#Viking program

[science70]

Astronomer Carl Sagan stands in front of a Viking lander mockup in Death Valley, California, c. late 1970s.

[lonestarflight]

Concept art of the assembly of Viking orbiter/lander in orbit using two Space Shuttles (NAR-130-J configuration).

Date: December 1972

Drew Granston's Collection

NASA ID: S70-6004-X, 70-H-1660

[underragingwaves]

[pollyna]

au: Iceman lives but he's still doing chemio, Mav and Slider have a kind of hate/hate/love relationship but when it comes to their mutual friend they pair up faster than you could ever believed. Oh, and Hondo is fuckin' smart, he follows Mav from job to job because he likes to go around and meet new people and have new challenges everytime, before he gets bored.

Warning for homophobic assholes, angst, slurs and not enough punching.

Sunny outside doesn't mean Maverick is happy. This fucking new place where they moved the base is always sunny and he would appreciate it if heat could give them a little breath because it's just the end of march and they already have to switch on the air conditioner and that made Tom get cold again. It's never a good day when his husband gets sick because of stupid stuff it could be avoided. Better yet, it is never going to be a good day until a cold won't degenerate into fever and long nights fighting sleep and nightmares.

He fucking misses Miramar, their favourite spot on the beach and the gentle old lady who used to spend the afternoon with Ice playing cards, watching stupid telenovelas and keeping him company when Maverick had to be elsewhere.

The new class isn't helping his mood either. The best of the best and a new brand of fucking assholes who doesn't listen to him, makes him want to punch everybody in the face and likes Cyclone a little too much for his, and Hondo's, taste. Hondo not liking an entire class says much, especially after three years of teaching at TOPGUN and the number of years the man himself spend working with many different kinds of people in every program the brass moved him to.

If on a normal and sunny day Maverick would have just let it slide and got back to them making the exercise just a little more difficult to complete, today he just can't, not again and not after what he heard while walking in his classroom. Skylab is the first voice he hears but Viking is the one who answers and the deafening silence from the others doesn't help. It hurts a bit when not even Empress, the only decent person and a very good pilot, says something.

The brass let a faggot like Kazansky win this stupid fucking price and then made him Admiral. Who knows how many favours he had to do just to enter the Navy.

Probably not as many he had to do all these years to save Captain Mavsshole. Probably he has AIDS and not even cancer but they are just too ashamed, to tell the truth, or everyone would ask too many questions.

Pete has to count until ten and then until a hundred and then another time until a hundred before taking another step. He knows all his seeing, and hearing, is just blind rage and it could make it worst, probably ending up in prison or in the hospital and then Ice should get up to fetch him and he isn't in the state to do anything, he shouldn't do anything if not get better. He counts from one hundred to zero a third time, takes a deep breath and thinks he can handle this without resulting in homicide and a dishonourable discharge from the Navy and leaving so much mess to clean to Carlos and David. He likes them and he likes having lunch with them. So no to punch because then his husband should come for him and he can't, no to kill or he's going to lose two friends but he can't act as if nothing happened. So he'll have to think about what to do and they're going to regret even letting their own brain think about something like that.

The punishment arrives in town under the shape of one Ron Slider Kerner who decided to come around to see his best friend and spent time making Maverick's week a complete hell. Or maybe not.

When he comes back home that same night Slider is already around, sitting on the couch, talking with Ice about something and someone who got married down in Cali and people Mav doesn't know. Tom looks a little better and just that makes the day a little less heavy, when they kiss hello he can feel his husband's hands around his face and their grip is stronger every day and that would have made his knees give up and cry a little because it was such a close call this time he almost can't still believe this man, four starts admiral Tom Iceman Kazansky, is still alive and fighting and kissing him when he comes back home. Then Slider cough and oh, oh man now he knows what to do and how to make that bunch of assholes pay. They're going to hell without moving a step and they're blissful unaware of what it's waiting for them.

He has to wait after dinner after Ice is in bed and Slider is tidying around because he lived with Ice too and took some of his husband freakish habit when it comes to have a spotless kitchen in a spotless house. So Slider, I have a favour to ask he announces once he's back in front of him and Slider's smirk is a very knowing one. And so the game begins.

Wednesday morning is a little cooler than Tuesday and Ice's cold seems a less intense. He takes Slider with him because he must see the new state of art place where he's working he says to Ice and his husband laughs and looks like he's sayin' I know something is going on, be careful babe. 

The class is already sitting in their usual spots, a pilot and their RIO every row, and they look at them walking in with the most confused expression ever. Oh, you don't have the slightest idea of what is going to happen now. 

Class this is Captain Ron Kerner, callsign Slider, he was Admiral Kazansky's RIO for most of their years in the air and he's going to teach you a couple of things this week. He worked around a little bit, after he stop flying, went to DC, decided to put his ass on a chair and then went back in combat with some very tough dudes who taught him a thing or two. He's here for a visit and, over dinner, I was thinking it would have been so nice to have him over to teach you something new. He was so happy to accept. 

