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authenticcadence18 · 3 years

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“Ice Cream and Dances Pt. 2: Electric Boogaloo” Ch. 2

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HELLO I AM POSTING A FIC UPDATE!!!!!!!! :DD

(Also a disclaimer! This fic uses the phrase “more than friends” a lot, and I wrote the first chapter before I realized that phrase can imply that friendships are lesser than romantic relationships. I want to make it clear that I do not see romantic relationships as inherently more valuable than friendships. Friendship is equally as important!!!! In the context of Phineas and Isabella, starting a romantic relationship would literally be them becoming “more than friends” because they would then be romantic partners AND friends. So, when I use that phrase in this fic moving forward, this is the meaning I’m choosing to interpret it as!)

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“Ice Cream and Dances” by FrsdGirl

AO3

Previous Chapter

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Isabella did her best to focus on inhaling and exhaling as Phineas led her back onto the dance floor.

“THIS IS A FRIEND THING.”

Once they found an empty spot, Phineas let go of Isabella’s hand and turned to face her, eyes wide and face flushed and GOODNESS HE LOOKED CUTE—

“HYPOTHETICAL. PLATONIC.”

Somehow, Isabella’s hands found their way to Phineas’s shoulders, though she wasn’t consciously aware of it until she felt him gently place his hands on her waist and oh goodness, friend thing or not, Phineas still wanted to dance with her and be close to her even though they’d already danced earlier aND—

“NO. STOP IT. KEEP IT TOGETHER, GARCIA-SHAPIRO.”

For about half a minute, they swayed platonically (or, well, somewhat platonically), neither saying a word.

Isabella just kept on focusing on breathing, on making sure she didn’t lean too close to Phineas, on keeping the desire to admit she’d actually love to be here with him on a real date at bay.

(She couldn’t have known Phineas was focusing on very similar things.)

Sure, she’d been nervous when they danced like this earlier. But those nerves were nothing compared to the nerves she was experiencing now because NOW, she had much more to worry about.

This was still strictly a friend thing, but it was also now a hypothetical more-than-friends-who-were-on-a-date thing. Except it WASN’T actually hypothetical in Isabella’s case, and she couldn’t help but hope that it might be more than hypothetical for Phineas as well but NO, she couldn’t give in to that hope, that was dangerous, so she needed to maintain a good balance between honesty and nonchalance about all this but that was difficult to do when he was so close and holding her and good grief , why’d she ever taken Buford up on his dare, and—

“Isabella? Are you okay?”

Isabella started and blinked, clearing her head of myriad worries with a shake to find Phineas staring at her with concern in his eyes.

“You kinda spaced out there for a second…” he continued. “And you looked a little worried. Is something wrong? Would you rather do something else?”

“NO!!!!!” Isabella shot back. A few nearby couples darted their heads in their direction, and she winced (the LAST thing she wanted to do was draw more attention to her and Phineas after their “grand entrance”).

“I...I just mean… I’m fine. Really.” She did her best to muster a smile for Phineas’s sake. “Just got lost in thought for a bit, you know?”

Phineas grinned, seemingly relieved to know that she was okay (though that could’ve just been Isabella reading into things). “Been there, done that!” he said.

Isabella chuckled a little, the image of Phineas hunched over his phone flickering in her memory. “I bet! You looked pretty lost in thought while Buford and I were dancing earlier. Who were you texting? Or were you testing out a new app?”

She felt a little more at ease now that she was talking with Phineas (as opposed to drowning in her own thoughts.)

“Huh??” Phineas blinked and bit his lip, shoulders briefly tensing up beneath Isabella’s hands. “...UH, I was just...texting Candace!”

“Really? It must have been an intense conversation, you looked so focused. Did she ask you for advice on a case assignment or something?”

“Oh, no, it wasn’t that… I just….uh” Phineas stared at her for a second and then up at the sky before continuing, “...I talk with her a lot these days. She’s got good advice.”

Isabella smiled and nodded in agreement in response.

(Perhaps she was a little curious to know what exactly Phineas had been discussing with Candace. But she knew he’d tell her if he wanted to, and she didn’t want to press him in case he didn’t.)

In the meantime, she could change the subject.

“So...have you been brainstorming any new projects lately?” she asked. “Other than the Stargazer 3000 of course, though if you want to talk about that I’m all ears!”

Phineas’s eyes practically ignited with excitement, making something flutter and glow in Isabella’s chest.

“Yeah!!!” he exclaimed. “Yesterday Ferb and I started experimenting with levitating carpets, like we did when we were kids! We want to see if we can replicate the effects over a smaller surface. But the technology isn’t quite ready yet…..”

…

“And THAT’S how we plan to modify our pre-existing anti-gravity quantum state lift disk technology to function effectively over a smaller surface area!! We’re planning on finishing up a prototype tomorrow and using it for a project.”

“Cool!! Can I come over and help out?”

“Of course! You never have to ask to come over, Isabella. I’ll—er, we’ll always be glad to have you around.”

“Thanks!”

Sometimes, it was easy to take living across the street from Phineas for granted. Because of that, Isabella was used to his boundless creativity and ideas, used to his uncanny ability to make the impossible possible...but she never wanted to lose sight of how extraordinary just being able to be used to those things was.

Moments like this reminded her that Phineas was brilliant .

And handsome.

….brilliantly handsome.

She cracked a smile at that last thought.

Phineas, fortunately, didn’t ask why she was smiling. He just smiled back...and then tilted his head, his expression morphing from fond to thoughtful.

“.....I just realized something,” he said. “We danced earlier.”

Isabella nodded, unsure where he was going with this.

“I guess, I just realized…. This—you know, us , dancing together—it doesn’t feel much different from how it felt before, when we were dancing but like...strictly as friends. ….uH! Not that we aren’t dancing strictly as friends right now! But...the hypothetical more-than-friends thing you were wondering about...you’d think it would make things feel more different….but if it’s us, it doesn’t. Not really.”

A blush sprawled across Isabella’s face. She’d been so wrapped up in listening to Phineas’s ideas, she’d almost forgotten about the hypothetical more-than-friends thing.

But Phineas apparently hadn’t forgotten.

“Uh—is that still a thing we’re doing?” he asked. “Pretending this is, like…a date? Or thinking about what it would be like if it were? Because I thought we were, but maybe I misunderstood, and if so that’s my bad—”

“No, you didn’t misunderstand!!!” Isabella replied quickly. “And, we can keep pretending this is a date. If you want.”

Phineas exhaled with a smile. “Cool!”

“Yup! Cool!” Isabella agreed.

Whew.

“And, you’re right,” she continued. “It doesn’t feel much different from how it did before...but it feels right. Talking with you feels better than just dancing in silence and staring at each other. I guess other couples might do that, but not us.”

“Yeah!!” Phineas let out a gentle chuckle. “I guess this means, if we were a couple, we wouldn’t act much differently from how we do now.”

“That’s what happens when you fall for your best friend, huh?” Isabella gave Phineas a knowing grin (she was basically a world-renowned expert on this subject). “Since there’s already a great foundation of friendship in place, romantic feelings can just develop naturally from what’s already there.”

….wait a second.

“….uH!!!” she choked, jerking back and clutching her hands to her chest on instinct. “Not that I’d know that personally!! Just, uh! In movies and stuff! That’s how it always goes. Yup. And we’re best friends, so! In this hypothetical scenario, we’d be best friends who fell for each other. Hypothetically.”

“Okaaayyyy time to divert the subject, Garcia-Shapiro.”

“People in movies have it easy….” she continued, trying her best to sound light and casual. “They meet and then, less than two hours later, BOOM! They’re together, true love for life!! Or...at least, they’re together until a sequel comes out and they’ve broken up offscreen just to get back together again….”

(The older Isabella got, the less patience she had for subpar romance movies and subplots.)

“Yeah….it’s a lot harder in real life...” Phineas agreed quietly. “Though, we’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about how it is hard for couples in TV shows. Like, Candace used to watch this show where the two main characters were in love but they didn’t realize it, and they kept on ALMOST confessing or getting together but didn’t actually get together until the very end. She’d get so frustrated with them, called them the ‘token will they/won’t they couple.’ There were a few steady side-couples though, Candace always used to say they made watching the show a little easier.”

He leaned in, a conspiratorial twinkle in his eye, and whispered, “She always used to compare herself and Jeremy to the main couple, but between you and me, the two of them are definitely more the ‘steady side-couple’ type.”

Isabella snickered. “ Oh yeah. They had it easy! They liked each other from the beginning, went on dates, started officially dating and then just...stayed that way.”

“If only it were always that simple….” Phineas sighed.

“If Candace and Jeremy are a steady side couple, what would that make us?” Isabella asked.

She flinched and quickly added, “uH!!! In a hypothetical sense!!!!”

Phineas blinked. “UM!!! That’s a great question!!!”

...was he blushing? Or was it a trick of the light?

“I guess, uh….we’d be the token ‘will they/won’t they’ couple?”

he rubbed the back of his neck and chucked slightly. “I mean, uh...in your hypothetical scenario, I’m not sure if we’d already be together or if this would be our first time doing something together. Together -together, I mean. On a date, you know. But, uh…….. Okay, let’s say I had feelings for you. Hypothetically. I’d have no reason to believe you returned those feelings.”

Isabella bit her lip and resisted the urge to roll her eyes into the nearest adjacent galaxy.

That was Phineas, alright. Oblivious as always.

“...BUT!!” he continued, “if you returned them without knowing about MY feelings, that would be a classic ‘will they/won’t they’ scenario. At least, according to Candace, anyway….yup….”

He suddenly seemed quite interested in staring at the grass beneath their feet.

Isabella followed his gaze and studied the ground for a bit, both to avoid pondering their hypothetical couple status any longer AND because, if Phineas was staring at the grass, it likely meant something interesting was happening down there.

...except nothing interesting was happening.

“.....okay, there’s no way the grass is interesting enough to warrant us staring at it for this long,” she mused. “You didn’t get hit with a dull and boring ray, did you?”

(She was mostly joking, but one could never be too careful in Danville.)

Phineas glanced back up at her and just stared at a moment before cracking a smile.

“Funny you should mention that….i was JUST thinking about the color beige….”

A moment passed.

And then he started to giggle. Quietly at first…and then not so quietly. His amusement was contagious, and soon Isabella was caught up in it too, the two of them grinning and laughing and as carefree as could be, all the awkwardness momentarily gone.

(The ruckus garnered some more stares, as the music playing was still pretty soft….but Isabella didn’t really care about that anymore. Having fun with Phineas was way more important than worrying about what others thought.)

Gradually, their laughter died down, with Phineas giving one final giggle and wiping a tear from his cheek before placing his hand back on Isabella’s waist, eyes shining with mirth.

Isabella gazed at him with a beaming smile.

There was just something about Phineas’s laughter, something about the way he smiled so brightly and expressed such genuine positivity so effortlessly, that had fascinated her and made her head spin since they were kids....and right now, it was hard to feel scared of expressing her true feelings for him.

(In other words, she was sooo in love with him right now.)

“You know….” she whispered with a flirtatious grin, “...if WE were dating—uh, on a date, within the parameters of the hypothetical more-than-friends thing!!!”

Good save, Garcia-Shapiro.

“...I’d have told you how handsome you look by now.”

“Huh?” Phineas blinked and glanced down at his outfit. “...Oh! Thanks! ...but, I’m not really dressed for a date….I wear this shirt at least once a week, and I haven't brushed my hair since this morning.”

“Aw, Phineas, you ALWAYS look handsome,” Isabella assured him. “No matter what. I mean, between the red hair and all your freckles and your acute nose and your SMILE, I’m not sure how anyone could NOT see how handsome you are…. And it’s not just your looks either, it’s your laugh and the way you can light up anyone and anything around you just by being you, it all makes you handsome, and……”

A bit of the happy fog in Isabella’s brain evaporated, allowing her to realize she’d been rambling to Phineas about how handsome he was for the past 20 seconds.

Oops.

“uH!!!! That is! That’s what I would say if this wasn’t a friend thing! But it is! So! Uh. You can just forget I said all that, if you want….”

She winced and clenched her eyes shut. That had been too much, she’d totally taken things too far, and now Phineas would probably be super weirded out...

Except.

One glance at Phineas revealed he wasn’t weirded out at all. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes soft, mouth slightly agape with what might have been astonishment.

He looked flustered, but in a good way.

And then...he smiled again. He smiled at her.

And it was a warm smile, a gentle smile, perhaps the most adoration-filled smile Isabella had ever seen and it was directed at her and doing funny things to her heart.

“Well….” he whispered softly, “...if this weren’t a friend thing, I’d have already told you you look as beautiful as ever…. But, since this is a friend thing and I haven’t told you yet….I’ll just tell you now. Isabella, you look as beautiful as ever.”

He grinned before continuing on in a manner similar to how Isabella had spoken a bit ago.

“I mean, between your eyes, and your hair, and the way your entire face seems to light up when you smile, and your adorable laughter, and the way you’re brave enough to say whatever’s on your mind…..I don’t think anyone else is as beautiful as you, Isabella. In every sense of the word.”

Isabella’s heart was going to pound right out of her chest. Or perhaps her knees would give out and she’d collapse right here, sprawled across the grass, running Phineas’s words and tender looks over and over again in her head for the foreseeable future.

It wouldn’t be a bad way to spend the rest of the evening.

But Phineas wasn’t done yet. He drew a hand back and then reached out for Isabella’s face...only to flinch and freeze in place.

“...uH!!” he breathed, hand still suspended in mid-air. “....if this were a date, I think I’d unconsciously reach out to brush a lock of hair behind your ear after saying all those things, just to see you better! ...would you be alright with that?”

Isabella didn’t trust herself to piece a coherent sentence together at the moment, but she knew she’d definitely be alright with that, so she nodded her head.

Phineas inhaled and tentatively reached out until his fingers were gracing Isabella’s cheek and then ever-so-gently brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

And once again, Isabella did her best to focus on inhaling and exhaling, on staying present in the moment…but this time, she wasn’t constantly reminding herself this was just pretend.

Because….what if it wasn’t?

Phineas was one of the most authentic people Isabella knew. Authentic to a fault, almost.

And that trademark authenticity, which she’d come to recognize in all of his inventions and actions and words in the years they’d been friends…..she recognized it now. In the hand cradling her face and the eyes gazing at her softly and the tender smile that hovered a mere foot or two from her own.

