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brawltogethernow · 3 years

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@mirrorfalls submitted: Came across this while searching for James Bond’s scrambled-eggs recipe (long story). Your thoughts?

But did you find James Bond’s scrambled eggs recipe?

In this article, Scocca laments his inability to find accessible, lighthearted superhero comics suitable to read with his young son, while also demonstrating a mysterious aversion to looking at DC and Marvel’s lines of comics for children, which is where the accessible, lighthearted superhero comics suitable for reading with young children are. He wants his elementary schooler to be able to safely have the run of all superhero media so he doesn’t have to touch the yucky baby books.

This is not an industry-wide crisis. This is just one dude who got paid to write an article where he accidentally exposed one of his personal hangups.

The child headed toward the trade paperbacks of Marvel and D.C. superhero titles on the side wall […] a few steps in front of me. […] Is he with you? a clerk asked me. I said he was. You know, the clerk said, we have a kids’ section. The clerk gestured backward, at a few shelves near the entrance. I said, Thanks, we know and tried throwing in a little shrug, as the kid kept going.

You can’t just turn a seven-year-old child loose in a comic-book store to look at the superhero comic books. […] My seven-year-old really wanted to see that last Avengers movie […] that is, he wished it were a movie he could see, but he understood that it was, instead, a movie designed to scare and sadden him—a movie actively hostile to people like him.

They have a children’s section. Because comics are a medium suitable for stories for everybody, and they are sold in comic book shops, which have sections, like bookstores. You can use this organization to find books that you know in advance are suitable for children. What goes in that category is determined by industry professionals. This area will be bigger the bigger the shop is. These comics are not lower quality that titles from the main lines. They are actually slightly better-written on average.

Your local comic book shop has considerately wrapped Empowered in a plastic bag, so your child will not be drawn in by a colorful superhero and accidentally read a graphic scene. If you think your kid might find a memoir about internment camps upsetting, it is your job to notice them picking up They Called Us Enemy and read the blurb on the back before you let them have it. This comic adults are meant to read is in a comic book shop because that is where comics are sold. Not every public place is supposed to be Disneyland.

Movies have ratings systems. If you do not want your child to watch a PG-13 movie, you will find that most superhero cartoons are for children. They are about the same characters. Some are quite good! I really enjoyed Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. Your child may like Avengers Assemble. At least I think that’s right. I’m always mixing those titles around.

This is a deeply weird bias for Scocca to casually demonstrate, because he identifies in the article that real childishness is striving for empty maturity.

He compares an old comic,

[…]a 1966 Spider-Man comic in which Spider-Man meets, fights, and defeats the Rhino; participates in a running argument between John Jameson and J. Jonah Jameson about his heroism; buys a motorcycle; breaks up with his first girlfriend, Betty Brant; flirts with Gwen Stacy; and reluctantly agrees to let Aunt May take him to meet her friend Mrs. Watson’s niece, Mary Jane.

and a new comic,

[…]a 21st century comic book in which Thor, brooding in a Katrina-destroyed New Orleans, beats up Iron Man. He also yells at Iron Man a lot about some incomprehensibly convoluted set of grievances, including involuntary cloning, that he believes Iron Man perpetrated against him while he was dead(?), and then summons some other Norse god from the beyond somehow for reasons having something to do with real estate. I think. Where the 1966 comic is zippy and fun and complete, the whole contemporary one is muddled and lugubrious and seems to constitute a tiny piece of a seemingly endless plot arc—simultaneously apocalyptic and inert.

and concludes that the edgier comic is actually less mature. This is true. (This is not news about mediocre comics.)

It also has nothing to do with either comic being child-friendly, the article’s nominal thesis, except in the sense that ASM #41 (yes, I eyeballed that from that summary, yes I am just showing off now) is better written, making it more everyone-friendly. It also has practically more space dedicated to word balloons than art and is about a college student juggling girl problems and a part-time job with a tyrannical boss. But the immature one, as Scocca points out, is dour.

These are both teenagery issues, separated only by quality. It’s true that lots of new comics published by the big 2 are bad in the specific way Scocca describes here, taking themselves too seriously and hauled down by associated stories instead of buoyed by them. Some are not! Some titles from these companies’ main continuities are zippy, contained, and child friendly. Give your child The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl! Or if you like vintage comics so much better, why don’t you…buy some?

The books on the kid’s rack are good and fun and totally suitable for parents to read with their children without wanting to scoop their eyeballs out. Scocca cites the Batman ‘66 comics as the brightly colored, tightly written all ages solution to his problem about sharing superhero stories with his son. My local comic shop stores this title in the kid’s section. I am glad that Scocca’s does not, as he seems to have a peculiar aversion to looking for comics to read with his son there.

Scocca cites Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse as a superhero movie he could watch with his kids. (I was surprised when this line made it sound like he has several. I don’t want to assume the other one isn’t in this article because they’re a girl, but I very much am assuming that.) Great! Go to the kid’s section and look for Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man. It’s a fun, zippy title directly inspired by ITSV where Miles, Gwen, and Peter superhero together. It’s much more tightly written than most of the various Spider-Verse comics, which are ambitiously messy ubercrossovers. You may not want to give those to children because they include murder and so on, but also you just have the choice between the two as an adult reader deciding how much continuity you want to deal with. Adventures is one of the only titles I would buy on sight before corona. The kid comic rack is a reliable place to take a break from How Comics Get Sometimes regardless of how old you are.

This article makes me feel quarrelsome. Maybe it’s that it doesn’t seem like exploration of a single idea so much as a loosely grouped bundle of things to kvetch about. Maybe it’s that the experience of getting into superheroes that Scocca describes experiencing, projects his seven-year-old son will experience, and from which he extrapolates a metaphorical microcosm of the history of the genre is completely alien to me.

Comic books [and] comic-book movies—are […] trapped in their imagined audience’s own awful passage from childhood to adolescence. A seven-year-old has a clean […] appreciation of superheroes. They like hero comics because the comics have heroes: bold, strong, vividly colored good guys to fight off the bad guys and make the world safe.

But seven-year-olds stop being seven. […] They become 13-year-olds, defensively trying to learn how to develop tastes about tastes.

The 13-year-old wants many things from comics, but the overarching one is that they want to prove that they’re not some seven-year-old baby anymore. They want gloomy heroes, miserable heroes, heroes who would make a seven-year-old feel bad. (Also boobs. They want boobs.)

Not because of the boobs line, although that does illicit an eyeroll that this gloomy thinkpiece is fretting over preserving the superhero experience of little boys who resemble the little boy the writer was while casually dismissing everyone else. I was one of those unlikable little seven-year-olds with a college reading level and the impression that maintaining it was the crux of my worth. I only read Books - distinguished media you could club someone with. I have a formative memory of pausing, enraptured, in front of a poster for Spider-Man 3, preparing to say that it looked pretty cool, and being beaten to the punch by my mother making a disparaging comment about how the movie was trash. It wasn’t out yet, but it was a superhero movie. That meant it was for loud, brainless children.

That was the total of my childhood experience with superheroes, excluding being the unwilling audience to incessant renditions of “Jingle Bells, Batman Smells” that left me wondering why in god’s name Batman’s sidekick was named Robin. I certainly never visited a comic book shop. I got into TvTropes, which got me into webcomics, which got me following David Willis, who got me into Ask Chris at ComicsAlliance, which led to me rewarding myself for studying like a demon for the AP tests with three volumes of Waid’s Daredevil, pitched as a return to the character being colorful and swashbuckling. I was seven…teen.

This is of the same thread as Scocca’s point that immaturity is running from childish things. It leaves me baffled that he doesn’t follow that maturity is embracing them.

I will disclose here that while I think it was dumb I had to overcome my upbringing’s deeply embedded shame associated with enjoying arbitrarily defined lowbrow media and children being childish, I think it’s fine that I was allowed largely unchecked access to technically age-inappropriate content. In my limited experience, content small children are too young for is also content they’re too young to understand, so it kind of just bounces off of them, and what actually ends up terrorizing them is unpredictable collages of impressions that strike out at them from content deemed perfectly child-friendly. I would not forbid a seven-year-old I was in charge of from seeing an MCU movie unless I had a reason to believe that specific child would not take it well. These are emotionally low-stakes bubblegum films. It will probably be easier to socialize with other kids if they have seen them.

But then, when I picture being in charge of a hypothetical child, I usually imagine this being the case because they are related to me, and the pupal stage in my family strongly resembles Wednesday Addams. ALL children love death and violence, though, right?? This isn’t a joke point. I know it looks like a joke point.

The MCU thing seems especially weird in light of the article’s particular focus on Spider-Man, which is the kiddie line of the MCU, even if they refused to waver from their usual formula enough to get a lower rating. Though I am more inclined to describe it as “preying on the young” than “child-friendly”.

(MCU movies are increasingly dubious propaganda, but I would not judge them in front of a child who wanted to watch them for that reason, just in case this led to them partaking of them without me the second they were old enough to and then they grew up to run a blog about them while our relationship suffered because they didn’t feel like it was safe to talk to me about their interests…Mom.)

I tried to overcome the philosophy of letting anyone read anything while compiling this handful of mostly-newish superhero recs for the road that anyone can read. (Handily, I have been in spitting distance of being hired as a comic shop clerk enough to have thought about it before):

For actual children:

Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (the new one is reminiscent of ITSV, the old one is more like 616) any DC/Archie crossover, Archie’s Superteens The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (for bookish children who think they’re too good for comics and adults afraid of the kid’s section) Teen Titans Go (even if you hate the show) Superman Smashes the Klan

For teens:

Ms. Marvel Young Avengers (volume 2) Unbelievable Gwenpool Batman: Gotham Adventures Teen Titans Go (the tie-in comic based off the old show was also called this)

Here are a bunch of relevant C. S. Lewis quotes.

#me every time i read a comic book article by a rag not exclusively about comic books: i know more than you.#marvel #spidey #DCU #MCU critical #mirrorfalls #asks answered #submission #unearthed this and bashed it out in one sitting ... i have not been working on it since you sent it last year XD

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armysantiny · 3 years

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Letters For You - KSN

Pairing: Sunoo x female reader || Enhypen

Genre: fluff, oneshot, request

Includes: Soobin (TXT) mention, translator reader, idol Sunoo, massages, spa day, texts, gifts, coming home late, eating at a café, café, dying hair, KakaoTalk, cuddling, watching kdrama together

Word count: 1518

Warning: food cw

Rating: PG

Networks: @kwritersworld, @kdiarynet, @kpopscape, @ultkpopnetwork, @kpopficsnetwork, @kpopcontentcreatorsclub @k-dinernet, @lovesick-net, @whipped-kpop-creators, @prism-nw, @hybenet, @k-library, @k-mysticsnet, @enhypenwriters, @enhypennetwork, @knet-bakery

Tagging:@teeztheflag, @intokook, @cherry-hyejin, @difcore, @ofaffectionate || Taglist Form

An: I hope you like this @xxatinyminionxx! I had so much fun writing this~

Long days at the agency weren’t anything new to Sunoo; just regular procedure. But coming home later than usual felt different ever since he had met y/n. Y/n was his lucky charm – Sunoo’s grounding presence when he would come back from the hectic rush of his schedule. And that night was no different, as the music artist sipped on his coffee on his way home. Entering the passcode for the shared apartment, the dyed-blond removed his jacket and shoes, a relieved sigh falling from him.

The apartment was quite that night however, much quieter than usual – the faint sounds of y/n working on a transcript nowhere to be found. Switching on the lights as he made his way to the kitchen, Sunoo’s eyes were drawn to the covered dishes on the table, and a note addressed to him.

“Does she have a part-time shift today...?” Voicing his thoughts as he went about following the neatly drawn instructions on the note, Sunoo warmed the prepared meal. Y/n had made his favourite, and he could almost distinctly hear – in his head – the subtle sound of y/n humming a nameless song under her breath, occupied with her next cooking project. His face flushed at the thought, humming the last melody he heard y/n singing. Perhaps y/n knew that he’d be home, because she’d video called Sunoo as he was putting the dishes on the drying rack. Picking up the call with a slight yawn, the teen perked up almost immediately.

“Noona! How was your day? Oh – where are you?” Sitting down on the sofa, Sunoo asked his question, parts of y/n’s background seeming vaguely familiar.

“Sunoo baby~ my day was good, I missed you today~ Ah – do you remember my sunbae? The one who went to study film?”

“Oh… Soobin hyung, right?”

“Mhm~ he needed a translator for his project late minute and I was the only one available. I’ll probably be gone for the weekend. I’m sorry baby~ will you be alright?” Y/n explained, an apology finishing her words. Soobin’s call had been the very definition of ‘out-of-the-blue’, but at the time y/n couldn’t deny that her sunbae sounded urgent. In any case, it was only for the weekend; Sunoo would be okay.

By next morning, Sunoo stretched as he slowly started to awake, his bedroom glowing from the light of the morning sun. Looking over to y/n’s side of the bed with a gentle but longing smile on his face, Sunoo traced his fingers over her pillow. She’d be back. Throwing his legs over the side of the bed and making his way to the bathroom to freshen up, the idol went about getting ready for the day ahead. Caught up on whether he should eat breakfast at home or go to a café, Sunoo grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge while he pondered on his options. Not expecting any calls for at least an hour from noon, Sunoo’s brow raised in curiosity when his KakaoTalk notification went off. Once he had read the display name, little butterflies bloomed in his chest as he opened the text message from y/n.

Y/n Noona: Morning baby~ I’ve been translating scripts until 2 am ☹ but I’ve got a long day, so it’s early alarms for me. Have you woken up yet? I saw a really nice breakfast café yesterday, I think you’d like it! I should vanish now, I’ll call you later. Love you, sunshine~

“Breakfast outside it is~”

Finding the café with the address y/n had given him, Sunoo marvelled at the exterior of the café once it had come into view. Had he walked into a kdrama set? The inviting scent of baked treats and hot chocolate were doing him no favours as it took a gentle hold over him, luring him into the ‘trap’ of a sweet breakfast – not that he was complaining, that is. Finding himself in line to order, Sunoo scoured the menu, easily finding something to eat that Saturday morning.

Watching people walk past the café windows while he nibbled on his pastries, Sunoo drummed his fingers against the table, unsure of what he should do to occupy his time. He could go and have a ‘me-day’; go to the spa, get a massage, redye his hair, all of it. Or he could head to the park and have a little picnic for himself, enjoy his break away from filming and schedules. Sipping on his iced coffee, the teen let himself get lost in thought as he set about finishing the rest of his breakfast. Food came first.

Making his way to the spa, Sunoo didn’t forget to make a stop by the library, buying one of the notebooks they had on sale. Y/n would definitely like it. The gift tucked away neatly in his satchel as he walked through the doors of his favourite spa, Sunoo went ahead and booked a massage for himself, a grateful a smile on his face as he took the clothes handed to him and went to the locker rooms to change.

A sigh of relief fell from Sunoo as the masseuse worked on his back, the knots in his shoulders finally being relieved after a long week. Feeling the urge to sleep getting bigger, the faux-blond let his eyes shut, the next thirty minutes passing by like a blur. Next thing he knew, the massage was over and he was being gently woken up by his masseuse.

“Mr Kim...?”

“Oh-oh, I must have fallen asleep. Thank you for the massage!”

“Oh no worries, you must have had a long week. Have a good day~”

“You too!” Bowing after he collected his things, Sunoo left the room, heading back to the locker room – where his clothes were waiting for him. Taking a seat and unlocking his phone, the teen scrolled through Twitter for a while before an – arguably cute – idea struck him. Opening KakaoTalk and recording a voice message for y/n, he sent it, a pleased smile on his face. That pleased smile soon turned into a wide grin as y/n replied almost instantly, cute stickers being sent his way. Snapping a quick picture and sending it, Sunoo put his phone aside as he changed, his heart beating as he anticipated his girlfriend’s reaction.

Y/n’s equally cute picture-reply on his mind as he sat in the salon chair, Sunoo had been getting his roots done, his hair layered between sheets of aluminium as he waited for the bleaching to work. His black roots had started to grow out, and he was due for a redye before it started looking like he had dip-dyed only half of his hair. Or before he started looking like a poorly designed manhwa character. Calling y/n, he asked about her day, listening to her speak with an endearing sense of curiosity on his face.

“I may have good news~” Y/n teased from the other line, watching the scenery pass by from her seat on the coach.

“Oh? Tell me~!” Sunoo replied, a light-hearted whine in his voice as he egged y/n on. He could just about hear the sound of steady traffic in between the momentary silence. “Are you driving Noona?”

