#disable cut copy paste in windows

[curiositydooropened]

Wildfire • Searing

A trip to the Ether brings force new pain and horrors, and you spend time in quarantine remembering truths of the past.

Pairing: Steve Harrington x Reader

Chapter Wordcount: 9,356

Warnings: There's a flashback this chapter! I marked it off and hopefully it's easy to understand, but please let me know if it's confusing! Thank you! • enemies/rivals to lovers, second chance romance, slooooowburn, made out scene that goes nowhere fun, unrequited love, so much pining, blood, gore, character death, best friend!disabled!Eddie Munson, character injuries, trauma, PTSD, hallucinations, drowning, concussion, hurt/comfort, fire, panic attacks, insomnia

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Chapter Four: Pyre • Chapter Six: Combustion

---

NOW

September 1988

Byers hummed under his mask, the low rumble of his chest against your arm that shook like the truck bed over treacherous and unpredictable terrain. Your eyes were closed in attempt to quell the nausea of motion sickness. The soft vibrations of the boy’s voice combined with some foreign sixth sense you could feel in the marrow of your bones, steeling the claws of terror that shredded your esophagus. 

The truck came to a halt, and you peered one eye open to take in your surroundings. The streets of Hawkins were black on a still night, moon casting shadows down alleyways and across the back side of The Hawk’s marquee. Harrington pulled himself to two feet, reaching a hand to help you up. You took it, pack weighing you down.

“Argyle, radio on?” Nancy hopped from the tailgate and spoke into the receiver clipped to her shoulder strap. Her voice echoed to the one on your chest, and Steve’s, a handful more of Scorch team as you all stepped onto pavement, dust kicking up at your heels. 

“Copy that, Scorch lead,” Argyle repeated, and then you heard the slow crank of his window before he shouted. “Hey, be careful out there. I’m just a call away.” His demeanor had sobered entirely.

Jonathan met him at the window, and they exchanged an intimate handshake. 

You had to look away. 

Your breath tasted of oxygen from your tank and tequila without the buzz, adrenaline taking over and burning through the calories before it could hit you properly. Your ears rang a bit, struggling to focus on the crunch of asphalt beneath your feet. You were moving before you’d even realized, a steady walk.

Something tingled in your fingertips, a magnetic pull. You halted your steps and clenched your fist, released, clenched again. With a frown, you glanced forward at the gaping wound in concrete, a pulsating wall of wet and vines, a whisper that sounded like home. 

Something snatched your wrist, and you pulled back to find Steve’s eyes on you, big brown and worrisome. 

“Alright, we go in, find the source, torch what we can, and get back to the Gate.” Nancy’s voice cut through the air. She stood before the gash in the wall, the steady pulse of red flashed across slender features. “Stay in your groups. Watch your feet. If anyone gets bit, you call for immediate quarantine.” She paused and looked out on the group before her before saying, “Stay alive.”

The torch end of her gun split through the thin membrane, and the vines began to slink away, leaving the space gaping and cold. Again, it pulled you to it, tugged on your sleeve opposite Steve’s grip, led you forward. 

“Hey, are you good?” He asked, voice low, breath too warm against your ear. He sounded underwater. 

You grit your teeth and offered a curt nod, pulling him with you through the gash. That swoop rocketed your stomach, but backwards, a tug at your navel that felt right, like pieces were falling back into places, like someone had reversed the fall of a Jenga tower. The bits that wobbled and swayed now firm and planted like your boots to the grey matter of the Ether. 

“Steve,” Jonathan called, far off. “You two are with us.”

—

 The Ether was a desolate landscape of ash and ruin. Vines overtook the charred remains of your comrades and their own kind. Not as thick as they had been, dust remained, still in the damp atmosphere. No wind kissed at cheeks. No cloud moved, an overhead shadow of burgundy and black. 

You felt the next quake before it settled, a buzzing in your fingertips, a rumble in your stomach. The only movement in a statuesque world. Then the asphalt rolled, cracked. You gripped Steve’s shoulder strap to hold him upright as Nancy and Jonathan barreled into one another for support. 

Nancy shouted orders, muffled by her mask, but you watched her two fingers pointing for cover. Northbound, a semi upsized, jack-knife becoming a rickety shelter. 

One-by-one, you filed in on unsteady footing, the Ether quaking around you. The crackle of broken limbs split the air as widow makers were shaken from nearby trees, branches stabbing into decaying Earth at right-angles. A power line groaned and snapped, loose line slapping against asphalt a handful of meters away. 

“What exactly are we looking for?” Steve asked, voice too loud, breath fanning your ear. 

“Sign’s He’s back,” is all Nancy could muster before her hands came flying near your face. You crouched out of her way just in time to see her slapping Steve’s mask back onto tanned cheeks. “Keep your mask on.”

“You mean signs like an Earthquake…” Jonathan snapped. Mid-word, the low rumble stopped, settling your stomach, an ache in your knees. 

“Let’s keep going,” Nancy instructed, peeling herself from beneath the truck bed to scout the road once more. 

“Do you feel anything?” Steve’s voice came muffled this time, still inches from your cheek, and you felt his hand, once again, around your wrist. He held you back, allowing the other two to gain quite a distance. 

You swallowed, adjusted your straps. You felt everything: the prickle of your skin beneath his clammy fingertips, the damp chill of stagnant air, that all-to-familiar set of eyes between your shoulder blades. The smell of death and decay somehow stronger. 

Steve stepped into your sight line, jaw tight, brown eyes full of worry. His plastic mask cut into the bridge of his nose, past smile lines you hadn’t seen in years. He released your wrist, but the steady burn of his knuckles against yours grounded you, pulled you right-side up. 

Then you heard her voice. Vickie spoke your name. Her breath fanned your cheek. Her nose nuzzled your ear, sent chills down your spine.

Steve had heard her too, maybe he’d even seen her. You watched as brown eyes went wide, face flashing in terror. He lurched forward, forearm shoving at your bicep to get you out of his way. “Jonathan!”

Everything else happened in slow-motion: the turn of your heel as you crashed to the ground, pack weighing you down and bouncing off cold asphalt, Steve’s footfall echoing as he scrambled for the trigger. Fifteen feet away, a demodog crouched on its haunches, flower-like face opening one petal at a time, claws extended before it sprung.

Jonathan Byers cried out, a sound that pierced the dull throb at the base of your skull. The meat of your palms turned to pulp as you caught yourself, hands and elbows bloodied, but the taste of iron filled your mouth like copper pennies, mixing with saliva and the soft meat of human flesh.

You sputtered, spraying the pavement red, and scrambled to your feet.

Steve kicked at the beast, hard, sending it flying from the gaping wounds on Jonathan’s side. It caught itself in a slide. Another one leapt from the ruins of the semi trailer, the sound in its throat guttural, dark, bone chilling. 

“Steve!” You called, pulling your gun from its holster.

Nancy was faster on the jump, knocking it from the sky with her fist. 

Jonathan managed to fight off a third, smacking it over the head with the butt of his weapon with a distinct grunt of pain.

“All clear?” You called from behind the first two, thrower heavy in your hands, finger on the trigger. 

“Clear!” Steve and Nancy confirmed, taking two steps backward until they were backed into Jonathan.

With a deep breath, you squeezed the trigger. There was minor kickback, nothing you weren’t used to, and the surge of power as you sprayed the creatures with a stream of liquid fire. The heat burned at your mask, the tops of your cheeks, your lashes, a sensation you were all-to-familiar with, had made peace with, found home in. But as the flames stuck to the gooey flesh of the monsters, as the smell of ash and decay met your nostrils, something worse settled into the pit of your stomach, seared beneath your own flesh, charred your bones.

You dropped the device in your hands, unable to maintain hold. Your breath had been stolen from you, replaced instead with unbearable, all encompassing pain. Was this what Vickie felt when you stripped her flesh from her bone? Was this white hot the same that she felt in her last moments, fire on her last breath? You fell to your knees. 

“Harrington to base, we need emergency evac immediately.” Steve’s voice stuttered over the radio on your chest. You heard your name and Byers’. “Requesting medic and mandatory quarantine.”

You ripped your mask from your face and gasped for air, trying to see past the blur of your eyes. The horrible image of Vickie’s death flashing in your mind again and again and again.

“Copy that, evac on its way,” Argyle’s voice was high-pitched, cut-off on the end as he undoubtedly hit the gas. 

“Harrington, it’s Munson. What’s going on out there?”

Two hands grasped your face, cold, clammy, a plunge of relief despite the fire still rattling inside you. Soft thumbs swept at the tops of your cheeks, and when your eyes focused, Steve was inches from your face, his own expression wrought with worry. 

“Harrington!?”

“Demo dogs,” Nancy answered for him. You glanced over the man’s shoulder to see her tightening a tourniquet around Jonathan’s thigh. She reached for her radio again, hand slick with her partner’s blood.

“What do you mean dogs? Alive?” Hopper’s voice came through the radio this time, and it wasn’t until he’d said it that you realized. You hadn’t seen a single living creature in the Ether since Vecna died. No demogorgon walked the scorched Earth, no demo bat patrolled the skies. For over a year now, this place was desolate, empty. 

“Hey, look at me,” Steve squared your chin back to him while Nancy explained your team’s predicament back to base. “Are you in there?”

“I could feel it,” you croaked, voice shaking. “The fire, Steve. I felt it.”

“I know,” he frowned. “You were screaming.”

Just like Vickie had screamed, engulfed in flame, calling your name, pleading for you to stop. 

Your stomach rolled, and you shoved your partner out of the way as it emptied its contents to the asphalt, as black and bloody as the heap of dog charred not fifteen feet away. 

“Is she flayed?” Nancy approached, ever the investigator. “Are you flayed?” 

“No,” Steve stepped between the two of you. 

“Nancy,” Jonathan warned from his place on the ground. He was holding his side together with one hand, and his face was growing increasingly pale. 

“I just want to know what we’re dealing with here,” she explained, teeth grit to turn her jaw sharp as glass. “Is he back? Is he talking to you?”

Steve glanced over his shoulder at you, and you shook your head, wiped your mouth on the back of your hand.

“Well, you’re clearly connected to the hive mind, so -” 

“Nancy!” Jonathan called, sending a chill down your spine. His partner rushed to his side, and he gripped her hand. “Help me up.”

“Steve,” you rasped, staggering backwards, out of earshot. “Maybe she’s right.” 

“Stop it,” your own partner held his hand up before he helped Nancy pull Jonathan to his feet. 

“I mean, what if he can see all of this through me? What if I lead him right to base?”

“You won’t,” Jonathan grit his teeth, leaned on Steve’s broad shoulder. “I’ll keep my eye on you.”

Steve scrubbed his face with his hands, and you watched his measured gaze point Nancy’s direction. She wiped blood on her pant legs and nodded, adjusting the straps of her pack. 

“You’re not staying out here,” you argued. “There are dogs, bats, probably. Who knows what else.” 

“Someone has to stay and figure it out.” Nancy pointed out.

Before you could come up with more excuses, more reasons to pull Steve back with you, back to the base and back to safety, Argyle’s set of wheels squealed into view. He reached out the window to pop open the door handle to the rickety old pick-up, a distinct scowl darkening his features. 

“What the fuck didn’t you understand about ‘be careful’, Byers?” But there was no meanness in his tone as he scurried to help Steve pull Jonathan up and onto the open tail gate of the truck bed. 

Nancy followed, heaving his pack up beside him. 

You waited a long moment, turning to face the beasts you’d helped gun down. They felt eerily familial now, some kin you’d betrayed with the tug of your finger. They lay before you charred and pock-marked, flesh bubbling to a sludge of goo beneath their forms. A shiver on the wind caught your shoulder tops. 

“Let’s go, buddy! We gotta get this idiot stitched up, pronto!” Argyle called, drumming the side of your caravan back to the real world, your real home. 

You lifted yourself up and over a wheel-well, pack weighing heavy against your lower back. Someone tossed a handkerchief your way as a means to blindfold yourself. You gripped it tightly in one hand, willing your trembling fingers to still. 

Over the red cotton, you caught a whispered moment between lovers. Jonathan told Nancy not to worry, begged her to be careful, pressed a chaste kiss to her forehead, her cheek, her salted lips, her pointed jaw clutched in a grimy hand. 

You bit back emotion that welled, this need that pitted itself somewhere dark, somewhere deep. You turned your cheek away from the couple and found a honeyed gaze, brown eyes beneath a crumpled brow. You opened your mouth to speak, but something latched to that need, somewhere dark and deep, lurking on the water’s edge, a predator waiting to strike. 

You grit your teeth and dutifully brought your handkerchief to your eyes. Strong hands replaced yours at the back of your head, maintaining a knot that wasn’t too tight, and you felt the warmth of Steve’s breath against your ear. “Keep it contained.” 

With the wrap of a fist to the tin roof, your stomach lurched, and you were off. Steve’s words and Jonathan’s hummed tune playing tennis in the recesses of your mind. 

———

THEN

One Year Earlier

September 1987

The music was so loud. Pop ballads blasted through overhead speakers that once called fire drills and announced containment breaches. Chatter echoed against concrete walls between each break in song. The occasional whoop and holler accompanied the clinking of plastic cups and pouring of more liquor. 

Your own glass of lukewarm bourbon stung like smoke, only sweeter, and hung at your side. You were tucked into a folding chair in the corner, watching the party rage on in an echoing cafeteria, the bitter taste of defeat on your tongue.

Your best friend clung to the shadows on the far side of the room, pressed against a pillar with her face buried in her girlfriend’s throat. The smiles on both of their faces were the only consolations you’d allow yourself to celebrate.

“Hey, don’t know if you heard, the Wicked Dick of the Upside Down is dead,” Eddie Munson slid into your purview, all curls and dimpled smile. He returned your non-response with an eye roll, and ordered you to hold his walker steady so he could dip into the seat beside you.

He slumped against you, his denim jacket jingling with the amount of pins stabbed through it. “You’re seriously harshing my mellow.” 

“Oh, am I?” You rolled your eyes and continued your stare into the middle distance, watching the steady pulse of happy party goers. “I’m not stopping you from enjoying your night.” 

“Yes you are,” he whined. “Because the little dark rain cloud over your head is bumming me out.” 

“Yeah, well, I don’t feel like celebrating,” you sighed. 

Eddie hummed, nodded, all hair in your periphery. He shifted in his seat, and you caught a glint of light out of the corner of your eye. He’d pulled a flask from his pocket and twisted the cap off, tipping it against the plastic brim of your cup. “For Gutierrez and Ramsay,” he mumbled low enough for you to hear.

Emotion clawed at your chest at the gesture, wetting your eyes, thus far the only remembrance you’d heard for your fallen compatriots. Your team leads fought fire with fire, and died at the hands of the Devil. When you closed your eyes, you could still make out the sharp angles of their necks. Hank cradled his partner. Staring at their lifeless bodies, Vickie’s hand tugging you to retreat, you wondered if you’d succumb to the same fate. Bodies twisted and torn, in the arms of someone you loved.

With a shaky hand, you brought the sticky sweet beverage back to your lips. 

“You know, Linda told me we can’t carry the burden of every life lost. It’ll just weigh us down.” Eddie sounded about as convinced of the bullshit as you were. 

You rolled your eyes and took another swig for good measure, the bourbon stinging like ash at the back of your throat. “Fuck Linda.”

A laugh caught your attention, a private moment that was probably too far for you to catch, but your subconscious was listening for it. Steve Harrington was perched on a cafeteria table, all long limbs and head thrown back in delight. A smile lit up his tanned features as he took what you could assume were slicing insults from Erica Sinclair. 

Her own lips were pursed into a shy smile, a rare expression on her sweet little face that had your own heart swooping. The girl’s arms were crossed, face tilted downward to hide the smile before it spread across all of her features.

You watched Steve toe at her knee with his shoe until she looked up, and he offered his fist in some form of solidarity or congratulations. She returned the gesture with knocked knuckles before the two of them erupted into a more intricate secret handshake. 

The entire exchange warmed your insides more than the drink in your cup ever could on a day like this.

“Hey, dickheads,” Eddie’s call startled you back into focus.

You cowered into him, as to not be seen by wandering eyes, and noticed the couple of teens he’d called out for. Dustin Henderson and Mike Wheeler inched by, red solo cups in their hands. 

Eddie beckoned with long, ringed fingers. “Are you both insane? If Hopper caught you with those, you’re dead men.” 

“Hopper can’t do anything about it,” Wheeler scoffed, but he kept his volume low. 

You snorted.

“Uh huh,” Eddie cocked an eyebrow, unconvinced.

“We were bringing them for you guys,” Henderson informed a little too loudly, the most obvious lie he’d told.

Wheeler kicked him in the shin. 

“Thanks so much, Henderson. We were running dry.” Eddie’s face split into a grin, and he held his hands out to receive the kids’ drinks. 

Shoulders slumped in defeat, the two boys handed over their drinks. 

You noticed, with the faintest glint of light, that Eddie had exchanged them for his flask. “You bring that back to me tomorrow, or else.” He hissed, but couldn’t manage to hide the look of mischief from his brown eyes, the curve of his mouth.

With a matched grin on their faces, the boys scurried away down a secret hallway to partake in their own form of celebration.

“Eddie Munson, you big softy,” you snorted, elbowing his side. 

He sighed, taking a long sip of something bright red from the cup in his right hand. You managed a chuckle at the cringe of dramatics on his face at the taste, tongue stained neon within seconds of the liquid touching his lips. He chased it with whatever he held in the left.

“Did you just confiscate these from the children?”

Robin and Vickie approached the two of you, hand-in-hand, matching lovestruck looks on both of their faces. Eddie extended the cherry concoction, and Robin took it with a matching look of mischief in her blue eyes. 

You felt a familiar sneaker tap against your own, and managed to greet your best friend with a sad smile. Her head was tilted toward you, pretty orange hair cascading over her shoulders. She took two fingers to the rim of your cup to tip it towards her, peering over to see just how much you hadn’t drank.

“Did Steve find you?” Robin asked, licking neon from the crease of her plush lips. 

Something odd kicked in your chest, not unfamiliar, just dormant, and your face warmed. You avoided Vickie’s gaze as she tapped your foot again, and you shook your head. You peeled your cup from her grasp to take another drink.

“Oh, well he was looking for you,” Robin shrugged, but you noticed the smirk meet her lips simultaneous to her own cup. 

You narrowly avoided Vickie’s waggled eyebrows as you glanced over your own cup to search for Steve across the bustling caf. He was no longer perched tabletop, Erica long-since distracted in a conversation with her brother. But it didn’t take long for your eyes to attract like magnets to those broad shoulders, the gloss of his hair, the curve of his tricep. 

He stood toward the center of the crowd, locked into a conversation with Nancy Wheeler. Dim light was cast across her pointed features, and she seemed engaged in their conversation, a lightness on her brow you hadn’t seen since you’d met her. She seemed relieved, celebratory, maybe even a tad shy as she spoke, hands tucked beneath her arms. 

“I think I might go to bed,” you swallowed, sliding Eddie the remainder of your drink before pushing into Vickie’s space to stand. 

“I’ll walk you up,” your best friend seemed too eager, a frenetic energy buzzing under her skin. 

You tried to ignore the kiss she shared with her partner, letting Eddie offer a loving bite to your wrist like a feral child in his form of a goodnight. You patted his hair, and Robin took your spot beside him, cheersing you with a red cup and lips stained pink. You nodded. “Night.” 

-

The stairwell echoed in silence, that swell of a pulse in your eardrums that matched the tandem steps of you and your best friend. The steel door slammed shut behind you, quieting the ruckus of the celebration down below. An odd chill coursed over your shoulder, and you glanced behind you to find nothing and no one but the vast expanse of concrete and steel spiraling for floors below. 

