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hawkland · 3 years

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Destiel fic recs #3 - the (mostly) longfic edition!

It’s been a while since my last rec post - mostly because I’ve been wallowing in a number of longer fics (50-350k!) so it’s taken me a while to have enough to talk about in one post (and boy do I talk a lot, here!)

With these longer fics, I do sometimes have some caveats with my recs - or at least reasons why they might not appeal to every Dean/Cas reader. But note that if I didn’t overall strongly recommend reading the fic I wouldn’t include it in my recs here at all, so any quibbles I bring up are minor compared to my overall enjoyment of the stories. Just, I don’t want someone to commit to a long read without knowing what they’re getting into and why it might not be their thing.

I’m still not into reading complete setting AUs at this time, but a lot/most of these are canon-divergence AUs, often written/set at the end of a season and giving an alternative take on what happened next. I love those kind of stories, as it’s often so interesting to see how fans thought of what might happen in the next season (especially when it’s better than what we actually got.)

Onto the recs & discussion behind the cut!

The Sinking Ship by UnfortunatelyObsessed (114k). This is a story that ripped my heart to pieces (in a good way!). I stayed up all night to finish reading because I simply couldn’t stop once I started on it and it gave me a massive fic hanger from all my emotions. Season 14 divergence, imagine if Dean did go into the Ma’lak box to trap Michael under the ocean with him forever...and once there, he discovers that Cas has stowed away with him. Because of course Cas would never leave Dean to such a fate on his own.

I loved literally. Every. Damn. Thing. About this fic. Cas telling Dean stories to pass the (endless) time. Their small intimate moments while realizing they can never consummate physically while trapped in the box but finding every other way to express their love. The absolute heartbreak that had me SOBBING when Michael fights for control of Dean and destroys everything they’ve built together and Cas thinks he’s lost Dean forever. Sam & Gabriel & Rowena & Claire & Jack doing everything they can to devise a plan back home to try to save them both while keeping Michael trapped. Also even just the wonderfully sensitive portrayal of aroace Jack still closely bonded with Claire and Maggie and just. And just. This is a story I’ve already re-read just to savor how much I loved it and its portrayal of everyone in TFW 2.0 and their extended family, it just hit my id in all the most incredible ways and I have nothing but absolute love for this one.

Beautiful Chaos by anyrei, mugglerock (141k). Season 9 canon-divergence, in which Dean doesn’t simply abandon Cas to fend for himself post 09x03. Instead he sets Cas up in a kind of squatter’s nest in an abandoned building near the bunker so he can keep tabs on him and help him out.

This fic definitely gets the award for FILTHIEST, HOTTEST, SMUTTIEST Dean/Cas (and Cas/other) I’ve read in, like, ever, for human!Cas turns out to be a rather insatiable sex fiend/cock slut and Dean is too up his own repressed ass to easily give Cas what he wants/needs. It is dark at times, Cas ends up in some very unsavory/non-con situations, and the authors do mention that they tried to hone in on endverse!Cas’s characterization more than what we saw in Season 9...so you might roll with it, you might not. I adored their original character Jerry the tattoo artist in this, and like I said it was seriously hot (if you are good with total bottom!Cas and Cas with others, I know those are not everyone’s cuppa). I did have a few minor issues. For one, the last chapter felt a bit rushed and hand-wavey, but clearly the authors weren’t fond of the canon conflicts of season 9 & 10 (Abbadon, Mark of Cain) and just wanted to be done with them. Can’t say I really blame them. And I did have to laugh a bit at Lebanon, Kansas apparently having such a bustling gay bar/tattoo artist/etc scene being someone from a butt-fuck nowhere American small town myself. But, SPN was never all that realistic in how Lebanon was shown (and yes I’ve spent too much time roaming around it on Google maps), so if you can suspend some disbelief this is an awesome hot/angsty/occasionally heartbreaking read.

These Forsaken Lands by destielpasta (53k). I came upon this story when looking for fics that dealt in some way with the aftermath of Godstiel. This is a wonderfully atmospheric late Season 9 “fill-in” case fic (post Meta-fiction) where Cas ends up in a small town that had been visited by Godstiel...and while initially residents have reaped much good fortune, there has suddenly been a wave of deaths/bad events and he is determined to find out what happened and set things right. He calls upon Dean for help, but Dean is fighting the Mark of Cain and it’s going to take a lot to get past its control and find a way out for both of them. Together they work on repairing an old church while trying to repair each other and their damaged relationship.

I loved this story for how well written it was, really invoking a gothic small-town/Americana atmosphere. The original characters blend in very well with the case-fic at the center of it, and the author deals really well with Cas at a very fragile point when he’s running on borrowed grace and trying to navigate Dean’s MoC-enhanced anger. It’s Dean/Cas but actually much more of a Cas character study, so I highly recommend it to my fellow/compatriot Cas-girls who love a good wallow in his head.

Mixed Emotions by Tierra469 (50k). Canon 12 “parallel” fic that then goes canon-divergent with the season finale. I actually stumbled on this while in the mood to read some Cas/ or & Mary fic after enjoying their interactions in Season 12 (don’t hate me). This is sort of two fics in one. The first half focuses mostly on filling in the gaps with some critical S12 Cas episodes, especially Cas & Mary’s developing friendship (and one night of something more). But of course Cas’s feelings for Dean (and vice-versa) are always there, and when Cas figures out a way to get his powers fully back, the question is if Dean can open himself up to be vulnerable - and express love - the way Cas needs for this to work.

This was an interesting fic in a lot of ways. I loved the author’s take on angels’ connections to their vessels and grace, it was very consistent in a way the show sometimes/often wasn’t. Cas is very Cas in not understanding privacy and personal boundaries (so he does some questionable things, admittedly, which might squick some readers). The smut is fucking HOT - though I will caution at one point it involves Cas temporarily in a younger (NOT underage) female vessel (and the story does point out Dean’s discomfort with this and some of the consent issues involved, I don’t want to spoil too much). I wanted the Mary plot resolved more than it was, but I still recommend this story strongly for the quality of the writing and unique/well-developed take on angel lore and mechanics that was quite different from what I’m used to reading.

We Are Either Here Or Not Here by petramacneary (54k) A post-season 12 fic that goes on a different tangent to how Cas returns, and what happens in the meantime. Particularly, it offers a different take on what apocalypseverse!Cas would be like—as Mary makes her own way back from that world with AU!Cas as her prisoner.

What I loved about this story: first off, BAMF!Mary is awesome here. Dean is so heartbreaking, not quite knowing what the fuck to do with this different Cas who at times is just a painful reminder of who/what Dean’s lost...but then becomes a chance for Dean to say and express some of the things he always was afraid to in the past. And when (real/our) Cas finally returns, there’s some very interesting stuff that happens with both Cas & AU!Cas and Cas & Dean that I don’t want to spoil. (And let’s also just say that when real!Cas and Dean finally get together it’s AMAZINGLY awesome. Like, hot Impala!sex. So is the artwork that goes with this story.)

You Can Keep Holding On by NorthernSparrow (353k) The longest fic I read this time around and probably the one I have the most mixed feelings about, but a while on I do keep thinking about parts of it so I do rec it with some caveats. This is a canon-divergence after the end of Season 11. Dean & Sam find Cas after he’s been blasted out of the bunker...to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Mary isn’t in this one except for a brief appearance/visit, which Dean thinks is Amara’s gift to him. Life seems good for a while, they’re enjoying dealing with mundane problems for a change, but then Cas seems to be pulling away from the brothers, spending less and less time with them at the bunker, taking a mundane job at another Gas ‘n Sip, and clearly preoccupied by something else. Or is it someone else? Dean is worried yet finally ready to accept that Cas maybe has a girlfriend, or a boyfried, but then it turns out that is not at all what Cas has going on. It’s something far more serious than that.

Honestly I almost stopped reading when the reveal happened - it’s a subject that’s very sensitive to me from personal/family experience and not something I usually like reading in fic (especially if there is a sad ending.) So I admit I jumped ahead to read how it would end first before committing to finishing it. And I am glad I did, because the author handles the subject matter with a realism and obvious knowledge of experience as well, not how I often see it in fanfic. There are a lot of emotional ups and downs but it’s nice seeing Dean in his momma-hen/mode, and Sam is so so good in this one! I think I enjoyed Sam’s characterization here most of all! And the author has a really cool/well developed angel/wing lore that hit my wing-kink pretty hard. I do think it could have all been edited down a bit - I found myself skimming parts, especially in the last third, just to get on with things. But it’s definitely a story you can disappear into for a good long time and I’ve bookmarked the author’s other works to read later, so again, I do rec it even with a few caveats.

A few shorter fics, too, just because I don’t want to forget about them...

Eleven Erogenous Zones of a Fallen Angel by almaasi (15k) Pure gratuitous wing!kink for me :) Cas uses the last of his grace to manifest his wings...but then is stuck with them in his human form and not even able to use them to fly as he used to. This presents a lot of awkward problems to deal with but also the excuse for Dean to help him keep them clean :) I did say wing kink, right? :D :D I loved how Cas seemed confused about the pleasure signals he got from bathing vs. sex vs. grooming and all of that. It’s sweet and hot and has my favorite kind of caretaking Dean in it.

Fossil Tracks by SegaBarrett (3k). Dean & Sam & Cas and dinosaurs. How can you go wrong with that? One of the SPN stories from the Id Pro Quo collection I really enjoyed reading (and didn’t write myself, lol).

#destiel recs #my fic recs #deancas recs #fandom that ate my life hello #destiel fic recs #my destiel recs

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Treasure of the Golden Sun: Three Ducks of the Condor or Now with More Racism!

Hello all you happy people! And welcome back to my look at Ducktales: Treasure of the Golden Suns!, the pilot episodes that started it all. This look was one of my patreon stretch goals. To explain them in case some of you aren’t familiar with patreon it’s essentially like a kickstarter stretch goal: every milestone I reach in my monthly earnings means a crop of reviews for you guys, with this being 10 and my review of the movie, and the goofy movies in two weeks and September respectively, being the 15 dollar one. So if you want reviews of the OTHER Ducktales mini series Time Is Money and Super DuckTales, then hop on aboard and help me reach my 20 dollar goal so I can keep making these reviews for a living and give you all more. Said goal also includes a Darkwing Duck review eveyr month AND a review of teh Danny Phantom special The ULtimate Enemy so hop on board HERE AT MY PATREON. Patrons also get exclusive reviews, access to my discord server (Though if anyone would be more intrersted in me making that public let me know), and to pick a short each time I do a birthday special for a character from Looney Tunes, Disney and Beyond. And next month is my boy Donald’s so since you all already sat out goofy NOW is the time.

So now my very necessary plug is out of the way, i’m very poor, we can get to the review proper:

When last we left off Scrooge and the Boys went on their first proper adventure together, heading to Central America to follow the map from the first episode and running into Dr.Claw El Capitan and his new best buddy Glomgold. Mild racisim, moonsoons and much better pacing ensued.

So join me under the cut as my boy Donald returns, some iconic characters are introduced in Webby, Launchpad and Beakly, though this series only made one of them iconic to be fair, and we get some more mild racisim because fuck my life. Onward to the cut!

So yeah as I’ve mentioned a few times now this episode had a content warning.. which was fair as there is some pretty cringy stuff in here but it had the side effect of me holding my breath until the racisim came up and whapped me in the face. So i’m keeping that tension up for you guys so I don’t have to suffer alone.

We open at the Mansion. Scrooge is trying to find a governess for the boys, but they keep scaring off all the clients because they don’t like the idea. And for once.. i’m on Scrooge’s side here. Yes I know there’s a sterotype of rich people hiring a nanny to not have to parent. and it’s sadly often true and it’d SEEM like Scrooge is doing that.. but really he just wants the boys to be safe. He’s fully grown to care for them and just wants someone cheap and responsible to look after them while he’s busy and clearly still makes time for them. As someone who is a former nanny, albeit for someone working class, I get that as much as you WANT to spend every moment with your kid you often can’t. I say all this because SO MANY kids movies and shows villianize parents for not spending time with their kid when their clearly just working to support them. There are nuanced exceptions to this and refreshingly Craig of the Creek has outright avoided this: JP’s mom is gone almost all the time due to working as an airline pilot, but while he clearly misses her he never resents her or guilts her over it, he understands sh’es supporting him and goes out of his way to make sure his friends can meet her. It’s really swee.t And while again I get it, this guys a billionare, most examples aren’t, Scrooge still really CAN’T stop working: He has more money than god and like most bilionares REALLY should give most of it to charity or to help with programs instead of hoarding it in a massive bin.. but he’s also got tons of companies, factories, investments... people COUNTING on him to make sure these are working correctly and keep their jobs. So yeah i’ts nice that the show isn’t demonizing scrooge for this or dosen’t even consider it: he’s getting help beacuse he needs it, that’s what’s important.

So while the boys widdle down the nannies, Scrooge talks to a renowned coin collector. He does show off his collection to the guy, but his main goal is naturally to show him the coin from last time. Turns out that naturally for a five part episode the treasure they lost last time was just a fraction of the real thing and the real titular treasure is a mythical horde even Scrooge, who normally has proved something out of myth is very real 5 times before breakfast, didn’t think existed.

Something I do love about this five parter is how every treasure hunt has ended up being important each piece of the puzzle leading to the next like any good treasure hunt. As for where this one leads the collector HAS heard of only one other coin like it, up in the Andes Mountains in a mysterious fortress whose mountain habitat and being a fortress makes it hard to get to and the owner is apparently a real piece of work.. but Scrooge isn’t afraid of a little hard work and is ready to go after it.. he just has to find a Nanny first.

And he does as there’s only one left: Mrs. Beakley, who we FINALLY meet after two episodes. Yeah for some weird reasont his episode choose to cram the rest of the major main and supporting cast into one episode.. it still works, they all still get great introductions it’s just weird to me when you have five episodes to not say introduce Launchpad last time.

But regardless as I said it’s a good intro.. despite the boys wilding a lasso and a snake.

Beakly is unphased and even dosen’t remotely fall for them trying to say she got the wrong name. And while Scrooge is a little impressed, he’s even more when she states she’ll work for free... with one condition: Free room and board for her and her grandaughter, Webby, who has been there the whole time and looking cute as a button. Scrooge is unsure but one minute of Webby being adorable later and he’s agreed. She can’t eat much right? He also hopes she’ll help the boys not be douchebags, unaware that their inherent poorly written sexisim means that was never going to work. And why yes I will call it out eveyr time it happens because it happens every time they have an episode together and only gets worse.

He goes to Gyro for help and Classic Gyro.. is utterly delightful. While I clearly have issues with Classic Scrooge, whose a greedy poorly aged asshat and the boys, who are sterotypes of male children, Gyro? He’s nice, friendlya nd eccentric, using a delightfully wakcky pogo hat thing to think and takes only a mintue to figure out how to solve a seemingly unsolvable problem and only needs a few hours to build his cool looking bird ship, using bird legs to offset the hard to sort out landing conditions. But since it’s a fancy bitch, it needs a pilot and i’m sure we all know where this is going...but since Carol Danver sis busy he has to go with Launchpad.

Launchpad’s intro is great, cheerful as he does a job testing a plane and naturally crashes it, and when thought dead walks out seconds later unharmed and jolly as ever. Scrooge is naturally terrified of the prospect of flying with him but dosen’t really have another choice “I hope my insurance is paid up.” Scrooge it’s you.. of course it isn't.

So with that our hero bids a farewell to the boys and ends up unteitonally coming off MASSIVELY unlikeable. No really he leaves them behind for their saftey despite needing help... and then upon finding out Donald is going to be on leave soon in the andes, and just assumes that YOU KNOW, he’d LIKE to go on a dangerous exausting adventure instead of actually get some rest after working in the goddamn navy and STILL dosen’t take the kids along despite having a very tearjerking farewell IN FRONT OF HIM that happened at most a month ago. Granted i’m suprised Donald is getting leave this soon.. but since I genuinely like to look into this sort of thing and the last time I didn’t I was correctly reminded Gulliver’s Travels was a satire.. and found out someone HAD actually watched the Jack Black movie. I only vaugely remember a trailer.. I thinkn it was a trailer? Maybe it was the middle part of a juinor novelzation where htey have all the photos? I really don’t know. I know almost every pokemon on sight but not where I saw pictures of a forgetable jack black movie, what a shock.

So long story short I DID google it. Here’s what I got

So given clealry more time has passed than we’ve seen on screen, enough time COULD have passed for Donald’s three day pass to kick in. So credit to the crew for actually thinking that out. They still get all the blame though for not only not seeing how bad not taking the kids to see the uncle whose like a father to them a month after he left when he CLEARLY can is bad, but how worse it is that the first break donald gets ina month.. is spent helping scrooge against his will on a life or death treasure hunt.

And I get WHY they wanted to try out having Donald on an adventure: he was in most of the carl barks material.... but I also dont’ get it as Launchpad was deisgned entirely to fill in for Donald when needed, we’re only three episodes into the series and this gives the wrong impression Donald will guest star a lot more. In practice while he still did get a meaty 8 episodes on the show including this one, 2 of which were cameos and the pilot only dosne’t count because of the exnteded slapstick sequence, and dosen’t appear at all after season 1, likely because Fenton’s introduction made him reduntant as he was an even more blatant Donald stand-in. It just feels weird to shove him into the pilot movie when we should be focusing on our main cast, epsecially with so many getting intorduced this episode. It woudl’ve made more sense for Gyro to be the third man instead and it woud’ve elmaited Scrooge’s uttelry horrible actions here of depriving his nephews of their surrogate father.

So Uncle Dickstick leaves with Launchpad to go abduct donald.... and tha’ts not me being funny, that’s what actually happens. Donald is singing out on leave.. with his superior... weirdly doing paper work outside on the flight deck.

And is angry at Donald because of him taking pictures and stuff and threatens him if he’s not back exactly in time... because look he’s on a boat with a bunch of sweaty men but as the most superior officer he can’t enjoy that so he has to get off SOMEHOW and ruining donald’s life just happens ot be a thing for him.

So yeah Scrooge straight up naps Donald via claw and Donald is angry, wondering, as you’d expect “What’s the big idea”.. and once Scrooge clairfies he did it.. still asks that because what the fuck. And the episode treats this as comical, as it does Launchpad not understanding Donald.. and don’t get me wrong you CAN make a good “I can’t understand Donald Duck” joke, the 2017 series made PLENTY. But said series also spoiled me as they did it with far more effort, while also still showing just how much it would suck to have everyone around you struggle to hear what you say and never listen to you. They actually cared abotu Donald’s well being where as this one thinks “Gee you knwo what would go great iwth a hard month’s naval work? MORE WORK HELPING YOUR UNCLE GET RICHER FOR NO PERSONAL BENIFIT AFTER HE KIDNAPS YOU”.

