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there-must-be-a-lock · 4 years ago

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Not Your Average Love Story (SPN x CM)

Sam Winchester x Spencer Reid

Word Count: ~3490

Warnings: Show-level violence, but that’s about it! It’s bizarrely fluffy.

A/N: My first square for @cmbingo: “meet the parents.” This is essentially a rewrite of Supernatural 12x01, “Keep Calm and Carry On,” except Spencer and Sam are adorable dorky murder boyfriends.

Thanks to @fangirlxwritesx67 for the read-through!

When Spencer realizes he’s in love with Sam, he’s on a plane, hoping to make it to Kansas before the sun goes dark.

He looks out the window at the too-orange light, thinking, this is a weird twist for a love story. He turns that thought over in his mind and realizes: love.

Oh.

It takes him by surprise, for some reason, but only for a second. He’s starting to get used to surprises.

* * *

Spencer has always been self-aware enough to realize that his intellect and his lack of social skills would not make it easy to strike up a traditional relationship. Then, of course, you factor in his obsessive tendencies, his attachment issues, and the stresses of his job, and it’s not actually surprising that he made it past the age of thirty before he fell in love for the first time. Considering how that ended, it’s definitely a surprise — if not a minor miracle — that he’s made it this far with Sam.

Then again, nothing about their relationship has been predictable. Spencer never guessed he’d meet his future partner while dissecting a dessicated brain.

Ever since Spencer Reid met Sam Winchester, his life has been one surprise after another.

* * *

The third unanswered call makes him nervous, but he figures Sam must be asleep, or at least he should be asleep. If Spencer finds himself doing ninety mph in his tiny rental car, it’s mostly because Kansas highways don’t seem to follow the usual laws of physics. They’re flat and endless and eerie in the grey pre-dawn light.

The moment he opens the door, Spencer knows something is wrong. He spares a wishful thought for his Kevlar, and then he draws his gun, falling automatically into the too-familiar stance as he silently descends the stairs.

There’s blood on the floor.

This doesn’t surprise him in the slightest.

* * *

Spencer tends to spend a lot of time visualizing hypothetical problems and their solutions. He’s good at imagining all the potential outcomes of a particular scenario and calculating their likelihoods based on given variables. He frequently does this at night, instead of sleeping.

In other words, he worries a lot.

If he were in a normal relationship he would probably worry about normal things. For example: whether Spencer was misreading the situation, whether it was okay to run a thorough background check on them, and what to wear on a date. What would their first argument be about? What would their parents think of him? What would his mom think of them?

About thirty-six hours after they met, Sam saved Spencer’s mom from a wraith; first impressions don’t get much better than that.

The normal worries were rapidly eclipsed by Sam-specific worries. For example: what if he got cursed, what if he got possessed, and were there angels or demons after him this week. Why couldn’t Dean either drive a little slower or get a car with less antiquated safety features? How would Spencer help if Sam got hurt on the job? Should he tell the B.A.U. what he’s been learning about the supernatural?

He does end up telling them everything; Sam and Dean show up at a crime scene, Hotch almost arrests them, and it turns out that one of the serial killers they’ve been hunting for a decade is actually a skinwalker.

But the point is that when Spencer sees blood on the floor, he isn’t surprised. He’s visualized this scenario — and several hundred variations on it — before.

* * *

He hears a raised voice in the library and takes the steps two at a time. There are two complete strangers there, a blonde woman aiming a gun at a man, and Spencer’s training kicks in before he can figure out why she looks familiar.

“Federal agent, hands in the air,” he barks.

He can see the split-second when the woman thinks about turning her gun on him, but she seems to think better of it, and she sets the gun down slowly before putting her hands in the air.

“Who are you?” the man demands. “What did you do with Sam?”

“What — Sam?” Spencer asks, panic rising in his throat. “Spencer Reid, FBI. Who —”

“You’re Spencer?” he asks, brow furrowed.

Spencer realizes: “You’re Castiel.”

“Whoa, whoa, hey, gun down,” Dean interrupts. “It’s okay! She’s okay, Spence!”

“Dean? You’re alive?” Castiel grabs him before he can say anything else.

Spencer lowers his gun slowly. He’s starting to hyperventilate. He wants to know how Dean is still alive, yes, but he’s watching the way they embrace, the smile on Cas’s face and the way Dean’s shoulders seem to drop like he’s relaxing for the first time in a long time, and all he can think about is —

“Can somebody tell me where the hell Sam is?” Spencer asks, voice cracking embarrassingly.

“He’s not here,” Castiel says.

The woman looks between Cas and Spencer, eyes wide, and it’s not clear who she’s talking to when she asks, “Who are you?”

“He’s my —” Dean starts.

Cas cuts him off by saying, “He’s Sam’s —” at the same time Spencer blurts out, “He’s an angel.”

“Come again?” the woman asks, and when she sees the way Dean shifts nervously, she adds, “Not that, I don’t care about — you said angel?”

“Angel. You know. Wings, harp.”

“Not actually,” Spencer tells her, just as Cas scowls and says, “No, I don’t have a harp.”

“Cas, Spencer,” Dean says, and he pauses, swallowing hard. “This is Mary. Mary Winchester.”

Spencer and Cas speak in unison again, Cas in a gruff monotone as Spencer’s voice goes squeaky: “Your mother?”

Of all the things Spencer has worried about, he never thought he would never have to worry about making a bad first impression on Sam’s parents. Sam’s parents are dead.

Except… apparently not. Apparently Sam’s mom has been resurrected, and Spencer just pulled a gun on her.

“Nice to meet you,” Mary says softly, with a tentative smile.

For a second he freezes, staring at her, and his mind starts racing, recalculating, replanning, getting his worrying done after the fact, and Spencer has no idea what to say. He never made a plan for this.

“Nice to meet you,” he responds, flushing. “Um. Sorry about that.”

“I’d have done the same thing if I were you.” She smiles, and she doesn’t look much like Sam, but the kindness in her eyes is so very familiar. Spencer’s breath catches.

“She’s not kidding, shoulda seen the way she pinned me when I tried to introduce myself,” Dean grumbles. Then he turns to Castiel and says, “Tell me what happened to Sam.”

As Castiel starts to explain the details, Spencer calls Penelope.

“FBI, office of the brilliant but under-caffeinated,” she says, slightly less chirpy than he’s used to, and Spencer realizes how early it is. Oops.

“It’s me.”

“Oh! Boy genius! They did it, huh? Hotch called us back in, like, as soon as the sun came back on, because apparently criminals don’t stop just because the world is ending, or whatever, but he wanted to give you a day at least — hey, are you okay? How’s that handsome lumberjack of yours?”

“Sam’s missing,” Spencer says without preamble. “I need your help.”

It takes Penelope approximately a minute to find the car and identify the driver, but the identity of his passenger is a little more elusive. She types away, keys clattering ceaselessly in the background, as Spencer yawns.

“Got it! Okay, I have a cell number. If you call her, I can track it. You ready?”

“Dean, give me your phone?” Spencer asks, holding out a hand. “You stay on the line with Penelope. She can tell you as soon as she gets the address.”

“I can make the call,” Dean says. “I want to have a word with this bitch.”

“Dean,” Spencer snaps. “First of all, I’m the only person here who’s trained in hostage negotiation. Finding people is literally in my job description.”

“This isn’t a fuckin’ bank holdup, this is my brother,” Dean retorts. “It’s my job to take care of him.”

“If you call her a bitch and start in on your threatening macho bullshit, she’s going to hang up, or worse, she’s going to believe you, and then she’ll be trying to get you before you can get to Sam. I know how to talk to people like this. If I can convince her I’m scared, that I’m not a real threat, she might give something away.”

“But —”

“Secondly, the only people who know you’re alive are in this room right now, which means you’re our best chance to take her by surprise when we get there, so shut up and let me do my job.”

“You really think you can find him,” Dean says, and it’s not a question. He holds out his phone with a look of begrudging respect.

“Yes.”

Spencer thinks, I have to.

* * *

People aren’t all the same, but if you could quantify the concept of normal, if you could look at it statistically, most people would fall within the standard deviation. Most of their lives take an even, predictable shape, Spencer thinks. There are plenty of other people like them, and they seem to fit with each other, too, interlocking in an easy way that Spencer has always envied.

Spencer’s got all these awkward uneven edges and strange angles. He’s not normal, and he’s always known that.

For a long time, he doesn’t think he’ll ever find someone who’ll fit easily, not without changing him, trying to reshape him in some way. He doesn’t want to change, but he gets lonely. Most people (friends, let alone lovers) don’t last long before they get sick of his quirks. Some try longer than others, but one way or another, there’s always some jarring part of him that doesn’t match what they want.

What if they like to sleep with the windows open, even in the winter? Or if they sleep with the air conditioning cranked up in the summer? Spencer knows he should be better about compromising on little things like that, but he really prefers things a certain way. He knows it’s neurotic. He can’t help it.

Spencer is used to people staring blankly when he starts talking, but at what point will it drive someone away? When will they stop pretending to care about his Doctor Who opinions? When will they get bored of his info-dumping?

And then there are the really difficult questions. How does he tell someone he used to be an addict? What if he doesn’t want to tell them about being kidnapped and tortured? What if he does, and then they start asking questions? How does he explain his PTSD, or his nightmares, or his bedtime routine of triple-checking every lock and setting his gun within arm’s reach?

At first, when he met Sam, Spencer worried about arguments and parents and all the other normal things, but more importantly, he worried about himself. He wondered which of his irregularities would finally make Sam give up on his attempts to fit Spencer into his life.

Neither of them sleep much, but when they do end up sharing a bed, Sam has his own routine; while Spencer checks the locks, Sam draws warding symbols, lines each window and door with salt, and sets his gun within reach. He likes the windows closed and the thermostat above 68, because, he explains simply, “Lucifer runs cold.”

Speaking of Lucifer. Sam understands addiction, kidnapping, torture, PTSD, and nightmares, and he doesn’t ask Spencer to tell his stories before he’s ready. Sam has stories of his own.

Sam also has his own Doctor Who opinions, and those opinions were the cause of their very first argument. Sam is wrong, but Spencer loves that he cares enough to argue.

The first time Spencer started rambling about serial killers, he noticed Sam frowning and cut himself off, embarrassed, ready to apologize. Sam just pulled out a journal and asked him to repeat what he’d said, so that Sam could do more research on the subject later.

Sam doesn’t expect him to change. He doesn’t try to re-shape Spencer. His life is just as weird, and by all logic they shouldn’t fit, but they do. And Spencer doesn’t feel any less himself, but suddenly he realizes that he must’ve changed along the way, because he can’t imagine his life without Sam any more; if they can’t find him, his absence is going to tear Spencer apart.

* * *

It’s a tense car ride, to say the least.

Hell of a first impression, Spencer thinks again, glancing at Mary’s pale, worried face in the rearview.

Castiel and Mary are in the backseat, and they’re trying to make small talk, but Castiel seems to be about as good as Spencer at the whole “casual conversation” thing. Sam’s told him so much about Castiel, Spencer feels like he knows him, but they’ve never actually crossed paths before.

And then there’s Dean, who’s got his jaw clenched, staring straight ahead. Spencer gives him directions, and he grunts or nods, but he doesn’t say anything else.

Dean intimidates the hell out of him, but they’ve always gotten along fine, maybe because Spencer’s never yelled at him before. He’s very aware that arguing with Dean Winchester is usually fruitless at best (and deadly at worst), but he’s never been good at holding his tongue when he’s upset.

“I’m sorry,” Spencer manages to mutter eventually.

“Huh?” Dean looks at him, frowning.

“About earlier. I didn’t mean to — um.”

“Nah, it’s fine,” Dean says gruffly.

“I was upset. I’m sorry.”

Dean shrugs, and he hesitates before adding, “You were right.” He looks as surprised to be saying it as Spencer is to hear it.

Spencer blinks at him a couple times before hurriedly saying, “Turn left. There.”

Cas and Mary are having a quiet conversation about the weirdness of technology, and Spencer is about to join them when Dean speaks up again.

“Garcia — she said something funny.”

“Uh oh.”

Dean snorts. “Nah, not like that. Before she hung up, she told me not to worry. Said of everybody she knows, Sam probably has the second-best odds of escaping any poor sap who tries to abduct him.”

“Second best?”

“That’s what I said. But apparently that title belongs to you.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it. All I can do is talk myself out, he’s stronger.” Spencer gives him a crooked attempt at a smile; it feels awkward on his face, but he means it when he says, “He’ll be okay.”

* * *

The funny thing is, Spencer has been in this situation before.

When it was Maeve, though, he panicked, because all he could think about was how she must feel: scared, helpless. Spencer has too much empathy sometimes. Imagining Maeve’s helplessness made him feel like he was drowning.

This is different. He’s not exactly zen about the whole situation, of course; it feels like a piece of him is missing, but he’s clear-headed, because he knows that Sam is anything but helpless. He trusts Sam to take care of himself.

Aside from the supernatural element, Sam’s job is astoundingly similar to Spencer’s, and he’s astoundingly good at it. The Winchesters have consulted on a couple cases, now, for the B.A.U. (Spencer’s still not sure how Hotch manages the paperwork) and they try to find cases in the same general area as wherever Spencer winds up, so they’ve gotten to work together a few times. Sam’s sheer competence at his job might be the most attractive thing Spencer has ever seen.

Spencer used to imagine a quiet, mundane romance. He always just assumed he’d find someone whose life was more normal than his, and he was resigned to the stress it would cause in a relationship. He’d forget to call, he’d miss dinner, he’d have to cancel plans and be absent from so much of what constituted a normal domestic life, and his partner would be left at home, alone, all too aware of how much danger Spencer could be in, helpless to do anything about it.

Instead, Spencer found Sam. Spencer never has to feel guilty about missing dinner, because Sam isn’t at home worrying about him. Sam is out there saving the world.

Sam is not going to wait for Spencer to rescue him; he might not even need rescuing, at this point. Instead of worrying about what Sam is doing and whether he’s scared, Spencer can focus on his own plan.

* * *

He and Dean circle slowly around the house. They spot the entrance to the basement, and Dean almost runs right to it, but Spencer grabs his arm and points to the sigils around the door.

Spencer notices movement through a window next to the back door, and when they creep up to get a glimpse inside, he sees two women. One is the blonde — the brains of the operation — and the other is stockier, clearly the muscle.

After a quick conversation in whispers and gestures, Dean sneaks around to the side of the house opposite the basement, and a second later Spencer hears him shout. He waits a couple seconds and glances in the window again, and sure enough, the bigger woman is gone while the blonde is watching something on a computer monitor, looking agitated. Security cameras, maybe.

Spencer is about to go inside when he sees the blonde start, look around, and grab a cattle prod. Then she’s hurrying toward a door, sliding back a heavy deadbolt, and Spencer sees a dark stairwell that must lead to the basement.

He slips through the door and follows her.

For a split-second, the scene in the basement almost stops his heart. Sam is lying on the floor, completely still, his head surrounded by a puddle of blood.

But before Spencer can really process what he’s seeing, let alone react, Sam is in motion: lashing out, grabbing her by the throat, shoving her against the wall. Spencer descends the stairs quietly with his gun at the ready, trying not to make any noise that might distract Sam right now.

Sam doesn’t need his help. There’s blood on his damp clothes and his arms are shaking as the blonde goes limp in his grip, but he’s alive; he doesn’t need Spencer’s help, and Spencer isn’t the slightest bit surprised.

When Sam turns and sees him, he doesn’t look surprised either. He just smiles, all dimples and sparkling eyes in spite of his obvious pain as he limps over.

“Sorry that took me so long,” Spencer says casually, trying to control his grin. He doesn’t want to holster his gun yet, so he keeps it trained on the woman and hugs Sam one-armed.

Sam wraps his arms around Spencer, holding on tight. Spencer rests his forehead on Sam’s shoulder, taking a second to breathe as he feels missing pieces sliding neatly into place.

“Love you,” Sam says, and the words sound like a sigh of relief. He pulls back, and he looks surprised, like he didn’t actually mean to say that out loud.

Spencer’s about to reply when he sees the woman struggling to her feet, reaching for her cattle prod, and so instead he says, “Look out.”

Sam steps sideways to give him a clear shot. Spencer shoots her in the thigh and she screams as she falls to the floor.

