it all started rather innocently. we just found two magical rocks in our d&d campaign - one that produces heat, and another that creates water. my character (well, okay, my character was a warlock and not an artificer, so it was mostly me, really) put two and two together and figured out that this may be used as an infinite source of steam. tech level of our campaign allowed us to manufacture or commission custom parts made of metals like bronze, copper, platinum, et cetera. and so, shenanigans ensued. out of character, i devised a contraption that would shoot a blast of steam and parboil anything that stands in front of it. war crimes, yay!
so, i turned to fusion360 to produce a feasible design for this nightmare contraption. as we had access to copper and bronze, i figured out that a simple tube shape with a conical nozzle could realistically withstand the heat and hold the steam pressure. one compartment holds the water rock, the other has a copper radiator with the heat stone inside of it. pull the lever, water contacts copper, water go whoosh and boom, steam cannon! for some unknown reason, i actually turned to thermodynamics and material science to figure out how thick the tubes should be. i suppose i was just taken by fey mood and went full turbonerd on this. ah well.
then, the first prototype was finished and rendered. after some back and forth, and quite a bit of negotiating with our DM (i'm really sorry for exposing you to my bullshit, Telen) we agreed that this could feasibly be produced within our setting. but something felt off. i was not quite satisfied with how it looked.
i carried on and added a collapsible tripod for easier deployment, and a handle on the top for better portability. (realistically, of course, this contraption would be awfully heavy, and only the strongest member of our party could carry it around. ah well).
and finally, i had a stroke of inspiration. or maybe just a regular stroke. i though, what if we build up the pressure instead of just releasing it immediately? what if we somehow block the main nozzle for a while, and let it cook? the blast would be much stronger when you finally release it. and so -
the final version took form. i added a sliding attachment to the main nozzle that could block the output for a while (we figured it would be reasonable for it to take a full turn in combat to build up steam pressure), and then release it through one of the nozzles. and as the final stroke, i named this abomination -
"Heated Exchange".
Come trick or treating in my inbox! Leave a “Trick or Treat” and a character or ship in an ask, and I’ll treat you to some autumn-themed fluff or trick you with some twisted spooky aus!
Treat
I swear, the Sousuke and the Makoto are in this, they just. Don't show up for a while lmao. @ezzydean come collect your child, he's running amok in prompts again.
“Rei-chan, it’s time.” Rei didn’t even look up from the magazine he was flipping through, which, rude. Nagisa was pulling out his very best Drama, and the least his best friend could do was at least pay attention. “The winds are changing, Rei-chan. The air grows cold. My days of freedom have come to an end, and it is time, at last, for you to put me in the ground.”
“Mhmm.”
“You’re the worst.”
“Nagisa-kun, your libido is not my problem,” Rei droned, turning a page.
“I’ll make it your problem,” Nagisa threatened. Rei sighed, tucking his thumb in to mark his place as he closed his magazine and leveled Nagisa with a Look.
“Threats do not work on me, Nagisa-kun, you know that.”
“I think you’re thinking of bribery, Rei-chan. Threats work perfectly well, when you know the right pressure points.” Nagisa maintained eye-contact, his jaw tightening as Rei’s own competitive nature kicked in and it became a full-blown staring contest.
“Wait, why is Hazuki-san threatening Ryuugazaki-san?” Momo stage-whispered. Rei looked away and Nagisa grinned.
“Because he’s got too high of a sex drive,” Ai replied, casual, like he was discussing the weather, and don’t even get Nagisa started on the hypocrisy of that—
“Momo-chan,” Nagisa said, slapping his hands down on the table and leaning over it into Momo’s space. Momo, bless him, had not learned one bit over the many years they’d known each other, and leaned forward as well, attentive and eager to please. “I am today in the unique position to make you a once-in-a-lifetime offer. If you act within the next…” he glanced at the clock. “…fourteen minutes, you will be totally free to murder me with absolutely zero retaliation from my ghost.”
