#so that they’d be more circular and less oval

[sodacowboy]

yeah so anyway the meds I’m on make the process of drafting these dolls even more slow going than they were to begin with but they are still going

[mikotyzini]

What Defines Us - Ch. 32

Gotta run, but managed to find time to post this morning!  

“Weiss?” Ruby asked as the platform locked in place - her feet giving a little jolt against the ground as it did so.  

Glancing at the new environment, she found that the platform they’d taken into the arena was now a seamless part of the battlefield - which was nothing more than a massive oval covered in large, white tiles that shimmered with hidden energy.  Surrounding them were huge risers that towered into the sky.  The seats of those risers were filled with spectators - most of whom were on their feet as loud cheers rained down to the arena floor - whistles, claps, shouts, and everything in between.  

The seemingly never-ending cheers kickstarted Ruby’s adrenaline and filling her with an urge to fight and be awesome for everyone in attendance.  She was ready to do her best - no matter how good or bad that might be.  

But, she was also confused as heck.  Because why was Weiss here?

Oh.

Well, duh.  Of course Weiss came to take their teammate’s place.  Why had it taken Ruby so long to figure that out?  It was exactly the type of gesture she expected from Weiss - who was, without a doubt, one of the sweetest people in existence.

As her heart swelled with gratitude for the girl standing in front of her, she smiled.  

Who cared if her partner was too busy to make the trip?  Weiss showed up like she always did.  Whenever Ruby needed something, Weiss was there to be supportive or encouraging or just really, really pretty to look at.  Those were only some of the reasons Ruby liked her so much.

And honestly, she’d rather spend time with Weiss anyway.

“You’re gonna fight with us?” she asked, taking a step forward and reaching out.  But this time, unlike all the previous times, Weiss didn’t move closer.  Instead, she stood rigidly in place and never broke Ruby’s gaze.

“Oh look!” one of the announcers shouted from above their heads, making Ruby looked up in surprise to find groups of large speakers placed around the giant arena.  “The whole team’s here!  Put the photo up on the screen, Ren!”

The whole team?

“I’m not in charge of that -”

“Someone put the photo up!  Team RWBY is back!”

What did they mean by the whole team?

“Weiss?” she asked again, taking a step closer only for Weiss to remain fixed in place and nod to something above Ruby’s head - towards the ceiling of the stadium.  Following Weiss’ gaze, Ruby found a video screen hanging high above them with ‘TEAM RWBY’ emblazoned on it for the audience to see - with a video clip playing underneath showing -

The four of them.

Wait, it was RWBY?  Not RUBY?

W...as in, Weiss?

W as in what??

“Yes!  Ok, I wanna do the intro - let me do the intro, Ren!  We have the fiery Yang Xiao Long in yellow, and her feisty partner, Blake Belladonna, in black.  I’ll tell ya - don’t make EITHER of them mad.”

“You would know, Nora…”

A ripple of laughter rolled through the crowd as the announcers’ voices echoed from the loudspeakers.  But Ruby found it just a little bit difficult to focus on what they were saying because...the video...it was kind of showing...

“And thennn we have the super poised Weiss Schnee in white, and her partner, aka team captain extraordinaire - the one, the only, the super speedy, Ruby Roseeeee!”

The crowd erupted in cheers at her name - their applause becoming a wall of movement that blurred together around her.  But what she’d just heard - Weiss Schnee in white.  Her partner -

“This year we’re not giving you guys any cover!” the girl announcer explained before laughing gleefully.  “There’s nowhere to hiiiiideeee!”

“The first round will be Beowolves -”

“And they look hungry!!”

On cue, Beowolves began materializing from thin air around the edge of the circular platform Ruby was standing upon.  Ten, twenty, thirty, forty - too many to count.  The creatures let out growls and howls that sent shivers of anticipation down Ruby’s spine while the crowd gasped.  A large timer appeared on the video screen, counting down from thirty to the beginning of the first round.

Cool, Beowolves, but that was nothing compared to what she’d just learned.  

Even though there were hundreds of Grimm and thousand and thousands of people watching, the only person she cared about was Weiss.  And Weiss was watching her closely - her eyes never leaving Ruby while waiting for a reaction.  On the outside, Weiss looked calm, but Ruby could see that her free hand - the one not clutching Myrtenaster - was trembling.

Glancing up again, Ruby took a good look at the video playing on a loop above their heads.  That was her - and that was Yang - and that was Blake - and that was definitely Weiss…

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Weiss finally called out, raising her voice to be heard over the crowd.  “This wasn’t how I wanted you to find out, but...it took me a while to find the courage to be here.  I hope you can forgive me.”

It was true??  

“Wait,” Ruby said, shaking her head in disbelief.  All the signs pointed at one conclusion, but sometimes it was smart just to come out and bluntly ask.  “You’re our teammate??”

All this time it was Weiss?  But that didn’t make sense!  

Or did it?

Raising Myrtenaster to just below eye level, Weiss gave a tense, sad smile while the audience counted down from five.

“The best teammate you ever had,” she said softly before racing towards the Beowolves when the timer reached two.

Dumbstruck, Ruby turned to Yang for answers or...something.  But Yang just shrugged and tapped Ruby on the shoulder as the timer reached zero and the Beowolves lunged forward in unison.

“Come on, Ruby - let’s show ‘em you haven’t lost a step.”  

Pounding her fists together, Yang raced off to engage the nearest pack of Grimm, leaving Ruby to turn to Blake for advice.

“Fight now, talk later,” Blake recommended before tearing off after Yang.

Fight??  How was Ruby supposed to fight right now??

The first Beowolf to reach her lunged towards her head, but she cut it down in two quick moves.  

“You guys!” she whined as the next Beowolf disappeared just as easily.  Defending herself on autopilot, she searched for Weiss at the other end of the arena.

Weiss.  Her partner.  

Three Grimm leapt towards Ruby at once, forcing her to use her semblance to spin herself in a series of rapid circles that caught them all in her blade.  Without Thorn, that move had been impossible because the force of the motion tore Crescent Rose from her grasp - now it was as easy as eating pie.  

Turning in a half circle, she launched her weapon into a crowd of approaching Beowolves, watched them disappear, then summoned her weapon back to her.  Catching Crescent Rose in one hand, she swept low then high to dispatch a group of Grimm that thought they’d gotten the drop on her.  They hadn’t, obviously, because now they were dead.  Er - or gone.  

Even though this was a simulation, it was lifelike enough to get her adrenaline pumping.  And with her adrenaline pumping, it felt like she was prepared to fight a war on this slick and empty arena floor.

Maybe fighting would be easy.  So what if a bomb had just been dropped on her life?  She could focus on the enemies. That wouldn’t be hard to do, especially with the swarms of fake Beowolves in all directions.  Plus, she loved fighting with Weiss!  Maybe because -

Nope.  Focus, Ruby.  The fight!

Picking a clump of Beowolves, she blasted into them and sliced them to bits in seconds.  More replaced them as soon as they fell, but that only meant there were more for her to kill!

The simulated Grimm looked real - and their movements were real - but when they were destroyed it became obvious this wasn’t real at all.  A cloud of black didn’t disappear into the air like in the wild, but instead the Grimm shattered into shimmering pixels that vanished in far less time.  The effect was actually pretty cool - it was like a shower of silver confetti!

Letting a group of five surround her, she jumped in the air and used her semblance to blast herself in circles - extending Crescent Rose to create a circumference of death.  A shower of silver glitter burst into the air before her feet even touched the ground.

Beowolves were pieces of cake.  Not literally, although that’d be much more scrumptious.  But they were easy to slice through - like butter!  With every jab and pull and spin, more fell.  More replaced them, but then they fell as well.

In a brief interlude, Ruby picked out her teammates to make sure no one needed help.  Blake and Yang were fighting together, and Weiss - Weiss froze a line of eight Grimm to the ground before using a glyph to shoot through them like an arrow.

So cool.  That was Ruby’s partner.  

Oh!  Should she be fighting next to Weiss, like Yang was with Blake?  The plan had been everyone for themselves, but partners stuck together, right?

Spooling up her semblance, she decided that maybe she’d take a lap around the arena and see if Weiss needed any help.  It was pretty obvious that she didn’t, but Ruby could still offer, right?

Crouching her knees before blasting towards the nearest Beowolf, she destroyed it with a single slash of Crescent Rose before continuing in an arcing path that swept her through as many Grimm as possible before nearing the side of the platform Weiss had on lockdown.  

Out of the corner of her eye, Ruby noticed a huge group of Beowolves spawn in the middle of the map and race towards Yang and Blake.  Figuring that her sister had that situation under control, Ruby cut through another Beowolf and flew towards an isolated group of three at full speed.

Lifting Crescent Rose into an attack position, Ruby was just about to take care of this last section of Grimm when they suddenly disappeared - and left Weiss standing in their place.  

Slamming on the brakes, Ruby tried and failed to stop in time - and collided with Weiss instead.  Not hard enough to knock her over or anything!  But hard enough that it was a weird forced hug of sorts.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ruby mumbled while quickly separating herself from Weiss and blushing profusely.  

That had been a lot of touching…

“It’s alright,” Weiss replied with a blush of her own before briefly turning away and scanning for more enemies - although there were none nearby since she’d just cleaned up the last of them without Ruby’s delayed attempt to help.

After staring at each other for a second too long, they both flinched in surprise when a massive explosion shook the arena.  Turning towards the sound, Ruby watched a giant fireball shooting into the air - taking the rest of the Beowolves with it while a loud chime rang out.  Glancing up, she saw that their countdown timer had stopped as well.

Apparently, the Grimm got a little too close to Yang.

“Kaboom!!  I told you not to make her angry!”

“Er...good job!” Ruby said to Weiss while Blake and Yang regrouped with them for the next stage.  

Wow, she felt awkward.  About as awkward as Weiss currently looked while rubbing at her elbow.

“Thank you…”

Ruby’s focus had been so tunneled in on the Grimm that her attention to the rest of the stadium had faded to the background.  Now that the enemies were gone, the noise of the crowd came back to her ears - cheering and clapping and whistles of appreciation.

“This one time I beat Yang in an arm-wrestling competition.  She was so mad, she pushed over a wall in the cafeteria!”  

“Nora, that was you.”

“I demand a rematch!”

When the crowd laughed, Yang chuckled - her eyes still red from battle as she swung her arms back and forth.  

“How’re you doing?” she asked Ruby.

How was she doing?  Well, there was that whole Weiss thing, but when they only had thirty seconds until the next round started - time that was already ticking away - right now didn’t seem like the best moment to talk about that.

“That was great!” she said instead, focusing on the fight and not all that other stuff.

She’d been worried about making a fool of herself or getting them disqualified in the first round, but they’d made it through no problem!  And now her veins were practically vibrating with energy. So much adrenaline!!  That first round hadn’t been bad either - it was actually pretty easy!

“Team RWBY breezes through round one, as expected.”

“I’d say Team RWBY ‘schneezed’ through round one!”

“No, Nora.  We’re not doing that today.”

“What’s next?” Ruby asked while bouncing on her toes.  She was ready for more pretend Grimm - or something to keep her mind occupied for a bit longer.

Low, dangerous growls were her answer - the deep rumblings causing the crowd to collectively draw in a breath.  Pumping one fist, Yang then pointed over Ruby’s shoulder.  

“Hell yeah!  Ursa!”

On the bright side, at least someone was excited to see the rows and rows of giant, towering Grimm with cinder blocks for paws.  Seriously, their claws were probably longer than Ruby’s arm. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but not by much!

“Those are big…” she muttered to herself, clutching Crescent Rose in anticipation while the Ursa shook their heads and sniffed the air before letting out more growls that sounded really, really angry.  

