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anistarrose · 5 years

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The Liching Hour (TAZ Balance AU)

AO3: archiveofourown.org/works/22963831

Summary: Taako is a lich, but he doesn’t die alongside Barry when his memories start to fade. In fact, he doesn’t die for another whole decade… until he arrives in Refuge, and first hears the clock strike noon.

Characters: Taako, Lup, Barry Bluejeans, Kravitz, Magnus Burnsides, Merle Highchurch

Relationships: Lup & Taako, Kravitz/Taako, Barry Bluejeans/Lup

Additional tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Major Character Undeath, Angst with a Happy Ending, relationships listed in order of focus

“Taako is a lich too” is definitely an AU that’s been done before, but I couldn’t resist giving it my own unique twist! I actually started writing this fic exactly eleven months ago, when I was still fairly new to TAZ, but I forgot all about it until a few weeks ago when I came back to dust it off and finish the last few scenes.

(if you want an accompanying soundtrack for this fic, then I strongly recommend Lifetime Achievement Award by Lemon Demon! the song has big lich energy)

***

The set of planar systems traversed by our IPRE was indescribably vast, but far from the only one of its kind. Over eons, countless other universes are forged and then left to their own devices by elusory, non-interventionist creators — and in more than one of those universes, a ship called the Starblaster takes flight, propelled between planar systems by the strength of the bonds between its crew. In more than one of those universes, members of the IPRE put enough faith in those bonds to undertake a great risk — fusing their life forces with their magic and becoming liches, constructing a failsafe to protect their family from the Hunger that pursues them.

In one of those universes, Taako joins Lup and Barry in taking that risk. The ceremony goes as smoothly as the transformation into a lich can go, and the three of are all able to hold themselves together, thanks to their love for each other and their crewmates...

But when Lucretia feeds her records of their journey to the Voidfish, when Lup is already trapped in the Umbra Staff and Barry cleverly cheats amnesia by falling to his death off the deck of the Starblaster, Taako stays in his living form. Being undead isn’t the first thing he forgets — no, it’s Lup that he loses first, for Taako’s bonds with his twin are more carefully documented in Lucretia’s journals than anything else he’s done or cared about over the century — but the second that awareness of lichdom vanishes from his mind, the second he forgets the safety net he has in place in case of death, a self-preservation instinct kicks in again after nearly two decades of lying dormant. No need to go charging into uncharted and potentially deadly territory — Taako’s good out here.

For over a decade, he avoids death, and he never remembers what happens to him when he dies. Sometimes animals will shy away from him for no apparent reason, and maybe that faint burning sensation that fills his chest whenever Merle channels Pan to cast a healing spell on him is a little weird — but there’s no dogs on the moon and Merle hardly ever casts healing spells in the first place, so Taako just... tries to forget about it when he can, and convince himself it’s normal when he can’t.

He has a vague suspicion that he hasn’t been like this forever, but he can’t remember a clear date of onset for these symptoms, so he just brushes them off and keeps them to himself. It’s no one’s else’s business, anyways.

Or so he thinks, until he meets the Grim Reaper one fateful Candlenights.

***

There are two presents left under the shrub, both in similar silver-wrapped boxes — but one is addressed to all three Reclaimers, and the other is specifically labeled for Taako. Neither indicates the name of the sender.

Magnus and Merle don’t even attempt to hide the jealousy in their stares as they watch Taako pick up his gift, but something compels them to all stay silent and open the boxes as subtly as possibly while the Director makes conversation with Johann on the other side of the room. There’s nothing inherently suspicious about them other than the lack of a “from” name, though the handwriting on the tags is extremely familiar, but Taako still positions his arm to shield the box from the view of the others before he opens it and sees the contents…

The interior is plush purple velvet, cushioning two items: a coin and a note. The coin is golden and about as big as the circle made by Taako’s index finger and thumb when curled to meet at the tip, and it’s engraved with runes he doesn’t recognize — but he can read the accompanying note, though he has no idea what to make of what it says.

Keep this to yourself. If you ever encounter a situation in which you need it, you’ll know what to do with it when the time comes.

A quick use of Detect Magic reveals that the box and note are completely mundane, but the coin is enchanted. Nothing feels inherently volatile or dangerous about the complex divination spell it’s imbued with, but it still gives Taako a sinking feeling, like it’s something he should be forbidden from possessing.

So he casually slips the coin into his pocket and pops the note into his mouth, chewing and swallowing as he peers over Merle’s shoulder to examine the other gift — an identical box, this one holding three circular blue patches with twelve smaller circles embroidered around the circumference and an unreadable acronym word lying in the center. There’s another accompanying note here too, this one simply reading: “For your eyes only.”

Then, three different noises happen in very quick succession: Magnus turns to Taako and whispers “What was in yours?” and a second later, the Director echoes “What is that? What did you guys get?”

But before any of the boys can blurt out some lie despite not knowing why they feel so compelled to hide the gifts, the Director’s necklace unexpectedly interrupts the conversation, glowing faintly as a staticy, panicked voice yells “Lucretia!” The Director instantly whirls away from the boys, angrily whispering into her pendant which replies with words that are hard to make out from a distance.

Almost on reflex, Taako slips one of the patches into the same pocket as the coin and disposes of the second note with the same method he’d used for the first, cleansing his palate with an elderflower macaron immediately afterwards. He doesn’t think about the patches or the coin for a long time after that — but then again, he ends up getting distracted by a lot over the course of the next few hours. With the impeding crystal apocalypse, and the floating lab, and the death crimes and all.

***

“Well, that’s weird,” Noelle says. Her satellite dish is blinking green as it rotates, scanning the perimeter of the Cosmoscope two, three, four times. “At first, I thought it musta just been interference, but… one of you guys isn’t a lich, are you?”

“A what?” Magnus asks.

“A lich. The signal was real faint at first, but it just got stronger, and now it’s fluctuating a whole lot…”

“Nope, not me!” Magnus declares, with surprising confidence considering that he doesn’t appear to have any understanding of what being a lich means.

“Well, not that I’m aware of,” Taako answers slowly. “But I think even ya boy here would know if he was a lich. Right?”

“I’m friends with a few liches!” Merle adds. “They’re fun at parties.”

Noelle sighs at Merle’s comment, and then continues: “Yeah, Taako, I guess you’d hafta know if you were one. Guess my scanner’s just on the fritz.”

***

“Now Taako, Taako, Taako,” Kravitz mutters from within the sapphire mirror, and the pure exasperation on his face is almost adorable. “Care to take a guess what your bounty is for? I would really hope that you, at least, would know.”

Taako has a feeling he’s been saved for last because his crimes are the worst, but he’s got no clue why — there’s no way he’s died more than fifty-seven times, right?

“I dunno, is it about that tentacle thing? 'Cause don’t worry, my dude, this is a safe and non-judgmental environment where you don’t need to be afraid of being yourself —”

Kravitz's eyebrows raise and he looks aghast for a moment, but recovers quickly. “Taako, you've died twelve times — but alone, that makes you practically a law abiding citizen, compared to the company you keep! I never thought I’d see the day that I’d thought Magnus, with his 19 deaths, would be the least of the evils present, but — but —”

He sputters. “But you three all seem determined to make your crimes as unprecedented as possible —”

“Unprecedented, that’s me!” Taako laughs, and tries to ignore the half static-drowned screams of all his instincts, telling him to run as far away from Kravitz or any portal to the Astral Plane as he can get. “But uh, what is the deal with my bounty if —”

“Playing dumb about dying is one thing,” Kravitz growls, “but you’re really playing dumb about being a lich?”

“But I am dumb,” Taako blurts out, before the accusation really sinks in. “I’m just a humble idiot wizard!”

Kravitz bursts into bitter laughter. “An idiot necromancer, more like. Do you really —”

“There’s no way,” Magnus cuts in. “If Taako was a lich, we would have to know!”

“Oh, I don’t doubt that you would, given how long the three of you have been cheating death together!” Kravitz replies.

“Okay, first of all — how do you know we’ve actually been cheating death for that long?” interrupts Merle. “We could’ve just died all those times in the span of, I don’t know, a month or two! We’re really incompetent.”

Magnus and Taako nod in enthusiastic agreement as Kravitz sighs.

“And second of all?”

“Uh... I forgot what I was going to say second.”

“Of course you did! What won’t you three conveniently forget — GAH!”

A giant skeletal hand reaches out of the Eternal Stockade and grabs Kravitz by the robe, dragging him inside the Eternal Stockade. It slams the door of the prison with a force that Taako winces at, all the way on the other side of the sapphire mirror.

“Did we solve the lich puzzle?” Merle asks. “Are we free to go?”

“Gonna be honest — just personally, I’m not too worried about the lich puzzle!” Taako shouts back, as a high-pitched hum emanates from the crystals around them and the room begins to shake. “Mostly just thinking about how much I don’t want to remember what dying feels like!”

“You know, that’s fair,” Merle agrees as he watches a complete skeleton materialize behind the hand, wading through the Astral Sea and towards the mirror. “That’s pretty fair.”

***

“Look, you saved my bacon back there,” Kravitz tells them after Legion is defeated. “Not just my career, but the world too. Things would have gotten very, very nasty, in a way that I wouldn’t have exactly wanted to put on my résumé…”

He sighs. “And Merle, Magnus… I would be willing to let you off with a warning, because you’ve technically never escaped the Astral Plane, and that leaves a convenient little loophole in the law for you two to slip through. Even Lucas — he’s learned his lesson with necromancy, it looks like. But Maureen, Noelle, and especially you, Taako — you’re all going to have to come with me. I can’t make exceptions for those of you who have succeeded in a jailbreak — nor can I do so for a lich.”

This time, he doesn’t spit the word lich with any of the disgust or outrage that were in his voice before, but rather speaks slowly and solemnly — and if Taako didn’t know better, he might think Kravitz actually felt bad about having to lock him up.

“Look, Ghost Rider.” Taako’s heart is racing just a little bit faster than he’s comfortable with, and the worst part is he doesn’t know why. It’s tempting to blame it on the slight crush may or may not be developing, but his crushes — although few and far-between — definitely never send his pulse up this fast this early in the relationship.

“You seem like an okay fellow who’s just trying to do your job, so I’ll be honest with you — I can’t remember ever touching necromancy with a ten-foot pole. Look, I used to make my living as a chef, and when you’re cooking the last thing you want is your meal coming back to life in front of you. I’ve got no motive!”

“Does your book with the bounties say anything else about the charges against him?” Magnus asks. “The charges against any of us, actually?”

“Not a single thing, I’m afraid. The bar’s not very high, but you are some of the… less unsavory bounties I’ve hunted, which is why I genuinely hate to say this, but —”

“Oh, so it’s savory you like? Let me take you out for an evening at Taako’s Bar and Café, and I’ll cook you up as many savory dishes as you like —”

“The — the bar,” Kravitz stammers, slipping out of his Cockney accent, “is so not high —”

“He just wants to help you broaden your horizons!” Merle chimes in. “You must not get out of the — the, uh, whatever your plane is called very often, do you?”

Kravitz sighs. “It’s the Astral Plane, and — and look, we just… we need to get going, alright? Taako, I… I could give you the benefit of the doubt, I suppose, and let you stay here until you die and return to your lich form, but I still need those two souls in the robots to come with me —”

“Wait!” Magnus interrupts. “Gambling with death is a trope for a reason, right? Can we play cards for their souls?”

Kravitz shrugs. “You know what? Sure! This day can’t get any wilder!”

***

Boyland’s rites of remembrance aren’t until tomorrow, but Taako is down in the Voidfish’s chambers ahead of time, Umbra Staff clutched tight as he stares at the twinkling galaxy pattern within the jellyfish’s bell.

“Uh… do you need something?” Johann asks after Taako’s stands there silently for about a minute.

Taako twirls his umbrella and shifts it from hand to hand, half expecting it to fire on its own again like it had when talking to Angus, but it stays dormant.

“Can your jellyfish pal, like… I dunno, choose what it innoculates you for?”

“Uh… no? At least, I think we woulda noticed if it could… why are you asking?”

“I was bored.” Taako turns to leave, but before he can get back in the elevator, he hears the Voidfish sing a short tune — not quite as loud as when Magnus had touched its tank, but definitely the same three notes.

***

Taako dies a few times in Refuge before he notices anything weird about it — well, not that dying and being revived continuously isn’t weird albeit familiar, but at first he’s just immediately whisked off to the white space alongside Merle and Magnus. No special treatment for him — until the first time that they die before the hour ends, and everything starts unraveling.

Magnus leans away from locker as he opens it, but it proves to be a futile precaution as the sound of an explosion blows out their eardrums and shockwaves tear through the room, sending the floor beneath their feet blasting towards the ceiling at the same time that massive boulders rain down from above, crushing the cave’s occupants before there’s even a chance process what happened.

As the dust settles and the roar of the explosives and falling rocks dies out, Taako blinks — except it feels strange, like it’s not his physical eyelids moving as much as it is his vision shifting into another spectrum, as if someone had just cast True Seeing on him.

Huh, he thinks. Thought that would’ve killed me.

And then: Of course it killed me. I’m a lich.

(Well, there goes any chance I had with Kravitz —)

I’m a lich like the Red Robe — no, like Barry. And like —

Like Lup.

How could I forget Lup?!

The sensation of incorporeality hits him on a delay and doesn’t stop hitting him, harder and harder until he feels like he’s about to disintegrate. His red-tinged skeletal hand drifts through the air, catching the silver threads that hang lazily like cobwebs in the space all around him as his spectral fingers curl into a fist. He clutches those bonds with every ounce of strength he has but they’re unraveling now, just like his robe, like his magically deformed essence…

He’s ready to disintegrate, to unravel, to crumble into ash just like Lup’s skeleton in Wave Echo Cave, because of course it was her, it was all that was left of her —

I found her but she was gone — everything was gone, except for her robe and —

“Taako?”

Lying just a few feet away from the hem of his robe is Lup’s Umbra Staff, pulverized into a dozen smoldering fragments — and above it floats another red-cloaked figure, eyes blazing red like miniature versions of the explosion that freed her.

“Taako, I’m here!” she assures him, and her echoing voice is a chorus of too many simultaneous emotions to count — it’s worried, and desperate, but joyous and relieved and comforting all at once. “Don’t break down on me now, Taako! It’s okay!”

Something solidifies in Taako, a grounding sensation so powerful he feels almost corporeal again, but words are failing him, motion is failing him. He stays frozen as the bonds he’d clung to wind back into place, stretching from his arms to Lup’s and pulling them together into the closest thing to a hug that liches can achieve, and he feels warm.

