#Anyways this was Delightful to draw- all the cross hatching killed my hand a little but it was WORTH IT Fuse's head fuzz looks incredible

[chocolatewoosh]

🔥 B U R N 🔥

[youngster-monster]

Day sixteen // Thrill

Uldren and Jolyon are two extremely competent men, the Master of Crows and his right-hand man. They’re the two best shot in the Reef, they regularly run some of the most dangerous missions the Queen can give them. There isn’t much left in the system that can scare them.

Or at least that’s what Jolyon tells himself. It’s a good way to keep the panic at bay while they’re legging it through dark, Hive-infested corridors, desperately looking for an exit. His rifle is heavy on his shoulder, hitting him in the back of his thighs at each step, but the pain is far preferable to what the Hive would inflict on them if the Thralls at their heels caught up with them. He clutches the strap crossing his chest like his life depends on it. It does: if it slides off his shoulder and he trips on his own gun, he’ll die, and in the most pathetic way possible at that.

“See, I told you I’d bring you somewhere interesting!”

He doesn’t look back at Uldren, only tugs on his hand, urging him to go faster.

“Less talking,” he gasps, out of breath, “More running!”

They round a corner, ducking under the disgusting, organic growth covering every surface of this Hive hideout. Jolyon’s foot catches on the uneven floor and he trips, winces as hot pain shoots up his leg. Uldren lets go of his hand. For an irrational, heart-stopping second, he thinks the prince is going to keep running, leave him behind to get eaten by the Hive or whatever terrible fate they have in store for the two of them. Then Uldren’s hand closes around his upper arm, hauling him up and after him.

Jolyon’s ankle hurts. It’s sprained, probably. He keeps running anyway. It’s just another pain to add to the tally, with the chemical burn on his side from a cursed thrall exploding too close to him. They’ve been surprisingly good at avoiding wounds in their mad dash out of danger, but it won’t last. Already his chest burn with exertion and his leg aches with increasing pain. They won’t be able to keep going for much longer.

How did they even get themselves in that situation? They’re good at their job, usually. Going in and out of enemy strongholds like it’s a walk in the park. But they’d been complaining about boredom too much lately. The Ahamkara must have heard.

Damn. He’s never saying anything again about patrol duty. Anything is better than running away from a horde of bloodthirsty thralls in the middle of Hive territory.

Uldren aims blindly behind them and empty a full magazine in their pursuers. One of the bullets hits a cursed thrall. The following shock wave as half a dozen of them explode send them stumbling forward, propelled by the impact. The flash of light briefly blinds Jolyon and he follows Uldren without thinking as he makes a sharp turn left.

He hits a corner with his momentum but doesn’t slow down. Uldren drags him forward, lets go only to scramble up a wall. Jolyon follows as fast as he can, biting his lip until it bleeds to smother his cry of pain as he rests his weight on his sprained ankle. He comes up just in time to see Uldren clear out a gunked hatch with a few kicks, the sound covered by the groaning of the Hive chasing them.

They crawl inside, Jolyon first then Uldren, scooting backward with his gun pointed to the direction they came from. It’s not an air duct, as Jolyon expected. More like a cupboard, filled with rusty pipes. Uldren carefully puts the hatch back in place and they squeeze next to each other, still panting with exertion.

The first thing Jolyon says, once he can get more than a few stammered words out, is, “We’re supposed to be more competent than that.”

Uldren chuckles breathlessly. All the tension seems to drain out of him and he slumps against Jolyon, his head thumping against his shoulder.

“At least it’s not boring,” he whispers back.

Jolyon groans, pushes him weakly. “It’s your fault.”

“Why?” Uldren asks, eyes twinkling with laughter.

“You’re the one always complaining about how boring our assignments are. Didn’t your sister warn you about careless wishes?”

He says it like a joke, but winces when he sees Uldren’s face fall at the mention of Mara. He doesn’t get the time to apologize, though. His body chooses that moment to remind him that everything hurts, actually, and he hisses through his teeth as pain shoots up his leg and through his chest.

The somber look is wiped from Uldren’s face, replaced by worry as he sits up.

“You okay, Jol?”

“M’fine, just-” He closes his eyes and rests his head against the wall. Breathes out, slowly. Forces down the pain through sheer force of will. “Got a bit roughed up back there.”

