#The Wonderful Miniature World of Hamburg | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

erekiosuncreativeideas · 4 years

Text

Being Human - Chapter 09

<= Chapter 08

Summary : A new day is starting. Also available on AO3 : https://archiveofourown.org/works/24826561/chapters/62887138

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

New chapter ! Sorry for the delay, I'm having a writer block. I merged two chapters to make this one, so it should be a bit longer than usual. I'm not sure when the next chapter will come out, hopefully my inspiration will be back soon ! Sorry again !

Thank you so much for all your wonderful likes, reblogs and comments !! You all make me so happy, thank you so much, it means a lot to me !! I take a while to answer them, but I love each one of your comments.

The “Oh The Humanity” AU belongs to @doodledrawsthings !

Happy reading !

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Chapter 09 - “ So, what do I do in the meantime? Sleep and twiddle my thumbs? ”

Snatcher didn’t really know how much time he had passed in the kids’ room. However, what he did know was that his face had been wet for quite some time, tears coming out of his eyes each time he remembered his dream. Or, well, it wasn’t really a dream… More like a memory he wished so hard to forget, a true nightmare he had happened to relive in a dream. Sleeping didn’t seem like a good idea anymore.

After a while, he dried his eyes, more than relieved to know that no one had been there to witness his gross sobbing. For the first time since he had entered the room, he was now given the opportunity to glance at his surroundings. It really was a huge bedroom, definitely space-themed. Next to the pillow pool were ramps, surrounding it, with a diving board at the top. The former shade squinted at the sight: quite an excentric thing to have in a bedroom, wasn’t it? He eventually shrugged, supposing it had to do with the cultural barrier between his planet customs and the little aliens’. The rest of the room had a more “normal” setting, with a large blue bed, a wardrobe, a toy box and a desk. The latter seemed to be covered in drawings and building plans, two things very different in aspect. A detailed plan of the ship had been hanged to the wall, and it brought even more questions to the spirit’s mind: were the kids the ones who built this spaceship? He didn’t want to believe it, because they were children, but, then again… Typical children didn’t fly a spaceship. Cultural barrier, he guessed once more.

The ghost couldn’t help but feel out of place in a room like this one: it was so colourful, so pure, so… Childish. And here he was, a murderous and hundred years old spirit, back in his previous human body. This was quite a contrast…

The little girls were nowhere in sight and Snatcher couldn’t hear anything besides his own breathing. How much time had passed? By reflex, he turned his head to the window, hoping to get some information but, well, it wasn’t like the sun was setting or rising in space. He scoffed at his own stupidity, facepalming. Well, at least, the feeling of touch on his skin was now only slightly unpleasant, which was an improvement on his situation. With some difficulty, he sat up and straightened, feeling and hearing his joints cracking in the process. Ugh, this was so disgusting… Usually, the sound of bone cracking and breaking was like music to his ears, but when it came from his own bones… It was a completely different matter.

With a wince, the shade climbed down the pillow pool, careful not to trip. When he reached the floor, he tentatively tried to stand up on his own. His balance was almost inexistent and it was a wonder he hadn’t fallen down again. Little by little, he approached the wall like a toddler trying to walk on his own. Once he was close enough, he let out a sigh: he had done the hardest part. Once he was sure he had found a more stable pose, he started to follow the wall, walking towards the door as his hand brushed the yellow tapestry. The surface was soft on the tips of his fingers… It really was so strange to feel so many things again, sometimes even trivial things. One of the only pros of being alive again, perhaps…

When he reached the door, it opened swiftly, revealing the hallway he had had the occasion to see earlier. He took a few steps forward, before stopping next to the window. The ghost turned his head, letting his eyes wander in the sight in front of him. He could see planets, stars, distant objects he couldn’t identify… It was marvellous. He stayed there for a few minutes, admiring everything with great interest, putting his hand over the glass. He could hardly believe that this thin surface was all there was to separate him from the infinite space right before him.

It took him a while to notice how much he had been absorbed by the sight and he shook his head, shutting his eyes. This wasn’t the time for that! He took another deep breath and resumed walking, reaching the other door after a few more steps. Just like the previous one, it opened quickly, without needing him to push it open.

This was all very new to him.

Snatcher entered the big living room, only to notice no one was there, except the little vacuum cleaner on the floor. Once the latter saw him, it came right to his feet, making a few happy sounds. It bumped into his left boot gently, probably as some kind of greeting. The spirit couldn’t help but take his foot back, uncomfortable, though he couldn’t really explain why. The tiny object didn’t seem to mind and left soon after, continuing his cleaning routine, with a few “beep-boop” of happiness.

Yeah, very, very new.

The ghost came back to reality, not liking how easily distracted he was being at the moment. Sure, this was a whole new world for him, something he had never seen before, but his situation was urgent. He would have all the time to examine all of that once he got his spectral form back. For now, he just had to find the kids again. Examining his surroundings, he noticed a lot of things he hadn’t had the time to see when he first came here. It seemed like this room served as some sort of hub between all the rooms of the spaceship. The ghost could see several doors, though he couldn’t tell which led where. All of them had different colours, but it didn’t really help him. To his right were some pedestals, displaying a large hamburger-shaped structure and a miniature train station. Farther into the room, the shade could see a yellow slide, leading who knew where.

Was this even a living room anymore?

There was a mezzanine, on which Snatcher could see a huge safe, apparently more than protected, considering all the locks on it. It displayed the hour of the “day”, but then the ghost realized he didn’t really know what time it was before he dozed off. How useful.

He groaned and sighed. He did his best to ignore the large window in the room: he had many more important things to do other than stargazing! He brought his left hand to his face, using it as a loud hailer:

-“Hey, kiddos!” he yelled: “Where are you?”

The former spirit took a few steps forward, following the glass wall as he moved inside the room further. Before he was able to call for the brats again, the door near the slide opened, revealing a kid he recognized immediately: the hat-wearing brat.

-“Oh, you’re up?” she wondered, joining him as he was trying to stay stable on his two legs: “You were out for a while,” she informed him, offering him her shoulder so he could find more balance. He shook his head and replied, squinting as he tried to think:

-“How…” He groaned, changing his pose a bit before continuing: “How long did I stay asleep?” he asked, not really reassured by her previous words. Sure, he felt better… But he couldn’t help but think he had lost all this time he could have spent searching for a solution to his problem.

-“Well…” the little girl started to think, tapping her chin as she stared into space: “Hum, at least four to five hours, I’d say?” she didn’t seem very sure, though: “To be honest, Bow and I were too focused on our research to really look at the time.”

Her claims caught the shade’s attention immediately: ‘research’, she just said?

-“Did you find anything while I was asleep?” he questioned, really hoping for an affirmative answer. However, the child in front of him rubbed her arm, visibly tensed and embarrassed:

-“Hum, not exactly… I mean, yeah, we did find some stuff, but…” she paused and sighed: “Nothing really useful for now. Sorry.”

Snatcher could feel his hopes being crushed again, though it was much less awful than what happened in his dream. He wanted nothing more than to throw something across the room. Of course there was going to be a problem, of course they wouldn’t find anything!

He didn’t even find a single helpful piece of information in his own books, no matter how advanced they were!

The hatted brat seemed to notice his distress and lifted her hand to catch his attention again:

-“Wait, wait, don’t get worked up,” she told him with a soothing voice: “We have a lot of things to check, we’re going to find something,” she added, trying to reassure him.

It wasn’t really helping.

-“And how much time will it take?” retorted the shade, more than irritated: “How long am I going to stay in this body? How long until She finds out and freezes the entire forest again?”

“How long until she captures me again and makes sure to keep me alive this time?” he almost added, yet he managed to keep his lips closed. Some things were better kept as a secret. However, given the look on the kid’s face at his interrogations… She probably guessed what thought had crossed his mind. She winced, fidgeting at the same time:

-“You said we had two to three weeks, it should be more than enough to-

- But what if it’s not?” Snatcher cut her short, more and more exasperated with the situation: “I said that, fine, but she’s not stupid, kiddo,” he warned her with a low voice: “she’s much cleverer than one would think. Trust me, I know.”

The brat shifted awkwardly, as a look of fear appeared on her features. She then nodded slowly, meeting his eyes again as she replied with a knowing voice:

-“Yeah, you’re right. She is.”

Silent fell between them for a few seconds, until the child sighed once more. This whole argument was getting more than uncomfortable. Her little voice broke the deafening and unpleasant silence:

-“Anyway… Wanna see what we found?” she offered, trying to change the topic. Snatcher couldn’t help but feel relieved: he didn’t want to think at Vanessa at the moment. Not after that dream. He nodded too, taking a deep breath. The kid offered her shoulder again, silently. This time, the spirit didn’t refuse and put his hand over her, trying not to fall as his weight was put on something else entirely.

-“Peck, you’re not light,” groaned the child, though Snatcher knew she wasn’t completely serious. He had seen her doing much more difficult tasks when she used to be his contractor. She was most likely trying to start an argument with him to lighten up the mood a bit more.

It was more successful than what Snatcher would have thought.

-“Oh yeah?” he challenged back, as he felt the little girl leading him to the door she came from earlier: “Where did that strength of yours go? I thought you were a tough kid, but heh, I guess I was wrong!” he taunted her, shrugging with a teasing chuckle. The child replied by pushing him higher, standing on tiptoe suddenly. Snatcher almost lost his balance but managed to stay still. However, his heart immediately went crazy as he thought he was going to fall down again, for a brief instant.

-“Excuse me, what were you saying?” retorted the brat with an insufferable tone of voice: “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of your awful attitude!”

The ghost laughed louder, putting more weight on her tiny shoulders. Yet, in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help but think how weird his laugh sounded with his now human voice… All he could do at the moment was to try to ignore it as much as possible. Thankfully, annoying the hatted brat was one of his favourite pastimes.

-“Daw, really? Thank you,” he sang with a mocking voice: “It means so much to me!”

The child groaned once again and rolled her eyes, though the shade could see a hint of a smile on her face. She snorted and guided him to the door, which opened like usual. The shade discovered another hallway, with a ramp leading to another door. The kid grabbed his arms to help him to keep his balance despite the change on the ground.

Snatcher almost yanked his arm away, but barely stopped himself in time. If he did, he would fall down the ramp and that wasn’t something he wanted. With a bitter expression, he gritted his teeth: he would need to keep his pride aside for now, if he didn’t want to hurt himself stupidly.

They managed to go down the ramp, at their own pace, even though the shade almost tripped a few times. Thankfully, the brat caught him at the right moment.

God, he hated to be this pathetic.

The other door opened, revealing a new room for the ghost to discover. It was a huge room, with gears stuck on the walls, wooden walls. The floor was covered in red and orange carpet, with some hay scattered around on it. Several machines and control panels could be seen across the room, all making sounds the spirit couldn’t recognize or, well, had never heard before. It was something from another time, a time he didn’t belong in. In the centre of the room, there was a high platform, on which stood a telescope. From behind the platform emerged the younger child, her hands and clothes covered in oil. She wasn’t wearing her usual clothes, though. Instead, she had put on what looked like light green work clothes, some kind of overalls. Some stains were even visible on her face, mainly on her cheeks, below her nose and on her forehead. She was holding a black monkey wrench in her small and tiny hand.

-“Oh, so you’re up?” she greeted him, a smile on her face: “Hat told me she had heard something, but I wasn’t sure. How are you feeling?” she asked, wiping her dirty hands on her overalls.

The sight was so strange to the spirit: imagining that one of those kids was flying the ship and that the other was taking care of it… It really was so foreign to him. Back in his living days, children used to play around, chasing each other with animal masks over their faces… Well, now they were helping him to trap people and steal their souls, but nothing out of the ordinary, really!

This, however? This was something Snatcher was not used to.

-“Uh… Fine,” he lied, not wanting to mention his dream. All he wanted to do about it was to forget it completely and never think of it ever again: “I mean, as ‘fine’ as I can be while I’m in this useless body.”

