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snkpolls · 4 years

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SnK Episode 69 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 200 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

RATE THE EPISODE 193 responses

The anime continues on with it’s hot streak, with episode 69 receiving only 1 vote in the negative direction. The vast majority were very pleased with this episode.

this time the pacing felt quite weird, specially with how they managed the flashbacks. sorry mappa, but for the first time i feel like this was a 7/10 episode

nice i guess.

Beautifully done

It was great especially the confession part hahah

I love MAPPA's takes on the series so far!

Overall, very good episode. MAPPA is doing a great job.

i liked it!

A little iffy but still solid.

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE PRESENT TIME WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 194 responses

There were many significant moments in this episode, so we opted to divvy up the options. For favorite moments during the present time, Eren’s harsh tone with Hange garnered the highest amount of votes at 34.5%. Not far behind, 26.3% most enjoyed watching the 104th talk about Eren and what happened in Marley. Behind those two scenes were Hange asking Eren why he was talking to himself in the mirror (12.4%), and getting the small zevi crumbs at the end of the episode (8.2%).

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE KIYOMI FLASHBACK WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 192 responses

For the flashback where the Survey Corps meets Kiyomi, nearly half of the fandom (43.2%) were ecstatic to finally see the scene between Historia and Mikasa animated. 24% most enjoyed Eren’s rejection of Zeke’s plan in Historia’s defense. 14.6% were immersed in Hange’s dismay at considering making Historia continue the cycle of children eating their parents, and 12.5% were thrilled to finally see Mikasa reveal her tattoo to Kiyomi.

Tfw you think MAPPA cut Kiyomi’s drooling scene due to tv lag and later you find out the scene was changed to something equivalent: O__O

5head pixis made me laugh

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE RAILROAD FLASHBACK WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 193 responses

Eren’s confession at the end of the railroad flashback took the most attention from fans, with 41.5% enjoying that portion the most. 20.2% enjoyed the 104th all discussing who is most suited to inherit Eren’s titan. 19.2% got a kick out of seeing smol Armin chasing around smol Sasha, and 13% were happy to see Levi (and his annoyance that everyone is taller than him).

Armin's :o face was just adorable! Had forgotten it from the manga

MIKASA REVEALS THE AZUMABITO CLAN SYMBOL AS A TATTOO ON THE TOP OF HER WRIST. THIS IS A RETCON FROM SEASON 1 WHEN WIT REPLACED THE BRANDING WITH EMBROIDERY INSTEAD. THOUGH THE TATTOO IS WHAT’S FAITHFUL TO THE MANGA (MIKASA’S MANGA COUNTERPART HAS ALWAYS HAD THIS), WAS THIS A GOOD DECISION ON MAPPA’S PART? 192 responses

When it comes to the tattoo retcon, opinions seem to be relatively mixed. 22.9% of respondents felt that the retcon was a good move, because they feel that faithfulness to the source material is the most important thing in an adaptation. 21.9% felt it was a mixed situation, because they appreciate faithfulness to the manga, but also prefer for things to have proper continuity. 20.8% agreed that it was a good move, but mainly because the embroidery was “lame and forgettable” anyway. At smaller percentages, 16.1% felt that it wasn’t really a big deal either way since the family symbol was acknowledged regardless, and 9.4% didn’t care at all.

Mix of 3 and last point

Yes because faithfulness to the source material is important and I don't think the existence of the embroidery means that the branding didn't also exist.

No: continuity issues in the anime, but Yes: the embroidery thing was stupid.

1) we never saw the embroidery being kept by mikasa 2) kiyomi could have thought they just found it and stole it from the shogun's descendants' tombs or something. we as manga readers know mikasa is truly a descendant of the shogun, but anime onlies would have thought it could be possible for kiyomi not to trust them. so a tattoo is the best choice

Yes, MAPPA made a good decision. The anime onlies probably don't even remember the embroidery thing anyway.

Bruh, if I hadn't read the manga, I would've forgotten the Mikasa mom scene.

Options one and two.

HYPOTHETICALLY, IF ONE OF THE 104TH WERE TO INHERIT EREN’S TITAN POWER, WHO DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE BEST OPTION? 191 responses

The notable majority of respondents feel that Jean would have been the best candidate to inherit Eren’s titan. At a distant second, people would opt for Armin to inherit Eren’s titans (perhaps because he is already a titan anyway). The rest of the characters were relatively evenly chosen.

WHICH “SHIPPY” MOMENT FROM THE EPISODE WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 193 responses

This piechart turned out to be very colorful. Nearly a quarter of respondents couldn’t choose just one moment, so they voted for “all of them.” Behind that, 14.5% most enjoyed the scene where Eren showed determination to ensure Historia wouldn’t have to be sacrificed, 13.5% swooned over Eren and Mikasa’s blushy glances at each other, and 11.9% most enjoyed Connie and Sasha’s increasingly awkward conversation about who’s the bigger idiot.

I loved the Erehisu moments

sasha and connie <3<3<3

Erehisu canon

MAPPA DIDN’T INCLUDE THE PART OF THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ZEKE AND KIYOMI WHERE ZEKE EXPLAINS HIS PARENTAGE, WHY HE SOLD THEM OUT, AND CLAIMS THAT HE’S THE “TRUE ELDIAN RESTORATIONIST.” THOUGHTS? 192 responses

The conversation between Zeke and Kiyomi got shaved down quite a bit, losing the claim of Zeke being “the true Eldian restorationist.” 30.7% aren’t sweating about it and feel it’s something that will be included in a later episode. 27.6% feel that it’s removal isn’t a big deal. 18.7%, on the other hand, feel that losing that moment watered down Zeke’s characterization and would have preferred its inclusion. 8.9% don’t care.

I feel it will be brought up next episode

I think leaving it out makes the moment with ksaver telling him to sacrifice his parents more impactful to the anime onlies.

they may have prepared an anime original scene where this is explained, probably at some point. this chapter was loaded with tons of info

I think everything zeke is going to be saved for his big flashback after losing to levi

Maybe they'll include it at the part where Zeke has his flashbacks when he was injured by Levi.

MAPPA ALSO LEFT OUT THE PART OF THE 104TH’S CONVERSATION WHERE ARMIN THEORIZES THAT EREN WOULD BE IN CONTROL OF THE COORDINATE ONCE HE AND ZEKE MAKE CONTACT. THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT? 185 responses

Another dialogue that was axed this episode was Armin brainstorming about who would be in control of the Founding Titan if Eren and Zeke make contact with each other. 35.7% (a small jump from the previous question) feel that this, again, will be included in a later episode. 28.1% feel that its inclusion wasn’t wholly necessary. 18.4% feel that this fact was already obvious anyway, so it doesn’t matter. 10.4% feel that the anime will get to that point so quickly that the exposition isn’t necessary to begin with.

Armin's motives don't necessarily change either way so I'm fine with the cut. I do hope it's mentioned later on though.

Every episode is only 25 minutes long, so some parts of dialogues need to be removed.

I honestly think they're going to retcon this so zeke's reverse uno in chap 120 doesn't seem so wild

I do understand that they need to make cuts (and there's still to many manga chapters to fit in the rest of the season) but that one was really important bc they might not explain it fully later on

If they animate Zeke's backstory, it will be there. It would've been nice to show Armin still using his brain though.

DO YOU THINK EREN SEEMED MORE INTIMIDATING IN THE MANGA OR THE ANIME? 191 responses

Manbun Eren was introduced as being intimidating, cold, and generally mean. His outburst at Hange was the first of many examples of this behavior as he lashed out at them for having no good ideas. 65.4% of respondents felt that MAPPA did a much better job at portraying Eren as a much more intimidating figure than Isayama did.

IN RETROSPECT, DO YOU FEEL THAT EREN WAS TOO HARSH ON HANGE? 190 responses

Almost a total opposite from the previous pie graph, 66.3% of respondents felt that Eren was much too harsh on Hange, given the circumstances and their dwindling options.

DO YOU THINK THAT, EVEN AFTER READING CHAPTER 123, PARADIS COULD HAVE FOUND ANOTHER WAY TO RESOLVE THEIR ISSUES THAN THE PATH THAT EREN TOOK? 191 responses

One of the constant questions in the manga since the timeskip is “could there been another way?” 59.7% think it’s just a solid maybe, and that there’s no longer any way to know that now that Eren has stripped Paradis of all their options. 23.6% feel that the rumbling was the inevitable outcome against a world that would never give them a chance. 14.1% feel the opposite, however, and believe there was always another way, and that Eren didn’t give them enough time to figure it out.

I wonder what would happen if eren talked about his future memories

There is always another way than violence. The problem is that no one on Paradis was able to find it.

Maybe we will find out in the last 2 chapters, this might be correlated to a possible "the mist" ending that Isayama originally planned

Who even knows? All I know is that there was too much distrust, secrecy and mystery for anyone to get anything done before shit hit the fan and now here we are. I also think it was a huge mistake to keep Eren so isolated.

There's no good way and never only on path but eren choose one who solve the problem

WE’RE GONNA ASK THIS… WHO IS THE FATHER? 196 responses

The never ending debate of who the father of Historia’s child hasn’t slowed down since the introduction of her pregnancy, though the question has ultimately boiled down to whether the child is Eren’s or not. Only 33.2% of respondents seem to think so. 28.1% presumably feel that it’s not Eren, but are overall tired of this debate in general. 21.4% are firm in their stance that it’s the farmer. 13.8% just wish it had anything to do with Ymir and nothing to do with the other options.

I’m tired of this whole damn debate... but it's the farmer

LEVI SEEMED MORE VISIBLY IRRITATED ABOUT HOW TALL THE 104TH HAVE GOTTEN IN THE ANIME. THOUGHTS? 192 responses

MAPPA animated this scene with their own take and made Levi more irritable in the anime adaptation than he appeared to be in the manga. Generally, half of respondents felt that both ways were effective and funny. 25.5% seem to enjoy MAPPA’s rendition of it more, while 18.2% prefer the original manga portrayal of Levi’s grievances.

THE TRAIN SCENE WHERE EREN CONFESSES TO HIS FRIENDS IS TREASURED BY MUCH OF THE FANDOM. DID MAPPA DO IT JUSTICE? 193 responses

For fans of the 104th in particular, this scene has felt like it’s taken 84 years to finally be animated. And very few were disappointed, with 56.5% stating that the scene was cute and they are content with it, and another 36.8% showing a little more enthusiasm, feeling that it was more beautifully done than they ever could have imagined. A handful felt it could have been better, but was still good, or just didn’t care. No one agreed that the scene was ruined.

DARK!CONNIE RETURNS! WHO DID HIM BETTER? 190 responses

Another highly anticipated moment… the return of Dark!Connie! MAPPA didn’t quite hit the mark on this one, with Connie’s aura in the manga still being much more preferable to manga readers than the way MAPPA portrayed him in the anime.

WHEN CHAPTER 108 WAS PUBLISHED, READERS WERE ASKED IF EREN STILL PRIORITIZED HIS FRIENDS. AT THAT TIME, THE MAJORITY BELIEVED THAT HE DID, ALTHOUGH THE LARGER HALF OF THAT MAJORITY FELT IT WAS TO A LESSER DEGREE THAN BEFORE THE TIMESKIP. WE’D LIKE TO ASK AGAIN, DO YOU THINK THAT EREN ULTIMATELY TOOK THIS PATH OF DESTRUCTION BECAUSE HE PRIORITIZES HIS FRIENDS? 190 responses

Overall, the majority of the fanbase believe that Eren’s actions are generally in the interest of his friends and their lifespan, though to varying degrees (38.4% feel he prioritizes them wholly above all else, while 34.7% feel that he prioritizes them, but to a lesser degree than he used to). 21.1% still think that Eren’s contradictory actions make it hard to come to a solid conclusion on this front. A handful feel that Eren has abandoned them completely and only cares about himself and his own freedom at this point.

I want to believe that hes prioritizing his friends, but too many of his actions contradict that, like forcing them into the battle in liberio and sending titans after the alliance

Eren wasn't able to save his mother and this fact still torments him. I think that his friends matter to him a lot, but there is something darker in him what causes all the mess he is doing.

He’s selfish and doing whatever he wants.

DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE THAT EREN PUSHED HIS FRIENDS TO THE FRONT LINES BECAUSE HE ALREADY SAW IN HIS FUTURE MEMORIES THAT THEY WOULD STOP HIM, THUS KNOWING THEY WOULD NOT DIE? 188 responses

When chapter 108 was published, we hadn’t yet learned that Eren saw memories of the future and so we couldn’t speculate on such a thing. Now that we can, we thought we would ask. 42.6% believe that regardless of whether Eren saw his friends in those memories or not, Mikasa is correct in her belief that Eren simply trusted them to survive. 33% feel that he already knew that they would survive, which is the only reason why he dragged them to Liberio in the first place. 18.6% don’t want to say either way, and a small percentage believe Eren had no way of knowing about the fate of his friends.

He said "I HOPE they will have happy long lives". It means he didn't see much.

WILL WE SEE THE WARRIORS + MAGATH AND COLT NEXT EPISODE? 187 responses

With things shuffled around, we still have yet to see the Warriors recuperating and planning their next move. Half of the fandom feel that MAPPA was waiting to put the focus back on Gabi and Falco before giving us this moment. 32.1% aren’t sure if we will get it in episode 70 or not. 14.4% think it’s something that will come later, and a tiny fraction think it will be cut entirely.

Need my warriors back

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 193 responses

The largest percentage (48.2%) went to the scene with Hange confronting Floch and the Yeagerists, though it is edged out by both of Gabi and Falco’s preview scenes combined (42% for the visit to the Blouse’s, and 9.8% for their scuffle at the river).

Can't care less about to gabi and falco, it's the final season cut the filler please.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I miss Sasha

No thoughts, anxiety only.

Hope to see the cut scenes in the next episode

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm not so hyped for this season anymore. Sure, I'll still watch all the episodes no matter what, and I don't think Mappa is doing a bad job. But it's just a good adaptation. For the anime-onlys, I'm sure it's great because they're discovering the story we already know, but for me, this season doesn't add much to the manga. I probably had too high expectations for this season... (I'm also watching/reading Jujustsu Kaisen from Mappa and I don't have that feeling at all, so I'm pretty conflicted)

The episode was fine but I had a feeling that it was going a little too fast. However, I'm not complaining because I overally liked it. I could finally see adult Historia. She looks different than her manga counterpart. In the manga she was more mysterious and mature, while in the anime she still has cute baby face. I think that the moment between her and Mikasa was sweet. I feel kinda tired of the whole "who is the father" theories. I think that people waste their energy on fights and debates. If I wasn't part of the fandom, I wouldn't even think of Eren having a child with Historia. They never had romantic relationship and their last conversation was far away from being loving. Eren is an amotional mess. He has never mentioned the child in his POV, he says that his friends and Paradis are the most important, so I will be surprised if all of sudden he turns to be a father.

The lightning around eren when angry at hange was amazing addition (I think it's new) and historias situation feels more real in the anime. (ps: hail ponytail mikasa is bea)

Did a great job imo, but I don't think it's possible to make it anywhere near 122 at this point

Scenes were great as usual. The pacing was a little bit jarring though. I don't know how anime-onlys will take it since we do have different perspectives given our forehand knowledge of the events.

Where's shirtless Reiner??

Good episode, can’t wait for Gabi and Falco’s realization next episode

I wish everything from the manga could fit into the episode or that the episodes were longer.

There's really no where else I could've put this so I'll just put it here......lol. I feel like it's not as obvious in the anime how much longer Jean's hair has gotten sometimes (specifically during the railroad scene here) and I wish that wasn't the case.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 180 responses

Thank you to everyone who participated!

#snk poll #snk polls #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot #snk s4 #snk spoilers

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chibivesicle · 4 years

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Golden Kamuy chapters 233 & 234 - creepy candymen and a sexy pirate

Chapter 233 picks up with Asirpa, Sugimoto, Shiraishi [and Vasily] in search of Boutarou the pirate and following up on the lead about a tattooed candy peddler. The cover page for this chapter is unrelated to the action and instead has Sugimoto and Shiraishi admiring the spring wild flowers. Therefore, it is now at least a year since the start of the quest for the gold.

My read on this is it is a call back to “simpler” times in the quest for the gold. Before they found Wilk, before Kiro was killed and all of the action on Karafuto.

The chapter starts out with Sugimoto trying to develop a plan for finding Boutarou as he asks Shiraishi what he knew about him. Shiraishi makes it quite clear that hiding as a candy seller pretty much goes counter to the pirate’s mode of action and likely if there is a convict selling candy, he’s someone that Shiraishi never knew or saw.

Sugimoto as usual thinking he’s a great natural leader decides to investigate the candy sellers with an ill formed plan as usual. He approaches the puppet man with the octopus and flat out tells him, he’ll buy some candy from him but that he needs the man to take his clothes off for him. This plan clearly backfires as the man questions his motive and he becomes more upset as he states that even if Sugimoto just paid him to see his nipples, that he’s not that cheap! Asirpa simply looks perplexed at the man’s response, it seems he may have an actual history of being paid for such acts in the past as he’s making it clear his nipples are worth much more than candy. I’d say this is a hint that these men may be linked to less legal activities. If he were just a candy seller he wouldn’t have stated such things, he would have just likely ignored Sugimoto’s request.

In contrast, Shiraishi is much smater about things as he tosses some water on the other candy seller and makes it clear that he’d have to change out of his wet clothing - something Shiraishi has numerous experiences with.

However, he gets an elbow to the face and the two men decide they are business rivals and they chase them off.

For reasons 100% unclear to me, somehow Shiraishi is hiding in a storm drain/sewer and is able to get more intel as though he were the creepy clown from Stephen King’s “It”. I’m not a fan of King so I really don’t get it . . .

But he is able to ask a kid for information about the candy seller with weird tattoos.

Interestingly, the next time they approach a potential target, Shiraishi takes the lead, as he asks the man if he’d sell him some candy. He shows Shiraishi his creepy pop-up puppet, saying that it would be the candy. Then Shiraishi finally asks him straight up that he’s got some strange tattoos.

The man hesitates before Sugimoto then inquires about them and wanting to see them. He then reveals his face smiling. His eyes are very interesting as well. He’s got black pupil/irises but with a vertical white streak through the center. What on earth does this even mean about his inner personality?

Thanks the the through translation notes at the end of the chapter by EHS scans, it was determined that his tattoos come from all parts of Japan, he has an obvious Ainu tattoo on his chin, but he has some from as far away as Okinawa, and others from various parts of Honshu. To me this indicates that he has traveled far and wide though Japan. Is he fleeing from various places where he was convicted of crimes and tattooed in each location?

Yet, he quickly confirms that he did them all to himself. I honestly think he’s lying but then again, this is GK, he may have done them to himself. Shiraishi is clearly nervous in response to that statement as he has a past history with the system of punishment in Japan.

What’s better is how absolutely disgusted and disappointed Sugimoto is, he can’t even look at the man in the face when he concludes it is a huge waste of their time. The two panels with the man looking quizzical and then shifting to a smile indicates he likely knows that they are looking for.

