn’t at all, given that it looks like her nightmares might persist awhile longer. She’s dealing with enough. When the whimpering starts, I roll over and shake her awake.

“Katniss. Katniss, honey wake up,” I murmur. It takes twice more before she flies upright with a huge, gasping breath. Her eyes wildly roam the room and her chest heaves before her gaze lands on me and her shoulders sag. There’s a faint sheen of perspiration on her face and chest. I reach out for her and she’s already crying quietly when she buries her face in my shirt.

I fucking hate this. I hate that she lives in terror during the night. I hate that it’s my fault, for wanting another child. With Katniss. I hate that there’s nothing I can do but hold her after the nightmares.

I hold her, rocking our bodies ever so slightly as her breathing comes under control. I reach out and snag a tissue from the box on my nightstand and barely pull back from her, lifting her chin to wipe away the remaining tears.

Katniss takes the whole tissue from my hand and blows her nose rather loudly. I smile slightly and hand her a second tissue when it’s clear one won’t be enough.

“Better?” I ask, tossing the used tissues aside to deal with later.

“Not really.”

“Do you wanna talk about it?” I ask and press a kiss to her forehead.

“Not really,” she repeats, but her words are less certain than before. “Peeta… am I going crazy?”

I almost miss the question, she whispers it so quietly. But I hold her face in my palms, dragging my thumbs over her cheeks.

“No more than anyone else,” I whisper back. She bites her lip and in the faint light from our phone docking station, I can see her eyes welling up with fresh tears.

“It’s just… I’m afraid of my own thoughts,” she whispers. “The things I see… they’re horrible.”

“I’m scared too. Scared I’m too old, that I won’t have the energy or patience I need anymore. Won’t be enough—“

“Not like that,” she cuts me off, and something in her voice chills me.

“My nightmares… they’re not about the baby. They’re … they’re about people I love. Hurting other people I love and…” she pauses to swallow, her eyes closing as she murmurs the rest. “And enjoying it. Everyone I love becomes a psychopath in my nightmares and I… see what they do to each other, in graphic, horrifying detail.”

I open my mouth to comfort her but no words come out. She manages to speak first.

“Did Glimmer have dreams like this? With Karina?”

The question startles me. We don’t talk about Glimmer very often. Not because we’re avoiding the topic, but because there’s rarely something that needs to be said about her anymore.

“Not that I know of,” I say. Katniss looks stricken for a moment and I rush to reassure her. “But that doesn’t mean she didn’t. She just might not have told me about them. I looked it up, though, right after the nightmares started. It is sometimes a pregnancy side effect. To have night terrors.”

At this, Katniss snorts. “Great. As if becoming a parent isn’t terrifying enough already.”

I can’t help but chuckle and pull her into my arms again. We lay back down and settle in, although I don’t think I’ll be getting much sleep.

“You’re already a parent, Katniss. Karina hasn’t called you anything but ‘Mom’ in years. Avery, Olive, Cole… you are their mother, Katniss. maybe the girls have memories of their biological parents, but a person can have more than one mother.”

She nods against my chest, her fingers clenching to grip my shirt then relaxing, again and again.

“Maybe I should talk to Madge,” Katniss says, just as I think she’s about to fall back asleep.

“I think that’s a great idea,” I tell her. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a slight pang of jealousy. But a few deep breaths and reminders, and it passes. Katniss needs and deserves friends who can truly understand what she’s going through. And while I’ve been a parent longer than Katniss, I’ve never been pregnant. I’m not a Mom.

Her breathing starts to even out and it takes me a while to join her in sleep, but in the morning, I wake up and realize she’s still cocooned peacefully in my arms. No more nightmares after that first round.

Thankfully, we already had plans with the Hawthorne’s, so Katniss won’t have to wait long to talk to Madge about it, although I don’t bring it up. I worry that if I do bring it up during the daylight, it’ll only make Katniss shy away from the idea.

We meet up with the Hawthornes downtown, with plans to eat lunch together and then let the younger kids play in the park while the older ones roam the shops along the main street of the town. After lunch, I engineer a reason to talk to Gale, and we wind up focused on the younger kids in the park while Katniss and Madge sit on a nearby bench, talking quietly, with their heads bent together.

It’s not much of a conversation between me and Gale. Mainly, I listen while he vents about whatever shenanigans his twins have gotten up to lately. Growing up hasn’t stopped Hunter and Archer from being absolute terrors. And they’re both planning on studying engineering, which means Gale is worried that now their shenanigans will only grow more complex and dangerous, and further reaching.

“At least their hearts are in the right spot,” I try to remind him and he snorts.

“Sometimes, I’m not sure.”

His phone chimes in his pocket and I take a second to make sure Cole hasn’t gotten bored and wandered off. He’s actually made his way over to the bench where Madge and Katniss are sitting. I’m about to call him back over, to give Katniss space to talk to Madge, when Gale curses under his breath.

“What’s wrong?”

“The fuck is this shit?” he says instead of answering and walks with purpose towards Madge. “Margaret Denise Hawthorne, what the fuck is your daughter doing with her life?”

“Pardon?” Madge asks, her pretty face already folding into a scowl. And I can’t blame her, based on Gale’s tone.

“First the thongs in the laundry, which you assured me are no big deal. Now Meaghan is using her credit card to buy something from a store called…” he looks at his phone and grinds the name out through his teeth, “Baby Bundles and Booties?”

Madge lifts one eyebrow at him and then coughs. “You really think she’d be buying baby clothes for herself right now if she were pregnant? Especially on her card, which you have access to the statements for?”

“Fuck if I know,” he says. I notice Cole’s eyes going super wide, and Katniss is starting to blush. She leans forward, like she’s going to speak, but Madge holds her arm protectively across Katniss’s chest.

“Come on, Gale, she’s smarter than that. And why are you getting notifications about every purchase she makes? I thought we talked about trusting her more?”

“One of us has to make sure she doesn’t destroy her life over some asshole boy,” he says and Madge stands up to square off with him.

“You mean like I did?”

Gale sputters and Madge snatches the phone out of his hands.

“Here’s an idea. Instead of spying on your daughter, try talking to her about these things. It’s what I’ve done, and you’ll notice that I’m not making an idiot of myself in the park.”

“All I know is our daughter has been wearing skimpy underwear and now she’s buying--”

“It’s probably for me!” Katniss blurts out and everyone goes silent.

“Katniss, you don’t have to--”

“But I want to,” Katniss cuts Madge off and looks up at me. I hold my hand out to her and give her a slight nod. She places her hand in mine and rises to stand next to me. I wrap my arms around her and kiss her temple, letting her know that whatever she decides to tell him right now, I’m behind her. “We wanted to wait a little longer, because I was afraid, but Gale you’re one of my oldest friends. I know you’d never be intentionally cruel if things don’t… don’t go well.”

Her voice catches and Gale looks down at his phone screen. I can see him trying to make sense of it, so I go ahead and step in.

“The girls figured it out already. They were talking about it last night, but they don’t know Katniss and I know they know.”

Gale can’t help but laugh a little at my ridiculous sounding sentence. Katniss rises up and kisses my jaw. I hope she and Madge at least got in a decent conversation about the nightmares.

“So this is probably them buying something for you two,” Gale says, waving his phone around. “And your… your baby.”

“Yep,” Madge says, and Gale’s growing smile fades as he gives her an apologetic look.

“Wait, so we’re gonna have a baby?” Cole asks and I wince. I really would have preferred we had the chance to sit down and talk to him and Avery and Olive about this in private. They knew we were trying, because we talked about it with all of our kids when we first made that decision, and they seemed fine with it at the time, but maybe something has changed.

“We are,” I tell him as gently as I can.

“Awesome. As long as I get a brother and not another sister.” For a second, his face remains intensely serious and I can feel Katniss gearing up to explain to him when his face breaks out in a grin. “Hello, Baby Brother!”

He hugs Katniss tightly and she holds onto him for a minute or two.

“Can we go out for dinner tonight? To celebrate?” I open my mouth to say maybe not, since we ate out for lunch, but Cole isn’t done. “Babies are a lot of hard work. So Momma needs to rest… so do you, Dad.”

“We’ll think about it,” I say but I can already tell from the look on Katniss’s face that she’s not only going to insist on giving Cole what he wants, she’s probably going to let him pick the restaurant.

From there, whatever conversation we were going to have turns into expressions of happiness and excitement. Madge hugs Katniss last, and I just barely hear her whispering.

“I know they’re awful. You can always talk to me about them, but it’ll be so much easier to deal with them if you tell Peeta, too.”

I try not to feel insulted that Katniss obviously told Madge that she felt like she couldn’t talk to me about her nightmares. Because it’s not really about my ego or my feelings. I’m just glad that she’s felt comfortable talking to someone about them, even if she never does talk about them with me.

The rest of the day is almost a blur. For now, all of our kids seem excited about the news. Only time will tell if that excitement holds. As we’re getting ourselves ready for bed, three of our four children already asleep, Karina knocks lightly on our door.

“Hey,” she says shyly after Katniss tells her to come on in. “With all the excitement today, I didn’t get a chance to give this to you.”

She presents us with a gift bag, pale yellow tissue paper poking up out of it. Katniss hugs her and I watch happily as Karina melts into her embrace.

“Okay, well good night!” Karina says when she steps out of Katniss’s embrace and flings herself briefly into mine.

“Don’t you wanna stay for us to open it?” Katniss asks and Karina shakes her head.

“It’s been a crazy day. I figure you two want some alone time,” she says and scoots out of the room before either of us can say anything.

“Should I bring her back?” I ask as Katniss sits on the bed with a smile. She shakes her head.

“No. We can thank her for the gift in the morning. Besides, if I had to guess, knowing Karina, she’s trying to do something for us, to show us her excitement, without it having any kind of effect on her siblings.”

“Fair enough,” I say and sit next to Katniss as she pulls the tissues from the bag and pulls out a soft, pale green set of footie pajamas, patterned with frogs leaping between lily pads, and a matching cap for an infant.

“Oh,” Katniss says and I have to bite back my laughter when two seconds later, she’s crying on my shoulder and using a thousand phrases of profanity to curse her hormones. “I feel like I owe so many apologies to Madge right now.”

I fail at holding back my laughter when she says that, but I don’t ask her to explain. I think I can imagine pretty well how frustrated Katniss might have once gotten with Madge and her pregnancy hormones, and how Madge would’ve pushed back instead of taking it.

“Can I see the gift?” I eventually ask and Katniss sits back, wiping her nose with her sleeve before gently handing the pajamas to me. I hold them for a second and then Katniss curses again, right before tackling me and flinging aside the pajamas.

We’re a frenzy of movement and my head is spinning by the time she’s got us both naked.

“They’re just pajamas. How am I supposed to control myself when there’s a baby in your arms wearing the pajamas?” she asks, and my laughter at her fury is cut short when she slides down onto me, taking me inside her. I wrap my arms around her and nuzzle under her ear as she starts to move.

“Hopefully, you won’t have to control yourself. I don’t want you to control yourself.”

It’s only much later, when we’re breathless and spent and our bed is a fucking mess, that Katniss rises up on her elbow to gaze down at my face. Her movements are languid as she kiss my pectoral and then sets her cheek over my heart.

“The nightmare last night… it featured what I can only describe as erotic cannibalism.”

“Erotic… okay,” I say carefully. “That explains the way you phrased it. People you love hurting other people you love and enjoying it.”

“It was…terrifying. And I…” She trails off and I wait, but when she doesn't go on, I try to comfort her.

“It sounds terrifying,” I agree and she hums quietly.

“My brain has to be so fucked up to come up with something like that.”

“Not really,” I say. “Dreams are already fucked up without the pregnancy hormones and all the worries you’re working through. These night terrors… they aren’t something you should blame yourself for, Katniss. They’re just nightmares on steroids. Or pregoids… since you’re pregnant.”

I hear her release one reluctant snort and figure I’m safe to try and get her to laugh a little more. Not because it’ll make the night terrors go away, not because it’s funny that she has them, but because maybe it’s better if she doesn’t dwell on them too much.

“So um… who did I roast and eat? Or was I the banquet?”

“What?” she asks and gives me an odd look.

“I mean, not to make light of things, but I think I’d look pretty damn sexy wearing nothing but an apple in my mouth. Perfect feast for a bunch of erotic cannibals. Did I at least get to partake in the orgy before you feasted on me?”

“Oh my god,” she says and covers her face with one hand. Her shoulders are shaking and it's only when she moves her hand that I see she’s laughing. “You were definitely the main course.”

“Come on now. Did I get to partake in the orgy first? Was I at least delicious?” I ask and she smacks me with a pillow before I can wrench it from her hands. “Oh now you’ve done it.”

By the time we manage to stop playing around, she’s smiling and then holding me close to her. I kiss her temple and wrap my arms tight around her.

“Thank you. Sometimes, I just need you to hold me and I know it’ll be okay,” she whispers as we settle back in to hopefully sleep.

“Joke’s on you,” I say. “This is me pinning you in place to make sure I at least get to take part in the orgy before the feast.”

She laughs again and when she finally slips into sleep, I notice that her expression is relaxed. Maybe, I hope, it’ll help her subconscious stay away from such horrifying images. But if it doesn’t, at least now I know just how terrifying her fears are to her.

#words are peetas thing not mine #ten years of fanfiction mania #wrapped in red nonsense #no seriously pregnancy nightmares are a whole other level #they do not come to play #a-catgirl-universe #look at that ask

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sunnysidestories · 1 year

Text

Introductions Pt 1

Pt 2

Summary: Reader is a vigilante on young justice who goes to the same school as Walls. Only Wally doesn't know the readers identity, but she knows his. SLOW BURN

Wally West x Fem!Reader

Transferring classes is always a chore whenever someone decides a class isn't best fit for them, no matter the reason today I decided I would never do this again, even if the teacher sucked. The bundle of nervousness was tearing me from the inside. Thoughts swirling in my head.