-“Oh, that’s good,” she answered, choosing to ignore the last part of his reply. The child was visibly relieved at his claim, at least.

She stretched and then pointed to a part of the room hidden by the large platform from Snatcher’s point of view.

-“I guess Hat told you about what we’ve been doing all this time. Wanna see?” she asked, though her intonation told the spirit she very well knew his answer to her question. Obviously he wanted to know more about what they had been doing! especially considering the hatted brat had mentioned they still had found some things. Better start somewhere…

-“Yeah, show me,” he replied, determined, as the older brat helped him to follow the bow-wearing kid.

He really hoped that whatever they found would help him and Subcon. Their time was clearly limited, after all…

Snatcher followed the kids farther in the room, discovering what he hadn’t been able to see from where he previously stood. Behind the platform, there was some kind of machine, with a screen showing many lines of information in a language that the ghost couldn’t read. On the surface below the screen, there were a lot of buttons, some blinking in various colours, or levers just waiting to be pulled. The machine emitted a low rumbling sound, something that made Snatcher ill-at-ease: it was an object the spirit was not familiar with. For someone who had lived in a world without technology such as this, and who had remained in an isolated forest for hundreds of years… This was clearly unsettling.

Several thin cables had been connected to the machine and the shade’s eyes followed them, trying to figure out where they went. His eyes widened when he saw what stood not so far away from him and from the device: a Time Piece, disassembled, and empty of its magical sand. Next to it was a jar, in which the sand had been placed, gleaming through the glass. The cables were passing through the lid, which had probably been pierced for it to work. His face contorted in anxiety as he saw the tips of said cables just… Buried in the sand.

What were they even doing? This couldn’t be safe, could it? He had turned back human just by breaking one of those magical hourglasses! And now the kids were playing with its content? Sure, they were time and space experts, he could conceive that… But somehow, he knew that this was not a good idea.

-“What… What’s all this?” he asked, gesturing to the scene in front of him, not finding any other word to describe what he was seeing.

-“Well, I’m glad you asked!” replied the bow-wearing kid excitedly, apparently oblivious to the nervousness in his tone of voice. She pointed to the disassembled artefact with the monkey wrench she was holding and started explaining their research: “It’s not very easy to explain, so I’ll spare you the details. To put it simply, we’re currently trying to analyze the properties of the sand coming from the Time Piece.”

She was visibly passionate about the whole process and the ghost guessed that tinkering with stuff seemed to be one of her main hobbies. However… Something didn’t feel right, as if it wasn’t making any sense. It took the shade a couple of seconds to understand what was actually bothering him in her short and simple explanation:

-“But… Why?” he asked warily, raising an eyebrow: “Don’t you already know what it’s made of? What it can or cannot do?” Those artefacts belonged to them, to their people, from what he gathered… So why would they need to analyze it? Sure, they were children, fine, but they were children driving an entire spaceship without any adult supervision! So that didn’t count, did it?

The smile on the younger kid’s face disappeared as she started to ponder, a little uncomfortable. Oh, did the ghost touch a nerve? Normally, that would at least make him smile, but in this particular case, he was directly concerned by their problem, so his expression remained serious. The hat-wearing child was the one to answer his question, probably noticing the change of attitude from her friend:

-“While we do know how to use them… Only the most ancient people from our planet know about the origins of Time Pieces or what they’re made of. It’s not that it’s a secret, but… People don’t really like to talk about it. So we just don’t.”

A dark expression crossed the brats’ features for a moment and Snatcher couldn’t help but be intrigued. What could possibly explain their discomfort to those magical hourglasses? They never seemed that gloomy when they were talking about them or picking them up before. So why was it different now?

-“Why?” he wondered, squinting.

A deafening silence followed his question as both children looked at each other, as if they didn’t know whether to tell him or not. The hatted brat eventually looked away, curling up a little as an even darker expression appeared on her face. Oh, touchy topic, apparently. Was it taboo or something?

The younger kid had been playing with the folds of her green work clothes, glancing at him awkwardly. She opened her mouth to talk but didn’t find the courage to talk and closed it again, clenching her clothes more tightly.

-“What, is it really that bad?” he insisted and then scoffed, lifting his hand casually: “Worse than being frozen to death in your ex’s basement?” he joked, letting out a low chuckle at his own words. However, while he had expected the kids to relax, seeing that their problem wasn’t as bad as his own death experience… It only made them wince and curl up even more. He was about to open his mouth again when he was cut short by the hatted brat, who was staring into space:

-“There had been a war, long ago,” she said suddenly, in a low tone of voice. Her younger friend looked at her in astonishment, as if she had revealed a forbidden secret. She kept talking nonetheless, as Snatcher’s face slowly crumpled as he was listening to her: “We don’t know the details, but we do know that Time Pieces were the main cause of it. Plenty of people died, some were captured, some went through very awful things… A peace agreement was found years later, allowing the use of Time Pieces for very specific things, such as powering spaceships. And while we do know what is theoretically possible with them… Most information about other uses has been silenced, so that no other war can break out ever again because of them.”

Snatcher remained silent as he stared at the child in bewilderment: never had he seen her so serious, so cheerless… And, deep inside, he could understand, he could relate: he had lost everything a long time ago. He knew what it felt like.

Next to them, the bow-wearing kid was fidgeting, uncomfortable. And, well, the ghost quickly felt something akin to guilt appear inside of him. He didn’t like to talk about his past himself, and imaging being forced to mention something shocking coming from it certainly felt more than awful… And wasn’t that what he just did to them? He shouldn’t care, he really shouldn’t, but it was there, and he hated it. He didn’t know what to say anymore, but it wasn’t like there was something to say, was there? Unless it was “sorry”, yet…

Snatcher didn’t want to say it. He never apologized.

He cleared his throat, regretting it instantly as the gesture felt terribly foreign in this fleshy body. A fit of coughing took him by surprise, making him grab the most nearby wall so he wouldn’t fall down again. The kids’ eyes widened at his sudden cough and they both got closer, still not touching him, thank God.

-“You… You okay, Snatcher?” asked the hatted brat, all trace of darkness now gone from her face. Somehow, it made the shade feel better… However, he really didn’t want to think about that.

He managed to calm his cough and lifted a trembling hand, showing that he was fine. Or, well, as fine as he could be in his very peculiar situation. The two kids took the hint and stepped away, letting him have some space. Once Snatcher found his breath back, he decided to quickly take the opportunity given to him to change the topic. This was too much awkward.

-“So, uh,” he started again, his voice hoarse: “Once you’re done ‘analyzing’ the sand or whatever magical thing it is… What comes next?”

Both kids looked away and winced, not reassuring the spirit in any way.

-“Well… We don’t really know for now?” attempted the bow-wearing kid, smiling nervously, playing with the folds of her green work clothes once more. The shade felt a familiar feeling of dread and disappointment settling over him, though he wasn’t really surprised. It seemed that Fate had decided to punish him even more, visibly not satisfied with everything he was already going through.

-“So, we’re back at square one, then?” he answered flatly, not even bothering to yell. It was just another disillusion after all the others he had to experience. Nothing new in itself.

-“Wait, before you say anything mean or stupid again,” retorted the hatted child, defending her younger friend: “take a moment to think, for once. How can we know what to do if we don’t have the basic information we need?” she pointed, frowning at his lack of manners.

The ghost closed his mouth, tilting his head: she did have a point, he supposed. But that still meant he had to stay in this body longer, and that wasn’t something he was glad to hear.

-“Yeah, okay, fine, you’re right,” he conceded, rolling his eyes as he made an irritated gesture with his hand: “But you’re going to find at least something, right?”

-“I mean… We hope so?” replied the bow-wearing kid with a shrug: “That’s kind of the point here, isn’t it?”

-“Yeah,” added the hatted brat, raising an eyebrow at him: “That was a pretty stupid question.”

Snatcher felt his anger coming back full force at the nerves of those two kids. Oh, if only he still had his powers! However, all he could do at the moment was to clench his fists and grit his teeth, doing his best to stay calm. Yelling would mean he was letting them get to him, and this was not something he wanted.

-“You know what I meant,” he stressed, glaring at the two children, who were now smiling at him smugly. Oh, those brats!

-“Sure,” taunted the hat-wearing kid as she rolled her eyes: “For real, though, we’re on it, so it’s only a matter of time before we find something.”

The spirit squinted:

-“Weren’t you pessimistic about it?” he reminded with a wary tone.

The little girl glanced at her friend and gave her a light punch on her shoulder:

-“Yeah, but we have a great engineer on board!” the bow-wearing child let out an embarrassed laugh and started to rub her shoulder as her older friend kept going: “If anyone’s going to find a solution to your problem, it’s her!”

-“Hat!” giggled the younger little girl, blushing sightly. At the sight, the ghost couldn’t help but roll his eyes. This was way too sappy for him.

-“Okay, enough of that,” he called them back to reality with an exasperated intonation: “So, how long is it going to take?”

His words instantly disheartened the little girls, who stopped playing around to look at him. Hesitation was written all over their faces, something that did not reassure the shade in the least:

-“I’d say…” pondered the bow-wearing brat, tapping on her chin as she took some time to think: “It should take us a few days to find conclusive results? Less if we’re lucky.” She saw another look of disappointment cross Snatcher’s face and she lifted her hands in defence as she explained more: “you have to understand that no one ever tried to do what we’re doing in years. We have to do everything on instinct, so of course, it’s going to take some time! But not forever! Promise!”

The ghost let out a long sigh, exasperated but not really surprised:

-“So, what do I do in the meantime? Sleep and twiddle my thumbs?” he asked, with an annoyed voice. Oh God, the idea of sleeping was just awful at the moment, he clearly hoped he wouldn’t need to sleep before a while.

Just before the kids were able to answer his question, the spirit felt something in his stomach. At the same moment, a growling sound echoed all around the room, making the shade jump at the sudden noise and at the extremely weird sensation in his body. He lowered his eyes to stare at his stomach in astonishment, having no idea what could have caused such an unpleasant sensation inside of him. A deafening silence fell between the trio for a few seconds… Before the brats started to giggle. The shade gave them a murderous glare, loathing the idea of being laughed at.

The hat-wearing child opened her mouth to talk again, as a wide grin appeared on her face:

-“Well, maybe you could eat, that would be a great beginning!”

The spirit stayed silent and motionless for a while, not knowing how to react. It is only after a moment that he truly realized what she had meant: he- no, this body was hungry, demanding him food. Instantly, a blush took place on his face as he couldn’t help but cover his stomach in shame. God, humans were so disgusting… His reaction only made the children laugh louder, intensifying his shame and anger. Oh, those insufferable kids!

-“Stop mocking me!” he yelled, more and more embarrassed as his stomach kept on growling. But it only encouraged them. After what felt like centuries to Snatcher, the hatted brat eventually approached him, still giggling:

-“You’re just hungry, Snatcher, oh my pecking God,” she snorted, before offering him her shoulder: “I’ll ask Cookie to come over. Why don’t you go take a bath in the meantime?”

Snatcher stared at her, as if she had said the stupidest thing ever. But oh, she seemed much too serious for this to be a joke. Him, taking a bath, with this body? Him, having to watch this naked thing?

This was going to be awful, wasn’t it?

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Hope you liked this chapter ! See you in the next one (when it comes out) !

=> Chapter 10

#A Hat In Time #ahit #fanfiction #ahit fanfiction #snatcher #hat kid #hk #bow kid #bk #being human #ahit being human #oth au #oth #oh the humanity au #my art #doodledrawsthings #BH #erekio bh

29 notes · View notes

theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin · 5 years

Text

And Now a Rant Brought to You by Whining Reviewers

I normally try to keep complaints about this sort of thing to myself, as I usually find it kind of petty when authors complain about responses to fanfiction, but I have finally been pushed to far and must rant.

