Harp the Wigglytuff @wigglytuffitout@computerfairi.es

he decides he doesn't need to check his messages actually.

he is waiting outside the therapist-chaplain's door in the morning. and the company therapist lets him get out about three sentences before interrupting him to yell in disgust. fine. Fine! it's a fucking dodge for more shore leave that the therapist has seen a million times before! so he gets ONE, and if this nonsense continues? he'll get his contract cancelled! for good! now fuck off!

he logs on to check his messages late one night. the mascot for the company that hired him - and the whole rest of this 'peacekeeping ship' - is a dancing golden pig with a benign smile. he's never particularly liked the thing, but never hated it, either.

until tonight.

the golden pig on the terminal wallpaper turns its head around uncannily to stare at him head-on. "i know what you've been doing," it says, voice dark and dripping with hate.

he always thought this master control script was just a myth. it had to be just an excuse trotted out to shareholders - right?

but no. it's here. he has it, and more than that - it seems to know him. and to want to *obey* him.

the dreams are getting more solid and vivid. he's getting scared. sometimes he tries to just stay up all night training instead of having them.

they are so complicated. he just wanted this contract to be *simple*.

it takes him three days to work up the nerve to plug the revealed datastick into an infopad. (that was after he sourced a mostly-broken infopad with all its network connectivity taken out - he might have had to take this contract with this corp, but he ain't THAT stupid.)

the screen flashes and he feels his blood turn to electric fire.

he knows what this data stick is. he KNOWS. this has been making every corp in this hemisphere sweat for years.

all the other troops take souviniers sometimes. it's not like a letter opener is as bad as racy photos or stolen underwear.

he plays with it sometimes, twirling it in-between his fingers. it feels good and weighty and right in a way he can't quite articulate. the first time he finds the hidden switch, he panics, because he thinks he's broken it. but no - it's meant to slide away to reveal something hidden in it.

the dreams start sticking with him more and more when he wakes up. but he gives up on telling them to other people.

it's a regular order, simple breech and clear of a rival company, when he picks it up. he just thought it was pretty. i mean, the secretary whose desk he picked it up off of was dead or worse by then, right? it wasn't 3d printed, it wasn't even plastic - kinda rare. and a letter opener in the shape of a sword - well, it's just kinda neat, right?

it's half past cyberpunk dystopia o'clock, and a young military man is having strange dreams.

the therapist for his private military company ship says they're because he's watching too many fantasy holovids. he thinks that's probably right, but he still can't shake this feeling that he's been here before, done this before, again and again, in ways that don't make sense. and that this ship should have sails, somehow.

aw dunk i forgot to post this extremely bad extremely nsfw gif for the 4th of July

please have it slightly late instead (legit nsfw naked genital bits, also bad safety practices on display)

@cosmicrose@queer.party ah yes, delicious shrimp tempura!*

*bc apparently the internet has decided this pose is called Shrimping and i love it

i have a new online prejudice:

people who roll viera only to stick them in the werewolf ears, obliterating their bunny ears entirely, are Awful and when i am queen they will be made Illegal In The Eyes of The Law.

also there's a ffxiv ship i am on board spelled out for you: cid and nero are totally Oh, They Fuckin'. https://twitter.com/prozd/status/998647988510748672?lang=en

@Jo the animation could be better though https://media1.tenor.com/images/465a6f647a9a414ef1a6d3e71804a261/tenor.gif?itemid=4985611

@Jo ( obligatory ffxiv joke sorry ) oh yeah, that's the culinarian limit break ( /obligatory )

happy Look At My Catgirl o'clock everyone! #ffxiv

cw for eye contact i think? i mean close enough

so this is a thing that exists for people who have enjoyed HBO's Chernobyl https://youtu.be/TA9WQrWLnK4

i'm not trying to do the "i win the oppression olympics" thing at all but can i just say, as a disabled person who is too physically disabled to go out and protest, and too busy dealing with mental health to go to the frontlines even electronically, as well as not having money to donate, that right now it very much sucks to be powerless to resist against current events