#1998 filter

[electronictheoristactivist]

I'm on a lifelong mission to honor my mentor and protect the innocent!

Justice and hard work are the only ways forward to victory!

I have contingency plans you can't even fathom!

Not even a Lazarus pit will be able to bring you back after I'm through!

[cookie-nigel-dolan]

Resident Evil 2 / Biohazard 2 (1998) – Leon (B)

Classic Resident Evil trilogy available on GOG

[kata-loging]

Thomas Ian Griffith as Jan Valek in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)

[mercuriallily]

I actually really like the black and white filter on these lol

[kyoyaootory]

cool_anime_man_smoking.gif

[theroseses]

Insomnia doodle of Cillian's eyes.

[phoenixglacier]

Full disclosure I haven't read this particular arc just yet (it's on my list!) plus tumblr deleted like three paragrahs and I'm grumpy, but I love love love how this is another example of Bruce trying so hard and succeeding in his relationship with Tim. There's a reason why Tim is probably the Robin who believes in Bruce the most (and highkey the only Robin who actually wants to keep Robinning) and it's because of moments like this. Bruce's getting-it-right-moments ratio manages a net positive when it comes to Tim where it questionably doesn't with everyone else.

Because unlike his adopted ones, Tim still saw Robin as a "job" that he could be "fired" from. He can/will/has quit Robin of more-or-less his own volition before. Everyday that he clocks in for his Robin shift is a reassurance to Bruce that he's choosing this, something that Bruce can't easily take for granted if his Robin is someone that depends on him for their entire livelihood.

In return, Bruce tries really hard with Tim and improves upon what relationship skills he had with Dick and Jason. Because Jason showed him what happens if he messes up. Because Dick kept reviewing where he went wrong. Because Tim wasn't the kind of kid to just roll over and take unjust treatment but also was the most starry-eyed and reasonable Robin to ever Robin. Bruce puts down his walls to apologise to Tim, Bruce praises Tim for his work frequently, Bruce hears out his troubles and tries to improve on them — all of these still scarce because Bruce is like that but also very much present throughout their relationship.

And Tim makes it so easy, you know? I'm thinking about Tim negotiating with Bruce doing Young Justice (1998) about telling his friends his secret identity. He communicates with him really well and doesn't let up on how unfair it is, all the while never giving Bruce a hint of a threat that he'll simply disobey him. Bruce bends the rules, and Tim is elated. He respects Bruce to hold the reins, but then he demands a level of respect in return. Because yeah, if Robin is a "job", then Batman is his boss, and he answers to the viligante union and HR department in Tim's head that allows Tim to walk out of this job anytime he wants.

Tim makes it so easy. He walked into the Robin position going quite clearly "You're not telling anyone what you feel but I'm quite certain I can tell. You have relationships in your life that are valuable but are quite clearly fucking up on and that's just a shame and needs to be rectified posthaste. I recognise that you're in charge here but here's my powerpoint presentation on what I think is the best course of action—" and then Tim is in there with his absolute zero mouth filter and his urge to emotionally contextualise absolutely everything that happens. He goes into fits of anger and then immediately follows it up with "I'm sorry for lashing out, I know you're only trying to help and it's just a lot for me." (hnnngh I'm in awe of this boy's emotional awareness) and he'll have a good time and then follow it up with "That was great! I particularly enjoyed ____ and ____!" like some field trip assignment. He does this to Bruce, he does this to Dick, he does this to freaking Alfred. His constant communication and general obedience puts everyone at ease and makes them more willing to hear him out, and also if the tiny kid is calling you out on your emotions and not stopping for the last twelve blocks then maybe it's time to address those supposedly obvious feelings.

I'm inclined to think that Dick and Jason could've achieved this if it wasn't for the fact that A) they were stuck to Bruce and had virtually no choice but to seek his approval for everything and B) Bruce wasn't being receptive. By the time Tim came along, Bruce had seen how a lack of trust breaks down the relationship and ultimately leads to major field consequences. He'd figured out that those pesky little emotions that he'd always shunted away was something that could put his Robin in actual danger, that he should actually prioritise them to the extent he could. He'd raised one Robin that he thought probably hated him (Dick) and another that had died trying to find parental love in his absence (Jason) and now here came a third Robin who would throw his hands up in the air exactly like his first two and Bruce knows what comes next if he plays his cards wrong.

It's fascinating for me to watch Dick and Bruce struggle through their own strange relationship in the early days of Tim because they (plus Alfred) constantly have Tim as their bottom line of the Ultimate Child To Protect. And like I said, Tim makes it easy. Anything Bruce fails at in the parental department isn't his first-line responsibility because Tim's dad is alive and he loves him (parental failures on Jack's part are considered more important because Jack's his real actual active dad! Tim doesn't want or expect Bruce to be his dad, therefore rendering all parental affections from Bruce net positive no matter what!), anytime Tim is dissatisfied with the adult support he's getting from Bruce, he stalks Dick or Alfred for Better Adult Advice.

