#for context the plot is about house decor

[chenfordswopez]

I think I need to work on how to write Jackie and Hyde more

[dwaekkisprincess]

love between || park jongseong

paring: bf ! jongseong and latin ! reader (they/them pronouns)

plot: you and your boyfriend, jay, were watching baking shows such the great british bake off and nailed it then you both decided to bake something yourselfs !

a/n: i had NO idea who to write about so thank my bsf emily ! 😭😭 btw stream ! also ! credits to @benkeibear for the divider ! also also ! not proofread-

genre: FLUFFFF/ slight comedy

cw: established relationship, mentions of jake, mentions of food, cussing, spanglish (??)

wc: 1.7k

jay and you had been binge-watching baking shows for hours. you even watched baking videos on tiktok, reels on Instagram, and even youtube videos. the other members had been at the dorms while you and jay were at your house. when jay paused the video, you looked at him with a confused look. "you know what we should do?" he asked. "don't you dare-" he cut you off. "we should bake a cake !" he said, smiling at you. you playfully groaned at him. "por quéeeee?" you asked, dragging out the word.

"because it'll be fun- in this context it means why, right ?" he asked looking at you who nodded at him. "and we can learn some new baking techniques !” he added. jay got up and started checking for the ingredients in the kitchen. "um... so we kind of have to go to the store," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "en serio, jay ?" you said, shaking your head at your boyfriend. "okay, how was I supposed to know that we didn't have any baking ingredients?! this is literally YOUR house !" jay said, grabbing his wallet and the keys.

"should we walk?" you asked, grabbing your shoes and putting them on. "or we could ask my mom to bring some stuff while she's out," you continued. jay checked the weather app and the temperature before responding to you. "we could walk, It's only a 5 minutes away," he said, walking to the front door with you, holding your hand. “besides it’s a lovely night.” he said

you two headed to the store while sharing airpods with your boyfriend as he played his playlist. jay kissed your hand and started walking with you. the first song that played was "Love Between" by kali uchis, a song that you played a lot from time to time “you stole this from my playlist !” you said playfully acusing him. “what no ! you just recommend it and i-“ you cut him off by laughing at him trying to explain himself. “sureee jay.” you said laughing as you both walked into the grocery store. jay grabbed a shopping cart and started walking through the aisle’s checking items off the list. he turned to you and mumbled something about getting different types of cake flavors.

“we should do a four tier cake !” jay said smiling at you, who stared at him like he was going crazy. “okay three tier ?” he said as you just blinked at him. “two, take it or leave it.” you said pointing your finger at him. “deal.” he said as he nodded. you grabbed cake decorations and cake mix the same time as jay did. “are we having a kdrama moment right now ?” he asked playfully smirking. you let go of the decorations and cake mix as you made a face of disgust (jokingly) and started walking away from him which caused him to put the ingredients in the basket and started following you while calling your name.

“ynnnnn ! i was joking !” he said as he walked behind you with the basket. you stopped walking and playfully glared at him. “no vuelvas a hacer eso. you’re starting to act like jake.” you said shaking your head and shuddering at the thought of jay acting like jake.

“what’s wrong with jake ?” jay asked wiggling his eyebrows which made you make another disgusted face but this time your eyes had a look of horror. “everything.” you said in “fear” jay laughed and wiggled his eyebrows at you again this time smiling. “te dejaré en la tienda jay.” you say as you walk over to him and playfully hit his shoulder. “but that’s mean.” he said as you two started walking towards the checkout lines.

jay played with your fingers as you both waited in the line. you looked at jay with the most loving eyes ever. you were just admiring your boyfriend and you didn’t realize how long you were looking at him until jay looked over at you. his eyes were filled with love and happiness, after realizing that you had been staring at him, you smiled warmly. it was a genuine smile that showed your love and admiration for him. the corners of your lips curled upwards, revealing the genuine happiness that he brought to your life, as your eyes met, a spark of connection passed between you, deepening the bond that you shared. it was a small, yet significant moment that spoke volumes about the growing connection and attraction between the two of you.

jay payed for the groceries after the cashier had scanned and bagged them. you grabbed the bags as jay pushed the basket back to the basket corrals. the walk back home seemed quicker than the walk to the store, well quicker for you. jay who decided that he should give you a piggyback ride all the way home said that “it’s only right” you didn’t question him anymore after that. once you two got back home jay set the items out as you started grabbing the pans and bowls to mix it in.

while mixing the ingredients and waiting for the oven to heat up, jay lovingly kissed your head, showing affection and tenderness in that moment. as jay's lips touched your head, a warm sensation spread through your body. It was a simple gesture, but it carried so much meaning. in that moment, you felt a deep connection with jay, a reassurance of his love and presence. it was a small act of affection that reminded you of the bond you shared. the familiar scent of the baking ingredients filled the air, mixing with the sweet aroma of jay's cologne. you and jay exchanged loving glances, and silent giggles understanding passing between you, baking adventure was not just about creating a delicious treat; it was about creating memories together.

the oven beeped, indicating that it had reached the desired temperature. you carefully poured the cake batter into the prepared pans, while jay eagerly observed the process. his eyes sparkled with excitement and curiosity, mirroring your own enthusiasm. the cake was a representation of your teamwork and shared experiences. as you placed the pans into the oven, jay wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you closer. the warmth of his embrace enveloped you, making you feel safe and cherished. In that moment, you realized that baking a cake with jay wasn't just about the end result; it was about the love that you shared along the way.

the sweet scent of the baking cake filled the kitchen, creating an ambiance of comfort and anticipation. you and jay stood side by side, eagerly waiting for the cake to bake. the moments of silence were filled with stolen glances and playful smiles, a language only the two of you understood. as the timer ticked away, you couldn't help but feel grateful for this simple yet profound moment. it was a reminder of the joy that could be found in the smallest of gestures, in the simplest of activities.

together, you and your boyfriend jay decorated the cake with swirls of frosting, sprinkles, and edible flowers, turning it into a masterpiece of love. As you admired the final result, jay wrapped his arms around you, his chin resting on your shoulder. the pride and happiness radiated from both of you as you stood there, hand in hand, marveling at the creation you had made together. in that moment, surrounded by the aroma of the freshly baked cake and the love that filled the room, you realized that it was not just about the cake itself. baking a cake with jay had become a symbol of your shared experiences, a testament to the strength of your bond.

after you two had finished decorating the cake you leaned over and kissed his cheek. “i hope it’s edible…” you mumbled at him. “it will be !” he said exclaimed happily as he carefully cut a piece of the cake. he placed the piece of cake on a plate and you both took a small bite of the cake. jay nodded proudly at the cake you and him (mainly him) made. you pretended to think as you tapped your jaw.

“well mr park, your cake is very soft, very sweet, the perfect sponge and very…hydrated-” “did you just call my cake hydrated ?” he said laughing at you. “well i didn’t want to say..moist.” you said as you felt your body cringe.

“moiiist.” he said playfully as he wiggled his eyebrows at you again which made you take the rest of the slice of cake and walk away from him.

“babe ! not again ! i’m sorry !” he said chasing after you. “nuh uh.” you said walking towards your room upstairs.

“mi amor... lo siento, no lo volveré a hacer, por favor, vuelve para que podamos terminar nuestro espectáculo y nuestro pastel.” jay said which made you stop in your tracks, you quickly turned around and started walking back to your boyfriend as if he had put you in some sort of trance.

“¿oh? ¿así que has estado prestando atención cuando hablo español?” you said standing in front of your boyfriend. “of course. for you, i would learn every language in the world.” he whispered softly as he pressed a small kiss on your lips.

“te amo”

“i love you more”

[writingescapades]

The Third Adventure

A/N: Just reader being a badass again. Also me dealing with my perception on romance and relationships. You can read this as a stand alone or read the other Ayato fics for some context.

You waited inside Lady Kiku’s house, eyeing the wealth that exuded from every object. Lady Kiku belonged to a distinguished family within the Yashiro commission, and their dedication to the Kamisato family had clearly repaid tenfold. Ayato had introduced the lady to you as a possible client for your trades business. Lady Kiku specialized in elegant cloths that could be made into any type of clothes the wearer preferred. Certainly, her objects would be more pricey, but you knew there were many people who would pay triple for such finery.

Lady Kiku was an eminent lady and her dedication to her art clearly announced her as skilled weaver. However, her dedication consumed most of her focus. Sheltered since birth, she was unaware of what lengths her family, and now her husband, went to to support the Yashiro commission. You however, noticed immediately. In the five days you spent at the Kamisato house, you discovered that the house was armed to the core. Every object was a weapon disguised as decoration. The more objects a house had, the more weapons it hid. It was easy to notice, mainly because your family once did the same thing. Though you could not wield a sword like Ayato and Ayaka, that didn’t mean you had no means to protect yourself. You knew the plates Lady Kiku served dinner on were heavy enough to cause concussion, and you saw how many plants hid a small handle.

Had it not been for the actions of the Yashiro commission a few days ago, you would have placed your observations in a far corner of your mind. Ayato planned a raid on a local gang that was harassing merchants, scaring them into refusing to set up their stalls at the upcoming festival. Although Ayato spearheaded the attack, the mastermind of this plot was Lady Kiku’s husband. When Ayato returned to the Kamisato estate, you noticed the increased security and how you were almost always accompanied by someone, even within the house. Now you were at Lady Kiku’s house, alone. The anxiety of anticipating an attack did not leave your system, even as you smiled at Lady Kiku and discussed business with her. Your precaution did not go unrewarded.

As you discussed your terms with Lady Kiku, a sudden noise banged against the estate door. Lady Kiku slowly rose, but you shot out and peeked around the corner. Five armed thugs stood at the door, each figuring out a way to break the lock. You turned and looked at Lady Kiku. You saw the face of a woman who only knew how to make the world beautiful, and you understood that under no circumstances was this woman to sacrifice her life for a commission.

“What’s the fastest way to get into contact with your husband?” you asked.

“He, he informed me to put a specific lantern in the outer room. He said he would be able to see that light from a good distance,” Lady Kiku trailed off.

She ran to where she knew the lantern was and hurriedly ignited it. In all her life, she never had to use it once. The realization shook her. While she did that, you ran to the one spot Ayato cautioned you about. He told you that if you ever needed to hide, every family in the Yashiro commission had a bookshelf that led to a hide out. You had to move the books into a certain order to unlock the door, but the room inside was secure enough to keep you in until someone from the commission could get you out. Unlocking the door now, you grabbed Lady Kiku’s arm and tugged her towards the hideout. To your surprise, the Lady was resistant to the idea. Her adrenaline wore off and fear set in. She exclaimed that she had no idea what was happening, who these people were, or what her husband had gotten his family into. Curses of why she had to pay the price clamoured against the thuds of the men outside. You could tell that they had gotten inside and it was only a matter of seconds now. As you slammed the door shut, Lady Kiku yelped,

“My daughter is sleeping in our room”.

The room was in the back of the estate, and you two were in the front. You smiled reassuringly, said, “Nothing will happen to her,” then shut the door.

A shout came from your left and you ducked as you just made out a short blade coming for your head. You quickly reached for the nearest object, a vase, and smashed it against your attacker. The man fell. You yanked his short blade out and rammed it into the heart of the next attacker. As you made your way to the entrance, you saw a few men near the estate door and one coming straight for you on your right. You braced yourself and kicked the man back. As he stumbled back, you reached grabbed his hand, inverted his dagger, and pulled the attacker onto his own weapon. As he took in the shock, you grabbed his head and twisted, only letting go once you heard the confirming cracks.

The men now hesitated. They were armed and in plenty, but you had just killed three of them. Taking advantage of the situation, you lifted a western style chair and noticed the small blades jutting out from the chair legs. You ran towards the men and rammed the chair, digging the blades into the nearest attackers and pushing the rest back. Near the entrance, you saw more men arriving. Quickly dropping the chair, you ran back to a plant and pulled out a dagger. You flung it right into the eye of the closest attacker. As he dropped, a woman ran towards you with a long sword. You grabbed the first thing you saw, a standing lantern. Using the base as an extended shield, you charged at the woman allowing the lantern to bear the brunt of the woman’s attack. As she stumbled back a few steps, you flipped the lantern and rammed the candle into her face. Suddenly a flash came to your right and you dropped the lantern. Hot, burning sensations scorched up your right arm and you yelped in pain. You could make out blood. Before you could do anything, you were thrown against a wall and crumpled to the floor. The impact caused objects to shatter near or on top of you. You could hear footsteps and found yourself being yanked up by your hair. The fool. Suddenly the attacker loosened his hold on you, his eyes bugged out as you slowly rose, pressing your glass shard further into his neck. Backing the man against the wall, you eased his short sword out his hands and jammed it into his neck, then you turned to greet your next set of attackers.