“…Yeah, I’m gonna have to say no on that one, Hazuki-san. Sorry.”
“Grave mistake, Momo-chan,” Nagisa sighed.
“Well, whatever machiavellic revenge you’re going to pass on to him, better come up with it soon,” Ai said, still snuggling into Momo’s side and looking out the window, an utterly bored expression on his face. “Here they come.”
Nagisa’s head whipped around so fast that something cracked in his neck, but none of that mattered one bit. Not when Rin was walking through the door of the coffee shop and behind him were—
“Fuck,” Nagisa whined, dropping his head onto the table. Rei reached out and patted the back of it absently, already turned back to his magazine.
“The hell’s his problem?” Rin asked, dropping into the seat beside Ai and flopping across him, making Momo let out a quiet ‘oof’.
“The usual,” Rei said.
“It’s flannel season,” Ai explained. Nagisa whined into the table, pointedly ignoring the way he could hear the two remaining seats filling.
“Nagisa, what’s happening?” Makoto asked, not quite sounding like a mother concerned for the well-being of his precious kouhai, but more like a mother whose many, many children had drained his will to live and his patience for shenanigans.
“You,” Nagisa answered, still refusing to look up.
“Me.”
“And him.”
“Him being Sousuke-kun?”
“Yep.”
“Nagisa, what are you talking about?”
Nagisa tilted his head up to lean his chin on the table and level Makoto with a glare. Across from him, Sousuke was already smirking, his chin on his hand and his eyes hooded like he knew he didn’t need to try to seduce Nagisa, but was going to put in the effort anyway. Nagisa stuck his tongue out at him.
“Nagisa,” Makoto groaned.
“Every fall, when the weather gets colder, the two of you break out the flannel shirts, and my life goes to hell,” Nagisa snipped. “And it’s always you two. Rei-chan doesn’t wear flannels, Sei-chan is so aggressively asexual that he doesn’t even register to me, and no one else in our friend group is big enough to give off the hot lumberjack vibes you two have oozing off of you. I know Sou-chan’s doing it on purpose, but I can’t decide if you not realizing is better or worse, actually. And since we all know neither of you is gonna go there, I’m left sitting here drowning in a pool of my own hormones. Every. Goddamn. Year.”
Makoto blinked, but he didn’t flush or sputter like Nagisa had half-expected. Instead, he glanced at Sousuke with an almost amused furrow in his brow.
“Who said neither of us would go there?” he laughed. Rei groaned, turning to glare at Nagisa.
“If the apartment isn’t spotless when you’re done, I swear I will shred every last blanket you own to ribbons.”
“Woah, Rei-chan, I don’t—“
“Every. Last. One. I want the whole place sparkling. And smelling of citrus cleaner. I will not have a repeat of last time. Understood?”
Nagisa glanced over Rei’s shoulder, at the way Makoto was smirking and Sousuke was watching him with what could only be described as bedroom eyes, and shrugged.
“You’ll never find all my blankets anyway, so, sure. Understood.”
With that, he hopped out of his seat, returning Rin and Ai’s lazy waves with one of his own, and marched out of the coffee shop without bothering to wait and see if the other two were following him. He could hear the laughter and the shuffling of chairs behind him anyway, and he had more important things to devote his brain power to. Like planning. And all the creative ways he could use those damned flannel shirts.
He smiled, taking a deep breath of the crisp autumn air. It was time.
Working on our website and decided to put a picture of the heart nebula under my .png Mobile website still needs work but desktop one is coming together well. More updates later this month. #1upoptics #invasion #has #begun #resistance #is #futile #resistanceisfutile #heartnebula #nebula #science #rules #turbonerd #turbonerdacademy #turbonerdclub #turbo #nerd #toggleswitch808 #toggleswitch (at Los Angeles, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/BnogK3EHqd0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=t7a5jvyfvs8z
trick or treat or trick or treat or tricky treat with Rei, Rin, Suga, and Kiyoko.
