#nevertheless-moving

[whetstonefires]

Hello! For the reverse tropes writing prompts (if this catches your fancy) — murderbot diaries with fake amnesia and Really nice guy who hates only you

this is really not in the spirit of that second inverse trope, but for mb this was the only thing i could think of, and it was very funny.

=

"Gurathin," said Gurathin. "SecUnit, you know it's me."

"I don't think I know that," it said, pleasantly, in an okay but not excellent imitation of its creepy canned dialogue options. "Please present some identification, and we'll see."

Gurathin didn't bother sending his data over the feed again. Murderbot walked away, but left a drone eyeballing him. He resisted the urge to flip the drone off. "Come on," he told it, knowing SecUnit was paying attention. "Let me in."

He watched the SecUnit bend forward slightly to show two of Mensah's kids that it was paying attention to whatever they were saying, and then bend over further to help the toddler up onto a chair. It was just fucking with him now. On the other hand, if the prickly bastard started letting children hug it just to piss off Gurathin, who was the real loser?

It finished spoiling the children and moved over to smoothly de-escalate a brewing disagreement over the punch bowl. Gurathin tried to catch Pin-Lee's eye; she did not cooperate. Gurathin tried to walk through the open door; the hovering security drone took a potshot at him.

SecUnit got roped into conversation with Bharadwaj and her media colleagues. It said something that made everyone laugh. It wasn't scowling. It was faking looking people in the face pretty well; that was just creepy.

It went on like that; Gurathin had never seen it go this long interacting without pissing someone off. Presumably it was venting all of that impulse on him. Ratthi introduced it to his favorite cousin; zi was visibly charmed.

Gurathin goaded the drone into firing two more warning shots before the SecUnit circulated back over to him.

"SecUnit. Come on. You have known me for actual years. I helped you rob a place once."

"I don't recall."

"We met on that planetary survey mission, don't tell me you don't remember that one, it's the reason you're even here." That came out maybe a little harsh, but everyone was letting the SecUnit abuse the power of being entrusted with party security to bully him, he was allowed to be annoyed.

"Oh, were you there? That data must have been lost in a corrupted filetree," it said, with incredibly cutting blandness.

Gurathin groaned. "Okay! Okay. I'm sorry."

It technically counted as a reward when SecUnit stopped giving him the customer service face and switched to the hairy eyeball, which just showed how stupid this whole situation was. It was clearly not satisfied with just that.

"I'm sorry for using your personal name without permission. I wasn't trying to weaponize it or anything, it just slipped out, but I know that's not an excuse and it was a really inappropriate disrespect for your boundaries."

SecUnit kept looking at him. Gurathin knew two other SecUnits now, neither of whom was as supremely weird as this one; that was why he'd started mentally tagging it with its personal name, just to keep things tidy. Of course, if anyone else had done that and made the resulting mistake, SecUnit probably wouldn't have been half so mad.

Gurathin sagged.

"I'm sorry for going through your personal files and using your name against you back during the survey," he mumbled, wishing he kept drones around to control with his brain so he could watch SecUnit's extremely expressive face without having to look at it. "That was really shitty. Rim paranoia isn't a good enough excuse for refusing to see you as anything but a tool of the Company. Okay?"

SecUnit was looking as pained as though Gurathin had stripped naked in its presence. "Yes, fine, you can come to the party just stop having feelings," it said, in its normal voice.

"Great!" said Gurathin. "The spinach puffs had better not be all gone."

"I don't pay any attention to the things humans consume," it said, moving out of his way and taking its drone with it.

"I know," Gurathin acknowledged, rolling his eyes and trooping after it. Ratthi waved enthusiastically at him and Pin-Lee raised her cup in a welcoming toast. Apparently SecUnit's relenting returned him to the ranks of people who existed again. "Believe me, I remember this about you."

[artistfingers]

"phantom tried to overshadow you?" "why?..." ""...don't worry about it""

knocked me OUT love this au <3

that bit was such a joy to do!!! here, have some messy sketch layers, just for fun. these two panels didn't change much! I'm glad i edited the punchline tho... I don't think the first version landed quite right.

[Undercover AU]

[waukrife]

yoda question: what was yoda's knighting like? was he very old for a padawan, and therefore a little impatient, or maybe young for his species so still felt a little unprepared? did he go through the trials or did he fall into some dramatic trouble like Obi-Wan and Anakin and they kindof had to knight him after?

Ok, well, I saw this and my impulse was to go ‘back in Yoda’s day they Didn’t Do It Like That’ and this whole time he’s just been coasting along like...yeah I’m a master....master of disguise. 

