#I also added a few minor tweaks to the living room

[dire-kumori]

Okay so I... kinda sorta figured out the layout of the first floor. Maybe. The Afton house is basically a Tardis at this point; bigger on the inside. Don’t question it.

Oh, also, I added Fredbear!

[authoressofdarkness]

Guide Me Safely To Shore (Chapter 3)

Peter’s on the floor in a pile of broken glass, wearing the Spider-Man suit, blood leaking from cuts and various injuries on his body. His eyes are drawn to a particularly nasty looking split on his leg, and for a moment he sees red. Rhodey’s hand on his shoulder steadies him, giving it a gentle squeeze that snaps him back into reality. “Bad,” he completes, finishing his thought from the table. “I told you it was going to be bad.”

Notes: So it’s come to my attention that I’m a dumb bitch, and I haven’t updated this here in ages. So. Uh. Yeah. Doing that now. Happy New Year to all my fellow people that follow the general calendar; congrats to everyone for surviving this long. Hopefully it’s all going up from here. 

If you missed the first two chapters, here you go: 1 2 

It is more than a few days, but not by much.

To say that he’d mostly put their meeting out of his mind would be… well, a flat out lie, if he’s being honest. Frankly, he’s spent every free moment practically stalking Peter from a distance. Having men assigned to follow and protect him, watching him himself through the cameras as he goes about the city and during his patrols.

Because of course he’s still patrolling. He wasn’t lying when he told Peter his suit would be waiting for him at home; he’d repaired and done some minor tweaks to it before having it deposited by a drone on the young omega’s bed, but he’d made sure it was returned, all the same. He’s a man of his word, after all, if nothing else. And he hadn’t interfered with his patrols at all, besides monitoring them closely now. Even when the boy interfered with some of his operations. Even if it was pretty irritating.

He’d also began making some basic changes around the tower. Peter is his soulmate; whether they like it or not, nothing either of them will do can change that. So he may as well start reflecting it. He doesn’t want him finally deciding to come after him and being shot down by one of his numerous security measures.

So he inputs Peter’s name and DNA into all of the security, and decreases the safety measures around his personal floors of the tower from above, just in case he decides to come swinging in randomly instead of taking the more normal way up. And on the off chance he actually does decide to take the normal way, he makes sure his name is added to his list of personal contacts, people that are allowed to see him without an appointment and have access to his private elevator to his floors whether he’s there or not.

On his actual floor, he starts setting up a room for him, making sure he has a place to go if he needs it. He doesn’t want to discourage him from showing up by thinking that they have to be sleeping in the same bed immediately; and frankly, he thinks that’s probably a bad idea. He only has so much self control, for starters. But there’s also his night terrors to consider, and he hasn’t slept regularly beside anyone in years, and… yeah, until they’ve gotten to talk in some detail, that’s probably not a fantastic idea. Besides, he wants him to have his own space, to some extent, even if it is where he can keep an eye on him. And he’s still young yet; he may want to have friends over, or at least a personal space to keep the stuff for his hobbies. Tony doesn’t have to be seeing him every second of every day, after all. He just needs to know that he’s safe and taken care of. Preferably in his space, where he’s sure it’s secure, and he’s not much more than a flight of stairs away if something were to happen.

As it turns out, maybe he needn’t have worried so much about the first part.

He hadn’t really considered, admittedly, even for all his genius, that meeting his soulmate might have some physical effects on the young omega. Some… very physical effects. At least, he doesn’t until Peter comes crashing in through his window.

He might have had more of a heads up if he was still stalking him quite as intensively. But the need started to fade a little after the first few days, when he started to figure out more about Peter’s routine: who he was with, what he was doing, whether his family and friends were trustworthy, the area he was living was safe, that he was eating, that he had everything he needed. And for the most part, everything checked out. His friends were clean; his aunt was busy but seemed like a good woman; he lived in a safe enough neighborhood… So by the weekend, he’d backed off, just a little, starting to mainly check in on him at different intervals, and only really watching actively when he went on patrol.

That was his first mistake, probably.

The second was abandoning his normal post watching him almost altogether on Saturday night, when he had company show up unexpectedly.

It’s his own fault, of course. He has precious few people he trusts in the world, and most of them have almost equal access to his security, his information, that he does. So of course, one of them was bound to notice the changes he’d made to his security.

The third was letting that company stay long enough to notice something was seriously up.

He’d say the fourth was having a drink, but the thing is, alcohol doesn’t really affect him anymore, not since the serum. He still occasionally finds himself drinking socially, or reaching for a glass of something strong when he’s particularly stressed or emotionally in turmoil about something, but it’s more of a placebo than anything now. The motion and familiarity of it soothes him more than the alcohol ever could, especially now.

So yeah, he has a drink in his hand when he opens the balcony door, and blinks in surprise when he sees Rhodey, his suit melting away as he takes the invitation to come inside. “I thought you were in California.”

“And I thought alcohol didn’t do anything for you anymore.”

Tony shrugs, taking a long drink of the whiskey in his hand, heading back to the kitchen to refill it. “It doesn’t. I just like the taste.”

“Bullshit. You drink when you have something on your mind.” Rhodey follows him back inside, tilting his head and watching him fiddle with the bottle. “This have anything to do with the kid you added to the security system?”

Tony glances up at him, surprised for just a moment before he shrugs. “Am I getting so easy to read?”

“It’s not a far leap to make. Though the alcohol indicates it’s something bigger than I thought.” Rhodey watches him. “You know I prefer you only set up dangerous traps like this with backup on hand. Why are you trying to make my job harder?”

“Maybe I just like inspiring you to randomly drop in on me. Making your job harder is the only way I get to see you, honey bear. You know I get lonely,” Tony deadpans, deflecting. On the inside, his mind races. He trusts Rhodey with his life, that’s for certain. But is he ready to reveal his hand so soon? He could, but where’s the fun in that?

Rhodes scowls at him. “Tony… really. Come on. Who is he?”

He shrugs and sips his whiskey. “He’s Spider-Man.”

Rhodey’s eyeshadows shoot up on his forehead. “Really. So you thought the best course of action now that you’ve figured out his identity was to make it easier for him to break into your building?”

“Well, he’s also my soulmate, so.” Tony quirks a shoulder again. “Yeah.”

“That’s all well and good, Tony, but you know how I feel about-... wait. What?” The words seem to take a long moment to fully register, and he’s halfway through beginning to lecture Tony about stupid, unnecessary risks just to make captures with a flair when he realizes exactly what he’d said. “He’s your soulmate?”

“Yep.”

“He’s barely an adult.”

“It’s not like I chose it, Rhodey.” Tony sighs, setting his glass down and folding up his sleeve just enough to expose his wrist, the tender skin where the previously ghostly words are now etched in stark black. “Look.”

Rhodey carefully takes his arm to get a better look, then lets out a low whistle as he releases it and leans back. “Damn. I can only assume it didn’t go well?”

“Well, I almost killed him before he said it, so you could say that.”

Rhodey settles down on one of the stools and motions for a glass, apparently deciding that he needed alcohol to continue this conversation. Tony doesn’t blame him. He slides a tumbler across to him and continues as Rhodey pours himself a glass, telling him the full story of the hunt and chase and the revelation as they drink.

“He’s afraid of me now, of course,” Tony murmurs. “But then, who isn’t, really.” He sighs. “I don’t know what to do, Rhodey.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda a shitty situation, Tones. I don’t know.” He shakes his head, swirling the remains of his whiskey around the glass with a thoughtful look. “Is he here, then?”

“No. I released him Sunday.”

Rhodey looks surprised. “ Why would you do that?”

“He didn’t want to be here, Rhodey. He wanted to go home.”

“This is his home now.”

“Maybe legally. But that’s not exactly the way to gain his trust, is it?”

“So? He's your soulmate. Legally, you’re responsible for him now. As his alpha and his elder, concern for his safety should come before anything else. Besides, he’s a liability in about twelve different ways out there. Did you ever consider that?”

“Of course I did! But keeping him prisoner here isn’t going to solve anything. He has to come to me on his own, Rhodey. It doesn’t mean anything if he doesn’t want it. And right now I just want to give him enough time for him to realize I’m not going to murder him outright. He’s already scared of me; any kind of pushing on my part is going to make that worse instead of better, and that’s not what I want.”

Rhodey exhales a long breath, rubbing his forehead. “Yeah, alright. Whatever you say. You’re a reckless, romantic fool at heart, you know that? Just watch yourself, Tony. And you might have to consider the possibility that keeping this... arrangement isn’t going to benefit either of you, let alone both of you.”

Tony shakes his head. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Believe me, my tender heart already hurts,” he deadpans, joking to cover up the fact that it’s not that far from the truth. The bond has a serious pull, even unconsummated, and were he a lesser man in terms of strength of will, things might be looking very different right now. He doesn’t want to acknowledge how close he is to doing something irrational anyway.

“I’m serious, Tony. You know horrible things can happen if you’re apart for too long, especially since you haven’t solidified the bond in any permanent way, yet. You’re supposed to be together more than ever at the beginning, not separate again within hours. The recoil of that is going to be-”

Glass shatters.

They both jump to their feet. Rhodey’s suit reappears in an instant, but while Tony gets up, he doesn’t summon his armor. There was no alarm before the glass broke, which means…

Tony jogs out to the living area with Rhodey hot on his heels. They both stop at the sight.

It’s Peter — of course it’s Peter, no one else would have been able to get so close or so high up without the alarms going off. And the sight of him makes Tony’s instincts scream.

He’s on the floor in a pile of broken glass, wearing the Spider-Man suit, blood leaking from cuts and various injuries on his body. His eyes are drawn to a particularly nasty looking split on his leg, and for a moment he sees red.

Rhodey’s hand on his shoulder steadies him, giving it a gentle squeeze that snaps him back into reality. “Bad,” he completes, finishing his thought from the table. “I told you it was going to be bad.” He heaves a sigh. “I’ll start on cleanup. You take care of your boy.” And with that, he flies out.

Tony spends another moment just staring, unsure how to respond to that for a moment. Peter actually is his boy. Weird.

Then he jumps into action, crossing the floor to him. He’s not wearing shoes, having been in the tower for hours and not intending to go back out, so he lets the suit form just around his feet and ankles, so he can walk on the shattered glass without worry as he approaches him. “Peter? Are you alright?”

The younger man’s head snaps up. “Mr. Stark?” he asks, sounding almost tentative, lenses on the suit indicating his eyes are wide. He’s almost glad he can’t see them, knowing those Bambi eyes would ensnare and distract him in a second.

He wants to tell him to drop the formalities, but it seems like there’s bigger problems at hand right now. “That’s me,” he says instead, forcing a light little half-smile so he doesn’t scare him, furious as he feels. “C’mon, let’s get you out of all this glass, yeah?”

He almost expects the boy to resist, but instead his body practically melts into Tony’s as soon as he reaches for him. He’s surprised, for a moment, and has to readjust his grip to actually take his full body weight instead of just helping him up. He scoops him up, carrying him out of the mess and back into his bathroom. He needs a place to set him where he can get him cleaned up and assess his injuries, and in the middle of the room with all the broken glass seems like a bad idea.

Peter doesn’t move except to curl a little tighter into his chest, and he suddenly realizes the boy is shivering against him. That cold fury rises up in his chest again, but he forces it down, forcing himself not to focus on it, because if he feeds it right now it’ll grow until he can’t hide it and even a hint of it might terrify his young soulmate even more than he already has. And right now he needs him not to be afraid as much as possible, so he can get him taken care of with minimal fighting.

Not that Peter is fighting. In fact, he’s frighteningly pliable in his hands. He sits him on the bathroom counter, gently, tilting his head back to him and watching the lenses widen and close like his eyes are flickering open and closed, in and out of focus. That’s not good.

“Peter.” The lenses flare and fix on him. “I gotta take the suit off to check these injuries out, alright?”

The little whimper that comes from his throat goes straight through him in more ways than one. “Don’t… can’t take it…”

He isn’t sure what he means for a minute, but when he understands, it makes his chest ache. “I’m not taking it. Did I take it from you last time?” Peter shakes his head. “I just want to make sure you’re okay. I can’t do that like this, alright?” The lenses flicker again. “Peter?”

Too late. The boy slumps forward into his arms with a little groan. Tony jumps to catch him, pulling off the mask and frowning when he realizes he’s passed out. Great.

Well, at least it makes his job easier, if not happier.

He moves him to the floor, knowing he won’t be able to effectively hold him up and check him over. Carefully, he gets the suit off again, draping it over the hamper for him to deal with later. It’s going to need cleaning, and a whole list of repairs again. Does he deal with that level of damage to his suit and bodily injuries every time he goes out as Spider-Man? No wonder it takes him so long between patrols sometimes.

From there, he fishes out a first aid kit from somewhere, too focused now to pay much attention to anything besides the unconscious omega on his floor, and sets to work. He has Jarvis scan him so he’s sure he doesn’t miss anything and that he’s not in immediate danger. He’d take him to the hospital wing if necessary, though he’d rather not do that again.

It doesn’t seem to be. There’s a lot of blood and embedded, little shards of glass, but overall the injuries are superficial. Only the cut on his leg looks particularly bad. He probably won’t be able to walk properly until it heals, but Tony isn’t worried about his ability to clean it, so he sets to work.

It’s a tedious process, carefully picking out all the little shards of glass in his skin and then delicately as possible cleaning all his wounds. First with peroxide, sanitizing them, and then getting a warm rag from the tub and effectively sponge-bathing him. He was covered in blood, sweat, and probably some other things Tony didn’t want to acknowledge. He leaves his underwear on — a pretty little pair of panties that don’t leave much to the imagination, though he can hardly focus on that right now with bigger problems obviously at hand — but otherwise cleans him thoroughly before taking off his shirt and draping him in it. It’s huge, goes down to the omega’s knees nearly, but it’s got to be warm and it’s clean and it satisfies that little possessive rumbling inside him, seeing him in his clothes, smelling the way their scents mix. Peter’s is just so soft and sweet — like warm vanilla, with a hint of something that might be strawberries, maybe his shampoo, and something else distinctly omega and Peter that calls to him, though he wouldn’t dream of doing anything about it while Peter is asleep.

He washes his hands and makes quick work of cleaning up most of his mess before returning to scoop the omega up. He’s suddenly extremely thankful for his foresight when he realizes he has a place to take him that isn’t his room, and that he’s actually going to get to put it to good use.

He carries Peter to the room he’d began setting up for him, depositing him on the bed and watching him for a moment. He’s just moving to tuck him in when there’s a quiet tap on the doorframe.

“How is he?” Rhodey asks, quietly, seeming to realize he’s not awake.

“He passed out before we could talk at all,” Tony admits. “So I have no idea what happened to him or how he’s feeling. But I cleaned him up and took care of his wounds. He’s not in any immediate danger.”

Rhodey nods. “I finished cleaning up the mess and blocked off the hole. It’s not gonna be good, of course, you’ll need it professionally fixed, but it’s not a gaping hole now.”

“Thanks, Rhodey.” Exhaustion suddenly slams into him, and he sighs, putting a hand to his head.

Rhodey senses it immediately. “I think it’s time for you to get some rest, man. I know you’re superhuman now and all, but you need sleep still.”

“I know. I just…” Hardly ever sleep. Hardly did in the first place. He does even less, now that his body actually requires less of it, but these past few days… well. Rhodey is right; the recoil effects of this are nothing to scoff at.

“I know.” He claps him on the shoulder. “I’m going down to my room for the night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Tony just nods. He waits for him to disappear, the door closed behind him, before turning back to the bed. He reaches down to tuck Peter in, and is surprised when a hand closes around his wrist, stronger than he had expected.

He tries to pry his hand off as gently as he can, but the omega is having none of it, apparently, grip tightening to the point he can feel the finger-shaped bruises starting to form. A quick glance at his face is enough to confirm that Peter isn’t actually awake. He’s just instinctively seeking him, whether for his heat or by scent or maybe their bond.

It doesn’t really matter. Awake or not, if he wants him to stay, then he’s not going anywhere.

Getting into bed with Peter is probably his final mistake, but it feels too damn right to regret it.

At least until one of them wakes up screaming, and things begin to spiral again.

[everythingsinred]

Let's Talk About NatsuMikan: The Anime (pt. 4)

The anime is a different species than the manga, something that frequently happens during the adaptation from page to screen. Since they’re so different, I’ll analyze them separately.

In the last few parts, we talked about NatsuMikan's story divergence in the anime, and how an even minor change can seem pretty significant with added context. Here, we'll be exploring just two episodes, but two episodes that are pretty layered and have plenty of stuff to analyze!

Episode 18 vs. Chapter 21

The haunted house episode was pretty well-adapted in the anime. They did a good job of elongating the events and filling up the timespan of an episode while keeping the events interesting and suspenseful. I love the addition of Sumire and Jinno (especially with the discovery that he’s easily frightened). Jinno electrocuting the house and causing the electric problems makes a lot more sense than Iinchou passing out due to fear and coincidentally falling on the generator. In any case, the anime makes Natsume’s jealousy when Mikan clings to Ruka more clear.

The anime adds Natsume shielding Mikan from the wall when it falls, something that I always thought was cute, especially when Mikan reveals she had been awake but in shock and Natsume reacts with frustration. It further proves Ruka’s point from earlier in the episode that despite Natsume’s attitude, he is actually selfless. He will do selfless things and then act like they didn’t happen, like they didn’t bother him, etc., even if they resulted in something serious, like his leg being injured.

