#rvbpicknmix

[artsilon]

“...You took us on a honeymoon and we can’t even go swimming?”

A quick Sharkface/South art for @fanvsfic and their Pick n Mix event! This is.... One hell of a rarepair, but it’s mine.

[autisticblueteam]

Hostage (Wash, Diesel)

[AO3]

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 777

Summary: Diesel’s been left alone with the hostage. Wash doesn’t think he has the patience for this job. 

Notes: Written for @fanvsfic‘s Pick ‘n’ Mix event! More brand new character stuff. Spoilers for the first couple eps of Zero. I’m sure this will get jossed by ep 3 tomorrow, but hey.

“So, they stuck you with hostage-sitting duty, huh?”

“Shut up.”

“That’s rough. Bet you’d much rather be out there helping them do… whatever it is… they’re doing.”

BANG.

“I said shut up!” Diesel snarled, the box beneath his fists dented and the lights in his armour pulsing.

Wash looked at the box, the metal twisted and warped around the impact, then up at Diesel.

“You know, I knew someone who could do that without the suit. Now, you’re a pretty big guy, don’t get me wrong, but—”

Diesel picked up the box and threw it against the wall, denting that too. Wash flinched, but only behind his helmet; on the outside, he remained a pillar of nonreaction, except to cock his head to the side.

“Well. That’s going to need more than a hammer to get out.”

The frustrated yell that followed wasn’t unexpected, nor was the slam of his back against the wall behind him, but not being surprised didn’t stop the wind from leaving his lungs. Diesel was a big guy—not as big as Maine, no, but at least as tall as Caboose—and he easily had Wash hanging with his feet high away from the floor.

It actually took a little effort to act completely nonchalant about it, to simply dangle there with only enough resistance to not let himself get choked by Diesel’s arm. Maybe he was out of practice at this.

“Beating me up didn’t work so well the last time, but hey, if you want to give it another try…” Wash said with a shrug, still a little more breathless than he’d have liked to be before the inevitable punch collided with his gut.

Man, his ribs were going to hate him after this.

“Think you missed my liver there, want to give it another—ugh!” And there went his breath again.

“Quiet,” Diesel snapped, hitting him a third time for good measure before dropping him unceremoniously to the floor. Wash coughed, curling instinctively around his abdomen, but pulled himself to sit upright and look Diesel in the faceplate.

“How do you even see out of that helmet?” he asked, then narrowly dodged an armoured foot to the face. “Alright, alright, I’ll shut up.”

Groaning, he rolled his aching shoulders. It’d be a long time since he’d been cuffed for this long, he was not looking forward to how stiff he was going to be when this was over.

He stayed silent, for a little while. Watched Diesel pace back and forth across the room, his restless frustration keeping him moving. Every footfall shook the floor beneath them and jolted Wash’s battered body. That armour was really something.

“You must not take prisoners often. You know,” he said, after only a minute of silence, nodding around the room, “considering the lack of dedicated holding area, and all.”

“Prisoners are annoying,” Diesel said, head snapping toward him. His fists clenched and the lights in his armour flashed to life. He was barely restraining himself, but he was restraining himself; that was important.

“Man, you would absolutely kill me if your ‘Commander’ would let you, wouldn’t you?” Wash said. Perhaps the thought should have been more concerning, but all things considered, he’d been in worse situations. At least here, it seemed like he was being kept alive for a reason.

Diesel’s resulting growl took on an edge of sinister amusement. “In a heartbeat.”

“Guess it’s lucky for me that you need me and my rattled brain alive, then,” Wash retorted, to the echo of another snarl. “That’s the problem, right? You can’t get anything out of me if I’m dead.”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. Now shut up!”

“Do they not tell you things or are you just stupid?”

Diesel hissed.

Okay, so maybe that was too far, Wash thought, as a kick slammed against his chest plate. The cuirass did its job, the impact dispersing across the metal, but his ribs still felt like hell.

Wash slumped back, panting faintly, and bit his tongue for a while. Diesel stalked across to the other side of the room and returned to his impatient pacing, interrupted by occasional bouts of angry muttering. Man, he really didn’t have the patience for guard duty. Too easy to rile up.