So our heroes.. and scrooge, head to Andes and find the temple and it’s here “Sigh” we met our antagonist. A Conquestador Douche who DOES have a name and it is on the wiki.. but is so generic and unlikeble I’m just going to keep calling him conquestador douche, whose introduced waving his sun coin around while the natives all bow to him because of the coin.

Welcome to the racisim! Admitely it’s not as bad as Treasure of the Lost Lamp, that’s a high bar to clear, but ti’s still not great to have the racist cliche of “character conquers a civilization because of they belivie he’s a messenger for their “silly” god”. And the saddest part is not that I didn’t notice this trope and how bad it was as a kid watching shows like this... but that as an ADULT about 4 years ago when I watched this episode how racist it and this trope in general was didn’t register to me at all. That.. really bothers me that it took me this long to pick up on things like this and i’m sorry for it.

That’s honestly WHY we need these warnings and WHY i’m so hard on this racisim: it wasn’t necessary, it could’ve been removed and you clearly just didn’t care or didn’t realize it was racist. And even acceptable for the time dosen’t work for anymore: I learned recently that the creators of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, both white, hired black writers..and actually LISTENED, looking to them for personal stories and to check them if one of the white staff wrote something that wasn’t true to the black experience. I know that sounds like the bare minimum but this was the early 90′s, that kind of thinking wasn’t hte norm like it is in most writer’s rooms now.. and sadly not ALL writer’s rooms. Not only that but just today I ran into a MST3K skit that lampooned this kind of bullshit from not long after this episode. People clearly knew better, the writers of this episode just didn’t’t care

So yeah, I get this was a kids show in the 80′s, I get the writing staff being almost all white.. but they still coudl’ve avoided cliche sterotypes and done something diffrent. It was was still wiithin white people like myselves power to actually think about something other htan themselves and we did not. So i’m never going to stop holding my own people accountable for just how BADLY we’ve fucked up in ways great and small because it still hasn’t stopped , likely never will so I won’t.

But yeah.... the tribe here are portrayed as ignorant, mindless dumbasses who blindly follow tradition and a clearly corrupt leader. It’s patronizingly stupid to assume just because a belief system is diffrent than yours a person will belieive anything. Religion CAN make people act stupid, the fact many people are homophobic simply because the bible, a centuries old document written and distrbuted by humans that could of been altered by people with a clear homophobic agenda, says they should be. But there’s the very clear very gross implication here that any god but the christian god is invalid and simplifies wonderful and well thought out myths and beliviefs from various cultures into “well they belivie in da sun god because of the shiny coin”. It’s gross, i’m glad it’s stopped and it’s VERY telling that the closest Ducktales 2017 came to this was the most dangerous game night which while a tad cringe inducing at least showed the tribe it used was clever, disposed the person they mistook for a god after it was clear he wasn’t one , and were wholly sympathetic.

Naturally Conquistadouche orders the tribe to attack Scrooge and it works briefly , though Scrogoe prepares to take on the ENTIRE villiage.. and given this is Scrooge and on this blog we’ve seen him take on an entire town before, and that was a more inexpericed less bastardly scrooge yeah their fucked, and only escape death because the coin falls out of scrooge’s coat when he tries to help donald who naturally injures himself trying to help.

And since as per white dumbass racist logic, the villiagers thought Conquistadipshit was a messenger of the gods because of his coin, they think the same of Scrooge, this causes them to stop and bow instead and protect scrooge when Conquistadumbass tries to attack our heroes. Their given a room for the night naturally.

Conquistadick demands they give him the coin and leave, but Scrooge has none of that: he has no reason to leave and has all the leverage so he instead demands to know wha’ts going on.

Turns out Conquisineart is the decdendant of one of the crew from the ship Scrooge found: their captain rain off with it, leaving two of his men behind, though both had the map to the rest of the treasure and split it: one left for the Arctic, the other stayed and did the whole racist god bit. And somehow despite all the time passing Conquistadoodoohead still has his half and Scrooge aranges a trade for the coin. And why yes their is the obvious problem of “what if Conquistascoobydoo say tells them he’s the true god and attacks scrooge like he ends up doing in the climax”. And Scrooge’s plan.. is to have the plane ready and to run to it, despite Launchpad not being a mechanic and saying as much. Instead of you know... stealing the guy’s coin while he’s asleep or something or just having launchpad, whose bigger and stronger and donald whose not bigger but is also stronger hold the guy while Scrooge steals his sun coin, then simply walks to the plane with the map, the coins and all the leverage. at worst the guy tries to do the same scheme without any coins and as the end of the episode shows, that wouldn’t have worked. He was stupid. Oh and the cherry on top of this shit sundae is scrooge objects to the guys tyranical rule.. but is okay with letting it keep going if he gets his coin and DOnlad, whose there for the deal, never call shim on it.

We then get a bit of Launchpad being forced off a cliff to ride a giant Condor...

Look this episode is filled with racisit sterotypes, a generic villian and Scrogoe being awful. I’ll take a fun sequence of Launchpad riding a condor, with Donald providing an assit with his camera by blinding the beast so Launchpad can ride him properly giving them more leverage now Launchpad is popular. And a deadline to fix things by tommorow.

The next day Launchapd and Donald have defied logic and their own tendency to screw up and fixed the bird, while Scrooge makes the deal.. and naturally it goes EXACTLY how you’d expect and Scrooge runs, though our real heroes get thigns running.

That’s when the people arrive on condors to persue, a fight insues yoru standard hero stuff.. not bad but given the racist context I can’t really enjoy it like Launchpad flying a condor.. which had some mild racisim in them making him do that as a ritual clearly deisgned to kill him but i’llt ake mild over pretty damn obvious. Eventually douchebag looses his coins, his ctizens abndon him. Happy end.

So with the map Scrooge decides to do the logical thing.... have launchpad drop him in the middle of the ocean in a raft and steer there

Launchpad takes Donald home in time and his superior is mad he dosen’t give him a proper salute.. even though he CLEARLY just got home and is diisorented from a crash. Launchpad makes a quip and this episode mercifully ends.

Final Thoughts:

This episode starts out okay.. but quickly goes downhill fast and steep. There are massive bits of racisim, massive leaps in logic, and massive amoutns of scrooge being a dick.. not his WORST in this series but it’s still bad. It’s just not very good. It’s the second worst episode of Ducktales i’ve seen, only held up by my boys Donald and Launchpad. This was miserable.

Next Time on Treasure of the Golden Suns: Our heroes head to the arctic for another offensive episode to rescue scrooge from his own stupidity. Next Time on this Blog: We return to Green Eggs and Ham and hop on a train as our raging bitchcanoe mother and daughter duo meat our ambigiouslyg ay duo at last.

See you at the next rainbow.

#ducktales #donald duck #scrooge mcduck #launchpad mcquack #huey duck #louie duck #dewey duck #bentina beakley #webby vanderquack #gyro gearloose #treasure of the golden suns

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a-simple-lee · 4 years

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Wednesday Afternoon

Timothy Stoker, Reader

Synopsis: Season 1 fluff. Following up leads for Jon sucks, but your other colleagues make the job a little more bearable.

A/n: I went to close my google docs tab and blinked and suddenly half an hour had passed and I’d finished an old fic. I don’t know what to do with it so I’m dumping it here I guess?? Please tolerate my shameless simping for Tim, I’m so sorry

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The morning hasn’t necessarily been bad, but you’re tired. Commutes on the tube tend to have that effect on everyone, and you’ve had more than your fair share of those - hopping on the train to the British Library for some records was as tedious as could be expected, and after spending precious minutes squinting at tube maps and dashing between platforms, the records you'd retrieved had barely helped with the statement in question. Today has just decided to feel longer, it seems. You sigh.

You’re not expecting Tim to sneak up behind you for a hug in the break room, but it's welcome nonetheless.

"Afternoon." There's a grin in his voice.

“Hello to you, too.” Tim lets you extract yourself from his arms so you can turn on the kettle. Both of you lean back against the counter. You eye the ostentatiously patterned, partially unbuttoned shirt Tim's wearing, and vaguely remember Jonathan’s double take upon seeing his assistant’s outfit this morning. "Boss isn’t letting you get away with that ensemble, is he?”

“'course he is. Wouldn't dream of having a go at his favourite assistant." He puts a hand to his chest with a flourish.

"Pfft. No, really. What did he say?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Something about decorum and how I'm lacking - as if he can talk with his corduroy blazers. What I lack in professionalism I more than make up for with charisma. Can’t say the same for him."

"He is stuffy. Tea?"

“Massive understatement.Yes, please.” Tim types something into his phone. It makes a cheerful blipping noise.

“Sash and Martin are out investigating a lead, but we're hoping to pop out for chips later - care to join us?”

“Sure, sounds good." You reach towards the top shelf for some mugs. "Why does Martin have to-oof- put all of these at the back? It's hardly fair."

"It's perfectly fair, you’re the only short one here." Tim grins, tweaking your side. You flinch away with a poorly concealed yelp. Both of you freeze.

It’s Tim who speaks up first. “Oh?”

“Tim-” It’s too late. He’s already reaching out to poke you again.

“Are you ticklish?”

“No?” The fact that you’re already letting a few giggles slip doesn’t help your case at all. Tim continues making pincer motions towards your sides, and at first you manage to dodge him, stepping back each time he tries to reach you.

And then your back hits the wall. Shit.

“Tim-”

“Yep?” He’s got a spark of mischief in his eyes, and a grin that’s starting to bring a blush to your face. His hand makes contact with your lower ribs, squeezing gently. Your hands fly up to cover your mouth.

“Wahait-” The dam breaks, and streams of your badly muffled laughter stream into the break room. Tim lets out a triumphant little “aha!”, only encouraged by your reactions.

“You are ticklish! Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?” He smiles, shifting closer to hold an arm around your waist so you can’t sink down against the wall.

“The tea! I need to make the tea!” You gasp out between hysterics, trying to push at his shoulders but finding it doesn’t do much.

“But you’re cute when you’re being tickled.” Tim states smugly, chuckling at the flustered noise you make.

“Tim!”

“You’re blushing~”

“Shut up!”

He gasps, trying to sound offended. “Did you just tell your best friend to shut up? I could report you for workplace bullying, you know, I’m the Archivist’s favourite assistant.”

“Plehease-” You whine, turning to hide your face as best you can.

“Please report you? Well, since you’re asking so nicely-”

“No- that’s not what I- Okay, I’m sorry- don’t report me-”

“Are you sorry?”

“Yes!”

He sneaks his hands under your arms, and you let out a yelp before falling into another bout of hysterics. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, yes, I give, I’m sorry-” You tap his arm a couple of times, weak from laughter, and he finally releases you.

“Apology accepted,” Tim watches as you readjust your shirt with a huff before heading back to the countertop.

“That was rather mean of you.” You sigh, trying to wipe the smile off of your face as you reach back up to get out the mugs. Tim, inevitably, shifts closer, and you shoot him a wary glance, concerned he’ll try to poke your side again. He holds his hands up, the picture of innocence.

“Nah, it wasn’t mean...” He hesitates. “Was it mean?”

“...No, no. Not really.” You switch the kettle on.

“You’re still blushing.”

You almost tell him to shut up a second time, but think better of it. “Stop pointing it out.”

“Never.”

“...There’s a lot to hate about you, Tim.”

“No, you love me really.”

“Did I say I didn’t love you?” You screw the cap onto the milk and place Tim’s mug next to him.

“Aww, look at you getting all soft. Is Martin rubbing off on you?”

You roll your eyes. “Just drink your tea, Stoker.”

“Love you too.”

Suffice to say, the rest of the day more than makes up for your shitty morning.

#the magnus archives #tma #tickle fic #reader insert #fluff #timothy stoker #tim stoker

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pixiegrl · 4 years

Text

Jingle Bell Rock

Luke has the perfect idea for a Christmas gift for Ashton.

This is part of the Lingerie 5sos verse. I've wanted to write this part for a while because I thought it would be cute if Luke proposed to Ashton and well. Here it finally is. A little Christmas treat. Thanks to @lifewasradical for letting me yell at her about this. Love you babe!

On ao3 at: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28330056

“Michael, I’ve had an idea,” Luke says into the phone when Michael picks up. He’s met with dead air, staticky on the other line. Luke pulls the phone back from his ear, checking to see if they’re still connected.

“Michael, are you there? This is important.”

“Sorry I just can’t believe you’ve had an idea,” Michael says, snickering on the other side while Luke pouts.

“Oh fuck you Mikey, I have tons of ideas,” Luke says, pouting further as Michael’s laughter grows from a snicker to full blown cackling.

“I know, I know. You’re just so fun to fuck with,” Michael says. His laughter dies down as he gets a hold of himself. Luke waits until Michael finally calms down, rolling his eyes.

“Are you finished?”

“Yeah, yeah. You said you had an idea?”

“I’m going to get Ashton an engagement ring.”

Michael pauses, “Luke, you know you’re engaged already right?”

“I know, but after the whole foursome thing I want to show Ashton that I love him just as much as he loves me. That he’s the only one for me. So, I want to get him a ring of his own. And I need your help shopping.”

“God that’s so...horribly sappy. You two are the most vanilla people I know.”

“Michael, will you help me or not?”

“I’ll help. Give me like 30 minutes and I’ll come pick you up, okay?” Michael says. Luke hums out a confirmation and hangs up the phone.

Luke has a rare day alone, something that never happens. Ashton’s gone off shopping somewhere, leaving Luke alone for the day. Luke’s been thinking about doing this for awhile, getting a ring for Ashton. He’s looking online at a few things and decided that he doesn’t want to get Ashton a diamond ring. It seems too ordinary and plain for someone as amazing and wonderful as Ashton. Luke’s decided on a gemstone, he’s just not sure what stone. Luke’s hoping that seeing them in person will help him make a choice.

It’s easy for Luke to get ready, already wearing his plaid pants and black crew neck shirt. He feels cozy in them, soft and warm. He feels less like Stage Luke and closer to the Luke he is at home, Ashton’s fiancé, happy and content. He grabs a pair of his black boots and his wallet, running his fingers through his curls in the hallway mirror before patting Petunia on her head.

“Be good while I’m gone okay Tuney,” Luke coos at her, rubbing her ears and pressing a kiss to her head. He gets a lick on his cheek in return, laughing in delight at her. Luke’s phone buzzes, signalling to him that Michael’s outside. Luke grabs his keys from the key hooks at the front door, locking the door behind him.

Michael’s idling in the driveway, flipping through his phone while All Time Low plays in the background. He glances up at Luke when he opens the passenger door, climbing in and slamming it behind him.

“You’re dressed down today,” Michael comments, putting the car in reverse and backing out.

“Just felt like wearing this today,” Luke says, shrugging. Michael hums in response, taking them out on the road and on their way to where they know the stores are

“Do you actually know where we’re headed or are you hoping to drive around in circles looking for a jewelry store?” Michael asks after a few moments. Luke pulls his phone out of his pocket, clicking through his recent search history on Google Maps.

“I know a place we can go. I’ve been looking at this for a few days.”

“Oh shit, you’re serious about this,” Michael says, glancing at the Google Maps directions when Luke gives him his phone.

“Yeah I’ve been thinking about it for a couple weeks. Ashton was really uncertain of our relationship after the foursome and we talked it out, but I’m worried he’s still unsure of us. I mean, we’re getting married, Michael. I don’t want Ashton to ever be unsure of us.”

“I can’t believe he would be. You two have been gross and sappy and in love since practically the minute we met Ashton.”

“He thinks he’s not enough. Or he thought he wasn’t enough? Either way, I want to show Ashton that he is and I love him in the same way that he loves me. So, a ring,” Luke says.

“You actually thought about this.”

“I’m a good gift giver when it’s not for you,” Luke says, laughing when Michael pouts dramatically. It’s fun, driving in the car with Michael, swapping stories about Ashton and Calum, the Christmas gifts they’ve planned for each of their partners, trying to take festive photos for their families (Michael complaining about how hard it is to dress three dogs up for Christmas photos, Luke talking about how much Petunia enjoyed the reindeer antlers as a chew toy instead). Luke feels like as much as he gets to see Michael, he doesn’t really get to sit down and talk to Michael. Even if it’s just a car ride to go shopping, Luke enjoys spending time with Michael, even if it involves some light ribbing.

They pull into the parking lot of the jewelry store soon enough. Luke feels like he might throw up, bouncing his leg from how nervous he is, tapping his fingers on his thigh. Michael leans over, squeezing Luke’s hand.

“Deep breathes Luke. Ashton loves you, you already know that. Getting this ring is just simply another symbol in a long list of symbols of your love.”

“What if I pick the wrong ring?”

“I think that would be literally impossible, but even if you did, Ashton would love it anyway because it would be a gift from you. He would never hate anything that you could give him,” Michael says, smiling at Luke. Luke smiles back, edges of it tense, and squeezes Michael’s hand back, breathing in and out to try and ground himself. Michael’s right of course. No matter what Luke picks, he already knows Ashton loves him and that they’re forever. The ring isn’t as important as any of that.

“You ready?” Michael asks. Luke takes a breath, lets it out, and nods. They leave the car, Luke entering the store first. There’s a woman at the corner, who glances up when they walk in.

“Welcome. What can I help you with today?”

“I’m looking for a ring?” Luke says hesitantly, cringing at himself when he hears the words. Michael snorts behind him. The woman smiles gently, clearly taking pity on how awkward Luke must be.

“Are you looking for a diamond or something else?” She asks. Luke cautiously approaches the corner.

“Something else. Maybe something red,” Luke says. He’s thought about it, the red of a gemstone complimenting the red in Ashton’s moon tattoos, the heart on his wrist.

The woman smiles, heading in the direction of where those rings must be. Luke follows after her, leaving Michael to poke around the earrings.

She reaches into the display area, pulling out a bright red stone, set in a simple gold band.

“It’s a ruby. Symbolizes love, passion, and energy. It’s perfect for what you’re looking for. This one is a size 9, but we can resize it if you need it,” She says, holding the ring out to Luke. He takes it gently, turning it over in his hands and smiling gently. It glitters in the light, bright and sparkly. Luke knows it’ll look good on Ashton, standing out against his skin.

