#based on a skeleton with gun image i found

[greenlantern94to04]

Green Lantern #55 (September 1994)

Zero Hour is here, and so is Green Lantern! A different, much older Green Lantern, despite him looking about as young and buff as Kyle (we're in the '90s DCU, where even graphic designers and aging businesspeople have six packs). But first: the conclusion of Kyle Rayner's fight with Major Force, the nuclear-powered government agent who murdered Kyle's girlfriend Alex last issue. When we left them, Kyle's power ring had just flaked on the "power" part and the fight was going predictably poorly for him.

Before killing Kyle, though, Major Force asks him to clear something up: what the hell is that green rock his bosses found in the alley where Kyle got his ring in GL #50? Kyle, of course, has no clue -- but when his ring gets close to the rock, it causes it to morph into a sort of lantern. A green lantern. Suddenly, the ring has power again and Kyle quickly turns the tables on MF.

When MF makes it clear that no amount of green torture will make him rat out his bosses, Kyle is like "okay fine, I'll just kill you then." He seems willing to do it, too, but then some cops show up to arrest MF and they end up saving his life. Naturally, they also have some questions for Kyle about that body they found stuff in a nearby fridge, but Kyle wants to be alone right now and just flies away.

Poor Kyle doesn't even get a minute to mourn Alex before noticing that some dude in a green cape broke into his apartment and is just standing in his living room. Understandably, Kyle is no mood to deal with that nonsense right now.

Kyle produces a Cable-from-the-X-Men-sized gun and threatens the home invader. However, the guy turns out to have a power ring of his own and is much better at using it than Kyle, based on the fact that Kyle ends up pinned to the wall by a giant skeleton hand within like a second. Once Kyle has agreed to hear him out (not like he had much choice at the moment), the man introduces himself as Alan Scott and says he's also Green Lantern. Or was, anyway.

This whole "multiple Green Lanterns" thing is confusing to Kyle, so Alan tells him about the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan, and how Hal Jordan went crazy and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. He even projects some cool splash pages with his ring, maybe because he knows visual aids are appreciated when you have ADHD like Kyle.

(I like how Alan projected that image of himself tied up and looking like that, which I don't remember from that issue.)

Alan says he's here because he knows he'll eventually have to go up against Hal again (his first attempt wasn't too successful, as seen above) and he thinks Kyle, as the last of the Green Lantern Corps, should be there to help. Kyle was just saying he didn't even want to be GL anymore after he failed to prevent his girlfriend's death, but then he remembers how Alex was always trying to get him to be more responsible. After Alan has left and Kyle finally gets some time alone, he decides to continue Green Lanterning, as scared and out-of-his-depth as he is, because that's what Alex would want him to do now that he has that power ring. In other words: with great power rings there must come great responsibility (rings).

Just then, Kyle runs into his new pal Superman and a guy in a floating hi-tech chair, Metron, who say they need his help. Despite being so depressed, Kyle is still polite enough to compliment Metron's "cool chair." Anyway: IT'S ZERO HOUR TIME, BABY!

Plotline-Watch:

That "cool chair" scene continues in Zero Hour #4 (the first issue), in which we find out why Superman and Metron came to see Kyle: they need him to act as cameraman, basically, and project an image of Superman that Metron can redirect to "all of Earth's heroes" to ask for their help with the Crisis™ that's been causing all the time-related weirdness we've seen lately (like the futuristic city in last issue, the Nazi dinosaurs in Guy Gardner: Warrior, and all the Batmen in Superman: The Man of Steel #37). That green Superman projection would show up in several other DC titles from this month. So that was Kyle Rayner's first great contribution to the DC Universe: helping Superman butt into other comics.

Incidentally, Zero Hour's Dan Jurgens really nailed Kyle's crabface mask. Not all artists from this era did, as we'll see.

The cops who interrupt Kyle say they're from the Los Angeles Special Crimes Unit. I guess the one in Metropolis was so successful that they started franchising? We'd already seen Washington SCU in the Hawk & Dove series. I hope they're paying Maggie Sawyer some royalties.

Would Kyle have killed Major Force if the cops hadn't stopped him? We'll find out when there's a whole-ass crossover storyline devoted to answering that question ("Capital Punishment").

The reason why Alan Scott looks so spry for a World War II vet was revealed in Ron Marz' Green Lantern Corps Quarterly stories starring the character. Those stories also mentioned the title of "Sentinel," but Alan hasn't adopted that name yet, even though he says in this issue that he isn't currently calling himself Green Lantern either. So I guess he's just "Alan Scott" right now.

The DC Wiki claims that Alexander Luthor from Crisis on Infinite Earths appears in this issue, which doesn't sound that far-fetched since it's a Crisis-related crossover with cameos from like 50 characters (in Alan's flashback), but nope, he's not there. How did they get that impression? I think I know: it's Guy Gardner's fault (and his short-lived yellow armor's that kinda looks like Alex's).

So, to recap, in this issue Kyle: 1) defeats the guy who murdered his girlfriend hours earlier, 2) finds his GL battery and quickly learns how to use it, 3) learns about the GL Corps and the whole mess with Hal Jordan, 4) selflessly decides to continue being Green Lantern despite his original motivation (getting back together with Alex) no longer being applicable, and 5) immediately gets involved in a cosmic crisis. Pretty big day for Kyle! Let's hope he gets some time off after this.

NEXT: Kyle vs. Hal!

[luketaluketa]

i was organizing some files and found all the wip stuff from the previous secret samol for @/seamonsterart (go check out their work!), and these are two of my favorite illustrations ever, so here's some insight into how i made these!

for starters i already had a pretty much finished design for pickman that i had first drawn back in 2021

she has a completely wrong gun in this version because i did not remember how it was supposed to look like and couldn't find a description of it anywhere. she's wearing a hat because i forgot it was supposed to be a helm and so i ended up giving her the large hat just because the long horns coming through it are a fun image, though today i cannot imagine her wearing anything else. she already has the sword she takes from the lake skeletons, also. her armor is based on the armor the torumekian soldiers and kushana wear in nausicaa of the valley of the wind, with the incredible neck guard and long cape covering their entire body

i've always loved these designs and how the plates are evocative of insects, but also how mysterious they look with covered faces and bodies. matter of fact, at this point i had no fucking idea what pickman looked like below the cape.

the second inspiration is the young man from angel's egg.

OK, STAY WITH ME. i cannot explain this other that in my head pickman and him are VERY similar characters. the image of the half pulled cape while he holds his sword-cross-thing over his shoulder and the quiet demeanor are pretty fundamental to how i try to make pickman FEEL. i actually wanted her armor to have more piping, pulling from the biomechanical appearance of his sword-cross, but it didn't feel quite right

and the third inspiration is less inspiration and more reference work, the book "arms & armor, a pictorial archive" by carol grafton

it's a compilation of illustration works sourced from several books from the 19th century. VERY cool book to take a look at historical armor. it's on the internet archive for free!

there was also a fair ammount of looking at goats and sheep, but eventually i reached this after learning i suck at drawing furry designs. big shoutout to the furry community for making so many tutorials available btw. in highlight a very important study of the character.

now that i kinda knew what pickman looked like i entered the wonderful phase of "i don't know what the fuck i'm doing" which resulted in a bunch of bad doodles now sitting in a folder dubbed "dev hell". at this point i kinda had an idea for a relaxed scene based on one of the prompts, which i developed for a while on blender but eventually gave up on.

i then moved on to the second prompt, of pickman being badass. i decided on a low angle to make pickman look incredibly tall but the low angle of a goat's head legitimately kicked my ass so i eventually made a goat head on blender and used it to generate references with the help of designdoll. here i made her design a lot more muscular and fat, also, eventually coming to her final design.

the valve on her chestplate looks WRONG to me now, but at the time i was so tired i just rolled with it. the first pass of her armor was in a completely wrong color, which i corrected later on photoshop. i added the little metal forks pulling from her 2021 design, and the idea of little musical forks for atunning to the shape was cool to me. i also corrected her gun after actually learning what the fuck it was supposed to look like. i already knew i wanted her to be standing on the field of canola flowers, and the sky in the background was the last thing i added, also the time when i decided to really make the picture tall.

i liked the final result so much i went back and started working on the first prompt again. had a horrible time drawing the horns in the second image which led to this hell cage for building the perspective. im still not confident on the horns on the side of the head. i wanted to bring the atmosphere of a cold winter or fall morning in the second one, and to make pickman seem tired but relaxed. i overall like the second picture a lot more than the first and was very happy with how it came out.

AND THAT'S HOW THE SAUSAGE IS MADE I GUESS. if you read this whole thing then thank you for your time!

[k00289929a]

‘Anthropocene; Further Thumbnails'

Following the first round of thumbails, these two spreads were consequently developed. I mostly played with furthering the imagery I was playing with in regards to endlings, entertaining the concept of using silhouettes as part of an overall infographic, as well as harsh outlines, and the same more illustrative approach. I also try to employ the idea of a gun scope's crosshair and a bullet to designate a poster header, given the thylacine in particular, was a species hunted to extinction, and would have largely been shot due to the meat not being intended for consumption when killed. I also played with a black/red colour palette for a potential infographic, given black is an unusual neutral colour to employ for a background and would have contrast with the red as text, as this is the colour scheme used to designate a species as extinct under the IUCN red list.

Still using the endling concept, inspired partially by the cartoon visual gag of an underground pan showing the skeleton of a dinosaur, I toyed with placing those forms underground in a similar manner to show the fact that these species, like dinosaurs, are now extinct. I also pulled this idea further into the idea of the hog, using the diagonal to point the eye to the hog itself, mirroring how it is at the heart of habitat destruction in the Americas, and to create contrast through colour, with the dull brown against a more vibrant green.

I also played with the composition of the epoch timeline, using the regular format seen in historical timelines, usually as education aids. I also brought in the idea of the map pointer as a nod to how the anthropocene afflicts geography through the destruction of habitats, and to show how humanity is currently at a turning point that has to be addressed.

In these thumbnails, I did lightly play with the idea of extreme weather, but mostly toyed with the concept on another sheet, only producing the first thumbnail on the first sheet shown below, which was the most preferred during a group critique of thumbnails. Within the thumbnail itself I was looking collectively at the contrast of desertification and the growing rate of storms, as rain is often seen as a force of growth, which opposes the idea of lack of life seen in deserts. I employed the warm and cold colours of red and blue to remain homogenous based on their complementation, but contrasting in their warmth and cold. I tried to merge that contrast visually by depicting the storm as the source of a flash flood, which are also more common as a result of climate change, are in their own ways destructive, and easily merges the two opposing concepts. I also tried to intigrate the typography that would need to be in the image of this poster through the rain droplets, and texture in the cracks of the desert, as the formation of those cracks is often seen in particularly dry areas of deserts.

Then pushing further my ideas, I produced the other three thumbnails, exploring the same concept of desertification. Having then consolidated this as the theme through which I wanted to visually explore the anthropocene, I began to explore and merge images associated specifically with that idea. Taking from the original thumbnail, I thought it interesting to reinterpret the use of texture whilst removing the storm-based angle, as can be seen with the bottom left thumbnail. Here, I tried to employ diagonal lines of sun rays to guide the eye and generate interest through repetition and movement, placing the text at the apex of the wider lines. I used the image of a wilting plant to attempt to portray the damage and effects of desertification directly.

Pulling on secondary image research of deserts, I found myself intrigued by the shape and pattern of the dunes, and the contrast that can be created between the sides of the dunes hit by light, anf those in shadow. Hence, I tried to pull in this wave-like pattern in for the next, bottom-most thumbnail, trying to use the size of the individual curves to capture a sense of perspective. I left this thumbnail without a proposal for the typography, as I felt it would be better played with in a digital format so I could more easily tinker with the balance between it and the animal.

For the animal element of this thumbnail, I recalled some of my original thumbnailing and ideation around animals and extinction, and decided to attempt to tie it in once more to tinker with the merging of the explored concepts. I initially intended for the white animal to be vague, in the same vein as the work of RHA Robert Ryan, who is an artist I was exposed to during the course of the Leaving Cert due to his paintings being hung in the school building, whose work prodominantly features undefined, similarly pale white, mammalian creatures, which are meant to serve as vessels for the artist to capture concepts surrounding nature and animals.

The last thumbnail consisted of employing the same concepts, though I tried to push the colours differently with the scratches of it being shorthand for the shape to be filled with it, and trying to capture the sun element seen in the other thumbnail, in order to achieve a more dynamic, involved approach to typography by having it curve with the shape of the sun to create a sense of movement and dynacism to pair with the more exaggerated dune shape seen here, alongside the scale of the sun itself to place emphasis on the text.

During another subsequent critique, the blue and red thumbnail was generally agreed upon as the one I should pursue further, with the animal generally being interpreted as a polar bear which is unsurprising given the bear-like shape, colour and the fact the animal is often associated with the effects of the anthropocene and climate change with the melting icecaps, which is an idea I decided to keep and lean into as I progressed this idea. I was also encouraged to keep and try to weave in the idea of the flashflood with the usage of the blue in the thumbnail, as well as to physically overlap the colours, I assume to push the idea of pattern even further.

In accordance, when developing the next four thumbnails, I reserved two for retaining the two-tone landscape, and the other two for exploring how I could overlap the colours.

Regrettably, I couldn't find a yellow sharpie to use for the bottom thumbnails, and thusly just kept the area white, though approached with the idea of using yellow in mind.

With the first, at the bottom left, I brought in direct influence from my secondary imagery coupled with my primary for the idea of the textures and overall shapes involved, trying to approach with the idea of colder shadow parodying the yellow of the dunes in light. I laid out the pattern itself with the aim of generating perspective with the tightness of the curves, and tried to apply asymmetry between the image of the bear, and the three-letter layered block of 'anthropocene' typography. I believed dividing the word into sets of three would help give a concise feel whilst restraining it to a loose block in order to help balance the whole image between it and the bear, as given both were intended to be white and with white being the most eyecatching colour in the image due to the human eye being more inclined toward brighter colour, how these two images would play with each other would be critical, especially depending on how I would want either to fall in the hierarchy.

For the next at the bottom right, I wanted to keep the wave pattern I had used to portray the dunes, but played with using the shape to convey other ideas, as here I gave the waves more length and point to bear down on the bear, and with the angry sense of the colour red, wanted to combine both to give the idea of the anthropocene encroaching, and cutting down on the lone, adrift polar bear. I laid the typography across the bottom of the image akin to how text is usually placed at either the very bottom or top of the image in the vintage travel posters I was keeping as reference during the course of these thumbnails, in particular. I did expand on the idea, though, with dividing the typography's colour across, depending on how it fell across the two dune colours. Bringing this digitally, I would likely size up the typography, as with the colour and placement, I feel it would be natural to settle the typography heirarchally lower than the bear, and let the curves direct the eye to the text.

For the top right, I explored overlapping the two colours, and due to lacking the yellow colour, I elected to just work with what I had, choosing the red and blue due to their complimentary nature, red still being a warm colour associated with deserts, and if I didn't like the overlapping colour developed, I figured I could digitally rectify it into a purple, should the need arise. I also felt these particular colours did give a retro, 70's vibe which did align with the idea of a vintage poster. Here, I kept the blocky, three-letter typography, but switched the height of it in relation to the bear, and also shrunk the bear with the idea in mind of testing the hierarchy between, again looking at how white text could overpower, instead of the bear with the last thumbnail I had done. I employed the same cracked texture here, again, just to see how it interacted with the image, but I felt between that and the white space left by going wild with the curves of the two colours was just too visually busy for what I had wanted as a simple, catching poster, and also pushed the bear down the visual hierarchy, which was something I would obviously want to avoid, as too much would just lead a viewer to miss the element, instead of just making it feel narratively isolated as you'd want in an image focusing on the displacement of an animal from its natural habitat.

