#my only solution now is to track down every chapter in every book that contains starclan cats and reread them

[pigeonclaw]

Where does the idea of StarClan cats appearing as the age they were happiest come from? I don't remember, and the wiki doesn't provide an accurate source.

[keeroo92]

Be My Nightmare Chapter 17

Coming Home

~~~~Previous Chapter~~~~

Word count - 3,124

Warnings for surgical procedure, somewhat graphic. Blood and gore, minor.

_________

~~~~Nico~~~~

Nico took a deep breath and stepped forward, ducking under the yellow tape criss-crossing over the open doors of the subway. The acrid stench of death hung in the air, mixing with the signature piss and sweat of the underground. Not a pretty smell.

But the view horrified her, too. Cracked glass and smeared blood, a few bullet casings and two blue-clad bodies lying on the floor like dolls discarded by a child with a new toy. Her comrades deserved so much better.

Her heart clenched as she saw their frozen faces. It was Franklin and Taylor; she’d chatted with them by the water cooler the other day. Taylor told her that stupid joke about the zero and the eight, and Franklin… he was only just learning the ropes. His whole life ahead of him.

It made her want to scream.

She wasn’t unfamiliar with the unfairness of life. It twisted her up and spat her out more than once over the years. She’d fought tooth and claw to get where she was, struggle didn’t surprise her anymore. Misfortune had a cruel tendency to affect kind folks more than those who deserved it, but she always hoped to change that, even just a little. To leave the world better than when she entered it was all she wanted from life, despite how difficult the battle was. She could deal with the bad shit.

Still sucked to see the bad shit, though.

We gotta catch this fucker.

Balled fists held tight at her sides, she forced her eyes away from the corpses of her brothers in arms to scan the scene for any evidence that might lead to tracking down the psychopath who ended their lives. Anything would do, any thread she could tug to unravel the mystery and get to slap cuffs on the bastard. She’d never wanted to catch a criminal so badly, so deeply it kept her awake at night.

I’ll do whatever it takes. You’re going down, V.

The background check hadn’t given them much - he’d come from a middle class family, nothing remarkable about his childhood other than his fascination with art. By all accounts, while his young friends were off causing mischief, he’d be found visiting a museum or practicing his brushwork.

That is, until the shooting.

Regardless of his crimes, her heart went out to the poor bastard. Surviving a mass shooting by the sacrifice of a friend was enough to traumatize anyone. It was a damned shame (and an embarrassment to the healthcare system) that he didn’t get the help he needed afterward.

Still didn’t excuse killing folks, though.

At least they had one lead to follow - the doctor. After the dark-haired lunatic fled her apartment, it didn’t take long to get a search warrant. Techs were combing through the place, but they already had enough to put her away for at least a decade. Lobotomizing her own father, un-friggin-believable.

Tony was in shock, caught completely off guard by the doctor’s actions. His own hand-picked medical consultant, in league with the killer they hunted. A twist for the history books, he’d said. She’d never seen him so dumbfounded.

Despite being proven right about her suspicions, it turned Nico’s stomach to see the emptiness in Waras’s father’s eyes, the lack of humanity left behind. He was lucky to be alive, supposedly, but Nico had her doubts. Maybe death was a kinder fate than what the poor man endured.

He’ll never be the same. None of us will.

“I got a blood trail!”

Nico’s lips curved into a predatory smile. Franklin must’ve wounded the fucker, his last act one that could lead to the arrest of his killer. Cold comfort to his loved ones, but still. It was something.

~~~~Kotomi~~~~

The familiar click of her heels on cement vanished amidst the cries of the crowd. Enraged faces lined the entrance to Mundus Psychiatric Hospital, signs and shouts overwhelmingly oppressive. At least they weren't throwing fruit today. She’d count her blessings.

The protests first started a few days after the local news announced that V was the lead suspect in the recent killings, and that he’d escaped the historically secure facility. Citizens fearing for their safety flocked to the streets, calling for the hospital to close and the patients to go elsewhere, though nobody seemed to know where.  As long as it wasn’t here.

Nobody cares about an actual solution, just that the problem gets dumped on someone else’s lap.

Then one of the orderlies told the tale of the fire, heightening the rage and terror. Malphas still hadn’t figured out who talked, but when he did, heads were going to roll. The director’s professional reputation was irrevocably tainted, along with the entire staff (though his was the only name being slandered in the streets).

It shocked her to see normal people so furious. People who barely registered the hospital’s existence before, now vilifying it at every opportunity. It didn’t matter that the place housed mostly harmless individuals, or that the staff genuinely tried to help them heal. All the goodwill vanished in the wake of V’s rampage.

“Bitch! Don’t you care that folks are dying?!”

Kotomi flinched as a protester caught her gaze and stepped forward from the picket line, foam-flecked lips spewing vitriol. She moved faster; maybe she could get inside before it got any worse.

“How many innocent people have to get slaughtered before you fuckers close this shithole?! Give ’em all the chair, I say!”

She crossed her arms and curled her shoulders inward, her heart hammering as she tried to pass the man by. She only wanted to go to work. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone? She hadn’t done any harm.

That’s not quite true…

In a way, it was all her fault. If she hadn’t frozen up during the fire, maybe things would have turned out differently. Why did she always freeze when it mattered most?

Her thoughts stopped as the man grabbed her shoulder, his grip tight enough to bruise. His rancid breath fanned over her face as he shouted at her, the words lost in the wake of her terror. Quaking legs barely kept her upright as her body flooded with adrenaline, her pupils dilating and sweat blooming on her palms and forehead. Maybe if she stayed quiet, he’d let her go? Could she just wait it out?

What choice did she have?

And then a familiar voice called her name, a pair of worried brown eyes replacing those of the protester as Rob led her inside. Someone else coming to her rescue yet again, because she lacked the strength to save herself.

“Are you alright, Dr. Ishida?” he asked.

She forced her fingers to relax their iron grip on her purse strap. “I- I think so.”

Rob sighed and glanced back at the crowd, their shouting audible through the glass door. “They’re getting bolder. I’ll talk to Aaron again, there’s got to be something we can do.”

But they both knew there was little point. Until V was caught, nothing would quench the fury of the citizens or lessen their drive to close the facility. Maybe her mother was right, she should’ve gone into a different field. It might be time to walk away.

~~~~V~~~~

The artist grimaced as he limped along, his palm pressed against his thigh to staunch the bleeding and ease the pain. Each step he took brought another pang of agony, and he couldn’t find an exit wound- the bullet remained. He’d have to get it out and treat the wound. First, however, he needed to find a safe place to recuperate.

He leaned against a shipping container, cautiously lifting his palm to check the blood flow. It was slowing, at least. Progress. His belt proved an effective tourniquet. 

A gust of icy wind reminded him of his precarious position. The warehouse district wasn’t prone to pedestrians, which meant fewer eyes to spot him, but it also meant he stood out like a sore thumb to anyone who wandered by. He couldn’t afford to stay here long.

Keep moving. Can’t stop now.

He hobbled on, gritting his teeth against the pain. Sweat beaded on his forehead, itchy as it dripped through his hair. Aches ricocheted through his body, his muscles tired and close to quitting on him. He needed rest, a reprieve and a chance to plot his next move. Where could he go?

His friends stayed oddly silent. Did they abandon him? Unlikely, but he couldn’t discount the possibility. Either way, he had only himself to rely on.

Relying on others teaches one not to stand on their own. This is better.

Before long, his mind wandered to the worst three minutes of his life. It was inevitable after the reminders at the subway, the familiar crack of thunder as guns fired. How much pain had Nero endured that day? They said he’d been hit six times.

“Six… Six twelve Oak street…” he muttered. His vision swam and the artist faltered, shaking his head at his own foolishness.

He couldn’t believe he’d forgotten. Today was the day; he’d been looking forward to it. He’d had his doubts at first, but with each session Nero’s skill improved. The edges of his latest tattoos featured crisp definition, the whorls perfectly curved to follow the natural shape of his biceps.

The artist didn't notice the flush in his face and the dazed film in his eyes as he turned and set off in a new direction, his steps unsteady but determined. A slight smile graced his lips. What design would Nero add to the canvas of his flesh this time?  

~~~~Reader~~~~

You sprinted to your ancient car, barely noticing the absence of the undercover cop car as you forced the engine to roar to life. No doubt they’d seen V leave and given chase, which meant you didn’t have the choice of going back to your apartment. The police would search it from top to bottom.

They’re going to find the sketches…

It seemed so long ago that the artist first grasped that tiny nub of charcoal in your office, portraying your face in shades of grey. The roller coaster hadn’t stopped since that day, and it showed no signs of slowing.

But fuck it. No sense dwelling on what could’ve been, the life you could’ve had if you hadn’t requested his case. What was done was done. Time to get on with it.

You flicked on the radio as you pulled onto the main road. An aggressive guitar solo blared out and you winced as you turned the volume down, switching the channel a beat later. Social media probably had better info than the radio, but reading and driving didn’t mix.

“-unarmed but extremely dangerous. Police are advising locals to leave the area immediately. Last sighted exiting the subway station on 119th street, but current whereabouts unknown-”

The subway. Smart.

As if you’d expect anything less.

Within ten minutes, you reached 119th. Flashing lights and sirens greeted you, blue-clad officers milling around as one of them plastered crime scene tape over the railing. Mid-morning sunlight streamed down like a sick spotlight.

If V was here, he was beyond your reach.

Shit.

You turned at the next cross street. The police undoubtedly had your license plate by now, you’d need to do something about that. No sense lingering in a place chock full of them. But where to go? Where would V go?

A soft ding stole your attention; a new message. You crossed your fingers as you pulled over to check your phone.

It wasn’t far, maybe a five-minute drive. Thank the heavens, at least now you knew he hadn’t gotten arrested. Yet.

Still… the message had you worried. It lacked his usual eloquence and wit, and didn’t say whether he was physically okay. Shots fired, the TV said. You pursed your lips and pulled back into traffic, mind whirling with uncountable ways V might be injured. By the time you parked a block away from the quaint, two-story house, you could barely breathe through the anxiety.

Grabbing your backpack, you didn’t even bother locking the car as you speed walked to the yellow front door. What would you find within? If they hurt the artist, would you be able to help? What if only his corpse awaited you?

You swallowed thickly and tried the doorknob. Unlocked; you took a deep breath and entered. Nothing immediately jumped out at you. Photos of a white-haired teenager lined a nearby wall, a hall table holding mail and a dish to leave one’s keys in beneath them. No blood stained the walls, no sounds of pain echoed from another room. It was quiet.

“V? Are you here?”

No answer. Not good. You set aside your backpack and tried again, making your way through the home. Each second he didn't respond only heightened your fear, stinging your tongue with metal. He had to be seriously hurt or incapacitated somehow, and neither option helped the situation.

“V? Come on, where are you?” Your voice shuddered.

“...curse my stars…”

You spun and raced toward the voice, tearing open a door you’d missed before to find the artist, curled up on a massive bed. Blood stained the sheets, concentrated near his thigh. Sweat coated his brow and his eyes stared at nothing, unseeing in the grip of his pain and madness.

“...love so high…”

“Don’t worry, V. I’ve got you,” you murmured as you cupped his clammy cheek. Dilated eyes, sweat and warm to the touch. Most likely an infection. You shoved aside your feelings; time to get to work. Right now, he needed your medical care more than anything else you offered.

Fabric rustled as you took a seat beside him and searched for the source of the blood. Through the fabric of his jeans it was impossible to tell, so you quickly tugged them off, taking care to reapply his improvised tourniquet once the cloth was out of the way. Heart pounding, you finally found a darker spot in the tensor fasciae, close to his hip. There was no exit wound.

Oh, V… you walked here with a bullet in your leg?

At least it wasn’t too deep. Odd, but you’d take what you could get. A thin trickle of crimson oozed from the wound, but he wasn’t in danger of bleeding out yet. Assuming he hadn’t bled too much during his escape…

“I need to find supplies to treat you. I’ll be right back,” you said, stroking damp hair from his brow. His skin was on fire. He didn’t respond.

You pursed your lips and left him, searching the bathrooms and kitchen until you had what you needed. A moment more spent thoroughly washing your hands, and you returned. The artist hadn’t moved an inch.

Is he having an episode, too? Maybe that’s for the best, it’s possible he won’t notice when I take out the bullet.

The best you had was a longer than average pair of metal tweezers. If they didn’t do the job, you’d have to widen the wound. Thankfully it wasn’t close to any major arteries, so you were confident you had the skills to remove it safely. A few inches to the left, and he would’ve already been dead for an hour.

“Okay, this might hurt,” you told him, pausing for a moment before dousing his thigh with a mixture of bottled water and table salt. After a moment you turned him so the excess fluid spilled out, leaving the wound clean and ready. You gave him one last look as your fingers wrapped around your tool. The head lamp you found in the kitchen flared to life with a touch and you straddled his injured leg, keeping it as still as possible.

“Now for the really fun part…”

The artist twitched feebly as you probed the hole. For once it seemed his episodes were a blessing; if he were even remotely coherent, he surely would have screamed.

Centimeter by centimeter, you searched for the signature resistance of metal surrounded by human tissue. More blood leaked from the wound, drenching your hands and slowing your progress. Muttered verses occasionally interrupted the squelch of your work, but you paid his words no mind. A distraction surgeon never helped.

At last you found it, an unrelenting hardness amongst the fibrous muscle. You tapped around the bullet, getting a feel for its dimensions before making your move. The tweezers barely opened wide enough to take hold, but they did the job and you felt the bullet disturb the surrounding tissue as you slowly drew it out with a satisfying plop.

You sighed and set aside your prize. Another round of improvised saline later, you carefully sutured the wound closed and bandaged the area. The artist still made no indication of awareness, just lying there as you put him back together.

The moment you set down the roll of bandages, you started trembling. V’s blood covered your hands, the sour stench of sweat and chemicals hanging in the air. As pointless as it was, you couldn’t help but wonder why life had to be this difficult. The last twenty-four hours alone had your nerves begging for a break. What a sick world, where you had to remove a bullet from the man you lo-

Holy shit.

Air slipped from your gaping mouth as you fell back against the wall. A manic chuckle followed, then another. Was this what love was like? You’d never come close to it before, to this burning like fire in your soul. The thought of losing V mere hours ago had you in tears, falling apart like an infant without its mother for the first time. When you were with him, despite his murderous and unpredictable nature, you felt safe.

And the things you’d done for him - withholding medical information, lying to your boss and risking your medical license, everything you’d spent years working towards; not to mention what you did to your father.

He’d forced you to face yourself, someone you didn’t even know anymore. Changed your understanding of the world and of art, torn asunder your preconceptions and lit the way to new views. The eloquence of his speech, the grace in his movement, the curve of that smirk and the way his presence changed the atmosphere of any room…

I don’t know if this is love, but I don’t have another word that fits. Not even close. 

It was twisted; it was soaked in blood and violence, but you felt more authentic than you ever had. You smiled. Decades ago, you accepted that you might not be capable of love. 

How wonderful to be wrong.

~~~~Next Chapter~~~~

[friendlylocalwhumper]

caution: this drabble contains explicit child abuse (from lux’s past, but written as if it’s current). please proceed with caution.

When he hears it, Lux’s movements falter for just a moment. Flinches are mocked, are punished, so he doesn’t let the remembered pain associated with the clinking of a belt buckle jerk his shoulders up or force him to step closer to his room. He hasn’t done anything particularly annoying today so it’s probably not gonna end up with him in pain. He hasn’t done anything wrong.

There are eyes on him. Lux can tell. He hates these long, terrifying moments when his father’s eyes lock onto him, searching for some glaring fault to tear at. The warlock turns the page of his chapter book and tries not to shift his weight on the squeaky kitchen chair.

He’s read this page about four times but the words still aren’t sinking in. It takes another two attempts for him to build up the courage to flick his eyes up, to glance over toward the living room.

There his dad lounges in his armchair, looking just as dangerous as ever. Sometimes Lux wishes he had the kind of dad who has that same type of chair and seems to melt into it, out of shape and lazy, tossing an empty beer can at the TV at most. But no, his dad isn’t like that. He’s a proud veteran of the war, short sleeves rolled up to display the tattoos from the service, his gun on the table beside him in pieces ready to be reassembled. And he’s staring straight at Lux.

His belt is undone, the end hanging free of the buckle. Lux swallows past a lump in his throat and meets his father’s eyes again. Just an angry day, he guesses, and the only solution is hitting. He dog-ears the page of his book subtly.

“Get over here.”

The paperback flops onto the table as Lux hurries to stand. His legs carry him in the exact opposite direction of where he wants to go. “Yeah, Dad?”

There’s nothing but mild disgust on his father’s face. In his resignation, Lux’s mind runs through all the serious dangers he needs to keep track of: the sniper bullet in the glass case that’ll be used to kill him one day, the unassembled gun on the side table, the bat by the back door. It’ll definitely just be the belt right now, so he’ll be okay. It’ll be okay.

“Get on your knees.”

Lux hesitates, searching for some excuse to avoid this. But searching for a lie and then being caught in it is dangerous, so after his few seconds of inaction, the warlock kneels, eyes searching for the spot he likes to lock onto. There, a hole, a bullet hole in the carpet. That’s from when he was little and he tottered over to fumble his dad’s gun off the table only to set it off by accident. He got hurt for that, but whatever the punishment was, it’s faded in his memory in the haze of all the others. It just feels like a small, safe act of rebellion to remember pissing the guy off that badly, startling him with a gunshot that came out of nowhere.