The foundation of their relationship makes it work for Tim to be effectively and eventually officially an emancipated minor. Tim is well-equipped enough to handle the pesky adult parts. As for the mentoring parts, this child is basically famous for procuring his own family. But he and Bruce are extremely similar on their paranoid need for control, and this takes them in opposite directions in this scenario — Bruce wanting to adopt Tim, and Tim wanting to be independant. What I love so much about this conclusion is that Bruce gives in, accepts that he can't have total control, settles for involving himself in Tim's life in any way he can. And Tim receives this as trust, validation, security. It has the unfortunate side effect of encouraging his paranoia-fueled shenanigans (*cough*hit list*cough) as basically everyone in the batfamily does to each other, but it reinforces the support Tim needed at this difficult time. Bruce managed to reassure him that he would still be there for him even if he didn't choose to lock them into the father-son role Bruce wanted. Is it any surprise that Tim is the Robin he can depend on to always come home when called on?

(Of course, the net positive still means Bruce messed up 999 times but sooomehow they did manage a net positive)

This is one of my favourite Bruce/Tim moments. All you will ever need to know about Bruce's method of parenting his kids is in these three panels.

[acapellapotato]

i decided i didn't completely hate the 1st cover, but the people look kinda awkward. so i tried to quickly recreate it w/o them. but i couldn't edit it the exact same way or the text became washed out. so i'll have to change the color too. or does everyone else think the original edit is fine the way it is.

w/ the bloom effect 👇🏾

[homosexual-work-account]

Jason Todd’s “Replacement” nickname for Tim Drake, Origins and Popularisation

So, making a 2500-word essay on how a fanon nickname that only me and like two other people care about is not how I expected to spend my time in between exams.

A lot of Batfam fans are very, very much aware of the fanon “Replacement” nickname Jason has for Tim, and a lot of us very, very much hate it due to the connotations of fanon characterisation that it has. I don’t personally, I think it’s an alright enough one that fits into the established canon ones – but to be fair, I haven’t read the comics in a hot minute, so my memory could be screwy.

I got curious one day on where the nickname came from when a user on TikTok mentioned that it might’ve originated from a Batfam incest fic (They weren’t too sure and told me to take it with a grain of salt) – so shout out to them for starting me down this rabbit hole! I looked over on here and saw that notion repeated, though no one could pinpoint me to a specific fic beyond “It was popularised from a Batfam incest fic.”. I also saw a few people say that it was derived from canon, which piqued my interest further so I decided to go down a rabbit hole of fandom history purely for some fun.

The aim of this essay is just to clear up some misconceptions around the origin of the name, all fun and no harm. Don’t send harassment to people referenced in this either over a silly nickname, it's been well over a decade since they wrote the works used here.

Preface

Alright, first things first – all sources are going to be ones that were published after August 2005, the official date the first issue of Batman: Under the Red Hood was published, where Jason was established to be alive again.

While there could be a chance that the nickname was derived from a website/fanfiction before 2005, it’s highly unlikely due to the fact it was only popularised in the early 2010’s, and well, because Jason was dead and no one gave a shit about him. Also good to remember that most websites that ran before 2005 are defunct and purged from the internet now, particularly fanfiction websites (such as Quidzillia) due to various issues (taboo, copyright, costs to run ect).

Small note to make again – the Batfam fandom was fairly small at the time, the more fandom-y part of the DC community usually sticking to their own websites like Quotev, Quidzilla (again, defunct now), AO3, Fanfiction.net, LiveJournal and independent websites (again, defunct) while the rest stuck to discussion sites, so the entire fandom functioned more as a insular community from what I could tell. I will be working with the assumption that the nickname was created on one of the larger platforms, as any other platform didn’t have large enough influence to popularise the nickname.

The nicknames that I specifically looked for was simply Jason calling Tim Replacement in place of his actual name. Something like “Replacement Robin” was on very thin ice, but still counted as an offshoot. Anything else was off bets.

This whole thing will be split into a few sections to make some things for myself easier. Preface, Sources, Pre-cursor Fanfiction, Fandom Opinion and Language, First usage, Popularisation, Conclusion, Questions, Final Notes.

Sources

Fanfic.net – Created 1998, was and remains one of the larger fanfiction sites. Note; Fanfiction.net had various periods of time where there were large scale purges of fanfictions that held more mature content. Most notable instances were in 2002 and 2012.

Archive Of Our Own – The holy grail for my research. Created in 2008. For the information I got from there I used the search filter Date Updated, tagged Jason’s and Tim’s individual tags and followed from there.

Live Journal – Created 1999 and was used as one of the larger sites for fandom and fanfiction. Was used by DC fandom goers regularly so I used it to get an idea of the fandom at the time.

Tumblr – Created 2007. Theres various people on here who have compilations on DC timelines and comic sourcing that helped me correlate fandom growth with specific comic releases (Shout out to @ectonurites for their meta posts and timeline posts, they were a major source for this!). Dogshit filtering system, so I couldn’t find posts pre 2012 about DC.