Come trick or treating in my inbox! Leave a “Trick or Treat” and a character or ship in an ask, and I’ll treat you to some autumn-themed fluff or trick you with some twisted spooky aus!
Trick
So as usual, Ezzy and I have no chill, and may or may not have challenged each other to take a list of pretty, soft autumn prompts and use those for our tricks this year. At least, that's what I heard, in between the sass and the frankly terrifying butter gifs...
Anyway, this prompt was "Family Portrait"
They were beautiful. Each and every one, preserved perfectly in their frames, gorgeous each time except for the eyes.
She could never quite get the eyes right.
Still, practice made perfect, and Kiyoko was sure that this would be the time. She would get it right, and this family portrait would be the one that finally capture everything.
The pose was the most tedious part. Sometimes they brok loose, slipping out of position here and there in little ways as they grew restless. But once they were all set up just right, she centered herself among them and, taking a moment to make sure everything was perfect, took the picture.
When it was fully developed, she hummed to herself.
Rei was on the far left of the photo, his spine straight and his long, elegant hands folded in his lap. His body was angled away from her, but his face was turned in her direction. That smile, the ever-loving, ever-doting, pleasant curl of the lip, was perfectly captured. The lines, the grace of him, all there.
On the far end of the couch, Rin sat in perfect contrast. He was posed, yes, poised for a picture, but it was evident even in this still form that he was seething with barely-contained fire. His limbs were tossed rather than folded, lazy arrogance in every inch of him. That gorgeous red hair stood out so sharply against the black of his suit, one lock draped across his nose in picturesque carelessness.
And between them, Kiyoko perched on his lap with her head on his shoulder, Suga pulled in the balance. All of Rei’s refined elegance, all of Rin’s feral passion, and perfectly in-between, Suga’s quiet chaos. She had chosen correctly, putting him in the center, where his pale coloring could stand out from the dark background and from her own black hair and dress. He looked soft, but ready to lash out with a quip and a smirk, just like the living him.
Overall, it was a beautiful picture. But the eyes…
Kiyoko shook her head with a sigh and slid it into its frame. She hung it on the wall with all the others, the beautiful bodies and sweet smiles and dead, empty eyes of the souls she had failed to fully capture.
Ai and your choice with: touching foreheads after their first kiss.
This turned out so much longer than I expected, because your little shit tried to steal the show.
Anyway, here we go, two characters forcibly extracted from the groupchat as usual, let Rei say fuck agenda, you know the drill.
The thing about Haruka-senpai and Nitori-kun was that they were both absolutely fucking gorgeous. Rei knew he had a bit of an obsession when it came to beauty. He knew that physical form was important to him. He knew that there was more to romance than that, but the fact still stood that he was surrounded by obnoxiously pretty people far too often.
It didn’t help that, on top of being pretty by themselves, Haruka-senpai and Nitori-kun were pretty together. They were the world’s most attractive couple, two pairs of big blue eyes, a contrast of light and dark hair, smooth pale skin. Nitori-kun’s bubbly personality just barely disguising a depth of snark that rivaled and complemented Haruka-senpai’s.
“Fuck my entire fucking life,” Rei groaned, to no one in particular. Nagisa answered anyway.
“Not that you’re not pretty, Rei-chan, but you and I both know you gotta be at least a level twenty-three friend to unlock my unpicked flower garden.”
“Your euphemisms need work,” Rei commented.
“Excuse you, my euphemisms are perfect, and you’re deflecting,” Nagisa countered. “Why are you asking for an existential deflowering?”
“The usual,” Rei said with a shrug.
“Dude. You gotta ask them out already. This is getting hard to watch.”
“Right,” Rei said, rolling his eyes. “Because that’s the way to solve all my problems. Tell the two most beautiful men on the face of the fucking planet that I want nothing more than for one of them to suffocate me by sitting on my face while the other rails me into next week.”