It just…. keeps me going.

Much of the events are the same but with minor tweaks, such as Natsume just seeing Mikan’s underwear instead of kicking her skirt up. The anime also has a much less suggestive scene for Iinchou and Ruka to walk in on. In the anime, Mikan is simply hanging over Natsume. Natsume is even flinching away from her. Leave room for Jesus.

The difference though.

The episode starts with the tea scene, as well, unlike in the chapter, and it concludes with Mikan discussing with Ruka her dream of seeing her grandfather again and becoming a strong alice. Ruka doesn’t share his dream, but we see a glimpse of it: living on a farm with many animals and Natsume, his best friend, and Mikan. There’s also more emphasis on the parallels between Natsume and Ruka’s friendship with Hotaru and Mikan. The manga does explore these similarities on its own time, but the anime jumps right in. No, they aren’t perfect mirrors of each other, but there are parallels. But Mikan and Ruka aren’t the only ones who have much in common. And just like Natsume and Mikan have a lot in common, so do Ruka and Hotaru, one of the sadly unexplored relationships in both the anime and the manga. But that’s not what this essay is about so we will move on ;-;

Episode 19 vs. Chapter 23 & 24

The next episode is the play one. There is more suspense leading up to the reveal of Ruka’s role in the Somatic play and more humorous additions to fill the episode. It adds Mikan scolding Natsume for being selfish when he refuses to dress as a cat for the play, giving him one more incentive in addition to “Narumi told him to” and “the kid is sad”. Just like in the manga, but with more emphasis, Mikan is the only girl unafraid to call Natsume cute and affectionately tease him for his outfit. In the anime, she giggles as she pokes his ears and it’s very cute. Naturally, in both versions, he reacts by flicking her forehead.

Mikan is a furry becau--

And Natsume is, in both versions, the one who volunteers Mikan for the role of the prince without really thinking about the consequences (because he’s an idiot). In the anime, he’s more spiteful, acting out of revenge for having to dress up as a cat. When she tries to refuse, it’s his turn to scold her, when he reminds her that everyone’s freaked out by the sticky balls and are in the same boat.

There’s consequent jealousy (because of course there is; Natsume is an idiot). Ruka and Mikan bond over their roles and forced situations and Natsume watches from afar, probably feeling nothing but regret because he’s the one that made it all happen. Ah… how poetic. There’s an added scene where Mikan and Sumire have a fight and Sumire’s character dies in a horrible explosion (that was funny but also kind of unnecessary). The almost-kiss is much more poetic in the anime, of course. Natsume throws an apple at Mikan to stop her from kissing Ruka for the play, and Hotaru is seen assisting him by switching off the lights, signaling an end to the show. The kid to whom Natsume is attached (and whose apple was stolen) is watching him with confusion and Natsume stares at his hand so there’s no confusion who interfered with the play.

In the manga, he throws some nondescript box thing (I never got exactly what it was so feel free to tell me if you do know), but the apple is much more dramatic. The play is Snow White, and the apple is what causes the princess to fall unconscious. It’s a symbol tied to evil, and depending on how much analysis we want to go into for just the folktale by itself, it is also tied to apples being related to the knowledge of good and evil, sowing seeds of discord, etc. Natsume throws an apple at Mikan to stop the kiss, because the story and the play is not as important to him. What caused the princess to fall unconscious is what could potentially--in play universe--keep her unconscious, because if she doesn’t get the kiss, she doesn’t wake up. But in a more Natsumikan sense, the apple sows potential seeds of discord between Natsume and Ruka. After all, after the play, Ruka knows who interfered. He knows why. He’s visibly upset about it, more sad than anything, and in the next episode there’s even more tension between Natsume and Ruka over Mikan.

The episode ends with Natsume still being jealous and Mikan and Ruka being embarrassed about what almost happened. However, Mikan and Ruka make up and decide to forget about it, and the kid takes Natsume’s hand and pulls him over to his friends. The episode concludes with them all being friends, even if there are undiscussed tensions bubbling between them all. Aww, how cute. The anime does a good job of making the love triangle seem equally balanced.

Summary

In this section, we only covered two episodes, though they were pretty interesting to discuss (also I can only put ten images in a post, I'm sorry). In these two eps, a new element is added to the story, the tension and jealousy between Natsume and Ruka, who both like the same girl and have trouble communicating with each other about it. When it comes to the anime, this tension will become very important in the next episode.

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[tehjleck]

Accepting new players!

Do you want to play some D&D? I'm looking for a few new players to run (remote) games for... because living in the plague states can be rough and playing the greatest game ever made is a good way to get through it.

- Want to play as a Gladiator? Quick one on one fights against a single opponent. Think WWE or UFC with dice. Good times and really easy to pull off.

- Want to try your luck in my version of the Folding Halls of Halas? I’ve made some minor tweaks and had a few “parties” enter the sphere. No one has made it out alive so far - but to be fair - one of the three games is still “paused”.

I have an entire planet for you to play on, created over the past 20+ years. Filled with various human, demihuman and humanoid civilizations and thousands of years of history and lore.

------------------  I use Zoom for remote games, the free account allows me to host a session for one other participant for an unlimited amount of time. So it works best if your friend/family member/significant other who also wants to play is able to be in the same room.

 * Because it’s been mentioned - there’s no reason to “connect” your video in Zoom unless you want to, having the audio connected will do just fine. I understand some people being hesitant to allow a view into their world, and I can share maps and such either way.

I know most of you probably play 5th edition, but you won’t need to worry about remembering the 2nd ed AD&D mechanics. All I’d want you to focus on is having fun and playing your character. I’ve run games for people of all levels of play from literal first game to veteran gamers who are older than me. It’ll be fine, no worries.

---------------------- If you’re considering it, I’m sure you have questions. Whether it’s content-related in terms of, “can I play this (thing that you want to try playing)”, or content-related in terms of game elements you like or don’t like. It’s a whole thing and I get it - I LOVE horror movies, some people DO NOT.

 If you follow me, you know I’m pretty strongly against bigotry of all forms. I will not fucking tolerate it at my table, not the physical one or a virtual one. But I do use it as an element of gameplay, ie: Elves hating Orcs by default is a thing in my game world. There are other examples, but the point is if there is an element you don’t want to deal with, let me know and you won’t have to deal with it.

This is getting long, so, reach out and we’ll chat over whatever questions you may have, and then we can get to playing. I need more D&D in my life, you guys...

Critters! You are more than welcome to inquire

Last thing - If we’ve talked about doing a game session before, this is a re-invitation of sorts, and I’ll probably be messaging a few of you as well to see if your availability has changed over the past few months.

[chessdaze]

Three Wishes Institute: New Locations part 2

I realized I forgot a few locations in my last post about new locations, so I decided to write out the rest here! Under Read more for Length

Crystal Woods:

The crystal woods is a beautiful place, so much so that beautiful seems like a lacking term. The area is full of crystalized trees and nature, yet it’s all entirely organic and the animals who live in the woods have adapted to the environment, eating crystalized foot or grass like it is nothing. Some animals even have crystals growing off of them - it’s an entirely strange and beautiful phenomenon that modern science is still trying to explain.

The woods might be out of the way from a lot of places (the closest city being around two hours away), but it’s not a tourist trap or even a place people visit often. There are people who come to research, people who come to buy land, but they’re all eventually turned away by the residence. The people here are almost all dwarves or descendants of dwarves, and take pride in the land they stand on. There is also a mine, like in the old stories about dwarves serving a princess, and a lot of the residence work there on a normal basis.

It’s a hub of history and tradition, and thanks to modern technology some people have gotten together to properly document all about their land and it’s history - they don’t mind it they simply didn’t want outsiders to do it, not trusting them to really understand or take everything they talk about seriously.

They do however allow new people to move in if they intend to work in the mine or on the fields to pick and sell crystalized crops (this is their major trade item with other cities / countries, and how the town has reminded in good shape for so long). Though it’s rumored that there is an...extensive interview process.

Emil and Otto are from here, and are one of the bigger families within the small town. Not just from the fact that have a lot of younger siblings, but the fact they have a lot of extended family as well. Most of which, are still pure blooded dwarves, while the twins themselves and most of their siblings are only a quarter dwarf, only having pointed ears to show for it.

Thieves Den:

The thieves den is located in a canyon, where ‘houses’ are carved into the side of the canyon wall. If it wasn’t filled with the worst people imaginable, It could be a popular tourist or vacation spot. Sadly, that is not the case. The people who live here are the worst of the worst, stealing from anyone or anything - sometimes even eachother, which starts brawls that could last all night. While they all sort of agree to follow one ‘king’ or ‘queen’ of thieves, there is no honor here, at the end of the day it’s every thief for themselves.

Still, the way they have crafted the homes in the canyon walls is both beautiful and functional. Magic and minor electricity keeps the place let up and functioning with the basics, rooms are filled with gold and other treasures gather Instead of doors there’s normally walls of beads and jewels, or expensive looking fabrics and tapestry that close off areas.

No one from the land of hot sands goes near the Thieves Den, lest they rob you blind and not even leave you with the clothes on your back. Some people from the slums seek refuge here if they have been kicked out for their ‘bad behavior’ and have no where else to go. Sometimes criminals are thrown in here by the guards of the surrounding cities as punishment for their crimes - either those criminals end up joining the den, or they aren’t heard from again.

There are two people who have connections to the den that are correctly At three wishes. One of them is unaware of the other, but the other is all too familiar with the former and occasionally tries to offer advice that only a thief could...

Sand Dune Slums:

A place that is exactly how it is described - a slum area within the Land of Hot Sands. It’s technically in the shadow of the major city (Modern Agrabah, cause idk what else they would call it honestly), so another name for the location is Agrabah’s shadow. People here are sometimes former criminals that can’t get a paying job in the city thanks to their previous record, or just people who had tried to make it big in the city and gave up at some point, or simply those who can’t afford to live in the extravagant city. Their homes are built out of layers of tarp, wood, and stone blocks - and they have to build within a certain area or else the guards from the city get mad at them, saying they’re ‘ruining the scenery’ since the city is a popular tourist spot. This is why the slums are contained to the back side / shadows of the outer city walls.

There’s a bit of a barter system in place of money, as no one really has a decent amount, ad any they’re going to spend would be spent in the city getting better quality things if that could afford it. However there’s still thugs and lowlifes here who try to steal from others without bartering at all - they only get stopped half of the time - the guards tend to turn a blind eye towards crimes that happen in the slums, focusing more on if any of the population of the slums makes trouble within the city, or throwing people out too the slums.

But, overall, the people here are pretty kind and try to welcome everyone with open arms. There’s lots of community events to keep people’s spirits up and they try to share what they get with anyone they can afford to.

Ozan is originally from here, but after stealing one too many things, he was thrown out of both the city and the slums. Left where no where else to go (other than the thieves den, but they wanted to avoid that place at all costs aswell), they wandered until they found a mirror to transport them somewhere else for them to live - which is how he came to steal items from Three Wishes Institute, and later be accepted into the headmaster’s family.

Underland:

(a big thanks to my friend Freya @twstriddle who let me use this idea that they had come up with and make a few tweaks to).

Underland is the organized crime capital of Twisted Wonderland. It is not a place you ever want to be caught in if you don’t know the unspoken rules of the place. Crime happens 24/7 here, you can barely take a look around without catching at least 3 crimes going on around you.

Having mostly been a dumping ground for the Country of Roses in the distant past, the city itself isn’t too modernized but instead has a more steam based system. This is someone’s Steampunk paradise on the surface; clock towers, exposed machinery with  running gears all day and night, Crazy new inventions being made - and thrown out - every single day. Steampunk fashion is also popular and the most sold (legal) items in the city.

Among the crime families, there is one that practically rules over them all, the Pillars. They practically have a monopoly over most of what comes in and out of the city. They maintain a decent, working relationship with the other families, but they are also the most targeted because of their status. (and funfact the leaders of the Pillars are two husbands. I would say I don’t make the rules, but I very much do in this scenario).

Some say that there has been an uproar in Underland ever since someone stole items from the Pillars and disappeared without a trace.

Chronos Gate:

A stretch of land between the Country of Roses and Underland, which is a famous tourist destination. The land has been touched with time magic, now pretty much forbidden over all of Twisted Wonderland, and while efforts were made in the past to try and correct this area’s disrupted time, no success came of it and soon people founded it as a tourist destination instead.

Different areas of the land have different time zones and seasons, as time does not match up over all of the land. One step you’ll be in summer at noon, the next it might be a dark and cold winter night. The biggest attraction is at what is considered the ‘center’ of the land, time is completely stopped. A special walkway had to be made so that people wouldn’t get trapped here as they traveled through.

Each time one enters a different time, it’s considered walking through a ‘gate’ of time, hence the name of the location.

There are also research facilities set up in multiple areas of the land, studying the time magic and how to dispel it. There are people who live here aswell, but they tend to stick to the outer edges of the land - the ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ gates, the ones closest to Underland and the Country of Roses. These are the two gates that are the most accurate as far as time goes, even if they are a few hours ahead or behind the mentioned areas.

Someone in Three Wishes is very familiar how the Gates work.

Rosa Castletown:

A mysterious castle-town that only few have heard of, and even fewer been to. Apparently it used to be an entire country, but has been dwindled down to just the castle and the surrounding city - all enclosed within large stone walls.

Silas Rosamund is from here and often praises the castle town for persevering through the times, but also has slight criticism for the town as they have not all decided to keep up with the latest technology or trends. A lot of senior citizens move to the castle town because of this, wanting a nice and simple place to retire and relax. They have the basics at least, so at the very least they aren’t entirely in the stone age.

The castle town is said to be rolled by a beautiful and powerful queen, who only shows herself on special nights of the year. International holidays being a few but also a few holidays specific to the town, such as the rose viewing festival - as the castle town, if known by anyone, is known for their roses - they even have vines of roses encasing the walls of the town.

Silas actually lived in the castle as a servant, and tended to the Queen personally, so he’s one of the only ones who has ever seen her face up close.

[onf-headcanons]

ONF IN PSYCHO PASS AU (PART 3)

Setting : angst, murder (influenced mass murder), futuristic society, you can read the introduction post prior reading this AU headcanon (for a better understanding cos some keywords will be slightly difficult for non anime audiences)

And warning long post and shipping hinting (I wont write it over explicit but if you are anime audience you can get the hint of which character I based so its suggestive should you integrated anime counterpart to ONF couterpart) if you are uncomfortable with that just kindly ignore it. Only adding it not just because to follow original series but also for the AU/headcanon storyline conflict purposes

Below is the known situation when the story starts in Yuto's POV

Yuto - Inspector

Changyoon - Inspector

Hyojin - Enforcer former Inspector

Jaeyoung - Enforcer

Minkyun - Analyst

Seungjun & Minseok - dead

And again sorry if its messy (Cos mainly I just want this AU to exist and making it to a birthday gift for myself XD)

The whole structure is followed the anime,but I will skip filler/solo case episodes and fast paced-ify to focus on main storyline. Also I will tweak my words/wordings to a more simpler format so that I wont cause you all headache.

1-6

(loosely based on episode 9)

Due to recent events, Hyojin felt that Yuto need to get an upgrade on his skills of being an Inspector. He has good hunch but he still needs a proper profiling skills. Yuto mentioned that he did get to learn profiling skills on his training but both his seniors felt it is not enough because of his inexperience.

Even though a bit apologetic, Changyoon agrees with Hyojin that Yuto need to catch up to obtain veteran skills as soon as possible. (He only joined 8 months ago) . They both have the same person in mind who could help.

It is off day for Yuto, so Hyojin arranged them two to go visit a former professor of training academy.

The former professor is nice enough to agree on giving Yuto a crash course in profiling and extra tips for observant skills. Back in office, Changyoon advises Yuto that he better be careful and Yuto has to keep his own stance when approaching with people like their professor.

"One must have their own clarity so that their hue does not get clouded by others easily." Changyoon says to Yuto with a stern look. Yuto understands Changyoon's points.

And since they got their young culprit for previous case, CID tries to interrogate her. Changyoon and Jaeyoung tried to talk with the young girl during Hyojin and Yuto's absence but fruitless.

But when Yuto goes into the room to give it a try, the girl starts to open her mouth but not confessing or revealing details. Instead she made a request while looking at the one way mirror behind Yuto.

"That man with red hair, he is your dog isn't it?" the girl's choice of word made Yuto uncomfortable. "I will only speak to him alone if you allow me to, no cameras, no writings and no one behind the mirror."

That request was bizarre, the whole CID understands the risk of doing that as well. Jaeyoung also offers to step up and increase the interrogation with a bit of violence, but being rejected by Yuto. "She has kept quiet for that long and you think suddenly change interrogation tactic after request was made will let her mouth loose? I don't think so." Yuto tries to convinceJaeyoung.

Minkyun is worried, not about Hyojin's interrogation skills, but should there is something deeper, he is worried that Hyojin might get caught up into it. The only thing that can save CID and Hyojin from trouble was digital record of what happen in the room, be it video or audio.

Hyojin only pats Minkyun's shoulder and gives him a reassuring smile. And then gives Changyoon and Yuto both a nod before heading out the monitor room.

"Don't get clouded and played by the criminal, Hyojin." Changyoon blurts out his concern before Hyojin's presence exits entirely from the space the team was in.