Who would be in my class, I have to make friends... well more like people i'll talk to when I need a pencil, then I'll avoid attention so I dont get called on.

Before the transfer on the following Monday, I met my new teacher after school. Explaining what I needed to do for his class. "Listen y/n, you need to catch up on some things we have already learned, but im sure that won't be too hard, and if you ever have any questions, you can always ask. Everything you need I've already given to you." I nod thanking him before I make a haste exit, I have more important things to do as of now. My work can come later when im there, and I'm late.

Pulling out my mask for my costume, I walk through the Zeta tube, covering my face and identity. No more y/n. "Reconised B18 h/n." Mt. justice was as normal as normal could get with meta humans, feeling more as a second home. I could smell something cooking, along followed by laughter and conversation down the hall. I pull my hoodie over my hair, playing with the strings, a bad habit I use to calm down. Slowly walking down the hall before reaching the living room to a passed out Robin. He took up the whole main sofa.

The TV was still on. He must have been watching the news. Who does that? No, I take that back. Robin does that. I grabbed the blanket that sat over the couch draping over his body right as he began to snore. It's crazy that his glasses haven't fallen off his face by now. I feel bad for him he must be overworked. In a werid way, I wish that he could somehow get hurt so he gets some time off. I could substitute for him like im doing now, but knowing batman, he would most likely still be here anyway unless it was very serious. I shut off the TV.

The debrief would be in around 30 minutes after that training, more like a warmup, and then finally a short mission, it feels almost as if purposefully im always doing the easy jobs, totally doesn't help my self esstem. I just fill in anyways, why do I care so much?

Rob can get the sleep he needs it. I begin to walk off. He probably has an alarm. I wonder what they are cooking in the kitchen? Before I can think of possible options, im on the floor with a large *SMACK* eyes, meeting blue ones filled with worry.

The large stature accompanied by a uneasy glance was only one person Conner, I ran into the mini man of steel and now I think about it, it kinda hurt when I slamed into him"You walked right into me" "Are you okay babe?" Standing slightly behind Kid Flash stood with an arm outstretched, I grabbed it, pulling myself up."Im fine, I've been so stressed, I guess, lost in thought. It's been a week. What did you say?" His freckles dance across his face as he smiles, speeding away to the kitchen. Conner just looks at me following in his direction.

We reach the kitchen, and KF sits on the counter beside Megan, eating a bag of chips. Megan was stirring something inside of a bowl, I couldn't see. Her back was towards me only for a moment. "Hey guys."

Chicken salad, I can smell it and see now. Her face changes shades when Conner walks past her towards the fridge. Its sooooo painfully obvious it physically hurts me when they are in the same room. I take off my backpack and begin to study my science work. It's not as hard as I thought more of just things and facts to remember, but no really new complicated subjects.

"Wally! Stop! I need those -" I look up to Megan's shouts, Wally was doe-eyed caught eating the cherry tomatoes as if they were candy. "-YOU KNOW I HAVE A SUPER FAST METABOLISM! I CAN DIE. " He got defensive as his face began to match the fruit. "Your name is Wally?" I change the subject to help his embarrassment. Everyone's eyes go wide they all meet mine. "I've never told you my name? You've been on the team for how long??" Wally throws his arms in the air."Almost a year." I immediately replied. Now was my turn to be embarrassed. Should I know his name?

"How have you not heard it? y'know. It's fine, it doesn't matter. Let's try this again." Wally gets off the counter setting down the container, he walks up to me leaning on the table then shifting his weight a few times, almost as if he's hesitant or thinking of his next words.

The tone of his voice goes serious. "Im Wally West, it's nice to meet you." Then his grin returns as his eyes squint along with it. "Hey, I'm h/n." I let out a small laugh, looking back down at my work. It's crazy how easily Wally gave up his name. Maybe because im rarely here for long, I've never heard his name. It seems like everyone else knows. Its kinda my own fault, but now I feel bad.

I will eventually tell them my name its not like im important and need to hide it, I trust them. I trust them? Who am I kidding? If I don't even know Kid Flashes' name when he wears it on his chest, then how do I know them. Is it even really them, or am I making friends with who they want me to see. I seriously need to stop overthinking this. it's not that serious. It's just a name.

Robin would eventually walk into the kitchen 15 minutes later after we all ate telling us it was time for the debrief, you could still hear the slight tone of drowsiness from just waking up though he tried to play it off.Our mission seemed easy at first Batman explained we were to take down a meet up spot for some very illegal technology drop offs. Most likely, stolen information.

I sat to the left of Kaldur on the bioship close to the window. We were now all in full gear, flying over central city. "We will be there in around 4" Megan called out. "Everyone go into camouflage mode, Connect us to the mind link." Kal orders.

I try not to think about myself as they can all hear my thoughts, as can I theirs, I don't think I'll ever get used to this. It feels invasive. I look down at my hands, realizing im picking at my nails and zoning out.

Hey h/n let's go. Conner speaks to me, sorry... I replied, walking over to Robin and Kid Flash. Three and three, I hate splitting up. -its alright, we do this all the time, plus you can just talk through the link so we are really all here. Rob states that everyone agrees as we begin to walk in different directions.

Stake out time, yes! Wally says as we sit down onto the ledge, the building we chose overlooked two smaller apartment buildings backside. There were two ways to enter, and Team A. sat at the only other. This is really boring. I can't hear anything. KF sighed "Its been two minutes, we're not superboy use your eyes-" "-better yet use your heat vision from your goggles, see how many there are." Robin interrups my whispers. There are 30 people, uhhhhmmmm, 3 women and woah, that guy is huge. Aqualad cuts into the conversion. The criminals have another drop-off zone. We are going to pressure them, stay here, take out these guys, and don't let anything get out.

A large black truck with boxes passes us and goes through the opposite exit, I see Superboy only for a second as he closes the lid. That's one way to hide. Then, mind link breaks. So much for sticking together.

"I'll go ahead and try to sabotage their systems. You two begin to take out the ones outside. Try not to blow your cover." His glare meets Wallys. This must happen a lot.

"How did we fail this bad. I'm so sorry." I say, looking up over my shoulder towards Wally. Now, here we were tied up on a chair, no weapons in a room, no light, just us. "This is my fault if I wouldn't of tripped over the stupid gun then you wouldn't of gotten distracted" there's a momment of silence as we both ponder the failed attempt of taking out the enemy.

I hang my head low. It sucks. There are no lights at all, my other senses are going crazy, and I'm flooded with the sounds around me. Wallys slightly panicked breathing under the cool exterior, strangling tightness of the ropes around my chest. I could even hear our heart beats. weirdly, his was slow but picked up at the sound of my voice as if I scared him. "I'm not very whelmed right now." He let's out a small sigh.

"Are you ever?" "What?"You are always on edge like someone's about to jump you in a dark alley. Is this because you're just a fill-in and not full-time?". He tries to turn to as much as he can bound. He must feel my worry. "It is. H/n I really get how that could upset you, but you have to understand." He begins to shake in the chair. "Even if you're not officially fully on the team, you are to us. Everyone gets excited to see you, including me. Why does it matter if you're not on every mission.. I'm glad I get to work with you when I can. We all feel overshadowed ourselves sometimes. Heck, I mean, we are all sidekicks."

Finally, he breaks free of the rope with a SNAP, standing up carefully, using his hands to find me and set me free. "You've made your place in the team and our friendship. You just need to take the risk and open up."... "Wally... I trust you," he grabs and shows me to the wall where we find the locked door knob "jump on my back"

Monday at school was painful. Every limb hurt, and I couldn't sleep staying up thinking about what Wally said. I was looking forward to lunch, I made some of my favorites since I needed a treat. It was more like a break, but first, I had to go to science my new transfer class.

Without looking at anyone, I walk right up to the teacher. "Where do I sit?" He immediately awnsers."Yes, right. Go sit in the back beside the red-haired boy. It's the only empty seat." I follow his gaze to the seat. My table partner didn't seem to take notice of me when I sat down as he read the textbook. Maybe this won't be too bad he seems to actually care about the subject, at least.

He turns and looks at me, his green eyes are friendly and welcoming, as he smiles his freckles scatter along his cheeks. He leans on the table, placing his face in his hand he seems nervous.

"Hi, im Wally West. It's nice to meet you."

#wally west x reader #wally west #young justice x reader #young justice #young justice imagines

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five-rivers · 10 months

Text

Anyone Anywhere Anytime

Turns out I still have some Gen Rex brainworms to expunge.

AO3

Anyone Anywhere Anytime

(Or, five times someone close to Rex became an EVO, plus one.)

The first rule of the war was that anyone could become an EVO. Anything, too, but making sure people knew it could happen to people was a higher priority than strict accuracy. It could happen to a stranger. It could happen to a celebrity. It could happen to a poor man. It could happen to a rich man. It could happen to the kid down the street. It could happen to your best friend. It could happen to your partner. It could happen to you.

Anyone.

No one was safe.

The second rule was that EVOs could show up anywhere. The Amazon Rainforest? Check. The Sahara Desert? Check. The middle of the ocean? Check. Antarctica? Check. The middle of Mexico City? Check. Kyiv? Check. Highway during rush hour? Check. The middle of a corporate office? Check. High security military facilities? Check. Wherever there was life, there were EVOS.

Anywhere.

Nowhere was safe.

The third rule was that EVOs could be created at any time. Sometimes you’d get a warning, a split second before the day’s unluckiest person, pet, or petri dish got an unwanted upgrade courtesy of the pervasive nanite plague. Day or night, dusk or dawn, it didn’t matter. Asleep in bed, on top of the world, down in the dumps, stressed, relaxed, whatever. No one knew what the trigger was. There might not even be a trigger. So it paid to always stay on your toes. Always vigilant.

Anytime.

No time was safe.

Anyone could become an EVO, anywhere, at any time.

#1: Six

Rex was not a fan of baseline hand-to-hand lessons. Like, okay, it was cool to be able to do some of this stuff, but, honestly, whenever he got into a fight, he’d be using his builds, so it felt sort of… unnecessary. Especially compared to more practical practice.

Six raised an eyebrow so that it arched above the top edge of his sunglasses. “Are you going to tell that to Van Kleiss when he manages to drain your nanites again?” he asked.

“Uh, no. I don’t really chat with Van Kleiss when I’m fighting him.”

A second eyebrow joined the first.

“Okay, okay, but that’s banter. That’s different. We’re not, like, actually talking.”

“I see,” said Six, before aiming a punch directly at Rex’s face.

“Ack!” said Rex, barely dodging it. It was definitely a ‘training speed’ punch, telegraphed way more than Six usually would. “Six! I wasn’t ready!” A common complaint of Rex’s during training.

“Someone who attacks you while your nanites are offline won’t wait until you’re ready, either.” An equally common response from Six. It was a whole song and dance. Routine, really. Their own form of banter.

Rex knew Six loved it. Probably. Possibly? Okay, it was sometimes hard to figure out if Six loved anything, or even if he liked anything, but one time Rex held off on the banter and Six walked him down to Holiday’s lab for a full body checkup, so that was something, right?

Anyway, they continued lightly sparring for a few minutes before Six put him into a serious hold. “Alright,” he said, “today, we’re going to work on breaking–”

Six went silent, his body stiffening and going still.

“Uh,” said Rex, “Six? You okay?” He reached up behind him, or tried to– Six’s hold was still solid and really did its job of making sure Rex couldn’t grab or hit Six. “Is this supposed to be some kind of ‘figure it out on your own’ thing? What’s going on?”

He didn’t get a response from Six. He did, however, get a response from his nanites.

{alert: t102-INITIAL activation of b6066-ZETA detected in range. query: action.}

“Oh, crap,” said Rex, flailing. b6066-ZETA was the batch number for the primary population of nanites in Six– A fact he’d thought hilarious when he’d first managed to find out. He didn’t know what t102-INITIAL meant, but then, he’d never been in close physical contact with someone who was going EVO.

{alert: t103-CASCADE activation of b6066-ZETA detected in range. query: action.}

{command: abort activation.} Rex sent back.

{error:} said the nanites, because of course Rex would miss step one under these circumstances, {not connected. alert: t103-CASCADE activation of b6066-ZETA and b5534-ALEP detected in range. alert: t102-INITIAL activation of b6002-THETA detected in range. query: action.}

Rex didn’t need direct skin-to-skin contact with an EVO to be able to cure it. He did, after all, wear gloves, and he could work through an EVO’s clothing, if necessary.

But he did have to make a connection, he did have to send his nanotechnology into the target, at last at first, to take over and deactivate the other nanites. And he hadn't done that yet. Normally invisible dermal nanite colonies lit up and moved as Rex forced them into action.

{command: abort activation.}

{processing…}

"Okay, okay," said Rex, more than half his attention on minding the connection. "It's processing. Not everything is instant, right?"

{processing…}

“Just… just hang in there, okay? Six?”

{processing…}

Rex didn’t know what he’d do if Six was incurable. Six was… He was the first person Rex had really met. The first person whose name he knew. The person who’d been with him the whole time, who had protected him in the ruins of Mexico City, and later from people like Dr. Fell. He was the one who taught Rex to survive, who was still teaching him how to survive.

Rex didn’t know what he’d do, if he lost Six.

{alert: command aborted by secadmin-SIX. query: action.}

“What?” gasped Rex, affronted. “Admin? Since when is Six an admin? Who decided that?”

{admin_history: priadmin-REX (priloc: b4739-BETA, locus: hsapiens1-REX) designated user-SIX (priloc: b6066–ZETA, locus: hsapiens2036606606-SIX) secadmin on–}

Six spasmed and pushed Rex away, practically throwing him across the room and breaking the connection Rex had to the nanites in Six. Rex rolled, ironically making use of some of the first things Six had ever taught him, and bounced back to his feet just in time to watch as Six’s nanites took over.