The belt clinks again. In eleven years, Lux hasn’t managed to figure out why the belt is used for hurting. Punches work well enough, and they’re random, they’re easy to use and move on, get back to doing other things. This whole thing, though, being made to kneel and take off his shirt and take hits that leave plain stinging, and then welts, and then eventually dark bruises if it goes on long enough? It’s just a lot of work to be put into one little punishment. It’s embarrassing, somehow, to have made his dad so angry that this whole process is the only way to make a lesson sink in.

He doesn’t have a shirt to take off, so there’s one step they can skip. Already he’s thinking about school tomorrow; how the welts will chafe under his shirt, how he’ll be grumpy and distracted, how he’ll get in trouble for his attitude and maybe end up in detention. He could try to be nice and act fine, he thinks, to avoid that, but the thought of having to pretend like he isn’t in pain just makes him angry. Lux curls his fists around two little fluffed-up tufts of carpet.

Thwack. Lux jerks and his brow crumples; he has to bite his lip to keep quiet. He wouldn’t get yelled at for making a sound, probably, but just knowing that his dad would see it as a sign of weakness makes him want to prove he’s tough. The bullet hole in the carpet remains, and his eyes stay locked on it even as they tear up with the coming blows of folded leather against his back. It’s eerily silent in between the lashes. He never feels more alone than when he’s taking the belt, when he remembers sorely that no one is near, no one can make it stop. Not even his mom, who couldn’t ever stop it from coming, but who helped after, all gentle and worried. No, Lux is alone. Alone with his dad, and the belt, and their quiet house.

~

Walking through the hallways at school with welts under his shirt is when his thoughts are always darkest. When he’s bitter that no one’s noticed what’s been done to him, and when he desperately hopes that no one will notice. Sometimes he gets home to find small lines of blood on the inside of his shirt from where the worst welts apparently bled, and he crumples with relief knowing that the blood didn’t seep through and get him caught.

He steps to avoid students hurrying to their classes, angling his shoulders to avoid all bustling. If anything, a backpack, an arm, a swinging locker meets his back, he’s going to make a sound. The teachers standing at their doors waiting for their students watch him, some subtly and some with open concern or judgement. Lux adjusts the textbooks in his arm, cheeks flushing. Yeah, he’s got his books for once. Puts a strain on his back that’s no fun, but he’s so anxious over what his dad will do if he gives him a reason to get angry, so today he’s gonna try in his classes. That was the plan, anyway, that he formed last night at 2am to calm himself down from a wave of panic. He can try in his classes, and he won’t get detention, and everyone will be a little less pissed at him than usual.

History class. That’s this period, and it’s going to be good. A relief, maybe even some fun. Lux hustles, a little bit, to get to his favorite teacher’s class on time.

Mr. Carter holds the door open for him with his usual smile. Lux flashes a half-smile back. If Mr. Carter ever suspects anything or worries about Lux, he doesn’t let it show, not at the start of class. Lux thinks he knows more than he lets on, but wants Lux to think he’s getting away with hiding things, and that makes it so much easier for the warlock to shed his stress for the span of a class period and listen.

Finding his seat and sliding his books onto the wire shelf underneath, Lux folds his arms onto his desk and leans forward in an attempt to look casual without letting his back press against his seat.

“Good morning, class,” Says Mr. Carter, letting the door close behind him as he walks over to his whiteboard. Lux relaxes at the guy’s posture alone. Mr. Carter just walks, he doesn’t stride, doesn’t take heavy angry steps, doesn’t put on any kind of haughty demeanor that authority figures tend to put on. The guy leans against his desk, popping the lid off a dry-erase marker and seeming to consider the color of it before looking back up at his class.

“So, today, we’re going to be debating, class.”

Lux perks up, eyes watching keenly for everyone’s reactions, and watching the teacher too. Lux loves debating, Mr. Carter knows that. But can he really work up the energy to do it today? Is he in such a rotten mood that he’ll get offended and lash out and be laughed at?

“Everyone will participate. Even if you don’t want to talk in front of the class, I want everyone to write down their arguments and slide them over to their debating team members, alright? And if it doesn’t get too heated, guys, pizza on Friday.”

A rare smile breaks across Lux’s face. Free food, and incentive for the class not to get all loud and angry today? A chance to debate, or to just write down his ideas, no pressure? Mr. Carter is the best.

Mr. Carter glances at him, and Lux’s stomach flutters with the panic that comes with being noticed, only to instantly settle into he knew I’d like this plan, he’s got my back, this is gonna make today so much less sucky.

~

The debate has heated up, and Lux, usually eager to jump in and land a well-executed point, is slinking back in his seat, avoiding eyes. Mr. Carter is watching every point of action, keeping an eye on his students’ volume levels and movements. Here and there, though, he glances at Lux, worried that maybe this debate topic has veered over the line.

“Cops are dying and those no-good killers are just roaming the streets! They’re all a bunch of crackheads you know, they’ve got knives and guns and no permits, they’re all fucking-”

“Language, Mr. Peterson,” Chides Mr. Carter, arms crossed, tense as he considers how to calm down a classroom full of passionate, but misguided, young people. “And remember what I always say about assumptions versus facts? This is less of a debate and more of a witch hunt at this point.”

“Witch hunt! Speaking of, let’s talk facts,” A girl chimes in, and Mr. Carter seems to relax. She’s one of his most clever, quiet students - if she’s joining in, she’s got to have a good, mature point to make. “Witches have been burned at the literal stake, hunted down, and today it’s not poking a girl to see if she bleeds and then drowning her in front of the town. It’s monitoring your search search history, it’s cops dragging people off the street with guns and tasers. How far can we go with murder and oppression in the name of safety before we become the thing we fear?”

Mr. Carter reels from the force of her logic, nodding. “Excellent, Miss-”

“Warlock sympathizer!” Cries the guy that was cut off for making assumptions, pointing at the girl who refuses to back down. “They’re killers, that’s not an assumption that’s a fact, government says so, news say so, my dad’s a cop, he-”

“Then your dad’s the killer,” She shoots back, face flushed. “Witches are getting murdered, can’t find a safe place to live, can’t even get a job, they’re dying out there. There’s no healthcare for women with magic-”

“Women with magic? Like people of color?” Jeers someone from the back of the classroom, and snickers break out.

“-and some of us can’t even afford food for kids, for warlock kids who got kicked out for being who they are, the witches give the kids food and the warlocks don’t because they need the strength to go fight off the cops dragging their friends off to die, and… and…” Her argument fades as her voice falters. The whole classroom is staring at her, dumbstruck.

“Witch,” Someone mutters, and her skin goes grey.

“Incredible,” Cries Mr. Carter, sweeping forward. Lux isn’t breathing, where he sits at the deck farthest from the debating, his instincts screaming at him to run, get to the door, before the grabbing, the accusations, the death. “Excellent. Thank you, Miss Abby. You can sit now.”

She does, legs wobbling, somehow summoning a nervous smile.

“I asked her to drop that point into her argument at some point today, so I could see how you’d all react. That’s the real lesson here, today - Mister Connor, put that phone away, no texting your girlfriend in my class, you know the rules.” Mr. Carter shakes his head as the class snickers at Connor, who opens his mouth, hesitates, then turns off the phone that shows the number for reporting a warlock sighting half-dialed. “Class,” Continues the history teacher - and Lux spots a tremor in the man’s hand as he raises it - “You all just fell victim to the number one pitfall in debating. You panicked at hearing something that’s seen as a taboo in our society, and instantly all logic left the room. You were ready to pick up your pitchforks and jump into your assumptions rather than facts, weren’t you?”

“But, Mr. Carter, we’re supposed to report-”

“Not in my class, you’re not,” Interrupts the teacher, eyes hard with stern disapproval. “Listen. I’m not discussing the broad topic of dangers to society and what role in that magic users play. I’m talking about logic and reason as used in debates in this isolated environment. I’m talking about your instincts in an argument, and how you can avoid losing an argument when it really matters. For example, Miss Abby, as I asked her to, aimed to distract you all. It worked instantly. In a political debate that you’d see on the news, the first mention of warlocks switches the debate from taxes and civil rights and the funding of things like hospitals. Do you see that now? How she could have been arguing something that would establish a policy that your political party is directly opposing, but with one buzzword like witch, she distracted you?” Mr. Carter presses on with a lecture about the strategies used in debating, a long winding talk that bores everyone out of their near-frenzy to attack.

Lux and Abby, meanwhile, take the time to remember how to breathe and keep their eyes on the floor. No one seems to remember that they’re there as everyone tries to find a sneaky way to scroll through apps on their phone or doodle in their notebooks as the teacher rambles and starts to write his talking points on the whiteboard.

Lux wonders, sitting very still to avoid reigniting the pain in his back, if Mr. Carter really knew Abby was going to say that.

[campfiretechnology]

A Practical Guide to Actually Writing Your Rough Draft

So you want to write a book.

Welcome to the club. In this guide, I’m going to do my best to define a concrete, executable plan to actually write a fiction novel. If you follow this guide to the T, you will produce an 80,000- to 100,000-word rough draft in 4 months.

If that sounds appealing to you, then you’re in the right place. Let’s get started.

Phase 1: Get Organized (1 Week)

Writing a book is not an easy task. You’re looking at 80,000 to 100,000 words – for simplicity let’s assume 80,000. If you write 1,000 words per day, that’s an 80-day undertaking. And that doesn’t allocate any time for planning.

What all this actually means is that if you’re serious about producing a novel efficiently, you need to get organized. Specifically, you need to organize your story information – characters, plot outlines, worldbuilding notes, etc – and your manuscript – the actual document that contains your novel.

You should spend your first week getting comfortable with a system to organize this information.

Story Information

You may be tempted to dive right into the writing part. This a bad idea unless you really know what you’re doing. To start, you’ll want to establish a system of keeping track of little bits of information about your story. This can be everything from character traits and backstories to extensive lore about the story’s setting.

Luckily, there are a variety of tools available to help you with this sort of organization, both free and paid. Here are a few, sorted from least structured to most structured:

A Plain Old Document – This could be in the form of a Google Doc, Microsoft Word document, etc. If you go this route, I’d suggest organizing it under the following headers: characters, world, and plot. However, this method isn’t quite as organized as the options below, so read on.

Spreadsheets – This involves using Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or smarter spreadsheets like AirTable to store information. This method is a little more structured. For example, you could have a spreadsheet for your characters, with each row corresponding to one character, and each column corresponding to an attribute like “eye color”, “height”, or “backstory”. Then, whenever you need one of those details, you can just search for the character in the spreadsheet and navigate to the correct column.

Story Planning Software – There are software programs designed specifically for keeping track of story information. We suggest Campfire Pro, the writing software that we make here at Campfire Technology. It’s certainly not necessary to follow along with this guide and write your first book, but it’s worth checking out if you want to get organized!

Campfire Pro’s Timeline View

The particular system you choose isn’t all that important – what matters is that you find one that works for you and you stick to it throughout the writing process. You’ll want to continually update it as you write so it’s always there as an aid when you get stuck or forget a key detail.

Manuscript

You’ll need somewhere to actually write your manuscript. There are a lot of options in this area as well, also ranging from free to paid.

For the simplest free manuscript editor, check out Google Docs. It has everything you need to write your novel, though people do say it can struggle a bit on slower computers with really long documents. For a more robust solution, check out Microsoft Word. Both of these options include a sidebar in the document that can show all your chapter titles so you can easily navigate between them.

Scrivener’s manuscript editor

Finally, I’d be remiss to ignore Scrivener, a desktop application for writing books that offers the ability to reorganize entire chapters by just dragging and dropping – something that neither Word nor Google Docs can do. It’s a very common choice for organizing manuscripts.

Once you’ve chosen your system of organizing the story information and manuscript, you’re ready to move on to the next step.

Phase 2: Plan (1-3 Weeks)

Writers differ immensely in how much they plan before sitting down to actually write the manuscript. Some, like Stephen King, prefer to do very little planning. These folks are affectionately referred to as Pantsers – they like to fly by the seat of their pants with their writing. Others, like Brandon Sanderson, are architects who plan out in great detail how the story will unfold. These writers are called Plotters.

There have been brilliant writers of both kinds. However, we strongly recommend that every writer do at least a little bit of planning. Specifically, you should develop the story seed.

The story seed consists of three elements: a character, a place, and a predicament.

The character is the main character of your story. You don’t need a ton of detail here, but you should aim to have a rough idea of who your main character is. If you’re stuck, try to establish some backstory, a few personality traits, and some physical attributes.

The place is where your story takes place (or for Pantsers, where it begins). Again, aim for at a minimum a rough understanding of the setting – is it the modern United States, a medieval village, a galaxy far far away, or somewhere else entirely?

Finally, the predicament is what happens to the character in the place. If you’re a Pantser, then this predicament should probably occur at the beginning of the book – what happens to the character that kicks off the action? If you’re a Plotter, it should be the more overarching conflict that the entire book is about.

Here’s an example of a story seed for a Pantser:

A 10-year-old orphan in London discovers that he is a wizard.

Here’s the same story seed but for a Plotter:

A 10-year-old orphan in London must stop the return of the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time.

You should be able to develop this story seed in one week. Then, if you’re a hardcore Panster and you’re about to explode because of how much you hate planning, you can move on to Phase Three. That basic story seed is all you need to get started. If you’re a Plotter like me, you might want to spend as much as another two weeks planning. Read on.

Detailed Plotting

For a Plotter, the story seed does not represent a snapshot of the beginning of the story, but rather a summary of the story as a whole. As such, your predicament should refer to the major conflict that your character overcomes in the story. In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, the predicament is Lord Voldemort’s attempted return to power.

Once you have that predicament, you have a lot of plot to fill in. There are a few different structures you can use to help with this. The three-act structure provides a set of scenes or “story beats” that should occur on the way to the final conflict. The Hero’s Journey and Save the Cat provide similar frameworks. Learn about these, and then either choose one, merge them into your own framework, or ignore them all!

The Hero’s Journey in Campfire Pro

With any luck, the characters, plot, and world of your story will develop in parallel as you plan. For example, a decision about a character trait should influence what that character does (the plot). Similarly, a decision about the world could inspire part of a character’s backstory. If you feel stuck, just pick one aspect of the story and start adding detail – the rest will flow from there. Just make sure you’re keeping track of all the decisions you make using your organizational system. Fill in those spreadsheets!

As a Plotter, the end goal of all this planning is a book outline. If you’re writing an 80,000-word book, that means you need perhaps 10-25 chapters with word counts varying from 3,000 to 8,000 words. How you decide to break it up will depend on your writing style and your story – but you should aim to have an outline containing what happens in each chapter and an estimated word count.

Now, Pantsers and Plotters, is the moment you’ve all been waiting for.

Phase 3: Write (12-14 Weeks)

Finally, you think to yourself. I can finally do what I’ve been wanting to do all along. Pat yourself on the back, and start writing. But make sure you stick to a schedule and stay organized.

Stick to a Schedule

Create a schedule and stick to it. Google Sheets can help with this!

Perhaps the most important thing to do if you want to actually finish your book is establishing a schedule and keeping to it. Set a minimum daily word count and number of days per week that you plan to write. It’s best to start low here – say, 500 words per day, 5 days per week – and then increase these amounts over time as writing becomes a habit.

If you like using Google Sheets, you’re in luck. We’ve put together a writing schedule template where you input the total target word count, the number of weeks you want to spend writing, the number of days per week you expect to write, and the date you start writing. The template computes your daily target word counts and will show you a progress bar as you get closer and closer to finishing the book! Just make sure you’re signed in with a Google account, and you can use File -> Make a Copy to copy the template to your own account and start making edits.

If you’re dedicated to getting your book done within the 4 month timeframe defined in this guide, make sure your daily goal eventually gets high enough. For example, if your target word count is 80,000 words and you have 12 weeks to write, you need to produce just over 6,650 words per week. With a five-day workweek, that’s 1,330 words per day on average. If you start at a lower goal than that, you’ll eventually need to compensate by going over if you want to reach your goal.

Your mileage may vary. Find a daily word count that works for you!

Just make sure you never go more than three days without working on your book, even if you only write a few hundred words. You’ll find that the story fades in your mind quite quickly if you don’t work on it for days on end. Keep the momentum going, and write as often as you can.

We have a lot more tips and tricks about this in our blog post Start Writing Strategically.

Stay Organized

Remember the organizational system we said you should make sure to have? Make sure you keep it up to date as you write. For Pantsers, you’ll thank yourself later when you’re writing chapter 38 and don’t have to sift through pages and pages just to find a character’s last name. Plotters, though you may have a lot of that information already nicely organized, your manuscript will almost certainly change course at least a little bit from the original plan. When it does, update your plan, or you’ll find yourself having the same issue of losing track of all those little details.

Keep your manuscript organized as you write.

When it comes to your manuscript, make sure you use headings or sections to break up the document into its chapters. That will allow for easy navigation between the different chapters, and will keep you grounded. Never get lost in your own book!

Conclusion

Hopefully this post has done its job, and you’re now a confident writer with a concrete plan to write a book from scratch. You’re about to open a new tab in your browser and search for the organizational system that’s right for you. Then you’ll pick the right manuscript editor and develop your story seed. If you’re a Plotter, you’ll add more detail to your characters, plot, and world until the story is broken up neatly into chapters, with each one moving the story along.

Finally, you’ll write the darn thing, and with some luck – publish it.

See you in four months.

