#and the slowest targeting i have ever seen | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

triplethreatsonic · 4 years

Text

Triple Threat Drabble: The Stranger

Here it is, the drabble I said I’d share with you guys! I’ve done a sort of hybrid thing with this where there are one or two images integrated into the text that are basically like comic panels. (think Diary of a Wimpy Kid but hopefully more classy.) So make sure you pay attention to them as you read!

Also, this is a work in progress. So please don’t judge it too harshly :)

Hope you guys enjoy this!

___

Sonic was not a slow eater. He hadn't been one as a child, and at age seventeen he certainly wasn't one now. The hedgehog rarely spent more than a few minutes to inhale his food during lunch period. Today was no different— after making quick work of the cafeteria's lasagna, Sonic had pushed his plate aside and was now settled with his left leg comfortably draped on top of his right, one hand fiddling with his shoelace.

Across the table from him sat his friend, Knuckles the Echidna. Knuckles, who was one of the slowest eaters Sonic had ever seen, still had half his meal on his tray and was gradually picking away at a small bunch of grapes. "Probably." His eyes stayed on his hands as he smiled. "I don't think it'll be too bad, though; I'm looking forward to the history paper."

Sonic smirked. "I bet you are. I wonder what you'll write about this time. Maybe"—he cocked an eyebrow—"the ancient echidnas?"

"How'd you guess?" Knuckles smile widened as he dropped the now-empty grape stem onto his tray. Then he sighed, stretching his shoulders back. "I doubt the library has any new books on the topic, though. Seriously, they need an upgrade."

“Man, you're telling me. The other day, I—!" Sonic's thought was suddenly cut short. If you had asked him what he'd just been talking about, he probably couldn't have told you.

"No way..."

Something, or rather someone, had caught his attention— someone on the opposite side of the cafeteria, who had just sat down at a faraway table perpendicular to Sonic's position.

It was a male hedgehog— that much was obvious. Looking at him, Sonic could make out his dark jeans, white t-shirt, and thin red-and-black striped flannel with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The stranger sat, seemingly in silence, listening to a white female bat sitting across from him.

None of this was what made Sonic stare, however; it was his quills.

Their coloring wasn't necessarily unnatural for a hedgehog, but it was certainly unusual. They were black, the top of each quill traced by a long red stripe. Sonic had never seen anything like them.

Except that he had-- several times. He'd seen them in his dream.

"Hey, Sonic! You ok?"

Knuckles words yanked Sonic out of his trance and back into the buzzing world of the lunch room. "Wha—? Oh, sorry man. Heh, guess I kinda zoned out for a second."

"What were you staring at?" Knuckles turned in his seat to scan the room behind him.

"Nothing!" The word flew out of Sonic's mouth much quicker than he would have liked. He quickly brushed it off with a shrug. "I just remembered something I gotta do before lunch is over. I'd better run—see you later, alright?"

Knuckles looked like he didn't quite believe him. "What do you gotta do?"

Sonic’s face smiled as his brain racked for an answer. "Uh, homework. Never ends, am I right?"

Now it was Knuckles turn to smirk. "Heh, right." He picked up his mini milk carton and took a swig. "Well, good luck. I'll see you in fifth."

"Later, Knux!" Sonic grinned and picked up his tray from the table, keeping his movements casual as he made his way to the garbage cans. Behind his calm exterior, however, Sonic's mind was racing. It was a coincidence. It was a weird coincidence. But that's all it could be, right? Just a really weird, off-putting coincidence that meant nothing. Absolutely nothing at all.

So why was he so antsy all of a sudden?

Frankly, Sonic didn't even know why he had left Knuckles in such a hurry with that dumb fib about homework. What was he hoping to do? Was he planning to talk to the Weird-Coincidence Guy?

Well… it wasn't the worst idea.

Sonic's eyes flicked upwards from his tray; the black-and-red hedgehog was easy to pick out now that he knew he was there. Sonic's hands moved automatically, scraping his plates as he kept his eyes fixed on the stranger. The white bat across from him finished her sentence, waved, and then left, walking out through the cafeteria's main double doors. The black hedgehog watched her leave, a soda can held tightly in his hands. He barely moved at all.

Sonic dropped his plate unceremoniously into the designated bin. Now that the idea had entered his mind, he couldn’t shake it: he had to talk to him. As nonchalantly as he could, Sonic began weaving around chairs, backpacks and tables, gradually making his way to the strange hedgehog.

He was practically on top of him now. Sonic stopped walking, the black hedgehog a mere four feet ahead of him. He was facing away, hands still holding that soda can. Without so much as a second thought, Sonic smiled and said the first, most natural thing that came to his mind: “Hey!”

What happened next was the last thing Sonic had expected. The black hedgehog turned at his voice, saw him, and froze. His face paled and his eyes went wide. Something like an electric shock seemed to go through him, and the can in his hands crunched.

Brrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiing! The five-minute bell shouted rudely across the cafeteria, startling them both, and they were drowned in a wave of standing students. The black hedgehog was instantly blocked from view as three hundred teenagers, Human and Animal, began gathering their things and preparing to leave for classes.

“H-hey, wait a sec!” Sonic tried to see past the masses of knees and elbows, but quickly found that to be useless. He wasn’t one to give up easily, however; in seconds, Sonic had jumped onto the nearest table and was craning his neck to see over the sea of heads. Where could that guy have gone so quickly? Suddenly—there! Sonic barely caught sight of striped flannel as its wearer ducked around the corner of an adjacent hallway.

"Hey, dude, wait up!" Sonic was down in a flash. After shoving his way through the crowd he sprinted into the hall just as his target ran left down another. He called after him. "Yo, black hedgehog!" It became a game of cat and mouse as they chased each other down seemingly countless hallways and past endless classrooms. Sonic was fast on the track—the fastest in the state, in fact— but somehow this guy kept eluding him with all his constant turns.

Sonic finally whipped right around the ten-billionth corner only to come to an abrupt halt— the hallway ended just twenty feet in front of him. Sonic looked over his shoulder, then back at the dead end. He was positive this was the direction the hedgehog had dodged... so where did he go?

"Hello? Uh, you down here, man?" Sonic slowly walked forward as his question echoed in the empty hall. "I just wanna talk for a second."

Silence.

Then out of nowhere a blur of movement slammed into Sonic's chest, smashing him against a line of lockers. Sonic's breath was knocked out of him, and it took him a second to realize what had happened: standing there, with his forearm crushing Sonic’s ribs, was the black hedgehog. His eyes were mere inches away from his own. They were a bight crimson— to Sonic's astonishment, the color he expected them to be— with a ferocious, wild expression in them. There was also the depth of something that Sonic couldn’t quite name.

"Why are you following me?” he demanded.

Sonic’s hands flew up like a man held at gunpoint. "Woah, dude! Chill! I'm … I'm sorry!” It was still difficult to breathe. "I'm just… I just wanna… wanna talk!"

They stood there locked in place for a moment, both hedgehogs panting. A minute passed, and gradually something seemed to shift in the black hedgehog's eyes. He glanced downward at the arm that pinned Sonic, then back up at the hedgehog's face. Then he backed a few paces, his hands lowering to his sides.

Sonic pushed himself off the lockers and rubbed his chest. "Wow, you hit hard! You play football or something?" He gave the guy a smile. "Sorry. I probably really weirded you out back there—I said hi, but then the bell rang and you ran off and—"

"And you chased me." The hedgehog's voice was deeper than Sonic's when he spoke, with a sharp edge to it. The guy looked close to graduating— frankly, with his stern face, he barely looked like he belonged in high school at all. His arms moved to cross in front of his chest. "What do you want?"

"Uh..." Sonics brain suddenly froze. In that moment he realized that beyond his first hello, he hadn't actually thought of what he wanted to say to this guy. "I… I'm not sure. I just wanted to say hi, I guess."

"Why?"

"Well, um... aw, shoot, this sounds really stupid now." Sonic's smile turned sheepish. "I wanted to talk 'cause… you look kinda familiar?"

Other than a slight eyebrow raise, the black hedgehog didn’t move. His voice dripped with contempt. "Where on earth would I have met you before?"

"Heh, funny you should ask." Sonic shoved his thumbs in his pockets. "Uh, how long've you been at the school?"

"Three weeks."

Sonic did a double take. “Wait— really? Like, it's your first semester? But… you look like a senior."

"And?"

"Oh, I dunno... I guess thats just kinda rare, you know? New seniors? I'm a junior, myself." Sonic smiled, but the black hedgehog didn't flinch. He cleared his throat. "Well, anyway… You really do look super familiar to me. It's kinda freaky, actually."

The dark hedgehog's eyes narrowed. "And why would you say that?"

Sonic wasn't sure what reaction he'd been waiting for— maybe a good laugh, if anything— but it certainly wasn't what the black hedgehog was doing now. His shoulders hitched, fingers digging into his forearms. Even more surprising was his face; it had that same haunted look Sonic had glimpsed before— back in the cafeteria, right when the stranger had first seen him.

And then all at once it was gone, replaced by the earlier scowl. "That's ridiculous.”

Sonic’s hand dropped down from where it had been resting behind his head. “Um… yeah. Yeah, it is.”

They stood there in a heavy silence. The black hedgehog drummed his fingers against his arm. “Is that all?”

Sonic stared back at him. “… Yes.”

The other hedgehog looked at Sonic a moment longer, annoyed expression unchanging. Then with a ‘hmph’, he turned away abruptly, walking back towards the hallway through which they had come.

Sonic watched him leave. He felt the urge to say something, but nothing came to mind. Well, that was weird. What had he been expecting though, really? The whole reason for him talking to the guy was weird to begin with. It was funny; though Sonic was usually very confident around strangers, this whole conversation— which he himself had initiated— had made even him uncomfortable.

Sonic began to turn the in the opposite direction to head to his own class— only find himself staring at the dead-end hallway again. Whoops. There was only one other way to go.

The black hedgehog’s ear perked as footsteps echoed behind him, and he turned his head sharply. Sonic’s hands shot back up in the air again upon being caught. “Sorry, ignore me—my class is this way too.”

The stranger glared at Sonic a moment, then turned back and kept walking. Sonic waited a second, allowing for some space, then continued on behind.

There was almost no other sound as the two of them made their way down the hall. Sonic slipped his thumbs back into his pockets, trying not to look at the stranger. Eventually, he let his eyes drift to the back of the hedgehog’s head. What was up with the guy, anyway? He sure was a tough nut to crack— tougher than even Knuckles had been when they’d first met, and that was saying something. This guy refused to be warmed up in any way, shape, or form. Sonic had nothing to work with here, and it left him at a loss.

Eventually Sonic couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “Hey,” he ventured, “sorry I got on your nerves back there."

If the other hedgehog heard him, he gave no sign of it.

A few more seconds passed. Sonic took a breath. "I probably shouldn’t have bothered you. It was kinda silly to say anything at all, to be honest. I probably wouldn’t’ve, either, if I’d only had the dream once. It's just weird, you know? ‘Cause I don’t even know you, but this guy that looks exactly like you is in the dream every single time, along with that other hedgehog—”

“I don’t care!”

Instantly, the black hedgehog was in Sonic’s face. Teeth bared, fangs showing, a threatening finger nearly stabbed Sonic in the eye. “I’m going to say this once, Blue Hedgehog. I don’t care about your dreams. I don’t care if I was in it, or that white hedgehog, or you, or anybody! And I’m tired of hearing about it.”

They stood there a moment, with Sonic for once in his life standing perfectly still. The black hedgehog’s finger lowered as he growled. “Are we clear?”

With the finger out of his face, Sonic slowly straightened. Ok, talking more was definitely not going to take any tension out of the air. He opened his mouth to give a simple reply.

Then something clicked. “Wait... How did you know the hedgehog was white?”

The scowl on the stranger’s face faded slightly, the air seeming to still. “What?” he breathed.

“The other hedgehog,” said Sonic, "I never mentioned what color his fur was.” Now he leaned forward, studying the stranger. He met his eyes. "How did you know it was white?”

The stranger gave no response. The blood had slowly drained from his face, leaving it ghostly pale as his mouth hung open wordlessly.

Then suddenly his face clenched, and a hand jerked out to slap Sonic away. “Enough!”

He dashed off. It took Sonic a second to recover from the unexpected shove. “Wha- Hey, dude, wait!" He sprinted around the corner ahead. "Where are you going—?!"

The black hedgehog was gone.

Sonic stood staring blankly down the empty hallway. What the heck? Thoughts swirled around his brain—half of them were questions, and the other half were answers that didn’t make sense. He leaned his left arm against the rough brick wall next to him.

Had “white” simply been a guess? A stab in the dark? Was that the color everybody thought of when they pictured the average hedgehog?

Or did he know, too?

Another blaring brrrring! from the bell startled Sonic out of his thoughts. “Aw, shoot.” He was late for chemistry. He took off at a sprint.

A few minutes later, Sonic would come rushing through his classroom door. He wouldn’t remember that he needed to grab his textbook from his locker until he was already inside. No excuse would be given when when his teacher scolded him, declaring solemnly that being the school’s track star did not justify him arriving late to class. Later, when everyone was paired up for experiments, Tails would ask him where he’d been; cutting it close was normal for Sonic, but arriving seven minutes after the bell was not. Sonic would hesitate a moment. Then he’d give his best friend a smile, ruffling the fur on his head. “It’s not really important,” he’d say, “no worries. Let’s just get these reactions done.”

Hours later, in dark of his bedroom, Sonic would still be thinking about that black hedgehog.

#I got it out today!!! I said I would and I did!#Hedgehogs are surprisingly hard to write guys! But I've been working on this for a while and have had a lot of fun with it.#I hope you like it too!#I'd love to hear your thoughts on it :)#my writing #triple threat sonic au #sonic au #sonic #shadow #knuckles #tails #my art

50 notes · View notes

mytwilightimagines13 · 3 years

Text

Amnesia (Book Two)(Part Eleven)

Irina's Fate

Aro did not rejoin his anxious guard waiting on the north side of the clearing; instead, he waved them forward. Edward started backing up immediately, pulling Bella’s arm and Emmett's. They hurried backward, keeping their eyes on the advancing threat. Jacob retreated slowest, the fur on his shoulders standing straight up as he bared his fangs at Aro. Renesmee grabbed the end of his tail as they retreated; she held it like a leash, forcing him to stay with them. Soon, everyone arrived at their side of the field again, leaving only fifty yards between them - a distance any of the vampires could leap in just a fraction of a second. Caius began arguing with Aro at once. "How can you abide this infamy? Why do we stand here impotently in the face of such an outrageous crime, covered by such a ridiculous deception?" He held his arms rigidly at his sides, his hands curled into claws. Maeryn felt the same. Why not just attack already? The Cullens have been a trouble ever since Bella and Edward met. And now they think they are invincible due her shield. Maeryn swore that she would break that little shield of hers and let Jane have a go at her. Fury was burning through her newborn body, the hope for a fight was growing fast, making the newborn more eager by the minute. Alec, who had noticed his mate’s behavior, grabbed her hand once more and stroked it with his thumb, trying to calm her down. She needed to keep her head straight and remember the strategy they had discussed. However, Alec didn’t feel soothed at all. Never had he cared for an outcome of a battle, until now. The large group of vampires in front of him worried him. They, ofcourse, would first go for the three of them, and especially Maeryn was an interesting target, seeing as her gift can tamper with Bella’s shield and destroy many vampires within seconds. She may even be a greater threat than his sister and him. "Because it's all true," Aro told him calmly. His voice brought the two vampires back to their attention. "Every word of it. See how many witnesses stand ready to give evidence that they have seen this miraculous child grow and mature in just the short time they've known her. That they have felt the warmth of the blood that pulses in her veins." Aro's gesture swept from Amun on one side across to Siobhan on the other. Caius reacted oddly to Aro's soothing words, starting ever so slightly at the mention of witnesses. The anger drained from his features, replaced by a cold calculation. He glanced at the Volturi witnesses with an expression that looked vaguely... nervous. Maeryn glanced at the angry mob, too, and saw immediately that the description no longer applied. The frenzy for action had turned to confusion. Whispered conversations seethed through the crowd as they tried to make sense of what had happened. Maeryn quickly returned her attention back to the foes, anger rising up again. Cowards. Caius was frowning, deep in thought. Maeryn saw Bella getting anxious and she inspected her shield, flexing it into a low, wide dome that arced over their company. Maeryn knew she could try and break her shield now, but decided against it. Maybe if Bella would get overconfident, she would eventually lower her shield a little, causing weak spots that Maeryn could break through. Maeryn followed every movement the shield made. First, Bella pulled the elastic armor very carefully closer. Carlisle was the farthest forward; she sucked the shield back inch by inch, trying to wrap it as exactly to his body as she could. Her shield seemed to want to cooperate. It hugged his shape; when Carlisle shifted to the side to stand nearer to Tanya, the elastic stretched with him, drawn to his spark. Maeryn had to admit, she was quite fascinated by the shield, which made her even more angry. It seemed like hours, yet it had only been seconds. Caius was still deliberating. "The werewolves," he murmured at last. Bella seemed frightened for a moment, realizing that her shield did no longer cover the shape shifters, and drew the shield tighter in, until Amun and Kebi - the farthest edge