“Hmm, kinda? I’ll see you later sunshine! Make sure to eat dinner~”

“I will!”

Returning home that evening after spending the rest of his day with his members, Sunoo opened the door to his shared apartment, a gift bag in hand. The sound of shuffling feet from the bathroom alerted him as he treaded slowly towards the front room. He wasn’t expecting any company, and y/n wasn’t due to return for at least the next day. Snapping his head to the sound of the bathroom door opening, Sunoo’s features brightened almost instantly, leaving his bags on the sofa as he ran over to y/n, engulfing his girlfriend in a hug. A laugh coming from the slightly older woman as she returned the hug, y/n cupped Sunoo’s face in her hands, pressing a soft kiss to his lips.

“Y/n Noona! When – when did you get home? I thought you were coming home tomorrow?” Following y/n to the sofa, Sunoo pulled y/n’s hand into his own, playing with her fingers while she spoke.

“Ahh, the translator my sunbae was originally going to call made it to the location today. Most of the work was already done, so I managed to get home early. I did well, didn’t I?”

“Yep~”

Cuddled up together as they caught up on their drama, Sunoo paused the scene on screen when he realised that y/n was fast asleep on his shoulder, her subtle comments on the characters no longer accompanying the sounds of the romcom playing on TV. Resisting the urge to take a picture, Sunoo gently lifted y/n’s head, carefully holding her up while sliding a cushion underneath. Tiptoeing to the bedroom and returning with a blanket, he chuckled and covered y/n’s sleeping frame. Tucking in the edges and brushing a stray hair out of y/n’s face, he placed a kiss on her forehead.

“You’ve worked hard Noona. I’ll give you your gift tomorrow. Get some rest~”

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rwby-redux · 4 years

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Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Geography

Full disclosure: I hated doing this post. Not because the writing was difficult or the topic was boring—far from it. No, the reason I hated doing this was because I got sucked into a wikihole. I started out researching climate zones, and ten hours later I was reading an article about Icelandic hot spring rye bread (which is called hverabrauð by the way and you should absolutely check it out). I only realized what time it was when I looked out my window and saw the sun starting to rise. Try to picture what my sleep schedule has looked like for the last few days, and you can see why I might be just a smidge upset.

Sorry. Where was I?

Ah, yes: geography. The bane of cartographers everywhere. If you’ve ever dabbled in writing stories with a non-Earth setting, you’ll know that one of the most fundamental aspects of worldbuilding is the lay of the land. Even before you’ve started working on the cultures of your fictional people (or hell, even the plot), you need to develop the locations. Any writer worth their salt will correctly tell you that geography dictates who the characters are, what the story’s about, when major actions occur, where the major story beats take place, why things progress the way they do, and how certain steps are achieved.

Want an example of this? Take a look at the geography of Avatar: The Last Airbender and how it influenced the Fire Nation’s culture and resulting imperialistic conquest: [1]

A geographic map of Avatar: The Last Airbender depicting the four major countries: the Fire Nation, Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and Air Temples. | Source: Imgur.

The Fire Nation, being located on a volcanic archipelago, was able to jumpstart its industrial revolution decades before anyone else, courtesy of access to natural resources such as coal and metal ore deposits (which were disproportionately scarcer in the other countries). This abundance of minerals was reflected in gold being commonly incorporated into Fire Nation royal attire, and the Fire Nation boasting some of the most proficient blacksmiths and swordfighters in the world (like Piandao).

Being an island nation, their culinary staples included aquatic and marine species such as waterfowl, fish, cephalopods, crustaceans, bivalves, and seaweed.

The mountainous regions of the Fire Nation made the land ill-suited for agriculture, which likely influenced the development of an oceanic trade route. This allowed for the import of otherwise-unavailable resources from the Earth Kingdom.

The trade route helped to reinforce a unified state by connecting all seaports, trading outposts, and settlements in the archipelago to the major urban capital. This interconnectivity created economic advantages, and solidified a sense of cultural unity and loyalty to the nation by making communication (via ship and messenger hawk) direct and expedient.

The navy emerged as a natural outgrowth of the oceanic trade route. Martial vessels would have been necessary for protecting merchant ships from pirates, collecting taxes from provincial settlements (because navies have steep operating costs), and enforcing the laws of the central authority. Similarly, as an island country, the only way the Fire Nation could have feasibly been harmed is through a naval attack, which would have given it the incentive to cultivate a naval defense.

At the beginning of the Hundred Year War, the Fire Nation seized control of the northwestern Earth Kingdom because the region was rich in resources that they would need to sustain themselves if they were going to survive without international trade.

Their technologically-advanced navy and control of the major oceanic trade routes allowed the Fire Nation to orchestrate blockades, quickly transport troops and equipment between places, and limit the tactical movements of the other countries.

To say that geography dictates the story is an understatement—without it, the story wouldn’t exist. Good writing and likeable characters can only do so much to save a story that lacks this crucial component of worldbuilding.

So, how does this apply to RWBY?

In order to talk about that, first we have to address the unusual way that Remnant’s map was designed.

Back in 2012, while out at an IHOP with Shane Newville, Monty Oum had the idea of squirting a ketchup bottle into a napkin, crumpling it up, and then unfolding it to reveal the blotchy proto-topography of Remnant. His reason for doing so, as he explains:

“The philosophy behind [making the map that way] is that, I feel like, as a 3D animator […] utilizing all this technology, our process—all these computers, all these numbers and stuff—our process is so artificial, it’s riddled with so much artifice, that not only for that, but for everything else I do, I try to imbue kind of like an anarchy, an anarchic-like chaos, just to give it some sense of, like, randomness. Like, you need to preserve that sense of chaos because the process we do is so robotic. […] But the important thing was, like especially with everything that we just raise in our production value, that you have to preserve that anarchic energy that influences everything you do.” [2]

The original terrain map created by Monty Oum. | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:Sgt D Grif.

You’d be hard-pressed to disagree with the artistic merit of this design approach. There’s a simplistic elegance to be found in a creator forfeiting a degree of their control over a project, in order to watch how it might organically evolve.

But here’s the thing: this isn’t like leaving slime molds in a petri dish and letting them network until they resemble Japanese subway lines. While anarchic chaos can work for some disciplines of art, it creates glaring issues when applied to worldbuilding. Nature, although it appears outwardly random, is actually rather ordered. The reason why we don’t leave our houses every day carrying umbrellas is because we don’t have to—we have meteorologists that can anticipate the forecast days or weeks ahead. Plenty of natural phenomena can be predicted: weather systems over vast areas, environmental selection pressures converging on similar traits…

And, of course, plate tectonics.

You see, the problem with Monty’s method is that it didn’t account for the movement of Remnant’s continents. Because the planet’s continents were born from artistic randomness rather than methodical and deliberate forethought, we have no reliable access to certain information, like atmospheric circulation, ocean currents, or plate boundaries. All three of these planetary subsystems—the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere—and their dynamics shape the geography of a planet.

Without this information, we can’t answer certain questions.

Was Lake Matsu formed by glacial retreat?

Are Vale’s mountains sitting on a convergent plate boundary? Or are they more like the Appalachians, which are the remains of the Central Pangean Mountains?

If Vale’s mountains were formed by convergent plate boundaries, then why don’t we see evidence of it in the forms of volcanism and earthquakes?

Is Vacuo’s interior desert formed by a rain shadow?

If Solitas’ geography is based on a polar ice cap, then how did early settlers survive long enough to excavate the Dust? How would they have dug through the ice and permafrost?

Has climate change ever resulted in changes in sea level that submerged or exposed the continents? Did early humans and Faunus move between continents by land bridges? Have rises in sea level ever hidden continents (like Earth’s Zealandia)?

Does Mistral’s capital rely on meltwater from the surrounding mountains for irrigating crops?

When the Younger Brother shattered the moon, did the lunar debris alter the landscape when it fell to Remnant? Was it like the Chicxulub asteroid that caused the K-Pg extinction? Did the lunar debris leave craters on the planet’s surface, or cause phenomena like impact winters and ocean acidification?

It bears mentioning that these questions pertain to real-life geographic concepts. This isn’t even touching upon fictional geographic concepts that RWBY introduced, like largescale Dust deposits altering the local environment in such a way that it functionally becomes its own ecosystem (like Lake Matsu’s floating islands). We’re also assuming that RWBY’s continental plates are capable of drift, and weren’t magically glued in place by the gods during the formation of the planet.

Given the scale of these problems, I think it’s safe to say that—while I can appreciate the artistry behind Monty’s design philosophy—the way he designed Remnant ultimately did more harm than good.

While I could spend all afternoon debating the pros and cons of condiment cartography, there are more productive things I could be doing with my time. Instead, I want to discuss Remnant’s geography as it currently is. Specifically, there are three questions I want to test:

How well does the geography hold up?

Does the geography have a realistic influence on society?

How well does the show integrate foreign geographic features into its worldbuilding?

As a quick disclaimer, I’m not an expert on any of the aforementioned subsystems. And because I don’t have any canonical information on Remnant’s atmospheric circulation, ocean currents, or plate boundaries, it becomes impossible to prove or disprove the realism of its geography. For now, we’re going to err on the side of caution and assume that Remnant is a planet with a functionally-analogous lithosphere to Earth’s, and that Remnant’s features are byproducts of such a system.

The current geographic map of Remnant. It boasts five major continents (of which only four have been named) and multiple islands. | Source: World of Remnant, Volume 4, Episode 1: “Vale.”

How Well Does the Geography Hold Up?

To answer this, I used the Köppen-Geiger climate classification to categorize Remnant’s main landmasses (with the exception of the unnamed continent). This model organizes areas into distinct climatic regions based on seasonal precipitation and temperature patterns. The results I cobbled together are based on approximate latitude, ecosystems that we’ve seen in the show, canon maps, and comparisons between the continents and their real-world sources of inspiration (Asia for Anima, North America for eastern Sanus, Australia for Menagerie, etc). Here’s what I came up with:

SANUS: Tropical savanna (Aw/As), cold desert (BWk), cold semi-arid (BSk), hot-summer mediterranean (Csa), warm-summer mediterranean (Csb), humid subtropical (Cfa, Cwa), hot-summer humid continental (Dfa), warm-summer humid continental (Dfb)

ANIMA: Tropical rainforest (Af), area of tropical monsoon (Am), tropical savanna (Aw/As), desert (BWh), hot semi-arid (BSh), humid subtropical (Cfa, Cwa), subtropical highland (Cwb), hot-summer humid continental (Dfa), warm-summer humid continental (Dfb), subarctic (Dfc), Mediterranean-influenced subarctic (Dsc)

SOLITAS: Tundra (ET), subarctic (Dfc), ice cap (EF)

MENAGERIE: Tropical savanna (Aw/As), desert (BWh), hot semi-arid (BSh), humid subtropical (Cfa, Cwa), temperate oceanic (Cfb)

VYTAL: Subpolar oceanic (Cfb)

This isn’t perfect by any means, but I think it satisfies some lingering doubt about the credibility of the geography. Sanus’ interior desert, for example, could easily be a cold desert climate. The exterior band of foliage on the northern and western sides appears to be indicative of a rain shadow effect caused by a mountain belt (the conditions necessary for creating this climate type). We have evidence of there being nearby western mountains courtesy of the earthquakes in Vacuo, [3] as earthquakes often occur near mountain ranges created by subduction boundaries. Similarly, oases (like the one once found in Vacuo) tend to form in cold desert climates as the result of rain shadows (similar to the el-Djerid oases near the Atlas Mountains).

All things considered, I’m inclined to give the climate regions a tentative pass. Like I said, they’re not perfect, but they seem to be holding up so far.

Does the Geography Have a Realistic Influence on Society?

Ehhh. It depends. With Vale it’s hard to say, given how little we’ve seen of the areas outside the capital (like the Emerald Forest and Forever Fall), and the fact that we haven’t visited any other cities in the kingdom. We know that Vale makes use of a massive port for trade and travel due to the nearby body of water. But there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly unique about the capital’s culture that can be directly attributed to its geography. Despite being a coastal city, it doesn’t have any signature delicacies derived from the abundant seafood. The architecture is largely generic urban-Western, and doesn’t incorporate the mountains in any way. Vale’s geography is little more than a convenient buffer against the Grimm.

Mistral, on the other hand, is heavily influenced by the geography. All of its houses and shops are directly integrated into the mountains, with an emphasis on vertical building to accommodate the limited space on the cliffs. Stairs, bridges, and electronic lifts are used for getting around the city. Unlike Vale, Atlas, and Mantle, which use motor vehicles, Mistral doesn’t have the space to accommodate modern roads, and instead relies on railroad transport (like the Argus Limited) to move around the continent. Compared to Vale, Mistral is a vast improvement on how well the writers used geography to influence the culture of a city. However, I still think the show could’ve done more to strengthen this connection. For instance, we see evidence of cave systems in Mistral, which briefly appear on-screen and are never brought up again. [4] Talk about wasted potential. Additionally, the show never addresses how the Council keeps its citizens from falling to death. No joke, the only place in the city that has railings is the safehouse where Qrow and the kids stay. What the hell do people do in the winter when the stairs and paths ice over? How do they not slip and fall and plummet to their deaths? And while I’m thinking about it, why doesn’t the city have a system of ziplines or ski lifts for getting around? Are native-born Mistrali people adapted to the lower oxygen found at higher elevations? And what about Mistral’s agriculture? Do farmers live outside the capital? How do they protect themselves?

Like I said, Mistral is better than Vale in this department, but it could still do with more worldbuilding.

Atlas and Mantle are more akin to Vale when it comes to noticeable geographic influence—or rather, a lack thereof. While the technology accommodates its residents via the heating grid, there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of how the geography shaped the people of this continent. You’d expect a circumpolar indigenous group to have very distinct cultural traits, but there’s none of that. It’s just rampant technological growth. Now, you could argue that any aspect of geographic influence on culture was wiped out around the time of the Great War. But if the show wants me to believe that, it needs to show me proof. Whether it’s a conversation between two characters, or a political movement spearheading cultural revitalization. Something—anything—that might hint at how geography influenced pre-industrial Mantle.

And forgive me if I don’t feel like speculating about Vacuo, given that it’s only appeared in After the Fall and Before the Dawn. When the show decides to unveil it, then I’ll have more to say.

As for Menagerie? Another resounding meh. The inherent intrigue of a settlement that shelters aquatic Faunus is never fully explored. We get to briefly visit the Shallow Sea district of Kuo Kuana, but the scene is too focused on Blake’s and Sun’s conversation to let us fully explore the area. Which is a shame, because a concept like that could easily be taken to some really cool extremes. Like, what about entirely underwater settlements that are built on coral reefs? How cool would that be for Faunus that have gills, webbed appendages, or caudal fins? I’m not expecting Zootopia or anything like that, but it’d be neat if settlers had gone to creative extremes to accommodate the wide variety of Faunus traits.

How Well Does the Show Integrate Foreign Geographic Features into Its Worldbuilding?

In Volume 5 we’re introduced to Lake Matsu, an area rich with naturally-occurring superterranean Gravity Dust. What makes this place so intriguing is the fact that the Dust is in a constant active state, causing the islands to float in the air. Given that Dust is usually inert unless activated by an Aura, the existence of this place is frankly astonishing, and for the life of me I don’t get why the show treated it as little more than set dressing.

This phenomenon—which I’ve taken to calling a Dust vortex—has so much worldbuilding potential. What if Remnant had pseudo-ephemeral lakes created by concentrations of Water Dust? Or how about a cave system with an abundance of Electricity Dust that causes magnetic charges in the surrounding minerals, creating a place similar to Unova’s Chargestone Cave? Maybe Sanus’ southeastern desert has large pockets of Steam Dust that enshroud the area in permanent fog?

Dust vortices wouldn’t just be aesthetically cool, either; they’d have important implications for the lore. Let’s use Lake Matsu as an example.

If the Dust vortex has been there for a long time (upwards of thousands of years), then the organisms in this ecosystem would’ve adapted to it. You would have endemic wildlife—agamid-like gliding lizards, plants with wind-dispersed fruit, lianas and mosses draped from the underside of the islands, diving birds that nest on the outcrops, microbial detritivores found exclusively in the islands’ soil. Maybe Lake Matsu is an important stopover for migrating birds. Maybe the shadows from the overhead islands are important for predatory fish, which hide in the shade to ambush flying insects. Because the wildlife would be endemic to this ecosystem, perhaps the Mistrali government would designate it a protected area and prevent Dust companies from excavating the site. What if there were fishing towns on the shore that depended on tourism to sustain the local economy? Would they ever come into conflict with Dust companies that lobby the government to open up the area to selective mining?