That could be useful.

It had taken less than an hour to get Diesel to confirm his suspicions that he was being kept alive for a reason; with that kind of leeway and some carefully applied agitation… 

Maybe he could find out more. He had plenty of tricks up his sleeve.

He had learned how to be annoying from the best, after all.

[anneapocalypse]

3 AM

Red vs. Blue. Agent Carolina & Dylan Andrews. Gen. Post-Season 17. Background Carolina/Kimball, past Carolina/York. For RvB Pick ‘n’ Mix by @fanvsfic.

*

It’s three in the morning when Carolina gets the text. Which is fine. She’s awake, and anyone who knows Carolina knows she’s awake, so she figures it’s Wash, or Tucker, or even Vanessa checking in after a very late Council session, and grabs her COM pad to look.

The number is unknown, but the notif shows her the first few words of the text: Hi Carolina, it’s Dylan Andrews…

Carolina unlocks the COM pad and thumbs through her contacts. Did Andrews change her number? She should be in there—

except they changed the timeline, so that call and their little conversation about art history never happened, and Carolina never saved her number. Right.

This still happens a lot. She’s trying to get used to it. They all are. Wash likes to tease her about it, says it’s nice to know he’s not the only one who can’t remember things right.

Carolina opens the full text.

Keep reading on AO3

[fanvsfic]

RvB Pick ‘n’ Mix Coming November 15th - 22nd!

We’re one week out from RvB Pick ‘n’ Mix, our latest fandom event which focuses on the challenge of making content exploring the potential dynamics between new combinations of characters!

As usual, all fan works will be accepted for this event, not just fics. Tag all submissions with #rvbpicknmix and @fanvsfic​ in the post so that we can find them! Any works posted on AO3 can also be submitted to the rvbpicknmix AO3 collection!

What kind of dynamics does this include? Does it have to be characters who have never interacted in canon?

Nope! The idea behind this event is for people to explore new, untapped character dynamics they feel have potential. 

This could be anything from members of the BGC with little shared screentime, to characters from totally separate eras of the show (i.e. Chorus/Freelancers, BGC/Shatter Squad, etc). It can even include characters with on-screen dynamics that you’ve simply never personally explored but would like to!

It also does not have to be shippy. This is for any kind of relationship dynamic.

What if I can’t decide what dynamics to explore?

We’ve built some numbered character lists for people to use alongside random number generators to select characters for just this purpose! These will be linked in a pinned post at the top of the blog after this post goes live. Links to all of the sub-lists can be found on the /allcharacters page on our blog.

(Note: some characters (i.e. Andy the Bomb) will be missing, and were deliberately excluded for streamlining)

You can find all further guidelines and longer answers to the above questions on the /picknmix page on our blog!

[desvarios-desviados]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Red vs. Blue Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Kaikaina Grif / Matthews Characters: Kaikaina Grif, Matthews, Dexter Grif, Dick Simmons, Franklin Delano Donut Additional Tags: inappropriate use of pancake toppings, Red team has a treehouse club and donut is not invited, because he keeps burning shit down, Every Day Simmons Struggles, RvB Pick 'n' Mix Summary:

Simmons hasn't been awake for ten minutes and he's got the Grif siblings shouting down the kitchen, and an extremely coy arsonist to deal with. He takes a deep breath to calm himself and a strange scent catches him off guard.

It's not smoke, or gasoline, or lavender candles. It's buttery, lightly sweet, and reminds Simmons of the bygone days of a happy and carefree childhood.

"I'm having a stroke." He announces.

[autisticblueteam]

Metabolism (Carolina, One, East)

[AO3]

Rating: Teen

Word Count: 980

Summary: Carolina recognises a familiar habit in East. 

Notes: Written for @fanvsfic‘s Pick ‘n’ Mix event! I really wanted to write something with the new girls and well, being brand new characters, it feels perfectly in the spirit of the event. Spoilers for the second episode of season 18. 

Well, now wasn’t that a familiar sight.