“See how you like it,” Sam tells her, with a vicious little smile.

“I love you too,” Spencer blurts out.

For a second they both pause, grinning at each other like idiots, their surroundings forgotten.

Then there’s a sound from overhead, and Sam asks hurriedly, “The other one. Did you take her out already?”

“Dean’s got her,” Spencer tells him. “We should check on him, then we can come back down and deal with — Sam?”

At first he can’t figure out why Sam’s mouth drops open like that, shocked and disbelieving. Then he remembers.

“Dean’s alive?” Sam asks, a smile spreading slowly over his face. Spencer nods, wrapping an arm around Sam’s ribs, supporting him as he limps gingerly toward the stairs. It feels like he’s forgetting something.

There’s another noise, and then Mary is in the doorway, looking down at them.

Oh.

Sam turns to Spencer silently, like he’s waiting for confirmation that she’s real.

Spencer nods. “Yeah. So — um. Surprise?”

Sam doesn’t actually seem all that surprised, because… of course he doesn’t. He blinks at Spencer a couple times and then he grins.

“You met my mom before I did,” Sam says, breathless and amused, and grabs the banister to haul himself up the stairs. Spencer laughs and follows him, smiling to himself.

It’s not your average “meet the parents” scene, but somehow, it fits Sam and Spencer perfectly.

Nothing about their love story has been normal. Why start now?

#cmbingo21 #criminal minds #supernatural #sam winchester x spencer reid #spencer reid fic #sam winchester fic

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asterythm · 6 years ago

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Born of the Same Impulse

Or; The Abolition of Man(a)

Pairing: Romantic LAMP Prompt: Written for Secret Sanders 2018 with the prompt “magic AUs (especially if someone doesn’t know about the others)” Word Count: 12.8k (oops.) Warnings: Very occasional caps lock, panic, negative thinking, food mention. (But don’t worry, the end is fluffy!!)

General Summary: When an experiment goes wrong, the wizard-slash-scientist Logan finds himself stranded in an alternate, magic-less dimension -- but the more he explores, the less anxious he is to find his way back home again.

A/N: @soft-transboy Surpriiise!! It’s me -- @secretsanders herself :D Hoo boy. I had so much fun writing this one, but... let's just say that I definitely bit off wayyyyy more than I could chew with this story (as you might be able to tell from the word count, which is well into the double digits). In fact, I spent so long planning this thing that I ended up being left with under a week to write it all. Meaning I finished this about ten minutes ago, and it’s completely unedited. Oops. That said, I'm still super proud of how it came out, for the most part. Hopefully, you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

AO3

xxx

“The serious magical endeavour and the serious scientific endeavour are twins: one was sickly and died, the other strong and throve. But they were twins. They were born of the same impulse.” — C. S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

xxx

Logan Sanders does not believe in magic.

This perhaps will seem to most people like an illogical sort of statement, once they’ve taken into consideration the fact that Logan Sanders is a wizard.

Illogical or not, Logan’s mind is made up. Unlike Most People, Logan never has believed in magic. And he never will, either. It’s one of those beliefs that transcend tenses, you see — does not, did not, will not. Past, present, or future, the fact remains that magic is impractical at best.

Magic is real, of course. Logan can hardly deny the presence of magic in his everyday life, seeing as it’s damn near impossible to do anything without it, in this day and age. He’s not saying that magic doesn’t exist. Logan only means that, the way he sees it, magic on its own is completely and utterly useless. In fact, he’s quite certain that he’d be perfectly capable of surviving without relying on any magic at all, given the opportunity.

Life would be so much easier if more people just believed in science.

This is the second of many (many, many, many) seemingly illogical statements — at least, to Most People. Science? Most People scoff. Impossible! A fully automatic life reliant on science is a nice thought, but that’s all it will ever be — a nice thought. Science simply isn’t capable enough to accomplish all that magic does. Whoever this Logan fellow is, he ought to get his head out of the clouds and do some actual thinking. Blah, blah, blah. On and on and on.

Logan, of course, hates hearing Most People saying these things, but frankly he’s come to expect responses like that. He hears the same kind of thing almost every day, after all. It’s quite normal for Most People to doubt that science could ever be useful. And why even bother, really? Magic is perfectly fine as is.

But of course, the first thing you will notice about Logan Sanders is that he is most certainly not Most People.

xxx

Weekends, reflects Logan in between sips of hot tea, are the only part of the week ever worth paying any attention to.

For Logan, Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days of the week — but they’re also far and away the best. Because rather than spending his hours working a boring day job, he’s hard at work inventing things that he’s passionate about. On weekends, Logan is free to play around with the concept of using science to enhance day-to-day magic. (Or perhaps the magic is enhancing the science? One or the other. Logan isn’t completely sure.) It’s been his favourite hobby for years and years, creating these little devices that make simple daily tasks even simpler by relying on science, rather than on magic.

Take, for example, Logan’s kettle. The one that he’d put away only moments before, after pouring himself a cup of tea. On the outside, it appears to be quite unremarkable. But Logan can assure you that this kettle is anything but. It’s a one-of-a-kind design that Logan invented himself, many moons ago, and it is easily the most efficient kettle that he’s ever known.

Boiling water, as you surely already know, is a tedious and boring task that requires one to channel their mana into heat-energy, focus that heat-energy into a stream, and then direct that stream continuously towards the water until it finally begins to boil. It’s a time-consuming task that Logan’s tight schedule simply cannot afford.

Logan’s innovative kettle combines magic with science in order to significantly cut down the amount of time and energy one needs to boil water. There’s a metal coil inside of it that allows the kettle to heat up water almost all by itself, by converting electric energy into heat energy — meaning that Logan only needs to fire off a quick spark, and his kettle takes care of the rest.

Despite the simplicity of the design, it has always been one of Logan’s favourite pieces of work, if only because of how often he uses it. On the other hand, he’s got plenty of favourites to choose from. Logan’s cozy little apartment is nearly covered with his own gizmos and trinkets, some fully functional, some half-finished with pieces spilling out the sides, some completely abandoned. He doesn’t consider those latter ones “failures”, though. Logan prefers to call them “learning experiences”.

And he does learn. Logan enjoys his work, regardless of whether or not his creations work out the way he plans, because every experiment teaches him something new. Science is so (woefully) underexplored that Logan finds himself discovering new and exciting concepts left, right and centre. Indeed, it's not at all an uncommon occurrence for him to find something that he's never read of or even heard of before. The sense of accomplishment he gets from these not-so-rare occasions is just about enough to make up for the inconveniences of his lifestyle.

The keywords in that sentence being "just about".

Recently, he's been finding aforementioned inconveniences to be growing more and more, well, inconvenient. The impermanence of his living situation, for example. (Just thinking about this subject makes Logan's chest tighten involuntarily. Though he isn't all the way finished yet, he sets his teacup down.) Logan hasn't been able to hold onto a home for more than a matter of months ever since he first picked up this hobby of his.

For some completely unfathomable reason, the idea of having a mad scientist living in their building is apparently one that most landlords consider to be somewhat unsettling.

There are other difficulties, too, that prevent him from finding a permanent place to call home: noise complaints from neighbours, property damage from explosions and acid burns, that one time that he accidentally gave sentience to a small tin-can-and-soy-sauce-packet robot, leading to the creation of an army of small but hostile rodents. The usual.

(Now that Logan thinks about it, he's starting to see where the whole "unsettling" thing might come from.)

The first one or two or twelve times he was kicked out, Logan didn't mind terribly. Change doesn't bother him too much. But as his collection of knick-knacks and doo-dads continued to grow, it began to become a real nuisance to have to pack everything up and relocate so often.

Not to mention, the constant moving means that Logan has never had the time to make any sort of lasting social connections, either. That's not a huge issue, though, since Logan isn't exactly the most social of people anyway. Even when he was younger and by extension wasn't constantly being forced to move around, Logan had never had much luck with friendship. So although his life is a lonely one, Logan's grown quite accustomed to having things be this way. He doesn't mind. Not as much as he used to, at least.

Logan picks his teacup back up again. He swishes the cup around a few times, watching the half-disintegrated leaves swish with it. After a moment, the leaves settle down into a shape that almost resembles a dragon if Logan squints and turns his head a certain way. He takes a sip, notes with displeasure that the liquid inside has grown unpleasantly cold, but finishes it anyway. After his cup is empty, Logan takes a moment to gaze out the window and appreciate how nice of a day it is; both suns are happily shining, and there’s hardly a cloud in the sky. The perfect weather for a weekend, even if he is going to spend the whole day cooped up in his apartment.

Stretching, Logan rises from the comfortable armchair on which he had been sitting and crosses the room to where his latest invention awaits him. Today is going to be a good day, he thinks, allowing a rare smile to slip out as he approaches. He's been working hard on this one, and he thinks now that it may be finished at last; his tests last week, he had been amazed to find, had all gone off without a hitch.

That is, all but one. But that's only because he has yet to run the final test. Logan thought he would save that one for today, just to be on the safe side. But he’s got high hopes for the outcome of this final test. A good day, indeed.

In fact, the best, worst day of Logan's life has already begun — and it's all thanks to the pair of two little round creations sitting right in front of him.

xxx

THREE MONTHS AGO

"Okay, but… I still don't get it," grunts the landlord. "What are they supposed to do?"

Logan smiles wryly. "Permanently revolutionise the way that people get from place to place, that's what."

"Looks pretty typical for something that's supposed to be so 'revolutionary'. Honestly, it kind of looks like a regular TP-circle. Except, uh, portable."

"Yes? Well, I'm glad to hear that, since that's exactly what it is. A portable teleportation-circle. I've very nearly completed the design, and I can promise you that as soon as I've added the final touches, this is going to completely change life as we know it. Then I'll have more than enough money to pay rent. Just you wait, sir." The other man still doesn't look convinced. Logan is getting desperate — he doesn't know where else he can find a home if this doesn't work out. "At least allow me to explain to you how it works before you turn me away."

After a moment, the gruff older man relents. "Alright, fine," he sighs. "How does your portable TP-circle work?"

"Well, the general concept is more or less the same as a regular TP-circle. You step in, it collects a bit of your mana and converts it into a path between the circle you're standing in and whichever circle you want to TP to. The difference is that my design is, well, portable. I mean, TP-circle stations are all well and good, but sometimes they're just located in such inconvenient places. Add that to the fact that there's always such long line-ups for those stations, and... well, suffice it to say, I'm surprised that they've been in use for this long.

"With my portable TP-circles, you can go wherever you want, whenever you want, and you don't have to deal with those annoying line-ups anymore. You can just fold one of these up and use a simple object-TP to send it wherever you want. Anyone can do this. Object-TPs are one of the first spells they teach in school. So, portable TP-circles will make transportation easier and more accessible for everyone. Like I said before, I've already almost perfected the design. I only need to iron out a couple of kinks, then figure out how to make it more lightweight. Once I’ve done that, it’ll be completely ready. Ready for use, and ready to change the world, by extension. I only need a few months, half a year at most. I promise." He’s nearly begging by the time he finishes talking. This location is his last chance, after all. Logan holds his breath, watching the landlord's face change as he weighs Logan's words.

And then, after what feels like an eternity of waiting, Logan finally hears the words he's been hoping for.

"Okay. Four months. That's all you get. You'd better have your portable thingamajig finished by then. Otherwise, you're outta here. You hear me? Out. Of. Here. Don't let me down."

Logan sighs, a wave of relief washing over him. Four months... a quarter of a year. That's going to be tight, but Logan's sure that he'll be able to manage that deadline if he works hard enough.

If there's one thing that Logan has never had a problem with, it's working hard.

xxx

And work hard, he did. For three months straight, Logan’s devoted every second of his free time to perfecting his design. He’s long since lost count of how many tests he’s run, how many times he’s taken his invention apart and put it back together in a completely different way, how many times he’s had to entirely scrap an idea or component… yes, the journey has been anything but smooth. And yet, looking at his finished creation now, Logan realises that every single second spent has been completely worth it.

Technically, Logan shouldn’t be using the word “finished”, since his invention has yet passed its final and most important test. But last week’s testing was the farthest that any of his prototypes had ever come, so Logan can’t help but hope that today, it’ll go just one step farther.

Well. There’s only one way to find out, now isn’t there?

Logan quickly pulls his trusty notebook and pen out of the ether, where he keeps his most important items. He flips the book open to a fresh new page. At the top, he writes the date, then a title: TEST RUN # —

He hesitates.

TEST RUN #WHO EVEN KNOWS ANYMORE, HONESTLY.

There, perfect.

And so he begins. The first twenty or so tests, he completes without even thinking. Logan has done those ones so many times, to say that he could complete them in his sleep would be an under-exaggeration. He tests the prototype’s durability, folding ability, resistance to wind and cold and heat and water. Of course, he doesn’t run into any problems there.

Next comes the slightly more interesting tests. Logan places one of the two circles onto his apartment floor, then folds the second one up so that it’s smaller and therefore easier to transport. With a snap of his fingers, he sends it off to the location that he’s been using for testing: a vast and empty flower field that, as far as Logan knows, no one besides him has set foot in for a couple of years at least.

Next, Logan picks up a small six-sided dice and places it gently onto the circle that he’d laid on the table. He’s barely let go of the dice and pulled his hand back when a familiar flash of bright blue light fills the room. By the time the light is gone, the dice is, too.

Logan grabs a looking-glass off his bookshelf, the one that he’s enchanted to always show the flower field. It only takes him a second to spot his circle lying surrounded by tall blades of grass, and then only a second more to find the dice sitting right there in the center of the circle. Looks like the dice test was successful. Logan isn’t surprised. The dice test is another easy one.

His next few tests are all more or less the same as the dice test. The only difference is that he’s no longer transporting dice; for each test, Logan uses a slightly more difficult object. First, he picks up a —

Hold on.

If Logan were writing this story, he would surely go into incredible detail about each and every test, listing off every single object he tries, telling you which tests have stood in his way in the past and explaining what he did to get around them.

Luckily for you, dear reader, Logan is not writing this story. He's only living it.

Suffice it to say, his portable-teleportation-circles pass each and every test with flying colours, just like they did last week. With every test passed, Logan grows more and more excited. He had already known when he began test run number who-even-knows-anymore-honestly that it was going to be an overwhelming success, but of course there’s such a difference between knowing something is going to happen versus seeing it happen with your own two eyes. Last week felt like a fluke, you see. This week is proof that it was not.

xxx

By the time Logan completes his second-to-last test, he is so giddy with excitement and passion, he can hardly think straight (although to be fair, “straight” never really has been a strength of his). A rush of adrenaline courses through the young inventor as he jots down two familiar words: Trial successful.

And then suddenly, the time has come. “This is it. I am... about to perform the final test,” Logan says to himself, scarce able to believe that he’s actually made it until he says the words out loud. They come out no louder than an awed whisper.

He tucks his notebook and pen back into the ether, smoothes down the wrinkles on his button-up shirt, adjusts his necktie, combs through his hair with his fingers. Not because he thinks someone is watching him; it’s just that Logan can’t help but feel that he should look his best for a moment like this. It’s, he thinks, a moment deserving of trumpet fanfare, of multi-coloured confetti, of a loud and dramatic drumroll.

Alas, Logan has none of these. He’ll have to settle for the loud drumbeat of his heart thumping in his chest, instead.

Logan stares at the devices sitting in front of him. He gets to his feet. Dusts himself off. Starts to back away. As he walks backwards, something swells inside of him; something big and bright and demanding. Pride? Hope? Fear? Perhaps a mixture of the three? Whatever it is, it grows and grows until it threatens to engulf the normally-so-unemotional young man. It’s now or never, Logan suddenly realises. He’s got to move before this strange Feeling-Thing immobilises him.

So move, he does. Logan closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and then before he knows it he’s running forward, forward, forward and onward as fast as his legs can go.

Because it’s him, of course; Logan is the final test. Transporting around little objects is all well and good, but the purpose of his invention has always been to transport people, after all.

The tip of Logan’s toe lands in the transportation circle, the rest of him following close behind. As soon as he’s landed, a familiar tingling begins to spread through him; the circle is harnessing his mana and converting it into a teleportation path, exactly as it’s meant to do. For precisely two instants, Logan’s body is suspended in a strange little pocket between time and space. He’s surrounded on all sides by pure light, bright enough to blind even with his eyes closed.