An Analogy and Fanfiction Writing from a Broader Perspective

First, let’s think about a good metaphor for writing fanfiction. A friend once related it to me as being something like working in a fast food restaurant. Your customers want their meal fast, cheap, and exactly what they came for.

If their hamburger doesn’t come with the pickles of Tom/Harry high school romance with miniature death eaters that they were expecting when they walked in the door they will let you and all of their friends know about it.

I’m going to take it a bit further. The fast food analogy implies that I have customers and can expect them. Not necessarily in this fanfiction world of ours. Instead, it’s more like sitting on the side walk and you’ve made yourself a sandwich stand. You’re about as legitimate as the ten-year-old’s lemonade stand across the street, but you’ve got more materials to work with.

The first thing you do, after having checked out other sandwich stands in the area, is start making sandwiches that you want to eat. Maybe they look like other sandwiches that you really enjoyed, maybe they add the secret sauce that all other sandwiches were lacking, who knows but you make them on your own time and eat them at your tiny dilapidated shack.

This goes on for a while until one day, out of the blue, you make a sandwich that people really like. Suddenly people are hanging around your sandwich shop, asking for more of one sandwich or else praising the deliciousness of your sandwiches even in comparison to actual restaurants.

This, eventually, is where the rant will come in.

Some Typical Complaints

Reviewers don’t always like my work and I fully accept that. There can be very legitimate reasons for not liking my particular brand of fanfiction, or anyone’ s for that matter. It might not be your genre, it might be too damn weird, you might not accept some of the assumptions made within the story, or who knows maybe the story is just a pile of garbage.

That said, aside from those legitimate sort of complaints, I do get ones I frequently raise my eyebrows at.

First there’s the, “I clearly haven’t read your story but goddammit this thing that didn’t even happen in your fic pisses me off!” These are the people itching for a fight, they’re usually so hasty and so enraged, that they have frequent misspellings in their reviews and will frequently cite events that honest-to-god did not happen in the story. I’m never quite sure what to do with these other than shrug and wonder how these people are getting on thinking they’ve read stories they very clearly haven’t read at all.

Then there’s the similar but not quite the same, “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, relatively well known internet author, and I’m going to slander your whole work with all the tropes I’ve read from the internet that you’re breaking to look cool”. The last part doesn’t always come in, there’s also just the “I’ve got a bone to pick with you” but these are the people who seem drawn in by the relative popularity of the story and in a review will cite well known tropes or else fandom assumptions that the story is breaking and will write it in such a way as to make the author feel very stupid. A note, if you’re thinking of leaving a review like this, I warn you now that it will make you look like a pretentious asshole and ten times dumber than you are. Chances are the author has already heard this twelve times over and if not, they’ve already certainly considered it. These people are a little more obnoxious than the prior but there’s not much to say to them either. They’re not in it to read the story, after all, but instead to prove a point about themselves. Why they need fan ficition to do this, I don’t know, but I suppose whatever floats people’s boats.

Third there are the ones I do feel quite awful about. These are the ones in which a story starts in one direction for all intents and purposes and then veers entirely into left field leaving readers behind. Sometimes it’s intended, sometimes the story evolves to such a point, but often these loyal readers feel quite betrayed and will note as much in reviews. These ones are hard, and very often quite justified, but the story is what the story is and there is always the option of simply not reading.

The Complaints Where I am Baffled

The complaints I’ve been getting recently, where I’m entirely baffled, are not any of the above or anything I consider reasonable. These, instead, are all along the lines of, “Hey, author, I notice you’re not writing this thing that I specifically want you to write. You write too much of <blank>. That pisses me off and if you don’t change you’re ways I’m gonna leave.”

To get back to the sandwich analogy, this isn’t a vehement rant over the customer’s desire for pickles on a free sandwich they found at a shack, it’s instead a customer who eats a few sandwiches, looks down at it in consternation, looks at the sandwich shack, and says, “Jesus Christ, author, do you have anything besides these fucking sandwiches?”

Me, lowly sandwich maker that I am, can only stare flabbergasted. For one, there is a tin of homemade baklava that nobody wants over there at the side that this customer has conveniently overlooked for the far more popular sandwiches. Second, it is a sandwich shop in which the customer has picked up, not even an ordered, a sandwich free of charge. A sandwich shack in a neighborhood filled with hundreds of sandwich shacks where one undoubtedly sells exactly what the customer is looking for.

However, instead it implies that you, as in you author and no one else, should be fulfilling their specific sandwich order that everyone else already supplies (and no, they didn’t see the baklava, but it looks like garbage anyway so can you make the fucking special sandwich, are you just incapable of doing anything besides the weird ass sandwiches you’ve already been making?) despite the fact that they are not paying you to do so with the laughable threat that they’ll walk out or else think you’re an idiot if you don’t comply.

Bitch, Please

So far we’ve had a lot of ranting but I do actually have a few solutions for you disheartened souls out there who really really really want The Carnivorous Muffin to stop writing “Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus” and start writing “Harry/Draco Mpreg Romance” (no one has actually asked for this, I’m not actually sure what these reviewers want from me, just that it’s not what I’m giving).

Start Looking in Other Places

There's a lot of fanfiction out there, and I mean a lot. Yes, most of it is not high quality, no that is not the author’s problem (you picked a sandwich up from a shack on the side of the road, remember, anybody can sell a sandwich, you don’t have to eat it).

That said, if you’re looking for something chances are that someone, somewhere, has written it.

More, if you’re looking for a specific trope, like WBWL there are undoubtedly fifty different versions floating about with several different archives all tailored for exactly what you’re looking for.

Write it Yourself

The reason I write what I do, in part, is because I knew there was a snowball’s chance in hell it would already be out there. Not, at least, with all of the pickles, lettuce, ketchup on the side, or what have you that my dream sandwich required.

You have something specific in mind? The author not living up to your expectations? Sit down at a computer or even a piece of paper and write what it is you're looking for. I guarantee you, you’ll be much less frustrated and happier for it. Who knows, other people have probably been looking for that too and you’ll go and make their day.

Prompt Existing Authors

Some fanfiction authors take prompts, I am actually among them, if you want something written the way you want it then go and prompt them. They may turn you down, that’s their right, but the fact is that there are people you can go and politely ask for this sort of thing.

Do Not Whine to the Author Like a Smarmy Asshole Because You Couldn’t Read Mayonnaise in the List of Ingredients

Often, also with this sort of review, it becomes clear that they a) don’t read summaries, b) don’t read author’s notes and then are upset that they didn’t read the information contained in the summaries or author’s notes.

Regardless, even if you are fully informed and chose to complain to the author that they’re not writing what you want, stop and think before you push that button.

First, is what you’re asking for in any way unreasonable? Does the author have any motivation at all to comply with your individual needs? Has anyone else brought this up in a review or is it you alone who has an issue? Can you solve this problem by leaving to read something else?

If you answered yes to any of the above then it’s best you don’t leave that review. If you do, trust me, the author will engrave your username in their memory and will always remember you as “ack, it’s that smarmy asshole who can’t read authors notes”

My Ode to Reviewers

That said, the vast majority of you are encouraging, wonderful and when you nitpick or bring up criticism you do so with grace and style. My blessings unto you all.

End Rant

#writing #fan fiction #rant #handling flames #flames

49 notes · View notes

avoutput · 4 years

Text

Gaps Between Worlds || Pokeballs

The world of Pokemon is a vast and endless… wasteland. The world of Pokemon is haunted, but not scary haunted, more like “Are You Afraid Of The Dark?”. It has the flavor of a nice medium spice curry. Before the game was released, for a year, a whole generation was treated to the cartoon before school started. I was in middle school when the craze took to the little kiddy kindling, and it became a wildfire. Today, I am almost 34, and in the 20+ years, full grown-ass adults have been dissecting a universe built for kids by some other adults who had to balance marketability with art. If you mix all of those things together, you get a wild storm of interesting ideas. Some of these ideas are hidden by clever creators, others are unintended realizations brought on by mixing the real world, with all of its consequences, and this newly fresh, mostern-ridden world. Hamburgers exist, cow pokemon exist, all of our friends are pokemon, all animals are pokemon, hamburgers exist. Hamburgers exist. But the concept that really caught me for as long as I can remember was “What is it like inside a Pokeball?”

In my little child-brain, now fully formed as a semi alcohol dependent adult brain, I remember two major pokeball theories, both of which are mainstays in the community. Realistically, in the sphere of science fiction, there really are only two theories that bubble to the top. First, the Stasis Theory. Pokemon inside their Pokeballs experience nothing. They become pure light energy, and simply bounce around as particles, never aging, never thinking, never living. Second, we have the Paradise Theory. Inside their Pokeballs, they are hooked up like the matrix, and they live in their ideal environments based on their needs, either constructed by their own mind or programmed and based on their poke-type. Ghost types would live in creepy mansions and fire types live near volcanoes, but it would be created by programming in the ball, or based on the subconscious of the Pokemon. Both of these have very clear upsides, but they also have equally clear downsides, which is exactly what we are going to explore!

Before we get to the theories, a few things. My knowledge with the Pokemon series basically ends after the 2nd generation. Without straying too far from the subject, I stopped being interested in the series because it became more important to the creators to add more monsters instead of diving deeper into the lore of the world or the existing creatures themselves, with a few exceptions. Please take that into account going forward. I actually have casually watched a few of the newer episodes and movies and it seems like nothing has changed really, so I suspect I am not as far behind as I think. Also, before we get to the theories, both rely on one major item. The Pokeball! It’s clearly a smart device. Once it hits its target, it appears to know whether the item is a Pokemon or not. It only opens up if it hits a Pokemon. Hitting a human or a rock or anything else, and it stays as a ball. Once the ball is open, the Pokemon transforms into light, and during the show when the angle is right, you can see inside the ball is a series of mirrors along the walls. The Pokeball itself doesn’t seem to have an origin story that I am aware of, but it clearly had tons of development time and money, the greatest minds on our planet would kill for this tech, so one can only imagine the horrors that occurred after this technology was created, but that is for another post.

First, the Stasis Theory. The Pokeball is clearly high-tech, we put that forward, but one thing to think about is that the Pokemon themselves appear to be turned into light. I like to imagine this method as being similar to teleportation. In Star Trek and myriads of other sci-fi, teleportation is considered instantaneous. The moment we are broken down and rebuilt at our location feels instantaneous to us. That is essentially the same experience for the Pokemon. It bounces around as light, and feeling or sensing nothing. Now, the upside of this is that they don’t have to expend energy moving from place to place, consuming their trainers resources, or weather the elements. Now, all of these are more of upsides for the trainer than the Pokemon, unless you’re like Psyduck, and you suffer headaches constantly, this technology is somewhat bleak. And this is how we bleed into the downsides.

The one that always sticks out to me is that, unless you have a benevolent trainer, committing to being a Poke-partner means you might end up waking up in battle after battle. A soldier of fortune. You technically need to be fed as well, but if you are in stasis, you only need to be fed every 8 hours or so of actual time spent outside the Pokeball. A frugal trainer would pay attention to this, monitoring how much time each Poke-pal spent outside of their Pokeball. They technically don’t even need to eat to regain their strength. Specifically, they don’t even need to leave their Pokeball to get healed at a Pokecenter. Battle after battle, they might not eat for days, months, or years if they are used sparingly. Pokeballs can even be digitized. Think about all those Poke-bros you leave in your computer storage. Beyond that, you can alter their memory so that they are reassigned a new master they instantly obey, granted they are “experienced” enough. I feel like I could go on forever, but I want to talk about my favorite downside in this vein. Allow me to extend this concept a bit, maybe to a dark conclusion.