For the last thumbnail, having experimented with the overlapping colour, I tried to reign in the effect to use it whilst minimising any white space that could be created. This left the image with a simpler pattern that I felt was more effective, and as I had been encouraged to do so by Sharon, did also bring in a more flash flood-esque element, as the darker, cold brown created by the overlap did give the sensation the blue was overall the more powerful, acting colour which gave the feel the red was trapped beneath, giving a depth that comes with being submerged in water. The overlap also creates a winding, path-like image I feel does help convey the sense that, whilst we are in the depths of the negative effects of the anthropocene as the polar bear is in the image, there is still a path forward, and time has not yet entirely run out. I kept the sky as a magenta, leaning more towards red to keep the water depth of the blue, as the darker colour leads the eye to recognise the magenta sky as something farther off, and doesn't disrupt the bulk of the image with the pattern, and helps give perspective to the whole scene. I left out the typography element in favour of digitally experimenting later, as I knew these were the thumbnails I would want to bring into Illustrator.

[d-wi-fmp]

Drawing my character

My most successful sprite was heavily inspired by the below sheet as I liked the look of it. However, stealing the sprite would be plagairism so I iterated on it until I was happy with what I had and felt it was original enough. My first try was a pinstripe suit - this wasn't great on the torso and became absolutely unreadable on the arms. My next attempt was via adding accessories, and this looked a lot better. I looked at typical mobster hats and noted the wide brims and bands around the base. This served as the inspiration for my second hat [the first looked like a WWII helmet which is weird because I can't draw them] - I planned on a darker spot at the centre top for the indent, but didn't have space. A shadow underneath was added for effect, but I later removed this. Trousers, a belt and suspenders were added because they were popular at the time the game is set, and wouldn't obscure the skelton's silhouette like a suit jacket did.

Other designs included the following, and each one looked bad.

My first shot at making him look like he's running gave him a galloping animation unfortunately. Not ideal

I evetually remade this animation at home using the below guide and, although I found it good enough, I really liked it once implemented in-game. I also offset the movement of gun/arms with the hat to make the character feel more dynamic which was a problem with the old animation

After using the outline normal map script, I created normal maps for my sprite animations. However, implementing them was difficult. I couldn't apply the normal of one sprite to another, nor could I apply the normal flipbook to the animation flipbook. Eventually, after following the below guide, I realised I could apply the entire normal map sprites texture to each frame, which worked. Below is the effect.

skeleton pride flag jumpscare

Initially my windup jump animation was comprised of 4 frames with anticipation and recoil, however although I was really happy with it, it took too long to play in game. As a result, I reduced it to this frame.

I had also forgotten to set the gun and arms to be visibile when I exported it - I didn't even notice why it felt weird until the day after. The normal was created by flattening the image and creating an edge normal and this was ok, but I felt I could do better

I tried running the script on every layer and it looked pretty much how I'd expected it to.

However, once implmented, I loved the amount of lighting detail I had. It wasn't perfect, but it made me realise that lighting per layers looked a lot better.

This was [eventually] recreated with my run animation. I tried using the sprite sheet but that had no layers so I had to manually copy every layer of every frame which sucked, but I'm fairly happy with the result.

[bricne-escapee-of-ivern]

Well, I'm here, at outpost rapunzle, there's not much here. I don't see people, just a dead asteroid base.

I did find some alcohol untouched, in a room with a lot of skeletons in tatters of red uniforms. It looks like it was once a bar before the attack. The strangest bit is that I see nobody who isn't part of that army here and many of them clearly were shot, and it looks like the shots were fired from near where a shattered and spilled bottle of whiskey is. I can tell because the bullet holes in the internal walls are in a semicircle around that point.

The rest is a lot less of a mass grave. I found one room with a bunch of dead red soldiers, and one pile of bone shards and fabric, a remnant of an id card that just says "Jack Spratt" is there. I presume Jack went out with a grenade to take down a bunch of people attacking him.

The atmosphere is still here, if a bit stale, and I found a lifeform, a small cat-thing with tentacles. I've decided to leave it be, though I left it some meat rations I had.

I also found a communications room, the hallway across from its door was riddled with holes, and dead soldiers, red uniform again, though one has the image of a white throne on their helmet. In a chair with an empty machine gun there's another corpse, he was the one that sent the broadcasts from here.

I don't know what happened here, besides an invasion, especially with all those dead in the bar. It looks like two people killed almost a hundred, two normal people. One of whom used a grenade to take down like 5 of them in suicide, and the other has a single bullet hole in his clothes, which apparently killed him. I know some people who could do this, but one never left my planet, and while the others were probably here at some point, the only one I know for certain was here at some point doesn't seem like the type to go white knight and hold off an invading force.

If anyone has any idea what happened here, feel free to reach out.

Oh, and I have a gun now, no ammunition, but I'm going to search for the power-plant and the armory before leaving.

[bluepoodle7]

#FakeGameBattle #JohnDoe #IfDoeWasAIllbleedBossAndHowToDefeatHim #Ending2InMyAU #ZableFable

Ending 2 Zable Fable would be the most scared of Doe since a knife is in play.

She would "die" but get up from her dormant shifter half and fight them off or teleport out of there to not hurt Doe.

Maybe fight Doe Illbleed style with her dual shot water gun she/they copied.

This would play in the battle but mainly from Janet.

Rootin-Tootin Love - SiIvaGunner: King for Another Day - YouTube

How a Illbleed stage and battle would work.

Mostly having the character enter a stage that looks like their house feeling safe but weirded out because they hear noises like scrapping & monster noises.

Your character opens the door to see Doe just there with a knife in hand then the battle begins but with the twinge sfx.

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I image if John Doe was a Illbleed boss with a stage.

The traps would be sight and smell based with a few hearing ones.

Have like mini doeballs attack you when your sixth sense goes off thinking its a item that you need.

Then you try to read the diary entries but you can't read them and have to find a decoder in the stage to finally read all the entries which unlocks the boss with a cutscene.

Doe would definitely have three Tv traps.

One where his is distorted and scary.

Another one where it's a chibi version of Doe doing something cute. (If you marked the trap right.)

You just do the got it pose without noise and continue on but you can still watch him do it.

(If marked.)

The battle

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I can also imagine John Doe's hair grabbing you & swinging you around if you fight close contact with Doe.

I imagine the other close contact weapon would be a pocket knife similar to Doe's.

Also having red glowing eyes similar to Stakataka as a warning.

Doe Illbleed style boss battle would be in his room but similar to the Queen Worm Level.

John Doe would attack the player with the knife and you can dodge them then later shoot Doe's fake body with water to slowly melt.

Then you see Doe freaking out and jumping into his trash.

This slowly heals Doe in battle that you need to spray the trash to "clean" his room to defeat him.

Bonus if you water gun spray Doe mid jump in the trash pile healing up or already in it.

But this would be the queen worm like stage Doe would hide in the trash in his house to heal up.

If you get close to the pile he will jump up and stab you but Zable's got those Illbleed controls in this Au.

Have a cutscene of his fake body melting in a face melting gruesome way then scuttling off as a hairball squeaking and bumping into things for a B movie effect.

A alternate Zable Fable or a Yousona that is scared of John Doe but can fight back be like.

I imagine when using the horror monitor of X-ray glasses on John Doe it just shows Doe's hair ball form similar to the anatomy.

Might make that part of the Au.

This is basically the Illbleed boss fight with John Doe in the Au if my art was good.

Found out Blue Stinger has a water gun which is cool.

28:36-28:42-32:22-32:28-32:29-32:37

Super Replay - Blue Stinger - Episode 13 - YouTube

John Doe Illbleed Au Feel

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John Doe's Illbleed stage in this Au feels like it would be a long walk similar to the ending to level 3 near the end to make you bleed out while also having traps that make your heart rate go up while having traps that make you bleed.

Maybe have Doe's vehicle hit you.

Also having the meat from level 4 randomly put in the level but it's censored for some reason like it's glitched out.

Every let's play the meat gets swapped out from chicken, beef, & pork but a fish one gets added.

The fish is just a fish head with a skeleton lower half frozen.

I can see Doe's house room level run out of messy hiding spots like it takes the level a little longer to reload those spots.

So I would make John Doe summoning a few Doeball little regular guys but be shown eating one to heal himself to represent him regaining body mass.

While your character can't heal in battle but the enemy can similar to Bullstinger mixed with the Cashman Cashman Juniors mini spiders enemies that are hard to hit since they are small but the water gun will work like the flamethrower but is a water version.

Doe would teleport like Banballow but can be pause menu stunned like Banballow, The Woodcutters, and Mary in the overworld chase scene.

I would make two endings one where you reject John Doe and you fight him off like classic Illbleed boss with a level to match.

Using his fake human form to pretend to be a rescued character but will be a trap you need to mark to avoid the boss battle that you can't fight.

The other route would be that you like him but the game still acts like a Illbleed level but Doe will want to talk saying it was a misunderstanding to fight you but he will be in his true human form texture.

Then the cutscene will act like a B movie love story but a new monster will replace John Doe and John Doe will be added as a rescued party member.

The photo taken will be the regular guy form in the picture but stretched out like his true form is inside of the fake body that bleeds fake blood.

You can also swap out the characters to use in the new boss battle but if you play as Doe the workers will make up a new monster but will glitch out in the middle of the battle.

This is due to the monster not fitting in the level theme while also being rushed out to be made that voice lines or sound effects don't exist while also will just freeze up and T-pose to expose the weakpoint that is a plug tail that you need to unplug to defeat the monster.

Another method is unplug and plug it back in to make the boss kind of works but it walks to where the worker that is controlling it to kill them.

The workers will freakout that they might be fired or killed due to this happening but your character will just shrug it off then walk away awkwardly to the clear end goal.

I can see the Illbleed worker in this au freaking out that you befriended the boss of the level that when the new boss gets introduced then the game will hastily play a intro backstory for the boss from the company that is made up with the narrator messing up saying the story.

I imagine if John Doe was a Illbleed level all the shock events are randomized in different places when your player character dies or you restart the level and maybe have the shock events push you into battles while the battles push you into shock events.

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I image John Doe being like Cork saving a Yousona from danger in his own little way.

I wonder if a Yousona is in really deep danger would John Doe save the yousona in like Dante's inferno or Persephone?

Mostly this version from HBO that I remembered as a kid.

Video not mine but link is there.

ATotW Fav. #2 - Persephone - YouTube

John Doe really be Hades kidnapping a Yousona like Persephone in the little time loop Doe makes.

And eating the pomegranate seeds is like the Ending 4 and the underworld is his house.

These posters would be a good Illbleed style poster but parody the names again and have Doe's true face appear randomly on the poster but make it hidden like a easter egg.

Images not mine but links are there.

Ending 2 | JOHN DOE Wiki | Fandom

Snek plays Illbleed (No Commentary) (Sega Dreamcast 2001) Part 1 (The Homerun of Death) - YouTube

CLEAR - YouTube

Wikihow Dog Sprayed By Hose | Know Your Meme

Meet John Doe (1941) - IMDb

What I imagine the John Doe and REALTORs Illbleed boss fights sounding like mixed with the Illbleed boss fight music since this song gives me Blue Stinger feels.

Intelligent Qube - Stage 2 - YouTube

The Illbleed boss music but it would be a little different for both boss fights similar to Sonic Adventure Battle 2 with the Egg Golem and Ghost boss fight being the same music but different in tone.

Illbleed - A Losing Battle (Boss) - YouTube

I always wanted both themes mashed up together right.

King Boom Boo & Egg Golem themes combined + tribute - YouTube

I would make John Doe's Illbleed boss theme more metal and spooky sounding with a glitchy static effect while the REALTORs is more house music with random house noises like door bells and house creaking added but both sound similar in tone.

[thehorrorhole]

highest honor i can bestow upon a character

[direwombat]

tagged by @natesofrellis and @funkypoacher for a wip whenever! Thank you lovelies!!! 💕💕

tagging: @harmonyowl, @thomrainer, @aceghosts, @confidentandgood, @socially-awkward-skeleton, @poeti-kat, @schoute and blanket-tagging anyone who has something they wanna share :) (but as always, no pressure)

Here’s a slightly-over-500-word blurb from fragile creatures, chapter 4 

(just for context, Cooper is sixteen, his little sister is eight, they lost their parents in the Reaping, and have been hiding in a bunker ever since).

“Look, I know you wanna fight back. Hell, you’ve been doin’ a good fucken’ job at it, but you have someone who needs you. You can’t stay here and keep doing this on your own if you want to keep her safe.”

Cooper falls silent, gently pulling his younger sister, who remains soundly asleep curled up in his lap, tighter against his chest. He frowns, his brow furrowing thoughtfully as he considers Rook’s words. “Where would we go?” he says eventually. “We don’t got family anywhere else. It was just us here.”

She thinks for a moment. Dutch is closer and more secure. Also, based on the notes from his family she found scattered in his bunker, it seems he isn’t terrible with kids. But she also worries that he’d only enable the boy -- encourage him to take up his Pa’s gun and get himself killed on the side of the road. Taking them to Whitehorse is the wiser choice. “There’s a safehouse in the Valley,” she tells him. “It’s guarded by the Sheriff and another Deputy. They’ll keep you both safe.” 

Cooper’s eyes snap up when she mentions another deputy. “Staci?” he asks.

“No,” Rook says, and it’s her turn to furrow her brows. “Joey Hudson.”

His shoulders slump. “Oh.” 

She looks at him curiously, her head cocked to the side. “You know Deputy Pratt?”

“Yeah,” Cooper nods. “He babysat me when I was like...six. He was cool.” A small smile tugs at the corners of his lips, his eyes unfocusing ever so slightly, lost in a memory. It’s the first time she’s seen him look anything even adjacent to happy. “I ain’t seen him much since he graduated, but Ma said he started workin’ for the Sheriff’s Department.”

She can’t help but return a fond smile. The thought of Pratt looking after someone’s kids is so at odds with the image she’s had of him. Reckless and constantly running his mouth, it’s a wonder he managed to become a public servant. She can’t fathom any adult trusting him with their children now, let alone when he was a teenager. But he must have been good at it, at least from Cooper’s perspective, judging by the expression on his face. 

And then it sours. He looks back at her, swallowing thickly. “Where --” he starts, but then he stops himself. “Is he okay?”

She hesitates, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. It pains her to tell the truth. She wants to lie so bad, protect him from all the terrible shit happening in the County. Reassure him that Staci’s fine, that everything will be okay. But the boy is perceptive. He barely trusts her as is, and if she wants to keep him safe, she can’t risk breaking it.

“I don’t know. Last I saw him he was…” She can’t say ‘good.’ Hell, she can’t even say ‘alright.’ The glimpses she caught of him through the dirt-caked window of the ranger’s station were concerning. Pale skin littered with cuts and bruises. Gaunt cheeks. Greasy hair. Sunken eyes. He looked like a zombie. A shell of the bright and vivacious man she’d come to know. “He’s hanging in there.”

She just hopes he can hang on a little longer.

[therewasatale]

stormy night

On Ao3.

Summary:  Sans is scared of the storm and thunder, but luckily you're here to help him out.