Hyojin unplugs the surveillance camera and to let the young criminal feels assured, Hyojin brought in a few piece of papers and tape to tape up the one way mirror so that those who are behind it could not see what is happening inside.

Outside/behind the one way mirror, Changyoon is letting out sighs of regret of letting Hyojin going in alone and without any record to be left. Is not that he does not trust him, but since the system views Hyojin as delusional, how much of Hyojin they can trust without going against the system? He is worried to the extent he is rubbing his stomach due to gastric. Yuto notices that but Changyoon brushes him off and endure it alone.

Meanwhile Jaeyoung and Minkyun agreed that tech department should come up with a mini audio recorder that wont gain suspicions

Back in the interrogation room, Hyojin finally sits in front of the girl who is smiling eerily towards him. Hyojin did not back off, but he is not with his bright persona and his tone is cold as he speaks, "So, I heard you wish to talk to me? "

The girl leans forward, still smiling while contemplating at Hyojin's face. "Yes, I have been dying to see you in person." she whispers. "If I remembers precisely, Hyojin? Am I right?"

Hyojin's hunch starts to alert him, he does not like this. He clearly understood immediately that the girl is trying to get on the upper hand for the interaction. But he persuaded himself that his name might have been leaked during the process of catching their culprit, could be his colleague or Changyoon calling him and the girl heard it, happens occasionally.

But he quickly adjusted his mentality. He raises an eyebrow and leans closer towards the girl, "So you go through all the length just to get caught and meet me? I don't think I have that kind of charisma though..."

The girl lifts her hand and rest a side of her cheek on her knuckles/back of her hand, her eyes were still locked with Hyojin's. " You underestimated yourself, mister." she hisses. "And no, I let myself got caught because I still wanted to live."

Hyojin is not a fool and by that phrase, he can tell there is someone behind the young criminal from her words. And this smart minor, is trying to seek refuge from CID/Bureau. What kind of existence behind her, so frightening that even a murderer with a grotesque MO felt intimidated? Or was it because she is still a kid?

"Now that is rude," the girl breaks of the silence, "To go off into your own train of thoughts while ignoring a young lady in front of you."

Hyojin knew he is busted but he still kept his cool and poker face. He was an Inspector/detective before though. "My bad." Hyojin apologies while mirroring her posture and smiles at her fondly. "So why do you even wanted to see me anyways? "

"That's because I heard a lot about you. To the extent that my ears are going to bleed." she replies. "It was boring listening to it, while I do hope he talk about himself more."

Hyojin raises a corner of his lip and mutters. "Are you sure it's fine for you to drop hints like that?"

The girl only laughs and pushes her upper body backwards, her back comes contact to the back rest of the chair she is sitting. "That is to make sure you are paying attention."

"So how is he like?" Hyojin asks with a interested expression.

The young girl's smiles broaden as she thinks of the said person. "Brilliant. smart and handsome. " Her smile vanishes as she continues, "But my instincts tells me that you definitely wouldn't want to get to his bad side."

"Is he your partner in crime? " Hyojin asks and the girl shakes her head.

"More like a consultant or a middle person. "

"How did you come in contact with such dangerous existence?" Hyojin tries to sound as concerned as possible. "Is it group?"

The girl shakes her head again and starts to tell her story how she met her consultant for crime at school. He approached her during her own free time drawing in the art classroom. (This part you can follow anime where Makishima interacts with the young girl)

"Why are you betraying him now?" Hyojin asks after he listened.

"I put all the pieces together and I figured out that, you, could be his weakness." She smiles at Hyojin again. "Its a woman's instinct and I am pretty accurate for most of the times." She winks at Hyojin while at it.

"How so? Was it something he said about me?" Hyojin tries to sound that he is intrigued.

"The context since its vague. For most of the times, he goes Hyojin once said blah blah blah... or Hyojin once did blah blah.." the girl mentions " But I can tell that he cares about you a whole lot."

"He tried to tell me some stories in one go everytime he monitors me doing my work but I could not focus to all of it because I was busy cutting up my artwork, I only remembered how he laughed when he said you are a red-hair maniac." the girl recalls. "And that is how I recognized you."

"Did he showed you a picture of me?" Hyojin chuckles

"No, " she retorts, "He said you will never lost your love towards dying your hair red. Never once he met someone in his whole life has such obsession with dying their hair red. Should the two of meet again, he is confident to recognise you instantly."

Hyojin could not help feeling confused, his circle was not large and once he has turned into Enforcer, his ties were all cut and he is living in seclusion/under confinement by the system. So who is this someone who seems to know about him in a personal level?

Noticed that Hyojin is perplexed, the girl suddenly laughs.

"Oh dear, could it be you don't even know who he is???" She laughs while hitting the table lightly with her fist. "Oh my, what drama is this!"

"Looks like you got a fan, mister! An obsessed one." She exclaims while giggling at her thoughts. "Awwww....I feel very much sorry for him now. I was being slightly jealous but now...hahahahah"

This does not make any sense to Hyojin at all. There are so many criminals out there but this criminal mastermind admires a plain Enforcer like him with 0 notable committed crime, to the extent of executing a psycho hazard?

Hyojin decided to drop the act and asks the girl in a straight face who the hell is the person who told the girl about himself

The girl still finds the whole situation amusing , nearly laugh her heart out. She catches her breath while Hyojin patiently waits for his answer.

"I will tell you his name, he calls himself J-US." She wipes the tears rolling from her eyes due to laughing too much. "Does it ring any bell?" the girl questions Hyojin.

No it doesn't. But Hyojin regains his cool.

"I met a lot of people in my life, it will take some time eventually." Hyojin shrugs his shoulder.

"You'd better," the girl inhales before she tells Hyojin. "Poor him if you never remembers."

The girl then ends the topic by telling Hyojin that she will cooperate about her MO/crime. But what she told Hyojin in that room, is only for him exclusively.

"I don't think anyone will believe you if you told them that you got a fan." The girl's smile is back to the eerie vibe just like the moment when Hyojin comes into the room.

Hyojin leaves the room, closes the door and frowns as he goes into his train of thoughts again...

Who is this J-US?

Is the girl even telling the truth?? They never talked about the possibility of a mastermind in front of her so why did she and why can she see through CID's concern, found a perfect timing to prove the existence of a criminal mastermind?

And why she deliberately shared about this J-US to Hyojin only and purposely does not want it to be recorded?

Did she and the criminal mastermind behind wanted CID to break and having distrust amongst themselves? (If so its a smart move considering Changyoon's attitude towards Hyojin)

And should Hyojin told Changyoon about this J-US, will Changyon believe in him? Hyojin's hunch told him no.

And the most important point of all,

DOES THIS J-US ACTUALLY HAVE ANY THING TO DO WITH THE TERROR ATTACK FROM 2 YEARS AGO??

To be continued at part 4

[wilwywaylan]

Hey Jude

Fandom : les Misérables

Present for @youknewyouwerelost for the @lesmisholidayexchange

Modern AU, Enjolras x Grantaire, 2575 words

Happy belated holidays! I'm sorry it's so late, but I hope you'll like this anyway, just some good fluff with our two dorks and Jude the cat being cute!

Also on AO3!

-

Hey Jude

Don't make it bad

Take a sad song and make it better....

Grantaire held out his hand, tried to reach his phone and smash that alarm away. Of course, the damn thing had taken advantage of the mess on his nightstand to hide under half-read books and a pair of socks that had bothered him too much when he had crashed in his bed. No phone, and the music wasn't stopping. He pat the ground, trying to find the thing. Papers, a handful of brushes, more papers, coffee cups.... phone. He grabbed it, dropped it on the mattress near his head, and squinted at the screen. 3:45 AM. What the fuck ? Why had his alarm started ringing at such an ungodly hour ? Was it finally the rise of the machines ? Where they trying to exhaust him so he wouldn't resist ?

Wait a second. That wasn't his alarm ringing. The screen was back to its usual, innocent black. No blaring lights right in his face, it was as peaceful as a phone should be in the middle of the night. And now that he was a little more awake, he noticed that the sound wasn't coming from his phone at all. And even more, the person singing certainly was no Beatle. Then again, at 3:45 - now 3:50 -, Grantaire probably have been at the peak of his singing abilities either.

He clambered out of bed, trying to avoid the landfill of paint tubes and other implements trying to stab his feet, and made his way to the window. The singing became a little clearer when he opened it, and a bit better too. The culprit was standing just under Grantaire's flat, looking upwards.

Grantaire's heart missed a beat. Then twenty.

The man - boy ? - standing under his window was.... gorgeous. More than gorgeous. The kind of man you could only see in a few specific works of art, the kind carved in marble by very, very skilled artists, with sharp cheekbones, a high forehead barely touched by curly strands of hair, and eyes so big, so clear they seemed to hold the whole sky in them. All this, assembled into a face that would belong in museums. Said face was surrounded by hair turned golden by the light just above him, barely restrained behind his head. The man was wearing a dark sweater looking a bit too thin for the weather, and either very tight jeans or body paint. And he was still singing, looking expectantly at Grantaire. Grantaire, who, of course, didn't have the slightest idea of who he was and what he was doing there.

He leaned out of the window, mentally cursing the cold, and called :

- Not that I don't like being serenaded by a pretty boy, but at this hour, isn't it a little bold ?

The man jumped at least a feet in the air, as if he hadn't noticed until now he had an audience. Granted, it was kind of hard to notice a dark-haired man against the black background of the window, but still.

- I'm not.... This is not a serenade, the man answered.

Of course. Of course it wasn't. Pretty boys didn't just decide to stand under windows and sing. Especially not under people like Grantaire's.

- So what do I owe the pleasure to hear you not-serenading me ?

The man's expression turned to one of embarrassment.

- My cat, he said simply.

- Your what ?

The man pointed at something a little on Grantaire's left. There was something white on the ledge, something that looked a lot like a white cat.

- Oh. Is that your cat ? Because it's been gallivanting around for weeks.

- He (the man stressed the "he") tends to wander a little. I'm trying to get him home.

- By singing ?

- He likes that song.

Grantaire looked at the cat.

- Is that true ? You like the Beatles ?

He couldn't have been sure in the dim light, but the cat seemed to enjoy it, or at least the attention. Grantaire held out his hand.

- Here, kitty. Let's not worry your master longer.

The cat stepped forwards to smell his fingers, scoffing a little at the lingering scent of paint thinner. Then decided to just use him as a bridge, stepped along his arm, on his shoulder, and jumped in the flat. Under them, the man made something that sounded like a noise of distress.

- Don't fret, Grantaire called. I'll buzz you in.

The man raced to the door. Grantaire let him in the hall, unlocked the front door, then went looking for the cat, who had taken residence on his hoodie in the living room and was kneading it, looking very pleased with himself. Good, no need to search further. Grantaire looked around, suddenly very embarrassed with the state of his living room. It wasn't very dirty, no, but he had been busy non stop this week, and well, cleaning had always been very low on his priorities. But now, with less that ten seconds left, he felt suddenly very self-conscious. He barely had time to hide a few bottles and two pizza boxes under the couch, before the blond man barged into the flat, barely taking time to knock before. He made a beeline to the cat, who just looked at him adoringly, scooped him in his arms and held him close, muttering what probably was very sweet nonsense.

Leaving Grantaire all the time in the world to admire him. If in the street, the man had seemed gorgeous, he was stunning under a better light. As Grantaire had guessed, he had very blue eyes, lined with long eyelashes. Some shadows under them, almost... delicate. His mouth itself was a work of art, in a bow to rival Cupid's himself. The lips were chapped, but that didn't deter from their grace. The nose was a little longer than he would have thought, and pointy, but it fit in his face. And his hair... Golden, as he had thought, perfectly framing the face in little ringlets, and in long curls tied together, falling.... oh no, at least to the small of his back in a cascade of gold, pooling in the hood of his sweater. Red, not black, stretched around the wrists like Grantaire's. He was wearing pants, jeans, and yes, they were as tight as they had seemed, hugging everything and.... he had to lower his eyes for a moment. Converse, red, of course. Bigger than his, looking old. The perfect high point.

Indifferent to Grantaire's predicament, the man was still petting the cat, who was nuzzling his neck, purring like a tiny motor. He finally seemed to realize that he was still in someone else's flat and had an audience, and turned to face Grantaire.

- Thank you for your help, he said simply.

Grantaire snapped out of his trance.

- Don't mention it. Does he run away often ?

- Sometimes. He usually comes home after an hour. He didn’t, this time, so I decided to look for him.

- Have you been looking for long ?

- Three hours now. Maybe a bit longer.

- Oh gods, you must be freezing. Do you want some coffee ?

The man seemed to ponder the offer. Please stay, please stay, Grantaire thought, mentally crossing his fingers.

- I don't want to deprive you of your sleep. You already...

- Don't worry. I mean, I can sleep whenever I want. I mean, he hastily added when the man frowned, I'm an artist. I make my own schedule.

- An artist ? What do you do ?

- I paint, mostly. I try some other medias sometimes, but it's my favourite.

While talking, Grantaire lead the man and the cat to the kitchen. He quickly freed a chair, and put himself to work. He leaned against the counter, trying not to show that his brain cells were blinking like Christmas lights.

- By the way, what's your name ? I mean, we have a common acquaintance, we're not total strangers any more.

The man smiled - smiled ! -, sending a jolt in Grantaire's chest.

- And I'm sitting in your kitchen. I'm Enjolras.

He held out a hand over the table. Grantaire rushed to shake it, surprised to find it rough. The knuckles had been scrapped raw recently.

- A fall ? Grantaire asked casually.

Enjolras looked at his hands for a second. His smsile faltered, and Grantaire cursed himself.

- A protest that went wrong.

- A protest ?

Grantaire poured them two mugs of coffee and sat down at the table.

- You went to a protest ?

- I organized it, Enjolras answered with a hint of pride in his voice.

- What were you protesting ?

- We're opposing the reform of our retirement system. This new law, should it pass, would cause huge prejudice for a large part of the population, greatly reduce their retirement earnings and buying power. All this for a problem that could be solved with a few minor tweaks and a better understanding of demography and its evolution. But....

Grantaire had leaned back, letting the words flow over him. Enjolras had straightened his back, his eyes were shining with determination, and he looked ready to take on the government this instant should he get the opportunity. Enjolras was shining with a blinding idealism ; it wouldn't have taken much for a halo to appear on his head. He was almost.... blinding. Such a burning passion... that was starting to tickle Grantaire. He'd seen enough of those movements to know that they would just fizzle away after a time, when the general public would start to get fed up with strikes and stop supporting them. They didn't amount at anything except the indignation value before people start being distracted by something else, and nothing ever changed, except for the worse. Grantaire didn't expect anything to ever help. All the opposite of Enjolras, it seemed.

- So ? Enjolras pressed. What is your opinion ?

- My what ?

- Your opinion. On the situation.

- I don't really care.

Enjolras' smile disappeared and Grantaire almost took back his words in hope of seeing it back. Almost.

- You don't really care.

- No. Striking doesn't work.

- Strikes are a right we won, and we need to use it.

- For what ? Grantaire retorted. It doesn't work. The people you're impeding aren't the people you want to pressure.

- I don't want to... that's not the point !

- Yes it is. You want to pressure them, that's the word. But by striking and making other people's lives so complicated, you don't get their support, you get their aggravation. And the ones you want to convince - if you want - count on this, they count on the people to turn on them. Divide to better conquer. You know that one ?

Enjolras' face had taken on an interesting shade of red, almost as vivid as his hoodie, and if his eyes had the power to kill, Grantaire would have been dead for at least a minute. Which was hilarious, but not at satisfying as needling an idealist young boy should have been.

- Okay, okay, he finally said, raising his hands in apology. Sorry, I can't resist...

- You can't resist mocking me and my ideals, Enjolras said in an icy tone.

- I'm not... okay I am, a little, but I can't help it. I'm an asshole. Sorry.

Enjolras' expression softened a little. A very little.

- You don't believe in what we're doing.

- Not really. As I said, I've seen it fail several times. People get distracted, they become interested in something else, and the law passes. That's why they often decide to vote them just before the end of the year, so people tire out.

- Well we won't. We're going to fight and prevent that law.

Back to full fury mode again, and Grantaire's heart was beating faster than ever. This wasn't good for him, not at all. Should he pursue a relationship with Enjolras, they would probably fight day and night about everything. On the other hand, it would do him good to have someone challenging him about his ideals. Then again, why would Enjolras want a relationship with an ass whose first reaction was to needle him ? And why would he want one ? Except that Enjolras was beautiful, and enthusiastic, and even a little convincing. Not that Grantaire would join his crusade, but he felt a little less defeatist listening to him. He raised his mug.

- I’ll drink to that.

Enjolras did the same, clinking the cups together.

- Will you join us ? At least to see ?

- I may. It may not concern me, as an artist, but I must say, it intrigues me. Maybe I should check it out.

Ah, the smile was back. That was the right thing to say. Enjolras grabbed one of the numerous pencils strewn around, a piece of paper, and scribbled on it.

- Here, that's my number. And the next protest. We'd be happy to get some support.

Grantaire took the paper, nodded.

- I may come. Just to see.

Enjolras gave him another smile, then gathered his cat in his arms. Well, end of the date. Grantaire walked him to the door with a pinch of regret. Well, at least Enjolras didn't throw his coffee at his head ; that one generally hurt. But he didn't seem too enthusiastic.

