#but i have had absolute terrible luck at finding someone whose style i like and who is accepting commissions / not on hiatus rn :’ (

[bloodxhound]

a little update. ♡

[larrysballetslippers]

Hey, I saw you write fictions. Could you help me understand how to go about writing fictions and what are the basic steps? I want to write a larry fiction but english isn't my first language and my vocabulary isn't advanced. I, however, do want to give a try maybe a short fiction. How do formulate a fiction? I have some ideas but I can't divide them into chapters and generate enough scenes. I have tried to write sometimes but it's always a dead end and I don't know to proceed.

Personally I like how read story where there's seeding in every chapter with some backstory which gradually gets revealed. I am into a/b/o phase right now and want to write a good story with basic yet great plotline which keep my readers hooked.

I have so many questions to ask. Sorry for this long ask and Thank you if you respond.

Hey sweetie. How do I say this without sounding self-deprecating? I'm still a beginner, I technically wrote two fics. I'm currently working on my first "advanced" fic, which means I'm still learning, A LOT. I can't really be a teacher right now, but I can give you some tips. I can help you with what I learned since I started writing and link some good blogs/posts. This is going to be long, so cut.

First, some tips.

1. There are so many superior writers out there, but everyone has to start somewhere.

You can't start writing with the idea you're the greatest writer on the planet. I wrote down my first story when I was eight. Did it have a good plot? No. Did it have well thought out characters? Absolutely not. Did I make a story inspired by my favourite superhero show? Yes. It was probably 300 words max and with horrible grammar. I'm a very imaginative person, so I make stories up in my head, but that was the first one I wrote down. I haven't written much since then, just some school projects and little things here and there. I only started really writing in April, I think. It was rough, but fun. It was a canon-compliant story, so it didn't need that much planning out, I thought. When I finished, I was so proud. Then I started my second fic and I realized my first wasn't the best. I was so sad when I read it back, disappointed it didn't turn out the way I had in mind. But I shook it off, realized it was my first fic, EVER. So I shouldn't put myself down. You have to start writing to get good, you can't expect to be Jane Austin without putting one word down. Don't COMPARE yourself to others.

2. Plot is never truly original.

Like music, there isn't somsthing like an original plot. Everything is taken from something else. Every plot in the world has taken inspiration from somewhere else. You can write an a/b/o fic with a spy theme, it's very clever, but not original. You've taken an a/b/o plot and combined it with a spy plot. Don't be afraid to write a cliche plot, it's about the way you write it. That's why no two fics are the same, the writer is different.

3. Find a beta you trust.

When I first started the first part of my fic (it was a series), I didn't know what a beta really did, so I asked someone to correct my grammar and that was that. In the second and third part of that fic I didn't even do that, I tried to correct everything myself. Part 4 of my series I asked a beta to help me, it was wonderful. It's the best part of my whole fic and I'm forever grateful for that beta. We weren't the best match, so we couldn't continue working together. The fic I'm writing now is much longer than anything I ever written, so I needed a good and available beta. I found one, the angel of all angels. You need to find someone that will help you with your story, but also encourage when you feel like complete trash. Believe me, you will. It's important you have someone to brainstorm with and laugh with over your your character's dumb jokes.

4. Your English is better than you think.

I'm not a native English speaker, shocker right? No, I'm joking, I'm not the best. BUT I'm understandable, right? That's important. You don't need to have fancy words to write a story. Use the words you know and if you want to improve your vocabulary, do that, with time. You don't need to be an native speaker in a day, it takes time. I'll link some good sites for vocabulary.

5. Read more fics

A good way to improve your vocabulary, read more fics. You clearly enjoy it, use it to improve yourself. Not only for vocabulary but for the plot, characterization, world-building, etc. Take in the things you want to remember, forget the rest.

6. Copy and paste

Maybe a bad thing to say, but copy and paste things you like. If there's a sentence in a fic or book you like, copy it. Of course, don't just paste it in your fic, but take inspiration out of it. Why do you like it so much? Why does it come over so good? Any words you want to use? Is the structure of the sentence appealing? Think about it, so you can improve your fic. Especially with areas you struggle with, take a look at other works.

7. Smut is scary, but don't be scared to try.

Is smut something you want to write? You don't have to, but if you want, don't be scared. As someone who wrote two smut scenes in her life, I'm struggling, but I'm trying. Take all the tips above this and just try. Things may go terribly wrong, but that's why you're practising.

8. Research research research!

Things like smut, fantasy, minority groups. You can't just write about it without any knowledge, research it. Articles, youtube videos, blogs on tumblr, etc. A simple kiss scene can be difficult if you have no knowledge about it, read people's first kiss stories or something like that. Want to try and write BDSM, read about it on a BDSM blog. Research the heck out of it.

9. Just to say it again. DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF WITH OTHERS.

Just to summarise, you're you, don't try to be someone else. You're writing style isn't worse than someone else's, it's just different. It makes your work recognisable, your text original, your hours of writing easier. Someone told me I can write young people really well, I owned it. Find what you're good at and own it.

Now that I have given you some important tips to start, I'll answer your question. How to go about writing fiction?

Everyone is different first of all, so please don't take my word for it. This is my routine, I just made up.

1. What do you want to write?

Is it your own idea, a prompt, a fic fest, an exchange?

2. What universe does take part in?

Does take place in the real world or a fantasy world? The past, present or future? Realistic or supernatural? Which country?

3. What is the goal?

Are they supposed to be lovers at the end? Do they have to defeat something/someone? A quest? Where do you want to end the story?

4. Where does it start?

Where does your story start? At the birth of your characters? In the future and you work your way back? In the middle? When your important characters meet each other for the first time?

5. What does it take to get from start to finish?

What happens in the story? What developments happen? Is it a road trip and your characters need to get closer, how do they do that?

6. What are some subplots you want to add?

Are there things that don't really matter for your goal, but you want to add? Friends to lovers but maybe they help someone's mom out one day.

7. Who are your characters?

Their personalities, appearances, quirks, relationships.

8. Who is the protagonist?

Who is the story about? Who is the main character?

9. In whose point of view is it?

Who is telling the story? You, the protagonist, the love interest, a random bystander, etc?

10. Outline.

Write down what you want to do with your story. Every scene needs to be written down. You can always change it of course.

11. Write, write and write.

Take all the tips and write.

I want to give you some links I always use. I will also recommend some blogs.

This tool lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept: https://www.onelook.com/thesaurus/

This article about body language: https://www.writerswrite.co.za/cheat-sheets-for-writing-body-language/

This tumblr post about body language: https://badassunicorn2016.tumblr.com/post/145725344712/writing-tip-june-4th

This article for alternatives for 'said': https://owlcation.com/humanities/400-Alternative-words-for-said

This tumblr post about writing smut: https://larryficsvol28.tumblr.com/post/660062510531182592/smut-101-a-tutorial-for-beginners

This tumblr post about how to make smut sound sexy:https://larryficsvol28.tumblr.com/post/658604597068365824/making-smut-sound-sexy

This tumblr post about turning ideas into a story: https://larryficsvol28.tumblr.com/post/659430707796557824/i-get-lots-of-ideas-for-stories-which-are-just

I have some blogs you can follow that talk about writing.

This podcast blog @roseanddaggerpodcast

This blog has a podcast too and some good fic recs @allwaswell16

These writing blogs @ficsex @writingquestionsanswered @bhficfest https://wordsnstuffblog.com/

Some veterans writers and also have some good fic recs @twopoppies @justalarryblog @kingsofeverything @louandhazaf @hershelsue @lululawrence @pocketsunshineharry @fearlesslysweetcreature @indiaalphawhiskey

I hope I could help you a little. In some weird way I helped myself, hehe. I hope you can finally write the story you want. If you ever have any questions, just come by. I don't know if I can always help you, but I'll try!! Good luck!!

[banjodanger]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine(2009)

I’ve got a lot to talk about, so I’m going to jump right in with a very unpopular opinion. This may SHOCK and OFFEND certain readers, but I’m not one to shy away from speaking my mind. More sensitive readers should beware, however, because I’m not going to shy away from rattling cages and saying what NEEDS to be said!

So, ready yourselves, because...

Origins is not the worst X-Men movie.

There. I said it. PBBBBBBTTTT!

I’m not arguing that this was a good movie, hell, there’s a good argument that this isn’t even a competently made movie. But this movie is also responsible for some of the absolute best movies to come from Fox’s X-Men. First Class and Days of Future Past are two of the absolute best movies of this series, and it’s doubtful the other two Wolverine solo movies would have aimed as high as they did if this movie hadn’t been so widely mocked. If you go back to watch this movie, try to keep in mind eight years later this series would get nominated for a screenwriting Oscar. Whatever your opinion of awards, that’s a hell of a turnaround, considering the story this movie tells is like three separate stories stapled together. Finally, however much this movie misunderstands Deadpool, it was right on in casting Ryan Reynolds and eventually gave us better Deadpool movies than we could have hoped for. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that both of those movies use Origins as a solid foundation for jokes. I’m not going to talk too much about Deadpool in this movie, because I plan to cover it in more detail when I get to the first movie.

But I’m not discussing those movies, I’m discussing Origins, and Origins is not very good. The CGI looks cheap and outdated, not just by the standards of the time it was released but by the standards of five years previous. And the movie makes said terrible CGI hard to ignore because, to quote the philosopher Michelle Branch, it is EVERYWHERE. Most people are quick to bring up Wolverine’s claws effects, and they should because they somehow look worse than any of the three previous movies and it’s the most easily noticeable. I’m not expecting them to have Hugh Jackman actually fighting and jumping around on top of a nuclear vent but it looks like they’re doing it in front of computer wallpaper. That hill outside the Hudson’s farmhouse literally looks like the default Windows XP desktop. I’m surprised Agent Zero isn’t hiding behind the recycle bin. This isn’t to say I don’t expect lots of CGI in my comic book movies,but I expect better when someone is dropping over one hundred million for a guy with metal claws to fight a mute with impossibly long sword fists.

I could ignore all the bargain basement effects if there was a good story, but there isn’t one. There’s about two or three stories and they’re all bad. Gavin Hood wanted to make a throwback sevnties-style revenge movie, completely self-contained and R-rated(Hey, does that sound familiar?), but the producers wanted extra characters they could spin off into their own films. And as much as I want to excoriate them for that, I can only get but so mad. This was a big franchise that was approaching ten years since its first film. They were looking towards the future and that’s what their job was. The problem is that failure to find a common ground comes through on the screen. Some of the strongest scenes are between Logan and Victor, to the detriment that most of the other characters who come off as unnecessary cameos. That boxing scene between Logan and Fred Dukes could be a thirty second phone call without really losing anything.

It’s disappointing, too, because a lot of the performances in this movie aren’t bad. Believe me, I wanted to hate Will.I.Am. I was going to drag him and talk about all the terrible music he made but...he’s not bad in this movie. I’m not going to say he missed his calling by not becoming an actor full-time, but I enjoyed his performance and wish the movie had used him a little bit more.

My humps is still one of the worst goddamned songs ever.

Gambit was great in this movie too. Taylor Kitsch had this bizarre run of putting in good performances in hated movies. After this, he did John Carter then the second season of True Detective. That’s a shocking run of bad luck, and too bad to, because he’s good in all three. We missed out not getting at least one more movie with his take on Gambit, because he gets maybe fifteen minutes of screentime but he manages to be memorable, charismatic and charming.

Helicoptering with a bo staff still isn’t part of his goddamn power set though.

And I’m not going to forget Liev Schrieber, who makes an absolutely compelling villain. The only problem with his character at all is that he puts such a great performance that it stretches belief to imagine this is the guy that becomes a silent henchman in the first movie. There’s simply nothing in his performance to suggest they’re the same person. It would be like if the twist of Phantom Menace was that Darth Vader was originally Jar Jar Binks, or if they hired Nora Ephron to write a Hellraiser prequel. 

Even the Scott Summers we get in this movie is pretty good despite looking like a guy that steals copper wiring out of abandoned gas stations. Although I really question why Gambit watches them run off and I guess just assumes they’re being abducted by a good guy.

That leads me into the whole problem with prequels. Things happen in this movie and characters seem to live simply because earlier movies dictate that we have to see them again. It simply does not make sense for Kayla to leave Stryker alive. She has every reason to kill him, but she doesn’t, because he needs to be the villain in X2. Gambit doesn’t chase after the kids because they didn’t want to have him interact with Professor X. Sabretooth survives because he has to fight Wolverine on top of the Staute of Liberty while making no reference to their apparent relationship as siblings, or any words of any kind. This movie is awkwardly shoehorning itself into the lore established by the previous movies and it results in characters saying and doing things that go against what this movie seems to lead up to. The ending of most of those seventies revenge flicks was a bloody murder. Here, Stryker hurts his feet a little. It’s just not the same thing.

Ok, are you ready for the problematic parts?

Let’s start with Native American representation, because it ends up being a pretty big part of this movie. Lynn Collins’ Wikipedia says she claims Cherokee ancestry, so I’ll give the movie credit on that, but as near as I’ve been able to suss out, the myth she tells does not exist outside of this movie. First off, Wolverines do not howl. At all. They’re not wolves, they’re related to weasels. They’re small, vicious bastards. That information was readily available in 2009, by the way. Furthermore, the information I can find says that the moon in Native American mythology is predominantly gendered as male. Now, that’s not a blanket statement. This was the research I was able to conduct, and mythology, as with a lot of oral traditions, are a pretty mutable thing. Given that I was unable to find any mention of this myth that didn’t quote it from the movie, I feel pretty comfortable calling this myth nonsense.

Hey, what’s your tolerance for fatphobia? Because that’s going to impact how you feel about Blob’s character. Look, from his very first appearance he’s been a fat joke. That’s it. He’s a rude fat guy whose mutant power is being fat, hell, part of his power set is described as a “personal gravity field.” So while I can’t blame the movie entirely for this character being problematic, you’ve got to ask why they chose this character as the one that had to stay true to the comic book. He was in poor taste when he was created, when this movie was made, and now. And I absolutely can blame the movie for making him a fat joke.

At least they didn’t go the Ultimate comics route and straight up show him eating another character. Small blessings.

On a more final note, there’s that very strange character choice in the beginning credits. I know that they want to illustrate early that Wolverine doesn’t view violence the same way Sabretooth does, but why would they choose nazis as the villain in that moment? Even if they weren’t the most enjoyably killable villains in history, the last three movies have made the atrocities of the Holocaust a huge emotional linchpin of a major character. So it comes off as a genuine shock that this movie would use, in its introduction, a moment of sympathy for these very same villains. So you needed to show Wolverine with sympathy? Have a bar fight in France after liberating the country. Have them fight in the Korean war. Maybe Wolverine mourns a kid shot on the front lines. There’s a hundred choices that don’t involve Wolverine getting sad over a bunch of nazis.