Weekly TL;DR: Get organized, plan, and write your rough draft in four months using this practical guide. Don’t forget to use our writing schedule template.

If you have any questions or comments, join the discussion on our Discord!

[the-digimon-tamer]

Chapter 37 - The Shinjuku Quarantine is out now on FanFiction.Net and ArchiveOfOurOwn! Check them out with the links or find it after the break!

Title: The Tamer v2.0 - In HIs Name

Fandom: Digimon

Rating: T

Synopsis: In the next adventure of the Digimon Tamer, the lives of Juri, Rika, and Henry change forever when digimon begin crossing over into the human world. But it’s all just a story, right? Just a book series by an author no one has seen in a long time. Why are they here and can they save their world before something worse follows the digimon?

Renamon gazed down at Impmon’s unconscious form, laying on his back on the tree branch in the garden of the Makino household. Or Izumi, or Nonaka, or whatever it really was. As frustrating as it was to deal with, she knew that was at the bottom of their list of issues. First was what they were going to do when they got back to the Digital World. Second was what they were going to do about Impmon. She’d helped him out of a moment of pity - but was unsure if he deserved it after what he did. She closed her eyes and ruminated on it briefly, trying to reach a conclusion but unsatisfied with everything that came to mind.

He had killed Leomon - one of the partner digimon of the children who were going to save their world. And he’d done it for what? To test his power? She was unsure what to make of it since he’d always chosen to avoid fighting in the past - claiming that the smartest would survive. So was it really smart to run head first into a battle out of pure blood lust? And why his hatred towards the humans? His distrust for them far exceeded anything demonstrated by the Devas or the Sovereigns. And they had more reason to be weary than Impmon.

“Hmm?” Impmon cracked an eye open and looked around, still in a daze and struggling to stand up right. She crossed her arms, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“I’m alive?” Impmon looked down at himself, carefully inspecting every inch of his body for some damage. Renamon nodded, “Yes, although there were some of us who were unsure you deserved the courtesy. You’re alive only because Juri decided to show you a moment of mercy. The girl whose partner you killed.”

Impmon gave no answer, obviously still amazed that he was here and alive to be having this discussion. There was a distraught look in his eyes - a haunted gaze she’d seen only in the most traumatized of digimon before they were destroyed by other, stronger digimon. She tilted her head, “Regretting what you did?”

“I don’t…know how to say it…I saw so many…so many…” he was struggling to put into words. Whatever the Digimon Tamer had done to him clearly did a number - Impmon was reduced to rambling like a madman. After a moment, he shook his head, “I don’t know.”

“Use your words,” she pressed. He massaged his temples and closed his eyes so hard she was sure he was going to pass out again, “I don’t want to. Whatever that was. Whatever I saw. I don’t want to see it again. I don’t want to think of it.”

She should’ve suspected as much, “The Digimon Tamer said he put a bad memory in your head. If it did that to you, one can only imagine what it did to him.”

“That was a memory? I thought it was a nightmare!” Impmon protested angrily, “What the hell kinda human is that? He’s a kid!”

“He isn’t. He’s a digital being - like you or me and he’s even older than either of us,” Renamon explained, “I thought you said the smart would survive. The smart thing to do would’ve been to not run into that situation head first without a plan. So why’d you do it? What possessed you to attack us?”

Impmon fell quiet again, staring down at his hands and then looking skyward. He jumped up upon seeing the skyline, “We’re back in the human world!?”

“Yes, now answer my question. What happened?” Renamon pressed, becoming annoyed, “Why did you attack us!? You wanted to test your power but why on us?”

Impmon averted his gaze, “I wanted to prove that digimon could become strong without humans. That we didn’t need partners. I guess I was right, though. In the end, that old kid and his insane red dragon were the only ones who could beat me - one’s not even human and the other ain’t any kind of digimon I’ve seen before.”

Renamon felt herself shaking from his answer. Was that it? That was why he did all this? It was taking all her effort to restrain herself from doing anything rash, “You killed Leomon to make a point?”

No answer.

“You took a life, prevented it from reformatting, killed a good digimon in front of a ten year old girl…definitely traumatized her forever. All to make a point,” Renamon repeated quietly, shaking with uncontrolled anger. He still wouldn’t look at her. This must be how Rika feels any time she has to be around the Digimon Tamer. It was no wonder she was prone to fits of anger. Still, she needed to know, “Why do you have so much animosity towards humans!?”

“BECAUSE WHY COULDN’T I GET ONE OF THE GOOD ONES!?” Impmon snapped at her. That was not the answer she was expecting from him. She recalled Tamer mentioning he had a bad partner but bad enough to make him like that? What kind of human was capable of making Impmon like this? It didn’t excuse any of his actions - they were still unforgivable - but she had no idea that he’d been hurting this whole time.

“The Digimon Tamer said you had a partner. We determined that much,” she said quietly, more repeating the fact than anything else. He nodded, “I had partners. These two kids. And they fought over everything! Toys! Food! Clothes! And everything they fought over, they eventually broke. It was only a matter of time until they broke me. Hell, they probably already did. So I ran from that place before they could make it any worse and never looked back. And I don’t regret it for a moment.”

Renamon notes the hesitation in his voice, “Even after everything you did? Killing Leomon? Forcing a little girl to watch?”

Once again he gave no answer and just stared off into space. She was getting really annoyed with his evasiveness, “Did you ever try talking to them? Working things out?”

“What do I look like, some kinda counselor?” Impmon raised an eyebrow, “Y’know what? We’ve been answering all your questions so how’s about you answers one o’ mine?”

That was fair, “What did you want to know?”

“Why are we back in the human world?” Impmon asked quietly. There was a lot to answer there, “We figured out the cause of all of this and it isn’t good by any measure. We returned to this world to regroup before we headed back to deal with it. After all, everyone was tired and Juri was in no condition to continue. Not after what you did.”

“Will ya stop tryin’ to guilt me? That’s the last thing I need!” Impmon protested angrily. Renamon remained passive, “I answered the question. Now answer mine! What are you going to do now?”

“Wha!?” Impmon gave her a quizzical look. Renamon picked the digimon up by his scarf, “You got your power and it amounted to nothing. Your own stated distrust of humans was built on your past experiences with your partner. But you were clearly the exception, not the rule. You said it was all about survival. So are you going to continue out on your own, as much good as it’s done you. Or are you going to go back to your partners?”

Impmon stared downward at the garden in silence, clearly contemplating the answer. Renamon waited for it eagerly until she felt a sudden energy in the air that made her fur stand on end. She looked upwards, over the horizon and saw a massive red blob in the distance. The red mass that they’d fought in the Digital World. It was here. It was in the human world. Impmon saw it too and his jaw fell open, “Well I know what I’m doing first. I’m getting away from that!”

She didn’t try to stop him, letting him run away. It seemed that was what he was best at. Running away from danger.

But there was no time to dwell on him. That thing was here now. She knew now that there would be no going back to the Digital World. Not if it was here.

…

“This was the scene today in downtown Tokyo as the gelatinous red mass continues to expand. It’s been five hours since the mass first appeared and now the mass has absorbed three square blocks of the city. Government officials have declared the area a quarantine zone and are advising citizens to stay at least a mile away. The Self Defense Force continues to evacuate citizens to camps outside the city, however unrest grows as questions go answered. And now we go to our resident expert at the studio-”

Yamaki switched off the news and groaned angrily at the situation. The Minister of Defense was breathing down his neck to solve the problem and he had no solutions. He had no idea what this problem even was. It wasn't like with the wild ones - they could at least be captured and contained, or put down if that wasn’t an option. But this thing - this mass. It was too big to properly contain and none of the weapons they’d developed to fight ‘digimon’ were proving effective.

They couldn’t tranquilize it, it didn’t respond to magnets or electrical shocks or anything. If he didn’t come up with something soon, it would be his ass.

His phone rang, pulling him out of his thoughts, “Director Yamaki speaking.”

“Director, this is the Prime Minister,” the man on the other end said. He froze up, feeling the color drain from his face as the nation’s leader spoke, “Tell me you have a plan for this.”

“We’re exercising all our options, sir,” Yamaki answered, “We’re readying to fire Juggernaut again, and currently have our scientists working around the clock to better study what we’re up against.”

He doubted the Prime Minister appreciated his assurances, especially with his current track record regarding the wild ones. He massaged the bridge of his nose as he prepared for whatever answer the Minister would give, “Your department hasn’t had the best of luck when it comes to dealing with these other worldly threats. Since discretion is no longer a factor, I’m authorizing the Defense Force to step in. Im giving operational command to the general and I Hypnos providing support and intelligence.”

“Sir, with all due respect, that’s in violation of the Morpheus Project,” Yamaki reminded him, “If you don’t want the United Nations Security Council coming down on us, I strongly recommend operating within our-”

“We both know that’s a crock of shit, Yamaki. Be realistic. The Chinese, the French, the British, the Russians...hell, the Americans violate more UN agreements before breakfast. Who gives a shit about the UN right now? Let’s focus on dealing with the problem with everything we have. I’m not having another Odaiba Incident. Do you understand?”

Yamaki hesitated, unprepared for this specific scenario. Agreeing meant breaking several international agreements, which he was sure the Prime Minister would happily blame him for to save face. Alternatively, refusing would lead to his arrest for treason. He would need to play his cards carefully going forward. And he could only do that if he was in charge of his team, “Whatever you need sir.”

Carefully chosen words. He could argue that he was following orders from the Prime Minister if this ever came back to bite him.

“Good, get it done,” the Prime Minister responded. The line went dead and Yamaki took a moment to consider his situation. Time for reflection like this was enough to make him understand that his situation was infuriating. He needed to stay calm and think rationally. But he had nothing for this. He was being set up as the fall guy. But that was going to happen over his dead body. He could afford to be emotional, if only for a moment. All that anger and rage and frustration erupted as throwing the phone as hard as he could at the wall - smashing it to pieces and denting the dry wall. He would not take the fall for these men. Not after everything he'd done to keep this nation - this world safe.

This was no longer just a mission to save the world. This was a mission to save the world and destroy their of these feckless politicians - he was going to burn all his bridges and leave them standing in the ruin.

...

Henry couldn’t believe his eyes as his parents watched the news over breakfast. The red mass that had threatened the Digital World was now in their world. But how? Had it followed them when they came back? Was it their fault?

As his mind raced in a panic, the news reporter went on, “Military personnel are quarantining the area and preventing anyone from getting closer but the mass absorbs all barricades placed to contain it. If you look over my shoulder, the trucks parked on the street and walls erected to contain the mass are now partially absorbed. They also appear to be setting up weapons for a conventional attack on the target - we’ve seen tanks, helicopters, transport vehicles and-”

The reporter was cut off as a soldier appeared behind him, “Hey! We told you to back up! Shut off that camera! This is a designated quarantine zone. You will move back now!”

Before either the reporter or the soldier could say anymore, gunfire could be heard followed by terrified screams. As the news cut back to the reporters in the station, Henry heard a loud bang followed by the apartment shaking. Terriermon ran to the window, “Well that’s not good. We thought we’d be safe here but it followed us.”

Henry turned his attention to the window and saw smoke rising over the buildings, in the direction of the red mass. Of the D-Reaper. He shuddered, knowing what he had to do but still terrified by what he would have to do. His partner elbowed his leg, or did something similar to it and Henry regained his resolve, “We need to go help.”

His mom didn’t take to that and she roared, “Henry, are you insane!? You’ll get yourself killed!”

He should’ve expected his mom’s disapproval, “Mom! That thing is destroying the Digital World! The world Terriermon came from! If I don’t go...if this isn’t stopped before it gets out of hand, then our world will be next! Terriermon and I need to go out there now while we can still do something about it.”

“It’s not just you two. I’m going to hurry back to the Metropolitan Building,” his dad added anxiously, hurrying to grab the phone, “I’m going to call Yamaki now. The sooner we get involved, the better.”

“Again!? Dear, don't tell me you’re involved in this!?” his mom cried out in anger. His dad shook his head sheepishly, “Honestly? If it’s anything to do with the digimon, then I made the problem! Henry! Make sure you and Terriermon come back safe!”

“Will do dad!” Henry called out, scooping up his partner and rushing for the door. As he slipped his shoes on, Xiaochun ran up along side him and tried to follow suit, “I’m coming too! We can help!”

“Am I the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea? I mean, I’m literally a fraction of my size right now and she wants to rush out there with you!” Lopmon asked from behind them.

“That’s why you guys are going to stay here!” Henry said so loudly, he nearly shouted. He didn’t want his sister getting involved in this mess and gently nudged her back inside, “Sorry, I don’t mean to shout. But you need to stay here.”

“Henry! I want to help!” she whined, “I have a digivice too! I can help! And Lopmon will come too, right?”

“Don’t you dare put words in my mouth,” Lopmon protested with folded arms.

“I-” he paused, knowing she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. She was as stubborn as she was small. Although, he supposed that meant she was going to be very strong willed as an adult. He needed to convince her to stay with another reason, “You can help by protecting our family while I’m out, okay?”

She glared at him, catching on to the lie right away. Of course she did. It was obvious. But he wasn’t about to let her rush out into danger like this. Not when their lives when in danger. Finally, she huffed, “Fine!”

“Don’t worry, okay? I’ll be back!” he said, finishing putting on his shoes and running outside with Terriermon on his head. There wasn’t any more point in discretion. Not anymore.

The streets were just short of being full of panic, with armed soldiers keeping everyone calm as they directed traffic down set roads to help clear the city. Buses packed full of people moved along side those who’d packed their families into cars while everyone else walked. He must’ve looked crazy going in the opposite direction - but he ran as fast as he could through the crowds until he came across a soldier blocking him off, “Hey! Watch it kid! We’re evacuating! You’re heading in the wrong direction!”

Henry looked past the soldier at tent where more soldiers worked at a makeshift command center. Computers were hooked up to various radios and antenna that all fed into a rocket truck. He panicked at the sight of it, “You’re not planning of shooting rockets in the city, are you?”

“That’s not your business, kid. Now get back! I’m not saying it again,” the soldier warned again. Henry tried reasoning him but he didn’t expect it to go anywhere, “You don’t understand! Those won’t work! You can make it rain missiles all you want, they won’t do anything against a monster like-”

The soldier raised a rifle and pointed it at him, making a point of clicking off the safety. Henry raised up his hands and stepped back quietly, “Okay! I’m getting back!”

“Kids these days have no respect,” the soldier muttered quietly.

He stepped backwards several steps until the soldier lowered his gun, then turned and ran. There was no getting through to this soldier. And he definitely wasn’t going to get past this soldier either. He would need to change his approach - otherwise he’d risk getting shot at.

“Psst! Henry!” Rika called out to him from a nearby side street, poking her head out around the corner.  He nodded and ran to join her, ducking into the side street to see Ryo there too with Monodramon and Renamon. Ryo crossed his arms and groaned, “Don't bother talking to them. We already tried that and they just got mad at us.”

“What are they even doing? They don’t seriously think that’ll work, do they? It’s literally absorbing everything it touches. It’ll probably just absorb the bullets and missiles too. And I doubt the explosions will do them any good,” Monodramon observed.

“Okay, take a running start!” a soldier called out. They poked their heads around the corner again to see a soldier holding a model plane in his hands. It was probably about half his height, but the wings were wide enough to mount what looked like small cameras. He raised it over his head and took a running start towards the red mass, throwing it with all his might as the propellor kicked on and it soared straight into the mass, “UAV is in the air! Receiving a signal in five!”

“UAV?” Renamon repeated.

“You got me,” Henry shrugged. The soldiers were too far away to hear properly and it was hard to make out anything else. After a few moments, one of the soldiers jumped out of his chair and threw his helmet on the ground in a fit of anger, “Piece of shit! How did it lose a signal? It’s fifty feet away! I could fucking see it with my own eyes if that stupid red jelly weren’t there!”

“Sergeant! Watch your language!” another of the soldiers barked at him, quieting the soldier down. Rika scoffed and turned away, “Saw that one coming a mile away. Of course it absorbed it. What’s over there anyway?”

“Apartments and I think some tracks,” Henry answered, peeking over again to see the soldier getting scolded by what must’ve been a superior. Rika scratched her head, “Okay, but why here? None of us were anywhere near here last night…”

“Wait, didn’t that one lady take Juri home last night?” Ryo asked aloud. Renamon’s tone changed, “You don’t think that she’s in there, do you?”

“Wait, I’m not following. What’s going on?” Terriermon asked quietly. Henry realized all too quickly what Ryo was getting at and was horrified by the realization explained, “The teacher from my school - Miss Asaji or Kari Kamiya or whoever - she said she was going to take Juri home since they didn’t need to hide a digimon and her parents weren’t there. I bet you they were on that train!”

“So that thing followed us here? How would it have come through though?” Terriermon asked, still not following the conversation. Henry scratched his head, “I don’t know. Juri was acting weird after everything that happened with Leomon. It could be connected. It could just be a really random coincidence. We have no real way of knowing at this point. Anything’s possible. For all we know, Tamerkato’s the one responsible for all of this!”

“You guys should really lighten up on him,” Terriermon frowned. Renamon looked upward, “It doesn’t matter for now. We’re on our own. We should fight.”

“And how are we going to do that with the military right there? They’ll shoot you on sight!” Rika gasped in panic, “I don’t want to lose you or see you get hurt because of them!”

…

The sergeant threw his helmet in a fit of anger. That was several million yen down the drain with no chance of being recovered. Still, they needed to know what was going on in there. They needed to be able to see what happened to anyone who would’ve been absorbed by this thing when it first showed up. But there was no way to do that safely. And the drone was their only chance.

