#i like worldbuilding can u tell

[ash-and-starlight]

Do you have any really specific and/or personal Zukka headcanons that you’d be okay with sharing? I eat up every hc you put into your drawings like they’re candy, I was wondering if you had any others :D :D

OH boii i sure have,,, nothing coherent is coming to mind atm so ill just expose my Extensive backstories of zukka bethrotal armbands that idk if i will find a way to sneak into art.

sokka’s armband for zuko is forged back at Piandao’s mansion, and it's one of the most fine stunning pieces of jewelry ever crafted. it’s not the usual southern ivory but metal, more similar to the armbands worn as an accessory in the fire nation. it’s made of intertwining bands of gold and black meteor metal, with patterns of waves and dragon scales that seem to ripple and move when the light catches on them just right. and the pendant is a traditional blue stone from the swt.

There are no particular engagement gifts traditions in the fn, so zuko goes on a deep dive into southern water tribe ones, asking sokka’s family and friends about jewelry making and learning to engrave over the course of several trips to the swt. He makes sokka’s armband with ivory from his own first (successful) solo hunt. i’m not sure abt the material of the pendant lmao maybe gold? but amber would also be cool methinks

as for the pendant engraving they display a unique single braincell moment (untrue i just want them to match). love the fact that both of them are sea savvy navigators, love to think that in their pining era they spent a lot of time watching the stars and showing each other the different constellations and navigation pointers of their nations, so in both of their armbands’ stones are depicted the constellation used to guide sailors back home, sokka engraving the swt’s one on zuko’s armband and vice versa.

if they were sun’s out guns out kinda guys before this only gets worse during the first weeks of their engagement. shirts are banned. everyone look at the bethrotal armbands NOW.

[pikkish]

breaking news: surprising absolutely no one, pik has fallen in love with the fast paced fps game where the big, silent badass of a main character's sole goal is to protect the small, squishy innocents.

[northern-passage]

where did the inspiration to write TNP come from?

hmm lots of places! i've always been a huge fantasy reader/enjoyer, i read the inheritance cycle when i was a kid, i loved redwall, i loved lord of the rings, his dark materials etc etc when i was younger that was my genre of choice (plus warrior cats lol)

i stopped reading for a long time, and when i picked up fantasy again as an adult i was mostly just disappointed by a lot of the stuff i read... all grimdark and edgy and full of misogyny and racism for "realism" (sure, whatever you say) and i tried to get into stuff like the witcher but i really just... could not.... i ended up turning to games like tyranny and dragon age & then i became a huge fan of bioware games, with dragon age: origins being a main inspiration. i played the first 2 dragon age games like crazy, i got into the telltale games at the time like the walking dead game & the wolf among us which all kinda introduced me into this choice-based branching game genre. i got into visual novels after that in my search for more choice-based stuff, and eventually got into text-based games.

i decided i wanted to try my hand at it and make the kind of fantasy story i wanted to read. i had also just recently watched fullmetal alchemist right before i started which obviously had a huge impact on the magic & alchemy system. basically this is just me making something for myself, hahaha, but i've been incredibly lucky that so many other people connect with my characters and story :-)

[ajdrawshq]

Hey so after an intense amount of fishing and banana peels I decided to play the epilogue as a palette cleanser and discovered the island might be back now?? So ty for sending me on a fishing journey bc I would've never noticed.

The reason i say this btw is bc if you don't point out the dialogue during a loop to the daydreamer about her sister, she just seems to think hard during the party b4 returning to daydreaming. HOWEVER, if you did she asks the elder if she had one. The elder says she doesn't think so but her memory isn't what it used to be and asks her why to which she says she dreamed of one. She then describes her sister and the elder interrupts saying that the sister would say she'd travel the world and see every country on earth. When the daydreamer says thats exactly what she said in the dream and asks how she knew. The elder says she's not sure but I can see you having one, that they can imagine it vividly which makes the daydreamer happy. AND NOTHING SUDDENLY GLITCHED! THE UNIVERSE DIDNT REWRITE THEIR CONVERSATION!!?? So yeah ty for sending me on a fishing quest!