You are on a ferry ship between islands, alone, and anonymous. No one notices you. It’s the last voyage of the night, foggy, dark, and a bit chilly, the deck covered in a light, icy snow. Leaning on the rails, you lose your balance because your sea legs aren’t developed yet. You are also 12, because it's Pokemon. Your body slips into the icy drink without a sound. The shock of the cold causes you to pass out almost instantly and you drown. Along your belt, 8 Pokemon nestled in their Pokeballs. One hundred years pass. It’s summer time and a lone diver exploring the warm waters finds the belt of a young man with a series of Pokeballs attached. On shore, you open each ball, each time a Pokemon emerges, healthy, clear eyed, but confused. Where is their master? Pokemon are smart, so after some pantomime and simple explanation between the humans and Pokemon, you all realize that it's been a 100 years, and its possible the owner is dead. After reporting it to the authorities, they are able to identify the boy using a 100 year old new story. While Pokemon are strong enough to fight one another, the PTSD suffered from the loss of their trainer and the time that elapsed destroys them.

When you think about it, the upside of this bleak story is huge for the Pokemon. You can live, preserved forever inside the Pokeball. Now, to argue with myself a bit, Pokemon do seem to be aware inside their Pokeball. They seem to be able to understand their surroundings and can even hear conversations they aren’t technically present for. There are many instances of the Pokemon leaving their Pokeball of their own volition, so it’s likely this story wouldn’t have happened. One of the trainer’s ‘mon would have popped out of its super prison to help its trainer. And while this doesn’t completely refute the stasis theory, it gives the Pokemon way more cognitive power and agency inside their prison orb than I initially implied.

This is where our next theory comes into play, the Paradise Theory. As a kid, I often thought this was the less likely, but much more widely supported idea. There are two branches to this theory, one in which the Pokemon inside the ball is miniaturized and the ball works as a kind of Star Trek holodeck, and the other is the Pokemon is in a state of semi-sleep, hooked into a virtual representation of the world that best suits them. In either case, this would seem to be the ideal state of being for them. Their world is shaped to their liking, so if you are a Snorlax and you need a fat snack and soft sack to sleep on, the Pokeball manifests it. I always imagined in either case, because of their apparent awareness of the outside world, that of the two theories, the miniaturized one was at play. They remain fully conscious, and up in the sky or somewhere in their spherical prison there would be this floating screen of what is going on outside… like an omniscient camera, equipped with a mic. Again, this was kind of my childlike wonder at play, not really concerning myself with the intricacies of how this would actually work, but it also doesn’t seem like the creators gave it much thought either. Pokeball tech is the major gap in this world.

As for the downsides of this method, the only real standout is their consciousness. In the Stasis Theory, the moment they enter the ball is also the moment they leave. In this version, they remain aware of the time and the outside. So if they haven’t eaten in two days or been outside to hit the Poke-toilet, they can really feel it. Still, in this version, it does appear as though they can leave at will. Also, in the show, it often shows that they appear to get kibble at every meal that the humans eat, which brings up its own set of questions, but that’s for another time. In the drowned trainer scenario, or maybe one who is stuck under an avalanche, imagine you are a Pokemon not equipped to deal with the terrain, like a charizard in water, you are not only aware of how screwed you are, but you have to choose to either end your life by leaving the Pokeball or wait until you starve to death. I suppose it ultimately depends on how smart and perceptive a Pokemon breed actually is that really determines the merits and downsides of this theory. Take a moment to imagine a really social Pokemon, like a Pidgey or Pikachu. Does the Pokeball conjure fake friends for you? Are the Pokeballs interconnected, so that you can mind meld with your trainer’s other captives? Do certain Pokemon end up becoming attached to the fake friends inside the ball rather than worry about the outside world? Can a Pokeball become addictive?

To spare my little psyche the pain of having to empathize with Pokemon I left in their balls for too long, or maybe stored away somewhere so that I can “catch ‘em all”, I chose to imagine the Stasis Theory when I played the game. The one thing this game really dodged was imparting the idea of the empathy and responsibility of actually raising 150+ living, thinking creatures. I think this might also just align with the nature of young humans, but still, the creators really shirked there responsibility on this aspect. The game’s and animation’s inhabitants espouse constantly their belief in Poke-rights, but at the same time ignore the subject of pitting them against each other as a negative. Most Pokemon are intellectually somewhere between cat and monkey. Other’s appear to have just as much going on as humans. While Ash never imagines catching every Pokemon, the game sets you on this collectible path. Using my own childhood as an example, human children don’t appear to naturally think out the various real world equivalents to their in-game mantras. They see the Pokemon as theirs to do with as they please. Give a stupid name. Trade with other kids. Collectable bits of data. This was not my cup of tea as a kid. I much preferred the animated universe of Pokemon to the game for this very reason. Sure you can play it anyway you want, which I often did, never expanding my roster beyond 8 at a certain point, but this was also a very impractical way to play, which hurt my more logical side. Just to live with myself, I created a method of play that worked for me. Somewhere between the Stasis Theory and Paradise Theory. I just told myself my Poke-pals loved their home and me. So… I caught. Them. ALL. But in doing so, did I condemn my allies to flashes of life between battling and dinner? Did I render them in a paradise of their own making? Are these creatures really so docile after being beaten by another of their ilk so that I can force them to be my friend? Best not to dwell on it. Pika-pika.

#Articles #Pokemon #Gaps Between Worlds #Pokeballs #Ash Ketchum #Mysty #Brock #Pikachu #Charizard #Gameboy #GameFreak #Pokemon Company #Red #Blue #Satoshi

0 notes

benjamingarden · 4 years

Text

Weekending

the dining room is painted!

the temporary garden fence (permanent will be wooden framed with wood posts)

How are you? I'm hoping the answer for each of you is "well" or even "great"! Considering the changes we've all endured, we are faring very well around here. Honestly, we are enjoying a bit slower pace. Not that we want this to be a permanent thing but slowing down is good for our soul. Rather then working 6-7 days a week we are pretty much sticking to 4 days. And we know how lucky we are that our small business is even able to survive. It's been a hot one in this part of the world. Hot and humid. We do get a day or two reprieve weekly with a slight dip in temps or humidity so that's always welcomed. Thank goodness for ceiling fans! Ours go non-stop from June through September to keep that air circulating. Jay has enjoyed spending his extra time with his boat (and creating secret projects as a surprise for me like the harvest basket in the first photo). He has a small 16 foot boat that he enjoys taking out fishing. He's also been able to spend quite a bit of time fussing over it and making some improvements he's dreamed about.

As you can imagine, the garden is benefiting from my extra attention. As I wrote last week, we built what looks like a miniature prisoner fence. Not to hold the inmates in but to keep them out. With woodchucks being the inmates, just to clear that up. It's temporary and will be made permanent either this fall or next spring complete with wooden posts and a proper gate. We have a TON of green tomatoes on the vines that I'm sure will all ripen at once. That's ok, we are prepared! We'll be oven roasting (with garlic & fresh basil) those we don't eat fresh to create a delicious simple sauce for freezing. That has been our favorite sauce we've made to preserve so that's the only one we'll be preparing. We are planning on starting our food preservation this week. My sister-in-law makes the BEST relish. Thanks to the current pandemic we won't be traveling to visit with them this summer so she generously shared the recipe with us. We'll be making and canning that and we have quite a few jalapeno's ready in the garden so we'll be canning pickled jalapeno rings as well. We tend use them on everything so I'm looking forward to canning quite a few jars. And my green beans are exploding - I am growing 3 varieties. So freezing those weekly will be on the agenda for the next month or so. The next garden project on my to-do is that I'm planning to work on improving my soil. I know that our 2 weaknesses in the garden are soil health and shade. I feel pretty confident that I've figured out how to both work with the shade as well as make the shade work for me, so the soil is next on the list. A slower pace means I get to accomplish some things that I've put on the backburner. For fun, I'm just starting an embroidery project that I've been wanting to work on and I took a few hours this past week to tidy up the blog. The pages on blogger (i.e. recipes, etc.) can be difficult to set-up. The photos don't always line-up and then sometimes when you add text, like the recipe name, it won't let it stay with the photo. Ugh.... So, I messed around with it this week and decided to give in. Instead, I figured out how to attach a drop down to my menu and decided I would work with creating multiple categories instead. You'll notice that when you're searching for a recipe, for example, you can click on the category and get to what you're looking for a bit easier. I also broke up the "homesteading" category into our journey, helpful tips, making money on the homestead, chicken keeping, gardening, homemade home, and frugal living. Again, trying to make it a bit easier for you to find the past posts you are searching for. I also added a list of blogs that I visit regularly to the bottom right side. These are blogs that remain traditional blogs and are very enjoyable to me. I hope you find something new!

I painted the dining room a few weeks ago. Yes! That was successfully checked off of my to-do list. The living room is next. I've also added a few houseplants throughout the main living spaces. In years past I haven't been so good with any greenery in the house. I tend to forget about them.... Well, I almost lost one yesterday but was able to revive it. Yup, I forgot about it. With the air conditioning and fans going they dry out a bit quicker and I forgot to check on them this week. A wilted sad plant caught my eye last night and I rushed it, and the others, to the sink for a much needed drink. Today I'm happy to report that they are all looking happy and healthy. I've been making very simple meals these days and it's been wonderful. Large amounts of raw or steamed veggies, legumes (or grilled meat for Jay), simple grains and a sauce makes a quick and delicious meal. I've also been coming up with new stuffed zucchini recipes since we are harvesting them daily. Our favorite stuffing right now is sautéed onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, and corn mixed with chopped basil or cilantro, a teaspoon (or so) of the Mrs. Dash italian seasoning, 1/2 cup of veggie broth and either rice or millet. Then I add some parmesan to Jay's and throw them in the scooped out zucchini that I've grilled to soften (you could also boil it or bake it). I bake them for about 30 minutes, covered, and a few minutes uncovered and they are ready to go. Jay also really likes one that is a mixture of onion, mushroom, tomato sauce, sausage, rice and mozzarella. I add a bit of fresh basil from the herb boxes on the deck for a finishing touch. Lots of goodness happening around these parts. I'm hoping you had a wonderful weekend as well! Have you read anything good? Started any new projects? Done something for fun? Recipe Link Love:

My husband used to eat a TON of hamburger helper (in his bachelor days). I decided to make this homemade version for him a couple of weeks ago and he LOVES it! I substituted chicken broth for the beef broth and I've made it with ground beef as well as with ground turkey. Both versions were a huge thumbs up!

I think if you have a collection of really good sauces you can make a ton of different great meals. Lindsay's collection of 19 has some real winners! We use her Peanut Sauce quite a bit - it's sooooo delicious. My husband loves her Honey Mustard and I've recently used the Chipotle Tahini Sauce (minus the oil - I used some blended cashews instead) and it's another winner. I can also recommend her Chipotle Cashew Queso. I haven't tried it but it's incredibly similar to the one I make and love, so I'm sure it's delicious.

If you have an air fryer and have Fried Mozzarella Stick fans in your household, this is a recipe that is super simple and my husband adores! (I had to reduce the cooking time almost in half)

Weekending was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

0 notes

offtheisland · 7 years

Text

Luxembourg and France!

Hallo!

It’s been a while since I’ve written a post, so here’s a long one to make up for it! Since it is currently fall break (Herbstferien) in North Rhine Westphalia, AFS offered some students in the area the opportunity to travel to Luxembourg and surrounding areas for a few days. I was fortunate enough to be able to go along, and it was such a lovely trip! I met AFS students from around the globe, saw some AFS-CBYX friends from Hamburg, and also had the opportunity to spend a few days getting to know my Betreuerin (AFS liaison/mentor), because she came on the trip as well.

The trip started early Sunday morning, when we got on a bus from Duisburg and drove for four hours to Luxembourg City, the capital of Luxembourg. We checked into our hostel and went straight downstairs to eat lunch...I had the biggest bowl of mussels I’ve ever seen, plus a salad, French fries, and a dessert (it was only 10€ for everything!). After lunch, we went out exploring the city for a few hours and bought a few snacks at Monoprix, a famous French grocery store. The cashier who rang me up spoke five languages–Luxemburgish, French, German, English, and Portuguese. Shortly after, we went to bed because we were so tired! I only knew one of my roommates, she was at language camp in Hamburg with me, so it was really nice to see her again! The other two were from Norway and Finland, which I thought was so cool!