I’m sure I must sound like a broken record at this point, but the worldbuilding possibilities on display here are nothing short of incredible. And the failure of RWBY to explore even a single one feels like getting repeatedly kicked in the stomach by a feral horse.

We’re now 3,000 words in and I didn’t even get to include ideas for tautological place names. It sucks, but sometimes you have to compromise and go with the idea that make sense to include, rather than the idea that exists just to be novel.

Sound familiar?

[1] Hello Future Me. “Avatar: A Study in Worldbuilding — the Fire Nation [ The Last Airbender ]” YouTube video. October 26, 2019. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa2BD13VzxY&t=3s]

[2] Rooster Teeth. “RT Podcast: Ep. 191.” YouTube video. November 14, 2012. 7:52 - 12:01. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kymVnsIUWLY]

[3] Myers, E. C. RWBY: Before the Dawn (Book 2). Scholastic Inc, 2020. Online preview. “The city of Vacuo had some order to it, with different districts for residences and businesses, and a wide street down the center for the market. But the outer edges of it were periodically wiped out, because of sandstorms or sinkholes or earthquakes.”

[4] Volume 5, Episode 1: “Welcome to Haven.”

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #geography

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nouveauweird · 5 years

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do you have any recs for learning about screenwriting / how to screenwrite? i'm one of those writers who kind of sees things like a movie and i'm wondering if things would work out better for me with a new medium. thanks in advance!

I hope you’ve got some time to read all of this because it got really frickin’ long.

I was introduced to screenwriting in a Writing Lab in college and followed suit into a Screenwriting IA (Integrative Activity, where students demonstrate what they’ve learned over the course of their studies in the Cinema and Communications program).

So admittedly, most of what I learned was from two teachers who already knew their stuff and worked in the industry. However, I was so interested in pursuing screenwriting once I’d fallen in love with it, that I bought all the “optional” resource books my Screenwriting teacher had recommended.

The Screenwriter’s Manual: A Complete Reference of Format and Style by Stephen E. Bowles, Ronald Mangravite, and Peter A. Zorn Jr. really has the basics for what you need to learn how to get into screenwriting. It is available on Amazon for a range of prices.

I also read significantly through The Screenwriter’s Problem Solver: How to recognize, identify, and define screenwriting problems by Syd Field and to be honest it can actually be useful for any kind of story writer, as I perused it and applied some of its content to a few films I found were really poorly executed.

I own, but have not significantly perused:

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee

My uncle who is a screenwriter recommended highly, I personally haven’t dived in yet because the McKee has a stupid disclaimer about why he chose to use He pronouns to refer to the writer throughout the book which was a bit irritating so I just covered it with a sticky note and let it sit for a while.

Writing Short Films: Structure and Content for Screenwriters by Linda J. Cowgill

*Writing Tools: 55 Essential Strategies for Every Writer by Roy Peter Clark.

*Showing & Telling by Laurie Alberts

*Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg (currently reading)

*Take Off Your Pants! : Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker.

* = not screenwriting specific, general writing.

Two other books that come highly recommended by both of my uncles who work in the industry are: Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, and Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field.

Since I didn’t learn this completely on my own, I don’t have many online resources, but a quick google search of “Basic Screenwriting Format” should yield you some decent results. HERE is one I found, which has a few book recommendations in it as well. Airtable has resources for screenwriting as well but I am not as familiar with it, search “screenwriting” in the template section.

Here’s what I can recommend right off the bat, sign up for Celtx. It has free and paid subscription services, and you can keep 3 projects on your account at a time, but you can also just download them as PDF’s to free up space and reupload them later and the format will be in tact. Scrivener also has a screenwriting word processor, but it’s a (one time) paid program.

There are many other word processors for screenwriting, but the best for beginners is Celtx. Most processors these days do the formatting for you, unlike 10-20+ years ago when you had to figure that shit out yourself. All you have to do is get familiar with where everything goes.

Which brings me to the next part of my answer…

A Screenwriting Crash Course

For a whole fucking load more of information, look under the cut.

First and foremost, I think it’s important to understand that the narrative description / action / description (all terms used interchangeably) is written in present tense 3rd person, and that you should focus on describing exclusively on what can be SEEN and HEARD. You should also try to be as concise and brief as possible. I found this was quite freeing because while I do love the metaphorical descriptions in prose, screenwriting is a very snappy and visual medium to write in.

Another thing to understand is that beyond learning the basic formatting rules of screenwriting, you can pretty much bullshit formatting you’re not sure about. I’ve read many screenplays where certain elements were not consistent, such as whether or not the writer chooses to put their characters’ names in CAPS every single time (you should at least do so when the character is first introduced).

It’s actually really easy to find scripts of your favourite films online with a quick google search, it might take practice but I’ve managed to build a decent collection of screenplays that I like to read and get an eye for certain formatting tricks that won’t be in a “how to” book. Screenplays also read very quickly. There’s a general rule of 1:1 for page:minute, meaning 1 page is usually equal to one minute of screen time, and if not, it usually averages out.

I’m going to pull some quotes from The Screenwriter’s Manual to give you a bit of an idea of where you can start: pg 25 - 44, 49 - 63

You can find photos of the table of contents HERE if you’d like to message me directly with specific questions, I’d be happy to send you photos of the section you want.

The Staging

The first component in the scene line [or slug line] provides the most basic information about the set-up for the scene.

The staging is ALWAYS abbreviated and followed by a period. There are only two choices for a scene:

INT. for an interior set, informing the reader that the scene takes place in an inside environment

EXT. for an exterior set, specifying an outside environment.

1. The Location

The second component in the scene line is the location in which the scene takes place.

The location follows the INT. or EXT. designation and is separated from it by two character spaces [most screenwriting processors will do this automatically].

Do not abbreviate any words in the location component of the scene line. For example,

INT. APARTMENT is correct, and INT. APT. is incorrect.

VERY IMPORTANT

It is absolutely essential that every specific location be distinguished from every other location.

If Joe lives in an apartment, then you can call that location INT. APARTMENT But if, in the same screenplay, Bob also has an apartment you can no longer use INT. APARTMENT as a location for Bob’s apartment.

To eliminate confusion, one solution is to call each apartment location by the resident’s name: INT. JOE’S APARTMENT and INT. BOB’S APARTMENT

Once a specific location has been identified in the scene line, all subsequent scenes taking place in that location MUST be identified in exactly the same way.

FIRST NOTE:

The location identifies where the activity and dialogue take place…

… if John lives in a multi-room apartment and John is currently in his bedroom (so that other rooms are concealed from view), then the scene line must read, INT. JOHN’S BEDROOM or INT. JOHN’S APARTMENT, BEDROOM

[If the action moves from one location to another there are different ways to indicate it; one would be to created a new scene line to indicate the new location, or to indicate the new location in the description like “John walks out of his bedroom and into the LIVING ROOM”. ]

…

FOURTH NOTE

A scene line can take either of two common variations:

Most often, the scene line will define a specific location, such as INT. JOHN’S LIVING ROOM which limits the field of view to the area where the “camera” is placed.

If the scene takes place in a more generalized location, you can write it as an open scene, such as EXT. COLLEGE CAMPUS … By identifying the scene in a generalized way, you are indicating that it is not important to your narrative to identify precisely where on the campus this scene takes place.

THE TIME

The third component of the scene line indicates the general time at which the scene begins.

The time follows the location and is separated from it by a character space, then a dash, and then another character space.

[ example: INT. JOHN’S HOUSE, ATTIC - DAY ]

The time component of the scene line is most typically specified as a simple DAY or NIGHT. However, the time component can define a more precise period of the day or night. For example, DAWN, MORNING, AFTERNOON, RUSH HOUR, etc.

… You CANNOT specify an exact time, such as 3:30 PM, in the scene line. If such a specific time is required, you need to [include it in your description]…

When there is no lapse of time from one scene to the next, the time element in the scene line could simply be, CONTINUOUS. … if the time lapse is very brief, then you could use something like, MOMENTS LATER, A FEW MINUTES LAYER

AN EXEMPTION:

If a scene takes place in a location in which there is no way to gauge the visible time (DAY or NIGHT), then that element is omitted from the scene line.

ADDING SPECIFICS TO THE SCENE LINE

IDENTIFYING HISTORICAL PERIOD

[example EXT. PARIS, FRANCE - DAY (1946)

EXT. CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - DAY (1920′s)]

INDICATING A MOBILE SITUATION

If a scene opens with a moving vehicle within the location, then that can be indicated in the scene line. For example… INT. JOHN’S CAR - DAY (MOVING)

2. ACTION or [DESCRIPTION]

Description imparts the necessary detail to the essentials of the scene, describing such features as the characters, sets, props, and any necessary action and sound cues.

It is generally best to keep the level of detail focused on the actions and dialogue that comprise the narrative. That is where your attention and the reader’s interest should be directed.

By describing the particular props and decor in a scene and how each character dresses or grooms, you can suggest such character information as personality type, emotional condition, religious affiliation, economic level, artistic taste, and for forth.

First, establish the scene, describing only what is visually apparent in the location and giving only as much detail as necessary.

You cannot describe anything that cannot be seen… until they have been revealed.

You do not need to itemize things that are generic and would ordinarily be present, such as furnishings, colours, arrangements, [etc]…

However you MUST specify anything that is unusual or essential to the scene.

[ My uncle imparted me with a great tip; screenwriting doesn’t maintain traditional prose rules about paragraphs. You should try to keep your descriptions a maximum of four lines, and feel free to break them up into one-line or even one-word for emphasis.]

…

VERY IMPORTANT:

You can only convey what is happening at the moment… [No what has happened or what will happen].

You CANNOT provide any biographical, psychological, or situational information [about your characters] unless you can find visual means to do so (such as a newspaper article, a television program, [etc.])…

INTRODUCING CHARACTERS

Each character must be introduced in the description the first time [they] physically appear in the screenplay. This includes not only major characters, but also supporting characters and even minor characters and groups that function as characters.

NAMING CHARACTERS

When a character is introduced, [their] name is ALWAYS typed in ALL CAPS regardless of whether the character is identified by a proper name, a profession, or an appearance… EVANS, AGENT ONE, DERELICT…

Once a character has been introduced, all subsequent references to that character’s name in the description should be written in a normal manner with initial caps… Evans, Agent One, Derelict…

DESCRIBING CHARACTERS

As the screenwriter, you know who is a major character and who is a supporting or minor character because you have the entire story in your mind. The reader, however, is in a different situation.

… The amount of detail you provide about a character’s appearance and demeanor will give the reader a key to that character’s important in the script.

As a guide, when characters are introduced, you need to make clear how important each is going to be by tailoring the description and context accordingly.

[ You should describe their appearance and what they are doing when you introduce your characters. There are many different formats to describe a character when you are introducing them, and none of them are the hard and fast rule, you will probably end up settling for your own preferred method].

WARREN EVANS, late twenties, intense, handsome with closely cropped hair and a neatly trimmed moustache, is working with cool precision at one of the hundreds of banks of wiring terminals. he is dressed in coveralls and wearing thin latex gloves.

A VARIATION:

A character’s age can also be assigned a numerical designation, such as…

WARREN EVANS (late 20s), ruggedly handsome, dressed in…

Seated at the table is CINDY LEWIS, late 20s and very attractive…

[ Generally you should only mention eye colour, skin colour, height, weight, hair style/colour if it is relevant to the narrative. ]

WORDS THAT GET CAPPED

In addition to using CAPS to introduce characters in the description, there are established conventions for other elements that need to be typed in CAPS but only if they affect the narrative…

Those elements include:

all essential costumes, props and decorany important action, effects, or emphasisany required music or sounds

Although some of the following instances require CAPPING, many will be judgement decisions.

FIRST NOTE:

You CANNOT identify every costume, prop, or decor on the set. Ordinary objects that have no special significance to the narrative should be left [ in normal text].

SECOND NOTE:

… if a certain prop is important to the story, you should CAP it when it first appears, regardless of whether it is important to that particular scene.

WHEN TO CAP AND WHEN NOT TO CAP

CAPPED words can be effective only if they are used sparingly and appropriately, if CAPPED words are used too frequently, their significance will be lost.

3. THE DIALOGUE-BLOCK

The dialogue element, [also] called the dialogue-block, of the screenplay format consists of three components:

the character-name specifies which character is speaking…the dialogue reveals what is being said by that charactera parenthetical, when necessary, instructs [or indicated an element of] how or to whom the character [is speaking]. EVANS (to the group) Sorry I’m late. This round’s on me.

GENERAL RULES

ALWAYS contains the character-name and dialogue, and it MAY, if helpful, also contain parentheticals.is ALWAYS single spaced with no blank lines that internally separate the individual componentsis ALWAYS preceded and followed by a single blank line

[ Parentheticals should not be used too often, you should be attempting to provide context for how the character is delivering their line in the description by providing adequate mood/intensity/emotion.]

CHARACTER NAMES

A character-name is the designation used for the speaker…

… Once a character-name has been established, you MUST consistently use that name from that character.

For example, if you’ve introduced the character as COLIN PRYCE in the description, then you will probably want to use the designation COLIN or PRYCE in the dialogue-block.

DIALOGUE

Everything that the actor speaks that is heard by the audience is dialogue.

[Dialogue] is ALWAYS written in basic prose with initial caps and proper punctuation.

EMPHASIS IN DIALOGUE

To emphasize a particular word or phrase you should underline it.

OFF-SCREEN or VOICE-OVER CUES

[ Off-screen: when a character is not physically present in the scene peaks from a nearby location, close enough that they could enter the scene. Such a character might be speaking from a room out of view or from behind a concealed area.

Voice-over: (1) a voice heard from a mechanical device such as a telephone, radio, intercom, tape recorder, answering machine, walkie-talkie, etc. (2) The voice of a narrator, which is required when the dialogue is spoken by an unseen narrator. (3) The thoughts of a character, applied when a character is visually present and what is heard are their thoughts.

Usually, a character who is speaking dialogue is visually present within the scene. However, there are two important exceptions: off-screen and voice-over.

The off-screen (O.S.) and voice-over (V.O.) cues

- ALWAYS follow the character-name on the same line- are ALWAYS enclosed in parentheses- are ALWAYS abbreviated in upper case.

PARENTHETICALS

Parentheticals are a convenient device to convey specific information about how the dialogue is being said…

[Parentheticals] are ALWAYS enclosed by parentheses… are restricted to words, phrases, and fragments… ALWAYS apply to the dialogue that immediately follows it.

Parentheticals need to be concise and direct, indicating such brief information such as:

- to whom the character is speaking (to John), (into phone), (to himself)- a particular gesture or mannerism(raising his glass), (looking at her watch)- how the dialogue is being spoken(angrily), (coughing), (softly), (thick ____ accent)

WRITING PARENTHETICALS

Because parentheticals are limited to words and phrases, they [should always be written in lowercase and with no punctuation, for example:

(loudly)

No more than two directions should be included in any parenthetical. If two directions appear they should be separated by a semi-colon:

(to the class; loudly)

THREE SPECIAL CASES

- a (beat)- a (pause)- an (interrupting)

[A (beat) indicates a change of thought, suggests a moment of indecision, or conveys a dramatic effect.

A (pause) signifies that a break in the dialogue occurs. This is most often used in phone conversations.

An (interruption) indicates that the dialogue begun be the previous speaker is being interrupted by the current character (there are a few different ways you can format this). ]

I won’t go any further than this because this is already extremely long, but ultimately I invite you to take a look at some of the scripts (here and here) I’ve written and doctored as an amateur screenwriter as well as digging up your own favourite movie scripts which will give you a good idea of how to implements what formatting.

#anon asks.#answered asks.#writeblr #am writing #screenwriting #resources.#writing advice.#on screenwriting.#long post.#my resources.

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theartoflovingthomashunt · 5 years

Text

Long Distance: Part Five- Faux Pas

Long Distance:

Part One: Something New (PG)

Part Two: Choices (PG)

Part Three: Departure (PG)

Part Three (and a half): Halex (photo edit) (PG)

Part Four: Trying (PG13)

Part Four (and half): Who wore it best? (photo edit) (PG13)

* * * The Art of Loving Thomas Hunt Fan Fiction Masterlist * * *

– – –

Characters: Alex (MC), Thomas Hunt, Addison Sinclair

Setting: This takes place between Red Carpet Diaries Book 2 and 3 (Red Carpet Diaries 2.5). Alex and Thomas have been dating for several months. Alex is in New York filming The Diagnosis. Thomas is in California working on his own project.