“You idiot,” he finally chokes out. “You didn’t think that absorbing magic shit would make a bad combo with being a fucking lich?”

Lup is literally beaming with happiness, emitting beams of light that would blind someone with physical eyes. “You didn’t exactly realize either, you dingus!”

They stay in the embrace for a few more minutes — and Taako may or may not let out an ugly, messy sob or two, complete with tears and snot made of pure magical energy that crackles like lightning when it strikes the rubble below — before he finally feels stable, and Lup quietly asks:

“How much time do we have? Forty minutes? Thirty-five?”

“What?” Her words don’t sink in immediately, but the second they do, Taako immediately feels like the victim of a sick joke. “Oh, shit. The Umbra Staff’s gonna get fixed next loop, and — and I’m not gonna remember you’re in there —”

“It’ll be okay,” Lup assures him. Taako can tell from the tone of her voice that she’s just as frustrated as he is with the irony of the paradox, except trying to redirect that anger into stubborn optimism. It’s a lifesaving skill for liches of their particular breed, that ability to channel destabilizing negative emotions into sustaining positive ones — a skill Taako hasn’t had much practice with, lately.

“There’s got to be some way to cheat the loops — you know, a loophole.” Lup laughs — a rasping, echoing noise that would probably be terrifying to anyone who didn’t know her, but is a massive relief for Taako to hear. “It’s practically in the name. We’ll figure something out — we always do. Let’s just think — and besides, I’m sure Magnus will get you blown up at least another two or three times, so we’ve technically got even more than forty minutes.”

“Right, right, okay. Physical objects are a no-go, Magnus figured that out after his bank robbing stunt —”

“Yeah, I think I caught that. So we’ll have to try something magical —”

“Wait.” A thousand different realizations are slowly coalescing together all at once in Taako’s mind, and he struggles to find words to articulate any of them. “How much could you, like — how much could you see from in there? You helped me out fighting the vine monster, right, and — and ruined Ango’s cookies, so… you musta been pretty aware to do all that —”

Lup looks down at the remains of the Umbra Staff, now reduced to mostly ash.

“I could see and do plenty, if I put enough effort into it,” she explains, “but it wore me out quickly, especially casting spells. After I spelled my name, I was just… clinging to consciousness for the next few weeks. That stunt might not have been the best idea, since I’d figured out by then that you couldn’t remember, but… I had to try.”

“Did you see Barry, in… let’s see, Goldcliff and the Cosmoscope? He, uh… wasn’t doing so great that second time…”

“He’ll be able to hold it together,” Lup declares confidently. “He’s stubborn like that.”

“Do you think he realized… your situation? He was pretty stable until he saw you —”

“He would have done something about it by now if he’d known, though…”

“Yeah, of course, you’re right. But he definitely seemed like he had some kinda plan — wait, I think I got it! Where’s my body?”

“Wait, got what?”

Taako levitates a few boulders out of place, and summons two Mage Hands to rifle through the pockets of his corporeal form. “Our way out of this time paradox shit, courtesy of Barold himself! As long as it didn’t get crushed — ah, here we go!”

One of the Mage Hands procures a familiar golden coin, imbued with a divination spell of Barry’s own engineering that Taako finally recognizes. “Well, I guess I don’t know for sure that Barry sent it to me, but it’s his spell and came alongside some IPRE patches, so I’m gonna say it sure wasn’t from Lucretia.”

“Is that — is that the spell he made when Magnus was worrying about the Temporal Chalice overwriting things without us knowing?”

“Yeah, storing info across timelines is its whole gimmick! He knew we were going to go after the Chalice eventually, and musta realized that I would forget anything I did as a lich if a time loop like this revived me —”

“Gods, I love him!” Lup shouts, laughing and lighting up with joy all over again. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s send Amnesiac Taako a message!”

***

Taako faceplants in the dirt alongside Merle and Magnus, alive again and holding an unbroken Umbra Staff. As always, Roswell stands guard outside the gate, and Taako and Magnus immediately start running through their explanation.

“Great job, Maggie!” Merle mutters under his breath. “Now we’ve gotta go through this whole shebang again.”

“We’ll be able to make a great speedrun video on Fantasy Youtube by the end of it, though!” Taako whispers back, and Roswell tilts their bird head in confusion.

“What? What’s a speedrun?”

Taako opens his mouth to reply, but a slightly muffled yet incredibly familiar voice from within the pocket of his skirt beats him to it.

Yo, Taako! T to the double A-K-O! I’m you from half an hour ago now, so listen up!

“What the fuck?” he blurts out, digging out the coin. “That’s — that’s not me! I never said —”

I know you don’t remember recording this, but there’s something you’ve really gotta do, the coin goes on, still in Taako’s voice, and he drops it to the ground and stares at it in horror. It’ll make sense later — well, maybe a long time later. Eventually, I hope!

“I don’t trust you!” Taako shouts, not sure if he’s expecting the coin to respond or not. “I don’t know who’s behind this, but I know a trick when I hear —”

You need to break the Umbra Staff, Taako, a second speaker explains, and Taako goes stiff at the sound of her voice. And you need to break it again in every new cycle — or every loop, I should say, until you get out of here. Please, Taako, trust us. We’ll explain as soon as we can, I promise.

Magnus kneels on the ground and pokes the coin gingerly, as if expecting it to explode. “Taako, where did you get this? Do you know what triggered it to —”

Taako snaps the Umbra Staff with his bare hands, and a column of fire erupts around him.

As his vision turns into an orange blur, he can just barely hear Merle yelp in shock and Magnus shout in concern over the roar of the flames, but he doesn’t feel afraid — which is itself a deeply unsettling feeling, because he should really be terrified out of his mind — but he just can’t fear this fire no matter how hard he tries. The warmth of the flames that weave so deftly around him is not harsh, but rather, comforting — almost fiercely comforting, in a way Taako wasn’t prepared to be comforted, a way that makes his heart seize up just like the woman’s voice that he couldn’t help but trust.

The blaze consolidates into a spectral figure in red who floats in front of him and nods, face obscured by the cowl of her robe but a smile manifesting clearly in her voice nevertheless.

“Thank you so much, Taako. I knew you’d come through.”

Then Magnus swings Railsplitter through her — harmlessly, of course — and she turns to face him.

“What do you want from this town, Red Robe?” Magnus yells. “Why did you bring Jack and June here?”

“Magnus, calm down! Really, I should be asking you about Jack and —”

She pauses, noticing Magnus’s disoriented expression. “Shit, was that static? You know, that’s probably for the best. Let’s start over: Magnus, Merle, Taako, earth elemental who’s name I missed —”

“I’m Roswell. Could you please identify yourself?”

“Magnus, Merle, Taako, Roswell — but mostly you Tres Horny Bois, or whatever you call yourselves these days — first things first, I’m not the Red Robe you met before. Second and on a related note, yes, I’ve been in Taako’s umbrella this whole time. Yes, it sucked. And third…”

She sighs. “You’re just going to have to take my word on this one, but I literally can’t explain who I am or why I’m on your side. It might seriously damage your minds, but I should be able to tell you my name, which is Lup.”

“Lup, why do I trust you?” The name feels strange in Taako’s mouth — familiar, except it shouldn’t be, except it is, except it couldn’t be, except…

The contradiction just spirals on forever, boring a hole in his mind that aches like hell and makes his stomach churn.

“Taako — oh, Taako, you’re not thinking about it too hard, are you? You can’t think about it too hard — you see why I can’t try and explain anything else. I would if I could…”

Slowly, with help from Lup’s Mage Hand, Taako stands up. He can’t even remember when he fell to his knees, but… he tries not to think too hard about it. Just take things one step at a time.

“Lup can help get us out of here,” he tells Magnus and Merle. “I don’t know why, but I’d trust her with my life even outside of a time loop, so… we’re doing what she says now.”

Magnus shrugged. “You know, I guess we could do a lot worse than putting a competent woman in charge, even if she’s undead. Lup, whatever your plan is, I’m down for it.”

***

By the time the purple worm dives back down beneath the earth with her children, Taako’s just about ready to collapse. Physically, he’s uninjured — he had a lich and an earth elemental watching his back, after all — but mentally, he’s a wreck. The persistent roar of static in the back of his mind has taken its toll, especially since the loop where he died before anyone else, and woke up to find Magnus and Merle giving him the two most confused and concerned looks he’d ever seen on their faces.

So when Avi freezes, glowing red, and everyone’s Stones of Farspeech go dark, Taako barely has the energy to wonder why until another robed figure materializes, holding a finger to his lips —

“DID YOU RETRIEVE THE…”

Every fold of fabric freezes in place, as lightning washes over the Red Robe’s form.

“LUP?!”

“Hey, babe,” Lup whispers, unfazed by the lightning bolts as she floats forward to wrap her arms around the other lich. “Thanks for the coin.”

“But — but how?” the Red Robe stammers. “How are you finally —”

Several curls of hair, made up of ghostly orange fire, escape from under Lup’s hood as she explains, and the Red Robe gently twirls a coil of flames around one of his skeletal fingers. “How are you really here?”

“You’re not gonna believe this,” Lup explains, “but it turns out that magic-absorbing staffs and beings made of pure magic aren’t actually the best combo.”

“Oh my god, we’re idiots,” the Red Robe gasps. “We’re magical undead idiots.”

“Love you too, Barry,” Lup murmurs.“God, I missed you so fucking much.”

“Wait, like Barry Bluejeans?” Magnus asks, at exactly the same time that Taako mutters: “Ugh, get a room.”

Barry whispers something to Lup that Taako doesn’t catch, and then both liches turn around.

“So, slight change of plans,” Lup announces. “It looks like the bubble isn’t quite down yet, but once we get that taken care of… anyone else up for a moonbase infiltration?”

“I’ve got one condition,” Taako immediately announces.

“What’s up?”

“If we run into the Grim Reaper, neither of you crimson lovebirds know me.”

#taz #taz balance #taako taaco #lup taaco #kravitz taz #taakitz #barry bluejeans #blupjeans #magnus burnsides #merle highchurch #taz balance spoilers #rosalia writes fic

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my-brothers-corrupted · 5 years

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Guidelines for My Brothers, Corrupted

Why henlo! This is, as you probably know by this point, an ask blog for Anti and the five egos, corrupted by his influence. We’re here to have fun and be angsty, are we not? Okay but here’s some rules and answers to questions you might have.

What are the boys called?

The egos, with the exception of Anti, have “corruption names” which they are instructed to go by at all times. If you see them being called by their original names, it is A) indicative that they are in some way loosened from Anti’s control in that moment, or B) Mod made a typo. C’est la vie. They go by

Jackie - Red (or Hoodie)

Marvin - Blue (or Kitty)

Henrik - Doktor (or Deutsch)

Chase - Trickshot

JJ - Dapper (or Carver or Monochroma)

The nicknames are just in case you have preferences and so you understand if the other egos call them by these names. You can totally call them by their usual names in your ask. However, you should be aware that it will be as though they had not heard the name - if you send “Does the name Jackie mean anything to you?” he’ll say no. Likewise, questions like “You need to remember who you are, Chase” will only reach him as “You need to remember who you are, Trickshot.” Saying their names will not cause them to remember.

What can I send?

Bruh, anything! It doesn’t have to be just angsty, it can be anything. Happy, sad, random, plot-seeking. You can ask Anti questions too if you’d like.

Why haven’t you answered my ask?

This should be a fairly rare question if you give me at least a couple days before getting stressed or offended or anything. I might not have answered your ask because

I’m waiting for another plot point/more relevant mood before posting a response

You’ve cleverly discovered something I need a little more time to develop

I can’t think of a good response right now and I want to think on it a while!

I’ve gotten a lot of really similar asks and just answered one instead of all. Usually I will screenshot your ask and add it to the other.

My internet or yours is being an asshole

Your ask made me uncomfortable (it’s okay, you can message me if you have questions and we can revise the ask in a way we both like! But I reserve the right to say “um, no” if you’re being pushy or rude about it or if it’s just a really uncomfortable question)

I’m busy! Sorry :( I’ll try to get back to you soon :)

Again, feel free to dm me if you have questions about why I haven’t posted something and as long as you’re not being a jerk about it we’ll totally figure it out

Is there a plot and how do I catch up to it?

There is a plot! Once a “chapter” is finished I will post that it is over and reveal the title that I’ve been working with. However, this plot is not heavily structured. We can go as slow or as fast as we want and if I decide to throw in new elements that I think of on the fly, let’s do it! If there’s something in particular you want to see (this character getting sick, this thing happening) feel free to message me and we might work it in.

This is my first time running an ask blog and I had a TON of fun with my test run. But if I treat it more casually and decide not to go with a really structured plot - well, we’ll see what happens.

What sort of things should I know about the story before sending an ask?

Okay, yeah, let’s lay down some bases.

The egos have little to no memories of the time before they were corrupted

The relationships between many of the egos are tense, as Anti has intentionally pitted many of them against each other, but others remain shakily friendly with each other.

I use a “looking through a camera” format for my egos but there’s not actually a camera and you can ask any of them what’s going on at any time (if you see Chase “holding the camera” you can still ask JJ something in another room

Due to their abuse and the control Anti has on them, some or all of the egos may be unreliable narrators.

Anti knows you’re here and allows the egos to speak with you for his own reasons. If you ask questions he does not like, he may react.

Can I reblog with additional questions instead of sending an ask?

Yes. But you should be aware that A) I am less likely to see and remember it than if you send an ask and B) I am unlikely to reblog a certain entry multiple times. So asks are better, but I’ll check reblogs and try to reply to them too.

Can I tag you in things I create for this au?

HELL YEAH GAMER i LOVE your amazing art, edits, writing, moodboards, and more. Please do credit me, but also tag me just so I can see!!! I may or may not reblog creations but I appreciate the hell out of every single one of them.

Do you tag triggers?

Course, I’m not an asshole! I’m a pretty careful tagger and anything obvious (gun, gore, torture, panic attack, etc) should be tagged. HOWEVER - dudes real talk okay - I’m not going to tag abuse because as far as I’m concerned this whole ask blog is a major abuse trigger. PLEASE BE CAREFUL AND CONSIDER AVOIDING THIS BLOG IF ABUSE IS TRIGGERING TO YOU.

You’re so valid and I don’t want you to get hurt. If there is a more specific abuse tag I can use to help you - or ANYTHING that you need tagged - please feel free to hit me up. I will absolutely work to accommodate.