Then, just like that, it’s over. Logan touches down on solid ground, somehow feeling at once like he’s drifted down gently as a feather and like his entire body has been slammed into the ground hard enough to rattle the teeth in his skull. Slowly, warily, Logan opens his eyes to see that… something’s different.

No, scratch that. Everything’s different.

Logan turns around cautiously. The new location he’s found himself in is dimly lit, but it doesn’t take too long for his eyes to adjust.

He takes in old and cracked wooden planks, stains marking leaky spots on the ceiling, and spiderwebs strewn all over the place. He’s standing in what appears to be the attic of an abandoned warehouse of sorts. Maybe not a warehouse — maybe a workshop, or an old storage unit. No matter. Whatever this place is, it’s very clearly not the empty flower field that Logan had been expecting to open his eyes in.

As disappointment shoots through him like an arrow to the heart, Logan realises that he can literally feel his hopes being ground to dust. How curious. It’s not a very pleasant sensation, to say the least. The young scientist had been trying his best not to let his hopes run away from him too much, but after all the success of the previous tests, you can hardly blame him for getting excited, now can you?

Logan sighs heavily. I suppose I have some work to do. He’s not looking forward to resigning himself to yet another month of tinkering and testing, especially now that he’s tasted success. Who knows how long it’ll take to identify and fix whatever problem caused him to end up here?

Speaking of, where is “here”, anyway? Logan, quite frankly, hasn’t the foggiest idea where he is. He probably should figure that out, before he begins worrying about repairs and re-runs. Stretching, Logan looks around for the exit.

Aha! There’s a staircase. Following these stairs down onto the next floor, Logan comes across a door, standing the slightest bit ajar. A warm glow surrounds the doorway; sunlight from the outside world. He smiles triumphantly, allowing himself a little bit of celebration for this small victory (he needs the validation to keep going, after the crushing failure — er — learning experience he’s just suffered).

After the darkness of the warehouse-slash-workshop-slash-storage unit, the sunlight’s sudden harshness startles Logan a little bit when he opens the door. That’s odd, he thinks. I could swear that the suns weren’t nearly that bright a moment ago. He’s still a little lightheaded from the brightness of the transportation spell, so suffice it to say, the abnormally bright sunlight isn’t doing him any favours. Logan blinks as he steps out the door into a forest thick with trees and shrubs. “You’d think that the foliage would block out the suns a little, now wouldn’t you,” he deadpans under his breath. Logan rubs his eyes. Then he rubs them again.

Goodness gracious, why is it so bright? Logan fights back an angry growl as the white spots in his field of vision persist, refusing to diminish even the slightest amount. Today was supposed to be a good day! Channeling his frustration towards the most immediate cause, Logan glares up through the leaves, at the sun —

Hold on.

The sun, singular?

That can’t be right. What happened to the other one? Logan looks away, then looks back, as if he might have somehow missed the presence of a massive star in the sky. Nothing. He stumbles around, straining to see if it’s somehow hidden behind one of the larger leaves. But no — there’s still nothing.

Suddenly, it looks like Logan might have a bigger problem on his hands than simply needing to do some minor repairs.

xxx

There’s a sort of throbbing pain coming somewhere from Logan’s left elbow.

He’s only vaguely aware of this, but vague is better than none-at-all, so he focuses in on that pain to try and ground himself. It works; after a moment, the fractured world begins coming back into focus.

Logan tries to inspect the wound, only to realise that he can’t turn his head, since it’s currently locked tight in an iron grip between his hands. His legs are curled up beneath him, too. He doesn’t remember assuming this bizarre fetal position. In fact, there’s a lot he doesn’t remember. How he got here, for example. From the darkness surrounding him and the hard wooden floor beneath him, Logan guesses that he’s somehow ended up back in the attic of the warehouse. His mind is still too scattered to grasp anything beyond that. But it’s a start.

Stiffly, Logan forces his fingers to relax and, stretching his neck, begins to massage the life back into them. How long did I spend, just… sitting there, waiting for nothing? he wonders, marvelling at how tense his arms still are. As he starts doing the same for his cramped legs, bits and pieces of memories start breaking away and swimming to the surface of his consciousness at last.

He remembers staring. He’d always been taught not to stare directly at the suns as a child; the ultraviolet light might burn his retinas, causing permanent damage or even blindness. But frankly, solar retinopathy had been the last of his concerns once he’d realised that there was an entire star missing from the great blue sky above.

He remembers shouting. Who can blame him for that, really? Something about knowing that you are completely lost and alone… it triggers something primal within the soul, awakening a beast that can only be pacified with a roar. “Lost? Of course not. I’m right here,” Logan wants to argue with himself, but he can’t. He doesn’t have any idea where ‘here’ is, you see.

He remembers sprinting. Illogical, perhaps, to think that by putting distance between himself and the ugly truth, he can make it go away. But we as humans do tend to fear that which we don’t understand, and to run from that which we fear. Logan had always considered himself fearless, and therefore powerful. To have that power taken away? That’s one more thing to run from.

He remembers stumbling. He took the stairs two at a time as he went, trying to go ever faster. At one point, when he wasn’t paying attention, he missed a step and went flailing downwards, landing hard on… his left elbow. The sudden fall didn’t bother him too much, though. In fact, it was almost reassuring, in a twisted way, to have his body’s state match his mind’s.

He remembers squeezing, squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as he could, telling himself again and again that he must be dreaming. Only dreaming. It’s all just a dream, and when he opens his eyes back up again he’ll be resting, safe and sound, in his cozy little apartment with his kettle and his teacup and his comfortable armchair and —

And…

He’s not dreaming, of course. This whole — what even is it that Logan’s gotten himself into, here? Is he in an entirely different world? A different dimension, even? — whatever it is, it’s here to stay. The realisation almost makes Logan want to retreat right back into fetal position.

But… no. No, no, no. Logan catches himself before he can slip back into the apathetic zone. He mustn’t panic; not a second time, at least. Hold it together, Logan tells himself. In through the nose. Hold. Out through the mouth.

What he wouldn’t give for a calming cup of tea right about now.

The deep breathing does the trick well enough, though; Logan’s head is now much clearer than it had been only moments before. He’s still afraid, of course (he’s just been dumped out all alone into an unfamiliar land; who wouldn’t be?), but for the most part, his logic and reason have returned; thank goodness for that.

There’s a lot about his current situation that Logan cannot control. Not least of all, the fact that his unsuccessful experiment has stranded him in what very well might be an alternate dimension. He can’t control what’s happened to him, or what will happen to him next, for that matter. All that Logan can control is how he reacts.

It’s not about what’s happened. It’s about what he’s going to do about it.

“Giving up” is a completely foreign concept to Logan. He is a scientist, for goodness’ sakes! Not only is he used to things not going exactly the way he plans them to, his hobby hinges entirely on staying determined and finding solutions. Logan does not simply “give up”. And he’s certainly not planning on starting now.

Instead, he approaches the problem like he’s analyzing the results of an experiment gone off the tracks and trying to figure out what went wrong. Step one: observe and gather data. He’ll only be able to figure out the “what comes next” after he’s got all the pieces of the puzzle.

The second time that Logan walks out of the empty warehouse, the immediate glare of the sunlight doesn’t affect him quite as much — possibly because this time, he’s expecting it. Now, this may be silly, but the fact that he copes with the sun so easily this time around gives him a bit of a confidence boost; it’s almost like he’s just managed to defeat an enemy that, the first time around, he couldn’t even bring himself to face. This might not be so bad after all, Logan allows, striding out the door with a newfound sureness in his stride.

And his good mood only gets better as he continues to explore the forest surrounding him, distancing himself with every step from the abandoned warehouse where he had shed his insecurities. He’s pleasantly surprised to find that, besides the singular sun (which he can almost forget about, provided he doesn’t look up), the forest appears to be… exceedingly normal. It’s one that he wouldn’t even take a second look at, back in his origin dimension.

(Goodness, Logan reflects absently, the phrase “origin dimension” sounds so strange, doesn’t it?)

But of course, the flora and fauna in this forest aren’t exactly the same. There’s just enough variation between the two dimensions to fascinate Logan without frightening him, in fact.

That fascination, as it turns out, leads perfectly into step two: record observations, preferably on paper, for reference. Logan quickly conjures back up his notebook and pen to scribble down notes and make rough sketches of the forest’s almost-but-not-entirely-familiar specimens.

The conjuring takes a little more effort than usual, making Logan realise that his mana supply is probably getting dangerously low. Of course — he must have used up quite a lot of it earlier, when he was casting all of those teleportation spells. I’ll have to be a bit more conservative with my mana, Logan decides, until I can find a place to sleep and replenish, that is. The prospect scares him a little. He doesn’t like the fact that people depend on magic so much, but disliking it doesn’t make it any less true, and he’s certainly not exempt from that dependance. What will he do if he runs out?

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, Logan’s attention is drawn a beautiful species of butterfly landing on an equally beautiful flower. Uncapping his pen, Logan smiles, grateful for the distraction. Mana can wait, can’t it? For now, he’s merely a scientist investigating an alien world — nothing more, nothing less.

xxx

He’s not sure how long he spends wandering through the forest, jotting down notes and observations, before his feet bring to a well-beaten path. This comes as quite a surprise to Logan, who had somehow been under the impression that he’s alone in the forest. The idea of finding another civilization both excites and unnerves him.

To journey or not to journey? Logan is conflicted on what he should do next. On one hand, if he doesn’t follow the path, he just knows that this decision will come back to haunt him. It’ll simply eat him up inside, the not knowing.

On the other hand… he has no idea what to expect, following this path. Where, or who, will the earth lead him to? How long will he spend walking? Does the path even end, or is this world nothing more than one big forest with a path circling all the way around? Does he want it to end? A path that leads to nowhere is better than a path that leads to danger, but in an unfamiliar land such as this one, the latter option seems a lot more likely.

Yes, it’s clear that the cons far outweigh the pros. Safety ought to be his priority here. The correct course of action, therefore, is to ignore the path and turn back to the forest. Just… just walk away. Walk... away.

Logan tucks his notebook into his back pocket and walks towards the path, cursing his incurable curiosity every step of the way.

xxx

Seconds stretch into minutes, then minutes into hours, as Logan follows the mysterious trail. There are times when he feels like he should stop, turn back before it’s too late, before the universe can throw anything else at him. But he’s too damned curious for his own good, and he can’t bring himself to.

Luckily for Logan, the universe seems to have had its fill of tormenting him today. The path does have an end, one that he reaches without encountering any hostile entities, and what he finds at the end is more than enough to make up for the hours of walking and waiting and worrying.

It��s a city. A city with people walking casually around, completely normal people just like Logan himself, which is exciting enough on its own — but what makes this discovery go from good to great is the city itself.

Simply put, the city looks like it’s been pulled straight out of one of Logan’s favourite science fantasy novels. He sees people riding around in elegant and futuristic vehicles with sleek metal bodies and four perfectly round, perfectly uniform wheels. He sees tall, towering buildings with bright yellow or white lights flickering in their windows rather than the dim, disappointing blue glow that he’s accustomed to. And everywhere he looks, he sees people tap-tap-tapping away on these tiny little handheld devices.

A gaggle of people pushes past him, every one of them fixated on their screens. When he catches a glimpse of what’s on these screens, he doesn’t blame them for being so tuned out to the rest of the world; if he had one, he’d be fixated, too.

On every screen is something different: digital calendars and checklists, looping pictures, games, perfectly uniform writing. Some people even have their devices held up to their ear and are talking into them, showing Logan that they’re able to pick up and store audio.

What kind of world must this be, for every single person to be able to own a piece of technology like this and not think twice about it?

The answer to his own question comes to him almost immediately. “A world where science is king, and magic comes second,” Logan realises out loud.

He knew it. He knew it! Science isn’t useless — it’s not, it’s not, it’s not! And it’s not hopeless to try and pursue a future of science. The proof that it’s possible is right here, in front of him!

His excitement fuels him forwards and into the city, where he begins flitting from building to building in a manner much like the butterfly he’d been sketching earlier; mostly arbitrary, based only on whichever locations catch his fancy. This results in him zig-zagging erratically from place to place, as there’s scarcely a single storefront or skyscraper that doesn’t catch his fancy. Everywhere he looks, he sees unthinkably advanced innovations being used in perfectly natural, casual fashions. Logan’s dreamed of places like this, but never imagined actually getting to see one someday!

What’s more — in all his exploring, he doesn’t once see anyone using magic. The life of these people is completely effortless. Completely automatic.

It’s the very life he’s been dreaming of for over twenty years now.

xxx

As the sun begins to go down, so too does Logan’s stamina. Panic had brought him out of the warehouse, concern had fueled him through the forest, curiosity had led him down the path, and finally intrigue had pulled him through the city — but though the intrigue is still fresh, the burst of energy he’d gained is wearing off, and now Logan finds himself at the unhappy tail end of an exhausting day.

All those emotions! Goodness, Logan is in no way used to dealing with so many conflicting emotions in one day (indeed, he is in no way used to dealing with emotions, period). A long, long day of feeling has taken its toll on the young man.

He finds a city bench, which he trudges over to and parks himself down upon. Then, his thoughts finally settling down, Logan reflects and starts to develop some hypotheses on his current situation.

First of all, what went wrong with his invention? That seems as good a place to start as any. And he thinks that he might already have a vague idea:

As a general rule of thumb, small, inanimate objects are the easiest to transport from place to place; they’re much less demanding. Logan had tested large objects and they had gone through just fine. He’d tested small plants, with similar results. But his mistake was assuming that this was sufficient proof that his design was advanced enough to handle something as large and… well, “animate” as a human being. The fact is that his devices, despite how long he’d been working on them, were still primitive designs. Too primitive to safely teleport humans, at least. Add that to the fact that he must have already been running low on mana when he stepped in, and it’s not hard to see what went wrong. The teleportation pat created by the circles must have become unstable and broken somewhere between point A and point B, dumping Logan out and into this brave new world of his.

As to what this ‘brave new world’ actually is… now, that’s a little trickier. His best guess is that he’s ended up in some kind of sister dimension to his own. Centuries ago, Logan recalls learning, people had much more faith in the capabilities of science. Nowadays, everyone seems to assume that science was a much more ancient concept than magic, and it was then replaced when intellectuals started “proving” that magic was more reliable — but that’s not true in the slightest. In fact, the two of them started developing around the same time. One might say they were born of the same impulse, as it were: to control and shape the world to fit one’s own desires. That was what introduced science and magic into the world.

During that time, science was at its peak, whereas magic had only just begun to peek out. Over the years, the two battled for dominance. And in the end, magic came out on top and science unfortunately faded into obscurity.

Or at least, that’s what happened to Logan’s dimension. What if this world, then, had the same history up until that point, and then the two timelines… fractured? Magic was considered a foolish endeavour and was cast aside, while science stepped into the spotlight and thrived there.

So, then, it’s not only that people abstain from using magic because science is enough to sustain them. Rather, magic may have in fact been completely erased. But despite that… at its core, this dimension is remarkably similar to his own.

My own. It doesn’t feel exactly right, referring to the magical world as if it belongs to him. Logan suddenly realises that not once since getting here has he thought of that other dimension, or the things in it, as “home”.

A home ought to be a place where he feels comfortable, oughtn’t it? A place that he shares an intimate connection with. By that criteria, then, the ever-changing apartments he’s always cycling through are not his home. The dimension where everyone accepts magic and disregards science is not his home. Even his inventions — they’ve always been an attempt to make up for what he feels he lacks, and therefore artificially construct a home where there is none.

Logan gets back to his feet, leaving the bench behind, and looks around at the buildings surrounding him. At the sun still steadily dipping its way below the horizon, painting the heavens in all sorts of colour. The sight of it all fills him with a sort of serenity that he’s never known before.

Never once has Logan felt a sense of belonging, in the other dimension. Whereas here…

xxx

For some reason, much later, Logan is still walking. He is tired, yes, but his legs seem to have a mind of their own, growing restless whenever he sits still for too long. It’s as if they refuse to relax until he’s walked the length of this city, seen all that it has to offer him. So while the sky goes dark and more and more of those peculiar yellow lights appear in the windows, Logan keeps on keeping on.

Logan doesn’t know what he’s looking for until he’s already found it.

A small theatre, not at all unlike one Logan would expect to see near his old apartment(s), but for the glowing sign on the front.