Limbs and fingers lengthened. Skin went shiny, green and scaled. Six made a terrible, terrible sound.

“I-It’s going to be okay,” said Rex. Because it had to be. This was just… this had to be because it was in the middle of an activation, not because Six was incurable. Once it ran its course, and Rex was able to make contact again, it would be fine. Six would be fine. And then Rex could sit down and figure out what priadmin, secadmin, and locus meant, as well as why his nanites decided to be so talkative today.

{help_info: topadmin, priadmin, secadmin, and user are the four access levels designated on standard nanOS.}

The last three fingers on each of Six’s hands lengthened further, and fused together, forming long swords not unlike his magna blades. A long tail grew from the base of his spine, stabilizing his center of gravity.

“Also, please don’t go crazy, because I really, really don’t want to fight you like this.”

{help_info: a locus is an integrated biomechanical entity formed of all nanites within or controlled by a biological organism and that biological organism. individual loci are designated by–}

Rex dodged out of the way as one of those swords came down at him. Great! Six was crazy. This was bad, bad, bad, bad.

He called up his nanites into his smack hands and deflected the next blow, pushing forward even as he winced against the sound it made. Six flipped over his hand, or tried to. He got clear of Rex, yes, but he fumbled both the flip itself, and the landing. Rex had never seen Six fumble anything before.

Except footballs and basketballs. But Rex was pretty sure that was on purpose.

(A magna blade through a ball was a clear message, after all.)

But it made sense that Six would fumble now. Nanites themselves could only control so much, after all, and still relied on their hosts’ brains for a lot of things. Six wasn’t used to his new body plan. So, fumbling.

Rex lunged for Six again, this time managing to grab his tail, but Six stabbed one of his swords right through one of the tendon-like cables that controlled the grip of his smack hands, and his hand flew open, letting Six escape, bounce off one of the walls, and hit Rex’s back, just over the shoulders. Rex hit the ground again, but not for long. His boogie pack pushed Six off before he could do any damage, and man that was close.

Six skirted Rex’s counterattack, and almost managed to get Rex in the same hold he’d been in just minutes ago, but that was fine. Contact was contact. Rex was not going to be picky. Not today.

{alert: contact made with locus-hsapiens2036606606-SIX. query: action.}

{command: shutdown. command: extract activated nanites.}

{processing…}

"Come on, Six, let me do this, please."

{processing…}

"Because I don't know what I'd do without you."

{processing…}

"Also, your sword fingers are getting way closer to my face than I thought they would and it's really freaking me out!"

{waiting… alert: command accepted, extraction initiated.}

Rex sighed in relief as he felt Six’s frame change behind him and the extra weight of Six’s extracted activated nanites settled inside him. Six’s grip on him loosened, and Six himself tilted back until they were lying flat on the floor.

“Six?” said Rex.

“Yes, Rex?”

“Just checking.” What, exactly, he was checking went unsaid. “Just don’t do that to me again, okay?”

Six patted Rex’s shoulder and made no promises either way.

#2: Caesar

"It isn't that simple," said Caesar, glaring up at the over-bright and too-high screen. If he didn’t already hate White for how he was treating his little brother (“It doesn’t matter how many dubious long-lost relatives crawl out of the woodwork, he isn’t leaving Providence.”) he might hate him for how he’d arranged things so that he’d be able to, quite literally, look down on everyone.

“Explain,” ordered White.

“I shouldn’t have to,” said Caesar, eyes flicking briefly to the doctor who’d joined them just a moment ago. Dr. Holiday, he thought her name was. “I know I’m not the only scientist from the project who survived the nanite event.” Rylander, Meechum, and Van Kleiss, at least, had to still be around. “You should already know the answers to these questions. Is this some sort of test?”

“Humor us,” said Dr. Holiday, clicking a pen and resting the tip against a notepad. “You might have a unique perspective on the question, especially in regards to Rex.”

Caesar sighed roughly. In regards to Rex. Yes. Yes, he supposed he did, but he’d really rather spend this time in a lab, trying to get the last kinks out of Rex’s programming before… before.

But these people wouldn’t let him do that until he gave them what they wanted.

“Fine,” he said, blinking back a touch of dizziness. A side effect of near light speed trave? “There are several roadblocks to the goal of ‘curing everyone.’ The first is that not all nanites are the same. By the time the nanite event happened, there were hundreds of different sub-projects. The nanite project as a whole had hundreds of the best scientists money could buy, and it ran for over a decade. There was even a major programming fork in the early days, so there’s the possibility that there are two different operating systems at play, in addition to different models of nanite with different programs. Some of those programs were meant to run on humans. Most of them weren’t. Some of them weren’t meant to interface with biological entities at all. And the more recent batches were designed with limited self-programming capability, so that they could interface better with individual hosts. There is no one size fits all solution. Even if you’re talking about Rex, his nanites just aren’t going to be able to communicate with all other nanites.”

“What about the Omega nanite?” asked Dr. Holiday. “Isn’t that supposed to be a master control?”

“Eh, well, there are master controls and then there are master controls. In theory, he can use it to talk to all the other nanites, in practice–”

“What about kill codes? Emergency stops?” asked White, leaning forward.

“That’s the second problem. There might have been emergency shutdown codes, or emergency self-destruct codes, but only a few people ever had access to them. Top admins. We wanted to put these things into people. ¿Lo entiendes? We didn’t want just anyone to be able to mess with them. Which loops back to the other part. Even with a master control, if it’s changing someone’s body, it needs user permission.”

White scoffed. “Yeah, and you’ve really done a stellar job with that.”

Caesar made a face but didn’t dispute the point. Things had gone very wrong. “I think that might be the main stumbling block for Rex. That wasn’t implemented yet in everything, but if it was tagged as complete and for humans, there’s that limit there. Also, if the onboard AI has any integration troubles, getting permission would also be problematic. No communication, no permission.”

“Wait– Onboard AI?” Dr. Holiday asked, looking interested.

“Later, Holiday,” said White. “What are the other problems?”

“Frankly? Admin levels and programming tools. It’s my understanding that most of the original project equipment was lost in the event, and if you had anyone with top admin permissions, this would be a very different conversation.”

“What is your admin level?” asked Holiday.

“I have primary admin permissions,” said Caesar, “with a few special permissions on the computer in my lab.” He jerked his head in its general direction. “But most of my access - my primary location - was from my computer in Abysus. I don’t know if I can replicate that from a secondary. And there’s not a chance I’d be recognized if I ‘went EVO.’ I don’t have a registered locus in the system. Although, I suppose Rex might be able to promote me to secadmin if… but that’s behind a partition… he was ten! Of course we put it behind a partition…” We being Caesar and his parents. His parents who were…

“Great. Whatever. I’ll leave the technobabble to the nerds. Salazar. Don’t forget. I’m watching you.” The screen flicked out.

Holiday stepped forward. “Let me show you to your lab space,” she said. “I think we do have a lot to talk about.”

“Actually, if it’s all the same to you… From my perspective, my day started with the nanite event, the death of my parents, and time travel. I’d like to take a moment to… catch up with current events.”

“Oh,” said Holiday, softly. “I hadn’t– Of course. But you should still know where the labs are.”

Caesar managed a weak smile. While it was true he was unsettled by recent-to-him events, he was mostly saying this to get Holiday out of his hair. She was probably expecting him to break down, now, but Caesar had never been much of one for emotional affect… Although he’d been expecting something more from the deaths of his parents… His principal emotions at the moment were continuing hatred for White Knight and… worry for Rex.

This was not a good environment for him, he was sure. It already wasn’t a good environment for Caesar, and he’d been here, what, five hours? And Caesar wasn’t being used as a hostage, a weapon, or an experiment.

Yet. There was always tomorrow.

They walked down a series of impersonal hallways. There were more signs of life here than near White Knight’s ‘meeting room,’ but it was still quiet, which Caesar was grateful for. He was developing an unusually sharp headache.

“Communal labs,” said Holiday, opening a door to reveal another hallway, this one inhabited by a pair of scientists trying to get an optics table through a doorway. “You haven’t been assigned work space yet, but the intake paperwork should be ready by tomorrow.”

“This can’t be all of your labs.”

“No,” said Holiday. “Of course not. But this is what you’ve been cleared to access, so far. You’ll also be assigned a small private lab, for sensitive work, and you will have limited access to some of the spaces we have for Rex.”

“To study Rex, you mean.”

Holiday shut the door and continued to walk down the hallway. “I don’t like it either,” she said. “But things could be… worse.”

“How so?”

Holiday hesitated. “I’m not in charge of all the scientists here,” she said, finally, “and before I was in my current position, I was treated like a glorified intern. My predecessor…” She seemed to make a decision. “He tried to kill Rex. There are still too many people who think like him. But outside of Providence, it’s worse. EVOs, even the human-passing ones, legally aren’t human and can be killed with no legal repercussions.”

“You can’t be serious,” said Caesar. Even if everything was as bad as she and White said, human-based EVOs should be treated like people with a disease, not dangerous animals.

“I wish I wasn’t,” said Holiday. “Rex has been…” She pressed her lips together in a firm line as she input a key code for the next door. “He’s been assaulted, more than once. He wasn’t seriously injured, his nanites let him shrug off most things, but it’s not… You can’t live freely in a world that doesn’t consider you human.” She swallowed and then waved a hand at the room. “This is the principle programming and sim lab.”

“Ah,” said Caesar, taking note of technology that, at least on the surface, was decidedly behind what was in his pod lab.

“Next stop, general quarters.”

They didn’t talk again until they reached a much narrower hallway with a lot more traffic.

“Shift change,” explained Holiday. She stopped in front of one of the doors. “This is your room. You should be able to use your ID card to open it.”

The room was, in fact, a small studio apartment. Not huge, but fully furnished with a small kitchen and full bathroom. There was a desk with a computer set up on one side, next to a fake window.

“The computer should let you access the public internet, but you’ll have to wait for credentials to access Providence’s databases. That should still let you catch up with current events.”

“Right,” said Caesar. “Thank you, Dr. Holiday.”

“Oh, one more thing.” Holiday reached into her pocket and pulled out an old model clamshell phone. “In this line of work, you get used to carrying a few burners. It has Rex’s number already on it.” She handed it to him.

“Thank you,” said Caesar, almost dropping it as he took it, unclear on what, exactly, she wanted him to do with it.

“Just… be careful, Caesar.” She turned away and walked back down the hallway.

Caesar let out a puff of air. She could at least call him Dr. Salazar… Although that would have him looking over his shoulder for his father… and might be a little strange considering what appeared to be her relationship with his brother.

Life was, as always, unfairly complicated.

He shook his head and went into the room, closing and locking the door behind him. Although, considering that the locks were electronic, he suspected that anyone with ‘clearance’ could get in. He looked at the computer and sighed. Best to get started.

He sat down and shook a slight tremor - probably caused by lack of sleep and adrenaline - out of his hands. Time to see what the nanites had been doing over the past six years.

There was… a lot.

A horrifying lot.

Although, to be fair, most of the horror on Caesar’s part came from watching his little brother fight what looked like giant monsters. Although, that was also somewhat impressive, because their parents absolutely had not programmed Rex’s nanites with giant swords, saws, guns, or VTOL equipment, which indicated that the self programming abilities of Rex’s nanites were far more versatile than intended… or they’d figured out how to ‘steal’ programming from other nanites, he wasn’t sure yet. In any case, the emergent behavior were fascinating, and–

Caesar hissed as his hand spasmed. That wasn’t normal. Had he strained something earlier, or…

It occurred to him, then, that after so long, most people with a propensity for ‘going EVO’ already had, with the rate of new incidents currently being relatively low compared to what had happened right after the event. But for Caesar, the event had only just happened.

He swallowed and clicked through to a website discussing the symptoms of ‘nanite infection.’

Much of it he had already been aware of, including positives like the elimination of several common diseases, reduced rates of infection, faster healing for minor injuries… Those were the things nanites were supposed to do, after all. Negative side effects other than ‘going EVO’ were surprisingly few and far between, other than nasty interactions with strong magnetic fields.

He scrolled down.

… most cases nanite activation is spontaneous, with no prior warning or indicators. However, some individuals report precursor symptoms. Research is ongoing, and it is currently unclear if these reports are reliable, and, if reliable, if they are caused by nanite activation. Some demographics, notably hispanic males under the age of thirty and East Asian women between the ages of twenty-five and forty, report these precursor symptoms at a higher rate…

Of course. Those demographics lined up nicely with the original test subjects. The nanites had been adjusted based on their data, so it made sense that sufficiently similar people would interact with the nanites differently than the general population.

Caesar also fit those demographics.

He scrolled further.

… commonly reported precursor symptoms include headaches, dizziness, excessive sweating, muscle spasms, unusual muscle soreness, tremors, sore throat, sore eyes, unusual hunger or thirst, difficulty focusing, transient aphasia, nausea, seizures, general malaise and anxiety, feelings of doom…

Caesar was very much not experiencing all of those symptoms. However…

He licked his lips and glanced at the phone Holiday had given him. Surely, it wouldn’t hurt. He picked up the phone and dialed the only saved number.

“Aló, habla Rex! What’s up, Doc?”

Was that the sound of Mario Kart in the background? Did Rex cope with terrifying experiences like his body producing a machine that trapped him in a tiny airless bubble by playing Mario Kart? Whatever, not important.

“Ah, actually, Rex, this is Caesar.”

The sound of the game stopped and there was a rustling sound. “Uh,” said Rex, “hi… bro? What’s, uh. How are– How are things?”

“It’s,” said Caesar, no longer sure what to say. He could have worked himself up over nothing, and Rex… with his amnesia, he was probably expecting Caesar to give him some kind of full-life rundown, which Caesar wasn’t sure he’d ever really be up for. He swallowed. “I was wondering if you would like to…” What was Rex even allowed to do, here? He wasn’t sure.