No one makes a smile like that unless they’ve realized something. What I’m also curious about is what happened to the kid he led off into the woods in the previous chapter. It was like “watch this man do something creepy and then not resolve it.” Thanks Noda.

The man breaks into a fit of laughter when it is so obvious he wasn’t what Sugimoto was looking for. They almost politely leave him and they update us that their river searches haven’t yielded anything. The Toppu river and the Sorachi river haven’t given them any new info so they ponder going to the Saru river. Sugimoto considers changing their search to Sapporo for the current serial killer a good candidate and Shiraishi considers that might be a good idea.

As they are discussing this Asirpa is hanging back, I guess she really doesn’t care about them making plans without her input, but it reveals an interesting aside as she over hears the man talking to himself. That boss Wakayama had a great facial expression when he was disappointed as well. Asirpa then makes the connection that if Wakayama was his boss he was a part of his yakuza gang.

Unfortunately, some train cars with coal roll by separating them. His voice then calls out from a train car as he declares that they will never be able to find the gold. Thus he knew exactly what type of tattoo they are looking for.

Asirpa calls out to Sugimoto to find him, but they are unable to find him in the rail yard near the coal mines. All we know now is that this tattooed candy seller was one of the men working for Boss and that he is more in the know than he appears. I’m sure he will pop up again in the future.

The action then shifts to an Ainu kotan near the Toppu river. Sure enough the pirate is doing his own information gathering following up the leads that Heita found. He is trying to pay off an older Ainu man with rice. He’s already given 3 bales of rice and it is clear than he’s ordering his man to bring another 3 bales.

He is quite direct, he states that he knows that the man knows about the buried gold and that his brother was one of the people involved, specifically he was one of the men who was killed. He is able to confirm that the gold was moved after his older brother was killed and he likely won’t find anything there.

So Boutarou has to grease the wheels so to speak by revealing how much information he knows. He confirms that he’s fine with the fact that the gold likely isn’t there anymore, he still wants to know the location. His assistant seems to doubt talking to the man due to his reluctance.

He’s being quite clever as he has not revealed what he knows about the gold. He is able to ask the man to confirm information that he already knows to give him the next place to start looking for the gold. And of course the Ainu elder confirms what he already knew - the four rivers that the gold came from

With the confirmation he is looking for the place where it was stored so that he could trace where it was moved to and narrow down the location to search.

Overall, Boutarou is an interesting character, we know he has a violent history yet, when it comes to looking for information he is paying for it and being relatively chill about things, he clearly doesn’t have a thing for unnecessary violence.

Chapter 234 has a color cover, featuring Sugimoto and Asirpa, and the name of the chapter is steamboat likely a key to how they will travel to their next destination.

The chapter starts off with Shiraishi again developing a plan for them to get to Sapporo to look for the other possible convict. He suggests they take a steamboat to Ebetsu which is the most efficient way to currently travel. If they continue by horse along the roads it will be muddy and slow due to the thawing out of things. As we know he was in Kabato prison, he also knows that convicts were used for labor to clean up the river.

The idea was that a steamboat/paddle boat can travel on a shallow river much more easily than a propeller driven boat. This leads to a nice 2 page spread of the paddle boat and Asirpa seems happy and excited to be on the boat.

cue some sort of Mark Twain reference here . . . . Asirpa then expresses concern that Vasily; hood guy in the english translation, hoodie-chan via Shiraishi in the original, is hanging back with their horses instead of riding on the main boat. Of course Vasily is still in full sniper mode, he’s keeping an eye on things from afar with his binoculars.

Sugimoto then states he’s likely hanging back as he is waiting for Ogata to show up. Specifically, Ogata is after Asirpa and then he realizes if that is the case, Vasily is using Asirpa as the bait to draw out Ogata.

Wow, just wow. Sugimoto - projecting much? He seems to have forgotten how Vasily already used Shiraishi as bait for Ogata once before when they were in Karafuto and now he’s disgusted by such behavior. Again, he is making the assumption that Ogata will stop at nothing to steal Asirpa when his attempt to get Asirpa to give him the code failed and then Ogata pretty much wanted Asirpa to kill him.

Really, Sugimoto’s read of Ogata is so flawed that well, I don’t get why Asirpa and Shiraishi haven’t said something about what they learned on Karafuto more.

Of course, they don’t have a simple journey as the pirate spend all of his stolen loot on paying off the Ainu man. So he’s going to rob the postal deliveries from the steamboat. There is even a postal deliveryman who is protecting money that is being sent via registered mail, making him an easy target.

The steamboat captain manages to hit one of the boats as he won’t go down without a fight. Of course the pirate has to live up to his name. He swims under the ship, and pops out like a dolphin on the opposite side. To use his revolver, he blows all of the water out of if before cocking it for use as he holds up the ship’s captain.

These panels really highlight that this man is a sexy badass. Of course Shiraishi and Sugimoto have rushed to the deck to check out the action when he recognizes Boutarou and he recognizes Shiraishi! He seems amused and excited to see Shiraishi, and the crew members are wondering what is happening as the captain decides that they must be working with the pirate.

So, definitely a poor choice of action by both Shiraishi and Sugimoto. Thankfully, Asirpa was asleep on their traveling bags so hopefully she is still asleep.

As with this Sugimoto becomes an accidental accomplice to the pirate. As the one man goes to grab his rifle he notices Boutarou prepare to shoot the man. So he realizes he has no choice but to remove the security men from the crew by tossing them off of the boat.

Thus, Sugimoto becomes a tool for the pirate as he saves the men from being shot by tossing them off the boat. In the action as he judo tosses the men over board he drops his rifle. The rifle falls outside of the passenger cabin and how Sugimoto is without the use of his rifle.

Now Sugimoto lacks his rifle and there is no Ogata to scold him. I think back to when Ogata retrieved his rifle for him. This will come into play in the future action as now all Sugimoto has is his loved and trusted bayonet.

Recall that during the silent kotan arc, Sugimoto placed his rifle against the wall of the house while Ogata clearly kept his rifle within reach. When the fake Ainu were exposed, one of the yakuza dove to grab Sugimoto’s rifle and Ogata shot him square in the back.

After shooting him, Ogata quickly is able to grab the rifle and then he feels the need to teach Sugimoto a lesson. As he throws the rifle to him, he warns him, “never take your eyes off your weapon, private first class.” We only see Ogata’s eyes looking at him as the rest of his face is obscured and Sugimoto doesn’t even look back at Ogata as his eyes are shaded by his cap and the rest of his face is shaded. It is clear that Sugimoto doesn’t like the fact that Ogata is right.

Later on when Anehata steals Tanigaki’s rifle, Ogata will remark that he keeps telling people to keep an eye on their rifles. The Ogata lesson is simple - use your brain in potentially dangerous situations. You have a rifle - it doesn’t mean someone else will use your rifle.

Soooo, any predictions for what will happen due to Sugimoto lacking a rifle? With no Ogata, will Vasily step in? We will have to wait for the next chapter to find out. The loss of Sugimoto’s rifle to me is like “cue Ogata” and in the absence of Ogata cue Vasily.

The chapter then ends with Boutarou commending Shiraishi on having such a great underling working for him. Clearly, Boutarou respects Shiraishi and sees him to be a more intelligent than normal convict. I don’t think this is a jest from him, he seems to be honestly impressed.

The excitement of this chapter is about to step it up a notch as the pirate gang notices another steamboat is heading upstream and opposite of them. And that it has soldiers on it! Perhaps members of the 27th under Tsurumi’s command?

I don’t have many deep thoughts on these two chapters.

It is clear that Shiraishi is a better planner than Sugimoto and their group needs someone to kick some sense into Sugimoto.

The candy seller with the face tattoos will come back.

Vasily is not the Ogata replacement and he continues to be treated like an random dude by their group. Sugimoto really doesn’t understand that embracing the enemy of my enemy is a poor idea when you can’t communicate with him. Asirpa is again starting to think about including him in their group but is much more hesitant after Ogata’s meltdown on ice. We still don’t know if she told anyone about that really happened and she really does need to talk about what happened. I would guess Shiraishi knows more about what happened, but Sugimoto still doesn’t take him seriously all the time so it is a moot point.

Hopefully, we will get more interesting action in the next few chapters to see where things are going with the pirate.

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy meta #sugimoto saichi #asirpa #Shiraishi Yoshitake #vasily #boutarou the pirate #boss wakayama

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purplesurveys · 4 years

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What weird food combinations do you enjoy? I’m willing to experiment mayonnaise with most food. I also dip my fries in hot fudge sundae and because I’m Filipino I have to have my fried chicken paired with banana ketchup. Where do you get your news? Usually from the Twitter and Facebook handles of my go-to news outlets. My dad is also the only one who turns on the TV in the dining area so whenever he’s home and watches the evening news I get to hear the reports as well. What social stigma does society need to get over? HIV/AIDS, dating or marrying the same sex, tattoos... even breastfeeding is a fucking stigma lmao. So many people are babies. What is the best/worst prank that you've played on someone? I hate being the victim of pranks so I never pull them on anyone. What was the last photo you took? My dog jumping up to ask for food last night.

What makes you roll your eyes every time you hear it? Lately our president has been wanting to give nightly addresses on TV every midnight so when I hear another announcement from the government I just roll my eyes because I know it’s gonna be another hour-long speech that not only has absolutely zero substance to it, but made everyone unnecessarily stay up that late. What are you currently worried about? I’m worried about my remaining academic requirements. With the suspension of online classes and the lockdown being extended until April 30 (which is virtually the end of the semester), I have no idea what’s gonna become of our academic calendar and my grades – and the status of my graduation.

A notable school in the country already mass-promoted (read: passed) all their students and is planning to give tuition fee refunds since only two months of the sem were used. It’s honestly the most responsible thing to do for now and I hope all other universities follow suit.

Do you think aliens exist? I believe we aren’t the only ones alive out here but I also don’t think they look like the creatures books or movies have made them out to be. What mythical creature do you wish actually existed? Meh, was never a fan of anything mythical/mythological. What are you interested in that most people aren't? Pro wrestling. In my 15 years of being a fan I’ve only found literally a handful of people (at least who are also Filipino) who shared the same passion or amount of interest as I have. It’s just never been a popular topic or fanbase here so I never get to bring it up – and I’m afraid to bring it up because people seem to judge anyone still into wrestling these days. What's the most ridiculous thing you have bought? My most pointless purchase was a pink bar of soap with lettering that says “Gay Bar.” It’s a novelty item at best and I never needed to buy it, but I had money that day so I did and now it’s gathering dust in one of my drawers. What sounds hit you with major nostalgia every time you hear them? The PS1 start-up noise is a big candidate. If given the oppurtunity to open a museum, what kind would you create? They have museums about everything now, so I think it’d be a good idea to turn to my roots and make an ancestral house instead and have it in our home province. My family has a rich history and it’d be a waste if we allowed ourselves to forget. When was the last time you immediately regretted what you said? I think last night? We were having pork belly bought from outside for dinner and I was talking about how good it tasted and that it was the best thing I’ve had in a while. I forgot my dad has been cooking us a different meal every single day since the quarantine started and they all have tasted amazing as well. After I realized what I said I felt like shit and immediately downplayed the pork belly so that he didn’t feel left out. What's the silliest thing you've seen someone get upset about? My mom is a champion of this list lmao, there’s so much stupid shit she’s thrown a fit over. The most ridiculous one happened last year when my sister sprained her ankle and my mom would not help her walk around and even walked faster than the rest of us. It was like she was purposely leaving us behind, which confused and pissed me off. Anyway I was left assisting Nina as she hobbled on. Eventually I caught up to my mom and asked her to slow down and to be with us and to help my sister walk. Apparently it was enough to piss her off and the whole ride home she was yelling at me and legitimately sobbing about how humiliated she was when I called her out because she thinks people overheard and are judging her for it. I mean if you’re afraid of getting judged isn’t that proof you know you did something shitty?

The sermon also turned personal and she started screaming about how I was a horrible daughter and that I’ve never done anything right, and that I was a disappointment, and that I was straying further from God everyday and she could see the horns growing on my head. How’s that for abusive? What was the best thing that happened to you today? I finally finished the level I’ve been stuck on in Mario Kart 8 and now I’m officially done with the game. I’ve never finished any video game before so it feels pretty bitching!!!!!!!!! Do you consider yourself a good cook? I don’t even consider myself a cook. What's the dumbest thing someone has argued with you about? ^ The thing I just talked about, even though it wasn’t technically an argument because my mom didn’t let me talk throughout.

The next dumbest thing I could think of is probably when my grown-ass aunt fought me back when I was 13 on whether Beyoncé lip-syncs or not. It was a random family discussion and I was just talking about how much I like Beyoncé and she not only stole my thunder by picking a fight with me, but she also made me feel bad about something I loved lol. She was so insistent that she lip-syncs and was so hungry for an argument, I didn’t understand why?????? so I just dropped it and rolled my eyes at my dad. IT’S SO DUMB RIGHT What did you google last? Information I needed for an article I’m currently writing. What fashion trend makes you cringe or laugh everytime you see it? Skirts paired with either denim jeans or leggings, and short vests. All the Disney stars wore them and it was the epitome of fashion for us at the time aaaahhhhhhahahahahaha. What's your favorite holiday movie? LOVE ACTUALLY. For sure. I’d also say It’s A Wonderful Life but it has some very low points that ruins the Christmas-yness for me. How ambitious are you? I’m pretty ambitious and also a bit of a perfectionist, but I’m also aware of my limits and I don’t always jump onto tasks feeling confident. I know what I’m capable of so if I’m faced with something I know other people can be better at, I’ll consciously be less ambitious at it cos I usually let my insecurity get in the way. What was the biggest realization you have had about yourself? As someone who’s always thrived on being an introvert, the last few months and years have taught me that I CAN talk to people if I have to? And they’re not scary? I had little hope for myself prior to my internship - but it ended up being fun and I met a lot of awesome new people. I also never thought I’d get to write articles solely because I hate interviewing people - but my sources have all been nothing but nice to me. I guess what I’m trying to say is I’ve always doubted my ability to talk to people and dive in to unfamiliar scenarios, but when I do either it’s always turned out to be great experiences for me.

What topic could you spend forever talking about? If we’re going for what’s been the most recent hot topic, it would be the government’s incompetence in dealing with COVID-19 so far. Which way should toilet paper hang, over or under? Over. What word is a lot of fun to say? I dunno. I don’t think of words in terms of how fun they are to say. Maybe curse words? HAHAHA If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time? Assuming the internet is nothing to worry about, I’d watch all the series I’ve long planned on watching but can’t because Netflix does a big pull on the entire household’s connection. Are you usually early or late? Early or on time. There is no ‘late’ for me. What do you wish you knew more about? The future. Not knowing the answers to it is so irritating/boring to me. What is the most annoying question you've been asked? Asking if I go to rallies/am an activist/am part of the NPA just because of the school I come from. None of those things are bad at all, but I’ve always been annoyed at the stereotyping. How different was your life 1 year ago? I wasn’t graduating yet then. And I was OUTSIDE MOST DAYS because there wasn’t any fucking virus. What movie title best describes your life? Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, except I literally have to be stuck at home. What was the last lie you told? Telling my groupmates I had some family stuff at home to fix before getting started on our group project, but really I had to take a bath first because I wanted to feel fresh while working. It’s a minor lie, but it still made me feel bad. What type of music do you listen to? It’s usually varied but my go-to genres are indie pop, electropop, alternative rock, punk rock, *some* indie, R&B, and pop.

Are you a good listener? Yeah, it’s why I prefer to be one than a talker. What is your favorite milkshake flavor? Cookies and cream or some peanut butter/chocolate concoction. Do you think you're brave? I can be. Just not about everything. What are you most grateful for in your life? The relatively comfortable life we live considering where we live. And that covers everything from the food we eat, the schools we’ve been sent to, where we get to travel (or the fact that we can travel at all), etc.

What was the worst phase in your life? My rebellious, no-one-understands-me, angsty teen phase when I was 12-13 and my time readjusting in college when I was 18-19. What is a relationship deal breaker for you? Verbal abuse. What are some things that give you complete peace of mind? Staying in coffee shops, driving at midnight, views of the skyline at night, staying on the rooftop at night and being under the stars... I just like a lot of things about the night. Would you like to explore another planet? Yesssssss. Who was your favorite cartoon character as a child? Spongebob. Cosmo from The Fairly Oddparents comes at a close second. What would you do if you were the president of your own country? Right now? I’d assure people everything was being taken care of – mass testing, support for doctors, provision of PPEs and free transportation for frontliners, making all the senators (who are all expectedly not doing anything, save for one) work their asses off, put part of the P275B fund to assist middle- and lower-class people who can’t – instead of imposing shoot-to-kill orders for the military to anyone criticizing the government or rambling about absolutely fucking nothing in nation addresses.

#survey #surveys

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devientdeco · 5 years

Text

The Death of A Skeptic

Spencer Winters sat at his desk, smoking a cigarette and enjoying a coffee and the sounds of “Nobody Knows You When Your Down And Out” cascading from the radio near his desk. He saw a dark shape against the frosted glass of his office door which read ‘Spencer Winters: Private Detective and Investigator’. Other detectives would have a secretary outside, but he had had to let his go. The young detective reached into his desk and undid the safety on one of his .45 pistols, cocked it, and placed it in his pocket, easily drawn if he needed it. It never hurt to be prepared, after all.

Spencer opened the door and admitted a young man, the two taking their seats on opposite sides of the desk as Spencer killed the radio with the turn of a dial. The young man was armed, Spencer saw the bulge of a holster in his expensive suit. He was tall and lanky, not unlike Spencer, and he had neatly arranged red hair, green eyes flicking over Spencer like a snake looking at prey. He smiled and extended a hand to shake before he began speaking, his voice indicating he was clearly another Nocturne City native, the Southern accent spilling from his lips like tar onto a road under construction. “Mr. Winters,” He paused to flash another million-dollar smile at Spencer. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Nicholas Burnette. I represent a powerful player who has expressed an interest in hiring you. You’ve proven yourself to be quite a capable detective and an able combatant, an excellent marksman and possessing a remarkably sturdy constitution. I’ve heard of your little war with Benny Vinnoci and his bootleggers after that unfortunate business with your wife and her sticky fingers. He ended up with two to the head, and you get off scot-free thanks to your police friends. You are, thus, an able candidate for the job we have in mind.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow. “And what, exactly, is this job, Mr. Burnette? How do you know so much about me?”

“I have friends in the police department, just like you do, detective, and I also hired someone else to look into your background. Please, don’t be upset. I was asked to find the best man for the job, and you're it. As for what the job entails, it is deceptively simple. My employer seeks a raven statuette from the swamp outside of town. I am sure you are aware of the perils within, so we chose you for your martial prowess.”

