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perpetual-stories · 4 years ago

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Story Structures for your Next WIP

hello, hello. this post will be mostly for my notes. this is something I need in to be reminded of for my business, but it can also be very useful and beneficial for you guys as well.

everything in life has structure and storytelling is no different, so let’s dive right in :)

First off let’s just review what a story structure is :

a story is the backbone of the story, the skeleton if you will. It hold the entire story together.

the structure in which you choose your story will effectively determine how you create drama and depending on the structure you choose it should help you align your story and sequence it with the conflict, climax, and resolution.

1. Freytag's Pyramid

this first story structure i will be talking about was named after 19th century German novelist and playwright.

it is a five point structure that is based off classical Greek tragedies such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripedes.

Freytag's Pyramid structure consists of:

Introduction: the status quo has been established and an inciting incident occurs.

Rise or rising action: the protagonist will search and try to achieve their goal, heightening the stakes,

Climax: the protagonist can no longer go back, the point of no return if you will.

Return or fall: after the climax of the story, tension builds and the story inevitably heads towards...

Catastrophe: the main character has reached their lowest point and their greatest fears have come into fruition.

this structure is used less and less nowadays in modern storytelling mainly due to readers lack of appetite for tragic narratives.

2. The Hero's Journey

the hero's journey is a very well known and popular form of storytelling.

it is very popular in modern stories such as Star Wars, and movies in the MCU.

although the hero's journey was inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept, a Disney executive Christopher Vogler has created a simplified version:

The Ordinary World: The hero's everyday routine and life is established.

The Call of Adventure: the inciting incident.

Refusal of the Call: the hero / protagonist is hesitant or reluctant to take on the challenges.

Meeting the Mentor: the hero meets someone who will help them and prepare them for the dangers ahead.

Crossing the First Threshold: first steps out of the comfort zone are taken.

Tests, Allie, Enemies: new challenges occur, and maybe new friends or enemies.

Approach to the Inmost Cave: hero approaches goal.

The Ordeal: the hero faces their biggest challenge.

Reward (Seizing the Sword): the hero manages to get ahold of what they were after.

The Road Back: they realize that their goal was not the final hurdle, but may have actually caused a bigger problem than before.

Resurrection: a final challenge, testing them on everything they've learned.

Return with the Elixir: after succeeding they return to their old life.

the hero's journey can be applied to any genre of fiction.

3. Three Act Structure:

this structure splits the story into the 'beginning, middle and end' but with in-depth components for each act.

Act 1: Setup:

exposition: the status quo or the ordinary life is established.

inciting incident: an event sets the whole story into motion.

plot point one: the main character decided to take on the challenge head on and she crosses the threshold and the story is now progressing forward.

Act 2: Confrontation:

rising action: the stakes are clearer and the hero has started to become familiar with the new world and begins to encounter enemies, allies and tests.

midpoint: an event that derails the protagonists mission.

plot point two: the hero is tested and fails, and begins to doubt themselves.

Act 3: Resolution:

pre-climax: the hero must chose between acting or failing.

climax: they fights against the antagonist or danger one last time, but will they succeed?

Denouement: loose ends are tied up and the reader discovers the consequences of the climax, and return to ordinary life.

4. Dan Harmon's Story Circle

it surprised me to know the creator of Rick and Morty had their own variation of Campbell's hero's journey.

the benefit of Harmon's approach is that is focuses on the main character's arc.

it makes sense that he has such a successful structure, after all the show has multiple seasons, five or six seasons? i don't know not a fan of the show.

the character is in their comfort zone: also known as the status quo or ordinary life.

they want something: this is a longing and it can be brought forth by an inciting incident.

the character enters and unfamiliar situation: they must take action and do something new to pursue what they want.

adapt to it: of course there are challenges, there is struggle and begin to succeed.

they get what they want: often a false victory.

a heavy price is paid: a realization of what they wanted isn't what they needed.

back to the good old ways: they return to their familiar situation yet with a new truth.

having changed: was it for the better or worse?

i might actually make a operate post going more in depth about dan harmon's story circle.

5. Fichtean Curve:

the fichtean curve places the main character in a series of obstacles in order to achieve their goal.

this structure encourages writers to write a story packed with tension and mini-crises to keep the reader engaged.

The Rising Action

the story must start with an inciting indecent.

then a series of crisis arise.

there are often four crises.

2. The Climax:

3. Falling Action

this type of story telling structure goes very well with flash-back structured story as well as in theatre.

6. Save the Cat Beat Sheet:

this is another variation of a three act structure created by screenwriter Blake Snyder, and is praised widely by champion storytellers.

Structure for Save the Cat is as follows: (the numbers in the brackets are for the number of pages required, assuming you're writing a 110 page screenplay)

Opening Image [1]: The first shot of the film. If you’re starting a novel, this would be an opening paragraph or scene that sucks readers into the world of your story.

Set-up [1-10]. Establishing the ‘ordinary world’ of your protagonist. What does he want? What is he missing out on?

Theme Stated [5]. During the setup, hint at what your story is really about — the truth that your protagonist will discover by the end.

Catalyst [12]. The inciting incident!

Debate [12-25]. The hero refuses the call to adventure. He tries to avoid the conflict before they are forced into action.

Break into Two [25]. The protagonist makes an active choice and the journey begins in earnest.

B Story [30]. A subplot kicks in. Often romantic in nature, the protagonist’s subplot should serve to highlight the theme.

The Promise of the Premise [30-55]. Often called the ‘fun and games’ stage, this is usually a highly entertaining section where the writer delivers the goods. If you promised an exciting detective story, we’d see the detective in action. If you promised a goofy story of people falling in love, let’s go on some charmingly awkward dates.

Midpoint [55]. A plot twist occurs that ups the stakes and makes the hero’s goal harder to achieve — or makes them focus on a new, more important goal.

Bad Guys Close In [55-75]. The tension ratchets up. The hero’s obstacles become greater, his plan falls apart, and he is on the back foot.

All is Lost [75]. The hero hits rock bottom. He loses everything he’s gained so far, and things are looking bleak. The hero is overpowered by the villain; a mentor dies; our lovebirds have an argument and break up.

Dark Night of the Soul [75-85-ish]. Having just lost everything, the hero shambles around the city in a minor-key musical montage before discovering some “new information” that reveals exactly what he needs to do if he wants to take another crack at success. (This new information is often delivered through the B-Story)

Break into Three [85]. Armed with this new information, our protagonist decides to try once more!

Finale [85-110]. The hero confronts the antagonist or whatever the source of the primary conflict is. The truth that eluded him at the start of the story (established in step three and accentuated by the B Story) is now clear, allowing him to resolve their story.

Final Image [110]. A final moment or scene that crystallizes how the character has changed. It’s a reflection, in some way, of the opening image.

(all information regarding the save the cat beat sheet was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

7. Seven Point Story Structure:

this structure encourages writers to start with the at the end, with the resolution, and work their way back to the starting point.

this structure is about dramatic changes from beginning to end

The Hook. Draw readers in by explaining the protagonist’s current situation. Their state of being at the beginning of the novel should be in direct contrast to what it will be at the end of the novel.

Plot Point 1. Whether it’s a person, an idea, an inciting incident, or something else — there should be a "Call to Adventure" of sorts that sets the narrative and character development in motion.

Pinch Point 1. Things can’t be all sunshine and roses for your protagonist. Something should go wrong here that applies pressure to the main character, forcing them to step up and solve the problem.

Midpoint. A “Turning Point” wherein the main character changes from a passive force to an active force in the story. Whatever the narrative’s main conflict is, the protagonist decides to start meeting it head-on.

Pinch Point 2. The second pinch point involves another blow to the protagonist — things go even more awry than they did during the first pinch point. This might involve the passing of a mentor, the failure of a plan, the reveal of a traitor, etc.

Plot Point 2. After the calamity of Pinch Point 2, the protagonist learns that they’ve actually had the key to solving the conflict the whole time.

Resolution. The story’s primary conflict is resolved — and the character goes through the final bit of development necessary to transform them from who they were at the start of the novel.

(all information regarding the seven point story structure was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

i decided to fit all of them in one post instead of making it a two part post.

i hope you all enjoy this post and feel free to comment or reblog which structure you use the most, or if you have your own you prefer to use! please share with me!

if you find this useful feel free to reblog on instagram and tag me at perpetualstories

Follow my tumblr and instagram for more writing and grammar tips and more!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

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lilith-little-world · 2 years ago

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Sneak Peek of Chapter One|| The Isekai’d Oracle||

This is very short and I will be posting more sneak peeks of the wip chapter and drawings of possible spoilers for future scenes. For clarification, this is a Sun Wukong x Reader, for each chapter my minimum word count is around 10k words, usually, I try to push for 20k. The most I had done is over 50k words for a chapter (still fucking proud of that). It may take a while tho. I will upload the story on Ao3, Wattpad, or both.

Also, this will be unedited and will have a lot of grammar mistakes. There are going to be huge or small changes when the finalized chapter, comes out. So enjoy the first part of the first chapter.

Summary: The reader was pushed beyond her breaking-point, and wishes for a new life. Not knowing, it had set in stone her destiny. Thrown into the world of the Lego Monkie Kid, she earns the title, “Fated Oracle”, who has returned to give her guidance. The bad news, she doesn't have a clue what's happening and regrets ever wanting a new life. Yet she decides not to change the ending but change the path towards it. Will she succeed in not having everyone go threw angst? Is it possible that the Monkey King will not fuck over any new friendships and have everyone mad at him? Let's find out if our precious reader makes the story all fluff or have it ruined by angst and pain.

The campus was busy as any other day. Students walked to their classes, and clubs doing activities or talking to their friends, everyone was enjoying their sunny and bright day. Then there was you, stuck in the campus library, quietly crying. Shame and embarrassment never hit you. Is it so bad to have a break from the constant shit the world dumps on you? Apparently, it is.

The students ignore your display of raw emotions. Nothing new, many students before you, would seek the endless bookshelves. To have a spot to cry in. It's the only area on this campus where the possibility of some alone time exists, even though it was public.

When was the last time you took a break and just be yourself?

You sob while watching an animated show on your barely working laptop. The only thing comforting you on this terrible day. The 2D Lego characters act out the ending of the series. Well, for now, as the foreshadowing of season 4 plays. It had been a while since you had last seen the show. Rather busy with the fuckery of this year. You close the laptop when the screen fades to black. You stare at a random corner, letting your mind think.

The current enemy.

Earlier in the school year, you made sure to be on top of your classes and get good grades, only to fail. How did things get so bad? You did everything right, and chose the “correct path”. So, why isn't everything working out?

A few faces pop into your head, almost in a taunting way. Of people, you can blame this unfair situation you’re in. Yet you didn't have the heart to do so. Still, your infuriated mind replays the memories of how this mess came to be.

Midway into the first half of the semester, your parents had gotten sick with the flu. Sadly, you were the only child that had “enough spare time” to take care of them. It made you miss a few in-person tests during that small period but nothing your overall grade couldn't deal with.

Luckily, your parents had gotten better, soon after. The moment they were in stable condition, you had already packed your bags. Ready to go back to the college campus. Then life decided that it didn't hit you hard enough.

Consequently, your mother had gotten into a small accident at work. The day you were planning to leave. Luckily, it wasn't anything serious, yet somehow, your help was once again needed.

However, what got you upset the most, is how the professors weren't sympathetic to your current situation. Refusing to allow you to retake the tests or projects. Next thing you know, the zeros started to pile up and destroyed your once-good grades. Even though you tried to stay on top of the online work or trying to be part of the group projects yet it wasn't enough. So now you're failing the whole semester because a sorry excuse for a professor wanted to be an asshole.

This was going to be your last year, but that isn't the case anymore. Worse, you don't have enough money left to redo the semester. Dealing with your family and school was stressful enough, but what took the icing on the cake was that you had to work during all this. Being a server for some rundown diner, working late nights. You went beyond your limit and still kept pushing forward. Naively thinking that things would have gotten better.

You tried, and you failed.

What a cruel joke that is being played on you. If only something can whisk you away so you don't have to worry about this anymore. This isn't even the major you wanted to take but had done it to please your parents. Wasting your time on this damn absurdity, trying to play it safe. All because it was the “right path” to choose. Now here you are crying in a damn public library because you ruined your life. If only some greater power takes mercy on you and gives you a new life. A new start.

Then you'll make your own path to choose.

“Hehe, as if someone can be that generous.” You said to yourself. Closing your eyes, taking a breath.

“I don't have time for this. I already wasted enough. I need to be at work soon.”

Quickly pulling yourself together, you put away the laptop in your bag. The world doesn't stop spinning for anyone, after all. Anyway, you can always postpone a good cry for later and you can rewatch the series anytime.

The sun was setting, bringing the cold night. You shiver from the cold winds, regretting not bringing a jacket. Regardless, being cold or not, you waited at the bus stop around the corner. A few others wait along. The minutes pass by longer than usual. Cursing to yourself when you realize the bus is going to be a few minutes late. Another misfortune event on this godfucking day.

The sound of loud rumbling breaks your negative mood. The bus slowly came to a stop, the brakes hissing. A part of you wanted to say fuck it and not go to work today. Nevertheless, your body automatically steps in and shows your bus pass. Already have the actions mesmerized.

‘Guess it won't hurt to be on autopilot.’

That quickly, you zoned out and let your body lead. Only to check in when noticing your stop and putting your bag in the break room.

You put a black collared shirt on top of yours. Getting a hair tie out, you pull your hair back to a semi-high ponytail. It wasn't much but was better than being yelled at for not having it up.

“Alright, time to work and suck up.” You said, mentally preparing yourself.

This job was okay, depending on the night it was going to be. Either the diner is extremely busy or dead, and both are horrendous. Be stuck with countless people and their orders or have nothing to do for hours and get paid less for it.

You really need to find a better job.

“Come on sweet cheeks, customers are waiting already.”

Not caring to give a response to the head chef. Getting the menus, you put on your best smile.

“Hi, welcome, hope your evening is going great! What drinks do you want?”

You scribble down and go back to the counter, getting the drinks on the tray. The bell on the door jingles, letting you know that more customers have arrived.

‘It’s going to be a busy night, huh?’

The small restaurants slowly fill up, soon getting cramped. Luckily, other servers showed up so you didn't have to serve every customer.

“Hey, it's your turn to clean the restrooms.”

“I'm a little busy doing my job.”

Your coworker scowls.

“They can wait a minute or two. The restrooms can not.”

“That isn't my fault, Tom. My job was to wait tables, not clean the restroom. Also, we both know the customers can't for a goddamn second.”

You had never been on good terms with your coworkers. Since you like to mind your own business. Regardless, this person standing in front of you was just rude. Thinking he can boss you around.

“Yes but it's your turn to clean the restrooms.”

“Which I know, and I'll do it after I finish serving this table. You know since that's my job that I'm getting paid for, so it takes priority.”

The chef rings a bell. Tom just smirks at you. Rolling your eyes, you get the plates.

“Remember straight to the restrooms.” He said a little too cheerfully.

You hold back your groan and put on a smile. Placing the plates on the table with a group of people around your age. They chat away, talking about plans or stories. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming. You nearly get lost in it before remembering your job.

“Is that all?”

They nod, not paying attention to your presence. You glance at the clock on the wall. Your shift was coming to an end soon.

‘Better get to the restrooms before Tom has an aneurysm.’

The restrooms weren't even messy. People would rather not use the small area, so it didn't get too dirty. You just swept and mopped, making the room smell pleasant. Didn't even take long before you finished.

“Can't believe Tom made such a big deal out of this. I get that some people just like to be pricks but meeting so many in my life seems overkill.” You said to yourself while taking the bag out of the trash cans.

“Bet that fucker is having a good laugh. Hope he does, at least one of us is enjoying our night.” You dumped the dirty mop water down the toilet.

Now you can end this night and go home. The broom and mop go back to the janitor's closet and take the bags out back. You stop and look at the employee parking. Tom had been bragging about his new car. You slowly walk to it, getting a good look. The car was nice, new, and clean. It also seems he left the door unlocked.

“Fuck it.”

You open the door and tore the bags open. The dirty toilet paper covered the seats. You left the bag there and shut the door. Trapping the putrid smell. A genuine smile finally stretched across your face. Entering back into the establishment, humming. You went to the break room and grabbed your bag. Pulling out your phone and headphones. Ignoring the other coworkers who were on break.

“What got you in a good mood? You looked like you were about to shit your pants when we talked.”

“Oh, I just saw a funny scene out in the employee's parking lot. Some bozo got their car trashed.” You said vaguely, glancing at the man whose face turned pale. He immediately ran out of the room.

“Well see you all later, hopefully not.”

You left the restaurant before the chaos exploded. Only halfway on your trip back home when you finally got a phone call from your boss. You ignored it and tried to enjoy the bus ride.

There weren't many people there. Good, you never liked how these things get so crowded. The bus was oddly going a little faster than usual. You didn't question it, trying to focus on your phone. Scrolling through your feed, until your screen starts to glitch, and words appear.