You had to fight a real battle with exhaustion but you always managed to turn your closing eyes into a blink at the last minute. The light from the TV filled the room, and the constantly alternating images and flashes were keeping you on the edge of sleep. You blinked a couple of times and moved your slightly numb left shoulder.

Well, the flickering was one of the things keeping you awake, the other was skeleton leaning on your shoulder slowly breathing.

You glanced down at the silently sleeping Sans, and a tiny smile appeared on your face as you listened to his steady and calm breathing. Every part of your soul was sure that you didn’t want to move a bit, your body parts, on the other hand weren't that sure, for example your arm, with the dull throbbing coming from it indicated that you will have to pay for this romantic notion in the future. Regardless, you wanted to extend this cuddly evening as long as possible.

Sans and Papyrus have been your guests many times, and Frisk too appeared a couple of times, but for this was the first time you two spent so much time alone.

You two weren't together, at least there was nothing said out loud, you didn't want to make a big thing about it, and you were sure neither he. Every time you were with Sans felt like warm, you loved his humor, and that you were able to talk with him about almost anything, and despite him making countless puns, you knew deep down that he was listening to you. There wasn't any kind of uncomfortable silent even when you two just sat next to each other, while Papyrus made his unique spaghettis. There was something in the skeleton that calmed you down, and you suspected the feeling was mutual.

You glanced at him.

In fact, you were pretty sure of it.

Beyond the window, lightning-streaked trough the sky, illuminating the walls of a nearby buildings. Your heart missed a beat, and you didn’t have to wait long before the sound exploded trough the sky. You could almost feel the echo of thunder in your bones. Outside the wind change in just moment into a gale and began to shake the branches of the trees violently. A real autumn thunderstorm rolled over the city.

Sans immediately pushed himself into a sitting position.

*what? where...?

It took him a few moments until he realized that you were next to him in the gloom. He rubbed his face, and huffed.

*…(Y/N)?

"Hey, it's okay, we just fell asleep in front of the TV." Reaching out, you turned on the floor lamp next to you. "Hey," you smiled softly at the skeleton and he answered the same way.

* hey. so I fell asleep, eh?

"Yeah, maybe this movie wasn't-" Your sentence was cut short by another flash and the room fell into complete darkness. "Damn, bloody storm."

*...storm?

Sans's voice seemed quieter now, muffled by the rumble of the storm, which was much closer now.

"I think the lightning must have blown something up or the wind knocked down a tree that fell on the power lines. It sometimes happens up here, when a major storm strikes in the early fall, but it's usually fixed right away."

*I...

The voice of the skeleton seemed uncertain now.

*I should go home.

"Sans?"

Reaching out, you gently touched his arm. "It's okay, it's just me." You said when you felt him wince. "Come on, well look for a couple of candles, based on how quickly the storm rolled over us, it's going to be over soon, I'll accompany you home then, all right?"

You picked up your cell phone and muttered a thanks to the heavens that it was almost fully charged. Turning on the flashlight feature, you turned the light towards the ceiling so you could see as much of the room as possible.

Sans gripped the side of his hoody and glanced nervously towards the window. He focused only the noises for a few moments, but when he felt your attention, he tore himself away from the storm.

*I...okay...

He stood up with you and stayed right next to you all the way to the kitchen.

"Everything will be all right; every window is shut." You patted his shoulders as you passed in front of your bath- and bedroom. "You don't like storms, do you?" asked him gently as you entered your kitchen.

*not really...the noises…

His hand shook as the thunder boomed so close it felt like ceiling was about to rupture any moment.

*down there were never such noises…mostly just silence.

You glanced at his hand, then at his tense shoulders. You wanted to do something, somehow help him relax. But hugging him felt wrong, maybe he wouldn’t like it, or he would become more uncomfortable. With a small sighed you just stepped the kitchen.

"I'm sorry, I think you still have to get used to everything new up here. Come on, the matches might be next to the sink, I'll find some of those candles in the meantime."

*ok…

Your cell phone’s tiny built-in flashlight has somewhat filled your kitchenette with light, and in the gloom, you began to rummage through your cupboards. Sometimes you glanced over your shoulder to see if Sans was okay. You wanted to move as fast as possible, but at the same time you had to make sure he was all right, at least all right in these circumstances.

Sometimes a flash from a lightning filled the room.

"Ah, I found them!" You turned back with three smaller ones in your hand.

*and here are the matches.

He said, raising and shaking a matchbox which based on the sound was at least half-full.

"Okay, let's go back to the living room. I hope it's not a problem that these are scented candles... I think chocolate, vanilla and raspberries."

As you stepped through the doorway to your living room, the rain began to pour outside. Hundreds of droplets pattered into the window glass like machine gun fire.

"Oh, crap. I'll be right there." You handed your cell phone and candles to Sans, then rushed to the windows and pulled down the shutters to muffle the noise from outside.

*I've never seen such a storm before.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." Going back to him, you placed the candles on the table and lit them one by one. "It's quite rare, it happens maybe two or three times a year." You smiled gently, but Sans's gaze was still focused on your window. He folded his arms in front of him, as he tried to hug himself, or more like protect himself from something.

"Hey, Sans, come on." You sat down on the couch and held out your hand towards him, you weren’t sure he would accept it.

He looked at you for a few moments and maybe he didn't know what to do at first either, but in the end, he took your hand and sat down next to you. You gently put your arm around his shoulder and pulled him closer to yourself. Even though he was full of bones, you still felt how tense his body was.

"I'll protect you," you said a bit awkwardly, but you meant it completely seriously. "It's just a quick storm."

*a quick storm.

He repeated slowly and took a slow breath.

"You don't like thunder, or it’s the rain too?"

*...the thunder...the rain is only annoying when I fall asleep outside and wake up drenched to the bone. but the storm, it always makes me jump out of my skin.

You snorted softly and put a kiss on his forehead. Glancing at him, you would have sworn bluish blush appeared on the monster's face.

He smiled very faintly, but as he looked back at the window, his smile disappeared.

*just the thunder...you know…it reminds me of something.

You waited quietly for him to continue, but he didn't. So first you drew tiny circles on his arm with your fingers and slowly pulled him closer. "Something?"

Another thunder interrupted your conversations.

"Damn thunder, I'm here, everything's fine." You said softly and continued to caress his arm. "What does it remind you of? Something happened down there?"

The answer came after a long pause.

*no...I don't remember...I just know.

He looked at you helplessly.

"Um," you kissed his forehead, and his left eye glowed bluish for a second. He looked away after a sharp breath.

*sorry.

You tilted your head to the side.

"Are you okay?"

*yes...

He squirmed between your arms not knowing where to look and what to do or say.

*you just surprised me.

A tiny smile appeared on your face and snuggling closer you gave a few tiny kisses to his skull. He gave out the same surprised breath and you were sure his eye sockets widened in surprise.

*(Y/N)...what are you doing?

"Distracting you," you replied with complete honesty, then while kissing his forehead you turned his head towards you.

The bluish glow didn't fade now as he looked at you.

"Your eyes are really beautiful." You said it as you caressed his face with your hand.

The glow of embarrassment spread trough under his eyes, as the left one began to sparkle in an azure blue color.

*no, they're not...these are just...because my soul...

"I'm sure it's just as beautiful too."

*don't say things like that.

He tried to hide his face with his hands, but the blue light escaped between his fingers. You couldn't stop yourself from having a short giggle.

"I'm sorry, I just haven't had a chance to see you like this." You pulled him very carefully into your arms and hugged him to yourself. He squeaked in surprise, but he didn't object when you pulled him down to the couch, he just snuggled up to you.

"I hope it's okay," you said hesitantly after a while. Your heart was pounding fiercely and with all your strength you were trying to calm it, to stop the pounding in your ear.

*no...just make sure I won't fall asleep on you.

"I will gladly watch over you."

He looked up at you and it was enough to just locks eyes with you to know you were serious about what you said. The candles were not really necessary anymore, as Sans eye was a perfect and infinitely more beautiful light source.

The raindrops were still falling fiercely out there, but the sounds could barely reach the two of you.

*are you sure? won't you be uncomfortable?

"Stay" you asked, kissing his forehead, but seeing his troubled face you reached for your phone and checked it. "Mh, even the lines are working now, so if you want, I'll call a taxi and we'll go home. But according to the forecast the storm will pass in a quarter of an hour or so, and we can walk home."

He squinted at your cell phone and just watched in silence for a while.

You slowly stroked his back, drawing gentle circles on it. You wanted him to stay, but you didn’t want to make the evening even more uncomfortable for him.

"I understand if you'd rather be at home and feel safer there. Maybe Papyrus can come here to get you..."

Sans took a couple of slow breaths and then buried his face into your clothes.

*no...no need.

"Hm?"

*I text to Papyrus that I'll stay and then go home in the morning.

"All right." You carefully wrapped your hand around him. "Take your time, my dear skeleton."

He once again began to glow faintly between your arms.

Outside, the storm seemed to slowly subside. Your shutters were no longer tugged on by the howling wind and you no longer had to fear that your windows might not hold up. Even the roar of thunder seemed to quiet into a grumpy growl.

*its not that so scary anymore.

"Yeah, these storms are always like that. They show up suddenly, they strike, then they keep going. Luckily, the air is always pleasantly fresh afterwards."

*mh ...

He answered while slowly yawning.

"Shall we sleep? Or should we just talk?"

*i can fall sleep at any time I want.

He said with some pride and for the first time in the evening he gave you a sincere smile.

"I believe you, but I think I should have some rest too." You stretched, letting your legs hung down from the edge of the couch.

*hm...i will send a message to Papyrus that I will stay here."

"Here, use my mobile since its already close."

Moments later, he nodded glancing down at the phone and looked up at you.

*he sends his greetings and thanks for taking care of me.

"Really kind of him, he is a really good brother." You smiled caressing his back gently.

*yeah, he's the coolest.

"Um, should we sleep in my room? There's more than enough space for two of us on the bed." You rubbed your eyes trying to delay the sleepiness for a while. "I'll be right there...I'm just gathering some resolve."

*well, maybe I can help. close your eyes, please.

You looked down at him in confusion, but there was something in his eyes that made you do what he said. He put his arms around you. For a moment you felt you were falling, then you landed on something soft.

*okay, you can open it now.

You glanced out the window of your bedroom and then at your bedside table, the clock on which showed nine pm.

"Teleportation?"

*maybe.

The skeleton slid under the blanket next to you with a cheeky smile and the confidence of someone at his own home.

"I could be pissed at such an answer, but damn you're amazing." You followed his example but gave him a small kiss on his skull at the end.

*no...I'm just a lazy skeleton.

"An amazing skeleton."

*lazy.

"That too." You yawned and gently caressed his face. "And pretty."

*(Y/N)...

"And kind." You chuckled gently as he tried to hide his face under your pillow.

*good night, (Y/N).

"And lovely." Raising the pillow, you kissed his cheekbone. "Good night, Sans."

*mh, yeah.

Yawning, he wiggled closer to you and fell asleep almost immediately. Maybe because it was the stress that made him this tired, or he just tried to get away from your gentle teasing.

"Good night" you stretched beside him and yawned gently, listening to his breathing. It didn’t take long for you to fall asleep next to him too.

[avoutput]

Mario Mario & Luigi Mario || Super Mario Bros.

The beginning of any quest has its starting pains. In the early 90’s, Hollywood set out to begin getting a cut of that sweet video game money. At the time, video games were mostly considered toys, and they were advertised as such. As the medium grew more adult, so did its films. Still, they had to begin somewhere, and why not with the biggest gaming property on the planet past and present: Super Mario Bros. This provided an unknowingly impossible challenge for creatives, one that is still a topic of intense discussion to this day. How does one balance the adaptation of a property from a completely different format into film? At the time, other films that looked similar to what Super Mario Bros would become had succeeded despite the challenges of adapting comics for film. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the first re-imagination of Batman since the 60’s went on to invigorate their respective properties. Today, comic book movie adaptations are the tent pole of every major movie studio. In the case of Super Mario Bros, despite its critical failure at the time, I honestly feel like the creatives succeeded. The ire this film would glean over time from both fans and the people behind the camera fuel its bad reception to this day. In my opinion, it is actually a success story in the world of video game adaptations, and a great place to start if you plan on watching every Hollywood attempt. I promise you this: it could be so much worse. And for later attempts, it was! But, does Super Mario Bros thwomp?

In my initial argument, I raised that these films should be broken down into categories including: Originality, Preservation, Construction, Delivery, and Fanservice. Originality and Preservation can be at complete odds with one another. In the case of Super Mario Bros, it turns out to be a good combination of both. They offset each other just enough to find a balance between the reality of our world and the fantasy of the mushroom kingdom. Sit back in your chair and imagine the real world of 1993, what films looked like back then, the landscape of video game culture. I think the creators had this very much in mind when they penned this movie. The very first thing that happens in the Super Mario Bros movie is the NES theme song with all the depth a stereo sound system can provide. It really sets your little gamer heart aflutter. It conjures up images of the brightly colored games. Using narration, they make promises of dinosaurs, meteors, and other dimensions. If you don’t think too hard, it kind of sounds like a version of Super Mario Bros that was advertised via the game manuals and cartoon show. If you are familiar with either, a pair of New York plumbers essentially get sucked down a drain pipe. This process is a little more drawn out in the film, but It turns out more or less exactly as good as could have been expected in 1993. In fact, the film really isn’t above sucking them down a drain pipe, they do crazier things, but I suspect that they wanted the plumbers to have a more direct conflict that would lead them to try and save princess Daisy.

The plot of the film is par for the course in a children's film and a direct consequence of the game itself, especially if you consider the 3rd entry. A good king and an evil military general, betrayals and coups, princesses sent to live in another realm only to return home with a pair of knights to dethrone the evil king. A tale as old as time, one that continues to be retold because it resonates with us. The filmmakers were really focused on this being a performance of realism meets fantasy This would come to be the major struggle that other video game movies would continue to have problems balancing. They took concepts from the game and gave them an original spin and most within the framework of the original work. Their creative license is often challenged for these choices, but in the context of making a live action Super Mario Bros movie in 1993, those challengers should check themselves. The real question you should ask yourself is, in this context, what would you have done differently? And would it really have been better? I struggled to find a way to truly make the concepts of this movie any MORE appealing, but it was surprisingly easy to make it worse. In one way, this film was a by the numbers kids adventure story, but it's being held to task mostly for failing to be a good adaptation of the game, a bar which didn’t exist when they made it, but one they set and cleared simply by attempting to do so much. All the Mario concepts are easily recognizable, which should be applauded, even in the face of them being a little wacky.

Despite its failings in authenticity, it actually packs quite a lot of fanservice into almost every frame. If you pay attention once they enter Bowser’s domain, the walls are littered with little ads and jokes all based on Mario properties. This is all in an effort to please fans, but the film does tend to leave these little things in the background, the camera more focused on the characters and plot, so blink and you miss them. If anything, this duty to fanservice seems somewhat creatively arresting. Had this film not been an adaptation of another work, they may have opted to skip a few things, like how Mario and Luigi employ the use of mushrooms. In the game, these would make the bros bigger, but this would have been a bit at odds with the backdrop of the grimmy New York City analogy they chose, not to mention technically difficult. People have been squashing miniatures for years, but I just don’t see this being a good use of the film’s time given every other decision. The film's overwhelming attempt to create entirely new flesh on the skeleton of an animated game is really only hampered by the audience's willingness to enjoy it for what it is, by questioning every creative decision. A lot of effort was taken to make the world feel cohesive, especially in its attempt to be parallel to existing New York City. They even take time on some more clever jokes that go somewhat unspoken. Everything in Bowser City runs on electricity, including the cars. The idea here is that fossil fuels do not exist because the dinosaurs of this world haven’t ever fossilized. Or maybe the dinosaurs knew it was bad for their planet? The film is constructed and delivered in such a way as to not take itself too seriously, but to appear parallel to something familiar to our own world in conjunction with the Super Mario world.