“Sneak out together?” asked Rex, brightly. Caesar could almost envision a wagging puppy dog tail.

“Yes, that,” said Caesar, forcing a smile. He’d read that facial expressions made enough of difference to the average voice that people could tell whether or not you were smiling over the phone. He inhaled to continue, maybe to elaborate on what, exactly, they could sneak out to do, but the bottom of his stomach fell away and he–

Caesar inhaled sharply as a white tile ceiling came into focus, along with a face. He blinked a few times. “Doctor… Holiday?”

“Yes,” she said. “How do you feel, Caesar?”

“I–” How did he feel? “Fine.”

The familiar-unfamiliar face of his not-so-little-anymore brother leaned into his field of view. A few rapidly dimming lines of light lay scattered over his skin and clothing. “You’ve still got all your memories and stuff, right?”

“I… think so,” said Caesar, levering himself into a sitting position and looking around the room, which wasn’t any different from how it had been when he first walked in. “What happened? I had called you, and then…”

“You went EVO,” said Rex, nervously, picking at the seams on his gloves.

“Ah,” said Caesar, who hadn’t considered what it would be like for Rex to hear that over the phone. “I was under the impression that something like that would result in more collateral damage.”

“Oh, yeah, because of the stuff on the news?” Rex shook his head, the last of the nanite-lights going out as he did so. “Nah, man, the news only shows the violent ones, or the flashy, powerful ones. A lot of EVOs don’t do much of anything unless you mess with them. You were pretty chill.”

“Right,” said Caesar, because what else could he say to that? “I’m glad I was… chill. I suppose I’m due for a medical checkup?”

“Standard procedure,” said Holiday. “You, too, Rex.”

“Aw, man, do I have to? I was actually beating Bobo this time.”

“Caesar’s nanites might be different from what you’re used to, due to his proximity to the event,” said Holiday.

“She’s right,” said Caesar. He might as well get some good will from backing her up on this. And, besides, it might be a little easier to talk to his little brother if they were both… getting medical scans… and…

Okay, that was a terrible idea, actually. But it wasn’t as if Caesar had any better ones.

“Ugh, fine,” said Rex, crossing his arms. The intonation was almost exactly the same as the last time their mother made him go to the doctor before his accident.

Caesar smiled, and this time it was almost genuine.

#3: Bobo

The emergency lights blared overhead as armed Providence agents streamed into the room. The monkey rolled on the floor, laughing, as the probably-a-teenager-but-only-probably threw anything he could grab at him.

“I can’t believe you fell for that!” howled Bobo.

“I can’t believe you did that!” countered Rex, whose eyes were suspiciously glassy. “I was really worried!”

“I’m already an EVO, kid! Can’t EVO me twice!”

Six sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. It had only been two months since he’d found Rex in the rubble of Mexico City, and every day was another massive headache. One that could only be rivaled by the headache he got wondering what would have happened to Rex if he hadn’t intervened.

“Shut it down,” he said. “False alarm.”

“You thought I was going EVO! Ha! That’s one for the books!”

“You suck so much!”

Yeah. This was going to be a long day.

#4: Holiday

Beverly was getting her last exit check up before she was released from Providence’s care when it happened. She was watching Rebecca type something on her computer, something about slight anemia, her face visible only in profile, when she saw it. Color, curling up out of the collar of her sister’s lab coat, vibrant and striking against the overwhelming white and pale gray of the room.

For a moment, she thought it might just be the shirt Rebecca was wearing underneath the coat, but then it moved, it spread, feathering out over the curve of her jaw and her cheek, dyeing her eye with stripes of bright gold and adding points to her ears. The color - no, the fur - crept out from the ends of her sleeves, covering the backs of her hands and fingers.

Beverly couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. She couldn’t– She couldn’t– This couldn’t be happening. Not to Rebecca. Not her sister. Not when Beverly had just realized she’d missed years of her life as an insane spider-monster.

Not when Beverly was the only one here, with no way to protect herself.

But Rebecca kept typing away at the computer, only looking away when one of the machines began to beep at her.

“Bev, are you feeling okay? Your heart rate just spiked.”

“I’m–” gasped Beverly. “Becca, you– Your skin!”

Rebecca blinked her (too large, too bright) eyes at Beverly, then looked down at her hands. “Oh!” she said, then fell silent for a long minute. “Oh. That’s– Huh.” She turned her hands over. “That’s… Huh.”

“What do I–” said Beverly. “I don’t–” Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes. “What do I do?”

“Just, uh,” said Rebecca, sounding stunned and bemused. “This hasn’t happened before, obviously.” She paused. “There’s a procedure.” She reached for the phone on her desk, slowly. “I never thought I’d have to use it to report myself, and maybe that’s a little hubristic of me…”

“Why?” asked Beverly, still shaken.

Rebecca glanced at Beverly. “I didn’t think I’d retain my intelligence.” The subtext was clear. She didn’t think that she would keep hers, because Beverly didn’t. She pressed a button on the phone. “Hello? This is Dr. Rebecca Holiday in examination room three-thirteen. I’m reporting an EVO– No, you don’t need– It’s me. Yes, that’s correct. I have gone EVO. Yes. I appear to be, yes. I understand the procedure. I will stand by, thank you.” She put the phone down with a click. “Alright, they should be here soon… Bev. Beverly. Are you alright?”

“Why are you asking me that?” asked Beverly, twisting her hands together. “You’re the one who– who–”

“Well,” said Rebecca, examining her nails, which looked longer than usual, “I seem to be. Fine. Mostly. I’m… unlikely to lose my job over this. Variagation isn’t progressive, generally speaking. Assuming this is already complete, and that’s likely, I won’t get any worse. I’m just, ah. Processing.”

“Processing,” repeated Beverly. “Becca, what if you aren’t– What if you’re not curable?” Rex was great and all, but Beverly hadn’t been curable.

“Then I’d have to deal with that,” said Rebecca, who was still way too calm for the situation. “There’s already precedent for EVOs working with Providence. I’ll be fine. Promise.” She smiled. “Ow.”

“What? What is it?” asked Beverly, not moving from the examination table.

“Change to my tooth structure… Still don’t know why so many EVOs are adapted to be more combative…” She fell to muttering about random science stuff, which was typical Rebecca, but still.

The door slammed open and Rex slid in, followed shortly thereafter by Six (who Rebecca was maybe sort of dating - it was really unclear), and a dozen Providence agents. Who had guns. Guns that were being pointed at Rebecca.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Come on, guys, it’s like you don’t work with multiple totally awesome EVOs every day,” said Rex, walking between the agents and Rebecca with ease, Six following him after pointedly pushing down one of the agents’ guns. “So, uh, how’re you doing, Doc?”

“Fine,” said Rebecca. “Just a bit… surprised.”

“Uh huh,” said Rex. “Want me to, uh. Work my magic?” He held up his hands and waved them back and forth slightly. A thin blue line flashed across one of his palms, as if his nanites were eager to be used.

“Actually, if it’s all the same to everyone,” said Rebecca, “I think I’d like to run some tests on myself, first. We have limited data on early nanite behavior in EVOs who retain their intelligence. Limited data on EVOs who retain their intelligence all around, actually.”

“And what are we?” asked Bobo, shouldering his way past the agents. “Chopped liver?”

“You,” said Rebecca, “are a different case altogether. And you know it.”

“Ah, so Rex is chopped liver. Got it.”

“Hey!”

“Rex is one data point. It’s always good to have more.”

“Absolutely,” said Rex. “So… does that mean you’re going to come join me in the training salle? See if you’ve got any special abilities? Maybe take a shot at some of the guys in the Petting Zoo?”

Six pushed up his glasses. “If you intend on staying like this for any period of time, it would be tactically sound to assess your combat abilities.”

Rebecca smiled again, and her teeth really were sharp. Heck.

“Alright, alright, but I’ll need to do my tests first, in my main lab… Beverly, I’m really sorry, but I think it might be better to reschedule the rest of your checkup. We’ve. We’ve both had a scare.”

“Yeah,” said Beverly, who still felt like a strong breeze might blow her over. “I think. Yeah.”

“Okay. Six, could you…?”

Six looked like he wanted to object. “Yeah, I’ll see her out.”

“Thanks,” said Rebecca. She and Rex left, followed by the other agents.

Beverly hadn’t moved at all.

“Come on,” said Six. “Let’s go.”

“R-right,” Beverly said, sliding off the examination table. Her legs almost buckled, but she managed to stay upright, and a few breaths made her feel a lot better. Which meant that it was time for deflection. She looked up at Six. “If you’re just going along with this because you’re one of those guys with a catgirl obsession, I’m going to kill you.” She didn’t know how. Six was, like, a ninja. But she’d figure it out.

“Noted.”

#5: Noah

“You would be wise to consider delaying your celebration for the moment, Rex. You’re about to have your hands quite full.”

Rex crossed his arms, smirking, because it was hard to take him seriously when he’d just been taken out by Noah driving a forklift. Heh. Forklift certification, Van Kleiss’s true weakness. “Oh, really, and how do you figure that?”

But Van Kleiss just smirked again and lunged forward, his arm longer than it should have been. He made contact with Noah’s chest, and the nanites activated all at once in a flash of yellow-orange light.

Oh, jeez, of course Noah would be a big one. And not particularly bright. Crap.

Why were Providence agents so trigger-happy, darn it? Rex was right there.

At least he was closer to the destructive end of the spectrum than the violent end, but would it kill him to stop running around and give Rex an easier time?

Sometimes, Rex really hated how his biometrics worked. And also Van Kleiss. He really hated Van Kleiss.

Which was why hitting the guy with a train was so satisfying.

Watching EVO Noah almost rip the guy’s arm off was even more satisfying. Maybe Van Kleiss’s real secret weakness was just blond teenagers or something. What a loser.

“Oh my gosh,” said Noah, watching the TV through his fingers. “I did that? I did that?”

“Yep,” said Rex, tossing back some popcorn.

“That’s so cool. Wish I could actually remember, though…”

“Eh,” said Rex. “I like you better this way, anyway.”

+1: Rex

(He could hear his parents arguing. He couldn’t tell what they were arguing about. He couldn’t open his eyes, or move, or even think all that much. It was like when he woke up early in the morning, but was actually still asleep, still dozing, but deeper. Darker, somehow.)

(Something was very wrong.)

(There were more people talking than just his parents. Caesar, of course. Of course his brother was there. But so were other people. Scientists. Their names slipped from Rex’s mind even as he thought of them, but they were there.)

(Why were they there?)

(It was suddenly very important to him that he wake up. Vital. Something was going to happen. He needed to be awake.)

(Why couldn’t he wake up?)

(The voices in the other room fell silent one by one, until it was only his father talking, his tone grim, his cadence steady. Then he, too, fell silent.)

(Had something bad already happened? Rex didn’t remember.)

(He… didn’t remember.)

((He didn’t want to remember))

(The door opened. Footsteps came near, two sets of them, his mother and his father.)

“Rex, we’re so sorry, but this is the only way.”

“Don’t worry, it’ll work, and then this will all just be a memory.”

(There was, very briefly, the sensation of something cold in his veins.)

{system integration initiated.}

{processing…}

{update: b4739-BETA integration achieved. hosttype hsapiens detected.}

{update: locus designated hsapiens1-REX (user-REX) systemwide.}

{alert: locus-hasapiens1-REX healthstat abnormal. processing healthstat report to topadmin.}

{alert: beginning t88-INITIAL activation of b4739-BETA.}

{processing…}

#generator rex #anyone anywhere anytime #fic #my fic

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p4r4s-penrose · 6 months

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It's Wandern-Trecker time.

So I had mentioned these before, but WTs are my attempt to generally get Mechs to fit in Signalis' world.

to start off, the general timeline.

There's no exact times listed, but Wandern-Treckers are *old* tech. Sort-of how we have stuff like Kuratas and Archax today.

Eventually it gives rise to the Wandern-Trecker and Wanzers (I was trying to avoid using the term 'Wanzer' because of Front Mission, but it just.. ended up like that.)

The general requirements I use for these things is that they cannot have heads proper (If it can tilt its head, it's not a Trecker or Wanzer - that's a SPNR/K.)

Edit: I forgot the other requirements lol-

Generally these have to stay in the "Vertical Tank" size range of around 5m or shorter. Probably can go to Patlabor sizes of like 8m if you push it. VT size range generally refers to the subsect of mecha media where it's more plausible. VOTOMS, OBSOLETE, Gasaragi(? Gasaraki?), Blue Gender, Patlabor, Armored Core V / VD, Full Metal Panic, etc.

Edit 2: Fuck I keep forgetting to list shit. Okay so they can't do full transformations like Zeta Gundam, or Macross. They also tend to have treads or wheels somehow for high speed travel. Be it in the heels or whatever.

Simultaneously they cannot fly unless they are basically a V22 osprey with legs. If they have thrusters, its for low gravity or emergency maneuvering. Not your primary form of transit.

Anyway, have most of what Ive done so far. The second will just contain a continuation of SigMech content.

#signalis #signalis fanart #SigMech

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askbohemiancompany · 1 year

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After nearly 10 years in the community, I have hit this massive number. Thank you all for supporting over the years!

I figured due to this and the Oscars being on today, I figured I would announce the second Sol Film Festival!

For those who were not here when the previous one happened, you take your Pokemon OCs and put them in a scene or movie poster that draws homage to a movie of your choice. I then judge the entries and pick the best of both the writing and the drawn categories.

This year I am upping the ante. The winners of both categories get $100.

Here are some ideas for what you can do.

A recreation of an official poster for a film

A recreation of a poster or DVD cover for a rerelease of a film. For example a Criterion Collection or Arrow covers.

A recreation of a single scene from a film. This can be done via a text post or art.

The Hard Rules

You must use Pokemon OCs only. You can use either a gijinka form or pokemon form, or both depending on your film. However they must be Pokemon OCs in a capacity.