OH YEAH!! i got that during my first playthrough, i didnt know it was missable tbh :0

im not sure if id take it as confirmation that the island has fully returned, since the daydreamers memory (and the elders memory, who knows if its old age or the other thing) of her sister is still a bit off, but theres possibly something going on here thats.. more lenient ? about peoples memories and perceptions regarding it and/or connections to it. either that or that conversation was indirect enough that it didnt require being rewritten.. idk!! shits weird!!

the situation w the island and its very (non)existence is honestly super interesting to me bc its like. its not completely, physically gone, is it? during act 4 after beating the king if you have sif look outside towards the sun, they can see it - if only briefly, since they stop themself before the universe has the chance to. so its. still there?? but what happened to everyone else who lived there, besides the few we know about? the daydreamers sister didnt just cease to exist, did she? sif had parents, and other people they knew there, what happened to them? are all the former residents end up just.. wandering around random areas unable to remember anything, like the king? did some actually disappear? but theres still physical proof of it in written form, so thats unlikely.. probably.. but the land itself is still there, somehow, so.. ?????????????

didnt mean to get into all that here cksbksjs anyway ur welcome!! :] its so fun to find new things in this game theres SO much stuff hidden away that u dont even think to look for, especially when its by accident!! what a game .........

[clamsjams]

list of empires smp empires based on whether i think they existed in lore before the players started ruling over them and also how the players got to rule over them:

putting it under the read more bc it got long

Ancient Capital: yeah obviously that’s pixs whole thing. pix is in charge bc he’s the only one there

Gobland: yes, fwhip took over from the former leader by digging up a magical king choosing rock or something idk

Glimmer Grove: yes, confirmed by katherine in her first episode, she inherits her rule and title from her family and bloodline

the Olipelago: nope, it’s literally a beach where oli set up his tent, it’s a place for wandering travelers and musicians (it’s basically an artsy homeless encampment). olis in charge cause he was the first one to set up there, but there aren’t really strict rules or any proper government (i’m not caught up on olis streams pls don’t come at me if the vibe has changed since i saw it last this is just my interpretation based on what i saw)

Dawn: yes, gem inherits her rule and title from her family and bloodline like katherine , but unlike katherine her family’s rule is chosen by the butterflies and bees through some kind of magical process and if they find the family unfit to rule they can choose another family/heir. if gem has siblings, then the heir isn’t necessarily the oldest, it’s whoever gets chosen by the bees

Stratos: yes and no kind of? lower stratos existed before, but it was a pretty small village, joel is their patron god and he moved in and started improving the village and building upper stratos bc he heard their prayers to him. he’s in charge bc he’s literally their god obviously. he’s actually a pretty minor god, which is why he gives so much help and attention to what was at first, a very tiny and insignificant village, bc they’re the only ones who regularly prayed to him

Tumble Town: yes, confirmed by the old sheriff. jimmy is the new sheriff cause he found the badge in a random mineshaft chest in his first episode. tumble town was a ghost town before jimmy came along so there was no one to contest his claim. they all moved on once they thought the mines were drying up and only moved back once jimmy revitalized the industry (that was very common on the real western frontier, except they just ended up abandoned forever unlike tumble town)

The Evermoore: nope, just a swamp. shelby gets to be in charge cause she’s the only one there and the spirits she helps are still spirits and don’t rlly want to be in charge

Sanctuary: no, sausage founded the settlement and was completely willing to step down once it started to grow into a real empire but he’s very well respected and everyone wanted to him to stay the ruler, esp cause they trusted he wouldn’t be like the king from their old kingdom. the people who work at town hall do all the official paperwork and stuff but sausages still the unofficial ruler

Animalia: no, there were hidden underground societies of animal citizens before but they were all separate by type, like one place for the frogs, one for foxes, etc, and then one day lizzie recruited animals for the critter council and started building a place where they wouldn’t have to hide. at first lizzie’s villagers were mostly living there under coercion, but as word spread throughout the hidden animal communities the animal citizens started immigrating willingly

Chromia: honestly not sure, this and gobland are the empires i have the least ideas for, i feel like it could go either way. chromia scott just doesn’t feel like the kind of guy who would build a whole new settlement from scratch, so maybe he hid out in a village while on the run from authorities or whatever kind of trouble he got himself into, and then he decided to liven up the place with some colors and ended up being in charge somehow. or maybe he was on the run and decided to build a house and a new identity and start selling dyes and ppl just started coming and building there too idk.

