#its far easier to enter data for things when like half of the needed data is the same. who knew!

[vriskabot]

[grumpygreenwitch]

Machina Ex Machina 32-33

As always, if you enjoy the writing, please like and reblog. There’s no algorithms here; my publicity is you. And if you’d like to buy me a Ko-fi, I certainly won’t complain.

1+2 - 3+3.5 - 4+5 - 6+.6.5 - 7+8 - 8.5+9 - 10+11 - 12+13 - 13.5+14 - 15+16 - 17+17.5 - 18+18.5 - 19+20 - 21+22 - 22.5+23+24 - 25+26 - 27-28 - 29.29.5 - 30+31 - 32+33 - 34+35 - 36+37 - 38+39 - 40+41 - 42+ AO3 Link

THIRTY TWO

The door shut and the muffled repetition of the broadcast Gungnir had made to inform the crew of their new plan and destination faded altogether.

He was alone in the SysAdmin’s own quarters. They weren’t exactly palatial; Gungnir entered a rest microcycle about half as often as a normal SysAdmin, which was half as often as the average program. There was a sarcophagus, an energy spigot, a personal upload console and communications station and a sitting area overlooking the front of the Drakkar, at the moment a sea of gray clouds rushing away on both sides of the carrier as it flew towards Om at its maximum speed.

The rest of the space was shelves, and the shelves were full of data-cubes, upgrade chips and a number of batons. Trophies, updates, armor, weapons and most every single combat-related patch that had ever made it into the Grid. Gungnir lived and breathed his city, his people, his chosen way of life. The only hiccup in that dedicated life were the small figurines that OM artists carved from light and data, delicate creatures they claimed existed only in the world of the Users, long many-legged things with gossamer wings and wire-fine extendable sensors.

For a moment GAM had to wonder how he’d ended up so far from home. Everything in him ached for the familiar sights and sounds and processes of Halcyon, and in that moment of quiet solitude he realized he’d been missing them for a long while. It had been easier when Vidi was there, to remind him of home at its most alive, its most vivid, but OM had been adamant. The first meeting between a program and its User ought to be a private affair, particularly when that program had lost faith in the Users already.

OM being privy to the status of his faith rankled GAM to begin with. Having such a choice taken from him did not help endear Om’s SysAdmin to him. And what did it matter, to have or lack a User? Whether they came from within the Grid or from outside it, a program was a program, even if they weren’t all the same program.

Still, they needed help. Two of the finest fighters he’d ever seen had barely held back the virus, and that was with support from both himself and one of the most versatile Gridborns he’d ever met. Never mind that it had taken the crew of an entire Pevirian warship to deal with a fraction of the forces the thing could summon at its whim, or the fact it could remotely infect programs if it got hold of their disk…

No. GAM knew his duty, it was written in the core of his every voxel, and he knew there was no way they could take the virus on and win without help. Even if that help put him there, in the dark, chasing after a dream of Users he’d long ago given up entertaining.

He folded back his helm and and retracted his armor. Adas had suggested he start the meeting on a more diplomatic mien, and he supposed it couldn’t hurt. His touch activated the communications console. “I’m here.”

“Alright,” Adas replied from her place at the Drakkar’s command center, where Gungnir had managed to keep her pinned down. She sounded uncertain in a way he’d never heard from her before, and he realized she was no more pleased with the situation than Vidi or him. “GAM, are you sure about this?”

She was also worried about him, and he had to smile. He was a Sentry; surely that got him some faith from the two programs stuck to him like bad patches? “Sure, no,” he admitted readily. “Curious, some. Desperate for any help we can get, absolutely.”

“You know, it wouldn’t hurt you not to be so… so right all of the time,” she grumbled at him. “Re-routing communication.”

“Adas, is someone actually communicating?”

“I don’t know. We won’t know if it’s just an automated response or a real User until you provide the audio ID.”

He exhaled sharply and stared at the words on the console. Nonsense, unfamiliar, unrelated to anything he could think of or guess at. How very fitting, for someone that might not even exist. “‘My life, if lost, would be least missed, truly’,” he read. It was only after speaking the words aloud that he paused a moment to consider them.

Well, if I did my duty in the process, he thought. That didn’t seem unreasonable, surely.

“Oh, I’m behind you!” A polite man’s voice said in the room, obviously startled. “Wasn’t expecting that.”

The Sentry whirled around, hand automatically going for his disk. It stopped with his fingertips just touching it. Of the many things GAM had expected might be offered by this so-called User to prove a link between them, to look into a faded mirror hadn’t been one of them.

The User wasn’t really there, of course. It was a projection of him, though it didn’t have a discernible source. The projection was see-through, the Sentry could see the furniture behind it past the waves of light. The User wore, at first, the plain black of a newly uploaded program, no colors, no circuitry, not even a disk. But details were resolving themselves even as he looked, like Cosmetics being uploaded. Loose pants. Comfortable shoes. A jacket. A patterned shirt under it.

The face had GAM’s whole attention; the face had turned his entire world, the whole of his faith, upside down. It was his face and yet it was not. Their skin was the same dark hue, but time had worn away at the richness, leaving the User’s face lined, his features tired. Where the Sentry’s hair was short, black and very curly, the User’s was white, a little longer though no less curly, and rather than violet wisps there were little ghosts of black here and there to bear witness to the color it had once been. He threw his hands up at once. “Oh, I’m sorry, GAM. I don’t mean to look like I’m sneaking up on you. I’m not sure how I’m doing any of this, to be honest.”

GAM dropped his hand slowly, trying to give the paradigms of his very existence time to rearrange themselves. “You’re my User.”

The User’s expression flickered uncertainly. There was no wavelength coming off him, no passive tags; he wasn’t really there in more ways than one. And yet as they stood there before one another, taking each other’s measure, GAM was confused to see that the more the User looked at him, the sadder he became. Was he truly, already, a disappointment?

“No, I’m not your User, GAM, not as I understand the word,” the stranger explained. “You were originally my son’s program. He’s the one that wrote you, that created you. He was so, so proud of you, GAM.” The stranger tried for a smile, but it came out faint and fragile. “I sort of inherited you. I’m Emil. I’m – I was Liam’s father.”

There were parts of that answer GAM didn’t understand. Far more worrisome were the ones that he did. “‘Were. Was.’”

“Yes. He died. ‘Derezzed’, that’s your word for it, I think.”

GAM gritted his teeth against the irony of it all. So, Users were real after all, and long before he’d known such a thing he’d already lost his own.

It did explain the grief he saw in the stranger’s face every time he looked at the Sentry. “I’m sorry for your pain.”

The User stared at him intently. “You are,” he declared, something very like wonder in his voice. “You really are. You don’t even know me, you didn’t know him. How can you offer empathy so quickly, so honestly?”

“I don’t have to know you to know that loss hurts,” GAM replied. “I look like him, don’t I?”

“Yes,” the User admitted. “It’s actually… It’s a little hard to look at you.”

GAM immediately closed his helm.

“No, no, don’t do that! Don’t just indulge me. Besides, it’s not just your face. It’s everything. The way you stand, the way you move. Your body, your voice, everything. It’s…” The User ducked his head and covered his face with one hand and drew several deep breaths before he stood spoke-straight before the Sentry, his tone firm. “I chose to reach out to you knowing it might be hard, GAM. I’m old, I’m not very good with technology, it wasn’t a whim.”

“Emil,” GAM sounded out the name carefully, then faced the User once again. “Why?”

“Why… Why am I Emil?”

“No. Why choose to contact me now?”

“Oh! I’ve been told you need help.”

“You’ve been… told?” GAM considered this. “Not that I mind the offer, but I believe there’s only one program who’s had a chance to ask their User directly for help. And I doubt anyone here had the time to explain what’s going on once the communications blackout dropped.”

“The what?” Emil looked terribly confused, but then flapped his hands impatiently. “No, never mind. Not important. GAM, out here, outside the Grid, Users have a lot of ways to talk to one another. Boards, chats, all sorts of things I’m not entirely sure I understand. What we don’t have is time. Everything a User experiences, everything they see and hear, it comes only from what their program sees and experiences -”

“So Adas was right – you can watch everything.”

“Not everything. Everything your program does.And then there’s the fact your world, the Grid, it moves so much faster than ours.”

“The time differential.”

“Yes. Every User that wants to see what their program is up to has this tremendous mountain of data that they have to look at, and sort through, and get the key tidbits out of it, and while they’re doing that, five more mountains are being built. A number of Users have known there was a problem for a while, GAM. But it wasn’t until your friend, Adas? Until she spoke to her User that we had a name to go with the problem. And then they couldn’t find me -”

“Why?”

“I’m not fond of technology. It has left me behind somewhat.” In the guarded tone of the User, the Sentry read unspoken secrets tangled up with the truth. The odd, monochrome voice lent itself well to being analyzed, and GAM was too much the program he was not to notice such things. “I use it in my work, yes, but…” Emil spread his hands. “I didn’t even know I was your User until others managed to contact me and check. Some lovely people even explained to me how to do this,” he gestured to the projection of himself.

“The projection?”

“Yes. Aside from actually being there with you, this looks like the only way to bypass the time differential thing. I don’t think it’s very healthy for the User in the long-term -”

GAM drew himself up straight at once. “Then you should not do it. Adas’ User speaks to her in a commline. It’s brief, but if she can manage so can I, and you won’t… What?”

Emil was chuckling. “Just get rid of the helm, GAM. You have his voice and his attitude, and definitely his habit of fussing at me, you might as well.”

The Sentry dipped his head minutely and obeyed. User or not, he knew he was scowling in disapproval.

His User laughed; it petered out into a wistful sigh. “Well, I haven’t had that look leveled at me in a long while.”

“I can always -”

“No, no, it’s fine. I should be glared at, I’m being very reckless in my old age. In any case!” Emil clapped his hands lightly. “I want to help. I just don’t know that I can be of any help. I don’t know your world, GAM. I barely know mine when it comes to technology. I’ve been told you’re dealing with a virus, but this… doesn’t look like a virus to me. It looks alive. Insane, but alive.”

“It is. It’s also not just a virus.” GAM thought about it. “How would a User deal with a virus?”

“Um, well, many ways, depending on the virus and how ornery it was. But most of them need the virus to be still. Yours is running around nearly more than you are.”

“Most of them.”

“What?”

“You said most of them, not all of them.”

Emil gave him a very dry look. “I suppose the people in charge could erase everything in the Grid just to get rid of it.”

“Ah.” The Sentry sighed inside his helm; apparently ‘contain and raze’ was a true-and-tried tactic no matter who you were.

“Everyone’s calling it a virus. Are you saying it isn’t?

“It’s not just a virus,” GAM explained carefully, watching the User closely to make sure his explanation didn’t lose him at some point. “It’s an amalgam. Bits and pieces of dead programs and a User’s mind. The connection between the two was imperfect and it created a virus. Now it’s all three.”

Emil blinked at him and GAM got the feeling the explanation as a whole had gone right over his User’s head. “Is that… Is that normal?”

“No. Viruses aren’t normal to begin with, and this is…” The Sentry paused. Emil didn’t rush him. “I don’t want to give you inaccurate information. I don’t like giving anyone inaccurate information. But we know very little about viruses in general, and we’ve learned even less about this one. Everything we know about it, it’s all a theory. I’ve also never fought a virus,” he admitted. “The last known infection happened in Ilo, long before Halcyon was founded.”

“For whatever might be worth, GAM, and even if it’s… well, I suppose a little bit of a miserable thing to say, you’re probably right about all of it.”

“How would you know? Why would you say that I’m right?”

“Ah, we’re back at the terrible twos stage, I see.” Emil sighed in amused resignation. “Bear with me, please. What do you know about yourself?”

“I am a security program, a firewall. I protect Halcyon’s citizens.”

“That’s absolutely accurate. When Liam created you, he named you a Gateway Access Monitor, and it was your job to protect some very important identity information for him and his… friends. You never failed in your duties, but he wanted more. He wanted you to be able to look at the behavior of your Users and anticipate problems. Head them off at the pass as it were. In order to do that, he had to teach you to look at the bigger picture, to see cause and effect on a scale far beyond that of just your job. So… he came to me, and asked me to teach him about something we Users call ‘predictive models’.” Emil whuffled a little sound of sorrowful amusement. “I think it’s the only time he was ever interested in what his old man did for a living.”

GAM listened as closely as he could, and was astonished to find that he understood most everything his User was telling him. “My predictive protocols. You made them.”

“No, god no.” Emil laughed. “I can barely program my DVR! No. I taught him how a predictive model works in economics. He took what I taught him, turned around and taught it to you. And every User out here tells me that no one has ever created anything that comes close to what he made of you. Out here, where there are people who know, who understand that sort of thing, they’re calling you a masterpiece. What Liam gave you is unique. My son was brilliant that way.”

GAM’s expression hardened. “I don’t need admiration, I need help!”

Emil hid a laugh behind a cough, and not all that well. “Oh, you’re absolutely Liam’s creature.” He clapped his hands. “Yes, you want help, and we want to give it. So. For starters, Liam was working on an update for you when…” He faltered visibly, then rallied with a brief struggle. “I don’t know if it’s finished, and I’m not sure if it’s safe to give you an unfinished update.”

GAM paused, and some part of him realized he was, more or less, stunned. Not from a blow or a data attack, but the feeling was the same. His emotions kept swinging back and forth so sharply with every drop of information his User gave him that he couldn’t find his balance. He almost wished he’d not removed his armor or his helm; behind them he could have pretended that none of it touched him. Without them, he couldn’t even lie to himself.

Now he was going from the formless fear that his original User had abandoned him, to finding out he’d been derezzed, and then being told he had cared. He’d cared enough to create an update for him. “Do you know what it does?” He was relieved to find his voice sounded calm, if nothing else.

Emil, unsurprisingly, shrugged.

“Then best not to try and sort it out in the middle of all this. If it comes to it, it can be a weapon of last resort.”

“Alright,” Emil agreed equably. “But in the meantime, what can I do, what can everyone do? What can you tell me, tell them, tell everyone?”

“Everything,” the Sentry replied at once. “Ayin taught us that every hex makes the wall stronger only if it knows what the hexes around it are doing, so it can fill in the gaps.”

“I think I like your Ayin.” Emil laced his hands before him. “I’m listening.”

THIRTY THREE

They found GAM standing in the dark, staring out the window at the ever-rushing clouds. Somewhere far in the distance the traveling lights of a solar sailer were errant little wisps, like cinders rising from an energy overflow vent. Its data-line winked in and out of sight, and there was no other light but their distant glow and the faint gleam of the Om figurines on the shelves.

“GAM?”

Adas led the way in, Vidi less than a step behind her, MAR behind them both. Gungnir let them all troop in quietly before he followed, closing and locking the door.

Both the other programs came to stand on either side of the Sentry. “Were they nice?” Vidi asked at last in the quiet.

GAM tipped his helm until she could see her pale reflection on it. “He was,” he said simply.

The three of them stared at the dark in silence for a long time before the Sentry spoke again. “His name is Emil. He’s not my original User. His son, his… family, he was. He left the double-sided audio ID behind in case something happened to him. And something did.”

“I’m sorry,” Adas said quietly. Vidi covered her mouth in shock.

The black faceplate told them nothing. “Emil is not familiar with the Grid, or with programs. Or with viruses. He is also… frail.”

“But he’s a User,” Vidi protested.

“Gods can die,” GAM countered mildly. “Apparently, it’s not even hard.” He turned and crossed his arms. “Since when does Om’s SysAdmin pull rank on Pevir’s?”

“Since the aftermath of the last war between Pevir and Halcyon,” Gungnir picked up a little figurine and tossed it lightly from hand to hand. “You know, when we had that mess of the insurrection against WOPR. You wouldn’t know, you didn’t stay here for most of it, after all.”

“I was your prisoner -”

“You were my friend!” Gungnir snapped. “At least I thought you were. He was there to cover my back after you vanished. Went back home, I suppose.” When GAM didn’t answer, Gungnir smiled wryly. “I don’t hold it against you. I did. For decacycles, I did. But you’ve got Halcyon written in your voxels, GAM. I just… I figured you’d started that fight, you’d stay to see it through.”

“I didn’t -”

“You bloody well did,” the SysAdmin clipped out. “Don’t even -” He drew a deep breath. “You left. We stalemated. He offered help, and I took him up on it.” He smiled wryly, lost in memory. “And after we won, when we started sorting the ranks he wiped the floor with me. With everyone, actually, but mostly me. He was the one opponent I couldn’t beat. No one could.” He pointed at MAR. “I’d love to see a fight between you two, honestly.”

“I’d be afraid to beat him,” MAR was perfectly candid. “Or you. I’ve no interest in running a city. I’m quite suspicious that one of you would let me win just to be rid of the job.”

Gungnir let out a sharp bark of laughter. “You’re smarter now than he was back then.”

“He let you win,” Adas realized.

“It was that or he was stuck as SysAdmin of Pevir. He just… wanted to make sure I was up to it.” Gungnir grinned, rubbing at his neck as if he could feel old injuries talking. “Ten or fifteen times over.” He faced the black faceplate, his own expression nearly as implacable. “Everyone in Pevir who was around when WOPR fell knows I’ve got second place on the ranks, not first. It makes no difference; no one can challenge him without going through me.”

“That makes no sense,” Adas said. “OM’s been SysAdmin of Om for… Well, for forever!”

“No. OM’s a title, little GO4, not a program. Didn’t you wonder why our communication with him was so good, when it’s usually so bad for conferences and, you know, everything?”

“Is that why everyone’s so adamant that we have to go to Om?” GAM demanded. “For one program’s sake?”

“That one program has fought every virus that has come up on the Grid,” Gungnir shot back. “That program knows more than you ever will about fighting a virus, and that program has yet to lie to us about -!”

GAM charged the SysAdmin. Before anyone there could react, the Sentry had slammed him against a shelf. Batons and chips went crashing to the ground; the Pevirian caught the wrist holding him just off the ground and bared his teeth. “Did I hit a sensitive sector?” Gungnir ground out.

“GAM!” Adas cried out.

MAR slipped close and put a hand on the Sentry’s shoulder. “This might be an unwise course of action,” he suggested tightly.

“WallSec, what are you doing,” Vidi caught GAM’s other arm and tugged on it to no effect whatsoever. “He helped us.”

“That matters very little to him,” Gungnir wheezed at the Gridborn. “Doesn’t it, GAM?”

“GAM.” Adas’ voice was fragile and wounded, “have you lied to us?”

The silence went on forever. Gungnir tipped his head minutely, as if wordlessly challenging the Sentry to answer the question.

“No.”

Gungnir scoffed. GAM’s grip tightened. Abruptly the SysAdmin gathered up his legs and slammed both knees into the Sentry’s chest, throwing him back several steps and ripping himself free. He landed on a crouch and darted forward, driving his shoulder hard into GAM and further staggering him, until the Sentry had to put a hand on the back of a couch to steady himself.

Gungnir’s circuitry flashed briefly. “You don’t know the first thing about this virus, GAM. You’re guessing. You and those predictive protocols of yours.”

“I’m right about the virus,” the Sentry insisted.

“You’re guessing!” Gungnir’s voice was full of barely contained fury. “You guess right most of the time, and it makes it look as if you’re always right unless someone’s been there when you get it wrong! I have, GAM. I’ve been there.”

“This is not like that!”

“No? You got a file on the virus that you’ve been reading from? You want to maybe share it with your squad?”

“Ayin teaches every defensive program in Halcyon everything she knows about viruses -” GAM shot back.

“Who do you think trained your precious Ayin?” Gungnir snarled. “So tell me, tell us, GAM, do you know or do you guess?” He prowled forward, his face a mask of fury. “I lost people out there, GAM. My people. They fell because I trusted you to tell me the truth. Did you? Did we do anything to this thing, hurt it, slow it down, anything? Or were you wrong?”

“I…”

“Were you WRONG?” Gungnir’s shout echoed in the small space.

Vidi was making herself small behind MAR, who’d automatically thrown an arm out to shield the Gridborn.

GAM held himself terribly still for a long, long moment, and then folded down, collapsing in on himself. He fell to a low crouch and wrapped his arms over his head. “I don’t know,” he croaked, the voice through his helm raw and uncertain.

Gungnir glowered at him for a long moment before he shook his head. He forded the distance between them calmly.

A small hand caught his arm. “Leave him alone!” Adas demanded with quiet fierceness.

Gungnir looked at the GO4 and cocked a brow. “I’m angry, Ilos, not blind. But he does this, and he’s not doing it to me again. He talks like the Grid’s handed him the Users’ own truth until you forget he’s guessing. That’s all he’s doing. Guessing better than the rest of us but it’s just guessing.”

“His guessing’s what’s kept us online this long,” Adas countered, then moved to crouch by the Sentry. “GAM?” she called out quietly.

“I’m not lying,” the Sentry breathed out. “I’m not. I just don’t know!”

Gungnir sighed and dropped to a crouch before GAM. “You wanna know what your problem is, Halcyon?” He rapped his knuckles lightly on the black faceplate. “This is.”

“I am a Sentry of Halcyon.”

“You are,” Gungnir agreed. “I’m pretty sure that’s hardwired in at this point. Fucking rock-solid baseline code, that.” His grin was crooked. “You wanna know who taught me that? Who explained that I couldn’t, shouldn’t be mad at you for just… being yourself and following your nature?”

“I haven’t lied. I haven’t!”

Adas threw her arms around GAM, felt him shaking.

“Probably not,” Gungnir agreed readily. “But you’ve never accepted the possibility that you might be wrong, either, have you?” He blew out a breath and straightened up. “You hide behind the uniform, GAM. Behind the faceplate, just like OM hides behind fake static. And you’ve been hiding behind it for so long that you forget you’re not just Halcyon’s WallSec. You’re a program. You’re you.”

He headed for the door. “So don’t try and call me out on something you thought I was keeping from you, if you don’t want me dragging out the secrets you’re keeping from yourself.”

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML Fic: Soulmate Survey Part 28

(Master post)

Thank you @galaxy-and-star-collector for your support.

I am bring this fic out early.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Alya, you know I think you are awesome and I respect you. But I have to ask why are we heading to our school on a Sunday?” The DJ questioned as they approached Françoise Dupont High.

“We need some more dirt on Lila, and I have a feeling that we can get it from here.” The ladyblogger explained. “I know it sounds farfetched but there must be something that shows her guilt that she can’t possibly argue.”

The two approach the steps to the front entrance of the school.

“Even if there is more proof, the school is probably locked. There is no way we can….”

Alya opens the front door with no issue.

“Ah… well never mind then.”

The two enter the school and notice how empty the hallways feel without it filled with students.

“Alright, we should check out her locker.”