Spencer resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He was a skeptic, through and through, not believing the tales of monsters in the swamps. Like any gumshoe, he knew if you were inclined to believe in such things, you probably weren’t cut out for detective work anyway, or if you were, you’d waste your time and your clients trying to find things everyone else knew weren’t real. He had been in the swamp on a case before though, just last year, looking for a lost boy. The boy was never found, but there was never any sort of danger there, just big trees and weirdly black water. One of the policemen had gone missing, but he was later found in the loving embrace of a mistress in a seedy motel near the swamp. Nothing supernatural there, Spencer thought, just human nature. He pushed the case from his mind and focused on his client. “The only threats I face there are the threats of tripping and getting my boots wet Mr. Burnette.”

“That is where you are wrong, detective. But if you do not believe me, you will find out for yourself. Will you take the job?”

“More details?”

“We have a rough idea of where the object is, but our previous efforts to retrieve it have been stymied by illness and madness, and in one case, cowardice. We can provide you with a rough map, and little else, I’m afraid. You will be exceedingly well compensated, detective. My employer is prepared to offer you up to ten thousand dollars if you retrieve this object for his collection, five hundred upon accepting the job, and the other nine thousand, five hundred, upon delivery of the statuette. If you succeed in this endeavor, you may be hired for more asset recovery operations in the future.”

Spencer’s mind raced at what he could do with the money. He might be able to pay off the medical bills he always incurred on his more dangerous cases, and maybe even hire another secretary. But he knew he had to keep from acting too excited, avoid seeming too eager. “Ten thousand dollars for getting my boots a little wet and finding some statuette? Your boss must really like statues. Sure, I’ll take your money. Who’s this mysterious employer, Mr. Burnette?”

Nicholas smiled warmly. “I’m so glad you agreed to the job. I doubt it will be as easy as you think, but I’m sure you can handle it, given your background. My employer is none other than Mr. Henry Sinclair, founder, and CEO of Southern Industries.”

Spencer was impressed. Henry Sinclair owned Southern Motors, among the other enterprises in the Southern Industries umbrella and was the richest man in Nocturne City. His factories had brought the city and the south as a whole an economic boom, and he was fast becoming one of the richest men in the country. Now he wanted him to find something in the swamp for him. He was distracted from his thoughts as Nicholas reached into his coat and pulled out an envelope. “The first installment of your payment, detective. Thank you very much for agreeing to this. You are the fourth person we’ve hired or tried to hire. The second person to accept. We sent a team into the swamp ourselves, but they came down with some nasty illnesses and the expedition leader is currently in a mental asylum. The one detective who agreed skipped town after being given the first installment and had to be tracked down and made an example of. I’m sure you won’t make the same mistake. I hope you succeed and don’t end up dead. Good luck sir and thank you again.” He shook hands again and left after a final smile.

That night, Spencer returned home to see his wife, Scarlett, lounging on the couch. “Hello dear. You look glum. What’s wrong, tough day at the office?” She rose and embraced him. “I was hired by Henry Sinclair to go into the swamp and find something for him.” Scarlett looked alarmed. “Please tell me you turned him down. There’s all sorts of awful things in the swamp.” Spencer cracked a grin, amused by his wife’s belief in the supernatural.

“Yeah, like what?”

“Well, there is, of course, Black Mask Armitage. Victims of The Walking Plague that survived being killed way back when, cultists, freaks, all sort of things! You shouldn’t have taken the job.”

“Oh, calm down. The worst that can happen is maybe I’ll trip over a tree root. He offered me ten thousand dollars! Why would I turn that down? Besides, I never saw anythin’ weird last year.”

“Even the luckiest man alive has to run out of luck sometime. Just cause you didn’t see anything, doesn’t mean its not there. I love you Spence, and I don’t wanna see a news article about your body being found floating on the edge of the swamp.”

He smiled at her worries. He silenced her protests with a kiss on her ruby-red lips, while running his fingers through her long red hair.

“Baby, I’ve taken on gangsters, for you no less. I killed a mob boss. I’ve tangled with the toughest thugs this city can offer and I’ve always come out on top. I can survive getting a little wet. I’m sorry, but I need the money.”

He pulled his wife off of him and started walking to his room. He opened the envelope and found it had five one-hundred-dollar bills and a map, or, rather, an attempt at a map. It had several ‘landmarks’, one of which was circled. ‘The tall black trees. It should be in the center of the clearing surrounded by the tall black trees.’, was scrawled in spidery handwriting. Spencer thought about the weird legends of the black-water swamp on the edge of town. The earliest legends were from the colonization of the city back in the 1600s, stories of weird lights. Spencer dismissed them as swamp gas. There were many stories of the horrors and cults and forbidden sects which lived in the swamp, but he dismissed them simply as folk stories. Tomorrow he would go out into the swamps and try to find the statuette.

In the morning, Spencer went to have breakfast at The Café V8 in his sleek Southern Motors Raven before heading off to the outskirts of town, wearing not a suit, but instead donning some well-worn boots, jeans, and a shirt and coat he wasn’t afraid to get dirty. He peered into the dark swamps and turned on a flashlight. The high cypress and oak trees blocked out what little light shone through the overcast sky, Spanish moss dangling down and blotting out the light even further. He trudged into the swamp, into the cool black water. His boots sank into the mud and snapped twigs as he walked on. Spencer frowned. This brought back bad memories. He had searched for the boy for days, and found no trace of him, save a tattered bit of cloth that might have come from his shirt, but could have been from any number of other shirts. He nearly tripped over a sprawling root somehow drawing nutrition from the water-soaked soil. Spencer found a slight smirk crossing his face, despite the memories of last year. He had been right. There was nothing here but trees and water. He was surprised to see a number of lights in the distance. He cautiously approached, flicking off the flashlight and seeing a handful of figures standing over something. He inched closer, crouching down now and pulling out one of the two .45s he always carried with him.

He looked closer and saw that the individuals stood atop a bit of ground that rose from the black waters, amidst the huge trees. They were six of them, all naked, their bodies painted in strange, organic patterns, spirals, leaves, ivy-like tattoos crawling up their skin. They stood inside a pair of overlapping hexagons made of black wood. The figures stood around a colossal black tree stump, and, to Spencer’s shock, a mutilated body. The body was that of a young man, apparently vivisected, with intricate leaf-like patterns branching off of the opened chest cavity, as though it were a tree trunk with the leaf-like patterns growing from it onto the rest of thr body. The figures bore bloody knives. Spencer cocked and undid the safety on his .45 as he backed away, prepared to defend himself as he fled. He cursed to himself as he slipped on a root and fell into the water. He arose, seeing six figures approaching him, bearing knives, chanting aloud words that made Spencer’s head hurt and his ears to ring. He raised his .45 and fired at the nearest cultist, aiming for the leg, wanting to incapacitate for now unless they made things difficult. The cultist fell to the ground, his knee shattered by the bullet. He continued to fire, wounding each cultist, though they continued to crawl toward, chanting even through the pain, some unknown and incomprehensible language. Spencer sighed and decided he’d have to kill them. He was good at killing, and while he did not enjoy it, recognized it as a necessary evil. He shot them each in the head, even as they continued to crawl forward, one of them even hurling his knife at him in desperation, though it only tore a hole in his coat as it went wide. He moved on, trying to block the memory from his mind.

As he pressed on through the water, he flicked on the flashlight again and continued onward. He was not particularly worried about killing those people; the corpses would be subsumed by the black waters of the swamp and they would not be an issue. Even if they were, his friends in the police force would understand that he was cleansing their fair city of criminal cultists. He felt his boot kick against something. He looked down and saw something that was not a tree root. He saw many corpses floating in the waters. Not one, not two, but dozens of them. They were rotten with age, yet still somehow, impossibly, had flesh and muscle, albeit tattered and decayed. Then, Spencer thought he saw one of them twitch. Impossible. Corpses cannot twitch. It continued to twitch, standing up. It and the other corpses began to stand, shambling toward him, arms outstretched, a low moan escaping from its damaged and rotten mouth. Spencer blinked, recoiling on reflex rather than reason, dismissing this as a hallucination. One of the corpses tried to bite him, and he recoiled. He leaped back. This was no hallucination. He backed up, and drew his pistol, firing perfectly aimed headshots, but panicked as he heard the click of an empty clip. He backed up, tripping over a tree root and falling backwards into the water. The things he had shot had fallen into the water, finally destroyed after centuries of unlife. But more of them arose from the black waters. Spencer arose from the water, narrowly avoiding a grasping hand, and fled, running blindly away from the reanimated corpses into the swamp, tripping a few times and soaking himself further.

He finally got far enough away that moans were no longer audible on the wind. He slumped against a tree. What had he just seen? It must have been supernatural, for he was unable to explain this rationally. He was a man of rational thinking, and dare not think of anything irrational or strange, even religion, for many religions would not approve of his actions. He pondered on these things he had shot. According to local history/legend, in 1745, there was an outbreak of The Walking Plague, a strange form of bubonic plague. The town apothecaries and barber-surgeons donned the signature mask of the plague doctors and took up blades and eradicated the undead who had lurched into the swamp. One of them, local legend proclaimed, was infected by a bite from the undead and then began to transform. The doctor, Noah Armitage, vanished into the swamp. A few weeks later, reports of a horrible flying creature began a strange amalgamation of flesh and bone, and ravens wings, and a leathery plague mask and beak. This monstrous creature was called Black Mask Armitage, supposedly the transformed doctor Noah Armitage. Perhaps, perhaps the legends were true. He had shot undead creatures to protect himself. Undead beings reanimated by an ancient disease. But when he had gone looking for the boy last year he hadn’t encountered anyone or anything out of ordinary, and he had gone deeper into the swamp than this, or so he thought. Thinking about the case brought a strange feeling of melancholy. He remembered the mother sobbing, asking him to take another look, because the police had largely given up after three weeks of searching. He shook his head fiercely and forced himself to stop thinking until after he found what he was hired to find.

He pressed onward, looking at the map, trying to get his bearings. He was surprised to see the stump that had been on the map. He pressed onward, the trees becoming even taller, monolithic black trees, Spanish moss hanging like tendrils reaching toward him. There was a sudden clearing, and Spencer saw a tall black monolith, a statuette of a raven sitting atop it. He approached, grabbing the statuette and tucking it into a bag. As he turned, an earsplitting screech filled the air. He stared in disbelief and horror as a figure flew towards him. It was some sort of monstrous entity, a creature with a long black beak, it’s beak long and leathery, like a plague doctors mask, arms that looked like eldritch fusions of bone, rippling black flesh, and raven feathers. Its body was a mix of black feathers and bone, black flesh showing here and there. It let out a terrifying screech and flapped towards Spencer. Spencer could hardly believe his eyes, sure he was now hallucinating. He was snapped out of this assurance that he was hallucinating by sharp pains on his arms and chest. He saw blood on his shirt. He removed his pair of .45s and fired, Black Mask Armitage hissing and screeching as the bullets hit its chest and wings. Spencer kept firing, as he ran, his coat being ripped off as claws snagged in it. He sprinted into the thick trees, Black Mask Armitage following him, flying above the trees, the shrieks echoing into the overcast sky. He continued to fire, many of the bullets flying wild now, shooting until he heard the click of empty magazines. He was out of bullets now, and no more magazines, the extras had been in his coat. His arms and chest were bleeding more freely now, the cuts deeper than he thought. Something he did not believe in had clawed him, and he was bleeding. Perhaps he needed to be more open to the existence of the supernatural in Nocturne City. After all, not believing in it did not prevent it from attempting to kill him, of course. He continued to press on through the swamp, seeing the lights of town in the distance. He smiled weakly to himself, thinking of Scarlett when the screeching of Black Mask Armitage drew closer. He saw his car nearby, it’s sleek black form a sign of hope. If he could get to it, he could drive off and leave this forsaken swamp.

Making a break for it, he ran to the car, tossing the bag containing the statuette in the passenger seat and quickly grabbing the two extra magazines he kept in his glove box and frantically reloading. To his horror, the car rocked, and the narrow windshield broke open as the talons of the flying monster smashed it apart, leaving claw marks in the hood. He scrambled for one of the .45s, firing at the long black beak. It screeched, trying to get closer. He turned the key in the ignition and started driving, speeding off, the creature struggling to stay on the car which was quickly accelerating. He smiled with satisfaction as the creature was forced under his tires, loud bumps sounding as the creature was run over. He heard loud screeching but knew the creature would soon return to the swamp, if the legends were true, at least.

He staggered into the hospital, being cured by the doctors and nurses. When they asked what had caused the wounds, he simply said “Black Mask Armitage”. They were highly confused, sharing his now-dead skepticism, but treated his jagged cuts. He drove home, warmly embracing Scarlett. “Oh, Scarlett. I’m sorry. I should have believed you. There were…. things….out there in the swamp. I killed cultists. And then there were victims of The Walking Plague. God, so many of them. I ran. And ran and ran, until I came to a clearing. I found what Sinclair hired me to find, but then Black Mask Armitage attacked me. Ripped my coat off, clawed me. But I think I’m better now, just need to lay down.” She kissed him. “I’m so glad your ok Spence! I mean, you come home wounded a lot, but I was honestly worried for the first time. But maybe your luck isn’t ready to give out just yet.” She embraced him again, and stood, heading off to prepare some supper. Spencer sat and gazed into the flames of the fireplace, thinking about all the horrors he had seen. His lack of belief in the supernatural had been shattered beyond repair, like the shattering of a window as someone is defenestrated. He understood now that there existed things that he could not understand, and that a bullet could not solve every problem anymore. He had shot the bird creature many times, in the wings, chest, and its awful beak mask thing but it continued to attack. He hoped never to have to go back into the swamp. He would demand more money for the job from Sinclair, of course, to pay for his medical bills. He would believe now, or at least be accepting of that fact that strange horrors lurked in and around his beloved city.

Spencer drove his sleek but damaged car toward the Sinclair mansion. The Sinclair estate was a large, modern, white, Art Deco mansion situated on a jagged-edged cliff overlooking the city and the Atlantic. The well-manicured grounds were enclosed by a tall wall, preventing anyone from peering into the tycoon’s affairs. Spencer pulled into the driveway, and an armed guard came out to greet him, looking confused at the state of his car. Presenting his private detective's license as ID, he was allowed in. He was ushered into a luxurious Art Deco office. A tall, lanky man in the finest suit Spencer had ever seen stood before him, a pencil mustache, slicked-back hair. He smiled and extended a hand. “Good evening detective Winters!! I am ever so glad you are not dead! Do you have it?” Spencer handed him the bag containing the obsidian statuette, the ruby red raven eyes gleaming in the electric lights. Sinclair beamed happily. “Excellent job detective Winters! Thank you!” Spencer nodded.

“Your welcome sir, but I would like to know if you would mind covering my medical bills? I had a run-in with Black Mask Armitage. And, if you don’t mind me asking, why the hell did you want this thing so bad?”

“You did? I will, of course, pay you extra. Is that why your car is a disgraceful heap of shattered glass and scratches? No matter, I will replace the car with the newest model of Raven. Let’s see…. nine thousand, five hundred dollars? I already paid you five hundred, but let’s ignore that and give you another five hundred. And, to answer your question, I am a collector of the eldritch, the macabre and the supernatural. It….intrigues me.”

Spencer raised an eyebrow. ‘Just how rich and possibly crazy was this man?, he thought.

Sinclair reached into his pocket for his wallet, and pulled out a few dozen hundred-dollar bills. He handed it to Spencer and smiled.

“Your payment, detective. My agents may seek your assistance in the future, Mr. Winters. Please consider accepting. You did a fine job, and you have proven yourself capable of doing things others will not. I am happy to have met you! Now, I must find a place in my collection worthy of displaying such a beautiful piece of artwork. Good evening!” He abruptly turned on his heels, carrying the statuette and walking off. An aide was sent to get Spencer a new Raven. A short while later, it arrived, pulling up by the door, aides, moving any personal effects from his old car to his new one. Spencer looked at the sleek black car, pleased by this unexpected bonus. He got in, and drove off into the night, NCR serenading him.

#spencer winters #Henry Sinclair #black mask armitage

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caddy-whump-us · 6 years

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🔬 lab rat + your choice

Lab Rat + Will

Special thanks to Outlast and Gravity’s Rainbow for helping with this one. I know, it’s kind of weird, but that’s because it’s a remix of sorts. Also it’s from the whumper’s POV because that’s just how it came out.

Also: so many many many appy-polly-loggies for taking so long to get these prompts answered. Life, you know?

One by one they are being picked off below him: in his small pool of candidates the ratio slowly grows top-heavy, more ghosts, more crowding beneath the eaves, and fewer living. And with each one, he thinks he feels patterns on his cortex going dark, settling to sleep forever, parts of whoever hes been now losing all definition, reverting to dumb chemistry.

What should he have done then, gone down to Psi Section, asked Eventyr to get up a seance, try to get one of them back on the line? Or go back to the dogs? But he renounced them in favor of these untried human subjects. Don’t think he hasn’t doubts as to the validity of this scheme at least. As for the dogs, Lamplighter has deftly picked the locks of their awareness. They have no secrets. He can drive them mad, and with bromides in adequate doses he can bring them back.

But now with Will in it–sudden angel, thermodynamic surprise, whatever he is–will it change now? This immature intellect ripe with plasticity perhaps less inclined to eventual unraveling of telemeres and cross-contamination, less inclined to the lead pellets that would well up in the brains of the others? So the Pavlovian dithers about his office, feeling restless and old. And Will down below, waiting, 416832 tattooed behind his ear, like some studbook dog. Dead on paper and a ward of the state before that, buried in the potter’s field, but in truth buried in the bowels of the mountain, down in the cold guts of the mountain, among the servers and systems–and he will not die.

In two hours, Will will be woken. The white door to his white room unlocked, Will still stretched on his bed with nine-point restraints but still trembling. He’s young but he’s no fool. And getting stronger, which may rearrange the schedule of the experimentation going forward, unless it’s speed that fucks up the genetic code, makes metals pool in the brains of Defective Candidates, and finally kills them with splitting headaches. Hence, in this iteration: younger, weaker, smaller.

Still, it’ll take four or five staff beyond Lamplighter to convey him down to the very heart of the mountain–a dead volcano’s heart now frozen but so very alive. It’s a veritable hive of activity down there. And all for you, Will. All for you. The monitors, the sensors, the specialists, the technicians, the equipment, the doctors, the records–it’s all for you.

But what does will think, lying flat on his back as they wheel him along, with the lights flicking overhead in their steady-ready tick-tock pattern? He used to scream. He used to cry. He used to beg and plead. Now he’ll look to Lamplighter when he’s spoken to, but he has retreated somewhere behind those pretty blue eyes. And when they ensconce him at last at the heart of the mountain? What will he think then?

But that is for the future. For now, it’s another exposure dose and readings from those results, which means full alert down in the White Visitation. No sirens, but lights to be sure. And lockdown in the asylum up above–poor Will, a little anxious, a little sad, a little in-patient therapy, and suddenly you’re the precious center of this magnificent experiment that’s sent so many to their graves (and Lamplighter knows that someday he himself will be alone, in a black field lapsing to isotrophy, to the zero, waiting to be the last to go–but he has to try, he has to survive, to try for the Prize, not for his own glory, but to keep a promise, to the human field of seven he once was, the scientists who didn’t make it and then, of course, the subjects too).