“That’s the perfect size. It’s perfect. I’ll take it,” Luke says, smiling. The woman smiles, telling Luke the price of it. It seems reasonable enough, Luke nodding when she asks if the price is acceptable. She takes the ring back from him, moving around behind the counter to place it in a box and ring him up. Luke knows he’s probably being a little hasty, picking a ring so quickly, but he knows it feels right. Something about the ring feels like it’s meant for Ashton. The woman smiles as she hands the bag to Luke.

“Good luck. I hope they enjoy it. Happy holidays,” She says, smiling. Luke gives her a soft smile back.

“Thank you. I hope so too. Happy holidays,” Luke says. Michael’s already at the door, holding it open for him as they leave and head back to the car.

“It looks nice Luke. I’m sure Ashton will like it.”

“You think so?”

“The color works well for him. He’ll love it and what it means,” Michael says, reassuringly. Luke smiles, opening the car door and settling into the passenger seat.

“You know what else Ashton might like?” Michael says as he slides in, starting the engine.

“What?”

“You in some festive lingerie. Really adds to the whole ambience of the affair,” Michael says. Luke can tell he’s teasing, but it might not be such a bad idea. Might even be fun for Luke to do.

“Think so?”

“You’re not actually thinking about it, are you?”

“Why not? I’m sure Sierra and KayKay have something in stock that might be fun to wear. A little red and white number.”

“Are you gonna do a dance with it? Oh, wait! You could do the Mean Girls dance. Full Jingle Rock number. Ashton would really get a kick out of that,” Michael says, laughing as he drives them in the direction of the store. Luke blushes.

“I’m too clumsy for that.”

“You are not. It’s an easy enough dance just...stay out of the way of stereos so you don’t kick one in Ashton’s face,” Michael says. Luke rolls his eyes, but Michael has a point. It might be fun to put on a show. Luke knows Ashton likes him in lingerie, so why not incorporate it into their gift giving.

Luke’s still trying to talk Michael into doing something similar for Calum when they enter the shop. The bell jingles over the door and Sierra and KayKay both look up from the counter, grinning widely when they see it’s Luke and Michael.

“Luke, sweetheart! What brings you in today?” Sierra calls, rounding the counter to pull Luke into a hug. She’s nice today, wearing a black bodysuit and black jeans. Kaykay is clearly checking out her ass, blushing when Michael elbows her, grinning.

“Looking for something seasonally appropriate to surprise Ashton with.”

“You know, like Mean Girls,” Michael says. Luke throws him a glare, but Sierra and KayKay are both nodding along.

“You’re in luck! We have a whole section for festive looks. It’s more classy than what you’ll find online, but we do pride ourselves on being better,” Sierra says, taking Luke’s hand and tugging Luke in that direction.

As expected, there’s a lot of reds with white trim, bows and ribbons over everything. There’s a handful of green pieces too, Michael drawn towards those to look through the pieces. Sierra holds one out to Luke, a simple bralette in red satin, white trim around the edges and a simple satin panty, little red skirt with matching trim on it.

“If you’re going for the Regina George aesthetic, I think this is perfect. Simple and understated, but elegant. Would make your legs look great with a nice pair of stockings and a heel,” Sierra teases. Luke hums, taking the set in his hands and admiring it.

“Your ass would look great in it,” Michael says, glancing over at Luke while he looks at his own green set. Luke hums, turning it over in his hands. It would look good on Luke and he has the perfect red heels for it.

“Wouldn’t look too trashy?”

“I don’t think you could ever be capable of looking trashy,” Sierra reassures him.

“What about the dance though?”

“Oh that’s easy,” KayKay pipes up, drawing all their attention to her.

“It is?”

“I memorized that dance in middle school cause I thought I was so cool. Just tell me when it’s good for you and I can show you both how to do it.”

“You sure?”

KayKay waves it away, “It’s certainly easy enough to learn.”

“You haven’t seen Luke and his coordination,” Michael snips. Luke rolls his eyes, flipping Michael off while bringing the pieces up to the counter.

“I have some coordination, Michael.”

“Are you sure? I’ve watched you trip over air before.”

“As opposed to you just falling off a stage.”

“How dare you mock my traumatic moment Luke. Worst friend ever,” Michael complains dramatically. Luke rolls his eyes.

“Yes, I’m the worst friend in the world Michael. As you like to tell me all the time.”

“Good, you need to know it,” Michael says. He’s grinning though, leaning over to press a kiss to Luke’s cheek. Luke grins back, bumping shoulders with Michael. It’s fun, getting to spend the time with Michael, having someone who accepts him, rolls with all of the things that Luke asks.

Luke and Michael leave the shop with the promise to text KayKay when they’re free to set up a time to learn the dance. They leave the shop, making their way back to the car.

“I can’t believe you’re going to learn the Mean Girls dance for your Christmas gift to Ashton you’re literally insane,” Michael says, unlocking the car and getting in.

“I think you mean that we’re going to learn the dance together,” Luke says.

“If you make me break an ankle, I will sue you.”

“Scouts honor you won’t.”

“You’re lucky I love you,” Michael mumbles. Luke smiles. It’s going to be a perfect gift for Ashton, he just knows it.

***

Luke’s ready for Christmas. He’s been up since 7:00am, woken up by Ashton pressing kisses to his skin. Luke hates being up early, but he’ll willingly do it for Christmas and morning kisses with Ashton. Eventually, Ashton had left their bed for his morning run and to take Petunia out, while Luke had agreed to set up for gift exchange and coffee. Luke waits till Ashton’s out the front door before shimming out of his pajamas and grabbing the lingerie set from its hiding spot. He puts the bra on first, sliding on the panties. He pulls a pair of white thigh high stockings up his legs, adjusting them till they feel right and sit perfectly on his legs. He pulls his pajamas back on over the set, deciding that he’ll put the skirt and heels on right before he does the dance.

Luke heads downstairs, leaving the skirt and heels in their downstairs bathroom, the one place he knows Ashton won’t go into before exchanging gifts. Ashton’s already left his half of the gifts downstairs, gift bags and wrapped boxes and a small basket filled with small wrapped gifts. Luke smiles, re-adjusting everything until there’s enough space for him to put out his gifts for Ashton. Luke’s gone for getting gifts that are more food based this year, cookbooks and boxes of tea and coffee, things that he knows mean the two of them can spend time together. Luke’s been basking in their quasi-break, getting to spend all of his time with Ashton. He wants to continue that, dedicated nights to quality time and the cookbooks had seemed like the perfect idea for it. Ashton’s always talking about exploring different foods and this has seemed like the perfect chance. He’d also bought a mini waffle maker that makes the waffles heart shaped because it was sappy and cute and he knows Ashton will laugh at it but use it every morning. He’d gotten Ashton some new shirts and ties, soft material and deep, rich colors, for when they tour again or go out for press. They’re perfect simple gifts that Luke’s happy about. He puts the ring box in his pocket once he’s set up all the other gifts and goes into the kitchen to make coffee.

Luke’s heating the water up, scooping out some of the Winter Blend ground coffee they have into their french press when Ashton comes back from his walk, Petunia panting at his heels. Luke turns around, bending down to coo at her as she takes a drink of water from her bowl.

“Aw, did Ashton make you run too much?” Luke asks her, giggling as she splashes water onto the floor trying to lap up as much water as she can.

“She could use it,” Ashton grumbles, coming into the kitchen. Luke leans over, waiting till Ashton’s close enough, pressing a kiss to his lips.

“You’re all sweaty,” Luke says, wrinkling his nose.

“I did just go for a run. Not my fault you can’t wait for a kiss,” Ashton snorts, pressing another kiss to Luke’s lips, despite his half-hearted protests.

“Shower first, then presents,” Luke says, allowing himself to steal one more kiss from Ashton before pushing him in the direction of their bedroom. Ashton laughs, but goes willingly, leaving Luke to finish up with making their coffee. Luke carries it out to the living room, Petunia close at his heels, knowing that there’ll be treats for her under the tree too. Luke sets the mugs down, picking Petunia up and placing her on the couch next to him. He scratches behind her ears, scrolling through his phone and texting his family, wishing them a merry christmas and promising to call them after opening gifts.

Ashton comes back down the stairs, humming quietly under his breath, smiling when he sees Luke. He takes a seat on the couch, curling up next to Luke and taking his coffee mug.

Ashton makes Luke open his things first, insisting that he wants to see what Luke thinks of them. Luke’s charmed by it, excited for the makeup and the earrings, the spa basket of things Ashton’s given him. He adores the little jewelry box, laughing when he realizes that it’s Petunia. Ashton’s bashful when he hands Luke the last two boxes, taking Luke’s breath away when he pulls the dress out of one, beautiful pink tulle, with little beaded pearls and flowers. It’s the lingerie set that gets Luke though, royal blue with the black lace. It’s not something Luke would pick for himself, prefers lighter colors, but it’s a beautiful set and he’s glad Ashton picked it out, can’t wait to try it on. Ashton’s thrilled about the cookbooks, laughing at the waffle maker and promising to try it this morning. He keeps leaning over between gifts, pressing kisses to Luke’s lips and thanking him over and over again, in between Luke’s giggles and smile.

Eventually they open everything, including the toys and dog treats for Petunia. Ashton stands, clearly ready to make food.

“I have one more surprise,” Luke says, blushing when Ashton looks down at him.

“Oh?”

“Yes, but you have to sit back down and close your eyes.”

“I do?”

“It’s a surprise,” Luke insists, setting his mug down on the table and getting up. Ashton rolls his eyes, but sits back down.

“You’re lucky I love you.”

“I love you very much. Now, close your eyes and wait for me,” Luke says. He waits till Ashton’s closed his eyes before leaving the room, heading to the bathroom and changing into the lingerie skirt and sliding his heels on. He takes the ring from his pants pocket, sliding it into his bra for lack of a better place to put it.

Luke takes a breath, leaving the bathroom and trying to be as quiet as possible, making sure his heels don’t click on the floor. He wants it to be a surprise for as long as possible. He finds Ashton still sitting on the couch, eyes closed, tapping his fingers against his thighs.

Luke strikes a pose and clears his throat, “You can open your eyes now.”

Ashton does, cracking up a smile and laughing brightly when he sees Luke. Luke blushes.

“Very nice Luke,” Ashton says, once his laughter has died down, still smiling.

“Well, now you’re just saying that.”

“Am not. You look very lovely. Seasonal and all.”

“I learned a whole dance.”

“You did?”

“KayKay taught us the dance from Mean Girls.”

“Do I get to see it?”

“You can’t laugh,” Luke insists. Ashton crosses his heart.

“Promise I won’t,” Ashton says, giggling anyway. Luke rolls his eyes, grabbing his phone off the table to queue up the song.

The opening notes of Jingle Bell Rock play through the speakers on Luke’s phone. Luke starts to dance, trying to remember the steps KayKay taught him. He forgets the dance part way through, opting to just twirl at one point, knowing the spinning of the skirt will distract Ashton from his forgotten steps if Luke can draw attention to his ass and legs. It works, Ashton’s gaze fixed on Luke the whole time as he does his best to impersonate Regina George. Luke ends on a spin, angling himself in front of Ashton on the final note.

Luke lands in Ashton’s lap, knees bracketing Ashton’s hips. Ashton hums, hands on Luke’s hips, tilting his head back to request a kiss. Luke obliges, leaning down and pressing his lips to Ashton’s fingers tangled in his hair.

“Best gift yet,” Ashton whispers onto Luke’s lips.

“I have one more for you.”

“Really?”

Luke nods, leaning down on his heels. He reaches into his bra, pulling the ring box out, opening it up. He glances up at Ashton, sees his wide-eyed expression of shock.

“Lu…”

“Ashton, I know you gave me my ring and I know you proposed to me all those months ago, but with everything that’s happened recently, I realized that I haven’t told you how I feel. I know you always say you know and that it’s oblivious, but you deserve to have me say it over and over again. I love you. It’s just part of who I am, all my love for you making me who I am. You’re passionate and strong and supportive. You’re my other half and sometimes it feels like you know me better than I know who I am. I wouldn’t be here today without you and your love and guidance and support. You deserve to have a symbol of my love, to have a constant reminder of how much I love you, how much you’re a part of who I am. I love you and I want to marry you. So, Ashton Irwin, will you marry me?” Luke asks. Ashton’s smiling, eyes wet with tears, as he takes Luke’s face in his hands and kisses him.

“Of course I’ll marry you, Luke Hemmings. But you already knew that,” Ashton says. Luke laughs, thinks he might be crying his own tears of joy, as he takes the ring out of the box and slides it onto Ashton’s finger.

“Oh, it’s a perfect fit,” Ashton says, holding his hand out to admire the ruby stone.

“It was meant to be,” Luke says, leaning back in to kiss Ashton. They kiss for a few more minutes, enjoying the warmth and love from each other.

“Best Christmas ever?” Luke asks.

“I got you in lingerie and an engagement. I’d say it’s the best Christmas ever,” Ashton says, grinning.

“I love you Ash,” Luke says, pressing one final kiss to Ashton’s neck.

“I love you Lu. Now let’s get up and make some waffles in the shape of our love and call our families,” Ashton says, kissing Luke’s cheek. Luke laughs, detangling himself from Ashton’s lap and standing up. Ashton follows suit, tugging Luke towards the kitchen for breakfast. Luke thinks Ashton is right. It’s the best Christmas Luke could have asked for.

#5 seconds of summer #lashton #luke hemmings #ashton irwin #lingerie sos #lingerie luke series #a nice little dash of christmas lingerie for the holiday #please enjoy this #my writing

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mappinglasirena · 4 years

Text

Mapping La Sirena

Welcome one and all to the Mapping La Sirena Project!

If you are a fan of Star Trek: Picard and you would like to know more about the show’s most prominent ship, to check out floor plans and screencaps, and to discuss theories about the layout of this magnificent vessel, this is will be the place for you!

(Long, slightly rambly introduction and masterpost after the cut ;] )

Hi! My name is Lili and I’ve been a fan of pretty much all things Star Trek ever since I started watching Voyager at the tender age of 6. Besides the sometimes goofy, often brilliant storytelling and the wonderful characters, I always loved the worldbuilding of these shows - and in particularly the starships.

When Star Trek: Picard started airing a few months ago, I was immediately drawn to the main ship, La Sirena. The mixture of the monumental physical set, judiciously used CGI, and sheer attention to detail made me fall madly in love with this little mermaid, and I wanted to find out every little thing about her that I possibly could. And since I imagine, I’m not the only one who feels this way, I decided to take you all on this journey with me!

What am I doing here?

As a reader and writer of fanfic, I know how helpful it can be to have a clear sense of the location your story is set in. When I realized that a good month after the final episode of ST:PIC season one aired, there still was no floor plan of La Sirena easily found on the web (easily = using my very limited googling-skills), I figured somebody had to sit down and do it. And apparently, that somebody was me. (May the gods help us all =D)

So, I sat myself down, and over the course of a few long days screencapped every single last scrap of Sirena that appears on the show. I now have a library of reference images and will post my progress as I work through them, trying to determine questions about the general layout of this ship, the details of its architecture and furnishings and all the questions that still remain. By the end of it, I am pretty confident that I will have a mostly accurate floorplan of the set that was used on the show (at least the parts of it that were shown to us thus far). We might even end up with the basis for a plan of the ship as it would exist in-universe (more on the movie set vs. “real place” issue later).

The following soon-to-be-links might give you an idea of what I plan to post over the next few months and I’ll keep adding links to this post as I go. So, without (even more) ado: Have fun exploring La Sirena!

Schematics & Floor Plans

A very crude first sketch

Official Set plan

We finally have an official set plan from the Ready Room!

A First Deeper Look at the Ready Room set plans

Centred Floor Plans from Set Me Up + cross section & more designs

Layout of the Captain’s Quarters

Shape and size

How large is La Sirena as seen on the show and is she larger on the inside?

Upper Deck

The Bridge

Where is the Holodeck?

Picard’s Study

Transporter Pad and Engine

The Trouble with Locating the Quarters/Conference Room

Crew Quarters

Captain’s Quarters

A closer Look at the windows

Conference room

The Mysterious Back End of the Ship

Crates, Tanks, Boxes, and Miscellania

Lower Deck

The Mess

Sickbay: Pt. 1: Size and Construction; Pt. 2: Furniture

So Many Nets

The Wall Problem, aka. Mysterious Nonexistent Corridors

Cargo Bay and other Speculative Spaces

Is there a dedicated cargo bay at the back of the ship?

Where are the rest of the crew quarters hidden?

Overall Design and Technological Aspects

A quick rundown of the Engine placement and history

Some Considerations

Tv Set vs . Starship

The set of La Sirena is just that, a tv set. When building a set, there are many constraints of time, budget, and practicality that will force the creatives to make decisions that will not always make sense when mapped onto a “real” starship. Take, for example, the fact that the Captain’s Quarters and the Conference Room were likely filmed in the same physical set, just redressed for the occasion.

Of course, there can always be Watsonian explanations for these kinds of incongruities and I’d love to hear people’s takes or read fics about them (after all, the entirety of La Sirena is apparently equipped with holoemitters, so I suppose technically, anything is possible).

But I am sticking with the Doylian “it’s a movie set” approach and will generally ignore these kinds of problems when trying to draft an in-universe-accurate floorplan of what we can know of the ship so far. I will be very diligent about pointing out whenever I handwave anything, though, so if you want to stick as closely to what we actually see on the whoe, you’ll know which parts of my analysis/headcanon to disregard ;)

Questions about “silly little details”

I have spend a ridiculous amount of time on this little project so far and in the course of it have gotten pretty familiar with a lot of aspects of the interior and exterior of this amazing starship. If you have any questions regarding details about what we can see of La Sirena on the show, please ask me and I will do my best to help! I absolutely love digging into the really nitpicky, tiny little scraps of information, and at this point, I can probably tell you straight away which scene might provide the info you’re looking for or whether there likely is no answer and you’ll have to get creative. So if you don’t feel like scrubbing through the entire 10 episodes of Picard to find out, say, the colour of the plates produced by Sirena’s replicators, please shoot me an ask, I’m always utterly delighted to help! (They’re white, btw.)

And just to make clear what I mean by “tiny little details”: in the course of writing some of my stories, I have collected answers to such important questions as

On which side of the desk does Rios have his chair? (Both)

How many cups are on the shelf next to the replicators? (4, even when one of them is currently in use)

Could a football roll under the railing on the upper deck and fall down into the mess hall anywhere but where the stairs go down? (No, there is a raised edge all around the rim that would catch it. Bouncing would work, though, since the space between the railing bars is large enough.)

