#so high that the game started reading RAM as code

[skreyaa]

Sometimes, when life gives you strangely angular lemons, you have to watch several multi-hour long videos about competitive NES tetris.

[cookingcircle]

Wetware RAM issues

Ey up, it's been a while hasn't it? I got a little nudge to do some more work on R-Type (sorry "Vintage Shooter"). I don't have time to work on it right now, but hell let's talk about it anyway!

I'M A CODER NOT A PR GURU

As always with these things I try and fail to get a feel of how serious these things are. To my mind, it's been so long in development that I can't expect people to know whether my experiments are being remembered as a promise for a full game. When I was young, it always frustrated me that companies would miss deadlines and cancel games. I never even liked Strider, but I sure would have played the hell out of that if I'd got it with my Sam in 1990.

So I wrote a little essay reply about how difficult this stuff is (spoiler, not very, but there's so damn much of it), and then second-guessed myself and replaced with a short joke and reassurance that it's still happening.

But I think it's quite interesting to dive into for a second. Do you ever notice there seems to be plenty of talent in the Sam scene easily capable of throwing together high-quality products, but they never seem to be available for long? Or that there's a lot of vapourware that never seems to get finished off (Treasure Island Dizzy? Cough Statues of Ice Cough)?

DEAL WITH THE HURT FEELINGS FIRST

Firstly, I'm no stranger to occasionally feeling a bit rubbish in my life generally, and these comments sometimes get to me. I have a couple of very good friends who will hear me whinge about my revolving problems, and are very good at not judging me for it. To be fair, this is not a problem with the comments themselves, which are almost exclusively very encouraging and polite. But there's a hint of frustration around the corners if you look carefully.

It was really lovely at the Samazing show to talk to some luminaries that I have always looked up to. Si Owen responded to this and just casually said, "Well you just try some things and sometimes they work out." It kind of floored me that he didn't waltz into Sam town and decide to perform a miracle which always worked out. It's the same for everyone, sometimes you just try your best and sometimes it works out.

So back to the facebook post, the first thing I usually do is to consciously take these hints as a compliment, someone noticing you're not around is much better than them not noticing. The rest is not so easy.

ALL CODE IS TECHNICAL DEBT

This concept of technical debt is so relevant, even when you are doing stuff alone and to no deadline. One of the best pieces of advice I ever read was (paraphrasing), "Set yourself a deadline, even if you don't need one. There is a limit to the amount of passion and enthusiasm you'll get from even a personal project - after that, it's just a chore and you'll start to resent it." No idea who said it, but it's so true.

I've been aware of this for a very long time, I've long ago given up expecting my job to take advantage of my passion and skill in programming, so if I'm not being paid for it, I bloody well want to enjoy it! To that end, I have many projects on the go at once because suddenly becoming obsessed with, say, Mode 7 style graphic projection, isn't something I want to suppress.

However, the bad side is that I end up juggling nmore things than I am truly comfortable with, and some projects (Splitting Images, Celeste, Thrust, Outrun, Reckless Rufus) fall to the wayside for far longer than I really want. I guess I'm comfortable with that, I don't want a spotless reputation, I just want to continue to enjoy this marvellous and imperfect computer. It remains fascinating.

WHO EVEN WROTE THIS?

When you pick up one of your projects, you might as well be two completely separate people. "Why the hell did this idiot write it this way?", I say to myself, over and over again. And then eventually discover that there's a very good reason that I forgot along the way.

So, two things are happening that make the problem worse. Firstly, you spend way too long seeing yourself as an incompetent boob who can't see the solution wood for the problem trees. And secondly, you spend way too long sort of re-loading all the short-term knowledge back into your head. You can easily spend a week or longer just getting back up to speed with the current state of the codebase, even if you've commented well.

I've noticed that trying to work on several projects at once often leads to me making realisations on how they can all be improved, so it isn't even necessarily all bad, but it does make me very slow! On top of this, I also have my semi-regular big gig season coming up, and this year I have to learn over two hours of songs (music and lyrics), which will be regurgitated on stage over a single weekend, which is the same effect.

Then, magically, after something is completed or paused, a lot of that knowledge is simply ejected from my head and I have space to do something else.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

So what next? In the case of R-Type, there was a funny joke in response about taking the recent 50hz scrolling solution Tom Harte has been working on, after maybe a decade away from the scene. Tongue definitely in cheek here, my R-Type map scroller already runs decently to the same speed the arcade does, I know because I timed it!

But the point stays true: You can't simply copy and paste someone else's solution into your code. Tom's solution runs to something like 8 screens of display information, and because of the Sam's paging system, that's 256K of memory!

When I get back to R-Type properly, I will be probably refactoring lots of the code to be more in line with what I've learnt since Flappy Bird, three years ago. THREE YEARS AGO?? And - remember this? - that code feels like it was written by a different person. My plan is:

Move the gameplay entirely into the interrupt time, so the gameplay will be completely responsive at 50hz.

Continue to update screen in non-interrupt time (this needs a better name tbh)

The sprite manager will get some updates that I learnt through Flappy Bird:

Mainly that you need a decent copy of variables for use in interrupts and non-interrupt time. I suspect this is the reason for the garbage that's occasionally left on screen, and the frustrating times when some enemies fail to spawn entirely (that rotary guns bit, I'm looking at you)

Also I'm pretty sure that the main ship gets the most eyeball-focused time, which means I should start to prioritise hacks where this moves at 50 fps instead of the 17-25 fps most of the rest of the screen manages.

Is this even possible? I'll have to think about Z-buffers properly so I can shuffle the printing order around to hit the screen-reprint beam while not printing things in the wrong order. Presumably, the map, big sprites and other sprites that don't move with the map will be excluded from this. God that sounds hard.

And finally, I'm pretty sure that my code is still way too inefficient at, say, unpacking graphics when needed, which will allow me to finally start work on new levels.

This leaves out a lot of gameplay elements, as it's still obvious there is no shooting, pickups, or collision detection. Who needs that in a game?!

SO A POSITIVE END

As above, so below. Just like with the comments I could take as negative but choose to take positively, so I'm grateful that my haphazard approach to starting too many projects has broad benefits to everything else I'm doing. Writing XOR way back when was particularly easy, because I didn't even consider that any of that code would be reused, but everything I learnt after that has been positively effecting all my other projects too. I think I've repeated that point enough now thank you very much.

It also makes it very easy to see that in some cases, vapourware from other developers is just a part of life, and that ditching Statues of Ice is a legitimate decision. Could we make it happen? Sure, but it would just be a new demo with an old name on it. As a matter of fact, I'm making a new demo right now, which is aimed to release around Christmas. But I think it would be a bit silly to title it SOI just because I was technically in Entropy back in the day (all true! I never managed to release anything under that name). Let's just keep moving on and not get bound up in past projects.

In other cases like Treasure Island Dizzy, I can totally see how Adrian might be sitting on a few problems he just hasn't the time to spend weeks gathering information for. It's not a skill issue, it's merely real life and real brains being occupied. But it doesn't mean it won't happen! I have faith. Again, so much interest in it that I'm sure it will eventually see the light of day.

FUTURE SHOCKS

The other side-effect of me choosing this route is that I'm also quietly making a bunch of little tools that I hope to eventually make public. They're broadly under the name of Trillion, because the most useful will be a little menu system that will help people navigate around the Trinity hard disk. The idea is that in retro shows, we can stop chaperoning our Sams and let people discover things for themselves:

A hard disk menu system

This was the main idea. What if you could keep a short database of games/utilities/demos/screen$ that could be selected and run without entering the command-line interface? I think folks at these shindigs are capable of pressing the reset button and F9 to reload the menu (ahoy laminated card instructions).

And a timed demo to run through some installed program screenshots doesn't seem like a huge step.

A sound effects generator

Because I've been making sound effects for a number of games for friends recently, and I've yet to see a simple solution that others can use. Can I compile the effects and just include the module in a game? Can I get it to integrate with the existing Pro-Tracker (okay, okay, and E-Tracker) files?

A better native code editor

Now we're getting wildly speculative, put your cynical hats on now. Can I edit Basic code much faster? Could I get BASIC to compile to runnable code? Could I add in other languages? The Commodore's inline assembly editor is something that I've lusted after for ages, but with my admiration of LUA used in Pico-8, this would make an AGP-style development language really useful.

If we're thinking about AGP-style development, what else could go in there? Pre-optimised routines for decompression of code/graphics/sound? A Sprite compiler? Hell, even a sprite designer?

So, yeah. That's where I'm at right now, starting off rational, and trying to curtail my crazy dreams just enough so that stuff still happens. Shortly, we'll see the release of The Lower Caverns, l'Abbaye des Morts and Arkanoid Revenge of Doh, and a nice little update to Netkarts, won't that be grand?

[govindhtech]

HP Victus Special Edition Laptops: Ultimate Study Assistance

HP Victus Laptops

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Victus Special Edition Laptops Release date

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HP Victus Gaming Laptop

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HP Victus

The HP Victus Special Edition laptops are complete tools meant to assist students in their academic endeavors; they are more than simply gadgets. With their ability to combine performance, robustness, and affordability, these laptops are an excellent option for students who want dependable technology in order to achieve academic success. The Victus Special Edition offers everything you need in a stylish and powerful package, whether you’re working on challenging jobs, pursuing creative endeavors, or just keeping in touch.

Read more on govindhtech.com

[masterofd1saster]

CJ current events 29aug24

Have a little respect

A 22-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder told investigators he shot a man who threatened to puke on a grave at Crown Hill Cemetery during a memorial service for his friend. Ryan Trujillo-Falcon, 22, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of first-degree murder, second-degree assault and unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, according to an arrest affidavit released by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. Trujillo-Falcon allegedly shot 20-year-old Geano Chavez and hit a woman in the head with the gun, according to the affidavit. Paramedics transported both victims to the hospital where Chavez later died from his injuries, police said. The woman was treated and released.*** Trujillo-Falcon told investigators that he arrived at Crown Hill Cemetary — located at 7777 West 29th Ave. — around 8 p.m.  Sunday and that he was there with family members and friends to pay respects to a friend who was fatally shot two years ago, the affidavit stated. While the group was standing around the grave, Chavez was starting to feel sick and told Trujillo-Falcon he needed to vomit, according to the affidavit. “[Trujillo-Falcon] told him to go to the street if he was going to get sick, but [Chavez] declined to do so and was going to vomit on the grave next to him,” the affidavit stated.***

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This is why our constitution makes judicial appointments lifetime

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s Supreme Court has backed President Nicolás Maduro’s claims that he won last month’s presidential election and said voting tallies published online showing he lost by a landslide were forged. The ruling is the latest attempt by Maduro to blunt protests and international criticism that erupted after the contested July 28 vote in which the self-proclaimed socialist leader was seeking a third, six-year term. The high court is packed with Maduro loyalists and has almost never ruled against the government.*** Thanks to a superb ground game on election day, opposition volunteers managed to collect copies of voting tallies from 80% of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide and which show opposition candidate Edmundo González won by a more than 2-to-1 margin. The official tally sheets printed by each voting machine carry a QR code that makes it easy for anyone to verify the results and are almost impossible to replicate. “An attempt to judicialize the results doesn’t change the truth: we won overwhelmingly and we have the voting records to prove it,” González, standing before a Venezuelan flag, said in a video posted on social media.***

***

Hm, maybe there is a crime problem

Suspect in stolen truck injures Golden officer, escapes into Denver A Golden police officer while trying to stop the driver of a stolen truck, who rammed multiple police vehicles and eventually escaped into Denver. Read more → Denver closes two public parks citing drugs sales, violence and vandalism Closing parks to clamp down on potentially dangerous and damaging behaviors is not a new approach for the city.

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Blame the underlings and protect the headquarters

The U.S. Secret Service has placed at least five agents on leave, including the head of the Pittsburgh field office, as a result of its investigation into last month's assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.  One agent on Trump's detail and three others in the Pittsburgh office were among those placed on leave, according to two federal law enforcement sources. It's unclear if all of these actions are disciplinary, since agents are routinely placed on leave during the course of investigations for various reasons, including mental health relief. ***

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Union boss embezzling? Say it aint so.

A federal grand jury in Kansas returned an indictment [21aug24] charging seven defendants, including five current and former high-level officers of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmith, Forgers and Helpers (Boilermakers Union) for their alleged roles in a 15-year, $20 million embezzlement scheme. The defendants are charged with conspiracy to commit offenses under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, as well as other charges including embezzlement, health care fraud, wire fraud, and theft in connection with health care and retirement plans.*** The indictment also charges Newton Jones and Creeden with wire fraud relating to their alleged demand and acceptance of no-show employment with the Bank of Labor for which they were paid more than $3.4 million each in salary, benefit contributions, and other paid benefits. The indictment additionally seeks forfeiture of $20 million.***

***

What was your first clue, Sherlock?

Man shot to death in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, police investigating as homicide A man was killed in a Friday night shooting just south of MSU Denver in Denver’s Lincoln Park neighborhood and police are investigating it as a homicide. Read more →

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don't know who created -

***

***

Tues

Crush him

An Army soldier stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, was arrested last week on criminal charges related to his alleged transportation, receipt and possession of files depicting child sexual abuse, and use of AI to generate sexually explicit images of children.*** “As alleged, Seth Herrera possessed thousands of images depicting the violent sexual abuse of children, including infants.  He also allegedly used AI to create images depicting the sexual exploitation of children he knew,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s announcement should serve as yet another warning that the Criminal Division will aggressively pursue those who possess or produce child sexual abuse material, including where the images were generated through AI.” According to court documents, Seth Herrera, 34, allegedly transported, received and possessed files depicting child sexual abuse. Herrera also allegedly used online AI chatbots to generate realistic child sexual abuse materials (CSAM) depicting minors known to him.*** He will make his initial court appearance on Aug. 27 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Kyle F. Reardon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.***

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The good news is that he didn't steal or create any corpses and set them on fire

A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 81 months in jail after hacking governments systems to fake his own death to dodge paying child support. Yes, you read that right. The press release by the US Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Kentucky, paints a detailed picture of what went down. In January of 2023, Jesse Kipf used several stolen identities to create a case for his own death, one of which was a doctor living in another state. He used the stolen username and password of this doctor to log in to the Hawaii Death Registry System and certify his own death, using the digital signature of the doctor. Kipf admitted that one of the reasons he did this was to avoid having to pay child support. Reportedly, Kipf got a divorce in 2008 in California and owed more than $116,000 in child support obligations to his daughter and her mother, according to court documents. This was not the only time that Kipf infiltrated other states’ death registry systems, private business networks, and governmental and corporate networks. Each time by using stolen credentials. The access he gained to the systems and networks was subsequently sold on dark web forums.***

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That's going to be ugly

Littleton police are investigating assault allegations among the Littleton High School football team, school officials announced in a letter to parents and staff Friday. School leaders learned of the allegations through an anonymous tip Thursday and began investigating, Principal Thomas Velazquez wrote in a letter to football families that was shared with the wider school community. The team’s Friday practice and dinner and Saturday scrimmage were canceled as a result, Velazquez wrote. School officials are fully cooperating with the police investigation.***

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It's not a military operations order

For the second time, a Court of Appeals panel has ruled an Upper Peninsula city does not have the authority to withhold part of its police department's use-of-force policy, after an individual requested an unredacted copy in the wake of protests against police brutality and racial injustice during the summer of 2020. And for a second time, Sault Ste. Marie officials are weighing their legal options as they review the panel's ruling, although the Michigan Supreme Court previously declined to hear an appeal when the city asked them to weigh in last year. In Hjerstedt v. Sault Ste. Marie, a two-judge Court of Appeals panel ruled Thursday a Chippewa County judge must order the city to issue an unredacted copy of its police department's use-of-force policy, writing that the policy is not exempt from certain disclosure provisions in Michigan's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Along with the unredacted policy, Court of Appeals Judges Sima Patel and Stephen Borrello also ordered the city to cover the plaintiff's attorney fees and said the lower court must determine whether damages are appropriate.*** In Aug. 2020, Sault Ste. Marie city commissioners voted to issue a redacted copy of the department’s use-of-force policy to Hjerstedt, The Sault News reported. At the time, city and police officials argued that potential assailants knowing how an officer would react in a certain situation would pose a safety risk if the full policy was disclosed.***

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What's the worst that could happen?

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A body camera captured every word and bark uttered as police Sgt. Matt Gilmore and his K-9 dog, Gunner, searched for a group of suspects for nearly an hour. Normally, the Oklahoma City police sergeant would grab his laptop and spend another 30 to 45 minutes writing up a report about the search. But this time he had artificial intelligence write the first draft. Pulling from all the sounds and radio chatter picked up by the microphone attached to Gilmore's body camera, the AI tool churned out a report in eight seconds. “It was a better report than I could have ever written, and it was 100% accurate. It flowed better,” Gilmore said. It even documented a fact he didn't remember hearing — another officer's mention of the color of the car the suspects ran from. Oklahoma City's police department is one of a handful to experiment with AI chatbots to produce the first drafts of incident reports. Police officers who've tried it are enthused about the time-saving technology, while some prosecutors, police watchdogs and legal scholars have concerns about how it could alter a fundamental document in the criminal justice system that plays a role in who gets prosecuted or imprisoned.***

You sign that report, you're married to it for better and for worse....

[jawabear]

If you are doing requests right now can I request either 15. “It’s just a scratch” “you got stabbed” “it didn’t go that deep though” or 16. “Oh well! Thank god they missed anything vital! It’s not as if you lost a ton of blood or anything” with either Javi or Frankie? Only if you have a chance to get to it. Thank you so much! I love your writing!

Germany 2012 (Frankie Morales x Reader)

Not my GIF

A/N: Once again, I’m so sorry that this took so long Anon! But I hope you like it! I went with Frankie because I had this idea for a while and I haven’t written for him in a bit. I hope that’s okay. I have no idea how the army works so it’s probably in correct and notice how I didn’t really used a lot of Tom because F that guy. Readers code name is “Wolfgang” don’t ask me why, I just like it. But it doesn’t play a massive part so you can read it as something else if you want :) hope you enjoy! Sorry for any mistakes. Stay safe.

Genre: angst, fluff, smut

Warnings: fem!reader, injury detail, stabbing, violence, guns, usual army things, mentions of a fear of heights, body self doubt, smutty things, but it’s Frankie so it’s soft

Summary: a mission in Germany back in 2012 set the beginning for their relationship after an unfortunate event

Bullets were flying everywhere from both sides. The men they were after greatly outnumbered, six against what they gather to be 15 or maybe more. All heavily armoured and holding machine-guns that seems to have infinite ammo.

The mission had started out normal for them. An easy recon mission. All they had to do was check the area to find the guy that was dealing in Illegal weapons trading, only to enter if it was clear. As if they were going to follow that, regardless of if it were clear or not they would still go in to look for the guys, find out the information about who he is selling to and then proceed to kill him. But things quickly turned south when one of the guards spotted Santiago as he got into position. The guard had run inside the house yelling that there were intruders and then the shoot out started.

“Fuck, we’ve got to get to higher ground to take these guys down! From this cover we can’t shoot them, we’re to low down” Redfly said down the radio.

“Any one see an vantage point?” Santiago asked.

(Y/N) looked around and spotted a sturdy looking tree to her left, if she could climb it and find a good branch she could take them out easily with her sniper to allow them in. “I’ve found a tree” she reported through her radio “I can get up there and take them out”

“Do it Wolfgang” Ironhead said, she knew that he had nodded but obviously she couldn’t see it.

“Wolfie, you sure?” Catfish asked as he grabbed her arm, stopping her from leaving.

She smiled at him and nodded “I’ll be fine Cat” she assured him “cover me”

“You got it” he nodded, releasing her. He continued his shooting and she ran over to the tree he had spotted. She examined it for a moment and began climbing it to perch on the thickest branch she could spot. She lost her footing a few times which strained her wrists as she gripped at its rough bark. She ignored the scratches on her hands and aching in her wrists as she pulled herself up into the branch.

She pulled her sniper from her back and held it in position looking down the scope and lining it up with each member of the gang they were after. Bullet after bullet she shot and they dropped like flies to the ground. “Nice shooting Wolfgang” Pope complimented. She could hear the branch below her crack the longer she stayed there, she tried to pick up her pace but the cracking was starting to worry her.

“The front is clear” (Y/N) spoke down the radio “Redfly, Benny, you’re good to make your approach” she said.

“Making our approach” Redfly told them.

“Cat, Pope, you’ve still got a few ahead, I’ll try and take them out but-“ before she could finish the brach broke out from under her. She was quick to grab the smaller brach above her, her legs gripping the thick truck of the tree “shit” she muttered.

“Shit? Wolfgang what happened?” Catfish asked frantically down the radio.

“The branch snapped” she looked down, she was quite the way up. Her heart pounded against her chest. In all the action she hadn’t realised how far up she really was. She was scared of heights. “Fuck” she panted, her voice shaky as she tried to pulled herself up. She suddenly felt faint, her hands sweating. She managed to pull her self up into the other branch, she grabbed another one above her and tried to steady her breathing as she scoped the men who were still blocking the path for Pope, Catfish and Ironhead. But she couldn’t help but think of how large the distance from the ground to her was. Her hands shaking, she struggled to get a clear shot. “G-guys, I can’t get a clean shot” she said, her voice still shaking “I’m-I’m to h-high up”

“Don’t worry Wolfgang, we got it” Benny cut in. Multiple gun shots were heard and she guessed that the last of the guards on the outside had been taken down.

“Pathway clear, heading into the house” Pope confirmed.

“(Y/N), stay where you are” Cat’s soft voice came through her ear.

“O-okay” she stuttered with a nod she knew he couldn’t see.

He was soon standing at the bottom of the tree “(Y/N), jump” he ordered as he held out his arms.

“Are you crazy?” She questioned him.

“Trust me (Y/N), I’ll catch you, I promise” he assured her. She swallowed thickly and looked down at him. It was such a long way down. She regretted climbing up that damned tree. She gripped the branch tighter in her hand “(Y/N), I swear to you. I’ll catch you”

She took in a deep breath and tried to drop her self down a little bit so the jump wasn’t as high but as she made her decent her foot sleep as she lost grip of the tree and fell. She let out a soft scream as she fell, but she fell against something soft, something that definitely wasn’t the ground.

(Y/N) opened her eyes that she didn’t realise were closed in the first place. Her face pretty much pressed against Frankie’s who lay below her, his arms securely round her waist “I told you I’d catch you” he smiled to her.

“Are you okay?” She asked him softly, her hand brushing a few leaves out of his hair.

“Yeah, are you?” He asked in the same tone, his eyes flicking between hers.

“Mhm” She hummed as she nodded.

“Alright guys, enough playing around, get in here” Pope’s stern voice came in their ears.

The two laughed softly and she rolled off him. They both stood and made their way into the large house. They all regrouped in the large living room that was completely empty, they made sure she was okay and she assured them that she was.

“No cars have left since we got here and we knew he was here. He’s not among the dead so he has to be in here somewhere. He’s clearly hiding” Ironhead summarised the game plan “find him, secure him, we get the information and we take him out”

“Right” everyone nodded and went their separate ways throughout the house being careful not to make a sound.

The floors seemed to creak loudly due to the silence through out the large house, one small noise seemed to echo in every room. She gripped her pistol tightly in her hand as she scanned every room she passed, making sure to check for any off looking areas or enclosed spaces that he could be hiding in.

She made her way into what appeared to be one of the many bedrooms. She looked under the bed and between the sheets, and he wasn’t there. She looked inside the walk in wardrobe and he wasn’t there either. There was another freestanding wardrobe on the other side of the room. She thought it was strange and cautiously walked over to it, but he wasn’t there either. She let out a huff and turned to walk out of the room but then see heard wood scraping across the floor. She turned sharply and saw their target emerge from behind the wardrobe.

Before she could reach for her gun she head the flicking of a knife and the target charged at her. (Y/N) was a master in hand-to-hand combat but she was too caught of guard to gain her composure and fight back. The knife went straight through her side making her groaned.

As he charged at her, his shoulder rammed right into her chest knocking her back wards but she instinctively grabbed hold of him pulling with words to her and she stumbled backwards into the landings barrier. Breaking through the weak wooden beams, the two tumbled down to the floor below them, she landed on an awkward angle, her arm was definitely out of place but she tried to ignore it.

She managed to flip them over and climb on top of him. (Y/N) held him to the floor her hands wrapped around his neck and her knees trapping his arms, the knife long forgotten back upstairs.

“Guys, I got him” she spoke through the radio “by the door”

“Coming to you” Pope said.

She heard footsteps racing towards her and they all appeared, guns at the ready “nice job Wolfgang” Redfly complimented.

