#I'm not a builder and instead of starting with something small

[rabbitxxhole]

unfinished build | residencial lot + laundromat, gym and pool 🌊

[pondering-gales-left-orb]

I have a crazy ass theory based on The Iron Bull saying he can sense magic and how scared he is of demons....

I think The Iron Bull has magic in him..

but it was never discovered because it never awakened the same way it does for everyone (aka accidentally making fire or freezing people etc) and that is because of his fighting style that's very Reaver adjacent aka involving blood and the dragon blood the Qunari have in their making (its already confirmed that the iron bulls horns are dragon horns so its safe assume he has more dragon in him than most Qunari hence his feelings about dragons and his massive size and his fighting style etc)

Almost all the saarebas we know have their magic awaken when they were alittle older older than what we know of the southern mages (mostly either too young to remember or to small to start participating in society) after they had already been assigned a job and started to train for it in Qunari society which is backed up by bull telling that to Vivienne

Vivienne: I have heard of the life of the saarebas, Iron Bull, but I'm curious about your viewpoint. Iron Bull: It's sad, mostly. The magic appears late in childhood just like it does for you folks. Some kid's gone years learning to be a baker or soldier or builder, and then one day, that's all gone.

so i think his magic awakened after he started to be trained as a Ben Hassrath Hissrad so his magic was naturally channelled to his fighting style and strength thus his massive desire to spill blood (mostly dragon blood lol) was born

and the reason why he is deathly scared of demons is that he unknowingly went through his harrowing as a kid but he thought it was just a dream where he outsmarted an imaginary demon like the ones he was taught about because he is originally Ashkaari (the one who thinks) as a kid rather than a Fighter or a spy so he's smart as fuck and can out smart a demon easily

Cole: Yes. And you're The Iron Bull, afraid of demons.

Iron Bull: Not fond of 'em, no. But you and I are fine as long as you don't do any weird crap.

Cole: Lying awake, sheets soaked in sweat, afraid to call the Tamassrans. Shadows make shapes in the dark.

Cole: If it gets in my head, how do I cut it out? Itching, shaking, tears slide cold down my cheeks. "Tama, I'm scared."

I think this was the aftermath of his harrowing which he didn't realize was a harrowing but a bad dream that caused him a great fear of demons getting in his head again from that moment on

And last of all when bull remarks on solas's magic style solas doesn't outright say "you can't tell my magic is clunky because you are not a mage" instead he says " without magical training, you cannot notice the parts of my magic that "clunk" now why would bull have magical training or not have a magical training at all as a non mage 🧐

Also he has an an unusual high sensitivity for magic which could be said is because he fights vints and his Ben-Hassrath training but i don't see any non mage companions talking about they type of magic they can feel but him

He often says something like "This place has more magic than usual. Whole place is full of it." Or something about the magic potency compared to other places and like no other fighter comments about it like he does...

Anyway just a theory but i keep side eyeing him every time he comments on magic like "this feels different" ....why do you feel magic? why do you even know how it feels? why do you know what the devil was preaching in last nights Sacrament hmmmm🧐🤨

anyway love The iron bull forever and always <3333

[hazbin-hotel-the-rewrite]

Ok, here's the first character profile and post for my Hazbin Hotel rewrite, I'm doing mainly the hotel's cast, the Main four (Charlie, Aggie, Angel Dust, and Crymini), and Alastor. If I feel motivated for more, I might continue.

Charlie:

Redesign profile: For Charlie, I do think her original canon design is by all means a good one, my only faults with it per se are that I feel like her hair swoop bang. It feels a bit confusing, and it's weirdly animated. And my only other problem is the colors, while I dont despire if some of the characters have similar colors nearly all the characters share the same shade of red; and that she kinda has no stand out able traits to her design to make her unique from the rest (like the most you could say is her nose but like theirs nothing interesting about it)

But I do have things I enjoy, one I love the suit, if anything it makes her look more mature and more like a grown up (with the pilot she seemed kinda childish). It took time to get used to, but I like her bubble braid, her red eyes are good, and I do think, in my personal opinion, she's the prettiest character in Hazbin Hotel (sue me XD).

With that said, here's what I did for her redesign:

She has pink(or rather rose colored) hair and it's in a similar bubble-ish braid, its more like say a mix of Applejack from mlp and Rapunzel's braid in Tangled I also made the bang part a more understandable hair swoop

For her face, she has her cheek marks as a lighter color, her eyes are the same basically, I also gave her horns and gave the color the same as her canon cheeks, oh and she has ears

Nothing too much for her body change, expect for maybe her legs look like a mix of goat and human, at one point I was deciding if she could have hooves but I wanted to make her look more human so I gave her claw toes instead, and she has light pink claws.

Clothes wise, her outfit looks more similar to her pilot design only the difference is that her main color for that outfit is more yellow like, mainly to reflect that she has a ‘sunshine’ personality, and that she also wears pink gloves mainly for a pop of color for her clothes.

Profile:

Personality: Nothing significant changes to her personality, she's still the same person. The only difference is that she doesn't take things as childish in the story. Since in this version she and Aggie have been researching humans and different types of psychology/therapy, she can take the redemption bit more seriously and try to help the sinners become better people.

Powers: Obviously, she's literally the daughter of the fallen angel, she has to have some OP powers, but since, like canon she doesn't want to use them unless someone messes with her so yeah short run down list:

Pyro kinesis is obvious, but she has the ability to manipulate and control as much fire as she wants, ranging from tiny sparks to HUGE blazing hells.

Teleportation: something she learned from reading books on magic, she can only use this if she can have a perfect memory of the location she wants to go to, she also doesn't use it that often due to nausea it could cause her

Flight: In her demon form, about 25% she can manifest angel-like wings to fly and soar(they go bigger depending on her forms also I will one day post her demon forms on here)

Small pocket dimension: Nothing too major. It can be the size of an average messenger bag that she can store essential belongings inside.

Demon forms: She can take the forms of 0, 10(her current form), 25,50,75 and 100% and each one of them also has a wide variety of strength, zero is normal human 10 can be like a body builder strength and 100… we dont talk about it; and with each one her horns also start to curve to be more like a goat, and her skin would also start to break(but thats when 50% and beyond happen) and so much more but maybe I can talk about them more in another piece...

And beyond that, there are many other spells and demon-related things about her she can learn, but right now she isn't interested in other stuff, but for now, maybe she might wanna learn more to keep her and the hotel safe…

Ok so for backstory, some things I have kept the same, but much more simplified for the rewrite:

Born in 1830(meant to reference the beta design death age), Lucifer and Lilith had always wanted a child, but kept producing stillborns for hundreds of years until they used some… mysterious other ways to have Charlie.

It was agreed to only have one child due to Lilith and Lucifer not wanting to put each other through the baby stress they have gone through for like hundreds of years.

But due to having one child, they decided to have her be sheltered from the outside hell world due to wanting to protect her and have their joy be safe and sound.

The only times she was allowed outside of her house were to go to the other rings of hell, and she has barely ever been in the pride ring, and when she was able to go into the pride, she was accompanied by heavy security.

She attended all her education in Envy Ring K-12, met her first serious girlfriend(Helsa) but had a nasty breakup, and had other relationships with boys and girls. Throughout school, afterward, not a lot of relationships.

She stayed at her parents' home after school, but she became curious about the outside world over time.

One day after the New Year(around 2000), she tried to visit Pentagram City, where most of the sinners lived, but got to witness her first extermination. Lucifer found her after she hid near one of his duck factories.

After she finally learned of the extermination, a huge fight ensued, which left a crack in the relationship between her and her parents.

Over the next 20-ish years, she would sneak out to help sinners during exterminations, both of whose parents didnt know about it, and she would use spell books to sneak into Earth to learn about humans and realized they didnt deserve eternal punishment or even extra death.

It wasn't until like 2023 that Lilith left Charlie and her dad for some reason, the relationship between her and her dad was getting more cracks, until 4 years later in 2027, where she found a purple sinner hiding behind the factories where she once hid and tried to take her home to clean her up.

Lucifer found out and a screaming match between the two happened (the purple sinner pretended to be asleep/knocked out)

At the end, Lucifer screamed a horrible remark at Charlie, which made her take the purple sinner to her room, grab two bags of clothes and money, and leave the estate. It was considered Lucifer's greatest mistake.

She had her eye on a hotel that was abandoned for such a long while and thought that's where she and the sinner could stay.

And cut to 3 years later, and Charlie and Aggie the sinner are starting their hotel to rehabilitate sinners!

Ok, that's the reinvented backstory for Charlie. It's a bit quicker to the point, but I hope people enjoy the reinvented profiles much more than the OG ones I made. I won't do a trivia section, but enjoy the outfits and no clothes version(theirs bikini on her for the second image) I made for her.

(fun fact the casual 1# is based on the OG beta look)

edit: 4/5/2025, updated the profile to give a bit of color and update the name card

[dennydraws]

I've been playing Anno 1800 way, way too much...

For the record, I've never considered myself a city builder type of gamer. My brother used to play these games a lot but I was mostly watching when I was wee little bean. I think he mostly just had fun sending armies around and destroying things lol but I do distinctly remember being bored one day and picking Civ on the PSX and finding out I was actually good at it or as good as reaching a point where loading the opponents' turns was taking so long it made the whole thing unplayable lol but I did reach some kinda moon landing phase or something... anyhowsies! That was my only city building RTS kinda experience :D;;

I picked Anno 1800 during the spring sale having never played Anno games before but I'm absolutely weak for the time period's aesthetics (also ships!) and I've been having such a blast playing and learning and ....what do you mean I've been playing for 8 hours?? This game is so immersive and I love, love, love the music and the vibes so much...

This game knows time magic, I swear... if I dare boot it after work, it's one blink and it's nearly midnight. It's really dangerous during the work week xD;;; I didn't expect to find it as charming and enjoy all the AIs and their little banters!

I finished the campaign mode (and deleted my save by accident, rip) and now I fiddle in sandbox mode but I super look forward to friends picking it during a sale so we can co-op and tackle some of the stronger AIs >u>! ...Eventually anyway, cause V Rising is getting the 1.1 update in like three days and I will sink back into my Gothic Phase™ !

I plan to wipe the dust off another old vampire OC instead of bringing Voice back since the update requires to start fresh anyway :D; Plus Miss Voice got her dream castle and a demon husband so... I consider her V Rising Journey to be complete! However V Rising requires well rested fingers and Anno has so much clicking... it's going to be hard resisting to play anything this weekend lol but I can feel the strain on my joints this week. I need to be careful!

But yes, this past month has been... more of playing games than arting. I'm trying to give myself more of a creative break? Like, treat art less like a 2nd job, play more games, go out more (since the weather is getting better!) and be less... locked on projects which is a bit of a difficult shift in my mindset xD;; I know my comic projects are suffering as a result but I will get there eventually! May is just a bit too packed with events/games/life right now.... :D;;

I also want to draw more Anno inspired scenes with Eloise ffff

I've been trying to poke the FF14's space exploration missions too, to primary max my gatherers but my FF14 inspo is still so low... T-T I feel a little guilty about it. My brain is just into other games right now...

Anyhowsies, that's been my life over the past month :D; Playing a lot of games, getting much needed serotonin from the increasing daylight... Life is hard and the world is depressing but when good vibes happen, no matter how small in comparison, it's nice to acknowledge and write about them too. :>

Thank you for stopping by and reading my life update rambles :D! I hope you will have a wonderful weekend ~

[kristinagehrmann]

Art portfolio website advice!