EVEREST ETHEREUM, ENCHANTER EXTRAORDINAIRE, its large, bold letters loudly proclaim. Directly underneath, in text that’s a much smaller size: Today only — mind-muddling magical marvels for guys, gals, and non-binary pals of all ages!

A little tacky, perhaps, and whoever came up with the name and slogan could definitely stand to ease up on the alliteration, but the message grabs Logan’s attention all the same.

A magician, here! And one powerful enough to call themselves an enchanter to boot. Could Logan have been too quick in assuming that magic doesn’t play a role in this dimension? Perhaps it still exists, to a smaller degree. Perhaps only a select few people have magical capabilities. Perhaps Logan is jumping to conclusions again and really ought to stop doing that.

No, that last one isn’t much of a “perhaps”.

Rather than drive himself crazy with what-ifs, Logan decides to go inside and see this enchanter’s performance for himself. It’s not like he’s got anything better to do.

The inside of the theatre is… underwhelming. That’s not to say the few posters and decorations hung up aren’t nice ones — they’re just not very impressive, that’s all. There’s a very conspicuous lack of the colourful banners and red-carpetry that he’d been expecting. The only other person in the room sits behind a simple folding table, head resting on the surface of said table and the rest of his body completely swallowed up by a baggy black-and-purple hoodie. All the audience members must already be in the theatre. Still, Logan is a little put out by how empty the room is. Surely, someone as powerful as an enchanter deserves a much more handsome welcome than this.

The door swings shut behind him with a loud beep. Logan gives a start and scrambles further into the theatre. As he does, the hooded figure resting on the table looks up for the first time, revealing a young man’s tired-looking face.

Logan’s breath catches in his throat. Speaking of handsome.

The other man blinks blearily a few times before he notices Logan. His eyes (which are smudged with some kind of dark substance — at least, Logan hopes that it’s artificial and not natural bags from sleep deprivation) immediately widen as he scrambles to sit up straight, jostling a plate of cookies resting on the table. The shadows cast by the man’s large hood aren’t quite enough to hide a deep flush colouring his cheeks; Logan guesses that he must be embarrassed at having been caught asleep on the job. “Don’t worry.” Logan quickly tries to reassure the man, seeing as he already appears to have enough stress as is. “I won’t tell your boss.”

The man’s hard, jagged fear visibly softens. “I — Um — thanks.” His voice is gravelly, but not unpleasantly so. Logan thinks the quiet scratchiness is in fact strangely soothing. “I swear that’s not, like, an everyday thing, I’m just…”

Logan quirks a brow, amused. The man checks himself.

“I’m just going to stop talking now. Thanks. Sorry.” Rubbing sheepishly at the back of his neck, the man’s eyes dart away. “You’re here to see the show, right?”

Logan nods.

“Great. Tickets are twenty dollars.”

That makes Logan hesitate. “Twenty...?” What does dollars mean? It’s an unfamiliar word to Logan, who’s used to using precious stones or mana to make payments. Does the man perhaps mean sand dollars?

Then Logan notices the metal box that the man is pointing to. It’s filled with colourful pieces of paper and perfectly round metal pieces. Those must be dollars, then. Do they use paper and metal disks as payment here? That’s new.

The man in the hoodie apparently misinterprets Logan’s hesitation. “It’s actually not that expensive,” he reassures Logan. “Like, if you’ve ever tried to get tickets to, say, a Broadway show… well, heh. Let’s just say, twenty dollars is peanuts. Besides, these guys are really good magicians. You’ll never be the same once you’ve watched them perform.” He pauses. “And I’m not just saying that ‘cause they’re my boyfriends.”

If Logan wasn’t already convinced before, he certainly is now. Only problem is, he doesn’t have any dollars.

Then again…

Logan eyes the money box carefully. Many of the pieces of colourful paper are printed with a detailed design and a big number 20. That’s most likely worth twenty dollars, then. So he only needs one of those papers to get a ticket, right?

Or, alternatively, something that looks like one of those papers.

“Pardon me, but would you mind terribly if I...” As casually as he can, Logan reaches into the box and plucks out a paper.

“Hey,” protests the man, leaning forward. “What are you —”

“I promise you, I am not going to steal your dollars. I would merely like to take a good look at this for a moment, that’s all.” He turns it over in his hands, inspecting the detailed design on the front and the back, feeling its weight, even giving it a subtle sniff to confirm that it doesn’t smell of anything. He debates licking it, but something tells him that would be a bad idea.

Then he snaps his fingers, and where there was one piece of paper, there now lies two.

Creating a convincing Duplicate of an item is a difficult task in the magical world, but that’s only because people’s eyes are trained to spot little tells such as slight distortions when held up to the light, or corners and edges that are ever-so-slightly darker or lighter than the original object, or details that seem to blur when you look directly at them.

But people might be less used to spotting Dupes here, since they don’t seem to use magic as often. That’s what Logan is hoping for, at least. He’s just used up the last of his mana creating that Dupe, so it had better work.

Only one way to find out. Feigning calm, Logan hands both of the dollars back to the man with the hoodie.

Their hands briefly touch as he does so; the other man’s fingers are surprisingly soft, especially compared to Logan’s own calloused ones. As you might imagine, this doesn’t help his nerves any.

Then Logan steps back, feeling his heart rate speeding up (for more reasons than one). The man’s mouth has fallen open, and he seems dumbfounded… but he accepts the papers without question. Phew. Logan lets out a sigh of relief and feels himself relax. He’s safe. Nothing to fear.

“That’s a nifty little trick you’ve got there,” a new voice quite suddenly speaks directly into his ear, startling Logan so badly that he lets out a small scream and crashes directly into the folding table, very nearly knocking the dollar-box and plate of cookies over.

With both his tailbone and pride sorely bruised, Logan scrambles to his feet, automatically adjusting his necktie, trying to ignore the burning warmth spreading across his face and neck. So much for ‘nothing to fear’, he thinks, humiliated.

“I’m so sorry!” exclaims the newcomer, who Logan now sees is another young man. His eyes are wide behind the thin frames of his round glasses. “Oh gosh, I didn’t realise I would scare you like that. Did I sneak up on you? Are you hurt? Ah, darn. I should’ve given you some warning, or something, shouldn’t I? Are you okay?”

“I — no — well, yes, but — that is —” Unsure of which question to answer first, Logan fumbles with his words for some time before finally settling on a simple, “I am fine, thank you.”

The newcomer begins to say something else, but he is interrupted before he can get anything out. “Hang on, what do you think you’re doing?” At this, Logan turns to look at the first man, the one selling tickets, worried that he has discovered Logan’s Dupe, but he isn’t looking at Logan. Instead, his finger is pointed accusingly at the newcomer, whose bottom lip is now stuck out in a pout.

“I know, Virgil, I just missed you!” ‘Virgil?’ Ah, that must be the ticketmaster’s name. “Roman and I have been stuck all alone without you for, like, two years already!” Two years? This man has been in isolation for two years? That seems... cruel. “Plus I got hungry and wanted to come grab some cookies.”

“I thought you had cookies backstage, Patton!” the ticketmaster — Virgil — replies, sounding exasperated. (Oh. Backstage. He was exaggerating when he said two years, then, Logan corrects himself.)

Patton shuffles his feet. “Well, yeah, we did. But, uh, we… lost them?” he tries unconvincingly.

“Lost them in your stomach, huh,” deadpans Virgil.

“Hey! No!”

Virgil gives Patton a skeptical stare.

“...Maybe a little. Anyway, the cookies don’t matter!” insists Patton, quickly changing the subject. “Either way, I wanted to come see you again before the show starts. Maybe help you out here, give you less work to do. Um, but that might have backfired, I guess? You know, since I almost scared this poor fellow right out of his pants just now.” He turns to the poor fellow in question, who has been watching this exchange play out, unsure of whether he should be saying anything. “Sorry about that, by the way. I thought that trick you did was really terrific, that’s all, and I guess I got carried away.”

“Not a problem,” Logan replies briskly. “Why don’t we both… forget that whole thing ever happened, please.”

“Aw, but I was going to ask if you could teach me how to do that!” says Patton.

Logan isn’t sure how to answer that. I’m actually a magician from an alternate dimension, and that money is nothing more than an illegal illusion. No, thank you. Besides, from what he’s heard so far, Patton is going to be performing in the show he’s about to see. If that’s the case, shouldn’t he already know how to make a Duplicate? It’s a very simple spell, after all…

Luckily, he’s saved from having to come up with a response when Virgil breaks in once more. “Hey, I hate to cut this whole bonding moment short—”

“I cradled you in my arms,” giggles Patton; Virgil ignores him.

“— but I don’t think you’ve got time to learn an entirely new trick before the show starts. Seriously, you can’t be out here. You’re going onstage in fifteen minutes, tops.”

Patton sighs. “You’re right, you’re right, you’re right you’re right you’re right,” he says, though his voice is barely above a mumble.”

“What was that?” Virgil pointedly cups a hand around his ear.

“You’re right! You always are. Ever the level-headed one, aren’t you?” Patton walks around the table to embrace Virgil affectionately, pulling down the purple-and-black hood to give him a kiss on the cheek. Virgil shrugs out of the hug and shoos Patton away, babbling about showtimes and baked goods and tickets, and all the while trying to hide his wide smile behind dainty hands that aren’t nearly large enough to cover up his joy. Logan pretends not to notice.

“Enjoy the show!” is the last thing that Patton says, grinning with unabashed cheerfulness at Logan and — are his eyes deceiving him, or was that a wink? Before Logan can even process Patton’s words, the charmingly cheerful man has reached around Virgil, snagged a cookie or three, and strolled away. Logan watches him nibble at his newly acquired treat as he disappears through a large door marked BACKSTAGE.

“Don’t worry,” murmurs Logan, fighting a smile of his own. “I have no doubt that I will.”

xxx

As he watches the enchanter sweep grandly into center stage, Logan feels like he’s staring up into the sun’s glare all over again. Everest Ethereum’s regal red velvet robes are illuminated with all manner of golden sequins and sparkling trim, glittering so brilliantly in the dark theatre that Logan briefly has to lift a hand to shield his gaze for fear that he’ll go blind otherwise. His eyes adjust quickly, though, and once they do, Logan is able to look more carefully at the enchanter, Everest. Framing his face is a meticulously styled halo that’s just as red as his robes are, and he’s got a golden crown perched on his head to match the rest of his ensemble. He is, in a word, beautiful.

Moments later, Patton comes trippingly traipsing out from the other side of the stage with a large wooden box in tow. His outfit, a blue skirt-and-tuxedo combo, is significantly less flashy than Everest’s, allowing Logan to conclude that Patton must be the enchanter’s assistant.

Patton and Everest reach the center of the stage at almost exactly the same time — was that choreographed? A coincidence? Or are they just that in touch with each other? — as thunderous applause echoes through the theatre, where Logan is seated among many other eager audience members. Once the applause dies down, the performance begins. Logan leans forward in his seat, eager to catch his first glimpse of magic from this new dimension.

It only takes a few minutes for Logan to realise that there’s about as much actual magic in this so-called “magic show” as there are dolphins in the desert.

What he’s watching is decidedly not magic. There are no spells, no incantations, no nothing. It’s all simply misdirection, distracting audience attention towards one location on the stage while a sneaky sleight-of-hand takes place in another. Patton scurries around and fetches items and tells awful puns while Everest stands center stage and dramatically waves his hands around, but Logan knows that it’s nothing but an act.

He can’t decide whether he’s disappointed or impressed, or an odd mixture of the two.

Very disappointed, for obvious reasons. He’d come into the theatre hoping to find that he isn’t completely alone in his magical abilities. It’s one thing for him to say that he can survive without magic, but it’s another thing entirely to actually try it. He’ll be able to figure it out in time; that much, Logan is certain of. It just… would have been nice to have someone who could help guide him through this transition.

But then, at the same time, very impressed. Despite the letdown, Logan has to admire how clever all of the tricks are. He can’t even begin to guess how many of them work, and isn’t at all confident that he’d be able to recreate the same things with magic. The scientific dimension has yet again proven to be far more inventive and creative than the magical one, it seems.

Plus, he has to admit that though it’s not in the traditional sense, Everest is enchanting. He is nimble fingers and laughing eyes and flaming hair and words that sing as he speaks them, and he is downright bewitching, all of him.

xxx

“Alright, guys, gals, and non-binary pals!” Patton says, walking up to the front of the stage and squinting in the brightness of the stage lights. “Gosh, it is so great to see that we have such a full house today, and especially since we’re going to need to pull up an audience member for this next trick! I’m looking for one very brave soul to come on up here and lay all his cards on the table. Let’s see, how about… you there, in the front!” Patton finishes, pointing directly at Logan.

Directly at Logan.

Logan realises quite suddenly that his hand is stuck up in the air as high as it can go.

Huh.

“Come on up! Don’t be shy, now,” calls Patton merrily, undeniable kindness colouring his every word. Logan debates pretending not to hear him, but eventually decides that that would only do more harm than good, and has no choice but to get up and pick his way through the rows and rows of seats, then climb up onto the stage where the full force of the stage lights hits him so hard, it almost makes his ears ring. Logan watches recognition flicker across Patton’s face, but the blue-tuxedoed man doesn’t miss a beat. “What’s your name?”

Logan, he tries to say. The word gets caught in his throat. He coughs and tries again, awkwardly: “My name is Logan.”

Patton turns back to the audience. “Alright, everyone, give it up for Logan!” The words have scarcely left his mouth before the building starts shaking with applause and a few scattered whoops and whistles. Patton waits for the noise to die down before turning back to Logan. There’s a mischievous expression on his face that makes Logan very uneasy indeed. “You know, I didn’t quite catch you that first time. Guess your volume was too low…”

Logan blinks.

“...gan?”

Low… gan. Lo-gan.

I might scream.

It’s a tempting notion, but before Logan can act on it, Patton seems to read his expression and hurries to move on. “Alright, Logan, your job’s going to be a super simple one, okay? We’re going back to the basics with this trick. I think everyone’s seen this one performed before. All I need you to do is pick a card, any card!” So saying, Patton gestures towards Everest with a flourish; Logan watches on in amazement as Everest pulls playing card after playing card out from behind his ear, until he’s got a full deck in his hands.

The enchanter hands the deck to Patton. The audience applauds dutifully. Patton grins.

“Okay, okay, settle down now. That’s just the beginning,” he calls. Then, turning to Logan, Patton fans the cards out face-down. “Go ahead, pick one. Now look at it. Memorise what’s on there. Don’t show it to me, okay? You can show it to the audience if you’d like, but make sure that I can’t see it.”

Logan obliges, pulling out a 5 of Diamonds and showing it off. He gets the feeling that everyone knows where this trick is going except for him.

“Great. Okay, now just slide that back in here, anywhere you’d like” continues Patton, still holding the cards in the same fanned-out position. Once Logan has done so, Patton shuffles the deck thoroughly before handing it back to Everest. Logan watches as Everest performs a series of complicated hand movements, shuffling faster and faster until his hands and the cards are nothing more than a blur of colour and motion, and then all at once —

“Is this your card?”

Logan’s eyes widen. The enchanter is brandishing the same card that he pulled out! “I — yes, it is!” he announces, nodding. “How did you…”

The other half of his question is drowned out in the cacophony of clapping that follows. Both Patton and the enchanter shake Logan’s hand while Patton’s lips move. Logan can’t hear him, of course, but it’s not difficult to infer that Patton is dismissing him.

Shakily, Logan walks off the stage and returns to his seat, feeling one part alarm, one part confusion, and ninety-eight parts exhilaration.

xxx

Much too soon, the performance is over. Logan surges to his feet along with the rest of the audience as the lights go back up, applauding until the palms of his hands are red and stinging.

The crowd carries him out into the no-longer-empty lobby, where Logan leans uncomfortably against one of the red brick walls. Perhaps he’s supposed to leave the building now, but he hesitates.

He doesn’t know where he’ll go once he’s left. And there’s something else, too, Logan realises after a moment. For some reason, leaving the theatre feels like leaving behind the last trace of magic that Logan will encounter for a long time. Yes, the show was made up of clever illusion rather than actual mana, but something undeniably magical happened in there tonight and Logan doesn’t want to walk away from it just yet.