“They’d want you to be happy, you know,” Vickie cut the silence, chewing the smile from her face with extreme difficulty.

You rolled your eyes and continued your climb. “I know, Vic. It’s just… complicated.” 

“Have you talked to him since?” She pressed. 

She referred to a drunken night one week earlier. You’d fallen asleep in Steve’s bed, nose-to-nose, large fingertips tracing hidden circles into your skin. 

“No,” you avoided her gaze, despite her neck stretching to catch you. “But it’s fine. We’ve been busy.” You’ve been avoiding him, sinking yourself in training, in Scorch, in fighting. Secrets shared between covers felt insignificant compared to a fire-fight with hundreds lost, minuscule in comparison to the ache from your grief and the confusion you’d attached to a win you weren’t sure would ever come. 

“Sure, okay,” Vickie scurried to round the landing before you, to stand a few stairs ahead and box you in. “But like, I don’t know, it really looks like it’s over. You know? Like really over. Which none of us thought would happen, and maybe it’d be good for you to consider what you’re going to do next, right? I just think you really need to seize an opportunity. And I’m not just saying this because you’re my best friend and he’s Robin’s best friend. I just want you to be happy.” 

She was nervous, rambling. 

You glanced around, her voice echoing up the staircase, and you gripped her wrist to lead her back up beside you. “Okay, I get it. Take a deep breath.” 

“Sorry,” her shoulders relaxed, bumping your own as you continued your climb. A soft breath of a laugh fell from her lips.

You pushed open the heavy steel door, holding it for her to pass through before you fell back in step, sneakers tapping against linoleum flooring, dimly lit by the escaping sunlight. 

Vickie walked beside you, gaze a little far-off, hands wringing in front of her, twisting at a ring on her middle finger.

You pulled your key on its lanyard from a pants pocket, and your dorm door clicked open. “You want a glass of water?”

You fell easily into your roles. You filled her a plastic cup of water while she tidied discarded books and pages, piled your laundry into a basket. She smiled at your eye roll, and you watched as she drained the cup. She caught a bead of water as it fell from her lip and released another of those nervous laughs, the ones that prickled the hair at the base of your neck, the ones you knew preceded confrontation. 

“Vic, what’s going on with you?” You scoffed, crossing arms over your chest. “You’re being cagey.”

She rolled her eyes, but you saw the chew of her lip. Caught, she turned her back and paced toward your bed before slowly lowering herself at the foot. “You really think this is done? Do you really feel like he’s dead?” 

This woman had fought monsters. You’d watched her jump into action on dozens of occasions, leading hundreds of innocent people to safety. You’d seen her face covered in char and sweat and ash as she scorched the remnants of her hometown. You’d seen tears spring to her eyes as the landmarks of your shared childhoods crumbled into matching piles of ruin. Never had you seen as much concern etched across her soft features. 

You swallowed, nodded. “He’s gotta be, right? We watched him burn. Eleven said…” A chill swept over the back of your neck as you watched Vickie twist her ring around her finger once more.

“I know, but I don’t know. Do you think he could have like… jumped onto someone else? Maybe he’s in hiding without a body somewhere.” Her tenor was starting to quicken, the breadth of her sternum rising and falling too rapidly.

You reached out for her, and she jumped under your touch. “Hey, why are you so worried about this?” 

Her eyes were wide like saucers, dark circles beneath them that you’d honestly all possessed over the last few particularly grueling weeks, but in this moment, hers felt pronounced. 

You swept hair from her long eyelashes, tucked it behind her ear. “What’s going on?” 

She shook her head, scrubbed at her face with her hands, and peeled upward and out of your grasp. “It’s nothing, it’s stupid.” 

“Nothing’s stupid. Come on, talk to me.” You reassured her, taking her seat on the foot of your bed, preparing for the worst. 

“It’s…” She paused, back to you, shoulders rising and falling with a deep breath. When she spun to face you, her demeanor had changed, lightened. The rain cloud that hovered before seemed to drift away. “I just want this to be over so bad. Robin and I have been talking about what we’re going to do, when this is all over. It used to feel so far away, and now it’s right here, and I’m scared, I guess, but excited, but also just anxious, and - “

“So tell me about it,” you cut her off, somehow managing a smile despite the repeated reminder that this was over and soon you’d be floating in a world who didn’t understand what you’d gone through, and odds are, you’d be alone. 

She chewed on her bottom lip, a habit her mom had scolded her for since she was a child, but that aching smile fell back over her features, and she crossed to collapse on the bed beside you. The mattress harrumphed under her weight. “We talked about going to school together. We both got into IU.” 

“Yeah?” You fell backwards beside her, staring up at the stained dorm ceiling panels. 

“Yeah,” she nodded, “I’m nervous, but like, excited, you know?”

You swallowed back that lump growing in your throat. “You were excited before. You still want to be a music teacher?” 

Vickie always had her plans, organized chaos in the form of binders stuffed with mail-in applications, the gentle push and prod of you to apply with her. You could never decide, stuffing envelopes into that floorboard beside your bed, lying about acceptance letters when she’d received her own. You’d sipped vodka out of matching Betty and Veronica mugs and tried not to imagine her off in the big city without you. 

“Or art,” she confirmed, fingers tracing lines in your ceiling like the constellations you used to lay out and watch.

You sighed simultaneously, and snorted in response. 

She muttered your name, and you glanced sideways to catch the pale yellow light cascading across high, freckled cheekbones, a soft sadness in her eyes. “Do you think I’m being reckless?”

You frowned. 

She caught your gaze and swallowed. “With Robin, I mean. I think I might ask her to move in with me, and I know that sounds crazy because we’re literal children, and - ”

You caught her wrist mid-air, gave it a squeeze, managed a dry laugh. “Vic, you literally followed her into War.”

The laugh that poured from her at the irony was warm enough to pull a genuine smile to your lips, a gesture that was growing more and more foreign as this fight continued. Your grip loosened on her wrist, and she moved to interlock your fingers, her little silver ring scratching between roughed-up knuckles, blistered and burned. 

“You know I’ll never leave you, right?” 

You bumped her with your forehead, her visage blurring in the proximity. “Couldn’t get rid of me when you moved to Hawkins, what makes you think you can get rid of me now?”

Satisfied with your answer, she brought the back of your hand to her lips for a peck and release. 

“Good,” she tutted, rising from the foot of your bed to open the tiny wardrobe beside you. She pushed aside a couple of grey tank tops and pulled a black v-neck from the rack, holding it to herself as if she didn’t have forty in her own closet to match. “Then I can talk to you without you getting mad at me, right?” 

The challenge prickled your skin, competitive nature over-wrought with irritation at the shift of her tone from sincere to playful, mean, even. “Probably not,” you snapped, propping yourself on your elbows to catch the shirt she tossed your direction. 

“Put this on, it makes your boobs look amazing.” 

You groaned and flopped back to the mattress, suddenly warm and exposed under her gaze. You hid your face in the t-shirt, hangar still attached, and shook your head. Her name slipped from your mouth in annoyance.

Yours was repeated back to you in a mocking tone. “What if tonight’s the last night?”

The rustle of your drawers pulled your focus from around a sleeve. “What?” 

She was bent over a pair of jeans you hadn’t worn in well over a year. A tear had pulled through the fibers on both knees, and you were positive the waist band wouldn’t fit now. “What if it really is all over?” She tossed the denim beside you. “What if this is the last night we’ll be in this building? What if it’s the last night we celebrate with these people? What if it’s your last chance to talk to everyone?” 

You knew she didn’t mean ‘everyone’. 

“I get that you’re sad, okay? I’m sad too. I’m going to miss them just as much as you are.” Vickie’s hands found your knees, and she jostled them. “And I understand if you’re tired. We’re all exhausted. I yawned about twenty times dancing with Robin in there. She yelled at me.” Her face lit up with something fierce. “But I’m asking you to get dressed and come with me back to the party, because tonight might be your last night, and I don’t want you to miss your chance.” 

You scoffed and tossed the shirt aside. “Miss my chance for what?” 

Her mischievous gaze was hard to avoid, and she leaned in even closer. “I don’t know. What do you want to happen?”

It was a question you’d asked yourself several times over the last week, when avoiding Steve meant slipping into the girl’s locker room and excess of times or taking the rickety elevator to avoid him on the staircase. You thought last time would be the ‘last time’ so-to-speak, and all the other times before that. That’s just how life worked under fire. 

And last time, as with each of your last times, you’d ended up exchanging truths under government issues linens, chuckling soft breaths against one another’s mouths, making promises of honesty and protection. You weren’t sure you needed more than that. 

Of course, you wanted to feel the coarse pads of his fingertips draw circles just north of the insides of your knees. You wanted to feel his breath fan your pulse points. You wanted to hear the way his breath caught when you dug your nails into his scalp.

You’d settle for soft kisses to the temple after long runs through the Ether, like the ones you’d caught him press to Robin’s sweat-slick hair. You’d settle for the elaborate high-fives he’d give the children when they’d reunite after nights in Quarantine. You’d settle for half-smiles across the caf like the ones he’d give you when you’d finally caught his gaze. 

“Okay, forget about it,” Vickie glossed over your non-response. “Just come downstairs and hang out with me. We’ll find Robin and Eddie and get you another drink and just pretend like we’re stupid kids again. Maybe we’ll sneak into the pool.” 

Her optimism was always so difficult to crush, her rosy lips split into a grin, and you knew she wouldn’t cease fire until you complied. 

With a resigned sigh, you reached your hand for her to help you up, and you nodded.

She took your hand with a grin and tugged you to your feet. 

-

The party below spilled upwards into living rooms and dorms. Music on overhead speakers was transferred to boomboxes and acoustic guitars. Instead of echoing off concrete walls, laughter was absorbed into threadbare couches. Hallways dimmed to the red glow of Exit signs. Footfall faded, stumbled behind locked doors. 

You perched on a comfortable sofa in the living space, waving Eddie goodnight as he waggled his fingers. Vickie and Robin had sandwiched you in sloppy kisses before they slunk off hand-in-hand, whispering sweet nothings. You sunk further into the cushions, hugging one tightly in your lap as the lights turned off and your world was cast in moonlight from a nearby window. 

You sat there for ages, maybe the entire night, staring out at the greyscale world beyond, those treetops tinged in golds and rubies in the daylight. You thought of your friends, hand-in-hand, and of Pedro and Hank, arm-in-arm, and of the emptiness that lingered when you recognized life, as you lived it, was coming to a close. 

You pondered and mourned in silence, starlight the ever-present reminder that you were Rightside Up and safe, somehow, a promise Steve had kept without realizing it. 

“Hey,” a voice full of recognition startled you from your reverie, and you turned to face Steve. His strong features were silhouetted, but you knew the curve of his shoulders, the dip of his jaw. 

“Hey,” you offered a smile, shrinking further into your seat. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” He asked, gesturing for permission to join you.

You nodded, shrugged. “Not really.”

He crossed slowly before sitting, his weight on the springs shifting your own. He was close, warmth radiating off biceps pressed against yours. “I was looking for you.” He touched his knuckles to your knee, a sensation that shot electricity through you. 

“Oh?” Your voice squeaked, throat dry. 

“Yeah,” he nodded, and you ventured a glance his direction. The moonlight poured in, pale yellow against his features, his nose, cheek, the swoop of his chestnut hair. “I know you and Hank and Pedro were really close, and I wanted to make sure you were okay.” 

His eyes shone, and you had to pull yourself from his gaze to process his words. He cared. The thought brought a smile to your cheeks despite the grief you felt in your soul. You tipped your face away from him and played with fraying of the canvas lining the pillow in your lap. 

You contemplated lying, reassuring you both that you’d be fine, but something about his warm presence settled beside you, the soft lilt of his voice, had you speaking freely. “I will be,” you nodded, a sentiment you hadn’t even realized until you spoke it into existence. “I just haven’t had time to think about what my life’ll be like without their… guidance.” Orders, teasing, coaxing, care.

“I get that,” Steve sighed beside you, head tilting to rest on the furniture at your backs. “It’s been kind of nice not having to make decisions for myself.” 

“What were you going to do, before all of this?” You gestured to concrete walls, a singular window, a common space long since vacant. 

His gaze trailed the room before landing on you, and you warmed under it. With another sigh, he looked outward again. “I thought I had a plan for when it was all over, but that was a year ago.” He waved it off. 

You nudged him with your elbow. “What was it? Maybe it’ll give me some inspiration.”

He snorted, shook hair into his eyes. “Ah, yeah. I doubt it.” 

“Come on, Harrington,” you goaded. “What was it? Become an actor? Join the circus?” This felt better, right, the tease of competition between you settling the tension that was building with each passing glance.

“Try marrying the girl of my dreams and having six kids?” That popped the bubble. You couldn’t hide the face of disgust and unease that settled after his comment, knowing all you knew about him already. “Yeah, bad, right?” 

You stuffed back a remorseful chuckle, tried to keep a strange bout of jealousy at bay when you remembered his conversation with Nancy earlier, how engaged the two of them looked, how hopeful her blue eyes were. 

You cleared your throat, made firm eye contact with your pillow, shrugged. “I don’t know. Seems like you aren’t the only one with those aspirations. I’ve heard Rob and Vic might move in together.” A harmless bean spilled surely wouldn’t rile up your best friend. 

“Wait, how do you know that? I thought Robin was going to wait to ask her…” Steve trailed off, and when your eyes met, you both rolled them in exasperation for the gushy love shared between clueless women. 

“So what about you?” Steve asked after a moment had passed, little finger soft once again to your knee. “If this is really all over, what’re you going to do?” 

You glanced back over the parking lot, the trees, Scorch course off in the distance. “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out… where I fit. You know?” You locked your fingers together above your pillow, as Vickie had done earlier, but without the lightness of her touch, yours were bruised and calloused and burnt. Your knuckles were sore.

“Right here,” he said.

His eyes were dark, brow soft, yet pensive, and under his watch, you couldn’t breathe. It was the same panic you’d felt all week when you’d watched him cross the caf or climb into the bed of a truck, that fight or flight ramping up within your rib cage. 

“I’m serious,” he shrugged, shoulder knocking your own. “What if you fit here?” He pressed a large finger into the pillow on your lap for emphasis. The skin of your wrists and hands lit up with proximity. “You’re so good at this whole thing, and we know it isn’t over. The Upside Down didn’t close up when Vecna died like we thought it would. There’s still a mess to clean up. Who says you have to leave? That you have to move on right now and make some huge life plan over night?” 

You blinked back at him because you hadn’t considered any of that, and maybe it’s because this existence had been something everything was counting down the chance to run from. You’d all been thrust into this life when the world opened up (or earlier), and you followed orders because that’s what kept you safe, what kept you alive. You’d never considered that maybe you were made for this. Although, when Steve mentioned it, things did sort of kick back into place. 

His knee knocked yours. “It’s not like you’d be alone.” 

The implications rendered you silent, a splash of cool water across skin that had been set ablaze, filling the space with steam. Your breathing was shallow, mouth dry, and you couldn’t unstick your knuckles from each other, though his hand remained centimeters away, picking at that same tear in the fabric you’d been playing with moments earlier. You felt yourself go stock straight, rigid against the warmth of his bicep. 

“Did I make you uncomfortable last week?” His voice was barely a gravel, a shockwave of electricity sent through you.

You swallowed in vain, shook your head. 

His eyes trailed your features, and you bit hard on your lip when he stopped there, before he found your gaze again. “Because I meant it when I promised I’d keep you safe.” 

Your reaction to Steve Harrington was reckless, always had been. Volatile, even, the way your heart raced, the heat that churned through you like water boiled over. There was always something in his tone that challenged you, always something in his gaze that riled you up. He pushed you over the edge you teetered on with an eye roll and a smug smile, arms pinned over your head against the mat or mask over his face on the Scorch course. 

Maybe that’s why neither of you were surprised when you reached across the space and pressed your lips to his. Neither of you stiffened at a first kiss, noses bumped and knuckles. Simultaneous, you parted for a breath and dove back for something stickier, something warmer, something more dangerous.

He was sweet, whisky and something softer, ice cream, maybe. His lips were warm, and a bit dry, but plush. And when you finally sunk your fingertips into his silky hair, you coaxed a breathy whine that sent warmth pooling through you. 

“Is this okay?” You hissed between kisses.

He hummed in agreement, hands reaching for your middle to tug you into his lap. He massaged your thighs with oversized hands as you bracketed his hips, pulling another loud groan from deep in his throat.

You had him pinned beneath you now, hips rolled, and his head thrown back against the sofa, pupils blown with your fingers in his hair. The moonlight cast shadows across his chiseled features, a constellation of freckles down his left side. The way he watched you, lips licked, sent a wave crashing through you, another sizzle to fan the embers burning within you.

His hands found your hips, and your ribcage beneath the t-shirt you’d been forced to change into, and you thought of Vickie’s encouragement, her optimism that this would be the last of it.

The warmth of Steve’s palms coaxed you forward until he caught your mouth with his once more, and his words echoed in your mind beside her, a chorus of contradiction. This is your last night here. You fit right here. I’ll never leave you. It’s not like you’d be alone. Two truths pulling at you like a rope over a line, neither would exist while the other did. 

Steve sucked in a breath, harsh, and you blinked your eyes open to see him licking a tender lower lip. You’d bit down on him without realizing, that ever-present competition fresh between you. He didn’t seem to mind, already going back in, but you pinned his shoulders back, pushed off of him to stand. 

“Whoa, it’s okay,” he wiped at the corners of his mouth, ran a hand through his hair to replace yours. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” you nodded, stumbling backwards until you almost tripped on a coffee table. You managed to side-step it, feeling claustrophobic surrounded by so much canvas furniture. 

He stood to catch you in case you fell, and the reach of his arms had you backing even farther into the shadows of a long corridor. He recoiled, scratching at the back of his neck. “Are you sure? Because um… I didn’t mean to push anything if you weren’t…” 

You shook your head, that familiar panic clawing at your chest at the mess you’ve created. “Steve, it’s fine. I just don’t think I should do this right now.”

A crease formed between his brows, concerned, pitying, and he shoved his hands into his jean pockets. “Okay?” 

You sighed, scrubbed at tired eyes, tried to ignore the taste of him that lingered on your lips. You’d already taken it too far, already scratched the itch that had been growing within you for months now.

“I can wait.” His voice was soft, almost imperceptible, and his brown eyes held that same hopefulness you’d seen in Vickie’s.

Guilt rattled your rib cage, searing. You nodded and said goodnight. 

-

The night remained sleepless, starring at water-stained ceiling tiles while you contemplated next steps. The feeling of Steve’s hands ghosted your ribcage. The image of Vickie’s hands twisted in your own burned behind your eyes.

Knuckles wrapped against your door, and you pulled your watch from the beside table to look at the time. 08:25. With a resigned sigh, you buckled it over your wrist and answered the door. You startled to find Nancy Wheeler on the other side, brown crinkled and hair curled around her slender features. 

“Hopper wants us.” She informed you, managing the softest of smiles. 

You swallowed, nodded, and went for your room key on the countertop.

After the loss of Gutierrez and Ramsay, your Scorch team needed new leaders, and there was still so much Ether to scorch.

———

NOW

September 1988

Stains on pale yellow walls churned at a bread-and-broth full stomach as cigarette smoke wafted in beneath the broken seal at the bottom of the door. The lone light flickered, exacerbating a migraine that had lingered for weeks now, maybe months. Two familiar faces sat on the other side of the plexiglass, wrinkles between their brows, smoke swirling round faces. 