What are your favorite tips you would give to someone building their illustration portfolio website? 🔥 My website is www.kristinagehrmann.com and here are some of my tips:

1. SHOW YOUR WORK IMMEDIATELY

Online marketing experts already knew this 20+ years ago: the more clicks someone has to do to get to the sauce, the lower your conversion rate (or the sooner they give up, or whatever you want to call it).

Assume that we all have the attention span of a goldfish, and you might have minimal time to capture your audience's attention. You want to wow people with your artwork right away. I currently do this with my main category of (mostly) fantasy art, which is the one I'm most interested in finding new work in - it is the homepage of my website. No clicks needed to get there!

2. SORT BY MARKET, NOT MEDIUM

I often see young illustrators arranging their website in categories like "traditional" and "digital". But for the most part, our clients don't care what we draw with. Instead they're asking: "Does the art suit my product/projects?"

Therefore it's best to think from the perspective of the industry (industries) or market(s) you want to target. Categorise your art what it's used for, or what niche of the market it looks like.

For example, you might do childrens' book illustration but also have artwork (that looks like it's) for the middle grade or YA publication market. Then it makes sense to arrange your portfolio in these 2 categories. Of course you can just focus on one single thing - some of the best illustrators do only one thing. Either way is fine!

(If you have no idea yet what you really want to do, research and explore what is out there and think about where your art could fit in, but that's a whole journey and a topic for another day)

I currently use 3 categories: History (for my history-themed work for publishing, boardgames and museums), Kids/YA for everything for a younger audience (not much in there yet, more to come), and Main (for everything else, mostly fantasy themed stuff). All these are categories I love to work in, and where I want to be hired to do more similar things.

3. BE EASY TO CONTACT

Notice something in all these screenshots? My email address is on every page! And no, I don't have serious spam issues - on average I get about 1-5 spam emails per day, but I think that's a small price to pay for my dream job.

Don't be stingy with your email -- make it un-missable for your clients. 99% of all art directors prefer email.

Contact forms can exist alongside, but clients don't like them very much because there is no record of the message they sent, and in some cases they just plain don't work.

4. RIGHT CLICK & SAVE

This one might be controversial, but since thieves will steal our images anyway if they want to (anyone can do a screenshot, and right-click and save is easy enough on social media), and we need to post everywhere anyways, we might as well make images on our websites saveable.

On Muddycolors an art director talks about preferring to do just that in order to keep track of artists for future projects.

From the preview images on my website you can right click and save (not the larger ones - that's where Portfoliobox, my website builder has its limits). Have your name somewhere in the images too, so your dream client can easily identify them as yours. Having your name in the filename might be a good idea too (I should probably get started on that).

I hope this was helpful. Feel free to share your own website tips. ❤️ Or fight me! 😂

[practically-an-x-man]

Ok... So... If its ok to ask... What's your Minecraft Day 1 strategy?

Ooooh, good question!

Set KeepInventory to true - I'm not here for a challenge, I'm here to have fun, and losing my stuff when I die isn't fun for me.

Chop wood (obviously). I usually grab a tree or two, then make a crafting bench, axe, pickaxe, and grab another half-stack of logs or so

Grab cobblestone, enough to make a furnace, a better axe and pickaxe, and a sword. No need to grab too much extra, I'll get more by nightfall

Run around a bit, look for animals for a quick food supply, and small caves that might have easy coal or iron deposits

While I'm running, I also try to grab seeds if there's grass. Getting a farm set up early is a huge asset, since the crops will take a few days to grow anyway.

Run around until it's close to nightfall, then find a hill or mountain and dig myself a little hobbit-hole. Build that furnace, plop it down, and either start cooking up that food (if I found coal) or whip up some quick charcoal to make torches

Once I've got my hobbit-hole set up, lit up, got things cooking in the furnace, I'll start digging a mine to try and find more resources. On my new survival world with my dad, I actually found this HUGE ravine/cave system with that method, and we've been working on lighting it up and snagging the resources.

If I manage to find sheep/wool on the first day, I will sleep through the night instead of starting a mine, mainly since I want to set my spawnpoint. I also like to make 2 buckets as quickly as possible, so I can create an infinite water source wherever I decide to set up my base. I'll usually set up a small underground farm in my hobbit-hole and use bonemeal to speed up the crops (there's always skeletons in the mines), just to get some early food going.

Once I've got a good starter-amount of coal and iron, and enough food to keep me going, I'll pick up all my things and go exploring until I find a better spot for a full house. When I find the spot, I'll dig myself another little hobbit-hole close-by and use it as temporary housing while I collect more building materials. Then I build my house, usually convert the hobbit-hole into a mine, and start putting together a bigger farm (including luring and breeding some animals if I can help it).

If I'm really intent on exploring the wider world, I'll either build a book and quill or just cheat-give myself one (again, I'm not interested in playing things "pure", I just want to have a good time. I don't give myself a ton of resources, but I'm not above snagging something like a name tag, saddle, or book and quill since those things can be harder to come by). That way I can mark down the coordinates of interesting locations, and I don't end up accidentally losing my house when I go out exploring.

Idk, I'm sure people would critique my method, especially for using cheats to make a few things easier on me, but it's a video game and I want to have fun, and in my eyes it's not fun to have to hard-reset because you lost your inventory or couldn't find the house you spent so long building. I'm more interested in casual exploration and building fun structures. I have beaten the game purely a few times, killed the Ender Dragon and all that, but all the grinding to get up to that point just isn't my thing and I'd rather just explore the world.

I also play minigames on servers a lot, those are fun :D I'm pretty good at Build Battle and Speed Builders and some of the party-games ones

[aladaylessecondblog]

A Quieter Life II

https://archiveofourown.org/works/53198734/chapters/162320242

Author's Note: There's some OOC here.

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

"This is really quite generous of you," Sigurd said to Sadrith, when they were checking out the new chamber that the miners had cut to one side of the large chamber. "To finance this, I mean."

"It is mildly selfish, I have to admit," she laughed slightly. "We have a handful of businesses here, and I was hoping to draw more so I don't need to pay a bundle of gold to get someplace that sells more than what Raven Rock has to offer. And I felt it as...well, sort of a responsibility. I have everything I could ever want or need."

"And you feel you should give back to your people? I feel the same way. I've tried with Skyrim, but..." he shook his head. "Being both a man of magic and Nerevar's incarnate made me untrustworthy to them..."

He shook his head.

"It was the same for me," Sadrith said, "Being the dragonborn helped, but...it's more comfortable here. They're much more likely to listen than the nords and imperials were."

"Again, the same." Sigurd laughed. "The Redoran were pleased once the Temple cast their lot in with me...but ah, perhaps best not to talk too much about that."

"My mother might, she never tires of hearing about you. I have to deal with the same sort of thing regarding the Thalmor."

"You solved that problem quite handily," he replied. "Off the record, of course."

"I can guess how my mother figured it out, but you--how did you--?"

"She told me." Again, a laugh. "She is very proud of you, you know. Her baby girl, saving the world from Alduin and the threat the Aldmeri Dominion posed..."

"And what about you?"

"Hmm? What about me?"

"What have you done since...everything?"

"Tried to form a place for myself," Sigurd replied, "House Redoran took me quite eagerly...I found them to be more palatable than House Telvanni or Hlaalu, both of which I disliked for different reasons."

"I can understand that. I did some favors for the Telvanni wizard here and he offered to make me a member of House Telvanni...I still haven't given him a response on that. I think he assumes I must want it, being houseless."

"Houseless?"

"My mother was of the Urshilaku, but she left the tribe when she joined that khajiit caravan I was born into." Sadrith shrugged. "She has said we might as well start our own small House."

At this point, Urag arrived, complaining mightily about the idea of being forced to move his library into a cave.

"I don't know what you were thinking, taking up their offer on this. A cave? What are we, a bunch of Falmer?"

"Which is why I am bringing you here early," Sigurd said, "I want you to be involved in the formation of the library wing. Simply tell me what you need and I will see them accomplish it."

Urag grumbled, but accepted this. Sigurd took his direction and spoke to the head of the team of builders that had just walked in. Sadrith took another glance around - noting that the statue of Almalexia had been chiseled at to resemble Azura instead - and headed back outside.

She ran into Torovan when she stopped by the Temple. She'd gone there to look for her mother since the woman wasn't at home, and found the two talking about something just outside.

"No better friend could you have than him," Kogolanu was saying. "I am glad to hear of all he's done for you."

"You could not be more so than I am to have been the one to benefit from his kindness."

"Of course," Sadrith said as she stepped up, "My mother never stops speaking of the kindness of the Nerevarine. I'm surprised we have not yet found her casting herself at his feet like a swooning maiden."

"Sadrith!" her mother laughed. "Perhaps if I were two hundred years younger, I might consider it. Torovan, please, ignore what my daughter says. She has a wild imagination and likes to take what I call a mind's flight of fancy."

"She is eager to experience the world and all its splendors, I have heard," Torovan replied, "Before we came here Sigurd filled me in on all she has done. The dragonslaying, the killing of Alduin...I find it strange, you know. Strange that she should be dragonborn and he should be Nerevarine."

"Azura must have gotten her directions mixed," Sadrith joked. "Perhaps in some other time or place it was me to wear the ring, and him to shout the dragons down. Though I might have tried reasoning with Dagoth Ur...I did with Alduin."

"You would not have been able to reason with him," Torovan said in reply, offering his arm to help Kogolanu down the steps. "I certainly tried."

"What did he even want with you? Why not simply give you corprus and let you go?"

"I know not. I only know that Sigurd was there to get me out in the nick of time."

"Well, I'm glad to hear it." Sadrith gave him a smile. "It would be a pity for Tamriel to lose a face so handsome."

"Sadrith, shame on you!" her mother burst out, "And you say I am too forward about Sigurd. There is more to him than his pretty face!"

"Of course, he's tall and dark too."

"Any more from you and my ego shall swell to unheard of levels," Torovan replied, "Surely you mean only to flatter me."

"No, I'm being entirely honest. I was lost the moment I saw you, but doubtless Sigurd would have something to say about it."

"Why should he?"

"Well, the two of you are...aren't you?"

Torovan gave a laugh. "You aren't the first to suspect it, but no. He and I are very close, yes, but it is no more than the bond of brothers."

"So you do have a chance, then, if you behave yourself," Kogolanu said. "I will do you a favor and make myself scarce. I've got to get us some ash yams for dinner tonight anyway."

"Mother, please--"

But once they'd reached the bottom of the stairs her mother was gone.

"I'm so sorry about that," Sadrith glanced up at Torovan. "Sometimes I don't know what turn she's going to take next. I suppose she was only trying to be helpful, but..."

"Is it true?" Torovan seemed to follow her, on through the market. "You're the first to be so...forward...with me, though others have shown interest."

"I wouldn't object to knowing you better," she said, "If that's what you mean."

"Is that what they are calling it now? Knowing one better?"

"Are you flirting with me?"

[murkystarlight]

Please, ma'am. I would love to hear you headcanons about Isa, Reginald and Milo.

Why of corse!

When I was younger, I used to subtly ship Isa and Milo. Now I'm into just any combo with those three cuz it's all pretty nice. Though recenty i think of Isa on the more younger side..?(but also at the same time think it's pretty likely that Isa could have a connection with the Old builders-)If I do talk about each of those separately though...

Isa and Milo

They took some time to get along. Sure, but they both admired each other for the quirks each of them had, and they both influenced each other and balanced each other out with perspectives.

Milo and Reginald

They were okay from the start. Sure Reginald watched Milo as he was stuck in a cell, but Milo knows that he was just doing his job and back then, sky cities rules were strict. And he did technically disobey it. Even if it wasn't intentional. And Reginald now understands that the rules were strict and he feels sorry for all the people who had to be in the cell for all that time for something that they didn't mean to do.