...

Ayato and Ayaka ran towards Lady Kiku’s estate. Lady Kiku’s husband had run up to them frantic. He had seen her distress lantern. The siblings quickly inquired and received reports about a gathering of attackers, former members of the gang. It was impossible for Ayato to capture every single member of the gang given their numbers. That was why he kept security up for the entire Yashiro commission. After a weak passed and no attacks were made, Ayato relaxed a touch. Despite their reputation, the gang was not known to enact revenge after a long period of time. Yet he realized, as he and Ayaka ran towards the estate, that having no leader also meant rules and expected behaviours were not being followed anymore.

When the Kamisato siblings burst through the estate, armed, they saw a bloodbath before them. Bodies littered the estate and at the centre of it all, decked in blood was you. Ayaka widened her eyes, shouted your name, and was about to run towards you.

“Be careful,” you barked. “Some of them are only unconscious”.

Ayaka nodded and slowly made her way towards you. Ayato followed her.

“Lady Kiku,” Ayaka began.

“Is safe,” you assured her. You then told her about the child. Ayaka ran towards the back estate. She returned with a sleeping toddler and walked over to the bookshelf.

“Before you open the door,” you advised. “We should get this place cleaned up”.

...

It was Ayato who escorted you back to the Kamisato estate. It was Ayato who took you to his room, a secluded area where even the staff knew they could only enter if something was urgent. It was Ayato who insisted on drawing you a bath, leaving out clothes for you to change into. You slowly washed yourself, hissing as the hot water met bruised and bloody skin. Once clean, you exited to find Ayato waiting with a medical kit. He insisted on tending to your wounds himself.

“I take responsibility,” Ayato began.

“I made the decision to fight,” you interrupted. “I could have hid with Lady Kiku, but I chose to fight instead”.

“Yes, why did you choose to fight?” Ayato asked. The was a slight tone of annoyance in his voice. Exhausted by work, by the raid, and by the tense atmosphere as everyone awaited retaliation. He had expected to see your dead body upon arriving at the estate, a thought that unnerved him more than he cared to admit just now.

You shrugged. “Because I could”.

Ayato could tell from your voice and demeanour that there was more behind those words, but he was more concerned with your wounds just now. He tugged at your hand and urged you to sit down near him. Silence entered the room as he gently dabbed each wound on your arms and bandaged them, taking special care with your right arm.

“Do you have any wounds on your body?” he quietly asked.

You nodded. You had numerous cuts on your chest and back.

“Would you prefer if I got Ayaka or a female staff member?” he inquired.

“Would you prefer it?” you asked back.

Ayato hesitated, then shook his head. You turned around and loosened your clothes, his clothes you realized.

“Whenever I’m around you, my clothes always get ruined,” you grumbled as you dabbed at your chest.

Ayato flatly chuckled, understanding your attempt to lighten the atmosphere. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to experience joy. Not when he saw the numerous marks on your back, many of which would leave scars. By the time you were bandaged up, your entire torso was covered. Before you could cover yourself once more, Ayato stopped you. He got up and sat in front of you, gently pulling the kimono over you, taking care to keep it firm but loose over your bandages. Then he hugged you.

“I don’t know what to say or what to feel, but thank you,” he whispered into your hair. Thanks for standing up for yourself. Thanks for protecting others. Thanks for holding on till he got there. Thanks for making it out alive. Thanks for still allowing you to be in his life.

He knew he should have let you go after that, let you lie down. But he could not let you go just then. Instead he found himself gently placing you down on his bed, while he laid next to you. His arm covered your torso, keeping him near you.

“You got a lot of nerve to take me to bed, Kamisato,” you whispered. “You’re not even my lover”.

You kept a pleasant tone, but Ayato could make out a trace of unease by his sudden behaviour. You watched him, even as he gently drew his thumb across your jawline. Love was an unfamiliar feeling for Ayato. He honestly did not know what it meant to be in love. Everyone seemed to have their own understanding. He couldn’t confidentially say he loved you, and yet.

“Stay,” he whispered, not fully understanding how long he wanted you to stay.

“Why?”

“You make life fun again”.

A childish response, from a childish man. You saw how excitement bubbled in his eyes during the five days you stayed at the estate. The pranks, banter, riddles, and laughs you shared at night working while no one else was awake. You enjoyed eliciting such an automatic response in a man known little beyond his title. You would not have accepted any other answer from him.

Watching the man beside you, fast asleep, exhausted from the events of the past few days, you scoffed at the words of the poets. The grandeur they went to describe love. None of their descriptions and words ever resonated with you. You did not know if you loved Ayato, and you were relieved that he too found such an emotion to strong for whatever bond you created. You sighed, feeling the day’s exhaustion creep up on you. You moved your hand and laced it with his.

“Good night buddy”.

[softness-and-shattering]

Two mini reviews, partly brought to you by tumblr autosaving - Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. I wasn't sure what to expect; I really liked The Sunbearer Trials (Ive not yet read the sequel), and DNF'd Lost In The Never Woods because it was the wrong type and intensity of dark and spooky for me at the time. Cemetery Boys is a freaking delight. Maybe my least favourite part was the villain reveal, it made sense but either it wasnt foreshadowed enough or I just wanted better for that character? idk. But this isnt primarily a plot book, its a romance, and its a story about community and acceptance, and figuring out how you fit into the world when you're not the shape you're expected to be. And it did really well with both those aspects. I also appreciate that with so many stories, real and fictional, about people who have to leave their communities to find themselves, I appreciate a story of someone who never once thinks maybe I need to leave, and instead forges on to create space for himself in his community and his heritage. That's not everyone's story and thats totally fine. Our experiences are diverse and we deserve diverse stories. Its all good. As for the romance, its really believable. Its quite an opposites-attract situation, from Julian's aggressive queerness and non-issue with Yadriel's transness making his albeit and unexpected presence a breath of fresh air to Yadriel, to their growing understanding of each other's lives and admiration for the strength of each others convictions. (When Julian is upset about his friends and Yadriel nevertheless pauses to set that boundary about ghost-safety, that was hot.). And the ghost aspect! (this is not a mini review anymore lol). I was not really sure how that was going to go, and then cheering for them, and then wondering what the heck they were gonna do about ongoing ghost-itude and the finiteness of that situation, and actually I really liked how it went. The romance and how they push each other and grow to understand each other is fun, romantic, sexy, heartfelt. Remarkably sexy given that one of them is a ghost who cant be touched. (Spoilers for a sec - the scene on the car where Yadriel reaches for Julian's jacket to pull him closer and there's nothing there to grab? Oh that feels like grief.) The book is quite a bit about grief. Missing parents, missing support networks, missing opportunities to be yourself and be accepted. Its about a guy who can communicate with ghosts and its set around Dia de Meurtos, there's grief themes.

I also really love Maritza, showing off another aspect of (gender) non-conformity, that its not only trans people who have trouble fitting fairly strict defined roles. (Julian's friends do so similarly). Almost all the Spanish I picked up from context, but how Julian refers to Yadriel at the end I knew I had to look up that word specifically and oh my heart. Overall really enjoyed. probably 9/10 second, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. I havent read the books/comics, I have seen the movie. This show....for at least the first half I had no idea what the rules of the universe were or what exactly was going on or what themes exactly were being explored. I was definitely entertained though. The last few episodes manage to make sense of the first few and deliver on those themes in ways I quite liked. I liked that Ramona is the "manic pixie dream girl" and then almost immediately gets upstaged for that role by Envy Addams. I normally am annoyed at stories in which some boring guy "gets" the manic pixie dream girl and certainly doesn't appreciate her - you know the kind who goes on reddit and complains that she wont stop talking about slugs or decorates their whole house in anime? And I know scott pilgrim is a comment on that trope. I like how its about scott but its not really about scott. Largely its about Ramona and her friends (and her exes). And the others recognise that scott isnt so great, or so smart, and also that if Ramona likes him thats cool. He can be a "lovable idiot" and shes not automatically making a mistake with him. If they're happy they're happy. (and of course the ways that *could* go wrong, but arent destined to). Plus the music is fun, the visuals are bright and pretty. It might lean overstimulating for some people, I had to stop and think about my spoon levels between episodes. Thats what I got for today. Two very different fun stories I recommend like 8-9/10, not perfect but a damn good ride.

[demonfox38]

Completed - House Flipper 2

All houses are living creatures of chaos, when you get down to it.

There are many arts I'm not great at. Most fiber crafts for one. Watercolor painting, two. Interior design, big time. Like, I'm not going to let my house get filthy, and I'm going to keep everything running to the best of my ability. (Hell, there's something empowering about replacing a toilet's float!) But, by nature? I'm just about keeping things picked up and in general functional order. If you're gonna ask me about what's fashionable when it comes to interior decorating, you're going to get a response that looks like something out of a 1970s Sears catalog. I'm about being functional, economical, and comfy when it comes to my house. Not cool or trendy.

Cool people don't have a wood-paneled basement, oak-laminate particleboard cabinets, or CRT television sets.

Since I'm an aficionado for mid-to-late century American interiors (and the weird vibes they can produce), I tend to follow blogs online that showcase such rooms that still exist in the modern era. Two such blogs include Unteriors and Roomhole. As a response to Unteriors, another blog called Unteriors-In-House-Flipper-2 has crossed my dashboard from time to time. Their skill in rendering such locations is shockingly good. Like, I think you could trick people into thinking these were real-world images. As someone who has dinked around with a few 3D editors, I was fascinated about the tool they were using. What was "House Flipper 2"? How could its users make something that looked so good so fast?

Well, practice is an obvious answer. Familiarity with the tools. A good understanding of lighting, too. But, having the tool be pretty good to begin with also helps!

As the name implies, "House Flipper 2" is a design tool/game that simulates the reconstruction (or straight up construction) of various spaces. You can do this either to your own whims or to those of various clients in the game's story mode. While a person can just dive right into a sandbox and mess around with tools as they see fit, the story mode does give structure and context to how each tool works. The plot there is nothing to write home about, but the houses themselves…man. No shit "Crime Scene Cleaner" is a game that exists. Garbage-based jump scares abound, and I'm not just talking about the awful wallpaper your character's parents keep putting up.

Hmm. Both "House Flipper 2" and "Crime Scene Cleaner" are under the Playway publisher page in Steam. The games have different developers, but I do wonder if their staff members were talking to each other. Perhaps even sharing employees…

If a player is hoping to get something a little deeper than an HGTV television show in terms of plot, they may come away disappointed from "House Flipper 2." I'm not saying that a person can't draw their own conclusions from the details they find around the house they are cleaning. (I'm pretty sure a couple was copulating in the bathroom at one house concert, for one.) You're just not going to deal with anything more complicated than cleaning up a house post-flood. Which, trust me. At the risk of beating a dead horse, I have a lot of empathy for that. But, it's not exactly navigating the factional relationships between Pinnacove town citizens and designer corporation Accenzo, like being in some kind of housing-based "Shin Megami Tensei" RPG. It's just generally trying to make people happier.

I mean, if we're being super honest, most of them pissed me off via jealousy over familial/economic stability and being able to pursue their own dreams. But, I did think it was pretty cool that one of my clients had vitiligo. I mean, I guess all video games with Michael Jackson in them also star someone with vitiligo, but that's a unique and thoughtful design choice.

To complete your jobs, you get (or gain access to) the following options:

Hands (for moving objects around)

Flipper Tool (responsible for selling or duplicating items, as well as changing their appearance post-purchase or copying their style)

Collecting Trash

Cleaning (for stains and windows)

Vacuuming

Demolishing (for wrecking walls)

Building (for building walls)

Edit Wiring (to hook your electronics up to switches)

Surface Finishes (for tiling, wood, and wallpaper)

Painting

Most are intuitive, once you get access to them. The more you use them, the more perks and abilities you can unlock for them. Since there's not a great real-world equivalent for the Flipper Tool, that one may take a little more time to get used to. Just remember that it has a submenu for selecting its various features, and you should be good to go.