Welcome back…

There was a loud screeching that tore the air. As the world became a blurry mess.

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tohrules · 2 years ago

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idea 2 electric Boogaloo

so since my first random matt headcannon is going well time for another

Matt shows his affection in manny ways but usually it's through gifts or services. Let me set the scene.

Gus just started dating matt and finds am enveloped in his locker. After opening it he finds a drawing of him with a small note from Matt witch basically just says love you and where Matt his backed goods in gus' locker (backer Matt is real and I will die on this hill) . The next week gus is nervous about a test so Matt has h talk about it and helps him study. At first he doesn't really get Matt not liking pda around others(atleast not physical pda) but he slowly notices how nomader what if he talks about something he finds cool or that he needs help with something Matt will always find a way to get it if it's not to expensive or help gus out. Gus starts to respond in kind helping Matt with whatever and spending as much time with him as possible. Eventually they just kinda get used to it. Hanging out after school(Matt brings cookies and some human stuff) after a little bit Matt finds a way to get bump to let agustus be the H.A.S. president again and surprises gus with it. It takes a while for the others to relize that they are dateing. I think they would discover it luke this

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Gus: oh my titan its im gonna be late!

Luz: Late for what?

Gus: Matt planed a date like normal and-

Hexsquad:What!

Gus: Yeah... we have been dateing for like 3 months how didn't you notice?

Willow: you never actually like your dateing

Hunter: out of everyone you chose him? Are you crazy?

Amity: i knew it Sara owes me ten bucks

Luz: Why didn't you tell us?

Gus: ok 1- we do just not like you 4 2- I know he's weird but its kinda attractive to me so eh 3- you made a bet on me and matt!? If matt had known he would of joined the bet. And finally 4- i honestly expected you guys to relize on your own saying matt started to join us for every activity to spend time with me.

Matt who came to pick gus up: i feel like I missed something (grabs gus' hand) come on i made your favorite cookies for the picknic

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Yes I know both had a picnic but I love the idea of picnics and my crazy will be experianced

#matt tholomule #gus x matholumule #toh #gus porter #the owl house #agustus porter #gustholomule #toh gus #gus the owl house #shipping #ship dynamics #wrighting #ideas #i have no idea #random #picnics #are #awsome

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rocksandmirrors · 2 years ago

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I had an idea(another post of mine lol)

Matt shows his affection in manny ways but usually it's through gifts or services. Let me set the scene.

‐----------

Gus: oh my titan its im gonna be late!

Luz: Late for what?

Gus: Matt planed a date like normal and-

Hexsquad:What!

Gus: Yeah... we have been dateing for like 3 months how didn't you notice?

Willow: you never actually like your dateing

Hunter: out of everyone you chose him? Are you crazy?

Amity: i knew it Sara owes me ten bucks

Luz: Why didn't you tell us?

Matt who came to pick gus up: i feel like I missed something (grabs gus' hand) come on i made your favorite cookies for the picknic

YESSSS. Matt would rather die than be caught being vulnerable (at least during the first months of his relationship), but he makes it up with acts of service and stuff, and Gus understands pretty quickly. also love how the hexsquad figures out they're dating lol

#mattholomule #gus porter #gustholomule #headcanon

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aitaikimochi · 4 years ago

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My Hero Academia DRAWING SMASH Exhibition Master Thread + Audio Guide Summary Translation!

1) All My Hero Academia DRAWING SMASH Tweets and Info 2) Horikoshi’s Interview about the Exhibition 3) Pre-Order MHA Exhibition Merchandise

FULL AUDIO GUIDE SUMMARY TRANSLATION: 1) Welcome Message 2) Roaring Sports Festival 3) The Test 4) My Hero Academia School Briefs 5) ULTRA HEROES 6) WANTED VILLAINS 7) ONE FOR ALL 8) ONE’S JUSTICE 9) Ending Credits

TRACK 1: WELCOME MESSAGE

All Might introduces and welcomes us to the My Hero Academia DRAWING SMASH Exhibition. Deku is also there and says that while listening to this audio guide, please don’t stop movnig as you will hold up the line and flow of traffic. He explains that the Exhibition is split into many different areas, and there’s tons of hand-drawn panels by Horikoshi-sensei on display too. There is also a section in the Exhibition that focuses on the anime too! All Might tells Deku that there’s a section dedicated to All Might himself, and Deku gets super excited and turns to Bakugou and says, “Kacchan, did you hear that? Uh Kacchan? Where are you?” Deku tries looking for Bakugou, but Aizawa comes and tells Deku to move along the line.

TRACK 2: ROARING SPORTS FESTIVAL

Ochako waves at Deku and says, “over here, Deku!” Deku goes to where she’s standing and looks at the different manga panels from the Sports Festival. He says thanks to Ochako, Tokoyami, and Hatsume, they were able to win that fight in the Sports Festival. Ochako sees her fight with Bakugou and says he was too strong, but she really wanted to win that fight for her Mom and Dad. Deku tells her it’s okay because she definitely tried her best. Ochako gets a bit flustered at this. Bakugou then passes by and asks, “Who did their best? No matter how many times I fight Deku, I’d obviously always win. But if Deku maybe was a bit more buff, he could PERHAPS put up a fight.” Ochako exclaims, “WOAH! Bakugou praised him! It’s definitely going to snow tomorrow.” Bakugou tells her to shut up.

Deku sees the next panel, which is the fight between himself and Todoroki. Ochako excitedly recites the line Deku said to Todoroki, which was the “It’s your power isn’t it!?” line. Deku gets embarrassed and tells her to stop. Todoroki thanks Deku and says it’s because of him that he remembered why exactly he wanted to be a hero in the first place. Bakugou yells at them for being sappy and gross. They then turn their attention to the panels featuring the fight between Todoroki and Bakugou. Deku said Todoroki performed really well, but Bakugou’s Howitzer Impact move was super strong. Bakugou yells that he doesn’t want to be reminded of his unwarranted victory from that fight. Todoroki apologizes.

Ochako says that Bakugou’s poor performance made his image look really bad since it was broadcasted on national television, but Bakugou says he could care less. Todoroki says he’s sorry he didn’t fight his best as he was troubled during that fight, but his head is clear now. Todoroki says he will be a proper hero. Deku says he wants to be like All Might. Bakugou says he wants to surpass All Might. Aizawa then comes and tells the group to move along as they are holding up the line.

TRACK 3: THE TEST

Deku explains that after the Sports Festival, the Hero Class went on internships with Pro Heroes. Todoroki mentions that during this time, the villains started to make moves in society, such as when they encountered Stain. Deku then goes on to say that after the Stain encounter, their class went to do the Forest Training during the Summer. Ochako remarks that Bakugou got kidnapped during this training period, and Bakugou tells her to shut up. Todoroki then explains that he, Iida, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, and Midoriya went to save him. Bakugou continues to tell everyone to shut up. Deku then says he’s glad they were successful in saving Bakugou, all thanks to Kirishima. Bakugou says, “I told you guys to stop talking about this!”

Deku then talks about the next moment in the timeline, which was the Provisional License Exam. Ochako said she trained so hard using her Zero Gravity quirk that just thinking about it now makes her want to throw up. Deku says that even though it was really difficult to train for the exam, the training did help him master using the Shoot Style with his legs as well. Todoroki mentions that the move Midoriya came up with using his feet was very strong, and Deku said that he also got used to it. Deku thanks Hatsume for making the costume and shoes for him.

Ochako says the Provisional License Exam this year in particular was difficult as the passing rate was abysmally low. She asks Bakugou if the Provisional License Exam was difficult, and Bakugou says “shut up don’t remind me.” Todoroki then says, “Yeah, it must have sucked to fail the Provisional License Exam” and Bakugou says, “What the hell- you failed too!” Deku tells them all to calm down. He says that Bakugou’s team did well in the first exam thanks to Kaminari’s new technique made possible by the point shooter gear he got from Hatsume. Bakugou once again tells everyone to shut up.

Todoroki recalls that their entire class did well in the first round, but he personally messed up in the second round, which caused him to fail the exam. Bakugou mocks him and says “what a loser, failing the exam” and Ochako says “but you failed too.” Bakugou yells “SHUT THE HELL UP!!!”

TRACK 4: MY HERO ACADEMIA SCHOOL BRIEFS

This entire track is a recap of various events that happened at U.A. Academy on campus. Deku starts off by saying he was so nervous when he first started school at U.A. but was thankful that he was able to make friends with Iida and Ochako so quickly. Bakugou scoffs and says, “isn’t it because you just didn’t have any friends in middle school?” Deku nervously says, “I think I had a few friends…!” Todoroki asks Deku why he didn’t deny it though.

Ochako remembers that Aizawa first asked the class to test their quirks, and Aizawa comes in and says he did that because he wanted to see their potential. Deku gets nervous and wonders if Aizawa came up to them because they were holding up the line, but Aizawa said he didn’t even say anything.

Todoroki said being part of the Hero Class meant that they had tons of different types of classes, and it was sometimes quite confusing. Ochako says even though it was difficult, it was still fun, such as when they had to decide on their hero names. Bakugou scoffs and says, “Stupid Deku actually chose his Hero Name as ‘Deku’ the hell? Did he finally lose it?” Deku rebutts and says, “But I actually like that as my Hero name!” Bakugou asks Deku, “What’s so good about that name?” Deku then asks Bakugou if he had decided on a hero name yet, and Bakugou says, “Nah, I’m not gonna tell you.” Deku replies, “What, why not?”

Aizawa reminisces and says that Deku and Bakugou fought really well against All Might during the Final Exam. Bakugou said he did that so he could win against All Might. If it wasn’t for that why would he team up with Deku? Bakugou then yells, “Stupid Deku! I’m gonna Kill you!” and Deku gets confused as to why he’s saying this. Ochako mentions that saying stuff like that would definitely get them cut from all Hero interviews, and Todoroki mentions that they should be careful about what they say.

Bakugou gets mad and says he’s going to kill all three of them, and Deku asks, “so now you’re targeting 3 people!?”

Aizawa reprimands them and Deku apologizes, promising that he won’t argue anymore. Aizawa keeps a firm stance to Bakugou too. He tells Bakugou that heroes need to use their quirks to save people, not kill them. Bakugou says it wasn’t like he was actually going to do that, he’s not that kind of person.

All Might steps in and says they should put this behind them. He suggests that they should just go and see the other stuff in the Exhibition together in the U.A. area. He sees that there’s a section made just for Mineta. Deku says, “Wow it’s full of Mineta scenes!” Ochako looks at it and says, “Oh, how nice” and Bakugou says, “hmph, it’s just a place to show off an animal.” Todoroki asks Bakugou if he’s jealous that Mineta has the spotlight, and Bakugou says, “Ha! As if!!”

All might sees the Cultural Festival area and says, “Oh! This is the time when U.A. Academy held the Cultural Festival!” Ochako mentions that it was really fun. All might says Class A performed with both a band and a dance team. Deku mentions that during the Cultural Festival, the whole school gets together to create activities and open stands around the campus, and it’s not just the Hero Class but the General and Economics classes also join in too. All Might asks who’s idea was it to do the dance for Class A? Deku says it was Todoroki’s idea. Todoroki said he just thought it would be nice to have something that everyone can participate and have fun, and Deku says it was a great idea.

Ochako says everyone was able to participate in it too. Deku mentions Jirou was the one in charge of leading the band, Ashido was in charge of the dance team. Todoroki said they did well using their quirks to create a great performance. Ochako says she didn’t expect Bakugou to actually participate and play the drums for them, and she recites his line, “Let’s kill ‘em with sound!” Bakugou scoffs at her and Todoroki asks Bakugou, “why do you get angry when people praise you?” Bakugou replies, “What the hell are you even talking about!?”

Todoroki goes on to say that Jirou’s performance during the song was really great. Bakugou yells at hiim to stop changing the subject!

All Might asks if Deku enjoyed the Cultural Festival. He answers that it was really fun, and seeing people outside of their class was awesome, such as Eri as well. Deku mentions that they were able to finally let her smile, and that made him so happy. Aizawa also agrees.

All Might says it’s important for heroes to bring smiles to people’s faces. He tells them to never forget that. Deku says, “Of course, All Might!” Aizawa says to Deku that he’s stopping in line again. Deku apologizes, and All Might asks them to hurry along down the line.

TRACK 5: ULTRA HEROES

This track plays in the area where you see all the Hero panels. The heroes on display are Mirko, Bakugou, Ochako, Deku, Todoroki, Hawks, Endeavor, Amajiki, Kirishima, Mirio, and Nejire. Ochako says, “woah, there’s so many heroes!” Deku gets excited and sees the first Hero, Mirko. He goes on a ramble saying she’s ranked #5 in the Hero Ranking, her quirk is using her bunny abilities. He says that Mirko has not only a ton of male fans, but female fans as well. Bakugou snickers at Deku and exclaims, “you’re such a Hero nerd!”

Ochako mentions that the next Hero after Mirko is Bakugou. Deku introduces Bakugou, saying “This is Bakugou Katsuki. He’s enrolled in U.A. Academy and sits in Seat #17 in Class A. He has a hero name, but he won’t tell him…”

Bakugou gets angry. Todoroki then continues and says, “His quirk is explosions by using nitroglycerin that he emits from his hands.”

Bakugou tells them to shut up.

Todoroki ignores Bakugou and continues with, “His personality is…”

Bakugou screams, “SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!”

And Todoroki finishes with, “…like that.”

Ochako then sees herself and says, “Oh it’s me!!” She explains her quirk and how she can cause anything to float if she touches then, but if she puts her fingers together, she can release the zero gravity as well. Bakugou then mentions that she also throws up if she uses her quirk too much. Ochako gets embarrassed and says that he really did not need to say that!

Deku says they should go on to the next person, which is him. He introduces himself as Midoriya Izuku, and his hero name is Deku. He whispers, “My quirk is…One For All…Please read the manga to find out more about it…” Todoroki asks Deku why he’s whispering, and Deku gets nervous and says, “Oh, it’s nothing at all!”

Deku sees that next up is Todoroki. Ochako introduces Todoroki and says “his full name is Todoroki Shouto, anad his hero name is just like his first name, Shouto!” Todoroki explains his quirk, and Deku says he has a truly impressive quirk since he can combine them together to create awesome attacks. Todoroki says he still needs to polish his quirk, and Ochako mentions he’s a very stoic person.

The next hero is Hawks, and Deku gets excited, saying “Oh it’s the winged hero Hawks!” Deku goes on to ramble details about Hawks, such as him being Rank #2 on the Hero Ranking Billboard, his quirk is using his feathers, but he keeps going on and Ochako says, “Ahh, maybe we should move on to the next one!”

Next up is Endeavor. Todoroki explains that Endeavor’s Quirk is called “Hell Flame.” He can emit fire at extremely high temperatures, but if he overuses his quirk, he gets burned instead. Deku says on that note, Todoroki’s quirk is better than his father’s since he can use the ice part to cool himself down. Todoroki muses that perhaps he does have an advantage over his Father.

The next Hero in line is Amajiki Tamaki. Deku introduces him as part of U.A. Academy’s Big 3. His hero name is Sun Eater. His quirk is transforming parts of his body into animals, and he can do this by eating food of that animal. Ochako explains further that if he eats takoyaki, he can use octopus arms, if he eats fried chicken, he can use the chickens legs. She then goes off saying, “tuna, beef, fish roe, mochi…” Todoroki asks if she just suddenly started rambling on about food because she just wants to eat those food, and Ochako says “I’m hungry…”

Deku sees that the next hero is Kirishima. He asks Bakugou to introduce Kirishima since they’re friends. Bakugou says, “What do you mean friends? He’s just my lackey!” Deku says, “Err…okay, Kirishima Eijirou, Hero name Red Riot. His quirk is Hardening.” Bakugou then scoffs saying, “He’s just an idiot who gets hard, that’s all!” Ochako comments, saying, “Well, you don’t need to be shy about it!” Bakugou then yells, “I’m not being shy!”

Todoroki moves the conversation along and mentions that the next Hero is Mirio-senpai. Deku introduces Mirio’s hero name as Lemillion and mentions his quirk allows him to go through things. Ochako says that according to Aizawa-sensei, Mirio is the closest to being the same rank as the Number 1 Hero. Bakugou grumbles and says, “No, I’M the one who’s going to be Number 1!” Ochako says, “Right…of course you are…” and Bakugou gets furious, saying, “YOU DARE MAKE FUN OF ME!?”

Ochako notices that the next Hero is Nejire Hado. She introduces her and says her Hero name is Nejire-chan. Ochako explains how her quirk works, and Deku remarks that Nejire can also use it to fly. Ochako adds that Nejire also won the U.A. Beauty Contest during the Cultural Festival.