Isa and Reginald

Now that Isa isn't too hard on herself with the whole 'leader' role Reginald has learned to be her friend instead of someone to follow and listen to. Reginald was probably the closest person Isa had. Now they were able to become real friends! And Reginald was able to get to know her more like he wanted. Also figuring out that she's just a person and offers a lot of support.

Now if I go ahead and do some hc for them separately-

Isa

Her hair is really soft. She puts in a lot of effort to keep it tidy. Especially if she wants to keep it long. She considered cutting it off, but she quite likes her hair as it is. She's very hygienic.

She enjoys helping Benedict pluck her feathers to clean up. And bath times are always fun. Though Benedict keeps splashing water everywhere. Ever since they found ground, Benedict loved to swim. And Isa always followed. They would play together in the water on days off. Plus the accessory on her head is actual gold. Like... that thing's expensive. She's also really good at makeup. Her makeup look takes five minutes or smth but she still manages to make it look good.

Reginald

When he first became the captain of guards, he was thrilled to be working with the founder herself. He would try his best to always look orderly and clean. He became really close with Benedict and looked after her often. He did think it was quite horrible to keep people in cells when they made a small mistake. But he knew it was the law. And he kept his vow to follow the rules. Reginald used a lot of his time to learn about all the new blocks and environments around once they found land.

Milo

He was very secretive when he first made the builders club. So it took a while for him to first tell people about it or gather the materials. Milo also has good hair. But he doesn't take care of it that much, and it ends up being pretty greasy and messed up. Milo often makes his clothes, he did just about every little thing possible to practice making things.

Uhhh I had some more but I ran out now- hope that was enjoyable to read 😅

Thanks for the ask :)

[woodstoneb-b]

Welcome back to Woodstone B&B where stunning sunrises welcome you each day!

As well as stunning surprises I guess, because as I discovered after last entry, the Lady of the Manor and the ghost that has no pants have a...thing going on.

Flower: Oh yeah, they're all over each other like jellyfish!

Uh...huh...

The Woodstone property is pretty massive and one of the nicest spots is our very own lake!

Thor: Thor is jealous of pixel self, it has been half a century since Thor was able to fish for that greatest of all foods...cod.

Alberta: Oh lord, don't get him started.

Trevor: Can we fish in the lake in real life, Jay?

Ahem...unfortunately after consultation with the EPA, we've been advised that the level of heavy metals in the water is slightly too high so in the interests of our guests, fishing is off limits.

Now here's something of interest, here at Woodstone we have a secret underground vault! It was constructed in the 1890s by Elias Woodstone, no doubt to hold all the Woodstone family riches.

Hetty: Which he didn't get the chance to use, instead he ended up locked inside it by the builder. Which is where cuckolding will get you, so take note.

I assure all prospective guests that the skeleton in the ACTUAL basement is fake, I mean, obviously we wouldn't leave a real skeleton on the premises!

Er, Pete, what the Hell are you doing?

Pete: I appreciate worksmanship, and this is fine workmanship! It looks almost real!

Yep, definitely a fake skeleton.

Thor: Why would there be rain in this mythical space? Thor cannot fish in such weather! The cod I could be catching -

Alberta: I told you not to get him started.

In the meantime, rain and even a lack of pants doesn't deter some of the ghosts.

Trevor: A fudgiscle! Man, what I wouldn't give for one of those...

Sass: This game is making me hungry....hey, Sam, can we have a pizza to smell tonight?

Thor: Seems game is not always correct...Trevor never wins 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' in real life.

Trevor: I swear, it makes no damn sense. How do you always know.

Thor: That is secret.

Is this more accurate?

Thor: Hahaha, small man would never dare such move against Thor.

Um, Alberta? That's uh...not safe.

Alberta: This ain't real, Jay, and these microwaves...damn, you modern people don't know how good you got it!

Alberta: I mean, look at this convenience! In my time it would have taken like half a day to get a dinner like this!

Well, I'll pass on your compliments to Swanson's.

Oh God, what are you planning now, No Pants?

Trevor: Wouldn't you like to know?

I don't think I do, to be honest...

Flower: Eee buttefly chasing! My favourite thing!!

Thor: And Flower doesn't even need to worry about boundary now.

Flower: I'm supposed to worry about a boundary?

Thor *groan*

Trevor: Cool, horses!

Looks like the feeling isn't mutual.

Trevor: Wow, you've been fishing all day, Big Guy?

Thor: A whole day is nothing to Thor, Thor once spent two days fishing for a much spoken of and legendary cod, it is all colours of the rainbow and is longer than -

Alberta: Just walk away, Jay and come back in an hour or two...he should be finished by then.

Trevor: Broooooo!

Thor: Broooooo!

Well, that's something you don't see every day...a Viking and a Wall Street broker doing shakkas at each other.

Alberta: Jay, you nailed it! Here I am lookin' ready to paint the town red! Starting with a drink at this speakeasy!

Isaac: sigh I am feeling isolated and unfulfilled, there's no Samantha in this game to write my story.

Well, you know, you can write your own story in this.

Isaac: What? Why didn't you say so?! Fetch me a quill and all the parchment you can afford!

Yeah, that's really not necessary, you just need a typewriter or a computer.

Isaac: Right! Lead me to it!

Trevor: Hey nothing to see here..

Isaac: What are you talking about, you've got one of those typewriters!

Trevor: Yeah, but...this is a secret room....which you guys don't know about.

Isaac: I have never actually seen that room before, what do you do in there?

Hetty: Never you mind.

Here's an interesting development, Sass's simself rolled a want to be a sculptor so here we go.

Sass: You know, I wanted to be a storyteller...but being able to create art that will last for eons...sounds good to me!

Thor: Meanwhile, Thor has decided to keep cod and other fish to admire. Also eat if famine occur.

Righty-oh, good thinking.

On that note, we'll leave our ghostly pals for now. What hijinks will they get up to next time? Stay tuned!

[firedrakegirl]

Inspired by this, and my early response to it. https://www.tumblr.com/write-it-motherfuckers/187672014692/wolfygecko-write-it-motherfuckers. This is from the amazing @write-it-motherfuckers!!! Seriously, go check out their prompts!

It was a cool autumn day, and I was enjoying wandering around the creek by halfway down my backyard. I enjoyed looking at the rocks in the creek bed, and occasionally harassing the spiders and fish in the area. Something extra sparkly caught my eye from deeper in the water. When I leaned in and picked it up, nearly face planting in the water in the process, I realized it was a small golden snake with emerald eyes. As I held it, it slowly started growing before it lunged around my wrist and swallowed its own tail to complete the circle. I let out a little shriek of panic and started working to get it off of me. there were no seams I could dig my nails into to try and remove it, it just flexed when I tried to pull it, and the rocks I used to try and break it ended up just bruising me instead.

“Fine. You win. For now.” I grumbled at it, heading back up to the house and grabbing my hoodie on the way. I had gotten a little wet, and while the cool air was normally quite pleasant, against wet skin it was a little much for me. I walked into my back door while pulling the fabric over my head before managing to get through it instead. No sooner had I closed the door than there was a knock on the front door. I adjusted the hoodie sleeve to cover my new bracelet. “Comin'! Just a moment!” I called, hurrying to the front door.

I opened it to see a blond man with some of the biggest muscles I've ever seen outside a body builder and a much slighter, but still large, man next to him. “Sorry to bother you, but our aunt lost her favorite bracelet up the creek. We're going door to door to see if anyone has seen it.” The slighter man spoke.

“It's a gold and emerald snake.” The massive man added helpfully.

I hummed, as though in thought. I was not a good liar, but some instinct was guiding me. “I was just down there but I didn't see anything. You're welcome to go look though. The hook for the fence is on the inside between my house and the next.” I gestured in the correct direction. “Feel free to take your time. If you need anything, just knock. I'm getting ready to make cookies for my fiancé.” Saying there was another person coming home soon should keep them from attacking me if they had nefarious plans.

“Your kindness will be rewarded.” Mountain man smiled at me. It was an open, kind smile, but I didn't trust it.

I knew they were looking for the snake that had latched around my wrist, but...no, there was something off about those two men. I sighed and headed to the kitchen. Even if I didn't have a fiancé, some butterscotch chocolate chip cookies would be really good about now. I set to work, mixing a double batch of dough, and plopping half of it in a bag to freeze for later....if I didn't just eat it raw

As I turned around to start rolling the dough into balls, I froze at the black haired man with his finger in the bowl of dough. “Who the fuck are you?!”

“Shhh.” He turned to smile at me. His eyes were the same color as the eyes of the snake. I narrowed my eyes at him. “You don't want to alert the buffoons that something is amiss.”

“Tell me who you are, or I'll scream for them.” I hissed.

“I'm your betrothed.” He flashed a winning smiled at me.

“I don't have a fiancé.” I snapped.

“You've accepted my courtship offer.” He snagged my arm and pushed up my sleeve to reveal the snake bracelet.

“It attacked me!”

“It shouldn't have! Just wrapped around you.”

“Yeah, that's still an attack.”

“Look. Make the cookies and we'll talk. I promise to explain. I can remove the bracelet, but it will kill me.”

I narrowed my eyes at him again. “I'll let it slide until you explain. But you're helping me with the cookies.”

“What do you mean? They're delicious!”

“You get to roll them out and I'll put them in the oven.”

“You're so mean!” He pouted at me, but I could see the glimmer of amusement in his eyes.

“You're the one guilting me into marrying you without even telling me your name.” I pointed out.

“Oh! I am Loki, of Asgard.”

“Pull the other one. Gods aren't real.”

“Oh, but we are! You'll get to meet so many gods as my wife.” He beamed, then paused. “Granted, several of them tend to try and kill me, but they just don't have a sense of humor.”

“Wait, so am I in danger?”

“You’ll be afforded certain protections as my wife.” He assured before pausing. “I’m sorry. I’ve been assuming your pronouns because you’re female presenting. I forget most people can’t shift. Do you prefer she/her?”

“Yeah, actually. Thanks for asking. I’m cisgender.” I clarified.

“I’m genderfluid, but I’ll switch to present appropriately.” Loki told me with a grin. “So no guesswork involved.”

“Okay, cool. Thanks. Now back to the danger to my life, please?”

“There are certain protections afforded to you as my wife.”

“You said that. What does it mean?”

“I have magic and will put plenty of protections on the bracelet and any other jewelry you wear daily.” He explained, starting to roll out the cookies under my directions. “And if I'm around, I'm will take the attention, nine times out of ten.” He smirk was almost proud.

I hummed, fixing some of his cookies. “So I'll save your life, which I'm sure is great. But what do I get out of it?”

“There will be gifts. To start, after being alive for centuries, I do have quite a bit of human money and treasure, so I can fund you.”

“Fund me?”

“Anything. Your life, hobbies, trips, anything.”

“And all I have to do is marry you?”

“Correct. I will need to live with you, of course, to prove that this is a true marriage.”

“Do we have to consumate the marriage?”

“I won't ask that of you until you are comfortable.”

“So we're engaged until I am.”

“Yes! So are you in?”

“Your cube cookies will melt into the usual circles.”

”That's no fun. And you didn't answer me.”

I sighed. “I know. I'll marry you, but we will be setting up boundaries and rules for the house. I don't know you and I don't believe you are a god, so you'll have to earn my trust.”

“The fact that you're giving me the chance is enough.” He said seriously.

I hummed and put the tray of cookies in the oven. “Very well. You get to come up with a believable story as to how we meet and came to be engaged so quickly, because I'll have to explain it to my family and friends.”