Client demands are highlighted on your tool wheel with yellow exclamation points. Getting into your quest menu will also show you an itemized list of tasks to perform. When you have a tool selected, you can hit a Flipper Sense button to have what needs to be acted on highlighted in yellow. Very handy, especially when you can't see what to destroy or clean up.

Usually, you'll have the best luck doing the following in order:

Sell off unwanted stuff.

Bag trash.

Vacuum.

Clean stains.

Clean windows.

Paint.

Resurface walls and floors.

Buy wanted stuff (and arrange as desired.)

Unpack boxes (for stuff the client has already purchased.)

Some of your objectives get hidden behind furniture, so be sure to fling that aside if you get stumped. Might as well spam the Flipper Sense, too. You do get points for it, after all!

The only "threat" you have is your budget. I put that in quotes because, assuming you are following the client's requests, you should never go anywhere near running out of money. Even in your own projects, you can repeat previous jobs to get more cash, should you get in a pinch. Just put in enough attention and elbow grease to max out your job to three stars, then cash out.

You do get into a lull, working through those jobs. At a certain point, you may hit a level of brain fatigue with redesigning whatever items your customers want you to purchase and just give into their requests, regardless of how you feel about the style of the products you are purchasing. The game's just checking that you made the right purchases, not that you placed them well or used a certain style. Perhaps this brain fatigue is what makes coming across a junked-up room all the more shocking. You're just trying your best with making an efficient, pleasant space, and wham! Thirteen pizza boxes chucked across an attic space, complete with grease stains sinking into the hard wood floors. Like, there's worse things to find in a house. I've seen worse in real life. But, it doesn't mean that it didn't make me curse or shudder.

Man, though. I get where real-life house flippers just keep doing the same crap over and over again. White walls and gray laminate floors aren't just the results of creative bankruptcy and penny pinching. It's also mental fatigue and executive dysfunction.

Additionally, the game will occasionally treat you with a furniture assembling mini-game. Successfully getting at least 2 stars on your assembled product will grant you a small discount to purchased items of that class in game (somewhere between 2-6%, depending on the difficulty of the item in question.) They work well enough, despite some arguments I had with the game's camera. Whoever made the time limits to beat on those mini-missions needs to have some kind of intervention for whatever stimulants they are abusing, though. Like hell I'm repeating something that took me 20 minutes to put together just because they think it can be done in 15.

You can also platform across "Floor is Lava" maps, but man. I'm just here to fix up houses.

If you did want to cut out the story and get right to the point, a sandbox mode is available for you. The tools aren't an exact 1 to 1 with the tools you get in the story mode, but there's enough overlap that playing the story mode will help you out here. Additionally, there are tools for assigning quests, jobs, etc. in the event that you want to upload your map to mod.io and have other players play your map. You can also control the lawn growth and punch holes in the map, which man! Would have I liked those options in the main game.

When you are allowed to take full control over a house and exercise your skills, you will likely be happy with the variety of colors, textures, and items to play with. The furniture is somewhat restricted to modern creations akin to something you'd find in IKEA or on Wayfair, with only select deviations made for the occasional appliance to look mid-century modern. (Which, for someone who has a fair amount of CRT television sets around the house, is a bit of a bummer. The one CRT they have in game is just not the vibe I'm going for, either.) Each furniture item and texture set can be dyed in at least three sets of color styles separated by vibrance, sometimes also coming with different pattern, wood, or metal types. In the right circumstances, you can also use photos off your own computer for additional artwork! For someone that remembers the more static days of the original Sims release, it's particularly impressive! Significantly fewer dead people around, too.

I'm always amused when guys discover exactly what gals did in "The Sims" games. Those games were pool-based slaughterhouses. Girls had to get their cool graveyards somehow.

When I had hiccups with the game, I could get around most obstacles by figuring out how to talk to the game in its own logic. Like, once I removed a timber log to paint behind it, then had to resize said log into a sliver to get it back into place, then resize it once more to its original size. Hooking up electrical wiring also wasn't explicitly taught, but I figured it out after messing around with light settings in a ranch house. The only problems I had that couldn't be fixed were being unable to cut triangular shapes out of bricks or placing bricks down in spots where the game arbitrarily said no. Annoying? Sure. But, that's a surprisingly low limitation.

Although, it would have been nice to be able to manually freeze items into a single group. Or, just have a bunch of items for purchase as a group. (Like, I'm talking having a block of books instead of having to arrange one at a time. I suppose you could put them onto a tray, move them, then delete the tray, but man. That feels weird.) Also, it's kind of weird that there are so many toys, but not a generic teddy bear or doll. Like, there's action figures for fake games, but not much in the way for dolls or stuffed animals. I don't know. Just seems like a thing kids would have.

Another weird thing—I ended up having this intermittent input issue with a Nintendo Switch controller that I was using from time to time. For whatever reason, right stick input would lock into a counter-clockwise circle, and I'd have to shake it out of that bad behavior. I doubt many people are using Switch controllers for PC gaming, but hey. Guess I’m weird like that. (I didn't have any issues with an Xbox 360 controller or the standard keyboard and mouse, for what that's worth.)

"House Flipper 2" is an awesome tool that happens to have a decent game mode attached to it. I am wondering how this could be used more as a partner tool or competitor to something like Sketchup more than expanding the boundaries and lore of Pinnacove. I imagine an average interior designer could get a lot of use out of something like "House Flipper 2," even if that's not the exact purpose of it. A person is never going to get exact furniture matches with it, but I imagine you could at least mock up a room relatively quickly with it. To those in the right industry, that might be pretty neat.

The base price for "House Flipper 2" is around $39.99 with a bonus DLC Starter Pack for $9.99. I suspect this price may change depending on how many people they want/need to pull in for co-op playtesting, so watch for any potential sales. I'm not exactly certain how many of my readers would be into building homes and decorating them, so for them, this may be too expensive. But, hey. It's important to engage in non-violent, constructive play, from time to time. This is a good way to do just that.

Although, if an option opens up to smash some digital NIMBY or HOA president's car in with a sledgehammer, I'm all for that, too. Gotta make this housing market more affordable somehow.

[tombstuck-writes]

wip intro: knucklehead

it's 2009, and theo and rodney (and all of their friends) are highschoolers in a tiny rural missouri town.

oh, the plot, you ask? i'll get back to you when i figure it out. but some of the themes are love (platonic and romantic), that horrible thing that happened to you wasn't your fault, just because someone hurt you doesn't mean everyone will hurt you, sometimes water is thicker than blood, and probably others.

it's a zero draft right now, which basically means i wrote 40,000 words about these kids but it's not really a cohesive story at the moment.

i feel like a small explanation for each of the moodboard photos is warranted, because i'm not super sure what to say about the story and i feel like this will give it context.

kids laying in a pile, probably at a sleepover: rodney and theo are part of a large group of friends who frequently hang out together like this.

a creek with trees on the water's edge: one of the friends lives on a large property and if you go far enough into the woods on that property there is a creek, smaller than the one in the photo but i couldn't find a perfect example. this is actually based on my real life, when i was a kid there was a creek in the woods at my grandmother's house. i imagine the knucklehead teens hanging out here.

a dusty diner with an old tv, and some hunting/guns/beer decorations hanging up: this photo does a good job of representing the vibes of this small town, and the old timers in the area would definitely be spending time together in a diner just like this. unfortunately this is also based on my real life childhood.

barn next to a dirt road: another photo to represent the town where the characters live.

"now is the day of salvation" sign: despite this being a very very small town, there are 3 churches in town, and lots of christian imagery similar to this around town. most of the teens in the story's friend group are queer in one way or another, so this imagery is meant to add sort of a lurking judgmental vibe to the story. i feel like i don't really need to say it, but based on my real life etc.

blurry school bus: quite a few of the scenes in the story take place in the local high school and on the school bus.

playing guitar: one of the main characters, rodney, plays guitar. in the zero draft it was a ukulele, but i changed it to guitar because i feel that it fits the setting and themes better from a storytelling perspective.

cluttered bedroom: this is what i imagine the main character, theo's bedroom to look like, maybe not exactly. i eventually want to create an illustrationof his exact room. but he collects clocks and has a quilt on his bed so i feel its close enough for now.

playground: there is a tiny park in desperate need of maintenance in their town and the teens hang out there quite a bit.

i'm really excited to be working on this again, because i took a break after finishing the zero draft.

let me know if you want to be on the taglist for this wip.

[mosstro]

Chapter 2: What do we do now?

Part 1

The early mornings at the Manglare's house were quiet, if you were to about talk about those living inside, the residents who lived outside thought, they would rather party during the hours that the pall of night was over them, rather than the day, but one of the residents inside the house thought the same too. Chae-won's plan had worked, she managed to make herself sleep the exact number of hours she needed to wake up earlier than everyone else inside the household, which meant today she will not have anyone stopping her from exploring outside. Now, that sounds bad but I promise you dear readers the plot hasn't thickened since last chapter, Chae-won just wanted to explore. It had been a total of 20 days since she woke up in the new world and in 13 of those days have been spent on her wanting to see everything from both the inside to the outside of the house, of course, at first she did tried to stay in bed for the sake of her new body but that only lasted 7 days when the boredom was too much to bear, something that she brought with her from her previous life.

At first, she tried to quench the immense boredom by reading,only to figure out quickly that she had started to miss her mom's cracked tablet and her phone... actually she was missing having internet acess; somehow that boredom allowed her to read around 2 books per day, so by the end of the week she had read 14 books, and by the 8th day of being in the new world she was already craving independence and for people to leave her alone. Some people out there might react with “Oh, but isn't it nice to have servants that do everythiiiiiing for you?” Oh sure, it's all fun and games until you have someone else trying make you pee in a peeing pot because “Oh, it's too soon for you to walk to the toilet” then try to clean you because: “Oh, I figured you were too tired to clean yourself” or have someone undress you to give you a wash cloth bath because of the same previous reasons! So, no, Chae-won was having none of that, there was not enough period dramas or fantasy stories out there in the world that will sell her the idea that having people touching her body is something worth of bragging rights!! She was fourteen! Not 4! She already knows how to clean herself! She doesn't need maids to do that!! After those experiences, Chae-won had to advocate for herself and her independence, which in turn made life difficult for the servants around her, since they were given instructions to take care of her. Soon Chae-won was making her way down hallways and down the stairs of the mansion, trying to learn everything that had to be known of the house, she even made her way down to the dinning room to eat with her new guardian. This lead to multiple discoveries on her part: One, most days everyone in the household eats in the kitchen, including the count himself; Two: the entire house shared some similarities to her room, like the auburn wood, the rest of the house was decorated with a mixture of green, blue and red (the red coming from the auburn wood), including the ceiling; Third, the house was in a style she believed was called a “colonial style”, thanks to the multiple notes Okebokki would add to give some context to the things they added, which also explained that many houses of this style and time would feature decorative colorful tiles, on both the floors and walls, including the count's home itself too ; Forth and final discovery, the hours of the day would stay the same regardless of the time of year, since in the kingdom of Ámfora (Oh, yeah, that's the name of the kingdom where she is right now) only has two seasons, dry and rainy season.

Which leads us to present time. Chae-won finally decided that enough is enough and the time for adventure is now. Putting her plan into motion, Chae-won (quietly) jumped out of bed, soon, she was reaching from under her bed to pull out a lamp with a unlit candle inside along with a couple of matches, then she grabbed her new (but only temporary) crutches and for the last touch she tied her hair in a ponytail with a ribbon to keep it out of her way! And just like that she began to make her way through the hallway making sure to step on top of the various rugs on the floor to muffle the sound of the crutches, she figured (or rather, noticed) that as long as she kept her steps short but quick the sound of her steps would be diminished, of course, the lamp would occasionally make a small squeaky sound, but it was quiet enough to be passable.

Finally, she reached the area of the stairs, to which she felt it was only appropriate to finally use the lamp, at first she merely thought that she could just wait until she reached down the stairs, but then felt that, given how the previous tenant of this body had the worst luck with stairs she felt it was safer to turn on the lamp at this moment... What? She is scared of lighting up the match and starting a fire by accident, ok? With some light to guide her, Chae-won slowly made her way down the stairs, with the safest method she knew, by sitting down on the steps and moving her butt down one step at a time, until she managed to get down to the last step successfully quiet.