Could I just say “Fuck it, I’ll just write it however, because it really doesn’t matter at all?” Yes. Would it be better for my sanity? Probably. Will I still keep trying to figure out as much about this crazy little ship as I possibly can at every turn? You betcha! So, no question is too silly, please ask away!!

A Quick Thought on Fanfic and “Accuracy”

This whole project started because whenever I write fanfic or make up stories set on La Sirena, my brain keeps insisting that we need to know which side of the mess hall the replicators are on! We need to know where exactly the holodeck is located and whether a football could fall to the lower deck through the railing. I would never hold anyone to these standards of “accuracy” - in fact I frequently don’t hold myself to these standards. Fic is for creative expression, so if in your imagination, La Sirena is twice the size of what we see in the show and has a ton of additional rooms and features, I would love to read that story! I want to create a resource for anyone looking for Sirena references to get inspired, not to point out inconsistencies or canon-divergence in lovingly created fanworks. I hope it comes across that way =)

#star trek picard #la sirena #about the project #cristobal rios #aramis in space

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schoe1995 · 5 years

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Solo Traveling

I’ll first start off by saying and acknowledging that I do come from a well household. My mom runs her own dry cleaners and my dad works at a hospital for computer programming. Wasn’t like that always. In elementary school, I had classmates leave school to go on vacation. Super jealous that they went because I hated being in school 🤣🤣🤣 so the few times I could go on vacation was during like the major breaks or holidays. As I got older and family tensions increased, i began traveling with other people. Let’s just say after a series of not knowing other people’s personalities, cliques, and plus ones....I called it quits with group traveling. It’s a huge part of why my extroverted personality changed to more of an introvert/ extrovert. Since I have my own money, why not travel by myself.

I’ll talk about the cons of traveling solo first.

It can be very expensive: even if you do go with a group...be prepared to shell out a couple of dollars depending on where your going, staying, and activities

Have to be more aware of the surroundings: there has been a couple of times I’ve been exhausted because I was trying to be more aware of what’s going on. I have to watch my own back without relaying on somebody.

It can be scary: not going to lie...the day of trips I get really bad anxiety that I kinda want to throw up. Scratch that, I have thrown up. For example, when I went to D.C, I wasn’t worried about Lyft or Uber because my big bro was picking me up. However other airports....I have no idea where lyft or Uber would pick me up. Certain airports like O’Hare Chicago airport has two levels. One is for traditional friend/ family pick up. The other level is for rideshares. Ever since that mess I decided to look up airports ahead of time and look at maps for where to find the designated area. Helps a lot of stress out.

Benefits of solo traveling

Lollllll there wasn’t a whole lot of cons. Granted not everyone is going to have the same experience as me. So this is all from my personal experience.

Planning can be fun: When you travel alone, YOU are in charge of everything. I’m every pop culture orientated so I’m looking for the best spots for photos, food, shopping, etc. it’s the millennial (probably spelled it wrong) in me.

Moving at my own pace: so this was the best part for me. I’m a huge theme park junky! When I went to Orlando with my parents back in 2017 we did Disney World all in one day. Yes it can be possible to visit all 4 parks in one day😂 but that trip in general had the most arguments I had with my mom. She basically complained about all the walking we had to do. Also couldn’t watch fireworks. Everything was so rushed that back in 2019, I did a redo Disney World trip. Oh! I’ll definitely be doing a multi part blog for that. So when you travel by yourself you don’t have to deal with “I don’t want to do this!” “Why we going here?” Less arguments...PERIODT

Moving at your own time: this kinda goes with your own pace. I’m a huge HUGE be on time person. One of my sayings is “If your early, ya on time. If your on time, ya late. If your late...don’t bother showing up”. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves when people aren’t on time. Idk if it’s just Asians but Asian people AINT NEVER ON TIME FOR ANYTHING! So you have free reign with time.

Flexibility: This was one of the things I found super awesome when it came to solo trips. My schedule to travel had so much flexibility. And since I was working in retail, I could do what I want...per say. If my days weren’t approved I’d still go on this trip🤣 but I found traveling during the off season for holidays or non busy or non important seasons were a lot cheaper. That’s what I kinda wanted to make up for; not being able to travel when I was younger and leaving school to go 🤣 now that I can...✌️

No cliques: personality wise, I describe myself as a walking tv show. So picture every Disney show, Nickelodeon, and VH1 reality shows all in one person. I really don’t fit into a mold so I call it an outsider habit. I thought I’d get super lonely when traveling alone but oddly...I’m more comfortable with it. There is this no judgement zone when traveling alone. When I went to Universal Studio with my parents, it was “why do you want to buy this” or “how old are you?” First of all...you can never be too old of anything:) This might be a con for others, so it all depends🤷‍♂️ besides with technology I’m able to FaceTime, Live Stream, record things I want others to see. Ha! This is what this blog is for!

In no way shape or form am I throwing shade to group trips. I call those experiences that helped shape my travel knowledge. I’m always grateful for that. But the couple solo travel tips I’ll give is this.

Research! I can’t stress this enough. Knowing where you are going can save so much hassle. If your traveling internationally know where your country embassy is just in case. Second, the culture of the city or country. Being knowledgeable can help avoid any cultural ignorance, stereotypes.

Flights: alright flights can be very touchy subject. I usually find great deals with Southwest when they offer sales. Sometimes buying two - one way tickets is cheaper than round trip. They also offer two free checked bags, one carry one, and one personal items. If Southwest is a little out of your budget, don’t worry! Other airlines have great prices. I use Google Flights.

Train: if your destination is a couple hours away, I’d suggest taking Amtrak. Believe it or not Amtrak depending on what city you go too have awesome deals. If you follow them on Instagram they have beautiful photos of scenic railways. When I was younger I had a huge obsession with trains. I had every train from Thomas The Tank Engine. 😂 anyways, trains also have dining cars, and sleeping cars. Some have observation decks so you can do a 360* of the surroundings

Car: I put this last for transportation. Believe it or not, traveling by car may sound cost efficient but it’s really not. Just from my personal experience from driving to Branson Missouri, Tennessee, Chicago. There is gas you have to pay and hotels can charge a ridiculous amount for overnight parking x the amount of nights your staying. WHEW CHILEEEE THE MESS!

Hotels & location: This is the boujee side of me. I like to be comfortable after a day of riding rides or exploring. Just being able to act like this is my home for the time being. I usually use Bookings.com, Trivago.com, etc. to find the best one. Use filters if you need to find exactly what you need. When I travel to concerts, I try finding hotels close to the venue. That way I’m not paying extra for lyft, Uber, or taxis. BTW, don’t ever take taxis after concerts. Such a rip off...idk if there is a law that prevents them for jacking up their prices.

Air BnB’s: So I found this to be half and half. Sometimes it’s less expensive sometimes...not so much. Air BnB is pretty much either paying for a room or whole house for a certain amount of days. My big bro introduced me to it when we went to LA. I used it on my road trip to LA with a “friend” who is no longer a friend. But it was more of other situations I don’t really use. Honestly after seeing videos of how people were being racist to other guests, that was a major turn off to me. Second I had a friend who posted a conversation of a Air BnB host who tried to play her. Yes the app does have host ratings and reviews but there are so many fees and rules that it’s like, I might as well pay for the hotel. Again it’s totally up to you but staying at a random strangers house....Issa no dawg if I’m traveling by myself.

BUDGETING IS CRUCIAL!! Anytime I go anywhere I budget how much I’m spending. So with that being said, I get all information from attractions I want to go see, restaurants, ride share, everything. You don’t have to be so exact like me but it certainly helps me to know exactly how much I’m spending. Lol

Oh!!!! Sign up for reward programs at any restaurant you eat, shops you shop, or hotels! I do it all the time because for a lot of reward programs just by signing up you get a freebie. So why not take advantage of it.

So I wrote this blog up at like 5:30AM in the morning 🤣🤣🤣😭 I know I’m in for a struggle. But I decided to do this blog post because I was just going through my social media of all the travels I did. I really hope it does help you guys out a lot.

#travel #solo travel #travel blog #travel tips #blogger #blog #solo traveller

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adventureswechase · 5 years

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The waterfall hidden in the jungle.

We were hungover. Last night was our final night living on the little island of Gili Air. A diver’s paradise in Indonesia that we had been living on for the last 4 months. Thankfully, it’s only a short ferry ride (5-10 minutes) away from Lombok.

We were with Alqi, our bartender turned dear friend. Whenever we needed a night out, we would head over to Star Bar Bungalows where we would chat, play games, make bets on football, sang karaoke, smoked crappy weed and in between orders of beer Alqi would poor us drinks mixed with his homemade rice wine, which is popular among the Indonesians. When it’s mixed, it’s a bit strong, but not that bad. Alcohol is expensive on the islands, since everything needs to be imported.

Alqi lived on Lombok, and would sleep on the restaurant couches during his working days, and take the ferry home on his days off. A lot of the locals working on the Gili Islands come over from Lombok to work in the Tourism Industry of the Gili Islands. We planned to spend a week exploring Lombok, before heading back to Bali. For our first day in Lombok, Alqi took the day off, and was going to take us on an adventure. We took the local slow boat across to Lombok, where Alqi had his motorbike waiting for him. It was a new, sleek red bike he was really proud of. And instead of letting us rent a bike, he borrowed one from a friend for us to use that day.

He said he knew a good guest house we could stay, that was close to his village. We drove over there, but when we got there, the guest house was full. The owner was very friendly though, and between him and Alqi, they found another guest house that said they had room. When we got there, it was a pretty cool property. They had all these kind of treehouse cabin type of rooms, which we soon found out were all full.. but they did have a spare room in their family house that we could stay in, which was super kind. They included breakfast and gave us coffee and water and juice. The room was basic but we had our own bathroom, and separate single beds.

The older couple who owned it were very friendly, and we drank coffee with them and had a long chat. We told them we were interested in going to see the Sendang Gile waterfall, which was a bit of a drive from where we were. They told us they knew of a better one which was closer, that they had visited only a few days ago. This one was found on a farmers land only around 4 years ago, it was pretty far drive into the jungle but it was amazing. They had driven themselves and their 2 children on one motorbike to get there! They showed us pictures, and it did look beautiful, so we were sold. Although they warned us that the road to get there was not very easy, but if they could do it with 4 people on one bike, then we could do it too. They gave Alqi the directions on how to get there, as he had never even heard of this waterfall. Thankfully we had him to find the way because without google maps, I am useless. We packed our bags, filled the bikes up with gas, and stopped at a little shop on the side of the road to pick up some snacks. Then I held on to the back of Ben on the motorbike while he followed Alqi through villages, winding uphill roads, and eventually turned onto a dirt road, where I was surprised that there was actually a sign for the waterfall. “Can’t be that hard to find it if there’s a sign for it!”

Onto the dirt road we went. And on.. and on.. uphill, downhill, some sketchy parts, winding paths. We would come to a fork in the road, and Alqi would stop for a minute to think, and then seemed to know which way to go, so we kept following. Some parts of the road seemed to have just been dug through, with tall dirt walls surrounding you.

After almost an hour of driving through the jungle, I was beginning to wonder if we were totally lost somewhere in the jungles of Lombok, when we finally found another sign for the waterfall. Hallelujah we made it!

A little further down, we found a spot to park the bikes. Then we started the walk. It took us another 15-20 minutes to hike down towards the waterfall. It got pretty steep, especially when you are hiking in flip flops... but there were somewhat of stairs that were dug into the earth, and eventually a hand rail, and then a platform.

It was one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, the pictures don’t even do it justice. 5 different, beautiful waterfalls in front of me, a beautiful canyon to swim in, it was heaven.

After the first platform, there was another platform lower down, where you could leave your bags. It wasn’t totally well kept, there was a fair bit of litter left behind, the wood was pretty wet and a bit broken, but they did just have hurricane season. We left our stuff there and climb down to swim in all it’s glory.

When we arrived, there were about 5 local Lombok guys there. There was a big rock you could jump off, and one of them had lost their GoPro when they jumped in. Luckily, Ben being a dive instructor/fish, brings goggles with him whenever we go on adventures. They told him what happened, and it took him a few tries of diving down, and he found their GoPro! They were super stoked. I think moments like that are what give us good karma for other stories, like when I lost my GoPro in Whistler, BC.

The time passed way too quickly, and even though the water was still warm enough to swim in, the sun was going down, and it was a long road out of there. After a steep hike back out, we got on the bikes and began the not so easy road home. Thankfully Alqi seemed to remember how to get us out of there again.

We managed to get back on the main road as the sun was going down, tired and starving. Alqi led the way to his favorite local spot to get some well earned dinner and beers. I finished off the day with big plate of Mie Goreng, a common spicy fried noodle dish and a few Bintangs. That is one of my favorite memories.

#travelstories #traveldiaries

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notbecauseofvictories · 6 years

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There never was a more holy age than ours, and never a less. Annie Dillard.

"No, really," the man at the bar says with second-hand pride. He gestures to the younger man beside him, who ducks his head, smiles. I have been quietly nursing the same beer for half an hour, listening to them talk to one another. They only occasionally remember that they have an audience, even more rarely that it's me. "He's a photographer, an artist. The kind that doesn't have a day job."

It's a Thursday night and the median age in the bar is somewhere in the late forties. The photographer and I make up the entire lower half of the bell-curve.

"Must be nice," interjects a third voice, from further down the bar. He's been largely quiet, his face turned away so he can watch the Phillies lose. "I'd like to be an artist."

The first man, the older man, laughs. "C'mon, we'd all like to be artists," he says with perfect sureness, as though this is a fact, immutable as gravity or the rising of the sun.

He works for the state, he told me; Department of Transportation. He works on "the turnpike." (I have only been in Philadelphia a week and a half, I don't know what he means, but I nod like I understand.) He gets good benefits, that's the thing. Otherwise he'd be an artist.

"What sort of artist?" I ask, an inconvenient reminder that I am still here, listening. Luckily, they seem to forget it again quickly; they're too busy arguing whether carpentry counts as art, and then the bartender asks if travel writing is art or journalism, is journalism an art? What is art, anyway?

I get their professions in bits and pieces: construction, plumber. An unlikely accountant, given the number of tattoos. A bartender, a host at a chain restaurant. An almost-attorney, not even through her second week.

In the end, we all agree: we would rather be artists.

It's instructive, moving to Philadelphia when all that waits for you there is an empty apartment and a borrowed air mattress. The bare walls force you out into the world, or at least to the nearest coffee shop with an internet connection. You spend a lot of time nursing lukewarm lattes, and googling "philly events + this weekend."

I don't remember how I found out about the Wagner Free Institute of Science. (There were a lot of recursively nested links, I clicked on all of them.) The museum itself was too far for a jaunt after work, but they were offering a free six-week class at a nearby library branch. The history of cartography: how maps evolved from second- or third-hand accounts of sundials to the real-time GPS math-sphere we know today.

It's been a few years since my last history of science class, but I have fond memories of wide-ranging, bitter arguments. The scientific method seems immutable until you realize that it was invented before modern mathematics, and produced reliable results that are laughable within the modern paradigm. An atom looks like a circle and x-y graphs are perfectly readable until you stop and consider that alchemists considered their dense, symbolic depictions legible too. The human knowledge-making endeavor is always specific to a time and place, and they shape one another.

(I love law's pragmatism, but there will always be a part of me longing for a two-hour argument about epistemology and whether we can ever really know anything.)

I decided to attend the class, thinking that it would be entertaining even if it was just me and the professor in a library conference room.

When I first walked into the conference room, I thought for a minute maybe I'd gone to the wrong library branch. There were too many people: some fifty-odd bodies, retirees and young professionals, a handful of college students. One young man in scrubs. Rows of uncomfortable metal chairs, and almost all of them were full. Shortly after I arrived, people had to be dispatched to go find more.

By the time the class started, people were leaning against the walls. I'm not sure who was more surprised, the professor or all of us.

It was one of the retirees who raised his hand first, as the professor talked about an Egyptian map of the underworld found on the bottom of a sarcophagus. "How do you know it's a map?" he asked. All I could see was his cheek, not-quite clean shaven. "How do we know it isn't art?"

Almost before he was finished speaking, three other hands went up.

By the end of the period, the professor had to gloss over Ptolemy in the last five minutes. There wasn't time for more, what with all the questions.

I am always a little startled when large numbers of people turn up to listen to opera.

There are a dizzying number of articles and thinkpieces about its imminent death. The pleas for donations get more and more feverish every year, even as the season is shrinking. All amid lamentations that it's a niche interest with a dwindling audience—opera is for old men and the pretentious, Harold Bloom et al. If you like singing there's musical theater and if you like drama there's the soaps; we as a culture have outgrown the need for valkyries, madwomen, and other assorted fat ladies singing.

Hence my surprise when, every year, Chicago's Lyric Opera fills Millennium Park to overflowing for their preview of the upcoming season. Families with children and dogs crowd up against retirees with bottles of wine and paper plates of fine cheese; everyone applauds. It's hard to imagine the death knell of opera on those nights, when couples bend their heads together and small children run through the crowd to the strains of "Mein lieber Hippolyte."

It's even harder to imagine when a broadcast—not even a live performance!—of "We Shall Not Be Moved" fills the mall of Independence National Historical Park.

Maybe it's the subject matter. A modern opera about racism and inequality, set in the shadows of the West Philadelphia MOVE bombings, is powerful and challenging content for an opera. "We Shall Not Be Moved" sold out during its initial run-through; in the shadow of Independence Hall, its questions about America's promise and the nature of the law took on a bitterly ironic quality. It's also a decidedly Philadelphia story, the rawness and relevancy only compounded when the National Park Supervisor introduced it by insisting her department has "a very good relationship with the Philadelphia police" alongside their commitment to supporting free speech.

Or maybe modern opera is more enticing—you have to love opera already to care about Lucia di Lammermor as the epitome of bel canto. You don't have to know anything to be intrigued by an opera about black children in Philadelphia. This is the artistic era we live in, Founding Fathers reference Biggie on Broadway, inner city kids perform chamber opera. For all I know, people turned up just to hear "girls want to get with it/North Philly slayer, player" sung in a sonorous bass-baritone.

But I think the truth is simpler: people still want to see opera, they've never stopped. They want to sit and listen to music, whisper to one another and watch. I was just behind a family of five: mother, father, and three boys, all at that age when they are mostly limbs and nervous energy. One—the oldest, a teenager, as evidenced by how hard he was trying to ignore the rest of his family—was defiantly trying to sleep, one arm thrown over his eyes. He moved only to shift to a new position, and once to pet a dog that wandered through the crowd.

