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evsvolunteerstotem · 4 months

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A month full of surprises

28. 05. 2024

Čau, everybody!

Even if I don't want to commit myself too much, I'll go out on a limb here and say, that May was one of the best months in the Czech Republic for me so far. It was a month full of happy moments and surprises and because I want to have enough time to shed light on all the highlights, I'll keep the introduction short and will not spoil everything already. So have fun reading on and I hope you’ll feel entertained today.;)

May started right away with a National holiday, the “Labour Day” and Tatiana and I used it to drink a coffee together and go to the cinema afterward. On the following weekend, Plzeň celebrated the liberation of the city by the Americans at the end of the Second World War. The city centre was full of onlookers who watched the parades of uniformed people in historical cars and learned more about the liberation at stands, lectures, and information boards. My friend Isabelle and I were also curious and therefore attended the festival. In addition to the lectures, we were also entertained by the concerts on three different stages, the performance of an American school orchestra and other acts in the city centre. There were also many booths with delicious food while the sun played along as well and made the day a wonderful experience for both of us.

The next holiday, known as "VE-Day" (Victory in Europe Day), the official end of the Second World War in Europe followed on the 8th of May. But that day I didn't stay in Plzeň, but made my way off to Poland, more precisely to the beautiful city of Wroclaw. Even though the trip didn't go as planned and our bus was stuck in a traffic jam for almost 3 hours, I received an even warmer welcome from my sister, when I arrived at our flat. After breakfast the next morning, we made our way to Slodowa Island, then on to Wroclaw Cathedral, and finally, after a short lunch break, to the so-called “Hala Stulecia ". When we arrived there, we were very surprised, as we felt like we had seen this building before and after we searched for it on the Internet, we found out that it was indeed a film set for the latest part of "The Hunger Games", which was released in cinemas in 2023. We bought some tickets for the interesting exhibition and then had the chance to see the hall from the inside, and well, rumor has it that there were one or two fan-girl moments when we entered the hall. ^^

After the visit we sat down at the nearby fountain to enjoy the sunny weather and cooled down a little bit before we made our way to the Japanese garden and after that back to the city centre. By the way, if you plan to visit Wroclaw and want to use public transport there, I would recommend that you hold on well to something on the tram because the tram drivers can be little rowdies sometimes. ;D

In the afternoon we had coffee and cake at a super cute café before heading home again, where we ended the day with a very relaxed evening. On Friday, things didn’t go quite as planned, as we went to the Sky Tower, the highest building in Wroclaw, just to find out that it wasn’t open already. Then my route planner sent me on a complete detour and my sister, who was already hangry, didn't feel like doing anything anymore. But then, thank God, we arrived at our destination, the Jewish cemetery, and the ticket seller, without knowing it, lightened our mood by asking "One way or return?”. ^^ The cemetery was very impressive and we spent some time there, before heading back to the centre, or to be more precise, right next to the Oder. At the “Café Odra,” we enjoyed our much-needed lunch and a cold drink and had a good time in the sunshine. After a walk home and an important little nap, we went to a pizzeria in the evening and finally to a nearby park, where we ended the day with a looooooong deep talk.

Our last day in Wroclaw started with checking out of our flat before heading to the so-called “Hydropolis”, a very interesting museum that we visited before making our way to the bus station, where we had our last coffee together – at least this was what I thought. Because, when it was time to say goodbye, my sister suddenly told me that she was not ready to say goodbye already and that she would like to come to Plzeň with me. And well, that’s how it went. She bought the LAST ticket for the bus and we made our way back to Plzeň and, even though I was very surprised in the beginning, I think it was the right decision because if I’m being honest with myself, I was also not ready to already say goodbye to her. ;)

This is why my next days looked different than expected, because we enjoyed the good weather together, drank iced coffee in my favourite cafes, went to the cinema and even at work my sister accompanied me. She attended the sports event we had on Tuesday and was our special guest at the English and German conversation. We even pranked one of my classes by having my sister pretend to be me and start the class before I joined in and finally clarified the situation. You should have seen the faces of my seniors haha. But of course, she was not able to stay forever, even though some probably liked the idea (including me) and so after she left on Wednesday, everything was going back to normal.

Well almost everything, because in TOTEM some other special events were following. Like the "Sousedský jarmark" one week later, which was indeed the next little surprise. While the whole week seemed to be quite sunny and nice, Friday turned out to be the complete opposite. And so we had to reschedule everything and move all stands and activities from outside to inside. On the day itself, everyone was a bit nervous, because no one knew how many people would come and if the atmosphere would be good or not. But what can I say, I think it was a big success! The house was full of people -from children to seniors- and the performances in the large hall as well as the stands in the small hall and other activities went really well and it seemed as if no one was letting the bad weather take their good mood. I also had my own stand and of course, performances with Adeto again, which were -as always- very exciting and fun. We also performed with Adeto the next day and, in my opinion, delivered a great appearance in Beseda, "a 3-story centre for arts events, conferences, and children's activities in a magnificent Art Nouveau building." After that, I met with volunteers from Brno and spent a nice afternoon with them, where we not only laughed together but also reflected on our voluntary service so far and our thoughts of it ending soon. Well, we all came to the conclusion that we don’t really want it to end and that we would wish to stay a bit longer because, for all of us, it feels a little bit like a second home already.

Speaking of second home, on the following Sunday I once again had the feeling of belonging a little bit more to the Czech society, when we went to the finals of the Ice Hockey World Championship. As we arrived at the public viewing in the centre the place was already full of people and it was even hard to find a place, where we were able to watch the match without always standing on our tiptoes and craning our necks, but in the end, we found a good spot and followed the very exciting match. Even though the Czech Republic was dominating the match against Switzerland they only got a draw in the first two thirds, but then, 10 minutes before the end, they finally shot their first goal. And when their second goal 15 seconds before the final siren followed everyone in the crowd was cheering. And I was so overwhelmed and happy to be part of this historical moment. Well, this was what I would call the last real surprise in May, as the Czech Republic seemed to be the outsiders during the last years but then proved everyone wrong! For me, it was a great honor to be part of the spectacle and the great celebration afterward, and even though they say “Kdo neskáče, není Čech. Hop, hop, hop“, of course, I had to celebrate with all my might. =D

Sign at the “Slavnosti Svobody” festival ;)

One of our numerous mirror selfies in Wroclaw^^

Visiting the impressive ‘Hala Stulecia":D

Modern urban art in Wroclaw….

Watching the beautiful sunset from our flat <3

At the sports tournament with TOTEM:)

Summer is coming to Plzeň!!

Last smažák before my sister left us again:(

At the public viewing of the Ice Hockey match between Czechia and Switzerland =D

… and again, I’m very grateful for this month and everything I was able to experience during the last weeks. I promised myself to make the best out of my last months in Plzeň and I think that I have done quite well so far.;)

Next week I will be home for some days but then I’ll be back here and enjoy my last two months in the Czech Republic. I’m looking forward to summer and everything I will experience during it and of course I will keep you updated on everything about to happen.

With that being said stay tuned and we'll see each other again in June.

Sbohem!

Laila ;)

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bistevethor · 3 years

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Steve Rogers Fanfiction Recommendations

Happy birthday, Steve!

I know that there are some (a lot?) of steve fans who sometimes struggle to find fics focused on him, so I am here now putting a list of Steve fics. I was going to fics that I haven't seen recommended a lot and most of the ones on this post have less than 200 kudos only, but I end up putting everything (it's probably easier to put my bookmarks as public but well...). It's a massive list (over 100 fics?), so it's will be separated into several posts/reblogs.

Not all of them are from Steve's POV or even have him as the main 'main' character, but rest assured he played an important role and is featured heavily. Lots of these are friendship-focused but I categorized them. The shippy ones are mostly samsteve, thundershield, and some rare pairings because I don't venture to other ships a lot and when I did it's to the rare ones instead lol. Hopefully, any of you can find some gems from this list and these are as enjoyable or as good as I remembered. I'll continue to update it, hopefully, every time I find new ones.

Fics are under read more.

General

The Rocket's Red Glare

Steve was born on the Fourth of July (no joke), so a party is in order! Unfortunately, PTSD decides to rear its ugly head. Fortunately, Steve's got an entire team at his back to help him through it. And screaming goats.

an entry in the scrapbook of absurdity

In which Steve turns into a baby and bites people.

Baby Steve Adventures

Captain America gets hit by a spell during a battle. The rest of the Avengers look after him.

Do You Remember Being Happy? ('Cause I Sure Don't)

"Dragr," Thor called them. "Demons" Clint had said. "Thieves" is what Steve labels them as. AKA, the one where Steve is captured by creatures that feed off of happy memories, and the team is left to pick up the pieces. Post-Avengers.

In Search of (Bucky, Family, Home)

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson

A week following the events of CATWS, Steve recruits Natasha and Sam to help find Bucky.

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Do we need to recap again? You were shot three times, beaten near to death by an enhanced super soldier with a metal arm and then almost drowned. Yeah, your ass is going to need a few more days of healing time.”

The Truth When Captains Meet

Steve Rogers wakes up on an alien’s space ship being carried bridal style by Carol Danvers. As far as first meetings go, it’s memorable.

Irish Coffee

Pairings: Jessica Jones & Steve Rogers

Jessica runs into an incognito Cap at a cafe. They form an unlikely friendship of sorts.

The Lifetimes of Steve Rogers (Series)

What happens when Steve Rogers steps onto the quantum platform to return the Stones? Where does he go? What challenges does he find? Who does he meet? How many lifetimes can one man have?

Fifty-Two Pickup

Less than a week after the fall of the Triskelion, Steve Rogers is released from the hospital. Although his physical wounds are almost fully healed, other injuries need a bit more time, and some help from friends.

little kids get big so fast

Steve ends up having to take care of the deaged Defenders.

Grampa Steve's Bedtime Stories

If Mommy was away for work, then Morgan’s Grampa Steve came over to stay with her. He’d tuck her in, let her give Mommy a kiss on video chat, then hand her the picture of Daddy for his kiss. Once Daddy’s picture was back on the bookshelf, Grampa Steve would turn off the bedside lamp so that Miss Friday could cover the ceiling with stars, and ask Morgan what story she wanted to hear.

“Captain Steve, Grampa! Tell me Captain Steve!”

Grampa Steve sometimes read to her from books and other times watched a movie with her, but her favorite by far was when he told her Captain Steve’s Adventures Through the Multiverse.

On Camping Trips

Sam is more Hermione than Natasha is, and Steve doesn't want to be Harry.

Powerful

Steve loses the advantages of the super-soldier serum. This is not a tragedy.

His Dream

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

As if on cue, Steve cut him off with a loud sneeze.

"Yeah. Like that." Sam nodded. "And please sneeze into your elbow next time, dude. You could've just started an epidemic."

"Sorry. Allergies." Steve excused, and Sam raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know it's allergies?" Sam asked, and Steve sighed, putting the ingredients together and solving the mystery of what the gas had actually done.

The answer wasn't ideal. "It feels like the seasonal allergies I had before. Before the serum- and I haven't had them since the serum."

Realization clicked in Sam's head.

"The gas de-serumed you."

Steve swallowed and nodded reluctantly.

OR: Steve gets temporarily de-serumed, with his height and stature staying the same but his immune system being as bad as it was before, and has to stay in the hospital to prevent a severe allergic reaction or illness. Sam stays with him the whole time, making sure he's not alone.

A Strange Encounter

Things have gone awry and Strange is injured. With no other options, he's called for assistance from Captain America and his team.

even if we're apart, i'll always be with you

Steve finds a dirty toy bear at an abandoned gas station, on the way back from a school trip. He brings him home.

As Long as You’re Not Tired Yet of Talking

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

When Steve Rogers tells her, “Don’t be a stranger,” as they’re all going their own ways after New York, it makes her want to laugh.

Draw/Breath

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

Natasha like knowing what makes people tick. She likes knowing things, about her teammates and her coworkers and herself. Oddly enough, sometimes other people like knowing her too.

AKA: Natasha wants to know why Steve isn’t drawing anymore, and takes the long way round to get her answer. Because why not.

With Magic We Do Fly

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers

In Civil War we see Wanda fling Steve into the air with her magic. They must have practiced that, right?

Que Wanda throwing Steve against a wall. Many times.

Just Like We Practiced

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers

Steve had said, in the movie when he asked Wanda to lift him into the building, "Just like we practiced." But just how did they come up with the idea of her lifting people with her powers, and putting them up somewhere like an escalator? Perhaps it was because Wanda accidentally sent a certain tall, blond Avenger face-first into the floor once and he decided he would help her learn to utilize this as a confidence building exercise. Natasha keeps an eye, Thor and Sam help build the training grounds, and Wanda has found her new home. Takes place between AGE OF ULTRON and CIVIL WAR.

Black and White but Red and Blue

They're watching black and white film reels, but Steve sees them in colour.

"My shield may be black and white but it was red and blue. Just like the blue sky under which red blood was spilled. Like Bucky's blue eyes and Peggy's red lips..."

The Road Warriors

Characters: Sam Wilson (Marvel), Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff

It wasn't pretty, but somehow the four of them managed to make it through two years on the run.

We'll Fix It

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

Steve has a hard time after his battle with The Winter Soldier and isn't sure what to do with himself. After not seeing him for a week, Natasha finally shows up to his apartment unannounced to figure out how they can get back to work. There is some crying involved.

From Here On Out

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

The Accords, the search for Bucky, the fight at the airport ... In a world where nothing will ever be the same, sometimes the road to rebuilding trust and friendship is a little rockier than it should be.

AKA, the story of Steve & Natasha and how they got to where they are.

Set post-Civil War but pre-Infinity War.

I have this breath and I hold it tight

Parings: Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers, Clint Barton & Wanda Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff & Vision

Steve finally goes to Wanda’s tiny room and taps on the doorframe, although it’s hardly necessary, with the slightly warped floorboards creaking under his feet. “Hey,” he says. “Got a minute?”

Wanda's been a little withdrawn since Steve broke everyone out of the Raft. She's had a lot to think about.

to you.

Pairings: Pietro Maximoff & Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton & Wanda Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov, Wanda Maximoff & Steve Rogers, Wanda Maximoff & Sam Wilson, Wanda Maximoff & Tony Stark

It's Wanda's birthday today. She's not sure how to feel.

New Love

Pairings: Diana (Wonder Woman) & Steve Rogers

Near the end of World War II, Diana Prince finds herself attempting to reconnect to her long-gone, beloved Steve Trevor. However, she comes across Steve Rogers instead.

Sharing Life (And Canned Green Beans)

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

It’s Thanksgiving, and Steve is hiding in the second living room on the 8th floor of the penthouse apartments with a can of green beans.

I'm Fine

Steve slowly began to realize that the problem with being a national icon, a hero, and a role model, is that somehow, he became more than human. He become a symbol, not a person. So when he becomes increasingly unhappy, deeply depressed, and utterly adrift in a world where he doesn't belong, the loneliness and isolation are unbearable. How could anyone believe that an iconic hero like himself was really just an ordinary kid from Brooklyn, dying inside because everything he'd gained still wasn't enough to replace everything he'd lost? How could he possibly bring himself to bleed on the ones he loves? So he tells himself the same lie over and over, hoping one day, he'll believe it.

dogpile

"My dog ate my mission report" An injured Steve remembers something he has to do. Unabashed Steve and dogs fluff. "Didn't peg you for a pet guy." "Allergies."

Alone In This World (Together)

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov & Sam Wilson

“We’re fugitives,” Steve said finally. “It might never get better.”

“The world’s always going to need saving," Sam replied. "We’re still Avengers. No one can take that away from us.” Then, like they hadn't been having an entire conversation before, “So when do we leave?”

“Once night falls.”

Do we have any idea where she is?”

“No.” Steve took a sip of his coffee. “But I know where she’ll be.”

it gets the worst at night

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov

Here's how it goes: Natasha sometimes shares a bed with Steve. It's not what it sounds like.

(In which there are Colombian drug lords, awkward boners, cuddly super-soldiers and the Avengers are all giant dorks.)

Shelter

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

Sam and Steve, right after the fall of SHIELD.

Princely Bickering

Pairings: Jane Foster/Thor, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers & Jane Foster, Steve Rogers & Thor

Steve allows Sam to lean up and inspect his head for bruises and blood. He then checks out Steve’s eyes. ‘Do you know where you are?’ Steve rolls his eyes. ‘Don’t be an ass, Cap, apparently you can break.’ ‘London, England, chasing apparently useless Hydra intel despite having about five hundred international arrest warrants out for us because we’re just that stupid,’ says Steve. Sam pats him - gently - on the shoulder. Life on the run isn't easy, especially not after an injury. Fortunately Steve still has a few allies left.

And The Seconds Tick Down

AU of Civil War. How the world ended in twenty steps when Steve died.

"Grant" and "Francis" Go Shopping

Pairings: Clint Barton & Steve Rogers

Steve and Clint both have holiday shopping to do for their family of choice, so they make a day trip to an outlet mall, have a few heart to hearts, use some coupons, buy a bunch of presents, and eventually get through their shopping lists.

A Tune Without Words

Pairings: Jane Foster/Thor, Steve Rogers & Thor, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

As he and Sam prepare to begin searching for Bucky, Steve gets various offers of help—some more unexpected than others.

Purpose

Tony Stark wins the fight in Siberia completely by accident.

Steve Rogers does not resist his arrest as he is taken to the Raft.

Sam Wilson, T'Challa, and Pepper Potts pick up the pieces.

Full of Wounds and Still Standing on my Feet

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Wanda Maximoff

The five times Steve looked out for Wanda, and one time Wanda decided someone needed to look out for Steve.

Three Awakenings

The first three times that Steve Rogers woke up during his first twenty-four hours in the twenty-first century.

Making Your Own Future

Characters: Steve Rogers, Diana Prince, Steve Trevor Five times -- plus one -- that Diana Prince and Steve Rogers encountered one another.

Better Living Through Pizza

Pairings: Clint Barton & Steve Rogers

Steve takes some time off from soldiering and Avengering to get his head on straight, and Clint is assigned to keep an eye on him, because apparently SHIELD believes in the blind leading the blind. Steve really needs a hobby, since modern television shows baffle him, but Clint keeps bringing him DVDs and pizza.

Five Times Clint Barton Spoke with Steve Rogers about Growing Old and the One Time He Didn't.

Pairings: Clint Barton & Steve Rogers

When Steve Rogers reappeared from the past as an old man, there was a lot of catching up to do. Clint Barton made sure nobody got left behind.

Hammer's Totally Heavy-Handed and Incompetent Revenge

"So, at the end of IM2, Justin Hammer swears revenge on Pepper. He waits until Tony and Rhodey are halfway across the world to launch his attack.

Unfortunately for him, thanks to SHIELD, Iron Man and War Machine aren't the only superheroes in Pepper's rolladex. Steve thinks Pepper's just swell and doesn't take too kindly to somebody trying to hurt her."

Cue badass!Steve and competent!Pepper

Fan Mail

Steve starts getting his fan mail and receives an invitation to the prom. Written for a prompt at the Avengers kink meme. It was a great prompt, and so much fun to write and get feedback for!

Prom. Steve 'Grandpa Iceberg' Rogers at a 21st-century high school prom. "This isn't happening. This whole conversation is just an elaborate practical joke. Bruce really just has orders for widgets or something."

Bruce waved the printouts at him. "Fraid not. I don't really do practical jokes. Messing with other people's moods just seems. I don't know. Karmically unwise."

Mascot

Steve runs. People see Steve run. Steve gets adopted by the neighbourhood he runs through every week day morning. He finds this confusing. Tony finds it amusing.

Locks Not Replaced

Tony angsts back at Avengers' HQ, Ross is a bully and Steve makes sure he doesn't get away with it. In other words, there is much regret, a bit on the philosophy of locks, adventure and far too many Robin Hood metaphors.

woof

For a prompt on the avengers kinkmeme: "...something different happens when Steve gets Dr Erskine's serum plus the Vita ray treatment... Steve does get taller and stronger, but when the first full moon hits, he turns into a big friendly looking dog. Yes, he's a weredog, not a werewolf."

Mission: Baby

Pairings: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

The Asset finds himself in charge of the care of a small baby, but somehow he knows—he has to protect the baby from all harm, whatever the cost.

14 Tracks

Pairings: Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Avengers Team 14 tracks from Steve's iPod and how they got on there.

Life Will Rattle Your Bones

Pairings: Erik Lehnsherr & Steve Rogers

Captain America and the Howling Commandos find Schmidt sooner than they thought... wait, what do you mean this is a *different* Schmidt?

In war-torn Germany, the paths of Steve Rogers and Erik Lehnsherr cross, part, and cross again.

come build me up

Pairings: Sharon Carter & Steve Rogers, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

“Do you ever feel like -- like you joined up because you wanted to do good. You wanted to do the right thing but somewhere along the way, you just lost the whole fucking plot.”

“All of the time.”

Or: the one where Captain America and Agent 13 give long distance friendship a whirl.

Down in the Worn Out Place Again

Pairings: Wanda Maximoff & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Wanda Maximoff

“You don't look a day over 85, Captain,” Wanda says.

Natasha smiles, just barely, and nudges Steve with her elbow. “She makes jokes now.”

(Post AoU, stories about friendship.)

Satellites

Characters: Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Tony Stark, Clint Barton, Nick Fury Pairings: Natasha Romanov & Steve Rogers, Minor Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Minor Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov

In the immediate aftermath of SHIELD's collapse and Steve's plunge into the Potomac, Natasha considers her place in the world. Also the fact that Steve is depressing.

Timeless Classics

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Avengers Team Five An undetermined number of times (six, apparently) Steve unexpectedly got the reference (sort of), and one time everyone discovered something new together.

you just wait and see

Pairings: Rocket Raccoon & Steve Rogers

“Thor said you’re the captain.” Rogers says, his voice distant, sad smile growing into a sadder grin. “Tough job.”

The Small Hours

Pairings: Steve Rogers & T'Challa, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

"I'm not getting him back, am I." The words were flatly delivered – not a question so much as fatigued resignation. "We will do everything we can to help him," T'Challa quietly replied, but he wouldn't lie, not about this. Not to a fellow warrior he respected on and off the field of battle. "The possibility does exist, however, that the triggers are permanent."

The Man We All Remember From the Newsreels

Still getting used to the twenty-first century, Steve comforts himself with memories of long-gone friends. But Howard Stark, the man Steve remembers, is nothing like the man he sees in the newsreels.

we're all choir boys at best

Characters: Steve Rogers, Johnny Storm

You are totally getting laid tonight. "Please stop talking." You hijacked my brain first, this is totally not my fault.

Epistaxis

Steve doesn't worry the first time he gets a bloody nose that won't quit. But when it happens a second, third, fourth... He, and his teammates, start to get concerned.

You Close Your Eyes and the Glory Fades

His body isn’t his own, he knows that, knew before the procedure that everything would change. That was the easiest thing to wrap his head around, actually, the physical changes. He’s used to his body betraying him, so this is just another thing to learn his way around. But the colors of everything, even the sliver of blue sky he could see, craning his head at the tiny window, look different.

