#the ones i still come back to are natural disasters and weather

[havenotwillnotreadthebooks]

Hello! Back at it with a kidnap fam headcanon, except this ones about Earendil.

Consider; Maglor is so awkward around Earendil in Valinor. Earendil is good-natured about Stuff™️ but also awkward.

Anyway, at one point Earendil comes to Elrond’s home straight from his ship and Maglor accidentally brushes against him, only to find out Earendil’s skin is ice-fucking-cold.

Maglor instantly enters some sort of trauma response from the E&E twins’ childhood and starts lecturing Earendil on dressing properly for the weather and doesn’t he know Peredhel get cold more easily than elves? What if he got sick?

Maglor emerges from his parent haze to find Earendil has been wrapped in a sweater, two blankets, and one of Maglor’s outer robes.

Earendil is kinda just chilling. Like, he hasn’t been smothered like this in literal Ages of the world and its sorta nice to be cared about since he doesn’t get a lotta social time (touch-starved Earendil headcanon insert)

Anyway, the awkwardness has broken because Maglor is a bard, you best bet he is gonna commit to this bit. He puts a beanie hat on Earendil the same way he did for Elrond and Elros. Earendil is real quiet and just basking in the attention.

Elrond thinks this whole thing is fantastic. Slightly weird, but fantastic.

The meme format for this goes;

Earendil, fresh from the sky: heyo *COLD TO THE BONE*

Maglor, feeling Every Peredhel-Parent Instinct Reactivate: Where is your coat.

Yes this is inspired by RaisingCaiin & Jaz-The-Bard’s fics about cozy peredhel. No, I am not ashamed of anything.

Maedhros, if he’s around, is worse about it. Because Mae is used to getting the “baby is cold” instinct around grown adults (e.i his brothers) so that, combined with his Peredhel Is Cold instincts is just a recipe for disaster.

Maedhros has the thought peredhel is shivering, and next thing anyone knows there’s a blanket on Earendil. They both blink owlishly at each other for a moment, but Maedhros grew up with Feanor and he will Not Back Down.

Earendil gets another blanket.

Elwing, when she learns of the Cold Peredhel Instinct is…temped, to see what happens if she shivers near them. Because she is an awful seagull elf with an awful sense of humor. But there’s still too much tension between her and them for the joke to be funny yet. So she waits until she can look at them without flinching, and they can look at her without stiffening.

Then, and only then, does Elwing shiver around Mae&Mags and subsequently get blanket bombed.

[itsclydebitches]

Zevlor: An Angsty Character Analysis

Hey, Zevlor simps. Can I interest anyone in 4,000 words about our favorite disaster tiefling? 💀

“We can’t stay, but we’ll be slaughtered if we leave—we’re no fighters.”

Back during my first play-through this is the line that turned Zevlor from another dime-a-dozen, exposition spouting NPC to a character I was legitimately interested in. “We’re no fighters.” My DnD ignorance abounds, but even I could see that wasn’t an accurate statement. Here’s a mountain of a man sporting fancier armor than my level 2 Tav knows exists yet, having wrecked half the goblin hoard with his crossbow and, if you let him, he'll happily turn to punching as a solution to verbal disagreements. Plus, he’s clearly the one giving the orders, so what do you mean you’re not a fighter?

Having explored the Grove a bit I chalked it up to a generalized assessment of the refugees as a whole. They’re mostly kids, civilians, and would-be protectors who only look the part of fighters in cobbled-together armor. One woman is grappling with the guilt of killing someone for the first time, even an enemy. Lakrissa is sure they’re all going to get slaughtered and is willing to put money on that fact. Meanwhile, the couple you meet are more concerned with what pet they’ll get when they somehow, someway, make it to the city. Don't worry about how that'll happen. You learn later that even those like Ronan are small potatoes compared to most of the baddies you’ll face. On paper he looks and sounds like the real deal—dressed in robes, talking up an apprenticeship with the famous Lorroakan—but scenes like the celebration light show and his own fury at needing to be saved, again, highlight how far he still has to go. The point is that Zevlor is right: these aren’t fighters and he at 18 strength, paladin, former commander, is definitely the exception.

However, BG3 is the sort of detail-heavy game where I’d expect them to include that exception in the dialogue. “We can’t stay, but we’ll be slaughtered if we leave—these people aren’t fighters.” Zevlor’s inclusion of himself in this assessment continued to nag at me and it didn’t start to make sense until I delved into his tag here on tumblr, with more patient players than myself posting everything there is to know about the tiefling. (Thanks, all.) Zevlor is fascinating to me in part because he has this contradictory nature, one example of which is that he’s a very talented fighter who desperately doesn’t want to be a fighter anymore.

…but also he totally does.

We overhear in his dialogue to Tilses that Zevlor is adamant about shedding the titles he’s earned through combat: Hellrider, Commander, Sir. He insists that they’re just civilians now and it’s not like he’s being disingenuous here—note that he introduces himself as just “Zevlor” to Tav. Zevlor means what he says to Tilses and we can see that he’s trying to both reinforce his point and lesson the blow by referring to her as “Tilly.” The nickname is a sweet one, hinting at their close bond in just a single word, reminding her that he’s not saying this to hurt her, he cares for her… but the nickname is simultaneously something he never would have used as her commander. The intimacy meant to comfort is also a hard blow to weather. They're now people who use nicknames inappropriate for the hierarchy of battle.

So Zevlor means what he says here, means it enough that Tilses is convinced and drops her use of “Commander,” but there’s definitely a hint of bitterness in his voice. At least, I’ve always heard it. Zevlor is steadfast in his conviction here, even going so far as to say, “I’m done soldiering, Tilly” when discussing what will come next at Baldur’s Gate. Yet for all of that his tone conveys (understandable) anger and disappointment that it’s come to this. Zevlor doesn’t act like someone who truly wants this change, but rather someone who’s been forced to accept it.

Is it outside forces unwillingly influencing him then? Did Avernus truly change things irrevocably? No, not really. At least, not in the way Zevlor likes to claim. Tilses herself states that being a Hellrider is for life; nothing can take away that title. You lost your post? Your whole city? Most of the people under your protection? Doesn’t matter! You’re a Hellrider forever, no matter the circumstances. I can easily picture a time in Zevlor's life where he would have agreed with Tilses wholeheartedly. They are Hellriders, dammit, and so long as there’s one person looking for their help they will wield that title alongside their blades. And right now, Zevlor has a lot more than just one person in need of his assistance.

So it’s not that Avernus truly stripped them of that identity. Nothing can do that. Zevlor is not rejecting titles and planning retirement because the mechanisms of fate are forcing him to.

He’s doing all that because he’s lost confidence in himself.

Even as someone with a shaky understanding of DnD classes, I love the parallel between a broken oath and the rejection of a lifelong title. If Zevlor can fail in his oath—or in his faith entirely, according to the memories stemming from his pod—why-ever would he think that any other ‘permanent’ part of his identity was worth fighting for? If you can loose the very thing you’ve built your entire life around, every important aspect of yourself, tied to your very soul… what’s a bestowed title compared to that? Zevlor doesn’t believe himself worthy of being a Hellrider anymore, but I think that goes deeper than a string of horrific circumstances making him feel incompetent. As an Oathbreaker, Zevlor likely believes that if he couldn’t uphold that, he can’t uphold anything. Calling himself a Hellrider would be a lie. A fiction. A pathetic, dangerous, insulting fiction at that. It’s like calling yourself the “Hero” while continually failing those around you. Sure, others might insist it’s a title you’ve earned, one you will always carry with you, but you don’t believe them anymore and at a certain point calling yourself that feels worse than embracing the title of “Villain." You don’t want to be the villain… but you want to pretend you’re the hero even less. Pretending is exhausting.

We see this struggle in the many ways that Zevlor fails, or almost fails, to uphold the ideals that originally guided him. I use the term “villain” above deliberately because Zevlor is not merely a former hero-type who’s self confidence has been shattered, or who has been reduced to a civilian, or who thinks themselves useless; he’s actively fighting against temptations that, under less stressful situations, he’d never even consider. I don’t think he is a villain, I think he’s a flawed, struggling victim who sees his own, inevitable mistakes as villainous—and the longer that warped perspective continues the easier it is to fall into bad behaviors. This cycle is perfectly summarized in the autobiography Zevlor keeps by his bed:

“When every passer-by thinks you a thief and a heretic, it is deeply tempting to become one.”

We don’t know if this is Zevlor’s autobiography (as far as I’m aware, anyway) but even if it’s not the words have clearly resonated enough for him to keep them nearby. This particular line paints a pretty clear picture of Zevlor’s struggle. If everyone you meet says you’re devil-kin, vermin, or would-be criminal, isn’t it easier to just give them what they want? If you can’t persuade them otherwise, why put in the effort of trying? If he can’t be Faithful to his God, why have faith in anything at all? If he can’t save these people—setback after setback, mistake after mistake—why is he even making the effort?

Zevlor obviously is trying, very, very hard, which is why such thoughts are merely temptations rather than actual, questionable actions. Still, the Grove gives us numerous examples of the precipice he’s balanced on—and the ways Tav can tip him in one direction or another. You can talk Zevlor down from his anger and get him to acknowledge his disgust in nearly sinking to Aradin’s level. You can also let him boil over and punch the human at a time when the last thing anyone needs is more violence. You can convince Zevlor that there are peaceful ways of stopping Kagha's ritual, or you can help him in pursuing the darker temptation to kill her. It’s a “low” thought, but at his own admission he hasn’t been above entertaining it. Zevlor’s requests for help, though always polite and humble, carry a spark of manipulation in them too. He’s not above leveraging your previously selfless good deed to his advantage—"She owes you for saving this grove"—and if you approach him before speaking with Kagha he’ll claim that the ritual will “be trouble—for all of us.” Except, no? Not really? Tav can make it clear that they’re just here for a healer, they’re only passing through, and as a fighter they are not beholden to the Grove’s sanctuary as the teiflings are. It’s not trouble for everyone involved, yet Zevlor frames it as such in the hopes that (unnecessary) self-interest may motivate you if selflessness fails. Finally, if Zevlor dies in your play-through and you use Speak the Dead on him, he will admit to having “plenty” of secrets, none of which he’ll share. Admittedly, this may be the result of cut content, specifically a story-line in which Zevlor knowingly betrays the tieflings rather than being tricked by the Absolute. Still, the game as it stands is the story we have and within it we’re given a man who is both fighting against these dark urges (ha) and has a past riddled with secrets. If Zevlor is anything, it’s blunt when it comes to his own failings, accurate and otherwise. So how terrible must these secrets be that he outright refuses to divulge them when, generally speaking, most corpses speak freely in death?

However, out of all of this the struggle I’m most intrigued by is the one surrounding the gate. Zevlor represents the tieflings: persecuted refugees, vulnerable civilians, people seeking to survive through cooperation, specifically by joining a community. Kagha represents the druids (or at least a vocal subset of them in Halsin’s absence): bigoted individuals, powerful fighters, people seeking to survive by giving in to their fears, specifically by keeping themselves isolated. This is the moral dichotomy of the Grove and it is symbolized through the gate. Zevlor wants to open it to everyone whereas Kagha wants to close it, permanently.

So isn’t it odd that Zevlor is the one ordering it shut?

When the scene first starts Kanon shouts down that no, he won’t open the gate. Zevlor said that no one is allowed in. Notably, he’s saying this to Aradin and his crew, people that the Grove is at least passingly familiar with, given that Halsin left with them to search the temple. It’s also notable that Zevlor isn’t expecting goblins to attack the Grove. He’s shocked that this is suddenly a problem, brought about by Aradin’s decision—“You lead them here?”— and the entire point of staying at the Grove is that it’s at least comparatively safe. Yes, there have been more attacks lately, but Zevlor seems to be relying on the Grove’s relatively unknown location, as well as the fact that goblins are normally disorganized. The safety is only compromised because Aradin brought a hunting party back, so Zevlor has no reason to expect any visitors, let alone ones that would be a threat.

More importantly, he should welcome such visitors even if he did expect them. After all, that’s precisely what the tieflings are: strangers with no ulterior motives other than to survive. Broadly speaking it makes perfect sense why he'd shut the gates. Zevlor’s first priority is to his people, so anything that keeps them safe is, theoretically, a good thing. But through the lens of his specific characterization and this specific, moral dilemma, it’s an awfully hypocritical decision. Based on everything we’ve seen, our party would not have been welcomed by Zevlor if we’d arrived without danger on our heels and a rescue to endear him to us. So his people should be welcomed, trusted, kept safe, given the benefit of the doubt… but Zevlor isn’t necessarily willing to extend that same trust to others. At the end of the day, he and Kagha want a version of the same thing: safety for those they deem are worthy of it.

It’s precisely these flaws and temptations that make Zevlor such a great character to me, even before he’s tricked by the Absolute. The fandom has leaned hard into Zevlor’s self-loathing and let me tell you, I love it (kisses, hugs, and cookies for you all), but canonically I think he has more reason to fear himself than we tend to portray in the H/C fics. I’m not saying he’s a bad person. Rather, it’s precisely because Zevlor is such a good person that he has the capacity to fall so far. It’s his all-consuming desire to protect his family that leads Zevlor to do and consider so much that a paladin would normally balk at. Denying others the safety you’ve been granted. Subtly manipulating others to do your dirty work. Considering murder.