After having sat through the film with an earnest critical eye, I am not going to tell you the film is greater than the sum of its parts or that it's fantastic because it set out on an uncharted path. Instead, what I will attest to is that it was truly competent. It made every attempt to give you what you wanted and also took a few of their own twists on the formula. Bullet Bills turned into fuel for jumping, Bomb-oms wear Reeboks, shoes facilitate their ability to jump but also satisfy the boot you wear in Super Mario Bros 3. They even use the lightgun from the NES to navigate screens much like a mouse and the SNES super gun as a weapon! All this and still they found a way to make it all fit within the italian brothers from Brooklyn framing. Unfortunately, it would seem no one really learned anything from the success or the failures of this film. If the 90’s game films are any indication, the only thing they learned is that the box office is fickle and to double down on fan service even when it doesn't make sense, and in some cases, abandon everything about the game entirely and simply slap the name on a completely original film. And yet, despite all the bad press and internal struggles the Super Mario Bros production had, they came out the other end with an inoffensive, enjoyable film that both kids and adults can enjoy. Especially if they forgive the film any perceived sins, a gift that all film adaptations deserve, and just try to recognize what they really accomplished. Bringing to life a world that only existed in your Nintendo. It may not have been pretty, but damn if it wasn’t entertaining.

[hughiecampbelle]

Achilles Heel (Thomas Shelby Oneshot)

Character/s: Thomas

Word Count: 1,068

Inspired By: Liability by Lorde

Tag List: @dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt @myriadimagines @lilyswritings @encounterthepast @writerdream22 @death-of-a-mermaid @lotsoffandomrecs @woahitslucyylu @obsessedunicorn24 @thedarkqueenofavalon @fangirlsarah16 @theshelbyclan @captivatedbycillianmurphy @creativemayhems @soleil-dor @thegirlwithoutaname87 @fifty-shadesof-tommyshelby @riana-jannat

A/N: I'm tired of being called "too sensitive" so I wrote about it. I'll get back to the fic requests this weekend, I just needed this to get it all out before I can focus on anything. This sort of got away from me, being a lot longer than I anticipated, and though I know it could be better, I quite like it :) Anyways hope you like it my loves!!! Feedback is always appreciated 💜💖💜

Summary: Where Thomas sees weakness, you see strength 💕

Gif Credit: @nofckingfighting :)

FIC MASTERLIST PART ONE. / PART TWO. / PART THREE.

WANNA BE ADDED TO THE TAG LIST?

From the moment he saw you, he knew. The ways in which God herself sewed you, and him, and the rest of the world, were different. She made you in her image, her divine, and yet the things in the world, her child, the people on it, turned you into who you are. What you are. Mass casualties. Not in the same sense, though. You were enemies at war, not allies. Where he was jaded, jagged, sharp, his body a myriad of tense angles and tight muscles, you were nothing of the sort. Your skin made thin, wanting, begging to be torn apart by the slights look, the harshest word. The sorrows of the world turned your insides black, toxic, poisoned, leaving you a crumbled, coughing up your own tainted heart in your hands. Your eyes an inky pool, tears streaming down your face. The criticisms of others were arrows, puncturing deep within your spinal chord. Every where you went you bruised easily, effortlessly, without a second thought. Pieces of you catching on corners, punctured by nails in the floorboards, shredded by the weight of what was to come.

Behind that desk, Thomas Shelby expected nothing of you: his first mistake.

This life of yours could be a painful one, the difference was he was ready and you were not. Encased, a bullet in his own right, flinching softly, instead of the violent ways you reached for yourself. A show, a ballet, of movements, eyes shut, cries loud, your prayers spoken softly. She would not help though, she couldn't. There was nothing of you to fix. Only the first day. A glass shattering, slipping from its silver platter. The rest only stared. Sometimes it seemed you were the only one to ever understand what had happened, to hear it for what it is and not what they assume. Smashing glass, a glittering, shimmering puddle at your feet, sticky with whiskey. Your face on fire. Determined, nonetheless. Picking yourself up, cleaning it off, steadying the shaking in your hands. A job offer. Word spread quick in a place like this. You, with those scared eyes, those nervous, writhing hands, all the ways in which you held yourself with care, tenderness, too aware of the way they could see right through you, stood in that line among many. Stepping through those doors, heavy against your paper skeleton. It wouldn't take more than a rainy day to ruin you. Something he couldn't help but noting.

It wasn't the gun, or the man behind the gun that got you killed in this business, but feeling too much. Letting your emotions get the best of you. Wearing your heart on your fucking sleeve.

The rest questioned why you were accepted on the spot, the rest turned away before they had the chance to prove themselves. Some thought he was sweet on you, others joked you reminded him of his mother. Fragile. But the war had done something to him, and in return, he would do it to you. A man as arrogant as himself believing there is one way to be. That the spikes under his skin and the bite of his teeth were superior to your kind smiles and soft touches. If you were going to be part of this job, no matter how small a role you played, you had to be resilient. He had no time for tears, especially bit by his assistant. The glass left the pads of your fingers shredded, but the shame you carried from then on out would only grow. He was not an easy man to please, but he picked your every breath apart. It became a living nightmare. The others, in response, were far kinder, standing up for you behind closed doors, their tones pounding on his closed office door. The words were muffled, suffocated, but you understood nothing about you was said with bad intentions.

At least, not by them.

The words he plucked were made of razors, intending to slice you right down the middle. You weren't sure what he liked more. Seeing the pain in your eyes as if you'd been slapped across the face, holding your stinging skin, or the way, after, you straightened your back and held your head high in response, turning the other cheek, daring him to do it again. Those malleable pieces of yourself weren't hardening. The care you felt towards everyone regardless of who they were or what they did couldn't change because of a bully. He wasn't changing anything about you the way he anticipated, you were simply putting on a better act. The way you slumped in your chair didn't go unnoticed. The thought of quitting dug itself into your mind daily. Waking up, getting ready, you fought the impulse to lash out, tell that man to fuck off, and never see him again. But that meant waving your white flag, and one thing you were not was a quitter. Nothing would you make you kneel and kiss his feet.

It was in your nature, to bleed when others did, to mourn the dead of which you did not know, to feel the pain others neglected. He was no different. So no, he did not respect this. He looked down on you, and anyone else alike, because of this. There was no changing his stubborn, small mind. But he turned a blind eye to all the times he take solace in this. A late night, a regular occurrence, Thomas bent over his desk, eyes heavy, head pounding. There was no end in sight. You knocked on the door with hesitation, not wanting to startle him, intending to wish him a goodnight. What you found should not be left alone. Instead, with grace, and care, you slipped his coat over his shoulders, placing the papers just out of reach. Without effort his head fell in his arms, sound asleep in seconds. You locked every door and window, turning the lights low, making your chair a bed for the night. No one should sleep alone. He never mentioned that night, nor was he any less harsh because of it, but you knew it was something he thought about often, appreciating in his own way. . . .

Think what he might, say what he might, assume the worst based on nothing but a characteristic, but there was absolutely fault or flaw in being too sensitive.

[samiii-p]

miss temptation (I don’t think you know) 1/?

aka The Maryan Roommate AU no one asked for 🙃 ao3

“You need a home address by next week or I’m writing you up.”

Fuck

Scratching an 'X' over another available apartment listing in the newspaper, Ryan grunts, blacking it out in her frustration. This one was her last true option within her price range and it was about the size of a walk-in closet with a communal bathroom to boot.

And no, just no. God no.

At least the last one had a view. It was a brick wall of the neighboring apartment but one nonetheless.

“You know for someone who needed this job, you sure don’t look the part.”

Sucking her teeth, Ryan glances up from her troubles, spots Luke in his custom three piece suit, grumbles and glances back at the paper where the only options left cost an arm and a leg to stay. Gotham wasn’t cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but selling her organs on a monthly basis just to get by didn’t seem all that appealing either.

“What do you want, Luke?”

“Can’t a guy just stop by?”

“Sure.” Ryan says, flipping the newspaper to the next page, maybe she could find something outside of town. The commute would be hell, but at least she’d have an address and her parole officer would finally get off her back. “I take it that’s not what you’re here for though.”

She hears him harrumph and nothing else. He does it a second later, again … and again.

“Okay, how can I help you?” She asks, sliding her current issues down the counter. Another 18 months in jail won’t hurt, let alone leaving the city in shambles when Batwoman disappears again .

Luke tilts his chin, hard line forming between his brows, a look Ryan has grown accustomed to over the past few weeks. Even though he’s apologized and promised to give her a chance until Kate’s return, there's still a tiny bit of friction lying beneath the surface no matter how much they both try to ignore it.

Reaching into his breast pocket he unearths a photo and slides it across the bar into Ryan’s line of vision. A picture of a black mask, outlined like a skeleton, stares up at her with cold hard eyes. In the corner a coiled snake is drawn with Luke’s handwriting underneath.

Snakebite - fear toxin/mushrooms

“Um, who or what am I looking at?”

He thumps the photo twice. “I was hoping you could tell me. You said you run in similar circles-”

“- ran.”

“As Victor Zsasz, I was hoping you could tell me a little about our friend here.”

“Sorry to tell you this but, no.” She pushes off the bar with a huff, nodding at the photo. “Whoever this person is, is new in town. At least to me.”

“Yeah, well his snakebite is hitting the streets like a plague and no one knows its source. There’s only this photo as a possible supplier but there’s no name, no facial recognition, no origin or leaks, no nothing.”

“So what do we do?”

“You suit up.”

Heat signature enabled, Ryan takes a look around the abandoned building noting two low level street hands Luke identifies as TJ Pillar: 1 to 3 strike for armed robbery and Curtis Armstrong: out on parole for possession.

“Come on, dude.”

She totally gets how uneasy it is to get back on your feet after spending a little over a year incarcerated but at least try to do better.

“What?” Luke asks through the coms, Ryan ignores him, scouting more of the building. It’s been over an hour and nothing. They wouldn’t be here if no one was coming but it’s growing closer to midnight and she has to be back at work at nine.

“Can’t I just bring them in? It’s late.”

“I mean you could, but it’ll be a waste of time. The guys on the street don’t know anything except to wait for the drop here.”

“And we couldn’t call in Gotham PD or the Crows for surveillance because..?”

“Hey, you wanted the job, this is what it entails.”

Behind the mask, Ryan’s eyes roll, mocking this is what the job entails meh meh, like she's a child grounded for the night, which, all things considered…

“Besides, it’s not like you have anything better to do.”

“Okay! Okay!” Over the coms, Ryan hears hushed voices arguing, a muffled ‘no’ then the sound of chairs being switched, Luke’s voice replaced by Mary’s, “heeey, girl. How ya’ doing?”

She smirks, attitude vanishing the moment the heiress speaks. Call it a general preference to all things sans-Luke based but she’d one hundred present rather talk to Mary until the butt crack of dawn instead of Mr. Kate would do it like this and Kate would do it like that. For starters Mary’s a lot nicer. Calmer. Funnier, I mean the girl’s one liners are top tier, bone tickling funny.

And well, she was a hell of a lot prettier too.

“Oh, you know, just pulling an all-nighter right before my day shift.”

A hiss sounds dramatically over the intercoms, the image of Mary’s twisted face pops up and Ryan can almost see the apple of her cheeks bunching and her eyes closing in that cute ass scrunchy face she makes when she’s thinking hard or embarrassed clear as day.

“Don’t worry about it, you can always come in later.”

“You enable her by making exceptions.”

“Luke!”

“What!?”

More muffled noises, a bang and yelp later Mary comes back on. “What I was getting at is that if you want to come in a little bit late, it’s totally fine or we can even change your schedule to mid-day, as your boss and fellow bat accomplice, I would totally understand.”

The corner of Ryan lips quirks up, “you don’t have to do that.”

“I do. We don’t know for sure how long you’ll be out tonight. Coming in afterwards is going to be draining-”

“It’ll be draining for all of us.” Luke yells.

“Shh!”

Unfortunately, Luke has a point. It's not fair on the team if she’s the only one taking the easy way out when they all have lives and responsibilities outside of the cave to adhere to, and a mid-day shift would never work anyway. Mid-day is Officer Steven’s favorite time of day to intrude on Ryan’s life.

“No that’s okay,” Ryan says, “Luke’s right. I have to put on my big girl panties and suck it up like everyone else, besides, I’m going to be too busy selling body parts for an overpriced cardboard box in the foreseeable future or it's a one way ticket back to Black Gate-”

“Wait, what-?”

“Oh, hold up.” An engine alerts Ryan to an incoming vehicle speeding into the warehouse disrupting their conversation. “We got action.”

Censors pick up on a lone body inside, facial recognition scanners kick on and work to identify the driver’s profile as well as the car’s make, model design, vehicle number and license plate number are all shot over to home base for further analysis. She twitches them off once complete just in time to see a window roll down and a hand throw two duffle bags out the window before speeding off.

“Did we get anything?”

A beat passes before Mary’s back on, “Not yet. Gotham PD and the Crows database has no facial identification, Luke’s expanding the search but the car is unmarked, plates false, even the tires vin numbers have been scrubbed. Whoever this person is, really doesn’t want to be found.”

From Ryan’s personal experience, news like that is never good. Someone that deep undercover either has a checkbook large enough to make themselves disappear or an iron grip so ruthless the utter mention of their name is probable cause for permanent removal. This was going to be harder than any of them expected.

“Keep me posted.”

Kicking off the beam she leaps down sticking another perfect grand entrance; hoping the acclaimed symbol printed on her chest will be enough to scare off the bad guys for once.

She is really tired after all.

Unfortunately, Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb both reach for guns, shooting before she can warn them to stand down. And there goes her ‘early’ night. Figures.

“Ya’ll know I’m fucking bullet proof, right?”

Another bullet ricochets off the suit as she takes a step forward. Idiots. Surprisingly they keep at it until the clip clinks, empty, and Ryan comes face to face with Curtis who tries throwing a punch she easily ducks, coming back up to head butt him so hard his knees crumple. His coworker steps up and he’s a bit more of a challenge throwing blow for blow with her until she ducks up under him and comes back with a roundhouse kick to his Adams apple. He clutches his windpipe, now down on one knee she delivers the final blow to the bridge of his nose.

She picks up the bags and hightails it out of there, latching onto a high beam for an easy escape, and heads towards G.C.P.D where she drops the contraband with a note attached of where they can find the assailants tied up and ready for arrest.

“Why didn’t you tell me you’re homeless!?”

Ryan wonders if disrupting her day as a civilian was going to become normal protocol for Luke and Mary going forward and on a recurring basis.

“I wouldn’t say homeless.”

“How else would you classify living out of your van down by the docks?”

“Surviving on wheels – ow!” Ryan giggles, rubbing her shoulder and doesn’t know whether to cower or soothe the frustrating scowl rapidly spreading across her friend’s face. “How’d you find out?”

“I had Luke track you after you left last night.”

“Wow, talk about invasion of privacy.”

“And for good reason, why didn’t you say anything?”

Ryan flips an empty glass, dries it out before placing it on the rack and considers how to move the conversation forward, possibly far, far away from this topic all together. The best she comes up with is, “it’s handled.”