He looked at the ever expanding red mass and wondered just what it was - where had it come from and what was it after? Was it even alive? Or was this some really weird magma flow? That couldn’t be possible. Ambient air temperature was the same. It wasn’t hot. It wasn’t radioactive. It just…was. It existed.

An amorphous blob that was growing faster than it could be contained.  

Part of its surface bubbled like something was trying to escape. Then a golden eye appeared. He took a step back and blinked in surprise, “Hey guys? The thing has an eye now.”

“An eye?” one of the soldiers repeated. Some of his squad approached, each with their hands on their pistols for safety - not that it would do them much good against this thing. If it was this big, there was no doubt bullets wouldn’t even hurt it.

The eye blinked, bulging from the red surface until a face of purple skin protruded from the surface. Then another. And another appeared. Each broke free from the surface of the red mass - taking the shape of something like a bird. Or what a bird might look to someone who’d only ever heard of a bird.

The basic shape was there - but the proportions were all wrong and it didn’t seem to understand how birds worked. Eyes on the wings, claws coming from its body, and legs that seemed more like wires connecting it back to the main red mass. And the wings - they didn’t flap but the bird creature was able to hover in the air in defiance of every natural law. Like the wings were just for show and they flew of their own accord.

And before anyone knew it, there were hundreds of them just hovering in the air. Then they scattered, flying in hundreds of different directions around the city all at once. They couldn’t be allowed to get away. They had to be contained. They couldn’t be allowed to wreak havoc on the city.

…

“OPEN FIRE!” a soldier shouted from around the corner. Everyone poked their heads out again to see soldiers firing aimlessly at a flock of bird like creatures flying above in the sky. Ryo blinked and did a double take of what he was seeing. They weren’t birds - they were something else. Something completely unnatural. And there were hundreds of them. But with all the bullets flying in the air, it didn’t seem to matter. The bird things zipped around the hail of bullets like nothing and proceeded forward - scattering around the city and going in many different directions.

Rika leapt out from behind the corner and declared, “If Juri is in there then we can’t leave her hanging. We have to help! Come on Renamon!”

She stood there for a moment, holding her digivice in the air and striking an odd pose. Renamon poked her in the side, “What are you doing, Rika?”

“Is this one of those living statues things?” Ryo asked, unsure of what Rika was doing. Rika looked up at her digivice and frowned, “What gives? Why isn’t it working?”

“Why isn’t what working?” Ryo looked at the digivice in confusion, still trying to understand what she was doing. She turned to both boys and held up her digivice for them to see, “That bio-digivolution-dna-merge thing? It worked in the Digital World! Why isn’t it working here? We need to become Sakuyamon!”

“Let me try,” Henry said, raising up his digivice. After a moment with nothing happening, he started swiping cards at random to no effect. It did make Terriermon twitch in excitement with every single card swipe as he complained, “Henry! Knock it off! I’m getting dizzy from all the power ups!”

“It’s not working for me, either!” Henry gasped. It was a shame. This would have been a really good time to have both Sakuyamon and MegaGargomon. After all, those two seemed to be the only digimon fully capable of actually harming whatever the hell the red bio mass was. However, they couldn’t afford to give up now. There were people in trouble. He gently nudged both Rika and Henry, “It doesn’t matter! We’re just going to have to get in there and support our partners. Monodramon, promise you won’t go crazy?”

“Only on whatever those things are,” the little purple dragon cheered ecstatically, “I’ve been waiting for a good fight!”

“Okay!” Ryo charged out first, his partner following close behind and then rushing ahead of them. Ryo stopped just a few feet from one of the soldiers and took out the red card, “Digimodify! Digivolution Activate!”

“Monodramon! Warp Digivolve to! Cyberdramon!”

The dragon digimon roared to life with a flash of bright light and leapt up into the fight, soaring over the soldiers heads to attack the bird-like creatures. For all the good it did as they were moving too fast for him to catch up to. He swiped another card, “DigiModify! Speed Boost Activate!”

With the new power up, Cyberdramon was able to close the gap with one of the bird things. He tore into it with his razor sharp claws but was barely able to hurt the thing - in fact, it hardly seemed to notice that it was being attacked at all. Before Ryo could swipe another card through, one of the soldiers picked him up, “What the hell are you doing here, kid!? This is an active combat zone! Cover me! I’m getting the civvie out of the fight!”

“Squad! Fall back! Igarashi! Toyotomi! Cover our retreat” the lead soldier barked out, ironically further back from the fighting than the rest of the soldiers. Two of the soldiers turned their weapons on Cyberdramon, trying to get a bead on him as they fired, “New contact! Open fire!”

“NO!” Ryo shouted at them, but his cries were drowned out with the sound of gunfire.

“I wouldn’t do that,” Renamon said, appearing beside some of the soldiers and kicking their weapons out of their hands. A few of them reached for their pistols and took aim at her but were unable to fire before she moved beside them, hitting the weapons out of their hands. Rika and Henry finally stepped out from behind the alley and called out to the guards, “Seriously? She moved so fast that none of you saw her until it was too late. What makes you think pointing a gun at her is a good idea!?”

“Go easy on them,” Henry chided her, nodding to his partner who finally ran into the fight with a great big smile. Henry swiped his cards through his deck and called out, “DigiModify! Digivolution Activate!”

Rika followed his lead and did the same, swiping her own card through her digivice. Both partners rose up into the air as they digivolved in bright flashes of light.

“Terriermon! Warp Digivolve to! Rapidmon!”

“Renamon! Warp Digivolve to! Taomon!”

The two ultimates joined along side Cyberdramon, trying to inflict some harm on the flock of bird like creatures before any of them could get away. Together, the three of them actually were able to hit some of the creatures but it didn’t seem as if their attacks actually did anything to harm them. The soldiers were too caught up by what they were seeing to actually notice how ineffectual their attacks were. The soldier carrying Ryo finally set him down on the ground, “Who the hell are you kids?”

Ryo, Henry, and Rika exchanged glances. Ryo wasn’t sure how to explain anything to these soldiers. After all, the whole situation was absurdly fantastic. Then again, they’d probably believe anything too. Ryo stammered, “We’re…um…we’re…”

“Here to help,” Henry answered for him, “Right, guys?”

“Yeah, but who the hell are you?” the soldier asked again. Rika scoffed, “Those are our digimon. And we are digimon tamers!”

...

Kari finished cooking some eggs and ham, setting up bowls of rice for herself, Guilmon, and Tamer. Once the table was set, she called out to him only to be met with Guilmon instead. He sniffed the food and asked, “It looks yummy! Can I have some?”

“Of course. I cooked it for us,” she said, barely finishing her sentence before he started to dig straight into the food. Kari felt her appetite go away in disgust with how quickly and disgustingly the dinosaur made the food go away, “I said us, Guilmon. Us!”

As she looked away from his eating spree, she noted Tamer still hasn’t joined them, “Where’s your partner?”

“Takatomon was in your bedroom drawing on your window,” Guilmon said with a mouth full of food. Kari sighed and pushed her plate his way, “Go ahead and have mine. I’m going to talk to him.”

She made her way into the bedroom, watching him draw on her window with a red marker and massaged her temple. Not once in her life did she think she would talking to him like a disappointed parent. Then again, she was sure he’d had enough of that in the last few days, “You better plan on washing that off.”

“I will when all this is over,” he promised, not even looking up from his work. That was hardly reassuring to her, especially since the drawing consisted of what looked like a crude map of the city along with some numbers. It was curious, “What are you doing?”

“Measuring the rate of growth and expansion. It’s slow but it’s expanding at an increasing rate. It could swallow the city in a matter of days,” he crossed his arms, “Which makes the whole thing more complicated. The country in the week. The whole world in a month. Time is a factor and we don’t have a lot of it.”

“Okay, but why the window and not a piece of paper?” she asked. He gave her a quizzical look and called her over to have a look at the window from his perspective. The map may have been crude from where she was standing, but it drawn so all the streets and landmarks lined up with where they could be seen from her window, “My math might be off but it should be accurate enough to get a rough estimate.”

She smiled at him, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were playing dumb with your math homework this entire time.”

He smiled back at her and went back to continuing doing math on the window, “I made you some eggs and bacon but I imagine that Guilmon has eaten it all by now.”

Tamer shrugged it off. It seemed he was focused solely on his business at this point whatever his business was. And she didn’t like bring left out of the loop. Not anymore, “Tell ME you’ve got a plan to save Juri. To save both worlds.”

“I probably did. I just can’t remember it. My memories are still off but being in the Digital World helped clear my head of the static. It comes in flashes. And not all of its good,” he paused, stopping his drawings long enough to look back at her with the the biggest puppy dog eyes she’d ever seen, “For whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry. For everything. From when you were a little kid to now. I really am sorry. I was a jerk back then. And I don’t want to be a jerk now. I want to be better. I’m sorry.”

Words she never thought she’d hear him say so genuinely. But that wasn’t important now, “That’s in the past. Right now, all I’m worried about is saving Juri and the world. What is the plan?”

“Right now? Wing it and hope for the best. That thing is called the D-Reaeper. And a long time ago, the guardians couldn’t kill it. We threw everything at it. It evolved and learned so quickly that it was impossible to try the same strategy twice without it adapting. So we did the next best thing. We sealed it away with another equally powerful monster,” he answered, “I’d say we try that again, but I don’t know where we’re going to get that many strong digimon to trick it and an equally strong monster - not digimon, monster - to fight it for another...I don’t know. Another eternity.”

He started pacing frantically, “Okay, plan. Plan. I remember I’m supposed to be good at this stuff - being unpredictable. Winging it so that stuff just kinda works out. So why can’t I think of anything? Gah! Okay, think. Think.”

BOOM!

The apartment shook and Tamer latched on to her to keep from falling over. There was a loud crash somewhere in the distance that must’ve been Guilmon falling over in the kitchen. Once the apartment settled, Kari looked down at Tamer, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, you?” he asked. She nodded, turning her attention out the window, “What the hell was that?”

Her answer came in the form of smoke rising in the distance out her window. It was accompanied by the sight of a strange flock of birds and digimon: Taomon, Rapidmon, and a strange dragon digimon she didn’t recognize. She looked back down at Tamer, “It looks like the rest of your new friends are out there fighting for their lives.”

Tamer’s expression sank, “What? Oh no. Okay, that changes things. I could help but…no, they definitely don’t want to talk to me right now. So change of plan…back up! They need back up! We need to help them! Guilmon! We need to go!”

He collected himself and hurried for the door with Guilmon in tow. But then he paused, stopping just as his hand turned the handle. He didn’t open the door. He didn’t run out to help the others. He just stood there, staring at the door. Then he let it go, stepping back from the door quietly, “Maybe I shouldn’t.”

“What?” Kari blurted, “Tamer, what happened to all that enthusiasm you had a second ago?”

“I’m just realizing something. Any time I help, things just go from bad to worse,” Tamer threw his hands up in frustration, “I could help. I could! But my help tends to cause more problems than it solves! And let’s be fair! With my helping streak, I’ll probably get them killed!”

“So what. Your plan is to sit here and do nothing?” Kari asked, unsure of what exactly he was thinking. Tamer shook his head, massaging his temple as he began pacing in her door way, “Sure! Why not? It’s not like I’ll help them any more than I helped Juri. Who knows, maybe they’ll get kidnapped too! Maybe Ryo will get to spend another twenty years in the Digital World. That’s how destiny seems to be working itself out anyway. I’m supposed to be the Guardian of that and I can’t even remember what I’m supposed to do!”

Kari looked at Tamer pitifully, recalling all her previous adventures in the Digital World and noting how this must’ve been what it looked like from the other side. He seemed genuinely lost and had no idea what to do. All resemblance to the one who always had a plan melted away, all that remained was the misbehaving student from her class with a frustratingly short attention span. As a teacher, she’d always tried using a mix of discipline and learning moments in the hopes of getting through to him. But what exactly could she say now? What should she say?

What would he need to hear? Probably Agumon at this point. She looked over at Guilmon, recalling everything he’d told her. Agumon would be of no help, not in this state. But if he were still around with all his memories intact, what would he say? Of course.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kari said. Tamer looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, “Excuse me?”

Kari mused “It was something Agumon said to us back when you were being ‘Taichi’ that one time, as annoying as it got. Don’t worry about it. Do what comes natural and destiny will usually work itself out. That’s what he told us when we went looking for you. And it’s definitely what you need to hear. Just do what comes natural. So...what do you want to do?”

He looked up at her quietly with big sad eyes. It was easy to forget that he was over a hundred thousand years old when he had those big, sad, childish eyes looking up at her. She put a hand on his shoulder to calm him, “Tamer, what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. What should I do?” he asked her quietly. He didn’t know. He was on their level. The apartment shook again as another distant explosion rocked the building. She looked back out her apartment window at the chaos outside. If only she had her partner, “I know what I’d do if Gatomon were here. I’d run out there and try to save the city.”

His eyes widened and a small smile cracked on his face, “When did you get so good at this?”

She smiled back at him, “Someone had to step up when you weren’t around. We all did, honestly. You weren’t around to save the world.”

He nodded silently, still smiling in simple agreement, “You guys really did. And you did a great job of it too. I...I’m sorry for how I was before.”

“You already apologized Tamer. Otherwise, I’m glad we’re having a moment, but the city is in danger! So stop talking and get out there!” Kari said just short of shouting at him. He nodded in agreement and threw the door open, “Yeah, come on buddy! Let’s go get some help.”

“Thank you for breakfast! It was super yummy!” The red dinosaur cheered as he followed his partner back out the door. Kari sighed - those two were the best shot they had right now. She just hoped they were able to do something. That Tamer would come up with a plan before it was too late and all of this would be over soon.

[shadowed-dancer]

Cleaved Rewrite

So… if you haven't watched Cleaved yet, go do so. This will contain spoilers.

As promised a week ago, here is my rewrite for cleaved. It’s all for fun, so be nice please.

Despite what I'm about to do, I didn't hate the finale. It could have been better, but it wasn't that bad either. This is just for fun, I still have the greatest respect for the svtfoe team and what they created. I'm dividing my idea into two episodes to allow for more time to breathe.

Episode 1 of the finale would begin with Star arguing with Moon about destroying the magic. Eclipsa and Moon could bring up the idea that they could fight, since three Queens going against Mina could do the trick. I'm going to write some dialogue, bear with me ok?

Star: No, Mom! 3 Queens aren't enough… but what if there were more!

Moon: What?

Star: What if we had more Queens? I've seen them! Inside the grandma room in Glossaryk’s weird eye dimension! I could go there and get them to help us!

Eclipsa: Star, are you sure that's a good idea? Even if it was possible, the past Queens may not want to help us (she lowers her gaze and holds Meteora's arm, clearly thinking of Solaria)

Star: Of course they'll help us, their my grandmas! Glossaryk!

Glossaryk: What?

(Star tries to grab his eye but he covers it and flies out of reach)

Glossaryk: Sorry Star, but that's enough eyeball time for one day.

Star: But I need to go back to the Grandma room! I need their help!

Glossaryk: Well going in my eye won't help you, if you need your Grandmas, you can find them in the magic dimension.

Marco takes the wand and he and Star go to the magic dimension while Moon and Eclipsa go back to Mewni. Moon and Eclipsa help River and Eddie access the sanctuary and heal Globgor. The other glow wounded are also brought and healed (remember when that was a plan? Because the characters seemed to forget that was something they had to do). Once they're healed though, Mina crashes in through the wall.

Meanwhile, Star and Marco learn the healing properties of pudding in the magic. Star splits off so she can find her grandmas, while Marco fights with Tom. Marco DOESN’T get stabbed because that lead to no conflict and was unnecessary tension. Tom eventually turns back after some pudding and they have to fight the tiny baby unicorns. We cut to Star, who is searching everywhere she could think to find the grandmas. It’s no luck though. Back with Tom and Marco, they learn that feeding the unicorns pudding reverts them back to being good.

Star has been having no luck tracking down the grandmas and cries or in frustration. She decides to go with her first plan and says the whispering spell, but it doesn't work. The more she tries, the more frustrated it gets. That's when she hears whispers beginning to surround her. She looks up and we get that cool shot of the Queens coming out from the smoke. It cuts to a shot of Star in the centre of this smoke cloud with the eyes and cheekmarks of the past Queens glowing, then it cuts to black. The credit sequence is just a simple panning shot of the grandma room with the Queens missing from the tapestries (besides Moon, Eclipsa, and Star). It ends on Star’s tapestry before cutting to black

(I’m putting this in here because I want to address it. I wanted the Queens to be a big part of the finale simply because they’ve been teased since season 2 and have an entire book dedicated to them. Daron herself called the book “season 3.5” so I feel like they should have been featured a little more.)

Second episode begins with our group in the magic sanctuary hiding from Mina. They are healed, but are still weak and a bit nervous to fight. Moon says she’ll distract Mina and tries to talk to her, but it just ignites a fight. During the fight, the people try to get to safety but Mina catches them. She grabs Globgor (unable to size shift since he's so tired) and she excitedly says she's got what she came for, then heads back to shore.

Back in the magic, the Queens surround Star. They can ask what she needs (that's right we hear them talk!) and Star can explain her plan. They tell her that they will help her, but if too many of them use magic at once, the magic will go a little wild and will reset everything so it’s all balanced (just role with it, ok?) They go find Marco and Tom and they ask what the plan of attack is, since attacking from the ground seems like a bad idea against soldiers that can crush you. The Queens all mutter amongst themselves but it pans over to Jushtin, crouched in a corner writing some math equation using the magic goo on a crystal. He mumbles to himself before turning around and saying, “I've got an idea, but I'm going to need those.” He then points to the baby unicorns, who have been turned good again.