Do not do any of the Pokemon or Digimon films. The reason for this is that since the ‘actors’ we are using are involved in the pokemon universe more or less it would be too easy to do a scene straight up pulling something that is in the Pokemon universe. Digimon is also too close to being similar so I want to cut that off at the pass.

Do not do television movies or movies that are continuations of or are a compressed telling of a TV series. For example Psyche the Movie,FF7 Advent Children, Serenity, El Camino, Full Metal Alchemist Conqueror of Shambala and the Zeta Gundam films are off limits due to fitting that above criteria.

TV show adaptations as a whole are not banned though. As an example, you can do pieces involving films such as In the Loop, the Original or live action Ghost In the Shell, In the Loop, Lupin the First, the Get Smart movie with Steve Carrel, any of the Street Fighter Movies and Final Fantasy Spirited Within are allowed to be homaged as they are not following a continuity.

At the longest, keep it to one scene from a movie if you do the scene recreation. Do not recreate the whole movie from start to end. That would be way too much effort than is required

The length of each submission would have to be, at most, the length of a scene in a movie, or part of a scene if you are drawing. So imagine you are making a storyboard or writing a novelization of a single scene from a movie. Do not adapt the full movie.

You can do a homage rather than a beat by beat recreation. What you choose to do is up to your digression.

Do not just recreate memes. We all laughed at Tommy screaming “I am fed up with dis wurld” and we all remember “Garbage Day”, but if you just try to meme your way through this competition your entry will be disqualified.

Do not implement any characters from askbohemiancompany or omnipokemonproducts. While I would respect my characters having cameos in any capacity usually, I don’t want it to come off like that is the best way to influence who wins. So do not implement them in any capacity in your projects.

If you entered last time, do not resubmit the same piece you did last time. You have to make another one. You can still do the same movie however.

Some Other Helpful Facts

In case you need help with picking film you can feel free to reach out to me and I can help you find some options based off your taste and what platforms are at your disposal.

If you cannot be sent the money I am willing to pay for a commission on the winner’s behalf.

Try to pick films that are not blockbusters. This is not regarding films that are popular, more so stuff like Fast and the Furious, MCU etc. I won’t disregard these types of entries but I want this to be a chance for people to discover new films. It’s just like the Oscars!

If I like your post that means I have seen it. I will not comment any further and if you want me to reblog it and write my thoughts on it after the deadline let me know.

The deadline for all Submissions is June 12th. Please tag all submissions SolFilmFestival2023 so I can keep track of the submissions.

Reblogs are appreciated!

#ooc #solfilmfestival #solfilmfestival2023 #900 followers!

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halobirthdays · 1 year

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Happy birthday to Spartan Jameson Locke!

Today is his -505th birthday!

Before becoming a Spartan, Locke was ONI through and through, rising to lieutenant Commander of Section III's Acquisition Specialist unit.

Locke was orphaned at the age of five when the Covenant glassed his home planet of Jericho VII. Rather than blame the Covenant for his home planet's destruction, he blamed the UNSC for its failure to protect it, and as a result, did not join the UNSC like many of his orphaned peers.

Instead, he freelanced as a tracker and assassin for hire. Over time, he caught the attention of the Office of Naval Intelligence, who extended an offer to join them. As an Acquisition Specialist, he used many of the skills gained during his time as a freelancer: he was tasked with locating and securing high-value resources and assassinating high-level targets. This included a recommendation and offer to personally assassinate then-Supreme Commander Thel 'Vadam(ee).

In February 2556, Locke was involved in investigating a bio-terrorism attack on the human colony Sedra. Tracing the source of the attack would take him to Installation 04, where the weapon's main component was mined. Ultimately, Locke would be one of two survivors of the mission, though the threat was neutralized.

Later that year, Locke became a Spartan-IV. He excelled at covert, low-profile assignments with little outside support, until he was eventually assigned to lead Fireteam Osiris.

It was Osiris who responded to Catherine Halsey's distress call, which would lead the team to Jul 'Mdama's location. Locke engaged in close combat with 'Mdama, and was ultimately able to assassinate him and recapture Halsey.

In what is arguably his most controversial mission, Locke and Osiris were then tasked with tracking and arresting Blue Team, who had embarked on an unauthorized mission to retrieve Cortana. Though they were successful at finding Blue Team, Locke was overpowered by Master Chief in hand-to-hand combat and Blue Team was able to escape.

They then traveled to Sanghelios, where a wary Thel 'Vadam permitted them to use the planet's newly-appeared Guardian to follow Blue Team after Osiris assisted his forces in destroying the Covenant presence on the planet.

When they were finally able to locate Blue Team on Genesis, they learned of Cortana's plan for the Guardians and the Created. Locke and Master Chief agreed that Cortana posed a threat that was more important than their capture, and both teams returned to Infinity.

Locke would participate in the Created conflict, and was chosen as a second in the event that Master Chief was unable to deploy the Weapon against Cortana. While Banished Spartan Killer Hyperius would later be shown to use Locke's helmet and chest piece as trophies on his armor, it is possible that these were fabrications as part of the Banished's demoralizing propaganda efforts against the humans on Zeta Halo. Thus, Locke's fate is unknown.

In canon (~2560), he is turning 31!

#like no thanks we dont want that heat #jameson locke #spartan locke #spartan iv #ONI #fireteam osiris #halo 5 guardians

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cetaceans-pls · 8 months

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Oh Me Oh My

Bruce walks into a room and there's, ah, Bruce Wayne, and over there is, uh, the Batman. He's been to some weird parties; this one takes the cake. Gen, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Rated T

For @brucewayneweek day 2, and like a madman I used all three prompts: identity porn, injured bruce, and gotham royalty

these fics WILL go on ao3 at some point, after i've edited them when i'm not 90% asleep! please enjoy!

So. This certainly didn't go how he expected.

The task of the day: infiltrate a high-society event not as Himself, because Bruce Wayne is ostensibly in Kazakhstan at the moment, riding horses somewhere out west while he's being courted by the government to open up a Wayne Tech hub. With the Zeta tube it's not hard to be halfway across the world and back home in the same day, Instagram aflame with a picture of him taking a dip in the Caspian sea, while still making time for him to skulk around in Gotham.

Today he's at a charity gala run by the Winstons at the Gotham Grand, and he's got a nice-not-too-nice suit on, a millionaire minnow a sea of billionaire barracudas, shoes a tad too shiny, shirt just couture instead of hand-tailored with cloth hand-made just for him. He's Brody Thompson like this, a new-money tech-bro who's past his prime but still trying awfully hard to be part of the Upper Crust. It's a useful personality because he's got an air of desperation to him that makes the particularly exploitative types sit up and pay attention because they think they smell blood in the water

Case in point? Lewis' here blabbing his stupid little heart out about a spot of insider trading that he's doing that he's keen to get others on, all for the low low cost of a tiny little cut. Bruce oohs and aahs and hmms in all the right places, gives off the strong impression of a man barely holding himself back from salivating, but it's only got half his mind on it.

The other half is fully focused on Ms. Lambert over yonder in her sizzly sparkling green dress, and if the ballroom's filled with mid-sized predators it's easy enough to tell she's a killer whale, hired and on the prowl under a name just as fake as his. First impressions might be Expensive Escort or Not-So-Hidden Mistress, which is clearly intentional with a dress that low-cut, but if you're in the know, it's pretty obvious she's out for murder (literal).

But whose, you know? He'd heard that someone'd brought in hired muscle, heard that the target's a big heavy, which is why he's here but her aim's still unclear.

He excuses himself from where Lewis is doing his level best to coerce him into signing away his life's savings, ostensibly to call his secretary, and heads out to the outdoor patio to do a quick check-in. Dick's got the cowl tonight, wonderfully obliging as ever as they cement the distinct separation between the Bat, the Bruce, and the Blank cover, and isn't too far away in case Lambert pops off.

Bruce is glancing around to check for privacy when he spots a man getting real lusty with a woman, tucked not very well behind the swung-open French doors. Her skirt's high enough to give a hell of a view, and places like these there are always cameras, so he fumbles and tumbles around, makes enough of a ruckus that the couple disengage hastily.

The woman rights herself in a moment and has furtively disappeared back indoors in under ten seconds, trail of a blush behind her, but the man that's left behind is hard in his slacks and blotched-red in anger.

"Who do you think you are, interrupting us?" he shouts angrily. "Don't you know who I am?"

"I don't," Bruce says with some genuine surprise, on account of him knowing most people in this income bracket. "Excuse me, I'm not from around here. I'm Brody Thompson, entrepeneur, founder of Digi LockTight Sec. You are?"

Cover stories are real easy to keep in these circumstances, because no single damn body in this ballroom would be the type to Google and check. This man's no difference, though he is different in the sense of he tries to pull the exact same con on Bruce, except-

"I'm Bruce Wayne!" the man hollers in the fullness of vowels of not a native-born Gotham son, and Bruce has got to hand it to, uhm, bruce, but he's really, genuinely managed to startle Bruce, which is a rare occurrence indeed.

"I'm sorry?"

"You should be!" bruce hoots and hollers. "I'm the Prince of this goddamn city!"

Bruce can't help the wince; it's one thing to be assigned the title, embarrassing as it is, but to use it to refer to yourself? Your fake self?

Geeze.

"Of course, of course, Mr. Wayne," Bruce says deferentially, looking over the man quickly. Quite tall and quite broad, though not quite so tall nor quite so broad as Bruce himself is. Dark hair, blue eyes, square jawed, but the nose looks nothing like his mother's (his own), and the eyebrows are over-thinned (a mistake he avoids as the consequence in terms of teasing by children is unbearable).

In dim lighting through a misty film of fine champagne, there's a passing resemblance, but it's a mystery how the man is managing to hoodwink several dozen people who've attended several dozen galas with Bruce. He'll have to look into this; security of such high-profile events should not be this lax.

bruce appears to be awaiting more kow-towing, but it's really all Bruce can do to not just turn around and leave. One of the kids wearing the cowl's one thing, because in many ways the Bat's his own creature. Seeing someone wear his skin? Badly? It offends him both for the terrible performance (the accent is unacceptable) and for the distant squirmy sense of violation.

"I'll leave you to it," Bruce says, eager to make his escape, but-

"Mr. Wayne?"

It's bare blinding luck he doesn't answer when Ms. Lambert comes swanning out, sounding both curious and pre-emptively seductive. bruce, of course, instantly forgets his ire in the face of this wildly beautiful woman, and Bruce finds himself deeply embarrassed.

The embarrassment lasts maybe 2.5 seconds, enough for Ms. Lambert to close in, and in a perfect world he really could've just extricated himself from this situation, hack the security cameras for a feed to show the family bruce, and that would be that.

Instead, it occurs to him that he is Bruce Wayne, and if Ms. Lambert doesn't recognise him, then it means that she's looking for him without knowing him, which means that she's got a reason to come for him that's not known to him. Surely she would've been given a dossier with his face, but diversity, equity, and inclusion is becoming a necessity in all fields; who is he to stand in the way of hired killers hiring face-blind women?

All of this goes through his head pretty quick, but he's 2.5 seconds too late because Ms. Lambert's an efficient type of gal, and before he can disarm her the knife's out and heading for bruce's throat, god, right in the neck so his airway'll be too split to shout, geeze.

Unarmoured and out of options, Bruce spares a moment to sigh before intercepting, stumbling dramatically so the knife digs into his shoulder instead, and as he yells in 'pain' he topples forwards, taking Ms. Lambert down with him, adjusting his weight just right so she's blocked from view and he can Vulcan pinch her unconscious as they hit the ground.

He's now yelling and and bleeding profusely on an unconscious lady, Alfred's in his ear because the pitch of his scream had triggered the auto-ping on his comm, people are starting to gather, and bruce is trying to get away.

Yep, no, no all Bbruces are in this together. Bruce rolls over onto his back, careful not to dislodge the knife, and starts crying because he's quite frankly sick of Brody anyways. With a bloodied hand he tugs on the hem of bruce's nice pants (where on Earth did he get them from) and throws out his voice so everyone rushing towards them can hear him.

"Mr. Wayne, Mr. Wayne! Please call 911!"

"The hell you mean, Wayne." Ah, that's Col. Lionel Ridgey, an old-timey war medic who was a widower before marrying Andrea Ridgey, a delightful older woman who's the heiress to, ah, two airlines, and is rich only by upset proximity. Bruce quite likes him, with his stiff bristly moustache and a tendency to look abjectly miserable whenever he's more than 10 feet away from his wife.

The colonel's there and assessing his wound in a second, kneeling in Bruce's blood despite his very nice pants, and his hands are securing the knife to ensure there's no wibbly-wobbly but he's got a gimlet-eyed stare on bruce. "Look here, why's this man stabbed on the ground, this woman is unconscious, and you're being called Mr. Wayne, huh?"

"He's in shock, I literally don't know what he's talking about, my name's John," bruce says, trying to dislodge Bruce's hand by his ankle but unfortunately for him Bruce has the grip strength of a silverback.

"I couldn't tell either," Bruce says in the breathy slurry tones of someone going into shock from blood loss (he hasn't even lost that much blood). "But he intro-, introdu'd hisself. It's Brrruce Wayne, Prrrrince of Gotham!"

Bruce also keeps grudges the likes of which a gorilla could only aspire too.

The colonel doesn't take this with any sort of grace. "The hell you are? Marty, Marty?" Lionel's son from his first marriage, a gentle-faced accountant who's doted upon heavily by his parents and who's built like a shit brickhouse on account of getting into weighlifting courtesy of his boyfriend, is also a Wayne enterprise employee. Bruce had found himself chatting with Marty over mini-sandwiches at a onboarding event just two weeks ago, and the furrowed brows on the usually Buddha-like calm of Marty's gentle face is more alarming, for sure, than the blood loss.