Handled ends up being a 200 square feet one room apartment Mary demands to see. The bedroom, kitchen and living room are all one in the same but at least she has her own bathroom. The walls are paper thin, she’s pretty certain the constant dripping sound is coming from the kitchen, one she can easily fix after a YouTube tutorial or two, and a hotter than hell furnace the landlord warns her not to touch when the temperature is anywhere over 60 F unless she enjoys suffocating.

She watches Mary take in the room, the petite brunette moving in a slow swirl on her heels, lip turned down and Ryan just knows it’s not good when they make eye contact.

“Nu-uh.”

“What do you mean nu-uh?” Confused, Ryan watches Mary storm past her and out the door. “Mary! Mary, what does that mean? Mary!?”

Mary breaks her housing contract. When Ryan tries to object she quickly learns that all 5’2 of Mary Hamilton-Kane is nothing to play against and a powerhouse forced to be reckoned with.

… It kind of gets Ryan hot under the collar watching Mary tell her landlord exactly what’s about to happen, and cutting a check like it's nothing in the process.

Assertive has always kinda been her type.

“You’ll be staying here.”

Mary says, showing Ryan around her penthouse in the upper echelon of Gotham City. The apartment is just shy the size of a department store, the lounge being big enough to take up most of the square footage, built in with four bedrooms, one now officially hers, one for guests and another used for office space and three huge bathrooms big enough to house a football team.

“Jesus,” the name slips under her breath as she takes it all in. This place is – is. It’s too much. “I can’t afford this.”

The carpet under her feet probably cost more money than she'll ever see in her lifetime.

“Well, it’s a good thing I’m not asking you to pay anything.” Ryan quickly gets shut down as Mary carries on, “until you can save enough money to get back on your feet. It’s the least I can do. Being this city’s vigilante is hard work. The last thing you need to worry about is where you’re going to lay your head at night.”

It makes sense, but still. “I’m not comfortable asking you - I won’t use you.”

“You’re not.” The med student emphasizes. Mary takes the box out of her hands and places it on a dresser. “My home is yours now, bestie. Stay as long as you want to.” And before Ryan can prepare herself, Mary’s arms are snug around her waist and her cover girl smile is beaming up at her.

This is going to be terrible.

It’s worse.

Far worse than Ryan could have ever predicted. Not only is Mary super considerate of her new roommate, but she makes her resources Ryan’s own. She’s never slept so good, ate so well or drank water so delicious for that matter. Until recently she thought water was just water but Mary’s fridge is full of this alkaline stuff straight from the mountains, and Ryan swears she can never look back.

“You want pickles?”

Ryan visibly gulps, sitting on the couch, eyes focused on anything other than Mary prancing around the kitchen in her underwear. Mary’s always been super comfortable in her skin but especially at home when she’s surrounded by her things in her place of peace and why shouldn’t she be, this is her home. Ryan wants her to go about as she normally would, actually prefers if Mary pretended Ryan wasn't there altogether. The last thing she wants is to intrude or take up space but she can only take so much. It’s been nearly a month of coming home to Mary asking how her day was, waking up to Mary smiling at her over homemade breakfast or passing out on the couch cuddled together after another failed movie night. There’s only so much she can take.

What they’re doing is borderline domestic. And Ryan’s too gay for this.

“…pickles?”

“Hmm – what?”

“I asked if you want pickles on your sandwich?”

"Uh, sure."

Handing her a plate, Mary plops down on the couch leaving no space between the two and licks the pad of her thumb, humming pleasantly at the taste.

Ryan bites the inside of her cheek. “So, what are we watching?”

Hopefully something gory, and bloody staring a cis-het white male. Anything to take Ryan’s mind off of Mary Hamilton.

Mary chooses Its Okay Not to be Okay on Netflix and by the end of episode 2 both girls are huddled together, simping hard for all the three leading actors. Mary is obsessed with Kim Soo-Hyun's entire face and Ryan’s pretty sure if Seo Ye-Ji stomped on her in six inch heels and dragged her through the mud, she’d thank her.

At least they can agree Oh Jung-se is a freaking king and is killing his role as Moon Sang Tae.

It's nearly midnight before they start to turn in, cleaning up the little mess they made, Ryan shuts off the lights and walks Mary to her room; the first door to the right.

“Night.”

It kind of feels like a date, which is absurd. She knows. But can you blame her when pillow soft lips press against her cheek and Mary breathes, “sleep tight, Ryan” in her ear. Its stupid. She’s being stupid, and seeing things that arent there. Or maybe she needs to get laid. Whatever she needs to do, Mary can’t be a part of it.

After weeks of failed interrogations the team finally manages to catch a break. A source looking to get out and start over leaks the warehouse location where a scheduled supply of ingredients are due to be shipped in at any day now. Niko of course makes Batwoman promise to protect him at all cost and that means working with the Crows.

“Where’s the shipment being dropped?” Sophie asks.

“Unimportant.”

The lieutenant cocks her head to the side, unsurprised at how this conversation is going. The Bat has never worked well with authority in this town, no matter who dons the emblem.

“The only thing I need is for you to make sure Niko is somewhere safe, undetected.”

“Is he at least willing to stand trial in the event you manage to catch this guy?”

“I think that all depends on if your team can keep him alive. Crow.”

The alley is dark, damp and the chill fogs Sophie’s breath as she sighs. “You're going to get yourself killed. I know you have something against my badge and everything it stands for, but it can do some good if you let it. Now, tell me where the shipment is and I can have my team there as back up in seconds. We can get this drug and these thugs off the street.”

That word makes Ryan's jaw tingle. Thug. Of course a Crow wouldn't understand that sometimes people do bad things to make ends meet, but it doesn't make them bad people. To a Crow they’re all the same and need to be locked away never to see the light of day again. Including her.

“Focus on our informant. If I need you for anything else I know how to find you.” And she’s gone, vanished in a cloud of fog.

“Nice job pissing off potential allies.” Ryan switches her coms off.

The warehouse is guarded heavily by six men up top, double the number at the bottom not including the others unloading trucks full of supplies. Photo analysis identifies them and sends the information to Gotham P.D. before she strikes.

“Hope you’re ready for this. If we’re lucky this can all be over tonight.”

“Don’t I know it.”

Taking it as his cue, Luke hits the lights covering the warehouse in complete darkness. Motion sensors switch on and Batwoman moves into action. The training her team insists she go through pans out as she’s able to take out four guys twice her size in fast compact moves. One guy goes over the railing after she cracks him in the nuts with the steel toe of her boot. His strangled whimper is heard all the way down, but hey, no one ever said this was going to be a fair fight.

The team at the bottom catches on and gun fire immediately follows, running across the bridge Ryan spreads her arms and flies through the air, her red and black cape bellows behind her as she sticks another perfect superhero landing. All at once it seems like twenty people are coming at her from all different angles but as always she's quick on her feet tying a handful of them up by their ankles and running through the rest with a non lethal taser, just enough to subdue until she can contain everyone before she starts asking questions.

“We ain’t telling you shit!”

Another guy spits on her shoe, the red of his blood splattering against her boot and she rolls her eyes. There’s no need to be nasty.

“Look, I’m trying to help you guys out here.” Spotting a pair of boobs in the corner, she course corrects, “and girls - theys? Whatever! I’m trying to help you all out here. This thing,” she holds up a box of snakebite, “is killing the community and while it may bring you all brief satisfaction, financially, what’s it going to do for your futures when you get caught, to your families?”

“Who knew the new edition of the Bat came with such a bleeding heart?”

“Well, she does. So if anyone here is willing to tell me anything that’ll point me in the right direction of your boss, I promise I can protect you, get you somewhere safe.”

From the little the authorities have been able to dig up about this gang, anyone willing to betray their leader either winds up dead or living their last days in a vegetative state. That’s why it’s so important to have Niko, no matter the length it takes to protect him, it was for the sake of Gotham.

“I said-!”

“I heard you the first time,” Ryan says, cutting him off, “And I don’t know what you’re used to but I’m only going to tell you how this is played once. I ask the questions and you give me the answers, if you don’t, have fun rotting in jail or better yet … I can let the little I do know out onto the streets.” She bends down right in front of the man and lifts his rabbit mask, exposing his face. In seconds she knows his name. “I’m sure your boss would love to know who’s ratting him out, huh, Robert Michael Humprey?”

The terror in his eyes says it all.

[dragonrajafanfiction]

Shandy Gaff

fic request for @gothlebedev

“Nono, the troops are coming back. We can hold them back easily, but I hear them calling reinforcements. I don’t know what ‘the Bomb is’ but it doesn’t sound good.”

Nono was in a records room in a German lab. She was almost invisible in her black bodysuit, skin tight to allow her to crawl through the tunnel necessary to find this place. Years ago it was used for research on dragons and hybrids and had spawned projects like “Delta” that produced the horrors of Black Swan. At this point, Nono was looking for a very specific record that might lead to the Dark King. She was standing in the basement hall below what was the building’s original foundation with a pin light. Her Profiling skill was active and her mind ran with ideas. They wouldn’t have such sensitive information in such an obvious place as a file cabinet or a desk drawer.

As she scanned around the room, her eyes fell on art and then they narrowed. It wasn’t unheard of for works of art to have important documents on the back. In fact, she remembered someone accidently finding a copy of the Declaration of Independence on the back of a painting. 

But which painting? 

“Nono, you have about 10 minutes.”

“Don't worry. I’m close.”  Her eyes fell on the image of a devil being thrown from heaven. It had to be that one. She removed the picture from the wall and cut into the backing with her pin knife. Sure enough, files began to fall out. What she saw made her eyes widen in terror. It wasn’t files but photographs.

“Nono, did you find anything? You have to get out. The troops are retreating!” Caesar was yelling in her ear but she couldn’t respond.

The person in the pictures was Lu Mingfei. But the pictures were dated decades ago. She hesitates, unsure of what to do. She suddenly realizes that she wasn’t supposed to find this information. Lu Mingfei is closely related to the Dark King? There was no way Anjou couldn’t know this.

“Nono! Where are you?” Caesar asked.

She stood up. Part of her wanted to destroy all this information. At the beginning of the mission, she thought that what she would find was information on a Dragon King’s awakening. She imagined an egg or some sort of influx of Dead Slave monsters. Not her lackey.

Not him.

A sudden feeling of danger! Nono’s eyes widened and she jumped to the side just for some sort of black shadow of a small person to follow her! The wall where she was standing collapsed completely in a cloud of dust as this shadow collided with it. She staggered back and pulled her pistol, but the black shadow pounced, ignoring the flash of the muzzle. It’s eyes were blazing gold, it looked like it was nothing but a skeleton, but the bullets deflected harmlessly off its dark skin. It arced its claws right at her throat. Nono stopped shooting and leaped back. She lifted her foot in a savage kick but it latched onto her leg with all four limbs and bit down hard.

“Nono! Answer!”

Her leg was burning. The creature wasn’t releasing her leg but biting again and again! Nono lifted her pistol and fired point blank mercury rounds into its temple. Black pieces of flesh flew away from its head, exposing the brain to mercury and it flopped over and died.

Nono’s breath was accelerated beyond normal. She raised a shaking hand to her temple. Her heart was fluttering in her chest. She was going to black out. It was poison. It had poisoned her. She’d been bitten four? Maybe five times? Each time those fangs filled her with poison.

Gasping into the communication channel she forced her numbing tongue to move. She wanted to tell him that she loved him. That she was sorry. But all she managed to say was … “Caesar…” Before her lungs suddenly stopped. 

“Where is she?!”

“I’m still showing her in the basement.” Lu Mingfei’s nervous and quiet response came over. 

“I’m going in. Chu Zihang. Cover me.”

Her comm was full of the sounds of gunfire.

“Nono, I’m coming, just hang in there. Stay where you are!”

Her diaphragm was paralyzed. By the time Caesar arrived she would have suffocated. Even without oxygen, Nono’s mind raced, putting out the calculations. Even if he managed to obtain a vehicle, her brain would be hypoxic for several minutes. Unless he had an antidote for a strange poison in his pocket… she wouldn’t be able to breathe. CPR won’t work… if the blood has no oxygen….

Outside, Lu Mingfei got nervous. “Caesar! Come in Caesar! The retreat was false! They’re coming back with reinforcements!” Black trucks filled with vehicles were returning. “I don’t think I have enough ammunition for all of them!”

Lu Mingfei leaned on his sniper rifle. From his position, he could see the compound. It wasn’t that large, surrounded by a relatively simple perimeter fence. “Chu Zihang. What’s your position?”

“There’s a munitions depot. But all I have here are heavy explosives…”

Caesar’s voice was heavy. “Then that’s enough. Let them enter the facility and set them off.”

Chu Zihang paled. “These people aren’t dragons… school rules dictate…”

“If you won’t do it, then get out of my way.”

Chu Zihang fell silent, coming to the grim conclusion. “Mingfei, get out of range. You’re still in the blast radius.”

“Get out? But… you’re not serious about setting off all those explosions and killing all the soldiers? They’re just people-”

“Nono’s dead.”

“No… that's not possible.”

Chu Zihang sprinted across the facility where a truck was under a tarp. It was armored but there were no keys. He immediately got to work trying to hotwire the thing.

The soldiers flooded the facility looking for targets, aiming their black guns, looking for anything that moved.

A sudden powerful shot and a man fell despite wearing full body armor. Then his body caught on fire! Chu Zihang could see that the bullet was an alchemy round! Caesar had used alchemy rounds on a regular human!

The man’s body filled with evaporated fluids, swelled and burst apart. Caesar stood in the smoking ruin. The body of Nono was still in his arms, still limp, not yet seized by rigor mortis. In an instant, Scythe Itachi went out and he was aware of the position of every enemy soldier.

Chu Zihang scrambled to work faster on the truck. “Mingfei! Go! He’s not going to leave anyone here alive!”

“No! I can still save her!” Mingfei’s voice was a shrill scream.

“You can’t! Mingfei!” 

No response.

Caesar’s skill with a gun was unnatural especially when using Scythe. He didn't have to move his head, just his arms, slight changes in the position of his wrist. His eyes were closed and his guns did not stop firing. Soldiers ran up to him and fell to the ground as though they were running into an invisible wall, or as though they were struck with a sudden sleepiness and lay down where they stood, each one killed by a neat bullet to the forehead. Caesar made his slow and steady progression to the weapon Depot.

The truck roared to life and Chu Zihang sat up and pushed the pedal to the floor. The soldiers fired but their bullets couldn’t pierce the vehicle. He smashed through the gate and onto the exit road. The lone figure of Lu Mingfei was recklessly running in the open towards the military base. Chu Zihang spun the steering wheel and blocked him. “Lu Mingfei!”

Chu Zihang’s heart stills. Mingfei’s eyes were blazing golden. He’d never seen that before in his life. Even though he had golden eyes and he could intimidate others, the eyes of Mingfei were otherworldly, something beyond even him. He was filled with fear and, while he worried about the coming explosion from the military base, he feared getting in the way of Mingfei Lu even more. He redirected the truck and kept going.

Not a single soldier survived that day. Not even the base survived. It was obliterated in a blinding flash of light. Every building was turned rubble down to the foundation and all the information in the basement was destroyed.

----------------------

“Next item on the list, we have the preliminary budget for the lacrosse team. We had a stellar year last year and we’re looking forward to an amazing performance now that we’ve drafted Ignius von Merrida from Morocco to the team. He's a two time champion on his home turf and so far his career shows no sign of slowing down…”

Caesar’s eyes slipped from the screen in front of him to look at the photo at the end of his desk. Nono stood in a white sundress with a large straw hat. She hadn’t wanted him to take that picture but the sun was going down on the Gulf of Genoa and her eyes were so bright they outshined it. The photo didn’t do it justice. 