…perhaps Phineas had tried to ask her here on a date earlier.

Perhaps Buford had been right.

…

Thanks for reading!! And thanks as always to the lovely FrsdGirl for inspiring this fic and allowing me to write it and also for being just, the best ever, I adore you my friend🥺💕.

This isn’t the end btw, I know how this is gonna end, just haven’t written it properly yet!

#surprise it is a late night fic!#phineas and ferb #cadence writes #pnf fic #phinabella #phinbella #isabella garcia shapiro #phineas flynn

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mhdiaries · 4 years

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Monster Exchange Marisol Coxi Passport

06.01

There is only one place in all of Monster Picchu where I can buy shoes off the rack that fit me, and when I walked by it today, all the shoes were gone. I went inside and found out that the business is being sold. I clearly voiced my displeasure about this situation to the store’s owner, Señor G., who was cleaning out his back room. “I am sorry, señorita, but I am retiring to the coast in order to be closer to my grandchildren, and to go fishing every day.” I asked if the new owners would be selling shoes as well, but he said they are going to be selling CANDLES! Now I will be able to get all the bayscary-scented candles I can sniff, but now even one pair of anything in a size 42EEE! I was caught totally flat-footed by this news, and in my heart I was feeling very tiny. I could tell he felt bad for me, and as I was about to leave, he asked me to wait for a moment. He disappeared back into the stockroom and soon returned with a beautiful gold box. “Please to be seated,” he said. I sat down on the last bench left in the store as he knelt down and opened the box to reveal a pair of pumps and OHMYGHOUL! They were red and black and clawsome all over! I quickly drew my feet up and turned away. “Señorita, do you not wish to try them on?” I told him that, of course, I did, but I did not want to go for a test drive in something I could not afford to take home with me. He laughed. “Ah, but Señorita Coxi, these were meant to be displayed only, not to be sold. There is not even a price or size on them, but I think maybe they fit you. Besides, if I leave them, the new owners will probably just fill them with wax and turn them into candles.” Cautiously I slipped my toes into them, and THEY FIT! Almost like they had been made for me. I grabbed Señor G. and gave him a ginormous hug. He put the shoes back in the box for me and thanked me for being such a large part of his business over the years. We waved goodbye, and I practically skipped all the way home. When I got there I put the box on the kitchen table and ran upstairs to find Ma to tell her my story. We got down to the kitchen at the same time Pa got home from work, and I put the shoes on to show them both. Pa was looking at the box and pulled out a slip of paper. He looked at the slip and cleared his throat the way he does when he’s about to be angry. “Marisol Coxi! Did you pay this much money for these shoes?” He handed me the slip, which turned out to be some kind of invoice. I saw the price at the bottom, and for once in my unlife I was actually quiet. I told Pa the story exactly as it happened. He asked me what I wanted to do. I thought about it for a moment and then I boxed up the shoes and went back to return them. I knew that I could not keep such an expensive gift. It was too much. When I got to the store, the lights were off and the doors were locked. In the window was a sign that read “Gone Fishing.” As I was standing there wondering what I should do now, a shopkeeper from across the street came running over with something in his hand. It was a note from Señor G.

Señorita Coxi,

After you left, and I could not find the invoice for the shoes, I knew that I must have absentmindedly returned it to the box. They really were display models meant to be placed in the window to attract customers, but it just so happens they are a display model in your size. I had intended on leaving the shoes for you without the invoice, regardless, as they are too big for me to wear and to small for me to fish from; plus I really would have hated to see them turned into candles. Please to wear them loud and proud!

Sincerely yours,

Señor G.

06.05

I found out today that I have been accepted into the monster exchange program and that I’ll be attending MONSTER HIGH THIS FALL! I am afraid I may have startled the Head Mistress when she told me the news. I think I whooped rather loudly, and she disappeared for a moment. It is her first year at our school, and she is such a prim and proper spirit, that I am thinking she has never experienced a student who loves unlife as much as me. Once she returned, she congratulated me, and I told her that I would be sure to call her to give her updates on all my new experiences. I could tell that my gesture had touched her because I saw a small tear of ectoplasm roll down her cheek. She said, “How kind of you, but perhaps something less auditory, like an email, or even a handwritten letter would suffice in this situation.” I was going to give her a hug, but she suddenly remembered an appointment she had to keep and disappeared again. There is so much to do to get ready. I must start right away or maybe tomorrow. I think my writing is so loud, it is keeping Ma and Pa awake.

06.13

I wanted to get some more information on the school - wouldn’t want to get off on the wrong foot - so I talked to mi prima segunda Abbey on video chat tonight. We have not seen each other since our last family reunion, and it was good to catch up with her. Abbey is much quieter than myself, but we always have a good time hanging out together. I asked her about her family, she asked about mine, and then we started talking about Monster High. I’m not sure how much I ended up learning, though, since her answers to most of my questions were, “Is good”, “Is okay”, or “Abbey has no comment.” Because her answers were so vague, I finally had to ask her if she really liked the school or not. She got a very strange look on her face and said, “Is beast school in world, haven’t you been listening?” I guess if Abbey is this enthusiastic, it must be the beast school indeed.

06.18

Okay. Usually I like to do my own hair and nails because I think I intimidate most stylists. I am not being boastful, I am being truthful. They either go too subtle or too over the top, so I come out either looking like I did when I walked in or like a lost clown in search of a circus. So when Ma and I left the mountain for a day of shopping on the river down below, we made sure to leave some time so that we could visit our favorite salon. It is a little off the beaten tributary, but it is deadfinitely worth the trip. The main stylist is an encantada who dresses so plain that you wouldn’t think she would know hip from hop, but she is fierce with the styling of her clients. I told her that I was going to MH as an exchange monster and jokingly asked if I could take her with me. She said that she was such a home-monster that she could never imagine going that far away, but was excited for me. She also told me that she would make room in her schedule to get me in for a pre-flight check so that I could be at my big-haired best before I fly out on my big adventure. It was a great way to end a ghouls’ day out with Ma.

06.30

I got a personal email from Headless Headmistress Bloodgood with the contact information for another exchange student who is going to be at Monster High the same time as me. Her name is Lorna McNessie, and she lives in Rotland. I took a chance that she might be up and pinged her for a video chat. Ma and Pa were out for the evening, so I had the music cranked and I was doing my nails in a color so bright you could read by it. I wasn’t sitting in front of the screen when we connected, and I might have missed her if it hadn’t been in-between songs when I heard “Helloooh?” I popped back in front of my camera, and she must have accidently knocked hers over, because all I could see was the ceiling in her room and I heard her say something that sounded like “Strewth!” She straightened out her camera, and I saw red hair, freckles and a pair of eyes with some definite mischief behind them. I introduced myself and told her I would be coming to Monster High at the same time she was. After we got past the “accent barrier” and some problems with the volume on her end, which she kept having to adjust for some reason, we had a killer time. She really loved my nails and I thought the hat she was wearing was to die for. We talked for a long time, and by the time we were done I felt as if I had made a new friend. Now I will know two ghouls when I get to Monster High - which looks like the beginning of a beautiful party.

#monster high #monster high diary #monster exchange #passport #marisol coxi

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wethepixies · 4 years

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Welcome to part two of our interview series, pixies! Today, we’re presenting our interview with four of the flaptastic people who make this rewrite possible. They had a lot to say, so this post is rather long - keep reading to see the full interviews!

Our first two Game Creator interviews feature two of our beloved artists - Rachel and Ci.

How did you first find out about the WTP project, and what inspired you to start working as an artist?

Rachel: In a computer graphics class I took last semester, one of our projects reminded me and my friend of Pixie Hollow, so we were reminiscing about the game and I really wanted to see if there was a rewritten version of it. When I found WTP and saw they were accepting artist applications, I was super excited because I loved the game and was starting to get into animation at the time as well. I also just adore the process of game development in general, so I was thrilled to become a part of WTP.

Ci was introduced to the project by a friend who’s also a staff member!

What is your favorite part of your job as a WTP artist?

Rachel: My favorite part is being able to contribute my work to a bigger project. Seeing the art I worked on in the game is really exciting to me. Just knowing that the work you put in is helping to further the game is really cool. As for my favorite thing to work on, it’s really strange, but I enjoy creating the UI buttons and signs for different meadows or shops.They’re super small and no one really pays attention to them, but they’re also extremely necessary so I guess I just like to make them, haha. They don’t always take too long to make but I think they’re cute. Also, I’m especially excited for all the new meadows, as I really enjoy helping to restore the beautiful art for the meadows.

Check out this gorgeous sign that Rachel restored for one of our meadow teleporters!

Ci: My favorite piece of art that I’ve created for WTP was probably a background I restored for a general winter theme/season back when I first joined. It’s not being used right now, but it’s pretty and you’ll just have to take my word for it :’)

How long does it take for you to work on art for WTP, and how do you fit that in your schedule?

Rachel: The time it takes really depends on how much of the project we have completed already. Oftentimes we’ll be working collaboratively and finish what other people have started. So if we are working on something from scratch it can take quite a while, but sometimes it’s just a matter of adding finishing touches and compiling pieces together to create a finished product. And each task takes a different amount of time. For instance, resizing something small will take a few minutes, but creating an atlas for fairy clothing can take hours, especially when you need to restore an item from scratch. Either way, I think it’s still beneficial for us to take our time to create the best product we can. Personally, I don’t always get to work everyday, but when I do, I’ll spend hours because I like to finish tasks in one sitting if I can, although I can’t always haha. I think that working in moderation is always a good idea as long as you’re getting your work done, and knowing we have so many fans really pushes me to get tasks done and do them well. As for fitting it into my schedule, because of quarantine, I definitely have a lot more time to work on WTP, but during the school semester I would have to plan out what I needed to get done and when I needed to do it in order make sure I could get all of my school projects and WTP work done on certain days in order to avoid as much stress as possible.

Ci: I don’t have time to work on artwork daily, but I do try to stay on top of what other people are working on, so a small chunk of my day is dedicated to discord. Sometimes I’ll be busy for weeks and do a whole bunch of tasks afterwards in one go, and sometimes I try to take on smaller things (pre-corona I’d sometimes spend time between lectures because that’s often the only time I have!). Some tasks are 5 minute jobs, like UI, but others, like adding clothing, take a few hours. Backgrounds probably take me the longest. A couple hours for a few days, if I have time to work on them daily. They’re really fun when starting!! but after day 3 it’s quite the grind. I like to sleep on those, since there’s so much detail in the PH backgrounds that I’ll inevitably miss something.

Rachel, you mentioned atlases and spritesheets - can you explain what they are and how you use them?

Rachel: An atlas and spritesheet contains all of the different variations of a clothing item or anything you can change on the fairy. So for instance, the hair atlas has all of the different types of hair you can choose when creating your fairy packed into one single file. So in order to make one you have to create all the hair pieces, position them correctly on a fairy reference, export each hair image, and then combine them all onto the atlas file. Then a json file is also created to describe where each image is in the file in order to use it in the game. The spritesheet is similar and is basically a horizontal version of the atlas with all of the images that we use in CAF to scroll through whatever you’re changing.

Do you start the graphics by hand or via some digital web design program?

Rachel: I almost always use digital programs. Sometimes I’ll plan something out quickly on paper but most of the time I’ll use Photoshop. We also use DragonBones for animation.

Ci: All of the research we do is online, so it saves a couple of steps and retains image quality to just keep everything digital. I also don’t have a scanner :’)

And finally, what’s the most challenging piece of art that you’ve made for WTP?

Rachel: The most challenging piece that I’ve done for WTP was probably the hair atlas for when a player creates a fairy because it was the first project I was taking on. All the hair was made already, I just had to resize, reposition, and fix any pieces that were lower quality, and although it was daunting at first, once I started, I was able to get the hang of it (even if it took a few tries), and now I’m super happy I learned how to do it.

Ci: We were missing a whole area of the CAF background (the part that shows up when you’re picking a name) that got passed around for one or two months, and eventually I got to work on it. It was the closest to a custom piece of art that I’ve made for WTP; the middle was a giant blur when I got to it. My motivation to complete it was honestly just being able to get it off the to-do list forever, when I was done I posted a before and after to the staff chat (which I try not to do bc it’s not really productive) because I was so excited about it :’))

__________________

We had so much fun learning more about our artists’ jobs! Next up, we decided to sit down with WTP game developer and administrator Teresa!

How did you first find out about the WTP project, and what inspired you to start working as a developer?

Teresa: A friend I made in the Pixie Hollow community said that her favorite mini game was Bubble Bounce, so I decided to make it for her. I had started prototyping and showing it around, and someone from WTP saw my work and invited me to join the team.

As we know, WTP is a voluntary project. How do you fit working on WTP into your schedule?

Teresa: I’m actually quite good at time management, and I’ve decided to make WTP a priority. That means that I can’t always say ‘yes’ to other things I want to do, but that’s ok.

What are some of the main things you look for when adding staff members?

Teresa: You need to be able to take criticism well and communicate effectively. A certain level of quality needs to be maintained to build a good game, and criticism sheds light on any blind spots you may have. If you aren’t communicating clearly and frequently, then your value to the team is very low – everyone needs to be on the same page so that work doesn’t get redone and wasted, and to keep an accurate development schedule. Being willing to devote more than a couple of hours a week is also a major plus.

How do you decide which parts of the game you should work on first?

Teresa: There’s this concept called the Minimum Viable Product. Basically, you just strip the project down to what is necessary and work out the kinks. Then you can add new features that enhance the gameplay.

What’s the most challenging issue you’ve faced while creating the game?

Teresa: There was a problem with the animation plugin that I was hoping would be fixed by the maintainers before the demo release. It was a really big deal, the game would be entirely unplayable. At the last minute, I had to dig into the plugins source code and figure it out myself. In the end, it wasn’t actually so difficult – but boy was it stressful. Really I would say that the biggest problems have stemmed from not having enough artists on the team! There have been multiple times where we had to delay updates because we didn’t have all of the assets ready for me to use in the game.

How do you go about fixing a game bug?

Teresa: Gather all the info I can from users experiencing the bug, and try to reproduce it. Just observing the behavior is often enough to figure out the problem. When it’s not, check the logs or step through with the debugger.

Have you ever worked on or made a game before WTP?

Teresa: I’ve worked a bit on some 3D open source game projects, never worked on the multiplayer parts before, though. I also make mods for games.

Lastly, what are your favorite and most rewarding parts of being a game developer?