Zevlor is someone torn between doing the Right Thing and the thing he believes will help those under his care survive. Importantly, when we first meet him he considers these to be two separate courses of action. So can you imagine what goes through his head when he first sees Tav saving everyone and doing so righteously? I think it’s integral to Zevlor’s characterization that the game all but forces you to play the Good Guy in that initial encounter. A cut scene starts, you’re thrown into combat immediately afterwards, and unless you plan to start attacking the Grove members alongside the goblins (which the mechanics discourage through the coloring that distinguishes enemies from allies) you will always finish this fight as Zevlor’s hero. Sure, you can be an asshole afterwards and demand payment. You could already be plotting your betrayal and the slaughter of all the refugees. But in this moment you are nothing but a miracle made flesh in his eyes. Right from the start Tav is succeeding in all the ways Zevlor feels like he's failed. You're the hero.

More specifically, you’re an Every-Man Hero. We might have epic backstories for our Tavs, but within confines of the game you’re largely a nobody when not playing an Origin character. How powerful must that have been to witness then? A total stranger, someone who has no ties to the tieflings or even, depending on your class, any sworn reason to help others, putting their life on the line to save what is most precious to Zevlor? I think a lot about the fact that he never asks Wyll to step in and try to change Kagha’s mind. She owes him just as much as she does Tav—Wyll is an equal participant in that fight and, if your shoddy play style is anything like mine, he likely did more damage—and Wyll is clearly invested in the tiefling’s survival, training the kids as he is. Now, obviously Zevlor’s reticence is largely a question of assigned roles (we need to be the one engaging with Kagha because we’re the protagonist/player) but, like Zevlor’s choice to include himself in the Not a Fighter group, it would have been all too easy to explain this away within the narrative. One comment about how Wyll already tried and failed, or how Kagha doesn’t trust Warlocks, or hell, maybe you don’t meet Wyll in the Grove at all. It’s an easy thing to accomplish and though this is edging more into the realm of headcanon than anything else, I can’t help but think that Wyll isn’t the kind of person that Zevlor could turn to for help right now. Because he’s a folk hero. The Blade of Frontiers, known far and wide for his impressive, selfless deeds. Zevlor is struggling so hard to keep the tieflings safe, tempted by all the unsavory solutions that might achieve that, drowning in self-hatred as his past and current failings catch up with him, wanting nothing more than to be his peoples’ protector:

“I would be a paladin again—with a god’s purpose, a god’s power. Everything I needed to protect my people. And all the while, the cult tortured them. They fought, and ran, and died around me, while I imagined myself their savior.”

Three of the things Zevlor mutters while trapped in the pod are “Hellrider… for… life…,” “Trust… in me…,” and “Children… look away… look at me…” He wants to be the protector, the one children look to for reassurance, he wants his words to Tilly to be a lie and he wants a way to prove that he is a Hellrider for life… but he’s not. At least, Zevlor doesn’t believe it. He lost his titles while Wyll still proudly bears his. Wyll trains the children to fight while Zevlor can only get swept up in anger at them being threatened. The people trust Wyll, adore him, he’s the hero and Zevlor… is not. Not anymore.

It’s too painful to approach Wyll and admit all that. That would be a hell of a blow to Zevlor's pride. But Tav? A stranger? A nobody? The Every-man who had no reason to help or reputation pressuring them, saving them anyway? That’s inspiring. Someone like Tav could be the answer and even, perhaps, the proof that Zevlor could redeem himself. Neither of them are folk heroes, untouchable in their assumed perfection. Tav is a living, breathing example of how the flawed, everyday adventurer can be everything Zevlor strives for.

No wonder he won’t shut up about them in the Shadowlands.

All of this is why it’s so tragic that Zevlor wasn’t given a redemption arc. Sure, you can recruit him for the final battle against the Netherbrain, but there’s no quest to change the cast’s opinion of him—or change Zevlor’s opinion of himself. All his content at the end of Act 2 and Act 3 reinforces that self-hatred.

Let’s make a list, shall we?

Nearly every line of his reunion with Tav has Zevlor painting himself in the worst light possible, from “a lie kinder than the truth” to his refusal to join you because he believes he’ll stab you in the back. You cannot convince him of the Absolute’s manipulation and there’s no response to his belief that such horrors start within the person like, “Of course it does! Because we’re all flawed and equally capable of good and evil deeds! That potential doesn’t make you irredeemable, Zevlor, it makes you mortal!!”

He’s utterly failed as his peoples’ champion and he’s also deemed “unworthy” of being a True Soul. Obviously not being chosen by the Absolute is a good thing, but for a man drowning in self-loathing that’s one hell of a complicated rejection.

Nearly all the tieflings hate him now, all those people he’s been sacrificing his soul to keep safe. I found it particularly devastating that this is one of the rare occasions where nailing a persuasion check doesn’t change the person’s mind. There’s at least one tiefling at Moonrise (I’m drawing a blank on her name) who will believe you when you explain how the Absolute influenced Zevlor, but that doesn’t lead to forgiveness.

Zevlor is deemed unimportant on a literal, narrative level. He is very easy to miss in the pods (I nearly did on my first play-through) and the game does incredibly little to dissuade you from that mistake. Putting aside for a moment that obviously an Origin companion is more significant than a minor NPC, compare this to Shadowheart screaming from her own pod, the game making it abundantly clear that this is someone in need of help—someone worth rescuing. She’ll even say later that you could have run past, more concerned with your own survival and the big picture heroics to bother with her. How must it feel then, if Zevlor ever learns that Tav was there and never stopped for him?

If you do miss Zevlor… oh boy. We’ve probably all seen at least a recording of Orin’s so-called gift. There are plenty of characters who can meet untimely and devastating ends, but very few go through this level of horror. Zevlor—after being held captive, remember—is tortured by God’s Favorite Torturer. He is stripped of his personhood and reduced to a mere “message,” a “pet.” Zevlor is further humiliated in death by being literally stripped of his armor—not just vulnerable in his nakedness, but denied the last symbol of his faith, his status, his power—and it’s always struck me that this is the closest we see to him 'enjoying' an intimate moment, this parody in Orin’s painting. Zevlor is one of the NPC’s most in need of physical comfort and instead he’s forced into this torturous mockery of a sex scene. It also hits hard that when Tav first spots his body the narration says that Zevlor “might almost be sleeping.” Undoubtedly this is a man who isn’t taking good care of himself. He needs a good night’s rest, yet this horrifying trick is all he gets.

As if all this weren’t enough, most of your companion are VERY critical of Zevlor while commenting on his demise. It’s one thing for the tieflings to believe the worst given their ignorance and the fact that they are the ones who suffered from Zevlor’s failure, but your company understands the Absolute and the ways that she gets her hooks in people. Still, Astarion calls him a “wet rag” even if he did deserve better than this. Shadowheart wouldn’t have wished this on him either, but she can’t help but slip in a “no matter his failings.” Lae’zel, often the most blunt, straight up says that he was “always destined to fail his people—and to fail us.” Wyll shakes his head and intones that “even good intentions can lead us down deadly paths.” Only Gale and Karlach stick to mourning the dead rather than airing his shortcomings.

When I spoke to my allies before the final battle Zevlor didn’t have a cut scene. It became clear to me later that this must have been a bug in my play-through, but at the time it only reinforced my feelings that his story was incomplete. Looking on Youtube I’ve found recordings of him saying that he is a Hellrider once more and he would “die a proud man if [he] were to die this day”… but that rings as terribly hollow given where we left him. Last we were together, Zevlor was saying in no uncertain terms that he could not be trusted, he would fail again, he was unworthy of forgiveness. Where did this change of heart come from? It makes perfect sense that he would help Tav in this moment—he begs to be of some use after getting free—but not that he would present himself with such confidence. Within the story as it’s been told this feels… fake. Like Zevlor is putting on a mask to fit the mood of this lively, optimistic party. Which, in turn, gives the “I would die a proud man” line a terrifying implication to me. Does Zevlor expect to die this day? Does he intend to? What would persuade him not to lay down his life here and now? His mission is complete. The tieflings are safe—though not by his hand. There's no hero's welcome waiting for him after this battle. They hate him. He hates himself, and by his own admission the one thing that could still make him proud would be to die at Tav’s side, trying to do one last bit of good. If someone said that to me after everything Zevlor has been through I would keep them far away from the front lines.

(I did, for the record lol.)

I’m not saying anything new then when I go, “Larian, PLEASE add more to his story.” Give us a Zevlor side-quest to renew his oath. Let us invite him to our camp. Something to link the broken man mid-game and the confident fighter at the end so that the latter doesn’t feel like an alarm bell with two legs and a tail. I mean yeah, I get hooked on minor characters so 75% of this is simply me wanting more content of a fave, but I also I do legitimately believe that BG3’s story would benefit from tying up loose ends like this.

Zevlor is a fantastic character, someone who contains an astounding amount of complexity for so little screen time. You have to follow up on that complexity though. If he’s meant to be a purely tragic figure, okay, fine, that’s the ending you get with Orin. But one where he joins you with a smile and reclaims a title he's previously rejected with such fervor requires more work in the middle; a through-line that explains how someone with so much self-loathing learns to think of himself as the hero again.

Because it does all come down to Zevlor’s perception of himself. He was always a hero, flaws and all. He always was and always will be a Hellrider.

The UI knows what's up :)

[ace-aro-taku]

Finished watching Suzume for the 2nd time after watching it in theaters back in April. I can now say which order Iike Makoto Shinkai's major films:

Kimi no na Wa (Your Name) 2016

It has stunning visuals for being a 2016 film. Based on romance through time caused by a natural disaster was an interesting concept. I remember the asian kids in my college anime club pirating it and we all watched it. The end of the film made me so mad but when I rewatched it a couple years later a lot made more sense and I grew to love the film.

2. Suzume no Tojimari (Suzume) 2022

Much like Shinkai's first film, it is once again a time travel brought on by a natural disaster with romance but not it's main focus. It was my first Shinkai film I saw in theaters and I loved it! The visuals have improved a lot and the voice acting was great with a cast having first time major roles in film.

3. Tenki no Ko (Weathering with you) 2019

More of a coming of age-young romance brought on by supernatural weather rather than time travel, Tenki no Ko was a great film. But after watching the first film and Suzume, I think this is one of Shinkai's weaker films. I think it was trying to be like Kimi no na Wa with the younger cast and a disaster bringing the two main characters together.

Overall, Makoto Shinkai is still my favorite director. I've loved his other works like Garden of Words, She and Her Cat, Children Who Chase Lost Voices, and 5 Centimeters Per Second. I'm looking forward to his next major film and hopefully he'll bring something new to the table.

[persage]

CARETAKER- S. HARRINGTON

Steve Harrington x Sick! Reader

Summary : When Steve hears that you're sick and you've gone to work anyway, he comes to pick you up, take you home and put his nursing skills to the test. He loves taking care of you, but sometimes you make it difficult

Words Count: 2.3k

Tags: Steve Harrington x Sick! Reader, just Fluff and Steve being the best nurse in the world and an overprotective boyfriend

Thanks again to @loving-and-dreaming for the amazing ideas!

For all the years Steve Harrington has known you - which are way too many to be honest- you've always been careless with your health. There's always something more important: homeworks and school projects first, monsters and fights then. Anyway being selfless is what you and Steve have in common, he understands you and he knows how to keep an eye on you without you noticing, cause you get mad everytime someone, and more specifically him, tries to take care of you.

"I don't need a babysitter Harrington, I am the babysitter."

So Steve has learned to understand the way your body react to pain and stress, when you close your eyes as you get up he knows your knee is giving you trouble and when you ask him to open something for you is because the arm you broke years ago in the Byers house, against the stupid demodog, still hurts when the weather changes. But you know Steve too and you care about him of course, he has been you neighbor since you have arrived in Hawkins, when you were just a child, he was just the spoiled kid from the biggest house in the city and now  he's your boyfriend and partner in crime. You bring him food when he says he's home alone cause you think he will let himself starve, not that he can't cook - to be fair he is really good at it- but he can be lazy sometimes and prefers stays on the chouch slowly dying. You always make sure he brings his jacket with him, cause his stupid brain won't understand the temperature outside can be very different from the one inside the house and he will get sick. Also you take him to the doctor, even against his will, everytime he gets hit on his head and stay with him the night to keep him awake when he has concussions. You're pretty good at this, making sure he always comes first. He is your priority and it infuriates him of course, 'cause Steve Harrington doesn't think he deserves any of this and you don't let him do the same for you. Which is why - against his own nature- he had became more observant in the first place.

But this time he misses it.

It's Max that tells him as she enters the Family Video holding hands with Lucas, cause they need a movie for their date night. "So uh, have you seen y/n this morning at all?" Something in the girl's voice makes him turn sharply and almost knocks over the pile of boxes he was tidying up. Almost, because Robin comes to avert disaster.

Truth is you've been working really hard lately, being a babysitter and also taking shifts at Enzo's during lunches and dinners you don't have time to really rest. Steve has been doing the same thing, working as much as he can so you can afford living together so no, he hasn't seen you this morning, he just left something to eat for breakfast outside your door before going to work.