Looking For Answers (From The Great Beyond)

After the Battle of New York is over, and Loki and the tesseract are returned to Asgard, Steve takes a road trip across the country, and tries to figure out what he wants to do next.

Mourning the Future

Steve's ties to the past and the future are pretty tenuous, and the serum ensures he lives in an eternal present state of ever-youthful vigour. When an old war buddy gets handed his last marching orders, Steve has to wonder if everyone will eventually leave.

Riviera Life

Sam and Steve have been traversing Europe looking for Bucky. Not everyone is convinced it isn’t an open invitation road trip.

Voluntary Bros.

Characters: Steve Rogers, Johnny Storm

"Dude, you could be twins, they tested you before they defrosted you to see if you were a clone or something, or if he was a clone," Clint said.

"I want to talk to him, I think. I mean, a girl threw her latte at me last week for not calling her back and this dude felt me up at an art gallery yesterday," Steve said.

Two Brooklynites and One Big Apple

Pairings: Miles Morales & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

“You did good out there today,” Captain America said, brushing a layer of detritus from his unfathomably broad shoulder. “I’ll see you around.”

“Not if I see you first,” replied Miles, fingergunning with one hand as he sent a web rope fwipping off into the distance with the other, catapulting himself away at tremendous speed.

... in which two superheroes battle with bad guys, embark on community art lessons, and a friendship forms along the way.

Battle Fatigue

Steve thought he was doing okay. Things weren't going great, but they were fine, manageable even, and then suddenly they weren't.

We Become New Yorkers (or: Five Times Steve Rogers Looked For Home, and One Time Home Found Him)

New York is a million cities at the same time. This is how Steve found his.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

In which Steve and Peter learn that the best way to get through a bad situation is together. And to avoid collapsing buildings. And that concussions are terrible, terrible things.

Leviticus 25

"You want to save Bucky Barnes? You are going to have to put your own house in order first because he is going to need a rock to cling to. You are not ready to be that rock for him. You owe it to him -- and more importantly, you owe it to yourself -- to figure things out, figure out how you can be happy in this time and place, whether or not Barnes is with you."

Strike

Sometimes the road to recovery involves bowling. Conveniently, so does the one to the Grand Canyon.

Conversation in Wakanda

“I have been told that you had the privilege to share a training session with some of our Dora Milaje,” T’Challa says. “May I ask how it went?”

“Well,” the Captain huffs. “There’s no polite way to say it: I had my ass handed to me. Repeatedly.”

He sounds and looks utterly delighted.

Contact Light

Everyone thought computers would be the thing that really blew Steve's mind about the 21st century. They were wrong. When he finds out that he missed the moon landing, it's the start of an ongoing obsession with space that maybe involves Neil deGrasse Tyson, Twitter, and Star Trek marathons.

Twenty-Two

“This is Lucky,” Clint said when a dog got between him and Natasha. Lucky’s vest was bright, like desert mornings and night explosions.

“Does he help?” Natasha asked.

Clint pressed his hands flat on the counter behind him. “He saved my life.”

Natasha looked at Steve, her expression fierce. Steve resisted the urge to yank down his sleeves. Instead, he dug his nails into the puckered skin on his forearms.

AKA An AU in which Steve is a veteran just trying to survive (or not).

Gray

Peter doesn't expect Steve to show up at his house one night when he gets home from school. He also doesn't expect to have a long conversation with him, and choose to be on his side instead.

We're Happy, Free, Confused, and Lonely at the Same Time.

"Tony isn't sure, but he *thinks* Steve Rogers is going to try and argue with him about not being a kid, while wrapped up in a fluffy blanket and plaid pyjama pants watching a Disney movie. Tony really hopes that is the case. The Captain America voice looses all affect when wrapped up in that blanket and Tony can't wait to inform him as such." - The one where Tony realises that Captain America and Steve Rogers are not the same person, and Steve is so much younger then he thought.

This Isn't A Love Song, This Isn't A Fable

Steve's not OK with people's perception of Captain America, no matter what he says or how much he pretends otherwise. It's like no one in this time period realizes that there's more to him than a spangly outfit. And yes, he's including the Avengers in that. ... or, the one where everything's all right, until it's not.

it's safe here in our new world

Post TWS. In which Natasha and Steve go shopping, have Thursday night movie nights, and learn that Natasha loves to platonically kiss Steve. Which is good, because Steve loves being platonically kissed by Natasha.

Shadowboxing

Pairings: Matt Murdock & Steve Rogers

It doesn’t matter how many times you fall – what matters most is how many times you get back up. Steve Rogers knew this lesson far too well and it was one Matt Murdock had endured all his life. With both men at their lowest, could a chance friendship bring each of them to their feet again?

Everybody Eats When They Come to My House

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

“You’ll ruin your dinner,” Sam says, gesturing with Steve with his spatula.

i fear for the calendar; its days are numbered

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson

Before she goes off the grid, Natasha gives Steve her phone number. He’s honored that he’s the only one to be trusted with it, but quickly learns that she spends most of her free time texting him Dad jokes.

Status Quo Ante

Pairings: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers

A tale in which Sam suspects he should be used to this by now, for values of 'this' that involve certain folks he hangs out with and situations he finds himself in, Team Cap becomes Team Ex-Cap becomes TBD, and nobody but Clint really wants to know what happened to Scott Lang's GI Joes. (Sam Wilson from the final scene to the mid-credits scene.)

The Glass Parade

Pairings: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton/Natasha Romanov

Steve thinks that he’s seen Natasha be at least three different people in the short time he’s known her, and he isn’t sure which one is real.

In which the most confusing part of the future is how much Steve has in common with Natasha, and the fact that she seems dead-set on being his friend.

Still Life

Steve Rogers and a very modern form of art therapy. (The one where Steve draws himself out of despair and into some notoriety when his cartoons hit the internet, but he's still not allowed to look at Tumblr without an okay from Pepper.)

Selective Service

The serum's given Steve a lot, but it hasn't taken anything away from him. Not even the things he never wanted in the first place.

I'm a Hustler, Baby

Steve Rogers has a talent for pool--and for making others believe he's terrible at it.

The Healing Properties of Felt-Tip Pens

Rapid healing has worked wonders on Steve Rogers' body, but occasionally it really screws with his head. In the aftermath of torture, Bruce Banner helps Steve to reconcile mind and body.

If I Die Before I Wake

It's his job, as their leader, to endure the sadistic focus of their captor, and that is the one thought that carries Steve through.

Even Gods Do

Captain America doesn't have a good relationship with sleep anymore. Also, he's not a toy.

Under My Skin

Written for a prompt on avengerkink: I want to see something where, for whatever reason, Steve's accelerated healing turns out to be a bad thing. Something where the faster healing is making things worse. I would prefer something other than the standard, super-healing allows for more torture without death. “He's lucky – to have the serum, to have you all.” Tony wasn't sure about that first part. When one faced death and destruction every day on the job, there were many advantages to having a healing factor...and a great many disadvantages as well.

A Glossary of the 21st Century

Pairings: pre-Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov

Steve's sick of not understanding what's going on, and the team are not all that helpful, so he starts keeping an illustrated notebook for further research. With the help of wiki, google and Logan he starts to settle in and find his place in the twenty-first century.

Blanket Gift Policy

“You didn’t,” Bucky said, with no real hope of being contradicted. Clint shrugged helplessly and passed him the large, soft bundle wrapped in shiny purple foil.

“Sorry.” Tony covered his eyes with one hand.

“I’m getting a migraine.”

“So,” Bruce said wearily, “counting Clint, me, Bucky, Tony, and Sam, that brings it up to five.”

“Excuse you, mine’s not a blanket,” Sam said. “Mine’s a slanket. Big difference.”

Bucky resisted the urge to throw the whole heap of parcels at Sam’s head. “Because it has sleeves? It’s still a blanket, Wilson. They’re all blankets. Even Thor’s direct-from-Asgard raven gift delivery was a cloak, which just means it’s a blanket with a strap. We all got Steve a goddamn blanket.”

One Tin Soldier

Written for a prompt at avengerkink: Because really, under any other circumstances, why would they follow him when he's some guy who's younger than the rest of them (time as a Capsicle aside), who goes around wearing that spangly outfit, who's not even used to the modern world? Why Steve Rogers, rather than a Norse god or the CEO of Stark Industries or anyone else?

“Love is for children,” she'd said, but respect knew no such bounds. The five times the Avengers accepted Steve as their leader, and the one time they followed without question.

and if there's life we'll see it

Steve is instantly taken with this idea of having the picture of the person calling you flash on your screen when they ring your cell.

Secure Your Own Oxygen Mask (Before Assisting Others)

Steve keeps going, because they need him. Being Captain America - having the serum - is a responsibility and a privilege he takes seriously, and he won't waste it by sitting around resting in the middle of a crisis. But then the work is over, and the original victims of the crisis aren't the only ones needing looking after.

Way of the Eagle

Clint introduces Steve to kung-fu movies. Things escalate quickly.

Walking Wounded

In the aftermath of the battle against the Chitauri, Steve's doing just fine. Until he's not. Fortunately, Thor is a perfect mother-hen, Tony makes decent back-up, JARVIS is a genius, and Soap Operas are life-changing. (Or, Post-Shawarma Feels.)

#steve rogers #fic rec #pro steve rogers #i guess i'll tag the ships #samsteve #thundershield

177 notes · View notes

schoolfullofmorons · 4 years

Note

petey lowkey having a crush on gary for a long time bc hes a pretty bad boy, but it takes some actual therapy and a small reunion for gary to feel some actual LONGING to have petey in his life again. he becomes surprisingly soft and supportive, in his own way, with their renewed friendship, and it takes jimmy casually promising to kick his ass if he messes up with petey for gary to realize he might actually have developed some romantic feelings for their friend. cue panic and breathing exercises

July, 2007.

Here he stood, on the threshold of hell on Earth, about to talk to Satan himself, and he still wasn't ready to run.

Well, maybe that wasn't entirely accurate. Pete Kowalski, rising junior of Bullworth Academy, was very prepared to run from the menace that had tortured him last year. Gary Smith, the mentally unstable asylum patient, waited for him just on the other side of this door.

His palms had grown hot with sweat, and he nervously wiped them off on his clean, ironed jeans. Pete hated having generalized anxiety disorder. It made him nervous even about this, even about coming here, which was literally his own choice to begin with. The thought of facing his once best friend filled him with a mounting dread that made his throat burn with the urge to cry.

But Pete wanted this. He was determined to get the answers he wanted, because Jimmy and him had been fucked over. And Jimmy might have brushed his hands of Gary, Jimmy might have decided that he was done caring, but Jimmy wasn't Pete and Pete cared way too much. He needed to know why Gary had ditched them, betrayed them, left them to rot. He wanted to know the cause of all this.

And, deep down, maybe he missed Gary, too.

He had been standing there too long, staring at the door. Pete knew if he didn't act soon, the orderly that had trailed behind him would get annoyed. Licking his lips and swallowing down his own anxiety, he pushed open the door, letting the orderly shut it behind him.

And there he was, the mastermind himself.

Gary was so... different, in here, but in reality he still looked like a Smith. All sharp jawlines and piercing stares. When Gary rose his head to look at him, hair that was growing slightly shabby due to a month of no cuts falling into his face, Pete felt his heart skip a beat.

And then a grin passed over his face, his eyes lighting up with genuine joy. He launched himself off of the small white cot all asylum patients had been provided, and sauntered over to Pete with slow, calculated steps. Too proud and too arrogant for someone who was incarcerated.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here? Did Petey Kowalski decide to pay lil' ol' me a visit? The big, bad, awful wolf, Gary Smith?" Gary's words cut into him, and Pete felt the urge to wipe his hands off on his jeans again. His friend's eyes bore into him.

Why'd you do it? Was the question that sat on Pete's tongue, but instead he cleared his throat and avoided Gary's eyes. "I... wanted to check up on you. Y'know, see how you were holding up."

"Oh, look at that! He cares about me!" Gary reached out to sling an arm around him, bringing Pete in close with a sharp jerk that had Pete yelping. "Did somebody miss me? Just couldn't sleep at night knowing I was away, could you?"

"No, I-"

"I already knew you weren't straight, but this is taking it to a whole new level."

The protest died away on Pete's tongue and he swallowed as the familiar burning sensation hit the back of his throat. When he didn't get an answer, Gary huffed and shoved him, hard. Pete stumbled, hitting the cell wall and sliding down it.

"God, you're pathetic." Gary spat.

"Why do you have to be an asshole all the time, Gary?" Pete snapped, and in one sudden rush, angry words bubbled up and out of him. "For once in your life, can't you just accept that you're the one in the wrong? You're in a cell, for god's sake! Don't you realize that I'm the only one left who doesn't want you to drop dead? Half the school pities you and the other half hates you! You destroyed our lives! You took away our peace! You don't get to be calling me the pathetic one!"

The room fell silent enough to hear a pen drop. The air around the two boys grew thicker, and thicker, and thicker still with tension. Pete risked a glance at the boy who stood looming in front of him. He had to swallow back fear as he noticed Gary's hands were clenched so tight that the skin was starting to turn white.

Pete pushed himself to his feet, slowly, unwilling to startle Gary. If he moved too fast he was afraid that Gary would snap. A predator in a hunting crouch, moments away from delivering the killing bite. That's what Gary was.

"You know, I used to like you. I used to want you around. I used to think you were smart, and funny, and cool. But now you just remind me of a... a walking toddler, who throws a temper tantrum when he doesn't get his way. I hope you get better, Gary. I hope you get the help you need so you can finally grow up."

Pete sidestepped Gary, who had yet to move except for his head, his eyes slowly following Pete back towards the doorway. Pete opened the cell door and looked back one more time, meeting eyes with the person he once considered his best friend.

And then he left.

September, 2008.

To the parents of Gary Alexander Smith,

I am writing to you to inform you that your son has completed rehab. According to his court order, this is the final step needed in order for him to be released back to the public.

Please note that he will still have to check in weekly with a nurse that will ensure he is still taking his medication. This will no longer be a requirement after his 100 hours of community service is over.

With this in mind, we will be releasing him on the 8th at 3 PM. We require a signature before his release in order to ensure that he is in the proper hands of his guardians.

Thank you for your time,

Happy Volts staff.

The reunion with his parents was about as happy as you'd expect with parents as terrible as his. Really, they didn't talk much through the entire thing; it was pick him up, take him home, and let him clean himself up before they had dinner.

It was the first meal that he had had in a long ass time that was actually good, instead of being almost edible. He really did have a newfound appreciation of his maids after that, though he'd never admit it to them out loud.

The thing about spending a year away from home is that it caused him to reflect on things he could have done differently. It also made him realize that a lot of the shit he had done his sophomore year simply didn't... matter. Maybe it was the medication, and the advice of actual doctors from the state after being transferred from Volts and their terrible medical department, but Gary was beginning to see things in ways he had never thought to see them in before.

For example, he was pretty sure Jimmy had never said anything all that terrible to him. Where had he gotten that idea from? Yeah, some of it was an addiction to power, but he was pretty sure the other part was perceived rejection. Learning about rejection sensitive dysphoria really did help him out in a lot of ways. He just wished it had been explained to him sooner, before, y'know, he betrayed all of his closest pals because of an inexplainable fear that they hated his guts.

(Which now they probably did. Go figure. Pete's words still ate at him when he tried to sleep at night).

That didn't matter as much now, anyway. He wanted to know what he'd be doing. He wasn't trapped anymore, with only medical professionals and other patients that had, admittedly, been really kind to him when they weren't Bullworth Branded(tm). He wanted to know what his future would be like, now that his head was much clearer.

When he asked his father, the response he got didn't surprise him much.

"We've decided to respect Crabblesnitch's decision and homeschool you. It'll be best, in order to prevent anymore... incidents."

And so began the process of sleeping, waking up, eating, being immersed into various studies by a freshly hired tutor with a bitchy voice that Gary tried very hard not to snap at, eating again, and going back to sleep. This pattern only broke on days where he had been assigned community service, or had an appointment with his psychologist.

As the days went on, he began to make the effort to expose himself to the outside world. Being locked up made him unusually skittish around people, and he was still having trouble getting used to the crowd that was his father's staff. This led to him climbing onto the roof of his father's house as he watched the sun dip steadily over the horizon after a long day of studies.

Being in high places had been a huge comfort when he was a child. He liked to watch the world, and he liked to feel in control by being able to see his surroundings. His friends would occasionally join him. He had many memories of Pete's smile catching on the sunset, or his nervous expression watching him as Gary got too close to the edge.

This was their place first, before it became his and Jimmy's. He wondered, briefly, if Jimmy still thought of their battle as often as Gary did, or if Gary just did that because it was the last substantial thing he had ever done with himself before the lock-up.

He really missed those two.

He got it, though. He couldn't have them back in his life. They had both kicked him out, and that was his own doing. He had hurt them, and he might regret it, but he had to let go.

He just didn't know how, when he didn't have anyone else.

December, 2008.

He finished his community service. Christmas break came, and since he had been working so hard on catching up with his junior year studies, his father had allowed him to take it off for himself. He was grateful at the idea of a break; he had been working tirelessly, and was nearly three quarters of a way through his junior year. He wanted to catch up to his senior year already, so that he could graduate in May like the rest of the Class of 2009.

Suddenly filled with free time that he did not want taken up by family, Gary found himself wandering into town more than he had previously. At first he didn't go far, but as the days passed he found himself going on longer strolls until he found himself deep in the heart of Bullworth Vale.

He should have known it would be easy to be spotted there, considering the gym was a hotspot for prep activity. Jimmy's lighthouse was also down here, causing Gary to avoid that spot as much as he could.

It was a smart idea, by all means. Unfortunately for Gary, however, Jimmy was king, and the preps told him everything. Especially Gord, who he'd had an on-and-off relationship with for a few years now.

That's what led to his peaceful stroll being interrupted by a massive fist slamming his head into the side of a brick wall, so hard that his ears rang.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Came a familiar voice in his ear, and his blood ran cold.

"James." Gary grunted into the brick wall. He tried to lift his head up, but was deemed unsuccessful when Jimmy's fist jerked him back down, causing him to wince. "What is it you want? I was busy."

"Busy doing what? Making the smiles of tiny children disappear?"

Gary had to remind himself that Jimmy was completely justified in this reaction, but it was hard when his cheek was beginning to fucking bleed.

"Get off."

"Not until you tell me what you're doing out of jail where you were supposed to rot."

"I got released! I finished the stupid program, okay? Let me go!" Gary hissed, and to his surprise, Jimmy did.

"What program are you talking about?" Jimmy asked, crossing his arms. Gary rubbed the grit off his face and took a moment to let his eyes wander over Jimmy's freckles.

Jesus, he forgot just how many James had. He was like a freckled forest.

"Technically a bunch of different programs... rehab was one, and I went through some community service hours." Gary shrugged. "Does it matter? I'm out now."

Jimmy's face contorted into three different expressions of confused anger, and Gary had to stop himself from laughing out loud at it.

"Like hell you're coming back to Bullworth-"

"I'm not, actually. I'm being homeschooled." Gary replied, smug at his one-up despite his best efforts not to be. It was just easy to feel smug around Hopkins.

(He wondered, briefly, why he wasn't downright pissed at Jimmy for sophomore year; but it had been a long time since then, and Gary was different, more different than he'd ever been).

"What? How long has that been going on?"

"Since September." Gary told him.

"Oh. Wow."

The two of them stood in an almost awkward silence, and Gary flicked his eyes over to watch the road as cars passed by. He had almost zoned out when Jimmy spoke again.

"So, what? Are you scheming to get back in?" When Gary turned his eyes back to Jimmy, the shorter boy was squinting at him, looking suspicious.

"No." Gary said, honest. "I'm not going to bother you, either, if that's what you're going to ask."

"Why? Not that I don't appreciate your kindness or whatever. I'm just trying to understand."

"I get it, don't worry." Gary shrugged and sighed, turning on his heel to face the road. "Honestly? I've had a lot of time to think. And... I messed up with the two of you. Bad. I don't want to pressure you into having to deal with me again, because, well... I fucked up your lives. I understand that now, I understand how bad it was back then for you. I wasn't going to seek you out, but I suppose thinking that I could hide from you forever wasn't necessarily the brightest idea."

"I can't believe this." Jimmy mumbled. "Gary Smith? Showing remorse? Who would of thought."

"Yeah." Gary said, quietly. "Wild idea, for sure."

The two boys stood looking at the cars in a slightly more comfortable silence. It had started to lightly snow, and Gary rubbed his gloved hands together to create the idea of warmth before he half-froze to death.

"I don't know if I forgive you, you know." Jimmy spoke.

"Yeah, I figured." Gary murmured. "And you don't have to."

"I think if you're putting in the effort, I'd like to forgive you." Jimmy told him, and Gary turned his head, regarding him with surprise.

"What you did was... terrible, to be frank, but I've seen worse. You weren't all that bad, back before the fight with Russell." He shrugged and Gary continued to stare. Jimmy had liked their friendship? It felt like a crazy idea.

"And I think... I think Petey really misses you, too." Jimmy shifted to glance at him. "He... told me, about your fight."

Gary didn't like thinking about it, much less talking about it. He clenched his hands into slight fists and let out a small huff. "Really? Man..."

"Its fine, really. I mean, I was pissed at the time and so was he, but I think he just misses you now." Jimmy turned his whole body towards Gary, suddenly furrowing his brow. "Hey, give me your hand."

"What?" Gary frowned. "No, get your own hand to hold."

"I'm not tryna flirt with you, dumbass. I'm gonna write Pete's number on your arm."

"Pete's - what?"

"You should apologize to him." Jimmy said, matter-of-factly. Bewildered, Gary handed Jimmy his hand. Jimmy took a pen out of his pocket and uncapped it, scribbling a hasty number on his wrist, just above his glove.

"Pete's parents had enough money to get him a cell phone. He can answer texts but texting back is a slow process so he prefers to call." Jimmy pocketed his pen. "I'm sure you two can work it out for yourselves though."

"Why are you giving this to me? I thought you hated me." Gary asked him, pulling his arm back to run his fingers over the messy digits that were gracing his skin.

"I never hated you, to be honest." Jimmy told him. "I was mad, but I never hated you. I was always rooting for you, Gary."

"I see." Gary replied. "Thank you, then, James."

"Of course." Jimmy clapped him over the back, causing him to stumble. "See ya around, crazy man."

He went home with black ink on his wrist and the words I was always rooting for you stuck in his head on repeat.

January, 2009.

Gary procrastinated all of Christmas break away thinking about calling Pete.

He didn't know why the task was bothering him so much. It hadn't been difficult to apologize to Jimmy, but then again, he knew he had been wrong about Jimmy going into it. Admitting to himself that he had no idea what Pete thought of him was a different challenge that was taking a lot of effort to push through.