Big was only a good thing when used to describe pieces of cake or bowls of ice cream.  Big Grimm usually meant powerful Grimm.  And powerful Grimm meant hard to kill Grimm.

“They’re clumsy and slow.”

Turning to her right, Ruby was surprised to find Weiss standing near her elbow.  Not too close, but close enough that it would look like they were standing together to an outside observer.  

Because they were standing together!  And why was it surprising that Weiss was here?  Of course she was here!  She’d come to fight with Ruby, just like Ruby wanted.  

But she’d also wanted to meet her partner - which she’d already done like forever ago when Weiss showed up at dinner.

Ugh.  This was so confusing.

“Uh, well I hope so!” Ruby replied, sparing a quick glance towards the rapidly disappearing time until the potentially-deadly Grimm decided standing around wasn’t fun anymore.  

Turning to the side, Weiss gave Ruby a small smile.

“Use your semblance to get behind them, and you’ll be just fine.  Promise.”

Wow, that was super easy.  With one simple promise, Weiss wiped most of Ruby’s nerves away.  Of course, she already knew how Ruby should handle the Grimm because - yeah, nevermind that for now.  Use her semblance, get behind them. Sounded like a piece of cake!

“Thank you, Weiss!” she replied with a grin.  Her gratitude was genuine, but Weiss responded with only a half smile before turning her full attention to the Ursa horde in front of them.  

If the Ursa were clumped together like this, that probably meant that as soon as the round started…

When a chime rang out, the Ursa did exactly what Ruby expected - meaning they all charged forward as one giant wall of angry Grimm.  One Ursa was intimidating...this army was formidable, to say the least.

“I’ll keep their attention.  You guys get behind ‘em!” Yang shouted over the growls and thumps of stampeding feet.

She had no idea how Yang was going to ‘keep their attention’ by herself, but she trusted that her sister knew what she was doing.  Seeing no other options, Ruby did what Weiss suggested - searching for an opportunity to sprint through the oncoming Grimm.  Her eyes were glued to the incoming horde while looking for a sliver of an opening that she could burst through without getting caught between two or more Ursa.  The opening didn’t have to be very big.  It only needed to be enough for her to slip through - there!

Darting forward, she squeezed her way through the first two rows of Ursa before skipping to the side when the Grimm in back blocked her original path.  For the briefest of moments, she was stuck in the center of a deadly mass of claws and glowing red eyes, but the back rows presented an alternate path that she took without hesitation.  Brushing past several Ursa, almost knocked off balance by several more, she managed to make it through unharmed.  

Well, almost unharmed.  Their awful stench hurt her nose!  That was one added bit of realism she could’ve gone without.  The sounds were great and the designs were awesome, but did they really have to add the smells?

The second she found fresh air, she slammed Crescent Rose into the ground and propelled herself through a quick about-face.  Tightening Thorn when the momentum attempted to separate her from her weapon, she released perfectly and kicked up her feet as she flew forward - drilling into an unsuspecting Ursa’s back.  At the speed she was going, there was enough force in the blow to knock the Ursa into the one in front - three of them colliding and tumbling to the ground like bowling pins. Strike!  

Huh...maybe it’d be cool to have drills or some kind of weapon in the bottom of her boots to do more damage!  

One of the Ursa in the back of the crowd noticed her, so there was no time to think through that idea before engaging the creature.  As expected, Weiss’ advice was spot on - they were slow and kind of dumb.  Ruby was a lot faster.  

Ducking under a huge paw flying towards her head, she burst behind the Ursa so quickly that it nearly tumbled to the ground just trying to track her movement.  WIth the creature off balance and exposed, it only took five perfectly-placed blows to send silver sprinkles into the air.

That was her first real-fake Ursa kill!

Most of the Grimm had continued to Yang, who was managing to hold them at bay while Weiss, Blake, and Ruby thinned them out from behind.  She had no idea how Blake and Weiss had gotten through the horde, but they must’ve catapulted over somehow.  Could they jump that far?  Blake probably could.

Solving that mystery would have to wait because what mattered right now was killing Grimm as fast as possible.  That was definitely something Ruby could do!  And, since they were only simulations, she didn’t need to be concerned about her health!  Well, she should be a little worried...she didn’t want to get knocked out of the round by doing something stupid, but for the most part she could fly around killing Grimm with everything she had!

One Ursa, two Ursa, three Ursa, four.  Distracted by Yang, the big Grimm were surprisingly easy to get rid of, and their ranks dwindled by the second.

Now Ruby understood how Yang planned to hold their attention - by allowing them to surround her then relying on her strength to physically push them back.  It seemed just a little dangerous, but she was handling it ok so far!  Plus, at the rate they were moving - with Blake and Weiss knocking down one Ursa after the next - Yang only needed to hold out a little longer...

In the middle of zipping around, then through, another Ursa, Ruby suddenly felt her feet skip unnaturally across the ground while hearing a weird clank-ing noise beneath them.  

What the heck was that?

“Ruby!” Blake shouted over the sound of Ursa growls before ducking underneath a paw.  “The arena’s going to spin!  Hold onto something!”

“Spin?”  

That didn’t make any sense, but Ruby still tried to search for something while also dodging a huge set of claws hurtling towards her head.  What was there to hold onto though?  The entire platform was nothing but flat, white, super-smooth panels.

In crazy unison, her teammates all skipped away from the Ursa - Yang jumping and planting both feet into a poor Ursa’s face before propelling herself out of the crowd.  Blake immediately plunged Gambol into the ground while Yang landed a safe distance away and punched her arm through the floor.  Weiss used Myrtenaster to create her own lever to hold onto.

By the time Ruby thought to use Crescent Rose, her feet had flown out from underneath her and she hit the floor - sticking her arms out at the last instant to soften her fall and keep her from potentially breaking her jaw.  The remaining Ursa had also fallen over - not that it mattered because the next second she was sailing off the edge of the arena towards the risers filled with people.

The Ursa instantly disappeared once they slipped from the platform, but Ruby wasn’t bound by whatever program ran the show.  Nope.  She flew right towards the crowds - until an ice white glyph appeared directly in her path. Without thinking, she spun, planted her boots squarely on the glyph, and rocketed back to the arena.

Just like the grapes had done!

And, just like the grapes, she was now shooting entirely-too-fast towards the still-spinning platform.  

She tried to stick the landing, but all she ended up doing was tumbling forward before sliding towards the other edge of the arena.  With no leverage to use Crescent Rose, she tightened Thorn’s fingers - causing an awful screeching sound to rip through the air until the reinforced metal broke through the floor panels and stuck tight.  Locking Thorn in place, she hung on until the world finally slowed to a stop.

Of course, her world was still spinning when she got to her feet.  After taking one wobbly step forward, she stopped and leaned on Crescent Rose for balance.  Her ears were still working though!  Fine enough that she could hear applause over the sound of one of the announcers giggling.

“They had NO idea that was coming!”

“Ruby almost flew into the stands, but got last-second help from her partner.”

Upon hearing the word, Ruby immediately sought out Weiss - finding that she was walking over to join them.  Each step looked like it was measured, as if she was trying not to stumble like Ruby knew she would if she tried to walk right now.  Blake was walking normally, of course, but her balance was crazy good. And Yang was stumbling, but she made it to Ruby first.

“Should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy,” Yang huffed while dusting debris from her hand.

“That’s probably what got the first team,” Blake added before her eyes drifted up to the clock and then back to Yang.  “We need to be ready for it to happen again. Or else Ruby will get to say ‘hello’ to her fans.”

“I mean, that’s fine with me!  But I’d rather no land in someone’s nachos!” Ruby answered before laughing and turning to a rather silent Weiss.  “Thanks for the assist, Weiss.  You really saved me there!”

“Of course, Ruby,” Weiss answered with a smile and small nod.

“This is pretty easy!” Ruby observed, avoiding that topic while swinging Crescent Rose from side-to-side.  “I kinda thought we’d get knocked out already!”

“The first two rounds are usually easy.  This is where it gets interesting.”

As Blake spoke, two giant creatures began to form on the arena floor - one on either side of them.  Coiled like garden hoses, the Grimm grew larger and larger by the second.  Their identity was revealed when unmistakable forked tongues, huge fangs, and red eyes appeared.  Ruby’s own eyes followed the snakeheads as they rose high into the air, towering above the arena floor and weaving back and forth while locking onto her and her teammates as prey.

“Oh...my...god…” she breathed out.  

It was a King Taijitu.  Two of them. And they were huge.  Like really, really, really huge.

“Ohhh Ruby loves these!”  

Ruby turned towards the speakers - the source of the commentary - before looking back at the snake in front of her.   

“I don’t think so…” she muttered to herself.  

How could she possibly love these things?  They made her skin crawl.  And look at them!  There was nothing lovable about them.  Ursa were kind of cuddly, like bears.  Beowolves had the whole ‘somewhat relatable to dogs in a weird way’ thing going on.  King Taijitus had none of that. They were scaley, and big, and had two freaking heads!

“Split up?” Yang suggested, looking to Ruby for approval.  “You guys take one - Blake and I take the other?”

When Ruby numbly nodded, Yang grinned and slapped her on the back of her shoulder.  A little hard, but that was only because Yang was so amped up right now.

“We’ll take the left!”

“They’re fast.  Be careful,” Blake added before turning towards the left King Taijitu with Yang.

“Goooo Ruby!  Tie ‘em in knots!”

The chime sounded, the round started, and Ruby watched the snakes slither forward.  But they approached far more cautiously than the Ursa or Beowolves had.  So...they were bigger, faster, and smarter.

Eh, so that confidence she’d just been feeling was now gone!

“They’re fast, but you’re faster,” Weiss said quietly while they watched and waited.  “You can do this, Ruby.”

Without another word, Weiss slid smoothly to one side, drawing the attention of the white snake’s head.  The black snake remained focused on Ruby - unnervingly, unblinkingly focused.  When she took a step to one side, the head moved with her.  Moving to the other side, again it followed.  Unlike the Ursa and Beowolves, this Grimm was waiting for her to attack first.  It wasn’t going to throw itself at her willy-nilly - it was strategizing as much as she was.

Which was interesting.  That meant she’d have to outthink it.  This wasn’t just plowing through Grimm fodder - this was a game of who’s smarter.  That did make this a bit more fun than the first two rounds - strategery was always fun!

When Weiss was in place on the opposite side of Ruby, the King Taijitu stopped moving with both heads trained on them.  They were standing just outside of where the snakes could lash out and reach them.  At least, she hoped they were standing far enough away.

But time was wasting away.  They needed to get this done fast, but she didn’t want to rush into anything and get destroyed!  The sound of shotgun blasts rang out from behind her, interspersed with rapid bullets and an occasional hiss of anger while the crowd cheered in earnest.  Yang and Blake had just engaged their King T. - now it was time for Ruby to stop waiting!

Tie them in knots...actually, that was a good idea.  If they were fast, maybe they were too fast.  That was a problem she had a lot of the time.  That’s why she ran into stuff a lot (at least, that’s the excuse she used).

With red eyes trained on her, she began jogging in a slow circle around the beast.  The eyes followed as the head swiveled to track her progress.  The white snake’s head hardly acknowledged her when she passed behind Weiss, but the black snake trailed her the entire time.  Perfect.

Picking up the pace for the next lap and moving within striking distance, Ruby kept a lookout for the incoming attack out of the corner of the eye.  Another lap was made without incident, so she moved even closer and hoped that Weiss understood what she was trying to do. The bait had to be perfectly timed…

Fangs suddenly shot out towards her - faster than she’d expected, but thankfully not fast enough that she couldn’t blast forward out of the way.  The King Taijitu flew past behind her and immediately turned to follow as she raced towards Weiss.  