“We've been dating for a while, just in secret.”

“That won't fly. Coffee? Tea?”

“What kind of tea? And why not?”

“I'm close to my family. They'd know if I was dating someone. What kind do you want?”

“Lemongrass? Then, hm. Online friend? That's something people do, right? And maybe it's a convenience thing?”

“Okay, that could work. But you're gonna have to get to know me real well real quick for it to be believable. I don't think I have lemongrass. How about ginger peach turmeric?”

“I could make that work. On both counts.”

“Great. I'll put the kettle on. Go sit in there and I'll bring the tea in.” I pointed at the couch. “And I'm also going to need information on why being engaged will save your life.”

“It's a long story.” He said, settling as I started the kettle.

“I have time. Sugar? Honey?”

“I'm not big on nicknames.”

“I meant in your tea, dumbass.”

“Sugar, then. And a lot of it.”

“Somehow that doesn't surprise me.” I rolled my eyes before bringing out two mugs of tea. I knew I wasn't any better, but still.

“Thank you darling.”

“I don't know you well enough for you to be calling me that.”

“I should get into practice.”

“Then you're getting nicknames too.”

“Ugh.” He grinned at me. “I suspect this is going to be a fun adventure.”

“It'd better be, to make up for preventing me from marrying anyone I may have picked.”

He looked at me for a moment. “I'm surprised someone your age isn't married already.”

“Ouch.” I shot him a glare.

“No, that didn't sound right.” He raised his hands defensively. “Last time I was on Midgard, humans older than 25 were considered old maids. I'm glad that's not the case anymore.”

“Oh, it is for some, but not here. It's more important to be happy then married.”

“Did you want to get married?”

“One day, with the right person. I also wouldn't mind having kids.”

“How do you feel about adopting?”

“Adoption is good. My brother is adopted. Not willing to give me kids of our own?”

“I actually already have kids. Will that be okay?”

“I'll want to meet them.”

“That will be difficult, but we can make it work.”

“Why?”

“They're imprisioned for crimes they didn't commit.” His expression was dark. “This might get one or two of them freed, if they promise ot behave with their new mother.”

“So they're adults?”

“Yeah. Have been for a couple centuries.”

“Hmm. Still don't believe you're a god.”

Loki smirked at me, put his cup down, and shapeshifted into an absolutely massive black snake. His head towered over me, despite us both being on the couch.

I stared at him with wide eyes, then put out a hand slowly to touch him. I gave plenty of time for him to give me a sign he didn't want contact, but he was so pretty as a snake. He butted his nose into my hand and slithered over to me, making himself comfortable in my lap. “This only proves you're a shapeshifter, not a god.” I told him, glad to stroke his smooth scales.

[in-need-of-gally-content]

|Chapter•Five|

•|Masterlist|•

I completely forgot there was a builder named peter 💀 well, this is my fic, so I made him a slopper instead lol

"Greenie! Wake up!"

The sound of Zart's voice outside his room made him shift around on his bed, blinking his eyes as he woke up and slowly started to sit up. Yawning and stretching, he realized that he had a nice night of sleep, despite what had happened the day prior.

It felt like he may actually have friends that care about him and completely ignore what everyone said he was, because they knew him better than them after all. They... Didn't mind it and they rather accepted the way he decided he wanted to be, not many could say they have that kind of relationship with their friends.

(M/n) was brought out of his thoughts about having nice friends when he heard someone else groaning within the four wooden walls he was in, and seeing who it was made him remember that he had asked Gally if he wanted to stay the night, and he had been sleeping on the floor next to him, who had his thin mattress on the floor as well, he liked it better that way.

Also meant they could share his bedsheet to stay somewhat warm during the chill nights in the Glade.

He watched with curious eyes as Gally stood up in complete silence and walked the few steps of distance toward the door, opening it and bending at his neck to avoid bumping his forehead on the doorframe like he had done countless times for the years he had spent there, just seemingly growing endlessly.

From his spot on the ground, Zart watched with confused and conflicted eyes, observing how Gally walked on the small balcony to reach for the ladder, lowering it back to the ground, and tying the top ends to the wooden railing it had. And behind him, was the greenie, who closed the door behind him while rubbing his face.

Gally stepped down the ladder and waited for the (h/c) haired greenie to do the same as well, making sure he didn't trip on his way down.

Zart stayed silent, just staring at them. He wouldn't have guessed that Gally and the greenie were such good friends, in so little time. The stupor he felt almost made him forget what he wanted to say.

"Uh... Breakfast is ready and... You'll be working with the Track-hoes today, greenie," humming and nodding in response, he started walking toward the bathroom, pretty sure he won't be eating anything anyway so he was gonna brush his teeth. For some reason, Gally followed him.

With his eyes closing on their own, he brushed his teeth without his brush, washed his face, and pushed his hair back with his wet hands. He was feeling like taking a shower soon, he just... Had to be alone and have a guard dog guarding the showers for that.

Next to him, Gally also washed his face and groaned as he messed with his blond hair, gripping it and groaning a bit.

"Need help with that, big guy?" Gally turned to look at him, smiling at the sight of his messy (h/c) hair, and he shrugged.

"Just need a haircut," (M/n) hummed and turned to walk out of the bathrooms, hearing Gally follow after him as they made their way to the dining area.

"I might be able to help with that."

Already standing in line for breakfast, (M/n) went into the kitchen and found fruit in a bowl. Fry just stared at him, but he felt glad that he was eating something, at least.

He came up to see a frowning Gally, waiting aside for him to come back, "Really? You know how to cut hair?"

He tilted his head to the side and shrugged, "I'm pretty sure all of you just... Shave it off when it's too long, so I'm gonna say yes, I know how."

Gally smiled and shook his head at the realization that he was right about shaving their hair every couple of months when it became too bothersome.

They sat down and began eating, talking about whatever came to their minds or simply staying silent and listening to what the other Gladers sitting at the same table would talk about. But his good mood didn't last long.

He recognized their voices.

At the table next to him were the dudes from yesterday, and shuck, did he feel uncomfortable and mad sitting there all of a sudden. He felt like he was suffocating as if the oxygen couldn't go in or out of his air passage, and he was getting lightheaded, his vision turning a little bit blurry and his mind dizzy.

At that moment, Gally turned to his side, remembering something and feeling the need to share it with (M/n), but he noticed that he didn't look good at all. He was frowning and his jaw was clenching, shifting on his seat.

"(M/n), are you okay?" The greenie shook his head, and did a subtle movement toward his side, looking down and out of the corner of his eye. Gally looked up and noticed two shanks looking at him up and down, laughing and whispering to each other.

Damn Sloppers, they really are good-for-nothing shanks.

His green eyes went back to (M/n), who was playing with his fruit, clearly having lost his appetite and wearing an expression that said he wanted to leave right that second.

Seeing movement out of his peripheral vision, he saw Zart, Newt, and Abe getting up from their table, so he decided to take the greenie out of there, "Come on," he stands up, a gentle yet firm grip on (M/n)'s shoulders, just enough to let him know he's there for him if he ever needs it.

As they make their way toward the Garden, Newt noticed the concern on Gally's face from afar and he frowned, beckoning Zart over.

"Take the greenie and show him what he has to do," without questioning him, Zart did as told by Newt, catching up to them mid-way, eventually prying the greenie away from Gally's grip and Newt made his appearance, "What's wrong?" Gally shakes his head and lifts his hand, messing up with his blond locks as he sighs distressed.

"I have a bad feeling about those Sloppers, he didn't seem too happy to see them," he sighed again, keeping his sight on (M/n), "I think they had something to do with what happened yesterday."

Newt looked over his shoulder, observing how the greenie attentively watched what Zart was doing as he explained, nodding along in understanding before doing as he was taught.

He would've asked Gally who these Sloppers he mentioned were exactly, but he could think of only two of them that were a serious problem around, even more so than Billy, at least he did his job despite behaving like a slinthead, but Peter and Jason were truly shucked in the head, acting as if they were the hot shit in the Glade, posing all high and mighty.

"Could you keep an eye out for (M/n)?" Newt looked back at Gally, surprised to hear the greenie's name for the first time, and how apparently only Gally knew it, up until now at least.

He nodded and patted Gally's shoulder, "I will."

//////

Everything seemed to be going just fine in the Garden. During lunchtime, Jim had stopped by to give him a snack and some cold water, which he was thankful for before being left alone to continue working on replacing the rest of the sticks holding the plants up. New ones had been brought in by the Builders, and Zart had said that he hoped these ones would last longer than the others, they need to be more durable and resilient to be able to keep the plants up.

He had been taking away the old weak sticks, watching how they broke off and had sharp ends sticking out, he was very careful not to hurt himself further than a few splinters.

For now, (M/n) had been left alone in the Garden, Abe had left to get more fertilizer while Newt and Zart had been called inside by Alby, and he was enjoying the peaceful quietness of the Glade, the occasional laugh echoing in the vast green space.

Done replacing the last stick, he stayed on the ground on his knees, fixing the pile of broken sticks to take it back to the firewood pile by the Homestead. Maybe one trip would be enough, but he would end up mixing the small sticks and Newt had told him that pisses him off, so two trips...?

"Hey there, she-bean," he felt a shiver running down his back, barely sparing a glance at them before trying to focus on picking up the small pieces in his gloved hands.

He tried, he really tried to ignore their comments, which (M/n) knew they meant as "compliments" in their own twisted way, but finding it impossible to prevent the feeling of his skin crawling when they gave their "advice" on how to look more... Appetizing, as they blatantly put it.

He thought he was being really patient as they kept going, just talking nonstop about something he knew he has heard plenty of times before. (M/n) stands up, ready to tell them to leave him alone, that he had work to finish, when they started getting closer to him, which he did not appreciate.

With their voices getting louder in the Glade, quite a few people turned to look at what was happening over in the Garden.

A few of them decided it wasn't anything serious when they didn't see signs of a possible fight about to break out, but others kept watching, like Mikah.

"Gally," he called out to the taller blond and tapped his arm a few times. He turned toward the curly-haired blond who simply nodded in a particular direction, keeping his blue eyes locked there.

His green eyes followed his line of sight, stopping his movements to pay close attention to what was happening. Fixing the pen and making a new one could wait a little while longer, (M/n) was his priority.

With a deep frown on his brow, he stood up to his full height and began walking closer to the Garden, glaring into the back of Peter's neck, hoping he could feel his anger and would back off before he ended up breaking the second rule of the Glade. He noticed, from the direction of the Homestead, Newt, and Fry were also carefully approaching, keeping an eye out for whatever the shuck was happening.

"Just leave me alone!" They heard the greenie's voice getting louder and angrier, his hands pressed on Peter's chest before pushing him away as hard as he could, he would've tripped if it wasn't because Jason was behind him to prevent that.

Maybe that was it, maybe they would leave him alone... But he didn't like the look on Peter's face, making his walking turn into a jog.

"You're done, shank."

Gally's eyes soon had an angry look in them as he saw how Peter's fist collided with (M/n)'s face, making him stumble back and trip, falling on the broken sticks.

Oh, now they were done, "Hey!" He hollered and grabbed Peter by the collar of his shirt, feeling his blood boil at the superior stupid grin on his face.

"Fucking whore..." He heard Peter mumble as he looked down at (M/n), and damn, Gally is ready to cave his face in.

"Where do you think you're going, huh?" Fry grabbed onto Jason's shirt as he tried to flee the scene, now realizing that he was trapped between Gally and Frypan.

Newt made his way to the greenie who was hissing and grunting as he tried to sit up, and he saw the damage done to his whole arm, up to his shoulder and a few scratches on his face.