“How you feeling, kid?” Hop asked, voice gruff, concerned, paternal. 

“Sweaty,” you winced, peeling your tank top from your sternum. “Hope I don’t smell. My shower is one scalding pressure wash every morning.”

Hopper snorted, a cloud of smoke exiting each nostrils and floating skyward. “I know. It’s Hell.” 

Hell was the Ether. Hell was the tug between your shoulder blades. Hell was lurking somewhere deep, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. 

“How is everyone? Byers?” You grit your teeth, pushing back the wave of nausea and slumping against the glass that fogged on your side. The water bottle, lukewarm, was the only reprieve you’d been given from your sauna, refilled at frequent intervals to ensure you stayed upright and alert. 

“Jonathan’s fine, but he’s not out of the woods yet. We’ve got him holed up too. Huntley and Miller are dead. Dog fight this morning on the county border.” 

You cursed under your breath, squeezing your eyes closed to push back the visions of yourself lashing out against the two Scorchers, gnawing on their flesh, the fresh squeeze of hot blood between your teeth. “I was hoping that was just a dream.” 

“Are you having any visions right now?” Owens asked, voice gentler than his gruff counterpart.

You shook your head. “Same as yesterday and the day before. I can see her,” you gestured to somewhere in your periphery, where the wave of fiery hair stood out, just beyond your reach. “And I can feel him.” That tug in your shoulder, the bend in your spine that itched and ached. You rolled your shoulders and pushed it back. “But I don’t see anything unless I’m asleep. Even then it’s just roaming the Ether. I can never see him. He’s not coming out.” 

“What happens when those fuckers catch fire?” Hop asked, wrapping his knuckles against the glass. By the look in his eye, he was testing the strength of it, making sure it’d hold you back.

You took another sip of water. “I wake up.” 

“Maybe we do a bit of uh… what do they call it? Remote viewing? Put her under, have her tap in.” Hop spoke under his breath, but you knew he was talking about Eleven. He knew Hop was talking about Eleven. You felt the itch under your shoulder and shuddered again. 

Owens caught your movement and stopped Hopper with a hand up. “Alright, miss. Are you comfortable if we take another look at your back?” 

With a sigh, you pushed yourself upright and turned your back to the men to pull your shirt up and over your head, holding it to your front with what little sliver of modesty you could maintain. Although, at this point, you’d lost your will to care. 

For days now, you hadn’t noticed growths on your back, no indication that you’d been Flayed or that this parasite was growing within you. Nothing showed itself beside this feeling you had that you couldn’t explain, that no one could understand. 

“Thank you, dear,” Owens wrapped his knuckles to the window to tell you it was safe to put your shirt back on. 

You did so and turned to face the men again. Both of them offered characteristic grimaces: one of pity, the other of disdain. You slumped back into the chair next to the window. “So, what’s the prognosis, doc?”

The older man shrugged, scratched at his forehead. “Unfortunately, we might just have to keep you in here until we discuss further plans. We kind of have to keep you out of the loop, kiddo. Can’t risk him hearing us.” 

You understood. You shook your water bottle, tapped it against the glass, and said, “Empty.”

“Fresh water, coming right up,” he smiled and stood. “Jim?” 

Hopper waved him off, stamping his cigarette out on the seal. You watched ash scatter the ground. He stood, chair groaning beneath him, and he towered over you on the other side of the glass, teeth ground into a clenched jaw. He scratched at the stubble on his chin. 

“Harrington and Nancy make better partners than you two did. He actually listens to her.” 

You snorted, rolled your eyes. “That doesn’t surprise me.” 

“He and Munson ask about you constantly. I caught Wheeler and Henderson trying to hack into your security camera footage.” He wrapped his knuckles against the glass again, pointing toward the camera that had been watching you. He waggled thick fingers, and you mirrored him, trying to hide the swell of something lighter within you. 

“Keep holding him back,” he ordered, your commanding officer once more.

With exchanged nods, he exited down the hallway with Owens, and you slumped back against the fogged glass. You swallowed and stared up at the bright green bulb that glowed just beneath the lens of the camera.

—

Days had gone by. Maybe nights had too, but you couldn’t tell under the buzzing fluorescents. You had no windows to the outside world, probably miles beneath the Earth at this point, just on the precipice of that churning, horrific world on the other side. 

You tossed and turned on your cot, sheets stained with sweat that clung to every inch of you. Cries echoed a few boxes down, unfamiliar voices of more and more faces sequestered into quarantine, their fates somehow worse than your own. 

All you wanted was to stay awake. If you stayed awake, he stayed away. But the ache of your eyelids added to the dull throb at the base of your skull, and every so often, the rake of fingertips down your arm coaxed you into a slumber. 

Feet sputtered down the hall, steady, a run, and your heartbeat matched it. You launched from the unsteady rock of your cot and met a figure as its hands slapped against the glass of your window, steadying itself.

“Harrington?” You frowned at your partner on the other side. His palm met yours, thick glass in between, and his chest rose and fell as his breath fogged the glass. “What’s going on?” 

He shrugged, slumped into the chair Hopper had been in. It creaked beneath him, and he glanced down the hallway for on-lookers before turning back to you. “Are you okay?” 

“Are you?” You scurried into your own chair, leaning in to get a better look at him.

The bruise around his eye was yellowing, and his hair looked good pushed off his brow. He maintained that signature scowl, but there was something soft in his eyes as he observed you the same way you looked him over. “Are you suffocating in there?”

“Only a little,” you shrugged. “Why are you here?” You glanced back down the hallway, as much as you could see, to find it the same as it always had been, empty. 

“We had a bad firefight yesterday. Ten dogs or so.”

You did another cursory glance of his person. That you could see, there were no bandages. His hair wasn’t burned or singed. Any soot had been scrubbed from the creases on his face. 

“Could you feel it?” 

You shook your head and watched his shoulders relax. You wished you could soothe him further, reassure him you were okay, that you were safe, but the two souls attached to you lingered in the periphery. Instead, you tapped your fingertips to the glass. “I thought of something yesterday.” 

Steve adjusted in his seat, glanced down the hallway once more before leaning in to read your lips.

“You remember the party, the night after he died, or at least, we thought he did?” You asked, feeling that presence heavy over your shoulder. 

Recognition flashed behind your partner’s eyes, and he shied from your gaze, scratching at the back of his neck.

You warmed, tried to forget the feeling of your hands there, of his warm hands against your sides. Something prodded your shoulder. You cleared your throat. “Vickie made a weird comment that night, off-handed. She was acting really shady, and she asked if he could have latched himself on someone. The body died, but maybe the soul didn’t?”

He looked back up at you, brow crinkled, understanding sinking into him, and you watched his ribcage deflate. His knees began to bounce, and he buried his face into his hands. 

“And if that’s true, she had him for almost a year. It had nothing to do with the flower. He just latched on to the nearest thing, and when she died,” you gestured to yourself. “Maybe he’s weaker now.”

Steve was shaking his head, arms crossed over his chest. “You couldn’t save her.” 

You swallowed back emotion that boiled at that slap in the face. “She didn’t tell us. None of us could, but I’m telling you.” You hoped he couldn’t hear the desperation in your tone.

“This happened to her, and you murdered her.” His voice was lower, graveled. 

You balled your fist, swallowed back that panic which seared at your ribcage.

“What do you expect to happen to you?” Finally, he met your eye, his own brown replaced with piercing blue, cloudy. The smell of charred flesh stung at your nostrils. The taste of ash filled your mouth. 

---

[A/N: Remember when I said hiatus cuz of NaNo and then I wrote this chapter? *insert eye roll here* I can't help it! This story wants to pour out of me, and I want it to, too. I love these two more than anything. They bring me endless joy. And they kissed! I made them kiss! In a flashback, but still. Maybe they'll kiss again, who knows? Maybe the reader dies a horrific death like Chrissy, who knows? I do. I know. And I love it so much. Thanks, as always, for reading xo]

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Chapter Four: Pyre • Chapter Six: Combustion

[magnusbae]

Hello my dears, New day, new horrendous Chrome UI update. 🎉🎉🎉

Fear not, even while they removed the flags from the settings which permitted to disable it in previous waves, and really want you to use their new UI, and really do act like a bully who just doesn't accept the word 'no'— there's still a way to disable it :)

thanks reddit user diegounion 🤍

Basically you right click the icon of the chrome wherever you usually use it, this guide will be for taskbar, under the cut other locations if you need :)

1.CLOSE ALL CHROME WINDOWS!! 2.Right click the chrome icon on the taskbar:

2.right click the chrome line again and click "properties"

3.inside the tab "shortcut" on the target/destination line, you must add the disabling of the new update in the following manner:

You will see this written: "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" you will need to add, with a space, this: --disable-features=CustomizeChromeSidePanel It'll end up like this: "C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe" --disable-features=CustomizeChromeSidePanel 4.Apply and it's fixed, cheers :)

copy pasted from reddit for the other chrome shortcut locations:

If you have Chrome pinned to the start menu, open Windows Explorer and navigate here: C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs When you find the Chrome icon, repeat the six steps. If you have Chrome on your desktop, you do the same, repeat the six steps.

[omegaremix]

Record Stop shopping list, 2018.

West Sayville’s Vinyl Paradise was the final store I visited before my shoulder surgery in Autumn 2016, leading to nine months out of work on short-term disability. Those nine months allowed me to stay home and cash in weekly benefits until I was ready to return to work. July of last year, however, I depleted my checking and had to borrow against my savings. With the rising cost of rent and the new influx of bills, it would be a long time before putting that lost money back again. I was frustrated in not going back to work but angry that I’d have to wait. Wait, I did, until as luck would have it, three windfalls came into play this past winter. Soon after being told I was getting a company bonus, I had all these ideas in my mind of how to spend the money. The February / March line was the right time to cash in my extra earnings and push them into savings: the bonus, an extra bi-weekly paycheck of the month, and that upcoming tax refund. Just give it two or three weeks, I said, to start celebrating. Two to three weeks to treat yourself and go record-shopping like you wanted to. Get it out of your system.

Before these windfalls, I had the urge to go record-shopping. I tried holding them back, but the urges ultimately won. It was a rainy Saturday with no broadcast and nothing else to do, so I drove to the new Record Stop, once located in Ronkonkoma for most of its’ life until it moved to Shirley as a music warehouse and packaging plant. Last year, it announced its’ move to Patchogue as a full-fledged store again, right behind Main Street.

I walked in and the newly-built location smelt of fresh wood. It was already tight quarters. I look around store and almost not one inch wasn’t covered by shelves packed to the hilt with new CD’s. Wall to wall, corner to corner. They had a back room with more shrink-wrapped CD’s and right in the middle was their own music-DVD section. Aisles were tight with thick vinyl shelves of all genres used and new. I told the guys behind the counter who asked me for assistance that I only was looking and waiting until the bonus kicked in. I lied to myself and the two guys working behind the counter. Five minutes later I was picking through the dollar bins. About eight or nine lower bins of them to be exact. Into bin number five and already I given up looking through whatever used bargain hip-hop vinyl they had. But, they did not disappoint.

Old-school breakdancing, boombox treats, and golden-era 12″ singles; they had good titles for me to fill in the missing gaps of Eighties and Nineties hip-hop. Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich, Ahmad and Knucklehedz were three from the Brentwood days I recorded off the radio, so it was nice to have only the singles. I was surprised to find U.T.F.O once touted to me from our resident hip-hop dee-jay Cut Supreme. And maybe I did play Flatlinerz during my white-label hip-hop sets, so that was going home with me. Anything N.W.A. related (DJ Yella) was a non-negotiable, and it was about time I’d take home one of my all-time favorite techno hits in L.A. Style’s “James Brown Is Dead”.

But no trip to the record store would be complete without thumbing through the jazz section. Carmen McRae’s In Person was a Mainstream label title which reminded me of Jack Wilkins’ Windows because it was from that exact same era. Curious as to what they had in funk and fusion, they had enough to my liking nut none to take home. Sadly, Parliament records were priced higher than I’d want to pay for one and so was a copy of The Upsetters’ Space Ape. I was already spending money I didn’t originally plan to. But, aside from all the other new vinyl racks I flew over, there was one more section to check out. The front corner of the store had the used CD section, mostly pop and other releases I would never even consider touching. All hope was not lost, that’s where I scored The Chemical Brothers, Royal Trux, and the Delerium & Sarah McLachlan & DJ Tiesto single just to have.

Short and sweet. Tool’s Lateralus was furiously filling the air. That’s a sign that the end (closing time) was near. I cashed out sweating after two hours digging through Record Stop’s crates, rows, and shelves. At no more than $50.00, it stood to be the least expensive receipt I’d make in a first of a series of ten or so stops. The bonus was yet to hit my bank account but I couldn’t help myself in gearing up for what will be one of the largest spending sprees ever.

Sugarhill Gang “The Lover In You” 12”

Grover Washington Jr. Mister Magic 12"

Carmen McRae In Person 12"

U.T.F.O. “Roxanne, Roxanne” 12”

Ahmad “Back In The Day” 12”

DJ Yella “4 Tha E” 12”

L.A. Style “James Brown Is Dead” 12”

Knucklehedz “Hed Rush” 12”

Flatlinerz “Live Evil” 12”

Blondie “Rapture” 7”

Chemical Brothers Come With Us CD

Royal Trux Thank You CD

Delerium ft. Sarah McLachlan & DJ Tiesto “Silence” CD

Prime Minister Pete Nice & Daddy Rich “Rap Prime Minister & Daddy Rich (Rat Bastard)” 12”

[batbaffle]

How To Install VOCALOID 1 On a Modern Computer

Full tutorial is under the cut, but the basic steps for this process are:

Enable virtualization on your computer.

Install VirtualBox.

Use VirtualBox to create a Windows XP virtual machine.

Transfer the VOCALOID files into the XP virtual machine.

Install the VOCALOID program on the XP virtual machine.

You don't need to have a ton of space or RAM for this, it'll work on a garbage computer (like mine). It works on all common operating systems too (Windows, Mac, or Linux).

Step 1: Enabling Virtualiztion

This is the only step that varies based on which operating system you're using.

I'm covering the instructions for Windows 10 in this post (because that's what I use). If you don't use Windows 10, you'll have to look up a dedicated tutorial for enabling virtualization on whichever operating system you use.

Locate "Advanced startup" in the regular system settings. Either use the start menu search bar to get there quickly, or click through "Settings" > "Update & Security" > "Recovery".

From there, hit "Restart now"

After the restart, you'll be brought to a screen asking you to choose an option.

Select "Troubleshoot" > "Advanced options" > "UEFI Firmware Settings"

You'll then be prompted to restart to change the UEFI Firmware Settings. Hit restart, and you'll be sent to your computer's BIOS.

The specific menu will vary depending on what brand of physical computer you're using (Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba, etc). I'm providing the visual aide for a Lenovo here, but you can look up a visual guide to the BIOS for whatever brand computer you use.

Head over to the "Security" tab to find the virtualization setting.

Once you enter the virtualization settings, switch both the options here to "Enabled".

Then you just need to save and exit by hitting F10, and your computer will restart normally.

You can see whether or not virtualization has been enabled by going into "Task Manager". Get to "Task Manager" by right-clicking the task bar, or search it up through the start menu.

Once you're in "Task Manager", click over to the "Performance" tab, and it will say "Virtualization: Enabled" or "Virtualization: Disabled."

End of Windows 10 specific instructions here, everything after this will apply to all operating systems.

Step 2: Install VirtualBox

VirtualBox can be downloaded from here (on virtualbox.org). Just pick the right package for your operating system.

Once the EXE file is downloaded, run it to go through the VirtualBox installation process.

Step 3: Create a Windows XP Virtual Machine

First, you need to get an ISO of Windows XP. (Digital equivalent of an installation disk basically). I acquired my copy through Internet Archive here.

Just hit "ISO IMAGE" under "DOWNLOAD OPTIONS". Don't worry if it's downloading super slowly, that's normal on Internet Archive.

Open VirtualBox, and select the "New" option to create a virtual machine.

From there, go under the "ISO Image" tab and find your XP ISO. VirtualBox will be able to detect that you picked Windows XP.

"Skip Unattended Install" will be unchecked by default. I recommend keeping it unchecked so you don't have to go through the XP installation process manually.

The Internet Archive page provides this working product key you can copy-paste: MRX3F-47B9T-2487J-KWKMF-RPWBY

"Guest Additions" will be unchecked by default, but I recommend checking it. This is a surprise tool that will help us later 😉

(You could still install Guest Additions later, but checking the box here is less work).

512 MB of RAM is the minimum you can away with for VOCALOID, but a full 1 GB (1000 MB) is recommended for better performance.

No need to adjust CPU count.

Choose "Create a Virtual Hard Disk Now".

Now you get to pick how much storage space the virtual machine will have. VOCALOID files aren't very big, so they don't require too much space.

I'm not sure about the true minimum size required for this, so I recommend just leaving it at the default of 10 GB. It's unlikely that you'll actually fill/use all of that space, it's just the maximum that the virtual machine will be hypothetically capable of holding. XP with V1 installed took up less than 4GB for me, but it won't let you install the program without extra space available.

There's an easy way to add more storage later if you accidentally make it too small in this step (info at the end of this post).

Make sure all of the settings you chose are correct.

The summary should say "Skip Unattended Install: false", "Product Key: true", "Install Guest Additions: true".

Now VirtualBox will create the machine and install XP on its own. Just leave the window open and don't interact with it until it's finished.

It'll be left on the Windows XP desktop once installation is complete.

Before doing anything else in XP, I recommend changing the screen resolution so it isn't a ridiculously tiny window you need to squint at.

View > Virtual Screen > Resize to whatever looks best on your screen.

Alternatively, you can right click the XP desktop and select "Properties", then go to the "Settings" tab. Increase the screen resolution and hit "Apply" to see how it looks. You'll get a popup asking if you want to keep those changes or not.

Step 4: Transfer VOCALOID Files Into XP

I acquired a usable copy of VOCALOID from Internet Archive here. That folder includes everything you need to install and activate any V1 voicebank without an official activation code.

(I unfortunately have yet to find a similar resource for VOCALOID 2. For info on using V2 voicebanks, check the end of this post.)

Before returning to VirtualBox, go to the location you saved the VOCALOID folder too, and right-click the folder.

Select "Properties", then copy the location information.

There's a really fast way to transfer small files in and out of the virtual machine (see the end of this post for an explanation on that), but the VOCALOID folder is too big for that, so you need to turn it into a VISO (virtual ISO) instead.

To make a VISO, open VirtualBox, and select the "Tools" icon.

Move to the "Optical disks" tab, then select the "Create" icon.

Now you can paste the location information text you copied into the textbox on the upper left side.

Alternatively, you can hit the folder icon and manually sift through your computer files to reach the VOCALOID folder, but that's annoying.

Make sure the folder is selected (just click on it), the hit the paper icon in the middle to "Add Item(s) to VISO".

Then hit the "Configuration" icon in the upper left to make a textbox appear in the bottom left. Enter a VISO name there.

Make sure the VOCALOID folder has actually appeared under "Viso Content" on the right, then you can hit "Create"

Now go back into XP to insert the VISO into the virtual disk drive.

"Devices > "Optical Drives" > whatever pops up there > "Remove disk from virtual drive" if something is currently in there > The VISO you made should appear as an option.

XP will ask what you want to do with the disk, choose "Open folder to view files".

Then drag the VOCALOID folder onto the XP desktop. It should start copying files over.

You can remove the VISO from the virtual disk drive once everything is copied over.