Slider is subtle in what he does and how he does his work, he learned it following Ice around during his first years in his Admiral carrier and perfect the rest working on his own projects at the Pentagon and around DC. He takes the all class up in the sky at five am, makes them run miles every time their manoeuvres aren't exactly by the book, gives homework and books to read, checks their rooms and confiscated their alcohol and cigarettes, and takes them to the veteran home and forgets them there for a whole day because he has to take Ice to try the new ice cream place, then comes back at eight in the evening, makes them run again, questions them about politics and tactics and makes them running a little more. But the worst is the inactivity: after spending days moving around like the world is going to end the second next to this one, he makes them sit in class st five-thirty in the morning and makes them wait. For an hour, then two and then three. It's eight-thirty and Slider is strolling in the classroom looking like someone who had the best sleep and coffee in his life while every single student is dying to sleep, drink something other than water and, generally, their poor brains are begging do something. Good morning class, today we have a nine-hour lecture, so get ready to have your world shake and you're going to learn stuff you're never going to forget.

Almost ten hours later, a break of thirty minutes around midmorning and Slider smiles and announces, candied as the day his parents baptized him, that everything has a reason in this life and a day of lectures on the culture of queer people, slurs, AIDS and flying is the bare minimum they deserve and he's going to make sure no one's name is going to end of the plaque because they don't deserves such an honour, or any honor, when they can't give the basic respect to a human, let alone to one of their superiors. And yes, every single one of them is going to get back in flight school, even if it will cost Slider and Maverick all the favours they have to ask, and not isn't just because of the comment on Admiral Kazansky, that was only the last straw and yes Viking you can call the President of the United States for all I care.

It's Wednesday again, it's raining outside, Maverick is making pancakes for three people, he doesn't have to go to work because he doesn't have a new class for at least another month and a half, Slider is looking around as if he was the king of the world and Ice is trying really hard not to ask what his husband and best friend did. He's going to read a report, a couple of days later, very detailed about everything that happened but by then Slider will be back in DC and Maverick will be fussing about taking a walk and looking to adopt a cat and starting a new hobby that will get them out of the house every time they can.

For now, Tom enjoys the pace and some delicious pancake, while Mav and Slider finish forging a strange new alliance, signed over the promise of mutual help and no question asked when needed.

[kdsburneraccount]

mods asleep post doodles

[caterpillarinacave]

lads, the autism won today!

[soldier-poet-king]

I broke down and expressed my stress and sadness and ennui to my aunt and mother and they were like "well that's just being an adult :))) get used to it :))) life isnt always a cakewalk"

Oh???? That's what my life has been this far??? With all the work I put into my education, paying tuition, and untreated mental illness??? It's just "supposed to be like this"???

And like? Absolutely not??? Humans were not made and evolved for this kind of society and I am deeply angry and upset and also maybe laid on the floor and cried a bit

[prettylittlelifeforms]

that scene where everyone is insulting Julian’s holosuite programs and Rom mentions a viking program….. show us the program cowards

[rastronomicals]

9:08 PM EDT April 24, 2024:

The Mercury Program - "Fluorescent Laces" From the album Chez Viking (November 24, 2009)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

File under: Post-rock

[tyrannuspitch]

oh god i need to write about loki as a shitty manipulative angsty teenager again. writing about omnicidal supervillains is fun and all but i need to reactivate his justsomeguyness and get him to do some more run of the mill bad person shit it's IMPORTANT... he's not just a fallen supervillain he's also some guy's awful ex. We Must Understand This. hhhhh

[girlonthelasttrain]

There are several NGO-funded ships currently operating in the central Mediterranean Sea with the specific intent of saving migrants from what has been for years one of the deadliest migration routes in the world. Here is partial list:

Geo Barents (Médecins Sans Frontières)

Ocean Viking (SOS Méditerranée)

Aurora, Sea Watch 3 and Sea Watch 5 (Sea Watch)

Life Support (Emergency)

Open Arms and other ships (Open Arms)

Another important resource for migrants in distress at sea is the hotline AlarmPhone.

Since 2016 these rescue missions have become more and more onerous to fund as EU countries have progressively strengthened the Frontex program while at the same time criminalizing NGO-led search and rescue operations. (Italy has been at the forefront of this trend, and a shipwreck on the coast of Calabria in late February this year only managed to strengthen the resolve of the current government to make it even more complex for NGOs to try and rescue migrants.) So while it definitely won't solve the root issue, donating to these NGOs still has a tangible effect.

[teamivankaye]

Happy weekend with our yearly #Halloween manual on how to dress like our epic King Aelle! 🎃👑😊

Don't forget the deadline for personalized autographs from the #GermanVikingsCon on 25th October! ⏰

Also find the program attached:

Meet & greet tickets are up now ➡️ https://www.eventbrite.de/e/german-vikings-con-2022-tickets-377994410457

And we get a panel with Ivan and Moe - King Aelle and his highly appreciated son-in-law Aethelwulf! (They also like each other in real life).

Watch out for Ivan's awesome announcement video coming soon on the official pages!

[mandomaterial]

Yo I got something! How ea tonowari x reader x Ronal? Let's saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay after 1-2 years after the war, a human goes to visit the sully family (for whatever reason) and the leaders saw her being covered in tattoos but are vastly different and are immediately intrigued by her. I'm going through a viking phase and I saw theirs tattoo designs and I'm like AAAAAAAAAHHH THEY LOOK SEXY!!!