of our group - were outside with the wolves. She edged outward again, but she only covered the Alpha. Their minds must have been interconnected, protecting all the wolves. "Ah, brother...," Aro answered Caius's statement with a pained look. "Will you defend that alliance, too, Aro?" Caius demanded. "The Children of the Moon have been our bitter enemies from the dawn of time. We have hunted them to near extinction in Europe and Asia. Yet Carlisle encourages a familiar relationship with this enormous infestation - no doubt in an attempt to overthrow us. The better to protect his warped lifestyle." Edward cleared his throat loudly and Caius glared at him. Aro placed one thin, delicate hand over his own face as if he was embarrassed for the other ancient. "Caius, it's the middle of the day," Edward pointed out. He gestured to Jacob. "These are not Children of the Moon, clearly. They bear no relation to your enemies on the other side of the world." "You breed mutants here," Caius spit back at him. Edward's jaw clenched and unclenched, then he answered evenly, "They aren't even werewolves. Aro can tell you all about it if you don't believe me." Maeryn could see the confusion on Bella’s face as she shot a mystified look at Jacob. He lifted his huge shoulders and let them drop - a shrug. He didn't know what Edward was talking about, either. Poor things. They don’t even know what they are themselves. "Dear Caius, I would have warned you not to press this point if you had told me your thoughts," Aro murmured. "Though the creatures think of themselves as werewolves, they are not. The more accurate name for them would be shape-shifters. The choice of a wolf form was purely chance. It could have been a bear or a hawk or a panther when the first change was made. These creatures truly have nothing to do with the Children of the Moon. They have merely inherited this skill from their fathers. It's genetic - they do not continue their species by infecting others the way true werewolves do." Caius glared at Aro with irritation and something more - an accusation of betrayal, maybe. "They know our secret," he said flatly. Edward looked about to answer this accusation, but Aro spoke faster. "They are creatures of our supernatural world, brother. Perhaps even more dependent upon secrecy than we are; they can hardly expose us. Carefully, Caius. Specious allegations get us nowhere." Caius took a deep breath and nodded. They exchanged a long, significant glance. Maeryn knew the instruction behind Aro's careful wording. False charges weren't helping convince the watching witnesses on either side; Aro was cautioning Caius to move on to the next strategy. Yes, Maeryn knew. Yet she wished something would occur that would start off the fight. Maeryn, however, wondered if the reason behind the apparent strain between the two ancients - Caius's unwillingness to share his thoughts with a touch - was that Caius didn't care about the show as much as Aro did. If the coming slaughter was so much more essential to Caius than an untarnished reputation. "I want to talk to the informant," Caius announced abruptly, and turned his glare on Irina. Irina wasn't paying attention to Caius and Aro's conversation; her face was twisted in agony, her eyes locked on her sisters, lined up to die. It was clear on her face that she knew now her accusation had been totally false. Maeryn smiled, knowing very well that this was the moment where everything could turn around and the battle could start. "Irina," Caius barked, unhappy to have to address her. She looked up, startled and instantly afraid. Caius snapped his fingers. Hesitantly, she moved from the fringes of the Volturi formation to stand in front of Caius again. "So you appear to have been quite mistaken in your allegations," Caius began. Tanya and Kate leaned forward anxiously. "I'm sorry," Irina whispered. "I should have made sure of what I was seeing. But I had no idea___" She gestured helplessly in the foe’s direction. "Dear Caius, could you expect her to have guessed in an instant something so strange and

impossible?" Aro asked. "Any of us would have made the same assumption." Caius flicked his fingers at Aro to silence him. "We all know you made a mistake," he said brusquely. "I meant to speak of your motivations." Irina waited nervously for him to continue, and then repeated, "My motivations?" "Yes, for coming to spy on them in the first place." Irina flinched at the word spy. "You were unhappy with the Cullens, were you not?" She turned her miserable eyes to Carlisle's face. "I was," she admitted. "Because... ?" Caius prompted. "Because the werewolves killed my friend," she whispered. "And the Cullens wouldn't stand aside to let me avenge him." "The shape-shifters," Aro corrected quietly. "So the Cullens sided with the shape-shifters against our own kind - against the friend of a friend, even," Caius summarized. Maeryn felt a small smirk forming on her lips. She heard Edward make a disgusted sound under his breath. Caius was ticking down his list, looking for an accusation that would stick. Irina's shoulders stiffened. "That's how I saw it." Caius waited again and then prompted, "If you'd like to make a formal complaint against the shape-shifters - and the Cullens for supporting their actions - now would be the time." He smiled a tiny cruel smile, waiting for Irina to give him his next excuse. Irina's jaw jerked up, her shoulders squared. "No, I have no complaint against the wolves, or the Cullens. You came here today to destroy an immortal child. No immortal child exists. This was my mistake, and I take full responsibility for it. But the Cullens are innocent, and you have no reason to still be here. I'm so sorry," she said to the Cullens, and then she turned her face toward the Volturi witnesses. "There was no crime. There's no valid reason for you to continue here." Caius raised his hand as she spoke, and in it was a strange metal object, carved and ornate. This was a signal. Maeryn smirk grew wider as she watched Irina with much interest. Alec gently wrapped an arm around Maeryn’s waist, holding her back from her enthusiastic behavior. Though he felt the same excitement, years of training taught him to keep his emotions in line. Alec gently kissed the back of her head, calming her down almost immediately. The response was so fast that we all stared in stunned disbelief while it happened. Before there was time to react, it was over. Three of the Volturi soldiers leaped forward, and Irina was completely obscured by their gray cloaks. In the same instant, a horrible metallic screeching ripped through the clearing. Caius slithered into the center of the gray melee, and the shocking squealing sound exploded into a startling upward shower of sparks and tongues of flame. The soldiers leaped back from the sudden inferno, immediately retaking their places in the guard's perfectly straight line. Caius stood alone beside the blazing remains of Irina, the metal object in his hand still throwing a thick jet of flame into the pyre. With a small clicking sound, the fire shooting from Caius's hand disappeared. A gasp rippled through the mass of witnesses behind the Volturi. The foes were too aghast to make any noise at all. It was one thing to know that death was coming with fierce, unstoppable speed; it was another thing to watch it happen. Maeryn smile grew even further if possible. The foes knew what will happen and how easily their side would soon turn into ashes. The Volturi would once again win, no challenge was great enough. Caius smiled coldly. "Now she has taken full responsibility for her actions." His eyes flashed to the foes front line, touching swiftly on Tanya's and Kate's frozen forms. Caius had never underestimated the ties of a true family. This was the ploy. He had not wanted Irina's complaint; he had wanted her defiance. His excuse to destroy her, to ignite the violence that filled the air like a thick, combustible mist. He had thrown a match. The strained peace of this summit already teetered more precariously than an elephant on a tightrope. Once the fight began, there would be no way to stop it.

It would only escalate until one side was entirely extinct. Their side. Caius knew this. So did Edward. And so did Maeryn. She felt Alec releasing her waist, yet he still stood closely next her. He crouched down slightly, ready to attack as did Jane. Maeryn followed their movement and also crouched down, her hands infront of her, her energy ready to pulse out of her hands. Ready to take down that pathetic shield Bella created. Thinking her little family had a chance due it. "Stop them!" Edward cried out, jumping to grab Tanya's arm as she lurched forward toward the smiling Caius with a maddened cry of pure rage. She couldn't shake Edward off before Carlisle had his arms locked around her waist. "It's too late to help her," he reasoned urgently as she struggled. "Don't give him what he wants!" Kate was harder to contain. Shrieking wordlessly like Tanya, she broke into the first stride of the attack that would end with everyone's death. Rosalie was closest to her, but before Rosalie could clinch her in a headlock, Kate shocked her so violently that Rosalie crumpled to the ground. Emmett caught Kate's arm and threw her down, then staggered back, his knees giving out. Kate rolled to her feet, and it looked like no one could stop her. Garrett flung himself at her, knocking her to the ground again. He bound his arms around hers, locking his hands around his own wrists. Maeryn saw his body spasm as she shocked him. Maeryn felt quite intrigued by Kate’s gift, and knew she was someone Maeryn had to watch out for. Maeryn would need all her concentration on breaking Bella’s shield, and needed no distraction by being attacked. Garrett’s eyes rolled back in his head, but his hold did not break. "Zafrina," Edward shouted. Kate's eyes went blank and her screams turned to moans. Tanya stopped struggling. "Give me my sight back," Tanya hissed. Desperately, but with all the delicacy I could manage, Bella pulled my shield even tighter against the sparks of her friends, peeling it back carefully from Kate while trying to keep it around Garrett, making it a thin skin between them. And then Garrett was in command of himself again, holding Kate to the snow. "If I let you up, will you knock me down again, Katie?" he whispered. She snarled in response, still thrashing blindly. "Listen to me, Tanya, Kate," Carlisle said in a low but intense whisper. "Vengeance doesn't help her now. Irina wouldn't want you to waste your lives this way. Think about what you're doing. If you attack them, we all die." Tanya's shoulders hunched with grief, and she leaned into Carlisle for support. Kate was finally still. Carlisle and Garrett continued to console the sisters with words too urgent to sound like comfort. However, Edward and everyone else besides Carlisle and Garrett were on their guard again. The heaviest glare came from Caius, staring with enraged disbelief at Kate and Garrett in the snow. Aro was watching the same two, incredulity the strongest emotion on his face. He knew what Kate could do. He had felt her potency through Edward's memories. The Volturi guard no longer stood at disciplined attention - they were crouched forward, waiting to spring the counterstrike the moment the foes attacked. Behind them, forty-three witnesses watched with very different expressions than the ones they'd worn entering the clearing. Confusion had turned to suspicion. The lightning-fast destruction of Irina had shaken them all. Without the immediate attack that Caius had counted on to distract from his rash act, the Volturi witnesses were left questioning exactly what was going on here. Aro glanced back swiftly, his face betraying him with one flash of vexation. His need for an audience had backfired badly. Maeryn heard the two Romanian vampires, Stefan and Vladimir murmur to each other in quiet glee at Aro's discomfort. Maeryn growled slightly. The witnesses where cowards, and once the Volturi had put an end to the Cullens, they would also put an end to the betrayers. Demetri would hunt them until they were extinct, too. Aro was obviously concerned with keeping

his white hat, as the Romanians had put it. Aro touched Caius's shoulder lightly. "Irina has been punished for bearing false witness against this child. Perhaps we should return to the matter at hand?" Caius straightened, and his expression hardened into unreadability. He stared forward, seeing nothing. His face reminded Maeryn, oddly, of a person who'd just learned he'd been demoted. Aro drifted forward, Renata, Felix, and Demetri automatically moving with him. "Just to be thorough," he said, "I'd like to speak with a few of your witnesses. Procedure, you know." He waved a hand dismissively. And when those words had been spoken, Maeryn smirked. Knowing very well that the battle everyone had been longing for, would occur shortly.

#alec volturi #volturi #volturi imagine #vampire #twilight imagine #twilight

14 notes · View notes

maximelebled · 4 years

Text

How I encode videos for YouTube and archival

Hello everyone! This post is going to describe the way in which I export and encode my video work to send it over the Internet and archive it. I’ll be talking about everything I’ve discovered over the past 10 years of research on the topic, and I’ll be mentioning some of the pitfalls to avoid falling into.

There’s a tremendous amount of misguided information out there, and while I’m not going to claim I know everything there is to know on this subject, I would like to think that I’ve spent long enough researching various issues to speak about my own little setup that I’ve got going on... it’s kind of elaborate and complex, but it works great for me.

(UPDATE 2020/12/09: added, corrected, & elaborated on a few things.)

First rule, the most golden of them all!

There should only ever be one compression step: the one YouTube does. In practice, there will be at least two, because you can’t send a mathematically-lossless file to YouTube... but you can send one that’s extremely close, and perceptually pristine.

The gist of it: none of your working files should be compressed if you can help it, and if they need to be, they should be as little as possible. (Because let’s face it, it’s pretty tricky to keep hours of game footage around in lossless form, let alone recording them as such in the first place.)

This means that any AVC files should be full (0-255) range, 4:4:4 YUV, if possible. If you use footage that’s recorded with, like, OBS, it’s theoretically possible to punch in a lossless mode for x264, and even a RGB mode, but last I checked, neither were compatible with Vegas Pro. You may have better luck with other video editors.

Make sure that the brightness levels and that the colors match what you should be seeing. This is something you should be doing at every single step of the way throughout your entire process. Always keep this in mind. Lagom.nl’s LCD calibration section has quite a few useful things you can use to make sure.

If you’re able to, set a GOP length / max keyframe range of 1 second in the encoder of your footage. Modern video codecs suck in video editors because they use all sorts of compression tricks which are great for video playback, but not so efficient with the ways video editors access and request video frames. (These formats are meant to be played forwards, and requesting frames in any other order, as NLEs do, has far-reaching implications that hurt performance.)

Setting the max keyframe range to 1 second will mildly hurt compressability of that working footage but it will greatly limit the performance impact you’ll be putting your video editor’s decoder through.

A working file is a lossless file!

I’ve been using utvideo as my lossless codec of choice. (Remember, codec means encoder/decoder.) It compresses much like FLAC or ZIP files do: losslessly. And not just perceptual losslessness, but a mathematical one: what comes in will be exactly what comes out, bit for bit.

Download it here: https://github.com/umezawatakeshi/utvideo/releases

It’s an AVI VFW codec. In this instance, VFW means Video for Windows, and it’s just the... sort of universal API that any Windows program can call for. And AVI is the container, just like how MP4 and MKV are containers. MP4 as a file is not a video format, it’s a container. MPEG-4 AVC (aka H.264) is the video format specification you’re thinking of when you say “MP4″.

Here’s a typical AVI VFW window, you might have seen one in the wild already.

In apps that expose this setting, you can hit “configure” and set the prediction mode of utvideo to “median” to get some more efficient compression at the cost of slower decoding, but in practice this isn’t a problem.

Things to watch out for:

Any and all apps involved must support OpenDML AVIs. The original AVI spec is 2GB max only. This fixes that limitation. That’s normal, but make sure your apps support that. The OpenDML spec is from the mid-90s, so usually it’s not a problem. But for example, the SFM doesn’t support it.

The files WILL be very large. But they won’t be as large as they’d be if you had a truly uncompressed AVI.

SSDs are recommended within the bounds of reasonability, especially NVMe ones. 1080p30 should be within reach of traditional HDDs though.

utvideo will naturally perform better on CGI content rather than real-life footage and I would not recommend it at all for real-life footage, especially since you’re gonna get that in already-compressed form anyway. Do not convert your camera’s AVC/HEVC files to utvideo, it’s pointless. (Unless you were to do it as a proxy but still, kinda weird)

If you’re feeling adventurous, try out the YUV modes! They work great for matte passes, since those are often just luma-masks, so you don’t care about chroma subsampling.

If you don’t care about utvideo or don’t want to do AVIs for whatever reason, you could go the way of image sequences, but you’ll then be getting the OS-level overhead that comes with having dozens of thousands of files being accessed, etc.

They’re a valid option though. (Just not an efficient one in most cases.)

Some of my working files aren’t lossless...

Unfortunately we don’t all have 10 TB of storage in our computers. If you’re using compressed files as a source, make sure they get decoded properly by your video editing software. Make sure the colors, contrast, etc. match what you see in your “ground truth” player of choice. Make sure your “ground truth” player of choice really does represent the ground truth. Check with other devices if you can. You want to cross-reference to make sure.

One common thing that a lot of software screws up is BT.601 & BT.709 mixups. (It’s reds becoming a bit more orange.)

Ultimately you want your compressed footage to appear cohesive with your RGB footage. It should not have different ranges, different colors, etc.

For reasons that I don’t fully understand myself, 99% of AVC/H.264 video is “limited range”. That means that internally it’s actually squeezed into 16-235 as opposed to the original starting 0-255 (which is full range). And a limited range video gets decoded back to 0-255 anyway.

Sony/Magix Vegas Pro will decode limited range video properly but it will NOT expand it back to full 0-255 range, so it will appear with grayish blacks and dimmer whites. You can go into the “Levels” Effects tab to apply a preset that fixes this.

Exporting your video.

A lot of video editors out there are going to “render” your video (that is to say, calculate and render what the frames of your video look like) and encode it at the same time with whatever’s bundled in the software.

Do not ever do this with Vegas Pro. Do not ever rely on the integrated AVC encoders of Vegas Pro. They expect full range input, and encode AVC video as if it were full range (yeah), so if you want normal looking video, you have to apply a Levels preset to squeeze it into 16-235 levels, but it’s... god, honestly, just save yourself the headache and don’t use them.

Instead, export a LOSSLESS AVI out of Vegas. (using utvideo!)

But you may be able to skip this step altogether if you use Adobe Media Encoder, or software that can interface directly with it.

Okay, what do I do with this lossless AVI?

Option 1: Adobe Media Encoder.

Premiere and AE integrate directly with Adobe Media Encoder. It’s good; it doesn’t mix up BT.601/709, for example. In this case, you won’t have to export an AVI, you should be able to export “straight from the software”.

However, the integrated AVC/HEVC encoders that Adobe has licensed (from MainConcept, I believe) aren’t at the top of their game. Even cranking up the bitrate super high won’t reach the level of pristine that you’d expect (it keeps on not really allocating bits to flatter parts of the image to make them fully clean), and they don’t expose a CRF mode (more on that later), so, technically, you could still go with something better.

But what I’m getting at is, it’s not wrong to go with AME. Just crank up the bitrate though. (Try to reach 0.3 bits per pixel.) Here’s my quick rough quick guideline of Adobe Media Encoder settings:

H.264/AVC (faster encode but far from the most efficient compression one can have)

Switch from Hardware to Software encoding (unless you’re really in a hurry... but if you’re gonna be using Hardware encoding you might as well switch to H.265/HEVC, see below.)

Set the profile to High (you may not be able to do this without the above)

Bitrate to... VBR 1-pass, 30mbps for 1080p, 90mbps for 4K. Set the maximum to x2. +50% to both target and max if fps = 60.

“Maximum Render Quality” doesn’t need to be ticked, this only affects scaling. Only tick it if you are changing the final resolution of the video during this encoder step (e.g. 1080p source to be encoded as 720p)

If using H.265/HEVC (smaller file size, better for using same file as archive)

Probably stick with hardware encoding due to how slow software encoding is.

Stick to Main profile & Main tier.

If hardware: quality: Highest (slowest)

If software: quality: Higher.

4K: set Level to 5.2, 60mbps

1440p: set Level to 5.1, 40mbps

1080p: keep Level to 5.0, 25mbps

If 60fps instead of 24/30: +50% to bitrate. In which case you might have to go up to Level 6.2, but this might cause local playback issues; more on "Levels” way further down the post.

Keep in mind however that hardware encoders are far less efficient in terms of compression, but boy howdy are they super fast. This is why they become kind of worth it when it comes to H.265/HEVC. Still won’t produce the kind of super pristine result I’d want, but acceptable for the vast majority of YouTube cases.

Option 2: other encoding GUIs...