The upper levels in the cored-out mountain, with all their catwalks and scaffolding staircases are Terminal Alpha, Terminal Beta, and Terminal Gamma. Each to their own purpose, looking down on the central purpose of this entire underground laboratory. But the top level and the bottom level were named, nicknamed, each Terminal Dogma–the door to this Hall of the Mountain at the bottom and the highest observation deck at the top.

Will is brought in by that lowest door with Lamplighter at his side, one hand resting on the rails of the bed on which he is laid, and for a moment there is silence inside the mountain (such as there can be), with all eyes down on Will and his racked body. A dozen whirling yellow lights announce his arrival. He is here, he is here.

He has been refusing food. He barely sleeps, save when medically induced. His results are appropriately abnormal but not within dangerous levels. His scans are still clear. There is still time. Perhaps he will, at last, become the Angel of the Mountain, the one who can, at last, break open the last gates.

Old Kevin Spectro did not differentiate as much as he (Lamplighter) between Outside and Inside. He (Spectro) saw the cortex as an interface organ, mediating between the two, Inside and Outside, but part of them both. “When you’ve looked at how it really is,” he asked once, “how can we, any of us, be separate?”

But there is to this enterprise a danger of seduction. Because of the symmetry. He’s been led before down the garden path by symmetry: in certain test results, in the handedness of certain chemical structures, in assuming that a mechanism must imply its mirror image (“irradiation” for example and “reciprocal induction”–and who’d ever said that either had to exist?). Perhaps it will be so this time too.

Signs and symptoms—was Spectro right? Could Outside and Inside be part of the same field? Certainly, there was documentation that mirror-images Inside could be confused. Ideas of the opposite. But what new pathology lies Outside now? What sickness?

And so, he had designed this modest experiment, to seek the answers at the interface, at the cortex–indeed, in the cortex of Will, lying here on this table. The boy will suffer–perhaps, in some clinical way, be destroyed–but how many others will not suffer thereafter? For pity’s sake, every day great minds are weighing and taking risks that make this seem almost trivial. Almost.

Of the seven tanks surrounding the central monitoring systems and life support, two are filled with black sludge and two are filled with blood. These are the recent failures in the traditional sense, but left intact until they can be deemed failures in the scientific sense. For the black sludge may be a primordial soup. For the blood may be like the blood of the womb. Of the three tanks left, two are empty. One, which is Will’s, is filled with clear salt water, the water of the womb (if one will).

First the mask, fitted onto and into his mouth and nose, down the passages of his throat. He’s still restrained, but he doesn’t thrash anymore as he did at first and Lamplighter notes this as the technicians and specialists glue the mask to his skin–it’s only spirit gum, but it does the trick. Then the tube, seagreen and soft, dropping down from Terminal Alpha and their air tanks, clamped into place. But, and Lamplighter catches their eye on their high balcony and signals (no radio communication for the moment, no beeping signals) to keep the air restricted. Because, Will, and we’ve been over this before, if you misbehave, you will suffocate. And he had learned–that’s just orthodox Pavlovian right there. Simple as pie. And now they can unbuckle the restraints, strip him down and out of the hospital gown so he stands small and shivering, clipped into his breathing tube, on the concrete floor.

There are samples to be taken, the port in his arm to fill with saline and with sedatives, electrodes to paste to his chest and wrist and forehead. He stands still and patient, sucking at what air is given to him by the grace of Terminal Alpha. (Soon, soon, perhaps he will need none of it.)

Then the swing dropped from Terminal Gamma. Lamplighter and his assistants can clamber up to the top of the platform on central system by any number of ladders, and they do. But Will must be hoisted in his hammock and brought carefully over the narrow mouth of his tank (all life came of the sea and it is in our blood and so we shall find our way beyond by way of the sea; mankind has forever sought to go over that great sea). Terminal Alpha opens the locks on his mask and Will breathes deep and shuddering at last as he and all his cords and lines and equipage are lowered into the water. He is their fish in their bowl.

Will’s panic registers immediately in the upper Terminals and radio silence is broken immediately with chatter within and between the Terminals. It happens every time. Heart rate and breathing are increased but he is within acceptable limits. Will hangs in the middle of his tank, breathing, blinking. He used to paddle and try to swim for the surface; now he floats in neutral buoyancy as they collect his lines and close the lid of his tank.

Lamplighter lets Will’s empty bed precede him as he walks to the elevator to which he and precious few others have keys (hasn’t he always had the keys to such rare things?) so he can rise to his place in Terminal Dogma.

The lights flicker into awareness as he approaches, trailed by his entourage of forgettable and interchangeable assistants. They join the radio chatter and Lamplighter takes his place before the monitors (video, audio, medical). Will is swinging his head gently under water, self-soothing. Like as not, he would do the same outside the laboratory were he not kept restrained. A frustrating situation that he would become so woefully institutionalized. But no matter, if the stimulus continues to prove successful.

Lamplighter begins the countdown. The non-essentials make their exit, retreating to staff rooms and crowded offices under the patient and precise voice counting towards zero, forever counting towards zero.

The screens over the Terminal balconies begin to grind toward closing, blocking the stimulus from the sight of those who need not see it. The madness, the headaches, the tumors–perhaps it was worth it to some of them: Spectro, Pumm, Easterling, Dromond, Cherrycoke, Contigo… But the fallacy of endangering one’s own life for the cause of research–well, here’s a medium shot, himself backlit, alone at the high window in the Grand Hotel Stockholm, whisky glass tipped at the bright subarctic sky and Here’s to you then, fellas, it’ll be all of us up there onstage tomorrow; Allen Lamplighter just happened to know how survive, that’s all. Publish or perish nothing.

The video feed shows Will face on, from above the stimulus. He’s still swaying in his tank. Eyes opened or closed, it hardly matters. The patterns and optics of the stimulus function either way (that was proven well enough after 987241 gouged out his own eyes–but the optic nerve was sufficiently intact).

The grinding screens wheel shut, sealing off the balconies from the ring of tanks and tests below them. The lower Terminals can see only what they must. It is Lamplighter alone who sees all (and nothing; but this must work–he must seize now or be doomed to the same stone hallways whose termination he knows).

And now the end of the count comes, opening the realm beyond the zero.

There is silence. For 90 seconds, there is silence, and Lamplighter watches the faint and inverted flickering of the stimulus projected on Will’s eyes. Soon, if all goes well, this will be his world, his life. He will exist within his container, his tank, breathing as he must and living as he must, but he will expand immensely, ceasing to exist solely within his body and moving forever outward–small steps at first, perhaps, but soon stepping across mountains and seas, unstoppable and untouchable, something too swift and too transparent to touch, unencumbered by physicality, a ghost perhaps–but more at an angel, in this world but not of it.

The stimulus session ended and the screens creaked towards opening again. Radio silence was broken with readings and recordings, duly noted up top in Terminal Dogma. Lamplighter did not listen. Will would float in his tank for the evening for observation, then be dried off and put under the EEG again and be considerably atypical as usual: spikes off the temporal lobe, delta-wave shapes off the left frontal, subdued petit-mal spike-and-wave alternation, whatever shape it might take this time. It’s all a matter of process and progress.

But that the change proceeds, and successfully–that is what matters, that is what the records of spike and wave matter. That this one might be the interface between worlds.

When he rises again to the surface of the world, Lamplighter looks out beyond the mountain where the sunset thunders in primal red and in yellow purer than can be found anywhere today.

But out at the horizon, out near the burnished edge of the world, who are these visitors standing, these robed figures–perhaps, at this distance, hundreds of miles tall–their faces, serene, unattached, like the Buddha’s, bending over the Rockies, impassive, indeed, as any angel come that day neither to destroy nor to protect but to bear witness.

What have the watchmen of world’s edge come tonight to look for? deepening on now, monumental beings of cloud, stoical, on toward slag, toward ash the color the night will stabilize at, tonight–what is there grandiose enough to witness?

That night, when the storm breaks, Lamplight collects his notes:

We may all be right and so may be all we have speculated and more. Whatever we may find, there can be no doubt that he is, physiologically, historically, a monster. The thought of him lost in the world of men fills me with a deep dread I cannot extinguish.

We must never lose control.

#whump #prompts #ocs #lab rat #human experimentation #william

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fantasticworldoffanfics · 7 years

Text

TOP FAVS (PETER/STILES)

Fandom: TeenWolf

Baby Boy

Author: SushiOwl

Summary: What the heck is FetLife? Stiles is too curious for his own good, and he can't help himself, so he joins a website advertising to be a good place for "kinksters." He just wants to be nosy and see what total strangers are up to. Then he meets Peter, who wants to be called Daddy.

Could Stiles be his baby boy?

Red String Verse Series

Author: gryvon

Part 1: Written In Red

Summary: Peter had given up hope of ever finding his soulmate until the red string on his finger leads him to a four-year-old. He's going to Hell. Or jail. Or both.

Part 2: Red Strings

Summary: A collection of scenes that fit in with Written in Red, in no particular order.

Cuddle Therapy

Author: TriscuitsandSoup

Summary: “Do not be alarmed; I am a cuddle therapist,” the omega said, continuing his shoulder nuzzles. His voice held all the authority of the police or an FBI Agent, not the cuddle therapist he claimed to be. Peter scoffed. Cuddly therapy was just an excuse for unmated alphas and omegas to go around throwing their musk and pheromones at anyone who looked twice in their direction.Where Peter is being grumpy in a museum and is interrupted by a very determined cuddle therapist.

Easement

Author: TriscuitsandSoup

Summary: It wasn't where Peter wanted to end up after finishing his medical training; he would have much preferred an emergency room or even a maternity ward, instead of a pain clinic. His most frequent patients were teenagers with hangovers, women too shy to admit they were cramping, and perhaps the strangest of all – pain drain addicts, the people who'd gotten so used to have every minor ache and pain leeched from their bones that they mistook merely being alive as a great discomfort.

Stiles is in pain, he goes to Peters office for relief.

Mile High Stiles

Author: AzulMountain

Summary: Flight attendant Stiles Stilinkski's day couldn't get any worse when he spots the smoldering gaze of the asshole who assaulted him earlier and claimed he was kidnapping the strawberry blonde toddler. Then the father of the toddler saunters through the plane's front door and says something about his good service a mile high. Really how could things get worse? Rival werewolves and a plane crash are just the beginning of Stiles horrible day.

Of Alphas and Werebunnies Series

Author: TriscuitsandSoup

Part 1: Peter’s Omega

Summary: After Peter declined the twentieth family supper on account of Stiles "not feeling well," Talia decided to send her eldest son to checkup on Peter and his omega, and remove him if necessary. Derek had expected to find the worst, and that's what he found, just not in the way he was expecting.

Part 2: Adventures With Werecoons

Summary: Laura didn't believe Derek when he said Stiles wasn't being abused. Her mean-spirited, cruel, dripping with sarcasm uncle could not love a weak, spastic human, like the one Derek described.Series

Part 3: Fangs Don’t Fix Things

Summary: "Do you resent me for not being a werewolf?" Might as well just be upfront about it, I guess.Stiles is feeling insecure about his relationship with Peter, and wonders if things might be better if he were a werewolf.

Part 4: Looking Forward To It

Summary: Stiles never wanted an Alpha, and Peter never considered taking another Omega. The two would never even have met if Talia Hale hadn't insisted Peter screen potential mating candidates for her son, Derek. Their first meeting was a tumultuous one. How Peter met Stiles, and how they subsequently became mates. This can be read without the other parts.

Sanctuary

Author: DiscontentedWinter

Summary: The Hale Wolf Sanctuary isn’t just for wolves.It turns out it’s for Stilinskis as well.

Alpha Peter and The Rag Tags Series

Author: Triangulum

Part 1: Alpha Peter and The Rag Tags

Summary: Derek has been one of Stiles' best friends for years, almost as long as Scott. They've been friends through Stiles' mom's death, and through Derek's ex trying to burn the Hales' house down. So Stiles only feels slightly badly for ogling Derek's hot uncle. He's covered in tattoos and easily the most attractive man Stiles has ever seen."Hello, Stiles," Peter says, his voice like silk."Peter?" Stiles stammers. "You're back.""Astute as ever," Peter says."Oh, fuck off," Stiles says. Peter just laughs.

The one where Peter is a tattoo artist and an alpha without a pack, and Stiles is college student and best friends with Derek. When Peter moves back from New York, there's immediately something between them.

Part 2: Ragtags Rising

Summary: Peter takes Stiles' hand and lets Stiles draw him into bed, immediately wrapping around Stiles like he's his favorite toy. He presses a kiss behind Stiles’ ear before whispering, "I love you."Stiles loves that about Peter. Peter won't give him useless platitudes or promise it'll all be okay. Peter doesn't pry. He can probably smell Stiles' sadness and will ask about it tomorrow, but he doesn't push tonight. Peter just supports him, reminds him that he's loved, and holds him tightly. That's what Stiles needs, not a pat on the head and a Hallmark movie heart-to-heart about people meaning well.Stiles snuggles into Peter's embrace and sighs, trying to let go of the hurt and betrayal and focus on the man he's with."I love you, too."

Peter's tattoo shop is doing well, Stiles is finally done with college, the pack is settling in, everyone's tattooed all over the place, and Stiles is ridiculously in love. The big question marks in Stiles' life are his future, if he should tell Scott about werewolves, and how to deal with the fact that the sheriff isn't a fan of Peter. Among other things.

Roommate Wanted: No Supernatural Creatures Allowed

Author: veterization

Summary: Stiles is in college, living in a pleasant apartment, and absolutely does not need a roommate. He ends up getting one anyway, and as luck would have it, his roommate turns out to be Peter.

Little Boy Blues

Author: Bam4Me

Summary: Stiles is tiny and cute, pack is protective, that's all you need in life.

Littlered And Alpha5

Author: Triangulum

Summary: Stiles could say that he's a grower not a shower, but that would be a lie. On a good day, fully erect, he's three inches long. Okay, two-and-a-half. Whatever, it works for him. It's what got him into camming in the first place. There's a very specific clientele out there that's looking for exactly what Stiles has. The lithe, gay guy with a small dick is a very niche market and Stiles has managed to carve out his own place in it. The fact that he's a virgin only helps.OrStiles is a camboy and Peter is his best client.

Uncle Peter Doesn’t Date Series

Author: Mellow (SweetCandy)

Part 1: Uncle Peter Has A Boyfriend...Wait, What?

Summary: Laura was prepared for whatever piece of armcandy her uncle had decided to show up with, what she hadn't been prepared for was Stiles Stilinski...her uncle's boyfriend.

Part 2: Uncle Peter Has A Father In Law

Summary: Laura has to suffer through the weekly family dinner.

Part 3: Uncle Peter Is A Cheater

Summary: Peter Hale and his soon to be father in law have a deep dark secret. He can only hope Stiles never finds out about this.

Part 4: Uncle Peter Has A Double Date

Summary: Derek has dinner at his Uncle's house. Things turn out to be different than he expected.

Part 5: Uncle Peter Has Fallen In Love

Summary: A little piece about Peter and Stiles' first meeting.

Surprise, I’m Engaged?

Author: lavenderlotion

Summary: Stiles Stilinski has been dating Peter Hale for nearly 5 years. He proposed 8 months ago. Neither of their families know. Huh.

I’m Not Being Paid

Author: lavenderlotion

Summary: All Stiles wanted to do was meet his fiance's family. After being together for three years (engaged for one of them) Stiles thought it was time. And yeah, Peter had told him the stories. Told him that his family wasn't great, but Stiles never realized it could be this bad.

sidenote: sequel to Surprise, I’m Engaged? of sorts.

Where Do We Run? Series

Author: islandgirl_246

Part 1: Running...But Not Far Enough

Summary: When heartbreak almost shatters Stiles, he seeks refuge away from the pack, away from his friends and everyone he knows; away from anything supernatural - or so he thought. The chain reaction his 'escape' triggers proves he may not have run as far as he'd hoped, because he's about to find a new home but kick-start a war the fates had always planned.

Part 2: When Running Becomes A Pain

Summary: Stiles gave Derek some advice and a warning before he was sent off to Iowa to heal after his torture at the hands of Kate and Gerard Argent. Being partly responsible for hunters almost having access to exterminate your family is a bitter pill for anyone to swallow. Realising you are just as fucked up as your now dead mother is no better. He doesn’t want to be saved, he knows this. But then he meets a woman with an even darker and murkier past that he has. Could she be his way back? Does he even deserve one?

Part 3: I Run So You Won’t Have To

Summary: After everything the Hale Packs, both in Stanford and Beacon Hills have been through, Lydia and Maria thought why not give this thing a try. The interest and attraction is there, they are both strong women, they could do the distance thing, surely. The only problem is neither is sure that this is the right step for them, which leads to complications for the two Packs only now getting back on their feet. And it all gets even more complicated when Stiles encounters previously peaceful packs dying in weird brutal attacks.

Part 4: Maybe We Can Run Together

Summary: Parrish has somehow always felt like an outcast. He’s not let it show very much, but there it is. As a hell hound there are certain expectations and he carries a certain amount of guilt about what happened to the Stilinski family under his watch. Now he is about to be confronted by his family, a lineage that can be traced back to purebreds for more than 2000 years, about his relationship with a bitten wolf. Added to which, threats are moving closer to home.

Part 5: The Runaway

Summary: When a lost young girl turns up on the Hale’s doorstep in Beacon Hills, scared and with a photo of Peter, it seems like he has a daughter he’s never known of. Everything about her story seems so farfetched, yet Peter is inclined to believe it, something in him believes. Stiles isn’t so sure because when asked for details about her mother, the girl doesn’t remember, and interestingly enough, she’s the one person that’s totally unreadable to Stiles. Is her story true and does his mate have a teenaged daughter no one knew about? And how do they deal with it as more supernatural packs are being attacked and abducted by wolves they still can’t track and like this new girl – that Stiles can’t sense?

Alpha, Oh Alpha Series

Author: merkkat

Part 1: He Who Finds The Dead

Summary: Stiles finds himself alone. Peter changes that.Or the first meeting.

Part 2: Between The Dead And Living

Summary: The first meeting, from Peter's eyes

Part 3: The Sun, My Love, So Soft

Summary: The morning sun was soft on Stiles. His brave little human. So fragile yet braver than any wolf he knew.

Part 4: Bleed For You

Summary: Peter gets jealous. Stiles doesn't really try to stop him.

Part 5: More Dead Than Alive

Summary: The Sheriff looks back on his relationship with Stiles

Part 6: Hellos To The Goodbyes

Summary: Peter and Stiles visit each other's family.

Is Forever Enough?

Author: Green

Summary: Stiles probably doesn't even think they're friends. But labels don't matter to Peter — the boy is his, and his wolf agrees. So when a squalling baby girl is dropped off at his doorstep at the ungodly hour of ten in the morning, there's no one else Peter can think of to call.