She got off him and pulled him up to his knees, Benny got behind him and tied his hands being his back. (Y/N) stepped away for a moment, she placed her hand on her side where the knife had cut into her, she knew it wasn’t going to kill her but it certainly wouldn’t do her any good if she left it bleeding out. She grabbed a bandage from her belt and lifted her shirt slightly, the others were too busy with the interrogation to notice her injury. She hissed in pain slightly as she wrapped the bandage around herself. It was at this point that she began to realise the pain in her arm. As well her wrists from climbing the tree. She grit her teeth and jumped slightly at the gun shot. A body hit the ground.

She looked at saw the Redfly had put a bullet in their targets head, none of them seemed bothered so she guessed they had got everything they needed. She pushed herself off the wall and stumbled a little bit.

“I think we’re good to go” Pope announced with a nod. Everyone else agreed and they soon left the house and made their way back to the large car they had arrived in.

She tried to hide her pain on the drive back but she could feel her blood seeping into the bandage and spreading. Her head fell back against the car and her hand went to her hip “You okay there Wolfgang?” Benny asked, Frankie snapped his head in her direction.

She lifted her head and gave him a soft smile “Yeah, I’m fine” she assured softly. She lifted her hand seeing it was stained red with her blood “just a scratch”

“That’s more then just a fucking scratch (Y/N)” Frankie stated firmly. He carefully lifted her shirt seeing it was almost black with blood, most of it drying already “Santiago, we need to hurry. (Y/N)’s hurt” he spoke down the radio to the driver.

“Right, on it” Santiago agreed.

“I’m fine Frankie” she strained, she jolted back slightly when his finger traced over her wound “I’m pretty sure it missed anything vital. It didn’t go that deep”

“Oh well! Thank god they missed anything vital! It’s not like you’ve lost a ton of blood or anything. Not like you’re going to bleed out here is it” he retorted sharply making her feel more guilty then she already did. He grabbed her hand and held it firmly against her side in hopes to slow the bleeding.

It didn’t take them long to get back to the safe house they had been assigned to. Frankie lifted her into his arms bridal style and brought her into the house, placing her on the sofa and lifting her shirt up further.

Ironhead took his place, taking over with cleaning her wound. All the others could do was watch. “Why didn’t you fucking say anything?” Benny asked angrily.

“By the time I realised we were already fucking leaving” she said back to him. A lie of course.

“But you had enough time to bandage yourself up!” Santiago yelled “you should’ve fucking said something”

She didn’t respond to them, she pressed her lips together and looked away from the to Will who had finished up with bandaging her now clean wound “luckily, you’re right. It did miss anything vital. You’re going to be fine Wolfie” he assured her.

“Thanks Will” she thanked him with a soft smile. She went to push herself up but used her damaged arm and it sent her right back down to her back. She whimpered and hissed at the strange pain that shot through her arm.

“What is it (Y/N)?” Frankie panicked as he came to her side next to Ironhead.

“I landed on my arm when I caught the bastard. Fell from the second floor to the first” she explained through gritted teeth.

They carefully pulled her up to a sitting position and Frankie ran his hand over her shoulder lightly feeling that it was dislocated. “We got to push it back in place” he said.

“Oh fuck” she sighed. The two boys swapped sides. Will put his hand onto her shoulder and Frankie grabbed her hand giving her something to squeeze when Ironhead popped her shoulder back into place.

“You ready?” Will asked her.

“Just do it” she said, her grip tightening on Frankie’s hand.

“Alright. 3...2...-“

“Shit!” She groaned out as he popped her arm back into place.

“There” Will said “should be back to normal now, just try not to move it to much for now”

“Thanks Will” She thanked him again. Always thanking him for something. She looked to Frankie and gave him a soft smile and released his hand. She stood, she looked to Pope and Benny who stood looking away from her, “I’m going to take a shower” she announced quietly as she left the room. She held her side as she walked down the hall into the bedroom she had been staying in the past two nights.

It was dark by the time she had showered, taking her time due to her injured arm and side. She hand re-wrapped the bandage around her side and began putting her clothes on when the door opened and Frankie walked in. He quickly backed out when he saw she was just in nothing but a pair of shorts. Luckily, her back was too him. His face was bright red. She let out a soft giggle and pulled on a loose fitting shirt before walking to her door and opening it.

“Hey Cat” she smiled. He jumped slightly and turned to face her.

“Sorry (Y/N), I should’ve knocked” he apologised.

“It’s okay” she chuckled and waved off his apology. She stepped to the side and allowed him into her room, closing the door behind him.

“How you feeling?” He asked her as he sat on the foot of her bed.

“Alright” she shrugged as she sat beside him “as good as one can feel after they’ve been stabbed” she laughed.

“I’m sorry for the way Santiago and Benny spoke to you earlier. And...I’m sorry for the way I spoke to you. We were just...scared. Scared that it could’ve turned out a lot worse then it did”

“It’s okay Frankie. I know they didn’t mean anything by it. I know you didn’t mean anything by it either. All of you were just looking out for me, and I greatly appreciate that. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything, but I thought I had it sorted..”

He rested his hand on her bare knee. “You shouldn’t have gone up that tree, you know you’re scared of heights”

She nodded “I know” she admitted “I guess...I was just so caught up in everything that...I just didn’t think. And I feel like I fucked everything up. Getting stabbed, dislocating my arm...falling out a fucking tree...”

“You didn’t fuck anything up” he told her “you got him. No mission is perfect, no one leaves without injury. Remember last time? Santiago crushed his ankle, we had to carry him back, but we got through it”

“Right” (Y/N) managed a small smiled “still, I’m sorry...” she rested her hand on top of his. He flipped his hand over and interlaced his fingers with hers “thanks for catching me” she looked at him, their eyes meeting.

“Of course, I’ll always be here to catch you” he whispered to her.

“Frankie...” she whispered back to him. They slowly leaned closer to each other and soon their lips were touching. She squeezed his hand and lifted her free hand to his cheek.

The kiss was sweet but it didn’t last long. They both pulled away from each other but their foreheads still touching. “(Y/N), I think we’ve been doing this silent dance for a while now”

She smiled at him and giggled “I’m glad we both acknowledge how terrible we are at hiding our feelings” He laughed at this. She bit her bottom lip and looked at him through her lashes “could we..maybe...” she ran her hand down his chest.

“Yes” He said all to quickly “but..I don’t want you to think-“

“I won’t think anything Frankie” she assured him with a soft kiss “we both acknowledged our feelings. And we both want this...right?”

“Yes (Y/N)” he nodded. She smiled and kissed him again. He removed his hand from hers and began working himself out of his jeans, sliding them down his legs and kicking them off. She pulled back from him and moved onto the bed. He stood and pulled off his shirt, dropping it to the ground. She bit her lip again as her eyes raked over his body. He was perfect.

She noticed how his chest was dotted with scars, reminded of missions. Most of them she could also remember, one of them was when he decided to be a human shield for her, jumping in front of a bullet that could’ve killed him.

He crawled onto the bed above her and kissed her again. Her hands found their way into his hair and gently tugged on the strands keeping his head against hers. She hummed against his lips and his tongue dragged across her bottom one. She opened her mouth and their tongues danced together. He ultimately won over her and his wet muscle explored her entire mouth, claiming it as his own. He then pulled back from her lips and trailed his kisses down to her neck. But she didn’t want that, she wanted to taste him more.

She pulled at his hair, his head leaving her neck and he smirked at her before pressing his lips to hers again. His rough hands slipped under her shirt and ran up her body, behind careful to miss her injury. He gently grabbed her breasts in his hands and she moaned softly into his mouth. His thumbs ran over her nipples and she whimpered. He was then quick in pulling of the shirt and tossing it to the floor.

She prevented him from leaving her lips, her eyes squeezing shut, she didn’t want him to see her. She wasn’t exactly proud of her body. She couldn’t see any beauty of it. “Baby,” he whispered against her lips “why won’t you let me see you?” He asked.

“It’s nothing nice to look at” she mumbled.

“Please...” he whispered, barely audible. She swallowed and released him from her arms. He pushed himself up to his knees. Now it was his turn to gaze on her body. He ran his fingers lightly over the few scars she had picked up in her career. Given time, he could probably recall how she got each and everyone. “You’re beautiful (Y/N)” he whispered down to her “so beautiful...”

He placed a gentle kiss to her lips and then moved his mouth to her nipples, bringing her left into his mouth while he rolled the other between his thumb and index finger. “Fuck Frankie” she whimpered “god, it feels so good to be touched again”

“When was the last time someone touch you like this (Y/N)?” He asked her, his lips trailing down her body, placing warm kisses over her stomach.

“M-maybe, about five years ago?” She guessed, she couldn’t really think straight. She had dreamed of having Frankie like this with her, and it was so much better then she ever imagined, she didn’t want to think about any of her past lovers, none of them mattered to her, the only person that mattered to her in that moment was the man above her who was loving every inch of her body.

“Well,” he muttered as he brought his lips back to hers, his fingers hooked under her panties and toyed with them for a moment “we can both end our five year streak” he smirked.

She nodded quickly and he slid back down her body, pulling her panties with him. He held her legs open before she could even try to close them from embarrassment. “You’re already wet” he commented with a smirk. She covered her face with her hands and let out a soft groan “baby,” he said softly as he pulled her hands from her face “let me see that pretty face. I want to hear every noise that comes from that pretty mouth” he placed her hands in his hair again and hooked his arms around her thighs.

He brought his mouth down to her wetness and nudged his nose against her a few times before dragging his tongue between her folds. She let out a moan as her head fell backwards “fuck” she whispered. He licked her slowly again and again. Each time she would have the same reaction but her eyes slid shut as she sunk into the feeling.

“You taste so good baby” he complimented “so delicious” she loved the way he looked between her legs. Licking her wetness as if she were his favourite flavour ice cream or something. As if he hadn’t eaten anything in years, five years.

“You feel so good baby...” she hummed as she dragged her fingers through his hair “making me feel so good...”

“Let me make you come” he mumbled.

“Yes...please” she whispered. He pushed his mouth against her and sucked harshly on her clit, his tongue throwing it side to side. She moaned and panted with every flick of his tongue, his hips rolling against his mouth. He removed one of his arms from her thigh, she whimpered when she felt one of his thick fingers press against her hole “F-Frankie” she stuttered, he hummed and slipped his finger inside her “fuck Frankie” she moaned and gripped his hair. He began pumping his finger in and out of her “wh-What fuck what if the g-guys h-hear?” She panted.

“They won’t baby, they’re drinking outside” he assured her, as if on cue a loud laugh erupted from outside. He slipped another finger into her and curled them inside her.

She groaned loudly and rolled her head back biting her bottom lip “oh baby” she moaned “I’m so close..”

“Hmm...come for me, Mi amor” he enticed her, his tongue attacking her clit. Her grip tightened in his hair, holding his mouth closer against her.

“Fuck fuck fuck” she cursed, her walls clenching around his fingers, his hips stuttering against him as she let out a shaky moan.

“So good...” he mumbled “so fucking good baby” her chest was heaving slightly as he pulled his fingers out of her, he lapped his tongue up her a few times. He moved his face from between her legs and trailed his lips up her body, this time only kissing her scars, his lips lingering on each mark. Frankie moved his face back to hers. He slipped his wet fingers into her mouth and she happily sucked on them while holding his wrist. “You’re so beautiful...you look so good after you come...”

“You made me feel so good..” she mumbled against his fingers. He pulled them out of her mouth and replaced them with his lips. Her hands came to rest on his cheeks “I want to feel you inside me baby...”

He nodded and she rolled him onto his back, climbing on top of him. She moved down his body and pulled down his boxers and threw them to the floor. She almost drooled at the sight of his length and how it was already dripping with pre-come. “Oh baby...” she whispered. Her tongue slid out of her mouth and licked over the tip of his length.

“Fuck...(Y/N)” he gasped. She took his length into her hand and began stroking him while sucking on his tip. “Baby, fuck, baby please...I just want to be in you” he begged softly.

She released him and straddled his waist. She positioned his length at her hole and slowly sunk down onto him. They both groaned at the feeling. Her hands were flat on his chest as she began to steadily bounce on him. “You feel so good Frankie...” she whimpered. He gripped her sides, just above her hips as he was weary of her injury.

“Shit, so do you baby” he groaned “so fucking tight”

She rolled her hips against him and he let out a loud groan. Her pace began to pick up and her nails dug slightly into his chest. Her breath came out in heavy pants, she took one of his hands and pulled it up to her throat. He slightly tightened his hand around her and a smile formed on her lips “so dirty” he growled “you like having my hand wrapped around your perfect neck baby?”

“Yes” she whispered, she groaned and gripped at him. He could feel her walls clenching around him, the squeeze made his head spin. “I’m going to come again...”

He flipped her so she was back on her back and he began to pound into her. She grabbed his wrist and choked out a moan of his name. He grunted with every thrust into her. “Make me come again...make me come around you” she panted breathlessly.

“I will baby, I’ll make you scream” she shivered at the deepness of his voice.

“Yes..” she whimpered. He slipped his free hand between their bodies and began to rub harsh circles on her clit “fuck!” She yelped, her back arching up, her chest hitting against his. “Fuck, fuck Frankie!” Her walls were pulsing around him, her face flushed red and her eyes beginning to water. “Fuck-I’m coming!”

“Yes baby, come for me” he grunted to her. Her nails dug into his wrist as she came, her head being thrown backwards. But his relentless pace didn’t stop, if anything he went faster. Tears began to slip from her eyes at the overstimulation and the lack of air in her lungs.

“Come Frankie, please come inside me” she whimpered. He thrust into her a few more times and released inside her, his hot come shooting into her.

“Fuck” he grunted. His hips stilled and he removed his hand from her neck and she drew in a sharp breath. His face fell into her neck.

She hummed, a smile on her face, her fingers gliding through his hair as he breathed heavily into her neck “a great way to end a five year streak” she giggled he just nodded to her “worth the wait...”

“Definitely” he mumble. He lifted his head from her next and placed a heavy kiss to her lips that slowly got softer as his breath came back. “Do you think..” he began, running his hand up and down her side “we could make this a thing?”

“Having sex?” She asked

“Well yes, but like...us...together”

“Together?” She smiled “you want to be with me?”

“Yeah..I really like you (Y/N). I think you’re amazing. You’re so beautiful and strong and you hold us all together. And I know that maybe it’s not a great time to get into a relationship but..I’m willing to try if you are”

She pulled him back down for a kiss and rolled him over so she was back on top. His arms wrapped around her waist and gently held her on top of his chest “I really like you too Frankie” she said as she stroked his cheek “I think we can make this work...I want to make this work...”

“I want to work too...but...we’ve been friends for years, I don’t want this to ruin it. Like, if something happened between us, I don’t want it to ruin our friendship”

She nodded and kissed him again “I can understand what you mean. Hopefully, nothing does happen to us, but if it does, I don’t think I could live without you in my life regardless of if we’re together or not. You’re my best friend Frankie, I think we can do this”

“I hope so. I’ve wanted to be with you for ages baby. I’ve wanted to hold you like this, feel you like this, I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first day we met”

“Please kiss me” he smiled and laced his fingers into her hair to hold her lips against his. Both of their hand now rested on his cheeks. She shifted slightly and felt his length move inside her. She giggled “I forgot you were still inside me baby”

“Me too, I was wondering why I felt so warm” she sat up but he desperate chased her lips by sitting up as well, his hands flattening on her back and kissing her again. “I never want to stop kissing you”

“Can you at least pull out of me?” She laughed. He groaned and shifted under her and pulled his length out of her letting out a harsh breath as he did. “Do you think we should tell the others?” She asked him, she rolled off him and led in her side, he too rolled over on his side, propping his head up on his hand.

“We probably should...” his eyes looked down her body and his hand grabbed lightly at her side, running his thumb over her skin. “But..I don’t know how they’ll take it. There are rules against this right? About dating within the army...”

(Y/N) hummed in agreement knowing he was probably right “How do you want to play this?” She asked quietly.

Frankie looked to the door of the room and thought for a moment. “Which ever way allows us to be together” he began before looking back to her “that’s the way I want to play”

04/02/21

Taglist: @linkpk88 @phoenixhalliwell @lunaserenade @harrys-stan (let me know if you wanted to be added to or removed from the list)

[curechocolattymilk]

So what's your modlist now post-clean up? Asking because I found some really nice mods from your posts about the game and I'm curious what you found now!

Hoo boy its a lot so read more

Main/Tei-specific modlist below (THIS IS A SSE MOD LIST)

Note: I removed the Alik'r desert mod, it was mainly just a non-vanilla spot for me to test out some new mods n avoid the forced story progress. Also mods marked with a colored text will have NSFW images (namely nudity) uploaded by the author on their pages, fair warning for that! But also let me know if I missed color-coding a mod!

Stuff for the general fixes/improvements/main requirements for most of these mods

Address Library for SKSE Plugins

Bodyslide & Outfit Studio (Required for Rugged Preset)

CBBE + Rugged Preset

Cutting Room Floor

D13 Faster Get Up

Dragon Stalking Fix

ELFX (Main file, main fixes, & True Storms + Alt. Start patch)

Engine Fixes

Face Discoloration Fix

Fuz Ro D'oh

Jaxonz MCM Kicker

NetScriptFramework

PapyrusUtil SE

SKSE

SKYUI + Flashing Savegame fix

SMIM

USSEP

also Wyre Bash+SSEEdit! (Not exactly mods, but good programs to keep you from fucking over your mods/skyrim game)

Mods I'm using for now (A-Z, will note if they are replacement mods)

A Matter of Time

Adamant - A Perk Overhaul (Ordinator replacement, lightweight. Not as intensive/dnd focused as the former, but it's not all that bad!)

Adoptable Argonian Hatching Chases-Starlight

Aetherius - A Race Overhaul (Gets rid of racial powers & you'll need SPID, which i need to get later, to have it apply to NPCs as well)

Alternate Conversation Camera

Alternate Start

Arena - An Encounter Zone Overhaul + Harder Easy Spawns file

Argonian Improvements Horns SSE

Around the Fire

Aurbic Alduin

Authentic Eyes

BAT - Bigger Argonian Tails

Beast Race Bodypaints

BeastHHBB (NPC replacer version) + Interesting Beasts & Beards to Find Them (Uses BeastHHBB on the beast race NPCs from 3DNPCs)

Better Claws & Gauntlets SSE

Better Immersive College of Winterhold

Better Jumping SE

Bigger Tails for Werewolves

Blade and Blunt - A Combat Overhaul (Replacement for Wildcat if I remember correctly! Again, very lightweight/works more on improving vanilla than changing it extremely)

Campfire + Unofficial SSE Update file

Character Creation Overhaul - Races - Birthsigns - Classes - Skills - Specializations - Attributes

Civil War Aftermath SE

Convenient Horses

Civil War Neutrality SSE

Dawnguard Music Overhaul (All modules)

Deadly Dragons SE

Death is Highly Overrated 2021 parts 1 & 2

Digitigrade Beast Races for Skyrim SE

Disease - Sanies Lupinus (Adds the lycanthrope disease that was cut from the game, good for if your PC is a werebeast b4 the main quest starts & also what I use since my werewolf overhaul replacement doesn't have an early lycan option! Doesn't break the companions quest in any way from my experience)

Diverse Skyrim SSE

Diverse Werewolves Collection + Player werewolf replacer

Dominions More Argonians

Draw - A Dueling Mod

Enigma Series -AIO- + Compatibility patch for Talkative Dragons

FAR - Forgotten Argonian Roots

Forgotten Magic Redone (Apocalypse replace # 1 - adds in some more spells)

Guard Dialogue Overhaul SE

Hardcore Saving Overhaul (removes a lot of saving options & only gives you limited ones [i.e. save via rest, drinking a specific potion, or save & exiting via a coin] - just added this one to bump up the difficulty for myself)

Hearthfire Multiple Adoptions and Custom Home Support SE

Honed Metal SSE Updated + Revoiced

Horns Are Forever SE

Hun Lovaas - Replacer Version

Hunterborn

Hypertrichosis -Extra Gore Edition-

Immersive Armors

Immersive Citizens

Immersive College of Winterhold SE

Immersive Good Boy

Immersive Movement

Immersive Patrols SE

Immersive Weapons

Immersive World Encounters SE

iNeed - Food Water and Sleep - Continued

Inigo + Marriage Commentary Patch for Kaidan 2

Interesting NPCS + Patches (CRF for me)+ Cyb's 3DNPC replacer (Note, if you want to use the BHHBB replacer for this mod as well, you have to let it overwrite 2 specific files [0000294C2.nif & 000294c2.dds], I haven't tested if it will mess w/ the non beast race NPCs just yet buut I doubt it will)

Kaidan 2 + Pandorable's Kaidan SE (Soon to be 3 if my assumptions for this November is correct)

Khash the Argonian + Patches

Leviathan Animations (Sprint - 2H High Stance - 2H Normal + Power Attacks - Female Idle walk & run - Male Idle Walk & run)

Lucien - Immersive Fully Voiced Male Follower

Manbeast - A Werewolf Overhaul (Growl replacement, another lightweight mod but very solid)

Mannequin Stay Put

Melodies of Civilization 1.01 + Replacer

Miraak - Dragonborn Follower SE + Dialogue Plus (Probably gonna drop this mod come the S:EC release, I just use it as a way to not become Mora's champion)

Monster race crash fix (for Playable Dragons)

More Tavern Idles compatibility version

My Little Hatchling - Ram-Ku

Mysticism - A Magic Overhaul (Apocalypse replacer #2 - lightweight)

Nether's Follower Framework

PC head Tracking and Voice Type SE (Using PC Head Tracking Voice Pack - BeastFolk [Male Argonian specifically] for the BYO/Custom since it adds more lines for beast folk.)

Play as a Dragon SE - Experimental Version

Practical Female Armors SE

Pride of Valhalla CBBE

Pronouns + They/Them patcher

RaceMenu

Racial Body Morphs SE

Real Bosses + Heavy file (bcus I love pain apparently)

Redguard Noble Armor SSE

Redguard Children Skintone Fix

Run For Your Lives

Sarcastic Player Dialogue SE

Serana Dialogue Edit - SSE

Shout - A Complete Immersive and Dynamic Overhaul of all Shouts

Shut Up Night Mother

Signature Equipment

Simple Forsworn - SE Port

Simple Werewolf Favourite Howls Menu

Simply No Fast Travel

Skald's Mail - A Courier Alternative

SkyHUD

SkyTEST + SkyTEST - Bellyaches HD collection SE + SkyTEST - Better sheep SE + SkyTEST - Mihail's chick replacer and better idle sound SE + SkyTEST - Mihail's gray farm goose SE

Smart No More Stupid Dog Comments

Song of the Green (Auri Follower)

Still - Skyrim Inspired Music -Replacer Version

Tail Armors - BAT compatibility version

Talkative Dragons

The Library of Paarthurnax

The Paarthurnax Dilemma

TK Dodge SE

TK Hitstop SE

Touring Carriages + Immersive Citizens Patch

True Storms + Wet & Cold patch

Ultimate Combat SE

Vampiric Serana

Wearable Lanters + MCM Fix

Werewolf Feral Beast Run + Faster Werewolves file

Werewolf Loot and Activate

Wet and Cold SE

& THERE'S THE WHOLE LIST WHEW

[fairymadnessyeah]

A Definitely Real Dad

Link to AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24016309

Summary: Gyro seeks advice from an expert when he is faced with his greatest foe yet: Parenting an adorable real boy.

Or Alternatively: Mad scientist feeling emotions for tiny adorable robot needs help from tired and expert parent that is also a sailor.

Notes: This needs to happen.

Also Ducktales Disney right now: "You get a child, you get a child, you get a child, EVERYBODY GETS A CHILD!!!!"

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

"Why do you think Doctor Gearloose invited us to his lab?" Huey asked his companions Louis, Dewey, Webby, Della and Donald as they rode the elevator to the underwater laboratory below McDuck Enterprises'.

The elevator dinged and open its doors, revealing Doctor Gearloose looking at a piece of paper while Manny, Lil Bulb and Fenton working on a turbine.

"Oh, the ducks are here!" Gyro exclaims, folding the paper he had on his hands and pocketing it in his pants. He gently leads the family to where his partners were working as he explains why he needed them here. "I need your assistance testing my new mega super plane turbine powered by gold!"

Almost all the ducks present gasp in amazement and run towards the invention. The only one that looks at it in suspicion is the mature Donald Duck. He eventually shrugs it off, his uncle's employee wouldn't purposely put his kids in danger. But then he feels a feathered hand on his shoulder and a dark aura behind him. He turned around slowly, the feathers at the back of his neck standing up.

Doctor Gyro Gearloose was looking down at him, his face neutral and the light shining against his glasses hid his eyes, making him look extremely intimidating. "You will come with me Mr Duck," The scientist tells him slowly and threateningly.

As the unluckiest duck on the world was being shoved to a side room by the mad scientist, his family, ignorant to what was happening to him, kept playing with the machine. Although it didn't take long for the kids and Della to lose interest. As the turbine got boring, they noticed that the duck sailor was missing. Fenton dismissed their worries though, telling them that Doctor Gearloose probably needed him for something and continued to show them his inventions.