Find software of your choice that integrates the x264 encoder, which is state-of-the-art. (Again, x264 is one encoder for the H.264/AVC codec specification. Just making sure there’s no confusion here.)

Handbrake is one common choice, but honestly, I haven’t used it enough to vouch for it. I don’t know if the settings it exposes are giving you proper control over the whole BT601/709 mess. It has some UI/UX choices which I find really questionable too.

If you’re feeling like a command-line masochist, you could try using ffmpeg, but be ready to pour over the documentation. (I haven’t managed to find out how to do the BT.709 conversion well in there yet.)

Personally, I use MeGUI, because it runs through Avisynth (a frameserver), which allows me to do some cool preprocessing and override some of the default behaviour that other encoder interfaces would do. It empowers you to get into the nitty gritty of things, with lots of plugins and scripts you can install, like this one:

http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Dither_tools (grab it)

Once you’re in MeGUI, and it has finished updating its modules, you gotta hit CTRL+R to open the automated script creator. Select your input, hit “File Indexer” (not “One Click Encoder”), then just hit “Queue” so that Avisynth’s internal thingamajigs start indexing your AVI file. Once that’s done, you’ll be greeted with a video player and a template script.

In the script, all you need to add is this at the bottom:

dither_convert_rgb_to_yuv(matrix="709",output="YV12",mode=7)

This will perform the proper colorspace conversion, AND it does so with dithering! It’s the only software I know of which can do it with dithering!! I kid you not! Mode 7 means it’s doing it using a noise distribution that scales better and doesn’t create weird patterns when resizing the video (I would know, I’ve tried them all).

Your script should look like this, just 3 lines

LoadPlugin("D:\(path to megui, etc)\LSMASHSource.dll")

LWLibavVideoSource("F:\yourvideo.avi")

dither_convert_rgb_to_yuv(matrix="709",output="YV12",mode=7)

The colors WILL look messed up in the preview window but that’s normal. It’s one more example of how you should always be wary when you see an issue. Sometimes you don’t know what is misbehaving, and at which stage. Always try to troubleshoot at every step along the way, otherwise you will be chasing red herrings. Anyway...

Now, back in the main MeGUI window, we’ve got our first line complete (AviSynth script), the “Video Output” path should be autofilled, now we’re gonna touch the third line: “Encoder settings”. Make sure x264 is selected and hit “config” on the right.

Tick “show advanced settings.”

Set the encoding mode to “Const. Quality” (that’s CRF, constant rate factor). Instead of being encoded with a fixed bitrate, and then achieving variable quality with that amount of bits available, CRF instead encodes for a fixed quality, with a variable bitrate (whatever needs to be done to achieve that quality).

CRF 20 is the default, and it’s alright, but you probably want to go up to 15 if you really want to be pristine. I’m going up to 10 because I am unreasonable. (Lower is better, higher numbers means quality is worse.)

Because we’re operating under a Constant Quality metric, CRF 15 at encoder presets “fast” vs. “slow” will produce the same perceptual quality, but at different file sizes. Slow being smaller, of course.

You probably want to be at “slow” at least, there isn’t that much point in going to “slower” or “veryslow”, but you can always do it if you have the CPU horsepower to spare.

Make sure AVC Profile is set to High. The default would be Main, but High unlocks a few more features of the spec that increase compressability, especially at higher resolutions. (8x8 transforms & intra prediction, quantization scaling matrices, cb/cr controls, etc.)

Make sure to also select a Level. This doesn’t mean ANYTHING by itself, but thankfully the x264 config window here is smart enough to actually apply settings which are meaningful with regards to the level.

A short explanation is that different devices have different decoding capabilities. A decade ago, a mobile phone might have only supported level 3 in hardware, meaning that it could only do main profile at 30mbps max, and if you went over that, it would either not decode the video or do it using the CPU instead of its hardware acceleration, resulting in massive battery usage. The GPU in your computer also supports a maximum level. 5.0 is a safe bet though.

If you don’t restrict the level accordingly to what your video card supports, you might see funny things happen during playback:

It’s nothing that would actually affect YouTube (AFAIK), but still, it’s best to constrain.

Finally, head over to the “misc” tab of the x264 config panel and tick these.

If the command line preview looks like mine does (see the screenshot from a few paragraphs ago) then everything should be fine.

x264 is configured, now let’s take care of the audio.

Likewise, “Audio Input” and “Audio Output” should be prefilled if MeGUI detected an audio track in your AVI file. Just switch the audio encoder over to FLAC, hit config, crank the slider to “smallest file, slow encode” and you’re good to go. FLAC = mathematically lossless audio. Again, we want to not compress anything, or as little as possible until YouTube does its own compression job, so you might as well go with FLAC, which will equal roughly 700 to 1000kbps of audio, instead of going with 320kbps of MP3/AAC, which might be perceptually lossless, but is still compressed (bad). The added size is nothing next to the high-quality video track you’re about to pump out.

FLAC is not an audio format supported by the MP4 container, so MeGUI should have automagically changed the output to be using the MKV (Matroska) container. If it hasn’t, do it yourself.

Now, hit the “Autoencode” button in the lower right of the main window. And STOP, do not be hasty: in the new window, make sure “no target size” is selected before you do anything else. If you were to keep “file size” selected, then you would be effectively switched over to 2-pass encoding, which is another form of (bit)rate control. We don’t want that. We want CRF.

Hit queue and once it’s done processing, you should have a brand new pristine MKV file that constains lossless audio and extra clean video! Make sure to double-check that everything matches—take screenshots of the same frames in the AVI and MKV files and compare them.

Now all you’ve got to do is send it to YouTube!

For archival... well, you could just go and crank up the preset to Placebo and reduce CRF a little bit—OR you could use the 2-pass “File Size” mode which will ensure that your video stream will be the exact size (give or take a couple %) you want it to be. You could also use x265 for your archival file buuuut I haven’t used it enough (on account of how slow it is) to make sure that it has no problems anywhere with the whole BT.601/708 thing. It doesn’t expose those metadata settings so who knows how other software’s going to treat those files in the future... (god forbid they get read as BT.2020)

You can use Mediainfo (or any player that integrates it, like my favorite, MPC-HC) to check the metadata of the file.

Good luck out there!

And remember to always double-check the behaviour of decoders at every step of the way with your setup. 99% of the time I see people talk about YouTube messing with the contrast of their video, it’s because they weren’t aware of how quirky Vegas can be with H.264/AVC input & its integrated encoder.

Hope this helps!

#video encoding #video editing #encoding #x264 #megui #avisynth

15 notes · View notes

hysterialevi · 4 years

Text

His Name Was Isaac - Ch. 14

Fanfic summary: During a mission to avenge his mother’s death, Isaac hunts down the men responsible for her murder and kills them off one-by-one, only to discover that his last target is taking refuge among the Van der Linde gang. In an attempt to kill them, Isaac attacks the gang and unknowingly becomes enemies with his own father, who is in the process of fighting his own battle for redemption.

Point of view: third-person

Previous chapter | Next chapter

This story is also on AO3

ONE WEEK LATER

BARROW LAGOON, AMBARINO

Steadily rowing the narrow boat back to shore, Isaac allowed himself to glide across the icy water as a series of ripples wobbled in the surface around him, causing broken plates of ice to shift to the sides.

He had just finished catching some fish in the snow-covered lake, and thanks to the peaceful nature of the wildlife in these parts, he also managed to pick a few herbs that might’ve helped with his father’s sickness. Isaac doubted they would do anything to cure him, but he just hoped they’d be able to tame his cough at the very least.

He had enough to worry about, after all. Between watching out for Pinkertons and looking after Arthur’s health, Isaac honestly didn’t care that much about reaching Canada for the time being.

Hell, he was willing to stay in The United States for another fifteen years if it meant his father could focus on recovering, but... knowing Arthur, Isaac doubted he’d able to convince the man to worry about his own well-being before his son’s.

That stubborn old man always seemed to attend to everyone else’s needs first. Isaac knew his father came from a place of compassion, but he just wished he could’ve done something to help him in return. A gun didn’t do much when it came to battling pestilence, and that was about the only thing Isaac knew how to use.

Part of him just wanted Arthur to return to civilization. He knew the man loathed being around places that were full of people, but they weren’t going to find a doctor anywhere else.

Time was running out for the outlaw, and the last thing Isaac wanted was for that time to be wasted. He and Arthur may have argued sometimes, but the man was right about one thing. This was their only chance to make things right.

Letting the boat slide back onto dry land, the young man hopped out of his seat and lugged the sack of fish over his shoulder, slowly trudging through the crunchy snow as he made his way back to Arthur.

At the moment, the older man was looking after their horses just by the shoreline and had a fishing rod of his own cast in the lake, but it didn’t look like he had been able to catch much.

His nose was red from the cold, and judging by the pale tint of his skin and the dark circles surrounding his eyes, Isaac assumed his illness wasn’t getting any better.

He walked up to the man, trying his best to conceal the concerned expression on his face.

“Isaac,” Arthur greeted upon seeing the boy. “You’re back. Find anything?”

Isaac hurled the sack of fish onto the ground, showing him what he had caught.

“Got a couple of fish, but... it ain’t much. Hard to find any food in these parts.”

“Well, it’s still better than what I did. Good work, son.”

The boy strolled over to his horse, giving the animal a friendly pat on the neck.

“What ‘bout you, Dad? You have any luck?”

Arthur let out a chuckle, reeling the line in. “I’m afraid not. You know me, kiddo. I was never much of a fisherman. Though, I did manage to kill a rabbit earlier. Should keep us fed for a few days.”

Isaac grinned humorously. “Once we get to Canada, I’m never eatin’ fish or rabbit again. I’ve had enough of it for a lifetime.”

The other man returned the grin. “Try eatin’ it for thirty years. That was all our cook ever made for us. That, and venison. We rarely ate anything else. Just stew full of rabbit and deer bits.”

“And you wonder why everyone in your gang was always so cranky.”

Arthur paused for a moment, thinking back to his time with the gang. “...Hey, did I ever tell you about Hosea?”

Isaac shook his head. “No. Who is he?”

“Oh, he passed a few years ago,” he said regrettably, “but he and Dutch raised me together. They were practically brothers. Funnily enough though, Hosea was nothin’ like the old man. He was an outlaw same as the rest of us, but somehow, he always managed to be a gentleman about it. He was kind, but firm. Wild, but delicate.”

A warm smile spread across Arthur’s face. “You remind me of him. I think Hosea would’ve liked you.”

“Yeah? You think so?”

“Sure. I imagine he’d wanna take you hunting or fishing. He always preferred the outdoors. Hell, he even took me to hunt a bear once.”

Isaac glanced at him incredulously. “Really?”

Arthur nodded. “Really. We dragged ourselves all the way from Valentine to the Grizzlies East just to find the damn thing.”

“Did you catch it?”

“Eventually. But it weren’t easy. The beast almost killed the old man. Luckily, I managed to shoo it away -- more by luck than anything -- and ended up huntin’ it on my own. Got me a pretty good sum. The trapper recognized the ugly bastard’s pelt the minute I dumped it in front of him.”

Isaac gave Arthur a playful smirk. “You ever gonna take me huntin’ for bear?”

The older man laughed. “Not a chance. You’d just scare it off.”

The two of them chortled at that and began packing their things up, preparing to continue their journey as the white sun inched across the sky. The weather was a little warmer today -- or at least warm by Ambarino’s standards -- and tiny droplets of water could be seen melting off of the numerous icicles hanging around the environment. Unfortunately for them though, the road ahead was still mostly obscured by thick layers of snow.

“Hey, Dad,” Isaac said, climbing on top of Aldo’s saddle. “I’ve been thinking...”

Arthur mounted his own horse, letting out a brief cough. “What’s on your mind, son?”

“Well,” the boy tapped his reins, riding alongside his father, “when all this is over -- if we actually manage to make it outta the country, that is -- I’ll have to find a new way to make a living. A new career. I can’t just be an outlaw forever.”

The older man let one of his arms dangle casually by his side. “No, I s’pose you can’t. You got any ideas on what you wanna do?”

Isaac nodded. “Yeah. I think... I think I wanna be a doctor.”

Admittedly, Arthur found himself surprised by the decision. He didn’t doubt his son’s capability, but the young man never really struck him as the medical type. He guessed his recent illness was impacting Isaac more than he realized.

“A doctor? You sure about that?”

“Maybe,” Isaac replied with a shrug. “I dunno. I just...” his eyes sank downward, “...I’m tired of hurtin’ people all the time. It’s all I seem to do. I feel like I can’t go one week without nearly killin’ somebody. I wanna start carin’ for people for a change. Save their lives instead of taking ‘em.”

Arthur smiled proudly. “That’s a real noble thing to do, Isaac. I think it’d be good for you. Heh. And you didn’t believe me when I said you wasn’t a killer.”

The boy’s mood didn’t seem to lift at the remark. “Maybe I ain’t a killer now, but I definitely was before I met you. If you had seen the way I killed Eli...”

The other man remembered the name. “Eli Whitley? He was one of Shay’s friends, wasn’t he? You never really told me what happened to him.”

“Yeah.” He confirmed. “Eli was there when mom died. I hated everyone in Shay’s gang with a passion after that, but Eli... I guess you could say he was the kindest in the group. He was the one who convinced everyone else to spare me when they woulda shot me. He’s the only reason Shay ever took me in.”

“But... that didn’t stop me from goin’ after him.” Isaac continued. “I cornered him outside of Rhodes just a few months before I got to Shay. Interrogated him at this abandoned barn. Didn’t let him die until he told me what I needed. He was probably the least deserving out of the entire gang, and yet... I killed him the slowest.”

Arthur sighed, speaking in a gentler tone. “...What’s wrong with you, Isaac?”

“I... I don’t know. But I wanna change. I don’t wanna be that kinda man anymore. That’s why I’m thinkin’ of being a doctor.”

The older man encouraged the idea. “Well, you’re a smart kid. And you’re still young. I think you could do it.”

“Well, it ain’t set in stone yet. It’s just a thought. For all I know, I could end up becoming a hillbilly granger somewhere. Spend all my days roastin’ under the sun. Scare away the occasional coyote. Yell at kids when they come wanderin’ too close to my property. Marry my cousin.”

Arthur chuckled. “Good to see your sense of humor ain’t run off. Maybe you could go into show business. Become a... performer or something.”

Isaac scoffed in an amused manner. “You really think I could be a performer?”

“Well... maybe not. But don’t limit yourself. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be in Broadway someday.”

The boy laughed. “I hope not. Have you met New Yorkers?”

Arthur nodded, thinking back to a certain stranger he met outside Strawberry. “Yes, actually. Yes, I have.”

He fell quiet for a second, suddenly remember something.

“Hey, Isaac. Before I forget, I just wanted to say, I’m--” a series of coughs interrupted him, “--I’m--”

Being cut off once again, Arthur brought a hand up to his mouth and did his best to overcome the sudden attack, only to feel his heart racing when he realized that it was getting worse.

His entire body shook in pain, and with every jagged cough that escaped him, the more he could feel his throat burning.

“Dad?” Isaac said in concern. “Are you okay?”

Arthur didn’t respond. Instead, he simply continued to cough into his hand, desperately trying to catch his breath. The edges of his vision were starting to grow fuzzy now, and despite his efforts to fight through it, Arthur’s strength began to drain from his body by the minute.

“...Isaac...” He wheezed, his voice raspy with irritation. “I...”

Without any warning, Arthur suddenly tilted off his saddle and collapsed to the ground, sending Isaac into a state of panic as he inspected his father’s unconscious body.

“Dad?!” He exclaimed, shaking the man by the shoulders. “Dad! Hey! Wake up!”

His voice began to echo in Arthur’s ears, fading along with everything else as the world turned black.