So, why don’t I think this is the worst X-Men movie? I’m clearly not calling it a forgotten classic, and I’m not recommending you watch it unless you’re a weird completionist blogging about your arrested development on Tumblr. Sure, there’s some forgotten performances in here that deserve some consideration, but the movie is mostly a mess, a result of too many cooks with diverging visions. There’s a good revenge flick here, but it gets buried and muddled by a desire and knowledge that this movie has to simultaneously explain the past that led to the first movie and set up future installments. It tries to do too much and ends up not doing much of anything. I followed up on some of the people involved in this movie. Obviously Ryan Reynolds had the last laugh, but it still took seven years and a leaked teaser. Hugh Jackman learned from the mistakes in this movie and the rest of the Wolverine movies are pretty great. Gavin Hood, who got this job after being nominated for a foreign language Oscar, directed another big-budget flop with Ender’s Game. However, earlier in 2020 he apparently bought a four million dollar house so I don’t feel bad for him. Also, the flop of Ender’s Game could possibly involve Orson Scott Card being a vocal and unapologetic homophobe. Seriously, what is it with beloved fantasy authors and hate towards LGBT groups? You can conceive of wild, uncharted space and magical realms but the idea that two guys love each other is too far out?

Next in the series, from failure comes success, as we meet Xavier and Erik as frenemies and launch a million slash fictions.

[blusollyjd]

Somewhere in the Mojave...

(The following is a collabo between me and CuddlyMedics! Enjoy Jane being the world’s best, stupidest husband. And getting some unexpected help. :D) ----------

Something that Jane Doe had forgotten about his beloved America was how big its western desert was. It certainly hadn’t looked this big on his map (the one that’d conveniently enough been sitting right on his tray at the Speedee Burger). Not that he was complaining- he knew it would be a long trek to Coldfront. He just hadn’t considered it would be this long.  He was certain that he should’ve been halfway there by now, and that he’d have Abel in his arms in no time. But the Mojave was wide, barren and hot. His canteens had run dry long ago, his only respite from his thirst the occasional dust-ridden little town he’d come across that had a little water to spare. He’d remembered some trick about cactuses, but the spines stuck his fingers something awful before he managed to hack deep enough into one to get any decent amount of bitter juice. What the desert lacked in moisture it made up for in snakes, scorpions, red ants and the occasional coyote- all of which seemed to be doing their best to make sure that the Soldier didn’t get that great of a night’s sleep. The night was cool at least, but so many bugs seemed to be interested in his sleeping bag at night that Jane was starting to forgo it. Unless he could find a fairly flat elevated rock to keep him off the ground.

It was hard going. Something in him was wondering if this was a stupid, suicidal course of action. But then he thought of Abel. Abel, who may be dead or sick or hurt, whose letters never reached him, if they were sent at all. Jane had to get to him, and the thought of the Medic filled the Midwesterner with renewed resolve to go another day. But alas, even the most resolute, loyal and stupidly brave Soldiers are bound by the limits of human physiology. And so, it was around the peak of the midday heat that Jane finally collapsed to the dry, cracked ground, mouth parched, vision blurry, and brain baking in the metal confines of his helmet. His fingers dug into the dirt, pulling himself along a few more feet. He thought he saw something in the wavery distance. He was even less sure, but he thought he saw something moving toward him. All he was really sure of was that he was likely never going to reach Abel now. Stupid, he thought as the hot, bright world went dark on him. You’re so goddamn stupid.

But even as the bright world went dark on the Soldier, and all consciousness slipped away from him in a shimmery, hazy cloud of heat, indeed, something was making his way towards him. He wasn’t imagining things. It hadn’t been one of those ‘oasis hallucinations’ he had heard spoken about in the past. After all, the last thing he viewed before the darkness took over wasn’t of a cool, shimmering pond, where the inviting fronds of a palm tree swayed high above the giggling heads of half-naked desert maidens. Wasn’t that what hallucinations were? Cool ponds surrounded by sensual and sexy half-naked women? No. Well, yes, but no. This wasn’t that. This wasn’t anything of the sort.

“Now… what do we have here?”

It was silly to have ever considered such a thing. After all, cool, shimmering ponds and inviting palm trees didn’t talk.

“Is that--”

And, boy, it was a fact that hallucinated giggling, half-naked maidens typically didn’t have that kind of masculine voice.

“Naw. That couldn’t be. ...Could it?”

That was such a nice voice, though.

“It… it is! By the stars n’ stripes! Mr. Doe?”

That kind of masculine voice that rung out with a clear, crisp, southern lilt to it. No, no. That couldn’t be right.

But before the Soldier with heat stroke could even begin to recognize the voice, let alone the world around him, his body gave out on him. With his brain fried from the heat and his thoughts riddled with what remained of his cooked mind, he never truly understood the concept of being picked up and slung over someone’s shoulder, carried a-la-fireman-style, over to a place that had shelter, shade, food, water… and supplies. A place that, in all honesty, had he been aware of his surroundings… Jane Doe would have recognized in a heartbeat. “Hey! Woody!”, the masculine voice with a clear, crisp, southern lilt to it broke the darkness, piercing the quiet of that nothingness. “Woody! We got a live one from the desert!”

The sound of gravel and pebbles crunching underfoot. The smell of old, rotting wood in the air. Of dust and heat, and that particular scent. Like hay and sunbaked peaches. Like sunlight and arid soil. And of course… beer. There was spilled beer nearby, soaking into the clay-baked earth.

The barely audible whisper of the wind through creaking, groaning structures. The lazy humdrum steady thrum of heat exposed bees, whirling and spiraling away from a shriveled up flower, following its own crooked path back to the hive. The smell of home. The sounds of home. The feeling… of a lot of mercenaries calling this base their first ‘home’.

Of Teufort.

Jane was in and out of consciousness for a few days. He’d mutter something unintelligible in his sleep, wake up screaming only to fall asleep again. He’d ask where he was, drink water like some wild man dying of thirst, succumb to exhaustion, only to wake up disoriented again. It was only on the fourth day that he seemed to rest and hydrate enough to finally get his bearings. “...Will…?” He hadn’t seen the younger Soldier in a dog’s age, and in spite of himself, Jane cracked a wide smile. “Will, that’s you…? Jesus, I made it all the way to Teufort….”

“Aww, good. Yer awake.”

The bright eyed and bushy tailed man, by the name of ‘Will’, let out a huge sigh of relief. He had a friendly face and a truly affable smile. He oozed a sort of a saccharine honesty that one simply couldn’t help but warm up to him.

He hadn’t changed at all from the time Jane last saw him. He still had those baby blue eyes. He still had that dirty blond hair, a bit more carefree and loose in style compared to his old military-issued haircut. He still had his trademark helmet-- hung on the wall, at that very moment-- with the painted on peace symbol. And, of course, he still had those adorable dimples whenever he smiled that carefree, almost childlike smile of his. So full of innocence, so jolly and jovial in tone.

William Reed was a rather young soldier. At least, he was younger than Jane. He was also a bit taller than Jane, but not as built. Jane had known him for quite a long time, and though there were obvious similarities between the two, the biggest difference between them was the fact William had officially, and legally, been in the army.

William had served a few years in the wet, steamy jungles of Vietnam, the military issued victim of the dreaded draft. He had endured a good portion of it with nary a cut or bruise until one day his luck ran out. He lost control of his life during a particularly chaotic ambush where a mine exploded, and scalding, twisted shrapnel shredded his leg. He had lost a lot of blood before his allies and fellow soldiers could drag him off to safety.

His term spent over in ‘nam was done for, and the young, now disabled man had returned home.

Still desperate to make money for his family, he allowed himself to fall under the guile of MannCo’s job offering. Even with a damaged leg, they told him he could make himself... useful.

And so he had. The rest… was history. A history, thankfully, that Jane was privy enough to know of.

“Was jus’ beginning to worry, sir,” William honestly admitted to him. His voice rang soft and true, the thick Southern lilt of his accent almost comforting in its vernacular. It was like sweet southern honey, drizzled over everything he said. “You had us both worried. Up and began thinkin’ the desert heat done cooked yer brains half to mush. Like grits too long on the stovetop.”

The soldier pulled up a chair beside Jane and settled down into it. There it was: that same limp of his. His leg hadn’t gotten any better. If Jane had known any better, the limb might have seemed a bit stiffer, the leg a bit more favored.

“Now, now. Jus’ you relax. Don’t need you actually keelin’ over the moment you come ‘round.” Taking a bowl of room temperature water and a rag off of the bedside table, he dampened the cloth before he reached over and, with the gentlest of motions, wiped away any sweat from Jane’s forehead. “Got so many questions for ya, sir. So many. But I’m not sure where to even begin, if I may say so myself.”

Jane couldn’t help but smile, his own blue eyes crinkling at the corners. One hand reached to his side, looking for his helmet out of habit. “Mmm, go ahead and ask away, son. But don’t worry, I won’t be in your hair very long. I need to get moving soon as I can. Got a long way to go yet.” Wherever he’d been going, wherever he’d come from in such terrible condition, it seems that he was planning on pressing onward.

“Need to get movin’ again?” William murmured that under his breath to himself, his brow furrowed in concern. “Jesus, though,” Jane continued, not hearing William mumble. “It’s so good to see you. You’re a sight for sore eyes, Will. How have you been? The leg looks a little stiff, there. Been bothering you much?”

There was no denying it. He was absolutely confused as to what was going on. “Er-- ah, well.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he glanced down at his leg. He looked as if he were pondering its existence, or perhaps the limb’s use. Or maybe he was considering the fact that he did, in fact, have a leg. At least, that’s what his expression looked to portray. It was a bit vague for Jane. “My leg’s been iffy. Been doin’ a lot of jumpin’, sir. Lots of jumpin’. And it’s just been botherin’ me a bit. Especially with that surprise rainstorm we got a few nights back. Desert rain always lingers in my bones.”

William got up, and Jane could see the man move across the room to a chest of drawers. The piece of furniture looked beat up and worn. Maybe even nibbled on by mice. Yup. Those were teeth marks down at the very corner of the left leg.

Was this the soldier’s room? Sure seemed that way. It had a table and chair, and a dresser for clothes. It had a few hooks on the wall where a spare uniform jacket and a helmet hung, along with other such personal items. And there was a shelf there with a few books ranging from military tactics, to accounts of the war in vietnam to one that was, curiously enough, an intro into technology.

“Yeah, sir,” William continued. “I mean... if’fin ya don’t mind, sir, got a whole lotta questions to ask.” He slid a drawer open and rifled through it. He pulled out a shirt and examined it but, based upon his expression alone, after a thorough scrutinizing it must have been unfit for what he had in mind. He simply folded it back up and put it back where it came from. “I mean, like, what in the blue blazes were you doin’ out there all by yer lonesome? I mean, it’s not every day I get to talk again with my idol. Uh-- wait, I-- ”

William stuttered for a moment, clutching another shirt he had just pulled out so tightly he ended up wadding it in his grasp. He turned towards Jane, his cheeks obviously a bit tinted with the signs of a reddening blush.

“I--- I mean,” William began, tone a bit more rushed in his embarrassment, “here I thought ya went to another base, and you, uh… uh…” Unceremoniously stuffing the shirt back into the drawer, the soldier limped over to the open door and called out, “‘Ey! ‘Ey, Woody! Woody! He’s up! Up an’ awake! You wanna meet him?” “Will. At ease. You’re wound up tighter than a goddamn Medic. Just… take a few breaths son. Now. You’re right. I was somewhere else. I’m at Coldfront, usually, but they put me up to fill in at Ravine. But the stint kept dragging on, and I didn’t get no letters back from Abel no matter how many I wrote. Something’s wrong, Will. I know something’s wrong. So I’m going back.” One could only draw one conclusion. Jane Doe seemed hell bent on getting back to Coldfront. And if he’d walked all the way here from Ravine on foot… it seemed to be how he’d planned on making the entire journey. “I didn’t mean to commandeer your quarters this long, son,” Jane added. “Just another night’s rest and I need to keep going.” He didn’t comment on the ‘idol’ remark. It seemed to embarrass the younger Soldier that he’d let it slip out, and besides… at the end of the day, Jane knew he probably wasn’t the best role model.

Jane’s logic was never a sound, sane sort of thing. Everyone knew it. This particular soldier was loonier than a crate full of wildly excitable squirrels. It was a well known fact that his personal dossier (nestled within the confines of MannCo’s records) had each and every strange event, scenario, and situation that the man had ever been involved with painstakingly accounted for. And each account only got weirder and weirder with passing time. Weirder… and, of course, more and more unbelievable.

The bedridden soldier could see William pace back and forth a few steps. Four one way, turn. Four another way, turn. Repeat. A small pacing routine that involved slow, careful steps and an intense session of processing the information he was just given.

“Coldfront. Right. I know that base. Not the best thin’. Been there only once ‘fore. For a short, short stint. Like… a few weeks. Couldn’t handle it. The cold and, er…” Trailing off, he patted his bad leg, once. “Cold made my bones hurt too much. So they sent me back. Ended up here. Went from Sawmill, to Coldfront, to Teufort. Came here right when you were goin’ there, sir. Had to have.”

Footfalls creaked along the wooden floor as William made his way across the room to his table. Equally worn as the dresser, he leaned against it for support. Crossing his arms over his chest, Jane could see a frown beginning to etch on his face.

“And it’s no problem, sir. Really isn’t. Not usin’ my room much these days.” A smile formed at that, but, quickly, he mentally shook himself and got back on topic. “Brought you here. I was jus’ lucky I found ya. Was out doin’ practice jumps when I saw ya collapse. Would’a brought ya to the medbay, but I’m pret’y sure our docs wouldn’t want to treat a non-base worker. If ya know what I mean.” Shrugging, William looked over at his superior, confusion etched on his face. “But, uh… sir. Coldfront? That’s… hundreds a’ thousands a’... well, a lotta miles away. So far away that I’m fairly certain you would’a--”

“Yea, sugarloaf? He’s awake?”

Jane could see William’s eyes brighten as the younger soldier looked towards the door. There, standing in the welcoming entrance, was a rather plump looking man of short stature. Garbed in the uniform of an Engineer, he had the familiar, thick electrical gloves on his hands and the old fashioned coveralls associated with most of his kind. His goggles were pushed all the way up to his forehead, partially covering the bandana wrapped around his forehead in an attempt to keep the sweat out of his eyes. And his eyes? They were a soft brown. The color of milk chocolate. His black hair was short and styled, but just a little bit messy. ‘Hard hat’ messy.

“Oh, Woody!” Excitement coursing through him, William all but forgot, at least for the moment, the sheer absurdity of Mr. Doe’s hellbent, but incredibly foolish, escapade. “Honeybee, this is the soldier I was talkin’ about.” Gesturing towards the bedridden man, he added, “Jane, this is Elwood. Elwood, Jane.” Jane sat up, making himself as presentable as possible. A proper Soldier must have some sense of decorum, after all. “Nice to meet you. Wish the circumstances were better.”

“Likewise, pardner,” the engineer replied. Quite the suave charmer, he hooked his thumbs in his belt and flashed Jane an unforgettable smile. Jane grinned in spite of himself, sky-blue eyes glancing between the two of them. So, this must be love. They made a very handsome couple. If Jane had to say so objectively, the Engineer was a good looking man, in a different but very complimentary way to Will’s boyish good looks. “I was just telling Will that I won’t be a bother much longer. Gotta make my way back to Coldfront soon as possible.”

The engineer had just run a hand through his hair to fix it, to appear more presentable himself, when Jane uttered that little statement of his. The engineer, Elwood, slowly looked towards William who, upon catching sight of the techie’s stare, sheepishly gave that nervous, boyish grin of his, all the while holding his hands up in the visual defense of not knowing anything.

“...Coldfront.” Elwood blinked a few times in bemusement as he tried to get his brain to process what the man had just told him. “But we found ya here, sonny.”

“Technically, I did.”