"And these are my spy-bugs," Fenton presents, showing them a bunch of different flying insects robots. Pressing a code on a mini-computer, the firefly one activates, lifting into the air. "With these little guys, we would be able to have 24-hour surveillance. They all work in a hive-mind structure and are controlled by this remote device that can be connected with any sort of memory RAM. NOW CONTEMPLATE!" Fenton uses the remote device to move the firefly out of the room and then turn on the giant computer of the lab and it starts showing what the robot is recording.

"HOW COME YOU WON'T DO IT!?"  A shout echoes nearby the robot and Fenton, recognising Dr Gearloose voice, makes the machine follow the sound. They see an office where Gyro is holding Donald by his uniform and shaking him. The scientist then sighs and lets him go.  "Well, If you won't cooperate, then you leave me no choice!"  Gyro declares as he takes off his glasses dramatically and stands taller over the duck, looking ready to destroy him.

"PLEEEEEEESSSSSEEEEEEEE!"

The peppers let go of the breath they were holding. Gyro had not done anything to Donald, instead, he fell to his knees and begged the other bird as he held his glasses in his hands clasped like a prayer.

"Alright, I'll help you," Donald sighs, his voice resembling that of a normal being. Dewey said he sounded like an actor from one of those comic book movies that everybody got crazy for. "But I can't guarantee results," Gyro got up and, out of nowhere, got top-notch audio recording gear and sat on a stool with a note pad and a pen.

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

"First," Donald started. "You need to listen. Listen to what they say, how they say it and what they don't say. That is usually where the problems appear,"

"You also need to be trustworthy. You want them to come to you with their problems. But until that happens, you need to show them that you can and will help them solve their problem,"

"But if they don't tell me what's wrong how am I supposed to know that something is even wrong?" Gyro asks.

"That is the next tip, notice the little details. For example, whenever Huey drinks chocolate-milk with three spoons of cocoa powder instead of two, means that his junior woodchuck meeting didn't go so well; Whenever Dewey does a dance that consists of two spins, one flip and landing on bent knees and jazz hands means he is proud of something; or whenever Louis gets a wrinkle next to his right eye, means he is lying,"

"But the two most important things you need to remember and never forget is that you are a parent and that your life is not only yours anymore,"

"What do you mean?" Gyro asks again. "I am his parent, what else would I be?"

"It means that you aren't his friend, you aren't his buddy that will never get mad and will do anything for you. You are his parent and sometimes, you have to be the bad guy of the story," Donald tells him.

"And the life-thing?"

"It's his no. You eat what they want to eat, you eat what they want to eat, you watch what they want to watch. Your life revolves around them, they matter more than you or your feelings now,"

Gyro nods and it looks like he is about to say something but the screen turns black.

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"Hey," Dewey complains as the image disappears.

"I'm sorry little ducks, but that seemed like a private conversation and I refuse to eavesdrop on it anymore," Fenton tells them as the robotic-firefly returns and he leaves it with the rest. "Come, I have more inventions you can play with it," He gently guides them away from the monitor.

The ducks follow him with Lil Bulb behind them, except for one. The grown woman was starring at the screen. Every time she believed that she understood how the last years without her had been for her twin, she found out that there was something she had missed. And Donald's examples, about the tiniest details of the boys, she didn't know any of them, yet Donald seemed to know them by heart.

"Mom?" Dewey called as he turned back for her, after noticing she didn't follow them.

"Comin' honey" She snapped out of her inner monologue and followed her kids.

They spent a whole afternoon testing and helping Fenton, at some point, even Boyd joined them. The kids spent the evening together, playing, laughing and catching up. Boyd was now living full-time at the lab with Dr Gearloose, Manny and Lil Bulb.

The drakes had not taken the news very well, believing that once Boyd left, things would go back to the way things were before him. But the real boy made sure to pass his half of the inheritance to the two responsible adults, leaving Doofus without the power to be richer than his parents. They were all making plans for Boyd to come and sleepover at McDuck when the duck and the rooster that were missing came into the room. Dewey was the first one to ask for the cybernetic boy to come over.

"Well, I have no problem with it," Donald said in his normal voice.

"May I go, Dr Gearloose?" Boyd asks, looking up to the scientist.

"Maybe some other time, we still have to check if there is any residual damage from Beaks viruses on you," The chicken explains and pats the real boy on the head.

"Alright, thank you Dr Gearloose,"

Not long after the duck family is leaving, as well as Dr Fenton. Manny also retreated to his quarters soon enough. Gyro was working on Boyd wiring while the real boy was telling him about his day.

"And Mrs mom was very sad when I got to leave but she told me I can return any moment,"

"Would you like that?" Gyro asks remembering what Donald had told him.  ("Make him feel listened to. Do things he likes, and if they want to do anything without you, let him be. You are not the only person in his life.")

"Yes, that would be splendid! Once my programme is clear, could we visit?" Boyd asks.

"Of Course we can," Gyro tells him as he closes the lid on the robot's head. "But now it's time to recharge so that you have all your energy for tomorrow. You have that Woodchuck-thingy you like, right?"

"Yes, my Junior Woodchuck meeting, at 9:30 sharp, remember to bring Ice-pops wood sticks," He says as if reading a remainder on a calendar while the scientist and his creation when to Boyd's room.

The room used to be a storage closet for failed projects, but they put up a sliding door to give Boyd more privacy. The real boy had a closet, a small library with a study table, a laptop, some video-games and a bed. The bed was more like a nest, with a Japanese mattress and a lot of pillows and blankets piled up to make a circular form. Boyd would usually sleep in the middle with the blankets and pillows cocooning him in warmth. Next to his bed-nest, there is a tall bulbless lamp. Doctor Gyro used to have it in his room since it was Lil Bulb's resting place, but the little rascal moved it once Boyd's room started being furnished.

"Alright, I'll drive you tomorrow and we will pick up what you need on the way," Gyro tells him as he connects wires to his back panel to charge him. "If you need anything I will be on the room next door," The chicken said.  ("Always remind him that you are there for him. Kids tend to forget that,")

"Goodnight, Dr Gearloose!"

"Goodnight, Boyd!" He sees Lil Bulb climbing the lamp and posting himself on the top, before the light it emitted turned off before he leaves the room.

As soon as he is outside, the renewed scientist with a high intellect punched the air in excitement as the word "Success!" went off in his mind. When he turned to his side, heading towards his room, he saw Manny in front of his own door. The two scientists looked at each other for a while, no one moving, until the rooster fixes his clothes and his glasses.

"Not a tap from you, or your headless behind is fired," He tells the horse as he steps into his room.

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

Another date, another morning, another day where Doctor Gyro Gearloose wakes up to another mistake made by naive and foolish Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera that he had to deal with. This time in the form of a weird duck dressed in so much black, that the scientist is willing to bet its a hobo-emo that his stupid ex-intern picked up last night. The guy looks extremely beat up and not alone. There is also that stupid pilot that hangs around McDuck and a girl duckling.

Gyro sighs frustrated and rubs his temples. He did not have time for this. He had to take Boyd to his scouts meeting and even buy something on the way there.

"Explanation, Now," Gyro demand as he goes closer and checks on the individual better.

Launchpad, Fenton and the kid, who he learns her name is Gosalyn and the daughter of said hobo-emo, tell him that Gizmoduck and Darkwing Duck had a sort of agreement. They each take turns patrolling the city, both day and night, but last night, Darkwing came upon something too big for him and Gosalyn, who Gyro was starting to realize had more brain cells than the three adults combined, called Gizmoduck for back up. The two self-proclaimed superheroes ended the job, but the one not protected by a metallic super-suit, unsurprisingly, got the worst part of the stick and ended up in here to recover.

Just as they finished explaining their night full of shenanigans, Boyd came out into the main room of the lab, wearing his Junior Woodchuck uniform and a backpack.

"Oh, hi! I am B.O.Y.D! A definitely real boy!" The android says once he notices the other unknown ducks in the room.

"I want them out of my lab by the moment I'm back, Crackshell. Understood?" Gyro threatens the other scientist, that nods in response, and then turns to Boyd. "Come on Boyd, we don't want to be late to your meeting," The boy takes his hand and the two walk to the elevator.

"It was nice to meet you!" Boyd tells the others and waves as the elevator doors close.

The two birds head to the central park of Duckberg, stopping on a convenience store on their way. Using his moped is easier and faster than any car, not needing to wait for traffic. And even if Boyd can fly, he had already told him to only use his robotic enhancements when needed. Not to mention that it also helps with one of the tips he was given yesterday.  ("You have to prioritize him. Once everything is done with him, you can follow with your day,")

The reach the park fairly quickly, but when he gives Boyd the things they bought for this meeting, he notices that the backpack moves. It takes him a second to realize that Bulb never came out of the boy's room.

"Come on out Lil Bulb," He tells the backpack, and sure enough, said invention comes out of the little boy's knapsack.

"He wanted to accompany me to my Junior Woodchuck meeting," Boyd tells him. "Can he come?" ("You have to set rules, boundaries. There are things that they can't do or can't touch. And you have to tell him so, because even if it sounds obvious to you, it might not to them.")

"He can't Boyd, I need him at the lab," He explains to the real boy.

"Understood. Goodbye, Doctor Gearloose!"

"I'll see you at lunch," The scientist gets back on his moped and straps his helmet on. He notices that Lil Bulb is giving his back to him with his arm crossed, as if offended over what happened. "Oh please, don't be difficult you too,"

As he makes his way back to the underwater lab, he can't help the feeling that those three lunatic and that girl are gonna be there. Not surprisingly, when the elevator's doors ding open, the idiot, the stupid and the girl are marvelling at the facility and its contents as hobo-emo was slowly getting off the table he was laid in and stretching his column back into place.

"Gosalyn, don't touch that! You don't know what it does!" He reprimands the girl.

Gyro sighs defeated and pours himself a cup of coffee. As he sips his revival elixir, his mind wanders at the purple and black buffoon before him. The guy was in a dire need of an upgrade. He didn't scream battle-suit like Gizmo, but maybe a few gadgets and a more protective and lasting outfit would benefit him. If the guy was going to go around and try to be a nameless and unrecognised vigilante, the least he could do was have more than just a costume and a poor ensemble of sidekicks.

"Gosalyn, No, Get down from there!" Or maybe what he needed was something else.

Gyro looked at the girl duckling, who was balancing over an old cloning tube of his, and then back at the nightly superhero, who had red lines over his eyes, enormous black bags under his eyes, a stiff neck and almost ready to drop dead any second now. Analysing the facts he had, he made a decision.

"Gosalyn, Get down from there, We need to go! Now!" The dark avenger of the night kept scolding the younger duck, that still lead him nowhere.

"Here," Gyro, out of nowhere, presented a card to the shorter man. "A parenting expert, it seems like you need it,"

Drake looks between the card and the scary mad scientist twice before taking the card. Gyro left him alone once he took it to keep working on his inventions, leaving Drake to his own devices with the card.

Donald Duck xxx-xxxx-xxxx McDuck Manor's Pool

[queensdivas]

Hidden Blade Chapter 1

Y’all I’ve been to excited for this because I loved this movie with a passion. (Nothing beats Bohrap btw but damn 6 Underground was awesome not just because of Ben. Though he really made the movie even better.) If you’d like to be tagged in future chapters please hmu! 

Please enjoy and I’ll see you guys in the next chapter or one of my updates. I’m on a train ride to London from Edinburgh so it’s about five hours. I plan on getting a crap done this ride so you might be seeing multiple updates! 

Enjoy! 

Next Chapter

Masterlist

Governments should always be in fear of who they govern over..those who are being governed should never be living in fear of who they are ruled over. Yet we live in a world where those in power abuse it badly so they can live the lavish life of the vices, greed, lust, and even the gluttony of having everything at their feet. Those who suffer under those sadly are living in a society in fear, hate, and uncertainty of whether they’ll be okay by the end of the day. 

That’s where I come in. 

You have to start somewhere small in order to cause a chain reaction. That lovely snowball effect. I start small by cutting off the suppliers resources, such as their plants, dirty shacks, and even the old warehouses. Once the resources are extinguished, I then move up to those in high up positions in order to really cause the rolling to begin. 

Yet I was given an opportunity to do a little more good with a lot less strings attached. Who doesn’t love a little more freedom. But what I was offered was complete freedom and who wouldn’t want complete freedom. 

You ever played the Assassins Creed games? I like to consider myself a walking version of that except no magical abilities, no special creed, or even a long line of ancestors that are meant to look similar and only the first three or four games nailed the similarities. Not the point. For those of you who’ve never heard of those games, imagine someone who's able to scale an entire flat building, stand on top of a metal cross, and even have some really cool equipment to help get the job done. We’ll be getting to those a little later. 

My name is eight. The Assassin. 

What’s the difference between a Hitman and Assassin you ask? One gets paid to do any form of killing for money, the other one does it for either political or religious reasons in this world of ours. But you both kill people? True. Never declared myself a saint anyhow in this world so shush! Story time! 

I pulled up to one of the abandoned planes to turn off my 4runner and climb out. Love the whole abandoned airfield look for the hideout. Really gives that fast and furious sort of vibe. How many movies are in the series anyhow? 

A ram truck came pulling up next to my 4runner as I began grabbing all my junk to hopefully store somewhere that was a little more secure than my new apartment here in California. Keeping a bunch of ropes, weapons, and my vast amount of foreign fruit would get me busted and I certainly love my Nectarine! 

“Glad to know I wasn’t the only one brought into this little adventure.” He appeared in front of me as I swung my duffle bag right on my shoulder. I closed the door as I turned to see him all dressed in american/military gear. An American soldier? Real power move.  

“Glad to see we got ourselves a soldier. Eight.” I held my hand out to him as he shook it. 

“Seven. At Least according to that dude.” He pointed as one came out of a tiny airplane and smiled. 

“Weird to see you not looking like a GAP model.” He showed up at my apartment in Israel looking like he walked out of Sunday church for some god knows reason. At first I thought he was apart of Jehovah's witness but as you can see we’re about to kill some mother fuckers.

“Ah really funny. Come meet the rest of us oh so lovely fellow campers.” We walked into the base as a women with blonde hair was reading a map while another woman was reading what looked like some sort of medical book. 

“Ladies this is seven and eight our newest batch of newbies. The one reading the map is two and in the cap is five. Not sure where the other two are but I imagine they’ll be showing up sometime soon.” I gave them a small wave as I put my bag on the ground next to the large table. 

“Look who finally showed up. Four this is seven and eight our eyes from the sky.” He tossed his hoodie down on the table as he gave us a small smile. The last member came into the room which is what I’m assuming was three. 

“There’s this trick that we all do to get through our day. We take a box and into that box, we place all the horrors of the world, all the wrongs humans do to one another. And then we close the box and pretend it doesn’t exist. Only some of us spend too much time inside the box. We’ve lost our ability to pretend. We know there’s too much unfinished business in this messed up world. Our job as ghosts is to do the dirty work the living can’t or won’t. And we do it from here. This is our haunted house. It’s a lot like the Batcave, except it’s nothing like the Batcave. Seven, eight. You’re dead. You’re gonna be restricted to cities that you’ve never visited before. People that you’ve never met. All of course your fellow ghost, none of whom you’ll know by name, only number, for safety, and so no one gets too close.” I mean. All we need is a butler, some random child to say “geez guys” and I think we would be set. 

“So basically what we’re doing is a sense of a justice league but with no moral codes?” Asking as One nodded. 

“Yes. Except Wonder Women uses guns and Batman is okay with killing people.” I..okay that works. 

“Each one of us has our own little gifts we bring to the table and now that we’ve required you two, we now officially have a set team.” 

“We’re like the A-Team but on steroids except Mr. T is this guy.” The Spainard commented as everyone just stared him down. 

“In your vast dreams.” One commented.

“Will we be required to wear matching rings?” Asking which made I believe his name is four chuckle a little. 

“Funny. Alright c’mon I wanna show you two something.” We all followed him into another room where a wall covered with nine pieces of paper with a single roman numerals on each one. 

“This is our target hitboard. These nine fuckers have been placing too much shit inside the box. So now they answer to us. Target number one: this prick. The Dictator of Turgistan Roach Alimov.” I walked over to his photo and began studying the guy. Radiates small dick energy already from all the work I’ve done over there, kind of like Kim Jong-Un except he doesn’t flaunt his money. 

“God I’m really craving french fries. Can we finish this over at Luckies?” I believe he’s three asked the group as I began walking past the other eight pieces of paper as I lightly saw their faces. Efrain Gracian. He runs the largest drug cartel in Mexico and has been killing a shit ton of innocent people in their villages. Oh my god they put Kim Jon-Un on their target list hell yeah. 

“So we plan on just killing all these pricks because they keep shitting on their countries and the rest of the world?” Leaning against the wall facing them as one nodded. 