Rating: PG-13

Notes: Initially this was going to be about Addison visiting the set of The Diagnosis. But then, I decided I missed Addison and wanted to tell a story about what she’s doing. I’m hoping to continue the Faux Pas Story in Part Two at a later time. Yes, Thomas is in the story still too (middle and end)! :)

– – –

A month or so into filming…

Alex finished her last scene of the day and headed back to wardrobe to change out of her doctor outfit. She was just about to leave when someone covered her eyes.

“Surprise,” a voice said from behind her head.

“Addison?” Alex questioned turning around.

“Hi!” Addison said, pulling Alex in for a hug.

“What are you doing here?” Alex asked.

“I had a meeting in New York City earlier today and figured I’d come up to see you,” Addison began. “I had Chazz send me your details. I hope that’s okay?”

“Absolutely, Addi,” Alex answered. “I’m so happy to see you! I’ve missed you! Are you hungry?”

“Starved,” Addison expressed.

“Dinner and drinks?” Alex smiled and Addison nodded. “I know just the place.”

Alex took Addison to a small restaurant on the bank of the Hudson River. A warm breeze blew off the river as they sat under the hanging lights of the restaurant’s terrace.

"What brings you to New York," Alex asked, taking a sip of her wine.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," Addison lowered her voice and looked around. "But… Marianne Delacroix asked me to design some clothes for a new line she is sponsoring. It's a collaboration of a few designers from around the country. She wants to do an East meets West issue of Faux Pas."

"That's amazing, Addi," Alex exclaimed. "You must be so excited!"

"I am! I love working on movies and designing clothes for someone's story, but I miss designing for myself," Addison explained. "When I was at Hollywood U, Marianne actually helped me start my own boutique and I got to sell my clothes there. I loved seeing people in my designs. It was such an amazing experience. I'm really looking forward to the launch of the new line!"

"I'm so happy for you!" Alex raised her glass. "To making the world a more beautiful place. To you!"

Addison clicked her glass against Alex's.

"Enough about me. What about you?" Addison inquired. "How's the movie coming?"

"It's incredible!” Alex beamed. “This is my first suspense thriller and I’m having so much fun. I've loved exploring the balance between giving the viewers information through our scenes and that implied anticipation that something is looming just out of frame. It's exhilarating!

"If everyone else has as much passion as you do about the project, it's definitely going to come across on screen!" Addison explained.

“I miss everyone, but I’m so glad I took this job,” Alex admitted. “I hope the audience loves it as much as I do!”

Addison and Alex kept talking and catching up over dinner.

"Thanks for dinner. I should head to the train station and get back to my hotel,” Addison said.

"I'm glad I got to see you for a little while at least!” Alex added.

“Me too.” Addison hugged Alex. “I wish we had more time!”

Alex smiled as an idea came to her. “You can stay at my apartment tonight if you want? Then we'd have more time to catch up.”

“Are you sure?” Addison questioned. “I don't want to impose.”

“I would love the company. Plus, I've assembled quite the wine collection. You wouldn't believe how many wineries there are around here. Obviously, I had to take advantage and try some of the local flavors. What do you say?” Alex offered.

“You had me at wine—well technically, at ‘you can stay at my apartment’, but the wine sold it. Girls night!!!” Addison chimed.

Alex and Addison headed back to Alex's apartment. Alex got Addison a glass and showed her to her newly acquired wine collection.

“Wow. You weren’t kidding about how many wines you’ve been gathering,” Addison marveled. “These all look amazing.”

“They are! Help yourself,” Alex insisted.

“Oooo,” Addison remarked seeing Thomas picture come up on Alex’s phone on the counter as an incoming call.

“Make yourself at home. I'll be back in a few minutes,” Alex's suggested as she picked up her phone.

“Take your time,” Addison winked. Alex shook her head playfully.

"Hi,” Alex smiled. She made her way to her bedroom to take the call.

"Have I mentioned that I miss you lately?” Thomas questioned

“You may have mentioned it,” Alex teased. “I miss you too! How was your day?”

“We wrapped filming today, so we’ll move to post-production now,” Thomas explained.

“That’s great!” Alex exclaimed.

“It’s adequate,” Thomas interjected. “I feel like I didn’t get it quite right. We spent several days reshooting, but something’s missing and I can’t figure out what it is. I’m hoping that whatever it is, I can fix it during post.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself. I’m sure… no, I know, it’s great,” Alex reassured him. “You just need to take a step back and start by looking at what works and then ask yourself why it works. Then maybe you can figure out what you feel is lacking. I know you will get it right. You always do.”

“It’s not like The Last Duchess,” Thomas muttered.

“I hope not,” Alex remarked. “That movie brought us together. It will always be a little more than the others, because of us. I know nothing happened until after, but we both know that it was not from lack of wanting. I mean, that first day when we were in Cordonia and we rehearsed that scene together...”

“That was an enjoyable afternoon,” Thomas confessed.

“You kept talking about anticipation and desire.” Alex took a moment to relish in that memory. “Needless to say, I was definitely glad I had been practicing restraining my emotions to get in the mindset of the Duchess or that scene would have gone a lot differently...I’m thinking much fewer clothes.” Alex laughed.

“You are being absurd,” Thomas quipped.

“I don’t think so. To be fair, I had just found out you were an underwear model,” Alex said coyly. “I have a very active imagination as you now know. The scene in my head was very different.”

“Well I’m glad I could inspire you,” Thomas responded. Alex could almost hear the smile in his voice.

“You are very inspirational,” Alex teased, before getting serious again. “That’s why I know you will figure this out too. If you remember, you were also worried about The Last Duchess, but it ended up being perfect. You’ve got this too. I know you do.”

“As always, I’m sure you are right,” Thomas sighed.

“I am,” Alex smiled. “I wish I could be there to look over the footage and try to help.”

“I wish you were here for other reasons,” Thomas smirked.

“That too,” Alex chimed.

“How was your day?” Thomas questioned.

“Really good. The Diagnosis is coming along great. I can’t wait for you to see it. Oh, and Addison came to visit! She’s actually here right now...” Alex’s voice trailed off as she remembered she had a house guest.

“Then, I should let you go,” Thomas acknowledged. “I’m sure you two have plenty to catch up on.”

“I’ll call you back before I got to bed?” Alex suggested.

“You don’t have to,” Thomas stated. “Go have fun.”

“Thanks,” Alex replied. “Goodnight, Thomas.”

“Goodnight, my darling,” Thomas said softly.

“Sorry, that took so long. I’m already failing at being a host,” Alex explained upon returning.

“There’s no need to apologize. I’m the one imposing on you,” Addison replied smirking. “Plus, it was Thomas.” She made a heart with her hands.

“Are we thirteen?” Alex teased, but she couldn’t stop smiling.

“The wine says otherwise,” Addison handed Alex back her glass.

Alex accepted her drink and sat down with Addison on the couch. “Those are beautiful,” Alex exclaimed noticing Addison’s sketchbook open on the table.

“Thank you,” Addison smiled. “I'm glad you like them because I had an idea while you were on the phone. What if you modeled one of my outfits for the magazine?”

“You’re kidding right?” Alex laughed it off. “I’m not a model. My legs are not that long and I also like pizza way too much”

“That’s why you’re perfect,” Addison continued. “I want my designs to be elegant but also accessible. The ‘Hollywood Dream’ is a big part of the allure of the West and you have been living that dream now for the past couple years. I want my part of the collection to inspire hope and dreams. I can’t think of anyone more fitting to represent my designs. Please say you will at least consider it.”

“I’ll think about it,” Alex agreed hesitantly. “However, I have to wonder if I left you alone too long and all this wine has gone to your head.”

“Hmmm…” Addison pondered taking another sip of wine. “Maybe a little bit the wine, but honestly, I think you would capture what I want my designs to say. I promise you will love them.”

“Fine,” Alex said reluctantly. “Tell me more about what you are thinking.”

“Yay!” Addison exclaimed. She grabbed her sketchbook and explained each of the designs she had started drawing.

Alex and Addison continued talking and catching up for a few hours. Eventually, they decided to get some sleep.

Addison tossed and turned on the couch. She couldn’t get all the ideas for her designs out of her head. After a while, Addison decided to go see if Alex was still up so she could talk them through with her. The door to Alex’s room was ajar, Addison peered in, not wanting to knock and wake Alex if she was sleeping already. Addison noticed Alex curled up in an armchair on the phone. Alex was laughing softly about something. Addison recognized the tweed jacket on the chair beside Alex. Addison smiled to herself. She loved how happy Alex and Thomas made each other. She quietly slipped away. Addison helped herself to another glass of wine and took her sketchbook back out. She sketched out a number of ideas, now having new inspiration for a male model to compliment Alex. Addison sketched page after page of ideas, all the while, she could still faintly hear Alex on the phone in the other room. Addison knew convincing Alex to be her model would be the easy part, Thomas, would be far more of a challenge.

– – –

>Long Distance

Part One: Something New (PG)

Part Two: Choices (PG)

Part Three: Departure (PG)

Part Three (and a half): Halex (photo edit) (PG)

Part Four: Trying (PG13)

Part Four (and a half): Who wore it best? (photo edit) (PG13)

Part Five: Faux Pas (PG)

Part Six: Dear Thomas, aka Love Letters (PG)

Part Seven: Sleeping Together (PG)

Part Eight: A Taste of Things to Come (PG)

Part Nine: Fall Fun (PG13)

Part Ten: Pumpkin Date (PG13)

Part Eleven: Tricks & Treat Drabble (PG13)

Part Twelve: Candy (PG13)

Part Thirteen: The Diagnosis (PG13)

This is also part of the Faux Pas Mini Series

Part One/Part Five of Long Distance: Faux Pas Part Two: (Not so) Long Distance (Teen) Part Three: Emphatically No Part Four: L.A. Baby (Where Dreams are Made of to be broken) Part Five: (I’m sorry I can’t be) Perfect Part Six: I’d Do Anything;

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tobiandjane · 5 years

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black czar running: intro post

cover designed by me

just like tobi, i figure i should do a general post about my wip, because that’s my current writing piece and really the only thing on my mind

black czar running is a book i’ve been working on since last winter, so i’ll give all of you some information about it :)

genre: dystopian and teen fiction

point of view: third person

main characters: minnow e. roth, sascha h. jakovich, remus c. hawtrey, agnes o. prim, friedrich kaiser

setting: shrike valley sanitorium, the wilderness, a bunker, a desolate city

description: you can run from your demons

sascha jakovich vanished twenty-nine years before the births of minnow roth and remus hawtrey. it’s been forty-eight years and he’s nowhere to be found. there are no ‘have you seen this man’ ads plastered on old stone walls, no ink deprived photos are strewn onto the bulletin in the old market on fourteenth street, no radio broadcasts with the falsely concerned static of the host over the intercom. because depending on who you ask, he never existed. before his disappearance, he left behind three things: the ashes of an asylum, a plethora of corpses, and a world unprepared to be consumed. a lot can be hidden in darkness, this was no exception.

the killer.

the corrupt.

the in-between.

but they can’t be outrun.

summary: a plan has been in the working for a little over two centuries, with a select triad of babies who developed on a serum to harness things beyond our modern world. sascha was the first successful subject, and the most problematic. he disappeared 48 years ago, and in that time, minnow and remus were born, the projects new star subjects. but they had no idea what they were capable of. the destruction of our world is already in play, and when remus leaves a trail of bread crumbs for minnow to find sascha, things only go downhill for shrike from there.

(sorry if that was a shit summary, i don’t really have a skill with that)

started: december 17, 8:18 pm

in drafting stage

finished: ___

continue reading under the cut for more information, especially if you want access to my book :))

black czar running is a book packed full with details and imagery, so if you’re not one to like to envision what you’re reading, this may not be the book for you, but i really hope it is! i tend to write using bigger words, and i love to use detail because i write what i see in my head, and a book just isn’t the same, in my opinion, if you can’t imagine what you’re seeing and live in the story, with the characters. there is the use of language, violence, and sexual innuendos, but nothing too harsh. i would rate it under pg-13, but it all depends on your gut.

yes, there is romance in this book, the focus bounces between the relationship between the characters, and the actual destruction of the world taking place. i would not categorize this as a fantasy, but it is a mix of dystopian and science fiction, i guess some people could say fantasy because of some aspects, but it is all for readers interpretation! the romance is slow burn, and whether you like the relationship is all up for interpretation, and there’s always an edge of mystery and risk.

i have posted a few lines from my book in my character post for sascha, and there will be more to come for all of you who’ve been hooked. click here for a link of my book if you’re done reading all of this rambling. i cannot promise that you will a. like my writing style b. like my plot c. think it’s actually a good book. i’ve been writing for a few years but there is always room for improvement and this is no exception. keep in mind, this is a work in progress and i am not j.k. rowling, as much fun as that would be.

if you decide to look at my book (which i will cry if any of you do) please destroy it, don’t be afraid to rip it to shreds, i live for that. criticism and constructive comments are preferred, and i definitely take suggestions :) do not be shy everybody, this can be your punching bag

thank you for reading this post and i will be so overjoyed if any of you choose to take part in this! i also love to read others writing and will set aside any amount of time to read pieces and give you my thoughts and corrections, don’t be vanilla, i love to talk too, if you just want writing help or have questions or want to rant, literally anything, just message me @hardyforbenhardy :)

#writer #writer on tumblr #writerblr #wip #writing wip #jane's post #science fiction #teen fiction #dystopian #book introduction post #work in progress #personal project #my writing #black czar running

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ancientbooshartifacts · 5 years