Right on cue - even though there’d been no cue - Weiss feinted forward and taunted the white head into an attack.  When it flashed forward, both of them dove out of the way and the two heads collided together with a smack.  Rolling back to her feet, Ruby briefly smiled when the sound of laughter reached her ears - but there wasn’t time for much else as the giant snake struggled to reorient itself, shaking both heads and hissing in very loud, very scary anger.

“Don’t give it time!” Weiss shouted while sending streams of red Dust towards the eyes to prevent them from locking on again.  Nodding, Ruby raced towards the creature at its nearest point to her - prepared to attack.

That’s when she heard it again - a clank as her feet stuttered against the ground.  

This time she reacted instantly, slamming Crescent Rose into the ground and locking Thorn in place as the floor suddenly spun in the opposite direction as before.  This instance was much shorter than the first, and she released herself the second the platform stopped - timing it perfectly and propelling herself straight towards the white King Taijitu with Crescent Rose raised in greeting.  The Grimm jerked backward as she slashed at it - making her miss by mere inches before her feet jumped again.

Leaping away as a set of fangs whipped past her ear, she waited until the last possible second to plant Crescent Rose in the ground as the arena spun - using the momentum to swing herself around and launch herself back to the creature the instant she’d lined up the perfect trajectory.  

The arena was still in motion - the King Taijitus ducking their heads while spinning in a rapid circle - and Ruby was now flying through the air as one of the creatures unwittingly approached her path.  

A matter of milliseconds before they collided together, one red eye locked onto her and immediately attacked.  A giant mouth snapped towards her - jaws open, fangs fully extended.

Drawing Crescent Rose back, she flung the weapon forward and watched it slice through the soft, exposed skin of the Grimm’s inner mouth.  Immediately recalling her weapon, a second blow was delivered from behind as Crescent Rose shot back to her and a last-second blast of ice shoved the white head to the side before she ended up inside its mouth.  

As the white side of the King Taijitu began to fall, Ruby caught Crescent Rose and spun in the air to strike out at the black head pursuing her while she fell to the ground.

At least she’d been planning to attack, but a white blur shot through the snake’s head from below and sent a shower of silver in the air as Ruby landed and slid a step backward before everything came to a complete stop.  A few seconds later, Weiss dropped from the sky and landed in a crouch with Myrtenaster still at the ready.

She looked so cool.  Like a huntress from the movies or something.  It was rude to stare, but Ruby couldn’t help it.  Weiss was so poised and pretty and awesome!

After briefly glancing at Ruby, Weiss turned to the other side of the arena.  Ruby’s gaze followed to find that the other Grimm was already half crippled and had somehow gotten one of its fangs stuck in Yang’s grasp.  While it struggled to escape, Blake sent a flurry of blows to cut it down.  In a matter of seconds, she must’ve hit the beast hundreds of times - and she could’ve done even more if it hadn’t disappeared in a cloud of glitter an instant later.

But they were done.  They’d done it!  The crowd was cheering and everything!

“That wasn’t so bad!” she told Weiss, both of them breathing a little heavily from exertion.  When Weiss smiled in return, this time it was a real smile.

“I knew you could do it.”

“Not without you!  Teamwork!”  Giving a little hop of joy and a grin, for a split second it felt like nothing had changed.  It wasn’t until Yang and Blake rejoined them that Ruby remembered that tiny little bombshell from a few minutes ago.  But this was still awesome and fun!  And she was glad Weiss was here versus some stranger.  Plus, they made a good team - what with Weiss pretty awesomely taking out that King Taijitu right when Ruby had caused enough distraction that it was vulnerable.

“Team RWBY has little problem with the arena this time - dispatching those King Taijitus easily.”

“They need to spin the floor faster!  Can they do that?  Can I be in charge of that?”

“For the safety of our contestants, I’m going to say no -”

“Oh nevermind, I thought of one!  The ‘RW’ part of Team RWBY will make you ‘rue’ the day you messed with them!”  

“Really, Nora?”

“This is fun!” Ruby said, bouncing up and down while the announcers bantered and the clock rapidly ticked down to the next round.  Not having any type of cover was a little weird but made things more interesting.  And the spinning was actually pretty cool now that she knew when it would happen!  Plus, the simulated Grimm were just awesome in general.  Could they get one of these things in their backyard?  She wanted to fight Grimm at home!  That’d be the best thing ever!  Although it might freak the neighbors out...

“Ren, I’ve been wondering - could they ‘BY’ anymore ferocious?”

“Alright - time for round four.”

“How do you think we’re doing on time?” Yang asked while glancing at the clock, slightly breathless.

“We’re not going to have much left.”

“Damn.  What’s next?  I wasn’t paying attention.”

Yang was still speaking when their next enemies materialized on one end of the arena.  The yellow stingers held high in the air immediately gave the creatures away - Death Stalkers - a lot of them.  Big ones, too.  As soon as they were fully formed, their claws clacked together in anticipation while they shuffled side-to-side on those strange rows of tiny legs.  A few whipped their stingers forward like they were warming up - the speed enough to send an audible snap through the air. Their thick armor plating was pristinely white and marked with veins of glowing red.  

Almost too perfectly marked, but that didn’t make them any less intimidating.  They were big.  And something about that clacking sound made Ruby’s stomach turn.

“Weiss…” Yang said, her voice carrying that same warning tone Ruby recognized from whenever she was thinking about doing something stupid.

“You’ve got them,” Weiss replied, lowering Myrtenaster while Blake and Yang flew across the field when the chime rang out.  Ruby watched in dumbfounded awe as the Death Stalkers tried to swarm and collapse on the two girls, but between Yang’s fists beating them back and Blake’s shadow clones and ribbon twisting Yang about, the Grimm could never get a drop on the pair.

The crowd roared when Yang grabbed ahold of one of the stingers and Blake seamlessly separated it from the creature before Yang slammed it into another.

But while they were fighting, Weiss seemed perfectly content to stay on the far side of the arena.  Which was confusing. Why would Weiss want to stay here? Ruby wanted in on the action!  Her adrenaline was still running full force, but she also didn’t feel like she could leave Weiss’ side.  They were partners!  In every sense of the word!

Undecided, Ruby turned back and forth several times while weighing her options.  They were running out of time, but Weiss wasn’t moving!  Leave her here and help Blake and Yang?  Or stay here until Weiss decided to move?

“You want to go?” Weiss finally asked, turning towards Ruby with a knowing expression.

“Uh...yeah, kinda,” she answered honestly.  There were Grimm to be killed, and she wanted to do the killing.

Nodding, Weiss placed her palms together and briefly closed her eyes.  A glyph spun around her feet before swirling into the air in between them; another one appeared further away towards the Death Stalkers.  When Weiss opened her eyes and looked at Ruby, it was with eyes clearer than she’d ever seen.

“Want to try something new?”  

There was a hint of a smile on Weiss’ lips as she tilted her head towards the glyph.  Grinning at the invitation, Ruby bent her knees, spooled her semblance, and rocketed towards it.  

Weiss’ glyphs were like beautiful works of art with so many hidden secrets.  What Ruby knew about them was that they could bounce grapes really well, kept her from flying into crowds of people, and allowed Weiss to move around like she was on skates.

Now it was time to find out what they could really do!

Leaping through the air as she approached the first glyph, she tucked her legs and spun around to land her feet squarely in the center.  Bouncing off, her speed increased - like finding a nice, smooth patch of ice to slide across...only ten times better.

Quickly understanding the potential, she pushed her semblance harder towards the next glyph Weiss had created - this one leading Ruby directly to the nearest Death Stalker.  This time as she spun and planted her boots firmly on the glyph, she pulled Crescent Rose in front of her while preparing to strike.  

The poor, poor Grimm never saw the attack coming.  It was only after Ruby flew past and struck out with Crescent Rose that the creature lashed out at her with its stinger, but she was already headed in the opposite direction thanks to the second glyph Weiss had prepared.  Another attack, and another.  It took five total blows to the creature’s underbelly before it disappeared in silver confetti.  

And that was Ruby’s first real-fake Death Stalker kill!  Courtesy of Weiss Schnee, the incredible glyph-maker.

There was no time to rest though - because Ruby was already blazing towards the next closest Grimm.  Bouncing between Weiss’ glyphs like a super fast pinball, Ruby sliced and diced the Death Stalkers wherever she saw the chance.

With Weiss guiding the way, Ruby never had to think about where to go next - the only thing she had to do was find the next glyph, which Weiss had already placed in the perfect location.

And Ruby was flying.  So fast.  Her semblance was spraying rose petals like a fire hose sprayed water.  Really, how was Weiss even able to track anything at this speed?  She must have some crazy fast mental reflexes.

Crazy fast and crazy perfect.  The Death Stalkers never even came close to touching Ruby, but she got close to them!  Their unarmored underbelly was ordinarily tricky to get to, but at the pace she was going there were inevitably opportunities that opened up - like when they raised up in the air and tried to snatch her with their giant claws.  Precisely at moments like those, Weiss zipped Ruby down to the ground and flew her underneath for several deadly blows before whisking her away.

This must be how Yang felt using Blake’s ribbons - the ability to change directions on a dime was awesome and so helpful!  Plus, there was this...trust might be the best word.  Trusting that Weiss was making the best strategic decision from afar, all Ruby had to worry about was what was directly in front of her.  

Attack, get to the next glyph, attack.  It was so easy.  Maybe that was one of the reasons having a partner was so awesome.

For every destroyed Grimm, the crowd cheered - loud enough to briefly break through Ruby’s concentration as a tiny blip on her radar.  Knowing that people were watching only made her want to be even better and go even faster.

Now she understood what Yang had been walking about - they were here to impress!  They were here to show how skilled they were so that everyone could sleep at night.  Have no fear - huntsmen were here!

Spurring her semblance into an even higher gear, Ruby pinged through the glyphs like she was on fire - destroying Death Stalkers in the process.  The angles Weiss chose were perfect.  Some were clever; others were straight genius.  A lot of them Ruby wouldn’t have seen from so close to the battle, but Weiss saw each tiny window and sent Ruby to exploit it.  The gaps were sometimes microscopic, but they were quick, efficient, and deadly.  

Halfway between two Death Stalkers, something caught Ruby’s attention out of the corner of her eye.  When the crowd collectively drew its breath, she knew it was something worth watching.  

Risking a peek towards the shape, her jaw dropped as a giant soldier formed out of thin air - towering above the arena with his massive sword clutched in one hand.  His white armor shimmered majestically, while his posture was poised and ready for whatever would be thrown his way.  

Ronnie - the name Blake suggested.  It made Ruby grin just to see him - with his goofy, not-at-all scary name.  He was still the coolest thing she’d ever seen.  

Suddenly, the glyphs rotated and led Ruby directly toward the soldier, whizzing past Grimm and drawing more and more attention as she went.  The creatures turned and snapped out at her, but never caught more than air and maybe a few petals left in her dust.  There was a strong urge in her chest to keep engaging the Grimm, but she trusted Weiss and followed the glyphs anyway.  With a tumbling horde of skittering feet on her heels, she was bringing a small army of the Death Stalkers directly to Weiss’ soldier.  He was going to do something cool, right?  Had to be.

As she approached, running straight towards him at full speed, he bent down on one knee and held one giant palm open for her.  Not even blinking, she hit the brakes and slid right into his hand. Now, running into the clutches of a giant wasn’t usually recommended, but this was Weiss!  Er, Ronnie! Ruby trusted both of them completely.

The next second, her feet were jerked from the ground, and she was given a light toss back the way she’d just come.  ‘Light toss’...it sent her soaring at least fifty feet above the ground while Ronnie smoothly stood and took a wide swing at the Death Stalkers underneath her feet.  Twisting her body around in midair, Ruby saw that she was going to land behind the Grimm - whose attention was now solely drawn to Weiss’ soldier.  

They’d lost track of Ruby flipping behind them.  Brilliant.