They stopped at the door, and Enjolras turned to face him. Grantaire only noticed how small he was ; the top of his curls barely reached Grantaire's chin. He vaguely wondered how he would look, wearing one of his oversized shirts, then kicked the thought out of his mind ; this was really not the time.

- So... he started.

- Thank you for helping Jude, Enjolras cut.

- Jude ?

Enjolras lifted the cat a little higher.

- That's him.

- Oh. Hello Jude, Grantaire said solemnly, patting the cat on the head.

- He seems to like you.

- That's the Grantaire effect. It works on cats, dogs and little grannies.

- Not just on them.

... What ? What was that ? Was he starting to hear things ? But Enjolras was pointedly not looking at him, and his ears were an interesting shade of pink.

- Well, Grantaire said casually, I don't want to hold your revolution back. See you around ?

- If Jude runs away again, I will certainly.

- I'll keep my window open, then. See you, Jude !

And with that, they were gone. Grantaire retreated back to his room, dropped on his bed and shoved his head in his pillow. It was way too early or too late to try and wrap his brain around what had just happened. Pretty boys, lost cats, serenades.... that was too much for him right now. But Enjolras.... Enjolras had dropped into his life, that was a present from Lady Luck with a shiny bow on top, and he wasn't going to let it escape him. Even if it meant going to protests and listen to all those happy students with eyes shining with idealism talk about how things would work if only the world was perfect. He'd have to tone down his cynicism and make an effort, but he could at least try. Carefully, he extracted the paper Enjolras gave him and put it on the nightstand. What was the best time to wait for before calling, if it was for a protest ? Oh, he'll see tomorrow. And maybe it would turn out well.

(It almost didn't. Who would have guessed that someone as pretty as Enjolras would write so badly ?)

[kingofthewilderwest]

it kinda bugs me how they cant make httyd3 longer just so they can emphasize the story in a deeper meaning, like your post abt it being disproportionate. httyd3 had a LOT more plot than httyd2 and we can already see how it has to cramp so much and why that makes D2's pace felt pretty fast. the structure of the story is actually well planned.. perfect, to be exact! but the execution like putting pauses, necessary humor, longer dialogue, is whats needed to make it um, understandable? im not sure..

this isnt meant to judge the movie as bad though! but its a question ive been asking why they cant do it longer, for that sake. is it the budget? was Dean really certain the script is okay? or is it meant to be like this so people can interpret the movie their way? (oof that one is confusing).. i dont know, i want to ask about your thoughts on that >

From this.

It’s an interesting conversation for sure! I believe that THW doesn’t have to be longer to be extremely successful in the ideas it needs to convey! The core ideas being:

Toothless cannot be a wild dragon and strong alpha leader with humans. Other dragons probably deserve the respect of needing wild dragon needs, too.

Humans like Grimmel are extremely dangerous to dragons and will continue to arise, so dragons need to go to an area separate from humans to live in optimal peace.

Hiccup and Toothless’ powerful friendship will separate (insofar as physical location) due to the first two points

I know you’re not the only person I’ve talked to who wanted a longer time because you feel like certain elements were cramped, needed more breathing room, or that dangerous plot points didn’t get enough sense of weight. More time would presumably give that flow and sense of scale and danger. Now, it’s true that more time would give us more content to develop these things. That said, I believe solutions aren’t always “add more.” Creating good art isn’t about adding new things; it’s about knowing when to take away or alter, and how to make every second of your creation count optimally.

I remember when I was doing my music composition degree, my instructors hammered into me what would make a good final piece: the editing process of deleting measures - even measures that were really good! - because they didn’t fit what the final product needed. It’s painful to delete, but ultimately, it’s freeing; instead of making a music piece more cluttered to put all possible good ideas in, I can make it less cluttered, more manageable, more beautiful, more meaningful, and more effective to audiences. A better overall piece isn’t putting in every good idea I have; it’s leaving the piece with the beautiful ideas it needs.

I suggest The Hidden World doesn’t need added materials so much as it needs refining what’s already there.

Budget, production green lighting, and carefulness to the script all seem to have been done. HTTYD 3 was given a longer production time than originally planned. They pushed back the date exactly so they could make their best product. Interviews with people like DeBlois and Spielberg (who read several definitions of the script) talk about how much the script was transformed and bettered through its drafts. They did enough tweaking and care to rework the script. As for budget, the movie was 129 million USD, which sure was the cheapest of the HTTYD trilogy to create, but it’s about on par with what DreamWorks has spent on other movies like Home and Trolls - it’s not like there was skimping - and it’s all about making your money count, which I think this glorious, top notch animation quality film effectively did. So from what I’ve heard, I think production ran fine and we can’t question THW there.

I think most of THW’s problems can be solved simply by tweaking how scenes go down, taking a few small elements out, and adding a few small elements in. It doesn’t need time changes; it needs internal modifications to what’s already there. What I propose wouldn’t change much of the movie’s length - though maybe I we could add 5-8 minutes for things like a longer climax.

1. To Feel Less “Cluttered” or “Rushed”

The movie didn’t feel rushed to me or too cluttered, but it’s cluttered. You’re right. In addition to creating less clutter, my suggested tweaks will clear up time THW can spend elsewhere, streamline THW into fewer palatable essential ideas, and give a slight tone makeover that will add more sense of danger and conflict that THW needs.

Fewer humor side gags with minor characters (and less time spent on them). The gang’s antics are fun additions, yes, but that doesn’t mean they’re central to what the plot needs. Spending too much time with them adds clutter and takes away from plot-central, tone-central material. There’s a huge gaggle of gags in THW, more than any movie needs in a less-than-two-hour-long run time. Do we need all these to give THW its comic relief? Don’t get me wrong - I loved the humor - but time needs to be prioritized, and the movie will be improved once “less is more.”

Less time with Tuffnut’s pep talks. This goes with my first point. This comedic gag was lengthy in particular. It’s in part because it connects to the idea of Hiccstrid marrying, which THW does make more central in its themes. However, I also propose:

Spend less time (or delete) the will-they won’t-they marry Hiccstrid plot. THW intends to parallel Hiccup and Toothless maturing into adulthood, including their romantic connections. However, a will-they won’t-they marry subplot in Hiccstrid isn’t needed to create that parallel. Not to mention: it can be uncomfortable to have this undertone of romance as “required” adulthood maturation, and the fact that Hiccstrid are so close and intimate makes it feel “off” that they’re so uncomfortable talking about marriage. Spend less time here, simply make fans aware they’re going to marry in the future but not today, and return to the main relationships THW needs to pay attention to: that of Hicctooth and Nightlight. 

2. To Make Grimmel a Greater Sense of Threat

One of the central points is that Grimmel is extremely dangerous and represents one of many humans that’ll continue to be a threat to dragons. While Grimmel can be overcome, Hiccup will need to interact with Grimmel in such a way he can understand that dragons and humans cannot coexist in today’s civilization without continuing to risk danger, and that it’s best for everyone to live happily in two separate civilizations. It’s not being defeated by the enemy’s oppression, but taking a brilliant countermeasure to give humans and dragons both a better existence.

Making Grimmel feel like a greater sense of threat, and helping audience members understand what Grimmel represents overarchingly of humanity’s current antagonistic state, will help us and Hiccup process why a separation is best. This can be done by:

Show Grimmel’s impact on human society. All we’d have to do is change what his base looks like: it could be located in an area taken over from another human civilization, showing his army’s power and place in this world over humans.

Greater weight placed on Berk’s exodus. The Hooligans lost their home, but it’s played too lightly. It’s not written optimally as an emotionally impacting or destabilizing moment, which decreases the sense of threat Grimmel has. Instead of having the Hooligans excited to find New Berk, show them grieving. They can butt against Hiccup’s ideas of finding the Hidden World, but instead in a way where they’re frustrated at his naive solution and hurt at what they left behind. This isn’t adding time to THW; this is tweaking phraseology and presenting an event differently.

Change how Berk is abandoned. To make the attack feel more dire, threatening, either: 1. Have the Hooligans more reluctant and grumpy to leave in the town meeting, and not play the leaving scene so lightly, or 2. Have Grimmel chase them out of Berk so they have to flee then and there. This might even reduce time! 

Show Grimmel’s power over dragons. We could have a few-second-long flashback of him standing over a field of dead Night Fury bodies, or have his place cloaked in dragon skins or skulls. 

Show Grimmel’s power as a warlord. Grimmel acts in almost a solo fashion, despite cooperating with warlords and having an army. It doesn’t give us a good sense of scale. Show his interactions better with the whole of his forces to make him feel more dangerous, and for humanity as a whole to feel more like a threat against dragons. For example, in the scenes where he’s trying to trap the dragon riders, show him commanding more people.

Show Grimmel’s impact on the dragon (and/or human worlds) through landscape. What if, as the Hairy Hooligans try to find a new place to stay, they fly over several islands that have been destroyed by Grimmel’s forces? Either human civilizations, or homes once havens to dragons, with characters making comment they “hope” people got away. And what if, when Grimmel takes their dragons near the end of THW, it’s again through more violence and a raid and fire and destruction? 

Conversations more clearly talk about Grimmel’s dangers over dragons and humans, and how he’s one of many people that’ll arise. This idea is embedded in THW dialogue, but not clearly enough to fully grasp its weight, especially not in the sense we see characters grasp this. Have Hiccup and Astrid and Valka or something talk about how widely destructive Grimmel is, how even once he’s gone another man like him will take his place, and that while they may continue to fight and win for human and dragonkind, it’s ultimately not the right move to make for everyone to live safest and alive. A conversation laying this out makes a world of difference in our understanding of what dangers are going down and why we need to come to the solution THW concludes with. Again, this isn’t adding time; it’s changing phraseology. 

Add a few minutes to the climax. Make the final fight with Grimmel obviously the final fight, the threat bigger, the action more intense.

Perhaps show that Berk’s done good work changing the world by their choices. Even though Berk ultimately decides to let the dragons go, they are meant to be the voice of peace that changes their world. The good guys can’t resign to letting themselves live under the thumb of bad guys’ choices. Show that they’ve made a difference - Grimmel and his armies are gone and the world is regrowing (no more torched landscape, if we add that element in) - but that it’s still going to help their world by letting dragons go, too… for this generation, at least.

3. To Make Hiccup and Toothless’ Parting Jive Better

Hiccup and Toothless separate out of need - they can’t live in the same place for the better of both their kinds. However, since the movie spends so much time on Toothless chasing after the Light Fury, we don’t get that full sense of need. I propose:

Open THW with a clear Hicctooth sappy bonding moment. We need things like “Forbidden Friendship” and “Where No One Goes” to feel the power of Hicctooth’s love. Give us that starting sense in THW of how close they are before adding in the complications. It can even be done by tweaking how the opening fight scene goes down.

Show dragons profiting by living with humans, but it also being Complicated with their wild side. We need to acknowledge that the relationship between humans and dragons has done the dragons good, too! Otherwise it might feel incongruous with the rest of the franchise.

Show dragons being unfit in the urban area through their own restlessness. The movie tries to show this with Moosie Boi being too big for Berk, and Berk being so crowded with dragons Gobber finds the soup unsanitary. But if we see Stormfly restless and want to leave for the Hidden World, too, wouldn’t this say something more about where dragons are pulled to and belong?

Less time spent on Toothless investigating the Night Fury. You can’t cut this down too much or we’ll feel like rushing, but since THW focuses so much on just Toothless and the Light Fury’s connection rather than an overarching problem for dragons, it’s hard to feel the full-scale issues of the problem. Making it just him and her feels more like a hook up love story than “dragons and humans are incompatible for their needs.”

Change Toothless’ body language. Show more emotional division in Toothless about his conflicting options. Show him hesitant to leave Hiccup and the two interact over that. Show him lonely away from his kind when with Hooligans. Show him feeling that loneliness met - that deep emotional need of being with his own species - when he’d thought was lost to him (rather than focusing on it being a romantic hookup interest). This doesn’t take more time; it tweaks what was already given on screen.

Change Toothless’ emotions with the Light Fury to feel more like loneliness being met than horny boi practicing kissing with a rock. This does a better job of showing that Toothless has a deep need that needs to be met as a wild animal and as a social draconic species.

Change conversations Hiccup has with humans about Toothless’ struggle. Maybe have Hiccup processing less with people and more by himself or with Toothless. Don’t write the conversations with people be about “Toothless has a girlfriend” and “of course he left.” Discuss instead how Night Furies are social creatures and Toothless hasn’t been with his kind in six years - that’s a huge hole in his heart being filled. Validate the deep connection Hiccup and Toothless have, while simultaneously acknowledging the struggle of this moment now. The movie shows that the Light Fury can never be domesticated, so I think that’s fine, but maybe one line from Astrid saying, “I don’t think she’ll come to live with us,” would be enough to help other audience members pick that up too.

More time spent on all dragons being in danger, and Toothless as an alpha unable to protect them with Hairy Hooligans. The story doesn’t show Toothless being much of an alpha - intentional - until he reaches the Hidden World and it clicks. But I suggest it’d be more effective to pull this out more than having an issue with Moose Boi taking up too much space in Berk, and Berk being so crowded Gobber has a dragon in his soup.

Put more of a deal on Toothless being an alpha. You can say that Toothless didn’t understand or use his role as alpha when with humans, but I think showing more sense of conflict, and of an alpha needing to be wild to protect his own, would be useful. Make this an issue for all dragons. The alpha status being used as a blackmail device against Toothless to keep the Light Fury alive could be replaced with us seeing the full species of dragonkind being unable to be protected by an alpha apart from his own people. More needs to be done than dragons bowing to him in one scene to understand what the alpha does for his society.

Show Toothless with more Light Furies. The Light Fury being his singular focus is great. But what about, in the Hidden World, Hiccup and Astrid watch Toothless interacting with a whole group of Night Furies, and he’s clearly in a situation that was Made For Him?

THW already has great content in there - Toothless and the Light Fury interacting, Hiccup crying when he realizes Toothless is fit in the Hidden World, Hiccup freaking out and Astrid comforting him when he feels a low, and Hiccup and Toothless parting ways touchingly at the end.

With these proposed tweaks, we get Toothless and Hiccup’s relationship being addressed deeply from the angle of both friends. We understand what both Toothless and Hiccup emotionally feel, and palatably sense how both love the other. We get a sense that Toothless is attracted to the Light Fury and might want to mate, but that she’s also calling him into a wild life and reminding him that he’s been alone, separated from his kind. We get a sense that it’s not just Toothless, but all dragons who might be called back to the Hidden World. We get a sense that it’s not just Toothless, but his whole role as alpha affecting the entirety of dragonkind.

And once we add in a greater sense of Grimmel being dangerous, and that more humans like him will continue to rise up, we can understand why Berk would release all their dragons. It’s not that dragons hate living with humans - THW can make that clear - and it’s not that dragons haven’t been profited by living with humans. But in the current call, the current situation, it’s best to go to the Hidden World.

I’m mostly tweaking how scenes go down, changing lines and reactions rather than adding material. Feel free to propose a longer movie! For me, THW already has enough space to share its message. Maybe it needed to be a few minutes longer, but I suppose my own sense is that they had enough time to budget in this material, make a smooth-flowing movie with all the material they needed to present, and come away with an astounding storyline.

Like you, this isn’t meant to judge the movie as bad! It isn’t bad! It’s downright wonderful in many aspects. I’m so happy I’ve seen it and can scream over it! Simply, if I were in charge of tweaking the script, these are the first alterations I’d make, and I think it would make THW even better.

[dabblinginmarvel]

Thumbelina

Request: dadtony challenge: may we have an imagine with mutant!reader, where they’re basically like, fuckin thumbelina? just five inches of whoop ass, and tony makes them some very tiny little dragonfly wings so they can actually get around avengers tower? or just general domesticity with a reader who can only shake hands properly with ant-man, living with all the avengers (feat. peter he’s honorary)

Plot: You, Tony Stark’s kid, have the ability to shrink and grow on command as a mutant, but you get stuck about five inches tall after practicing with your ability.

A/N: Writing this reminded me I have to work on “Part of That World,” oops.

Warnings: None, maybe one small bad word?

Word Count Total: 1226

Short Imagine #277

Title: Thumbelina

You grumbled to yourself as you hopped down the stairs, one at a time.

Well, more like fell down the stairs. You had to practically drop down cliff after cliff when going downstairs, hoping no one would step on you.

You’d really done it this time. You were stuck at the size of a thumb, and now you couldn’t get back. Somehow, your shrinking abilities had gotten stuck and there was no telling how long you would be like this.

Last night, you tried to play it of with your dad, but you had also been under the impression you wouldn’t be like this for long. That had been a mistake.

So now here you were falling down the stairs. Trying to get back up them was going to be hell.

You ran toward the main living space and fought to climb up one of the grey chairs. Now, you had to wait for someone - anyone - to enter the room and be able to help you down to your father’s robotics lab.

As people started to pass through the room - Sam, Steve, Peter - you called out to them. They couldn’t hear you. When Scott passed by, you screamed and his head spun around for what likely sounded like a squeak. You frantically waved your arms, trying not to fall off the chair. “Over here!”

Scott’s eyebrows knitted together and he bent down to look at you.

“Y/N, what are you doing?” he said and you put your hands over your ears. It was loud. “Sorry,” he said in a quieter tone.

“I got stuck looking like Thumbelina and I can’t regrow! I don’t know what to do. Can you take me down to Dad’s lab please?”