So, he doesn’t. He stands and he waits, and he watches people animatedly talking to one another as they stream out the door, cheeks flushed and eyes bright. He watches the cookies disappearing as they get snatched up into the fists of greedy toddlers and equally as greedy middle-aged men alike.

He is squinting at a young fellow’s t-shirt, trying to decide if the text on it reads Could or Couldn’t Be Gayer (he’s quite fond of the sentiment either way) when a sudden shout and the sounds of scattered applause catch his attention. Logan looks up to see the enchanter walking out the backstage door and into the lobby, Patton trailing close behind.

At the sight of the two of them, Logan is quite glad that he chose to wait around.

A group of small children run up to tug on Patton’s skirt. One of them holds up a black device larger than her own head. “Will you take a picture with us?” Logan hears her say. Patton smiles warmly.

Logan’s heart feels warm, too.

He’s about to move forward in the crowd to try and get a closer look at the pair of them when someone sidles up next to him. Logan glances over to see Virgil, still clad in his black-and-purple hoodie.

“So?”

Logan furrows his brow. “So, what?”

“What did you think of the show?” Virgil clarifies.

“Oh. Oh, it was...” Logan trails off. He’s not sure if mere words can express everything he’s feeling right now.

The silence drags on. Virgil winces. “Uh-oh. Does that mean it was bad?”

“No! Not at all. I just — argh.” Logan runs a hand through his hair, frustrated at his inability to adequately express himself.

“Take your time, buddy.”

“What I’m trying to say is, I guess… it wasn’t quite so bad.” Logan finally gets out. “In fact, it was the best time that I’ve ever had.”

The ghost of a smile flits across Virgil’s chapped lips. “That good, huh? I probably shouldn’t be surprised. Roman and Patton are just amazing, aren’t they?”

“Roman?”

“Yeah. Wait, shoot, I’m not supposed to say that.” Alarm briefly darkens Virgil’s expression, but in the next instant it’s disappeared again. Whatever mistake he just made, he appears to be too tired to care. “Ah, well, secret’s out. Yeah, that’s the enchanter’s real name.”

Logan doesn’t understand. “But the sign says —”

“Yeah, I know what the sign says, I designed it. You didn’t think he was actually named Everest Ethereum, did you?” Virgil makes an odd sound, a cross between a chuckle and a sigh. “Roman just wanted a really fancy stage name and wouldn’t leave me alone until I changed it. I mean, at least it’s not as ridiculous as ‘Sir Squiggles the Brave.’ Don’t laugh.”

Logan arches a brow. “You can’t be serious.”

“Yeah, that’s what I said when I first heard it, too.”

“Okay, I know that you aren’t insulting Sir Squiggles,” a familiar voice interrupts their discussion. Logan and Virgil look up to see Everest — no, Roman, Logan corrects himself — standing in front of them, velvet robes and all. “Especially because you named our hamster that very same thing barely a week after shooting it down for me.”

One of Roman’s arms is slung affectionately around a giggling Patton’s shoulder. He uses the other to gather Virgil up in a tight hug.

“Hey, gross, let go of me! You’re gonna get your sweat from the show all over my new hoodie, Prince Underarm-stink,” Virgil splutters, though Logan notes that he doesn’t make any actual effort to extricate himself from the embrace as he continues to complain loudly.

Roman lets go of Patton to plant a kiss directly into Virgil’s purple hair, who suddenly goes silent. “Good to see you too, My Chemically Imbalanced Romance.”

“Ugh, you are the literal worst,” Virgil tries, but the fact that he’s laughing takes away most of the insult’s sting.

Roman replies confidently, “Shut up, you love me.” And he proceeds to shut him up thoroughly with kiss after passionate kiss, until the man has been reduced to nothing more than a blushing puddle in Roman’s arms.

Logan shifts uncomfortably. He feels like he’s intruding on a very intimate moment. Apparently Patton notices, because a moment later, he grabs his shoulders and very deliberately turns Logan away from the awkward scene and towards him.

“It’s Logan, right?” Patton asks, dropping his arms. This catches Logan off-guard; he didn’t think that Patton would remember him. He nods. “Ever gone up on stage before?”

“No, never.”

“You were really brave to step up onto the stage tonight, you know. That takes guts. It’s always especially scary the first time.” Patton blows a wayward blonde curl out of his face, looking at Logan with interest. “You didn’t seem to be too worried, though.”

“Well, why would I be?” says Logan quizzically. “All I had to do was follow a few simple instructions. That’s hardly something to worry about.”

Patton looks surprised, but only for a moment. Then he starts to laugh.

Logan isn’t totally sure what he said or did that Patton finds so funny, but whatever it is, he doesn’t regret it at all. Frankly, he would be perfectly content to do nothing but listen to Patton’s bubbly laughter for the rest of his life.

“Wow. You know, it sounds so much simpler when you put it that way!” Patton tells Logan once he’s recovered enough to form words again. “Public speaking? Easy peasy, you’re just reading words off a teleprompter. Building a house? Just following the blueprints. Programming the next big social media app? Just writing a few lines of code. Painting the Mona Lisa? All you’ve gotta do is —” he’s starting to snicker again — “is — is put paint on a canvas!” And then he’s off again, laughing, laughing until he’s gasping for breath, laughing with so much joy and mirth that Logan wants to laugh too.

Because even though he doesn’t understand what the joke was or what a teleprompter or a social media app or a Mona Lisa is, he understands that Patton is carefree and smiling and it’s because of him.

How wonderful.

A minute passes, then two, before Patton is finally all laughed out. By this time, Virgil and Roman have separated and are staring at Logan so intently that Logan starts to wonder if there’s perhaps something on his face.

Fortunately, Roman speaks up then, and his words reassure Logan that nothing is wrong. “I’m impressed, specs. The necktie and button-up shirt had me thinking you were bound to be a pretty boring guy — no offense — but it looks like I misjudged you, hmm? Anyone who can make Patton laugh like that is definitely worth my time. And I don’t say that lightly.”

“Roman,” cautions Virgil. “You’re starting to sound like an entitled brat.”

“Excuse you, I am not!”

“Definitely entitled,” Logan mutters. The words come out louder than he meant them to.

Virgil’s face lights up as he pokes Roman playfully in the arm. “Ha! Hear that, Ro? Even he agrees!” He turns to Logan in approval. “You know, I like you.”

Roman huffs, putting a perfectly manicured hand to his chest. “You’re both just jealous of me.”

“Kiddos! Play nice!” It’s Patton this time, swooping in to play mediator before Virgil and Roman can take their play-fighting any further. Logan sends Patton a silent thank-you as Virgil rolls his eyes fondly.

“Okay, yep. That we are, Roman. You got us.” This seems to pacify Roman, who allows his hand to fall back down to his side. Logan is grateful for the comfortable silence that follows.

Said silence doesn’t last very long, though. After just a moment, Roman speaks up again. “Pardon me, Logan, I hope you don’t mind my asking. Where are you from?” Seeing Logan’s confusion, Roman adds, “I mean, did you move here from another country or something? Your accent, it’s one that I don’t recall ever hearing before. And trust me, I would remember if I had.”

“I… have an accent?” says Logan, unable to mask his surprise.

“It’s very subtle,” jumps in Patton reassuringly. “I didn’t even notice, actually. Roman just has a bit of a knack for these things.”

Hm. Well. Considering how Logan lived in a completely separate dimension only a few hours ago, he supposes that probably shouldn’t be that surprising to learn. He doesn’t say this out loud, of course — the three of them would definitely think him crazy if he claimed that he’d come from an alternate dimension where no one believes in science and magic is a regular, everyday kind of thing.

Instead, Logan vaguely replies, “Oh, you’ve probably never heard of the place where I come from. It’s pretty far away.” Which technically is not a lie, unless the space-time continuum works in a very different way from how he thinks it does. Before any of them can ask him for more details, Logan adds, “In fact, I’ve scarcely been in this city of yours for a full day.”

“Ooh! On vacation, are ya?” asks Patton.

“Actually… no. I’m looking to settle down somewhere here.” It’s not until the words have left his mouth that Logan realises how true they are. He doesn’t want to leave the city. “It’s been, well, challenging, adjusting to the knowledge that I’m living somewhere completely unfamiliar. Especially since it wasn’t exactly my decision. I —” He cuts himself off, unsure why he’s confiding in these near-strangers. “I’m sorry, this is probably too much information, isn’t it?”

Roman replies quickly. “No, no, don’t worry. You’re not TMI’ing.”

“I’m not… TMI’ing?”

“Yeah. Like, TMI, but used as a verb.” Roman clarifies, not very helpfully.

“What’s TMI?”

“You know, like… too much information? It’s an acronym.”

“Oh, I see.” That must be a new vocabulary word from this dimension, then. Logan grabs his notebook from out of his back pocket and scribbles that down.

Virgil squints. “Are you making a flashcard?”

“No. Yes.” Logan coughs. “Not important. Are you quite certain that I’m not, er… TMI’ing, as you say?”

“Yes, we are quite certain,” says Patton, straightening his spine and imitating Logan’s posture. He giggles. “Sorry. Go on.”

“Well, there isn’t much else to say. I wish I could tell you more, but that’s it, really. I haven’t done anything exciting yet; I haven’t yet figured out where I’m going to sleep tonight, even,” Logan admits, sliding his notebook back into his pocket. “But to be quite frank with you, sudden change is hardly a new concept for me, anyway. It’s been a while since I was able to hold onto living quarters for more than half a year at most. So you needn’t worry about me.”

The silence that follows is far from a comfortable one.

Eventually, Virgil is the first to speak. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Logan, but… from the way you just described your life in the past, it sounds like you never really felt like you fit in anywhere. And if that’s the case, then I’d honestly say that this change might be for the better. You can move on now, you know?”

“Virgil’s right,” Patton pipes up. “Why not try taking a look at what’s on the horizon, instead? Keep exploring! Don’t just tolerate change, embrace it! Get out there and meet some new people, ya know? In fact, I think you’ve already got that last one in the bag,” finishes Patton meaningfully, gesturing around at himself, Roman, and Virgil.

Roman nods, looking thoughtful. “Ah, it’s just like I always like to say: leave the past in the past, make a plan of attack. Start looking forward and stop looking back.”

“Roman, you’ve literally never said that.”

“Oh, hush, Northern Down-snore.”

Virgil sticks out his tongue.

“Ahem. Anyway. Logan, to welcome you to Florida, I’d like to offer you the best gift you could possibly get. A formality, of course, since I’m already certain that you will accept.” Roman pauses dramatically. “Would you like my phone number?”

Phone?

Logan sighs heavily. He’s getting sick and tired of hearing words he doesn’t understand.

“I beg your pardon, but I’m afraid I don’t own a… phone.”

Virgil’s mouth falls open. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” replies Logan crisply. “I’ve never made a joke in my entire life.”

“Oh. Oh, my sweet cheese pastries. In this day and age, you don’t have a phone? Seriously, where did you even come from?” Roman says, scandalised. Without waiting for an answer, he moves on. “This simply will not do. Logan, how in the name of a forest fairy’s hairy armpits do you expect to survive out here without a phone?”

“I’m… sorry?”

“No, no, don’t apologise to me.” Roman rubs his forehead. “Logan, this is unbelievable. Okay, tell you what. I always carry an extra phone around with me, just in case. I’ve decided that you will be taking that phone with you when you leave the theatre today.”

“What? Oh, no no, you don’t have to do that,” Logan protests.

“Don’t even try to argue with me, Logan. It’s an old model, but it’ll serve you well enough until you can buy a phone for yourself. And it’s already got all of our contact information in there and everything!” Roman suddenly stops. “Oh, but… I just remembered I left it at home today. Hmm. You don’t have any plans for the evening, do you?”

Logan shakes his head, dazed.

“Perfect! Everything’s coming up roses, you see? Stick around a little while, then; I just need to get out of this heavy bathrobe here and then the three of us will be heading back to our apartment. You can come with. I’ll give you my — your — phone, and then you’ll be free to go. Or,” Roman pauses and exchanges a look with Virgil and Patton, then continues, “if you don’t have anywhere else to go, you’re welcome to spend the night at our place. There’s a pullout bed in the couch. It’s not exactly a luxury mattress, but it’s comfortable enough.”

“Roman!” hisses Virgil. “You can’t just invite people into our house like that! Like, obviously I’m cool with Logan staying over, but… that’s a really creepy move, dude.” Virgil turns to Logan. “Sorry about him.”

“I don’t mind.”

“Yeah, Roman gets fired up a lot — hang on, what did you say?”

Logan shrugs. “I said, I don’t mind.” And it’s true; he doesn’t. In fact, Logan is absolutely blown away by the incredible kindness he’s just been shown. These three young men only learned about his situation moments ago, and now they’re offering him a place to stay and a ‘phone’, free of charge? It all seems almost too good to be true.

Logan opens his mouth to tell Roman something along the lines of thanks, but no thanks, but stops. His only other option, he realises, is to make the long trek back into the forest and along the path, then stumble around with no mana until he can find that abandoned warehouse again. Which sounds less than ideal. Who knows what might be hiding in the dark?

Fortunately, Patton’s voice breaks into Logan’s thoughts before his imagination can answer that question. “So?”

Logan pushes up his glasses. “You’d be willing to let me stay the night with you, just like that?”

“Absolutely,” replies Patton firmly.

“Well, if you’re certain, then…” Logan is aware that this is most likely exactly how most kidnappings begin. But then, there are far worse fates than getting kidnapped by three beautiful young men the same age as him. And he really doesn’t have much of a choice. Logan swallows his pride and nods. “Then, thank you. Thank you so much. I don’t know how I can ever repay you for this —”

“Don’t worry about it, Logan,” beams Patton. “I’m just glad you’re not going to spend your first night in Florida alone.” Virgil nods. “Seriously, it’s no sweat. You don’t need to repay us with anything.”

“We-ell…” Three sets of heads turn towards Roman as he makes a vague gesture, flourishing a long, crimson sleeve. “There is one thing.”

Logan feels his heart plummet into his shoes. Of course there’s a catch.

“Hey, don’t look at me like that!” protests Roman. “I’m not about to make you polish our bathroom with a toothbrush or anything; I’m no evil stepmother. All I ask is this: once you’ve found a place to live and gotten all settled in, you give us a call.”

As Patton gasps and Virgil’s eyes widen in understanding, Roman grins.

“Let us all take you out on a date sometime, yeah?”

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #thatsthat24 #sanders sides fic #lamp #spectral scribbles #holy cheese this was such a rollercoaster of a fic to write #hhhhhhhhhhhhh i am #not exaggerating #when i tell you that i am SHAKING #tw panic #tw negative thinking #tw food mention #tw caps lock #spec made something

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drumpfwatch · 6 years ago

Text

The Debate Soapbox

There are so many ways that the Trump Presidency has changed me as a person. One of them is by changing the dynamic of my conversations I have with other people, for better or worse.

See, I used to love debating. Talking to people and trying to reach a conclusion about the nature of the world together, that we both can agree on. Not just because I’m a confrontational person, but because I like to learn. Debate is a wonderful way to sharpen your wit, practice your improv skills, and learn new things.

To that end, whenever I would get into an argument with someone, there would be times when I couldn’t convince them. In part because these discussions would be about opinions - I’ve talked before about how politics is part fact, part opinion, and I’ve also spoken about how solutions are a thing worth talking over, and frankly I could write an entire article about how there are some things that not only don’t have answers that can be considered anything but opinion, but debating those things is actually super important.

To a degree, I still believe that. But it no longer is my primary motivation for starting a debate. I also no longer have debates with people who I know disagree with me on political issues, and the reason why is pretty simple. These people are no longer interested in debates.

They are interested in preaching.

Let’s ignore the fact that most men who argue do so to inflate their egos. Look how smart I am, intellectually eviscerating this person! That could honestly be an entire post in and of itself. And before you “Not All Men” me, I am aware that not every one of them is like that and there are plenty of women who are the same way - I used to be that way - but it is usually men and there’s something about the way society has gotten men to do it that is especially condescending. The sexism isn’t the point here, the point is something a little deeper.

When a cisgendered white heterosexual man debates about the rights of, say, transgendered people, he has no stake in it. To him, it is an abstract concept. Whether or not GSRM people get put into camps to be “reprogrammed” is more or less meaningless to them because it won’t ever affect them. They may have empathy to the situation, and may be able to put themselves in others shoes (usually because they happen to know someone who is a member of the GSRM community), but they can’t ever really know what it’s like to be in that position. And that’s what leads to the real problem.