Landing in a crouch and sliding several feet backward before coming to a stop, Ruby hardly had time to straighten before two blurs shot past her.  With the Death Stalkers preoccupied, Blake and Yang were taking advantage of the weakness.  

And Ronnie served as an excellent distraction - absorbing the Death Stalker’s attacks similar to what Yang had done with the Ursa.  The Grimm tried to crowd around him, snapping their stingers forward like whips while clambering over each other to try to catch him in their grasp.

Bursting forward with her semblance, Ruby caught up to Yang and Blake - then the three of them plowed into the Death Stalkers from behind.  By the time the creatures noticed them, it was already too late.

Or it would have been too late if Ruby hadn’t suddenly felt a great weight press down on her shoulders, nearly forcing her to the floor.

Without warning, the arena shot straight up into the air - the upward momentum nearly plastering her and her teammates to the ground with a slew of Death Stalkers slowly turning towards them.  

As abruptly as the feeling had appeared, it disappeared.  The weight vanished, and suddenly Ruby was floating - her feet leaving the ground as she was left suspended in midair.  Briefly looking around, she found that they were outside of the arena now - high enough that she could see all of Beacon’s grounds in the distance.

Weightlessness only lasted for a second before she was falling - chasing the arena floor back to its starting point.  That’d be all well and good if she was falling by herself, but the Death Stalkers were still close - close enough that they could lash out with their stingers.

Lifting Crescent Rose to deflect a stinger that shot towards her, she was surprised to see a glyph appear in front of her at the last second.  The Death Stalker slammed its stinger into the glyph at full speed and shot it backward at itself.  

So...she was hurtling towards the ground at terminal velocity, but the Grimm was now disoriented from hitting the glyph.  There was no way she could pass an opportunity like this up.

Clutching Thorn around Crescent Rose, she drew back and threw the weapon as hard as she could towards the creature - making sure to account for the upward wind speed and her lack of leverage.  The blade sliced through the air and hit the Death Stalker exactly where she’d placed it, succeeding in separating the stinger from the end of the tail.

When a glyph appeared near her feet, she immediately shoved off of it and went flying after her weapon while tapping out the code to recall it.  Seamlessly catching Crescent Rose before latching onto a piece of the Death Stalker’s armor with Thorn, she attacked in rapid succession to dispatch the creature.

Meanwhile, to her side, she watched Blake rope one of the Death Stalkers and pull herself to it - fluidly looping around the stinger as it tried to attack before tugging Yang after her.  When the two dismantled the Death Stalker and moved to the next one in the same fashion, Ruby grinned.

They didn't even need to be on the ground to be awesome.

Her own feet found another of Weiss’ glyphs and sent her shooting to another Death Stalker, where she was surprised but also excited to meet up with Weiss.  Weiss deflected the stinger with Myrtenaster before Ruby followed up as fast as she possibly could - throwing herself off of the creature while hooking Crescent Rose around its tail and yanking her weapon free.  

Another glyph bounced her away from danger as the other Death Stalkers attempted to spear her, but...the ground was rushing up to greet them pretty quickly now…

“Look down, Ruby - get ready!” Weiss shouted as they re-entered the stadium.  Doing as she was told, Ruby looked down at the arena and watched as four glyphs swirled into existence.

Out of reach of the Grimm, Ruby watched as they plummeted towards the glyphs.  Timing her drop as best she could, she crouched her knees and felt her legs sink in, as if stepping into pudding or molasses.  Almost immediately after, she shot back up into the air - whereas the Death Stalkers continued their descent and crashed into the arena in a heap of Grimm that quickly became a hurricane of silver sparkles.

Except for one.

Dropping to the ground from a much more manageable height after using the glyph, Ruby found the sole remaining Death Stalker dazed and disoriented by the fall - which it had only survived by landing on the backs of its former companions.

“I got it,” Blake said before sprinting towards their last foe.  When Yang obediently stayed behind, Ruby did too.  

They watched the creature swipe at Blake, hitting nothing but clone.  Its tail struck out at another before it swung its entire body to the side trying to pinpoint Blake’s position.  Nothing but clone, clone, and more clone.  

Suddenly, there were a lot of them.  More and more clones appeared and disappeared in rapid succession around the Death Stalker.  Soon there were so many that the Grimm was blocked from view - the only thing they could see was a massive growing cyclone of spinning clones and darting blades.

A flash of silver and the shadows instantly disappeared, leaving only Blake standing on the arena floor where the Death Stalker had once been.  While the crowd cheered, she gave Yang a smug look that clearly said, ‘There.  Was that good enough for you?’

“Wow,” was all Ruby could think to say.  She’d never seen so many shadow clones before!  

Yang let out a laugh that was part surprise, part pure glee.

“I’m so in love with that girl,” she said before bounding off to join her partner.

“A clonado, Ren!!  That was awesome!!”

“That was very well done.”

“Oh lighten up poo-poo head!  That was one of the coolest things we’ve seen!”

The announcers were right about that!  A tornado of clones!  

Watching Yang lift Blake off the ground, it was out of the corner of her eye that Ruby noticed Weiss walk up beside her.

“That was pretty cool, huh?” she asked, her breathing slightly labored from the energy expended that last round.  Weiss nodded but didn’t say anything while watching Yang and Blake celebrate.    

“Your glyphs too - those are awesome,” Ruby added, but Weiss only gave a small smile at the compliment.  

“I’m glad you like them,” she replied with a slight dip of her head.

Urg...were things going to be this awkward forever?  It felt like everything was ok there for a second, but now it was all weird again!  Hopefully this wasn’t going to last for long.  They were almost out of time, and then they could talk.  They probably needed to talk.

“As usual, speed isn’t an issue for Team RWBY.  They have ten seconds left for the final round…”

“They’ve already blazed past the other teams here today!  Get it?  Blazed?  Ren, you get it, right?”

“There will be one announcer’s position open after this, if anyone would like it.”

“Awww don’t be like that!”

While Blake and Yang jogged over, something began to form at one end of the arena - and it didn’t take long for Ruby to figure out that it wasn’t any type of Grimm she’d seen before.  For one thing, there was no black!  It was almost entirely silver and kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger…

“Wow.”  

That was all Blake had to say, which was a pretty appropriate reaction to what they were looking at.

“That’s big,” Weiss agreed with a nod.

It looked like a beefed up Paladin, with far more armor than necessary.  Like way too much armor.  And the guns - sweet Dust, the guns.  The rockets alone were enough to destroy multiple skyscrapers, but machine gun turrets too?  That was way overkill.  And were those grenade launchers??

It looked like someone had crawled into Ruby’s imagination and dragged out the most insane contraption of firepower imaginable.  It probably couldn’t move very well because of all the armor, but that wouldn’t matter with the damage it could spray in what looked like every direction.

“That thing looks awesome!  I wanna fight it!”

“Maybe later, Nora…”

A loud whirring noise filled the air as the turrets began to spin, combined with several clunking sounds of rockets being loaded into launching bays.

“What do we do, boss?” Yang asked, turning to Ruby for an answer.

Trying to come up with a plan, Ruby looked up at the video screen.  When the round started, they’d have ten seconds. That wasn’t much time at all.  Their only option was something drastic.  And fast.

Sizing up the machine, she said the first thing that came to mind.  Usually those were the worst, and therefore best ideas.

“Split him in half!”  

Clenching one fist, she gestured up in the air before drawing a line to Yang’s arm.  All three of her teammates looked at her like she was absolutely crazy until Yang started laughing.

“You know, that just might work,” she replied with a couple nods of appreciation.

“He’s all yours,” Blake said, smiling and standing back.  After pounding one fist into her palm, Yang set herself into a fighting stance.

“I’m ready for him.  Weiss, you ready?”

A line of glyphs appeared - marking a straight shot to their last enemy - and Weiss nodded.  Crouching down like a sprinter, Ruby ignored the sounds of the machine preparing to fire and instead listened to the crowd counting down to zero.  Every fiber in her body was ready to send her shooting forward as fast as possible.

If this didn’t work, oh well.  At least they’d tried!

Five!

Four!

Three!

Two!

One!

The instant the chime rang out, Ruby took the line of glyphs like she had rockets strapped to her boots.  Traveling in a straight line, she opened up her semblance and pushed herself as fast as she could go.  She needed to be faster than...well, bullets, basically.  Which she was.  

With Weiss’ glyphs giving her an extra bit of propulsion, she made it to the machine before the glowing rocket tubes were even able to fire.  There was a loud pop when she slammed Crescent Rose deep into metal and jumped with everything she had, using the glyph under her feet to launch herself into the air.  The crowd noise seemed to die away as she used her semblance to carry her up as far as she could, feeling the enormous weight of the machine dragging behind her.  

As her momentum faded, she reached the tipping point.  Again, she found that feeling of weightlessness as she briefly hung suspended above the stadium, but gravity quickly kicked in.  Rotating her grip and locking Thorn around Crescent Rose, she flipped around to face the ground and used every last bit of energy she had left to propel herself downward.  The added force dug her weapon deeper into the machine’s plating and cemented its impending demise.  With her semblance maxing out, she steadily gained speed while the ground rushed up to greet her.

“Ember One, this is Ember Two - coming in hot -” she murmured while exhausting the remnants of her semblance.

With a giant monster in tow, she leveled off the angle and tapped her last bit of reserves to burst forward across the arena floor.  She didn’t need to see where Yang was - she knew that her sister would be there as she dragged the machine at supersonic speed straight into a burning fist.  

It was like a freight train crashing into the wall of a mountain.

There was another loud pop as Crescent Rose suddenly broke free, and Ruby immediately hit the brakes - finally sliding to a stop on the far side of the arena.  The crowd was back; the people in front of her had their jaws dropped before they were on their feet clapping - the sound adding to the cheers going up throughout the packed stadium.

Turning around, she found one half of the machine lying where it had stopped dead at Yang’s feet, while the other half lay smoldering between them.

But that actually worked!  How ‘bout that??

“Wow.”

“That was INCREDIBLE!  Did you see that, Ren?  Did you see that??”

“I don’t think anyone actually saw it, Nora -”

“Imagine it then!  That was so cool!  One second, it’s there.  The next second it’s split in half!  Welcome back, Ruby!  We’ve missed your crazy self!!”

They’d done it!

When her ears picked up the crowd cheering for them, Ruby grinned.  “RWBY, RWBY, RWBY!” they chanted over and over again while her heart pounded in the same rhythm.  Spinning in a slow circle to look at the wall of spectators, she raised her gloved hand in a wave before her eyes fell back to her teammates.  Her team.

Beaming proudly, Yang raised one fist to Ruby in a ‘success’ gesture.  Walking up beside Yang, Blake placed one hand on her partner’s shoulder before giving Ruby a small smile, ears twitching happily.  And Weiss...Weiss watched Ruby carefully.  When they made eye contact, she smiled hesitantly, closed her eyes, and gave Ruby a half curtsy.

There was no good way to describe how she felt right now, as the chants of the crowd reverberated in her chest and her teammates stood in front of her.  Ecstatic.  Happy. Elated.  All those good things, but it also felt like something was stirring inside of her.  It felt familiar...like maybe she’d been here before.  Like maybe this feeling of success wasn’t as foreign as it should be.  

What Blake had said was true - Ruby could feel it.  She’d made it back.  Maybe these were only simulated enemies, but they were programmed to be lifelike in their difficulty.  Maybe this had been a controlled environment where she’d never been in any real danger, but she’d still managed not to make a fool of herself, and they’d finished all five rounds in the process.

She could do this.  She could be a huntress.  It had been her goal for such a long time, and she’d finally reached it.  The early mornings, the late nights, the endless training and physical therapy.  All the times she’d been so tired and sore she could hardly move.  All the times she’d been so frustrated she wanted to give up for good.  Somehow she’d found a way through all of that, back to this moment.