Back on Mewni, Mina is walking away with Globgor. Enraged by this, Eclipsa bursts out her Butterfly form for the first time and begins attacking. Moon follows her lead and also begins attacking in Butterfly form, but it's no use. Mina is just that powerful. That's when they hear it, a gurgling from the magic sanctuary. They turn around and see through the broken wall that something is coming up from the well. The Queens burst out, on the backs of unicorns with wings (the unicorns can be grown up so the characters can actually fit in them). Mina whistles and her soldiers come to her side. While the gang of previously glow wounded characters all get on a horse and begin to fight (Kelly can be with Jorby, Tom can be flying by himself, and maybe Marco can somehow have Nachos with him).

The fight begins, and there's an epic clash against the two sides features all our favourites performing their own awesome stuff, but it's no good. That's when the Queens bust out some spells. The don't have to be spells from their chapters, but I've always had this cool idea for a shot zooming past every Queen from newest to oldest as they shout out a spell, starting with Star’s narwhal blast and ending with Skywynne calling the Warnicorn stampede. The dust settles and they believe they won, but nope. Mina gets up, laughing. She calls it a good try, but says that they pledged allegiance to Queen Solaria. We then hear Solaria's voice call “then stop!” Mina looks down in shock. Here's a cringey dialogue set.

Solaria: If you've pledged your allegiance to me, then hear me now and stop this madness.

Mina: But my Queen! The monsters! They've been ruining this kingdom for far too long! And what about THAT abomination? (She points at Meteora, still in her baby carrier”

Solaria: You must stop this Mina

Warrior: Mina, she's giving us an order.

Mina: No! The Solaria I knew would never back down from a chance to stand up against these monsters! You’re not my Solaria!

Solaria: No, I guess I’m not.

Solaria sighs and begins to recite the spell with no name. The other Queens (Star, Moon, Eclipsa, and Meteora included)  join her (but now the spell is this cool, revised version)

“We call the spell which has no name

An old Queen’s gift, with which she reigned

Eclipsa our hearts with rightful power

Stand before the Queens and cower!”

The spells shoot out, annihilating the warriors (only the suits though, the helmets are fine) but they just keep going. As everyone panics to figure out a solution, everything begins to glow yellow as the magic “resets itself”. We get the same cute shot we got in the actual episode where Moon looks at Comet and Solaria touches Meteora’s cheek, maybe this time with some dialogue. Everything flashes yellow and the Queens are gone

We see that the Solarian warriors are ok since only the armour was destroyed and they are up in the helmets. They've had a change of heart. Star goes to Mina’s armour and opens the helmet to see her body gone, but her smaller helmet is still inside. This leaves it on the same kind of cliffhanger we actually got.

Star looks around and sees the damage caused by the spells is gone, but Marco is gone too! She looks up and sees a portal in the sky and begins racing towards it. We see him back on Earth with Janna.

This is where the ending is the same. Marco wakes up, a portal is in the sky, he races out to get it (literally shot for shot the same, I loved this scene and I wouldn't change anything about it). The portal explodes as they both just miss it but then we learn everything has been cleaved together. We get to see MORE of our friends on Earth (Tom and his family, Penelope and Slime, Buff Frog and his kids) then get their final “hi” exchange. The credits are the same since the score is just so gorgeous.

Hope you enjoyed reading my rewrite. Despite the time I took to write this, I still appreciate what the Svtfoe team created. Thank you.

[dp-pastandpresent]

Clockwork: Origins of Darkness C. 5

Prequel story to “Past and Present’.  You don’t have to read P&P to read this, but it will help.  

Description:   We all know Clockwork is the ‘Master of Time’, but how did he get that way? And why is he so obsessed with a certain prophecy? AU.

--

Chapter 5

"One. More. Just One. More."

The ghost sighed as paced his realm, trying to be patient as he waited for his hire to return.

"I've spent ages tracking down the locations of those ingredients, the least he could do is return sooner," he said through gritted teeth as he glanced over at the table behind him.

Sitting on top were several beakers, a few containing varying solutions, as well as some pretty grotesque scientific items.

The biggest vial, at least 5 gallons, was currently half full of a bright green solution, a slight glow emitting from it.

"I just need that last element, and then it will be ready."

As if in answer, the door behind him suddenly flung open, and a ghost in a metal body suit wearing a medallion flew in.

"I swear if you EVER send me to get ANYTHING again, I am going to blast you so hard that you'll have your own plot in that Graveyard of yours!"

Looking up and down at his visitor, Clockwork noticed a few burn marks and scratches on the ghost's suit.

"Well, hello to you too Skulker." He grinned.

"Hmph…" was all he armored ghost could say as he dropped a bag to the ground and kicked it towards Clockwork.

"Just take it and pay me already."

Clockwork floated forward and grabbed the bag, opening it up to look inside as it wiggled a bit.

"I take it Pandora's realm as a little bit harder to get through than we thought?" he said, trying to keep the tone light. "You'd think the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter would be able to handle a few demons."

"Demons? Yes. Fire breathing, 3 headed dogs? No." He crossed his arms. "Now, about my pay."

"Ah, yes, that." Clockwork waved his staff and another bag appeared in front of his visitor.

"Finally!"

Skulker turned to leave, but Clockwork stopped him one last time.

"Hold up. I think you have something of mine." He floated over to the ghost and reached for the medallion around his neck. "Our business is through, and I wouldn't want this landing in the wrong hands…" He grinned as he pulled it away.

Skulker laughed. "I was hoping you'd forget!"

"Just be happy you're still standing Skulker." Clockwork smirked as he aged up.

With that, Skulker flew out of his realm, the door slamming behind him as he murmured to himself.

"You'd think collecting hundreds of these things would give a guy a little more freedom to come and go…Can't even tell me what they're for…"

Clockwork turned and floated back to the table where he emptied the contents of the bag into a small glass case.

"Now, what to do with you?" he asked, watching the small bat-like creature trying to escape its box.

--

A few hours later, Clockwork looked up from his book and over to the large container in front of him.

"All that reading. All that hunting. All that mixing. And finally, FINALLY, I have a solution!"

The solution in the container had turned from green to a bright blue, having been mixed with the essences from the final ingredient.

"Finally."

He aged himself down as he took a small vial and filled it with the blue solution. Floating over to the large holding tank, he opened the door and poured the solution into an open tube. Smiling, he flew back to the table and grabbed the large container before quickly disappearing.

--

"Daniel Fenton. I have been watching your grave for years now, waiting for the perfect moment to present itself. Collecting ingredients and researching myths. And now, here I am, standing before you, ready for the prophecy to unfold."

Floating above the grave, he held his glowing blue solution with a small smile. Without hesitation, he tipped the container and watched the thick contents spill out onto the stone.

His eyes got big as he watched the stone suck up the liquid like a sponge, taking in every last drop as the stone began to glow as blue as the solution. The writing on the front quickly began to shuffle and rearrange, only to eventually disappear completely as the glowing began to fade.

"They may not understand now, but soon, things will change. And you, Daniel, are exactly what I need to make that change." He grinned as he disappeared again.

--

His realm was filled with blue light as he reappeared in the main chamber. Adjusting to the change in light, he quickly turned to his tank, only to find it was filled with a dense, blue fog.

"Perfect."

He floated closer, trying to see through the thickness. Beyond the fog, a body was starting to form.

"And now, to check on the girl…"

He turned away from the tank and changed his focus to the large screen on his back wall. It quickly lit up to reveal a girl, dressed in a fancy black dress, standing on the edge of a rooftop.

"If only I could figure out why I never see more!" he said, frustrated.

Despite his recent success with the boy, he was still struggling with the girl. As hard as he tried, he had yet to see much of anything on his screens taking place immediately after the portal incident. He knew there had to be something, for he had seen many images from 2019. But for one reason or another, there were many moments he knew must come between.

"How will they meet? How will they work together? How will they become…" He hissed as he tried once again to will his screen forward, only to have it jump to the all too familiar ice cream scene.

"It's like time doesn't want me to know these things…"

--

He had done it. He had figured out resurrection, something even we Observants were unsure he could actually pull off. But he did. And what would happen next would change the course of all Ghost history.

--

It seemed like years as Clockwork searched his screens, constantly glancing behind him as the blue fog faded in the tank, only to see a humanoid form slowly taking shape. For a ghost who was used to speeding up and slowing down time, waiting on it was something he found tedious.

'I have been trying to get this thing to cooperate for too long! That dance, it must be important. But why won't it show me more? If only I could speed time up a bit, just to forget about this and move on to the boy's return.' He found himself considering these possibilities on multiple occasions, only to decide that it wasn't worth the risk.

Finally, as if answering his thoughts, the screen crackled and changed. The scenes began to switch, but not at his normal command. Instead, it was as if someone had hit the fast-forward button, and he had no way of stopping it.

'What the—?'

His eyes darted as he caught blurs of black and white, purple and green. Heard snippets of voices, some he recognized and some he didn't, but no conversation he had ever heard.

Finally, it stopped. Back on his 'favorite' scene with the ice cream. Frustrated, he willed his screen to turn itself off, only to notice there was no more blue in the reflection coming from behind him.

He turned. The fog was gone, and in its place was the very human form of what looked like an 18-year-old boy.

Clockwork slowly flew over to the tank, a bit of skepticism in his face, and looked in.

The boy blinked back, and Clockwork jolted backwards.

Coming to his senses, he flew back over and opened the door, allowing the boy to fall forward onto the ground, waiting to see if he would fall through.

'I've got a medallion ready, boy.'

When the head Observant had first warned him of human intervention, Clockwork had searched his books for answers, only to find very little of use.  One thing he had found, however, were theories about human composition vs ghost composition.  Humans, being made of flesh and blood, in theory, were more stable than ghosts, made of ether and ectoplasm.  Clockwork had come to the conclusion that humans would not be able to stand on ghostly ground, would even fall right through, and as such had prepared for this moment by manipulating his medallions, giving them the power to keep humans safe and stable within the Zone.

But he didn't need it. Instead of sinking through, the boy just landed on the ghostly ground as Clockwork took a better look. He was on his knees, head facing down at the ground with hair hanging in his face. White hair.

"I've done it. At last, I have finally found an answer."

The boy looked up, green eyes wide with confusion.

'But…isn't he supposed to be…? Black hair? Blue eyes?' Clockwork found himself confused as he shifted from young to old. 'The boy the girl loves, he's not like this…'

The boy lurched back as if afraid of the figure's touch.

"Don't worry son, I won't hurt you. I'm here to help." The figure spoke with compassion in his voice.

'I need to figure out why this didn't work. Why he isn't…human.'

"What? Where? Who?" was all the boy could say in response.

Trying to remain calm—after all, someone had to answer questions—Clockwork looked down at the boy again.

"Of course, you're confused. You've only been back for a few hours now. Your mind hasn't fully returned yet. I should have known that would be a side effect of resurrection."

"Resurrection?"

Confusion spread across the boy's face as Clockwork tried to hide his own.

'Maybe I opened the door too soon? Or didn't add the ingredients in the right order?'

But instead of saying these things out loud, he simply answered, "Of course. You, Daniel, are the first soul I've ever been able to retrieve from death."

"Death? You mean, I…?'

"Died, yes. But I've brought you back." The figure smiled.

'Or at least part of you.'

"Back to where?"

"I believe the humans call it 'The Ghost Zone,'" he answered with amusement, "but this part, my home, is the Island of Lost Time."

"The Island of Lost Time?" he asked, looking up at the purple hooded figure.

"Yes. My home within the Ghost Zone. This is where I watch over all that come and go." The ghost gestured around the room, as if to show off the space.

But the boy was too shaky to care about how impressive it was.

"So, we're…I'm? A ghost? But why?"

"I wish I had a better answer," the ghost responded with a grin, "but simply put, I need your help."

"My help? But I barely remember my name. How can I…"

"Stop boy! Just stop! And listen!" His eyes glared red as he grew older, causing Danny to once again jolt back in fear.

Seeing the fear in the boy's face, Clockwork let his eyes dampen and turned to a large screen on a wall. It suddenly lit up with an overhead view of a city.

"Amity Park. Seems pretty quaint, right? Do you remember anything?"

"I…I…I think I lived there?" Danny racked his brain as he found himself rising to his feet and taking shaky steps to join the ghost at the screen.

"Yes! I remember! That's where I was born! Where I grew up! Where I…died." He lowered his voice at this last one.

"Oh good, more memories are coming back. I knew they would in time." Clockwork grinned again, as if hiding a secret.

"But why is Amity Park so important?" Danny asked.

The screen flipped to another scene, this one of a large metal room. The angle of the recording showed two figures standing in front of some large doors. The two watched as the woman grabbed a large plug and put it in an outlet. And then…nothing happened. Both figures looked dismayed at this.

"Meet Jack and Maddie Fenton. They've been working to create an opening to our world for some time now, but haven't been able to open it up."

'Fenton?’ thought Danny, ’Why does that feel familiar?'

"What does that have to do with me?" Danny asked, feeling as though he was missing something important.

"I believe you, son, are the key. The one who will be able to open it. I just need to send you through." Clockwork turned young again as he said this, looked the boy directly in the eyes.

Danny shuttered, feeling more and more scared by the moment.

"Me? I don't…I don't know anything about anything."

"It's ok, I'll train you. Make sure you're ready. We have a few days. That event you just saw? It isn't supposed to happen until next week."

"Next week? You mean you can see the future?" Danny's eyes got big at this revelation.

The ghost laughed. "The future. The past. The present. My boy, I can see it all…" He stopped, wanting to go on, but realizing that he was already giving up too much information to a ghost child whose mind was still new.

"We'll just leave it at that. You need your rest, let your mind rest for a while." The ghost turned off the screen and began to float away, back to his own chamber. But not before looking back at the young boy before him.

"Stay here, relax. But please, don't leave this room. You'll find my realm is not so forgiving. You see, time doesn't stand still here, and without my guidance, you may get lost." A toothy grin formed on his face as he turned into a child and disappeared, leaving poor Danny to shiver in fear.

--

The boy had returned, although not as Clockwork had planned. How was it that he had only witnessed a black haired, blue eyed boy on his screens, and yet here was a white haired, green eyed ghost? He knew resurrection was complicated, but this was out of his scope.

But instead of lingering, he continued to work with the boy. Showing him stories from his past and what he needed to do to return home.

The boy grew to be almost a son to Clockwork in that short time, something no one had anticipated. Was it possible for such a dark being to actually have feelings?

--

"Repeat again."

"I wait until after we know the doors have failed and then find the opening within the Zone. You send me in, and that activates the portal. After that, I am to stay and watch over the city for a while, make sure the Fentons get things going, and make sure no harm comes to them or the city."

Danny's voice sounded robotic as he recited his mission for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Exactly." The elderly ghost smiled down at him.

'And by keeping him there, he will inevitably meet her,' Clockwork added in his head.

"But why me?" the boy asked, interrupting the ghost's train of thought.

His smile faded as he looked down.

"I've told you, Daniel, that no other ghost can possibly understand the human realm as well as you, for no other ghost has memories of a past."

"But I barely remember my past, and you haven't told me much. Just how and when I died, really." Danny, despite being a ghost, felt near to tears at this.

Clockwork flew down closer to the young ghost in front of him, changing into his childish self as he did.

"Trust me, if anyone was destined for this mission, it's you." He reached out a hand and put it on the boy's shoulder. At this, the boy looked up and smiled.

"Ok. I'll do it!"

[snarktheater]

Ready Player One — Level Three (Chapters 32-33)

After our brief foray into a heist story that tied itself up really neatly and really fast, Wade now has a bunch of stolen data and a foolproof plan to…get past IOI’s defense on Castle Anorak and get to the Third Gate.

Because, you know. Real-life mortal danger is just not interesting enough stakes for the book. We gotta go back to the video game contest. That’s what matters.

We left Wade when he was setting up a meeting with the other three main characters of this book, and he explains to them everything that happened to him since he went dark. And by “explains” I mean of course he makes himself sound much better than he was.

“How does a lowly indent get access to secret Sixer dossier files and company memos?” I turned to face her. “Indents have limited access to the company intranet via their hab-unit entertainment system, from behind the IOI firewall. From there, I was able to use a series of back doors and system exploits left by the original programmers to tunnel through the network and hack directly into the Sixers' private database.” Shoto looked at me in awe. “You did that? All by yourself?” “That is correct, sir.”

You know, all by himself, with information he bought and doing nothing but follow instructions. Same difference, I assume.

But that’s apparently enough for the others. They thank him for the warnings, although Artemis is also angry that he read her file—as she should be, since that information was really private and also it did not help one bit. Wade does not experience a shred of regret, though.

So, what is the plan, you ask? Well, keep asking, because instead of telling them, Wade just moves on to taking it for granted that they will make it past the Sixers and straight to how to open the Third Gate. By which I mean the gate is inscribed with a reference to Schoolhouse Rock! that the Sixers missed and our protagonist immediately catch because they’re oh-so-awesome. Since “showing the puzzle and immediately giving the solution” has been the book’s modus operandi from the start…I guess at least this time it didn’t rely on a random epiphany and the characters really showed off that they knew their stuff.