Note; Quotev and Wattpad weren’t used in this as their filtering systems don’t account for searching for older fanfictions, so sadly had to be discarded as most fanfictions between 2006-2010 on those websites are now very difficult to find.

Pre-Cursor FanFiction

So, before we get to the actual first proper use I could find of “Replacement”, I first want to mention a fanfiction that had something very similar that I think would be important purely for archiving reasons around how the nickname came to be. And also because it fits the nickname criteria I mentioned earlier.

Published on the 29th of November 2006, last updated on the 28th of November 2007, was the fanfiction My-Enemy-My-Brother on Fanfiction.net by user theunknownvoice – featuring the first use of Jason referring to Tim with a nickname including replacement, Replacement Robin. Kudos to theunknownvoice, they created the very first nickname that would kickstart the rest.

While Jason doesn’t explicitly refer to Tim as Replacement – the main subject of this essay, it comes very damn close, so I wanted to include it. There is a part where Jason repeats replacement in his head multiple times, and I think he’s supposed to be referring to Tim, but the sentence isn’t very clear on that part, so I won’t count it, but it is important to acknowledge.

Though this isn’t the fanfiction that influenced the development of Replacement. This fic had barely enough reach to influence any future works years later. I couldn’t find any connection with this work and later works that officially did just have Jason call Tim “Replacement”

Fandom Opinion and Language at the time

I promise this is important and that I’m not a pretentious linguistic, English isn’t even my first language.

I like to think we all know how fandom discussion just seeps into fanfiction (See; the nickname green bean for Deku from MHA leaking into fanfiction) so I just want to quickly point this out.

Discussion around the two blew up after Jasons return in late 2005, people going “What does this mean” and “What does that mean for Tim”. Through the few posts I could dig up from this time and up to 2011, it seems people came to the conclusion that Tim was Jason’s replacement, and that their dynamic was Jason dealing with the fact that he had one. You can definitely see that in some of the posts and fanfiction written at the time that usually had Jason dealing with Tim being his replacement.

(Just a few examples from LiveJournal but more like this are still floating around, if they aren’t deleted anyway)

It’s very likely that the authors themselves engaged in similar discussions/had independent thoughts that ended in the same conclusions, seeping into the fanfiction itself later. In the comics pre-New 52 I couldn’t find any major instance of Jason explicitly referring to Tim as his replacement (only implied through speech), so this was mostly contained in fandom discussions from what I can tell. (Note, this was probably similar on comic discussion websites, but I couldn’t find any that still exist pre-2007, so I’m going to assume literacy skills are not any better on those sites. See; Batman dick riders)

The fact that Tim is explicitly described as having replaced Jason, and sometimes as “Being the Replacement” on posts/fanfiction definitely had a hand in the creation and popularisation of the nickname, influencing the fan content made around the two.

First usage of Replacement

Cain! Cain! Is the first use of the nickname Replacement really from a Batfam incest fanfiction?

Nope, thank God.

After filtering their character tags together on AO3, going to the oldest page and clicking through over 10 pages, reading every single fanfiction on each one (yes, even the weird ones, I was dedicated) I found the first instance where Jason explicitly refers to Tim as Replacement, that still exists today anyway.

Published on the 24th of January, 2009 by user shiny_glor_chan, is the fanfiction Four Calling Birds, a fanfiction detailing Stephenie Brown returning from faking her death (a whole headache from the comics that I can't be arsed to explain) and getting to meet Jason and Dick for the first time. Genuinely sweet, and a corner stone of fandom history, officially. Hip hip Hooray! Congratulations shiny_glor_chan.

I tried tracing to see if this person had any other accounts that I could find to see where they got the nickname from, but it seems it’s mostly a nickname they thought up out of the fact that they had consistently wrote Jason explicitly stating that Tim was his replacement

And reading through several more pages of fanfiction again, feeling like I want to bleach my eyes out, I found the second instance of the nickname being used. Published on the 26th of May, 2010 by user axiel-neesan, is the fanfiction The Only Piece You Get, where Jason basically acts as Tim’s cabbie and bonds with him. Another corner stone of fandom history, hooray.

These two authors are completely unrelated and have no connections to each other besides both frequenting LiveJournal, having taken prompts and having friends from that website, despite having no accounts I could find. I personally think they had a similar train of thought of “Huh, that would be a sick ass nickname.”. Chances are that axiel-neesan saw shiny_glor_chans fic and got inspired as the fandom was dead small on AO3 at the time – around 20 pages worth of fanfiction from 2008-2010 (And thats being generous if we’re counting now deleted ones)

These two fanfictions are immensely important because it’s the only early instances I could find of the nickname being used, and for about two years after the nickname pops up occasionally – but by no means was it popular, or even regularly used, I had to look for the fanfictions that used it.

Props to shiny_glor_chan and axiel-neesan! I pray that you two don’t see what the fandom thinks of that nickname now.

Popularisation

Early 2012 saw the proper explosion of fandom for the Batfam, and by extension the nickname.