↑ A view of Luxembourg from the bridge that was near our hostel.

Monday morning, we woke up early to visit Metz in France. It was my first time in France, and I was so happy to be able to add another country to the list of places that I’ve been! This entire trip was also a great opportunity to practice my French. We saw the Cathedral of St. Stephen and also just walked around the city–along the river and through winding old streets that were quintessential “Old Europe”. At one point, myself and another girl branched off from our larger group and walked by ourselves for a bit...and we discovered a park with a statue of Marquis de Lafayette in it. He left from Metz when he came across the Atlantic to help the American colonies fight for independence. As we are both Hamilton fans, we had a miniature jam session next to the statue performing Guns and Ships from the musical. (We also made sure to check that nobody else was around so we wouldn’t disturb any peace, in case you were concerned about that.)

↑ The Cathedral of St. Stephen from the outside...

↑ ...and a tiny corner of the inside. I just really liked the lighting in this picture.

For lunch, we went to a French restaurant, where I ordered quiche for myself and also ordered everyone else’s meal, because they did not speak French. It was nice to feel useful with a language, for once! Since coming to Germany I’ve had very few moments where I was better at the necessary language than someone else was. We had crêpes for dessert, because when in France...

After lunch, we still had plenty of time before we had to go back, so we went to a pharmacy (because French pharmacies are supposedly the best) and a few other stores. We also went to the cutest little café and had coffee and hot chocolate! I felt very French, even though I know there is more to a culture than its cafés. Just before leaving the café, I played a piece on the piano in the corner. Normally I would never do something like that, but I figured, “Why not?” and I am really glad I did.

↑ Another bridge view! Specifically, a bridge view in Metz.

Tuesday was Halloween! Only the Americans in the group really knew what it was all about, but it was fun nonetheless. In the morning we visited the Bock casemates, which at one point were actually used to defend the city from invaders. People lived inside and everything! Now, they are a UNESCO World Heritage site. They were a little spooky, especially in the dark corners!

↑ Inside the casemates, and a view from one of the “windows” of the casemates. They were partially carved out of rocks that were already there, partially constructed with stones from elsewhere. During World War II, they served as bomb shelters.

After that, we walked around the entire city of Luxembourg...inside the cathedral, past various historic buildings, and even through the luxury shopping district.(Luxembourg is one of the richest countries in the world, so naturally they have a few streets worth of designer boutiques.) We didn’t buy anything, only window shopped, but it was still really fun! And before going back to the hostel for the evening, we went to a bookstore. They sold books in Luxemburgish, French, German, and English. If one lived in Luxembourg, it would be so easy to learn so many languages! I bought a French to English dictionary, and the cashier spoke to me in both French and German. This is normal for Luxembourg though, I have no idea how their brains don’t get mixed up! Mine certainly was.

As it was freezing cold and all of the stores were closed, a few of us decided to have a night in, so we watched Hocus Pocus (a classic Halloween movie!) and ate chocolate before going to bed. It was a pretty successful Halloween overall.

Wednesday was the last day of our trip, so after packing up and eating breakfast, we left the hostel and headed to Trier, the oldest city in Germany, that has been around since Roman times. We passed under the Porta Nigra, a giant Roman gate that is also a UNESCO World Heritage site as well as a few other Roman monuments while walking along the designated “tourist route”. (I figured that was the best way to see as many monuments as possible in the least amount of time!) Even the parts of the city that were not leftover from Roman times were very old, and just as beautiful! The town really looked as though it had come from a story book.

↑ The Porta Nigra.

↑ View from the town square in Trier.

↑ Yep, this is real. It was a palace for one of the old rulers of the region, but now it’s just a historic site. The garden had statues and hedge mazes and everything! It reminded me of Alice in Wonderland.

Our last stop before heading back to the bus and driving home was the cathedral, where All Saint’s Day Mass was going on. I was a bit disappointed that we wouldn’t be allowed to walk around because of the service, but it turned out that we were allowed to stand in the back corner and observe. That ended up being better, because the organ was playing and the choir was singing for Mass! I was completely floored by the sound of it all, the acoustics were unbelievable. A great way to end a wonderful trip!

Thanks for reading this (very long) post, tschüss!

#germany #photo #tourism

10 notes · View notes

brokeneisenglas · 7 years

Text

I was tagged by the wonderful @rinobotka to do the eleven questions! So, rules... #1) Respond ONLY if you want to. #2-?) Answer eleven questions, create eleven questions, tag eleven people (include the person who tagged you).

1) Nostalgic food?

Hmm... I don’t really know which foods would be nostalgic for me. I’ve progressively lost taste, except for some extremely sweet, extremely salty, or extremely savory foods. But, if I had to say something that makes me think of growing up? Hamburger helper and spaghetti.

2)What are two seemingly different YouTubers/artists/etc do you like??

Well, I just found this Youtube channel that I think I will continue to enjoy: Maqaroon. The channel hasn’t updated in a while, but, I’ve found some plushies on it that I’m gonna make for Christmas for people. As for another Youtuber? Um, I watch a lot of Markiplier, Jacksepticeye, and Tested. I prefer to watch gamers than to play myself, and, I really enjoy Adam Savage’s projects and nerdiness.

3) Side dish: rice, pasta, bread, or potato??

Most times, a type of potato side.

4) 2d animation or 3d animation??

Hmm... Depends.

5) Song that is currently stuck in your head/on repeat right now?

Ciara’s cover of Paint it Black

6) What is one relatively unknown piece of media/story that you wished others would know about?

Oh goodness... I saw this recent post about the Venus of Willendorf, as well as other “Venuses” of the prehistoric age. What the writer’s suggested was that against original popular belief that men carved these miniature sculptures so that they had something to take with them of their women, or that they were carved by religious leaders or some such as goddesses of fertility. Instead, the writers suggested that women carved them of themselves. It’s a really neat proposition, because, if we take photos from a personal perspective and look downward, the venuses are shaped as though looking down the body.

7) Steampunk or cyberpunk? (other punk?)

I had to look up Cyberpunk. I thought it was just mostly nakedness. Which, is what showed up in the image search.

As much as I don’t mind skin and nudity, I like steampunk better.

8) Are you inclined to science/math or social sciences/art/humanities?

Haha, so, funny thing.

I LOVE math. Tolerate science.

I HATED history. LOVED art. Tolerated social studies.

I’m an Art History major.

9) Space or the ocean?

I want to see the World from above, but I think it may make me finally reach true insanity.

The ocean is more realistic a dream. I would like to swim with dolphins and pet a shark.

10) Cartoony art style or detail art style?

Stylized. Can be either, for sure. If I’m doing my own art, I have to tell myself it’s okay not to look realistic, and that style is more important.

11) Giant robot friend or small robot friend?

... Medium robot friend? My hope is that my car will transform one day, stand up, and ask me how I’m doing.

NEW QUESTIONS:

1) If you could live anywhere on Earth (or, another planet) where would it be?

2) What is your favorite animal gif/ video? Why?

3) Do you like pizza? If yes, what is your favorite pizza/pizza topping?

4) What is your favorite book/movie/artwork?

5) (recycled) What is one relatively unknown piece of media/story that you wished others would know about?

6) Experience the world right side up or upside down?

7) Prefer taste but no smell, or smell with no taste?

8) If you remember your dreams or have dreams... What’s you most recent good/bad dream?

9) What was your first fandom you ever joined? When? And, are you still part of that fandom now?

10) Favorite commercial of all time? (Or, least favorite commercial...)

11) If only ONE genre of movies/shows could be created from this day forward, which would you choose?

+1)) What’s your opinion on pen pals? Silly, stupid, wasteful, fun, etc.?

TAGS!!!!! So, I realized... I don’t like tagging people because I don’t want anyone to feel obligated to answer but... here we go.

@chills-of-fire @supreem-chibi-queen @adilia-the-kouhai @zombieheroine @andromedaprime @matrixbearer @bold-sartorial-statement @catie-brie @littlemisstfp @euphoric-muses @primus-why

#fun things #questions #rinobotka #silliness #love these things!#asks and tags!

4 notes · View notes

emilyplaysotome · 7 years

Text

Missed Connection

This month I met a guy on my work travels that made me think about fame and loneliness. As a result I decided to return to the world of the Tres Spades and write this short story.

There’s no real romance or sex, but I hope you’ll enjoy.

It’s not like I ever wanted to be a maid, but my mom got sick and additional money was more helpful than a pending college degree.

When I first made the decision to drop out of college, I never could have imagined that I’d still be working at this hotel five years later, yet here I was at another one of the hotel’s stuffy parties - serving miniature versions of hot dogs and hamburgers to wealthy guests who made more eye contact with the food on my tray than the person holding it.

Even though I’d seen all these people here countless times before, I didn’t bother to remember their names. Perhaps it was due to my stubborn nature, but seeing as how they didn’t give me a second thought, I didn’t really see why I needed to give them one.

In my head, I gave all the regulars nicknames - “slick” for the tall, angry-faced guy whose hair was always slicked back or “purple” for the guy who wore the same damned suit with a purple shirt, even though it was obvious that he could afford another.

I knew that my nicknames weren’t very creative, but they kept me out of trouble to say the least, and while my coworkers gossiped and swooned for a handful of the men at these parties, I kept my wits about me.

Unlike them I refuse to get swept up in an opulent world that would never have me in it, and seeing as how my reality involved caring for my mom none of it really mattered to me.

I hoped that this party will be my last, seeing as how my mom was doing better these days. I planned to go back to school as I’d prefer to have a career where the people around me speak to me as an equal, and not a prop meant to facilitate their enjoyment.

The day of what I hoped would be my last party had me on champagne duty - offering flutes of bubbly far too expensive for someone like me to ever be able to afford.

I’d snuck a taste when my manager wasn’t looking and to be honest I couldn’t really tell the difference between the cheap stuff I got last New Year’s and the stuff I’m serving, but I suppose that’s the difference between a maid and party-goer.

“Ah, it’s my favorite serving girl!” the man I referred to as “Fedora” in my head exclaimed.

“Champagne sir?”

Even though Fedora would always try and talk to me, I treated him like I did the rest of these people - robotically going through the motions, not really caring or wanting to interact but hoping to get through the night without incident.

He attempted to dazzle me with his smile and disarm me with his wink, but truthfully it did nothing for me. I heard a few of the girls on hors d'oeuvre duty sigh dreamily at his gesture but my polite smile remained plastered on my face.

“One of these days,” he said taking a sip, “I’m going to get a real reaction out of you.”

“I hope you enjoy the rest of the party sir,” I said as I always did, purposefully moving away from him with the hope to terminate the interaction as soon as possible.

I heard him chuckle a bit before taking a sip of his champagne, and I turned my back in an attempt to weave through the crowd and put some space between us.

The past few hours had been spent in the packed ballroom, and I was relieved to know that once the remaining 9 champagne flutes were off my tray I’d be able to go home for the night.

The problem was at this point in time, with the party kicked into high gear, most of these people had drinks and weren’t as eager to grab a flute from me. However, at this point I was a veteran at these sorts of events, and I knew exactly who to approach.

I cornered an older gentleman who was accompanied by a woman inappropriately young (and clearly not his daughter), and baited him into impressing her with his knowledge of champagne. I convinced him that my flutes were the last of this bottle, and not wanting to pass up an opportunity to savor the “best drink at the party” they each took an extra flute for later, leaving me with 5.

From there, I approached the bar where I figured I’d manage to convince at least one or two impatient people to take a flute and enjoy the party instead of waiting for a drink of their choice. At first no one seemed interested, but as the line slowly inched forward, eventually I was rid of 3 more.