Teresa: Pushing the boundaries of my knowledge and comfort zone, definitely. As a developer, I’ve learned a lot of new technologies and some new domains specifically for WTP. I also find being able to fix things that I don’t like about games very rewarding. Being an administrator has benefitted me as well. As an admin, I’ve had to cultivate skills in team leadership and project management.

__________________

Finally, we interviewed Lavender Merryheart, our sound designer.

First off, how did you first find out about the WTP project?

Lavender: I found WTP from a Youtube video, and played the demo. I was excited to be able to re-visit PH and when I saw the audio designer application, I wanted to help out however I could!

Are you remaking the music from scratch based on any remaining audio from sources like youtube?

Lavender: Both! We salvage what we can, and re-create what’s needed if. In the future, there will be some new, original music too! When we need a sound effect or music, we first check to see if there’s a good quality clip preserved of the original. It needs to be clear and without extra background sounds. If we can’t find any, then I will dissect the sound or song and try to figure out how it was made, then recreate it.

You mentioned that you make new sounds if needed, how do you go about making them?

Lavender: New sound effects are made by piecing different recordings together, such as the audio you hear when you click the talent orbs, which was re-made from the sounds of a heavy book shutting and wind chimes. If we need to remake a song, I make a new track by re-recording each instrument’s part on a midi keyboard. Then it will be edited it in Logic Pro X, using instruments and synths from the Kontakt audio library.

What’s the part of being an audio designer that you’re most excited about?

Lavender: I’m most excited about getting to write new music for the game! I can’t reveal to you what it’s going to be used for yet, but in the process for the last WTP track I wrote, I thought about how to represent the area it will be used for and what instruments and mood would suit it the best. It was a lot of fun to try to both express my style and also give it that Pixie-Hollow-sound!

Finally, how do you fit working on WTP into your schedule?

Lavender: I keep a to-do list and project notes to help organize what needs to be done, and work on WTP between class assignments. To refrain from burning out, I try to spread out my different tasks and work on a variety of things.

__________________

After we learned about what goes on behind the scenes on WTP, we wanted to learn a little bit about some future plans and hopes the staff have for the game.

Art wise, what sorts of things will be designed from scratch in the future?

Rachel: Although we still have a long way to go before creating our own work as we have to replicate what was in the original game first, I believe that new clothing and hair might be designed from scratch in the future.

Ci: Right now, we’re still committed to restoring the game in its original form–this means that we try not to design anything from scratch. We’ve discussed the possibility of custom content in the future (items + clothing, pets, meadows, maybe even minigames?), and when the time comes, all of that will be built from scratch. That said, pertaining to the look and feel of the original pixie hollow will be a priority for those updates too.

What game feature from Pixie Hollow are you most excited to have?

Teresa: Personally, I am excited for the skill system and wilderness! We have some new ideas to try out, but I don’t want to spoil anything.

Do you plan to have seasonal differences and events, as well as competitions and activities?

Teresa: Yep! Can’t wait! We are already featuring player’s outfits in the shop catalogue, so that’s sort of a mini fashion spotlight, but there’s definitely more exciting things to come. Fashion spotlight was one of the most beloved competitions/events in the original Pixie Hollow!

In the future, will the game be available for mobile and/or consoles?

Teresa: You can already play WTP on mobile! At some point we will have options that allow the game to run smoother on mobile devices. Console versions won’t be a thing, though.

Is there anything that was in the original Pixie Hollow that you’d like to change in WTP?

Lavender: I would change the whisper noise it made when you got a message, it got a bit annoying. And it would be really neat if you could choose from a few different songs to have played in your fairy’s home depending on your mood! I had the ice themed house and have heard the music a few too many times!

Teresa: There are things I want to tweak, and fully plan to! We have already added a couple of small new things, such as the second sitting pose and featuring real player’s outfits in the shop catalogue. I hope everyone enjoys them!

The last thing we wanted to talk about is the staff’s personal feelings about WTP and about their jobs, as well as ask them about their inspiration.

Is there anything new that working on WTP has teached you?

Rachel: As an artist here I am definitely learning new technical skills and developing as an artist in general. Some examples of art skills I’ve been able to develop include creating atlases and spritesheets for fairy clothing and hair, getting familiar with DragonBones as I’d never used it for animation, and just gaining more experience in Photoshop. And I basically just learned all these things by trying them out and asking questions if I needed help.

Lavender: Through WTP I’ve learned more about creating sound effects, because when remaking the old sounds for WTP, I really have to think about what each one is made out of (for example, the pouch sound was re-created using a paper bag rustling, leaves crunching, and a bell synth).

How do you feel about the community growing so much in a short amount of time?

Teresa: I really didn’t expect it, and it has been a bit stressful, but I hope we are handling it well. I would never have imagined that a TikTok would be the reason either! Having more eyes on us makes me feel restless. We had to adapt the discord server to keep it safe and make information more accessible to new members.

What do you remember about Pixie Hollow? And did it change your life in any way?

Lavender: I joined right at the beginning, and loved how it really felt like you were stepping into a different, magical world. My favorite thing to do was decorating and creating/collecting items for my house, as well as the minigames and item crafting/ baking, I’m most excited to see these features again! Also, a good memory from the game I have is going to the summer pool party in the ballroom, and playing games in the tearoom with friends! The music in Pixie Hollow was one of my earliest inspirations for pursuing a career in film/game scoring. Currently I am studying for a degree in film/game scoring! I’m obsessed with fantasy games, nature, fairy tales, magic, and mythology, and I write music to try and illustrate the stories and have the listener feel like they’re visiting the scene. You can hear some of my original music on Spotify under the name June Westfield!

Rachel: I was so young that I have trouble remembering everything. I do remember sometimes getting on the phone with my friends and talking as we played together and explored meadows, which was really fun. I also really enjoyed completing tasks and playing the minigames. I have no idea why that was so fun to me, but I just liked getting achievements and beating my scores.

Do you feel like some people may have unrealistic expectations for WTP? And do you think it can ever be as big as Pixie Hollow was?

Teresa: Yes, but I can’t blame them. So far I am the only developer to have actually worked on this game, so it’s a lot of pressure, but of course the players can’t know that. For some reason the things that everyone thinks will be the easiest to code are always the more difficult ones, funnily enough. For example, a flying mechanic like the original game is sort of complex, whereas adding new meadows is extremely simple. Do I think WTP will ever be as big as PH? Definitely not. Pixie Hollow had millions of players, Disney advertised it, and it had a full development team behind it. A lot of the original players will have moved on. I’m actually surprised that so many people have found us already!

Are there any artists that you look up to or are inspired by?

Rachel: I don’t have anyone specific in mind who I look up to, but I do watch a lot of cartoons and really admire animation and all of the work that goes into it. I get really inspired seeing different animated works and am super impressed by the entire process of it.

Ci: I used to actively make art outside of WTP and definitely had a whole list of people whose styles I looked up to, but now that I’ve moved away from that I mostly remember individual pieces. I had to dig some up for this question! loish, gawki, and Hethe Srodawa, are a few.

Lavender: Some composers that inspire me are Enya, Faun, Loreena McKennitt, and Secret Garden. They are all fantasy/new age genre artists that create enchanting music!

The WTP community is a great place to make friends! Is there a person in the staff that you’ve formed a strong friendship with?

Rachel: I’ve definitely become a lot closer with many of the staff members, whether it be looking up to certain people like our team leads, chatting with the other artists in DMs and helping each other out, or just having fun conversations with all the other staff members and sharing funny stories and pictures.

Teresa: Asteria is probably the best friend I’ve made at WTP, as we have talked the most. I have also met Kass in real life – she’s the sweetest! I love everyone on our team.

(Kass is one of our moderators - we’ll hear from her in the final interview post!)

And finally, What does working on a game that’s so loved by people mean to you?

Teresa: It is so heartwarming to be a part of something that brings people joy and makes them nostalgic. Pixie Hollow’s fan base can make me a bit anxious at times. Sometimes a group of players will want one thing, and then another group wants the exact opposite and it can be hard to make a choice. There’s a lot of pressure in trying to stay true to the original game’s vision while also being fresh, but it drives me to deliver the best work I can. I put a lot of time into WTP, and have actually burnt out a few times already. Luckily, I love building things so much that it never lasts long.

________________

Next up in our interview series - our social media team and server moderators! Stay tuned to hear their answers to some of your questions.

#WTP Staff Interviews #we the pixies

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unending-happiness · 5 years

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Hi, I've got a question out of nowhere! I was looking to re-read a story And When You Soar that was on my AO3 bookmark list and it's apparently not there anymore! I think it was your story? Can I ask what happened to it? If it's indeed the story I remember, I loved it!

Hi! Oh wow. It’s definitely my story! I’m smiling so big because you want to reread it. So…..as for what happened to it, I got a little overwhelmed with all my responsibilities in real life and how little time I had for writing. All my wips just felt like a heavy weight on my shoulders, because no matter how much I wanted to finish them I just didn’t think I’d ever have time. And I also felt so guilty about leaving them for so long without updates and letting readers down. So, I deleted all my wips from AO3 and vowed to only post them again when they were complete on my end (except for editing) and I could update them on a regular schedule. And When You Soar was supposed to be a relatively quick story, but then, as stories do, it took on a life of it’s own and there ended up being way more to it than I originally thought, so it got pulled too.

I’m actually in the middle of writing a long one-shot right now that’s fairly close to being sent to my beta. I don’t know what’s wrong with my writing brain right now, but I get huge bursts of inspiration for something new, then it fades, and rinse and repeat. Super unhelpful.

Now, the good news is, I’ve found myself at the very beginning of a period of being off work and quarantined at home because of this delightful pandemic we’re all experiencing, so I’m going to attack my wips with intensity and AWYS has a very good chance of getting finished soon and back up on ao3. Honestly, thank you so much for this ask because I wasn’t sure what wip from my list to work on after the one I’m finishing now, and you’ve made the decision easy for me. Thank you so much, lovely human! To hold you over until I post it again………

And When You Soar-Chapter 1

Alec ducked his head and stepped through the door and into the plane. He stopped when the elderly woman in front of him came to a standstill and looked around, transferring his suitcase to his other hand. He acknowledged the flight attendant standing to his left with his usual tight smile.

“Welcome aboard,” she greeted him, flashing him a bigger smile of her own.

“Thanks,” Alec answered her before his attention shifted to the open door just past her. A tall pilot standing just inside the flight cabin nodded at him and then turned his attention to who Alec assumed was his co-pilot. Always curious, Alec leaned to the side to see more of the other pilot, but his view into the small space was almost completely obstructed by the large man

“Sir,” the woman said to get his attention again.

He looked over at her and saw that she was motioning for him to move along into the cabin. He realized that the people in front of him had moved forward and he was holding up the line.

“Sorry,” he whispered, as if talking at a normal volume would cause further disturbance.

She just smiled at him sweetly again, and then turned her attention to whoever was behind him. Alec shifted his suitcase so that he could fit down the aisle, and focussed on finding his seat without taking out the tiny woman in front of him. He located his row near the back of the plane and saw that his seatmates hadn’t yet boarded, so he quickly stowed his bag in the overhead compartment and sat down in the aisle seat.

Normally, Alec loved being tall. He never needed a step stool, he had always been chosen first for basketball teams in high-school gym class, and he could see over everyone’s head in a crowd. It also made intimidating people fairly effortless, not that he would ever admit that out loud. Being tall was almost always a perk, but he found that flights were one of the few glaring exceptions.

He always sprang for first class when he had to be on a plane for more than a few hours, but his sister’s last-minute plans had him booking the only available seat on the only available flight that would fit into his demanding schedule. He barely had time to get a workout in and grab a quick shower before his Uber pulled up. He was feeling very lucky that he at least got an aisle seat, and even so, there simply wasn’t going to be a position that would make his legs happy. It was going to be a long night and his only hope would be to fall asleep, which was unlikely, as he found it especially difficult to do in crowded places.

He grabbed his phone and earbuds out of his backpack and put it under the seat in front of him, barely leaving enough room to squeeze his black Nikes in there. When he glanced back up, he could see that there was a young man and woman waiting patiently for him to get up so they could take the seats next to him. He quickly stood and moved to the side. The man eyed him up and down suspiciously and then quickly changed positions with who Alec could only assume was his girlfriend so that he would be sitting next to Alec instead of her. Alec barely contained an eye roll. Heterosexuals. He gave them plenty of space while they got settled and then gingerly lowered himself back into his seat, already regretting going so hard in the gym that morning as his thighs still protested from yesterday’s workout. He would feel it doubly tomorrow.

He went through the process of checking and returning messages on his phone. He handled a few work emails and then touched base with his family. He answered a text from Izzy.

Did you make your flight?

Barely

That’s the spirit. See you soon. 😘

If by “soon” you mean in 9 hours, then yes, that.

Grouchy…..You got stuck in economy again didn’t you? Such a diva.

Next time you come up with some grand scheme, I’m going to need you to think of my legs.

Promise, but I’m sure you could use your powers of persuasion to get yourself into first class. 😎😍

You’re confusing me with you, again

Oh, Alec. Try not to have too much fun.😂 We’ll pick you up at the airport.

Hey, I know how to have fun.

And by “we”, do you mean…..

Simon and I. I wouldn’t bring mom or dad. I’m not that mean.☹️

I have plenty of scars that suggest otherwise, but I’ll see you in 9 short hours.

Love you, big brother

Love you, too.

The perky flight attendant had started her safety speech, which was thankfully straight to the point and not one of those lame ones trying to make everyone laugh. Alec fastened his seatbelt across his black joggers and logged into the airline’s Wi-Fi. He put his phone on airplane mode as soon as he was connected. He glanced over at his seatmates to see the man was huddled up next to his companion and they were chatting quietly and giggling. He didn’t think he had to worry about them trying to talk to him, but he stuck a wireless earbud in that ear anyway just to be sure. He scanned the rest of the passengers within view of him and tried to settle comfortably in his seat when he decided that everything was as it should be.

The pilot he had seen when he boarded the plane came out a few moments later and did the standard pre-flight announcement. Captain Garroway had a deep and booming voice, so Alec clearly heard the weather and their destination all the way from his seat in the back of the plane.

He busied himself with scrolling through his playlist to distract himself during take off. He wasn’t a nervous flyer, but the knowledge that nearly all plane crashes happened during ascent and descent kept him from really relaxing until they were fully up in the air. Being out of control in any situation went against every fiber of his being, and he just had to work through it. He spread his legs a little, pushing his knees all the way against the seatback in front of him, praying that the person wouldn’t want to recline their seat. He crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes.