Chae-won keeps walking until she reaches a crossroad, not a metaphorical one but a literal crossroad, the slate road continued far in the distance but right as it curved another path presented itself, a small hole in the tightly packed grove that surrounded the house, it was dark, so dark that the light of her lamp did nothing to dispel it, but out from it came a breeze. A breeze that carried a new smell for her along with a sound she only has heard from the speaker of her phone. So, without thinking it twice she began to walk towards the the sound, moving through the grove, her heart racing at the thought of what she was gonna find, part of her was scared, the unfamiliar sounds of the night made her doubtful, but a small fright was nothing.

oon, her small reward made itself known as she saw the dawn bathed beach. Excitement bubbled from within her and she steadily began break into a sprint, ditching the crutches as she ran towards the ocean. The salty waters felt terribly cold but it only made her laugh, the smell of the ocean was briny but smelling it made her lungs feel clear and the breeze felt refreshing, then the thing that made her excitement even bigger, rocks. Of all sizes and colors with different degrees of transparency, some dark, some light, all that small treasure along line between the sand and the salty sea.

“WOHOOO!” She yelled, feeling ecstatic, and laughing. Chae-won began to collect all the rocks she could using the skirt of the gown as a net, collecting those that looked interesting, inspecting each, using the lamp as a support for her endeavor, picking each with care and interest as if she was finding the most precious things the world could offer her. She picked, and picked, and choose and let go, until her skirt was full and she could not walk more. With a sigh, she sat down on the sand. Her feet were covered in sand and small gravel, and so was her skirt and hands, but she felt content. She had spent 20 days inside the house, 20 days of her keeping herself still, 20 days of her keeping all the questions she's had down, and now... she could no longer run from them. The most important one, the most obvious one would be “What now?”. Continues in Part 2

[papillon82fluttersby]

Famous Five Art Nostalgia #LC14 – Part 1

Introductory post

Introduction to ‘Les Cinq’

‘Les Cinq’ Masterpost

🧸🖼️🚤 Les Cinq vendent la peau de l’ours – The Famous Five and the Blue Bear Mystery

Original publication date: 1977 (France), 1983 (UK)

(Original cover by Claude Pascal, 1977)

After 13 books illustrated by Jean Sidobre, here comes a new illustrator: Claude Pascal! The quality of the illustrations can be a little hit-or-miss but it’s a breath of fresh air nonetheless!

The title is a wordplay based on the French saying “il ne faut pas vendre la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué”, literally “don’t sell the bearskin before killing [the bear]” – the English equivalent being “don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched”. In the context of the story, it is obviously a pun related to the teddy bear that is at the centre of the mystery. Hope you'll enjoy this new adventure!

~~~~~~

Plot summary:

(Disclaimer: All provided translations are my own.)

On December 24th, the Five take a walk around Kirrin village. At the toy store, the shopkeeper has just received three dozen teddy bears all in different colours. Anne really loves a blue one, and Julian buys it as a gift for her.

(At the toy store)

[TRANSLATION: Narrator: The man looked up and smiled at the group. Shopkeeper: Hello, young people! On a shopping outing, are you? George: Yes, it's high time we bought some trimmings for our Christmas tree...]

That afternoon, the children are invited to a friend’s house for a Christmas party. Their host has bought a set of 12 teddy bears from the store and used them to decorate the Christmas tree. In the middle of the party, the lights suddenly go out, and someone steals the Christmas tree! Everyone is stunned by this most peculiar theft.

(Christmas party!)

[TRANSLATION: Narrator: That day, at four in the afternoon, the party was in full swing at the Tanguy house. Young Isabelle, acting as the lady of the house, was going to great lengths to make her guests feel welcome... Isabelle: Jean-Paul, have some more pistachio ice cream...]

The next day, the Five learn that the two boxes containing the remaining teddy bears have been stolen from the toy store on Christmas Eve. The children go to the toy store to find out more. They meet a strange journalist who’s intent on interrogating the shopkeeper about the theft and all but ignores the children until Anne announces that she has a teddy bear in her possession, the only one that hasn't been stolen. The journalist then takes an interest in her and asks her a few questions, including when she bought it and where she lives.

(A strange journalist 🤨)

[TRANSLATION: Narrator: George was beginning to find the man’s questioning rather suspicious. She rather disliked him... George: What paper do you write for? Supposed journalist: The... The Gazette... Alright! I'm off. Goodbye, everybody!]

On the next day at the market, a strange woman asks Anne to sell her the plushie, pleading that she wants to offer it as a gift to her son, who is very sick. Anne’s heartstrings are suitably shaken at this plea, but the others find this request suspicious. They realise that there is a link between the theft of the Christmas tree and the break-in at the toy store, namely in both cases the thieves were after the teddy bears delivered to the toy store on Christmas Eve.

At first glance, Anne's plushie seems to be nothing special. But when the children open it, they discover a piece of paper on which a rough map is drawn. It's all very mysterious, but one thing's for sure: the thieves have been looking for this map all along.

(A close examination…)

[TRANSLATION: Narrator: Back at Kirrin Cottage, the young detectives held a meeting. Dick laid out the map on the table...]

Anne's plushie is subsequently stolen while the Five are out cycling (the plushie no longer containing the map). Later, while playing on the beach, the Five are ordered by a stranger to either hand over the paper by midday the next day and place it under a certain rock he points out, or he will come after them. The Five decide to create a false map, then deliver it to the designated spot. They keep watch and see a biker coming to retrieve the map. While the man is busy retrieving the map, they search the motorbike and find an envelope with the name "Siméon Rebouc", who lives in a nearby town called Pléjar. They go there and look for the home of said Siméon Rebouc, who has a bad reputation. The Five see the biker talking to the fake journalist from earlier. They overhear them talking to each other about the “purple house”, and about one of their accomplices, called Garbin, who’s currently in prison. Further discussion leads the Five to conclude that said Garbin stole some unknown valuables, was subsequently arrested and sent to prison, and used the teddy bears, made by convicts in the course of prison work, to pass on the map to his accomplices.

(The Five uncover the bandits’ ploy)

[TRANSLATION: George: Want to know what I think? Garbin, imprisoned as he is, is leading the others from afar, and has sent them a map using… Anne: … the teddy bears...]

On December 31st, the Five discover the location of the “purple house”, thus named for the unusual colour of its walls. They also learn that the house belongs to Garbin, and that the latter was arrested after stealing master paintings from an art gallery in Paris.

(The purple house)

[TRANSLATION: George: Here is the purple house! Julian: Let's do some reconnaissance. There’s no one around.]

The children go back to the house in the evening, and see the thieves digging a hole in the basement. Guided by the false map, they obviously discover nothing. After the bandits leave the house, the Five enter and, guided by the real map, uncover the buried treasure. Unfortunately, the thieves return to the house and get the drop on the children. The bandits tie them up in the basement, take hold of the paintings and flee.

Thanks to Timmy’s tearing George's bonds, the Five manage to escape. Following an encounter with the local police, who believe them to be up to no good, Mr Kirrin is called to the station and convinces the policemen to investigate.

(Both the policemen and the Kirrins go searching for the bandits)

[TRANSLATION: Narrator: The two cars stopped in front of the inn, all lit up with lanterns...]

Siméon's brother is questioned and the policemen’s investigation leads them to Kirrin harbour where the three bandits (Léon – the fake journalist; Siméon – the biker; and Irène – Léon’s wife who tried to get Anne’s plushie at the market) were about to embark to go abroad. The police initially fails to find the paintings after searching the boat, but the Five quickly discover them, hidden under a bench seat. The bandits are immediately taken into custody. After this long and turbulent night, the Five spend a peaceful and cosy New Year's Day at Kirrin Cottage.

(All’s well that ends well!)

[TRANSLATION: Narrator: Back at Kirrin Cottage, Mr Kirrin congratulated his daughter and nephews. George: Our speciality, combining business with pleasure. Isn't that right, Tim, old chap?]

~~~~~~

Cover art through the ages:

(Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive list; sometimes the dates are difficult to pinpoint; and I have purposefully not included editions that re-used similar cover art, with differences only in layout and font style.)

(Cover art by Claude Pascal, Hachette, 1981 – minor layout changes compared to the original 1977 version)

(Paul Gillon, Hachette, 1995 – Annie loves her new plushie 🧸🩵)

(Frédéric Rébéna, Hachette, 2013 – a frosty landscape!)