“I say we finish this thing at Luckies. I’m really feeling a shitty beer to set the mood of introductions.” One began walking out of the fort as everyone else followed except for me as I looked at the wall again. Figured there would be less on the board in all honesty. 

~~~

I slipped into the booth with myself facing the middle of the window and the inside of the restaurant, seven sitting to my left while four was on my right. To think that I’m now officially dead and I cut all my ties off when I left home so no funeral. Bet they thought I was already dead anyhow so this works nicely. 

“So what do you bring to the table?” I was asked as I tossed my car keys on the table. 

“The soundless steps of a killer is what I bring to the table. You guys make a shit ton of noise if I think I know who you are. I’m assuming you guys we’re the one destroying Florence?” His eyes widened a little which makes my assumption correct cause these fuckers really had fun in Florence. 

“Florence was an absolute disaster.” He stopped talking as the waiter came to the group. 

“A round of Heineken for everyone. Then whatever else they want.” I ordered as everyone smiled a little as they began ordering their preferred drinks. 

“Figured you’d be a good match since you graciously just bought us all drinks. So if you’re a soundless killer, who have you eliminated?” You can thank the new democracy in South Sudan, and ending an entire sex trafficking operation in Chad. Both we’re super difficult to achieve but damn I did an awesome job. Both were run by major cunts obviously and took months of planning to even get close to them. 

“Who do you think got rid of the cunt from South Sudan?” Seven looked over at me then leaned across the table. 

“You killed Zafir Bahri?” Seven asked as I nodded. 

“Yup. Yet it was one of my most difficult assassinations since I had to make a break for it in the countryside. Kind of stuck out like a sore thumb till I made it to a reservation station.” The waitress came with the first round of beers. Four took a big gulp of his beer then sighed. 

“Alright if we’re going to show off what our past selves have done. I got the chance to steal a 5.0 carat ruby necklace that had two smaller diamonds that were about 4.2 carats that was about 100,000 dollars worth.” Yet he’s sitting here in an American restaurant drinking some shitty beer and eating high heart attack food? Sounds about right. 

“And here you are in America drinking Heineken and about to eat a very greasy double cheeseburger. Cheers” I grabbed my bottle as he did for us to clink our bottles together. Four seems super chill actually and now I’m kind of curious how he pulled off that heist. 

“So. What’s the absolute best thing about being dead? I mean you don’t have to pay taxes anymore.” Seven asked the entire group as they all had an inner conversation with themselves about the best part of being deceased. 

“No more dmv lines, no more shopping for Christmas.” Christmas has always been stressful for my old life and I didn’t even celebrate it!

“Or backstabbing girlfriends.” Raising my eyebrow at four. Damn someone broke his little heart. I’d play the worlds saddest song on the tiniest violin but not sure if he would get the reference. 

“They should make an “Out of office” reply for dead people. Sorry I’m away from the planet right now. I’m fucking dead.” That’s a bit much but if it makes her feel better about being dead then let her do her own thing. 

“No more tax, no more criminal records, no more getting arrested by the pigs just for being naked and or just the usual stuff. You know, being naked, getting drunk. Casual stuff.” How is being naked casual? Since when is being naked considered casual in any standard? 

“Umm. How is being naked any form of being casual?” He took a drink of his beer as he licked his lips.

“Ya know. Just walking around naked on your balcony or even on your front porch. It’s a casual thing.” I..I still don’t see that as a casual thing. Around the house yes because oversized t-shirt and underwear is always a comfy.

“Is that like when Jersey people say it’s a jersey thing?” Before he could answer One chuckled a little. 

“Guys. You’re all wrong. The best thing about being dead is the freedom. I mean, we’re all gonna die. May as well do it while we’re alive, right? When you’re young, you lock yourself into all of these bad decisions. Marriages, mortgages, and all that kind of stuff. But you die. It’s all escaped. Poof! Gone! From that point forward, all that matters is what you choose. The point is that we should bring seven and eight behind the curtain. You wanna hand me those over there?” Three handed him a bunch of plastic cups as leaned a little more forward on the table. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see him quickly glancing away back at the demonstration. Guess he’s kind of cute, not exactly sure how getting involved with people on the team is viewed. Rather avoid the whole situation. 

“Alright here. A little deminsation, no technology. So this is how to stage a coup in three not so easy steps. Alright you got a country, Turgistan right? These are the people, nice people, going about, doing their thing. Then you got the four generals, cuatro cunts, very bad guys. But there’s one worse guy. That’s the piece of shit dictator, right there at the top.” Sounds about right. That was basically the entire set up in South Sudan. 

“Don’t forget his brother.” Brother? Oh yeah, the guy has a brother that basically has been isolated or off the face of the earth at this point. Gotta love it when Governments hide those wanting a better world, or hiding sick pedophiles when they fake suicides so they don’t go to prison or end up being executed. 

“Democracy loving brother.” So we’ve got a shitty dictator and a loving democratic. Of freakin’ course!

“He’s the key. So we’re gonna hit the four generals. They’re gonna lead us to the brother.” 

“You kill top Generals, you fuck the dictators day.” Three shoved a few French fries in his mouth. 

“Can confirm.” I took a big gulp of my beer as I leaned back against the booth.

“Second thing we're gonna do is free the brother. And the last thing we’re gonna do is we’re gonna say goodbye to piece of shit dictator and hello to democracy loving brother.”

“It all goes down in four months, El Dia de los Muertos, The Day of the Dead.” Kinky.

“Oh that’s it?” Seven and I looked at each other for the both of us to nod in approval of the plan. 

“Um well that’s pretty simple ya know. The cups.” I took a drink of my beer as I began mentally seeing the whole plan in my head. 

“Wonderful presentation.” We’re gonna die aren’t we?

“So we’re all gonna die?” At this point I say that’s a hard yes. 

“Not me.” What confidence she has because there’s something about her that just kind of scares the shit out of me. Must be something federal in her former life.

“She’s not, we all are. Painfully.” Peachy. Real fucking peachy. But hey I’m already technically dead so this works out perfectly in the end. Just when my body shows up at someones house or is found floating on the coast, going to be quite a headache trying to figure out since I’m already dead. 

Maybe I should be more optimistic with this new life. Could be worse. I could be stuck in a work camp in Siberia. Maybe we just see where this goes and if it doesn’t end well I just disappear into the unknown. Sounds like an absolute plan! 

Taglist:

@bonafiderocketqueen @filmslutt @imjustboredso @intoanothermind @4lendow-norris @wickedholland 

@takemetoneverland420 @art-flirt @intoanothermind @raylan-c

[stranger-writer]

A Bowers’ Bet (Part 3)

Sorry for the long wait on this one! I hope you enjoy!

Summary: When Henry and Patrick make a twisted pact on who can steal Derry High’s most inexperienced student’s virginity first, they think it will be their most exciting game yet. But what happens when one starts to develop feelings, while the other is determined as ever to win, no matter what or who is standing in their way? A Bowers Bet (Part 2)

On Saturday morning, Juliet’s parents left for an overnight for one of her father’s business trips. Her mom typically went along with him, but only if it consisted of a night or two and if Jennifer’s mother was going along as well. Juliet met her close friend Jennifer through their dads since they both worked for the same company. Their families were persistent in upholding their respectable, high status in Derry. Jennifer’s mom, Theresa, was a lawyer, a very dignified woman that Juliet quite admired. However in Jennifer’s case, having two successful parents who were hardly ever home meant coping with her loneliness by excessively and maybe even purposely, using her parent’s credit card when they were gone. 

Juliet knew a shopping trip was in order, Jennifer always planned one whenever both parents were out of town. Even though the two girls have been best friends for years, their personalities couldn’t be any more polar opposite. Jennifer’s track record of guys is impressive while Juliet’s is clean, Jennifer cheerleads while Juliet is in literary club, Jennifer is the life of the party while Juliet has only been to two in her lifetime. But that’s kind of what makes their friendship work. They each have a tendency of balancing each other out and sometimes bringing out different side to them that no one would expect.

Juliet has the devil on her right shoulder and the angel on her left as she sat in the car with Jennifer, deciding if she should tell her about Henry or just keep her mouth shut. Deep down she knew what her reaction would be, but maybe if she explained everything from the poem and how wonderful last night went, she’d understand. Although at the moment, Jennifer was much too preoccupied with going on and on about how Gretta was sabotaging her by making the cheer team wear their hair entirely up instead of having the option to do half up, half down.

“The whole school is going to see my huge fucking dumbo ears because she needs the attention taken off of her horrendous overbite,” Jennifer hisses before changing the radio station. Juliet quietly chuckles at her as the only sound between them is the low hum of Mick Jagger and the harsh wind from the windows being slightly open.

 “You’re quiet,” Jennifer states in her typical blunt manner, eyes on the road, being able to read Juliet without even having to look at her. 

“No I’m not,” Juliet defends, staring out the window, knowing if she as much glances towards her direction she’ll crack.

“Juliet we have known each other since we were eight. At this point, I know you almost better than I know myself. Tell.” 

Juliet slowly turns her head towards her while biting down on her lip, trying to hide her immense blushing and smirk just from the thought of Henry before letting out a soft giggle. Jennifer begins to gasp, knowing the look on Juliet’s face means only one thing. “Stop it right now! Who’s the guy?!” Jennifer rushes, her eyes widening with pure anticipation.

“Well...,” Juliet hums smiling, causing Jennifer to slightly swerve the car a little too far to the right.  

“Juliet,” Jennifer warns in her typical voice that means “stop beating around the bush and say it.” 

“W-well it’s just like, Ugh-I don’t know, i-it’s nothing serious yet, but-”

“For fucks sake Juliet, I hate when you stutter like that kid Bill Denbrough, just spit it out,” Jennifer demands, her patience running thin.

“I went on a date last night with Henry Bowers,” Juliet responds, causing Jennifer to slam on her brakes in the middle of the neighborhood, causing Juliet’s body to be yanked to the point where she almost got rammed into the glove compartment. “Jesus Jennifer,” Juliet scolds, rubbing the back of her neck from the sudden jolt she experienced from the abrupt stop of the car.

“Henry Bowers?” Jennifer pronounces the name slowly, her tone in disbelief mixed with a whole lot of judgement and well, repugnance. “Have you lost your mind? You were too scared to ask the waiter for ketchup last week, but you went on a date with Henry fucking Bowers? Please tell me you only went because he had you held up at gunpoint.”

Juliet knew how unbelievable it sounded coming out of her mouth, but how could she convince her that it was one of the best times out she’s ever had?

“I get it. I know his reputation, but he’s-he’s different, I swear, he-”

“God Juliet, don’t be so naive,” Jennifer interrupts, rolling her eyes. “Henry is known as Derry’s scum for a reason. He’s dirty. He’s gross. And even worse,” Jennifer pauses, her nose scrunching in disgust, “He’s poor.”

Juliet’s fingers begin to rub her temples in distress, immediately regretting her decision of even mentioning Henry to her in the first place. Jennifer finally takes her foot off the brakes and continues driving, but her rant was far from over. “I mean come on Jules, you have no idea what you’re getting yourself into. That whole gang is fucked up. They only flirt with girls like you for one reason.” Jennifer states, having a hard time deciphering how she should choose her words without being a little too brutally honest.

Juliet snaps her eyes away from the passing houses from the window and swung her head to face her. “And what’s that?” Juliet persists defensively, her eyes piercing at Jennifer.

Jennifer huffs, her stare intent while looking out onto the road contemplating what to say next. “Because you’re an easy target,” Jennifer murmurs, her voice low, but more calm. “You have never been seen at school with a boyfriend or really any guy for that matter and they can smell your inexperience from a mile away. He’s using you. I’m sorry, but guys like Henry don’t fall for girls like you.”

Juliet could feel some tears begging to break loose, but she pushes the feeling aside. “You mean girls who are at the bottom of the school’s hierarchy?”

“You know that’s not what I mean. You’re beautiful and smart and kind and deserve somebody better than Bowers. I’m just telling you his intentions can’t be good. Him and the other ones hit on every girl that has a pulse,” Jennifer responds, sticking an unlit cigarette in her mouth before she continues on and says, “They see someone shy and untouched like you giving them a chance and go fucking ecstatic.”

“That’s not true,” Juliet mutters, shaking her head in defense while staring down at her hands nestled on top of her lap. “Henry told me he would never hurt me and that I was safe with him.” There was a part of Juliet that could feel herself sounding like one of those girls she would roll her eyes at in a cheesy romance movie. Was it honestly too good to be true?

“I know you try to live your life trying not to be noticed, but guess what? You are. People see you. Henry sees you. He sees someone fragile, someone who he thinks he can easily control and manipulate.” Jennifer responds before taking a puff of her cigarette.

“You are always telling me how I should loosen up and try to put myself out there more, and now you’re giving me shit for finally going out with someone?” Juliet chides, her voice slightly raising. Juliet could tell she was getting irritated because she started talking not only loudly, but with her hands.

“Yeah Juliet, but that wasn’t secret code for me telling you to go out with the school’s biggest psychopath and not even tell me about it beforehand. What the fuck were you thinking?” Jennifer scolds, her tone harsh, making Juliet recoil in her seat. An awkward and tension-filled silence immerses in the car, causing the two close friends to suddenly feel distant.

Jennifer finally breaks the stillness and says, “Look. We’re going to the mall. Let’s get you a cute outfit for Gretta’s party tonight and you can come with me and you’ll see that you’re more than capable of meeting someone who isn’t a total delinquent.”

Juliet wanted nothing more than to decline her offer that sounded like a demand than an option, but it’s bad enough she had to keep Henry from her mother, she didn’t need Jennifer added onto the list and on her case about it as well. She thought maybe if she just went for a bit and pretended for Jennifer’s sake, she’d make everyone happy.

“Fine,” Juliet huffs, slouching back in her seat while crossing her arms.

Juliet is used to having to deal with what life throws at her alone. Between having a mother and best friend who shares similar traits of being dismissive and controlling, she felt like she was always more worried about pleasing other people instead of worrying about what actually made her happy. Henry gave Juliet a certain kind of attention that she wasn’t used to receiving from anyone. He made her feel understood, special, pretty enough, smart enough, but most importantly, Henry made Juliet feel like being herself was good enough. Juliet wasn’t going to let anybody get in the way of that. Not this time.

………………………………………………………………………………………

The last party Juliet attempted going to was last December. Similar to now, Jennifer begged and convinced her how much of a good time it’d be until it resulted in Tyler Brian barfing all over Juliet’s lap mid-conversation. She can only hope that history won’t repeat itself.

The black dress Jennifer picked for her was slightly sexy, but not too much to where it strayed far from Juliet’s character. The sweetheart neckline was cute with a very tiny black bow that was attached right in the middle. It was also a quarter sleeve and babydoll style. Jennifer pleaded that she wear heels, however, Juliet absolutely refused because she didn’t want to meet anyone new in the first place and her leather black booties would go just fine with it. To no surprise, Jennifer handled not only her wardrobe, but makeup too. She blushed and hollowed out her cheekbones, glossed her lips, and applied some cat eyeliner to enhance her eye shape, which surprisingly Juliet liked, even if she did still have to wear her glasses over them. 

Juliet’s knee was uncontrollably bouncing up and down the whole ride there. She could already hear the music blaring from outside before they even drove up to the house. Her heart almost jumped in her throat though when she saw the infamous Trans Am parked in the sea of cars that were in Gretta’s driveway, causing her leg to stop shaking. Oh no. As soon as Jennifer parked along the sidewalk, she turned the ignition off and began clapping her hands fast in an excited way. “We’re here! You ready?”

No.

“Yeah!” Juliet exclaims in her best, fake eager voice she could muster.

When they walked inside the large, red brick house, Juliet immediately sees a staircase decorated with people from school either talking, smoking, or making out. Her eyes shift to the left where it was the Keene’s living room, but was currently being occupied as a dance floor flooded with sweat, alcohol, and hormones.

Juliet didn’t want to admit to herself that she couldn’t help but feel somewhat paranoid Henry was here. Would he be happy to see her? Confused? Angry? “Let’s go grab a drink,” Jennifer yells in Juliet’s ear because of the blaring music, interrupting her thoughts. Juliet nods as they walk down the hall to where more couples were lingering on the sides of the wall, kissing.  

When Jennifer walked into the kitchen, she was immediately greeted by Gretta and a few other girls as well as a group of boys who hollered at her as soon as she stepped in. Juliet lingered by her side.

It wasn’t hard for Juliet to not feel Gretta’s typical judgemental stare as she eyed her up and down. Moments like this was the reason why Juliet would never want to be able to read minds. “Interesting seeing you here Juliet,” Gretta sneers in a tone that could only be described as condescending and then says, “Nice dress. For once it doesn’t look like something your grandmother picked out.” This causes a fit of giggles from her posse that are attached at her hip.

“Nice frizzy ponytail that you wear every single day,” Jennifer quickly intervenes before grabbing Juliet’s hand to lead her near the sink where all the glass bottles of drinks were laid out. “Your ability to be quick on the spot never fails to impress me,” Juliet smirks while nudging her shoulder with hers, earning a wink from Jennifer.

“Here,” Jennifer offers, handing Juliet a red solo cup. “It’ll ease the nerves,” she grins with a mischievous glint in her eyes before taking a sip. Juliet gave her a small smile, deciding it would be best to at least try it. Her eyebrows raise immediately at the strong concoction Jennifer mixed together, deciding it would be best to not finish this unless she wants to be found blacked out on the front lawn.

“Shots time!” Peter Macintosh shouted, his cheeks flushed from what was most likely the high amount of alcohol he has already consumed. He was a heavy set guy, who for some reason always looked sweaty and wore his jersey pretty much everyday. He was only useful on the team for his size since he could tackle just about anyone. This was Juliet’s que to relocate elsewhere for a few minutes.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom real quick,” Juliet says while lightly grasping Jennifer’s arm.

“Use the one upstairs. The bathroom that’s down the hall is always where Tommy Johnson and Pam Kirkland are fucking each other’s brains out,”Jennifer informs, physically shuddering at the thought of when she had accidentally interupted one of their sessions last time.

“Good to know,” Juliet chuckles, shaking the vivid thought away before nudging her way through the intoxicated crowd that was beginning to form. Once she reached the staircase and begins walking up them, she couldn’t help the strange feeling like someone had their eyes on her.

…………………………………………………………………………………

“Any fucking time now Criss,” Henry huffs, waiting for Vic to hand him a cigarette while he was pulling one out of his pack. He was in his usual, typical annoyed stance with his arms crossed while leaning against the house, impatient as ever. Him, Patrick, Vic, and Belch were huddled outside on the back patio smoking, each with a beer bottle in their hands. 

Casey Fletcher walked by them and Belch couldn’t help but turn around to get another last glance at her ass before turning back around to face his friends. “Is it just me or is there a lot of hot chicks here tonight?” Belch asks, swigging his beer back.

Vic nodded, seeming to still be mesmerized at Casey’s backside as Henry only shrugged. Belch and Patrick give each other a knowing look, seeing how that reaction wasn’t a normal one for Henry. This would be the part where he agreed and told them what he’d like to do with a girl who had an ass like that. But tonight he was off and they could all tell.

“What’s the matter Bowers, don’t see a bitch here we can share like last week?” Patrick taunts. Henry rolls his eyes, remembering the dumb blonde girl whose name he didn’t even know because well, he didn’t even ask. She wanted to take turns which resulted in Patrick having his first go and once he was finished he tossed her right over to Henry.

“All I see are a bunch of easy sluts who try too hard,” Henry utters under his breath, checking briefly over the girls who are standing on the other side of the pool who were unshamefully giving, as the gang would call it, their best “fuck me” eyes. 

Vic snickers before he mumbles, “Somebody’s whipped,” causing a breathy chuckle from Belch and Patrick.

“The fuck you say?” Henry asked, but it was in fact a warning.

“He said your whipped man,” Patrick responds for Vic before he continues and says, “Pretty little Juliet most have swept ole Henry here off his feet. Awh, how sweet is that?” This causes an amused reaction out of the boys. Patrick knew what he was doing. He wanted to get a rise out of Henry. He wanted to edge him on. Rile him up. Make him do something that could work out in his favor. 

“I ain’t fucking whipped alright. Has anyone forgotten that she’s just a fuckin’ bet? All I got from last night is that she’s just another needy bitch with mommy issues who’ll jump at the chance to spread her legs if it means adding some excitement to her boring life,” Henry responds, the words tasting disgusting coming out of his own mouth. He didn’t mean what he said, but he refuses to have his friends, especially Patrick, thinking she has even in the slightest, meddled her way into his stone cold heart.

Patrick however, knows his bluff. He hid in the woods and eavesdropped last night when Juliet and him were in the treehouse. He knew that she in fact wasn’t exactly easy considering she freaked the minute Bowers touched the waistband of her panties, but secondly, he knew Henry opened up a bit about his dad to her. Patrick couldn’t tell if that was a ploy to get her to feel bad for him or if he was being genuine. However his lack of eagerness to get any action tonight is evident that Henry might in fact be developing the worst F word in his book. Feelings. 

“Sounding a little cocky there Bowers,” Patrick responds, crossing his arms over his chest.

Henry laughs before saying, “Says you. At this point you should honestly just call the fucking bet off. She was all over me last night and I think she's made it clear that she wouldn't touch you with a ten foot pole. Face it Hockstetter, I’ll have her underneath me by next week.”

If Patrick wasn’t certain before, he is definitely certain now. He could see what Henry was trying to do. Persuading him to call the bet off so he can walk away hands clean with the girl who he thought was just another mediocre virgin to fuck in Derry. No. As far as Patrick is concerned, Juliet belongs to him. Henry can try to convince Patrick all he wants that he has no chance, but he remembers that look Juliet gave him in the movie theater. He sees how she’s into Henry regardless of his well known, fucked up reputation. Henry and him were one in the same. Patrick knows the kind of girl Juliet is. She’s attracted to people who are broken, people who need to be fixed. That’s the only reason why she instantly fell for Henry first, because she thinks there’s hope for him. Patrick has no problem playing his part until she sees the truth.

“If you think she’ll easily fuck you first then why call the bet off early? Isn’t that the whole point why we made it in the first place?” Patrick retorted, his cheshire grin growing from ear to ear. Henry could hear the teasingness in his tone and realized that Patrick could sense what he was trying to get at, so Henry attempted to play it off the best way he could. “I’m just sayin.’ You got a lot of catching up to do Hockstetter. Thought I’d be nice and give you a little warning to save you from the embarrassment later,” Henry smirks while patting him on the back.

“I appreciate that,” Patrick responds, reciprocating the action by giving Henry’s shoulder a friendly pat, but instead he doesn’t release his shoulder and pulls him in closer, his mouth inches away from his ear. “But the only one who’s going to be embarrassed here is you when I’m balls deep inside your little girlfriend’s tight virgin pussy, wrecking her fucking insides.”

Henry has to physically bite his tongue on the right side of his mouth to prevent from attacking him on the spot. At the end of the day, Juliet is technically a bet that Henry conjured up in the first place. Henry couldn’t show any possession over her, no matter how much he likes her, no matter how crazy it drove him. He releases an amused huff, wishing he could actually drown him in the pool.

“But for now,” Patricks states, his tone a lot more uplifting as he wipes the shoulders of Henry’s jacket, “Let’s play with what we’ve got right here.” He grins, referring to one of the girls that was staring at them earlier with his pointer and middle finger.

Henry knew if he turned down the offer, he’d look like the biggest bitch of all time. What guy says no to pretty girls practically yearning to get any sort of attention from them? But the thing was that these girls weren’t Juliet. They didn’t look like her, act like her, or even laugh like her, but all Henry could do is play along and keep the twisted mentality that whatever Juliet doesn’t know won’t hurt her.

The brunette Patrick beckoned over, whose name was apparently Tracy, seemed to be the most interested in Henry, however, she was quite the talkative one. She wasn’t getting Henry’s not so subtle signs of disinterest in conversation as he responded to everything with a monotone one worded answer and the habitual way he continuously kept flicking his pocket knife in and out. Patrick and Vic actually got so bored they ended up ditching Henry and thought walking over to the other side of the lawn to watch a drunk Peter barbecue Doritos was a much better source of entertainment.

Patrick and Vic started to make their way back to Henry, Tracy, and Belch, passing the patio’s white french doors again until Vic’s clunky, black combat boots come to a stop. 

“Oh shit!” Vic busts out laughing, which causes Patrick to turn around and see what the hell was so funny. Patrick stalks slowly towards him and mimiks his stance. “Look who showed up,” Vic smirks right as Patrick sees Juliet on the other side of the clear glass door. He licks his lips, taking in her appearance. Her all black, short dress is enough for him to already feel a slight hard on in his jeans. Her hair was down and loose like usual, with her petite glasses still adorning her face, but the fact that she was wearing clothes that actually fit her and the more heavily applied makeup made the two boys have no choice but to gawk at her for a minute. 

“Damn. She looks hot,” Vic observed, crouching behind a bush so the two could have a closer look without their ogling being too obvious. “But I wonder what she’s doing here. I’ve never seen her at parties and I know Henry didn’t invite her.”

“I don’t know why the hell she’s here either Vic, but it must be my lucky fucking day,” Patrick mutters, staring at her intently. He could tell that regardless of how good she looked, she was uncomfortable. The way she kept glancing at the ground and the nervous way she was toying with her necklace was a clear sign that she didn’t wake up this morning and say “there’s nothing more I’d love to do today than go to a wild high school party.” Patrick felt sort of jealous, hating how he wasn’t behind the cause of her anxiety at the moment. Soon though.

“I gotta go tell Henry, he’s going to absolutely lose his shit,” Vic chuckles all giddy, getting ready to stand up before Patrick grabs him by the collar, yanking him harshly back down.

“Don’t say a word to him that she’s here or I’ll fucking cut your tongue out and make you wipe my ass with it. I want to see the look on that fucker’s face when he sees her here himself,” Patrick sternly warns, not wanting to tell Vic exactly what he has planned.

“Alright, Jesus I won’t. Let go of me dick bag,” Vic shrugs, nudging Patrick’s grip off him. Vic brushes the knees of his camo pants and starts to walk back towards Henry again. He couldn’t feel Patrick’s presence near him and his senses were proven right when he turns around and sees Patrick stepping into the house, closing the door behind him. Vic quietly snickered to himself, knowing it was only a matter of time before shit was about to hit the fan.  