Having exhausted the bar area I tried to find a couple, and figuring that at this point in the night the men would be attempting to close the deal with their dates, made my way towards the terrace which was connected to the ballroom through a pair of opulent double doors.

Just as I’d expected, several couples enjoyed the romantic view, though sadly none of them seemed interested in my drinks. All of them were too busy gazing into each other’s eyes to even give me the courtesy of looking my way as they said, “No.”

After being rejected by the last couple on the terrace I found myself sighing and looking for a place to secretly stash the last two flutes so I could go home.

I was just about to drop the drinks on a small table by one of the outdoor couches when I realized that Purple was laying down, his arm draped across his face.

“Who’s there?” he asked, not bothering to open his eyes.

“Champagne, sir?”

I saw one of his eyes open and wearily he sat up.

“Sure. Join me.”

“Excuse me?”

“There’s two left and you’re trying to go home for the night. So give me one, take the other, and then go home.”

“How do you…”

“Because I’ve seen you working these parties for the past five years and I like to know a little about the people working for me.”

I froze, unsure of what to do as Purple rolled his eyes and got up, gently placing the glasses down on the table in front of the couch.

I tucked the tray under my arm and sat beside him, while my other arm picked up my glass of champagne and met his in a cheers before taking a sip.

“Well?”

“Well what?”

Purple scoffed, “What do you think of the champagne?”

“Its flavor is lost on me sir,” I admitted. “I can’t tell the difference between an expensive bottle and the cheap ones I drink.”

“Most people can’t, but at least have the good sense to lie,” he said with a chuckle.

“I don’t really see the benefit in that but I’ll keep it in mind moving forward.”

We drank a bit in silence and I tried to figure out how fast I could drain my glass without coming across as rude.

Occasionally I glanced over at Purple who seemed to have a permanent scowl on his face, and wondered silently what a wealthy individual such as himself had to scowl about.

He seemed the type of man to be able to solve all of his problems with money. He would never have to work a job like I had in order to help his family - he wealth gave him a kind of freedom that few people would ever experience in their lifetime, yet he continued to scowl.

“Is something wrong?” I finally asked, breaking all my usual rules for these events.

“No, why do you ask that?”

“You’re scowling.”

“This is just my face. Most women don’t have a problem with it.”

I shrugged, and took another sip.

“You know, you’re the only one who avoids us. Is it because you’re scared of Soryu?

“Who?”

Purple’s eyes widened, and then narrowed, “You really don’t know who I’m talking about?” I shook my head no.

“I hear the maids gossiping about us...surely you -”

“I don’t really pay attention to that.”

“What about Baba? Or Ota?”

These names were familiar, but only in the sense I’d heard them in passing. Once more I shrugged and took another sip.

“Wait...do you know my name?”

“Look sir, I’m going to be honest - I don’t really know about you or your friends. Am I supposed to?”

“I own this hotel.”

“That’s cool. Thank you for employing me,” I said awkwardly, taking another sip. Only a few more and my glass would be empty.

“That’s...cool?”

“I don’t know what you’d like me to say, sir.”

“You’re not nervous now that you know who I am?”

The champagne on an empty stomach was starting to get to me. I felt myself breaking my polite robotic server act and smiled.

“Technically I still don’t know who you are because you never gave me your name.”

“Eisuke Ichinomiya.”

“Nice to meet you Mr. Ichinomiya. I’m Niki.”

“Did you really not know who I was?”

“I guess your name is familiar, but I never thought it about much to be honest.”

Eisuke let out an incredulous sigh before starting to chuckle.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not, but I’ll make sure to remember you from now on Mr. Ichinomiya. Good night and enjoy the rest of your party.”

With my glass empty, I saw no reason to stay and excused myself with a small bow.

As I left a few of the girls I worked with stopped me to ask what I’d talked about on the terrace with Mr. Ichinomiya. I told them, as I would the following day that it was nothing of consequence, but they didn’t seem satisfied.

I gave my manager, Kenzaki, notice the next day - letting him know that I was planning to go back to school, all the while thanking him for the opportunity these past few years.

We worked out that I’d stay on for two more weeks, and for some reason I wondered if I’d be able to say goodbye to Purple before I left for good. I’d been thinking about him since our odd interaction and realized that in the 5 years I’d seen him, I’d never once seen him smile.

He’d always been in that suit, surrounded by women and friends who smiled in an obvious attempt to win his favor, and he’d just been present, scowling all the while. It was the same with everyone who approached him, and it soon had become obvious to me that he wasn’t as free as I’d initially thought.

He was trapped in a gilded cage, bound by his own reputation and wealth. Even though he had the freedom to go anywhere in the world he would always be approached by people who knew him and who hoped to benefit by knowing him.

In fact, the more I thought about his life the sadder it made me.

I realized that we are all bound by circumstance, and vowed that should I see him again before my time at the Tres Spades was up I’d wish him well and say goodbye.

As luck would have it, I didn’t see him until my second to last day where I noticed him walking through the lobby, fully aware of the eyes that followed him.

“Excuse, Mr. Ichinomiya?”

“What do you want?” he asked, clearly annoyed.

“Tomorrow is my last day and I just wanted to say goodbye and thank you,” I said with a bow.

“You have the nerve to thank me when you didn’t know who I was until recently?”

“I might not have known your name, or your job, but I knew of you. You were the guy who always took the last of my drinks so I could go home and for that...thank you.”

I bowed once more and saw as he walked away without a word.

I think most people would have been upset by his response, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t looking for anything else from him, and the next day my time working at his hotel came to an anticlimactic ending.

It’s been a few months since I worked at the Tres Spades and to be honest I haven’t really thought much about it.

My mom is in remission, and she’s started gardening and painting and doing all the things she used to do before she got sick. When I see her smile I know that the past five years working as a maid were worth it, and now I’m finally free to chase my own dreams.

I’ve returned to the college I dropped out of five years ago, and have tried to ignore the fact that my classes are filled with kids much younger than me who have no understanding of what the real world is like. I keep to myself just as I did at my job, and am happy that my first quarter grades have exceeded even my own expectations.

Occasionally I think of Purple and wonder if he’s found someone who sees him for who he is. This is not to say that I know him well enough to be that person, only that I hope he meets someone who doesn’t care about the potential benefit knowing him will bring, and only stays by his side with the hope to see his genuine, but elusive smile that hides under his seemingly permanent scowl.

(if you’re interested @robotloveskitten @uniqhoe @kingdomzeldaquest @hifftn @speakfearlessly1989)

Part 2 - His POV

#kissed by the bidder fanfic #kissed by the baddest bidder fan fic #eisuke ichinomiya #Soryu Oh #Ota Kisaki #Mitsunari Baba #kbtbb #kbtbb fanfic #voltage inc #voltage games #voltage romance sims #voltage romance games

207 notes · View notes

imagine-me-here · 7 years

Text

Steve and Steve (Steve Rogers x reader)

Summary: It’s the Fourth of July, which also means it’s Steve 99th birthday. After digging through your grandma’s attic, you’ve finally found the perfect gift. Media: Captain America, with some Wonder Woman! Genre: fluff, bit o’ crack, bit o’ angst Warnings: mentions of WWII and the sexism prevalent in that time Word count: 2,186 Notes: late and rambley, as per usual

Dust billowed around the room as you dug through the attic, clearing empty boxes out of the way and going through full ones. You smiled. If there was one thing your grandma was known for, it was collecting things--not stamps or coins, but any little thing she found, which you thought was much more endearing. Hand-painted beads, fine silver necklace chains, and bottle caps in different languages were all part of her collection, but there were two things you loved the most: an enlistment flyer depicting Captain America urging women to join the army, and a photograph of her in her nurse’s uniform, holding a book, standing next to the one and only Star Spangled Man with a Plan.

You remember when she first showed you these keepsakes. You were only six years old, but it was then and there that you not only fell in love with Captain America, but made him your role model. There was no other mantra you lived by more consistently than “What would Captain America do?” Of course, you had had no idea that you actually end up dating the Captain.

The doorbell rung and you bounded down the stairs, throwing the door open.

“(Y/N)!”

“Grandma!”

You leant down and gave her a hug, then pushed her wheelchair to the kitchen.

“Happy Fourth of July!” She exclaimed as you handed her a cup of tea. Your grandmother was one of the most stubborn people you had ever met, refusing to stop drinking her afternoon tea even on Independence Day.

“And to you too! Grandma, I was going through the attic and you won’t believe what I found.”

She laughed heartily. “Try me, dear. I collected some pretty bizarre trinkets through my years...and I’ve collected as many years as I have trinkets!”

“Yeah, but I don’t think anything could top this.” You carried over the box and put it on the table, handing her the flyer and the photograph. You watched as her eyes filled with melancholy, and you knew she was thinking about the war.

“I’m sorry, grandma, I didn’t mean for you to…”

“Oh, nonsense,” she said, although she wiped away a tear when she thought you weren’t looking. “It’s Independence Day. I can’t be sad on Independence Day. I remember when exactly when this photo was taken. Strangely enough, it was 75 years ago, to the day. Which means it was also your boyfriend’s birthday,” she said, winking. “Speaking of, what are you going to get him?”

No one else knew about your relationship with Steve, except for the other Avengers and your grandmother.

“I’m not sure, grandma. I really wanted to get him something special for his 99th birthday, believe me, but between work and school I don’t know where time went.”

“You’re in luck, dear, because I know just the thing.” She dug around the cardboard box, pulling out a paper bag and handing it to you. Cautiously, you reached inside. Three original first-print Wonder Woman comics.

“Grandma,” you breathed. “Where did you get these?”

“All of the women in the army would get them in their welcome package, along with their uniform. It meant a great deal more than you can imagine, being able to read about a woman, even a fictional one, kicking Nazi ass just as well, if not better, than the men.”

“Grandma!”

“What? It’s true. And being a female officer at the time was quite a challenge. If you weren’t avoiding shellfire while trying to clean a gunshot wound, you were being catcalled by your fellow soldiers.” She picked up the photograph again and pointed out the books tucked under her arm. “Those are the comics I was carrying. I remember them well because as we waited for the photographer to get ready, Captain America and I talked about how much we loved Wonder Woman. Just as the photo was taken he told me how I was prettier than the Amazon herself.”

The young woman in the photo wore a huge smile, and despite the fact that it was in black and white, you could tell she was blushing.

“Now go give these to your boyfriend,” she said, handing you the paper bag and the photograph. As you left the house, you heard her calling “And give him a kiss from me!”

It was a bit of squeeze, between visiting your grandma, packing a bag at the DC apartment you shared with Steve, and catching a flight to New York, but you managed anyway. As a journalist, you had mastered the art of multitasking, especially on a deadline.

Your flight landed at LaGuardia at just after five, leaving you enough time to get to Avengers Tower before dinner. Tony had planned a joint Cap’s birthday/Fourth of July celebration, and knowing how insane Tony’s parties could get, you didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

As your Uber pulled up to the airport, you fired off a quick text to Steve letting him know you had landed safely. You reaches down to put your phone away in your backpack and felt the brown paper bag. Phew. Still intact. You were no comic collector, but first-edition Wonder Womans had to be worth a least a few thousand.

You approached Avengers Tower and tipped the driver extra, wishing him a happy Fourth of July. A tall figure in a white suit came into view, walking briskly down the hall.

“Thanks, Ms. Potts,” you said as she unlocked the door

“Please, (Y/N), call me Pepper. It's after five, so I'm officially off office hours.” She reached up and pulled her strawberry blonde hair out of its perfect chignon, shaking it out and letting it fall stylishly across her shoulders.

“Ooh, this pepper is getting spicy!” You exclaimed, high-fiving her.

The two of you rode the glass elevator up to the penthouse. Below you could already see miniature bursts of colour as people set off backyard, or rather rooftop, fireworks. Tony Stark was probably the only person in New York City who could afford a backyard big enough.