Step 5: Install VOCALOID In XP

Open up "Distrib_V1", then go into the folder for whichever voicebank you want to install first. (The others can easily be added later.)

Now run the setup EXE within that folder. Windows XP doesn't show all file extensions by default, so the setup EXE file won't actually be labeled as such.

When the installer asks about "Setup Type", choose "Complete".

When it asks if you want to "Activate VOCALOID", select No. Don't say Yes.

Once it's installed, open up the "Vocaloid v1.1.2 Update & Patch" folder that's inside "Distrib_V1".

Run "setup". You'll be prompted to restart XP afterwards, agree to it.

After the restart, right-click the desktop icon for VOCALOID, and select "Properties".

Hit "Find Target", and you be brought to the location the editor was saved to.

Open up the "Vocaloid v1.1.2 Update & Patch" again, then drag and drop "patch" into the folder containing VOCALOID.

Run "patch", hit the very obvious patch button, and then you'll be able to use VOCALOID 1 🎉

To add another voicebank, follow the same steps you went through to install the first one, but choose "Custom" for "Setup Type".

Deselect every component that doesn't have the specific vocaloid's name in it. (You don't really need to select the "SKIN" either if you don't want it, that's just an aesthetic option for the UI).

You won't need to run the updater and patch files again for each voicebank, unless you accidentally reinstalled the Editor.

Additional Info:

"How Do I Transfer Files Without Making a VISO?"

With Guest Additions installed (yes we're finally using it), you can use the super easy drag-and-drop file transfer method for most individual files. It just doesn't like transferring large folders. I recommend this method for sending instrumentals into XP and retrieving completed song files from XP.

Enable it through "Devices" > "Drag and Drop" > "Bidirectional" or select the specific direction you currently need to send things in.

"I Didn't Give My Virtual Machine Enough Storage, How Do I Retroactively Increase It?"

In VirtualBox, hit the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+D to access the "Virtual Media Manager".

Alternatively, you can find it by clicking through "File" > "Tools" > "Virtual Media Manager"

Select [whatever name you picked].vdi, and just adjust the size slider at the bottom.

"How Do I Actually Use VOCALOID Now That I've Downloaded It?"

The manual that comes with program is actually very informative!!! You should read it!!! It's available under the "Help" tab within the program.

The only video tutorial I found for V1 is this one by Zero G.

One drawback of V1 compared to newer Vocaloid programs is that the piano keys aren't fully labeled, so you need to actually know what order notes go in. There are lots of music crash courses on Youtube which can help you in that department.

"How Can I Get a Working V2 Voicebank?"

If you just want to use a V2 voicebank and don't care about using the V2 software specifically, this site offers a cracked V4 download and compatible versions of the V2 voicebanks ("legacy" versions that have been converted to V3 voicebanks, so they work on V3 or V4).

. . .

If you want to have an awful time, you could install V2 in the virtual machine in almost the same way you install V1. However, I haven't found a reliable way to bypass the activation process for V2, so you'll be stuck with the 14 day trial period (unless you torrent Pocaloid2 instead). You can just reinstall the voicebank in a fresh virtual machine if you want to continue using it after the 14 days are up though.

Download your preferred voicebank(s) from Internet Archive. This user (haru0l) has uploaded all of the V2s (non-legacy). If the one you want isn't already in ISO form, turn it into a VISO.

You unfortunately won't be able to install Rin/Len Act2, Miku Append, or Rin/Len Append if you don't have their originals installed and properly activated (can't be using the 14 day trial).

Installing a Japanese voicebank will give you a bunch of unreadable symbols in the UI, and not all of the English voicebanks on Internet Archive are bundled with the V2 software (for some reason), so you just need to run the English updater to fix that. English V2 update available on Internet Archive here.

(There is another method where you just delete/move/rename every Vocaloid file that says JPN or Japanese in the name, but that doesnt completely translate the UI and still has some unreadable garbage).

If you're installing one of the less ancient voicebanks first, you might not be able to run the updater. It will say you already have an up to date version of the software (I had this problem with Piko). You can avoid that by simply installing an older voicebank first.

Make sure you choose the "Custom" setup for additional voicebanks, same as with V1.

"I Have Another Question OP Didn't Anticipate"

Feel free to send an ask with any questions! There's a chance that I won't know the answer either, but I'll try my best.

Also, please let me know if the links on this post ever stop working so I can replace them.

[thisiswhattheycallafinecareer]

OK @ichorandpride THIS IS THE BEST. I feel like I have my browser back. Thank you forever.

Note: UBlockOrigin got disabled on Chrome because they found it cut into their forced ads. You can still enable it! A reddit poster taught me how:

search for UBlock Origin extension

The "Add to Chrome" button will be greyed out. Right click on the button and find the "Inspect" action.

Inspect text appears. Where there is the highlighted <div>, click the drop down to reveal <button>,

Find the word "disabled" and type "enabled." Enter.

Seriously, I know nothing about computers. Reddit taught me how and I used it so quickly.

One more thing: UBlock Origin might be the littlest bit tricky to navigate at first. To copy paste @ichorandpride's amazing block lists:

Open the extension in your browser. Navigate to the settings cogs bottom right. Click.

A larger UBlock window will open with a toolbar at the top. Navigate to "My Filters"

Paste the lists. The "Apply Changes" button will turn blue and you should click it. Then, you've won the internet.

Final tip: Use CTRL+A or COMMAND+A to select Nathan's lists on the pastebin pages. They are comprehensive and scrolling to select might take a while.

wikipedia no longer being anywhere near the top of search results when looking up anything feels eviscerating

[technologywhis]

Great question—and it’s something a lot of people wonder about! The ability to cut, copy, and paste (often called clipboard functions) depends on a few key things about the app and how it’s built:

1. App Permissions and Design

Some apps intentionally limit clipboard actions. For example:

• A banking app might block copying text (like your account number) for security reasons.

• A game or custom UI app might use a design that doesn’t support regular text fields, so cut/copy/paste won’t work like it does in a browser or a text editor.

2. What You’re Interacting With

Clipboard functions usually work with selectable content—like text in an editable field (e.g., a note or message).

• If the text isn’t selectable (like a label or an image of text), you can’t copy it unless the app adds that feature.

• In some graphic design or video apps, the objects you’re working with are more like images or layers than standard text, so cut/copy/paste works differently.

3. Operating System Support

Different platforms (Windows, macOS, Android, iOS) have different clipboard rules:

• On iOS, apps need explicit permission to access the clipboard, especially for automatic pasting.

• On Android, older versions were more lenient, but newer ones also have tighter controls.

4. Focus and Context

The app needs to know what you’re trying to cut/copy/paste. If nothing is selected, or if the focus isn’t on the right place, those actions might be disabled or unavailable.

[skyboxeye]

Capturing the ambience of Warcraft 3′s Maps

Warcraft III's deeply-realized fantasy universe offers players an endless variety of virtual lands to explore. Its ambient sound design would undergo a couple of revisions over the years, culminating in all-new tracks for the Reforged remaster. This guide will focus on capturing the final update to classic WC3, v1.26.

Understanding WC3's evolving ambiences

As mentioned, different versions and releases of WC3 implement ambient sounds differently. Early releases (1.26a and below) use MIDI sequences with a custom DLS soundfont to render their soundscapes. From 1.27 to 1.31, WC3 uses simple streams loosely based on the original MIDIs. And from 1.32 onward, these streams were recreated completely to fit Reforged.

From MIDI to streams

The transition from MIDI to stream wasn't smooth for Blizzard. From 1.27 to 1.30, ambience was disabled as the team migrated WC3's sound engine to FMOD (to quote the patch notes, "Disabled ambient sound while a MIDI issue is being resolved"). The MIDIs still exist in the game files of these versions but aren't played in-game.

By abandoning MIDI, the new development team was able to standardize on FMOD and better support Mac clients. It's a minor shame, as those earlier versions' support for MIDI lead to some fun modding possibilities.

The pre-baked WAVs of "modern" often sound qualitatively different than the "classic" MIDI. It's unclear if these differences are intended or simply the result of inaccurate MIDI rendering.

Across modern versions (1.30.4 to 1.36.0), I noticed that the audio team also shifted from the crossfading used by the "classic" MIDIs to simple loops.

From streams to Reforged

Users who purchase Reforged they will gain access to a remastered set of ambient streams which are again qualitatively different from anything that came before. You can still listen to these even if you don't own Reforged - just use CascView v2.4 to open the "HD" archives found starting in version 1.32.

Reforged curiosities

Reforged exclusively has ambient for a "dungeoncave" tileset. Its World Editor's sound editor window lists three LorderonSummerDay assets for some reason.

Rendering MIDI sequences

First, let's export the MIDI sequences and DLS sound fonts. We'll need an MPQ editor like Ladiks MPQ Editor v3.5, as World Editor's sound editor only handles WAV assets.

Best MIDI renderer: Miles Sound Tools

Miles Sound Tools includes an application which can play back a MIDI/DLS pair with seemingly perfect accuracy. This makes sense, as WC3 is built on Miles technology (according to the choices in the game's sound options menu).

However Miles Sound Player cannot direct the results to a WAV file, so we'll need to record its output in real-time. I found the results to be a little quiet, so you may want to boost your recordings.

Next-best renderer: FL Studio

FL Studio's Fruity LSD effect can render MIDI/DLS pairs to a WAV files. Open your MIDI file first, making sure to select MIDI Out with Fruity LSD. Most tracks can be rendered at 100% volume without any artifacts. For some reason, I sometimes found incorrect export results unless I played the MIDI in FL Studio at least once - so I recommend clicking play first.

However, Fruity LSD incorrectly renders situations where a note is repeated during the first note's decay. Rather than let the first note finish fading, it immediately stops it in favor of the second note's attack. This can be heard, for example, in the overlapping wind sounds late into Barrens Day. I tried disabling Cut itself and Cut playing notes for the relevant channels, but it didn't help. I also verified that Polyphony was set to unlimited inside misc channel settings and experimented with Mono and Slide settings.

Manually placing the overlapping notes on separate channels solved it. Create a new MIDI output channel, copy-paste from the channel with overlapping notes, manually copy the volume and panning settings for the channel, assign the correct melodic patch from the DLS, and edit the notes in Piano Roll.

Runner-up: Winamp

Winamp also offers paired MIDI/DLS playback, and can render results directly to WAV files though its Disk Writer output plugin. However, you'll need an older version of the program, as recent ones contain a bug that prevents specifying a DLS file.

Specify the DirectSound (with output) in the MIDI plugin settings in order to support rendering to WAV. Set the sample rate to 44.1kHz for good measure.

Finally, disable all options related to missing instruments. These are good defaults when playing back music, but in our case we strictly want to employ the samples in our DLS font. Otherwise, you'll get random snare drum hits during tracks e.g. Barrens night.

I noticed, however, that even with these settings I still heard random instruments in certain tracks, like Northrend night.

Other options: Foobar2000 and XMPlay

You can add MIDI support to each of these players via the plugins linked above. However, these only support SF2 fonts, so we'll need to convert our DLS using a tool like Awave, Viena, or Extreme Sample Converter. Both plugins expect your MIDI and SF2 files to share a name in order to pair them.

I tried a few combinations of these DLS -> SF2 tools and audio plugins, but I still ended up with errors such as imperfect sample looping in the more challenging sequences e.g. DalaranRuinsNight.

VLC also claims to support MIDI/DLS pairs, configured under FluidSynth in advanced settings. However this crashed when I tried to play WC3's assets.

Recording sound in-game

You can modify MIDISounds.slk (AmbienceSounds.slk controls doodad sounds) to adjust the volume of ambience playback. Just open the file in a text editor and change all volume values to at least K100.

I'm not sure whether there is a maximum value is, or what scale this setting uses (logarithmic?). WC3 seemingly has some built-in protection against clipping s.t. maxing out this value can result in some of the louder samples (e.g. Black Citadel) not being played.

I recommend modifying War3x.mpq's MIDISounds.slk in-place rather than adding an edited MIDISounds.slk to War3Patch.mpq.

WC3's MIDIs engine seems to apply a (low-pass?) filter that's apparently common among MIDI players. Miles has this filter as an option, while Foobar/XMPlay/Winamp seemingly apply it by default. To my ears, WC3 doesn't apply reverb or chorus to its MIDI renders.

Capturing footage

For footage, we can capture the game in an open World Editor window. This tool features correct FoV even in older versions - compared to the main game client which didn't implement widescreen FoVs until v1.28. Be sure to use World Editor v1.31 or below - otherwise your renders will include Reforged graphical changes.

Speaking of graphics, be sure to open WC3 and max out your settings before recording in WE. Toggle View Entire Map to get rid of the viewer's aggressive culling. You'll also want to hide Info display from View settings. If you like, you can lock time of day from scenario settings.

While in World Editor, press Ctrl + right-click and drag to tilt the camera. Right-click and drag to pan. Press shift + right-click and drag to finely adjust zoom, or scroll the mouse wheel to coarsely zoom. Be sure to resizes all editor windows to their minimal size - you should be able to get at least a 1600x900 crop out of a 1080p recording.

World Editor alternatives

HiveWE is a fan-made WC3 editor with a different HUD and feature set. However, unlike the stock World Editor its graphics don't match what players would see in-game: for example, unit animations don't run.

Perhaps we could capture full-screen renders using Warsmash. The creator has demonstrations of alternate HUD layouts on his YouTube channel. I trust this project's rendering solution to be very accurate as it is built atop the best-available community projects for terrain and unit rendering. However, I couldn't get Warsmash running for myself due to an error loading BLPs.

It may be possible to mod away the UI using the vanilla game engine and competent JASS scripting. I'm not sure whether the game world would be rendered underneath the UI areas however.

Managing multiple WC3 installs

WC3 isn't designed to handle multiple installations on the same machine. The different versions will all attempt to read/write to common Windows registry entries, resulting in conflicts. We can try fixing this incoherence by re-installing the game, or by simply deleting registry entries e.g. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Blizzard Entertainment\WorldEdit.

[qocsuing]

How to Type Special Characters and Keyboard Symbols on Windows Using the Alt Keys

How to Type Special Characters and Keyboard Symbols on Windows Using the Alt Keys

You can type a lot of characters that may not have a corresponding key on your keyboard – such as European language alphabetic characters, ASCII symbols, and even Chinese characters (also known as Hanzi, Kanji, or Hanja).To get more news about chinese alphabet a to z, you can visit shine news official website.

These Alt codes are also helpful if you have a keyboard with a stuck or missing key.

Below I will break down the entire list of alt keys by category. But first, here's the full list. (Note: this does not include the many, many characters from non-western European languages – otherwise it would be 100,000s of codes long.)

Below is a nice ASCII-formatted table of the most commonly-used symbols and characters. It took me a while to assemble all of these get them looking good.

As a developer, when I search for these codes I often get results that are image-based. These are inaccessible to people with visual disabilities, and make it hard for everyone to copy-paste the codes.As I mentioned earlier, you can use Alt codes to type characters you could otherwise type on your keyboard. This is helpful if one of your keyboard keys is non-operational. The next few Alt codes are focused on currencies, with a few Spanish-specific characters as well. These are helpful if you need to type the Spanish ñ letter or make upside down question marks or exclamation marks.

And of course, you can type the Greek letters using alt codes. These are super helpful for typing out mathematical formats wherever you need to. For any real heavy lifting, you'd probably want to use something like TeX, but if you're just trying to send a mathematical expression through an instant message, these alt codes can come in hand.

Please note that some names appear more than once (Yichen three times in the top 10 for boys, and Yinuo and Yutong twice in the top 10 for girls). The only differences are in some of the characters used.

I tried using ChatGPT again to clean up the HTML in the tables above. But it kept hallucinating and changing characters, and it never gave me the entire tables but cut off at least one row each time. So I cleaned up the code myself in a text editor.

[mnsgranth]

How To Disable Copy Paste And Right Click In Hindi

How To Disable Copy Paste क्या होगा अगर कोई आपकी सामग्री की प्रतिलिपि बनाता है? सामग्री को एक-क्लिक कॉपी-पेस्ट से बचाने के लिए, आप राइट-क्लिक अक्षम कर ��कते हैं और वेबसाइट डेटा की सुरक्षा कर सकते हैं। विस्तार पूर्वक पढ़े..

How To Disable Copy Paste And Right Click In Hindi ।मुख पृष्ठ।।पोस्ट।।Disable Copy And Paste। How To Disable Copy Paste कॉपी पेस्ट और राइट क्लिक को डिसेबल कैसे करें आप इस लेख मे पढ़ेंगे: How To Disable Copy Pasteकॉपी पेस्ट और राइट क्लिक को डिसेबल कैसे करेंप्लगइन का उपयोग किए बिना कॉपी, पेस्ट और राइट क्लिक अक्षम (बंद) करें।वेबसाइट के फुटर सेक्शन में निम्न कोड जोड़ेप्लगइन की मदद से कॉपी, पेस्ट…

[bigscaryblueberry]

In addition to my usual ask-related content, I have been working on a special little project... Something I have wanted to do for a very long time, before I even started this blog.

And now, he’s finally here.

It’s a King Shimeji! A cute little blueberry buddy for your desktop!

Here is the download! (Copy and paste the URL into the address bar.)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KO9OWvbmllx0g0ztEcqUzKezpcUpK5sv/view?usp=sharing

(Make sure you have a program that can unzip the folder, such as 7-Zip, and also make sure you have Java installed as it is required for the program to run. To run it, double-click Shimeji-ee.jar located inside the folder.)

(Some questions and answers under the cut!)

Questions and Answers:

Q: Does this work on Mac? A: I don’t know. I created and tested this on Windows. I’d guess that it probably doesn’t. I won’t stop you from trying, however, so you can let me know how it goes. (If it doesn’t work, then I’m sorry...)

Q: How do I stop him from cloning himself and/or throwing certain windows? A: Right-click the icon, and this should open a small window with various options. (You must right-click, as left-clicking just spawns a new Shimeji instead.)

Click on “Allowed Behaviors”, and from here you can disable cloning and window-throwing. There is also an option to disable sound effects, but I do not know how to give a Shimeji sound in the first place, so that isn’t relevant here. (Note: If you disable cloning, he will still occasionally play the animations, just without a second Shimeji spawning from it. If you want to disable the behavior outright, try opening the behaviors.xml file in a text editor like Notepad, finding the “SplitIntoTwo” and “PullUpShimeji” behaviors, and changing their frequency value to 0.)

Q: How do I close the program? A: Right-click the Shimeji and select “Dismiss All”, or even just “Dismiss” if there is only one.

Q: Where did he go? He disappeared! A: Did he crawl up into the top-left corner? This happens sometimes with Shimejis in general for some reason, he is just offscreen and will climb down eventually.

Q: Don’t you normally draw him with scars on his face? Why doesn’t he have them here? A: If I gave him his two face scars, then it would be mirrored whenever he faces the right. I’d rather have him with no scars at all than have his asymmetrical features be on the wrong side half the time.

Q: How long did it take you to make this? What inspired you to create it? A: About a week. I wanted to make this Shimeji since all the way back in early 2019, but I lost motivation after finishing only one drawing due to the intimidating scale of the project. But after the release of Chapter 2, and seeing Shimejis created quickly of a certain new character, I revived the project with boosted motivation and it took a little under a week to complete. I felt like if I didn’t create this King Shimeji, then no one would, since it had been almost 3 years since Chapter 1 and he still didn’t have any as far as I’m aware. So, just like how this blog was created to “fill in a void” after the deaths of previous King ask blogs, the reasons behind this Shimeji are similar. It’s an expression of appreciation for an unpopular character I love and adore.