An expensive ticket would have been wasted on him. But the event was free so he was there, sitting beside his brother and pretending, with all the bravura of adolescence, to be somewhere else. The light from the projector cast the rest of his family in silhouette: four faces, turned up to the screen. I wondered if all four of them would been there, if the tickets were sixty, ninety dollars each; if any of them would have come.

I'm distracted by a child, barely older than six, wandering through the audience. She stops suddenly, looking around and calling for her mother. The audience thrums like a plucked string to the sound, even in the half-dark you can see people's mouths shaping, lost, shaping, help. It only takes a few minutes for the child's brother to dart through the crowd and take her hand, whisk her away and back to their blanket. The audience settles again.

In a folding chair just a little ways away, an old woman is absently conducting, as though the musicians on screen could see her—one-two-one-two, just her hand for a baton.

#foul fetid fuming foggy filthy philadelphia #long post for ts #sarah's ongoing love letter to humanity #this is a thing I made

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softestziam · 5 years

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This is dedicated to my Z/D anon. Thank you for listening to me babble and thank you for inspiring this crap.

Eric had it all planned out, every last detail was mapped out perfectly in his mind. What he was going to wear, what he was going to say, everything, so no mistakes were to happen. He consulted with Kane and his dad beforehand to get some ideas and perspectives on what and how to do it. He had been gathering information for months, since they touched down in Russia in June. Scoping out ideas, subtly dropping hints, asking questions hoping he’d get an answer he could use and run with. He even spoke with Sally and Alan, knowing Harry would be no help, just mug the whole thing off. Everyone told him to make sure it was meaningful and special to them. That wasn’t any help though. Eric knew that from the moment he thought of the idea. He racked his brain for ideas, tried to find something creative, something memorable. It was hard to focus when work and illness and life got in the way. Late night google searches on the coach home or taking his phone with him into the bathroom for some privacy. Kane asking him during the plane ride home from Amsterdam while everyone was still celebrating. The only concrete thing he knew was that it was going to be done on summer holiday, after the Champions League final and after the Nations League. They could just hop on a plane and take off.

His first thought was Portugal, on the beach as the sun set behind them, the waves crashing creating a beautiful atmosphere. His mum shut that down almost immediately, saying that wasn’t something that symbolized them, that symbolized Eric. He thought about Milton Keynes which Sally quickly vetoed, expressing Dele’s uneasiness about his hometown. The ups and downs he face there and what he still deals with at time, internally. Eric was running out of ideas and had to think and do something, fast. Everything else was in order, the outfits, the ring, the speech he’d give. Now he just needed to know where he was going to do it. Kane told him to make a list of places that were special to them and meant something. That was impossible, every time he thought about Dele it was followed with a memory of football. The first time they kissed was in France during the Euros, after the Iceland lose. Sitting in their shared hotel room, tension and emotions running high between them. They’d been playing this back and forth game all season and it followed them to France. Eric was consoling a down rotten Dele when it happened. Dele desperately grabbing at Eric’s shirt that he stained with tears when he mustered up the courage to just kiss him.

They returned to England after their respective holidays and their energy changed. The flirting was more aggressive, more open, more personal. The other lads didn’t seem to care or mind, Trippier applauding them actually. They didn’t have an official title but they definitely snuck kisses in the changing room when no one was there or paying attention. Grabbed onto each other tighter during goal celebrations, whispers in each other ears when they had prying eyes watching them. Promises of the future, both in the romantic and sexual nature. Their first declarations of love was revolves around football as well, England had just qualified for the World Cup. Once again emotions were running high, adrenaline pumping through their veins. Everyone was celebrating, bombarding Southgate and Kane. These little band of misfits who collapsed in France were heading to Russia. Dele jumped on Eric’s back, demanding to be carried around the pitch like a child when it slipped out of his mouth. Eric almost dropped him he was so taken aback by it. be carried around the pitch as they celebrated with their fans and each other. That’s when it slipped out of Dele’s mouth. He was on a high, euphoric, and said it, stunning them both. Eric almost dropped him in shock, trying to play it off, play it cool but readjusting him on his back. Later that night Eric said it back, just the two of them watching the stars above them on their hotel balcony.

Russia solidified everything for Eric, even before then to be totally honest. The few weeks between the season ending and the national team gathering at St. George's Park were eye opening, life altering for Eric.They both knew it’ll be the last time they’d have to themselves before everything changed. They had such a strong belief in their team, the group of lads Southgate assembled, that England was going to make some noise in Russia. Picking out what to pack somehow became intimate and special to them, something to treasure. Dele always taking the piss out of the situation, especially when Eric’s fashion sense was involved. Eric joking at the over abuent amount of hair products Dele was packing, each one for a different weather type with a different smell to them. He loved him but knew he was excessive. The minute they touched down in Russia Eric knew. Knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life, personally and professionally, with Dele. Watching as Dele just took everything in around them with wide eyes. Asking so many questions about every sight they came across. Throwing himself into every training, every game, even if he didn’t play. Even at only twenty two he was wise, life had hardened him early on and it never once jaded him, even when it should have.

When they had days off, which were few and far between, Dele wanted to do anything Eric did. Going to a museum, learning about the Russian culture, the history, things you’d never learn in a classroom. Eric was enamoured by this new side of Dele, someone who was willing to expand his horizons, to learn. That’s when Eric thought of proposing at the London National History Museum. Walker and Stones shot that down the minute Dele got back to his room and went straight in his PlayStation to play Fortnite against Trent. You could take the boy out of England but couldn’t take the England out of the boy, clearly. His ideas were dwindling and despite everyone’s excitement, no one was helping at all. They all said he had to find a place on his own, they could all point him in the right direction but ultimately it was up to Eric. During training and downtime during Russia, Eric could casually ask Dele questions about their relationship, what it meant to him, where he saw them going long term. It caused Dele some panic, confiding in Rose that Eric was going to break up with him after the tournament.

After the Colombia shootout and amazing victory, courtesy of Eric, he shook his head in amusement at Dele and promised he wasn’t going anywhere. Eric even almost dropped to his knee and proposed right then and there, everyone watching be damned. His emotions were running high, everything felt alive, like he was vibrating with adrenaline. Reality knocked him back down to size when he and Pickford were getting pulled in a million different directions to give interviews. The Croatia game made everything feel normal again as they lost and returned back to England. They went on their summer holidays, separately, with the promise to keep in contact and reconnect once they were back in London. That’s when Eric’s ideas went into overdrive. That’s where he did most of his planning, Dele none the wiser, enjoying the California weather with some of the lads from the England team. The season started without a hitch, even if they missed the first few matches due to a delayed holiday. Everything was going swimmingly. Dele still oblivious to what he was going to do. Eric confided in some of Dele’s friends when he officially bought the ring, asking for their advice. Dele was simple but flashy, wanted to make a subdue statement in everything he did. Wanted to be memorable but not arrogant and his jewelry was the same way.

The season wasn’t perfect, they rarely are. Injuries and a surprise appendicitis threw them both off. If Eric had to reflect on his season, he’d openly admit it wasn’t his best and he knew it. He knew what was being written about him almost on a weekly basis. Dele would admit it wasn’t his best either, but he was determined to work harder and be better next year. Some people didn’t get a next year, or are even lucky enough to accomplish what he had accomplished at his age. Making the Champions League final and finishing in the top four wasn’t something to dismiss. It was a reflection of the team and how good and determined they were. Football was winding down, getting an England call up for the Nations League was great but neither of them were ready for a heavy match due to playing days earlier in Madrid. A lot of the Spurs players, along with Liverpool players, weren’t able to wear the Three Lions during a crucial time. It gave Eric more time to finalize everything though. He had finally narrowed down the venues to propose in. He spoke to everyone who could help and talked through the logistics of everything. He knew, sadly, he couldn’t do it in a public place so that cancelled out the restaurant where they held Dele’s welcome to the club dinner.

“What are we doing here?” Dele asked as he followed Eric past empty rooms. “Seasons over, Diet.”

Eric mocked laughed at Dele’s comment. “Just wait.”

“Does Poch know you’re here? The grounds crew?” He continued to ask questions as they walked into the medical room at Enfield. “Finally getting that lobotomy you so desperately need?”

“Funny,” he replied dryly even though he enjoyed the playfully banter between the two of them. His heart was racing, his palms sweating. His nerves made him feel like he was vibrating, a livewire.

“The medical room,” Dele observed, switching on the light and doing a small spin around the room. “Romantic. But, why are we here?”

“I love you,” Eric started, letting out a deep breath to calm himself. “Didn’t always want to admit it, not to myself, and not to you.”

“Thanks,” Dele snorted.

“You were the biggest pain in my ass when you first arrived. Dele Alli, the superstar from MK Dons. The next big Spurs and England superstar,” Eric continued. “I wanted to hate you so much, Del.”

“Oh thanks.”

“But I couldn’t,” he sighed. “You weaseled your way into my life. Day in and day out, you were glued to my side. You gelled well with Walks and Kane but it was me you loved to rile up.”

“Still do,” Dele reminded him.

“That’s why I can’t picture my life without you, inside and outside football,” Eric told him, making sure he was speaking to directly to Dele and not at the floor or the wall behind him. “Here’s where we first met. It was right before your first training. I was greeting the medical staff when Poch came in to introduce you to everyone.”

“You has that floppy prince hair,” Dele recalled with a smile. “Looked like a California frat boy.”

“I loved that hair!”

“Frat boy,” he stressed.

“Anyway,” Eric interrupted any further tangents by Dele. “My disdain for you grew into appreciation, which turned into tolerance, then like, and eventually love. I wake up thinking of you and fall asleep dreaming of you.”

“Frisky.”

Eric sighed once again and reached into his pocket. Everything was straight out of a cliché but he wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. He kneeled and watched as Dele’s eyes grew wide. “Delboy, babe, I want this life with you and no one else. There’s no one else I want to experience this crazy life with. Will you marry me?”

Dele stared down at Eric in shock, eyes wide and prickling with tears. He blinked a few times to get them away but they just began to fall freely. “E-Diet.”

“Marry me?” He asked again, opening the ring box to enunciate his point.

“Y-Yes!” He cried enthusiastically, hands trembling. He watched in awe as Eric slipped the ring on his ringer to solidify it. Dele didn’t even care that he was crying, tears falling from his eyes and onto his shirt. “I love you.”

Eric stood up and smirked at Dele, his eyes wet from tears as well. “This was so agonizing.”

“Proposing to me?”

“Planning this,” he laughed. “Been trying since Russia.”

“That’s why you were so skittish the whole summer,” Dele realized, looking down at his left hand, marveling at the new accessory on his finger.

“Besides trying to win a World Cup, yeah,” he replied. Eric hooked his finger in Dele’s belt loop to pull him closer. “Love you.”

“Just kiss me, Diet,” he demanded, standing on his tiptoes to reach Eric’s lips. Their kiss was soft and slow, tears falling from both their eyes. Dele started to laugh into Eric’s mouth when he felt a tear fall down his face and into his open mouth. This began a giggling fit from the two of them, still exchanging soft kisses in between laughs. “But seriously, does Poch know you’re here?”

Eric rolled his eyes and jokingly pushed Dele away from him. “I pulled some strings.”

“I love you,” Dele laughed, grabbing a hold of Eric’s hand and squeezing once, twice. “Let’s go home and celebrate.”

“Let’s go home and call our parents, my phones been going off all night,” Eric told him.

“They knew!” Dele exclaimed. “Did Harry know? You know he can’t keep a secret.”

“He knew and shockingly kept his mouth shut,” Eric answered, as they walked out of the medical room and through the empty corridors to the exit. “Never asked for his input though cause we all know he’s shite at that.”

“Good call,” he agreed with a head nod, still holding onto Eric’s hand tightly. “I’m marrying a genius.”

“You are,” Eric confirmed, laughing as he dodged Dele’s hand from hitting him upside his head.

“Unbearable,” Dele groaned, opening the passenger side door and getting in as Eric opened the door for himself. “I am impressed Diet, pulling this off without a hitch.”

“Was torture,” he told him, grabbing Dele’s hand again and he started the car and took off towards home. “Glad you said yes.”

“Glad you asked.”

#deledier #my writing

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abbydraper · 5 years

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Who Gets a Seat in Peter’s Cockpit?

The bios for this seasons’ Bachelor contestants went live today and I just can’t help myself. My justification for this round is that ABC is finally back to giving me what I want... more than just a “job” title and an age. Yep, this season we are getting the full on, horribly written bios. Which means I have so much more to work with.

Alayah (unsure of pronunciation)

After failing 3 times before, Alayah (unsure of pronunciation) was finally crowned Miss Texas this year. And she really likes talking about it. The Bachelor franchise interns that wrote this bio also added a teaser that, “familiar faces” might resurface proving that Alayah (unsure of pronunciation) is batshit, and like, we already had this drama with Caelynn and Hannah last season, so no thank you. She claims her favorite social media platform is Reddit and I hope we learn that she goes deep on Reddit conversations about romantic relationships with wildlife animals, or something.

Avonlea (not a real name)

Cattle Rancher by day, runway model by night, Avonlea (not a real name) shares that every time she milks one of her cows, she thanks it for its hard work. That would be like me kissing my laptop any time I finished a press release. Except less strange. She also claims that in her spare time she likes snuggling up by the fire to listen to a good audiobook and I’m interpreting this as an admission that she can’t read.

Alexa (can you not start fights this season? Get it, that’s an Alexa joke)

Alexa wants us to know that she decided to move to Chicago during a game of heads or tails, and I’m assuming that’s to make us think she’s adventurous and up for anything, but her hometown is Springfield, Ill. and when I Google map the distance between the two cities, it’s a three hour drive. I made the decision to move 3,000 miles away over a mid-day FaceTime with my boss and have never included that in a bio when looking for love. She’s going to require a lot of attention and I’m already annoyed.

Courtney

Courtney is proud to be a Florida girl, “through and through” which isn’t something anyone should find pride in. She has had a lot of plastic surgery, but is wearing a cross necklace over a mock turtleneck tank top in her Bachelor photo which means she’s boring to talk to, but makes up for it generously in the bedroom.

Deandra

Why are all of these women from Texas? Was it the last place on the audition city tour? Anyway, Deandra describes herself as an “independent, intelligent” woman, which translates the same way as when a guy describes himself as “funny” on a dating app... no way it’s true. She is a self-proclaimed “famers market aficionado” and that’s not a thing.

Eunice (also not a name, but could be an allergy medication)

Eunice (also not a name, but could be an allergy medication) really wants to rid herself of the party girl reputation but when asked her favorite country, she responded with “Greece” because she can knock back ouzo like it’s water, so she’ll be the first to chug a bottle of champagne and make a bad joke about Peters cockpit. Kind of like I did in the title of this post.

Hannah Ann (I really hate when people have two first names)

Hannah Ann (I really hate when people have two first names) looks like she was on a show on the WB called “Teenage Darkness” that was canceled after one season and likely could have been as she still lives at home with her parents. Her “home” (room at her parents) is decorated with artwork that she painted herself. The background on my phone is a picture of me, so I have no room to judge. But I am.

Jade

Like 80% of the other contestants, and The Bachelor himself, Jade is a flight attendant. Unlike other flight attendants, Jade claims she is afraid of heights. What a risk taker. She is also a mormon and was divorced at age 22 so there’s a lot to unpack here. No travel pun intended.

Jasmine

In a single paragraph, we learn that Jasmine wants a guy that can do the impossible (bring her Chick-Fil-A on a Sunday), build her a table, give her babies (but not until they’ve traveled the world together) and doesn’t play video games. Pretty specific list of “musts” from a guy who wears a bandaid on his forehead and gets off to windmills.

Jenna

I feel like Jenna and Peter are this seasons Ben H. and Lauren B. He’ll fall hard, but wonder if she’s too quiet and reserved and she’ll spend a lot of time telling him she’s super fun while actually being incredibly boring. She has a pet goldfish named George, the most boring name on the planet, and she believes that George, her pet goldfish, gives great advice. That’s all the proof I need to validate my assumptions.

Kiarra

She is a self-proclaimed social butterfly who loves shopping, fashion, style and social media. So she’s here for the Fab, Fit, Fun + Fit Tea Instagram deals.

Katrina

Katrina has a hairless cat (her words, not mine) that she does everything with. She claims that she dressed up like her hairless cat for Halloween and I need to see what that looks like. Or maybe I don’t. The cat is named after her favorite Disney princess and at age 28 I don’t think someone should have a favorite Disney princess. Her mom is worried about her biological clock ticking and I think she should be more concerned that Katrina brings her “hairless cat” with her to birthday parties.

Kelley

Kelley needs a man to take care of her, and her most recent relationship was an “international long distance” lover that paid for her to go to Jordan to see him once or twice a month. So, she had a sugar daddy. She decided to end it because she “couldn’t see herself moving to the Middle East”. Which reads, she found out she was on The Bachelor and had to call it off... for now. She has been to 26 countries, so I’m guessing Mr. Jordan wasn’t her first SD.

Kelsey

Kelsey is a “professional clothier” in Iowa and that’s not a real thing. She claims she’s had relationship issues in the past but Pilates cured that right up. She says she’s not looking for drama, which means she will cry a lot this season. I hope it doesn’t ruin that spray tan and smokey eye look.

Kylie

Kylie is an entertainment sales associate in Santa Monica, which means she probably passes out fliers for nightclubs on the Santa Monica Promenade during the day and is a bottle service girl in Hollywood at night, in hopes that she will be “discovered”. She is looking for that “rom-com kind of love” which translates to auditioning for The Bachelor and then dating in the franchise pool for press when it doesn’t happen with Peter.

Lauren

The most important part of Lauren’s bio is that she conducts exit interviews with all of her exes to find out what went wrong. Imagine that. Your boyfriend comes over to break up with you and you’re like, “I understand. Are you free Thursday between 1 - 2 so I can document when you became unhappy in this role and why? Want to make sure the next person we hire (I date) doesn’t face the same challenges” and him responding with, “Oh yea, totally. See you at 1:30, Thursday.” I’m pretty sure if I called an ex and asked for a SWOT analysis on our relationship he would say, “Abby, this is exactly the reason things didn’t work out.”

Lexi

Lexi would rather be buried alive than trapped in a room full of frogs. That’s it. The thought of being buried in the ground, alive and breathing, is more appealing to her than being in a room of small amphibians for a short amount of time. Sounds like a ball of fun.