She’d once been a huntress, and she could be one again.  She could get back a part of what she’d lost.

But when her eyes were drawn back to Weiss, she felt a strange pull at her heart - one that was stronger than the cheers lifting her up.

Weiss - the mysterious stranger who’d shown up out of the blue.  The girl who’d quickly found a way into Ruby’s heart. Weiss was her partner.

All this time, Ruby never even tried to find her partner - not until the perfect opportunity had presented itself.  Still, how had she been so blind?  

In her defense, she didn’t have much information about her partner other than she was supposedly super smart, which Weiss was.  Nothing had been said about how sweet and kind she was.  Or how funny or how pretty she was. Or how when she smiled, it felt like the sun started shining no matter what the weather was.  And if she laughed -  

Oh crap.  

Ruby had a crush on her partner.

[juniorformulamotorsport]

Sunday, August 5th 2018 – Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wiltshire

For many, many years we’ve driven past Stonehenge on the A303, usually getting to somewhere to stay for Thruxton, but we’ve never stopped off. Even as a child on motoring holidays to Cornwall, we’d never stopped. So as we were less than an hour away in our B&B at Great Bedwyn, we figured Sunday morning might be a good chance to give the place a try. We reckoned it would be busy, but maybe not as busy perhaps as it might be after lunch. We booked tickets in advance, and turned up at the scheduled time.

Getting in was complicated by the need to queue to collect our pre-booked tickets. The tickets on the day queue was almost empty and going a lot faster, but I wouldn’t count on that always being the case. The ticket office is around a mile and a quarter from the ticket office, and as it was a sticky, hot day we didn’t fancy the walk that much. The shuttle bus queue was fairly short and the buses seemed to be fairly frequent. They were, but what we hadn’t bargained for was that they weren’t stopping for those of us in the ordinary queue, but were picking up the boatloads of cruise passengers who are bussed into the site en masse in the morning and who apparently take precedence over the likes of you and me. I wasn’t terribly impressed by the fact that in the time it took us to get onto the third bus that actually stopped on our side, around 10 bus loads of cruise passengers had been picked up and taken to the stones. We waited 25 minutes, and I could have walked it in that time. I don’t care if they are on a tight schedule because they have to do Bath and Oxford as well in the same day… I really don’t. We had places we were scheduled to be as well.

Up at the stop at the other end, the view of the stones more than makes up for the wait time. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I knew you weren’t allowed to get right up among the stones, and they have therefore been fenced off, but actually the “fence” wasn’t at all intrusive, and provided you didn’t stop on the corner right near the entrance, you could get a clear look at the whole complex from behind the low barrier, from where the sheer size is obvious. Also, the small “lumps” (I’m sure there’s a technical term for them) that presumably hold the lintels in place.

It’s good to see the site put into context, and there are a number of information plaques around the area that can provide extra knowledge for those that want it. Of course the site itself has been the source of many a theory in the past, before archaeology became a thing, and for that matter since. My personal favourite is probably the tale told by Geoffrey of Monmouth in his “Historia Regum Britanniae” (History of the Kings of Britain) written in 1136, which claimed that the stones were put up by Merlin. Fantastic claims aside, it seems many things about the monument will never be known.

However, some things are known, and according to the information provided, we know that the place was started with a henge monument around 5,000 years ago, and that the stone circle is late Neolithic and dates from around 2500 years later. The site is presented as a landscape rather than just the stone circle, with all sorts of structures dotting the surrounding landscape, including the oldest known items, four or five pits from the Mesolithic period (8500 to 7000 BC), which seems to have held posts for something. What exactly, no one knows. For that matter, why exactly they ended up where they are no one knows. Lynne posited the theory that they’d simply got fed up of dragging the stones, and had erected the circle at the place where they’d run out of energy!

There is a suggestion on the English Heritage website that perhaps, given the south of England was heavily wooded, but it seems Salisbury Plain wasn’t, perhaps that was why it was chosen, and that it was its relatively open nature that made it the obvious site for what seems to be a complex of monuments including a bunch of burial mounds that line the top of the next ridge along, and that form the current World Heritage site along with Avebury. We didn’t go to Avebury because we’ve both been before, and frankly it creeps me right out for reasons I can’t pin down.

The Unesco site has this to say about the two areas: “Stonehenge is one of the most impressive prehistoric megalithic monuments in the world on account of the sheer size of its megaliths, the sophistication of its concentric plan and architectural design, the shaping of the stones – uniquely using both Wiltshire Sarsen sandstone and Pembroke Bluestone – and the precision with which it was built.

At Avebury, the massive Henge, containing the largest prehistoric stone circle in the world, and Silbury Hill, the largest prehistoric mound in Europe, demonstrate the outstanding engineering skills which were used to create masterpieces of earthen and megalithic architecture.”

To return to the history of the actually stone circle, apparently the earliest known major event was the construction of a circular ditch with an inner and outer bank, in about 3000 BC. There may have been some wooden structures inside the ditch, but there definitely were a number of pits, 56 in fact, referred to as the Aubrey Holes. Again, no one knows for sure what the pits were for, and they may have held more posts, or they could have been for stones.

There’s no doubt about the burials and cremations though. There are around 65 cremations, with possibly 150 people buried here. It’s definitely the largest late Neolithic cemetery in the Britain. And it’s the resulting archaeological finds that are so fascinating. For example, there’s a very fine mace head made of banded gneiss that appears to be of Breton origin, axes from as far apart in England as Cumbria and Cornwall, and a piece of Niedermendig lava from northern Germany. One of the burials has also proven to be that of a man from what is now Switzerland, the isotope analysis pinpointing his origins. None of that seems to bother the corvids that have made it their territory.

Some of the animal bones have been found to come from Scotland so it was clearly an international site of considerable importance in its day, and presumably also well known to all at a time with no news generating mechanisms as we know them. Much of this information is to be gained from the small museum that you can visit back at the visitor centre and shop, the museum having an exhibition about the foods raised, cooked and eaten in the era of the stone circle’s main use.

Anyway, apparently in 2,500 BC the stones were finally placed in the middle of the monument, with an inner horseshoe and an outer circle of sarsen stones, which are larger than the smaller bluestones which were set up between the sarsen shapes in a double arc. Some 300 years or so later the central bluestones were rearranged to form a circle and an inner oval, later altered to a horseshoe, and an earthwork avenue was built connecting Stonehenge with the Avon river.

A hillfort, which came to be known as Vespasian’s Camp despite being far too early to be anything to do with the Romans, was built in 700 BC to the east of Stonehenge overlooking the Avon. There is a Romam connection though, as many Roman objects have been found, and more recent excavations suggest it remained an important ritual site for the Romano-British population.

It then seems to have been ignored by history, the area being used for sheep farming, creeping into the written record from the 14th century onwards. It then became a centre of activity when, in 1897, the Ministry of Defence bought much of Salisbury Plain for army training exercises, setting up barracks, firing ranges, field hospitals, an airfield or two, and light railways were established. There is even a memorial to some of the early pioneers of aviation on the site, the Airman’s Cross.

Visitor numbers started to rise when the railway to Salisbury opened, and with the addition of roads that crossed Sailsbury Plain even more people could come to see the stones. However, when an outer sarsen upright and lintel fell in 1900, the owner, Sir Edmund Antrobus, organised the re-erection of the leaning tallest trilithon in 1901, the beginning of a period of conservation and restoration projects that lasted until 1964. In 1918 the site was given to the nation by Cecil Chubb, who bought Stonehenge from the Antrobus family in 1915. It is now the responsibility of English Heritage, while the land around the site is in the hands of the National trust.

With the heat increasing, as a final fling for the morning, having looked at everything we could get near, we took a look at the replica Neolithic huts out the back of the visitor centre. One of them was being lived in today, with a swallow’s nest in the centre of the hut’s roof, and a little agitated head sticking out and chirruping at anyone that got too close. It was very well disguised so I’m not sure how many people actually saw them. I was pleased that I did.

We slipped into the shop, bought a postcard and a fridge magnet, and left without spending any money on books. I did leave with a copy of the guidebook though…

Travel 2018 – Stonehenge, Amesbury Sunday, August 5th 2018 - Stonehenge, Amesbury, Wiltshire For many, many years we've driven past Stonehenge…

[anexplanationofunfortunateevents]

yet another reason why we can’t let it go

This reality show nightmare we wake up in every day happened because of a pile-up of multiple injustices, failures, and outright institutional crises. There were a lot of things that we couldn’t have seen coming (Russian interference, Comey), couldn’t have predicted how bad they would be (sexism, press failures), or couldn’t have stopped once the election was in full swing (voter suppression, Electoral College).

One of the few things we could’ve seen coming and, as voters and activists, could’ve stopped, was the sheer political clusterfuck.

To look at just what was in our control, strip out all the names and the specific identifying injustices. Candidates A, B, C, blah blah.

A well-liked two-term Democratic president is about to leave office after a presidency which is widely regarded as successful. Intuitively, you might expect that this success would give the president’s party an advantage. But “fundamentals,” the statistical models that predict how a given election will turn out regardless of the specific candidates, show that it’s difficult for an incumbent party to keep the White House for a third term. 

It’s an uphill climb for Candidate A, but our hero is up for the task. Before serving as a high-profile member of the current administration, Candidate A had a long record of public service, including a distinguished career in the Senate. A is an earnest policy geek who takes pride in finding practical ways to improve on long-term challenges, and a fundamentally decent person who understands and takes seriously the challenges of the presidency – exactly the kind of person you want in the Oval Office.

Candidate B is a near-neophyte with a sketchy past who’s spent their life coasting on inherited wealth and prestige, a thundering moron whose pathological incuriousness allows them to lie shamelessly and constantly. Somehow B performs as a moderate Republican, despite a troubling reliance on religious extremists and advisers with dangerous foreign policy views. B is so patently unfit for the office, it’s hard to believe they might actually win.

It’s quite the contrast, but seventies hold-over left-wing crank Candidate C quickly loses interest in airing their more trenchant criticisms of money in politics, preferring to run around telling impressionable young voters that there’s no difference between the parties and complaining about how unfair the election was because the special interests had structured the debates against them, blah blah zzzzzz. This schtick is so unfair to A and helpful to B that those special interests – who are actually aligned with B, because both sides are not actually the same – start buying ads for C in order to weaken A’s support with their party’s base.  

Candidate C will peel off some votes in critical swing states, but the real damage they do is harder to quantify. Their rhetoric about the corrupt political duopoly poisons the well, turning idealistic young voters into disengaged cynics. It also creates kind of a philosophical permission structure for people who can’t be bothered to understand the issues or appreciate the stakes – if they’re all the same and it doesn’t matter, why bother with your civic responsibilities?

That wouldn’t matter much, since left-wing criticisms of the status quo rarely make it out of academic circles – except nobody, but nobody, loves ignoring the issues and denying the stakes more than the mainstream press. Policy journalism is hard. Passive-voice declarations about how “people” find one candidate more charismatic than the other are easy. 

Instead the meta-narrative becomes about “authenticity” which, because it is not actually a thing, is so conveniently intangible that it can be unmoored from truth entirely. B, unburdened by intellect or moral character, speaks in comically oversimplified terms which felt true because they plugged into deeply biased unconscious expectations, and is thus considered “authentic.” A, a highly intelligent person who is either unwilling or unable to mislead voters about the complexity of the world and the sometimes unsatisfying ways to improve it, is labeled “untrustworthy.” Petty sniping about A’s clothing or body language drowns out basic fact-checking. 