A weight settles on his legs. He watches Uldren through his lashes as the man looks for his wounds, hands hovering over his chest as if he’s afraid to hurt him more. He’s beautiful, even like this, hair plastered to his forehead with sweat, covered in Hive gunk. He tries for a smile and only manages a grimace as he pushes his coat aside to reveal the burn covering his right side.

“Shit,” Uldren hisses. “Looks painful.”

“As long as it’s not my face I don’t care.”

He snorts. “Yeah. Wouldn’t want to ruin your good looks.”

“Aww, you think I look good?”

“Not as good as me, but I’m not asking you for a miracle.”

There’s a pop as he opens his water canteen. Jolyon’s reply is lost when Uldren empties the whole thing over his burn and he has to grit his teeth to keep his scream in. His breathing is ragged by the time the pain subsides. He opens his eyes to glare at the prince.

“This shit will eat right through your flesh if you don’t wash it off.”

“Maybe a little warning, next time?”

“There won’t be a next time. I’ll make sure of it,” Uldren says, voice dark. He rubs comforting circle in his shoulder, his other hand resting on his hips, just under the burn. “How’s the ankle?”

“Sprained. I can walk on it, but-” He trails off, watching Uldren. “Are you okay? It’s not the first time I got hurt. I’m used to it, you know.”

Uldren rubs his forehead, sighing. “I know. I’m just tired. I hate the Hive.”

“Can’t fault you on that. How long before we can move out, you think?”

“Few hours, maybe? I signaled for an evac, we just have to wait for it the reach us.” He shifts his weight slightly, leaning in. “In the meantime, I have a few ideas to keep us entertained...”

Jolyon huffs a laugh. “Really? Here? Do you have a Hive kink or something?”

Uldren doesn’t dignify him with a response. He closes the gap between them, bites his lower lip gently before capturing his lips in a kiss. Jolyon wraps his arms around his shoulders, drawing him in. Uldren hums appreciatively against his mouth. He deepens the kiss and, out of the blue, presses his fingertips in the fresh burn on Jolyon’s side. His pained gasp turns into a moan, swallowed by Uldren.

“Asshole,” he mutters against his lips.

Uldren smirks. “You say that like you’re not enjoying it.”

Jolyon’s hands travel down his back, settle on his ass. He pulls him closer, delights in the sound it elicits. “Quiet,” he whispers. “There won’t be any time to kill if you attract the Hive here and they kill us.”

The prince looks faintly outraged, either at the implication that he’s noisy — which he is, thank the light for soundproofed walls — or that he can’t be quiet if he wants to — which is still up to debate. He opens his mouth to reply—

Jolyon drags him back down in a kiss, smothering his complaints. Maybe they have a few hours to kill, but it might not be enough for all the things he want to do to Uldren. Better get to it quickly.

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Oosh, where has the time gone? It’s hard to figure out whether it’s the weeks or the weekends that go by faster. Either way, they’re going nuts and I’m waaaay behind on my weekly updates. I’ve noted this for the last couple of weeks, sighed, and discovered that it’s now Thursday or something equally ridiculous. And of course, the longer this goes on, the more I have to write and the more impossible it becomes. I guess I’ll have to draw a line under it… This week you’ll only be seeing the things I gave a damn about from the last couple of weeks because otherwise I’ll never finish!

A Rare Moment of Self-Reflection

What I should do is to think a little about why I’m now struggling to do this. In part it’s because this exercise was great at the beginning of lockdown, and gave me a focus. Now, of course, I have a fucktonne of work to do and things are sort of ramping up in other areas of life, like occasionally seeing people in the flesh and stuff. A number of things have helped me keep it together for the last 129 days (I think) of working at home: work, obviously, is my primary routine and aiming to go for a cycle ride beforehand really frames my day. Every Thursday for ages (forever? Who knows) I’ve been hosting a virtual pub for our MissImp weekly regulars (and folks from further afield too, which has been amazing) which has filled my regular evening out slot nicely. Then there’s been the fortnightly We Are What We Overcome webcasts, and the quick chats we have on the off weeks. That handful of regular activity has been great.