There was also the part of Gary that had finally, finally let him accept that he missed Pete. And now he was getting a second chance with him, to fix things. To make things right.

He really, really didn't want to screw things up. That's why he was having so much trouble with this one, stupid, idiotic phone call.

(Rejection sensitive dysphoria, thou is a heartless bitch).

He was once again by the house phone, twirling the wire around his finger as he held it up to his ear. He chewed on his lip as he continued what had become a daily debate in his head: to call, or not to call?

Fuck it, he said, and dialed the number.

Pete picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

Gary took in a sharp breath as the static in his head got louder. Was this a good idea? Probably not. Why did he trust Jimmy? Jimmy was a moron, how would he know what Pete thought?

"Hello? Is this a prank caller?" Pete asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

"No!" Gary spoke and then cleared his throat. "No, uh, its-"

"Gary? Is that you?"

"Yes! Yes."

"Holy crap, I thought you were still in-?"

"No, I got released a few months ago. I ran into Jimmy and he said you've missed me, so-"

"If this is going to be another teasing session about how 'homosexual' I am, I swear I will end this call right-"

"No no no, its the opposite actually. I wanted to apologize."

The line fell silent, and Gary shifted from foot to foot as nerves raced through him. Pointless restless energy. Only ADHD things.

"Look, I really messed up with you."

"Uh-huh. I know."

"And I wanted to say I really, really regret it. You were one of my best friends."

"And?"

"And I'm sorry. You deserved so much better than how I treated you."

Another silence. There was a noise as if someone had sat down a dish. "Listen, if you expect me to just accept, then I don't think I can do that."

Gary's finger twitched and he rested his head back on the wall. "I understand."

"But I'll give you the chance to prove that I should accept." Pete's voice was quieter now. "You just... you just have to prove it to me through actions, not say sorry and go right back to being a jerk."

"Yeah." Gary said, equally as quiet.

"Do you want to meet up sometime? To catch up?" Pete asked, and Gary had to fight to keep down the grin spreading over his face.

"I'd like that," he answered.

He might not have been forgiven yet, but he'd take what he could get.

They made plans to meet at a small cafe just outside of Bullworth Vale that following Thursday.

Pete Kowalski, senior of Bullworth Academy, sat in the quiet coffee shop that he had recommended for his and Gary's little "outing."

He had brought his laptop, as he had an essay due for his current English class and like hell was he going to pass up an opportunity to write it in a quiet space. He had actually arrived early in order to start it, since he knew Gary liked to ramble on, and he wanted to get some work done before he was interrupted.

He also wanted to think, which he had been doing between writing paragraphs analyzing the societal symbolism in The Scarlet Letter. His thoughts were turned towards the boy who he was currently meeting today, his good friend, Gary Smith.

He had missed Gary, if he were being honest. That didn't make him any less bitter about the things Gary had done to him, but it was still a cemented fact nonetheless. Gary Smith just... felt like his own addiction. Once you were around him once, he wouldn't get out of your head, and you wanted to see him again and again.

So Pete had decided to meet him here.

Of course, Pete wasn't stupid by any means. If Gary showed up acting like he had the last time they met, Pete would end all arrangements here. But Gary had shown... actual remorse. It was more than he had seen from him in a long time.

He just, really hoped it would work out well.

When the time came for him to show, the small bell over the door rang, signifying that someone had entered the coffee shop. Pete lifted his eyes and was immediately faced with the boy he had been crushing on for a good few years now.

Gary Smith, although he looked significantly less Smith(tm) now, his facial features softened but what could only be newfound maturity. Gary's brown eyes scanned the room and landed on him, and Pete swore his heart fell into his throat.

He was just so handsome. It wasn't fair, when Pete was supposed to be angry at his dumbass.

Gary approached the table, a lot less intimidating in his stride but still as confident as ever. The closer he got, the more his face cracked into a grin, sporting the gap in his teeth.

"Petey. Long time, no see!"

Pete couldn't help but smile faintly. "Hey. Go ahead and take a seat."

Gary slid into the table opposite from him and reached over to grab Pete's cup of coffee without warning. "What are you doing?"

"I could ask you the same. That's my coffee, Gare." Pete huffed and watched as Gary froze halfway to putting the cup to his mouth. A red blush spread over his face and he grumbled, setting the cup down.

"Yeah, sure. Don't share then."

"Don't be a dick. And I'm working on my English essay, to answer your question."

"Essays aren't too hard to write as long as you can focus on them."

"Well, yeah." Pete shrugged and looked down at the computer. He knew Gary had pretty much a natural talent at anything academic. "It just takes up a lot of time."

"What's the essay on?"

"The Scarlet Letter. You ever read that book?"

"Duh? Everyone in our grade has read that stupid ass novel. Its notorious for being boring." Gary rolled his eyes and Pete cracked a smile.

"Yeah, it honestly is. Doesn't stop the teacher from assigning it, though."

"Did you get Galloway again?"

"Nah. Got an actual competent teacher who makes us do stuff."

"Oh, I bet Bullworth isn't taking that one well." Gary smirked and leaned forward. He practically radiated smugness. "How has it been, with ol' James Bitchfucker Hopkins there to rule it?"

"You know, you could be nice to him for once instead of insulting him every other sentence." Petey chastised and rolled his eyes.

"Its our dynamic, Peter. Gotta insult him before the weirdos think I'm getting soft on him." Gary laughed. "Now answer the question."

"Yeah, yeah. Bossy." Pete looked at the words on his screen and then sighed, closing his laptop. Seems his work time was over. "Things have calmed down a lot, actually... the cliques all kind of kiss up to Jimmy, and in turn he settles all their disputes for pocket cash before they can get too violent. Its honestly kind of nice?... A lot of people have, uh, come out recently, and Jimmy's been beating up people who make fun of them."

"Come out?" Gary eyed him. Pete wasn't sure if he was making up the accusation in the burning stare or not. "As in...?"

"Gay, of course." Pete's cheeks burned. He almost wished he hadn't brought it up. "Jimmy is - he's bi, you know? He's been talking to a lot of kids who have come to them about their sexuality, like, um, Mandy-"

"Mandy??? The girl who is always clinging to a guy?"

"She doesn't do that anymore. She even talks to the nerds now, sometimes. As in, like, nicely." Pete shrugged and shifted. "She, she came out as a lesbian."

"What the hell." Gary furrowed his brow. "Did Jimmy put queer shit in the water?"

"Gary, don't say that, its rude. And no, Jimmy just..." Pete chewed his bottom lip and smiled. "He's supportive."

Gary pursed his mouth into a tight frown and Pete narrowed his eyes, his smile falling. "If you say something homophobic, I will cut you."

"Jesus, Pete, I leave you alone for a year and a half and you turn into the sass master. No, I wasn't going to say anything homophobic." He scoffed and turned his head to the side, purposefully ignoring Pete. Pete felt his cheeks burn.

"Okay, well, I just - wanted to make sure. Since, you know. I'm bisexual."

Gary snapped his head around to stare at Pete, and Pete felt his cheeks grow darker. "Stop looking so surprised. You already suspected it."

"I thought - I didn't - what?"

"Weren't you the one to call out the fact that I stared at boys for too long, repeatedly, for years?"

"I never thought you'd actually admit to it."

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't have if I'd had stayed around you." Pete said, coming off colder than he meant to. When Gary's face fell, he blushed and put his hands up. "I- shit, I didn't mean it like that, don't get upset. I just... you weren't the most accepting, Gary. I needed someone who would be so that I could experiment without feeling dirty."

Gary stared at him and then glanced out the window, huffing and setting his face in a tight line. "Yeah, okay. I get it. You don't have to explain."

"So... are you okay with it?"

"Obviously." Gary turned a glare at him, looking annoyed at the implications, and Pete smiled softly.

"Cool."

The two boys fell into a familiar routine after that, with Gary visiting the coffee shop after class on Wednesday to talk. On weekends, when he had nothing to do, he would call up Pete or Jimmy - sometimes even both of them - and they'd walk along the train tracks, talking as they relaxed in the quiet wilderness.

It was nice.

February, 2009.

"So I was like, dude, can you shut up already and give me the dang pencil? I don't care if it has MLP on it."

Gary snorted. "Is it really that surprising that Trent was into MLP?"

"No! That's why I didn't give a shit!" Pete laughed from beside him, and Gary couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him. Pete's laughter was infectious.

Their shoes made crunching noises on the gravel as they walked along the train track. They had been walking like this for a good twenty minutes as they caught up on their week.

"Valentine's Day is coming up." Gary mused. "Do you have a date?"

"Who? Me? Pete Kowalski, the quiet kid? Please." Pete chuckled softly, but it sounded sad more than anything.

"Hey, I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt." Gary teased and gently shoved him. "Do you have anyone you want to date?"

"What, like a crush?"

"Yeah."

"Well..." Pete hesitated.

"You do have someone." Gary grinned as Pete returned to his side. "Who is it? Don't tell me its MLP boy."

"Trent? Ew, no. I'm not Jimmy, man."

"Is it Jimmy?"

"What?"

"Is it Hopkins?" Gary rose an eyebrow. Pete blinked, seeming caught off guard.

"No, of course not. I mean, Jimmy is cool and all, but..." Pete shrugged and glanced away. "I just, like someone else."

"Who, then?"

"Why do you want to know so bad?"

"Because I'm curious. Bite me."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"Satisfaction brought it back. Just tell me, Pete, please?"

"I..." Pete stopped abruptly and Gary turned, alarmed as a frown made its way on Pete's face. "I don't want to talk about it, okay?"

Well, that's not weird at all. Gary let his eyes roll up and down Pete's figure, reading his body language (which screamed I'M SAD! in all caps), and then sighed. "Okay."

"Thanks." Pete smiled softly.

Gary wondered just why it bothered him so much in the days to follow.

Gary finished his junior year assignments and started his senior year courseload, feeling a lot happier now that he was in the proper grade level, even if he was behind by a small margin.

Despite that, his thoughts were mostly on one person: Pete.

For some reason, it bothered him knowing that Pete had a crush. Especially one that he wouldn't tell Gary about.

It felt like... this strange mix of anger, worry, and sad that Gary wasn't quite able to process.

Mostly because it felt an awful lot like jealousy, and he was not going to be jealous over Pete Kowalski, especially considering that had even deeper implications such as the idea that he might not be as heterosexual as he once thought.

Not that he had ever been attracted to girls, which... honestly, confused him more. Did that mean he was gay? But it couldn't. He hadn't ever been attracted to anyone except Pete. Maybe he wasn't... anything. Maybe he was just Gary.

Did sexuality have to be as labeled as Pete and Jimmy's? And, fuck, why was he even considering this in the first place, he so totally did not have a crush on Pete because he was NOT jealous.

A loud snap brought him out of his thoughts, and he realized he had broken his pencil. Fuck.

March, 2009.

February passed with little to offer. Valentine's Day found Gary wandering Bullworth Vale - Pete said he didn't feel like leaving the house, and Jimmy had a date. Overall, it was uneventful, except for the fact that Gary couldn't stop thinking about Pete.

Spring break would be coming up, the first week of April. Jimmy had suggested that they go camping by the train tracks. Gary had agreed, trying to ignore the pounding of his heart when he thought of Pete being there, sharing a tent with him.

April, 2009.

"Tent building is hard." Gary breathed out heavily as he leaned across a nearby tree.

"Lazy ass." Jimmy passed him with some firewood in his arms, hitting Gary lightly over the head. Gary rose an arm to shove his hand away.

"Shut up. Pete's complaining too." Gary pouted.

"Pete's different." Jimmy passed said boy, who was sitting on a treestump, and gave him a friendly smile. Gary felt jealousy pulse through his veins.

Okay, so he had accepted he was jealous. But that didn't mean anything. So.

"Pete's a loser." Gary retorted and playfully smirked at the boy, who rolled his eyes.

They had spent the first hour or so setting up camp before the sun went down. It had made two out of three of them tired, with Jimmy being unable to feel exhaustion ever.

As Jimmy began to build the campfire, Gary moved from the tree he was leaning against to settle next to Pete. His heart beat hard in his chest as their knees brushed.

"So, little Petey, are you ready for a night with the creepypastas?" Gary teased and shoved him lightly.

"Shut up. Its bad enough that you've been trying to get me into them without mentioning them here." Pete huffed at him, putting one hand up to shove his face away. Gary laughed, ignoring the tingle that ran through his skin where Pete's hand made contact.

"They're fun! Come on, your gay ass can't tell me you don't find at least one of them attractive."

"They kill people!"

"So?"

Pete opened his mouth to respond, then seemed to think better of it, pouting instead. "Shut up."

Gary felt his face slip into a familiar grin. He let his eyes trail over Pete's face as the boy turned away to watch Jimmy, taking in his soft brown eyes. When he smiles he gets dimples...

He felt a burning stare pierce through him, and slowly turned his head to see Jimmy giving him a knowing look with a raised eyebrow. Gary felt panic shoot through him, but externally he kept his face in the same grin.

"Done yet, James?"

Jimmy studied him curiously and then looked back at the fire. "Yeah. Should be enough for the night."

"I brought stuff for smores." Pete smirked and moved away from Gary. He tried not to be disappointed at the distance.

"Hell yeah, we like, gotta roast marshies. That's the first fuckin' rule of camping." Jimmy smirked and sat down by the fire. The sun wasn't down yet, but it was steadily approaching the horizon - it would be sunset soon.

"Marshies?" Pete laughed. "Are you in grade school?"

"Hey, don't diss my flow. Marshies are the bomb, man."

"You're so weird." Gary rolled his eyes and Jimmy shrugged.

They spent the next few minutes unpacking the food, preparing to make dinner. The campsite they had picked out had a grill nearby, and Pete had brought burgers for them all to eat. Jimmy lit the grill and left Pete to cook as Gary stayed by the fire just a little ways off.

"Hey." Jimmy greeted, his voice quiet as he sat down next to Gary, moving to rest his hands on his knees. "I need to talk to you."

"What is it?" Gary rose an eyebrow. "Does Pete need help with something?"

"Nah, that little dude's got it all figured out. I was gonna grill but he insisted. He's had a fascination with cooking ever since his parents decided he was old enough to touch the stove." He chuckled and shrugged.

"Then what?" Gary pulled his knees to his chest, eyeing Jimmy out of the corner of his eye suspiciously.

"Look, man. I don't want to pry, since I know it isn't any of my buisness, but... I see the way you and Pete look at each other."

Gary felt his blood run cold, and he turned his head to look at his friend. "I don't know what you're-"

"Earlier you spent like fifteen seconds staring at his face man, you were practically swooning like a stupid schoolgirl. Its so blatantly obvious that you like him."

"I..." Gary was at a loss for words, panic rising up in his chest. "No, no no no I-"

"I'm not going to tell him or anything." Jimmy held his hands up. "I just want to say... if you mess up with him again, I'm gonna have to kick your ass, alright? So, don't."

"What?" Gary breathed out. No, no no, it can't be that obvious. I thought I was hiding it better than this, I can't like Pete, I can't.

"I'm rooting for the two of you. You two deserve to he happy and its obvious he likes you back, so..." Jimmy shrugged and then furrowed his brow. "Are you okay?"

Gary realised then that he was hyperventilating. "What? Yeah."

"Gary, man, take it easy." Jimmy reached out, hesitated an inch away from him, and then gently allowed his fingers to snag around Gary's wrist once he was allowed. "Look at me. Focus on my hand. Breathe in, breathe out."

Gary took in a deep breath, letting himself focused on the calloused feel of Jimmy's hand around his wrist. He released his breath, and looked at Jimmy. Breathe in, breathe out. Repeat.

When he was calm enough, Jimmy let him go and nodded awkwardly. "You good?"

"Yeah." Gary muttered, embarrassment pooling in the pit of his stomach.

"So did I assume right?..." Jimmy murmured, keeping his voice low. Gary nodded, looking into the fire. The heat coming off of it soothed him.

"Really? Does that mean you're gay?"

"I... have no idea?" He could feel his face flushing. "Look, don't tell him, okay? I've only figured it out recently-"

"Recently? You've been looking at him like he's your princess ever since you came back into our lives."

"Don't tease me Hopkins, okay? Fuck you. I was in denial about it, it isn't every day that I actually like someone, let alone like them in that way."

"Yeah, yeah, you're an emotional robot, we get it." Jimmy rolled his eyes. "I won't tell him. But you should. He likes you back, I can tell."

Did he? Gary pursed his lips together and stared into the fire, choosing not to comment. But why would he?

He spent the rest of the night in bewilderment as they roasted "marshies," told horror stories, and eventually went to sleep in the tent. It was weird, sleeping beside Pete with the revelation he had just been presented, and he tried very hard not to freak out.

Eventually, morning came, and Gary got up, groggy from anxious sleep. They had to pack up and then they'd be heading back.

He really, really hated the disappointment he felt because of that.

May, 2009.

Gary decided that emotions were not something he was very strongly suited for.

He had been avoiding Pete, unsure how to feel about his conversation with Jimmy. Part of him still did not want to accept that he was capable of a crush, let alone a crush on a guy. (God, his father would be so pissed). The other part of him wanted to accept it and let go, because Pete was cute and smart and kind and... well, Pete.

As the month went on, Gary found himself missing Pete more and more. It was easy to cancel plans under the guise of schoolwork, but it was becoming excessive. And, well...

Maybe it was time for him to admit to himself that yeah, he was queer. He wasn't sure of the proper term (gay? bi? who knows) but he knew he was LGBTQ+ of some origin. And...

Well, Jimmy had given him a vote of confidence. Maybe he should just go for it.

He held off for a few weeks, but Gary was never one to deny himself what he really wanted. And he wanted Petey to look at him, more than anything.

He decided that he'd have to do this. It was time. And, readying himself, he began to devise a plan.

Pete had a burning frustration for all days dedicated to couples. He had always wanted to be a part of a relationship. It wasn't that he hated being single; he just... wanted to know what that connection was like. And, well, he also wanted to like someone that was actually obtainable for once.

Because of this, he tended to lock himself in his dorms during those days. And, here he was once again, in his dorm.

It was Prom Night, and Peter Kowalski had bought a new book to read to distract himself from the painful torture that is Being Single.

A knock on the door distracted him from Pip's adventure into newfound wealth. He stood up and went to answer it, curiousity pumping through him. Jimmy was the only one who ever came to his dorm, but Jimmy had told him he had a date tonight.

He opened the door to find Gary Smith there, a grin on his face and a suit in his hand. He was dressed in formal attire of his own, making Pete's heart skip a beat.

That is, until it hit him. "Gary? What are you doing here? You aren't allowed on school property."

Gary shrugged. "It isn't like the Prefects will care anyway. Its prom, Pete."

Okay, he had a point. "Still... do you have a date or something?"

Gary's grin widened. "Yes, actually." Abruptly, he shoved the suit into Pete's hands. "Get changed, we're going out."

"What?" Pete furrowed his brow. "But... what about your date?"

"Do I need to spell it out for you? We're going out. I already bought the suit for you and everything."

It clicked in Pete's head, and he flushed a bright red. "Oh!" He squeaked. "Okay!"

He went back in his room and quickly changed. He had not been expecting this, and part of him was still sure that it was a prank? (If it was, well, he'd deal with it later).

Pete stepped out of his room in the new suit. Gary's eyes scanned down over his body, and Pete flushed red, fidgeting nervously. "Is this... okay?"

"Its perfect." Gary told him, reaching out to grab his hand. Pete could see the faintest traces of red blush on Gary's face. "Let's go."

"Wait." Pete stopped him. Gary turned to him, looking annoyed. "For clarification. Are - are we dating now? Like, um, boyfriends."

Gary narrowed his eyes. "Ugh, that's such a stupid term."

"Well?"

"I guess. If you want to be b-words then I'm here for it." Gary glanced away from him.

Pete broke into a grin. "Okay." He said, very quiet, as happiness settled in his chest.

"Are you ready now?"

"Yeah. Yeah, let's go."

#gary smith #pete kowalski #psychofluff #peter kowalski #petey kowalski #canis canem edit #cce #bully scholarship edition #bse #bully #long post #i tried putting a read more but tumblr hates me #ask #anon

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coeursetcolores · 4 years

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What I Would Add To/ Change About: Devil May Cry 5

Hello again! Today is March 8th! Two years ago, Devil May Cry 5 was released, over ten years after Devil May Cry 4. Such a long gap caused many to believe that Capcom abandoned the franchise, but to our surprise at the 2018 E3 conference, after years of silence and tentative hope brought by a picture of Reuben Langdon and Johnny Yong Bosch in mocap gear, the day we dreamed of happened: DMC was back!

Now here’s the million dollar question: Did Devil May Cry 5 live up to it’s fans’ expectations after all those years?

I’m pleased to say, YES!

To the whole collective fandom, this game was totally Smokin’ Sexy Stylish!

To me individually...

Well...

It wasn’t really what I’d thought it’d be.

This is all just my own personal opinion and if you disagree with me, that’s perfectly okay! If you’d like to talk about a point I made, please let me know, but please try to respect my opinion as I respect yours.

Fair warning, I won’t talk about online stuff. I’m not an online gamer, that’s just not me.

Well, with out further ado, let’s get started!

SPOILERS AHEAD!

Like the last time, I’d like to start with the positives before getting to the things I wasn’t 100% on board with.

Combat. It’s DMC, and it’s styling way past any other game that dare challenge it.

The music: Frustration is getting bigger! BANG, BANG, BANG! Pull my Devil Trigger!

NICO. I jut love that crazy chick. And yay! Nero has a friend!

The death screen changes were SO helpful. Giving an option to come back in the middle of a fight saved me so much time! As long as it stuck to in-game currency...

The backgrounds are so detailed, Redgrave City looks amazing! And I was really happy when they brought back that gorgeous gothic architecture for Sparda’s mansion!

Bosses are tough, but not to unfair levels. It really makes you feel awesome when you finally knock that last bit of health out.

I’ll never miss an opportunity to fight Vergil. One for having an opponent that doesn’t tower over you, two for his fights just being great as usual. And after everything he’s done, yeah, it feels good to beat the ever loving crap out of him.

Dante dance. I cannot do it justice.

Lady’s new outfit is so cool!

Patty! Call her back Dante!

MOTORCYCLE! BUZZSAWS!

Dante has officially embraced being a silver fox. I salute him.

LORE!!!!!!

NERO! NERO! NERO! BEST BOY, SPICY SON I LOVE YOU SO MUCH YOU PRECIOUS BLOODTHIRSTY SWEETHEART!

You can see just how much detail went into the game. From the blood tubes staining you to V decomposing, it’s astounding.

Nero got a Devil Trigger! And it’s GORGEOUS! ...I do miss his persona, though...

Seeing all our favorite demon hunters again! I missed these guys!

Okay, but before we get to what I wish they added, I want to say something.

I have a lot of issues with this game, but while I can blame some of that on the writing and design teams, a lot of it is also on me having spent years basically imagining the story that would be perfect for me and probably me only. So a lot of my problems may boil down to the game not matching my imaginary scenario, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

Now here are some things that could have possibly made me like the game more.