The plane had just hit cruise height, the most nerve wracking part over, and he was listening to a conversation between a mother and child in front of him when his phone buzzed in his lap.

Alec swiped down his notifications and pulled his eyebrows together when he saw what app the push notification had come from. Of all times to get a message from someone on Grindr, this one had to be the weirdest. He hadn’t even had an account for twenty-four hours yet, only having downloaded it late the night before out of boredom. His sister had joked recently that he needed to “Meet someone on Grindr or something to let off some steam”, and despite everything in his being telling him he wouldn’t be happy with such a thing, he had done it anyway. He wasn’t exactly sure why he had listened to her, because he had no interest in hooking up with a random guy just because he was within so many feet of him. There was actually someone he had something really casual with, but it had been a while since he’d seen him. So, he could probably chalk this horrible lapse in decision making up to being frustrated and horny. Still, he had no intention of using the app, not really.

He thought about dismissing the message without reading it, almost laughing at the thought of having sex with some random stranger in the tiny plane bathroom, when it hit him that the message actually had to be from someone currently on the plane with him. That thought had him sitting up straighter and looking around him as inconspicuous as possible. He didn’t see anyone staring at him, but still, like the truly paranoid person he was, he turned down the brightness on his screen so the people around him would be less likely to see what he was doing. Hesitantly, he opened the message.

It was from someone called “CoyNotCryptic” and the icon wasn’t a person, but instead was an aerial photo of a city he didn’t recognize. Oh-kayyy, that wasn’t going to tell him anything. He looked around the cabin again and then read the message.

I see you’re on my flight. Enjoy the ride to Rome.

Alec stared at the words in disbelief. What are the chances? He quickly tried to figure out who this mystery messenger could be. A fellow passenger? The app informed him that it was someone ninety feet away, which would have to be someone toward the front of the plane. A passenger in first class maybe? Alec looked up at the flight attendants suspiciously. Both were women and he didn’t see a third, but that didn’t necessarily mean there wasn’t another one there. First class sometimes had their own attendant. Thoroughly flustered, he turned off his screen and laid it face down in his lap again, still eyeing the people around him and the front of the cabin.

He made it an impressive five minutes before he unlocked his phone and pulled up the message thread. He clicked on the mystery person’s profile.

All he learned from that was that the guy was 3O ish years old, 5’11”, 175lbs, Bi, and Single. Seemed intriguing enough, but a picture definitely would have been extremely helpful. Fucking Grindr. This was why he didn’t want to mess with it in the first place. He wasn’t going to answer it. Absolutely not. What would he even say? What if the person was a total creep and it was a disaster for the entire eight-hour flight?

Just a few minutes later, bored and antsy, he decided that it was going to bother him if he didn’t at least find out who it was. Oh, what the hell , he thought, and typed out a message.

The chances of this happening have to be a million to one, right?

He tapped his foot nervously while he waited the fifteen seconds for an answer to come.

I’m not privy to the exact statistics, but it doesn’t happen very often, in my professional experience. Does this mean you’re one in a million?

Alec swallowed a laugh. The wording of the message made him feel more like it was someone working on the flight. That was probably less risky than a random passenger. More than a little intrigued, he typed a reply.

By that logic, you would be one in a million, also.

Oh, I definitely am.

How self-aware of you.

Self-aware and humble.

And….working right now??

Yes, although it doesn’t feel like work at the moment.

Because I’m distracting you?

Don’t get ahead of yourself. It could be the 40-ton jet I’m flying. -MB

Alec nearly dropped his damn phone and he was ninety percent sure he said, “No way,” out loud instead of in his head. The pilot!! The pilot was messaging him on Grindr. What the actual hell had Izzy gotten him into?! He had the passing thought that maybe it was somebody else on the plane fucking with him, and he looked around for about the tenth time. And MB? Most definitely not the initials of Garroway, the pilot he saw before. Must’ve been the pilot he hadn’t been able to get a good look at when he boarded.

He didn’t have time to go too far down that rabbit hole of thought, because just then a voice filled the cabin. This one was very different than Captain Garroway’s and it got Alec’s full attention, to say the least.

“Good evening, lovely passengers, this is Captain Bane speaking.”

This voice sent a shiver down his spine and made every nerve ending wake up and take notice. It was a voice of pure silk that made Alec think of skin on skin, of dark passionate nights, of hushed whispers between sloppy kisses.

He was absolutely reeling at the realization that “MB” from Grindr was also Captain Bane, the pilot of this airplane, a man whose voice alone stimulated every cell in Alec’s body. He was thoroughly fucked for the duration of this flight and he couldn’t even find it in himself to be mad about it.

“We are now cruising along at an altitude of 30,000 feet. You may use any larger electronic devices you have at this time, on airplane mode, of course. I’m very good at what I do, but I’d prefer a smooth and easy ride tonight.”

Alec pursed his lips to contain his disbelieving laugh, his eyes wide.

“Please also feel free to take your seatbelt off if you need to move around the cabin, but be sure to put it back on anytime you’re in your seat. This is just a precaution in case of unexpected turbulence, or in the event I jerk my stick a little too hard.”

The passengers around him chuckled at the joke, but Alec thought that there was no possible way in hell any of them could be as affected by those words as he was. This was an unbelievable turn of events.

“My darling flight attendants will be doing drink service soon, and I’d like to ask you to be patient and enjoy whatever quenches your thirst. Please exercise self-control, though, as this is a long flight for all of us. Also, just a reminder that any long arms or long legs that are taking up aisle space, are most definitely at risk of being taken out by Clary and her cart, and need to be tucked safely in your seat. Thank you very much and enjoy the ride to Rome.”

This man. Holy. Fucking. Shit. He needed a drink from Clary and her cart ASAP.

He stared at his phone and that last message. It was clearly his move now, and considering how buzzed he was from the announcements alone, he wanted to make it a good one. He decided he very much wanted to play this game.

Aren’t there rules about texting and flying?

You are in very capable hands. I wasn’t joking when I said I’m good at what I do.

In all seriousness though, my co-pilot is doing all the heavy lifting at the moment, but if this makes you nervous, I’ll stop. I like to keep my customers happy.

Don’t stop.

I’m not worried.

Good. Tell me something?

Ask away.

What takes you to Rome?

My little sister’s impromptu wedding.

Scandalous. Have you met her other half?

Oh, yeah. They’ve been together for a while. The engagement isn’t that surprising, and, really, the quick wedding isn’t either if you know my family. She’s avoiding a lot of drama. I can’t really blame her.

Ah, family drama, ever delightful.

Unfortunately there’s no shortage of it with mine.

How long are you staying in Rome for the wedding?

Just a few days.

It’s an absolutely beautiful city. I can make some recommendations if you’d like……

That would be great.

Perky red rolled up to him with her cart, pulling his focus away from the conversation. He reluctantly placed the phone face down on his tray and tried to not look impatient as he got his wallet with his card out of his bag. She asked the couple next to him what they wanted, and Alec dutifully passed a soda and a red wine over. She ignored his debit card and poured a whiskey on the rocks, probably the most expensive they had on board, and handed it over to him. His confusion must have shown on his face because she winked at him and pointed to the front of the plane. It took a couple seconds for him to get it and then he glanced to his side to be sure the people next to him weren’t paying attention.

“Oh, uh, thanks,“ he whispered, and immediately felt like a moron.

“No problem. If you need anything else at all, just let me know. I’ll be back around for meal orders in just a little bit.”

Alec took a big sip of his drink. It was easily twice the size of the drinks you normally received on a plane and he felt a little guilty that he hadn’t even paid for it. He resisted the urge to look around and see if anyone had noticed his special treatment.

He checked his phone as soon as he felt relaxed from the warmth that had burned its way down his chest. There were no new messages, but he decided that sending him a drink was a pretty loud and clear message of its own and he started typing.

So, now you are flying a plane, texting, AND buying me a drink?! Show off.

Is that a thank you?

Of course. How did you even know where I was sitting?

Well, you see, there are these things called ‘Flight Manifests’ and pilots receive one for every flight. Although I must admit I’ve never found one quite as useful as I do now.

By the way, who uses their real name for a Grindr profile??

People who want their pilots to send them free booze.

Ah. Well, your grand scheme is working out quite nicely then, I’d say.

Seriously though, thank you for the drink.

You’re most welcome, Alexander. (So useful, that manifest)

Nobody calls me that except for my mother when she’s angry with me.

Would you rather I not?

No….you can.

Good, because I’m fond of it.

Speaking of things I’m fond of, Clary tells me that your "longest legs ever” have no business at all being in coach.

Ah, well, you can blame my sister and her last minute plans for that.

Wait, do you have everyone spying on me?!

Not everyone, just Clary, I suppose. Though, to be fair, she mentioned your legs before I had her bring you a drink. Seems “tall, dark, and handsome” appeals to all genders.

I’m going to need more alcohol if you’re going to keep saying things like that.

I’ll let Clary know the gorgeous man with mile long legs in C36 needs another drink soon.

I’m actually blushing.

I’d give my Louis luggage to see that for myself.

I don’t do selfies.

Really? Not even for the man who tried to get you a seat in First class?

It was all booked. I checked.

Yes, it is. But I tried to offer someone top shelf alcohol for the duration of the flight to switch with you.

YOU DIDN’T. Please tell me you didn’t.

Doesn’t matter. It didn’t work anyway. Please pass my apologies onto your legs.

No.

No?

No. If you have a message for my legs, you’ll have to deliver it yourself.

Do you really think it’s wise to cause a rise in the heart rate of the pilot who is flying your plane?

My bad. Pass my apologies onto your heart?

If I have to deliver messages in person, then you do as well.

Can you put the pedal to the floor? Get us on the ground any faster?

Do you know anything at all about airplanes?

No, but you could teach me.

With pleasure.

Lkkdfskhdkhsdfkhd.

Did he really send a keysmash? He did. He did that, as eloquent as ever. Slightly mortified, he waited to be teased for it. When no message came through, he checked his Wi-Fi connection, then his watch, and finally scrolled through his playlist and chose some music, trying to busy himself with something other than shamelessly flirting with the man currently keeping them alive way above the surface of the earth. He was probably very busy at the moment and Alec had to get a grip, especially since they were only an hour and a half into the flight.

By the time the dinner cart went through an hour later, Alec had returned a few more emails, done his budget for the month, organized all the photos in his gallery, and archived all the files on his phone that he didn’t need anymore. He also might have checked Grindr for new messages about twenty times, so he was more than a little ready for that second drink.

This time the other attendant came through, the one with the darker skin and curly hair. She was just as helpful and nice as Clary, but much less hyper, and Alec found that she had a way about her that he liked. With a knowing smile she served him up the same drink as before. She didn’t even try to tell him where it came from, which he appreciated, because at this point he was more than a little self conscious that the entire staff seemed to know the pilot was sending him things.

She took his dinner order and returned twenty minutes later with what could only amount to two standard airline meals and yet another glass of amber liquid. This one was smaller and accompanied by a bottle of water. He didn’t miss how she took his credit card and made herself look busy, before handing it back without actually swiping it. He gave her a genuine smile, very much appreciating her discretion and she patted his shoulder as she went by.

He usually didn’t like to be touched by people, let alone strangers, reserving his physical affection for his family alone. Maybe it was the alcohol warming his veins or the fact that he was currently being lavished with gifts, but he found that the small touch made him happy.

Eventually, he was relaxed enough that he felt like he may actually be able to sleep, but he still declined a pillow and blanket when they came through passing them out to everyone. There was no way he was going to be able to get that comfortable around this many strangers. He made a quick trip to the restroom and stopped in the aisle to stretch his legs and torso as much as he could in the tight space, before regrettably sliding back into his seat. He knocked back the last bit of his drink and followed it with the water, before sliding his tray back up and settling in. His phone buzzed on his leg.

How was dinner?

Pretty good, actually. I think I owe you a few hundred dollars at this point.

Nonsense, it was my pleasure.

Thank you.

Is it sad that this is probably better than any date I’ve ever had?

That’s only because you haven’t been on a proper date with me ; )

Or because I’m bad at the whole dating thing. (Did you just winky face me?)

I think, given the right company, you’d do better than you think. (Yes, yes I did.)

Hah. A high compliment.

How about this for a compliment…….You really need to warn my staff before you go stretching in the aisle, again. Nobody benefits from a passed out crew.

Who told you about that?

Oh, just a little conversation between Clary and Maia.

Ugh.

I like Maia.

AND DON’T YOU HAVE A PLANE TO FLY?!

Shhhhhhhhh. I’m a professional, remember?

And I figured you would. She likes you, too.

Nobody likes me.

That’s very much not true. I happen to have it on good authority that just a small little sliver of your stomach can cause an impressive stir.

Please stop.

Are you blushing again?

I’m not sending you a selfie.

What if I pout?

Don’t do that. I’ll be forced to take one and then I’ll die of embarrassment. Nobody needs that.

*Sighs* I rather like you living, so I’ll give you a pass this time.

So generous.

You have no idea how generous I can be.

You can’t just keep saying things like that to me.

Why not? I’m just trying to give you “sweet dreams” material.

That might be the cheesiest thing I’ve ever heard.

Did it make you smile?

Maybe……

Yes.

Good. Regrettably, I have to go do the heavy lifting now. I’ll leave you to sleep.

Sleep. Sure. Easy. No problem.

Goodnight, Alexander.

Surprisingly, sleep came easier than he ever could have imagined it would, given the situation, which made him thankful for the food, booze, and the exhaustion that came with being up for almost twenty-four hours straight. He drifted off replaying the messages from Captain Bane in his head over and over and a relaxed smile on his face.

Alec woke with a start when the man in his row slid their window shade all the way up. He squinted against the bright sun, a clear indication that he slept longer than just a few hours. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands and tried to blink the sleep from them. When he looked around he saw that a few people were still sleeping, but most were awake and talking quietly, with various drinks and snacks. It seemed he had slept through the beverage cart and probably some announcements, and he imagined that they had to be pretty close to landing in Rome.

He hit his knee on something and looked down to see that someone had lowered his tray and placed a lidded cup of coffee, a bottle of water and a blueberry muffin on it. That’s when it all came back to him. He scrambled around in his lap to find his phone, dropping it on the floor in his haste. He leaned down in the tight space to get it and hit his head on the seatback in front of him. “Shit!”