To them, debates on politics in the arena of social justice become abstract concepts. The laws and policies they advocate for are just words on paper without real effects. It’s easy to distance yourself from people, and when the government itself is trying to get you to dehumanize those people it gets VERY easy to from arguing about this stuff from a position of ignorance to then be convinced that the “correct answer” is one that leads to pain, and even, if they’re in the right place, to turn them to hate.

At the risk of starting a fight, let’s talk about the ever-loved euphemism of States Rights. Now, I am aware that this is still something that gets used to this day to deny people rights and the what have you, so I ask any travelers from the right side of the aisle to be polite and consider the point being made here. At the end of the day, the history is true, and even if it isn’t, the situation I’m describing works to help illustrate the point I’m trying to make. Because let’s face it, I could write an entire article on any number of these tactics.

So let’s go back to the 1960s and talk about States Rights.

See, Silverwater and his ilk knew that they could garner enough support in their own states to get what they wanted within their own states. Alabamans were never going to vote for blacks to have the right to vote, partly because the people who cared were mostly the black people. Who, you know, couldn’t vote. They also used other techniques to make that happen, but the point is the only way it would happen anytime this century was if the Federal Government made it, and it was getting dangerously close to doing so.

B vaSo instead of just admitting that they’re racists and want to be racists about it, they concocted the argument of “States Rights”. The idea was that if they made it sound like they weren’t being dicks about it, the more people would pick it up. You have to make it sound intellectual, which gives people the excuse. So they went around saying that, “No, we’re not racists! We’re not racist at all! We just believe that votership is a sacred right of the states, and the federal government has no right to be sticking their fingers in the sacred state pie!”

And people bought it. People still buy it today. The effect of this is two fold. First, it shifts the conversation. The debate we’re having is “should black people be allowed to vote,” not “who has the right to decide who gets to vote.” Or at least, that’s the debate we should be having. Suddenly though, we’re not. The topic has changed. This distracts from the conversation and changes it to a discussion that you’re not necessarily prepared for.

The second effect is not on you, it’s on the one making the argument. They feel like they’re making a compelling point. Whether or not you refute the point, whether or not the point is actually relevant to the discussion, if you can’t address it they feel like they’ve won. And that, of course, leads to them using it again because it scores a point.

From there, it only gets worse. These guys who think they’re paragons of logic suddenly have what they feel is a logical reason for not being hateful - they don’t think they’re discriminatory, they think they’re just being fair.

There are a million guises this nonsense can come in. Another good example comes from the feminism section of the discourse. You’ll hear MRAs talk about how “men in the military are way more likely to die then women,” or how “Men don’t have housing shelters to protect them from spousal abuse like women do” and then use that to argue that feminism is ineffective or wrong. What they don’t realize is that, say, men die a lot more in the army then women because until recently women were actually forbidden from having combat roles, and that even accounting for the underreported statistics of woman on man spousal abuse, men are still far, FAR more likely to be the ones abusing. There also ARE shelters that cater to protecting men, but yes, not nearly as many as there should be.

Or how about gentrification? “They’re bringing in new businesses and fresh market blood to the area, why is that a bad thing? Why is that a racist thing?” This one is actually a really perfect example of this exact problem. On the surface yes, it does seem like by gentrifying a town you’re making life better for the people who live there, but the truth is far, far more complicated. I could write an entire article on it, but the two biggest problems are that the money brought in to the town by the gentrification is great, none of it really goes back into the local area. It all goes into the pockets of the companies and people “improving” the area. The second problem is that because that area of town is suddenly a lot better, the cost of living can go up, and because the cost of living can go up, the poor people who already live there are suddenly in an environment they can’t afford to live in. Oops! So the poor people are forced out of the area. And since America is a late capitalist hellscape built on racism, those poor people tend to be black. So black people are being kicked out of their homes because wealthy whites people want the space for another strip mall. And that, my friend, is racist.

But, as I’ve already established, you can be entirely ignorant to the surrounding circumstances and think that it’s not. Or you could be familiar with them, but because it was a good-for-nothing liberal who told you, you don’t believe what they have to say. Either way, the argument at this point isn’t about how to prevent racism, it’s about what racism is in the first place. And that shift is one the Nazis and White Supremacists love to take hold of.

See, it doesn’t take much to go from “Logically, it cannot be proven that I am in support of a racist decision” to then go to “These people have been deluded into thinking I am a racist, even though I am just logical.” From there, our hypothetical Logic Boy is susceptible to the infections we’ve talked about before. Those filthy gays don’t want to just be left alone like they say, they want to all the straights to die. They’re out to get you, you have to try and stop them! Here’s the evidence for that!

And then the process is like every other conspiracy, and I’ve talked about that before.

What I’m saying is that these debates? Maybe there are one or two people left who are actually interested in having them, and maybe there are people out there who seek them out to try and truly find out who’s right and wrong. But most of the people out there goading you into it are not doing it out of a philosophical interest in being morally justified.

They’re using that debate platform as a soap box to draw other people in, and by arguing back with them, you give them access to your followers. By engaging them, you validate their position as “equal” to your own. Back in my days attacking creationism, this was actually a very interesting debate in its own right I say going on. I remember when Bill Nye debated Creationist Shill Ken Ham(‘n Cheese) a lot of people were telling him not to do it because it validated Ken Ham’s position as equal to that of the scientific consensus. I was on the other side of that debate, arguing that the intellectual evisceration that Ham was sure to receive would get people away from Creationism. I also argued that while Bill is an engineer and a popularly known scientist, he is an aeronautical engineer, not an evolutionary biologist, and he doesn’t even have a doctorate. If Ken Ham can’t beat Bill Nye then he sure as hell doesn’t even deserve to debate with actual biologists. It’s been years since that day, and I don’t know how many people that’s true for - I don’t think even the people for it is tr use would know it, leaving any cult tends to be a slow process that starts with things the person doesn’t even realize opened their eyes until later - but I do know that even on Christian Creaitonist websites, it was pretty unanimous that Ken Ham’nCheese lost.

But I don’t know if I still feel that way these days. Of course, creationism is a different sort of beast then White Nationalism and the other social ills that plague our planet, but I know that for now, at least, I have no real interest in debating white supremacists. I’ll rail on their points, day and night, because they’re wrong and deserve to be railed on, but I will never give them a platform. I will never debate them. I will never give them, personally, access to my followers, and I will never say any of their points without having a refutation immediately following. You shouldn’t either.

#Wednesday Essays #by Phoenix

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worthytonki · 3 years ago

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Gideros or

GIDEROS OR HOW TO

GIDEROS OR FULL

GIDEROS OR ANDROID

GIDEROS OR SOFTWARE

GIDEROS OR ANDROID

So as a first project I'm going to translate my Android calculator apps into LUA to help me get started with the language, then re-release them on PLAY and now also iTunes. I've never done anything with physics or major animations. I've made some specialized calculators for Android, and PC based simple projects with Java in Uni. I'm a novice programmer, which mainly only experience in Java. LOVE is only PC and MOAI seems a little too much for a beginner. I have done searches and spent hours browsing similar topics. We have a lively, helpful team of Gideros experts, users and newcomers discussing the future of Gideros and games development.After searching and browsing I've come to the conclusion that LUA looks like a good language to learn for a beginner into making games. Gideros has an active, friendly community. Even more developer related documentation.

GIDEROS OR HOW TO

Gideros Wiki: The Gideros Wiki, containing a wealth of information with links to tutorials, community contributed classes and code snippets and tips and tricks on how to develop with Gideros.

Reference Guide: API information about every class, method, event, property and plugin available in Gideros with examples of how to use them.

Introduction: Everything from creating your first project and running it on device, to the basic concepts of OOP, File system and Events.

Then we create a Bitmap object with our Texture, position it at coordinates (100, 100) and add it to the stage, which is the main container for all objects that should be drawn on screen. To display an image, we first create the Texture object with its reference to an image file and an optional boolean parameter which indicates if the image should be anti-aliased. It is a fast and friendly language which is well established in the world of game development. Gideros uses Lua as its scripting language.

GIDEROS OR SOFTWARE

Well-established API Gideros is a mature software with years of development on its back and is influenced by the Flash API - as such it will be instantly familiar to seasoned developers and newcomers.

Clean OOP approach Gideros provides its own class system on top of Lua with all the basic OOP standards, enabling you to write clean and reusable code for any of your future games.

Fast development Easy learning curve, instant testing and the ability to create custom native plugins reduces development time.

Dozens of open-source plugins are already developed and ready to use: ads, in-app purchases, physics for 2d or 3d, Steam integration and many more. Import your existing (C, C++, Java or Obj-C) code, bind to Lua and interpret them directly.

Extensive plugins You can easily extend the core with plugins.

Cross-platform: Apart from supporting multiple platforms, Gideros also provides automatic screen scaling and automatic selection of proper image resolution, which makes supporting different screen resolutions, aspect ratios and universal projects an easy task.

GIDEROS OR FULL

Full development set: Get everything you need from the start, including a lightweight IDE, players for Desktop and mobile devices as well as tools to manage your assets (Texture Packer, Font Creator).Native speed: Developed on top of C/C++ and OpenGL or Metal, your game runs at native speed and fully utilizes the power of CPUs and GPUs underneath.Instant testing: While developing your game, it can be tested on a real device through Wifi in only 1 second – you don’t waste your time with an export or deploy process.It is completely free for personal and commercial projects. Free: Gideros is an open source project.Code your game once and deploy to Android, iOS, MacOS, tvOS, Windows, HTML 5 and more. It is easy to pick up, quick to develop and robust to deploy. Gideros is a cross-platform development environment for creating amazing games and interactive applications in 2D or 3D. Gideros Cross-Platform Development Environment

#Gideros or

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contradictorycrimson · 8 years ago

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theory

ok so with Hiveswap out ive been thinking about Homestuck a lot lot more. I refuse to let myself fall into the state of obsession I was once in but I had a thought and I couldn’t not share it. I was thinking about the role Zodiac signs play in Homestuck and that lead me to think about the Tarot. Where I had a realization, the 22 sburb players and the 22 major arcana have waaaaaaay too many similarities. Here’s my thought process:

John: “The Fool” not only is it the first Arcana but also John tends to know nothing as we mainly learn the rules of the universe through him. Also his character is mega centralized around comedy and practical humor, Sassacre’s text being the prime example.

Rose: “The Moon” this is due to her mysticism with dark yet benevolent forces such as the Horrorterrors as well as Grimdarkness

Dave: “The Hanged Man” the part of Dave’s classpect that makes him so powerful is his use of the Doomed Dave’s (prime example being Davesprite) existence. They can lead him in the right direction and assist him as well as harm him but they are always sentenced to death regardless.

Jade: “The World” her classpect manipulates the physical and spacial properties of the the universe, as well as her actions in minimizing the worlds of the inciphisphere and leading them to the new session.

Aradia: “Death” The role the concept of death plays in her character as well as her constant infatuation with the concept of funerals and corpses speaks enough.

Tavros: “The Chariot” so obviously Tavros uses a lance and a wheeled machine but beyond that, Tavros’ entire character development, as well as his role as a Page is based around moving forward and looking straight ahead.

Sollux: “The Lovers” a little less obvious but hear me out. Sollux’s whole character is centered around duality, and every major point of conflict for Sollux is based around failed romance, his matespritship with Aradia that lead to her death, as well as his budding moirallegience with Feferi that lead to her death, and his (½) death.

Karkat: “The Emperor” Karkat makes a very clear point in being the leader of the situation, his rancorous nature, as well as his strife specibus being sicklekind also speak to this.

Nepeta: “The Hermit” Nepeta often keeps herself isolated due to Equius’ wishes, she even lives in a cave.

Kanaya: “The Sun” this is due to her relationship with the green sun as a rainbow drinker as well as her being the only troll to ever enjoy sunlight.

Terezi: “Justice” I find this one is fairly obvious from her introduction scene with the scalemate trial as well as her confrontation with Vriska.

Vriska: “The Wheel of Fortune” her powers and her weapon both rely on her good fortune. Her strife specibus revolves around the idea of rolling a dice, or alternatively, spinning a wheel

Equius: “Strength” Not only is there the obvious implication in his muscles, but Equius always has infatuation with the strength of others, as to why he despises many lowbloods and refuses to lay a hand on highbloods.

Eridan: “The Magician” From the first moment we see Eridan he constantly refers to his hobby with magic, his strife specibus for a period of time is wandkind, and even though he states he doesn’t believe in magic, he also is known to state many other things about himself that are clearly denial. The part he plays as an angel slayer also brings black magic to mind.

Feferi: “The High Priestess” Originally I believed Feferi was the Empress but with more thought I find that role goes better toward another player. Feferi, although royal, never rules, instead she heals all, not just the royally blooded.

Jane: “The Empress” Her assosciation with the “batterwitch” and The Condensce, the real Empress of Alternia, is enough to speak to Jane being represented by the Empress Arcana.

Roxy: “Temperance” Her entire arc around recovering from alcoholism.

Dirk: “The Tower” His early character revolves around being hard to approach and distant from the rest of the group.

Jake: “The Hierophant” His intrigue with ancient ruins and treasure. His whole reputation as an adventurer really.

Calliope: “The Star” Kind and bright she supports the Alpha kids from afar and spreads positivity.

Caliborn: “Judgement” Lord English plays the role of a god-like figure, administering what ever it wants to do and believes it should.

Thoughts? It seems too damn convenient for it to just be a coincidence.

EDIT: oops, forgot, Gamzee is the Devil Arcana for obvious reasons

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realmonstersrp · 7 years ago

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❛ fear makes you the puppet of your enemies.

INTRODUCING LIM YUNSEO, OUR NEWEST STUDENT WITH THE POWER OF THREAD MANIPULATION.

WELCOME TO GUMI INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL FOR THE POWERED.

WHO ARE THEY?

PERSONALITY

(+) decisive, versatile, perceptive (–) sly, fickle, indulgent

BACKGROUND

i. there’s always a certain type of burden on the first-born’s shoulders. for yunseo, it’s nothing too dramatic except for growing up a little faster than her peers. her parents were busy enough keeping up appearances that they could afford to live where they did. it’s not until she starts school that their finances settle. in the words she overhead her mother whisper to her father: “we made it.” yunseo isn’t quite sure what “making” it entails, but she does appreciate the increase in things, even if her parents still aren’t around much.

ii. mundane is the first real vocab word she learns at age eight that makes her feel fancy, and it’s the perfect word to describe her life. after school, the babysitter picks her up and puts her to bed; in the morning, she sees her parents for breakfast. on weekends, her parents cram as much enrichment into the waking hours as possible, as if to make up for lost time (she appreciates this, for what it’s worth). life-changing is the afternoon when her parents come through the door with a little bundle swathed in pastel pink. she’d understood the concept of getting a younger sibling, but she wasn’t prepared for how fast she’d fall in love with this stranger that her parents had brought home. gaeun, is her name.

iii. as the eldest in her family with parents who were never there, she learns to internalize a lot. that, combined with the self-imposed responsibility of a sibling seven years younger than herself makes yunseo one that watches first, and moves second. she’s people-watched all of her life (her parents, her sibling, her teachers, her peers), only now it’s more than just a hobby. it’s a legitimate way to approach life, and she learns about how people think and react–it’s fascinating.

iv. she’s fourteen when she yawns, raising her hands up for a stretch, and accidentally tugs a ceiling tile down in the middle of class when she sets her hands back down. oops. did i do that? the first time she really sits down to practice, she uses one of gaeun’s old dolls. after a few hours, she figures out how to form the threads, and after another two, she has the doll running alongside her as she speeds out into the living room to show her family what she can do. close friends tell her that she’s lucky her powers aren’t flashy, since there’s still a lot of people who still don’t like mutants (the word is said with such disdain, she doesn’t understand). she supposes they’re right, so she learns to practice where no one can see, to craft in secret. her first marionette is just a pet project, until it really isn’t.

v. at eighteen she’s accepted into a regular university; her parents are very proud. yunseo is normal enough to potentially pass her whole life through without exposing herself, but not normal enough where it feels like she’s not living some half-concocted lie. it’s not too long before she’s supposed to start at university when she discovers gumi. soon after–she gets to work. when this second marionette she works on approaches its final state, gaeun looks at it confusedly, and says he looks like death. yunseo takes a step back, and has to agree. jugeum sticks, and yunseo belatedly wonders why her sister wasn’t terrified right away. maybe it runs in the family

vi. she sees the things that the other students can do. being here is like being in a dream–where the abilities are unimaginable, the feats fantastical, and the sheer power contained in one area absolutely overwhelming. in her first week during her first year at gumi, she really doubts herself, that she’s meant to last. she’s caught in a brief period of limbo. not normal enough, but also not…mutant, enough? it’s a weird feeling to put into words, but she’s unsure of whether she should be here until she meets the right people. then–yunseo quickly realizes that there’s a place for her in jaeger, and sooner rather than later, people learn to not underestimate her.