"I'm gonna beat the shit out of you, motherfucker," Gally growled with his jaw clenched, his knuckles had turned white with how tightly he closed his fists.

(M/n) looked up at him, and decided to intervene, "It's okay, Gally, I tripped and they were trying to help me."

He blinked before looking down at him, everyone around him did. They were confused about why the greenie would defend someone who was being an asshole to him. And both Sloppers took that to their advantage, playing along with what (M/n) said.

"Yeah, we were trying to help the lady out," Fry's grip tightened on Jason's shoulder, looking down at him with a frown.

"He's not a lady, you better get that through your thick skull, both of ya," Peter scoffed at those words, crossing his arms over his chest before smirking, staring into Gally's furious eyes.

"Why does it matter? We just wanted to help that get up, that's all," despite the anger the three of them felt when they heard someone as rotten and vile as Peter talk that way about their precious greenie, they put in an effort to drag them inside the Homestead, calling for Alby as soon as they walked through the door.

Newt took this moment to help (M/n) up on his feet, "Come on, let's go to the med room," the greenie looked at Newt and back at the pile of sticks.

"But I have to-"

"You have to get treated, greenie, you're bleeding so just walk," ahead of them they could see Zart walking out of the Homestead, confused, before looking their way, rushing toward them with a panicked look on his face.

"What happened? Are you okay, greenie?" Before Newt could say anything, (M/n) spoke with a fake chuckle.

"I tripped and fell on the broken sticks, I'll be fine, Zart," the smile on his face didn't reach his eyes, and he continued to be taken away by Newt.

And now in the med room, Newt watched how Clint was removing all the splinters off the skin of his arm, shoulder, and face while Jeff made sure to disinfect every wound and carefully wrapped the greenie with bandages. Meanwhile, (M/n) was just sitting there, numb. 

It was as if he hadn't even realized what had happened to him, not even the throbbing pain on his arm and face did any good in snapping him back to the real world.

Newt heard the stumping of rapid footsteps approaching, and he stood upright when Winston stopped by the door, "Alby wants to hear the greenie's version, Newt," both looked at Clint, who had just finished with the last splinter, and Jeff finished up as quickly as he could.

"Well, I don't think he's in condition right now, but if Alby needs him..." Clint trailed on, his eyes locked onto the greenie, who remained as still as a rock.

"Peter and Jason are spitting some pretty dumb shit about him," Newt's jaw clenched and he looked at Clint.

"Could you help me get him up?" Nodding quickly, the Keeper of the Med-jacks grabbed (M/n)'s hand gently while Newt held his opposite arm, pulling him up on his feet.

The four of them walked down the hallway to the Gathering room, and stepped inside. (M/n)'s eyes immediately landed on Peter's the moment he stepped foot in, watching the smirk on his face made his stomach churn and he felt like throwing up, but seeing the way Gally elbowed him quite roughly on his side worked to wipe that victorious look off his face.

"Alright, greenie, tell us what happened," Alby spoke as soon as he watched him sitting down on the empty chair. He grimaced at the thought of sitting on the same seat both of them had sat down minutes prior to his appearance. 

He stayed silent for a few seconds, fully conscious of the way everyone was looking at him, before he took a deep breath, resting his hands on his lap and closing them to keep them from shaking.

"I... I was working in the Garden when I..." He tried to look up, he really did, but the blank stares on him made him feel like everything that happened was his fault, "I- uh... Tripped over the broken sticks and fell, they were- they just tried to help me."

He heard Gally complaining that it didn't happen like that, but Alby made him shut up, after all, he had already explained his side as well, along with Fry.

"Okay, the three of you agree on that part of the story, now..." Alby took in the greenie's appearance, his whole arm was wrapped in bandages and he guessed they were due to the wounds the wood probably caused, but he could see a purple bruise making its appearance on his face, right where his eye is, "Peter here says that you came onto him first, is that true?"

(E/c) eyes immediately stared into his, and for a moment, Alby was convinced that the greenie was gonna tell him what had actually happened, he could see the anger flaring in his eyes, but then, his sight shifted behind him, where he knew Gally and Fry where keeping watch over the two Sloppers. And he turned to look down to the ground again.

"...Yeah, I did..." He whispered in response.

He had just noticed the bright red slash on Peter's neck, a few drops of blood trickling down to his shirt. He guessed he hurt him by accident when he pushed him away... And well, accidentally or not, he hurt a Glader first so...

(M/n)'s mind wasn't understanding fully how he hadn't done anything wrong, other than trying to be nice to guys who were complete assholes, maybe if he did he would've told the truth, but the last thing he wanted was to cause conflict within the Gladers.

Alby announced it was time to do their voting and decide what was gonna happen to them. Of course, Newt, Gally, and Fry said that Peter should stay a week in the Slammer, he punched (M/n) and injured him more than the greenie did, and the slash on his neck happened when (M/n) pushed him away because he was being an annoying little klunkhead.

The other Keepers were conflicted. They hadn't seen what happened, but had sort of heard the commotion prior to the Gathering, and well, if the greenie said it was his fault, then it was, they couldn't prove it wasn't. Three members of the Council were convinced that Peter should be the one punished, but the other seven just weren't sure.

"How about... A night in the Slammer, no food?" Alby raised his hand to shush any argument against it, "Listen, I don't like doing this either, but the greenie is taking responsibility for what happened, even if he shouldn't, so a lesser punishment should work."

Gally huffed and messed with his hair, catching Alby's knowing eyes.

"This could work to help him not take klunk from anyone," Gally avoided everyone's stare as he made his way out of the Gathering room, crashing shoulders with Peter on his way out.

Letting out an angry grunt, Gally's green eyes looked everywhere around the Glade, and he spotted (M/n) sitting by the Maze Doors. He was scared for a moment, remembering something stupid he also did once upon a time, and he jogged his way toward him, not wanting to go onto a full sprint just yet as to not attract attention to him.

He came to a halt, standing behind him, casting his shadow over (M/n)'s body. He was playing with the grass, his eyes locked down the pathway of the Maze, "I didn't wanna cause more problems, Gally."

He sighed and felt his anger leaving him at the sound of his voice. Gally leaned down and sat next to him, occasionally looking up at the looming doors, but he mostly looked at (M/n), frowning at the black eye forming on his skin.

"(M/n)... This is not the way, there are bound to be problems and you can't..." Gally paused and placed his hand on top of his, "You can't take responsibility for something you didn't do, it won't help you in the long run."

Silently, he looked up and stared into Gally's eyes, leaning closer to rest his head on his shoulder, sighing as he closed his eyes.

They stayed there for a few minutes, before Gally found it in himself to speak again, "A punishment has been... Decided for you, (M/n)," somehow, he wasn't surprised about that, he figured that was gonna happen, and he'd rather be one being punished, "But now, you have to rest, let me help you," he added, slowly shifting in place to stand up. (E/c) eyes opened and he took Gally's hand extended in front of him, and like that, they walked all the way to the Homestead.

//////

He sat on the bed with his back against the headboard, his sight fixated on a spot ahead of him, he didn't know what he was looking at because his thoughts were somewhere else, just... Dissasosiating for a while until he had to be taken to the Slammer.

And there Alby was.

"Greenie, time to go," blinking as he realized where he was and the time it was, he stood up from the bed and walked up to Alby, following him out of the Homestead. Gally was waiting for him.

He had a strange expression on his face, he looked doleful, his jaw clenching and he had a subtle frown in his brow. He nodded for him to follow and he lit up the torch in his hand, walking past the dining area where everyone was eating. The wide field of vision from their side let them see the greenie being taken away, hearing Peter's scornful laughter, making it obvious that he was seeing where (M/n) was being taken.

The Gladers that had seen what happened, had their fists clenched and nostrils flared as they contained their anger inside them.

"I'm sorry this happened," (M/n)'s weak voice could barely be heard, and Gally had to stop himself from making his way back and make Peter tell the truth, instead he sighed and shook his head.

"It wasn't your fault," the greenie shrugged in response and they continued walking.

They stopped in front of the Slammer in complete silence. Gally placed his torch where it would be held and opened the door, watching how (M/n)'s steps took him inside, barely making a sound.

He stared at him as he sat down on the cold, concrete ground, how he curled in himself and rubbed his hands together, his fingers were probably feeling numb. He just couldn't let him stay there, the nights in the Glade were quite chill, so Gally decided to take off his zipped-up hoodie and walked in, placing it on (M/n)'s body carefully.

"It's cold tonight, keep it," he heard a quiet sniff coming from the greenie, who nodded and held tightly onto the hoodie, feeling the warmth from Gally's body heat still on it. The sight made his heart feel tight inside his chest, everything he wanted to do was hold him and protect him from everyone and everything that may cause him pain, he lifted his hand to move his hair away from his face, "I'll come to get you first thing in the morning, try to sleep a little."

(M/n) nodded, burying his face in Gally's hoodie as he watched him walk out, lingering a few seconds by the closed door before leaving with slow, heavy footsteps. Closing his eyes, he sighed and lay on the ground, snuggling further in the warm fabric.

[thessalian]

Thess vs The Demos Strike Back

I find myself at liberty tonight and all of a sudden I have downloaded twenty new demos, plus the couple I still had left. Hopefully I'm not boring anybody. Just ... I like celebrating indie games in my own small way. The AAA games with the huge-ass budgets can take care of themselves. I will give the indie stuff the attention I feel they deserve - well, as best as I can, anyway. Sure, a lot of it is puzzle games etc, but c'mon - they're not as exciting as big flashy ARPGs or shooters, but we don't always want that! So here we go (with a break for a trip to the shops and a bath).

Tiny Tales: Hidden Object - Not much to write home about, and honestly more of a "find the difference" puzzle game than hidden object exactly, so it feels a little disingenuous, but it does more or less what it sets out to do. It's definitely worth looking at if you like that sort of thing. I'm personally more straight-up hidden object or messing-with-the-set-dressing puzzle games than find the difference, though.

Blood Bar Tycoon - bar management simulator, but with vampires. Low-priority, but still a little more interesting, particularly considering extra mechanics like ... well, frankly getting your vampire minions to feed on human customers so they don't starve to death.

PrimRows - it's kind of a sudoku thing, with a few extra rules and mechanics, and flowers instead of numbers. Randomised flowers, so it's not so much as getting the board perfect, but getting as many points as possible. Interesting, at least.

Mushroom Picnic Party - if I get sick of cats? Mushroom hidden object! It's cute, and I like it. Honestly, I kind of like those ones that are just "FIND THE THINGS" more than I do the ones that try to have a story. If I want a hidden object game, I really just want to find objects, y'know?

6-Sided Stories - Meh. It's kind of a puzzle game, but a little overly simplistic ... at least in the demo. It'll go lower on the list until I can find out whether there's more than just "flip whatever hexagons need flipping".

Fix This House - Sort of a puzzle game, sort of a house-builder. Like, very simplistic house-builder. You get pieces of a house and have to figure out how they go together. Controls are a little iffy in terms of camera settings, but something that probably belongs in a mid-position "maybe" on my list.

CraftCraft: Fantasy Merchant Simulator - This one's a merchant / crafting sim that really focuses on the crafting element. There's a lot of moving parts and mechanical tweaking, rather than just Click The Thing To Create. Which is a good thing sometimes, but not going to be a Forever Zen game, really. Still makes the list; it's amusing and interestingly, probable-hyperfocus fiddly. Though I might change my mind if they keep hiding the Quit key. (Also the dev has made a few more games and they all have demos, so playing demos is getting me more demos.)