(Auren, Hachette, 2024 – OMG this teddy bear is so tiny, how is poor Anne supposed to hug and cuddle that thing?!! Also, how does a hidden map even fit inside??!!!)

~~~~~~

Thanks for reading!

[offonaherosjourney]

Gimme a movie where the first 30 minutes are a speedrun of the usual Hallmark movie plot with the tropey happy ending but there's still an hour and a half left of the movie so instead of rolling the credits you get a Parasite level plotwist (and by this I mean a plotwist so huge and unexpected and perfectly executed you get whiplash from the way the movie seamlessly switches genres):

The woman is ecstatic with her new life until she walks into a room and happens to hear him telling the end of a joke that actually sounds pretty racist but surely that's because she missed the beginning and doesn't have the whole context, right? Later that day they are enjoying a nice day out in the cozy village (that doesn't really look as charming anymore now that the Christmas decorations are starting to come off) when something else happens. They are walking hand in hand, chatting, when he stops midsentence, his eyes fixed on something, and he makes a disgusted face and suddenly makes them switch sidewalks. She looks around trying to find what made him react the way he did but all she can spot is a couple of men also walking hand in hand. She asks him what's going on, and he nods with his head towards the couple of men also walking hand in hand casually strolling along the sidewalk they'd just abandoned. He explains he hates them and she thinks that surely it's not because they're gay, that maybe they were mean to him in high school or something, right? And then the next day she opens his closet to store some of her things in there because her closet is full and... she finds the holy grail of fascist memorabilia, and suddenly abandoning everything and everyone she's ever known to move across country to live with a guy she's known for a week doesn't seem the best idea anymore.

She realizes she has to flee but she just spent a huge amount of money moving there, and most of her stuff is still on the way, and her landlord already rented her apartment to someone else and the cellphone service is horrible so getting in contact with anyone from her old life is near impossible. She could use the payphone in the bar but the owner is friends with her new boyfriend and what if he overhears her. And there is a huge blizzard heading their way so she can't flee in a taxi because the roads are closed. Still, she decides to brave the snow to go to the post office and pretends to send some postcards to friends but instead she begs for their help and hopes she can survive until the letters arrive to them. Everyone in town is so happy her new boyfriend is finally in a relationship because he had been so lonely since his wife died in that tragic accident and they all adore him and she has no idea which people know and agree with his views and which people don't so she's terrified to confide in anyone, and terrified of giving him any inkling that she's planning to flee. She also decides not to look into the tragic death of his wife because pretending to act like everything is okay is already hard enough, but of course she accidentally finds evidence that he killed her and she can't go to the police because her new brother and father in law are both cops. So the next day she finds an excuse to head downtown and ask in the post office if her postcards had already left, but the huge blizzard apparently blocked all roads that lead to the village. And when she makes her way back to his house (because she can no longer bring herself to think about it as "home") he suggest that she should start looking into getting a job since she's going to stay with him and in the village, and that hey since they are so in love they should get married, right? And she says yes because the last time a woman rejected him he killed her. He gives her a gorgeous ring and she puts it on and only a couple days later she discovers he'd hidden a tracker in it. When she carefully confronts him about it, he brings up his high school girlfriend that disappeared under mysterious circumstances and uses that to justify why knowing where she is at all times is so important to him. She smiles and agrees and later on cries alone in the bathroom because she can't get out of that town soon enough. She starts brainstorming new names for herself in a piece of paper she later burns. While the wedding was supposed to be many months away, he starts talking about his grandma's declining health, and how charming a winter wedding would be, and she agrees to move up the wedding. One day while he's supposed to be away and she's packing her getaway bags, he returns early and catches her red-handed and asks who told her. She plays dumb, and tries not to look in the direction of the knife she stole from the kitchen and tapped to the underside of her night stand. He wants to know who told her he'd moved the wedding to the next day as a surprise, and compliments her for packing the bags for their honeymoon and remarks what a great wife and mother she's going to make if she's that good at anticipating the needs of others. She can't keep the tears in, so she lies and says they're tears of happiness. The next day she puts on the wedding dress and makes the kitchen knife her "something borrowed". Everyone in town gathers for the wedding, but the bride and groom never make it to the altar. The groom is never found. The bride, who makes her way back to civilization wearing a bloodstained wedding dress, is never found either.

Hallmark Movie tropes where a woman visits her rural hometown and fall in love with a random camo wearing musclebound white man because of the power of Christmas, and then leaves her successful city job, and cuck boyfriend to be said man's submissive wife is conservative and possibly even white nationalist propaganda.

In this essay I will...

[liesoverthec]

OG 911 Character Details from Canon Pt 2

Hi y’all I’m back! I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who reblogged the last details post - I sort of just thought people would like it and it would die, so to see it travel and hopefully reach more writers was so great so thank you again!

Details under the cut since I went a little crazy 😅 and if this is your first time seeing this, the first part, and any future parts, can be found under this tag here!

Quick note before I get to the details - always, ALWAYS take details from dialogue or plot over details from the set or props if they contradict each other. The writers have the ultimate say over what happens on the show/for the characters, so whatever they say goes, even if it goes against something props has already laid down (eg, Chim’s birthday, sorry Libra crew. He’s an Aries or a Pisces). So keep that in mind for the future in case some of these details I have which are from props/set are changed in the future, or if you’ve noticed something yourself!

Also if you have questions, I am MORE than happy to answer them, although if you leave them in the tags on this post I’m probably gonna lose them, so if it’s something you’d genuinely like an answer to, drop it in my inbox! Besides my standard “ask” tags, I’m also tagging asks about canon details with this tag here. Every time I make a big post like this, I’m going to link all the asks I’ve gotten since the last post, but if you’re looking for more info in the mean time, that’s the other spot to look!

Buck has a grill on his patio.

Eddie doesn’t hang Christopher’s art on the fridge - instead it is either hung on the corkboard in Chris’ room to the left of the door, or Eddie puts it in an actual frame and hangs it using a hammer/nails in Christopher’s room. All the Diaz family has on their fridge is a bunch of bendy people magnets. (I absolutely ADORE him putting all this effort into treating Christopher’s art like it’s something you’d buy from a professional artist).

Info on everyone’s ages can be found here. (Little more discussion of Chim’s situation here).

Albert has a bachelor’s degree! I don’t know in what though, except that it’s some field for which is a Master’s is useful.

Athena was in a sorority in college, Delta Sigma Theta. Their website describes them as “ ...a sisterhood comprised primarily of Black, college-educated women ... [that] considers the issues impacting the Black community and boldly confronts the challenges of African Americans and, hence, all Americans ”, which I love for Athena, and feel is very in-character for her at that time in her life!

Chim is an aviators dude. When he wears sunglasses, they’re always aviators.

Athena also wears nothing but aviators.

Bobby wears square aviators.

Eddie, on the other hand, always wears Wayfarers.

Buck either doesn’t really like sunglasses or he constantly forgets he owns them, since we’ve only seen him wear them once in 60 eps, in a move I’m pretty sure was ONLY for dramatic effect.

Hen’s sunglasses change style over the seasons like her regular glasses do, but she tends to like browline sunglasses.

Info on Christopher’s school can be found here!

There are two colors of dispatch polo, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhythm or reason for who wears what. Maroon - Maddie and Linda. Blue - Josh and May. Jamal has actually worn both maroon and blue, so it doesn’t seem to be TOTALLY set in stone although I’ve never seen anyone else switch. Sue is too badass to wear a dispatch shirt.

Both Bobby and Eddie drive 4 door pickups. Bobby’s is navy. Eddie specifically has a black, 2020 GMC Denali 1500 pickup truck (in case you want to specifically look up what the inside of it looks like or what features it has 😂)

Info on the 118’s medical certifications can be found here.

Correction to Eddie’s living situation from last post: no next door neighbors, but instead UPSTAIRS neighbors. (Pointed out by Abigail in this ask). Also since someone else was wondering the notes of the last post - no, there is absolutely no discussion on the show of whether or not Eddie rents the apartment or owns it. But based on the fact that it’s 1) LA and 2) an apartment, my guess would be he rents it.

When Maddie isn’t feeling like herself, she tends to straighten her hair rather than curl it. It seems to be more when she’s uncertain about her place in her own and other people’s lives, rather than just when she’s simply worried - eg it’s straight in 2B, when she’s uncertain if she wants to continue working as a dispatcher/is unsure about her relationship with Chim.

For work, Chim, Eddie and Buck all use black duffel bags with a LAFD patch on the top. Hen uses several different cute bags, and Bobby seems to have a plain black duffel bag.

Watches - Bobby, Athena, Chim, Hen and Buck all wear their watch on their left wrist (but Athena ONLY wears hers for work, she takes it off at home.) Eddie wears his on his right wrist, and Maddie doesn’t wear one.

Chim (and Maddie by default) literally still have the exact same couch as in the pilot. (Which means that Chim has cuddled Tatiana on that couch, AND Albert has had sex on it. TIME TO GET A NEW ONE, BUCKLEY-HANS 😂)

The 118 has five different rigs - the engine (E118), the ladder truck (T118), two ambulances and the captain’s truck. 95% of the time, when the team is chilling in the cab of a rig and chatting (eg the ‘stuck under a live telephone pole’ scene in Jinx), they’re in the engine, not the truck. (Which I personally learned recently are NOT interchangeable terms!)

Athena and Michael got married when Athena was 37.

If you’d like to give Maddie a full name beyond “Maddie”, you should use Madeline. (I know, I know, in 4x04 she says Maddie is the name on her birth certificate, and that you should never use props details if they contradict script details, but I always thought that was a super weird exchange in 4x04 which could be explained by Maddie getting a nickname since she was born when Margaret and Phillip, you know, actually loved their kids and showed it, so of course Buck doesn’t get one, and in 4x04, Maddie was trying to avoid the entire issue of why she got one and Buck didn’t. But! Do what you want, and use Madeline as the full version of Maddie if you’d like, since that’s what’s on the BOLO in 2x13 😂)

Athena’s call sign is 727 L30, but she doesn’t have a specific squad car - the number changes throughout the series.

Chim really likes chewing gum, but he’s the only one out of the entire family!

The station has an Xbox One S, and it’s white.

In the real LAFD, there are stations 1 through 114. To avoid confusion while filming on the streets (I’m assuming), our fictional LAFD never uses the number of a real station. So if you want another station for a fic, and you want something that would be real in OUR universe, use the numbers 115 and above. They’ve gone as high as 221 in our universe.

Battalions - station 118 is in Battalion 7, which is also not a battalion in real Los Angeles. The 118 has interacted w/ Battalion 1, which is a real battalion, but other ‘non-real which makes them more likely for our universe’ battalions include numbers: 3, 8, 13, 16, 19 and above.

S1 Buck knew the term Jedi, but based on context, didn’t understand AT ALL the context provided by Star Wars, so there’s another edge of his pop culture limits for you.

Chim is the most tech-savvy out of everyone, hands down.

Athena has a VERY active Twitter account.

Abuela’s house number is 8902. I don’t have a street name for you unfortunately though. :/

Athena’s favorite flowers are white roses. None of the other women are really flower people.

Michael likes to wear purple.

When they’re at a call, Buck does pretty much all of the stuff with the hammer and the saw. Eddie does all the work needed with the drill.

Harry goes to Meadowbrook Elementary.

Buck lives on the fourth floor of his apartment building, across the hall from Apt. 416. The lovely @lovelessmotel found this listing for what is more or less the apartment. What happened was: the set crew rented this apartment for the one episode at the end of s2 when Buck moved in, and then over the summer before s3 built their own set of it, and changed some things - eg giving him an island, and moving the sink to a second counter against the far wall, you can see the changes here in this amazing gif set by the awesome Austen, but the listing should let you click around a little more upstairs and figure out dimensions better than what the show provides!

When Athena and Hen go out to eat together, it’s always fast food burgers and fries.

Waffles are Athena’s favorite food, and tiramisu is her favorite dessert.

Every takeout we’ve seen Buck eat has always been in a Chinese food takeout container, and we know he likes Thai food the best. EXCEPT! The one time we see him eat takeout with Eddie and Christopher, they have pizza. So take from that what you will......

Eddie has a cell phone and a landline.

Chim is a shameless multiple texter.

Chim and Bobby sleep closest to the door in their respective bedrooms (both right side of the bed if you are standing at the foot, facing the headboard), and Athena and Maddie sleep furthest away from the door (left side).

Some canon last names for other firefighters at the station in case you wanna add more people to a fic - Mitchell, Sanchez, Serrano (woman), Porter, Meyers (woman), Maxwell, Voyta

Hen and Karen really love decorating their house with dark/red wood.

Karen is Mommy and Hen is Mama.

Bobby has a brother, and a grandmother, and that’s literally ALL we know about his family outside of Marcy and the kids.

Evidence points to Eddie being the oldest child in his family.

Karen has multiple brothers (no sisters), but no idea how many - just that one of them is named Trey, and one of them lives in LA and has kids. They might be the same brother and they might not be.

Both Hen and Athena are only children.

Athena has been on the police force for 30 years.

Christopher and Denny are the same age (born in 2011), and Harry is two years older than them.

Michael lives in apartment 308.

The bank in this universe is CalAm.

Hen and Karen have a picture of Denny, May and Harry on their fireplace mantel.

Eddie having a black thumb + a lot of plants in his living room = him buying fake plants bc he likes the aesthetic ™ or someone (cough Carla cough) is taking care of them for him.