Todoroki says after seeing all the Heroes lined up like this, everyone truly has amazing quirks. Bakugou says they’re all underlings compared to him though. Ochako says, “Right…of course…” and Bakugou explodes once again, asking, “What the hell, are you making fun of me?” and Ochako repeats, “right…of course” to which Bakugou curses. Deku says to the group, “We really should be moving down the line now…”

TRACK 6: WANTED VILLAINS

Aizawa asks All Might to look at the new data he pulled up on the computer about the League of Villains. The first villain they look at is the various Nomu. The file says that the Nomus are injected with quirks that are stolen or enhanced from either themselves or other people. The next villain is Stain, who Aizawa mentions killed many heroes that he deemed unfit to be a Hero. His quirk is being able to control people by drinking their blood. All Might says the next villain in the file is Gigantomachia. Aizawa mentions that aside from being able to make his body gigantic, not much is known about Gigantomachia’s quirk. What they do know is that he works for All For One.

The villain after that is Twice with a quirk that allows him to multiply hiimself.

All Might mentions that the next villain file is Shigaraki. Aizawa says he’s the current leader for the League of Villains. His quirk is the formidable disintegration quirk that can disintegrate anything that he touches with five fingers. Next up is Dabi. Aizawa mentions that his quirk is unknown but he has been seen using blue fire. Aizawa remembers fighting against Dabi during the Forest Training, and he saw that blue fire.

All Might pulls up Toga’s file afterwards. Aizawa mentions that she can turn into anyone if she has even just a sip of their blood. The villain after her is Mr. Compress, who is able to compress and decompress things or people. He can also use it on multiple objects at the same time.

The villain after Twice is Re Destro, who is the leader of the Meta Liberation Army. Aizawa says that his quirk is stress, which he builds up to release immense power.

All Might then opens All For One’s file. Aizawa says that they really don’t know anything about his quirk. The villain after him is the Doctor, who also has an unknown quirk. They do have information that the Doctor is the one in charge of creating the gruesome Nomu and High End Nomu too.

All Might mentions the League of Villains is probably plotting something even though he fought All For One and sent many of them to Tartarus. Aizawa said they must be scheming something since if the incident with the High End nomu is any indication. All Might says even if the League of Villains is on the move, the Heroes will not lose to them.

TRACK 7: ONE FOR ALL

Track 7 is a monologue by All Might. It plays in the All Might section of the Exhibition where manga panels of All Might are on display as well as a ton of decoration with All Might on the walls as well.

All might says that in order to create a society where people can freely smile and feel safe, it was necessary to have a Symbol of Peace. He wanted to be a pillar where people can depend on and smile when they see him. All Might says he inherited One For All to do just that. He is the 8th successor of One For All, and all previous One For All holders and he worked together to try to defeat All For One. However, even if they lose their lives in the fight against All For One, their hope still passes onto their successors.

They need to be Symbols of Peace for the people. All Might says he wants to be the person who can bring smiles to people’s faces. No matter what happens, he needs to keep on smiling. Those who are able to keep smiling are the strongest. That’s why he smiles.

He says that Young Midoriya and he were both quirkless. But after meeting Midoriya and seeing the strong willpower that he possessed, he knew that he had to mentor him to be his successor. All Might says to Midoriya, “Everything, from One For All to my own feelings in my heart, I entrust them all to you. Young Midoriya, you’re next.”

TRACK 8: ONE’S JUSTICE

Track 8 plays in the room where there’s panels leading up to the Paranormal Liberation War Arc. All Might starts off the audio track by explaining the big war between the Villains and the Pro-Heroes, which the U.A. Academy heroes in training also participated in. Endeavor, Miruko, and Eraserhead were dispatched to the lair of the Villains where Shigaraki unfortunately awoken as well. Once he woke up, he began destroying people and things one after another. However, the Heroes did not waver and fought back to villains while protecting the civilians.

What the villains want is to create a new world without heroes.

What Shigaraki wants is to destroy everything.

What Midoriya wants is to protect everyone with a smile.

What Bakugou wants is to be the best hero and not lose to anyone.

What All Might wishes is if Young Midoriya and Young Bakugou can work together and acknowledge each other, they can both become who they want to be.

To save and win, to win and save.

All Might says if they are able to do this, they can become the Strongest Heroes.

Deku then exclaims, “Go forward, Midoriya Izuku! Use the power All Might entrusted in you to save people. I will save and win!”

Bakugou then says, “I will win and save! That’s Bakugou Katsukis’ way of life on the path to become the Number One Hero!”

All Might ends the track with the line, “To destroy the word or to save it. One For All’s successor Midoriya Izuku fights head on with All For One’s successor, Shigaraki Tomura.”

TRACK 9: END CREDITS

All Might says he’s come to send us off and thank us for visiting the exhibition! Deku also says thanks for coming. Ochako asks if we had fun? Todoroki says they were able to relive a bunch of different moments at this exhibition. He says he is thankful for it, and Deku agrees. Ochako asks Bakugou how was the exhibition? Bakugou says screw this- they should all go back inside and just focus on everything Bakugou related, forget about the Villains or anyone else. Todoroki says, “Well, if we do that we’ll need to reserve tickets again so…”

Aizawa asks All Might to do the closing message. All Might thanks us again for visiting, but things don’t just end here! The world of My Hero Academia will only keep getting bigger and bigger! Deku hopes that we can always cheer them on.

All Might then leads everyone in saying “GO BEYOND, PLUS ULTRA!!!”

Deku says to us, “Let’s meet again soon, everyone!” He then turns to All Might saying, “That’s good right? Oh, oh crap I still need to get in line to buy the limited edition goods only sold at the Exhibition! Wait let me go line up ahhh!” and scurries off.

All Might then laughs and says “as expected of the headstrong Young Midoriya!”

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nightshade-minho · 5 years ago

Text

-Babygirl-

Warnings: roommates!au, suggestiveness, shirtless Jisung (again), voyeurism (kind of..?), male masturbation, panty kink, implied sexual activity during driving. (Please be safe on the roads! This should never happen irl lol.)

“Jisung? JISUNG!”

The boy in question shot awake, rubbing at his eyes. He looked at you, confused.

You sighed. “You were telling me about the wedding, but you keep dozing off in between.”

“Right, right...” He said, looking like he was struggling to keep his eyes open. “I’m sorry, but it’s so late and I barely got any sleep last night. And...no offense but it’s kind of your fault.”

You nodded sheepishly. You’d spent most of last night under a really hot guy named Hyunjin that you’d met at the club, and was way too caught up in lust to care about your poor sleepy roommate.

“You really need to tone it down a bit. I bet this whole floor heard your moaning. Give it to me daddy!” He mocked, prompting you to slap his arm.

“I do NOT sound like that.”

“You do.”

You groaned, leaning back into the sofa, your hand rubbing your temple. A few seconds later, the snores resumed. You exhaled angrily, slapping Jisung’s arm to wake him.

“Ow...” he mumbled, rubbing his arm. “You’re really testing my patience, you know that? Just let me sleep in peace, babygirl.”

You knew he was mocking the way Hyunjin had called you that the previous night...but something about that word leaving Jisung’s lips had you pressing your thighs together for a moment. When you realized what you were doing, you groaned to yourself. Jisung? What were you thinking? Dude was your roommate, and not a very good one at that.

“Y/n?”

“Hmm?”

“You okay?”

You ran a hand through your hair, quickly standing up. “Yeah totally. Maybe you could tell me about this wedding later? I’m just going to go to my room...”

Without bothering to see his reaction, you briskly walked to your room, shutting the door and lying down on your bed. You couldn’t deny the frisson of arousal that had passed through you when he said that word. Every single person you slept with was well aware of how much you liked being called that.

You dug your head into your pillow, trying to expel these thoughts.

•••

You sat at the breakfast counter, groaning as you used the spoon to draw circles in your cold milk.

“Y/n. What happened yesterday?”

You looked up, and all sleep remaining in your eyes immediately disappeared as you took in Jisung, with nothing on but a pair of grey sweatpants. His hair was seemingly still wet from his shower. You watched as droplets of water fell from his strands onto his stomach, running down his abs...whose existence you knew nothing of prior to this moment.

“Nothing happened! I wasn’t feeling very well.”

He sat down next to you, pushing his hair back as he looked at you, an eyebrow raised. “Uh huh. I totally believe that.”

You felt uncomfortable with his intense gaze fixed on you, and felt yourself becoming very slightly wetter. Oh god...this can’t be happening.

“Honestly. I just wasn’t feeling very well. You know...the weather’s getting colder and I’ve never really had a strong immune system.”

He raised an eyebrow in concern, leaning in to rest his hand on your forehead, his face dangerously close to yours. You felt yourself turning red slightly.

He pulled away. “You feel fine to me.”

You cleared your throat. “It’s one of those sicknesses that don’t change your temperature or anything.”

He looked at you for a moment, like he was trying to figure you out. Finally he rolled his eyes, grabbing a granola bar from the shelf and unwrapping it slowly.

“So...the wedding?” You referenced what he was talking about yesterday, and his eyes widened.

“Oh! Oh yeah...well...I have a favour to ask of you.”

You raised your eyebrow. “What kind?”

“Well. I was hoping you’d come with me to my cousin’s wedding. Not exactly as a date or anything, I just want to prove to my bullshit childhood friends that there are others I talk to...and being able to introduce a pretty girl as my best friend would really put a damper on their egos.”

Pretty. He thought you were pretty.

Holding yourself together, you tapped your chin in mock curiosity. “If you have friends, how come I never see them come over?”

“Oh, they come over all the time. I just choose to invite them at times when I’m alone or you’re already asleep, cause I didn’t wanna disturb you. Trust me, one minute spent with my best friends and you would probably move to Antarctica the next day. And I need a roommate to pay the bills.”

You laughed, trying not to choke on the milk. Jisung grinned at you. “So is that a yes?”

Jisung’s enthusiasm was always contagious. You were more than alright with this, especially since it meant you got to attend a party. You nodded.

“So...are any of these friends attractive or-“

“NO!”

•••

You stared at the mirror, hoping you looked good. You had on a soft blue dress, with a heart-shaped cutout right on your chest. You felt cute and yet also a little sexy.

You turned around finally, satisfied, and made your way out of the room. Jisung was sitting on the couch, straightening his tie and glancing at his watch. You cleared your throat.

He looked up and gasped, trying and failing to hide his shock. “Wow, you look...you look...”

“Pretty?” You offered, grinning cheekily. He nodded. “What about me?” You gave him a thumbs-up.

“You look hot.”

“Oh do I, babygirl?” He said, chuckling right afterwards. There it was. That word again...you felt a jolt of pleasure run straight to your core.

You sat down next to him on the couch. “Are you never going to let that go?”

“Do you want me to?” He asked suggestively, and you almost slapped him.

“You’re such a dickhead.” He laughed, and got up, sneaking another glance at his watch. “Ok y/n, we’ve really got to go now. We’ve got about 4 hours worth of driving to do.”

You sighed and hoisted your bag over your shoulder. “4 fucking hours in a car stuck with you. It sounds like a medieval torture method...fucking unbearable.”

“Why? Because of all the sexual tension?” He joked, but you chose not to reply. How could you explain to your bastard roommate that he was making you feel things ~down there~? Living with this guy blurred enough lines as it is...if you fucked him, there was no going back.

You followed him to his car. You had decided to take turns- you would drive two hours, and then you’d stop at a restaurant for snacks before Jisung drove the rest.

As you got in the driver’s seat and fastened your seatbelt, you heard Jisung curse. “Why do my crappy relatives have to host their wedding so far from my fucking house...”

“Um, probably because it was more convenient to them and...oh yeah, it isn’t YOUR wedding?”

He rolled his eyes as he fumbled with his seatbelt. “You’re infuriating. Sometimes I wish I could just shut you up somehow.”

You don’t know where it came from, but you blurted, “I can think of a few ways to do that.”

Jisung’s eyes grew as wide as dinner plates. He’d been the one flirting nonstop- but they were half-jokes. Now that you’d actually replied to one with an innuendo of your own, he felt his pants tighten all of a sudden.

Jisung couldn’t deny that he was sexually attracted to you. After all, you were quite hot...when you weren’t chewing him out because he forgot to wash the dishes again.

He also couldn’t deny that he was slightly envious of the guys who got to fuck you.

There was an incident that happened a few months ago, which he still hadn’t talked to you about. And he probably never would...it was way too embarrassing.

Jisung had been in your room one night, to find a book of his that you had borrowed. You’d been out when he was rummaging through your bedside table trying to find it, but then suddenly he heard the front door click open...and judging from the moans his ears picked up, you and whoever you were with were going to come inside the room at any time.

As he heard the footsteps approach, he groaned, ducking under your bed and crouching under there. The door opened just then, and the moans and kissing sounds were significantly louder. He felt the bed dip, and soon unspeakable things were going on above him. He held his head in his hands, wanting to escape...but then your moans got to him. The way you whimpered and whined for the guy to take you...it made Jisung incredibly hard.

Clothes were being shed after that, and from his position, he watched as various articles of clothing rained on the floor in front of him. And then...there it was.

Your panties. They fell on top of the heap of discarded jeans and shirts...a tantalizingly red pair, reaching out to him, begging him to take them and use them.

And that’s how he succumbed, his hand reaching out to grab your underwear. As your moans from above filled his ears, he sniffed your wet panties, inhaling your heavenly scent...and hesitantly licked your juices that had rubbed off on them. He felt absolutely filthy as he got his cock out and used the fabric of your panties to get himself off, cumming at almost the same time you did.

It was a secret he hoped he could hold forever.

But now here you were, being suggestive... and he didn’t know if this was just his imagination, but he saw you clenching your thighs and getting slightly affected whenever he called you certain pet names.

What Jisung was about to do next was probably a bad idea, just like taking the red panties to his room that night and never returning them was.

He decided that he was going to try to rile you up again, and if you showed any signs of being into it...he was going to go for it.

“So...y/n.”

“Hmm?” You said as you concentrated on the road, your hand on the wheel.

“Exactly how do you want me to shut you up, babygirl?”

Ever so subtly you pressed your thighs together, your cheeks turning red. And that’s when Jisung finally decided...fuck it!

His hand slipped between your thighs and spread them apart, going to your cunt and rubbing it through your panties. His slender fingers pulled your panties to the side so that he could drag his digits over your exposed wet cunt, slowly pushing a finger inside.

You let out a shocked squeak followed by several groans, your eyes desperately staying trained on the road in front of you. “J-Jisung...what’re you doing?”

“Shutting my babygirl up, of course.”

#smut #skz smut #stray kids smut #kpop smut #kpop imagines #jisung smut #jisung fluff #jisung angst #han jisung smut #han smut #han fluff #han angst #stray kids

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ryunochie · 4 years ago

Text

MMD Cook Torrance shading tutorial + Dry Brush technique

Welcome to this tutorial on how to render images in MMD using my technique!

For this tutorial, we will use an extensive list of effects, but it is subject to change, as it was made especially for my black and white style with low-key lighting. Below is the list of MME used in this tutorial:

Cook Torrance (shader);

o_DisAlphaBlend (optional);

o_DLAA;

Object Luminous (optional);

o_Monochrome;

PointLight (Cook Torrance);

ScreenTex改変-パラ_フレア;

PostRimLighting;

LightBloom;

AbSSAO;

HgSAO;

HgSSAO;

SvSSAO;

SoftLightA (NCHL2 shader);

SoftLightB (NCHL2 shader);

Croquis改;

LIGHT ME UP (BREAK THE COLOR);

o_SelfOverlay;

Draw style;

ikDrybrush.

Each listed effect redirects you to your download page. This tutorial refers to the following image:

Results will vary according to the type of model used; this is a high poly model, so shading is better and much more detailed. I recommend adapting this tutorial to your project.

1. COOK TORRANCE

Before we start, I will give a brief explanation about the functionality of the shader, the main one of this tutorial: Cook Torrance is a powerful shader that allows us to create personalized lighting through points of light; it has variations for more shine (specular and テカテカ), skin (sakura R1 and blight for more shine), toon and normal map.

The application of this shader removes outlines and SPA / SPH, so be careful with parts that depend entirely on SPH, such as metals. In the example below, specular variations were applied to the glove and eye patch, テカテカ to the hair to enhance the highlights and R1 sakura on the skin; the other parts are with the base shader:

Before and after adding the shader. Note the absence of glare in the glove and the greater definition of the model's shapes.

Inside the shader folder, we can find 5 point light files and another one called ShadowMap.x; I still don't know for sure what the latter does and I get an error message when loading, but, in my view, it makes no difference with or without. As for the point lights, the shader limits the use of 4 points simultaneously, the 5th will not work.

To activate the point light, it is necessary to change its Rx, Ry and Rz values, which work as RGB to give color to the lighting — 1, 1, 1 is the studio white color, standard and the one I use for all my images, since I work with black and white. It is preferable to change the light intensity by changing the Tr value instead of RGB. Move the point lights using the dummy bone (standard MMD model).

In this case, our 1st point light, the main lighting will be stronger and will repeat the "movement" of the standard MMD lighting you set. In my case, I chose RGB = 100, 100, 100; X = +0.5; Y = - 0.5 and Z = +1.0. Uncheck the display box on the accessory handling panel to hide the point light's model.