He glanced at his seatmates and said a quick, “Sorry,” for cursing and causing a ruckus, but didn’t pay attention to them long enough to see their reactions. He had much better things to do.

He managed to fish his phone off the floor and quickly straightened, sliding down his notifications with impressive speed and selecting the one he wanted.

Good morning, Sleeping Beauty. If you need anything else, let me know.

Alec grinned and took a big gulp of his coffee before replying. He needed to wake up fast.

You are a gift, you know that?

Does that mean you’re going to eagerly unwrap me?

It’s too early for sentences like that.

It’s never too early for sentences like that.

How long until we land?

An hour and seventeen minutes.

Aren’t you getting tired?

I’m used to it, darling. Don’t worry about me.

Darling. He actively tried to keep a stupid smile from taking over his face. An hour. An hour until he exited this plane…..through the front of the plane. The front of the plane where this man currently was. Fuck. He needed a lot more coffee, a toothbrush, and a mirror STAT. He looked down at his crumpled t-shirt and jogging pants and swore under his breath. Truthfully, Alec wasn’t even sure he would be seeing him in person when they landed. He hadn’t seen him when they boarded, and so maybe it would be a repeat of that. That thought was too disappointing for him though, so he pushed it away and set about righting himself, just in case.

He drank his coffee down as quickly as he could without burning his mouth. Then he wrapped his muffin up in the package and put it in his backpack, knowing there was no way his nervous early morning stomach would tolerate it. He grabbed his toiletry bag and rushed to the bathroom before the imminent announcement that they had to stay in their seats.

Once he was folded in the cramped space, he brushed his teeth and thanked God for his recent haircut in preparation for the wedding. He spent a few minutes mussing his hair up with his fingers and a bit of water before deciding it was about as good as it was going to get. He ran his hand over his face and decided the scruff there wasn’t too bad, not bad enough to shave in an airplane bathroom, at least.

He started to stretch and then abruptly stopped, self-conscious that people would notice and he’d be the subject of mile-high gossip once again. He returned to his seat feeling a bit more human and a lot more nervous.

Clary came walking down the aisle with purpose, smiled way too brightly at him for 7 a.m. and handed him a folded up slip of paper. He hesitantly took it with a polite, “Thanks,” and immediately opened it and read the elegant script.

Meet me up front, if you want , after everyone else has deplaned.

~M.

If you want. He wasn’t sure he had ever wanted anything so much in his life.

Captain Garroway came over the intercom to let them know they were beginning their descent and Alec didn’t comprehend any of it. He put his seatbelt on when others around him did and tried to stop bouncing his leg nervously. Maybe he had a little too much coffee.

Ten minutes later they landed in Rome without incident, and Alec unbuckled his seatbelt and wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. Why the hell was he so nervous? He watched as the other passengers gathered their belongings and exited at an agonizingly slow pace. Twice he got up and helped someone get a bag out of the compartment to hurry the process along. He tried really fucking hard to not compare the man across from him to a sloth, like a total asshole. Finally, when it got to his row he stood up and let the man and woman go by him.

Once they had their stuff gathered, the woman unexpectedly turned to Alec and said, “I just have to know, are you some kind of celebrity or something?”

Alec balked.

The man with her looked shocked as he nudged her. “Jules!”

She shrugged. “What? It’s kind of obvious.” She turned back to Alec. “Which movies are you in?”

Alec huffed out a laugh, “What? No…”

He was relieved when her boyfriend tugged her along even if he was kind of amused at the last disbelieving look she shot him.

The last few rows went by without any more accusations of stardom, which Alec was very grateful for, and then Clary passed by him last, with a wink and a little wave. He groaned out loud and didn’t even feel bad for it.

There was movement at the front of the plane from the crew and he forced himself to not focus on any of it, but instead he pulled his suitcase out of the overhead bin and threw his backpack over his shoulder. He started walking.

It all became too real when he saw Clary and Maia exit the plane behind the passengers. That wasn’t normal, was it? That definitely wasn’t normal. Jesus Christ, his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He got to first class and the other pilot, Garroway, was standing there in front of the cockpit door, his bag in hand. He shot Alec a smug, crooked smile and left the plane without a word.

And then there he stood.

There he stood looking way more beautiful than anyone who had been working all night had any right to. His eyes were bright and kohl-rimmed, his features strong and beautiful even as he nervously rubbed the fingers of his left hand together. He really was a kind of perfect that Alec hadn’t even realized existed. He wanted to devour him.

Alec watched, a little stunned, as he stepped forward. Then, he tilted his head up in a challenge and parted his lips, and that was all it took.

Alec abandoned his luggage right there in the aisle and went to him. He reached out with both hands, pressing one hand to his hip and grabbing his shirt with the other, pulling him into him. He kissed him hard, already drowning in the scent of him, the feel of him.

They started stumbling backward, and Alec realized that he was throwing his weight around too much, but fucking hell, he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t even think as he pressed their lips together over and over. He wanted it hard and fast, soft and slow, any and every way he could have him.

They stumbled through the door and into the back of the captain’s chair with an “oomph” and Alec opened his eyes briefly to drink him in.

“Alec,” he said, his breath hot on Alec’s lips, eyes still closed.

“Magnus,” Alec said, stepping into him even more, closing the tiniest bit of space that was left between them. “Fuck, I missed you.”

Magnus opened his eyes and smiled at him. “Yes, I can feel that,” he said, rolling his hips against Alec’s.

“You haven’t felt anything yet,” Alec said, his voice gruff.

Magnus slid a hand between them, “Oh, this isn’t just anything,” he said, rubbing fingers down Alec’s length through his pants. He curled them under the waistband and tugged, causing Alec to go from half-hard to fully erect in no time flat. “I like these pants…….a lot.”

Alec rubbed circles on Magnus’ ribcage with his thumb to distract himself so he could manage to speak a coherent sentence. “They’re perfect for long flights.”

He nearly whimpered when Magnus retracted his hand, but somehow still managed to narrow his eyes at him. “Speaking of long flights,” he said, “I’m supposed to be mad at you.”

Magnus smiled at him. “Oh, really? Whatever did I do?”

At that moment he realized how much he had missed that. His smile, his cunning wit, the elegance with which he spoke, his humor. All of it. He had missed all of Magnus. Desperately. He couldn’t believe he even considered the notion that anyone he met on a hookup app would be enough.

He stepped back a little bit, trying to be serious, but he didn’t remove his hands from Magnus’ waist, because he wasn’t planning on going far, maybe ever. “Well, you were in the city where I live and you didn’t even call me,” he accused, trying not to sound too desperate and probably failing miserably.

Magnus’ eyes twinkled with mischief, which should have prepared Alec for what came next, but before he knew it Magnus had changed their positions, and Alec was being pushed back against the chair, with Magnus pressing up against him, chest to hip. He leaned in and whispered in Alec’s ear, “Mmmmmm, well, if you needed me to dick you down, all you had to do was say something.” He nibbled gently at his earlobe and Alec almost forgot how to move air.

Fucking hell, if that didn’t make him damn near want to beg. “This is me saying something.”

Magnus kissed his neck ever so lightly, which sent shivers all the way down his body. “Hmmmm, what exactly are you saying, darling?”

“Magnus,” he said, exasperated and damn near floating with desire. Or lack of oxygen. Probably both.

“Alexander,” he practically purred back.

That was the first time Alec had ever heard him say his full name and he hoped it wasn’t even close to the last time. He actually fucking whimpered, and that was when he decided this wasn’t the time to be stubborn. “I need you to dick me down,” he admitted, snaking a hand up and grabbing Magnus’ hair. He pulled his head back and away from his neck to get back some control, instead kissing him deeply, sliding his tongue into his mouth and languidly tasting him.

Magnus moaned into his mouth and returned the kiss with equal intensity, before pulling away to answer him, grinding their hips together once more for good measure.

“With pleasure, if you promise to put that beautiful mouth of yours to good use.”

Alec’s whole body was singing at that promise. “Deal.” He looked around, thinking of logistics for all the things they were about to do, and then he was snapped back into the reality of exactly where they were.

“You’re a pilot,” he said, matter of fact, even if a little breathless.

“I am.” Magnus smiled. “Are you impressed?”

“Very, but what else is new?” Alec answered.

Magnus laughed, “I have to admit this is turning out most favorable for me as well.”

Alec looked around, “How long before you have to fly out again?”

Magnus said, “A couple of days…ish.”

“Ish?” Alec asked.

“That’s what I said.”

“Can you come to my hotel later?” Alec asked.

Magnus bit his bottom lip, then grinned. “You aren’t even a little tempted to do it right here, Alec? It is a Cock-pit, after all. It’s right there in the name,” he whispered.

Alec smiled, “Wow.” Honestly, fuck him for being so sexy while delivering such outrageous lines.

Magnus laughed deeply, and Alec ran a large hand down his chest and pulled his shirt down to kiss what he could of his collar bone. “Believe me, I’m very, very tempted, but I want to get you completely naked, lay you out on a bed, and take my time with you. I’ve had enough of cramped spaces for a while.”

“How could I possibly argue with that logic?” Magnus asked.

“You can’t,” Alec said.

“Text me your hotel information and give me a couple of hours?” Magnus asked.

The “couple of hours” part had him rethinking the whole “fucking in the cockpit of this plane” business, but he pushed away from Magnus with Herculean effort and placed one last and lingering kiss to his lips.

Alec forced himself to go back into the plane to collect his belongings, feeling Magnus’ eyes on him the whole way. When he passed by him again, Magnus was leaning against the door, a knowing smirk on his face.

Alec gestured to Magnus’ uniform. “Are you going to be wearing this when you stop by?” He couldn’t resist asking.

Magnus’ eyes crinkled with his smile. “Ooh, does someone have a kink?”

“Says the man who’s obsessed with my legs,” he countered, grinning back.

Magnus laughed, and Alec thought that it might very well be the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard. “Get out of my airplane, Alexander.”

#asks #answers #ever-so-nice #this was so lovely #thank you #and im sorry for being such a damn hot mess #and when you soar #oh how i have to get to working on this #ive missed this version of them #fanfic #myfics #malec #malec au #pilot magnus #the one prompted by the twitter post of a pilot messaging someone on grindr

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curlyhairallday · 5 years

Text

Bump and Dumps - Part 8

Her and Harry were back to pre-baby them, they were cuddling on the sofa watching friends and sharing a bed. Harry had even got up once with her when she was sick and had given her water and rubbed her back. They had both avoided discussing the baby as it was a conversation of conflict but they had a good night together, they had discussed him promo plan and she had been filled in on all things Eroda. They’re week had been great Harry had worked here and there but they had relaxed, he had taken her to an OBGYN who had offered her given her some medicine to help with the sickness it had helped a bit but she still couldn’t stomach a lot of food so Harry had been giving her quavers, grapes and ginger biscuits all week. She was now going back to the UK and Harry was coming to but she was worried that now they were out of their bubble everything would go tits up again.

Harry had slept the entire flight home as Hattie started reading up on the cases she would be taking over, she began emailing her new assistant asking her to set meetings up with her clients.

Aj: So I hear you are already bossing poor Katie around.

Hattie: Just want to do a good job, thank you again this means a lot to me.

Aj: I was hoping we could maybe go out for dinner after work on Monday celebrate your first day, sadly we can’t have champagne :(

Hattie: I want a baby booze up not a shower after it is out I need a drink. I planned to go out with Em for food but you’re more than welcome to join? Get the gang together

Aj: She hasn’t spoken to me since we quote “You have made me need to burn my eyes out.

Hattie: Harry and his sister are coming to I think, come on please come I need to thank you

Aj: So you guys worked it out

Hattie could sense his bitterness she did like Aj alot and if not for Harry maybe they could stand a chance. However, she looked over to the curly haired boy who was fast asleep and realised no one could ever compare to him.

Hattie: Best co-parents yet is the plan

Hattie turned of her phone and took a nap for the rest of the flight. When they arrived back at the house, they both went to bed immediately and collapsed.

“Hattie, you awake?” Harry whispered as he rubbed gentle circles into her arm.

“Yeah just about.”

“Mitch, text me about the tour and your due date.”

She turned facing him wishing she had been the one to broach this subject.

“The tour was planned first I don’t mind, I get it.”

“No. I won’t miss the birth and the first few months of our baby’s life. Jeff is rearranging it so I will be gone for longer but it will be more packed so tour will finish mid June.”

“Thank you.” She gently kissed his lips and things quickly progressed.

The next few weeks went by like clockwork she started her new job and she really enjoyed it, especially working with Aj they were growing really close. They had moved her celebration dinner till after the album release as Harry had been away a lot recently for promo. Which she didn’t mind at all. Although, she was currently waiting for her check up with the doctor as she was still not gaining weight even though there was now a small bump and she was out the first trimester her morning sickness had been getting worse and she had been getting sicker. She had avoided letting Harry know the extent of her sickness as he was away. She had asked Gemma to come with her as Emily was on holiday and Gemma was her closest friend after.

“Thank you for taking me Gem.”

“Hey no big deal, I am hoping she does an ultrasound so I can see and hear my little nephew.”

“I hope she does too, I haven’t seen spud since the first time.”

“Hello, Harriet I have here that you have bad morning sickness and the tablets aren’t helping.”

“Yeah, I got put on them and if anything it is worse. I can’t really eat.”

“Ok, I believe you are experiencing hyperemesis gravidarum which means extreme morning sickness. My main worry is your weight you are losing weight you have lost 7 pounds which is what I would expect your gain to be at so I want to do an ultrasound and blood work.”

She nodded looking at Gemma who was stroking her shoulder, she didn’t think anything of the sickness she thought it was normal.

“So if you look here the baby is slightly smaller than we would like. It isn’t a concern right now but I think the best thing to do is admit you too hospital give you fluids try and find a nutrientinal plan as my last resort will be a feeding tube but that is only if situations get worse. Sometimes it gets better as the pregnancy goes on but normally it starts to improve if it is going to by now.”

“Can it be dangerous?” Gemma asked while trying to reassure Hattie, she was glad she opted for Gemma to come.

“It can be but it isn’t that bad at the moment the baby is only a little bit small and hopefully in a day or two we can get both Hattie and the baby feeling better.”

The doctor called the ward and made sure there was a bed available and Hattie and Gemma drove over Hattie felt really bad as she was Gemma ride so she was stranded with her until Micheal finished work. She was quickly admitted and a IV was inserted she had texted Aj to explain that she would be working from home all week as she had been admitted,

“So are you going to call Harry?”