That aside, I think it really is tragic in the context of trying to raise a child that will always be older than you but also will live to see you die. Not to be a downer or anything but I really think his species shapes any character study/casual anecdote about his childhood. He’s GREAT at forming non-attached bonds with people because he HAS to let them go. Probably the first person he had to learn that lesson with was his (first) Master. I’m assuming that, as a traditionalist ‘9 is Too Old’ kind of councillor, he was adopted into the Jedi as a baby- or at least by his species’ standard. Judging by The Mandalorian, he would have still been in the creche at 50, probably. I was going to do a chart to figure out how old he would have been at milestones like knighthood, full maturity etc but honestly if I have to look at NUMBERS I'll spontaneously combust. 

I’m going to guess that he had multiple masters, going with both long-living species (still nothing on 900 years) and some shorter lived (because the force said so). I reckon to avoid making this too sad, that at some point he just...became a knight. Like, at some point between Masters he just stopped feeling the pull in the Force to pair up with a new one and went..oh huh. I’m ready then I guess. Which is still sad, because well...he didn’t really get to have a ceremony and all that what with his dead masters, but it would reflect the almost unique nature of his relationship with the Force and himself, and how that shapes his bonds with others. 

I would imagine that the way he was responsible for his own journey between Masters rather than having a single, reliable caretaker/teacher like most others would make him VERY good at following the will of the Force because it would be his only reliable authority in his way. And also, the independence made him wild enough to just....be willing to trust in the Force and GO FOR IT when he was ready without checking it was actually allowed. Like there wasn’t anyone overseeing to ask whether he’d done some form of trials (or, like Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon in many people’s headcanons, to keep him waiting for some grand test or approval when actually he’s been ready for a while), and after a few generations, people just forgot he just...decided to change his title one day. 

Years later he wakes up, notices his first grey hair and says “huh...MASTER Yoda, I am”. By this point as a knight he is both wildly eccentric, but young enough that it is entirely insufferable, so everyone just goes with it. In another 50 years, no one knows any better. Well... the older Jedi (in their early hundreds, while he is still young enough for his elders to be elderly) DO remember. You thought Yoda was conservative? The REAL traditionalists HATE him. 

So yeah, ancient for a normal Jedi, young for one of him. And more like....brushing loose strands from your hair, rather than cutting a braid; settling into himself and accepting the loss his position implies rather than an external trial and reward. Really not dramatic at all, exactly when it was due, and only traumatic in the quiet way. 

[willowcrowned]

dicks DO NOT work like THAT ???

A anyone who has read mdzs (mo dao zu shi) will know, it is bad. It is, technically speaking, a big old mess that somehow gave fruit to what I’ve heard is a decent show. It also, as many people will know, was written by a cis woman who has a tendency towards fetishization of mlm couples and never did any research.

The sex scenes are painful, both for the reader, and presumably for the characters, since they routinely do some VERY unsafe, unsane, and dubiously consensual kink

‘dicks DO NOT work like THAT’ was my response. it’s got a lot of the elements of one of her scenes from mdzs (specifically, lan wangji is domming, and wei wuxian is a brat) but without any of the terrible bits. 

I keep meaning to finish it, but here’s a sample in the meantime:

vague nsfw below the cut

Lan Wangji is dying. Lan Wangji is dying, and his injured brain must be causing this fantasy— a fantasy that he’s had since he was fifteen and far too awkward to talk to Wei Ying, let alone get drunk with him and give him a blowjob— to play out before his eyes. He’s going to die while aroused, and the person who sees his body will have to know that he died with an erection. His will be the most embarrassing funeral possible. The only good thing about it is that he won’t be alive to see it.  

Lan Wangji, in what is possibly his greatest panicked fit of stupidity yet, grabs Wei Ying’s hair and yanks Wei Ying away from him. He’s expecting a pained yelp, an admonishment, and possibly some teasing about going too far. What he gets is entirely different.  

Before, Lan Wangji had tugged Wei Ying’s hair lightly, pulling him just far enough away that Lan Wangji wouldn’t lose control and ravish him on the spot. The noises he had made were proportional: small gasps, born more of a new sensation while high than of any real affinity for pain. Or so Lan Wangji had thought.  

Because as Lan Wangji snaps Wei Ying’s head back with one sharp pull, Wei Ying lets out a loud moan.

[waukrife]

😳😳😳😳😳

[teomodo]

[willowcrowned]

Trope: Suppressed Rage

like girl staying quiet in the back of loud fight scene and then you see her start shaking and she opens her mouth and it cold cuts to her walking out serenely, behind her the glass is shattered, chairs are knocked over and various fighters look shellshocked with hair inexplicably and suddenly windswept

That is SO sexy I’m very flattered

[Ask Game]