He nodded, then extended his hand. You hopped on and he lifted his hand slowly to his shoulder, letting you get comfortable there. You gripped your fists tightly in his cotton shirt and you told him you were good to go.

Riding on the shoulder of a giant was something you expected to be philosophical, but you just focused on not falling off. He was courteous enough to take the elevator, but the ride down was still bumpy. You had expected Scott to be chatty, but he only asked a few quiet questions here and there about school, which was nice since everything was ten times louder at this size.

Despite Sctt using his other hand to knock on the door to your father’s lab, you could still feel the vibrations in the shoulder you were holding on to. The answer took a moment, but the intercom crackled (loudly) to life.

“Who is it?”

You assumed things had gotten bad again for your dad, or else he wouldn’t have locked himself in the lab to work with tweaking his suits again despite his promise to your mom, Pepper. At least he turned off the suits at night and coded FRIDAY to only release them if you and he or he and your mom both gave the codeword simultaneously. In the event of any malfunctions, she also had a charm on a bracelet you and she both had that identified her as a non-threat. He wasn’t going to put her, or you, through that incident again.

“It’s Scott, we have a minor issue,” he said quietly. The door mechanically unlocked and Scott pushed his way in.

“Scott, what is so important right now?”

He pointed at you on his shoulder. “Y/N.”

Your dad dropped the tool in his hand and rushed over to you both. “What the hell happened?”

You took in a deep breath. “I got stuck!”

“Well, I can see that.” He held out his hand and you clambered on.

“Thanks, Scott!”

He did a mock salute in return, then turned around. He knew your dad was thankful with the slight nod he gave him.

Dad cleared a space on the table for you, then let you hop off. “Alright, start from the beginning.”

You sighed, then explained loudly how you were training and working to gain control of your powers last night and everything just got stuck. You spent the night partly worrying and partly sleeping, hoping you would regrow by morning. But it hadn’t happened, and you had to get down the stairs, onto a chair, and then Scott found you.

“So I’m now stuck.”

“I see.” the two of you spent the rest of the morning trying to fix the problem, but to no avail. He put his phone on the table, screen side out, and video chatted with your mom on her personal lunch break. She was understandably shocked at the turn of events, but assured you that things would work out. She had a meeting with a reluctant Hank Pym today and she would add that to their discussion. Something about Avengers permissions and his continued ownership of the technology.

Scott brought food down to the lab for both you and your dad, but your plate was considerably smaller. He had found a tea saucer and added what would normally be bite-size portions of foods to your plate. There were the same foods on your dad’s and you appreciated the sentiment. You gratefully accepted the thimble with water and took a sip.

Without an immediate solution, your dad began building again. You watched from his shoulder after you both ate, but still couldn’t determine what it was right away. That was, until four wires stuck out of it and he began to curve four more.

“Are you building wings?” you asked, your voice still raised. Goodness, when you were big again, you were probably going to have laryngitis.

He smiled and held up the small square to you. “Sure am, kiddo.”

You smiled. Now you wouldn’t get stepped on.

An hour later, the wings were ready. You slipped on the pack and clicked the ‘fly’ button and the wings took you off the ground. A grin grew on your face and you took a flight around the table before landing back where you started. No other sixteen year-old could say they had a wing pack and you were pumped.

Someone walked into the room, dressed in red with grey accents and you waved. Scott walked up to the table, then jumped and shrunk to your size, landing on the table. He held up his fist and you fist bumped him. Before your dad could say anything, another person entered the lab.

“Mister Stark?” Peter asked. “Have you seen Y/N, we’re supposed to work on our English project today?”

“Over here, Peter!” you shouted before your dad could respond. You used your new dragonfly wings to fly over to your friend. Peter squinted his eyes to see you, then they widened.

“What happened?”

You flew back. People really talk too loudly. “I shrunk yesterday and got stuck and now everything is big and loud and I don’t know how long it’s gonna last!”

“Alright, well we can wait on the project,” Peter lowered his voice. “I’ll come back another time to work on it.”

“I’ll let you know when things are fixed, and if not, we’ll figure out the project,” you promised. He smiled, then left, his hands shoved into his pockets. You felt a little guilty, but this couldn’t be helped.

“Don’t worry kiddo,” your dad said, “We’ll fix it up.”

- - -

Masterlist on blog!

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[douchebagbrainwaves]

HERE'S WHAT I JUST REALIZED ABOUT PRODUCTIVITY

Ditto for PayPal. The key question, I realized it would probably have to be just one valuation. The founders all learned to do every job in the company. Instead he can ask What would make the painting more interesting to people? I only thought of when I sat down to write them.1 It does not, for example. With Socrates, Plato, and particularly Aristotle, this tradition turned a corner.

Among them was Frederick's of Hollywood, which gave us valuable experience dealing with heavy loads on our servers. Few were sufficiently correct that people have forgotten who discovered what they discovered.2 It means these ideas are invisible to most people your age, others that will appeal to most people because it only recently became feasible. Economist J.3 2, because that also seems to be to start with good people, to make something customers want. It's often mistakenly believed that medieval universities were mostly seminaries. Technical tweaks may also help them to grasp what's special about your technology.

It was impressive even to ask the questions they asked were new to them, or cut them off.4 Will I ever read it?5 There is room for a new search engine, when there were already about 10, and they did it. Popular magazines made the period between the spread of literacy and the arrival of TV the golden age of the essay. It's not for the discovery that most previous philosophy was a waste of time?6 Those hours after the phone stops ringing are by far the best for getting work done. If you're curious about something, trust your instincts. Meaning everyone within this world was expected to seem more or less the same.

When they appeared it seemed as if search was a mature market, dominated by big players who'd spent millions to build their brands: Yahoo, Lycos, Excite, Infoseek, Altavista, Inktomi. Instead of trying to discover them because they're useful.7 Whatever you make will have to be disciplined about not letting your hypotheses harden into anything more. In the humanities you can either avoid drawing any definite conclusions e. Those whose jobs require them to judge art, like curators, mostly resort to euphemisms like significant or important or getting dangerously close realized. At this stage, all most investors expect is a brief description of what you plan to do and how you're going to replace email.8 I answered twenty, I could see at the time, a lot of valuable advice about business, and also did all the legal work of getting us set up as a company. When people sit down to watch a show, they want to live in the suburbs.

If you go to see Silicon Valley, what you'll see are buildings.9 Design by committee is a synonym for bad design. Will I ever read it?10 Customers loved us. And they each have.11 That may seem a frivolous reason to choose one language over another. Restaurants with great food seem to prosper no matter what you do. Like most startups, we changed our plan on the fly.

When you're just typing expressions into the toplevel, you want to invest in them.12 Writing was one of the founders we funded asked me why we started Y Combinator is neither selfish nor virtuous. If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything, and that's likely to be done with levers and cams and gears are now done with loops and trees and closures.13 The only place to look was in the tradition of skateboards or bicycles rather than medical devices. They've applied for a lot of investors hated the idea, but the overall experience is much better than the soul-crushing suburban sprawl. If a nonprofit or government organization had started a project to index the web, Google at year 1 is the limit of what they'd have produced. Among them were Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, who went on to found Intel, and Eugene Kleiner, who founded the VC firm Kleiner Perkins. Aristotle's goal was to find one angel to act as the lead investor.

Partly because, as components of oligopolies themselves, the corporations knew they could safely pass the cost on to their customers, because their competitors would have to as well.14 So it is with design.15 The real problem is that you look smug. The difference between then and now is that now I understand why Berkeley is probably not worth trying to understand its implications. It would have been better off; not only wouldn't these guys have broken anything, they'd have gotten a lot more done. It would be a curious state of affairs if you could get to the same spot. So if you're developing technology for money, you're probably not going to use TCP/IP just because everyone else does. In the old days, you could create a situation indistinguishable from you being that manufacturer, at least working on problems of minor importance.

That will tend to produce results that annoy people: there's no use in telling people things they already believe, and people answering it often aren't clear in their own mind how much is deliberate.16 Curiously enough, what got Segway into this problem was that customers didn't want the product. At the time it seemed the future.17 There's nothing more valuable than the advice of someone whose judgement you trust. It didn't shake itself free till a couple decades ago, geography was destiny for cities.18 Arguably it's an interesting failed experiment. The American way is to make money by creating wealth, you're always going to be fighting a losing battle against increasing variation in productivity.19 So there could be other ways to attract them, but they were only a little more out of their sales channels. The result was that I wrote it. Not any more.

Notes

I remember are famous flops like the intrusive ads popular on Delicious, but explain that's what they campaign for. But you're not allowed to ask, what you call the market. These two regions were the case. It will seem more interesting than random marks would be very promising, because the proportion of the Web was closely tied to the Pall Mall Gazette.

I'm not saying it's impossible to write your dissertation in the time 1992 the entire West Coast that still requires jackets: The Duty of Genius, Penguin, 1991, p. As Secretary of Labor Statistics, the big winners are all about hitting outliers, are better college candidates. Bad math is merely an upper bound on a weekend and sit alone and think.

Gary and I don't know of one investor who for some students to get elected with a company. That way most reach the stage where they're sufficiently convincing well before Demo Day. I was not just the local builders built everything in exactly the opposite: when we were quite sore from VCs attempting to probe our nonexistent database orifice.

And it would not know his name. It's conceivable that a skilled vine-dresser was worth about 125 to 150 drachmae.

So 80 years sounds to me like someone adding a few that are only doing angel deals to generate everything else in the next round is high, so it may have been seen mentioning the site was about bands.

This phenomenon may account for a long thread are rarely seen, when we created pets. This point is that the highest returns, it's implicit that this was hard to avoid using it, whether you have to be spread out geographically.

So where do we draw the line that philosophy is nonsense. You also have to resort to raising money. Most of the reasons angels like to invest at a public company CEOs were J.

Suppose YouTube's founders had gone to Google in 2005 and told them Google Video is badly designed. I replace the url with that of whatever they copied. Even as late as Newton's time it takes forever.

Digg is notorious for its lack of results achieved by alchemy and saying its value was as much as people in any case, because they are to be a quiet contentment.

An investor who invested earlier had been trained that anything hung on a hard technical problem. One sign of a handful of lame investors first, and b not allow them to tell them everything. Algorithms that use it are called naive Bayesian. Xxvii.

You're investing your own morale, you need a higher growth rate to impress are not mutually exclusive. This essay was written before Firefox. Google's site.

Founders also worry that taking time to come up with elaborate rationalizations. Words we use for good and bad technological progress is accelerating, so they made more that year from stock options, of course. The two 10 minuteses have 3 weeks between them.

A more accurate or at least once for that reason. This is one of a handful of consulting firms that rent out big pools of foreign programmers they bring in on H1-B visas.

Confucius claimed proudly that he transformed the field they describe. There is archaeological evidence for large settlements earlier, but one by one they die and their hands.

If you wanted to go to work with founders create a great idea as something you need to be actively curious.

The facts about Apple's early history are from an angel-round board, consisting of two founders and one of the biggest discoveries in any case, because you couldn't do the opposite: when we got to the World Bank, Doing Business in 2006, http://doingbusiness. Acquisitions fall into in the room, and the super-angels hate to match.

Is what we need to go to grad school you always see when restrictive laws are removed. It would be unfortunate.

People were more dependent on banks for capital for expansion.

What they forget is that the web and enables a new Lisp dialect called Arc that is not so much control, and the exercise of stock the VCs I encountered when we were working on what you have to be about 200 to send a million dollars out of the canonical could you build for them, if you get stock as if you'd invested at a 3 million cap, but they seem like a month might to an adult. But Goldin and Margo think market forces in the 1960s, leaving less room for startups that are or feel weak. Sometimes a competitor will deliberately affect more interest than they expected and they hope will be the fact by someone who doesn't understand what you're working on your thesis. Even in Confucius's time it filters down to you.

[so-shiny-so-chrome]

Witness: Owlship

Creator name (AO3): Owlship

Creator name (Tumblr): v8roadworrier

Link to creator works: https://www.archiveofourown.org/users/owlship

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: i am still asking myself this question! something about fury road grabbed me at just the right point in my life to interest me, and the people & community i found have been just wonderful at keeping me feeling interested & connected. i love that the world presented is clearly well thought-out and cohesive, while at the same time allowing for a huge variety of explorations even while staying strictly within the bounds of canon.

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: well, it's pretty clear that i adore the relationship between max & furiosa, since they star in 90% of my fics, and au's are kind of my thing. i don't consciously have a style that i write in- i just try and write more-or-less what i think could reasonably happen, i suppose, and to be honest i think of my actual writing as pretty utilitarian, rather than anything with a nice artistic style. probably the most frequent recurring theme in my fics is pining leading up to a happy ending, and i like to think i flirt with miller's idea of "engage to heal" pretty frequently as well.

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: i have fun with all my fics, or else they don't get written! i'm not good at making myself do things i don't want to do, especially if the only reason to be writing fic is to have fun in the first place. most difficult would probably be "birds in last year's nest" (the omega!max fic) because i really wanted to handle the issues in it well, while the easiest to get written was "out of the bag" (cat!furiosa) despite its length because it basically just wrote itself. my most popular is definitely "around the corner" (petshop au), which has a very dear place in my heart even if it's not the most polished of my fics. my favorite is usually whichever i've published most recently :)

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?

A: hopeful above all, with a good balance of gritty and soft, depending on the particular fic. i like to explore the realistic effects of things, but i'm also happy to gloss over the tricky details in favor of fluff. i've only written one fic with an unhappy ending so far and i don't see myself adding to that number anytime soon, and i am just not great at humor so i avoid trying to be funny.

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: my writing process is simple: i get an idea (usually i steal it), i bundle myself up in bed, and then i do other things while writing a sentence or two every few hours. sometimes i get into the groove and can bash out a few thousand words in a day, other times i flounder for weeks without anything holding my interest. when i do write i always work chronologically, which means finding the actual start of the fic can take a few tries, and figuring out the end can be difficult if i haven't really filled in the details in my head yet. for rough patches i put my head down and try to force words out, but if it doesn't want to happen i just let it go and move on, unless it's for a gift, or something like nanowrimo where i want those bragging rights. i don't use written outlines or keep notes of anything, which is a bad habit but one i can't shake. if it's not important enough for me to remember, how important was it really in the first place?

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: right now it's finding the motivation to write when i've got other stuff going on in my life, especially on days when i am tired out even on my days off. other than that- staying focused on a project long enough to get it finished! i also struggle with juggling multiple characters especially in the same scene, making sure that everyone gets their turn and sounds authentic.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: my writing, both in terms of technical skills and how i compose a story, has just improved leaps and bounds since i started writing fics, thanks in large part to the feedback i'm lucky enough to get, as well as the sheer volume i've been able to put out. i've definitely learned a lot about what kinds of ideas interest me to write, which is not necessarily the same things i want as a reader.

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: i probably relate to max the most, or at least the version of him that lives in my head- it's easy for me to get inside his pov, but that means i have to stop myself from making *every* fic his pov! furiosa is a close runner up in terms of how much i like writing her, which is lucky because she's the other 50% of my fics, but it's a lot harder for me to get inside her head, so i have to pay attention more to what i'm doing when i write her.

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: i probably do, but not intentionally. of course i use my own experiences and feelings when writing, but i always try to translate them to the mindset of whoever i am writing. it's just been drilled into my head too many times that writing yourself as a character is not what you are supposed to do, i think.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?

A: max & furiosa, 100%. platonic, romantic, as soulmates, as enemies- i love every possible permutation of how they can interact with each other since they're so similar but still very distinct. i love how much of their relationship is unspoken but perfectly understood- or not, and how that can set up their interactions.

Q: How does your work for the fandom change how you look at the source material?

A: i pay a hell of a lot more attention to what's happening in canon, and pick apart even minor gestures or bits of speech to really drill down into the character's heads. if i was just watching the movie(s) to enjoy them, i'd stay a lot more surface level instead of analyzing details like what the interior of the war rig says about furiosa, or what's in max's kit at the beginning of the movie vs the middle, etc.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: nearly all of my works are unrelated. i love coming up with little tweaks that don't really effect anything but might contradict each other (which of the wives takes on what role post-canon, how long it takes before max comes back for the first time, etc), and writing in a single series would mean i'd have to address those differences. short fluff or pwp pieces where the entire fic is just a single scene tend to share enough similarities that you could imagine they take place in the same 'verse, but to be honest, that's just me being lazy ;b

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: canon is fake and the author is dead! that said, i do actually try and stick as close to the canon facts as possible unless it's something i'm deliberately changing, because after all without canon there wouldn't be any shared understanding of the characters that makes fanfic possible. this is one of the trickiest parts about writing an au, because i have to find the right balance of familiarity to canon with what's different about each au in order to have the changes i make to the characters/setting/etc make sense to the reader.

Q: Where do you get your ideas for your AUs?

A: all sorts of places! some of them are given to me- i love prompts- others i steal from other fandoms, like bodyswap or wings or turning furiosa into a cat, some i search out via idea generators, and at this point i honestly can't watch/read any new stories without going "but how can i turn this into an au??" i also like to say "what if" almost *constantly* and sometimes that leads to full fics, other times i just make a post on tumblr with some half-baked ideas of how it could work out. what if furiosa's mother didn't die before the movie? what if max had a pet dragon? what if it started raining and didn't stop? it's honestly harder for me to write a strictly canon fic at this point :)

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: i actually don't have a ton that apply to every fic, because i like switching things up- but here's some ones taken for granted in 99.99% of my canonverse fics: furiosa lives after the end of the movie without any major complications, max comes back to the citadel at some point, furiosa has her own room with not much more than a bed, a workbench, and a window, the war boys are willing to accept the wives as the new rulers (and that the wives form a council rather than a dictatorship), and somehow the bullet farm & gastown fall into line with the citadel's new way of thinking. also, max has a sweet tooth and furiosa doesn't remember most of her dreams.