“I am worried you know what he is liked and with the album and everything he will miss promo.”

“Hattie, please call him he would want to miss it. Trust me I know he can be selfish sometimes but he loves this baby.”

“I will call him now.”

She called his number hoping he would go to voicemail.

“Hello Harry’s phone.” Hattie recognised it as Alexa.

“Um hi Alexa can you pass me to Harry it is Hattie.”

“He is filming at the moment can I take a message or get him to call you back.”

“Can you tell him to call me back.” She quickly hung up.

“I left him a message.”

“Ok good, do you want me to stay?”

“No please go. I will be fine.”

“OK but I will come back tomorrow and call me if anything changes.”

Hattie was dying of boredom she had replied to all her emails and done some work on her cases she was watching some netflix. She had been sick quite a bit since getting to the hospital. She had befriended the girl in the bed next to her who was put on bed rest she only had a few more weeks left and already had two children at home she had been helpful giving her advice on what she should get and good brands. Harry still hadn’t called and part of her was relieved but the other part of her needed him. She decided she needed someone so she called her dad.

“Dad, I need you I am scared.”

Her dad had reassured her and he turned up just before visiting hours ended he sat with her and told her it was ok. He spoke to the nurses and asked for a doctor to check her she was glad he was here.

“So where is Harry?”

“He is busy his assistant said she’d get him to call back.”

“Harriet he should be here, call him back or I will.”

She knew her dad knew she should had pushed to speak to him.

“Hello.”

“Hi Alexa it’s Hattie please can you pass Harry on.”

“Sorry Hattie he is still busy.”

“Alexa i’m in hospital I need to talk to him now if not him can I speak to Jeff?” She heard the whispering.

“Hey Hattie Harry is busy at the moment can he call you back in a hour?”

“Jeff, I am in the hospital.”

“Is the baby ok?”

“Please can I talk to Harry I am scared and the doctors are worried.” She began to cry her dad quickly hugged her she hadn’t realised how scared she was.

“Hattie are you ok?” She was happy to finally here that low voice.

“Harry, I am in hospital the baby is small… it … is ..cos...of…..the..sickness.” She was trying to calm herself her dad took the phone from her and she nestled into him she could hear him filling Harry in on the information and then he handed the phone back to her.

“Hello.”

“Hatters, I will come back now ok you just need to stay calm and think positively ok. It isn’t your fault and the IV will help ok. I think you should go to a private hospital just so I can know exactly what is going on I will talk to Alexa and get her to sort it. I will be back tomorrow morning.”

Hattie got moved to a small hospital closer to her parents house within a hour of talking to Harry her dad drove her there and her mum met her there as well. She was glad to be in a private place as her parents could stay with her and her mum had brought her scones which had apparently helped her through her pregnancy. Hattie was still being sick a lot but the doctor was happier as she was no longer dehydrated and the baby heartbeat had gotten stronger.

“Are you ok?” Harry ran into the room quickly looking at her.

“I feel better I am no longer dehydrated so that's good.”

“You look even smaller than the last time I saw you.”

“They have a nutritionist coming this afternoon and if I manage to keep down a meal they said I can go home but have to have weekly appointments.”

Harry hugged my mum and dad who said their goodbyes and left to leave them alone making Harry promise to look after their daughter and send updates.

“I am sorry bubba I should have been here.” He climber on her bed and kept kissing her.

“I smell you are going to smell if you’re near me.”

“Well then we will smell together.”

#Harry Styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles imagines #harry styles fanfction #one direction #one direction fanfiction

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thelastarchangelaskblog · 5 years

Text

Session 17

I’m...a few sessions behind on recaps. (A lot of sessions.)

This is the one right after the reveal that Tony Stark is Gabriel. (Is his last name still Stark?? The party sure doesn’t know and no one’s asked him.)

There’s still fallout from what happened, although a bit of it was dealt in text RPs on our Discord channel. (I know; they’re not updated on this blog either. I’m only one person. ;w;)

Anyway, without further ado...

(Read more.)

Our DM ( @the-grey-hunt) starts us off with a lovely recap about the ghost we encountered and the immediate aftermath of Gabriel’s identity reveal:

DM: The fight was short-lived and they were beaten into the afterlife by the rest of the party.

DM: Gabriel tried to avoid the party, who promptly told him to fuck right off with that attitude.

There was a comment on Luna’s ( @imagine1117) passive perception for some reason? (Oh, right, because Rhodey ( @rebaobsessions) proposed to Gabriel. Meaning Gabriel is now sporting a ring.)

DM: Very quick, imagine. What's Luna's passive perception?

Imagine: High.

Luna isn’t the only one with high passive perception. The only one who doesn’t have one is poor DJ (doxblogsstuff) with a solid 9.

Zira ( @heliocentricgeometric): How was last night?

Rhodey: It went great.

Zira: Do you want to share with the group?

Rhodey: Uuuuuhhhh.

Rhodey immediately looks to Tony/Gabriel for help.

Zira already knew Rhodey wanted to propose, and now it’s out that he actually did propose.

DJ: Didn't you do that already? Well, Tony did...

Helio: Zira kicks him under the table.

DJ: Ow! Your feet are pointy!

Zira: All feet are pointy. That's how they work.

Sibling shenanigans go back to asking Mom and Dad what’s next now.

Zira: You've both proposed...so what comes next?

Luna, very quietly: Kids.

DJ: They've already GOT kids.

(Tony breaks out into hives immediately because no.)

Bob ( @lynnnnnnnnnnmnnnnnnnnnnnnnmnnnn [what the FUCK, lynn]) comes down from upstairs with two very familiar cats!

Lynn: Bob comes downstairs...and following him are two cats.

DJ: YOU!

Others in real life: (immediate shrieking)

Bob: What’s crackalackalin’?

Clint and...Agent 13, I think, join the group for breakfast. Let them know that Fury would like an answer from them within the next day or so. And then they leave.

Lynn: And Bob starts rummaging around in his bag. You already know what’s coming...

Lynn: And Bob puts a bolt and an arrow on the table in front of Clint.

Rhodey gives Bob a small part of his Highsummer gift for the cats, which is a little wicker backpack-like thing for them to stay in. And Zira, after her conversation with Tony and Tony shoving her off onto Rhodey when it comes to gifts, immediately pounces on Rhodey.

Zira: So I think there's no point in hiding it from me.

Rhodey: You mean what i bought you for Highsummer?

Zira: Yes.

(No, it doesn’t work.)

DJ is very officially dressed this morning for breakfast; he’s also very nervous! He’s going to try and see about getting started on the next step of becoming a master Alchemist!

Zira: Are you experiencing pre-exam stress?

DJ is very much unconvincing in convincing everyone he isn’t nervous and he’s totally fine. He doesn’t know what’s expected of the exam, only it’s an exam?? Zira tries to help.

Zira: Whoever you're killing, at least they'll be farther away from you since you're mostly a ranged--

DJ: I'm not killing anyone, it's just a test!

Zira: If you fail this test, will they kill you?

DJ: No!

Zira: Then I don't know what you're so worried about.

Zira, later: People say there won't be any murder, but it's usually a trick.

There’s a little more talk on S.H.I.E.L.D. and what members of the group want to do what. Zira is still for joining. Tony/Gabriel is still against but does say to Rhodey he should just make the best decision for himself.

Rhodey to Tony: The best decision is the decision where I get to stay with you.

DJ does go off to the Alchemists’ Guild! Not alone, as Zira goes with him. Tony was tempted to go but still too uncertain about how things stood to try.

And now Zira finds out what DJ’s first name is... (Tony already knows, courtesy of a text RP.)

DJ: Dudo Jamjar, sir.

Gnome: I see. Your reputation precedes you.

DJ is remarkably polite during this entire interaction and it ends on a pretty positive note.

In the meantime, Luna and Bob are hunting down an Aarakocra Tony met on his shopping trip and referred Bob to. imagine had to roll a dice.

imagine: (dice clatter) eh--

DM: What was it?

imagine: I dunno; it's gone.

They do find the Aarakocra!

Hengist (verbally): Hello, how can I help you?

Bob (telepathically): Hello!

Hengist: Oh, wow, that's new. Are you a friend of that one guy? The one who didn't know anything about Aarakocra?

Bob: Yes. Aarakocra. That's what I am, an Aarakocra.

(Very convincing, Bob.)

Bob doesn’t really know what to ask or what information to look for. Hengist doesn’t really know what information to give either. They part ways only slightly satisfied.

Luna: Just - one more question. Do your friends ask you what your name is everyday?

Hengist: What - no, it's just Hengist.

Luna: Cool. Just curious.

imagine: Luna leaves. Awkwardly.

Zira and DJ are still together and so have more of a conversation once they’re back at Summer’s Rest. There’s some really heartfelt stuff on what happened to DJ back when he was still at home. DJ revealed to Zira that he actually died when the library fell on him. It was a pretty massive explosion, guys. Bad.

So that’s why he’s all nervous about continuing to pursue his education, but he’s going to do it!!

And after a hug and comfort from Zira, DJ goes back to gushing over the exciting new developments in the party.

DJ: But, oh my god! Mom proposed to Dad!

Zira and DJ want to surprise tackle someone with affection after everything, since Zira noticed that Tony was making discreet efforts at distancing himself from the group.

DJ: I'm pretty sure if I tackle him I'd break a knee.

Zira: Then do it right, fool.

Also Zira in this conversation:

Zira: Then now's your chance to flip the script! See, wordplay. I can do it.

DJ’s still pondering the technicalities of what he wants to do.

Zira: The important thing is that it's a tackle hug. Two things in one.

They don’t see Tony first. They do see Rhodey. (Tony has been holed up in the room all day, doing...things.)

Rhodey: Uh, hi, DJ - Zira.

Zira: We're here to be nosy!

DJ: I really want to know what [Tony's] doing.

Rhodey: I mean, I would, too...

(Rhodey has been in the room all day with Tony, and yet has no idea what’s up.)

Zira and DJ are trying to sell Rhodey on a tackle hug.

Zira: This is doctor's orders, even though I am technically not a doctor.

It’s okay. Rhodey doesn’t need convincing.

Tony is eventually done with whatever he’s doing, and he and Rhodey head downstairs for dinner. The stairs...are a thing.

Dox: DJ's running towards Tony, but he trips.

DM: Yeah, Zira's falling, but Tony just sidesteps out of the way and she hits the floor instead.

(They rolled terribly on DEX compared to Tony, especially since JARVIS gave Tony an alert that it was happening.)

DJ glomps onto Tony’s legs, and Zira isn’t far behind him. Tony is just ???

Zira: Do not think I haven't noticed your efforts to distance yourself from this group. ...Fuck off with that shit.

DJ: You cannot escape our affection, Dad!

There is definitely no escape. Rhodey is there, too, and he snags all of them into the hug. So it’s a giant group hug.

We ended the session after going to S.H.I.E.L.D. and telling Fury that we’re not particularly interested in being lackeys of S.H.I.E.L.D. (or at least that’s what Tony said) but they could be consultants. Fury gave the party a mission to see how they liked working for/with S.H.I.E.L.D., which is to retrieve a book from a town several days from Ankh.

Zira hung back and said she did want to be an agent, so Fury officially pulled her in. She’s the only member of the party to actually become an Avenger and is assigned Agent 13 ala Sharon Carter as her handler. Carter is also the one to give us the mission and we’re told to get it through basically any means necessary because it’s really important and S.H.I.E.L.D. needs it.

And that’s the wrap for Session 17! Next session I was only there for part of it so notes are going to be a little slim.

#d&d campaign #the-grey-hunt #heliocentricgeometric #doxblogsstuff #imagine1117 #rebaobsessions #thechaoticwave #no lynn #i'm not tagging your name

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superman86to99 · 5 years

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Adventures of Superman #504 (September 1993)

REIGN OF THE SUPERMEN! The three weakest Supermen team up to take on the most ridiculously overpowered one! Last issue ended with Superboy, the Man of Steel, and the long-haired Man in Black flying towards Coast City (or what used to be Coast City), and this one starts with... the same thing, because it's a long-ass trip. At least they use this time to ponder on important matters.

When they finally reach the Cyborg Superman's city-wide robo fortress, the Man in Black loots some giant guns and ammo from an alien mook. You know, just in case you forgot this comic came out in the '90s.

(Needs more pouches, though.)

While trying to hide from the 800 aliens shooting at them, the Super-Trio bump into a giant missile that's about to be launched into Metropolis. The Cyborg Superman wants to nuke the city and replace it with another giant engine, as part of his plan to turn the Earth into a massive evil spaceship (Warworld 2.0). While the Men (in Black and Steel) continue infiltrating the fortress, Superboy manages to latch on to the missile to try to stop it from reaching its destination. It's not an easy task, but after a Spider-Man #33-esque effort...

...the Kid manages to change the missile's trajectory, taking it away from Metropolis. He saved the city! And then the missile blows up anyway, right in his face. Good thing he wasn't wearing his cool jacket in these pages, because there's no way it could have survived that one. It remains to be seen if HE did.

Character-Watch:

OK, he did. I seriously feel like turning that missile is Superboy's "Spider-Man lifting the rubble" moment. He's trapped in an impossible situation and doubts himself, but then gets his shit together and pulls it off because he has no choice. It's interesting that Karl Kesel made the Kid particularly punny and vapid at the start of this issue, almost like he was daring us to be annoyed by him, only to level him up at the end. I bet a lot of Superboy haters were converted right here.

Plotline-Watch:

Superboy's Platonic Friend Tana Moon breaks down and cries on camera about Superboy's sacrifice, probably earning a juicy raise in the process.

When we get to Superboy #60 (the kickass “Hyper-Tension!” storyline), someone remind me to check my suspicion that the page with the big multiverse-crossing missile looks exactly like the page with the regular missile in this issue.

There’s a quick cameo by journalist Jack Ryder (secretly The Creeper) as a talking head on Lois Lane’s TV, alongside Superboy’s manager Rex Leech and one of the wacky Superman cultists who paint their face like the Cyborg. Look at this guy. He shaved his head but only painted the face part? Come on man, you either commit to it or you don’t!

In Engine City, Mongul gets snappy with the Cyborg Superman again, and again gets humiliated in front of everyone (Cyborg calls him a “dog”). Why do you do this to yourself? Dump him, girl!