When Patrick enters the house, he spots Juliet down the hall. He watches and follows behind her closely before she reaches the steps and carefully walks up the stairs while holding the banister. As soon as she gets to the top, that’s Patrick’s que to begin heading up there as well.

……………………………………………………………………………

Juliet started analyzing the Keene’s bathroom decorations, realizing exactly what she was starting to do. Quit stalling, she thought to herself before shaking her head and giving herself one last glance over in the mirror before opening the door.

As she was walking she heard what sounded like a muffled scream coming from one of the rooms on the right hand side. She stopped and slowly tiptoed her way closer to the door until Juliet heard a girl’s moaning and then it all clicked. Oh.

“Sounds like fun,” a voice says, making Juliet frantically spin around to see none other than Patrick Hockstetter.

“Patrick, hey! I didn’t see you there,” Juliet smiles nervously, having no clue how someone with his height can have this special talent to pop up out of nowhere.

“Listening in?” he questions with a smirk, the sound of the headboard banging into the wall now apparent.

“No! Oh, god no,” Juliet laughs, running a hand through her hair. “I was using the bathroom and came out and heard a girl screaming and got nervous for a sec, but uhm- yeah I, uhh, thinks she alright,” she chuckles, making Patrick simper from her innocent response.

“So what brings you here?” Patricks asks.

“I just told y-”

“No, I mean like the party. I’ve never seen you at any before,” Patricks states, leaning on the side of his shoulder and resting his head against the wall.

“Jennifer wanted me to go with her so I thought I’d just come for a little while,” Juliet explained, not wanting to get into detail as to why Jennifer insisted on her being here tonight.

“Henry didn’t invite you?” Patrick asks, his eyebrows knitted together in curiosity. Juliet shakes her head, feeling stupid that the boy she just went on a date with last night was at the same party, but she was trying to almost avoid him for reasons she didnt know why. 

“Huh. Weird,” Patrick quietly mutters under his breath. sliding his shoulder alongside the wall to inch closer to her. His response suddenly made Juliet feel self conscious. How come he didn’t ask her to go to Gretta’s party? Was he embarrassed of her? Maybe he knew she didn’t go to parties and thought it’d be stupid to even ask?

“You’re not having fun are you?” Patrick observes, a sly smile forming on his lips.

“I mean I’ve only been here for about fifteen minutes, 7 of those minutes I’ve spent in the bathroom so…” Jennifer bites down on her lip, suppressing a shy smirk which made it extremely difficult for Patrick to restrain himself from pushing her into one of the empty bedrooms. 

“Does Henry even know you’re here?” Patrick asks, and it’s like Juliet can feel he already knows the answer.

“No I haven’t seen him yet. Like I said, I really haven’t been here very long,” Juliet explains, twirling her necklace between her fingers. Patrick notices the nervous habit and begins to feel exhilarated.

“Well he’s right downstairs. Let’s go surprise him, he’ll be thrilled to see that you’re here, especially since I heard you two uhh...really kicked it off last night,” Patrick winks, grabbing her wrist and leading her down the rest of the hallway. Juliet felt confused in the way Patrick said that, but she couldn’t even think clearly with Patrick practically dragging her so fast that she almost tripped going down the staircase. Once they reached the bottom he motions for her to take the lead as he stands directly behind her. 

“Do you know where he is?”Juliet turns her head to ask him.

“Last I saw he was talking outside to some girl named Tracy,” Patrick responds casually, pretending to search for him in the living room, knowing exactly what he was doing. Juliet couldn’t help but feel the tiny pit in her stomach grow in size. She didn’t know if she was being completely played or acting totally crazy over a boy she has gone out with only one time. 

“C’mon. Maybe he’s still out back,” Patrick says in her ear before walking in front of her as she follows close behind. He opens one of the french doors and she takes in how there’s quite a lot of people out here as well. Between the ones hanging around the perimeter of the pool, or the guys to the far right playing some sort of drunk version of football, Juliet briefly glances around the area. That is, until her eyes suddenly land on Henry’s back. His arm is wrapped around some girl’s waist. She’s whispering something in his ear, causing Henry to smirk as he pulls her in closer, his mouth inches from hers as he says something Juliet can’t hear, but it causes her to start kissing down Henry’s neck.

Patrick notices Juliet has spotted them because of her obvious stare and her face that portrayed nothing but disappointment. “Well that’s not Tracy,” Patrick clears his throat as if what he’s witnessing is awkward, even though he’s the one who perfectly managed to make Juliet catch Henry in the act. 

Suddenly, Belch and Vic walk up to them, the look on their faces completely different. Vic’s was more friendly while Belch’s was full of concern.

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east and Juliet is the sun,” Vic mocks in his best shakespearean voice he can summon while giving a bow.

Juliet swallows her utter dismay and smiles at Vic. “Impressive,” she smirks, causing Vic to grin back at her. Belch interjects when he says, “Hey Juliet, Henry would be so happy to see you here. Let me go get him, I know he’s around here somewhere.” This was his poor attempt to try and cover Henry’s ass, but he knew in that moment it was most likely too late.

“No.” Juliet demands, her voice so stern that it almost surprises herself. The three boys gaze at her in a bit of a shock. “Let’s go say hi to him together,” Juliet offers, putting on a brave face. As much as Juliet just wanted to go home and cry in her room, she realized she was over everyone thinking she was like some china doll that’s could break easily. Her heart may feel broken but it was her mission in that moment to make sure no one saw the cracks.

“O-Okay,” Belch stutters, watching in bewilderment as Juliet takes heading towards Henry. The unknown girl is still draped all over him, but Juliet wasn’t annoyed at the poor girl having a good time. 

Once the three of them approach him, Juliet gently taps him on the shoulder, causing Henry to turn around. His initial face was of pure annoyance until he realizes who’s standing behind him. He quickly yanked his hand away from the blonde’s side and his mouth opened slightly, but no words were coming out.

“Juliet,” Henry observes, taking in her appearance while also in complete shock that’s she even standing in front of him in the first place. A million thoughts and questions were racing through his head, making for once, Henry Bowers actually speechless.

“Hi,” Juliet responds, her voice soft, deliberately acting like she was unfazed. There was a few seconds of awkward silence before the unknown girl helps breaks the ever present tension when she says to Juliet, “I love your dress! I almost bought the same one at the mall, but they didn’t have my size.”

“Thank you! My friend actually picked it out. You see, she wanted me to come to this party to meet someone because I went out with this guy last night who she thinks is a total waste of time. Told me I could do so much better,” Juliet looks so her eyes are now instead staring right into Henry’s. “Turns out she was right.” 

This results in a fit of breathy chuckles coming from Patrick and Vic while Juliet maintains her cool. Henry’s piercing blue eyes were like daggers into hers, but she never once glances down at the ground. Juliet gives him one last glare before turning swiftly around and walks straight back to the house. The most horrible and pathetic part of this whole situation was that there was a part of Juliet that wanted Henry to chase after her. Unfortunately, he never did. Juliet didn’t know why her heart was beating out of her chest or why the back of her neck felt slightly sticky or why she was breathing so hard, but she knew that she could not stay at this party for another second.

Patrick jogs after her, not wanting to lose her in the crazy crowds of people inside. When he steps into the kitchen, he quickly catches her wrist.

“Where ya goin’?” Patrick asks.

“I’m going home,” Juliet states, tucking some hair behind her ear.

“Didn’t you come with Jennifer?”

“Yeah, but I actually live close by so I’m just going to walk,” Juliet responds while her eyes casually search the area for any signs of her best friend. Things were bad enough with Henry, the last thing she needed right now was for Jennifer to see her talking to Patrick Hockstetter of all people. 

“I’ll walk you home,” Patrick demands.

“You don’t need to do that Patrick, I’ll be okay,” Juliet tries to convince him.

“Sorry princess but I’m not taking no for an answer. Your face is too pretty to be on a missing person's poster downtown,” Patrick places his hand at the small of her back, using that as an advantage to guide her through the small crowd of people so they can reach the front door to leave. Juliet didn’t particularly want Patrick’s company, especially now, but he did have a decent point. 

“Okay, just let me find Jen to let her know I’m going,” Juliet explains before Patrick gives her a nod. “I’ll be waiting outside.”

Juliet scouted through the living room first and luckily spots Jennifer on the couch, sitting on Ryan Novack’s lap. “I’m leaving,” Juliet states, making Jennifer get off the jock’s lap, analyzing her intently.

“What do you mean you’re leaving, we just got here.”

“I just don’t really feel that great and I think it’d be best if I went home,” Juliet lied, hoping Jennifer would be easy going. Hoping.

“First about Bowers and now this. Catching your little lying habit from your hillbilly boyfriend?” Jennifer hisses, crossing her tan arms over her chest. Juliet stares at her offensively before Jennifer continues on and says, “Although I guess I shouldn’t talk since I forgot to mention how the Bowers Gang are notorious for getting laid at parties.”

Suddenly, the light bulb goes off in Juliet’s head as she connects all the pieces together. “You brought me here on purpose,” Juliet utters, almost as if she’s saying it aloud to herself.

“Don’t give me that look. I mean how else would you be able to see what a pig he is? You should be thanking me.” 

 “I should be thanking you?” Juliet chuckles in disbelief. “Okay then, thank you for dressing me up and bringing me here to only make me look like a total ass. Congratulations, you proved me wrong. Henry is a total jerk and you’re a complete bitch.” 

Juliet has never spoken to Jennifer like this before in her life, but Juliet’s blood has been boiling since her encounter with Henry and Jennifer wasn’t helping simmer down the heat. Juliet shook her head at Jennifer and darted out of the living room as fast as she could, leaving Jennifer quite dumbstruck. For some strange reason, Juliet didn’t feel bad for saying exactly what was on her mind, even if it hurts her. The only thing that made her heart feel heavy is that the two people she cared about deceived and lied to her in just one single night. And unfortunately, the lanky boy waiting for her outside wasn’t any different.

……………………………………………………………………………

The night air was a little chillier than usual, making Juliet cross her arms over her chest to warm up her hands. Patrick notices the small sign and takes off his leather jacket and drapes it over her shoulders.

“Oh. Thanks,” she smiles at him before slipping her arms through the sleeves. A small smirk plays at her lips when she says, “It’s a perfect fit.” It was comical how huge the jacket was on Juliet. The sleeves were so long that you couldn’t even see her hands.

“It looks good on you. Ya know I’m really digging this whole look you got goin’ on. It’s sexy,” Patrick smirks, tugging slightly at the bottom of her dress.

“It’s definitely different, but I think you pull it off a lot better than me,” Juliet teases, referring to his similar all black ensemble of boots, jeans, and a thin long sleeved shirt. 

“Are you saying I’m sexy Jules?” Patrick smirks while throwing his arm over her shoulder. As shocked as she was, Juliet started to feel a sense of comfortability with him. Nobody besides her family or Jennifer called her Jules, and for some reason hearing Patrick use the nickname gave Juliet a sense of warmth that she didn’t think Patrick was capable of. Juliet thought to herself that Patrick could have easily let her leave the party alone, but he wanted to make sure she was safe whereas Henry let her walk away, not caring whatsoever about where she went or how she felt.

“Patrick?”

“Princess?”

“I want to apologize,” Juliet states, keeping her eyes straight forward as they walked while Patrick looks at her slightly confused. “I just feel like I’ve been rude to you lately and that I was quick to judge you before even actually getting the chance to know you.”

Patrick was beaming with pure ecstasy. He had her right where he wanted her. 

“Don’t sweat it sweetheart,” Patrick responds, petting her head. “If it makes you feel any better, I seriously underestimated you. I didn’t think you had it in ya to tell Bowers off like that.”

“Neither did I,” Juliet chuckles before she says, “But you were right and tried to warn me and I didn’t listen. I’m sorry.” 

Juliet suddenly feels tiny droplets of water speckle across her nose before she realizes that it’s starting to lightly drizzle. In a literal instant, the light drizzle turns into harsh, downpour rain.

“Shit,” Juliet hisses before Patrick grabs her hand and they both begin to run down the sidewalk. They sprint for a few blocks, each step like walking into a giant puddle until Juliet steers Patrick towards the white house that’s hers at the end of the cul-de-sac. They race across Juliet’s soggy lawn and up her creaky wooden porch steps when they finally make it to the front stain glass door.

They both stood there, catching their breaths while taking in each others sopping wet appearances. “This is the second dress in a row Hockstetter. I’m starting to think you’re some kind of bad luck charm to my nice clothes,” Juliet jokes, referring to when he spilled soda on her just last night and now this. Patrick leers at her, his eyes studying her face to her wet hair to the droplets of water on her exposed skin to the way her makeup is slightly smudged. She looked messy and it made Patrick’s appetite for her all the more unbearable. Juliet feels his thumb graze over her knuckles and that’s when she glances down and realizes her hand is still interlocked with his. 

“I’m sorry,” Juliet awkwardly apologizes, slipping her grasp from his and instead placing her hand on the door knob before she rambles on and says, “Please, come in so you can get dried off and wait until this rain passes. It’s the least I can do.”

“If you insist,” Patricks smirks, gesturing his hand out for Juliet to walk first. She obliges and he follows, making sure to lock the door behind him. 

@kola95

[andmaybegayer]

Hello, I'm a fool who knows nothing about computers with a couple questions. For reference, I'm on Windows, for no reason other than I prefer it. I want to make a video game, a very very large video game. I'd be making it out of the love of my heart and for people to play, and not for any other reason. It would be a third-person 3D game. Now, I've heard that RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 was built in Assembly, and is thusly able to run just about anywhere, though I don't know the truth of that. 1/2

Hey yeah tl;dr you should Not try and make your game in assembly, especially as a beginner. Your best bet is to learn a modern game engine and start with that. Especially nowadays if you can get your head around Unity or Godot or any other similar game engine making a 3D game is, while not ~easy~, much easier than it ever was in the past when you would have had to roll your own engine from scratch.

The guy who made Heat Signature and Gunpoint recently started a tutorial series for “Make a game in Unity with no experience.” which may interest you. From there you’ll want to learn how to design 3D objects in something like Blender or Wings3D so that you can build your world and texture it.

I’d recommend starting small, Big Game Projects are ambitious but you’ll want to put out a few small things first, something like a game where you walk around, say, A Single Building with a garden and talk to NPC’s in the building, maybe have a combat system, etc. to really get the hang of your tools before attempting a project where it won’t seem like anything works for potentially weeks of work.

I have tons of little dead-end projects that were dedicated to figuring out simple things like “How do I create randomly generated terrain” or “How do I make Gun.” There’s plenty of YouTube tutorials basically dedicated to stuff like this, Sebastian Lagues’ Coding Adventures are basically all videos dedicated to exploring how to create common interesting things in Unity that you might want to use in a game like random terrain, portals, weird gravity etc.

You’ll have to pick up A Language but it’s honestly not that hard. One thing you will want to do if you’re doing game design is brush up on your high school trigonometry because a truly ridiculous amount of the maths you will do in the process of making a game is just finding relationships between angles and coordinates in space.

Rolling your own engine is a good learning experience if you’re interested in how to write optimized code, designing a scripting language, and writing really wacky dynamic code, but if you just want to Make A Game for your friends to play then it’s a waste of time.

The long explanation for this is:

Assembly is a very powerful but extremely specific tool that’s only useful in the modern day in a very specific handful of situations.

The lowest level of programming that you can do (more or less there are some lower levels that don’t count) is Machine Code programming, which is where you write the binary instructions to a program out by hand. This can be done and is indeed how we used to do it in Ye Olden Times but even in Ye Olden Times programmers quickly got bored of this and invented Assembly.

Assembly is a very simple mapping from raw binary code to a somewhat human readable system. Talking about what that binary code looks like without a firm grounding in processor basics is hard but needless to say that binary generally represents something like Operation, Data1, Data2, Data3, for example you might have a set of codes that correspond to Add A, B, C where that adds A to B and stores it in the address at location C. That instruction in binary will be like 0110 0001 0010 1001, but that’s a pain in the dick to write so you write a simple program that can read in you writing “ADD A B C” and convert it to the right binary code.

In contrast to more high level languages, the mapping between assembly and machine code is pretty direct, usually 1 to 1 or almost 1 to 1. You can’t really do an “if X is true then do A” in assembly, instead you have to do “Compare X to True, check if the True flag was set, if so then jump to the location in memory containing A.”

This has some advantages, like, if you’re very familiar with the processor you’re using and where you’re storing everything in memory, you can skip certain steps you know you don’t need and dramatically speed up your software. Old games, especially for games consoles like the GameBoy and PlayStation, would be partially or wholly written in Assembly so that they ran fast on very limited hardware (the original PlayStation had a stunning 2MB of system RAM) . There’s lots of programming libraries for doing extremely fast maths written partially in Assembly for this very reason.

The DISADVANTAGE is that you have to be really good to write faster code than a quality optimizing compiler. Even fairly barebones languages like C have a lot of creature comforts that make programming nicer, faster and more readable, such as having language constructs to create loops, systems to help you create structures in memory, etc., and once you put that code through a modern compiler it will add in its own very smart optimizations that can make even fairly amateurish code run extremely quickly.

in Assembly you have to do all of that by hand, and doing so requires tracking a lot of things manually. It’s not something for the faint of heart and building a modern game entirely in assembly is something you wouldn’t really do if you could avoid it.

That’s not to say it can’t be done. Since ultimately all programs boil down to machine code, there’s nothing stopping you from making a full 3D game in assembly. Rollercoaster Tycoon is almost all assembly, as you said. Indeed plenty of old 3D games are written partially or mostly in assembly for performance reasons, and if you use a game engine like Unity, some chunks of the engine will be written in Assembly for speed. Especially when it comes to things like realtime physics or very fast AI and the like.

On modern computers for even fairly complex games, the performance of well-optimized compiled code in a normal language is plenty for most games. The benefit of using Unity is that you can leave the heavily optimized engine stuff to a team of skilled programmers who’ve been writing game engines for years and you can deal with the unique things that you need to make your game happen. If you were to start writing a game in Assembly you’d first have to design your own engine, probably write your own scripting system, etc. which would require a robust basis in programming language design, parser design, and a firm view of what you want to create. Tooling around in Unity experimenting with things as you go is much easier.

Learning Assembly and getting good at it is a valuable skill if you want to write crazy optimal code and get a robust understanding of how the internals of a computer work (although not actually but I’m not going to talk more about microcode beyond linking this video lecture) and fi all you want to do is make Video Game your best bet is to learn Unity because it’s what everyone is using.

Pitches for other engines I like but that might not be for everyone:

Godot: Basically a fully open source baby unity that is a little easier to use but a lot less powerful and with a much smaller community, I really like it for experimenting

LÖVE2D: Not a 3D engine, but a really minimal 2D game engine that uses Lua for scripting. It is extremely bare bones but gives you a lot of room to program all behaviours yourself if you feel like making extremely fast demos, I mostly use it to write graphical simulations.

LÖVR: A 3D game engine heavily inspired by LÖVE with a focus on VR game design, shares the same bare-bones, lua-scripted design that makes it very suitable for quickly throwing demos and experiments together but less suitable for large projects unless you pull in some libraries.

[moddersinc]

The Intel i5 CPU is considered Intel’s mainstream processor and alongside the rest of the 10th generation CPUs, Intel is launching the Core i5-10600k. The i5-10600k CPU is set to replace the 9th generation i5-9600k CPU. The i5-10600k gets a bump in the base clock as compared to the i5-9600k up from 3.7 GHz on the 9600k to 4.1 GHz on the i5-10600k. The turbo boost clock gets a frequency increase as well up from 4.6 GHz to 4.8 GHz on a single core and 4.5 GHz as an all-core boost. Unlike the i9 7 i7 counterparts, official non-XMP memory support stays at DDR4-2666. The i5 also misses out on Intel’s new Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB)that allows the CPU to boost above specified frequency if the conditions are just right. TVB is only available on the new 10th gen i9 CPUs. A new socket is needed for the 10th gen CPUs and Intel is also launching their Z490 chipset along with motherboard manufacturers launching a ton of new motherboards.  However, there are some differences under the hood that should enable the i5-10600k to stretch its legs a bit and maintain good performance at a reasonable price level.

  [sc name=”sponsor” sponsor=”Intel” product_link=”https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/processors/core/i5-processors/i5-10600k.html” product_name=”Intel Core i5-10600k” ]

One of the biggest additions to the i5 line up is the addition of HyperThreading. Now all Intel CPUs use Hyperthreading except for the Celeron processors. This means the i9 series is 10 cores/20 threads, the i7 series is 8 cores/16 threads, the i5 series is 6 cores/12 threads, and the i3 series is 4 cores/8 threads. The Pentium CPUs are 2 cores/4 threads.

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  The new 10th Gen CPUs have a thinner die and a thicker IHS. This should facilitate better heat transfer between the CPU and the cooler.

  While not a brand new architecture, the 10th gen Intel CPUs, at least on paper, should bring more performance to the table. Keep in mind, that Intel is still using a Skylake derived architecture. There’s nothing wrong with that as long as they can continue to increase performance and keep moving the ball forward.

  [section_title title=The Intel Core i5-10600k CPU]

The Intel Core i5-10600k CPU

Intel sent us the new 10th Gen Core CPUs in a special media kit. The retail packaging will look very different.

  The box opens up revealing a translucent blue plastic sheet with Intel’s logo right in the center. Under the blue plastic insert is the CPUs in this case, we were sent the i9-10900k and the i5-10600k CPUs. This review will focus on the i5-10600k CPU.

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  The 10th gen i5 is contained inside a small box. Inside, the CPU is encased in a standard CPU blister pack.

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Physically, there’s virtually no difference in the IHS between the 10th gen and older gen CPUs. However, a new socket is needed for the 10th gen CPUs which means you’ll also need a new motherboard. Along with the new CPU launches, Intel is launching the Z490 chipset, and motherboard manufactures have a slew of motherboards across almost all price ranges.

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  [section_title title=Test System and Benchmarks]

Test System and Benchmarks

Intel Core i5-10600k Test Bench

Component Product Name Provided By Processor Intel Core i5-10600k Intel Motherboard Aorus Z490 Master Gigabyte Memory G.Skill Trident Royal F4-3600C16D-16GTRG 16-16-16-36 (XMP) G.Skill Drive Samsung 240 EVO 256GB SSD, Crucial MX500 1 TB SATA III SSD Samsung/Crucial Video Cards  Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Nvidia Monitor BenQ EL2870U 28 inch 4K HDR Gaming Monitor 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz Case DimasTech EasyXL DimasTech Power Supply Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W Cooler Master Operating System Windows 10 1909 x64 Pro with latest patches and updates

  AMD Ryzen 9 3900x/Ryzen 7 3700x Test Bench

Component Product Name Provided By Processor AMD Ryzen 9 3600x/ AMD Ryzen 7 3600 AMD Motherboard Aorus X570 Master Gigabyte Memory G.Skill Trident Royal F4-3600C16D-16GTRG 16-16-16-36 (XMP) G.Skill Drive Samsung 240 EVO 256GB SSD, Crucial MX500 1 TB SATA III SSD Samsung/Crucial Video Cards Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Nvidia Monitor BenQ EL2870U 28 inch 4K HDR Gaming Monitor 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz Case DimasTech EasyXL DimasTech Power Supply Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W Cooler Master Operating System Windows 10 1909 x64 Pro with latest patches and updates

  Intel Core i7-8700k/Core i9-9900k Test Bench

Component Product Name Provided By Processor Intel Core i7-8700K (Retail) Intel Motherboard Aorus Z390 Pro Gigabyte Memory G.Skill Trident Royal F4-3600C16D-16GTRG 16-16-16-36 (XMP) G.Skill Drive Samsung 240 EVO 256GB SSD, Crucial MX500 1 TB SATA III SSD Samsung/Crucial Video Cards  Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Super Founders Edition Nvidia Monitor BenQ EL2870U 28 inch 4K HDR Gaming Monitor 3840×2160 @ 60 Hz Case DimasTech EasyXL DimasTech Power Supply Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 1500W Cooler Master Operating System Windows 10 1909 x64 Pro with latest patches and updates

  System settings –

Windows was set to High Performance in the power management settings in Windows.

Motherboard settings for the non-overclocked tests were reset to factory defaults and only the XMP for the G.Skill RAM was enabled. Everything else in the BIOS was left at the factory defaults for the stock tests.

  Cooling

All my test benches are fitted with a custom loop featuring an EKWB Coolstream PE 360 mm radiator, EKWB Vardar fans x3, EKWB Velocity waterblock for both Intel and AMD, as well as an EKWB XRES 140 REVO D5 filled with distilled water. The motherboard settings were left to their stock configurations.

  Let the battle of the 6-core CPUs begin!

  Testing and Performance

AIDA64 ENGINEER

AIDA64 has a set of several 64-bit benchmarks to measure how fast the computer performs various data processing tasks and mathematical calculations. Multi-threaded memory and cache benchmarks are available to analyze system RAM bandwidth and latency. Benchmark pages of AIDA64 Extreme provide several methods to measure system performance. These benchmarks are synthetic, so their results show only the theoretical maximum performance of the system. The AIDA64 suite has various benchmarks for CPU, FPU, GPU, storage, and memory testing.

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As you can see, the i5-10600k lags slightly behind the rest of the CPUs here. I wasn’t sure exactly why until a little later on in the testing process. When I run benchmarks, I run each test 3 times, then average the result together.

Here’s where I started to think the issue with performance between the CPU is caused. As you can see, the memory performance of the i5-10600 lags in the read and copy tests of all the CPUs even the older 8700k. The difference is not small either. When I first started putting the results together, I went back and re-tested. I also check to make sure I was in Dual Channel mode. Finally, I tested the memory on another test bench and the memory results on that PC were as expected.

  [section_title title=Intel Core i5-10600k Benchmarks Continued]

Intel Core i5-10600k Benchmarks Continued

Cinebench R20

Cinebench is a real-world cross-platform test suite that evaluates your computer’s hardware capabilities. Improvements to Cinebench Release 20 reflect the overall advancements to CPU and rendering technology in recent years, providing a more accurate measurement of Cinema 4D’s ability to take advantage of multiple CPU cores and modern processor features available to the average user.

In Cinebench, the Core i5-10600k performs well against the other 6-core CPUs. The multi-core test shows it lagging ever so slightly behind the AMD CPUs and pretty much on equal footing with the older 8700k.

POV-Ray 3.7