Cogsmeade: no, but i think there was a village or 2 nearby, and the people there are super wary of strangers and pretty isolationist, similar to false herself. when she first moved in nearby, the villagers weren’t sure what to make of her, she seemed strange but she kept to herself and didn’t bother them so they let it be. after a while they saw the stuff she was building and were begrudgingly impressed and a few of them decided to try and trade with her for iron and stuff. it takes ages but she builds some buildings and and some people move closer to her and some stay in the inn. it’s a small, close knit community, and the citizens and false trust each other as much as people like them can. false never actually tells any of them about her past and her trauma, but there’s an unspoken understanding that they all have. they’ve all gone through stuff and are running from something, they know what it feels like. there’s lots of solidarity, and they’re not nice but they’re kind.

Forgotten Cove, Eversea: yes, eversea isn’t actually a land it’s just the pirate term for certain parts of the ocean, the strategically important parts, where the merchant ships have to pass through, and the pirates who control those waters are super powerful. if a pirate crew is powerful enough to enforce it, they can basically claim parts of eversea as their territory and it’s off limits to other pirates. sometimes different crews make alliances and trades for use of the territory and sometimes they’ll just challenge the other crew for the territory and if the challenging crew defeats the crew that holds the territory then they can claim it.

when a crew that holds multiple territories is defeated their other claims are essentially considered to be very shaky and other crews will start swarming them to try and claim them for themselves. there’s a lot of politics involved and reputation is an important part of all of it. if a crew wins a challenge and gains more territory, some might leave the other territories alone bc they think that the crew will most likely be coming to cement their claim on those next, and it’s not worth it to try and fight for them. while some would view the defeated crew as weak and run to try and rip off a piece while they’re down. it all depends on politics, reputations, risks vs rewards, how valuable the territory is, and a ton of other stuff.

some parts of the eversea waters change hands constantly, while others are held more consistently by 1 or 2 crews. skeletron has held the vast majority of territory for the past years, which is basically unheard of. usually there’s a few big players and a bunch of smaller groups who have ties or alliances with one of the big powers. skeletron came out of nowhere and started taking out the big powers, and the the smaller groups either flocked to him out of fear or got taken out.

if the major powers had teamed up to fight him they may have been able to take him out, but it would take something huge to make them set aside their feuds, and they didn’t take skeletron seriously at first. by the time they realized what a huge threat he was, it was too late. joey was actually the last holdout, which is why skeletron was so hellbent on getting him. joey wasn’t a major power yet, but before skeletron sunk his ship and kidnapped his crew mates joey was considered a very promising up-and-comer, well on his way to becoming a major power. although most people gave up on him once skeletron sunk him, because at that point skeletron was considered an almost mythical legendary figure, like blackbeard, and no one thought joey could’ve survived his attack.

but he did! and he washed up in the forgotten cove! a bustling shantytown that every pirate knows is the closest thing you can get to being at sea while still being on land. the floating docks and the ships moored there considered just as much a part of the town as the many many pubs and bars. just like the sea, the town has its own politics, depending on the delicate balanced ecosystem of the town to keep it thriving. if you need something illegal, the first place to look is always the forgotten cove, which was named that way because the more honest and more wealthy parts of society didn’t like to remember it existed, and they got so good at forgetting that eventually everyone forgot what empire it belonged to originally.

nowadays it’s considered its own independent territory. it’s one of those places where everybody knows it exists and that people are committing crimes there, but the people in charge turn a blind eye to it bc of, again, politics. the town is considered more stable than the sea. in addition to the pirates, there’s also a bunch of gangs, smugglers, and a shit ton of poor street kids. it’s a great place to disappear, which is why it was the best place for joey to lay low and gather more power to try and defeat skeletron.