“You wanna hold their hands and make them breakfast, don’t lie to me and pretend this is all sexual, Rei-chan,” Nagisa scolded.
“Feelings are disgusting,” Rei said.
“I mean, I’m not disagreeing with you there, Rei-chan. But it’s just gonna get worse if you keep this up!” Nagisa’s voice went sing-song, a clear sign to Rei that he was not getting out of this conversation unscathed.
“What do you want to make you drop this?” Rei groaned.
“You don’t really want to know.” Rei glared at him, and he put his hands up as though to calm Rei, though all it did was trigger a pavlovian rage. “I’ll drop this, if you go up to one of them right now and kiss them. Don’t care which one, just. Grow a pair and do it.”
Rei was about to tell Nagisa in no uncertain terms that he already had a pair, thank you very much, when he was interrupted by the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. It was not uncommon to hear Nitori-kun laughing. He giggled as easily as Rin-san cried. Usually it was accompanied by a smirk or even occasionally a snort from Haruka-senpai. But this time?
Oh, this time.
Haruka-senpai’s head was thrown back, his eyes scrunched shut, and music incarnate was pouring from his lips, babbling like water from a Roman fountain. Rei’s mind went blank in the center and fuzzy around the edges. He knew Nagisa was smirking at him, but he couldn’t focus on anything other than the universe dawning from Haruka-senpai’s mouth.
“Fuck,” Rei whispered. Nagisa snorted.
“You got it so bad,” he said.
“Yeah,” Rei agreed.
“So, what’re you gonna do about it?”
Rei saw it all laid out before him, the two paths diverging. One leading toward some fairy-land nonsense where all his dreams came true, and the other rooted in harsh reality. He didn’t bother answering Nagisa. They both knew he would do nothing about it.
Nagisa watched him, watched the doors shut in his eyes, watched him strengthen his resolve to live his life pathetic and unloved. He rolled his eyes and cupped his hands around his mouth, then shouted, “Ai-chan! Haru-chan! Put me out of my misery already!”
“What do we get out of it?” Nitori-kun hollered back.
“A gorgeous hunk of man?” Nagisa answered. “Or, well, another gorgeous hunk of man?”
Nitori-kun shrugged, said, “Mkay,” and sauntered up to Rei. Rei’s life flashed before his eyes, a series of images of his worst mistakes and most mundane triumphs. He knew his face remained utterly passive as Nitori-kun approached, planted his hands on Rei’s shoulders, and leaned in slowly. He bypassed Rei’s lips to brush his own against Rei’s ear, whispering, “Consent is sexy, Ryuugazaki-kun. Is this how you want to do this?”
“Yes.” It was a thready, breathy thing, barely there at all, but Nitori-kun heard it. He pulled back to smile at Rei, his eyes swirling with something as unnameable as it was utterly familiar. He leaned in slowly, slowly enough to give Rei time to back out, to lose the game of chicken they were apparently playing. Then Nitori-kun’s lips quirked, and then they were pressed to Rei’s.
As kisses in reality went, it was probably pretty damn average. But as kisses in Rei’s life went, this one? This one was magic. This one was fireworks and fireflies and everything that first kisses were supposed to be. And then it was ending, Rei letting out a soft whine and trying to follow Nitori-kun’s lips as they pulled away from his. Nitori-kun breathed a gentle giggle and rested his forehead against Rei’s.
“Hi,” he whispered.
“Hello,” Rei replied. Nitori-kun’s eyes were full of laughter, and light, and maybe something else, maybe something that Rei had only ever seen directed at Haruka-senpai, because he had never let himself look for it directed at him. Never let himself imagine, because his daydreams would destroy him.
A pissy huff drew Rei out of the bubble that had formed around the two of them and he looked over Nitori-kun’s shoulder at Haruka-senpai, standing with his arms crossed and his lips pouted.
“Ai,” he growled, and Rei’s blood went cold.