The Persistence of Vision Ray Tracer, or POV-Ray, is a ray-tracing program that generates images from a text-based scene description and is available for a variety of computer platforms. It was originally based on DKBTrace, written by David Kirk Buck and Aaron A. Collins for the Amiga computers. There are also influences from the earlier Polyray[6] raytracer contributed by its author Alexander Enzmann. POV-Ray is free and open-source software with the source code available under the AGPLv3.

POV-Ray shows that AMD is slightly better when it comes to multi-core rendering whereas Intel’s i5-10600k edges out the rest in the single-core test.

  [section_title title=Multimedia, Compression, Synthetic, and Gaming]

Multimedia, Compression, Synthetic, and Gaming

Handbrake

HandBrake is a free and open-source video transcoder, originally developed in 2003 by Eric Petit to make ripping a film from a DVD to a data storage device easier. Essentially, it can convert video to almost any modern format. HandBrake is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The workload video file is a file that I’ve used for years called Sintel. It is a 1.09-gigabyte file that is full HD. I used the Apple 240p preset for this test.

7-Zip

The 7-zip benchmark shows a rating in MIPS (million instructions per second). The rating value is calculated from the measured speed, and it is normalized with the results of Intel Core 2 CPU with multi-threading option switched off. So, if you have a modern CPU from Intel or AMD, rating values in single-thread mode must be close to real CPU frequency. There are two tests, compression with LZMA method and decompression with LZMA method. Once the total passes reach 100, the score is taken. 7-Zip gives the resulting score for decompressing, compressing, and an overall score.

PCMark

PCMark 10 is a system benchmark for Windows PCs that focuses on common tasks performed in the office. PCMark 10 offers a variety of workloads categorized into four groups. The Essentials group includes web browsing, video conferencing, and app start-up time. The Productivity group includes tests based on spreadsheets and writing. The Digital Content Creation group includes photo editing, video editing, and a rendering and visualization test. The final group, Gaming, includes tests for real-time graphics and physics. It has three different benchmarks, PCMark 10, PCMark 10 Express, and PCMark 10 Extended.

How much closer can you get? All the tested systems are extremely close together. The individual tests swap back and forth as far as lead goes between the Intel i5-10600k and the AMD Ryzen 5 3600x.

3DMARK

3DMark is a computer benchmarking tool created and developed by Futuremark used to determine the performance of a computer’s 3D graphic rendering and CPU workload processing capabilities. It does this through a series of graphics and physics and or CPU tests.

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Firestrike and Timespy are a battle between the CPUs. Intel and AMD Both have a great showing in this 6-core shootout.

Gaming

For gaming, I chose to mix it up a little bit from what we’ve done in the past. Most games we test are first-person shooters, so I chose to throw a flight simulator in the mix. Xplane 11 depends heavily on single-thread performance, even more so than newer modern games.

While not a huge difference in performance, Intel still leads in the gaming category. Intel leads in every game I tested.

[section_title title= Overclocking]

Overclocking

First, let’s start with the stock settings.

These charts were taking running POV-RAY tests. Starting we’ll look at single-core performance. As you can see during the tests, the i5-10600k hits 5.8GHz, and the load bounces around to different cores. Temperatures remained below 00°C with a few peeks up to about 49°C.

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Single-Core Stock Clock Speed

Single Core Stock Temperature

The multi-core test was run next, again at all stock speeds. As you can see, clock speeds leveled out around 4.5 GHz. The CPU temperature was good here too as temperatures hovered around the 56°C mark.

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Multi-core Stock Clock Speed

Multi-core Stock Temperature

Next, I pushed the multiplier up to 52 and added a slight bit of voltage so the system could remain stable at 5.2 GHz on all cores. This is a 700 MHz overclock on the i5-10600k.

  Again, let’s look at the single-core clock speed and temperatures 1st.  The clock speed is stable at 5.2 GHz and for the most part core temperatures stayed below 60° c with a few spikes of about 61°c.

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Single-Core @ 5.2 Clock Speed

Single-Core @ 5.2 Temperature

The multi-core test shows the clock speed locked at 5.2 GHz. To reach 5.2 GHz, I did have to bump the voltage up a little bit and the running voltage as reported by the software was 1.389v during the test.  Temperatures were still good although a little higher than I initially expected. Temperatures hovered around the 80°c mark with a few peeks up to 81°c.

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Multi-Core @ 5.2 GHz Clock Speed

Multi-Core @ 5.2 GHz Temperature

Keep in mind that my test benches use a 360mm custom loop for cooling. My review sample did not come with a cooler.

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Performance gains in Aida64 get a pretty good boost. However, I think that the memory performance issue that I saw in the stock tests happen to be holding back the performance in this test.

  Cinebench R20 showed a decent gain as the multi-core test gained 486 points and the single-core test gained 40 points.

  POV-Ray gets a good boost in performance as well.

  From a gaming standpoint, I re-benchmarked all the gaming tests that I do in CPUs.

Almost all the games saw an increase in frames per second except for Ghost Recon Wildlands. Xplane which thrives on fast single-core CPUs, gained 15 FPS, Shadow of the Tomb Raider gained 8 FPS, Farcry New Dawn gained 8 FPS, and Assassin’s Creed gained about 4.

After looking at the chart above, I decided to put all the upper-end CPUs that I have in one chart.

What’s really surprising is how well the i5-10600 CPU performs against the stock i9-10900.  If this shows anything it is that games still like fast cores vs many slower cores. AMD has the core advantage in the upper end of the CPU chart and AMD has the core advantage. Frequency wins, plain and simple.

  [section_title title=Conclusion and Final Thoughts]

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

The Intel Core i5-10600k retains it’s six-cores from the previous generation and also adds Hyperthreading giving the CPU a total of 12 threads. The i5-10600k gets a small boost in clock speed as well. Yet, much of the CPU remains the same as the previous generation. Like I said in the i9-10900k review, Intel is using a core design derived from Skylake which was launched in 2015. While on the top end of the CPU market, it doesn’t appear to be much left under the hood, the i5-10600k shows otherwise and I was able to get what I think is a decent overclock out of it without much work or tweaking around in the BIOS.

The 6-core CPUs that are currently on the market perform within a small margin of each other and outside of very specific benchmarks, I highly doubt anyone would “feel” or know the difference between them. Intel’s offering of a 6-core/12-thread CPU puts it squarely in competition with the AMD Ryzen 5 3600x. My benchmark experience with both CPUs shows that there is a lead advantage here and there and that advantage swaps from Intel to AMD and back and forth. I really appreciate that there is stiff competition in this particular market. Not everyone runs 8, 10, or 12 core CPUs. Intel and AMD both market their 6-core CPUs as mainstream.

Overclocking the Intel CPUs is so much easier than AMD. Specifically, I can’t get AMD’s CPUs to overclock much, if at all. Intel’s CPUs, on the other hand, seem to take overclocking in stride. With my test bench set up, I was able to gain 700 MHz to 5.2 GHz on all cores vs. 4.5 GHz in stock trim. Even single-core clock speeds peaked at 4.8 GHz and I was able to exceed that by 400 Mhz.  Throw in good memory and GPU overclock and you’ll have a system that’s going to be really tough to beat.

Overall, I’m more impressed with the i5-10600k than I am with the i9-10900k. I’m not saying that the i9-10900k CPU is bad. I just feel that for the price as well as the performance and overclocking of the i5-10600k is a better bang for the buck. However, there are a few things to consider, if you’re going to migrate to 10th gen, a new motherboard will be required, so there’s added cost there. Also, my cooling system on my test benches utilizes custom loop components. Thankfully, the waterblock fits the new motherboard socket but, if you’re new to water cooling, there will be added cost there too. At the time of the review, no retailers have listed the pricing of the i5-10600k however, Intel says their RCP (Recommended Customer Price) at $262. Keep in mind this price is for retailers buying in quantities of 1000 chips. More likely we’ll see the i5-10600k retail for $300 or more. At the time of this review the AMD Ryzen 5 3600x on sale for $204. However, with a decent overclock the i5-10600k reaches the gaming performance of the i9-10900k. Overall, the i5-10600k was just a little more impressive in terms of performance and overclockability.

[sc name=”editors_choice_award” ]

[sc name=”link_to_same_company_reviews” company=”Intel” ]

Intel Core i5-10600K CPU Review The Intel i5 CPU is considered Intel's mainstream processor and alongside the rest of the 10th generation CPUs, Intel is launching the Core i5-10600k.

[esotheria-sims]

50 OC QUESTIONS - Phillip Gladwyn

Got another tag from @blackswan-sims (thank you!), and since I felt inspired, I decided to do the meme again but with another sim. As a relative newcomer to my sim collection, Phillip’s never had the ‘privilege’ to be the subject of his own questionnaire… so I figured it was high time I changed that. ;)

01. How old is your sim? He’s 14 y/o at the start of the BaCC.

02. When is your sim’s birthday? April 5.

03. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Aries.

04. What is your sim’s ethnicity? Wyvern’s Bayer, human. Though there are rumors going round that his mother is of supernatural origin…

05. Does your sim have any nicknames? He didn’t have one until recently. The servants always addressed him as “young master” and his mother just called him by his full name… but since he started hanging out with Marcus, the latter nicknamed him Phil. He’s still getting used to being called that, but he likes it. It’s a nice change of pace from the usual boring formalities.

06. Do they have a job?

Heir of the noble house of Gladwyn, but I don’t think that really qualifies as a job?

07. Where does your sim live? Wyvern’s Bay, duh.

08. Who does your sim live with? The household used to be larger, but… right now, it’s just him, his mother, and Selina, their young housemaid.

09. What environment did your sim grow up in? (strict, loving, cold etc.) It was, uh… interesting. He was born into nobility and had a very privileged upbringing, but it was kind of… lonely. His father died when he was just an infant and his mother was always too busy with other things to pay him much mind, so the only real company he could count on was that of his elderly governess and the other servants (when they had spare time, which they rarely did). When he got a little older, he’d spend a lot of time just wandering around by himself, looking for  trouble  adventures. He didn’t know any other kids his age, so he mostly hung out with the townspeople - farmers, merchants, craftsmen… whoever would have him. He doesn’t do that as much anymore (he’s a grown man now, after all), but he remembers those times fondly, and he’s still good friends with some of the townsfolk (like Tom Wagamese, for example).

10. What is your sim’s favourite food? Meat, meat, and more meat! He’s a carnivore to boot. If he had to pick a favorite, though, it’d be venison.

11. What is your sim’s favourite drink? Pale Ale. Yes, it’s alcohol, and yes, he’s underage, but it’s easy enough to steal some from the kitchen when he feels like having a pint. Not like his mother bothers to monitor him.

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favourite color? Black and red.

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés? (love at first sight etc.) “Blood runs thicker than water”, but his reaction to the saying will vary greatly depending on which parent it is you’re comparing him to.

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? Heterosexual.

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Male.

16. Is your sim type a or type b? Type A… I guess?

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Extroverted.

18. What is your sim’s favourite woohoo position? If asked he’d probably have a whole lot to say about it, but truthfully? He’s never woohooed before so it’d all be just empty talk.

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favourite animal? He’s never owned a pet, even though he quite likes animals. His favorites are horses, dogs, and foxes.

20. Does your sim have a best friend? Marcus Blackbird! Seriously, that kid is a blessing. 

21. What is/was your sim’s favourite school subject? He doesn’t go to school as such, but rather, he has private tutors who take care of his education. His favorite subjects are Heraldry and Wyvern’s Bay History.

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? He’s far from a stellar student, but he does all right. He puts in just enough effort to meet his tutors’ expectations, but no more than that. 

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? No. Pursuing higher education is not something he’s particularly interested in.

24. What are your sim’s political beliefs? Like everyone in the Bay, he’s loyal to the Queen.

25. What is one thing your sim wants to do before they die? He’s always fantasized about doing some great, heroic deed (e.g. slaying a dragon).

26. Does your sim have a favourite TV show (cable) and/or movie? There’s no electricity in Wyvern’s Bay, bruh.

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? If so what are their top 3 shows. See 26.

28. Does your sim like books? Surprisingly enough, yes. He mostly sticks to non-fiction and history books, though he also likes to read poetry (but that’s not something he likes to advertise around, because… reasons)

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favourite one and do they play on PC or console? See 26.

30. What is your sim’s personal style? He dresses much in the same way most Wyvern’s Bay gentry dresses, though he’s also known to “dress down” sometimes and disregard dress code in favor of comfort (or shock value. Bonus points if he can get his snob mother to scold him for his poor choice of attire)

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? Nah. He doesn’t believe in such baloney.

32. Is your sim religious? See 31. x’D

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favourite artist? Whatever is being played on their house piano at the time. He thinks music is okay, but he doesn’t have a strictly formed opinion on it. 

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favourite holiday? No, he finds celebrations of any kind to be a nuisance.

35. What is your sim’s favourite type of weather? Sunny, but not too warm.

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? Start fights, definitely. xD He’s kind of hot-headed.

37. Does your sim have a dream job? To become a knight of the realm.

38. Does your sim have any siblings? No, he’s an only child.

39. Does your sim get along with their family? Hmmm, delicate subject. He isn’t particularly close with his mother, and he only knows his late father through tales so he’s kind of created this romanticized, idealized picture of him in his head.

40. What is your sim’s favourite hobby? Riding, fencing, training in general. Oh, and card games (*cough* gambling *cough*)

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? She’d have to be fierce, passionate and, yeah, quite beautiful. Preferably with long dark hair, stunning eyes, a nice body… Phillip’s the visual type, okay?

42. What is a secret about your sim? I mentioned how he secretly enjoys reading poems, right? Well, he also writes them from time to time. And no, he won’t show them to you or to anyone, so don’t even bother asking. 

43. What is a wish your sim has? To grow up to be as brave, noble, and respected as his lord father.

44. What is a flaw your sim has? He’s got a short fuse and tends to explode easily. He’s also stubborn as… well, as a ram. xD

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? Stony, haughty, a bit intimidating. But once you get past this initial facade, he reveals himself as a cheerful, humorous and good-natured fellow.

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? His best is yet to come! 

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Never knowing his father. :/

48. Does your sim have a favourite emoji? What is this “emoji” nonsense you speak of?

49. Does your sim use simstagram? What is this “simstagram” nonsense you speak of?

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? “Text”?… You mean, as in letters? He doesn’t have a penfriend, if that’s what you’re asking.

[cliban]

Gaming

So uh. These are 3 (or 4) of my online gaming personas. (https://www.deviantart.com/bellae99/art/The-girls-and-Pyre-805308350) I've been writing this for a while, may have a part 2 soon!

So little bit of backstory here, I used to, I guess, it could be classified as RPing by myself, giving these characters personality, instead of being a blank slate for what I do. It’s also with my favourite games to play there too!

Clea slowed as the gates clanged shut and cursed, the world censoring her by itself. The path was gravelly and provided no clues as to what lay in the darkness beside it. This was not a good thing. Clea jumped off of Xena and stood with her. Hands on her hips, she whistled into the darkness. Nobody else was there. She swallowed and then she felt a hand on her shoulder and was too late to stop the bejewelled hammer from swinging into her face. She sprawled onto the ground and Xena stood over her protectively. Then Xena was thrown aside and Clea cried out as she hit the wall, both of them. The beast looked down at them with a leering grin, tied a rope to them, and started to drag them away.

Elliott slapped the zombie in the face so hard it lost too much HP, turned red, and keeled over. It split into two hunks of rotten flesh and three orbs of XP. Elliott picked up the rotten flesh and absorbed the XP, then turned and walked into the castle. “M’lord. Gotcha your items.” She reached into her inventory and pulled out the items of value. “Hey! You gonna open the door?” She grew impatient and kicked the door open. “Right, here you go, and I’ll take my reward and go.” The King chuckled. “No, I don’t think you will.” Elliott reached behind her and shifted her sword onto her belt. This goddamn dress was getting annoying. She pulled up her mask and vines started to creep around her arms. “I’m sorry?” Her voice was hardly muffled. “You see, you have quite a large bounty on your head. Much more that some blaze rods.” Elliott nodded. “I see. So this is the part where you spring your trap?” The King smirked. “Go. Kill her.” Elliott rolled her eyes and whipped her bow around, pointing it into the face of one of her attackers. She released an arrow and then there were hands on her shoulders and everything went black.

Pyre shifted uncomfortably in her suit. She adjusted her hat and flicked her ears once to make sure they still worked. Stalker wasn’t at this playtime. So she took the role. “Hey, Pyro. You ok?” Pyre yelped and spun round. It was Engie. “Oh. Just you,” she said. Although, of course, it didn’t come out like that. It was muffled to almost the point of just being noise. Engie could understand. Scout couldn’t. But Scout was annoying. Engie flipped his chocolate bar in his hands. “Why, did I scare ya?” Pyre snorted. “Of course not. You ready for today?” Engie nodded. “D’ya think we can’t sc- I mean, be nice to a couple o’ BLUs?” Pyre shrugged. “Well. I’m going. Come on, Engie.” Pyre was distracted by a couple of birds flying past, and then there was a choking sound from behind her. She turned back to see someone hugging Engie. But Engie didn’t seem to be too happy about that. She frowned and yanked the other person back. Engie fell to his knees, rubbing his throat. “Engie! Are you ok?” Pyre asked worriedly. He looked up and his eyes flickered behind her and he croaked “Look out,” but it was too late and something cracked across her head.

Clea blinked her eyes open. Everything was… Fuzzy. Then she realised she was in a room that was not one she recognised. It was small, with a table, and a computer. Pure white walls. A vent at the very bottom. A wooden door. She lifted her head and sat up against the wall. Xena was nowhere to be seen. Clea brushed her straw-blond hair out of her eyes and pulled her hood up. It was a forest green with yellow piping, and had a purple helm that went over her eyes, yet she could see through it. The wings on it fluttered weakly. Then she stood up, unfolding her jean-clad legs and pulling her aqua shirt up. 

Instructions flashed in front of Clea, and she read quickly. Hack all five computers, and don’t let the beast catch you. Easy enough. She tiptoed to the first computer and began to hack it. 

Three minutes later, the computer’s screen turned green and Clea crawled out through the vent onto carpeted floor. It felt like an office, this maze of white walls and blue floor. The door beside her burst open and Clea flattened herself behind it. Xena stepped into the hallway. She was in human form. “Xena,” Clea whispered. “Xena!” The rhino-girl whipped her head around and saw Clea. “I’ve hacked one computer,” she said quietly. “And I think the beast is coming.” She pushed Clea to the other end of the hall and started running as a glow came up from behind them. “Go!” She yelped and darted off in the opposite direction. Clea hid in a locker and watched the beast look around. A chill ran down her spine and the beast moved on. 

Clea darted into the next computer room and started to hack it. It was relatively simple. Just open up the code database, and disable security systems from there. Easy! Just took a little breaking into. Clea grinned as the computer’s screen started glowing a bright green, and jumped through a smashed window into the beast. “Oh.” 

She started running, hearing pounding footsteps behind her. The beast swung, clipping Clea’s leg. She fell, started dragging her leg behind her, fingers sinking into the carpet while her leg recovered. Her leg twisted the right way and she sprang to her feet, started sprinting. She could hear the beast behind her, and sweat trailed it’s way down her forehead. She was pretty doomed.

And then she got lucky. The beast reached for her, put on a burst of speed, and Clea jumped up, up, and to the side. The beast overshot and Clea swung into a room. She pushed her visor up and flicked her blonde hair to the side, then slid her visor back on. The beast went to the window and she rolled under it until the glow that signified the beast’s gem went away and she crawled out through a vent. 

Xena had hacked one computer since she’d split with Clea, and they met up in the bathrooms. “Let’s look for one together, OK?” Clea whispered, and Xena nodded. They peeked out of the door, and saw no beast. Quietly, the two walked towards the centre of the facility. There were several cubicles in the rectangular room, each with a wall of glass and a desk in it. The room’s flooring was metallic, and in the long gap that stretched from door to door, a spiralling staircase led to the second floor. Xena and Clea ran up this staircase now, and spied a computer in the corner. 

Xena kept watch while Clea frantically tapped at the buttons, bringing up pages and tabs of coding. She stuck her tongue out in concentration, and while Xena couldn’t see her eyes because of her visor, Xena knew Clea must have them narrowed in concentration. Xena held up a hand to shield her purple eyes, and jumped in alarm as she saw the glow of the beast. “Clea, beast is here.” Clea grunted and pressed enter. The screen turned green and Xena morphed back into her natural form. “Let’s go Xena.”

Xena scrambled down the stairs, and Clea jumped off the balcony, and landed on Xena’s back. They galloped out of the room, beast trailing after them, and headed for the door out. “Hold on!” Xena rammed the door, once, twice, three times, and it burst open. They ran out into the cool night, and Clea jumped off, hands on her knees once she landed. “We’re out! Let’s get back home.”

Clea leaned on Xena, who affectionately nuzzled her. “Not so fast.” Clea jumped, and reached for her gun, which wasn’t there, of course. “Hands in the air.” Glowering, Clea raised her hands slowly as three police emerged out of the darkness. “You’re under arrest for multiple counts of murder.” Clea’s eyes widened in disbelief. “That’s the beast you’re talking about.” The policeman who was talking to her scoffed. “No-one makes it out of there alive. You’re coming with us.” 

Someone grabbed her hands and shoved them behind her back, and she snarled. “Xena, don’t you dare gore him,” she warned, and then she felt cold metal across her wrists. Her hackles raised but she forced herself not to attack. “No shoving, Ok? Not comfortable with that.” She was led across to their van, and had just enough time to smile at Xena before the van slammed shut.

Elliott stumbled. “Thanks, Sen.” Sen took his hands off Elliott’s shoulders and stepped back. Elliott slung her bow across her back again and looked around. They were at her base, a three block high cave with seventeen rooms. It was built into the side of a mountain, with her and Sen labouring over a few weeks to carve the place out. They were in the entrance, with a five block wide waterfall covering the open end. Sen looked at the water and growled something. “Yeah yeah Sen. You don’t like water. I don’t think any enderman does.”

Tall and lanky, Sen towered over Elliott, who came up to his shoulder at most. They had met when Sen had been caught out in a rainstorm, and Elliott had taken him to her temporary residence in a village, giving him time to recover and be able to teleport. He looked essentially the same as any other enderman, save the odd purple spirals on his shoulders. Now they were inseparable, and went on many adventures together. 

“Right, I’m heading in. I still have the blaze rods, and plus, the mobs need feeding.” Sen nodded, and teleported to the farm, which floated above their mountain. He was off to get whatever crops had grown. Elliott yawned and headed down into the wide corridor, which gradually got higher and higher until it opened into the minecart terminal.

Elliott grabbed a minecart and zoomed down to the mob area, and surveyed the scene. The farm animals were sectioned off, and into their separate species when inside. Currently, however, they were outside, grazing. Elliott had other game on her mind. She hitched up her dress and stepped out of the minecart, and grabbed her fire-resistant diamond armour, complete with shield and her beloved diamond sword, Cleaver. She changed from her dress into that, and rolled her shoulders.

Elliott pulled her mask up and walked purposefully to the over world monsters. This was in a glass dome inside a massive cave. She took a deep breath, and opened the iron door. They currently housed eleven zombies, seven skeletons, four creepers, three phantoms, fourteen silverfish, and nine spiders, plus cave spiders of the same number. 

“Everyone! Any sick or injured?” The dome went silent, and two of the phantoms dived down, carrying the third. Most of the mobs were actually able to communicate. Elliott had that gift. “Do you know what happened?” The phantoms growled a negative. “Ok. I’m letting everyone roam the caves, you know the rules.” Elliott picked up the injured phantom and carried it on her back while she exited the dome.

She retracted the glass and the over world monsters started walking, flying, stumbling, or crawling, out of their normal habitat. Elliott whistled and started walking to the minecarts. She felt the phantom flop a little, and sped up. She gently laid the phantom down and jumped into the minecart behind it. 

They sped off to the small clinic Elliott had set up, and rolled gently to a stop just outside. Elliott stepped out and lifted the phantom. She transferred it inside, and all of a sudden Sen teleported in, growling rapidly. “Humans. Outside.” Elliott’s eyes widened and she gently set the phantom down, then ran outside, jumped, and Sen teleported her to the control room. “Attention! All mobs, return to your designated areas. I repeat, return to your designated areas!” She yelled through her microphone. There was a sudden flood of animals and monsters stampeding into their areas. 

Elliott activated everything, and slammed the doors of the mountains closed. She turned to Sen, and squeezed his hand. “We’ll be alright Sen, don’t you worry. Armour up.” Sen looked at her solemnly, and teleported, returning a moment later in full diamond armour. They left Joey, a blaze, in charge, and teleported to the entrance of the cave. 

Elliott took a deep breath, and jumped through the waterfall, letting her elytra carry her safely to the ground. She landed elegantly, and let the vines crawl around her arms to her wrists. There was a party of fifteen, and she raised an eyebrow. “What do you want?” Sen teleported in by her side. 

The leader of the group raised a shaking sword. “Look, if you’re here to capture me, don’t bother.” She stuck a dagger into the person trying to creep up behind her without turning around. The group gasped. “Ah now lads, she’s not that dangerous.”

The group parted to reveal a figure in shining diamond armour. ���Will. Will Will Will. What do we have here? William.” Elliott deliberately made her voice as mocking as possible. Will strode forward. “We’ve found you. There’s no running from us now.”

Elliott snorted, and as the group ran forward, they attacked. Sen teleported two into the the air and dropped them, then down again to smack some in the face. Elliott slashed with her sword, kicking anyone who came too close to her. Hearts were lost, and finally it was Will and Elliott standing off. Sen was finishing off two of them. 

“It’s over, Will. Rory may have given you my location, but Sen and I are always together.” Will gave her a dashing wink. “Fear not, for I have a solution.” He pulled a squirming endermite out of his pocket and threw it at Sen. Elliott frowned, and then the endermite bit down on Sen’s skin and his teleportation particles turned red, along with the spirals on his shoulders and his eyes. “He’ll be a fine addition to the army.”