he also manages to unite the town and improve the conditions a ton while he does it. which is why he ends up in charge. he does have to fight a bit for the position but most of the town likes having him in charge and it’s hard to get them to agree on anything. the other rulers are shocked when joey shows up for one of the empires rulers meetings, because despite sending the invitation out of courtesy every time, no one ever shows up. they’re way too busy worrying about internal politics to care about the external politics with other empires.

after joey defeats skeletron with katherine and shelby he gains legendary status and is considered the greatest pirate of all time. he spends a year sailing around with katherine and shelby (i know shelby’s finale had kind of a vague timeline but i decided i want them to sail off into the distance happily ever after and it’s my post) and they also get added to the legends. the pirate king, the monster-slaying princess, and the great witch. friends forever.

[dragonji]

sorry best thing in the world is speculative discussion of inconsequential tidbits of lore for fictional medias. everybody take my hand come socratic circle with me

[wolfcat-hybrid]

Trying to do worldbuilding for a planet is very hard when you don't know anything about astronomy, physics, hard science in general, and haven't taken a math class in several years

I wanted the planet to be small but otherwise Earth-like but apparently a planet that small would not be dense enough to hold an atmosphere together unless it was real close to its sun and if I wanted it to be real close to its sun while still being habitable it'd have to be a red dwarf star and actually a planet that orbited a red dwarf star that close would probably be tidally locked and the colors would be all weird and wait, how old is the planet, what about the moon, fuck we gotta figure out the tectonic plates, how the fuck do THOSE work--

.

.

..if this were a spec bio or sci-fi setting these would be interesting topics im sure. But I'm trying to put together a HIGH FANTASY SETTING. These guys wouldn't even appreciate the work I'm doing here!! In their setting the sun is a deity who handles LEGAL MATTERS they don't CARE ABOUT THISSSS

[roukabi]

AIGHT who's ready for some hadestown SLANG and STUFF

Up Top:

"Board the Ferry" - to die. Stemmed from Charon's boat to the Underworld. Another iteration is “board the train”, because of Hades’s train. (John boarded the ferry last night.) 

"Queened" - to be stuck in an unfortunate situation, especially if it concerns a relationship. Stemmed from Persephone and Hades' tumultuous marriage, as well as the original definition. (How are Rob and Gary? Heard they've been queened with each other for a while.) (All this economic turmoil lately has got me completely queened!)

"Shaded" - to feel or appear to be faint; lightheaded. Stemmed from how dead the shades of the Underworld look. (Hey, pal, you're looking shaded, everything alright?)

"High jazz/low jazz" - the amount of truthfulness to a statement, with 'low jazz' meaning more truth and 'high jazz' meaning less. Stemmed from... uh, this one's kinda made up, but I'd say it's easier to tell secrets when the band is playing loud. (There's a lot of high jazz surrounding that rumor.)

‘Rum-running to Hades’ - To suffer greatly. Rum-running was the illegal smuggling of alcohol. Rum-running to the grouchy King of Hadestown doesn’t sound fun at all. (Poor Gladys over there, she’s been rum-running to Hades ever since the blizzard.)

‘Kicking Daisies’ - dancing really hard. If you stomp and swing your feet enough times, you’re bound to tear up some poor family of flowers. Whoops. Also, ‘Daisy Kickers’ are good dancers. (Hey, check those two out, kickin’ daisies like no tomorrow!) 

‘Lick Coins’ - Die 💔 . Charon’s Obol refers to (a) coin(s) placed either over the eyes or on/in the mouth of a dead person before burial. (And you know what I told those jerks? I told ‘em they could lick coins!)

‘Storming’ - Fighting. When Persephone and Hades fight, a storm brews. (Oi, quit storming over there! Break it up!)

Down Below:

“Dog-Collar” - in rough terms, the cops. This one has a bit more context: The original phrase was ‘dog-caller’, which referred to the handlers of Hadestown’s vicious hellhounds. Over time, though, the phrase became ‘dog-collar’, because the dog handlers themselves are seen as Hades’s pesky watch dogs that keep everyone else in line. So what started as a general term ended up as an insult. Sometimes the phrase is shortened to just ‘collars’. (Aw, shit, here come the dog-collars.) 