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Carpe Noctem

Author: Silent-Fields

Year: 2010

Rating: PG-13

Characters: Richmond, Anthrax & Ebola

Richmond watched as the children of the night careened about in a haze of smoke, extending their pale arms towards Heaven and Hell. After weeks of careful research, tonight was the night Richmond had decided to set out and experience his first goth club. He had chosen Pandora's Box because it offered two rooms spinning various genres, a lounge, and a very extensive bar. He was in the gothic room at the moment, enjoying the contrast of ethereal female vocals with demonic male ones echoing from the club's speakers. With his last few paychecks as Project Executive, Richmond built himself up an extensive wardrobe, favoring mostly Victorian and Edwardian inspired styles, but liking the cuts on many of the more modern clothes as well. Most of his old clothes were then donated, but he did keep a few pieces. A purple dress shirt did look quite nice with a black tie. For his debut he wore a black frock coat, a black ruffled shirt whose cuffs dangled just enough over his hands to be dramatic but not a hindrance, and a maroon waistcoat. Black trousers and pointed boots completed his outfit. He had recreated the eye make-up he had done for Denholm's father's funeral, but chose to simply line his lips' natural shape rather than draw them into a frown. He wanted to be approachable, trying for subtle indifference with a hint of misery for tonight's look. His parents had been more upset about his demotion than his new lifestyle. "You always liked The Addams Family and Tim Burton movies," his mother said with a shake of her head. "And there was that time your father took you to see Kiss. But Richmond dear, can you still support yourself?" Richmond had enough savings to cover any emergencies that may arise within the next few months and tended to live rather frugally, so the lower pay hadn't really bothered him. What had been surprising was how much more comfortable he was now, finding solace in the shadows of the night after years of corporate competition under harsh florescent. Richmond had been so lost in reminiscing that he didn't notice two girls approaching him until they were right in front of him. The taller of the two was wearing a long black velvet dress with bell sleeves, her wavy blonde hair flowing over both her shoulders. The shorter girl's black hair was pinned back with spider shaped sliver clips, and she wearing a black knee-length tank dress with zippers on the straps, fishnet stockings, and combat boots. Both wore matching necklaces, a silver dagger on a satin cord that stopped at the tops of their breasts. Drinks in hand and small purses on their shoulders, they introduced themselves. "Hello, I'm Ebola.” said the blonde, her manner stoic. "And I'm Anthrax." said the other, her tone equally void of emotion. "Richmond." He replied with a bow. Oh dear, should I have created pseudonym? Alabaster? No, sounds silly. Ammonite? Possibly too obscure. Maybe I should have used my last name, it does sound a bit more gothic . . . "We haven't seen you here before, is this your first time?" Anthrax asked, interrupting his thoughts. "Oh yes, yes it is." "They seem to be playing older stuff tonight, not a bad night to drop in. Would you care to join us in the lounge?" Richmond nodded and Anthrax's lips curled upwardly slightly, flashing the tips of a pair of fangs as she turned toward the door. Richmond followed as the girls effortless weaved their way through the dancing patrons towards the lounge. They sat on a vacant purple velvet settee while Richmond sat in an adjacent chair, the table in front of them covered with ashtrays and empty glasses. Candlelight and black fabric draped from the ceiling surrounded them. Ebola sat her glass down and fished a cigarette and lighter out of her purse while Anthrax and Richmond held on to their drinks. "So Richmond, what do you do?" Ebola asked, lighting her cigarette. She held up her free hand before he could reply. "Wait, let me guess. Computer programmer? No no, graphic designer." Richmond furrowed his brow in confusion. "Nearly every guy here works with computers," Anthrax explained. "It provides a relaxed office dress code and a pay check that supports the lifestyle." "Oh. Um, I work in IT." It felt odd saying that, as Richmond still had no idea what kind of work he was expected to do. Though it is quite nice working in the basement. "Ah." Anthrax took a sip of her drink, something dark red. "The bartender here is quite excellent, always coming up with some new delicious and deadly cocktail. I see you've gone with The Green Fairy." "I quite like absinthe." Richmond replied with perhaps too much enthusiasm. He was drinking a cocktail of the previously mentioned bartender's own design. While lounge was relaxing, Pandora's Box was primarily a dance club, and did not lend itself to melting sugar cubes into luminous green filled glasses, so he settled for a mixed drink that contained some of his favorite liquor. "Oh I'm sure you'll meet him eventually." Ebola said, rolling her eyes. Richmond looked quite confused. "Absinthe is the owner and operator of a S&M club nearby." Anthrax explained. "It's members only with the exception of a few events throughout the year." She looked him up and down. "You could probably become a member without too much difficulty." "Oh I see." Richmond wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to interpret that statement. "Um . . . are you members?" "Yes." Ebola replied, taking a drag from her cigarette. "Why, are you interested?" "Not now, maybe one day." Richmond shifted and took a sip of his drink. He noticed Anthrax looking him again and he suddenly wondered if maroon was too bright of a colour for the occasion. "This isn't just your first time here is it?" she asked. "It's your first time out a goth club." Richmond blinked. "Oh dear, was it obvious?" "A bit" she replied, her fangs once again peeking out over her near smile. "Oh. Well I am still feeling my way around the culture." he admitted "It does get associated with a lot of different things." Anthrax commented. "How did you become interested in the lifestyle?" Ebola asked, placing her cigarette on the closest ashtray. "Cradle of Fifth." he replied, hiding his grin with a sip of his drink. "May I ask you two what interested you in becoming goth?" "Sure," Ebola said with a shrug. "For Anthrax it was The Hunger, that film with David Bowie as a vampire and Susan Sarandon's lesbian scene. If that wasn't enough the moment we start the film she's shaking me asking 'What's this song? Who's that bloke in the cage??'" Anthrax glared at Ebola. "You're the one with the thing for David Bowie." She turned to Richmond, "My older brother was into the scene as well so I'd often watch him put on his make-up before he went out and developed an interest from there. As for Ebola, she fancied my brother." "That wasn't the only reason, you cow." She glared back at Anthrax before replying. "I always loved Lydia's outfits in Beetlejuice, I wanted to dress like her every day. But it was so distressing to see her so happy and normal looking at the end of the film." "Oh yes, I agree. Even if the song is very catchy." Richmond swirled his drink in his glass, watching the bright green whirlpool, wondering what question to ask next. Perhaps they know someplace that provides a more appropriate atmosphere for drinking absinthe . . . Ebola reached for her cigarette, noticing a man walking quickly past them. "Good Evening, Lord Catalyst." she called out. The man froze and turned around with a grimace on his face. He was dressed similar to Richmond, but had chosen to accessorize with a top hat and cane. "You two!" he said with a slight twitch, pointing his finger accusingly. He turned to Richmond dramatically, his cape swirling to match his movement. "Take heed my dear fellow! They are harpies, who will snatch away your soul!" He glared at the two girls on the settee. "I do not mean this as a compliment!" "Oh fuck off!" Ebola hissed. "Or shall we tell him why you're so uncomfortable around us?" Lord Catalyst jumped, his twitch increasing in intensity, and scuttled away. Both girls exchanged a look and a snicker before turning to Richmond. "I'm sorry Richmond. We . . . collect boys on occasion but tonight we were just looking for conversation," explained Anthrax. "Though you are very handsome.” Ebola added. "That's quite alright. I must say, you both have beautiful skulls." "Thank you," they replied in unison. They spent the rest of the evening chatting away in the lounge, occasionally getting up to dance when a song came on that the girls insisted Richmond must dance to. Soon the antique grandfather clock in the lounge struck three, signaling that the evening was at an end. "You've both been very helpful. Thank you." said Richmond as they exited the club, trying not to smile. "There isn't a goth rule again smiling, Richmond." Ebola said with a laugh. "Just don't make it a regular habit." After exchanging phone numbers and email addresses the group went their separate ways, with the promise to meet again soon. ----------------------------------- For the first couple of years they were always out together; going to clubs and films and tea parties in graveyards, meeting up to chat and shop and dance. Anthrax and Ebola quickly discovered Richmond had no trouble pulling, his shy demeanor combined with his theatrical delivery proved highly amusing and rather attractive to both goths and non-goths of all genders. Sometimes they would meet just to compare notes on their various conquests. As the years went on Richmond began to come out less and less, mainly communicating by email and only occasionally by phone. He would still show up to major events and travel with them for Whitby, but Richmond slowly withdrew into his own world as Anthrax and Ebola continued to venture out in to the night. ----------------------------------- Neither Ebola nor Anthrax had seen Richmond for months and after weeks of persistent emails and phone calls, he agreed to come out. Before heading to Pandora's Box they decided to meet up at a near by cafe, sitting in a booth in the back corner, for privacy as well as ambience. Always a gentleman, Richmond waited until the girls had settled before sitting down. Anthrax sat near the wall, dangling her fingers over the table candle as she waited for her tea bag to steep. Ebola stirred her coffee, watching the creamer swirl. Both waited silently, wanting Richmond to speak first. He stared at his coffee, watching the stream curl out of the mug for a while before speaking. "My old boss committed suicide. He just jumped out of a window one day." Anthrax gasped and Ebola jumped slightly. That wasn't the whole story of course, but Richmond didn't feel like explaining that the pensions at Reynholm Industries had been tampered with for years and if Denholm had chosen to think about it, there had probably been an easy way to fix them. But Denholm has always been impulsive and unpredictable, up until the last moments of his life. "The one that demoted you?" Ebola asked carefully. Richmond nodded, still not looking up at either of them. "I slept with him shortly before it happened. It wasn't anything serious; I knew that before we did anything. In a way it sort of felt like closure." Richmond took a slip of his coffee, continuing to look at the table. "I wasn't allowed to attend the funeral, but at the time it didn't really bother me. As the weeks went on though, I found myself becoming rather depressed." "How are they treating you at work?" asked Anthrax. "Oh much better, I'm allowed out during daytime hours now. I still don't talk to my coworkers much - don't really see a reason to. I'm just sort of . . . there." Richmond looked up, saw two pairs of sympathetic looking milky lenses, and looked back down. "I'm not quite sure what to do with myself now." Ebola looked at Anthrax, biting her lip slightly. They searched each other eyes for the right words. Today it was Anthrax's turn to have the epiphany, eyes widening as she turned to face Richmond once more. "Richmond, do you remember the last thing that came out of Pandora's Box?" Richmond looked up from his drink at Anthrax, allowing his frown to become one of confusion rather than despair. She reached across the table and took hold of one of his hands. "It was hope." Richmond blinked, his mouth forming a silent "Oh". Ebola reached across and took hold of his other hand, both girls squeezing before letting go. The friends finished their drinks in a comfortable silence. "I think it's the industrial room tonight my dears." Ebola said as she began to rise out of the booth. "We can dance the night away and count how many times someone samples Dune." "No complaints here." Richmond replied, waiting until Anthrax was out of the booth before standing, trailing behind them both as they walked toward the front. "Oh Richmond we must tell you about this ridiculous boy we met at The Black Spider." Anthrax turned as he held the cafe door open. "He looked a bit like you but lacked your depth. When we asked him what his favorite song was he said it was Gary Numan's Dominion Day." Richmond sneered slightly as he followed her out. "First time?" "First and last, thankfully." And so the friends set out to drink and dance, extending their arms towards the infinite possibilities that lay ahead of them, capturing the night in their pale hands.

#the mighty boosh #mighty boosh #boosh #richmond avenal #anthrax #ebola #anthrax & ebola #the it crowd #it crowd

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solaciummeae · 5 years

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{ Laws of the Land: }

Please read these before interacting. (:

My blog is PRIVATE. Typically I prefer to write with MUTUALS ONLY but I am currently open to NEW INTERACTIONS. I usually write && talk with someone OOC for a while BEFORE FOLLOWING to make sure we vibe.

I’m HIGHLY SELECTIVE with PARTNERS/FOLLOWS. I’m trying maintain a cleaner dash this time around. sidenote: When choosing partners: Literacy is a thing. I understand typos but basic spelling and grammar are easier to manage than trying to mentally fix things as I go. I DO understand language barriers. But BOTTOM LINE: If I can’t understand what just happened in your post, I can’t reply adequately because I have nothing to go from. I also prefer people who are dedicated and interested in writing detailed plots. Moving the story along.

By stating that I am PRIVATE: I reserve the right to work on the things that speak to me the most at any given time. I’ve had a lot of stress this year && this is a coping thing for me. I will write what I have MUSE for. Typically I will NOT start something unless I know I have MUSE for it to avoid dropping THREADS && INTERACTIONS. I’m simply focusing on things that I have the most juice for. sidenote: This means that while I have a ridiculous number MUSES && VERSES, I’ll be sticking pretty close to my MOST ACTIVE LIST unless we have heavily established PLOTS && CONNECTIONS OR I have explicitly offered to give you a MUSE OR VERSE that is NOT on the MOST ACTIVE LIST. I post this list regularly, it’s easy to find on my blog.

My blog is currently on LOW ACTIVITY temporarily. There are a lot of things going on in my life right now. I am trying to be on as much as possible. However, I won’t be here 24/7, nor am I obligated to THREAD/POST/TALK all the time. It is not personal. I was just diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis && have existing severe mental illness. Some days just suck.

IMPORTANT: I have roughly 230 muses, 40+ verses, my blog is ALWAYS under construction. These projects are my passion, that’s why I have them. Don’t be a jerk and tell me maybe I should cut back. I operate how I operate.

My writing is PG-13 to Mature. It’s not always this way but violence, explicit language, substance use, etc. happen here. NSFW of all kinds. I’m 28 and will only write with adult partners. So 18+ only on this blog. IMPORTANT: I will NOT write SMUT with others. It may happen occasionally in drabbles I write. But not in threads. I don’t mind sexual references, headcanons, jokes, etc. But no threading with NSFW language. Fade to black for me.

The length of my writing tends to fluctuate. Para to multi-para mostly. You do NOT have to match me because sometimes I might not completely match you. Just how it is. Sidenote: Do NOT give me one or two sentences if I gave you a solid paragraph. It makes it really difficult to adequately reply. I might write a one liner starter, but it will ALWAYS grow.

On the topic of ORIGINAL VERSES && MY POST SERIES FANDOM VERSES: I welcome anyone to take part in my ORIGINAL VERSES or my POST SERIES FANDOM VERSES. PLEASE DO, that’s why I created them. However, do NOT steal my verses or post series for your plots. I work extremely hard to WORLD BUILD and develop these complex plotlines. DO NOT STEAL THEM && certainly DO NOT TAKE CREDIT FOR THEM. I do not mind if you and another person involved in that verse or post series with me write for the verse or plot but do NOT just openly steal them && start writing them with other people I don’t even know. I work my ass off for this stuff. Don’t be gross.

GRAPHICS IN THREADS: I use ICONS &&GIF ICONS. They keep it cleaner looking && more accessible. IMPORTANT: I have a very large number of UNDERUSED FACECLAIMS. For this reason, DRY POSTING WILL BE A THING. I’m working to make resources, but it takes time. IMPORTANT: I AM HERE FOR THE WRITING NOT THE GRAPHICS. I should already know what your muse looks like if I’ve seen a picture and likewise, you can find pictures of mine. NOTE: If my muse has no resources, I will post a pre-designed icon of them at the beginning of the thread so you know what they look like. After which it will be dry threading.

I would hope that you would have ideas of your own. It works much better if we can feed off of each other and really go back and forth with plots than things being one sided. Sadly, this has happened to me a lot. Sidenote: We don’t have to come up with something first but it would be nice if there was an idea. However, I won’t ever turn away an intriguing starter with no back story. Though, I might ask questions to make my reply as accurate as possible.

DO NOT GODMOD. I should be the only one controlling my character. I really hate when people assume they know my character and get them all wrong. Or even insinuate some prior history I never agreed to. Sounds ridiculous? It’s happened. If there’s a time it’s needed, shoot me an IM. I’m totally good with that.

I’m EXTREMELY SELECTIVE when it comes to ROMANTIC SHIPPING. I’ve been burned way too many times. My muses are my babies. If they aren’t feeling it. I am not going to force it on them. You can find ALL of my MUSES romantic preferences on my MUSE DIRECTORIES including if they’re romantic shippable or not. I have several who are CLOSED. Chemisty. Chemistry. Chemistry.

IMPORTANT: I AM NOT HERE JUST TO ROMANTIC SHIP. I’m tired of only ever heterosexual romantic shipping– especially with my MALES. Come to me with bromance, familial, platonic, or enemy. I’m always looking for new connections to my muses. It helps them grow as people.

IMPORTANT: I heavily prefer LGBT+ romantic ships at this point especially as a queer writer myself. I’m real over the heteronormativity. If you come to me with a queer pairing I’m far more likely try it out.

IMPORTANT: Please give my FEMALES as much attention as you give my MALES. I’ve tried closing my MALES. I still get used for them. Especially to romantic ship. Treat my FEMALES the way you’d want yours to be treated. I’m always down for F/F interactions so we both win. I truly love female muses, I simply wanna get to use mine too.

Drama is pretty much a must, in the sense of the plot. I’ve had people tell me they don’t like it and that’s fine but without things happening, the story doesn’t really progress. IMPORTANT: However! NO DRAMA OOC. I worked with middle school kids for half a decade so my bullshit meter is super low. No OOC drama. No HATE. I DO have the following TRIGGERS: incest, rape, sexual assault of any kind, romanticizing the devil.

The first three are self explanatory. However the fourth has become really common with shows like Lucifer in existence. For personal reasons, treating the devil like he’s a cool guy is really triggering for me. I understand that his character from Supernatural is very popular. However, romanticizing him, making him seem like he’s “not actually a bad guy.” like he’s just “misunderstood.” or even “falling in love with the devil.” I can’t handle. If you’re writing him as a villain or enemy that’s perfectly fine. It’s really just the threads and content that romanticizes him that really really triggers me.

I’m asking that these things be tagged: tw: incest, tw: rape, tw: sexual assault, tw: devil friendly.

NOTE: If I ever post anything you need tagged with a trigger that I haven’t, please don’t hesitate to ask. If it makes you uncomfortable I don’t want you to have to see it. Typically I don’t post traditionally triggering content. But just in case, let me know.

Last but certainly not least, I’M HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS. Seriously. I want to get to know you OOC. You guys are my friends and I care about you very much. I love chatting. Likewise, I can make a great soundboard. If you need someone to talk to, please don’t hesitate. You guys are so important to me. I’ve been on Tumblr roleplaying for about five years. But I’ve been roleplaying for about 13 years total. And some of my closest friends have come from writing with others.

These have been updated as of 10/08/19. I tried to make them more streamline and I really do appreciate you reading them. It makes writing together easier. If I find out you didn’t read them before interacting I will be less inclined to write with you. I read all rules before I follow someone or write with them so I expect the same courtesy. They are here for a reason.

Thank you!