“Wait, didn’t you get in trouble for going through Chloé’s locker last time? With Lila having the school wrapped around her finger, this might ruin our plan.”

Alya stopped and pondered the statement. She hated to admit it, but Nino was right.

“Crap. That was my main way of getting proof.” Alya stomped in frustration.

“Well it isn’t like they would be able to prove it was you that broke in since the security cameras here suck.”

Alya stopped.

“Security cams? This place has security Cameras!?”

“Well yea. But they were set up poorly, only some of the ones in the main hallways work. That’s why Damocles doesn’t rely on them. I forgot you started coming here around the same time as Adrien, so you wouldn’t know about that.”

“Huh, Shot in the dark. Maybe we can check any footage the cameras have?”

“I mean, it’s worth a shot. Though I am pretty sure its a dead end.”

_______________________________________________________________________

Marinette was sitting outside the ice rink, her skates off, she felt like she was melting.

She and Adrien had decided that was enough skating for the day. The routine took a lot out of them. Adrien offered to get them both some water.

She was not expecting to have such an intense skating moment with Adrien. It felt amazing, incredible, and so right.

It felt right trusting Adrien like this, it felt so unbelievably natural to do what she did. She loved the feeling of being held by him, holding his hand as they danced on the ice. She felt so in sync with him.

Just like with my Chat noir.

The thought sucker punched her. Chat noir was once again crawling into her headspace. She wanted to stop having thoughts like that about Adrien.

The first part of her reasoning was because she didn’t want to be comparing Adrien to another boy, or Chat noir to Adrien. It wasn’t fair to either of them.

The second part was because she didn’t want to force the feelings and emotions, she feels for Adrien onto chat noir, it will only make things more complicated and messier.

The last bit was the part that she was surprised to admit her but also did not question.

Because I don’t want to be disappointed when Adrien isn’t Chat noir.

Marinette thought about it before, with Alya’s jokes on the matter, and that whole music video thing with Clara Nightingale, how can she not imagine it sometimes?

How lucky would she be having Adrien be her partner in fighting crime? Her most trusted partner and the boy she was in love with being the same person. Knowing Adrien was her goofy lovable cat partner would certainly make it a lot easier to talk with him. The chances of that happening however, were astronomical. Not even Ladybug is that lucky.

“No one is that Lucky...” She sighed

“Who isn’t lucky?”

Marinette nearly fell back after hearing the sudden question. She jolted to look at Adrien who was holding two water bottles.

Adrien took a bit longer getting the water bottles then he should have because he was trying to see if he could find that old man that he swore was Master Fu. Sadly, he couldn’t find the old man, and decided to cut his losses and get back to Marinette.

“Nothing! Just surprised how we were the only ones here skating today.”

Adrien moved his hand out to her, holding the bottle.

“I thought you might be thirsty.”

Marinette took a moment to notice the boy had removed his outer shirt and she could see his fore arms. She couldn’t help but notice he looked a bit more pumped up then before.

“You could say that.” Marinette takes the bottle. “Thank you.”

Adrien sits down beside her. She takes a couple of sips from her bottle. The cool water was very welcome to her parched throat.

Marinette felt her cheeks heat up with how close he was. Watching him open the bottle and take a swig.

After the swig he sighed with a refreshed smile.

“That was a lot of fun. I didn’t think we would go so far with that.” The blond commented.

“Y-yea. It was unexpected with the spotlight.”

“I wonder if Philippe set that up?”

“He is probably gonna try signing us up for lessons.”

Adrien nodded knowing the man really wants to get students.

“Well I am not sure about lessons; I do think we should do that again… not today. That took a lot of energy.”

Marinette giggled at the comment.

“I would like that.”

Adrien looked at her and grinned. He could swear there must be something in the air, because Marinette looked so incredible. Even with her hair a bit ruffled from the skating. She looked so incredible to him.

“So, Marinette, what else is on the Agenda for today?”

Marinette took some water as she checked the time on her phone. She does a shocking spit take.

“Oh crap! The sunset!”

“The Sunset?”

“We need to go! If we want to get to the last place we need to hurry now!” Marinette said as she was grabbing all of her stuff in a Marinette-esque panic which the Blond couldn’t help but find cute.

“I will make sure our ride is ready.”

Adrien looked to his bodyguard who as if he could read Adrien’s thoughts, moved from his spot to go get the car.

“I swear I think he can read minds sometimes.”

“That must make it hard for you to sneak out.”

“As long as he doesn’t see me when I do, its no big issue.”

“So, Marinette, where is this place you want to end our wonderful day together.”

Marinette felt her face heat up.

“O-Oh! Its a surprise.”

Adrien smiled.

“Sounds like it will be fun.”

_______________________________________________________________________

“Who the hell is in charge of this area? This place is a dump!” Alya shouted in frustration.

Nino took Alya to the small surveillance room that was near the office. It was a room maybe half the size of the Principles office. The room had a bunch of dusty monitors, most of which were off. it looked like people haven’t been in the room in months. The door was initially locked, but Alya was able to pick the lock to get them in. Thankfully the area they were at, the security camera didn’t work so they didn’t need to worry about being filmed.

“Yea, no one really. I think Mr. Damocles handles it, but ever since he became the owl hero. he never comes in here.”

Alya wipes dust off the few working monitors.

“Okay, well at least some of these cameras work.”

Alya began trying to dig into the data in the outdated security monitors.

“It seems it has recordings going as far back as a few days before Lila came back to school. I guess that was the last time Damocles bothered to check the tapes. I guess it will have to do.”

Nino pulled a chair for Alya to sit on.

“No need to work standing.”

Alya give Nino a peck on the cheek.

“You are sweet. Now watch outside in case anyone is coming. I will check if there is anything here, and after that we can leave.”

Nino nods.

“No worries, I got ya covered.”

Nino moved to outside the door while Alya got to work.

“Let’s see if there is anything worth investigating.”

_____________________________________________________________________

“I am sorry but the elevators are under maintenance.” a woman at the desk informed the two teens in front of her.

“What? But they were fine this morning when I called to check.” The dark-haired teen exclaimed in disbelief.

“I apologize for the inconvenience. But it will likely be another hour or two before the elevator is ready.”

The blond teen next to her put a hand on her shoulder.

“Its alright Marinette. we can take the stairs.” The Blond assured.

Marinette sighed.

“Yes but… by the time we get up there…” Marinette tried to explain.

She had planned that Adrien and her were at the top of the tower just as the sun was setting. The amazing view would have been perfect to set the scene for her confession. Marinette had planned the day out perfectly, and now, with the last and most crucial step in her plan out of commission, it felt like tripping right at the finish line of a race.

Marinette turned to the woman.

“Thank you for your help.”

Marinette and Adrien moved away from the main desk.

“I really liked your idea. Going to the Eiffel Tower to see the view of the sunset. I appreciate you going to such lengths for this wonderful day together.” Adrien comforted.

Marinette smiled a bit.

“I am glad you enjoyed it, but I really wish we could watch the sunset from up there.”

Adrien could see it in her eyes. She really wanted to catch that amazing view. And despite Adrien’s best efforts, there was no way he could do it. However, he did happen to know a super hero that might.

“One moment Marinette,” Adrien grabbed his phone and checks it.

“My father messaged me. I am going to go give him a call. Can you wait here for a little bit?”

“Oh… okay.”

Adrien kept a smile as he ran off to go talk with his dad.

“Must be a private issue.” Marinette commented.

Marinette sighed as she looked up at the Eiffel Tower. Even if she sprinted. There was no way she could get up 704 flights of stairs before sunset. Even if she did, she would be all sweaty and be exhausted for the big moment.

“Don’t worry Marinette. I am sure Adrien still had a wonderful time on your date.” a voice whispered to her from her bag. Marinette looked down at her bag to address her magical companion.

“I appreciate your kind words Tikki. But I really thought this was my big chance to confess.”

“I am sure that the opportunity will present itself. You just need to have a little hope.” The ladybug Kwami assured before closing her bag.

Marinette took a moment to notice the sun was a few minutes away from sunset, Adrien was likely going to be talking with his father until the moment ends and the day ends.

“So much for the perfect day.” Marinette comments to herself.

“Au contraire, Princess”

Marinette turned to see a smirking Black clad hero.

“Chat noir?”

“I happened to be in the neighborhood patrolling the area, and I noticed you took my advice trying to come here for the big finale.” Chat noir smirked. “I really do have impeccable taste if I do say so myself.”

Marinette smiled a bit at the Cat’s bragging.

“Yea, it was good advice. However, it seems that will be an impossibility. The Elevator to the top is undergoing Maintenance and there is no way Adrien and I can get up there before the sunset is finished.”

“Oh, what a shame. If only you had a super hero that could get you both up there in a shake of a tail.” Chat noir dramatically exclaimed. His tail flicking as he mentioned his ‘Tail’

Marinette’s eyes went wide.

“Chat are you…”

“Consider me your personal Wing-cat.” Chat noir winked.

Marinette felt her heart pound.

Once again, chat noir was helping her out. Helping her set up a moment that could mean the end of any chance of the cat being with Ladybug. And he didn’t know it.

“You are a really amazing guy Chat noir.” Marinette spoke softly.

The words were like an arrow to his heart. Marinette has so much pull on his heartstrings and she had no idea.

Chat noir took out his staff and placed it firmly on the ground.

“The express Elevator is open. I will get your Prince up here after you are safely up.”

Marinette moved towards the cat and wrapped her arms around him for safety. The cat wrapped an arm around her waist.

“You might want to hold on to your beret.” Chat noir commented.

Marinette took his advice and removed her hat and held on to it.

In a moment, the two began to ascend high into the sky.

Within a minute, Marinette was at the top level of the Famous monument.

Chat noir moved to help get them both safely on the floor.

“Alright, now to fetch the Prince. Close your eyes Princess.” Chat noir stated.

Just before moving, Marinette caught his hand.

The cat hero paused.

“Chat noir.” Her voice as soft as a violin.

The cat looked at the designer. His eyes go wide as the wind bellows and moves her hair back slightly. The light of the sun hitting her to make her appear with an ethereal glow.

“You deserve to be happy.”

Chat noir felt his cocky grin shift to a soft sincere smile.

“I already am Marinette. Happier than I have been in a very long time”

Chat noir could swear he saw a tear stream down her face.

“Marinette?”

She hugged him

He was surprised by the sudden motion, but held her close.

“I am so sorry.”

Chat noir was confused by what the girl could possibly be apologizing for. She hadn’t done anything to hurt him, in fact he was the one that turned her down back then. He was the jerk. What could she… did she feel guilty about going on this date with his other self? Did she feel like that it made her feelings less valid? No, he had to correct this.

“Its okay Marinette. You don’t need to be hung up on me. You deserve to be happy. ”

Marinette wanted more then anything to tell him. She wanted to tell him that the girl he was helping with her date was the very girl he said he was in love with. She wanted to tell him how much of an amazing human being he was, how he was her trusted partner, how he was an amazing friend, and how he was someone she loved dearly.

Yes, she knew it. She knew it deep in her heart. She loved Chat noir. She had known this since the day he comforted her when Hawkmoth first appeared.

Sure, he seemed like flirt at first, and she assumed that his feelings were not serious until his confession. It hurt her so much to turn him down that day, but she was in love with Adrien. But that didn’t mean she didn’t care about his feelings.

Marinette wasn’t sure what type of love she felt for chat noir, she just knew she cared about him, and wanted him to be happy. He deserved better than her, he just didn’t see it. She swore that after this, she would find him a girl that was worthy of him.

Marinette let go of the hug.

“Ladybug is dumb for not falling for you.” Marinette told him.

Chat noir shook his head. The words didn’t sting like they once would have.

“She might have dodged a bullet. I shed.”

Marinette laughs at the joke.

“Alright Princess. I should hurry and get your Prince up here.”

Chat noir quickly ran off and jumped off the building.

Marinette rushed to the edge of the railing and looked down. She noticed the cat was out of sight.

Thank you chat… you don’t know how much better you deserve.

_______________________________________________________________________

Nino rested his back on a locker that was right next to the door to the monitor room.

He kept an eye out as he waited for his investigative reporter girlfriend to find what she was looking for in that security camera footage.

He went into his bag and pulled out a bottle of bubble soap.

“Just a few blows to steady the nerves.” He said to himself.

He opened the cap of the bottle to reveal a bubble want inside. He dunked the wand a few times before blowing a few bubbles.

It had been a while since he had done this. He always kept the soap on him. His little brother always loved popping bubbles. But now a days Chris said Bubbles were for Babies. Nino never really understood where his baby bro was coming from. Bubbles were awesome.

Though he had to admit that he hadn’t done this recently, the whole fiasco with him being a bubble themed Akuma really soured the experience for a while. He hated to admit how much that day had an effect on him.

He blew a few more bubbles into the air and watched as they floated in the hallway.

Nino wanted to give Hawkmoth a punch in the face for making him stay away from one of his favorite stress relievers. He remembers how he did chuck his shield at the butterfly man back when he was Carapace. That thought did make him smile.

“Heh, Nice.”

Nino was about to blow another set of bubbles when Alya burst through the door. The surprise cause Nino to lose grip of his bubble soap resulting in it spilling on the floor.

“Nino! You have to see this!”

Nino turned to his girlfriend.

“What happened?”

Alya looked at the area and noticed the spilled soap.

“Were you blowing bubbles? I thought you said you didn’t do that after the whole bubbler incident?” Alya inquired.

“I decided to bring it back again. So what were you bursting through doors about?”

Alya took a moment to recollect her sudden outburst.

“Come in here.”

The DJ shrugged and moved inside the Security room.

“You found something?”

“See for yourself.” Alya answered.

The hat wearing teen looked closely at the screen as he saw a figure that looked like an akuma fluttering on Camera.

“Is that an Akuma!”

“Keep watching.”

Nino continued watching as the butterfly seemed to be fluttering aimlessly.

“Weird, guess it doesn’t have anyone to Akumatize… wait is that…”

Lila appeared in view of the camera, moving towards the Akuma.

Nino watched in utter shock as the girl purposefully accepted the Akuma.

“No fucking way…”

______________________________________________________________________

Marinette stared out on the balcony on top of the Eiffel tower. When she felt a tap on her shoulder.

Marinette turned to see Adrien, smiling at her.

“Seems you had a back up plan for getting us up here.” Adrien joked.

“I didn’t plan it. We really lucked out.” Marinette exclaimed. “Chat noir is a really good person.”

Adrien felt his cheeks burn at the compliment that she was unaware she gave him.

“Wow, the sunset really is amazing from up here.” He changed the subject.

Marinette moved to look in the direction of the setting sun. From the top of the tower, she could see all of Paris bathing in the magnificent light of the dimming star. The sky was a plethora of colors as the main light source of the day was drifting to slumber in Paris.

Adrien moved to her side. He moved his hand to hers, touching her hand with his.

Marinette looked at him for a brief moment, he looked at her, smiling nervously. She could tell he in that instant that he was just as nervous as she was. It made her feel a bit at ease. She accepted his hand in hers.

The two turned back to looking at the sky with wonder.

Marinette felt her heart in her chest.

Alright Marinette… its now or never.

_______________________________________________________________________

“Okay, time to set everything up.” the brunette said with a sinister smile.

She had easily made her way into the empty school. The front door was not locked, Lila mentally noted how much of a safety violation that probably was. Its like the place was begging to get robbed. Though the more likely reason was that there might be someone already inside.

She was careful to not make a sound, just in case her theory was correct, though it was likely some Janitor doing some late-night cleaning.

Lila quietly moved to the locker area. She stealthily moved and opened every locker that belonged to someone in her class, making sure to take some sort of valuable. Before methodically closing it.

She made sure to locate Marinette’s locker.

“Perfect.” The manipulative liar whispered as she began picking the lock. It was tougher then the others, the lock was slightly different. Her lock was newer, something must have happened to her old locker sometime before Lila had arrived that resulted in a new lock being put in.

It took a few minutes to open the locker but sure enough it did.

Lila made sure to cautiously put the stolen goods in the girl’s locker, including her necklace, putting it in a way that would ensure the contents fell out next time the designer opened it.

“Phase one complete. Now for phase two.”

Lila made her way to her homeroom class.

Lila had initially planned on framing Marinette for cheating on an exam. But that was too unbelievable. But having her sabotage Chloé? That would be something far more believable.

Lila had snagged one of Marinette’s spare hair scrunchies from the locker, putting it under Chloe’s seat. Lila loosened a few of the bolts on the mayor’s daughter’s seat.

Lila had a third surprise, but that would be saved for Monday. She wanted to be there the moment her final piece appeared, resulting in that pigtailed brat’s expulsion.

Lila made her way out of the classroom, when she suddenly heard footsteps.

Shit! Someone is coming! I need to hide!

Lila looked around and noticed another door and quickly ran to that door and closed it.

Hoping no one would check.

She ducked down and listened for the footsteps to go away. But as she sudden motion caused her to knock over a broom which had the handle smack her head.

She muffled her yelp of pain with her hand. She made the realization that of all the places she picked to hide, she picked a Janitor’s closet.

She decided to ignore that irony while she put her ear to the door to listen to the footsteps.

“I think we got everything we needed.”

“Yea, I still can’t believe what we found. This is so much worse than we realized.”

Lila recognized the voices. It was Alya and Nino! What were they doing here?

If they go to the locker area and notice what she was up to, her plan could be ruined!

“So, are we good for tonight then?”

“Yea? I think we got everything for tomorrow. Marinette and Adrien will definitely be surprised.”

Tomorrow? What could possibly be tomorrow? They are probably planning something for the two ‘Love birds’ Lila rolled her eyes. Too bad their plan will be going up in smoke once I am through with Marinette

Lila couldn’t hear their words or their footsteps. She waited another minute before moving. She carefully stood up as to avoid getting another bump on the head.

She opened the door, but forgot about the broom she knocked over. her first step out of the closet resulted in her tripping and smacking her nose right on the floor.

Lila bit her tongue to avoid screaming.

She really hated Janitor’s Closets.

_______________________________________________________________________

Part 28 is complete and The Day is coming to an end. Will Marinette be able to confess her feelings. What will Alya and Nino’s new discovery help bring to Light Lila’s misdeeds? Or Will Lila’s own scheming result in 

Thank you guys so much for all of the love and support for the fic.  I hope you all still love it and I hope to keep things ready for you. Please keep commenting, I love hearing your thoughts. Also, please share the fic around, its hard for everyone to see it on Tumblr.

I absolutely adore seeing those notes and comments,  I will do my best with Tagging in the future, but I really wasn’t able to set up any new ones at this time either and I apologize. I will do my best to include them in the future.

Tags:

@flashflashitsash @awesomegummybears @bowser14456 @howtoshuckatlife @tigris-types @houseofhades101 @mr-adrien-swagreste@suzanaboss   @pausassy23@cela12-16 @fanatic-kay@zhrx @kaydenth3gayden @awesomeaddiewhovian @gpratt001@kokoa-vb@snow-swordswoman@shyflowerpetal @cici-schnee@lexysama@miyugaze@goldenlightbulb@mery-vhan27@strangerahne@theyellowfeverexperience@lady-of-the-roses-and-lilies@ladybub@artzypaw@zoe-oneesama@masked-bixch @poptartpeter @kabih  @theartistinbed @alyas-ladyblog @http-chatbug @generictrashblog @certainmuffinbagelcalzone@chimpcamp @galahadwilder @biacetrash @rose-sparks13@dweeborg@communistchexmix @heizerux @fusselkuchen @shitposting-embodied @avatar-jenny-mac@xxxspacexxx@loving-neko@coltaire@seguin @ale-san28@foreverrightnot@panda-charlotka@random-posts-and-stuff@moodiecookie

[vintagesimstress]

VI c. UV_1

(Previous: Changing the texture displayed in Blender)

As mentioned before, the uv_1 map plays a very different role than uv_0: it tells the game where certain parts of your mesh are located, so that the whole thing could move with sliders. It seems many people struggle with it a lot – and to be honest, I have no idea why, as in my experience uv_1 has always been totally unproblematic. Hopefully you'll share my feelings on this!

Let's click once again the little triangle on the right ('Data') and choose 'uv_1' this time.

As you can see, the texture on the model turned very weird – and it'll stay this way, as that map is not meant for texturing. You can as well change to solid shading, if you find that craziness spooky or annoying.

If you switch to edit mode, you'll see that the map looks just as crazy:

UV_1 uses a completely different type of template. It differs very slightly depending on age and gender of your sim; the adult female one looks like this:

You can download all the versions from S4S forum, in HERE (I highly suggest you make some kind of 'Basics' folder for all those things which you'll keep reusing!)

Once you have downloaded it, click 'Image' and then 'Open image'. It works exactly the same as in case of uv_0. Now it should look like this:

You can see that your vertices are twice wider than the template. I'm not sure why the template has been made in this way instead of getting adjusted to the TS4 requirements, but that's what we have to work with. Select all the vertices (a), press s, then x, then type 0.5 and press enter. Do not move your mouse! Your uv map should be twice narrower now:

We still have to move it, so that it'd align with the template. Select all again, this time press g, x and type 512. That's exactly the number of pixels you need to move your mesh to the right. Now it should finally look correct.

Just like in case of uv_0, the top part is completely done, so the only thing we have to do is unwrap the skirt. This time the only valid methods for doing it are no. 1 and 2 (see: VI a), namely moving the lines manually or using cylinder projection. As at this point making manual adjustments would be too cumbersome, we're going to use option no. 2.

Select the lowest line of vertices to select your whole skirt, go to front view this time (num 1) and choose cylinder projection.

Move the newly unwrapped faces up or down (g, y), to the black area, so that you could properly see them.

You can see that my dress got unwrapped a bit unevenly – there are small 'steps' on the sides. I highlighted all the faces which should form the left edge. Now I'll move the highlighted parts on the right to the left, and the non-highlighted parts on the left to the right, and then it should all look and work fine.

Tip: you can also move them precisely into the right place by typing g, x, 1024 (to move to the right) or g, x, -1024 (to move to the left)!

The weird part at the bottom is the closing circle; you can select the central vertex (which is here doubled on the sides), weld it and move it down, to more or less align it with the lowest row. Or simply wait with closing your dress until you're done with uv_1 ;). The bigger problem is that step my dress still has at the top. I'll select all the vertices below it and just very gently move them along the x axis to the left. Now, that looks better:

And now, just as we did before, we have to connect the skirt with the top. It's a bit trickier than in case of uv_0, because you can't do it in one piece: your mesh has to be split along the back and both sides. Take a look at the top mesh. Let's start from the left: click the rightmost face and then, in 3D view, the faces right underneath it. This will tell you where your skirt should be split.