Madison

Madison really wants you to know that she loves basketball. She would even rather rock a pair of Jordan’s (I think those are basketball shoes) than heels. She also loves Jesus. A lot. And if Peter doesn’t, it will be a technical foul for their love. Sports jokes, am I right?

Maurissa (not how you spell Marissa)

Maurissa (not how you spell Marissa) broke up with her long-term boyfriend, moved to Atlanta and lost 80 pounds. She will be the one that works out in the morning instead of having a mimosa with the other girls. She says if she hits it off with Peter right away, she plans on going hard, so she’ll be the one to steal him away during every other conversation. She’ll probably make him feel her newfound biceps, too.

Megan

Another flight attendant joins the season. This one has aspirations of visiting Zion which is literally a 5 hour drive from San Francisco, where she lives. Dream big, Megan. I see her making it to hometowns and since her mom is her best friend, she’s going to put Peter through the ringer which will be very difficult for their relationship. Do you think I’ve watched a season or two of this show? Megan also looks like a hybrid of every Bachelorette this franchise has ever had.

Mykenna

Mykenna is barely out of college and has only been in one relationship, so this will be tough for us all to endure. She is a fashion blogger which isn’t a real job, from Canada, who has a BHAG of starting a charity. For what, we don’t know. Her grandfather proposed to her grandmother after their first date. All of this wrapped up in one person means a lot of tears will be shed.

Natasha

An event planner from New York (who in New York isn’t an event planner?) Natasha loves her legs and her back because she has a cross and a dagger tattoo there. What do you think inspires someone to get a cross and a dagger tattooed on their legs all the way up to their back? Real question.

Payton (not how you spell this name)

1. “Payton (not how you spell this name) is the type of woman who goes into a bar alone and leaves with 100 new best friends”. No she doesn’t.

2. Payton (not how you spell this name) found out she had a fifth sibling, “thanks to some serious Facebooking”. No she didn’t.

3. Payton (not how you spell this name) currently lives in her parents’ basement. That explains why she included 1 + 2 in her bio.

Sarah

I put my thousands of hours watching every iteration on this show that Sarah is in the final three. She is the Whitney B. of Chris Soules’ season. Like, exactly. Job in medicine, sweet looking blonde, thoughtful and targeted responses to bio questions... calling it now.

Savannah

Savannah has done her research on what makes Bachelor Nation contestants famous, post show. She claims she enjoys shopping at Revolve, a brand that thrives on leveraging former suitresses as influencers. See: JoJo, Kaitlyn, Hannah G., Caelynn, Caila and other misspelled names from Bachelor seasons past. Her indulgence is Vampire Facials, a trend also posted to IG stories from the aforementioned. She refers to herself as the “turtle princess” and I hope that means what I desperately need it to mean.

Shiann

In her bio, she claims her dating history includes men with wives, men that ghost her and men that like her friends more than they like her. Sounds like Las Vegas (where she lives) to a tee. She will not make it past night one.

Sydney

Sydney is coming onto the show with a broken heart. Her favorite holiday is Valentine’s Day and her hobbies including planning fantasy vacations for her and her unknown future husband. She will absolutely come out of the limo with a cupcake and a poorly written poem for Peter, that he won’t remember.

Tammy

Tammy wanted so desperately to be on the mens wrestling team in high school, that when they told her no, she just showed up to all of their practices until they let her...wrestle. She will be interrupting one-on-one time when she’s not supposed to and show up to Peters hotel room unannounced more than once this season. Tammy also has a vanity license plate and the combination of all of this is just too much for me to think about.

Victoria F. (apparently there is more than one Victoria this season)

She wants it to be known that she likes a man that cries in public and I already do not relate. She also responded to her bio questions with run on sentences so again, I do not relate. Good luck, Victoria F.

Victoria P. (the second Victoria it seems)

I’m fairly certain I’ve seen Victoria P. in a porn, but either way, she leads with losing her father at a young age, her mother and sister struggling with drug addiction and her boyfriend cheating on her, but she states that nothing upsets her more than finding raisins in her cookies. Like, despite it all, dried grapes really piss Victoria P. off. Priorities.

What are your thoughts after reading the bios? Will you watch this season? Tell me everything.

#thebachelor #thebachelorabc #funny #comedy #reallitytv #peterthepilot #bios #didishavemylegsforthis #comedywriting

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cheswirls · 5 years

Text

tether notes 3/3

attached links

reference maps

pt 4 drawings

pkmn team graphics for 5 char

big bang art one / two

timeline

[this is very loose and only goes chronologically, so some points may happen years apart from each other]

caesar, under the family, begins research on creating an artificial arceus

the river from law’s village becomes polluted, and lami gets sick

everyone in law’s village dies. he travels to alola

corazon, the ula’ula kahuna, gets wind of caesar’s experiments

law joins the family in alola

law meets corazon, and shortly after embarks on an island challenge

after getting a special material on poni island, law meets with corazon, who tells him he was planning to turn the family over to the international police

corazon dies, and law escapes the family with one type:null

law ends up in the kalos region

luffy meets shanks, and learns about aura

luffy leaves for the sinnoh region to train with shanks for the first time

ace and sabo set off on a journey through the kanto region

luffy is given his second pokemon, a buizel, by shanks, to help cope with the loss of his brothers

sabo and ace return to travel kanto once more

sabo’s accident occurs; he’s hospitalized, but convinces ace to continue traveling

ace dies in an accident; sabo takes striker, his charizard, and leaves the sevii islands

luffy starts his journey looking for sabo

a band of pokemon poachers begins to grow more prominent in sinnoh; it’s led by caesar, who escaped capture at alola all those years ago

dragon’s group arrives in the sinnoh region

marguerite, a close confident with the sinnoh champion, goes missing

shanks sends luffy a letter; law boards a boat for sinnoh from kalos

the sinnoh champion, boa hancock, contacts shanks about marguerite

dragon arrives at snowpoint and meets with kokoro

aisa goes missing

tama goes missing and, catching word of this, shanks heads to tsuru from his meeting point with luffy

anana goes missing

luffy arrives in the sinnoh region

chimney goes missing, and shanks sets off to go look for all the missing girls

luffy migrates to jubilife, thinking it was veilstone; law arrives in the sinnoh region

shanks is captured and loses contact with boa hancock

dragon separates from his group, going off on his own

law and luffy meet in jubilife

the battle zone’s real-life location is a formerly-japanese-but-now-russian island called sakhalin. the lower half, specifically. the other island on the map where the pokemon league sits is based off a chain of japanese-owned islands that i can’t remember the name of and am too busy to look up right now. sakhalin is pretty barren, pretty remote, and pretty unpopulated. it’s also colder than hokkaido, being further north, but bc the pokemon-equivalent has an active volcano, the climate balances out.

i spent more time researching sakhalin on google earth than i did actually writing the entire travel part of part 4. like, an absurd amount of time. more than i needed to. but the result is a good portrayal, and an accurate, effortless one. here’s some geography stuff.

1. the squatty plants on sinnoh’s route 225 are probably stone pines. i say probably, bc i still came away unsure, but this was my best conclusion. i cross-referenced sakhalin flora with what i was seeing on google earth, paired with what was most common since these trees are everywhere in the battle zone. specifically they’re japanese stone pines, so more of a squatty bush than an actual tree. (also called dwarf siberian pines, or the genus name of the dwarf version, pinus pumila) in pokemon verse, i chose aguav berries as the pine’s fruit since the seeds grow in pink bundles, like an aguav plant in-game. also, an unripe pinecone is greet, so there’s that too.

2. southern sakhalin, that i can remember, doesn’t actually have black-sand beaches. there’s one in platinum off the base of stark mountain, but since that’s aniva bay area of sakhalin, it doesn’t match up great. the only thing similar is in northeastern sakhalin, off the sea of okhotsk, where dark mud will collect on the coast and turn the beach dark. i wrote it off as a game mechanic, saying ‘it’s from the ash from the volcano’, or something like that, and then referenced beaches in iceland that are actual black-sand beaches and really pretty.

3. aniva bay is southern sakhalin, essentially. it’s a fork, and in the middle is where the black sand beach is in platinum. in actuality, aniva bay is not that big. there’s a lighthouse off one fork, not tall or anything impressive, but it’s there. at one point i wanted law and luffy to sail in (i saw sail, i mean like surf on a pokemon okay) past the lighthouse, and go through the bay, and stop on the black sand beach. this was before i knew most anything about part four, though, and soon the idea was scrapped as i deviated towards the cargo ship taking them to fight area. also, aniva bay isn’t deep enough for whales to flop around in, and i realize since i called it a bay in tether that that should also hold true, but i did say it was a wailmer so let’s jus forget that inaccuracy and say its okay bc the whale is tiny.

4. stark mountain was a challenge i spent. so long. so so long. trying to find the mountain range it was based off of. pokemon wikipedia was no help, bc sakhalin is huge. if i was gonna do anything for the pokemon community, i’d wanna go and edit articles to include real-life landmarks that in-game ones were based on. i think the closest thing i found to a once-volcano was more into the northern half of sakhalin, so after spending too much time looking into it, i jus wrote based on screenshots of stark mountain, and on my own intuition. also, yea, i used video game logic the closer they got to the volcano. please don’t depict characters holding cloth over their mouths to protect from sulfur ash if youre going for accuracy, bc thats not going to help.

5. the survival area and the ainu village. i wrote a little about the ainu in part one, while exploring law’s village. my main amount of research went into the ainu’s of sakhalin, though. it’s all sorta the same culture, since they all got kicked out migrated to hokkaido anyway, but there are a few differences. the sheer rock cliff is part of a sakhalin photoset i referenced, so it does exist, somewhere. yes, there are bears in sakhalin, perhaps even more than hokkaido, since it’s less-human-populated. but, again, also colder. i realize survival area is a settlement in platinum, but also.. its really small? and kinda nothing, tbh. so i transformed it into an ainu village, since it’s so outta the way of the other two areas down on each fork of the bay, and it’s closer to the volcano, where the fire goddess resides.

the ainu are the indigenous population of japan. i mentioned before, if you’ve read fma or one of arakawa’s spreads, you’ve probably heard of them. in fma, they’re the race that the ishvalans are based off of. nowadays, they reside in hokkaido, and a while ago they used to reside in lower sakhalin. i couldn’t figure up a creative name for tether for them and i was in so much of a time crunch that in the end i didnt bother, sue me. researching the ainu was most definitely one of the more time-consuming tasks. i spent a long time reading. i watched, after a good recommendation, all two seasons of golden kamuy (an excellent portrayal of hokkaido!ainu, btw, jus not exactly what i was going for) and all one season of sirius the jaegar, where i got the most help from. marking maps and writing the outline (and making myself remember why i dont ever outline. ever.) were definitely time-consuming, but ainu research was by far the most hours i spent on a task for tether (besides like, writing it.)

i still don’t feel like i did enough research, so the cultural things i did include i tried to keep vague to keep from portraying wrong. the bear ceremonies, the signs of summer through salmon (finneon) hunting and huki harvesting, the bear cub raising, the ripping of clothing in a funeral procession, and the kamuy (ainu gods) are all real things and part of ainu culture. woman tattoo their lips, yes. the patterns of the clothing are distinctive (also warm, bc they’ve always been This Far North, and tether!law is a bastardization of forgotten ainu culture pls dont look at his sleeveless top next to his wooden earrings i beg you) there are lots of things i could go into, but im jus gonna leave it vague again and say if you’re super interested, go find an article or watch golden kamuy.

there wasn’t a lot of pokemon depicted in the wilds of the battle zone, and for reason. at this point i really wanted to keep true to sakhalin, so i stuck with the fauna native there, and the pokemon native to sinnoh, and if i didn’t include any pokemon that actually appear in the battle zone in platinum? oops. my house my rules. anyway so horses, dogs, wolves, bears. rapidash, eevee, luxray line, ursaring line.. that covers it, right? oh, and fearow. okay, so i did include one pokemon from platinum’s battle zone. also wailmer, there was a wailmer.

why did you include baroque works into dragon’s group?

so. i wrote tether while the vivre cards were coming out. specifically, right before i was supposed to have started writing part 4, the alabasta pack came out, and i was so taken with goldenweek’s real name that i re-read little garden and stuck her into the story. bentham was.. k, no lie, in my mind he’s like a pseudo-rev member? i jus associate hm so heavily with ivankov, and i read a fic once where he was iva’s student and since then i’ve jus always had to include him in rev stuff so that’s why he’s here. plus i love him. good enough, right? and those two are the only ones, so it’s not entirely baroque works. i don’t rly consider bentham bw anymore, like i said, he’s kinda a pseudo-rev. and i jus rly liked marianne’s name. also her, now. tether!marianne is cool. 85% of the story’s sass.

april 9th is both caesar and marguerite’s birthday. i think in the beginning i was searching for characters that share birthdays for a plot point, and when i settled on caesar i settled on marguerite eventually for this reason just so i could make the whole ‘it’s not his bday its mine!!’ joke. and then i formed the whole story on it being late march-early april and based the weather off that.

law’s sixth pokemon. see, i told you revealing it was strategic! you all were expecting null, right? and then out pops silvally. well, it’s been so many years, so it’s natural they would’ve figured out love and trust and such and breaking the mask and evolving. still! aaaa, that felt so good to write.

there’s more of a metaphor with silvally, even more with umbreon, that i was going for. something along the lines of a captured being being granted escape, bonding with someone, coming back to get due vengeance with the old captor, showing how much more they had become. with umbreon, it was more thing-i-protected-grew-into-something-that-now-protects-me aka her helping law through his nightmares, being a generally supportive and kind pokemon like someone law knew wink wink. also literally protect, with the whole casear thing.

okay mind control time. i reread pt 4 real quick before writing the notes, and im still not completely satisfied with how shanks broke free. i tried to hard to research good mind control depictions but i was more interested in figuring out how the mind control ended rather than the state of being, and there weren’t many promising results other than the victim dying, which wasn’t helpful. i knew i didn’t want it to be the whole i-love-you-so-snap-out-of-it thing, thats so cheesy and kinda ridiculous tbh. i think luffy confronting shanks’ inner self directly and convincing him to step out is nice, but if you pay attention closer to the scenes and how they match up, you might notice something that aids this.

so, it wasn’t just luffy. i know a lot goes on in latter half of pt 4, and all the scenes are disjointed. law and umbreon and silvally defeat gengar before shanks awakes properly. it was luffy, yes, that convinced him everything was going to be okay, and to not falter. but since gengar was knocked unconscious, the control over shanks was already waning to begin with. it was more like, he was already fine, and out of the cycle, but the trauma kept him from realizing it until luffy came. does that help? so basically, it wasn’t luffy talking alone, it was defeating gengar, like luffy had thought of previously. and then it was helping shanks thorugh it, because you don’t just bounce back from that. thats why i wrote shanks Like That in the remaining scenes.

while not in the best conditions as lab 3, labs 1 and 2 were fully-operational and secure facilities, so if you were questioning why sabo and law (mortally injured, mind you -two stab wounds, ow) would just leave the people and pokemon next to a burning lab, it’s because it was secure and the fire contained. the base was inside a volcano, guys, there’s no way the rooms werent airtight to prevent an accident. imagine being That Guy that fucked something up and led to the active volcano erupting. of course they took precautions. also, sabo had been working in the base for a bit, so if he thought the people were gonna catch fire, he wouldn’t have left them.

koala having aromatisse was purely for plot purposes, for it’s hidden ability. i needed a psychic type, and if i haven’t mentioned, dragon’s group are based in kalos, so it had to be from there. it fits though, maybe, right? anywa, yea, that’s why sabo has a delphox and salamence after he fucks off for two years, because he was in kalos. (this is what i’m referring to, if you haven’t clicked on any of those links.)

Law takes Luffy’s hand and leads them backwards, until they’re out of sight again

and, finally, my favorite moment of tether, when lawlu graduates from arms to wrists to finally holding hands. /cries so proud

k but what’s with that ending?

fun fact time i always knew how i wanted to end tether. from the moment of its conception, even before i finished writing part 1 (before i started, really, back when i was gathering material) i knew it ended with dragon in front of the statue of giratina. insert obligatory sequel joke here marianne mentions, before the trio ventures into the base, that her group’s leader wouldn’t appreciate having to halt his own agenda to help them with taking out the hunters. giratina was this agenda.

originally, before i started on pt 2, i thought abt law/lu taking a different route. i wanted them to go north, up through eterna forest and to eterna city, and examine the statue of dialga. then go east from there, still taking them through coronet, but then through celestic town and seeing the cave painting of the lake guardians. i also really wanted them to go to lake valor, since it was the only lake they could conceivably go to on their way to veilstone. i thought about switching pastoria for snowpoint and encountering sabo at lake acuity. none of this worked out, but it was all supposed to reference back into dragon and giratina and sinnoh lore. instead i turned it fully into a travel fic and then a rescue op, at the end. it’s still interesting to think how the story could’ve changed, had they gone up to eterna before crossing through coronet.

in all honesty i wanted to end the story on a surprise note. almost like a goosebumps ending, where everything is resolved and then at the very end there’s a quick scene that leaves you grasping for more, leaves you questioning. (also like certain op chapters leaving you with zero answers and more questions than you started with, fuck you, oda) it wasn’t until i was almost done with part 4 that i started to kinda miss tether, even tho i wasnt done yet but my outline had been done for a bit so i kinda was? and then i remembered back in november when i created concepts for ace and sabo before i even wrote that one scene in mt coronet, and i remembered thinking so much about their story, and their travels, and sabo’s accident. and then, not long after i finished with part 4, i had a startling idea, and i had a first line of a maybe sequel, and i started to put a little more thought into it.

if you’re looking for confirmation, this isn’t it. this is saying i have an idea i’d like to explore. maybe. tether took a lot of work, and a lot of time. it definitely doesn’t have as much feedback as i would like it to, for me to invest in a full-fledged sequel. if i start this, if i ever do, it’ll definitely be more lax, and a chapter-by-chapter sort of thing. i guess it just comes down to how many people are actually interested in it.

#tether #writing

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rosalind-of-arden · 5 years

Text

The Timeline Project

This is an attempt to sort out the timeline of these books. It is very long.

1992: Eskander locks himself away. Wolfe is born same year or year after. (Smoke and Iron, Annis says Eskander has been locked up for 40 years, Eskander says he locked himself up because he used too much power in an escape attempt “before the child was born.”)