"What's wrong with her? " He asks.

"Nothing's wrong!  She was just asking!" A not so calm Lucas replies. Max glares at him. "Lucas, just tell me what my stupid, stupid girlfriend has done this time."

"She hasn't done anything at all. It's that we saw her babysitting Holly Wheeler this morning and we noticed  she was coughing...a bit."  Max explains. Steve raises an eyebrow at that

"Okay, fine, a lot." Lucas confesses, this time Max nudges him. Steve shakes his head. "Stupid, stubborn foolish girl!" He mutters. Robin places a hand on his shoulder.

"You're overreacting dingus" But as if he hadn't even heard her, Steve continues. "Cover me Rob. I have to reach y/n and take her home, then I'll come back. I swear" He doesn't even wait for her answer. Steve runs away.

He finds you at Enzo ready for the lunch shift, trying to carry a big table on your own, face red from fatigue. He stops before he can call your nome and just observes you torturing yourself and gets to see you drop the table on the ground andlean on it, coughing violently. "Are going to kill yourself?" When you hears Steve's voice you turn around and the minute you see his face, you know you are in deep trouble. Sometimes he tend to get a little overprotective, treating you like one of his children.

"Hey! What are you doing here?" You aks, trying to see something different in his face than the judgmental expression of a mother ready to lecture you. He doesn't answer, simply approaches you and puts his hand on your forehead. You try to stifle another cough and shake him off, but end up leaning on your knees with your body shaking violently. Steve holds you, caressing your back gently. "Home! Now!" He orders, his tone sweet but still doesn't allow replies

"But I have to finish-"

"No you don't, I'll talk to Enzo. Now get in the car and turn on the heating." He takes you home quickly and even if you don't need it he carries you from the car to your own room, after making sure that no one is at home. "Where are your parents?"

"Dad has the long shift, he'll be back tonight. Mom's out of town" And so Steve calls Robin, to warn her that he won't be able to work the afternoon shift.

You feel your exhausted body sinking into the mattress, lighter than air, as your vision grows spotted. You feel sicker than ever, your head weighs as if you have stones inside and burns like hell but you feel cold, at the same time: fingers, legs, arms, torso, it's all frozen. You groan, rolling on your side and closing your eyes as you hear Steve's steps.

"Baby. I'm gonna die today. Remember I love you and my collection of VHS is yours" Steve smiles, sitting near you and putting a hand on your forehead.

"Oh love, how sweet of you" He replies,  "Why were you still working?" He asks with a slight tone of reproach. One of his hands slides up your neck and then your back, the other one brushes your hair away from your forehead, then lightly caresses one of your cheeks. He starts rubbing circles over your back and it feels like paradise. "We need money, you know my amazing boyfriend and I... we want to find a place of our own and he.. He is working so much, he is doing his best  for our future together. I want to do it too, if I could I'd even get three jobs. For him. For us. " You answer, smiling. Thank goodness you have your eyes closed and you're probably delirious with fever, otherwise you'd notice Steve's eyes watering and the little tear that escapes his control. Sometimes the way you love him  unconditionally, moves him. For someone who's not used to be anyone's priority, your love is overwhelming  and he doesn't know what he's done to deserve it. Steve's touches reminds you of your childhood, the way your dad used to take care of you, telling stories about monsters and children fighting the evil, but now these aren't just stories and kids aren't just kids and you don't like hearing stuff like that anymore. And your father doesn't take care of you like before, he doesn't do it out of malice, it's just his new job that takes him away from you for a long time and you know he is suffering too. You don't blame him, but you miss him. Luckily Steve is with you to ease the loneliness.

"Hang in there, love" Your boyfriend murmures softly in your ear, placing a kiss on your cheeks, continuing to rub your back tenderly. Hide behind his words you can feel his concern, he's overprotective as always. "You are burning up, I need you to take this baby" He passes you a pill and you shake your head The movement makes you nauseous and you don't want anything, you feel so tired and sore that you are afraid a single change around you could kill you. 

"Let me here to die" you grumble dramatically.

"Then who will take care of me when I'm sick?" Steve jokes, smiling at you sweetly. The sentence makes you think, you open your eyes and look at him worried.

"What's up?"

"You have to stay away from me" You say, your teeth chattering in the cold as he adjusts the blanket around you better. "I'm not kidding, you could get sick too"

"Dont worry about me love, You just need to rest. " He tells you and in your feverish delirioum you hold his hands and you let go, falling into a deep sleep.

When you wake up an hour and a half later, Steve is in the same position, holding a hand on your forehead and watching over you like your guardian angel. You would like to tell him he shouldn't be here with you, but the truth is the feeling of being cared for is foreign enough to make you crave it in a way you didn't know you could. You cough again your poor lungs out, trying to cover your mouth so as not to contaminate Steve, then sneeze repeatedly. He shakes his head, handing you a glass of water and supporting your back so you can drink comfortably. "And you thought you could work like this? You should be more attentive to your health." "Ohhh Still with this story? Don't be exaggerated, I'm not that bad. Also I was fine before you came at Enzo's" You reply stubbornly, raising an arm to push him away with a huff.

"You were already burning up and you wouldn't even think to come to me. I'm not a good boyfriend? You don't trust me as a nurse? I'm an excellent nurse, that's my job" He has a harsh tone, he wants you to understand that you really have to take care of yourself, today is a fever, tomorrow something else. Steve would like you to be your priority not only his. "Why do you have to be so dramatic! It's just a cold."  Your voice has a strange tone, it's hoarse from the cough, vaguely funny. Steve smiles. He can't be mad at you especially as you disappear into the blanket, curled up on yourself, like a child in need of care. And no matter how much you deny it, you need him and he wants to be there. "Come on Steve seriously maybe there's a chance I didn't pass you my lousy germs. Save yourself. Go away. Think about you my love"

"No way, I need to keep an eye on you."

"Steven Harold Harrington, You're acting like I'm five."

"Don't use my full name on me y/n, also You've been acting like you're five all day." Then after a minute of silence. "How long has this been going on?" He asks more seriously, as you peek out from under the covers to make eye contact with him. You are not even interested in the fact that you are not as beautiful as you would like, that you have dirty hair, swollen red shiny eyes and a pale skin, his steady gaze on you is so full of adoration and devotion that you do not believe it is humanly possible for some eyes express so much love without saying a single word, without moving a muscle, in just one simple glance.

"It was just a sore throat yesterday. I only started coughing this morning and then I was cold, shivering a lot, but I didn't... I didn't want to take my temperature. If you don't know, you don't have to stay home from work" Steve shakes his head and remembers the last few days, he should have been more careful because it's clear you're lying now and it's clear that when you said you were tired in the past few days, you weren't just tired.

"Don't lie to me, I'm not stupid. I mean yes I am, but not that much. You must've been feeling bad for at least a few days." You avoid his look "I hate it when you do this" He whispers lying next to you.

"I haven't done anything. You're just overreacting because you love me too much"

"Please y/nyou are the one who underestimates everything. And yes, I love you too much and I would like to grow old with you, but if you continue to behave like an unconscious foolish child you will make me die of a heart attack at thirty and you will break my dreams"

You laugh. "You're a Drama Queen"

"No you don't understand, today is just the fever and yesterday were demogorgons and tomorrow who knows? You always do it, not taking care of yourself, it scares me"

You hold his hand and after a moment of silence, with all the sincerity, you reply.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry" You are interrupted by a cough. "I've never seen it this way. I've never thought about the impact my actions can have on you. I'm so selfish. "

"No, you are the opposite of selfish. But you are right about one thing I love you too much. And now I'm going to get you some iboprufen to take down the fever." He gets out of bed and places a kiss on your forehead. "I need my girlfriend to be okay"

"I hate meds" You whine and moan.

"You are just a little girl"

"Thanks, my hero." But before he can leave the room you call him. "Steve" He turns around, smiles and you think that you don't want anything more than this for your whole life. Steve Harrington and you, your house, you dreams. The everyday life that becomes extraordinary next to the right person. "I'm sorry I said you were overreacting." You state.

"I love you too, y/n."

[bekolxeram]

7x03 analysis part 2 — Too many Cats

Tommy flew a helicopter into a Category 5 hurricane, at least the show told us so. Is it even possible for an aircraft to fly in those conditions? Today, we are going to figure out just how strong the storm actually is canonically, and how realistic our beloved weewoo show is.

TW: Hurricane, extreme weather, natural disaster

What is the difference between a tropical storm and a hurricane? What even is a hurricane?

Both tropical storm and hurricane are tropical cyclones, just of different strength. A tropical cyclone is a rotating storm system with a low pressure center. The center, or the eye of the storm, sucks in warm moist air from an oceanic environment and it feeds into the generation of storm clouds that organize themselves into a spiral pattern due to the Earth's rotation, aka Coriolis effect.

A tropical cyclone is classified by its maximum sustained wind.

So if it's below 62 km/h, it's a tropical Depression. if it's between 63-118 km/h, it's a Tropical Storm. A Category 5 hurricane though has a maximum sustained wind speed of over 252 km/h.

A strong enough tropical cyclone is called a hurricane in North America, a typhoon in East Asian, and a cyclone in the Indian Ocean (including Australia).

How strong is the storm in 7x03 actually?

We first see the storm at the end of 7x01, when First Mate Kenneth tells Captain Ochoa there is a strengthening tropical storm in the ship's path. Captain Ochoa decides to reverse course back to LA and instructs Kenneth to alert the Coast Guard, but they get interrupted by the cartel.

Fast forward to 7x02, the next mention of the storm comes from Karen. When Hen is sent home by Chief Simpson, she tries to call Athena, but it goes straight to voicemail. Karen tells her cell service is probably spotty out at sea because of the hurricane, which has just got upgraded.

It's recently upgraded to a Category 2 hurricane, as we can see from Karen's tablet.

Then Hen goes to Maddie to ask the Coast Guard to look for Bathena's cruise ship. When Hen shows Maddie the ship tracking app on her phone, the time is 10:28. (I'm guessing PM because it's already dark outside during the Kyle Ortiz call.)

By the time Chief Simpson comes by to reinstate Hen, she's already talking about a Cat 5 hurricane. That can't be more than an hour or two later.

So which one is it? Is it a Cat 2 or a Cat 5? Who should I trust?

Tommy. Whenever he flies, his safety depends on his understanding of the local wind condition and weather. You should listen to him:

So it's a Cat 5, at least by the time the 118 set off on their journey to save Bathena.

Can a tropical storm intensify into a Cat 5 hurricane in hours?

No, not in real life. The record for most rapid intensification of a tropical cyclone is Hurricane Patricia in 2015, but it still took 24 hours. This doesn't mean the storm in 7x03 is completely made up. I believe I might have found the real life inspiration behind it.

Hurricane Otis (2023)

An area of low pressure formed on October 15, 2023 over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico. While it was during a significant El Niño period and the ocean temperature was record-breaking-ly high, strong vertical wind shear condition near the storm was predicted to hinder its development. It was originally forecasted to make landfall as a mere tropical storm. People in Acapulco went to bed on October 23 expecting moderate wind and light rainfall, many stopped seeking out updates of the storm.

In the early hours of October 24, meteorologists at the NHC recognized from satellite images that tropical storm Otis was rapidly intensifying into a hurricane. The NHC officially upgraded the storm to a Cat 1 hurricane at 13:00 CDT and sent out a hurricane hunter aircraft to accurately measure the actual wind speed of the cyclone.

Satellite images provide a pretty good model to estimate the strength of a tropical cyclone, but the most reliable way to measure wind speed is still to fly an aircraft into it and physically measure it. When the hurricane hunter managed to fly into the eyewall of Otis, everyone realized they made a huge mistake: Otis had already become a Cat 3 hurricane, and it was expected to strengthen even more. It takes time to process data received from the hurricane hunter, so operationally the NHC still classified Otis as a Cat 1 hurricane until the next advisory was scheduled to come out, which was at 16:00 CDT, but by that time, Otis was already near Cat 4 strength. It was then officially upgraded to a Cat 5 hurricane at 22:00 CDT.

While Otis did take around 24 hours to intensify from a tropical storm to a catastrophic hurricane, if you just look at the NHC advisories, it pretty much jumped from a Cat 1 into a Cat 5 in 9 hours. It caused extensive damage to Acapulco when it made landfall because the city was severely underprepared. I suspect the cruise ship disaster arc was inspired by hurricane Otis because it happened just a month after the writer strike ended. Also, in 7x02 Maddie, a 911 dispatcher, was not aware that the tropical storm had already strengthened into a hurricane, which mirrors the unexpected development of hurricane Otis.

As the storm in universe was going back at sea and not making landfall, the authority was probably in even less of a hurry to find out what the actual strength of the cyclone was. So it could take them even longer to send in weather reconnaissance aircrafts. I can imagine the 911-verse version of the storm jumping from a Cat 2 to a Cat 5 officially in mere hours.

Can a helicopter fly in a Cat 5 hurricane?