“Yea, that’s true, sugarloaf. You found ‘em.” Elwood nodded at William, giving a warm chuckle at how the man simply beamed at doing a job well done. “But... you found him out there in the desert. All walkin’ about all stumblin’ and bumblin’ from the heat, half outta his mind. Looney off his rocker, remember? Ya carried him all the way over to me and you were sayin’ how he was sayin’ the strangest stuff. Stuff that didn’t make a darn lick’a sense.”

William opened his mouth as if to say something, but he caught that familiar look in Elwood’s eyes. He knew that the man had already figured it out.

“You were walkin’,” Elwood continued, turning his attention back to Jane. “You were… so, wait, let me get this straight.” Pushing the bandana up a little bit, he scratched his forehead. “Uh, Jane, was it? Jane, pardner, tell me somethin’. And tell me the honest to God truth. Don’t you go lyin’ on me.” He quizzically quirked an eyebrow, his face clouded by befuddlement. “Were you… don’t tell me you were walkin’ to Coldfront? All the way? Walkin’, on foot?”

“...yes?” Jane shifted a bit, brows knit. He wasn’t sure how old Elwood was, but that no-nonsense look made him feel like a kid who’d come to class without his homework. “It’s all I can do. My Medic needs me, I can feel it in my bones. I can’t take the train and I can’t teleport. But I can’t let that stop me. Abel’s in trouble, I know he is, and I have to get back to him. I’ve waited too long already, and I don’t know if I am even too late. I just know I have not heard from him in weeks and weeks and that is not like him.” Jane squared his shoulders stubbornly. Nothing was going to budge him. One way or another, if he had to hike an impossible path, Jane Doe was making it back to Coldfront, no ifs ands or buts.

Again, Elwood rapidly blinked, but this time the visual display of his facial cues were not out of bemusement but we're, instead, out of the inability to process that bit of information. He was absolutely flabbergasted over what he had just heard, and he was reeling from it all.

“You…”

“I know that Medic,” William quickly interjected, as if hoping his currently malfunctioning beau would up and decide not to speak what was on his mind. “I remember Abel. Swell guy. Real nice. He was always nice to me, I mean. Made me tea a few times. Baked me cookies. Made sure I was bandaged up after a training session. I knew you two were a thing, but, you haven’t been able to reach out to him? And he hasn’t replied to you? At all?”

“...You…”

“I’m sure he’s alright, sir,” William said, in a slightly more rushed tone of voice. “Ain’t that righ’, Woody? Yeah. I’m sure it’s not too late for him or anythin’. He’s prob’ly just busy or, uh, well...” William left the support of the table behind him as he inched closer to Jane. “Have ya tried callin’ him? No. No, wait. Coldfront. Hard to get any phone to connect with that base. Uh, let’s see…”

Elwood had stopped blinking and mentally malfunctioning and, by now, had his face screwed up into an unreadable mask that could only be vaguely described as ‘something far past the human limitation for astonishment’ and ‘beyond an appalling sense of loss for the general faith one had in humanity’.

“Oh! Oh, wait! Have you--”

From where Jane sat in the bed, he could see Elwood walk up behind William and, with a heavy sense of, perhaps, mourning, he placed his hand upon the younger man’s shoulder. Something was whispered into William’s ear, and the sweet soldier gave the engineer a rather puzzled look.

“Oh? ...Oh, uh, Mr. Doe, sir? Woody here wants to talk to me about somethin’ real fast-like. Just be a moment, sir. Just a moment. Promise.”

Elwood quickly (and with a sense of urgency) ushered the younger soldier out of the door. But Jane, from where he sat, could see just a bit of each person. An arm here, or a leg there. Someone moving about from just around the corner of the entranceway. And then the hushed whispering began. Hard to make out, hard to understand. It was a lowered decibel that made deciphering what was being said hard. Jane, in the meantime, glanced out the window. Down at his hands, which were fidgeting with themselves. Abel. He had to get better so he could get home to him.

~

“Yer prankin’ me, sugarloaf.”

“I’m not, Woody.”

“You promise me?”

“I promise, I do.”

“Willy--”

“This is just Jane,” William confessed, lowering his voice even further in hopes Jane wouldn’t hear this. “I’ve known him for years. He’s always been a bit… well, a bit…”

“A few shy of a box of screws?”

“I mean--”

“A few colors short of a crayon box?”

“I jus’--”

“Denser than a sack of wet rocks? Thicker than batter--”

“It's just Jane,” William replied with a sigh. He held up his hands, once more, in the defense of not knowing. And it was true. He didn’t know what to say or do. It was not a typical sort of situation.

Elwood jabbed his thumb in the direction of the doorway and hissed, under his breath, “this poor sonuva thinks he can walk all the way to that alpine mountain range by walkin’ through the Mojave desert.”

“Well--”

“Does he realize those mountains are on a separate continent? That base is halfway across the world! It’s on a continent that is separated by a body of water, and that particular body of water jus’ happens to be an ocean! What’s he gonna do? Swim that, too?”

“I know, I know. I think he jus’ thinks he can get to Coldfront if he keeps walkin’ while findin’ alternate methods of travel along the way.”

“Didn’t sound like it. He’s fully intendin’ on walking there.” Pinching the bridge of his nose, Elwood breathed deep, calming himself. “Listen, darl, I get it. You look up to this guy an’ all. But he’s as oblivious as a herd of cows on steak day. He’s gonna get himself killed by pullin’ off this stunt. I’m awf’ly sorry to tell ya this, but either the sun done baked his brains for good, or he’s an absolute buffoon.”

“...He’s loyal.” William let out his breath. He hadn’t realized that he was holding it in. “That’s... what he is. Loyal.” He wrung his hands together, finding himself fidgeting just a bit by shifting weight from one foot to the other. “An’, I mean… he’s one of the most loyal soldiers I ever met. It’s why I look up to him, Woody. He’s everythin’ a soldier should be. Honest, loyal an’ true. He believes in himself an’ doesn’t believe in failure. He’s ready for the cause, ready to do the impossible, even if it’s to trek halfway across the world jus’ to be with someone again. Even with my bad leg,” he flashed the engineer a boyishly sweet smile, “I’d do the same for you.”

Elwood’s features softened, creases forming at the corner of his eyes as he smiled. Reaching up, he lightly gripped his soldier’s coat collar before tugging him down, just enough, to plant a kiss on his cheek. “I know ya would,” he replied, patting his beloved’s cheek. “An’ I love that about’cha. Real loyal. Real protective. And a damn fine looker.”

“Woody…”

“Righ’. Time for flirtin’ later. Got it, stud.” Grinning at the blush that was coloring the soldier’s cheeks, he gestured towards the door. “We let yer friend wait long ‘nough. Pret’y sure he’s one of them soldier types that gets real antsy when ya leave them alone for too long. Like an overgrown puppy, all antsy and nervous an’ ready to piss on the carpet.”

“That’s… actually accurate, Woody. Save for the peein’ part.”

“Come, now. Let’s see if we can get him to Coldfront without lettin’ him go out there and take the distance on foot.”

Elwood gently coaxed William forward, letting him back into the room first. However, he had the last say in everything. He had his last say without words, but with his actions instead.

With a quick, sly slap to his soldier’s rear.

~

“Uh-- Jane? Sir?”

William slid back into the room first, his cheeks a little red from what must have been blushing. He cleared his throat, moving aside so Elwood could enter next. The engineer had a wily smile on his face; the look of a pleased and sated cheshire cat, happy with whatever spoils it had accrued.

Jane, for his part, didn't seem to notice them at first. He was looking at something he’d apparently plucked out of his helmet: a photograph of someone Will might know, but Elwood probably wouldn’t. It was of a man in a Medic’s uniform. He had gentle grey-blue eyes, salt and pepper hair, and a warm, kind smile. The Soldier’s thumb slid tenderly over the image of the Medic’s cheek as he mumbled to himself. “I’m coming, Abel,” Jane was heard muttering under his breath. “I’ll be there soon as I can…”

William tentatively took a step towards him. “Sir?” Realizing he wasn’t alone anymore, Jane quickly cleared his throat, stuffed the picture back into his helmet, and tugged it over his eyes, blushing a bit. “Y-yes?”

William and Elwood shared a quick glance, each one silently asking who would go first. With a small hand gesture, and nod of his head, it was the younger soldier who took the reigns.

“You’re awfully worried, aren’tcha, sir?” Giving a small smile to the helmet (where Jane’s eyes would be) and to the photo tucked within it, he added in a kind and gentle tone, “I would be, too. I’d do anythin’ for Woody, like you would for Abel. You’re rather sweet on him, and so is he. He loves ya, sir. So much.” Moving over to the edge of the bed, he sat down, politely folding his hands in his lap. He sat straight and true-- an attentive little soldier in the presence of superiors. “Woody and I…  we got to talkin’, and we wanted to help you.”

“Y’see,” Elwood began pointedly, as he began pulling up a chair to sit in it, backwards, so his arms were folded atop the chair’s short back, “Coldfront’s a bit of a loner base, way out there halfway ‘cross the world. And where you are now… well, y’see, you’re too far away to walk to it. It’s imposs--”

William cleared his throat and gave the engineer a tentative, but worried, look.

“--I, I mean… it’d be hard. Sure. Way harder than it should be. So we were thinkin’ about it… and we want to help.” “You can help me?” Jane’s mouth cracked into the big, craggy smile he was known for, the one he wore best when flying through the sky or in Abel’s presence. “I would appreciate that, I would. Anything that can get me home faster than walking. Which I would absolutely do if I had to. But...heh. I may be in a little trouble when I get back. I went AWOL from Ravine because they would not let me leave.” Jane fidgeted a little. He hadn’t thought that through when he left- he had the singular goal of getting back to Abel.

Elwood couldn’t help but give a small smile himself. For being denser than a sack of wet rocks, the soldier… had a pretty nice smile. No wonder some bloke fell in love with this guy. Maybe he wasn’t the smartest person alive but, confound it, when he smiled, he was absolutely charming.

But the engineer’s smile quickly went away once it sunk into his brain what he had just said.

“--wait, you what?”

William, too, looked to be surprised. A soldier going AWOL was a terrible thing. Especially so since many did just that during his own personal stint in jungles of ‘nam, and he remembered what happened to them, what punishment befell them. A soldier going AWOL was one of the worst things a soldier could commit. Or... at least that’s what the army’s superiors drilled into their brains.

“S--Sir, they-- they don’t know where you are? What if they’re lookin’ for ya? What if--”

“Lad’s got some balls on him!” Elwood laughed heartily, a good sounding laugh that was true and honest and came from the depths of one’s belly. “Look at him! Snuck under the gaze of those stiff suits and members a’ management over there at Ravine, and they’re none the wiser! Bunch of dogs runnin’ around in circles, sniffin’ their asses instead of sniffin’ for clues. I gotta admit, Jane, I had my doubts. But I’m damn impressed.”

Jane scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “I was not trying to be. I just need to get home. I couldn’t go by teleporter or train because they kept catching me and telling me I could not leave. So I left on foot. They couldn’t stop me that way.” He frowned. “I probably still can’t teleport. And if they catch me on one of the trains I will be court-martialed for sure. How are you going to get me home? I mean, you are an Engineer, if anyone can figure something out you can. I have never met an Engie who wasn’t smart as a whip.”

“Well, would’ya look at that. Ol’ boy’s butterin’ me up.”

“Don’t let it get to yer head, Woody.”

Beaming, the engineer turned his attention back to the soldier in bed. “But, ya know, as crackpot as this all seems, you’ve got a point there. If ya up and went AWOL at Ravine, they’ll have put a notice out to any other bases. You won’t be able to use a lotta MannCo’s devices. Like a teleporter, and stuff like that. So I can’t possibly calibrate somethin’ for ya an’ get a ‘porter up and runnin’. ‘Sides, your records aside, your chip might’ave been temporarily turned off, so you prob’ly wouldn’t be able to use the teleporter anyway, even if you wanted to. And as far as train, that’s most definitely a no-go.”

With a fair bit of musing and thinking, the engineer lapsed into a steadfast silence. Once or twice William looked towards his way, but Elwood didn’t seem to notice. The gears in his head were turning, and he was formulating any sort of escape plan that could eventually be possible.

“...wait.” An imaginary lightbulb dinged over the engineer’s head, and he jovially rubbed his gloved hands together. “Jane, I think ya might be wrong ‘bout one thing. I think you could use one particular route. Might be the best way goin’ about things, too. It’ll take a long time, but not as long as if you were doin’ it on foot.” Leaning forward, the engineer gave a mock stage whisper, going, “so, how do ya feel ‘bout trains?” Jane shrugged. “They’re alright. I never thought about them a lot. Alright for getting one place to another. Kind of shaky after a while. But I can’t use the train, you already said so.”

“He’s got a point, Woody.” William looked towards the engineer, a frown forming. “You did say trains were outta the question…”

“Now, now, hear me out.”

Getting up from the chair, Elwood began to pace the room. Like a passionate professor conducting a lecture before his befuddled students, he took the stage and began to explain aloud the finer machinations of his grand plan.

A train, he admitted, had not been his first thought. In fact, he thought it had been one of the major options that had to be avoided. Security was tight, and surely, by now, MannCo would have passed on Jane’s picture through the cybernetic grapevine. No doubt each base had received the information and the notice of the man’s absence. Mercenaries who went missing could very well lead to legal troubles later on. With the leaking of information, of blueprints…

But maybe that was the most logical option to take. After all, sometimes there was safety in heightened security. Even if that bit of security was being primed against you.

“...but what I’m thinkin’,” Wood continued on, feeling in his element explaining his ideas, devising a course of action, “is that we wait and get’cha on one of our supply trains. MannCo likes to run trains from base to base, shipping supplies from place to place, keepin’ the wheels on the tracks. As long as a box is properly addressed, they’re a bit lax on checkin’ the contents. They just chuck the box onto the train, and they move it ‘long its merry way.” “Whoa, whoa-- wait a minute there, Woody.” William bounced his attention back and forth between Jane and the engineer. “Are you suggestin’ what I think you’re suggestin’?”

With a rather wide, jolly smile, the engineer turned towards Jane. With his hands on his hips, he winked. “Well? You followin’ me so far, Jane?” “YES. Ahem. Yes. I think I follow you clearly.” Jane was grinning. “You want to mail Abel a box that lets him know that I am on my way!” William and Elwood could be greatly forgiven for their responses in marveling at Jane’s boneheaded answer. He certainly wasn’t known for his intelligence, as Woody had astutely remarked.

The Engineer gave a patient sort of sigh, raising his hands to his face so he could cover it. His shoulders rose and fell with each exhalation of breath, of the passing of time in the most exhausting sort of way.

“I think,” William interjected, hoping to diffuse the situation and get Elwood back on his feet (metaphorically, of course), “what Woody’s tryin’ to say here is that if we find a box big enough, and label it all correctly an’ do a mock up job of having a supply crate addressed to Coldfront, yer’ll eventually get sent there, sir.”