Critter Cafe - Okay, this is another one that when the demo ended, I went, "Wait nooooooooo!" This one is another cafe simulator time management game, with puzzles and exploration and decorating and creature collector with some interesting Zen-platformer mechanics. And the character creator is adorable. I want this one.

That's probably enough for one day / evening. More tomorrow. For now, tidy up the wish list again, and start to wind it down for the night. I feel a little better, but that might have to do with having used my air fryer for the first time. It's a good one, though I will want a larger one when I have more kitchen.

[whispersafterdusk]

Ensuring the Future - ch 6

"It'll open when it's open! Which is to say, when it's been re-classified as an Abandoned Ruins. And don't even think about trying to sneak in there--"

Grace resisted the urge to roll her eyes as Justice read her the riot act about the Breach. Again. How he always managed to be in this area when she decided to poke around was beyond her. "I walk down this way all the time, Justice. This imagined notion of me even thinking of 'sneaking in' to the Breach is just that: something you've just made up in your head."

Justice opened his mouth to reply and paused at a sharp clearing of the throat nearby; Grace turned to see Olivia standing a few feet away, hands resting atop her cane and eying them both with a look that would be right at home on a disapproving mother's face.

"Ah, uh, hi Olivia - did Qi have the information you needed?" Justice said instead. Grace thought he even looked a little relieved at the chance to change the subject. ((Continued below cut))

"He did, in fact. And I need in there-" Olivia answered, jabbing the end of her cane at the Breach.

Justice let out a groan. "Not you too... Please tell me you're joking?"

Olivia shook her head; Grace hid a smirk behind her hand, disguising it as a sweat-wiping gesture. "Well sheriff, looks like someone is getting in there, one way or another."

"Not now, Grace," Justice huffed, glancing at her briefly before looking back to Olivia. "Look, the Breach isn't an Abandoned Ruins - that's why the door is locked. I take the safety of everybody in town seriously and that place is still dangerous - between the geeglers and the other wildlife, AND Logan, Unsuur and I haven't had the time to fully clear it out."

Olivia tilted her head. "I can promise you that I know how to handle myself in a fight, or did you somehow forget that Zeke did not handle those geeglers alone?" "That's different."

"Howso?" Olivia asked, tone dry. "Because a robot can't bleed to death?"

"No, because that was a small group and this is a facility full of things," Justice replied.

"Well, sheriff, you can give permission or forgiveness - I suggest you decide now because I WILL be going in there. The primary component needed for the hydrogel should be somewhere inside, according to Director Qi."

Grace couldn't hide the grin this time and Justice glanced between the two of them with an exasperated look.

"Y'all're gonna be the death of me... I want it clear I'm only allowing this - and by 'this' I mean, letting ONLY Olivia in-" he said, pointedly staring Grace down. "-because we need that hydrogel up and running. As for you, Grace, maybe just...adjust your stroll path to be a little less hair-raising, all right?" "Sure thing, sheriff," Grace said smoothly, with a little shrug.

Justice made a little shooing motion and she obligingly stepped back several feet, watching as he pulled a ring of keys out of a pocket and went to the Breach's entrance; the click of the lock turning was loud enough she could hear it from here, and the door slid open with a grating of metal-on-metal punctuated with a final squeak as it came to a stop.

He said something in a low tone - too quiet for Grace to make out - then stuffed the keys back into his pocket and started walking toward the Civil Corps building, shaking his head. Grace waited for him to get almost to the door before she jogged over to the Breach's door and stuck her head through. "Hey, Olivia?" The builder had gotten maybe fifteen feet into the place, and stopped to glance back at her questioningly. "I've been trying to save up to finish my archaeology degree back in Atara and try to do field work when I've got time that I hope will be beneficial when I go back. I've been focusing on Old World audio-visual media - since you're going in there, could you keep a lookout for anything that seems vaguely relevant to that? Discs, posters, radios... I also need some Small Chips - and I'll pay you for it all. Meant to post it as an official commission but I think Yan's been avoiding me."

"Hmm. I suppose if it's not too onerous or heavy, but do keep in mind that's not what I'm going to be looking for so I don't intend to go out of my way."

"Oh, I totally understand. Thanks ahead of time for anything you might happen to find," Grace said, smiling and giving her a little wave as she pulled away from the door and hurried back toward the saloon.

There. Now if I get caught down here again there's a witness and established precedent for what I might have been poking around for.

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

"You what?"

Olivia looked up and was not surprised to see shock on Miguel's face -- she'd expected as much as soon as 'inside the Breach' left her lips. "You heard me. And before you drop the pearls you're so tightly clutching, do you really think I'd have gone this long in life as a builder without needing to protect myself?"

His mouth opened and closed a few times before he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "No...of course not. That is...logical. It is merely -- the thought of you having to do something so dangerous, it... Frightens me. Anything that might harm you or take you away from me again scares me to death. You weren't injured, were you?"

She straightened from where she was tightening a bolt on the condenser - all was well within it so now she just needed to build the hydrogel components - and grimaced as her spine popped like a dry reed. "I know, dearest, and I promise I'm just sore from all the extra 'exercise' and otherwise unharmed. But please also try to remember that I am not some fainting fairy," she said, laughing quietly and stepping a bit out of her way to give him a little peck on the lips (his eyes were still closed but his look of shock turned to one of delight at the kiss) then continued on to drop onto the stool at her workbench where all the blueprints were laid out. "I assure you I am much tougher than I look."

She heard the crunch of his footsteps in the sand behind her then felt gentle hands coming to rest on her shoulders before a kiss was pressed onto the top of her head. "I shall strive to keep it in mind going forward." His front pressed against her back and she resisted the urge to fully lean into him as he looked over her shoulder at the blueprints. "Is this as complicated a task as it seems?"

"Not really. It could be worse -- granted, it could be better as well," she grunted. "I might need to look at designing a back up system for the farm in the future."

Miguel let out a thoughtful hum, one hand reaching over her shoulder to pick up the plan she'd drawn up for that hydroponic unit for the Moisture Farm; she'd brought it back with her after taking some final measurements for the hydrogel earlier and had left it sitting on the corner of the bench, destined for a few small revisions when she had the time. "Yan was all up in arms again recently over your work at the farm."

She let out a short laugh. "Oh I imagine he was. He is welcome to throw as many fits as he likes - serves the little weasel right."

She heard a chuckle and then again he pressed against her as he returned the plan to the bench.

"Without intending to insult or question your work, do you truly think it is the best use of your time?"

Slowly she turned on her stool to look up at him; it was her turn to be surprised. "What? Why wouldn't it be? We all need to eat."

Miguel nodded slowly, his expression thoughtful but she could detect a bit of melancholy in it. "While that is true there have been fewer and fewer mouths needing to be fed over the years. While I absolutely applaud your efforts, I do question if it's worth it to pour all this energy into a dying town."

"Pessimism again, is it?" she asked, frowning.

"It is, though I don't care for it any more than you do," he sighed heavily. After a moment he smiled down at her. "I just don't want to see your hard work be for nothing. If there was a tipping point for recovery I believe Sandrock has passed it -- possibly before I even arrived here."

Olivia turned back to the bench and picked up the blueprint for the hydrogel's access door, pretending to look it over while she decided how to respond. To hear such a grim declaration of hopelessness... She knew hopelessness, and no doubt he still remembered it as well in the aftermath of Doss, but in this context it rankled her and the words to fully convey her reasoning weren't something she wanted to discuss. What she DID know, and had no inner hesitation to say, was that he was wrong. "...I don't believe that. As I said before, not on my watch: I will not be giving up until I personally decide there is no hope to be found here."

Miguel's hands rubbed against her shoulders then began to gently knead them. "And when will that be?"

She half-stood to lean forward (which momentarily pulled her away from his grasp) and held the plan flat against the backboard of the workbench, then pinned it in place with a few thumb tacks in the corners before plunking back down onto her seat. "When I am the last woman standing, I suppose."

There was a soft laugh behind her; only one hand found her shoulder this time, the fingers gently squeezing before falling away. "You're a braver one than I."

"Well, I've made it this far. Endured a lot. Tolerated even more. It hardens you against certain things...one of those is losing hope." She swung her legs around and fully stood up, facing him with a tired, wry smile. "I like to think I have that bitch in a choke hold and I am NOT letting go of it again."

His eyes widened at the crude language and she stepped around him to head over to the storage bin she stored the raw ore in.

"I... I admire your...dedication," he said then in a small voice.

She grabbed a nearby bucket and began loading it up - one bucketful roughly filled a furnace, give or take a few pounds; she had everything she needed so it was just a matter of getting the pieces made and assembled. In-between the sound of ore rattling and dropping into the bucket she heard footsteps again; they were moving away but only briefly. Glancing up she saw Miguel had paused halfway to the gate and was looking back, studying her thoughtfully.

"...what will you do, then, if I am reassigned to another location?" he asked softly.

"If I am not under contract, and you've decided you want to tolerate me after all-" that got her a smile and a chuckle, "-I suppose THEN, and ONLY then, I would have to follow you. Try not to be reassigned within the next few years," she continued, jokingly waggling a finger at him.

He held up his hands in a placating gesture, still smiling. "I cannot promise anything aside from praying that I will not be."

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a hydrogel to make and a farm to help water."

Miguel nodded. "I shall meet you at the farm in the morning, then?"

"I'm sure Zeke would appreciate the extra help."

"Indeed. He is a good man but he is just that: a man. He cannot be left to handle this sudden increase in labor alone."

Olivia hefted the full bucket and plodded over to the nearest furnace. "He has Burgess and Dan-bi helping, and I've helped when I have a second to spare, so he's not totally alone. Still, the more folks helping him the easier it is for all of us."

Miguel nodded and clasped his hands behind his back. "Good night then, my dear."

"Good night, Miguel. Sweet dreams."

Again he smiled and then turned to stroll from the yard; Olivia loaded up the furnace then went back for another bucket. So far they'd managed to stay ahead of the watering needs of the plants but it ate a lot of time with how many there were, even considering the ones they'd lost in that geegler attack...a back up system would definitely be on the To Do list in the near future. Even something as simple as a holding tank and pressurized sprayers powered by gravity would be better than having to tote and hand-water.

A concern for another day, she thought grimly. First she needed to get this hydrogel done - primary objective first, THEN she could focus on secondary tasks.

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

Miguel closed his door behind him and hung his hat on a nearby hook on the wall, then rested his forehead against the door with a sigh.

Olivia was being just as stubborn as the other Sandrock citizens... At the very least she'd said she would follow him if he had to leave (depending on contractual agreements, anyway) but there was still no telling how long it would take to fully bleed Sandrock dry, and it was a task that would take even longer with her working against his efforts.

He needed to find another way to encourage her to leave before this dragged on too long... But, how? How, how, how...

If only she could be convinced to help him; he'd thought about that a few times these last couple of weeks but if she was so determined to save Sandrock he didn't think it likely she would agree to help slowly empty the town, nor did he have any ideas on how to even broach the subject in a subtle manner.

Nothing to do but carry on... I know she could be made to understand, for I do this from a place of hope as well -- hope that lives will be saved, order will be established, and mankind never need fear another calamity or tragedy. I know it in my heart, but I do not yet know the path to get there. I must remain vigilant for any opportunity to bring her into my full confidence and enlist her help in a gentle end for Sandrock and a brighter future for her people.

Taking a deep breath and feeling a bit more galvanized he moved to get ready for bed.

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

"All right, go ahead - give it a try," she called over a shoulder.

There was a few moments of silence and then the click of a button being pressed, and the hydrogel in front of her whirred to life; Olivia watched the gauges slowly build up, the needles shifting up into the green zones indicating proper pressure and water levels, and then above their heads a gentle rain began spraying over the farm and everyone in it.

