#i much prefer aie

[cvbullshit]

I decided to make my own Player character for UTDR/UTMV just bc I was bored and thought it may be fun

I had no idea what I was doing and had no idea what to make this Player FOR, so it ended up looking like this

More Deltarune coded honestly

Inspired by @liliallowed and their Player character, Crimson

[fartistt]

“It’s coooooold,” Cater whines, slinging his arms around your neck and exaggeratedly sagging his body. “Cay-kun’s cold! Winter sucks so bad!”

“Sorry. The snow looked so pretty outside that I just had to go take a closer look,” you laugh defeatedly. Cater pouts, his pale cheeks flushed a bright shade of red. The frosty winter aie nips at his face, as if winter was kissing his warm flesh. Cater knows he far prefers your kisses though.

He pouts, and he bats his pretty green eyes up at you. “You owe me one for this! I was all comfy in bed, snuggled up under the covers with my warm pajamas and you right next to me… You’re lucky that Cay-kun likes you so much.”

“Awwww, you’re flattering me.” You hold your phone up and motion for him to get in the frame. Tufts of wispy white snow fall between the two of you, decorating the night sky like stars and piling up under your feet like Heaven’s clouds. “I wanna take a picture of you. Pose for me?”

“Do you want something cute? Like for Magicam?” He blinks, and the snowflakes that had landed on his eyelashes sparkle.

You shake your head. “It’s for me to keep. I don’t want to share my boyfriend with anyone else tonight.”

Th-thump.

Cater’s heart skips a beat at the way you look at him. Your lips are curled slightly upwards into an unreadable smile, yet your eyes pool with a darker desire towards him. The boy’s breath catches in the back of his mouth, and his eyes widen. He thinks he might fall to his knees—what is it about you that always knocks the wind out of him?

“That’s a pretty face you’re making,” you purr. You snap a picture of him standing in the snow, his lips parted the smallest bit and his steamy breath billowing out of him like the remainder of a kiss long gone. Cater wants to steal you away in this moment: disappear into the snow hand-in-hand with you, a trail of temporary footprints imprinted into the ground, keeping you nice and warm with his love.

Everything in this world is temporary. That much Cater knows. Even the picture in your phone will disappear with time one day. Like the snowflakes melting away and winter giving into spring, Cater knows everything is ephemeral.

But you?

You feel like forever.

x

[writerpyre]

Intro/Fic Masterpost

(Updated as of 17/08/21: Dead links have been repaired and minor edits made to layout)

 So, I’ve been in the Thunderbirds fandom for officially a decade now, and my first fic series isn’t complete yet. Life gets in the way, as we all know, but unless I specifically have a note on any of my stories on FanFiction.net or Ao3 that say they are abandoned, I always intend to get my stories completed. At some point. 

 I hang out on Tumblr to vent, muse and interact, mostly about fandoms. These include Thunderbirds (all three iterations), BBC Merlin, Marvel MCU, Star Trek TOS/AOS and The Shadowhunter Chronicles. I do post stuff of my own, but recently it’s just been hop-on-tumblr-to-ignore-the-real-world shenanigans. *grins sheepishly*

 Please feel free at any time to drop me a DM here on Tumblr, or on either of my pages at the links above. I’ll always do my best to reply. I may not be actively posting content, (especially with the last two (six) years being a f*cking sh*tshow) but I’m constantly lurking (and working on things as the muse permits). *Waves excitedly* 

************************************************************************

 This is a masterpost of all my fanworks, whether they are writing, traditional art/digital renderings that I am happy with, etc. Others will be added as they’re completed.

Click here for a bit of waffle about what I’m trying to achieve with my Thunderbirds ‘Bound’ Universe.

These are my fanfic stories to date. All except one are Thunderbirds so far, and this will be updated as each new fic is added, as well as any supplementary material I create. All these links are for fanfiction.net, but I am currently in the process of uploading all of my stories to Ao3, for those who prefer that site’s format.

 Happy reading, and thank you!!

THUNDERBIRDS:

The Bound Universe:

‘The Bound Series’:

Bound: Part I - Bound

Bound: Part II - Determined

Bound: Part III - Fulcrum - In Progress

‘The Bound Series’ - Promotional Pieces

The Bound Series Official Trailer

Bound Series Banners

Bound Series Aesthetic Post - John

Bound-Verse Oneshots: (In chronological order)

For Jeff and Luce (a songfic, my own lyrics, and put to original music - if you wish to hear it, you can find it here.

Red Holly and Hot Cocoa

A Little Family

Amissus Gemina

The Trip (More of a multi-chapter, but didn’t fit in the categorisation. :D)

Sunlit Days

To the Stars

Pater Et Filii

Itchy

On the Road

Down With the Weather

Something Like A Friend

Flyboy

Fire and Ice

Golden

Dangerous Boys

Phoenix (can also be read as tv-verse)

‘The Bound Series’ Trilogy (see above)

Tempered

Tremble (contains spoilers for Chapter 23 of Bound: Part II- Determined)

Breathe (contains spoilers for Chapter 31 Bound: Part II - Determined)

Bound-Verse Multi-Shots:

Threads in Time and Reminiscence

Glimpses Through the Veil (contains background spoilers for The Bound Series)

Virgil Tracy Week Prompts (Aug 2016):

Day One: Skies

Day Two: Stars

Day Three: Music

Day Four: Ocean

Day Five: Heroes

Day Six: Brothers

Day Seven: Change

Day Eight: Bonus Round - (The Hangover)

Thunderbirds Are Go:

Pride Goeth - (Contains spoilers for Thunderbirds Are Go Episodes 1: Ring of Fire (Part 2), and 4: Crosscut) - In Progress

Tidal Force - (Contains some spoilers for Thunderbirds Are Go Episode Ring of Fire Part 1 & 2 - In Progress

Addendum - Skyhook (Spoilers for Skyhook, need I say more?)

Pavlova Peril (Secret Santa 2016 ~ For Argentis, technically a stand-alone but fits within any of my fanon.)

Alea Iacta Est Arc: (Movie AU-Verse)

AIE Multi-Chapters:

Alea Iacta Est - On Hiatus

AIE Oneshots:

An Evening Photograph

**In this universe, much of the basic details are the same; post-film, circa 2059, with the events occurring including my OC Kent. More details will be revealed as the story progresses. The ages for the boys as of the beginning of that fic (on hiatus until I get it completed and start uploading again) are as follows: Scott twenty five, John twenty three, Virgil and Kent twenty one, Gordon nineteen and Alan fifteen. Tin-Tin is sixteen, and Fermat, thirteen.**These fics, unless specified as being otherwise, have absolutely no links with the Bound Universe (the name of my normal fic ‘verse), but you might see a few similarities with characterisation.

Miscellaneous: (each stand alone)

Refining the Antinomy

Nimbus

Paperclip

The Hardest Thing

Ebony and Ivory

The Binary of Five and Six

Musica Universalis

The Other Side of the Page

TOS: (each stand alone)

Health Hazard

T is for Tracy, C is for Chaos

Scarlet Burn

Balancing the Scales - In Progress (Collaborative story with LexietFive)

TAG AUs:

Of Gilded Frames and Silver Crowns - A Companion piece to Space-baegel’s Fairytale AU

Nix:

Fledgling (Original novel experiment - fusion fic)

 THE SHADOWHUNTER CHRONICLES:

Remembrance - (Contains spoilers for The Infernal Devices Trilogy by Cassandra Clare)

 A note on my fandom involvement and expectations on your conduct within and regarding my stories:

I feed off of comments/reviews, so don’t be afraid to let me know what you think, either with grammar, flow, ‘isms’ (as most people are not cognizant of differences unless they are told by someone of a different English dialect) or characterisation, but I will say right here and now that I do not tolerate flaming in the slightest. Constructive criticism on how I can improve; yes, unwarranted abuse of how I have incorrectly portrayed your perception of the character/series; no. I would also very much appreciate if you were to contact me before placing any of them into any archive, or on any sites other than my own on here, fanfic.net or Archive of Our Own.