The doors opened and you saw Tony, Natasha, and the rest of the Avengers hanging decorations and preparing food and drinks. Vision hung streamers on every possible surface. Wanda, Nat, and Bruce mixed drinks while Bucky grilled hamburgers. Tony hooked up his surround sound system to his laptop as Thor stared, bewildered, at the screen, trying to figure out who Spotify was and how she could hold thousands of songs in this thin rectangle. Scott, Clint, and Sam dug through a box of disguises for the photo booth. And Steve--wait, where was Steve?

“Happy Fourth of July, babe,” Steve whispered, popping up behind you and nearly giving you a heart attack.

“Jesus Christ!” You said, lightly punching him on the arm.

“Nope, just Captain America. Sorry to disappoint.” You rolled your eyes at this stupid joke.

“How did I end up with someone as silly as you? You’re supposed to be some gallant, suave, heroic national icon, not a dad joke generator.”

“Yeah, Steve! Don’t be ridiculous. This is no time for your antics,” Sam said, bedecked in a stars-and-stripes top hat and a fake white beard.

“Very mature, Uncle Sam,” Steve said.

“I was worried you guys were gonna start the party without me,” you said to Steve.

“In the words of the immortal Ke$ha, I believe, ‘The party don’t start til you walk in’.”

“Wow. Really brushing up on your current top 40 hits, are you?”

“Shut up. That song is what, two years old?”

“I think about five,” you replied.

“Seven,” you heard Pepper call from the kitchen.

“No, four,” Tony added.

“Seven.”

“Trust me, four.”

“Seven!”

“JARVIS, when was Ke$ha’s Tik Tok released?” Tony asked, exasperated

“Tik Tok, off Ke$ha’s debut album, was released in 2010, sir.”

Tony turned back to Pepper with a knowing look. “Told you.” Pepper rolled her eyes at him and Tony stuck out his tongue in response.

“Look, babe, it’s you and me in five years.”

“Don’t count on it. I don’t think I can put up with your dad jokes and outdated references for that long.”

It wasn’t even midnight and you were already exhausted. All of the travel, mixed with an unhealthy dose of alcohol, had you nearly dozing off.

“Sleeping Beauty need a wittle naptime?”

“Shut your face, Bucky. I travelled 400 kilometers today. What did you do? Besides make out with Steve?”

The Winter Soldier blushed and turned away, refusing to make eye contact for the rest of the night.

“You coming to see the fireworks, sweetheart?” Steve asked, nudging you off his shoulder.

You looked and smiled at him. “Of course. I wouldn't miss it for the world.”

The two of you joined the rest of the party out on Tony’s sprawling balcony, where a box of fireworks and a bucket of sand lay.

“So I made fireworks for each one of you. We'll set off the normal ones and then you can each come up and light yours,” Tony said, standing in front of the crowd.

“Did he just say ‘made fireworks’?” You whispered to Pepper.

“I tried as hard as I could, (Y/N). He finally said that I was right, it was too dangerous, and he was going to do some paperwork. It wasn't until I heard the explosion in the basement that I realised, but he had locked me out of the lab. I tried, (Y/N), I really did.” You nodded sympathetically. Once Tony had set his mind in something, there was no changing it.

Tony set off fireworks and Steve sat down beside you, pulling your fleece blanket off of you and wrapping it around himself.

“Hey, if you keep acting like a jerk you won't get your present.”

“You have presents?” He asked, eyes wide.

“Of course! It's your birthday, and you're the one and only Star--”

“Don't you fucking dare.”

“Language! Golly-gosh, you have a potty mouth.” You reached into your purse and pulled out the paper bag, handing it to him. Tentatively, he reached in and pulled out the three comics, well-thumbed through but still in mint condition.

“Don't tell me these are…” his voice trailed off as his crystal blue eyes met yours. You nodded, and he stated at the comics incredulously. “How?”

“My grandmother,” you said, showing him the picture. “She was a nurse in the 250th Station Hospital Nurses. She says she you told her--”

“That she was prettier than Diana,” Steve interrupted, a sad smile on his face. “I remember her, (Y/N). Is she still…?”

“Yeah, I visited her this morning,” you said. You were grinning, but you hadn't realised that tears were slipping down your cheek. “So, you were a Wonder Woman fan?”

“Always was, always will be. She was my first fictional crush. Everytime she called out for Steve, I imagined she was calling my name.”

“If my subtraction is right, weren't you 24 years old?”

“I saved the world, like, seven times, so you have no right to make fun of me.”

You took a couple rocket pops from the box Clint was passing around and handed one to your boyfriend “Sure, Capsicle. Does that mean I should be jealous of Wonder Woman?”

“Of course not! But, if you ever wanted to wear a golden tiara, I would be totally down for that.”

“‘Totally down’? Catching on fast with the lingo.”

“Hey, (Y/N)?”

“Yeah?”

“I just want to say thank you for the gift. It was a difficult time, and I'm sorry if I ever seem closed off about it. Especially after what happened with Bucky...I wanted to seal that part of my life away for a very, very long time. But I realised that back then, like now, there were little glimmers of good. I might've met her for three minutes, but that's all I needed to know that your grandmother was one of those bright spots. Can you do something for me, (Y/N)?”

“Of course, love.”

“Go visit your grandma and give her a kiss from me.”

“I will, Steve, I will.” You hugged him tightly and he wiped away a fresh tear. “Can I have a kiss from you too, Mister America?”

“I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be a captain in there.”

You watched as each person set off their themed fireworks, one by one. Finally, it was Steve's turn and you could see his sad smile, still melancholy, bathed in pale moonlight and etched in memories. blue, white, and red embers sparkled in the sky.

He kissed you as the last of the fireworks went off, little sparks in your country's colours exploding above your head. He pulled away and looked at you, the red, white, and blue embers reflected on your faces.

“You're more beautiful than Diana herself.”

“You're more handsome than Steve Trevor.”

“Hey, when this thing ends, can we go see Wonder Woman?”

“We'll see,” you said, but then Steve offered his hand to dance under the fireworks, and you knew the answer would be yes.

#steve rogers x reader #captain america x reader #marvel fanfiction #steve trevor #wonder woman #fanfic #marvel #i didn't use italics what the heck

38 notes · View notes

hollowgroverp · 7 years

Photo

“I’m Mayor Cresswell and I’d like to welcome you to the 30th annual Spring Fling! Today we have seventeen very charitable suitors who have willing offered up their afternoon for a wonderful cause. The Displaced Children’s Fund, to support supernatural children displaced by the cruelties of our world is a cause close to so many of us. All proceeds of today’s event will go to the fund. Now settle in will begin the bidding momentarily....”

Below the cut you will find the 17 baskets that were submitted for the event. Bidding will take place until Saturday, at which point the bidding will close and the admin will pair up the bids with basket. We will do our best to ensure everyone gets matched up with someone. If you would like a certain pairing based on plot reasons let us know and we can make it happen.

How to bid: Comment on this post with your characters name and their three bids. If you bid you must place three bids to ensure we can make proper pairings. ex: Freya Fairchild bids on basket 1, 4, and 15. If you do not follow the bidding rules ie: you bid once or you send an ask, your bid will not be considered.

When will the picnics take place: They will take place during the event immediately following the auction. These threads can carry on after the event ends but we encourage you to reach out to your pairing and plot.

Finally have fun with it!

Basket 1 submits a brown wicker basket, whose lids are painted to look like Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre, respectively. A fleece blanket that looks like Harry Potter’s Marauder’s Map is folded at the bottom. The food: ham sandwiches, homemade trail mix , ambrosia salad, brownies, and miniature bottles of apple juice.

Basket 2 submits a white wicker basket. A pale-blue afghan with white-and-blue-fringe is folded on top. Inside is a bottle of wine, plus two bottles of water in case they aren’t inclined to drink. A salad with garlic croutons, parmesan cheese, and Caesar dressing on the side. Roast beef sandwiches with Provolone. Pecan pie tarts for dessert.

Basket 3 submits a dark wooden crate with a small portable grill, charcoal and matches at the bottom. An IOU for two steaks that are being refrigerated else where and ready to grill. Two potatoes prepared with all the fixings. There are two fire pokers, two chocolate bar, a bag of marshmallows, and a box of graham crackers for smores. On top is a folded blue and white plaid blanket and the board game scrabble.

Basket 4 submits grilled salmon, steak, potatoes, and a twelve pack of beer. “Basket” is an old picnic basket with Tupperware hastily stacked inside that looks like it is about to fall apart, held together with duct tape, tine, and probably a lot of luck.

Basket 5 submits lobster, steamed broccoli, apple pie, vanilla ice cream (all of which are homemade), and red wine. Basket is light blue and very carefully packed so everything fits neatly, covered with a pale blanket tucked in at corners. Everything looks very deliberate and carefully planned.

Basket 6 submits a plain white envelope with ? on the front in order to surprise his guest of honor with their meal.

Basket 7 submits a chestnut brown picnic basket, filled with a bottle of white Pinot Grigio, two wine glasses, a platter of brie cheese as well as an assortment of dipping options like french bread and crackers. Also there is a small container of green and red grapes, and a container filled with an awry of small finger-food like cold meats to pick at. The blanket is plainly black with three thick white strips along horizontally sitting at the bottom of the basket, and atop that are two plates with forks.

Basket 8 submits a medium blue cooler with a pack of twenty red solo cups, two ping pong balls, a bottle of Jägermeister, two glass cups, and a 6-pack of Heineken. At the bottom of the cooler there’s a folded blue and white checkered blanket. In an envelope taped to the front of the cooler there’s a small note that has “This coupon is redeemable for one good time” written on a piece of paper. For food there are two brown paper bags, each have a hamburger and fries inside, and there are also two store bought chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Basket 9 submits a brown willow picnic basket. Inside the basket there is a bottle of red wine Château Haut-Brion 1998 and two crystal wine glasses. There’s a smaller box within the basket filled with artisan cheeses from around the world, crispbread crackers, Tuscan herb Salami, a small cutting board and cheese knives. In addition to the cheese box there are turkey caprese sandwiches on ciabatta bread, a small fruit platter, and chocolate cookies.

Basket 10 submits a Classic Wicker Picnic Basket With Built-in Food Compartment With Fleece Blanket. Inside you’ll find: A bowel of grapes and strawberry, two wines glasses and a white wine with melted chocolate and different sandwiches.

Basket 11 submits an American Flag lined basket. Inside you’ll find: two servings BBQ ribs, potato salad, and corn on the cob, as well as a pitcher of lemonade iced tea and a peach cobbler, two plates, two sets of silverware, and two glasses. Inside is also an Army camo blanket, and two Dodgers baseball hats.

Basket 12 submits a black wicker basket lined in red. Inside: Fresh homemade bread, a fine selection of cheese (brie, camembert, pyrénées sheep, smokey etc), fresh fruits, chocolates, and a bottle of red wine.

Basket 13 submits a Trapper Pack Basket, Waxed Canvas packed with Hawaiian rolls, Macadamia nut oil to finish salads and seafood, macadamia nuts enrobed in milk chocolate, crispy pineapple slices, and rare Hawaiian white honey with a sensuously textured mouth feel. With a singular note at the bottom, “I can show you the world.” ALSO INCLUDES: headgear for a helicopter ride.

Basket 14 submits a metal basket with large thermos full of coffee, two travel mugs, and half a dozen assorted donuts. At the bottom of the basket there’s a folded green blanket. There’s also two BLT sandwiches, two coronas, a bag of sour cream & onion lays chips, and two pieces of cheesecake. Tucked to the side is “Dog-opoly” with extra “get out of jail free” cards taped to the box in a plastic bag. Resting on the top of the other items is a stuffed bear dressed like a police officer.