‘Cog’ - a worker. I don’t think we need context for this one. (35 new cogs registered into the machine today.)

‘The Machine’ - Hadestown. See previous term for an example.

‘Unemployed’ - Anyone who is alive. Stole this one right out of Papers. (’Hades, I know this boy!’ ‘One of the unemployed?’)

‘Rattler’ - Loose term for A) someone who is easily frightened/a scaredy-cat, or B) someone who, for whatever reason, is quite prone to screwing up the rhythm of Hadestown. Not only do people shake when scared, they look ‘rattled’. Fear also means no focus, and a lack of focus leads to interrupted, rattled, production. (Who is that damn rattler kickin’ up a fuss in Sector B?)

‘Canary’ - newbie. Canaries were used in coal mines to detect the level of toxic fumes in the workplace. Bonus points if the ‘canary’ can, in fact, sing. (Look at the canaries over there. Recognize any of them?)

Note: some slang from Down Below can be used Up Top, and vice versa, though depending on whether your ceiling is made of starlight or stalactites, reactions can range from confusion to hostility. For example, saying 'Dog-Collar' up top is fairly normal, while 'unemployed' is... bootlick-y. Likewise, telling the dead to 'lick coins' is considered rude, and 'kicking daisies' is entirely unheard of down there.

[unexpectedbrickattack]

What are your top 3 Peppino ships?

I feel like i am not the person to ask about this bc i only have one ship and its pepstavo 😭😭

[bluberimufim]

IT'S TIME!!! IT'S FINALLY TIME FOR THE RANT ABOUT 19TH-CENTURY PORTUGUESE URBANISM!!!! (@kingkendrick7 mentioned they were interested a While ago and who am I to withhold information about my Interests)

I'll be focusing exclusively on the city of Porto in northern Portugal because it's what I studied in my Anthropology class. And also: disclaimer! I'm translating all the names of the things from Portuguese so if it sounds weird, yeah, that's why.

The Industrial Revolution in Portugal created a very weird relationship between work and personal life due to the way the cities were planned. Basically, the people who worked the factories, and even the owners, lived extremely close to their place of work - and I mean they were pretty much neighbours. The factories were also built in the city centre itself. This is much more similar to the work-life relationship of rural areas than any model existing in normal cities.

There was, at this time, a strange impasse when it came to building housing. Porto specifically is known for having extremely thin and deep plots of land in the oldest parts of the city - I'm talking 5 by 100m (approx. 16 by 328ft). No house is gonna be that deep, so there's always about 80 to 70m of backyard.

Workers were paid extremely low wages. Like, so low they couldn't afford housing anywhere. So the factory owners would ✨selflessly✨ give up their backyards and build housing for their workers.

Can we just take a moment to think about how absurd this is? Like. Imagine taking pity on your employees for being poor. My brother in Christ, WHO DO YOU THINK IS MAKING THEM POOR?

Anyway, this new type of housing is called an Island. Its name comes from the fact that it's an "island" of low-income housing in a semi-rich neighbourhood.

Basically, an Island is a long exterior corridor with tiny houses on one or two sides and communal bathrooms at the end. Here's a picture:

The way this worked is that the owners of the big, street-front house would open a passage on the ground floor that could be fully closed wuth a gate. This kept the Islands invisible and, thus, out of the city hall's jurisdiction, since they can only legislate on what is visible from street level.

Here's an irl picture of an Island today:

Btw they tried solving this problem bt building houses from scratch but they realuzed that workers' wages were so low that just adding plumbing would make a house unaffordable. Yeah...

Porto currently stands as the European city with the most recent outbreak of the Bubonic Plague, in 1899. This is because Islands had such poor hygenic conditions that it re-kindled the Black Plague epidemic. Just so you can kinda picture what level of "horrible" this whole thing is.

Here's a quote by David Moreira da Silva about the Islands that I translated from French:

"Housing, essential organ of the city, offers us in Porto obe of the most miserable and tragic displays and one of the grave causes that greatly contribute to the huge mortality that is constant. We say, justly, that Porto as a city is the vastest cemetery in Europe."