“...Wake up...!”

~~~~~~~~~~

A FEW HOURS LATER

NIGHTTIME

NEAR LAKE ISABELLA

Cold. Pain. Fear.

These were the only things Arthur could feel at the moment. The only things to greet him when he finally returned to consciousness.

The world around him was still dark, and without the sensation of a solid ground beneath him, he might’ve assumed he was dead.

As for his illness, Arthur could still feel it burning the insides of his chest. His throat was dry and sore, and due to the freezing wind embracing his body, it almost felt as if the breeze was carrying his life away with it.

But no... not yet. He couldn’t quit. He was still here. He was still alive. His body hadn’t given out just yet, and he still had to protect Isaac, no matter the cost.

He just didn’t know if he could anymore.

Waking up with a start, Arthur felt yet another chain of coughs rattle his chest as he forced his eyes open, sluggishly observing his new surroundings.

It looked like he had been moved to a shack somewhere in the middle of Ambarino’s mountains, and if it weren’t for the stiff bedroll lying underneath him, Arthur would’ve been sleeping directly on a fresh blanket of snow.

There wasn’t much of a roof to shelter the shack’s interior from the weather outside, and with the sun now hiding behind the horizon, the night only seemed to grow colder.

Jesus Christ... what had he gotten himself into?

“Dad...?” A familiar voice whispered, drawing Arthur’s attention.

Slowly turning his head to the side, the older man spotted Isaac sitting in a corner of the shack with his rifle clutched tightly to his chest as he guarded his father, clearly anticipating some kind of threat.

His eyes were widened with anxiety, and the way he kept his voice low only heightened Arthur’s sense of fear.

What was going on?

“...Isaac,” Arthur said, barely able to speak at an audible volume. “Where... where are we...? What happened?”

“You had another coughin’ fit.” The boy explained. “You just... passed out. Right onto the road. You-- Jesus Christ, Dad... I thought you were dead. I tried to find you some shelter, but there ain’t much in these mountains. The best I could do was this rundown shack.”

Arthur tried to ease the young man’s nerves, not wanting to escalate things anymore. “It’s okay, Isaac. You did good. But... why d’you seem so afraid? What’s goin’ on?”

“I saw Dutch and his men on the way up here,” Isaac warned. “They were searchin’ the wilds. I think they’re looking for you. They didn’t seem to notice me, but... we have a trail leading directly to us. Dutch could be here at any minute.”

The older man cleared his throat, trying to ignore the pain. “...Shit. That man don’t give up easily. I’ll give him that.”

Isaac looked to his father for guidance. “So, what do we do? Should we just stay here for the night? Or keep moving? I mean, you’re in no condition to travel.”

“We need to get outta here.” Arthur concluded. “You said we have a trail leadin’ straight to us. If anyone finds that...” another cough escaped him.

The boy disagreed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You need to get some rest. Pushin’ yourself will only make things worse right now.”

“And if we stay, we risk Dutch findin’ us. Or even worse, the Pinkertons.”

“But you’re too weak!” Isaac argued. “And it’s the middle of the night. If we go back out there, we’ll freeze to death! It doesn’t--”

Interrupting the young man, an ominous thud suddenly emitted from the shack’s flimsy door, causing both of them to go silent.

Isaac instantly aimed his rifle at the entrance and cocked his weapon, standing directly in the middle of the shack due to a lack of cover.

There weren’t any voices talking at the moment, but underneath the loud howling of the wind and the creaking of wood, Isaac could hear a series of footsteps approaching them.

It sounded like they knew someone was inside based on the steady pace of their movements, and when Isaac glanced down at the crack underneath the door, he couldn’t help but notice an orange light seeping through the small gap.

Part of Isaac just wanted to shoot whoever was outside, but if it was Dutch like he suspected, then that meant his men must’ve been nearby. He couldn’t risk drawing their attention with any loud noises, and if a shootout were to ensue, there was no guarantee Arthur would be strong enough to fight through it.

He’d have to keep things quiet for now.

Swinging the door open with a light push, their unexpected visitor welcomed himself into the shack as a gust of wind breezed past him, chilling Arthur and Isaac to the bone.

The man was wrapped head-to-toe in winter clothing and had a revolver in one hand whilst holding a lantern with the other. His face didn’t strike Isaac as incredibly familiar, but upon seeing the pinned-up hat that he adorned, the boy instantly knew who it was.

“...Bill.” He murmured, watching the man’s every move. “You’re here.”

The other man’s eyes widened in recognition, causing him to raise his gun in alarm. “...Shit. So it really is you. I thought I saw someone out here.”

Isaac stepped protectively in front of Arthur, keeping his finger on the trigger.

“...What’re you doin’ here, Williamson?”

“What d’you think I’m doing? Lookin’ for your daddy, of course.” Bill’s gaze wandered over to Arthur, leading to a sudden shift in tone. “...What’s wrong with him?”

The boy tried to hide the fear in his voice. “He’s sick. With what, we don’t know. But... we think it’s the same thing Dutch has.”

Bill was quiet for a second.

“...Is he coughin’ a lot?”

“Yeah.”

“Is there blood?”

Isaac thought back to when Arthur passed out. “Sometimes.”

The other man sighed, his expression remaining flat. “Then it’s probably tuberculosis. At least, that’s what Dutch has, accordin’ to the doctor. He finally saw one the other day.”

The news hit Isaac like a bullet to the gut. He knew whatever Arthur had couldn’t be good, but he never expected it to be that bad.

“...Shit.” He cursed quietly. “That... explains a lot.”

Bringing his attention back to Bill, Isaac pushed his thoughts aside for the moment and strengthened his grip on the rifle, bracing himself for anything.

“Listen to me, Bill. I dunno what the hell Dutch wants, but you don’t have to do this. Just... walk away. Forget you ever saw us.”

The outlaw stood his ground. “And why should I? If I recall correctly, your daddy said he didn’t care about what happened to me the last time I saw him. So why should I care what happens to him now?”

“Because he’s my family. Wouldn’t you do the same for yours?”

Bill’s glowered at that. “I would, and I have. The gang was my family. I tried to help ‘em, but the only thing anyone ever did in return was ridicule me! Everyone always treated me like I was some... some idiot! A fool! A drunk! Dutch was the only one who ever treated me with respect. That’s why I gotta do this for him.”

Isaac felt a familiar sense of anger boiling inside him. “...You lay a single finger on my father, and I will kill you myself, Williamson.”

The veteran guffawed mockingly. “Oh, yeah, you’s real tough when you’re attackin’ our gang from the shadows. But you ain’t nothin’ compared to Dutch. And neither is your daddy. That man ain’t just strong. He’s caring. He’s the only reason our gang has survived for so long. He has something that the two of you never will. He has our loyalty.”

The boy almost laughed at the ludicrous statement. “Loyalty? Dutch doesn’t give a shit about you. Any of you. Look at how quickly he turned on my father. What makes you think you’re any different?”

Bill looked at him in bewilderment. “Dutch didn’t turn on your father. Arthur turned on him! Dutch... Dutch is a good man. He helps people. He helped me. When I was at my lowest point, he saved me while everyone else ignored me. He saw somethin’ special in me, and he gave me a new purpose in life. And I will never forget that.”

Isaac sighed in frustration. “You’re blinded by your loyalty, Bill. Dutch may have been a good man in the past, but he’s a tyrant now. A madman. Surely, even you can see that!”

The outlaw grumbled to himself, shaking his head in disagreement. “...You’re a real fool, Isaac. You know that? You kill a couple of our men, and suddenly, you think you’re an expert on our gang. You think you know a goddamn thing about us!”

“I know enough. I know that your gang is finished. I know that there’s no more trust between you. No more loyalty. You’re the only one in your gang who still believes in Dutch’s old rhetoric of a better world, and meanwhile, everyone else has given up on it. Hell, even Micah’s already betrayed you.”

Bill fell silent at that. “...What? What’re you talkin’ about?”

“How else do you think I was able to sneak into your camp?” Isaac pointed out. “How else could I have known about the bank robbery in Blackwater? Think about it, Bill. Your gang’s been fallin’ apart since before I even showed up. Only difference now is... there’s no chance of savin’ it.”

It was clear that the other man’s faith was crumbling at Isaac’s words, but he remained reluctant to admit it.

“No... no. That ain’t true! Dutch is special. He knows how to save people. He’ll get us outta this mess. He always does. And besides, I owe him everything after what he’s done for me. Without him, I’d be nothin’ but a big, dumb oaf. But Dutch... he’s a great man. And when I’m with him, I feel like I can be somebody.”

Isaac found himself at a loss for words, unsure of how he was going to convince Bill to walk away.

The last thing he wanted was to start a firefight in the middle of nowhere, but Bill was turning out to be far more obstinate than even Dutch himself.

The man seemed to idolize their gang’s leader. He still saw Dutch with the same image that he held eight years ago, and it looked like he wanted nothing more than to be like him.

But... there was more to Bill. Isaac could see it. Beneath all the anger and recklessness, the boy could sense that there was something pure at Williamson’s core.

It was clear that he still carried some wounds from the ridicule he endured in the past, but with enough encouragement, Isaac hoped he’d able to persuade Bill to overcome it.

If they were going to get out of Ambarino alive, they’d have to make sure that no one else found them. And right now, Bill was the only determining factor on whether or not that would happen.

Isaac didn’t want to take another life, but that sure as hell didn’t mean he wouldn’t.

“Y’know, Bill...” he said carefully, “I used to feel the same. Not too long ago, I used to believe that without my father, I’d be nothin’ more than a heartless killer. I saw him as somebody I wanted to be. Somebody who I needed to be. But you know what he told me?”

Arthur perked his head up in interest, silently listening to Isaac from his bed as the boy spoke about him.

“He said that when all this is over, I ain’t gonna be like him. Or Dutch. Or Shay. Or even Micah. I’m gonna be my own man. A better man. And somethin’ tells me you can be, too.”

Bill softened his voice at the non-hostile approach, struggling to get his thoughts out. He hadn’t exactly reached a friendly disposition just yet, but his demeanor wasn’t nearly as aggressive as before.

“Them’s pretty words, Isaac...” he muttered quietly. “But how do I know you mean them? How do I know you ain’t just playin’ me for a fool like everyone else has?”

The young man clenched his jaw in nervousness, trying to steady his breath.

“...Because I’m tired of killin’ folk. I’m tired of always fearin’ for my life. If you lower your gun, I’m willin’ to lower mine.”

Bill glanced at Arthur. “And your daddy? He gonna let me go, too? Or is he gonna gimme the same treatment he gave Micah?”

“He ain’t gon’ do nothing. He doesn’t have the strength. Just walk out of here and pretend you never saw us. We’ll do the same.”

The outlaw hesitated for a minute, clearly torn by the dilemma. Despite his animosity towards Arthur, he seemed to have some sympathy for the man due to their history together.

Their gang used to be like family after all, and as rotten as Williamson could’ve been sometimes, even he wasn’t so monstrous as to murder a boy and his dying father in cold blood. Not yet, anyway.

A part of him actually believed what the young man said to him earlier, and if Isaac was telling the truth about Micah being a traitor, it was likely that the rat had spoken with the Pinkertons too. If that was the case, then their gang truly was finished.

Dutch may have been a fighter, but even he couldn’t work miracles. Bill would have to get out of this life as soon as possible if he wanted any hope of surviving, and perhaps this was his chance.

He finally lowered his gun, keeping an eye out for any sudden moves from the boy.

“...Goddammit, Isaac.” Bill muttered in annoyance. “Fine. I’ll let you go. This time.”

The young man slowly followed Bill’s actions, admittedly somewhat tentative to believe the outlaw.

“You will?”

“Yeah, but like I said, just this once. If Dutch or Micah find you again, I won’t be able to do anythin’ about that.”

Isaac felt a wave of relief wash over him, allowing him to relax a little.

“...Thank you, Bill.” He said sincerely. “You’re a good man. Or at least, a better man than you think.”

Bill didn’t crack his shell just yet, but Isaac could tell there was a sense of appreciation somewhere in him.

“Sure, Isaac.” He turned around and headed for the shack’s door, stopping in his tracks just before he left.

“Listen, there is somethin’ you should know. The truth is, Dutch doesn’t care about findin’ your father. It’s you he’s really after.”

Isaac raised a brow. “Why me?”

“Hell if I know. Dutch mostly shuts me out these days. Only Micah truly knows what he’s up to. Just... be careful around him. There’s no tellin’ what he has planned for the both of you. Especially after all the hell you’ve raised.”

The boy gave him a nod. “I’ll remember that. Oh, and Williamson?”

Bill looked over his shoulder. “What?”

“...Thank you again. I won’t forget this.”

The grumpy outlaw stepped back out into the snow, pulling his scarf over his nose as the night slowly came to an end.

“Don’t thank me yet.”

#red dead redemption #red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 #arthur morgan #isaac morgan #bill williamson #dutch van der linde #micah bell #rdr2 fanfic #rdr2 story

18 notes · View notes

deadmomjokes · 4 years

Text

For me, part of being asexual means that I get really, REALLY grouchy about a lot of romance in media. Rather, the obsession with romance, sex, and sexuality in media. I am that person that will roll my eyes and turn off a movie if it looks like it’s turning into some steamy nonsense, and I will never willingly sit through a romcom even if you paid me. Sex scenes? I’m out. Passionate kissing? Peace, I’m going to the kitchen, want anything? Call me back when the actual story gets back on. Ridiculous ‘ooh they have such SEXUAL TENSION and chemistry, let’s see how close we can get to making them kiss and just have them breathe heavily in each others faces to get our audience all bothered’? I will end you all. I HATE when books or movies or shows throw in a romantic or sexy subplot just for the lols, at least what I perceive as the lols. Basically, a romance has to be really super duper well-crafted for me to get behind it and not be just utterly enraged or completely turned off from the story.

(Also please note that when I use the term romance in this context, I’m using it as a catch all for ship-based storylines that, due to our culture’s obsession with sex, usually include or hinge on sex or kissy scenes.)

That being said. When a romance is done well, and I mean really well, I absolutely 100% lose my mind. I feel that mess in my soul.

So with that introduction, allow me to lay out a few of my favorite (and, in some instances, most maddeningly painful) romances/canon ships in media.

(read more because I went off. like I said, I feel this way too deeply when it’s done well.)

Winry Rockbell and Edward Elric in FMA:B. Slow burn, mutual pining, mutual cluelessness, what’s not to love? So soft and tender and funny all at the same time, and the mad respect Ed has for Winry is absolutely delightful. She does her own thing, and he’s totally supportive, just as she is of him. And a happily ever after??? UGH, I can’t, it’s perfect. The most straightforward and least convoluted of my whole list, and it’s comparatively easy to breeze through. FMA:B is great anyhow, so do yourself a favor and go watch it.

Audrey Parker/ Nathan Wuornos in Haven (with major caveats). Caveats first: they went overboard with the sexy stuff in my opinion. It got too smutty for me, but my tolerance for that stuff is super low, and it did still air on TV, so evidently it wasn’t as bad for the target audience as it was for my sex-in-media-repulsed self. I also find the final seasons to get a bit stale and repetitive in terms of them trying to advance the love story narrative (all the plot points for it got addressed in earlier episodes/seasons, so why are we going over it again??). They also have a bit of an issue in some episodes with dragging out conflicts because the characters just won’t talk to each other like adults. But overall, taken as a whole, it hits hard. Again, we have a slow burn, mutual pining dynamic that starts as a genuine platonic friendship, and transforms into a dimension and time defying chosen soulmates love story for the ages. The things they would do to save each other, even if it means they can never be together, just so they have the joy of knowing that their beloved is okay. The tiny ways they take care of each other- Audrey testing Nathan’s coffee to see if it’s too hot, Nathan slowing down so he doesn’t out-pace her, it’s just adorable.

Faramir and Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings BOOKS. This is an interesting one because it happens really quickly and between two minor characters. But Tolkien did this really interesting thing where he established these two characters separately, and then brought them together and played off what we knew about each of them in context of everything else that had happened with the main story, and suddenly it has, as one of my professors would say, “the illusion of depth.” Faramir absolutely falls head over heels for Eowyn but won’t act until she can deal with her own crap and be emotionally available. Eowyn realizes that she was hung up on ideals, illusions, and false dichotomies. Faramir has been through a lot and is looking for peace. Eowyn is looking for who she really is when she realizes she has more than two choices in life. They find healing together, and in the process, find what they were looking for in each other. And all that happens in the space of, like, 4 pages. I LOVE IT.

Sam Carter and Jack O’Neill in Stargate SG1. This one will hurt you to no end. You will hate life. But gosh dang if they aren’t perfect. This is the slowest burn and most mutual pining of all slow burn mutual pining ships to ever grace media. I’m talking 8 seasons of these two sharing feelings but being unable to express it for one reason or another. What are those reasons, you ask? Jack is her superior and respects her too much to put her in that position. No fraternization on the team. Sam has career aspirations, he won’t ruin her life. He’s got his own issues to work through and knows he isn’t emotionally available. Sam is clueless for a while, then when she realizes she has feelings for him but it couldn’t be because of their work dynamic and because he’s still dealing with his own crap, she tries to move on but keeps coming back to the unspoken fact that she still loves him. To the point that she breaks off her own engagement to a great guy because she realizes she was only trying to move on-- and wasn’t successful. They are clearly in deep for each other, and yet they keep making excuses why they can’t say it.

In the whole series, they never officially get together, and I HATE THAT. There are multiple alternate realities and timelines where they are together, and happy, but in the main timeline, they can’t get over themselves, and it hurts so bad because they’re so perfect. Jack knows she’s the smartest person in the room, and he supports her and defends her and listens to and defers to her. He respects her first as an expert, then as a colleague, and then as a woman whom he deeply loves even though he can’t find it in him to love himself. She appreciates his experience and leadership, and trusts him implicitly. She knows she’s got more book smarts, but relies on his judgement and ability to remain calm under pressure. She also knows she can be real with him, and he knows that when she calls him on his BS he better listen. She is his conscience, and he is her backbone. And in between episodes where they’re clearly pining for each other, and even during, they’re really great friends and a great team. I could seriously write an essay on why this ship is both perfect and intensely frustrating, but then again, you could just watch a great and classic series and see what I mean for yourself. (Then you’d also get to meet the perfection that is Teal’c, and watch Daniel Jackson’s transition from Milo Thatch in Space to sassy beefcake demigod who still loves archaeology.)

Beren and Luthien, Tolkien part 2, electric boogaloo. A love so powerful it transcends death, fate, hell and heaven all at once. It’s kind of wild and not what you’d expect if you’ve only read LotR (or only seen the movies), because it’s more a classic fairy tale than anything, but hot dang if it isn’t still one of the most powerful, moving, deeply impactful love stories in all of writing. It’s even a “love at first sight” narrative and I STILL fall hard for it. This story legit moves me to tears every dang time I read it, or even think about it too hard.