Three years had passed. People had watched to see if Caesar would retire. While Nono was the love of his life, his life had a motivation outside her. He was still, at heart, a dragonslayer. He was still a family rebel. He still had his goals.

But Nono had brought a certain spark, a bright light and excitement into his life that was now lacking. Before she showed up sing-songing her challenging invitation to join her to go see Chicago, there was nothing truly special about his life. Other people had money, strength, property and prestige. But no one had her besides him.

His phone chimed. “Ceasar you won’t believe what I found. Look at this!”

It was a message with a photo from MC. She was standing in front of an X-Men arcade cabinet.

“I haven’t seen one of these since forever. Come on, come play with me!”

Caesar felt something inside him stir. He took one last look at the screen and turned off his video and muted himself and simply walked away from the meeting. He texted. “I’m on my way.”

When Caesar showed up at the half abandoned mall, his car turned heads. He walked in. Half the shops were empty and there were no customers. How MC found this place he’d never know. She was the only one in the arcade in cut off Daisy Dukes and a tanktop that showed off her muscular arms. She waved enthusiastically. “Yes! I’m so excited! Let’s get a bunch of tokens.”

“Heh. I’ll only need one.” 

She rolled her eyes. “I know you’re good at games. But I also know arcade games are built and designed to eat quarters. I can’t wait to see you die to arcade BS.”

Caesar stood in front of the well worn cabinet. “Who are you playing?” He peered around. They had other classics like Mortal Combat and Galaga, but they also had The Simpsons and Turok. 

“Storm. You?”

“Wolverine.” He turned back to the screen. “This is a pretty nice place.”

“It’s like… 50 years old.”

“It has good games though.” They moved through the character select screen.

For the better part of an hour, they jerked on joysticks and bashed on buttons and fought Sentinels and Sabertooth and other classic Xmen enemies. 

“I haven’t died yet.”

“You will when we get to Magneto.” She said, shoving in another token for a Continue.

She wasn’t wrong. Caesar hissed in fury. “Okay I dodged that.”

“Told you!” MC cackled, flipping him another coin.

Caesar caught it, paused momentarily, and looked at the coin before shoving it in.

Finally, they defeated Magneto and leaned against the cabinet. 

“Um…” The timid teenager who was running the place spoke up. “We’re closing in ten minutes.”

“After all that hard work, I could use a drink.” MC stretched. “There’s no good places here but right down the street there’s a pretty good bar. It’s a bit crowded though.”

“Sure.” 

MC paused and looked up at him. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Nope. Let’s take my car. Leave yours here.”

The bar was crowded and Caesar and MC took a seat on the outdoor patio with a great view of a Target parking lot. The heat was radiating from it like it was a hot grill.

“So what were you up to when I was texting?” MC asked.

Caesar shrugged. “Just another Student Union meeting.”

“You left in the middle of the meeting?” She huffed. “Wow, thanks.”

“No, thank you.”

“Ha! Don’t give me that. I mean, it’s not like I have anyone else to play arcade with. Who else will meet me in the middle of the urban desert to play some million year old video game?”

Caesar looked at her in silence for several seconds.

What a lonely thing to say. But she had a point. MC had always been alone.

The server came with their drinks, one of them was something called Shandy Gaff, a mix of beer and Ginger Ale. MC took a deep drink of it and sighed. 

“Can I try that?” Caesar asked. 

MC blinked. “Uh… sure.”

Caesar took one sip and wrinkled his nose, handing it back to her. “Too sweet.”

“It’s a cheap drink, what do you expect? Nuance?” She glanced away, a slight pink hue came to her cheeks and Caesar realized he was meeting her eyes a lot more than normal.

“What to expect indeed. No, I should thank you. This is probably the spontaneous thing I’ve done… in a while.” He pulled out a cigar and she gave him her lighter.

He was still staring at her.

“Caesar… you’re making me nervous…” She looked askance.

“Why?” He huffed and leaned back, stretching his legs under the table. “I think you know what’s on my mind and that’s what makes this so annoying.”

MC hadn’t distanced herself from him after Nono’s death. She was never jealous of Nono and always supported their relationship and never made so much as a pass at him. He was comfortable in their friendship and that comfort was what he needed most in the years since. Other women glared at her because they viewed her as a potential rival for his attention. Other women were happy to take Nono’s place and MC’s presence was a shield of platonic intimacy. They were never sure where she stood and she prudently kept it that way, answering questions like, “So are you and Caesar together?” with a discreet silence. 

If they didn’t know, they didn’t care enough about him to date him anyway.

The rumors flew and, as far as the grapevine was concerned, they were already a couple. So he resisted saying anything to her because it would just be one more layer added to the terrible predictability that had settled into his life since Nono had gone.

But now, sitting in the middle of the decay of suburban America he decided it was time to finally ask her.

“I hate predictability. I hate routine. You pulled me out of it. And it’s not the first time you’ve done it either. Are you okay with us… being official?”

She looked up at him, her black eyes sparkling. “Sure.”

[profoundsheepbarbarian]

A Beginner's Guide To Acoustic Treatment

An account of an acoustic newbie's journey from bare walls to a well‑balanced, sonically pleasant space.

The physics of the propagation of sound is immensely complicated, and when the assortment of materials that make up the walls, floors and ceiling (plus any windows, doors and furniture) are added to the equation, it's very difficult to predict what will happen to sound waves once they've left their source. What's more, every room is different, and it's not just the dimensions that will dictate how the room will sound... Imagine two rooms of the same shape and size. One has two‑metre-thick concrete walls, and the other a single‑layer plasterboard stud-wall. Even with those brief, albeit extreme descriptions, you probably know already that the two rooms will sound very different. Add in the multitude of room shapes, sizes, wall‑construction methods and surfaces found in home studios, and it becomes impossible to provide a one-size-fits-all guide to acoustic panel treatment.

The subject of acoustics is regularly discussed in SOS, but plenty of readers still ask for the subject to be covered from a much more basic starting point. What follows is a look at installing acoustic treatment from a complete beginner's perspective: some basic, essential information, along with a bit of advice from acoustics professionals that should give you the confidence to get started. I'll follow this up by taking you step by step through my own recent experience of treating a room.

Why Bother With Acoustic Treatment?

Untreated rooms have an uneven frequency response, which means that any mixing decisions you make are being based on a sound that is 'coloured', because you can't accurately hear what's being played. In short, you can't possibly tell how your mix will sound when played back anywhere else. It isn't just an issue for mixing, though, because any recordings you make of acoustic instruments will bear all the hallmarks of the space in which you record them. That may be a good thing if the space in question is Ocean Way or SARM West, but probably preposterously bad if it's your living room or bedroom. So, if you want your mixes to transfer well, and your recordings to be free of room 'honk', you need to pay attention to the acoustic properties of your environment — no matter how good the gear you're using.

First Things First

The first thing to grasp is the outcome you want to achieve. It's a common misconception that acoustic treatment with acoustic ceilings or acoustic baffles should kill all reverberation, and that you want a room covered floor‑to‑ceiling with foam tiles: this isn't what you're aiming for. You also need to bear in mind the limitations imposed by space and budget: most home studios are small in comparison with the Abbey Roads and AIR Lyndhursts of this world, and many home‑studio owners simply don't have the funds for bespoke treatment solutions.

So what is the aim? Andy Munro, acoustic design specialist, remarks, "acoustic design is the science that restores a neutral sound balance”. Applying that science means interfering with the path of sound to control the sound energy. Jorge Castro, chief acoustician at Vicoustic, says that "in the case of affordable treatment, we need to control the energy of the sound first. Then we can take care of the sound quality. With small spaces, bass frequencies are always a problem, and we should control the low frequencies as much as we can.” In fact, he continues, "In small rooms, I've never heard people saying they have too much absorption of low frequencies.”

Absorption & Diffusion: What, Where, Why?

To achieve the right balance, there are two main approaches: absorption and diffusion. Products that have absorptive properties include foam and rigid mineral-wool (see the 'DIY & Rockwool' box), and they 'soak up' the sound energy, turning it into heat, through friction. Most effective on high‑frequencies, absorption is essential for reducing flutter echoes and for taming bright‑sounding or 'ringy' rooms. Bass trapping is also a type of absorption, but is specifically designed to absorb low‑frequency energy. A clever combination of soft, hard, thick and thin materials, including air, is used to make the most efficient bass trap, and an empty gap between the wall and the back of the trap helps to make it even more effective.

Diffusion is the scattering of sound energy using multi‑faceted surfaces. Diffusers are commonly made of wood, plastic, or even polystyrene. Jorge Castro explains: "diffusion helps in energy control and improves the sound quality in frequencies throughout the middle and high range of the spectrum, and also improves sweet‑spot image.” The 'sweet spot' is the place between the speakers where you should be sitting to get the best stereo image (imagine that your head and the two speakers form an equilateral triangle). That pretty much concludes the theory: now for the practice!

Getting Started

Before undertaking this project, I'd read plenty about acoustics, but had never attempted to properly treat a room myself: the nearest I'd come was propping foam panels against the walls to tame flutter in the spare‑room‑cum‑studio of my rented house. I hadn't been able to glue or screw anything to the walls, for fear of incurring my landlord's wrath, and the thought of retouching the paintwork after tearing strips of self‑adhesive velcro pained me too! So this was very much a learning experience.

The space in question included an area that would provide a reasonable‑sized live room, and another that would serve as a small control room, and although both were important, I really wanted to get the performance space right. I decided that I'd buy commercially available panels, because I simply didn't have the time, space or inclination for the DIY option. Most manufacturers of acoustic products also offer a consultation service, and they often have free on‑line calculators to help you decide on a suitable treatment option, too, so even if you choose the DIY route this can be a sensible place to start, and fabric acoustic panels are also available.

I chose to get my treatment from Vicoustic, a company relatively new to the UK acoustic‑treatment market who make a range of products for studios and home theatres. I told them that, as this was the only live room for a small project studio, it needed to be quite versatile, with both a 'dead' corner for dry recordings and a more ambient space to liven up acoustic recordings where needed. I'd expected a solution with almost complete wall coverage, foam panels and diffusers covering every square inch, but Vicoustic came back with a plan that surprised me, which suggested that total coverage wasn't necessary.

In fact, Jorge says that the typical home studio needs only between 30 and 40 percent coverage to adequately treat it. So don't go over the top: remember that we're trying to control the energy, or "restore the natural sound balance,” and not to kill the sound completely.

As for the proportion of diffusion to absorption, Jorge says, "some believe it should be 50 percent absorption and 50 percent diffusion. In the home studio, because of budget and space constraints, the actual proportion can vary considerably.”

Planning

So, you've decided on your acoustic foam treatment, you've had it delivered, and it's piled in the middle of the room. The next step is sticking it up on the walls, right? Well yes... but you also want to make sure that it goes in the right place, partly to optimise its acoustic performance, and partly because you don't want it to look like it's been put up by a two‑year old! As a first‑timer, I found it useful to have the 3D drawings Vicoustic had supplied, as they enabled me to plan precisely where each panel would go. You can create a computer‑generated version of your room yourself using a freeware 3D drawing programme such as Google Sketchup (http://sketchup.google.com). This may seem a bit over the top (sketches on the back of an envelope would do the job), but it can provide a useful guide to print out and use like a map during installation. What's more, you can plan the look of a room, moving tiles and panels around on the computer instead of having to rip them off the wall if they look silly.

Measure Twice, Stick Once

With my 'map' in hand, it was time to mark up the walls. The Vicoustic plans showed the panels equally spaced along the walls, but without any dimensions or measurements to indicate how to space the tiles, so I measured the whole room and planned the position of all the panels supplied. A quick and easy formula for plotting the position of a row of equally spaced panels soon emerged. To calculate the distance between each panel, and between the end panels and the walls, you just measure the length of the wall, subtract the total width of all the panels to be fixed to it, then divide that figure by the number of gaps between panels (or by the number of panels plus one). Marking up is then a cinch, but to get things looking good, you'll need to mark the corner points and will require a spirit level and a spare pair of hands. Once plotted and marked, it's also a good idea to double‑check that you have the same number of actual panels as you have on your plan!

Stick 'Em Up!

With the planning done, it's time to stick the panels to the walls and ceiling. The way you do this depends on the type of treatment you're applying. Large, framed panels will come with brackets and (hopefully) sturdy fixings, whereas foam‑based tiles will need to be glued, using an aerosol‑based product or a tube of paste‑like glue that needs a skeleton gun. Spray‑mounting can often give less than satisfactory results, so I was glad to discover that the Vicoustic delivery included the tube variety. With just two tubes supplied, though, I soon had to resort to alternatives, and found that the sticky gunk used to fix mirrors to walls worked exceptionally well.

To prevent the glue squidging out from the sides of the panels, I piped the glue on no less than an inch from the guide line on the wall and on the back of the panel itself, in different patterns, to increase the adhesion. With this kind of glue, I found that it would begin to set in about a minute, allowing just enough time to pull the panel off and turn it if it was the wrong way up. When sticking panels to the ceiling, I took the same approach. It was a textured ceiling, which called for lots of glue and a firm hand to seat the panels: again, it's useful if you can get a friend to lend a hand.

Hearing The Result

Once in place, the Vicoustic treatment worked very well. The main part of the room is now nicely controlled, if a bit on the 'live' side, and the diffusers ensure excellent intelligibility of speech: a sure‑fire sign of good acoustic control. I had a few spare corner traps, which were put into the dry corner, to make it even more 'dead', and it will be easy to add a few smaller foam tiles to dampen the sound further if it's found to be too 'roomy' further down the line.

Having tried some recordings in the room, I'm happy to say that excellent sound barrier can be achieved between acoustic instruments and vocals by using the different areas of the room. Because the sound inside the room is controlled, the ambience can be used to good effect if a roomy sound is desired on the recording.

Ultimate Control

So far, I've only addressed the dedicated live/recording space, and most home studios are single rooms, with both the monitoring and performance areas in the same space, so I asked Andy Munro to explain how to approach treating such a space. "The best approach,” he said, "is to sketch the room out, then divide each dimension into thirds. If the mixing position is on a third ratio, and so are the speakers, they will not stand on any of the half or quarter 'standing' wavelengths that cause a peak or trough in the bass [see the 'Standing Waves' box for more information]. The result will be a smoother sound, with fewer problems when the acoustic absorption and sound barrier is added. Ironically, most professional rooms are set up about the centre line, which tends to result in a 'hole' at certain frequencies.”

Also important in monitoring rooms is the control of early reflections. When a speaker cone is driven, it disperses acoustic energy to the listener's ears directly, and also to the walls and ceiling of the room, and the best example may be acoustic diffuser. Uncontrolled, these early reflections bounce back into the room and reach the listener a few milliseconds later than the direct sounds, because of the additional distance they've had to travel. Unless in a large room, this delay is not perceivable as a different sound; instead it disturbs the phase, and therefore the clarity, of the sound. To keep early reflections on a tight leash, the 'mirror points' of the room should be identified and treated. To do this, sit in the listening position and 'guesstimate' where a mirror would have to be placed to enable you to see each monitor cone from the sweet spot. Then apply absorption to these points. A 'ceiling cloud' can be positioned in a similar way, to control vertical reflections.