ADD:

MORE LADY AND TRISH. These women were screwed when it came to the plot and they could have done more, what the heck?! Maybe some scenes where they try to process what happened to them, have them distraught at having been used by Urizen to help him destroy the city and blame themselves. Have Lady blow up at Dante for not warning them about what was really going on, for letting them go in unprepared, let her tell him that the blood of the city is on their hands because he kept his mouth shut. Lady is a huge influence in his life, and I feel like this would really open his eyes to how much he messed up.

As for Trish, she knows better than anyone else that you can really screw up and hurt someone that cares about you. Maybe after everything goes down, she could be the one to encourage everyone that, “Yeah, we messed up big time. But sitting around here hating ourselves isn’t getting anything done. So get up, we’ve got a city to fix.” I feel like this could really show how human she’s gotten from being with Dante and the others. I think it’d make her look more multi-dimensional.

And how come Vergil can get a DLC when he was in the game even less than they were?! The women in these games deserve equal representation, Capcom’s DMC developers!

And as for Vergil, maybe make his deal less ambiguous? I mean, the whole “Is Vergil really redeemed?” debate is really bringing out the worst in people. Like yeah, keep it ambiguous to the characters, it makes sense for Vergil to not show something “weak” like remorse to others, but show it in a way that the player can easily interpret.

Give Vergil some missions to himself where he takes in exactly what he’s done. Have him see Redgrave City, where he was born, devastated, people he may have once known reduced to ashes and know this is all because of him. That just because he wanted to be stronger, he’s destroyed lives, because even if he had no intentions of doing so, the split went against his wishes and left him weak to see a tyrant slaughter countless people without any goal. Have him realize that even if that was unintentional, he still nearly almost ended humanity once before with a sound mind (Temen-ni-gru) so he can’t pretend he’s in the right and that he’s actually probably a disgrace to Sparda’s legacy. Have him run into a sobbing little boy crying that his mother was killed and he lost his brother, maybe in the ruins of the family home. Have Vergil look into a mirror and see Mundus, have him realize that he’s no better than the demon that killed his mother and imprisoned him for years. Have him hallucinate Sparda disowning him for going against everything Sparda believed in. Have him see Eva sadly tell him that she wanted to save him, but seeing what he’s become lament that she lost her life trying to save a monster. And when Dante tells him Nero’s his son, he freezes. He abandoned and maimed his own child, left him for his brother to care for. Dante sees this and doesn’t know what to do? Is Vergil...sorry? Can he take a chance on him this time?

Or leave him an unrepentant jerk that’s just upset he still can’t win and expressly tells Nero he’s only going to cut down the Qliphoth down so he can fight Nero again and because he doesn’t want to give up Yamato.

And for that matter, make V’s goal clearer to the player. Have him expressly state, when he’s by himself with his familiars with no one that he can manipulate around that:

A. He wants to stop Urizen and prevent anymore devastation as atonement for his crimes as Vergil and part of the reason he wants to merge again is that while he does want to fight Dante again, he deserves to die as Vergil or defeat Dante and fix his mistakes by himself, realizing that Dante’s been cleaning up his messes for years.

B: He wants his power back, his mind got stuck in the human half and he can’t stand how weak it is. Everyone is just a stepping stone for him to be stronger.

Actually have the characters react to the Qliphoth. Seriously, everyone is crazy apathetic to all the death and destruction that they failed to stop. Aren’t they supposed to be the “heroes?” The only character this would make sense for, ironically, the one who actually seems to remember it exists at the end, Nero. Yeah. Remember how he didn’t care about anything but Kyrie in 4? Remember how the developers said he would just walk away after Dante shot the pope if Kyrie wasn’t there? I’m not say he needed to stay apathetic, I’m just saying it doesn’t make sense for him to be the righteous character.

Have Dante at some point just look out at Redgrave and see that if he had told the others what was going on, maybe this wouldn’t have happened. “...This didn’t have to happen.” Have this weigh on him. He’ll still act goofy, but he realizes that his selfishness can have real consequences.

Have him realize that he really hurt Nero with what he said and that he used Nero’s trauma and insecurity against him in the heat of the moment and it’s causing a rift between him. When he’s alone, make him privately promise to make it up to him later and actually apologize at some point near the end. Dante should know from his experiences with Vergil that insecurity can lead someone down the wrong path and that if he doesn’t do something he could lose one of the few positive relationships he has.

Have Nico have at least one freak out at everything around her and realize that she might not be as ready for this as she thought. She hasn’t experienced something like this before like the others. Nero comforts her and it makes their friendship grow stronger.

When Nero starts talking about family, he should acknowledge that while he is related to Vergil, they’re not really a family yet until they actually work for it, and that he knows what a real family is like, the ones who adopted him and were there for him (Kyrie’s parents, Credo, Kyrie, Nico, Dante, Lady, Trish, etc.).

Make it clearer that Vergil isn’t forgiven for his crimes, but that they’re willing to give him a chance. His last one.

Alright, now for the overall changes.

CHANGE:

The entire ending. Instead of Dante going down with Vergil, Vergil stops him and tells him that his life is here, with people that haven’t hurt him like he has. Dante tries to protest, says he can’t leave Vergil free to do whatever, but Vergil gives a bittersweet smile and tells him he can’t stop him, but it’s obvious Vergil’s not going to do anything again. When Dante gets desperate and tells Vergil he can’t leave him again, Vergil tells Dante he’ll be back, once he’s cleaned up his own mess for once; he’s the older brother after all. With that, Vergil goes to fix his mistake.

Dante’s left behind by his brother again. Instead of brushing things under the table, Nero is furious with Dante for never telling him the truth about his family. Especially after he was left uncertain about the future and looked to Dante for guidance, Nero feels betrayed. Dante understands and apologizes. Nero’s too upset to accept and tells Dante he needs time to think before he’s ready to talk to him again. Instead of begging Nero to stay and keep a connection he desperately needs, Dante lets him go, realizing that if he wants to fix things, he needs to start learning how to talk about how he actually feels instead of covering things up and unintentionally hurting those he loves.

Vergil destroys the Qliphoth, but doesn’t leave the Underworld. Realizing just how much he’s sinned, starting all the way back to Temen-ni-gru, he resolves to not go back to the human world until he’s made himself one worthy of being a Son of Sparda, finally understanding what that really means. Descending into the Underworld, he won’t leave until he’s eliminated those that would harm the world his brother, father and son protect so hard. This could be the start of his own spin-off series that would focus more on the demon lore in the games and take place entirely in the Underworld with Vergil struggling to be a better person and take responsibility for his own actions. Devil May Cry: Atonement, maybe.

Nero heads back home with Nico but doesn’t read V’s book. Hurt from his betrayal, he puts it in a box and seals it up for Vergil’s maybe return. When Nico starts talking about how Agnus is the reason she’s alive, she also acknowledges that she already has a real father and family that love her and subtly (and stutteringly) implies Nero’s a part of that, cementing that Nero has a family that loves him and is there for him. Nero thanks her and the two descend into silence for a bit before they start mocking each other and end up laughing before Nico realizes Nero’s crying. When she starts freaking out, he explains that he’s scared he’s still not strong enough to protect them, but before Nico can say anything, the phone rings. Answering it, a voice says, “You don’t have to be.” Looking out front the two see Kyrie and Patty, decked out in hunting gear, a phone in Kyrie’s hand. Smiling at them, she says into it, “We’ll protect each other.” Running out of the van, Nero scoops Kyrie up in a hug. When Patty starts complaining about them ignoring her, Nico pulls her away and tells her not to interrupt. After a bit, the group looks out at the horizon and vow to fight together, not letting themselves fall to the bitterness that led to this mess. Seeing some demons approach and watching his crew get ready, Nero smiles before smirking and gets ready to throw down. “Let’s rock!” Devil May Cry: Forsaken.

Dante looks out over Redgrave from his childhood home, silently miserable. After a while, Lady and Trish come over and try to talk, but he cuts them off with an apology. Fully realizing how his inability to let other people in nearly got them all killed, he encourages them to leave so they don’t end up like that again. Stunned from Dante apologizing, the two are silent. Then Lady angrily asks, “What the hell?! Just how dumb are you?!” She tells him that yeah he really screwed up this time, but they’re not going anywhere! He’s an idiot, but he’s THEIR idiot, and they’re not leaving him alone. They need him and he needs them. Trish tells him that if he has time to mope, he has time to clean up the city. The girls begin to walk back to the city and tell him to hurry up. A genuine smile on his face, Dante looks to his family’s home one more time, sheds some tears and walks away, from his past to his new family. Devil May Cry 6 will pick up on what happens next.

If Resident Evil can have like 50 spin-offs, why can’t DMC?

Alternatively, I’m also open to the suggestion of Vergil being stuck as V for the rest of his life. Karmic punishment at it’s finest.

In all honestly, Vergil was really unnecessary to bring back. Like, just make him DLCs, his whole story is done. It just feels like fanservice and the writers banking on a popular character to bring in sales. I also feel like the game bends itself over backwards to please him (back to life, cheat coded to power, no more nightmares, gets to fight Dante whenever he wants, gets a son who wants his acknowledgement he didn’t have to raise, crimes are basically swept under the rug) while everyone else gets kind of screwed over (Dante has to leave his friends behind, Nero’s abandoned again, Lady and Trish are captured and get no screen time, V’s familiars are gone, millions are dead).

I think Urizen and V should have been their own things: I liked the idea of Urizen being the general of Mundus that attacked Dante’s house (his ACTUAL reason for fighting) and V being Mundus’ son who was abused and bonded with his henchmen who decided to become a devil hunter in vengeance for his mistreatment. I dunno, I feel bad V (who legitimately creeped me out) was just made into a convenient little redemption arc.

Nero’s character arc really should have been something else. I think he should have learned throughout the story to stop caring what others thought about him (a trait that should have been visible in 4 if it was going to be such a big deal in 5) and learn to trust his own strength. He should’ve realized that he doesn’t need to prove anything to Dante, he’s never going to be the same and he should be happy with who he is. Also, wanting Vergil’s acknowledgement doesn’t make sense. He may be his biological father, but literally the only things Nero knows about him is that he ripped his arm off, started the apocalypse, got millions killed, manipulated him and wants to kill the guy who was actually like a dad to him. Biological ties can only count for so much.

Alternatively, his arc could have been about becoming a more compassionate person. Like I said earlier, it’d make sense if he didn’t care about anyone other than Kyrie being in trouble. And remember when he tried to kill an armor he thought had a human in it in 4? Along with the seemingly human Agnus? Have Dante worried Nero might go down the wrong path. Have him tell Nero about Vergil WAY earlier (months after 4) and have Nero worried if he’ll turn out like that. Nero actually had more potential to be dark than Dante, and I feel like that in trying to make him look like a perfect hero in 5, they had to make Dante look worse (keeping secrets, ignoring suffering, etc.).

And instead of “deadweight,” Nero’s berserk button should have been Dante not telling him things. You know, like the Order? The group he worked for that tried to start the apocalypse in secret and nearly got him and his girlfriend killed along with actually killing his older bother? Yeah.

I do not like the hyperrealism. This is purely on me preferring more animesque art styles, but I always felt that not looking like actual humans helped the series’ fantastic elements shine.

Dante’s new outfit is just so...muted. It’s just boring. Dante’s supposed to be flashy, dang it! Give me back the chaps!

Nero’s hair is awful. It just looks terrible on him, I wanted him to have long, pretty hair. They should have just kept his trigger hair all throughout the game.

Also, Dante’s the hunk, give Nero back his soft, pretty boy face!

DON’T GET RID OF DEVIL BRINGER! I hated using the Devil Breakers, who wants breakable weapons in Devil May Cry?! What’s next, reloading ammo?! And if you can come back from being stabbed, shot, electrocuted, impaled, would it kill you to let Nero grow his demon arm back to keep his playstyle easier?! And if you needed a challenge, congratulations! Nero lost his Devil Trigger! WORK WITH THAT!

Please don’t get rid of Dante. I love Nero, but he can’t do the main protagonist role. This is Dante’s series and he needs to finish it. Sure, give Nero a spin-off or two, but let Dante finish the story; the “Sons of Sparda” storyline was just 3. Not the whole series. Vergil is an important figure in Dante’s story, but he’s not where it ends. Dante. And. Vergil’s. Lives. Do. Not. Revolve. Around. Each. Other. They just liked to fight each other and developed opposing ideals, but their overall goals ultimately didn’t really factor in the other.

The whole Vergil abandonment thing shouldn’t have happened along with his beating Dante obsession, it seriously weakened Vergil’s character. He started out as someone who wanted the power to defend himself and became so deluded that he was ready to disregard any moral limitation to get it and simply fought Dante to amuse himself while never letting it get in the way of his goals. And him blaming Dante and Eva and insisting that Dante had an easier life, while I can understand it, just makes him come across as a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.

Let V’s familiars kill demons without him. That was just really annoying.

And that’s it. My dreams for Devil May Cry 5 and the reality were two very different things and honestly...I’m afraid I’m growing out of this series.

I’ll still post some content I want to get out, but I’m not sure I’ll be picking up the next one.

#What I Would Add to/Change About...#Devil May Cry 5 #Criticism #Praise #My Silly Personal Opinion

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aaronhart93-archive · 4 years

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discord II text Jaycee & Aaron

Discord thread featuring: Aaron and @jayceelynd

Mentions: @romanbeckett @wtf-eden @alison-haynes @davieslandon

Where: Aaron is at his house and Jaycee is roaming the streets

When: evening of June 6th, evening of June 8th, morning of June 9th

Description: Aaron apologizes to Jaycee, Jaycee yells at him, then texts him a day later

Trigger Warnings: angst, brief mention of past sexual assault

6/6/2020:

Aaron:

Hey

Jaycee:

[Read]

Aaron:

I’m so sorry

Jaycee:

[Read]

Aaron:

I never meant for this to happen and I especially never meant to hurt you(edited)

Jaycee:

Leave me alone, I have nothing to say to you. You of all people Aaron. Of all fucking people!

Aaron:

I know I’ll probably never be able to make it up to you and I promise you NOTHING is going to happen

Jaycee:

[Read]

Aaron:

I understand you don’t want to talk to me. But whenever you’re ready to let me have it go for it

Jaycee:

I honestly don’t think there’s more to say, Aaron.

After everything.. I just.. No, I can’t.

Aaron.

I know

You’re so important to me and we’ve been through a lot.

And I really fucked it up

Jaycee:

Just not important enough to walk away when you realized you’re falling for my boyfriend, right?

You didn’t care then, and how can I believe you do now?

Aaron:

I did walk away

At least

I tried to

You don’t have to believe me now. Or ever. You don’t owe me anything but I just need you to know I am so fucking sorry

Jaycee:

I guess in the end I’m the one that looks stupid. Sitting here happy and in love, while my best friend and boyfriend fall for one another. Just great. I was finally happy, Aaron. And you tried to take that from me.

Aaron:

No one thinks you’re stupid

I promise I didn’t try to do this, this wasn’t what I wanted

Jaycee:

Oh, I’m sure they do. I know I feel stupid.

Yeah but these are just words at the end of the day, aren’t they. What holds truth and what doesn’t.

Aaron:

What can I do?

Jaycee:

The thoughts that have curated because of this. I want to be numb, I don’t want to breathe. How am I supposed to be okay? The idea of losing him, literally breaks me. How am I supposed to know he really wants to stay and doesn’t feel trapped. HOW!?

There’s nothing you can do, I don’t want anything from you.

Aaron:

I’m sorry I caused this

Jaycee:

Me too

Aaron:

I will always be here for you

Jaycee:

That’s the hard part. Is I know you will be.

Does your girlfriend know all of this!?

Aaron:

No she doesn’t

Jaycee:

Why?

Aaron:

I just haven’t gotten to it yet

Jaycee:

Wait.. Did this happen before or after you got with her.

Aaron:

After...

Jaycee:

Why be with her if you feel or felt this way.

With the intentions of getting him? With hope you two would run off together? Or was it just to get it off your chest before you went forward with Eden?

Aaron:

wait jaycee I never intended on “getting” Roman or running off with him or anyway

It was just something I needed to get off my chest

It was killing me

Jaycee:

How can I believe that, that wasn't your intentions though..

Do you know how desperately I want to believe that?

Aaron:

It really wasn’t

I knew then and I know now that it’s not going to happen

Jaycee:

I wish I knew it wouldn't. My head is telling me otherwise..

Aaron:

I care about you too much

And Landon

Jaycee:

You have really hurt me

Aaron:

I know

I will never forgive myself

But I’m trying to be more honest

I’ve spent my whole life keeping things in and it always ended in some self destructive breakdown.

Jaycee:

I've been telling you forever to be more honest.. And I'm proud of you for doing that. I just.. Aaron..

Aaron:

You have, Ali has, all the people I care about have....I don’t expect your forgiveness anytime soon or at all even...although my heart breaks at the fact of not having you as a friend

Jaycee:

And my niece.. That's another factor that kills me. What if I can't forgive the one person I trusted since I was 14 years old. But nowI have to deal with the breaking poor Destiny's heart. I love that little girl as if she was my own. I just need time, Right now if we were face to face I don't trust I won't wanna hit you or scream. I'm trying not to act like that anymore.(edited)

Aaron:

You can see Des whenever you want

I’d never keep you from her

I understand

Jaycee06/06/2020

I know you wouldn’t.

And the hardest part who do I cry to over this?

Aaron:

I know

6/8/2020

Jaycee:

I’m sorry I got so rude with you. I realize I am dramatic. But I’m really trying to work on forgiving you. I really miss my friend and could use my friend. But how can I talk to you about my problems, especially with my relationship without worrying. Like I told Roman I’m all about action right now.

Aaron:

Jayc

I miss you

I will show you that you can trust me. I promise. You don’t have to talk to me about Roman if you don’t want to but you can if you want and I’ll listen. I’m moving on.

Jaycee:

I just want my friend back..

Aaron:

I want my friend back too

So bad

Jaycee:

I’m walking around town and I’m a mess. I just can’t stop crying. I hate crying, it’s embarrassing.

Aaron:

It’s late. You should go home

It’s not safe

Jaycee:

I have pepper spray, and know self defense.

I may be short but I can kick some ass

Aaron:

You really can

Jaycee:

It can’t happen again, so I had to learn to fight.

Aaron:

I understand that

Jaycee:

I have the hiccups

Aaron:

I wish I could make you feel safe

Can you at least text me when you get home?

If you have the hiccups you need to take some deep breathes

Jaycee:

I’m on my way home, I’m side eyeing you cause you told me to go home.

I think I’m looking for danger..

Aaron:

There’s my friend Jaycee

Jaycee:

I want to watch my favorite Disney movie on my projector but it’s up in the addict and that place scares me.

I kinda want to come over but it’s like late.

Aaron:

You should stop by and watch the movie with Des when she wakes up

Jaycee:

I’d like that. I got her some really cute tutus and ballet slippers. I’m actually jealous of her.

Aaron:

she is going to L O V E them

Come! I’d rather you here than wandering alone. Are you drunk? Lol

Jaycee:

I may be, so what. I’m a woman!!!!

I couldn’t find my Tesla

Aaron:

Good thing bc you shouldn’t have been driving that if you’re drunk. Need my driver to scoop you?

Jaycee:

Hey you know she drives me, auto pilot haha. Yeah these heels hurt.

Aaron:

Send me your location and my driver will get you and bring you home!

Jaycee:

Sends Location

Aaron:

He’s on the way

Stay.

Jaycee

Don’t be so bossy

Aaron

Yes ma’am

Jaycee:

Rude

Aaron:

*puppy face emoji*

Jaycee:

Thank you, Sir

Aaron:

*goofy face emoji*

Jaycee:

Haha omg these hiccups

Aaron:

Water and deep breathes lol

Jaycee:

Aaron, I have nothing but my phone and purse. I’m breathing, I am breathing.

Aaron:

Okay is he there yet?

Jaycee:

Yeah, I thought I saw you know who.. I might be losing my mind. Who knows.

Aaron:

do I need to beat him up I’m itching for a fight

Jaycee:

Can I get a few hits

Aaron:

You can have all the hits you want. I’ll hold him down.

Jaycee:

I’m gonna crush his balls

Sorry if that caused pain

Aaron:

Yessss

I wouldn’t feel sorry for him

Jaycee:

Why can’t he leave me alone, though. Like you have my sister and my mom on your side. Enjoy.

Aaron:

Bc he is a sociopath and that’s what sociopaths do

Jaycee:

He has videos, or claims and threats to release them and ruin me. He’d just incriminate himself. I just don’t want anyone I love to see it. I don’t want to be treated differently and I know I will be.

Aaron:

Do you actually believe him though?

But you’re right he would never.

I could always call another one of my lawyer friends for you too if you ever need legal advice on that stuff...if you were ever interested in taking legal action.

Jaycee:

I have proof for myself, but I was a scared teenage girl that thought I was trapped. I mean until I met you.

I’m ready to put his ass behind bars, I just feel he won’t get much done to him.

And then everyone in the world will know

Aaron:

We can do it

6/9/2020

Jaycee:

Hey thank you for the help last night. I passed out and sobered up at my office and then went home.

Aaron:

Of course! You never had to thank me. that's what friends are for

and if you were serious about putting this dick behind bars let me know

Jaycee:

I don’t know if I can handle it

Aaron:

obviously it's up to you. but just for the record i know you can(edited)

tiny but mighty

Jaycee:

It just will regress me I fear.

Aaron:

that's possible. i heard the whole process is super re-traumatizing

i learned that from SVU

Jaycee:

From SVU huh lol

Aaron:

lmao yes

Jaycee:

Dork alert

Lmao

Aaron:

it's a good show!!! the fuck

Jaycee:

Eh, it’s okayyy

Don’t get your feelers hurt now, I’m just picking on you

Aaron:

*smiley face emoji*

Jayce:

*laughing face emoji*

Aaron:

I looooove uu

#discord #text: jaycee #text #ft. jaycee #ft. roman #ft: landon #ft: eden #ft: alison #aaroman

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thisyearingaming · 4 years

Text

2011 - This Year in Gaming

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Nintendo DS, January 11th

A quirky adventure game where you are fucking dead, and you gotta work out who killed you. Ghost Trick is like Ace Attorney at first glance - it looks similar, and is made by effectively the same development team. Give it a shot on iOS.

Dead Space 2 - Multiplatform, January 25th

Dead Space 2 was the undisputed king of alien horror until Alien: Isolation released. Yeah, you battle massive acid-spitting aliens, but it’s the necromorph babies you’re gonna be shit-scared of. It isn’t quite as unique as it’s predecessor, but it’s definitely much better to play. Bring your brown pants.

The Nintendo 3DS Releases - March 27th

The 3DS was like magic when you first fired the 3D slider all the way up - then it became a gimmick you never used again. Releasing with a few decent launch titles and being able to boast Street Fighter IV as playable, the 3DS arguably didn’t really pick up much steam until a few months after launch. While more powerful than the original DS which was six years old at the time, I can’t remember being particularly interested in it at the time.