The COVID timeline in OG’s universe is fucked up compared to the real world’s, so it shouldn’t be used as a way to measure time! They just throw it in wherever it makes sense for the story they want to tell (eg the vaccines in s4 ep 8), since s3 was both done before COVID hit but also airing while it was happening. It makes absolutely no sense for May to graduate in March nor for Chris to be going to what is specifically labeled summer camp, and the vaccine plotline was INCREDIBLY early, even for real life, so don’t use anything from that as a measure of time. I’ve found except in specific examples, eg the two tsunami episodes, it’s very safe to say every episode covers a week - fall holidays on the show line up with their real life counterparts, indicating about the same amount of time is passing for us and them.

On that note - Jee-Yun was born in late January, early February 2021. (Conceived in Pinned, which was end of March/beginning of April, meaning Maddie was around a month along at May’s graduation in May ➡ 42 weeks + 3 days from then = late Jan/early Feb. Which unfortunately means we most likely won’t see her birthday celebrated on screen. If we assume she was conceived on the date Pinned aired, aka the very sexy hotel scene, then January 21st or 22nd would be Jee’s birthday, depending on if she was born after midnight or not.

Buck has had at least one other Jeep between the one Maddie gave him, and the one he has now, which means that when he needs a new car, he is purposefully choosing Jeeps.

I hope this was all as interesting/enjoyable to you as it was to me! And just to repeat - I love answering questions so pls let me know if you have any at all ❤

🐝🐝🐝🐝🐝

Tagging: @buckbuckley

[autumnbrambleagain]

seriously tho it's incredible bethesda is the only company even making this GENRE of games with the requirements of:

1: full freeform character creation, no restrictions. make up whatever you want that's you, we aren't going to force you to be a specific thing or type*

2: open world with nonlinear emergent storytelling. go around, do things here, do things there. even if you do the same things on different characters, the order and reason and context behind them is different, and the game's story serves as a context for your character's own narrative**

3: animal crossing lite. get a house. play decoration in the house. go clothes shopping. play dress up with yourself.***

4: lots of fun, weird systems to play with and customize your playstyle more****

*later bethesda games would increasingly enforce roleplay stipulations on your character, with skyrim insisting you're the Chosen One Supergodmanhero without ever explaining what that means but oh boy everyone won't shut up about how special you are; and Fallout 4 just outright going "yeah so you're straight, married, either a lawyer or a soldier, also you have a son, also here's your personality" so...

**later bethesda games would increasingly prioritize the game's story over your character's story, with oblivion making your character an idiot and unable to do anything about obvious plot twists, and skyrim mostly just entirely removing the plot altogether in service of a bland walk-around-kill-dragon-okay-you're-the-hero-good-job nonsense

***later bethesda games would increasingly reduce body slots, limiting the ability to play dress-up, with oblivion combining pauldrons into chest-pieces and skyrim basically giving you shirt and pants options only, while also reducing the art style to bland generic mmo plastic-molded generic fantasy palp

****later bethesda games would severely reduce functional systems, with oblivion removing some of the fun of enchantment, and skryim making spellcasting into a basic "you have marvel supermutant fire powers and can shoot fire out of your hands like a superpower" and ensuring there was little point to alchemy other than healing potions or breaking the game

which i guess is to say i'm still stunned morrowind is the only actual game in this genre. whyyyy.

[kanerallels]

As requested by @laughingphoenixleader , have some context for this picture my girl @accidental-spice drew (it's stunning go check it out)

Okay, this is a modern au I came up with long ago. Picture this:

It's Christmas time, which as everyone knows, is the most wonderful time of the year. Kanan isn't debating this. However, he does have to work customer service in one of his jobs, so he's on the fence

He and his best friend Cal are on their way to work one morning, riding the bus. They hit a bump, and this woman right in front of Kanan gets knocked over, and Kanan immediately dives to catch her (because despite what he might say, he's a nice guy)

The first thing he notices is that her green eyes are absolutely dazzling. Actually, everything about the woman he's currently holding is stunning. Play it cool, he thinks

So obviously, the first thing he says is "Looks like you just fell for me"

To his relief, this makes her laugh (and there's a lot of ooohing from the rest of the bus, especially Cal who is already smirking in the background shipping them), and the sound of her voice when she thanks him catches Kanan so off guard that he forgets to ask her name, or anything about her. Which he DEFINITELY regrets later

He assumes that's the last of it But then! A few days later, he's out shopping for Christmas presents, when he runs into the woman from the bus again

Literally

She comes flying out of nowhere, hurrying down an aisle, and crashes straight into Kanan, who manages to catch both of them before they go flying into a Christmas display

Both of them are caught off guard, especially when they recognize each other. They both can't help but stare at each other for a few minutes, stunned

She's the one who breaks the silence, which is unusual for the somewhat tongue-tied Kanan. "We have to stop meeting this way", she quips, and Kanan laughs, finding himself finally able to speak

"Speak for yourself," he says, grinning. "I'm certainly not objecting."

They talk-- read: flirt-- a little more, and Kanan finally catches her name-- Hera. But before long she's gone again and he has no idea how or when he'll see her again. And he definitely wants to see her again

(Meanwhile, Cal has regaled their mutual friend Ahsoka with the tale, and she realizes that she knows Hera from somewhere. Together, the two of them start plotting)

Kanan doesn't see her again, and he pretends like it doesn't bother him. After all, he met her all of two times. Why would he be thinking about her all the time? It doesn't make sense

Christmas Eve rolls around, and Kanan's friend Ahsoka's older brother is hosting a Christmas party at his house. Cal drags Kanan to it, to his friend's great reluctance-- strangely enough, he's not much in the mood to celebrate

He's busy avoiding interacting with people when he sees a woman standing on a chair, putting up decorations. And Kanan knows her, he's absolutely sure of it, no matter how impossible that could be

So he moves up behind her and says her name

And Hera whips around in surprise, overbalances, and winds up in Kanan's arms-- not for the last time, either

His grin equal parts relief and mischief, Kanan says, "Looks like you just fell for me. Again."

Hera just laughs-- but Kanan can see her blushing. And he finds that he likes making her blush. A lot.

So he hangs around her for most of the party, and by the end of it he has her number. He didn't even have to ask-- apparently, he wasn't the only one who'd hoped to see the other again. All things considered, Kanan hasn't had such a good Christmas in a very long time

[ren-therose]

Stuck In the Web (Pt. 1)

Peter Parker x Stark!Reader (WC: 3.3k)

Summary: For the first time, you meet and Peter meet face to face. He isn't sure he can trust you, but you are able to prove it to him, which sends you both into the middle of a mess.

Warning: Spoilers up until "SpiderMan: Far From Home", angst, blood, just a really dark plot with lots of context.

A/N: I have been working on this for over two months. It is probably going to be my most in depth series with a lotta, lotta plot. I don't know how many parts there will be, as there isn't necessarily an ending planned yet. But for now, I hope you enjoy a little story for you and our friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

The sun was creeping through the windows, illuminating the sleeping boy on the couch. The growing rays of light caused Peter Parker to stir from his slumber, bewildered by his seemingly random nap. As he rubbed his weary eyes, they quickly snapped open, taking in the eerily familiar surroundings. Sitting up, he looked around, and to his dismay, he recognized the haunting cabin he had been in once before.

"Oh my god," he breathed, heart rate increase with every second of increasing hyperawareness. "...how am I, why am I..."

Peter began to hyperventilate, unable to finish his sentence, as he pushed himself off the cool leather couch. He was no longer in his spider-suit, but in a T-shirt that said "Stark Industries" and dark sweatpants. The oxygen in the air seemed to be dissipating from Peters surrounding area as he clambered over the back of the sofa and ran to the kitchen, searching for any clues on how he got there. There was no one in the kitchen, and no discernable evidence as to how or why he was in his mentors old cabin.

There was, however, a picture frame that caught his eye over by the sink. As he approached the picture, he stopped in his tracks when he realized what was it was.

The day Mr. Stark and I took photos for Aunt May at the "internship".

He pulled the frame off the shelf, a broken smile catching on his lips. His bottom one quivered, as he stared at the greatest father figure he'd had, but saw was there last moments together on the battlefield. He shook his head, placing the picture on the island and continuing his way to the back. His web shooters were still on his wrists, and he adjusted them to strike. As he walked towards the back of the cabin, he saw a door slightly cracked open at the end of the hall. He silently crept towards the door, pushing it open with discretion, as not to startle whomever was inside.

The first and only time he had been in the cabin was at Tony's funeral, so he didn't see much of the house. It hurt too much to smell Tony's expensive cologne lingering in the air, or the sight of his tech all over. Past the door was a well lived-in bedroom, with paintings and other assorted decor across the room. Flowers on a dresser, a few candles scattered about and a large window looking out onto the lake. It was a very feminine room, but more mature than something little Morgan would like. In the center of the room, there was a full sized bed with a rusty orange-colored comforter piled atop it. Peter approached the side of the bed, but stumbled back upon his discovery. There was, in fact, a girl, quite close to his age, sleeping peacefully in the bed.

Hair sprawled out across the pillow, framing your face. Lips swollen from sleep and cheeks softly tinged with pink. You quietly stirred in the sunlight, and Peter couldn't help but admire the way you so easily. It wasn't the most threatening intruder he was expecting. Nevertheless, this is, or was, Tony's cabin and some strange girl was living in it.

As softly as he could, he backed up to the nearest wall, and started crawling up towards the ceiling. He allowed for a web to drip from his shooter down to your nose. It dragged back and forth across the bridge, causing a tickle to rise. You started to stir as the web continued to sweep across your nose. When your eyes lulled open, you saw the boy above you on the ceiling.

"Peter, what the fuck!"

Startled by the girls response, the boy fell from the ceiling onto the bed where you were pulling yourself up while Peter uncrumpled himself from his landing.

"Woah, woah, woah, are you okay? also, you know my name? Who are you, and seriously, are you okay?" He said, signaling surrender with his hands, to show he wasn't a threat. You, on the other hand, were feeling like you could really be a threat to him.

Looking quizzically at him, you debated launching yourself across the room to beat the shit out of this ignorant boy, but decided against it, as you rolled off the bed, your over-sized shirt and shorts falling down to hang loosely on your figure. You began walking to the door, ignoring him.

"Where do you think you're going? Who are you?" the boy stuttered out. You shoved past him, making your way down the hall into the kitchen.

"Shut up Parker," you muttered, not knowing is he was actually listening. He chased after you with annoyance, considering how oddly comfortable you were in Tony's cabin. You were at the coffee machine by this point, turning it on, and reaching for a mug. "Coffee?"

Before you could turn around, a gooey string of web was around your wrist and you were being pulled towards him with great momentum. He caught you, as you struggled against the webbing.

"Who. Are. You." he growled. It almost scared you, having never seen him in such an aggressive state, not even in the throws of a battle. It almost impressed you, but below your nonchalant facade, you were just as angry.

"All these years, and I am the only secret you didn't figure out, huh Peter?"

"What secret? Why are you here? Did you know Tony?" he said with dismay, unsure if he could trust this girl.

"Of course I knew Tony," you snap. "I am his-" you cut yourself short, your voice feeling caught in your throat. You weren't sure if you were ready to admit it outloud to anyone. "Listen, if you let me go, I can make us some coffee and we can talk, Spider-boy," you mock, lightly tugging against your restraints.

"First, tell me your name now," he demanded. "Please," he added quickly, seeing that this wasn't easy for you either.

"It's Y/N, okay?" you say.

"Y/N. Tony never mentioned you," he grumbled, letting go of your wrist.

You stepped backwards to lean against the counter, pulling the remaining webs off you. "Like I said Peter, best kept secret," you shrugged, turning back to the coffee machine and mugs. You pulled two down, and noticed that the picture frame had moved slightly. "Did Tony have a secret daughter? Did he even know you exist?" You looked back at Peter, who was tracking his sight between you and the frame.

You nodded to the frame. "I remember that day. Tony came back particularly happy, saying that he couldn't wait for there to be a picture of him at you Aunt May's house; it was so weird," you chuckled, allowing the coffee to brew into the pot.

"You know my Aunt Ma-Oh shit, Aunt May! I gotta call her, she probably thinks I'm still-"

"I already called her. She knows where you are and she has been moved into protective custody by Agent Fury. We can't have you contact her though; in fact, you can't contact anyone for a bit. You gotta lay low Peter." You were now pouring sugar into the mugs, as the silent drip off coffee created a strong aroma of java beans.

"Oh god...I really fucked up... how did I even end up here?" he probed, moving to sit on the stool under the counter.

"Oh," you started, shifting uncomfortably. "I, uh...well, after everything with that dick Mysterio, Happy knew that everyone would be after you, and they'd look to him to find you. So, that's why when you arrived at what was left of the compound, you kinda...ended up...knocked out..." you breathed out, worried how he might take the news.

He stared at you, questions racing behind his eyes. As he began to speak, the coffee maker beeped. You spun back around, pouring the coffee into the mugs.

"Okay, but I still don't know who you are Y/N. How did you know Tony?"

You sighed, walking towards the fridge and pulling out creamer. You could feel his gaze on you, watching the way your body language shifted.

"Y/N, you seem to know more about me than I probably would ever want someone to, and yet I only know your name. You seemed to have known tony, and he wasn't a very trusting guy, so I am trying to give you a chance. But you have to trust me in return" he said, shifting awkwardly in his stool. You had finished pouring the creamer, and were slowly stirring the coffee as you listened. If only he knew how much it all weighed on you.