It starts as a simple “forbidden love” story, but these two loved each other so much that they defied one of the most powerful kings in all the world at that time (who was also Luthien’s dad, oopsies), defied Satan himself and marched into Hell just for the chance to be together, and then changed the very way the world works forever just so they could stay together and not be parted. Luthien is a total BEAST, while never giving up her gentle, loving, and tender nature. For the love of this man, she defies her father’s wishes and breaks herself out of her own dang tower to go rescue her prince instead of the other way round, she sends Sauron (yeah, he’s here too!) scurrying with his tail between his legs, wrecks his house, and frees all his slaves and prisoners just to try and get to Beren, drags his butt out of heck part 1, then willingly walks into literal, actual Hell with him and proceeds to enchant Satan and all the demons within. Then she gets her bf outta there after he loses his hand, and goes back to face her father unafraid. Basically, Beren undertakes a literally impossible task just for the chance to be with Luthien, but Luthien is the one that makes it happen because she loves him too much to sit around knowing he’s going to die. She’s willing to die with him rather than live without him, but more willing to dare death to come at her and get some because ain’t no way she’s losing him.

Then, at the last, when all should have been their happily ever after, everything goes wrong and she loses her beloved, and instead of mourning forever, she yeets off her mortal coil out of pure “Oh no you didn’t, not after all we went through” just to go stand before the God of Fate and the Dead and plead with him to change the rules of the universe itself just so that she can be with Beren. And he does it, because their love is so strong. Just for them, all of existence is rewritten so that they might never be parted.

And if you don’t think that’s the most beautiful thing you’ve ever heard, consider also: these two crazy kids were so wonderful that the Goodest Boy in all the world, a functionally immortal and super-intelligent dog sent from heaven itself by a literal god, willingly turned on all his masters and spontaneously learned intelligent speech just so he could help them out and be their Good Boy til the bitter end, thus (in Tolkien’s mythos) starting the whole “man’s best friend” thing with dogs. So yeah. And, uh, Tolkien based it on him and his wife, to the point of ripping their first meeting frame-for-frame from real life. It’s too much y’all.

Anyhow, this post is way, way too long, but I was just feeling the need to get that out there. Maybe I’ll have more in the future, but for now, this is what was on my mind. Particularly the last two.

#long post #romance #asexual #stargate sg1 #haven #fmab #tolkien #lotr

46 notes · View notes

gabriel-agreste-has-no-rights · 4 years

Link

Rating: G

Summary: Kagami and Nino plan a surprise party for Adrien's seventeenth birthday. With help from their friends, nothing can go wrong this time. Nino's even invited an extra special guest who's sure to make Adrien's night. (Nino & Kagami & Adrien friendship, with a side of Ladrien)

Word Count: 3101 | Chapter 1/3

Notes: written for @marinetteplztakeabreak through the @mlbforblm charity drive! The donations go directly to Color of Change, an online organization for racial justice centered on the Black Lives Matter movement. I highly recommend checking them out and reblogging/donating the mlbforblm posts if you’re able! I have one fic slot left as of 7/23/2020, and many other talented writers and artists are offering incentives as well! There’s even a giveaway going on; see the mlbforblm blog for more info!

XXX

“Hmm.” Kagami’s brow furrowed as she stared at Nino’s Operation: Totally Swank Party binder. The two of them sat on a bench in the park, where she had agreed to meet him after slipping away from her fencing lesson. “Bribing the bodyguard is a proven technique. Get me a list of action figures his collection is missing, and I’ll have them by tomorrow.”

“Way ahead of you, dude.” Nino tore a piece of notebook paper out. He’d done his research last night after a long phone call with Adrien. “Glad I can count on you.”

“Of course.” She neatly folded the paper and slipped it into her jacket pocket. “I’ll have them shipped to your apartment. Do you have a plan to dispose of his babysitter?”

Nino sighed and flipped to the page with a doodle of Nathalie with horns at the top. It was a much more tentative outline than what he’d prepared to deal with the Gorilla. Hopefully Kagami would be able to help him with that.

“Nathalie’s whole job is to suck out all the fun in my bro’s life. We’ll never be able to throw this party with her in the picture.”

He’d tried the past three years. From Hawkmoth transforming him into the Bubbler, to Nathalie locking him in a closet, to Gabe himself nearly arresting him for trespassing, each had been a total bust. At this point Adrien probably wasn’t expecting Nino to try.

But Adrien was his best bro. Nino would never give up on throwing him the most poppin’ party ever.

Plus, this year, he had a secret weapon. One that even Kagami didn’t know about.

“You seem quite prepared.” Kagami squinted at the page. “You’re sure Max can play his part? The Agrestes use my mother’s security technology.”

“Positive. He and Markov can hack anything.”

Max had already wired into the speaker system last time they threw a party for Adrien. Of course, on Adrien’s birthday, the mansion would be too obvious a target. That’s why the plan just required getting his bro out of the house altogether.

“I’ll trust you, then. What exactly is my role?”

Nino grinned, placing a hand on her shoulder. “You, my good bro, will be sneaking Adrien away from his fake fencing lessons. Adrien says you’ve done it a thousand times, and his pops still barely knows who you are. You’ve got like, some kind of invisibility superpower.”

“I simply have practice. That’s all.” She took his pen and began making notes in his binder. “Nathalie will realize we’re gone approximately forty-five minutes after we leave. The Gorilla has set patrol routes for finding Adrien when he goes missing, which I can map out for you.”

“If he takes the bribes, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Kagami was already sketching out a map of the city on a clean sheet of paper. Geez, how did she remember all that? He doubted he could even draw the path from his apartment to Alya’s.

“I don’t want to take any chances. We cannot fail Adrien. Do you have a venue reserved already?”

“Huh?” Nino scratched under his hat. Kagami was pretty rad, but it was hard to follow her train of thought sometimes. “Oh, right! I was thinking the hotel. Now that Chloé’s not a total jerk—”

“No. Too obvious. Nathalie will find us within the hour.” Kagami frowned and tapped the pen against the back of her hand. “The ice rink will be our best option. It’s out of his bodyguard’s patrol zone, and it can accommodate all of Adrien’s friends. We hid there all the time when we were dating, and no one ever found us.”

“Sure, sure, there’s just one problem.” He grinned nervously and tapped his fingers together. “I, uh, don’t know how to skate.”

Kagami tilted her head and. “Really? No matter. His birthday is twenty-one days away. You have plenty of time to learn.”

Over her shoulder, he watched her write “Teach Nino to ice skate” in her crisp print.

“Uhh… well, I guess that works.” Hopefully everyone else knew how to skate already, or they could just enjoy the food and cake from the seats surrounding the rink. Nino could technically do that too, but he didn’t want to miss hanging out on the ice with his best bro.

“I’ve seen you parkour with Alya. You seem like you’ll learn quickly.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Nino chuckled. “Just get ready to watch me starfish out there.”

Her lips pursed thoughtfully. “If it proves too difficult for you, I can try to find a backup location. I doubt one exists that will fit everyone you’ve listed, though.” She flipped back to the guest list, which included all of their classmates from the last few years, Adrien’s whole fencing team, and a few other friends like Luka and XY. Pretty much everyone Adrien had ever interacted with was on the list.

Except for one special guest, but Nino had left her out on purpose.

“No, no, it’ll be fine! I’m just joking, dude.”

“Oh.” Her face pinked a bit. “How are we going to deliver the invitations without alerting Nathalie or Adrien’s father?

“I’ve started planning that too.” Nino flipped forward a few pages. “The most important guests—ones who aren’t gonna snitch on us—will get their invites a week in advance. The rest will get theirs by text on the day of. If they can’t come, they can’t come.” It was the best solution he’d been able to come up with. He was sure that even if people did have plans, most would drop them for a chance to party with Adrien Agreste.

“Hmm. It still feels too obvious. The fencing team in particular may give us up.” She frowned before scratching a few names off the list. Well, she was on the team herself; she would know better than anyone who could be trusted. “You’re right though. This does seem like the best plan.”

Nino grinned. One nice thing about Kagami was that when she gave a compliment, he knew it was sincere. If she agreed with his birthday plan, then it was as close to foolproof as it could be.

“Sweet. I think that covers everything for now.”

“A very productive planning session.” Kagami nodded before holding out her fist.

Nino laughed and bumped knuckles with her. After a year of hanging out with him and his bro, Kagami was finally getting the hang of fist bumps.

“Meet me at the ice rink at eighteen hundred on Saturday. We’ll begin your lessons then.”

She closed the binder and handed it back to him, then stood and walked away.

“Skating lessons with Kagami, huh…”

This was either going to be a legit time, or he was going to make a total idiot of himself.

XXX

“Come on, Nino, you’ve got this!” Alya called encouragement as she and Marinette lapped him again. He frowned at their backs. How was it that even Marinette, certified clumsiest girl in Paris, could be a better skater than him?

“Focus, Nino.” Kagami snapped her fingers. She stayed near him, slowing her pace even though she could’ve skated rings around him. “Your girlfriend’s praise will only become reality if you practice proper technique. Keep your weight centered.”

“Right, right.” He pushed off from the handrail and tried not to flap his arms. This time, he made it a solid twenty seconds before he slipped and went skidding across the ice. His hat slid off in the opposite direction, but Kagami quickly retrieved it.

“Don’t try to go so fast. Catching up to Marinette and Alya isn’t your goal.” Kagami’s advice was blunt, but helpful. Nino didn’t mind her getting to the point. He knew his skating needed work, and no matter how many times he fell, she didn’t lose patience with him.

It was nice that Alya was so far ahead, honestly. It meant she didn’t see him look like a total dorkasaurus every time he fell.

I’m doing this for Adrien, he reminded himself each time. He didn’t need to be a pro skater. He just needed to be able to stay upright.

“You make it look so easy.” He frowned as Kagami glided backwards.

“I’ve been skating since I was six. It makes a relaxing hobby.”

He snorted. “How is anything about this relaxing?”

“Hmm. Perhaps you’re thinking too hard. It makes you hesitate, place your weight incorrectly. You’re a musician, aren’t you?”

“Huh? Yeah, you know I’m DJ-ing for the party.” He had no clue why Kagami was asking, though.

“Skating has a rhythm. Maybe you’ll feel more comfortable timing your strides with music.”

He tapped his chin. “Y’know… that’s not a half bad idea.”

“Not half bad? Does that mean only half is good?”

“No, no, the whole idea’s good! It’s just an expression.”

He slipped his headphones over his ears and picked one of the slowest songs on his playlist. It was a waltz in ¾ time; hopefully that wouldn’t trip him up.

“Alright, here goes.”

He took a deep breath and pushed off from the wall.

One-two-three, one-two-three. The music was smooth as the ice under his skates. Kagami kept pace with him, smiling as he counted the beats under his breath.

Something about it did feel different. Maybe it was that he stopped overthinking; maybe it was just the magic of music. Either way, he went the whole six-minute song without falling on his butt.

“Not half bad.” Kagami smiled. “...Did I use that right?”

“Heck yeah, dude.” They fistbumped.

“Way to go Nino!” Marinette gave him a high five as she and Alya caught up.

“Thanks for teaching my boyfriend, Kagami. I owe you one.”

“You owe me nothing, Alya.” Kagami’s cheeks turned red. “We’re all working together to ensure Adrien’s birthday is perfect. Teaching Nino is just one step in that plan.”

“Well, I still think it’s really cool of you. Oh! And speaking of the party, my mom says she can cater. I’ve already sworn her to secrecy.”

“Awesome! What about you, Marinette?” Nino took his headphones off to better hear the conversation, but his legs still knew what to do. “Are you gonna get Adrien a totally rad birthday cake or what?”

“Yeah, absolutely!” She nodded. “I’ll just have to drop it off before the party.”

“You’re still sure you can't come, girl?” Alya asked her.

“No, sorry. I promise I would if I could, but I—I’ve already made a commitment. But I’ll have the cake here on time, I swear!”

“And one of his fifty birthday presents, right?” She nudged Marinette with her elbow. Marinette nearly fell, but Nino wasn’t sure if that was from Alya’s bump or her words.

“I—I don’t have those anymore!” Her shoulders slumped. “It turns out, planning presents fifty years in advance works a lot better if you can see the future. They’re all out of style by now.”

Alya laughed at that. Nino couldn’t help noticing that Kagami had gone silent, though, her gaze locked on the ice in front of them.

“Something wrong, bro?” He asked her.

She shook her head. “Adrien’s party won’t be perfect if Marinette isn’t present. I thought she of all people would understand how much she means to him.”

Marinette gasped. “I… I’m sorry, Kagami. Adrien does mean the world to me, and… I promise, I’ll make it up to him.”

Nino was forced to stop as Kagami grabbed the handrail and locked eyes with Marinette. Some kind of silent conversation seemed to pass between them. He looked to Alya for help, but she just shrugged. By now he thought he’d understand the girls, but maybe some things would always be a mystery.

“See that you do. He deserves that much.”

This wasn’t some kind of love triangle over Adrien again, was it? Kagami had stayed good friends with all of them after she and Adrien broke up. Marinette was probably still crazy in love with him, but that was nothing new.

“It’s okay, dudes. The party’s still going to be perfect. I’ve got a special surprise planned for our favorite bro.”

He winked at Alya, who grinned back. She’d been the one to help him pull it off.

“A surprise?” Marinette clapped her hands together at the same time Kagami raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t factor any surprises into our plans. Why didn’t you tell me about this?”

“It’s not much of a surprise if everyone knows, is it?” Nino said. “But you’re right, I should have told you, Kagami. I just wasn’t sure if it would be awkward for you, knowing who Adrien’s crushing on now and all…”

“It’s not an issue. Adrien is a wonderful friend. That is more than enough for me,” Kagami replied.

“Adrien’s... crushing on someone?” Marinette asked, her eyes wide.

Oops. Kagami might have taken it well, but Nino should’ve waited until Marinette was gone.

“What’s the scoop, babe?” Alya raised her eyebrow, and Nino threw his hands in the air.

“I thought you already knew! Why do you think we worked so hard to get Ladybug to show up for his party?”

Marinette caught hold of the hand rail before her legs slipped out from under her.

“Adrien has a crush on Ladybug?”

“Oh. That’s all?” Kagami asked. “I’ve known that for months.”

“You have?”

“Was it supposed to be a secret? He keeps posters of her in his fencing locker.”

Marinette still looked like she was blue screening. Alya glared at Nino, and he gave a nervous smile. What was he supposed to do? Kagami had a point; the dude wasn’t exactly subtle.

“Anyway.” He coughed. “Our bro likes Ladybug, and she’s coming to his party, so he’s going to have a totally cash money time.”

“Cash money? You’ve been hanging out with Luka and XY too much, babe.”

Marinette giggled at that. She got her feet back under her, and they started skating in unison again. So… she wasn’t that upset? Whew.

“Oh, speaking of XY, I gotta get him here to help set up the special effects,” Nino said. “I already got permission from Phillipe. We’re going all out, courtesy of the actual cash money Kitty Section and XY’s last collab made.”

“How did we end up friends with so many rich people?” Alya mused under her breath.

“It sounds like the plan is in motion, then,” Kagami said.

“Yeah, it’s going to be perfect! Adrien will love it.” Marinette grinned. “Thank you two for putting all this together.”

“Anything for my best bro.” Nino shot her finger guns.

“He deserves a party worthy of his friendship,” Kagami added.

And he was going to get one. This year, of all years, Nino refused to let anything go wrong.

XXX

Three weeks later, on the night of September twenty-first, Nino paced the blue chairs surrounding the perimeter of the ice rink. His friends wove between the chairs, setting up tables of food and games. His turntables were already in place at the head of the rink, and XY was hooking them up to the speaker system.

“Nathalie’s schedule?” Nino asked as he passed Max.

“Hacked and adjusted.” Max flashed a thumbs up.

“Great job, dude.” He clapped him on the shoulder before moving on to Rose and Juleka’s station.

“Presents?”

“Stacked and organized!” Rose saluted.

“Sweet. Make sure to leave some extra space, there’ll be more where those came from.” He continued his path to where Chloé was lounging in a chair and scrolling through her phone.

“Chloé, status report.”

“No trace of Adrikins on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or YouTube.” She flipped her ponytail. “You should check your tone, though. I’m not some peon you can just order around.”

“Right.” He rolled his eyes. Classic Chloé. At least she was taking her job seriously, though. “Thanks for all your hard work.”

“You’re welcome.” She smirked.

Her job was one of the most important. If the media caught wind of Adrien’s location, the party would have to split before he even got here. To prevent that, Max had jammed the wifi and cell service so that only his computer, Chloé’s phone, and Nino’s phone had wifi. If anyone wanted to post about the party on social media, they’d have to wait until after it was over.

Everything was looking perfect. There wasn’t much else to do but wait for updates from Kagami.

19:00. Arrived at the court. No sign of Adrien.

19:04. Adrien has arrived. Bodyguard bribed and driving away.

19:05. En route to ice rink. Adrien was suspicious, but believed my excuse of buying him birthday orange juice.

Nino shook his head with a smile. How did Kagami type all that without Adrien noticing? At least everything seemed to going smoothly on her end, too.

He started pacing again. According to Kagami, a casual stroll from the school to the ice rink took twenty minutes. It was longer than Nino wanted to wait, but the location had to be far enough away to avoid notice.

His phone beeped again. He unlocked it to see a selfie of Kagami and Adrien smiling wide, though Adrien was practically unrecognizable in the oversized hoodie and bright blue wig Kagami had borrowed from Juleka.

Alya’s chin rested on Nino’s shoulder. “Aww, look at them. All grown up and ready to rebel.”

“Psh, Kagami’s been rebelling for ages. Adrien could still learn a thing or two from her.”

“Oh look, she sent another one!” Alya clicked his phone.

In this photo, the two of them were pulling funny faces. Adrien stuck out his tongue, while Kagami puffed out her cheeks and gave him bunny ears.

Nino laughed and put an arm around his girlfriend. “We did a great job with them, didn’t we?”

“Absolutely.” She smiled before zooming in on the background. “Looks like they’re in front of the parking lot. They’ll be here any time now.”

Sure enough, Kagami texted, 19:25. Two minutes away.

“Right!” Nino gave her cheek a quick kiss before running to his turntables. He snatched up the microphone, and his voice blasted through the speakers. “Alright, dudes! Adrien’s about to walk through those doors, so everyone hide!”

Their friends dove behind tables and chairs. All of them except XY, anyway.

“What’s the point, dude? He’s gonna see all our sick lights.” XY pointed to the laser lights next to the turntable.

“That’s why we switch them off,” Luka said, pressing the button. The rink fell into darkness.

“Ohhhh.”

Nino pulled the two of them under the table with him just before the double doors opened.

#what an ice surprise #fic tag #miraculous ladybug #kagami #nino lahiffe #nino #tali writes #mlbforblm

33 notes · View notes

mszegedy · 4 years

Text

You, too, can design a wrench to throw in the workings of the coronavirus

I pretty much never post about my job here. I do love my field, but it’s not a special interest of mine. Just a normal interest. And while the things I do are pretty easy to explain, it’s hard to explain why they matter.

Now it’s easy to explain why they matter, too. Unfortunately.

The term I’m most comfortable with for my job is protein engineer, but nobody uses that. So my bio says computational protein design specialist instead. I sit at a computer and design proteins. This is important because anything important that has ever happened has been accomplished with the help of proteins. They are the most useful thing to make living things out of, because you can use them as both structural components (struts, ropes, cages, armor plating, nets, pipes, spools) and as machines (assemblers, disassemblers, sorters, recyclers, dynamos, rotary motors, ratchet motors, pumps, locks and keys). They do all the things that make things be alive. (By the way, if you’re on desktop, every one of those words in the parentheses is a link, if you’re curious.)

More precisely, I wish I sat at my computer and designed proteins. Today, instead of doing that, I attended the first half of an emergency protein design conference called to discuss how we can design a protein that can be used to cure the coronavirus. It was five hours long and I’m really tired and I got nothing done today.

Even on a normal day, though, I don’t really design proteins. I just read papers, write programs that make charts, and write apologetic letters to my advisor.