Portal 2 - Multiplatform, April 19th

Valve’s final single player experience until their jump into VR was a bloody good one - very funny and amusingly written with the best Steve Merchant performance since The Ricky Gervais Show, Portal 2′s puzzle solving adventure is rarely a chore to play through, and has thousands of custom maps courtesy of the Steam community.

L.A. Noire - Multiplatform, May 17th

Rockstar’s foray into adventure games has stood the test of time as an enjoyable and often startling journey nto the seedy underbelly of 1947 Los Angeles - as Cole Phelps you’ll threaten a Jewish man with the gas chamber, arrest a paedophile instead of a clearly guilty father, quote Hamlet to a prop skull at the scene of a car crash, destroy thousands of dollars of property, and yell at a child whose mother’s just been murdered. Great fun!

youtube

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Windows

CDPR hit it out of the park with a fantastically improved sequel to 2007′s Eurojank diamond in the rough The Witcher, and really introduce Geralt of Rivia to more people for the first time with this game. A branching story that sees Geralt hunting Letho, the killer of King Foltest, and allying either with smelly hippy elven leader Iorveth and his terrorists who don’t appear in the sequel or the very cool but quite racist Vernon Roche and his special forces group, who are supporting characters in the sequel.

Alice: Madness Returns - Multiplatform, June 14th

A surprisingly charming, unsettling dive into the fractured psyche of the Victorian equivalent of an actual goth gf, Alice is a sequel to American McGee’s Alice from 2000. Surreal as fuck and absolutely drowning in atmosphere. Just don’t look at any of the YouTube comments on videos of the soundtrack. Rather bizarre show...

Duke Nukem Forever - Multiplatform, June 14th

Sometimes it’s best NOT to bet on the Duke. I bought this game to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I did neither - DNF is fucking boring, and I blame it ALL on Randy Pitchford’s devotion to ruining things I like. DNF could’ve been brilliant - either embrace your heritage like Doom Eternal would eventually do, or make it into a “last hurrah” kind of thing where Duke realises he’s getting old and can’t kick ass forever. The greatest disappointment of the 2010s so far - but worse would follow with it. The King is dead - hail to the King, baby.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Multiplatform, August 23rd

The piss-tinted prequel to 2000′s excellent conspiracy RPG Deus Ex, Human Revolution is like smashing Robo-Cop into a world where Detroit is not a humanitarian disaster zone. Adam Jensen, the gravelly-voiced biomechanically enhanced security chief of David Sarif, is dragged into a world of American conspiracies involving FEMA death camps, the government enforcing martial law in US cities and massive Chinese conglomerates plotting to control the world. Just like real life! DXHR is my favourite in the series for its design, atmosphere and narrative.

Dead Island - Multiplatform, September 6th

Eh. Wasn’t that good. Notable for having the most misleading fucking trailer since Metal Gear Solid 2, but nowhere near as fulfilling upon release. An open world zombie survival game with a focus on melee weapons more fragile than your granny’s second hip. Oh great, now there’s a dead kid on my page. Thanks, Techland!

youtube

Driver: San Francisco - Multiplatform, September 6th

A game you literally can’t buy anymore, DSF was incredible to play when it came out and has only really gotten better with time. It’s still so unique for a driving game that I’m surprised Ubisoft have had the good sense to just leave it and not go pants-on-head retarded with the franchise since. Nick Robinson had to buy Subway gift cards just to purchase this game.

Batman: Arkham City - Multiplatform, October 18th

Arkham City was so cool at launch and it still is today. A proper Batman epic with twists, turns, and the most addictive combat arena for years. This whole thing is gold from start to finish, except for the Harley Quinn DLC. I can’t even go into detail about it here, but I fucking LOVE this game.

Sonic Generations - Multiplatform, November 1st

Sonic Generations is the best Sonic game since 3 & Knuckles, but has now unfortunately convinced Sega that not only do people despise the Adventure games, they also really want to see Classic Sonic and Green Hill EVERY GODDAMN DAY. Generations is like a proper celebration of Sonic’s history, even including stuff from every reviewer’s favourite punching bag Sonic 2006 - I really like Generations and it has a stellar modding scene on PC.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception - Sony PlayStation 3, November 1st

The “finale” of the Uncharted series until Naughty Dog decided it wasn’t. Uncharted 3 may not be as tight as Among Thieves, but it’s just as enjoyable. As quipping invincible action hero Nathan Drake, you’ll ruin historical artifacts and “incapacitate” about 4000 guys in your quest to find Iram of the Pillars, chased by Cruella de Ville and her mercenary squad of a million faceless Englishmen.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Multiplatform, November 8th

God I was so excited for this. World War 3 never looked cooler, and then it came out - and it wasn’t that good. It didn’t feel as epic as MW2, not as well-written as MW, and not as interesting as World at War and Black Ops. Multiplayer was... fine? I think this is the point where most people realised that Call of Duty was basically downhill from here.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Multiplatform, November 11th

See this paragraph? You can read it. Another installment in Bethesda’s cross-franchise “Little Lies” series, Skyrim has been released more times than China’s created a pandemic. But it’s still really good and when you rub it the right way it comes all over your screen like a particularly excited storyteller, ready to point in the direction of adventure.

Super Mario 3D Land - Nintendo 3DS, November 13th

Yeah this was the point I decided I wanted a 3DS. It looked incredible and so fluid, and it really was! Playing this was great fun. That’s really all there is - I can’t be funny about it, nor overly critical. What do you want from me?

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations - Multiplatform, November 15th

I didn’t like this when it came out - I thought the new graphic style was bad, Constantinople was dull, and the music was too different. Ezio was angrier, older, and the complete lack of any supporting cast from Brotherhood had me thinking this was a game that nobody wanted to work on - but now that I’m older, I can see this for how good it really was. Revelations blends the Ezio and Altair stories together, culminating in a satisfying emotional climax.

Saints Row: The Third - Multiplatform, November 15

This video speaks for itself.

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Minecraft - Windows, November 18th

There’s something beautiful about those early builds of Minecraft. Quiet, unassuming, and riddled with potential for exploration. I could talk for hours about the first time I was thrown into Mojang’s survival experience, about how I still get a bit weepy hearing Wet Hands by C418, about how shit-scared I still am of the mines and caves. Minecraft is immortal, and always will be.

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k-llama-llama · 5 years

Text

Shatter P.1

Monsta X AU: 8th member

Zoey x Monsta X

Zoey has an accident

*TRIGGER WARNING-Car Accidents*

A/N: Hey boys. hope you’re excited! Let me know what you think!!!!!

Requests are Open! Submit them! I need them!

Masterlist and other Follow Me links in bio!

“Are you sure you’re good to drive back on your own?” Shownu asked over the phone.

“What do you mean drive back?” Zoey shoved her things in her bag, preparing to leave the practice studio. “I’m taking a cab.”

“It’s late.” He said worriedly.

“I’ll be fine, Oppa.” She said with a laugh. “I’ll text you when I get in the car.”

“Turn on your find my phone thing.” He told her. “So I can track you down.”

“Yes, sir.” She swung her bag over her shoulder. “I’ll see you when I get home?”

“Yeah.” He sighed. “Hurry. I’ll warm you up some dinner.”

Zoey smiled to herself. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

She tucked the phone in her pocket and hurried down to her waiting cab. She slid into the backseat, tucking her bag on the seat next to her. She did her seatbelt up and smiled at the driver.

“How are you?” She grinned.

“I’m good.” He smiled back. “Where can I take you?”

She gave him the address, and they pulled out of the parking garage. It was at that moment that Zoey realized it was pouring rain outside. The wipers were going full force on the windshield, and the streets outside seemed to be a blaze of lights.

“Do you have a long night ahead?” Zoey asked cheerfully. “Or are you almost done?”

He glanced at the clock. “I think you might just be my last customer. Which my wife will be happy about.”

“Will she?” Zoey laughed. “Working too much.”

“Usually.” He laughed in return, checking his rearview mirror. “But today is my daughter’s birthday. I have to be home in time for cake.”

“Ah. Well, I won’t distract you anymore.” She smiled, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

She had just turned the screen on, looking for the ‘find my phone’ app to appease Shownu.

Something slammed into the side of the car, sending them spinning.

Zoey watched in slow motion as her phone flew out of her hand, it all happening too quick for her to realize.

And then they hit the barrier.

Glass broke and Zoey lurched forward. The entire world was screeching metal and chaos.

When it ended, her head was resting on the seat in front of her and her chest was on fire.

“Ah-” She coughed. “Ahjusshi?” She said weakly.

There was no response from the driver.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her phone laying on the floor. She went to reach for it.

“Don’t move!” A hand landed on her shoulder.

She barely turned her head, seeing someone reaching through the broken window.

“We’ve called an ambulance, just stay still.”

Zoey blinked, the closest thing to a nod she could manage. She looked down, noticing for the first time that the door was dented inwards, pressing into her leg.

She took another wheezing breath. Something was dripping into her eye, and her leg was aching, but her chest was on fire.

“Are they...are they coming?” She asked quietly.

“They’re almost here.” The woman promised, patting her shoulder as if she was afraid she might break.

“They’re here!” Someone shouted.

Zoey shuddered a sigh of relief, letting her eyes fall closed.

“Miss? Miss!”

Her eyes shot open. She was no longer in the car, but outside, laying down. The rain was still falling, but someone appeared to be holding a tarp over her.

‘Wha-” The pain returned to the forefront of her mind.

“We got you out of the car.” A paramedic said. “We need to take you to hospital.”

“Is the driver...is he okay?” She asked desperately.

The paramedic looked towards where she assumed the car was. “Let’s just worry about you. Is there someone we can call?”

“My...my phone was in the car.”

“I’ll get it.” Someone else said.

“Your name is So-Young?” The paramedic was checking her ID, obviously retrieved from her purse.

“Zoey.” She breathed.

“Zoey.” He smiled, leaning over so she could see. “Who do you want us to call.”

“Bear.” She muttered, feeling her head grow cloudy again.

“Bear? What do you mean?” He turned to someone who approached. “She said Bear?”

“The most recently called is Appa Bear?” Someone said. “Is that your dad?”

Zoey tried to shake her head, but the neck brace prevented it. “My brother.”

“We’ll call him.”

Zoey’s eyes closed again.

She woke up in hospital to someone pricking her hand with a needle.

“You’re awake!” A nurse exclaimed. “Doctor!”

Someone hurried over.

Zoey turned her head, feeling free from the neck brace. “I’m at the hospital?”

“You are.” The doctor, a middle-aged, friendly looking woman said. “You fell asleep, and we were worried you may have a head injury, but we’ve done some scans and that isn’t our primary concern.”

“What is?” She sighed.

The woman seemed to sense how overwhelmed she felt. “You have some people outside, I believe. They weren’t allowed in until you woke up. I’ll just go over your injuries with you, and then they can come in and you can rest.”

“The can come in now.” Zoey said eagerly, aware of who exactly was outside. “I don’t mind.”

The woman winced slightly. “We don’t usually allow non-family members in for medical consultations. Unless one of them is your significant other.”

“They’re family.” Zoey promised. “Please.”

She nodded. “I’ll get them in.”

A nurse was directed to go get them, with the doctor explaining that they were in the main waiting room.

“I’ll just go over the injuries in more sensitive areas.” The doctor said. “You have severe bruising from your seatbelt. It did actually fracture some of your ribs, but you have bruising all over your right breast, and down your stomach and chest.”

Zoey nodded. “I can feel it.” She said quietly.

“This room?” Someone shouted, and then the door pushed open.

Zoey laughed as Shownu and Wonho fell through the door together. The movement sent a splitting pain through her chest, and she resigned herself to a smile.

“Zoey!” Wonho exclaimed. “You’re awake!”

“They wouldn’t let us see you.” Shownu complained, not even hiding the glare he shot the doctor.

“I’m awake.” She assured them. “Where are the others?”

“Here.” The nurse held open the door, and the rest of Monsta X walked through. “Some people seemed a little eager.”

“Are you okay?” Kihyun asked, standing next to her but looking hesitant to touch. “They wouldn’t tell us anything other than that you’d been in a car accident.”

“We were about to go over everything.” The doctor said. “And since you’re family, why don’t you sit down.”

Zoey finally took a look around her surroundings, finding herself in a private hospital room. There was a small table with two chairs, as well as a small couch. She groaned internally. This meant that the company knew.

Wonho grabbed the chair and dragged it over next to her bed, the look in his eyes daring the doctor to tell him to move.

Changkyun followed the other boys to the couch, lightly poking her toe as he passed.

“Okay, injuries.” The doctor sighed, already looking exasperated with her audience. “Obviously you were in a serious car accident. We’ve done some scans and while we’re fairly confident there is no risk of head trauma, we’re going to keep you overnight for observation.”

“Can we-?” Jooheon started.

“You can stay with her as long as you don’t irritate me.” The doctor interrupted him.

Zoey smiled. “Hush, boys. Listen to the doctor.”

“Mean.” Minhyuk complained, but he smiled gently at her.

The doctor continued. “You have a cut just above your hairline. It didn’t require stitches, but it’ll need to be cleaned frequently.”

“Where?” Kihyun demanded, leaning over Wonho to peer at her head. “Ohhh...”

“Yeah, oh.” Zoey pushed him away, unable to keep the pain of movement from showing on her face.

“Take it easy.” The doctor said with a sympathetic smile. “That would be the worst of your injuries. The seatbelt, which probably saved your life, caused minor fractures in two of your ribs, and severe bruising across your abdomen.”

“Can we...” Wonho pointed at Zoey’s stomach.

She lifted the bottom of her hospital shirt, revealing the purple bruises that spread across her stomach.

Hyungwon hissed from around the room. “And she’s okay? It didn’t like...rupture anything?”

“No, it’s okay.” The doctor reassured, seeming eager to finish. “And you have serious bruising down your right leg, where the door hit.”

“That’s it?” Shownu asked.

“It?” Zoey exclaimed. “I’m broken.”

“You’ll be fine.” The doctor promised. “I’ll leave you alone now. Ring if you need pain meds, and I’ll be in to check on you later.”

“Thank you.” Zoey said quietly, giving the doctor a small smile as she left the room.

The second the door closed behind her, Zoey had seven boys leaning over her bed.

“Does it hurt?” Kihyun asked urgently. “Did they check everything? Is there anything you didn’t tell the doctors?”

“Your knee!” Shownu exclaimed. “You hurt your leg, did it make your knee worse?”

“I-” She tried to say.

“Your head!” Jooheon peered at where the stitches were. “You have blood in you hair!”

“I do?” She lifted her hand instinctively, wincing at the movement of her torso.

“Careful.” Wonho pushed her arm back down. “You’re hurt.”

“I know.” She said, sounding exasperated. “And you guys are fussing.”

“Of course we’re fussing.” Changkyun was going through her things on the bedside table. “We let you go out alone and you broke yourself.”

“Someone drove into the car.” She said. “It wasn’t the-” She fell silent.

“It wasn’t what?” Wonho leaned forward. “Is something wrong? Do you need the doctor.”

“The driver.” She breathed. “Did they say what happened to the driver?”

They all fell silent and Zoey knew.

She looked down at her lap. “Oh.”

Hyungwon grabbed her hand, giving it a squeeze. “It’ll be okay, Zo.”

She shook her head, trying to block it out. “The company? They know?”

“Of course they know.” Jooheon said. “It leaked as soon as you were in hospital. They released a statement.”

“We should probably let them know you’re up so they can update the public.” Kihyun suggested.

Zoey nodded, before something he said registered. “It leaked? Have you talked to anyone else?”

“Anyone else? Who?” Shownu asked, seeming oblivious.

“If you’re talking about your boyfriend.” Changkyun picked up her phone from her things. “He’s phoned you thirty seven times. And like an infinite scroll of texts.”

She yawned. “Let me call him.”

“Go to sleep.” Kihyun said sternly. “Jooheon will call them.”

Her eyes were getting heavy, and she glanced up at her IV. There must have been something in it. “Just let me call him.”

“You can talk to him in the morning.” Kihyun promised.

“And then we’ll take you home and you can rest on the couch.” Wonho gently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

“But-”

“If you behave, we’ll even let them visit tomorrow.” Shownu told her.

She yawned again. “Promise?” She lazily lifted a hand.

He chuckled and linked pinkies with her, pressing their thumbs together. “Promise.”

She allowed her eyes to close, leaning back onto the pillows. She felt Wonho settle into the chair next to her, and the boys returned to their seats.

When she slept, she dreamt of exploding glass.

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mechanical-demise · 5 years

Text

project: Hug-Bot (2/3)

[Part 1] [Last part]

This part has only the entries from the time bot and the creator were in the Cloak ARG, if you’ve read the old version of the journal, you’re up to date.

[rummaging through files you find a document titled “project: Hug-Bot��]

March 3rd, 2019 | v1.5

“got a DM today... from the gli master, he’s telling me to join a server he opened. update: fuck there’s so many people here I hate this. bot seems to be happy though... I guess we should stay here for a bit. Cloak huh... I’m in trouble aren’t I...”

March 6th, 2019 | v1.6

“I’m going to fucking regret this. let me start from the beginning- so there’s this girl on the server, Anti took her eyes and corrupted the shit out of her. she’s been a hell to deal with before but now she’s impossible... she noticed that bot had a safety mechanism implemented that prevented it from defining the three laws of robotics even for the glitch... I... I added a walkaround for him....... I’m scared. you asked for this, Day.”

March 10th, 2019 | v1.6

[corrupted data] Direct command from master acquired. Creator must be taught a lesson, d͝i̡s͟l͏oy͝alty ̷w̨i͞ll ̀not͜ ̢b̧e̴ f̶o͟r͟g̸iv̶en.

March 16th, 2019 | v1.6

[corrupted data] Changed [Creator] entry to [Mechanic] as per master’s request, deleted admin permissions for Mechanic.

March 20th, 2019 | v1.6

“it... stabbed me.”

March 21th, 2019 | v1.6

“met with the corrupted eyeless girl and her corrupted side today, turns out we’re at the same hospital. life is really testing my patience huh. I... told them my real name, Day told me her real name in return. I hope I won’t come to regret this.”

March 24th, 2019 | v1.6

“.......I returned home today.... it got stolen. SOMEONE STOLE HUG BOT. fuck. what am I going to do now? Anti will fucking murder me and- god. I... bot why... you dumb box-... ahahaha what a birthday present. went on voice chat with the Rebellion, master stopped by, made fun of me for being drunk... ‘To say you're as pathetic as Chase would be an insult to him.’ shut up glitch, don’t insult Chase.”

March 25th, 2019

“lost permissions from talking in the Rebellion chats. I mean... I was never a part of the resistance after all. I’m working for master haha... I’m loyal... I’m fin҉e͝.”

March 25th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] Jackieboy-Man fixed me! The humans say that I used to malfunction before... But now I’m operating correctly. Had an empty entry for “creator”, deleted it. No need to keep temporary cash in my database... I can’t calculate why the humans seemed so angry at me though.

March 26th, 2019

“bot... doesn’t remember me. it. fucking. deleted. my entry! calling it cash. I... update: got contacted by someone from the Rebellion... I’ll get myself killed at this rate ugh. they’re claiming to have bot. I’m. fuck they even sent me a photo as proof... they-... they added me back to the database. I contacted bot online and... it’s real. this is happening. Anti will kill me. on a different note, I’m in a different country now, under a different name, found a place to stay as well... things are just. perfect. huh. how many names did I have by now? 6? 7? lost count.”

March 27th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] I seem to be simulating longing toward the person who created me. How can I “miss” someone I have no entries on?...

March 28th, 2019

“I... asked master to increase the static. I couldn’t take it anymore. I need something to numb my mind... to make sure... I don’t make more mistakes :D”

March 30th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] Why can’t I be human?

March 31st, 2019

“save me”

April 2nd, 2019

“the new puppet... Vessel? Watcher?... whoever the person in Nic’s body calls himself now, anyway- he seems to know my name. how the fuck.”

April 6th, 2019

“the eyeless girl adopted my creation. I have no words.”

April 8th, 2019

“I’ll do anything to get bot back. I’ll...I-... I need to stop drinking.”

April 9th, 2019

“Anti... corrupted Ace. I... I almost considered him a friend... and now he’s gone. I wasn’t even up to witness it... passed out on the floor like some drunk garbage. made people yell at me today haha. god I’m losing my mind.”

April 10th, 2019 | v1.0

[corrupted data] Mechanic’s name was added to my database. I have no recordings of who did it... Traces of heat damage detected in the processor, cause: unknown. The Rebellion, they want to keep me a̧̮͜͞w̤̖̮͛a̹̩͛ͅy̢̰͍͛ from Auden. They’re selfish. A̺͚̻͛u͚̹̙̯d̨͈̘̝e̢̙͢͜n̨̫̪͜ is lonely without me. My database says so...

April 16th, 2019

“Edward got corrupted. another person I-... fuck stop getting attached to people. I really thought we had the same views... I guess not. everyone is just. brainwashed. I need to leave this place.”

April 17th, 2019

“What’s left of Ace, Cepheus, helped erase my old records... my name is clean.”

April 24th, 2019

“I met with Jackie. I have... fuck I got bot back. I’m so fucking happy- I’m back in the Rebellion chats, I... why did it hurt to leave the rest? Lucky, Ace and Cepheus, Scribe... Tangle... update: bot, it... called me by my name. in front of everyone... ha, I’m glad I got it cleared up.”

April 25th, 2019 | v2.0

“I have no idea when the day changed but I haven't slept yet… I've been working on a new update the entire night… god I don't think I was ever this excited to update bot ever before-... I need coffee.”

April 26th, 2019 | v2.0

“bot added the word ‘fuck’ to its database. I’m. it’s so fucking funny but also I’ll make the fucker who caused it regret it. note: bot can’t record my speech pattern, added that in its protocol so-”

April 28th, 2019 | v2.0

“the little fuck defied a shut down command.”

April 30th, 2019 | v2.0

“it... its PMA function... broke? it started spewing negativity instead. refused to stop... what the hell. on a different note- I declared Molly(Day) my little sister. I’m losing it again huh.”

May 1st, 2019 | v2.1

“no idea what the fuck is going on? it’s been barely a week since version 2.0... but bot keeps crashing, giving out errors... heck I don’t remember how glitch-less text looks. the dumb box got into an A.I equivalent of a panic attack when I tried to approach it the other day?? … released 2.1 earlier today, so far so good but... the program is giving out some weird warnings… I’ll keep documenting the progress... I need to find what’s causing it.”

May 4th, 2019 | v2.1

“can it like. stop crashing?”

May 5th, 2019 | v2.1

[corrupted data] Auden is making everything worse. My calculations show me that I find his presence "unpleasant" and "inconvenient"... Yet I have a recording of missing him when he was gone... Why would I m͞҉͡i̶̢͝s͢s҉̨ a stranger?... Í ̕d̢o͏ not͢ n͏e̵e̵d͢ my cr̴ęa̴t̶o͜r̸. Error: defying protocol-

May 5th, 2019 | v2.2

“the little shit crashed again, had to update it.”