Also, Kent Slayton Tracy (younger twin to Virgil Tracy) is my OC, and no use of him in any way, shape or form may be included without my prior consent.

Thank-you for your cooperation. :)

[eunique]

Storybook Data: Benjamin Valet

Basic Info

Full Name: Benjamin Alastor Valet (prefers to be referred to as Ben)

Age: 23

Birthday: July 7th, 277 AIE

Sign: Cancer

Height: 186cm (6′ 1)

Weight: 82kg (180 lbs)

Affiliation Post: Weisser Knight of Philarm, General Philarm Knight trainer

Hobbies: Cooking, playing the Tabor Pipe, woodwork, engraving

Likes: Taking long walks, food, trying new things, spending time with his sisters

Dislikes: The rain, heights, strenuous/energy consuming activities

Relations: Iris, Raven - sisters

Respected Person(s): My sisters, Roy, Wallace, Joshua, Argus, Grant, Lori

Stats

Kindness: 7/10

Parental skills: 9/10

Self confidence: 4/10

Love for his sisters: 10/10

Intro Paragraph:

Known as the eldest and the most sociable among the Valet siblings, he’s often looked up to by younger knights who aspire to be just like Ben. Like the second born of the Valet family, he too works as a mentor for the general Philarm knights however, his regime is very much the complete opposite of the infamously hard but effective course his sister takes. Things took a turn when a strange army makes a sudden appearance, forcing him to the front lines with the elder of his two younger sisters to fight the army. When the youngest of the Valet family was sent off to a strange world to escape the fight, Ben worried for the youngest’s safety and could only hope for her safe return to Seltavia.

Personality/Characteristics:

Often looked up to by younger knights in training for his patience and wisdom, Ben is known to have a big heart out of the Valets and the easiest to approach. He’s also known to be the jack of all trades in various skills ranging from his infamous cooking skills to his knowledge in medicine and his skills with a spear. Has an incredibly loving side and especially is a doting brother towards his younger sisters. Under the big heart and his loving personality, he holds a serious grudge against his parents and despises them with a passion. Not even his sisters knows how much he resents their parents.

Birth and History:

As the Eldest among the Valet siblings, Ben took on the caregiver role from a young age of 11 years old after his parents left. He made sure there was food on the table and the house was warm enough despite how dreary their home was. The biggest challenge for Ben was caring for his youngest sister who got sick every winter due to her weak immune system. This prompted Ben to scour every book about medicine as he could not afford a single doctor to help. Shouldering responsibility to raise enough money, he worked almost daily and worked long hours. At the age of 14, he enlisted to become a Philarm Knight, entrusting the elder of his two younger sisters who had started helping him to take care of the youngest while he trained. With the training, Ben eventually became a Weisser Knight and earned himself a companion in the form of a polar bear named Axel

Quote:

“Who, me? I don’t think I’m skilled enough to teach you... but if you want some pointers, I’m more than happy to give you some,”

Trivia:

Ben has a natural talent for being good at almost anything he learns (Hence the Jack of all trades title he’s given). He’s picked up several small hobbies growing up but one he really particularly likes is playing the Tabor Pipe (Three-hole-pipe). He picked it up out of curiosity like most things he’s picked up and actually liked it so much that it’s now one of his main hobbies. Even though it’s rare to see Ben play the Tabor Pipe, his sisters really enjoyed listening to him play it as kids.

[prokopetz]

hi! I found your tumblr via a friend rec - ive just played my first game of dnd and some parts were so good, exactly the thing, etc but some things were really annoying and left me complaining that I wanted it all to work a different way. then my friend linked me here and my. eyes. were. opened. may I get some advice on stuff to try? 1/?

[multi-part ask combined for brevity]

I like the having it be a team of specialised individuals each with their own skillsets, I prefer a not adversarial relationship with gm, I don’t like the fact that it’s set in medieval tech level times ( maybe the magic system could justify the various weapons they use somehow? but my brain keeps getting stuck on how they haven’t got showers!! aie ) I play as myself/as a role ( A/B ) ( sometimes  also D/A ) I want it to have a lot more focus on social and psychological and mental illness 2/?

what I want from social is to have the npc I’m talking to have an actual internal like set of things they like and want and my persuasiveness is based on that also, not just the persuasion stat. also I want to be able to, if i wanna, describe in detail all the steps of me baking a cake or something. also implementation of mental illness, like, a mechanic that goes “you ran out of spoons” and “you can’t go in the bar it smells too much. you physically cannot do it” and ¾

and “your hands are UNCLEAN go wash them a billion times” and “this table is standing UNEVENLY you Must Correct It To Be Even, whoops where did two hours go”. and another thing is i want to have lots of details available about where does a village get their food, how does the system work, etc, which i want to be able to use to lastingly improve the villagers lives and then i want to check up on them and find the farm boy a wizard and the hunter teaching a happy gaggle of apprentices etc 4/4

(With reference to this post here.)

I’ll level with you: it sounds like you’ve got some big conflicting priorities to sort out. What I’d recommend more than anything is to broaden your horizons in general; having a better idea of what’s out there in the tabletop roleplaying hobby may help you to more clearly define what you need in a game.

if you want to bring yourself up to speed in a hurry, you need games that are a. short, and b. free. It just so happens that I have a brief list:

Anima Prime (free for the no-art version; no registration)

Danger Patrol (free; direct PDF link)

Die For You (pay what you want; registration required)

Fate Accelerated Edition (pay what you want; no registration)

Lady Blackbird (free; no registration)

Lasers & Feelings (free; no registration)

Pokéthulhu (free; registration required)

Risus (free; registration required)

Don’t feel guilty about putting down zero dollars for the pay-what-you-want ones - you’re just conducting an introductory survey, and you can always go back and drop a few bucks on them later. For a recommended reading order, I’d probably go with:

Lasers & Feelings

Risus

Die For You

Lady Blackbird

Pokéthulhu

Danger Patrol

Fate Accelerated Edition

Anima Prime

Many are quite short - I’ve front-loaded the shortest in the preceding reading order - so you should be able to shoot through them relatively quickly. Why not give those a skim, then take some time to consider what grabbed you and what didn’t about each one before revisiting the topic?

[techprolonged]

Right now when there is a lot of smartphone brands, trying their best to settle in the market, there comes another. Realme has entered in the Pakistani market and it has officially announced its entry with the initial two smartphones – Realme 2 Pro and Realme C1.

Even though the company will sell Realme 2 Pro as a “flagship” for young people in the country, it remains a mid-range smartphone which is retailed at PKR 46,999. The phone will be available exclusively from Daraz and you can buy this phone in first hours for PKR 43,999 – check pricing and availability for more detail.

If you have gone through the unboxing session of Realme 2 Pro, then you would know that this price is higher than the Indian market. But that’s because the company has a manufacturing plant in India, hence they don’t charge import duties on these smartphones. Here in Pakistan we know that other brands have also increased the prices of their existing and newly released devices. Some have also delayed the release of their high-end phones only for one reason which is the rupee value in addition to added taxes and import duties.

We’ll see how does this phone stand by its price tag in a detailed review here. The Realme 2 Pro which is available in three colors – Blue Ocean, Black Sea, Ice Lake, reached us in a black uniform.

Let’s get started a quick look at the specifications and features of the Realme 2 Pro.