Have fun!

[halvedmimi]

Other in Arms

By @HalvedMimi for @Meduseld

Rating: Teen and up

Relationships: Evan Buckley / Eddie Diaz

Characters: Evan ‘Buck’ Buckley, Edmundo ‘Eddie’ Diaz, Christopher Diaz, Ramon Diaz, Helena Diaz and OC/Plot device Ray Hanes

Summary:  Fic written for @Meduseld as part of the @911ficexchange. A fic about Eddie facing the loss of a military friend, and learning just how much of a support system he has – from friends who are basically family to family who are more accepting of him than he is of himself.

Please note - I posted this on AO3 first and forgot to keep a copy of the summary (and the small edits I made to the ending :/ ) which I now cannot see until the official gifting time so I will fix this all up to match when I can. It should be about 6 hrs after this is posted because I’ll be at work until then.

Chapter 1

Eddie stared thoughtlessly out the window as the world streamed past. Buck was driving.  Chris was dozing in the back seat.  The world seemed calm.  But there was nothing calm about having to drop everything and drive to El Paso to attend a funeral.  Ray had been a good damned friend.  He’d looked out for Eddie from the moment they were loaded into the flight to the Middle East on Eddie’s first tour.  It’d been Ray’s third time round and he took Eddie under his wing.  Not just on that flight but the whole time.  He stayed on tours for longer than Eddie before he finally took a permanent role stateside.  He was at a training facility in their home town when a cadet got their first ever live rounds to practice with, dropped the damned thing and shot Ray through the chest.  It wasn’t even his training group; he was just walking past.  Bullet went in at an angle and managed to pierce both his lungs.

“Hey” Buck’s soft voice pulled Eddie’s thoughts back to the car.

“Hmm?”

“You okay? You’re looking a bit lost.”

“Eyes on the road Buckley,” Eddie joked, “I’m okay.” He added in a moment later.  No point putting on too much of a brave face.  Buck already knew Eddie was cut up about it and Chris was sleeping.

“We’re about an hour out.  Have you told your parents you’re coming down?”

“I’ll tell them after the funeral.  My mother gets weird about military mortality rates and I don’t have the headspace to console her about it just yet.”

Buck hummed in acknowledgement and took a candy from the bag in the centre console. Eddie’s took one too and let his thoughts drift back out the window.

Before he knew it, they were pulling up and Buck was acting like they’d arrived.  But … they were in a parking lot of small set of apartments.  Four low set stucco homes connected in a row.

“Buck, I thought you said you booked something?  Are we staying with a friend of yours?”

“No, I just figured you’d need a bit of space so … three hotel rooms are expensive and awkward to book, one three-bedroom AirBnB is easier.”

“We’ve got a whole apartment?”

“Yeah.  Full kitchen for me, rails in the bathroom for Chris, space for you.”

Eddie smiled as he got out and stretched.  Of course, Buck would have searched for disability accessible accommodation. He went around and got a sleepy Chris out of the car while Buck grabbed their bags.  

The apartment was nice.  Everything was neutral colours but more beige and stone than white which made it seem warmer. Open plan living and kitchen area then a little hall with two bedrooms on one side. Third bedroom and a family bathroom on the other side. The bedroom at the end of the hall was clearly a kid’s room, two single beds with a choice of planets or stars on the sheets and a set of shelves holding books and basic (easy to sterilise) toys.

They didn’t have anywhere to be until eleven the next morning and it was barely four in the afternoon.  They’d stopped off in Phoenix the night before so it had only been a six hour drive. They offered to take Chris to the park but he’d hesitated and said he didn’t need to.  Eddie knew his son had energy to burn and was probably dying to do something after two days of driving but he also knew Chris felt guilty about the idea of having fun while Eddie was sad.  Eventually they talked him into going for a walk after Eddie pointed out that he really needed to get out and get some fresh air.

It was nice, ambling along the sidewalk in the humidity.  The air here felt like home. Buck was leading them somewhere and it really didn’t surprise Eddie to know that Buck would have researched the area.  They came up to a large park just two blocks from their place.  A good distance really because Chris was starting to struggle.

“Feel a bit stiff?” he asked and Chris hissed a little sound of annoyance and nodded, “Sorry Miho, I should have realised so long in the car would make you uncomfortable.  How about we sit under that tree and stretch a bit?”

Chris didn’t really answer, he just started off in the direction Eddie indicated. Chris usually sat with his back against the wall for some of his leg stretches and Eddie thought he’d use the tree trunk as resistance but instead he asked Buck to sit behind him while Eddie took off his shoes and started pushing against his feet. They’d only done the first in a series of stretches on each leg when a child’s voice piped up behind Eddie

“What are they doing to that kid?” Eddie automatically stiffened.  He knew it was natural curiosity but at the same time he didn’t like the sometimes cruel and blunt way children could talk about others.

“They’re stretching his legs,” another child replied calmly, “My mum does it for me every day too.  Sometimes it hurts but it usually feels really good.”

Eddie looked over his shoulder to see a pair of girls a little younger than Chris, one with a child sized, bright purple walking frame.   They both smiled and waved as Eddie looked, but they were looking beyond Eddie.  His turning around meant that they could see Chris’ face.  Chris waved back and they took that as some kind of sign to head over to them.

“Hi, just starting your stretches?” The girl with the frame asked.

“Uh huh,” Chris replied, slight excitement in his voice, “Wanna stay and hang out for a bit?”

The girl with the frame moved it off to the side a bit and the other one helped her sit on the grass.  Apparently, that was a yes.  Eddie looked over his son’s head and at a smirking Buck. Making friends as a kid was so easy.

The girls stayed and chatted through all Chris’ stretches then they all moved off to play on the playground together.  Eddie shuffled around until his back was the tree trunk and watched his child play.

“Man, your kid’s got charisma.” Buck uttered watching as Chris helped the girl with CP, Marissa, get onto a swing and started pushing.  Sarah, the other girl, was already on her own swing.

“Life’s a lot easier at ten.” Eddie mused.

“Still…” Buck argued

“Yeah.  He’s kind of great.”

Buck bumped their shoulders together, “Best kid I’ve ever met.”

“Careful, you have a niece.” Eddie teased.

The easy banter was everything he needed right now. He had humidity pressing against his skin, his best friend by his side and a smile on his son’s face. Really, life was pretty good right now despite his reason for being in El Paso.

Eventually the sky started to darken and Chris was getting less steady on his feet even as he continued to try and assist Marissa in moving around the playground. It took some negotiation and the promise to meet back at the park the day after the funeral before Chris was willing to leave his new friends.  They hadn’t had a chance to get any groceries so they ordered in and had an early night. Chris crashed easily and Eddie sat out in the little private courtyard letting the humidity and the sound of cicadas soothe him.  

Eddie felt like his soul had cracked a little, losing Ray.  For years he’d been Eddie’s constant companion.  A good friend.  A confidant.  His only source of comfort.  And then he wasn’t.   Eddie couldn’t remember the last time he even thought about Ray before he got the call. How could he have moved on so easily and without even realising?

“What are you thinking about?” Buck asked as he handed Eddie a fresh beer and took a seat.

“Ray.  He took me under his wing from the start of my first tour.  Distracted me on bad days with bad jokes.  Talked to me like a fucking therapist when I had to see bad things. Stood guard laying cover fire while I amputated a guy’s leg out in the open.  No chance of stopping the patient screaming so they all knew where we were but Ray managed to keep us safe….” Eddie took a breath and quietly admitted something he’d never really even talked about before, “When things got really bad, he’d share my cot and help me muffle the crying in his shoulder.”

Bucks hand rested on his forearm and Eddie took a shaky breath and looked up to meet his eyes.

“He sounds like a good friend.”

Eddie nodded, “He kept me sane.  Kept me safe.  We were family.  He was happy when I said I was signing up for a second tour.  Even talked about staying stateside when I said I was getting out.  Then he realised I was going back to my wife and kid and you could see the excitement fall off his face.  Next thing he was talking about another tour; his fifth.  It was like he was thinking we’d both get out, share a place together and get some peace.  Me already having a family got in the way of that.  He never said it but I hurt his feelings. I … I think he maybe loved me.”

“Of course, he did.  You said yourself, you were family.” Buck tried to reassure him and somehow missed what Eddie was saying.

“No.  I think it was more than that.  My second tour, by the end, he was sleeping in my bunk more often than his own.  Not because either of us were having a particularly bad time, but because he just liked it there.  He liked the comfort.  I liked it too.  It was good to have something nice when everything else was so horribly harsh. But over time it felt like…”

“He was falling in love?”

Eddie looked up at Buck and his eyes swam.  He felt so fucking guilty.

“I didn’t … I never even realised until it was too late.  I couldn’t be that for him.” The tears fell and Eddie’s vision was awash.

Buck was pulling him up from the bench and into a tight hug.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not though.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.  He needed you and you were there for him.  It’s not your fault you’re so lovable,” Buck joked, “Seriously though, if you had cottoned on sooner, what would you have done differently? Cut ties and made him feel bad about it?  Stopped looking after him in a war zone?”

Eddie shook his head.

“And he knew you were married from the get-go, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So, he had to know where he stood.  Even if you did take the whole ‘brother-in-arms’ thing a little more literal than most.  But um… did the other soldiers know you guys shared a bed?”

Eddie shrugged, “It’s not that rare really.  You do and see horrible things and people need a way to cope.  Some people withdraw into themselves and stop interacting.  Some develop a sex addiction and will seek out others that are the same.  Some freak out and randomly destroy stuff or beat up the first person they see.  Some get cuddly.  It seemed like the healthiest option to me.”

“I’ve never heard that before.”

“What happens in the warzones stays in the warzones.  Makes therapy kind of hard but it’s a solid rule.  Half the world’s military marriages would be ruined without it.  Even just the cuddling; Shannon would have been so upset.”

“You never cheated on her.  Not even when she left you,” Buck chided as he guided them both back onto the bench seat, “She couldn’t be upset with you.  I know you don’t believe it but from where I’m sitting you were a good husband.”

Eddie shook his head a little. “I don’t think so.”

“Well, I do.” He said it so quiet like he knew Eddie didn’t want to hear but it needed to be said.   Eddie didn’t know what he did to deserve a friend with such unwavering belief in him.

  Chapter 2

Buck woke to an alarm at seven. Chris would probably be up already and Buck wanted to get to the store before he started getting too hungry.  He wandered out of his room to find Chris already at the table.

“Hey Kiddo.  Your dad up yet?” He asked

“Nu-uh.” Clearly pre-occupied with something in front of him.

“You want to come to the grocery store with me? Pick out some cereal?”

“There’s already cereal.” Chris announced, pointing at a basket in the corner of the kitchen bench.  This side of the bench could be lowered or lifted to your preferred height with a little switch on the edge for wheelchair access.   Chris had lowered it down so it sat around Buck’s mid-thigh.  

Buck bent down to look in the basket and realised it contained a selection of single serve cereals and jams as well as a half loaf of bread.

“Oh, these people are definitely getting a five-star review.”

“I made toast,” Chris announced and held up the last corner of his proof, “Do you want some?”

“Some of your last bite of toast?”

“No silly.  I could make your some new toast.”

“Wait! You’re going to make me breakfast?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, yes please.”

Chris ate his last bit of toast and got up to grab two new pieces of bread.  He put them in the toaster then got out a plate and a knife and arranged them on the lowered section of counter top.  Clearly Chris was getting a kick out of the ‘child-size’ bench top.  

“You can have…. strawberry jam, marmalade, peanut butter or … ketchup?” Chris went through the supplied single serves of condiments, giggling at the last option.

“Hmmm, the ketchup could be interesting,” they both giggled and made grossed out faces, “but I think I’ll play it safe with the peanut butter, thank you.”

“What’s the ketchup for?” Eddie asked as he wandered into the room.

“Toast topping options from the breakfast basket,” Buck explained, “Christopher kindly offered to make me toast.”

“Do you want some, Dad?” Christopher asked as the toaster popped.

“Yes please.  But not with ketchup.” Eddie joked.

“You can have marmalade or strawberry jam.” Christopher advised while working on Buck’s peanut butter.

“Oooh strawberry jam please.”  Eddie actually looked quite pleased and Buck actively had to stop himself from chuckling at the memory of Eddie announcing that he was “a jam man” during breakfast on shift a while back.  He had been so serious and it sounded so ridiculous.  Buck couldn’t even articulate why it was so funny to him but he remembered it every time Eddie mentioned any kind of breakfast.

Chris delivered Buck’s plate to the table and headed back to get his dad’s plate ready.

“What did you have on your toast?” Eddie asked Chris as he got himself a cup of coffee.

“I had the blackberry jam.”

“That’s my little jam man.” Eddie murmured as he ruffled his son’s hair.

Bucks heart felt like it was suffocating a moment.  The jam man comment was a dad thing.  He was a jam man because his son was a little jam man. Buck loved seeing these family moments. His inner child healed a little more each time he noticed the sweet interactions between the these two.

After breakfast and a bit of chat at the table, Buck went out to the grocery store and Chris opted to stay back with his dad.  The funeral wasn’t until eleven but they were planning on leaving at ten to make sure they had time to get their bearings once they arrived at the base.

Buck had his suit hanging in his room ready for the day.  Still, he wasn’t expecting to come back to find Eddie in his dress uniform.  His jacket was over the back of one of the kitchen chairs, hat and gloves sitting on the bench but still… There was Eddie standing around with a glass of water in a crisp dress uniform.  Buck closed his eyes and took a deep breath before moving to pass Eddie and put away the groceries.  

“You clean up well.” He advised casually without looking at Eddie.

He got a snort in response.  

“Where’s your little jam man?” Buck asked, smirk unavoidable.  Eddie grinned back.

“He’s getting dressed.  You should too.”

Buck nudged the fridge closed and nodded.

“Sure, but first…” Buck gestured for Eddie.  Eddie put down his glass and raised an eyebrow, “Come on, before you put on the jacket, let me wrinkle up that shirt.” Buck explained and pulled Eddie into a proper hug.  Eddie let go of his breath and sunk into the hug.  His jaw quivered a bit against Buck’s shoulder and he squeezed a little tighter before he pulled back.   Eddie’s eye shone as he looked somewhere over Buck’s shoulder and nodded a bit.

“Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

Buck stood there, hand still on his best friend’s elbow, unwilling to fully step back from him.  He hated seeing him in pain like this.

Time hung there a moment, neither moving, before Chris emerged from the hall with frustration on his face and complaints about his belt buckle. Eddie moved to help him and Buck went to get himself ready.

****

They arrived at the military base with twenty minutes to spare before the official start of the ceremony.  All the handicapped spots were taken in the car park but Eddie wasn’t surprised.  They parked a little further back.  Chris was resolute that he could walk when Buck offered to carry him.  Eddie put his gloves on before getting out of the car and the hat as soon as he was standing on two feet.  Buck watched the disaffected mask slide over his face.  

Eddie’s back was straight and there was a rigidity to the way he walked as he led them to the parade ground where the service was being held.  Buck recognised it for the coping mechanism it was. Eddie might fall into a mess once the uniform came off but while it was in place, it would hold this man together. Buck held back from putting a comforting hand on his friend’s back and let the wash of routine and ceremony carry him along.

A man in uniform met them near the entrance to the parade ground, sweeping his eyes over the three of them before facing off with Eddie and saluting.

“Specialist Diaz.”

“General” Eddie returned the salute, voice firm but emotionless.

“Military personal are assembling on the East side.  Civilians on the West.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

“This your eldest?” the General asked nodding at Christopher.

“My only; this is Christopher,” Eddie put a proud hand on his son’s shoulder then nodded at Buck, “And this is Firefighter Buckley of the LAFD. General Davies was my sergeant back in the day.”

Buck exchanged a very firm handshake with the General then Eddie guided them away so the General could direct the next set of people. Eddie took a breath then crouched a little to look Chris in the eye.

“I have to go to the other side to stand with the officers.  You go sit up in the bleachers with Buck and I’ll meet you afterwards, okay?”

“Are you going to be okay by yourself?” Chris asked, his hand moving to hold the cuff of his dad’s jacket.

“I’ll be fine while I’m with the others.  Might need a big hug later though.”

“Okay.”  Chris agreed but he hesitated to move off with Buck.  Eddie had nodded his thanks to Buck and was turning to go when Chris rushed him for a hug.  He got Eddie awkwardly around the middle, trapping an arm and hitting his legs with the swing of his crutches.  Eddie chuckled and moved down on one knee for a proper big hug.  He kissed Chris’ hairline and whispered something in his ear. Chris gave him another squeeze then let his dad get up.  Eddie gave Buck another look then turned to head towards the East side of the parade ground. As he walked you could see the stiffness an exacting precision take over his form until he was marching across the black top.  

Buck realised he and Chris had just stood there and watched Eddie walk all the way across the grounds until Eddie was greeted by the other soldiers and fell into line.  Seeing that he had others beside him that greeted him like old friends broke the spell and Buck looked around, guiding Chris to his side.  The General caught his eye and gave him a nod that felt like praise for some reason.  Buck nodded back then turned to take Christopher up to the bleachers to try a find a section in the shade.  They stopped off at a table by the stairs and picked up a program.  They had water bottles for sale and Buck got two of those too. Texan heat was something else and Buck had no idea how all those soldiers were going to fare with their full-dress uniforms in this sun.  

Buck got them settled and tucked Chris’s crutches down by their feet, hoping to keep them out of the sun so Chris could still use them when they left. The service began at eleven on the dot and was full of long speeches about valour.  Raymond Hanes had been an exemplary man.  Brave. Kind. Considerate.  They were all kind things but said in such a pompous, military way. Buck couldn’t help but feel that this was dragging on forever.  Eventually Ray’s mother got up to speak and for the first time Buck was reminded that this was a funeral for a person, not just a solider.  She broke down crying at several points and Buck had to swallow a lump in his throat.  

He looked down at Chris to see how he was going but Chris wasn’t paying attention to Mrs Hanes.  He was staring out toward the rows of soldiers.  Buck followed his gaze and found Eddie easily.  Even from this distance it was easy to see that he was clenching his jaw. Eddie needed to cry but instead he was stuck in a literal field of pomp and circumstance.  Buck, like Christopher, was entranced after that, unable to look away from Eddie as the speeches continued.  Both of them jumped when a bugle started up and a group of men, Eddie among them, snapped to attention.  They marched to coffin and folded the flag laying over it.  The general presented it to the crying parents of Raymond Hanes and then Eddie and the other pallbearers lifted their brother in arms up onto their shoulders.  The other soldiers all moved to attention and saluted as the coffin was slowly carried the length of the grounds and placed in a waiting car.  Christopher sniffled and lady the row behind handed him a tissue. Buck smiled up at her and noticed her red rimmed eyes.

An announcement was made that family and close friends could join the procession that would lead to the cemetery.  Others could wait at the parade grounds for their loved ones or meet them at the wake. The crackle of the PA system cut out and that was the end of it.  Some people in the bleachers stood but mainly, it was the officers and the people that were down sitting with the family that moved to walk along behind for the two mile journey to the military cemetery that neighboured the base.  

“Do we go too?” Chris asked as he watched the soldiers fall into formation behind the slow moving car.

Buck wasn’t really sure.  Eddie would have his fellow soldiers with him at the gravesite.  They didn’t need to be there but what happens after they disburse? Will the soldiers walk back here together? Buck looked at his near empty water bottle.  He’d been sipping throughout the hour long service.  Chris’ was empty as well.  