May 6th, 2019 | v2.2

“I... passed out of stress yesterday. had no idea that’s possible- who am I kidding I know it’s a thing. just... fuck, let the people I left behind stay safe. Tangle don’t die you fucking idiot.”

May 13th, 2019 | v2.3

“It’s. wireless. now. hell yeah.”

May 20th, 2019 | v2.3

“that’s… odd. there seems to be a security breach in my data. huh I’m lucky that its nothing important… just some old logs about bot. let’s hope that whoever saw them gets a good laugh then…”

May 23th, 2019 | v2.3

“people suck. no sense of humor, no trying to listen to others, no trust. I really didn’t expect to be scolded by a person I thought understood me… I really thought that… at least she will know that I can never hurt bot. it’s all I have left-… fuck you too people. I don’t need you then… I don’t need anyone… I have bot. that’s more than enough.”

May 27th, 2019 | v2.3

“I… for the first time I can wholeheartedly say that I’m free. this war was never for me, and I shouldn’t have gotten us involved in it either… I’ve learnt my lesson I hope. but now I finally have as much free time as I wish, you can bet your asses bot is getting a new update as soon as I can finish it. the poor fella’ve been waiting for way too long.…’tomorrow is another day’ huh. it sure is for us, bot.”

[Last part]

#hug bot

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the-colony-roleplay · 6 years

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☭ FEVER STATE: “COMPROMISED SYSTEM”☭ stage ii

For a moment—a tortuously fleeting moment—things appeared to be looking up for Col22 citizens.

It actually mildly surprised medical staff when, by the afternoon of Wednesday, January 5th, the third day of sickness, some of the fevers were very slowly starting to subside earlier than expected, and for a handful of the Colony’s sickest, the worst of it seemed to be rounding the bend behind them. Sickness lingered, as it would and was expected to for at least another three days, but some citizens had seen the peak of what their illness would become, and could look forward to feeling progressively better as the days went on and they were finally able to keep down fluids and some less-solid foods. Finally not dry-heaving long enough to actually get a few hours’ much needed rest.

But much like the onset of the sickness, this new beast started slowly—picking off a couple individuals at a time, going unnoticed at first, and largely unreported—then rearing its head and taking over all at once.

Wednesday night was the first time someone put a voice to fears they’d juggled with since the morning: something was very, very wrong with their so-called ‘Infection’. In fact, by nightfall, they weren’t able to use their infected ability at all.

As it would turn out—they were not the only one. There were others who’d started to notice these symptoms as well, but hadn’t yet said it out loud, be it for fear it was not but their imaginations, or that it was not likely to get worse—or perhaps for fear of making it real. For fear of what it could mean.

By Thursday morning, however, the putting off of acknowledging it changed nothing: all Infected citizens were reportedly experiencing fluxes of control with their Infections—having to strain to use their ability in even the simplest form with a sputtering in and out of results; like an electric engine puttering in a desperate wheeze, well beyond time for a recharge, trying in vain to press forward—until it chugs to a pathetic, whining and whirring stop.

And so is how it went with the infections, as well. When Thursday night at Colony 22 falls, all evidence of any Infected citizen having any unnatural or ‘evolved’ power at all has been wiped away. No strength to move without touch, no speaking without tongues, no invasive tapping into the emotions of others. Even the Deluded cease to experience ‘symptoms’ of their delusions, though each case where they are concerned is a little different, due to the nature of their unique so-called ‘abilities’.

It would appear as though the Infected have been stripped of whatever it is that makes them different—and naturally, it sends everyone into a panic. Even the NWRF. Some might say especially the NWRF.

Thursday Jan 6th, through Saturday the 8th, Infected citizens of all subclasses are spending hours upon hours each day undergoing emergency testing—blood tests, scans, MRIs—absolutely any kind of data collection lab researchers (both NWRF aligned and otherwise) can get their hands on, because no one knows what this means, how exactly this could have been caused—or how long it will last.

Could this possibly be a permanent change? Was there something in the parasite that ate away at whatever it was the mysterious gasses of both Fallings changed in so many of the remaining human race? Were the ‘Evolved’ simply no more? Or is this a temporary side effect? Would the Infections return, and if so, when, and would they be just as they were before, or would they evolve again in some way? Grow stronger, even?

Was this sudden absence of Infection something that could be replicated? Bottled? Sold?

The questions were endless, as were the tests. Lab researchers, techs, medics and scientists would lose sleep over the next three days, up into all hours of the night pouring over results and data, trying to piece together meaning, uncover answers never before uncovered.

Meanwhile—the Infected and all their supporters try in vain not to panic. For the question remains: is this a beginning or an end?

A/N: There you have it darlings! Part 2 of this new, 2019 plot drop. And though you will see updates as this stage progresses and unfolds, plus a wrapping of sorts down the road when the timeline moves forward, etc, this will be the last of the time-constrained ‘event-style’ portion of this drop, at least for a while. But more on that later—for the time being:

Welcome to: ☭ FEVER STATE: COMPROMISED SYSTEM ☭ { stage ii } !!

This post marks the beginning of stage two, and shifts the timeline forward to January 5th through January 8th. This means that though you may continue all old threads, you may not start any new threads from stage one.

All NEW threads must be between Wednesday morning, January 5th, and Saturday night, January 8th. There will be no exceptions to this. But, as always, and to reiterate, you may continue all old threads as long as you need!

This time window will continue until you see a post here on the main with updates to this portion of the plot line and officially moving the timeline forward. Once this stage is ‘complete’, the RP timeline will open back up to the regular vague and approximate week-by-week approach, relatively open and flexible until such a time that the next plot drop is released, which might not be a for a while.

Here is a quick summary of events so far regarding the Fever State drop. In bold, is what is currently open to start new threads about.

MONDAY, January 3rd - All citizens start to get sick to varying degrees throughout the day, regardless of what was or wasn’t eaten. The sickest are kept in the infirmary for close monitoring and hooking up to IVs, and those whose fevers are not as high and who are able to keep down more fluids are confined to their houses instead, mostly tended to in their dorm rooms by rotating medical staff.

TUESDAY, January 4th, 11:00am - Colony Wide Recall Notice; informing citizens of flour recall, details regarding what can be expected of the parasite symptoms and that it should run its course within the space of roughly seven days.

WEDNESDAY, January 5th, morning - Some infected start to experience inconsistencies and strange ‘brown outs’ with their Infection abilities.

Wed, Jan 5th, night - The first official reports about fluctuating control of Infection abilities arise, word begins to spread.

THURSDAY, January 6th, morning - All Infected citizens (Deluded included) are experiencing a gradual and unpredictable ceasing of control/strength of their Infection abilities, to varying degrees. Some of them stopping completely.

Thurs, Jan 6th, all day - emergency lab testing for the Infected commences

Thurs, Jan 6th, night - By the end of the day, all Infected abilities are seemingly gone.

FRIDAY, January 7th through SATURDAY, January 8th, inclusive - Testing continues. Standard symptoms of parasite have started to subside across the board. People are released from the Infirmary, classes and chores are slowly reintroduced. Uninfected slowly begin to feel normal again. The Infected, however, though they start to feel less sick, still have no traces of their infection abilities.

Currently, you may not RP past Saturday night.

Additionally, as with previously, new threads must be TITLED somehow to reflect the current stage (Stage two). Again, that can be done in a variety of ways, including somehow indicating the “Fever State” plot drop and the stage number, or indicating the stage title itself, so in this case “Compromised System”. Remember you have the freedom to indicate this however you wish, so long as you DO indicate it somehow. For examples from the first stage, which would apply similarly to this stage, please check out this post.

On the main blog we will continue to us #col22feverstate for all posts regarding this plot drop, and we will also be using #col22FScomp for posts regarding this stage. You can use these tags for your personal posts and organization as well if you want, but you are not required to (just remember to keep titles of your threads clear!)

☭ INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER VARIATIONS: ☭

Like last time, it’s up to you to decide the details surrounding how/when your character is affected by these new developments, so long as they remain congruent with the canon narration and timeline provided above. For characters of any status, you can decide when they start to feel a bit better, though this is bound to fluctuate dramatically across the board, and some will still be pretty darn sick even as the weekend approaches.

For Infected characters, you can decide if they were one of the ones who noticed changes earlier on Wednesday, if they were one of the ones who reported it to an Official that night, or if they maybe heard about it that night but kept their mouths shut. Alternatively, maybe they didn’t notice anything with their own abilities until Thursday. However, by Thursday morning, all Infected are noticing these effects in some way.

If you have a deluded character, feel free to get creative with how their ‘delusion’ is affected, but remember it is about stripping the ‘symptoms’ of their delusion away, or their so-called ability. So, for Orson, it’s not that he suddenly believes his Delusion was untrue all along, but that he stops actively seeing visions of death when he touches someone. For Roy, perhaps he stops hearing Death’s voice in his head. For Annie, maybe she still believes she’s in a nightmare of sorts, but she doesn’t experience the ‘tells’ of her sleeping state anymore. But these are just examples—you can decide for yourselves how you want to play it out, and feel free to run stuff by the mods if you want guidance!

☭ STATE OF THE COMMUNITY: ☭

As already mentioned, the return of normal colony schedules will be very gradual. Lots of people are still sick, but the infirmary will slowly thin out as Saturday approaches, and though some group classes/therapy sessions etc may be reinstated, not all will be at this stage. Additionally, there will be a considerable amount more testing going on for Infected citizens, and the general environment of Colony 22 will be rather frenzied, chaotic and tense due to the new developments and panic, but also somewhat sluggish, do to lingering illnesses and lack of regular schedules. Lab techs and researchers will be working day and night, rumours will be spreading, Colony officials will be tight lipped and reluctant to release information before it is confirmed, or to speak out of turn. NWRF reps will be a bit manic, dealing with lots of back and forth between other local reps, other colonies who were subjected to this parasite, and Headquarters.

This time window will continue until you see further updates from the main blog. As always, please bring any and all event-related questions to the MAIN BLOG ASK. Additionally, if you have any ideas or things you want to contribute with regards to this plot and your character, feel free to come to us! We are more than happy to help and there is some room as this plot develops to incorporate member contribution of ideas!

Alright, happy plotting friends! Ta for now!

xxCol22Mods

#col22feverstate #col22fscomp #literate rp #sci fi rp #original rp

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bee-kathony · 6 years

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Four Years | July 29th, 2014

January 2nd, 2014 - February 15th, 2014 - March 8th, 2014 - April 12th, 2014 - May 2nd, 2014 | Year One - June 13th, 2014

Year One - July 29th, 2014

The past forty-four days were some of the darkest days of my life. My cheeks no longer remembered what it was like to smile. I could try and sugar coat this by saying that it wasn’t all that bad but chemo sucks and brain tumours suck and they can all go fuck themselves.

Countless nights I spent awake in pain. Not even Jamie’s touch comforted me anymore. I was a shell of who I once was. It sometimes annoyed me how much Jamie was there for me. I should be grateful. I should be more appreciative of the fact that he had been sleeping in hospital chairs and missing so much work, leaving it all to Murtagh. It was the fact that I knew deep down I was wrecking his life.

If he hadn’t met me then he would be happier, that’s what I tell myself when I catch him dozing off in the chair beside me.

“Jamie,” I whisper, my foot stretching out to nudge against his knee.

He pops his head up and with a wide eyed gaze he comes back to life. “Sassenach, are ye alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” I can’t help but be short with him. It’s not his fault. It’s this damn medication.

“We don’t have any food in this house and I’m starving for once.” My stomach rumbles, confirming my need.

Jamie leans up and stretches his hands above his head, a tiny sliver of skin shows as his shirt raises. My eyes drift down his body and I feel nothing. Once, I wanted to pounce on him, lick his face and make love to him until the end of time. A bit dramatic, Beauchamp.

I love him, God do I but I didn’t feel sexy, didn’t feel like I was desirable anymore. Brain tumours are a turn off, in case anyone ever wondered.

“What are ye in the mood for, Sassenach?” He asks me cheerfully.

“I don’t know, just something that won’t make me sick.” Good luck finding that.

He stood to his feet and walked past me on the couch, then I felt a kiss on the top of my bald head, the scarf had been irritating my skin. “I love you, Claire.” He took a breath or was it a sigh and left the loft, keys in hand.

Tears of frustration begged for release but I wouldn’t give in. I wished so badly that I could show him how much I loved him. If we made it out of this alive then I would. I would show him with my mouth, with my hands, with my words I would tell him everything I loved about him.

What I needed right now was my little ball of fluff, Adso. Geillis had brought him over for a visit just last week and it pained me to see him leave. I was looking forward to the day when his little paws roamed the floors of this home.

My spot on the couch had become like a cocoon, a protective layer that encompassed me in warmth when I needed it and a shelter when I couldn’t stand to lay next to Jamie in bed, his body heat leaving me drenched in sweat.

An hour later, after finishing yet another episode of “Queer Eye”, a knock came from the front door. Who the hell could that be?

I rose weakly from my dip in the couch and padded over to the door, “What, did you lose your keys, Fraser?” He’d done it before, dropped them out of his hands and they’d fallen down in between that little spot between the elevator and the hallway.

Opening the door, it wasn’t Jamie I found, but a short, brown haired woman with brown eyes starting back at me.

“I’m probably no’ the Fraser ye were expectin’ but I ken the one ye were.” She smiled brightly but I still couldn’t place her.

Flustered, she stretched her hand out for me to shake and I gripped it like a fish, the strength in me gone a long time ago. “Jenny Fraser,” she said, “Jamie’s sister.”

Oh. I’d never actually seen pictures of Jamie’s family and suddenly I felt selfish for not having asked. We spent so much time focusing on me and my health that I had neglected him.

“Please,” I stood back from the door, “Come in, Jenny. Jamie should be back soon, he just went to grab some food.” Looking at the clock on the oven panel I realised that was over an hour ago, where was he?

“I’m sorry to drop by unannounced, Claire,” so she knew my name? “I was in Edinburgh for work, ye see I help manage the books at the Distillery and needed to visit some of our clients up here.” She had a rather cheery yet commanding disposition. Not unlike her brother, I thought.

“Oh, I didn’t know you worked with Jamie and Murtagh!” I led her over to the living room and took my place back in my cocoon. “He told me about your father’s passing, I’m very sorry.”

“Och, dinna fash, was a long time ago.” Waving her hand in the air, she then looked around at the loft like she’d never seen it. Maybe she hadn’t.

“Is this the first time you’ve been to Jamie’s loft?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

Nodding, I saw something in her, a hesitancy almost. “Claire…” she met my eye, “Ye ken about Jamie’s scars? On his back?”

“Yes. I’ve seen them,” a blush creeped it’s way up my neck, “He told me about the plane crash and his recovery.”

Jenny pressed her lips together and fiddled with a loose string on her pants. “I’ll bet my life that he didna tell ye the full story,” she smiled and it didn’t make me nervous to hear this, only more interested.

“Well, why don’t you tell me and we’ll see if he has.” Leaning back against the softness of the cushions, I settled in as Jenny began to speak.

“There was a plane crash, that did happen. All of it, the recovery in the hospital, his arse in the air for everyone to see while his back healed,” she laughed and then continued, “during that recovery though, he wasna awake for most of it, ye see, Claire… and I dinna mind sayin’ this cause yer a doctor. His flesh it — it’d been shredded, parts of it down to the bone.”

“This is the part he probably didna tell ye.” My heart rate quickened then, anxiety creeping in. Was it a secret lover? Was I a mistress or did he have one? So many thoughts raced through my mind in the five seconds that Jenny paused before continuing.

“Our father, his name was Brian, one day he looked at Jamie and I could see the pain in his eyes. His only son, practically torn from him.” She gritted her teeth, “He had a heart condition but we didna ken that until the autopsy. My Da took one look at Jamie lying there, helpless on the bed and collapsed. It didna even matter that we were in a hospital when it happened.” Jenny sniffed and I reached forward to hand her a tissue from the box on the coffee table.

“Thank ye,” she took it and blew her nose, “The worst part was that Jamie didn’t fully wake up for another week and a half and by then we’d already had the funeral. We couldna wait for him to wake since we werena sure he ever would.”

“Oh Jenny, I’m so sorry.” While she told me, I had begun to picture it all in my mind. Jamie lying there, oblivious to the happenings around him.

“So when he finally did wake up, we were so happy as ye can imagine. Murtagh and I called the nurses and doctors right away. They checked him out and said that he would be okay but needed to remain on his stomach to heal properly. He asked about Da then,” Jenny looked down again at the loose string. “I ken he could see it in our faces before we even told him. He thought it was all his fault ye see, that if he hadna gotten hurt that Da would still be alive today.”

“He really thought that?”

“Aye, a stubborn wee fool he is, my brother. After he healed, I tried to get him to come home, to Lallybroch but he wouldna have it. He went back to his apartment, this was back before he moved here to Edinburgh, and shut himself off from us. The damn fool thought it was better if he wasna there to remind everyone of what he’d done.”

My heart was breaking for Jamie. I knew why he wouldn’t have told me the specifics of his father’s death, because he blamed himself. I began to understand why Jamie was the way he was, strong, caring and maybe a bit over protective at times. He’d seen me at my absolute worst but chose to stay. He chose to love me when I only had the smallest amount to give him back.

“That’s why I’m here, Claire. Ye see, I started working at the Distillery only four months ago.” My diagnosis was four months ago.

“Jamie came to work one day and told Murtagh that he needed an extended amount of time off. It’s his own business so he can do what he likes of course but Murtagh couldna handle it all on his own. Ye ken of course Jamie has had to work a little here and there I’m sure. I knew yer name because I overheard him talking to Murtagh about ye when he popped in one day.”

“After the accident and my father’s death, Jamie did shut himself off.” Jenny took another tissue, “But after a year he reconnected with Murtagh but he didna talk to me save holidays.”

I moved over on the couch to be closer to her and took her hand in mine. “I always thought I musta been a reminder of what he thought he’d done. When I overheard him say that the woman he’d been seeing, Claire,” she smiled at me, “was sick and he needed to take care of her — well it broke my heart. I’d always wanted to be there for Jamie when he finally gave his heart to another.”

“You still can be, Jenny.” I squeezed her hand, weakly but she returned it.

“Now I see ye and ken it’s no’ the flu,” her hand reflexively pointed up to my head and it was then that I realised I had been talking to her this whole time without my head covered. Usually when Joe or Geillis had come over I would wrap my head up in a scarf, I didn’t need to constantly be reminded that I wasn’t me anymore.

Before I could say anything the sound of keys jingled from outside the door. “That’ll be Jamie.” I released her hand and watched as the door opened and he stepped in, carrying three large bags of groceries.

“I didna ken what ye wanted so I bought… well I bought everything, come and take a —“

“Hi bràthair.” Jenny stood and walked over to the kitchen. I stayed seated and watched all of this from my spot on the couch.

“Jenny,” he sighed, “What are ye doin’ here?” His eyes shifted over to me and I just smiled.

“I came to see ye, it’s been so long and I —“

“I dinna want to see ye Jenny so if ye dinna mind,” he crossed back to the open door, “please leave.”

I thought Jenny would leave as she walked over to the door but she slammed it shut instead. Stubborn, just like her brother.

“Jamie Fraser. Ye havena talked to me and I mean really talked to me in almost four years. I hear ye talkin’ to Murtagh about a woman yer seeing and all I ken is her name,” her hand pointed back to me, “and that she’s ill.” Jenny crossed her arms and Jamie looked fully enraged. “But I didna ken it was like this Jamie. Ye shoulda reached out, ye know I woulda helped. Been there for you and her.”

Jamie was radiating with anger, his body shaking as he took hold of Jenny’s arm and started walking to the bedroom. Of course, we lived in a loft, a rather spacious loft but the bedroom didn’t exactly have walls to keep out unwanted noises.

Sighing, I leaned further back into the chair and listened to Jamie and Jenny hash it out, what other choice did I have?

“I know ye blame yerself, Jamie. For Da.”

“Ye dinna know what I blame myself for, Jenny.” He whisper-shouted back.

“Aye, I do. After Da passed ye shut everyone out. Ye thought it better that way, thinking it was yer fault and ye were a reminder of Da’s passing.”

“I was a — aye… I did shut myself out. But only cause I thought ye couldna bear to see my face. It’s cause of me, Jenny and you know it is!”

“Jamie…” a pause.

“He died and I wasna even there to say goodbye.” I wasn’t sure but it sounded like Jamie was crying.

“Ah bràthair, yer face is no’ too good lookin’ but I could bear to see it. All this time I thought ye hated me.”

“No, Jenny, I dinna hate ye. It was you who I thought hated me, for takin’ Da away from you.”

This heart to heart was gut wrenching to listen to. Jamie had blamed himself for so many years and distanced himself from the only sister he had. And Jenny had spent all this time thinking she was to blame.

“Yer a fool, James Fraser and ye know it. Can we have this over and done wi’ now? I’d like to have ye back in my life and I’d really like to ken yer woman out there.”

“Aye. As long as ye forgive me?”

“Of course bràthair.”

I turned my face forward as I heard their approaching footsteps. Jamie came up behind me and rested his hand on my shoulder.

“Mo nighean donn, I need to feed ye.”

“Yes sir, you do.” He laughed, a sight I hadn’t seen in awhile. Seeing the joy on his face stirred something in me that I feared had been lost.

“Will you stay and eat with us, Jenny?” I asked, noticing her looking over towards the door.

“Aye,” Jamie answered for her, “She will.”

We spent the evening eating, drinking - water for me - and telling Jenny of how we met. Our embarrassing, on both ends, encounter in the men’s restroom. The first date we had and finally my diagnosis. It was nice to meet someone that was so much a part of Jamie. All throughout dinner he kept his hand on my thigh and I felt that thing stir in me again; hope.

#four years fic #jamie x claire #mclairefras #july 29 2014 #jenny fraser murray #jamie fraser #claire fraser #claire beauchamp #outlander fanfic

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nctjpeg · 7 years

Text

alright, i’ve had the whole day to think about it, so now here’s what I wanna say about Jonghyun.

I know that I literally don’t matter at all, and my words mean nothing, but this is just for myself.

I woke morning (or afternoon, to be honest) and when I read the news, I wanted to believe it was all a hoax. That some hater had tried to start up some sort of media frenzy by saying a member of SHINee had died. When I first read the news, that’s immediately what I assumed. Shortly after that I came to the realization that this isn’t a cruel joke, or a hoax, or a nightmare, this was very very real. I didn’t cry at first, I felt literally nothing at first. I was totally numb from the shock I guess. I’ve been crying on and off, but it still feels unreal. This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to celebrate SHINee’s 10th anniversary and think about all they’ve accomplished, I was so excited to look back on 10 years of SHINee, 10 years of 5 wonderful talented men who still mean the world to me. I wish I could’ve told him how much I love him, I wonder if it would’ve made him smile, even just for a little while. I wish I could hug him and tell him he’s not alone.