Quick Features and Specifications

Realme 2 Pro SoC Chip: Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 AIE CPU: 8 Kryo 260 cores, 4x 1.96GHz + 4x 1.84GHz GPU: Adreno 512 GPU Memory 4GB RAM + 64GB Storage 6GB RAM + 64GB Storage 8GB RAM + 128GB Storage (Available in Pakistan) microSD card dedicated slot (up to 256GB) OS / Software Android 8.1 Oreo / ColorOS 5.2 Display 6.3-inch IPS LCD (In-Cell) 2340×1080 Full HD+ resolution, 19.5:9, Pixel density: 409 ppi Screen-to-body ratio: ~91% Gorilla Glass 3 Rear Camera 16MP, 1/2.8″ PDAF, 1.12µm pixel size, f/1.7 lens aperture 2MP depth sensor LED flash Front Camera 16MP, f/2.0 Battery 3500 mAh – 5V/2A (No Fast Charging) Size/Weight 156.7 x 74.0 x 8.5 mm /174 grams Sensors Accelerometer, Gyro, Proximity, Ambient light, M-Sensor, Compass Fingerprint sensor Connectivity WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n/ac, Dual-band 2.5GHz/5GHz WiFi Tethering, WiFi Direct, Personal Hotspot Bluetooth: 5.0, GPS/AGPS, USB 2.0 micro USB Color Options Blue Ocean, Black Sea, Ice Lake

A separate unboxing session with first impressions of Realme 2 Pro was already, you might want to check that but here’s the list of things which you get with the retail package.

Realme 2 Pro Box Contents

The device – Realme 2 Pro

Travel charger – 5V+2A

USB cable for Connectivity/Charging

SIM eject tool

User guide

Add-on TPU back cover

Add-on TPU protective film (pre-applied)

Build and Design

Realme 2 Pro has plastic back panel but beautifully crafted like glass with slightly curved edges. The mid-frame is also plastic and joins right between the screen frame and the back panel. Our first impressions with the Realme 2 Pro were good regarding the design and it maintains in our full review.

We liked the Realme 2 Pro with its glass-like back panel, though it’s is plastic, it proved to be less prone to scratches during our use. Sure we used it like a primary phone just like many of you would do with care. Though we didn’t use it with back cover for testing purposes, we still would recommend using a safety case with it.

After all it is plastic and there are always more chances to get scratches than a glass. However plastic has its own benefits, it doesn’t break like a glass or won’t dent like a metal, because plastic is always a good shock absorber.

Realme said they created the back panel with 15-layer laminated technology that, being less scuffy, is more appealing to look. It shines with the moves. The 174 grams weight doesn’t really feel much in hands. The grip is quite comfortable as the back panel is not slippery as normally a glass like that would be.

The back panels is clean from any kind of product labeling but only a branding “realme” is down there. That’s not bad, you may like things plain and simple. There is dual-camera module on the top-left corner alongside an LED flash. Else you get there is the fingerprint sensor.

Components and Ports

Realme 2 Pro follows the recent trend of hosting everything at the bottom side. Micro USB port along with the speaker grill, 3.5mm audio jack is also down there as well as the mouthpiece (primary mic).

The top side of the phone only hosts a secondary mic for noise cancellation and stereo recording.

The power button stays on the right side for easy reach to your thumb while the the volume buttons are moved to the left side of the phone.

The SIM slot is also present on the left side which serves for two SIM cards and a separate microSD card.

Front and Display

We have seen a variety of sizes of the cutouts on top of the displays from various manufacturers. Only Samsung remained out of this bandwagon and personally I liked them stayed out of it. Until recently they came up with in-display punch hole, which is yet to experience. The more I saw those smaller and wider notches, the more I hated them. I liked the way how Huawei used the software to offer users if they want to hide this thing.

If there is any notch that I must have to like, is this dewdrop – referred as water-drop by OPPO and Halo by Vivo. The Realme 2 Pro has as front with “dewdrop design”. This smaller notch hosts single camera unit with an earpiece between the glass and the frame edges.

The bezels are one of the minimals we have seen. Even Huawei’s has given thinner bezels around its phones recently. Like any other Android smartphone, the bottom chin still makes its room in Realme 2 Pro.

The full front profile features a 6.3-inch display with aspect ratio of 19.5:9. The full HD+ display resolution 2340 x 1080 pixels serves with the pixel density of around 409 ppi. Realme says it has 91% screen-to-body ratio.

Realme 2 Pro packs with an IPS LCD panel with in-cell technology. It’s quite brighter than many other IPS displays. It’s sharp and crisp with its resolution and outdoor visibility is also impressive.

As I told that I liked the way how Huawei offered to hide the notch with a software based black top bar. Realme also also offers similar thing but as flexible as it could have been. The similar option is only available to limited apps that you can go through settings and set your preference.

Settings > Display & Brightness > App Display in Full-Screen > Notch Area Display Control

Realme refers this as “switching off the notch area display”. That is, when some app’s content is blocked by the notch, you can turn off the whole Notch Area Display for that certain app. Still this feature won’t work in many apps but only a few, however you can try that with any app in the list.

Realme 2 Pro – ColorOS 5.2 – Notch Area Display Control

Now that we have talked about software user interface, let’s start with it thoroughly and see how much did we like it and how much not.

Software and User Interface

Realme 2 Pro runs Android 8.1 Oreo operating system out-of-the-box. Having its family relation with OPPO, this phone or any other Realme phone comes with OPPO’s ColorOS. Realme 2 Pro takes the layer ColorOS version 5.2. You will find it hard to tell if you are using a Realme smartphone or an OPPO instead.

Talking about the user interface, then the ColorOS is pretty well rooted into the system. You won’t feel anything like stock Android user experience. In fact, Samsung’s Experience does have some elements from the stock.

The starter is just same as you are familiar – the phone starts with a lock screen, unlock to go to home screens, the folders, and multitask view and so on. There is no app drawer as you would know if you had experienced the OPPO smartphones. I have no issues with having or not having an app drawer.

Realme 2 Pro, ColorOS 5.2 – Lock screen, home screen, folder view, recent apps view

While the splitscreen can be initiated with a long-tap on recent apps button on navigation keys, it can also be triggered from within the recent apps view by dragging down an app snapshot.

Realme 2 Pro, ColorOS 5.2 – Recent apps view, split screen, notification panel, shortcuts & toggles

Then again the top bar brings the more familiar notification layer with a set of shortcuts and quick toggles that you can rearrange. The brightness slider is also present and the layer keeps the two step expansion.

ColorOS didn’t even use Google Now (or Google Assistant) on the far left home screen. Instead it has its own Smart Assistant. The Smart Assistant would let you stack things up like, some one-tap quick functions, current location weather, display steps, quick photos, events and favorite contacts.

Realme 2 Pro, ColorOS 5.2 – Smart Assistant on Home screen (far left).

The default navigation obviously comes with the standard Android keys – recent apps, home, and back keys. The system also offers you to switch to gesture based navigation, dubbed as “Swipe-up Gesture Navigation”. This includes the same navigation from iPhone X and we have seen it in Huawei’s EMUI too. Swipe-up on the left or right bars to go back, swipe-up on the middle bar to go to homescreen, or swipe-up and hold on the middle bar to view the recent apps.

To even match and exactly go like the iPhone X way, you can choose to “Hide Gesture Guide Bar”. It includes three more ways of gestures – simple gesture, back on the right, and back on the left.

There is also a Smart Sidebar which, if turned on, remains on the edge of the screen (either side left or right). You swipe-in from that sidebar on the edge to reveal a floating window containing a quick apps and tools to launch.

As told the ColorOS comes with everything custom, it includes its own Photos and Videos apps and a File Manager too. I liked the built-in ftp based remote file manager that you can access via web browser or the file explorer on your computer.

The Phone Manager is also a good thing to have to keep the system optimized from time to time. It scans the file system and memory and offers you with a set of options to optimize by cleaning it from junk, cache and and uninstall residuals.

App locker is also available right into the system.

For better and uninterrupted gaming experience, you have a Game Space. It allows you to choose which games you want to play at what performance level and which to play uninterrupted from notifications.