I'll deselect the face of the top, select the whole part of the skirt left from the selection and then move it to the left (g, x), separating it from the central part.

That weird line at the bottom is the closing circle again – I'll delete it and redo it afterwards, it'll really be easier.

Repeat the same steps for the part on the right.

The edges of those three parts should be, if possible, straight. Mine aren't. To be able to adjust them, I'll select the edges and temporarily split them (ctrl + e, in 3D view). Select a vertex or two above as well, or the uppermost one won't get split!

(If you're having problems with selecting edges, it might be smart to select the whole skirt (not the top!) and change it back from tris to quads (alt + j). Then you can easily select edges by clicking them while holding alt).

Split also the top row of vertices, to separate the skirt from the top. Just for a second.

Now select a whole edge, press w and choose 'Align X'

Repeat for the remaining edges. If you want to and feel that it's needed, you can also straighten other lines in your mesh.

Now it's finally the time to put it in the right place. Select the skirt and move it up (g, y).

One can immediately see that it's way too tall. Scale it along the y axis until it looks more reasonable. It should start at the lowest line of the top and end a bit above the feet. Nothing big will happen if it covers them, but it has to fit inside the picture!

And now just scale and move each of the 3 parts individually, along the x axis, to match them with the top.

The only thing left to do is to weld the vertices. It's unlucky that we separated the skirt from the top; now we have to select all, remove doubles and then once again split the side edges to be able to weld everything properly. Just like with uv_0: select a vertex, press w and choose 'weld' from the drop-down menu. Repeat for aaaaaall the vertices connecting the skirt with the top.

Sometimes the vertices can be quite far away from each other. Is it still safe to weld them? I'd say risk it. If you see some weird stuff happening in game when changing your sim's body type, you'll know you have to fine tune it: straighten some lines, make them more regular etc. However, chances are quite high that it won't matter at all.

Select all and remove doubles. Yes, again (I keep doing it all the time, that's probably why I love the edge split modifier so much).

And now a very important, final step that I usually forget about: you have to revert the moving and scaling changes you made at the very beginning. Select all and press g, x, -512 to move it back into position, and then s, x, 2, to make it twice wider again. Otherwise TS4 will get quite perplexed with your mesh (and so will you, seeing everything being weirdly deformed and moving with all the wrong sliders)!

As you see, it's not very difficult and once you get a grip of it, you can do it in no time. To be honest, 90% of the time I don't even do the whole scaling and moving thing; I just open the picture, to know where the feet are, and adjust the rest to the top. UV_1 is really not that bad, at least as long as you don't have to deal with the upper body half.

Here are just a couple of general, closing remarks which I'd like to share:

If you move any vertices of the top, immediately move them on the uv_1 map as well. I try to avoid it at all costs, but sometimes I can't resist making just one teeny tiny adjustment... Arms are usually not a problem, neck can get problematic, and breast area is an absolute nightmare. I already mentioned it once, but honestly, better dissolve vertices and cut new edges with the knife tool than move anything in there.

If you're frankenmeshing, remember to weld any vertices you merged in 3D view! If your mesh is getting split in game when you move any sliders, that probably means you didn't connect those parts on the uv_1 map (or that it's vertex paint... but that's another story).

Of course, if you added any other parts to your mesh than just a skirt – or if you frankenmeshed a thing, but changed its location, e.g. took a hair ribbon and put it on the skirt – you have to put it in the right place as well! In case of frankenmeshing you just have to change its location on the map; if you made it yourself, you'll have to experiment with different types of unwrapping first (pssst, projecting from view usually isn't a bad idea).

There are also certain cases - rarely, but still - when it might be a better idea not to properly unwrap a part of the mesh, but weld it all together to a little dot and put it in the right place on the uv_1. The first example which comes to my mind are 3D buttons. I always weld each button to a single dot, so that it’d be changing its size evenly, without deformations. However, this comes at a prize of an increased risk of clipping.

And finally: if you're having big problems with uv_1 and my method doesn't work for you – or if you made your mesh completely from scratch, so you don't have an unwrapped top – you can always make a data transfer, copying uv_1 data from another mesh. I won't elaborate on this one, because Teanmoon already explained it all in her amazing tutorial, which you can find HERE. Scroll down a bit until you see 'UV-1 Transfers'. I think I used it myself once or twice in the past and I was quite pleased with the results :).

***

Once again, I'm sorry both for how long you had to wait for this tutorial and for its final length. I swear I intended it to be a simple, concise explanation ^^. I hope that at least it's all clear and will help you avoid any problems with uvs. Please tell me if you have any questions or if something doesn't work for you – really, I mean it! Half of my inspiration for this tutorial comes from me watching other simmers struggle with making their first pieces of CC, as it helps me notice what hasn't been explained yet.

From now on we'll be moving into the dangerous territory of clones, cuts, regions, bones and weights, and I need some time to figure out how to divide this whole topic into sensible parts. It's not even that hard, but very interconnected, and that makes it difficult to tackle – as covering it all in one part is absolutely out of the question. Please have some patience with me and stay tuned!

[luvdsc]

Hey Cat!! I hope you're doing well as always ! 💖 AHHHH huhu I closed the form last Sunday since I've collected enough responses dy! (NOOOOOOOO ToT) I got a total of 221 responses at the end of the week, which is 3x the amount I initially needed! :o I'm beyond grateful and appreciative ToT I've cleaned the data and have proceeded to run some data analysis, but I ran into an issue whereby the scores on the subscales are equal (it has never been reported in past studies! :O) so I'm waiting for my supervisor's feedback on how to proceed. Hopefully it's nothing too serious ToT

Hehe finance is interesting indeed! I just started reading a book on finance for young adults (Rich Dad Poor Dad) and I look forward to learning more from the author's tips! The Coursera introductory course has also made financial terms a lil more familiar, even though it's just the basics and it's really helped w my financial literacy 🥺 I can push myself to study but it's also the numbers and calculations I'm worried of cuz I am rly a nong (idiot) when it comes to numbers * - * it runs in the genes I guess AHAHAHAHA my mom and sister aren't good at numbers either keke

Aww I'm glad yr professor made financial accounting enjoyable and a fruitful experience for you! Some lecturers / professors rly just have that spark in them to inspire ppl and I'm blessed to be surrounded by a bunch of em in the psych department!🥺😭 it truly makes a difference and I'm sure we both are living proofs of that!

After debating for a while, I've decided not to take a minor mainly because I'm so tired HAHAHAHAHAHA and I'll just do my own self-studying and exploration whilst working! Go out and explore the world, live life! Whilst ironically still staying in my room because of the COVID-19 situation in our country (cases are abt 20+k every day :') ) My proposal has been finalized and it's been accepted! It's just that some elements of my proposal is also part of my actual report, so I have some guidance to refer to in terms of structure! :3 and yes don't worry! I got plenty (sometimes a lil too much) rest during the sem break whilst remaining productive! Plus, I got to catch up w some friends and had game nights (maybe too much of game nights hehe) and movie nights w my friends which was truly refreshing! Also cuz I might not see a lot of them again after we graduate so we gotta cherish every moment 🥺😭

I'm a freelance graphic designer for my uni's newsletter! Occasionally, they'd ask us to create both the content and design! I'll place the link to my recent work below if you wanna check it out! UwU I'm trying to incorporate the same practices during sem break in my last sem (current sem) too! cuz yes mental health is so so important and I'm just tired of being academically tired you get me? :(

What makes me most trilled abt learning abt psychology is how to apply it in daily life too! I find it so fascinating and awestruck at how relatable and within reach these things are like wow we can be influenced in such ways?? :o can be both good and bad but imma stick w seeing it as the development and evolution of us humans UwU

Also, the vaccine has fixed my sleep schedule HEHE (another perk of getting vaccination :3) I got some rly good rest and managed to reset my usual sleeping time, thank you science ToT oooo I see I see, we've had cases of nurses injecting empty syringes hence the recording :( but GHIOGHWEOGIOHW I could never do that, I can feel the liquid entering me as it is so that's good enough ToT (* plays Love Talk * I can feel it coming)

OMG YOUR ART PIECES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL, ADORABLE AND ELEGANT! 💖🥺🥰 it must've required a lot of hard-work and effort AHHH thankiew for showing me yr work!! it's truly unique in its own manner despite it's simplicity UwU is there a reason or backstory to yr chosen theme and objects? :3

I just Googled Somi Somi and omg that's such an UwU ice cream AHHHH 💖🥺😭 ice cream is my fav food of all time and it looks like an ice cream haven omg imagine eating it after a loooong hard day's of work ToT and OMG THE SATISFACTION OF EATING THAI MILK TEA ICE CREAM ON A HOT DAY YASSS 😋🤤 hehe if you get the chance to try milk & biscoff, do try it! It's amazing !😍 and ooo i haven't tried alcoholic ice cream before but I will one day!! :3 my alcohol tolerance is rly low though, will I get tipsy over alcoholic ice cream? We shall see UwU (i can only drink half a bottle of apple cider before my face gets red and I start getting a lil tipsy + headache)

and lovie....knowing yr school schedule now...OURS IS DEFINTELY BRUTAL OMG a 3 month long sem break huhu that's only the total amount of sem breaks we get in a year ToT i thought uni was hard but not that hard ToT

Always glad and honored to have you onboard! and AHAHAHAH the contractions about to start soon 👀 I enjoy talking to you huhu you're such a sweet and supportive person 💖🥺🥰😙 huhu for my period cramps, I've been having them since I was 12 ToT my doctor prescribed me some panadols but sometimes I can't even swallow them cuz I'd puke them out ToT I've settled w heatpacks to reduce my reliance on medicine, but I finally got some upgraded and safe to eat medicine from my gynae! She said it's fine to take it every month to keep my womb healthy and apparently my ms. lil uterus is suffering from inflammation, hence the super crazy bedridden cramps :( the upgraded medicine worked for a while, but after time it kinda didn't help either :/ but I realised that exercise rly does wonders to reduce the cramp too (gynae also recommended exercising) so i take walks and do my back stretches more frequently now! my period in the previous months (2 months ago) have been almost painless and bearable, it's so weird not seeing my bedridden ._. when I was in high school, there would always be a day in every month in which I don't attend classes, and that's solely because of my cramps. It just isn't worth suffering in school, plus we don't have a sick room :/ I hope the pain continues to subside! ToT

And ayy internship is also working experience, yr advice would be of great help to me regardless! 🥺 oh yes, I always remind myself that interviews are similar to the speaking test I took for my Cambridge English exams! That kinda help calm my nerves down a lil, but w nerves comes bigger smiles, so I guess it takes on a rather practical form of coping mechanism (sublimation) AHAHAHAHA

WAAAA WHAT A QUEEN you got an offer from every interview?? I aspire to be like you! 💖🥺🥰 huhu skill wise I believe I have lots to prepare esp in terms of case studies, and I perform rly poorly on certain assessments (*ehem * esp those concerning numbers) so I took the chance to study a lil during sem break too ToT but noted on that! I will work on that too and try to maintain that me element in interviews and overall just be myself keke

That's all from me for now! Imma wait for my supervisor's feedback and journey on w my last semester. Bon voyage! Link to my recent work: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTBqGzjr6sN/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Other works: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPpv-IyM7Gi/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CL55EG-MbL2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

hi hello honey bee !!! 💓 omg i'm so sorry for the belated response, i finally got on my laptop 😭 i'm gonna put my response under the cut since it got a little long 🤧

omg 221 responses !!!!! that's so many 🙀 congratulations aaaaa it's amazing that you were able to get 3x the data you needed !!! was it difficult to run data analysis? were you able to solve the issue with the equal scores on the subscales? i hope it didn't create too much additional work for you ):

omg yes finance is really interesting! i enjoyed the classes i took for it :') how is rich dad poor dad? did you learn a lot from it? i know it was a book my prof recommended, but i never got around to reading it 😶 did you learn any helpful tips? and ooo i'll have to look into coursera! yeah, there's quite a lot of terms for finance, and it can be a little intimidating paired with all the math formulas and such, but it's pretty useful imo! how are your financial studies going so far? 💕 omg nong is such a cute word?? i would never think it meant idiot asdkfhlkajsdf omg my whole family is good at numbers and really like math, but i didn't like it 😭 my mom made me study it a lot everyday though rip are the financial calculations getting easier for you as you practice more hopefully?

yessss omg i absolutely agree with this!!!! like you can just feel when a professor loves to teach and is genuinely so excited to talk about their subject, and it just makes the most boring horrible subject into something you learn to enjoy and hate less :') and i'm really happy to hear you have tons of professors like that in the psych department 🥺💗

that's great to hear!!!! 🌷🌷 i'm glad that you're prioritizing yourself and your health, which is so much more important than taking on a minor. what fun subjects have you decided to explore and self study so far? 💞 oh my gosh, the rising cases are so high?? i hope it's gotten better there for you ): are you able to go outside yet?

big congratulations on your proposal being finalized and accepted, lovebug !!!! 🥳🥳 i'm very proud of you and hoping one day i can read your published studies in a scientific journal :') aaaa i'm so glad to hear that you got to rest and enjoy your time with your friends!! i definitely feel that omg i regret all the times i skipped out on movie nights or game nights with my friends because now we're all scattered across the country and the only way we can have them again is over zoom calls 🤧

I SAW YOUR DESIGNS AND THEY'RE GORGEOUS OMG I LOVE THEM SO MUCH !!!! 💖 I'M IN AWE AAAA IF PSYCH DOESN'T WORK OUT, I HOPE YOU BECOME A GRAPHIC DESIGNER 🤩🤩💖 and yes i totally get it ): i really felt the academic burn out when i was in college and it was really difficult at times 🤧 but i hope it's going better for you nowadays, sweetpea 💝💝

omg yeah i absolutely agree !!!! whenever i read about psychology, i keep it in the back of my mind and then when i see something irl that relates to it, i'm like :O amazing. it's so cool to learn about different psych tricks too and see how it works when you test them out yourself and whatnot. and it's really crazy to see how the human brain is so easily influenced at times ??? it truly is an amazing subject !!!

ah what a great side benefit of the vaccine - a better sleep schedule 🤩 i'm happy to hear that your schedule has been fixed 💘 and omg what ??? they're injecting empty syringes wth ????? 😭 that's absolutely horrible, are they getting sued?? lmaooooo that love talk reference askdfhlaksjd

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR KIND COMPLIMENTS 😭😭💗💗 there were many late hours spent in the art studio to finish them, but i'm really happy with the end products :') i thought light bulbs are an interesting subject to do, and my prof said that cutting out circular objects or sculpting them is the most difficult since they're made up curves and not straight lines and i was like ok bet i'm gonna do it aND I'M SO GLAD I DID BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE THEM 🥺 and i love honey bees !!! that's why i decided to paint them and we were supposed to paint them in a combined style of two artists so i tried monet's impressionist style with the short brush strokes and pop art triptych style like marjorie strider 💕

somi somi is sooo good and i just had it again a couple weeks ago :') omg ice cream is your favorite food? :o and YES ice cream is so satisfying after a long day of hard work, like it's such a nice reward to look forward to at the end of day ✨ aaaaa i have to try thai milk tea ice cream one day now !!!!! it sounds amazing 🤩 and YES i must look for places that sell milk & biscoff ice cream !! i have milk ice cream from somi somi, but i need to try to combined flavors 💘 i don't think you'll get tipsy over it !!! it's a really faint taste of alcohol, like i didn't even notice it at first, and i don't think they put very much of it in there! aksljdfhals omg you're a lightweight :o at least that means you save money on alcohol LOL i need like nine shots to get drunk 🤧

your school is too hard 😭 you need more than just 3 months of break !!! 😡 we get a week off for thanksgiving in fall semester and a week off for spring break in spring semester too and then the month long winter break and three month summer break. and we have the one day holidays off too like labor day, memorial day, etc. i can't believe they give you so little time off after working so hard???

asdfhlkajshdlksja loool are the contractions over yet? has it been born? what's the current status, doctor? 👀 i really enjoy talking to you too !!! i'm very sorry for the late responses, work is really taking over all of my time, and i never have enough time to get on my laptop to reply to my asks 😭 and thank you for saying such kind things about me 🥺🥺💝 oh my gosh, i'm so sorry to hear that you have such terrible cramps 😭 i can't even imagine going through that - mine are nowhere near as horrible 😖 do the heatpads help a lot? i'm relieved to hear that you were prescribed better medication though! but yeah, your body does eventually get used to the medication and you have to continue taking stronger meds for it to work, but that's not a very healthy solution /: but i'm really glad to hear that exercise has been helping out a lot!! 💖 hurray for almost painless and bearable periods 🥳 i'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that in high school ): that sounds absolutely horrible 😭 periods are just awful, but it's like i'm grateful that i have my period because that means i'm not pregnant, but also please go away aslkhdfaklsj

omg what was the speaking test for the cambridge english exams like? :o it sounds so formal and a lil intimidating askdjfhalsd do you know of any psych tricks that can possibly help calm your nerves? :')

aaaa yes i did !! i was really surprised that i got an offer from them all because at the time, i was not in the right major and i think i was one of the most underqualified applicants 🤧 one person who interviewed me asked why i withdrew from my engr physics class and i explained it in a kinda funny way but in my head, i was like "oof i'm not gonna get this offer anymore" but then he laughed at my response and told me about how his prof told him he should drop a guitar class he was taking because he was doing very poorly and we bonded over that aklsjdhfkals omg how do interviews for psych jobs go? do you have to discuss a lot of case studies? do they give you a list of possible case studies they'll ask about? :o what sort of assessments do you have to do? good luck on all of your interviews, honey bee 💛 i'm rooting for you, you're gonna do amazing !!!! 💘

omg what did your supervisor say about your case study? and how is your last semester going? are you almost done now? 🌸 (also how have you been? what have you been up to? thank you for taking the time to leave such detailed messages for me, i'm really excited to see all the fun updates in your life, lovebug 🌷🌷)

[zrtranscripts]

Season 9, Mission 6: New In Town

First Impressions

~

SAM YAO: You know, Five, for a big corridor made of old shipping containers, this is pretty nice. White walls, little round windows, [giggles] sunlight streaming in.

[intercom squeals]

HASSIBA JELASSI: As-salamu alaykum. In the first days after the outbreak, many ships washed ashore near Kalaat El-Amal, mostly large cargo vessels carrying zombified refugees. Difficult days. We used salvaged shipping containers to build a perimeter wall. It's a ring that connects directly to many of our buildings. If you keep moving through it, you will reach our main medical clinic. We're mostly doctors here.

JANINE DE LUCA: Miss Jelassi, we appreciate your kindness. Kalaat El-Amal is our first settlement in Tunisia, and you saved us from the sandstorm. But is a three month quarantine necessary? As traders, my people are eager to be on their way.

HASSIBA JELASSI: I understand, but I am afraid the procedure is immutable. You show no sign of sickness, but we can't be too careful. Ships rarely arrive here these days, but those that do carry diseased crews. Rabies, malaria, antibiotic-resistant infections, even strange variants of the undead virus.

JANINE DE LUCA: Administrator -

HASSIBA JELASSI: Please, call me Hassiba. My sympathies, Miss De Luca, but the rules must be observed. If you follow the drones, they will lead you where you need to go. Please move swiftly, they're taking baseline fitness readings. I'm afraid I have urgent paperwork, but when you reach the clinic, we'll hold a full debriefing.

[drones whir]

SAM YAO: It is cool the way we've got this overhead cloud of helicopter drones escorting us, and the way that big one broadcast Hassiba's voice to us.

JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Lynne and Miss Dempsey are still a few meters behind us, escorted by their own drone swarm. I suspect the drones encouraged us apart because small groups are easier to monitor. [whispers] A debrief means inconvenient questions about our business as traders, but I see no way out. Five, Mr. Yao, keep following the drones while I work out our options. Maintain a steady pace. Run!

~

SAM YAO: Ooh, this corridor's even nicer than the last one. I like the tile mosaics on the walls. Janine, are you okay? Why-why do you keep tapping Veronica's briefcase like that? Oh, is it an escape thing? Should I be tapping something?

VERONICA MCSHELL: It's a me thing, Sam. Janine's been tapping on my case to give me orders in Morse code. She guessed the drones are running on a wireless network. I've infiltrated it and hacked their central computer. The main database says there's an exit door ahead where the corridor curves, passcode 331. I've jammed the drone audio feeds, but I can't lock their video without being noticed and overridden.

SAM YAO: So we can't escape. Janine, should we even be escaping? I mean, these people did save our lives.

JANINE DE LUCA: Perhaps, Mr. Yao, but we know we are not sick. Dr. Myer's confirmed our perfect health before we left the boat. If we stay, we will miss General Bakari's rendezvous. The drones are not armed. Old commercial models, probably salvage. Even if they detect us fleeing, they cannot stop us.

Miss McShell, signal Mr. Lynne and Miss Dempsey to follow our lead. Our only chance is to escape this corridor into Kalaat El-Amal proper. I wish we could learn more about it first, but we will have to improvise. Five, Mr. Yao, get ready to dash for the red door. And go!

~

[crowd chatters]

SAM YAO: I don't see any drones behind us, Five. Yeah, yeah, I think we lost them. These houses are pretty close together. Where are Peter and Frances? I don't see them, either.

VERONICA MCSHELL: They were spotted by armed guards exiting the perimeter wall. I sent them on an alternative route to evade their pursuers.

JANINE DE LUCA: We could also use some direction, Miss McShell. We've reached a recreation area. I see a cafe, a small stage, and outdoor gym equipment ahead. The perimeter wall is looming to our rear. Five, Mr. Yao, keep moving, heads down.

SAM YAO: Oh, look at that, Five! There's loads of solar panels on the rooftops. People are taking canopies down from the buildings. Must have been for the storm.

VERONICA MCSHELL: Apparently, Kalaat El-Amal uses solar panels to meet its energy needs. It's mostly independent, but has links to a larger Tunisian government.

SAM YAO: Oh, I love the white buildings and blue doors. Can't wait to describe this to Sara. Hold on, those two teenagers we just passed, were they texting? They had like little phones.

VERONICA MCSHELL: Handheld pagers made from old phones, distributed by the local authorities. They provide weather and zombie alerts.

JANINE DE LUCA: And possibly fugitive alerts, too. Over there, uniformed police rushing towards us with papers in hand. Miss McShell?

VERONICA MCSHELL: I am searching Kalaat El-Amal's database for a viable route out. Ah, I have an idea. Keep running, head down the furthest alley on your left. Sam, do not be distracted by the stall selling sweets and pastries. Go!

~

VERONICA MCSHELL: Keep going, all of you, straight past the building marked Blood Testing. There are laundry bins behind it. Slip something over your clothes to confuse the guards.