A robot sniper almost headshots the Man in Black, only for some invisible force to yank his gun at the last moment. Hmmm. In unrelated news, Don Sparrow says: "Interesting note that Luthor II can’t find Supergirl -- I wonder where she is?" Hmmmmmmmmmm.

Don also points out: "The Man in Black asks if he can call John Henry ‘Steel’ because the Man of Steel is too much of a mouthful on their mission, setting up for his permanent name change." Steel should have said "OK, then I'll call you Black."

I'll stop cannibalizing Don's section and just hand the mic over to him. Click "read more" to keep reading!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We start with the cover, and it has a unique heritage. This cover was sketched and laid out by Karl Kesel, penciled by Tom Grummett, and then inked by Doug Hazlewood, and it’s a good, accurate description of what we find in the issue—our three Supermen fighting their way into Engine City. Added points for bringing up the pre-Crisis concept of the Superman Revenge Squad, which was actually a grouping of Superman rogues (an updated version would appear in a few years). Weirdly, editorial is still seeming to hide the Fabio-hair on Superman proper on the covers—I wonder what that’s about!

Inside the book we get our first look at a trait that defines this issue visually: grease-pencil clouds!

Max pointed this out to me when we were chatting about the issue, and I think he’s right—this book doesn’t look like it was inked in Hazlewood’s usual way. It’s 1993, so it’s hard to imagine they could pull off “digital inking”, the practice of just darkening the pencils, but we see a pencil-like texture so often in this issue, a guy could begin to wonder if that’s maybe what they’re up to. So for the whole issue, there is a slightly looser, rushed feel, especially in the backgrounds. Then on the credits page, we notice a special thanks for Mark Heike—who google reveals to me is a comic artist in his own right. Maybe he pitched in with some semi-credited inks? Smokey clouds aside, it’s another nice splash, with the returned Superman leading the charge.

A common critique of Tom Grummett’s Superman is that the way his face is drawn can look a little Conan-like, and the new long hair doesn’t help that, though in these early pages Superman is looking very on-model and handsome.

The fight (and flight) choreography as the Superman trio enters Engine City airspace is well done, and while it couldn’t be more 90s if it tried, the image of Superman double-fisting blasters and ammo belts is pretty awesome, I must say. Plus, Superboy’s assessment that it’s “slammin’” might replace Robin’s “totally rad!” as a new catch-phrase in these reviews.

The reveal of the giant rocket has a great sense of scale (and is another example of pencil-like lines still popping up on finished art). Great sound effect there, too.

As Superboy heroically climbs up the rocket, Tom and co give a great sense of the speed, and g-forces the kid is experiencing. And there is such a great sense of drama in these last pages, as the celebrations for the missile having missed Metropolis quickly turn to grief, as Superboy is for sure, definitely dead. [Max: Forever.]

STRAY OBSERVATIONS:

Interesting to hear Steel use the phrase “a bursting shell” in relation to piercing Superman’s skin, a callback to Action #1’s description of Superman’s invulnerability, which apparently was known in-universe as well.

I love how unequivocally “Superman” they write the Man in Black in these pages. On his first day back to civilization, he’s already saying he’d gladly die again in order to stop Warworld from taking over Earth. Goosebumps, man!

Does Kesel have dogs on the brain? First Henshaw calls Mongul a dog (ouch) and then just one panel later, Superboy makes his Dalmatian joke. (Note: Dalmatian is actually misspelled in the comic!) [Max: “Dalmation” does sound like some sort of Jack Kirby thing. Maybe it’s something the Kid saw at Cadmus?]

Superboy is pretty much a non-stop joke machine in these pages, as just about every panel he’s in, he’s cracking wise, so it’s hard to highlight all of them. Some are better than others—I get that hearing the phrase “full frontal” puts Michelle Pfeiffer into his head, but “full frontal assault” just isn’t sexy. [Max: You know, 26 years later, I JUST got that one.]

GODWATCH: Steel invokes “God” when he thinks Superboy might have been burnt up in the rocket launch, and then a page later, Superman does the same when he sees the charred corpses of Henshaw’s minions. [Max: Also, I don’t think I caught the significance of John Henry’s “I know” as a kid.]

I love Superboy’s self-talk as he climbs the missile, particularly the Caddyshack-like “crowd goes wild”. This is exactly how a kid his age would act in that crazy moment.

Lois and Clark was airing in this period, so Perry White is legally required to use Lane Smith’s “Great Shades of Elvis” catchphrase. [Max: Unfortunately they don’t have the rights anymore, so they had to change it for the collected edition...]

#superman #karl kesel #tom grummett #doug hazlewood #superboy #steel #coast city #tana moon #hank henshaw #mongul #rex leech #ron troupe #creeper #supergirl #dalmations #totally slammin'#reign of the supermen

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vios-rockland-corner · 5 years

Text

Rockland: Zeitgeist pre-release thoughts PT 14

The date of this post is 8/24/19. Please note that information revealed at this time via Patreon or any of the creator’s blogs may be subject to change after this date.

Here I am again rambling about Cain because I’ve entered a state of confusion.

(Spoilers below for BTD2 and Zeitgeist demo)

Why is Cain kidnapping the MC?

I know that seems like a dumb question, one that’s technically already been answered: He’s bored.

Here’s the thing though: This was a question that was so much easier for me to answer with BTD Cain. BTD Cain was a straight up evil guy. He was a torturer and seemed to enjoy that work, but he was also a prisoner in hell who eventually became a fugitive. The guy was portrayed as up to no good essentially, possibly being a threat to humanity. He was dangerous, but I’m sure also still had to make sure he didn’t get caught while he was on the run. When you’re a sadistic character cooped up all day in your hideaway, I can definitely see one getting bored. Possibly even a little lonely. So picking up humans/creatures every now and then to torture and likely kill in the end doesn’t seem all that surprising to me. Sometimes when you have a character clearly defined as a villain, there’s not too much you have to explain. There’s not always a super complicated motive. As horrifying as it is to hear someone say a character is just receiving pleasure from causing harm to someone else, we know people like that exist.

Rockland Cain is starting to cause me some more confusion though. First of all, it doesn’t sound like this version of Cain is going to be presented as a fugitive. Not unless it’s an INCREDIBLY recent development in the story. Otherwise, it sounds like Cain works with the other angels as a normal part of the fold. Not necessarily a prisoner who they just bring out when they need him. Yet, he is still confirmed as a fallen angel, and there are still hints that he will be a threat at least to the MC. At the same time, some of the other people or angels who know him also seem to think of him fondly.

So I’m comparing evil fugitive BTD Cain vs. office worker Rockland Cain? I know that sounds hilarious calling Cain an “office worker.” Honestly, until I figure out what exactly the fallen angels do, I guess I’ll just keep saying that the angels work together in an “office” of some sort. Now, we did get confirmation that Sam IS still a reaper in this canon. Supposedly, their boss should also be Lucifer/Luke Morningstar. You know...the first fallen angel? Usually depicted as the ruler of hell? So I think a safe answer to “What are the fallen angels in charge of,” is judgement and placement of people’s souls when they die. They collect and decide who’s bad or not, and possibly even determine torture based on one’s crimes. There may be some other work they do. For example, Michael Volkov in previous canon was the angel of war/chaos. Certainly doesn’t sound like a “heavenly” duty, but nevertheless sometimes part of the world order. So that job I can see being giving to a fallen angel as opposed to...whatever their lighter counterparts could be.

Now to get back on track, I have two problems then with determining Rockland Cain’s thought process. First, why is he bored? And second, is he even allowed to kidnap the MC?

BTD Cain I already said was basically by himself on the run, and before that he was just kept a prisoner unless he was needed. He had plenty of reason to be bored and have a disregard for the lives of others. Rockland Cain though may not have AS bad a disposition as BTD Cain based on some of his relationships with other character. Not only that, if he’s got the freedom to walk about as he pleases even after work, then what about the way his time is spent has him bored now? Maybe the angels work 24/7, so Cain wants a break from the monotony? I did fancy the idea before that this game could also be an origin to Cain trying to break off from his regular duties and do as he pleases. If he also has positive relationships with characters though already, is that still appealing to him? Speaking of which, if he’s in contact with more people, there’s less of a likelihood that he’s lonely here. LESS, but not completely. Sometimes you can still get lonely even when constantly surrounded by other people. I guess “boredom caused by loneliness” is still a possibility, but it’s less likely here at least than it was for BTD Cain is all I’m saying.

Now, the reason I ask “is Cain allowed to kidnap the MC” is because I have no idea if the fallen angels have a strict code to operate under. At first I might have guessed that they could be forbidden from meddling with any human affairs and just stick to their duties. There may also be a strict rule about interfering in human lives that may affect their judgement later. However, you do see angels like Sam and Damien just mingling about in the human world for no special reason. I guess that answers my question, “Do they work 24/7?” Looks like they do have some downtime, and they seem to even like to spend it acting like normal people. Does Cain himself ever try this I wonder? Does he still have some restrictions because of his original sin I wonder? Perhaps he’s a little frustrated that while he’s not locked in a cage, he can’t mingle among the humans like some of the others.

Then again, maybe Cain can walk among regular humans like the others. But then I wonder, if he can mingle, is it alright for him to do as he pleases with them? I’ve mentioned this before, but maybe the angels act frivolous and don’t really care a lot about humans since they live in different worlds. Not really having any animosity towards them, but also if they just feel like messing with someone, who’s going to stop them? There was clarification recently on what was classified as a fallen angel. Basically if they defied god and lost their graces, they become a fallen angel (though there are some unusual cases). The angels with darker wings have done worse and probably whatever their doing is not for the benefit of god’s will or their job either if I had to venture a guess. I’m..assuming Rockland Cain has black wings? I’m trying to remember if I’ve seen a new official sprite art with him and his wings 0.0 Holy cow, I don’t even know if they’re fully black still. Hmmm, I’ll guess that yes they still are based on his past sin at the very least. Being the first murderer (and killing your own blood) is a pretty high felony honestly. If his wings aren’t completely black, that will certainly raise some questions.

In that same discussion, it was mentioned that not a lot of the angels are really even that bad. Truth be told, I know very little about most of these angels. Come to think of it, the only “bad” one I keep thinking to compare Cain to is Michael. In previous canon, he was portrayed as a character that also would have no qualms doing horrible, horrible things to people. Now? I don’t think there’s been an official update on Rockland Michael, so I don’t know if he kept that personality.

With all that in mind, is there still really a rule or not whether any of the angels can torture, maim and/or kill a person as they please? Again, if there’s no rule against it, then Cain kidnapping the MC might not be a big deal to the other angels. It’ll be interesting to see how the other characters react to news that Cain has been keeping a person hostage. There’s the added flavor that the creators dropped hints that Cain taking you already marks you as “dead” or something. At least that’s how I interpreted it. I still won’t know what that means until the game comes out. Is that going to be an issue for the other angels or no? The only hint that Cain has done SOMETHING troublesome, is Sam doesn’t seem all that thrilled that Cain has marked the MC. We don’t know what the mark means and why Sam’s concerned, but it leads us to believe that things might be complicated now.

What I’m interested in seeing is how Cain lives on a regular basis. Why is he experiencing unrest? Does he ever walk about the human world like the other angels? Is this the first time he’s kidnapped a single person? Does he only have wicked plans for the MC? Do the other angels care if Cain carts off a human just like that? Does Cain’s relationship with the other characters have anything to do with what’s happening?

#Zeitgeist #Cain Zeitgeist #runawayoutlaw #rockland #horror game #pre-release

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hydrus · 6 years

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Version 320

youtube

windows

zip

exe

os x

app

tar.gz

linux

tar.gz

source

tar.gz

I had a great week. The downloader overhaul is in its last act, and I've fixed and added some other neat stuff. There's also a neat hydrus-related project for advanced users to try out.

Late breaking edit: Looks like I have broken e621 queries that include the '/' character this week, like 'male/female'! Hold off on updating if you have these, or pause them and wait a week for me to fix it!

misc

I fixed an issue introduced in last week's new pipeline with new subs sometimes not parsing the first page of results properly. If you missed files you wanted in the first sync, please reset the affected subs' caches.

Due to an oversight, a mappings cache that I now take advantage of to speed up tag searches was missing an index that would speed it up even further. I've now added these indices--and your clients will spend a minute generating them on update--and most tag searches are now superfast! My IRL client was taking 1.6s to do the first step of finding 5000-file tag results, and now it does it in under 5ms! Indices!

The hyperlinks on the media viewer now use any custom browser launch path in options->files and trash.

downloader overhaul (easy)

I have now added gallery parsers for all the default sites hydrus supports out the box. Any regular download now entirely parses in the new system. With luck, you won't notice any difference, but let me know if you get any searches that terminate early or any other problems.

I have also written the new Gallery URL Generator (GUG) objects for everything, but I have not yet plugged these in. I am now on the precipice of switching this final legacy step over to the new system. This will be a big shift that will finally allow us to have new gallery 'seachers' for all kinds of new sites. I expect to do this next week.

When I do the GUG switch, anything that is supported by default in the client should switch over silently and automatically, but if you have added any new custom boorus, a small amount of additional work will be required on your end to get them working again. I will work with the other parser-creators in the community to make this as painless as possible, and there will be instructions in next week's release post. In any case, I expect to roll out nicer downloaders for the popular desired boorus (derpibooru, FA, etc...) as part of the normal upcoming update process, along with some other new additions like artstation and hopefully twitter username lookup.

In any case, watch this space! It's almost happening!

downloader overhaul (advanced)

So, all the GUGs are in place, and the dialog now saves. If you are interested in making some of your own, check what I've done. I'm going to swap out the legacy 'gallery identifier' object with GUGs this coming week, and fingers-crossed, it will mostly all just swap out no prob. I can update existing gallery identifiers to my new GUGs, which will automatically inherit the url classes and parsers I've already got in place, but custom boorus are too complicated for me to update completely automatically. I will try to auto-generate gallery and post url parsers, but users will need GUGs and url classes to get working again. I think the best solution is if we direct medium-level users to the parser github and have them link things together manually, and then follow-up with whatever 'easy import' object I come up with to bundle downloader-capability into a single object. And as I say above, I'll also fold in the more popular downloaders into some regular updates. I am open to discuss this more if you have ideas!