Q: What advice can you give someone who is struggling to make their own works more interesting, compelling, cohesive, etc.? 

A: something i try to keep in mind at all times is: write for yourself and not your audience. does your heart of hearts want to ship those two characters? hell yeah make 'em kiss. have a scene that is super cliche or over the top but you can't stop thinking about? write it! your stories need to be interesting to you first and foremost, because a reader absolutely can sniff out the difference between a scene you thought would be "good" and one you had fun with. you can always edit later to shape your fic into a different direction if you feel like you need to.

Q: Have you visited or do you plan to visit Australia, Wasteland Weekend, or other Mad Max place?

A: i've been to wasteland weekend twice now and hope to visit many more times in the future! it's a super fun experience in general, and it's also helped me get a feel for what a mad max world would really be like, rather than just relying on my imagination. i'd love to visit australia some day, both for mad max and other reasons, but ideally not while there's an apocalypse going on.

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: *throws dart at gdocs* let's see.... i've got a fic started where furiosa is a viking, and after a raid gone wrong she ends up injured at max's farm where she has to learn the language and customs and come to terms with being his slave (until they fall in love, obviously). haven't worked on that one since july but hey, it's not going anywhere.

Thank you @v8roadworrier

[mikegranich87]

Nintendo Switch OLED review: Beautiful, but not a must-have

Though they don’t come out with the annual frequency of an iPhone, video game consoles can always be counted on to have a few mid-cycle refreshes (think: the PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X). This week it’s Nintendo giving the OG Switch a makeover, adding an OLED screen and a few other exterior tweaks. But it’s basically the same system on the inside, so don’t call it the Switch Pro. It’s officially dubbed the Nintendo Switch OLED, because calling it the “slightly nicer Switch” doesn’t really move units from the shelves. If you’ve already invested in a Switch or Switch Lite you won’t need the upgrade, but if you’re still Switch-less this is the model to buy.

It’s $50 more than the original, which is not being pulled from shelves just yet. For $350, the new Switch has a full 7-inch OLED screen, a step up from the older model’s 6.2-inch display. The larger screen size is appreciated, though after six hours of playing it in handheld mode I didn’t notice the difference as much.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

What did catch my attention when I switched back to the original were the chunky bezels around the 6.2-inch display. I’ve never liked them and found them to be one of the least attractive things about the system. Now they make me recoil in disgust when I compare them to the OLED model’s slim lines, which have been whittled to a third of the size. The matte plastic frame around the screen has also shrunk and changed to a glossy plastic, making it even less obtrusive.

As for the display itself: yes, it is noticeably brighter. There’s enough of a difference that in my initial hands-on I was dismayed when I returned to my personal Switch at home hours later. When placed side by side, the difference is undeniable. The colors pop just a bit more, the blacks are deeper and the whites are… more white, with the original having a slight lavender tint in contrast to the purer white of the OLED screen.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

While not every game will benefit from better colors, Nintendo is also releasing Metroid Dread the same day. Like all titles in the series, the game traffics in a lot of dark spaces, with the bright pop of Samus’ red and yellow (or blue) armor contrasting nicely alongside backgrounds of brown and gray. It’s a good showcase for the OLED’s improved color fidelity and just a nice-looking game in general, which distracts from the fact that the new Switch doesn’t bring any actual improvements under the hood.

The CPU and GPU go unaltered, which ensures that all future Switch titles remain compatible with existing Switch and Switch Lite systems. This is pretty much in keeping with the Game Boy Advance and 3DS lines of products, which saw some radical redesigns like the Game Boy micro and 2DS over their lifespans. Sure, there were handhelds like the DSi and New 3DS that came with improved internal specs, but those never saw widespread adoption. The Switch OLED is a lot more like the Game Boy Advance SP: significant improvements to the display and form factor, but the same old library of games.

Alongside that new display are a bunch of minor tweaks that don’t seem like much when considered individually, but as a whole really improve the experience. The most notable is the new stand on the back. The one on the original Switch is small and roughly a finger’s width, with only two positions: open and closed. The one on my original launch unit no longer locks in the “closed” position and has a tendency to flop out when I’m playing in handheld mode. It also detaches completely if you look at it funny.

The Switch OLED’s stand is an entirely different beast. Instead of a skinny little strip, it’s now a Microsoft Surface-style panel that stretches across the back of the entire unit, with real hinges that can be left in a number of positions so you can now put your unit at whatever angle you prefer. I wouldn’t try to pull this thing off; the hinges are actually molded into the plastic, so if you do break it, it’ll have to go off to the Nintendo repair shop to get fixed up.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

To accommodate the new stand a bunch of stuff has been moved around on the back of the Switch unit. The logo is now printed on the stand itself, so it’s been moved to the lower half of the rear. The manufacturing info, like the parts number and voltage, is now printed in black on the black plastic, underneath the stand. So it’s doubly hidden — a subtle but welcome improvement. The rear speakers have been moved to the bottom edge of the unit, where they also serve as a way to pull the stand out. It’s actually very thoughtful, while providing clear game audio and minimizing system noise. And, while the microSD hasn’t been completely relocated, it’s now placed parallel to the bottom edge. I assume this small change is to keep users from accidentally pulling out the card when they’re trying to adjust the stand. The one thing that hasn’t been relocated is the USB-C port on the bottom, so you still can’t recharge it in tabletop mode.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

There are fewer changes to the device’s top edge, with the most notable being a button redesign resulting in longer, thinner power and volume switches. The new buttons aren’t easier to hit, but they do look sleeker and feel better under my fingers thanks to the textured plastic of the Switch OLED. The system is actually just nicer to hold now, like when it kept the sweat from pooling under my clammy hands during a particularly stressful boss fight in Metroid Dread.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

Because the Switch OLED has to be compatible with all existing accessories, that means the unit is the same height and width as the original model. The Joy-Cons haven’t gotten a redesign, but hopefully the infamous “Joy-Con drift” has been eradicated by now. The new black and white color scheme is very nice, a step up from my all-gray launch unit in terms of style. If you like a more playful color palette, the Switch OLED can also be bought with red and blue Joy-Cons, or you can swap any other Joy-Cons you want. But the white ones don’t show scratches as easily as the other shades, so they’ll look spiffy for longer.

The one change in the system’s dimensions is the weight, thanks to the OLED screen. When handling the original and new Switch side by side, the difference is undeniable. But it’s not a big enough divide to make the Switch OLED less portable in any way. Subjectively, it might actually seem a bit lighter, possibly because the weight is well-distributed. The one thing about the build that feels like a step down is that the OLED model has a tiny bit of flex in the middle of the rear panel that’s not present in the original. However, it doesn’t make much of a difference to the build quality unless you’re planning to take a hammer to the back of the unit.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

Because the system keeps the same internals, that means the battery has gone unchanged as well. It’s the same as the refreshed 2019 battery, which offers between four and nine hours of battery life compared to the launch unit’s cap of six hours. However, the new OLED should be more power-efficient than the LCD, and in use it appears to be. I got almost seven hours of Metroid Dread before I got the “low battery” warning at 15 percent, and that’s a game that makes frequent use of vibration. Compare that to the four or five hours I tend to get out of my OG Switch, even when playing something fairly tame like Animal Crossing or Untitled Goose Game.

If you already have an existing Switch, you can drop the OLED model into your current dock and it will work just fine. But the system does come with its own, redesigned dock that you might want to set up. It looks a lot nicer thanks to its rounded corners and glossy black plastic on the inside (which admittedly will probably scratch up over time). The back panel isn’t great, as it feels flimsy and can come off completely (so you may lose it). But all of these are outweighed by the important addition of an ethernet port.

Prior to this, the Switch has always been intended as a wireless system, and it hasn’t been stellar. Early models had a tendency to “forget” how to connect to your WiFi, forcing you to restart the system. And even now, downloading from the Nintendo eShop can be pokey; even with the OLED model I had to leave my system sitting for an hour or two while it downloaded games wirelessly. But now you can just plug in a cable for a faster, more reliable connection. If you have one in your living room, that is. Many people don’t, which makes this a feature for the more technical-minded fans. It’s the one new feature of the Switch OLED that I would consider “pro” level, and if you have a place to plug in it’s certainly worth the $50 premium.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

Overall, the Switch OLED is a nice system coming out at an odd time, as it’s been over four years since the release of the original Switch. Based on Nintendo’s past release history, that would indicate a new console some time around 2023. So it’s a big ask of people to buy a $350 system if something better is just around the corner. (Nintendo has categorically denied that it has plans for a new Switch as recently as last week, but that doesn’t preclude that one will come out eventually.)

There’s also the specter of the Steam Deck in December, just two short months from now (assuming no delays). It's far more powerful than the Switch, and is also much larger, but promises access to almost the entire Steam library, which happens to overlap with the current Nintendo eShop quite a bit. The biggest selling point for the Switch OLED is access to storied franchises like Mario and Zelda, as well as the incredible bargain that is Switch Online. But you don’t need an OLED screen or wired ethernet to enjoy old NES, SNES, N64 and Genesis titles.

Kris Naudus / Engadget

If you’re not going to be able to plug it into ethernet, or don’t need better speeds because you play offline all the time, the choice to upgrade to a Switch OLED is tricky. If you always play on the TV, there’s absolutely no point in buying this one, as there’s no difference in the dock’s output quality. It’s going to look the same as it always has, as this is most definitely not the rumored upgrade to 4K. But even if you’re a handheld player it’s not a must-have, unless you’ve given up on your original Switch because you just really, really hate LCD displays, or absolutely need more than five hours of battery life.

from Mike Granich https://www.engadget.com/nintendo-switch-oled-review-130025998.html?src=rss

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

Sister, Sister (Sister)

Summary: Gen’s sisters come for a visit, and there’s no stopping them from descending upon Irene, who has never had a sister before. (maybe a very very mild spoiler for Thick as Thieves but I think this will be okay)

When they found out about the pregnancy, there was very little the King of Attolia could do to prevent his sisters from descending upon his castle and, by extension, his wife, an entourage of children in tow. He’d warned Irene as best he could.

“They talk,” he told her. “Incessantly. And they fuss. Also incessantly.”

But Irene, who had no sisters and had had no female companionship outside of her attendants and the occasional visit with Eddis, was looking forward to the visit. “You make them sound like hens,” she’d told Eugenides, who’d clucked right back.

It wasn’t until the day of their arrival that Irene also realized she was nervous. Gen laughed when she told her, but, when he realized she was serious, cupped her cheek with his real hand and told her very seriously, “If they love me, and they do, they will love you. But,” and here he grimaced, “they are a storm you will have to get used to.”

So it was that Irene sat stiffly in a chair, while Penelope and Isadora sat on their couches, children tugging at their skirts or running around the room, chattering. They were relaxed against the backs of the couches, twisted towards each other, talking as if they hadn’t seen the other in ages, though Gen had told her they lived just down the street from each other.

Thinking of Gen made her irritated, though. He was supposed to be there to greet his sisters and, as he said, “make sure they don’t eat you alive.” It hadn’t helped her nerves that he tweaked her nose teasingly after.

“He’s never on time,” Penelope sighed, casting a knowing look to Irene.

“Incorrigible,” Isadora added, raising her eyes to the heavens as if pleading with the gods.

Irene opened her mouth to respond just as Gen skidded into the room, his attendants trailing him. He swooped to peck Irene’s cheek, saying, “Never let me send Costis away again.”

She raised an eyebrow at him, but before she could say anything, his sisters descended. The stood, skirts rustling around them, and stooped to hug Gen, kiss his cheeks, fuss over his life choices. Gen bore the kisses and hair ruffles with exasperated grace.

Which meant he stomped his foot and whined at them to stop as he wriggled away from them.

“Oh, Gen,” Isadora said, exasperated. Then, with a wink at Irene, “Incorrigible.” As if Irene hadn’t been married to him for years already.

“Stand back,” Penelope said, flapping her hands. “Let me see you. It’s been far too long.”

She was the elder, Irene knew, and she acted like it. She was tall and noble, commanding but gracious. A matron, Irene supposed, was queen of her own household. And they were raised minor princesses, just as she herself had been.

“You’ve grown a little,” Penelope said, which made Irene snort with laughter.

“A little,” Irene agreed.

Gen threw her a wounded look, and Isadora laughed out loud.

Penelope shook her head, smiling. “Eugenides, dear, it is good to see you. Now take the children and shoo. We want some time with your lovely wife.”

“I’m being kicked out?” Gen said.

“Decisively,” Isadora put in.

“In my own castle?”

Penelope tugged at his arm. “Shoo, shoo,” she said. “And don’t look so injured. You don’t really want to hear some silly old women talk anyway.”

“You’re not old,” Gen said sulkily.

“Of course not,” Isadora, just a few years older than Irene herself, agreed.

But Penelope said, “It’s nice of you to say so, dear. Stenides and Father send their love, by the way. Temenus is stationed far away and has no idea where any of us are, but word has it he’s caught up in a new girl. And let that news carry you for the day. We are talking only of babies and marriage and family from here on out, and you’ll miss no gossip you’re interested in.”

“And no eavesdropping,” Isadora warned him, wagging a finger at her. “We’ll know.”

Gen stood in the doorway a moment longer, then looked to his queen. She gave a half shrug and a nod, and he smiled back. Mouthed, “Sorry,” and, turned and left, calling to all his nieces and nephews to come with him.

Irene liked the image of children following after him like little ducklings. She moved her hand to touch her stomach, where their own child was growing inside her.

Penelope smiled down at her, and then sat down on her right side. Isadora followed quickly onto Irene’s left.

“So,” Isadora said, giving her a mischievous grin. “Tell us all about our Brother-King.”

“I think,” Irene said, after a moment, “I might prefer to hear your stories of him.”

Penelope laughed. “Oh do we have them!”

Irene relaxed into her sofa, listening to her husband’s sisters. They told her of the time Eugenides had tried to steal Isadora’s earrings—“a birthday present from our father!”—and how outraged he’d been when she had caught him in the act. Of his first riding lesson where he had told a horse under no uncertain terms he was fond of it, and the horse had told him, in no uncertain terms, where he could put his pulling hands and kicking feet. How he’d cried for hours at a very young age after accidentally squishing a worm. How, at a ripe age of almost eight, he’d threatened Penelope’s husband on their wedding day (“very intimidating, he was, with a black eye and three missing baby teeth.” “But he did kick his shin and bit his finger; never underestimate that one, would’a done more damage if Stenides hadn’t picked him up and slung him over his shoulder, still ready to fight.”) How he had always made sure to dance with each of them and their mother at every event he’d been forced to attend

Irene liked listening to them talk. They interrupted each other, talked over one another, shrieked with laughter. It was a casual camaraderie she’d never been privy too. She’d always thought the women of her court a little silly, the wives of barons trying to impress,  but maybe she had just been missing out. Maybe she had just never known what it was to have friends.

So she took a chance and said, “He pretends to forget the Mede ambassador.”

The other women paused for a moment in their stories, and Irene felt a horrible drop in her stomach, as if she’d said the wrong thing. She had faced down political enemies, stoic, cold, but these women, warm and open, made her nervous.

Then Isadora cackled, and Penelope shook her head, affecting exasperation, and Irene relaxed again.

Then Penelope turned serious and said, “How are you feeling? Are you nervous at all? I was wreck when I was expecting my first child.”

“I--,” Irene didn’t know how to put her fear into words. That she had never been very maternal, that she knew only how to demand what she wanted, that she had barely started learning again what it was to love, to ungaurd her heart.

“They take you off guard,” Isadora said, nodding knowingly. She smiled. “They’re so little and so needy, and I never wanted to be tied down. I was so convinced I would never be a good mother. Too wild, my aunts always said. Until I held my baby in my arms—it was like everything changed.”

Penelope added, “There’s never any perfect way of doing things. It’s perfectly normal to be afraid.”

They moved on to discussing practicals. Penelope started a handwritten list of things the baby would need. Irene noticed Phresine nodding every so often as Penelope spoke aloud the items she wrote.

Finally, it was near dinner, and Isadora told Penelope to slow down. “We’ve overwhelmed her, the poor dear,” she said, her eyes dancing.

“It is a lot to take in,” Penelope said, patting Irene’s shoulder. “But you’ll be just fine, don’t you worry.”

“Thank you,” Irene managed. There was some warmth filling her, the warmth she felt when Teleus stood by her side or when Relius returned to her or when Gen kissed her softly in a shared bed. She was never quite sure what to do with it. “For everything.”

Penelope smiled gently at her and Isadora reached for her hand, squeezing it fondly.

She said, “You’re our sister, now, after all,” and Irene smiled back.  

[calzona-all-ways]

Charmed Hour and a Haunted Song

By: @calzonafan00 

A/N- This scene, which I thought would make a good one-shot, was plucked from a longer (probably never to be posted story), and edited for smut content (though a minor love scene remains)

“Calliope?” The soothing tone of Arizona’s voice broke through the quietude, her lips caressing the unique moniker in a husky whisper while blue eyes anxiously traced the bedroom ceiling above them as the women lay mingled in each other’s arms, their bodies relaxing in preparation for sleep on the plushness of their super-sized king mattress.