(Parallel to this there was also the "Sleep Business", which consisted of renting places to sleep. The main two were sub-renting, in which you rented a place to sleep and paid by the hour, and the Rope, in which you rented a piece of rope to lean on while sleeping. Thought it might be interesting to add.)

I'm not mentioning as we go because it'd be exhausting, but backlash was VERY strong every step of the way. Doctors were warning against living conditions in the Islands and city hall was trying to pass laws banning these types of buildings by extending their jurisdiction deeper into the city's plots of land. But they were unsuccessful.

They tried to propose a rehabilitation of the Islands in the early 20th century but their inhabitants basically responded with "Please tear our houses down and make us new ones somewhere else. The Islands are unsalvageable".

The whole factory work-life thing ended with the fascist dictatorship, which reorganized the city centre, but there's still plenty of people living in Islands today.

To this day, the Islands stand as a warning of what rampant capitalism does to people when left unchecked. But that doesn't stop tone-deaf bourgeois pricks from romanticizing them.

This has been a rant. I hope you enjoyed it <3

[obitv]

deranged genshin ramble under the cut sorry i have more emotions that i can fit into a twitter thread

liyue has objectively the funniest history in teyvat esp since its the second region you go to bc it sets up the archon war as this craazy thing that even permanently changed the physical landscape of liyue. i can name 5 gods and 14 adepti off the top of my head. right. shit was wild. and thdn EVERY OTHER REGION barely talks about it. nowhere else had more than 3 so far. and orobashi was in inazuma AND LIYUE????? the only place where gods died "completely" FOR the archon war is liyue (ei + andrius are still kicking around, deshret+gof+remus+decarbian were pretty much unrelated). AND THE ADEPTI????? sure every region has some kind of immortal race ie yokai but. oceanids and jinn and i think aranara were created directly by a god. and maybe wind spirits in mondstadt if you want to count those. yae miko is the ONLY yokai we meet or hear much about. LIYUE. HAD DOZENS OF ADEPTI. WHY. and u look at other anomalies w geo as an element like the squares v circles thing WHAT IS IN THE WATER. or more accurately. THE GROUND. all life comes from the primordial sea so why was remus the only god in the area when egeria was asleep?? wouldnt gods want to be there instead??? hoyoverse i am shaking and rattling you please give us geo soveirgn lore i KNOW he matters ok i know this in my fucking bones the geo soviegrn will answer these questions.

[elftism]

do u ever just look at a fandom and wonder if any of its members know how to read

[orpheusofthestars]

sorry its always yaoi with me, im gay or whatever

[mishy-mashy]

Quotation marks on names because those names are aliases. Different Resistance fics (OCs) focus on,

"Ray" - The direness of what Japan is like back then. Not meant to make you feel good or have fun when you read it

Feat. Ability drawbacks do exist, being forced to earn survival, and it's impossible to survive in Japan alone.

Himura - The discrimination of Meta Humans (treated as sub-normal) and being left behind over and over

Feat. Metas are called monsters, Bruce intervenes in the transportation for a Meta Human trading ring, and abandonment issues

"Boss" - A safe space and a kind hand can be everything to someone

Feat. Kudo breaks down after the sewer incident, an "If you have any respect for me" moment, and lots of boba.

Shiki - The whole package of the aboves, and what the Resistance was like, both on-duty and in moments of calm. Lots of ugly humanity whenever pressure starts to come down.

Feat. The first Three (+ OC) get to meme, Yoichi is the prettiest bastard in the world, Kudo is a snarky bitch obsessed with Disney, and Bruce is the parent of the Resistance. Reality will hit like a truck at times and the humor will be nowhere in sight then.

"Batman" - The irony of having a cliche, aesthetic Meta Ability, and no one (including the wielder) even realizing it exists for over half the story.

Feat. Dressing like a cool, hip vampire, Yoichi calling OC "Batman" unironically (much to Bruce's delight), and iron deficiencies.