I reblog this when we get new waves of followers or there’s some sort of problem! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.

You guys are great! Looking forward to writing this story together.

#not a reply #guidelines #rules #faq #long post #mod talks

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jamespottervevo · 6 years

Text

painted red (to fit right in) 1/3

James Potter is Spider-Man, and no one gave him an instruction manual.

He really could have used that manual.

Spiderman!AU | no movie spoilers | 7.k words | ao3

thank you to @frxddi @n0tromulus and @sitienessuficientecoraje for beta reading!

(if you showed any above average interest in this fic [yes I read tags bc I crave validation], I’m going to tag you here- @elanev91 @magic-girl-in-a-muggle-world @frustratedpoetwrites @cornerforward13 @padfootdidit)

CHAPTER 1: i feel it in my bones

----------------------

James Potter came to in handcuffs. Again. Sirius kept a tally, for some asinine reason, of all the times he woke up handcuffed. Specifically in public. Not that he made a habit of being handcuffed in private either, that would make things a bit awkward around the house, paper thin walls and all that. He would never be able to look his mum in the eye if she walked in on him in cuffs, or the suit for that matter. He really didn’t want her to walk in on him in the suit. Not because he didn’t like it! He looked pretty sick in red after all. It was just- James took a breath, blinked once, then twice, then tried desperately to ignore the ache that had found a home at the base of his skull.

He was in the back of a squad car and for some inexplicable reason, no one had thought to try and peel off his mask. James supposed that, in the officers’ defense, the seam was really hard to find sometimes. But, on the other hand, what was with the police in New York? Had they even been trained or had they just been given a gun and told to shoot brown people?- something very fucking unfortunate for James.

He looked back down at the cuffs on his wrist, jangling them a bit to see if by some miracle the cops had forgotten to actually lock the damn things, but no dice; maybe they had been trained after all. At least they’d been so kind as to cuff him in the front. He could work with that. His eyes flicked toward the rear view mirror and he watched as a few officers milled about, surveying the scene, chatting loudly, kicking garbage, generally being vaguely scummy in a sort of indistinct way. He grit his teeth and cracked his neck, bouncing just a bit in the seat to garner up some sort of energy, to shake off the fucking jackhammering going on in his skull.

He twisted in the seat, as subtle as he could manage before kicking at the door, hard, and knocking it open. (It occurred to James later that he could have just used the handle.) Okay, so maybe he really needed to work on that whole “not alerting every cop in the area to his escape” thing, but he was like, sixty percent sure he might have had a concussion. He couldn’t be blamed for the stupid things he did while most likely concussed, but he knew for a fact that Sirius wouldn’t let him live it down once the video footage broke.

But right,- cops, staring at him and yelling, hands drifting to weapons. James took another deep breath and pretended his head wasn’t a few seconds off from exploding before he began running, feet hard and fast hitting the pavement. He couldn’t see, sensory overload the helpful little voice in his head supplied as he jumped over a fire hydrant, down the sidewalk, sirens starting to blare behind him again. Everything was too much. Too much light, too many colors, too much movement. He picked up on it all and felt like he might throw up his Cheerios. He really shouldn’t have had that second glass of chocolate milk either.

“Come on, come on,” James mumbled, eyes dating; he just had to find a building tall enough… He grinned as he turned the corner, all but smacking right into a beautiful skyscraper. Okay, maybe it was a little ugly but it was absolutely perfect. He glanced over his shoulder, the police turning the corner. James flicked his wrist, and offered the police officers a wave as the web shot from his hand and plastered itself to the wall up ahead.

“Well, officers, it’s been a ple-” He cut off as the force of the web retracting finally grabbed him, yanking him off toward the wall at a speed that was definitely not safe for the concussion he definitely had or the breakfast he was definitely going to throw up. He’d never thrown up in the mask and he absolutely refused for that first to happen while being chased by a few very angry cops while handcuffed.

Webslinging? Much harder while handcuffed he might add.

But cuffed or not, the feeling still opened up some part of him. Like...magic. Everytime he was in the air, James felt more alive than he thought should be allowed. Like every breath he’d ever held suddenly rushed out of him, no weight to burden him. Nothing had ever made him feel quite so real. It was as close to flying anyone could ever get, he reasoned.

Well. Flying with a little more thought, he amended, as he shot another web, twisted his body to avoid slamming head first into a billboard. Something about lotion. Or maybe yogurt. He hadn’t been able to get a clear picture while hurtling past at breakneck speed. But it had looked like Jamie Lee Curtis, so probably yogurt.

While yes, being in the air, grabbing buildings and flagpoles and billboards to swing and throw himself farther and farther away from the cops was nice (breathtaking, spectacular, fucking fun), it didn’t exactly stop his head from threatening to explode. Had the sun always been that fucking bright? When the sirens started to fade out into nothingness behind him, James began trying to find his alleyway.

Despite what the papers said about him, he didn’t think he was a “public menace” at all! Sure, maybe he still hadn’t quite got a hang of the whole “hero” thing yet, but it’s not like anyone ever gave him a manual. Couldn’t just google “am I a spider?” or “how to be a superhero?” - though, he did think there was a wikifact article on that one actually- or even “how to look good in spandex?” And yes, maybe he’d tried to google that one.

But.

Just because knew he couldn’t truthfully be labeled a public menace, it didn’t necessarily mean people, you know. Agreed with him. So landing in the street? Not a good plan. Besides, all of his belongings were stashed away behind a dumpster and a cleverly placed board in the alley behind the Indian grocery near home. It took a few more swings before he caught sight of the familiar signs and swung himself down into the alley. His nose scrunched. Oh god. He’d forgotten it was garbage day. But beggars couldn’t be choosers, he supposed as his feet hit the ground. He stumbled, having momentarily forgotten that he had definite brain damage and also was handcuffed and probably could taste color thanks to the overstimulation.

James gave his surroundings a cursory glance- he had to be quick about this- before yanking his wrists apart, hard, splitting the cuffs with a satisfying CRACK! Fucking hurt though. And now he just had two locked on bracelets. And still had his suit on. And-

His phone was going off.

James’ train of thought slowed as he heard the blaring saxophone riff of “Careless Whisper” increasing in volume from inside his suit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. His alarm. Throwing another glance around the alleyway first, James ripped off his mask, hair standing straight up and undoubtedly looking like a rats nest. George fucking Michael was going to get him caught in a skeevy alleyway, half dressed, in handcuffs. Is this what his life had come to? Goddamnit. He hoped his mom didn’t put all that information in his obituary after she definitely murdered him for galavanting about as a superhero without her permission.

After a bit more fumbling, he managed to unzip his suit and shove his hand into it, silencing his “hey dumbass it’s time for school” alarm. Because he was a dumbass who was definitely going to be late for school. James looked around hopelessly, as if he could find a magical key somewhere in the alley that would let him get the fucking cuffs off.

What a sight he bet he was- half dressed in his Spider-Man suit, squinting without his glasses, wobbling from the concussion. James paused, and reached out to steady himself by throwing a hand onto the wall.

His (wildly out of focused) eyes landed on a mostly distinguishable blur. Huh. So, maybe it wasn’t a key, but a pipe should work, right? Without much thought (because, as James would admit, he rarely did anything with much thought) he slammed his wrists down onto the pipe as hard as he could.

The metallic clang echoed through the alley and he had to bite back a cry of pain as the reverberations shook through his wrists, but the cuffs snapped off. A couple bruises were nothing new! He’d be fine!

James spent a few more moments fumbling in the alley. Nearly falling headfirst in the dumpster while reaching for his backpack. (He’d learned his lesson and had wrapped the bag in a quadruple layer of plastic grocery sacks to keep the Garbage Reek off of it.) Tripping over his own feet as he stripped out of the suit. Almost tearing a gigantic fucking hole in his t-shirt as he tried to get it on over his head. He was doing great.

Once he was finally changed and his suit was hidden and his backpack was de-plasticed, James glanced down at his phone. Fuck. Fuck. 7:39. He couldn’t exactly websling his way to class and he’d told his parents he was spending the night with Remus so it’s not like he could manage a ride off them. Fuck.

----------------------

james potter to Big Chungus: anyone near devars rn?

sirius black: tf u at devars for at 7 in the morning

sirius black: ik we have ladoo at home unless ur fatass ate all of them

remus lupin: I’m pretty sure that pete ate most of the pack james thought he’d hid in that hollowed out book on his shelf

peter pettigrew: you promised you wouldn’t tell!!!!!!!!!!!!!

james potter: 1) hate all of u.

james potter: 2) not about snacks just need a ride so come get me

remus lupin: be there in five you absolute jackass

remus lupin: but I want some of those chickpea things from the store as payment

remus lupin: the ones with the peanuts with them

james potter: literally said this wasn’t about snacks like two secs ago. Not even in the store

remus lupin: u want a ride? Bc this is about snacks now jim

james potter: ...which size bag do u want

----------------------

The thing was, he’d never meant to be a hero.

He hadn’t purposefully shoved his hand into a creepy spider’s weird science prison containment cage during the field trip to RidCorp. Hadn’t gone out of his way to bend metal pipes in half on accident (that had been a shock to say the least). Hadn’t woken up one morning with the intention of sticking to walls. Door handles. Stairway railing at school. James Potter had been happy! Never wishing he had more or could be more or should be more.

Because he loved his life! He loved his parents and his friends. He played soccer and helped carry the debate team to victory and fucked around in some of his classes! No seventeen year old in their right mind would purposefully go out of their way for that sort of responsibility! He barely remembered to take out the garbage- of course he never meant to become a hero!

He’d also not meant to accidentally save Lily Evans’ life.

But life just had a way of intervening, didn’t it?

----------------------

“You’re staring.”

James jolted slightly, glasses slipped down the bridge of his nose. Sirius made himself comfortable far too close to James’ ear before throwing himself down at their usual lunch table.

He decided not to grace Sirius with a response and instead rubbed his neck, pretended he wasn’t thirteen different types of pathetic. “I was not staring- I mean. No, what? Who would I have even been staring at?” Smooth, Potter, he thought, really fucking smooth. Inconspicuous.

Sirius raised an eyebrow as he swung his backpack from his shoulders and dropped it to the floor with an unceremonious thud. James flinched at the sound. (Concussed, remember? A week later and he was still dealing with headaches) A few people glanced their way, but it wasn’t as if Sirius seemed to care. Well, James reasoned, he probably had done it for the attention in the first place. James adjusted his glasses, concentrated quite fiercely at a place on the wall, poked at his food with little intention of actually eating.

Sirius snorted. “So you mean to tell me that you weren’t staring at Evans then?” The lilt to his voice made it very apparent that yes, Sirius knew that he’d been staring at Evans and was now being the world’s largest dick about the fact.

Before James could continue his scathing silent treatment, Remus sank into his customary seat. “Oh, no, James was definitely staring at Lily,” he provided. Traitor.

James pulled his phone out from his pocket and finally tore his gaze away from the very intriguing concrete wall and tapped out a message.

james potter to remus lupin: et tu brute

He set down his phone with a huff. “I was not fucking staring at Evans,” he lied. Poorly. Because as he spoke, his gaze shifted back toward her direction. James only vaguely registered Remus’s scoff at the text message because…

God.

Lily E. Evans (so he may have glanced at her student ID. Once… Okay, four times) happened to be the singularly most beautiful person he’d ever met. Fuck, that he’d ever seen. And that included Kim Possible, who he may or may not have had a fat crush on as a kid. (He had a type, okay? The guys never ceased to give him shit over that, but resolutely, James refused to be shamed for the level of self awareness he was positive people would be plenty jealous to achieve.) Evans blew everyone else out of the water.

He loved her hair- thick and red with impossibly good looking bangs. (James melted whenever she pulled it into a ponytail and had managed to fucking fail gym class freshman year because he was distracted. Over a ponytail. Gym class! He was a student athlete!) Her eyes that he could have composed sonnets about if he knew how to do that sort of thing. Her dimples. Freckles. The stubbornness written into her chin, her jaw. Her eyes. Her eyes. Her eyes.

Then there was the way she laughed and flipped her hair over her shoulder and only ever used purple InkJoy pens. The fact she laced her boots to the very top and tucked in the excess. How when she seemed anxious, she’d put on cherry lip balm like a nervous tick. The way she always knew the answers to anything Slughorn asked before James could even comprehend the question. How she gave tours to all the new students and never faked a smile. God. Then there was her smile. He’d thought a lot about her smile. How to make her smile at him instead of scowl. Huff. Frown.

Evans was...was an angel. A goddess. A-

“You’re literally about to start drooling.” Peter snapped James from his reverie. The tater tot that hit him in the face shortly after helped as well.

James snatched the weaponized tot off the table and popped it into his mouth. “No I wasn’t,” he lied once again, this time around the food in his mouth. He swallowed. Stole another one of Pete’s tater tots. When had he sat down anyway? Had he been that enthralled in Evans-land (again)?

Unable to help himself, James took one last glance in Evans’ direction before the undoubtable barrage of soggy potatoes could commence.

Her head was thrown back as she laughed, a featherlight hand on Snape’s shoulder. His stomach clenched.

Evans was a pipe dream.

----------------------

sirius black to peter pronounced venti wrong three separate times in the starbucks line: take bets, is minnie gonna let us pick our groups for this project

peter pettigrew: i hadn’t slept in 40 hours! Bc you made me stay up! Watching every fucking fast and furious movie

peter pettigrew: and then made me give analysis after each one

peter pettigrew: and keep a comprehensive ranking of them

remus lupin: pete did you drink three venti coffees????????

sirius black: he got thru one before he said “his heart was going to burst”

james potter: jesus christ dude

james potter: but tokyo drift is obviously the best

remus lupin: isn’t gal gadot in some of those?

remus lupin: my mother keeps telling me to find a nice jewish girl think she’d be okay with this?

sirius black: jim ur opinions are trash, pete ur coffee habits are wack, remus I keep telling u we’re soulmates god. Now FOCUS.

sirius black: groups. for. project.

remus lupin: dude of course she’s not letting us work together

james potter: yeah do u like...not remember what happened last time

remus lupin: pete still can’t eat spaghetti

peter pettigrew changed chat name to PTSD (post traumatic spaghetti disorder)

----------------------

He died. That had to be what had happened, right? Maybe all the brain trauma he’d been hiding from his parents had finally caught up to him. What movie was it where everything turned out to have all been a dream? Because that was another likely situation. Really, anything felt more plausible than McGonagall- Minnie, his guardian-fucking-angel, a saint on Earth- pairing him with Lily E. Evans for the history project.