Carolina stopped in the threshold of the mess hall and leaned against the door frame. East and One had their backs to her, but she could clearly see the personal feast spread out in front of East. Containers filled to the brim with carbs and proteins—rice and vegetables and meat, bread rolls and more—mouthfuls of which were being shovelled into East’s mouth at alarming speed.

Across from her, One took a bite of her comparatively modest plate of chicken fried rice and snorted.

“Don’t choke.”

“Shut up.”

Carolina chuckled and shook her head. Popping the seals of her helmet, she pulled it off and set it down by a free seat at the table as she skirted by on her way to the counter. In the corner of her eye, she saw One and East glance her way, then share a look, and she smirked.

Returning a minute later with her own tray, she pushed her helmet out of the way and sat down.

“That’s quite the array you have there,” she said with a nod of her head towards East’s food, before taking a bite of her own and leaving the air open.

East’s only response was a gruff little grunt of acknowledgement. Chopsticks in hand, she continued to shovel rice into her mouth without a word, hardly taking the time to swallow.

One, on the other hand, seized her chance. “Oh yeah. She crashes the fuck out if she doesn’t eat her entire body weight in food every day. It’s nuts.”

East glared at her, but her stuffed cheeks and babyface undermined the gesture.

“Not every day,” she said, setting aside the latest empty container to grab another.

“Close enough,” One retorted.

East’s brow wrinkled, as if she were thinking about whether it was worth it to respond or not.

“You know,” Carolina said, making the decision for her, “I used to be very similar.”

“What, ‘back in your day’?” One asked, a smirk at the corner of her lips.

Carolina ignored the jab and continued, “When I used my speed unit regularly, I used to eat as much as the team heavy and more. Even steal from their plate. If I didn’t, I’d crash.”

East kept eating as if she hadn’t heard, but Carolina saw her back straighten, her gaze flicker over towards her.

One cocked her head. “Speed unit? You mean your armour’s amps?”

“No, not quite. See, ‘back in my day’,” Carolina said, earning nothing but a shameless grin off of One, “that sort of amplification was highly experimental. Even now, what you can do with your suit isn’t as extreme as the unit I used to use. Once, I got into a chase where my unit allowed me to outrun cars and jump the length of entire city blocks to keep up with a target.”

East put her chopsticks down. One blinked.

“Shut the fuck up, no way,” One said, leaning back. Carolina raised a brow. “Oh, sorry, shut the fuck up, ma’am.”

Carolina bit back a laugh.

“Yes way,” she said. “I wasn’t strictly supposed to, but it did the job.” No need to tell them that about her collision with the truck and the events that followed. “After that, I about ate the ship out of its highest energy MREs and I still crashed.”

East swallowed. “Ugh, MREs. Didn’t you have like, an actual mess?”

“Let’s just say that day was very… hectic,” Carolina said. “The mess staff couldn’t keep up. On training days, they’d be more prepared.”

East tore a bite out of a bread roll, chugged half her drink, then barely seemed to even breathe between putting the bottle down and diving back into a hefty serving of potatoes. She had it down to an art, never so much as choking on a morsel that went down the wrong way.

Carolina took a sip from her cup. “It’s because of your Burst Step, right? It affects your metabolism?”

East side-eyed her, still chewing. Carolina waited patiently, eating her own food at a pace a little to the left of normal and ignoring One’s outright staring as a result.

“I guess,” East said, finally. “Or, that’s what we figure. Don’t really know.”

Carolina frowned. How little seemed to be known about what had been done to East at Starlight Laboratories, about how her little power actually worked, was… concerning, to say the least. East had obviously learned ways to handle it and its side effects, but this was something much more permanent than an armour unit.

“Well, now you know one thing,” Carolina said. East raised a brow, face already once again stuffed with half a container of fried rice. “It definitely affects your metabolism, because that’s exactly what used to happen to me. The way moving that fast hits your body is unlike anything else and you have that ability built in.”

“…if you say so,” East said, and though it was as dismissive as Carolina was coming to expect from her on the surface, there was something else there, too. “Guess you won’t be giving me shit for eating on the job then, huh?”

“Obviously not,” Carolina said. “Do West and—?”

“Well, no, but.” East shrugged. “You never know.”