Will poured a bucket of water on the ground, and whistled. Sen began shambling over to it. Elliott’s eyes widened and she tackled Will. “Kill me, and Sen stands in the water.” Elliott backed off and started to head over to Sen, when Will made his offer. “Come with me and I’ll call off the Endercution.” 

Elliott swallowed, looked at Sen, and raised her hands slowly. Will whistled again and bound her hands behind her back, using a splash potion of slowness, just for good measure. He wrapped an arm around Elliott’s waist despite her protests. Then he grabbed an ender pearl, and ignoring Sen’s horrified warbling, threw it, and they teleported to the city.

Pyre collapsed to its knees and glared at whoever had hit it, confused. “Hey! You ok? Do you need something?” Pyre got up, flicking its tail, and approached the person, cautiously. It had an idea, reached behind it.

And brought out its axe. Engie winced as it approached the terrified assassin menacingly. It held out the axe and tapped the poor man’s shoulder with the flat of the blade, then nodded, satisfied. It lifted the axe and swung.

Pyre handed the lollipop to the guy and he smiled and waved. Pleased, Pyre waved back, and the guy laughed and flew away. Pyre turned back to Engie and helped him up.

Engie winced at the blood splatter and gore in the doorway, and let Pyro help him up. “Who was that?” Mmph. “I don’t know either.” Pyro waved at him and went to go get someone. 

Pyre bounced happily through the halls, swinging its arms. Scout stepped out in front of it and it skidded to a stop to avoid collision. “Oh! Hey dere Pyro, uh, watcha doin’ this earlyyy…..” Scout looked Pyre up and down. “Pyro, who did ya help?” Pyre shrugged.

Scout looked Pyro up and down in horror. Its suit was splattered with blood and fragments of bone, and its goggles had bloodstains on them. “Pyro, who did ya kill?” Pyro stood still, then shrugged slightly. “Well, go clean yaself up then!” Scout turned and marched briskly away, muttering under his breath.

Confused by the interaction, Pyre looked down at its suit. Silly Scout, getting all antsy about rainbows. It walked on.

Medic had just finished dissecting a heart, courtesy of Stalker, when Pyro walked into his lab. He clicked his tongue in displeasure and put the heart down. “Yes, Pyro, what iz it?” 

Medic had been busy with his odd flower-growing project when Pyre opened the door. He had rainbows all over his hands. “Sorry Medic! I was just coming to tell you that Engie doesn’t look at all well.” Pyre clasped its hands behind its back. 

Medic frowned, silently deciphering the mumbles of that creature. “Oh. Vell, I shall be back just now.” He grabbed his medigun and started to follow Pyro through the maze of twisting hallways.

Pleased, Pyre led Medic back to its room. Engie was still there, coughing a little. He smiled a little and Pyre exited the room to go find Sniper. He was on watch today, and Pyre wanted to know why the person had been let in.

Sniper was cosied up in his nest, wrapped up in a blanket to help fight off the chill of the cold morning. A trail of mumbling signified that Pyro had appeared behind him, and he waved it over. It sat down beside him, curling its tail around itself, and passed him a note in Medic’s elegant writing. 

Sniper, there was an attacker in the base today. Do your job properly or I will come over there and personally dissect you for organs. -Medic.

“Blunt, ain’t ‘e.” Sniper muttered, and folded the note up. Instead of giving it back to Pyre, he slipped it into his vest pocket. “Well, oi’ll be off then. Thanks for the note, Pyro.” Pyre nodded, and slipped back to the main room.

Suddenly, Pyre’s contract communicator sprang to life. “Heyyyyy Pyro! It’s Miss Pauling here! Can you do something for me? Would you like to do something for Miss Pauling?” Pyre nodded, delighted, and mumbled an affirmitive. “Oh thank God. Can you keep inside for a while? And tell the team to be on defensive mode for a while? The rest of the team’s mics aren't working and I think there’s-” Her voice cut out, accompanied with a lot of crackling. 

Alarmed, Pyre dashed to the intercom. It switched on the mic and started announcing Miss Pauling’s message. It could hear Demo audibly frowning, and pinched the bridge of its gas mask. “Need help?” There was a decloaking sound and Spy appeared behind it. “Yes. I do. Miss Pauling said I needed to tell everyone to be on defensive mode.” 

Spy relayed the message and Pyre thanked him, then dashed to the armoury. Before it could get there, however, something thunked into its leg. Frowning, it plucked a dart from its leg, and then darkness rushed to cover its vision.

Clea decided she didn’t like cells. “Yo!” She called. “Any chance I get to go now?” The guard shook his head and Clea sighed, leaned back on the small bed. The cell was quite large, with a toilet and a sink and a bed, but no windows except the door. Which was barred. And the barred wall beside the door. 

The prison was tall, and Clea was on the third level. She flopped back and yawned, putting her arms behind her head. Xena was somewhere in…. She didn’t know where Xena was. 

That’s when the complaints were heard. It started, a female voice grumbling about something, and it steadily grew louder. Clea got up and curiously grasped the bars. “...Listen, I’m not going in prison, what about Sen? He’s gonna waste away Will, mark my words, and then you’ll have killed one of an already endangered species-” A girl was shoved into view. 

She wore a green dress with a darker gradient, and a belt was tied above her stomach. It hung down to her knee on one side, then sloped down to just above her ankle on the other. Her hair was long, and looked like it hadn't been washed in a million years. It was of a curious colour, purplish undertones overshadowed by a lightish brown. A flower crown rested nestled in that hair, matching the vines that marched around her arms, coiled like snakes peering out from her wrists. Her eyes were a light blue, and there was a mask pulled up to just below her nose. She wore no shoes, and her eyes were steely. This girl was being shoved along by a flamboyant man in shining diamond armour. From the Minecraft universe, then.

Elliott furiously allowed herself to be pushed next to the door to the cell that had the girl in it. She wore a green hood, rimmed with yellow, and ended into a hooked purple visor that didn’t shine like a see-through material. She wore a teal shirt that rose up at the belly. She had a purple undershirt to cover this. Her legs were long, clad in skinny jeans and sneakers. Two bits of straw-blond hair poked out from under her hood. 

Elliott was turned, and the shackles binding her wrists were unclipped. Then she was pushed into the cell. With the girl. 

It had been half an hour. Clea sat in one corner of her cell, and the girl in the dress in the opposite. “Do you talk?” Clea broke the silence. “Yes.” 

“What’s your name? I’m Clea.”

“Elliott.”

“Isn’t that a traditional guys name?”

“I’m trans.”

“Oh.”

…….

“For the record, you make a wonderful female.”

“Sure.”

“What are you in for?”

“Murder. Stealing.”

“Woah.”

“You?”

“Murder, apparently. I didn’t do it though.”

Elliott raised an eyebrow. “Sure.”

“No seriously. I escaped from the murderer.”

“Tell me about it, then.”

So Clea told Elliott about her escape from the beast.

“You’re from Dead by Daylight?”

“Nah. Roblox. There’s a variation. You’re from Minecraft?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s Sen?”

Elliott had her knees to her chest already, her arms wrapped around her legs, but she hugged them tighter. “My best friend. An Enderman.”

“Don’t they attack you if you look at them?”

“Sen’s different. He doesn’t mind. Except if you look into his eyes.”

“Ah. Just checking, you aren’t gonna kill me or anything, right?”

“No. I kill people who cheat me, or that I’m hired to kill.”

“Reassuring, aren’t you?”

“I’m not used to talking with people.”

There was another silence as the minutes stretched into hours. Then the cell’s door was opened again and a dark mass was dragged in. Elliott made a dash for the open door, but was shoved back again. “Who is that?” The two made their way cautiously over. Well, Elliott made her way cautiously. Clea darted over and started shaking the person’s arm. Elliott slapped Clea’s hand away and gently rolled the person onto their back.

Both drew back and gasped. The person was wearing a baggy red suit, with ashy, singed edges, that tucked into their black boots. There was a belt, and two straps like suspenders hooking over it. They wore grey gloves, with bands, and finally, had a gas mask. Their hat was old-fashioned, like an old detective movie, but what had gotten both of the girls attention, was the strangers singed green ears and tail.

“What the… Humanoid fox?” Clea whispered, and Elliott shook her head. “Don’t think so.” Then the figure sat up and rubbed its head. 

After some restrained screams, difficulty communicating, and finally resorting to sign language, Clea and Elliott became acquainted with ‘Pyro’. The masked nightmare had been darted and had woken up here. It seemed to pine for nine other people, with the exception of possibly one. But even Scout, as it said, would have been a welcome blessing. 

“There’s two bunks; who’s sleeping on the floor tonight?” Clea broke the silence again. “Or! Wait, two of us could share a bunk.” Elliott shook her head vehemently. “No way in Nether.” Pyro gave a muffled mmph, and Elliott shrugged. “Sure. You share with Clea.” 

“Right, no other awkward silences, let’s talk about our past. Edgy teenager Elliott, you first.” Elliott shot Clea a death glare. “I’m not an edgy teen.” “Edgy adult?” “No.” Pyro mmphed warningly. “Fine.” Elliott took a deep breath. “I was spawned in a village inhabited by ‘players’ like me. I grew up without event, apart from being one of the hardest workers and strongest. And I could talk to mobs. I had the appreciation and friendship of everyone in the village. But my best friends were Rory and Will.”

Elliott sighed. “I always played with them, helped them whenever I could, snapped at them a few times, apologised, and never thought that Will had ambitions. When we were sixteen, Will joined the army. He was always a flamboyant guy, with dreams and a funny accent. Then it was Rory and me. A year later, it was the update that ruined my life. It brought witches. It was decreed that players could turn into witches, and witches could disguise themselves as players with powers.”

“I knew then that I could never reveal my ability. Rory and I made a pact not to tell anyone. An uneasy two years passed, and everything seemed like it was going to be fine. Until Will turned up at my doorstep - he was commander of the army. He had slain the Enderdragon, Withers, and countless mobs. And he’d remembered my ability.”

“I was hidden away by Rory, who told everyone I had died. Will stayed for a while.” Elliott laughed bitterly. “And Rory and Will fell in love. The two married within two years. Rory, obviously thinking Will, her true love, was more important than me, gave me up. Fair enough, I thought, and ran. I hid out in an abandoned village, cast away my normal brown apron, and used iron armour for a while.”

“I lived there for a few weeks before finding Sen. I saved him from a rain storm, and he stuck by my side. And he helped me when I realised I wasn’t happy living as a guy any more. So I changed my gender. I found the material I used for my normal dress, hooded up, and went to some people who didn’t know me. Now, I’m perfectly female.”

“I hollowed out a cave with Sen’s help, and we opened a sanctuary for mobs. We have a blaze in third command taking care of them right now. I started doing Assassin and mercenary jobs, and…. Yeah. Rory figured out my location, and Will nearly killed Sen unless I allowed myself to be captured. And now I’m here.”

Clea’s mouth was moving, but no sound was coming out. “What about you, Pyro?”

Pyro shrugged. “Not much to say, to be honest. I very vaguely remember dancing in these wonderful rainbows, calling for my family to come join me. Then someone came in and told me to come with him. Didn’t know who he was at the time, but he sounded terrified. Not at me though. For me. He took me to the RED base, and gave me this suit to wear.”

“Turns out that was Engie. He signed me up for my job now, where I get to help people! He’s my very best friend. Sometimes, on days that I feel headachy, he turns into a flying dolphin. Just like Miss Pauling turning into a butterfly, or Solly turning into a unicorn. But I don’t know why I’m here. They took my lollipop and my rainbowthrower! It’s no fair.” 

Elliott leaned back, deep in thought. “Maybe they thought you were dangerous. Not to other people, but they thought you were working yourself too hard whilst helping people. Which makes them not bad, just misguided.” Pyro scratched its mask. “Makes sense.” The two looked at Clea. “What about you?”

“Well. I don’t really have an interesting backstory, really. You wouldn’t want to know it.” Elliott raised an eyebrow. “Bore me to sleep then.” Clea shook her head. “No, really.” Elliott gave her a look. “Just go on. Lie to me, and I will consider killing you.” Clea gulped and sat back.

“I…. I used to be a spirit. Not a ghost, just a spirit. And an evil one, at that. I used to roam the horror games, the dark games. Kill people. Destroy. Have fun with the other spirits. By killing people. Until I possessed this body to scare a group of children.  But somehow, our minds merged. We became one entity. The body I took, her name was Claire. The spirit’s name was Althea.”

“Claire refused to let Althea leave her body. She was perfectly fine with sharing a body. She believed Althea could change, become a good spirit. And eventually, Althea began to change. She would make better choices. She stopped scaring people, she stopped killing.”

“Finally, the day came when Claire deemed it a good thing for Althea to leave. Althea thanked her, and left. Claire continued on her way, and then, someone killed her. Althea felt her pain and rushed to her dying friend. Desperate to save her, she merged with Claire’s body once more.”

“In her haste, she poured too much power into her fusion, and fused her soul with Claire's. She heard only one thing - thank you - before they fused into Clea. That’s me.”

“Technically, I’m they/them, but I like the pronouns she/her. But anyway, our personalities fused, and so I get Althea’s enthusiasm, but also Claire’s shyness. I get Althea’s killing urges, toned by Claire’s logic and reasoning. I get Althea’s interest in reading, boosted by Claire’s love for learning and smarts.”

“In all, I’m technically two different people.”

Elliott nodded her head, impressed. “And where does Xena come into all of this?” Clea’s mouth tightened. “Xena is our soul remnant. She was formed of the split pieces of both our souls.” Elliott was still. “Alright. The lights should go out at any moment, so let’s get to the bunk.”

The other two nodded and Elliott jumped up, grabbing the fifth-to-last-rung of the ladder and hauling herself up. Clea, the smallest, curled up in the bottom bunk, and Pyro lay beside her on its back. Before Clea nodded off, she realised she had neglected to learn about the vines that wrapped around Elliott’s arms.

The lights went out, and Clea and Pyro started to sleep. Elliott lay awake for a while, contemplating how Sen was doing, how she had been captured, and, of course, how to escape. 

The lights turned on and Elliott grumbled, turning her head to the side. She had her hands tucked behind her head, and her legs crossed. She stared up at the ceiling for a while, before jumping down. She looked at Pyro and Clea and snickered. The two were curled up, Pyro with an arm wrapped around Clea’s shoulder, and Clea pressed into Pyro’s chest. 

Pyro blearily opened its eyes. It was tired. It swivelled its ears to hear Elliott pacing just behind the bars. It nearly rolled, but remembered Clea quickly, and realised its arm was wrapped around Clea’s shoulders. It's tail rested in Clea’s arms and as it tried to take it back, Clea mumbled and tightened her grip. Pyro smiled internally, and gently shook Clea awake.

Clea jumped out of her bed and yawned, then immediately went to the door. Still locked. Pyro slowly got up, and the trio looked across the prison. Soon, their door was unlocked, and they grouped to the courtyard. 

“Right, so now that we appear to be a group, how are we escaping?” Elliott wasn’t one to indulge in small talk. “Well, all our weapons should be stocked over there, along with our clothes.” “And how do we get in there?” 

Elliott thought for a moment. “Well, we could make our own weapons. We could use-” She was cut off by someone yelling. “Over there! Hands up!” Scowling, Clea raised her hands. “We’re already in prison, how can we get in any deeper trouble?” 

Two guards rushed over. “How come you don't have your uniforms on?” Elliott shrugged. “We were just chucked in a cell.” The guards frowned. “All three of you? In one cell?” Pyro nodded. “This is extremely against protocol,” the taller guard muttered. “Sorry. I don’t really know how prison works.” Clea offered.

The guards talked into their walkie-talkies and the shorter one nodded. “Alright, if you would come with us?” Elliott glanced at her comrades, and nodded. “Ok. Where are we going?” The guards started walking, with the trio following. “To get you registered and everything else.”

They had just closed the door when Pyro mmphed something. “Sorry, but could the other guard turn around?” The two translated, and the taller guard turned slowly to see the shorter, choked out in Pyro’s grip.

The guards were tied up, and everyone had retrieved their weapons. Then they darted off to find Sen and Xena.

Sen had finished talking with Xena, and languished in the corner. He had a magic-binding bracelet on, preventing him from teleporting. Xena was stuck as a rhino due to the collar that also bound her magic. 

The cell was cold, and damp, and the bars were just close enough for Sen not to be able to fit through. “Xena, give up. Already.” Sen had had just enough of Xena trying to ram the door. Xena did give up, and lay down with a huff.

Sen got up and wandered the cell, which didn’t take very long. He stuck an arm through the bars, retracted it, and then heard running footsteps. He frowned and looked through the bars. To see Elliott and two others running towards the cell.

Elliott saw Sen and put on a burst of speed. “Right. Keys!” Pyro chucked her the keys and she unlocked the door as quickly as possible. “Let’s get out of here!” She opened the door and Xena and Sen tumbled out. “Sen, can you teleport us?” Sen pointed to the band on his wrist.

“Magic binder.” Elliott snarled in fustration and took out her dagger. “Right. Arm.” Sen held out his arm and Elliott cut through the binder. Sen nodded appreciatively and teleported around a little. Elliott did the same for Xena, and counted quickly. “Right, how many can you teleport at once?” Sen frowned. “Three.” Elliott pulled her mask up. 

“Sen, we’re gonna need you to cry. Ender pearls.” Sen nodded and looked directly into the sun, which made his eyes water, and allowed himself to cry three ender pearls. “Right! Let’s go!” Sen teleported outside, and waited for the others to catch up. They did, and Sen placed his hands on the two stranger’s shoulders, and Elliott climbed onto Xena. Then they teleported-

-back to base. Except this wasn’t base. Clea looked around and started to shake. “Oh no. Ohhhhhh no.” Pyre shielded its visors. “Where are we?” Clea swallowed. “We’re in a horror speedrun.” At that moment, Pyre became aware of breathing sounds behind it, and turned to see a dragon. Quite cute, if it was being honest. The tall rainbow person shifted, and Clea giggled. “Run!” Pyre clapped its hands. Tag! It loved tag.

Pyro turned and Elliott looked to see a terrifying thing of nightmares. A maniacal grin twisted the creatures torn lips, and needles pierced its eyes. It had no other features, other than being a tall, slender humanoid with no right proportions. Sen shifted uneasily, and Clea whimpered. “Run!” 

Somewhere, back at the prison….

The shadow moved slightly at the window. “You lost them, you say. You stupid, stupid, idiot.”

Tired of the arguing, Elliott beckoned to Sen and whispered to him. He shook his head repeatedly, but Elliott kept whispering and soon his face changed. "O….k." He reached for Elliott's shoulder and Clea glanced at him, then snarled. "Oh no you don't."  He backhanded his subordinate, who went flying. He grabbed the next one. “Find them, now.” 

Meanwhile.

Clea cartwheeled to a stop. “What the hell.” Elliott sat up and held her head. “Sen, do you have some food?” Sen nodded and handed her a piece of steak. She ate ravenously and sighed in relief as energy flooded her. 3 hearts changed to full health. Pyro snuggled its new friend, the monster that had been chasing them. 

Sen folded his arms and sat back. “Us have to get to Minecraft. Now.” Elliott stood. “Sen’s right. If we can just, get to my base, we’ll be fine.” Clea shook her head. “No way. We’d be safer at my home.” Pyro mumbled something. 

Elliott scowled and folded her arms. "Well! I'm going. I don't know why I even helped you guys. Soft-hearted weaklings," she muttered. 

Clea frowned and a weak red glow filtered faintly from under her visor. "Oh no you don't. I saved your life, you ungrateful little-" Pyro frantically mumbled and was ignored. 

Elliott put her hands on her hips. "Oh, so now I owe you something? Is that how it goes? You save my life, I save yours? Well listen up, sunshine, cause you would never have gotten out of that prison without me!" Xena snorted threateningly and Sen stood by Elliott's side. "I cannot believe you! You're all 'independent' and angsty, so you can't even accept help? And you've done hardly anything for us!" Elliott's eyes hardened. Well, they went more steely than they already were. "I didn't ask to get locked up with you! I was only there because Sen was threatened! I'm out of here! Fend for yourself, demon-girl." Clea became very still. "What did you just call me?" Elliott sneered. "You heard me! Or is deafness part of being evil?" Pyro whimpered and clutched its pet tighter.

Pyre didn't understand! Why were they being harsh? This was the first time something like that had happened….. it wasn't fair, it WASN'T! Why, why, why? Why were they arguing? It wanted to go home…. It wanted to see Engie and Medic and Sniper and Miss Pauling. Heavy, Solly, Spy, Demo…. Even Scout. What it would give to hear the Announcer’s voice yelling at them again. 

Clea could feel her wings beginning to unfurl. “I. Am. Not. Evil. You’re disrespecting Claire by saying that! And all her work with Althea! I - We! We are not evil!” Elliott laughed, irritatingly. “Oh, right, right. Sorry - I just thought, with your history of being a demon, and everything~” Clea’s lip curled. “Alright, you shut up now.” Elliott raised an eyebrow. “Also a side effect? You think you’re above everyone else?” Pyro whimpered again and Clea’s anger surged. “Now look what you’ve done! Pyro’s upset!” Elliott snarled. “You started this!” Clea remained silent for a while. 

Elliott sniggered at seeing such a simple rebound silence Clea. The idiotic girl would not leave her alone. It was quite funny, if she was being honest. “Come on Sen, we’re going.” Sen took her hand and they began to vaporize into purple particles. Clea growled and reached for them, Xena rushing forward as well - Pyro joining in and touching Elliott’s shoulder, with its buddy on its back, arms wrapped around its neck. Then they all teleported. 

[bestlaptopreviews]

How to Find the Best Programming Laptop under 60000 in India?

Can’t find the one laptop right fit for your programming projects within a specific budget? Well, there are many options available in India from renowned brands and that too with different price tags. And, we are sure that there are plenty of names under your budget as well. All you need to do is search through the trending laptops and find the one you think would be great for your purposes. Since websites and applications have become a must in the businesses world, demands for programmers has increased worldwide. And, so the demand for a robust laptop to do the work. Most of the robust laptops whether gaming or not, are equipped with advanced specs that makes the laptops costlier than the regular ones. But that does not mean that you cannot find a good laptop for coding within your budget. With in-detail research and survey through the latest laptops in Indian gadget market, we have sorted out some basic criteria to help you find the best programming laptop under 60000. Continue reading the blog post to know more.

But why would you invest on a programming laptop at first?

Before we move forward with the criterions to find the best coding laptops under 60k, you may have already thought about getting a gaming laptop. Right? This is one of the legit thoughts we all get whenever we need a robust laptop under a budget. Well, the answer is no. Just because you are a developer, that does not mean that you need to have a gaming laptop. It is true that all the gaming laptops are powerful and can handle almost all the intense tasks as they are built for this. But apart from this, think about the expense. A gaming laptop won’t fit in your purposes if you have a specific budget in your mind. There are many gaming laptops under a budget but they are lower quality than the ones actually meant for gameplay. This means you have to high up the budget if you want to get a gaming laptop, otherwise, you will be stuck with a low quality gaming machine. But the best part is, you will get plenty of programming laptops without even increasing your budget. We guess, now you have known the answers that why a programming laptop should be your first priority when it comes to writing codes but not a gaming laptop.

Now when we are all set, we will start with the step-by-step guide to find the best programming laptop under 60000 in India by matching the ideal specs criterions for programming laptops.

So, what are the minimum specs requirements for programming laptops under 60000?

Straight to the point, there are five internal specs we will discuss in this blog post. These five parts are the most vital things in a laptop regardless of the purposes. Following are those,

A. First, we will start with the processor of the laptop. The CPU or Central Processing Unit is the brain of the computer. It controls everything in the computer along with the way it will act on the inputs given by you. Apart from this, a decent CPU is a must for working on any intense tasks such as programming. Without a powerful processor, writing and testing codes will not be lag free. We think a 10th/11th generation i5 core or modern generation AMD Ryzen 5 processor with at least 4 cores, 8 threads, 6 MB cache memory, and up to 3.5 GHz clock speed.

B. Next, we will move forward to the RAM, one of the most important specs to consider for programming laptops. It is because fetching data from RAM is easier than had disks. RAM can store the data and information of the currently running apps. Besides, it is faster than hard disks when it comes to storing data. Without adequate RAM, you won’t be also able to run any IDEs on the laptop to test codes.

C. Display comes to the third position in the laptop that we need to check beforehand to be sure that it is the right machine. There is no direct connection between programming and display. But without a good display, you cannot be able to see the codes you are writing. And, therefore, make sure that the laptop display is large enough for your viewing. A 15.6 inches display will be the ideal for programming. Along with that, also check the display resolution. We suggest that choosing anything lower than the full HD resolution (1920 x 1080) will be a mistake.

D. The next thing you should consider in a programming laptop is its storage. Often we think of this part as a storing specs in the laptop, but in real it is more than that. An ample space is not only necessary in your laptop for storing your files, but also for the computer speed. Make sure that your laptop has enough space. SSDs are better than HDDs, as they are fast and reduce mechanical failures. At least a 512 GB SSD would be ideal for a programming laptop under 60000. Other than that, you can opt for a hybrid storage option with 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SSD.

E. The last internal specs we will consider in the coding laptop is its graphics. You won’t need a dedicated GPU for developing websites and applications. But that does not mean that you can overlook the GPU of the laptop, because GPU does not only handle the graphical parts in the laptop. It also reduces the CPU workload by 50% and allows it focus on other important tasks. Any integrated Intel or AMD GPU will be enough for coding unless you are a game developer. For that, you will be needing a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD GPU with at least 4 GB VRAM.

Last but not least,

Finding a programming laptop is not at all hectic anymore since programming has become one of the trending career options worldwide. Besides, there are tonnes of options around India from renowned brands. But if you have a limited budget, it will feel a bit tough to find the one that fit in your needs without any issues. Well, we have already sorted this for you. The above-mentioned points will help you find the best programming laptop under 60000 in India.

[bitcoinminershasrate]

Chia Network (XCH) Mining: Guide |Profit | Best Coins | Set Up| SSD & HDD disk