I try to keep these posts going because of something we talked about in one of our podcasts: if I’m depressed, I can’t remember any good things I’ve ever done, and if I’m all perky and up then I don’t care about remembering what I’ve been doing. Right now I’m mostly pretty chipper, largely a consequence of being busy and having acquired lots of LEGO recently, so this doesn’t feel important in the same way it did a few months ago. That’s a tricky place for me to be in, because despite occasional dips into glum days, I think I’ve been upbeat for a while now. The longer I’m upbeat, the less likely it feels that I’ll go down, or that I’ll worry about crashing. And that’s actually a decent indicator that I’m going to have a bit of a crash. Keeping track is the whole damn point! Must make more time. 

Anyway… what have I been up to? Well, we’ve seen real live humans on both the last Saturdays, partly in attempt to normalise the new normal, or whatever the pre-second wave era is called, and partly because it turns out that folk want to see us, which is very nice and reassuring. Messing about with my sister and nieces at Highfields Park was a rather fun afternoon, as was eating and drinking at Dovecote Lane park last weekend. That bandstand is perfect, other than it’s brutish tarmac flooring. As I have alluded to earlier, I’m also quite busy at work as we race for the print deadlines for October titles, commission more and more artwork and do general bookstuff. It’s ace really, but is certainly filling my days tightly. We’re not likely to see the office for another month, and that’s OK with me.

I’ve been a rather busy LEGO person too, albeit more “busy” in the sense of “buying” than making much. I did join a LUG though, the Brick Central LEGO User Group. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last couple of years, and though I’m not sure how much time I could feasibly put into big displays and conventions, I’m interested in finding out. Also I got neat printed bricks and bits and pieces when I signed up, so I’m happy with that. I took advantage of the LEGO double VIP points last week to pick up a “few” things, from cute little LEGO Dots and baby dinosaurs to the massive Pirates of Barracuda Bay set. It is all very exciting! I’ve got some random builds I need to take some decent photos of and share them too.  

Big Stuff

Little Stuff

Big Stuff

Watching: The Order, season 2

I can’t deny that this is a low-rent Teen Wolf crossed with the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, themselves low-rent versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and so many more.  I remembered nothing of the previous season, even when we saw the “last time on this thing”, and would have sworn I’d never seen it at all. Nonetheless, this proved to be effective brain chewing entertainment while eating, in the sense of it noticeably degrading one’s braincells. Daft witch academy with neighboring anti-magic werewolves (who turn out to have previously been the witches’ bodyguard or something), but the wolves have all been tricked into being witches, or something. It doesn’t really matter – the entire show is redeemed by the delightful relationship between the four werewolves, which feels very much like how I felt about my university housemates: loving, occasionally fighty and laced with sarcasm and alcohol. Shame the lady werewolf ended up in hell this season. I’m sure I won’t remember this next time either, but if I can be persuaded to watch season 3 I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. 

Reading: The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt

Continuing the really quite wacky steampunk series set in a far-future with multiple species of human (Craynarbians are splendid shelled folk, for example), steammen, and wild action adventure. I have insufficient time to summarise this one, but it covers an Atlantis-alike ancient city in the sky, infernal plots of genius industrialists to take over government, a frightening Borg-like jungle species, savage feral robots, submarine journeys, and so much more. The whole series is an absolute blast and I’m enjoying re-reading them enormously. Get on it.  

Building: LEGO Overwatch Watchpoint: Gibraltar #75975

While I still have almost no idea what Overwatch is (yeah, yeah, I know it’s a game, and my friend Sam has a nice summary on Overwatch here), but I adore the LEGO sets. I’ve had my eye on this one solely because it features a gorilla in a spacesuit. Now that it’s reaching the end of its shelf-life “Watchpoint: Gibraltar” has become more affordable, and on a midnight whim (always the best time to buy LEGO) I ordered…

The minifigs are an utter delight! Check out Pharah (in blue) with that gorgeous gold visor, and Mercy (admittedly with the usual pink-printed-on-black face which never really works that well) with a lovely hair/hat element and lovely printed torso and legs, plus the rather ominous Reaper. I’m guessing he’s the bad guy. The gorilla is apparently named “Winston”. I hadn’t noticed that he’s wearing glasses, but he’s rather charming either way.