💜💜💜💜💜

#outofthisworld #these have been HEAVILY redone and updated #I'm posting them due to the edits as well as for new followers and mutuals #rules #important #about: blog

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leiascully · 6 years

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Fic: Between A Rock And A Hard Place (Part 5/5)

Timeline: Season 10 (replaces My Struggle in the All The Choices We’ve Made ‘verse - Visitor + Resident + etc.) Rating: PG Characters: Mulder, Scully, Tad O’Malley, Sveta (established MSR) Content warning: canon-typical body horror (mentions of abduction, forced pregnancy, etc.) A/N: I’m collecting all the related stories that go with Visitor/Resident under the title “All The Choices We’ve Made”, because it felt right at the time. This story is an alternate My Struggle that reflects M&S’ growth/change in the ATCWM ‘verse. I’m weaving canon dialogue into the stories in an attempt to keep the reframing plausibly in line with canon.

Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | AO3

It's not a surprise the next day when they emerge from the Hoover Building, where they've been supervising the setup of all of the new computers, to see Tad O'Malley's gleaming black limo. The door opens. They get in.

"Glad we caught you, agents," O'Malley says with a grin.

"We're not hard to track down," Mulder says.

"It's the chip in my neck," Scully says dryly, and Mulder isn't sure he's ever heard her joke about it before. But maybe she's spitting into the wind too, reminded of how whoever is behind all this has tampered with her at a molecular level. He admits it is easy to direct (or misdirect) that frustration at Tad O'Malley.

"Hi," Sveta says, waving at them from across the car. O'Malley hasn't brought out the champagne this time, but she's clutching a bottle of Perrier.

Mulder leans back against the leather seat. The car certainly is plush. The perks of selling out, he imagines.

"I didn't think you'd come, Agent Scully," O'Malley says. "After all, your work is so important. So I took the liberty of coming to you." He opens a small fridge concealed under the seat. "Perrier?"

"Thank you," Scully says, accepting a bottle. "What are you doing here, Mr. O'Malley?"

"Exposing a global conspiracy that's crushing the soul of America," O'Malley declares. "Agent Mulder knows what I'm talking about."

"You're ready to make a move?" Mulder asks.

"The Truth Squad with Tad O'Malley with a world exclusive," O'Malley tells him. "The story to end all stories."

"Why don't you give us a preview?" Scully says, settling into her seat.

O'Malley leaned forward. "We begin with a war. The Civil War. The United States splits in two. A new government forms. They mint their own currency. They make their own laws."

"They perpetuate the enslavement and genocide of millions of people," Scully murmurs.

"That enslavement creates the haves and the have-nots. And the halves begin to believe, to truly believe, that they are above the law. That they can meddle with the fates and lives of people they start to consider subhuman: black, white, Native American, and everyone else. An experimental program to create a better person through a variety of methods, including surgical intervention and selective breeding."

Sveta shivers. Scully looks at her compassionately. She reaches for Sveta's hand.

O'Malley doesn't seem to notice their discomfort. "The shadow government continues to exist after the war. The genetic engineering of a superior human continues in the shadows of the shadow. And they have other secrets."

"It all sounds like a ghost story," Scully says in that even voice that immediately sends Mulder into full alert. "Designed to scare children."

"Children should be afraid," O'Malley tells her.

"Everyone should," Mulder says, and he sees the shiver in her eyelid that means she's trying not to roll her eyes at him. "It's a conspiracy bigger and more secret than the Manhattan Project, with tentacles reaching back into the very roots of America."

"The metaphor is mixed," Scully says.

"All the more apt," Mulder tells her. "The Civil War set the stage and World War I gave us access to new technologies, but it wasn't until victories in Europe and Japan that the drama really ratcheted up for the rest of the world."

"Political and economic conditions became perfect for execution of the larger plan," O'Malley declared. "The success of the program in the former Confederate states had spread to the re-United States. Agents of the conspiracy, swearing their allegiance to President Grant, had infiltrated the highest levels of government. World War I and World War II had weakened the European powers that might have held the US in check. As it was, they were delighted to accept the offer of help from the United States, and if it came with a price, they were happy to pay it. Their scientists began working with our scientists. The project stretched those insidious tentacles to grasp the entire globe."

Mulder grins. This is his wheelhouse. Even as much as he's been jerked around and lost his faith, it's still exhilarating to put together the pieces of the puzzle he worked at for half his life. "Paper Clip. Experiments in the aftermath of the atomic bombings. The crash at Roswell leading to cannibalized alien technology and cannibalized alien corpses, all resources that furthered the project."

O'Malley breaks in. "The bomb was the latest threat of extinction, but not the first. The energy of the explosions acted as transducers, creating wormholes that drew in alien ships just like the one that crashed at Roswell, ships that ran using electro-gravitic propulsion. Sacrificing those alien lives with their extraterrestrial biology and their advanced technology delayed our self-immolation on the altar of democracy."

"World leaders signed secret memos directing scientific stuff of alien technology and biochemistry," Mulder puts in. "All in the name of furthering the project, creating a new species that could survive alien invasion or whatever else might wipe us out. Classified studies were done at military installations, extracting alien tissue. S4, Groom Lake, Wright Patterson, and Dulce: all part of a network of black sites where tests were conducted using advanced alien technology recovered from the ships." He glances at Sveta. She has one hand over her mouth. "Tests including human hybridization through gene editing and forced implantation of the resulting embryos in unsuspecting human subjects." He swallows and tries not to look at Scully, but can't help meeting her eyes. "Embryos with extraterrestrial DNA."

Sveta gasps. "Why do such a thing and lie about it? Our own government?"

"Aliens aside," Scully says, "the American government has conducted experiments on unsuspecting populations as a matter of policy. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study lasted for years beyond the point where they could have cured the patients. The scientists in charge chose not to inform their subjects because they were African-American. They let them die horrible, preventable deaths, claiming it was all in the name of science. Genetic material was extracted from a sample of a tumor taken from a black woman named Henrietta Lacks and used without her consent or her family's. Other people have been sterilized against their will, or stolen from their families. I doubt we'll ever understand the full extent of the violence done to the indigenous peoples of the Americas." She exhales loudly. "While I cannot substantiate all of Agent Mulder's claims, I have found evidence of anomalous genetic material being implanted or otherwise introduced into the DNA of numerous subjects, including myself. And you."

"What are they trying to do?" Sveta asks.

"That's the missing piece," Mulder tells her. "We've learned so much, but some part of this eludes us."

"But it's not hard to imagine," O'Malley breaks in. "A government hiding, no, hoarding alien technology for seventy years, at the potential expense of all human life and the future of the planet. A government inside the government, secretly preparing for more than a hundred years for the long-awaited event."

"The takeover of America," Mulder says, feeling sick to his stomach.

"And then the world itself," O'Malley says with an almost religious fervor. "By any means necessary, however violent or cruel. Severe drought brought on by weather wars conducted secretly using aerial contaminants distributed via chemtrails and high-altitude electromagnetic waves. Perpetual war waged overseas, a drain on our resources and our energy engineered by politicians to create problem-reaction-solution scenarios to distract, enrage, and enslave American citizens at home with tools like the Patriot Act, the National Defense Authorization Act, and pure old-fashioned jingoism, abridging the Constitution and its promised freedoms in the name of national security. Every dissident, every minority: a terrorist in situ. Vietnam, but this time they're doing it right."

"Militarize the police forces," Mulder says slowly. "Martial law. FEMA building prison camps. Mercenaries fighting under our flag, but not under our orders."

"The corporate takeover of food and agriculture," O'Malley says smugly. "It's already begun. Monsanto. Dicamba. They've got pharmaceuticals and healthcare in their pocket too. An insurrection of men and women with clandestine agendas to dull, sicken, terrify, and control a populace already consumed by consumerism."

Mulder leans over to Scully. "I didn't really like Wall-E," he whispers. She shakes her head at him.

"A government that taps your phone, collects your data, and monitors your whereabouts with impunity," O'Malley says with a flourish. "A government preparing to use that data against you when it strikes and the final takeover begins."

Mulder nods slowly. There is a seed of truth in O'Malley's conspiracy-addled rant. He's been seeking it long enough to know it when he sees it. The nation is poised on a precipice. All the rest of it is lies, smoke and mirrors, a way to turn the paranoid and the credulous into easy money. But somewhere, under eighty mattress-thick layers of right-wing garbage, is a pea-sized truth, and he's the princess shifting uncomfortably.

"The takeover of America?" Scully asks.

O'Malley leans forward. "By a well-oiled and well-armed multinational group of elites that will cull, kill, and subjugate."

"Happening as we sit here in this car," Scully says.

"It's happening all around us," O'Malley tells her.

"It's been happening for years," Mulder murmurs. "The other shoe waiting to drop."

"It'll probably start on a Friday," O'Malley says. "The banks will announce a security action necessitating that their computers go offline all weekend."

"Digital money will disappear," he says.

Sveta looks startled. "They can just steal your money?" Scully squeezes her hand.

"While the banks are vulnerable, they'll detonate strategic electromagnetic pulse bombs to knock out major grids. Traffic lights, security systems, everything: gone. Hospitals will be on backup generators indefinitely. It will seem like an attack on America by terrorists or Russia."

"Or a simulated alien invasion featuring alien replica vehicles already in use," Mulder murmurs.

"An alien invasion of the U.S.?" Scully says.

"The Russians tried it in '47," Mulder reminds her. "Or they took credit for it, anyway."

"They'll take more than credit this time," O'Malley says. "This goes worldwide. Everything that has happened for the past seventy years has been engineered by this global conspiracy, these shadow players. The structures they've built are designed to crumble, tearing America apart at the seams. They'll build a new world on the ruins of our current one. It will happen soon, and it will happen fast."

Scully shakes her head. "You can't say these things," she tells O'Malley.

"I'm gonna say them tomorrow," O'Malley says with an almost religious fervor in his voice.

Scully frowns. "It's fearmongering, isolationist techno-paranoia so bogus and dangerous and stupid that it borders on treason. Saying these things would be incredibly irresponsible."

"I hate to say this, Scully, but if this is true, it would be irresponsible not to say it," Mulder says reluctantly.

"If it's the truth," Sveta says, "you have to say it."

"It's not the truth," Scully says.

O'Malley grins that smarmy grin. "Agent Scully, with all due respect, I don't think you know what the truth is."

"The only thing I don't know is where you're taking us," Scully says, ice in her voice. "Except on a wild goose chase."

"It's lunchtime," O'Malley says. "I thought you might want something to eat."

It's clear from the look Scully gives him that there is a long, long list of people she would rather have lunch with before she deigned to have lunch with Tad O'Malley. In fact, it might be approaching seven billion people long.

"I think what Agent Scully is trying to convey is that we've got to decline your invitation," Mulder says.

"You believe me," O'Malley says to Mulder with certainty.

Mulder looks at Scully. She looks back at him, her eyes tight just at the corners. "I might have, back in the day. My doctor says paranoia is bad for me."

O'Malley sits back, disappointed. Scully's shoulders loosen. She glances at him and there's something between approval and gratitude in her eyes. He smiles at her.

There's a pinging noise. Scully checks her email on her phone. Her brow creases. She scrolls through something, then flicks back to the top and reads through it again. "This is strange."

"What?" Mulder leans over.

"Sveta, the lab retested your samples. A new tech was running the machines, and a number of test results were compromised. In fact, they retested your samples twice to be sure. Your DNA shows no anomalies." Scully looks up. "Whatever's been done to you, it had nothing to do with this project."

"Nothing?" Sveta and O'Malley ask at the same time.

"That can't be right," O'Malley says. "Retest her."

"I don't want to be tested again," Sveta says.

"You're my evidence," O'Malley tells her angrily. "You have to."

"She doesn't have to do anything," Scully tells him. "She's under our protection now."

"We'll see about that," O'Malley says. He presses a button. The driver pulls over. He opens the door. "Goodbye, agents. Goodbye, Sveta."

"What will you do?" Sveta asks him as she climbs out of the car.

"I'll do what I do," O'Malley says. "I'll tell the truth."

The car door slams shut.

Truth Squad with Tad O'Malley the next day is a runaway hit: high ratings, viral content, memes, gifs, and a media uproar. "I promised you the truth today, but that truth has come under assault," O'Malley says, looking into the camera, and they roll footage of Sveta confessing to reporters, accusing him of telling lies.

"I am so sorry if I misled anyone," she says tearfully, wringing her hands in front of her.

"They get her?" Mulder asks.

"She should be safe," Scully tells him. "They'll work on relocating her."

"Material witness?" Mulder asks. "That's a bit of a stretch."

"It won't be by the time all of this is over," Scully says grimly. "I went to the hospital to collect the samples and had our labs run them again."

"And?" Mulder says.

"Sveta and I share a lot," Scully says. "Including anomalous genetic material."

"O'Malley must be furious," Mulder says, propping his hands on his hips as he thinks.

"Rumor is they're going to pull the plug," Scully says. "No more truth, no more Squad."

"To his followers, that'll feel like a sign," Mulder says. "A shot fired across their bows."

Scully shrugs. "Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Either we embolden a liar, or we enrage his base."

"Politics have never been our strong suit," Mulder says. "You know, there's something called the Venus Syndrome."

"The plant, the planet, or something else I'm afraid to ask about?" Scully asks.

"The planet," Mulder says. "It's a runaway global warming scenario that leads us to the brink of the Sixth Extinction. Those with the means will prepare to move off the planet into space, which will have already been weaponized against the poor, huddled masses of humanity that haven't been exterminated by the über-violent fascist elites. If you believe in that kind of thing."

"Honestly, these days it sounds almost plausible," Scully tells him, leaning on one of the desks. Whoever has funded the untimely revival of the X-Files has been generous: they have two normal desks and four standing desks scattered around the office. It's much too flexible a workspace for two people.

Their phones go off almost in unison. They both reach for them.

"Skinner," Scully says.

"Skinner," Mulder confirms. He reads the message: Situation critical. Need to see you both ASAP.

They look at each other.

"Scully, are you ready for this?" Mulder asks.

"I don't know there's a choice," she says, but she sounds fierce and proud.

There are wheels turning somewhere. He can almost hear the gears of the world grinding. They won't get caught in the teeth this time, won't get torn apart. Whoever is behind everything they've been through will be exposed, finally and totally, brought to light. They'll have to open the wound to clean it out, but that's all right. They've finally learned how to heal. He opens the door for her and they stride toward the elevator together.

#xfiles fic #the x-files fic #xf alternate season 10 #xf revival fic #mulder x scully #my fic #atcwm verse

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comradecrossing · 6 years

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An Incomplete List of Things I Would Like to See in Future Animal Crossing Games:

The list is long, and I have no life

🌷 The ponds freeze over in winter and can be skated on, maybe you can find holes in the ice and go ice-fishing

🌷 The game to warn you when your battery is low like in WildWorld (if necessary) 🌷 Deep-Sea fishing with Kapp’n where he takes you out to sea and you catch fish together and he occasionally makes jokes

🌷 leaves piling up in fall, maybe cranky&normal villagers rake them and you and villagers have the option of jumping in them

🌷 less restrictions with landscaping and interior design (like hhd rules)

🌷 more fruit trees with more variety of colors, theres so many yellow-red fruit

🌷 since the very first game i’ve wanted to cook, can we please get recipes?? Maybe gullivers treats can become recipes you can bake and give out

🌷 A toolbox, or more pocket space similar to Pocket camp

🌷 Pokemon themed Nintendo items (seriously tho why isnt that a thing yet?)

🌷 the ability to decide what theme the shopping district is so it doesnt have to be a city theme

🌷 make the bulletin board worth checking again! bring back the little messages from WW, include the treasure hunts from PG, add little helpful game tips and trivia

🌷 bring back raffles and grab-bags at the end of the month

🌷 let me wave to villagers again like in WW & CF

🌷 Full Character customization, maybe let me pick an animal to be

🌷 bring back the gyroid out front of the house and you can switch it out with gyroids you unearth and it sings and dances when youre near by

🌷 way more dialogue. i feel like ive read every line after a week of play, i know it takes time to write (and translate) all the blurbs but please im dying i cant answer the same question 7 times in a row.

🌷 PWPs can be improved in every aspect: Make it possible to build more than one at a time or let me demolish and build in the same day, more varied and optional designs, include the amenities, make it possible to place them near buildings and trees/bushes and on the beach, get rid of the two space buffer completely, let me MOVE projects, and let us interact with them other than sitting on 90% of them.

🌷 I know this has been said a bunch but let me design villagers houses! and also decide where they move!!