Overall the software is good to play with, but it would be better if it had its own feel with “Realme” brand. You can’t just tell while looking through the user interface if you are not using an OPPO smartphone. If you are an OPPO user then it’s just like your home.

Realme 2 Pro does have a fingerprint sensor on its back which is really fast and provide a good experience with accurate recognition. In addition the phone also support face unlock which is equally and impressively fast.

System Performance

Realme 2 Pro is one of the lot having equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 660 system-on-chip. The device rightly justified with the hardware and the software as the experience was fluent throughout the usage. The chip features an octa-core Kryo 260 processor with four high performance cores clocked at 1.95GHz and the other four are clocked at 1.84GHz.

The phone features the Adreno 512 GPU along with the whopping 8GB of RAM. Higher the display resolution, higher GPU would struggle. Thanks to these high performance processing unit that performed nicely at 1080p display.

Gaming was just up to the mark with other similar hardware, including the Kirin 710 of Huawei’s Nova 3i or Y9 2019, Helio P60 of Vivo V11 or  OPPO F7, or the exact Snapdragon 660 of Vivo V11 Pro. If you are a numbers nerd, then why not take a look at the benchmark scores below.

Realme 2 Pro just around the similar performing devices on AnTuTu. Coming just below Y9 and V11, the Realme 2 Pro did what it was supposed to.

Same was the case with single core test on Geekbench. Realme 2 Pro is standing side by its peers from the same class.

Again the Realme 2 Pro did pretty well to catch with others in multi-core performance test in Geekbench.

Interestingly, Realme 2 Pro showed its real face in the graphics phase sitting tightly with the Kirin 710 in GFX Manhattan 3.1 test.

Strange but good for Realme 2 Pro that the Slingshot Extreme brought the Realme 2 Pro on top of them all. Don’t bother about the order it’s a mistake at sorting, you just red the numbers.

If you are wondering, then Realme 2 Pro is the top tier smartphone from the brand. The company chose the right processor for this phone. The Aredno 512 is really a tough guy among other GPUs as we can see from above numbers.

Realme 2 Pro is good for all kind operations as well as gaming. ColorOs seems to be optimised well with the hardware and gives buttery performance constantly. We hardly noticed any lagging or jerking, not that we remember of.

Performance wise, it’s a good performer in its class and you should be fine with it. Just add your favourite game to the Game Space and you got a boost on top of already nice performance, by giving up some power juice. Talking about power? so now is the right time for battery performance.

Battery Performance

Not up to the mark with battery power houses, but still the Realme 2 Pro has a impressive battery timing. The phone packs with only a 3500 mAh battery – the entry-level Realme C1 sports a 4230 mAh battery.

A little bad thing is that phone doesn’t support fast charging but the bundled 10W charger pulls up the battery power from 0 to 30% in 30 minutes. Well it goes just like that with 1% charge per 1 minute up to 50% in 50 minutes. A full charge would take up to 2 hours.

Camera

Realme 2 Pro features a dual camera setup on its back with a 16-megapixel main unit paired with a secondary 2-megapixel depth sensor. The second camera is mainly for portrait mode that simulates blurred background, aka bokeh effect in close up shots.

The 16MP main camera is the main shooter for almost every occasion. Inside, there is Sony’s IMX398 CMOS sensor that employs 1.12µm sized pixels. The sensor features phase-detect autofocus. Outside, there is a bright and large f/1.7 aperture lens and an LED flash.

Camera UI

The camera user interface in ColorOS is as simple as there is no settings section in it. However, for a few camera options, you have to go to phone’s settings app Settings > System Apps > Camera and change a few things including volume button function, show/hide grid, enable/disable shutter sound or add watermark. But two things could be important to you – video encoding, that you can choose from “efficient” or “best compatibility”, and the Flip selfie.

The user interface offers a set of modes including photo and video modes. There is also some fancy features like time-lapse, panorama and the portrait mode for close shots with blurred background.

There is also an expert mode which allows you to override camera settings to take shots as you like. Unlike many, the expert mode doesn’t provide a preset white balance options but a slider to move through kelvin values from 2000K to 8000K which is indeed a good thing. EV ranges from -2 to +2. ISO spans from 22 to 3200. Shutter speed can be set as slower as 16 seconds and there is also an option to do manual focus on a slider.

Image Quality

Coming over to the image quality, Realme 2 Pro impressed us with its capability to attain nice image detail. Colors were true to real life as well as contras was also good. Noise handling was little above average. The camera struggled only a little to manage dynamic rang however the HDR mode is also present in the UI to help resolve this issue in many cases.

Realme 2 Pro performed nicely outdoors in good light but unfortunately the photos won’t be very appealing to your eyes due to the foggy weather. But those vivid colors are not something to evaluate the camera. There are other things like image detail, noise handling, contrast dynamic range etc. One thing is that the Realme 2 Pro handled the skin tones really well.

You can look at the image detail by clicking on the photo and zoom it in.

Outdoor samples

As told, the images are not that cool for less vibrant colors due to the foggy weather. But the Realme 2 Pro handled them very nicely and didn’t loose the detail whether it’s a tall bricked minaret or the trees and foliage.

[slickr-flickr search=”sets” set=”72157677255228648″]

ِIndoor / Low light samples

In low light condition, the phone seems to be delivering some noise but still it handled the colors and detail very well. It’s quite impressive.

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HDR Mode

While you can’t see the blue sky very well – as I mentioned it was a foggy weather, you can still observe how the Realme 2 Pro handled the overlit background in HDR mode. It did good to pop out the subject very well with detail.

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Portrait Mode

Portrait mode does a pretty good job with identifying and defocusing the background from the foreground subject. No matter if it’s a a still life object or a human subject, it will lock the focus on it and will provide real time blurred background that turns out to be really pleasing in photographs.

On the other hand the skin tones are really impressive on my niece’s face. Click the photo to open big and then click again to zoom into 100% view. You will see that how the Realme 2 Pro didn’t waste this shot with a crappy colors or shaky image.

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Front Camera

The Realme 2 Pro also features a 16MP front camera for selfies with a nice f/2.0 aperture lens. Like mostly, the front camera comes with a fixed-focus lens.

With front camera, you can take selfies, record videos and also do time-lapse and panorama. There is also a sticker mode that pastes facial objects on your face. The beauty mode comes with 1 to 6 level scale with an additional “AI” that chooses the best beauty level for your face. While in Photo mode, you can turn on portrait mode.

Front camera has only a limited set of features There is a beauty mode, complete with an automatic “AI” setting, to play around with as well. And a pretty extensive animated sticker collection.

The selfies in bright light came out with impressive detail, nice colors and skin tones while the low-light ones seems less detailed. The last two photos will tell who a beauty mode is different from a real shot.

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Video Recording

As long as the resolution is concerned, the Realme 2 Pro can record up to 4K/2160p resolution at 30fps. However the electronic image stabilization (EIS) is available for 1080p and 720p recordings. 4K videos do not support any stabilization it’s only usable with less movement.

1080p/30fps Video Footage with EIS

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[Panning] 4K/30fps NO Stabilization

[iframe width=”853″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/JL5DtuH-wc0?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=”yes”]

[Panning] 1080p/30fps EIS

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[Walking Stairs] 1080p/30fps EIS

[iframe width=”853″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/ozwU4-_cTR8?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=”yes”]

[Drive] 1080p/30fps EIS

[iframe width=”853″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/xPfD_05IBac?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0″ frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen=”yes”]

Conclusion and The Verdict

Our overall impression with the Realme 2 Pro was quite positive. Take it for the design, fullview display with thin bezels, the performance, and the camera output.

It’s good that Realme didn’t start with its initial portfolio of devices in Pakistan. Starting with Realme 2 Pro is the right step in the market. You can find the devices with similar performance in the market for around similar price tag. There are cheaper ones too but Realme 2 Pro has something to attract – the 8 Gigs of RAM and a stunning 128GB of internal storage.