The build is pretty straightforward: you make a spaceship, which has a couple of separating sections, and the cool but not very exciting gantry/rocket leaning post thing. The spaceship itself is a satisfyingly sleek affair, with cleverly connected sections and very neat work on making the hatch fit flush. Building it felt like a wonderful flashback to my childhood, making largely flat spaceships that feel a little like this, but much less good.

The whole thing looks very pretty, but is inconveniently tall for anywhere I want to put it…

Watching: Derry Girls, season 2

Just marvelous. I can’t recommend this show enough, and I’m thrilled that there’s a third season on the way. Set in, um, Derry, in the 90s, this teenage sitcom is pretty much perfect. In keeping with non-American TV shows about teenagers, this lot actually look like real teenagers – the scowl game is extraordinary. The relationships and dialogue are brilliant, and you can’t help but love them all a little bit. The parents are savage and equally funny (finding Bill Clinton is a particular joy). The costumes are bang-on 90s-hideous and the soundtrack makes me unusually nostalgic.  My only complaint is that there aren’t enough episodes. Not even close. Apparently Netflix screwed up and released this early, so it’s not available any more. Sorry folks!

Building: LEGO Jurassic World Dr Wu’s Lab: Baby Dinosaur Breakout #75939

Jesus Christ, baby dinosaurs! How was I ever supposed to resist? Reader, I did not. Clearly. 

Like many of the licensed sets, especially the Jurassic World theme, there isn’t a lot to this. That said, the build is drawn out by the usual agony of applying stickers to transparent elements, and my desire to get them mostly straight had me turning on extra lights and teasing them into place with a scalpel. The egg turning machine is pleasing, and although I was complaining about applying the stickers, this is a set where they really do shine. The details in them are lovely, from the laptop screen to all the heads up displays, they’re adorable, and I’ll have to find more uses for them.

The figures are reliably cool, and I really like the LEGO Friends elements such as the baby feeding bottle sneaking into the mainstream LEGO sets.  Dr Wu has the most cunning expression, just like in the movies! But none of this matters – all shall be recycled for parts except for the ADORABLE baby triceratops and even babier ankylosaur. Just so goddamn cute. I couldn’t be happier. 

Watching: What We Do in the Shadows, season 2

A show that completely revels in its own stupidity with enormous commitment, we caned this in a single sitting too. Colin, the energy vampire, continues to be my personal favourite, but they’re all pretty great idiots. I’m delighted that the main storyline has turned out to be Guillermo’s, as he learns of his vampire-hunting past and wonders about his future, killing vampires while still being a dedicated familiar. Wonderful nonsense.

Doing: We Are What We Overcome – Fortnightly Mental Health Check-In

We reflected a little on how life has changed with a whole fortnight of being allowed to go to the pub… And here’s the link for next week’s chat.

Watching: Warrior Nun

This is dreadful. OK, that’s not entirely fair, but it’s definitely mostly fair. This is the story of a bunch of nuns who are warriors (duh), fighting demons and stuff. One of the nuns always has an angel’s halo embedded in their back, which makes them a sin-fighting superhero. When a mission goes badly tits up, the warrior nuns rip the halo out of their dead leader and stick it in a recently dead girl… She comes back to life, no longer paraplegic, but certainly perplexed about why she’s alive, why she has superpowers (kinda), and why she should give a shit about the Catholic church. Sounds fun, right. The trailer looks pretty fun too, and there are about 25 minutes of great stuff spread across the entire show, with some fun fights, laughable CGI demons, the one good character (Shotgun Mary) who appears to be in another, much better, show. But the rest of it is bogged down by impossibly tedious exposition where characters literally open books and read endless passages from them, or an agonisingly dull romance, in which the most exciting bits are them sitting on a ferry. The show almost redeems itself with a final heist episode but by that point it’s so laden with cack that I couldn’t bring myself to care. You may enjoy it though.

Doing: MissImp’s Virtual Drop-In – Roberto Lewis

More great and splendid video content right here, on one of my favourite topics — coming in with nothing! (I mean, favourite because I cannot plan…)

Last Week: The Order, The Kingdom Above the Waves, Warrior Nun, Derry Girls, LEGO Overwatch and Jurassic World, We Are What We Overcome and more… I’m quite behind. #books #tv #LEGO #stuff https://wp.me/pbprdx-8GV Oosh, where has the time gone? It’s hard to figure out whether it’s the weeks or the weekends that go by faster.