By this point there were so many fanfictions that I couldn’t read them all, so I started picking random ones that tagged Jason and Tims relationship, platonic or not. Pre-April-ish of 2012 the nickname popped up every other page or so, but sometime after mid-2012 the nickname was in almost every fanfiction that I skimmed through – so that’s its official growth period.

Why though? Several factors probably.

The New-52 was in full swing by this time, DC massively promoting the reboot to get new fans interested, so people picked up comics from there. Young Justice – the more mainstream exposure of DC to surface level fans aired its second season in April of 2012, introducing people to Tim Drake and his story and getting them interested. Fanfiction and fandom as a whole was becoming less taboo and more accepted in fan spaces, so encouragement to write it was much better than it was in the early years of the internet (Example; Teen Wolf’s production team)

As for a specific catalyst for the growth of popularity for the nickname? There might be something worth pointing to.

Kudos for @ectonurites for helping me on this (Hi Sam! I was anon!) and giving me a publishing date on Tim’s and Jason’s first New 52 interaction – Red Hood and the Outlaws #8, published on the 18th of April, 2012. It features an instance of Jason and Tim interacting in a very friendly and familial way, Jason explicitly calling Bruce their Dad. Compared to their last major previous interaction of Jason leaving Tim for dead, fans of the two who enjoyed the more familial potential (and tragically, romantic potential) took it and ran with it.

All of these combined in some way to contribute to the popularity of the nickname in mid to late 2012, and lead to it’s infamy in DC fanfiction.

Conclusion

In conclusion, how do I think the nickname came to be?

I think it’s a combination of factors that led to it’s creation. As already established people very much did see Tim as Jasons replacement at the time, and the language could have shortened down from “Tim replaced Jason” to “Tim is Jason’s replacement” to “Tim is the replacement” which I think could be the train of thought the 2006 author went down to create the nickname Replacement Robin.

This definitely influenced the AO3 writers as shiny_glor_chan was present on LiveJournal at the time (where this language was very prominent), so they were already down the line of thinking this and probably went “Huh, replacement is kinda a funny nickname” and added it. As already stated, I think axiel-neesan probably had a very similar train of thought or may have seen shiny_glor_chan’s fic and was inspired.

And from there people saw it, used it in their own works, getting leaked over onto LiveJournal, which was the main website for prompt sharing, getting used a decent amount there before the explosion of fandom in mid-2012 that lead to it’s regular usage in fan works.

Questions

So, is the nickname from a Batcest fic?

Nope! The nickname mostly makes an appearance in platonic fics between Jason and Tim, it’s actually a chore to find it in their romantic ones, as in I think I found one instance of it being used somewhere in late 2010 but I can't think of it in a fanfiction that predates that. All early uses of the nickname were in platonic fics between the two.

I think this rumour is based around three fanfictions specifically on Ao3 that people are pointing to, I think, no one seems to be wanting to name names. They’re the ones that pop up when you search Replacement in the word search after tagging Tim Drake and Jason Todd together.

Wings to Fly. Published October of 2012. Jason Refers to Tim as Replacement. Jason/Tim

Replacement. Published 2009. The title implies it’s referring to Tim, but Jason never explicitly nicknames Tim replacement, the narrator only calling Tim “His replacement”, him being Jason. Jason/Tim. Non-con

The Replacement. Published 2011. Can't figure out if the title is supposed to refer to Tim or is simply just titled that for the sake of it. Jason talks a few times about Tim being his replacement, but the nickname never makes an appearance. Jason/Tim

Does the nickname have any bases in Canon?

From what I can tell, no. I haven’t read all the Batfamily comics Pre-New 52, or from after Batman: Under The Red Hood, I mostly stray towards Hal Jordans comics lol. I don’t think theres any major instance where Jason talks about Tim replacing him by specifically using replacement or replacing (It can be inferred from his speech sometimes, but Jason’s relationship with Tim was much more complex than that. I’d recommend reading @ectonurites metas about the two to get a better idea) Theres a few instances in 2015 post-New 52 reboot where Jason says explicitly that Tim replaced him, but that was way after the nickname was popularised.

Red Hood and Arsenal #7 (2015)

Final Notes

That’s about it! That’s the result of my month long dive into almost twenty years worth of DC fandom history as a fun side project. Please don’t harass anyone linked here, this was just project to pass the time and not a call out post for anyone that did contribute to the popularisation of the nickname.

Feel free to ask me anything else about this or any other DC fandom history and I’ll try to research it!! This was genuinely a fun thing to do to pass the time and work out my research muscles.

[cookie-nigel-dolan]

Resident Evil 2 / Biohazard 2 (1998) – Leon (B)

Classic Resident Evil trilogy available on GOG

[kata-loging]

Thomas Ian Griffith as Jan Valek in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)

[nitrosodiumgameanglia]

Why Sound Design is so Important in Games

Sound design is a key point in games, though it is often neglected in college games where we do a lot of work without speakers on. Having some good audio in a game really helps elevate the experience beyond just being a solely visual medium, as much as audio changed silent movies. The games with the best sound design are often those with realistic sound systems, or ones that elicit the desired emotional response. Good sound design can make you terrified to turn a corner; it can make you cry in the game's saddest moments; it can turn a level from a selection of rendered polygons to a truly real-seeming experience. Obviously our game's sound design isn't that deep, but it doesn't add nothing to the game either.