“That,” Elwood said, almost wearily, as his hands fell away from his face. “That’s exactly what I meant.” He inhaled once more, exhaled once more, and regained the strength to continue, once more. “So... all we gotta do is make sure we find you a crate big ‘nough for you to fit in. Fill it with some stuff so it’s not too inconspicuous. Pack plenty of blankets--”

“--rations, too. Food, water, supplies--”

“--and address it all proper to the mandatory protocols, and MannCo’ll think none the wiser.” Jabbing his thumb towards the open door, Elwood indicated the whole of the base, the company, as he added, “I may work for these folks, and they’re the ones signin’ my paychecks at the end of the day, but I can tell ya straight up: bein’ in the business this long, most of ‘em don’t know a real gun from a squirt gun. A lot’a the higher ups in management only care about the money and the statistics, and the gainin’ of territory. Profits. The business of profiting. But,” he tapped the side of his engineering goggles, “they don’t pay attention to the important stuff. And I bet’cha anythin’ we can get you on your way back to yer base, and back to yer pret’y lil’ Medic.”

“You are going to mail ME to Abel?” Jane’s eyes widened under his helmet. Then he threw back his head and laughed- not in a mocking way, but in absolute elation. It was such a simple, yet brilliant idea! He couldn’t believe he didn’t think of it himself. “THAT IS ABSOLUTE GENIUS. YOU DESERVE A MEDAL.” He could just imagine it: it would be like a present. Abel would open up the box unaware, and out he’d pop like a big American jack-in-the-box. If he was able to. The delight on the Soldier’s face fell a bit, shoulders drooping. “I just hope I am not too late. If he isn’t answering my letters something must be very, very wrong. He would never ignore me.”

Elwood and William exchanged silent, worried looks. It was common knowledge that Coldfront was a base of bad luck. From its terrible blizzards to delayed supply trains, to respawn glitches and the like, a lot of bad luck could befall the ill-fated mercenaries there. Sometimes mercenaries didn’t survive. Sometimes mercenaries took a walk outside, and an unpredicted spot of bad weather would crop up, obscuring their path. They could get lost. They could lose their way. They could freeze to death, just outside the respawn boundary lines.

A lot could have happened to the Medic. But there was no use working the soldier up, upsetting him with more potential bad news.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” came the younger soldier’s chipper tone. Always the bright optimistic, he looked towards the sunrises, not the sunsets, in life. “Ya gotta remember, sir, at Coldfront postal service gets slowed down and phone lines don’t always work. I remember Abel. He was a real tough Medic. Strong, steadfast. Loyal, too. Loyal and protective of you.” Giving Jane that boyish grin, he reached over and, with a truly wholesome sense of support, laid his hand upon his shoulder. “He wouldn’t give up on you. He’s there. I’m sure everything is fine. I’m sure nothin’ bad has happened.”

Elwood couldn’t help but smile to himself and softly shake his head. “Listen, Jane. Jus’ met’cha today. And it hasn’t even been that long. But if yer doc is anythin’ like ya… he’s probably worried sick about you, and is doin’ anythin’ he can to reach out to you. So I wouldn’t worry ‘bout it. I would focus on gettin’ there and gettin’ to him. And after that, pieces will jus’ fall back into place.”

“That’s right.” Giving Jane’s shoulder a reaffirming squeeze, William nodded. “Focus on the goal, sir. Focus on that. Keep your head on your task, and complete the mission. Don’t worry ‘bout what may or may not happen.”

“You both are right.” Squaring his shoulders once more, Jane felt a renewed sense of resolve overcome him. There was hope after all. He'd get there in time. Nothing bad has happened. He'd jump out of that box and he'd see Abel’s warm smile. “Nothing bad has happened. Soon I'll be there and everything will be fine.”

It would take a day or two, Elwood informed him. They would have to locate a crate big enough and prepare it for the trip. Then he'd have to look up the exact coordinates and shipping label codes for Coldfront in order to create a mockup of a supply label. It could be done, he assured him. There was no doubt in his mind they'd get Jane on his way.

Jane tried arguing the fact, seeing as two days time was just too long to wait, but the two mercenaries from Teufort knew it was just his anxious nerves getting the best of him. With some time and luck, they managed to convince him to stay where he was and rest up.

To all of this, Jane agreed. He did so on account that he knew they wouldn't lie to him. He'd rest up and stay put... as long as he could stretch his legs and get some fresh air.

“No training in the desert,” Elwood warned him. “We don't need to go back to square one with you half-baked to death.”

“AFFIRMATIVE. I would not want that either. I couldn't return to Abel if I were dead.”

A plan was set in motion. William went about gathering up the supplies while Elwood did his magic, finding a suitable crate, looking up the proper coordinates and making shipping label templates. Jane did his part and rested in bed, occasionally taking small trips in order to stretch his legs and get his muscles moving again.

Jane wanted to get back to Abel as soon as possible, but he had to be patient. Like the Medic sometimes said, ‘patience is a virtuoso’. Or something like that. He couldn't quite remember. Remembering was hard sometimes.

He began to count the minutes until all was ready. Hold on, Abel. Just hold on.

--------

Finally, everything was ready. The crate was as big as Elwood could make without arousing too much suspicion- big enough to fit one Soldier inside with a certain amount of comfort, as well as enough rations and water to see him through the journey. Holes were subtly drilled in the crate where it would allow for the best airflow possible while not looking like airholes- after all, the manifest said the crate was full of medical equipment, and x-rays and defibrillators and other such things did not need to breathe. Clambering into the crate, Jane hunkered down, arranging his travel rations and his few possessions as comfortably as he could. It was not going to be the cushiest way to travel, but that didn’t matter. If he got back to Abel, any amount of discomfort and rationing and peeing in an empty Mann-Cola bottle would be absolutely worth it, just as much as walking halfway around the world would have been. Looking up, he tipped his helmet back, regarding the two men who had helped him. “You boys are a credit to this man’s Team, and a credit to America. If you ever need my help for anything at all, let me know and I will do my best. I give my word as a Soldier I will.”

“Aw, shucks, sir.” William couldn’t help but beam at this. He was rather proud of himself that he had made his idol proud. He knew Jane wasn’t all that smart, and he was incredibly bullheaded, but he was brave. And he was the epitome of a soldier; someone he aspired to be. “You’ll be there in no time. Don’t you worry none.”

“And… there.” Elwood stood back from the crate, admiring all the hard work that had gone into it. He had placed the final parcel of rations in there with Jane, making sure the man had quite a few flasks of water and, of course, a bucket. For what came after the eating and the drinking. “That should do it, boy. Now, Jane,” the suave, charming engineer leaned against the crate, “don’t you be a stranger. Sugarloaf here is enamored by you.”

“Woody!”

“Aw, look at him. He’s adorable when he blushes.”

William grumbled to himself, his face aflame with his shy embarrassment. He tugged his helmet down a little, covering his eyes, unknowingly mimicking his idol in many ways, from many distant situations. But a little kiss to his cheek from the engineer caused him to lighten up.

“He’s right, though, sir. Don’t be a stranger.” He took the helmet away from his face. With hopeful eyes, the younger soldier smiled at him. “Please, come back n’ visit, alright?”

“And next time, bring your darlin’ little turtledove with you.” “Jesus. You two are so goddamn cute.” Jane laughed roughly, his eyes twinkling a bit, before clearing his throat. “Yes. I will tell Abel everything that happened here. If all is well he will probably want to come and thank you himself.” Sitting up straight, Jane snapped the two a sharp, proper salute, and then slouched back down to allow his friends to put the lid on the crate.

“Good luck, sir.”

“Pleasure meetin’ ya, Jane.”

The two hefted the lid and, both smiling ear to ear, the placed it on the crate. A moment later, the whirring sound of a drill pierced the sturdy wood of the structure. Everything was being nailed into place, and the crate, with the man inside, was all ready for its voyage.

A soft thudding sound heralded William’s little good luck gesture. He was giving the lid a gentle, reassuring pat.

Soon the box was hefted (surely by the two), and Jane was jostled inside.

He wanted to play his harmonica but he had been warned that, no matter what happened, he couldn’t make a sound. Silence was anathema to any Soldier, but deep down, Jane knew Woody was right- a single out of place noise could get him caught. So he stayed quiet, even as the hours passed, a train whistle finally blew, and the engine- and its cargo- set out on its long journey to Coldfront.

[philomathstudies]

Introduction: Hi! I’m Annie, I recently graduated as valedictorian of a class of almost 700, and I’m about to be a freshman at Johns Hopkins (go blue jays!!). High school was some of the best and worst moments of my life, and looking back, there are so many things that I wish I’d done and things that made me successful, so I wanted to share them! Of course, disclaimer, these tips may not apply to everyone!

(These tips generally apply to all classes, but if you have a specific subject you want tips on, I’ve taken these AP courses: european history, world history, us gov’t, macroeconomics, lang, lit, calc ab, chemistry, physics 1, physics c, environmental science, art: drawing, biology, human geography, chinese, and art history. Feel free to message me!)

College applications are a crapshoot- I can’t begin to tell you the number of incredible, brilliant people with extraordinary, international level achievements that got denied at top schools in favor of those lacking those accomplishments. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean those who got in don’t have qualities that earned them a spot, it just speaks to the unpredictable nature of the college application process. When deans of admission at top schools openly say they could reject all admitted students and build the same exemplary class from the waitlist, or that they have enough qualified applicants to fill 3 or 4 classes with, there’s a certain amount of luck involved. Therefore I urge all rising seniors to go into this process realizing that the odds are not in your favor. I went into the process with too much blind hope, too confident in my ability to be that lucky 1 in 10 (or less) that would gain admission, and I was sorely disappointed. So that leads me to my next tip…

Don’t do things just for your college application- Those slim acceptance rates are the exact reason I urge you not to join things solely for how good they look on a college application. It seems counterintuitive; wouldn’t they give you a better chance of acceptance? However, my point is not to dissuade you from extracurriculars, but rather to commit to ones that genuinely make you happy. As I wrote above, the process is so competitive that even international achievements may mean rejection, so don’t waste your high school experience by dedicating so much time and effort to something that you feel obligated to do.

Try everything your freshman and sophomore year- My biggest regret is not joining clubs where my passions lie simply because I was too lazy or scared of things like public speaking my freshman year. It’s much more intimidating to join as upperclassmen, and you may not be able to participate at all the levels/in all the ways people who have dedicated 3-4 years can. Even if you don’t think its for you (like debate for me because of my fear of public speaking), I urge you to expand your horizons and push yourself out of your comfort zone. Many clubs give you great opportunities to build leadership, public speaking, etc. skills and to find your passions.

Know both sides of the flashcard- I learned this tip from my organic chemistry class, and I’d never though about how useful it is. For example, if you’re memorizing polyatomic ions, it’s extremely important that you know both the formula and the name, as either version may show up on the exam. Not doing this also makes the weaknesses in your memorization evident- whenever I study vocab, I tend to glance at the side with the term and only memorize the definition. This meant that when I was given only the definitions, I couldn’t remember the word they defined, because I was so used to being given the vocab word and responding with the definition. 

The first lecture of the unit is one of the most important for STEM classes- I know the beginning of the unit can often seem like the perfect time to tune out, as it goes over information you’ve previously learned or the easiest material of the topic, but it often forms the foundation for everything else in the unit. For example, the first lecture on a stoichiometry unit will probably teach you dimensional analysis, a skill integral to calculating molecular or empirical formulas, moles or grams of a substance, etc. 

Buy/sell books secondhand- Everyone knows how expensive college textbooks are, but between SAT and AP prep books, and books for English, high school books can cost quite a bit of money too. Unless they redesigned the exam recently, you absolutely don’t need the newest edition of the review book, so buy from upperclassmen and then sell it to underclassmen the following year.

Learn to self study- Unless you’re really lucky, you’re guaranteed to have a teacher who doesn’t teach, teaches badly, or whose teaching style just doesn’t work for you. Personally, I find that self learning, especially if I’m struggling because resources such as textbooks and online explanations, and videos seem to contradict, really helps me understand the topic throughly. In AP bio, my teacher had us create claymation videos on the processes of cellular respiration and photosynthesis independently. It was incredibly frustrating and confusing because all the resources described the cycles in varying degrees of details, but I felt like I genuinely understood the topic, instead of having been spoon-fed the information and memorizing it. Obviously, this method isn’t very efficient for frequent use, but the key is to try to understand the material independently instead of going to the teacher the moment you hit a snag. 

Keep your backpack/binders/notebooks reasonably organized- When teachers ask for homework to be passed up and you have to dig through mountains of papers in your backpack, not only is that super stressful, but a lot of teachers won’t let you turn it in after they have already collected all the papers. I was definitely guilty of being lazy and just stuffing papers, once I got them, into my backpack instead of taking a few seconds to slide them into a binder, and as a result I got 0s on lots of homework because either I couldn’t find it at the time or because everything was so messy I didn’t remember there was homework. Try to have some sort of organization system going on or at least a homework folder, because those 0s add up and can be the difference between an 89 and 90. 

You’re gonna get senioritis, badly, and that’s ok- I’ve always been the type of person who did every homework assignment and was very focused on grades, so the idea that I would completely let myself ago seemed absurd to me. Don’t underestimate what senior year does to you. I can honestly count on one hand the econ worksheets that I actually turned in during senior year, and I made my first B in a grading period during the spring. I was very stressed about how awful my grades were, but unable to muster the energy to do anything about it. And you know what, it’s ok. It’s senior year, you can give yourself a break. Yes, your senior grades are still important for college applications, so don’t go from straight A’s to straight C’s, but for the most part, all the hard work is behind you. Do keep in mind that these habits may haunt you when you’re a college freshman. I haven’t started classes yet, but based on how little I studied for the math placement exam for my college, senioitis doesn’t magically end when you graduate, so don’t let it get completely out of control during the year. 

Learn how to do math without a calculator- If you take either of the AP Calculuses or the SAT, you need to master this skill because there are sections of the exams that are strictly non-calculator.  Beyond that, when you get to calculus, you’ll be introduced to complicated concepts, where not being able to multiply by hand will drag you down. 

Keep old notes- Not only for finals, but some topics are very interdisciplinary, like biochemistry, so it’s very important that you have a working knowledge of both biology and chemistry. As you take advanced classes, such as for me, taking physics c after physics 1, it will be assumed that you have completely mastered the basics, and they will be skipped or referenced very quickly. It is very useful to look at notes on the basics, which provide the foundation for the advanced material you learn. 

Invest in a whiteboard- Whenever I was learning about processes or cycles, from the Krebs cycle to organic chemistry mechanisms, it was really useful to practice drawing the steps over and over again. Then when it came to the test, I could do a brain dump and draw out the information as a reference. 

Understand formulas instead of blindly memorizing- This basically has physics and calculus written all over it. In physics, you should be given formula charts during exams, and in any case, something like F=ma isn’t terribly hard to memorize. The problem comes when there are a multitude of formulas that are derived from one of the fundamental equations. Of course, deriving from scratch each time is incredibly tedious, but I want to dissuade you from simply memorizing it or storing it on your calculator, because that means you probably don’t understand the physics behind it. What makes physics so difficult and different from any other subject you’ve taken is that every problem will have a slightly different scenario that tests your understanding of the physics behind it. 

Use all the time given to you during tests- I know I hate looking back through my test because I just get so bored halfway through, but missing points because of silly mistakes is honestly the most frustrating thing ever when you had plenty of time to check. Depending on if I have time, I like to cover my original work and resolve the question. If checking answers is not your thing, try slowing now when you first see each question, and checking your work briefly each step. 

Form study groups- Talking about something, especially teaching it to someone, always helped me remember something so much better than reading it on paper. It’s also so important to have second interpretations of the information you’re studying to ensure that you don’t make a huge misconception.  