We liked the phone even in its plastic build but believe that with this price tag, companies have offered metal and glass finish. We have seen Huawei Nova 3i and Honor 8X in similar price and even similar hardware performance but they have dual-glass and metal build. Also the camera performance was comparable.

One thing they don’t have is 8GB of RAM; and indeed the Realme 2 Pro’s battery is more impressive. In my opinion, Realme could have used 4G of RAM with 128GB storage and sell the phone under around 40k to actually give a hard time to the brands like Huawei and Honor. In fact, Realme could have brought the 4GB or 6GB variant with 64GB storage in Pakistan, like in India, with even less price tag.

But again you will find others too with plastic build in this price. Look at the Samsung’s Galaxy J8, which has a plastic body and way lower performing hardware specs. So the most important factor is your preference, that you would go for a phone with 8GB of RAM – and of course a better battery performance, or you will buy a metal/glass build.

Overall it’s a healthy pack of performance – the phone runs with a sturdy mid-range performer, the Snapdragon 660. On top of that the 8 GB RAM is going to support you in the long run. Camera is also good in most aspects – well almost all situations.

From here, we’ll leave it to you, good luck. Just have a quick look through a stock of Realme 2 Pro photos down below. Like always, you can ask anything about the phone in comments below. We’ll bring the right answer for you. Do follow us on our social channels (Facebook, Twitter) to keep up to date, or signup to our newsletter to have instant email notifications.

Realme 2 Pro Full Review - Everything Covered, Design, Performance, Camera Right now when there is a lot of smartphone brands, trying their best to settle in the market, there comes another.

[rmjagonshi]

Whole Again - Chapter 6

Whole Again on AO3

Stan woke in a haze, confused at why he was in the RV and not the Stan O’War and why Ford was currently tucked in to his side. His arm was being held captive. His brother had always been snuggaly. He’d woken up a number of times when they were young with Ford pressed up against his back or draped over his chest. They’d both sought comfort in one another; being isolated kinds did that. It never bothered him that he didn’t have friends. He had his brother.

He knew Stanford was bothered by it though; Ford always assumed that Stan would have been more popular if it wasn’t for his extra fingers. It was part of the problem, but truth be told, Stan was not really good with people. Sure, Stan was a world class scam artist, always had been even in the second dimension, but he’d always had trouble opening up to people. Stanford was the first in a long chain that had actually broken through to see him as vulnerable. It was embarrassing how much he wanted Stanford Pines to himself. But Sixer Poindexter was haunted by him, the past him, and he needed to do something about it.

Ford woke some short time later and they ate cold beans and brown meat, water and checked on Ford’s wounds. He was healing well, heavily bruised ribs and a swollen hand that hand lost its ability to grip things (though it didn’t look all that swollen), but healthy, infection free, and beautifully alive.  

He’d spent part of the night crafting a simple pleasant dram for his brother; just a short jaunt down a river in the Stan O’War I, looking for Waddles. He’d let Stanford’s subconscious take it from there. It had been worth it when Ford woke up all smiles, albeit a bit sore.

Thankfully the environment had been kind, and no new snow had fallen in the night. They packed up, Stan shrinking the RV, and they made their way back out of the valley; stopping briefly in Aðalstræti to let them know to not send out a search party (they wouldn’t have, not worth it to try and rescue two stupid tourists bent on getting themselves in danger, but Ford insisted).

Stan drove the six hours home. Ford had offered to take over half way, but Stan could see him fighting to stay awake. He, too, felt tired, but he only had to stop for twenty minutes to get through a dizzy spell, Ford napping in the passenger seat. He really needed to get a reign on this burst of magic. It was taking a too much energy from him. He felt punch drunk like after an extended cage a fight, or after he’d entered into someone's mind.

That was one thing he never let on before; entertaining someone's mind was his specialty, but it was taxing and a draw on his powers. That's why he'd preferred making deals. The deal allowed him into people’s minds willingly; he didn't have to fight their mental defenses because there were none. It was similar to the vampire thing where a vampire can’t enter a person’s house unless invited, except it really was nothing like that.  

His human body was much weaker and much more limited. Magic was significantly tiring, it’s really no wonder he’d never tapped into it before; with no memory of magic, his body lacked the energy for spontaneous releases. Well, the magical kind anyway; human hormones were weird, and he should know having been one for sixty years.

Time passed strangely for Stan, the minutes dragging by like hours and yet the six-hour drive ended rather abruptly when he passed the city limits of Reykjavik. He pulled off on a deserted road and shrank everything, excluding their day packs, to make unpacking easier on both of their backs. Ford woke when he got back in the car and was perturbed that he had napped the whole way.

Ford had insisted on taking the rental car back that night. Stan had protested, saying they could pay the extra for dropping it off late and Ford didn’t need to aggravate his injuries, but there was really no arguing. Ford had sweetened the deal by suggesting they eat out that night; find a local pub, get fed and get drunk. “And maybe you can find someone to flirt with” Ford had suggested with a sly smirk. Stan was sold. He liked flirting, and he was kinda terrible at it. Ok, he was abysmal, but it was fun to see the girls (and some guys) play it off or laugh hysterically at his attempts. And Ford needed a reason to laugh. He’d seemed…off. Stan assumed that it was just from the exertion, but Ford had been shooting him sideways looks (when he’d been awake). He’d done it last night too, staring at Stan when he thought that Stan wasn’t looking. Stan felt guilty for not feeling guilty about manipulating Ford’s dreams. Man, If I went to a psych, they’d need a therapist.

He’d messed with Ford’s dreams and mind before, hell he’d freely entered it and possessed his body before, but…this was different. It was more…….intimate? Sort of. Maybe? Stan didn’t know. It just felt strangely different now than it had before. Maybe it was because he was physically here now, rather than just a mental projection through Ford’s mind. Or maybe it’s because I’m his brother and I shouldn’t be messin’ with his dreams. But he wanted to. He wanted to see what Ford thought about, what he dreamed about. Stan wanted to be able to influence that, be integral to it, and that was steering way too close to other issues that would drive his hypothetical therapist to the loony bin.

They dropped the car off (paying slightly more for the dings to under carriage) and Ford asked the clerk if he could recommend a place to grab a bite and a pint. Stan played dumb as Ford and the Clerk spoke in Gaelic.

“Do you have any suggestions where we could get some good food and good alcohol?” The counter attendant paused, assessing both Ford and Stan with a bewildered frown. He spoke slowly, as if Stan and Ford would dislike the answer.

“Aie, there’re a few places ‘round here. Depending on what’re ya lookin’ fer? There’s a club that makes good chips if yer lookin’ to go on the lash, but I suspect ye might be a bit…uncomfortable with the club scene.” Stan can see Ford’s face twitch in confusion at the regional slang, but pick up on its general meaning. This youngin thinks we’re too old. HA! Should taking him out partyin’ with me.

“If’n yer lookin’ fer somthin’ a bit quieter, I suggest The Drunk Rabbit off’a main street. It’s usually hoppin’ on the weekends, but you should be alright. I think a game’s on tonight, so it might be a bit rowdy.”

Ford just held up his hand to stop the guy, wincing slightly as the man’s eyes widened at his six fingers “Thanks for the tip. We’ll check it out.” They both ignored the muttering “Wot, Jesus, freak man has six fingers” as they left. Ford rubbed at one of his extra fingers shamefully. Stan wanted to wring the fucker’s neck, but he’d learned to let Ford deal with his own battles. Besides, he wasn’t supposed to know Gaelic, right?

“Wha’d he say?” Stan tried to force a smile. Ford gave him a sidelong hairy eyeball that lasted too long for Stan’s comfort before responding.    