Carolina made a note to keep some high-energy snack bars on hand, just in case.

“Hey,” One said, waving an unopened box across the table, “trade you my dessert for some potatoes.”

East squinted. “…why?”

“What? Can a girl not crave some potatoes? Do you want the dessert or not?”

“…give it here.”

East all but snatched the container out of One’s hand replaced it with a half-finished pot of potatoes. She tore open the box and immediately dug into the cake inside, not bothering with cutlery.

One hid her grin in the potatoes, and Carolina disguised hers in her drink.

[fanvsfic]

As promised, fanvsfic is once again running a new RvB fandom event! As voted on, coming in joint first with our previous event, this autumn during November 15th-22nd we’re challenging the fandom to make content exploring the potential dynamics between new combinations of characters! 

We are creating a series of lists for randomising characters for the purposes of this event.

The tag for this event is #rvbpicknmix. Remember, when posting content intended for the event, tag it with that tag within the first 20 tags and @ us here at fanvsfic!

As always, all content will be welcome, not just fic.

What kind of dynamics does this include? Does it have to be characters who have never interacted in canon?

Nope! That’s one of the potential kind of new dynamics to explore, but it’s not a requirement! The idea behind this event is for people to explore character dynamics they personally have never written about before but feel have potential. 

This can include anything from characters who don’t interact as often in canon as you’d like (i.e. members of the BGC who have very little one-on-one time), to characters from different eras of the show (i.e. Freelancers and Chorus characters, the Reds and Blues and the Zero cast)! It can even include characters who do interact on screen, but you personally have never explored despite being interested in them!

What if I can’t decide what dynamics to explore?

We’ve built some numbered lists of characters to be used with a random number generator! These can be found at the /allcharacters page on our blog, which will eventually be linked in a pinned post. From there, you can navigate to numerous lists that allow you to roll with specific groups of characters whilst avoiding others!

(Note: some characters (i.e. Andy the Bomb) will be missing, and were deliberately excluded for streamlining)

Is this not just rarepair week?

This event is not just about ships, so no! This is a broader reaching event and is an encouragement to step out of our usual content comfort zones to explore new dynamics!

Do we have to create fic?

Nope! Whilst we remain a fic-focused blog, for the duration of all our events we will allow ALL fan content, though they will not be tagged as stringently as we usually tag fic content on this blog.

What if I Don’t Have a Tumblr?

As with previous events, we will except entries from off-site (twitter, dreamwidth, pillowfort, ao3, etc etc.), but you must link us to them! There were a couple of entries that almost, or did, get missed in our end of event masterpost during rare pair week, so make sure to let us know where you’ve posted!

What are the guidelines?

Check /picknmix on our blog for the guidelines! We will also reblog with the link. General guidelines still apply though; tag with consideration!

RvB Pick ‘n’ Mix: November 15th-22nd!

[fanvsfic]

RvB Pick ‘n’ Mix is here!

Remember to @fanvsfic​ in your posts and use the tag #rvbpicknmix (ideally within the first 5 tags) so that we can find your content! If we haven’t reblogged your work within 24 hours, contact us and let us know! If you’re posting off of tumblr, message us here and tell us where to find it so we can include it in our masterpost at the end of the event!

And remember, ALL fan content is allowed for the event, not just fics!

(If you’re posting on AO3, feel free to add your content to the rvbpicknmix collection!)

The concept behind this event is to challenge people to write for character dynamics they haven’t previously explored, but would like to! This could be anything from members of the BGC with little shared screentime, to characters from totally separate eras of the show (i.e. Chorus/Freelancers, BGC/Shatter Squad, etc). It can even include characters with on-screen dynamics that you’ve simply never personally explored but would like to! It also does not have to be shippy. This is for any kind of relationship dynamic.

If you aren’t sure what dynamics you’d like to write for, check out the pinned post or the /allcharacters page on our blog to find a collection of numbered lists to be used with random number generators to pick some! It can be as cracky or as believable as you like!

Check out the /picknmix page on our blog for further guidelines, but the general idea is to branch out, try something new, and have fun.

Pick ‘n’ Mix is running between November 15th and 22nd!