🌷 the ability to obtain an at-home QR/PRO machine like the abd

🌷 animate the villagers. they could be running, eating fruit/fish/candy, reading, chasing balls like PG, drinking coffee/soda, sweeping, building snowmen (and you can help), etc, both inside and outside

🌷 More Camera angles/Better control of camera angles for better photo taking

🌷 more bugs/fish to catch, is that absurd of me to want? I feel like you catch them all way to quickly. I would also looove for them to bring back the CityFolk style museum as it was so much fun to run around, especially the dinosaur exhibit. it may be an unpopular opinion but the one in ACNL is probably my least favorite.

🌷 a pocket camp type move in system. Perhaps a random villager or two will walk around your town each day and you can fulfil tasks for them or meet simple conditions for the town to convince them to move, but the point here is you get to choose who moves in. Perhaps give an option to evict or at least change the cycling so that my best friends aren't the most likely to leave.

🌷 Bring back Blather’s Info-dumping and Celeste’s observatory

🌷 The Roost becomes more interactive: villagers can invite you for coffee dates/breaks, you could do coffee deliveries to NPCs and Villagers, KK plays there again instead of club 101, Brewster collects gyroids again, and maybe his pocket camp coffee cart can make a cameo and he strolls around town pushing it and little bells chime

🌷 Give Sabel and Isabelle some time off I am begging you, give me an option to spend a 3-minute long break and take them to the cafe or something at the very least

🌷 Let me ask villagers for errands again (but dont make it the option above small talk) like in ACPG

🌷 Give me like 50 pattern spaces, 200 for the design saver, please thank you

🌷 MORE EVENTS and not just more bug/fishing tourneys bring back weekly/monthly events like ACWW and definietly events like summer aerobics and cherry blossom viewing party

🌷 Festival fans and masks like ACPG (im just getting nostalgic now huh?)

🌷 Villagers actually help out with donations not just a couple hundred bells at a time

🌷 transparency option for path tiles

like i know i mentioned certain things that are already implemented in HHD & ACPC but honestly i feel HHD and PC have been huge tests for Nintendo to tweak these features before putting them in a main game, i only hope my hunch is correct.

#animal crossing #animal crossing switch #new leaf #city folk #population growing #text #long post #acnl addicts #acnl community #acaddicts #ac community

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ryukoishida · 6 years

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QZGS|The King’s Avatar Fic: In which drunk!YX meets witch/teashop owner!WJX [Coffee Shop AU]

Title: (I’m Not Throwing Away) My Shot Fandom: The King’s Avatar / Quan Zhi Gao Shou Character(s)/Pairing(s): WangYe; Chu Yunxiu Summary: Ye Xiu hadn’t expected the day would come when he’d get kicked out of Excellent Era — the game development company that he helped built from scratch — yet here he was. He was not the type of man to brood over something inevitable, because there had been signs, and he should have known better. Morose, frustrated, and incredibly drunk in his friend Chu Yunxiu’s lounge, Misty Rain, Ye Xiu met the tea sommelier and witch, Wang Jiexi. [(Magical) Coffee Shop AU] Part: 1/1 Rating: PG-13 A/N: Happy birthday, best dad Captain Wang! Takes place before “The Magic Hour is Now” (YuHuang). Utterly self-indulgent, as usual.

Writing Commission | Editing & Translation Services

---

"How much booze did you put in this?"

Ye Xiu was holding the stem of the champagne flute absentmindedly, swirling the content inside; he narrowed his eyes with suspicion, bruised shadows beneath them telling of many nights too involved with work to have a proper sleeping schedule for days on end.

"I'm not wasting my best champagne on a guy who gets drunk after just one glass," Chu Yunxiu, the alchemic mixologist and owner of Misty Rain, one of the more high-end lounges in downtown, murmured in slight disdain.

"Then this isn't a mimosa, is it?" Ye Xiu glowered, placing the glass down with a resolute clink.

A few drops of the liquid spilled over the rim and left a sticky trail over his fingers, which made his frown more profound.

"No, it's just orange juice in a fancy glass." Tucking a strand of dark hair behind the curve of her ear, Chu Yunxiu smiled cheekily at him, slapped a napkin down beside the glass, and proceeded to go over to greet another patron who’d just sat down at the bar.

By the time he finished wiping his hand and lit a cigarette, Chu Yunxiu was already back in her original position, elegantly pouring precise measures of different coloured alcohol, fruit juices, and syrups into the silver cocktail shaker.

“Come on, Lao Chu, give me a break, will you?” Ye Xiu continued their previous conversation as if they’d never been interrupted, and he blew out a stream of smoke in a melodramatic manner that had Chu Yunxiu, who’d known this man for almost a decade — since high school, actually — rolling her eyes. “I’m depressed and unemployed, and I want to drink my sorrows away. Won’t you help a dear old friend out?”

He slumped over the bar countertop and rested his chin on his arms, dark eyes staring up expectantly at the beautiful woman through frazzled forelocks. Said beautiful woman paid him no heed as she continued to artfully shake the apparatus with both of her hands, the cold metal winking sharply under the dimmed lighting of the lounge, the wine-red of her nail polish a stark contrast to the alabaster paleness of her skin, making her movements more like a practiced, elegant choreography than tedious repetition.

She grabbed a chilled martini glass, rimmed in sugar, and poured the crisp-toned drink with a tint of yellow into the glassware, adding some lemon rinds on the side as the final touch of the dance.

After she served another patron and came back, the bartender still remained silent, red lips pursed in thought.

“Lao Chu…” Ye Xiu started again, a hint of childish whining laced within his deep voice. An unusual combo even for one of the most shameless men Chu Yunxiu had the misfortune to know.

“You mentioned the word ‘old’ one more time, Ye Xiu, I swear to god—"

“Please accept my most sincere apology, Ms. Chu, oh most beauteous, virtuous queen of the classy club scene—”

“Save it,” Chu Yunxiu sighed, hazel gaze finally sparing a sympathetic glance at his direction. “If I make you a drink, will you be a good boy and go home after so I can do my business in peace?”

“Absolutely,” Ye Xiu nodded, instantly pulling himself up into a proper sitting position. “So, an actual mimosa then…?”

“I’m making you something else,” Chu Yunxiu was resolute in this regard. She picked out several bottles that lined the shelves mounted on the back wall and began to pour them carefully into the shaker.

Satisfied by the fact that he was about to get joyously drunk on some sort of delicious, fruity cocktail, Ye Xiu was content just quietly observing his friend shine on her stage.

It was always entrancing watching the famed bartender of Misty Rain concoct her signature drinks. Back when she was in school, she’d double-majored in botany and culinary sorcery; after that, she spent a few years abroad studying winemaking and brewing techniques in several European countries, which allowed her to sophisticatedly combine alcohol and the magical properties of plant- and flower-based liqueurs. These days, as her reputation of being the only female executive in the competitive business of club management and a skilled alchemic mixologist spread far and wide in the city, Chu Yunxiu became known as a bartender who specialized in creating the perfect, magical cocktail that would satisfy the drinker — whether the patron was drinking to forget, to gain confidence, to fall in love, to fall out of love, to always remember…

Chu Yunxiu paused when she got to the last step of mixing; usually if she were to cast a spell, this would be the time to add the final key ingredient. Depending on what effects she was trying to achieve, she would add a combination of the liqueurs or specially-treated flowers or minerals she kept in a locked cabinet that only she and her assistant Li Hua had access to.

The subtle pause didn’t escape Ye Xiu’s observation, who only needed to shake his head once to notify the mixologist that he was not seeking comfort in the embrace of magic tonight.

Sure, it sucked to get kicked out of the game development company that he’d built from scratch — that he basically brought to its current success almost single-handedly — only to be abandoned by his boss and teammates because apparently his next project was deemed too old-fashioned for the young people of this age. Ye Xiu wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but he was certain that part — if not most — of the reason his latest project got rejected, that he himself got rejected, was due to the fact that his last few games hadn’t earned the company as much profit as Tao Xuan had hoped.

It might also have to do with the fact that Ye Xiu was very firmly against the incorporation of sorcery into gaming hardware, and from Excellent Era’s perspective, that was a lost opportunity financially that they’d rather avoid.

Call him primitive if you would, but Ye Xiu was adamant about keeping sorcery and magic away from the gaming industry. It just didn’t seem… right.

It wasn’t as if Ye Xiu hadn’t expected this. Though he might seem frivolous at times, always going along with the flow of his life with a devil-may-care attitude that had his friends equally impressed and worried, the experienced programmer and designer really did pour all his time, energy, and passion into Excellent Era for the past decade. In the beginning, the team had a very clear goal they were striving for, but once they’d achieved it, had a sweet and addictive taste of victory, they wanted more and the company’s path began to diverge from Ye Xiu’s.

So yeah, he’d seen this coming, and it really, really sucked, but Ye Xiu wasn’t a man who liked to brood over something inevitable. Still, he had to admit that being abandoned — would ‘betrayed’ be a more accurate description in this case? He didn’t know — it hurt more than Ye Xiu had anticipated. Even more poignant was the waves of emptiness and disappointment that he found himself drowning and suffocating in as he wandered aimlessly in the crowded streets of downtown tonight.

Before he knew it, Ye Xiu had found himself at the doors of Misty Rain. He wasn’t a drinker, but occasionally he’d have business meetings in one of the private rooms here, or he’d meet up with a few close friends for a (non-alcoholic) drink and mindless but entertaining conversations.

Garnishing the martini glass with a sprig of fresh lavender, Chu Yunxiu presented the drink to her friend with a small flourishing introduction, “Here you go: Lavender Martini. Changed the proportions of the base just for you, you lightweight.”

The cocktail gleamed with a tinge of mystique under the warm, orange light of the lounge, the crystal-violet swaying in the tall-stemmed glass like liquid amethyst that held some kind of unnamable power. The sprig of lavender leaned against the side of the glass, forlorn but elegant.

“Always so considerate,” Ye Xiu praised her with a mocking grin, picking up the glass and raising it towards Chu Yunxiu, and said with a bittersweet tone, “cheers.”

The first sip was creamy and smooth, terrifyingly easy to go down, making him crave more already though he knew even a small amount of alcohol would be a danger to himself. After the sweetness of vanilla dissipated, the gentle floral flavor of lavender spread in his mouth before the delicate earthy undertones of juniper berries took over. Even without the magical spells, the complex aroma of Chu Yunxiu’s cocktail still had the ability to fascinate, bewitch, and capture the heart of the drinker.

“This is good,” Ye Xiu said, like he was genuinely surprised, after he’d swallowed the first mouthful, one corner of his lips twisting up.

“Flattery will get you nowhere,” Chu Yunxiu hummed, though there was the smallest hint of a pleased smile along her painted lips, “you’re only getting one drink tonight.”

“Oh well, I tried,” Ye Xiu shrugged and took another sip, his eyes slipping close to enjoy the light yet dizzying flavor.

“Should I give Mucheng a call and tell her to pick up your drunk, sorry ass later?” Chu Yunxiu asked as she mixed another drink for another patron. She could already spot the flush tinting Ye Xiu’s usually pale cheeks, and when the man glanced over at her words, it took him several seconds to focus.

“No. D-don’t call her,” Ye Xiu’s tone was uncharacteristically imploring, which surprised Chu Yunxiu though she said nothing. “Please.”

“She’ll know eventually.”

“I know. Just, not right now. Not tonight.”

Before Chu Yunxiu had a chance to convince him otherwise, she was waved over by Li Hua, who notified her that the big party of fifteen that had made a reservation for their VIP room had arrived and the boss was required to greet them. With such a huge group, it was either a celebratory occasion or an important business deal about to be finalized. Either way, both of these circumstances would usually necessitate the presence of Misty Rain’s alchemic mixologist, who would be responsible for mixing cocktails that enhance a patron’s mood or increase a businessman’s power of persuasion.

“Don’t drop while I’m gone,” Chu Yunxiu tapped her friend’s shoulder as she breezily walked by behind him, “I’m not paying taxi fare to get you home.”

“Heartless,” Ye Xiu chuckled, the word a little muffled since his lips were still touching the rim of the glass.

“Bite me,” Chu Yunxiu ran fingers through her wavy locks to tame them as best as she could before she walked away to receive her guests.

Meanwhile, Ye Xiu continued sipping his drink and taking drags on his cigarette, his gaze sporadically lingering on the different patrons in the lounge. He didn’t know how much time had passed, only that the cocktail had definitely made him feel more relaxed, the tenseness in his shoulders melting away, the swirl of repetitive thoughts in his head becoming nothing but a warm haze, the edges of his vision blurring like an out-of-focus photograph. He felt his eyelids steadily growing heavier, the asphyxiated weight he’d been feeling since he stepped out of the office of Excellent Era that night lifting just a little from his chest, allowing him to breathe easier.

When Chu Yunxiu came back to work on the drinks the party had ordered, she saw, with a helpless but tender smile on her face, that Ye Xiu had finished his cocktail and had, as she expected, collapsed onto the table, cheek resting on his forearms, fingers still loosely looped around the stem of the empty glass.

She shrugged off the jade green suit jacket she’d worn over her shoulders and placed it gently over Ye Xiu’s back, and then she went around the counter to begin mixing a new batch of drinks.

Just as she was about to finish up the last order, a familiar face approached the bar, his forelocks covering his left eye, his oversized sweater and knitted scarf an apparent disparity from the other patrons in the lounge, who were at least donning semi-formal fashion.

“Ms. Chu, I’m here with your order,” the man said, his voice almost lost in the contemporary jazz playing in the background as he heaved a cardboard box onto the counter.

“Jiexi?” Chu Yunxiu greeted the man with a bright smile. “Rare to see you deliver personally.”

“I didn’t want to trouble my staff this late at night, so I figure I’d pay you a visit myself,” Wang Jiexi gave her a light smile — effortless but distant. “If you have some time, you can check over the stock and see if there are any issues.”

“We’ve collaborated for so long, I know I’d have no problems dealing with you,” Chu Yunxiu laughed, pouring the last drink from the cocktail shaker into a margarita glass and garnishing it with a single treated violet blossom after murmuring a short spell under her breath. She sat the glass down carefully onto a tray and gestured for the servers to take them to the VIP room.

“I’ll be back in a few,” Chu Yunxiu said with a wave of her hand, “make yourself at home.”

Wang Jiexi nodded and seated himself on one of the stools. After scrolling on his phone for a few minutes, he quickly got bored and glanced around his surroundings in curiosity instead. Clubs and bars were not places he frequented since he preferred quiet premises with more natural lighting, but even Wang Jiexi, who was the owner of a sorcery-based tea shop named Tiny Herb Teahouse, had to admit that Misty Rain had the kind of chic and elegant air — much like the owner of the lounge herself — that Wang Jiexi didn’t exactly find disagreeable.

Two seats adjacent to his, Wang Jiexi spotted a man who seemed to be… sound asleep? The green jacket thrown over his back was slipping due to his unconscious shifting about in his slumber, and the man’s face, though shielded by messy ink-black hair, still showed signs of exhaustion and inebriation in the blush of his face and shadows beneath his eyes. The slightest frown appeared along Wang Jiexi’s brows, and he considered going over to see if he was all right. How much alcohol must the man had consumed to get to this point?

“Sorry for the wait,” Chu Yunxiu’s silvery voice interrupted Wang Jiexi’s contemplation as she slipped behind the bar counter once more, “now, what have you brought me this time?”

Wang Jiexi immediately turned his attention back to the owner of Misty Rain, took out a piece of paper, opened the cardboard box, and began to go over the products Chu Yunxiu had ordered: various dried and powdered herbs and flowers, fresh floral petals kept moist in special containers, artisanal syrups and extracts refined from rare plants and flowers with remarkable magical properties when combined correctly with other ingredients.

Chu Yunxiu was happy with the quality of the products that Wang Jiexi had brought over, and asked invitingly, “A drink on the house?”

“Thanks, but I’m driving tonight,” Wang Jiexi declined politely, and then his gaze shifted over to the man who hadn’t moved from his position in the last twenty minutes since he and Chu Yunxiu had started talking.

“Is… Is that man all right?” Wang Jiexi asked the bartender.

“Oh, Ye Xiu? Eh, he’s fine. He’s the kind of guy who falls asleep after just one glass. Pathetic, right?” Chu Yunxiu said, seemingly unconcerned, but then the teasing light in her eyes softened like she couldn’t quite help herself and said in a softer voice so that only Wang Jiexi could hear her, “he’d had a long day though. Well, from what I understand, I guess the last couple of months had been hard on him.”

Wang Jiexi didn’t ask for an explanation; after all, this man — Ye Xiu, was it? — was just a stranger. A man whom he hadn’t even exchange a word with. Yet seeing him in this dimmed lighting, with muffled conversations humming all around them, sinking and floating within it but entirely excluded from it, and soft music playing in the background, Wang Jiexi almost thought the man looked vulnerable.