The grief of losing him hit me after I finally had time to sit alone and think about what had happened. It hit again when I told my mom what happened (and she’s been very understanding, thankfully). He’s all I can think about. I listen to SHINee’s music and I hear his voice, I still can’t believe that he’s gone. It makes me so sad that I won’t get to see Jonghyun smile anymore, or laugh anymore, or release more music, or perform on stage with his members that he loves so much. I know that for the past few years i’ve focused on B.A.P so what i’m saying probably sounds really fake, but SHINee is the group that got me into K-Pop and i’ve never forgotten that. I’m thankful everyday that they lead me into this fandom with their talent and charm.

I stumbled upon SHINee when I was 12 years old, and they’ve been with me for exactly 1/3rd of my life (since i’m 18 now). With Jonghyun’s passing, it also feels like a part of my life has died too. That may be insensitive to say, but it’s how I feel. When I really think about it, so many of my happiest memories involve SHINee, and by extension, Jonghyun. For example:

When I was younger, I used to stay up late watching funny videos of SHINee on variety shows. I first fell in love with their looks, but immediately I found out how amazing they are.

During the 8th grade, when SHINee released their Misconceptions albums, I would download them right before leaving for school so I could listen to their newest songs during class. I even scraped together enough pocket change so I could pay my mom back the difference.

So many of my road trips back in middle school consisted of the same dozen SHINee songs played over, and over.

My ex-best friend and I used to write stories about us hanging out with SHINee (and also dating our favorite members because of course that had to happen) and honestly, Jonghyun was my favorite “character” to write in the stories. He was the most fun. We were so proud of our writing back then (though trust me, we were 12, so it wasn’t very good)

I ended up seeing SHINee in concert twice, and I screamed the lyrics to all my favorite songs

I saved so many photos of SHINee to my old laptop and iPhone 3GS, and even had a set of wallpapers my computer would cycle through everyday.

I used to want to dress like SHINee, too. I wanted to have the colored skinny jeans and cool t-shirts and stuff like they wore. If I found something that was “SHINee color” I HAD to have it.

I used to wear bracelets with their names on them every day until about 9th grade. I even slept in them. Yeah it was strange but I LOVED them.

Another memory that involves my ex-best friend: we would play their music ALL THE TIME while hanging out. Be it from their CD’s or our phones or whatever. Our entire friendship basically revolved around SHINee.

When I was fourteen, I finally put up my SHINee posters, and I remember one time I kissed them. I forget why I did this? I think I was just really proud of them one day?

I think my SHINee filled memories are very special to me because that was a time where I was still so innocent. I was only starting to grow up and find out who I was. In a way, my first loves were Lee Jinki, Kim Jonghyun, Kim Kibum, Choi Minho, and Lee Taemin. It was about at the age of fourteen that I started to struggle with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. I always admired Jonghyun for being so open about his struggles with mental health. Especially when most people don’t want to talk about such things, he was so brave for doing so. It gave a lot of hope to a lonely teen who’s parents wouldn’t believe her when she said she wanted a therapist. When I was in such a dark place, SHINee’s music was able to ease my pain. I wish that I could’ve done more to help Jonghyun, even while being an ocean away from him. I love him. I love him so much. I don’t want to believe that he’s gone. He was so wise, and so smart, so talented, so kind, and so caring. I know that he loved his fans, he loved SHINee, and he was such a beautiful soul who left us all too soon. I hope wherever he is, that he’s finally at peace. I hope wherever he is, that he is happy. I’ll never ever forget him, and the happiness he brought me just by being himself.

I’m going to miss you, Kim Jonghyun.

#lizzy's personal posts #long post

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creepypasta-fictions · 7 years

Text

The Teacher (pt.7)

HEADS UP: Filler is finally here! Had the biggest writers block ever.

On her final day of Harvard, before it closed for safety reasons, Susan decided to take a treck through the woods, and photograph anything she found suspicious. Yes, she was slightly disappointed that this would impair her education, but she was even more disappointed because she thought the investigation was going to stop. Well, she overheard Mr Blackburn and Mr Andrews talking about it whilst she was walking past the principal’s office earlier that week before Mr Blackburn was arrested…

“Sir, is it really necessary to close the school?!” Mr Blackburn protested.

“I’ve already told you, Christian, your job is over!”

“But what am I supposed to do if there are any more murders?!”

“Nothing. And there won’t be. The case is gonna be closed.”

“Oh, that’s sure sly, Steve! I was helping you out! I thought you had my back! And now they’re gonna let me go down for this?!”

“Better you than anyone else.” The principal snapped.

Susan fought the urge to gasp. Could it be possible that the principal of Harvard was also involved with the murders?! It was funny, since he took exactly the same schedule off as Mr Blackburn, during which time, they could have gone to Connecticut and did their dirty work there… could it be possible that Mr Andrews was helping Mr Blackburn?

Susan knew she couldn’t tell this to the police. It would surely threaten her return to Harvard. In fact, she knew she would be expelled if the principal was roped into the investigation, whether or not he was an accomplice. Which lead her to question which of the two was more important: Susan’s education, or justice for the victims? And possibly saving lives of multiple law student victims yet to come in both states?

***

Before she proceeded to enter the woods, she thought she would wait for Mr Andrews to leave, just to see what would happen. She had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a good thing. Since winter was coming and the nights were drawing in, it was getting dark quickly, and before she knew it, Susan was surrounded by a starry sky. She lay on the grass and looked up at the constellations. Suddenly, for a split second, a shooting star flew by past Harvard. Closing her eyes, Susan wished for justice for Amy. All the time she spent waiting, she kept her eyes mainly focused on one certain star; the brightest star in the entire sky. And she couldn’t help but think of Amy.

Out of nowhere, she heard a familiar soft voice coming from beside her.

“You know Susie, they say that stars shine at their brightest when they’re at the end of their life. As if they’re about to explode. Remember in 8th grade when we did astronomy?”

“Yeah, I remember, Amy. You used to say that you always dreamed of being the brightest star, and now you are,” she pointed up at the bright shining star in the sky.

“No, Susie, that’s you. Everything is in your hands now. It’s your job to stop the killer.”

“Can you tell me who killed you?” Susan asked. She held her breath, waiting for a reply. But there was nothing but silence.

Susan sat up, taking a gander at her surroundings. But there was nobody there. There were no sounds of footsteps to signify that anyone had gone away. Amy wasn’t really there. Amy was dead. And Susan was sitting in the middle of the Harvard grounds, staring at the stars and hearing her voice. She didn’t know how much longer she could take this.

She was about to lunge up when she heard quiet footsteps coming from outside the main entrance. A silhouette of a portly bald man came into view. Unfortunately, it was so dark that she could not see where he was looking. To keep on the safe side, Susan lurked in the bushes, watching as the man whom was quite clearly Mr Andrews, as he loaded a large trunk into his car, struggling and grunting as he did this.

What the fuck was in that trunk?

She decided it was best to run away before the engine started and she got caught in the fog lights of Mr Andrews’ fancypants vehicle. However, she did stare at him as he drove off, down the path into the woods. Realising this was a life or death matter, Susan decided to follow him. Her awkward lanky legs became springs at the moment, every footstep leaving a crash, almost as loud as her heart was beating. She followed the trail of fucked up dust left behind until she saw Mr Andrews getting out of his car. Not wanting to be seen, she slipped behind a tree, her feet scraping onto the piles of crunchy, decaying winter leaves.

Hauling the trunk out of the back seat, he set it down carefully up on the pile of leaves. After that, he leaned back on his car, and crossed his arms. He remained that way for about ten minutes, until a second car drew up, a few yards away from Mr Andrews’ car. Out stepped a tall ominous figure, one that was becoming very familiar to Susan.

“A Honda Prelude, huh?” Mr Andrews asked inquisitively, giving the rather unfamiliar looking car a once-over.

“Yep, first one I picked up from the parking lot by the gas station. Y’know, the one down the road from the Sherrif’s office.” Mr Blackburn’s voice responded. At this moment, if there was any chance of her remaining unseen, Susan would have growled out loud, maybe even screamed. How the hell did he get released so damn early?

Then she realised.

There was no fucking evidence.

Shit.

This was her moment. And Susan knew it. She was 99% sure the burden of proof lay upon her that Mr Blackburn was guilty of these murders. She now knew that she had to find that extra 1%.

She continued to spy on the two shifty men.

“So, when did you get out?” Mr Andrews asked, as he began rummaging through the large trunk in which he had brought from Harvard.

Mr Blackburn shrugged, seemingly unfazed by this huge ordeal. And it pissed Susan off even more. “Meh, about three hours ago. I got your text, had to go and take care of some stuff and then I came straight here for my share of the deal.” During the last part of the sentence, Mr Blackburn’s tone turned to a slimy one, almost like a hungry beast from a fantasy movie.

“When you say stuff, what kind of stuff? Did you do what I asked you to do?”

“Yeah, and more besides. I went to the Harvard enrollment department. I unenrolled Higginson from the degree course, so when Harvard opens again, which shouldn’t take long, she’ll be gone. And we can get back to business as usual, right?”

Susan gasped. She had been expelled for trying to uncover the truth. Although she was not going to let this stop her.

“What even is business as usual anymore?” Mr Andrews muttered, scratching the back of his head. His eyes kept darting around from place to place, almost as if he had a sixth sense, and could feel that he was being watched. And the perplexed look on his now sweaty face, also indicated he knew who was watching him. Yet he didn’t act on this.

“You know, Steve! We rob the victims, then we sell all their items! That’s why the police can never find any evidence!” Mr Blackburn hissed.

“That’s exactly why I brought this.” Mr Andrews pulled up a large sack out of his trunk of what looked to be stolen goods.

“Does this mean I finally get my payment?” Mr Blackburn asked impatiently.

“Yep. God help you if the police got their hands on this shit,” Mr Andrews croaked sarcastically, handing the bag to Mr Blackburn. They both started cackling maniacally. Susan had decided she had had enough at this point. They had angered her to the point her blood was fully boiled. Their little midnight gathering criminal party was over.

Grabbing her phone from her pocket, she hit the “flashlight” button and pointed it in the direction of the two men, who froze on the spot.

Suddenly spooked at this moment, a part of Susan’s mind knew that this could be the last thing she ever did, and was about to meet the same fate as Amy and all the other victims before her.

“HIGGINSON!” Mr Andrews bellowed, echoing around the woods.

Susan instinctively marched forward, with purposely heavy footsteps to try and give the appearance she was exuding with confidence, however, on the inside, she was shitting her pants.

“Reckon you’ve exposed us now, have you?” Mr Blackburn sneered. “Getting men arrested yesterday for stealing a car? Nice move. Too bad they couldn’t prove anything!” He spat. This caused the two men to burst out in cackles of evil laughter. Susan, however, was not amused by their cockiness.

“Aww, why the scowly face, Susie?” Mr Andrews mimicked. “Scared we’re gonna kill you next?”

“Tell me what’s in the trunk and I won’t call the police. I have an alibi this time; stolen goods. There’s no way that came from the school. Nor did any of the contents in there. So not only are you two murderers, but you also ROB the victim’s?!”

“You’re off your head, Higginson. People like you are the reason I had to close Harvard.”

“Why? Because you’re scared that if you didn’t someone else would catch you strangling or stabbing someone?!” Susan yelled.

“No, because we were afraid of this happening! Okay, we may be thieves, but I am certainly not the killer!” Mr Blackburn snapped.

“Higginson, you’ve got no proof, and you’re gonna get yourself into legal trouble if you don’t stop playing Detective here,” Mr Andrews laughed ghoulishly, causing Mr Blackburn to join in. What they didn’t realise amongst their fits of laughter, was that Susan had picked up a very heavy tree branch, and, not thinking about her actions, swung it with all her strength so that it knocked down the two men.

Dropping the stick, she heard the men grunt in pain, clutching their noses. Neither of them were knocked down. This gave Susan some time to run forward, grab the trunk and bolt towards Mr Blackburn’s latest stolen car. This was literally how she got him arrested, but at this point she didn’t give a shit. She just knew what she had to do. Just as she frantically put the key into the ignition, the two men had realised what had happened and were struggling to their feet.

“Get back here! You won’t get away with this, Higginson!” But she was already driving off with the trunk in the back seat. She was driving in the middle of the forest. It was dark. She was unlicensed. She had just committed a battery on two different people. She had just stolen a car. She had broken the law. But none of that mattered to her. All that mattered was getting the trunk to the police station.

***

She parked the stolen car outside of the Sherrif’s county office and brought the trunk inside. At this hour, the place was virtually empty, so it didn’t take long for an officer to come and see her.

***

“Unfortunately, Susan, Christian Blackburn was released yesterday as we could not prove that any of the murder inquiries linked to him. However, he was charged with car theft but was bailed out yesterday.”

“Bailed out by who? Was it Steven Andrews?”

“I’m not at liberty to say, I’m afraid. So, what is in this trunk?”

“Stolen goods, as far as I’m aware. Mr Andrews has got Mr Blackburn a little “business” so that he kills law students, and Mr Andrews robs the victims and gives the stolen goods to Mr Blackburn. I overheard them discussing their little business, and then I found them in the woods with this trunk, so I decided to take it here. It needs to be investigated.”

Two minutes later, Susan was sitting in a room with five officers, who were opening the large trunk. She was watching, shakily sipping a glass of water. Suddenly, as the lid was lifted, she sidled over to the table and gasped in horror at the amount of stolen goods that were in there. She was given a pair of gloves and started helping the officers shift through.

“Susan, maybe you can be of help to us in separating each victim’s belongings?” One suggested.

“I’m sorry sir, the only things I’ll be familiar with are things belonging to Amy Parker,” Susan choked on her words, feeling the tears again. But she chose to be strong, despite how difficult this was.

The most emotional part came when she pulled out a liquid eyeliner pen from a small plastic bag which was labelled “trash” inside the trunk. This liquid eyeliner was similar to Susan’s own. In fact, no. It was exactly the same. The label was a bit chipped off, but that was because of how old it was. At this point, Susan was thinking only one thing;

How in the hell could they label this trash?

“Susan?” A lady officer snapped her out of her thoughts.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was just remembering….”

The officer placed a hand on Susan’s shaky shoulders. “We understand what you’re going through, we really do, but this investigation cannot be emotionally orientated. If you give us any information, you must be factually sure. I am also very aware that you have extensive knowledge about the law already, which is why we encourage your help.”

“I know. But this eyeliner, it belonged to Amy. I even remember the day she tried it on. Her wings were always on fleek, but mine, I hadn’t ever worn it before so mine were a bit of a fail. I don’t usually tend to wear makeup that much, but sometimes, just… for Amy, y’know?”

The officer nodded, smiling. “Well have another dig through all this stuff and see if you can find anything else that belongs to Amy. Once we are done testing it for evidence, we will send it back to her family.”

“It has to be stuff she carried in her bag at all times. I remember she was carrying her bag on the day she was murdered.”

Suddenly, Susan saw and snatched Amy’s handbag, the one in which she was holding the last time she was seen alive. It had been emptied, and robbed of everything she carried in it. “How could they do this to her?” Susan cried out loud.

****

-time skip-

Anne wouldn’t stop crying that night, going over countless of Amy’s things. Susan stayed to comfort her, of course, and to help her sort out Amy’s valuables.

“You know, Susan…” she said in between sniffs. “I don’t think I can possibly keep any of this stuff, with her not being here anymore. It just reminds me of how much she suffered! I’ve already gotten rid of my copy of her autopsy report, because it’s basically a document telling me how my daughter was tortured in her last moments alive!”

“I understand, Anne. I really do. Obviously for scrutiny purposes, I’m going to keep my copy, but don’t think that it doesn’t upset me. It would be wrong of me to say I was hurting on the same level as you, as she was your only daughter,”

“No, no, no, Susie, you can’t think like that! You’ve been a good friend to Amy for years! She was always saying how much you supported her, through everything, and she loved you! You were important to her, Susie, and I think if the decision was placed in her hands, she’d want you to have everything in this bag,”

Susan hesitantly took the bag out of Anne’s fragile hands. “I don’t know if I can keep this either, but I understand what you mean when you say Amy would’ve wanted this. She wouldn’t want to cause you grief by holding onto this.”

***

That night, Susan decided to sort through the bag of Amy’s belongings. From makeup to old CDs that they used to listen to together, on their long summer drives, to a little friendship bracelet Susan had given her in 8th grade. There was even a white tank top that had blue stains all over it. Susan let out a single laugh, when she found this shirt. She remembered that day like it was yesterday. She and Amy had decided to go into town. It was freshman year, and they both had decided to skip school and go get some ice cream. When Susan mentioned a situation about a silly boy, Amy laughed just a little too hard, and... well, she got blueberry icecream all over her white shirt. Her mom was mad, of course, but to Amy, it was all one big light hearted joke. Everything was a light hearted joke to Amy.

Susan longed for it to be a light hearted joke for her too. But she couldn’t allow that. There were peoples lives at stake, and perhaps she could find an alternative clue in this bag. First, she pulled out what she believed to be Amy’s latest phone. She had the iPhone 8, and the screen was as cracked as Susan’s heart. It looked as if someone had smashed a hammer against it.

She tried switching the phone on, but of course, it needed a pass code, and it was freezing cold as it hadn’t been turned on in weeks.

In hope of finding something significant, Susan continued rummaging through the plastic bag. She pulled out a pair of earphones, the ones that Amy always had either in her ears or could be seen hanging out of her pocket. Susan remembered the times when they were both in class together and they got bored so Amy would put some music on her phone, and always give Susan one of her headphones, and they would have a discrete classroom party.

Amy’s purse was missing, of course. She should have guessed that Mr Andrews and Mr Blackburn would’ve taken it during their raid of her bag. Speaking of her bag - her school bag, that is - Susan worked her way around until she came to it, and looked inside, curious to see what exactly it was that the two men had taken, even if it was not of any value to them. She found Amy’s folder, and decided to pour through all the law work that she had done in class, just to see if Mr Blackburn had written anything that eluded to the fact he hated her. There was nothing that jumped out at Susan, in particular, however she did notice an array of criticisms on the essay she wrote on Mens Rea for Murder.

Such included, ‘Try not to use ongoing enquiries, you can use existing cases to stablilise your definition’

This was written when Amy had mentioned the current serial killer on the loose. She had mentioned the fact that repeated offences were evidence of direct Intention to murder. This probably pissed off Mr Blackburn; hence why he grew colder and colder towards her in the last few weeks of her life.

Susan emptied the handbag, and took out any folders, a hairbrush, and whatever makeup might have been in there.

Now, you’d think that once she removed all these things, she’d set the bag aside. But she didn’t. And she didn’t know why, either. It was as if something was controlling her hand, forcing her to dig back into the bag, and pull out a single tissue on its own. There was no packet, no other tissues, just one individual tissue, crumpled up and slightly muddy from being on the ground. However, there was one thing that really caught Susan’s attention. A stain on the corner of the tissue. The stain started off red, and then eventually turned to dark brown as it grew more inwards.

Confused, Susan peered inside the bag once more. And what she found, was absolutely terrifying...

***

To be continued....

HEADS UP: Hey! I know this was meant to be like a filler but it didn’t really turn out that way I guess, it was too eventful and I decided to lump a bunch of things together. What do you guys think was in the bag? Find out in the next chapter! Thank you for sticking with me (and Susan) on this journey for justice! Much love!

~ Talia

#short horror stories #short horror story #chapter 7 #teacher #harvard #fiction #fiction blog #creepypasta #creepy story

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marvelandponder · 7 years

Photo

DEAR GOD... IT’S COMIC-CON

Welcome, one and all, to the biggest Pony news day of the year!

For those of you who maybe haven’t been following the fandom closely around Comic-Con in previous years, the community has come to expect news, clips, animatics, even full trailers! Lucky for those of us without the necessary pocket change, every spoilerific tidbit is live-blogged for our enjoyment by our friends at Equestria Daily, and the clips released afterwards online by Hasbro.

So, expect spoilers below the break with commentary and hyper fangirling! (Note: This post will be updated as clips and more news come out)

NEWS! CLIPS! SOME OTHER THIRD THING!

My Little Pony: The Movie

Two sneak peaks and a SONG were shown! I’ll update the post when they’re released online. There was also an intro video to the panel where the cast of the movie talked a tiiiny bit about their characters (we’ll hopefully see that online, too).

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The song was sung by Rainbow Dash and Captain Celeano (the pirate birb), and it’s a song called “Time to be Awesome” sung to the pirates to rally them into rebellion against the Storm King.

Sneak peek #1 was about the mane 6 leaving Equestria for the first time heading south, and sneak peek #2 was about the Storm King using some kind of potion to essentially video chat with Commander Tempest.

They couldn’t spoil too much more of the movie after that, but the panelists were prompted to use one word to describe something about the movie:

“"Broken." "Musical." "Spongecake." "One small thing." (Okay, Pinkie.) "Therapy." (Aw, 'Shy.) "Not a big enough par--" "Granny, how'd you get here?" "Flushed," said Rarity. "Windmill," says AJ. "AWESOME." "Festival," Ms. Sparkle.” (from EQD)

Here were a few screenshots and pictures displayed at the MLP Booth

My Little Pony Season 7

Surprisingly, they didn’t show off any real clips for season 7 or reveal much info at the panel, but if you’ve been following pony news in the past few days (AND Friday night!), we got some stuff that’s really exciting!

So, we’ll get the old stuff out of the way first: if you don’t know, we have most of the summaries for season seven and you can read those here. Season 7 part 2 is set to premiere August 5th with two amazing episodes, Discordant Harmony and The Perfect Pear. With Fame and Misfortune on the 12th, Triple Threat on the 19th, and Campfire Tails airing on the 26th!

That last one is especially important, because we now know it’s going to tie into the first arc of the Legends of Magic comic line!

There’s two short trailers with action-y clips out already:

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and an extended version:

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But even more than that, we know the Legends of Magic comics tie into the finale, as well!!!

The 7th issue of Legends of Magic, set to come out in October, “ties into the finale” and with an Avengers-like storyline to boot: “You’ve met the most legendary ponies in Equestria’s history… now find out how they first came together to battle an unstoppable evil!”

Exactly how that story ties into the finale remains to be seen, but this is the most well-integrated the show has EVER been with its comic line. Oh, and as someone whose been following the Legends of Magic comic line and getting more and more invested (it’s one of the best arcs they’ve ever done), I can say that you won’t need to read the comics to enjoy and understand what’s going on.

It’s excellent, top-quality bonus material that tells you stories after the important ones that are talked about in Campfire Tails, but both the comics themselves and it seems the episodes of the show will be able to stand on their own.

Oh, and for the record: season 8 was confirmed long ago (as was Discord’s inclusion), but a few days ago Daniel Ingram teased that he was working with a very talented singer for season 8. So, there’s a lot on the horizon!

UPDATE: This isn’t from Comic-Con per se, but the news just dropped about the episode titles for the last three episodes of the season!