If the Si of the point light increases, the light will be stronger and it will be necessary to reposition it. In certain scenarios, it is preferable to use large point lights that cover more parts of the project. Examples below:

Application of the 2nd point light, which is weaker because it is "auxiliary" light; it will give the glove and hair more shine, in addition to softening the shadows on the left side of the face for a smoother transition:

For our 3rd point light, it will have the characteristic of the so-called rim light: this is a photography technique mainly used to separate the object from the background with a lamp behind the subject. In this case, we will use the point light just above the model to add details to the hair strands:

2. OBJECT LUMINOUS

Object Luminous is a versatile and easy-to-apply effect, the effect of which, as the name suggests, gives luminosity to the selected part. In this render, I loaded 2 Object Luminous and put one on the hair and beard, the other on the glove and jacket because they are dark parts that easily disappear when more effects are added.

In the hair, the luminosity serves as an aid to the Cook Torrance (variation テカテカ) and gives shape to the hair when configured in low intensity: Si = 0.1, Tr ≤ 0.4 - subject to change according to your needs. Application examples below:

Preferably, move Object Luminous before any effect of changing the color of the screen, such as o_Tonemap and ikClut, otherwise the lighting will be highlighted, producing the very desirable black and white color effect: the so-called color splash.

3. POSTRIMLIGHTING

One of the essential effects for the proper functioning and credibility of Cook Torrance, PostRimLighting creates the rim light, mentioned earlier in this tutorial, in the entire model and highlights its forms; it is important to set Si to at least ≥ 0.3 to support the light created by the light points — a value subject to change as more effects are added.

As Majima's clothes are mostly quite dark, the initial 0.3 needed to be changed to 0.8 at the end of the render, as the image was getting darker.

For lights coming from behind the subject, start with a higher Si value. Example below:

4. LIGHTBLOOM

The role of this set is to soften the lighting and enhance its brightness, mainly because it is a type of "physical" lighting: objects with light properties.

The creator of Cook Torrance recommends combining the shader with Diffusion, but I preferred the results with LightBloom. Inside the effect folder, there is a controller called LightBloomController.pmx and the effect's own files: LightBloom.x and LightBloom with DirtMap.x.

The DirtMap variation serves for natural light and recreates imperfections in the camera lens; as my goal is to create studio lighting, I use the original effect.

When loading the controller, there will be 5 manipulation sliders, these are, according to the author's description:

BloomThreshold: "seeks pixels higher than this brightness level";

BloomRadius: "controls the size of blurring effects as a percentage of the screen width";

BloomColorAllHSV: "scales the brightness and color of the entire bloom effect (linear color space with HSV color)";

Bloom 1st-5stHSV: "modify the brightness and color of bloom in each layer, if you need more bloom, use a higher layer";

DirtColorHSV: "scales the brightness and color of the entire DirtMap".

In short, the 1st step is to set BloomThreshold to 0.5 and adjust the intensity according to your need: the higher the number, the more parts will receive brightness. For low light, it is recommended to use it around 0.6, keep BloomRadius < 0.3 and decrease the intensity in BloomColorAllHSV, leaving ≥ 0.5.

Place PostRimLighting and Object Luminous before LightBloom to soften their lights too.

Then, the shadow effects are added. I use 4 by default: AbSSAO, HgSAO, HgSSAO and SvSSAO — when in need of more shadows, I add o_SSAO with low Si. Each has a purpose in the overall composition, making it important to control the values of Si and Tr according to the purpose of your lighting. I will not discuss how to configure each shadow in this tutorial. O_DLAA is an alternative to common anti-aliasing and reduces, to some extent, the knurling that post effects produce. O_disAlphaBlend serves to fix the alpha channels (transparency). It is important to put both at the top of the list of effects.

The SoftLight A and B effects are part of the NCHL2 shader and act as a more manipulable version of o_BleachBypass, very useful to add contrast to the project. A lightens or darkens the image, while B works as an aid to control gray shades.

It is important to maintain a smooth transition from shadows to less rough brush strokes of dry brush, mainly on the face, due to excessive contrast, as in the following example:

The application of the BREAK THE COLOR effect is done exclusively by the characteristic of "false lighting", extremely useful in low-light or spot scenarios. It is recommended to use Tr ≤ 0.5; increase the Si to give much more contrast, but I don’t think it is necessary, since we have SoftLight and soon o_SelfOverlay. However, feel free to experiment with higher Si. LIGHT ME UP is my favorite variation, for both light and dark scenes, CHATEAU is a great alternative to lighten them up.

Application of o_SelfOverlay in order to soften LIGHT ME UP and increase the Si of PostRimLighting to delimit body and clothing contours:

Application of ScreenTex変 - パラ_フレア (variation 墨) for lighting correction. Important to place before PostRimLighting to preserve the edges:

5. CROQUIS

Now the render starts to take the 2D direction when applying Croquis改 and highlight the textures of the model and make smooth outlines; the value that interests us in this case is the Y, which affects the textures.

The goal is to delimit the Drybrush's area of operation and avoid a very blurred and confused image, especially for portraits. In addition, the contours give a greater drawing aspect when rendering.

After many tests, I came to the conclusion that Y ≥ 1 values in low perspective are sufficient for desirable results in the final render: the further you move the camera away, the stronger the lines become, needing to decrease the Tr. It is not recommended to rely on the render preview in MMD, as Croquis tends to weaken.

It is good to place Croquis before any post effects for best results.

6. DRAW STYLE

This effect applies a layer that imitates a canvas and has 18 variations, being 9.x more used by me to smooth out the Drybrush's strokes. Recommended to use Tr ≤ 0.4.

7. IKDRYBRUSH

Finally, the effect that creates our painting. When loading it, there are 4 variations of detail: cancel (removes the effect of a certain part), chara (default), face and skydome; it is possible to change the type when loading another FX. I don't mess with these settings, but feel free to experiment with the different types.

To control the brush size, the value of Si is changed, which ranges from 0.5 to 2. Tr will decrease the visibility of the effect — I personally do not change this value.

Like Croquis, the preview of the render will be different from the final result, making it essential for you to experiment with different values . I try to render 3 different files for 0.5; 1 and 2, because 0.5 usually the final image has white lines and dots with a smaller brush, but it is easily corrected when applying the Si 1 layer on top, as in the example below:

It is up to you how you edit the finished render. I open the extra 2 layers (1 and 2) in GIMP and change their properties to "just darken", so only the dark strokes appear, hiding the white flaws.

#mmd #mikumikudance #tutorial #mmd tutorial #mikumikueffect

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thebladeblaster · 4 years ago

Text

Heart of the Vanguard Concept Chapter final part

(Concept chapters are basically just to test to see if people will like a fic idea I have. This fic crosses over Yugioh Duel Monsters and Cardfight Vanguard.)

Yugi

Hand: 0

“Now, I end my turn.”, Yugi said.

“I draw and I activate my own Pot of Greed allowing me to draw two cards!”, Aichi started.

Aichi

Hand: 4

“I summon Valkriyan Knight and I attack your Guard!”, Aichi declared.

Aichi

Hand: 3

“Because of its effect it can’t be destroyed by monsters with more than 1900 attack points.”, Yugi explained.

“But you still take damage.”, Aichi pointed out.

Yugi LP 1000->500

“I end my turn.”, Aichi said.

“Dang it! Where did all your equip cards go?!”, Kamui questioned as he grabbed Aichi’s arm and shook him, causing him to sweat drop.

“I’m really on the edge right now. This next card will decide everything.”, Yugi thought as he drew his next card.

“I set one card facedown. I end my turn.”, Yugi said.

“I draw and summon Noble Knight Borz.”, Aichi started.

Noble Knight Borz

ATK 1700/ DEF 909

Aichi

Hand:3

“I activate the effect of Wingal from my graveyard to equip myself to Borz. Due to Borz’s effect he becomes a dark type and gains 1 level more importantly I can reveal 3 Noble Arms from my deck and my opponent chooses one of the 3 to add to my hand the rest go to the graveyard.

Aichi held up the back to three cards for Yugi to pick. Yugi was unsure of which one to pick. Honestly any equip card he uses could be potentially bad for him. He chose the card on the far left. Aichi revealed the card Yugi picked it was Gwenhwyfar, Queen of Noble Arms. Aichi sent the other two to his graveyard. Aichi decided to not use Gwenhwyfar now.

Aichi

Hand:4

“I set Manju to defense mode and attack you with Borz.”, Aichi declared.

I activate my trap card Magical Hats. My Guard is sent face down and I set 3 traps from my deck face down and shuffle their positions.”, Yugi countered.

“That means I only have two chances.”, Aichi said.

“You were cautious. You probably thought my set trap was Mirror Force, that's why you set your monster to defense.”, Yugi replied, making Aichi sigh.

“You're right I am cautious. Well I can’t do anything about it now. I attack the two inner hats.”, Aichi replied.

Yugi revealed the cards to be Fake Trap and Trap Jammer. Neither of them were Yugi’s monster. Many of their spectators gawked in disbelief.

“That luck is unreal.”, Emi commented.

“It’s called the heart of the cards.”, Yugi replied.

“So, dumb luck.”, Misaki replied.

“I end my turn.”, Aichi said.

“I draw and I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Gaia.”, Yugi started.

“I attack your Borz with Gaia.”, Yugi declared.

Aichi LP 3700->2800

“That was smart.”, Kai commented.

“Uh why?”, Anzu questioned.

“If I attacked Valkriyan he would have brought back Majesty Lord Blaster. Not to mention I stopped him from adding more equip cards to his hand.”, Yugi explained.

“Right he could use an equip card to try to get over Gaia.”, Honda realized.

“With Gaia’s effect he gains 2600 attack. Now I end my turn.”, Yugi said.

Gaia ATK 2600->5200

“I draw.”, Aichi started.

Aichi

Hand:5

“I summon Noble Knight Gawayn and I activate Double Summon. I tribute Gawayn and Manju to summon Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel!”, Aichi continued.

Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel

( BEAST-WARRIOR / FIRE / EFFECT/ ATK : 3000 / DEF : 2500 / LV 8

Effect: Once per turn, you can reveal the top four cards of your deck; choose one warrior or beast-warrior monster among them and special summon it if you do this monster gains attack equal to half that monster’s original attack, then shuffle the rest of the cards you revealed back into your deck. The monster special summoned by this effect can cannot be used as material for special summoning except warrior or beast-warrior monsters.)

“That’s the card he won from Kourin in Battle City.”, Kamui commented.

“It’s all or nothing I activate the effect of Blond Ezel to evacuate the top 4 cards of my deck if one is a warrior or beast warrior monster I can special summon it and Ezel gains half its attack points.”, Aichi said.

“Come on! Draw something like Kuriboh!”, Honda said.

Aichi revealed the top 4 cards of his deck: Blaster Dark, Mirror Force, Noble Arms Gallatin, and Noble Knight Iyvanne.

Any semblance of a poker face Yugi had dropped when he saw the first card. Yugi’s expression looked completely pale as he saw Blaster Dark.

“I am so glad this wasn’t a shadow game.”, Yugi said as slumped.

“That doesn’t sound good, Yugi.”, Anzu commented, sweat dropping.

“C-crap! Blaster Dark seriously?! I thought you only had one like Blaster Blade?”, Honda questioned.

“Actually Ren gave me 3 when he gave me the Ignoble Knight deck.”, Aichi replied, causing Honda to gape.

“Ren probably owned all of the Blaster Darks in circulation considering he had his own 3.”, Miwa added.

“Now, just imagine if he had 3 Blaster Blades.” Shin said.

“I frankly don’t think I want to.”, Honda replied.

“I chose Blaster Dark which means Ezel gains 1050 attack. And Blaster Dark returns. How funny I was hoping for a Dark monster to equip Gwenhwyfar to.”, Aichi continued.

Incandescent Lion, Blond Ezel

ATK 3000->4050

“I activate Blaster Dark’s effect tributing Valkriyan Knight to destroy Gaia. Now, I attack you directly.”, Aichi declared.

“Yeah…Umm...I lost. Man, he should duel you Yami next time.”, Yugi said.

Yugi LP 500->0

“It seems our bonds with our cards are equal. Hmm. It was an entertaining duel.”, Yami said.

Aichi blinked for a few seconds looking completely stunned as if he was still trying to process his victory.

“Oh my god! I beat Yugi!”, Aichi gasped.

“You did it bro!”, Kamui cheered, pulling Aichi into a hug.

“Aichi!”, Emi called out, hugging her brother.

“Good job.”, Misaki said.

“That was the most wicked duel I’ve ever seen!”, the brown haired teen said.

“Man, your really getting strong bud.”, Miwa commented.

“Well of course he had me as his master after all.”, Morikawa proclaimed, making the others sweat drop.

“Congrats.”, Yugi said.

Aichi’s blushed at all the congratulations.

“Well, looks like I’m up next Aichi. If you’re up for it.”, Kai said.

“Of course!”, Aichi accepted, instantly practically bouncing with joy.

If he was a puppy they could imagine his tail would be wagging right now. They had plenty of more fun duels that day. They kinda lost track of time too not noticing it changing to night. Aichi and Yugi sat down next to each other the former seeming rather exhausted.

“Maybe next time you can duel me and Yami together.”, Yugi said.

“I don’t think I could beat you both working together even with Psyqualia.”, Aichi replied as he rubbed his eyes.

“Really? You seemed pretty strong using it?”, Yugi questioned.

“Well...I’m not so sure besides it’s not just something I can turn on and off whenever I want. It just kinda activates and deactivates its own. I’m not sure I would feel comfortable using it if I could. ”, Aichi replied.

“You can’t?”, Yugi replied, stunned.

“Well, I don’t even understand how it works. It just kinda does. I don’t even know why I have it and others don’t.”, Aichi replied.

“Maybe we’ll find out one of these days. Gods know I still hardly understand how this puzzle works. Though, I really liked the duel with just the two of us with no supernatural forces involved. Thinking about it has been awhile since I have just relied on my own strength and won. I think I have more to grow by myself then I won’t have to rely on Yami all the time.”, Yugi replied.

Aichi smiled at this a rather sleepy smile but a smile.

“Yeah, I still have a lot to grow too. I got lucky against you and Ren. I need to become strong enough to win without luck.”, Aichi replied.

“Hehe. I think I was luckier than you in that duel.”, Yugi replied.

Yugi sweat dropped as Aichi seemed to dip in and out of sleep.

“Come on, Aichi don’t fall asleep in the chair your back will hurt.”, Emi told her brother with motherly worry.

“I’mmmm alright Emmm...zzzz”, Aichi replied, before falling asleep.

“Aichi! Seriously I swear you could never get by without me or mom!”, Emi said angrily, shaking her brother.

“Ffive mooore minutes…”, Aichi replied groggily.

To be continued…

So, this isn’t actually how the fic would actually start its just to give you an idea of what it would be like. Since I added in some Vanguard cards I decided to give Yugi and co. some of their newer support cards to balance things out. Not sure when I’ll officially start on this fic maybe when Dark Circuit is done and I’m a bit further in Tamer ZERO. Who knows honestly my attention span sucks. I was supposed to be writing Dark Circuit and I ended up writing this instead. I’ll try to get to it after I’m finished with my rewatch of the Avatar series and my trip soon. Honestly, I just need to focus one at a time and I’d get stuff done. Hopefully, I can finish Dark Circuit before the end of the Summer. I have had a hard time writing it for the past few months for some reason.