James did a great job pretending he hadn’t seen the less-than-thrilled look on Evans’ face when the pairing was announced. Because he was living. The project meant he’d have an excuse to talk to her without coming across as a creep. That he’d be able to spend time with her outside of school.

Pathetic? Oh, definitely. But James couldn’t make himself care because Evans’ number was written in purple ink, tidy little numbers, on the back of his hand. He may or may not have memorized it before class had even ended. So yeah. Pathetic. Happily, happily pathetic.

James kept looking down at his phone.

lily (love of my life) evans: meet me at the nat. history museum by on the front steps?

lily (love of my life) evans: 5:30 okay?

James knew without a doubt that if Evans had asked him to show up at four in the morning and wait all day, he would have without question. So 5:30? No problem. It gave him a little extra time for his patrols too! (Admittedly, he was the only one keeping track of his patrols, but it wasn’t like he should sit by and do nothing, not with the powers he’d been given. Right? Right.)

James couldn’t wipe the grin off his face, not even when he ducked into the closest abandoned alley to change. This time, he’d managed the foresight to wear most of his suit on under his school clothes, save for the mask and gloves. He was learning, thank you very much.

He could only imagine what he looked like, swinging from building to building while still wearing his backpack. (A text from Sirius informed him that he “looked like a whole ass fucking weeb.”)

Swinging from one building to the next, just listening, focusing, he let his senses kick into overdrive to pick up anything unusual. Since the bite, the world had grown too loud, too much, at times. James learned how to turn it off, eventually, but it took him time. Days of headaches and nausea and blurry vision, days when he could suddenly see the flecks of dry skin on Pete’s cheek from across the room. When he could smell Evans’ perfume tables away in Minnie’s class and he nearly fainted. It definitely took time. But he liked to think he’d gotten better at it all. At trying to be a hero, using his powers.

He hadn’t...done much, admittedly. He’d helped that one woman get back into her car; he’d climbed up onto the roof to grab a basketball for some kids. Oh, he’d gotten back a stolen bike, chased down a purse snatcher. Pulled a kid from the street to avoid a jackass on a motorcycle. Small things. Good things, but small things. He’d only been at this for a few months- just long enough for the police to hate him on sight and the Daily Prophet to label him a menace just because he may have accidentally done some light property damage. Maybe.

But doing nothing? Now that felt like a waste. James swung up onto the edge of a roof, plopped down to make himself comfortable, and tugged off his mask. He gulped down fresh air and tilted his head back, letting the wind rush over his face. The building was too tall for anyone to be able to make out his face from down below, or at least he hoped that was the case.

After a little more fumbling, James pulled his phone from his suit and began tapping at the screen while still wearing his gloves. Of course, that didn’t fucking work because it never worked. He huffed and yanked a glove off with his mouth, his other hand pressed against the ledge for balance. He could just imagine his obituary if he fell.

“James Potter was beloved by everyone except his mother who he’s going to send into an early grave because of his shenanigans. He looked like a fool and at the very least could have worn a jacket. He fell off the building because he never ate his ratha poriyal because his brother told him it would make him turn into a Chupacabra. It’s a miracle they didn’t fall off the roof together. He leaves behind a messy room and an angry cat who has begun peeing everywhere in retaliation. In lieu of flowers, send a cleaning crew.”

So he held onto the ledge.

Evans hadn’t texted yet, which meant he still had a little longer to kill before showing up at the museum like a lovestruck fool. James took a few minutes to absently scroll through Twitter, check his email, stockpile a few memes for the guys later. He snapped off a selfie, angling it just right before sending it to the groupchat, just to flex.

----------------------

Casual. Casual. He could do casual. He could definitely do casual. Casual? Not an issue. James Potter was smooth as fuck. He kept his focus on the soccer ball in his hands as he stared up at the stucco ceiling. He tossed the ball in the air, caught it, repeated. Toss. Catch. Toss. Catch.

“So,” he began, fighting the waver in his voice. These were his best friends. They’d understand. Right? They’d believe him. “You guys heard about Spider-Man?” Saying it out loud felt like coughing up dust.

Sirius glanced over from his nest in the beanbag chair, raised an eyebrow, shifted slightly. Remus made a soft, disgruntled sort of sound as Sirius moved and made a bit of a show of adjusting his legs across his lap, draped from where he sat in James’ desk chair.

“You mean the dude that’s been running around in pajamas?” Remus asked, scowled down at Sirius who had simply started wiggling in the seat. Ever the help, Pete began tossing licorice bites across the room to Sirius to further egg on his wiggles. Well. Maybe hinderance, based on Remus’s look as he bapped Sirius on the head with his novel before looking over at James. Sirius caught a bit of licorice in his mouth and he and Pete threw their arms up in triumphant glee. “I’ve seen him on the news some, yeah.”

The ball was in midair as he began to sputter, sitting up. “He does not wear pajamas!” Without sparing a glance, James stuck his hand out and caught the soccer ball in his open palm. Remus looked mildly impressed. Mildly. High praise, really.

Peter chewed on a piece his of licorice. “No, I agree with Remus. He’s definitely wearing pajamas,” he mumbled around his candy after taking his time to come to that conclusion. A conclusion James had hoped would be rational and obvious because of course Spider-Man didn’t look like he was wearing pajamas.

Sirius snorted, tapping away at his phone. “You’re just agreeing with Remus because he’s smart,” he deadpanned, gaze unwavering. Instagram, if James had to guess. But!

“So you agree with me then, right? He’s clearly not wearing pajamas!” James exclaimed, relief almost obvious in his tone. He set the soccer ball down. Uh. Fuck. Okay. His hand was stuck. He casually just...left it there. On top the soccer ball. Like anyone would do.

Sirius let out another snort. This time his eyes wandered over the edge of his phone to land on a perfectly, totally chill, super normal James who just happened to like resting his hand on a soccer ball. “What? Fuck no, of course it looks like he’s in pajamas.”

“But-”

“Remus is smart, not wrong.”

James was melting. God. Okay. Just be calm. Don’t make things weird. Take it eas- “I’m Spider-Man!” He shouted, cut himself off when he remembered they were in his bedroom and his parents were home and he didn’t need the wrath of Euphemia Potter at six o’clock on a Tuesday. “I’m Spider-Man.” He repeated, a little quieter, a little calmer.

This time, it was Remus who broke the silence first. With a surprised yelp of laughter. He set down his book and looked at James, nose wrinkled in amusement. It made him look younger, James realized, the nose thing. “Dude, c’mon. You’re telling me that you, James Fleamont-”

“God don’t remind me-”

“- Potter are Spider-Man,” Remus finished, the corners of his lips tugged up into a cheeky grin.

James suddenly felt, oh what was the word? Re-fucking-gret.

“Do you not remember freshman year gym with Hooch? Because,” Sirius started, “I do. You fell from the top of the rope climb and smacked your bigass head onto the gym floor. You threw up. We all watched you throw up.”

James could have done without the fucking laughter in his tone. Brother who? No. He was an only child from there on out. “Okay that was only because I saw Evans do this thi-”

“You also fell down the stairs last month, like, all of the stairs,” Peter chimed in because of course! Clearly it was mock-James-during-his-big-dramatic-alter-ego-reveal-moment-time! “A lot of people saw that too,” he added with clearly careful thought, fucking reminiscing about James falling headfirst down the stairs. As if he didn’t have enough brain damage already.

He couldn’t take it anymore. Without thinking (wow, he had a habit of not thinking) James flicked his wrist and shot out a web, snatching Sirius’s phone from his hand.

The room went very...very quiet. The trio turned to look at him, faces blank, as if their reactions were buffering and then Sirius opened his mouth-

“What the FUCK.”

----------------------

peter pettigrew to SPIDERJAMES??????????????????????: okay so can u lay eggs

james potter: dude wtf no??????

sirius black: okay r u sure tho? Like have u really tried to lay an egg?

james potter: why. the fuck would i try to lay an egg??

peter pettigrew: science

james potter: I don’t lay eggs.

remus lupin: what happens when you masturbate

james potter: I do NOT want to answer that

sirius black: yknow, also p invested in jim not answering that

peter pettigrew: ………morbidly curious

remus lupin: it’s just as valid as asking about eggs.

james potter: I regret telling all of you anything ever in my life

james potter left the chat

remus lupin changed chat name to spidersemen? is it a thing.

sirius black: im so uncomfortable

remus lupin: good. hard questions should make you uncomfortable

peter pettigrew: ha! Hard.

sirius black: u were so pure before we were friends

remus lupin: you don’t know my life.

----------------------

James shifted on the roof, slipped his phone back into his suit. 5:06. He had exactly 24 minutes to get get to the museum, change, and make himself look perfectly loveable to be just on time to meet Evans. Right. Super duper reasonable! He swung his legs around from the edge of the roof, moving back onto solid ground and grabbing his backpack in one fluid motion. The museum was...James squinted, used his finger to point as he counted, six blocks away. He could totally handle that in 24 minutes.

Wait. Mask. Right. He bent down to swipe his mask off the roof ledge when his body went cold. His muscles tightened, the hair on the back of his neck standing up as a creeping feeling rolled up his spine. He could hear see smell taste everything oh god there was a baby crying down the street- pizza- cat being chased- woman yelling on the phone- trashcan.spiderwebonthefireescape.taxisnearlycolliding.tacotruckemptyinggrease-Hey Get Out Of Her- No I Didn’t Tell Him Ab- I Love You Have A Good D- Yeah I Got The Shit It’s-

James let out a sharp gasp and broke focus, his hand curled tight around his mask. It happened, sometimes, an overload like that. The kind that made every nerve in his body go into hyper-super-what-the-fuck sensitive mode. He felt it, all the time, really. Walking down the street. When he answered the front door. When he saw the police. He didn’t have to have the suit for that. He once tried to explain it as anxiety dialed up to fifty, when there was danger, his body reacted. Like an allergy.

Without a doubt, that spider-sense never led to anything good, especially not when the feeling came across that violently. And in that moment, all James could hear, smell, think was “Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

James yanked his mask on, took a deep breath. Focused.

“Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

He started to run and without hesitation, threw himself off the roof, arms spread, a nose dive. A leap of faith that he wasn’t about to do something incredibly stupid. Focus. James shot out a weh on instinct, catching a fire escape and throwing himself higher, faster.

“Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

Close. James was close. His body felt tense, on edge. He swung around a building and nodded at the wide-eyed woman in the passing window, waved. He heard the slam of a car door. A van. An alley.

“Yeah, I got the shit. It’s pretty low quality, you sure this is what he wanted?”

He landed with a loud, metallic thunk, a creak as the fire escape settled under his weight. James winced, scrunched his eyes shut, said a little prayer that the men didn’t hear him. He quickly ducked behind a comically small potted plant and prayed that would be enough.

Slowly, James peered around the plant, nudging one of the leaves out of the- weed. He was hiding behind a cutesy terra cotta pot of weed on someone’s fire escape. Okay then. He stored that information away for later and took everything in.

A nondescript black van sat parked in the alley, one of the back hatch doors swung open. James could just barely make out a few cardboard boxes stacked in the back. Two men stood to the side, backs turned to James’ hiding place. One in a hoodie, a cigarette in one pale hand. One in a button up shirt tucked into dress pants.

“How much more is he gonna need?” Hoodie asked. His voice hadn’t seemed to have dropped. Young sounding. James scooted a little closer, pushing the plant for cover and immediately regretted the action as the pot scraped across the metal grating. Loudly. Whoopsie.

He studied Hoodie, nose scrunched as he wondered why a teenager wou- oh. If that was a teenage dude’s ass, he was definitely going to have to reevaluate some things later. People did always think that Sirius was his boyfriend which like, gross? They were practically related and he’d seen Sirius’s dental hygiene habits up close and he did not want to get personal. If he’d date any of his friends, obviously it would be Remus. Was that even a question? Actually, Pete would be rather supportive no matter what.

James frowned. He did have a bit of an obsession with George Michael- He paused the steamrolling thoughts and just...filed that crisis away for later.

Button Up shifted, folded his arms over his chest. “Unsure. The experiments have been going as we’d hoped, but it’s not even close to passing under FDA regulations.” Button Up sighed and pulled a bulky looking phone out of his back pocket. James squinted. Was that a flip phone? Who the fuck still used a flip phone?

Button Up held a finger up to Hoodie and brought the phone up to his ear. The three waited, James with baited breath, Hoodie with restless posture and puffs of smoke, Button Up with a perfectly blank face.

Hoodie moved her weight from one foot to the other and pulled her hand from her pockets. She pushed the hood of her sweatshirt off, revealing a mess of dark, curly hair. She took a drag off her cigarette. Exhaled. “Look, I’m in a hurry here. Your boss has my number if he needs anymore, but he’s gotta remember that my supplier takes his time with this. I won’t be able to pull this much out of my ass again.” Hoodie spoke around the cigarette in her mouth, blew smoke toward the van.

Button Up didn’t glance in Hoodie’s direction. “Yes. Hello sir! I- yes...no we didn’t run into any issues- Five boxes as ordered, I’ll be...Uh. Yes. I’ll ask.” He snapped his phone shut, cleared his throat. “He wants five more shipments, as well as a few...test subjects. Double the pay if you get it done by the end of the month.” Button Up cleared his throat, moved as if adjusting a tie.

Hoodie nodded once, then twice, dropped her cigarette butt to the ground and extended her hand. Button Up clasped it in a way so professional, it was almost funny. “He better, or else. Don’t think the boss would like it too much if the Prophet caught wind of this, now would he?” There was confidence in her tone, another shift in her posture. Holding her head up higher. Power, James realized. Whatever this was, the cards were in her hands.

Button Up withdrew his hand and turned away from Hoodie, closing the back door of the van. James’ body thrummed with energy, jittered. They’d not said anything illegal, but he knew better than to doubt his spidey sense. He needed to do...something. Follow one of them or catch one in a web or… Something.

In his moment of internal debate, James had missed Hoodie’s retreat, leaving Button Up to focus on. He turned toward the fire escape as he rubbed his temples and James got a decent look at his face. He felt...a little disappointed honestly. No super badass scars or tattoos, and he wasn’t that good looking. He looked plain, forgettable. Hanging from his shirt was a security badge. James couldn’t quite make out the words, but he recognized the logo.

RidCorp. The pioneer and leader in innovation when it came to new pharmaceuticals and genetics, RidCorp was the public’s darling when it came to the future. Cures for cancer and growing new organs and...James had just watched an employee make a shady deal in an empty alleyway.