“Fuck off, Haru, I told you I had dibs.” Nitori-kun didn’t pull away from Rei to say it, still staring into Rei’s eyes. “You can have the next one. If he wants it.”
There was a question there, a question that Rei wanted nothing more than to answer in the affirmative. But all he could say, all his scrambled brain would let out was a distressed little, “Fuck.”
“Not yet, beautiful, but we’ll get there someday,” Nitori-kun said, giggling again. He pulled away from Rei at last, just enough to clamber into Rei’s lap and nuzzle his head against his shoulder. One hand reached out behind him and with a huff and a roll of his eyes, Haruka-senpai strolled over. He took Nitori-kun’s hand and settled in beside Rei, leaning against the shoulder not occupied. Rei closed his eyes against the onslaught of emotion welling up in him.
“Hey,” Haruka-senpai said, bumping his shoulder more firmly against Rei’s. “You good?”
Rei clutched a little harder at Nitori-kun’s back until Haruka-senpai reached out and claimed one of his hands for his own. He breathed, and it seemed all he could manage to do just then. Then, against all sense, against all knowledge that this couldn’t possibly be real, he relaxed. A snort burst out of him, and it was a breaking of the dam that held back the hysterics. By the time he realized what was happening, the laughter was mingled with tears.
“Sweetheart,” Nitori-kun said, but whatever he was going to say after that was lost in the frantic way Rei leaned up to slam their lips together again. Nitori-kun made a confused noise, but relaxed into the movements of the kiss, one hand threading through Rei’s hair. Rei pulled back only when he heard the petulant whine coming from Haruka-senpai, laughing still in little fits and stops. He turned his head, ready to say something snarky and probably profane, only to have it cut off by Haruka-senpai taking his turn.
“Finally,” Haruka-senpai said, still sounding petulant, but he was smiling. Rei found he rather liked that smile, would like to see it some more.
“You know you could have kissed me literally any time from the day we met, right?” Rei laughed. Haruka-senpai said nothing, only pouted deeper when Nitori-kun started giggling. “That goes for you too, you know,” Rei said, jostling his legs to bounce Nitori-kun a bit off-balance.
“You say that, but had I done that any earlier, you would have run,” Nitori-kun replied.
“Well,” Rei said with a shrug, “I’m not running now.”
“No,” Nitori-kun agreed. “You’re not.”
And, Rei knew in that moment, he probably never would.
Come trick-or-treating in my inbox and I'll surprise you with either a fluffy autumn ficlet or something sad and twisted!
This turned into SouReiRin and I am not apologizing for that. Also I wish I could find the video I got this idea from but suffice it to say that any of our kids as werewolves would be complete idiots.
Treat
The moon hung golden and full in the late evening sky as Rei sat on his porch with a cup of cocoa and a smile. He watched as the pile of leaves to the far left of the yard went scattering everywhere, the ruddy wolf that brust out of it tearing off across the yard toward the next pile.
“You know, he’s never going to forgive you for raking them like that,” said a warm, familiar voice. Rei picked up the second mug he had made and held it up in offering without taking his eyes off the wolf playing in the yard.
“He won’t remember a thing,” Rei replied, humming contentedly as Sousuke sat beside him and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “Besides,” he added, “look how much fun he’s having.”
They turned and watched Rin race from pile to pile until there were no piles left, just scattered leaves and in the middle of it all, a grinning wolf with heaving flanks and a lolling tongue. Rin caught sight of them on the porch and perked up, trotting over with his tail wagging behind him.
“Did you have a good time?” Sousuke laughed, scratching that spot behind Rin’s left ear that would earn them a snarl if he were in his human shape, but under the full moon got him a thumping leg and a pleased whine.