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unproduciblesmackdown · 4 years ago

Text

even more prompts catchup

April 5th: What was school like for you, or what is it currently like for you if you are still in school? Elementary, high school, post-secondary?

i Hate/d school lmfao......like i do Like To Learn and Know Shit, and of course Sometimes / on some occasions it was like, hey i'm having a good to pretty great time at school, but those were usually Special occasions or teachers going out of their way to give us you know, fun projects / go beyond the Standardized Testing curriculum, which natch they couldn't always do / did require sort of going Above & Beyond, rather than being the constant, guaranteed experience of like hooray for school......it's like, oh hooray re: the Play Scenes my fourth grade english class did that was like, an Extra thing, where we got to audition and i just had a great time like oh right, clearly Theatre in retrospect, or hooray re: the field trips, or projects we did In Class, since i hated homework.......i was always that accursed (i mean, not accursed for Me, but) combination of "really a terrible student but also gets great grades" lmao i forever do things Last Minute but like, when i was At school, in class, i'd just power through whatever work there was then & there usually, and in middle school would sometimes do hw on the bus, as i was the last on the bus route to be picked up in the morning or dropped off in the afternoon, but as soon as i got home i was in Home Mode and yknow. didn't just sit down and continue School Stuff asap. also hardly ever Studying unless it's the night / morning before a test lmfao but i had a great memory for that stuff, so studying that last minute was like "yep, i Do remember this from going over it 2 seconds ago" so yknow, despite hating school / no good Study Habits(tm) or anything, i did fine. i also read a ton, at home or at school and at any other point. so i was also like, quiet and generally ~well behaved~ or whatever lol (the like "how are kids (or anyone) supposed to stay focused and on task for 7+ hours a day..." thing), segue into next paragraph

i also remember like, 3 day a week preschool being the first time i was, you know, in some sort of School and also around other kids that much, i did have this sense that like, somehow there were Rules that i wasn't following, not re: Classroom Rules or something, but wrt socializing with peers, like that everyone else had something going on in how they interacted which i wasn't gonna get right, & i had this sense of like, not really being Allowed to interact lmao, even being 4 years old i have a few distinct memories re: this of like, a) choosing to play by myself in the classroom or when outside, and b) my "best friend" being the one person who just like, chose to hang out with me lmfao, but i was like oh cool Having A Friend lmao, like i didn't Not want to have friends, i was just already aware of like, i don't feel like i can just up and interact w/these people and i don't feel like they want me to, and c) re: that being aware of whatever Rules Of Interaction existing and that i wouldn't meet them / abide by them and thus there'd be some kind of repercussion for not meeting those rules, and not being allowed, i remember that like. there was this other indoor playspace in the lower level and there were toys i wanted to play with but Refrained from, and it was like, why did 4 yr old me get the idea i Wasn't Really Allowed, and most of what i can theorize is that it was like, well other kids might want to play with that, and the Normal / Better kids should get priority lmao, and/or being nervous that it just might otherwise lead to some sort of Interaction i wouldn't feel ready for.....and d) sitting at a table with like whatever 4 or 5 other kids or something and amongst ourselves someone was like "oh put your foot in the middle if you're [x]" and i tried to join in on a technicality lmfao and also just in, you know, active efforts to be Participating with these other kids on their terms, and it did not pay off, something that repeated uhhhhh, forever i guess lol. insert that post like can allistic people be normal for 5 seconds.....

like in elementary school i wasn't really making friends either, incredibly, i was Amicably Tolerated by many people then & like, again also at any point after at least lmao (and it helps that i was generally in teachers' good graces, not that i narced on anyone ever, but i had like, my Niche as the Academically Successful One, and also i was the kid who draws, another shoutout to some post and tweet about how being The Drawing Kid was like, some measure of respect but also disdain lmfao...) and sometimes people would again like. choose to interact with me repeatedly, and i'd sort of be nonplussed at best b/c it's like, okay thanks but in this situation i didn't Choose this any more than i choose [Trying to be in the group but being rejected/excluded], so it's kinda weird, i was friends with someone for a few years in elementary school but we just were Coincidentally in the same class for those years, when we were in different classes in 3rd or 4th grade and just weren't seeing each other it fizzled out, in middle school i made another couple friends where we were all being Funny lmao, but i didn't go to high school, so once again we weren't seeing each other, and [At School] was where i always had most Interactions with people, didn't see people much outside of school even if we were hanging out / being friends During school, for [a whole tangent] reasons, so. guess the good news is i'm still in touch / friendly acquaintances with some people from school from college, but even then, there was Some more social success or whatever, but not all That much, and i was still unhappy like, not having many friends, often being like "i'm going to the cafe a block away b/c i have no social occasions here and i want to get out of the dorm / be around people," that if i was with more than one other person i could end up the third wheel friend lmao or nobody is paying attention when you talk or oh no i put myself out there hanging with a friend group but maybe people thought you were a joke or something, thanks. smh

and that like, speaking of college, i went early but this was, for my part, truly primarily driven like "well i hate school so if i can Not go to high school, okay" and like, while i got in and everything it was still like "tf is college, i've never known what i Want To Do so i wonder if i'll figure this out, but i'm not expecting to last past the first semester / year b/c this is college and i'm a terrible student actually lol" but then turns out i kept doing well enough like A's & B's like oh woops i guess i'm still here, then, hope i can figure out what tf "credit hours" means (finally did lol).....then sophomore year was a bunch of just Agonizing over "what tf do i major in," something i never figured out, wherein i might bring something up & it got parentally shot down like "never heard you talk about that" like what tf Did you hear me talk about? are you thinking i had my life figured out by age 9, b/c i didn't think that, i'm only 15/16 even Now, even being the Regular college age it's like, nobody's figuring their life out then. also i didn't tell my parents things, so. and then i settle on something that sure, Might've been of interest, but also it was like, a) a program that barely existed and req'd taking classes at a like 30 min away campus and also the head of department had Just retired and the most heinous teacher in the related fields was now in charge, brilliant and b) the sort of thing you'd just wanna start taking prerequisites for like as soon as you set foot on campus, like, great. and c) i was like, hardly feeling all the Academic Ambition anyway b/c i never had, b/c i hate/d school, and b/c i still didn't Know what i wanted to major in, and i was stressed n depressed and also realizing oh right, i'm not cishet, and oh right, i'm never going to get along with my family b/c [long tangent] reasons and that's kind of concerning, here i am impending Being 18 and like, how do i get out of this b/c it's becoming clearer that i'm not just gonna start getting along with the 'rents now that i'm not an elementary schooler and also now that i'm realizing the Reasons being at home sucks. guess i learned stuff in college lol but also it was like, the experience of getting to be Away From Home and existing every day without parents literally / figuratively over my shoulder at some point every day, and getting to do shit on my own and figure things out while Not At Home.....i also had a lot of fun taking a couple classes from this one music prof lol. he was this weird really enthusiastic and really knowledgeable guy lmao like great, these evening classes where we go over to the arts building and he plays things on the piano off the cuff and tells a lot of tangential stories while we're learning about like, beethoven technically, or folk music. didn't need those classes but they were great, i've had these teachers who were totally into whatever they were teaching and had a great time with that

also acknowledgment to the fact i was a No Extracurriculars person all through school, k thru 6 and college alike really, although i took dance class for that k thru 6 period, just that was separate from school actually (and another fun "being away from home" thing and Theatresque performance thing i enjoyed) but besides that it was like, how do i figure out what i want to do without committing to joining this whole thing, i don't know How to sign up for stuff really either, and it'd probably entail "asking for stuff" and needing to coordinate more rides and etc and that's just a hassle, and i wanna go home from school asap anyways, and then like, when it came to college, i was again at first thinking like "well idk what i'm doing and i hate homework so i'll probably mess it up in this first year anyways" and figured that doing anything Extra outside classes was just gonna be too much, and also, it's like, i've never been in these kinds of groups before and why am i gonna start in college, where there'll probably be all these people who Have done this stuff before, and are also 18? e.g. even though it was like "hey you're away from home and don't have to ask/tell anyone else anything to do this club stuff or whatever!" supposed ideal environment for trying stuff out, it was like, maybe i'm theoretically interested in auditioning for the fall theatre production, but the last acting experience i had was like, "2 month drama class in middle school" or "that 4th grade [section of a] play" so like, not really Any education or experience or Training re: any of that stuff, and a bunch of 18 yr olds who might've, or [age peers] who were theatre people who had already done stuff so they weren't getting Lead Roles or anything but they were getting cast / taking classes / joining an a capella group while i'm like right on, i'm over here with some sort of Grade Honor Society (??) saying my gpa qualifies me to join and be able to experience some further academic rigor/requirements lmfao and i'm like absolutely not. get away lol. anyways so bit of a chaotique Post K12 Zone Education Experience there lmfao, all kinds of things i'd Like to Learn and even take classes on, but didn't like, right i love learning languages but never took classes, love math and shit but only got to a certain level of calc and even then seemed to miss some Lore, never did anything re: theatre, etc and so on. so you wonder if some advantages re: high school would be like, more chances for those extracurriculars (or regular curriculars) but, as though i wouldn't have the same qualms about getting in on any of it, and as if i wouldn't've still hated school but also still been at home, F. and i think people can be a lot more normal to each other when it's college and you're Not stuck in one building together 8 hours a day lmao, got some gentle "occasional Bullying style attention" in middle school, but had juuust enough like, [that Niche of good grades / kid who draws] and people who Were friendlier to me that it was you know, unpleasant, but didn't have to be that huge a deal, and then i was outta there soon enough. also, in college many people are 18 or older, as opposed to 11 to 13. anyways the rest of my school story was that in the end the problems were "i don't know what i want to major in and also now's a worse time than ever b/c i've realized my existence At Home is untenable, and naturally i am quite depressed & stressed about things, and i gotta say absolutely virtually every adult presence was either totally unhelpful to Counterproductive here lmao, like, not much anyone could do really but it's helpful when someone is like, i'll treat you like a person vs simply just going 'uh why are you not doing the academic stuff good enough'" lmfao like. the whole time Not having friends i'd wanna talk to through class and happening to get good grades in part b/c i somehow Could as easily as i did and also i was afraid of getting C's or worse b/c "tfw i wasn't even yet in a grade that gave you A thru F grades yet but my older sister caught shit for getting a C

like :/" and etc means adults are like My Student Is Fine, and also, what are you gonna do even if they aren't, i guess. i just had to figure out completely for myself Why and How i really wasn't Fine and that was quite difficult and also took a long time. then there was a mutual prank of "i drop out of college at the tail end of things" and "now i have to be at home with parent/s more resentful of your obvious Waywardness (insert: not being cishet, and the fact it occurs to me that my being autistic was always causing 'problem' behavior i was getting shit for like, the whole time lmfao, even if nobody knew / labeled it like oh this is for ND reasons, or if it was both true i tried to come out (smh, thought i Had to b/c that was part of Not Being Cishet) and it was simply ignored / unaddressed and yet it sure fueled further specific resentment of my not Performing Gender properly, or "worse," so that went well, in that i eventually abruptly left and did not maintain contact, in the interest of "the levels to which i was thriving was like, that if i bailed and like died 50 hrs later it'd still be what i want to do," true to that i did not / don't regret it. and what do you know, i was first able to bail to a relatively nearby friend from college's home, whose family also liked me lmao. shoutout to school still being where i made Any friends, except a friend i made who was a coworker of several years. and Online Friends, which, another school connection, that like, i can more readily Connect w/people via talking about interests, something that happened Sometimes at school in person lmao but not much, but also that i Talk About Interests in a way through Drawing, which, well shoutout to doodling in the margins of papers throughout school lmfao, it didn't hurt! that's my saga.

oh and that footnote, i also really enjoyed the "in middle school you either take language classes or 4 Electives you rotate through each year" and those electives sure featured some more varied and hands on activities i had a great time with. shoutout to like, cooking, and to shop class, my Car Designs were great apparently, idk how. shoutout to my Intuition re: engineering or something lmaoo.....very fun to just end the schoolday in that big garage space where you could actually open that garage door right to where all the buses were, beautiful. Oh, and that's another footnote, when my last class of the day in 8th grade was english, i'd sometimes finish work early and my teacher would let me go to our spacious library, with the v nice librarian who'd recommend books to me she thought should be checked out more often b/c she knew i liked to read that much, and also just generally had teachers / other adult staff kinda wandering in at the end of the day, talk about "i don't really relate to other ppl my age" where i did generally prefer to be around adults, so that was fun. oh and also shoutout to hating school lmao wherein during like, middle school when the schoolday started at like 7:30am or smthing disgusting and i just learned to like, view whatever time it was in a "at least it's almost [x]" like well okay, first period is math and that kinda sucks but at least once it's over this hardest part of the day will be over, then next class is kinda more chill at least, and then it'll be the last period before lunch, etc etc etc where i could sort of keep up that stamina like telling myself at any point it was Almost [a more encouraging time of day] lmao like. kinda fucked up to have to be dragging yourself through the weekdays like that, but

Oh! goddamn and i didn't even get into that if i ever got in ~trouble~ in elementary school it was stuff like Not Paying Attention, but where half the time that might be some other kid beside me messing around lmfao and i'm not gonna be like "uhhh follow the rules!!!" (and that even when i was In Trouble like go sit in the chair where you have to be quiet there for like 10 min i might say something to some other kid in that zone and they'd be like "um it's the quiet chair you have to be quiet!!" or "uh we're getting into the next lesson and you have to put that book back asap" like wow these other kids are dweebs about Rules lmfao) and there'd just be times like, it's 1st grade and i know how to read pretty well already but we're going over the alphabet like stoppp i know the Phonics already........or the ways ND people can kind of Intuit some stuff more successfully, like in third grade learning multiplication i neverrrrr studied but just broke it down like, okay i remember the Fives b/c of telling time, i know the 2x table and stuff, i know the commutative property, if we're all the way at the 8x and i haven't Memorized stuff, i can still like, break it down to say, [5 x 8] + [8 x 2] or something when i see 8 x 7, even if it takes a second lmfao.......and stuff like the tragedy of when i Did make a friend in like, 2nd grade, who i think we didn't even talk to each other ever?? i was playing legos or smthing by myself once during Indoor Recess and she just started playing agreeably along with me, aka someone socializing on My Terms apparently as our Introduction, and we just were friends past that but one time, not even during a Lesson Session, we were messing around quietly making each other laugh as the incredibly important process of "put papers in your folders" was going on, and since we were Not Paying Attention for some reason the teacher made a whole example of it where i had to carry my desk across the classroom for the Shaming Element of it and also so that i had to permanently sit way further from that friend, so that was kind of discouragement re: interacting at all. thank you to that teacher, who'd later once Gesticulate to me from across the gym that i should put my arms down at my sides rather than being crossed (we were rehearsing some class performance) & i had no idea what she was trying to convey, so afterwards she told me i had to have Reduced Recess Time or some shit because of Ignoring her instead of putting my arms down lmfao. and i was irritated at having been misinterpreted / my Intentions dictated to me and punished like that, but i was also used to it from adults lmfao and did not bother explaining myself lol like yeah god forbid i left my arms crossed on purpose and now i have to read some more during recess. tl;dr school has so much nonsense & i def had some Times re: being autistic & also just being someone who hated school forever lmao, think it was Also 2nd grade where one arbitrary sunday night i just cried out of frustration at having to go back for another normal school week. classic. oh and that also, while i wasn't like "oooo booksmart people who hate not having a Definitive Correct Answer to things &/or ohhh autistic ppl So Good at math, in a way everyone hates and disrespects, but they suck at Literature/Arts which requires you to reflect on humanity and shit," like, not only was i the drawing kid but i was also apparently ahead of the curve as it were at like, Literary Analysis lmfao where there was a few times in elementary school i'd be the kid providing the Interpretation like "what's this poem about / what's the theme or Symbolism in this story," but from elementary school to college it's like, for god's sake don't ask me to come up with a story / work with some really open ended prompt, i don't Invent in that way, and when i try to draw on Inspiration i'll get stuck on some specific source and be unable to do anything but just rip it off really lmao. but then again i was prolific in "it's 1st grade and you write and illustrate a little short story or smthing in these booklets

that we then have a simple little binding process for" like ohhh fancy, i got a tootsie roll lollipop at Awards Time for writing a shit ton of those lol. but that's like, when you're too young to have that much of a Creative Process anyways lmao. but then, my older sister, whose Thing was writing, has an incredible 2 Volume like, noir mystery saga from those elementary school times, it's a classic lmao. anyways once again so much to say about School lol closing the door after meandering on that one for this long lol

April 6th: Are you able to drive? If so, was it difficult to learn? What was difficult about it? If not, do you use any alternatives?

i did learn to drive, tbh just universally it's like, at any point you're driving there's A Lot to pay attention to at once, even if you think you're Good At That or whatever, which i sure don't think i always am lol, and it's pretty wild we just, you know, let everyone go around as fast as they want in machines that can kill you or someone else, and this is also Unnecessary b/c like, let's have accessible & reliable public transit so that everyone can travel without Needing to have a car / someone else who will drive them. i didn't think i had too much trouble learning to drive, but it had to help that i just took it very seriously from the start lmao like, well, i'm quite aware i could kill someone with this. the driving classes i took were alright, i remember the instructor being pretty chill and friendly lol. rip to the fact i could be tense when driving with parent/s, when driving a manual i'd always like screech the tires when accelerating out of a Stop, until all at once it was like "and i'm driving that manual car alone on a road trip & wouldn't you know it, only literally once did i have that issue of not getting out of a stop smoothly enough" lmao like the Anxiety......really like yeah i had an alright time learning and think i'm solid enough at driving / like doing it, theoretically, but Driving Is Wild just in general and let's have that public transit

April 7th: How are you with sarcasm and/or metaphors/figures of speech? Do you interpret things very literally?

i think i Usually get what people mean with these Devices but i can't really say lol, but anytime you know, someone is being more Implicit in what they say, plenty of times i can infer one implication and only later realize they probably meant a different one, or yknow, i make whatever initial inference i make and can be stuck like "???" and have to like, mentally run diagrams about the interaction lol......meanwhile i'm not always remembering that like, if i'm shifting context mentally that's necessarily able to be inferred by whoever i'm talking to lol, whether it's about getting into some adjacent topic or like, i don't think it tends to be very clear even in person when i've started being sarcastic lmao, like i know that can be true for anyone but it's like well, guess i gotta make it clearer i'm doing a bit......flipside of that or something lmao that people are more Obvious than they think they are sometimes about like, idk, when someone is sort of making some sarcastic remark to you but the sarcasm is also sort of only to themself, aka just like okay i know you mean this more dismissively / disparagingly than re: what you're saying just at face value lol like. just always fun >:/