SAM YAO: Veronica, these are peoples’ things. And they're not clean.

JANINE DE LUCA: Needs must, Mr. Yao.

[cloth rustles]

SAM YAO: Ugh. Done. Did you see the people coming through that metal arch, Five? They were riding camels! Only aren't the camels here supposed to have one hump, not two?

VERONICA MCSHELL: That was a foraging squad fresh from checking abandoned coastal resorts for supplies. The camels are Asian Bactrian camels, not native dromedaries. It appears a transport ship ran aground near Kalaat El-Amal some years ago. It contained many genetically-engineered animals bred for show. Several surviving species have prospered in the local ecosystem.

SAM YAO: Ah, that explains the green peacock chilling by the water fountain. Oh, over there, look! It's Peter and Frances, outside a little stone hut.

VERONICA MCSHELL: The hut is an entrance to the region's underground water system. The system is inspired by old Roman aqueducts and underlies Kalaat El-Amal. It may allow you to evade your pursuers.

SAM YAO: Hmm. I'm still feeling pretty bad about this, Janine. We're not making a great first impression.

JANINE DE LUCA: This is an espionage operation, Mr. Yao. Regrettably, diplomacy must be another day's concern.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Guys, over here!

JANINE DE LUCA: Toward Mr. Lynne and Miss Dempsey. We'll take separate routes to avoid detection. Run!

~

PETER LYNNE: Good to see you, Five. Not exactly being good tourists, are we? This hut is tiny, but the stone stairs lead down to the water system. Sam and Janine beat you here already. She shot down to scout possible exit routes and said that we should all follow once you've caught up with us.

FRANCES DEMSPEY: This place is so cool, don't you think, Five? The steps lead to a modified old-school aqueduct system. There's a huge underground channel leading into Kalaat El-Amal from a water source in some nearby mountains. The water runs in a big distribution tank under a hill, then gets circulated to systems! Veronica says it took years to construct.

[water flows]

PETER LYNNE: Frances has been asking Veronica about local trivia all day, Five. It's like traveling with a backpacker. [laughs] Okay Veronica, we're all down in the water system. The stairs led to a stone ledge in an underground chamber. There's a long tunnel ahead, it's half flooded. Water's flowing this way through grills under our ledge.

VERONICA MCSHELL: You should see a metal ramp to your left connected to a catwalk above the water. The catwalk leads down the tunnel. Follow it.

SAM YAO: Uh, what are those big giant gray beetle things creeping out of the water? Oh, they're scuttling onto the ledge behind us. They're like really massive wood lice.

VERONICA MCSHELL: Checking data... they are a breed of genetically-modified giant isopod, one of the engineered species I mentioned earlier. Apparently, they're voracious omnivores who consume most organic material. They cannot survive far from water. The locals placed them down here to keep the system clean. They patrol in a single large pack. They move slowly on land, but if they catch you, they will consume you. Head down the catwalk quickly. All accessible exit routes are that way and will lead outside Kalaat El-Amal's perimeter. Hurry, run!

~

[water flows, isopods chitter]

PETER LYNNE: Faster, Five. I'm really not liking how the isopods are chittering. Veronica, my lovely friend, how are you doing on finding us that way out?

VERONICA MCSHELL: Checking... confirmed. Computer access is hard to maintain underground, but apparently you were spotted entering the hut. All escape routes are barricaded. Unless...

SAM YAO: Oh, I do not like the sound of that.

VERONICA MCSHELL: You are on an observation catwalk. It only extends a short way into the aqueduct tunnel, but if you jump over the edge, you can follow the aqueduct waterway itself all the way to the mountains. The tunnel is large and not completely flooded at this time of year. It is viable.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: But you said the isopods -

VERONICA MCSHELL: Are much faster in water. [pursuers shout] The locals have sent people into the water system after you. They're worried about the isopods harming you. They're also very angry. You have no choice. Jump into the waterway, head straight up the channel against the current. The isopods will prevent anyone pursuing you into the water.

[water splashes]

JANINE DE LUCA: Torches on, everyone. Not much lighting down here. The isopods are leaping from the catwalk into the water after us. Forwards everybody, run!

~

[water flows, isopods chitter]

FRANCES DEMPSEY: Oh my God, oh my God, those isopod things are catching up!

SAM YAO: Oh hell, they are seriously quick in the water! I really don't like how their bodies undulate.

VERONICA MCSHELL: You have come a considerable distance, you should be approaching the exit.

[PETER shouts, splashes into water]

JANINE DE LUCA: Peter!

SAM YAO: Peter's down! Five, Five, help me get him up!

PETER LYNNE: Oh, just one of these things has my ankle. Currently it is chomping to the bone. Five, would you mind ripping that off of me? [flesh squelches] Good. So, well, that’s ripped the bug in half. That's something, Jaws are still in my flesh, but that's fine. Help me up, Five.

JANINE DE LUCA: I see daylight ahead.

PETER LYNNE: Oh, the rest of the bugs are speeding up, Five. Blood in the water's got them excited. Good, good, good. Okay, gotta run through the pain. Forward, come on, before they swarm all over us. Go go go go go!

~

PETER LYNNE: Oh, thank God, open air. Right, so the aqueduct empties into the plunge pool of that huge waterfall. There are the others, Five. They're on the rocky bank.

SAM YAO: Five, Peter, over here! Get out of the water, quick.

FRANCES DEMSPEY: It's okay, Sam. Look, the isopods are huddled at the mouth of the aqueduct tunnel. Sunlight must be too bright or hot for them. This area is really beautiful. Roaring waterfall, lush foliage, sun-bleached rock. Peter, are you okay?

PETER LYNNE: Oh, yep. Yep yep yep. Just pulling some mandibles out of my ankle. You know, classic. Hey um, so this is strange. There's a marking on them, actually. Sort of you know, carved, tattooed on the underside? It's a barcode.

SAM YAO: Veronica did say they were genetically-engineered, salvaged from a shipwreck.

PETER LYNNE: Yeah, that's not all, though. There's also a symbol which is a stylized chevron V which I've seen before in one of Van Ark's labs.

FRANCES DEMPSEY: So have I, on Dearg.

PETER LYNNE: Oh yeah, just a classic isle of Doctor Moreau shipment full of engineered animals. Yep, sure, why not? That sounds just like his sort of science.

JANINE DE LUCA: Indeed. More questions only General Bakari and Red Scorpion base can answer, but these mountains are a diversion from our route. We'll have to continue south on foot and hope we can keep to our schedule. With luck, we can still make the rendezvous with Mohammed Boujettif, Miss Spens’s contact.

Come along, people, there's no time to rest. We cannot miss our only chance to get into Red Scorpion. Van Ark created these creatures. Who knows what other far more dangerous work he may be attempting, especially with access to large quantities of the red fungus. It's clear our mission is even more vital than we believed.

~

[anomander-dragnipurake]

Possess Part 2 Chapter Three: The Problem

It took more than an hour of tweaking and adjusting the scanner for E. Gadd to finally declare a verdict. “Your souls are merging,” he said, looking up from the scanner’s readout on his laptop.

“Uh… what does that mean?” Luigi wasn’t sure he wanted to know. Neither he nor King Boo liked the sound of it though.

“It means, your two separate souls are starting to merge and eventually will become one soul.” E. Gadd demonstrated with his index fingers as he spoke, holding them apart and bringing them together at the end. “You’re essentially on your way to becoming a single consciousness instead of two separate ones.”

“What… that…” Luigi stammered before being cut off by King Boo. “You better just be trying to scare us old man.”

Despite their last interaction and the way King Boo glared at him, E. Gadd now seemed unphased, confident that their need for his help kept him safe. “Why would I lie about this? It’s fascinating, I’ve seen anything like it.” He paused to look off to the side in thought, even raising a finger to his chin. “I wonder what could be causing it. Without more data and info, I can’t say for sure, but I believe it must have something to do with how long your souls have been in the same body together. There could easily be other factors in play in as well. It’s something I loved to look into further but…” He trailed off with a grimace as the tilt of his head indicated he was looking at Luigi and King Boo again.

King Boo and Luigi were in total agreement that the how and why of it didn’t matter, what mattered was… “Can you fix it?” The somehow managed to both speak at once. Which, now knowing why they were syncing up, made them even more displeased about it than before

“I don’t know yet. However…” E. Gadd snapped his chair around to face his desk, the remnants of the computers once there long since moved away and replaced with disorganized papers and various kinds of junk. He moved his laptop to side of it to begin sorting through the papers. He quickly found whatever he was looking for and hopped up out of his chair to rush over to stand next to Luigi.

“Behold the KBE,” he said, holding it out so they could both see it. It was a set of blueprints depicting a seemingly hollow machine. His chicken scratch handwriting all over it was borderline illegible. “That’s short of ‘King Boo Exorcist’.” King Boo snarled inwardly at that name but didn’t say anything for now because E. Gadd was still explaining. “It’s designed to force King Boo out of your body and hopefully leave you soul intact during the process. I’ll have to modify its design and change some of its innerworkings now that we know your souls are merging. But since I haven’t even started building it yet, thanks to a certain somebody wrecking my lab, forcing me start from the ground up, that shouldn’t be too difficult. … Hmm… I might need a few more parts though, I don’t know yet.”

“Uh… I’ll help if you need me too,” Luigi said with only a little reluctance from King Boo. The sooner this was dealt with, the better, especially since there was probably a point where it would no longer be reversible. … Hopefully they hadn’t already reached it or were anywhere close.

“I don’t think you or King Boo could help with building or designing it, you’d probably just get in the way if you tried. For the heavy lifting stuff and finding the needed parts, I already got a couple helpers, they should be back soon too now that I think about it. But if it’s needed, one more helper can’t hurt. Or uh… I guess it’s actually two helpers, huh? Hmmm… I never would’ve thought I’d have a chance to have King Boo himself as a lab assistant. Just think off the experiments I could run. I could learn so much about him and boos in general if he were a willing participant.” He grinned, rubbing his hands together in glee as he placed himself back on his computer chair.

King Boo bristled and made a hissing sound. “I didn’t volunteer to help you. You’re helping me with my problem because I’ll kill you if you don’t, understood?”

That gave E. Gadd pause, his glee fading. “If I fail though, your soul and Luigi’s will fully merge. Not something I’d like to let happen, even if I do stand to learn a lot from witnessing and studying it as it does. But in the event that I fail and that does happen, I predict his kindness will dampen your blood lust enough that you won’t kill me.”

King Boo growled. It wasn’t long ago that he’d had E. Gadd’s life in his hands, maybe it was time to remind him of that. He took a step forward, lifting a hand to grab him by the neck again.

No! Unlike Luigi’s previous attempts to stop King Boo from doing something, this worked. He didn’t take back full control of his body but just enough to cause King Boo’s next attempt at a step to end with them falling face first onto the floor instead.

“Oh,” E. Gadd said from above them. “You okay sonny?”

Luigi hadn’t been okay for what felt like forever now, he barely even remembered what ‘okay’ felt like. So he didn’t even try to respond as King Boo stood back up to brush himself off with an annoyed huff. He hated that Luigi could do that now, he wasn’t supposed to. … Too bad, Luigi could and because of that, he wasn’t going to let King Boo hurt anyone ever again, including me. Luigi needed to make that very clear because he was never going to go through that again. If King Boo didn’t like it – which he didn’t – he’d just have to suck it up and deal with it because Luigi was done with his bullshit.

‘I hate you.’ … The feeling was mutual; Luigi had never hated anyone more. … But as much as King Boo hated the reminder of Luigi’s growing ability to fight him, it made it pretty clear that he wasn’t in full control of the meatsuit anymore. Which unfortunately meant to make getting free of it easier and faster he might have to do the unthinkable and actually endeavor to get along with his enemy lest they merge or whatever. And honestly, Luigi leeching off his magic was just the worst and unacceptable, so much so, he might be willing to avoid giving him cause to do so when possible.

Luigi had to do the mental equivalent of a double take. If his mind wasn’t running so closely to King Boo’s he never would’ve believed it. Are you really thinking we should get along for now?

King Boo hated that Luigi could read his inner thoughts so clearly. There was nothing he could keep hidden anymore when he was supposed to be the one in control and the only one doing the mind reading but… ‘Yes, that’s what I’m thinking.’ He didn’t want Luigi fighting him for control every step of the way. ‘We both want the exact same thing.’ And honestly King Boo wanted it so bad he’d be willing to let Luigi go free if that’s what it took. ‘So for now, it’ll be easier for both of us if we cooperate.’ It grated for him to admit it but their souls fully merging would be far worse than losing a little bit dignity.

Luigi loathed the thought of getting along with King Boo but… he was right. It’d be easier for both of them to avoid fighting if they could. And… they’d both do whatever it took to increase the odds of becoming free of each other.

It made sense but… I can’t believe you’re the one who thought of it.

‘I can be reasonable sometimes.’ He was going to say more but…

E. Gadd grabbed Luigi by the tie and pulled him down to eye level. “Is you staring off into space like that going to become a thing now? What’s going on in that head of yours?” He poked the side of Luigi’s head.

Neither of them liked this invasion of space, King Boo far more so, but as promised, he let Luigi gently pull away. He was the one who spoke though. “Just coming to an agreement not to kill or threaten to kill you for now. You better fix this though.”

E. Gadd nodded. “I intend to. The pursuit of science is important but Luigi deserves better than to have his soul wrapped up in yours for forever.” There was an uncharacteristic amount of venom in his voice. It sounded weird coming from him but was heartening to hear.

An hour later

While E. Gadd went over the KBE blueprint Luigi and King Boo kind of just hung out in the lab. He called them over for more tests and scans twice but in the meantime, they found a spare chair to sit on while Luigi worked on regaining Polterpup’s trust. Though really it was more King Boo’s convincing Polterpup that all was fine with him now. He was more of a cat person but dogs were cool too, even ones that were traitors.

But alas, very soon after they had him playing fetch with them, he lifted his head to look towards the exit. A half second later, he jumped off and ran out into the front room. Good things never lasted long, did they?

The doorbell rang. E. Gadd, froze and looked up, hopping off his chair. He got halfway to the door before he paused to look at King Boo and Luigi. “Oh uh… I probably should’ve told you who my current lab assistants are, huh? Whoops. Oh well, too late now, you’re about to find out anyway.” With a wave of his hand to follow, he resumed exiting the room.

With shared curiosity, King Boo stood up and followed. They arrived in the front room in time to watch Gooigi enter, helping someone still outside maneuver a stack of boxes on trolley inside.

“This,” E. Gadd said as King Boo stepped up next to him, “is most of, if not all of what I need to make the KBE. With my lab all busted, I had to order in special parts from all over and have them custom built elsewhere. It was expensive but Princess Peach actually funded all of it because…” He continued but Luigi was no longer paying attention because E. Gadd’s other assistant and the one helping bring the boxes in was…

“Mario!” Luigi stepped forward, intending to rush over and hug him. It had been far too long since he’d seen Mario, he’d missed him so… His second step failed as his leg refused to move, resulting in him stumbling and landing on his face again.

Evil bastard that he was, King Boo laughed. ‘Vengeance for earlier.’

Me trying to hug my brother and you trying to choke E. Gadd are not comparable. And King Boo had promised to get along. The idea to do so had even come from him.

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I’ve had my fun, I’ll be good now.’ Mostly anyway. He even stood them back up.

Mario had approached but hung back nervously. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, Luigi hugged him. He froze for a second before hugging back. “Luigi!”

Luigi did his best to ignore and push back King Boo’s distaste for this, drown it out with his own intense feelings. He even succeeded a little.

‘Stop it! It’s gross! I don’t want to feel that!’ King Boo fought but leeching off his power, Luigi managed to maintain control for now. He’d been having an awful time these past few weeks especially and he’d been so lonely and afraid and missed his bro so much, he was going to enjoy this brotherly hug for as long as he possibly could and there wasn’t a single thing King Boo could do stop him.

“It’s okay,” Mario said, lightly patting his back.

Oh! Luigi wasn’t sure when he’d started but he was crying as he clung to Mario, more sobbing really. He wanted to explain; tell Mario how horrible and awful his life had been lately and how scared he was by this new revelation, and how much he didn’t want his soul to merge with King Boo’s, but he lacked the words so… he just clung on him for dear life and cried instead.

“We’re okay now.” Mario sounded very unsure of his words but it didn’t matter. All that mattered right now was that he was here.

 -

Eventually his tears petered out, leaving him feeling drained and exhausted but overall better. And… horrified and disgusted, that he’d cried at all, especially so much… no, that feeling came from King Boo. He still didn’t want to let go yet but… King Boo made him.

Mario gave him a small hopeful smile, keeping a welcome hand on his arm. “This means King Boo’s gone or uh…” his eyes shifted up towards King Boo’s crown for a brief second before meeting Luigi’s again, “something, right?” He looked so hopeful, Luigi wanted to lie and…

“Nope, I’m still here,” King Boo said, making Mario flinch away, breaking contact completely. “And very unhappy with everything that just happened.” He was even a little frightened by how overcome with Luigi’s emotions he’d been. Even now, he couldn’t muster up nearly as much hate for Mario as he knew he was supposed to have. … Good!

“S-sorry,” Luigi said, pulling his arms in to hug himself. Maybe… he shouldn’t have hugged Mario when Mario didn’t know King Boo would technically be part of the hug too but… he’d just needed it so bad. “I… we’re… he’s kind of stuck in me and….

“Our souls are merging,” King Boo cut in because he wanted to see the horror on Mario’s at the revelation. He wasn’t disappointed either. “Meaning if we don’t fix it, and get me the fuck out of this meatsuit, we’ll cease to exist as separate entities. Which I’m sure you can guess is something neither of us want and so here we are, trying to get it fixed before it’s too late.”

“Mamma mia,” he muttered under his breath; his way of not cursing. King Boo hated it.

“He’s uh… playing nice for now,” Luigi said. “Mostly anyway.”

“That uh… good. Can E. Gadd can fix the whole…” Mario gesture vaguely towards them, “… soul merging thing?”

“Hopefully,” they said together, hating that they’d done so even as they did it. But having exhausted all other options already, E. Gadd was their only remaining hope.

[technoturian]

I finally finished Picard. I enjoyed about 80% of it but felt like it stumbled at the final hurdle, tbh. My main issues below...

- For a show that started with Picard and Data, it felt like the show’s main emotional line was Data/Picard and Soji/Data and that it would connect Data and Soji as strongly as it started to do with Dahj before she died. But then after they left the Troi-Rikers it felt like Data was completely absent from the story and it became not about who Soji is as a person but who Soji is as a synthetic, a basic “synthetics vs. organics” argument rather than about what makes a person alive and an individual and what made Soji in particular so special. Soji became less about being Data’s daughter and more about being part of Soong’s collective of synthetics.

It was so muddled what the message even was beyond that very surface level debate, to the point where Soong found out his daughter killed one of her own he goes, “they’re just as bad as us” -- once again lumping them all together -- and chooses to “switch sides” and stop them by force. Instead of, y’know, *talking* to the rest of his children after the one individual that was clearly evil and influencing them was out of the way.

If anyone had told Soji that Narek hadn’t been the one to kill Saga, wouldn’t it have been much easier to convince her? But that would’ve undercut the big fight and their big message that.. to be honest just didn’t make sense to me at all. Soji felt completely lost as a character the second the homeworld entered the picture. Suddenly she knew things and felt things because the story needed her to.

- And let’s talk about this clearly evil android sister of hers. Why does she look just like Soji except because of all the heavy handed twin metaphors? I thought that face was like... specifically designed by Data in his painting? I’m so confused. I’m incredibly confused about the timeline of events at this point. And I’m confused as to why the Data-like androids are so capable of emotion and obviously far superior to Data, but Data could not be rebuilt. I’m confused as to why Soji and Dahj were made, superior even to these new androids, and then mindwiped and shoved off to chase shadows rather than just getting some actual humans to do that spying and protecting these incredibly precious creations. I’m confused as to why no others like Soji and Dahj were made afterwards. I’m confused as to how Narek and the others even heard about Soji or Dahj without knowing where they came from, yet they were certain there were more like them (spoiler, there weren’t even more like them, so why did Narek’s group have that impression?).

- Speaking of Narek, what even happened to him at the end? Did I just miss it? I’ve been waiting this whole show for his boring manipulative ass to die, please don’t tell me they’re going to try to bring him back. I don’t need a discount CW Romulan “I did murders but I also cried so I’m sympathetic” Kylo Ren who thinks having a British accent and a leather jacket is the same as having a personality showing up AGAIN and sucking the air out of MORE scenes.

- There were a lot of things that felt unearned in the last episode, but Picard’s “death” is a big one. Riker just goes “Okay bye!” and then Picard dies and they’re playing it off like this old man dying surrounded by his loved ones but as much as they tried to build it up with all of those goodbyes, he met half of them like a week ago. His second in command for years just nopes out of the scene so some kid he read Dumas to once over a decade ago can be the family in this situation? This is supposed to feel meaningful and earned? It wasn’t. It would have been better earned if it had been solely between Soji and Picard, as they had invested most in this relationship, and them ‘having each other’, and yet the idea of Soji finding belonging with Picard was practically thrown by the wayside in those last two episodes to ask “bigger” but less emotionally satisfying questions about her status as a synthetic. So in what should be the most emotional scene in the entire season, he just dies with a half-hearted “aww, you guys” to the new team and I felt... not much. And then it doesn’t even count! And then we’re having a funeral, but now it’s for Data? The same Data who y’all forgot to even talk about during most of that synthetics vs. organics dialogue??? It was nice to see Data again, but completely unearned by the events of the episode.

- Speaking of unearned... This show’s handling of its ‘romances’ is abysmal. It’s kind of sad that Agnes and Rios are the romance with the most buildup simply by virtue of the two of them actually having a FULL conversation with one another before making out. I really disliked Agnes and Rios in the end, partially because I don’t think they adequately built it up (even though like I said, it’s sadly the relationship they put the most effort into building), but also partially because I selfishly want Rios to die so Picard can captain and we can just have more of the great hologram Rioses because they’re way more fun. And also I love holograms more than people. Blame the Holodoc.

Soji/Narek was cringe-inducing garbage, an absolutely artless manipulation from a guy with zero charisma whose entire existence depends on him seducing a girl and him doing so by being evasive, distant and moody. Just the worst. And somehow that makes her like him instead of running for the hills, because he throws in the odd non-sequitur love confession two days into their relationship.

I thought Maddox was Agnes’ father in that old vid until she kissed him and that was. Woof. That was a real gross brain switch. In any case, not a fan, but I will say MAYBE this relationship should really earn the ‘most developed’ title because they were actually in a relationship. And she literally murdered him.