Rei didn’t understand how the world could look at someone like Rin and think he was dangerous. How they misunderstood wolf packs so horribly. Rin was theirs, as much as they were his, and Rei knew he would never harm a single one of their little family. Wolves, after all, existed for the good of the pack, for the raising of future generations, for the experience of family and-
“Hey, turbonerd, I can hear you thinking over there,” Sousuke laughed. Rei chuckled, only slightly embarrassed, and reached out to tangle his own fingers in Rin’s reddish fur. Rin turned to face him, still panting, but with so much adoration in those red eyes of his that Rei couldn’t help but lean down and bury his nose in the scruff of Rin’s neck. Rin whined, but didn’t move, letting Rei soak up his warmth.
“You’re so good,” Rei whispered. He leaned back and ruffled Rin’s ears, leaning against Sousuke’s good arm.
For a long moment, the three of them watched the moon rise and the last of the daylight fade. Then Sousuke moved slightly and Rei leaned back to look at him.
“You really wanna see him go nuts?” Sousuke asked with a conspiratorial grin. Rei and Rin both cocked their heads at him and he laughed. Then he lifted his hand, revealing what he had been hiding the entire time. “You want the stick, Rin?” he asked, and, without waiting for a response, hurled the stick across the yard. Rin took off after it, and Rei settled in for a good laugh and a good long night with his loves.
you’re my emergency contact and i’ve been in an accident so you drop everything to come to the hospital - SouRei
Trigger Warning for Major Character Death
Sousuke’s heart was pounding in his chest as he raced through the hospital corridors. He had received the call at three in the morning, Iwami General Hospital and a woman’s voice telling him horrible things, telling him there had been an accident, telling him Rei’s name.
Rei. It had been months since they’d seen each other, months since the last knock-down-drag-out. Rei hadn’t even come to get his things himself: he had sent Nagisa and Haru to do it for him. And now he was in the hospital, and Sousuke had so much to say to him, and damn it why were there so many twists and turns in this hallway?
Sousuke reached the door at last, skidding to a halt in time to see a bed piled high with more tubes than man. His heart stopped.
“Rei,” he whispered, taking a step into the room. “Rei. Rei.” A short, stocky man stepped in front of him with a stern look on his face.
“I’m sorry, sir, but visiting hours are-”
“I’m Yamazaki Sousuke,” Sousuke interrupted. “I’m his emergency contact.” And god knew why he still was, after months apart, why Rei who was so very detail-oriented had never changed it over, had never stripped Sousuke of this final curse-privilege-obligation. The man checked something on his clipboard and nodded, stepping aside.
“He’s in a comatose state,” the man said. “I’m afraid he doesn’t have much time.” Sousuke nodded, anything to get the man to shut up, and stepped into the room.
Rei was so beautiful. He had tubes sticking out everywhere and a breathing mask over his face and dark circles under his eyes and a cut on his forehead and he was so, so beautiful. Sousuke sat down in the chair by his bed, too afraid to take his hand.
“I’m sorry,” Sousuke whispered, and it was like a dam broke. “I’m so sorry,” he sobbed. “I never should have let you go. I never should have let it get so bad. You were right, I was a shitty boyfriend. But please, Rei, you have to give me a chance. You have to pull through so I can prove to you that I’ll be better. I don’t deserve it, but you have to give it to me. Because none of us can live without you. Please, Rei, wake up.”
There was a soft beeping coming from one of the monitors, the rhythm of Rei’s remaining life. It stuttered, and Sousuke was filled with a confusion of dread and hope, hope that his words had gotten through to Rei and he was obeying, dread that this was the opposite. He watched Rei’s face as the stutter continued, and then fell flat.
He didn’t have time to cry as the nurses and the doctors rushed in and ushered him out. He didn’t have time to process what had happened. He didn’t have time to realize that this was it, that he would never see Rei’s smiling face again like he had secretly dreamed. All that existed in his mind was the flat tone of Rei falling asleep for the last time.
He found his way out of the hospital and down the street in a daze. He knew in some part of his mind that he should go back, that there would be paperwork to fill out, that there would be people to call and plans to make. He knew that he should call someone, probably Rin, that he shouldn’t be alone just then. But instead he kept walking.