There was a scattering of cheers and clapping as she extricated herself from the inner panel of the hydrogel and pulled the door shut; Miguel, Mi-an, Justice, Dan-bi, Burgess, Zeke, and Mort were all smiles and excitement (at least, Mort seemed excited. It was difficult to tell through the beard) and Zeke gently patted her back once she'd walked over; he was smiling wider than she'd ever seen him smile, and that in turn prompted a smile of her own -- no false hope here today, my friend. "Well, I believe we are back in operating order," Olivia laughed, getting another little round of cheers. Zeke's hand gave her shoulder a final pat before he let it drop to his side; the smile didn't budge.

"Phew, I'm so glad that's over," Mi-an said, wiping a smear of oily dirt off her cheek. She'd helped Olivia with the more cramped back area of the hydrogel and her clothes and face displayed that fact quite clearly. "I'm so happy things are back to normal now!"

"Aren't we all," Miguel chuckled. "You both did splendidly but I think it may be prudent to relocate before we carry half the farm's water supply out on our clothing."

"While I admit I do need a shower I think it in everyone's best interest that I do that in private," Olivia said with a short laugh, flicking at hair that was either sweat-drenched or had a slick of lubricant in it - it was hard to tell. Setting new seals tended to be a messy business. "I'll see you two fine gentlemen later this evening and I promise I'll be more presentable," she added, nodding to Mort and Zeke.

Mort let out a dry-sounding laugh as he turned to slowly amble for the door. "Take your time, young one. That tea ain't going anywhere. It's not even made yet, after all."

The group headed out of the farm together with everyone moving off in various directions to return to their usual daily tasks; Miguel remained there with Olivia, waiting for them to be alone before turning to her. "Evening plans?"

"Ah, yes. Mort invited me to have tea and a chat later -- I'm assuming Zeke is supposed to be there as well, but if not I guess I just inadvertently invited him. Might just bring up the back up irrigation idea if he's there." Miguel nodded and offered her a hand and she waved him away. "No, no, I'm too dirty for that. Getting this lubricant out of cloth is a headache and I do not want to risk ruining your clothing if I brush up against you." He laughed and nodded his head toward the hill in the distance so Olivia took that as her cue to start walking, and he stayed alongside her.

"I had thought to invite you to do some light gardening with me later but didn't know you had plans. Would tomorrow be all right?"

"So far as I'm aware I have nothing to do tomorrow. What time were you thinking?"

They walked a few steps in silence before Miguel answered. "How about later in the afternoon when the sun isn't so direct?"

"Afternoon should be fine," she replied, reaching up to unbutton the two top buttons of her shirt and tug them open a bit to let the scant breeze hit her neck. "I-"

"Hey Olivia!"

She and Miguel both looked up to see Justice heading toward them at a jog; he came to a halt in front of them with an apologetic look clear on his face. "Sorry, I know you're wanting to head home and clean up so I'll make it quick -- we've got to do something about these geeglers and I've finally been given permission to take this little conflict directly to them. To do that, I'm going to need yours and Mi-an's help. I know you're busy tonight and I don't think the geeglers would be dumb enough to attack us so soon - they've gotta know we'll be on high alert now - so I want to meet up tomorrow with you builders to explain what we need to do."

"Ah. What time?" she asked, glancing at Miguel from the corner of an eye.

Before Justice could answer Miguel shook his head with a quiet hum, nodding to her. "The safety of Sandrock is far more important so don't worry about scheduling around me. Gardening can wait."

"Thank you, dear," she said, teasingly blowing him a little kiss.

He laughed at the gesture, giving her a fond look that must have sparked a bit of awkwardness in the sheriff as he glanced away and quietly whistled a few notes. "Of course. I will leave you to make your plans and then get home for a much needed bath," he went on, dipping his head to Justice before walking around him and toward the temple in the distance.

Justice watched him go a moment then turned back to Olivia. "Sorry for ruining your plans."

"Nothing to apologize for since he's right: safety comes first. Now, when were you wanting to meet?"

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

Rumor about the geegler attack and how the farmer and the old broad had fended them off had circulated through town and as tonight's fireside meeting began to disperse and Olivia hung back to talk to the sheriff (their voices were too low to 'accidentally' overhear, and he didn't want to be seen eavesdropping) Pen watched them from the corner of his eye until his path back toward the temple left them at his back down in the square.

Matilda might not think the woman to be any harm but his hunches were rarely wrong. Some hobbling crone able to handle herself in a fight shouldn't be something that turned the dial up on his instincts but there was something there nagging at him when he thought of that coupled with how disgustingly sappy-happy-lovey-dovey she and the pastor were. Honestly, letting anyone get too close to ANY of them was just asking for trouble. There was also no way he was going to allow Miguel to bring the builder in on the plan at this point (it was bad enough Mason was retiring - that was one loose end Duvos would need to revisit soon) as they didn't need any more moving parts, and the woman gave off an infuriating 'holier than thou' sort of attitude so she'd probably turn them in anyway. ...even if Miguel didn't tell her anything and could somehow extract without tipping his hand he was STILL risking everything just because he couldn't keep his little preacher in his pants.

(Ugh, why'd he phrase it like that? Pen swore sometimes words just assembled themselves in his head and subjected him to awful mental images without any conscious input from himself)

There was also the issue of all the work she was pouring into Sandrock and specifically its Moisture Farm; that was only going to keep them out here longer. More time meant more chances for everything to fall apart, AND he didn't want to be trapped in this town for longer than strictly necessary.

Point being, Olivia had to go.

Matilda had ordered him to 'keep his hands to himself' and for now he was willing to obey that...but what if it wasn't him directly dealing with her? They'd be whipping up some tram carts to get across the canyon to deal with the geeglers (thank the Emperor for THAT - finally a good scrap to alleviate the boredom, even if it was just mutant lizards they were fighting) and Pen was sure those cables would be fragile, or persuaded to be. One little nick and enough weight and goodbye builder problem, and no one could pin (ha!) it on him.

The only downside was he could possibly take out the other builder (between the two of them Mi-an WAS harmless - Pen wasn't concerned about her at all but losing both builders would mean another one would be brought in and who knew what trouble THAT would cause) or one or both of the Civil Corps members; they might not be on the same side but he had to admit that Justice wasn't all that bad, and Unsuur could actually be pretty hilarious at times. Collateral damage was a fact of life when it came to war but that didn't mean he wanted to purposely cause it...oh well. If it happened, it happened -- so long as Olivia bit the dust, he'd call it a win.

Now, granted, this all depended on whether he'd get a chance to commit some sabotage. Ideally he'd want to do it after everything had been inspected, installed, what-have-you; someone would need to give the A-Ok for the mission to go forward first, so no one would expect anything later. That might be tricky...

He'd have to play it by ear. If he got the chance he would absolutely take it...and if not, there were bound to be other times and places where an 'accident' could occur.

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

"I definitely don't envy you folks having to get across the canyon in this wind," Heidi said with a shake of her head.

"Luckily I am neither prone to motion sickness nor vertigo but it's not going to be a pleasant trip, no," Olivia replied. "I do think I trust the trams over this bridge however. I cannot believe how much those geeglers took off with."

To both hers and Heidi's eyes the damage looked random but unfortunately luck was not on their side when it came to the parts keeping the bridge up -- a lot of pieces in general were missing but an uncomfortable number of the supports were gone or damaged. Olivia had suggested one final check of the bridge just in case there were issues with the tram carts or the engines on the far side but now, having gotten a good look at it, neither of them were confident it could hold a person, much less anyone trying to carry materials across (train travel had already been stopped out of an abundance of caution previously, and thank goodness for that).

Miguel had walked with them - he'd come to see Olivia off now that the carts were in place - and sighed, clasping his hands behind his back as he peered ahead at the bridge. "I hate that we must meet violence with violence, and wish we knew what had caused the beasts to turn against us so suddenly, but I suppose there is no way around it. They cannot be allowed to cause further harm or, Light forbid, kill someone."

Heidi nodded, and then all three of them jumped at a loud banging noise from within the canyon.

"What in the world was that?" Olivia asked, scooting as close to the edge as she dared. The wind was still howling down there sending a constant stream of sand, dirt, and garbage careening down the canyon.

"I bet one of those skylights or access doors down there came loose again. Most of the buildings along this stretch had roof access - I think they'd land flying machines on them based on what paint is still visible on the ones we can actually see. Every so often something gets loose and bangs around down there until it finally gets ripped free," Heidi answered. "They're far enough down that I don't think you'll have to worry about it flying up and hitting you."

That was good to hear since there wouldn't be a single thing they could do about flying debris while they were crossing. "A concern for another time, an annoyance for the time being." She turned to Miguel. "I should get going. I imagine the others have assembled at the platform by now."

"Very well. Be safe."

"I will." She quickly kissed his cheek and gave Heidi a nod.

"I'll see if I can dig up the old blueprints for the bridge and get a more formal assessment for what we'll need to fix it," Heidi called after her as she headed off.

Olivia waved a hand over her shoulder to show she heard her and kept walking; last night they'd gotten the tram carts installed and earlier this morning she'd dropped off the tools she planned to take before going to check the bridge out with Heidi. She'd packed the bare minimum she believed they'd need to repair the engines on the other side to help reduce weight (they had to hand-crank the trams until those engines were fixed and any additional weight would make that more difficult) and didn't think even those scant few tools would make it over the bridge.

This had better work... If it doesn't then we're out of options unless we plan to build a second bridge for the sole purpose of repairing the first. Not the most terrible option but it'll add more time than I believe we have to spare.

Justice waved at her as she came up the ramps to the platform.

"Morning, Olivia. I think we're all ready to go if you are?"

"As ready as I can be. Let's get moving."

At his gesture she stepped into the nearest cart with Unsuur and Mi-an boarding the other; Justice walked on behind her and shut the little gate, then began to crank them out across the canyon. The wind wasn't as bad up here without the canyon walls focusing it but it was still causing quite a bit of sway.

"Think I ought to speed up or slow down?" Justice asked, panting a little as he worked the crank. His feet were planted and she could see him adjusting himself here and there to keep his balance as the cart swung back and forth.

"I don't think it'll matter, just keep your speed steady," she replied. "It won't be long until we're-"

She was about to say 'across' when the cable they hung from dipped suddenly, dropping them several feet with a groan. Her attention shifted up to the cable, looking along its length back the way they'd come first -- she saw no issues there; she turned to trace it across the canyon ahead of them and could make out a much thinner section near the other side.

Heidi inspected these cables, I know she did...there is no way she would have missed something this severe.

That weakened section was not safely over the platform they were heading for and there was a real danger that actually running the tram over that area might snap the cable entirely.

"Back up," she hissed at Justice. "Quickly. Back up-"

With loud 'twang' the cable pulled apart and the tram began to fall. Were they over anything? She'd been primarily looking up and ahead, not down at what was below them; with a grunt she grabbed Justice and pulled him down and low into the floor, kicking the tools away and pressing her cane into the corner where the tram's side met the floor to lessen the risk of them getting impaled on something they'd brought with them when they finally hit the ground.

By some miracle 'ground' was not so far as she was fearing; they crashed into the corner of a building and then through it, and then through the remains of the floor beyond that to land on a pile of rubble formed from that floor they'd just finished off. As the cart began to tilt Olivia grabbed her cane in one hand and Justice's collar in the other and jumped, hurling them out for the dusty floor she could see stretching out beyond the mound they'd smashed onto. Justice had the sense to allow himself to roll when he hit the floor; Olivia did much the same but came up on her feet, grimacing and glad she'd worn the leg brace today after all (she very nearly hadn't).