And don’t get me started on Seven and Raffi coyly threading fingers together in the final scene after, to my recollection, not even having a single conversation together??? Why do this? Why? *Why* do this. If you wanted to get them together but you know you’ve done no work on it, save it for a possible second season or *don’t do it at all*. Seven and Raffi being randomly paired off at the end made me wonder why they didn’t just throw in Soji/Elnor too for the whole set. Raffi/Agnes is more believable than Seven/Raffi because at least she gave her cake. Seven/Rios is more believable because they had that one shoe-horned heart-to-heart.

While we’re talking about alternate pairings, I personally think they all should be paired off with a member of Rios’ holosuite. Including Picard. INCLUDING RIOS. Because Santiago Cabrera is too hot for words and there are SIX of him on that ship.

- Another reason Seven/Raffi being thrown together was kind of infuriating to me is it felt the same as the scene where she said she had no one, and basically any scene that was like “Seven is completely alone and adrift and THIS is her new family! Just forget that she’s only had one random heart-to-heart with Rios and a few cute dialogues with Elnor and other than that absolutely no contact with any of these people.”

Where the heck are the rest of the Voyager crew? Okay, so nobody liked Chakotay with Seven. Okay, so Kate Mulgrew and Jeri Ryan didn’t get along so it would be unlikely to ever see them together on-screen. But Janeway literally loved Seven so much she rewrote time just to save her life or whatever that series finale was about. The Doctor, who knows *exactly* how it feels to be disenfranchised and dehumanized, is her best friend. Naomi Freakin’ Wildman who Seven called family who would absolutely have been there for her if she needed her. Why did they make her so sad and throw away all the rest of Voyager’s crew to do it?

I loved a lot of the stuff with Seven more than I thought I would after some of the things I’ve heard. But when I read someone say how “sad” they’d made her life, I have to agree. And mashing her into this crew at the end without putting in the time to show how she can fit aside from a few scenes with Elnor feels wrong and sloppy. If anything I would’ve liked her to leave with the borg at the end and then she could make another amazing grand entrance near the beginning of season two. Because basically the best things about Seven in this show were her kicking in the door scenes.

[winter-fairy-seed]

Deep Base

A small tale for my buddies.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sudden Bliss - Prologue

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Another boring day passed by. You could almost gag at the pristine white walls of the hospital room, feeling your nose scrunch at the off white curtains that you know haven’t been washed in the last year.

“Are they even supposed to be that color?”, you thought to yourself squinting your eyes.

You’ve spent most of your week in this small place due to another breathing attack, which in fact was not because of asthma, but an “illness not yet disclosed or confirmed”. You clicked your tongue, reminded of the look on the doctor’s face when your mother asked if they’ve found any new treatments. You sighed, staring at the ceiling annoyed, and leaned back into the fluffy pillow on your hospital bed-- one of the many gifts given to you by some old friends. You hadn’t seen them in a long time, going in and out and between home and the hospital. You sighed again, irritated at the depressing thoughts and turned your head towards the window.

The sky was very blue that day, though your eyes, sensitive to the light, mostly saw the burning white off the reflected windowsill. You hummed to yourself, starting to drift away into a daydream. Visual ecstasy of the mid-day sun reflecting off of cold blue water instead of a dusty windowsill. Fresh breezes on your face like hasty kisses from the sky. A lovely dress that danced in the wind as much as your curls would.

A soft knocking could be heard on the door, and a doctor with an unfamiliar face walked in, bowing respectfully but also out of apology as he assumed he had disturbed you. He did, but you quickly forgot about the image of dazzling waters when you saw he carried a large briefcase and wore a black laboratory coat. You sat up straight in your bed, no words yet traded, as another unfamiliar face walked in not too far behind. This time you were a bit embarrassed as the second person to enter looked to be around your age-- maybe older? You were already used to your regular doctors seeing you as a hot mess, but not this professional man and what seemed to be his well put together son. You began to slowly become self-conscious about how you looked-- having been in the hospital for almost a week, it’s fair.

“Hello, ____”, the doctor warmly spoke, standing straight. “I’m here today for your regular checkup instead of Dr.xxx. I’m a part of the team who investigates and does the research on your illness. I’ve come myself to collect some important data, so I’ll set my things up and if you’d please, let me know when you’re comfortable and ready.”

It was hard for you to process everything that was happening. Your Doctor nor your mother warned you of this, and you felt sort of betrayed. Not that it was really their fault...entirely… Surprise visits weren’t uncommon for your case and apparently as a child there had been many researchers and doctors visiting you from across the globe.

It was still a bit hard for you to speak, so you lifted your finger towards the boy with an inquisitive look, feeling a bit rude for having pointed.

“Ah yes! My Apologies miss ____. This is my son. He’s been trapped at my place since there was a fire in his apartment. He insisted he come with me to work, so here we are! I read that you’re 19, so I thought having someone around your age would be of good company.” The man, now with gloves on and a stethoscope around his neck rummaged through his case while telling you about his morning. “Yoongi...why don’t you introduce yourself?”

By now your finger lowered, your hand now lying on the blanket that warmly covered your lap. Your eyes briefly looked over the male, who was more concentrated on the walls than you. What he was looking at? Who knows.

“Yoongi?” The doctor asked, turning slightly as if to check if his son had left.

You looked towards the boy as a reflex of the doctor calling his name and this time he made eye contact with you. He nodded his head slowly, his eyes slowly trailing to the right in the process.

You nodded your head as well, pushing your lips together in a straight lined smile.

“Well..you both are quite quiet...but that’s not a bad thing.” The doctor giggled at his observation and rose from his desk. He walked towards the bed and extended his hand which held the stethoscope. “___, if you could turn around?”

Your eyes followed the doctor as he walked towards you and before he could even request you had your back slightly turned towards him, where he gently listened to your heartbeat.

“Good.” He withdrew his hands and placed the stethoscope near his belongings.

He proceeded to do all other basic checkup procedures and recorded his data. In the process, you couldn’t stop your gaze from landing on the boy—who was now hovering over the canvases you painted the other day. You were again self-conscious and decided to concentrate on the checkup. You could hear the faint sound of fingers brushing over the soft yet rough surface of the canvas and your eyebrows burrowed curiously.

A few more silent moments passed and the doctor cleared his throat and sat up after finishing the checkup.

“Alright! Everything looks good so far! You seem to be following the diet and the minimal exercise we’ve assigned you and it seems to be paying off.” he walked back over to the desk, rolling the swivel chair to and from the separate ends of the large table, writing and typing. You stare almost feverishly at the computer screen where he records his data, not missing some other tab that had question marks scattered all throughout a flooded document. He gets up swiftly and heads towards the door.

“Alright! I have some samples to pick up, and data to drop off! I’ll get the tools we need to run your blood test as well. It won’t take long but bear with me for about 30 mins. Keep her company ok?” Your mouth practically fell open as he smiled warmly, directing his son as he headed out the room with haste and a wave. You looked back towards the son who listened obediently and sat down to get comfortable.

You almost suffocated from the silence, feeling as though it was too quiet to breathe. The ringing of your phone broke the silence in the room, making you both jolt a bit. You swiftly grabbed it, seeing it was your doctor and answered it quickly.

“___? Hello~?” The doctor sang into your ear as your nervously breathed having to break the deafening silence.

The boy on the other hand didn’t hesitate to feel for his phone in his pocket, pulling out a pair of headphones in which he plopped in his ear. You felt relieved by the gesture, your heart slowing down from its relay race.

“Yea, hey Dr. xxx.” You sighed in relief hearing a similar voice.

“How are you feeling? Did you get your checkup? I’m sorry for the little surprise! It was a last minute split decision made by the team… But! Dr. Min is renowned as of lately for his teams research and study in the field. He recently came out with a book called Mysterious Illnesses and Where They Come From. A fine read if I do say so! It’ll open your eyes to a lot...most importantly it’ll give you hope! And--”

“Dr. xxx….. I understand. Thank you..” You chuckled slightly to yourself. She always got carried away but you loved to listen to her stories and updates. “I actually enjoy the doctor! He’s very efficient and kind, and most importantly--”

“He has gentle hands?” Dr. xxx says through the phone laughing.

“Yes. Very gentle so I’m, at the very least, grateful for that.”

In past situations, you’ve dealt with many doctors who were super rough and cared more about their research than your fragile body. They would stick the popsicle stick too far down your throat or would half-hazardly stick the butterfly needle in to draw blood. Dr. xxx knew you hated them and remembered each and every bad experience. That’s why she always made sure to pay close attention to your reactions and sensitivity.

“Where is Dr. Min now? Are you alone? Not going too crazy?” Dr. xxx giggled to herself reminiscing each and every sly comment that could come from your mouth, but was surprised to hear a soft “hmmm” instead.

“He’s gone….but his son is here…” You cautiously looked towards the boy, his bluish black hair falling over his eyes. “Is he sleeping?” You thought to yourself. Taking note at this way his chest rose up and down. And the delicate twitching of his eyelashes.

“Oh!...well that’s interesting...is he...cute?” the Dr said nonchalantly.

Your felt your face heat up at the question and you pulled your gaze from him and back towards the window where your mouth was left agape. Only breathing out slightly.

“W-...well…” you stammered

“I’ll take that as a yes” She giggled, finding her bearing again after a few seconds. “Well if that’s the case, Dr. Min must be a Love Doctor too!!! I’ll leave you to it! You deserve it after all those lonely months at home and there in that white room that seemingly gets smaller and smaller.

Face still flushed and in a daze you shake your head almost laughing. “Don’t say such hazardous things— one of these days my heart will really stop”.

“Hey! Don’t joke like that….” the Dr was silent for a second but then gave a small chuckle.

“Really though...I really hope you can make some friends?? Maybe painting will become easier again?” She says sorrowfully, but with hope in her voice. Your heart clenched tightly at her words, a tight smile forming on your lips.

“Yea...maybe….” you look down towards your hands. They were clean in the areas that would usually be full of paint and you sighed softly.

“Ok now, take care and call me if you need anything. Your mom is still working but wanted me to give you a call around the time the doctor was getting there. I’ll let her know everything went well, yea?”

“Yes Dr. xxx.” You feel a smile creep up again and you breathe out your goodbyes. “Thank you...bye”.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After hanging up the call you rested your head against the blanket and closed your eyes, almost forgetting the boy until you heard the muffled sounds of a saxophone. Your ears perked at the highs and lows and you turned your body slightly looking towards the sounds. You noticed it was coming from the headphones of the boy. “Hmm…”, you thought to yourself.

Sitting up in the bed you picked up a random piece of paper off your desk and shaped it into a narrow jet. You stuck your tongue out a bit closing your right eye, aiming for the round blue head of the boy.

The paper plane drifted almost in slow motion and you slowly started regretting your decision, but by then it was too late as the stiff paper plane crashed into his head and plopped to the floor with a soft smack.

The boys head jolted a bit and he slowly lifted up his chin, eyes blinking the sleep away. You decided you’d be tough about it, trying to brush off the nervousness. He took out the headphone and stared at your with furrowed brows.

“Uhm….” you gulped slightly but continued without stuttering, “That music…”

He seemed to open his mouth a bit as if to have already understood what you said. He pulls the plug of his headphones and places them in his pocket with as face that reads “sorry”.

You stammer a bit with your words this time but manage to get out, “No no no, that’s not what I meant— I mean… what are you listening to?” Your gaze stays glued to the floor, only darting up when he makes slight movements. It’s a bit quiet and he doesn’t reply at first, so you take a longer peak and realize the boy's face has turned a subtle hue of red.

“That’s….that’s…” he seemed to be having as much trouble as you were speaking when suddenly he gets up from the chair and walks closer to sit in the chair on the bedside. Your stayed wide-eyed at his movement and boldness. You just couldn’t make out his character. “Was he shy? Was he bold? Did he not care? Did he?”, you asked to yourself.

“These are some projects I’ve been working on…” he said while rubbing the side of his neck with his index finger and pouting his lip a bit. Now this surprised you.

This time you weren’t afraid to stare at his face, yours heating up when realizing how handsome he was up close. He continued to look through his phone until finding a music file and pressed play

“My father told me you liked soft sounds…” he said, not breaking eye contact with his phone.

You wondered if that was information your Dr wrote in your files? Either way it was very considerate and made your heart warm in a soft way.

You leaned forward a bit to signal you were listening and a soft melody began to play. A muffled saxophone and sharp reverb hi-hats with small clicks here and there began to play with what sounded like a ball full of sand rolling across a wood floor. there was a deep oozing bass and you felt your mind ease and your hands relax against the soft fabric of the blanket. You began to sway your body back and forth. You almost jolted to a stop when you heard a soft hum coming from beside you. When you opened your eyes you saw the dark haired boy swaying as well, eyes delicately closed, slender fingers tapping against the chair’s arm. You almost forgot to breathe, watching how gracefully his hair brushed against his forehead.

You shook your head, closing your eyes tight once more wanting to enjoy the sounds until the very end, ignoring the nervousness. But what you couldn’t ignore is the feeling of a hand sliding up your arm softly to the sway of the rhythm. Warm breath brushing over the crook of your neck and small whispers in your ear. Your heart began to race and your swaying slowed and became more fluid. You bit your bottom lip, sighing softly.

“___...” you heard in the echoing distance.

You gave a soft “yes?” until you heard your name again but louder.

“___.”

You jolted back into reality turning frantically towards the boy beside you. His eyes were dark, but his eyebrow raised in question.

“Ah-- what, yes?” you say stammering for a grasp of reality once more, face heating up. You all of sudden want to leave the blankets as it’s gotten 20 degrees hotter than you remember.

“The music's over….” The boy held his phone in his lap once more, letting go a small breath and smile. He pressed your lips and nodded to express your realization. your face warmed up again as you must’ve been swaying back and forth before coming to. “It seemed that you liked it though...good”. He looked back down to his phone with a soft smile that made your heart skip a beat. 

“Ah yes...I probably looked...insane” you stammered this time, removing the blanket and sitting up towards the window with your back facing him.

“Hmm.” Was all he said and a few moments later a small knock was heard and the black jacket Doctor was back through the door with more papers and equipment.

“Ah! I see you guys have finally gotten comfortable. Good! Nothing wrong with being slow to warm.” He smiles again, amused by his own comment and organizes his things. “Alright! Let’s finish this up quickly so you can get some rest.”

You nodded your head with a small smile and Yoongi moved back to his previous spot and placed his headphones in.

You glanced over expecting to see him relaxing and about to drift away into slumber, but this time, the dark eyes that gazed over you a few minutes ago stayed on you, hooded by his dark locks. Your face heated up as you looked away, the faint sounds of the saxophone ringing in the back...

[danseru-kun]

Ancient and Android Chapter 1- FFVII and DBH crossover fanfic (Aerith x Connor)

Ao3 link: Ancient and Android

Genre: Friendship, Drama, Romance (?)

Rating: Teens and Up

Chapters: 1/7 (tentative)

Summary: At first it bothered Aerith how humanlike Connor was in appearance. Were androids like him part of the Lifestream?

For the past five years as a flower peddler, Aerith had only seen two kinds of people: those that weren’t affiliated with Shinra and those that were. She was particularly wary of the latter, being her captors in her early childhood and responsible for her mother’s death. From the typical office employee proudly showing their uniform to top executives in their fancy branded watches; from conscripted grunts to the esteemed elite force known as Soldier - Aerith knew them all. 

“Real flowers for sale!” Aerith called out to potential customers, as usual, pretending not to eye an odd stranger at the opposite side of the street.

Wearing a dark blue denim jacket with a Shinra logo on his left breast, with a glowing blue band wrapped around his right arm, a man took a long way and crossed through the pedestrian lane when everyone else ignored it. His gaze met Aerith’s for too long before his eyes landed on something else. 

He walked in perfect posture at a relaxed pace, opposing the flow of busybodies scampering towards the train station. Aerith observed his direction, wondering what office or establishment he may go to. Didn’t enter the cafe. Didn’t enter the theater. Didn’t enter the restaurant. Instead, he passed through the same spot in Loveless Avenue thrice, and in those next instances, he didn’t look again at Aerith. 

Was he one of them? The men in dark suits that had followed her for years? Aerith sighed. One thing that had always worked was: never to let them know you’re actively avoiding them. Let them think she was clueless and an easy target, then send them empty-handed and humiliated. Aerith grinned and walked towards the person of interest. 

“If you’re wondering if it’s real, you can see it yourself.” Aerith gave her widest smile and handed one stalk to the brown-haired man. “I’ll give you three pieces for two hundred gil, how’s that?” the vendor winked.  

“Real and living...” He tilted his head slightly and accepted the flower reluctantly, eyes darting back to Aerith one more time as if asking for permission. Carefully he held the stalk between his fingers, twisting and turning it in all angles before he returned it to Aerith. “I do not wish to purchase. Thank you for your offer nonetheless,” his lips slightly curved and his deep, dark eyes were kind. 

A blue ring at the side of the man’s head glowed. “What are those spinning lights?” Aerith pointed to her own temple and drew circles with her finger. 

“It’s an LED to show my processing. It makes it easier for humans to identify that I am a machine. My name is Connor, I’m the android sent by Shinra.” He also pointed to a set of numbers printed to his jacket, the largest of which was RK800. 

“An android?” A robot, or a machine, a cyborg or whatever they were called. Aerith narrowed her eyes. She had seen some robots, trashed some, salvaged some, and sold them off, but she never saw anything looking so realistic. Most humanoids robots looked like mannequins with their perfect skin and plastic hair, their mouths opening and closing like rusty hinges. Connor looked nothing but human. His skin had freckles and moles, his jawline looked freshly shaved, his expression soft and calming. “They sent you for what?” 

“To detect and report defective power lines. I’m running scans on the area,” Connor clasped both his hands and rubbed his palms together, bending down to meet Aerith’s eye level.  “Do you have any concerns about our services? I can forward them to customer service right away and give you a special priority.” 

Aerith’s brows furrowed. Unbelievable. If Shinra really did send this guy to track her, she should commend them for something new. Should she play along?  “This is the first time I’ve seen an android act,” she said in a teasing manner. “Has it worked on other girls before?” Aerith twirled the edge of her curls, not breaking eye contact with Connor.

“Pardon? Are you implying that I’m pretending to be a machine?” The polite tone of his voice didn’t change, but his eyes were wide, inquisitive. 

“You can drop the act Connor, I swear I find it… amusing.” Aerith slouched and pouted. She would have played the game a little longer but she had better things to do. Besides, there had been worse weirdos. 

Connor was silent for a while. “Shinra designed me to look human and installed an advanced social integration program but we do not intend to deceive anyone. Apologies, I should have been clearer from the start.” He extended his hand to Aerith. From the tips of his fingers, his skin turned gel-like and retracted inside the white shell and joints that formed his hand. Aerith’s eyes widened as the skin continued to disappear up to Connor’s wrists and his neck, revealing metallic joints and glowing wires underneath. 

“You really are-” Aerith took a sharp breath, grasping her flower basket a little tighter against her body. She shook her head in disbelief as the marvel of technology unfolded before her. 

“I am indeed a machine, Miss…” Connor blinked and his LED ring glowed yellow, eyes twitched for a split second. “May I know your name?” 

Aerith paused and stared at the hand Connor offered. “My name’s Aerith,” she answered and accepted a cold, hard, and plastic handshake. 

Sometimes, when Aerith touched others, there was always this tiny spark. Humans, animals, and plants all felt different, but they all shared one thing - the flow of life she couldn’t quite describe in words. Connor had none. 

----------------------------------------

It was Connor’s most efficient day. Loveless Avenue’s hourly foot traffic allowed the android to exceed its three-day average volume by twenty-seven percent. From 5:06PM to 8:31PM, the android had added 638 faces in its memory and identified 453 individuals by cross-referencing their faces to Shinra’s database. 

IDENTIFICATION OF PERSONS OF INTEREST SUCCESSFUL…

RETRIEVING AVALANCHE DATABASE…

MATCH: 2

Two faces matched the list of suspected Avalanche operatives, fitting their described age, height and sex: Charlie Sheridan and Lee Suyin. Based on Midgar records the pair forged birth certificate documents and were granted driver’s licenses. Connor submitted the sighting to the Anti-Terror Task Force. 

MISSION SUCCESSFUL

Connor waited for a recommended action.

INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED. DO NOT MAKE CONTACT WITH AGENTS.  

MAINTAIN COVER AND COLLECT DATA. 

“Affirmative,” Connor replied as it assessed its first success in identification. Shinra intelligence had only profiled 32 members but the actual number worldwide was estimated to be a hundred or more. 

Connor considered moving on to the train station when hundreds of people exited the Loveless theatre. A larger crowd rushed in while a long queue extended to the streets. Half the audience were children and not relevant information. Many had dogs of different breeds. The android’s optics quickly zoomed in to a child holding a white flower. Connor had never seen lilies outside the pictures in his memory. 

The flower did not match anything in the catalogs of registered gift shops. Connor stared at the flower intensely, the stress on its lenses forced a blink mechanism. It approached to investigate, reconstructing the path via the paw-prints of the child’s rubber soles. On the opposite side of the street was the vendor in question, a woman with long brown hair and a pink dress who stared back at the android. 

FACE SCAN ACTIVATED

MATCH FOUND

RESULTS: 0

Connor ran through Shinra’s database again. 

M@T^H FOU&%!

RESULTS: 1

No information followed. A glitch? System error? Database compromised? Connor kept its search active while it modified its main objectives:

[ENCRYPTED]

Identify and report suspected Avalanche members

Search for information about Avalanche’s hideout

Collect data for Shinra profiling initiative

Investigate the flower peddler

The opportunity presented when the vendor offered her products: real, living flowers. The woman reacted in disbelief with the information that Connor was not a human. 

“I am indeed a machine,” Connor received a surge of delayed information from its searches: the flower seller’s face partially matched a picture of a child in the Shinra database. They had the same emerald eyes. “May I know your name?” 

“My name’s Aerith,” she accepted the handshake, giving Connor the opportunity to collect her handprint. While DNA would be far more informative, there was no socially acceptable way to obtain samples in that situation and the cover would be blown. 

Aerith matched seventy-six results in the Midgar database, with nine different surnames. Three were deceased. One transitioned into a man. Only one Aerith matched a woman in her twenties: Aerith Gainsborough. She submitted her name in the Sector 5 annual lotto a total of fifty-nine times. Six months ago, she won the jackpot of 3,000,000 Gil split between 312 winners. Other than that, she had no government identification, school records, or hospital admissions-

“Hey watch where you’re going! Are you blind?” Connor barely dodged the cyclist who continued to hurl insults. The android continued his search of Aerith’s face in the Shinra database until the Science Department blocked him.  