“Let’s find a bathroom, then we’ll get your dad a fresh bottle of water and we’ll go wait outside the cemetery to meet him, okay?”

Buck carried Chris in his arms as they walked out of base, past the carpark and down the road to the entrance of the cemetery.  There were a few people gathered there, clearly with the same thought and were waiting for the burial to end.  There were two bench seats but they were full of older women so Buck set Chris down and handed back his crutches. He was planning on sitting on the grass in a shady patch but Chris walked straight over to the women on the benches.  

“Hi Grandma.” Chris announced as he walked up to one of the women in the middle of the bench.  

Buck swallowed whatever he’d been about to say and looked at her. Helena Diaz was right there.  Buck hadn’t seen her since Shannon’s funeral but it was definitely her.

“Ch-Christopher, what are you doing here.”

“We came to look after dad for the funeral.  He’s in there.” Christopher pointed up the path that led to the grave sites.

Buck stepped forward and offered a hello.  “We weren’t expecting to see you ‘til tomorrow.  Eddie wanted to get through the funeral before visiting.” He explained.

“So, he was one of the pallbearers?”

Buck nodded and she tapped her collarbone like a comfort gesture.

“I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.” Helena whispered.

“Mr Ray was dad’s friend.  He’s really sad now.” Christopher explained and patted his grandmother’s arm.  She pulled him up into her lap and kissed his hair.

“Ray was in his squad through both tours.  Saved his life a few times from the sounds of it.” Buck explained gently, hoping Helena understood that Eddie was going through it and didn’t need her usual harassment while he was in town.

Helena started sniffling and the women either side of her made comforting gestures and rubbed at her back.  

“We’re POMP.” Announced a small blonde woman as she tapped Buck’s arm. He looked at her blankly, “Parents of Military Personal; It’s a support group.  We’re all here to support Sandra and Reggie, Raymond’s parents.”

Buck nodded awkwardly and they all lapsed into a strange silence. Christopher looked sweaty and uncomfortable in his grandmother’s clutches but he put up with it.  Buck didn’t know how to ask her to let go without being rude so he sent Chris an apologetic look and waited with the women of POMP.

Gunshots rang out, startling everyone.  They kept going one after the next in the traditional salute. Christopher whimpered and wiggled off Helena lap to move toward Buck.  He knelt down and held Chris’ ears to muffle the sound until it was done.  

“It’s okay.  They’re shooting into the air to say good bye.  There’s no bullets.” Buck explained and wiped the tears out of his eyes.

“Dad’ll be scared.” Chris worried and chewed his lip in the same was Eddie does when he’s concerned.

“We’re right here and we’re going to look after him as soon as we can. He’s going to be okay.” Buck advised, guiding Chris to the shady grass and letting him sit where the breeze could cool him a little. Helena was watching them like a hawk so Buck made a show about cooling Chris down, talking about the refreshing breeze and holding one of the cold water bottles against the back of Chris’ neck.  

Time passed and eventually people started coming through the entrance to head back out.  The women of POMP stood and talked to some of them, touched hands of others that passed. Two of the women were trying to hand out what looked like religious pamphlets. Buck and Chris waited off to the side.  

Eddie spotted them and was already headed straight for them by the time Buck picked him out of the crowd. He avoided the group as it bottle-necked at the benched area, moving behind it and along the tree line to get to where they’d been sitting.  He swept Christopher up and held on tight.  Chris buried his face in his dad’s neck.   Buck spared a glance at Helena and realised she was still looking in the crowd, her back to the person she was looking for.  

“Hey.” Eddie greeted him with a one-armed hug while Chris still clung onto his other shoulder.  The back of Eddie’s jacket was damp under Buck’s palm.  Sweat right through.  

“How are you?” Buck asked as he pulled back, keeping eye contact as he grabbed a water bottle from the ground.  Eddie put Chris down with a kiss to his hair.

“I’m okay so far.  Very ready to take this jacket off,” Eddie explained as he gratefully reached for the water bottle.  He finished it off in seconds, “The rules and the uniform are helping to keep my head in the game but this is so many layers.” He explained.

“Grandma’s here.” Chris pointed out as Helena made her way over having finally spotted her son.

Eddie’s face froze a moment before his eyes followed to where Chris was pointing. He’d barely turned around before his mother was in his arms crying on his shoulder.

“Edmundo.”

“Umm?” Eddie’s face had gone strangely blank.

“You mother is a member of a support group called POMP.  They came ‘to support Ray’s parents’.” Buck explained as discomfort settled over Eddie’s face.

She pulled back and held each side of his face, staring at him for a prolonged moment before kissing his forehead, “You should have told me you were coming.  I would have sat with you.”

“Dad had to stand with the soldiers.  Bucky came to sit with me and help Dad drive,” Chris supplied when Eddie took too long to respond, “Dad said we couldn’t tell you ‘til tomorrow because army funerals make you extra sad.”

Helena’s face softened and she pulled Eddie’s head in for more kisses. Buck dutifully pretended not to notice how red Eddie’s face got.

“Well, we’re all here now.  You boys will come home and I’ll cook your Papi’s favourite for dinner.” Helena announced.

“Uhh, I have to go to the wake, Ma.  The guys tell me there’s going to be barbacoa so… dinner tomorrow instead?”

Helena seemed to remember where they were and agreed before insisting that she would see them at the wake.  Buck had a sneaking suspicion she’d had no intention of going to the wake until the moment she said it.

Eddie made their excuses and Buck carried Chris through the crowd again so they could hurry back to the Jeep in peace. Neither mentioned Eddie’s mother during the drive.  Eddie barely said anything really.

 Chapter 3

They made a quick pit stop back at their place so Eddie could take a cold shower and change into fresh civilian clothes.  Buck and Chris said nothing about Eddie’s bloodshot eyes when he emerged from the bathroom, opting to focus on getting back into the Jeep and making their way to the home of Sandra and Reginald Hanes.  

The street was packed with cars and Buck had to park almost two streets away.  “Popular guy.” Buck mused as he pulled into a spot.  Eddie snorted.

“It’s a pretty standard size for a Texas gathering.”

“Huh, the only time I lived in Texas, I was out ranching.  Not a lot of time for get-togethers.  I guess this is my first Texas social event.”

“What’s ranching?” Chris asked, having already undone his seatbelt and leaning forward to stick his head between the front seats.

“Working as a ranch hand,” Eddie explained before pulling a sarcastic face, “Buck was a cowboy.”

“Cool. Can you teach me to ride a horse?”

Buck smiled and got out of the car, moving to open Chris’ door before answering, “I don’t know that I can still ride a horse.  It uses a lot of leg muscles and when you’re out of practice, it really hurts.”

Chris shrugged off the coded ‘no’ and took his crutches from his dad as Buck helped him down.  He let that go far too easily and Buck knew it was going to come up again in the future. Probably around Chris’ next birthday.

The house was packed when they arrived.  Eddie didn’t even try to enter, he just led them around the side and into the backyard.  It was a sizable area.  There were more than a few shade trees, and almost no grass because of it.  The air was humid and dusty at the same time and there were too many people to allow a breeze to cut through.  Buck was out of his element.

They followed Eddie to a table filled with food but bypassed it for the bucket of ice holding an array of canned drinks, both alcoholic and sodas, that sat at the end of the table.  He passed Buck a beer and grabbed one for himself and a cola for Chris then led the way to some empty lawn chairs over in the corner of the yard.  They took their seats and opened their drinks.  They sat there and soaked up the day for a while before Helena found them and pulled up her own lawn chair to ask a never-ending stream of questions about life in LA.  Chris, the little empath, answered most of the questions and let Eddie take a pass on the conversation.  They’d been there for what felt like an hour but was probably only really twenty minutes before some of Eddie’s military buddies found him.  They all pulled up chairs or stood leaning on the backs of friend’s chairs as their little circle grew into a clutch of broad-shouldered men. The talk shifted off Chris and Eddie’s LA life and more onto war stories and personality traits of the man they’d lost.

Helena looked a little annoyed at losing control of the conversation. As time went on, she got more and more horrified at the war stories being told.  It was only when she clutched at her necklace in shock of gory story about the mangled remains of the story teller’s arm that Buck realised Chris probably shouldn’t be listening to this.  Eddie was enjoying the conversation and throwing in his two cents worth here and there with a dark sense of humour so common in the medical field. That meant it was up to Buck to move Chris away.  

Buck got up and put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder as he crossed behind him to encourage Chris to get up.

“Where are you two going?” Eddie asked and the conversation around them stopped.  Buck cringed. He’d been hoping to slip away quietly.

“Conversation is getting a little gory.  Thought I might take Chris to check out the food.  You want anything?”

Eddie shrugged and nodded.  Buck knew that to mean, ‘I’ll eat whatever you give me’ so he nodded and helped Chris manoeuvre between the chairs before he had space to hand over the crutches.  Chris was still getting a grip on the left one when Buck heard one of the guys make a comment that Eddie had a good boyfriend.  Buck didn’t bother to turn around and it didn’t seem like Eddie heard it as he kept talking about elbow sinew.  He was pretty sure Helena heard it though, her piercing stare, burning a hole in his back as Buck walked away.

Helena joined them when Buck was fixing a plate and insisted on being the one to take Eddie some food.  Buck had a feeling her mother vs girlfriend competitiveness extended to misinterpreted boyfriends. He handed her the plate he’d already filled and nodded at the drinks without being fazed and then moved on to setting up a plate for Chris.

Helena strutted her way across the yard and made a show of handing her son a plate of food, a fork, a napkin and then his drink.  Buck spied some kids sitting at a shorter table eating so he set Chris up with them and joined a conversation with the mums standing nearby.  

Helena lasted another half an hour sitting by her son and trying to take part in the remembrances of war and a soldier she likely never met, before she excused herself and came over to help watch over Christopher.  Chris was happily chatting with the other kids about goodness knows what and completely uninterested in having his grandmother hovering.

Buck could see her hesitation before she came over to sit with him and the mums.  Apparently, none of the other POMP members came to the wake. Buck smiled at her and introduced her to the group.  Helena wasn’t really his kind of person but it was his job to make Eddie’s day easier and that’s what he was going to do.  They sat there talking recipes and play dates for a good while.

The day moved on and the sun lowered, temperatures dropping as the barbacoa was served up.  Chris didn’t really need more food but it smelled so good that he asked for a plate anyway.  Helena jumped to the task and Buck felt a bit superfluous.  Sherry, one of the women he’d been chatting with, gave him a look then said something about his mother-in-law.  As in Helena being Buck’s mother-in-law.  Buck stared at her for a good long moment before he realised, she was waiting for him to speak.

“She n-not my.. um.  Eddie’s straight.  He’s widowed. I-I’m just helping out.”  He was babbling.  This was very awkward.

“Oh.  Oh! Oh my god, I’m so sorry.  It’s just … his son and you’re so … I just assumed and shouldn’t have and oh god, I am so sorry.”

Buck laughed.  At least she was as awkward about it as he was.  He waved it off and the other women in the little group giggled a bit now that they had permission.

“It’s fine.  Not the first time someone mistook me for Chris’ dad.  I guess it does kind of come across a bit confusing.”

“Well, that and … Diaz and Hanes were … very close.” Melissa pointed out with the subtlety of a kick to the face, complete with a wink.

“It’s not really my place to say but as I understand it, they were very good friends.  And yes, there may an unspoken offer on the table but Eddie never took him up on it.” Buck explained quietly.  He would have liked to tell them to shove it but that would have just caused further gossip. Helena was on her way back over and Buck was hoping to kill this line of questioning before she got back.

“So, tell us then Buck, does that mean you’re single?” asked Donna, a woman with pale red hair and a low-cut dress.  At another point in his life, she would have been exactly Buck’s type but now, not so much.  Things with Taylor were at a weird impasse and he wasn’t really with her anymore but by the same token, he couldn’t outright say he was single just yet.  Not to mention Donna was clearly sporting a wedding ring, already having mentioned a few times that her husband was on deployment.

“It’s a little complicated.  My girlfriend is going through some things.  I’m giving her a bit of space to sort things out.” Not really the truth but not entirely a lie either.

“Girlfriend?” Helena asked, having returned to hear that last comment.

“Taylor.  She’s got, ah, some family stuff going on these days.”

“I don’t remember Eddie ever telling us about her.”

“Well, he wouldn’t really have a reason to.  Unless you usually spend your skype chats talking about me?” Buck joked but somehow, he seemed to have pissed off Helena more than usual.

The evening took hold and Buck tried to keep to himself with Helena’s ever growing stink face.  Eddie came over to check on Chris and pat his mother’s shoulder.  He had a plate of food in his hands and whiskey on his breath but seemed to be holding up well.  Buck had seen grief enough times to know Eddie was probably past the crying stage and into the ‘honour the memory’ sort of things.  The stories with his fellow soldiers seemed to be exactly what he needed. He made a little sideways motion with his head and Buck got up to follow him to a quiet spot.

“Everything okay?” Eddie asked.  

“Fine.  I think your mother is annoyed at me and I can’t figure out why.  We were doing okay, then she got up to help Chris get dinner and when she came back, she was grumpy,” Buck explained but realised half way through that Eddie didn’t need to be dealing with that today, “I don’t think she was planning on coming to the wake.  She’s probably just annoyed that she felt the need to change her plans last minute but it’s good of her to be here for you.”

“What were you talking about before she went to get dinner?”

“Umm, I think it was casseroles and the wonders of slow cookers,” Eddie gave him a weird look and Buck shrugged, stealing a bit of meat on the side of Eddie’s plate, “How are things going with your friends?”

“Good.  They’re talking about going to a bar after this.  Getting out of the Hanes’ way.”

“Okay. If I take Chris home, are you okay to get a ride share home?”

“Sure”

“I’ll text you the address so you can copy it into the app.  Don’t need your drunken texting getting you lost.”

Eddie snorted and deliberately took a large bite of food.  He’d never been one for getting completely wasted.

“Come sit with us for a bit before you go?” Eddie invited.  Buck looked over to Chris and Helena.  Things were taken care of there so Buck grabbed a quick plate of his own and followed Eddie back to the group in the far corner.

 Chapter 4

Eddie stumbled into the apartment and carefully shut the door behind him.  He’d tried to just pretend to be keeping up with the boys but he still ended up more drunk than he’d been in the past few years.  He sat on the floor directly in front of the doorway and spent an embarrassingly long time untying his shoes.  He snuck through the house on socked feet, headed for food.  His medic brain told him toast would help.  He stopped at the table and eyed off the sports drink and bottle of Tylenol.  Buck was a better friend than he deserved.

After toast and Tylenol Eddie had a quick shower and found his way to his bedroom.  He stared at the bed but he couldn’t bring himself to climb in.  Today was the day he said goodbye to Ray.  Getting drunk wasn’t a good enough way to honour that. Eddie did an about face and walked across the hall, creaking open Buck’s door.  He was asleep; laying on his back with his arm around a pillow at his side. In Eddie’s drunken mind it was the perfect invitation.

He slipped into the room, pulled back the covers and moved the pillow, then tucked himself in against Buck’s side.

“Mmphf.” Buck stirred at the disruption.

Eddie closed his eyes and feigned sleep.  Buck moved around a bit and then slowly eased away from him.  Eddie’s heart broke a little as Buck climbed out of the bed but he was too embarrassed to do anything but continue to fake slumber.

Buck patted his head a moment then left the room.  Eddie lay there mortified until he heard the front door lock, a light got turned out, the exhaust in the bathroom shut off and silence descended on the house.  Then Buck was walking back into the room.  He moved around a bit then climbed back in bed and lifted Eddie’s head to rest back on his shoulder.  The tension melted out of Eddie and he snuggled in.

“G’night Eds.” Buck mumbled.  They were both asleep within minutes.

****

Eddie woke feeling like he’d been licking a muppet in his sleep.  His head was three times heavier than normal and his own sweat smelled foul.  He opened his eyes to see he was in the bed alone.  Buck’s bed.  He could hear Buck and Chris chatting in the other room.  He wanted to sleep for another week and realistically, with Buck taking care of Chris, he could sleep longer.  But he knew he had to face his parents today and if he put his head back down, too much of the day would disappear.

He pulled himself out of Buck’s bed and forced himself into the too bright bathroom.  The Tylenol was sitting next to his toothbrush with a fresh glass beside it.   Buck is god damned angel.

When he was vaguely presentable and decently awake, he shuffled into the living area. There was a plate with pancakes waiting for him with a fresh cup of coffee.

“Buck, I need you to know that you are the best friend I’ve ever had in my whole life.” Eddie announced as he sipped his coffee and eyed the bottle of syrup.

Buck huffed a little laugh, “Back at ya Eds.”

Breakfast made him feel like an actual human being but if asked he still wouldn’t be able to explain how time morphed from hungover pancakes to sitting in his parents living room.  Chris was trying to show his Abuelo how to play a game on his switch.  Buck was talking to his mother about something at Chris’ school and Eddie finally checked in to his surroundings.

He apologised for being hungover and his mother tsked at him. Buck cut in over whatever she’d been about to say by pointing out that it was an understandable aftermath of a funeral.  Eddie watched his mother silently seethe at that comment.

Eddie tried to be more present after that.  He talked to his father about the new gazebo that Adriana’s husband helped him build. Then Chris mentioned something about a surfing lesson and his parents began their lecture on how inappropriate it was to have Christopher doing such dangerous things.

“Christopher’s a really strong swimmer.  Those lessons probably saved his life when we got caught in the tsunami.” Buck tried to help but it just sent them off on a rant about how unsafe California is and how he should be moving home to be with family.  Buck sent him apology eyes from the next seat over.

Eddie got up to make himself another cup of coffee and hoped leaving the room for those two minutes would reset the conversation to something civil. He got back to the sounds of his mother asking about Chris’ diet. She was basically interrogating Buck and Chris both, like she was trying to catch them out in a lie but Buck was answering everything calmly.  He stuttered here and there, like he did when unsure but it wasn’t like he didn’t know the answers.  He probably just felt like it wasn’t his place to say.

Eddie was at his limit.  He hadn’t been hungover like this since his boot camp days; he was tired, his headache was pulsing and he’d just buried a friend yesterday. This visit wasn’t about them or all the things they thought he was doing wrong.  It was about Ray.

“I need some air.” He escaped out the back door and into the garden, leaving his coffee on a side table as he went.  Much as he loved the humidity, Eddie would kill for a cool breeze right now. He pulled at the neck of his shirt and sat in the new gazebo. His chest was tight.  Breath too short.  He’d been learning the signs and knew he was one more ounce of pressure away from a panic attack.  He wanted to go back in and tell them he was leaving. The comforting thought that if he left the house Buck and Chris would follow him was cancelled out but knowing his parents would too.  He never wanted Chris to see him have another attack.  

“Dad?” Eddie looked up to see Chris hovering nearby.

“Hey kiddo.” He smiled and took as steady a breath as he could manage.

“Buck wanted to talk to Grandma and Abuelo so he sent me outside to sit with you.” Chris explained.

“Wh-what did Buck need to talk to them about?”

“I don’t know but he looked annoyed.” Chris shrugged.  

“Stay here a minute.” Eddie instructed and skulked around to one of the lounge windows.  He climbed past the agave in the garden bed and leant against the wall to listen to Buck’s voice.