I will draw attention to this, from Wade’s recap of what IOI has tried:

“They try every asinine thing you can imagine,” I said. […] “Then they get hung up on reciting First Corinthians 13:13, a Bible verse that contains the words ‘charity, hope, and faith.’ Apparently, ‘charity, hope, and faith’ are also the names of three martyred Catholic saints. The Sixers have been trying to attach some significance to that for the past few days.” “Morons,” Aech said. “Halliday was an atheist.”

Which is kind of baffling to me. I mean…what, atheists can’t use religious symbology ever? Especially Christian symbolism, like…Halliday was probably bathed in it his whole life.

With that said…this mostly makes IOI look like idiots. Which I think is the point?

“Dilettantes,” Art3mis said. “It’s their own fault for not knowing all the Schoolhouse Rock! lyrics by heart.”

Sadly, it also makes them very ineffectual as villains. Do you realize how simple it’d be to do a word search across all the lyrics, books and scripts for things featured in the Almanac? At least for a company with the means that IOI has at its disposal?

Well anyway. The song reveals that there needs to be three people to open the Third Gate, which had already been hinted at by the clue Wade found while searching for the key. This also means that, once they open the gate, they’ll have to race to get to the egg first. Because I’m so stressed about which of these assholes win the egg. I mean we don’t even know Aech and Shoto’s goals and I still don’t want them to win.

Of course, there is one missing step in this plan. Wade obviously figured out a way to disable the Sixers' shield during his time at IOI, and they now know how to open the Third Gate, but they still have to actually get from point A to point B through the Sixer forces. What’s Wade’s solution for that? Just contact every gunter in the OASIS and ask them to play meat shield.

“And you really think everyone will just show up and help us fight the Sixers?” [Artemis] said. “Just for the hell of it?” “Yes,” I said. “I do.” Aech nodded. “He’s right. No one wants the Sixers to win the contest. And they definitely don’t want IOI to take control of the OASIS.”

“No one”? Really? I find that dubious. Or rather, I find it dubious that they’d willingly kill their OASIS character on the off-chance it might make the Sixers lose…but make these complete strangers win instead. Complete strangers who, in the case of Artemis and Wade at least, decided to use their new position of fame and fortune by…remaining anonymous, making no actual stand against the Sixers, and holing themselves up in a stronghold and refusing to even talk to people.

But of course, we’re just supposed to accept that the people will like them more, for…some reason. And really, wouldn’t it be great if, say, Aech was actually Sorrento playing both sides? (He’s not. But it’d be a hell of a twist compared to what the twist around Aech’s identity actually is.)

This plan also means IOI will know exactly when they’ll strike, which will put them on high alert. And they need three people with the Crystal Key to make it through, lest you forgot.

“So we should all try extremely hard not to get killed.”

A master strategist you are not, Wade Watts. As usual, the only character with a shred of humanity is Artemis.

“So I hope you’re right about being able to shut [the shield] down.” “Don’t worry.” “Why would I be worried?” Art3mis snapped. “Maybe you’ve forgotten, but I’m homeless and on the run for my life right now!”

Artemis, you can’t show genuine emotion in this book! That’ll just make Wade look even more like he’s not human!

Speaking of Artemis being currently homeless, this is true of three of them (her, Shoto and Wade), which might be kind of a problem to participate in a large-scale assault on an in-game stronghold, followed by who knows what kind of challenge the Third Gate itself will be. Well, don’t worry, we’ve got a near-literal Deus Ex Machine to solve that problem!

Yeah, remember how, early in the book, Wade noticed someone knocking stuff in the Basement and wondering if it was an invisible player? Well, that’s what it was. Specifically it’s Ogden Morrow, who, along with Halliday, has literal god mode turned on in the OASIS.

“In addition to being immortal and invincible, our avatars could go pretty much anywhere and do pretty much anything.”

He’s been spying on them all this time, and he makes himself visible now to offer a hand. Turns out, he and Halliday reconnected shortly before his death, and Halliday asked him to watch over the contest and maintain its integrity. Apparently, everything IOI has done (blocking off multiple critical areas, for instance) did not violate said integrity? But now, he’s offering to get private jets for all four mains to his private home, where they’ll be able to log into the OASIS safely and, you know, be safe from IOI trying to kill them IRL. When I told you the book wasn’t interested in the real-world threat, I wasn’t joking. It just removed what should be the actual conflict in favor of the in-game contest.

No one is even a little suspicious of that, by the way. At all. They just take Morrow’s offer at face value and accept it, with Aech having to pick up Wade and get him to the airport, since even Morrow can’t track Aech down. The fact that the possibility isn’t even brought up, after everything these characters have gone through (and their initial distrust of each other) really bothers me, because I have half-expected Morrow to turn out to be the true villain after all since we first saw him in the book, but…no, he’s fine.

And this is where I pause the review to go back to my earliest posts, and how this book doesn’t care or think critically about the dystopia it created. Because Morrow…you know, isn’t much better than IOI, ultimately. They’re all beneficiaries of capitalism; in other words, their massive wealth depends on the existence of the widespread poverty that Wade has observed and experienced. But Morrow is a cool nerd, and he’s done some cool things like educational games, so he gets a pass, I guess?

Yeah. No. Remember how Artemis wants to solve world hunger if she wins the contest? Morrow could do that right now. Or he could at the very least heavily contribute to that. That he hasn’t should make him a natural villain for the story, or at the very least a morally grey figure—the heroes need his help, but don’t appreciate him. But the book doesn’t care about its setting; it’s a dystopia because dystopias are cool, I guess, not because it’s trying to make a point about them. The book’s real interest is the OASIS, and the real world could just as easily be a utopia and it would change very little.

Except…actually, it does change one thing, by implication. See, if the book doesn’t want to be a dystopia, and only cares about the OASIS, then that means the dystopia probably exists to justify that the OASIS exists and is as popular as it is. In other words: the book itself doesn’t believe that anyone could be this involved in a video game, or fandom, unless they were driven to it by desperation and misery. This one thing means the book has a lower opinion of geek culture than…well, myself, at the very least. I’d even argue it’s lower than the mainstream opinion of geek culture at the moment, considering in the 2010s, culture has been dominated by things like Comic-Con and superhero movie. For a book that’s hailed as being for geek culture, is pretty odd that it can’t seem to imagine that people like things without needing a justification.

And if you think I’m pulling this reading straight out of my ass: it would not invalidate it if I did, because that’s how art criticism works, but in this case, it’s also absolutely in the text and we’ll get back to that in the final post of this review. Stay tuned for that exciting conclusion!

Back to the plot. Wade sends out his message to all gunters, and posts it on “every gunter message board”, because that’s how fandom works, I guess. Word spreads, and the media starts reporting on that and Wade’s allegations towards IOI, and Wade feels petty satisfaction.

By now, Sorrento would know I’d somehow gained access to the Sixers' private database. I wished I could see his face when he learned how I’d done it—that I’d spent an entire week just a few floors below his office.

You know what would be a great twist? If they traced the security footage and the digital footprint that Wade must have left to figure out what his plan is and counter it. But that would mean Wade failed at something due to his own hubris, and that would mean he faces consequences for his flaws, so let’s not even pretend it’s a possibility and just skip to when Aech arrives to pick him up instead.

A heavyset African American girl sat in the RV’s driver seat, clutching the wheel tightly and staring straight ahead. She was about my age, with short, kinky hair and chocolate-colored skin that appeared iridescent in the soft glow of the dashboard indicators.

Well that’s not a problematic description at all. I mean, that’s multiple descriptors with racist connotations. Oh, and don’t forget that Wade and Cline both claim to like bigger girls, yet Aech gets described as “heavyset”. I guess only white girls get to be “Rubenesque”. [Disclaimer: I personally find both to be pretty insulting, but the difference is definitely there.]

He recognizes that this is actually Aech because she smiles like her avatar does. And then, miracle of all miracles, Wade feels an emotion. Namely, betrayal. He gets over it quickly though, because emotions are icky.

Whatever anger or betrayal I felt quickly evaporated. I couldn’t help myself. I started to laugh. There was no meanness in it, and I knew she could tell that, because her shoulders relaxed a bit and she let out a relieved sigh.

So Wade is totally a-okay with Aech being actually a black girl. How progressive of him, I guess. Aech insists on explaining to him why her character is male, because that’s another thing the book believes warrants explaining. As someone who played female characters in online games for at least half of my gaming life, I find that half amusing and half insulting, but let’s be honest, in this case, it’s just that the author thought of this character’s backstory and wanted to infodump all over us, and couldn’t think of a more natural way to do so.

So Aech, real name Helen Harris, was raised by a single mother too. Her mom realized that sexism is a thing, but since most things are done through the OASIS, she could escape it by using a white male avatar, and she taught her daughter to do the same. Also, Helen/Aech is a lesbian, which is completely irrelevant, except that her mom kicked her out as a result and that’s why she now lives in an RV and always stays on the move.

Aside from the confirmation that homophobia is alive and well in the future (beyond the casual brand displayed throughout the book up to this point, which I could have chalked up as the author’s unconscious biases), I will note that Aech’s most remarkable trait—how she avoided discovery by literally everyone, including IOI and Morrow—is a result of homophobic abuse. So I guess she should be thankful for her mom kicking her out, lest she would have been killed by IOI? That’s a good unintentional message right there, book.

As we continued to talk, going through the motions of getting to know each other, I realized that we already did know each other, as well as any two people could. We’d known each other for years, in the most intimate way possible. […] None of that had changed, or could be changed by anything as inconsequential as her gender, or skin color, or sexual orientation.

This is the straightest thing Wade or the author could conclude from this. Look, let me be clear: if a person is closeted to you, you are not intimate with them. You are not close friends. Because if you were, they would trust you enough to come out to you. If they don’t trust you enough to come out, either you’re just not that close, or they actually suspect that your reaction would be bigoted and potentially dangerous, in which case you are absolutely not their friend (or a good person). It is literally that simple.

Yes, I know what the book’s message actually is here. We’re all just human, and these things shouldn’t be obstacles to relating to one another and being friends. The problem is it’s phrase as “these things shouldn’t matter”, which isn’t the same as “these things shouldn’t be obstacles”. Because they do matter. They would matter no matter how the world is, but especially in a sexist, racist, homophobic world, they matter. This is why saying you’re “colorblind” or “don’t see race”, or that people’s sexuality “doesn’t matter to you”, is not actually comforting. Identity, believe it or not, is a part of who the person is; if it doesn’t matter to you, and only, say, their interests do, then you’re not really friends with the person as a whole.

I’m just getting all the rants today, aren’t I?

Well, to be fair, the actual plot is pretty sparse. I mean, nothing happens on the road to the airport, or on the flight to Ogden Morrow’s home (whom the book now calls “Og”, because it’s the name of his avatar and I guess real names aren’t for cool people). Said home is shaped like Rivendell from the Lord of the Rings movies—is that interesting? No, no it’s not. Is it interesting that Artemis and Shoto are already here, but decided not to meet in person until after the contest is over, because why would we want an opportunity for character development? Well, I guess it’s interesting, but only in that it’s bad.

So let’s just move on to Wade getting into his immersion rig, and asking Morrow a fairly random question before he logs back into the OASIS.

“I wanted to ask what it was that ended your friendship with Halliday. […] What happened?”

Well, turns out Halliday was in love with Kira too. I know, shocking, he was in love with the one girl in his nerd group. Although, considering we’ve been told he’d only talk to her in-character as their D&D avatars, I think he was more in love with the idea of her than the real person. But hey, this book is literally making the argument that your in-game avatar is realer than the real you. I mean, Wade reverts to calling Helen “Aech” and referring to her as a man for the rest of the book after this one scene where they meet in person. I shit you not.

Literally nothing prompted this question, by the way. Wade just asked out of the blue. So you can already guess that the information is going to come up soon. Or you can just take my word for it that it will.

“Good luck, Parzival. You’re going to need it.” “What are you going to do?” I asked. “During the fight?” “Sit back and watch, of course!” [Morrow] said. “This looks to be the most epic battle in videogame history.”

Aren’t you gonna…you know, help? Why even introduce a character with godlike powers if he’s going to do nothing with them?

And with that, Wade logs into the OASIS to start the climax, and we get a dramatic chapter break. Because I’m so very scared that Wade might not win the contest. Yeah. Totally.

[svetlanawagner-blog]

Welcome to our income reports where we share ways we’ve been making money through the , the challenges and lessons we learned each month, and finally to celebrate successes however big or small. Though we have a few side hustles, we’re happy that the travel is our main hustle.

Life Updates

We ticked off a few big bucket list items in May. Reflection Canyon has been a place I wanted to photograph for years, and we finally made it out there and survived the storm. Sure, we had some near death experiences, but I suppose that made it one of the most memorable trips to date.

Also, on our recent press trip with Travel Texas, we got to explore Big Bend National Park. We love our National Parks, and we can’t wait to share more photos and posts about our big Texas adventure.

This post may contain affiliate links, where we receive a small commission on sales of the products that are linked at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure for more info. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Local Adventurer possible.

Originally Published: Jun 12, 2019

How We Made OVER $30.9K in May - Travel Blog Income Report

Why We Share Our Income Reports

If you’re new here, you might be wondering why on earth we would share something so personal. We’ve been hesitant to share our income reports for the last 5 years, and we’re super nervous about this post, but since we’re all about trial and error, let’s see how it goes! We’re putting out these income reports for these following reasons.

To Show You How We Make Income Blogging

We always want to be 100% transparent about how we make money through this . The amazing thing about the ging world is that every we’ve talked to does things a bit differently. There are also countless ways to grow and improve your business. When we started, we made most of our money through affiliate sales. Since then, we’ve shifted heavily to sponsored content. A big part of this is because my background is in sales and it’s what I’m good at. You can learn more about my sale method below. As time goes on, this will continue to change, but we want to share how we focus on our strengths to effectively meet our goals.

To Show You the Potential of Blogging

Whether you have a or are starting a , we want to show you that you can make a career out of ging.

Even if you don’t want to , there are a ton of ways to be financially and location independent and we hope to inspire others to go after it too. If you want to keep your day job, ging can be a great way for you to make some extra side money.

Esther started the 6 years ago and I joined her full time 3 years ago. Even until last year, our parents were worried about us financially, wondering when we would stop “playing” and start taking our lives and work more seriously. Neither of us ended up being “good Asians” (namely a doctor, lawyer, or engineer). It’s an unconventional job and where most people don’t understand all the work that goes on behind the scenes.

More: The Ugly Truths of Being a Travel Blogger told by Top Travel Bloggers

We love that our jobs give us flexibility in what we do, but being your own boss isn’t all that it’s cut out to be either. You have to be disciplined and work hard at your business to grow it.

If you’re not getting the results you want, again, keep in mind that we’ve been ging for 6 years now and the first month I tried monetizing my , I made less than $20. Give it more time and failing in the process is okay. I didn’t have the correct tools that are out now and a lot of it was trial and error. Consider it all an A/B test to figure out what will best work for you.

To Track How We're Doing

I’ve always loved sharing goals online and tracking them. Putting them out in the world (via the ) has helped me so much with accountability. Since we’re constantly tweaking trying to improve the , looking at these numbers will help us learn whether we’ve been making the right changes. It’s amazing to see how the sources of income have changed over time and to see where we still have room for improvement.

Ultimately, our life goal is to make enough to live on half our income (right now we’re at 30%), where the rest will go back into the community or support organizations we love.

Breakdown of Income for May 2019

In May 2019 we earned a total of $30,944.79. 

Affiliate Income

Amazon: $615.01

Avantlink: $1,322.52 

Commission Junction: $192.10

Misc (Ebay, Skimlinks, AWin, etc): $115.85

Sponsorships

Sponsored Product Posts: $25,031.22  *our fave marketplace lately: IZEA

Display Ads

Adthrive: $3,668.09

Income Comparison to Other Months

Total in 2019 Year Income: $121,964.86

Last Month Income: $21,714.49

Difference: 42.5% increase from last month

Expenses

Web Hosting: $19.95 (Want to start a ? Here’s how you can start a in 5 easy steps)

Keysearch: $18.60

Virtual Assistant, Social Media Manager, Subcontractors: $979.17

Teachable: $89 (check out their free weekly webinar)

Office Supplies/Services: $723.12

Test Products/Shoot Supplies: $466.93

*Taxes: $1,192

Insurance: $613.89

Travel + Meal Expenses: $1,451.07

$25,391.06

*Roughly 30% of your income will go to taxes at the end of the year. The number above shows the money set aside for taxes to offset how much we have to pay at the end. It makes it less painful at the end of the year.

May 2019 Blog Traffic Breakdown + Stats

Monthly Pageviews: 674,621

Daily Average: 21,761

Monthly Sessions: 517,803

Monthly Unique Visitors: 429,920

Social Media Followers: 321,144

Email Subscribers: 8,371

Goals for June 2019

Blog Goals

Get back to posting once a week. For real this time.

Update Pinterest photos for the top 25 posts.

Attend and follow up with IPW

Move servers and increase site speed

Life Goals

Start intermitten fasting

2 date nights (we keep putting this one off)

Finish a book

Workout or go to the climbing gym 3x a week.

Work only 40 hours a week (on weeks we’re not traveling)

What's Working on the Blog

The has been running well on its own. Jacob was on our friend’s Off the Pill podcast, which pretty much shut down our site for a few hours from the flood of traffic. We’ve also spent a lot of time updating our older posts, so traffic has been increasing even though the number of posts we’ve published has gone down significantly. It just goes to show that more posts doesn’t necessarily mean more traffic. Although, we do recommend you post often if you are in your first year of ging. I still can’t believe I used to post 3x a week for several years.