Marty doesn't need to wait for instruction, and has already apprehended bruce. "I work for Mr. Wayne," he says with uncommon venom, "and you aren't him. If you did anything to him...."

It's a wonder bruce hasn't rendered himself unconscious through sheer force of will along, given that now there's a good number of people who've had their booze goggles burned out by the drama to go yeah, what, no, that sure isn't Brucie.

"He's fine, he's fine!" bruce says in a panic. "He's in, uh, he's in one of the -stan countries! I just got one of his suits at the dry-cleaners, there was the invitation to this in his pocket, I just wanted to be Gotham's beloved son for o-o-one night," he says, fully Bawling by this point.

Then there's a thunk and a slice of shadow, and the assembled crowd gasps dramatically.

Bruce has to try real hard not to click his tongue; the cape had backed him across the side of his head.

"What's this about Gotham's beloved son?" Dick growls, but even under the voice distorter anyone who knows him can tell he's got a grin on.

"Took you long enough," Andrea says, manifested somehow by Marty's side like she was summoned by Lionel's ardent affection, shrugging her cardigan that Lionel balls up to support Bruce's head. "Someone tried to stab someone, and someone's impersonating Brucie. You should probably handle the stabber first."

Ah, there's a reason why he likes the Ridgeys so much.

"Hrmm," Dick says as the Bat, before he's kneeling down to secure Ms. Lambert's hands behind her back, checking of other weapons before leaning her against the wall. Next he comes back to Bruce, shooing Lionel away so he gets enough space to get his hand on Bruce's arm so's he can tap a little morse. o k

Bruce blinks a long, slow blink. He's good, the knife's in the muscle and not that deeply in, and there's no poison or he'd really have felt it. "Oh, oh my god, is the Bat Man!" he says with a little trill in his voice.

It's satisfying to see Dick fight for his life not to burst into laughter.

"Stay calm, help is on the way," Dick growls out. "This guy the one pretending he's Mr. Wayne?"

By this point, bruce's eyes are rolling to the back of his head, and he might well start foaming in the mouth. Bruce, meanwhile, is also having a bit of a Moment as he digests how he is, technically, here in triplicate.

There's a cacophony going on as everyone's keen to impress Batman with their excellent observations and sharp detectiving skills, even though not a single blessed person had noticed a false-Wayne cavorting in the hall this entire time.

In the shouting din, he feels himself getting a little antsy and light-headed, too much noise and focus and attention, too much blood making his shirt stick to his blood, Lionel and his cool steady hands touching too much. He discreetly touches his hand to a panel on the suit that's rigged with bio-feedback, taps out want 2 leav pls and sees the message hit with a bigger blow than a false bruce.

Bruce, afterall, is very rarely a pleasing kind of man, but he's not supposed to be here, and with the presence of bruce and the Bat, it feels okay to not be any of those heavy heavy things, and just be him instead, an older man having a pretty terrible night who just wants to take a hot bath and pass out in a soft bed into the quiet night.

Weird. It's like being the third wheel of a bicycle; he's not needed, so he wants to cease to exist in some genteel type of way. He also, less gently, wants to rip his face off so's Lionel will chortle at him an inexplicably try to give a 42-year-old father-of-many a hard caramel candy. He also wants the cowl, because if he had it on Dick wouldn't be able to read his face right now.

Urgh. What a mess, and for once Bruce isn't in any type of position to do anything about it, so he'll just do what bruce should've done.

"I'm going to faint now," he tells all assembled quite calmly, then tilts his head to one side to get comfortable, and passes out.

When he wakes up he's wrapped up, clean and washed and warm in the nice bed he eventually got nagged into installing in the Cave instead of the utilitarian cot he's been sleeping in for most of 2 decades.

There's a twinge in the shoulder, but he's filled with the floaty haziness of real good pain meds. Ah, Alfred's loving touch. He slowly moves fingers then toes then ankles then wrists, and in all this warmth-soaked testing he somehow misses Dick by his bedside, grinning down at him.

"Feeling back to yourself?" Dick asks, grin wicked.

"As much myself as I ever do," Bruce says, someone who's both got much more and much less to him than the average person. "It was a pretty strange situation."

"Watching some rando play you while you played some rando while I played you is pretty high on my list of weird nights out, and I've had some doozies." Dick's smiling now, squinty-eyed and sweet, and this feels Correct because this was a face made to be loved bare. "I got you out of there like, maybe 15 minutes after you passed out, but it was a struggle. Colonel Sanders' looking guy was kind of real intense about interrogating fake you, because apparently he tried phoning you-you and when you didn't answer he got convinced you'd been kidnapped, but when fake you followed your lead and passed out, he then got real intense about getting into the ambulance with you. Lucky Tim had a spare sec and called him back with a voice modulator of you, or it was gonna get real hairy."

Marty's wedding is next year, and Bruce tries to ponder a gift good enough to give them, god. "They're good people. Did the issue with the impersonator get resolved?"

Dick nods. "Yeah, he's a new hire at one of the industrial dry cleaning plants, and apparently some of your stuff gets sent there even though they absolutely shouldn't. He found the invite in your ticket, and he dreamed big. No harm, no foul?"

Under normal circumstances, yeah, but... "When I found him, he was making out with a woman. I just got my identity lightly stolen, but he was feeling her up under false pretenses. Need to check how she feels about it, and if he's done it before."

The reality of the unfortunate moment makes Dick frown. "Shit, I didn't realise that'd happened. I'll look into it, you just take it easy." He gets up, dressed in Nightwing's black-and-blue, and Dick doesn't have the thing that Bruce has that makes him feel like 3 separate people. Dick's just always wholly, fully himself, and Bruce loves him so much and hates him for it. "Try to get some sleep, B."

"The assassin?"

That makes Dick chuff a laugh. "A new hire for an up-and-coming assassin atelier. She got pretty chatty after the cops got her, apparently a couple of dudebros tried bringing a, uh, start-up vibe to the hired killer game, and she was the diversity hire because she's the first woman they've onboarded. Unsurprisingly, they're not super nice about it, and also there's somehow already a gender pay gap for a gang that's been around 3 months and killed, by my count, 1.5 people total? So she requested witness protection in exchange for information." Dick's full on laughing now. "Apparently they have an app. They got someone to make it and apparently the developer tried to warn the app stores. Been a while since we had villains so damn funny, no offense to Harley and them."

Even Bruce can't keep a dour face at that. "Entrepeneur behaviour. I'm glad it got resolved with minimal casualty."

"Wouldn't say a 3 inches in your shoulder as minimal, though."

Bruce just snorts. "There were, by some definitions, 3 of me on that patio tonight, and the only on that got hurt was me, which is the best case scenario. Will be hard to hide this for the next topless shoot at the beach, but otherwise I'm fine."

Dick looks at him with the heavy sad knowledge of someone that heard want 2 leav pls, urgh. "The best case scenario is no type of Bruce gets any type of hurt, B. Use your big brain to internalise that one of these days, okay?"

In faux irritation Bruce taps out leav pls on Dick's hand, and he gets lightly smacked for his trouble.

"Okay, okay, gonna leave you to recover in peace. I know you always need space to come back to yourself, so this is a good time to let you know Alfred said he will shave you bald if you try to Zeta back to Aktau before you've had at least 12 hours of rest. Got it?"

"Think it'll take me longer than that to get me anything approaching normal," Bruce grumbles half-heartedly, hand instinctively going to his admittedly wonderfully thick hair.

"Don't need you normal," Dick says, sliding his domino on. "Need you feeling better as you, and 12 hours is plenty for that. If you need longer, though, I'm pretty sure Alfred'll be delighted to keep you grounded for the rest of your natural life?"

Bruce throws a pillow at Dick's laughing face. "Go already!"

"Sir yes sir," Dick replies with a crisp salute. "And..." he pauses, the giveaway that he's about to be unbearably sentimental, urgh. "I know I haven't been around in a little while, and you just had a real weird night, so I just want to say.... good to have you back, however you wanna take that, Bruce. See you at breakfast!"

And with that Dick is gone, is Bruce is left with all that he is, fitting badly together like a bag of blood and bones held together with stitches and aluminium.

His shoulder aches, but he's clean and warm and cared for. Easier, now, to remember that even when he's a fractional man (1/3, 3/1, etc. et. al) he's well looked after by, ah, family and friends both.

Bruce gets comfortable in his comfortable bed, and takes his own advice.

In some type of peace, he passes out.

#brucewayneweek #bruce wayne #dick grayson #whale writing #girl help why did this get so long.....#also i had a horrific morning so i hope you're doing better than me god Damn peace and love on planet earth

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the-rewatch-rewind · 1 year

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New episode! Script below the break

Hello and welcome back to the Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most rewatched movies. My name is Jane, and today I will be talking about #35 on my list: Miramax, Producer’s Circle, and Storyline Entertainment’s 2002 crime musical Chicago, directed by Rob Marshall, written by Bill Condon – from the stage musical book by Bob Fosse and Fred Ebb, which was based on a play by Maurine Dallas Watkins – and starring Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Richard Gere.

Set in the Roaring 1920s, Chicago tells the story of wannabe star Roxie Hart (Renée Zellweger), who shoots and kills her lover Fred Casely (Dominic West) when she finds out he has lied to her about his show business connections. In jail, Roxie encounters the famous Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), who “allegedly” murdered her husband and sister when she found them having an affair. Both plan to be represented by lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), whose strategy involves turning criminals into celebrities so they’ll be acquitted, which leads Roxie and Velma to compete for the spotlight.

I think this was either the first or second PG-13 movie I ever saw. My mom took me to see it in a theater in early 2003, a couple of months before I turned 13, which was kind of surprising because my parents were pretty strict about what I was allowed to see. I don’t actually remember why she agreed to take me to see it. What I do recall is that one of my best friends at the time was obsessed with this movie, so I’d already listened to the soundtrack multiple times at her house, although we mostly just listened to Cell Block Tango on repeat, so I thought the movie was going to be about those 6 murderers, and was surprised to learn that five of them are barely in the rest of it. I remember really liking the song, and also feeling slightly rebellious listening to it because it had the word “ass” in it (although we usually quickly turned the volume on the CD player way down at that part – we weren’t that rebellious). The movie was a lot more raunchy than I was used to, which made me a bit uncomfortable, but overall I liked it. There were several things about it that fascinated me, so I kept returning to it. I ended up seeing it twice in 2003, twice in 2004, three times in 2005, once in 2006, twice in 2009, once in 2011, once in 2014, once in 2018, once in 2021, and once in 2022. If I recall correctly, we had it on VHS, but then our VCR broke with the tape inside, so we didn’t have it for a while, and then we bought a DVD copy later, so I think that explains the gap between 2006 and 2009, but I could be mis-remembering.

I’ve never seen the stage musical, but I absolutely love the way the movie handles the songs. Apart from a few actual performances, the musical numbers mainly exist in Roxie’s imagination. She wants to be on the stage so badly that she turns everything that happens to her into a production. The editing between drab reality and glamorous fiction is so well done and makes for a fascinating watch. I’m sure the stage version is great – I mean, the revival has been on Broadway since 1996, making it the second longest-running Broadway show of all time – but I know that practically, a stage show could not switch back and forth that quickly. Often when plays are adapted to the screen, the movie still feels a lot like a stage show, just with closeups and maybe a few extra locations. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I love it when the screen adaptation adds things that couldn’t be done live, and Chicago is one of my favorite examples of that. The way the Cell Block Tango keeps switching between jail life and intense dancing; the way the press conference turns into a marionette show and back again in We Both Reached for the Gun; the way Billy’s dance moves in All I Care About Is Love flawlessly transition into his actual actions as he proves the song completely wrong – all of these and more are amazing and could only be done on screen. So if I had to point to one single reason why I keep rewatching this movie, it’s definitely the editing of the musical numbers.

A close second is the performances. Big movie musicals have a strange tendency to feature famous movie stars who can’t actually sing very well. Back in the day, they got around this by dubbing the singing…and then often not giving the actual singers credit, although the truth usually came out eventually – I see you Marni Nixon! More recently, they just, kind of…let the actors sing badly. But in the early 2000s there was a brief period when Hollywood made musicals featuring stars who weren’t necessarily particularly known for singing but still could actually sing, and thank goodness that happened here. The singing is excellent, the dancing is awesome, and the acting is phenomenal. Four of the actors: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Queen Latifah – who plays “Mama” Morton, the matron of the jail – and John C. Reilly – who plays Roxie’s simple, devoted husband, Amos – were nominated for Oscars. Only Zeta-Jones won, and I mean, I think they all did a fabulous job, but if only one could win, it would have been wrong if it wasn’t her. She perfectly conveys Velma’s strength and confidence with just the right hints of vulnerability to truly make the character work. But that’s not to say that other performances weren’t deserving of recognition as well. Renée Zellweger does an awesome job of differentiating between the real Roxie fumbling around trying to figure out how to handle reality and the confident performer she is in her imagination. And while I normally don’t like movies about people who hate each other, Zeta-Jones and Zellweger make Velma and Roxie’s fighting fun to watch. Similarly, Billy Flynn is a fairly despicable character, but Richard Gere is also very fun to watch. Queen Latifah nails Mama Morton’s corruption while still keeping her likeable. John C. Reilly’s Amos is exactly as pitiful as he should be. And the rest of the supporting cast is incredible as well – shout out to Taye Diggs as the Bandleader, all the ridiculously talented dancers, and of course the always fabulous Christine Baranski, who is an absolute delight as Mary Sunshine the reporter. Truly an excellent cast, and, appropriately for a movie about murder, they all killed it.