Technically yes, but the chopper won't be doing the flying. The aforementioned NOAA Hurricane Hunter is a Lockheed P-3 Orion specifically modified and fortified for weather information collection. If this four-engined workhorse has to fight tooth and nail against crosswind and turbulence in order to fly into the eye of the storm, a small single engine helicopter definitely would not fair any better. It would end up getting tossed around, a particular strong downdraft might slam it into the ocean, or a prolong bout of severe turbulence might rip it apart. Luckily in 7x03, Tommy is not actually flying into a hurricane, he's trailing behind it.

NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion Hurricane Hunter

In a blink-and-you-miss-it exchange between Buck and Tommy, after Tommy says "a Cat 5 hurricane passed through here", Buck asks why he means by "passed through" and what they are flying in at the moment.

"iNTermITteNt sHOweRs"

When looking at the cross section of a tropical cyclone, you can see rows of rainbands around the eyewall, increasing in size the closer it is to the center of the storm. If you have ever experienced a tropical cyclone making landfall, you would know it starts with sporadic bouts of rainfall (aka intermittent showers), which then gradually increase in frequency and severity as the storm approaches. Once you are within 100-200 km of the eye, wind speed would become violent while the rainbands become so wide and close together it basically keeps raining until you are right under the eye.

These are radar images of hurricane Irma (2017) making landfall in Florida. Bands of moderate to heavy rainfall spread across the inner core region of the cyclone, with still pretty consistent light to moderate precipitation between the gaps. But in the area further away from the eye in the southwest and southeast quadrants, you can see more squall line like patterns. Precipitation would abruptly begin and stop as you fly in and out of those outer lumps of clouds.

Wind speed in that area is no where near hurricane level even for a Cat 5 cyclone, it is typically under 100 km/h. That does not mean it is a safe condition to fly in. Because the outer rainbands of a cyclone are less affected by the storm's vortex dynamics, they behave more like regular thunderstorms. As you know, thunderstorms are big no-no's for aviation safety. In fact, the outer rainbands of a typhoon once contributed to a plane crash in Taiwan.

Conclusion

The hurricane in 7x03 is likely based on reality, albeit with a bit of exaggeration and a shortened timeline for dramatic effect. It is possible to fly and control a helicopter in this specific condition, but the danger is still quite high. Flying into a thunderstorm has a whole different set of risks associated with it, which I will tell you all about next time. Yes, part 3 of this series is "how to crash a helicopter with weather", so stay tuned.

[jams-sims]

Last night was a fucking fever dream. I laughed so hard until I cried and I woke up with a massive headache.

But I'm finally able to talk about what the problem is and people have already picked it out. Mainly when it comes to the red team.

They took a group of rper and forced them to play RUST, if you don't know what Rust is. Your YouTube algorithm isn't fucked like mine. It basically a game where no one wins. The whole point is that you build a base you farm materials for your base and you raid other people for their materials. That it's there is no end goal, but people sweat at that game.

An that's what Purgatory is, instead of each team going off to build multi bases, they have one home base. Instead of setting spawn points they only get one spawn point. An when they die their stuff stays on their body for anyone to take just like RUST.

The problem is they want player conflict, and for it to be something different and new unlike the leisurely life they led on quesadilla Island. They want that conflict that beautiful fitmc, where he turns back into the hardcore 2bt2 player and now that just everyone's problem.

I'm specifically going to look at the red team because they decide to put all the Lore heavy people together and they stuck survivalists with non players/builder. Charlie, Jaiden, Baghera are all pretty casual players. An Carre is never coming back after yesterday, if he does hell has frozen over.

Now I can take or leave whether the red team is cursed or not. I'm sitting directly in the middle of yeah it would be too obvious that red is cursed. Cause they legit have admin fucking with Philza. To it would be ironically funny if it was just the red team. Philza being the one to make the team curse cause the narrative has been beating his ass.

Anyway- the first thing that would have to be changed is the system of which people gain point. They want conflict, fighting is the best way to do that. Make it so killing people is gives you more points. But in turn you have to turn up the specialist factor so people don't just go on manhunts. You have to make it so if you are gonna go out into the world to kill. The world has to be beating your ass to make it fair.

This is the only way you can allow survivalist characters such as Philza and Cellbit to survive is by forcing them to make homes and equipment to survive natural disasters and other players. An you gain more by adventuring around as well. Movement should be awarded.

It's no longer race to the top of a volcano to turn in quest. It's now, race to the top of a volcano while it's erupting, to turn in quest to get equipment.

This allows players like Baghera, Jaiden and Charlie to focus on more homestead task. Building, food supply, and mining material. To make it so that if you can't turn in a quest you aren't fucked. I'm assuming the admins want NO working together with other teams. They want them to suffer thus we gotta rearrange with that suffering means.

For instants: If you build a base whether that be underground or not. You can be subject to raids, which means you actually gotta plan and hide your shit. If they find it oh well.

Your base can be destroyed but hard to craft items such as let's say enchanting table and villagers are a no go you can not take them or destroy them. Anything that would destroy a player morale shit like that is a no. We want it to be something you can work back towards and think about how do we make this thing better.

Natural disasters are more common than the minor problems, the your inventory moving on it own is less, and your controls swapped are less. We change that too, every 2 to 3 hours the weather changes. And it stays that way for the next 2 to 3 hours. In game or out would be up to the admins.

Task still exist, global still exist, but now it's a race to the top. The only time you can turn anything in is during a Natural disaster. Once a player picks something up. From their turn-in they become immune to damage certain amount of time. Then it's a free for all but that gives the turn in team time to run.

An once they enter their base they are considered safe. You have earned supplies for your team, immunity from raids and a shit ton of points. That's for the team who turns it in first.

Player can still turn in task and earn suppliers. That supplies is limited but even if your last you still get something.

How do you stop people from camping someone base or Gobal.

Easy, immunity for the team to do turn in first last the whole day until the next day. Where it loses its effect, that gives the team time to move their shit if they so wish or be ready to defend.

Global is even more easy global is locked until it is time and 2 if an admin catches you camping any where near it. You get one tapped don't be a camper.

How to stop people from camping others bases. (I think that just falls under don't be an asshole. An maybe making a shield around the spawn point with an area of effect could also help.)

I didn't want to complain and not give like legit fixs for the problems they have. Cause it's one thing to scream and say stuff is broke and it's another to actually come up with ideas to fix it.

[suengmi]

DUUUUUUDDDDEEEEEEEE I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR UR REQS TO OPEN AHH

okay okay hear me out on this one..

When you had a fight with Felix (god forbid) and you are sulking but it’s thundering outside and you are scared of thunder, so he comes up though you are not talking 🥺🥺 can i cry please

NYAH SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO OPEN ya boi was zzzz but here you go!! hope u enjoy my love!! whenever i write fluff and stuff i get so mad bc it's so cute im like BALLS FISTS and hITS THE AIR so at this point you're taking me down with you

pairing: felix x gn!reader genre: lil angst, fluff, gn!reader warnings/other: none, .9k, kinda edited there were very few times you had argued with felix. it was never to the point of yelling nor insults, but sometimes he frustrated you to no end.

on occasion, felix would do small, careless things that turned into, well, large, careless things. you weren't living together, though he was at your house enough to have a key and free range of your fridge. you'd joke about how he was your live-in farm animal because he consistently grazed on your food. you didn't mind, though, your cute calf lounging around your house.

but this time, he sent you into a rage. felix eating your food. it wasn't just food, it was the cake you had hand baked for your friends birthday, and it was very important. you slaved over the cake for three days, the first one you made was a disaster, the second the same but the third time, it was flawless. you were so proud.

the three tiers of cake perfectly aligned with the black and red fudge. pretty little pearl gems along the side with hand crafted roses. it was your shining glory. everything about it was absolutely perfect.

well, that was before felix decided to press his finger in it to try it, the pressure of his touch making the cake completely topple over in the fridge. it was ruined, not even a tiny bit salvageable.

nothing in you regretted kicking him out this morning, until now. the gentle sounds of rain trickled down the windows in the beginning, small spurts of harsh wind whispering through the trees.

it was okay at first, you liked the rain but you didn't like thunder. something about the sound clawed into your chest, burying itself deep inside you and making itself at home. it was scary, the feeling of your windows shaking back and forth with the bangs of the wind.

every minute, it got worse. you could hear the sounds of branches snapping, thunder rumbling into the walls of the house with every snap of clouds banging into each other.

you're stuck in your closet, hands pressing against your ears as you rock back and forth, trying to hum yourself to calm down, almost like a lullaby. your mind tells you if you leave the closet, it'll get worse. like somehow, your movements will change the course of nature.

another bang shutters the windows, you whimper, scared of the noises yet to come. a strangled zap echoes in your room, all of the lights switching off in an instant. it's completely pitch black, the only light coming from your phone on the ground next to you.

"please stop, please stop." you chant to yourself over and over, eyes pressing shut. the weather channel lied. this isn't light showers. this was the throat of a demon swallowing the world.

you don't even notice the closet door open at first, a small amount of light peeping through from a torch. your boyfriend is staring down at you. he takes you in, his wet hair sticking to his forehead, and he's slightly out of breath as if he ran the whole way here.

"baby, it's okay, it's me." he almost whispers. he notices the wet marks on your shirt, little droplets of tears planting themselves in the fabric.

nothing comes out of your mouth but a small whimper.

bang. the sound of thunder surrounds the house, slightly shaking the pictures on your wall. you let out a sob, mind still stinging with fright.

"here, here." felix says, showing you a pair of noise cancelling headphones. you can't move, frozen in your spot. he knows exactly what to do, this isn't the first time you've been this scared before.

ever so gently, he pry's your hands from your ears, placing the headphones over your head. it's one of your favourite songs, just loud enough to drown out the sound of the thunderstorm. you feel him slot himself behind you, wrapping his arms around your shoulders, head pressed against your neck. you can't hear him, but you can feel his lips moving against you. his hair is cold, still dripping from the rain.

"it'll be over soon, i promise."

your body automatically turns to him, seeking shelter in his chest, arms wrapping around his waist. a crack of thunder pangs, but it's not as loud this time. you're melting into your boyfriends touch, his arms rubbing soothing lines along your back, rocking you with him. the anxiety in your chest lessens, every minute that goes by you can feel yourself calm just a bit more.

felix dips his head down as he delicately pulls you back, eyes meeting your own. "it's not gonna hurt you, it's okay. i'm here, baby."

a few kisses are pressed on your cheek, and then one on your forehead. he hums, cheek resting against you, the feeling vibrating through your body.

you're not sure how long you sit like this, but you haven't felt and rumbles for a few minutes. when you've calmed down a bit, you lean back, rain still pouring down on the windows.

"i'm still mad at you."

the corner of his mouth turns up at one side, his fingers rubbing along the bloated edges of your cheeks. "i'd be disappointed if you weren't."

-

GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I UPSET MYSELFFFFF

[lackadaisicallizard]

The first time it happens is in the hallway outside James’ potions classroom. He’s leaning on the wall, waiting for Sirius to finish talking to Slughorn about some concoction he made that apparently ‘wasn’t the instructions’ and ‘caused a minor natural disaster’ when Regulus appears in front of him.

“I’d ask why you’re lurking around in hallways when everyone else is eating lunch, but I fear knowing that answer might make me an accomplice.” His eyebrows are raised.

James blinks at him. “Hello to you too, Regulus. Bold of you to ask me that question when you’re also ‘lurking around’ during lunch.”

“I actually need to talk to Professor Slughorn about something academic. Maybe you’ve heard the word before?”

James rolls his eyes and shakes his head, choosing not to respond and instead pulls a small tube of lip balm from his pocket, applying it to his lips that have been dry all day due to the increasingly cold weather. He notices Regulus looking at him with a small smirk. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s strawberry flavoured.”

“Of course it is.”

“Do you have a problem with me wanting to keep my lips moisturised?”

“Why on earth would I have a problem with that?”

James throws his hands up. “Well I don’t know, but you’re very clearly judging me when I’m literally just standing in a cold hallway.”

Regulus huffs out a laugh. “I’m not judging you for your strawberry flavoured lip balm, Potter.”

“You are, though!”

“Well it appears I’ve touched a nerve here for some reason.”

“And I suppose your lips are always perfectly soft entirely of their own accord?” James mutters, sounding far too much like a petulant child than he has any right to.

Regulus is still smirking, a glint in his sharp, grey eyes. “Do you always get this riled up over beauty products?”

“I do when I’m being judged for no reason.”

“Again, I’m not judging you.”

“You haven’t even tried it.”

“What?”

“The lip balm. Maybe if you tried it you’d realise you don’t have to walk around with cracked lips because you’re afraid of a little ‘product’”

“I’m not afraid of the lip balm, Potter.”

“Sure sounds like it.”

“Are you always this annoying?” Regulus has dropped the smirk, but his tone still has a hint of humour in it.

“Pretty much, yes.”

“It’s all making sense now.”

James frowns. “What is?”

“The company my brother chooses to keep.”

“Coming from a boy with an aversion to strawberry flavoured lip-balm.”

“You’re sounding a bit like a broken record now.”

“I’m just saying, you have a lot of opinions for someone who hasn’t even tried it-”

“Fine, I’ll try your sodding lip balm.” Regulus says one second, and then the next second he steps in close to James, pulls him down to his level by his tie, and presses their lips together.

It turns out Regulus’ lips are naturally soft.

James finds that as he starts to lean into the entirely unexpected kiss, suddenly it’s over.