This is because actually designing a protein is the easiest step. The rest is paperwork and tears. Designing a protein is so easy, actually, that I get computers to do it for me. But designing proteins is like playing Starcraft. You can beat a computer just by knowing what the hell you’re doing.

About a decade ago my research community made a program, called Foldit, that let anyone design proteins. We do the paperwork and tears, while you do the design. It’s a fair trade, because design is fun, and we still get paid. (Most of us, anyway.)

Right now, the world only has to accomplish one protein design task. This is the simplest it’s ever been: make a protein that sticks to some part of the spikes on the coronavirus. That’s it. Make the right protein, and you’ve cured the coronavirus.

Everybody in my research community is scrambling head over heels to attack the problem from all angles. With Foldit, you have… somewhere between 10 and 50 percent of those angles available to you. You make something even vaguely successful, and we can use it as fodder for our models and algorithms and clueless neural nets until we’ve aggregated the design for the stickiest motherfucking protein the coronavirus has ever seen. And it won’t be able to do anything to stop us.

Do you want to do something about the coronavirus, and think you can handle protein design? Read below the cut, I’ll explain exactly how you can do that. Do you want to do something about the coronavirus, and don’t think you can handle protein design? Read below the cut anyway, and you’ll change your mind, because protein design is about as hard as sculpting, except with a way lower skill ceiling.

Please help us. We believe in you. We discuss Foldit models at our conferences. We take you seriously. We take this pandemic seriously. We need you.

On board? Let’s dive in.

A protein is a sticky string. There’s two kinds of sticky: orange sticking to orange (”nonpolar” sticky), and red sticking to blue (”polar” sticky). Here’s a short protein, technically so short that we should refer to it as a “peptide”:

You can see that it’s organized into groups of 3, called “residues”: little red bit (a hydrogen), an optional orange bit of some kind (the “side chain”), and a blue bit (a carboxyl). At the ends, the red and blue bits get bigger. The fact that the red and blue bits are always there means that they can be arranged into some simple patterns, assuming there’s room. But let’s talk about the side chains for a moment.

Some side chains end in red and blue bits. These are the “polar” and “charged” side chains, and when the protein tangles itself into the right shape, they’re found on the outside. This is because outside the protein is water, and water molecules have a red part and a blue part, so the side chains want to stick to it. I put a water molecule, to scale, next to the first charged side chain, so you can have a visual. Polar and charged side chains are called “hydrophilic” side chains for this reason.

The pure orange “nonpolar” side chains, meanwhile, gather on the inside, sticking to each other in a gooey mess. They’re the opposite of hydrophilic: hydrophobic. When you achieve that gooey mess, you have “buried your hydrophobics”.

90% of figuring out what shape a protein will tangle up (euphemistically “fold”) into is burying your hydrophobics.

There’s only 20 kinds of side chains in total, and that’s also counting the weird residues with not-quite side chains like proline, that weird bend in the last but one residue in our little peptide, and glycine, the residue with no side chain at all. (Besides a measly hydrogen, and everyone knows hydrogens aren’t real. That’s a computational protein engineering injoke; feel free to use it. The joke is nobody knows exactly where hydrogens are, and nobody cares.) Here’s a family portrait:

I’m not gonna explain any of the weird ones here, because honestly, it’s not super important. Red sticks to blue, orange sticks to orange, and stuff that looks like it’s connected is connected. That’s it, that’s proteins. I guess it’s worth mentioning that the yellow parts are sulfur, but sulfurs are just large, bratty oxygens (the blue bits). They’re not special.

Remember how I said the regular alternation of red bits and blue bits on residues creates some simple, reliable patterns? “Some” is two. Well, technically a few more than two, but nobody really pays attention to the other ones, because they’re just knockoffs of the first two. Here is the first pattern. It’s the favorite pattern of isolated bits of protein with nothing better to do:

This is called an alpha helix. They’re stiff, like rods. You’ll see a lot of these. The other one happens when you lay bits of proteins side by side:

This is called a beta sheet. If you leave a bucket of any protein whatsoever in one place long enough, eventually it’ll fall apart and turn into these. That’s part of why cells have to clean their proteins up: otherwise, it’ll turn into this junk. (”This junk”, on the cellular level, is called amyloid fiber, and is deadly to the cell. On the human scale, it’s called silk, and it’s nice and soft.) But this is also a very structurally useful pattern; it creates tight but flexible weaves. They get shaped into barrels or parts of barrels, usually, but sometimes they get used as walls instead. And sometimes they’re very small and consist of just two short bits that need to get glued together at the sides.

The rest of the protein is just spaghetti, euphemistically called “loops”. The functional bits that attach to stuff outside the protein tend to be on the loops, because the loops are the most flexible and can be posed the most precisely. In real life, proteins are constantly undergoing vibrating motions on every level. The biggest motions are also the slowest; pac-man-shaped proteins will “breathe”, opening and closing at regular intervals. Usually the only time they’ll be able to bind stuff is when they’re open. The takeaway here is that all the stuff inside the protein is gonna wiggle anyway, and you have to make sure it looks the best when it’s wiggled open, if you’re trying to stick something.

Congratulations. That’s everything I know about how proteins get their shapes, pretty much. Your mission is now to make a protein that sticks really well to some important part of the coronavirus’s spikes. The spikes are made of protein, and when they get near an alveolar cell, they open up and jam a lockpick into a “lock” protein called ACE2 on the surface of the cell, which makes the cell sluuurrrp up the virus. Some good ideas are to cover the lockpick so it can’t activate the lock, or to jam the opening and closing mechanism so the spike’s shape gets distorted.

There’s also a couple of other proteins the coronavirus makes that you could try to mess up. A popular target is its two proteases. Viral proteins come like the plastic bits for assemblable toy models: all the pieces are there, but they’re connected together, and you have to break them apart before you can put them together. That’s what the proteases do. (The second protease also cuts off the “to be destroyed” tags that the cell’s proteins keep putting on the viral proteins.) It’s much harder to get your protein drug inside the cells, but once they’re there, they can be as effective as a drug that targets the virus before it gets into the cell. Leave the drug delivery to us. (Or to big pharma, idk. I got a C+ in drug delivery in undergrad, and got it bumped up to a B when I reminded the professor that my attendance grade was low because I was in the psych ward for a chunk of the semester. That’s still more drug delivery than most protein engineers have taken.)

You’re ready!

Here’s a “Getting started with Foldit” tutorial.

Here’s an in-depth analysis of the coronavirus spike for Foldit players, with an accounting of some of the more advanced tools at your disposal. (I highly recommend DDG, although it’s slow to compute in real time.)

#coronavirus #biochemistry #video games #covid-19 #covid19 #quarantine activities #molecular biology #proteins #protein folding #foldit #signal boost appreciated #coronavirus activities #biology #chemistry #computational biology #protein design

68 notes · View notes

mergersacquisitionsadvisory · 4 years

Text

What's The Largest Tech Mergers And Acquisitions Advisory In History?

New blockbuster tech deals reshape the landscape so typically that we determined to start out preserving track of essentially the most profitable ones. The list starts with offers of only a couple billion and works its method as much as the largest tech mergers and acquisitions we've seen so far. This merger, which took place in 2000, was price over $180 billion and is the biggest merger and acquisition deal in historical past. As mergers and acquisitions advisory, Vodafone turned the largest cell operator on the earth whereas setting the stage for future offers within the telecom industry. Many Germans were towards this deal as a result of they wanted German businesses to stay key players in the world marketplace. The deal is the second largest of all time for a software company (the most important being IBM’s 2019 acquisition of RedHat) but already looks prefer it has the potential to generate massive synergies for each corporations.

So just two years later, Google flipped Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.9 billion, while holding on to these patents. As for why Google offered Motorola and why Lenovo purchased it, try this 2014 evaluation from PCMag's Lead Analyst Sascha Segan. The proper expertise and tools can even work to make deals extra profitable. DealRoom’s M&A project management software program and tools goals to assist groups manage their complicated M&A transactions. Overall, it’s onerous to argue which deal in US history is probably the most profitable merger or acquisition because of the truth that generally the total worth and potential of a deal takes years to formulate. If you need to discover the latest listing of mergered firms read this blog post about the place to verify M&A information. The acquisition created the second largest drug company, took three months, and Pfizer obtained control of Lipitor’s earnings, which amounted to over $13 billion.

The deal is supposed to stop the downward spiral and the planning was in place to purchase out the shares however obtained delayed because of regulatory elements. This was the largest purchase out within the historical past of the entertainment industry. Walt Disney Co. acquired well-known 21st Century Fox with $eighty five billion. The intention behind the deal is to turn out to be a significant player in video entertainment on the internet. Disney over the yr centered on an even bigger display to distribute its product, however millennials are watching much less TV and consuming more content from the internet. This noticed the rise of video streaming providers similar to Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu.

2004 Parcel Direct FedEx Corp. broadens its residential delivery portfolio with the acquisition of Parcel Direct, a leading parcel consolidator. Parcel Direct becomes a subsidiary of FedEx Ground and is renamed FedEx SmartPost. The company offers a proven answer to customers within the quick-growing e-tail and catalog industries looking for a cheap means of transport low-weight, less time-delicate goods to residential prospects. FedEx Corp. expands its retail entry to all the 1,200 Kinko's stores. With the backing of a FORTUNE 100 corporation, Kinko's gains the sources and experience needed to proceed growth of its corporate doc outsourcing business and international operations. FedEx Corp. acquires this less-than-truckload carrier serving the central and japanese U.S. to complement Viking Freight. Rebranded as FedEx Freight in 2002, these firms mix to make FedEx Freight a pacesetter in the regional less-than-truckload delivery business.

This consists of the purchase of Whole Foods, which Amazon bought for $thirteen.7 billion, and is the company’s largest acquisition to date. In order to count for our listing, acquisitions should be no less than a majority stake in the target company (in any other case it’s simply an funding). Naspers’ investment in Tencent and Softbank/Yahoo’s investment in Alibaba are disqualified for this reason. This purchase may need ranked even higher if Booking Holdings’ stock (Priceline even renamed the whole company after this acquisition!) weren’t down ~20% due to COVID-19 fears after we did the analysis. Who would have thought facilitating funds for Beanie Baby trades could possibly be so profitable? The solely acquisition on our record whose value we will precisely measure, eBay spun off PayPal into a stand-alone public company in July 2015.

Salesforce Is Shopping For Office Messaging App Slack For $27 7 Billion In Its Biggest Deal Ever

2012 TATEX FedEx Corp. acquires TATEX, a leading French enterprise-to-business express transportation company, for $55 million. This acquisition offers its FedEx Express enterprise unit access to a nationwide domestic floor community which carries 19 million shipments and produces roughly €150 million in revenues yearly. This acquisition offers its FedEx Express business unit entry to a nationwide domestic ground community with an estimated $70 million in annual revenue and 12.5 million shipments annually.

Furthermore, Coinbase appointed Earn.com co-founder and CEO Balaji Srinivasan as its first CTO and absorbed the Earn.com group. A 12 months after the acquisition, Coinbase closed down Earn.com to focus completely on Coinbase Earn.

I guess the macro point right here is I assume it is always worth evaluating two related corporations like this, YouTube and Instagram. I suppose in all probability considerably greater hosting and bandwidth prices. Now, DoubleClick is attention-grabbing in that Google bought that in 2008.

Facebook’s largest acquisition has been WhatsApp Messenger, which it bought for $22 billion in 2014. The WhatsApp acquisition is the second largest of the Big Five, following Microsoft’s LinkedIn buy. In an intriguing current flip of events, Apple recently introduced it will acquire the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem enterprise. This $1 billion deal will allow Apple to construct all of its devices in-house, and higher put together the iPhone for the upcoming 5G push. While these tech giants may have had massive aspirations for these exceedingly giant deals, they have mixed success charges. The Big Five tech giants, or “FAAMG”—Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Google —have a combined market capitalization of over $four trillion.

But the forecast for the total yr of 21% to 22% growth would characterize the corporate's slowest fee of expansion since 2010. Slack is projected to develop 39% this fiscal year, which ends Jan. 31, to $876.three million, according to analysts surveyed by Refinitiv. By buying Slack, a business chat service with over one hundred thirty,000 paid customers, Salesforce is bolstering its portfolio of enterprise functions and filling out its broader software program suite because it seeks new areas of progress. The income streams for esports corporations are additionally extraordinarily varied. Companies like TSM, a hundred Thieves, FaZe Clan and Enthusiast Gaming made 50% or extra of their revenue from outside of esports, having as a substitute expanded into diverse corporations with an equal focus on content material creation and apps. TSM, the world’s most precious esports firm in 2020, has a better valuation than 5 NHL franchises.

Ibm's Blockbuster $34 Billion Deal For Purple Hat

According to company management, Latin America and Africa provide the brewing conglomerate alternatives to increase into quickly-rising regions that should end in increased income and market share. A business taking up another promising business is a typical incidence in the company world. Such acquisitions, also referred to as takeovers, are often executed as part of a company’s development strategy and are made for any number of causes. Martha approached Medtronic’s board and commenced laying out the probabilities of creating an acquisition of a giant medical company that would provide the needed breadth. “The board had began to heat to the thought, but we hadn’t settled on something.” Covidien, he noted, was on the highest of the listing. Salesforce mentioned the Slack buy involves an enterprise value of $27.7 billion, which takes into account shares excellent along with debt and money. The deal values Slack at over 24 occasions estimated revenue for subsequent yr.

Amazon ultimately shut down Quidsi in 2017, citing profitability issues. We have seen a number of the biggest mergers and acquisitions within the last decade within the above record. The yr 2020 has also witnessed a number of adjustments including numerous mergers and acquisitions. The world-renowned company, Unilever has announced mergers and acquisitions advisory its merger from Unilever N.V into Unilever PLC. This will make it one holding company based mostly within the UK. The transaction value of the merger was recorded to be $eighty one billion which has positioned it in our record of Biggest Mergers and Acquisitions of the Decade. Further, the wake of COVID-19 has triggered a lot of disturbance all over the world.

As per the agreement, Heinz will hold 51% of the stake within the freshly shaped company and the rest will go to Kraft. The agreement to form the brand new firm was adopted unanimously by each of them.

Eight of Amazon’s top acquisitions were valued at $500M+, including four deals value $1B+. Annapurna Labs ($370M, 2015), an Israel-primarily based semiconductor startup, was reportedly acquired with cloud computing in mind. Annapurna’s chip expertise was subsequently used to make Amazon’s cloud enterprise, AWS, more cost-effective to run. Kiva Systems ($775M, 2012), a robotic achievement system producer, was the certainly one of Amazon’s most impactful acquisitions to its lengthy-term enterprise — no e-commerce competitor has but been capable of rival Amazon’s warehouse automation. This contract was signed between two Saudi firms within the year 2019. In which Saudi Aramco obtained 70% of the stakes in Saudi Basic Industries Corporation . The remaining shares will stay within the public area to be traded out there.

Walmart's efforts to keep with with Amazon didn't cease at Jet.com. In May 2018, the corporate announced a $sixteen billion deal to take a seventy seven p.c stake in Indian e-commerce company Flipkart. The deal closed in August 2018 to expand Walmart's fight with Amazon to a different one of the world's greatest markets.

Prior to Slack, Salesforce's largest offers had been the $15.three billion purchase of Tableau last 12 months and the $6.5 billion acquisition of MuleSoft in 2018. Alphabet has made a number of daring strikes into the hardware and knowledge science sectors.

The 10 Leaders Reworking Franchise Business 2020

Then IBM blew it out of the water with its $34 billion all-money acquisition of open-source powerhouse Red Hat, taking the title of largest software program M&A deal of all-time within the process. The deal has formally closed as of July 9, 2019, with Red Hat turning into its own unit of the company operating beneath IBM Cloud. Cisco has spent the last a number of years shifting from hardware to software and companies. The enterprise tech big's $3.7 billion acquisition of AppDynamics in 2017 bought the corporate a market-leading stake in the software performance administration and infrastructure monitoring house. Adding some drama to the deal, Cisco scooped up AppDynamics only a day earlier than the corporate was set to go public for round $a hundred million. Apple's 2014 deal to buy Beats is the most costly acquisition within the company's historical past, however it's the most affordable deal on this list. The tech big has made dozens of acquisitions since the late '80s, but just one deal valued at greater than a billion.

My other sub-bullet is, should you're big-sport searching, when you're massive elephant searching, price would not matter, convey a giant gun. You can spend $1.sixty five billion for YouTube and still end up quantity three on the listing.

Technology

Amazon's blockbuster $thirteen.7 billion deal to purchase the nationwide chain of Whole Foods supermarkets gave the corporate an existing brick-and-mortar retail infrastructure to broaden its online purchasing operations. Amazon has since introduced issues like Amazon Prime perks, 30-minute grocery pickups, and a slew of other cross-promotional efforts to turn Whole Foods places into yet another extension of Amazon's e-commerce empire. The tech large closed its $eight.5 billion acquisition of Skype in 2011, and has since integrated the video chat service throughout its enterprise and shopper app portfolio. Microsoft's second-largest deal of the Nadella period solidified the corporate's about-face on open source with a $7.5 billion acquisition of the biggest host of open-supply code on the planet. Microsoft has huge plans for the way to combine the popular code-sharing platform and developer group into its cloud ecosystem, and after closing the deal final 12 months is beginning to make them a reality.

The shares debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in June 2019, by way of a direct itemizing. The stock, which opened at $38.50, has been on a curler coaster since, trading near $17 in March of this yr, before climbing back near $forty in June after which dropping again below $25 in mid-November. The company was initially founded in 2009 as an internet gaming firm call Tiny Speck. It was created by Stewart Butterfield, famous in the tech world for beginning photograph-sharing website Flickr and promoting it to Yahoo. Andreessen Horowitz, Accel Partners and Social Capital had been among Tiny Speck's early backers.

Quantity & Worth Of M&A Worldwide