Fame Is A Vapor

Author: Triangulum

Summary: Most people wouldn't assume Peter likes baseball. There are a lot of stereotypes that come with being a bisexual man in fashion, and one of them is that he must hate sports and typical 'manly' things. Such blind assumptions and gender roles are, of course, ridiculous, but he's not above using them to sneak off when his PR team gets a little too gung ho on his speaking events.He's wanted at various fashion schools and charity events, and he has the Project Runway team pestering him to guest judge again, as if he doesn't have his hands full with running Hale Fashion. It's taken years of hard work and maybe a little bit of blackmail, but he's the head of his own company, and he thinks he deserves an afternoon off.OrPeter, rich and famous fashion mogul, accidentally spills his beer on Stiles at a baseball game. Stiles has no clue who he is. That makes their first date so much better.

Rabbit Verse Series

Author: Bunnywest

Summary: Peter loves to hunt. Stiles is his (too willing )prey.

sidenote: there is literally 32 parts to this series so here is the first chpt. Run, Rabbit Run

Dahlia Emmeline Hale Series

Author: Triangulum

Part 1: Moonlight Dahlia

Summary: There, at the base of the trunk, nestled between two large roots, is a car seat and in it, a baby. Stiles and Peter both freeze, staring down in shock. The baby is asleep, bundled up tightly, a soft orange wool hat on its head and an envelope pinned to its blanket. Stiles stares at Peter incredulously, but he doesn't know what to say either. OR So it turns out Peter has a daughter.

Part 2: Halloween Traditions

Summary: Dahlia is dressed in a poufy orange pumpkin costume and Stiles thinks it's the cutest fucking thing he's ever seen. Dahlia had declared she'd wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween and Kira had immediately made the costume for her. With her orange tights and bright green stem beret-style hat on top of her soft, brown hair, she's the best pumpkin ever. Considering she's his daughter, Stiles may be a little biased. OR Halloween with Peter, Stiles, and Dahlia.

Part 3: Peter In The Suburbs

Summary: "As much as I love seeing you in the shirt I bought you," Stiles says, nodding down the plaid button up Peter has on, "I thought I told you to stop making the neighbors cry?""He isn't crying," Peter says. "He'll probably wait until he's in the comfort of his own home to do that." OR Pointless fluff inspired by Ian's damn GMC commercial.

more top favourites

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

#teenwolf #fanfiction #fanfics #fanfic #peter hale #stiles stilinski #steter #topfavs

180 notes · View notes

creativitytoexplore · 4 years

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Not Another Fish Planet by Margret A. Treiber https://ift.tt/2Ynxw92 15-year-old Zunzheim has been rescued from a death camp by a spaceship from the future, with a skeleton crew that's barely holding it together; by Margret A. Treiber.

"I still don't understand how you became captain." "Acting Captain," Day corrected. "Acting Captain." Zunzheim rolled his eyes. "Because after the accident I was the only one qualified. I tried to turn it down. When all the dust settled, it was me, a nurse practitioner, three marines and half of the maintenance department left onboard. Maintenance didn't want marines in charge, so it's me. Boucher was the ranking marine, so she is the first officer." "Maintenance would rather have a suicidal, misanthropic captain, than a marine?" "Maintenance is suspicious of authority figures," Day answered. "They have their own informal command structure. I don't pretend to understand it. After you're loose for a while, you'll see how they get. Things are a little different here." "I've noticed." Zunzheim shook his head. "Every day I'm here, I find out something new and weird. What kind of ship is this, anyway?" "The kind that saved you from the death camps," Day replied. "Can't be that bad." "Except I'm millions of miles away from my home and family. I still barely know anything about computers or space travel. I was just an apprentice automotive mechanic. And now you have me running engineering." "It beats dying. And you know much more than you did when you got here," Day said. "You have the basics. Nothing's blown up yet. You'll figure the rest out." "How?" Zunzheim asked. "The same way you got the rest of it. Keep reading. The ship has a huge technical library. Now go. Your insecurity is messing with my head. Go report that the captain is still alive." Zunzheim made a noise that sounded like a grunt and a whimper mated. He left Day alone in the Electronic Modular Enclosure. Day locked the door behind him. Zunzheim made his way back to the med lab. Lieutenant Lee and Doctor Wirth were engaged in their daily medical "catch-up" discussions, where Lee explained modern medical concepts to Wirth. "Captain's in EME 1," Zunzheim announced. "She's still alive." "How is she?" Lee asked. "I think she is crazy," Zunzheim replied. "She told me about her problem." "You mean about preferring machines to people, or about her bad childhood?" "Both," Zunzheim answered. "Yeah, she's complex," Lee said. "Was she dressed?" "Yes." "Good." "Is that normally a problem?" Zunzheim asked. "Her being dressed." "She's been known to neglect her personal hygiene when she is communing with the ship's systems. This means the computers and the Captain are functioning normally." "Communing with the ship's systems?" "Yup," Lee responded. "How are you adjusting?" "A lot better than the Captain," Zunzheim answered. "Exactly," Lee said. "That's why you sent me there? To use the Captain as some kind of measuring stick?" "It worked." Lee smiled. "We needed to check on her, and you needed a morale boost. See, you'll be okay. You're young, you'll adjust. How are the dreams?" "Better," Zunzheim responded. "No, not better. They're just as bad, only they happen less often." "Good." Doctor Wirth looked up from his tablet. "That's progress. Remember, we were very fortunate." "Yeah, but what about the others? They didn't get whisked away in a future ship. You think that once you remove my tattoo and give me a space job, I'd just forget? I remember them all, dying next to me." Wirth turned to Lee. "He still has survivor's guilt." Lee shrugged. "That's normal." "Stop that," Zunzheim said. "Stop talking about me like I'm not here." "We're doctors," Wirth replied. "We're here to care for you." "You don't have to make me feel like a thing." "He feels objectified," Wirth said to Lee. "He needs to spend more time with people closer to his age," Lee responded. "That's enough," Zunzheim yelled. He stormed out of the med lab, stumbling when he stepped down on his smaller leg. "Kids," Wirth muttered. He picked up his tablet and continued reading. Zunzheim went back to the engine room and started an auto-diagnostic scan on all the systems. While it was running, he decided to study more engine theory. He connected to the ship's library, only to have his connection drop moments later. He tried again and it failed. "Scheisse!" Zunzheim cursed. He pushed the intercom to maintenance. "Could you please send one of the Joneses to engineering?" "The Joneses are occupied," Bob Fussell replied. "There are only Fussells and Greens here now." "Well, my library connection keeps stopping." "I can have a Jones over there in two hours." "Fine." Zunzheim got up and went to the mess hall. Zunzheim arrived to find the place relatively empty. He stepped up to the counter next to Ensign Johnson. Johnson hung onto the counter like he would fall off the ship if he let go. He was wearing his EVA suit and carrying a sack. "Are you alright?" Zunzheim asked. "I'm alright as a man can be riding in a metal box, in the vacuum of space. You know, any tiny piece of debris could hit the hull, and we are all goners." "You overreact." Chef Nakamora looked up from his cooking surface. "Nobody dies in this celestial home." "Goners," Johnson repeated. "It seems safe to me," Zunzheim shrugged. "Don't let them fool you," Johnson stated. "It's a death trap." Zunzheim watched as Nakamora prepared the meal. He was impressed by his focus and commitment to the task. "He doesn't even try to disguise it anymore," Johnson complained. "It's bad enough we could die any second in this tin box, we should at least get something edible." "It's food," Zunzheim replied. "Yeah," Johnson said. "But man can't live on fish alone." "It's not the camp," Zunzheim reminded himself. "Not the camp." Johnson patted Zunzheim on the back. "It's okay Zunny, it's okay." "Chicken," Zunzheim said, as he rubbed his stomach. "I really miss chicken." "I would kill for a ham sandwich," Johnson replied. "Or a steak dinner, but mostly ham. My mother made the best honey ham." "Your mother isn't here and I cook what I get," Chef Nakamora stated, from behind the counter. "Find me ham, you get ham." He cleaned his knives and put them away. "Your lunch," he said. "No shellfish for Zunny." He served the pair a beautifully prepared array of sushi. The plates were colorful and elegant. Johnson looked at the plate and his face dropped. "I just can't take it. If I see any more seaweed, I'll just die." He sat at a nearby table and started forcing down the food. Zunzheim sat across from him. "You love this stuff," Johnson said to Nakamora. "You Japanese eat this crap every day. This doesn't even faze you." "Your comments expose your small mind and limited understanding of my rich culture," Nakamora replied. "No doubt, you have heard of Kobe beef or Shogayaki." The door opened and a tall, uniformed woman walked in. Master Sergeant Boucher glanced at the group of men at the counter and shook her head. "Are we having the sushi argument again?" All three men nodded. "Give it a rest," she said. "We have work to do. We found another potential on the scanners." "Does it look promising?" Zunzheim jumped out of his chair, dropping his chopsticks. Boucher shrugged. "Don't know yet, Zunny. We're still two days out of full scanner range". Johnson jumped to his feet and both men started for the door. Boucher held up an arm, stopping the pair before they got too far. "Deep breath, don't psych yourself up for a letdown." "But there's a chance," Johnson said. "There's always a chance, Johnny," Boucher replied. "However, we need to remain calm." "Okay, Bouchy," Johnson replied. Boucher sneered at him. Johnson returned the look and continued. "Not every planet in the in the galaxy can be a fish planet. We exist. And you once picked up signals from other races. So maybe, just maybe, we will find a burger out here in this fishy space hell." "Maybe Earth is the only place in the universe with cows and pigs," Nakamora suggested. "Don't ever say that!" Johnson pleaded. "Don't even think it." The intercom buzzed to life. "This is Acting Captain Day. We've arrived at the next candidate. We are investigating the details, but as you know, we are working on limited sensor functionality. So we will have to send a party to investigate. Volunteers can meet me in EME 2." "Crap," Boucher muttered. "Not EME 2." "Why is EME 2 bad?" Zunzheim asked. "EME 2 smells like feet," Johnson answered. "Kind of like your EVA suit," Boucher said. Johnson sneered at Boucher. "Don't give me the stink-eye, sailor," Boucher said. "Wash your butt." Boucher, Johnson, and Zunzheim made their way to EME 2. One of the Joneses was waiting at the door. He was the tall, wiry one with red hair. "You volunteering?" he asked. "Yeah," Zunzheim answered. "Ever ride in a shuttle before?" "No," Zunzheim replied. "Why don't we just use the teleporters?" "Only one teleporter works," Jones replied. "And they are only certified for cargo transport." Boucher smacked Jones in the arm. "I was teleported up," Zunzheim said. "It was an extreme measure," Johnson said. "You were about to die anyway." "Nice, Nakamora, too?" "Yeah, and Wirth, and me. They wanted to get more, but they only had six orbits and one working teleporter. They lost a couple. They said it was ugly." "Johnson, enough," Boucher was clearly displeased. "He's fifteen." "Well, I'm eighteen, and you told me." "You were already a soldier; he's just a boy." "It's okay," Zunzheim said. "I would have found out anyway. Thanks for telling me the truth, Johnny." The door to EME 2 opened. Boucher coughed and waved her hand in front of her nose. "Maybe an air freshener, when you are expecting company?" "Bad for the machines," Captain Day replied. She was in her underwear, hanging from a harness, midway between the floor and ceiling. She was entangled in a web of cables, plugging them into various ports. "We have four volunteers. Me, Johnson, a Jones, and Zunzheim" "Zunny," Day said. "You think you're ready for a field trip?" "A what?" Zunzheim asked. "Do you think you are ready to go see a new planet?" "Uh, yes." "Great, okay off with you four. I order you all not to die." "Die?" Zunzheim asked. "Yeah, don't do it," Captain Day said. "Have fun!" Johnson guided Zunzheim out the door behind the others. "Don't freak out," Johnson said. "We'll get you in an EVA suit and you'll be fine." "Have you done this before?" Zunzheim asked. "A couple of times," Johnson answered. "The doc made me do it the first time, to get over my constant fear of sudden decompression. It's incredible, like being in a really well-built plane. And maybe I'll get a chance to put my feet on solid ground again." Johnson led Zunzheim to the mudroom, to suit up. "Why aren't the others wearing one?" Zunzheim inquired. "Because," Johnson answered. "We'll be on the shuttle. Technically, we would only need the suit if we step outside of it into a hostile environment." "Then why are you and I wearing one?" "I wear it because I seem to be the only one here that realizes the cold grip of space is bearing down on us. You are because it will make you feel safer. All first-timers wear the suit. I sneak one on board, myself, just in case." "Oh," Zunzheim said. "That makes sense." After Zunzheim was suited up, the pair boarded the shuttle with Jones and Boucher. Boucher was seated at the pilot's seat and Jones was seated in the back. Johnson took the co-pilot seat. They all strapped in and began launch procedures. Zunzheim turned to the Jones. "Have you done this before?" Jones nodded. "Yeah, all the Joneses have. All the Fussells have, too. And three of the Greens have. Two of them are too scared. They finally started catching you up, huh?" "Yeah," Zunzheim said. "I was recovering in the med lab for months." "Sorry," Jones said. "You got trapped in the most historically ugly screw over of all time." "It was bad," Zunzheim said. "But Wirth seemed to be okay." "From what I heard, Wirth wasn't in as long as you were. They just grabbed him when we got him. You got the bad deal, my friend. That's why the Captain ordered a smooth transition for you." "The Captain is crazy." "Nah," Jones stretched. "The Captain is just really sensitive. It's good for us. She won't let us get hurt." "When I talk to her, I feel like she is hiding things from me." "I'm sure she is," Jones replied. "She's spoon feeding you the future, you know what I mean?" "I think so," Zunzheim said. "I would rather just know everything now. So why are all the maintenance crew named Jones, Fussell, and Green?" "Tell you what, after this, come visit us in the slag. We'll fill you in." "Okay," Zunzheim agreed. The shuttle bay doors opened, and the shuttle launched. Zunzheim crooked his neck to see the view out of his visor and the shuttle's window. "Wow," he muttered. "It's so real." "You forget we're in space, living in the ship," Jones said. "It's beautiful." "Yes," Jones replied. "It is." The shuttle looped around the ship, making a check for any obvious damage to the hull. Once they were satisfied the ship was in one piece they followed the course to the target planet. As they approached, they could see thick cloud cover surrounding the planet. Boucher frowned. "Not looking positive," Johnson stated. The ship descended into the atmosphere. Zunzheim unhooked his safety equipment and stood up. He stepped up in between Boucher and Johnson. Clouds flowed over the ship, in a white stream. The windows were opaque from moisture. Then suddenly, the sky cleared and the universe became a vast watery expanse. "Wow," was all that Zunzheim could say. "Damn," Johnson buried his head in his hands. "I told you not to raise your hopes," Boucher said. "Okay, I'll call it in." Boucher flipped the comm on. "Scout to Peabody." "Acting Captain here." "Captain, this is Boucher," she paused and took a breath. "We are fish positive." "Damn," Captain Day sighed. "Survey for supplies." "Yes, sir." Boucher brought the ship up to a higher orbit. Johnson activated the sensors and launched a full planetary scan. "Cards?" he asked. "Rummy?" Boucher asked. "Poker," Johnson countered. "Okay," Jones agreed. "Anyone want a swig?" "What?" Boucher snapped. "I did not hear that, and that will never be repeated while on duty. Do you understand sailor?" "Yes, sir," Jones replied. He sunk into his seat and moped. "We're on a mission," Boucher stated. "Just because it's routine, doesn't mean this is a party. I know we're all under stress, but we need to remain professional." "It's going to be like this forever," Johnson whined. "Fish every place we go." "Okay, please explain all of this," Zunzheim said. "What exactly is the mission, and what does that have to do with eating fish all of the time?" Boucher sighed. "Who wants to start?" "I will," Johnson said. "Zunny and I are on the same page. Zunny, what do you know?" "I know the spaceship is from the future and it came back in time," Zunzheim answered. "I know the Captain had me isolated to recover from malnutrition and stress until two weeks ago, and she has been training me to work on the engines. I know everyone is afraid to tell me anything." "Okay," Johnson said. "A few hundred years in the future from 1942, the world finally developed the technology to build a spaceship to travel to distant worlds. For years, they collected data on planets that were sure to have living beings on them. They built the Peabody to travel to one of those worlds as the first interstellar voyage. It is the strongest, lightest, most advanced ship humanity built in their time. It runs on a prototype plasma engine, lined with dark hydrogen." Johnson shrugged. "I don't know what it means either, but they are very keen on it." "I think the dark hydrogen helps contain the plasma," Zunzheim said. "Plasma is hard to contain. I've been reading about it so I can run the engines. I don't understand how it works, yet." "That's some difficult stuff," Johnson replied. "It is," Zunzheim answered. "But I have no choice, do I?" "Guess you don't. Okay, besides that, does the rest make sense, so far?" "Yes," Zunzheim nodded. "Good," Johnson continued. "So when they planned the trip, they realized that it would take decades to get there. So the plan was to send the ship back in time eighty years, so when it arrived, it would be like it just left Earth. The crew was going to hibernate in shifts, so they would have four-hundred people aboard, but only twenty-five awake at a time. The ship was designed to run with a very small crew. There would be sixteen crews, each serving five years awake." "Where were they keeping all those people?" Zunzheim asked. "The ship isn't that big." "They were going to stay in the slag," Jones answered. "We were there setting up the sleeping cans when everything happened. You can stuff a lot of sleepers in a small space. They don't take up much room." "So what happened?" "From what we were able to determine," Boucher replied. "There was a crossed optical docking cable, and it started the time engines prematurely. Captain Day, who was not captain at the time, was onboard installing the computer systems. Half of the maintenance crew was setting up the hibernation bay. Lee was on board setting up the med lab. There were three marines, including me, providing security. Without warning, we were thrown back to your time, with our minimal crew." "How did you survive that?" Zunzheim asked. "Weren't you terrified?" "Of course we were terrified," Jones said. "We all cross-trained, but we don't have any of the science crew here. We had no idea how huge parts of this ship functions. And when we got to your time, we didn't know what to do first. The ship was preset to do six orbits before slingshotting out to our destination. None of us had a clue what would happen if we bypassed the proc, so we went with the preprogramming. Captain Day came up with the idea of using the transporter to grab as many people we could." "How did you know who to grab?" Zunzheim inquired. Boucher shrugged. "We guessed. We hoped we would get people with useful skills. Fortunately, the war made it easy to pull people who were about to die. We pulled you and the doc from the ovens. We pulled Nakamora from a kamikaze flight. Johnson was shot and dying in a foxhole. We tried to get two more, but they died in transport. We were lucky. We got a doctor, a mechanic, a chef and a farmer." "I didn't know you were a farmer," Zunzheim said. "Yes," Johnson replied. "I run the hydroponics lab. So whenever we get some seeds, I can grow us something other than seaweed. If we don't get crushed by the vacuum of space before then." Boucher rolled her eyes. "Why no seeds?" Zunzheim asked. "They weren't loaded onto the ship yet," Boucher explained. "In fact, we would have starved if we had taken our original route. But we were lucky again. Since we went to the wrong spot in time, we lost our fix in space. So once the ship cleared the solar system, the nav system errored out and we had to find a new destination. In order to find food, Captain Day was able to change the parameters of the sensor search to find plant life. We found a living planet, very nearby Earth. But it was aquatic and non-sentient. So we loaded up supplies and continued on. We found five more planets with life since then. They all were fish worlds. This one makes the seventh. There, now you are caught up." "Why not time travel back?" Zunzheim asked. "Because none of us on board know how time travel really works," Jones answered. "We all have standing orders to study the procs whenever we can. We do, but no one has gotten a handle on it yet. We'll keep on trying." Zunzheim didn't say anything at first. He just stared at the three faces around him. "You okay, Zunny? Jones asked. "Yes," Zunzheim answered. "This is better than a death camp. But not by much." Johnson laughed. Zunzheim followed. Johnson pulled out a deck of cards. "Poker!" "I never played," Zunzheim said. Jones grinned. "How much money do you have?"