#30daysofautismacceptance #2021 #you know that Read More means especially a saga even by my standards lmfao

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suearthboundau · 5 years ago

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hey guys i know its been pretty quiet, so im posting to give u all a little update.

first of all, thank u for all the support and well-wishes. i really appreciate it in this difficult time.

secondly, ive been thinking about this story and how its delivered, and potentially there will be changes.

right now, i am posting this story as a comic 11 panels at a time. when i first started this blog, a comic was the format i chose (rather than fanfic) because i wanted to work on my drawing, i could easier match the show’s tone/storytelling style through visuals, i would be more likely to have a larger viewerbase, and because i already have a different “zircons on earth” au on ao3 with different characterisation/headcanons and didnt want confusion between the two.

when i first started, drawing an update was easy because i was so passionate about this project. i wouldnt even need a script sometimes because i had so many ideas, and i could get the sketches done in an hour and the digital done in another four. now, it takes me 4-5 hours just to do the script and sketches. i most likely have adhd, ive seen a doctor and im going to be tested soon, and when im not super passionate abt a project it can be completely impossible to focus on. sometimes ive had to split the sketching over two days because after a few hours of trying to work on it i could only get 3 panels done. its like i try to think and something blocks thoughts from forming, even though i usually know whatll happen in a page just figuring out how to script it is hard. after the sketching, the digital is another 4-5 hours, and while it was fun and quick-feeling once, now it’s something i really have to slog through, doing all the simplest panels first like im eating my potatoes before my brussel sprouts. the whole time i work, i feel stressed and frustrated and i want to be doing anything else. sometimes i end up staring at a wall for ten minutes because my brain is so unwilling to focus.

on top of that, a comic like mine moves at a glacial pace. if i keep posting 11 panels a week for a year from today, thatll be 612 panels. so far we’ve had over 100 and practically nothing has happened. it could take years to get through the whole story i had planned, and i dont want to work on this for years. when i started, i didnt realise my choices would make this such an undertaking. or i just assumed id always be passionate enough that it wouldnt feel like a chore.

an option ive considered is either partly or fully telling the story in writing instead. a single 2000 word chapter could bring six months worth of comic-told story, and take way less time. plus, im way way better at writing than drawing. however the problem is a single week’s update would take longer than drawing, because writing takes more effort and i hold myself to a higher standard with it. plus, writing gets less notes and noone will reblog it, and that mightnt seem like something i should care about but entertaining people is the only reason i keep working on this. so if i switched and my average notes dropped from 20 to 5 itd be disheartening.

another thought i had was just posting the dot-pointed story ideas i had and then ending the blog. the reasons i might do this:. im kind of losing my special interest in su. and my wrist issues keep recurring so i basically always am limited in how much i can write/draw each day, and i want to use my limited time to work on new story ideas im passionate to work on. also i have pretty bad depression to the point that i can really only set myself one big task every second day without feeling overwhelmed, and this blog can take up multiple of those slots since sometimes i have to split the work over 2-3 days. also, now that suf has been done for a while, the su fandom is less active and interaction is way down on my posts, indicating that i wont have an audience for much longer anyway. plus this is about the zircons and im pretty sure me and like 5 other ppl are the only ones posting/reblogging abt them anymore so theres no market for this idea. a reason i might not shut down the blog is that its personally disappointing to me to give up on a project i was once so excited to finish.

so yeah, let me know what u guys think.

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aphrodites-law · 6 years ago

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My Favorite

Trope: Soulmate marks.

Twist: Lexa doesn’t have one. Clarke does.

4/? - (Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3)

Lexa's first week of teaching was as much a learning curve for her as it was for her students. Starting middle school was a big step, and the nerves of some kids were especially noticeable. Lexa managed quite quickly to spot who the quiet ones were and who would give her trouble, and other than a few hiccups, everything had gone according to plan. Teaching the same subject multiple times a day wouldn't always be the most rewarding thing, but she was excited about the highs and the lows ahead.

Friday came quickly. By the time Lexa made it back to her apartment around 4pm, she had already questioned what she should wear a dozen times. She'd even texted Anya, but her friend had been no help, suggesting she forgo clothes entirely. She opted for slim black pants and a blouse in the end, left her hair loose and bought a bottle of wine on the way. Clarke hadn’t given her any hint as to what they would do, or if it was even a date at all, but wine always seemed appropriate.

When she got to Griffin Hotel, Lexa walked into the foyer and saw Jake reading a magazine behind the counter.

"Hi, Jake."

He looked up and set his magazine aside. "Ah, I figured."

"Pardon?"

"She'll be right down."

Jake tapped the call bell twice and then looked toward the stairs. Lexa noticed a few decorations and strings of lights in boxes on the desk.

"Are you having an event?" She asked.

"Good friends of the family getting married soon," Jake nodded, looking quite proud. "We're throwing a casual get-together in the garden tomorrow."

Footsteps coming down the stairs made Lexa turn her head. She saw Clarke come her way and felt her heart speed up.

Hi, Clarke mouthed.

Lexa felt like a teenager all over again, as if they were on their way to prom rather than on a first… whatever this was. Clarke was wearing a pale yellow dress with a jean jacket over it, and a purse slung over her shoulder.

"Hi. I… got this. Don't know if it's any good honestly," Lexa said while extending the wine.

Clarke smiled sweetly and signed thank you, which Lexa was thrilled to understand. She'd done her best to keep studying daily since their last encounter, picking up on very basic etiquette thanks to hours of YouTube videos. Clarke turned to her father and set the wine on the counter, signing something that made him shrug.

"No guarantees any will be left, kiddo."

Clarke rolled her eyes before taking Lexa's arm to make their way outside. Lexa had already noticed with Raven that people didn't sign back to Clarke, instead answering her vocally. Maybe it was just the way Clarke preferred interacting, though Lexa still intended to practice as much as possible. She was a long way from a conversation, and the night ahead would surely present some challenges in terms of communication, but Lexa didn't have a worry in the world about it. Clarke had not let go of her arm since they walked out of the hotel, which meant that, as far as Lexa was concerned, the night was already perfect.

"I'm into the mystery," she said after a while, "but is there any way you'd disclose a general location of where we're going?"

Clarke shook her head with the ghost of a smile on her face.

"Is it a restaurant?"

Clarke squeezed her arm, which Lexa guessed meant- "Am I lukewarm?"

Clarke seemed determined to keep her expression in check.

"A movie?"

At that, Clarke wrinkled her nose.

"Yeah, I'm not really a fan either on first d-" Lexa bit her lip. "Hard to get to know someone that way."

They walked past a small park, where street lamps illuminated the sidewalk lined with trees. With the end of summer was coming the fall of leaves, leaving the ground covered. Lexa had never been around this part of the city before, but she was looking forward to the changing season taking over the city.

“So you were out of town?” she asked Clarke.

Clarke stopped walking and suddenly motioned for Lexa’s phone.

“Oh, sure.” Lexa watched Clarke take her phone and then type something dizzyingly fast. She gave it back to Lexa before grabbing her own and repeating the process. Lexa felt her phone vibrate. She looked down and found a text:

Clarke 🙊

Sorry, it’ll be faster like this than the notepad.

Lexa nodded. “Of course. Whatever you prefer. You can sign too; helps me rewire my brain.”

They started walking down the sidewalk again. Another message appeared:

I’m an art therapist. Sometimes I go over to Arkadia to my mom’s rehabilitation center.

“That’s amazing,” Lexa said. “What kind of art?”

Clarke signed slowly, which Lexa picked up on thanks to the context. She'd found that context was key in understanding most phrases, as there were sometimes fewer nuances in vocabulary than spoken language. She understood ‘painting’, ‘drawing’, and ‘sculpting’, though the rest seemed to be a lost cause no matter how slow Clarke signed it.

“Oh, I know, you set bowling balls on fire,” Lexa guessed.

Clarke laughed, then texted again: HOW did you get that?

“You don't have to deny it; that was a very obvious fireball sign, Clarke."

Clarke shook her head with amusement, eyes watering a bit. Lexa couldn’t stop smiling. "Your secret's safe with me."

Slowly, they made their way toward a more active part of the city, where the nightlife seemed to come alive. There were packed bars and restaurants, people coming in and out of movie theaters, and large groups chatting on sidewalks. They took a turn on a narrower street, where Clarke stopped by a heavy door and pounded her fist against it. The door was so thick that it barely made any noise at all. What kind of place could be tucked away and looking like the entrance to an abandoned warehouse?

They waited just a moment before a tall man with a shaved head opened the door.

“Hey, Clarke. Long time no see!”

They hugged before the man stepped aside to let them in. Once inside, it was like they had entered a bubble. Singing and music could be heard from the room over.

Lexa extended her hand to the man. “Hi. I'm Lexa.”

“Lincoln,” he answered with a firm grip. “You teach at Polis MH, right?”

Lexa glanced at Clarke. “Yes, how do you-“

“Oh I think you’ll find it’s a pretty small city. My wife is a substitute there. Come on in!”

Once past the narrow corridor, they were led into a room that looked like an underground bar. Lexa had never seen a place like it. It seemed like a speakeasy that had stood the test of time, now refurbished but still with a distinctive look that gave it an old-fashioned appeal. Where Raven's coffee shop was all geared toward science and the future, this bar was firmly rooted in the past. Most of the patrons were gathered by a makeshift stage, where a woman with a smoky voice sang indie tunes backed by her band.

Clarke looked at Lexa intently, eager for her reaction.

"Wow. I would’ve never found this place in a million years."

Clarke took her arm with a grin, leading her to the bar. The bartender, a short and robust woman with cropped hair, immediately signed at her. Clarke made a two sign before turning to Lexa, who had no clue what had just been ordered but reached for her wallet regardless.

"I'll take hers," she started to offer, but felt a hand cover her wrist. Clarke shook her head at her.

"I asked you out, it's only fair."

Clarke pointed to the ceiling.

"I know you chose the place but that won't change my mind."

Clarke huffed. Lexa looked around and then brightened when she saw an empty pool table in the back.

“Do you play?” She asked.

Clarke shrugged. Lexa took Clarke's hand and led her to the table.

“Alright, how about this...” Lexa trailed off, overly confident in her pool skills. “Whoever wins a game of eight-ball gets to cover the tab.”

Clarke arched a brow and mouthed Deal. She grabbed a cue stick and took the rack off the table, then leaned down with her cue in place. Her tongue peeked out just a hint as she focused and then took a powerful shot, knocking three balls in the pockets.

Oohs erupted around them as Lexa’s mouth fell open. Clarke stood up and stared straight at her from across the table, pretending to blow on the cue like it was a smoking gun before she actually winked.

“Fuck me.”

The night went by quickly, so quickly that when Lexa saw that it was well after midnight, her heart clenched in disappointment. They'd played a few more games of pool, all of which Lexa had badly lost, and then went on to try some of the cocktails on the list. They'd listened to the songs - where Lexa had fought against the urge to invite Clarke to dance, thinking maybe it was too soon - tried a game of darts, and then eventually had left to get some fresh air.

In the most casual way, Clarke had slipped her hand in Lexa's while they walked down the longest street in the city. It was thrumming with life and excitement; neon colors in places and soft glows in others. Clarke pointed things out that Lexa missed, like the murals on the sides of buildings or the food trucks she liked. Lexa bought two gelatos while Clarke quickly chatted with friends they'd bumped into, smiling cheekily when Clarke narrowed her eyes at her.

"We said cover the bar tab, not cover the entire night…" she'd justified.

When they made it back to the front of the hotel, Lexa couldn't believe their night was already over. Clarke let go of her hand and leaned against a part of the brick wall. Lexa took a deep breath.

"Tonight was incredible," she said softly. "Thank you for showing me around. And crushing me at pool - it was a needed wake-up call."

Clarke grinned. Lexa didn't want to see things that perhaps weren’t there, but Clarke… looked at her in a way that made it hard to ignore the flutter in her chest. Trying to stall, she glanced toward the door and noticed a wooden sign propped up by it, with Echo & Bellamy carved in it.

"Echo and Bellamy… are they the ones who took six years to date?"

Clarke nodded. She seemed to get an idea then and typed a message:

You should come to the party we’re throwing them tomorrow. Starts at 5pm; it'll be fun.

Lexa felt mild panic, thinking maybe Clarke felt the need to invite her because she'd brought it up.

"Oh, I wouldn't- I'm sure it's friends and relatives only…"

Clarke bit her lip, perhaps just as aware this was moving fast. Inviting someone to friends' engagement party wasn't without its own implications. She signed something slowly, which Lexa guessed the meaning of.

"I'll think about it," she agreed.

Clarke seemed relieved. Her eyes flickered down to Lexa's lips before she caught herself and quickly signed something, easy enough for Lexa to understand.

"Goodnight, Clarke," she answered before watching her go.

In the end, there was very little to think about. Lexa had slept the best she'd had in weeks, on cloud nine after her night with Clarke. She couldn’t explain why she felt such a need to see her again, like time was wasted without her. She had picked out her best summer dress and stopped second-guessing herself.

On her way to the hotel, she picked out flowers, figuring that if it was clearly too much, she could always play them off as a last-minute gift to the bride-to-be. She walked inside and stopped by the desk, but the foyer was empty. Lexa figured she should text Clarke first.

She’d pulled up their conversation when she glanced at the desk and did a sudden double-take.

A photo of Clarke tucked between the computer and a stack of papers caught her eye. She was wearing a graduation gown and standing next to her father with a wide smile. But the sleeve of her gown was pulled down, showing off an unmistakable mark.

Lexa’s heart sank in her stomach.

It was minuscule, just four words from what she could see, but so faded they were illegible. Anyone would miss them at a glance, but wrist tattoos were illegal for the Markless, and as such Lexa knew it couldn't be anything else.

Clarke had a soulmate.

It was all it took to crush Lexa’s hopes. She looked away from the photo and tried to calm her breathing. But why was she so surprised? Of course Clarke would have a mark. Of course she was destined to happiness that someone like Lexa wouldn't be able to provide.

Lexa had thought that settling wouldn’t be as bad as they said if it was with someone like Clarke. She was creative, kind, confident and unbelievably patient - and they'd made each other laugh. What else did anyone need in a partner? Lexa had thought she’d felt a connection, but the ending was always the same: dreams turned into dust. There it was - the mark that made it clear she would just be a layover again. That Clarke would entertain her until she met her soulmate and Lexa became an obstacle to walk around.

But Lexa couldn't go through that pain again. This time she knew it would be too much to bear if she allowed Clarke to hold her heart in her hands. She couldn't do it. Wishing for the best when the best didn't happen to people like her… was self-destruction.

Clarke would get over it. She was with her friends, she'd be fine. Maybe tonight she'd even bump into someone else and they'd utter the words that would change everything for her.

Feeling herself tremble, Lexa set the flowers on the front desk before she darted outside. She swallowed back the lump in her throat and wiped a quick hand over her watery eyes. These feelings that had grown - she would nip them in the bud, and swiftly.

At the peak of the celebration, while families and friends were still enjoying the food and drinks, Clarke found herself wandering between the garden and the front of the hotel. She looked down at her watch and then around again, disappointed that there was still no sign of Lexa.

She found a discarded bouquet of flowers at the front desk and picked it up to put it in water, wondering who could've gotten such nice flowers only to forget them. Later, in the garden, she sat on one of the benches and watched Echo and Bellamy slow-dancing, clearly not bothered by Echo's round belly between them. Clarke's smile slowly fell as she noticed just how many pairs had gotten up to dance as well. She ran her hands down her dress and looked toward the cobbled path, sighing when no one appeared.

Perhaps something had come up at the last minute. Or she'd been too hasty. She looked down at her mark and rubbed her finger over it, frowning when she noticed something.

She lifted her wrist up closer, thinking it was a trick of light, but there was no mistaking it: her mark had faded more.

Part 5

#clexa #clarke x lexa #f: my favorite

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kalyan-gullapalli · 5 years ago

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Post # 128

Bharat's Ratna...

If Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao were alive today, he would be 99 years old. On 28th June, 2021, he would have turned 100. So this year, the Telangana government is celebrating his birth centenary year. Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao led the bandwagon of people demanding Bharat Ratna for PV (as he was fondly known), with BJP leader Subramaniam Swamy supporting this demand. Reports appear that Dr. Manmohan Singh wanted to give him a Bharat Ratna when he was Prime Minister.

Glowing tributes flew from all and sundry, even from Congress, whose party he belonged to, and who conveniently chose to ignore him since 1996, when he stepped down as PM.

No matter how significant PV Narasimha Rao's life was before 1996, it probably must have been hell since then, till 2004, when he died of a heart attack. First of all, he got no credit from his own Congress party for the path-breaking economic reforms he instituted and pulled the country out of the deep shit it had been pushed into by former governments and their policies. Dr. Manmohan Singh, instead, got all the credit.