She HAD heard a pop as she'd landed back on her feet but as there was no accompanying pain it was likely just the brace itself that had made the sound, and a quick investigation showed one of the rivets holding a strap in place had popped loose from the frame. Of course, the tools she could use to easily fix it were somewhere in that wreckage... Growling under her breath Olivia stripped the brace off and dropped it on a flat chunk of concrete; she found a relatively hefty rock that she could use as a crude hammer without breaking her fingers in the process and slipped the rivet back into the empty hole in the frame before using the rock to hammer the rivet's edge out flat enough to hold the strap in place -- it wasn't going to work well or for very long but it would have to do.

"Everything still intact, sheriff?" she asked then as she slid the brace back on and tightened the straps down.

Off to her right Justice was eying the pile of rubble as though he was sizing it up for a climb but soon shook his head and turned to her. "Yeah, nothing broken here. Are you all right?"

"Still in fine form. Any idea where we've landed?"

He blew out a breath and looked up through the hole again. "I think we've landed in Gecko Station, and if we have then I'll know how to get out of here if we get to an area I'm familiar with... Assuming the geeglers haven't changed anything since I was last in here. We're definitely not climbing out, anyway." After a pause he turned and headed toward, hand slipping inside his jacket. "Looks like we're in this thing. This goes against pretty much every regulation in the book but we're in dire straits and, uh... Have you ever fired a gun before?"

From within the jacket he pulled another pistol identical to the one he carried on his hip. At the sight a memory of a wall of muzzle flashes rose in her mind and she shuddered briefly with a familiar fear bubbling up immediately that she had to swallow hard to push past. Not the time for that. "That won't be needed."

Justice blinked at her. "Uh. I... I thought I'd at least have Pen and a posse with me coming in here. I don't see just the two of us having a chance of-"

The pistol was still extended toward her; she suppressed the urge to knock it away (couldn't risk an accidental discharge). "-offer me that again and I will force-feed it to you," she said quietly. Justice looked taken aback at that; she turned to put her back squarely to him, bending to take her cane in hand. At the Moisture Farm and within the Breach there had been a small enough number that the cane, used as a bludgeoning weapon, and the geegler's own sickles had been enough to handle the hazards. Here though...it was too dangerous to rely on that working again. She could probably get away with not powering it at least.

This desert is determined to pry free things I would rather be lost to time... With a deep inhale she found the hidden latch near the cane's head with her thumb and pressed in while giving the shaft a deft twist; the head came free and with it the slender blade hidden within the cane's body. Pressing the two hidden buttons down inside the cane-sheath popped a section of the sheath's top free - a folding hilt for the blade that she snapped on before glancing over a shoulder to see Justice staring at the revealed weapon.

"Point me in the correct direction and try to stay out of the way."

[theredmark-dev]

Hello! I make games

My name is Malindu and I make games. I don't want to go into a long intro but I know my inner-writer wouldn't agree. So here's the gist:

Who am I?

I am Malindu Ruwantha Kumaradasa. Since that is a hard name for most of you, I go by the name Mark (MaRK, to be more specific) on the internet. I turn 25 this September (2024). I like games (obviously), music, writing, and dubbing (haven't tried in a professional setting but I definitely would, someday). I still live with my parents while working as a contractor for InforPanacea, UK. I don't always get work and that's where I get my free time to make games. On to the more "game dev" side 👇

What am I?

I'm a graduate of Software Engineering who made games even while doing my unrelated degree. I made a C game on the command prompt, a C# game with visuals, a Js multiplayer game on the browser, and my "Software Engineering" final project using Unity. All this and not finding a permanent job in the software field led me to start working on games. I have currently worked on 2 different game projects: A deck builder similar to Marvel SNAP (project dropped for... reasons) and a tower defense game ("Hyper Towers", a skillset demo, available on itch.io, 5-minute gameplay). Right now, I am working on a game called "Survivesmith", which is a larger game in terms of gameplay and effort. I will write more about this in a different post.

I'll give you one better, Why am I?

I am doing game dev because it had been my passion even before I realized it. At a very young age (probably around 8), I saw some amazing games on TV and on the internet but didn't get to play any of them. I dreamt about those games as a kid and didn't know a lot about how to even play them. I started making games in my head and played them on pen and paper. I made my own art, UI, balancing, stat sheets, and that kinda stuff and played them with the graphics and sound effects turned to the max inside my head.

In school, I made games to be played on our notebooks ("notebooks" here being small A6-sized books where we wrote down our homework for the day). They got really popular among kids in my grade and even in the grade above mine.

All and all, I've always wanted to make games, and I never knew how, until I started learning coding. Now, after 24 years, I'm finally working on something I've always wanted to do instead of what others have told me to. I'd like to invite you to join me on my journey. I might not become a great game developer, but at least I would try to make games that would make me happy, and provide enjoyment to the players at the same time.

Cheers!

[forskakenevergreen]

Lego Mandalorian Helmet review

So this is the first Lego set that I’ve ever built! I never had much interest in legos as a kid, I always kind of wrote them off as ‘nerdy’ and I was above that with my Bratz and Barbies. But recently, building Legos has been all over my TikTok FYP. Creator after creator, video after video, it was all about building Legos. I don’t know what's so satisfying about watching these random strangers all across the world build various Lego sets, maybe the asmar, the appeasing of watching the blocks click into one another or the voiceovers that had the tones of accomplishment but I was HOOKED. 

I always had the thought in the back of my head to start building legos, now that legos have evolved from much more than little sets for five-year-olds to construct. I was intimidated by the sheer variety that Lego has now. Of course, they have easy sets for kids, but they also have sets for many genres and ideas. Lego Star Wars, Lego Lord of the Rings, Lego Indiana Jones, there's Lego Piano, Lego Bowzer, Lego Hogwarts, Lego Atari, and Lego F1. Also, the cost of these Lego sets averages around $200 USD (for the larger sets) and the Lego Titanic costs over $600 USD! The price point was a very worrying feature; am I going to spend over $150 on legos that I might not be able to functionally do? I have a small weasel brain which makes me just not get common sense, so the fear of spending a ton of money on something that I wasn’t 100% confident that I could perfectly assemble scared me. 

But I forced myself to get over my anxieties and started browsing the Target Lego section where I found some reasonably priced legos that I felt like my brain was big enough to do. So during one of my breaks from work, I placed an order for the Lego Star Wars Mandalorian mask online so I could just go to Target and pick it up after work. Once I arrived at Target and went to the customer service center for my pick up, it turns out I placed my order for Grand Rapids, Michigan instead of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. whoops. I ended up just canceling my order and just buying the Lego set in-store and went on my mery little way home.

Opening it up I was very excited to get started. Looking through the book and doing a quick flip though, I felt less intimidated than I had originally thought I was going to be. I was still worried I was still somehow going to mess up this setup, or that maybe I just had grabbed a defaulted set and I wouldn’t be able to complete it because the legos I had pulled just happened to be the set with missing pieces. 

I confidently opened bag one and opened the mini pouch off the side, being careful to not mix the two, took a swing of my Mountain Dew, and got started. Building was surprisingly easy, each bag (with a mini bag inside each large bag) took me around 35 minutes to complete. I honestly had so much fun assembling the tiny mask! I found it very relaxing and fun to build! I put on some tunes (shout out to Orbit Culture, Avatar, Brand of Sacrifice) and got in the zone. I love crafts that are very tedious and have lots of finger work and it made me wish I started doing Legos a lot earlier! 

Building the Mandalorian mask was a very good build for beginner builders, the instruction booklet was very easy to follow and the five bags felt very accomplishable and not overwhelming. The only part I “struggled” with was the fronts of the mask, the part where you show the depths of the curve of the mask. I didn’t realize until I was building it, but certain Lego blocks were angled to one side and the other so when you build the mask you need to find the right block with the right angle for the right side. Once I realized that the other side was very easy to build. In total, I think it took me about 3 hours to build, but I would also build one bag go do some housework then go back to build another bag, etc. 

I'm gonna give the mask a 10/10, super affordable, super easy, and quick to assemble and I can’t wait to do more!

[seonewsguy]

Affordable Web Design That Converts: A Comprehensive Guide

Let me share something that might sound familiar. Last year, my friend Jenny, a talented baker, came to me almost in tears. "I just spent $5,000 on a website, and I'm getting zero orders!" she exclaimed. The site looked gorgeous, but it wasn't bringing in any business. This is a common story I hear from first-time website owners who think they need to break the bank for success. But here's the truth: cheap web design can be just as effective when done right.

The Secret Sauce of Conversion-Focused Design

Think of your website like a storefront. You don't need expensive marble floors to make people want to come in and buy – you need clear signs, an inviting entrance, and an easy path to what they're looking for. The same principles apply to cheap web design that converts.

I've seen $500 websites outperform $5,000 ones simply because they nailed the basics. Here's what really matters:

Clear Purpose, Clear Results

Your homepage should answer three questions within seconds: what you offer, who it's for, and what they should do next. Jenny's expensive site was beautiful but buried her "Order Now" button under layers of fancy animations. After switching to a simpler, more affordable web design approach, her conversion rate jumped by 300%.

Start With Templates (But Make Them Your Own)

Modern website builders offer incredible templates that can serve as your foundation. The key is customizing them thoughtfully. One of my clients, a local gym owner, used a $59 template but made it unique by adding his brand colors and original photos. The result? A professional-looking site that cost under $200 total.

Focus on Mobile-First Design

Here's a money-saving tip that also boosts conversions: design for mobile first. It's cheaper to start with a mobile design and scale up than to create a complex desktop site and then try to make it mobile-friendly. Plus, most of your visitors will probably be on their phones anyway.

Speed Matters More Than Sparkle

You don't need expensive hosting to have a fast website. Choose a reliable but affordable host, optimize your images (there are plenty of free tools for this), and keep your design lightweight. A fast-loading simple site will almost always convert better than a slow, fancy one.

The Psychology of Simple Design

Here's something fascinating I've learned after years in this field: people don't trust overly complicated websites. When exploring cheap web design options, remember that simplicity isn't just cost-effective – it's actually preferred by users. A clean, straightforward layout with plenty of white space often converts better than flashy, expensive designs.

The Content Connection

Remember this: the most beautiful cheap web design won't convert without compelling content. Instead of spending money on fancy features, invest time in writing clear, persuasive copy. Tell your story, explain your value proposition, and make it easy for visitors to take action.

Real-World Success Story

Let me tell you about Tom, a personal trainer who launched his online coaching business last year. With a budget of just $300, he focused on what really mattered: clear messaging, simple navigation, and strong calls to action. His cheap web design strategy paid off – he reached break-even within two months and now generates consistent leads every week.

Essential Elements That Convert

Based on my experience, here are the must-haves for any converting website, regardless of budget:

A clear value proposition above the fold

Easy-to-find contact information

Simple navigation

Mobile-friendly design

Fast loading speed

Clear calls to action

Social proof (testimonials, reviews)

Making It Work for You

The beauty of modern cheap web design is that you can start small and scale up. Begin with the essentials, measure what works, and invest in improvements over time. Remember Jenny? She eventually upgraded her site, but only after her simple version had already generated enough profit to justify the investment.

Final Thoughts

Creating an effective website doesn't require a huge budget – it requires smart planning and focus on what truly matters to your visitors. Whether you're a baker like Jenny, a trainer like Tom, or any other business owner, remember that cheap web design can be powerful when you prioritize clarity, simplicity, and user experience over flashy features.

Start with the basics, focus on what your visitors need, and build from there. After all, the most expensive website in the world won't help your business if it doesn't convert visitors into customers.