2024: Jess’s brother Liam dies. (Ink and Bone says Jess was 9 when this happened, Liam 17)

2025: 10 year old Jess encounters the ink-licker

Summer 2029: Wolfe invents printing press and is arrested. (Paper and Fire, Wolfe states this happened 3 years ago)

Summer 2030: Wolfe released from prison. (Ink and Bone, Santi says Wolfe was in prison for a year)

Let’s say August (could be anywhere from May-September, considering weather) 2031: Jess takes Library entrance test. Weather is warm and sunny.

Next day train leaves for Alexandria.

Gets to Spain 1 day later.

Remaining duration of train ride unspecified: another day or two?

First lesson morning after arriving in Alexandria.

After one week of classes, Dario steals Jess’s clothes, Khalila asks about Iron Tower.

Next day, Dario loses Codex.

September 2031 (Morgan says she left Oxford a month ago, so if class started in August, she would be arriving in September)

Unspecified time later, Jess gets letter from parents, steals book.

Next day, some students start getting extra classes, Jess uses translation tags.

Next day, still no extra classes for Jess, postulants bicker and play chess.

Next day, Morgan arrives, confiscation training, restraint test.

Next day, whole class lottery, students who didn’t draw tiles dismissed.

3 days later, Thomas first mentions press, class disarms Burner traps.

December 2031 (editing to shift this here, on rereading, Morgan’s arrival doesn’t seem quite as late as I had it before, Jess observes fall weather in France, and we need to make the start of Paper and Fire close to one year after the start of Ink and Bone):

Some time later? Unspecified. Jess catches Morgan doing Obscurist things, tells her about his family.

Next morning, class sent to Oxford.

In Oxford for one day? Winter weather (freezing rain) in Oxford.

Jess spends one day unconscious after being stabbed.

Two more days in Welsh camp.

Next day they drive to London, get on train.

Train crashes that night.

Next morning, Thomas shows them chess automaton (that got there fast - translation?)

Six days in France. Morgan arrested on sixth night.

January 2032

Travel back to Alexandria takes a week or two (according to Google maps, could be longer).

That night, Thomas arrested.

Next morning class graduates.

Total time for Ink and Bone: around 1 week to get to Alexandria, approximately two weeks actually accounted for in Alexandria, 1 day in Oxford, around two-three weeks to get back to Alexandria. Unspecified time gap makes things difficult. Probably reasonable to assume it’s a full semester. Based on weather descriptions in England (edited to add: and France) and time spans given, I’m going to say the main events of the book take place from summer/early fall of 2031 to winter of 2031.

July 2032: Paper and Fire begins 6 months after Ink and Bone. Jess has just spent weeks looking for a book with proof that Thomas is alive. In terms of weather, scorching heat is mentioned, so possibly summer. Let’s be generous with time estimates and say Ink and Bone ended early January this is mid-July. Not quite 7 months, but a bit more than exactly 6.

Next day, training exercise and confrontation with Wolfe and Santi.

Next day, Jess visits Dario and Khalila at Lighthouse, plots with Glain.

August 2032: To make this work with Ash and Quill, let’s say late enough in August that it will be September by the time they get to Philadelphia.

Unspecified number of days pass. Research and scheming happen, Dario and Jess go to tomb of Alexander the Great, fights sphinx.

Middle of next night, Jess and Glain summoned to High Commander, Jess goes to find Brendan.

3 days later, Dario asks Scholar Prakesh to help.

Next day, Scholar Prakesh is killed. Jess goes first looking for Brendan, then to Wolfe, mesmer gets Wolfe’s memories back, Morgan escapes and meets Jess.

Next morning, Jess and Glain assigned to Santi’s company, sent to Rome, fight Burners, meet Dario and Khalila.

That night, kids and Santi meet in atrium, Jess scouts tunnels.

Next morning, they rescue Thomas, Dario captured, rest translate to the Iron Tower

Next day, they find the Black Archives, Artifex shows up with Dario, Black Archives burned, Obscurist Magnus killed after translating the group to London, group meets Brightwell family, go to Serapeum, double crossing and backstabbing occur, group is sent to Philadelphia.

Total time for Paper and Fire: Approximately two weeks. Might be able to stretch that to a month if we interpret that unspecified number of days in Chapter 5 very generously. It’s literally “days passed”, so hard to call it too much more than a week or two. Edit: We are going to have to interpret that unspecified time gap VERY generously. At least this makes Dario’s impatience a bit more logical. There is no other way for this to work with the next book starting in the fall and no time in between. I really, really wish that 6 months wasn’t so clearly and repeatedly stated.

September 2032: Group translates into Philadelphia, put in prison. Season is specifically named as fall in Chapter 2.

Next day, Thomas and Jess meet with Beck, bombardment happens, Santi severely burned, Jess and Thomas visit workshop.

Next day, Santi moved to doctor’s house, Jess and Dario go shopping and scouting.

Unspecified time gap working on press. Chapter 3 ends with shopping, 4 picks up with press 1/3 done. Doesn’t seem to be very long, possibly same day. Students scheme, visit Wolfe and Santi at the doctor’s house and scheme more.

Next day, Jess and Thomas work on press, Morgan and Glain figure out how to make a Codex.

Next day, Glain shows Jess evidence Burners attacked jail, more work on press, Wolfe and Santi visit workshop.

Late that night/early next morning, Morgan makes Codex, Jess contacts Brendan, plans are made, Jess and Thomas demonstrate press, violence happens, group escapes with doctor and a few refugees, Library destroys Philadelphia.

Unspecified time gap while Jess is unconscious. Jess wakes up, talks to lots of people, plans are made, Jess visits Morgan, gets drugged by doctor.

Jess wakes up halfway through next day, party splits from doctor and refugees, encounters Khalila’s cousin, attacked by automaton lions, reprogram lions, board Anit’s ship.

Unspecified time gap on ship. (8-15 days if we’re being historically accurate for a steamship, thanks @thegreatlibraryfangirl)

October 2032

Arrive at the Brightwell castle, awkward family interactions occur, Dario tells Jess about Feast of Greater Burning in 30 days, awkward dinner, Brendan tips Jess off about father’s scheming. Jess sees Morgan’s messed up power. Season is late fall, almost winter.

Next day, suspicious Glain is suspicious, Jess and Thomas work on press, Wolfe joins them, Jess almost robs his mother.

Unspecified time gap. Ray of Apollo is done, press is done. Press will be shown to Callum next day. That night, Jess, Brendan, Anit scheme, Jess tells Morgan.

Two days later, press is demonstrated, strategic betrayal occurs: Jess, Morgan, Wolfe translated to Alexandria, everyone else put on a ship.

Total time for Ash and Quill: Around 1 week in Philadelphia. A couple days in the High Garda camp and traveling. Two weeks approximately on ship. A week or so at the castle in England? Total time: 1 month? Maybe another week or two, at most. Time until Feast of Greater Burning: 20-26 days depending on time at castle.

October 2032

Jess: Chapter 1 begins with Jess in jail 5 days after arriving in Alexandria. It is the anniversary of Liam’s death. Jess “was now older than Liam had ever lived to be”. If Jess turned 17 near the beginning of Ink and Bone, he’s 18 here, and this line works well. If he’s still 17, he’s talking about being older by as little as a few hours. Weather was rainy in England when Liam dies, warm and sunny in Alexandria.

Jess negotiates with Archivist, moved to monitored apartment.

Next day, Spanish ambassador visits Jess, Jess gets message from Morgan in Blank.

Chapter 12 picks up after “a few long days”. Jess’s apartment is searched, Jess is taken to Archivist for questioning, hypnotized by Elsinore Quest on the way to think he really is Brendan, gets sent to raid smuggler’s house. Goes home, takes a 2-hour nap, wakes up and remembers he’s Jess.

Early the next morning, Jess goes to the Colosseum, sees automaton workshop, including dragon being built, saves Archivist from assassination attempt.

Unspecified time gap. Must be same day as Chapter 21. Chapter 25 begins with Jess sending messages to smugglers. He discovers Burners have press, tells Spanish messenger he thinks executions will be moved up, raids Burner house with High Garda and finds press, sees dragon, taken to Archivist to meet up with Brendan and Wolfe, rescued by Santi’s soldiers, party reunites, Jess runs off with Brendan, goes to Red Ibrahim, Anit kills Red Ibrahim.

Chapter 34 begins right after Chapter 28. Anit brings Jess and Brendan to smugglers, plans to attack Feast of Greater Burning.

Khalila: Chapter 3 begins with Khalila, Glain, Thomas, Dario, and Santi on the ship heading for Alexandria. Bit of googling says the trip from England to Alexandria would be 1-2 weeks depending on speed, weather. The weather is stormy, so probably more like two weeks. They’re probably about halfway there when the chapter begins since they’re near Spain. Very cold weather. Khalila mentions “we’ve already been delayed”. Let’s say we’re starting 1 week after Ash and Quill here.

Khalila gets details of plan from Dario, plots with Santi.

Probably same day, possible time gap here just because it isn’t specified that it’s the same day, Khalila talks to Anit. That night, sailors try and fail to kill Glain.

Late that night/early next morning, Khalila wakes up, finds everyone in Santi’s room. They’re off the coast of Portugal near the Strait of Gibraltar, less than a day before they’re past Cadiz. Thomas, Glain and Khalila make weapons, group takes Anit hostage and seizes ship.

Unspecified time gap. Chapter 16 begins with Khalila in Cadiz writing letters to dead sailors’ families. Dario complains about how long they’ve been waiting, could be hours or days since he says it takes the king hours to get there from Madrid. King comes to take them to Madrid, they detour to Cadiz Serapeum. Rainy weather, warmer than it was on the ship but still cold. Khalila gets into the Serapeum, negotiates with Scholar Murasaki.

Unspecified time gap. Chapter 29 picks up shortly after Jess and Brendan run off in Chapter 28, still same day as 21 and 25. Khalila, Dario, and Glain go to the Lighthouse with letters from Wolfe to recruit Scholars. Dario is captured.

Wolfe: Chapter 7 begins the day Wolfe is put back in jail. He’s pretty much out of his mind at first, so we may be able to play with the timeline (was he messed up enough to miss that he was there longer than a day before pulling himself together? Says he “had gone a little mad”, but it’s his POV, and he’d downplay it).

Second day, Wolfe discovers Khalila’s brother is in the cell next to his, starts mapping prison, encounters Troll, who Zara has sent as a spy.

Unknown time gap. Wolfe wakes up at night to find the Artifex outside his cell. Artifex threatens to torture Santi if Wolfe doesn’t kill himself in 3 days. Is Artifex expecting Anit’s ship in 3 days? That would place Chapter 8 somewhere after Chapter 6.

Unspecified time gap. In chapter 20, Wolfe has his fellow prisoners organized, but mental health is getting worse. Mysterious Qualls appearance happens.

Next morning, Khalila’s father about to be taken for questioning, Wolfe volunteers to go instead, plans to “lie” that Brendan is Jess.

Chapter 31 picks up right after Khalila, Glain, and Dario leave. Wolfe, Santi and Zara talk tactics, Wolfe and Santi talk about prison and make suicide pact, Khalila and Glain come back without Dario.

Morgan: Chapter 9 picks up right after Morgan gets to Alexandria. She is taken to the Iron Tower. In her first 4 days there, she tries and fails to escape her room, sends a message to Jess (does he receive this first one? Probably not?).

After 5 days, she meets with Gregory, is drugged.

Next day, Morgan wakes up, meets Annis, messes with wards to turn off listening scripts, goes to work copying scripts and sneaks message to Jess, Gregory kills an Obscurist to threaten her.

Chapter 22 picks up weeks after Chapter 11. Morgan figures out she’s being drugged, Annis uses mesmer skills to get cooks to stop drugging Morgan. They get crystals, Morgan links the crystals, needs to kill part of the garden for power.

Probably same day, but unspecified, so possible time gap. Morgan and Annis go to air-circulation hub, throw crystal to Eskander, talk him into meeting them. He gets their collars off.

Unspecified time gap. Probably not long, might be same day as Chapter 24. Chapter 32 begins with Morgan and Annis looking for information. Morgan uses Scribes to find what Eskander needs, Eskander fixes Morgan’s power problems.

Next morning, Gregory drugs Morgan to bring her to Feast of Greater Burning.

November 2032 (has to go into November here somewhere, no idea exactly where):

Feast of Greater Burning: All happens in one day. Thomas makes Rays of Apollo, Thomas, Glain, Khalila and Wolfe kill dragon, everyone runs into the trap in the Colosseum, Morgan and Dario thrown in after them, Obscurists show up with Eskander, Morgan kills Gregory, Zara kills Brendan, Archivist and Curia run away, elections happen.

Total time for Smoke and Iron: 3-4 weeks. Jess’s chapters have about a week actually accounted for, plus some unspecified gaps. Khalila’s only got a couple days accounted for, lots of gaps. Wolfe’s the same. Morgan gives us the most reliable time estimates with her time gap specified as weeks. As of the end of Ash and Quill we had around 3-4 weeks until the Feast of Greater Burning, so this fits with that timeline. Chronological order would be Wolfe’s first two chapters, then Morgan’s, then Jess, then Khalila, probably Jess again, then Khalila again, then everything else happens over the course of a couple days leading up to the Feast of Greater Burning.

Total series time: Somewhere around September 2031-November 2032. All months and seasons are guesstimates based on weather descriptions. A little over a year. Could be as little as under a year or as much as a year and a half depending on where you want to say Ink and Bone begins.

Character ages: Jess is 16 at the beginning and could be as old as 18 in Smoke and Iron if he turns 17 during Ink and Bone, before the presumably long time gap there. Let’s say he has a late September/early October birthday. Morgan is 16 in Ink and Bone, between 17 and 18 in Smoke and Iron depending on when her birthday is. Wolfe, again, depending on exact birth date, is around 38-39 in Ink and Bone, 40 in Smoke and Iron. If the estimate of his age in “Stormcrow” is accurate, and depending on exact birth date, Santi is 38-40 in Ink and Bone, 40-41 in Smoke and Iron. No other characters’ ages are specifically stated.

#the great library #series timeline

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ineffablecolors · 7 years

Text

NEW TALES FROM THE OLD FOREST [5/a few more]

New Tales from the Old Forest; ~ 3, o00 words; FF.NET || AO3 Lovely banner by the equally lovely @katie-dub !

Hey, thanks so much to everyone who so enthusiastically dived back into this story again - means a lot! Hope the joy of the season is already upon you! :)

She wraps her arms tighter around herself and jumps in place to get the blood flowing or whatever people hope for when they do that. Perhaps they hope to jump high enough that they never come back down and just orbit the cold earth from then on. Sounded plausible enough.

But, looking out at the Storybrooke harbor, Emma has to admit that she kinda gets what Killian sees in the place. When it’s not trying to turn you into an icicle that is.

This is ridiculous. She knows enough about Storybrooke to find some hot cocoa, warm food and well, just warmth in general. So with one last semi-mournful, semi-accusatory look at Killian’s house, she gets back in her bug and asks Henry how he feels about some grilled cheese.

///

Emma knows next to nothing about Storybrooke. Usually it’s her complaining to Killian about the hustle and bustle of New York City and he either doesn’t have a bad word to say about the sleepy town he spends most of his time in or he is way less of a whiner than Emma.

(It’s probably the latter but she likes to reassure herself with the former.)

She knows nothing until the day of “The Big Skype Hijacking” as her son had dubbed it. Why? He had a lengthy explanation about the importance of title-picking for a budding author. She… does not entirely get it. Then again, maybe she is a bit prejudiced ever since “The Horrific Waffle Fiasco”. The nerve on that kid, she swears.

It all starts with her getting home early and hearing Henry’s laugher. The pros of having an 11-year-old include the fact that you are still not completely banned from the perimeter of their room but at the same time you have been made aware of what a privilege that is. And how soon it will be taken from you.

As it stands Henry’s door is thrown wide open, probably thanks to the sneaker that is jammed half under it. A definite sign of the haste with which he threw himself on his bed. And the voice drifting from his laptop explains it all.

“Well, that is quite the fascinating story, lad. So now he is stuck with this little bird?”

“Yes, but he has no idea what to do with it. He says the thing is nocturnal and won’t let him sleep!” Henry’s merriment makes her mouth tick up in seconds.

Killian’s deep laughter doesn’t hurt either.

“And has your teacher actually been to see the poor creature? Or its poor besotted owner?”

“That’s the thing – I don’t knoooow! His “bird-induced insomnia” was the last we heard from David. You know, when he came by the school to drop off some textbooks we had left behind. I’ve never seen anyone look so happy about kids leaving their stuff all over.”

“Hmmm. Well, this just won’t do now, will it? We need more intel before we can proceed with any confidence.”

“Well, I was thinking…”

Uh-oh. She knows that tone. Last time he heard that tone, they spent 3 hours in The Belle of Bookstores and came out carring so much shit Emma didn’t have to workout for a week.

“Mhmmm…”

It seems like Killian has a sixth sense about “the tone” as well.

“Maybe you could convince mom that a pet is a good thing for a kid to have around. You know, a pre-teen thing. She is really into those recently.”

“Right. And me, with all my expertise on pre-teens...”

“You write children’s slash young adults slash anyone who has good taste books!”

“Flattery will get you nowhere, young man!”

“But it might get me a puppy!”

“I’m glad to see you think your mother so easily bought, kid,” she finally joins in, leaning a hip on the doorjam and crossing her arms in her favourite ‘I’m a single mom who takes no bullshit’ pose.

“Oh. Hey, mom,” Henry, on the other hand, has his own favourite ‘I’m your little angel and you’ll forgive me anything’ face.

“Nonsense, Swan, the lad thinks your defenses so insurmountable that he felt the need to contract a professional tale spinner.”

The laptop is angled so that she can’t see Killian’s face but Emma finds herself perfectly capable of envisioning his ‘I’m so charming and suave, how can you resist me’ grin.

Because it’s 5pm and the universe is probably napping and so unable to conspire against her, Henry’s phone rings not 10 minutes later and Emma has no qualms about settling herself on the floor beside his bed and dragging his laptop into her lap.

Hijack #1: Emma Swan taking over for Henry Swan

“Fancy seeing your face, love.”

“Wish I could say the same but that light is really not doing you any favours.”

She teases him because she can. Because they’ve established that “they definitely did not break up” three weeks ago and have talked every day since. She teases him because they are good. If she wasn’t afraid that it might wake up the universe and jinx them all to hell, Emma would say that they are very good.