“… marriage may not have been perfect but you nit-picking everything Shannon did added to her running off.  After she left you started in on Eddie.  Everything was wrong. You always knew better – you do not get to interrupt me.” There was a squeak from his mother and Buck took a breath before he soldiered on, “He didn’t just go to LA to chase his wife, he went to get out from under your overly critical thumb.  You asked him to give up his child!  He went to war – saw things that probably scarred his soul - to make sure he could give Chris whatever he needed and you act like that makes him less of a parent?  He is a great father and Chris wants for nothing, but you talk to Eddie like he can’t do a single thing right.  You are so focused on being Chris’ grandparents that you’ve stopped being Eddie’s parents.  Your son just buried a good friend.  Any decent parent would hug him and give him some comfort but it’s like you just don’t care.  Look, I’m not trying to get angry at you or make you feel bad but you have to know; this behaviour is why he left and if you keep it up, he’ll never come back. Just … just once, could you support him?  Please.” A chair scraped on the tiles and there were footsteps.  Before Eddie could think to move, Buck walked out the back door. Eddie wasn’t crying, but it was a near miss. Somehow Buck looked guilty, like he was the one getting caught out.  

Eddie climbed out of the flower bed and gestured to Chris in the gazebo. They sat either side of Christopher, silence heavy in the air.

“Thank you.” Eddie managed to say it, voice thick with how much it meant to have someone stick up for him like that.

“Sorry.  I gu-guess I overstepped a bit there.  I just, couldn’t not say it.”

“No, I appreciate it,” He reached around Chris and put a hand on Buck’s shoulder, “You shushed my mother.” He pointed out in awe.  

Buck gave him a smile, “How are you doing today?”  Chris looked up at Eddie waiting for that answer too.  Eddie couldn’t help but smile back at them.

“Little bit seedy, little bit sad, but things are starting to get better.”

Chris gave a triumphant smile and leaned in for a side hug.  Buck smiled at him over Chris’ head.  They sat out there in the warm breeze for a while until his parents came out.  Mum had a pitcher of lemonade and Papi was carrying the glasses.  

“We thought you boys might be a little warm without the air conditioning.”

They served up the drinks and sat down on the other side of the gazebo. Papi declared they looked good sitting there together and pulled out his phone to take a photo.  Eddie was a little weirded out by the happy family pretence but his mother’s bloodshot eyes said she’d heard Buck.  He tucked in beside Chris and let his dad take the photo.

They sat there in heavy silence, sipping on homemade lemonade for a time.  Eventually his mother put her glass down and slapped her hands down on her knees.

“I’m sorry Edmundo.  I have been overly critical. We have been overly critical of your parenting. I guess, I just like to be in control,” Papi snorted at that and she slapped him playfully on the knee, “and when I’m not in control I like to pretend I am anyway. It comes out in bossiness and disparaging comments about anyone else’s decisions.  I honestly didn’t realise how far I’d gone but Buck pointed out that I was going too far and not being a supportive parent.  Baby boy, I am so sorry.”  Eddie sat stunned at his sniffling mother.  He had never once witnessed her apologise for her behaviour.

“Th-thank you.” Eddie went over and gave her a hug.  Papi joining in a moment later.  

They enjoyed their lemonade out in the gazebo then went back inside for lunch.  They talked easily, his parents asking about things in his life, not just Christopher’s. It was nice.  It was really, really nice.  So much so that when it came time to leave for Chris’ playdate in the park, he invited them along.

“Helena, love, you go with Buck and Chris.  Edmundo and I will catch up in a bit,” Papi declared and held Eddie back a little, “There’s something I want to talk to you about.” He explained.

Two hours ago, this would have filled Eddie with dread.  The fear in Buck eyes said he was expecting Eddie to get dragged across the coals for letting Buck say what he did but Eddie knew his father.  This wasn’t his foreboding voice.  He gave Buck a reassuring smile and helped them pack up Chris’ things into the Jeep. When he’d waved them off, he turned back to his father who guided him into his den.  

Papi started searching though drawers until he found something in a worn velvet box and came to sit down with Eddie.

“I did some research when Chris started talking about Buck and we began to realise.  I’ve talked to your Abuela about it and she said you weren’t ready for it yet, but today showed me that maybe you are ready for it,” He handed Eddie the box with an expectant look on his face.  Eddie was not sure what he was expecting but his late Abuelo’s gold watch wasn’t it, “You know I always intended to leave this to you in my will but… well, I just thought it might be a nice gesture if you could use it for… you know.  When you’re ready.”

Eddie ran his finger over the face of the watch.  He always knew it was a family heirloom and he’d get it one day with the expectation that he would hand it down to Christopher.  He never expected to get it while his dad was alive to hand it to him.  

“I don’t understand. What does Buck have to do with it?”

“Well, I did some research and apparently a watch is as good as a ring in these situations and well, I just thought it would be nice to let him know the family are in full support.  Of course, if you’d rather use something else that’s fine but I thought you should take the watch with you now so you had the option when the time was right.”

“What time?  Use it for what?”

“To propose to Buck. You are going to propose right?”

Eddie looked at his father like he was staring into an alternate reality. Propose.  To Buck.  …

“I – I don’t, I mean … we’re not…” Eddie was at a loss.  This was such a nice gesture.  And for Buck who always felt so unwelcome in his family to be offered a spot in someone else’s… but they’re not like that.  Some part of him told Eddie to explain that he’s never dated a man; that his papi had it all wrong. But he couldn’t bring himself to say that.  Buck was family.  He’d be an amazing step parent.

“It’s not like that,” Eddie tried to clarify, voice thick with an emotion he couldn’t even understand, “He’s my best friend.”

“Exactly!  All the best couples say they married their best friend.  That’s not something you let pass you by Edmundo.”

“Papi, you don’t understand; we’re not dating.  He’s just my friend.”

“Psht! ‘Just’ my eye.  That man went to bat for you against your own mother.”

“Papi listen!  I’ve never dated a man.  Buck is here as my friend.  A very, very good friend but just my friend!”  Eddie’s heart was racing now.  He didn’t like saying these things.  He certainly didn’t like repeating them.  Buck is so much more than a friend but that doesn’t mean he’d ever settle for a man like Eddie.  

“Edmundo, I’m not a fool,” Papi admonished and patted Eddie’s cheek, “It doesn’t matter what you have or haven’t done in the past.  What matters is how you feel right now.  And I checked his Facebook profile – it says he dates women and men.  Even if you haven’t started dating yet, you shouldn’t deny yourself that kind of love forever.  I can see it when he looks at you.  When he takes care of your baby.  When he fights for you.  I see it on both your faces.  You do whatever you want in your own time, but take the watch home with you.  Keep it as an option in case you find yourself ready to use it, yes?”

Eddie sat there gaping like a fish.  He had never thought about what his father would say if he dated a man. After Ray, he’d been very careful not to let his thoughts stray down that path.  But whatever he had thought possible, it certainly hadn’t been this. The Facebook profile was new information too.  He knew Buck had an extensive and varied platoon of exes; He’d never known for sure that they weren’t all women.  There may have been some casual comments that he’d been too chicken to ask for clarification on but Eddie could honestly say he never knew for sure.

“Do you need a minute?” Papi asked.

“I need a whiskey.”

“It can’t be that much of a surprise.” Papi joked.

“That my Latino father is encouraging his straight son to propose to a male best friend? It’s certainly not what I expected.”

“Eddie, Miho, just because you’ve never dated a man doesn’t mean I believe you’ve never looked at one.  You used to have a crush on Prince Eric from the mermaid movie.”

“I was nine.  He was cool. I wanted a dog, and a boat … and a mermaid girlfriend.  It wasn’t a crush.”

“Mmmhmm.”

Eddie needed to reassess his entire life.  He looked down at the watch again.  With a twist of stomach nerves, he put it away in his jacket pocket.  His Papi smiled at him like he was proud.  

Eddie’s head was in a haze the whole time they were at the park.  Mum was being overly cautious with every piece of play equipment Chris touched.  Buck was standing around chatting to Marissa’s mother and Papi was running around like a loon playing with the kids.  

Eventually they went back to his parent’s house and had dinner. Adriana bought her family over and Eddie tried his best to keep up with the gossip his now sixteen-year-old niece was spouting about drama including a bunch of people he’d never heard of.  Apparently, everyone else was keeping up and even Buck was getting into the story like it was truly epic. Eddie just couldn’t follow it though.  He let them think it was from the hangover but, in all honesty, that had mostly passed. The reality was, his mind was stuck on the watch that was burning a hole in his jacket pocket.  Eddie could feel the weight of it from across the room.

He'd never tried to picture his life with a male partner.  The thought may have come up here and there but he never pursued it.  All his thoughts of the future did include Buck but he’d never really considered how Buck would fit into it all. It was never Buck with a partner or Buck with kids of his own.  It was always just Buck there with them.

The evening went by in a whirlwind and ended with Eddie apologising for not being more fun as they said their goodbyes.  It wasn’t until Buck was buckling Chris into the car and out of earshot that it hit him.  His niece, Izzy, added a “good luck” and a wink to her good bye and it dawned on Eddie that every member of his family knew about the watch and why he got it early. He looked them all in the eye and they all looked back with encouraging faces.  Adriana even tapped the pocket that was bulging out in the shape of the watch box.

He stood there, gaping at his family.  He knew it wasn’t the fifties anymore but he was shocked to think his father was so indiscrete. And earlier, he said he’d talked to Abuela about it. She’d said he wasn’t ready yet, like she was expecting the same outcome as the rest of them.

“You’re all…?”

“Whatever you want, whenever you’re ready.” Papi reminded him. Adriana cuddled into Papi’s side and grinned at Eddie.

“Yeah.” She agreed.  It was one word but with that look in her face and that tone in her voice that she would use when she was being a proud big sister. She wanted this for him because she believed it would make him happy. They all did.  Eddied looked up at the sky a moment.  This week had been an emotional rollercoaster and apparently his family was a full loop-the-loop.

“Well, … I guess I’ll just do whatever I want then.” Eddie decided. He threw them all a mischievous grin and turned to strut off to the Jeep.  He didn’t have to fall in love with Buck and get married.  He just had to do whatever he wanted whenever he was ready.  And if Buck turned out to be a part of that, it was nice to know his family was cool with it.

 Chapter 5

Once Chris was tucked into bed, Eddie and Buck sat out in the courtyard. They didn’t chat or feel the need to fill the silence.  They just sat for about an hour absorbing the night.

“So… you’ve been a little out of it since your dad kept you back to talk. Is everything okay?” Buck asked.

“Yeah.  Yeah, he just gave me something.  My Abuelo’s watch.  Dad was going to leave it to me in his will but, he decided I should have it now.” Eddie explained with a weird tone to his voice.

“Cool. So, is that a good thing?”

“Yeah,” Eddie seemed genuine but the weird tone remained, “his reasoning was just really unexpected.”

Buck didn’t ask but he raised his eyebrows and waited.

“He thought I might want to use it instead of an engagement ring when I decide to get remarried.”

“Remarried?  Does he think you’re still with Ana?”  He had Buck’s full attention now.

“No.  Pretty sure Ana would have wanted a diamond ring, not a men’s watch.”

“I don’t get it.  Who’s he expecting you to propose to?”

“You,” Buck froze mid breath and stared at Eddie like a deer in the headlights, “He knows we’re not dating and that I’ve never dated a guy.  But he also says your Facebook lists you as bisexual so ‘there’s hope’.  He said ‘all the best couples say they married their best friend’ and he’s right in saying you’d be a wonderful step father.  He just wants me to keep my mind open to the idea.  Apparently, he’s been thinking about it ever since Chris started mentioning you on their Skype chats so probably for a couple of years now. He talked Abuela about it.”  Eddie shrugged and took a sip of his beer.

Buck’s mind was reeling.  Eddie made it sound like he didn’t know Buck was bi but also that he was very straight. Still the way he said this, like he was nervous.  Buck’s mind started tingling with something that felt very much like hope.

“H-he thinks I’d be a good stepdad?”

“Of course, you would.  You pretty much already are.” Eddie confirmed like it was some casual fact.

“I…” Buck stared out into the darkness with a hand on his stomach where he was twisting up with feelings.

Eddie patted his shoulder. “Sorry.  You weren’t expecting that.  I wasn’t either.  It’s why I’ve been so dazed all afternoon.”

“Does Chris know?”

“I don’t think so but the rest of my family does.  When you were putting Chris in the car, they all wished me luck. Izzy winked at me.”  Eddie shook his head at the memory.

“That explains the looks she was giving me over dinner.  She called me Tio at one point and I just thought she got mixed up.”  It also explained why Helena looked so relieved when she mentioned Taylor and Buck had explained that he was single but had used Taylor to deflect Donna’s advances at the wake.

“Does it bother you?”  Eddie sounded nervous and Buck wanted to laugh in his face.  

“No.  No-one’s family has ever wanted to keep me before.  It’s nice.  Kinda sad that it won’t happen.” Buck took a sip of his beer.  Eddie looked weirdly put out by Buck saying it wouldn’t happen.

They lapsed into silence again.  Buck peeling at his beer label.  Eddie staring at the pavers.  For the first time in a long time Buck let himself think about it.  If he got to live with them, sleep in Eddie’s bed and help Chris with homework.  If they could kiss good night and hold hands at the grocery store. The butterflies in his stomach turned into a little fluttering tornado.

Eventually they turned into for the night but when Eddie went to get into bed, Buck walked into his room.

“You made my sheets smell like whiskey sweat.  I’m sleeping in here.” He announced and walked around to the far side of the bed without waiting for permission.

Eddie hesitated.  He looked at his jacket nervously and Buck followed his eyes to the bulge in the pocket. It must be the watch.  But Eddie shrugged off whatever he was thinking and moved to the bed.  They got into bed and laid side by side.

“This is weird. Can we cuddle?” Buck whispered into the dark.

“You’d be okay with that?” Eddie was a little surprised.

“I like cuddles.  And your hair smells nice … when you’re not drunk.” He goaded.

Eddied chuckled a little and moved over to sleep under Buck’s arm.

When they woke the next morning, they both lay there, aware that the other was awake but neither of them letting go.  They snuggled there so long that Chris came looking for them and ended up climbing in to join them.

****

Buck thought back to the El Paso trip and smiled a little.  It had caused a shift in their friendship that slowly snowballed over time.  Buck started getting included more in Chris’ Skype calls with his family.  Eddie was more affectionate here and there.  Buck had officially ended things with Taylor. Eddie had casually admitted that he may have had a thing for a Disney prince when he was a kid.

When Buck was at their house to hang out, there was a lot more cuddling after Chris was sent to bed. And eventually, about six months after El Paso, Eddie finally kissed him.  They took things slow and cautious, terrified they’d mess this up but so far it was working out.  Things were better than life had ever been for Buck.

Now here he was nearly another full year after their first kiss, going on an actual date to a fancy restaurant on Valentines Day.  Chris was coming too because before they were boyfriends, they were family.  

The food was fantastic.  The sweet looks of couples smiling at their little family filled Buck’s heart and honestly, he didn’t think his life could be any more complete.  But then, just before desert was served Chris bounced in his seat and Eddie took a deep breath and that was all the warning Buck got before a worn velvet box was placed in front of him.  

Buck eyed them both with wide eyes and opened it up.  There sat a beautiful gold watch.  A question and an invitation into something he’d wanted his whole life. Eddie didn’t even get to say the words before Buck was nodding and tears blurring his vision of the man in front of him.  

“My dads just got engaged!” Chris announced to the whole restaurant with a giant grin on his face.    

[fandom-------queen]

Kurt x reader

Warnings: Sparring

Notes: your mutation is the ability to read people's fears and traumatic memories. You can also produce illusions for everyone to see or put an illusion only in one person's head. These illusions can be based on their fears or memories. Also since it's based off of Wanda and more of the mind stone your power will be yellow and your eyes will glow yellow.

*Also I'm so sorry this took so long I just had so many papers I had to write last week that it was hard for me too write once I finished them. Also I had to rewrite it a few times when I forgot to hit save. Do again I am very sorry for the delay.

*Not proofread

You awoke to the obnoxious blaring of your alarm. You turned away from the noise to bury your face into your pillow but found yourself face to chest with Kurt. You grinned as you remembered how you fell asleep in Kurt's arms last night. Kurt groaned and reached over you to shut the alarm off then pulled you closer to him and started to drift back off. You lifted your head up and mumbled "Ah ah ah love, as much as I would love to lie here all day we have classes and training." Into Kurt's neck. He gave a groan in response and blinked one eye open giving a toothy smile as you lifted your head from his neck and sit up a bit to smile down at him.

"Oh liebe you are most definetly the best site to wake up to"he said his voice gravelly with sleep.

"Oh Kurt" you mimiced a sly grin covering your face and mischief gleaming in your eyes 'your my favorite pillow to wake up on."

You didn't think it was possible for Kurt to grin even bigger and he was so adorable with his purple tinted cheeks. This was most definetly the best way to wake up, giving Kurt all your love and seeing the look of absolute adoration on his face. The giddy feeling you got from moments like these were better then anything else in the world.

"I have to go to my room and change, but I vill see you for breakfast in a few minutes" he kissed you on the forehead and walked to the door giving you one last smile before leaving your dorm. The need to see Kurt again had you changing in recorded breaking time.

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

You met up with Kurt, Peter, Jean and Scott after grabbing some food. You sat at the table And all had a lovely discussion if who had done the home work this time. Let's be honest you and your fellow mutant friends had a schedule of who would do the homework for each class then at breakfast you would all trade the homework. It was actually really nice to sit there and chat with your friends while copying down important dates for mutants throughout history. And before you knew it all the homework was done and you and your friends where on your way to professor Xavier's literature class. You and all your friends could hardly pay attention because in a few hours after lunch the rest of the afternoon would be simulation training.

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

You, Jean, Kurt, Scott and Peter had just finished scarfing down lunch and were grinning excitedly as you grabbed your training clothes. After changing you all raced to the training room to meet up with Charles and Mystique, Peter obviously won, but you and Kurt came in second when he saw Peter speed ahead and decided to grab you and *BAMF* to the training room.

Charles and Mystique were getting the simulation set up with the help of Hank as the other filled in behind you Peter and Kurt. Everyone loved simulation training it was good to excersize your powers almost like stretching muscles. The rest of the week you would spend doing hand to hand and minor excersize but this was how you put it all to the test and everyone loved it, especially since you would get out of your last class of the day in order to have time to get ready for the simulation.

"Alrighty then" Charles grinned as he wheeled over to you all. "You will be working through the sentinel simulation again" this was most definetly one of the harder stimulations since in the sentinels could mic your powers. You all moved into the simulation room excited to display your powers and impress your teachers. You lined up in the middle of the room and heard Hank's voice through the speakers

"Are you all ready" you all gave a thumbs up for them to see from the window at the top of the wall. The tiles in the room began to change as the images were projected on them and it looked like you were all in a dilapatated town that had been destroyed by sentinels. You looked around not seeing any signs of them besides the damage they had left when all of a sudden you heard a stomp and felt the ground tremble slightly beneath you. Your heads snapped in the direction if the sound and watched as the sentinels walked towards you. There were five of them there, one for each of you. Sentinels were hard for you to fight since they didn't have a mind for you to manipulate, however they couldn't tell the difference from reality and your illusions, which made you to work on them. This was honestly good since projecting so much and so far was definetly harder so the more practice the better.

The sentinels started towards each of you and you all split up, weaving past crumbling buildings and down deserted roads. You took cover behind a smashed car and watched as the sentinel looked around for you. Just as the sentinel recognized you your hands lit up with yellow energy and multiple mutants appeared, each with different abilities. Some were shooting fire, other ice and water, one was flying above. The sentinel looked around constantly being distracted by the other mutants while your illusions gif you, which gave you the opportunity to look for shrapnel you could use to jam into the sentinel. You noticed a metal beam on the other side of the sentinel that had been crushed into pieces with sharpened ends. You rushed over to grab it and in your moment of excitement your illusion no longer hid you.