Familiar Markings

Ask and you shall receive, boo~ I got a little carried away here… it’s 2.6k… but that’s fine! :3

· · ─────── ·𖥸· ─────── · ·

- It had been all too long. You were there every step of the way and you missed them dearly. What were their lives like now? Were they all okay? Those were the questions you asked yourself almost daily. So you made up your mind and decided to visit them. You were a pilot, so transportation posed no problem but still, you asked Norm what he thought about your idea. After all, you couldn’t just show up there out of the blue (pun intended).

- Norm was a little hesitant at first but saw no big problem with visiting, so the two of you decided to give Jake a heads up to not cause a mass panic when you arrived. And then you were on your way.

- You got in your trusty old helicopter and off you were! It was a pretty long flight, so you had enough time to think about what to do when you got there. The only exciting news that you had was your new tattoo. You got it done a few months ago, on your left upper arm, a nice addition to the little collection you’d accumulated over the years.

- You’d always wanted to get tattoos but you never felt like you had a real reason to. To you, it was more than just body art, it was more of a sign of accomplishment or life-changing events. So when you joined the avatar program you decided that was the perfect occasion for your first tattoo. With the help of Grace and her team, you chose a relatively simple design of an Atokarina. You’d seen one in real life when you accompanied Grace to her school and accidentally got lost. It led you back and you were in total awe.

- This time around you chose a runic design. Back on earth, you were a real fan of the complex runic language and you tried your best to learn it. If you hadn’t ultimately decided to join the Pandora project, you probably would have studied them for the rest of your life. Sadly, over the years you lost touch with your love for runes, and most of your knowledge of them faded into a blur. It made you quite sad because you felt like you lost a piece of yourself, so you decided that you’d get something of your passion engraved on your body.

- Soon enough, the islands that formed Awa'atlu came into view and you shoved your thoughts aside, preparing for landing. There were already Na’vi gathering around your planned landing spot, so you had to be extra careful. You stuck the landing with ease and as soon as you stepped foot out of the aircraft, you spotted familiar figures. The little Sully’s! Well maybe not that little anymore, even Tuk was taller than you now. “Auntieee!” the young girl yelled as she rushed to tackle you.

- you could barely keep yourself on your feet as she wrapped her arms around you and gave you a bear hug. Of course, you hugged her back but as you looked over her shoulder, you saw two new faces approach. The others moved aside for them so you assumed that was the leader and the Tsahìk. You gently wiggled out of Tuk’s grip and got ready to face them.

- At first no one said anything, all of them staring at you with blown wide, turquoise eyes. You assumed that it was just because you were a human, significantly smaller, and even a different color! But that wasn’t it, they were staring at the markings on your skin. They seemed way too unnatural to just be born with, they’d never seen a human with markings similar to their people’s tattoos. So of course they were intrigued.

- after only a few seconds of motionless silence Ronal, the Tsahìk stepped forward and started to circle you. She wanted to take a closer look at these newfound markings, were these similar to her own? You just stood still and let her do her thing, avoiding eye contact with the chilling Tsahìk of the Metkayina. To be honest, you were a little afraid, Norm had told you that she was very protective of her people and was very unwelcoming towards outsiders, so when she suddenly grabbed your arm, you winced and visibly shrunk together, trying to make ourself seem even less threatening even if they didn’t even consider you being something even close to a threat.

- Ronal pulled your arm up, almost lifting you, to inspect the strange marks. As she traced them with her hand you wondered what she thought of them. Did she with ink they were weird. Did she like them? Why was she looking for so long? Didn’t her people also have tattoos? Your thoughts were cut short abruptly as she ran her fingers over your new tattoo, even if it seemed healed, it wasn’t and you almost doubled over at the pain if she weren’t holding you by your arm.

- Of course the well-trained Tsahìk noticed this and instantly a small wave of regret and guilt washed over her. She hadn’t meant to physically hurt you, maybe intimidate you a little but not like this. She saw your eyes water a little, as you tried to calm down and not let yourself cry in front of the crowd. She gently loosened her grip on you, making sure that you were stable on your feet before ultimately letting go. Right after you gently rubbed over your arm, trying to make the pain go away but it only helped a little.

- in Ronal’s mind she had hurt you, so it was her responsibility to make you feel better again. She crouched down a little, making eye contact with you before she asked “Do you understand our language?” Of course, you understood, but you were still a little shaky so the only thing you could muster was a timid nod. The tall woman let out a little huff as she gently placed her large hand between your shoulders and gave you a little nudge. You didn’t know what was going on so you just took a step forward, your attention shifted to the little crowd that was still lingering around you. The chief seemed to be looking at his mate, making a few facial expressions. It was as if they were communicating just by looking at each other. Before they even finished, you felt the hand gently push you along, guiding you along the path that the people cleared for the two of you.

- soon enough you understood that the Tsahìk was leading you somewhere, you were quite curious and it was just the two of you so you asked: “Where are we going?” Ronal almost seemed surprised when you spoke in her language, she understood every word and you were very fluent, albeit you had a bit of an accent. It took her a moment to reply but she explained that the was taking you to her hut, but she didn’t explain why. All in all, she was a little embarrassed so she chose not to share the reason.