ACCESS DENIED

ACCESS DENIED

ACCESS DENIED

Connor’s program recommended obtaining permission from the management. The suggestion was moved further down the queued objectives until it was deleted from its command logs. Too inefficient. Information required immediately. 

INITIATING BYPASS...

The department had sufficient firewalls and servers, but Connor was more advanced in breaching security undetected. It needed information on Aerith Gainsborough as soon as possible. 

More than pictures, Connor was able to retrieve a video showing Aerith as a child behind a glass partition. The footage was of substandard quality with a timestamp, but Connor’s facial reconstruction and analysis software were still able to process the image, estimating she was six years old. Another woman in the footage was her biological mother or relative based on shared physical features. Without a DNA test, it would be inconclusive. Several voices discuss her health and mentioned tests to perform on her. Aerith laid her thin, pale hand against the glass, her eyes downcast before she looked directly at the camera. Connor stared back. 

[rainoverthemountains]

More Twist Story-chapter 3

As usual, Twist and all of Twistfell belongs to @itsladykit

Summary: There’s a cure for LV (probably). It’s completely safe (probably). It’s a highly unpleasant experience (definitely). Twist only cares about that first statement. He probably should have paid a little more attention to the other two. But what does it matter? He’s getting what he wants, and he has the best friends and family in any universe to help along the way.

Things get rather bad for Twist in this chapter.

As a side note, I'm assuming that even though they usually refer to each other by their nicknames, when under major stress or not thinking clearly the monsters tend to slip and refer to monsters they’ve known their whole lives by the names they grew up calling them. On that note, when Twist refers to Sans, he’s talking about Blackberry, not Undertale Sans, in case that’s not clear.

chapter 1, chapter 2

Chapter 3

Twist obligingly climbs back into bed, forcing down every aggressive, or even defensive, thought that enters his mind. This is not the time to freak out.

“So what ‘xactly are ya gonna do, sweetheart? Maybe try a little warnin’ this time.”

Iggy takes his soul back over to the desk with the rather terrifying clamp, more carefully this time. “I told you, I need to break off some of this calcification so I can get the monitor wires in, and the needle for the injection.”

“And ya need that,” he grimaces as he points to the clamp, “ta do that? Don’ really seem necessary. Could prob’ly break some off myself by hand if you don’ wanna do it, darlin’.”

“No, no, this is much better for distributing the force and avoiding bruising, and we’d need some serious force to break through all of that. This way the blades slice in and take off most of it with very little pressure. Don’t worry, I’ve already optimized the procedure on other high-LV subjects-”

“And what’d they have ta say ‘bout it?”

“-and this way is by far the best for avoiding complications from excessive calcification,” she finishes with a glare for the interruption.

“Fine, fine, jus’… jus’ get it over with, then.” He lays down on his side, facing her so he can see, then clenches his sockets shut, then realizes that’s worse than watching, so he opens them again. 

He jolts when she sets his soul in the clamp. Sensations are dull through the calcification, but he can still feel little razor sharp teeth digging into the surface. He rolls onto his back to grip the bars on both sides of the bed. No need to freak out. He’s had worse before. This is nothing compared to what will happen if he keeps going the way he is. It’s worth it. A cure is worth anything. Absolutely anything. There’s nothing she could do that wouldn’t be worth-

“Fuck!” he shouts as the clamp closes and twists, tiny razor blades digging in and slicing, hooking in somehow and tearing the hardened outer layer off of his soul. It’s over in a second that feels like an eternity, and then there are hands on it, pulling it off the fucking spikes, and he convulses as they shift and pinch, pulling off little chips and pieces that were left behind. It’s excruciating, and violating, and as soon as he gets control of his limbs he lunges, not stopping for an instant when he falls to the floor, crawling when he can’t gather the coordination to walk, furious, desperate to get it back, take it away from her, how is this happening? That part of his life is done, he doesn’t have to lie here and take this, he won’t take this, he’ll fucking kill her, doesn’t have to take this again, he’ll show her he’ll pay her back for everything she ever did, he’ll-

“Stop right there!” a voice that isn’t hers commands, and the surprise of it is enough to jolt him partway out of his rage. “Move one more inch towards me, and I’ll rip your soul right in half!” She, Iggy, not Muffet, not any of the Muffets, there are no Muffets here, holds his soul out as if to demonstrate. He freezes, and remembers why he’s here. She had… she’d needed to get the calcification off, so she could get a needle in, so he could get the LV treatment he clearly needed, but…

“Why… what? Why did…?” With the adrenaline fading, shock sets in. He stares up at his exposed soul, its surface raw and bare looking, and can’t imagine what possible purpose there could be for that. He hates how it normally looks, but this is just wrong. She shouldn’t be touching it like this, she shouldn’t be touching it at all! She shouldn’t, he’ll make her stop, he’ll – No! Listen, she’s talking, maybe she’ll say why…

“I know it seems a little extreme, but it’ll be so much easier this way. It looks like a lot of damage, but it’s actually all on the surface, with no deep bruising at the core, which is what we really need to worry about because that’s where the medicine will work. I could have just taken off a little piece, but it’s just as easy to get it all off this way, and now it’ll take a lot longer to re-calcify so we’ll have more surface area to work with for longer, so we won’t have to do this again while the medicine is working, which would be a lot harder to do.”

That makes sense, except, “couldn’ta asked what I wanted? Or at leas’ warned me?”

“Would you have cooperated? You barely cooperated as it is. Now, are you done trying to kill me? If so, we should get you back in bed so we can get on with the treatment.” She holds his soul in one hand as she reaches the other down to help him up.

“Be careful with that!” he snarls, patience gone. “Ya keep threatenin’ me with it, but at this rate, yer gonna drop it an’ dust me by accident.” Steadying himself on the lab bench, he pulls himself up and staggers back to the bed.

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. I’ve worked with a lot of souls over the past few years and I’ve never dropped one.”

Twist snorts. “Whatever. Got any more plans ta make me try‘n kill ya, or are we ‘bout ready ta get on with it? Not sure how many more times that ‘I’ll break yer soul’ shit’s gonna work if ya keep breakin’ it anyway.”

“It’s not broken, just a little more exposed than you’re used to. But you’re right, we should get on with this. Just let me get the monitor wires in and then I’ll give you the injection.”

After the removal of the calcification, the wires are surprisingly painless. Just a small twinge, and then he’s treated to the disturbing sight of his soul with wires sticking out of it. Looking at it too long makes him slightly nauseous, but he isn’t looking away after all that.

“What’d’ya need ta monitor, anyway?” Do monsters have vital signs to keep track of? He realizes he doesn’t actually know.

“HP, mostly, and I’ll be tracking some stats that won’t mean anything yet, but will help me map the course of the treatment once I correlate them with my other data. That part’s not anything you need to worry about, just know that I’ll be tracking your HP and I have plenty of doses for direct magic infusions when it gets low. Of course, it’s best to keep it high enough with food that you won’t need any infusions, but it’s important to have them there as a backup.”

“Can’t ya just check me like normal?”

“I could, but this way provides more up-to-the-minute information, and since I’ll already be taking data on the treatment progression I might as well monitor HP at the same time. Like I said, I’ve already optimized this procedure, and this is what works best. Now, unless you have any more questions, let’s get started.”

“Fine, great, what’d’ya want me ta do?”

“Nothing, just lie there, and stay in bed this time, while I inject the medicine. Once it’s in your soul, it’ll run its course on its own, so your soul will be able to stay in your ribcage unless you need a magic infusion or you mess with the monitor wires.”

“Jus’ get on with it, then,” Twist sighs. This is going to suck. Definitely not the worst thing he’s ever been through, there’s a lot of competition for that, but it’s going to suck.

“Fine then. You might want to brace yourself. If you attack me while I’ve got a needle in your soul, you’ll probably end up with a whole syringe in your soul instead.”

“Yeah, yeah, not gonna attack ya. This’s the part I signed up for, ain’t it?” Nevertheless, he tightens his grip on the bars. He turns his head away as she picks up the syringe, but finds once again that he can’t stand not knowing when the needle is coming. He turns back to look just in time to cringe as the needle reaches the surface of his soul. He tenses in dread as the needle breaks the surface, only to feel… almost nothing. Like the wires, the needle feels wrong but is too small to be painful. Twist sighs in relief. Maybe this won’t be so bad. He can take this. This is nothing. He’s had so much worse… And then the world dissolves into agony. 

Heat floods his soul, like someone lit it on fire. Bubbling, boiling fire, like boiling in acid, is it acid? Did she put acid in his soul?! Distantly, he hears himself screaming. He knows it’s him because he feels the screams ripping from his throat, but that’s all he knows as the world condenses around that single point of pain. Vision goes black, hearing goes silent, he no longer feels the bed under his back, just the frantic thrashing of his own limbs and the wrongwrongWRONG feeling of foreign hands around his melting soul. Something brushes his ribs, Don’t touch me! and then blessed relief from the wrongness as his soul settles back into place. Relief from the wrongness, but not from the pain. The pain won’t end. The pain will never end, not until he melts away, melt away the broken, corrupted, ugly soul burnitburnitBURNIT it burns please it burns it hurts please stop please someone help make it stop. 

This is eternity. It lasts an eternity and it will continue for many more eternities until he melts away, and slowly he’s fading. Fading away and the pain isn’t leaving but he is, drifting away like dust on the wind like drowning in the river, fighting at first but slowly losing strength and giving up the fight. Drown, he could drown, just sink beneath the surface and the burning will stop. No more pain, no more him. No more him, no that’s not… Don’t want that. That’s not… but the thought won’t hold together, too much pain and too little strength to hold anything together. Then suddenly more wrongness. Wrongwrongwrong what’s wrong… why… what’s happening? Hands on his soul, taking it! No, give it back give it back give… it… too hard to fight. Too hard, too tired… need… can’t… His soul fills with crackling energy and suddenly he’s awake, wide awake, no please no more don’t want to be awake but don’t want to… die. All his shattered thoughts crystalize around that one idea, he almost died, he doesn’t want to die. This could kill him. Is this killing him? Nonono don’t let it kill him he wants to live. Live with the pain and the wrongness and the melting and the dark? It’s so dark and he’s alone and it hurts. No that’s not the world it’s not he’s been here before not quite here but like this before. It’s been like this and he got out! He got out and he won and he got Sans back and… Sans! Where’s Sans? Sans needs him. Sans would want him back even if he’s melting even if he’s already melted, even if he’s melted away to nothing and there’s nothing left. But it hurts and it’s WRONG something wrong on his soul someone’s holding his soul where is his soul? Right there! It’s right there above him, someone’s standing over him holding it. It’s her she wants it she took it she can’t have it she can’t take anything else from him give it back!

“Gif ba’. G’ba’k.” He tries to shout, but his voice is too hoarse for more than a whisper and he can’t form the shape of the words.

She might say something as she approaches but he can’t hear it. All he sees is a hand reaching out to grab him, the same hand that’s hurting him and touching his soul, let go please let go. He grabs the hand that’s reaching for him and digs his claws in with all his strength. She yelps, oh fuck he’s in for it now, and withdraws her hand, but not before giving back his soul. The relief of its return momentarily blocks out the pain, enough that he can realize the pain has receded enough that there are things in the world that aren’t pain. He waits for the melting to return, but no, if anything his soul is cooling, now more like metal in the hot sun than battery acid at the sun’s core. The same can’t be said of the rest of him. His ribs are radiating enough heat that his arm hurts where it’s resting against his lower ribs. He tries to move it away but it won’t obey him. The bed under his back may as well be an oven. He tries to roll to a cooler spot but can’t move any part of his body. His throat is the worst, like someone has scraped it with sandpaper. The more the pain fades, the more he realizes how thirsty he is. Water, he needs water, but he can’t even whisper to ask for it and now he’s alone.

***

Iggy finishes wrapping her arm in her office and then goes back to check on her research subject. He’s stopped twitching, so he might have passed out. He seems harmless, but he’d seemed pretty harmless before he clawed her arm down to the bone, so she stays well out of reach as she checks his stats on the monitor. He’s back up to half his full HP with the compound fully integrated into his soul. The start is bad for every subject, but she hasn’t come so close to losing one since before she perfected the formula. The difference between an LV of 9 and 17 might have more of an effect than she’d thought. Or maybe this is a subject-specific problem. No way to know for sure without more data.

She’s downloading the data from the monitor to a flash drive for transfer and further analysis when she notices Twist staring at her. He’s not doing anything, just staring. His jawbone moves as if to say something, but no sound comes out and he just keeps staring. It’s disturbing.

“Hello, do you need something?” She tentatively asks. His browbone furrows in… some sort of expression. She can’t really tell what it is.

“Are you ready to answer some questions about your experience?” This gets no response, so she steps closer.

“Some of this data looks a little patchy. I’m going to take a look at the wires to make sure they’re all in there correctly. I’m not sure how well I reconnected them when you pulled them loose earlier. I was more concerned with getting some magic into you when your HP dropped. I had to pull your soul out to inject it directly, and then when I tried to put it back you attacked me,” she babbles as she reaches into his ribcage to pull out his soul again. Twist snarls and tries to grab her. Iggy leaps backwards. Well, she was right about being careful.

“Is that really necessary?” she snaps. “I’m trying to help you! Do you want to dust because no one knows your HP is dropping? I’m not checking you 24 hours a day, so you need that monitor to be working.” Twist cringes at her anger and plasters his arms flat against the bed. “That’s better. Keep them there. Now let’s see what’s going on here.” She reaches for his soul as he watches with widened sockets. When she touches it he gasps and his whole body jerks. 

“Hmmm. Overly sensitive now, it seems. I’ll have to keep that in mind. All of the wires are in place, so what’s causing… oh, there! One of the tips is sticking out the other side. That explains it. I’ll just pull it back in… what’s it stuck on? Oh, that’s fascinating. The outer layers are already re-calcifying around it! I should have expected it, but if it’s this fast then why didn’t it happen sooner? I had no trouble moving the wires a few minutes ago… Something about the treatment must temporarily reduce calcification. I wonder if it’s just the heat? No, it can’t be that hot. I must not have noticed with the other subjects because their natural re-calcification wasn’t this fast. It’s not happening anywhere else, so the wires must provide a surface for the molecules to organize around, like some kind of seed crystal. This could be helpful. If we can keep the wires in place long enough for calcification to form around them, it should keep them from coming out again. Here, I’ll just break up the part that’s holding the wire in the wrong place and pull it back in. It’s thin enough that I should be able to do it manually.” She glances at Twist’s face for confirmation and sees his teeth gritted and head turned away, face half-buried in the pillow. His body is shaking and hands are clenched, but still obediently held at his sides.

“Oh, sorry, does it still hurt for me to touch it? Here, I’ll finish up quickly and put it back.” He moans when she breaks off the calcification near the misplaced wire, but otherwise does not react. He relaxes slightly when she sets his soul back inside his ribcage, but still doesn’t move.

“There, now we can leave it alone for a while. Once the wires are locked in place I shouldn’t have to do anything else with it unless your HP drops to critical levels again. I don’t really expect that to happen; this first part is the most damaging, HP-wise. If it becomes a regular thing I might need to put in some kind of a port for easy access, but we won’t resort to that unless we have to. You seem more responsive now, so do you think you could answer some of my questions? We can just stick to yes or no for now if you don’t feel up to talking.”

Twist’s shoulders twitch, which Iggy decides to interpret as agreement, so she pulls out her list of questions. Twist answers some of them with nods or head shakes, although it isn’t really clear if he understands all of what she’s saying or if he’s actually even intentionally answering. After several questions in a row go unanswered she gives up.

“That’s alright, we’ll try again later. Just get some sleep for now,” she suggests as she gathers her materials. As she stands to leave, she hears a small sound.

***

“Mmmmm. W…” Twist breaks into coughing, but tries again. “Wah…” He winces as the sound strains his throat.

“What is it? Do you need something?” Iggy asks impatiently. Twist flinches at her tone but tries again.

“Wah… da. Wa er. C’n… pls?” It’s too much to say at once, too many sounds, too little breath. But he’s so thirsty.

“Wa da? Oh, water, of course! Sure, you can have some water. I probably have a water bottle around here somewhere. That shouldn’t be too hard to drink from.” Iggy goes off in search of a water bottle while Twist struggles to stay conscious. He’s so, so tired, the room around him fading in and out of focus and spinning. He’s so grateful when Iggy returns and puts the tip of a water bottle in his mouth, even when it comes out too fast and most of it runs down his jawbone. Even that is wonderful as the water cools his overheated bones. He wants to ask for more on his ribs but can’t find the words. After far too short a time Iggy pulls the bottle away and wipes off the water dripping down his chin. He tries to protest but his protest goes unheard.

“There, is that better?” she asks without giving him time to answer. “We should probably try a straw next time. I have a lot of work to do now, so you just get some sleep. The monitor will tell me if anything changes.” Then she picks up her materials and leaves. Twist drifts for a while, trying to remind himself why he’s doing this, and what this even is, and avoid other memories that it’s bringing to mind. Eventually he drifts into a restless sleep.

chapter 4

[fontasticcrablettes]

How I Use Scrivener

Wrote this up for a friend, figured I’d post here in case it helps anyone else!

If you haven’t heard of it, Scrivener is a writing program that’s great for organizing long works.  It’s what I use to write anything that has more than one chapter.  It has a tonne of features, and honestly I don’t even use half of them.  This is how I use it to write though. 

Ok, so this is basically what the interface looks like:

You write in the middle.  Documents and files are stored in the left, and the window on the right is for toggling things within the scene, jotting down notes, and some other cool things.  Lots of things.  Let’s break this shit down:

First: how to just write shit without worrying about all the neat features.  When you first start Scrivener, go to New Project and get a box like this:

This is showing you all the templates you can choose from.  I have a personal template that’s set up for how I use it.  I’ve never used the non-fiction or scriptwriting ones (Like I said, I haven’t used half the features this baby has).  It doesn’t really matter which one you use because you can change it all later anyway.  If you aren’t sure, just go for blank.

Select blank, type your project name and where to save it, and then click create. (Tip: The project will create an entire folder with sub-documents.  I like to make a folder for each project, and then put the scrivener folder in that folder, because you can’t import images that are already in the scrivener folder.)  You’ll get this screen:

You can just start writing here.  I’ll show you how I organize it though.  

I like to make one folder for each chapter.  Then, each scene gets its own page.  You can create a new folder by click on the arrow next to the big green plus sign.

If you just click on the plus sign, it will create a new document.  You can also change folders to documents and vice versa by right-clicking on them later.  Create a document for each scene - basically, anywhere you’d put a page break, create a new document.  They line up in order in all your folders like this:

I name the folders with the chapter title.  You can either name you individual scenes (i.e., “Yuri goes to the store”) or let it auto-generate a title from the first sentence of the scene.  This is what I usually do.  Or, if you write out of order, you could create place-holder scenes and title them with what generally will happen there once you write it.

The cool thing about this is that you can move these scenes around easily. If, for example, you decide to end a chapter earlier and want to move the last scene to the start of the next one, just click and drag it into position.  

Click and drag and hover over another scene (rather than between them) to nest your document within another one.  This lets you use documents as folders of their own.  I usually use this for notes rather than the manuscript itself (like, one page outlining a city, and then sub-documents for neighbourhoods within it).  

At any time while writing, your entire list of scenes and chapters is available at the side.  Need to double-check what someone said five chapters ago?  Easily find the exact scene you need to re-read by finding it in the list rather than scrolling up through thousands of words in one big document.  

I like to colour-code my scenes my point of view.  Yuri is black, Flynn is blue, Estelle is pink, etc.  You can do this over on the right window, in this box:

When you open a blank project, the top box there won’t say Point of View.  It just says Label and will have different coloured boxes.  Click the arrow and then hit “Edit...” to get to this box

Change the title of the label and create custom colour labels here.  You don’t have to use this for Point of View; it’s just what works best for me.

Then, to get the colour to show up in the binder (the right bar where all your folders are listed, hit F6.  That will toggle the little doc icon being coloured. F5 will toggle the colour appearing over the entire title, like this:

The Status box is for giving docs stamps - things like “DONE” or “TO DO”.  It’s mostly useful in the corkboard view.  

The Document Notes box is where you can write things down that pertain to just that scene.  I use it to jot down a list of information that needs to be delivered in a conversation, for example, or I stick sentences I’m moving around over there until I find a better place for them.  Use the arrows at the far right side to switch to Project Notes, which is like that but for the entire project and will be the same in every document.  

The index card at the top is where you can write a summary of the scene if you need a reminder, or if you haven’t written it yet.  

The camera icon takes you to the snapshots.  This is for if you’re going to make some edits but you aren’t 100% confident in them.  Take a snapshot before you start and it will save the document as it is.  At any time, you can go back and check your previous version of the document and use Roll Back to bring it back again.  There’s a little folded corner icon on any document that has snapshots. 

I never use the other tabs in the inspector here.  I think they’re mostly for non-fiction writing (References, footnotes, meta data, etc).  And hit the I at the top to toggle the inspector open or closed. 

“Include in Compile” and related check boxes are for when you’re compiling everything into one document at the end.  Don’t worry about this for fanfiction; I find it easier to just copy and paste from scrivener.  

Moving on from writing, you can also keep all your research and reference notes within Scrivener so that they are easy to refer to while-writing.  I put mine in the Research folder.

You can create documents to write things up just as you would in the Draft folder, or import image files, pdfs, even entire web pages.  

Something I like to do is create a calendar.  It makes it easier to keep track of the passage of time in long fics.  Create a regular document, then insert a table with 7 columns and 4/5 rows.  It can be as elaborate as you want.  Right click on the document within the binder and go to “Change icon...” to make it stand out.  

I usually don’t use the Characters or World folders for fanfic, but for original stories that’s where I put all my worldbuilding notes, character profiles, histories, etc.  

These three buttons at the top control the mode you’re in.  The place document is just writing mode.  That’s the default.  Then there’s Corkboard mode, which is how I often do outlining.  Create a new folder outside of the Manuscrupt, label it “Outline” (and change the icon if you want), and then create a document for each point on your outline.  If you’re in Corkboard view, creating a new document will create a new index card (which turns into a document if you go back to Editor view).   

This is where those Status labels I mentioned earlier come in.  I mark a thing Done on the outline to check it off.  The cool thing about it is that all documents are automatically index cards.  Here’s my draft showing all the folders as individual index cards:

If I move cards around on the corkboard, they automatically move around in the binder as well.  So I could spread out my entire story, scene by scene, on index cards and stamp them with completeness, label the PoV character, and summaries of the contents, and then shuffle them around right here.

The last mode is Outline mode.  I’m more of a visual person so I don’t use this as much.  I just use it to show me how many words a chapter has because it’s the quickest way to get that info. 