In what has now turn out to be the largest tech acquisition of all time, and one of the largest in any industry, hardware maker Dell purchased storage giant EMC for a whopping $sixty seven billion in 2016. But even the Broadcom acquisition appeared paltry in comparison with the daring provide for Qualcomm Inc. Soon after altering its name, Avago (now Broadcom Ltd.) tried to snag Qualcomm with a $121 billion supply — double what Dell paid for EMC and the one largest provide within the tech business, ever. The new entry to the top 10 tech acquisitions list reached a formidable No. 3 spot. With the acquisition, Slack becomes the brand new interface for Salesforce Customer 360. During the time of the acquisition, salesforce stated it’s seeking to “give firms a single supply of fact for his or her enterprise,” by unifying the platforms they use within their present workflows. Saleforce’s desire for Tableau was realized to the tune of a $15.7 billion all-stock acquisition in June 2019, making it the largest purchase in Saleforce’s history and the eighth largest acquisition on our listing.

We estimated the current market cap contribution of that $30 million Bungie Halo pickup in 2000 to be about $eight billion at present. The way we considered that is Pixar is basically good for a film a year. Super, super attention-grabbing though, the one reason that is thus far down on the record is because of all of the complicated EMC Dell stuff (we'll get into once we do this episode sometime). Dell is definitely trading in the public markets at a significantly decrease worth than what their stake in VMware is worth. This rating represents a cut-off date in history, March 2, 2020. It is clearly topic to alter going ahead from each future and previous acquisition performance, as well as fluctuating stock prices.

Eclipsing Microsoft’s $26.2 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, this is the most important software program acquisition in history. It’s not the largest tech acquisition ever, although, as that title belongs to Dell’s $sixty seven billion buyout of data storage enterprise EMC. We have not talked about that in this episode, this isn't the time and place for it, but the entire prime corporations on this record were able to try this. It's the expansion part of a market, that's when you can create power. If you wait too long, you can enter markets later however you're by no means going to dominate a market until should you until later. Binance has definitely been busy with acquisitions these days with 9 up to now 12 months alone and no less than one more in retailer this yr.

Gaz De France And Suez Merger

We also calculated the annualized return to simply try to adjust for time here slightly bit. Fifteen p.c annualized returns since 1984 is simply unbelievable. That is like Berkshire Hathaway levels of return by an acquisition inside an organization. That same year, the firm suggested Vodafone on the US$130 billion sale of its US group — whose principal asset was its forty five percent stake in Verizon Wireless — to Verizon Communications. The transaction, together with a report US$fifty eight.8 billion in cash, was the biggest M&A deal in more than a decade, and the third-largest in historical past.

These embrace inside issues like cultural integration between the 2 companies or macro-level issues like total financial circumstances and geopolitical points. The $a hundred sixty five billion merger between America Online and Time Warner Inc. is available in at quantity two in our record of greatest acquisitions in history. The merger occurred on the peak of the dotcom era in 2000 when profitable Internet supplier, AOL, made a bid to accumulate mass media conglomerate, Time Warner. At the time, AOL had a massive market share and was seeking to broaden even additional by tapping into Time Warner's dominance in publishing, entertainment, and news. However, not all of Microsoft’s acquisitions have been as successful, similar to its 2014 buy of Nokia’s Devices & Services enterprise for $7.2 billion.

1 note · View note

warwaged-archive · 4 years

Text

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. tagged by: @theharellan ty so much! tagging: if you read this entire post I’m tagging you

My muse is: canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. Velanna is minor enough there isn’t a lot of talk about her either way (and I get it, given she’s a dlc character from Origins it’s understandable not as many people even know her), but I definitely see more dislike towards her than appreciation.

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. Honestly do not know! I have seen Debates about her personality and actions, but I don’t recall seeing people comment on her looks.

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. Not particularly as far as I’ve seen, though I haven’t seen people say she’s weak either. Tbf given her introduction has you investigating murders that no one seems to think were caused by a single person and she literally turns a forest against those who pass through it, I think it’s hard to deny she is strong, though.

Are they underrated? YES! / NO / IDK. Like I said, there’s very little talk about her at all, and very little appreciation. Velanna deserves more love c’:

Were they relevant for the main story? YES / NO. She isn’t relevant for the story of any of the main games, given she isn’t even in any of them askdjfnskndf She is relevant to Awakening’s story, given she causes some trouble on the road to Amaranthine, and that’s how you meet her. You can kill her on that encounter, though, so for the rest of it she’s not essential (but killing her is boring guys why would you)

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. In a way, since she’s causing some of the problems the Warden-Commander has to solve. Other than that, it truly depends on how you play it.

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. Nope. Just a Dalish gal who became a Grey Warden.

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. I lean towards neutral because Velanna isn’t a widely discussed character either way, but I would say it leans towards bad. Many people dislike her actions, and many more dislike her for her harsh ways towards the PC in the beginning (a non-dalish PC, that is). Velanna is very opinionated and angry and a lot of people seem to think that makes her annoying. A bad take imo but I think that’s pretty obvious dkfasndkfjanskdfjn

How strictly do you follow canon? — For the most part I follow it, only expanding it for what we haven’t seen and filling the blanks.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — I don’t know how to sell her to others so I will just talk a bit about what made her interesting to me. When you meet her, she’s so angry she’s been terrorizing the road and nearby villages so much people don’t even know what (what, not who) is responsible for the bloodshed. If you don’t bother to get to know her, it’s easy to think she’s just the anger, but if you do, eventually you learn a lot that might not justify her actions but makes them understandable, and that she’s so much more than Angry™. Velanna cares so much! For the Dalish, and preserving their magic and culture; for her clan, in spite of the fact her sister was the only friend she ever had; for her Keeper, even though they parted on bad terms; for Seranni, even after she chooses to leave with the Darkspawn instead of leaving with her. She’s outspoken and a great defender of her people, but not in a blind or arrogant way, and not in a way that causes her to inherently resent humans (it’s not history that causes that, but her own experience with having humans act violent against her clan and prefer to destroy the land to drive them away than attempt peaceful coexistence). She’s not driven by personal retribution, but by a relentless pursuit of justice that indeed is twisted into something more akin to vengeance. She acts on anger but she learns to be better. She’s been an outcast all her life, well before becoming the only Dalish in her group of Wardens, and she learned to be harsh to defend herself. She’s not easy to love, but she’s capable of loving deeply, and her loyalty to those dear to her is unwavering. She can be harsh because she’s so used to keeping people away in self defense, even if she’s lonely, even if it’s clear all it takes to get past that is treating her with kindness and respect. Velanna has a good heart, but that doesn’t mean she’s only capable of good.

In game, her growth depends on the PC of course, but the way I see it (and write her) there is no reason why her connections to other characters, such as Sigrun and Nathaniel, wouldn’t be just as important for it. They allow her to see beyond her anger, to move past her resent, and to stop judging people as if they were all equally bad. She goes from someone terrorizing humans in a forest and nearby road to someone who selflessly stands to defend them, even should it cost her own life. She goes from joining the Wardens as a means to finding her sister to actually taking on the role and its duties, not just as in fighting the darkspawn, but in being a protector.

And the way she values history, but not just the actual facts, the tales and legends and culture, how she understands their place as something of great importance definitely helped a lot in endearing her to me. According to Velanna, "Stories connect us to our past. They shape a people in profound ways. Without them, we are lost.” and I think about that a lot you know? It really gets to me c’:

Also she’s an awesome powerful mage who could and has killed a man (uh many men actually) but who blushes and stutters if you call her pretty because what are compliments she is not prepared to deal with those

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). — Velanna killed people so she’s evil and deserves no forgiveness ever (which isn’t always similarly applied to other characters BUT ANYWAYS). She’s angry and mean towards the protagonist and because of that she’s not cool. She’s whining about the Dalish all the time too so she’s just annoying. Also I never tried to talk to her and often don’t even leave her alive after the Wending Wood. aidsnfkajsdnfkjn seriously though, I can see why people might not like her, as she isn’t made to be likable initially and you gotta get past that to get to the more interesting bits. Velanna is indeed very much tied to her Dalish background, as it is not only her culture and origin, but also a great motivator for her actions, and often even the means through which you get to know her, so if you’re not interested in the Dalish I guess she wouldn’t be an interesting character (but imo, it’s only natural her culture is so important to who she is, given her background and her own feelings about her people. she’s so proud of her heritage, even if being part of that people makes her a target for no other reason than prejudice. even then, she’s so proud of it and so ready to fight for and defend her people and speak and stand for them! I just love her a lot but ok I realize I should be talking about why people might not like her so let’s get back to that). She’s not funny, she’s not friendly, and she’s actually rather angry and outspoken, and I feel like that ends up pushing her to the more ‘controversial’ side instead of being part of the popular or likable characters.

What inspired you to rp your muse? — Literally just played Awakening and ended up like OH I WANNA WRITE ONE OF THEM and I wasn’t sure about who. It wasn’t clear to me, at least, so I ended up thinking about them and at first I was like hm maybe Nathaniel, but it didn’t feel right even though he was the first one I thought I wanted to write. So I thought about Velanna, and the more I thought about her the more invested I became so I was like yeah that’s the one and added her here aksjdnfkjasndf

The first thing that got me really invested in her while playing was the conversation you have with her when you gift her the diary. I just really love her talking about the Dalish and preserving what they have and how important and meaningful stories are. That said, the moment I met her in the Wending Wood I immediately wanted to get to know her.

I’m just a big fan of elves in case you guys haven’t noticed yet asksjnfsjkdnfkdjfn

What keeps your inspiration going? — replaying DA, but specially Awakening, Dragon Age content in general, discussing her with others (talking about my muses is always very helpful to me in that sense), and honestly, others being interested on her too. Discussions about the Dalish or headcanons or other people discussing Dragon Age and their respective characters also help my motivation too tbh! I’m always the slowest to answer to anything, but that’s just how I always am. Those are all things that keep my love for her alive, and thus great part of my inspiration for her.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO / I TRY!

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO / SORT OF? when the inspiration hits I literally cannot shut up

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO. I’m usually more about them 5 page headcanons and threads and ask answers than drabbles

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO. she lives in my head rent free (as do most if not all of my muses tbh askdfnaksdf)

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / SORT OF?

Are you confident in your writing? YES / NO / SOMETIMES. Depends but not usually askndfkajs

Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO / SORTA.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal? — Depends on what that criticism is and if I asked for it? aksjdfnkjfn I do ask about my portrayals sometimes, and in that case I’m open to constructive criticism --- if there’s something you think I could do better and you can explain why in a nice way, I’ll definitely listen (though I may disagree, so there’s that). But if it comes down to rudeness or ‘you’re not writing her like I think she is’ then well that’s not my problem, I write her how I understand and interpret her.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character? — I LOVE THEM! Send me questions about my muses literally any time I absolutely love them!!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why? — Depends, again. I’m not against discussing it, hearing what other people have to say and why they disagree (and if they say they disagree, I’d probably want to know why), but ultimately, again, it’s my portrayal so it might just be a case of seeing things differently. Like I said, I don’t mind discussing it, though.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it? — As to this, I just honestly expect people to act the same way I act when I disagree with someone’s portrayal, which is just moving on with my life and not interacting kasjafksdnfjk

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it? — Depends. They don’t have to like the character, but if it influences IC interactions or if it’s just people who hate a character getting off of bashing them through IC interactions even if it doesn’t make sense that’s a no for me. I don’t like seeing people hating on characters I love, but people are free to do post what they will. If there’s a tag and I can block it that’s fine by me, if it isn’t tagged I’m likely to unfollow.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors? — If it’s done politely I don’t mind. English is not my first language and learning about errors is a way to improve, to me.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun? — I think? For the most part? I do tend to get defensive over characters I love and asks that aren’t clear in tone and come across not so nicely (OOC asks, I mean), but other than that I think I’m pretty chill? Idk though you guys tell me aksnkajdsfnkjan

#* muse: velanna / STORYTELLER.#* out of character: the mun / THAT GLOOMY GIRL WHO SIGHS A LOT?#dash games tag tbd.#this was very fun tbh #thanks for tagging <3 #sorry for taking forever aksjndfkjasdnf

3 notes · View notes

mithrasisgay · 4 years

Text

The Rise of the Dread Fleet Pt. 5 - Rage

ON AO3

I’m participating in Camp NaNo this month!

@tyrias-library Also tagging my readers: @skrittilicious, @omnivoroustree thank you guys for supporting me <3

The room is quiet when Vaixx enters. Heads turn to face him as he strides to the opposite end of the space and takes his seat. He's assembled his new fleet in one of the high-end taverns Quincy owns, and reserved for him. The scent of alcohol and seawater hangs in the air and Vaixx lets his gaze sweep the room. Sylvari. Charr. Norn. Humans. All much bigger, stronger than him, yet he keeps his head held high, steps onto the bar and crosses his arms.

“I have promised you great success, greater than you could ever hope to achieve on your own.” he opens, his voice dominating the silent room. “Today, I make good on my words.” He pauses, to observe the glint in his audience's eyes, then smiles, baring his teeth at them.

“I have received word on an Inquest supply fleet's course, from Rata Sum to their outposts near Mount Maelstrom.” he continues. “We can expect heavy resistance from them, but you all know the kind of cargo they carry.”

“Slaves.” answers the Sylvari closest to him. “They carry test subjects. Do you imply we become traffickers?” “No.” Vaixx hurries to counter. “We will liberate any live cargo they may have. I'm talking about their machinery, and fuel for machinery at their outposts. Expensive, powerful items to barter away, or perhaps... utilize.” “I don't want no magic garbage.” the Norn next to the Sylvari says. “I want... I dunno. Guns.” “Oh, they will have guns, Captain Frostbite.” Vaixx assures her. “Magical guns, even. You'll get your fill, that I can promise.”

Raxxi rolls her eyes. “Look, mates. We can speculate the yield to death if you want to, but the point is: Inquest rich. Us poor. Let's get to the specifics.” “Thanks, Raxxi.” Vaixx says. “I want you all ready to sail by sunrise next morning. They will have three cargo ships, with two smaller escort vessels each. The cargo vessels do not have any weaponry, if we disable the escorts, they will be defenseless.” “And then it's just a matter of squishing a few, tiny little bugs.” growls Captain Frostbite. “Leave that to us, Admiral.” “Excellent. Get some rest and prepare your crews. Until we take out the escorts, this will no be easy.”

–

Raya has been circling the stolen ship ever since it embarked from Lion's Arch, scouting ahead and warning Asha of dangers on her way. In doing so, she had been moving quite far from her, utilizing all of her speed underwater. This isn't anything special for Raya, nor is it in need of thanks or praise. Although only two members of this crew know of her existence, they are her new swarm. And Swarmmates look out for one another.

A disturbance in the tides draws Raya's attention. She loops in on herself to check if Asha's ship had caught up with her, but her keel is far out of sight. Focusing, Raya pinpoints the source ahead of her and dives down, further into the depths to conceal herself as she approaches.

While the waters of the ocean may become black at a certain depth for land-dwelling creatures, Raya's eyes pierce this darkness effortlessly, allowing her to lurk like a predator on those that dare leave dry land and enter her domain.

Ships. Seven of them, and large ones at that. Raya has spent enough time preying on sailors to gauge the level of danger they pose to her. They're moving fast, riding the waves with the wind in their favor, clearly with a destination in mind and Raya listens for their voices, muffled by the water, carefully rising back up, following the slowest of them.

“...Little shit got a point, you know?” she heard a masculine voice speak. “They might be tiny, but they got all sorts of tricks up their sleeves. We really shouldn't take this lightly, Captain Frostbite.” Another voice joins in, feminine, but no less rough. “I hate to admit that Vaixx's right, but he is.” the woman says. “Fine. Double lookout shifts. I wanna know what they got before we reach 'em.”

Vaixx. Raya's fingers curl into claws. She remembers that name. He is the murderer, the villain that attempted to murder Asha. The scum that threw a helpless little girl into the unforgiving, ice-cold depths on the sea. The look of panic on the girl's face flashes before Raya's eyes, and the scars on her wrists burn with a familiar phantom pain, of coarse rope biting into her skin that isn't there anymore.

The burn in her lungs. The rage she felt when the waters swallowed her up, powerful enough to create the creature she is now. Raya knows, at her core, she is just that – a vengeful spirit. But now, it is no longer herself she is avenging, oh no. Her rage has a brand new target.

Her tail whips, propelling her upward further, until her face breaks the surface. She slams her claws into the side of the ship and lets it drag her along, her glare trained upward.

The female Captain has moved away, and Raya heard her issuing order from afar, only the man that had spoken to her before remains, glancing into the distance with a woeful expression on his face. He's large and hairy, his braided beard reaching down to his navel, over his exposed chest, winding markings adorning his body. Raya has seen his kind before. Bigger and stronger than humans, but that does not deter her.

She opens her mouth and produces that dreadful melody in her throat, a wordless hum, only audible to her target, caressing his very soul and drawing his attention to her. His gaze flickers from the horizon to the waters down below. Pupils widen when he sees Raya, this frail, delicate girl clinging to his ship, her skin as white as porcelain, making her look just as fragile. He lifts one hand from the railing, not once breaking eye contact with her, mouth hanging open, entranced by her spell, as Raya reaches upward, toward him.

He cannot reach her hand that she offers to him so invitingly, so he leans in further and further, struggling to close the distance, but Raya makes no efforts to meet him halfway, instead, her song reaches its crescendo, as the Norn inches closer, getting on his toes, forgetting balance, safety, logic. Everything he sees is that pleading hand, reaching for his.

Without halting her deadly song, Raya finally jolts upward to meet the Norn's hand, her claws digging into his palm, but the pain does not phase him, as his blood drips down on that pretty face, painting crimson on her porcelain skin. Then, Raya lets herself fall, pulling the man down into the depths with her.