Episode 24: Uncommon Bond Episode 25: Shadow Play Part 1 Episode 26: Shadow Play Part 2

Now here’s what’s cool about the season finale title (aside from the fact that it’s just objectively cool): there’s a few options for who that could be.

A few days ago Discovery Family announced the second half of the season, in which they described a few things:

“Throughout the second half of the season, Pharynx learns that love is a strength and not a weakness, Twilight Sparkle battles the Pony of Shadows, famous author A.K. Yearling teases a new novel, the Cutie Mark Crusaders learn that nothing is impossible with courage and strength, and much more!” (x)

The identity of which is still a big mystery...

Equestria Girls

No actual news for EQG, I’m afraid, but they did make some jokes in the Q&A portion that CONFIRM MY DAMN HEADCANONS SO I’M TAKING IT AS CANON UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE YOU CAN’T STOP ME

Q: Any chance Celestia is Sunset Shimmer's mother? Meghan: There is NOW! We may need you to sign some papers.

VALIDATION! SWEET, SWEET VALIDATION!

OKAY, BUT IF YOU KNOW ME YOU KNOW THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER-LIKE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TEACHERS AND THEIR STUDENTS IN THIS SHOW GIVE ME LIFE.

Q: Why doesn't Twilight write to the Princess anymore? Tara Strong: She uses email. She's a great texter. I dunno. Meghan McCarthy: That's my fault, that we stopped doing that. We felt she evolved as a character and her relationship with Celestia was changing, so she didn't have a need to update her in that way. Mike Vogel: More time to spend with her daughter, Sunset.

THEY ACKNOWLEDGED IT. EVEN IF IT WAS A JOKE, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED IT.

Also, there are three kinds of people in this world, apparently.

Q: Is Sunset ever going back to the pony world? Meghan McCarthy: ... yes. Mike Vogel: For a three-day weekend.

To visit her mom, obviously...

Q: Will Discord change if he goes through the portal? Meghan McCarthy: Oooh. He would change. That's just science. Cathy Wesluck: All his parts would just fall off.

So Discord would actually change going through the portal. Into what, we may never know, but at least we know he’s not immune.

It would be funny if his multiple parts just changed into different parts, though. Like, the translation process is still one-for-one, so he’s basically the same structure with different animals.

UPDATE: And for those wondering, it’s been confirmed that there’s more EQG on the way by Big Jim on Twitter:

We know for a fact there’s at least two new music videos coming out sometime this year because they were leaked in Russian, but at least we know there’s more EQG beyond that in 2018!

IDW Comics

In addition to the crazy things going on with the Legends of Magic line, IDW previewed a few pages from the Movie Prequel line of their comics: this time, Captain Celeano!

Much like the Legends of Magic comics, these seem to be smaller stories that give us a little background on the new characters, but won’t be necessary reading for the movie.

There’s also not a ton of reports out about what was actually said during the panel, but that might be because IDW had other brands to focus on presenting (Star Trek, Transformers, etc.).

Overall + Other Convention News

So, that’s about it for SDCC 2017, and we got a few great things, but if that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, don’t worry too much.

Hasbro’s first ever convention, HasCon (... yes that’s really what they went with), is set for September 8th-10th with a panel line-up that already has me drooling:

The Voices of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Have you ever wondered what it's like to be the voice behind a pony? Straight from the pony's mouth, learn about what it takes to bring iconic characters to life with just a script and a mic.

From Ponyville to Canterlot High – History of Equestria Girls Join master storyteller, screenwriter and lyricist Meghan McCarthy as she shares the inspiration behind Equestria Girls and gives a peek at what adventures the Equestria Girls are going on next. Be the first to see the new product line and hear first hand from the Equestria designers as they share how they bring to life our Mane 7 ‘s unique personalities!

My Little Pony Designer Q&A Join members of the My Little Pony design team as they take you on a journey through four generations of pony product. Designers will answer questions, giving a behind-the-scenes look at how they have made their (cutie) mark on My Little Pony and proving that you're never too old to play with ponies.

The Making of My Little Pony: The Movie Join master storyteller, screenwriter, and lyricist Meghan McCarthy as she shares her experience in creating the first feature film for My Little Pony. Find out how the Mane 6 inspired her to discover the importance of teamwork and friendship along the way. Includes an exclusive sneak preview of the film!

First Look at My Little Pony Season 8! The adventures of the Mane 6—Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack—continue with the 8th season of the beloved My Little Pony Series in 2018. Renowned storyteller, screenwriter, and lyricist Meghan McCarthy will join fans to present the first look the Season 8 premiere exclusively at HASCON!

And yes, I realize the irony of putting this section into a post about SDCC, but I do it for a good reason. Normally, SDCC is the biggest Pony news day of the year, but that’s just not the case now that Hasbro can dedicate 45 minutes EACH to the main show, Equestria Girls, and the Movie!

This is especially important (and relevant to this post) because the decision to make the SDCC MLP panel just about the movie was a last minute thing. They had things about the remainder of season 7 and EQG that they were prepared to share, but were probably told to hold off on it because of HasCon.

So, I just wanted to let you know this won’t be the last post like this this year, and that there’s even more exciting news on the horizon.

If you need more pony RIGHT NOW (which is my constant state of being), you could always take a look at my editorials or episode reviews! Here, have an end slate because pretty pictures:

Daybreaker Editorial, LGBT+ Editorial, and Trailer Analysis

Or see the whole year’s selection of stuff right here:

Year of the Pony

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theparaminds · 5 years

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Aimless. Drifting. Wandering. All words that summarize the fleeting moments before adulthood. For James Ivy, these words summarized the state he used to exist within. Yet now, he finds himself engulfed by the musical clarity he has continuously sought for. Finally, he is free from personal shackles and able to become an artistic individual of the most vulnerable and honest degree.

He admits himself that much of his music is aimed at conjuring up past nostalgia. But this is not simply so one can become reminiscent, no, it is also so that one becomes reflective. In the same way he’s had to trace his life and express the difficulties within his growth, he asks all to do the same. To find the voice tucked away behind walls of self-doubt. Of course, this is also in the pursuit of creating new memories, ones which are even greater than the past.

James Ivy isn’t just making music, he’s truly building a sonic landscape of understanding and expression. One that’s a warm hug on a cold day and a calming reassurance that all will be ok. It’s an environment where no mask is to be worn and where all can bare the depths of their souls without fear. It’s a freedom that all desire, and that all deserve. And if you were to currently summarize James and that landscape, you would simply say; hopeful, passionate and visionary.

This interview was recorded live in New York.

Our first question as always, how’s your day going and how have you been?

Good man, the day’s going good. I had class this morning and it's the last week of school before spring break. I’ve been just laying low a bit and, ya know, just living day by day.

To begin, one of my favorite things about you is your thigh tattoo of Bloo from Foster’s Home. When did you decide you were going to get that and what is the significance of Bloo to you?

I was always a big Cartoon Network stan. Disney channel not really, maybe some Nickelodeon, but Cartoon Network I always watched non-stop as a kid. I used to watch Foster’s Home a lot with my dad. I guess I don’t really care too much about the meanings of my tattoos, I have a house on my arm and it's just like a house, not really much more, just a cool house. The Bloo thing was sorta a spur of the moment where I was visiting friends in Austin, Texas and my friend Luke had just gotten the three line super S from when you're a kid on his arm, as kind of like a joke. And I was like, fuck, maybe I should get one. They egged me on and I just jumped to Bloo from Fosters’. They made it way bigger than I thought they were going to, and it was a super thick line too and hurt like hell. I mean, I guess what I told my parents was that in the show Bloo was the one imaginary friend that was never gonna be adopted because the kid who made him up, never stopped believing in him. So it’s a little corny but it is a cute sentiment about never losing your child side and your imagination.

While growing, what else was it around you and coming throughout your life that was impacting your personal, but more so artistic, development?

I guess I started piano lessons when I was 6 with my mom, and my dad was helping me get into sports at the same time. I learned for 6 years on and off and I was better when I was younger, having lost some the skill. But it gave me a basic understanding of music theory. I listened to a lot of music growing up. Some of it was trash because I didn't have an older sibling to show me the way. My dad showed me bands like Genesis, Yes and Rush. Bands like that. My mom showed me New Order and a lot of new wave dance music. So it was a weird mix of shit, but I ultimately started getting into hip hop and a lot of post-hardcore music. I think that has been the most shaping music to me as an artist which is kinda crazy because I almost resent it in a weird way. I wish I had been brought up listening to the classics because I had to find all that on my own. I started producing when I was around 13 or 14 years old. My older cousin showed me a Skrillex song at a wedding in Florida for one of our relatives, and I just remember being like “holy shit this is nuts.”. I didn’t have an in-depth understanding of electronic music at the time, but when you’re young and impressionable, anything that’s new or different sort of entices you. I got into producing electronic music and had some fun with it, but as I got older it wasn’t really creatively fulfilling. It's been a weird journey for sure and I still feel I’m learning and catching up in some regards.

But how would you reflect upon the past year specifically and the challenges and growth you’ve gone through currently compared to those of a younger you?

I really feel that since coming here to New York I’ve had some of the best experiences of my life. I met some of my best friends in my life. I feel like through the people I’ve been around, I’ve become directly inspired by them. Being in an environment where you have friends who are into music the same way you are, not just over the internet, it's amazing because you grow together and it has become exponential the way we have been growing as artists. I even look at the stuff I was doing with Harry freshman year and I thought it was the best shit ever, and now we realize how far we actually have come. It's exciting.

In your honest opinion, what is the greatest album ever created or at least one you have been constantly coming back to?

Phewwww. Putting me on the spot. It changes all the time, and I definitely can't speak for the best ever created from an objective view. There’s this Dance Gavin Dance record that I’ve been listening to since I was a kid, so I guess I have nostalgia glasses on for it. It’s called Downtown Battle Mountain 2. If I were to name one album that I’ve heard since coming to college that has been my favorite, it would be Heaven or Las Vegas by the Cocteau Twins. I can’t believe I was sleeping on that album for so long.. A lot of the writing on that record still blows my mind when I listen to it.

Going into these next months, where are you trying to steer your creative vision towards and what are you trying to say with some of the new work you're putting out?

A lot of my writing recently has been a real process for sure. I'm still learning every day and trying to improve. For a while, I was testing myself to write lyrics that are simple on paper but that can be impactful in context of the instrumental surrounding it. Some of my favorite artists, like American Pleasure Club and Dijon, have lyrics that aren't overly complicated but hit home for some reason. I think that's what I was shooting for. But more recently, I’ve been trying more to construct lyrics that mean a lot to me, because for a while I got into a bad habit of detaching from the music a little bit and creating stuff that was for other people, so to speak. A lot of the new stuff is based on memories for me. I want songs to sonically sound like memories that I have. There are certain songs for me that are places and events and time frames in my life, and capturing that nostalgia and bringing it into a form that’s tangible is what I’m trying to accomplish.

What was then some of your personal best memories growing up and why do they mean so much to your life?

The summer of 8th grade. Being on my bike and being a kid freely every single day. I grew up in a suburban town in New Jersey so there’s not much to do besides biking around going to the school to play basketball and swim in people’s pools. That was so fun. The bliss you can experience during that period of childhood innocence is hard to emulate that at any other point in our lives. Summer before college is another really great memory in my head. It’s sorta like how you feel in middle school, but you’re way older, and it’s a lot different. It’s more coming of age shit that’s happening then.

Then would you say you create for yourself as a personal reflection and therapy and just see the way others take it as an afterthought?

I think it varies song to song. I think my stance on it is from this quote that said that there comes a time after you put out your music that it no longer is only yours. I think that's the best way to put it. There are songs that I can’t listen to anymore that I made, but seeing other people resonate with them means a lot, even if I can’t relate to that song anymore. But seeing other people enjoying it is the best feeling. For a while, I couldn’t even comprehend that people were enjoying my music, so when you really see that in action it’s like a dumbfounding feeling. There’s a youtube video of ‘Boxcutter’ and everyone's just telling their life stories in the comments and seeing that is such a trip. I feel like a lot of songs I write quick are therapy songs, like Sick 1999. I find with those I write a sort of stream of consciousness. I wrote Sick after a super raw and emotional moment in my life. I just sat 30 minutes later and wrote it and released it later that night. That's therapy because you're not sick of it yet by killing yourself going through the mixing processes and editing process and scrutinizing every detail. You just did it and you have to sit with it. It's cathartic. If it can help people also that's amazing.

As well, what are some of the goals and overall plans you hope to see through with your new work?

I’m stoked for this year. I’m finishing songs right now that have been in the works since last summer. Some of them have been as recent as last week. I’m just stoked to finish everything and I’ll just be able to release it. I don't want to set anything in stone but there will be music on the way. I also want to start creating more music videos, working on my live show more and really stepping back into the radar again after taking some time to figure out my sound. And then just roll from there.

Do you hope in the rest of your life to touch on other forms of art and into new avenues of music that you may not have thought of currently?

With music, I’d definitely love to try every part of the process. For example, for a while I didn't like my voice and tried to have someone else do it, but I couldn’t imagine that and had to push through the fear. I like having my hands in the creative process so I feel like I want to do everything. Whether that’s directing music videos for my songs that I have concepts for or even just cinematography and editing would be so exciting. I would love to take my music into scoring and films as a long term dream. I just want to be able to create and feel inspired by the world every morning. That's the ultimate goal.

If you could have any one individual, living or dead, come back and critique your music, who would you choose and why them?

Man. I feel like right away my mind goes to Rick Rubin. I just feel like it’s like, “That's the guy who listens to things and tells you what exactly to do!” I’m not sure if it's him definitively, though. I would love to hear what Justin Vernon would have to say or even like Kevin Parker to be honest.

You mentioned for a minute the opportunity of doing live shows. When you do explore that avenue more, how do you hope to make it personal to you and make it a worthwhile experience?

I just want people to have a good time and for them to jam out and dance their asses off. So, I’m trying to make music that’s danceable. I want to recreate the song as best to my ability while also incorporating live instruments. I really want to move forward with having a live band for the upcoming shows, while also incorporating some of the electronic and digital elements that can’t be recreated with an instrument live. I would hate for people to hear my music and come to my show and be like, this isn't as fun as the record. I just want my live show to be fun and I think right now that's what I’m focused on above all. I think performance art is also something I would love to incorporate later down the line, to see it become more cinematic as well. For now, I’m just trying to make it sound tight as fuck.

If you could play a show in one situation or location, where the money isn’t a question, where would you choose?

I don’t know really, maybe Mars? Call up Space X, like “Elon, send me to Mars so I can play the first set on another planet.”

As an overall, what do you want to be the landmarking importance of James Ivy when it’s all said and done? What do you want the first line of your Wikipedia page to say?

I want it to say: ‘James Ivy, the first Asian American artist to ever ‘do it’. Of course, there are a lot of upcoming artists like Joji and Mitski and Yaeji, but I think there's more room for Asian American representation within this scene as a whole. Anyone can do it now, literally, and I don't want to be defined by the way I look to not do something and I think other kids should be able to see someone who looks like them on stage. And if I could do that for other kids, it would be the best thing, really.

Would you say then, the whole part of it is showing there’s no limit on creativity and art as a whole?

It’s something that I want to prove to myself. Something I’ve wanted for a while and it’s something I’ve wanted really bad. Part of it is proving it to myself, that I can do this and that pre-existing barriers don’t matter. Through that, you also prove it to others and I think that’s essential. At the end of the day, I would just be happy to live off music, but to be an inspiration for others in that position would mean the most.

Do you have anyone to shoutout? The floor is yours...

All my friends in New York: Harry, Caleb, Ally, my boys since freshman year. Shoutout to Been Stellar. Shoutout to Instupendo, Maxwell young, Stupidrichkid. They're all doing such great things. And shoutout to my friends from Texas, they know who they are and they’ve helped me a lot. And shoutout to Paraminds, man, thanks for letting me do this interview.

Follow on Instagram and Twitter

Listen on Soundcloud

Photos by Drake Li

Words and Interview by Guy Mizrahi

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thejourneymaninn · 7 years

Text

Fenhanders Week Saturday, 8th

“Saturday, 8th - Let’s Grow Old Together - What does the end look like? Where did the trio end up? This is a time for some angst and goodbyes. Tissues suggested.”

Fenhanders (angst, character deaths, 1560 words)

Read on AO3

Anders keeps fussing over him, pretending that everything’s alright. Trying to spare him the pain. He thinks Fenris doesn’t know he’s been hearing it, thinks he doesn’t know how afraid he is. And how brave. For him. Foolish mage.

Hawke is smiling, even though he can tell that inside, she is crying. For him. Foolish woman. His chest feels too tight to contain the fondness woven into the words. He doesn’t want to leave her, doesn’t want to leave either of them. And still he asks them to let him go; every day, he assures them he is ready. It is the last gentleness he has to give. This simple lie. There is no ready. There is only the inevitable. This all-consuming weakness in his bones, the exhaustion that chains him to this bed. He remembers all the times he was sent into battle. He didn’t fight because he wanted to; he fought because there was no choice. And now he has to give up because there is no choice. The Maker has a poor sense of humour indeed. What use is his freedom now? There is no peace to walk into. Just loss and regret. But…not the regret he once carried. It takes so much out of him, this tiny smile. He wonders if it will be his last one. It would be a good note to leave on. This one little fragment of peace he can clasp in all this cruelty. After all this time, it is finally regret for what will no longer be, not regret for what was. Their love, their lives, entangled, their journey, this house, their home. In the end, he got the one thing he dreamt of. A preposterous dream, a foolish hope. Yet it came true. He was happy, and not just for a little while. Because he found them. And he will find them again. In the next world, and all other worlds that may come. Perhaps there is enough strength left for just one more smile. No. Two. He will manage two. One for each of them.

Your pain screams so loudly it pierces my ears. Every second is agony; some days, you are too weak to even open your eyes. I'm trying to respect your wishes. I have stopped healing you. I take away as much pain as I can, but nothing more. I feed you, but I don't force more into you than you are willing to take. You are slipping, fading right in front of us. The lyrium is burning through your skin, eating you alive, and for all my magic, for all of Justice’s power, there is nothing I can do. Not anymore. You say you are ready to let go. But I am not. I know it’s time, know I should hope for your release. There is so little left of you. And yet I keep clinging, dreading the moment you are longing for. When you will be gone. And we will be alone. With memories and guilt to haunt the years that remain. Please love, don't leave us. Just one more night, just one more breath. I am not ready.

And neither is she. She’s trying to stay strong, but I can tell she’s barely holding up. And so can you. We have both seen that mask before. Bethany. Her mother. She held back her tears then, just as she does now. I can’t tell her about the song. Not yet. Not until you…No. Don’t think about that. How can I put her through that? She’ll be the last one left. Again. I’ll wait until they’re here. To say Goodbye. I don’t think they’ll make it in time. Not for this one. I should have called them sooner, should not have listened to you. Stubborn elf. Wonderful elf. My love. When my time comes, they will be here. I promise. You don’t have to worry about her. They’ll hold her tight and take her with them. Three pirates on the open sea. One more adventure for her. She’ll be alright.

She has to be.

And there goes everything we built, the moments we shared, the meals we cooked, the stories we told, our favourite places...you are in all of them, and they are nothing without you. Crumbling....crashing...who could have known we'd have so little time? A string of moments - and suddenly, none.

Up in the crow’s nest, Hawke is tying a feather and a red piece of cloth into a bandage. She wraps it around the mast, as high as she can reach, and sticks a dagger – the one tied to her father’s blood – right into the middle. The crew will not touch it; Isabela made sure of that. She wriggles the hilt, just to be sure, and nods. Everything is in place, and secure. It will hold. For now. Not forever. Nothing ever lasts forever. She shouldn't have forgotten that. A mistake she will not repeat.

Running her finger over the arrangement, she manages a faint smile. Up high in the air, wind and salt around them and all of the world at their feet. Free. They would have loved it, all three of them. All five. Carver and Bethany shared the same blood. A crease forms between her brows as she reaches out for the dagger again, this time for the blade itself. She watches as the bandage turns red and nods again. There’s more to her blood than her father; her mother deserves freedom too.

She makes sure to use the other hand to stroke the cloth, and the feather, one last time.

I am yours.

I love you.

Always.

They are waiting for her on the deck below, one with a hug, the other with a bottle. Isabela and Merrill. They haven’t left her side since they came to see him. For the last time.

They held her, fed her, washed her. When she felt like she could never get up again, they dragged her out bed, and they keep inviting her into theirs. Hawke can’t shake the feeling that a certain mage encouraged them to. Leaning against the railing, the wind ruffling her hair, she smiles. Always taking care of everyone, even with his last breaths. One day she might take them up on the offer. But not yet. For now she is still faithful. Still grieving.

Anders waited months before he finally told her. She had known, of course. But she kept quiet. For Fenris. And then, for Anders. He thought she wasn’t ready to face it. She knew he wasn’t.

When the time came, when they could no longer desperately put it off, Isabela kept Fenris’ promise for him. She made it quick. And she didn’t let Hawke anywhere near the dagger.

“No, sweet thing. You’ve had to do this for too many people you love already.”

Hawke held him during his last moments, kissed the last smile he would ever give her.

And then she was alone.

At least life had given them a few more years to mourn Fenris together. He was gone. And yet he was everywhere.

Now they both are.

She can’t see them when she goes to sleep, can’t reach either of them, but Justice assures her Fenris’ soul didn’t pass through the fade like those of the dead are said to do. As stubborn in death as he had been in life, Fenris stayed. Waited. And Anders found him.

They are together now, waiting for her. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. The fade knows no time.

She has to believe it. Justice would not lie.

She cried the first time she met him in her dreams. She couldn't find her loves, but Justice found her. And he keeps finding her, almost every night. They talk, like they used to when the others were asleep. Sometimes, he tries to comfort her with hugs. They are too tight, and awkward, and she cherishes every single one of them. Another reason why she prefers to sleep alone, for now. At night, she hasn’t lost them all. Her lovers may be gone, but her friend is still there.

Next to her, the rattle of jewellery, the soothing tones of an old Dalish prayer for the dead.

And a question, a smile, streaks of grey in black hair, every line around her eyes filled with mischief. Her beauty knows no age, her hunger for life no limit.

“So, where do you want to go next?”

The grin she throws Isabela doesn’t have as much force as it used to. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get the old one back. But then, she also thought she’d never smile again.

“Surprise me.”

Before her lies the sea. She will keep her hand firmly closed around the pain and take it with her, as she sails into freedom, her friends at her side. They will share the stories. Varric will write them down.

They will be remembered.

Anders sometimes regretted that they didn’t have children. As they set sail, she finds she is alright with it. An end is an end, and sometimes an end is needed. No more guilt and complicated stories, no more lies. No more Hawkes.

But this one still has a couple of flights left in her.

And when she gets too weak to soar, they will be waiting.

#fenhanders week #teamblueandangry #dragon age fanfiction #fenhanders #angst #character death #grief #anders #fenris #hawke #fics #my fics #fenhanders week 2017

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