You can toggle what columns you want visible on this screen.  Total Word Count isn’t there by default; you have to tell it to show that. 

Other cool things:

The built-in Name Generator found under Tools

Go to Tools > Options to change the fonts, colours, sizes, appearances etc.

Press F11 (this button)

To enter fullscreen mode.  You can change the appearance of this under Options but it lets you write in a customized fullscreen view to help concentration.

Press ctrl+shift+’ to enter split screen view.  This lets you write in one window and have reference material (or another scene) open in another. ctrl+’ takes you back to one screen.  

The last important thing is Typewriter scrolling.  This makes it so that when you hit enter, the lines shift up and keep your writing centred on the page.  You never hit the bottom of the screen, you never have to scroll up to re-centre yourself.  It’s great.  I only turn it off if I’m editing because then if you fix a type near the bottom of the page it snaps that to the middle and can be annoying.  I always forget how to turn this on but here it is:

Honestly this is just an overview of the most important features to me.  This program is huge.  I’ve been using it for almost 10 years and I’m still discovering new things about it (maybe because I am a person who never reads manuals and just figures shit out as it comes up but shhhh).  I love it a lot and feel free to ask me how to do a thing because I can’t write without it now.  

[hulksmashin-bannerpackin]

Run With Me

Pairing: Bruce Banner x Reader

Summary: Bruce finally found happiness, only to have it all ripped away. Now he can only either fight or give up to get his life back together.

Okay so this is a different style of writing I’m trying specifically for this story. There’s less dialogue but l really wanted to weave a tale and the magic of Reader stories is you can fill in the blanks so I could get to the point so this was the best way to try it. I don’t know how I’ll go, I just wanted to experiment.

Warnings: KIND OF dub con? Maybe? It’s not really meant to be thought about too hard? I mean this is a story by me it’s obviously gonna have a happy ending. Suicidal tendencies, infedelity

Anyway enjoy!

“I can’t do that to them Fury.”

“I’m not asking at this point agent Romanoff.” Fury’s voice was sharp and to the point.

Natasha kept her gaze blank and impartial, any inner feelings of turmoil were well hidden.

“The Avengers will watch over any potential child.”

“That’s not good enough. Bruce is the Hulk. Y/N is a mutant. There are so many negative variables that could happen. Even if this baby turns out without powers it’ll still be wanted by every criminal organisation. Do you want to be responsible for putting that child in it’s own Red Room?”

Natasha felt her heart sink into her stomach, that was a low blow and Fury knew it, but she needed that push. This was a necessary evil for the better of mankind.

“....... Fine.” Natasha’s voice was dangerous and low as she stormed away, heels clinking on the ground as she walked with hardened steps.

When Natasha was out of the room she clenched her fist, nails digging into her palms painfully. There was only one surefire way to break up Bruce and Y/N and it was possibly going to be one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do.

———————

When Bruce met Y/N it was like a movie. Even for Bruce, an otherwise serious and studious individual to say something like that proved how much he had changed and how far he had gone.

It had all happened completely by chance. There was a bug in the system, everything was erased.

It was easy to tell that Bruce was on the edge, all that work only for someone to hack into their system and crash it? Bruce spent MONTHS working his hardest on that project. It was going to make a lot of peoples lives easier. Every single person stayed the hell out of his way, afraid that they would be the person to teeter him off that edge and plunge him into a hulking rage.

A colleague bold but terrified had made the stuttery announcement that he had a lot of the project backed up on a hard drive at home. Not all of it but a lot of it and he could get one of his roommates to bring it in.

That did ease off a lot of the tension but Bruce was still upset. He was upset that all these people he had worked with and ate with and spent countless hours working the nights away with was still so afraid of him. It hurt his feelings, it ironically made him madder, (And a little bit hurt) however he didn’t have the time so he pushed those feelings down and carried on, keeping his mind solely focused on getting that hard drive. He wouldn’t be calm until it was in his hands.

Seconds turned to minutes and it was almost an hour since his colleague had stated his roommate would bring the hard drive in. Bruce tried his best not to sound threatening as he asked for updates on their status.

As soon as he was told their roommate had stopped for a late breakfast at the local coffee shop Bruce was off, deciding to meet them halfway himself. Bruce always had to do everything himself if he wanted something done right.

Bruce power walked to the coffee shop, nothing was going to stop him until he was back in his lab with his projects data safely returned.

A woman in a blue sweater, that’s who he had to find. Easy.

His grip has tense as he opened the door, a small bell chimed as he entered the sweet smelling shop.

His eyes scanned the people in the small cafe and finally landed on the back of a girl matching his given description.

He walked up to her, clearing his throat. “Excuse me, are you Y/N L/N?”

The girl turned around hearing her name, one hand held a cup of coffee, the other held a plate with an intricate looking dessert and small spoon.

Bruce’s heart stopped when he saw her. His clenched fists slowly uncurled and the tension headache that was pounding at the base of his skull all up stopped. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. The first thing Bruce noticed was her kind and warm smile, so sincere to be directed at an angry stranger. There was a sparkle in her eyes and she was just gorgeous. If Bruce wasn’t utterly forgone at this point he was lost as soon as he heard her voice.

“Wow you look tense haha, wanna maybe order a decaf and calm down there?”

He swallowed thickly and nodded dumbly, staring before he realised he needed to speak to her.

“Uh, yeah,” His voice was unsure, was he starting to sweat?

She laughed lightly. Again Bruce was spellbound by the sweet noise.

She moved to the side slightly, making room at the counter for Bruce to meet the barista and make an order.

“I’m, I’m Bruce.” He said after he ordered a green tea.

“I guessed! I have your hard drive!” She smiled brightly and tapped her handbag.

Oh right, the hard drive.... The reason he was here. He should probably get that...

“I can give it to you now but I’m gonna sit and have this.” She raised the hand that was holding her dessert slightly. “Wanna join me?”

Bruce allowed himself to smile, he felt he would of smiled even if he didn’t allow it.

“Yeah, okay.”

That breakfast turned into a lunch, which then turned into them walking around Central Park, which then turned into a spontaneous trip to the movies after Y/N she was excited to see a new release but her roommate was too busy and she didn’t want to go alone. Bruce immediately claimed he too wanted to see that particular movie and that they should go together. (Bruce was lying though, Bruce didn’t even know WHAT was playing on the movies currently, but somehow that didn’t matter).

That then turned into them deciding to dinner together, this time Y/N making the casual suggestion, hoping that Bruce would want to join her. They each seemed to make continuous excuses so that they could spend longer and longer with eachother as they talked and laughed and even enjoyed comfortable silences together.

Needless to say Bruce completely forgot about his hard drive and the next day when he walked into the lab with a spring in his step and a song in his heart his lab assistants were never more confused by his behaviour.

From that day on Bruce and Y/N were basically joined at the hip. Bruce had never been happier. Suddenly life mattered, suddenly he wasn’t just living, trying to make up for all the terrible things he was responsible for, suddenly he was just living. It took no more then a year for Y/N to move into the tower with Bruce and it barely took another year for Bruce to propose. Because fuck it. Bruce had spent his life suffering. He KNEW she was the one and Y/N finally helped Bruce realise that he in fact did deserve to be happy.

Even introducing the Hulk to Y/N (which Bruce was initially against) went fine. For once Bruce felt a complete agreement with Hulk.

Y/N was theirs. Nothing was going to separate her from them or else hell would rain down on whoever tried.

Nobody was more excited then Tony when Y/N and Bruce decided they wanted to have a baby. They did want to keep it a secret until they had in fact conceived but Tony has caught Bruce doing tests on himself to make sure he was actually able to have children. And by Bruce’s utter amazement he was. He thought for sure the gamma incident would of sterilised him but it hadn’t, and Bruce just took this as another clear sign that what they were doing was meant to be.

—————-

Natasha spent the next few days in a daze of dread, a permanent pit of ache and sorrow in her stomach. She and Bruce had a special connection, which is why this made it all the harder, feelings were never good for an Assassin to have. She and Bruce bonded in friendship, bonded in a way that two people who have both experienced a pain and loneliness could only share.

“You don’t have to do this.” Clint spoke breaking Natasha from her haze.

“Even by Fury’s standards this is unfair.” Clint’s eyes flittered over Natasha’s tense frame, watching as she played with a small chemical vile in her hand.

“I have too Clint. Fury is right. This isn’t about me or Bruce. This is about the future of a child.” Natasha breathed in through her nose.

“If Bruce had a child it would never be left alone. It would be hunted for the rest of its life. I’m not going to let a child suffer like that.” Not like the way she did.

So Natasha did what she did best. She swallowed her pain, squeezing the vile and walked away to do her mission.

———————-

Y/N hummed as she entered their shared living space in the tower. She placed her handbag on the bench as she made her way towards their bedroom.

What she saw caused her heart to shatter into a million pieces. Tears welled up in her eyes and she shook her head in disbelief. Bruce and Natasha naked in bed together, their clothes and underwear visablely littered the floor.

“No...” She whimpered. “How could you...?” She was hyperventilating as she screamed waking Bruce and Natasha up.

“HOW COULD YOU?!” She sobbed, it seemed to take a moment for Bruce to register the situation he was in. His eyes widened when he saw his position in bed with Natasha.

“Y/N!” He let out a panicked cry but was stopped by another sob of anguish from Y/N.

“I HATE YOU!” Y/N screamed in rage, pulling off her wedding ring and throwing it at him before running out.

Bruce was stunned, his brain was still trying to figure out what was going on.

“Natasha?” Bruce’s voice was laced with confusion as he turned to her, half hoping for some kind of explanation.

“I should go.” Was the only words Natasha spoke, avoiding his gaze as she redressed, gathering her loose things and silently leaving.

———————-

Bruce sat in a silence behind Tony’s bar, empty bottles strewn all around him. He replayed the night in his head countless times and just couldn’t understand how it happened. He had willingly taken Natasha to bed that night. His brain buzzed and grated in his skull as he tried to work out why he had done it.

How could he do that to Y/N? How could he do that to Natasha? How could he mess up so badly?

No matter how much he drank he couldn’t put himself into that unfeeling stupor and numbness that came with inebriation. Bruce just wanted to feel nothing so he continued to drink in hopes that he could drink his feelings and mistakes away.

———————————

After Y/N came by, taking boxes of the last of her things and had officially moved out, Bruce had refused to leave his floor. The Avengers tried to tread lightly but they all had wavering and mixed opinions on the entire situation. Whether they were on Bruce’s side or Y/N’s side, no one could understand how Bruce had cheated on Y/N.

Tony had been the one to try to support Bruce throughout all of this. He tried to get Bruce to come out and he tried to get Bruce to talk to him, he just tried to be a friend... It had reached the boiling point when enough was enough and Tony decided it was time to talk.

After a week he had Jarvis override the lock on Bruce’s door and let himself in.

Tony looked around and winced at the once happy home as he looked around for Bruce.

“Hey Bruce,” Tony called out to alert his friend to his presence. “Come on Big Guy, enough is enough. You need to come out.”

Tony entered the bedroom and was immediately met with an unpleasant smell, hanging thick in the air. His nose scrunched as he looked around, spotting a lump of sheets on the bed and scruffy brown hair peaking out of them.

“Bruuuce?” Tony carefully walked towards the bed cautiously. “Come on Brucey.” His heart sank when he saw the broken man.

“You gotta get up.”

“What’s the point?” Bruce croaked out, his voice sounded dry and Tony worried if Bruce had eaten at all for the past week.

Tony sucked in a breath and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Bruce, look I know your upset but you can’t stay like this.”

Bruce turned his head slightly too look at the man and Tony saw that Bruce hadn’t shaved at all.

“She wants a divorce Tony. There’s no hope left. I can’t win her back and I don’t deserve too. Just leave me alone.” Bruce pulled the covers over his head and Tony knew that this was the end of any conversation he had hoped to hold.

“Look.” Tony knew he would have to treat very lightly. “You made a mistake. It happens sometimes... God knows I’ve done my fair share of them. But you can’t just put your life on stop.” Tony stood up and began to walk out of the room. “Y/N wouldn’t want you to be like this.” Were his final words to his friend as he left.

Everyone was shocked to say the least when they saw Bruce in the shared kitchen. They all exchanged uncomfortable pleasantries with him as he took some food and mumbled how he would be in the lab if anyone needed him. Not that anyone probably would. Ever since Y/N had left Bruce had been unable to Hulk out. He was useless for missions at the moment. No one dared to voice that Bruce had looked absolutely terrible.

————————

“What do you want Fury.” Tony stood impatiently, brows stylishly raised, waiting for an answer. He loved annoying Fury and putting on the ol obnoxious Stark charm was just the way to do it.

“I need access to your data files.” Fury said as he stood tall, over an intricate system of computers.

“What?” Now his brows were raised in a genuine manner of confusion. “I’m not going to just give you access to my work.”

“It’s not your work I’m after Stark.” Fury said with an impassive expression.

“You mean Bruce’s?” Tony guessed correctly.

“We have every right to check when we’re worried about the safety and security of the country.”

“And just what is that suppose to mean?” Now Tony was offended.

“Banner has changed over these past months. We have every right to believe with his combined negative behaviour and new attitude he’s taken up to building weapons again.”

“Bruce wouldn’t do that.”

“Do you know what he’s been doing?”

Tony bit his lip. He hadn’t... Bruce was more secretive, more focused. Before Tony could easily admit that anyone had trouble dragging he or Bruce away from the lab but now Bruce was different. Tony admittingly was concerned deeply for his friend.

“Fine.” Tony chirped. “If it’ll prove to you, I’ll show you Bruce’s files. “But I’m expecting an apology when you see nothing is wrong.”

It didn’t take Tony long to get into Bruce’s encrypted files and soon enough everything that the gamma scientist had been hiding was now exposed and up for everyone in the room to see.

Tony’s smirk dropped and his stomach sunk. Fury was right... Bruce WAS building a weapon. But... It was a bullet... Bruce was designing a chemical compound to suppress the gamma in his system and engineering a bullet that would be able to blow through his skull without triggering a Hulk response.

The room was filled with a heavy and uncomfortable silence as the schematics of his weapon blew up on the screen.

Bruce was trying to kill himself...

—————————

“I’m coming!” Y/N called out as she yawned and quickly made her way to her front door. There was a harsh pounding on the other side, whoever was knocking didn’t want to wait.

“Yes-“ Y/N stopped mid word. She stiffened as she saw Natasha at her door. All the pain she had tried to put behind her came flooding back to the forefront of her mind.

“I need to talk to you.” Natasha said curtly. “It’s important.”

So reluctantly Y/N let the Russian woman into her tiny dingy apartment, leading her to the living room where they both took a seat.

There was a tense silence and Y/N was willing herself not to cry as she looked at the perfect and beautiful woman in front of her.

“Listen closely. We don’t have much time.”

Y/N blinked in confusion as Natasha laid various files and folders onto the table in front of them and began to explain her story.

“So,” Y/N said as she tried to process Natasha’s story. “He was drugged...?” She asked warily, frowning at Natasha.

“It was the only way to break the two of you up.” Natasha confirmed as she stood, clenching her fist. “You have to believe me, I never wanted to hurt you or Bruce but the baby that you both wanted to have. I just wanted to prevent a tragic future. But I was wrong and I don’t expect you to forgive me but Bruce needs you. He-ah.” Natasha let out a small noise of shock as she felt Y/N’s arms around her.

“I forgive you.”

Natasha never expected to hear those words and it stirred a powerful emotion in her when she did.

Natasha stood back, breaking the hug before she allowed herself to get too emotional.

“Now come on

pack a bag, we don’t have much time.”

————————-

“HULK SMASH!!!!!” Hulk roared in anger as Clint barely escaped his angry fist.

Clint KNEW this would happen! Why did HE have to be the one to tell Bruce?!

He shot an arrow into the ceiling, which was connected by a cable, shooting himself up to the ceiling and narrowly avoiding another punch.

“Cmon Bruce that could of killed me!” Clint cried out in exasperation.

“HULK EAT STUPID SHEILD HUMAN!!!”

Hulk leapt up, easily reaching the ceiling, throwing a punch and punching a large hole in the wall after Clint once more dodged.

Clint shot an arrow at Hulk that imploded in the green behemoths face. Hulk shot forward and grabbed Clint in his fist.

Look! You can kill me-“

“SMASH!” Hulk screamed in Clint’s face as he raised him higher, his mouth wide open.

“But! There was a but!” Clint exclaimed, he could feel his body being uncomfortably squeezed tighter and tighter. “If you smash me you’ll never get Y/N! I can take you to Y/N!!!”

Clint closed his eyes, prepared for pain but instead he was dropped to the ground. “Jesus Christ you were really going to eat me weren’t you?” Clint felt his adrenaline spiked all the way as she caught his breath on the ground.

He stood as he watched Hulk shrink down, green returning to a tan colour.

“Okay we-“ He was cut off as Bruce punched him square in the jaw.

Clint shook his head and placed a hand on his chin adjusting his jaw.

“Are we done?” He sounded more annoyed then anything else.

Bruce stood, glaring at Clint but nodded.

“Okay, put on some clothes, grab anything worth taking and let’s go.”

-———————

“Bruce is trying to kill himself?!” Y/N was absolutely horrifying, she felt completely rattled to her core as tears slid uncontrollably. “This is all my fault.”

“No it’s not.” Natasha said calmly, keeping her eyes on the road as they sped down the highway.

“No it’s not,” Natasha clenched her fist tighter on the steering wheel. “The council decided it would be in the worlds best interest if we just let Bruce succeed.”

Y/N let out a horrifying gasp.

“Even Fury agreed that, that’s too far.”

“That’s why your helping me now?”

Natasha nodded her head. “We shouldn’t of approved of the first mission to begin with.”

“Nat, it’s okay... I understand why you did it.”

Natasha’s expression hardened. Just because Y/N had forgiven her doesn’t mean she had forgiven herself.

They pulled up and Y/N looked around curiously. There was a bubble of fear and excitement in her stomach. She saw a small jet and her stomach now flipped. She was really agreeing to leave America. Leave every single thing she had known and loved. She was afraid, but her joy overshadowed any other feeling she had. She was going to see Bruce again. She was going to BE with Bruce again. They were going to be together again and this time nothing was going to tear them apart.

———————

Y/N was waiting with Natasha at a secluded take off area, she was bouncing her leg nervously as they stood together in silence.

Finally another car pulled up and for the third time that day Y/N started crying. As soon as she saw Bruce step out of the tiny inconspicuous vehicle she sprinted towards him.

Bruce immediately followed the second he saw her and they collided into each other’s arms.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Y/N blurred out as she sobbed. “I-I should have trusted you! I-“

Bruce silenced her with a long over due kiss. The two were pressing so hard into eachother it would of hurt if it didn’t feel so good.

“It doesn’t matter now.” They broke the kiss and Bruce held her face carefully, wiping her eyes.

“You look so beautiful.”

“You look terrible!”

They both laughed as they cried in each other’s arms.

“Where’s your face?” Y/N smiled giggling slightly as she stroked his face, feeling the uncomfortable scratch of his shaggy beard and unkept curly hair. Despite her words of criticism she pulled him into another kiss.

They pulled apart when they heard a deep voice, clearing their throat.

Fury stepped towards them, a stoic expression plastered on his face as he held two folders in front of each of them.

“These are your new identities. Everything you’ll need is in here. You’ll have to keep a low profile for this to work. No hero-ing, no scientific breakthroughs, no anything that’ll get either of you any attention. Complete normal and quiet lives.”

Y/N nodded cautiously as she gingerly took the folder marked with her name, looking at it with a shy interest.

Bruce however had no reservations as he wrapped one arm around Y/N and took his file with the other. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“And.” Fury hesitated just the slightest. “I wanted to personally apologise for the pain SHEILD has put you both through.”

Bruce gritted his teeth but the relaxing touch of Y/N immediately calmed him. “It doesn’t matter now. Thank you for what you’ve done.”

“You two should go.”

Y/N broke out of Bruce’s grasp and went to hug Natasha once more, knowing that would be something the red headed assassin would need. “You’re a good person Nat. Don’t forget that.”

Y/N grabbed onto Bruce’s arm and tugged him forward towards the jet. “You ready?”

Bruce pulled away from her, he delicately took her arm, tenderly running his fingers up her arm and to her hand. He reached into his pocket with his other hand, pulling out Y/N’s wedding ring and sliding it back onto her finger. “Now I am.”

—————————-

It had been just shy of a year since Bruce had mysteriously disappeared from the Tower. Tony had taken his leave the hardest out of the Avengers but as life goes on, he had to move on. Being the only other person to know the truth, he was able to be happy for his friend, even with the loss of his science buddy.

“Sir, a heavily cryptid file from an unknown source has forced its way past all your security protocols. Shall I delete it and try to trace the user?” Jarvis spoke, pulling Tony away from his latest gadget.

“Nah if they wanted to get in this badly send it through. Atleast if it’s a virus it’ll give me something interesting to do.” Tony said, putting down his screwdriver and waving at his holoscreen.

The file came through to reveal a picture. A hospital room came into view and Tony’s eyes widened as he saw Bruce looking happier then he had ever seen, along with Y/N laying in a bed and looking happy but exhausted. A small bundle was in her arms and Tony saw a tiny face and arms sticking out of the blanket.

Tony smiled and almost teared up.

After spending a good five minutes looking at the photo he finally spoke up.

“Delete the picture Jarvis. Make sure it’s unretrievable.”

“Yes sir.”

Permanent Taglist:

@insanityismysanity12345 @greenangrysnowflake @kitchensink-to-me @zadyalyss @becaamm @theweirdlunatic @itsjackothy @Bluebird-burning-gold @surfin-the-sun @ncville @daft-not-punk @fangirlbitch02 @gabriels-trix @ivy-16-18 @jaib2-blog @jedionironthrone @theblackqueen-ofmyheart @professionalunicorn15 @jumpingmanatee @proffyaffle @slowlywithfreedom @holyn0vak @peachamma @lifeisabitchandsoareyou @laramitk @jadepc @aw--heck @no1brucebannerfangirl @hana-the-starry-eyed-fool @mehfuture

[kattloaf]

Unexpected Guest (Dinner Party pt. 2)

Following the tour Tidus and Kamila had given her, Kat found herself with more time than necessary before the night’s festivities began in full. The well-chaperoned tour of the manor showed off its finer features, the grand, opulent rooms, the breathtaking views, the sheer wonderment the manse provided. During it, however, Kat had taken note that, while they covered most of the manor, there were certain gaps that lacked appreciable reasoning. Private quarters were a given, of course, but other parts of the building had been left sight-unseen. 