Conclusion

No matter how much you spend on instruments, amps, speakers and recording gear, you still need to pay attention to the space in which you use them. The treatment of home studios is tricky, because of their size and the construction materials used, not to mention the budget of the average home‑studio owner. It's impossible to get a 'pro-studio sound' from a space that's built as a spare bedroom, mainly due to the laws of physics, but also because 'proper' studios might have big bucks spent on acoustic design with soundproof materials. But if you can get your head around what you're trying to achieve, you can still make such a space perfectly usable, with only a small amount of money, some forward planning and a little bit of knowledge.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

 LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 6, 2020

Heather Cox Richardson

In the past three years, it has so often felt like things were reaching the breaking point. But the image of Trump on the balcony of the White House last night, defiantly taking off his mask as he gasped for breath, truly looked to me like the beginning of the final chapter.

Today coronavirus infections continued to mount in the vicinity of the White House. At least 34 people near Trump have contracted the virus in the past few days. The press corps near the White House is down to a skeleton crew as the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, and four press aides have tested positive. So have top aide Stephen Miller and Admiral Charles Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard Admiral.

Along with other military leaders, Ray attended an event celebrating Gold Star families last Sunday at the White House. That event included some of the same people who had been at the event the previous day in honor of Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump nominated to take the seat of the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Those who attended both events included Trump and the First Lady.

Senior military leaders attended meetings with Ray last week in a secure room at the Pentagon, and now are self-quarantining. They include the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley; the Vice Chairman; the Army chief of staff; the Naval Operations Chief; the Air Force chief of staff; the CyberCom Commander; the SpaceForce operations chief; the director of the U.S. National Security Agency, Gen. Paul Nakasone; the Chief of the National Guard, Gen. Daniel Hokanson; and the deputy commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. Gary Thomas.

The White House has apparently not done any contact tracing, and it declined the help of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to do it.

The administration appears to be committed to a strategy of community spread, rejecting the use of masks and of distancing. Deputy press secretary Brian Morganstern told NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly that the White House still does not require masks because “everyone needs to take personal responsibility.”

That the White House appears to be the center of a coronavirus hotspot has hurt Trump’s reelection campaign. The infections in the face of the fact that the administration refused to take the virus seriously, the ride around the hospital to wave at supporters while endangering Secret Service agents, the struggle to the balcony in a strongman scene, all appear to have demonstrated not Trump’s strength, but his weakness.

His behavior today has reinforced that sense. Trump left the hospital last night and returned to a locked-down White House. The few aides who met with him were dressed in PPE, while the West Wing is virtually abandoned as people have decamped to work from home. Trump has been on a Twitter spree today, tweeting and retweeting his old material, “the Russia Hoax” and Hillary Clinton’s emails, which now feel like ancient history, disconnected from today’s pressing crisis. Tonight, he tweeted: “I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!” He hit the same points again in another tweet: “All Russia Hoax Scandal information was Declassified by me long ago. Unfortunately for our Country, people have acted very slowly, especially since it is perhaps the biggest political crime in the history of our Country. Act!!!”

He sounds desperate. And on the heels of his tweets, Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA) tweeted to the Justice Department “Per the President’s orders, can you please provide the [House Judiciary] Committee the full unredacted Mueller Report immediately? Thank you.”

Other dropping stories make it look like the tide is running against Trump.

Patricia and Mark McCloskey, the St. Louis, Missouri, couple who held guns on protesters in June, were indicted today by a grand jury on charges of exhibiting guns and tampering with evidence. Trump invited the McCloskeys to speak at the Republican National Convention. “What you are witnessing here is just an opportunity for the government, the leftist, democrat government of the City of St. Louis to persecute us for doing no more than exercising our Second Amendment rights,” McCloskey said.

Two weeks ago, the administration blocked strict guidelines for a coronavirus vaccine, but today the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released those guidelines over White House objections. This will make a vaccine before the election unlikely. Trump tweeted “New F.D.A. Rules make it more difficult for them to speed up vaccines for approval before Election Day. Just another political hit job!”

Today, the New York Times revealed the findings of an internal investigation by the Justice Department’s inspector general Michael Horowitz into the policy of separating children from their parents at our southern border. The policy was engineered by Stephen Miller, but the Justice Department has tended to blame then-Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen for the policy. Horowitz’s investigation has established that then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were far keener on the policy than she was. In a sign of changing times, a 32-page response to the Horowitz’s investigation, written by Miller’s ally Gene Hamilton, said that Justice Department officials had simply followed orders from the president.

Facebook, too, sees the writing on the wall, and has announced that it will ban all QAnon conspiracy theory accounts. These accounts spread disinformation, including the idea that a heroic Trump is secretly leading an effort to round up a ring of pedophiles and cannibals based in the nation’s entertainment and political elites. The ban is one of the broadest Facebook has ever enacted.

Today, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that a new coronavirus relief bill is imperative, but just hours later, Trump announced on Twitter that he was cancelling further talks between the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Stocks dropped 600 points, and vulnerable Republican senators panicked. Biden released a statement including a pithy condemnation: “Make no mistake: if you are out of work, if your business is closed, if your child’s school is shut down, if you are seeing layoffs in your community, Donald Trump decided today that none of that — none of it — matters to him. There will be no help from Washington for the foreseeable future. Instead, he wants the Senate to use its time to confirm his Supreme Court Justice nominee before the election, in a mad dash to make sure that the Court takes away your health care coverage as quickly as possible.” A few hours later, Trump changed his tune.

Today both the New York Times and the Boston Globe endorsed Biden, and General Michael Hayden, the retired four-star general who served as the Director of the CIA under President George W. Bush, released a video not just endorsing Biden, but also warning that "If there is another term for Trump, I don't know what happens to America." “Biden is a good man,” Hayden says. “Trump is not.”

Financial services company Goldman Sachs today forecast that the Democrats will take both the White House and the Senate, and said a Democratic sweep would mean a faster recovery and thus would be good for the economy. Moody’s Analytics, a subsidiary of another financial services company, recently found that Biden’s plans would add 7.4 million more jobs to the economy than Trump’s would.

Today in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, a town hallowed by history, Biden gave a blockbuster speech calling for the nation to put aside division and come together. He talked about race: “Think about what it takes for a Black person to love America. That is a deep love for this country that for far too long we have never fully recognized.” He talked about disparities of wealth: “Working people and their kids deserve an opportunity.”

And he talked about Lincoln, and how, at Gettysburg, he called for Americans to dedicate themselves to a “new birth of freedom” so that the men who had died for that cause “shall not have died in vain.”

“Today we are engaged once again in a battle for the soul of the nation,” Biden said. “After all that America has accomplished, after all the years we have stood as a beacon of light to the world, it cannot be that here and now, in 2020, we will allow government of the people, by the people, and for the people to perish from this earth.

“You and I are part of a great covenant, a common story of divisions overcome and of hope renewed," he said. "If we do our part, if we stand together, if we keep faith with the past and with each other, then the divisions of our time can give way to the dreams of a brighter, better, future.”

—-

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

Heather Cox Richardson

[troped-fanfic-challenge]

Chopped Madness Masterlist

To say we are overwhelmed would be the understatement of the year for sure. This challenge was so incredible, the fics we received were spectacular and we couldn’t have been more pleased with the positive and supportive space that we were able to create with your help. During such a crazy time in the world, we hope that this was able to distract you, even just a little, from the harshness of reality, and bring you some level of joy. We received an astounding forty-seven (47!!!!!!) fics in our anonymous collection, that were submitted for voting, as well as four (4) amazing fics that were added to our non anonymous collection following prompts from this event, bringing our fic total to a mind blowing FIFTY ONE (51!!!!!) fics! We honestly cannot even begin to express our thanks to all of you for putting in the time and hard work to share such creative, exciting, well written pieces of fan fiction for this event, and we hope that you all enjoyed it as much as we did! If you haven’t had a chance to read all of the brilliant fics shared with us for Chopped Madness, you can find them all below, or in our AO3 collections, which will be linked at the bottom of this post.

To all of our writers, for Chopped Madness and all other Chopped events, Chopped would not be what it is without you. You take our ideas and turn them into beautiful stories that we are privileged to read and share with this fandom, and we owe you all a huge thanks for everything you do.

We hope you all (and all your loved ones) are staying safe during this uncertain time. Keep being creative, positive, and sharing your art with the world. And dont forget to keep your eyes pealed for the next Chopped events ;)

And obviously, a huge congratulations to our CHOPPED CHAMPION, the lovely @the-most-beautiful-broom​!

We love you all,

Sara & Bailey <3

The image above is not an entirely accurate representation of how each writer was paired up, it was the best we could do considering we shifted the order each round based on the rankings. The number next to the authors name in each bracket is their rank for that round!

———

Qualifying Round

Character Focus: Bellamy Blake

Theme: Canonverse

Tropes:

Fairy Tale AU

Write a Good Guy as a Villain or a Villain as a Good Guy

When the party’s over (Rated T) [Bellamy & Octavia] by safeandsound13 @captaindaddykru​

Summary: Bellamy goes into the anomaly to save Octavia. What he finds, is a trail of bodies. {Or: a canonverse take on Hansel & Gretel}

don’t be who you were (Rated T) [Bellamy & Diyoza] by sapphictomaz @iexasheart​

Summary: Bellamy’s forced to stay in the bunker, alone, for six years. Diyoza trapped alone on her ship. They find a way to help each other survive, because that’s what they know how to do.

Straight On Until Morning (Rated G) [Bellamy & Kane] by she_who_the_river_could_not_hold @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold​

Summary: Bellamy and his unruly band of Delinquents have been living life as they wish. Their days are filled with games and exploring while their nights are spent coordinating attacks against the dreaded Wanheda and her Mountain Men. It’s all fun and games in a world where no one gets older. But then a strange man appears one day and Marcus Kane provides a reality check to Bellamy that he’s not prepared to accept.

Where is the path to Wonderland? (Rated T) [Bellamy x Clarke] by myonetruelove @justwalkedaway​

Summary: Separated from their friends in the Anomaly, Clarke and Bellamy find themselves lost in a world so different from their own.

The Sixth Bride (Rated M) [Bellamy x Roan] by Shen_Gong_Oops @shen-gong-oops​

Summary: For their wedding, Roan gifted him an antique skeleton key attached to a thin, leather cord. Rough, callous fingertips grazed the base of his neck as they secured the necklace in place. While his husband allowed him full reign of the tower, the key provided access to the only room he barred Bellamy from entering. He was never to set foot in the sole room on the highest floor. Into Roan’s private reprieve from the world. And to be fair, Bellamy respected Roan’s right to privacy - for a while.

Gunning for Glory (Rated T) [Bellamy x Gina] by teeandrainbows @teeandsnowflakes​

Summary: While on a routine mission for Kane, Bellamy comes across a mystery girl who points him towards a treasure trove that might prove useful for Arkadia, but danger lurks up every spiraling staircase. It may just be the distraction he needs, though, to get over Clarke leaving.

On the Ground and What Bellamy Found There (Rated G) [General] by elle_stone @kinetic-elaboration​

Summary: Bellamy has a prophetic dream. An Alice in Wonderland AU.

to dream about a life (where you’re the shining star) (Rated T) [Bellamy x Murphy] by ProbablyVoldemort @probably-voldemort​

Summary: Bellamy has been dreaming about going to the coalition’s annual Camp Rock since he was a kid. The chance to escape his life and his step-father and spend his days travelling between clans and singing. This year, he finally has a chance to go–as a chef. Murphy hated what came of Clarke’s treaty with the Grounders, but even he knew it could’ve been worse. But that didn’t mean he wanted to spend his time performing for the people who had kidnapped and tortured him. He could do it, though. He could sing at whatever the fuck Camp Rock was, and he could help pick whichever winner the Grounders wanted him to pick. He could play nice. That didn’t mean he had to like it.

There’s Gonna Be a Party When the Wolf Comes Home (Rated T) [General] by kuklash @kuklash​

Summary: “Dante?” she asks, her voice a mixture of confusion and surprise. Bellamy straightens the nameplate on his desk, and the gold plaque reflects the dim fluorescent lights above him. He taps it twice, drawing her attention to the words “Dante Wallace” written in a fancy script. “That’s what they call me.” A Canon Divergent Fairy Tale AU staring Bellamy Blake

No Ordinary Apple (Rated T) [Bellamy & Josephine] by andthelightbulbclicks @andthelightbulbclicks​

Summary: When Josephine awakens in Clarke Griffin’s body, she has no reason to believe anything about her reincarnation is anything out of the ordinary. Then she learns that Clarke was far from a willing host and meets Bellamy Blake. She doesn’t expect to become invested in their love story, and she certainly doesn’t plan on risking her own like to make things right. And yet, here she is. All in the name of true love.

Brother Knows Best (Rated G) [Bellamy & Octavia] by Dylanobrienisbatman @dylanobrienisbatman​

Summary: Octavia grew up in a cave, hidden from the world, with only her brother to care for her. He kept her safe, safe from a world where people like her, where nightbloods, were hunted and slaughtered. But even with so much danger, she longs to see the world, so when a handsome stranger stumbles into their cave, she makes her escape to spend one night out under the stars. But in just one night, she begins to wonder if everything she’d grown up believing was true after all.

seeds in silence (exploded in riot) (Rated T) [Bellamy & Clarke] by justbecauseyoubelievesomething @justbecauseyoubelievesomething 

Summary: Seeds. Not the modified seeds Farm Station constantly churns out in unending batches. Genuine seeds. Earth seeds. The kind of seeds that the scientists from Alpha will sell their souls for. Doctor Griffin talks a lot about genetics and lost patterns, but Bellamy’s mind is a million miles away. He can get anything he wants for Octavia and his mom. He can make it so Octavia doesn’t have to live in hiding. He can bring the chancellor himself to his knees, if he’s careful enough.

i’ve got a heart in me (i swear) (Rating T) [Bellamy x Murphy] by hopskipaway @hopskipaway​

Summary: Belonging was not a familiar word in the Book of John Murphy. That was a fact that seemed grounded in concrete; what he wouldn’t give to stumble upon a sledgehammer someday and be reunited with his bruised and feeble, but still beating, heart.

2199 Nights (Rated M) [Bellamy x Clarke] by Mobi_On_A_Mission @mobi-on-a-mission​

Summary: Every day, the Commander Bellamy took a new wife and executed her the next morning, until one day his fleimkepa’s daughter volunteered. She kept him entertained with tales of far-off places, sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise…

we’d up and fly (if there were wings for flying) (Rated G) [Bellamy x Clarke] by the-most-beautiful-broom @the-most-beautiful-broom​

Summary: Bellamy and Wells are held captive and interrogated by the Grounders, and when he returns to Arkadia, Bellamy finds some things have changed.

The Storyteller (Rated T) [Bellamy x Clarke] by thelittlefanpire @thelittlefanpire​

Summary: A heartbroken Commander, betrayed by her beloved, vows to slay each and every one of her future lovers after they’ve spent their first night together. Bellamy Blake, the latest to be taken into the Commander of Death’s chambers, will try to save his life by weaving a succession of tales to the woman that lasts for one thousand and one nights.

How to Kill a Two-Headed Turkey (Rated T) [Bellamy & Octavia] by vmreed @vmreed​

Summary: After everyone at camp collapses from a mysterious illness (thanks Murphy), Bellamy and Octavia are sent to hunt enough food for 100 sick teenagers. When they find themselves lost, far from camp, what else can they do but move forward? Thankfully, a kind woman took them in, but all is not as it seems. Anya’s been waiting to meet these Skaikru…

simmer, simmer, simmer (Rated M) [Bellamy x Clarke] by Pawprinter @pawprinterfanfic​

Summary: When Sanctum falls to starvation, it is up to Bellamy and Clarke to find a solution. They aren’t prepared for the horrors beyond the Sanctum barrier.