Chia Network (XCH) Mining: Guide |Profit | Best Coins | Set Up| SSD & HDD disk - Today we will show you how to start mining Chia. You've probably heard about a new virtual coin that claims to be the "Bitcoin killer". For experienced miners, this phrase will cause a skeptical grin. Yes, for over 10 years of the history of the digital industry, many such desperate "matadors" have tried to take the place of the patriarch of cryptocurrencies. They all failed. Some joined the large army of altcoins, that is, digital coins of the second rank, while others have sunk into oblivion forever. Let's look at what the next rival of the Satoshi Nakamoto coin is. Green money for the digital world is the name of the page dedicated to the new Chinese blockchain startup Chia on reddit.com. Chia disk mining became popular even before the coin appeared on exchanges, and this is not at all surprising. Bitcoin steadfastly holds the $ 50,000 bar and many reproach themselves that they have not once mined a few coins for themselves on a regular PC. And then suddenly a magician arrives in a blue helicopter and loudly declares that all is not lost. A new lucrative coin has appeared and mining Chia on SSDs and hard drives will bring you fabulous profits. Chia cryptocurrency mining Chia cryptocurrency mining Chia is one of the newest cryptocurrencies that debuted this year. The project was founded by Bram Cohen (who also invented BitTorrent ) with the main goal of becoming the most energy efficient digital asset. Chia mining farm uses storage resources to process cryptography, rather than the processing power of graphics adapters or integrated circuit devices like more common blockchain currencies such as BTC and ETH. And, so mining Chia coins is a banal plotting, experienced miners will say, so what is revolutionary here? Well, firstly, the requirements for mining Chia are much higher than those of previously launched cryptocurrencies with a similar method of generating new blocks. And secondly, no such project has caused so much hype. Over the past few weeks, Chia's popularity has grown so rapidly that it has caused a shortage of hard drives and SSDs in China that could soon be repeated in the US and around the world. The reason for this is a very well-run marketing campaign. Key points in favor of a new blockchain project: - If cryptocurrencies with no fundamental value, such as Dogecoin , rise in value fueled by the hype (Dogecoin has no limit on the number of coins and can inflate infinitely), then it seems likely that the price of Chia will rise as its popularity grows. The emission of a new digital asset is strictly limited and amounts to 21 million coins, like Bitcoin. - Chia uses the new Proof of Space and Time, or PoST , consensus algorithm , which essentially proves that you have unallocated space on your hard drive / SSD that can be used to create rafts. This is a big improvement, in terms of efficiency, over proof of work. When writing the source code for this cryptocurrency, the no less unique programming language Chialisp was used. Whether Chia will be able to squeeze Bitcoin , or at least take its rightful place among altcoins, is anyone's guess. But let's go directly to the main topic of our review and look at how to start mining the Chia coin. At the time of the review, he had already entered the auction, so we will be able to calculate a very real, and not a hypothetical profit. Chia mining calculator can be opened by following the link https://chiacalculator.com/ . Mining XCH can be compared to farming. The miner downloads specialized software from the official website of the project https://www.chia.net/ru/ and conducts a "sowing campaign" on his storage devices. Each sown sector is called a plot, which in English means "a piece of land", but its owner is called a "farmer." To generate a new block, the system broadcasts a set of codes to the farmers and each of them checks its plot in search of a suitable hash sum. The more “sown fields” you have, the higher the chances of closing the block. But at the same time, your iron must be sufficiently productive, otherwise the process of seeding the rafts will be greatly delayed and farmers with more efficient "agricultural equipment" will constantly outstrip you. When using proof of time (Proof of Time), the period of broadcasting calls between blocks should be as short as possible. After all, proof of time is implemented in practice using a Verifiable Delay Function (VDF). Cryptographic calculations take a certain period of time, but are verified instantly. The key idea of ​​the Verifiable Delay Function is the need to perform sequential computational operations on many parallel nodes, each of which is equivalent. At the same time, energy costs are minimized. The fastest and most powerful nodes of the network will be called Timelords (Time Lords). The developers assume that there will not be very many such VDF servers, which will exclude the appearance of controversial blocks. The fastest timelord will consistently finish first, That is, unlike Bitcoin, which was initially mined on almost any dual-core CPU, the hardware requirements for Chia mining are initially quite high , and with the growing popularity of green coins, they will be even more serious. So what does it take to build a farm? Chia mining hardware Chia mining hardware According to the developers, any user with a desktop computer, laptop, mobile phone or account in the corporate network can participate in XCH farming. You just need to install the necessary software and have enough free space to create at least one raft, and then you can find the hash sum to close the next block and get a reward. Theoretically, this is quite possible, but it happens very rarely. Ready assembly for mining Chia To receive a guaranteed income from mining Chia, you need: - Quad-core processor with a clock speed of 1.5 GHz; - 2 GB of RAM; - Hard disk with a minimum capacity of 1TB. It would seem that everything is very simple and inexpensive, but you are unlikely to earn anything on such an assembly. Here is one of the budget build options for Chia farming presented on the Miningclubinfo forum: - Motherboard the GIGABYTE B550 AORUS the MASTER ; - Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X ; - SEAGATE Ironwolf Pro ST16000NE000 hard drive , 16 TB, HDD, SATA III, 3.5 ; - Hard drive WD Purple WD82PURZ, 8 TB, HDD, SATA III, 3.5 ; - SSD SAMSUNG 980 MZ-V8V1T0BW 1 TB, M.2 2280, PCI-E x4, NVMe ; - Memory module PATRIOT Viper Steel PVS464G300C6K DDR4 - 2x 32GB 3000, DIMM, Ret, 2 strips of 32GB each, frequency 3000MHz. With this set of components you can get to work. Although the total volume of hard drives is, of course, small and with a 1TB SSD, 32GB of memory will be used inefficiently. This miner will soon have an urgent need for additional areas for "seeding". Let's take a closer look at the hardware selection process. Choosing an SSD and HDD disk In the XCH mining farm (this is the trading ticker of the Chia cryptocurrency), the most important element is the disk drive. Winchesters smaller than 1 TB are not worth considering . It is not recommended to buy devices with a spindle speed lower than 7200 rpm. We need capacious and fast HDDs with SATA3 interface. They are used directly to create rafts, each of which will be the standard 101.4Gib size. Disks will be formatted with NTFS, APFS, exFAT, ext4 file systems. But the FAT system is not suitable for plotting. SSD drives are used to create temporary files, which are then "seeding". They have faster read / write speeds, which greatly improves your chances of being the first to find the next block. You can buy both SSD with SATA3 interface of any standard size (2.5 inches or M.2), and NVMe SSD connected to M.2. But keep in mind that different M.2 connectors on the motherboard support different types of SSD (both SATA and NVMe). Read the motherboard specification carefully so as not to waste your money . There are also more expensive server drives with increased wear resistance on sale, but we will not seriously consider them for now. It is not known how the fate of this crypto project will turn out, therefore, the costs of creating a farm are greatly overestimated. Also, pay attention to the recording method. It is best to take ordinary disks that work according to the CMR scenario. But drives using SMR are slow and less reliable . The best choice is size 3.5. 2.5 laptop disks have worse mechanics, which means they have less resource. You can still buy a 1Tb WD Purple HDD for 4450 rubles. Larger drives are already slowly snapping up. As for the auxiliary SATA SSD, we advise gamers to leave the models with QLC memory . MLC flash drives are ideal, but TLC-based SSDs can be used to save money. An equally important component is the controller. Firstly, it must support a DRAM buffer, and secondly, it must withstand multiple data rewrites without failures. We can recommend SATA controllers Samsung, Silicon Motion (not XT), Marvell 88SS1074 . If you decide to buy NVMe, then keep in mind that in this type of drives the controller gets pretty hot and requires additional cooling. Otherwise, follow the same requirements as for SATA SSD. To maximize the lifespan of SSDs, it is strongly recommended that you do not fill more than 85% of the total volume. Consider this when buying. And don't forget to buy another additional small SSD that will host the operating system. This is a mandatory requirement, otherwise mining will not start.https://www.youtube.com/embed/bh-lOQ7ligs?wmode=transparent&rel=0&feature=oembed CPU Chia Farm doesn't need an expensive gaming CPU. A stone operating at a frequency of 3 GHz and cooled by an ordinary boxed cooler is enough. It should have a minimum of 4 cores, and preferably 6 (or a maximum of 8), and integrated graphics. Of course, you can connect a video card, but then you will occupy a PCI-e slot, which in the future could be useful for connecting another hard drive. For example, Intel Core i5-9400F BOX RAM Put more memory, minimum 2 GB. But 16 GB is better, and serious farmers immediately put 32 GB. Two 16 GB DDR4 strips with a frequency of 3200 MHz will be enough. Motherboard The most important thing when choosing a motherboard is SATA3 and USB 3.0 support. It should have as many ports as possible for connecting the HDD. Old boards from the secondary market will not work, buy modern ones. For example, MSI Z390-A Pro . Installing the official program So, you decided to start mining the Chia token, built the farm and installed the OS. What's next? Now you need to download a complete copy of the blockchain. Go to the official website https://www.chia.net/ and press the green button " Install Chia Blockchain ". Direct download link for Windows client: https://download.chia.net/latest/Setup-Win64.exe Installing the official program You will see the project page on the Github service, where you can download a full node compatible with your operating system. We must pay tribute to Chia's team, they are not busy with efficiency. The coin has appeared quite recently, and software has already been released for almost all popular axes. Full nodes are available for: - Windows (64bit); - macOS; - Ubuntu / Debian; - CentOS / Red Hat / Fedora; - Raspberry Pi 4; - Docker; - FreeBSD Install; - Ubuntu Binary Install; - OpenBSD Install. For advanced users, there is special software to run the Chia node in a virtual environment, for example, on an Amazon cloud server. Since the Chia code signing certificate is new, the software will be classified as "insecure". You will have to forcibly save the download, and when you start the installer, you will need to select "Additional information" and " Run anyway ". Purse Well, where to store coins, someone newcomers will ask. Like any other cryptocurrency, a full Chia node is a copy of the blockchain and a wallet that will receive rewards after you start mining. Setting up plotting Plotting is divided into two stages: creating parcels or, to put it another way, plotting, and processing parcels. The first step creates all of your evidence of free space by building seven cryptographic hash tables and storing them in a temporary directory. Then this data is sorted and packed in a temporary directory and after that the dataset is moved to the final destination on the HDD. Choosing the size of the raft (plot) First you need to choose a size. The best option is k32, it will take up 108.8GB and will require 256.6GB of temporary SSD space to create it. Specify the number of rafts based on the size of one site and the amount of bins.  You can tune the hardware for maximum performance using the "Advanced Settings" section. To reduce the load on the RAM, you can add more "baskets", that is, split the temporary file into a larger number of fragments. But keep in mind that the more baskets, the stronger the load on the SSD. Therefore, if you have 32 GB of RAM, it is better to reduce the number of baskets, on the contrary, by reducing the number of I / O requests for temporary files. The number of processor threads depends on the number of simultaneously created rafts. 1 section needs 1 stream. It is better not to touch the "Disable bitfield" item. Reverse sorting by bit field is faster and saves up to 12% of the total number of writes, although it requires more RAM. "Queue name" can also be omitted. But when errors appear in the plotting log, the queue name will help you figure out exactly when the failure occurred. Chia Network (XCH) Mining Guide After everything is set up, click " Create a parcel " and the process of creating a raft will be launched. It can last from 4 to 12 hours, depending on the parameters of your equipment. Parallel seeding To get the maximum number of TB per day, you can build several graphs in parallel. The key is to correctly calculate the capacity of your farm based on the size of the parcels, the space for temporary files, the number of processor threads, and the amount of RAM.https://www.youtube.com/embed/dG6yWOjSbFk?start=66&wmode=transparent&rel=0&feature=oembed Popular bugs - Let's talk about the pitfalls that inexperienced users most often come across. - Remember to set your power supply to maximum performance. If the computer goes into hibernation, the process will have to start over. The same goes for blackouts. - The path to the storage and the temporary folder cannot be written in Cyrillic, the program understands only the Latin font. - Be sure to create a separate directory on the disk, you can't just write Disk C, the program will not understand you - Always run the Chia node as administrator. If a failure occurs, then first try restarting the plotting, and if it does not help, delete the program folder in Windows / Users and then start the process again. We have listed the simplest mistakes of beginner miners, let's move on to more complex cases. Error RuntimeError: Unknown exception occurs for various reasons. It can be: - Russian letters to indicate the path to the directory. - Placement of the folder for temporary files on the same disk with the operating system. - Incorrect distribution of iron resources. An error often occurs related to insufficient memory on disk for plotting. Carefully calculate the allowed number of rafts, otherwise at the end of the log you may see the message RuntimeError: bad allocation . On a 1TB SSD, you can create a maximum of 3 parcels at a time. If you did not listen to our recommendations and nevertheless checked the "Disable bitfield" checkbox, then it is quite possible that the error Caught plotting error: Bitfield plotting not supported by CPU will appear . Uncheck this box and you should be fine. It is recommended to check the finished sections for integrity using PowerShell. Open the program and point to: C: Users "Username" AppData Local chia-blockchain app-1.1.2 resources app.asar.unpacked daemon And then rewrite the path, indicating the drive and the name of the folder in which the generated rafts are located. If there are no errors, everything is in order, the "broken" area needs to be re-seeded, otherwise it will not yield a crop. If there is no synchronization, try deleting all available connections in the program interface. They will automatically update and areas synced to the network will be highlighted in green. In principle, you can start creating new rafts even before the end of the synchronization of your node. To speed it up, try opening port 8444 on your computer and on your router. Available exchanges for selling coins As of 05/12/2021, Chia cryptocurrency can be exchanged on the following exchanges: - Gate.io; - OKEx; - XT.COM; - MXC.COM; - BKEX; - DigiFinex; - LBank; - AOFEX; - Bibox. The current exchange rate, current exchange pairs and other information are available at https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/chia-network/markets . Profitability and payback But is the game worth the candle? How profitable is the mining of this cryptocurrency? Recently, an article was published on the Overloker.ru portal entitled: "It's too late to get Chia Coin." The author calculated that to build the Chia mining farm, which will bring in 1 coin in 18 hours, the farmer must spend at least 1,200,000 rubles or $ 16,263 at the current exchange rate. However, he assumed that one coin would cost $ 30. However, on May 12, one Chia token was sold on OKEx for $ 1069, and a couple of days before that the rate was even higher. The truth and complexity of mining is constantly growing and at the time of this writing, such a farm will mine one coin in three days. But still, the profitability is beyond praise. Smallholder farmers have already started to pool themselves. Look for available ones at https://miningpoolstats.stream/chia . Calculation calculator Сhia mining calculator will help to calculate the current profit. You can find it here . All you need to do is drag the slider and set the number of rafts you are sowing to see the approximate time in which you can earn one coin. Conclusion Whether the Chia cryptocurrency will be able to replace Bitcoin is hard to say. While this is far from a fact, and most likely unlikely. But for a long time already in the blockchain industry there was no project that caused such a violent reaction from the media. At the time of writing this article, the hashrate of this network was 3.88 EB (4019898.88 TB). Three weeks ago, ten times less. If things go on like this, the price of hard drives will skyrocket, and if the project goes bankrupt, then the losses of miners will be enormous. True, it is worth noting that Chia is far from the only crypto coin available for plotting, there are 8 more similar projects. However, you shouldn't expect instant surplus profit. Chia is more and more difficult to mine, equipment is becoming more expensive and liquidity is not too high. If the green coin is listed on Binance and a couple of other reputable exchanges, then you can safely invest in mining, or simply add it to your investment portfolio. However, the opinion of the author of the article should not be considered the ultimate truth. Whether or not to invest in this project is a private matter for everyone. Good luck to you! Read the full article

[multi-fandom-writers]

(Written by Admin Jad)

"Finished!" yelled Edward as he placed the last domino piece in its position. Mikey and Kaz - who were both playing video games at the time - turned to face Edward.

"Wow, Ed." Kaz said half-heartedly, followed by sarcasm. "That's amazing... " He removed his headphones from his ears. The headphones left a red mark around his ears, just neighbor the sideburns of his blonde hair.

"Behold, my art!" said Ed as he tipped the first piece over. The domino pieces spread around Ed's bedroom started tipping over in a chain reaction. The ebony colored plastic rectangles made a satisfying 'tick' noise with each peace that fell over. When the final piece was finally knocked over, Ed turned to face his two friends, hoping for some praise. But the two already returned their attention to the screen. "You could at least pretend to be interested!" Ed stood up and stomped his foot.

"Sorry," Mikey said. "I don't lie." He laughed and high-fived Kaz.

"Nothing personal, Ed, we're just not -" Kaz wanted to stand up and place a hand on Ed's shoulder. However, his legs - which fell asleep - failed him. He started tipping over. He tried to hang on to Mikey, but he ended up dragging him down with him. As a last resort, he grabbed on to Ed. The three of them tumbled to the floor, and over the painful pile of dominoes. A series of cursing filled the room.

"Why did you pull us down with you?!" yelled Ed. He rubbed his back in pain. The other two did the same.

"If I fall, we all do! First rule of the Bro Code!" he explained.

Mikey raised a finger. "Isn't the first rule: bros before -" He didn't finish that sentence. The bedroom door was kicked open. An angry woman holding a bar of soap held her hands at her waist. Her face held an angry and stern expression.

"M-mom!" stuttered Ed.

"There will be no cursing in this house!" For the remainder of the evening, the three teens had their mouths scrubbed with a bar of soap over and over.

<~>

"From now on, we're hanging out at my place." said Kaz as soon as he boarded the school bus. He spoke without context, so everyone except Mikey and Ed were confused.

"You got dominoes?" asked Ed, perking up at the voice of his friend. Kaz rolled his eyes and sat next to the pair at the very back of the bus. The three vividly discussed video games and anime throughout the bus ride, occasionally yelling some unintelligible words.

They arrived at the school, suddenly overcome with a feeling of dread and remorse. They fought the urge to leave. A banner hanged over the green double doors. 'School Pep Week!" it read, accompanied by the picture of a roaring lion; the school's mascot.

Coming inside, the three saw flyers taped to every locker in sight, with cheerleaders parading through the halls. "This is dumb." said Mikey. "And useless." He fiddled with a fidget spinner in his left hand, which completely undermined his entire argument.

While ridiculing the school event, a leg shot out from behind a corner, tripping Ed in the process. He landed flat on his face. "Oops. Sorry about that Eddy." said a voice. A tall individual, nearly twice the size of Ed, appeared. He wore a red letterman jacket in addition to a menacing grin.

"Ed, you're bleeding!" warned Mikey. He pointed to the blood slowly streaming from Ed's nostrils. The tall individual saw this as an opportunity. He took out a crumpled napkin from his pants pocket and wiped the blood off Ed's nose. He then proceeded to shove it up the nostril, making Ed yelp in pain. The yelp of pain alerted another individual just around the corner.

"Simon Evans!" yelled the principal. "For the love of God All Mighty, stop it with these shenanigans or so help me, I'll have you expelled!" he warned.

"Won't happen again, sir." said Simon. A cold sweat ran across his cheek. Once the authority figure was out of sight, Simon shoved Ed into the wall. "See you around, Eddy." Even when entering the sea of students, the letterman still stood out.

"You ok?" asked Kaz, offering a clean napkin. Ed gladly took it, discarding the blood-covered one.

"No," he complained. "I'm not."

"You really shouldn't let him bully you like that."

"What am I supposed to do? The dude is twice my size. The principle may act strict but he won't expel his star quarterback. What can I do?"

"Yolo it, I guess." He chuckled. Upon entering homeroom, Ed immediately noticed something was off. For once, there was no paper files, no chalk, and no grading book on the teacher's desk. Ed knew the teacher wasn't absent, for he saw her not a few minutes ago in front of the teacher's lounge.

He took his seat in the second-to-last row and dropped his bag at his side. He entered his dreamscape; started imagining and re-imagining arguments that would never happen. The national anthem blared through the class speaker, for which they all stood. Once the last lyric was chanted, the principal's blurred voice replaced the silence. "Students: First of all, I would like to congratulate our football team for making it to nationals." The class cheered. "And because of that wonderful accomplishment, a pep rally will be held for the entirety of the day. Thank your class representatives and pep committee for that decision."

Books and loose pieces of paper were thrown into the air in celebration. Students shot up from their seats and started dancing. "Sit back down!" yelled the Math teacher. "You lot are two lessons behind schedule! You're going to study for half the day!" And so they did.

The lunch bell rang. The students rushed outside the classrooms, escaping from the torment of education. "Get back here!" the teacher called after them. "The bell doesn't dismiss you! I do!" She was ignored.

Ed quietly took his lunch to the stairwell, where peace and quite rained supreme. "What'cha got there, Eddy?" asked Simon, leaning over Ed's shoulder. Ed jolted upwards, dropping his lunch in the process. "You almost got me in trouble today." he said as he took a few steps forward. "Almost." He pushed Ed into the corner. He forcefully placed his hand on Ed's face. "This time, take what you have coming for you, quietly." A heavy blow landed on Ed's cheek. Then another on his stomach. Then another. And another. Ed waved his arms in anger, but hit nothing.

Simon grabbed both hands and pinned Ed to the wall. In a last-ditch attempt, Ed kicked Simon in the unmentionables. Simon flinched. Ed saw an opportunity and rammed into Simon. He tumbled over. Fell on the stairs, then laid motionless on the tiled floor. Ed sat in the corner of the staircase. He saw a pool of blood forming around Simon.

His heart raced. His breathing became shorter and inconsistent. His screeching echoed throughout the halls, yet unheard to others over the noise of their own chatter. Ed trembled in his corner. He drove his head in between his knees in search of refuge. He found none.

Then he ran. Ran down the stairs, tripping over Simon's body. He continued to scamper through the halls, sprinted uphill through the streets which lead to his believed sanctuary; his house.

He thanked his lucky stars that none of his parents were home. He slammed the door of his bedroom and retreated underneath his bed sheets. He was trembling with such intensity that the bed itself shook. After what seemed like an eternity for him, but only ten minutes in the real world, police sirens disturbed the silence in the neighborhood. Ed held his bed sheets tighter. He was relieved when the sirens became distant. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

Eventually, the exhaustion - both mental and physical - caught up to him, and he was overtaken by sleep. "Ed? Ed honey, wake up." said a soft as it gently woke Ed. Though his vision hasn't focused, he recognized the comforting face of his own mother. "Dinner is ready in ten." she said as her hand slightly pinched his cheek, giving it a pinkish tint.

Memories of today's events flooded his mind. He stifled the urge to scream at the top of his lungs. His phone, which was on his bedside, had a beeping red light on the top right corner, meaning he just received an important message.

From his friends: 'where are you?!' From Candy Crush: 'Your energy has refilled.' And from the local news: 'Murder at public high school'.

A wave of nausea washed over him. He stumbled over to the bathroom and leaned over the toilet bowl.    After an excruciating session of vomiting, he managed to calm himself down. But it didn't last for long. The squeaking of car breaks was audible outside.

   Intreeged, Ed peeked through the curtains and immediately regretted it. Two police cruisers were parked in front of his own home.

   They knocked on the wooden front door, loudly. Ed quietly made his way downstairs, making as little noise as possible. He made sure he wasn't visible to anyone who might be watching through the windows. He slowly closed the back door behind him.

   His mother - who was in the kitchen at the time - walked towards the front door. She looked through the peephole, had a moment of confusion, then opened the door.

   "Can I help you officer?" she asked, still lost on what was happening.    "Evenin' Mr.s Breker. Is your son home?" asked the officer.

   "He's upstairs in his room. Why do you need to know?"

   "Eh, there's no easy way to say this but..." The officer scratched the back of his neck. "Your son is the main suspect of the murder of Simon Evans." She froze.

   "It ain't April Fools! My son is scared of butterflies! He ain't about to murder someone twice his size!"    "Ma'am, we have a warrant to take him into questioning." Mr.s Breker stepped aside and ushered them upstairs. "He didn't do nothin'." She repeated.

   Not even a minute later, the officer came rushing back downstairs. "He's not here!"

<~>

   A rapid series of knocks sounded on Kaz's front door. Annoyed, he angrily stomped towards the doors. "What?!" He yelled the moment he opened it. His emerald eyes widened. "Ed! Where were you?! Everything went to shit after you disappeared!" Ed barged into Kaz's home in a rush.

   "The cops are after me, man!" He said nervously as he tried to hold his composure.

   "The cops are not after you, man. Chill out. They're after whoever... killed.... Simon." His eyes widened in realization. "Ed... Did you...?" he said hesitantly. Ed slowly nodded. Kaz took a step backward. "I think you should go..." Kaz said quietly.

   "There's nowhere to go. You're the only person that can help me."

   "Ed, if the cops find it that I was hiding you, they'll arrest me!"

   "But what about what you said? 'If I fall, we all do'?!"

   "We're not like your fucking dominoes, Ed! You act as if your fate matters to us. Well, guess what? It doesn't! You will fall, and you will fall alone!" Kaz pushed Ed out the front door. Ed tumbled over on and fell on the grass. He held back the tears as he disappeared into the night.

    Overnight, fifteen-year-old Edward Breker had completely disappeared. Or rather, that's what everyone thought.

Nearly a week after Ed's disappearance, the wall phone at Kaz's residence rang.

"Hello?" answers Kaz.

"Kaz." said a panting voice.

"Ed?" he exclaimed. "H-how's it goin' man?" He stuttered.

"I'm skipping town. Tonight."

"R-really? Where are you goin'?"

  "I can't say. But hey, listen. Let's meet up at the Spot. All three of us.   "Why do you want to meet there?"    "One last hangout, I guess."

"S-sure... I'll call Mikey and we'll bring some Mountain Dew, I guess."    Kaz hung up. He turned and faced the officer who was listening to the conversation. "It's him." He said. "He wants me to meet him at the Cliffside." The officer dialed a number on his flip phone and held the phone to his ear.

   "We got 'em."

<~>

   Kaz and Mikey walked through the Red-Wood forest, with a six-pack of Mountain Dew in hand. From a distance, they saw Ed's ragged figure sitting on a piece of land outstretched from the rest of the cliff overlooking the sea.

    The Spot.

   "Ed." They called out to him. His head turned in a fast, robotic manner, as if he was possessed. He brandished a smile at the sight of his two friends. They sat next to him, and each opened up a bottle of Dew.

   "Been a while since we all came here." Said Kaz, followed by a sip.

   "It really has." replied Ed.

   "Ed." Mikey said as he put a hand on Ed's shoulder. Ed immediately flinched but then calmed down. "Did you really kill Simon." Ed reluctantly but surely nodded his head.

   "I did." Kaz and Mikey turned and faced each other. They nodded. The sound of heavy footsteps crushing the fallen leaves was loud enough for Ed to hear. He jolted up from his place and focused his attention at the source of the noise.

Flashlights cut through the darkness of the night. The barks of the K-9 units were audible.

  Heartbroken, Ed faced his friends. Kaz raised his shirt, revealing a communication device strapped to his stomach. "I'm sorry, man. They forced us to do it."

   Half a dozen officers had their guns trained on Ed. "Freeze!" Ed relaxed his body. He raised his hands upwards. Two officers approached him.

   "Do I at least get to say goodbye?" he asked. The commanding officer on site motioned him to do whatever.

   Ed hugged his two friends, an arm around each of them.

   "NO homo!" They all yelled in unison, followed by a series of laughs.

"One more thing." said Ed. His arms still enveloped his two friends.

   "Which is?"

   "If I fall, we all do!" He yelled as he leaned his weight over the side of the outreach. His two friends were dragged along with him. They fell into free fall until meeting their fate at the hand of the jagged rocks below.