Regulus straightens back up and rubs his lips together. “Well I stand corrected, Potter. The lip balm isn’t half bad. Maybe I’ll start using it after all.”

Regulus is looking at him with a slight smile and James finds that he’s lost the ability to speak.

What the fuck just happened?

It’s then that Sirius emerges from the classroom. “So apparently I have detention, which is complete bullshit. We only had to evacuate the room for like ten minutes!” They stop as they see Regulus. “Oh hey, Reggie. What are you doing here?”

Sirius is the only one who can get away with calling Regulus Reggie. James has learned that the hard way.

“Oh it’s a bit cold and I needed to borrow some lip balm.”

Sirius screws up his face in confusion. “What, from me? I don’t have any right now.”

Regulus is smirking again. “That’s okay, Potter helped me out.”

Sirius looks from Regulus to James, taking in his best friend’s stunned expression with a frown. “Well that’s… good?”

Regulus looks at James. His stomach feels weird. “Yes,” Regulus says slowly, “it wasn’t bad at all.”

They maintain eye-contact for a moment. The weird feeling in his stomach is accompanied by a fluttering in his chest. He can’t explain either of them right now, especially with the sharp grey working to unravel James’ thoughts.

“Anyway, I’d better get to Professor Slughorn. He could probably use an intelligent conversation for once.”

Sirius scoffs. “And you think he’s going to get that from you? You’ve got some grand delusions, little brother.”

“Great comeback, Sirius. You really cut me there,” he deadpans.

“See you later, Reggie. Love you.”

Regulus shakes his head before moving towards the door. Sirius stops him with a sharp “Ah.”

Regulus sighs. “Love you too.”

Sirius grins and ruffles his hair as he walks past. Regulus mutters something about a hex before disappearing into the classroom.

Sirius turns to look at James. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad we’re on such good terms now, but fuck if he isn’t an annoying little shit.”

“Mhmm.” James’ brain is still whirring, unable to catch up with what happened not two minutes ago. Namely, the part where Regulus kissed him. It was a kiss, right? He isn’t missing some new social norm where sharing lip balm through mouth-to-mouth contact is totally expected, is he?

He’s pretty sure it’s not.

Later on that evening, in their dorm room, James turns to Peter, who’s leafing through a magazine. “Pete?”

“Mm?”

“Could I borrow some lip balm?”

Peter looks up from his page with a frown. “Don’t you have like, five different kinds?”

“I er- I lost them.”

He looks at James with clear suspicion but apparently decides not to push it, getting off his bed to rifle through his stuff, eventually pulling out a small tin of Vaseline and throwing it across the room onto James’ bed wordlessly.

“Thanks,” James says.

Now that’s a normal way to share lip balm. Not a single kiss in sight.

Regulus was definitely acting strange then. What James doesn’t know is why.

He also doesn’t know why he can’t stop thinking about it.

[preciadosbass]

3/8/24

woke up at 10 to my dad shaking me, he seemed in so much more of a better mood than the past few days, which is good. i told him about the frank, mikey and gerard sightings [even though i’d already told him about gerards] and we joked for a bit. i don’t really remember what about but it made me feel good. i had my breakfast while showing him a few tiktok’s related to bands i like and stuff. not to mention i obviously cuddled boris the second i saw him. also, saw the RAY TORO PHOTO AAA HES ALIVE

after fussing boris some more i went back to sleep at 11:50 because i felt like my eyes were forcefully being pryed open.. took a while to actually get to sleep because of how hot it is. i eventually did and woke up 2ish. my mum and sister had already left to go out as my sister found out one of her online friends she games with lives close to us. i watched my dad play roblox again and he kept on blaming me whenever he died in natural disasters lmaoo — he played two more games before we went out for a walk to pick blackberries at around 4.

most of the ones i picked i didn’t end up keeping because i’m very particular and i cant eat them if they’re the slightest bit squishy/if the separate berry things that make them up are too big. its really weird. anyway, we’re both terrible at making conversation so we just tended to point out things around us, if that makes sense. like, ‘those ones don’t look ripe’. we were out for 30/40 minutes and when i got back home i cuddled boris. he seems off today, like the weather isn’t too bad and he hasn’t gone out from my knowledge, and he doesn’t seem content when i stroke him. i’m worried about him.

i continued watching a gerard video id started watching yesterday and went out to see boris. my parents were in the kitchen at the same time and i mentioned him seeming off but they said he went outside when i had my nap so that’s reassuring. i didn’t stay out there for long because he wanted to come back in. when i did come in i watched my dad play natural disaster again and had something to eat because just moving my head was making my vision cut out. afterwards i checked on boris and scrolled on mcrblr.

i did ask my mum if we could go on a walk but she said no so i’m still really anxious as i won’t be able to burn off what i’ve eaten. exercising at home just dosent cut it for me. i always get caught and become unmotivated so fast. it’s understandable that she did refuse though, she barely ever does, and she’s been up someone else house all day feeling awkward. i also asked quite late considering how fast it gets dark.

i carried on doing my own thing [looking at various band related posts] up until about 9, nearly ten, when i went upstairs to talk to my dad while waiting for my sister to get to sleep so i could ask the questions about boris. my mum said yesterday that maybe i should include my sister in my routine and ask her a couple questions, so after dad watched me play natural disaster for a while as we waited, i went into her room as i knew she was still awake and did exactly that. she’s almost always really understanding about the whole compulsion thing, although i knows she dosent actually get it because i dont myself, and it’s my issue.

i eventually asked my parents the questions which took longer than i’d anticipated because of how different i think boris has been acting today. cutting the questions down and making them easier to go through makes my compulsions so much worse and sends me into utter panic but i tried my best not to drag it on, although i did. i just love boris so much. after that i went downstairs, had some icy water, brushed my teeth and said goodnight to boris. i brought his food to him so i could make sure he’s eaten and told him in advance about me being out practically the whole day tomorrow.

i hate being away from him, it makes me feel so guilty. plus, being with him just makes me feel so comforted, and hopefully it does the same for him too. i think it might do because for example, our dog is very noisy and he [boris] seems to be calmer when the dog barks if someone’s stroking him. which is another reason why i don’t like being away, i don’t like him being scared, or for him to be feeling anything bad in general. he knows he’s the boss of the dog though, which is good because of their size difference. i went to sleep early at 1:36 because i have to wake up somewhat early in the morning. i feel bad about barely doing anything at all today, but at least ill be productive tomorrow.

have a good day/night -_<

[walker-extended-universe]

S.O.S., Chapter 1

Pairing: Geri Broussard/Cordell Walker, Geri Broussard/Cassie Perez/Cordell Walker

Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe- Cruise Ship, Stranded, Hurricanes & Typhoons, Natural Disasters, Shipwrecks, Survival, Desert Island, Angst, Angst and Feels, Near Death Experiences, Slow Romance, eventual throuple, Slow Build, Angst with a Happy Ending

Summary: Geri and Cordell were gifted a cruise vacation for their first anniversary as a married couple. Cassie Perez is an activities coordinator on their ship that has her eye on a troubling storm in their path. When things go awry, the three of them will have to rely on each other until help can find them.

@augustofwhump day 5- Stranded

A/N: Don't worry Cassie's not dead she's just Elsewhere

Taglist: @theladywyn, @ihavepointysticks, @klaatu51, @itsjessiegirl1, @neptunium134

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

Cordell looked up at the ship and felt a twist in his gut that he shouldn’t have felt until they were on the open ocean. He’s not sure how Geri talked him into this cruise, but it was way too late to back out now.

He should’ve faked being sick this morning.

“Come on, Cordi! They’re boarding in 10 minutes!”

Cordell took a deep breath and grabbed their suitcases. “You sure these tickets are non-refundable?”

Geri sighed. “Cordi, you promised.”

“I know, I know but-”

“I know cruises aren’t exactly your thing but your parents paid for this and it’s our anniversary and-”

“I know, I know.” Cordell kissed her. “I just- Water’s not my thing. I mean I can swim but the last time I was on a boat was during Marine’s training and I’m lucky my captains never saw me hurl afterwards.” 

Geri chuckled. “Well, this isn’t exactly Marines training. And this cruise is perfectly safe. They have safety standards to meet and all the staff are trained for emergencies. And it’s only for two weeks. We’ll be fine, I promise.”

Cordell huffed. “You know that’s the line they give before everything bad that happens in those natural disaster movies, right?”

“Oh my god-”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” He kissed her again. “Happy anniversary. Let’s get boarded. You have all the paperwork, right?”

“If you got the bags,” she teased.

“Ah, the real reason you married me: free manual labor.”

Geri laughed. “I don’t know if I’d call you ‘free’. I mean, the amount you eat alone….”

“Hey, I’m a growing boy!”

“Last I checked, you were fully grown 20 years ago.”

“I- We don’t know that for sure!” He smiled and followed Geri’s laughter up to the pier.

He could handle a one week tour. If not for his own sense of adventure, he could do it for his wife.

—------------------

“We’re still looking out for a possible hurricane forming at the base of the Gulf of Mexico. No formal warnings have been put in place but we caution anyone going into these waters to stay alert. If you have any concerns, stay out of the water and warn your neighbors to do the same.”

“Still listening to those weather reports, Cassie?”

She looked up at her supervisor. “Weather kind of impacts our job, Brenda. And they’re saying this hurricane could be a big deal.”

Brenda sighed. “If it was that big of a deal, they’d issue a warning. Which they haven’t. So, until they do, we have jobs to do. And for you, that means corralling lost passengers.”

Cassie rolled her eyes but put on her big “I Can Help!” badge, picked up her map, and went to her assigned hallways. She was technically part of the event coordinating team but before the opening receptions, getting passengers to their assigned cabins was an all-hands-on-deck situation. The last thing they needed was a kid getting lost in the engine block or a very good actor getting themselves a free room.

Clearing her assigned hallways was easier than she ever could have hoped. It was a couples cruise, mostly full of elderly couples who had been on a cruise before (some of them she even recognized) with a few newbies who were still pretty capable of using a map. The most she had to do was help reorient a few of the newer ones and carry the bags for one particularly sweet pair of ladies who reminded her of her abuela.

After the crowd died down, she waited for a bit to catch any stragglers. They wouldn’t want to start any of the introductory talks or safety presentations until all the passengers were settled and they were on a very strict timetable. She could waste 10 minutes now to safe someone's life later.

On her final sweep, she passed by some annoyed voices from the stairwell. Just as she’d feared.

“Hey!” she said as she opened the door to the stairs, smile still firmly in place. “Can I help you with anything?”

The couple quit arguing and turned to her. The man looked a little annoyed (and a tad green around the gills) but his partner gave her a friendly smile. “Hi,” she said. “I think we’re a little lost but my husband is allergic to asking for assistance.”

“Well, that’s what I’m here for,” Cassie assured her. “Where are you trying to get to?”

“We’re trying to find our cabin, Room 234C.” She showed Cassie their tickets.

She nodded. “Alright. Well, you’re on the right track. 234C is on the level above us. Just take a left out of the stairwell and it should be a few doors down on the right.”

“I told you,” the man muttered.

The woman glared at him then smiled at Cassie again. “Thank you so much. What was your name?”

“Oh, I’m Cassie.” She could only hope they were asking for “glowing review” reasons.

“Well, thank you Cassie. I’m Geri and this is my husband, Cordell. I’m sure we’ll probably run into each other again; he’s terrible with directions.”

Cordell gave her a tight smile. “Yes, thank you. We’ve gotta get to our room now so we can get to that safety presentation. Especially with that storm brewing….”

Geri sighed. “Cordi, I told you, we’ll be fine. I’m sure they’ve taken all that into account, right Cassie?”

Cassie nodded. “We’re closely following all the safety recommendations from the weather authorities,” she said in her best customer service voice. “And attending the safety presentations will certainly help decrease the risk of injury, so please get settled in your room as quickly as possible.”

“That sounds great. Thank you.” Geri smiled and the couple started heading up the stairs, their shoes pounding on the metal staircase.

Cassie kept her smile up until they were out of sight and sighed. She checked her watch and decided it was safe to head back to her office. She had to get ready for the presentation too.

—----------------

Cordell thought he should get extra Husband Points for agreeing to eat more than cheese and crackers on this floating death trap. His stomach felt unsettled since the minute he walked on board and it hadn’t gotten better since they left port. If anything, it got worse.

He knew it should be impossible to feel the movement of the ocean on a ship this big, but he swore he could feel every dip and swell of the waves as they hit the ship. It took everything in him to walk in a straight line, and his relationship with solid food was on a steep decline.

He was trying to make this fun for Geri. He really was. But it was hard to enjoy dinner when all he wanted to do was curl up around the toilet.

Surely this would earn him the right to pick their next anniversary vacation.

“Are you feeling okay, Cordi?”

Cordell shook himself out of his thoughts and smiled. Or, at least, he tried to. “I’m fine, babe.”

Geri frowned. “Are you sure? You’ve barely touched your steak.”

Cordell looked down at his plate and his stomach curled again. He’d ordered the steak because it was familiar. But by the time it got to their table he was starting to feel sick again and he knew from experience it wouldn’t taste nearly as good coming back up. 