AP students: released/practice exams are your best friend- Obviously, they’re the best resources for studying for the AP exam, but they’re also a great tool for a hint at what your teacher’s tests may look like. AP teachers have access to tons of College Board material and will often use questions directly from old exams. 

If you start getting confused during a lecture- Many times this is because I didn’t pay attention during the very beginning, so I’m missing that important foundation I talked about in the previous tip. Of course, I typically wouldn’t recommend doing things other than listening to what is currently being taught, but in this case, I would just get more confused and it’s a waste of time. So I discretely go back to my previous notes and focus on understanding them. 

The most stressful part of schoolwork is just thinking about your assignments- There’s always specific period of time that threatens to kill me- a week where I had two competitions simultaneously, in cities 3 hours apart. When you’re taking 7 AP classes at the same time, just reading over your to-do list will make you want to cry. Even on a normal day, as I go to classes throughout the day and my list of homework gets longer and longer, it makes me so stressed to where I’m planning out how to finish everything and I’m no longer listening in class. It overwhelmed me so much that I just wanted to take a nap and avoid school. But every single time, stressing about the work I have is 1000x worse than sitting down and actually going through each task. I find that what had seemed impossible before was very doable, and many times I even finished early enough to relax before bed. Keep a positive mindset, don’t underestimate your abilities, and have the discipline to start working immediately on the hardest days, and you’ll be fine. Of course, this doesn’t mean that the workload that is able to be handled by one person can work for another, and things like mental illnesses are things I have no experience in, so this is definitely just something that worked for me and is not applicable to everyone. 

Best of luck with high school! If you have any questions, feel free to send me an ask!

My AP World masterpost

Asks I’ve answered about school

[muchymozzarella]

Muchy’s Top Best Overwatch fics

I said I’d do it, so I’m doing it: Recs for the best Overwatch fics I’ve ever read, in no particular order of importance. 

[[In the Bones of Our Beast]]

Salazar101

Summary:

Junkrat slips into the Omnium and finds treasure, he doesn't know what it is but other people seem to know, and they want it. Bad. Bad enough to hire famed enforcer Roadhog to drag him in, kicking and screaming.

Relationship/s: Junkrat/Roadhog

What I enjoyed about the fic: 

Amazingly written outback adventures with good relationship development with trash mouse and street pig, with an actual treasure that makes sense, as opposed to the mysterious but undefined treasure in canon and other fics. 

-

[[Koraha]]

debascas

Summary:

The feeling started when they reached the edge of civilization.

Junkrat wasn't familiar with the twisting sensation in his stomach, the constriction of his chest, and the tingling of his fingers when he held onto the belt of the man driving the motor bike. He knew it wasn't fear, or anxiety, as he often did experience. It wasn't the thrill and delight he feels when he blows something or someone up.

This kind of feeling was... Nice. Warm. Nauseating. All at the same time. It grew more sure as the bike accelerated and he held on tighter, the barren landscape blurring passed them, the dust and wind blowing through his singed hair, the roar of the engine ringing in his ears. He tried to brush it off. He tried to forget about it.

Business, it's only business, he reminded himself. Nothing more. Never will be.

Oh, how he tried.

Relationship/s: Junkrat/Roadhog

What I enjoyed about the fic:

Another well-written Outback adventure story, just fantastically written, engaging, with good character development between our favorite trash folk. 

[STILL INCOMPLETE]

-

[[Bad Sun]]

albion

Summary:

When Blackwatch agent Jesse McCree is sent to kill a mysterious assassin known only as DRAGONSTRIKE, there are a few things he expects to occur.

Falling in love isn't one of them.

Relationships: Mccree and Reyes, Jesse Mccree/Hanzo Shimada

What I enjoyed about the fic: 

The comparison of Reyes to the chessboard black Queen, as opposed to King, with Jack as King and Mccree as Knight. The exciting encounters between Hanzo and Mccree are also appealing, but the chess scene stands out, as well as the relationship between Reyes and Mccree in Blackwatch days. 

[STILL INCOMPLETE]

- 

[[Watching You Run Into the High Noon Sun]]

AsheRhyder

Summary:

Gabriel Reyes taught McCree everything he knows - not to shoot and kill, but how to survive by more than luck and aim.

McCree learns something else as Overwatch falls, fades, and then rises again: in this life, everyone leaves him behind.

He won't watch it happen again. Relationships: Mccree and Reyes, Jesse Mccree/Hanzo Shimada

What I enjoyed about the fic:

You will see a ton of AsheRhyder fic in here, just a heads up. They’re my favorite Overwatch fic writer of all time, and I will trust literally anything they come out with. And it began with this fic.

What I loved most about it was ridiculously, canonically competent Mccree. So many fics fail to think past the Cowboy and fail to maximize the potential of what it meant to be a Blackwatch, former gang member prime Black Ops agent, but this fic hit the mark with a Mccree that isn’t defined by his cowboy hat and boots, but not removed from the persona either. 

Also the relationship between Hanzo and Jesse here is very subdued compared to other fics, but beautifully done. For Mccree lovers who enjoy character studies, and anybody who loves good fic, this is the fic for you. Definitely in my top 5 best. 

-

[[Blue Roses and Salted Caramel]]

AsheRhyder

Summary:

Hanzo hated Valentine's Day and everything that went with it. This got exceptionally awkward for a man whose courier service saw business triple in the lead up to February 14th.

A series of 'special deliveries' between Mr. Jack Morrison and Mr. Gabriel Reyes drew his attention. Initially, it was because he wasn’t sure if it was the world's most polite form of hate mail or the world's most awkward flirting...

But then there was something about Mr. Reyes' son, Jesse, that kept him coming back...

Relationship/s: Jack Morrison/Gabriel Reyes, Jesse Mccree/Hanzo Shimada

What I enjoyed about the fic:

Look, it’s Asherhyder again, haha. Though I should note that while I’d decided Asherhyder was my favorite writer in OW, I had no idea this was written by them until after I finished it (because I do not pay attention and didn’t notice the author name lmao)

I just could NOT STOP SMILING AND GIGGLING throughout this entire fic. It’s so fluff it’ll rot your teeth off, it made my pores clear, my crops flourish, I cried tears of healing as I read this fic. 

-

[[Cast a Long, Dark Shadow]]

AsheRhyder

Summary:

Jack will never forgive himself for not noticing it the first time a prisoner dies while in the new Overwatch's custody. He knows the signs better than anyone alive: Gabriel taught him how to see the invisible fingerprints Blackwatch left behind.

But someone is cutting off his access to the old Blackwatch records, and to manage that, there needs to be an active commander in the field...

Relationship/s: Jack Morrison/Gabriel Reyes

What I enjoyed about the fic:

Asherhyder again? Listen... you gotta read everything this person has written. Do it. Right now. 

This one may actually be my favorite of the lot, at least firmly in the Top 3. Short, but fantastic and poignant in less than 3000 words. Another amazing character study. Read it right now immediately, it won’t take you long. 

-

[[His Master]]

Balenae

Summary:

Master Genji teaches his student Zenyatta at Shambali Temple in Nepal.

And yet…

And yet.

Relationship/s: Genji Shimada/Tekhartha Zenyatta

What I enjoyed about the fic:

Just LOOK AT THAT SUMMARY AND TELL ME YOU’RE NOT INTRIGUED. A role reversal fic--or is it? One of the more heartrending fics on this list, and absolutely beautiful. In that space between sad and happy-poignant. You won’t regret reading it.

-

Update: additional fic as of 5/1/2017

[[The Desert Glacier]]

Seedcity

Summary:

Hanzo Shimada is a one-year veteran of Overwatch. Having been assigned to lead and defend the reinstitution of an abandoned Watchpoint: Grand Mesa, he leads his team against Talon, deals with the pressure of leadership, and longs for the company of his precious cowboy. Also: ghosts.

Relationship/s: Hanzo Shimada/Jesse Mccree

What I enjoyed about the fic: 

Don’t be fooled by the “Also: ghosts” like it’s a side note, this is one of the best supernatural mystery works I’ve read, and it’s a fanfiction. The supernatural element may not be front and center, but it’s one of the most engaging parts of an engaging and well-written storyline, and the fic reads just like those published mystery novels you love with a twist uniquely Overwatch.

[Still incomplete, but near completion]

-

Update: additional fic as of 5/18/2017

long is the road that leads me home

gnarled

Summary:

You can meet the strangest people on the road. Sometimes, the best.

Relationship/s: Hanzo Shimada/Jesse Mccree

What I enjoyed about the fic:

I can’t believe I forgot about his one when it was one of the ones I promised myself would be on a best fic list before I ever even made one. So here it is!

I love fics that are written with the descriptiveness of published novels, and this one does imagery right. It’s not too long -- 17,000+ words, it’s all around fantastically and professionally written, with the fun and intrigue and delicious romance you’d expect from a fanfiction. 

It gives you the juicy bits slowly but in a way that keeps you satisfied. You get a taste of Mccree and Reyes’ backstory (with our favorite Papa Reyes back at it again), of Hanzo’s as well. 

It’s just fantastically well-written. I can’t describe it more than that, you have to read it to get the full experience. 

-

Update: additional fics as of 6/17/2017

[[Temper]]

Bullfinch

Summary:

Jack joins the SEP and finds trouble almost immediately. At least his commanding officer is on his side—supposedly.

Relationship/s: Jack Morrison/Gabriel Reyes

What I enjoyed about the fic:

The fic is about transman Jack Morrison, and what I loved about it is how it tackled the aspects of the Soldier Enhancement program that a lot of writers gloss over, like how it would physically and chemically affect various soldiers, etc. It also posed and answered the question of how fictional supersoldier modification could affect real life (or at least futuristic real life) FTM transition. everything’s well thought out, the characters are interesting and fun, especially Jack’s friends and roommates, and the tension--sexual or otherwise--between Jack and Gabe is intense, gets you more excited to see the conclusion overall. 

-

[[When We Were Young]]

JudgeCoffee

Summary:

When Jack Morrison was 18, he joined the military. Fifteen weeks later, he joined the Soldier Enhancement Program, and that was when he met Gabriel Reyes. That was when everything changed.

Relationship/s: Jack Morrison/Gabriel Reyes

What I enjoyed about the fic:

So it’s rare for a fic’s OCs to really set it apart, but that’s what happened here. The story was well done, with some amazing side characters and “co-stars” in the program with Jack and Gabe that really gave this fic heart. It also shows Gabe to be a cold, terrifying black-ops style killer, which I love for the sake of canon--a guy who’s a hero, but also the kind of man who you wouldn’t be surprised headed Blackwatch. 

Also it opens on a BDSM scene. So that’s fun. 

-

Update: additional fic as of 8/12/2017

[[Life is Strange]]

firesonic152

Summary:

Time travel. It was the most harebrained idea Winston had ever come up with, but even he had to admit it was probably their only option. This is a terrible plan, he mused.

An ill-fated trip to the past leaves Gabriel pining for a man that no longer exists.

Relationship/s: Jack Morrison/Gabriel Reyes

What I enjoyed about the fic:

The feels, man. The feels. This one kind of plowed me with the deep emotion and desperation on top of time travel shenanigans between Soldier and Reaper. It gets sad but hopeful at the same time, it casts Soldier’s regret so heartrendingly. It’s not one of the most well-written fics on the list, but it’s certainly one of the most moving. I love the whole aspect of love reaching through time and space without it getting too cheesy. Definitely worth the read and subsequent feels bomb. 

-

Update: additional fic as of 1/27/2018

[[Afterdrop]]

ClaroQueQuiza

Summary:

Overwatch can be forgiven for keeping Hanzo at arm's length despite the endorsement of his intended murder victim. Six months of provisional membership, spent in the field, is a reasonable compromise.

But not everyone is on board with giving Hanzo a chance.

McCree, least of all.

Relationship/s: Jesse McCree/Hanzo Shimada

What I enjoyed about the fic:

I’ve been seeing this fic’s name tossed around a lot, but I only just now got to read it. It’s got published-quality writing and is mostly devoid of the usual tropes we see in Overwatch fanfics, and the detail in this fic is so rich that you can clearly imagine the world it lays out before you, in ways that I’ve never seen in any other fanfic I’ve read. It’s interesting, it’s funny, and it’s a WIP, so you get to slow burn your way through 195,556 words and still be impatient for the next update. It’s a worldbuilding, Hanzo-centric masterpiece, where Hanzo is both a compelling and tragic character while also being a useless gay thirsting over every hot dude in his vicinity (except McCree, ironically :)))

WORTH. READING. EVERY. WORD. 

[STILL INCOMPLETE]

-

Update: additional fic as of 2/28/2018

[[Food For Thought]]

chibimono

Summary:

After months and months of work fighting Talon and juggling UN bureaucracy, Jack just wants to have a nice, normal dinner with Gabriel. And maybe, just maybe, he'll be able to do something about these feelings he's got for his best friend while he's at it.

Relationship/s: Jack Morrison/Gabriel Reyes

What I enjoyed about the fic:

Definitely in my top 5, this fic has a very simple premise, but is carried on the wings of its insanely thoughtful detail and fantastic writing. Chibimono might be one of the best writers in the Overwatch fandom, which is unsurprising considering they’re friends with the other best writer, Ashe Rhyder. 

A lot of what might be passed over as unimportant to other authors is written with some knowledge by the writer here. A lot of detail is put into the writing without it being over-saturated or redundant. It’s kind of my reference fic for when the pre-fall of Overwatch timeline doesn’t tie together in my head, because they have perfect characterization for Jack and Gabe, as well as for the workings of Overwatch as a whole, in the shortest amount of time. 

I read this before, but it hurt me so much I forgot to put it into my list, waiting for the update that would soothe my aching heart. 

It’s part of a series, which is just as worth checking out! 

 [[FIC COMPLETE, SERIES INCOMPLETE]]

-

Update: additional fic as of 11/8/2018

[[Nacreous Nectarine]]

Swagreus (shiplizard)

Summary:

The questionable mission practices and questionable hiring practices of Overwatch, as seen by one unfortunate bystander who got in the middle of a mission.

Featuring the undercover talents of one Cmdr. Gabriel Reyes, former theater nerd, current terrifying one-man assault team.

[Based on the art of Kelly Turnbull/Coelasquid]

Relationship/s: General Fic, OCs

What I enjoyed about the fic:

It’s just.... really good. I don’t like Reader fics and I don’t often read OC fics when the OC is the main character, BUT the writing is top-notch, the buildup excellent, and it’s a joy to read with an utterly lovable Muslim protagonist OC who is just Very Tired while Gabe, McCree, Mercy and Jack do their Overwatch thing in his vicinity.

A must-read! I wish this had a series.

-

[[Raging Stallion]]

Phylix

It started with Drunk Hanzo pressing the nuclear option and getting his brother involved in his love life. All Hanzo wanted was a man that fulfilled his every need, instead what he got was a brother who tried way too hard and a neighbor that may just fulfill every last dirty fantasy Hanzo ever dreamed of.

It shouldn't matter that Genji's the one with the blossoming career in the adult entertainment industry. It shouldn't matter that Jaxson McCoy, the world's greatest porn star's real name is Jesse McCree and he is living right next door and he is even better looking in real life than on film. And it especially shouldn't matter then that a simple case of mistaken identity could lead him to a man even more interesting and more sensual than anything he had ever seen on screen.

How could any of this be Hanzo's fault?

