I WISH THAT I’D BEEN BRAVE.
richard siken, crush // christopher healy, a hero’s guide to saving your kingdom // the amazing devil, ruin // j.d. salinger, raise the high roof beam // susan sontag, as consciousness is harnessed to flesh: journals and notebooks // claudia rankine, don’t let me be lonely: an american lyric // the avett brothers, i wish i was // frank bidart, the war of vaslav nijinsky // nicola toon, everything, everything
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Michael Hingson was in Tower One of the World Trade Center on the morning of 11 September 2001.
What sets his story apart is that Hingson is blind and was guided to safety by his guide dog, Roselle.
They were on the 78th floor when the plane hit.
Despite the chaos, Roselle remained calm, leading Hingson and several others down 1,463 steps to safety. The descent took about an hour.
Remarkably, just moments after they exited the building, Tower Two collapsed, covering them in debris. Both survived.
Hingson later said:
"While everyone ran in panic, Roselle remained totally focused on her job, while debris fell around us, and even hit us, Roselle stayed calm."
Once clear, Roselle led her owner to the safety of a subway station, where they helped a woman who had been blinded by falling debris.
Once they arrived home, Roselle immediately began playing with her retired guide dog predecessor, Linnie, as if nothing important had happened.
Hingson's story became widely known as an extraordinary tale of trust, teamwork, and the human-animal bond.
He later wrote a memoir, "Thunder Dog," detailing his experience.
In 2004, Roselle was diagnosed with immune-mediated thrombocytopenia, but medications were able to control the condition.
In March 2007, she retired from guiding after it was discovered that the medication was beginning to damage her kidneys.
Roselle passed away on 26 June 2011 at age 13.
Roselle (March 12, 1998 - June 26, 2011)
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Some FH: Retribution Guides
Sup gang! Here are some guides I made back during alpha/beta season, mostly just notes about what choices affect certain hidden stats you can use to craft your Step.
I highly recommend playing blind a couple times first just to see how consequences play out naturally before diving in. These obviously contain huge spoilers.
They should be mostly up to date, but I may have missed one or two things. Feel free to drop me an ask with any questions/issues. These guides just show dialogue choices and the affected stat. Everything is more or less in chronological order outside big sprawling areas (therapy/auction/endings).
Scar Guide - Remember setting your Heartbreak scar in Rebirth? In Retri, it's now a hidden variable that essentially tracks how well your Step is dealing with their trauma. Affects some flavor/variables at this point. Please see the last section for notes about the Suicidal scar, it's very different in Retri. Scar and scar level affect flavor throughout the book. <50 is considered low scar. Scar cannot get below 0 or above 100, it will revert to either if it escapes these bounds at the end of every chapter.
Clue Guide - For Rebirth and Retribution. Tracks how well your Step is doing at staying under the radar. Please note Ortega has 3 separate variables, Sidestep clue (oc), Puppet/Sidestep connection clue (ortega pup), and Puppet criminal clue (pup proof) . Herald does not have a clue stat at this time, he's too good for this world. Also includes clue for Special Directive. This stat affects flavor throughout the book and endings. 40 seems to be the magic number for most changes in flavor/consequences for Chen and Ortega.
Rangers Doubt Guide - hidden stat that tracks how much the Rangers are starting to chafe at the status quo. Does not have any pay off yet, will be used more in the future. Some Rangers will be easier to convince than others.
Puppet Variables Guide - Covers Puppet Comfort Variable, Puppet Individuality and Puppet Precognition. PCV is how comfortable your step is in their puppet body and it affects which body you end Retri in. Puppet Individuality tracks how much your Step treats their puppet persona as its own individual personality. Precognition is how much you lean into your puppet’s boost powers.
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A little obsessed with the potential brotherly dynamic between The Captain and Mask. I know there are lots of other characters from the series in HW but hear me out okay?
Imagine being The Captain:
You take the strangest kid under your wing during the war. He's mostly unobtrusive. Mature for his age, quiet, but generally churlish. Can barely read (ill explain this HC one day) but fights like a demon and is clearly immensely troubled but doesn't know how to express himself.