Picking up the mugs, you walked over to Peter and sat next to him, setting a mug in front of the boy. "What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

---

[Year: 2015, New York]

The air smelled sterile, like pure rubbing alcohol that slightly singed the inside of your nose. Your head rolled to the side as you opened your eyes, looking at the unfamiliar surroundings. It looked like a hospital room, but as you took everything in, you soon came to realize that it was much too high-tech to be any kind of hospital you knew of.

All alone, you could feel your heartbeat in your ears, drowning out the beeping of the machines around you. Your breathing quickened, and the beeping sound came back, this time louder and faster. You frantically looked around, trying to find something to hold onto. The panic was setting in when a figure materialized through the wall, shaped like a man. Except he was floating. And red. Your eyes widened, feeling as though you might pass out. And in fact, you did, shortly after he said "Y/N".

That was your first introduction to Vision, and the Avengers building. The next time you woke up, it was in a much cozier room, clearly decorated for a teen girl. There was still more high tech than you needed, but you were a little more comfortable. You got out of the bed and started walking around the room, admiring the thought that someone had put into the space. As you went towards the closet, you heard a knock at the door, and jumped back, startled by the sound. You were barely able to squeak out "come in" before the door opened.

A woman with red hair was standing in the doorway, very relaxed and smiling sweetly at me. But as she watched you back away, she gently placed her hands out, as a gesture to stay calm.

"It's alright dear, you're safe," she said softly. She began approaching as you moved back towards the bed.

"Where am I? I'm scared, please let me go."

"Oh sweetie, you aren't stuck here. I know there is a lot of explaining to do, but first, I wanted to introduce myself. I'm Wanda."

"Y/N. You look familiar, or maybe, sound familiar..."

"I have sat with you for a few weeks now, trying to help you out of your sleep," Wanda said softly, sitting next to you on the bed.

"W-w-weeks? How long was I asleep?" you whisper, afraid to know.

She looked down into her lap, her hands fiddling with each other before she said these words. "Over a year..." she said quietly, afraid it would scare you away.

And she was right. You were more scared than you had been in your life. You had never had parents, you were alone your entire life, but to have lost a year and be placed somewhere else...it was an entirely new fear. You began trembling, searching around the room frantically for more explanations.

"How am I here, how am I...why am I..." you words barely made sense as you sputtered through tears. Wanda gently reached out, placing a hand on your leg.

"Would you like me to explain?" she asked. You nodded frantically, choking back tears.

Wanda explained what should have been your death. The destruction that Captain America and the Winter Soldier had created during their fight left you, at only 13 years old, on death's doorstep. Steve couldn't leave you behind when he saw you laying their, blood surrounding you. You were just a kid. He brought you back to Tony and Bruce, hoping they could do something to save you. What they discovered was that while you were technically alive, you were also brain dead.

They spent months testing every option to bring you back, unfortunately to no avail. By that time, many of the Avengers had grown attached to you, especially Tony. He didn't want to admit it, but he always hoped for a daughter one day. He sat with you every night, telling you about how amazing he is and all of the new tech he was creating in the hopes of saving you. It wasn't until months later, when the threat of Ultron prompted the creation of Vision. The technology used to make his synthetic body, it was exactly what they needed to help you. Brain dead for over six months, and finally, with a little technology, as well as the help of two geniuses, you were supposed to wake up in a day or two. It took several more months for you to wake up. And now, here you are, finally awake and not even aware of what had been done to you.

Wanda escorted you out of your room into the shiny and clean hallways of the building, explaining who you were about to meet. As you walked into the large kitchen, multiple heads spun to look at Wanda and you. Tony, Nat, Steve and Vision were all standing around the island, and were shocked to see you awake and moving.

Vision was the first to speak out of the group. "Y/N, I apologize deeply for startling you earlier, it was not my intention. I have a problem with knowing whether to use the door or just coming i-"

"It's a-alright Mr. Vision," you stumbled on your words, unsure of how to address the AI hero in front of you.

"Please, just Vision," he said with a warm smile (who knew a robot could be as warm as he was).

"I'm Nat. It is so nice to finally hear you speak. We were all wondering what you might sound like," the other redhead said, walking up to place a hand on your shoulder, rubbing slightly as she smiled. "Welcome". She looked back at Steve, who was hanging back slightly. She nodded towards you, and the large man lifted himself off the counter he had been leaning on.

"I'm Steve. I am so sorry-"

"Uh, you really don't have to apologize Mr. Rogers. I appreciate you even trying to save me..." you said quietly, looking down at your shoes.

"Please, Mr. Rogers was my father. Call me Steve." You smiled up at the man, and he began to relax.

"Yeah, hi, and I'm-"

"You are Tony. Er-Mr. Stark," you say quickly correcting yourself. You stepped towards him hesitantly.

"Oh, so you have already heard of me? I am not that surprised, I am-"

"Well actually, I heard you. You were there weren't you?"

Tony looked taken aback by the recognition.

"You heard me?"

"Yeah. You taught me all about the workings of the arc reactor, how you made your own vibranium and why it is better than the original palladium...woah," you exclaimed, feeling a slight rush as you began to crumple. Tony jumped forward to catch you as you slumped down.

"Mr. Stark, my head feels funny."

Tony helped you up, guiding you to a chair, "Yeah, you're gonna feel that for a while, kid. I promise I will explain it to you when you are older."

For the next eight years, more or less based on blip time, you were a mini-Avenger.

---

"That is quite the hero backstory," Peter said with a hefty breath. By the end of your explanation, you had both gone through your first cup of coffee and were on your second. You had also moved to the living room where you sat across from each other in opposing seats.

"It's no radioactive spider," you joke, and he chuckles at the comment.

"So, what did they do to your brain? If you don't mind my asking," he asks with hesitancy.

"Oh, I'm a super computer." You deadpan him as his eyes widen.

"Woah, wait, I thought you were human?"

"Peter, I'm kidding. Kinda. They sort of implanted a super computer in my brain. It keeps my brain functioning, but also gives me unlimited access to the tech that Tony developed for me, as well as, like, the internet."

Peter blinked at you, his jaw slacked a bit, as he scanned you up and down.

"I don't have any metal sticking out of me dork, stop staring," you snap. He sits back, embarrassed that he had been caught.

"How do I know that you are not some person trying to kill me because of London? How do I know that you knew Tony? You could have made all that up!"

You roll your eyes and sit back, raising your hands next to your head.

"Alright, fine Spider-Boy. Believe what you want."

The voice wasn't coming from your mouth. In fact, your mouth was clamped shut, not moving at all. The voice was coming from the speakers.

Peter practically choked on his coffee as your voice projected around him.

"Yeah, and if you still don't believe me, I have something for you." Your voice projected around him.

"Hey Peter, it's Tony."

Peters head snapped up to look at you, as you stared sadly back at him.

"If you are watching this, then you have met Y/N. Isn't she cute? I just know you're gonna like her."

Tears fall from your eyes. Hearing his voice, even if he was totally pushing it with his comment, was nice.

"I wish I could have introduced you myself, but I guess the circumstances dictate that it had to happen now. Anyways, I guess you could call her your 'guardian angel'. She was my right-hand girl when I needed to make sure you were doing okay if I wasn't there. I'd trust her with my life, which is why she has been trusted with yours."

Peter stood from his seat and charged at you, pulling you from your seat. "What the hell is this Y/N" he demanded, tears sitting on the rims of his eyes.

You looked at him with fear in your own. You could tell he was scared, no doubt from the terrible illusions he had endured with Mysterio. Tony continued,

"Oh, shit, projection isn't on. FRIDAY, turn on the recording."

Your eyes widened, and Peter looked back to see a holographic Tony. He let you go and walked up to the hologram.

"So, yeah. Peter, Y/N, and well, Y/N knows you quite well by now. I'm sure you both will get along. I can't wait to see what kind of tech you two make together. Y/N, play nice with him. Peter, I know this is a lot to handle, but I promise you, it will make sense. Oh, and both of you should know that uh, I'm proud of you. Both. So yeah. I'll see you guys later."

The hologram faded. Peter looked limp in front of you, but you couldn't stand anymore. You feel to the ground, a sob escaping from your chest. Peter whipped around, to see you keeled over on the ground. He dropped down next to you as you cried.

"Oh my god, oh my god, I'm so sorry tony, i-i-i'm so sorry...im sorry..." You were veering on hysterical, unable to breath through the pain. Your hair fell around your face, and he saw your neck, which almost looked tattooed; however, Peter recognized that it was a tech grid, one only his mentor could have made. At the nape of your neck, there was, in fact, a small tattoo. It was tony's first arc reactor.

Peter reached out to you, hesitant at first, but gained the confidence to pull you into him. He hugged you tightly, running his hand through your hair as he quietly hushed you. "I believe you Y/N, I'm sorry," he whispered.

"No, Peter please, I-I am so sorry, I am s-sorry, it's all my fault..." you breath into him.

He pulls you away from him gently, looking at your red, tear-stained face. "What was your fault Y/N?"

"Mysterio."

-----

A/N: Please like, reblog and comment if you want more. My motivation is dependent on validation lol, and I also just really value your opinion. Thank you for making it this far.

The next part will be uploaded hopefully sooner than later, and it will include why Y/N is Peters "guardian angel". The fun really gets started up next.

[ksfnmoments]

A “Tree-ful” Situation

“It’s never too early to start decorating! You’re just no fun.”

Midas had taken one step inside the lobby of GHOST House to find it covered with holiday garlands and construction paper littering the walls and floors. There were even paper snowflakes hanging above the front desk, the only piece of furniture that hadn’t been moved from the building. Midas sighed; Skye had a tendency to do this. The second the month of whatever holiday was next hit, she’d fly around and decorate every last inch of whatever she could. The Agency and The Shark were always vulnerable to her creative wrath, and now, it seemed GHOST House would be no exception. Since The Fortilla had sunk completely and where The Agency and Authority stood was out of the question now, GHOST House was the last option where they could all gather.

It was nice to be able to finally spend Christmas without having to worry about SHADOW—for the most part, at least, since Midas’s petty thoughts often wandered to whatever Chaos Agent could possibly be plotting in his absence.

He hadn’t actually been expecting to come here until the last days leading up to Christmas, but Skye had called and urgently told him to come without any context, only that there was a “big surprise.” There was a box sitting in the corner still with some decorations, and he could only imagine how long she had been up to this. “Skye, how long have you even been here?”

Skye glanced at the box against the wall and grinned, taking his hand and dragging him into what they had turned into a storage room around the corner. There were at least five more boxes, all different sizes and mostly empty, and he didn’t want to count the exact number. Two of them held strings upon strings of lights. “I think one. Journey helped me carry everything over.”

Midas shook his head, smiling slightly. “I would ask why you’ve decided to do this now, but I’ve learned not to question your antics anymore. Though when you say ‘one…’ am or pm?”

“PM, duh,” Skye laughed. “I’m not that crazy. Now that you’re here, you can help me with the rest!”

He couldn’t help but back up slightly—he never particularly enjoyed decorating, for all the times Jules had nagged him to help her do so. He immediately searched his mind for every excuse in the book, such as needing to help Jules out with a project or even something unlike him such as willingly fishing with Meowscles (not that he minded spending time with him, just that the thought of seawater, even just a pond or river… well, it didn’t sit well with him), but Skye was clever enough to have already plastered on a pair of puppy eyes. “Fine,” he sighed, ultimately selling his soul for the rest of the afternoon.

Skye brought out one of the emptied boxes and split the remaining decorations, handing him the new load. “I got everything on the right, you can start on the left and I’ll check if I need to get anymore upstairs.”

Midas nodded and took his share through the left door. He couldn’t help but crack a smile—it was the corridor where all the classrooms sat in the days of The Agency, where all the new recruits were trained under the hands of Brutus. The first classroom before him was where he had personally offered to train Skye. She had been so eager, and though there were doubts between Journey and him seeing as she was barely fifteen, she had picked everything up rather quickly, ultimately earning her true spot in GHOST months later. It was hard to believe she was turning eighteen in merely four months.

He took out a wreath and a few ribbons, immediately freezing as he turned to the wall. He was often able to get out of decorating with Jules, and if it were up to him and not the fact that Skye would endlessly pester him if he were to walk away, he would’ve done so now. He wasn’t quite the creative visionary Jules and Skye were, really only knowing how to tell the difference between plain and extravagant, and it was normally him who would sit back and judge whether an interior matched his demanding taste. What was so special about the arrangement of Christmas decorations? What if his inexperience in holiday decorating didn’t live up to the expectations of-

“Don’t overthink it,” Skye said, snickering as one of the ribbons he was holding gilded over in surprise. Midas looked up, finding her head poking over the upstairs balcony with a smile.

“I’m not,” Midas argued. “I’m… debating what should go where. I don’t decorate often, mind you.”

“Yeah, you’re overthinking it,” Skye argued back, still smiling. She made her way to the stairs, humming as she descended them. “I can see it in your liiittle golden eye. It doesn’t matter where you put them as long as everyone can see ‘em!”

She took the items from his hands and fastened them to the wall, making sure to put the wreath in the middle, as high as she could reach. “See? Perfect!”

With a subtle smirk, Midas took the wreath and placed it up higher on the wall. “It is now.”

“Hey, you can make fun of Jules for being short because she’s your sister, not me.” Skye crossed her arms, glaring at him with a smile.

“I’m telling her you said that.”

“Oh yeah? I’m telling her you started it, and that you’re bad at decorating,” she retorted, reaching into the decorations box. She handed him a couple different items before taking a ribbon and wrapping it around her forehead like a headband.