In gleeful agreement with the “centrist” (functionally conservative) media are left-wing performance artists like Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon who spend months screeching at anyone in earshot about how both! Are! The! Same! Only! C! Can! Save! Us! They rationalize this by loudly proclaiming A’s inevitability – which, if they really thought both sides were the same, wouldn’t matter to them. They also insist that B is so awful, a B presidency will break the system, whereas an A presidency would not – which, again, means they are not the same. (“Waiter, we’ll take cake or a shit sandwich. Doesn’t matter to us…..No, no, it’s fine, he’ll bring us the cake, and anyway, only eating shit will make this place get better cake…...Ugh, I didn’t want to eat shit! Why did you order shit, you fucking NEOLIBERAL WHOR– hey, where are you going?”)

As A gamely tries to explain the issues to the public, tap dance for the press, and chase the left’s elusive goalposts without alienating moderates, Republican officials in swing states suppress the votes of minorities and other likely Democratic voters in numbers greater than the expected margin of victory.

The election ends up closer than anyone thought it should be. The networks say that B has squeaked out a lead in the key states, and A quickly concedes out of respect for the peaceful transition of power, despite having gotten more actual votes. This ties A’s hands as a steady stream of information about irregularities in key counties makes the reported results look more and more suspect. Perhaps if A had a little more goodwill from the left, or at least wasn’t being actively undermined by their own side, they could’ve really fought back, but as is customary, the Democratic circular firing squad is lined up at dawn the next day. By the time it gets to the Supreme Court –

Oh, did you think this was about last year? Silly goose! I’m talking about the 2000 election. But I understand the mix-up.

That’s why we can’t fucking let it go. 

I understand the temptation to treat Hillary Clinton as some kind of political Typhoid Mary. If people can say that SHE was so uniquely terrible because of that TOTALLY DESERVED chorus of complaint (so unlikeable! So bland and convictionless!) from the corporate media and the self-righteous purity pony left…..well, they’d still sound like kooky truthers denying the mountains of evidence about Russian interference, FBI-fetishizing conservatives exonerating Comey the Keystone Kop for his coup d’état, or just assholes too sexist to acknowledge even the most glaring sexism, but they can at least tell themselves they didn’t do anything wrong. That’s harder to sustain when you realize those same complaints were made by the same groups of people (sometimes the same individuals) about an entirely different person. Not just any person, either, but an actual movie star who does more for climate justice before he gets out of bed in the morning than Ralph Nader, Jill Stein, and Bernie Sanders will do in their whole lives.

Similarly, it’s easier to fight about MESSAGING than it is to deal with voter suppression, or to make people give a shit about making the Electoral College less unfair before people vote. And, well, there’s a pretty rotten incentive structure for everyone who either has or wants a platform in either the mainstream media or progressive niche outlets. It’s high effort and low reward to draw attention to the systemic problems which might remind the gatekeepers of how they acted before the election; it’s easier and savvier to validate the more comfortable narrative.

The consequences for ignoring this stuff in 2000 could hardly have been more severe - and yet, by 2016, they were. This is well past “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” If you were old enough to vote in 2016, this happened in your lifetime. One critical reason that the Sanders campaign needed younger millennials is that EVERYONE OVER THIRTY REMEMBERS HOW THIS STORY ENDED THE FIRST TIME. 

There’s a lot of reasons it’s important for Hillary Clinton to write her damn book, and one of them is: Al Gore didn’t, and here we are.

[kadobeclothing]

6 Cool Sunglasses Styles For Summer 2020

When it comes to picking cool sunglasses, there are two ways you can go. You can opt for the classics – models like Ray-Ban’s Wayfarer that have been shielding retinas since your grandfather’s day — or you can look at what’s trending in terms of shapes, colours and eras. Either way, it’s important to be able to sort the blinders from the blindingly ugly.Get it right, though, and you’ll be gifted a face-based upgrade like no other: a seemingly simple piece of moulded plastic or metal capable of blocking harmful UV rays, preventing crow’s feet and instantly erasing hangover face, all while giving 100 per cent extra added swag.With that in mind, here are the six styles trending hard, and the essential tips from leading brands to ensure you eye up the right ones for your face shape.How To Pick A Sunglasses StyleBefore delving into this season’s slickest shades, you’ll need a grasp of which frames your mug will show off well. For this, we tapped the expert knowledge of Bhavisha Parmar from eyewear retailer Sunglass Hut who knows everything worth knowing about matching your sunglasses to what mother nature gave you.Sunglasses For A Round Face“The key features of a circular face are similar length and width, soft features and a rounded jaw-line. Angular sunglasses will add definition to this face shape, while deep colours will minimise fullness and gradient lenses will help to elongate the face. Tortoiseshell and warm caramels are good colours. Thicker frames with wide temples also suit round faces because they add width, but this face shape should always stay clear of round sunglasses.”Sunglasses For A Heart-Shaped Face“Heart-shaped faces have a broad forehead and cheekbones with a tapered chin. To counteract this, look for thin, light metal or clear plastic sunglasses that have broader bottom halves such as angular or aviator shapes to balance the width of the chin. Avoid dark colours like black, as they tend to cut up the line of the face.”Sunglasses For An Oval-Shaped Face“Though an oval face shape is well balanced overall, it’s longer than it is wide which should be kept in mind. Slightly square, teardrop lenses look great on this type of face along with oversized lenses such as aviators. Avoid angular styles such as rectangular sunglasses though, as they may narrow the face.”Sunglasses For A Square-Shaped Face“The defining features of a square-shaped face are a strong jaw-line with an equally broad forehead. The aim here is to soften the defined lines: this can be achieved by selecting circular styles and teardrop-shaped lenses. Metal frames will make the face appear softer; black or single-colour frames are flattering too. Avoid square or rectangular shapes as they draw attention to the angles and may give the appearance of a shorter head.”The Sunglasses Trends You Need To Know Right NowRound SunglassesIt’s blindingly obvious that a large part of the reason round sunglasses worked so well on John Lennon was the fact that he was John Lennon, a style icon. Don’t let relative anonymity (and absolute lack of rock ’n’ roll credentials) put you off though, because these vintage sunglasses can also be carried off by mere mortals.“Round sunglasses are a must for this season, with the best examples combining acetate arms and metal fronts,” says Marie Wilkinson, design director at Cutler and Gross. “Those with square- and diamond-shaped faces would best suit these frames, as circular designs work best on those with natural angles.”If your head is lacking lines, these sunnies aren’t entirely off limits. Round lenses that have a horizontal brow-bar offer a less unforgiving way to go round in circles this season.Geometric SunglassesGuys with round profiles who thought they’d drawn the short straw in the face shape lottery can take solace in that fact that this year’s geometric sunglasses are practically designed specifically for them. Alongside an ability to add structure to orbicular bonces, these overtly angular shades are far from standard-issue, so there’s little chance of seeing every other Tom, Dick and Harry wearing them when the sun’s out.“Geometric-shape shades – whether they are square or hexagonal – offer an easy way to differentiate yourself from the crowd,” says Reiss brand stylist Paul Higgins. “Because of their shape, subtlety is key, so be sure to choose thin frames and classic colours.”You’ll need to keep the size of your geometric sunglasses in check: erring on the smaller side is always a safer bet unless looking like an Elton John impersonator is your ultimate aim.Colourful SunglassesAs a rule of thumb when buying sunglasses, being consistently wearable should be one of your most important buying considerations. But, for those who have already got themselves a few pairs of well-behaved classics, colourful and even sports sunglasses can make for a welcome addition to your anti-UV arsenal.“The colours of current styles are bright and popping, and the best examples use the same colour on the entire design,” says Lauren van der Kolk, head of product design at Ace & Tate. “With lenses tinted in the same colours as the frames, they’re perfect for seeing life in yellow, red and blue.”Okay, colourful sunglasses may not be the kind of thing you want to throw on with a suit at a summer wedding, but if you’re wedded to simple shorts and T-shirts combinations, they offer an easy way to instantly level-up your look.Aviator SunglassesAviator sunglasses aren’t so much a trend as a staple which waxes and wanes in popularity. One year they’re the toast of the town (think vintage Robert Redford), the next they’re an optical pariah worn exclusively at fancy dress parties in the spirit of Top Gun. Right now aviators are having one of their frequent moments in the sun.“Popular for decades and known as the original pilot’s sunglasses, aviators are making a big comeback,” says Wilkinson. “This time, the main update is that they are predominantly made in acetate, with a single brow bridge for extra fashion nous.”Key to avoiding the pitfall of rocking average aviators is seeking out plot twist design details. Look for gold frames, coloured lenses or patterned acetate designs to ensure you’re not accidentally twinning with your dad.Nineties SunglassesIn a crushing blow to anyone who qualifies as millennial, the Britpop era is already back. Along with parka jackets and fringe haircuts, sunglasses are the latest instalment of the decade’s triumphant return to menswear. Often minuscule and invariably wacky, it goes without saying that the period that gave the world odious wraparounds should be approached with extreme caution.“Men are harking back to the sunglasses designs of the early nineties, to the styles that people wore when luxury brands and London street style collided and were all worn together for the first time,” says Gordon Richie, managing director of Kirk Originals.Nailing this look relies on being able to separate the sunnies to save from the ones that should never be resurrected. “Those looking to channel the best of the decade should seek out colourful lenses in orange and blue mixed with titanium frames which will riff on the era when Hunter S. Thompson was re-discovered by the new nineties generation. There are also some seriously cool oversized acetate styles that bring to mind Liam Gallagher’s iconic 1994 Glastonbury performance,” adds Richie.Top Bar SunglassesLet’s get one thing out of the way: top bar sunglasses aren’t subtle or pared-back, they’re sunglasses designed to be seen. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Essentially a bolder version of the very first aviator design, top (or ‘brow’) bar sunglasses have taken on a flight path of their own and now come in an array of guises, so it’s hard not to find a pair you like.For those wary of going OTT with their eyewear, there’s good news because this season has ushered in a new crop of designs which take down the frame width for a look that’s more polarised than polarising. “Top bar sunglasses are still a wise choice, but chunky designs have given way to thinner profile designs, typically utilising metal rather than acetate,” says Higgins.That’s not to say that acetate frames are complete no-nos: when combined with a thin metal top bar, acetate frames land bang in the middle of the sensible/statement-making divide. Source link

source https://www.kadobeclothing.store/6-cool-sunglasses-styles-for-summer-2020/

[danbily]

A Night in Scranton

We all take jobs that lead us far off our intended career path.  Mine started in the summer of 1973 as a newly minted Greyhound bus driver, trying to make extra money while teaching school in Buffalo, New York.  I answered their help wanted ad in the Buffalo Evening News out of curiosity and as more of a joke than anything else. What does an elementary school teacher have to offer a bus company known for a dog as its trademark?  They explained at the interview that teachers made the perfect fill-ins during their heavy travel times. We appeared clean cut and were polite with the traveling public. I bought their pitch and signed up for a new driver school that started in March.  I was all of 24 and eager to make extra money to supplement my abysmal teacher’s pay. My wife and two infant daughters were my main concern in this venture into transportation.

In 1973 the highway buses all shifted with manual transmissions.  This seemed like a piece of cake for me since I drove a VW Beetle with a four speed.  I was soon in for a surprise. The industrial transmissions used in buses required a technique known as a double clutching between gears.  The entire month of March was devoted to our mastery of the elusive art of timing our gear shift movement to the speed of the engine and that of the bus. Each shift required two presses of the clutch, not one as in a car.  It was a mechanical ballet that needed perfect timing in order to avoid the ugly and annoying sound of grinding gears and a lugging diesel engine. The clutch was also industrial and needed a lot more effort than my little VW.  I went directly from Greyhound class to soaking my left knee in a hot bath at home.