Once submerged, her song stops, and the Norn comes to, eyes now wide in panic as he realizes the situation he's in, flails and kicks at her, pulling uselessly against her grip, but now he's in Raya's domain.

Raya moves her grip to his shoulders and pushes him further down, making sure the flaming hatred in her eyes in the last thing he sees, before she lunges at him and buries her teeth in his throat.

Blood spills from the wound and Raya's jaw locks on her prey, the pair is clouded in red, descending deeper into the darkness. As he drowns and bleeds out in Raya's arms, the Norn's desperate attempts to free himself die down, his life force flowing into the Siren's being.

As his last heartbeat sounds, Raya lets go and watches his body sink until even she can't see him anymore.

He will be lucky if his corpse washes ashore, as Raya knows that the Sea does not release those her depth has claimed.

A life taken, Raya's rage as simmered down to a small flame, just enough to keep her warm. She decides to follow the fleet.

#my post #gw2 fanfiction #pirate saga #My writing #the rise of the dread fleet

14 notes · View notes

johannstutt413 · 4 years

Text

(Anonymous request)

The Doctor had his back to the wall and was holding his forehead in his hands when Shining arrived, clutching her staff in her hands. “Doctor? Are you alright?”

“No,” he managed to choke out before coughing fiercely. “Some kind of explosion...head hit the wall hard...blood.”

“Understood. Move your hands, please...We’re fortunate it’s not worse; there’s some bleeding, yes, but it seems mostly abated. One moment.” Shining stood, brandishing her staff as a light grew out from it.

As she bathed the Doctor in a warm yellow glow, he found himself feeling more refreshed than when he’d begun the fight with his unit beside him. Standing moments after her illuminating Arts rejuvenated him, the Doctor checked the tactical feed via his holographic-map-emitting wristband and made a few quick calculations. “More wounded south-east of us less than a meter. I’ll take you to them-”

“No need, Doctor; I can feel their suffering.” She glided a hand across his shoulder as she passed him. “Be careful.”

“I should say the same to you, Shining. At least let me come along as protection-”

Shining began glowing again, but the light was...colder, almost sinister. “Don’t fret on my behalf, Doctor; as for the matter of my self-preservation, I am more than capable of protecting myself and others at once. Your unit has eliminated their target; they’re looking for you as we speak.”

“...Alright.” He glanced back at his feed. “I’ll regroup with them. Thank you.”

“May your path remain in the light.” As if a ghost, she drifted forward, her sharp brilliance cutting through alley shadows with the strength of sunlight. Watching her leave, the Doctor felt like he should be at ease, but...something was amiss.

The Doctor woke up in a cold sweat - that dream, so crisp and clear, had been plucked from his pre-amnesia memories and sent to him as he slept, but why? Shining had felt more familiar than some of the others, but to think she’d shown such a display confirmed what he’d always known: she was more than she let on. With his shift beginning in only a couple of hours, he had enough time to get ready for the day and arrange for a change in the assistant rotation. Today, he’d get an answer to a question he’d asked in another life.

When Shining came to his office for the day, the Doctor steeled himself for anything...but this was Shining at home, not in the field. She entered calmly, closed the door behind her, and used her staff to hang her coat and set them against the wall. “Good morning, Doctor. You asked for me to act as your assistant; is there any particular task for me to complete?”

“Less a task and more a line of inquiry. Here, take a seat.” He rolled his chair out from behind his desk. When she hesitated, the Doctor tapped the top several times. “I’ll be fine, and it will put me more at ease.”

“As you wish.” Shining acquiesced, her hands resting in her lap as she took her seat. Her eyes were trained on him, albeit not any particular spot - they shifted their focus throughout the conversation.

The Doctor cleared his throat. “Last night, I had a flashback; it was coached in a dream, admittedly, but the reality of it was crystal clear to me. During a mission, an explosion blasted me into a wall, and you came to my aid. Once you finished bringing me back to a combat-capable state, I requested to escort you to a group of wounded personnel, but rather than agree, you pointedly refused; another request to accompany you was met with...not force, but a demonstration of a certain energy you have since kept in check. Do you recall an event like this yourself?”

“I do,” she nodded. “Our first encounter in the field, if I remember correctly.”

“I’ll trust your recollection. Now, I believe, as many others on this base do, that you and all other Operators are entitled to a certain level of anonymity and privacy, so if anything I ask you going forward is too revealing or uncomfortable for you to answer, simply say the word and I will adjust my line of questioning. Sounds fair?”

Shining shifted in her seat. “I agree to these terms.”

“Very well. Shining, what’s the difference between the two lights you shine?”

“Two lights?” She blinked. “Doctor, what do you mean?”

He crossed his arms, leaning against the bookcase behind his desk. “When you heal or ward others, you glow with a tender warmth - an almost maternal radiance, if you would. However, in the moment you insisted you could handle your own protection, you shone with a harsher light, closer to an overhead light than sunlight. What’s the distinction between the two?”

“They are one and the same, Doctor.”

“Fair enough.” He gestured towards her staff. “Is there a reason your staff is shaped like a sword in its scabbard?”

Shining shook her head. “A purely aesthetic decision by its creator.”

“Hmm...You were one of the Confessor’s acolytes for a time, if I remember correctly?”

“You know about him?” Her gaze centered on his eyes, following the slightest motion. “One could say it in that way, yes.”

The Doctor nodded. “You began honing your abilities as part of his retinue, yes?”

“I’m afraid this is an...uncomfortable subject for me, Doctor.”

“I understand.” He pushed off the bookcase. “Losing those we’ve put our faith in can be a destructive experience.”

Shining began to nod before catching herself. “Have you lost someone of such importance to you, Doctor?”

“I have, albeit before my amnesia; I’ve pieced together much about my past self in the past few months, however, so I can assure you that I understand.”

“...In that case, allow me to answer your question.” She took a deep, slow breath before continuing. “Along with my fellow Redeemers, I practiced Originum Arts in preparation for a coming event. The Confessor intended for us to act as a sort of aegis for the good of Sarkaz, but some of those in our company were more militant in disposition...They betrayed him, leaving the more peaceful members fleeing from potential retribution.”

The Doctor balked. “I see...that was what led to the war, then?”

“Yes. Some of my people would say I was on the wrong side of history; I prefer to let the results speak for themselves and maintain my silence.” Shining wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

“I’m sorry to dredge up such painful memories, Shining.” He walked over to her and set a hand on her shoulder, kneeling so they were roughly at eye-level. “Thank you for telling me this.”

She blinked in order to look at him through unclouded eyes. “I have a question as well, Doctor: have you had many other flashbacks like the one that led you to ask me to your office today?”

“Few and far between, and usually much less detailed.”

“I see.” Shining sighed. “I’m sorry, but I think I need a moment.”

The Doctor began rubbing her shoulder. “Alone, or can I offer a shoulder to cry on?”

“...The latter, please.” As she said that, she pulled him into an embrace, resting her head on his shoulder to avoid stabbing him with her horns. For his part, the Doctor was willing to hold her as long as she needed him there; he eased her descent when she slipped out of the chair, and when one arm reached for his hand, he shifted so she could hold it.

They sat like this for an incalculable amount of time, one openly grieving with the other holding their composure to the best of their ability, until Shining carefully unentangled herself. “Thank you, Doctor.”

“Of course.” He still was holding her hand, and his thumb began absentmindedly rubbing the back of it. “I admire your strength, bearing such a burden all this time.”

“Such weights are easier when borne in tandem...Doctor?”

He let go of her hand. “Sorry, I kind of got lost in the moment-”

“As am I,” she smiled. Shining rose on her knees just enough so she could kiss his forehead. “Perhaps this physician cannot take as perfect care of herself as she thought she could.”

“The heart certainly heals the slowest of any muscle,” the Doctor sighed. Still, he couldn’t help but blush - it had been a rather intimate moment-

-Which became more intimate as Shining kissed his left cheek, then his right. “I have another confession to make, Doctor. *kiss* For some time now, perhaps even since our first meeting, I’ve felt a light shine from you. Perhaps this is somewhat forward, but...*kiss* you are unattached at present, yes?”

“In a manner of speaking,” he muttered, his face entirely flushed.

“And do you, perhaps, feel something between us?” She pulled back to look him in the eye. “The potential for a radiant romance?”

The Doctor smiled. “You’ve spent a lot of time with Nearl, haven’t you...Shining, there are stars in the night sky that shine more dimly than you, both in beauty and majesty. Seeing you in strength and in vulnerability only proved that to me in earnest.”

“Wonderful...this would be the moment, then-” In the middle of her sentence, he answered the unspoken question with action, taking hold of both her hands and interlacing their fingers with his as he pushed forward for a kiss of his own. His eyes closed just after their lips met, but not before seeing Shining’s first.

The light sparkling behind them was the most beautiful he’d ever seen.

#arknights #shining (arknights)#i may have taken some liberties here #because there's a lot going on behind the scenes with her #but i think it's a pretty reasonable series of connections #thanks for the ask and prompt anon #arknights fic

12 notes · View notes

haledamage · 5 years

Text

Bless Me With Your OTP

Rules: answer as many of the following questions as you want, and add art/screenshots to show off your OTP!

Tagged by @queen-scribbles :D tagging… @allisondraste @risualto @serenbach86 @shimmer-like-agirl @ariela-of-aedyr

I’m gonna do Vesiya/Jorgan because that’s who I’m writing right now :)

I feel like I’ve already answered most of these, in some variation, with Kai and both her boys as well as Cait/Nate, and this way I don’t have to choose a Bravo Boy for Kira :P

Do they fight often? If so, what is their dynamic like?

They butt heads a lot when they first met. They’re both headstrong and natural leaders, but it wasn’t so much fighting as it was posturing.

Now that they’ve settled down around each other, they don’t fight, but they do have Disagreements that mostly involve them both using their Commanding Officer voice and referring to each other entirely by their rank rather than by name. It doesn’t happen often, they agree with each other most of the time, and when it does happen it’s almost always about work things not about personal things. Ves will only pull rank to stop an argument if they’re in public, and she hates doing it.

They will, however, fight anyone and everyone on each others’ behalf. They will pick a fight with the Supreme Chancellor himself if they think he’s insulting their spouse. That part started all the way back at Ord Mantell, long before they’d even considered a romantic relationship - really, even before they were friends. Ves almost lost command of Havoc as soon as she got it because she argued so strongly against Jorgan’s demotion.

Who is the most skeptical of the two?

Definitely Jorgan, which I’m sure surprises no one. The man’s never believed a single word that comes out of a politician’s mouth, and only half that come out of Republic Command. And don’t even get him started on what he thinks of the SIS. While Ves is certainly not a push-over by any means, she’s a lot more likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt than he is.

Who would be most likely to suggest a night of dancing?

Ves. She loves dancing and is very good at it, though her experience with it is mostly either by herself at a cantina or out with a group of friends. Jorgan surprises her when she asks him to dance by saying yes, and surprises her again by being skilled at it. She even lets him lead… for a little while. I’m actually in the middle of writing this scene as we speak

What would they do if the other was injured in battle?

If Jorgan is injured, Ves’s first priority is getting him away from the fighting and out of harm’s way. As long as he’s conscious, Jorgan’s going to keep fighting, and she can’t help him if he’s still fighting. She’s not above ordering him to stand down. Her second priority is healing him. She’s a trained medic, though not as skilled as Elara she’s definitely good enough to deal with an injury in the field until they can get to a medcenter to take care of it properly. Even at the medcenter, she prefers to treat his wounds herself if she can, rather than let Elara or the medical droid do it; if it’s not something she has the power to treat, she hovers, needing to be useful or have something to do to help.

If Hallis is injured, I feel really sorry for whoever hurt her. The first thing Aric does is make sure it’s not life threatening, and if it is, to patch it up enough to stabilize her. He’s no medic, but he’s been in the field for a long time and knows how to patch a wound enough that it won’t kill you anymore, even if he can’t do much more than that. The second thing he does is kill whatever is responsible for hurting Ves and anyone that might be working with them. Then he gets her to Elara or a medcenter as fast as he can. He refuses to leave the room while she’s being treated, and won’t leave her side until she’s recovered.

How do their fighting styles complement each other?

If Ves had had any say in who the first member of Havoc Squad could have been, she’d have still picked Aric. She’s an assault cannon specialist, he’s a sniper, so generally she goes in loud to draw the enemy out and he takes them out as soon as they pop their heads out of cover. Quick, clean, surgical, with barely a word spoken between them. Honestly, by the time she’s promoted to Captain, the two of them can clear an entire battleship without a word, they understand each other on such a fundamental level that they don’t need to call out corners or targets anymore. There’s a reason Havoc ends up with the reputation it does, and it sure as hell ain’t because of Tavus and his squad.

Do they want children? Does it frighten them? How many do they want?

Vesiya would love to have kids. Her brother’s kids are the light of her life and she’d love to have some of her own someday. Jorgan I don’t think had ever really considered it before, he’s a career man through and through, but things change after he meets Ves. And after she was missing for those five years… when he gets her back, I think family is a much higher priority to him then than his career ever was.

I don’t think Cathar and Mirialan are reproductively compatible, but adoption is an option, and one I think they��d both be happy with. I could see them with a whole litter of kids from various races.

As parents, they’d both be a little on the strict side, but fair. Ves is great with kids, and very patient, and Jorgan would be a fantastic dad once he warmed up to it. Can you imagine, a little army of younglings following him around?

What happened when they took them home to their families? If their families aren’t in the picture anymore, how do they feel about it?

I maaaaaay already have some fic ideas floating around for this.

I don’t know if Jorgan has any family? I can’t remember if he mentions it, he hasn’t so far in my playthrough, and the last one was years ago, so I’m gonna skip that. If he does, I’ll edit this and come back to it :)

But Ves’s family adores Aric. She comes from a very Republic-centered family - her mother is a senator, her father a retired admiral, her twin brother and his wife are both SIS, and she has a younger brother who’s a Jedi (though she hasn’t seen him in like 15 years since he first showed Force sensitivity because Jedi can’t have attachments and all that) - so chances are good that he’d met some of them before he met her, or that they’d already heard of him at least. He makes a better first impression with them than he did with Ves XD

Vitrin, her twin, is probably the slowest to come around, but only because he’s very protective of his sister, and Vit’s wife Lena is the fastest to accept him because she’s got really good instincts about people. Ves’s nieces, Scout and Zan (Scout is a nickname, her name is actually Kesiya (after her aunt, sort of), but no one calls her that anymore), are already calling him Uncle Aric before they’ve finished that first dinner.

After Ves is declared MIA, Jorgan still keeps in touch with her family - though at first, mostly at their insistence. Vit and Lena have a 3rd kid while Ves is “missing” and they name him Aric, and if that doesn’t tell you how much they love him, I don’t know what will.

How does each person show affection towards the other?

Both of their main love language is Acts of Service, so the biggest way they show affection is by doing things for each other. Jorgan does weapon checks and makes sure Ves’s armor is in good working order, that she’s as safe as he can make her. Hallis makes sure he isn’t hurt, checking for injuries after every combat situation even when he claims he’s fine (he is not always fine. He doesn’t like to worry her about the small stuff. She worries anyway); she does most of the talking, especially to politicians, so he doesn’t have to. Whichever of them wakes up first makes sure the other has a cup of caf waiting for them. They watch each other’s backs.

Besides that, Aric likes to give gifts. Not big ones, necessarily, though he does some of those, too, but a lot of little things. Like a beer at a cantina after the end of a long mission, or an upgrade for her cannon that he knows she had her eye on. Little things that say “I was thinking about you” or prove how well he knows her and what she likes.

Ves likes physical affection. A hand on Jorgan’s shoulder or his arm, a quick kiss before a mission, she’s especially fond of the forehead lean. She won’t do much more than that in public, they’re both very professional, but it’s still her way to silently say “I’m here with you, I love you”. In private, there will never be such a thing as too many hugs. She could wrap herself around him and just stay there all day and be happy.

Who cries the most? Who is better at comforting?

Oh boy, neither of them are big criers. I won’t say they’re repressed, because they aren’t, they both are fairly good at expressing emotion, especially for career soldiers, but any strong enough negative emotion that would elicit tears mostly just turns to anger for both of them. There are a few major exceptions, but they all revolve around that pesky time Ves was pronounced dead for a few years. That was obviously a very hard time for Aric, and when Ves got free she had to make peace with the idea that she’d missed five years. She definitely had at least one very large breakdown.

If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Ves cries more, if only just and only very rarely. And only in absolute privacy where no one can see it at all.

Ves is probably better at comforting, by merit of having a lot of family, especially young children. Or rather, she’s very good at verbal comfort, but Jorgan is probably better at physical comfort. Just look at him. Clearly the man gives good hugs, just look at those arms. Plus, don’t Cathar purr? :)

Who is the bigger flirt?

Jorgan, believe it or not. He’s the one that initiates, most of the time, and Hallis just plays off of what he says. Neither of them are very good at blatantly stating their feelings for each other for a really long time, but admitting attraction is easier. They’re very playful flirts, much more playful than they are in absolutely any other aspect of their lives. It’s a dance, a push and pull, a subtle competition between them. They flirt for a long time before they ever make a step toward an actual relationship.

They very, very rarely ever flirt in public, and when they do it’s always just a quiet aside, not meant to be heard by anyone else, and it’s never anything incriminating. Poor Elara, though, for having to put up with these two. Patience of a saint, that woman. Anyone else would have thrown them out the airlock ages ago.

Of course, it takes them months to get to the point where they’re comfortable enough with each other to start flirting. And outside of each other, they don’t flirt. Like, at all. Ves didn’t even flirt with Balkar.

#vesiya hallis #ves/jorgan #picture if you will: aric jorgan sitting on a sofa with two young half-mirialan half-twi'lek children asleep in his lap #scout is 7 and zan is 4 and they are both adorable #that was the moment ves decided beyond a shadow of a doubt 'I am going to marry this man'#that fic will be coming once I'm done with the one I'm already working on and the ones that I'm supposed to be working on #I'll just put it in the queue :)#I really need some good screenshots of them together #but I haven't gotten to the good screenshots together part of their relationship #maybe I should commission some art #though I feel like even outside of the limitations of the game engine #most of their time together is spent with her talking to whoever they need to talk to #while he stands slightly behind her right shoulder and glares threateningly and whoever she's talking to

13 notes · View notes