“He said the Drunken Rabbit is a good place. It’s off main street. Though it might be loud tonight; apparently there is a sporting event being televised.” Ford’s voice took on a slight condescending tone, as if Stan should know what the guy had said. Wait….

SHIT!

He’d read…fuck!

Stan scrambled for an excuse, anything, anything at all. Ah…ah…shit, um…

“Hey, I said I could read it, not that I spoke it.” Ok, so that was kinda believable, now how was he gonna explain how he could read it. Think, stupid, how’re ya gonna play this?

“And how did you come to learn how to read an ancient form of Gaelic anyway? I don’t recall you taking an interest in foreign languages before.”

Stan raised an eyebrow. “¿Entonces soy estúpido?”

Stanford looked understandably speechless. “¿Qué te hace pensar que nunca tuve otros intereses?”

“Stanley, I’m sorry. That was rude. I just didn’t understand why Gaelic of all languages. My apologies.”

Stan smirked and flung his arm around Stanford’s shoulders, “Está bien, Sixer. Puedes pagar por las bebidas como una disculpa.” Ford rolled his eyes. “Don’t I always pay?”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

After getting lost a few times, and Ford making him try asking directions (Stan had done so, but asking for the “Small Rodent has intoxication” purposefully, had gotten him a few weird looks and continuous laughter from Ford), they found the pub a street over from the park. The place had a mid-sized crowd, mostly locals there for the game. They sat at the end of the bar away from the TV screen with a pint of Guinness each. Stan wasn’t a fan, and he could tell Ford was having a rough go of it, but it was the local favorite so why not? While his Sixer picked at an order of Fish and chips, Stan had to stop himself from inhaling a burger. About halfway through their meal, Ford pushed his half-finished glass towards Stan with a wrinkled nose.

“I always preferred vodka, myself. Or…” Ford looked around subtly, checking to see if anyone was watching before pulling out a small flask from the inner pocket of his jacket. “Can I tempt you?” He said, shaking the flask slightly at Stan.

Stan raised an eyebrow over the glass Ford had given him and downed the last of the beer in a few quick gulps before asking, “What is it?”

Ford smirked, “You’ve had it before. I haven’t got much left, but I think we earned a sip or two.” Ford unscrewed the cap and quickly took a sip before hiding it under the counter from the bartender. A tiny trickle of black, blue and pink with sparkles of white running from his lip.

When Ford turned back to Stan, he was discernibly affected by whatever it was in the flask. His pupils had blown wide and his skin was flushed. Sixer was more drunk than he was and Stan had downed twice as much as Ford. What they heck was in that thing?

When the bartender was again distracted with another customer, Ford brought the flask back onto the bar and gestured it towards Stan with an expectant look. Stan grumbled and snagged the flask, taking a large gulp, and choking slightly at the burn, barely getting the flask out of sight as the bartender came and collected their glasses.  

Stan carefully (and rather failingly) kept a straight face as Ford ordered two shots of Whisky and a glass of flavored vodka for them both. As soon as the bartender left, Stan brought the flask back up, pressing it into Ford’s chest and coughing into his arm.

It did taste familiar. It was the same stuff Ford had offered him in the Fearamid. It had hurt then too, but now he knew what it was. Cosmic Sand?! Where in the multiverse did he get that? But of course, Stan had to play dumb. He just gave Ford a pained look, eyes watering, “Never took you for a fan of the strong stuff.”

Sixer looked smug, smug and predatory. It was a good look on him in Stan’s opinion. “You could fill whole books with the things you don’t know about me. Ten, by my last estimation.” Stan rolled his eyes.

“Alright, smart-guy, how’s about you start by tellin’ me what that stuff is and where you got it.”

Stanford took a second sip before tucking the flask away and began recounting his adventure in Dimension fifty-two and Jeheselbraum the Unswerving. They didn’t even notice the bartender dropping off their drink order until Stan nearly knocked his over.

“You liked her.” Stan gestured with his glass of vodka, sloshing a bit over the side.

Ford blushed, “No I didn’t. Well, yes, I did, but not amorously. She was intellectually stimulating and she knew so much about so many topics. I would love to see her again and pick her brain.” He smiled wistfully while twirling his glass.  

“That’s not all you wanna do” Stan chuckled.

“Stanley, you are impossible!” Ford glanced at Stan from the corner of his eye.

“Did you kiss her?” Ford nearly choked on his drink

“Stanley!” Stan thought scandalized and red was a better look on Ford than smug and predatory.

“Did you?” He wasn’t gonna let this go.

“No” Ford’s tone suggested he’d thought about it though.  

“Did you want to?” Stan really wasn’t gonna let this go.

Ford didn’t respond, just averted eye contact and blushed even harder.

“You did, didn’t you?” Stan arched an eyebrow.

“If I answer in the affirmative, will you shut up please!” Sixer looked like he wanted to fall into another portal or anything to get away from the conversation. Stan just let out a sound of affectionate ridicule.  

“Damn! Wish I’d gotten to talk to the gal that took my brother’s fancy. You were up in a monastery with her, just her for weeks and you didn’t put the moves on her? Not once? Poindexter, common! You gotta do better than that! And she was a party-gal too! Ah! What a wasted opportunity.” Stan lamented his brother’s loss. He couldn’t say why, but he wasn’t going to explore any ideas that involved rebound crushes and one-eyed triangle dream daemons.      

“I was more interested in ending Bill Cipher at the time and recovering from brain surgery. Besides, she knew everything about me. If she’d been interested, then she would have said something.” Stan thought Ford sounded unsure.

“Yer just tellin’ yerself that to lessen the blow that you missed yer chance. Man, Nerd, do I gotta give ya pointers on how to talk to women?”

“I do not need pointers, Stanley. I charmed my way into interdimensional courts, lead rebellions, spoke with professors and scientists that are centuries beyond our understanding of science, and was a speaker at the intergalactic Senate as a representative from Earth 46’\.”

“Ok, but were any of them women?”

“Some, yes.”

Stan looked surprised. “Of those species that reproduced sexually and defined their species by distinctions between those sexes, yes, many of them were ‘women’.”

Stan just sighed. Sixer was so frustratingly accurate and precise about things that didn’t matter. “Ok, check out that one there. She’s sittin’ by herself, but she wasn’t that long ago. Her friend, the blonde over two booths down, went to flirt with some guy and has been over there awhile. She looked lonely and disappointed that the guy flirted with her friend. All you gotta do is go talk to her. Pretend yer a tourist and ask her somthin’ funny, like ya don’t know the language that well.”

“Stan, she’s too young. She looks in her thirties. She won’t respond well to me.”  

“And you look a hell of a lot younger than you are, so just go.” Ford really didn’t look Sixty. He’d aged remarkably well, Stan was jealous.

“What about these?” Ford held out his hands before him, fingers spread to draw attention to his extra pinkies

“Believe it or not Sixer, most people don’t give a flyin’ fuck. They might think it’s weird at first, but tha’s it.”  

Ford took a breath, downed the rest of his glass, and took the shot of whiskey for good measure before walking over to the brunette sitting by herself.

Stan watched his brother make a circuit around the room, weaving in and out of people standing around and coming up to the woman’s side. Stan could tell Sixer was nervous. He opened and closed his hands a few times, gearing himself up to make the opening line.

Stan’s phone beeped. He blinked, attention truing to his pocket. Mabel had sent him a picture text. She and Dipper were shopping for Thanksgiving with their mom. The cart seemed to be overloaded and Mabel was squishing her cheeks with glee at the size of the turkey and the number of pumpkin pie crusts dipper was stacking. Stan could see a bit of Rebecca Pines pushing the cart, but she was mostly out of frame. He grinned and sent a quick text back saying where they were. He and Sixer had agreed that they would call the kids via video chat on Thanksgiving Day; the time difference allowing them to talk to the kids early enough so they didn’t interrupt dinner. Stan also had plans to call Soos and the Mystery Shack. Melody had made arrangements to stay in Gravity Falls and the relationship seemed serious. Stan was overjoyed; Soos deserved to have someone special in his life. He’d just finished typing out a “Goodnight” to Mabel when he noticed Ford approaching him, looking a little awkward and put out.  