What Didn't Work + Lessons Learned

We need to get back to posting regularly, so we’re going to aim to post at least once a week again. We were also reaching the limits of our server, which generally made our site slow but also crashed our site after a flood of traffic. We’ll be looking for a faster solution this month.

Popular Posts from Last Month

The Mighty 5 Utah National Parks Road Trip

What to Bring to the Beach – Our Beach Essentials Packing List (updated)

How We Made Over $21.7K in April 2019

I’m Going Back to School!

HOW TO WORK WITH SPONSORS​

The e-course is out! Are you a content creator and want to learn how to work with brands?

If you look at our income reports, we make a majority of our income from sponsored posts. We used to do many one-off partnerships with brands, but over the years we’ve been focused on longer term partnerships. Most our brand sponsorships are over $20k, and one of our most recent ones was over $35k.

With over 10 years of trial and error working in corporate and managing our first business, Jacob has figured out the best ways to pitch and work with brands.

At first we were reluctant to put out just another e-course in this oversaturated, dog-eat-dog market, but we’ve seen our coaching and course actually help people quit their jobs and start their own businesses. How cool is that? Plus, all our students who have put our course to action have made their money back within the month, and one of our students using the e-course has already booked $11k in sponsorships. So effin’ excited to see them conquer this new chapter in their lives. If you’re interested to learn more, see the intro video here.

See More Income Reports

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

APRIL – How We Made $21k+

MAR – How We Made $17k+

FEB – How We Made $24k+

JAN – How We Made $26k+

DEC – How We Made $29K+

NOV – How We Made $26K+

OCT – How We Made $28K+

SEP – How We Made $12K+

AUG – How We Made $32K+

JULY – How We Made $23K+

FIRST BLOG INCOME REPORT

“Discovery consists not of seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes” – M. Proust

Esther + Jacob

Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, which is one of the top 5 travel s in the US. They believe that adventure can be found both near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.

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[wpspecialist24-blog]

The Photographer’s Survival Guide to Marketing

Advertising and marketing is a marathon, not a dash. It’s a numbers sport. It's important to hold hitting shoppers till you get them on the suitable day on the proper time. Your first objective needs to be to get on that shopper’s radar, then it’s about getting on their shortlist. Begin advertising and marketing as quickly as you may. Let shoppers see you develop, get used to your work, and join with you. Consistency is the important thing to advertising and marketing. The consistency is within the timing. It's important to be constant about how usually and while you ship out your advertising and marketing. Once we speak about a advertising and marketing marketing campaign, we normally consider it as 12 months with 6 cycles. We like each 2 months as a result of it’s about the suitable spacing between cycles. You additionally must be constant along with your messaging. Keep in mind your voice? You need to craft a message out of your voice and keep it up. Don’t neglect, your message must be related to the shopper goal checklist we constructed again in chapter three.

Profitable advertising and marketing is about a number of touch-points. Every touch-point is a method so that you can attain out to a shopper. Some entrepreneurs imagine you want at the least 3-Four touch-points per cycle to connect with the shopper. What are our touch-points? One of many best, least costly, and best methods to market is e mail promos. Save your self a while and purchase a mailing checklist. Nobody has the right mailing checklist of artistic professionals, however shopping for entry to a database will prevent hours and hours of time monitoring down these manufacturers. Be sincere with your self, you would possibly persuade your self you are able to do the analysis as you begin your first advertising and marketing marketing campaign, however you already know you’re not doing to proceed to do that every time you market.

Plus, consider your advertising and marketing in two waves. You’ve received the goal checklist you’re retaining a detailed eye on, however you must also have a wider internet too. This bigger checklist continues to be related to your enterprise. By taking a look at your goal checklist, you may set the parameter inside a database to seek out extra firms like those you're concentrating on. Your goal checklist is likely to be solely 50 shoppers, however your secondary checklist may very well be as giant as 2,000-3,000 shoppers.

The e-mail promo is the one type of advertising and marketing that's trackable. When a shopper opens and even clicks in your promo, we all know one thing is occurring. An awesome design can elevate your work. There’s no rule to what number of photos you want on an e mail promo.

Once more, it is dependent upon what you assume the shopper ought to see. Two photos really feel like a pleasant stability, however I’ve positively been concerned in campaigns primarily based across the concept of 1 highly effective picture. When you’re an editorial storyteller, there’s an argument for a sequence. Today, you would possibly need to stress the truth that you do multimedia. GIFs are very straightforward to embed into the design, they usually are inclined to get the shopper’s consideration.

Unsolicited mail covers all the things from postcards to specialty print initiatives. I've to say, as profitable as an e mail promo will be, I’ve by no means heard of a shopper printing out the e-mail and sticking it to their wall. That stated, you may cowl much more shoppers by way of e mail. I like to save lots of my unsolicited mail for the goal shoppers in addition to those that appear to be warming as much as my e mail marketing campaign.

A unsolicited mail piece is the right second course for a shopper nibbling in your e mail promo. Your common direct mailer is a 6×9 postcard, which is completely acceptable. After all, these of you not desirous to appear to be everybody else would possibly need to step up your sport. I as soon as heard a shopper say, “I like to get a promo with substance. I can stroll into a gathering and actually throw the booklet on the convention desk. That will get my artwork administrators’ consideration.” Personally, my objective is to assist my shoppers create one thing worthy of sitting on a shopper’s workplace shelf or dangle on their wall. I do know that is sacred floor, so it means the promo must be distinctive, artistic, and good. If you may get within the cubical, there’s a extremely good likelihood that the shopper would possibly work together with it every day. That’s a every day reminder you exist.

Let’s return to emails. So I first talked about e mail promos (epromos). These are largely about your photos. It’s properly designed, hopefully, there’s a few name to actions, and your whole contact data. Now, let’s speak about private emails. The leads you get out of your epromos, adopted up with an excellent direct mailer, can flip this shopper right into a heat lead. Now it’s time to develop a relationship. A private e mail introduces your self. Achieved proper, it reveals you're formidable and have completed your homework. You need to present this shopper you need to work with them. Inform them what you consider their model/firm. Ship them slightly love, and be honest. Handle them by title. Perhaps you even point out one thing particular they did like a magazine story or an excellent business.

We try to make them really feel snug about writing you again. Now, don’t say “I do know you opened my e mail”, as a result of that’s tremendous creepy. Inform them you’ve been advertising and marketing to them lately, and also you’d prefer to know if there's a higher solution to replace them in your new work. Perhaps you even ask them in the event that they ever take head to head conferences.  All good things. This private e mail will be despatched out of your e mail account or possibly strive LinkedIn. When you contact them by LinkedIn, please don’t ask them to take a look at your work and provide you with suggestions. It’s not good LinkedIn etiquette. It's best to all the time ship the epromos to their work e mail deal with.

All the above touch-points are about you sending out a message to the shopper, it’s additionally necessary to be within the locations they search for artists. Sourcebooks and artistic communities are nice methods to be listed. Some are free and a few come at a value. Some are simply web sites and others contain sourcebooks and catalogs. Being part of these websites may also help you get in entrance of shoppers. In case your epromos and direct mailers are working, they may really say to themselves, wait a minute… I do know this man – after they see you within the sourcebook. After all, at Company Entry we love Discovered. Discovered is an invite-only group advertising and marketing platform for artists that provides each on-line and offline advertising and marketing, portfolio critiques and fantastically produced printed promotions together with the Discovered sourcebooks.  If Discovered isn’t what you’re in search of, try:

At Edge

Le E book

Workbook

Dripbook

Behance

I discussed social media as a enterprise software, however it is usually a contact level. If you're fortunate sufficient to be in a shopper’s feed, you've the chance to attach with them every day. Keep in mind to not make social media an remoted expertise. I feel all of us did that initially. Today, the concept is to drive your Instagram viewers to your web site. Consider your web site as a phenomenal vacation spot. Your social media acts because the highway resulting in your web site. Use your social to indicate your latest work. It’s a good way for shoppers to get a fast peek. Tease them with a picture after which push them again to your web site to see extra. In your social bio, checklist your net deal with. Pinterest can be a good way for shoppers to seek out you. Typically it’s as a result of the magazines you shoot for are posting your tales, however you may construct boards to your personal photos.

Sooner or later a shopper of mine received a name from Goal. We had barely began advertising and marketing, so although I had hoped they discovered her by the promo we despatched them, it was in all probability one thing else they'd seen. She had no rep on the time, so we knew that wasn’t it both. Two days into the shoot, my shopper requested Goal how they discovered her. Their reply was Pinterest. The in-house Goal workforce had spent months creating a brand new model technique for one among their meals merchandise. Throughout their analysis, they'd constructed temper boards to encourage their technique. Sooner or later, they stood again to take a look at their analysis and seen a number of of their favourite photos have been from the identical photographer. Ultimately, they tracked her down and employed her on the spot. Pinterest is shortly changing into a favourite for visible searches. If you're on Pinterest, you're within the place creatives begin their artistic course of. Like my shopper, she finally turned their primary selection as a result of they'd unknowingly constructed their technique round her.

READ MORE: https://clippingpathcreative.com/the-photographers-survival-guide-to-marketing/

[loviiz-blog1]

Tesla Code Secrets Reviews Course Training - Executes The Application

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His quotation If you would like know on the universe, contemplate vitality, consistency and vibrations generally inspires me. Alright, I am not planning to share this excellent boyfriend these days at this point, because that is not what this content should be about, nonetheless, I will carry on doing that for years. So the article writer Alex West assertions that he finds some secret way using which Tesla produced all success and he is expressing by using you this particular publication that he telephone calls Tesla Code Secrets Bonus by Alex West. Precisely What Is This what is tesla code? Obviously, there is absolutely no excellent doing work precious strategy that can make you a millionaire right away, these are many values, means, and practices that will let you occur what you are looking into your life. 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But, do not get deluded by how quite frankly I have stated that the free tesla code secrets explains about the effectiveness of your concerned head, this dude truly pushes it within the larger quantities and demonstrates how that you can do areas utilizing the strength of your informed thought process, all those things now we have only discovered is feasible by using processes which enables people to make use of his subconscious mind power up, so no hypnosis or any that sort of tricks. The author points out that Nikola Tesla revealed that the world is really a wisdom loan company and so we can attain each one of the necessary information to set-up something totally new with the aid of our brain just like a transmitter, that is really a extremely effective statement, isn’t it? 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Being advantage within this unit, you will end up possessing this handbook within both audio and pdf file formats, not only this, Alex held also introduced together with each other some of Napoleon’s a smaller amount of best-known operates for example the success standards. Now, this really is a little something I get a hold of an amazing bonus! The Power of Trusting eBook. As being the full program is usually based upon LOA; the article author allows for this added bonus where by he suggests some ways to customize the limiting views as part of your subconscious mind brain to guarantee that adjustments you should make may last for long. I am offering the list of this signup bonuses influenced by what I earned whenever i purchased this supplement, these advantage materials can alter gradually, kindly look into the service or product website to see anything they are selling now. Closing Guidance Evidently, almost all the viewers in this article came with a single really important issue planned, Is the tesla code reviews a scam? The correct answer is no! Except if you are usually in a myth that you choose to will spend money on Tesla Code Secrets scam and you will definitely begin manifesting things like a wizard among time. With the fee, important information as well as bonus items, I discover it a fair contract. In case you are considering getting to be successful and those who are willing to spend your time and efforts in addition to your electricity in undertaking that then I am certain you might are actually excellent making use of these things. Consequently, I will offer you an obvious environment friendly indicate for free tesla code secrets. Should you be ending up with a high-quality price reduction then just continue free of issues because any individual expansion freak like me can pay that total amount towards the Napoleon Hillside compendium all alone with no hesitation, all the same a few things i got to study from this product was totally different and literally new in comparison to almost all particular growth goods I pay for. How did you obtain Tesla Code Secrets? Are you experiencing any opinion of Tesla Code Secrets Review to express? Remember to feedback listed below well before leaving, I would love to hear from you. Additionally you can postal mail me with one of your lifespan conditions or queries, I will be very blissful to enable you to. If that Tesla Code Secrets cons was useful to afterwards you satisfy propagated the phrase by featuring it upon on-line social networks.

[jamiekturner]

Books For Graphic Designers To Read in 2017

Graphic designers come in all shapes and sizes and vary from amateur to professional statuses.

Whether a Photoshop novice or an experienced calligraphy genius, there is always something to be learned in the world of graphic design. The beauty of this art comes from its constant learning process.

No matter who’s doing the research, a graphic designer will surely find nothing but extended information on which to build a more impressive portfolio, or to find out how other designers are using certain design styles.

If someone is new to the world of design, they may wonder where to obtain all of the information to get them started. Or perhaps you’re an experienced designer and would like to enrich your knowledge resume. Where do you find it?

Sure, an online blogger’s opinion can be incredibly helpful, as is the website created for this specific field. We still find it most engaging to open a book. There’s something to be said about the good old-fashioned snail read as there seems to be more thorough research throughout.

Below is a list of books for graphic designers that have been dubbed must reads in the design world.

How to be a Graphic Designer, without Losing Your Soul

Graphic designers constantly complain that there is no career manual to guide them through the profession. Design consultant and writer Adrian Shaughnessy draws on a wealth of experience to provide just such a handbook.

Aimed at the independent-minded, it addresses the concerns of young designers who want to earn a living by doing expressive and meaningful work and avoid becoming a hired drone working on soulless projects. It offers straight-talking advice on how to establish your design career and suggestions – that you won’t have been taught at college – for running a successful business.

This revised, extended edition includes all-new chapters covering professional skills, the creative process, and global trends, including green issues, ethics and the rise of digital culture.

Making and Breaking the Grid

For designers working in every medium, layout is arguable the most basic and most important element. Effective layout is essential to communication and enables the end user to not only be drawn in with an innovative design but to digest information easily.

Making and Breaking the Grid is a comprehensive layout design workshop that assumes that to effectively break the rules of grid-based design one must first understand those rules and see them applied to real-world projects

The Elements of Graphic Design

This very popular design book has been wholly revised and expanded to feature a new dimension of inspiring and counterintuitive ideas to thinking about graphic design relationships.

The Elements of Graphic Design, Second Edition is now in full color in a larger, 8 x 10-inch trim size, and contains 40 percent more content and over 750 images to enhance and better clarify the concepts in this thought-provoking resource.

The Ultimate Guide to Creative Cloud

Want to supercharge your creative workflow? Want all your apps to work in sync? Want to easily publish to multiple platforms and devices at the same time without any hassle? We thought so.

In this book – The Ultimate Guide to Creative Cloud – you’ll discover how to use the power of Adobe Creative Cloud to work faster, smarter and deliver your projects faster and in more style.

Designing Brand Identity: An Essential Guide for the Whole Branding Team

Whether your goal is to express a new brand or to revitalize an existing one, here is a proven, universal five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity. From research and analysis through brand strategy, design development through application design, and identity standards through launch and governance, Designing Brand Identity is an essential reference for the entire process.

Enriched by new case studies showcasing successful world-class brands from Herman Miller and General Electric to the Obama ’08 election campaign, this Third Edition offers new insights into emerging trends such as sustainability and social networks.

Graphic Design Manual

This newly revised book was first published in 1965. Elements of image and form are analysed and examined with regard to their inherent laws. The lessons of methodical design are used today in computer monitor design as well.

The desktop publishing technique requires very clear conceptual and methodical working processes. This book, which is divided into computer-system-friendly sections, will thus serve this new circle of users as a valuable introduction.

Type, Volume 1: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles

This book offers a novel overview of typeface design, exploring the most beautiful and remarkable examples of font catalogs from the history of publishing, with a special emphasis on the period from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, when color catalogs were at their height.

Taken from a Dutch collection, this exuberant selection traverses the evolution of the printed letter in all its various incarnations via exquisitely designed catalogs displaying not only type specimens in roman, italic, bold, semi-bold, narrow, and broad, but also characters, borders, ornaments, initial letters and decorations as well as often spectacular examples of the use of the letters.

Designing For Social Change: Strategies for Community-Based Graphic Design

Some call it design for the greater good. Others call it social design. Whatever you call it, it’s clear that an altruistic impulse is on the rise in the design community.

The latest addition to the Design Briefs series, Designing for Social Change, is a compact, hands-on primer for graphic designers who want to use their unique problem-solving skills to help others.

Author Andrew Shea presents ten proven strategies for working effectively with community organizations. These strategies can frame the design challenge and create a checklist to keep a project on track.

Thinking with Type

The organization of letters on a blank sheet — or screen — is the most basic challenge facing anyone who practices design. What type of font to use? How big? How should those letters, words, and paragraphs be aligned, spaced, ordered, shaped, and otherwise manipulated?

In this groundbreaking new primer, leading design educator and historian Ellen Lupton provides clear and concise guidance for anyone learning or brushing up on their typographic skills.

Graphic Design Thinking

Creativity is more than an inborn talent; it is a hard-earned skill, and like any other skill, it improves with practice.

Graphic Design Thinking: How to Define Problems, Get Ideas, and Create Form explores a variety of informal techniques ranging from quick, seat-of-the-pants approaches to more formal research methods for stimulating fresh thinking, and ultimately arriving at compelling and viable solutions.

In the style with which author Ellen has come to been known hands-on, up-close approach to instructional design writing brainstorming techniques are grouped around the three basic phases of the design process: defining the problem, inventing ideas, and creating form. Creative research methods include focus groups, interviewing, brand mapping, and co-design.