Relationship/s: Jesse McCree/Hanzo Shimada, Jesse McCree/Gabriel Reyes (past, minor mention)

What I enjoyed about the fic:

This fic had me dead. Seriously. It’s hilarious, well-written, full of the kind of shenaniganary you’d expect from a porn AU. It’s remarkably well-done, frustrating in the best way possible, and blows any romantic sex comedy Hollywood has ever done right out of the water. It’s smart, witty, and delightful, and for anyone over 18+, quite possibly the best explicit fic with plot you’ll have read in a while. 

Some “the one that got away” mixed with “dumbasses being dumbasses”, “mistaken identity” and other such fun tropes. 

[STILL INCOMPLETE]

Side note: in case y’all think their name sounds familiar, yes, that is the same Asherhyder who created the Roommates webcomic on deviantart. A quality writer/artist who does quality work all around. Blessed is the Overwatch fandom for having them. 

Side note 2: there’s a fic series I forgot the name of, but I’m gonna add it to the list later. I’ll also be adding fics that I find striking as I go along. I tend to favor McHanzo, Reaper76, Genyatta and Roadrat, so if you think there’s a fic that should be on this list that isn’t, this is basically just a reflection of my fic reading preferences. 

[multi-fandomtrashtm]

We Made It. Fairy Tail Finale: Chapter 545

We made it, guys. Through the high blood pressure, grins and tears, we made it. To celebrate, I’ll go back to my old style of reviewing; page by page.

Finale or not, prepare for salt. I’ll try to be as calm as possible.

This is a nice cover, but Levy looks very out of place. She’s not really that important of a character. 

Oh cool, Lucy won an award. That’s nice. I honestly kind of forgot that she’s a writer since it’s barely mentioned. 

Look at the upper left hand corner of that group shot. Those are all of the characters that despite them frequently appearing, we know almost nothing about. And Lisanna is a catgirl for some reason. 

Not much to say here. 

If that cup is not made of iron,is Gajeel eating glass?

I’m so confused by drunk Juvia. Why do you feel the need to strip as well?

Lucy looks good with a ponytail.

Ugh. Anna...can you just...die? There’s literally no reason for you to still be here. Natsu, you remember her? Bruh, why did you never say anything??

Cue Gajevy ship tease. That’s about the twins from the spinoff I bet. 

Wendy being an idol is...the only change from the timeskip that stuck except for power levels. Also, good for Chelia, now we can say that there were no consequences for the war whatsoever. Great.

With how they’d been mostly ignored during the war, I was not expecting to get news about them. And of course Kagura fanservice because reasons.

Juvia, you are the only girl in this series that I’ve seen wear a bra consistently and appropriately. Just wanted to point it out. 

 And here we go with the gruvia. I stand corrected. Gray and Juvia have scars. Amazing. And yes Juvia, your body. I’m not sure why you’re questioning that statement? 

I’m absolutely confused. What was that moment? What are you trying to say with “maybe it should be mine”? Why are you getting all stuttery and embarrassed NOW? You guys lived together for 6 months. What happened to that “answer” you promised? Apparently it wasn’t much because only you have changed your behavior, Gray. And quite abruptly, I might add. Do you guys see what I mean about gruvia now? This behavior makes no sense because up until this point, Gray and Juvia have had the exact same dynamics no matter what happens. This change should’ve happened sooner and over time. 

Obligatory Elfgreen. Haha, all of the main (straight) Laxus crack ships were acknowledged. All of those shippers must be laughing. 

Oh look, Erza’s boobs.

I don’t mind Hisui being queen and I think it’s great that she made the effort to establish a diplomatic relationship with another nation. However, the abrupt politics is very odd and has me thinking about the magic council again. What happened to them after Tartaros, anyway? Where have they even been during the war?

Hisui: I also know about your sins. But I’m more concerned about the future than the past.

Translation: Look, compared to Acnologia and Alverez, y’all ain’t done shit so let’s just move on. 

Never expected Erza of all people to have trouble reading. But then again, Lucy had a way more privileged upbringing with proper education so...yeah. I can see her being more booksmart. 

So she started brushing her hair as a sign that she’s actively waiting for Jellal. Okay, but just...Erza, you’ve waited years for this man at this point. Just go after him yourself. 

Why his legs of all things? That’s so random. Genuinely surprised to see Porlyusica at a party. Didn’t think she was the social type. 

Yeah, no. This moment is meaningless. That is not Mavis or Zeref and those are not their reincarnations with their souls. Somehow, those two had doppelgangers running around for more than a decade and we’re just now seeing them. 

“It’s really hot this August.” Stop. I’m getting flashbacks. He was screwed over beyond belief. 

Okay, but why is everyone smiling like this is a perfectly normal and happy thing? I would be flipping out if I saw clones of my guild’s “tactician” and greatest enemy. 

Good for you, Romeo. Those old guys are kinda cringe, tbh. No. No no no no. Kinana, no. Stop. You and Erik? No. That ship is the most unnecessary and out of nowhere thing ever. It is built off of anime only filler. If you’ve only read the manga, it makes no sense. 

Required reference to the early days of Happy screwing Lucy over in a comedic fashion. 

Drunk Lucy=Cringe.

Pages 31-32 Why are you suddenly getting emotional, though? He’s told you that you’ve got a job to go on a billion times at this point. These are some seriously random and out of place flashbacks. 

Pages 33-35 Nalu fuel because this is the closest that they’ll ever get to canon. 

...The ambigiousness of that “we’ll be together forever” infuriates me with unsatisfaction. I don’t ship nalu, but the lack of any cementing evidence here is killing me. 

Oh look, everyone looks the same as the early days. It would bring nostalgia if they’d changed in appearance at all since that point.

A 100 year quest? Cool, but what is it, though?

Really wishing that that question had been answered at some point. Frankly, that question has been completely irrelevant throughout this entire series. We didn’t really need it at all.

HOLY SHIT, IS JUVIA INTERACTING WITH FREED?? SOMEONE WHO’S NOT GRAY?!

The funny thing is that if anyone hadn’t read FT Zero, they’d have no idea how important Zera actually is.

Aaaand, that’s it. We made it. Fairy Tail has come to an end. Well, the first thing that I can tell you is that this finale was not very good. Despite constantly teasing ships to the point of ignoring actual friendships in favor of ship moments, only 2 major ships have been confirmed as together. I think. Unsure if Elfgreen counts as canon, but for now, I’ll just count it as that. 

Despite all of my salt and rage and frustration, I will miss this series. I spent a lot of my time and energy into rants about this series and it’ll be strange to not rage at or look up spoilers for a new chapter every week. I really did love this series in the beginning. I think I started watching in 2013. I binge watched the anime then started reading the manga. It was happy reading until I find ForneverWorld’s Youtube. He discussed each chapter and pointed out flaws that I’d never quite realized before. Even so, I got excited over the 2014 adaption then disliked the animation despite all of the hype. I liked the music, though.

 Fast forward a bit and one day, I run into @ac-fairytail ‘s blog. Their posts about Juvia stung a little, but it was their other posts about Gruvia that were a slap in the face. THOSE hurt, but it did make me realize the faults in my OTP and at that point I started criticizing FT more as I read it. From there, I found @fairytail-whathesays whose posts turned me into the bitter old lady I am now. I found myself agreeing with a majority of their criticisms and had to acknowledge that Fairy Tail was turning to shit. I refused to stop liking Gray, though. I think I found @the-archangel-of-zeref in between finding those two? Not sure. But I agreed with some of their opinions too. 

Right around the time FT started getting edgy, I started looking for fanfics. I found some good ones, mostly Gratsu at first. It was only last year that I realized that almost all of the fanfics I’d read were probably better than FT 2016-2017. 

I guess I just wanted to reflect on things. Overall, I regret that this series ended on such a terrible note. I really do wish that it had lived up to its full potential. I think a big part of it is that Mashima didn’t have competition for the most part. Therefore, nothing pushed him to improve/change his storytelling methods and the quality of his work. I also think that if FT hadn’t been ecchi, we could’ve avoided a lot of terrible/unnecessary moments. I do wish Mashima good luck on his next project, however, I hope that he does it right this time. I will read his future work that he was oh-so-excited about. I have a feeling that excitement made him start rushing to end FT so that he could move on already.

Now then, I’m going to start reviewing the following series: 

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

Boku No Hero Academia 

I’ve caught up to both anime adaptions. If you have any other ongoing shounen to recommend, pls send an ask or reblog this post with the title & if it’s good or not. 

Don’t worry, I’m not going to rip these two apart as well. They’re actually pretty good. 

[greengargouille]

AK RarePair week Spring 2017, Day 5 - Truth

((I can’t seem to get anywhere with the Day 3 prompt, let’s not talk about the RarePair Maker, so let’s all pretend I will have time to come back to those after I finished the other prompts, shall we ?))

Rating: General Audience Characters: Sugaya Sosuke, Mimura Kouki, Nakamura Rio, Fuwa Yuzuki, Okajima Taiga, Kurahashi Hinano Relationship: Sugaya/Mimura

It all started, like a lot of dumb ideas, with Nakamura.

Well, no. It all started with Fuwa, or to be precise, Fuwa and her brother. To celebrate the anime adaptation of one of their favorite mangas, a special limited edition drink had been released - some kind of weird soda, with an exclusive illustration randomly chosen among 5 different for each pack of 3 cans. Of course, as true fans, they had to collect all of them. But, as the girl then explained to Sugaya, a terrible surprise awaited them once they found themselves surrounded by cans, the precious pictures finally all reunited.

Those drinks tasted terrible.

It was then that Nakamura came in the equation. Because Sugaya had been hanging around Mimura’s desk when Fuwa entered in the class and started the conversation with him, the blonde girl have been able to hear everything, and gladly intruded the conversation with an idea as fun as it was terrible.

“You know, ever since Bitch-sensei told us about it, I always wanted to try playing ‘Never had I ever’.”

The organisation of it have been surprisingly fast. Kurahashi, whose desk was near the group, jumped on the idea, which made a total of three girls, so of course Okajima would try to butt in. Mimura kept saying it was a bad idea, yet somehow didn’t try very hard to get out of this - which was... very much like him, actually - like those times when he loudly complained at the erotic magazines Okajima put right under their nose, but never looked away. And, well, Sugaya decided to follow along for the game, since he didn’t have anything programmed for this Saturday afternoon ; those usually ended in an unplanned trip to an exhibit with Mimura, and without the boy around, this wouldn’t be nearly as exciting.

That’s how the 6 of them ended up sitting in circle on the floor in Fuwa’s room, each having in front of them a glass full of a blue soda of suspicious flavor instead of the required alcohol.

“Never had I ever...” The owner of the room pondered the rest of her sentence a few instants, her eyes drifting along the shelves filled to the brim with manga and figurines, before having an epiphany. “...collided with a pretty boy or girl who turned out to be a mysterious transfer student.”

Strangely enough, no one raised their glass.

“...No one ?” Fuwa winced as she emptied her own. “Why is everyone’s life so boring ? -No, I think you just have very weird standards.” Mimura replied. “We’re a class of government approved assassins whose target is a giant yellow octopus able to move at Mach 20, target who happens to be our teacher. I think I’m allowed to have standards. Besides,” she continued on a lower tone, “we’re in a fanfiction, who knows what could happens.”

As usual, nobody understood what she was mumbling about. It’s been like this every time it was her turn - using out-of-left-field ideas she seemed to consider perfectly normal, and ending up disappointed. Still living in her own world.

After a minute, to make sure everyone was listening, Mimura continued, with careful enunciation. He spent the game so far trying to ask interesting questions, while wary of things that could potentially end with his embarrassment. This was not an easy game for him, who wanted to stay honest yet not attracting the attention of the others on some things he might have potentially done.

“Never had I ever thought about what would I do if I was a ghost. -Eh, not bad.” Nakamura smiled as she took her glass along with the others around her. “How about we add a new rule : when everyone drink, it’s just like when only one person end up drinking, we all have to explain in details. -Sugaya-kun didn’t drink for this one, though.” Fuwa responded, ever the one to notice those details. “What- come on, Sugaya, you can’t be serious ! -Sugayan is a cheater~" Kurahashi playfully nodded along, as if she herself didn’t jump on every loophole she could find. “Sorry to have never considered becoming a ghost...”

The artist was, to be honest, a bit annoyed the others doubted him. It’s not that he never did anything stupid or awkward ; he had plenty of examples where his lack of thinking about the consequences of his acts got him in trouble. However, his comrades had very particular ideas of what could be juicy material worth asking. He was probably the least perverted boy of the class, making him unconcerned by most of Okajima’s statements. And the stupid things Nakamura asked -‘ever tried smoking’, ‘ever burned your homework’... weren’t his style. Or anyone, for some of those - he strongly suspected her to ask those only for herself to brag about it. He couldn’t be quite sure, for she also was the kind to sabotage herself if that meant she could learn some blackmail-worthy informations on her friends. And then there were Kurahashi’s statements, which was a mixed bag of lighthearted questions alongside the ones made specifically to drag someone -on that Sugaya still anxiously waited for one that would concern him, but for now she preferred her other victims.

As for his own questions, one could say he played safe. He didn’t want to end like Fuwa, having to drink because nobody had ever done anything she asked, but he couldn’t quite grasp how to make the game interesting for everyone -sleazy statements really weren’t to his tastes.

“Never had I ever had full marks in an exam.”

This was the easy way out - he was a terrible student, on par with Terasaka, so it came quite naturally. And if Mimura wasn’t drinking to this one, as a good student but one that apparently had missed the perfect 100 by a few points quite often in his first years, according to him... Well, there was still one person that could not escape this one.

“Wait a minute... are you targeting me ?” Nakamura almost sounded offended, but this was lost in her gleeful smile. “Fine, the war is on, don’t expect me to go easy on you any more !” After a few instants, she quickly added. “No statements about love life, though. I hate those.”

Kurahashi burst out in laughter. “Rio-chan, hating on love affairs ? That’s a first !” The blonde grimaced. “I’m serious. Like, I might have meddled with a few of my comrades’ crushes now and then, but that’s nowhere near the image some of you seem to have from me. Plus, I only teased them around people who already knew about their feelings. Forcing someone to confess in front of everyone like that feels... I dunno, off. -That,” Okajima replied, “seems like a load of bullshit. I think you just don’t want people to ask you if you got a crush. Who was it that Korosensei paired you with during the island trial ? Wasn’t it Sugaya ?” He looked at his friend, raising a brow. “Is it why you’re targeting her ? Is it some kind of lover’s teasing ? -What ? No ! -I’m on Nakamura’s side on this one.” said Fuwa. “In this kind of ask game, there’s a 100 percent chance that someone in the group have a unrequited crush on someone else. -Oh, like in shoujo mangas, you mean ?” Kurahashi seemed intrigued. “Yes, exactly. And that will make everyone awkward. -Hm... That’s suspicious, that you’re pointing that out. Don’t tell me-” Okajima gasped “both of you are in love with Sugaya ?! Why him and not me ? That’s so not fair ! -I’m not in love.”  Fuwa and Nakamura said this in unison. “Awwn, don’t worry, Oka-chin, I’m sure even a sleazebag like you can met their soulmate !” Meanwhile, Kurahashi was more amused than anything by the whole case. “Ah, whatever. Let’s continue the game, if you’re all like that. Whose turn it was ? Mine ?”