You were half way to the beam when the sentinel raised it's hand and smacked you into a building, despite the fact that all of this was a simulation it still felt real and in your disorientation your illusion fell and the sentinel was no longer distracted by the other mutants.

Your vision swam for a few moments but you didn't let that stop you from scrambling up and looking around for a place to take cover while you created a new illusion. You were boxed in with no where to go so you did the only thing you could, you cast an illusion. This time you had roots crawling up its feet as mud cemented it all together. Your eyes were glowing this time as you had to concentrate harder and use more energy. You darted past the sentinel, barely missing the sentinels hand attempting to grab you. You kept on sprinting towards the shrapnel when you heard the ripping if roots from the ground. You glanced behind you and watched as the sentinel freed itself and started towards you. Desperate for more time and thoughts impaired you watched as a giant wall if ice formed it was thick enough to give you enough time to run to the shrapnel. You sprinted over to the shrapnel and as you reached it you felt a slight burst of warmth on the back of your neck. You whipped around to watch as the sentinel finished burning through the ice and walked towards you, you only needed a little bit of time so you altered the illusion to push the sentinel back to the other end of the street. It was taking longer to pull the metal out since you had to focus on pushing the sentinel back. It was close to being all the way pulled out do you pushed the sentinel back one last time before dropping the illusion and yanking the metal out all the way. You turned toward the sentinel gripping the shrapnel you created the last part of your plan by setting up another block of ice and watching as the metal lifted to expose the heat from underneath. You started to climb a fire escape that was still attached to a semi intact wall.

You reached a decent height and waited as the sentinel broke free. You jumped down from the fire escape into the sentinel, your suit protecting you from getting burned by the still hot metal on the sentinel. Your idea would potentially toast you but this was the only way you could jam the metal through. You cast a mutant with the ability of ice again. The sentinel immediately turned on the heat again and as the metal lifted you took the shrapnel and shoved it between. You felt the sentinel jerk as the metal cut through the sentinel. The sentinel started to fall and you clung to it having completely forgotten to come up with a way down. The fall wasn't as bad as you had anticipated only jarring you a little.

You jumped up and raced down roads to find the others. You heard the signature *BAMF* and raced towards it. You smiled as you saw Kurt teleporting around the sentinel and wrapping rope around the sentinel. He then *BAMFED* out of the way of the sentinel as if crashed to the ground, Kurt was looking around to find something to finish the sentinel off with as the sentinel's eyes to fire a lazer at Kurt. Desperately you called out Kurt's name and cast an illusion of multiple Kurt's he caught on to what was happening and *BAMFED* next to you.

"Thanks liebe" Kurt said with a light kiss to your cheek.

"Anytime" you smirked. Kurt grinned when he saw the yellow in your eyes and around your hands as you kept the multiple Kurt's to confuse the sentinel.

You watched as Peter sped next to you.

"How do we disable these things" he panted annoyance displayed across his features.

An idea occured to you, "Keep away from the the sentinels" you warned. "I will distract them but I need you two to make a small square around the sentinels. " Kurt *BAMFED* off and was all of a sudden back and handed the rope to Peter who quickley created the rope ring. You changed the illusion to creating a cage right outside of the rope ring. You added random mutants crawling all over the two sentinels as they tried to kill the non-existent mutants and ended up beating each other up. In addition they were tripping over the rope, until one of the mutants destroyed the other. With only one left Kurt took a page out of your book and *BAMFED*. He came back and noted how tired you were.

"Move out of the way liebe, I don't want you hurt even if it is just a simulation." You nodded in agreement not only due to exhaustion but also because you wanted to make sure that Peter and Kurt got an opportunity to display their powers and impress your teachers. Peter began to speed around as the sentinel prepared to lazer him(same way that Scott does, through the eyes). At that moment Kurt *BAMFED* onto the Sentinels head and shoved the shrapnel through his eyes.

He *BAMFED* next to you and you watched as the simulation ended meaning all sentinels had been destroyed. You looked over and saw Kurt and Jean walking towards you covered in sweat but grinning none the less. The doors opened to let you all out of the simulation room and you met your teachers. Charles came forward grinning.

"That was brilliant, all of you did spectacular" you all gave tired grins. "Now you have the rest of the weekend to rest and of course finish you papers for my class." He added before a collective groan resounded between the five of you. "Now go shower you all reek" he gave you one last smile before wheeling away with the rest of the teachers.

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

You had showered and changed into much comfier clothes. Before bounding to Kurt's room where he answered your door with a grin and a "Hey liebe" before grabbing you and diving beneath the covers of his bed. You chuckled as you hugged him tight to you. "You did so good today sveetheart"he mumbled as he nuzzles his head into your neck, his muscles relaxing fully.

"Well handsome you too were fantastic, I was exhausted after the first sentinel so there was no way I would have stood a chance without your brilliant idea of using rope "

"Always the perfect team liebe"

"Always the perfect team Kurt"

Kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt kurt

*I thought the metal was okay to disable the sentinel since they weren't made out of metal to prevent mutants like Magneto from controlling them.

[fantasy-pens]

A Guide to Making iOS Text Messages on AO3, Miraculous Style

(This is a contribution to @miraculousfanworks​ for formatting tips in AO3)

Writers like to experiment with different fanfiction types. And one of the most popular types are the text fics.

A text fic resembles a log of two or more characters texting each other. It may be written entirely in the form of text messages, or it may contain narrated passages. Writers often prefer to include texting between characters in their stories, for it gives the readers a deeper insight into the characters’ lives and personality. And no doubts the level of personal interactions associated with texts is what makes text-fics a popular type amidst the readers.

A story can be written entirely in texts, or even contain a minor scene where the characters text each other. Often, writers have different ways to distinguish the texts from the rest of the narration, to enable the readers to easily differentiate between the two parts.

One of the most common ways is formatting. Aligning, boldifying and italicizing the texts is a common way to highlight them in the story. However, many a times, the formatting fails to give off the necessary vibes. To rectify the same, a few writers use screenshots of text conversations between the characters in their stories.

But what if there was a way to present the text messages in the story, WITHOUT using the images? Something like this:

Read under the cut to find out!

How to make iOs Text Messages on AO3 (Miraculous Style)

(Note: For this article/tutorial, the reference chosen is How to Make iOs Text Messages on AO3 by CodenameCarrot and La_Temperanza.)

The tutorial does not dive into the details of how exactly the CSS for the text messages is coded, for there is a predefined skin made available for all the main characters of Miraculous Ladybug. The skin is made such that the colors of the text differ on every character’s phone (civilian and superhero alter ego). 

The right side (the darker bubble) is always the texts written by the character. The left side (the lighter bubble) is always the texts the character has received.

The skin used is Messaging Miraculous and since it is a bit tedious to make it available to public use, here’s a link to the document that contains the necessary CSS for the same.

To use the above skin

Simply go to your ao3 dashboard, click on Skins > My Work Skins >  Create New

Fill in the necessary details there and at the part where you have to write the code, copy paste the CSS from the document linked above! Then click on Create and your skin is created!

Now, in your work, go to Select Work Skin and choose the Messaging Miraculous work skin. (This is the name of the skin that I have on my dashboard :) )

This will import the skin in your story.

The skin has different color formats for different phones. In other words, texts on Marinette’s phone will have a different color scheme from how they appear on Adrien’s phone or Ladybug’s phone and so on. The idea behind this is that each user has a specific color theme of their choice installed in their phones :)

So, a basic thing about the CSS involved in the skin.

The messages received have an attribute of text[code] and the messages sent have an attrivute of [code]reply

Now what is this [code] thing?

The code thing is the small piece of text used to differentiate the code for all the characters. 

The codes used for the different characters are:

So, if I want to write a chat window for Ladybug’s phone, the received messages would be textlb and the sent messages would be lbreply

For Nino’s chat window, the received messages would be textnino and the sent messages would be ninoreply

What do these attributes mean to me? How will I use them?

These attributes are what we are going to use in our AO3 HTML editor to implement the chat format.

The usage of the skin is explained below based on a sample conversation between Marinette and Adrien from the episode Frozer, something that goes lke this:

Adrien:  Marinette! Perfect timing! Marinette:  Huh? You think so? Adrien:  Actually, what I meant was...

It is done for Marinette’s chat window.

First of all, remove all the formatting from the chat texts that you have made.  This is how your chat will start to look like:

Then, go to Edit, and click on the HTML button in the editor.

The HTML editor has automatically put a series of <p> tags around your text messages. Something like this:

Remove these. The result looks like:

Remember: only remove the <p> and </p> tags that surround the text messages. You would not want to mess up the formatting of the rest of the story

Now, let’s get down to a little coding. Add this little code shown in the next image to the part just above the first text message.

and this little piece at the end of the last text message on the window.

The <div> tag is what makes the editor aware that this is the place where we are using the imported worksin, and specifically, a coding that has the CSS attribute by the name “phone”.

The <p> tag indicates a new paragraph, and here it encloses all of the text messages that occur on the phone window, and the class “messagebody” tells the editor that it has to implement code for the same :)

Perfect! Now getting to the part of making the chat bubbles. 

(This coding has been done for Marinette’s window. Hence the attributes used are textmari and marireply. You can similarly use the other attributes for different characters) The first dialogue is that of Adrien. So, Marinette received this text on her phone. Hence we go like: 

The “span” attribute here differentiates between the different chat formats we have for the different characters. The <br> tags are for telling the editor to move to a new line :)

The next dialogue piece is of Marinette. So, she sends this text. Therefore, we go like:

The next (and last dialogue) is Adrien again, hence the code for it is like:

And now, clicking on “Preview” then “Save as Draft”, the result is:

Perfect!

(It is always recommended to preview the story before posting it. You can always check for non functional links or code errors if you find any :) )

You can make the same for other characters as well in the similar fashion! To check out the different color schemes offered by the skin, here’s the link to the document on AO3!

Miraculous Messaging Work Skin Tutorial

What if I want to boldify or italicise a certain word/phrase within the text message?

It’s simple! Enclose the certain word/phrase <b> , <i> and <u> tag for bold, italics and underline respectively! Like this:

gives:

Does this skin work all the time?

As long as “Hide Creator’s Style” is disabled, yes!

But what If someone uses “Hide Creator’s Style”? Will not that ruin the story?

There is a solution around that too! You simply need to add this extra piece of code to each text message, along with the name of who types that message :)

so when you click on that “Hide Creator’s Style” button on the top, you end up with

which is absolutely cool!!

Hoping this article helped explain all the doubts! For further queries or character suggestions, feel free to comment on the sample work linked above!

[succulentbud]

Clip Studio Paint 1.9.4 Download

A tutorial written by @evilkaito / @iamnottechsupport

Hi everyone! I made this tutorial for absolute beginners who are new to pirating things, and using this program as an example. It’s a really simple crack, so it’s good for people getting started.

This is a WINDOWS ONLY tutorial. Please do not ask for a Mac tutorial, you will not get a response. I do not use Apple products and have little to no familiarity with them. Also I believe this is 32-bit compatible, but I’m not sure.

This tutorial will be written in as plain English as I can manage. I am a cyber defense major, and I know not all these terms are “technical”. This is for those starting out with pirating.

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! I take NO responsibility for you messing up your own computer. If you follow the instructions exactly how I say, you should be fine. Lastly, I am not tech support, I’m doing this for free. If you want me to do more than this, pay me. I will answer basic questions though, @iamnottechsupport, my sideblog that accepts messages and asks. Google first. Troubleshoot second. Ask me third. Please.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AiS9D6TfY0bgayGm_c0bFbiFmbI?e=1o8j9E

^ Here is the download for the thing.

1. Disable your antivirus, and I mean all of them. This includes your installed antivirus, and the antivirus that came with your computer. This download might come up as a “virus”. It is not. I have ran this program in Sandbox and scanned it. No viruses. It might display as a virus to your system, simply because it goes into your drive’s deeper files and edits them. Your computer/browser might detect this as a trojan horse and try to keep you from running it. If you run into those issues, use google.

Here’s what to do if chrome gives you an error.

https://superuser.com/questions/678601/disable-chromes-built-in-automatic-virus-scanning-of-downloaded-files

2. Download the zip file provided called “Crack Files + Program”. Cracks, aka “medicines”, is what makes a program run at full capacity without you having to pay for it. It changes the Clip Studio files in your program files. It is not the same as the program itself, which is a separate download.

3. Download something to unzip the files. Think of the .zip file as a container, and the “unzipping” program as a pair of scissors to help you cut it open.

4. UNHOOK YOUR INTERNET. Do not skip this step. You must unhook your ethernet or turn off your wifi card or whatever you use. You don’t have to turn off your router, just make sure your computer cannot access the internet. If you don’t do this, there’s a big change of this failing.

5. Unzip the files to one folder on your desktop (google search how to unzip if you don’t know how to). Open the file. The very first thing you should see is a folder named “Crack” and a “Setup.exe”.

6. Run the Setup.exe to completion. Do NOT start the program when it asks you to, uncheck that box. The setup wizard will close.

7. Double click “Crack”. Here you will see “CLIP STUDIO PAINT” in all caps. You want to copy this entire folder. Ctrl+C or right click and hit “copy”. Then, you need to go into the drive you installed it in. This is usually “Local Disk (C:)”. When you get to your local drive, double click “Program Files”.

8. Then, double click “CELSYS”. Then, double click “CLIP STUDIO 1.5”. Then, you are going to paste the files into this drive. It will ask you if you are okay with overwriting the files. Click YES.

9. You have now placed the cracked files exactly where they need to be! Good job! We’re not done though. Make sure that internet is STILL off during this next step.

10. Launch “Clip Studio” from your desktop. There might be a loading screen. Let it load. If there’s an error from no internet, ignore it. On the left panel, there is “Clip Studio Paint”. Click it.

11. Now, it will lead you to a setup wizard to activate the program. It will initially fail, because it is trying to access the internet. Here’s the loophole, click offline activation.

12. Go back to the “Crack Files + Program” file I gave you, and run “offline activation – kg.exe” as administrator.

13. Generate a serial number by clicking “generate”. Copy and paste that into Clip Studio Paint’s license verification. It will give you a “License authentication key”.

14. It’s annoying, but you have to copy each box and paste them into the “License Auth Key” box in the “Clip Studio Paint EX v1.6.2 Keygen” one by one. Do not add spaces. Click generate when you are done, and the keygen will give you an “Authentication Key”.

15. Copy and paste this authentication key into Clip Studio Paint. Hit next.

Bam you’re done. If you’re using Windows 10 like me, you might get an error when you first try to startup the keygen, because window’s defender considers it a threat (like a dumbass). Just go to your settings and type in “windows defender settings”. Click on that. Then click Virus and Threat protection. Then, click “threat history”. It will show you the “HackTool:Win32/Keygen” file its quarantined. Just click the arrow and click “Restore”. It will be returned to your folder.

Everything should be activated when you’re done. Here’s what it looks like for me.

Have fun. Steal shit.

[maguayans]

Hi ! So I just wanted to say that I love your banners and I was wondering how you were making them? (Don't hesitate to keep your artistic secrets, we writers are allowed to ^^)

hey, agnes! i hope you're well and having a great day/night! and thank you so much! i'm glad to hear you love them. there's no secret, really. those banners are pretty much average compared to what fandom creators make.

anyway, which banners are we talkin' about here? stills or GIFs? i'm not very good at explaining these kinds of things but i'll try my best.

i made sure to cut. otherwise, it'll takeover the entire dashboard.

FIRST, SOURCES:

pexels - for free gorgeous stock photos. read license. other sources: pixabay, unsplash (but i use pexels a lot. it's a gem.)

dafont - for fonts. demo versions (non-commercial/personal use only) read notes from authors.

okay, here we go. i'll try my best on this part. hopefully, the photos will make it easier to understand.

open editing software. i use photoshop cc 2019.

customize the settings for new document. [Click on "Create New..." > A new window pops up. > Customize Setting > Create]. i don't have a fixed size for my banners as long as it looked like a banner. but my recent setting was 1920x295px; 300dpi (which i have to adjust when it comes to making gifs.)

open photo file. [File > New > Choose Photo > Open]

click/hold + drag on the photo to copy it to the banner file. photos from pexels have large sizes and higher resolutions. since i download photos from there, i'd have to transform it to make it fit on the canvas of the banner.

add text [Choose Text Tool]. i customize more of the text with Layer Style. [Right Click on the Text Layer > Blending Options > Layer Style window pops up] On Layer Style window, one can add colors, shadows, glows, and more.

the text was supposed to be "enchanted." SMH

once satisfied with the text position and applied styles, i merge all the layers. [Click Shift + Click last layer to select all layers.] incase something doesn't work out, i make sure to duplicate all the layers then group 'em. [Shift + Click on last layer to select all layers. > Right Click > Duplicate > Group] then i drag the group layer to the bottom of the layers and disable visibility. i make sure background layer is unlocked so you can move another layer past it.

adjust colors and more [Filter > Camera Raw Filter] a window pops up and that is where i adjust the colors and add filter. camera raw filter is only on photoshop ccs, i think. i'm after this tool that's why i'm using cc, haha. if I'm feeling a little lazy (which is, uh, every time, i go to the presets tab then choose a preset good for the banner. If it ain't workin' I go back to the basic tab to adjust exposure, temperature, tint, and more.

save [File > Save as... > Edit File Name + Choose File Type > Save]

GIF Banners. things, uh, get a bit tricky when it comes to making GIFs, especially if one is not familiar with the tools and stuff. and my process is a MESS. but i hope this was comprehensible, insightful and helpful if you're thinking of making banners for your blog ♡♡♡. i really think i'm not the right person for this kind of stuff, lol.

[infradapt]

Windows Shortcuts to Help Boost Your Efficiency

Some keyboard shortcuts work within applications, but there are others that work all throughout the Windows operating system. To help you be as productive as possible throughout the workday, let’s go over some of the most common keyboard shortcuts that work not only within your applications, but whenever you are just navigating your operating system. If you use these effectively, you can dramatically improve your productivity and look like a Windows master!

  With all of our keyboard shortcut blogs, we think you will get the most value out of them if you print them out and keep them as a quick reference for use throughout the workday.

General Keyboard Shortcuts

These general keyboard shortcuts should work for the majority of applications that you use on your Windows PC.

  Cut: Ctrl + X

Copy: Ctrl + C

Paste: Ctrl + V

Select All Text: Ctrl + A

Rename selected item: F2

Switch between open applications: Alt + Tab

Refresh: F5

Delete an item: Delete

Redo an action: Ctrl + Y

Undo an action: Ctrl + Z

Windows Key Shortcuts

These keyboard shortcuts use the Windows key on your keyboard.

  Open the Start menu: Windows Key

Lock your computer: Windows Key + L

Hide or show your Desktop: Windows Key + D

Open the Action Center: Windows Key + A

Open Cortana in listening mode: Windows Key + C (Note: this is disabled by default. Enable it in your Settings)

Open File Explorer: Windows Key + E

Open Settings: Windows Key + I

Open the Search bar: Windows Key + S

Open Taskbar Applications: Windows Key + Number Key (whichever corresponds with the apps in your taskbar)

Minimize all windows: Windows Key + M

  This list is not nearly all of the keyboard shortcuts possible with Windows, so if you want a more comprehensive list, visit the official Microsoft support page for even more keyboard shortcuts.

  What other tips and tricks do you want us to share with you in the future? Whatever they are, be sure to plug them in the comments below.

  https://www.infradapt.com/news/windows-shortcuts-to-help-boost-your-efficiency/