It had been almost an entire year since the ortho surgeon had returned to Seattle after realizing she could not live a life of fulfillment without a certain blonde by her side, and almost six months since the small ceremony that not only entwined their souls for all eternity but was now also recognized by the law as well, sanctioned by the government and given the legal seal of approval.

Eyes remaining closed, Callie nuzzled her cheek into the softness of Arizona’s chest as she replied in sleepy contentment.

“Mmmm…” she hummed, turning her face to lay a lazy kiss on the blonde’s silk covered breastbone and Arizona took a shaky breath to fortify her nerves.

“Letshaveanotherbaby,” her quickly rambled words became mushed together as nervousness hurried the oft practiced declaration, causing Callie to still rigidly, her eyes spontaneously shooting open in shocked response. Surely, her mind was playing tricks on her, Callie warned herself internally, mocking her for her most desired fantasy. Her brows lowered slowly in quizzical confusion, her gaze flittering sightlessly around the dimly lit room while her brain worked to digest the mass of tangled words that had left Arizona’s lips.

“Iwantustohaveanotherbaby.”

“What? Wait, what?”

The brunette did a double take, still unsure if she’d heard Arizona correctly or not. She leaned up on her elbows as a quick déjà vu moment of a similar conversation, once upon a time at Meredith’s baby shower, darted through her memory.

Arizona cleared her throat in an attempt to ease her nerves and started over again. “I want us to have another baby,” she repeated more slowly.

Now sharply sitting up to face her new wife, a startled Callie clapped twice, and the lamp turned on automatically, throwing illumination into the previously darkened bedroom.

“You don’t have to applaud me,” Arizona dead-panned in an attempt to quell the butterflies that were still fluttering within. Her teeth worried her bottom lip as time wore on and she awaited the vocalization of Callie’s thoughts.

Callie’s eyes searched the depths of Arizona’s before the ortho surgeon leaned forward, placing a spontaneous kiss that lingered on pink lips and just like that, the untamed butterflies of a moment ago were settled and the words came out with confidence this time.

“I really want us to have another baby,” she reiterated.

Confusion filled eyes studied the blonde with hesitation as Callie worked to decipher the sincerity of her statement. “Really, Arizona? I mean… Really?”

“Uh huh. I think it’s time. I mean, Sofia’s almost six now so I think if we’re going to do this, it really should be soon. You know I want her to have a sibling.”

“Really?”

“Calliope…”

Callie’s eyes clouded over as she thought of her wife’s refusal to carry again after the miscarriage and the distress that followed, while her hand absently reached out to stroke the pale cheek of the face she adored.

“But…” her spirits fell as she remembered the severity of the car accident that brought Sofia into this world prematurely, “the adhesions-”

This was it. The big moment. Arizona took a deep breath and in a self-assured voice said the three words she’d been practicing since this subject began dominating her thoughts weeks ago. “I’ll do it.”

The brunette was sure she had misheard.

“Excuse me?”

After her miscarriage, heaped upon the other traumas of that time period, Arizona had been so destroyed, so utterly devastated, that she had completely self-destructed, taking both Callie and their marriage down into the spiraling ball of flames with her.

“I said I’ll do it. I am a woman too, you know.”

Brown eyes sensually ran over the curves of the blonde in bed next to her as Callie struggled not to let her hopes elevate. “No, yeah, I know. Believe me, I’ve noticed. It’s just…” She dragged her gaze up to blue eyes.

“What?”

“I just… I thought you didn’t want to…” she swallowed thickly before moistening her lips. “you know… after last time-” Callie explained cautiously.

“I can do this. I want to do this.”

Callie’s heart pumped harder, swelling with pride at the certainty, the finality of Arizona’s tone. Still, she had to make sure.

“But what if… what if… something goes wrong again? Do you think you could handle that?”

“I can. I know I didn’t manage it last time. And I know I let you down on so many levels-”

“Arizona-”

“Things happen Calliope, I get that now. Sometimes horrible things happen, but if I let that possibility stop me, stop us, then what kind of life will we have? We’ve already been through the ringer…” She inhaled deeply, her eyes locking onto her wife’s and she smiled. “Besides, beautiful things happen too. Like you. And Sofia. And I want those things. I want them with you. So I’m choosing to focus on life’s beauty instead.”

The brunette could feel her heart rate increase. “Are you sure, Arizona? Last time-”

“People change, Calliope. I’ve changed.”

“Really? I-I mean, I know they do, but- Really?” Her hand cupped the blonde’s face. “You really want to be the one to carry our baby?”

“I do.”

Arizona’s eyes searched her wife’s face as Callie tried to put forth her next question delicately. She’d love nothing more than to experience a pregnant Arizona, but she needed to make sure the blonde had considered everything. “But, what about, you know… your leg?”

“We already checked that out, remember? The cautions are still the same. Other than needing a few tweaks here and there to adjust for the added poundage, it shouldn’t be too big of a problem. Oh, except that I might also have to limit my vertical time as the pregnancy advances, I mean, I am a little older now. But that’s okay too. Seriously, how could more horizontal time with my beautiful new bride ever be a bad thing? As a matter of fact, if you ask me, we don’t get nearly enough horizontal time-”

Her words were cut off by the luscious red lips of her wife’s on hers.

“Mmmm, you were rambling again,” Callie whispered before going in for another gentle peck.

“Hmmm” The blonde smacked her lips.“I should ramble more often. You should never underestimate the benefits of a good ramble, Callio-”

Silenced again by those pillowy lips, strong hands gripped her head and tilted it for better access, her mouth quickly opening under Callie’s tutelage as the kiss deepened significantly before ending when Arizona backed away.

Her heart pounded in her chest as she anxiously awaited Callie’s reply to her well-considered proposition. “Calliope…” She prodded when none was forthcoming. “You didn’t answer m-”

“YES! YES! I would love to have another baby with you!” the brunette agreed excitedly, sufficiently convinced of her wife’s determination to be their baby’s birth mother. “Definitely yes! Let’s do it, Arizona, let’s have a baby! YES!!” Callie threw her arms around the fetal surgeon while battling against the release of tears. She had never known such happiness until the blonde walked into her life, hadn’t even believed it possible. But one kiss in a dirty bar bathroom had changed everything. That one unsolicited meeting of lips had given birth to a relationship which had brought forth a love more meaningful and more profound than any she had imagined before, instantly inflating her heart to not only make her forget all about the brusque Cardio surgeon she had been seeing and her unceremonious exit from Callie’s life, but also revealing her love of George O'Malley for the mortifying farce that it was, an uninspiring and lackluster relationship that left her wanting to bury her face in shame whenever she thought about it now. That one kiss, shared with a woman she had never even laid eyes on before, had altered destiny and given her life, she acknowledged before it hit her how one horribly unpredictable flight on a doomed airplane almost took it all away. Tightening her arms more securely around her wife she sighed heavily as her mind unexpectedly recalled those dark days after the agony of hearing that the plane carrying Arizona and their friends was missing and couldn’t be found. Four long, torturous days and nights spent inconsolably crying and being unable to function at even the most basic level. And as unbelievable as it was, that turned out to be only the beginning of the ginormous shit storm that was to become her life in the aftermath; the amputation, the miscarriage, the affair with that cranio-facial bitch, their separation, the malpractice lawsuit, the whole Murphy fiasco, the list went on and on until the calamities took their toll and a union created in love finally crumbled, breaking down to end regretfully in tears and heartbreak for both parties involved. The brunette took a deep breath, her chest growing lighter by the second, the hurried remembrances leaving closure in their wake after they flashed through her mind one by one, the quick blinks of their former lives, including a certain redhead who’d influenced the impulsively poor decision of Callie terminating her employment and moving across the country, and lastly, the heartbreakingly devastating custody battle, playing for one last encore before eternally crossing the threshold into oblivion. Callie was more than ready to bury those wasted years and move on, after all, she and Arizona had come full circle, conquering the drama and thrills to finally find their bliss together once more. And the brunette was certain that this time no one, NOTHING would tear them asunder.

“I love you so much, Arizona,” Callie declared her adoration at the same time her hands wove themselves into tousled yellow hair, her lips insistently claiming Arizona’s as her body simultaneously maneuvered itself for leverage, pushing the fetal surgeon onto her back. “I love you,” she repeated through kisses of fire as her hands eagerly left the softness of blonde locks and moved underneath her pajama top instead, sliding it upwards and over Arizona’s head. Dropping it to the side, Callie’s fingers deftly tugged at the edges of the Batman and Robin sleep shorts that were her wife’s new favorite, the ones purchased for her weeks ago after Callie’s bravery for quelling her own aversion to creepy crawlies long enough to kill a giant sized arachnid, thereby saving Arizona from a night of imaginary torment at said spiders mercy. The Latina smiled at the happy memory as she nuzzled her face into the sensitized neck of her life partner.

“Who’s your hero, Arizona?” A plea demanded possessively during their private celebration for two.

“Youareyouareyou-” A hurried declaration interrupted by the release of a budding climax. A trembling body held captive underneath the brunette’s own, panting wildly in the aftermath of its violent storm, fingers dug in and clutched securely onto Callie’s shoulder blades, as she laid kisses on the softness of her lover’s alabaster cheek. The whispered adoration that followed made Callie shudder as the husky timbre of the blondes words into her ear canal sent shivers down her spine.

“You’re my hero, Calliope. My own personal Batman,” Arizona praised with a calming breath, and this time it was Callie’s turn to quiver as her body shook with laughter atop the blonde.

Arizona smiled lazily at her wife’s obvious mirth. “What?”

“Batman, huh?” Callie questioned, amusement evident in her voice.

The brunette’s laughter was contagious, and Arizona’s smile widened.

“What’s the matter with Batman? He’s a perfectly respectable superhero, Calliope, tights notwithstanding.”

Pulling up to look into blue eyes darkened with desire, Callie smirked as she replied, “Seriously? You’re really going with Batman?” Her eyebrows arched up high towards her hairline.

“Why not? What’s wrong with Batman?” Arizona’s own eyebrows furrowed in genuine confusion and Callie laughed as she took in the blonde’s adorably perplexed look.

“Nothing’s wrong with Batman, Arizona. It’s just… Batman and Robbins? Seriously?” she finished in an incredulous tone.

Their bodies shook gleefully with combined laughter when the blonde realized the pun. Still chuckling long moments later, she shifted their positions then pushed Callie’s legs apart to settle between them.

“Mmmm” she silenced the Latina’s melodious laughter with a deep kiss and a purposeful hitch of her hips.

“Oh, my,” Callie broke the kiss to let out a low moan at the sensations her wife’s slick sex was creating within her own. Kissing those temptingly plump lips once more, Arizona began to lick and nibble her way down Callie’s exquisite form until her glistening womanhood was positioned at Arizona’s mouth. “Time to explore the Batcave,” she whispered huskily just before running her flattened tongue up Callie’s entire slit and encircling her femininity with her lips, eliciting a guttural moan from her wife. “Fffuuuccck.”

Xxxx

The next couple of months crept by slowly for the anxious women and included a trip to the OBGYN along with the careful monitoring of Arizona’s cycle and the retrieval of one of Mark’s deposits from the cryobank. Until finally, came the night the women made their first attempt at inseminating Arizona with a prolonged session of lovemaking and three orgasms each.

After one more attempt two days later, they lay cuddled together on the couch, catching up on one of their favorite tv shows online, after having gotten up earlier to replenish their energy with a midnight snack. Callie sighed with contentment, and Arizona’s voice faded into the background as her memory happily replayed their evening behind her closed eyelids.

“… I mean honestly, Calliope, sometimes it feels like our lives are just like that.” Focusing her mind, brown eyes opened to find the blonde in full dialogue, her face now turned towards Callie.

“…A poorly written storyline on some worn out tv show- you know, the politically correct to have gay couple that the powers that be didn’t really want, and the writers don’t know how to write for, and whose popularity has far surpassed that of their heterosexual main pairing, so they just keep throwing pointless crap at us, because who could possibly believe that two women in a lesbian relationship could be mature, responsible and communicative. God, It makes me want to punch someone!” she finished excitedly.

Callie chuckled loudly, having been brought back to the present right in the middle of one of the rants her wife was famous for. Her mind had wandered considerably during the show, reveling in the feelings of mutual love and the satisfaction in knowing such a relationship, such a woman exists for her and her alone, and she gazed at Arizona with adoration as her mind took in the blonde’s latest ramble.

“I see that. Given it some thought, have you?” she smirked.

“I may have… A little.” Arizona rolled onto her back and looked at Callie sheepishly. “Sorry. Guess I was born a rambler.”

“Oooh, obscure song references now.”

“Shut up.”

“And let you go?”

“Ha, ha,” Arizona mocked and cuddled closer. “Okay, I’ll stop my bitching,” she said with a smile as Callie tightened her embrace. “Looks like I’m the crazy one today, huh?”

Callie grinned devilishly as a new song popped into her head and she began to sing. “Hey, you’re a crazy bitch, but you fuck so good I’m on top of it-”

“Calliope!” The blonde cut off, aghast. “That is NOT a song!”

“Sure it is.”

“Oh really? Sing some more of it then,” she challenged the ortho surgeon, positive that such a song did not exist.

Pulling the blonde flush against her, Callie’s hand slipped low and cupped Arizona’s buttock. She picked up her song where she left off.  “When I dream, I’m doing you all night, scratches all down my back, you keep me right on…” she hitched her hips sensuously to insinuate the rest.

“Oh my God! You just made that up!”

“No, I told you. It’s an actual song,” Callie informed through a smile. “And by an actual rock band, no less.”

She leaned in, her mouth finding Arizona’s in a slow kiss that deepened as the seconds ticked by and she moaned softly. When the lip-lock finally ended, Callie looked intently into the blue pools of desire she had created, her finger rising to move soft blonde strands behind one ear as she sang the last line of her song. “You’re crazy but I like the way you -Fuck. Me..” she finished, enunciating the last two words just before her lips found Arizona’s once more.

“You’re impossible!” The blonde chided with the shake of her head when their oral affection finished and Callie pressed another kiss to her wife’s mouth.

“Wrong again, Mrs. Torres.” Her tongue reached out, swiping along her own lips to savor Arizona’s taste with a soft caress after they separated. “For you, I’m very, VERY possible.”

Arizona scoffed. “More like a sure thing,” she corrected and Callie laughed once more.

“Ah, I see, so now we’ve moved on to old movies have we?”

“No! God, no!” Arizona laughed too, then kissed Callie yet again. She rolled off the couch to stand and pulled Callie up to her feet as well, her lips finding the brunette’s once more. “Mmmm. I’m just glad I didn’t call YOU a crazy bitch,” she whispered against the pillowy softness. “Who KNOWS what you would’ve come up with,” she added when their mouths eventually parted.

“That’s easy,” Callie smirked mischievously as the next words vocalized melodiously from her lips. “I’m a bitch, I’m a tease, I’m a GODDESS on my knees…” She slid down the blonde’s form and nuzzled her face into Arizona’s pajama covered center.

“Oh my God. I surrender. I surrender, you win.” Arizona pulled her wife up and back into her arms.

“I see my evil plan worked then.” Callie caressed her fingertips down Arizona’s arms finding and grasping her hands. She leaned in and kissed her tenderly.

“Mmmmm…” The blonde freed a hand, moving it to the soft cleavage of her wife’s breasts to stroke the fleshy globes with the backs of her fingers before running them over the necklace that rested on the tanned chest before her. “And that plan was what, exactly? To sing me dirty songs until I begged for mercy?”

“Uh huh,” Callie beamed. “I had you begging me for mercy,” she started to sing again but was halted by Arizona’s stern look. “And then I’d drag you into the bedroom for ravishment and really make you beg.”

With the slight tilt of her head, she moved in to kiss along an alabaster jawline, humming as she worked her way up to that sensitive spot just under Arizona’s ear, the one she knew for a fact would bring her wife to her knees not just figuratively but literally as well, and attached her lips, sucking lightly. “Great plan, huh?” Callie mumbled against her neck, causing the blonde to shiver as her skin became riddled with goosebumps.

A low moan escaped from Arizona’s throat. “Mmmm, the best. Only we both know that it’s you, Calliope, who will be doing all the begging,” she warned huskily.

A knowing look passed between them when Callie pulled her head back to see into the ocean of blue that was Arizona’s eyes. She smiled widely at the accuracy of the blondes type-A statement.

“Well… True. Okay so- ‘YOU’RE a bitch, you’re a tease, you’re a GODDESS on your knees…”

The peds surgeon laughed softly. “So true Calliope, so true.” Blonde curls jiggled as Arizona nodded her head, dipping her face down so her mouth could begin its own assault on Callie’s neck. “And just for future reference, I’LL be the one choosing the music our kids listen to,” she informed right before her lips made contact with Callie’s heated flesh.

“Mmmm…” Momentarily segued not only by the tingling sensations Arizona’s mouth was creating as it traveled but also at the blondes plural use of the word kids, it took a few seconds for the other words of her comment to sink in. “Wait-what’s wrong with my taste in music?”

Arizona chuckled softly. “Where to start Calliope, where-to-start?” Her tongue licked a slow path up Callie’s neck and her mouth captured an earlobe.