“Oy! No need to take me down quite so many notches, Swan. I believe this place was designed to flatter Ruby’s pale complexion and no one else’s.”

It is so obvious that he is in a public place, a diner of sorts, with a vibe that’s even familiar-ish. Which is why the slight note of irritation? warning? jealousy? in her tone is absolutely ridiculous and yet-

“Who’s Ruby?”

“Oh. Have I not told you this?”

“Mmm, don’t think so.”

Yup, definitely irritated now.

“Remember where I had my signing in your fair New York?”

“Yeah, I seem to recall that place and event. I believe Henry made me check it on Google maps 4 times. 4 times. A bookshop that we had been to before! I’m surprised he didn’t make me do a test drive before the signing to see how fast we get there.”

“Right,” he probably deserves some credit for swallowing his laughter but she sure isn’t going to give it to him. “And you know Granny? From the diner across the bookstore?”

“I’ve only been addicted to her grilled cheese for like 2 years. ‘Course I know Granny, Killian, would you get to the point already?”

“Bloody hell. Fine. Long story short – and trust me that’s no small sacrifice for a writer – Granny used to run a diner in Storybrooke with her granddaughter Ruby. They were doing real well but then Ruby went off to model in New York so they decided to open a… a branch there. But then, one Christmas-“

“Wait, wait. I’m sorry, hold up and take in some air, I didn’t mean get to the point that fast.”

Killian, bless him, actually does need to suck in some air and she shakes her head in fond exasperation.

“So, let me see, if I’m getting this right. Granny, the same Granny who has been feeding me and Henry almost every weekend for years now, used to live in Storybrooke? You used to know each other?”

“That is correct. Is why I chose the bookstore across her charming establishment. And why she was the one keeping everyone there hydrated and nourished.”

Emma snorts. She’s hard pressed to define Granny’s hot chocolate as hydrating. You can eat the thing with a spoon, it’s so thick and creamy… Some days Emma thinks she’d rather part with a kidney than Granny’s cocoa.

“Alright. Let’s ignore how absolutely bizzare that coincidence is-“

“As I told you, lass, no coincidence at all. I very purposefully chose-“

“Right, right. I got it. But still. You know Granny! Our Granny!”

“Well, to be fair, Swan, she was my Granny first.”

His grin is infuriating. And so is the way his hair falls across his forehead. And the light circling under his eyes. And the long eyelashes that swipe over it whenever he blinks at her. How can someone look so innocent and infuriating at the same time?

She knows Killian Jones is far far from innocent. And maybe it’s because she knows his story that sometimes she just wants to reach through her laptop (or Henry’s as the case may be) and brush his hair and wrap her arms around him and smother him with kisses. And that’s just plain ridiculous so-

“Whatever. Why is she here and her granddaughter is in Storybrooke, if she was the one working in New York?”

The granddaughter is still… a question mark. An ex-model question mark.

“As I was just saying, one Christmas Ruby came back and after one too many holiday run-ins with a certain deputy, she never left. But the place in New York was literally ready to open and, if you know Granny, you know that woman never turns down a challenge, so… Granny is there, making sure you don’t starve on your stakeouts and Ruby is here, bugging me closer and closer to an early grave. One mediocre cup of coffee at a time.”

“I heard that, Jones!”

And Emma heard that.

“Granny’s is a chain… Huh. I guess wonders do never cease…”

“Sorry, love, Regina seems to be calling me on here. I’ll just give her a call instead and be right back.”

And that’s how it happens.

Hijack #2: Ruby Lucas taking over for Killian Jones

“Freaking finally! I thought I’d never get my chance.”

Suddenly Emma’s screen is filled with a whole lot of what she will soon know is Ruby Lucas.

“Hey?”

“Hi! I’m Ruby. And you must be the magical Emma!”

Emma sputters. It’s not graceful and it’s not pretty but at least she’s not drinking anything.

The hell? What kind of things has Killian been saying about her?

“Excuse me?”

“Hmmm?”

“Magical Emma?”

“Oh. Sorry. That’s just what I’ve been calling you in my head. Not like to Killian’s face or anything.”

The Ruby girl gets a thoughtful, borderline fiendish look on her face.

“Maybe I should. Can someone die from blushing?”

“Umm… I don’t think so. Can we go back to how we’ve never met but you have like… a nickname for me?”

Eyes darting away just for a second, probably to check that Killian is still occupied with his manager, and Ruby fixes her with a serious look. It’s like watching all the bubble exit a champagne bottle until all that’s left is concentrated alcohol that can really do a number on your head.

“He’s been back in Storybrooke for a few years now. But he’s only been back for a couple of months.”

…

“Oh.”

…

“I don’t know what kinda magic,” Ruby scrunches up her unnecessary perfect nose and waves her hand in what Emma supposes illustrates magic. “you’ve been doing but just keep doing it, yeah?”

…

“I-“

…

“And that’s how Jones ended with a drawn mustache and a perm!”

“Bloody hell, woman!”

“She needs to be warned.”

“Get off. Off. Stay away from my computer and my- Off.”

“Looovely to finally meet you, Emma!”

Ruby leaves with a wink and a wave and a generous view of her retreating back. Killian reemerges with the most sheepish look on his face and she smiles.

She doesn’t call him her boyfriend either. The word feels so… foreign. She is not sure her mouth would know how to form the syllables.

But other parts of her anatomy are definitely beating out the rhythm.

“Bloody hell, why does Regina insist on skyping me?!”

Hijack #3: Roland Hood stealing the whole show

///

He can tell she is up to something. He knows his mom pretty well – has known her all his life, you might say.

She is great at fooling all her “targets” and depositing their asses in jail before they even realized what the hell is going on. She is not too bad at faking it with his teachers and the other parents at his school either. Expect her smile is always like… extra tight and fake-y around the other moms, especially the ones with such long nails that Henry is always a bit apprehensive about shaking hands with them – except they usually prefer to pat him on the head and squeeze him up with something like “poor sweetheart” which makes his mom look even more like an arrow drawn up and ready to fly off. Honestly, sometimes he doesn’t get adults at all.

But he gets his mom and he knows she is up to something. It’s just that… he is as well so he’ll let it slide this one time.

Henry figured (and Killian reluctantly agreed) that just because they are not getting a pet, doesn’t mean that Killian possibly can’t. There is, of course, the small matter of him being in another state but somehow David doesn’t think to ask after any whereabouts when Henry tells him he is picking a cat for his mom’s boyfriend.

Killian asked for more intel before he agrees to tackle the Teacher-Pet case. He also vehemently protested naming it that but, for the life of him, Henry doesn’t understand why – it is all about getting his teacher together with the pet shelter’s owner. It is perfect and Killian is being silly.

It is fun really. To find out that Killian can be silly as well and get cranky when his coffee is “bollocks” (whatever that is, he isn’t supposed to use it). He never really considered the fact that Killian Jones might be genius and talented and super awesome but also… silly. It’s nice.

And because he has seen Killian in action – his mom told him all about Roland hijacking Regina’s Skype and calling Killian non-stop for a full two hours before he was discovered – he knows that his matchmaking skills are the best money could buy – or, you know, puppy eyes since it’s not like he has any money. He feels like he might be getting a bit old for that trick but it seems to work just as well on Killian as it always does on his mom and desperate times…

///

The idea pops into her head about an hour after “meeting” Ruby for the first time. And once there it’s like that little piece of popcorn that’s stuck to the roof of your mouth and keeps annoying you and you just can’t get it off.

And then she goes to Granny’s a couple of days later and the woman looks at her over her glasses and says she heard her granddaughter made her acquaintance. Says she heard someone else has been making her acquaintance as well. Emma is pretty sure that’s not how you use that phrase but she is also too busy dumping half the cinnamon shaker in her cocoa and fleeing as if Granny had turned into a pack of wolves.

And then Ruby adds her on Facebook. And Emma eyes the request suspicious all Thursday and then she does the one thing Emma from like 4 months ago would probably gag at her doing. She asks Killian what he thinks. And frankly? Emma from like 4 months ago can suck it. Because she has someone whose opinion she values and respects and actually wants and she is OK with telling him that the brunette freaked her out a bit and eventually, after a couple of hours on the phone, she even tells him she was a bit “on the fence about this Ruby chic” when he first mentioned her and if his smirk is anything to go by, he knows exactly what that means but just shakes his head and says “Lucas is a pest. The big, fangy kind, not the kind you can swap away”. And really in the end, Killian just tells her to go with her gut – Ruby is cool in his books, her grandmother probably saved him from being homeless both times he rolled into Storybrooke with nothing but the clothes on his back, an unfinished manuscript and a spectacular hangover. In the end, it’s not about Killian telling her what to do at all, it’s about her having someone to talk it out with and make up her mind. It’s new. It’s kinda wonderful.

And then Henry asks if he can invite Killian to his birthday. His birthday. In August. 5 months away.

And then because being his girlfriend or whatever (she still cannot say the thing with adding “whatever” after, she has tried) doesn’t mean that she is not still a fan or whatever (that one is just a bit embarrassing – being a fan of your boyfriend… or whatever). So, yeah, she checks Killian Jones’ blog, which he updates only every month or so but, yeah, she follows him on Instagram and she follows his blog and whatever, he follows her as well and once said something ridiculous along the lines of him being a fan of her, like every part of her or whatever, so yeah. It’s fine.

But then she opens his blog, while on a ridiculously unproductive stakeout and she sees his last post from a couple of hours ago.

The wonder isn’t that love find us, as strange and magical and mystical and wonderful and unbelievable as that feels.

The wonder is that even when we never find it, even when love waits in the wings of dream for too long, even when it doesn’t knock on the door we’ve been staring as for years, or leave messages in bottles or on answering machines or on Facebook walls or in the bloody sand to be washed away by the waves of time, even when love doesn’t put flowers in our hands or tears of incomparable joy or unimaginable heartbreak in our eyes… even then… so many of us never stop believing in love.

Imagine how lucky we are. To have such hope, such faith. And then, occasionally, when we are so very very lucky… such love.

She is doing it.

#cs ff #cs fanfic #captain swan fanfiction #cs au #cs fluff #NTOF

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uprootedandrelentless · 4 years

Text

2020 Review - Miraya

2020 was a year we’ll always remember. At first glance it’s the year of COVID-19, a global pandemic, Trump, BLM, shelter in place, businesses closing and so much loss and sickness. Future textbooks will need many pages to cover the history of this year. Zoomed in (get it?!) at the smaller scale of my little bubble it has also been a year of lots of virtual experiences, career change, working from home, and sweatpants. Obviously there were so much bigger and more monumental issues than my own but for the sake of this year in review I’m just zooming in on my day to day life. There is so much out of our control, that this year was a reminder to be grateful for our relationships. Despite the craziness of the year, there were many joyful and happy moments that I want to remember of 2020, so I’ll focus on those.

It’s hard to think about this year pre-Pandemic/pre-March, but I am grateful that I squeezed in so much in the beginning of the year. In the first few months before lockdown, I luckily got to see so many friends and travel to all my favorite cities (London, New York and Palm Springs). Matt and I rang in the New Year in London, so we started 2020 there! I celebrated Claire’s Bachelorette party with 20 of her friends in Los Angeles, went to New York for my first Dessert Goals corporate event on Valentine’s Day, spoke at Alt Summit conference, and planned Clarissa’s bachelorette in Palm Springs. These trips feel like distant memories besides scrolling through photos on my phone. I can’t wait until we can travel again.

Since March my days have been much less glamorous, but there have still been moments I’ll treasure. Matt and I love watching movies, playing games and eating and luckily got to do a lot of these from the safety of our home. Some favorite moments of the year:

Snuggling on the couch with Matt and Rocky, watching movies and eating popcorn with Trader Joe’s ghee spray and truffle salt

Working out while playing Just Dance with Matt, our favorite song is “What Does The Fox Say”

Lots of cooking - using our air fryer, crockpot and Matt becoming a mixologist and creating a 50+ page Google Doc cocktail book

Every time we leave a grocery store with a giant cart full of food and I say “we will not starve”

Supporting small business with fun experiences at home, like Pop Up Mag in a Box and Mama’s Date Night Kit

Playing Pandemic Legacy co-op game season 1 and 2

Celebrating my 30th birthday at Claire’s house and learning a choreographed dance of Aaron Carter’s I Want Candy with Claire, Evan, Matt

Creative socially distanced activities like picnics with my parents and friends, playing croquet with Matt’s family, renting out a nail salon for Claire’s birthday

Virtual events like Six Degrees Society, monthly Pizza Party mastermind group, Dreamers & Doers, The Assembly entrepreneur group, my 30th Birthday with friends and family across the country

Solo workouts and dancing on my rooftop in the middle of the day

Home improvements like painting our bookshelf blue, getting a new coffee table and buffet table

Sleeping With Other People 5 year anniversary watch party with Rom Com Fest and IFC Zoom with Alison Brie and Jason Sudeikis

Seeing Instagram Story photos of people across the country receiving Dessert of the Month boxes

Spending a week in Los Angeles in an Airbnb with a pool and hottub and going to our favorite restaurants while working from a different desk than our usual at home

Finding our wedding venue and booking a date for March 2022

Sadly the year has also included many not so great moments:

Closing of Eco Goods, my parent’s shop of over 20 years

Closing of The Assembly, my co-working space and slice of heaven in SF

Clearing out my LA storage unit of all my event supplies, many of which I just purchased in November for Dessert Goals and have sat unused since then

Getting Covid in May - luckily it was mild I just had a high fever and was achy and sick for a few days then quarantined for 10 days

Having to let my employee go because I couldn’t keep paying her

Having to cancel all of my festivals

Moments of feeling totally defeated and lost and not sure how to keep my business going

Shock at the country and that there are so many stupid and selfish people

In my little world, the hardest part about this year for me has been my struggle with my identity as an event planner when I can’t plan events. I’ve always felt such an association of what I do with who I am and when I suddenly am forced to stop doing what I love, with no end in sight, it’s been really tough, both for my identity and my business. I had my year all mapped out, three festivals, sponsors, and first I just postponed my events, and now they are cancelled until the foreseeable future. I tried some virtual events, launched a Dessert of the Month club, but nothing was enough. Dessert Goals and Rom Com Fest are so much about the IRL experience and I couldn’t figure out how to translate that at home.

With a wonderful stroke of luck I was connected with someone in August looking for help with his event hosting software platform, Mixily, and he brought me on to do customer success and marketing. It’s the first “real job” I’ve had since 2014, and first time I’ve worked at a software startup. It’s been like MBA training, sink or swim. We have a small team all across the world and it’s been exciting getting to Slack and Zoom with others all working on the same project together. I’ve transformed a corner of our bedroom into an office (with a desk from The Assembly), bought a laptop stand, keyboard and mouse, and it’s the most official work setup I’ve had in years. Considering this crazy year and not being able to plan events, I am so grateful I got this opportunity to keep working and flexing my muscles in a new industry. I’ve joined many new communities to connect with others in the software world, such as Indie Hackers, and have learned a lot of new perspectives about startups, that sometimes you’ll work on something for years and then have to call it quits. With Dessert Goals and Rom Com Fest I hope it’s not quits forever, but I’m coming to accept that they can be on the back burner for now.

This year I turned 30. The biggest milestone the year has had in my mind is the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, which I never made it on. Obviously it would have been great, and I can’t say I’m not bummed that I didn’t, but I do know it’s not everything. Besides that, and wishing I could have a big party for my birthday which wasn’t totally possible, 30 hasn’t felt dramatically different yet. I know that I compare myself to others more than it is healthy, it’s hard to prevent it, especially when scrolling through Instagram. I hear from others as you get into your 30s you feel more confident in your skin, I hope this clicks for me and I quit the comparison game soon. I’ve started paying attention to my phone’s screen time and it’s pretty scary how many hours of each day I spend on Instagram. I’m juggling accounts for my personal, Rom Com Fest, Dessert Goals and Mixily, so it’s a lot. A mix of research, posting, and inspiration, but it’s not a good use of time. Over the holidays I logged out of all my accounts, so if I wanted to check I had to go through the extra step of logging in, and it’s decreasing my scroll time drastically. I know Instagram is not a good use of time and adds to my comparison feelings, so it is something I want to decrease next year.

One of the new communities I joined because of Mixily, Reality Bites, asked me what three things I want more and less of in 2021. Here they are, plus a few more.

More: travel, exercise, picnics, walks with friends, outdoor time

Less: stress, snacking, guilt, Instagram, comparing myself to others, sweatpants

Last year I included lists of my favorite books, movies and TV shows of the year and want to keep the tradition. I’ve been tracking books in Goodreads, movies in Letterboxd, and TV shows in Notes. Here are my top picks of the year.

Books

Last year I read 27 books and set a goal for 30 books this year. I ended up reading 32! My top 5:

Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han

Not Like The Movies by by Kerry Winfrey

Body Love Every Day: Choose Your Life-Changing 21-Day Path to Food Freedom by Kelly LeVeque

The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you by Rob Fitzpatrick

Movies

Matt and I watched A LOT of movies this year! Many older movies, including many from 1999 and a ton of Tom Hanks. Matt always creates his top 10 movie list of new release films. Here’s my top 2020 movies in alphabetical order:

An American Pickle

Bad Education

How to Build A Girl

On The Rocks

Palm Springs

Save Yourselves!

Soul

The Half Of It

The One and Only Ivan

To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

In between movie watching, and while multitasking, I was able to watch quite a lot of TV shows this year, some with Matt and some on my own. Matt and I watched all the seasons of Veronica Mars which started a marathon of all other Rob Thomas (the creator of Veronica Mars) shows including Party Down and iZombie. Of new 2020 shows, here are some of my favorites, in alphabetical order:

Dash & Lily

Dead To Me season 2

Emily in Paris

Love Life

Never Have I Ever

PEN15 season 2

Queen’s Gambit

The Bold Type season 4

The Home Edit

The Morning Show

Trinkets

At the end of my post last year I wrote of all the things I was looking forward to next year including 4 weddings and 3 festivals, all of which were cancelled. 2020 felt so planned out and yet everything was changed. I have no idea what next year will bring. It could feel exactly the same as this year, working from home and wearing a mask all year. Or we could be able to host events by summer. Every virtual event I’ve attended about the future of events seems like a similar level of uncertainty. It feels impossible to set goals or make plans for 2021. We just have to roll with the punches, be kind to one another, stay safe, wear our masks and ride this out.

Here’s to a brighter and safer 2021!

-Miraya

#oakland #eventplanner #software startup #2020 #2020 review #virtual events

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