But he didn’t want to bring her down with that. So he smiled and said “I guess I wasn’t in the mood for steak after all.”

“Oh. Do you want to order something else or-”

The boat lurched suddenly and Cordell felt the remains of his lunch start to make a reappearance. “Uh, you know what? I gotta hit the restroom but why don’t you order me something new and I’ll try it when I get back.”

“Cordi, wha-”

“Thanks, Ger! You’re the best.” He quickly got up and left the dining room, barely missing colliding with a staff member on his way out.

As much as he intended to find a bathroom, his lunch was not being patient and the balcony was very welcoming. Without thinking much further, he ran over and leaned far over the edge, heaving as what little food was in him rushed out.

Panting, he stayed leaning over the edge, trying to get as much bile out as possible before he returned to dinner.

Why the hell had he agreed to this cruise?

“Sir? Can I help?”

Slowly, he stood up and looked over at the woman standing next to him. He squinted at her, trying to recognize her. He recognized the voice, and she looked familiar, even in the dim light.

“You- You’re the lady that helped us find the cabin. Kammie?”

She smiled. “Cassie. Do you need help?”

“Uh, a little….”

She held her hands out. “Let me see your wrists?”

Skeptical, he leaned his lip against the railing to keep him upright and presented his wrists. He watched as she aligned her fingers at the center of his wrists, right under the crease, and pressed hard.

In a few seconds, the nausea passed and he felt less dizzy. “How….?”

She winked at him. “Old trick I learned in my early days. Wait here a sec.”

She darted back inside the dining area and came back with a glass of fizzy water and a handful of crackers. “Nibble on these and drink the seltzer. It should settle your stomach a bit.”

He muttered a thanks and followed her directions. “I think if I knew I had seasickness I would’ve tried harder to pass on this vacation,” he murmured.

She shrugged. “Well, you live and learn. The good news is, you’ll only feel it for a few days. Once your body gets used to it, you’ll be fine. Well, aside from shaky legs on land but that’ll fade too.”

He grunted. “Yeah, sounds great. Thank you for this, really.”

“Hey, it’s just part of the job. Here.” She opened a tin of breath mints for him. “Take a couple of these. And maybe recommend to your wife that you guys hang out around the deck more until you get used to things at sea. Fresh air and being able to keep your eye on the horizon helps.”

He smiled. “I’ll try that. Thanks.”

“No problem. Let me know if you need anything else. I’m an events coordinator so I’m pretty much always around.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

She smiled and walked away, presumably to handle some kind of event coordinator stuff. Cordell sighed and started sucking on the breath mints. He had a couple minutes before Geri would start to worry about him, but knowing her she probably already picked up on his seasickness and was gearing up to lecture him for keeping secrets for her sake. It was an argument they’d had before and one they would probably have again.

Thank God she loved him.

—-------------

Cassie was woken up by a blaring alarm. She groaned and sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. It was only their third day on the water; what could possibly be going wrong this early in?

She hoped it was a drill she’d forgotten about. She really, really hoped so.

But she couldn’t assume that, so she grabbed her high-vis jacket, her megaphone, and her walkie and rushed out of her room.

The minute she stepped in water, she knew it wasn’t a drill. Something was definitely wrong.

“Brenda, what’s going on?” she called into the walkie.

“That damn storm is what’s going on!” Brenda shrieked. “Out of nowhere it headed right for us! Help us get people into the lifeboats!”

“Lifeboats? In a storm we should-”

“Take people below, I know, but we’ve been hit with some kind of debris and the boys downstairs say we’re taking on water. Lifeboats aren’t our safest option but until someone can get out here they’re our best option. Now get out here!”

Cassie ran for the upper deck, splashing water slowly climbing higher up her legs. She ran into a few other passengers on her way and urged them to head toward the lifeboats. 

“Cassie, what’s going on?”

She whirled around and saw her favorite passengers. “Cordell, Geri, it’s a long story but you need to get to the lifeboats. We got hit by that storm out of nowhere and we’re taking on water. We’re waiting on help but there’s not much time for us to get off.”

Geri gulped but nodded and Cordell gripped her arm. “Ger, come on. We gotta go.”

“I know, I know. I’m sor-”

“Don’t apologize. Let’s just go.”

Cassie directed them and took her time guiding other passengers before she made her way to the top deck. The passengers came first, especially when some of them had trouble moving.

By the time she made it up there, there was a scary amount of water washing up on the deck. It took everything she had to keep upright. She joined the line to help load people into the boats, but with the storm picking up it was getting harder to keep things moving calmly.

As she was helping load the last of the passengers, the boat tipped badly and a wave came over the deck.

It was just enough to make her lose her footing and send her over the railing.

—-------------

Cordell woke up to the sun on his face and sand under his back. He tried to remember when he fell asleep on the beach; surely Geri would’ve woken him up so that they could get back to the cruise ship on time.

The cruise ship…..

His eyes snapped open as memories of the day before flooded in. He sat up, frantically looking around. “Geri!” he called- or at least, he tried to. His voice was hoarse, probably from a mix of saltwater and dehydration. “Geri!” he tried again, before getting to his feet.

He scanned the beach around him. The lifeboat they’d used was about five feet away from him. On shaky legs, he walked over to it, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Geri inside. “Geri….” he knelt beside the boat and tried to shake her away. “Geri, please…..”

Thankfully, her face scrunched and she groaned awake. “Cordi? Wha- What happened?”

“We got hit by that storm,” he reminded her. “I-I don’t know where we are now but I think we’re stuck for a while.”

Geri nodded, then groaned again as she tried to sit up. “I- Is it just us here?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t see anyone else, but I just woke up.” He knew there were more people in their lifeboat but there were no people or footprints anywhere.

Geri slumped. “Damn. Okay. Well…. Now what?”

Cordell shrugged. “Find water and shelter if we can. Then think about finding help.”

Geri nodded and reached for him. “Sounds… sounds like a plan.”

[digi-tama-in-your-pocket]

It's may, so time to swap virtual pets.

Pendulum Color Deep Savers was fun, definitely better than the Digital Monster Color, which, you just kind of expect that when comparing Pendulums to Bricks. The Digimon I started with is still alive. I do want to raise a new Digimon next time I run it and start filling out the log, but I also want to see how long I can keep vikemon alive. But for now, i'll be replacing it with Nature Spirit. If you're curious about the charm, it's a little slime monster, because it reminded me of pabumon, but I think I could come up with a better idea.

The Gigapets Bit Bunnies are going away until next Easter Season, they'll be the pet I run every month of easter. I don't really go big on Easter the way I do Halloween, but this can be my way of celebrating. They were very cute. But I think next time i'm only going to concentrate on running one bunny, and not all three. I love the option, I just wish we could pick them. In place of Gigapets, I decided I was feeling an oddpet this month and went with Gyaoppi II, a little dinosaur pet, it's my first time running it so i'm learning as I go, it has some interesting mechanics, there is aparantly weather and you need to give your dino a hat in the sun and an umbrella in the rain, also it doesn't go to sleep unless you make it sleep, and it has a "sleep meter" that seems to deplete extremely slowly. I almost worry if it's going to be asleep when I want it to be, but it's other stats deplete slowly too, so we'll see how it goes. Thankfully this device works beautifully, it's not like the Hitorikko disaster at all.

Tamagotchi Uni and Tamagotchi Mini are both going back into storage, and i'll be running a gen 1 Tamagotchi. I've been feeling tamagotchi really hard lately, I think i'm going to try and go for Mametchi again, wish me luck because I have never been able to do it, but I've learned some new things, aparantly the mechanics are a bit different in the remakes than people originally thought.

I also have a Tamagotchi Pix in the mail... depending on how excited I get I might run that in addition to this.

Also, I'm, still running two Digital Monster Colors. Just trying to get them to their final forms so I can unlock specific backgrounds, but they're going back into storage for now when I'm done with that.

Also, new tag for me actually talking about v-pet exploits. So blacklist #v-pet log if you are only here for news and fan art.

[talkingpointsusa]

To the surprise of literally nobody, Matt Walsh has no idea what he’s talking about when it comes to forest fires

Well folks, I'm back from a weeklong camping trip and am ready to tackle some more right-wing media brain rot. While I don't normally like covering the same show twice in a row I figured what better way to celebrate being back from the woods in Canada than debunking an episode about the woods in Canada.

So, Matt Walsh decided to cover the recent forest fires in Canada (finally, my country gets a mention) and you would think that it would be very hard to make that offensive. Shockingly enough though, Matt managed to find a way. At least he's innovative.

01:10, Matt Walsh: "One of the most basic assumptions about climate change that you're told to accept is that if you give the government enough power and make enough personal sacrifices you can help change the weather. You can make natural disasters less likely, you can save beaches and endangered species, even entire countries, the entire world can be saved and all you need to do is pay more in taxes to fund more government bureaucracy and give up your car and your gas stove and airline travel and plastic straws and maybe your entire livelihood and then everything will be fine."

Right out of the gate there is a mountain of BS that needs to be addressed here. Strap in guys, we've got a lot to unpack.

Matt's conflating weather and climate, what else is new? I explained this in a previous post but weather refers to short term changes in the atmosphere while climate refers to the weather of a specific region over time. Does climate change increase the probability of extreme weather? Yes! For example, 2023 was the hottest year on record and the world saw record breaking heatwaves as a result.

More specifically, many recent extreme weather events can be directly tied to climate change. According to Carbonbrief.org, which has actually mapped extreme weather events across the world and determined which ones have ties to climate change or not, 71% of the extreme weather events mapped by their organization were made more likely or severe by anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, 93% of the extreme heat events charted by their scientists were made more likely or severe by anthropogenic climate change. So yes, climate change does change the weather and addressing climate change will make those disasters less likely. The only way to agree with Matt's BS assessment that climate change is a government run scam is to ignore mountains of data.

As for Matt's list of things that we're allegedly being forced to give up, it's complete rubbish;

Nobody has banned gasoline cars, although they're being phased out in favor of EV's. Even with this phaseout, you can still drive your gasoline car or even buy a new one if you chose and even if you couldn't you still have the option to drive an EV or hybrid or even a hydrogen powered car in certain states.

While New York state did ban gas stoves (and even then only by as early as the year 2026 meaning it's not like they're going to come into your house and drag you and your gas stove out by force), nationally they are only subject to energy efficiency and health related guidelines.

Airline travel is absolutely not getting banned, if only because the airline industry controls a fourteen million dollar lobbying arm that would crush that idea in five seconds flat.

As for plastic straws, a lot of states have banned them but to be honest who gives a crap? As someone who lives in a country that has banned single-use plastic straws, society has yet to collapse. Using a paper or metal straw isn't some herculean sacrifice.

In terms of peoples incomes, it would be dishonest to say that some people won’t most likely lose their jobs due to phasing out fossil fuels. However, renewable energy will also create thousands of jobs many of which can be occupied by the people who were previously employed in the fossil fuel sector. According to the DOE, there are currently just over 8 million jobs in renewable energy in the United States and in both 2021 and 2022 renewable energy job growth outpaced overall US employment. Another thing that the government could do is provide federal grant money and create transition programs, similar to Colorado’s lauded Office of Just Transition, to help out of work coal miners and other fossil fuel related workers transition to other jobs in the energy sector. I doubt Matt would like that solution though because that would require a bump in his taxes and as we’ve already established, he doesn’t like that very much. Taxes have gotta stay low, actual solutions to climate change that help everyone be damned!

Also, climate change is the real job killer. According to the National Climate Assessment Report, climate change will also drive up electricity costs and severely impact trade and the economy. In other words, if we don't address climate change Matt's economic fears will not only occur but will be a thousand times worse than what will happen with regulation.

*pants*, I know that was a lot of words but it's important to address Matt's arguments for what they are: poorly sourced bullshit.

01:42, Matt Walsh: "Now there's no other country on Earth that's internalized this way of thinking more than our neighbor to the north Canada."

First of all, get my countries name out of your goddamn mouth.

Second of all, not even close. I'd say that Denmark, which is honestly a case study in how countries should address climate change, is a lot more of a climate-friendly nation than Canada. We don't even make the top ten nations leading on climate and we're still pretty beholden to oil interests up in Alberta unfortunately.

01:48, Matt Walsh: "They've declared a national climate change emergency, they have a constantly increasing national tax on carbon which raises the cost of living for pretty much every household in the country, they've banned plastic straws, they've shut down oil and gas permits off their pacific coast. If you're an insomniac and you pull up a video of a debate in the Canadian parliament to help you sleep there's a good chance they'll be debating climate change in some way or another."

Brief pause, the carbon tax hasn't significantly increased the cost of living for the average household in Canada. According to StatsCan, the carbon tax has only made overall consumer prices 0.6% higher. As a matter of fact, Canada has a climate rebate called the Canada Carbon Rebate that actually helps small businesses and families offset pollution pricing.

Hmm, it almost sounds like Matt doesn't know what he's talking about here. Perhaps if he actually decided to look into Canadian politics instead of just going "boooring" and looking at random right-wing blogs talking about some obscure report released by the health department (we'll get to that later) he wouldn't make these extremely stupid mistakes while covering this story.