WHAT CAN THEY DO?

at its core, thread manipulationis the ability to create and manipulate thin and flexible threads that have the ability to attach to other items. yunseo creates threads through her fingertips. the threads that yunseo produces are dissimilar to man-made threads, but closer to spider silk as they are a type of protein fiber formed naturally by the user.

in particular, she uses her threads to control a humanoid marionette that she’s spent years crafting. the likeness of the marionette itself is non-specific, but uniquely terrifying in that it has all the correct limbs, but they are skeletal in shape and just the slightest out of proportion, making the marionette stand close to 2.5 meters tall (about 8’).

the main part of its body is draped in various layers of loose, black and grey fabric, worn from years of battery. the face, though usually covered over with the same fabric, is a grotesque patchwork of various horror movie influences (a right eye shape from here, a half smile style from there). made of mostly metal with some laminate wood additions, it is quite heavy and requires eleven threads across both hands to control: two threads on each hands’ thumb & index [8], one on each hand’s middle finger [2], and the right hand’s ring finger [1]; totaling to 11.

at one point, her little sister likened the marionette to death itself, and thus the nickname jugeum has been used to address it (also because yunseo hadn’t thought of a better name since).

jugeum, controlled through the threads, fights in yunseo’s stead utilizing the brute force of its limbs. the figure itself is also used as an intimidation factor due to its unsettling appearance and height, but there are also two short blades attached to either side of jugeum to use as weapons in some battle scenarios. yunseo oftentimes uses jugeum in a combination of offensive and defensive maneuvers as extended periods of time in offense drains her stamina very quickly.

WEAKNESSES

conception: she can control the direction in which the threads move to attach to particular item when they’re created, but during the attachment process the item(s) have to be within a distance of about 2 meters or else the threads will not be able to attach properly.

usage: the threads can, in theory, attach to most things (especially if they are inanimate), but if yunseo does not have enough experience with the item itself, actually moving or controlling the item is difficult. for example, grabbing a pencil from a desk would be easy, but attaching to a person and pulling them from point a to point b would be almost impossible. this is because a lot of factors go into play: how many strings are needed depending on how heavy it is, where to best attach the threads to ensure that the item is securely attached and adequately supported, what finger movements are needed to move it this or that way, etc. this is why she defaults to jugeum as she has years of practice with it.

limitations: currently, each fingertip can form two threads, and both hands are viable to create and manipulate the threads. in total yunseo can create 20 threads, but the more threads used at a time generally means less fine movement control. full movement of jugeum requires 11 threads across both hands.

detachment: she can detach the threads at will, but yunseo tries not to unless absolutely necessary because there is a limit to how many times she can re-form her threads. within a hour each finger can regenerate another thread twice, making a total of three formations (1 initial, 2 reformations).

physical: although the threads are quite sturdy and flexible, they are still capable of being cut and tangled if someone can pinpoint where exactly they are (they are thin, but not impossible to see, especially if one knows what her abilities are).

time limit: simple things like making her marionette move its limbs or walk allow yunseo to use her ability consistently for close to three hours (ex: it walking behind her when going from point a to point b). faster or more demanding movement like running or defensive maneuvers (blocking, recon, etc) net almost two hours, but faster movements such as actual offensive fighting/hand to hand combat drain her stamina much faster, allowing up to 40 minutes. the best tactic is to use a combination of all of these movements in order to prolong ability usage.

range: the threads can be manipulated comfortably from 5 meters away (about 16 feet), but yunseo prefers to control jugeum from about 3 meters away. too far of a distance brings other factors into the mix such as the threads tangling whenever they’re slack, or other people/items coming through the space between yunseo and jugeum and disrupting the connection.

repercussions: overexertion not only brings physical fatigue but also numbness and stiffness in her fingers, and a sharp pain in her wrists.

DID YOU KNOW?

she’s really good at giving haircuts. like, no joke. a trim, bangs, layers? yunseo’s your girl.

#rmaccepted #chungha #jaeger

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haleyjena · 3 years ago

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Java Coding Bootcamp Guide: Curriculum, Job Options and Salary

Java has shown tremendous growth over the years. Considered a language for back-end development, it slowly reigned in many areas, including web app development, Embedded Systems, IoT, big data, and machine learning/AI.

Java is an omnipresent technology, which is proved by the fact that millions of devices still run-on Java. Today, hundreds of programming languages exist, but Java still tops the charts.

It is at the third position in the Tiobe index of popular programming languages globally. And to add to that, its developer community is one of the largest in the world. The simplicity, ease of use, flexibility, and support that Java offers make it a sought-after language to develop software for a wide range of network devices and embedded systems.

There are numerous benefits of learning Java coding. Some of them are mentioned below.

Java is a versatile language with features such as dynamic coding network-centric designing, making it suitable for web, mobile, and desktop.

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Java has excellent documentation support.

Java has powerful developmental tools such as NetBeans, Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA

Java is available free of charge as it comes under the Oracle Binary Code License (BCL)

Learning Java is pretty simple as there are numerous paths for learning it. You can choose to learn online through free tutorials or join a Java training.

What is A Coding Bootcamp?A coding bootcamp is a fast-tracked training program aimed to teach technical skills within a short span. Unlike the degree programs, which can extend up to 4 years, these are short and follow a student-centered pedagogy. They aim to develop a deeper understanding of the technical concepts through projects and real-time coding. As they are focused on making students employable, they teach skills most sought-after in the industry. A coding bootcamp investment can set you up for a rewarding IT career.SynergisticIT’s Java Coding BootcampJava Bootcamp is a program where students are taught Java skills, helping them start a career in Java programming and related fields. SynergisticIT’s Java bootcamp is the best investment you can make to learn Java coding in 4-6 months. You can apply for the coding bootcamp, and after scrutinizing your application, you will be selected. In each batch, 3-7 students are enrolled.

Curriculum

Java Training in Indianapolis

is designed for aspiring web developers, programmers, software developers, helping them enhance their Java knowledge. It teaches Java programming from scratch, making it suitable for beginners as well as experienced programmers.

Experienced trainers impart the curriculum through live lectures and real-life examples to allow a deep understanding of the core and advanced Java skills. The topics covered in the Java bootcamp are:

Introduction to Java & Oops

Servlet

JSP

JQuery

Hibernate

Spring

Microservices

JavaScript

Jobs Options And SalaryJunior ProgrammerAfter completing the Java coding bootcamp, you can begin with a junior programmer position. They are responsible for the coding, debugging, and technical documentation. The average salary of a junior programmer is $54,229 in the US.Senior ProgrammerThe senior programmer role is for those who have some experience in programming. They help develop, define, analyze, test, and maintain software applications and mentor junior programmers. Senior programmers make $101,063 per year in the US.Back-end DeveloperJava is the backbone of back-end development. Back-end developers code for database, application, and web servers and write web services and APIs for front-end and mobile app developers. Back-end developers earn $115,369 per year in the US.Java ArchitectJava Architects develop software architecture for Java applications, helping organizations solve business problems. They identify problems and offer design solutions accordingly. A Java architect can earn around $119,957 per year in the USA.Embedded Systems EngineerAfter completing the Java training in Indianapolis, you can also work as an embedded systems engineer, where you will develop, design, and maintain embedded systems in the product. On average, embedded systems engineers earn $90,854 per year in the US.

So, you can see how rich your profile would be after learning Java. You can find jobs in multiple industries. Whether you want to create a mobile e-commerce app, advanced software application, or enterprise Cloud communications platform, Java can help you do it.Is It Worth Learning Java?Companies constantly look for Java professionals who can support their existing systems in Java. There are millions of devices across the world that use Java, and many applications have a dependency on it. So, learning Java coding is definitely a safe bet if you want a stable career.

Java is one of the top-paying occupations globally, with starting average salary of $105,801 for Java developers. So, it’s a path towards high-paying jobs too. Most top companies, including Google, Airbnb, Facebook, Uber, Netflix, Pinterest, Instagram, Spotify, Amazon, still heavily use Java. So, in terms of growth and promotions, too, you get an edge with Java.

Source: https://javabootcampinindianapolis.blogspot.com/2022/02/java-coding-bootcamp-guide-curriculum-job-options-and-salary.html

#Java coding #Java training #Java Training in Indianapolis

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eleganttrainingcenter · 4 years ago

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Best C++ Course Provided by Elegant Training Center

Programming in C is fairly easy because it uses basic commands in English. However C is a compiled language so after you type your commands, in order to execute your program, you need to run it through a compiler to transform the human-readable form into machine-readable language. There are many C compilers available today. If you are a student working on a university UNIX computer, you can use the compiler for free. Otherwise, you can purchase Microsoft’s Visual C++ environment, which compiles both C and C++ programs. In addition, there are some free compilers you can use over the Web.

Best C++ Course is the extended version of the C programming language. This object-oriented coding language offers a clearer understanding of various programs and helps develop high-performance applications that can be used on multiple platforms. Plus, it contains various advanced features and improvements, making it a better option for object-oriented programming.

If you are new to programming or have limited knowledge of coding and C++, then you must check out the below-listed C++ courses. They are perfect for gaining practical experience and building a strong foundation in the field.

This Best C++ Course is ideal for aspiring C++ developers who are well-versed with the basic concepts of programming language. You can gain proficiency in object-oriented programming and build advanced skills with the project-driven learning approach. It allows the students to try their hands on real, self-paced C++ projects and develop their portfolios. The projects can be completed according to your convenience and schedule.

This certification program offers intermediate knowledge to learners through 5 different courses :

1.Memory Management

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superspectsuniverse · 4 years ago

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Importance of object oriented programming in PHP

Object orientating is associate degree approach to software system development that models application around universe objects like workers, cars, bank accounts, etc. a category defines the properties and strategies of a true world object. Associate degree object is an incident of a category.

The 3 basic elements of object orientation are;

Object orientating analysis – practicality of the system

Object orientating coming up with – design of the system

Object orientating programming – implementation of the applying

Object-oriented programming is nothing however a method to style your application. Associate degree application might be any kind adore it might be a web-based application. OOP may be a style thought in object-oriented programming, everything are round the objects and sophistication.

OOP in PHP you’ll produce a standard internet application.

OOP in PHP we are able to perform any activity within the object model structure.

There square measure several edges of victimisation oops over the parallel or procedural programming, a number of them being:

There square measure varied blessings of victimisation OOP over procedural or parallel programming. The subsequent square measure a number of the fundamental blessings of victimisation oops techniques.

Re-Usability of your code: If you’ll use the OOPs technique for making your application then it’ll offer you a bigger re-usability. For instance, if you have got created a calculator category in one place then you’ll use constant calculator category in your application.

Easy to Maintain: Application develop victimization oops technique square measure easier to take care of than traditional programming. Once more allow us to take associate degree example of your interest calculator category. Suppose your business have to be compelled to modification the calculation logic. They require to feature some charges if your capital is a smaller amount than two hundred USD. Simply rely on your application is huge and developed victimization traditional programming techniques. Thus initial you have got to analyze that at what percentage places we’ve got calculated interest, then you’ll modification. However simply consider the oops technique. You simply have to be compelled to modification your methodology of interest calculation in one place.

Good Level of Abstraction: Abstraction means that creating one thing hidden. By victimization the OOP technique you’re abstracting your business logic from implementation. It’ll offer you bigger ease. Once more allow us to take associate degree example of associate degree interest calculator. If you have got created {a category category} for interest calculation and your team goes to use that class. Currently you’re solely concern regarding however interest calculation are performed as a result of you have got created that. Your team member is usually have understood that if they’ll set rate and capital property and apply the interest calculation methodology then it’ll come back interest.

Molecularity: If you’re making a separate category for your each drawback then you’re creating it http://modular. So if somebody has to modification within the business logic half then he can invariably move to your business logic code half.

Now if you’re clear with the thought of sophistication, object in oops and its blessings. Great!!! It’s time to manoeuvre over the implementation of oops in PHP.

Encapsulation – this can be involved with concealing the implementation details and solely exposing the strategies. the most purpose of encapsulation is to;

Reduce software system development complexness – by concealing the implementation details and solely exposing the operations, employing a category becomes simple.

Protect the interior state of associate degree object – access to the category variables is via strategies like get and set, this makes the category versatile and simple to take care of.

The internal implementation of the category are often modified without concern regarding breaking the code that uses the category.

Inheritance – this can be involved with the link between categories. The link takes the shape of a parent and kid. The kid uses the strategies outlined within the parent category. the most purpose of inheritance is;

Re-usability– variety of kids, will inherit from constant parent. This can be terribly helpful once we ought to offer common practicality like adding, change and deleting information from the info.

Polymorphism – this can be involved with having one type however many alternative implementation ways that. the most purpose of polymorphism is;

Simplify maintaining applications and creating them a lot of long.

Unified Modelling Language UML may be a technique wont to style and document object orientating systems.

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tohealthandback · 4 years ago

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‘To Health and Back’ — Episode 1 Transcript

Madeline Laguaite: Hello and welcome to “To Health and Back,” a podcast about how health, medicine, and wellness decisions from the past help inform us today. I’m your host, Madeline Laguaite.

Laguaite: In this episode, we’re talking about early pandemics and epidemics, and what some of those earlier outbreaks can teach us today. We’ll hear from Dr. Nan McMurry, the director for collection development at the University of Georgia libraries. She earned a doctorate in the history of medicine and teaches in the UGA History Department on a part-time basis.

Laguaite: So I actually met Dr. McMurry through a class I took with her during my undergraduate career here at the University of Georgia. It was called the history of medicine. And in truth, the material we covered in that class and Dr. McMurry herself inspired this podcast, so I thought she would be the perfect first-ever guest to talk for this episode about earlier outbreaks and how they can relate to the pandemic we’re living through.

Laguaite: From the Black Death in the 1300s, to outbreaks of cholera in the 1800s, to the current COVID-19 pandemic today, experts that study the history of medicine say the one thing that doesn’t change is human nature. Here to talk about that human nature with us is Dr. Nan McMurry. Hi, Dr. McMurry, and welcome to the show.

Dr. Nan McMurry: Hey, how are you?

Laguaite: I’m good. How are you?

McMurry: I’m good, too. It’s been a long time.

Laguaite: I know, I know.

McMurry: So I’m Nan McMurry and I have kind of an unusual job at UGA. My primary responsibility is in the university libraries, and I’m the director for collection development and collection development is the part most people have never heard of. It’s the part of the library where we choose the materials we’re going to have in the collection, so books or journals or databases. There are real human beings who do that, not robots. And so we have a team of people, and I’m the head of that team. But I also work directly with certain subjects.

McMurry: And then because I have this academic background, where my doctorate is specifically in the history of medicine, I’ve been able to teach on kind of part-time basis in the history department. So that’s how my class that you took came about.

Laguaite: OK, awesome.

McMurry: You might think that somebody like me would really find living through a pandemic now really— I mean, I find it interesting, but I don’t find it fun. You know, it’s kind of a little lesson that I learned, ooh, this isn’t so good to be in the middle of it.

Laguaite: OK, so you’ve studied all sorts of earlier outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics. What are some of the things that stand out to you most, especially with regard to human nature?

McMurry: You know, our medicine and our public health and the knowledge and the technology have changed a lot, but the human nature? Mmm mm. That’s been really striking to me watching this pandemic unfold is just how little we’ve changed in our attitudes, and our fears. We tend to think, ‘Oh, we’re so invincible with their science.’ But when you have a new disease, that medicine and science are not as effective against or not as effective right away, then all those old attitudes come right, right out of the woodwork.