The first game I am looking at is Thief: The Dark Project. This game came out in 1998, but I would say it still holds up today with a few patches to make it run on modern systems. The game has a unique stealth system that lets you hide in shadows, but the main thing we're looking at is the sound. Different surfaces are different levels of loudness when walked on - carpet is perfect for sneaking, but metal catwalks are loud and clank under your feet. This isn't just set dressing either, because enemies are more likely to hear you if you're clanking about on steel grating. Then there is the ambient sound, where you can hear nearby guards muttering or whistling (in a great bit of game design, this helps you keep track of them when they're out of sight), torches crackle, and strange ambient screeches echo down hallways. The ambient soundtracks in each level are interesting, and use a lot of electronic synthesiser noises, which gives them an 80s John Carpenter vibe. They help make the environments foreboding, but also help tell the story in a way that 90s graphics simply could not. For example, as you enter the deepest annals of an ultra-religious Hammerite compound, the ambient whirr of machinery gets replaced by solemn choir and hymns. Caves can have dripping water and the occasional crumbling rock, while more twisted forest environments have the endless chirring of insects and chuckling from unseen nymphs and satyrs. The actual sound technology is also really good for the time, because it supports sound cards, even though they aren't used too much anymore. With them enabled, you can listen against a door and gauge how big a room is based on the echo of the guard's voices inside. Even for today that is fairly advanced, and as far as I know, not present in many other games.

The next game I am looking at is Hunt: Showdown. It is a 2018 horror shooter taking place at the end of the 19th century, where you play as a bounty hunter trying to kill various cryptids and monsters. The game uses the Cry Engine, so it already looks good on a visual front, but the audio is also phenomenal. Most of the quality comes from its directional sound system, which is so specific you can tell where players are through buildings, which is useful for lining up shots when you don't have a good visual read on their whereabouts. Every gun also has a unique sound and echo, which allows an educated player to guess what weapon has been fired, from what direction, and even from what distance. The way that the game calculates sound waves travelling is a very unique and realistic system; a gunshot ringing out over an open field will be louder and clearer than a gunshot fired in the middle of the thick backwoods. I assume this is a built-in feature for CryEngine V because I know of no other games with this level of realism when it comes to sound - I can only assume it calculates for windspeed and other factors and then runs the sound effect through various in-engine filters.

Finally, I will look at The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. One of the lesser-mentioned qualities of this game is its environmental sound design, which help the various holds of Skyrim seem like realistic places. The wind whistles about your ears, giving you a good sense of your player's altitude and the temperature around you. In the mornings and evenings, you can hear crickets chirring and birds chirping. The rushing of rivers sounds different depending on the course - swelling into a roar of white noise in the rapids, but dissipating to a trickle when the river becomes a lazy stream. Then there are more ethereal sounds, like the creaking of the aurora borealis on winter nights. Towns have their own soundscapes also, with the creaking wood of huts and the crackle of flaming torches. The ambient music by Jeremy Soule (the same guy behind the LOTR soundtrack) also adds a lot to the game's atmosphere, with majestic orchestras making even a simple walk through the valleys a much more emotive and captivating experience. However, you can play with the sound turned off and just listen to the layered soundscapes.

From my research, I can see that the main theme that makes a soundscape good is attention to detail. Not just having one sword hit sound, for example, but several, altered depending what material you strike, and echoing with a different resonance depending on where you are. I would say that with Wallpaper of the Mind, we have achieved this as best we can in four weeks, with the different footstep surfaces. The sounds I myself provided were more stock quality, but it doesn't matter, because how sound is used mechanically is just as important. I will make a blog post on this soon.

[porcelainseashore]

Coffee & Secrets (1)

Series Masterlist

Pairing: Rookie Cop! Leon x Barista! Fem! Reader

Summary: As a cozy coffee shop owner in Raccoon City, you’re no stranger to visitors seeking comfort, quiet, and warmth. When a rookie officer named Leon finds a kindred spirit in you, it sets in motion a chain of events that forever changes the course of your lives. An alternate universe set in Resident Evil 2 Remake and inspired by the game Coffee Talk.

Content & Warnings: Canon divergence, coffee shops, romance, slow burn, strangers to lovers, idiots in love, fluff, slice of life, swearing

Author's Note: The biggest heartfelt thank you to my friends @alibellerosetta and Cameron who beta’d this fic + all those who reached out and supported me in DMs! ❤️ P.S. There may be spoilers for Coffee Talk ahead, so read at your own discretion.