“Will he be okay getting home by himself?” Wang Jiexi asked anyway, despite telling himself that he shouldn’t stick his nose where it didn’t belong. That voice in his head sounded very weak and unconvincing at this moment, and Wang Jiexi easily pushed it aside.

“I was about to call him a taxi when he sobers up,” Chu Yunxiu sighed, “but with this guy, I have no idea how long it’ll take for him to wake up. The cocktail I made him earlier was kind of strong.”

The tea sommelier glanced over at Ye Xiu’s sleeping face again, the steady, steady beat of his heart trembling just the slightest at the man’s parted lips, the limp, lifeless forelocks falling haphazardly into his eyes, the slow rise and fall of his back, and he found himself speaking, “if you have his address, I can take him home.”

“You don’t mind?” Chu Yunxiu was surprised that he even offered. While they had been acquainted with each other for about two years from their business dealings, their relationship remained just as such — that of business partners. Wang Jiexi was a trustworthy man when it came to his work, this Chu Yunxiu had no doubt, but she had never known him as someone who would voluntarily help out a stranger in their time of need. Clearly, there was more to Wang Jiexi than the distant and aloof persona that the tea sommelier and witch usually presented himself.

“He looks like he can use a better place to sleep in,” Wang Jiexi said, mildly amused.

“If you really don’t mind, I’ll take you up on your offer,” Chu Yunxiu scribbled down Ye Xiu’s address on a notepad and tore off the first page, handing it over to Wang Jiexi. “I feel better leaving him in the hands of someone I know. Oh, and next time, you’re not allowed to decline a drink, okay? It’s on me.”

“For sure, Ms. Chu,” Wang Jiexi nodded with a smile, and entered the address into his phone’s GPS, which quickly displayed the fastest route to Ye Xiu’s address.

“Oi, Ye Xiu,” Chu Yunxiu called her friend, attempting to wake him up, but Ye Xiu only responded with a nasally groan. “Ye Xiu, wake up, you’re going home.” She lightly tapped Ye Xiu on the cheek, which seemed to have finally done the trick, as he blearily blinked open his eyes, dazed and unseeing.

“Wha— Yer taking me home, Lao Chu? Dun y’have, like, a bar to run?” his words were slurred but at least he was making sense.

“Yeah, yeah, I do. That’s why I’m kicking you out and letting this gentleman take you home instead,” Chu Yunxiu helped him up by hauling him to his feet with care while Wang Jiexi slipped to the drunken man’s side to support him on the left.

“Oh? And who’s this nice gentleman that you speak of?” Ye Xiu chuckled, his voice hoarse from the alcohol as he turned around to face the stranger, his eyes twinkling with humor and harboring an eerily clear perception for someone who was supposed to be so drunk he could hardly stand on his own two feet without help.

“Wang Jiexi,” he briskly introduced himself, sliding Ye Xiu’s arm around his own shoulders so that he could support the drunken man more securely. “Ms. Chu’s business acquaintance.”

“Huh…” Ye Xiu made a noise as if he was deep in thought, but less than five seconds later, Wang Jiexi could feel Ye Xiu’s body gradually leaning more and more against his frame, and ‘lo and behold, the man had somehow miraculously fell back asleep standing up. Having a few centimeters of height advantage over Ye Xiu, Wang Jiexi could at least half-haul and half-carry him all the way to the parking lot; getting him into the car required a bit of semi-aggressive shoving into the backseat, but in the end, Wang Jiexi managed to safely drive themselves to where Ye Xiu supposedly lived.

“Mr. Ye, your keys?” It took a few more calls of his name and some shaking on the shoulders to get Ye Xiu conscious enough to answer.

“Hmm? W’keys?” he mumbled incoherently, eyes blinking like something kept trying to keep them shut.

“Your house keys,” Wang Jiexi said patiently, leaning over to unbuckle the seatbelt. He caught a waft of sweet floral scent just as Ye Xiu was exhaling, and he almost bumped his head on the roof of the car in his haste to pull away from the man — it was too sweet, his breath, too vulnerable the way he allowed a stranger to get this close, and all of this was much too tempting.

Clueless as to what a storm he was causing to a man he’d hardly talked to, Ye Xiu’s eyes slipped close, and Wang Jiexi was afraid that he’d fallen asleep again, but then Ye Xiu made a long humming sound, like he was having a good, long moment of serious thought, before he blurted out bright and clear, “I don’t have ‘em.”

“You don’t… You don’t have your keys,” Wang Jiexi could feel the vein in his temple bulging in irritation. He really should have just shut up and stayed in his lane, he thought to himself with an internal sigh.

“Nope,” Ye Xiu confirmed, and then he slumped backwards, head lolled forward, to continue his alcohol-induced slumber.

“Great,” Wang Jiexi murmured, running a hand through his hair. He could bring him back to Misty Rain, but he didn’t want to trouble Chu Yunxiu, who looked hectic serving patrons by the time they were leaving; he could bring Ye Xiu to a hotel, but that required too much explanation afterwards. In the end, he decided to bring him back to his teashop.

Ye Xiu remained sound asleep during the drive to Tiny Herb Teahouse, and even through the bodily shuffling out of the vehicle, being piggybacked into the darkened shop, and being planted onto the plush armchair in Wang Jiexi’s consultation room, the drunken man managed to stay unconscious, his breathing maintaining a peaceful, steady rhythm, dark lashes casting darker shadows on his cheeks.

After draping a blanket over the sleeping man, Wang Jiexi stepped out of the room to let him rest.

Yet his heart remained restless. It wasn’t merely because he had brought a strange man into his shop; he could easily have left the man alone back at the lounge, pretended he didn’t see him — his defenseless sleeping body, the fatigue that lined his face, the desolation and melancholy that seeped out of his hunched back and silently yearned for someone to take notice, to give him a hand, to care.

Curiosity, in the end, won out.

From the cupboard under the counter, lighted up only by a few dangling lights that glowed an eerie white over light-colored wooden furnishing and peculiar shadows of potted plants, their vines and leaves crawling and hugging along the beams of the high ceiling, Wang Jiexi carefully took out a teapot, a glass jar of loose Pu’er tea leaves, a saucer, and a white, porcelain teacup.

While he waited for the water to boil, he spooned out some tea leaves and tipped them into the cup. During this process, he tried to maintain the same peace of mind that he always preserved when he was doing divination for his clients; it was his natural state of mind — the ease with which he saw the highs and lows around him and his heart would never waver in fear or shake in excitement, the instinctive ability with which he could read people just as easily as he could read the past, present, and future of these people through the patterns and images in his cup. That was one of the main reasons why he was so good at this particular branch of sorcery that he’d decided to pursue it as a career.

And now, he had to use a little more than his usual effort and self-control to keep his mind serene and focused.

As he poured hot water over the tea leaves, the steam blurring his vision and moistening his skin, the tips of his forelocks, he watched as the colour of the liquid turned quickly from clear to a creamy brown until the cup was entirely tainted into a rich, scorched shade when the brew was ready to be consumed.

It was almost too easy to let his mind remain occupied on the subject of his divination session, as if he could forget the haunting scent of the ashen smoke and saccharine lavender on Ye Xiu’s breath or the weight and warmth of the man’s body leaning solidly against his own.

When he felt ready, he began drinking his tea one small mouthful at a time. The liquid went down his throat burning that he barely tasted it with the first, hurried sip, but the earthy, woodsy aroma that coated his mouth was a little overwhelming, verging on bitingly bitter, and Wang Jiexi vaguely wondered if he’d steeped the leaves for too long. The notes of tobacco were reminiscent of Ye Xiu, and he closed his eyes, thinking about the man sleeping only a few feet away, unaware of the storm that he had already stirred up during such a brief encounter.

With only a little liquid left, Wang Jiexi swirled the cup three times, causing the tea leaves to disperse around the wide interior of the teacup. Next, he delicately placed the saucer over the cup and flipped it over to drain away the remaining moisture.

The patterns left in the cup made Wang Jiexi frown, his lips tightening into a grim line. All the images that symbolized Ye Xiu’s present circumstances were those of negative connotation, which adequately explained why the man had sought the help of alcohol, and if what Chu Yunxiu told him was true, it sounded like whatever had happened left a strong emotional impact that might have been irreparable if not for what Wang Jiexi saw along the rim of the cup, which represented events in distant future.

Sighing lightly, he set the cup aside and placed the saucer over it once more.

Ye Xiu woke up to an amazing, pounding headache and the warm aroma of leafy tea and fresh citrus.

“Mr. Ye, how are you feeling?” a man’s voice, soft but melodic, asked from somewhere to his right.

“Hnnnnn…” was Ye Xiu’s intelligible answer, and then he declared with a pitiful moan, “I’m never drinking again… fuck.”

“Perhaps that would be for the best,” the stranger agreed, a hint of laughter subtle but still noticeable.

Despite his headache, Ye Xiu finally opened his eyes with some difficulty; his bones and joints ached from remaining in the same position throughout the entire night, and he could feel his body creaking in protest as he tried to sit up, the blanket that’d been draped over him slipping down to his lap. His gaze sluggishly followed the trail of the blanket, and then he gradually lifted his head up and glanced over to his right side, where a man with vibrant green eyes, the left hidden behind stylishly-cut forelocks, holding a steaming teacup was standing and looking at him in silent amusement.

“And you are… wait don’t tell me,” Ye Xiu interrupted him just as he saw the man opening his mouth. “You’re Old Chu’s acquaintance, right? You told me your name last night, I remember. Wang… Jiexi, wasn’t it?”

“You weren’t as drunk as I thought then,” Wang Jiexi sounded impressed, if not for his dry, sarcastic tone.

Ye Xiu could appreciate that, really.

He looked around and seemed to have realized that he was in an unfamiliar room. “Where are we?”

“Tiny Herb Teahouse,” Wang Jiexi replied, “this is my consultation room.”

Ye Xiu gave a low whistle.

“So what — you brew your fancy tea in here and…” Ye Xiu quickly observed the titles of the books in the shelf across from where he was sitting and the unlabeled cabinet beside it, “…read?”

“I brew specialty teas,” Wang Jiexi said.

“’Specialty’ meaning?” Ye Xiu cocked an eyebrow up in question.

This man sure was annoyingly curious and obnoxious when he was sober, Wang Jiexi thought.

“I brew teas that contain magical properties, and I do tasseomancy per clients’ requests,” Wang Jiexi sighed and decided it was best they had this conversation while he was at least sitting down comfortably.

“Tasseomancy?” Ye Xiu entirely skipped past the part where Wang Jiexi mentioned that he made magical teas for a living.

“…I read tea leaves and predict the future,” Wang Jiexi paused for a good two seconds before he gave up and explained. He expected laughter, teasing, insults, or any of the above combination. Even though sorcery had become more commonplace, some people were still very adamant in their beliefs — or doubts, rather — about some branches of magic, especially divination-related ones. Tesseomancy was one of them.

He waited and waited, but nothing came. When Wang Jiexi glanced up from the steaming cup of tea in his hand, he only saw an engrossed gleam in Ye Xiu’s eyes.

“Can you predict my future?” Ye Xiu asked, half genuinely interested, and half wanting to see the reaction this would ignite in Wang Jiexi.

“I already did,” Wang Jiexi said, and then instantly clamped his mouth shut. He wasn’t going to let Ye Xiu knew that; after all, reading a person’s past, present, and future was a personal affair, and Wang Jiexi, if nothing else, was a professional.

“Yeah?” Ye Xiu leaned forward, curiosity obviously piqued now and previous traces of hangover gradually disappearing from the distraction, “and what do the tealeaves say?”

Wang Jiexi swallowed, his eyes unable to tear away from the intensity in Ye Xiu’s stare, but his throat was too tight as he recalled what he saw in the teacup last night.

The tea sommelier placed the cup and saucer onto the table sitting between them a little too hard, the liquid inside sloshing and spilling a few drops, and pushed it towards Ye Xiu.

This gesture seemed to have taken Ye Xiu aback.

“For me?”

Wang Jiexi nodded.

“I’m not a big fan of tea though,” Ye Xiu chuckled, but he pulled the saucer towards himself anyway, fingers wrapping around the cup to enjoy its soothing warmth, elegant index finger curling around the handle to lift it up and take a sniff.

“It’s matcha mixed with dandelion root, nettle leaf, turmeric, and lemon juice,” Wang Jiexi said patiently, “it’ll get rid of your headache and rehydrate your body.”

“Say no more,” Ye Xiu took an experimental sip because as fascinating as this topic was to him, the dull pounding in his head was a nuisance and he’d really like for it to go away as quickly as possible. And honestly, he actually liked what he’d tasted, and so he continued to drink from the cup with a small smile hidden behind the rim of the cup.

“Disharmony. Argument. Betrayal. Disappointment,” Wang Jiexi listed as he watched Ye Xiu took careful sips of the tea that he’d brewed for him, “that was what I’d seen last night. That was what caused you to end up at Misty Rain, wasn’t it? But I didn’t see anger, hatred, or vengeance, which are usually related to the aforementioned events and emotions during these kinds of readings.”

“Either Lao Chu had told you something, or you really are very good at this tealeaf reading business,” Ye Xiu said with a charming smile, one that was disarming but equally deceptive, and placed the empty cup back into the saucer.

The tea was soothing and rejuvenating — the slight bitterness of the caffeine and fragrance in the powdered green tea had woken him up, and the hint of tart lemon left a clean, refreshing taste in his mouth.

“I rarely misread,” Wang Jiexi only said.

“You know, all of this had been a very peculiar experience: just when you think you know someone so well — like they’re part of your family, and you trust them as much as they trust you — they think nothing of it and stab you in the back. So of course, I’d felt betrayed, of course I’d been disappointed, but the funny thing was, I’d been expecting this to happen for a long while now. There had been signs all along: we were striving for the same thing when we started out with nothing, and before we knew it, we were on very different paths and we were too stubborn to compromise.

“I thought I’d be angrier, and I thought about taking revenge because believe it or not, I do have the patience and ability to stir shit up if I want to, but rather than wasting time wallowing in the past and letting it tie me down, wouldn’t it be more productive to consider this as a new beginning instead?” Ye Xiu said all of this in a very mild, serene tone, as if he was narrating somebody else’s misfortunes and not his own.

“You’re actually quite an optimistic man, aren’t you?” Wang Jiexi asked. Not that he was expecting a serious answer.

“Oh, hardly,” Ye Xiu laughed, an unrestrained, desolate sound that belied a more somber sentiment, “I have some savings but if I don’t find employment soon, I’ll be in trouble.”

“Is that so.”

“Hey, Wang Jiexi,” Ye Xiu suddenly leaned forward again, which made the tea sommelier a little nervous as he unconsciously pushed his body back against his armchair.

“Yes?”

“Is there a silver lining in my future?”

Wang Jiexi blinked, not expecting this question at all.

Despite the ominous images floating at the bottom of the teacup, the ark rode on the horizon.

“A new influence will help you find refuge in your time of distress,” Wang Jiexi said softly, lowering his head for a brief moment so that it was impossible for Ye Xiu to read anything from the man’s eyes or facial expressions. The tea sommelier retrieved the empty cup and saucer from the table and stood up as he got ready to leave his guest to rest some more.

“You mentioned that you don’t have your house keys with you,” Wang Jiexi said, pausing at the doorway though his back was still facing towards Ye Xiu, “you should get that figured out. Maybe get a locksmith or something—"

“I lied.”

“Excuse me?”

“I wanted to stay with you a little longer,” Ye Xiu said in that same frustratingly composed voice as if nothing was wrong about his questionable action last night, “I wanted to talk to you more, when I’m less inebriated, y’know, so I lied about not having my keys.”

“Ye Xiu, you…” Wang Jiexi finally turned around, hands trembling, and the cold fury in his eyes could pierce through iron walls, but somehow, the anger was already simmering down into flickers of something else entirely.

As if he thought the situation wasn’t dire enough, Ye Xiu decided to throw gasoline into the fire he’d started by pulling out a set of tinkling keys from the inside pocket of his suit jacket and dangling them on his index finger like a bait, his lips twisted upwards into a mischievous smirk.

“Wang Jiexi, will you be the new influence that help me find refuge?”

#qzgs #tka #quan zhi gao shou #the king's avatar #wangye #wang jiexi #ye xiu #bowie's crappy writing

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