You eventually connect over a shared burden and become rather attached to the kid. You're the only one he actually speaks to. Moreover, people have started calling you "the twins" even though he much younger than you. You teach him practical things like improving his reading, clothes mending and social graces. He teaches you about the natural world, herbalism and orienteering. You even give him a nickname "Mask" that he reluctantly answers to. But as the war wears on and the battles get harder, the boy has to rely on his masks more and more. Save for the one he calls Oni. He says its his failsafe and mentions nothing else.
Until one day, during the penultimate battle, you and your battalion are overwhelmed. Grievously injured, you call for Mask to get to safety. The next thing you remember is hearing "dont worry, captain, I'll protect you, i promise." Then flashes of a hulking demon laying waste to the battlefield with a helix shaped sword. You also remember a great and terrible silence and the sensation of being carried.
When you wake, Zelda informs you that the battle has been won but Mask along with several others, are missing. Even when the war is won and over, you search that battlefield, all surrounding areas and lists of the dead for any sign of Mask. You find nothing and eventually your duties as Captain must be seen to.
Three years later, you follow up on reports of an aberration found around the area Mask disappeared. The portal drops you unceremoniously into a Hyrule you don't recognize. You meet 8 others just like you, all named Link, each bearing the Mark of Destiny and honestly kinda sick of all this shit. The Oldest One - face heavily scarred and blind in one eye - holds your gaze for a little too long. When you ask him about it, he only apologizes awkwardly.
Needing some space during a particularly raucous night, you decide to check up on your party's resident Old Man who just so happens to be reorganizing his things. And you see it: Oni, the Fierce Deity; the War God that nearly won them the war but not the little boy who carried it.
"Where did you get this? Who gave it to you?" You ask. When he doesn't give you an answer, you insist. "That mask is one of a kind, and only one person I know had it, what happened to him."
The silence that follows is so thick, not even the Master Sword could cut it. The Old Man - Time, they call him - is taller than the rest of them, but his stature is bent by bone deep weariness. The scars on his face pull his features in different directions, the bridge of his nose is split, the remains of his empty eye socket droop painfully without his eye patch, the left corner of his mouth peel back to show more of his teeth - two of which are missing. But his remaining eye - bright, alert and unnervingly blue - pleads with him and the realization dawns on him before Time turns away, almost timid but mostly ashamed.
"He kept fighting, Captain. He kept fighting until he couldn't anymore and kept going. Until..."
You embrace him before you can stop yourself. He's just as surprised as you are. But he doesn't throw you off or scold you. Instead, he sinks into the hug with a long, shuddering sigh of relief. He's so tall now, he nearly bowls you over. Then quietly, through tears Captain can't see, he says
"I'm sorry...I thought you be disappointed." Your heart that was frantically picking up the piece just a moment ago breaks all over again. You can still hear that little boy buried in somewhere the gruff baritone you've grown accustomed to. Something bittersweet festers inside you, a melange of emotions you can't possibly unpack in this moment. But not one of them is disappointment. You pull away, taking him by the shoulders and giving him a little shake.
"You are so much more than I could've ever imagined. Whatever you've done, you survived and I couldn't be more proud."
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New AU. hiiii
So this takes place after the neutral ending (specifically the knife ending, so Sunny’s dead too). Aubrey, Kel, and Hero are each haunted by one of their dead friends, and its up to them to uncover the truth of the night of the recital so that their friends’ spirits can move on. As said in the pic Basil is forced to haunt Aubrey, Sunny haunts Kel, and Mari haunts Hero. The one being haunted is the only one who can see and hear their respective ghost friend (and they can’t see other ghosts so the living friends have no idea that the others are being guided by ghosts too)
Also due to Ghost Rules the ghosts cannot just say the truth of the incident cause that would be too easy (I like to imagine if they try they literally glitch out for a sec, idk think its a cool visual) but they can give indirect hints and of course lead the living friends to places and such. So yeah fun times Aubrey and Kel are going through it <3
Know I don’t really have the AU’s plot that developed yet, rn its just a concept and I’m not too concerned with figuring out all the story beats rn
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