02:22, Matt Walsh: "Surely we can assume that at the very least Canada's carbon emissions are much lower as a result of all of this government beuracracy. After all, Canada's not even a top twenty country by population. The GDP barely ranks in the top ten, shouldn't be hard for them to rank low on the list of global carbon emitters, especially since they've been trying so hard and punishing their citizens so much.

We actually have the ninth largest GDP in the world according to the World Bank but go off I guess.

Also, how are these things that Matt previously listed off "punishing citizens"? As mentioned previously, the carbon tax has barely impacted the cost of living and comes with rebates. Banning plastic straws is an extraordinarily mild inconvenience at best, as a Canadian I can confidently tell you that I've barely noticed the difference. As for shutting down oil and gas permits off the Pacific Coast, your average citizen has zero idea that that even happened. This is completely ridiculous.

Also, the Canadian economy is outperforming expectations. Pretty much everything that he's saying here is a lie.

02:43, Matt Walsh: "But, as it turns out Canada is currently one of the biggest carbon emitters on the planet. They're setting new records in the wrong direction. They're adding more of that dreaded carbon into the atmosphere than countries three times their size and it's all because of a series of wildfires last year that the Canadian government clearly could not control, watch."

Matt's citing a study in Nature that actually contradicts his climate change denialism. The study makes it extremely clear that Canada's record breaking forest fire season was made more likely due to the impact of climate change. Here's a quote from said study:

"Canadian forests cover a vast area of nearly 362 million ha (ref. 9), amounting to 8.5% of the global forested area. These forests are an important sink of carbon, absorbing fossil carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and slowing the pace of climate warming. However, climate change is increasing forest fire activity, acting to suppress the carbon uptake capacity of these forests. Although more frequent fires have been widespread, 2023 has seen forest fires on an extreme scale."

So, essentially the way to address these extreme forest fires is to address climate change. In the meantime, countries need to learn how to adapt to record-breaking forest fires as they will only become more common as the climate continues to change. The study says as much here:

"The role of Canada’s fire management strategy in managing fire carbon emissions also deserves some discussion. Fire management strategies require balancing several considerations, including socioeconomic costs, ecological impacts and carbon emissions. Canada’s present strategy adopts a risk-based approach, for which decisions on whether or not to suppress fires are made on a fire-by-fire basis, with differing priorities across provinces and territories. Understanding how fire regimes will change with climate change is thus of high importance, for future decision criteria and costing."

This is a pretty important point to hammer in because it shows how lazy guys in the conservative media ecosystem like Matt Walsh actually are. They don't read anything that they're trying to cite, they don't bother to look into the topics that they're discussing, and when you look into those topics the stuff that they're citing often directly contradicts the point that they're trying to make.

03:59, Matt Walsh: "Now, if you check in with the experts of course they'll tell you that the wildfires were only so severe because of climate change."

The experts which include the study that you're citing. But yes, as the world gets hotter and drier forest fires will become more likely and more severe. I find it absolutely bizarre how Matt can admit that the Canadian forest fire season was record breaking but also try to make the argument that this...disproves climate change somehow. The mental gymnastics here are gold medal worthy.

Matt reads from an article published in MIT Technology Review that ties climate change to forest fires and decides to make a really dumb argument.

05:16, Matt Walsh: "Now, what's striking about explanations like this is that they conveniently absolve the government of all responsibility from managing the forests which is the single most direct way to prevent wildfires from spreading out of control like they did last year. And even the Canadian government admits that, I went on the website of Canada's Natural Resource Department and found that in addition to blaming fossil fuels they admit that they could do more to prevent wildfires from spreading."

What kind of dumbass argument is that?

"Oh yeah, this argument absolves the government from responsibility to manage the forest. And to prove that I'm gonna read this article from the government that says that it's the governments responsibility to manage the forests."

Absolutely galaxy brained content from friend of the blog Matty Walsh here.

06:18, Matt Walsh: "Now they don't mention that preventing arson is another way to stop these fires even though that's true as well. While the majority of these fires were apparently caused by lightning and some other natural event, there's at least one guy that pleaded guilty for setting more than a dozen fires last year."

What Matt's talking about is a story out of Quebec where a far-right conspiracy theorist plead guilty to setting fourteen fires.

The arsonist, a man by the name of Brian Paré, was a climate denier who posted multiple conspiracy theories that the government of Canada intentionally started forest fires across the country. Hmmm, sounds almost like someone who would agree with Matt and other right-wing media nutcases.

So, essentially what we have here is some guy who watched too much stuff like Alex Jones who set multiple fires after seeing posts about the record breaking fire season. This doesn't prove anything outside of the fact that right-wing conspiracy theory nonsense often has dangerous consequences.

So, Matt says that the government should "do things competently and prevent and contain forest fires" which is exactly what the government is trying to do. Then he finds another thing to lie about.

07:59, Matt Walsh: "And volcanoes erupt too like the one I talked about last year that drove temperature changes all of the world."

Matt's talking about the Tonga Volcano eruption and wouldn't you know it, he doesn't have the facts straight on this one either.

While the Tonga Volcanic eruption did impact the climate as well as weather patterns around the world, there are dozens of studies showing that the majority of climate change is anthropogenic, or caused by humans. Most volcanoes actually have a net atmospheric cooling effect with Tonga being an outlier meaning that they don't explain heating across the planet in years before the eruption occurred.

08:40, Matt Walsh: "Instead they're predictably turning the wildfires into another opportunity to harp on racial grievances and divide their country even more. TrueNorth reports this week quote; 'The Public Health Agency of Canada Wants To Review the Way That Wildfire Evacuations Are Conducted Because They Supposedly Disproportionately Impact Minorites.'"

Ah yes, well known reliable source of information TrueNorth.com.

Since I don't trust some dumb right-wing blog to reliably convey what this report was all about, I went and found a copy myself and wouldn't you know it, they're not telling the full story.

First of all, this report was published by the Public Health Agency which is not responsible for forest fire prevention. That falls under the jurisdiction of the governments of the provinces where the fires occur unless the fire occurs on federal land in which case it would probably fall under the Federal Government and Parks Canada. Provinces also have resource sharing agreements which are all outlined in the Canadian Wildland Fire Prevention and Mitigation Strategy which was published by the Canadian Council Of Forest Ministers which is a coalition of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments established to address forest related concerns in Canada such as wildfires. In short, this report on the health effects of wildfires published by an agency that has nothing to do with actual forest fire prevention isn't the only thing that Canada is doing to manage forest fires. It may come as a shock to Matt but governments are huge entities capable of doing multiple things at the same time.

Second of all, right-wing entities like TrueNorth.Com and Rebel News are severely misrepresenting the contents of this report. While Indigenous communities are mentioned in this report, mainly because their land is often in areas more susceptible to forest fires, it also talks about other groups that have nothing to do with race and sexuality such as women, children, and the elderly and how they're more vulnerable to the negative physical and mental health impacts of wildfires.

09:22, Matt Walsh: "Yes, they've turned their worst wildfire season on record into an opportunity to complain once again about nonbinary people. Yes, nonbinary people are more impacted by fire than the rest of us. The rest of us are impervious to fire, it turns out, as a straight white male they could set me on fire and I would be unharmed by it."

Nonbinary people only got mentioned in the 26 page analysis once and it was about the mental health impacts of wildfires on kids that identify as nonbinary. Quote:

"Results from several studies conducted after the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire found that women experience worse mental health impacts in comparison to men. This was also noted for people who did not identify within the gender binary. Among Grade 7-12 10 students, those who identified as female exhibited higher mental health symptom scores, higher rates of probable diagnosis of MDD, PTSD, and GAD, and lower scores for self-esteem, quality of life, and resilience in comparison to their male-identifying students. (27) Students who identified with another gender or preferred not to state their gender identity exhibited worse mental health outcomes compared to both their female- and male-identifying counterparts."

So yeah, he absolutely did not read this document and is just riffing as right-wing media morons tend to do.

09:57, Matt Walsh: "So, here's a couple of lines from the Canadian governments report to give you some idea how unhinged the country has become. Quote; "The impact of wildfires on Indigenous peoples is influenced by colonialism and has forced many Indigenous peoples to live in isolation or in communities that are isolated from the rest of the country. Evacuation measures conducted in Indigenous communities served as traumatic reminders of being taken away to residential schools and or the sixty scoop as some were forced onto busses and separated from their family.'"

He's playing a pretty dishonest game here as he's mashing two sentences that appeared on different pages of the report into one big sentence and leaving out critical context for each. Quote (from the report):

"The impact of wildfires on Indigenous Peoples is influenced by colonialism, (33) and has forced many Indigenous Peoples to live in isolation or in communities that are isolated from the rest of society. Their geographic isolation makes it difficult to access basic goods, services, and other resources that are necessary for mitigating and building resilience against the impacts of wildfires. In addition, Indigenous communities often depend on the land for food, water, recreation, and cultural practices. Therefore, wildfires disrupt Indigenous ways of life and threaten important cultural activities, such as hunting, fishing, harvesting, and gathering."

Sounds a lot more reasonable when you read the actual context behind the sentence huh? I feel like I shouldn't have to say this but "people who live in isolated areas have a harder time accessing resources" and "wildfires impact peoples way of life" aren't dumb statements.

The sentence about trauma occurs a page later as part of a bulleted list of the impacts that previous wildfire evacuations had on indigenous communities in Canada. Quote:

"These findings were reinforced by a report from the House of Commons Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs that examined the impacts of the 2017 wildfires on First Nations communities across Canada. (41) The report found that many Indigenous Peoples also faced additional economic challenges during evacuations and recovery phases. While they were eligible for reimbursement of funds utilized during an emergency through Indigenous Service programs; many experienced difficulties claiming these expenses due to challenges with applying for reimbursement and not always receiving the full amount of a claim. (41,42)

For First Nations evacuees, there was a lack of space for the practice of traditional activities and preparation of traditional foods, as well as a lack of mental health resources for those being temporarily housed in shelters.(41)

Finally it was noted that the evacuation measures conducted in Indigenous communities served as traumatic reminders of being taken away to residential schools and/or the Sixties Scoop as some were forced onto buses and separated from family(41).

A community-based qualitative case study examining how residents of Sandy Lake First Nation were impacted by the 2011 wildfire evacuation found that a lack of pre-event preparedness resulted in some Elders with medical conditions being evacuated without a caregiver and families were separated and displaced during evacuation operations. (43)"

Again, it's a wonder how much context changes the report that you're lying about. I guess it doesn't matter when you can just deceptively combine sentences together and ignore half of what the report was actually saying.

Conclusion:

Matt Walsh: Forest Fire Prevention Expert wasn't something that I had on my right-wing media bingo card but here we are. This was just a really dumb experience all around but dumb experiences seem to be the name of the game in right-wing media these days.

Also, as a palette cleanser here's an image I created in photoshop after I finished the fact-check to celebrate Matt's newfound "expertise" in forest fire prevention.

Original Video:

“Ep. 1433 - When Wildfires Strike, Canada Blames Racism instead of Taking Action.” Dailywire.com, The Daily Wire, 29 Aug. 2024.

Sources Cited:

Lopez, Nuria. “Copernicus: 2023 Is the Hottest Year on Record, with Global Temperatures close to the 1.5°c Limit | Copernicus.” Climate.copernicus.eu, 9 Jan. 2024.

Pidcock, Roz, and Robert McSweeney. “Mapped: How Climate Change Affects Extreme Weather around the World.” Carbon Brief, 2022.

“There’s a New Federal Standard for Gas Stoves. Here’s What It Means for Your Kitchen.” CNET, 2024.

Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy. “Clean Energy Job Creation and Growth.” Energy.gov.

U.S. Global Change Research Program. “Fourth National Climate Assessment.” Globalchange.gov, vol. 2, no. 4, 31 Dec. 2017, pp. 1–470.

“Carbon Pricing Is Not to Blame for Canada’s Affordability Challenges.” Policy Options, 7 Dec. 2023, policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/december-2023/carbon-price-affordability/.

Agency, Canada Revenue. “Canada Carbon Rebate (CCR).” Www.canada.ca, 20 Apr. 2022.

Byrne, Brendan, et al. “Carbon Emissions from the 2023 Canadian Wildfires.” Nature, 28 Aug. 2024, pp. 1–5.

Ghori, Aiman. “How Can the Forest Sector Respond to Fires due to Climate Change?” Canadian Climate Institute, 31 Jan. 2024.

Serebrin, Jacob. “Quebec Man Who Blamed 2023 Wildfires on Government Pleads Guilty to Setting 14 Fires.” CBC, 16 Jan. 2024.

Canada, Public Health Agency of. “Rapid Review: An Intersectional Analysis of the Disproportionate Health Impacts of Wildfires on Diverse Populations and Communities.” Www.canada.ca, 18 July 2024.

“Canadian Wildland Fire Prevention and Mitigation Strategy - Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM).” Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM), 27 June 2024.