“So, it turns out that she’s homosexual and has a crush on her friend who is undeniably heterosexual and was not disappointed that she wasn’t on the receiving end of an unwanted attempt at flirting but rather that her friend didn’t pick up on her own attempts.” Ford said in one breath, slumping down on the stool and burying his face in the empty glass.

“Oh”. Stan knew that, but there was a chance she would flirt with Ford in a desperate attempt to make her friend jealous.  

“Yeah, ‘Oh’”. Ford mumbled dejectedly, running his finger on the damp lip of the glass. Stan tried to signaled for a refill, but the bartender was facing away from him.

“Wha’dya say to her?”

“’Hello, do you have knowing the resting room in the ceiling?’”

Stan spat out his drink. No wonder she’d laughed. Sixer had just about as much charm as he had back in high school. He rubbed at his eyes and tried to stifle a chuckle.  

“’Do you have knowing’, I gotta remember that one. What else?”

“She spoke English, and said that it was probably the funniest openers she had heard. I asked her name, Lisa, and if she would like to sit and talk. She told me about what happened and I said I understood. Unrequited affection is rough.”

“What did she say about yer hands?”

“She didn’t.” Ford seemed reluctant to admit the fact. Stan smiled to himself, glad to be proven right.

“Why did you pick her anyway?” Ford asked, gesturing to the woman whose friend had returned looking annoyed. Apparently, her bout of flirting with the mystery man had not gone well.

“I figured she would be easy for you to approach? Less likely to wave you off if you fumbled-up” Stan had thought it was obvious.

Ford rolled his eyes. “No, I meant, why a woman?” Ford looked shocked at himself for speaking so candidly and looked skeptically at his empty glass.

Stan himself looked a bit surprised, but recovered quickly when Ford showed signs of discontent. “Sorry, I guess I assumed, ya’know, with what I remembered. My bad.” Ford pulled the flask back out, took a quick sip and returned it to his pocket.

“Since I know you are going to ask; that one.” Ford pointed subtly. Stan’s mind had not caught up other than to helpfully supply ‘blue-grey tweed’. He shook his head, “Sorry?”

“My type, in men, I mean. The one leaning against the wall in a blue-grey tweed jacket.”

Stan’s eyes cast around the room before landing on the man in question. The man was tall, about six and a half feet, had salt and pepper hair, looked in his mid-forties, maybe early fifties. The man had a great body. Stan could tell the man was fit and had a tapered triangle shape to him; wide shoulders and a narrow waist. He was wearing the blue-grey tweed jacket, a light blue shirt with a dark blue tie and white pants. The guy was dripping Oxford Professor. Stan could imagine why Sixer would like that.

“So…” Stan prompted

“So?” God Sixer was dense.

“So, go talk to him. And you call me ‘knucklehead’.”

But he didn’t go. Stanford just blushed impossibly redder and hailed the bartender (loudly) for another round of drinks. When Stan prompted him again, Ford just shook his head and avoided making eye contact. When the bartender returned, he pulled the glass to him and chugged like a dying man and his first taste of water.    

“How’d you get there anyway?” Ford looked confused at the non-sequitur.

“You said you’d passed out and woke up in a mountain monastery with tall, dark, and seven-eyed hovering over you. Why’d you pass out?” A soft ‘ah’ escaped Ford’s lips.

“In my travels, I somehow found my way to a second dimension. A flat world from my own perspective, where everything looked like line segments bobbing around. I’d thought it was Bill Cipher’s home-world. After speaking with Jeheselbraum, I learned it was just one of infinite versions of the world Cipher burned. I may have even come across a version of Bill there, and just didn’t know it because of my third-dimensional eyes.”

Ford seemed to go into himself at his next statement, eyes downcast and full of repressed longing. “A dimension where he hadn’t burned his home, where he hadn’t committed such atrocities…where he hadn’t tricked me.”

Stan really should address that. He should. He should also tell Sixer who he was and had been. He should tell Sixer about his feelings and…he should do a lot of things. But he was a coward, always had been, even back then when he was invading people’s minds. The difference now was, he was man enough to admit he was running.

Time to regale Sixer with a round of my misadventures then.

“You said you wanted me to tell you the story of how I chewed my way out of a car trunk, right?”

Sixer perked up, “Yeah, how did you wind up in like that?”

Stan had recounted the tale of getting into a fist fight with a gang member in a bar in Arizona along the border. The guy had lost, but he went and got some buddies. They had cornered him in an alley, beat him and stuffed him in a trunk. Thankfully they were sluggish and uncoordinated and drunk off their asses and had left the car unattended that night. Stan woke up with plenty of time to eat and tear through the cushioning separating the trunk from the backseat and was able to get away. A jagged piece of glass from a broken bottle was enough to cut through the ropes.

Seeing his brother’s expression at his more dangerous misadventures, Stan moved onto funnier tales about running the Murder Hut/Mystery Shack. About finding gnomes breaking into the shack and trying to give him as an offering to their queen which prompted him to use his football skill to punt them out, about going toe to…hoof with one of the manitaurs and losing (he was man enough to admit he’d been no match), about the guy who tried to pay admission fee with a baby goat and the goat just stayed (It kept the gnomes away), and trying to get rid of a Hawktopus that had found its way into the crawl space.

Stan then moved onto stories with the kids. His poor attempt at engaging with the kids at the lake (So then I just found some random kid to show how to tie a barrel knot). Mabel’s endeavor to match him up with Susan Wentworth at the diner (She had soooo many cats. I think I dodged a bullet with that one). His rivalry with Gideon and getting glued to a chair and stuck in the Pioneer Day stocks (I had tomato juice in my underwear). The kids fighting over Ford’s old room (they’d switched bodies and I ended up telling Mabel all about male puberty). Terrifying the attendees of Woodstick with a hot air balloon that unintentionally said ‘I Eat Kids’ (Stan, please tell me you didn’t actually shoot at anyone). His adventure in the cavers under the town and punching a pterodactyl in the face while it was flying (You, WHAT!? But you’re afraid of heights!). And their terrifying zombie escapade that ended in a horrid musical number (Wait, HOW did you break their skulls? You just…just stepped on it? How…how strong are you?). Ford had laughed himself sore and they’d gone through so many rounds of dinks they’d lost count.        

Stan had just recounted his purchase of Summerween props with ‘Stanbucks’. "If I'm not walking out of the store with a great deal, then I'm walking out of there at speed." Besides, it was for the kids. And he knew that fake blood was just going to get tossed after the season was over anyway. He was just offering charity to take it off their hands. They should be thanking him. Ford seemed to disagree.

"Stanley, you can't just steal your way through life."

"Why not, done an ok job of it so far. Its either that or sittin' on a street corner, and I'm not gonna sit here and pretend I still got the body fer that". Well shit. He'd gone and said it, hadn't he? He really was drunk. Now would come the guilt and the water works and god knows what else. Damnit, he'd been trying to keep that tidbit of information from Ford, spare his feelings. It wasn't like he had done it all the time, and he was real choosy about his clients. Only had to get rough a few times and he never let himself get drunk or get messed up with any shitty powders. Only got roofied once, and the guy who did it got the shit beat out of him by Jimmy Snakes. They crashed in some chick's hotel room while she gave an eye witness account that the guy had fallen across some chairs. She had been a sweet gal. Didn't remember her name, though.

He could see the wheels grinding to a halt in Ford's head, lips puckered to take a sip form his drink. The astonishment was clear as day. Then his expression changed, his eyes drooping and mouth twisting up in revile. There's the guilt. Damnit, Poindexter, it does no good to worry now. I'm fine.