AO3 Link

Chapter 1: Arrival

September 30, 1998. It was heavy rain and howling winds, but your shop was still open, like a beacon of light in the darkness. A flash of lightning and a high beam panned across the window. The rumbling sound of an engine came to a halt. 

Could that be your first customer of the day?

Your question was answered when a young, red-haired woman in a matching leather jacket burst through the front door, triggering the welcome chime that signaled a new arrival. She was drenched like a drowned rat, helmet tucked under her arm as she made her way over to the counter tentatively, her eyes darting back and forth at the empty space before her.

“Hey, uh, you’re open, right?”

“Of course.” Your smile was genial and bright, but not scorching—mellow like the midnight sun in a starless sky. “What would you like, miss?”

She relaxed a little, her shoulders loosening as she placed her helmet on the counter until it appeared as if she remembered something. Looking back, her gaze followed the trail of dirty puddles she had left in her wake. Water pooled from her soaked boots as she gave you a sheepish grin. “Um, sorry.”

You waved it off with a laugh. “Apologize when you can control the weather.” Grabbing a couple of tea towels from the nearby rack, you handed it to her. “Here, why don’t you dry off while I fix you something to warm up with?”

She thanked you profusely as you got to work, concocting up a special blend of frothy hot chocolate with milk, honey, rosewater, and a touch of cinnamon. The pattering of rain from the outside complemented the chill lo-fi soundtrack you had put on in the background.

Sliding the glass over the surface of the table, you placed it in front of her. “Your Turkish Delight, miss.”

“Claire,” she offered. “Just call me Claire.” 

As she brought the steamy drink to her lips, her eyes widened, like something had caught her by surprise.

“Mmm, wow,” she sputtered. “This is—”

“Good?”

“Really good!” she corrected, as she gulped the rest down enthusiastically.

At that moment, the door chime tinkled again, and another stranger strolled in, attempting to brush away the droplets from his clothes in vain. Running a hand through his slick blonde bangs, his piercing blue eyes fell upon the two of you like a deer in the headlights.

“Uh, um…” he stammered, only to shake his head in response at his own fumbling as he cleared his throat to try again. “Do you mind if—”

But you were already there, holding out another towel before he could even blink.

“Oh, uh, thanks.” The corners of his mouth curled into a shy smile as he took the towel from your hands gratefully.

“You better leave her a good tip!” Claire hollered from where she sat as he chuckled and raised his hands in mock resignation.

“And what can I get you, mister?”

“Leon.”

“Hmm?”

He stuck out his hand, greeting you with an air of innocence and genuineness. “I’m Leon.”

You shook hands and introduced yourself before he would reveal his order. “Just a coffee, nothing fancy.”

“Coming right up,” you called out over your shoulder, a knowing look cast across your face.

As you prepared a pot of black filter coffee, you overheard your two customers exchanging a few words.

“You from Raccoon City?”

“Nah, I’m just here for a few days to visit my brother. Lemme guess, you’re not from around here either?”

“Not really, well, not yet. I mean, I was supposed to start my first day at the RPD—”

“Wait, today? Have you seen the time?”

“I know, I know… I got delayed. Add the insane weather and I’m still trying to work out the directions on this map.”

“Well, rookie, you’re in luck. My brother’s part of S.T.A.R.S., so I could lead you to the station when the weather clears up a little.”

“Rookie? Really?”

“Do you want my help or not?”

Pouring the freshly brewed coffee into a cup, you served it to Leon, who had just accepted Claire’s offer, despite his slight hesitation. “Your nothing fancy coffee.”

He snickered, locking eyes with you for a split second before taking a sip. Tension eased from his brows as he closed them shut, sighing blissfully into the cup. “It’s—”

“Really good?” Claire suggested, finishing his sentence from him.

He nodded and pursed his lips, finishing the rest of the drink in a couple of mouthfuls. Gesturing towards Claire’s empty glass, he stated, “I’ll get hers too.”

As he fished out a couple of crumpled bills, you stopped him, instinctively placing your hand over his when he tried to slip them over. His eyes flickered at your touch, but he did not pull away, waiting patiently for your response.

“On the house,” you clarified.

“What? No,” Claire protested as she motioned to the empty seats around her. “How’s your shop gonna survive like this?”

“I’ll manage,” you shrugged before peering out through one of the side windows. “Seems like the rain’s lightened up.”

“We’ll be back,” Leon promised, his gaze stoic and sincere, as he dragged the chair out under him, preparing to leave. Claire did the same.

As the door chime tinkled for the final time that evening, he paused abruptly, popping his head back in to ask, “When are you open?”

At this, you let out a smile. “Only at night.”

Dividers by @cafekitsune

[lizardsfromspace]

Okay, Matrix plagiarism case postscript

One thing I didn't answer is how she got the Wachowski's timeline wrong. I still don't know, but it appears she essentially shifted their lives back a decade

She says less than a decade ago they were running a construction business, but actually, working at a construction company is what they were doing in 1986. In 1976 Lana and Lilly were eleven and nine years old respectively. I can't explain why she messed this up, beyond having to age them up a decade for the story to work

But this screencap also brings up another thing she mentions repeatedly that I didn't mention - the smoking gun in her claim is that...the Matrix ripped off her words verbatim for its opening crawl. The opening crawl...to The Matrix.