McMurry: Here’s a historical example. It’s so easy when you look back in the past to say, ‘Oh, yeah, that was so dumb.’ And yet we do it all the time. So there’s a particular smallpox epidemic that happened in 1721 in Boston, and smallpox came in onboard a ship. And the captain of the ship steered the ship away from the docks and onto an island where it could be isolated with this person who had smallpox. But then there were other sailors on board who said, ‘I’m not sick. Oh, you know, I’ve been at sea a long time and I want to have some fun.’ So they sneak rides on little boats into town, and party it up and mingle and all that, and then they go back to their ship, and oops, then they come down with smallpox. So that’s how smallpox got into the city and caused a horrible epidemic. And it’s that kind of thing where people are just thinking about, ‘Well, what do I want?’

Laguaite: Dr. McMurry said there are plenty of striking similarities to earlier outbreaks and the COVID-19 pandemic that come to mind.

McMurry: Well, let’s pick a cholera epidemic, for example.

Laguaite: OK.

McMurry: So when cholera was ravaging Europe, in England in 1832, Americans knew about it because there were newspapers and they were aware of what was happening, but there was kind of a complacency like, ‘Oh, we have the big ocean between us.’ There were two kinds of complacency, so ‘the ocean will save us.’ And then the other complacency was, ‘Well, cholera is just a disease that affects poor people, and we’re Americans and we don’t really have we don’t have those kind of masses of poor peasants and city dwellers. We have sturdy, American farmers.’ American exceptionalism, basically another form of that.

Laguaite: OK.

McMurry: And so a lot of people thought even if cholera made it across the ocean, it wouldn’t be a problem, because Americans would just fight it off. And I think we had not exactly that attitude, but I think we were a little too complacent about the excellence of our public health, that— because you remember all that, ‘Oh, it won’t come here. Oh, it won’t make many people sick. Oh, it won’t be a big problem.’ There was a lot of dismissive—and not so much among our public health officials, but among some other people—that it wouldn’t be a problem. And it turned out to be a terrible problem, and we lost the opportunity to get on top of it early.

Laguaite: The way in which authorities communicate risk is similar to whether it’s a natural disaster like a flood or a pandemic, the central concepts of risk communication are present throughout history.

McMurry: A parallel that kind of cuts through all epidemics is, the first thing your authorities will tell you is there’s nothing to worry about, sort of every time. And sometimes newspapers or the news media will suppress it as well, sometimes not. Sometimes they’re right out there, investigating and revealing but smallpox epidemics, yellow fever epidemics, even the plague, where they tried to be communicative with each of the towns and say, ‘Oh, there’s plague. It’s coming.’ Usually, you tried to keep it a secret until it was sort of impossible to keep a secret, then you’d admit ‘Oh, yeah, by the way, we’ve got plague.’

Laguaite: But why try to keep things quiet?

McMurry: There’s several reasons communities do that. And one is just leaders always assume that people will panic if they’re told the truth, and maybe they would. But when they’re not told the truth, all kinds of other things go wrong. So you know, I don’t know what the answer to that is. But it’s particularly disheartening to be told there’s nothing to worry about. And then any choices you might have made at that stage—if you had been told there was something to worry about—aren’t available to you anymore.

McMurry: But the other reason, at least in the past, that leaders and news media, will try to keep it quiet, it was because of the economic impact. So as soon as you admit you’ve got a deadly disease in your midst, well, a bunch of people are going to leave town, first of all. And who can afford to leave town? Wealthier people who run the businesses. If they all go, then the people who are left not only are having to face a disease, but they don’t have any way to make a living. So you know, it was terribly disruptive to cities to communities. But also, as soon as everybody else gets wind that you’ve got a disease, nobody’s going to do business with you. You sort of cut yourself off or somebody else cuts you off. But that would be another reason for trying to keep it quiet.

Laguaite: Who people should turn to for advice during a public health crisis is another long-standing debate and an issue that was relevant centuries ago.

McMurry: This is another smallpox connection. So in the 1700s... I mean, the normal response to an unfamiliar or just any disease, a scary disease is, is to run away if you can. That’s a very common thing or to or to try to avoid it anyway, shut yourself in your house or shelter at home, all those things we’re familiar with. But in the 1700s, they came up with a treatment that was called inoculation. I mean, it’s kind of confusing, because we use that word today. But what they meant back then was actually giving somebody a real case of smallpox, not a safe virus or anything.

Laguaite: Got it.

McMurry: But the idea was they had seen that some cases of smallpox really were mild and you weren’t very sick, and then you were immune for the rest of your life. So some people thought if they could figure out a way to control it so that you got a mild case, it was a risk that—it wasn’t perfectly safe—but it was a risk worth taking. And of course, this provoked a huge debate because you were giving people something that could kill them. So all of that just to say, a feature of the debate was who really ought to be the authority to speak on this.

McMurry: And I think that’s something we’ve seen over and over again with COVID. It’s interesting, in the case of the smallpox epidemic, it was actually the ministers, the religious figures and leaders of the time that were saying, ‘Let’s try this new technique.’ And it was the doctors who were saying, ‘No, that’s dangerous.’ Which is exactly opposite of what you would expect. But in today’s world, we’ve seen a lot of that where we have scientists who know what they’re talking about. They don’t know everything, and they have to revise what they say, but they sure know a lot more than I do.

McMurry: But who are we listening to? We’re listening to politicians who feel perfectly free to say whatever they like and to think that they are well informed. Why do they think that? Or celebrities, there’s so much celebrity culture. ‘I’m going to do what my favorite movie star does.’ So that whole question of whom should you listen to?

Laguaite: Even the concept of quarantining—a concept I wasn’t really familiar with until I had to quarantine for 10 days during the novel coronavirus pandemic—has been used as a preventative measure since the 14th century, with the spread of black death.

McMurry: Yeah, so so that’s a really interesting point because I remember reading back last summer, somebody was complaining about our public health response. And they said, ‘It’s just been so medieval.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, don’t be so...’ you know, because it’s really during the Middle Ages that a lot of our public health—the things we do for public health, even today. We’ve evolved a lot, but those basic ideas of yeah, quarantine. And that’s not to say that those things weren’t ever done before. But it’s really the experience with the plague that sort of cements it in places. This is the way you try to keep your community safe.

Laguaite: That’s not to say that quarantining in the Middle Ages is the same process as today. Still, the general principles are there.

McMurry: You know, the first thing you would try to do was find out if plague was headed your way. And so some communities like like Venice is a really good example would basically send out spies, because Venice was sort of a... we think of it as a city, but in that time, it was it was a big city state that spread over a big region, almost like a country. And so the Venetians, they have this trading empire, and they were always on the alert for, and they’re also kind of on the frontier with the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Emperor Empire to the north. And at least the Venetians thought that those two empires were really slack about keeping the plague away. So they sent their own agents or often merchants to say, ‘Keep your ear to the ground. If you hear about anything, we got to know about it.’

McMurry: So they were very vigilant about where plague might come from and about setting up border crossings and making ships quarantine in the harbor. They had all kinds of things they could do. So they would also do things with travelers. They had things that you can think of as health passes. If you were a traveler, it’s kind of like having a COVID test today: ‘Look, see? I’m negative. I’m safe.’ They would just have some kind of document that you could carry with you if you’re traveling during plague times and say, ‘It’s OK, I’m safe. You can let me in your town.’

Laguaite: But what if all of those preventative measures fail?

McMurry: If all that failed, and it often did, and you get a plague outbreak in your own town, well, the first thing they would try to do is isolate people in their homes. So that’s another kind of quarantine. And so when we say that we generally mean... I mean the myth about it is, ‘Oh, people were shut up and locked in and left to starve.’ Well, no, it just meant they tried to keep you from coming out of your house. But you could still have somebody bring food to you or that kind of thing. And sometimes people sneaked out anyway.

McMurry: It was a good idea, except that the plague is really being spread via the rats and the fleas. So even if you keep the people apart, the disease tends to still spread. If keeping people in their homes wasn’t doing it, then the next thing they would often do when they got just too many victims all over the town, then the next thing you would do would be, try to put up a plague hospital and isolate people there. Partly from the standpoint of, ‘Well, we can care for people better if they’re all together,’ but also from the standpoint of, ‘Let’s put them all together where they can’t spread it to the rest of us.’ And that tended to be more people who were poor or otherwise powerless. If you were wealthy and you lived in your big mansion, they probably weren’t going to drag you away to a plague hospital, you got to stay home. But yeah, so they had a lot of things that they would try to do. And there was the same kinds of turmoil over like, say they do want to, ‘Let’s start a hospital for these people,’ then there would be, ‘Well, not in my neighborhood. Not in my backyard. You can’t use this building.’ There’s that same kind of conflict that we see today.

Laguaite: While many people usually look down upon past health measures, she said we can and should look at our own current public health system through an equally harsh lens.

McMurry: And when we say, ‘Oh, yeah, but those things didn’t work because they kept having plague outbreaks.’ Well, yes. But then you can’t measure the epidemics that didn’t happen. You can’t say those didn’t happen because of the quarantines. You just don’t know. It’s just always interesting to me that we’re really quick to criticize people in the past and say, ‘Well, they had quarantines but they didn’t work at all,’ and seeing that as a failure of public health. We’ve got a COVID pandemic all over the world. Does that mean our public health efforts are totally useless and misguided? No.

Laguaite: Even though the outbreaks, epidemics, and pandemics we’ve been talking about happened centuries ago, Dr. McMurry said there are many lessons we can take from them.

McMurry: [We need] to think really, really, really carefully about the kind of communications that are done. I know I know people can react in really crazy ways. I mean, people who are going to react in crazy ways are going to do that anyway. And there are other people who are really concerned and intelligent and conscientious. How about tell them?

McMurry: And I think it’s also really hard for people to understand that an epidemic is always an evolving thing. And so you’re told one thing today and something different tomorrow. Well, sometimes that’s because people have been trying to withhold information, but sometimes it because they just don’t know. They’re doing the best they can at any point along the spectrum. If leaders would communicate better with the rest of us, and if we would understand that they don’t know everything, and the situation is going to change and have some patience and compassion about that... It’s just so hard.

McMurry: And I think another thing would be—this cuts across way more than just medicine—trying to be prepared for bad things to happen. Because if you go a long time with no bad things happening, you tend to get complacent, and nobody wants to spend money on something that might not happen. So natural disasters, we could be better prepared for that. We can’t always predict them or prevent them, but we could be better prepared to manage them. Same thing with a disease outbreak, it’s a kind of natural disaster, but it’s sort of a different kind. Some of the sorts of public health infrastructure that we’ve had in the past that cost money to be well prepared. Don’t let that go away. That’s worth spending money on, and try to educate people to say that, if we don’t have an outbreak of disease, that doesn’t mean that somebody was just trying to scare you. It means that your public health worked, and value that instead of just saying, ‘Oh, we put all that tax money into something that never happened. Well, yeah, that’s exactly what you want to happen.’

Laguaite: During the COVID-19 pandemic, xenophobia and blatant discrimination toward Asian Americans in the U.S. was a huge issue. In fact, we have an upcoming episode specifically on xenophobia that we’ve seen in the U.S. this past year. But as it turns out, that was an issue in the past too, and it’s one of the most valuable lessons we can apply to today’s pandemic.

McMurry: Well, you know, I guess another thing would be try to avoid blaming people for— because you were talking about discrimination against Asians for this. You know, using ugly words like the ‘China virus.’ Nobody can help where it comes from.

McMurry: So like with yellow fever, because most people who had it who lived in the South in the 1800s, in, at least in these cities, where yellow fever would tend to occur, would often have had... And this is another parallel with COVID. A bad case of yellow fever has really striking symptoms. But a mild case of yellow fever is no different from any little flu kind of bug with a fever and aches and pains, but then you get over it in a couple days. And you have immunity after that. So a lot of people were immune without even knowing it or thought that their protection derived from living in a particular place for a long time. They didn’t know about viruses, and they didn’t really know about immunity, but they knew if you had grown up in someplace like New Orleans, you weren’t likely to get yellow fever.

McMurry: So what that meant was that they would blame it—they would call it a stranger’s disease—and they would blame it on immigrants, or anybody who had lived there a long time. You know, these people are saying, ‘We would be fine if we didn’t have all these extra people coming in among us,’ and so I mean, that was a reality in the sense that people who had never been exposed to yellow fever before are more likely to get it. But it wasn’t their fault, and they didn’t bring it on purpose. So that kind of thing is very discouraging when you see that still happening today.

Laguaite: Dr. McMurry said another critical lesson we need to consider is being aware of how outbreaks and pandemics like the COVID-19 pandemic affect different populations disproportionately.

McMurry: If we could be more aware and sympathetic to how epidemics affect different parts of the population... That’s been brought home to us and that people who are frontline workers and often people of color are in that category. If a new disease is affecting them more, well, respond to that. It’s kind of a legacy, really, of blaming diseases in the past on poverty, not in the sense of oh, in a sympathetic way, but in a ‘these people are dirty and ignorant and lazy and they don’t care. They don’t bother to keep themselves clean or try to avoid disease.’ All of that kind of negative thinking.

McMurry: Even though if you ask somebody, ‘Is that what you think today?’ They say, ‘Well, no, of course not.’ And yet, I feel like it’s in the background somewhere, that when people who maybe don’t look like you are getting sick, it’s a little too easy to dismiss it or to say, you know, to sort of use the same excuses, some people use, ‘Well, you didn’t try hard enough’ or ‘You made bad choices.’ Those kinds of lines that we hear a lot sometimes migrate over into the disease world as well. And that’s just really unfortunate. I wish we could confine ourselves to scientific ideas and think about how the diseases really spread. If they are more prevalent in a particular population, there’s a reason for that, and that reason’s probably not moral.

Laguaite: Now, there have been a lot of comparisons drawn between the COVID-19 pandemic and the 1918 influenza pandemic lately, because there are tons of similarities there. It’s interesting to think about how historians will look back on this pandemic, and Dr. McMurry, can you shed some light on this hypothetical?

McMurry: Yeah, I’ve thought about that. I think there’ll be that tendency to pass judgment and say, ‘With all of their scientific prowess, why did this disease have...?’ They will be analyzing our failures, so to speak, and they won’t be fair about it, because I don’t think people will become better at judging human nature in the future than we are now. That will still be a problem. So it’s good that they will analyze it that way and see where failure occurred where it didn’t have to, but at the same time, any new disease or any big scale pandemic, people do the best they can, most of the time. I mean, yes, there are these negative attitudes and problems and things that go wrong, but most people are trying really hard. And I think the situation is evolving so quickly, in terms of what you know, and what you’re able to do. And the future will not be forgiving about that. Because by that time, it’s all over and they see hindsight and they see a final outcome, whereas we’re still right in the middle of it.

McMurry: You know, I think they will judge our inability and our unwillingness to do fairly simple things to stay safe. And that is still just mind-boggling to me. I just don’t understand that attitude of, ‘Yeah, but you know, I haven’t been out to eat in a really long time, so I’m just gonna go.’

Laguaite: Right.

McMurry: I think in the future historians, or whoever it is, will be just kind of astonished in, like, we look back at the Black Death. And we see things like persecution of the Jews or the flagellants who went around beating themselves. We see bizarre things like that that we just can’t count for. Well, I think in the future, people will look at like refusal to wear a mask, and the way that became politicized, and that people would actually harm each other, kill each other over being asked to take simple precautions. They’ll look back on that and they’ll say, ‘Oh, how medieval,’ which is still unfair. So it’s kind of a mixture of saying, there will be some things that we really couldn’t help and we did our very best that we’ll get criticized for, and then there’ll be other things where we absolutely deserve condemnation of posterity.

Laguaite: Well, thank you so much for talking with me today, Dr. McMurry. It was so good to hear from you.

McMurry: You bet. Bye.

Laguaite: Just because human nature hasn’t changed much doesn’t mean that we’re doomed to make the same mistakes today. Being aware of some of these past public health situations and responses should help inform the decisions we make today.

Laguaite: As new variants emerge, public health officials continue to urge people to wear a mask, stay 6 feet from other people who don’t live in your household, and to avoid crowds.

Laguaite: This has been “To Health and Back.” Thanks again for joining me on this health history journey. Tune in next time for a discussion on the history of mask wearing. Until then, don’t forget to rate the podcast and subscribe. And feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected]. I’m also on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as @healthandback. See you guys next time.

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