After several hours, the crew completed the survey. Aside from two new sea plant species, there was nothing unusual. The Peabody pulled closer and fished the waters using the teleporter. Once food and water stores were filled to capacity, it was time to determine the next destination. The crew gathered in the mess hall. Captain Day arrived, in uniform. "We need to decide our next course." The back wall of the mess lit up into a giant star map. Several planets of interest were circled, highlighted and labeled. "These planets all fit the criteria. They all have the ideal chemistry for life. We need to decide which one to go to next." "How do we decide?" Zunzheim asked. "Let's flip a coin," one of the Fussells said. "No," Nakamora said. "Let's go to the closest one." "Okay," Captain Day said. "All in favor of flipping a coin, raise your hand." All the Fussells and two Greens raised their hands. "Everyone in favor of going to the nearest one, raise your hands." Everyone else raised their hands. "Okay, the closest one it is. Set a course." Captain Day ordered. "That's it?" Zunzheim asked. "No scientific analysis? Just choose one at random? "We used to select them carefully," Day replied. "But after the fourth one, we stopped bothering." "That seems irresponsible," Zunzheim said. "This is an important decision." "Do you think you could do any better?" Day asked. "I would at least try. Leaving it to chance is madness." "Well, you pick the next one then," Captain Day said. "This one is close, so you only have four months to decide. I'll be in EME 1." "Zunny picks the next planet!" Johnson announced. The room burst into cheers. The redheaded Jones mussed Zunzheim's hair. "Come on," Redhead Jones said. "Come on down to the slag." "Why do you call it the slag?" Zunzheim asked. "Because it's where the trash is dumped." Jones led Zunzheim through the Peabody, down to the underbelly of the ship. "It's bigger than I expected," Zunzheim said. "It was built to hold four-hundred people," Jones replied. "Now it holds us fifteen, and a really big party." Zunzheim looked around; the place was filled with varying recreational apparatus. This included everything from exercise equipment to stills. It was packed with activity, like an adult playground. Zunzheim was impressed with how much life just fifteen people could bring to a place. "Want a drink?" Jones asked. "Sure," Zunzheim said. "But how?" Jones handed Zunzheim a bottle. Zunzheim took a sip and nearly vomited. "Seagrass booze," Jones said. "We call it seashine. Tastes like ass, but does the job." "This is awful," Zunzheim said, and then took another swig. "Like my grandfather's slivovitz." "Yes, it is," Jones agreed. He took the bottle from Zunzheim and drank. "Come on, I'll show you the shrine, and tell you about the Joneses, Fussells, and Greens." Jones led Zunzheim to a quiet corner of the bay. A shelf held three pictures, illuminated by artificial candles. "These are Jones, Fussell, and Green," Jones motioned to the three pictures, Zunzheim noticed that all three were women. "They died sealing the rest of us in when the ship went off. When we realized the ship was about to launch, they went EVA and closed the door from the outside. They were killed in the wake of the launch. Nobody asked them to do it. They just acted. And now, we all live." "So you all named yourselves after them?" "Yes," Jones said. "They deserved no less. But there was more. We knew that we were too shorthanded to handle our jobs in ideal conditions, never mind extreme ones. We realized we could handle it, if we could work in conjunction with each other, seamlessly. We needed to be synchronized. So we split ourselves into three groups. Computer systems, the Joneses. Life support and sanitation, the Fussells. Miscellaneous systems, the Greens. Then each group implanted neurological connectors between each other, so we could coordinate over the entire ship. So if we need to time things across different ends of the ship simultaneously, we can." "So you are linked to all the Joneses? All the time?" Zunzheim asked. "We do have a little privacy time, where we can disconnect. But even then, we can signal through to each other in an emergency. So we are never completely disconnected. For the most part, we are always linked." "That's crazy," Zunzheim said. What if you don't like someone you are linked to?" "You learn to like them, real quick." "I have another question," Zunzheim said. "It may seem dumb." "There are no stupid questions." "Alright," Zunzheim replied. "Why is the ship run by women?" Jones grinned. "Why not?" "Well, men were in charge where I am from." "That was okay with you?" Jones asked. "The men who decided to torture you, and treat you worse than an animal. That was okay?" "No, it was... I never thought about it. We were used to it; it was the way it always was." Jones shrugged. "Things changed. Now whoever is the best at the job is in charge. And on this ship, the best people to be in command are women." "It's strange," Zunzheim said. "That's all." "No stranger than only men being in charge," Jones replied. "Besides, the doctor is a man." "But Lee still outranks him." "Oh yeah, guess it's because she's been in the service longer. It's fair. And Jones, Fussell, and Green proved that we can count on them to save us. They can make the hard decisions." "I thought the hard decisions were about sacrificing others," Zunzheim said. "How can you ask others to sacrifice something you're not willing to sacrifice yourself?" "Um." "Just think about it," Jones said. "Here, drink more of this." Jones handed Zunzheim the bottle. Zunzheim took the bottle and another swig. "Now that they let you out of the med lab, you should come down here more often. If you want, we could set up a bunk for you." "Let me think about it," Zunzheim gulped another mouthful of seashine. "Captain's got me in quarters near her. I think she's watching me, because of the nightmares." "Nightmares?" Jones asked. "I dream about it," Zunzheim answered. "It was worse before, almost every night. Now, it's only once in a while. I can wake myself up from it now." "What exactly do you dream about?" "Nothing specific. It's mostly flashes of people and places, the things that terrified me the most. Sometimes I dream about my family, being separated. I dream about my broken leg and the pain of hard labor. I feel the hunger and isolation. It's strange, the isolation was almost the worst of it." "Even more reason to stay with us, Zunny." Jones smacked Zunzheim on the back. "Come to the engine room later and fix my terminal later? "You got it!" Jones gave Zunzheim a thumbs up. Zunzheim went back to his quarters to sleep off the seashine before going back to work. When Zunzheim arrived at the engine room, Jones was already working on his computer systems. "Hey, Zunny!" Jones said. "Almost got this fixed." "What was it?" "Your firmware needed an upgrade," Jones explained. "Whatever that means." "It means you have another thing on your list to study." "I'll die of old age before I learn everything." "Nah," Jones replied. "You'll just be really old." "You have a lot of faith in me." "How far have you gotten?" "I completed my twentieth and twenty-first-century world history review. I'm up to the nineteen-seventies in my science and technology studies. When that's done, I hit the next century." "Ah, firmware is coming soon," Jones explained. "You're getting there." "I think my head is going to break, stuffing all this information into it." "Eh, keep at it, you'll be fine. Come down to the slag and get polluted later. It'll help." "Polluted?" Zunzheim asked. Jones made a motion like he was drinking from a bottle. "Ah, sauced." Jones grinned. "Exactly." "My grandfather said drinking is no escape for life." "Didn't you say your grandfather made that silver bits?" "Slivovitz," Zunzheim corrected Jones. "And that was for holidays when the family got together." "We're family now, and we're getting together." "You always a have a reason for everything." "I'm a thinking man," Jones pointed at his head. "Full of reason." "How do you do it?" Zunzheim asked. "What, think?" "No, stay so chipper," Zunzheim said. "You're also stuck far from your family." "I was already at peace with that," Jones explained. "When I signed up, I knew I would probably never see anyone I knew on Earth again. They told us it would be a one-way trip. The accident didn't change that. It only made things cozier." "How could you do that? How could you leave everything so easily?" "It wasn't easy. I thought about it hard. But it was an adventure I couldn't pass on. I was lucky just to be selected for the program." "How many people applied?" Zunzheim asked. "Hundreds of thousands," Jones answered. "And that was the people who met the prerequisites. Every person in maintenance has at least a master's degree in engineering. Then, once we were picked as candidates, we had to make it through the military training." "So this is a military vessel?" "Yes and no," Jones replied. "We have military training and structure, but we represent all of planet Earth and belong to no country's military. It was done that way to maintain order. The real military people like Boucher are on loan to the mission on special assignment. They are supposed to be the best of the best." "And here I am, no credentials, no skills, not even in top physical shape." "Are you kidding?" Jones asked. "You are the toughest one out of all of us. And you have the potential to be whatever you want to be. You survived the unsurvivable, to go to the stars. That is pretty amazing. You deserve to be here. Never doubt that. The universe put you here for a reason." "Yes, God did put me here for a reason. And according to the Captain, it is to study engines." Jones laughed. "Acting Captain." Zunzheim grinned and nodded. "Acting Captain."

The following weeks were routine. The crew continued to tighten up the ship's systems, and automate what they could. Zunzheim spent his recreational time down in the slag with maintenance. "How are you feeling?" Day asked Zunzheim. "I think I am going to be ill," he responded. "Why is that?" Day appeared concerned. "Because Bouchy is right, this EME smells like feet. How do you stand it?" Day shrugged. "I'm used to it." She grinned. "I hear you're learning to have fun again." "Jones is a good friend," Zunzheim said. "He is so alive." "Yes," Day agreed. "Maintenance as a whole has a light about them. They're the glue that binds this crew. I told you it would make sense after some time." "How are you feeling?" Zunzheim asked. "Me? I'm doing well, considering. The crew is stable, so I'm fine." "Good," Zunzheim nodded. "You should remember that they all value you." Day raised an eyebrow. "Really?" "Yes, everyone on the ship respects you. They all appreciate that you do your best in a tough situation." "You seem to have found your voice." "I'm still getting used to things, but I'm starting to feel like I belong." "Good," Day replied. "Maybe we'll both get through this." "Only if you do something about the air in here." "Get out." Day pointed at the door. Zunzheim grinned as he exited. The door locked behind him. "She's in EME foot stench," Zunzheim announced as he entered the med lab. "But she seems almost happy." "Good," Lee smiled. "The supplements are working." "What are you giving her?" "A vitamin cocktail. But it's been helping her with the stress." "Just vitamins?" "Yes," Wirth replied. "It is amazing what good nutrition can accomplish. You've been doing extremely well." "Fish must agree with me," Zunzheim said. "Apparently so," Wirth agreed. "You're not hitting the seashine too hard, are you?" "No," Zunzheim answered. "It's pretty disgusting going down. And the day after is even worse. But it was worth trying." Lee laughed. "The first few batches of that stuff sent most of maintenance here. I'm afraid to go near it." "It's safe," Zunzheim explained. "Except the flavor, and maybe the strength. A little goes a long way. As long as you know when to stop, you're okay." Lee shook her head. "Spoken like a true teenager." "He seems a lot better," Wirth observed. "Yes," Lee agreed. "Reckless and full of energy." She addressed Zunzheim again. "Thank you for checking on the Captain." "Acting Captain." Zunzheim corrected Lee. "Go, before we examine you." Wirth picked up his tablet. Zunzheim headed for the mess. He found himself standing next to Johnson at the counter. Johnson's EVA suit looked like it was recently cleaned. "Deja vu," Johnson said. "We always end up here at the same time, even when we're on different schedules." "Our stomachs are best friends," Zunzheim replied. "They're definitely in sync." Johnson's legs wobbled and he grabbed the counter. "I don't understand," Zunzheim said. "You have no problem on the shuttle, but on this giant, solid, ship, you cling on for dear life." "This is a big box in a vacuum," Johnson answered. "The shuttle feels more like an airplane. It feels safer." "Don't talk to me about airplanes and safety," Nakamora said. Zunzheim laughed. "I think you chose the wrong plane, my friend." Nakamora shook his head. "Let's see what's for lunch," Johnson said. "Ham sandwich? Chicken soup? "No wait, let's see. It's sushi! What a huge surprise! Raw fish in this death bucket. So much fun." "You can all bite me," Nakamora barked. He handed the pair each a plate that showed incredible artistry. "I'm getting tired of fish," Zunzheim stated. "But you do make it look beautiful. You are an artist." Nakamora bowed to Zunzheim. "Finally someone understands. In my last life, my family status precluded me from following my dream of becoming a culinary master. In this heavenly life, I finally can follow my dream. Even if I only have one ingredient, I can make it shine." "Is that why you agreed to do it?" Johnson asked. "Because you couldn't follow your dreams." Nakamora nodded. "Sometimes the only honorable way to live is to die. But my sacrifice was rewarded." "You do know you are not dead," Johnson stated. "This isn't some afterlife." "How can you be sure?" Nakamora asked. "You should thank the Gods for bringing you to this paradise. You should prove yourselves worthy of the gift." "We're not dead," Johnson restated. "This is not heaven." "Say what you want," Nakamora replied. "This is a new life. A life where I can strive for perfection. It is heaven." Johnson looked down at his plate and back at Nakamora. "I hate sushi, but I agree you make it perfect." Nakamora bowed to Johnson. "Thank you." Boucher arrived. "What? No sushi argument?" "Not today," Johnson replied. "Maybe we broke the hex," Boucher said. "We're still a few days out," Zunzheim said. "I've been watching our course." "Glad someone is," Johnson said. "It's part of my job," Zunzheim said. "I have to make sure that the navigation computers are calibrated with the engines. If not, we never get anywhere." "What happens if you find out we're off?" Johnson asked. "I work with the Joneses to fix it." "He's got to keep up with the Joneses," Johnson said. Zunzheim and Johnson laughed, nobody else did. "I don't get it," Boucher said. "You know," Johnson said. "Keeping up with the Joneses." "No," Boucher shook her head. "Seriously, Bouchy?" Johnson asked. "Seriously, Johnny," Boucher replied. "Well, that's a joke that didn't survive history," Johnson shook his head. "Guess not," Boucher said. "See you cleaned your suit. You don't stink for a change." "I didn't stink before," Johnson replied. "I do bathe." "You have to disrobe to bathe," Boucher turned to Zunzheim. "You know he sleeps in that thing." "So what?" Johnson replied. "You wear pajamas." "Yeah, pajamas, not an EVA suit." "Same difference," Johnson stated. "No, it's not." Boucher disagreed. "So Zunny, how's it going picking the next planet?" "Eh," Zunzheim replied. "They are all nearly identical. And they all seem to be just like the others we already looked at. I don't know if my choice will make a difference." "Doesn't matter," Boucher said. "Just make a choice. People won't hold anything against you either way." "But I want my choice to mean something. Not be just some random selection. With my luck, I'll pick the one place that has nothing edible on it." "We have enough stores to last us eighteen months," Boucher replied. "Even if there's nothing there, it doesn't matter." "Yeah," Johnson added. "You may get mocked a little, but nothing a little seashine couldn't take care of." Boucher laughed. "The last thing anyone needs to do is get polluted with that crap. Do yourself a favor, and stay away from it." "That's it!" Zunzheim jumped up out of his seat. "I know what to look for." Zunzheim ran down to the engine room. When he arrived, he called maintenance. "Maintenance, Fussell here." "Hey, this is Zunny, could you send Redhead Jones down to the engine room?" "Depends," Fussell replied. "Business or slacking off?" "Business," Zunzheim answered. "But tell him slacking off, so he comes down." "Got it," Fussell replied. "Give me ten." "Thank you," Zunzheim said. Sure enough, Jones arrived at the engine room ten minutes later. "Are we working, slacking, pretending to work, or pretending to slack?" Jones asked. "You are showing me how to set up a sensor scan." "Why?" "Because I want to change the parameters for the next planet we go to." "Again, I ask why?" "Because I have an idea," Zunzheim answered. "Will you help me?" "Of course," Jones replied. "Let me show you how to adjust the scanners."

"Fish planet number eight," Boucher slumped into a seat at a table in the mess. "This is getting tiring." A Jones and a Fussell followed behind looking dejected, frowning with their heads slumped. "That's okay," Redhead Jones said. "Zunny has a plan!" "Do you?" Boucher asked. "He's going to pick the next planet, and it will have non-fish food." "Jones," Boucher said. "You know better than to start raising people's hopes. It's a bad idea." "True, but Zunny is very excited about this," Jones replied. Nobody noticed that the Captain arrived until she spoke. "Jones, calm down. Everyone calm down. No moping, no hope-mongering, just calm down and use your facts." "Okay," Zunzheim said. "Bring up the map." A map lit up the wall. It showed the next handful of life-supporting planets. "Which one and why?" Captain Day asked. "None of these," Zunzheim replied. "Bring up the other map," he instructed the computer. A different map of the regions appeared. These included the ones in the previous map, but also contained several other worlds that were somewhat less pristine. "What's with those death traps?" Johnson asked. "They're still inhabitable," Zunzheim stated. "They're just not clean. Our parameters were too strict. When the Captain set them, they were set for the safest places that would have food." "Why would we go to any of those?" Boucher asked. "We're looking for safe planets with life for a reason." "These are safe-ish," Zunzheim said. "They should have life, and best of all, they may have livestock." "You're making assumptions." Captain Day asked. "How can you make that leap in logic?" "Because they have methane," Zunzheim answered. "Elevated methane levels can be a byproduct of keeping large quantities of livestock, and crops like rice. I learned that in my history studies. It happened on Earth for a while." "Even so," Day replied. "Let's not get excited. We can check one of them out. We have enough fish to last us a while. But let's not get our hopes up. Okay, which one?" "Well, the closest one has extremely high levels of methane, and could actually be dangerous. The furthest one has moderate levels but is out of the way. The one here," Zunzheim pointed at the map to the planet in the middle. "It has moderate levels of methane, and it's close to the other clean planets, just in case we find nothing there. So, I think that's the winner." "Okay," Day nodded. "Set the course." The mess burst into applause. "Calm down," Captain Day ordered. "I just told you. We have months until we arrive. Everyone just relax." The room quieted down. "I'll be in EME 2 if anyone needs me." The Captain left, shaking her head. There was a buzz of excitement in the room. It would still be months until the ship reached the planet, but the sense of anticipation permeated every crew member's thoughts. It took some time for the mess to empty out. It seemed like everyone was making an excuse not to disperse, grabbing an extra class of kelp juice, or asking just one more question to a colleague. Eventually, Boucher had to intervene. "Don't you all have work to do?" she shouted. The mess fell silent. The crew shuffled out, scurrying back to their individual corners of the ship, to do whatever it was they normally did. Zunzheim followed behind, off to mind the engines. Boucher grabbed him by the arm. "Wait right there, Zunny." "Yes, sir?" "Nice job." Zunzheim grinned. "Thank you. But shouldn't we wait to see what we find before you congratulate me?" "No," Boucher replied. "You tried something, something different. You thought outside the box. That is a rare and coveted skill. You should be pleased with yourself. But don't let it go to your head." "Yes, sir," Zunzheim replied. "Now get back to work," Boucher pointed out the door. Zunzheim nodded and sprinted out the door. Jones was in the engine room, running some tests, when Jones meandered in. "How's it going Zunny?" "Okay," Zunzheim replied. "How are you Jonesie?" Jones grinned. "No, that's brown-haired Jones. I'm just Jones." Zunzheim grinned. "Thought I would try it out." "No problem." Jones sat in the chair next to Zunzheim's. "How's the land of engines?" "Not bad," Zunzheim replied. "Everything is running optimally. I've been cramming in everything I can find on managing the propulsion systems. I have procedures now." "Yeah?" Jones asked. "How's it work?" "I have a daily, weekly and monthly checklist of things to do. I also have the systems set to alert me if anything falls even the slightest bit out of tolerances. So no surprises." "That's outstanding," Jones nodded. "You became an expert." "No, not even close," Zunzheim replied. "There are major gaps in my knowledge. I don't know any theory or design. Just how to keep things running. It'll take years before I am an expert." "Still, it's better than anyone could have expected. You should be pleased with yourself." "I'm more relieved than anything. I thought I was going to break the engines." "The Captain wouldn't have given you the task if you couldn't handle it." "She's not a mind reader, or a deity," Zunzheim stated. "She's fallible and could have been wrong." "She's never been wrong," Jones said. "That's yet to be seen." Jones smirked. "Oh, you mean about the fish worlds. You're pretty smug about that." "I still could be wrong." "Yes," Jones replied. "But you don't think you are." "I don't." "Okay, so the Captain could have been wrong about that. What does that mean to you?" "Nothing," Zunzheim said. "Except, I was right and she was wrong." "Maybe you should make a wager with her." "Would she be interested in something so petty?" "Go ask her." "She is in EME foot stench. I don't know." "Just go. Have a little fun with her. She can take it." "She already hates most people. Why would I want to make her add me to the list?" Jones started laughing. "Scaredy cat." "Meow," Zunzheim replied.