As he realised this, Okajima’s lips slowly turned into a smile that announced nothing good.

This, Sugaya realised, made him slightly worried.

Ever since they started the game, the pervy student kept insisting on how this was the kind of game on which you should absolutely never, ever lie. If one lied on this, they would attract bad luck on them, or be consumed of guilt, or other grandiloquent reaction - anything that could push the others to say the truth, which they assured they were already doing. Well, maybe not Kurahashi, it was hard to tell for her. Of course, the only reason Okajima was so adamant on this point was so he could then say the most shameless statement for them to drink on.

But, after this conversation, Sugaya was pretty sure the guy had another idea in mind. An idea he really didn’t like.

The whole discussion of whether one of the girls could actually love him felt... annoying, to be honest. As if his own opinion on the subject was taken for granted, or that the others didn’t care much about that side. He hated being ignored.

It’s not like he was against the idea of falling in love. He had pondered about that ever since he entered junior high - listening to conversations in the locker room during PE, or some of the male students excitedly talking about the chest of some new idol. This was something he never understood, and it made him spend hours thinking about whether he had any interest in girls - or anybody, really. But, ever since the summer trip class E obtained as a reward, he came to grasp things under another perspective. The way Irina talked about seducing people and herself falling in love, it made him felt warm in the chest and tainted his cheeks in a pinkish color. Romance, as he understood, didn’t necessarily had to be paired with more lustful thoughts. Getting close and affectionate with someone, doing things in couples... those ideas were actually tempting.

But, those two girls, he just couldn’t see himself with them. He liked them, the same way he liked everyone in the class, comrades of similar experiences with who chatting was fun. Peeking at the latest Weekly Shonen Jump with Fuwa while attempting to make her interested in the art magazines he gave her, this was fun. Listening to songs Nakamura choose and singing them with her, before she explained with a grin what exactly the lyrics were talking about, this was... embarrassing, but fun too. Imagining going to museums with either of them, having one sit against him to have a closer look at what he was drawing, being alone in his room with one of the girls, only the two of them, that felt more awkward than anything. He just couldn’t see that happen, yet no one was considering his opinion.

That’s why he felt pretty irritated at Okajima when the boy finally said his statement.

“Never had I ever fell in love with Sugaya.”

At least he could comfort himself knowing that none of the girl raised their glass to their lips.

“Sorry, Sugayan, seems like you aren’t popular enough !” The silence was easen up with Kurahashi’s intervention, and they all relaxed a bit. “You girls really aren’t lying, are you ? -Dude, who the hell would lie during the game ?” Nakamura replied while rolling her eyes at Okajima. “You said so yourself, that would sucks, and if one of us was caught lying, nobody in the group would trust them next time they deny something. That’s a bad move in the long term. So no, I’m not in love with Sugaya - or anyone, for that matter. -Waaaah, Rio-chan, you’re breaking my heart !” Kurahashi took an overly dramatic expression. “Were you lying, when you told me you loved me ? -Awn, you know me, my heart might be made of stone but not even I could truly resist your charms.” Nakamura replied with a playful tone. This was... confusing to watch, but at least Sugaya was glad they were switching subjects. Bless Kurahashi, ever the best one when it came to turn over the conversation. “Okay, I believe you two.” However, once Okajima had an idea, it was hard to get it out of his head. “What about you, Fu-?”

He stopped at the last syllable, his eyes following the young girl’s gaze. Of course, ever the observant one, her detective-like senses had caught something that nobody else noticed.

There was one person that had stayed oddly silent during the whole case. One person that wouldn’t, usually, contain his words when he thought his friends were too nosy or annoying.

Sugaya slowly turned his head to look at the boy next to him. Mimura was tense, paralysed as if being caught doing something truly despicable, his eyes going from face to face, looking at everyone as they finally noticed him. His hands were slightly shaking as they tightened even more on the glass he was holding.

“This,” he stated in a slightly panicked voice, “is a misunderstanding. I just- I took my glass while Okajima was talking- I didn’t think he would - I - I was thinking about something else and - I...” He swallowed his saliva, unable to form a coherent sentence. “I think I forgot to tell my father at which hour I should come home. I. Think I should make a phone call. If you would excuse me.” He talked while getting up in a rush, not even taking time to just put his glass down.

Sugaya would say he was familiar with the way Mimura acted when nervous. His plain face was easy to read, as it would honestly show his emotions. He might be a good movie director, but as for acting he was too easily troubled. There were times when he was surprisingly calm ; times like when the God of Death had kidnapped them and he was able to keep a clear mind to form a plan ; times like when Sugaya had invited him home and when presented to the artist’s parents, he lied with a straight face on how his mother was a housewife and his father an employee, fully aware that Sugaya knew it was the exact opposite. Maybe even times his good friend didn’t even notice. But, on most times, it was just like this, nervously spouting awkward words, his expression showing fully his embarrassment.

He knew Mimura. In that instant, as he was escaping the room, he was clearly lying.

After footsteps were heard descending the stairs, Fuwa broke the silence between them, expressing what they had more of less grasped.

“...He was thinking about drinking his glass, wasn’t he.”

The implications of it were left unsaid, but they all understood.

“And that’s why I said not to make statements on love.” Nakamura seemed like she didn’t know how to handle this mess of a situation. “Of course it would end up like this. -I never thought this could happen.” Okajima was mortified. “I mean, that can’t be it- he would have- okay, maybe he wouldn’t have told me, but... I mean... he likes girls ! -That doesn’t mean he can’t like boys, though ?” Kurahashi blinked, as if it was an obvious fact.

All of this made no sense to Sugaya. He never had considered the idea that someone he was close to might hold this kind of feelings for him. When did this happens ? He and Mimura had grew closer with the months passing, to the point he could say without hesitation that the boy was his best friend. Naturally, their attitude toward each other had changed accordingly - but never Sugaya could have imagined this as anything but... Well, friendship didn’t seem to quite cover it, but some bond that was particular to them. An unique concept.

He needed to know. There was room for interpretation ; maybe this was, indeed, some kind of misunderstanding, something a bit embarrassing to admit that had made Mimura confused in his explanations. Sugaya needed certitude that this was really was everyone was thinking it was.

As for how he should feel if this was indeed, love... He didn’t know.

“You aren’t going to go after him ?” Kurahashi asked innocently.

This was the push he needed to finally deciding to act.

Thankfully, Mimura wasn’t difficult to find. Sugaya had wondered one moment whether the boy would have ran away from the house, too worried to confront the others about the situation. But he was here, sitting at the bottom of the stairs, lost in thoughts as his eyes were fixated on the blue liquid of his glass. He raised his head as he heard Sugaya approach ; it wasn’t on the level of Fuwa, but he was quite perceptive of his environment.

“Ah, I- I couldn’t join my father, so- I just... -No worries, I understand.”

Mimura’s shoulders seemed to drop slightly. Sugaya saw that as a good sign. Still, as he sat down next to his friend, he was unable to find the words he needed. He wished he had access to his sketchbook and his supplies. Everything would fall down naturally if he could express his doubts with pictures, or at least the familiarity of it -having Mimura by his side as he drew- would ease him enough for him to finally ask.

“How are they reacting up there ? Is this... bad...? -The girls are annoyed by what Okajima did, so it’s not to out of the usual.” Mimura snickered at the comment. “He seems actually sorry though. -I see. Well, I hope this won’t blow out of proportions. I’m glad that Korosensei wasn’t there, at least, or I would never hear the end of it. -Haha, yes.” The biggest gossiper of the class would just love this kind of scandal, wouldn’t he. “...Say, Mimura...”

The boy looked at Sugaya, a weird look on his face. His eyes seemed to plead him. ‘Please, don’t ask this.’

Unfortunately, he already had made his mind. “...Do you love me ?”

Mimura just sighed. Sugaya wondered if that was all the response he would get, but then, he spoke, slowly, carefully. As if each word out of place would be used against him. “I... don’t dislike you, I guess.”

This could be considered a negative answer. That how much Mimura valued their relation only amounted to this much. Sugaya knew better than this. The other boy choose those words purposely, not denying it nor confirming it, letting the ones listening interpret the meaning without having to outright lie about it. A disguised truth.

“That’s not an answer. -...You really won’t let go of this, right ?” Mimura lowered his heads, eyes turned to the floor. It was hard to see his expression like this. “I... I can’t say ‘yes’ to this question. Even if we were in a case where I happened to...” He stopped one instant and took a deep breath. “Even if I loved you, it would be difficult to say it. It could potentially ruin our whole relationship. And that’s not even talking of the others at school. -...So it’s a ‘no’, then ?” All those turn of phrases were difficult to process to him. “If you don’t say it clearly, I won’t understand. -Now you’re starting to speak like Bitch-sensei. ‘Why Japanese men have to say things in such a convoluted way, it’s annoying !’.” He smiled at the thought, before regaining a sober expression. “Fine. I will say it. But in exchange, I want to ask a favor out of you. -What is it ? -You have to believe me. Because I will say ‘no’. And, if you start to doubt it, it will be really painful.” Mimura’s tone was calm and firm, but he couldn’t hide a slight trembling in his voice. “Because then you will start to wonder about every little thing I do for you. If I do it because I love you. And I will have to deny it over and over, harsher and stronger each time. I... I can’t do that. ‘I like your smile.’ ‘I want to stay by your side.’ ‘You makes me happy.’ I don’t want to lie about those things.” His last words were quieter, almost a whisper. “Can you... do that for me ?”

The way the boy looked, huddled on himself, lips tightened in a twisted smile and hand clenched around his glass, really made Sugaya want to comfort him. It hurts to see him like that, in this pathetic state, and to think he was responsible for it. He almost agreed to the offer, just so relieve him of the anxiousness visible in his tense body.

Almost.

It would probably be fine to just accept. Continuing to live pretending to be unaware of the truth. He liked the relationship he currently had. They were able to talk and have fun almost every day, and they supported each other in their respective artistic domains. He could see that continuing for a while. Years, even decades.

On the other hand, acknowledging Mimura’s feelings... That was scary. Sugaya didn’t know how that would change their way of interacting. He didn’t even know how he felt about it.

But his choice had already been made the moment he had stepped out of the room.

“Sorry. I could tell you ‘yes’, but I think that would be a lie. -Ah. I figured that would be the case. We’re both really bad liars, it seems.”

Mimura looked at the glass in his hand, the one that had started the whole drama. He then raised it to his lips and drank the whole thing.

“...It’s disgusting, isn’t it.”

Sugaya somehow got the feeling he wasn’t talking about the drink.

“...I think it’s okay, personally.”

He was actually surprised by how fine he was with the situation. On the moment, he had been worried. That this bond he felt was so special was different from what he imagined. But, seeing the smaller boy so worried about how this could destroy the relationship they already had... He was convinced. Their connection was genuine. That was what mattered the most to him.

“I still need to think on how I feel about love,” he continued, “but, you know ? I don’t dislike you, either. -...Thank you.”

They stayed silent for a while after that. On the floor above them, indignant noises could be heard - whatever the rest of the group was doing, it wasn’t in Okajima’s favor. Both of them would eventually have to get up and help their friend. But, for now, they just wanted to appreciate a moment together.

[topsolarpanels]

The 76 ers’ mad analytics experimentation was doomed to fail- but at least it was memorable

Basketball had never seen an attempt to build a franchise the route Sam Hinkie wanted to. And with Colangelo and DAntoni now on board, were unlikely to see it again

The Sixers have attained losers out of all of us.

The 1-29 experiment in tanking analytics is being tainted by the introduction of basketball people in Jerry Colangelo and Mike DAntoni. After more than two and a half years of of Sam Hinkie being able to do whatever he wants, dump any asset and draft every damaged 7ft guy the world over, those above Hinkie are now forcing him to be influenced by two guys whose knowledge of statistical analysis probably ends with recognizing also that a three-pointer is worth more than a two-pointer.

In Colangelo and DAntoni, chairman of basketball operations and associate head coach-and-four respectively, the Sixers are wrecking what mad statistician/ GM Hinkie was constructing before we all got to see the final Frankenstatistic product. The Sixers are like a bold avant garde movie that had the studio fell Keanu Reeves and Reese Witherspoon into it halfway through filming. Pulling Hinkies computer plug now is like refusing to allow infinite monkeys to finish writing on their typewriters.

Its dropping the funding on the development of an alternative energy vehicle that was to be fueled entirely on weed smoke.

If those analogies are bad or confounding or tortured, theyre even more fitting for whatever it is that Hinkie was attempting to do with his bad and confounding and tormented Sixers. Unfortunately , now well never know. Because now the Sixers have basketball people with basketball knowledge.

Jeff Skversky (@ JeffSkversky) December 21, 2015

#Sixers chairperson Jerry Colangelo tells #ESPN the #Sixers are absence basketball people& knowledge – that’s why they hired Mike D’Antoni

Yuck. With the input of Colangelo and DAntoni, the Sixers will no doubt become like any other squad, scratching and clawing for semi-relevance and a low playoff seed barring a generational star falling into their laps.

Hinkie promised something different. No squad had ever tanked like Hinkies Sixers. Previous sports tankings were designed to land one special player and then instantly get to work on contending. Hinkies tanking was indefinite, geared to draft no one in particular other than maybe discovering the NBAs first eight-footer and didnt promise arguing any time soon. This is a team that has won one of its last 40 games over two seasons and indicates zero signs of arriving improvement.

Basketball had never seen an attempt to build a franchise this route. And with the Sixers giving up, were unlikely to ever see it again.

Maybe Colangelo, Hinkie, DAntoni and Brett Brown will mesh perfectly and build a balanced squad in Philadelphia that will contend for championships in the near future. But even if that happens, well still be left with the nagging is the issue of what might have been. Awesome or terrible and it was looking more and more like terrible Hinkies ultimate The Process Sixers were going to be memorable.

Weve lost them eternally. We are losers. We are all just Sixers now.

Vine of the week

Alex Kennedy (@ AlexKennedyNBA) December 18, 2015

Kevin Durant x Dr J – Under The Basket Reverse Layup( Vine by @TheCauldron) https :// t.co/ BnTBDgJQy5

In last weeks tight four-point loss at Cleveland, Durant pulled off a pretty spot-on Dr J impression in the first quarter. But its not even Durants best Julius Erving-style reverse layup in his career. Check out this ridiculousness from three seasons ago against the Nuggets TAGEND

When your wingspan is that of an adult condor, the normal binds of sidelines and backboards simply dont apply.

How did LeBron carry the Cavalier this week?

After LeBron sat out back on December 5 in Clevelands loss to the Heat, he has returned to median 27, six and five as Cleveland has won five in a row. Kyrie Irving even owes his first points of the season to LeBron thanks to James passing up a dunk on Sunday to give Irving an easy bucket.

Somewhere someone awful ripped James for over-passing on this play.

Quote of the week

I actually feel sorry for people who have nothing to do on Christmas Day other than watch an NBA game. I think we get a little carried away with ourselves in sports supposing were more important than everything else. Stan Van Gundy

Full disclosure: that hilarious quote is not from this week. Its not even from this year. Van Gundy said it back in 2009 when he was head coach-and-four of the Orlando Magic.( Fun fact: the Magic were then penalty by Scrooge Stern over Van Gundys public objection to working on Christmas. Really .) Van Gundys Pistons arent scheduled to play on Christmas this year, so he can expend the vacation doing whatever it is that people with rich, full lives do instead of watching basketball. Watching A Christmas Story over and over maybe?