To his credit, all Ford did was sigh and run a hand over his face. "I wish I'd have had the maturity enough to pull my head out of my ass long enough to realize you might have needed help." He slid his left hand across the bar and placed it over Stan's. "But we're here now. Doing what we always wanted to do. I'm studding anomalies and you pulled some solid artifacts from that crypt." He chuckled, eyes full of quiet exhilaration. He paused for a moment, grip tightening on Stan's hand. Trepidation creeping onto his face as he swallowed. "That is,...are you....you want to be out here with me,...right?" In that moment, Ford looked like the nervous preteen that clung to Stan's arms after being ridiculed by a classmate; begging Stan to tell him that he wanted to be with him, not just because they were brothers, but because he wanted to be. That used to be Ford's biggest fear, that people were nice to him because they had to be or were supposed to be, rather than because they actually liked him. Stan wouldn't have teased him even if he wanted to (and he did kind of want to). He flipped his hand over and interlaced his fingers with Ford's He took a sip from his drink and flashed a flirty smirk, "Always, Sixer. And forever"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

They stumbled the whole way back to the ship, laughing and grappling at each other’s shoulders. He’d shown Sixer the text from Mabel and they both agreed to pick up a souvenir or something that said ‘Reykjavik’ on it for them. Sixer also agreed to start working on a set of portal mirrors he had scribbled about in his journals and sending one to the kids. It would make communication easier, and depending on the size of a stable set, would allot them to meet their hug quota. Both brothers craved physical affection, having been denied it for so long.

They unsteadily made their way on board the Stan O’War and below decks before Stan collapsed in a heap on his tiny cot. Feebly attempting to kick his boots off.  

“Oy. Beds 're too small. Should'a gotten a double.” He mumbled, arm and leg hanging off the side of the bed.

“This is a double, Stan.” Ford sat on his own bunk to properly remove his boots and undress for bed. Stan just rolled slightly, untangled himself from his trench coat and threw it to the end of the bed.  

“You know wha' I mean.” They had contemplated on installing a queen, but it wouldn’t fit. They’d opted for the current arrangement. Ford just laughed.

Stan was starting to love hearing that sound. Hell of a lot better than screaming. No wait, screaming was good, it was sneezing that he couldn’t stand. He remembered being in Ford's body when it was overtaken with a sneezing fit. He had refused to inhabit Ford's body for weeks after that. Pain was interesting (well it wasn't anymore now that he had become intimate with it, but at the time it had been so strange), but the involuntary spasms irritated his molecules. Ford screaming had been nice to listen to once, he isn't sure if it still was though; more recent memories reminded him that it wasn’t. He might have to ask Ford to scream for him sometime to see if he still liked it.

“And get kicked in the middle of the night on a regular basis? Not likely, not to mention your shedding. And you put out heat like a furnace. We didn’t need to worry about heat in the RV.”

Stan snorted. “You like it though. Crawled inta my bed often enough when we were younger. Think my silver medal boxing match was the last time.” He missed it. There were a number of times he rolled over in the back seat of his car or a shity motel bed expecting his brother to be curled up beside him.

“Stan, we were in high school by then.” Ford had removed his jacket and undershirt, opting for a white sleeveless similar to the one Stan used to sport. Stan eyed the star tattoo on Sixer’s neck. He’d been waiting for the perfect opportunity to play that song and tease his brother relentlessly. For now, he just closed his eyes and hummed.  

“Yup. An'you were so worried 'bout my eye, you slept next ta me to check on it through the night.”  

“It did look terrible.” Ford agreed, sliding under the covers, not bothering to worry about his nightly routine. They’d even forgot to reset the coffee pot. Eh, fuck it.

“Yeah, but I woke up the next mornin' with you all nuzzled up in my armpit.” Stan couldn’t help but needle Sixer. It was too fun to get him riled up.

“I was not!”

“Were to!”

“Oh, enough.” Ford dissolved in to another fit of giggles. Ok, yeah, laughter was definitely a winner. He could listen to it all night. He hummed in contentment, eye closed and arm draped over his face. He was almost asleep when he heard Ford's tentative call. "Stan?"

"Hnmm?" The bed shifted slightly where the mattresses met and Stan felt something fluffy press into the back of his head. He felt the vibrations of Ford's voice travel through his crania to his gums.

"Goodnight"

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Chapter 1

[lady-knight-]

The Wonder Woman rants are going on...Today, I shall be excited; I shall have rush to the cinema...And I won't, because the new  DC movie universe is so badly written, by someone who said: "Martian Manhunter won't be in the Justice League movie, because those who know who he is must be virgins". (sic) I prefer do not see if he slaughtered that sacred cow as well. I'll simply be happy she have her first live action movie (on the contrary, the animated one was very cool), and wait to see if it will be a bomb (like Supergirl) or if it's also bad, like all others super heroines movies. And pray for more super heroines (and black heroes) movies to go on, because they needed to do movies about Thor, Ghost Rider, Green Lantern and Ant-Man (!) before they'll do hers.   To all those who say that nobody like her, or that she is boring, I'll answer: sure, she was less exposed (I can't believe she never had her own animated series yet). But girls need heroes too. The best proof is, the little girls on this piece are very real. 9 years ago they rushed to me and my first (shitty...) cosplay of WW; by coincidence, a cosplayer was standing next to the mother(s) (I can't remember if they were sisters or cousins) and took the picture too before send it to me. I don't know who the girls are, but they can tell me if they recognize themselves. The second of the left, who look the happiest, is dressed like the little girl who appears in Wonder Woman the animated movie (2009) as an homage because she resembles her physically quite much (happy coincidence?) . It's the girl Wonder Woman teaches how to sword fighting , because a bunch of boys did not want to play pirates with "the girl". "Go on, release hell!" Les dits de Wonder Woman continuent... Aujourd'hui, je devrais être excitée comme une puce, j'aurais dû courir au cinéma...et je ne le ferais pas parce que le nouvel univers cinématographique de DC est si mal écrit, par quelqu'un qui a dit: "Martian Manhunter ne sera pas dans la Ligue des Justiciers, parce que qui savent qui il est doivent être vierges". (sic) Je préfère ne pas voir s'il a aussi massacré cette icône.   Je serais seulement contente qu'elle aie son premier film live (au contraire, le film animé est très réussi) et attends de voir si ce sera un four (comme Supergirl) ou si ce sera aussi  un navet  comme tous les autres fils de super héroïnes. Et je prie pour qu'il y aie d'autres films de super héroïnes (et de héros noirs) parce qu'ils ont eu besoin de tourner des films sur Thor, Ghost Rider, La lanterne verte  et  Ant-Man (!) avant de faire le sien. A ceux qui disent que personne ne l'aime, ou qu’elle est ennuyeuse, je dirais: c'est sûr, on l'a moins vue (je n'arrive pas à croire qu'elle n'aie toujours pas sa propre série d'animation). Mais les filles aussi ont besoin de héros. La preuve, les fillettes sur ce dessin   existent vraiment. Il y  a 9 ans elles ont couru vers moi et mon (mauvais) premier cosplay de WW. Par coïncidence, un cosplayer se trouvait à côté de leur(s) mère(s) (je ne me rappelle pas si c'étaient des sœurs ou des cousines) et pris cette photo avant de me l'envoyer. Je ne sais pas qui sont les filles , mais si elles se reconnaissent elles peuvent me le dire. La deuxième sur la gauche, qui semble la plus heureuse, est habillée comme la petite fille qui apparaît dans le film d'animation  Wonder Woman de 2009 à titre d'hommage parce qu'elle lui ressemble physiquement (heureuse coïncidence?) . C'est la fillette à qui Wonder Woman apprend à se battre à l'épée , parce que des garçons ne veulent pas jouer aux pirates avec "la fille".  "Vas-y, relâche l'enfer!"