Lunch was a treat. Nakamora found a way to make fish burgers that almost passed as meat. Johnson was thrilled. "Even without a bun, it's okay!" Johnson ate his fish burger enthusiastically and even had seconds. Zunzheim sat across from Johnson and joined him in the meal. "This isn't bad," he agreed. "If only I could get some kind of grain, I could make some bread." "Even rice?" Zunzheim asked. "Even potatoes." "Beans?" "Yes, beans, too." Zunzheim grinned. "That would be so great." "I know!" Johnson went and got thirds. Nakamora was thrilled. "I know the trick, make it ugly and greasy and you like it. Make it artistic and subtle and you hate it. Barbarians." Zunzheim laughed. "Us barbarians thank you." "You are welcome," Nakamora replied. "So what is this I hear about a challenge?" Acting Captain Day stepped into the mess with purpose. "Oh no." Zunzheim buried his head in his hands. "Oh, yes," Captain Day replied. She sat in the seat next to Zunzheim. "Jones opened his big mouth." "He did." "I told him I didn't want to challenge you." "Ah, but you did. You just didn't man up to it and tell me to my face. So how much do you want to bet?" "I have nothing," Zunzheim stated. "Nothing to bet." "How about this? If I win you spend two weeks in EME 2, during your off time, learning the ship's computer systems." "You've put a lot of thought into this." "I have." "And what if I win?" Zunzheim asked. "What do you want?" "To help Johnson plant his crops in the greenhouse." "Nice choice." Captain Day nodded. "You got a bet." She held out her hand, and Zunzheim shook it. Captain Day stood up. "Well, now that that's settled, you can find me in EME 1." "Thank you, sir," Zunzheim said. "You're welcome, Ensign." She zipped out of the mess. "Wait," Zunzheim turned to Johnson. "I have a rank?" "Guess you do now," Johnson replied. "I was field promoted a month after I got here. Surprised she waited that long for you." Zunzheim shrugged. "I had a lot to learn." "Apparently you learned it. You better win that bet though. EME 2 for two weeks." Johnson grimaced. "That's rough." "Maybe after a few hours, I'll get used to it." "There is no getting used to it," Johnson replied. "Enjoy your olfactory senses for the next nine weeks. Because you may not have them after that." "Damn."

Zunzheim lay on the bed in his quarters. It was late, he should have been asleep, but he wasn't. It didn't help that his comm kept going off. "Yes," Zunzheim responded. "You sleeping?" Jones' voice sounded through the comm. "Not now." "Sorry," Jones said. "I couldn't sleep. Wanna come down to the slag and play some bumper squash?" "No, I need to get some rest." "Can you sleep?" "No," Zunzheim admitted. "It doesn't help that you and Johnson keep calling me." "Can you blame us? We'll be there any second." "Yeah, but calling me won't make it go any quicker." "Okay, I'll leave you alone. But if you don't fall asleep in the next hour, call me." "Alright. Go to sleep." Zunzheim closed his eyes again. He just started to drift off asleep when the comm went off again. "What?" he yelled into the comm. "Ensign?" Boucher replied through the speaker. "Oh, sorry, Sir. The calls have been coming in non-stop." "I understand," Boucher said. "I wanted to advise you that you need to select the other two crew members who will be exploring the planet." "Oh, so it's you me and whoever I pick?" "No," Boucher replied. "It's you, the Captain and whoever you pick. She wants to be there for your bet." Zunzheim moaned. "You made your bed," Boucher said. "Yeah," Zunzheim replied. "I forgot that Jones has a huge mouth. Will you come, too?" "Thanks for the invitation, but one of us has to stay on the ship. You'll have to pick someone else." "Yes, Sir." "Get some rest," Boucher advised. "You're going to need your strength." Zunzheim tried again. It took some time, but he finally got comfortable enough to fall asleep. The comms burst to life. Captain Day spoke. "Ensign Zunzheim and party please report to the shuttle bay." "Ugh," Zunzheim sat up. First, he called Jones. "You coming?" he asked. "Yup," Jones replied. "Meet you there." Next, Zunzheim called Johnson. "Johnson, want to go?" "Yes!" "See you there." The four met in the shuttle bay. Since none were first-timers, they walked straight to the shuttle. Johnson was in his EVA suit as usual. The anticipation was palpable. Nobody spoke a word. Captain Day took the pilot's seat and Johnson took the seat next to her. Zunzheim and Jones sat in the seats in the back. "You okay?" Day asked Johnson. "You're shaking." "I'm very excited," Johnson said. "Real food." "Calm down," she said. "What's in the bag?" "Oh, something for Zunny," Johnson answered. "Depending on how it goes." "I don't want to know." The shuttle approached the planet. It was a beautiful world of blue and green, there were obvious signs of land. Two moons orbited the globe. They gently hovered, quietly watching the expanse beneath. "I thought you said there were high methane levels here," Jones said. Zunzheim got up and checked the sensor readings. "There is, look." He pointed at the readout. Jones came over and looked at over Zunzheim's shoulder. "Look at that. No kidding." The closer the shuttle got to the planet, signs of civilization became apparent. Satellites surrounded the world, and artificial structures were visible on the surface to the naked eye. "There are people here," Johnson said. "People, with food." "Don't get too excited, Johnson," Captain Day said. "We don't even know if they are friendly." "Shouldn't we say 'hello' or something?" Zunzheim asked. "Good thinking, Ensign." Captain Day initiated a communications sweep. The computers found several frequencies in use from the planet below. "Let's be friendly, and tell them why we are here." Day started the linguistics systems, to analyze the planets predominant dialects and send an appropriate greeting. "What should we say?" "Oh, oh," Jones jumped up. "We come in peace, please bring us some beer." "Anything intelligible?" Day asked. "How about the peace part, and a message saying that we are lost travelers looking to replenish our food stores," Zunzheim suggested. "If they look peaceful, offer a technology swap." "I see no evidence of weapons proliferation," Captain Day said. "So if everyone agrees, we'll send the message. Any objections?" Nobody replied. "I will send the message then." Captain Day programmed the linguistics systems to convey the message in the inhabitant's native languages. "It's going to take some time, so everyone hang loose." "Can we scan the planet while we're waiting?" Zunzheim asked. "No," Day explained. "I dedicated the non-essential computers to the linguistic systems. We can only wait." "Poker?" Johnson asked. "Nap." Jones yawned and closed his eyes. "I'll monitor the computer," Captain Day replied. "There's nothing going on yet, so you three rest." Zunzheim and Johnson played Gin for an hour before Zunzheim took Jones' cue and took a nap. Johnson played solitaire for another thirty minutes before dozing off himself. A loud shrill emanated from the computer speakers. Zunzheim almost fell out of his seat. Johnson screamed. Jones slept through the noise. "Jones!" Captain Day yelled. Jones slowly opened his eyes and stretched. "Yes, sir." Captain Day shook her head. "You should get a medal for slacking." "You're the one to issue it, Sir," Jones grinned. "I suppose I am," she replied. "We have a response to our greetings. Are you all ready?" All three men scrambled to their feet. "Play it," Johnson said. "Play it!" "Deep breath," Day replied. "Everyone calm." She looked around at the crewmen. None appeared any calmer. "Okay, here we go." Captain Day started the playback and leaned back in her chair. An alien voice spoke. It sounded different from a human voice, but familiar enough to not be disconcerting. It seemed to be male, by human standards. It was gravelly and low. "This is Muk Sandine, of the People, from the planet Soil. We received your message and welcome you to our world. We would be happy to participate in a cultural and scientific exchange with you. We have plenty of resources; we would be glad to share them with you. Please send us a list of the foodstuffs you lack, and we will gather them." Johnson was visibly shaking again. "Ham sandwich, tell him we want ham." "Johnson," Captain Day said. "Relax. Here. 'Thank you very much for your kind offer. Our crew would be thrilled if you could provide us some grains, vegetables and animal proteins.' How's that?" "Perfect," Jones replied. "Yes," Zunzheim agreed. Johnson just nodded. Captain Day sent the message, and the four waited in anticipation. After some time a new message was received. Day played it without any hesitation. It was Muk again. "We have four varieties of grains and vegetables stored in our seed libraries that you are welcome to. It is not much, but we lost all but these during our environmental crisis, several centuries ago. We now rely on our oceans to provide us our fill of its fruits. You are welcome to the seeds and all the aquatic riches we have." Captain Day sighed. Jones laughed. Johnson whimpered, reached into his bag, and pulled out a gas mask. He handed it to Zunzheim, who shook his head. "Two weeks," he sobbed. The message continued. "We've developed a kind of aquatic swine you may enjoy. It satisfies our craving for something other than seafood without depleting our resources. We'll provide you a tank and full instructions." Zunzheim handed the mask back to Johnson. "Looks like you're having ham for dinner tonight." "It's really fish," Johnson pointed out. "You can eat it, Zunny." "Oh yeah." Zunzheim grinned. "Looks like we're having ham for dinner tonight!" "Nice job, Zunzheim," Captain Day said. "Nice job."

"How's the hydroponics lab?" Jones asked. "Excellent, we'll be able to grow everything we need." Johnson's nose was buried in a tab detailing approaches to cultivating food in tight spaces. "It's too bad they didn't know anything about space or time travel," Jones said. Zunzheim shrugged. "Maybe Beti can help us figure it out." "Who would have thought," Johnson said. "An astrophysicist, cat-person." "She's really nice," Jones said. "So is Jole. He's barely left the slag since he got here." "He's an anthropologist." Boucher sat at the table with the others. "He's studying you primitives. Aren't you eating, Zunny?" "Yeah," Zunzheim said. "I was waiting for the crowd of piranhas to finish swarming. Be right back." Zunzheim stepped up the counter where Nakamora was preparing lunch. "What would you like?" Nakamora asked. "Split pea and ham soup, ham sandwich or ham cutlet." "Actually," Zunzheim leaned in and dropped his voice. "You think you could make me some sushi?"

#FICTION on the WEB short stories

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larryfic-recs · 7 years

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Do u know any percy jackson au? Also could u recommend some wattpad fics other than jeddiejay and larry_lashton?❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Hi! I’ve only found one Percy Jackson au and its quite short. But I’ll also rec another fic where Harry is Cupid (the love god that shoots arrows at ppl’s asses and makes them fall in love lol) and it’s a very good read! And about wattpad, please follow my account pattycake18 and Jen’s account _SweetDisposition_ and add our fic to your library link here! We have lists of the fics that we have read so you can look through those. In the meantime I’ll rec a few of my favorites. As far as wattpad authors go, Britt1DForLife, TrulyMadlyLarry, LarryWriting, onedirection23rd, bestwriterever8, uniquelyxlarry, gaysicle, LemonSuccubus, EvouzAg, booandhazzababe, and smileyourepretty have some good ones.

- Ami xx

Like a Drum (Baby, Don’t stop Beating) by exitthequitters (1k words, percy jackson au!)

They walk through the camp together hand in hand, past the big house where Chiron waves happily at them, past the strawberry field where Louis first kissed Harry, past the lake where Louis first met Zayn and Liam, past the dinning hall where Niall sat down next to Louis before he knew he shouldn’t, and to Harry’s cabin.

Or, they’re all sons of Greek gods at a summer camp for demigods.

cupid’s defence by rhuubarb (100k words, WIP [two chapters left])

“Of course, the ONE time a ridiculously attractive man shows up at Louis’ home, butt naked, he turns out to be an arrogant love god. Not only that, but he’s an arrogant love god facing a multi-million pound lawsuit, possible banishment from Mount Olympus, and a shit ton of adjustment issues.”

Alternatively: Harry is Cupid, Louis and Liam own a law firm, and they’re all getting sued.

Wattpad Recs:

Victorian Boy by AudreyHornesHeart (WIP, currently reading and loving)

Harry the virgin Duke of Somerset knows little of love, while Louis the sly Duke of Warwick knows too much. When the two dukes come together for the annual fox hunt in Yorkshire, Harry finds himself drawn into Louis’ bed. But when secrets from the Louis’ dark past come to light, Harry fears that the fox isn’t the only one being hunted.

17 Black by larrys_fedora (WIP, slow burn, but amazingly written)

When sassy, stubborn high school football star Louis Tomlinson meets the new hard-ass team coach, Harry Styles, a heated rivalry sparks between the two and it is evident that the upcoming season is sure to be eventful.

no homo by louvinglouis (WIP, funnest fic I’ve ever read!)

louist91: I kinda really wanna suck your dick

louist91: no homo tho

my summary: Texting au where Louis and Harry fall in love over funny messages but Louis always ends them with #NoHomo. They eventually meet in person, along with Niall, Liam, and Zayn, and the madness only continues.

Thin Walls by beautifulnightmare2 (complete)

Louis moves into a flat while he’s at university, his next-door neighbour, Harry, who he’s never seen is rather loud at night. Louis confronts him about said noise and the two start to chat through the rather thin wall between their bedrooms. Will they ever meet, and if they do… what could ensue for the both of them?

Wanted Most by LarryWriting (complete)

Louis Tomlinson is a thief, and a damn good one at that. Most have heard of him. Most don’t understand him. And Harry Styles is the FBI agent who can never seem to catch him

these bountiful silences by tommoandbambi (complete)

They live in a world where they’re only allowed to say four words a day. Harry meets some people that don’t want to live that way.

i sleep naked by uniquelyxlarry (complete)

“you’re so small.” as if to prove his point, louis squeezed harry tightly in his arms, and harry just scrunched up a little bit, snuggling his head impossibly farther into louis’ chest. “my pretty paper doll.”

and when louis squeezed him again, placing a shaky, yet warm kiss on harry’s cold forehead, harry felt his heart feel that way again, he felt love. a soft flutter, that even the most self control in the world couldn’t stop. he loved louis. he loved him even though he didn’t want to, he really didn’t.

okay, maybe a little.

17BLACK by obeylarry (complete)

17Black: a gay strip club in London known for hot strip teases, a talented dj, and matchmaking? Harry is moving to London as a new addition to 17Black - new penthouse, hot job, amazing pay - sounds great. Sure it is a clear violation of Harry’s sexuality, but it’s not gay unless you make it gay, right? Plus it’s only for a month anyway. And of course, time flies when you meet a cute bloke named Louis. Who knows? A lot can happen in a month.

Elf Bites ❄ by simmerup (WIP, Christmas au)

“Deck the halls with balls of toenails, fa-la-la-la-la, I hate your beard.”“I don’t have a beard.”“I know. It’s pathetic.”

A jolly AU where Harry is an elf-in-training who quits his job and moves to London after the Elder Elves cancel Christmas in the North Pole. He plans to stay in London after that…but he decides to save his favorite holiday instead. And he may or may not enlist the help of his favorite human and full-time scrooge, Louis.

Wicked by gaysicle (complete, fairy tale au)

ursula lives under the sea with her surprisingly beautiful son. she gives him legs so he can get revenge on ariel by killing her daughter, but he gets his own ideas when he views peter pans son

Fading by tothemoonmydear (complete, one of the best)

Louis knows about beauty; the combination of qualities that pleases the aesthetic senses. He creates that combination every day in the garments he designs while studying fashion at uni. The cut of the design, the color of the fabric, the intricacy of the stitching; it all comes together to create something beautiful. When the science student with the long legs and dimpled smile agrees to model for him, Louis decides he’s found beauty personified. Harry just thinks Louis needs someone to show him how beautiful he is.

If I Could Fly by alessandra (complete)

If the sea can meet the sky agreeably at the horizon, how much harder can it truly be for feathers and fins? Is the water not drawn naturally to the shore? Does the sun not bend down to kiss the waves at the end of the day?

A Larry Stylinson-inspired fairy tale AU that’s mostly fluff with a dash of angst, and a lil adventure thrown in for good measure (feat: merman!harry & harpy!louis characters by pass-the-pencil)

Just Say You Love Me, Just For Today by _SweetDisposition_ (complete, my personal fav by Jen!)

A Larry Stylinson Parent Trap Au

Boys Divisional School of Manners by boybands77 (complete)

What the fuck is the purpose to a manners school? Not what I was expecting I’ll tell you that. Basically a BDSM school fic.

Fight For Me by Mie1412 (complete, no smut)

“So, we’re friends?” Louis asked timidly, his blue eyes looking up at Harry through his lashes, Harry’s chest suddenly feeling all weird.

Fuck everything. His life really was one big mess at the moment but maybe he should just go with the flow and see what happens. Couldn’t get any crazier than it already has been anyway.

"Yeah… we’re friends.“

[Or the one where Harry’s an underground boxer, Louis’ the prize and now Harry has to fight to protect him]

Four’s Company by vampire_angel_z (complete, and theres a sequel)

The Styles Triplets need a mate. Louis is too good to be true.

Purple Reign by LemonSuccubus (complete, please read the warnings)

“Love is for fools; and I, Louis Tomlinson, am not meant to have any lover other than myself.”