Midas eyed her peculiarly as he fastened a garland to the wall. “What are you doing?”

Without asking, she took another white ribbon and reached up to wrap it around his own forehead, surprisingly earning no protest. “Gotta get in the festive spirit so you stop overthinking how to decorate.”

“Alright, point taken,” he huffed, reaching up to take the ribbon off. Skye grabbed his wrists before he could get very far, shaking her head with a mischievous grin, and he heaved a long sigh. It was hard to say no to her. “Fine.”

And so the two former agents got to work, with Midas plastering decorations wherever there was empty space and Skye supervising to ensure every last space was full of life. Like the child she was, she made sure to distract him with whatever she could just for the sake of it, throwing ribbons and small flecks of construction paper at him. It wasn’t like he told her to stop, and at some point he even broke away from his stoic exterior to laugh with her, throwing some of the ribbons back. After all, it was the holidays, and they were free from more pressing matters. It was a well-deserved break from nearly thirty years of a war.

Thirty or so minutes later, they stood back and observed the room. It was a rather amusing sight—Midas had taken one half of the corridor, and when she was done bothering him, Skye had taken the other. The stark difference between their sides was that Midas had ended up bunching most of his together, to the point where they were eating up the corner. Skye’s was more spaced out and didn’t feel as if they were being swallowed by green, and of course, combined, there was the floor littered with paper scraps and crumpled ribbons.

Without warning, Midas flinched as the flash of a camera shone directly in his face. Skye giggled madly as she looked at the photo she had taken, showing off his cluttered half with him standing directly in the center. “I’m showing Jules.”

Not if your camera breaks before then, he grumbled internally.

“Thanks for helping,” she smiled. “We should be done now.”

Midas glanced around one more time, but he couldn’t help but feel something was missing. Skye headed for the door into the main room and reached for the light switch, and Midas realized just what it was. “What about the lights?”

“Oh, yeah, that’s what I was gonna ask about,” she said, though he could tell she hadn’t actually forgotten in the way she sang it. “I wanna wait ‘til we get the tree, but I really want to put the lights up right away, so I wanted to ask if… um, you could bribe the tree people so we get one right away?”

Midas blinked. “What?”

“Me and Journey went to see what they had, but they were almost sold out already for some reason, and the last few weren’t perfect enough,” she frowned. “So mayyybe if you promise to give them a little extra gold, they’ll let us get the best one before anyone even tries, right? We just have to-“

“Alright, first of all, who in their right mind buys a Christmas tree on the second day of December?” Midas interrupted, raising an eyebrow. Actually, he could think of one person: the winter psychopath who used to own a certain cabin across from the middle island some time ago. “Second of all, I am not buying a Christmas tree on the second day of December.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose; they had this conversation every year. He thought Skye would be well aware of his thoughts on the matter by now, but every December proved him wrong when she pestered him about it. There was still the entire month to even think about a tree, and what was the point of getting it so early if it was only going to be useful for two days? “Why are you in such a hurry to get a tree?”

“Why are you so defensive about not getting a tree?!”

To be fair, Midas didn’t have an answer to that one. Normally, it was him who wanted to be way ahead of schedule for… literally anything else, but for a Christmas tree, his mind was made up. “Skye, I’m not buying a Christmas tree on the second of December. I haven’t bought one so early in years prior, and I’m not starting now.”

Skye engaged him in an undeclared staring contest, but it only lasted about five seconds before she gave in. “Fine,” she huffed, slamming the door behind her before he could try to leave. She wasn’t angry, though… in fact, she had the perfect idea, and the perfect friends to help her execute it.

She pulled out her phone and texted two numbers, smiling wickedly as she set foot towards the Butter Barn. It was time to plot for the perfect Christmas tree.

[primeideal]

Wheel of Time Episode 5: Blood Calls Blood

The title of this episode is a line from book two about prophecies or whatever that has...basically nothing to do with this episode, cool.

We arrive at the White Tower/Tar Valon somewhat earlier than the books and I am here for it. Sometimes on rereads I'm like "IDK which is my favorite plotline, they're all good" and then we get to magic city with magic school and magic factions and worldbuilding, yessss. And the colors! Both in the sense of "they're all about Ajah color symbolism, they should have lots of decorations" but also "no more literal grimdark, let's see color in these fantasy worlds!" Hype. "And now you're wondering if you can ever go back to the world you knew before or how you'd fit in. You can't, I had the same experience." :( Moiraine of House Damodred. Why are the Whitecloaks patrolling outside of Tar Valon? Feels like that's the last place they'd want to be. And the Tinkers' method of civil disobedience is...Red Rover. Inspiring. (Though I feel like the Two Rivers response to the Trolloc threat in book ~3 or 4 isn't that different?) Rand: "Egwene thinks she's the reincarnation of Jain Farstrider or something." (I expected Loial to go "but he's not even dead.") Stepin is pouring his heart out but still finds time to joke about Alanna's harem. Priorities! And now Stepin must cast the ring into the fire. Great visual/imagery using the TV medium to add some worldbuilding that's not in the book, but also, I feel like I've read this epic fantasy. Egwene gets groped by the Whitecloaks, who also remove her braid. Maybe I'm just prejudiced by daydreaming about Rule 63 Galad, but I don't see why women can't be zealot inquisitors, too. (Is it just Aes Sedai=women=bad??) Although this is also some nice foreshadowing of a different group who are going to dress Egwene in white and not let her wear her hair the way she wants... "The Light never does anything without a purpose." Except as my dreamwidth friend seekingferret would say, the purpose is that these characters are ta'veren so plot events just kind of randomly happen around them! "walking like gods amongst men" What are your beliefs/theology/opinions about gods other than "the Creator made the world"? If I had a nickel for every time a speculative fiction story tosses out a line like that and never follows up... Egwene probably wants to sacrifice herself for Perrin here. "Egwene was almost ten when she nearly died of breakbone fever" so she'd be old enough to remember it, I want her POV! "The fever had broken, not her" d'awwwww. In the books, this conversation comes up as Moiraine asking Nynaeve "you knew right where to find us, did you heal Egwene or one of them when you were younger?" "yeah, the Wisdom told me it was just a common childhood disease and she'd get better, but she looked in such terrible pain, somehow I got the fever to break early" "yeah you were channelling" "..." But that might have been ten years ago in show canon. Has Nynaeve been a wilder for that long? "it may take you your whole life to realize that, but you will" I hope this is not foreshadowing! (I mean it's in the context of Egwene is trying to sacrifice herself for Perrin so she doesn't think that she has too much longer. But I was idly batting around a while back about if they would drastically change any plotlines/endings, and IDK, I feel as if Perrin is the most likely to be like "all loose ends tied up, let's go on a berserker rage now" as long as none of his buddies are around? Egwene just stabs Valda before Perrin gets the chance to (so he can't feel guilty about it!) And takes the Aes Sedai rings, she already wants to avenge them. :D Moiraine: "Siuan Sanche is many things..." *sprawls out on the bed luxuriously* Alanna: "She might be up to something, you could challenge her!" Moiraine: "haha sure whatever." I wonder if they're going to merge Elaida with Liandrin's character? Stepin assumes that the healing last episode was Nynaeve's first time with the One Power. Do we know that? (Curious especially in light of the adapted "breakbone fever" scene, but also just in general. She "listens to the wind," doesn't she?) Oof, they aren't pulling punches with Stepin. :( The focus here on the Warder-Aes Sedai relationships really raises the stakes with regards to Lan and Nynaeve, but also Alanna and Rand. The whole throat singing, chest slapping Warder funeral scene isn't really doing it for me. I understand it's supposed to be a callback to the first scene, just not my aesthetic.

[takaraphoenix]

Hi! I started following you for a while (mostly for your pjo posts) and because I see we share many opinions for those books, I'd like to point something that not many people notice: So, pjo is a series about Greek mythology...without any Greek people. Even the GREEK gods are heavily americanised and as a Greek girl this has always troubled me. The only greek character (Zoe) was brutally killed. So yeah, I'd like to hear your opinion on this one.

Well, I’m happy to hear that! ^^

And yeah, you’re right. There’s... not really an actually Greek Greek demigod. And it’s really weird. In PJO, that... was kind of attributable to the fact that the Greek gods weren’t really the Greek gods - they were American gods. And this is where I’ll take a slight detour, just as a fair warning.

The fact that the Greek gods are American is something I know I’ve complained about before, but I don’t know where exactly so let’s complain again.

The Romans make no sense. Not in the context given by the Greeks.

Reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians I never had a problem with the fact that the Greek gods were now American stereotypes, because... they were now in American. And this pantheon is known for moving and adjusting. When they came to Rome, they became Roman so it made perfect sense that by moving to the US, they became American.

And then Riordan retconned the Roman aspects into existence and kind of fucked his own world-building over with that, because the Romans didn’t move on, they’re not modern, they’re ancient Roman in behavior and clothes.

And that is what makes no sense. First, the gods lived in Greece and were Greek, then they moved on to Rome and became Roman. Now they live in the US, but uh... the Greeks totally became American and they kept their Roman aspect and that didn’t move on at all because... reasons.

With the existence of the Roman aspects, the Greek aspects should be classic Greek. Not... Ares as a biker with a leather jacket and Zeus in a pine-stripe suit and Poseidon in a Hawaiian shirt. They should be Greek and it’s ridiculously weird to keep both Roman and Greek aspects alive and have the Greeks assimilated into American culture.

He really shot himself in the foot there. He should have never invented the Romans. Sure, there was a spicy additional drama aspect there in the “Greeks vs Romans” nonsense happing in Heroes of Olympus, but it... wasn’t really necessary? I mean, nothing about the plot actually required Romans, specifically. Not even the freaking being in Rome part! Because the most handy and important member of the team there was Nico di Angelo, the Italian Greek demigod!

If there had been anything actually Roman-exclusive that was needed in this quest, anything at all - be that that one of the Seven would be the child of a Roman-exclusive god, or that the Roman demigods actually lived in Rome and the Greeks discovered them like that, but... they lived in freaking San Francisco.

The quest of the Seven could have as well happened with only the CHB characters. Heck, the new characters could have, honestly, just been Greek - Hazel and Frank. Leo and Piper already are. Jason could have been just replaced by Thalia for the Zeus-powers’ sake. Clarisse instead of Reyna, because experienced daughter of war who fought hard in the last war already. And you’re done.

And then the fact that the Greek gods evolved into American gods would have kept making sense. And it’d have been less questionable that there’s not a single Greek demigod, because they’re all American.

Though, generally, I never warmed up to the fact that Riordan exclusively moved them all to the US. The uprooting of the pantheons to cram them all into the US has always been iffy for me. There should be more camps, especially when all your religions are not native to the US but to other continents; you should not feel entitled to grabbing something essential to a culture, uprooting it completely and removing it from its cultural context to claim it as yours to play in like a sandbox is... ya know... not great. The Egyptians should have their centre in Egypt, the Norse should have camps in the Scandinavian and German-speaking countries and I think it reached France too, if I’m not mistaken, the Greek pantheon should be in Greece and also in Italy. I’m not even saying exclusively (the way Riordan put them exclusively into the US); I’m saying there should be more camps in general, but definitely also in the countries of their cultural origin.

I do have the headcanon that Chiron’s wife, a mountain nymph very specifically bound to a mountain in Greece, is running a camp in Greece , where the centre of their worship is. It’s have been so easy to just... acknowledge that there are more camps, that there are camps in Europe - in Greece, but also in other countries because even on one continent it is ridiculous to assume that every mortal parent has the money and ability to send their kids to that one place, or would want to. I mean, look at Sally Jackson, the woman rather got herself and her son stuck with an abusive man than sent her son, what, two hours away into the New York located Greek camp. But parents of demigods from any other place in the world would send their kids over the ocean to the US? Sure, sure.

I just can’t imagine that Greece, the place where the Greek gods feel most alive still because all of the ruins and temples and remembrance is still there wouldn’t have enough demigods of its own to fill a whole camp. Let alone Italy, Germany, France, etc. There... There are a lot of countries in Europe that have been touched by the Roman empire.

And what I never understood about that is that... the gods need to be believed in to stay alive. I never quite took that as literal worship, because while yes the belief itself is still alive, I always understood it more in the way that... the notion of the gods need to still be believed in. In the way every child goes through that Greek gods phase, you know? And in the way we still decorate places with statues of Greek gods, have the symbols on our house walls. And those things... are definitely very prominent in Europe, most of all in Greece.

So for the gods to follow “the power”, or whatever Riordan’s flimsy reasoning for why the US are the centre of the (Western) world are, that was always weak.

You can’t really just... go back in time; when he thought of the Romans, there was no taking back the changes he made to the Greeks yet, but there was a different way to incorporate these new characters and the concept of a new camp without messing that up. The second war that took us to Europe should have taken us to a European camp. He could have had Jason and the “Romans” be... Greek, be from the camp in Athens and the Americans meet them for the sake of the war and they have to work together.

To sum it up, I think Riordan shot himself in the foot when he created the Romans and I think that for what little their Roman nature really factored in, he could have found a more elegant and logical way to incorporate these new characters and the concept of a different camp without messing with the godly aspects and thus screwing over his own world building.