[cruelsister-moved2]

usually i kind of hate when a piece of art feels indulgent sorry #earthmoon BUT i hate how often i hear the take that all description in writing needs to serve the Grand Unified Purpose of the work and you can tell its dumb because imagine watching an animated film and saying they shouldnt bother to put any detail in the backgrounds because its not important to the plot or theme 🤔 like it can be one stylistic approach especially in short fiction & can description and details feel pointless and unearned sure but the idea it should only rain if ur character is sad is goofy af and the idea that every element of the world should revolve around ur character and their narrative its giving western individualism

[lovevalley45]

#fictober23 day thirty

"It's not your fault."

original fiction (power payback)

word count: 691

tw: in-universe discrimation

Gerald Norman tried his best to live an ordinary life. But when you were a Talent in Bright City, that wasn’t so easy. 

There were worse Talents to have than invisibility - or, as his doctor had officially diagnosed it, camouflage. Actually becoming invisible, see through, was a little too far even with the most eccentric of Talents. 

On the ranking of Talent diagnoses, camouflage was uncommon. He had never looked too far into the categories, but it ranked among forms of kinesis. Supersensory and superabilties were common, and things like enchantment, shapeshifting, the more extreme stuff fell into the rare category. 

He was just lucky his case wasn’t extreme. 

As Gerald walked into the office, he overheard his coworkers talking. Often, he’d ignore the gossip and drivel. But today, he found himself listening a little closer. 

“Have you been keeping up with the news? They said there’s been new Talent cases in Utah,” his coworker Wes was saying. He was leaning over his neighbor Marianne’s cube as she stirred sugar into her coffee. 

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard that. It’s gone under the radar ‘cause it’s only been hitting the smaller cities near the state border, but a bunch of people are moving here to Bright City looking for care,” she replied, not meeting his eyes.

Gerald stiffened, but he flattened himself against the wall by their cubicles. He’d known not getting locked into a cubicle maze had been a good deal - not for this, though. He didn’t exactly turn on his camouflage - it wasn’t an on and off switch. But the adrenaline pumping through his veins was enough to help get it going.  

With a sigh, Wes said, “Hell, we haven’t had a way to take care of all those freaks since the NBSHA closed.”

“It’s not like they have a choice,” she said. “From what I’ve heard, they’re coming here to find a way to get rid of it.”

Gerald inched forward slowly. His coworkers didn’t know he was a Talent, and he didn’t want to advertise it. In fact, he didn’t want to advertise that he was there at all. Instead, he tried to make his way to his cube without being noticed. 

“There’s not really a way to get rid of it. Except for forcing it out of them,” Wes sneered. “The NBSHA sure wasn’t successful with that.” 

“Well…” Marianne shrugged. “They were successful with making suppressors.”

“Yeah. And just ‘cause we got out of them using our tax dollars to make them, the libs are trying to make us use them to pay for them. Like it’s us normal people’s fault for them being- crimes against nature.” 

As Wes said that, Gerard reached his cubicle. His heart pounded in his ears. He wondered if he’d just have to hide under his desk, waiting for him to go and not expose himself. 

Marianne huffed. “Talents wouldn’t have to do that if people like you didn’t call them ‘freaks’ and ‘crimes against nature’. Then they wouldn’t have to go on meds to hide and live like the rest of us. Without scrutiny.”

Wes looked flustered, dropping his arms. “Well, when I was a kid, they just stayed out of the way. Kept to their parts of town.”

“It’s not your childhood now, is it?” she asked. 

He straightened up. “Guess it’s not.” Wes patted the side of her desk. “I’ll let you get to your work in peace.”

“Thank you.” 

As soon as he was around the corner, Gerard dropped in his chair and his camouflage fell away. The chair creaked, and he heard Marianne swear, “Jesus!” In a moment, she stuck her head up. “Oh. It’s just you.” She put a hand over her chest. “You scared me.”

“Sorry,” he said. 

“It’s not your fault,” Marianne said. “I was just in my own head.”

“About Wes bugging you?”

She sighed dramatically. “What are you, a telepath?” Marianne chuckled. “Yeah. He’s a real dick sometimes.”

“Yeah, he is,” Gerard said. 

“Just have to remember to not let him get to us, huh?” She winked. 

He nodded, but his heart pounded away again. “Yeah. Totally.”

At least camouflage had its uses sometimes.