Chicago was nominated for a total of 13 Oscars, winning six. In addition to Catherine Zeta-Jones’s supporting actress win, it also won Best Picture, Editing, Art Direction, Costume Design, and Sound. I’m especially glad the editing was recognized, and the art direction, costume design, and sound work together with the editing to create that reality vs imagination effect, so I also think those were award-worthy. And my 2011 viewing of this movie was part of my watch-through of all the Best Picture winners. Around that time I recall stumbling upon a list that someone had made of the most undeserving Best Picture wins, and I can’t even remember if it was from some sort of official film critic publication or if it was just some random person on the internet, but it put Chicago at #1, which irritated me so much that I’m still annoyed about it 12 years later. I mean, it is probably true that, like many Miramax films from that era, Chicago won more Oscars than it would have without the campaigning of executive producer and now convicted criminal Harvey Weinstein, which is upsetting. But there are some Best Picture Winners that I found to be barely watchable, and I cannot believe that they deserved the Oscar more than this engrossing, well-told story. So to whoever made that list: you’re wrong.

If you’ve listened to my previous episodes, you may have noticed that when I talk about being aroace, I tend to focus more on the aromantic side of that than the asexual side. That’s mostly because romantic content – at least, straight romantic content – is considered appropriate for all audiences while sexual content is not, so romance is a lot harder to avoid. In general, if you stick to movies made during the Hays Code era from the mid-1930s through the mid-1960s, and movies made after that which are rated G or PG, there might be some innuendo or implied sexual behavior taking place offscreen, but there’s not going to be any actual sexual content, whereas there probably will be romantic content. And since sex and romance are often related, movies that have sexual content are almost certain to also have romantic content. Chicago is rather unusual in that it has sex but very little romance. Roxie uses sex to get what she wants – or at least, she tries to, it doesn’t really work out most of the time – but we never really see her, or any other character, falling in love. Most of the musical numbers feature rather provocative dances in revealing costumes, which isn’t exactly explicit sexual content, but I think could be described as “sexy.” One of the ways I figured out I was asexual was by realizing that I don’t quite understand what words like “provocative” or “sexy” really mean. Like, I kind of get what fits those descriptions, but do people actually see someone of a gender they’re attracted to scantily clad and dancing in a certain way and actually want to sleep with them because of it? Is that a thing? Before I understood that I was asexual, I kind of thought everyone was just going along with the idea of what made someone “hot” or “attractive,” and I still find it hard to wrap my head around the concept of actually feeling that attraction. So I guess the dances in Chicago are meant to turn people on, but ultimately they’re just performers doing their routine. And the main sex scene in the movie, when Roxie hooks up with Fred for the first time, is intercut with Velma’s performance of And All That Jazz right after she killed her husband and sister. Roxie is only sleeping with Fred because she thinks he can help her get into show business, which he lied about to get her into bed, so they’re both putting on an act, just like Velma is – both onstage and in her real life by pretending she hasn’t just committed a double homicide. The whole movie is about obscuring the truth with facades and performances, and the sex is very much a part of that. So as an asexual person, I find Chicago to be one of the least confusing movies that contain sexual content, because the sex and sexiness is intentionally contrived. Since I don’t experience it myself, to a certain extent, sexual attraction has always seemed fake to me. In this movie, it’s supposed to seem fake. In short, a probably unintended side effect of the themes of this movie is that Chicago portrays sex as performative in a way that is consistent with my asexual brain’s inability to comprehend sexual attraction, so that might explain why I enjoy it more than most movies that contain sexual content.

One last aspect of this movie I want to highlight is that it points out some of the glaring flaws in the US legal system. I know it’s specifically about 1920s Chicago, which was notoriously corrupt, but anyone who thinks that justice is blind anywhere in 2020s America must be living under a rock. Chicago straight up says, “It doesn’t matter if you’re guilty or innocent, it matters how much money you have, what you look like, and how the public perceives you.” Admittedly it doesn’t really address the problem of racism, but the only prisoner who seems to be innocent is a Hungarian immigrant who speaks very little English, and she’s the only one we know of who gets executed. It’s both a compelling argument for abolishing the death penalty – far too many innocent people are killed by the state – and a demonstration of why it’s not being abolished – the wrongfully executed tend to be people our society deems “less than.” This message kind of gets buried by the main story, and I feel like it’s easier to miss than it should be, but I appreciate that it’s there. And while it’s painful and upsetting to see that very little has changed in 100 years, in a way this movie can now serve as a reminder that at least occasionally, powerful and famous people who commit heinous crimes do get convicted and sent to prison.

Well, this episode got a little spicy. Thank you so much for listening. Subscribe or follow for more analysis of my most re-watched movies, and leave a rating or review to let me know how you’ve been enjoying it so far. The next episode will be about the final and longest movie I watched 15 times in 20 years, which is another Best Picture Winning musical. By the way, if you like musicals and learning about them, I highly recommend supporting Ashley Clements’s Patreon at the $15 level for episodes of her Patreon-exclusive show Broadway: Before & Beyond. This is not a sponsorship or anything, just a genuine recommendation. Every month, she posts an episode focusing on a specific era or year or particularly impactful show, and I’ve been learning so much about the history of musical theater. There’s also a monthly watch party related to that month’s episode, and my 2022 viewing of Chicago was one of those, so Ashley is partly to thank for this movie making it into my top 40. Anyway, my next episode will feature The Rewatch Rewind’s first ever guest appearance, and the guest is not Ashley Clements, but the guest is a fellow Ashley Clements patron. So stay tuned for that next week, and as always I will leave you with a quote from the next movie: “The poor didn’t want this one.”

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secondgenerationnerd · 1 year

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Hi i just wanna say i love your next gen titans au. And your whole page in general i was wondering if you could do a smal fic on the reactions of some characters finding out irey and jai are twins (cause they dont look/act alike) but only if you have time/want to do it

D’aw, thank you, my love! Honestly Jai and Irey make the most fun about their genetics 😂😂

I’ll do Omega’s first meet up (so they’re all 11-13)

—————

Milagro hadn’t said a word since they left El Paso. The Zeta tubes scared her, he knows it, but she’s too proud to say anything else. Khaji offered to sedate her, which Jaime quickly vetoed. The beetle still informs his host of each spike of her heart rate.

“Hey, Mocosa,” Jaime squeezes his sister’s hand, “¿Estás bien?”

Milagro nods, but her grip doesn’t loosen. When the elevator doors open, Jaime pulls her to the side. She can’t meet his eyes, even when he kneels down. Her big brother tilts her head up.

“Milagro, digas me.”

“…I’m scared, Jaime…” It’s not the first time she’s said that. Not even the first time today, but her voice hasn’t shaken like that, “What if they don’t like me?”

A small smile plays on his face, “You remember my friend, Bart, right? Redhead that talks too much?”

“Yeah, why?” Milagro sniffles.

“He’s been talking about you to his cousins, Jai and Irey. They’re really excited to meet you.” Jaime lowers his voice, “And if anyone is mean to you, I’ll let Khaji vaporize them.”

The beetle embedded in his spine clicks in agreement. That makes her smile, eases some of the worry from her face, “Thanks, Khaji…y Burro Azul…”

“Just doing my Big Brother duties, Mocosa Verde.” Jaime stands and takes her hand again. Together, they walk into the chaotic living room.

Two dark haired kids—a boy with glasses and a girl in purple overalls— fly through the air. A sour-faced boy argues with Tim, she remembers Tim, about…supervision? On the couch, two Asian kids, another boy and girl, play a videogame, bickering on the best way to beat a level. Milagro notices a nervous redheaded boy, sitting apart from the others. Unlike the others, with their familiarity to one another, he looks how she feels.

“Jaime!” A bubbly redhead races across the room, lighting following her. Her arms wrap around the older boy’s waist.

“Hey, Irey.” He hugs her, “Bart around?”

“No, him, Kon, and Cassie had to run an errand.” She shrugs, “Damian’s being a butthead—“

“I heard that, West!” The boy arguing with Tim scowls in their direction.

“You were supposed to!” Irey makes a face at him, then looks at the last member to their team. That sunshine smile returns in an instant, holding her hand out, “You must be Milagro! Irey West, newest Impulse!”

Definitely related to Bart. Her words run together, each fighting to get out of her mouth first. She has the same smile Bart does, like pure sunshine. Milagro smiles back.

“Nice to meet you, Irey.” It’s odd to shake hands with someone her own age, but Irey acts like it’s second nature. Milagro nods at the lone boy in the corner, “That’s your brother, Jai, right? You’re twins?”

“Huh?” Irey looks behind her. “Oh! That’s Colin Wilkes, not my dumb brother. Jai-Jai! Li! Come say hi to Milagro!”

The Asian boy on the couch glances over his shoulder. A loud crack and more lightning, then he’s in front of her too. His hand stuck out in greeting, “Jai West, Velocity.”

These are the twins? Jaime had told her they were fraternal, but they don’t even look alike. At least…not at first. The longer she looks at them, the more details pop out. They share the same nose and jaw shape. Bits of gold shine in their eyes—hers brilliant green, his the lightest brown she’d seen. Freckles stand out on Irey’s pale skin, but Jai has some splashed across his tanned cheeks. Even without those details, Jai has the same energy as Irey—not nervous, exactly. More like…anticipation. Like a storm waiting to break.

Jai grins like a mad scientist, “Ah, Sissy, she’s having the—“

“‘Are they really twins?’ Face. I see it, Brother. That makes—“

“30 total this year, but she’s the 4th kid—“

“13.3 percent of the total new people—“

“Less than 3.62 percent in total—“

“She figured it out quicker—“

“I saw it in—“

“Wrinkle between eyebrows. Just like Jaime’s—“

“Bart likes that—“

Jaime blinks at that, “Wait, what?”

The two dart off before they answer him. Milagro’s head spins. The twins’ back and forth caught her off guard. Sure, she knew half their family were actual geniuses, but it never crossed her mind they would be too. She didn’t even register Colin walking over until he speaks.

“If it helps, they’re the most normal here.”

“They are?” She stares at him in disbelief.

“We wouldn’t be here if we were normal.” Colin gestures around, “Damian and Mar’i are Bats, so they think thirty moves ahead. Jon’s a Super, but he’s really cool. Lian’s an Arrow, she will throw something and it will hit.”

“What about you? Who’s your family?”

He shifts his weight, “Great question. Asked the nuns that once but so did the others.”

“Wilkes, Reyes!” Damian snaps, “Training room in 20 minutes!”

“…Of course, Mocoso. Whatever you say.” Milagro offers a sweet smile, voice dripping with sarcasm. Hiding a grin, Jaime kisses the top of her head.

Irey jumps over the side table, more like a blur, “Race you!”

“Iris Anne West, you’re a cheater!” Jai follows on her heels. Milagro doesn’t catch what the redhead said, but she could have sworn she heard ‘Bartholomew’.

“Oye,” Jaime nudges her, “¿Estás bien?”

This time his question gets a true smile from her. Yeah, she’s got this.

#irey west #jai west #milagro reyes #jaime reyes #dc siblings #dc comics #impulse #velocity #green lantern #blue beetle #jai park west #irey park west #khaji da

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justkeeponsimming · 2 years

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Zeta: “Ugh! Plumbobs! You’re kidding me! Not again!”

Esme looks over at her wife, Zeta, a frown crosses her face. She’s on the phone with her sister, Mila, catching up after not seeing her for a while. Even Mila hears Zeta’s loud curse, asking her sister if everything is alright. Reed, meanwhile, keeps her head down and focuses on her homework.

Esme: “I’ll call you back, Mila. Everything is fine. No problem.”

After hanging up, Esme sees that Zeta has calmed down now. Her wife rubs her temples, looking at her family apologetically.

Zeta: “Sorry, this is the second time it’s broken this morning. I swear someone has pranked the laptop.”

Reed looks over at her mother, Esme, as they both have the same thought. Could Jazz be pranking objects? Reed’s big sister is going through another rebellious phase.

Esme: “You need a break, Zee. Isn’t it the Foxbury campus having a spirit fair today?”

Zeta: “I can’t, my dear. I need to work on my term paper.”

Esme: “You could go to the library on campus and use a computer there? I’m sure that Cara would love to see the campus too. Plus, a laptop is easier to fix without you sitting and glaring at it.”

Zeta sighs as Reed giggles. Pushing back her chair, Zeta admits defeat and goes to find her eldest daughter, Cara, to see if she wants to come to Foxbury University with her.

#the sims 4 #ts4 #sims #simblr #sims 4 #differences in the family tree #ditft #quick legacy gen 6 #esme quick #legacy challenge

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simpingwriter · 1 year

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Cal Kestis x Kyra Yarmot

'Revenge and Redemption:

In the Name of Love'

Pt.4

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Found a better, more...planned way to prepare for the chapters. Didn't make me write and Post any quicker, did it now? But I didn't make it easy for the second book anyways, dumping two fresh games (plus an unfinished one) and two new characters into the crack pot, in less than three weeks. That I haven't lost it totally yet is surprising, really.

Enjoy! :)

Word Count: approx. 3.006 Words

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Your feet hit the ground hard as you barely slipped from their grasp – a squirming Grogu held tightly in your arms – and out of the burning ship through the broken cockpit window, not able to waste another second to say your heartfelt goodbyes to all the people that tried to keep you safe. Your only family.

Tears stung in your eyes and obscured your vision you ran as fast as your could feet could carry you, feeling your shoes – something that Zeta planned to replace tomorrow, when life was still alright – fall apart at the rough rubble of this rock desert. Soon their soles were ripped too much to be of practical use and instead began to slow you down, using your recently sharpened and polished claws to rip them clear off and flinging them in some ravine, but not without blasting them with enough of your fire to turn them into charcoal. Leave no trails.

'As a survivor you need to hide your tracks wherever you go if you ever have to hide' were Zeta's words once, his voice now haunting you, his shouts for you to run. To save yourself and the little one…

They all bought you time, they all saved your life one very last time.

Grogu kept looking behind the both of you over your shoulder and whether it was him making sure you weren't followed or the much more realistic, depressing reality, that he was looking where Din was, wondering…wondering what took him so long.