Next, he was blamed for the party's 1996 electoral defeat, dumped and replaced by Sitaram Kesari. He was excluded from every Congress Working Committee meeting since.

To rub salt on wounds, he was charged with many corruption cases, some of them by his own party colleagues. He supposedly went through a very bad phase financially and had to sell his Banjara Hills house in Hyderabad to pay for his lawyers.

When he died, while undergoing treatment in AIIMS, his family requested that being a former PM, he should be cremated and his remains buried in Delhi. But Sonia Gandhi and her cronies didn't even allow his body to enter the AICC building in Delhi. That's when Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy intervened, flew the body back to Hyderabad, and had it cremated with state honors.

But why was PV, a freedom fighter before Indian independence, a career Congress-man, an Indira Gandhi loyalist even in Emergency days, a State Chief Minister, a cabinet minister with Foreign and Home ministries and an ex-Prime Minister, treated with such disdain in his last few years? And now, why this drama about a Bharat Ratna? Therein lies a tale...

In 1991, PV Narasimha Rao had practically retired from politics. He had by then, seen it all, done it all. Renowned as a scholar - he was fluent in 17 languages - and known to be indecisive - a requisite for survival in the Indian National Congress in those Indira days - he was cooling his heels, when Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, in the midst of electoral polling.

Congress emerged as the largest party in those elections, but didn't have majority. Sonia didn't want to enter politics just as yet. So PV was persuaded to head a minority government, simply because he was deemed harmless, and asked to lead a nation rocked by the worst economic crisis in its history - the country was bankrupt and had to pledge 68 tonnes of gold in return for aid from IMF, and was grappling with political uncertainty - this was the third government in as many years.

To put it mildly, to survive 5 years - 5 eventful years - and produce the results that he did, was nothing short of miraculous. If a Prime Minister's performance is to be measured by the difference he made to the country while in office, PV Narasimha Rao was probably the most significant Prime Minister India has ever had.

1. Economic reforms:

PV Narasimha Rao was the true father of Indian economic reforms. He brought in a technocrat - Dr. Manmohan Singh as the Finance Minister of India, and backed him 100% to implement necessary reforms. He himself headed the Commerce and Industries ministry to dismantle the socialist policies of the License Raj. His ability to steer unconventional, unpopular reforms through opposition, while heading a minotity government gave him the title Chanakya of Indian politics. Dr. Manmohan Singh says PV was "his friend, philosopher and guide".

2. Nuclear testing:

Today, the world credits Atal Bihari Vajpayee government for India's nuclear testing programme, which culminated in the Pokhran tests of 1998. However, the tests were actually planned in 1995, during PV's term in office. They were dropped under American pressure when the US intelligence got the whiff of it. In 1996, when PV stepped down and Vajpayee became PM, PV met Vajpayee and updated him on the progress of the nuclear programme. Vajpayee said later, "Rao told me that the bomb was ready. I only exploded it." APJ Abdul Kalam described PV Narasimha Rao as a "patriotic statesman who believed that the nation is bigger than the political system".

3. Foreign policy:

He decided in 1992 to bring into the open India's relations with Israel, which had been kept covertly active for a few years during his tenure as a Foreign Minister, and permitted Israel to open an embassy in New Delhi. Today, Israel is one of India's best friends.

He ordered the intelligence community in 1992 to start a systematic drive to draw the international community's attention to Pakistan's sponsorship of terrorism in India and not to be discouraged by US efforts to undermine the exercise.

Rao launched the Look East foreign policy, which brought India closer to ASEAN. Subsequent governments have pursued this policy as well. Today, Narendra Modi is a strong advocate and practitioner of this policy.

He decided to maintain a distance from the Dalai Lama in order to placate Beijing, and made successful overtures to Tehran. These policies paid rich dividends for India in 1994, when Benazir Bhutto's efforts to have a resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva on the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir failed, with opposition by China and Iran.

4. Crisis management:

After the 1993 Bombay blasts, PV personally visited Bombay and after seeing evidence of Pakistani involvement in the blasts, invited the intelligence agencies of the US, UK and other West European countries to examine the facts for themselves.

It was during his term that terrorism in Punjab was finally defeated.

He also directed negotiations to secure the release of Doraiswamy, an Indian Oil executive, from Kashmiri terrorists who kidnapped him, and Liviu Radu, a Romanian diplomat posted in New Delhi in October 1991, who was kidnapped by Sikh terrorists.

He also brought the occupation of the Hazratbal holy shrine in Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists in October 1993 to an end without damage to the shrine.

In 1993, a strong earthquake in Latur, Maharashtra killed nearly 10,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. PV Narasimha Rao was applauded for using modern technology and resources to organise major relief operations.

Okay. By now, I am convinced he has done enough to have become a high-performance Prime Minister, despite his inaction during the Babri Masjid demolition and the pan-India rioting that happened after that. But why the disdain, especially from within his own party?

Some commentators say that his shabby treatment largely owed to the fact that, in the dusk of his career, he refused to serve as a seat-warmer to the next generation of Gandhis. Once he became the PM, this previously indecisive, harmless, grand old man acted like the buck stopped with him. He stopped visiting Sonia Gandhi regularly, which she resented. In him, the Gandhi family detected a rival power centre that could diminish their centrality to the party and its fortunes.

Some others say that Sonia Gandhi was unhappy with the pace at which Rajiv Gandhi's assassination case was progressing. A few others say that Congress ‘punished’ Rao for his failure to safeguard the Babri Masjid and jeopardise the party’s long-nurtured Muslim vote bank.

Whatever be the real inside story, I feel compelled to reproduce the most glowing tribute to PV Narasimha Rao I read in the past few days.

“Rao is to India what founding fathers Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson are to the United States; Friedrich List to Germany; Hayato Ikeda to Japan; Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee and Albert Winsemius to Singapore; and Deng Xiaoping to China.”

In my book, Pamulaparthi Venkata Narasimha Rao is 100% a Bharat Ratna - a Jewel of India.

#pv narasimha rao #congress #prime minister #chief minister #indian economic recovery #economic liberalisation #globalization #dr manmohan singh #rajiv gandhi #indira gandhi #sonia gandhi #telangana #andhra pradesh #bharat ratna #bombay blasts #israel #pakistan #babri masjid

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rocksandrobots · 5 years ago

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Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 4 - The First Day: Shopping Spree (part 2)

The ‘mall’ was a massive indoor marketplace. It was three stories tall with an open courtyard in the center and a sky-lighted roof above. On each level were open walkways and connecting stairs with rooms off to the side serving as individual shops. Stalls lined the center of the walkways selling even more wares and entrances to larger stores were at the ends of each of the three branching corridors that lead off from the courtyard.

Varian was easily overwhelmed by the enormity of the place. He stood still in awe for a few moments just drinking in the sight. After his initial surprise began to fade, he took off, excited to explore every nook and cranny he could find, dragging Ruddiger along on a leash. He wanted to see it all; every store, stall, and vendor.

The first store he came across was one that sold musical instruments. Inside a window display stood a setup of wires and black boxes all connected to what looked like a guitar. Another customer was testing the instrument out and from the boxes emitted a loud strumming noise as he played. Varian ran into the shop with a wide grin, eager to inspect the new invention for himself.

The rest of his new friends followed close behind him, bemused by his curiosity. As soon as the other customer was done testing out the instrument, Varian took the guitar from him and told the others, “this is so much more successful than my own attempts to amplify a guitar’s sound. I just attached a horn to the base of mine.”

He then experimentally began to play an old folk song that he knew. It was just like playing a regular guitar, only it produced a slightly metallic sounding dissonance at the end of each strum. Once he was done, Honey Lemon burst into a round of applause.

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“Oooh, that’s so good!” She enthusiastically cheered and the rest of the group also started to clap. Varian blushed, not used to receiving praise nor ever thinking his musical talents were of anything worth writing home about.

“Man, I would love to have this in my own world.” he said as he placed the guitar back onto its display stand.

“You’ll need electricity to make it work.” Wasabi informed him. “Come on, let’s get you the clothes we came for and then you can check out the rest of the shops.”

With that, they all filed out of the music store and walked over to the first clothing outlet.

As soon as they entered, Honey Lemon gasped in joy and ran over to a bunch of racks where articles of clothing hung and a big yellow ‘sale’ sign stood on top.

“Yay! They have bikinis on sale!” She exclaimed and pulled one of the suits of clothes off the rack and bounded away to the other end of the shop where a couple of enclosures stood. Presumably to try on the aforementioned, ‘bikini’, whatever that was.

“Oh that reminds me,” Hiro said,” we’re going to the beach next weekend. You should come along if you’re still here by then.”

“Yeah, we’ll make sure to buy you a bathing suit on top of the other stuff you need.” Wasabi agreed.

“Bathing suit?” Varian echoed in confusion.

“Yeah, for swimming in. You.. you do know how to swim don’t you?” Wasabi asked.

“Of course I know how to swim.” Varian said indignantly. He had grown up next to a river his whole life, and the ocean itself was in walking distance of his village. Though it was a full day’s worth of travel to get there and back. However, swimming as a leisure activity was one that was normally done by one’s self. It just wouldn’t do to be caught running around in wet under-drawers in public. “I just never heard of needing special clothes to swim in.” Varian continued to explain.

Just then their conversation was interrupted by Honey Lemon calling to them. “Hey guys, what do you think of this one?” She flung open the door to the fitting room and that was when Varian found out what exactly a bikini was.

She was dressed in a rather revealing two piece orange swimsuit. The gang called out compliments to her as she gave a little twirl to show off the piece of clothing in full. All but Varian, who stared at her with bated breath. He had never seen anyone wear so little before in person and in that moment she reminded him of images of Greek goddesses he once saw in a book.

Fortunately, only Gogo noticed his flustration.

"You've never seen a bikini before, have you?" She said.

Varian numbly shook his head no, his gaze never leaving Honey Lemon.

"Well, don't stare then." She advised.

Varian snapped out his stupefied state as it dawned on him that he was being inappropriate. "Oh, sorry." He said as he quickly threw his hand over his eyes.

Gogo just rolled her own eyes. "No, you can look," she said as she gently lowered his arm, "just don't stare. It's just a bikini."

She explained to him that this was what girls normally wore to go swimming in and Varian was reminded once again how out of place he was in this world. That he wasn’t just in a new country with new inventions, but one with its own culture and societal standards.

Ears burning, he turned his attention to the rest of the clothing racks hoping to focus on something else and avoid embarrassing himself any further. He was just grateful that Honey Lemon herself hadn’t seen his faux pas. She had been nothing but nice to him and he would have hated to have accidentally offended her.

However nothing more came from the incident. Honey Lemon went back to the changing room to put on her regular clothes again and Varian, along with the others help, chose some outfits to buy.

He picked out some long sleeved buttoned shirts. One was a dark burgundy and made of a light cotton material. The second one was light blue and made of a sturdier material called denim. It also had pockets on the front and Varian figured it’d make for a good work shirt.

He also found a white linen collared shirt. This one had a single pocket on one side. Such shirts were usually reserved for special occasions in his world and he had never owned anything so fine in his life.

Finally, he found on sale something called a ‘flannel’ shirt. It was made of a thick wool like material and was checkered with crossing red and green stripes. Varian had never seen such a dyed pattern before and personally found it impressive looking, though the others were more non-pulsed by it. He was told it was ‘out of season’, hence it being on sale, but he didn’t care, he was planning on keeping these clothes for longer than just a season after all.

Next he picked out some pants. He found two pairs made of the same denim as the previous shirt. One had a darker blue tint and hung loosely around his ankles. The sign above it said ‘boot cut’ and Varian figured it would do well to have something that went with his Saporian boots. The other was of a lighter blue and was more form fitting. The sign above it said ‘slim cut’.

He also found a pair of light brown pants with several large pockets. Hiro called them cargo pants. They were a little baggy but the idea of having all those pockets on hand while working was enough for Varian to get them. At Wasabi’s insistence he also bought two pairs of ‘dress pants’. They were pressed and straight cut and he got one in black and another pair in a light tan color called khaki.

Satisfied with his selection, they made their way to the counter where Fred generously paid for everything. Varian offered to pay him back as soon as he could earn some money of his own but the older teen just shrugged it off and told him not to worry about it.

Apparently Fred came from a wealthy family and had more than enough money to spare. All he asked for in return was that Varian and the others would stop at his favorite store while here.

It was called a comic shop and it sold games, toys, and various small books full of illustrations. In fact they were made of nothing but illustrations. There were no words on the page save for the occasional line of dialogue and the drawings themselves told the story.

Varian thought them to be young children’s picture books at first glance and couldn’t see the fuss. But Fred was practically bursting with excitement as he ran around the store.

“Now my young protégé, welcome to a whole new world of wonder, excitement, and adventure! Here you shall embark upon your first quest into geekdom..” Fred exclaimed in all seriousness before gathering up various comics for Varian to try.

“Protégé?” Varian questioningly whispered to Wasabi while the other boy was busy.

“Don’t think too much about it. Once you get to know Fred long enough you tend to learn when to tune him out.” Wasabi whispered back.

Just then Fred dumped a stack of comics into Varian’s arms and he had to quickly readjust his stance so as not to drop their collective weight. He struggled to peer over the top of the pile as Fred launched into a frantic explanation about the story of the comic he himself was currently holding. Varian though was struggling to keep up.

Fortunately, Gogo came to his rescue again.

“Seriously, Fred, he doesn’t need you to buy him the whole store.” She admonished the blonde haired boy. “Look, just get him one. Let him try it out and see if he likes it.” With that she picked up one of the comics off the top of the stack, indicating that it should be the one that Varian got.

“Aww but, he needs to read at least one from each of the big two; IC and Wonder comics!” Fred whined in return and held the comic he was currently holding up in a pleading manner.

Gogo rolled her eyes and relented. “Fine, but only two, now put the rest of these back where they go.” She took the comic Fred was holding from him and then gave the stack Varian was holding back to Fred. She then proceeded to watch Fred as he put all the comics back in their place; like a mother making sure her small child was cleaning up his room.

Once everything was back in its place, Fred paid for the two books and handed them to Varian. One was titled ‘Miracle Maiden’ and had a drawing of a woman, dressed in red and blue star-studded armor, wielding a spear and leading an army to victory on the cover. The other was called ‘The Avenger’ and on the front was the picture of a man dressed all in black standing on top of a tower in the rain with a cityscape sprawling behind him. He held in his hand a skull, as if he was reciting Hamlet’s famous soliloquy.

Varian had to admit that the covers looked intriguing, but there was little time to read through them as they we’re off to the next store.

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The next shop was one that sold electronics. Varian starred in wonder at the various inventions. Fascinated, he went to poke and prod each new device; bubbling over with questions about each one. His friends patiently answered him in kind.

While there, it was decided that Varian would need something called a ‘cellphone’ for the duration of his stay. The phone was the same black box he had seen Wasabi use earlier that day. Apparently the device was for long range communication. One could talk to another person miles away so long as they also had a similar device.

The trick, however, was one required the services of an outside source to connect the two devices. So you had to pay another company for 'minutes’ on a regular basis. Since no one knew how long Varian would be stuck in this world the gang collectively decided to buy him a cheap 'prepaid’ phone. You simply bought a new card whenever you ran out of minutes instead of paying a monthly fee and Varian hoped that if he was here for longer than a month he’d be able to earn the money to buy that himself. He was already feeling guilty that everyone was going so much out of their way for him. But everyone kept insisting that it was no big deal and that they were happy to help.

“I’ll help you set the phone up when we get back to the dormitory.” Wasabi told him. “Get you everyone’s phone numbers so you call any of us if you need something."

“Also don’t worry about the money,” Gogo reassured him. “No one expects you to have it all together given the circumstances. If you see something that you would like just let us know.”

And ‘find something' Varian did. He spotted in a display window a shirt with alchemy symbols printed on the front and excitedly ran inside. To his disappointment the establishment was not in fact an alchemy store, but rather a novelty shop that sold various clothing and accessories. However, setting that aside, there were still quite a few things that caught Varian’s interest. Including the aforementioned shirt. It was black, with short sleeves, and in gold print were various triangular images lined down its front.

“What’s with the triangles?” Wasabi asked when Varian showed off his find.

“They’re alchemy symbols. Each one is a different element; water, fire, earth, and air.” Varian explained while pointing out each ideogram.

Wasabi nodded along as if he understood, but he didn’t fully comprehend the significance of what Varian was saying.

“And that’s important because…?”

“Because, I’m an alchemist.” Varian replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I had hoped this store would be selling like ingredients for alchemical potions or something, but it looks like this shirt is all they have.”

“Yeeeah, no one’s seriously practiced alchemy in like hundreds of years.” Hiro interjected.

“But you still have chemistry and engineering?” Varian responded, confused by how the two most important applications of his field could be around but not the science itself.

“That’s because they’re considered their own separate fields of study.” Hiro explained.