So Familiar a Gleam (Rated T) [Bellamy x Clarke, Bellamy & Octavia] by Anonymous

Summary: When the dropship first lands, Bellamy is hopeful. It doesn't last. After all, the humans who were left behind, they've been on there own for a while. Things have changed. (Maleficent meets The 100 meets the author's glaring ignorance about either franchise.)

———

Round 1

Character Focus: Harper McIntyre

Theme: Angst

Tropes:

Strangers to Lovers

Road Trip AU

into a cloven pine (Rated T) [Harper/Maya] by justbecauseyoubelievesomething @justbecauseyoubelievesomething

Summary: Maya starts sitting with her at meals, shrugging aside the judgmental looks of delinquents and Mountain Men alike. When Harper tries to delicately suggest that she sit somewhere else for her own good, Maya levels her with an icy glare and threatens to kick her under the table. For some reason, that makes Harper giggle and she figures that someone who makes her giggle must be alright to sit with. So, she ignores Miller’s warning head shakes and Fox’s teary-eyed frowns and she plays footsie with Maya Vie. Life is weird. She might as well just go with it.

I Need You (Like I Need a Gaping Head Wound) (Rated T) [Harper/Echo] *Graphic Depictions of Violence, Major Character Death* by kuklash @kuklash​

Summary: “And that was the new track from Lou Bega: ‘Mambo No. 5’ off his new album ‘A Little Bit of Mambo’. Stay tuned for Backstreet, Britney Spears, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers comin’ at’cha in the next hour.” Harper shuts off the radio and leans back in the driver’s seat, taking her hands off the wheel and rubbing her temples. Traffic is worse than normal today, meaning she’s gonna be late. She’s already 45 minutes late getting back from lunch, meaning that Roan will probably call her into his office. That’s the last thing she needs today. Harper nearly jumps out of her skin when the passenger door opens and a tall, brunette woman vaults into the car. “WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU D–” “Drive,” the woman says, voice barely above a whisper.

venus, planet of love was destroyed by global warming (Rated G) [Harper/Monty] by safeandsound13 @captaindaddykru​

Summary: In a world tainted by darkness, Harper meets Monty.

Take back my life (Prove I’m alright) (Rated T) [Harper/Monty] by myonetruelove @justwalkedaway​

Summary: Harper and Monty have been married for ten years and she is beginning to notice the cracks in their marriage. Will a road trip for a job interview be able to save their marriage?

Like dust behind the wagon (Rated T) [Harper/Monre] *Major Character Death* by teeandrainbows @teeandsnowflakes​

Summary: Harper and her family were in search of a better life in Oregon when tragedy struck. She didn’t think she would ever recover, and then she met Monroe, a lone traveler looking for a ride to Fort Bridger.

you can bloom again (Rated T) [Harper/Clarke] by sapphictomaz @iexasheart​

Summary: Harper’s always been a survivor. She’s survived an orphaned childhood, kidnapping, and torture. When a wave of fire stretches across the sky, she knows that she’ll survive this, too - but when she meets a girl with a smile brighter than the sun, Harper wonders if surviving alone is what she really wants.

The Hardest Thing (Rated T) [Harper/Emori] by Mobi_On_A_Mission @mobi-on-a-mission​

Summary: After shooting Baylis and escaping to the woods, Emori was utterly alone. She travelled through the lands of the Coalition, stealing from anyone and everyone. All of that changed when she met the last sky girl after the Mountain Men wiped out the rest of her people. Harper had a map to a peaceful village across the sea, and Emori had nothing to lose.

Release (Rated T) [Harper/Murphy] by elle_stone @kinetic-elaboration​

Summary: Her whole body is still tense, but this long habit of distrust has been formed in her, is not native to her, and his lazy, laconic air tempts her to put herself at ease. And she is curious. Behind them, the Detention Center is teeming, yet the desolation of the dim light and barren highway makes Harper feel as if they were the only two on the wide Earth. Upon being released from the Arkadia Juvenile Detention Center, Harper takes a road trip to California with an old friend, his boyfriend, and another recently released delinquent.

What the Hell is a Pulmonary Embolism? (Rated T) [Harper & Clarke/Murphy] by vmreed @vmreed​

Summary: Harper McIntyre wasn’t trained for this. She was just a tour guide, how was she supposed to deal with the bus crashing in the middle of nowhere?

something more than momentary (Rated T) [Harper/Murphy] by ProbablyVoldemort @probably-voldemort​

Summary: The first rule of working for the Princess Protection Program was, well, keep your princess safe no matter the cost. The second rule was don’t get attached. Agent Murphy had followed that rule to the letter for years and never had an issue. But now he’s stuck in a car for the foreseeable future with a princess and a gunshot wound, and everything he’s ever believed in just might be changing.

and the road gets tough (Rated M) [Harper/Monty] by she-who-the-river-could-not-hold​ @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold

Summary: It’s the end of the world and Harper McIntyre is done running. She’s done fighting against a life that relentlessly keeps pushing her down. But she has her son to worry about and she desperately wants him to have a new life and to experience it all. When they hit the road, she’s helped by a kind stranger who changes the course of things. Monty Green represents a life she wished she had been able to have, but it might still be too late.

everyone’s a different flower (Rated T) [Harper/Monty] by andthelightbulbclicks @andthelightbulbclicks​

Summary: Harper McIntyre’s life on Earth has been a simple one, and she’s always been happy with that. But with a single diagnosis, her simple life is completely upended. Her best friends think that an intergalactic trip across the universe is just what she needs to get her mind off of things. Raven thinks the change in scenery will do Harper some good. Clarke thinks the girl time will help. (Harper thinks the cute space-botanist she meets might just do the trick.)

I wanna shoot the whole day down (Rated T) [Harper/Monty] *Major Character Death* by hopskipaway @hopskipaway​

Summary: Tell me why I don’t like Mondays...Or Tuesdays, or Wednesdays, or any day since you left us.

Never Gonna Give You Up (Rated T) [Harper/Raven] by Shen_Gong_Oops @shen-gong-oops​

Summary: Unknown: Hey, Monty guilted me into a road trip with those damned puppy dog eyes and seeing as neither of you can be in the same car, I am your road trip Uber. Name’s Raven. Harper: Rookie mistake, you never look Monty in the eyes. That’s how you lose. A road trip, huh?

Macushla (Rated T) [Harper/Monty] by the-most-beautiful-broom @the-most-beautiful-broom​

Summary: Harper Noelle Margaret McIntyre, Countess of Rothes, must survive the unthinkable, when the unsinkable ship hits an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic // aka the Titanic AU that isn’t Jack and Rose

Both (Rated T) [Harper/Monty] by the-most-beautiful-broom @the-most-beautiful-broom​

Summary: “Emori doesn’t understand why I’d want to go back up.” Their backs are against the wicker, just waiting now, as the balloon floats downward. “Emori’s my sister,” Harper clarifies. “She thinks I should be scared, and just leave it behind. But if I left, if I never went up again, then everything I’ve lost would be for nothing.” It hovers in the air, like the snow, like a balloon. “All my life,” Monty says, “I’ve found certainty in science. In numbers, quantifying things. But...this has shown me. You have, I mean. There’s a beauty in the most barren of science, and my equipment and notes cannot account for it. And I thought it was science, logic, before, but now I see: the only person that could’ve taken me to the stars was you.” {a marper Aeronauts AU based heavily off the 2019 movie}

———

Round 2

Character Focus: John Murphy

Theme: Dystopia

Tropes:

Partners In Crime

Bed Sharing

poison but tasty (Rated M) [Murphy & Josephine, Murphy/Emori] by safeandsound13 @captaindaddykru​

Summary: In a world where genetics and individual resilience decide who gets to procreate and who doesn’t, babies are a rare breed. That’s why Murphy gets the lucrative idea to steal one, and sell it. In comes Josie, who kind of, sort of? Maybe? Has the same idea? He figures, what the hell. Might as well combine their efforts and split the profits. or, Two Psychopaths and a Baby.

even heroes have the right to dream (Rated M) [Muprhy/Emori] by justbecauseyoubelievesomething @justbecauseyoubelievesomething

Summary: He doesn’t deal with people one-on-one anymore. He works his shift at the factory. He comes home. Takes his pills. Drinks himself to sleep. He doesn’t go on road trips. Or smuggle little girls under the cover of darkness. Or make small talk with his ex.

don’t mess with the flow, oh no (stick to the status quo) (Rated T) [Murphy/Clarke] by ProbablyVoldemort @probably-voldemort​

Summary: Harper and Monty tried out for the spring musical, and now everything is going to shit. Jocks think they can bake. Nerds think they can dance. Stoners think they can play cello. And Harper and Monty, Jock and Nerd respectively, think they can get callbacks for Murphy’s part. This is not what he wants. This is not what he planned. And, he’s just gotta say, he does not understand.

Good to be Back (Rated G) [Murphy/Emori] by the-most-beautiful-broom @the-most-beautiful-broom​

Summary: Murphy has been out of the wet work game for years now, but when someone from the past shows up at his bar, he doesn’t think twice before diving back in.

make a wish (count to three) (Rated T) [Murphy/Emori] by teeandrainbows @teeandsnowflakes​

Summary: In Alpha City, anyone who isn’t a Prime, the top tier of society, is claimed by a factory to work for a meager living at the age of 18. When Murphy is selected for the factory overseen by the mysterious Alie, he thinks life might finally be getting better…

The Taste of Hope (Rated T) [Murphy/Raven] by elle_stone @kinetic-elaboration​

Summary: Murphy has lived his whole life on Factory 6, stripping the planet of its resources for the benefit of the elite ruling class on The Jewel. His existence has never been more than work, sleep, and the mindless distractions of gossip, drinking, and parties. Until he and his girlfriend, Raven, start to wonder: could there be more?

Survivor’s Move (Rated G) [Muprhy/Emori] by she_who_the_river_could_not_hold @she-who-the-river-could-not-hold​

Summary: In a dying society ruled by an iron fist, it’s crucial to stay low. John Murphy has mastered that, an ex-thief doing what he can to stay out of trouble. But trouble finds him with the arrival of another ex-thief, and more importantly, his ex-girlfriend. Emori needs his help and he finds himself confronting their breakup while also trying to express to her the importance she has in his heart.

Complex Wiring (Rated T) [Murphy/Raven] by andthelightbulbclicks @andthelightbulbclicks​

Summary: According to the Commonwealth of Arkadian, cyborgs have been wiped out from the nation for years, any scientists willing to do the surgeries arrested or worse. John Murphy, whose primary goal in life is to be a general nuisance to the guards in his crummy village, has no reason to believe otherwise. That is, until he unexpectedly meets a group of cyborgs in hiding who are looking for “the Cockroach” to do a job for them.

———

Round 3

Character Focus: Raven Reyes

Theme: Modern

Tropes:

Superpowers

Found Family

if you choose to fly (Rated M) [Raven/Bellamy/Echo] by teeandrainbows @teeandsnowflakes​

Summary: It’s always been the three of them, for as long as she can remember, and she’s happy. Bellamy kisses her forehead and Echo raises a hand to her cheek, reaching across and pressing a featherlight kiss to her lips. A week later, she finds herself missing the tranquility of the moment. or the origin story of Raven Reyes

Hands That Burn (Rated T) [Raven/Clarke] by elle_stone @kinetic-elaboration​

Summary: WELCOME, reads a large banner, hung up between two poles in front of her, TO FLOUKRU RETREAT. The font on the banner matches the font on the invitation Raven received two months ago. Why she decided to attend this particular event, she cannot entirely explain, even to herself. Six ex-superheroes, and ex-best friends, meet for a weekend retreat, ready to confront their feelings and the past tragedy that tore them apart.

Into the Blue (Rated G) [Raven/Zeke] by the-most-beautiful-broom @the-most-beautiful-broom​

Summary: Her name is Raven Reyes. She was bitten by a radioactive spider her senior year of college; for the last two years, she’s been the one and only Spider-Woman. She joined a band, saved her dad, couldn’t save her best friend, so now she saves everyone else. She doesn’t really do the friends thing, not since her last best friend was turned into a giant lizard and she had to kill him, but things are mostly fine, going solo. Until a kaleidoscope opens in the ceiling. She’s suddenly in Times Square, but it’s not, it’s like some Other Times Square. There’s a billboard for Cocoa Kola (what even?) and there’s a Spider-Man (typical) here, and on the Other Times Square screens, she watches Zeke die again, this time as Spider-Man. // or a zaven!into the spiderverse AU

the color of truth is gray (Rated T) [Raven/Murphy] by andthelightbulbclicks @andthelightbulbclicks​

Summary: Raven’s firm beliefs on super villains have held true for as long as she can remember. And she prides herself in being a part of the Spacekru team, protecting their territory in Polis and bringing those villains to justice. But slowly, she comes to realize that maybe their super-powered world isn’t as black and white as she’s always chosen to believe. And maybe a certain villain isn’t really a villain at all. (Or: Three times Raven fights a villain, and one time she saves him.)

And It May Sound Absurd, But Don't Be Naive (Rated T) [Raven/Zeke] by Anonymous 

Summary: "Yeah, well, if life were to suddenly get fair, I doubt it would happen in high school." A Sky High AU where Raven just wants to sit there and do her Mad Science homework in peace, but life has a funny habit of removing that as an option.

———

Round 4

Character Focus: Luna kom Floukru

Theme: Thriller

Tropes:

Parallel Universe

Doppelgängers

Excuse me, where are the dinosaurs? (Rating M) [Luna/Raven/Roan] *Graphic Depictions of Violence* by ​andthelightbulbclicks @andthelightbulbclicks​

Summary: Luna is living her life on the island of Floukru with two goals in mind. 1. Keep her animal rescue up and running. 2. (Somehow) turn her relationship with her two roommates into a romantic one. When the three of them find themselves on a very different version of Floukru where living, breathing dinosaurs still exist, she supposes she should add two more to the list: 3. Avoid the psychopaths who inexplicably look exactly like them. 4. Make sure no one gets eaten by a T-Rex.

we cross our bridges and burn them behind us (Rating T) [Luna/Lincoln] by the-most-beautiful-broom @the-most-beautiful-broom​

Summary: When SHRDR powers up and tears a hole in the world, Luna watches Lincoln die. Three years later, he steps out of thin air and asks for her help. So yeah, that's how her day is going. It's fine. Everything is fine.

Promise (Rated M) [Lincoln & Luna] *Graphic Depictions Of Violence Major Character Death* by teeandrainbows @teeandsnowflakes​

Summary: During the Conclave, Luna and Octavia find themselves in another version of Polis where vampires have been terrorizing what's left of humanity.

Please take a read of all these incredible fics! Leave the authors some kudos/comments! They worked so hard this whole event. Thanks so much!

Just as a reminder, our non-anon collection is always open and we are always so excited to receive any submissions! The Chopped Madness official collection has been CLOSED but if any of our prompts inspire you, please share your fics with us in our non-anon collection! Simple put ‘Chopped_Non_Anonymous’ where it asks for the collection name, and be sure to put what round you are writing for in your notes so we can be sure to tag it appropriately when we share! Also, just as a note, fics submitted to the non-anon collection do not have to follow the word limit and do not require the same strict adherence to the tropes, though we do ask that you comply with our other rules regarding no rape, incest, negativity, and things like that! Happy writing!

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