[sinfulscream]

character essay: topaz from honkai star rail

strap your seat belt in, we're going for a ride.

topaz is a debt collector.

now you may start thinking: did belobog commit a tax fraud? if so, how? i thought this was a very interesting thought process. because have you ever considered interplanar debt or financial settlements in sci-fi media? unless if they were sky pirates or very simple transactions of sale and purchase - it is often not explored and perhaps, most might even consider it not interesting.

for those who played the game and dedicated their time to the events, you'll find and agree that the influence of the interastral peace corporation (ipc) is wide - considering they hold a stake in an underused freight vehicle for the aurum alley business event. the ipc was also painted as calculating, for wanting to take back not only the freight vehicle, but any semblance of a bustling city. the ipc is a capitalist loaning body, driven by its "philanthropy", until it's time to reap the benefits."

when topaz walked into the story, that painting proves to have more details - more than just freight vehicles, the ipc could do more than just assistance in business, but repairing an entire planet.

topaz's exterior personality leaves readers with quite literally no hint to who she is or where is she from, aside from her love for animals, but playing the story leaves you to find out that she came from a heavily polluted planet that the only choice left was to leave everything to the ipc. however, it was also because of this upbringing and story that topaz would prioritise survival, more than its people's freedom. after all, protection from natural disaster as well resource allocation for a planet's rebuilding is a tempting deal - especially for belobog, that had only recently been cleared from its stellaron crisis.

not only that, belobog had also borrowed funds from the ipc prior to the planet's isolation from the rest of the world due to its extreme weather. the contract topaz offered to rebuild belobog and employ its citizens under the ipc would clear the arrears owed for over seven centuries.

despite the ipc's opportunistic nature as a body, topaz came to belobog and spoke to bronya with unmatched sincerity. topaz was a character that did not come from a privileged place, yet took the steps to dance alongside the work opportunity she was provided with. even if the contract offered by the ipc was tempting, even she was amazed by the thriving spirit of belobogians, looking toward a future with their intelligence and enduring the coldest blizzards. she could no longer compare the environment between jarilo-vi and her home planet.

despite having objectively failed her mission, she was humble, and did not assert her task more than necessary. if this was what the people of belobog wanted, then she would not force it upon them.

which comes at the cost of her current position, and she was demoted by one rank. even so, she still found beauty on this planet.

as a character, one would assume that her position meant she was always out for money, but she herself said that she was past working for the money, and thus did not mind the pay cut that came with her demotion. but more than that, she maintains a headstrong personality through it all - a marketing expert who knew how to use her story to resonate with potential clients, yet endearing for her love of animals.

she is also noted to be very capable and places the interest of the planet's ahead of work - the probability of success among her planet projects stood at 80%, higher than the ipc's average of 60%.

topaz is a multifaceted businesswoman: friendly with her network, assertive with her staff, a marketing expert and most of all, good-natured. as an experienced businesswoman, her story clashes at the differences in culture and ideals against bronya, a fresh-faced leader trusted by her subjects.

this blog entry was originally posted on stormofblood.

[celestiall0tus]

I like to imagine that your verison dragon's second power, which if remember correctly you said was nature manipulation (which I like to refer to as Gaea), allows the user to control all nature, meaning plant life, the elements, weather, animals, and even natural disasters.

Kinda. Let me grab a little something:

I'll be using Ryuko from Miraculous AU for this

The holder has a default form. They don't have access to many powers aside from Form Shift. It's once form shift is used that shit gets interesting

With Form Shift, the holder can change form to a specific element, which sticks to the basics of nature, not including light and dark. These forms are air, water, nature, and fire.

With these specific forms, the holder has complete control of that element and it's very dangerous. For example, air form the holder can create tornados, dangerous high winds, and even steal the air from someone's lungs. Water form gets control over water and ice. Fire can destroy anything and everything. Nature can cause earthquakes, grow forests from nothing and destroy a city, and so much more.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: Form Shift

Now that brings me to Mylene in Salvation. I haven't designed her other forms yet, but she has the same powers as Ryuko in Miraculous AU. The difference comes when Avatar state is achieved. The avatar is completely connected to the planet, knowing everything that is done, the pain, everything. It's in Avatar form they are truly a force as they have access to all control whereas holders can only control one element at a time. Making them a true goddess of the earth.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: Form Shift

Now we have Rose as Cinders from Separate Worlds. Her powers are currently being reworked.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: None/Innate

Presenting Mylene as Drakon in All That Remained. Her power is like the other dragons before her, form shift and nature manipulation.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: Form Shift

Kagami is back as the dragon in Paradise as Delphyne. This is the first of the dragons that won't have different forms. Matching the strength of the other holders, she has full access to manipulate all that is nature, meaning nature itself, water, and wind, but no fire.

Activation Phrases

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: Magna

Me not realizing that I had forgotten to add this onto the dragon page. Anyway, I present Marinette in Amaranthine as Nimue. She retains the nature manipulation the way Delphyne does in Paradise, but with the addition of fire. However, as Nimue, the powers are used in a more benevolent manner.

Guenevere, where Longg is in control, uses the mastery over nature in destruction ways. Mainly due to her seeking to kill Atropa.

As Mordred, Marinette and Longg in perfect sync, have true mastery over all elements and uses them in helpful and destructive ways.

Activation Phrases:

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: None/Innate

Zoe as Wyvern in Siren's Song. Her powers will mirror that of Nimue, Amaranthine!Marinette.

Activation Phrases:

Transformation: "Longg, Ascension"

Power: Sunder

Mylene of Court of Miracles. Firstly, I still fucking love her design. Secondly, she is a Midborn, the first of them to be shown. Her powers include:

Natural Disaster Manipulation

Environment Manipulation

Absolute Control of Nature

[fumblingmusings]

Cardverse 2023

@aphcardverse-week

Day Four: Free Day

The Kingdom of Spades is sweltering under a months long heatwave following the wettest Spring in memory. Faced with a King travelling out of the Country and a Queen who seemingly wants to do nothing but sew all day, Jack Yao resolves to institute some practical actions to help mitigate this unusual weather. Of course, sometimes he forgets that he lives in a fairytale, and the rules there are a little different. Gen | No Romantic Pairings/Super Minor USUK | No Warnings Apply

Yao watched the Queen surreptitiously. He was sewing, as he was wont to do, whispering every now and then, a spark flying out of his fingers and into the thread and fabric. Whispers of protection, a Queen’s favour.

The heat of the day was already unbearable. As it had been the day before. The week before. The month before. And the month before that.

Things were becoming desperate.

“Arthur,” Yao spoke. He had not much of an indoor voice, booming and attention grabbing and so assertive. Arthur barely twitched, giving no indication he had heard the Jack. He tried again. “Arthur.”

“Mm?”

“Did you read the report?”

“Which one?” he sighed, not looking up from his needle and thread.

“Arthur,” Yao snapped, slapping his hand down on Arthur’s work. The Queen groaned.

“Great, I’ve lost count.”

“You cannot be turning a blind eye to this?” Yao pushed.

Disgusted, finally Arthur threw away his work and sat back in his chair, huffing like a child. His face was gleaming, a shimmer of sweat that was undoubtedly making his notoriously short temper even smaller. 

“I trust the King to do what is right,” Arthur said, blatantly giving a warning. 

The loaded sentence threw Yao off. The Jack blinked, then retreated. “Of course he will,” Yao stated. “But I wish to hear your thoughts as well.”

Arthur looked discomforted. “It does not matter what I think.”

“You cannot believe that.”

“Yao!” Arthur huffed, then stood up. He glanced back at the attendants, and when his gaze fell back on Yao, his green eyes were wide open, face paler than the Jack had ever seen. “You can leave now. Come back this evening when you are ready to apologise.”

Yao’s mouth dropped open. “Excuse me?”

Arthur’s cheeks puffed out, before he made a face which Yao could only have described as panicked. 

It was enough, and Yao stood. He always disliked bowing to Arthur, both on the part of Arthur himself did not enjoy being bowed to, and partly because he had known the man since he was five. Hard to bow to someone when Yao had witnessed first hand the little boy being pushed off a swing set by his elder brother, face down into mud. Still, it meant that if Arthur, who was whip sharp and a busy body on par with Yao himself, was telling the Jack to come back later, then something was afoot.

“Very well,” and Yao grunted, playing up the ageing man he truly was not. 

“Go rest for the day. For once.”

Yao nodded, planning to do nothing of the sort, and made his way out of the marbled hall. Curtains billowing in the warm breeze, the morning already becoming too warm for comfort.

This summer had been dry and hot. The spring had been unusually warm, but the rains, when they had come, had come down hard and with such fierceness that the dry ground was able to copy, nor the rivers maintain their banks. Flooding had given way to drought, and there were fears over the harvest this year. What was to be done about it? The Queen did not seem interested, or at least, not in front of his attendants, content to lay responsibility at the King’s feet. 

The King, Yao snorted at the thought, who was not even in the country.

Yao ignored his Queen, and began setting about plans to combat the disaster looming overhead. The pressure and humidity in the air was high. Though if there was a storm coming, the skies showed no sign of such a thing. There was only a feeling that something was deeply, deeply wrong within the court.

Yao was a hard worker. He was by his very nature, and always had been. A bit of a showboat, Yao did not deny that his earnest attempts to be and do the best at what he tried was partly born from a desire to make the world a better place, and partly from the joy that positive attention brought. 

So what if he enjoyed the limelight? He had to make do with what he was given - being the third most important person in the nation could and would grind on his nerves sometimes, but there were far worse hierarchies to sit within. And third wasn’t so bad, truly. He was far less accountable to mistakes, as it was always easiest to pass the pain upwards. Well I only went ahead because the King said… and so on.

So, Yao pulled up his long sleeves, ordered transport, and went into town. He could get away with walking through the city unnoticed. A rich man, certainly, but not as notable as the King and Queen. 

It was the midsummer fete in the city, and would be for the next six days. The report was one thing - to hear about the lowering reservoir reserves, to hear the fears and concerns of the people on the ground, to hear what steps they sought to be taken. Yao was just pretending to be another court official, knowing that honesty and rank did not often pair together. 

The people of Spades were not stupid, they knew what needed to be done, they themselves just did not have the power to make the arrangements. Yao did. Well, he did, if he was able to get the King and Queen on side.

Normally, Yao would not have had a problem with this. For the most part, Arthur Alfred and he were on the same page of what was to be done, but this morning had thrown him. Arthur was normally far more involved, never content to either leave things alone or to not have his fingerprints all over legislation. The one area where the three disagreed was usually foreign relations, frustratingly, and Yao did not doubt that one day that would come to a dreadful and difficult argument, but for the moment, all was well.

Well, except for the fact that it had not rained in three months.

The King would be back in time for the final day for the fete, but until then, his discussions with the three nations remained a mystery.

Hustling and sweating, Yao elected to walk back to the castle, making notes and compiling his thoughts as he went. Even when he did return to the castle and demand alone time in the (dwindling) water gardens to both cool off and organise his notes and thoughts into a cohesive plan, he simply did not stop working. When interrupted with the thought of dinner, Yao did pause, only to think better of it - he had a job to do before meeting with the Queen this night - and he could always eat after speaking with Arthur. 

Sure enough, when night had well and truly fallen, and the stars had flooded the night sky, a waxing moon illuminating the pale white stone of the castle which had, in recent months, become akin to something of a sauna, the stones themselves seeming to sweat through the heat. There was no relief in the dark, the air remained hot and humid, the ground warm and uncomfortable for bare feet.

It’s like the heat is coming from hell, Arthur had complained once, to the chortling of the King.

Yao found the Queen sitting by what was once a small running creek in the gardens. All of his carefully cultivated poppies and roses and peonies lay crisped and dead, the grass a sad yellow colour. Arthur was watching a dragonfly zip about, no doubt confused about what had happened to its natural home.

“Your majesty,” Yao began, refusing to bow now that there were no witnesses to his and Arthur’s conversations. 

Arthur sighed, slapping his knees and standing upright. He seemed quite tired. He was not as good at managing the heat as Alfred or Yao were. 

“Good, you’re here.”

“Not here to apologise though, Arthur.”

“Oh fuck no, no, I don’t care about that, you did nothing wrong. Listen, I need your help.”

“Well, you must listen to me first, I have spent all day in the city -”

Arthur groaned, interrupting his Jack. His eyes occasionally flitted around, noting if there was anyone nearby. 

“What? Yao I told you to take the day off.”

“I cannot whilst we are staring an ecological disaster in the face!” He pulled out from under his wide sleeves a stack of papers and parchment as the pair slowly migrated back onto the stone path. The Queen’s mouth dropped open, confused and still a bit impressed with Yao’s dedication. “I have written a series of guidelines that I believe we can use to mitigate the oncoming weak harvest. It is not a failsafe. It will be a difficult two years, however, I believe that with dedication and with the Royal Family setting a good example -”

“Yao I need you to help me kill someone.”

Yao dropped his papers straight to the floor, creating an awfully loud bang and flutter as the pages spread across the ground. Arthur swallowed a laugh at Yao’s expression.

“The weather has been cursed, hasn’t it?” he stated.

“Very much so.”

“And you know who did it?”

“Well yes. Hence my asking for your help.”

“It’s amongst your attendants.”

“Yes, yes, very well deduced.” Arthur stared at the papers on the floor. “Those still might come in handy though.”

“Oh. Yes. I suppose so.”

The Queen stared at the Jack.

“So you’ll help me murder them?”

Yao shuddered like a preening bird, all blue and brown and gleaming. He huffed and puffed, face burning beetroot red. 

“What a silly question, of course I will. Now pick up those papers. You can send them to Alfred for his approval.”