He didn’t hesitate. When Button Up turned once again, started to walk toward the driver’s side door, James dropped down from the fire escape with a THUMP. He took a moment to prop a hand on the wall, cross his ankles as he leaned. Button Up swivelled on his heels, fast.

James wiggled the fingers on his free hand. “This looked like a lot of fun. Can I join in? I’m a great conversationalist!” He wished he had a camera to capture the look of absolute “what the fuckery” on Button Up’s face.

“Shit,” Button Up hissed as he leapt into the van and slammed the door shut. Before James had the foresight to memorize the license plate, Button Up was speeding off down the alley. The van made a violent turn into the street and was reasonably met with angry honks and shouts.

James grinned, shot a web, and let the momentum carry him after the van. Button Up hadn’t managed to get very far before James caught sight of him again. He kept up the pace of webswingjump, webswingjump, until he was close enough to land a web onto the top of the van.

Unfortunately, it was impossible to swing from superpowered spiderwebs in a very crowded city, down a very crowded street, without drawing attention.

“Is that Spider-Man?”

“Who’s he chasing?”

“God that costume’s stupid looking!”

That comment was just hurtful, but it wasn’t as if he had time to stop and argue with a random New Yorker. He perched on the roof of the van as Button Up sped down the street, veering in a way that clued James into the fact he was trying to be shaken off.

He stuck himself to the roof with one hand as he bent over, upside down in front of the windshield. “Use the spray,” he shouted, pointed down at the wipers, “I’m sure that’ll help! Usually gets bugs off!” He gave a thumbs up and Button Up slammed on his brakes. The suddenness of the stop dislodged James from the roof and if it weren't for his reflexes kicking in, he’d have flown headfirst into the street. Instead, he fired off a web and swung himself up onto the side of a building, breathing hard.

The van started moving again as James carefully tried to come up with a plan. He’d not expected to get nearly so far. He couldn’t let Button Up get away! Before he could undoubtedly have his brilliant lightbulb moment, police sirens began blaring in the background. Oh fuck.

He looked around, glad for the mask to hide his panic. Sirens. Sirens. Sirens. James tilted his head. A few blocks out still, it sounded, but that didn’t exactly give him much time-

Time. He threw a panicked glance over his shoulder toward the clock hanging off a department store front. 5:26. Evans. James looked back and the van was...gone. Fuck. The police were closer; the van was gone; he couldn’t be arrested again; Evans was going to kill him.

After a moment of deliberation, James started to websling, throwing around his weight as he flung himself up in the air, higher and higher, quicker and quicker, to get to the museum in time. Evans would make that face at him if he was late, the one that made him want to retract into his own body and wither away. Disappointment.

His heart pounded and James could hear it in his ears, breathing fast and hard and his hands were so sweaty. When he finally caught sight of the museum, a wave of relief washed through his body because not only did he see the museum, but a blur of red hair just turning down the sidewalk.

He was going to be on time. Sweaty. But on time. He swung in closer, aiming for the alley around the corner. Evans wasn’t going to hate him. She’d fall in love with him for knowing the names of all the dinosaurs and they’d get married and have the cutest child and- no. no. no. no. no.

James’ body went ice cold.

The scaffolding over the entrance where workers were taking down a metallic spider.

The giant hunk of metal slipping out of place.

Falling. Falling. Falling.

He didn’t think.

He just moved.

It happened faster than even James could comprehend.

The screaming. The warnings. The panic.

A girl looking up too late.

The spider was too big for James to simply push the girl clear of its path. So he shot a web at her waist and pulled her into his chest, curling around her as he threw both hands up to catch the spider as it fell. (Talk about irony.) The weight of it all sent vibrations down his arms and he couldn’t breathe, too high off adrenaline, couldn’t think.

And then… quiet. People stunned into silence around him on the steps, shocked workers up above, the girl no longer screaming in his arms. James gave a grunt and dropped the spider to the side, let his arms drop.

He panted as he looked down and met a pair of green green eyes. Those eyes. Evans stared up at him in wonderment. Relief. Whatever it was, James wanted to savor the moment.

He cleared his throat, stepped away, put his hands on his hips because that’s what superheroes did right? “Alright, E- Miss?” He forced his voice lower. As low as he could make it. Pretended it didn’t crack when he spoke.

Evans blinked up at him, her shoulders shaking. He loved the coat she wore, it matched her eyes- oh god, she’d been talking. “- I...thank you,” Lily finished, hiccuped. James grinned because no one could see.

Admiration. That was the look in her eyes. He didn’t know what to say.

Sirens picked up volume in the background. Cops and an ambulance, James distinguished. Someone in the crowd had probably called 911. Right. The cops definitely still hated him. His feet did not want to move but after a few seconds of internal wrestling- he could just yank his mask off right, show Evans that he wasn’t an entire jackass- James flicked his wrists and fired off a web.

Then he finally spoke “I’m your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man,” he continued trying to sound like Batman, let the web start to pull him away, “that’s what I’m here for!” God. He needed a better catchphrase. But Evans eyes were still on him and she seemed so adoring that he nearly forgot to fire off another web to keep from landing face first in the street.

He had spidey sense, not common sense.

When he wrapped the corner, he could already hear the chatter from the crowd picking up intensity, the sirens halting as the emergency responders arrived at the museum entrance.

The thought hit him as he landed in an alleyway. Evans was going to think he was so late to their meetup.

Fuck.

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poipoi1912 · 7 years

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Carisi-centric thoughts on Ep 19x08

Here we go.

Disclaimer: I will try to remain objective. Be warned lol. My undying love for Barisi influences my fic, of course, but I try to analyze the actual episodes as realistically as I can. (if by “realistically” you mean “realistic-ish while always allowing for the possibility of Barisi)

Overall Thoughts

I really enjoyed the case. Even if we've seen it all before (wasn't there an episode with Kevin Pollack and an Eyes Wide Shut situation? Where he was a judge and he genuinely thought a woman wanted to be raped?). The double catfish element was sort of new, I guess. I did also like all the performances, even if the female perp was written in a stereotypical way. And I appreciated the guy's attitude, and the contrast between his appearance and his mild behavior, but also the contrast between someone seemingly sweet and someone who would act out a rape fantasy no questions asked, i.e. without making sure the woman was consenting, at least in person. I don't know if the writers intended that last part or if I'm reading too much into it, though.

That said, deep down I wish he'd had an attorney like Rita or Buchanan, because they'd never let him plead guilty and we'd witness another awesome trial about that aspect of the case (though I did love his actual lawyer, whom he did not listen to). Still, it's nice to see a decent if flawed person doing the right thing, SVU used to do that a lot in the early seasons. I believed that the guy was conflicted about it, at least, so that entire scene worked for me. I also appreciated that the victim's trauma wasn't instantly healed in the end. It felt more real. So the overall idea of the episode was solid (if unoriginal), and the execution was very good.

The Rollisi Corner

First thing I need to get off my chest: Sonny clearly bought coffee and breakfast for Amanda the morning after, hopefully to go with his apology, and then, when he saw the bartender leaving her room, he turned around and left and hE DIDN'T GIVE HER THE COFFEE??? OR THE FOOD??? Like she didn't deserve his croissants because she had sex with another guy? WHAT A DICK.

OK, onto my analysis.

The Facts

So, Sonny and Amanda get visibly drunk, they get in a bar fight which excites them both, because they enjoy punching people I guess (is that a thing?), and then Sonny tries to hook up with her, but Amanda awkwardly nopes the fuck out of there before hooking up with the guy she flirted with earlier. I'm with them so far.

There are multiple and equally valid interpretations for these actions. Maybe Sonny was vulnerable after his deleted break up, maybe he's been harboring feelings for Amanda for a while, maybe he was just hyped up after the fight and he wanted to casually let off some steam thinking Amanda would be up for that, maybe Amanda is open to that but didn't want to start anything while they were kinda drunk, maybe she was weirded out because she wasn't expecting it and she doesn't see Sonny like that, maybe she was unsure but horny, because that bar fight got her going, so she called that bartender, maybe she was really into the bartender and she had decided to sleep with him long before Sonny's proposition. Fine.

My problem starts after that.

In my view (which, going by the tags, is shared by many), Sonny should have apologized to Amanda the next day. For the drunkenness alone. For possibly making things weird between them. For getting caught up in the moment and hitting on her like that, instead of talking to her about his feelings (whatever they may be) or even (gasp!) asking her out. In fact, that's what I was expecting. That's how I thought they would get Rollisi going. By Sonny apologizing and Amanda jokingly saying she didn't want to "take advantage” of him in his drunken state, but leaving the door open for something in the future. Basically I was looking for a sweet interaction to show that Sonny has actual feelings for Amanda, as opposed to just wanting to sleep with her, and she's maybe willing to entertain that notion, just not yet. Neither of which happened.

Instead, the show chose to put a stop to it, before it even started. Instead, Sonny got jealous, and weirdly entitled if not territorial, and he started acting all petulant in front of a suspect, not to mention in the middle of the precinct, to the point where Amanda had to call him out on it. Of course I get why he would be hurt (and I was totally expecting some adorable sad sack moping lol) or even offended (because his fragile male ego couldn’t handle the fact Amanda chose to sleep with someone else), but why would he let that affect his working relationship with Amanda? Hasn’t he never heard of putting on a brave face? Has he no dignity? Conceal, don’t feel, Sonny!

My Thoughts

On one hand, I feel this could have been handled a lot better, by giving us a good idea about where their heads are at. Instead of leaving us totally wondering about their potential feelings, romantic or sexual or nothing at all, this could have been something heartwarming, something meaningful and consistent with Sonny and Amanda's prior supportive and friendly relationship. Like, imagine if he had sweetly tried to kiss her at her place, while making dinner. Perfectly adorable, and perfectly in character (and, yes, maybe a little too Hallmark, which I would have preferred over the soapy methods the writers chose to employ). And they could have still had that awkward "um, nope" moment afterwards, perhaps interrupted by Jesse crying or something.

Or, even in this random context (out of town, drunk, high on adrenaline), imagine if Amanda had sternly told Sonny to keep his feelings separate from the job, but also that she values his friendship and she needs some time because this is new territory for her (valuing a dude lol). That would have told us that there’s a real connection, as opposed to a simple possibility for a hook-up, if Amanda ever feels like it, and if Sonny’s ego isn’t too bruised to accept.

On the other hand, this is a heterosexual SVU relationship (the only type of relationship allowed apparently), and drunken messiness and awkwardness and weird aggression is the only way those seem to ever happen on this show (see Rollaro, Bensler). So I get it. I don't get why Amanda had to sacrifice (thankfully only) some of her progress (enjoying drunken bar fights? That's so S15 and it also made me miss Amaro, her OG bar fight sidekick) or why Sonny, a character who hadn't displayed similar traits, had to suddenly change to fit that mold. Then again, maybe the change was not so sudden. Sonny hasn't been Sonny in like 2 years 👀

I suppose I always thought that, if Rollisi were to ever start, it would be different by default. For Amanda's sake (and I've posted about this in the past). I thought it'd be about feelings, not misplaced lust. Like, not to diss Sonny, but he ain't no Amaro. "Unresolved Sexual Tension" doesn't quite work when Sonny is involved, you know? No matter how good he looks in a henley. Which was especially evident when Amanda flirted with that bartender. There was a clear physical component to that brief interaction. With Sonny, there was awkwardness. He tried to move in, Amanda pulled away, and he laughed it off like it was dumb of him to even try. No heat. But that's fine, too. I just thought a potential "moment” would take that under consideration. That sweetness.

I certainly wasn't expecting Sonny to make a move while drunk, and then suddenly get all passive aggressive, and then get rewarded for it in a weird "so you're telling me there's a chance" moment which did nothing to inform us of anybody's feelings, if any even exist. Especially considering his totally ambivalent expression in the end. Amanda has always been a straight shooter. And Sonny has always been respectful. Why not take advantage of their actual personality traits and dynamic, instead of writing in a contrived bar fight, a drunken almost hookup and the awkward aftermath? This is a little too blurry for me, and it just might suggest that the point of that side-plot was to show that Sonny and Amanda are not going to go there, at least not for a while. The hot bartender’s inclusion specifically, it was unnecessarily soapy (no reason why Amanda couldn’t just turn Sonny down and go to sleep), and it served no other purpose but to kill the momentum between them.

Speaking of, Amanda's whole "people have sex" speech kinda framed their situation weirdly. I'd like to think that her sleeping with someone wasn't Sonny's problem (it better not have been!). His problem was that he was confused, and possibly jealous, and self-conscious. So why did Amanda purposely choose not to address the real reason he was being annoying? Why did she act like Sonny was judging her out if some misplaced sense of morality? (By the way, I truly don’t believe that the show was suggesting that Sonny only has sex out of pure love and that's why he was judging Amanda in the year of our lord 2017. I have a different theory about that conversation.)

My Predictions

Is it possible that Amanda was trying to avoid talking about it altogether? Did she maybe want to cool things off, and twist the argument around, and steer Sonny toward a more manageable direction, one less uncomfortable for her? “Don’t judge me” as opposed to “yes, I rejected you”? For the sake of their working relationship, since Sonny seemed fully intent on perpetually moping? Maybe she decided that acting like she might one day sleep with him was the best way to keep things cordial between them? If so, yikes. 👀👀👀

Personally, however, I choose to fanwank that Sonny was not so much petulant but moreso embarrassed, after a rejection which possibly forced him to reconsider is own behavior, and the reasons why he may have misread the situation. I also choose to believe that Amanda cleverly used teasing and joking as a more palatable way to set Sonny straight and to press pause (at the very least) on whatever almost happened between them, because she's not willing to go there, or else she would have done it.

Anyway. Let's see if and how this progresses. In about 15 episodes, if and when the show remembers this even happened. My guess is, that talk was supposed to end the awkwardness but also kill the "what if", and Sonny and Amanda are going to interact normally for the forseeable future.

Barba Thoughts

We sure got a nice amount of Barba this week (all things considered), and I sure loved it! I always prefer the episodes where police work only gets them so far, and they need a Barba assist to win the case. And this wasn't a rabbit out of Barba's hat, by the way. This was a legitimate interrogation. I loved seeing him so confidently getting the job done. It had been a while since we got a longer trial, and this case was interesting enough to sustain it, so I'm glad we got to see it. Raul was fantastic in that moment, by the way. As always. Selling that "compassion” while making it perfectly clear he didn’t believe any of the victim-blamey things he had to say to get Heather to crack? That was masterful. I love him.