“Chemistry kind of replaced alchemy in this world,” Honey Lemon carefully interceded. “Now we use the periodic table instead of symbols. Oh, like this one.” She cheerfully held up another shirt that she had found. On it was printed a graph with various colored squares and upon closer inspection Varian noticed that each box corresponded to an element.

“Wow. Look how many new chemical elements have been discovered,” Varian breathed in wonder.

“I know right!?” Honey Lemon exclaimed. “Ooooh, we should get matching tee-shirts. We could be chemistry buddies!” She leaned in towards him as she said this, her face a mere foot away from his own. She had a wild gleam in her eye and a smile so wide that it threatened to split her face in two.

Varian had never seen someone so excited by chemistry before. Well, no one but himself that was, and he found himself agreeing to her proposal in a dizzy haze. The enthusiasm with which the girl threw herself into everything made Varian feel off-kilter. She hardly seemed real; no one was ever this nice, this genuine, this…earnest all the time. Or maybe they were. Maybe his time as a criminal had him so disillusioned that he had forgotten what real people were actually like.

She handed to him the shirt that she was holding and picked out a new one for herself. It was exactly the same as his own, light material and short sleeved, but instead of grey her’s was a bright sky blue.

From there, Varian found other things within the shop that also intrigued him. First was a lighter jacket, called a ‘hoodie’. It was shorter than the great frock coat he currently wore and made of a less heavier material, with a hood attached and a large pocket in the center. He didn’t want to admit it to Wasabi but he did indeed find himself getting overly hot in the bright heat of the day. Apparently, San Fansokyo had a warmer climate than he was used to. The hoodie was red with the image of a raccoon printed on the front with the word RENEGADE underneath in bold white letters. Both he and Ruddiger found it amusing.

He also bought a couple of belts, and a new pair of suspenders. These had a fanciful black and white diamond design woven into the material and were clearly meant to be worn on the outside unlike the leather straps he currently wore under his vest. Both of the belts were in black, though one had silver studs across it and came with a matching necklace that, to Varian, looked kind of like a collar.

He was also lucky enough to come across a wallet with more alchemy symbols imprinted onto the leather. It was the philosopher’s stone diagram and the whole thing came with a chain and clip to attach to his belt.

Wasabi suggested that Varian should also pick out a backpack to carry some of his new stuff in while they were there. He chose one made from a dark green canvas. It had lots of pockets with leather buckled straps and was big enough to hold most of the new clothes he had bought.

Just when he was about ready to check out, he noticed the two girls perusing over a stand filled with tiny brightly colored bottles. Curious he walked over to join them.

“What about this color?” He overheard Honey Lemon ask Gogo as she held up a bottle that was a bright shade of pink.

“Eh, not my style but it should look good on you.” Gogo replied.

“What is it?” Varian interrupted.

“Nail polish, you use it to paint your fingernails.” Gogo answered.

Varian picked up one of the bottles to inspect it. The bottles were made of clear glass and he could see that the various colors he had first noticed were in fact thick colorful liquids contained within each. The one he held in his hand was a black color with a shimmering sheen that glinted when he curiously swirled the bottle around.

“Only it’s not like oil paint. It’s made of synthetic polymers.” Honey Lemon explained further. “Like a type of plastic.”

Varian didn’t know what ‘plastic’ was but he did know a lot about polymers. Polymer was a Greek word meaning ‘part’ and in alchemy was used to refer to organic compounds whose structures were composed of multiple repeating units. He had never heard of a man made polymer though.

“Fascinating” Varian whispered as he continued to hypnotically stare at the bottle as he held it up to the light.

Unbeknownst to him, the two girls shared bemused looks between each other while he was distracted. They found his curiosity over simple ordinary things both simultaneously amusing and endearing.

“Do you want to try some out?” Gogo prompted.

“Yeah,” Varian absently said all while still looking at the liquid trying to decipher its chemical makeup from sight alone.

“Yay! We can have a makeup party! I can help you put it on!’ Honey Lemon cheered, “Which color do you want?”

“This one will do.” Varian said, still barely focusing on what the other two girls were saying. He turned to carry the bottle and the rest of his items to the counter, still never fully taking his eyes off the liquid. Until he was stopped by Honey Lemon that is.

“Oh you’ll need this too.” She pulled a larger bottle off the top of the shelf and handed it to him. It was filled with a clear liquid and the words ‘nail polish remover’ was printed on a label on the front. “It’s acetone, “ She explained “It’ll dissolve the paint once it’s dried.”

“Ahh” Varian nodded his head in realization. Acetone had a lot of alchemical usages; so he was already familiar with the substance. With all that settled they finally went to check out. Once everything was paid for the gang decided that it was time for lunch.

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The food court in the center of the mall was a veritable feast of sights, smells, and tastes. Eateries of all sorts were tucked into every nook and cranny. Food stalls were scattered here and there, in amongst tables and chairs for guests to sit and eat at. Vendors sold delicacies from all over the globe and some specialized in serving rare treats like coffee, chocolates, or teas.

Varian was bombarded with the scents of various spices, sweets, and meats being prepared a hundred different ways. And everywhere he turned he spied mouth watering dishes being severed to crowds of people.

Wasabi gave him a slip of the green paper that served as currency in this world. On its surface was printed the number twenty with the image of a woman Varian did not recognize on one side and a picture of a large stately manor on the opposite.

He was told to pick out whatever he liked, while everyone else shuffled off to their own choice of cuisine. However this proved to be easier said than done. There were far too many options to choose from and Varian didn’t know where to start.

Some of the merchants stood to the side and offered free samples to the passing customers. Which Varian figured might be helpful in making a decision, if it wasn’t for Ruddiger.

His pet was all stomach and far too eager to try the tasty morsels to mind any manners. It was all Varian could do to keep the raccoon from climbing on to the poor waiters and stealing pawfulls of the treats. Once he had managed to stop him from assaulting the servers, the animal was off to bother the guests sitting at the tables.

"Sorry,” he apologetically mumbled as he grabbed Ruddiger and pulled him away from another customer’s tray of food.

He held his pet tightly in his arms as the critter struggled to get away. Things were starting to get out of hand and Varian needed to make a decision fast before Ruddiger caused even more of a scene. That was when he spotted Hiro and Honey Lemon standing in line to order food from one of the establishments and he figured it was as good as any other place so he walked over to join them.

The restaurant was one that served meals from the island of Japan and their specialty was a soup that was called ramen. The stew consisted of noodles in a clear broth and from there customers could choose what toppings to be added to the dish. Varian didn’t even recognize half of the options on the menu so he stuck to only things he knew; pork slices, boiled egg, mustard greens, and slices of green onion.

He then joined his friends at a nearby table. He sat Ruddiger down between himself and Honey Lemon in a special enclosed chair predominantly meant for small children and then tied his leash to the back of the chair’s legs. That way even if his pet escaped he still couldn’t run off to bug anyone else.

Though he doubted it would be necessary, as Honey Lemon was already feeding Ruddiger pieces of food from her own meal. The raccoon greedily gulped down the bits of egg and noodle given to him while the tall girl cooed words of encouragement as if he was a small baby and not a wild animal.

“Don’t feed that thing with your bare hands.” Wasabi admonished her as he came to over join them. “It hasn’t had its shots yet. I gotta take him to the vet on Monday."

"Oh good, he’ll need a checkup.” Honey Lemon agreed, all the while continuing to pet Ruddiger as she fed him, completely ignoring Wasabi’s advice.

Varian had to chuckle at the irony of that as he sat down to eat himself. Then he noticed the utensils they had given him.

“What’s this?” Varian asked as he held up two wooden sticks.

“Chopsticks,” Hiro explained. “ You hold the two pieces in your hand, like this, and use them to pick up the food.” He then proceeded to demonstrate how to do just that.

“Who eats soup with sticks?” Varian asked in disbelief. The practice seemed totally impractical to Varian, but he gave it a try anyways, mimicking the other boy’s actions, and promptly failing at it.

No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t get his hands to hold the chopsticks correctly and the food kept sliding out from between them. Finally he just angrily impaled the dish with the two wooden dowels, attempting to utilize them like you would a fork, but this too proved to be unsuccessful.

He gave up in frustration and was about ready to just drink from the bowl directly, when Wasabi took pity on him and brought him a spoon that he acquired from another vendor.

The soup had a savory, salty taste not unlike a consommé. It was however the combination of noodles and toppings that made the dish stand out to Varian, giving the stew a unique texture. He also made sure to give Ruggider some so that Honey Lemon wouldn’t have to give the raccoon all of her food.

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After lunch Honey Lemon wanted to stop in a store that sold candles, soaps, and perfumes. The combined scents of flowers, herbs, fruits, and pastries wafting through the air was nearly overpowering. Any one of the fragrances might have been nice on their own but all combined together was too much. Fortunately, Varian wasn’t the only one with this opinion and the rest of the guys in the group went into a separate but connected side of the store that sold toiletries for men.

Once there, the other boys helped Varian pick out some soap, shampoo, cologne, and something called deodorant, which was meant to help stop sweating. Wasabi also bought him a shaving kit that included some disposable razors. They looked far safer than the steel blades men had to use in his world. In truth he didn’t really need to shave yet, but he wasn’t going to tell the other teens that. He was already sixteen, and the fact that he hadn’t grown a single hair on his face was a source of some shame for Varian. Better to let them think he was clean shaven then risk having his manliness questioned.

Afterwards they met back up with the girls and continued to explore the mall. There were stores of every kind selling anything you could think of. Jewelry, more clothing outlets, games, athletic gear for sports, shoes, music, sweets and candies, furniture, novelty knickknacks, decorative items for rooms such as rugs and lampshades, kitchen supplies, barber shops and nail salons, a spa, a ‘magic’ store that sold crystal balls and healing stones, (something Varian turned his nose up at), more electronics, and even a second hand store that sold anything as long as it was used. The last one Gogo stopped into real quick and reemerged carrying an old, beat up, guitar that she gave to Varian. It wasn’t electric and it needed tuning and some new strings but Varian was very grateful for her thoughtfulness.

However, out of all the wondrous shops and stalls he had seen that day, his favorite by far was the book store; walls and shelves lined with nothing but novels, magazines, and thick research books. Everything was divided up into categories and genres and he made a beeline to the section labeled ‘Action/Adventure’. He scanned the titles and covers hoping to find something familiar or at least interesting to read.

Reading was one of his favorite activities. He loved being transported away on grand adventures through the words on the page. It was a relief to a lonely farm boy, to pretend he was some hero in a far off land, befriended and admired, where the dangers weren’t real and you could come home again whenever. Sadly, he was no hero and the dangers he had faced were very real. Because of them, he hadn’t had the chance to just curl up and read a good story in nearly a year and a half.

“Do you have any Flynn Rider stories in this world?” Varian asked Hiro, who had walked over to join him.

“No, I don’t think so. What’s it about?”

“Flynn Rider is an amazing ne’er-do-well swashbuckling adventurer. He rides around exploring various far off lands, tricking villains, finding treasures, and saving people from nefarious evil doers.” Varian explained all while thrusting his arm out in a mock display of sword fighting.

Hiro gave a little laugh at the other boy’s antics. “No never hear of him, but there’s lots of other adventure books you may like; Robin Hood, Treasure Island… oh and this one. It’s one of my favorites.”

Hiro picked up a book from off the shelf and gave it to Varian. It was a small novel titled, ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, and on the cover was the image of a boy wearing a straw hat and painting a white picket fence. Varian though couldn’t fathom what was ‘adventurous’ about doing such a menial chore.

“It’s about a boy growing up on the Mississippi river and he and his best friend witness a murder while hunting for buried treasure.” Hiro explained.

Varian had to admit that the description provided was certainly a lot more interesting than the cover would initially suggest.

“My brother, Tadashi, used to read it to me when I was younger.” he said with a more hesitant and somber tone to his voice.

“Tadashi?” Varian queried. He hadn’t met anyone by that name yet and wondered why he wasn’t at breakfast this morning if he was supposed to be Hiro’s family.

“Uh, yeah, he passed away last year.” Hiro said with a little crack to his voice.

Varian’s heart dropped. He had been so caught up in his own problems, and the brief respite from them that this world provided, that it never occurred to him that anyone else was suffering. He felt foolish now for being so oblivious.

“Sorry, I.. I didn’t mean to...I” He tried to stumble out an apology for his lack of tact, but the other teen interrupted him.

“It’s ok. You didn’t know.”

A brief moment of silence passed, where neither boy wanted to meet the other’s gaze, and then Hiro continued on, trying to awkwardly change the subject.

“Uh, if you want to give it a read, I could buy it for you” He said pointing to the book Varian still held in his hand.

“You, sure?” Varian asked, “It wouldn’t be too much?”

“Naw, it’s only five bucks.” Hiro laughed.

Varian didn’t know what a ‘buck’ was nor if five was a substantial amount or not, but he appreciated the offer and made an agreement to read the story the first chance he got.

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The last shop they visited for the day was one of the larger department stores attached to the mall. There they gathered up the remaining items that he needed. A couple of undershirts, a pack of underwear, and some socks. Two new pairs of shoes, one pair was white and made for running and were called ‘tennis shoes’, and the other was a pair of brown work boots. Varian didn’t want to mess up his nicer Saporian boots while experimenting, so he figured having them on hand would be prudent.

He also bought a pair of thick brown overalls for working in as well, since leather aprons weren’t common, along with a short sleeved collared shirt in teal green that Wasabi called a ‘polo shirt’. In addition to the work clothes, Varian bought two pairs of shorter britches in case the warmer weather proved to be too much for trousers. One pair was grey and called ‘jogger shorts’ and made of the same light material as the hoodie he had bought previously and the other was dark green ‘cargo shorts’ that held several pockets just like the cargo pants.

To round things off, he also got a pair of swimming trunks, a sleeveless shirt called a ‘tank top’ to go with it, and a pair of pajamas to sleep in. That, along with the clothes Wasabi had given him the night before, brought his total number of outfits to twelve. He still couldn’t believe how much he had been given. Anyone else in his world would be envious of such a vast wardrobe, but here it was deemed comparably small. It was still enough though, that Wasabi thought to buy some cheap plastic drawers for Varian to store his new clothes in. There would be just enough room to place them next to the couch.

Wasabi also bought him some basics that he might need, while there. Toothbrush, toothpaste, washcloth, towel, sheets and his own blanket, a pillow, and a notebook and pencils to work with. He was asked if he would like a hat as well, but Varian rarely took off his goggles so he declined. He did however take notice of several small timepieces that were on display nearby. They were called watches and were like tiny clocks you wore on your wrist. They came in all shapes and sizes and colors, some rustic looking and others more high-tech. Varian went with one that displayed the inner brass gears through the glass and came attached to a leather band.

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Finally the day came to a close and they all convened out in the vast parking lot as the sun was setting. Fred had called his manservant to come pick him and Hiro up, and the rest of the gang was waiting for him to arrive. They hung around just simply talking and laughing and Varian thought to himself just how much fun he was having and how much fun the day itself had been. He hadn’t had fun in a good long while. Longer than he cared to admit to himself and he really couldn’t even remember the last time he had enjoyed the company of other people close to his age.

“Oh, there’s Heathcliff” Fred exclaimed as a long black car pulled into the lot. Apparently it was called a ‘limo’ and was quite an expensive vehicle. Though, Fred himself made no big deal about his social status.

“Bye guys, see ya later! Oh, and tell me what you think of the comics as soon as you get the change to read them, ok!” Fred told Varian.

Varian promised he would and waved the blonde boy goodbye as he got into the car.

“I texted Professor Granville. She said she’ll meet us on campus on Monday at nine in the morning. That’s in two days, so I’ll see you then.” Hiro said to him with a parting smile and got into the limo with Fred.

“We better be off as well.” Gogo said. She put on a helmet and sat upon a two-wheeled vehicle called a motorbike that she and Honey Lemon had ridden there.

“I hope you had a great time on your first day here.” Honey Lemon said with a sweet smile and then gave Varian a quick hug before bounding away and hopping on to the bike behind Gogo. That was certainly not something he had been expecting to happen and once again he felt knocked for a loop by the pretty girl. All he could do was dumbly wave back at her as she and Gogo sped away on the bike.

“So did you?” Wasabi asked as he leaned against his own car with a bemused smile upon his face. “Did you have a good time today?” He clarified when Varian looked back at him in confusion.

“Oh yeah, yeah. Loads of fun. This world is amazing.” Varian answered back.

“Well good. I’m glad your first day went well. Let’s head home. I’ll pick us up some tacos for dinner on the way.”

“What are tacos?” Varian asked as he entered the car, while unbeknownst to him, off in the distance, a pair of eyes watched as he and the green vehicle departed.

“Soon.” A voice said to no one in particular. “The time is coming soon.”

#tangled the series #BH6 the series #tangled #big hero 6 #varian #Hiro Hamada #rapunzel's tangled adventure #Wasabi #Honey lemon #fred frederickson iv #gogo #ruddiger

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