Din was basically like the Kid's Dad by now, hell, he was like yours too now, sharing that spot with Zeta. He had taught you so many things during Bounties, tricks the Clones never even heard about…

But Grogu, he saw him as even the bigger hero, to Grogu, Din was unbeatable.

Thankfully he was still sound asleep in his floating crib when you grabbed him out of it, he didn't have to witness what Din did to save you two, not even him able to hold back his screams of agony at the end. But it would also make explaining to the Kid where his dad went and why he didn't come back harder. You don't know if you had the strength to tell him, partially not wanting to believe what you saw yourself.

The explosion in the background, far too distant to see now but more than loud enough to hear the full capacity of it…it was your former ship, you knew that immediately. They tried to get rid of all their tracks, of...of the bodies.

It was when you heard two other ships getting closer to your area that you went back to reality. You're the two last survivors of this, they are coming for you, two of the possibly last Jedi in the whole galaxy…you couldn't kark up now, you needed to survive today!

No matter what came tomorrow, or the days after!

Their deaths cannot EVER be in vain!

You feel yourself waking up from your surprisingly good sleep, no memories of potential nightmares as you feel more rested than ever. Is this what a good morning feels like?

Just as you're about to pull your arm towards you to rub the annoying sleep crust from your eyes, you feel your palm impact with something slightly soft, someone cursing under you, "Owww…! Did you just slap me?" The person whines equally tired as you…under you?

Fighting the blur of your still sleepy eyes and the sleep stuck to them, you look at the familiar face of Cal. Shit, you just slapped him awake…but why are you here-

Wait, you remember now…the events of yesterday hit you like a slap itself, the way he crawled under the covers with you and you both spent the rest of the day watching weird Documentaries on the HoloNet as is wasn't evening yet exactly but he also wasn't needed for a mission yet. That and other activities during the Documentaries...

"I'm so sorry, Babe…" you mutter, ignoring the funny look he gave you for the sudden new pet name – never having heard you using one for him before – kissing the side of his face apologetically, Cal stretching his own arms now and rewrapping them around your naked form. This was everything he had ever waited for and you clearly as well. Thankfully you both had already seen each other naked on Tatooine before, so when you both undressed yesterday, it ended up being less awkward. Not entirely without some red and purple faces, but it could've been much worse.

He couldn't believe his eyes when he once again got to see your body, your scales not just growing wherever they could and wanted, but instead with intricate and planned out patterns, looking like waves of void black and their golden, shiny edges giving you the look of an incredibly expensive piece of art.

You were his treasure, he would never let you go, not again.

"How did you sleep, Dragonfly?" He yawns, gently feeling and petting the healthy wing, growing a grin when your chest produces something akin to a purr but more deep. How could a girl with such a melodic voice as yours produce such tones? There were still so many mysteries left around your kind, the Kaluk. At this point, these hidden research papers intrigued him as well and maybe you'll both get to look at them soon enough.

"Better than ever. My last bed as good as this one…was on Coruscant." So at the Jedi Temple, he noted. He was still surprised how you both not once met, well at least until he and Tapal got stationed over Bracca...and all that shit happened.

But that you two not even once crossed paths? And he was very certain that he hasn't met you as a Youngling or Padawan, you're looking not exactly very forgettable with your horns and all.

"Because my Master tried keeping me away from any more potential rejection, after an accident. Most of my time as a Youngling, he trained me somewhere else than at the Temple to avoid my peers…"

While through that way you never found out if really all other Padawans would've treated you differently for looking different, you also learned so much more about everything around you than most Padawans your age. So Galactic Geographics Class and History of certain Planets was easy as pie to you.

"That's actually horrible, I…I would've loved to meet you back then! We could've been friends, you could've shown younger me to be more confident and everything!" But if you meeting each other was really caused by the Force itself, that you two are meant for each other…if you would've met that early, your potentially building connection would've been seen as an attachment…they would have separated you two as soon as they noticed a change in his or your behavior when around each other. And from what you learned about yourself, such an event would've made you lose the balance Tegra tried to teach you.

It was already difficult to hide all affection that went above friendship when you had been on the Mantis…but in THE Jedi Temple, where the council and a whole number of other strong Jedi lived?

"You got a good point there I guess…doesn't change my opinion though, I would've wanted to be your friend and to meet your own Clones…ones that don't attack you on sight because of someone's command." Right, his Clone Commander and his subordinates weren't as lucky and smart to remove their chips, Cal had a much different memory of his Clones. His tried to kill him, not to keep him safe…

But he was obvious about not wanting to divulge in what they did today, his thoughts more interested in yours, what they were like after they got their command transferred to a little goblin like you. Wait, pause, did he really just call younger you a goblin in his head? "Well, I think you would totally have been pocket sized, if you're still that short tod- OW!" He immediately shuts up when you repeatedly hit on the shoulder with a grimace, it was about just as childish as younger you would've been. So there he had his taste for what could've been. "Don't ever call me pocket sized again…or…or I'll find an even more embarrassing pet name for you!"

He did not take you serious at ALL, pulling his eyebrows up with a grin, clearly ready to- "You wouldn't. Challenge you? Any karking day, you love me too much to be mean-" "Firecrotch."

Oh you just didn't, he thought, staring at you with wide eyes as it was your turn to triumphantly grin as his mouth hung wide open with shock. "Told you, don't challenge me, be it physically or verbally. Now you're never…NOT…Firec-" He pulled you into a fierce, angry kiss, anything to stop you from using that name a second time. You're such an asshole sometimes, but he really didn't expect you to know…that word. Well, duh, you spit literal fire yourself, everyone has a crotch – most do at least – and it wasn't hard to string both words together when you see a hot ginger like him, was it?

"Actually, you probably would've bullied me, huh?" He asks as you part away again, a satisfied sigh at your lips, licking them as you ate up the blush your new nickname for him caused for him, "Well, if you ever had too much time to read like me, you'd know the bully to Lovers-Tropes." You sang before kissing him again, without any restrain or worry of getting caught, feeling both your pheromones fold out and starting to cover the whole bedroom by now. This was going to be your favorite room on all of Nur…

"No, never heard of it, what happens in them?" And Cal wasn't lying to keep you talking, he really never had as much time as you to read at various planets' libraries, always having been stuck on Bracca till he was found out and collected by Cere. That was nearly two years ago.

"Well, usually starts out as your average bully, Kyra…and the average Victim of the bully, so…you, Firecrotch…" You drag out the nickname, pointing at each other as you begin to explain this cliché as kark romance trope. One of the most basic ones to write for, there were at least 100 at every Library you went to and pure boredom made you read almosy Every. Single. One of them. Not without of course taking breaks and reading what you came in for in the first place: historical books, science books, etc.

Usually ended up with you having extremely funky dreams about physicist-bullies having rough hate-intercourse with their bullied peers: some extinct sentients or an historical artist that nearly started a galactic war. You stopped mixing genres immediately after the fifth dream that built that way…

"But aren't I dominant in bed? Why am I the one being bullied then?" "That term is only important in public, until they end up in the school or work bathroom, the gym or at one of their homes. Afterwards roles get often reversed…then you fit in as well, F-" Another kiss to shut you up as your evil, playful grin returns. "You're pure evil." "I know."

You both fell silent after that, now just enjoying the quiet, relaxing atmosphere, the windows of the bedroom having a dreamlike view of the ocean life. Who knew Nur had such a vibrant fauna? Besides that nightmare creature from yesterday-

Clearly you never could've known from that one time you passed by all these years ago, just barely remembering the name enough to have it ring a bell when Cal told you where you are.

It was rather insignificant to you back then, which is surprising to you when you looked up nearly every planet, moon or sun you passed on your chaotic, unplanned ping-ponging trips across the far and wide map of the Galaxy. You even had read about Mustafar itself, just not Nur. But since it was nothing but a previously uninhabited rock floating in space until the Empire took it for their operations – that knowledge in courtesy of Dr. Puloria talking a lot – it surprised you not all that much. She was the perfect spot for gossip on the Inquisitor Base, that was sure even after just knowing her for maybe two days and few conversations.

You look away from the window that brought you so deep into your thoughts in the first place, checking up on Cal when he stopped caressing you with absent-minded, feather light gestures, palm idle on your naked waist from when he rolled you both around to continue hugging you from behind. The obstructing wings were not keeping him from trying to get as close as possible to your irresistible body heat, nose buried into your voluminous mass of hair.

"Something is wrong and you're not telling me…again." you claim with sadness, carefully rolling back over to face him – watching your injured wing with keen eyes – to see the pained expression he had been hiding. "It's about...BD…his, the state he is in now, it haunts me to look at him, the scraps left of him. Had I…had I just caught you both, then this all wouldn't have had to happen. He would still be able to fill this silence with his beeps and boops…he wouldn't have let us sleep this long at all." Right, BD is…BD is gone.

In all your joy of being together with Cal once again after all, you forgot the little guy. The one that never left either of your sides. And you, you just scrubbed him from your mind- "You didn't forget him. You never would, you're too kind to forget even the smallest creature." You're not kind, you try to be but selfishness is part of your nature. You're the sole reason the smallest creature in your care…

"I have seen…parts, of your past, while we slept. I- you did everything you could have back then." "You clearly didn't see everything. I let Grogu down. Now I repeated my mistakes. I had the job to protect the weakest in the pack and I karked up."

He sighs, almost physically feeling the walls you had pulled up at that subject. It would take a long time to make you think about everything once more, to see it with the perspective he had with his ability. The eyes of an outsider.

But he knew one thing he could show you, to perhaps give you hope, that you weren't a lost cause, as you called yourself.

Almost on reflex, you stood up along with him as he was silent the whole time, leading you to a door your room didn't have. Opening it, you're greeted with a tiny walk-in closet he rebuilt to fit a small workbench inside and a rack for all kinds of tools and replacement parts for mostly his new lightsaber. But also a few spare parts that were definitely not for lightsabers, you knew that much.

But the pile on the workbench had your real attention, a choked sob escaping you as you hurried over to the table, shaking hands hovering over the scraps, afraid to break even more just by being here now, by accidentally breathing wrongly.

BD…he...he was mangled, just like in the memory you saw through Cal's eyes. But in reality the damage looked even worse, he was missing a leg, the metal of his body was pressed inwards together, barely resembling him anymore. His Optics were both beyond repair, one lying next to him, a sign that Cal tried to recover as much of his best buddy as possible.

"I'm not showing you to torture you even further. I can feel your guilt, it's eating at you almost as much as your wish for vengeance…to make them pay for what they did." He stepped next to you, almost like he was paying his respects to the Droid. Was there nothing you could do to fix him?!

"That's why I brought you here. I…I want- needed to let you know that I haven't given up on him. And to remind you that you haven't either, despite what your thoughts try to tell you. BD is never going to be really gone, not as long as we keep going for him."

Gaining the courage from his words, you pick up some of the stray, fringed wires sticking out from the bent and nearly clipped off second leg, letting your blunt claws glide over the colorful silicon running over the copper wiring. He is absolutely right, you can't let him down a second time by leaving him in this state…left to rust and decay.

"What would we need to fix him?" His eyes widened when he finally found his smile once more as he hugged you close to him in barely contained excitement, "I like that tone much more with you. And to answer your question, I made quite the list…but on Nur I'm not a mechanic or even a scrapper anymore, I can't make such requests without getting denied…"

He let you go for a moment to look for said list, new found energy in him as well, now that he finally had been able to show and tell you what he was going to do... If he had the right tools and materials. A minute later, he came back up from under the workbench, a bit of fine metal dusting on his hands as he handed you a hand written note. In a place like this, that was probably safer…but if you really wanted these things, you would have to cause at least a bit of ruckus, a bitter realization he made when he heard your thoughts.

He wasn't lying, that's a long list. Not as long as the Grocery List that you handled back then on Bardotta but it did give you a heavy sense of Deja Vu. "It does, doesn't it? But this time it has an actual use, everything on here is important. Especially the welder. The one I already owned…it broke, I never managed to get my hands on a new one since then, same reason as I just told you why I don't have anything else on this list yet."

Cal lost his pocket welder? He fixed so many things on not just BD or his Lightsaber, but sometimes even whole parts of the Mantis! All with that small thing, fitting into his pants' pocket!

"And what makes you think I got a better chance? The new one?" He did remember that only yesterday you got your request shot down almost immediately, he was there!

"Yes, I know. But…you know…you're much more intimidating than me. The Troopers responsible for relaying the manual Delivery Requests would shit their Plastoid shells!"

Ohhh, you didn't have to grovel at the prune's feet again? That's something else. You were great at Intimidation Tactics! You would make them quiver and mewl in their boots-

"Save your dark thoughts for when we need them, my love. If we want to do this, we need to get dressed first."

Your eyes wander down at his mention of clothes, feeling your face heat up and your clearly drifting thoughts return to the present as you were made aware of the fact that you both were still as naked as the day you were born. "Yeah…probably a better idea, no?"

The still chaotic closet, your own sets of uniforms having been thrown in just haphazardly yesterday when you both immediately found…uh, better things to do.

Who knew highly detailed Documentaries about Wookies led to such primal, near feral sex and soft cuddles afterwards?

"Ready?" He asks, watching you test the flexibility of the "casual" uniform, so no armor plates, just the black and…purple bodysuit. They were just as comfortable as they looked on Cal, you could see yourself actually enjoying wearing them.

"Yes, I am, you?"

"Born ready!" "No you weren't, we all were born crying like pussies-" "Kyra…my moment…"

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#star wars fallen order #cal kestis #cal kestis x oc #fallen order cal kestis #star wars cal kestis #star wars fanfic #fallen order cal kestis x oc #cal kestis fanfic #oc fanfiction #star wars x oc #inquisitor cal kestis x oc #Inquisitor Cal #Inquisitor Cal Kestis

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