- Once you finally reached the large tent she carefully held open the flap and motioned for you to get in. You followed her instructions and awkwardly stood in the middle of it, waiting for her to do or say something. And do something she did. She strode over to a few baskets in a corner, kneeled down in front of them, and started looking through them. Soon enough she pulled out a little packet that was trapped in a large dried leaf.

- “Come closer” she murmured. You shuffled over and stood in front of her. Even then she was taller than you. “Sit” came out of her mouth as she stared at you with wide glossy eyes. You shifted your body into a kneeling position but kept your eyes fixed on hers. She let out a little hum and started unwrapping the packet. Inside was a generous amount of powder that shimmered and glimmered, setting it down she turned around again grabbing something from a different basket. It was a little mortar and pestle made out of what seemed like shaved-down corrals. She put a small amount of the powder into the mortar before she added a light blue liquid that she took out along with the powder. She mixed the two together for a good minute and then looked at you again.

- For a second you just blankly stared at each other before she quietly questioned “Your arm?” Whilst tilting her head a little. “Oh..” you replied while warmth flushed your cheeks. You didn’t quite know why you were embarrassed, maybe it was that there was this gorgeous tall blue woman in front of you, or that you’d never been treated like this before. Normally everyone was a little intimidated by because of your tattoos and chose to avoid you instead of getting to know you.

- Embarrassed you lifted your arm and shifted so that she faced your side and had better access to your upper arm. Seeing this, Ronal had to crack a smile, you were so good at following instructions, not at all Ike the other humans she encountered, she liked you, you were okay, she thought while she started spreading the paste over the inflamed area of your arm. You winced a little any time her fringes brushed over your skin, so she tried to be as gentle as possible, so as not to make you feel more pain than you had to.

- just then someone entered the tenant, you were curious, you sneakily turned your head and saw that the Olo’eyktan had entered. Of course, you wanted to show respect, so you started standing up but Ronal had something other in mind. She gave your lower arm a little tug that pulled you back to the floor instantly “I said sit.“ you were utterly surprised and your head whipped around between the two, not knowing what to do, he was the leader so you had to show him respect but his wife who was also a leader wouldn’t let you? You started getting dizzy and hyperventilating a little before Tonowari took a couple of steps forward and lowered himself to one knee saying “Mawey” with a stern tone, staring directly at your eyes.

- While you were distracted by Tonowari, Ronal quickly finished bandaging your arm, thinking about your markings. Why did you have them? How did you get them? To say it simply she was just too curious so she gave you a light tap on the shoulder pulling your attention to her. “Why do you have these markings?” She asked motioning to your arm.

- you were a little surprised but cleared your throat and said “I got them when I accomplished something. I think that it’s similar to why you get tattoos…” Ronal let out a little hum, satisfied with your response. Soon enough she let you go and sent her mate to show you where you’d be staying. Conveniently, you were staying in a hut that was close to theirs. Tonowari knew from just watching his mate interact with you, that she had a special interest in you and to be honest he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that there was something special about you. So he decided to keep an eye on you, just to see what you’d do here in his village.

- The next day, you decided to go see what the Sully’s were doing, after all, that was the actual reason that you came. As soon as you entered their home, you were tackled by Tuk again. “AUNNTTTIIEEE” she yelled in a high-pitched voice. You giggled and hugged her back. The other members of the Family all stopped doing whatever it was that they were doing to come and greet you.

- Jake offered you his hand to pull you up from the floor and you gladly grasped it, giving him a bro hug right after. “How are you Jakie?“ you jokingly asked with a grin on your face. “Well- I'm doing ‘aight.” He replied while giving you a head pat. When he was still part of the avatar program you were like the whole department’s kid. You were a highly skilled pilot and that with just being barely an adult, so everyone mostly treated you like a little sibling once they got to know you. More often than not, Jake had to physically hold you back from doing something dangerous or stupid, like testing the new flying gear by doing aerial stunts. The two of you had grown close over time and he saw you as his little sister, so he was more than ecstatic when he heard that you were going to come over for a visit.

- Next you walked over to Neytiri and gave her a loose hug “Hey, where are my other niece and the two troublemakers?” you questioned jokingly. “It’s good to see you as well.” she smiled “I think they’re out in the reef.” As soon as those words left her mouth Tuk yelled “Oh- I can take you to them! C’mon!” she started jumping around, motioning for you to follow her “I'll show you my Ilu!!” You laughed a little before stepping out and following the young girl.

- Soon enough you were out in the reef playing and hanging out with your nieces and nephews and just a short while after a few other kids show up as well. They’re all interested in you, they don’t seem to be afraid at all! Even the adults of the clan didn’t seem to be reserved about you. Maybe it was that you also had tattoos? You knew that these people had to earn their tattoos and that it was how they earned their respect in the clan. Maybe that’s why they respected you.