The Barisi corner

"Tell Rafael not to worry" :D

Barba's sweet face when he saw Sonny :D

"Hey!" :D

Sonny's eager face when he delivered the slam dunk Barba needed, his eyes literally hanging off of Barba's lips, waiting for approval? :DDDD

Barba's joy because Sonny brought him something juicy he could use to win the case? :DDDDDDD

I love their love :')

Stray Thoughts

So Noah gets kidnapped by Sheila and we don't even get to see her twirl her mustache? Come on now! I want my money's worth. I sat through the boring grandma scenes, I'm gonna need to see Brooke Shields go full-on villain. I can't wait for the "reveal" that she has him.

Guys, is a bar fight, like, a good thing? Is it actually fun? Was I supposed to be rooting for anybody in that scene? I wouldn't know, violence just doesn’t do it for me.

Does anyone remember that Amanda has a kid (a toddler, by now? I think?). Are they really sending her to spend the night in West Virginia without anyone offering to cover for her? I guess that's what happens when you're short-staffed and Fin gives zero fucks. Still, they could have at least let Amanda mention having to get an overnight baby sitter, or even say something like “I love my kid, but it’s fun to remember what it was like when I was carefree” etc. Does Jesse even exist anymore, or is Noah the only child in the Tri-state area now?

Barba's hair!

Sonny in a henley!

Cauliflower ear! Nice attention to detail.

Brooke Shields is a good actress. I enjoy her scenes with Benson, Mariska is really good in them as well. I just wish the writing wasn't so trite.

This was yet another episode where a psychiatrist would have been useful. Heather didn't look like she was all there. I was waiting for Huang to pop in and suggest she wasn't competent to stand trial.

The sleazy defense attorney handing Benson his business card was a flawless character moment. Straight out of the early seasons.

Sonny: These influencers are the voice of Gen Z

me: please stop

Fin: Don't people know porn's free these days?

me: i love you

Fin: I'm allergic to West Virginia

me: I LOVE YOU

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virtualenemypersona-blog · 7 years

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Oozora Yuujin: Double Standard in Digimon/Appmon Fandom

Seriously, why is no one talking about this?

If you watch Tri and Appmon more carefully, you'll find that Oozora Yuujin has pretty much experienced ALL the Tri girls' main problems.

1. Yuujin and Meiko: Being hurt both physically and mentally because of their cute, problematic partners.

But compared to Meiko who can only cry and run, Yuujin (despite his low self-esteem, just like Meiko’s) has guts to stop Shutmon using his own body.

2. Yuujin and Sora: Caring for others while neglecting themselves.

Worse, when they can't solve their own problems by themselves, they will pretend like they can handle everything on their own. At least, Yuujin finally opens up to welcome the others’ help, rather than throws himself into more trouble like Sora does. It's not all Sora's fault, though. Haru and the others are doing it right when they offer Yuujin help. While Taichi and Yamato can only complain and make Sora feel worse (Just imagine if it was Takeru who talked to her. The story would be different).

That being said, Yuujin still ends up diving by himself into danger to save Offmon, and needs Haru and Globemon to rescue them.

3. Yuujin and Hikari: Being possessed by god-like, balance-seeking yet destructive digital entities.

Hikari, while her body is being taken over, still manages to resist Homeostasis from inside. Yuujin? Indeed, he manages to take over half of his body when being controlled, to call Haru’s name. But when Leviathan finally takes full charge of him, he helplessly lets Haru do everything, until Leviathan offers Haru to save the world by killing them both.

4. Yuujin and Mimi: Being alienated in new environments.

We see Mimi get rejected by her new friends for her Daters Cafe, but still able to stay believing in herself and her ideal. While little Yuujin reacts to being rejected (even by someone he barely knows) as if no one would ever want to have him around again. Until Haru comes and helps him through it.

See the similarities and differences now?

This is only my guess, but the writers might intentionally put Yuujin through these "girls problems", to let us see the real Yuujin, which is not as perfect as he seems to be.

But why should "girls problems"? Why not giving him more masculine problems, such as unable to protect younger sibling, rivalry, or being a good leader, like Taichi and Yamato used to struggle with? Doesn't Yuujin resemble those two? An active, popular protagonist-like boy? They still can show Yuujin's flaws through "boys problems", right? So, why should "girls problems"?

I will try to answer this later, but let me get something straight first.

I enjoy Appmon. But I am sick seeing Yuujin being treated by the fandom as Taichi's expy (even after the plot reveals his vulnerability without Haru) just because he plays soccer, is a boy, and is said to be an ideal protagonist, when there is already Sora, whom Yuujin obviously shares more similar traits with, rather than with Taichi.

"But Yuujin can't be Sora's expy! Because Yuujin is portrayed as a popular, active masculine sportsman, and Sora is a girl just too motherly to be compared to one."

Yeah, right. You must forget how Sora was when she was a kid (she even played soccer too, for God’s sake!). And you didn't truly watch how Yuujin and Offmon's interaction went. If Yuujin can't be called as a patient, loving parent that is succeed in bringing up the cowardly Offmon to be a capable fighter, I don't know what he is to Offmon.

I'm not saying that Yuujin should have been a girl, to make his character and this show proper. I'm also not saying that Taichi is better than Yuujin, or the girls. The point is, Taichi is the base character for most Digimon protagonists. And Yuujin, if he was really modeled after Taichi, should have faced those "girls problems" above with much more protagonist-like ways, like Mimi or Hikari does (who are not even the protagonists).

But, nah. Yuujin turns out to be a woobie, fragile distressed damsel. Something that Taichi would never become, but Sora and Meiko would.

And that is NOT a bad thing either. Personally, I never see any characters as bad. If they are written like that, then that's how they are. The only thing that can ruin the characters is either the writers' bad writing, unreasonable inconsistency, or the audience's high expectation. And those, of course, are not the characters' faults (I'm looking at you, 02-Sora).

However, Appmon writers are bunch of talents (or rather, trolls) that trick the audience to think of Yuujin as the Taichi for the un-Taichi-like protagonist: Haru. They also seem to be aware on how the double standard between boys and girls works, and use it to surprise the audience.

Writer A: Let's write a wimpy, shy introverted main character for the new Digimon series Writer B: All right, but sure he would overcome his weakness, take a level in badass, and save the world, right? Writer A: Of course. And that's why he would need “someone special” to be rescued from the baddies. It would mature him dramatically in no time. Writer C: Oh, a love interest! Interesting! *writes Ai-chan* Here she is! What do you say? Writer A: She's cute. But looks boring. Please make another. Writer C: *writes Eri* Here! Another one, but stronger and more confident. She would help the wimpy main character to grow a backbone. Writer A: Is she going to be kidnapped? Writer C: Well, maybe. That's how it usually works, right? Writer A: No, scrap that. It would reduce this show into another chickification trash. The older audience have had enough of that. Writer B: Hey guys, hear me out. Make another one like Eri. Strong, confident, and kind. But this time, change her into a boy. There wouldn't be any chickification if the victim was a boy. The older audience would never expect it either. They might not even realize.

I’ve seen some comments complaining about how Yuujin and Offmon had stolen the spotlight from Haru. But no one seems to ever complain about Yuujin’s “chickification”, which rendered him almost useless in the Ultimate 4 arc and the last arc (except for being Haru’s living emotional crutch and maybe, fetish fuel, as him being crucified under a time bomb, or put into bondage suit while being possessed/mind-controlled, seems to be well-received among his fans).

On the other hand, Eri impressively freeing herself from Knight is considered as a very compelling point that some even regard her as the best DigiGirl ever. If Eri ended up in Yuujin’s position, she would promptly be accused for being another chickification victim, like Sora, Izumi, and Nene.

Appmon cleverly avoids itself from being tagged with chickification trope, by subjecting a boy (Yuujin) to it. And not just a boy. He's (seemed to be)confident, active, kind, brave, protective, patient, one of the chosen ones, able to kick ass, in short: almost perfect protagonist-like boy.

If Yuujin was a girl, in this kind of kids/shonen anime,even with a "weak" protagonist like Haru; admit it.The way how she was treated throughout the series: being so much devoted to a boy, to the level being distressed, kidnapped, possessed, and finally sacrificed for the said boy’s character development, would be a “very annoying, yet unsurprising thing” to see, since Digimon has quite reputation in chickifiying its action girls.

Girl!Yuujin would be deemed as a Mary Sue subjected to the most severe chickification that Digimon series had ever done. No “female Taichi” would ever be tagged to her. Even if she played soccer and wore goggle.

Regardless of the special treatment Yuujin got from the fandom because of his gender, Digimon Universe: Appli Monsters, though might not be the best series, still nails at what it specializes the most. Surprising the audience while staying to be faithful to the plot and the characteristics of its casts.

No one would ever think that Yuujin being broken is the price that Haru has to pay, in order to grow himself as a real protagonist. Most audience might have expected that Yuujin would be Haru's mentor (or at least, rival) since he has already been a “protagonist” from beginning. But haha. Let alone mentoring, Yuujin has been always depending on Haru, like Haru is the whole world to him. Turns out Haru also feels the same way toward Yuujin. But instead of depending on, Haru chooses to be a protagonist (hero) that Yuujin can depend on, to make up for the fact that he can't save him from Leviathan.

Appmon last episode is pretty much an antithesis to what it appears to be in the first episode. "Yuujin the confident hero and Haru the kindhearted side-character" has been flipped to "Yuujin the selfless, sacrificial lamb and Haru the dependable, determined hero".

More impressively, this ending doesn't come out nowhere. Yuujin himself admits that he has always been saved by Haru, both physically and mentally. This pattern is used throughout the series, yet a bit contradicted in the last episode.

In the last arc, the writers makes Haru rise up with determination to save Yuujin as usual, only to be forced to kill him off, in order to stay being a real protagonist and save the world (very cruel scenario, if you ask me).

Last but not least. Yuujin never sees himself as a protagonist, or a hero, or a leader. He is just forced to be seen as one, despite his fragile heart and weak mental, which people tend to shrug off because of his first impression as the polar opposite of the un-Taichi-like protagonist, Haru. And that explains why Yuujin is so easy to be destroyed, unlike Haru.

Yuujin is right. He's no protagonist. Haru is the real protagonist.

@firstagent @shetriestolive @mormon-nerd @jessicastar3 @newworldchild @setokaibaisboss @theanalyzersfanfics @yesyoshiposts @jackpo21 @eternal-angel15 @shadowrocket13 @longroadstonowhere @zzeno @digimumblr @birdboy2000 @adventurechronicles @tanaka04 @djinntotonic @boku-no-yuujin @tokyodirectdiary

@soliloquyer @infamousfj @kiya-minamura @noirharu @navirule @mormon-nerd @bubunet @metalempire @nightglimmer @seregkat @razorsaw @digihopes @digithoughts @appmons @digimonconfessions

#digimon appli monsters #digimon tri #oozora yuujin #yuujin oozora #shinkai haru #haru shinkai #yagami taichi #sora takenouchi #yagami hikari #meiko mochizuki #mimi tachikawa #orimoto izumi #amano nene #appmon #digimon #chickification

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fixyourwritinghabits · 7 years

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I have a problem with writing dialogue and that is I write too much of it, in other words my dialogues are too long. How do i make them seem long and good and important without it lasting through 20,pages? Also, how do i say, rather than show, some of the dialogues,but in a way my readers dont feel like they missed out?

cleverly asked:

hi! been following for a year or so and i’m so grateful for this blog. you’ve helped me and others out a ton. i find that when i write, my first draft is very dialogue-heavy. when i go back and edit it’s mostly to fill in the spaces between spoken word, but i always feel like i don’t have enough detail for others to see what i see. what are some ways i can improve on adding more detail? i’ve been practicing by journaling/freewriting, but this style doesn’t really find its way into my WIP. thx!

secretkeeper007 asked:

Hello! I’m writing a novel and I feel like I have a lot of dialogue. Is that okay? (It’s in 1st person POV).

Wow, a lot of synchronicity here!

Nothing makes me close a page of fanfic faster than Wall O’Dialogue. And it’s not just fanfic: I have actually photocopied pages from a professionally edited and published book so that I could go through and write down (it was a library book) who was talking.

Thank you all for realizing it’s an issue and looking to deal with it.

Relentless dialogue is just as frustrating to your readers as an unparagraphed wall of text or reams of irrelevant infodump.

tl;dr: You don’t have to kill your darlings. You do, however, have to stuff a sock in them sometimes.

Dialogue should be like any other part of your story – essential to plot and characterization.

If you’re writing a story in novel format, you don’t want it dominated by dialogue. That’s called a screenplay. But you’re writing a narrative; you’re struggling with things like plot and point of view. Too much dialogue can mean too little action.

Then again, your characters reveal themselves to the reader through conversation. And you might just need to slow the action down for a minute, so you have them talk. How do you sort it all out?

Ask yourself: Is it necessary?

Your first task: Make sure your dialogue is advancing the story or revealing character. If it’s not necessary, cut it out. Save the file … it might be useful later, but remove it from your working draft.

Next: Break up the dialogue you still need if you haven’t already. Your four main tools for breaking up (necessary) dialogue are:

1. dialogue tags: he said, she asked, they replied. Be specific, use the character’s name if you have to, try to avoid fancy words like “he articulated.”

2. action beats: “I’m not going,” he said, dropping the book on the floor; or

Xander tossed the book on the bed. “I’m not going.”

3. inner monologue: “I don’t care what you think,” Tamsyn said.

Juno was tired of her bullshit. She knew T cared. Juno was tired of her own anger. This was no way to have a relationship. But T wasn’t in a place to listen, and Juno had no other way to explain it.

“OK, if that’s how you feel, I’ve got nothing else,” Juno said as she turned to leave.

Inner monologue is an excellent device for replacing dialogue that you cut out. Instead of having your characters go back and forth, put the reactions into the inner, real-time thoughts and reactions of your POV character. Sometimes, what your character does NOT say out loud is far more revealing and interesting.

4. actual action: Nothing wrong with interrupting your blathering lovelies with plot- or character-revealing action. Someone bursts into the room with news … something is happening on the TV news that’s relevant … one of your characters gets a phone call or text that is disturbing, etc…

Underwriting/Under-describing

Another reason we resort to too much dialogue is that we are covering for a lack of description, also known as underwriting. We don’t want to insult our readers by being obvious, because part of the fun of reading is connecting the dots. It’s up to you, the writer, to make sure there are just enough dots.