By April, they’d culled out several of the teachers for their inability to master the art of the double clutch transmission.  I felt fortunate to still be in the running. We were now onto the many other issues involved in driving a forty foot long highway bus. Tight roadways and heavy traffic are not your friend.  Weather is always in the back of your mind. A bus will hydroplane in a heavy downpour. The wind can force you into another lane of traffic. Snow and ice are the food of legendary driver room stories.  Slowly, I was becoming a bus driver, sans the rough edges of a Ralph Kramden. I was to be the Greyhound model of the trade.

This all led up to my night in Scranton.  The regular driver on the run from Buffalo to Scranton was Ron Perry.  He was in his early thirties and sported a modified Elvis haircut very much out of date by the seventies.  He’d been assigned to train me on this difficult run and he instructed me to sit in the first passenger seat on the right, take out my route schedule, and keep notes.  

As we broke the state line into Pennsylvania, the road narrowed and the shoulder rose up on one side.  “Deer will leap off those banks at night,“ Ron remarked, “My buddy had one come through the windshield and kill the lady sitting where you are.”  Perhaps the extra money no longer sounded so enticing. This was a real driver speaking without the Greyhound PR department providing the script. I knew from teaching that nothing equals the wisdom in the trenches. What was I in for?

We rolled into Scranton around five and turned the bus over to a Philadelphia driver for the remainder of the run.  Ron walked me through his log book entries and took a brief peek at my notes. “Hopefully you won’t see much of this run,” he said, which didn’t sound very encouraging.  “Wait till you see the Jeremy Hotel, only the best for Greyhound!” As we walked from the bus depot into downtown Scranton, I suddenly became aware of the old coal town’s state of decay.  Soot ran in streaks off window sills. The brownstone and brick buildings were blackened like fire ruins. The sidewalks were devoid of activity and many of the local shops were already closed.  “This is the only diner open. I like their fried baloney plate for three bucks.” Mr. Perry was not a man of complicated culinary needs. We went inside and sat at the counter as the heavy scent of the fryer filled my nostrils.  “Two coffees and a menu for the new guy.” The waitress pointed to the board above the short order window. “It’s all there, hun, and if you don’t see it, just ask.”

Lo and behold, there it was. Charbroiled liver and onions with the side note “new.”  Charbroiled was new in the seventies and I couldn’t imagine what it could do to rescue liver and onions from the bottom of my list of edible disasters. Knowing that Ron would soon have that baloney plate special in front of him, I didn’t want to be outdone in the search for politically incorrect food.  Liver is high in cholesterol and acts as a filter for an animals toxins. If the road didn’t kill me, the food sure would. “I think I’ll try your liver and onions tonight,“ I said. The waitress jotted down our orders on her pad and hung a copy on a little stainless steel wheel for the cook to view. Ron smirked and remarked that he was glad we had separate rooms.  

I actually enjoyed the charbroiled liver and onions and finished my entire plate before Ron got through with his fried baloney.  We both ate for less than our Greyhound dinner allowance of five dollars and off we went to the Jeremy Hotel across the street from the diner.  The Jeremy had once been the grand residence of downtown Scranton in the days of coal. Hard times and hard traffic had left a worn track in the once plush carpet from the entrance to the clerk’s desk at the rear of the lobby.  “Hey Ron, another new driver tonight?” the clerk asked. He obviously knew his regulars and my uniform left little to ask about my profession. “Did Ron tell you about our TV policy?” I’d never heard of a TV policy and shook my head.  “They’re portables you carry up to your room. The black and whites are two dollars a night and the color ones are three dollars. Greyhound has your room charge but you need to cover your TV out of pocket.” Ron handed the clerk his two bucks and grabbed a small black and white portable from a closet behind the clerk’s desk.  “I’m beat, forget the TV. I’m hitting the hay,” I said. Then the clerk said the oddest thing. “Radio is free. It hangs on the wall above your bed and has five local stations. Oh, did Ron tell you about your bathroom?” This was getting really strange. “You share it with your neighbor. You lock him out when you enter and unlock him when you exit.  Please don’t forget this, especially in the middle of the night.” A shared bathroom? A radio with five stations that hung on a wall? What year was this? Was I still in America?

Ron hit the stairs with more wonderful words of advice.  “Use the stairs, you’ll wait forever for that old elevator, sometimes it sticks between floors.  We need to meet down here in the lobby at five AM. Don’t be late.” My training experience had just hit a new low.  What if they stuck me in this shithole all summer? I didn’t think this old fire trap even had AC. I was writing my resignation letter in my mind as I climbed the worn wooden staircase that led to my second floor room.  I was holding a large skeleton key. I’d only seen this type of key in old movies and at my grandmother’s house years ago. The hallway leading to my room smelled of years of stale cigarette smoke and spilled booze. Did anyone pay good money to stay here?  Greyhound corporate needed to hold its Christmas party here.

I entered my room like a thief, cautious yet curious at the same time.  It was clean but dark in all aspects. The walls had been painted a dark green and the furniture was made of dark wood, an old design from before the war.  The head of the bed was pushed against the far wall and there was a strange art deco metal box the size of a toaster one foot above the headboard. What in the dickens was this contraption?  I moved closer and could plainly make out a small speaker in the center and two knobs on each side near the bottom. One knob had a pointer attached and was labeled with the letters A-E. The other was circular with “volume” written in small print above the knob.  So this must be the free radio? My God, I was born in 1948 and I’d never come across such a strange device. I carefully turned the volume knob and sure enough there rose that distinctive low fidelity sound of an AM station. I flipped the selector knob through the remaining alphabet.  Each letter brought another station with two of them smothered in static. I knew from an earlier job in broadcasting that these were most likely not local stations. What an odd device, and it still worked. I’d bet most guests had dismissed this little box as a joke left over from the glory days of booming downtown Scranton in the 40s and a hotel so broke it couldn’t afford to remove useless junk from the walls.  

At that moment, I could hardly wait to see the shared bathroom I’d been warned about.  I knocked lightly on the dark wooden door and twisted the old glass knob, and, there it was, a bathroom right out of the Great Gatsby era.  Small white hexagonal ceramic tiles on the floor and shiny square white tiles on the side walls. Halfway up they ended in a black ceramic border that ran the perimeter of the room.  On one side was a massive claw hammer tub and exposed brass fixtures with white ceramic handles labeled hot and cold. A chain with a rubber stopper hung from the overflow drain. A strange oval shower curtain hung from the ceiling.  Opposite the tub was a pedestal sink flawed with eggshell like age cracks and again sporting two large brass faucets with white ceramic handles. A small hotel soap labeled “The Jeremy” was neatly placed on one side. The purchasing agent must be in a time warp or have a strange sense of humor.  Would anyone want to be found with that bar of soap in their travel bag? The toilet sat next to the sink and was a good six inches higher than my new one at home. It sported a black wooden toilet seat of the horse collar style. The brass attachments had long ago turned green from missed aims. I locked the guest door at the far end and drew a bath.  I didn’t trust the shower and I felt like a good soak was a better choice.

I’d done plenty of shifting and my left knee ached.  I sat down in the oversized tub and laid my head back on a rolled towel.  I felt like I was 24 going on 60. My doubts surrounded me like the bath water.  How did one make a career out of this type of work? Why spend three nights a week away from your family in a run down shithole in the middle of nowhere?  Whatever good thoughts I had of a Greyhound career died that night in Scranton. I heard a knock on the guest door and shouted that I needed five minutes to clear out.  

Back in my room, I stared at my bed and the small grey box above the headboard.  Let’s see what this living antique has to offer, I thought.  I switched through two stations and heard a familiar voice from my youth.  It was Rod Serling introducing a radio play on the Zero Hour. I’d loved him when I was younger and decided that this was what I’d settle on.  The play was about the Bermuda Triangle and the possible reason for its mysterious goings on. I laid there and listened, and I found myself enjoying it.  I could visualize every detail in vivid color. Radio was perfect for storytelling, and I felt fortunate that I’d foregone the television and saved three dollars in addition.  The play ended with the explanation that the Triangle was a space port for aliens. Rod signed off in his distinctive deep voice and I went to sleep early.

Years passed and I left both Greyhound and teaching behind for a far more lucrative career in sales.  I traveled to many parts of the world, always eating at fine restaurants and staying at five star hotels with all the amenities.  Of those experiences, I can’t recount one as fondly as I can that night in Scranton in 1973.

[chaosmagetwin]

Random Modern OC: Lauren

Lauren Kitterwitz

Level 1: Well known and memorized

Level 2: Known and used occasionally

Level 3: Mostly known, used rarely and at greater cost

Level 4: Hypothetical, and in the process of either making the spell or learning it.

Basic Spells(All spells level 1)

Mage Hand: Spell that holds objects, and floats near the mage when not attended. Used both for light and heavy loads

Message: Speak over distance

Arcane Writ: Note written with magic. Short range

Locate Object/ Person: Requires piece of object or person (i.e. hair) Limited to ~ 10 miles

Delay: Puts a timer on a spell, so it goes off after a certain time

Contingency: Puts a requirement on a spell, so it goes often only when meant to.

Scry: As expected.

Keep at bay Spell

Barrier Spell

Light: Creates floating light

Zippo: Creates small flame at finger.

Siphon: Pulls water from the air and ground.

Terra: Pulls the nearest dirt or small stones to the casters hand.

Obscure: Blocks light sources.

Magic Missile: Creates a small arrow like object.

Shield: Protects against damage,and is the basis of all other shield spells.

Water Spells (requires water nearby, unless summoning it)(19 spells known)

1:High Pressure Beam: Able to cut through steel.

1:Seep: Pull water up from the ground, though you must pull from deeper when in dry conditions.

1:Infused Water: reinvigorating water that heals wounds slowly.

1:Water Blast: Tossed water that explodes when it hits the ground, throwing water across the environment

1:Frost: Freezes anything that is wet.

2:Purify water: Purifies water of anything that is not H20, making it impossible for electricity to pass through

1:Ice Shard: Creates a sword of ice that can be thrown at sonic speeds.

1:Shatter: Explodes ice for shrapnel

1:Ice Field: Yanks shards of ice out of the ground. Requires the ground to be wet.

2:Mist: Creates light rain that covers area with water and obscures vision

1:Pity Party Cloud: Creates raining depression cloud directly over someones head.

1:Ice Shield: A shield of ice that forms to protect the defender against physical and ranged attacks. Freezes melee attackers to the shield.

2: Cascade: Creates a torrent of chilled water that falls from the sky, soaking the area. Ice shards   form inside the cascade as it falls. The longer the cascade falls, the more of it turns to ice.

2: Water Dance: All water in the area vibrates, including any in the ground. Can create mudslides and sinkholes.

2: Rapidity: Fills allies with envigorated water, hasting them and slowly regenerating wounds.

2: Crystalline Augury: See through ice at distance.

3: Pour: Causes rain clouds to let loose as much water as possible in local area. In ritual form, can draw existing rain clouds from a distance

3:River Styx Parted: Ritual spell, quickly heals life-threatening wounds over a short period.

3:Water Beat: Channeling spell that debuffs enemies, causing them to move slower and with less strength.

Wind Spells (Requires movement of air)(19 spells known)

1:Gale: Strong force of wind that can knock people over.

1:Wind Sword: Creates a slice force at a distance.

1:Void: Rip air from a certain location. Air rushes to fill in that spot immediately. Use on heads can knock people out and harm ears and eyes.

1:Air Cannon: Fires a near solid ball of air that explodes violently on contact.

1:Control wind: Controls wind at a minor scale, for things like pushing windmills and filling sails.Also works for forges.

1:Dust Devil: Creates a small dust devil, but the inside of it is filled with wind swords.

1:Tornado: Same as dustdevil, except... much larger. Only usable on warm, humid days.

1:Down Burst: Sudden force of wind from the sky, forcing target to the ground. Flying targets crash.

1:Gust jump: Use wind to quickly leap into the air.