- what you didn’t know though, was that two pairs of eyes were fixated on you. The two stood near the shore and watched you play and interact with the young clan members, not a worry in their minds, they were clearly both intrigued and they both knew it. The two shared a look, making their intentions clear to one another, they liked you and wanted you around. They just didn’t know how to get you to stay.

- That’s how it started. Soon you were a regular visitor and almost even a honorary clan member. Every time your visits got longer and longer and the time you weren’t there shorter and shorter.

- one time, Tonowari asked you if you wanted to try riding an Ilu, and of course, you said yes! So the two of you trotted to the beach and he called for one. It was a pretty Ilu and very friendly. It came close and snuggled its face to yours as you giggled. Tonowari could barely hold it together cause of your cuteness! He gently held the Ilu and bonded with it, getting on and offering you his hand. You placed your hand in his as he pulled you in front of him, securing you on the Ilu.

- The Ilu began swimming and you felt the water rush past your legs as they dangled off the sides. You dipped your fingertips in the water and couldn’t stop your smile from growing as a bit of sea foam got stuck. Tonowari was utterly happy when he got to share time with you, so he made sure to give you lots of rides, even on his tsurak!

- the two of them enjoyed spending time with you and showing you their ways and it filled them with nothing but happiness when you showed so much interest in their way of life. You even had your own hut that they kept neat for whenever you came to visit, it was your home away from home but lately, it seemed that it was the other way around, that the Forrest was your second home and the sea your first, along with the people you treasured most.

[jinjeriffic]

DCxDP Prophecy Universe Part 7

Part 6

It took Damian the rest of the afternoon to prepare for his trip to Amity Park. Jon helpfully agreed to cover for him, on the promise of a copy of the upcoming Cheese Viking 2 and getting filled in on all the hot Bat gossip afterwards. Wasn’t friendship grand?

Pennyworth thankfully agreed that ‘bonding time’ between the Super Sons was a good use of fall break and even took the time to ‘Prepare some healthy snacks for the young Masters, lest you eat junk food the whole week’. The task also handily distracted the butler while Damian packed the Batwing with all the necessary surveillance equipment he would need and set up the program to spoof his flight data. Damian had no doubt that Father wouldn’t be fooled for long, but with the Bat it was always better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

The flight to Illinois was mercifully uneventful. Damian rappelled off in the middle of the eponymous city Park, then instructed the autopilot to take the plane to a wooded area outside city limits and park there in camouflage mode. Once he was sure his arrival had gone undetected, he changed into civvies and with his backpack full of gear set off in the direction of Fenton Works on foot. In jeans, sneakers, a dark hoodie and a baseball cap he looked like any other kid his age, even if he was out after curfew. Damian made sure to stick to the shadows and ducked behind cover whenever a car passed him.

All in all it took him until the early morning hours to arrive at the correct address. Intellectually, he had known the Fentons operated their workshop out of the family home, but he was in no way prepared for the monstrosity of a building that greeted him. Damian couldn’t help but stop and stare in disbelief.

What had once started out as an ordinary brownstone building had a glaring neon sign out front, proudly proclaiming the company name. Perched precariously on the roof was a gigantic metal structure that looked like a cross between a cartoon UFO and an observatory. There was no way this was legal or sane. If something like this had popped up in Gotham it would have been flagged as a Rogue hideout and bugged to hell and back. Hell, Damian was half tempted to break in immediately to start planting cameras but was held back by the likely presence of a custom security system. Mad scientists were rude like that and Damian didn’t want to tip his hand too early. He would have to at least wait until he was sure the Fentons weren’t at home.

Damian tucked his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and strolled past the building at a fake casual pace. The windows were dark and the building was silent, except for the faint hum of the neon sign. This early on a Saturday morning, the residents were likely fast asleep. He spotted an electric scooter chained up next to the stairs leading up to the entrance and made the deduction that it likely belonged to Daniel. Under the guise of retying his shoelaces, he dropped to one knee and surreptitiously attached a bug to the vehicle. Ideally he would get the opportunity to bug Daniel himself, but for now this would have to do. Hoping that no one had noticed him, Damian continued down the street.

He had researched the area ahead of time and had found an apartment a few buildings down and across the street that was advertised as available for rent and was unoccupied. Breaking in and disabling the home alarm was child’s play, and after making sure he was alone in the apartment, Damian settled in to begin his surveillance.

He pulled the handheld radiation detector out of his backpack and after making sure it was operational he slipped it into his pocket. With no way to boost its range he would have to get pretty close to Daniel with no major obstructions in the way in order to verify if he had been in contact with the marked bills he had slipped Phantom. But Damian was confident in his ability to stay undetected. After all, Daniel had no reason to suspect he was being stalked by a curious Bat.

Damian kept himself occupied by listening to the local radio broadcast over his comm. The hosts sounded like chipper twenty-somethings, excitedly shilling for various local events happening over fall break, in-between shilling for local businesses. Why anyone would want to eat at an establishment called the Nasty Burger was beyond Damian. Whenever they stopped nattering to play actual music it was a blessing even if the appeal of the songs was entirely lost on the young vigilante. Finally, at 8am they had an actual news segment. Most of it was covering major US and global events, nothing Damian hadn’t already heard. Elections, natural disasters, rising tensions in Bialya…

“...and in local news, the City Library has announced that clean-up after last week’s ghost attack is finished, and they will be open at their normal hours on Monday!” the female host said cheerily, as if she was talking about the weather. “As usual, we would like to remind our listeners to keep their third eyes peeled for any ghost sightings! In case of a ghost attack, follow standard protocol and head to your nearest ghost shelter. Thank you! And here’s Mark with sports!”