Huh?

So her story is - and unsurprisingly the timeline here is jumbled, for instance, citing production interviews from 1997 when the film wouldn't enter production until 1998 - the original version of The Matrix contained a Star Wars-style opening crawl, and this was the most directly plagiarized part of the film.

She claims this opening crawl was, in fact, in the theatrical release of The Matrix and only removed when it came to home media, because she. Because she called the FBI on the Wachowskis for stealing the idea of opening crawls from her

The theatrical cut does differ from later versions slightly - most infamously the Wachowskis made the green color filter much more green in the second DVD release, to make it consistent with the style of the sequels - but if there was a opening crawl mandated by the studio, nobody but her has mentioned it, and I find it hard to believe critics wouldn't mention it.

Because this is Dark City. She's clearly confused The Matrix with stories about the studio's meddling with the 1998 film Dark City.

Dark City was the dystopian sci-fi film that had a opening narration explaining the whole plot foisted on it by the studio, and critics mentioned it. Basically every review mentioned it (some even suggest covering your ears or muting the film the first time you see it, at least until the Director's Cut removed it). Meanwhile, reviews of The Matrix praised its opening from the very beginning: how it drops you right into things and lets you find out about its world as Neo does. It's just not possible that the theatrical release has a opening crawl no one mentioned when I can pull up full comparisons of theatrical vs first DVD vs second DVD vs Bluray. Whatever story she read either was about Dark City, or was a Wachowski saying in passing "yeah the studio wanted us to add one but we didn't".

Another thing I didn't touch on is just how much it hypes her up as a untouchable genius of cinema. For instance, she claims to have come up with the effects of The Matrix in 1983 too

(one funny part is how little she brings up The Terminator at all? She just threw it in as a bonus I guess)

I looked up how they did the bullet time effect in particular and...it would have been impossible in 1983. It's not just high speed photography; it's entire banks of cameras, placed in the right place by computer previsualization, their sequence programmed, and with all the elements composited together by CGI. Even stylistically - the true creator of the effects cited Akira as a influence, and Akira the movie didn't exist in 1983. Neither did the type of Hong Kong action film that heavily influenced it. I guess it would be possible to write down "someone goes really fast and we depict it like they slowed down time", concepts of a plan etc

But like.

She's destined to be one of the most profound master writers of the 21st century. This is a book proving she's never written anything. It has a pitch for The Third Eye, it has a second film treatment tacked on at the end, and it has copyright registrations for her sequels to Terminator and The Matrix. M. Night Shyamalan's character in Lady in the Water was destined to be a great writer too, but he actually wrote a book. He didn't put out a book with a decades-old synposis that was never finished & reams of legal documents and a bio saying, I'm one of the greatest authors of all time. Because who needs writing when you have destiny, God, and the ancient superrace living in the Pyramids on your side?

This is my for real last post on this since I ended up just depressed about it in the end. I think the worst part is, she knows she lost. But she still goes to the press telling a story she knows isn't true, and people believe her. Some of it is transphobic - "stop saying it's a trans allegory when they stole it"; some of it runs with the Christian oppression narrative (full disclosure, I was inspired to look for her book again bc while looking up another crank, I saw an interview with her in the sidebar of a religious website); but a lot of it is just people who innocently want it to be true.

One of the few pieces debunking her story is on a website called Black Excellence - it doesn't even have a byline - said this:

"There are many people, especially Black people, who wanted the story to be true. It symbolized a Black person, especially a Black woman, finally winning against the system. When Sophia Stewart spoke about how mainstream media would not give her the time of day because almost all of them were owned by Warner Brothers, some Black media embraced her. Blogs spread her story, especially the initial story on Globe that contained errors about the case.

"But the story is not true. Sophia Stewart did not become the richest Black person in the country. But that did not deter her from going on several shows and publications to tell her story."

She took advantage of people's urge to root for the underdog against a corporation - and seized on a lack of mainstream coverage to claim her story was being suppressed. But it just isn't true. Also yeah she ridiculously claims that Warner Bros owns every news website and newspaper and that's kind of funny I guess. Well, that's it. I'm never doing this again

[rubyreadd]

https://www.tumblr.com/rubyreadd/767317434950647808/i-have-1600-words-of-omegavale-meta-i-hope?source=share

genuinely starving.

Me too anon, and I'm writing the damn thing.

As of right now I have added another three thousand words to my meta and honestly, I reckon I'm well on my way to having six thousand by the time I'm done. However, I have been sitting on this piece for so long and making various vague posts about it that I think it's high time I gave you all some context.

So here are an assortment of excerpts from the current draft:

From the second part of my doc regarding character analysis -

It's entirely unintentional on Valentino's behalf, but he does become somewhat of an "omega activist", if only for simply existing in an alpha dominated space without suppressing his designation. If you asked Valentino about this role model status however, he would just laugh you off. Being a rider is not about being an omega or alpha or whatever.