Basket 15 submits a light brown basket with a dark red blanket inside. It also includes a bottle of whiskey and an insulated bottle of ice with two drink glasses, homemade banana pudding, a pot of spaghetti and meatballs, a side of garlic bread and two plates, two sets of silverware and white linen napkins and a small wooden box filled with craft supplies (paper, glitter, scissors, felt, markers, pipe cleaners)

Basket 16 submits a tan picnic basket with a green sheet folded up inside. It also includes a six pack of beer, two personal pepperoni pizzas, two slices of strawberry cheesecake and tied to it by a ribbon there is a slightly larger picnic basket that’s filled with paint filled balloons.

Basket 17 submits a dark brown wicker basket with a navy blue ribbon tied around it and a matching fleece blanket folded up inside. It also includes, chocolate covered strawberries, a bottle of Gin and a tightly closed glass bottle of tonic water with two glasses, two hero sandwiches and a DVD copy of Casablanca along with a small projector

#hgevent #hgspringfling #please be sure to read everything #bids submitted incorrectly will not be considered

21 notes · View notes

msamba · 4 years

Text

Choose Your Own Adventure | The World’s Largest Model Railway

If you love model trains, you will lose your mind on our visit to Miniatur Wunderland. There are more than 1,000 trains traveling 16,000 kilometers of track at the world’s largest model railway, located in Hamburg, Germany. But it’s not just trains. This small-scale world of wonder features mini versions of landscapes ranging from…

View On WordPress

#Art #construction #infrastructure #technology

0 notes

thomasmith1995-blog · 6 years

Text

Time to Visit Top 5 Cities in Europe

Milan is then one of the beautiful city in world, It is Located in Lombardy in Northern Italy. Milan is fashion and finance capital of Italy. A city which has glorious past, it is home for the designers like Prada, Armani and Versace. It is true, that Milan is impressive shopping centers interest nearly as many visitors as the city’s centuries-old cultural institutions. With charms in Milan like the Duomo Cathedral, La Scala and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper it’s no wonder that Milan is Italy’s third most visited city after Rome and Venice.

If you are planning to visit of Milan then you should have idea that in month of August many business and shops are closed, not only shop but many local people are on holiday like going for any other place. So, Book Flights from Orlando to Milan and you can enjoy here.

Kraków, city in Poland, Krakow is one of the finest city located in Poland, Europe. Its west side land touch Germany. There are many place to visit in Krakow like Main Market Square, St. Mary’s Basilica, Wawel Castle is one of the most imposing royal castles of Europe, Kazimierz Jewish Quarter and many more. So, Book Flights From Orlando to Krakow now and save up to 30%.

Zagreb, capital of Croatia remember that Croatia who played final of FIFA world cup 2018 in Russia, although they are not winner but they amazed everyone around the world by their playing quality. There are several tourist place in Zagreb which are so beautiful, you can enjoy, Upper Town (Gornji Grad), Zagreb Cathedral and Treasury, The Museum of Broken Relationships and many more. So, Book Flights Form Boson to Zagreb and enjoy your holiday.

Hamburg, Hamburg is second largest city in Germany after Berlin. The Port of Hamburg is called as Gateway to Germany. There is so many tourist attraction place in Hamburg like Miniatur Wunderland, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg Rathaus (City Hall) and Mönckebergstraße and many more. Hamburg is good place for holiday. So, Book Flights From Boston to Hamburg and save money as we are providing discount on every booking.

Chisinau, chisinau capital of Eastern Europe's Republic of Moldova and one of the beautiful cities of Moldova. You can go Valea Morilor Park one of the beautiful park full of greenery. Nativity Cathedral Chișinău and many more place here to visit so far. So, planning to go for Chisinau then Book Flights from Orlando to Chisinau and you can save more money here.

Original Source- https://getairlinesnewsandinfo.blogspot.com/2019/02/top-5-best-destination-in-europe.html

#milan #hamburg #krakow #zagreb #chisinau

0 notes

benjamingarden · 4 years

Text

Weekending

the dining room is painted!

the temporary garden fence (permanent will be wooden framed with wood posts)

If you have an air fryer and have Fried Mozzarella Stick fans in your household, this is a recipe that is super simple and my husband adores! (I had to reduce the cooking time almost in half)

Weekending was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)

0 notes

thingsilikeon · 7 years

Video

youtube

via Miniatur Wunderland *** official video *** largest model railway / railroad of the world The official video about Miniatur Wunderland Hamburg, the largest model railway in the world, and one of the most successful tourist attractions in Germany. On the 1.300 m² large layout, far more than a thousand trains, aircrafts, cars and ships move about. A wonder of the world in miniature. For more videos from Miniature Wunderland, hit the subscribe button and leave a like if you want. Please, find more information on http://ift.tt/kX7TMG

#IFTTT #YouTube

0 notes

musicheritageuk · 7 years

Text

Around the (Beatles) Universe

While Liverpool has a huge, and seemingly ever-growing, number of Beatles sights, locations, venues and attractions, the band’s huge significance around the world means a number of lesser-known tributes to the Fab Four have popped up in some unlikely locations.

We’ve shared 17 (seventeen!) of them in our buzzfeed-style post below. Our thanks to Atlas Obscura for originally sharing some of these with us and inspiring this post.

1. Strawberry Fields, New York City (USA) We start with probably the best-known tribute outside of the UK. Built some five years after Lennon’s death outside of his apartment building round the corner, the mosaic features the word “Imagine” and has become a world-wide symbol of peace. The site is “overseen” by super-fan Gary dos Santos who began visiting the site in the 1990s and was told by John Lennon to maintain the site... this discussion took place in his dreams. Photo: Corey Seeman (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Flickr)

2. Beatles-Plaz, Hamburg (Germany) Sent to the North German city by their manager in 1960, the band who would become the Fab Four cut their teeth playing epic live sets at a range of bars, clubs and theatres. Fast-forward to 2006 and the City has renamed a square in honour of the Beatles and unveiled a memorial featuring the band members and some of their most famous songs. According to Wikipedia, the initial engravings had some spelling mistakes at launch, but these have since been corrected. Photo: Heide Daniel (CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia)

3. Walnut Ridge, Arkansas (USA) This small town celebrates one of the most famous stop-overs in history when the Beatles changed planes here in 1964. After a successful concert in Dallas, Texas, the Beatles arrived in the dead of night and went largely unnoticed. Spending the weekend in Misouri, the Fab Four had no idea that their return to Walnut Ridge chaos would ensue and they had to change planes again, only this time they were surrounded by 300 screaming teenagers. The event has been the subject of a documentary and the focus of an annual music festival. Furthermore, the city has unveiled, not one but two, Beatles themed monuments and renamed a city-centre street, Abbey Road. Photo: Thomas R. Machnitzkil (CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia)

4. Lennon Wall, Prague (Czech Republic) Like the recent tributes to Bowie in Brixton, Lennon’s Wall spontaneously sprang up in the aftermath of his death in 1980. Sitting opposite the French embassy, local authorities have tried in vain to paint over the graffiti which in 1988 often took a political tone and enabled the youth to vent their frustrations at the communist regime. This also inspired a wall in Hong Kong in 2014 (see below). The wall today is resplendent and colourful and changes regularly with new graffiti on a regular basis celebrating global ideals such as love and peace. Photo: Infrogmation (CC BY 2.5, Wikimedia)

5. Lennon Wall, Hong Kong (China) Inspired by how the Lennon Wall in Prague enabled the youth to share their displeasure at the political regime, pro-democracy protestors in Hong Kong set up a similar wall only rather than graffiti, it was with post-it notes that political points were made. Photo: Ceeseven (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia)

6. Imagine Peace Tower, Reykjavík (Iceland) An outdoor work of art conceived by Yoko Ono in memory of John Lennon featuring a single beam of light shining into the sky. It is situated on Viðey Island in Reykjavík, Iceland and was unveiled on October 9th 2007, John Lennon’s 67th birthday. Find out more at their website. Photo: TetsuRo Hamada (CC BY-ND 2.0, Flickr)

7. Beatles Statue, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) Even in one of the world’s most remote capitals, there’s a Beatles tribute… The monument features bronze statues of the band in front of an apple shaped wall. Behind the wall, there’s a statue of a young man strutting a guitar representing the 1970s when groups of teenagers would gather to sing Beatles songs learnt from bootleg records smuggled here from Eastern Europe. Photo: Whatleydude (CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia)

8. Beatles Museum/The Cavern, Buenos Aires (Argentina) We’re not talking about our favourite music attraction, the Beatles Story in Liverpool, but rather a museum in Buenos Aires opened by Collector Rodolfo Vazquez who shares his world record breaking 8,500 strong collection of Beatles memorabilia with the world. His favourite? 64 boxes of chewing gum in the form of miniature albums which allude to the 16 Beatles records. For good measure he’s also opened a nightclub called The Cavern next door. Photo: Wally Gobetz (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)

9. The Cathedral Gallery, Rishikesh (India) The Ashram of The Maharishi Mahesh where the Beatles came to learn about transcendental meditation in the late 1960s. Today a ruin in the middle of the jungle, a bribe to local guides will show you the way to the site which was taken over by a community of artists for two weeks in 2012. Adorning the walls are murals, graffiti and other artworks. We feel the Beatles would probably have approved. Find out more about the project on Facebook. Photo: Thoralf Gutierrez (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)

10. John Lennon statue, Almeria (Spain) Lennon is said to have composed ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ while staying in the area for the shooting of Richard Lester’s comedy film, How I Won The War. Inspired by the wrought iron gates of the villa where he was staying which reminded him of similar gates outside Strawberry Fields in Liverpool, he is said to have complete the song in the home’s bathroom. The villa has since been abandoned but still attracts thousands of curious Beatles’ tourists every year. The city have, however, unveiled a statue of Lennon. Photo: Faber (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)

11. John Lennon Park, Havana (Cuba) Despite the music of the Beatles being banned by the Communist regime, the people of Cuba listened and loved their music thanks to bootleg tapes. 20 years after his death, Fidel Castro changed his mind and unveiled this statue and park for the singer, celebrating the musician as a hero and a fellow revolutionary. Photo: Terry Feuerborn (CC BY-NC 2.0, Flickr)

12. John Lennon statue, San Miguel, Lima (Peru) This statue was unveiled by the local mayor (who also happens to be a massive Beatles fan) and it is South America’s only permanent tribute to John Lennon and the Fab Four. Photo: I Heart Pandas (CC BY-NC 2.0, Flickr)

13. John Lennon Memorial Garden, Durness (Scotland) The location in a remote part of Scotland (the village is the most north-westerly place on mainland Britain) seems an odd place for a tribute, but a young John Lennon came on holiday here as a child visiting his family and there are still many locals who remember him. A garden next to the village hall featuring quotes from the man offers a touching and humble tribute to Lennon. Photo: Ivan Hall (CC BY-SA 2.0, Geograph.co.uk)

14. David Adickes’ Beatles Statues, Houston, Texas (USA) Standing 36 foot tall and weighing four tonnes each, these statues by artist (and friend of Picasso) David Adickes’ are currently sat in the car park of Houston brewery The Eighth Wonder until they find a new owner willing to stump up $350,00 for the concrete and wire statues. Photo: JaseMan (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)

15. Beatles Tribute, Yekaterinburg (Russia) A wall sculpture dedicated to the Fab Four in central Russia pays testament to the band’s enduring influence on Russians who illegally listened to the band. Photo: Yashmenev (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)

16. Rock ‘n Roll McDonalds, Chicago (USA) Featuring a mini-museum to rock music, this McDonalds absolutely has no qualms about featuring prominent vegetarian and animal rights activist Paul McCartney to sell burgers. It must work though as Wikipedia claims that this outlet was once the busiest McDonalds in the world. Photo: Antonio Vernon (CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia)

17. Beatles’ Statues in Alamaty (Kazakstan) Created by artist Eduard Kazaryan, these cartoonish statues were unveiled in 2007. Photo: Ken and Nyetta (CC BY 2.0, Flickr)

#the beatles #John Lennon #statues

0 notes