Damian was flabbergasted. Ghost attack? This city experienced supernatural incursions and treated it like it was a normal occurrence? He’d read that the Fentons were ghost hunters, but he hadn’t thought anyone was taking them seriously! If Amity Park was under attack on a regular basis, how come the Justice League didn’t have a file on the city? Surely the news should have leaked to the outside world by now!

It was rare that Damian was caught so utterly wrong footed. His cursory research into Amity Park had turned up nothing like this! He was itching to get back to the Batcomputer to do a deep dive on the city and its history. Unfortunately, all he had on him was his phone which was ill suited for serious data compilation. At best he could scour local news sites and social media for any hint as to what was going on.

After half an hour of fruitless searching, he gave up in disgust. There was no mention of ghosts anywhere, save for the Fentons’ own website. Yet the news report had been almost blasé about the subject! Something was rotten in the State of Illinois.

All he could do for now was stare out the window at the Fenton’s front porch and hope his quarry made an appearance soon.

At 9.13 AM there was finally movement at the Fenton house. A dark-haired teenager in jeans, a light T-shirt, a backpack and a bicycle helmet bounded down the front steps and unlocked the electric scooter. It was unmistakably Daniel.

Damian hurriedly packed away his things, grabbed his backpack and left the apartment. He made sure to rearm the security system and lock the door, leaving no trace of ever having been there. Of course Damian wasn’t about to pursue his target across the rooftops of an unknown city in broad daylight. He would just have to wait for Daniel to arrive at his destination and follow him there. He retrieved his phone and pulled up the tracking data. It looked like the teen was headed towards the city center.

Damian tuned his comm to the listening device he had planted and set off towards downtown Amity at a light jog. For a while, all he heard was background noise. After about ten minutes, Daniel came to a stop.

“Hey Tucker, ready to go?” That had to be Daniel.

“Hey Danny!” a second male voice answered, “I was just waiting for you. Sam says she’ll meet us at the main entrance of the mall.”

“Sweet. Hopefully we can grab something cool from Game’O’Rama if we beat the rush.”

“You said it, my dude. Come on!”

The tracker resumed its movement. Now that he had a destination, Damian used his phone to call a cab. There couldn’t be that many malls in a city this size.

Daniel and his friend ‘Tucker’ kept up a steady stream of idle chatter on their journey. Damian learned more than he ever wanted to know about the attractive qualities of the female students at their high school, the tediousness of the homework assignments they had received for the week and the reviews of recent horror movie releases. Inconsequential chit chat as far as Damian was concerned. Once the pair arrived at their destination they parked their scooters and were soon out of range of the listening device. Damian cut the transmission and spent the rest of the short cab ride trying to find information on Daniel’s companion. Since they were apparently classmates and he had a first name to go on, it didn’t take long to narrow it down to Tucker Foley. Damian made a mental note to investigate him in depth later.

The mall was moderately busy when he arrived but nowhere near as bad as Gotham. Luckily there was a floorplan displayed at the entrance and it didn’t take Damian long to find the Game’O’Rama store. Predictably, it was dedicated to video games, gaming accessories and memorabilia. A sign in the window announced a major weekend sale, likely what had drawn Daniel and his companions. Damian slipped on a pair of mirrored sunglasses to conceal his eyes and meandered into the store. Wandering between the aisles, pretending to examine the games on offer, it didn’t take him long to find his quarry and Damian got his first good look at the trio.

Daniel was almost a head taller than Damian, slightly paler and with his dark hair mussed up from the scooter ride earlier. His clothes were slightly threadbare, and not the kind that was intentional. His white T-shirt bore a faded NASA logo and his jeans were frayed at the cuffs. He had dark circles under his eyes, though not nearly as bad as Drake got when he was on a case. Nonetheless, for the moment he seemed cheerful and at ease. He was examining the back of a disk case.

“I don’t know Tuck, I’m not much for medieval fantasy,” he said amusedly, “and a lot of these monsters look like ghosts we’ve seen. I get enough of them on a day to day basis, I don’t need them in my video games too.”

Again, this talk of ghosts.

The African American male next to Daniel had to be Tucker Foley. He was just a few inches shorter than Daniel, with his hair in shoulder length dreadlocks partially covered by a red beret. A matching red T-shirt with white Atari logo and baggy camo pants screamed nerd even before you got close enough to notice the black rimmed glasses and the clunky looking device he was tapping away on. Where did he get it from, the middle-ages?

“Look, the reviews are pretty great, and if we avoid everything ghost related what’s even left?” the boy argued, “You can’t let ghosts ruin your fun, man.”