1:Wind Walk: Stealth and Speed

2:Wind Wall: Wall of wind that can stop slow projectiles, like arrows.

2:Fly: Like ironman.

2: Use the Force: Grabs the air around enemies, hardens it, then pulls. Knocks over enemies and can even pull them into a weapon strike.

2: Air Burst: Draws air in on an area until it is high density, then hardens it and explodes it with great force. Used most effectively as flak, but still has great use against ground.

2: Soothing Wind: Channeling spell. Slowly heals nearby allies.

2: Whispering Madness: Causes voices to appear in the minds of enemies, causing hallucinations and the like.

3: Dr. Ben Dover: Creates an extremely high pressure around the enemy, forcing air into their system and creating decompression sickness.

3: Void Tornado: As tornado, but is a vacuum internally

3: Circular Breathing: Never run out of breath.

Electric Spells (Requires charge. Hair stands on end)(12 spells known)

1:Shock: Taser like spell

1:Bolt: Lightning bolt from hand

1:Charge: Charges electrical equipment, and can be used to run that equipment for a decent amount of time, similar to the a battery. Can also reverse the flow.

1:Arc Lightning: Creates an arc of lighting between two Ion Field Mines

2:Ion Field: Charges the field with electric mines

2:Chain Lightning: Bolt of lightning that jumps between enemies.

2:Absorbtion: Can pull lightning from the clouds for charge. Requires no charge.

2:Nova: Discharges all remaining Ion field mines.

2:Lightning Ball: Like Fireball.

2:Thunder Clap: Creates deafening sound.

3:Power Coupling: Creates a rod of lightning between two walls that feeds into itself.

3: Sticky Lightning: Creates a ball of lightning that can stick to the target, shocking the target and nearby enemies.

Storm Spells (Requires charge and water)(1 spell known)

4:Storm Shield: Creates a shield of water and lightning. The lightning shocks any attackers. The water creates a small strand that links the attacker and the shield, allowing lightning to travel along it from the caster.

Lauren Kitterwitz is a 5'4” sixteen year old girl with long braided hair. Her heart shaped face is littered with freckles, her soft blue eyes framed by oval glasses. Though she is quick to grin, her slightly crooked white teeth are marred by braces. She is built coltish, with a thin and lanky frame; despite being sixteen, she didn't seem to be done growing yet. Her hands were rather large for her size, but thin and spidery, much like the rest of her. She didn't seem to have much muscle, or fat for that matter, and she was about as flat as they came; only her voice and hair separated her from a boy, it seemed. Her skin was fairly white, as if she'd rarely seen daylight, but it had freckles marring it as much as her face, especially atop the shoulders. She definitely didn't seem to have chosen this form, as some girls might have; she suffers from a somewhat rare form of Anemia known as Hemolytic Anemia.

Lauren isn't a particularly loud child, nor does she really catch the eye; she tended to stay out of the way, and her eyes often drifted outside, as if she were daydreaming, or was lost in thought. She was good in school, getting help or studying when she needed to, and she was good in groups. In gym class, however, she sat in the bleachers, and watched the others play sports and exercise. She'd tried joining a few times as well, but... they'd ended in trips to the nurses office with her passed out in the teachers arms. She ate -voraciously-, but never seemed to put on weight, to her friends consternation. Meanwhile they picked at their own food, lamenting about their diets. Outside of school, she didn't seem to do much; she had once been apart of a play, but her retainer had fallen out midway and embarrassed her to the point of no return. She'd gone on a date with one boy, a meek, normal kid who'd somehow managed to ask her out. That, too, hadn't gone well, due to a long series of unfortunate events. In one night, he'd managed to accidentally trip her, spill water on her, and find her previously undiscovered allergies to crab. She, on the other hand, had managed to trip once on her own up the stairs into the restaurant, call her waiter by the wrong name, and, once again, suffer embarrassments courtesy of her retainer. They'd ended up in the hospital after that, due to the allergic reaction, and neither of them had the courage to ask each other out again. As far as anyone normal knew, Lauren was as normal as they were, albeit sickly... and prone to misfortune.

To those apart of the spiritual world, however, Lauren was known as an up and coming offensive caster, powerful and talented, but still learning. She was being taught by Opal Drachnal, mother of Lillith, and she was a fast learner being taught by a great teacher, one who knew the ins and outs of magic, even if she herself wasn't particularly powerful. Opal taught her for three years, from the time she was 8 years old and had just learned she even had magic, until she was 11 years old. It was then that Opal died in a devastating attack by geists.

When Opal died, Lauren was hardly unaffected; her favorite teacher, her friend, and her closest ally other than her parents was dead. She turned into a recluse for a while, struggling in school, struggling at home, struggling in magic. For months, it was as though she were barely alive; she lost weight, becoming almost skeletal. It wasn't until she was taken to the doctor after feinting and requiring a blood transfusion that her parents sat down with her and forced her to talk. The long and difficult conversation helped her; the depression she was feeling, the fear, the pain of the loss, they were all things that her parents had gone through themselves. She came out of the hospital with a few pounds more and the emotional support she needed to pull herself forward. Her friends, what few there were, rejoiced in her return, even if they didn't quite understand why she had 'gone missing' to begin with. Except for one; Isabella. Her best friend. Isabella knew why she'd gone missing, yet she was barely speaking to Lauren.

She didn't find out why until almost a year later; Beatrice, Isabella's mother, had died of cancer, and Johnathan, her father, was torn up. Where before Lauren had a best friend, there was now a stranger, an angry one who lashed out where she could. Hurt, confused, and a little lost, Lauren went to ask for help from the only people who had proved themselves; her own parents. She tried everything she could, trying to mend bridges between herself and her one-time best friend, but when Isabella's father disappeared, it only got worse. It was during this time that a famous combat wizard, Ajax Cal, arrived to help her. An elderly man who'd lost an arm in a raid, he was still as formidable as he'd been twenty years ago, even if his bones creaked now. He was of the mind that the sooner they got people out fighting, the better they would get; nobody learned anything cooped up in a tiny room, after all. To Lauren, he was a god; physically fit, powerful, and combat ready. He was also old, which was more than Lauren could say about many other magicians, which meant he had to be doing SOMETHING right. However, he only stayed a week, teaching her a little before leaving again. He would show up every once in a while to teach her something new, then disappearing again.

By the time Lillith arrived in town, Lauren and Isabella were about as far apart as they could get; Lauren had almost given up, and Isabella wasn't getting any better. Soon after she arrived, however, Lauren tried one more time; she found Isabella while she was by herself, and refused to leave until they talked. It took some time, and Lauren definitely had to deal with a lot of abuse, if not physical then emotional, but she got through to Isabella somehow; the two were, at the very least, hesitant friends again. Isabella didn't change too much in relation to others, not so long as she wanted to anyways, but she mellowed out with Lauren.

Alana and Lauren didn't really become friends; they knew each other, and could hold a conversation if they needed to,but they didn't really hit it off.

Garith, on the other hand, was one person Lauren couldn't really hang out with; she had a crush on him that she'd yet to shake, and when they were younger, Isabella had teased her for it quite a bit. She bit her tongue around him, and tried not to make a fool of herself... which she almost always did. She seemed to become clumsier around him, and her tongue seemed to tie itself in knots around him; her lisp came out around him, making her almost unintelligible. Whether they were friends or not was hard to decide; they could certainly hang out around one another, but it was most likely that he thought her strange, or unintelligent.

Mark was a good friend of Laurens; he was, in comparison to Garith, easy to talk to, and funny... at least, he was easy to talk to whenever he wasn't with Garith. His prospensity for breaking rules, however didn't make her exactly happy; she often scolded him when he got in trouble, and she thought some of his pranks were simply too mean. She found a few others funny, and she'd even told him a few of her own idea's for pranks, though she never had to guts to carry them out herself.

Lillith was also a friend; the two had bonded while learning from Opal, and sometimes competed a little. When Opal died, however, both of them split to mourn on their own ways; with Lauren in another town entirely, it wasn't exactly easy for them to meet anyways. When she did come back, Lauren wasn't sure how to proceed; she opted to try and be friendly. It worked, for the most part; their relationship was definitely not the same as it had been before Opal's death. Both of the were more mature now. They still competed a little, but with their different specializations, it was hard to compare.

From the GM

Living in Lein was relatively safe and enjoyable. Your parents had jobs during the day and could hunt at night. Not every night. But maybe three times a week. Lein and area around it was maintained by Beatrice and Johnathan. Flintol. Beatrice was the younger sister to the current patriarch. They too had a couple kids. Garith . and Isabella. Garith being two years older then you and Isabella your age. Their was a few other people that were spirit hunters or dealt with them. Agra Willow was one of them. A elderly woman who was the local healer. She even knew a lot of modern medicine, with a mix of obscure medicine and could easily pass as a doctor if she wanted. She tpyically was a kind natured woman that had a more grandmotherly feel to her. Someone to badysit the kids while the parents went off hunting. The other was the Youvinsa's A brother and sister. Jack and Jill. Yoiur charcater wouldn;t know much about them till she got more involved with the spirit community. Jack had the local shop for selling Geist stones and buys epuipment. While Jill got a degree in teaching and became a teacher at the local public high school. More might be added.(Depends on the others choice of charcater and family. Early life for your character would be oretty happy and enjoyable. Your family got along with the Flintols. Bringing the kids over to play. (Again might add more when the others get charcaters.). You made your first friend. Isabella, back when she was cheerful and full of laughter. When it became apparent your character was a mage Beatrice sent a word up the Drachnal family line and found a suitable tutor for he to learn the basics. WHo none other then the patriarchs wife Opal Drachnal. Not as powerful of a mage but was incredible with the theories of magic and could honestly teach anything about magic to someone. She even had a daughter closer to her age. Lilith. She was two years younger then you and started and year before you and had gotten quite fair along (Up to you if you want to make friends with her or not.)

 Your training with Opal would last three years. (It mostly was cause of how Opal taught. She was quite talented at it.)However before she could help you move onwards to bigger things you suddenly stopped seeing Opal.That year was one of the worst years in a long time. Firstly Opal was killed in a deadly Geist attack, with some other hunters. Beatrice was diagnosed with cancer when it was in its late stages and died later that year. The death affected the family quite badly. Johnathan went down hill from there. The patriarch replaced him as the head in the area with his eldest daughter Mayla. A year later Johnathan dissappeared. Without a trace. It was speculated he ran off into the woods near town. Both Garith and Isabella changed considerbly. Garith turned more reclusive and hardly spoke. Isabella however turned very bitter, aggressive and angry. Keeping people at a distance. IN the proccess she might have burnt the friendship with you. A couple of years would pass when two other children came to town. Mark and Alana Taft. Mark was your age and a sly, silver tongue individual. Soon got the title the joker or prankster of sorts. He was the one that cracked the shell in Gariths gloom and borught in out. Alana was a small, timid girl who rarely spoke and was one year younger then you. They were not siblings but cousins from Killiam. They weren't doing well themself. Mark came down with Alana just to be with her. Acting like a big brother of sorts. Alana however was thrown out of her own home. She never did give the reason why. Mayla setted them up in a foster home of kind. Ran by The Drachnal's of course. And lastly a year (Roughly) earlier before the current day. Lilith moved to town. It was then Your character would find out that she was present at her own mothers death. WHile she was defending her no less. It also was apparent she was be neglected and abused at home and Mayla took her in to stop this. Of course your character only heard this from your parents. Lilith coming to town softened Isabella's hard exterior. Allowing a few people to get close and allow friendship.

Probably one of my more thought out characters. I wound up designing her after Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6. I wound up having to make a few sacrifices in terms of how healthy the character was in order to make a heavy hitting mage, but some decent research later and I had something workable with Hemolytic Anemia in that it wasn’t going to outright kill like most other forms of Anemia (A trait I wanted).