Stationery Design Now

Whether you’re starting your own business or simply trying to stay in business, three paper-based items are absolutely crucial to your company: letterhead, envelopes, and business cards. These items, along with your logo, are the pillars of a well-defined corporate identity.

Though seemingly ephemeral, the subliminal communications value of elegant stationery cannot be overestimated. The best stationery works hard for you, front-loading your corporate or freelance image, and conveying your company values in the most tangible way.

The Portfolio Handbook

Portfolios are a bitch to make. Thats why we wanted to help. It’s been a while since we were sophomores, but we never forgot the emotional roller coaster of trying to get our first job (we still go through it).

Looking back, we wish we would have known what we know now. This book is for you: a collection of our knowledge passed down to you in the hopes that you become better designers, better professionals, and better people.

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts

A delightfully inquisitive tour that explores the rich history and the subtle powers of fonts.

Fonts surround us every day, on street signs and buildings, on movie posters and books, and on just about every product that we buy. But where do fonts come from and why do we need so many?

Who is behind the businesslike subtlety of Times New Roman, the cool detachment of Arial, or the maddening lightness of Comic Sans (and the movement to ban it)? Simon Garfield embarks on a mission to answer these questions and more, and reveal what may be the very best and worst fonts in the world.

Package Design Workbook

This comprehensive guide provides designers with a thoughtful packaging primer that covers the challenges of designing packaging for a competitive market in a very hardworking and relevant way.

Package Design Workbook addresses all aspects of the creative process including choosing a package format, colors and materials, final finishes, and special considerations such as awkward objects and unique display considerations.

This book breaks down the process of design in a much more comprehensive way than most books on the subject, which just analyze the final designs.

The Art of Color

In this book, the world’s foremost color theorist examines two different approaches to understanding the art of color. Subjective feelings and objective color principles are described in detail and clarified by color reproductions.

The Elements of Typographic Style

Renowned typographer and poet Robert Bringhurst brings clarity to the art of typography with this masterful style guide. Combining practical, theoretical, and historical, this book is a must for graphic artists, editors, or anyone working with the printed page using digital or traditional methods.

Having established itself as a standard in its field The Elements of Typographic Style is house manual at most American university presses, a standard university text, and a reference work in studios of designers around the world. It has been translated into italian and greek, and dutch.

Brand Identity Essentials

This book is the fourth book in the Essential series following Layout Essentials, Typography Essentials, and Packaging Essentials.

It outlines and demonstrates basic logo and branding design guidelines and rules through 100 principles including the elements of a successful graphic identity, identity programs and brand identity, and all the various strategies and elements involved.

Designing Brand Identity

From research and analysis through brand strategy, design development through application design, and identity standards through launch and governance, Designing Brand Identity, Fourth Edition offers brand managers, marketers, and designers a proven, universal five-phase process for creating and implementing effective brand identity

from Web Development & Designing http://www.designyourway.net/blog/resources/books-to-read-for-an-aspiring-graphic-designer/

[dp-pastandpresent]

Past and Present: Chapter 28

"One. More. Just One. More."

The ghost as paced his realm, trying to be patient as he waited for his hire to return.

"I've spent ages tracking down the locations of those ingredients, the least he could do is return sooner," he said through gritted teeth as he glanced over at the table behind him.

Sitting on top were several beakers, a few containing varying solutions, as well as some pretty grotesque items.

The biggest vial, at least 5 gallons, was currently half full of a bright green solution, a slight glow emitting from it.

"I just need that last element and then it will be ready."

As if in answer, the door behind him suddenly flung open, and a ghost in a metal body suit wearing a medallion flew in.

"I swear if you EVER send me to get ANYTHING again, I am going to blast you so hard that you'll have your own plot in that graveyard of yours!"

Looking up and down at his visitor, Clockwork noticed a few burn marks and scratches on the ghost's suit.

"Well, hello to you too Skulker." He grinned.

"Hmph…" Was all he armored ghost could say as he dropped a bag to the ground and kicked it towards Clockwork.

"Just take it and pay me already."

Clockwork floated forward and grabbed the bag, opening it up to look inside as it wiggled a bit.

"I take it Pandora's realm as a little bit harder to get through than we thought?" he said , trying to keep the tone light. "You'd think the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter would be able to handle a few demons."

"Demons? Yes. Fire breathing, 3 headed dogs? No." He crossed his arms. "Now about my pay."

"Aww, yes, that." Clockwork waved his staff and another bag appeared in front of his visitor.

"Finally!"

Skulker turned to leave, but Clockwork stopped him one last time.

"Hold up. I think you have something of mine." He floated over to the ghost and reached for the medallion around his neck. "Our business is through, and I wouldn't want this landing in the wrong hands…" He grinned as he pulled it away.

Skulker laughed. "I was hoping you'd forget!"

"Just be happy you're still standing Skulker." Clockwork smirked as he aged up.

With that, Skulker flew out of his realm, the door slamming behind him as he murmured to himself.

"You'd think collecting hundreds of these things would give a guy a little more freedom to come and go… Can't even tell me what they're for…"

Clockwork turned and floated back to the table, where he emptied the contents of the bag into a small glass case.

"Now, what to do with you?" he asked, watching the small bat-like creature trying to escape its box.

--

The largest screen was illuminated with a map, a single red dot blinking in the center.

'Well, Daniel, I see you made it through my first challenge, but the rest will be much harder.'

He turned quickly as he heard his guest stirring behind him. Not wanting the girl to know about his secret map, he quickly let the screen turn blank.

"Wha…?" Sam asked as she rubbed her eyes.

"My dear, you were tired again, so I was letting you rest…" Clockwork began.

Sam looked up at him, only to find her tired eyes growing large as she looked at the screen behind him.

Clockwork noticed this change and turned himself, his own eyes glowing in confusion.

'I swear I turned that off!'

Danny and Sarah were standing in an aisle of the record store, the racks of CDs Sam was used to instead containing vinyl records in sleeves with large colorful labels. All along the walls were record players emitting various tunes for the whole shop to hear.

Danny was holding one in his hands, and Sarah looked over his shoulder. Both let out a small giggle as they read the song list.

After a moment, Sam finally spoke. "I knew Danny loved that store, but I never realized the connection it held to Grandma."

Trying to keep the confusion over his screen's sudden change, Clockwork responded with the best answer he could come up with: "My dear, in all the scenes I found of Danny and your grandmother, the record store was always a common location."

'Whew.'

"And here I was, making fun of his Elvis obsession…" she said quietly, her eyes darting to the ground.

The ghost in front of her began to forget his frustrations with the screens as he felt the girl's energy begin to change. He flew closer to her, aging himself into his oldest form in the process. She didn't even flinch as he did so.

"The record store means a lot to you as well?" he asked, trying to sound like he cared.

She looked up in shock; was it possible her captor was showing some compassion?

"I didn't… say…"

"You didn't have to. By now, I can read your emotions. And sense your feelings."

She jumped up at this, startling the ghost beside her.

"What ELSE can you do?!" she demanded.

"Girl. Please. Calm down. You of all people should know by now that my powers are almost limitless," he said as he forced her into her.

--

Clockwork looked up from his book and over to the large container in front of him.

"All that reading. All that hunting. All that mixing. And finally, FINALLY, I have a solution!"

The solution in the container had turned from green to a bright blue, having been mixed with the essences from the final ingredient.

"Finally."

--

He aged himself down as he took a small vial and filled it with the blue solution. Floating over to the large holding tank , he opened the door and poured the solution into an open tube. Smiling, he flew back to the table and grabbed the large container before quickly disappearing.

"Daniel Fenton. I have been watching your grave for years now, waiting for the perfect moment to present itself. Collecting ingredients and researching myths. And now, here I am, standing before you, ready for the prophecy to unfold."

Floating above the grave, he held his glowing blue solution with a small smile. Without hesitation, he tipped the container and watched the thick contents spill out onto the stone.

His eyes got big as he watched the stone suck up the liquid like a sponge, taking in every last drop as the stone began to glow as blue as the solution. The writing on the front quickly began to shuffle and rearrange, only to eventually disappear completely as the glowing began to fade.

"They may not understand now, but soon, things will change. And you, Daniel, are exactly what I need to make that change." He grinned as he disappeared again.

--

His realm was filled with blue light as he reappeared in the main chamber. Adjusting to the change in light, he quickly turned to his tank, only to find it was filled with a dense, blue fog.

"Perfect."

He floated closer, trying to see through the thickness. Beyond the fog, a body was starting to form.

"And now, to check on the girl…"

He turned away from the tank and changed his focus to the large screen on his back wall. It quickly lit up to reveal a girl, dressed in a fancy black dress, standing on the edge of a rooftop.

"If only I could figure out why I never see more!" he said, frustrated.

Despite his recent success with the boy, he was still struggling with the girl. As hard as he tried, he had yet to see anything on his screens taking place immediately after the timestamp on this scene. He knew there had to be something, for he had seen many images from 2019. But for one reason or another, there were many moments he knew must come between.

"How will they meet? How will they work together? How will they become…" He hissed as he tried once again to will his screen forward, only to have it jump to the all familiar ice cream scene.

"It's like time doesn't want me to know these things…"

--

"Dude. Stop controlling me. Seriously," Sam demanded as she sat in her chair, unable to get up.

"When you stop poking around where you don't belong," Clockwork smirked back.

"I didn't POKE INTO anything, I was just freaked out by your powers, which for the record you used on me AGAIN!"

"Well, this is my realm, and I can do whatever I please. Remember, you are here for one purpose only."

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow at this.

"Because I was questioning things too much? Because I'm pivotal to Danny's destiny? Did you forget that you've told me all these things already?"

'Indeed I have. Smart girl…'

"You know what you haven't told me? What will really happen when I remove this stupid medallion," Sam said through gritted teeth as her hand moved to her neck. Clockwork's eyes got big at this, causing him to lose his mental grip on her.

"Trust me, Samantha, you do NOT want to take that off."

"Oh yea!? Why? I'll fall through the floor again? If it's between that and being stuck here, I think I'll take my chances." Her hand began to lift the trinket over her neck.

"STOP!" Clockwork demanded, using every last ounce of power to keep her from removing it any further.

"DUDE!"

Sam glared at her captor, unable to move her hand.

"You cannot tell me that out there is any worse than in here."

"That… may be true…" he contemplated out loud, "but at least in here, with my power over your necklace, you are able to breathe."

Sam stopped of her own accord this time, comprehension slowly showing on her face.

"Wait? Humans can't breathe in the Ghost Zone?"

"Exactly."

"So this whole time, if didn't have…" His grip had loosened and she looked down at the medallion, "I wouldn't be able to… breathe?"

"You're welcome," he said sarcastically.

"Mind explaining what else humans CAN'T DO here?"

"Hmph, my dear. If I felt like handing out that kind of information, I would have told you sooner," he said with a chuckle as he aged down to a child.

"So there ISSSSS more," She said slyly, a small smile on her face.

Clockwork blushed as he backed away a bit, looking at the ceiling.

'She's got you now…'

"Well, I… I mean…"

"Please, continue," the girl went on.

Clockwork found himself trapped, almost as if the hold he had been using on her was suddenly reversed. Could she really have that effect on him? This girl had always been a mystery, but was it possible that he was losing his touch? What could happen if those powers he had were somehow taken away?

'Think. You've been alive for eons, find a way to talk yourself out of this…'

'She's got you in a corner, Clockwork, you need to just tell her the truth. The WHOLE truth, about the Ghost Zone.'

'And risk unraveling the future? I don't think so! I have come too far to lose to this child!'

'But this child is the key. Maybe telling her will lead to an answer.'

'Or your defeat!'

'My defeat!?'

"STOP!"

It was Sam's voice that pulled him back to his realm, for he had backed himself into a corner and was shivering uncontrollably.

"Just. STOP!" she said again as she stood up. "I don't know what's wrong with you, but the answers are not worth watching you freak out!"

He looked from her to his shaking hands and back at her.

"Samantha, I… should probably explain," he said quietly.

'She's giving you an out; take it!'

"I don't want to know. So just… don't"

She turned and stomped off towards the back of his castle leaving him there to sort out what he had just done.

'What am I letting myself become?'

--

It seemed like years as Clockwork searched his screens, constantly glancing behind him as the blue fog faded in the tank, only to see a humanoid form slowly taking shape. For a ghost who was used to speeding up and slowing down time, waiting on it was something he found tedious.

'I have been trying to get this thing to cooperate for too long! That dance, it must be important. But why won't it show me more! If only I could speed time up a bit, just to forget about this and move onto the boy's return.' he found himself thinking on multiple occasions, only to decide that it wasn't worth the risk.

Finally, as if answering his thoughts, the screen crackled and changed. The scenes began to switch, but not at his normal command. Instead, it was as if someone had hit the fast-forward button and he had no way of stopping it.

'What the—?'

His eyes darted as he caught blurs of black and white, purple and green. Heard snippets of voices, some he recognized and some he didn't, but no conversation he had ever heard.

Finally, it stopped. Back on his 'favorite' scene with the ice cream. Frustrated, he willed his screen to turn itself off, only to notice no more blue in the reflection coming from behind him.

He turned. The fog was gone, and in its place was a very human form of what looked like an 18-year-old boy.

Clockwork slowly flew over to the tank, a bit of skepticism in his face, and looked in.

The boy blinked back, and Clockwork jolted backwards.

Coming to his senses, he flew back over and opened the door, allowing the boy to fall forward onto the ground, waiting to see if he would fall through.

'I've got a medallion ready boy.'

But he didn't need it. Instead of sinking through, the boy just landed on the ghostly ground as Clockwork took a better look. He was on his knees, head facing down at the ground with hair hanging in his face. White hair.

"I've done it. At last, I have finally found an answer."

The boy looked up, green eyes wide with confusion.

'But… isn't he supposed to be? Black hair? Blue Eyes?' Clockwork found himself confused as he shifted from young to old. 'The boy the girl loves, he's not like this…'

The boy lurched back, afraid of the figure's touch.

"Don't worry son, I won't hurt you. I'm here to help." The young figure spoke with compassion in his voice.

'I need to figure out why this didn't work. Why he isn't… human.'

"What? Where? Who?" was all the boy could say in response.

Trying to remain calm—after all someone had to answer questions—Clockwork looked down at the boy again.

"Of course, you're confused. You've only been back for a few hours now. Your mind hasn't fully returned yet. I should have known that would be a side effect of resurrection."

"Resurrection?"

Confusion spread across the boy's face as Clockwork tried to hide his own.

'Maybe I opened the door too soon? Or didn't add the ingredients in the right order?'

But instead of saying these things out loud, he simply answered, "Of course. You, Daniel, are the first soul I've ever been able to retrieve from death."

"Death? You mean, I…?'

"Died, yes. But I've brought you back." The figure smiled.

'Or at least part of you.'

"Back to where?"

"I believe the humans call it 'The Ghost Zone,'" he answered with amusement, "but this part, my home, is the Island of Lost Time."

--

Clockwork was staring at his screen, thinking about all he had learned since that fateful day, finally beginning to understand why those memories had gone by so fast, when Sam decided to return .

"My dear, I am sorry for any pain I may have caused you earlier," he said as she came up behind him, choosing to continue looking at the screen instead of turning around.

"Now you apologize," Sam said under her breath.

"I heard that, you know." He smiled.

She didn't respond as she looked at his screen; another scene of Danny and Sarah playing out.

"Why do you choose to watch so many of these? Doesn't it get old?"

"Trust me, when you've been around as long as I have, there is always something new to learn," Clockwork responded, emotionless.

'All those scenes with you, they were new to me too.'

"Still, knowing you've been watching our lives for so long, controlling our actions, it kinda makes me feel… violated," Sam said as she came forward to stand in front of him.

"Have you ever stopped to realize how wrong it is to do that?"

'Recently? More often than you'd believe.'

"I look at it more as research. Trying to find the answers to the future." He tried to stay emotionless but wavered a bit.

"Well, I think you need to start researching something else!" Sam said loudly, stomping her foot to get his attention away from his screen.

He finally looked at her, seeing her violet eyes full of anger again.

"You cannot begin to understand," he said, raising his voice.

"Again with that! How can I not understand something you won't even tell me!"

As if answering her question, the screen behind her suddenly turned to fuzz, startling both the girl and her captor. She turned to look at him, only to see utter confusion on his face. Rattled himself, he responded under his breath, "I didn't do that."

They both turned to the other screens, which had also turned to static, confusion drawing even stronger in their faces. Sam was the first to respond this time.

"Did it just get warmer in here?"

Clockwork couldn't answer as he found himself suddenly becoming old again.

'What? I didn't choose to change!'

He looked back at the girl, who was looking around the room skeptically, before turning back to the screen just in time to see it spark.

'What is happening?'

He found himself aging down against his will once more, and with this knew that something odd was happening.

"What...?" was all that Sam could say before Clockwork raised his staff.

"Time Out!"

The world around him froze, allowing the ghost to have a little time and space to himself.

"What is happening? Why can't I control my screens? Why can't I change? It's almost like before, when I heard…"

"I don't know about what you've heard before, or what you've seen, but I am willing to bet it has something to do with me."

Clockwork's red eyes got huge as a familiar figure entered his realm, clad in a body suit and glowing green with energy.

Clockwork found himself too shocked to move for a brief moment, before finally responding in the most self-assured voice he could muster.

"Ahhhh… Daniel… It's about time you showed up."