“Tucker’s right, Danny.” the third member of their group chimed in. She was dressed head to toe in black, with a sheer, lacy top, a knee-length skirt, fishnet gloves and stockings and a pair of combat boots. With the thick soles giving her added height, she was almost as tall as Daniel. She wore eerily pale foundation making her dark purple lipstick and eyeshadow pop out even more. She had a small nose stud with a matching purple stone. Her earrings were shaped like spiders dangling from a web and she wore a pentagram necklace. Damian knew some of his schoolmates belonged to the goth subculture, but Gotham Academy’s dress code heavily limited such self-expression on campus. He guessed this girl was either really dedicated to the style or really dedicated to pissing off her parents. Maybe both.This had to be ‘Sam’.

“Besides, if Technus couldn’t ruin gaming for us no one else should either!” she continued.

“Fiiiiine,” Daniel sighed, clearly playing up his reluctance. “but if Amity gets attacked by an army of goblins next I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’!” He double checked the price tag. “Splitsies?”

The girl scoffed and plucked the case from his hand. “I’ll take this one, you can pay for lunch later. Why don’t you two go ahead to Pineapple Republic for those jeans you wanted? I’ll catch up to you.”

“If you’re sure. Thanks Sam!” Daniel leaned over and gave her a peck on the cheek. “I guess we’ll see you there.”

“Yeah, thanks Sam.”

“Go on, shoo!” she laughed and headed over to the cash register as the boys left the store. Making a split second decision, Damian grabbed a random game from the shelf and got in line behind Sam. He leaned slightly towards her, pretending to examine the figurines behind the counter and stealthily stuck a bug to her skirt. Now he could listen in on their conversation without having to risk being noticed.

After paying for his purchase he wandered off in the direction the other teens had taken. He would just have to leave the game somewhere ‘accidentally’ at the earliest opportunity. Pretending to check his phone he tuned his comm to the frequency of the new bug. 

“...I think those are still a little short on you.” Sam said amusedly.

“Man, I’m glad I finally got my growth spurt, but having to replace most of my wardrobe is gonna be a pain in the ass!” Daniel complained.

“Look at it this way Danny, this could be your chance to branch out. A whole new style, a whole new you!” Sam countered enthusiastically.

Damian walked towards the source of the signal. He didn’t follow the trio directly into Pineapple Republic, instead heading into the shoe store across from the clothing store. Browsing there would let him keep an eye on the entrance.

“Let me guess, would this style include black, black and more black?” came Foley’s snarky voice.

“Black is timeless, I’ll have you know,” Sam sniffed in mock offense, “and Danny does look good in it. Just try it?”

“I don’t know Sam, I don’t wanna blow my allowance on clothes that don’t feel like me.”

“Oh! We could always try the thrift store, they have plenty of cool stuff! And upcycling is great for the environment.”

“Uh, hard pass,” came the flat reply, “I would like to survive the year with some of my dignity intact, please.”

“Yeah dude, if Dash and his cronies caught wind of Danny going to Goodwill or something they’d never let him live it down.”

“There is nothing wrong with buying second-hand!”

“Says the girl in $500 guaranteed cruelty free designer boots.” Foley shot back.

“That’s different!” Sam sputtered, “And besides, I don’t see why you still chase the approval of those jerks.”

“Easy guys, settle down,” Daniel said placatingly, “Sam, you know it’s different for us. You might be able to brush off Paulina’s snarky comments, but I can’t just brush off Dash trying to rearrange my face. I’d rather not paint an even bigger target on my back.”

Sam gave a loud sigh. “Ugh, stupid high school politics. I can’t wait to graduate.”

“I dunno, if things go according to plan you’ll have to deal with real politics, Ms Future Administrator of the EPA Manson.” Daniel teased.

“You mean Senator Manson.” Foley chimed in.

“Madam President Manson!”

“Stop it guys!” the girl laughed, “I’ll leave the political ass kissing to someone else. I just want to save the planet! But I gotta get my doctorate first.”

“Well if you do end up having to take over the country to do it, there’s one thing to keep in mind,” Foley said sagely, “You can’t be much worse than President Luthor.”

The two replied with fake gagging noises while Foley just snickered.

“But seriously, since you brought up mixing up my style… I was thinking of getting my ears pierced.” Daniel said hesitantly.

“Really? Ooh, do you want studs? Danglers? An industrial?” Sam gushed excitedly.

“Well… aw nuts.” Daniel’s voice was suddenly tense.

“You know what?” Sam rushed out, equally tense, “I think you should go and try these pants on. In the changing room. Right now.”

Damian frowned. What the hell had happened? He glanced out the shop window but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly, he heard distant screams and the sound of glass breaking. It’s almost like being back in Gotham.

Part 8

[briarcrawford]

World-Building Tools and Resources List

If a link has a ⭐ beside it, it means that it is a resource that I personally use regularly, or have used in the past. Most often, this will be links to programs or other like resources.

If a link has a 💖 next to it, that means that I really like the content of the link. Most often, this will be for links to media, such as videos.

Please note that I have not tried everything on this list.