Don’t jump to conclusions without presenting the evidence first. Nobody changes their life simply because of one conversation – although one conversation can spark a series of interim changes that will have life-altering and story-altering effects.

Maybe you need to do more research on the setting. Maybe you need to interview your characters to find out more about them – do a questionnaire or other character building exercises.

Ask your beta readers what they think is lacking. Remember, your first draft is going to need work, so don’t get too bogged down trying to make everything perfect on the first pass.

You can find more help here. An author shares her struggles with description here.

More resources

There are additional tips in these articles here and here.

If you want to learn good dialogue, read good dialogue, as recommended here and here.

– Aliya, currently feeling your pain with a dialogue-heavy section of her fanfic

#rnanlvnch #cleverly #secretkeeper007 #dialogue #writing tips

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morethankradio · 5 years

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Something Awesome: Cross-Site Request Forgery

Perhaps you’ve heard of the infamous Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) exploit, where an attacker injects a script into a website through an unsanitised user input. The idea is that if this user input is for some user generated content like a comment that is then displayed on the site, then this script will be run by future visitors.

Today we’re going to take a look at the (possibly, I’m not quite sure yet) related Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF or XSRF for consistency) attack. Wikipedia says,

...unlike XSS, which exploits the trust a user has for a particular site, CSRF exploits the trust that a site has in a user's browser.

I’ve also just discovered another seemingly related attack Cross-Site History Manipulation (XSHM), and so at this point I really want to know what is this Cross-Site (XS) business all about. If you google for the keywords “Cross-Site” you just turn up a heap of XSS related content, but thankfully the OWASP site on XSHM mentions a Same Origin Policy (SOP) that it claims is

...the most important security concept of modern browsers.

Well then… let’s start there.

Same-Origin Policy (SOP)

Wikipedia paraphrased again,

A browser permits scripts contained in a web page to access data in a second web page, but only if both web pages have the same origin (read: url[1]).

Malicious scripts on one page, can’t access sensitive data (including HTTP cookies) on another web page through that page’s Document Object Model (DOM) or global JavaScript object. We’re trying to achieve client-side separation of content provided by unrelated sites. It only applies to scripts, and not images, CSS and dynamically loaded scripts (OH OKAY, was wondering how CDNs work...). Apparently CSRF exploits the fact that the same origin policy does not apply to HTML tags? Really? Okay?

Why Do We Need SOP?

A user has just finished an online banking session and leaves the site without logging out. This likely means that whatever was being used to authenticate the user’s requests to the bank’s servers (let’s say session cookies) is still around in the users browser. The user then goes to another site which sends them a JavaScript file to run in their browser. JavaScript is a Turing complete language, which is essentially capable of doing anything a user can do in a browser. What happens when that script decides to revisit the bank website and craft a few new transactions to someone. Note that the script doesn’t need direct access to the session cookies to use them. Since the script is running in the user’s browser, any requests it makes to the banks site will be automatically equipped with the relevant session cookies for that site. This is what the Same Origin Policy is meant to prevent. Simply, we say that if the script isn’t from the bank’s site, then we won’t allow it to do things the user could do on the bank’s site.

Cross-Site Request Forgery

Okay then, so now that web pages from different origins cannot communicate with each other thanks to SOP, let’s get back to CSRF; or by it’s cooler names, Sea Surfing/Session Riding. Believe it or not, Cross-Site Request Forgery, is centered around a forged request. Specifically a request is made from the user’s browser to a server with which a user is authenticated. The request arrives with the appropriate session cookies, and the server is none the wiser that this request was not the user’s intention.

How is this request made?

The simplest way… you guessed it, a link click. Give the user a disguised link that fires off a GET request to the server the user is authenticated with. Importantly, to do anything meaningful here, we need that server is using GET parameters to allow the user to perform some state changes. If your bank’s server is accepting requests like this, it’s most definitely time to get a new bank...

GET http://bigbank.com/transfer?acct=AttackerA&amount=$100 HTTP/1.1

Can we do this automatically with JavaScript? Well we know the SOP prevents this script from accessing data on other origins. But there’s a very ambiguous word here, access. To my best knowledge, SOP will prevent the script reading data returned from other origins, but doesn’t necessarily prevent the request itself! So a GET request fired from JavaScript will nonetheless have the desired effect, even if the script can’t read the response.

Okay, but what self respecting server is going to let the user do anything meaningful with a GET request. This leads us back to “CSRF exploits the fact that the same origin policy does not apply to HTML tags”. There is in fact an HTML tag that is very capable of making POST requests, an HTML form. Moreover, JavaScript is perfectly capable of submitting a form on behalf of a user. Once again, SOP prevents the script from reading the response, but does that matter when the server has gone ahead and made the transfer… no.

This is a take-home point, CSRF specifically attacks changes in state because it can’t see the response.

Recommendations

As a user, the recommendations look a lot like all my other posts with one notable emboldened suggestion:

Check your links before you click them.

Avoid manually typing URLs into your browser.

Sign-out of authenticated applications before browsing the internet.

The last is, of course, not something that anyone but the most cautious internet user will actually do in the age of convenience. So let’s just hope that applications have taken it upon themselves to defend against CSRF attacks. The most common approach to this is to use a CSRF token. This token is cleverly hidden in the cross-site script unreadable DOM (thanks SOP) and alongside the relevant session cookies, is required in sensitive requests from the user.

Real World Examples

[2006] Netflix, way back when, “adding a DVD to the victim's rental queue, changing the shipping address on the account, or altering the victim's login credentials.”

[2008] ING Direct, “open additional accounts on behalf of a user and transfer funds from a user's account to the attacker's account.”

[2015] MyBB, “adding administrator user”.

[1] Unlike other browsers, Internet Explorer does not include the port in the calculation of the origin, using the Security Zone in its place 🙂

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polaris-borealis-blog · 7 years

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A midsummer nights not-dream

@noblestdecepticon You called him out, now face the consequence!

He'd been circling the compound for 20 cliks now undetected, cloak systems on high and electromagnetic field completely undetectable as he flew in lazy laps for surveillance around the so called 'Decepticon stronghold' of Darkmount. It was a particularly pleasant evening for flying, at least for him. A small amount of cloud cover he could vanish into, stars to gaze at for the trip home, and a decent amount of wind to speed along his silent pathing should anything occur. nothing more this stealth jet could ask for as the fins on his streamlined wings angled him downwards towards the base below.

The guards patrolling weren't on high alert, and routines hadn't changed since his observation since he started which was the all clear to get in closer, a faint hum of excitement buzzing through his system and dipped down into the darkness of a particularly covered courtyard. Transforming was effortless as wings shifted to settle behind his lanky frame but now the real fun began, biolights reduced to a dull glow rather than the vibrancy they normally retained. For a stealth jet, he was rather flashy which meant one of two things.

He was either tremendous at his job, or terrible at it.

With no more cloaking mechanism to trust in and keep him invisible, instead the mech clung to the shadows and monitored the electro-frequencies of devices he could sense in the nearby areas. Cameras, drones and other Cybertronians could be sensed with ease thanks to their magnetic fields, and so this particular individual skirted around with a vague sense of delight at avoiding the security to easily.

What couldn't be avoided however, had to be dealt with swiftly. Cameras were sent offline briefly with a burst of static they'd never discover the cause of, and guards that gazed a little too intently into the darkness were sent to recharge with a swift knock to the cranial armour and an inhibitor slotted ever so carefully over their main fuel lines. They'd stay asleep peacefully until discovered and the device removed, frames cleverly placed behind doorframes and the deepened shadows that lined the seekers courtyards and landing pads. Bit by bit, hallway by hallway this particular seeker found his way into the main base and had taken the liberty of changing their colours to that of the mechs that stood guard. Not terribly different but it was enough that nobody questioned him guarding the same door as the previous resident, waving cheerfully as two particularly tired grounders greeted him with a warm smile and a murmur of thanks.

He was less than 100 metres away now, time to put the plan into action.

"Hey Megadude, how come you're up so late tonight? Can't recharge again?" Soundwave was watching the many cameras with a passive attention span, currently distracted by the new arrival to the security room. Megatron for his part looked the tired leader, optics dim and wings drooping just slightly. "Indeed... I haven't been at ease all evening. There is something bothering me like a prickle at the back of my helm- but enough about me old friend, how is your shift going?" The conversation was easy going, The Decepticon leader shifting to sit aside his 3rd in command and join them in the surveillance of the base. Occasionally something would catch their attention but the glitch was so brief it was hardly worth a second glance. The two shared a box of rust sticks as the night wore on, Soundwave pausing their conversation when something interesting caught his attention on one of the cameras closer to the library. A single pede was poking out from the corner of a doorframe and from the angle it didn't look like the person it belonged to was standing... "Did someone fall asleep in there again?" Megatron questioned with amusement, noting with a smile how frequently Shockwave did such a thing. "Not sure... Rumble, Frenzy, can you check this out for me?"

A few cliks went by before the two minibots appeared on cam, waving with small mischievous grins that made their leader smile fondly before a long stretch of silence went by on the comm link. "Uh... boss? I think we have a situation here. This mech ain't sleeping..." The reaction was immediate, Soundwave sitting up straighter as the rest of the cameras were checked with a speed that had Megatron slightly dizzy, a firm servo resting on their shoulder in reassurance. "Are they still online?" Megatron pressed, voice slightly strained despite the comfort he was trying to show his 3rd. "Yeah, just out cold. Might need some dents removed though!"

A single cam was brought up across the whole terminal, a seeker with odd wings walking ever so casually up to the front of Megatron's quarters. Pausing at the door as though he sensed the two were watching, he faced the camera and did a rather cheery wave for one who wasn't meant to be there, and turned to retrieve something out of his subspace. That something turned out to be a small stencil and a can of...

"Paint?"

Soundwave seemed just as baffled as Megatron as the front door to his habsuite was tagged with a magnet symbol, that strange visor turning to face the camera with what looked like a small heart forming in pixels, a little wave again and the camera feed cut out swiftly after they were done. Without a second glance the alarm was raised and a base wide siren was raised. "Soundwave stay here and watch the feed! I'll mobilise everyone else!" The shout of confirmation was barely heard as the triple changer was out the door before he had finished his full sentence.

#friend or foe? (muse interaction)#surveillance files (fiction)#megatron

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gemstone-gynoid · 5 years

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gonna go through and look for any gems here

https://jayisgames.com/tag/download+free/

under the read more for at least an image and link per game.

hmm. should be said that around 2018 jayisgames lost money for a bit and shut down. patreons helped restore the site but a lot of natively hosted games are unavailable. and the fact that its an OLD site links to outside might not work anymore. i still love how they have reviews of all these games though.

god damn it i spent a while posting the images of each game onto this post but tumblr wouldnt respond when i tried to hit post now. so this is just plaintext and links then whoopie. and no read more because thats messing things up too

page 1:

https://jayisgames.com/review/the-doll-shop.php

https://jayisgames.com/review/the-racoon-who-lost-their-shape.php

https://jayisgames.com/review/doppleganger.php

“ But the real fun starts a few levels in when you're directed to use a reference frame to help you bypass obstacles. By setting up properly, you can move from one edge of the frame to the other, allowing you to cleverly avoid an obstacle in the middle. You're not limited to merely the sides either - top and bottom become fair game as well! The mechanics grow in complexity when you're later allowed to resize the frame or even enter "movie" mode, sliding the frame along to fit your devices. “

https://jayisgames.com/review/cube-escape-paradox---chapter-1.php

https://jayisgames.com/review/the-trolley.php

“ the tale of the disassembly of such a vehicle in an unnamed midwestern town. In it, you play as an employee charged with the psychologically challenging task of tearing it down. There is no demand for such an artefact any longer, so it's only logical for them to want to remove it and make way for something else. Right? “

https://jayisgames.com/review/i-remember-the-rain.php

https://jayisgames.com/review/fragments-of-euclid.php

https://jayisgames.com/review/the-world-begins-with-you.php

https://jayisgames.com/review/mimis-delivery-dash.php

“based upon the anime Kiki's Delivery Service and the premise of the game is to collect orders and deliver them to people “

https://jayisgames.com/review/fanbots.php

“A cast of robots, apparently discarded by their human masters, have arrived on the faraway, abandoned planet of Koruuna at an abandoned production studio. The natural next question, you may find yourself asking, is what these robots want to do for some excitement? It'll be hard for them to do something like play soccer out in the harsh desert environment surrounding them. Well, they want to revive their favorite television show, of course! “

https://jayisgames.com/review/broken-reality.php

“ Gone is the two-dimensional interface known as a computer screen, a notion that's so yesteryear. Now, you'll interact with the web in a three-dimensional environment, where web sites appear as physical spaces, ads appear in various places in-game, and you'll even encounter obstacles like malware. “

guys this one is just a porn game

https://jayisgames.com/review/katabasis.php

“ where the government, affectionately naming themselves govCorp, has all but taken over. Well, almost. After your father mysteriously disappears, you decide that a cursory explanation does not satisfy you and embark on a quest for deeper knowledge into the situation. “

https://jayisgames.com/review/fruits-of-a-feather.php

“ lovingly designed bird simulator “

https://jayisgames.com/review/romance-detective.php

“ an unapologetically and refreshingly light and lovable visual novel “ lgbtq tagged

https://jayisgames.com/review/im-alright.php

“ you wake up in what appears to be a quiet and comfortable hospital, the sun is streaming through the windows and birds and singing outside, but things go wrong in a hurry. Suddenly, you have to escape “

https://jayisgames.com/review/saturated-1.php

“In this platform puzzler when you touch a color, the background changes to match, and you are no longer able to see the red platforms, but the blue and green platforms now can stand out brightly “

https://jayisgames.com/review/pequod.php

“ arcadified action RPG take on Herman Melville's American lit classic about a giant sperm whale who played by his own rules and a sea captain who couldn't get enough of him. Pequod is for an American classic what Dance Dance Revolution is to the waltz and the lindsey, and you're gonnna love it“

https://jayisgames.com/review/luxaren-allure.php

“Karuna and Aurelie used to be close, both training together to become great swordswomen, though Karuna always hoped they could become something more. All that changed the day Aurelie went missing... and though Karuna never gave up hope looking for her, she never expected them to cross paths again two years later, or the person Aurelie could possibly have become. In free indie RPG Luxaren Allure by developer Unity, formerly kind and quiet Aurelie is now Overlord Darkloft after donning a suit of cursed armor found in a castle where demonic statuary and glistening red furniture are used to decorate, as one does. Karuna's been tapped by the king to play the role of the "chosen one" and gather the artifacts needed to destroy the Overlord... no matter how she may still feel about her former friend.“

#this was formatted much nicer before but whatever

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barbyquiin · 5 years

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11 Methods for getting More (Real!) Instagram Fans

Instagram quickly outgrew its first impression as a great application for kids and has turned into a serious content marketing, offering, networking and audience-building tool for folks and brands. It's one of the very most popular social network sites on earth, with over 200 million energetic monthly members posting 60 million images and 1.6 billion likes each day.