As her escorted tour of the place concluded, they had offered her a room to retire before the celebration began. As she had so many times during the tour, Kat couldn’t help but marvel at the opulence of the room they’d shown her to. Sapphire blue carpeting with gold patterns near the walls, the pattern reflected in filigree on the baseboards and throughout the wall, which was a deeper shade of blue. As with the other rooms she had seen, there were a number of paintings and pictures with ornamented frames adorning the wall to break up the sea of blue and gold. The furniture, interestingly, was red with silver accents, as though to stand in stark defiance of the ocean they resided in. Against one wall sat an enormous, plush bed with a canopy also of red. Reaching the far wall of the room, there was another set of doors leading to a balcony. Nearly every room facing seaward had a balcony, she’d noted. 

At first she simply spent some time thinking, allowing herself to process all she had seen -and what she hadn’t-. Should she need to run, having a mental map of the estate could prove a matter of life or death. Once that matter was addressed, she surreptitiously took stock of the things she’d brought with her. Tucked into slip pockets along her waistline were three of the wolfram-cored kunai she was fond of. Strapped to her thighs, and glamoured to be unseen, were the two daggers Laplace had forged for her, Fuyakaze and Harukaze. She’d mentally taken to calling them the ‘Twin Winds’, but they had proper names all the same. Lastly, she’d tucked several vials in various places, mostly in her dress, but also her boots. 

Inventory taken, she rose, ambling about the room before inevitably making her way to the balcony. The view was, as she was coming to expect, breathtaking. She stood at the midpoint of the river the manor was built over, gazing out first to the waterfall that cascaded down, then to the valley itself. The sun setting to her left cast long shadows over the near valley, the cliff facing she sat atop curving along the shore. Such brought an early nightfall to the town below. As Kat watched, streetlamps and windows began to glow with light as life began to wind down for the evening. Out at sea, ships lit their lanterns as they sailed in to the docks, seeking safe haven for the darkness of night that was approaching. At her vantage, night was yet to arrive, but down there, in that town, it had begun to descend in earnest. 

Unfortunately, she only had so much time to dwell on the tranquil, beautiful scene before her. Tonight was not a night to let her mind wander to the frayed ends of possibility. Tonight she had to focus. She was in a Garlean province, at the estate of a lifetime politician and, she was fairly certain, the intelligence officer he had as a wife. She couldn’t afford to let whimsy take hold. And so, after several deep, controlled breaths to re-center, she set off to meet the night head-on.

When she had heard there were to be other guests, Kat had expected a half-dozen or so, maybe twenty. Instead, there were over forty that had arrived thus far, with little signs of slowing. They arrived in ones and twos at first, some in carriages, some in magitek vehicles of varying fashion. As the time for the beginning of the party drew nearer, and it was a party, or gala if one wanted to be proper, the guests began to arrive more densely. It was not long before the rotunda was bustling with vehicles coming, dispensing their occupants, then leaving. It’s rather marvelously orchestrated. Just enough chaos to keep it from pure order.

I should like to take a look at some of those magitek rides, not that we’ll get the chance. I’m more concerned about the people -in- the vehicles, as you all should be.

At least we don’t recognize many.

Indeed, quite mercifully so, none of the arrivals thus far had been recognizable outside of name recognition by Kat, or vice versa. She stood in the entry hall, that grand checkerboard entrance that had so entranced her mind when she first entered it. Now, rather than echoing vacuously with the footfalls of two people, it rang with the clamor of  dozens of voices all speaking at once. There were cushioned benches and even end tables lining the spaces between archways now, many of them occupied in some way by the attendees. For her part, Kat had kept mostly to herself, offering greetings to those who passed and took interest, but largely letting the rest of them mingle. It made it easier to listen, watch. To learn who liked whom and who they avoided.

Garlean, red jacket, black pants. Baleful look at the hyur woman in the green dress. Portly balding man, black jacket and cravat. Ill-liked by those around him. Laughs at his own jokes.

Black-haired hyur with the blue shimmering dress. Has a small baby bump. Likely pregnant. Man with her is not her husband. No ring. I like her dress. The pregnant one. Oh! Also, man with her is only half-Garlean. 

So went the beginning of the party for Kat, cataloging as much information as she could about the attendees and trying to draw conclusions from it. It did help that each arrival was announced by one of the servants. Kat recognized the servant in question, though only in passing during her tour. She spent most of her time this way, until the herald at the entry declared another name that shook her from her data assessment. 

“Now presenting his excellency Cassian fae Victus, Vicarius of the Southeastern province.”

In with the announcement walked a man that was, lamentably, familiar to Kat. He was Garlean, with sharp, angular features and a smile that was altogether too self-assured and self-satisfied for Kat’s taste. He was tall, with blonde hair pale green eyes, a hue that matched the color of the vest he wore beneath a dark jacket that had gold trim. The trim, naturally, continued down onto his trousers and even his shoes. The ensemble, which Kat found fitting, but garish in the details, only served to complement his upturned chin as he ambled through the hall. 

Moving furtively, but with caution to appear as though she weren’t being evasive, Kat moved her way further into the hall, taking residence in another of the archways that led into other rooms. Greeting other guests as he meandered, Cassian almost missed her. Such potential success was, inevitably, foiled as his moved his gaze to Kat in spite of her efforts. A ripple of confusion played across his lean features, followed by a haughty, bemused smirk as he made his way through the crowd toward her. 

Ah shit.

Damn.

Why did he have to be here….

Fuck this asshole. 

“Well well, now what do we have here? We are quite far removed from the island of Thavnair, for such a rare variety of desert flower.” Reaching out, he neatly took Kat’s hand, which she had held out in way of customary greeting, and kissed the back of her palm. 

Kat smiled a politician’s smile, full of good cheer without an ounce of warmth in her eyes. “You should have paid closer attention to the gardens on your approach. The gardeners have quite the skill for making desert flowers bloom here. I counted four different varieties native to Thavnair.”

Cassian just chuckled at that, somehow managing to fill the sound with as much casual disdain as possible without making an openly mocking gesture. “Is that so? I was, regrettably, occupied with… other matters that required my attention on the ride in. I shall have to pay attention next I have the chance.” Still smiling that smug, triumphant smile, he finally let Kat’s hand go, which she quickly retracted. 

Changing tact slightly, since Cassian was the sort that could spout platitudes until the sun died, Kat steeled herself. “So, you are a Vicarius now, replete with the title. Last I’d heard, you were still an Eques at the embassy in Radz-at-Han.” She plastered on another of those politically-savvy smiles. “Moving up in the world, aren’t we?”

Cassian simply nodded, his ever present smile not wavering. “Indeed. My efforts and diligence at the embassy were recognized, and thus I ascended to my current position.” He waved blithely with a hand. “It’s all.. So very according to plan and procedure, if you’ve an appreciation for such.”

She lifted a hand to her chin, posturing as though she were thinking fervently. 

Do we?

Logically? No.

Yes, but we really want to.

Really, really want to. 

Kat smiled at length.“I can appreciate following protocol. Remind me, though, how many female serving staff did you go through in a moon? What’s the procedure for that?”

Immediately, Cassian’s demeanor grew frigid, his posture stiffening as the cold delight in his eyes turned to a burning venom. Immediately, his voice lowered, its timbre heavy with implication of malice. “Not so many as the number of beds your back has sullied.”  

With an icy smile, his voice and demeanor returned to the air of casual indifference he wore as a badge of honor. The venom still in his gaze as he stared Kat down, he continued in a voice that carried to those nearby. “Please do forgive my brevity in our reacquainting, there are a number of people I have yet to greet. Perhaps we will be able to… better familiarize ourselves later?”

Inwardly, Kat sighed. He’d bested her in this small move, even if she had gotten under his skin. It wasn’t entirely false that they knew each other, but one night of a drunken Garlean groping her like she was a sack of popotos before passing out was hardly something to discuss openly. No, there was no way she could decline his general offer without committing social suicide this evening. While being associated with him would make it easier to navigate the social scene, he was the last person she wanted to be attached to in the minds of others.

So, she did what she could, and smiled graciously, nodding as she spoke clearly and loudly, “Should the opportunity arise, and our cups be full, I would like nothing more.” It was a small barb, one that she didn’t expect to be discerned by the crowd around them, but it was a barb meant for him. With an achingly subtle sneer, Cassian turned to find other party-goers to greet. 

It took less than a minute for another to step into Cassian’s place. By greeting her deliberately and associating with her, he’d rent asunder the stigma that surrounded her. Now Kat would have to deal with the parade of faces, many of whom she had already met and catalogued, once again. 

You’re right, One. Fuck that man.

Ironically, we haven’t. 

That’s the point.

Blue dress is coming over! And yes, fuck him.

It was not terribly long before the dark, lacquered doors at the end of the hall swung wide, the aged head servant from Kat’s arrival acting as herald. “Good Lords and Ladies, Gentlemen and Women. At your leisure, the dining hall is now open.”

Immediately, there was a cordial, patient rush of people to the dining hall. Naturally it was, in essence, purely a case of migrating from one area for gossiping to another, but it was progress of a sort. Making her own way into the dining hall, Kat once more had to take in the spectacle borne of wealth and appreciation for interior decor. The checkerboard marble floor gave way to one that was of solid black marble, seams of gold in the tiles giving it a splash of decadent color. Adding to the color palette were red banners, some with the Garlean emblem, others without, spaced evenly along two of the walls and between the twin staircases that curved up to the second floor. The fourth wall, while also bearing red drapes and curtains, primarily consisted of large windows flanking sets of open doors, leading to a grand balcony.

The table, which stood as the centerpiece of the entire room, was massive. A red cloth runner split the table in twain visually, but by all appearances it was a single, seamless expression of extreme craftsmanship. A warm sienna, the wood grain was almost indistinguishable from all the work that had been put into it. As she was led to her seat second to the right of the table’s head, Kat tried to suss out whether it was a single object, or if there were sleeves cleverly disguised. 

That HAS to be multiple trees. There’s no way that it’s a single piece.

At a glance, I don’t see any divisions. It looks solid. 

I’m with Four, no way it’s not composite. 

Still looks good. 

Her chair held out for one of the servants -the same miqo’te woman who had first greeted her, curiously, she claimed her seat, the servant woman helping her scoot in to a comfortable degree. Kat turned her head to offer the woman her thanks, but she was already gone. Off to tend to another guest, no doubt.. Shrugging, Kat turned her attention forward, just in time to see Cassian being seated across from her, next to a spindly, anxious-looking man she recognized from earlier as one Bicchus nan Dichus. 

Dinner was going to be interesting. And long.

[pcttrailsidereader]

How an App Made Hiking Easier (perhaps too easy)

An excerpt from Taylor Gee’s article in The Guardian examining the unintended consequences of Guthook Guides’ maps that have made outdoor adventures far less wild.  I must admit being old school myself and even feel sometimes that all of the information on Halfmile’s maps makes me feel a bit lazy.  Guthook Guides’ seems, at times, to remove the mystery from the trail.  What’s your reaction to Gee’s critique?

In March 2012, the Pacific Crest Trail changed for good when Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild, about her 1995 thru-hike of the trail, hit shelves and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. [Between the book and the movie] from 2013 to 2018, PCT applications nearly quadrupled.

But Wild wasn’t the only thing that transformed the trail that March. The same month, a thru-hiker named Ryan Linn quietly released an iPhone application called Guthook Guides. It took the entire set of tools needed for thru-hiking – a map, compass, guidebook and water reports – and consolidated them into a single virtual location. It functioned offline and crowdsourced updated information about trail conditions and campsites when online. Such an app might have been inevitable, but for ultralight-obsessed thru-hikers, it was a revolution.

Linn’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. In the last three years, the app has been downloaded 337,000 times, and in 2018, a survey of 500 PCT hikers found that 85% used the app. What started in 2010 as a passion project is now a company that employs five people full-time and has mapped more than two dozen long trails around the world.

But as the the app’s empire continues to grow, many thru-hikers worry about its unintended consequences. They see themselves and fellow hikers depending on their phones to decide where to sleep and eat and to discover exactly how far, down to the tenth of a mile, they are from those places. They fear that American thru-hiking, once the ultimate test of self-reliance, is no longer as wild as it once was.

While attending Vassar College in 2002, Linn joined an outdoors club. The upperclassmen decided that the new recruits needed intimidating nicknames. One day, Linn and two other club members were driving past a hunting and fishing store and pulled over to wander the aisles for inspiration. Linn became “Guthook”, and it stuck through college and afterward, when he hiked the AT in 2007 and the PCT in 2010.

It was while hiking the PCT that Linn met Paul Bodnar, a guidebook author who was collecting GPS data on trail with the intent of updating a PCT guide he had published in 2009. In the era of “there should be an app for that”, it didn’t take long for the two to start talking about what a smartphone-based guide would look like. “We figured it would be something for us to do on the side, in between seasonal work,” says Linn, who since college had been doing various trail-crew and outdoor-education jobs.

After they finished their hike, Linn spent the next year and a half using the GPS data Bodnar had collected to create the first version of Guthook Guides, learning to code as he went. Visually, the app looks similar to the paper topographical maps hikers have used for decades. Virtual icons along the trail designate campsites, water sources, intersecting roads, and trail-town information. But unlike paper maps, Guthook Guides is GPS-enabled, and users can click on an icon to learn more or add a comment. The ability to leave comments, in particular, made Guthook Guides more than a guidebook. Hikers could tell other users whether a water source had gone dry, the quality of a campsite, and the friendliness of local businesses.

After the 2012 release, the app made just enough money for Linn to pay a friend to collect data while hiking the AT in 2013. (The app is free to download, but users must purchase guides for each trail.) The AT guide was released the next year. In 2015, Guthook Guides became available on Android phones. By then, Linn and Bodnar, the app’s co-creators, understood that Guthook Guides was no longer a side project. They went all in.

A sense of surviving in the wilderness is a major reason why a 2,000-mile hike is more than just a feat of athleticism. Taking a wrong turn, getting lost, navigating back – all that misadventure and the intellectual challenge of sorting it out makes for better stories than does walking in a straight line dictated by an app. Yet thru-hiking the PCT last year, I had to stop myself from checking the Guthook app as often as every hour. At one point, my hiking partner even instituted a no-Guthook rule, with the hope that we’d reclaim some sense of agency over our endeavor. Our self-imposed app ban didn’t last, because pretending we didn’t have this all-knowing resource in our pockets felt somehow inauthentic. Especially when most everyone else on trail was embracing it as reality.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that Guthook has had on the experience of thru-hiking. I talked to nearly a dozen hikers and trail managers who all seemed simultaneously concerned that the app enables hikers to lose self-reliance and awareness of their surroundings but couldn’t deny its supreme usefulness.

[PCT hiker Eric] Lee compares the impact of Guthook Guides to what Google Maps has done for driving. “We no longer have to think about landmarks and turns and street names. We just type our address into the phone and press go,” he says, noting that it undoubtedly makes thru-hiking an easier, more stress-free experience. But because of the app, he sees more hikers today who are not as viscerally connected to the trail. “They’re walking from waypoint to waypoint. It’s just a set of numbers.”

This effect has led to some pushback against the app. “I’ve encouraged people to not use it,” says Lucas Weaver, a 29-year-old fiber-optic technician who used Guthook Guides while hiking the Continental Divide Trail last year. “I’m not saying don’t get it, I’m saying don’t let it dictate, don’t rely on it.” Weaver is glad he hadn’t yet downloaded the app when he hiked the AT in 2015. “Being out there without any guide or technology makes it more adventurous,” he says.

The app’s popularity has coincided with the use of phones creeping into trails more generally. Now hikers have Instagram accounts to update with selfies, blogs to write, and loved ones to keep in touch with.

Sometimes use of the app enters into the absurd. “We came across many hikers who would use the app to the point they would lose common sense,” says Jen Nicholson, a 29-year-old physical therapist who also thru-hiked the Continental Divide Trail last year. She recalls hikers who insisted on walking five feet off to the side of the trail because their GPS told them that’s where the path was.

Then there are the stories of hikers relying on trail apps who lose or break their phones or even just run out of battery. For those who forgo paper backup maps to save weight (I was guilty of this myself), a dead phone makes getting lost more frightening than thrilling. Rachel Brown, membership-services manager for the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, recalls encountering this multiple times when hiking the trail in 2015. A friend of hers lost her phone, spent hours searching for it, didn’t find it, and had no backup maps. “She ended up camping out at a really confusing trail junction for three days until somebody else came,” Brown says. Another time, Brown hiked with a man who dropped his phone into a creek. “He ended up sticking like glue to my partner and me,” she recalls. “It was a little frustrating for us, because it kind of felt like we were babysitting. He was always there.”

Perhaps most telling is Guthook’s own experience. Last summer on a backpacking trip, Linn found he had drifted off of a poorly marked trail. “I stopped, and I was about to grab my phone,” says Linn. “Now I have to really consciously tell myself, ‘No, no, no. You just noticed you’re off the trail, go and find it.’” Linn is thoughtful about how his app has affected life on trails. “There are downsides to every new technology in the wilderness,” he admits. “Probably people are using Guthook a little more than I would have wanted.”

For all the good and the bad attributable to Guthook Guides, the consensus is things are just different now. In 2003, Eric Lee accidentally turned off the PCT and hours later ran into another hiker who told him he was going the wrong way. Lee didn’t believe him. “We brought out paper maps and discussed it for 15 minutes” before the other hiker convinced Lee of the truth. Back then that was part of the experience, and maybe even charm, of the trail. “Today that would never happen,” says Lee. “But I’m OK with that.”

[slumberinglabyrinth]

Blazing Blade Reverse Recruitment was a lot of fun. Overall it was a great way to create a fresh experience using the same resources, but it also being my first go at Hector Mode probably helped with that too.

Stuff like making your second healer (either Priscilla, who replaces Geitz and can be missed because of that, or any promoted mage) come 15 chapters after your first and getting your only thief (Jaffar and Matthew both come promoted) considerably later than usual changes how much you rely on consumable items in the opening half of the game, and getting two fliers (Vaida and Farina) by your third chapter also changes the ways you can approach the earlygame. The two biggest changes to the structure of the game, however, come from Ninian replacing Florina and the Florina that is supposed to be replacing Nils being a bard (that also can wield lances because she copies the unit data from Ninian!Florina); having a dancer earlier in the game opens up new ways to go about the 8 chapters where you’d normally not have one, and having two for Victory or Death and Light completely changes the ways you can approach those chapters.

From a design perspective, I liked how it gave you the chance to use units that usually come late and are (typically) less ‘usable’ than their already trained counterparts. I’ve always found myself preferring lategame characters in terms of personality, etc., but I would rarely use them because by the time I get them they’ve fallen far behind the units that I’ve had all game. In shifting around units, it also changes the weapons you have access to at certain points in the game; the most notable example I can think of is in swapping Matthew and Renault, you get one more runesword than you usually do but at the cost of a fortify staff, forcing you to go into 32x if you want to have fortify for the final chapter but making 32x marginally easier because you now have a runesword from the start of the map.

Despite how much I enjoyed fe7rr, I find it difficult to recommend the current(?) patch because despite being completable it is incredibly buggy. There are some minor things, like sprite pallets during combat animations being messed up, certain cutscenes hanging before continuing, and Karla and Hawkeye (replacing Eliwood and Lyn) being completely unable to seize, forcing you to only be able to do Hector mode (and making you unable to play it on a clean save; luckily starting a new file on a vanilla fe7 save causes no issues beyond locking you out of 19xx and the related Nergal dialogue), but there were some that extend far past minor inconveniences. Additionally, for some reason I haven’t been able to figure out, the patch also included something that made any given level up give the same stat boosts every time (not unlike Fixed Growths mode), which I would have greatly preferred to be able to turn off.

The ones that I personally encountered were, in order:

The pathing for when Lucius (replacing Fiora) enters Chapter 19 can freak out and place him offscreen (where he can’t move back on-screen) or in the ocean, or make him never stop moving, making either him unobtainable or a pain to get, or softlocks the game and forces you to restart the chapter. Solution/Fix: rewinding to right before you end the player phase before he appears seems to produce a different result each time (which doesn’t make sense but I’m not going to complain), and will eventually allow you to progress through the game. As far as I can tell, this doesn’t occur with Guy, who replaces Farina

Promoting while in the base causes the game to restart (as if you pressed A+B+L+R) once the character’s stat-up screen disappears. This will hardlock your save if you save at the start of the chapter where Merlinus will promote, since it occurs immediately upon entering the base in that chapter and cannot be skipped/prevented. Solution/Fix: Load the save in an unpatched copy of FE7, have the promotion play out, and then save the game and reload it in the patched copy.

Athos’ plot promotion will corrupt significant parts of the RAM and depending on how you’re playing the game, the cutscene will softlock and prevent you from progressing. I’ve tested this on every core for bizhawk and none of the will break in a way that allows the game to continue; the current revision of VBA-M should allow you to make it to the next chapter. Solution/Fix: pick a god and pray.

While VBA-M will allow you to make it to the next chapter, the ram remains corrupted and, among other things, will prevent Athos from being used because he has no HP value, make his sprite take up 9 tiles because it’s loading junk data from the map tileset, and looking at his unit info page will prevent you from . Solution/Fix: save once you reach the base, reset the game to clear the RAM, and reload the chapter.

Athos’ plot promotion puts him in the unpromoted Lyn!Lord class. This puts his Mag higher than the cap for the class (making it downgrade to 20 when he levels up), makes him lose all points he obtained in skill, and significantly lowers his HP. Has the added benefit of treating him as an unpromoted unit, which lets him get roughly on level per skirmish, and then lets you promote him into a Blade Lord if you didn’t sell all your heaven seals (granting him access to Bows and, amusingly, the ability to wield the Sol Katti). Solution/Fix: None.

(Vanilla) Karla’s recruitment appears to check not that (vanilla) Bartre is promoted and at level 5 or higher, but rather that his class is a Warrior and is level 5 or higher. Since there is no way to make Karel (who replaces Bartre) into a Warrior without directly hacking your save, this locks you out of obtaining Eliwood (who replaces Karla) and prevents you from using Durandal against the final boss.

Nils!Florina is a bard and can use lances. This shouldn’t happen for reasons that should be self-explanatory. Solution/Fix: None.

Athos cannot wield Forblaze, hindering your damage output against the final boss even further. Probably related to not being in the Archsage class (as the ability to wield Sol Katti is tied to the Blade Lord class); there’s no fix for this without directly hacking your save.

The vast majority of these seem to be the product of GBA FE hacking tools not being anywhere as good 8 years ago. In its current state FE7RR can be completed, but I think you seriously need to weigh how much potentially game-ending bullshit you’re willing to put up with before you decide to try it out.