Power Rankings

1. Golden State Warriors( Last week: 1 )

After their slip-up against the Bucks, the Warriors seem to be rolling on towards the 1996 Bulls wins record with back-to-back victories by an average margin of 17 points. But maybe not everything is perfect. Consider that Steph Curry is shooting just 47% from the floor in his last four games while NBA laughing stock Kobe Bryant is shooting 51% in his last four. Can the Warriors genuinely expect to win a title in 2015 with a shooting guard who is worse than Kobe? Hashtag: FunWithStats.

2. San Antonio Spurs( 2 )

Gregg Popovich is on-record as disliking the three-point shoot, but Kawhi Leonard is on pace for a career-high in three-pointers made and his 47.2 three-point percentage is even better than Currys. Leonard better knock it off or he could get benched.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers( 4 )

Kyrie Irving played his first game of the season on Sunday against the Sixers. Bullying is incorrect and the Cavaliers should apologize.

4. Oklahoma City Thunder( 3 )

Kevin Durant hit a go-ahead jumper with 5.8 seconds left on Monday night and then blocked Chris Paul as day expired to give the Thunder a 100 -9 9 win in Los Angeles against the Clippers. Its probably more productive if we all stop debating if Durant or Russell Westbrook is the best player on the Thunder and instead talking here how fun it is to watch a team play that has both of them healthy and in their primes.

5. Miami Heat (8 )

The Heat are said to be a possible landing place for Dwight Howard in a potential trade, which are truly be a good deal for Miami if theyre looking to get a 30 year-old player in rapid decline who is owed $23 million next year.

6. Atlanta Hawks( 16 )

Dennis Schroder had a tooth knocked out against Portland on Monday night and reacted by calmly placing it in his sock.

Joe Giglio (@ JoeGiglioSports) December 22, 2015

Dennis Schroder lost a tooth last night and decided to set it in his sock. https :// t.co/ QWPc7MaPw 5

If Schroder puts things like teeth in his socks, the lint tray in his washing machine must be quite a sight.

7. Indiana Pacers( 9 )

George Hill is the next Jason Kidd. Not because hes a future Hall of Famer. Hes not. Hes just a point guard who, like Kidd, will forever have regrettable photos of himself online with a blonde dye chore.

8. Toronto Raptors( 5 )

The Raptors have lost three of four, including a 10 -point home loss to the lowly Kings on Monday. Maybe the unusually warm wintertime climate has tricked them into playing like they do in April.

9. Dallas Mavericks( 11 )

Head coach Rick Carlisle tells Chandler Parson has been a lot of hard work to recover from hybrid microfracture surgery on his right knee: Everybody wants a nice cooked steak, but nobody wants to see you chopping up the cows in the back. The last five or six months, Parson has been in the back butchering clows thats the kind of work hes had to do. Rick, you play in Texas. Everyone is absolutely fine with chopping up cows.

10. Chicago Bulls( 6 )

The Bulls have lost three in a row and Jimmy Butler tells new head coach-and-four Fred Hoiberg needs to coach the team a lot harder. Before this year, the Bulls were coached by the ball of stress and rage that is Tom Thibodeau, so Butlers idea of what constitutes intense coaching may be a little bit skewed.

11. Detroit Pistons( 15 )

The Pistons released Josh Smith a year ago today. Detroit was 5-23 at the time and has gone 43 -3 9 since. Perhaps the Clippers, Smiths current employer, should try to turn their lucks around by releasing him this year.

12. Orlando Magic( 14 )

As 24 year-old Magic center Nikola Vucevic continues to take steps to toward becoming a star, its fun to think back to 2012 when he was a throw-in with Andre Iguodala in the trade that netted the Sixers Andrew Bynum and Jason Richardson. What if the Sixers had maintained Vucevic? Sam Hinkie would have yet another talented seven-footer on his roster. On the downside, Vucevic would be helping Hinkies squad win games.

13. Boston Celtics( 10 )

Celtics fans dedicated Kevin Garnett a long salute on Monday night in what was probably his last-ever game in Boston.

Garnett smiled broadly even though his squad lost. This is not the same Kevin Garnett who played in Boston.

14. Los Angeles Clippers( 7 )

The disappointing Clippers and awful Lakers play on Christmas Day. The only way the sports day can get worse in L.A. is if everyone wakes up and find the Rams and Chargers under their tree.

15. Houston Rockets( 17 ) The Rockets have won three in a row thanks to playing their best defense of the season. And just think how hard the rest of the team has to play defense when James Harden is doing this TAGEND

YannickYounique (@ Yannick_DYB) December 20, 2015

I know we say it all the time but James Harden is the worst defender ever pic.twitter.com/ e5mMkKiVtk

16. Charlotte Bobcats( 12 )

Just when we all guessed the Bobcats might finally be turning the corner, they ran and lost four of five to fall out of the top eight in the Eastern Conference. This is where a clever Internet person would insert the Jordan screaming meme.

17. Memphis Grizzlies( 13 )

The Grizzlies are showing signs that their new small-ball approach could pay off. Now they just have to perfect it to the point of besting the small-ball champ Warriors. Good luck, guys!

18. Washington Wizards( 20 )

John Wall dished out a career-high 19 shall take part in Mondays win over the Kings only to injury his ribs in the final minutes. This is your latest reminder that Washington D.C. sports cant ever win.

19. Utah Jazz( 18 )

The Jazz beat the Sun on Monday night, allowing them to retain the No. 8 place in the West at 12 -1 4. The Western Conference continues to make a strong suit that it is the new Eastern Conference.

20. Milwaukee Bucks( 21 )

Do the Bucks deserve to be in the Top 20? No, probably not. They lost by 18 to the Lakers a week ago, after all. But Milwaukee is the only team to beat the Warriors this season and with Golden State looking for revenge back on Friday, the Bucks had a 10 -point fourth one-quarter result!( Before ultimately losing by nine .) That deserves a trophy. Maybe even a parade. It at least deserves a place in the Top 20 of our power rankings , no matter how temporary.

21. New York Knicks( 20 ) 22. Denver Nuggets( 24 ) 23. Sacramento Kings( 26 ) 24. Phoenix Suns( 24 ) 25. Minnesota Timberwolves( 25 ) 26. Portland Trail Blazers( 22 ) 27. New Orleans Pelicans( 28 ) 28. Brooklyn Nets( 27 ) 29. Los Angeles Lakers( 29 ) 30. Philadelphia 76 ers( 30 )

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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[dcathwithoutglory-blog]

it’s jay. again. my browser just crashed. so i’m just gonna copy and paste my old intro. there’s no time to try and make it better. rip !

⌊ priyanka chopra, cis woman, antigone ⌉ ⏀ have you spoken to ALEXANDRA “ALEXA” MEHRA recently? the THIRTY-FOUR year old who’s been in seneca for SEVEN YEARS or so? either way, they always seem to remind me of FLOWERS PLACED ON A GRAVE, A RUSTY COMPASS, STORMS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT whenever i see them on main street. on a good day they’re pretty MORALISTIC, but they can also be RESISTANT. ⌊ jay, 19. est, she/her ⌉

the story of antigone that y’all probs already know but jic.

triggers: brief implication of incest but like wbk, brief mention of suicide, death, creon bein a bitch

brief overview of antigone (character + eponymous story):

antigone was born to oedipus and jocasta.

we all know what happened there. after that, oedipus was like “see no evil feel no evil” and jocasta yeet’d out of living.

her brothers went to war against each other. when creon ascended to the throne, he allowed burial for eteocles with honors, but was like “lmao if u bury polyneices i will kill u”

but antigone was like ‘lmao SURE JAN’ and tried to convince ismene, her sister, to help her bury polyneices. ismene was like ‘ok that’s a rly bad idea like good luck but count me out tbh.’

antigone is rly bad at digging graves tho so polyneices’s body was found and creon was like ‘oh my GOD’ and she’s like ‘fuck the government viva la morality!’

then creon was like ‘ok anyway rmr when i said u wld die if u buried polyneices so ig now u have to be buried alive in a tomb’ then antigone was like ‘actually i’ll be hanging myself before u can do fuck the government’

then he was like ‘at least u’ll be dead! oh wait -

Y’ALL GO SAVE EVERYONE’ but then it was too late

antigone and his son had both killed themselves and everyone, including himself, were just like

“get WREKT creon!!!!!”

alexa ( play despacito ).

triggers: suicide (x2), death (x3), mental illness implications, war, brief mentions of torture and murder

ok now onto alexandra ! so, like i did for valda, i looked up names that shared the same meaning as ‘antigone’ (which essentially means “against”) and one of the suggestions was alexa but i also wanted it to sound. super valiant. but at the same time. i wanted it to be something that could have a conversational nickname. so im already hc’ing that she has ‘despacito’ saved on her phone. also alexandra is my middle name so like?? stan list?? OK ANYWAY.

alright, so alexandra was born to a very upper-class family. her father was a politician and her mother was a successful lawyer. they provided well for the perfect nuclear family –– two sons, two daughters, a golden retriever, two cats in the yard life used to be so hard now everything is easy cause of-

like... her early life, say birth to age 14, was... nice. actually normal and nice. have i ever done that before? has my own edgelord ass ever done that before? i don’t think so.

which is why things obviously took a turn for the worse

but yeah. when she was 14, she was like “hey mom idk how to do pre-algebra” (a mood) but there was no response from her mom. so shrug city, you know? she just went to her older sister instead. but like... so much time passed.... and nothing....

finally, this nosy bitch decided to be like “ok i’m gonna go see what tf she’s doing” and that was just... a terrible idea. instead of finding her mom doing her nails or talking on the phone or any number of reasons she may not have come out yet, she found her mother hanging from the ceiling fan.

she tried to get her brothers’ and sister’s help, and they tried so desperately to help (you know, while also calling 911 and their father), but it was to absolutely no avail.

after this hella traumatizing experience, the children grew closer as the father grew farther.

he began getting lost in his own mind, sometimes accidentally mixing the past with the present, a la willy loman style. he would hold slight conversations with their ‘mother’ while at the table, then began holding them with various others from the past. it was pretty clear that his mind had just been looking for an excuse to snap, and the death of his wife had been the perfect scapegoat.

although it had originally just affected him in his home life, he began holding said conversations in the presence of people outside his family.

this is not good for a politician.

i mean it’s not good for anyone but...

his support immediately began dropping. his team gradually left him, finding there was no way he would ever be able to gain another victory if he kept on living in a limbo between the past and the present. given that he’d started ‘talking to his brother’ during one of his speeches... 

rest in peace to his career.

alexa (play despacito) was 18 at the time, her sister - 20, one of her brothers - 21, the other - 24.

they were all legal adults! some of them had even moved out! so their father figured his next move would not affect him in the way their mother’s death had!

so he shot himself.

the only people who showed up at his funeral were alexa and her sister. her eldest brother proclaimed that flying across the country would be too much of a hassle for that, and the other brother simply did not respond.

her eldest brother did, however, enlist in the army after setting legalities in place that would allow him to send money back to his siblings. he had joined simply because it was an easy opportunity (what with all of the propaganda), but his decision prompted the other brother to do the same –– this time because he was talented at ‘the art of fighting.’

and bc more money but like... get wrekt.

alexa’s sister dropped out of college to work a full-time job –– one that paid fairly handsomely. alexa took some odd jobs.

aka, everyone was trying to make money.

creon was right when he said “money! nothing worse”

so things kind of dipped when the eldest brother was killed. after an accusation that he’d become a traitor, their other brother had taken it upon himself to ‘anonymously’ torture and shoot him. but the other side did it!

which everyone knew was a lie.

because of the accusations, he was not only not allowed a military funeral, he was also not meant to be buried in any honorable fashion. instead, his body was returned to his hometown to be buried there following a quiet and uneventful funeral.

his grave was left unmarked.

nonetheless, the grave was visited every day, new flowers laid atop.

meanwhile, their other brother was considered a newfound military icon. he’d gotten rid of a ‘traitor’ (they continued to pretend it was someone from the other side, of course), he’d killed many an enemy, he’d done this and that and this and that and it all made him look so morally grey to alexa and her sister (who, granted, had yet to find out he’d killed their other brother), but like such a white knight to his fellow soldiers.

he truly rose in the ranks. it was what he was meant to do.

but the more he killed, the more he tortured, the lack of grief towards his brother’s death...

alexa’s sister wasn’t buying her hypothesis. it wasn’t necessarily because she saw their other brother was some pure being, but because she simply didn’t believe he was capable of that.

the next time alexa saw her brother, she got confirmation enough. what to do with the information, she wasn’t sure, but she knew she had to do something...

murder wasn’t the solution... she didn’t have any military connections that would allow for her to spout some lie about why he needed to be dishonorably discharged... but what he did couldn’t skate by...

to this day, she is still wondering what she can do to fuck him over. his success in the military keeps growing grander and grander, thus rendering any fake dishonorable discharge excuses completely moot. her sister still doesn’t believe that there really is a solution –– that, while it is greatly harmful, there’s absolutely nothing they can do and ruminating on it is worthless –– trying to find some quest to defeat their own brother is absurd.

although she has since moved to seneca, attracted to its small town appeal, she continues to visit her eldest brother’s grave every week –– it’s about a two hour drive, so it’s worth it.

she’s taken up work as a cemetery caretaker

because of COURSE she would.

and, although its pay is.... lousy, she’s been making due. for the tombstones no one visits any longer, first she’ll look them up to make sure they weren’t slave-owners or anything, she’ll bring them their own flowers. the dead deserve just as much respect as the living, hm?

personality.

i just realized i didn’t do this for valda (aka, i’m about to update her intro with it), but a total enneagram type 2.

too empathetic for her own good, too ‘this person whom i do not even know deserves flowers’ for her own good, too ‘i’ve got to protect _______ by doing _________’ for her own good

a capricorn

so driven by her own moral compass, she does not CARE about anything that says she has to go against it

her moral compass can be super faulty sometimes tho

pretty quick to make assumptions tbh, but has so far been right abt most of them.

so also driven by gut feelings ig

dramatic tbh. i mean she’s the adapted version of a character whose first lines contained “there's nothing, no pain—our lives are pain” SO.

also p independent (as in i said valda was independent), but her vendetta isn’t against men in general, rather just her brother who is still alive

so like,,, that said,,, holds grudges.

im bad at personality sections!! as has been stated before!! but i think the gist has been gotten across!!

wanted connections.

so rn i only have one specific one which is her sister and can be found on the wc page

will come up w/ unique ones later but until then open 2 hearing urs/brainstorming!

tl;dr.

(refer to triggers listed before the bullets.) a lot of death? like mom kills herself then dad turns into willy loman then dad kills himself. brothers both join the army. one brother kills the other brother for being accused of being a ‘traitor.’ said brother doesn’t get a proper funeral and his headstone is unmarked. the other brother rises in the rankings and alexa knows what happened. convinced her sister of it, but her sister is more logical and let her know that she was very angry too, but making her entire life about it would do nothing but endanger herself and others. moved to seneca because she liked the small town feel. still visits her eldest brother’s grave every week to leave flowers. works as a cemetery caretaker bc WHY NOT. brings flowers to graves that are either unmarked or no longer visited. i hope you read all of that and just thought ‘oh my god fckin EDGELORD’ because you’re right.

alright ! fin.

like this or hmu if you’d like to plot !