APPS AND PROGRAMS

⭐Fantasia Archive (Free)

Tennessine Flag Maker (Free)

Fantasy Calendar (Free limited version, subscription full version)

Bubisco (Free limited version, paid full version)

Campfire (Free limited version, subscription full version)

World Anvil (Free limited version, subscription full version)

Legend Keeper (Free trial, subscription full version)

One Stop for Writers (Free trial, subscription full version)

Inkarnate (Free limited version, subscription full version) - suggested by @trager-bombs

WORLD BUILDING QUESTIONS

Reedsy

Ellen Brock Editing

SFWA

GENERATORS:

World Maps:

Donjon’s Fantasy Map Generator

Mewo2’s Fantasy Map Generator

💖Azgaar’s Fantasy Map Generator

City/Village Maps:

💖Watabou’s City Map Generator

💖Watabou’s Village Generator

Eigengrau’s Town Generator

💖Probabletrain’s Modern City Map Generator

Street/Neighborhood Maps:

💖Watabou’s Neighborhood Generator

Location Details Generator:

Rangen’s Country Generator

Rangen’s City Generator

Donjon’s Fantasy Calendar Generator

Rangen’s Laws Generator

Springhole’s Random Holiday Generator

Springhole’s Landmarks Generator

Arkimedz’s Star Map Generator

Donjon’s Demographic Generator

Springhole’s Plant Generator

Languages:

Vulgar Language Generator

Madequa’s Glyph Generator

Money:

RanGen Currency Generator

Springhole Currency Generator

MAP MAKING

Cartographers Guild (Map Tutorials)

⭐Wonderdraft (Map Maker. Paid )

MISC

Dan Koboldt (a blog about getting the science right in Fantasy and Sci-Fi)

💖Food Timeline (shows what what people ate in history)

💖Orbis: helps estimate travel time based on distance and travel type

YOUTUBE

Ask a Mortician: Has videos about historical death customs

English Heritage: The Victorian Way: A series all about Victorian life

💖Modern History TV: Medieval Life

Tasting History: Historical Recipes

Hands on History: Viking history mixed with advertisements for their tours

Grimfrost: Viking history mixed with product advertisements

The Welsh Viking: Viking history

The British Museum: History told through artifacts

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

The disrespect toward indigenous peoples is what popped put at me today in one of your posts. I wonder how long the English have been looking down on the Welsh. We're the Saxons like that or is it the Normans who really thought they were better than everyone else. Cause it seems like it goes back a long way.

Oh, both, just in different ways. The Normals were imperialist, the Saxons were more theft and landgrab.

Something that makes me want to start hurling knives is the INCREDIBLY COMMON English myth that the Anglo-Saxons were a sweet innocent indigenous British people who were conquered and bullied by those mean nasty Normans (and Vikings), and because the Normans came over via France, that means everything was actually THEIR fault, and the true English i.e. the Anglo-Saxons, were victims too :(

When I say it's incredibly common, by the way, I really mean it. Enormous numbers of modern day English people believe this. I've seen BBC programs about the Viking invasions that claimed without a trace of irony that the Vikings would take slaves from "the native Anglo-Saxons". I've literally had English people comment this shit on posts of mine about Celtophobia and Welsh history. Like I'm there describing how the last Prince of Wales was locked in a wooden cage in Bristol Castle at the age of eight and lived out the remainder of his life there until his fifties so the Welsh would know their place, and some snivelling English cunt will straight up write a message going "Teehee really it was the Normans not the English though and they conquered the poor Anglo-Saxons too, poor England uwu"

Anyway in the dying days of the Roman empire in Britain one of the leading reasons for Rome abandoning Britannia was the constant waves of Anglo-Saxon invaders. There were so many the east coast of Britain became known as the Saxon Shore. There were so many the Romans built a line of forts that were and are literally called Saxon Shore Forts. There were so many that an official, historically documented, paid governmental position in Roman Britain was the Count of the Saxon Shore, i.e. the guy responsible for keeping the bastards out.

Rome had banned native military, of course, so when they then withdrew and took the armies with them, the people left had no defences against the incoming waves of Angles, Saxons and Jutes. England fell pretty quickly, Angles in the north, Saxons in the south, Jutes primarily in the east, I believe. What stopped their westward expansion was the Brythonic Celtic nations living in modern day Wales. And this is the origin of the Welsh dragon - those separate kingdoms needed a banner that united them, and represented Not Saxon. An anti-Saxon force. They chose a red dragon.

This is also the origin of King Arthur. An anti-Saxon king of the Brythons, who would repel these Germanic invaders. (It was several centuries later that England realised they should probably steal the term 'British', because otherwise they were marking themselves as 'not native'.)

Anyway the saving grace of the Anglo-Saxons in the end was actually that they were whiny little bitches who gave up trying to fight in Wales with its difficult mountains and fought each other instead. The whole sorry tale of the Heptarchy is the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms fighting like cats in a bag, while Saxon king Offa built a dyke along the Welsh border and went "WELL YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED OVER HERE" and every Welsh king went "...we literally didn't want to conquer you anyway, you spectacularly sad and stupid man"

Oh, and of course, there's the name 'Wales'. Given to us specifically by the Anglo-Saxons. And translated by centuries of English scholars, mostly very smugly, as 'foreigners'. A fun bit of early propaganda, look - foreigners in our own country that they tried and failed to steal.

All of which is a circuitous way of saying - yeah, it goes way back.