Except that more often than not it is. Valentino cannot keep up with the raw strength and aggression of his alpha competitors, even if he does have a mean right hook. So he hones his cunning instead, becoming a force of luminous charisma that is as intoxicating as the heady florals of his scent.

Valentino's myth is veiled in sensuality, the romancing of man and machine that transforms an entire sport; underpinned by the allure of an unattainable omega. It becomes another tool in Valentino's arsenal, the same way the celebrations and the yellow are part of his shtick as The Doctor. Valentino's modus operandi is to pick his competition apart at the seams and let them unravel the rest of the way themselves, and he knows that his being an omega plays on the fault lines of alpha superiority. Valentino, who should’ve been kept as an accessory to his alpha’s success, rising well above his station to beat out said alpha wheel to wheel.

It rankles and Valentino is counting on that.

Another facet of character analysis, Uccio & Vale -

There is one exception however. Uccio. The fundamentals are the same – boyhood friends who carry each other in triumph and through defeat. The friend Valentino trusts unequivocally and unwaveringly to keep him grounded, and the man Uccio has devoted himself in his entirety to. Uccio just also happens to be an alpha.

It's a relationship dynamic that bucks the prevailing convention that alphas and omegas can only consort with the intention to mate, or at least fuck. Uccio is the one who finds Valentino feverish and confused with the onset of his presentation heat; who takes it upon himself to guard Valentino's room with resolute determination until his heat tapers out three days later.

Uccio's presentation rut comes the following week, and when he emerges Valentino is waiting for him, smelling like spring, lush with the promise of becoming. Valentino is the first person Uccio ever scents – a tentative exploration that is more an awkward bumping of wrists and noses than anything else. But it makes Valentino laugh, bright and toothy, notes of fig and orange blossom filtering through his scent. It settles like a ball of light in Uccio's chest, and Valentino tells him he smells like cloves.

Sete/Vale. These following three sections are all ship analyses -

Sete is Valentino's first heat partner.

Sete finds this out while he's got Valentino half undressed and squirming in his lap, his scent blooming with syrupy heat. It's 2000 and Sete has been the altruistic hand guiding Valentino through his transition to 500cc – a familiar, friendly face that Valentino can seek out when he needs a breather from his boywonder persona. Sete is also unconcerned with the alpha posturing of some of his competitors, a trait that draws Valentino in when they first meet in 1998. Apart from a cursory sniff Sete doesn’t comment on Valentino’s designation, focusing instead on teaching him the mechanics of rear-wheel riding. It makes Valentino feel normal in a way he gets with sparingly few people – like a competitor and not a conquest.

Valentino likes Sete. He trusts Sete. And two years later, when Valentino is on holiday with Sete and his heat takes hold, Sete, broad and handsome and undeniably alpha in a way that makes Valentino’s head swim, takes Valentino into his arms and apart in his bed. Valentino isn’t a virgin, but this – Sete’s back flexing under Valentino’s hands, his mouth an iron-hot brand on Valentino’s skin, the drag of his cock inside Valentino – is something else. Valentino exists only where Sete touches him, drifting on his firewood and leather scent.

Casey/Vale

Casey isn’t stupid, he knows this can only end poorly. But Casey is only a man, only an alpha, and he has spent so long denying both of those things that now, with the object of his most base desires in front of him, Casey can’t keep pretending that he doesn’t want. Casey does make an almost valiant attempt to suggest they find Uccio, but then Valentino presses the whole length of himself against Casey and whines and that’s that.

Casey doesn’t tell him, but Valentino rightly guesses that he’s never had an omega in heat before. The underlying accusation of incompetence makes Casey arc up and he manhandles Valentino into the bedroom and onto his back. Valentino only smiles up at him, satisfied. He’s being a dickhead but Valentino didn’t seek Casey out to beat around the bush. He’s seen Casey ride like a devil and now Valentino wants to know if he fucks like one too.

Valentino leans up as far as he can against the iron-sure grip Casey has around his wrists, manacling him to the bed, and noses along the line of Casey’s jaw until he gets to the soft skin at the juncture of Casey’s throat. He exhales, feels gooseflesh shiver into life against his lips, and licks right over the scent gland there. A throwing down of the gauntlet that hits all of Casey’s pressure points. He puts Valentino on his knees, face down ass up, and takes.

Marc/Vale

Marc is Valentino's reminder.

He boasts a quintessential alpha attitude; ambitious, aggressive, flush with ego. He stinks of alpha pheromones too. However, the eager genuineness Marc approaches the sport and Valentino with bevels out the less refined aspects of his personality. So Valentino doesn’t mind Marc’s overenthusiastic efforts to seduce him. He can appreciate a man who knows what he wants. 

And what Marc wants is world championships and Valentino. Initially he aspires to wanting to be like Valentino, but after Marc presents that aspiration shifts to wanting Valentino full stop.