Precisely how amazing could it be? Engagement rates for brands of all internet sites are significantly less than 0.1%, but Instagram blows all of them away. The common Instagram engagement rate for brands in a 2014 Forrester research was an epic 58 times greater than on Facebook.

You can't argue with numbers like this. But that's just average. So that as I advocate across all manners of online marketing, you do not desire to be average! It isn't a desire or an objective.

Sure, 58 times higher engagement than Facebook noises great, nevertheless, you can do this superior to that on Instagram. Whether you're a large brand or possibly just wondering how to be Instagram famous, I don't want you to shoot for average; I'd like you to attain for the celebrities and be an Instagram unicorn. An electronic unicorn is that marvelous, uncommon creature that outperforms others by purchases of magnitude.

And you are going to make this happen by working these eleven amazing Instagram hacks into the social strategy. Have a look at these attention-getting ideas for your Instagram captions, hashtags, profile, and more, and find out what things to post on Instagram to obtain additional fans and a lot more visibility and engagement too.

1. Cross-promote your dedicated hashtag.

That's nice that you created a #joesgarage hashtag for your business, but who understands to utilize it to talk about content about you? Make certain it's in your profile, but take the overall game offline and also have it imprinted on your receipts, on the net advertisements, on signage in your store with relevant events.

If you are on radio and Television, direct visitors to use your hashtag. Integrate online and offline promotions by making sure it's outlined on your other interpersonal information, on your website, and in your email blasts. Don't just wish people will see it.

2. Get creative with hashtagging.

With regards to Instagram caption ideas, you will need to look beyond the one-word, apparent hashtags. Sure, you want to use those, too, but blend it up and use hashtags to inform part of your tale. Be funny, ironic, or outrageous--just you shouldn't be BORING. Collaborative workspace company WeWork is fantastic with this, and they add a fun mixture of Instagram content, too.

3. Take part in massively popular discussions.

For each and every post, use a variety of topically relevant hashtags such as #woodworking for a carpentry company, for example, as well as trending, super-popular hashtags wherever you can.

The truly specific hashtags are like long-tail keywords for the reason that they show more intention and support you in finding the right people, however the universally trending hashtags like #instagood, #tbt, #photooftheday or even the usual #fun get you before more people generally. You will need both to make it on the sociable network as big and noisy as Instagram.

4. Make the majority of your bio Web address.

It's primary real property on your Instagram profile... you don't want your bio to only connect to your website homepage, and forever now? Yawn. Change it out up at least bi-weekly and use that clickable hyperlink in your bio to operate a vehicle traffic to your latest or most popular content.

5. Get descriptive with your captions.

A picture will probably be worth one thousand words, nevertheless, you can't miss the words entirely. Countrywide Geographic is fantastic at using storytelling alongside their Instagram photos to create engagement and writing. While traditional press brands have decreased like flies, NatGeo has thrived across digital and be one of the very best brands on Instagram, with over 50 million supporters.

Just like the other Instagram hacks I've included here, this is something you will want to invest in working into the strategy as time passes, so don't be concerned if it seems weird initially. Your writing will improve as you find your brand's Instagram tone of voice.

You may also interesting in how to grow your Instagram following

6. Go all in on influencer marketing.

Go to the profiles of every person you've recognized as an influencer in your space (AKA someone who influences individuals you need to get before) and "START Post Notifications" to be notified each time they discuss new content. After that, you can connect to them regularly and be one of the common people or brands.

7. Remove unwanted tagged photos of you from your profile.

In the event that you only want to feature the best user-generated content about you or your brand on your Instagram profile, you can. Now, you can't take away the tagged photos from the website completely, by choosing "Edit Tags," selecting the ones you want to eliminate and choosing "Cover from Profile" (you may want to confirm). The trick is done because of it.

8. Approve picture tags prior to the content shows on your profile.

Speaking of providing you greater control over which tagged photos appear on your profile, you can transform your Instagram environment so tagged photos won't show if you don't approve them first. You will discover this under "Options," "Photos of You," and "Add By hand."

I'm trying to think about grounds why any business would NOT wish to accomplish this... Nope. I've got nothing at all. You should absolutely arrange this up to avoid possibly humiliating situations.

9. Develop your own Instagram style.

It's the human character to want to squeeze in, but on Instagram, you want to stick out. Indian drink brand Frooti is rolling out such a distinctive visible content style, it's instantly recognizable each time a consumer views a Frooti post in their newsfeed. Take a look:

10. Get local.

See what's happening in a particular area (say, town, a city you're focusing on in ads, or even a meeting in a certain location) by heading to the search web page and choosing the Places tab. Then, type in the name of the spot to see all geotagged posts for that location.

11. Keep in mind your phone calls to action!

Instagram, like other internet sites, is a discussion, not really a broadcasting system. What action would you like people to undertake your post? Unless you know that, start over and physique it out. Staples is excellent at producing engagement by allowing people to know precisely what they expect them regarding their articles (bonus factors if you make it audio fun). Often, that proactive approach cleverly gets visitors to talk about or virally pass on Staples' content.

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terabitweb · 5 years

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Original Post from Rapid7 Author: Joe Agnew

This is part one in a three-part series on medical device security and risk management, particularly as it relates to vulnerability assessment. In part one, we discuss the processes and procedures to implement inside of a clinical environment to position the security team for success. Part two gets in the weeds and examines how to directly perform assessments on medical devices, and in part three, we put it all together with an example of how an organization would implement these ideas with a based-in-reality medical device.

In a past life, I was a security analyst at a major hospital. I found working in a medical environment to be simultaneously challenging and rewarding. Even though I wasn’t working directly with patients, the decisions my team and I made on a daily basis affected patients nonetheless, and this built-in level of satisfaction scratched a very particular community service itch for me. The challenges I encountered were innumerable, but I’d like to spend a little time talking about a very specific one: advancing my hospital’s security while avoiding negative patient outcomes.

A “negative patient outcome” is anything bad that happens to a patient as a result of medical action. There are two specific reasons why I bring it up. First, it’s important that information security professionals speak in the language of their organizations, and since patient care is a hospital’s No. 1 priority, technical teams that can speak in terms of patient care are the ones that stand the best chance of getting their initiatives approved. The second reason, of course, is much simpler: Information security should never harm a patient.

At Rapid7, we’re sometimes asked how our products—like InsightVM—do with scanning medical devices. It’s a logical question that results from a well-intentioned desire at completeness. Information security teams want to scan the whole network, with no exceptions, in order to identify every possible vulnerability and make appropriate recommendations for remediation back to the business.

I’d like to encourage teams prone to this disposition to take a more nuanced approach when medical devices are in play. It will require more effort and planning, but the end result will be better information, organizational buy-in, and no infosec-driven negative patient outcomes. The remainder of this discussion is going to follow three themes:

Manage the risk associated with your medical devices

Be intentional and tread lightly when scanning medical devices

Oh, and don’t scan computers that are plugged into people

Managing the security risks of medical devices

So, why scan medical devices in the first place? To find vulnerabilities, of course! In the service of our noble cause, we will get every vulnerability identified and every patch appli—okay, let’s just hold up a second.

In my cleverly built strawman here, we seem to be confusing vulnerability management and risk management, but it’s cool—let’s explore the vulnerability management piece for a second. How many medical device security vulnerabilities do people think are tracked by the major vulnerability vendors? We at Rapid7 (and at least one of our competitors) publish our vulnerability database publicly online. Do a bit of exploring and find a few medical device CVEs while you’re in there. Don’t worry, we’ll wait. *Lights cigarette*

It quickly becomes clear that vulnerabilities specific to medical devices are not commonly detected by vulnerability scanners. Do not despair, though! That doesn’t mean that vulnerability scanners are useless for managing medical device security risks. It just means they need to be used differently.

The great thing about vulnerability scanners in this use case is all of the information that gets gathered besides, well, vulnerabilities. We can use other data gathered naturally through scanning to tag the asset, assign it a criticality, and help us to make some next-step decisions. During a scan, we can expect to see at least this much:

Open ports

A guess at the services running on those ports

A guess at the operating system of the device

Some generic discovered vulnerabilities

For those looking for an enumeration of vulnerabilities, this is unsatisfying. If the running services are weird, they might not be enumerated properly, and if the operating system is some proprietary RTOS thing, the guess there is going to be a rough one at best. What is this good for? Building a fingerprint. Even if it isn’t 100% accurate, that set of ports, services, operating systems, and vulnerabilities allows us to uniquely identify that type of device on the network. In InsightVM, we can build a dynamic tag on these criteria to automatically mark these assets as they’re discovered.

The dirty little secret in clinical environments is that most teams don’t know what’s out there and don’t have a good way to figure it out. I would argue that the primary usage for a vulnerability scanner is to find and track these assets on our network. Once we know what we have and where it is, we can start with the individual risk assessments on them—that is, independent research of known vulnerabilities, network segmentation, and appropriate alerting mechanisms for devices that show up where they don’t belong. And, if you’re feeling frisky, you can start doing other vulnerability research, too.

This model has a few holes that need to be filled in. For one, we need to build fingerprints before we start wholesale scanning. There is a chicken-and-egg problem there. For another, we need to figure out what to do with the medical devices sitting in production (aka being used in daily clinical care).

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Be intentional with medical device security scanning

Look, there’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to say it: Those starting from zero with medical device scanning can’t just bomb the network with a scan, then start looking at weirdly identified devices to put together fingerprints. Not only are you setting yourself up for failure, but you are, in a very real sense, risking a negative patient outcome. Remember our third theme: don’t scan things that are plugged into people.

What can go wrong? Some devices may have a poorly implemented TCP/IP stack that is unfriendly to SYN scans. Some devices may dislike the speed with which enumeration occurs on them. Some devices might just have modest specifications that could tip over when touched in the wrong way. One example I know of from the field involved a well-known hospital’s paging system falling over from an nmap scan. While the IT and security teams tried to figure out what happened and restore the service, doctors and nurses in different rooms lost their ability to communicate for 20 minutes.

Being intentional with scanning means doing some homework before launching network sweeps. I recommend organizations strive to implement three processes:

Production medical device network segmentation

Pre-production scanning and fingerprinting

Maintenance cycle-based continuous assessment

First and foremost, confirm that medical devices are segmented from the primary network. This is critical and shouldn’t be done with the vulnerability scanner. Also, never assume the segmentation is done. Talk to the biotech teams and any other IT teams involved in medical device deployment, as this will develop a critical relationship and provide valuable intel. Moreover, trust but verify. Get out into the field, grab one of those biotech folks, find an empty patient room, and work with them to observe how these medical devices are deployed in the field.

This part is neither easy nor fast. It’s going to require looking through logs, getting on switches and firewalls, and poring through device configurations. Be sure to mind the organization’s goals, though. Patient care always comes first. A careless vulnerability scanning program that scans an environment while incorrectly assuming segmentation is in place might scan medical devices without even knowing it, generating an irresponsible risk of negative patient outcomes in the process.

Production segmentation is an ongoing task. In any environment, people make mistakes and assets get accidentally placed in the wrong segment all the time. In a PCI environment, this network boundary creep might generate an ornery QSA but won’t really change how scans get run. Because of the associated patient risks in a clinical environment, we must practice constant vigilance. A light discovery scan tuned for minimum impact and designed to simply identify assets should be used even in non-medical environments to defend against such mistakes. Identified devices are bucketed and properly scanned later, while unidentified devices (or even medical devices identified with a known fingerprint) generate alerts and potentially more extreme actions for remediation.

DevOps for medical devices

The other two processes essentially build out a DevOps-powered security process for medical devices. In pre-production, before devices are deployed for usage, information security must build a fingerprint on the device and perform a risk assessment. I’ve briefly addressed the fingerprint already. The risk assessment is itself a deeper subject (and this post is already pretty long, so kudos for getting here). Part two of the series will go into the “how” of performing a risk assessment of medical devices.

Suffice it to say pre-production is the time to try to break things. Scan, attack, throw the kitchen sink at it. It’s better to learn a device falls over from a particular type of scan during pre-production, rather than when it’s deployed to the network. Learnings here can be applied to the light discovery scan mentioned in the previous section.

It’s not one-and-done with medical devices, though. These devices already undergo regular maintenance cycles, likely maintained by a biotech-specific team. It’s important to identify which cycles are for the various deployed devices and that security gets inserted into that process. When just starting, you can keep it easy and make friends with the biotech folks so they notify you when devices are coming through. However, this should eventually be automated. Automation here could be as simple as watching for changes in the biotech testing environment and triggering scans on change, or as complex as a Jenkins server running through a bunch of automated tests that the biotech team does, with security tests in the same queue.

Again, throughout all of this, remember to never scan medical devices plugged into people. Instead, run a security scan before they go live or when they come out for maintenance—just do everything you can to minimize the chance they get hammered in your non-medical networks.

The upside (besides, you know, not killing people)

I’ve had countless conversations with information security teams that don’t believe vulnerability scanning poses a major threat to their environments. For the most part, they’re right. Everything I’ve described, and everything coming in part two, seems like overkill, with massive risk aversion and unreasonable precautions. However, here is a list of just a few of the awesome benefits beyond just avoiding negative patient outcomes:

An actual medical device inventory

Better perspective and understanding of the patient experience

A demonstrable SecDevOps process (buzzword!)

Rapport and relationship with biotech and clinical

Incredible learnings developed during implementation

Finally, let me go back to the start. Information security’s job is to manage risk within the context of organizational priorities. In clinical environments, there’s no priority more important than patient care. Taking steps to ensure your vulnerability scanners do not put patients at risk will not only keep people safe, but improve the overall efficacy of your security processes.

Check back next week for part two of this series, which will examine how to directly perform assessments on medical devices.

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Go to Source Author: Joe Agnew Medical Device Security, Part 1: How to Scan Devices Without Letting Safety Flatline Original Post from Rapid7 Author: Joe Agnew This is part one in a three-part series on medical device security and risk management, particularly as it relates to…

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