Purple Rain /ˈpɝː-//reɪn/: A of feeling or emotion brought on by the memory of a regretful action, resulting in the personal knowledge that what has transpired cannot be corrected or undone.

Hunting the Belgian forest as a falconer for the royal family is where Louis and his brother Niall find sanctuary. A regal living within the stone walls of the castle is the only haven the prince’s cousin, Harry, has ever known. Their lives shouldn’t cross paths, but when word gets around that Harry could be a new candidate for Louis’ notorious promiscuity, the two find themselves in uncharted waters.

Though Louis believes that love is for fools, he can’t help but find himself becoming a fool for Harry. Their serendipitous love is only beginning to flourish when royal secrets emerge and test their loyalty.

Baby Heaven’s in your Eyes by smileyourepretty (complete)

They couldn’t be more different if they tried.

Louis Tomlinson is 17 years old and in his last year of the most prestigious private school in Doncaster, before then he’s off to Uni. He has big plans for his future, and thanks to his parent’s money he will have no problem achieving them. Everyone who attends his school knows him thanks to his incredibly rich family, sassy attitude and gorgeous girlfriend, Eleanor Calder. If there’s one thing that completely annoys him, it’s that there is a community college right across the street from St. Mark’s Private School, and he has to look at the poor, totally inappropriate students that go there.

Harry Styles is 19 years old, and (once again) in his last year of college. He goes to Doncaster’s community college, just because the Holmes Chapel comprehensive expelled him twice in the span of two years, so he and his family had to move to another town. He has no future because he never shows up to classes and if he actually bothers to, he’s either high or drunk; sometimes both. His skin is littered with tattoos and if there’s one thing he absolutely hates, it’s the snobby students attending the private school right across from his, who think they’re better than anyone just because their parents have money.

When they meet, Louis is nothing but disgusted by the tattooed boy, and Harry can’t help but laugh at the innocent yet sassy boy with blue eyes and amazing arse.

Or a sixth form!AU where Harry is the fucked up bad boy with too many problems, Louis is the perfect rich boy with too much money and their schools are right across from each other. They meet at a party and that’s the last (and maybe the only) thing they need.

Whatever It Takes by bestwriterever8 (complete, mpreg)

Louis Tomlinson always wanted to have children.

At the age of 29 and after years of failed relationships he decided he wasn’t going to wait for the right person anymore, so he had a baby on his own.

But what will happen when that child gets sick? What will Louis be willing to do to save his child’s life?

Detention by TrulyMadlyLarry (complete)

Detention is supposed to be a punishment, but for Louis and Harry, it’s the start of something beautiful. Unfortunately, what starts off as a harmless love affair quickly takes a turn for the worse. Through all the stereotypes, judgments, family issues, and demons from the past, Louis and Harry struggle to stay strong. What happens in detention, stays in detention.

Strip Me Clean by onedirection23rd (complete)

After Harry had grown up in an orphanage since birth, he finally escaped.

He left.

He couldn’t take being in the place anymore.

At the age of 16, Harry was already on the streets.

He needed a job and now.

When he runs into a man, he gets offered a job that he never thought he’d be doing.

And now, at the age of 22, Harry was one of the best strippers in his clan.

Harry hated the job. He just hated people in general.

But, it did pay well.

When Louis goes into this strip club for his birthday, what happens when he produces feelings for the dark eyed, loud mouth stripper boy who hates relationships, hugging, kissing, hand holding, physical contact, and more?

Louis wants one thing.

To strip Harry clean.

The Housekeeper by onedirection23rd (incomplete)

Harry was just a poor housekeeper… a maid, a caretaker of homes. He had absolutely nothing going for him. He was back and forth on trying to settle in a proper place, but he never made enough money to do so. Harry was always stuck and always came across problems.

That was until he met Louis Tomlinson.

Who was Louis exactly?

Well, he was one of the richest people in London.

Louis had a perfect life.

He had a perfect girlfriend, Eleanor, he had a perfect house, he had a perfect job, he had perfect friends, he had a perfect everything.

Harry would have never expected a job of such worth, but it came about at complete random.

One of Louis’ managers had hired Harry off the bat after Louis had fired his old maid, in search for a new one.

Of course, it started off as any house Harry has taken care of, he would clean up, cook, and go home, unless he was allowed to stay at the home he took care of (which rarely happened).

It was nothing.

Louis only saw Harry as his housekeeper with a shy attitude.

And Harry only saw Louis as his ‘master’ with a big ass ego.

They were opposites, polar opposites.

But… opposites attract, don’t they?

#larry #larry fic rec #larry fic #louis #harry #wattpad #larry wattpad #larry wattpad fic rec

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shiraglassman · 7 years

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Review: A Closed and Common Orbit (AI finds herself, a family, & a future) - also features major bigender character

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is a science fiction novel of such literary quality yet such approachable prose, characters, and relationships that I honestly feel like it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. I don’t say this lightly. I loved the previous book in the series, A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (my review), and consider it a solid rec, but this one surpasses it by adding some really powerful themes and messaging to the already cool worldbuilding and cozy interactions. The book focuses on the convergence of two storylines, an AI who lives with some discomfort in an illegal human-looking body, and a flashback timeline to the childhood of the human tech who’s taken her into her family. The human woman grew up as a slave child in a factory on what is probably Earth, but she escapes and makes a life for herself thanks to her own inner strength and the love and compassion of another character. The major themes of this book, besides the obvious platonic love and “found-family” gloriousness that its predecessor did so well but this one even more intensely, include bodily autonomy, consent, and respect without objectification. One main character, after all, is an artificial intelligence. What’s that like for her? How can she deal with being stuck in a human-looking body instead of living in the walls as a ship’s computer? She didn’t choose this — not freely (she was pressured into it as a result of events at the end of the previous book.) How can she gain more control over herself when there are shackles programmed into her brain? How can she get her friends to treat her fully as autonomous–they’re doing their best, but you know the drill with allies. Sometimes allyship can be asymptotic. There’s a scene where she’s candid with a new friend that their response to her seems unduly focused on her unusual status. They agree to modify the situation by agreeing that she can ask them as many questions as she wants about them, too, and she adds that it would be nice to answer some questions that aren’t about being a computer. The human woman’s story is one of resilience and persistence in the face of the worst. It’s easier to digest than it might have been, since from the beginning of the book we see that as an adult she’s living comfortably with loved ones. One sees echoes of Jane Eyre’s time in the orphanage, both in the name “Jane” (which she changes as an adult) and in the fact that there’s another little girl whose friendship very much reminded me of Helen Burns. One also really feels the state of mind of both the human and android protagonists through the author’s use of language. The android overwhelmingly thinks of anything her physical body does as being done by “the kit” — i.e. “the kit smiled.” It’s not her, in some fundamental way. This is important and ends up being meaningful. And the human’s language too — when she’s a slave child in the factory, her language is limited to the language she would have known. “She taught Jane about something called music, which was a weird bunch of sounds that had no point but made things feel a little better.” As she grows the reader watches her use of language grow, too. But the heavy is mixed with light. Chambers’ space world is colorful and exciting, populated by a variety of alien cultures that coexist in diverse splendor on the present-day’s port planet. When the AI character eats or drinks, her programming replaces her missing senses of taste and smell with beautiful images that correspond with the flavors she’s supposed to be experiencing, so that she’s able to enjoy them hedonically like her friends are. You know how in the real world, tattoo artists have a rule about not serving you if you’re under the influence? One of the major supporting characters in this book–the bigender character Tak, who uses he or she pronouns that change from scene to scene–does ink for a living, and they make an exception to this rule — Aandrisks, a species of sentient reptilians. Why? Because Aandrisks shed their scales, so even if you sober up and realize “Oh, shit, who the hell is Larry?” you only have to live with it for a few weeks. I love that this series has the kind of worldbuilding that thinks of these things. Plus, you have details like, when faced with the mockcusation that another bartender has him beat for fastest in the port, a minor character tosses off “He’s got tentacles. That’s hardly fair.” Or a bar serving a certain alcoholic drink that’s described as being made from Whatever we could grow this year, plus water. At one point, an alien responds with alarm to the human main character crying happy tears, to which she replies: “Humans do this when–when we’re feeling a lot of things.” His shocked response: “You leak?” This is a Space Book that’s mostly about how characters feel about themselves, about life, and their relationships with each other. Instead of wars between alien species — which are referenced as history, so it’s not like this is a war-free universe — we see injustice on a more personal level, and we witness battles against loneliness, alienation, insecurity, and loss instead, with plenty of warm fuzzies to smooth the journey. This genre, I like it. Another. These stories may take you to some dark places, some more distressing and some merely a little sad in a familiar way, but Orbit delivers on a happy ending that’s both complete enough to be satisfying and messy enough to feel realistic. And if you’re anything like me, that happy ending will feel so meaningful because you’ll want it for them so badly as a result of the currents of the book.. Incidentally — this is more of a spinoff than a sequel to Long Way because it’s about characters who are barely present in the earlier book and not a continuation of the earlier book’s MC’s story.

#bigender #booklr #a closed and common orbit #a long way to a small angry planet #artificial intelligence #sci-fi #aliens

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quietbibliophile-blog · 8 years

Text

Updated Book List: March

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett White Fang by Jack London 1984 by George Orwell Diary by Chuck Palahnuk In Pursuit of the Unknown by Ian Stewart Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw Dracula by Bram Stoker On Killing by Dave Grossman Candide by Voltaire Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Call me Zelda by Erika Roebuck Hemingway’s Girl by Erika Roebuck Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis The Reason for God by Timothy Keller The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson The only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Trial by Francis Kafka Necromancer by William Gibson The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury A Confederacy of Dunces by John Toole In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Lord of the Flies by William Golding The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco The Stranger by Albert Camus Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Animal Farm by George Orwell Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Watchman by Allan Moore & Dave Gibbons Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys Never Let Me Down by Kazuo Ishiguro Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope Book of Night Women by Marion James 11/22/63 by Stephen King Who Asked You? By Terry McMillan The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy Legend by Marie Lu Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher Dark Places by Gillian Flynn Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn “On Writing” by Stephen King Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot Middlemarch by George Eliot Silas Marner by George Eliot Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Books that changed the World by Andrew Taylor Go Ask Alice by Anonymous Of Mice and Man by John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Forever by Judy Blume My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin The Lottery by Shirley Jackson One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne A Separate Peace by John Knowles One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl I Know Why A Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Deliverance by James Dickey The Good Earth by Pearl Buck A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich by Alice Childress The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway It’s OK if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Tess of D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy The Complete Works of Shakespeare Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Bleak House by Charles Dickens War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Moby Dick by Herman Melville Typee by Herman Melville Watership Down by Richard Adams Ulysses by James Joyce The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath The Color Purple by Alice Walker Weird History 101 by John Richards Stephens The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Persuasion by Jane Austen Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis The Horse and his Boy by C. S. Lewis Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis This Country of Ours by H. E. Marshall An Abundance of Katherines by John Green Emma by Jane Austen The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Beloved by Toni Morrision Orlando by Virginia Woolf Tracks by Louise Erdich Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern White Teeth by Zadie Smith Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf The Awakening by Kate Chopin Three Great Plays by Eugene O’Neill Our Town by Thorton Wilder A Raw Youth by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis Stepping Heavenward by E. Prentiss Lively Art of Writing by Lucille Vaughn Payne Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan Works of Josephus Volume III by Josephus The Maze Runner by James Dashner The Scorch Trials by James Dashner The Death Cure by James Dashner Angels and Demons by Dan Brown The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd Cry, My Beloved Country by Alan Paton Goliath by Scott Westerfeld The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway Billy Budd and Other Stories by Herman Melville Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson The Girl who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson Wicked by Gregory Maguire Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor Looking for Alaska by John Green Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche The Jungle by Upton Sinclair King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin Anthem by Ayn Rand Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild On War by Carl Von Clausewitz August: Osage County by Tracy Letts Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller My Ten Years in a Quandry by Robert Benchly One Day by David Nicholls The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket The End by Lemony Snicket Selected Writings by Gertrude Stein The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by Anita Loos The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Life of Pi by Yann Martel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy The Turn of the Screw by Henry James Three More Plays by George O’Neill Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery The Once and Future King by T. H. White Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Poetry by Emily Dickenson The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan The Sea of Monster by Rick Riordan The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan The Metamorphoses by Ovid The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle The Revenant by Michael Punke Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle Grendel by John Gardner The Fault In Our Stars by John Green I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Eragon by Christopher Paolini Eldest by Christopher Paolini Inheritance by Christopher Paolini Brsinger by Christopher Paolini Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forestor Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen The Pocket Chaucer by Geoffrey Chaucer On Writing by Charles Bukowski Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith Crazy Love by Francis Chan The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Penny Dreadfuls by Stefan Dziemianowics Classic Works by F. Scott Fitgerald John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes by Stefan Dziemianowics Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie Mcdonald The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss Divergent by Veronica Roth A History of Greece by J. B. Bury Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureishi Inkheart by Cornelia Funke Inkspell by Cornelia Funke Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum The Jungle book by Rudyard Kipling A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne The Adventure of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling All the Lights We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn Diary of an Unlikely Call Girl by Anonymous Sweet Bird of Youth by Tennessee Williams The Rose Tattoo by Tennessee Williams The Night of the Iguana by Tennessee Williams World, Chase Me Down by Andrew Hilleman The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee The Copernican Revolution by Thomas S. Kuhn The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

#booklist #bibliophile #bibliophilia #the quiet bibliophile #update #books #bookstore #library #literature #novels #authors

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quietbibliophile-blog · 8 years

Text

Updated Booklist: January

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett White Fang by Jack London 1984 by George Orwell Diary by Chuck Palahnuk In Pursuit of the Unknown by Ian Stewart Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw Dracula by Bram Stoker On Killing by Dave Grossman Candide by Voltaire Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky Call me Zelda by Erika Roebuck Hemingway’s Girl by Erika Roebuck Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant: The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemingway Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis The Reason for God by Timothy Keller The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson The only Pirate at the Party by Lindsey Stirling Frankenstein by Mary Shelley The Trial by Francis Kafka Necromancer by William Gibson The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury A Confederacy of Dunces by John Toole In Cold Blood by Truman Capote Lord of the Flies by William Golding The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco The Stranger by Albert Camus Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell Catch 22 by Joseph Heller Animal Farm by George Orwell Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer Watchman by Allan Moore & Dave Gibbons Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keys Never Let Me Down by Kazuo Ishiguro Safekeeping by Jessamyn Hope Book of Night Women by Marion James 11/22/63 by Stephen King Who Asked You? By Terry McMillan The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy Legend by Marie Lu Season of Storms by Susanna Kearsley 13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher Dark Places by Gillian Flynn Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn “On Writing” by Stephen King Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot Middlemarch by George Eliot Silas Marner by George Eliot Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Books that changed the World by Andrew Taylor Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Go Ask Alice by Anonymous Of Mice and Man by John Steinbeck The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Forever by Judy Blume My Darling, My Hamburger by Paul Zindel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Manchild in the Promised Land by Claude Brown The Learning Tree by Gordon Parks Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin The Lottery by Shirley Jackson One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne A Separate Peace by John Knowles One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl I Know Why A Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou Deliverance by James Dickey The Good Earth by Pearl Buck A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ but a Sandwich by Alice Childress The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway It’s OK if You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkein Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Tess of D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy The Complete Works of Shakespeare Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell Bleak House by Charles Dickens War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert Moby Dick by Herman Melville Typee by Herman Melville Watership Down by Richard Adams Ulysses by James Joyce The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath The Color Purple by Alice Walker A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Weird History 101 by John Richards Stephens The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown Lost Empire by Clive Cussler Persuasion by Jane Austen Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau The Magician’s Nephew by C. S. Lewis The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis The Horse and his Boy by C. S. Lewis Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis This Country of Ours by H. E. Marshall An Abundance of Katherines by John Green Emma by Jane Austen The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams Beloved by Toni Morrision Orlando by Virginia Woolf Tracks by Louise Erdich Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern White Teeth by Zadie Smith Their Eyes were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf The Awakening by Kate Chopin Three Great Plays by Eugene O’Neill Indian Drums and Broken Arrows by Craig Massey Our Town by Thorton Wilder A Raw Youth by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis Stepping Heavenward by E. Prentiss Lively Art of Writing by Lucille Vaughn Payne Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan Works of Josephus Volume III by Josephus The Maze Runner by James Dashner The Scorch Trials by James Dashner The Death Cure by James Dashner Angels and Demons by Dan Brown The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde by Peter Ackroyd Cry, My Beloved Country by Alan Paton Goliath by Scott Westerfeld The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway Billy Budd and Other Stories by Herman Melville Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson The Girl who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson The Girl who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson Wicked by Gregory Maguire Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire Murder At The Vicarage by Agatha Christie The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor Looking for Alaska by John Green Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche The Jungle by Upton Sinclair King Arthur and the Knight of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin Anthem by Ayn Rand Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild On War by Carl Von Clausewitz August: Osage County by Tracy Letts Only a Theory by Kenneth Miller My Ten Years in a Quandry by Robert Benchly One Day by David Nicholls The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket The Reptile Room by Lemony Snicket The Wide Window by Lemony Snicket The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket The End by Lemony Snicket Selected Writings by Gertrude Stein The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan Gentlemen Prefer Blondes but Gentlemen Marry Brunettes by Anita Loos The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Life of Pi by Yann Martel David Copperfield by Charles Dickens The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy The Turn of the Screw by Henry James Three More Plays by George O’Neill Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery The Once and Future King by T. H. White Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky The Ginger Man by J. P. Donleavy Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy Poetry by Emily Dickenson The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan The Sea of Monster by Rick Riordan The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan The Metamorphoses by Ovid The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle The Revenant by Michael Punke The Colored Museum by George C. Wolfe Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs The Complete Stories by Flannery O’Connor The Final Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle Grendel by John Gardner The Fault In Our Stars by John Green I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Eragon by Christopher Paolini Eldest by Christopher Paolini Inheritance by Christopher Paolini Brsinger by Christopher Paolini Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor A Movable Feast by Ernest Hemingway The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien Mr. Midshipman Hornblower by C. S. Forestor Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen The Pocket Chaucer by Geoffrey Chaucer On Writing by Charles Bukowski Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith Crazy Love by Francis Chan The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Penny Dreadfuls by Stefan Dziemianowics Classic Works by F. Scott Fitgerald John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs The Complete Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes by Stefan Dziemianowics Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie Mcdonald The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss Divergent by Veronica Roth A History of Greece by J. B. Bury Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto Something to Tell You by Hanif Kureishi Inkheart by Cornelia Funke Inkspell by Cornelia Funke Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum The Jungle book by Rudyard Kipling A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne The Adventure of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain Hans Andersen’s Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J. K. Rowling

TL;DR: It’s a shit load of books. Wish Me Luck!!!

#book list #book #books #book blog #coffee and books #absyntheshrugged #j k rowling #fantastic beasts #tom sawyer #mark twain #brave new world #aldous huxley #swiss family robinson #johann wyss #the secret garden #frances hodgson burnett #update

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