“God! Okay. Okay.” Unable to stand any more of her wife’s teasing, Callie pulled away, reaching out to grab Arizona’s hand and direct her toward their bedroom. “Come on you poorly written lesbian rambler, let’s get naked and go back to bed. I’ll show you exactly how pointless your storyline ISN’T.”

End

–Songs mentioned– •Rambling man- The Allmann Brothers •Shut up and let me go- The Ting Tings •Crazy bitch- Black Cherry •Bitch- Meredith Brooks •Mercy- Duffy

[renaroo]

Double Time (11/24)

Disclaimer: Red vs Blue and related characters are the property of Rooster Teeth. Warnings: Language, Canon-typical violence Pairings: Tuckington, Chex Rating: T Synopsis: [Hero Time Sequel] After the events of Hero Time, the city and Blood Gulch are prepared for the true return of superheroes in a big way. But while Washington is attempting to adjust to a new relationship and a new living arrangement, the call of new heroes and a new mayor mean major changes for his professional life as well as his personal one. How will the balance of values fare when his new partners come to test everything he’s made of.

A/N: Long time no see, I apologize so much but I needed to take some time for a really tough situation and it brought me back to a thunder, hopefully giving you something enjoyable in the process!

Special thanks to @analiarvb, @secretlystephaniebrown, @notatroll7, @thepheonixqueen, @ashleystlawrence, @a-taller-tale, @mercuryblacksleg, @thesolesurvivormichael, @icefrozenover, @washingtonstub, and Yin on AO3 and tumblr for the wonderful feed back! I truly appreciate it more than you know.

Young Just Us

There was an ache to his bones and his joints that was leading Washington to wonder what sort of side effects his miraculous healing thanks to Doctor Grey may have had that she had neglected to inform him of. Or, at the very least, that she had informed him of but was lost in the quick speed at which every other bit of information she had given him and Tucker. 

Which was also making him regret telling the doctor that it was fine to share confidential information with Tucker in the room since, well...

“It’s too early for you to be out there! Did you forget that you almost died? That that Locus dude is still on the loose? Oh my god, you want me to just stand on the sidelines through all of this like some dudesel in distress! Joke’s on you, Wash! I’m no Church!”

A certain headache was growing right between Washington’s eyes that was making him reconsider the importance of everything.

“From my understanding, Church had some helpful advice to give and a few inventions,” Wash mused, crossing another rooftop despite having to hold a phone to his ear.

“Did you just say I’m lower than Church?” Tucker asked hysterically. “I’m... wow, I’m beyond offended.”

“And if that’s what I had meant, you should be. Fortunately for all of us, I actually was--” Wash stopped talking when he saw the next checkpoint coming up. “Tucker, I have to get back to this. You can yell at me later.”

“Oh, boy, can I yell at you later. I have enough in me to yell at you for the rest of the week!” he all but threatened.

“Right, love you too,” Wash said, pulling his phone away to hang up just as he could barely hear Tucker say What did you just say--

As much as he hated hanging up on Tucker (which he honestly didn’t under the circumstances but it was easier to tell himself that), Washington had other responsibilities to attend to. 

Like the sound of polka music gradually increasing from the distance with minor explosions and a few street lamps falling over not far behind it.

Starring expectantly at the distance, Wash took a deep breath and checked the time. 

Slower and just as destructive.

It was like they hadn’t been running this drill for weeks or something. Washington, with all his aches and groans in check, was slowly losing his patience with the young recruits. 

... and with the gleefulness the Reds took in causing more damage than absolutely necessary for their drills. But that was another battle for another time. 

Seeing the Reds’ jeep rounding the corner and coming onto the end street with his pupils nowhere in sight, Washington took drastic action and leaped down from the rooftop.

Aimed just right, Wash managed to land right between Grif and Simmons and onto the front console, causing the two to scream like banshees before realizing it was him. 

“Whoo, Wash! You sure know how to make an entrance!” Donut called from the back before turning toward Sarge. “Sarge! Load me up.”

“Firecracker engaged,” Sarge said gleefully before planting said firecracker in Donut’s hand.

“Wait!” Wash called out only to be drowned out by Donut’s screams of fire! before lobbing the firecracker. “Okay that’s enough! Too much public damage for one night!” 

“You said that tonight we weren’t stopping until those young’uns finally put an end to our reign on the streets themselves!” Sarge reminded him, beginning to hand another firecracker toward Donut.

“Yeah, which we basically took as free range from now ‘til the end of eternity,” Simmons added.

“Your call, dude,” Grif reminded Wash. “And if you dented anything in my car for cool points swear to god I’ll instruct my sister to make Tucker’s shifts living hell for the next few weeks. We’ll see who’s got the best payback--”

“Yeah, that’s going to be a real change up from what’s going on right now,” Wash remarked. “And I’m going back on my word. This ends now before the entire block goes up in smoke.”

And with that pronouncement, he grabbed the firecracker from Sarge’s hand and grabbed the gear shift and put them in park, which nearly sent all of them flying. 

“Holy shit, what the fuck, that was the dumbest, what the fuck, you’re trying to tear up my car, fuck fuck!” Grif cried out. 

“Please, your fifth member is a mechanic,” Wash responded, breaking the firecracker over his knee as he jumped out of the car. He then did a full double take on the team. “Wait... where is Lopez?”

“Señor Brown in public, Fancypants Hero!” Sarge barked back. “We use codenames in this crew.”

“Right, whatever, where is he?” Wash demanded. 

“On a daaaate,” Donut said gleefully. “I’m so proud of him. He’s come so far!”

“Alright, enough of this,” Wash said, waving his hand and walking toward the street where the out of breath heroes were coming their way. 

The young heroes nearly tripped over themselves as they cam barreling toward the Reds and Wash. Almost immediately, however, upon seeing Wash they all stumbled to a halt, grabbing their knees and heaving. 

“So... so close...” Jensen gasped. She then flinched with the others as Palomo wheezed and hit the pavement in a massive body flop. 

Wash temporarily glanced toward Palomo before looking to the rest of them. “No. You weren’t close. You weren’t even in the same ballpark as close and we’ve been running these drills repeatedly for over a week now.”

“Blargh!” Junior argued, the only one seemingly not out of breath. 

“No excuses,” Wash argued, holding up his hand to stop the rest from joining in. “There is something about the dynamic of this team that needs to be tweaked. Something small, that if changed, would make the difference between mediocrity and excellence in your futures.”

Palomo, pushing himself up off the pavement, tilted his head in enthusiastic surprise. “You think we’re mediocre now!?”

“No,” Wash said with a scowl. “You’re on the road toward being that way.”

Bitters glanced to the rest of the team and then back to Wash. “Okay, I can’t be the only one who finds that insulting, right? I mean, I know we suck, but what kind of teacher admits it to us out loud?”

“The best!” Andersmith called out excitedly.

“Me,” Wash answered more directly.

“Who is the best!” Andersmith continued. 

“Well, if we’re on the road to mediocrity... isn’t mediocrity like halfway to decency? So can’t we just continue on it?” Palomo asked curiously.

“No, that’s not how we’re doing this,” Wash said. “We need direction. We need--”

“A leader.”

The voice sent a shock through them all, causing everyone to turn on their heels to face its origin. And, sure enough, Wash found himself facing his former saver and apparent fellow city hero, Felix. Smiling wide and invitingly. 

“How did you sneak up on us?” Wash demanded.

“Guess all you attention was directed elsewhere,” Felix shrugged as he walked closer to the young heroes. “Happens. Anyway, is this the young heroes that Kimball was telling me about? Training them up or something? Heard it was her idea. Guess your retirement was more eminent than I realized. You should’ve let me know if we’re going to be partners here, Washy.”

Washington couldn’t help the way his nose curled. “Washy? Really?”

Felix didn’t seem to even acknowledge the comments as he strolled over to where the young heroes were finally getting to their feet. They seemed more than impressed with his appearance, and were even bothering to dust themselves off and smile at him.

“Say, you know what this team is really lacking that would make all the difference in the world?” Felix asked.

“I was about to explain to them the new training regiment that would address that,” Wash said thinly. “Confidence-building exercises which will independently aid their growing comfort with their own powersets so they can learn new applications of them.”

“Ugh, so long and so boring,” Felix laughed. “We don’t know how quickly these natural-born heroes will be needed! It could be tomorrow!” The young ones gasped. “It could be today!” They gasped even louder. “We have to have the men prepared, don’t we?” 

“Um, and lady,” Jensen piped up with a timid hand up as if she was in a kindergarten classroom.

“There are no immediate preps for becoming a superhero,” Wash argued. “And these kids are not going into the field any time soon.”

“What!?” the kids all cried out at once while Junior honked. 

“You’re the barrier for entry?” Felix snorted before giving an exaggerated smile to the kids. “I think the whole country saw why that’s not exactly a high bar.”

Feeling the twitch return to his eye, Wash got in Felix’s face. “Right? And what exactly is your idea that would get things turned out sooner?”

“What you need here,” Felix said, rubbing his chin as he looked over the group, “Is a leader. And who better to be the leader than your most promising future hero?”

Everyone straightened up, delight in their eyes, but Wash could see that Felix’s gaze was only on one junior hero. 

And that junior hero happened to be Junior.

Wash tilted his chin back. “Oh no.”

[grimmhelm]

TSW.L Breakdown/Slight Rantyness -ye be warned :)

First of all I am NOT in the beta, though I hope to get in just to see if any of this is better than it currently sounds.

So I have played TSW on and off since launch -I was in the beta, this is a game that I want to see flourish and be the best it can be.

Recently however they have announced the ‘Relaunch’ of The Secret World, which there calling TSW Legends.

-Cool more eyes on the game, more people to play with, that’s exactly what the community wants and needs to keep the game alive and updated for years to come and frankly still is.

However….

Nothing lasts forever as they say and with the coming of “Legends” a lot of stuff is shifting and changing, unfortunately from a lot of interviews I have scrounged and posts that people under the NDA shouldn't really be talking about but are in places (Reddit, TSW fansite forums under new account names, etc), it seems that this is not going to go well.

That said: THIS IS EARLY BETA. - also a bit of this is maybe a little out of date.

A ton of this can and will change before the launch of Legends, I just hope its for the better, ontop of that some of this is taken from forums and I can’t be 100% sure that some of the users aren't just string the pot and are not actually playing the game.

-we know 120 keys have already been sent out.

Because a lot of this is in the air i will mark it with stars.

Red: Confirmed though subject to change.

Blue: Confirmed -but there in the process of changing as i write this.

Yellow: Unconfirmed/Forum posted

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

My primary gripes:

1) Clothing: Does this set make my butt look big?

One of the things that made TSW interesting was being able to wear what you wanted, cloths had no bearing on your stats at all -pick a hat, a different shirt and a jacket, those jeans look good and some high heels! Good to go!

Not so much anymore, apparently it’s all set as ‘costumes’ now -sets that you have no customisation over at all…

This is the most likely to change, but if it does not there will be a flood of people leaving just because of that, many of us like our own unique looks that we have built over time from earning clothing through hard work or with money we have managed to scrounge up through our misadventures.

If it remains this way there will be a lot of people who simply wont play the game anymore, a ton of games took TSW lead on this system. -This also may already be outdated.

I have been informed that the Dressing room isn’t even in the Beta yet, So all this was bunk on forums.

2) The Ability wheel: Gone, it’s just gone.

In it’s place is pretty much an excel spreadsheet with abilities linked to weapons, they unlock as you gain enough points -oh what’s that want to change to a different weapon line. POOF, sorry your points you didn’t spend are gone, even if you jump back -guess you gotta grind them back out.

The ability wheel was another great feature but had a lot of the more childish members of the community up in arms because “it was too complicated” -it really was not, you pick a weapon you wanted to raise, you follow a set chain of abilities each a little more expensive but more powerful than the last, complete a certain set you unlock a ‘deck’ and its costume.

No more of that. (For now).

EDIT: This is apparently just a placeholder for what they actually have in store -the points vanishing is a bug that not everyone is experiencing.

3) Levels: Numbers!!!.

Before in TSW your level was an abstract concept, you had to judge for yourself when you was strong enough to take on an area and the creatures within.

Get your ass kicked -come back after doing some other stuff, did OK? Keep going, Kick ass yourself -maybe time to check that other corner of the map, in a fight with a tough foe who might be just a little stronger than you but you JUST manage to scrape by-nothing beats it.

As it was it was based on your ability choice and the gear level you had, the better stuff you had the better chance you had of pushing past an area.

Not so much now, There giving us a good old fashioned Levelling bar and a number next to our name.

Fuck. That.

I completely understand why, it’s easier for new players to come in and know how tough a bad-guy is compared to you, but the guess work added to The Secret World’s ambiance, despite your god-like powers your still a brittle human compared to the horrors that slip out of the darkness and into your waking nightmare, judging if you can actually handle something or not was part of the charm.

Nope, gone now, its level 23 your 18 better run.

4) Combat: DODGE!.

This maybe the only good thing I have heard? Maybe? That said I like the combat as it was.

Right click: Primary weapon attack, Left click: Secondary weapon attack, Dodge is now an action key instead of a direction double tap or a direction space bar, potions and mount are on an (currently) unmovable hotbar.

The abilities are all 1 to 8 as normal in MMO’s. Not the 6 button round up we have normally. I know those of us who played TSW before are going to get killed ALOT because of these changes, were not going to doge because our habit and instinct tells us to double tap, were going to forget to click to attack after we fire off abilities.

However this may turn out to be decent if it’s improving the feel of battle, though I will miss the combat they originally had.

5) Loot: Minor change. Maybe.

Apparently the items will no longer scatter the ground when you slay your foe, instead everyone in the party will get there own individual loot added directly to the inventory.

Don’t want to pick stuff up? Tough. Your friend got the weapon you was after and you got something you don’t even use? Tough, chances are there bound on pickup.

It used to be that items got left on the ground if you didn’t grab them, if you ran away a certain distance or didn't touch the items for 2 minuets, another play could pick them up -this was incredibly useful for helping lower geared friends in areas, letting them get a few extra resources to make weapons/gear/potions, but all that is apparently just a dream of the past now.

HOWEVER. This is only partially confirmed from a few interviews, it is unknown if items won’t drop as normal outside of parties.

6) Crafting: Gone is the template of old.

Apparently this is the largest change for us old TSW players, the crafting system has been scrapped.

It used to be you dragged certain materials such as metal or water or fire into a pattern on the crafting window -build a shotgun make a L longways with certain materials, a potion? Draw a bottle with the items.

Now it’s just a list like in WoW, or any other MMO these days.

Have the materials? Good, select how many wait a few seconds, off you go.

I know some players had trouble with remembering the combinations for items, but just give us an item window with the patterns on, don’t carve out the whole thing with a damn crowbar.

7) Story: The wheels on the bus go round and -OHGODITATETHEDRIVER.

The Main story for the factions remains almost untouched with the exception of some corrections in the lore and mechanical touch ups.

However.

Some of the side missions will be altered, some completely others just a tad.

Apparently some of the investigation missions -a unique mission type to TSW will be altered to combat ones since some players considered them a hassle or ‘too hard’ -these guys I want to lock in a TSW parking lot -if you play you know that’s a special kind of hell to be savoured!

Honestly if they remove the investigation missions, it will be a massive loss to the game and it’s unique play-style, having to figure out puzzles -logic based, history based, item based, etc. Was an amazing experience and sometimes required research and time to crack.

If even a few are gone it will make a lot of people turn there back on the game since they live for those missions.

Turns out this will mostly be tweaking, repairing some of the broken aspects and small click-boxes for some of the missions, a lot of this is fixes and moving onto improving.

8) Lifetime Subscriptions: Hahahahaha...haha...ha...*sobs*

Those of us who purchased the very extravagantly priced ‘Lifetime subscription’ and becoming Grandmasters in the game will apparently be getting the shaft.

Whilst we retain our Grandmaster status we will no longer receive monthly points to spend on the in-game store.

We will occasionally get subscription awards though not at the level we have been getting them the last year or so but mostly our lifetime subscription means that we just get the base future DLC for free.

Want the extra stuff? The clothing? Potions? Gotta pay cold hard cash.

Fortunately we keep our exp/currency/drop boosts, were gonna need them.

This I am ok with, they need to make money somehow now that there going this route with the game, but it’s still a difficult pill to swallow.

Oh and I made a point of saying DLC, not Expansion. If an expansion to TSW actually releases then you gotta pay for that too.

This is apparently undecided at this point.

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There is a lot more but I've already spent 2 hours putting this together, I would have included links but most of the forums are deleting whatever comes up when they see it.

However here is the main interview going around right now:

http://massivelyop.com/2017/03/31/the-daily-grind-are-you-excited-about-secret-world-legends-2/

http://massivelyop.com/2017/04/01/exclusive-interview-romain-amiel-on-secret-world-legends-story-monetization-membership-tokyo-and-more/

You can check out the regular places and try to catch the forum posts that aren't removed a few minuets after there posted, but that’s a hard thing to do -and as stated before, we can’t be sure the people posting are actually playing or stirring the pot of those who are getting wound up.

All that said here are people you CAN trust with TSW stuff:

@biomechanicaltomato​

@matovilka​

@councilofvenice​

@thehiveislive​

@existentialdents​

@fuckyeahtsw​

@tswshutterbees​

@pgirl1986​

(sorry if I missed anyone, this has been a ton of work XD )