Furthermore, I've extended url classes this week to allow 'default' values for path components and query parameters. If that component or parameter is missing from a given URL, it will still be recognised as the URL class, but it will gain the default value during import normalisation. e.g. The kind of URL safebooru gives your browser when you type in a query:

https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=list&tags=contrapposto

Will be automatically populated with an initialising pid=0 parameter:

https://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&pid=0&s=list&tags=contrapposto

This helps us with several "the site gives a blank page/index value for the first page, which I can't match to a paged URL that will then increment via the url class"-kind of problems. It will particularly help when I add drag-and-drop search--we want it so a user can type in a query in their browser, check it is good, and then DnD the URL the site gave them straight into hydrus and the page stuff will all get sorted behind the scenes without them having to think about it.

I've updated a bunch of the gallery url classes this week with these new defaults, so again, if you are interested, please check them out. The Hentai Foundry ones are interesting.

I've also improved some of the logic behind download sites' 'source url' pre-import file status checking. Now, if URL X at Site A provides a Source URL Y to Site B, and the file Y is mapped to also has a URL Z that fits the same url class as X, Y is now distrusted as a source (wew). This stops false positive source url recognition when the booru gives the same 'original' source url for multiple files (including alternate/edited files). e621 has particularly had several of these issues, and I am sure several others do as well. I've been tracking this issue with several people, so if you have been hit by this, please let me if and know this change fixes anything, particularly for new files going forward, which have yet to be 'tainted' by multiple incorrect known url mappings. I'll also be adding some 'just download the damned file' checkboxes to file import options as I have previously discussed.

A user on the discord helpfully submitted some code that adds an 'import cookies.txt' button to the review session cookies panels. This could be a real neat way to effect fake logins, where you just copy your browser's cookies, so please play with this and let me know how you get on. I had mixed success getting different styles of cookies.txt to import, so I would be interested in more information, and to know which sites work great at logging in this way, and which are bad, and which cookies.txt browser add-ons are best!

a web interface to the server

I have been talking for a bit with a user who has written a web interface to the hydrus server. He is a clever dude who has done some neat work, and his project is now ready for people to try out. If you are fairly experienced in hydrus and would like to experiment with a nice-looking computer- and phone-compatible web interface to the general file/tag mapping system hydrus uses, please check this out:

https://github.com/mserajnik/hydrusrvue

https://github.com/mserajnik/hydrusrv

https://github.com/mserajnik/hydrusrv-docker

In particular, check out the live demo and screenshots here:

https://github.com/mserajnik/hydrusrvue/#demo

Let him know how you like it! I expect to write proper, easier APIs in the coming years, which will allow projects like this to do all sorts of new and neat things.

full list

clients should now have objects for all default downloaders. everything should be prepped for the big switchover:

wrote gallery url generators for all the default downloaders and a couple more as well

wrote a gallery parser for deviant art--it also comes with an update to the DA url class because the meta 'next page' link on DA gallery pages is invalid wew!

wrote a gallery parser for hentai foundry, inkbunny, rule34hentai, moebooru (konachan, sakugabooru, yande.re), artstation, newgrounds, and pixiv artist galleries (static html)

added a gallery parser for sankaku

the artstation post url parser no longer fetches cover images

url classes can now support 'default' values for path components and query parameters! so, if your url might be missing a page=1 initialsation value due to user drag-and-drop, you can auto-add it in the normalisation step!

if the entered default does not match the rules of the component or parameter, it will be cleared back to none!

all appropriate default gallery url classes (which is most) now have these default values. all default gallery url classes will be overwritten on db update

three test 'search initialisation' url classes that attempted to fix this problem a different way will be deleted on update, if present

updated some other url classes

when checking source urls during the pre-download import status check, the client will now distrust parsed source urls if the files they seem to refer to also have other urls of the same url class as the file import object being actioned (basically, this is some logic that tries to detect bad source url attribution, where multiple files on a booru (typically including alternate edits) are all source-url'd back to a single original)

gallery page parsing now discounts parsed 'next page' urls that are the same as the page that fetched them (some gallery end-points link themselves as the next page, wew)

json parsing formulae that are set to parse all 'list' items will now also parse all dictionary entries if faced with a dict instead!

added new stop-gap 'stop checking' logic in subscription syncing for certain low-gallery-count edge-cases

fixed an issue where (typically new) subscriptions were bugging out trying to figure a default stop_reason on certain page results

fixed an unusual listctrl delete item index-tracking error that would sometimes cause exceptions on the 'try to link url stuff together' button press and maybe some other places

thanks to a submission from user prkc on the discord, we now have 'import cookies.txt' buttons on the review sessions panels! if you are interested in 'manual' logins through browser-cookie-copying, please give this a go and let me know which kinds of cookies.txt do and do not work, and how your different site cookie-copy-login tests work in hydrus.

the mappings cache tables now have some new indices that speed up certain kinds of tag search significantly. db update will spend a minute or two generating these indices for existing users

advanced mode users will discover a fun new entry on the help menu

the hyperlinks on the media viewer hover window and a couple of other places are now a custom control that uses any custom browser launch path in options->files and trash

fixed an issue where certain canvas edge-case media clearing events could be caught incorrectly by the manage tags dialog and its subsidiary panels

think I fixed an issue where a client left with a dialog open could sometimes run into trouble later trying to show an idle time maintenance modal popup and give a 'C++ assertion IsRunning()' exception and end up locking the client's ui

manage parsers dialog will now autosort after an add event

the gug panels now normalise example urls

improved some misc service error handling

rewrote some url parsing to stop forcing '+'->' ' in our urls' query texts

fixed some bad error handling for matplotlib import

misc fixes

next week

The big GUG overhaul is the main thing. The button where you select which site to download from will seem only to get some slightly different labels, but in truth a whole big pipeline behind that button needs to be shifted over to the new system. GUGs are actually pretty simple, so I hope this will only take one week, but we'll see!

#release

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peachybeancinema · 3 years

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Pre-Production

After our last pitch to the panel for the last trimester, we had that time and the quick break before a new trimester to collect props, ensure we had the air bnb and try to find a new production designer. I had originally wanted colourful paediatric scrubs made by a designer friend but that fell through at the last minute, but the saving grace was the new production designer.

While the editor asked me for some more inspiration, he also had to figure out what computer/system he would bring to set for data wrangling on the shoot. Meanwhile the assistant editor was pretty excited for some colour grading ideas- as that was the original plan for colour grading- this job was later handed to our DOP.

Our first production designer very much fell through- with only a small handful of props to dress the ENTIRE set- but also came into contact with positive covid cases and quarantined. The role ended up falling onto Darryl and myself- Darryl got our scrubs sorted and took custody of the old set dressing, while I planned to take down half of my own home decorations for the set.

We ran a few makeup and camera tests which obviously helped the makeup artist understand what I was looking for and got to explain that the makeup should be done in layers to show time passing, while our DOP and camera assistant got to work on using the dolly and trialled green screen and special effects to wrinkle out any kinks that could’ve come with the time sped up sequence- this camera/editing practice also meant that when on the actual set without a green screen, a solution was found instantly.

Reflecting back, some things I would like to have done differently (whether stunted by covid OR human error) would have been more one on one sessions with the actors throughout the weeks. In past films I have met up multiple times and got to know them, how they work, they hear my vision or we develop a vision together for scenes, but that unfortunately did not take place and I feel like for time reasons on the shoot days, we suffered for that. I would have also liked to have been able to give Alexis’ character that bit more personality and colour by having her scrubs handmade like originally planned, however as the friend who also had other commissions and a breakup afoot, we missed that opportunity but I would have really liked to see how that changed the overall tone.

Production

The shoot went over two days, an entire day left to pack up and put the house back to how we found it. The first day after setting up felt it ran a little rough as we all tried to fall into our roles, environment and establish our safety rules, and I felt like my anxiety and self doubt was betraying me those first hours. We had to set up fairy lights, had an Arsenal or blankets going, a smoke machine to set up and glass bottles laying all over the table. Darryl was incredible with setting up fast and listening to where I wanted props and decorations, which was a relief after the failed production designer.

Eventually a rhythm was found and things began to run a lot smoother, the first AD would tell us there was plenty of time but I know myself and my producer didn’t want to get too comfortable with the ‘plenty of time’.

I felt like despite not getting nearly any time to get to know my actors before the shoot, I managed to build a comfortable setting to where we could all laugh and joke, and I had repeated check in conversations with our actress about her comfortability in scenes where our actor would make contact with her. We breaked for food (made and brought in by our wonderful producer’s even more lovely mother), found out the air bnb had birdseed for the fancy birds begging on the porch during our takes, resumed and wrapped for the day.

Here comes the regrets… staying up watching Final Destination and Bo Burnham’s new special as a crew, and allowing me to dance around a crowded floor at night. I ended up falling backwards and spraining my wrist in the process- a little fall that landed me in the ER nearby set at 6am- BUT that did not stop me, and the show went on. No sleep that whole night after the first day of shooting was torture, and the pain was the only thing keeping my eyes wide open. I was back to set before most were even awake and then we continued.

The second day had more hiccups than the first, and there was vital information about a scene that was missing a vital piece of equipment, and wasn’t told until right before the take. It threw me off, I felt undermined and stupid because without that information I couldn’t tell my actors what was happening for the scene, so it ended with a slightly warm conversation outside among the head of departments. It was sorted, the first AD directed one scene as I collected my pathetic self together and then the rest of the shoot went ahead.

While the makeup artist did take longer than she and we had anticipated for every makeup touch up, I was ultimately so chuffed with how the makeup appeared on screen.

Post-Production

The post production for this film has been the most challenging and irritable I have ever experienced- from covid restrictions stopping director/editor sessions, to the mental health issues nearly everyone on the crew suffered from at one point or another. I feel like the film's final result could have been far sleeker and chilling had our time been used in the ways we wanted to. However, despite the challenges and all the ‘boo-hoo regrets’, I’m incredibly proud of my crew and the result regardless. I think it’s impossible for me to not be cruel about my own film that I wrote and directed, but it is definitely not a reflection on how my team worked or what they produced- only on my own inward cruelty.

I am mainly dissatisfied with the lack of that cgi fly that I kept in the script till the end. I wish covid and travelling hadn’t stopped editing suit sessions, and while I appreciate every pixelated and muffled zoom session to get those edits done, they lacked what we really needed. Considering covid will probably be around for a very very long time to come, learning how to communicate articulately and concisely in online edits would be a great value to me.

I felt like communication with the sound department was really great and fluid at the start and in production, but towards the end of our post-production communication really started to slide. I had been dealing with a hard family issue and know that I lost communication from peers, teachers and friends for just over a week, and when I returned I found my messages going unread by the head of my sound department. These times have been really dark and debilitating for so many, and I find with this trimester and the last, it’s nearly impossible to hold people to blame for a falter in a task.

This film was my baby- my last hoorah from uni, and I do really love it, but I think had the sun been shining on the world a little kinder of late, then maybe it could have been- or will be- the film I’ve dreamed.

Reflecting back as well, I wish that I had reached out more to those crew members suffering from mental health issues to help redistribute some of the work way earlier on, rather than having faith that it was getting done but they just couldn’t summon messaging back to update.

In the near future, I’d like to see this in festivals- or even just have a festival plan, which means I would like to work on it further in the future. I think more cgi and colour grading is needed- a new title screen and intro credits, a darker tone to the overall sound- VIDEO GAMES HAVE MUSIC- it’s essentially his perspective as soon as she walks down the stairs, there would be a low deep rumble from menu and background music while in player, and I know I had said that before- referencing Ari Asters work with sound. This film feels like it’s on the brink of being what I dreamed it- it just needed more time and a stronger hand. I plan on taking a break before commencing my last elective for uni, and I am hoping that while I take this time to focus on myself, I can finally be calm and with no time restraints to make a plan for all the tiny pieces to add to this film before reaching out to old classmates, new friends, etc.

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caitie-lou98 · 6 years

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Wedding Planning - I don't know what week this is!

Tuesday, 12th June, 18 days till ‘I Do’

WOW... as if it is less than a month until the big day, this has gone by so fast I am almost in shock! When people say that wedding planning is the time of your life and to enjoy every minute of it because it will be here before you know it; they really are not kidding. The last time I updated this. blog it was over 100 days to go and it felt like an eternity... how wrong could I have been?!

I wanted to take the time today to write about what people don’t tell you about wedding planning. Everyone says how lovely it is and how you should take the time to enjoy it and be as in love as you possibly can. They don't mention the levels of stress you reach over the pettiest of things, and how stressed you feel about things you never thought you'd care about (mine was the colour of logs!!). I said to myself when we started planning this whole wedding that I wouldn't be that Bride that was stressed and crying about silly things that no-one will ever even notice if they were there or not... hah, spent many an evening crying over the fact my table centres may not all have the exact same logs or the fact we have reduced budgets etc to be able to do other things (even though the other things are also for the wedding and will look amazing!). No-one prepared me for how bothered I would be about the little things, and how difficult it would be to pretend that I was interested in anything else - lets be real when you are planning a wedding, changing jobs and moving out all in the space of a week or two; the concentration on the day to day living goes out the window!

In some ways though this can be exhausting, I know people are just trying to be interested and nice about it but it can be so tiresome having to answer questions about weddings, new jobs and moving house... especially when if you're like us it has only all fallen into place at the last minute. So when I last wrote anything on this blog, we didn't have anywhere to live and I was nowhere near close to having a job. However this last weekend we signed for rental agreement and I had two job interviews, both of which I have had fantastic feedback for and have been asked to meet the managers again for second interviews. I think a lot of the time we get so caught up in the romance and the fantasy that is wedding planning, we forget that real life and responsibilities are demanding and stressful. I was so worried about not finding somewhere to live, or having a job to be able to support our life after marriage.

The relief of having somewhere to call our own and knowing we will be coming back from honeymoon to our own space is so calming and takes away a lot of the anxieties I have been experiencing, same goes for the job ... I've never felt such a sense of uncertainty in myself and my abilities as a worker.. many of you who know me know I am a confident person, but one bad interview seriously knocked it out of me and got me to a point of feeling completely like I would never have a job and within a month of being married we would be jobless and homeless - an overreaction I know, but thats what stress can do to you!

So with all the doom and gloom over about how stressful I have been finding things and how overwhelmed I have felt (hopefully this explains the lack of blogs - because with stress and anxieties came the serious demotivation for anything) I think its about time I update you all on where we are at with the wedding! I can confidently say that we are actually pretty much ready, apart from a few last minute bits and bobs (surprises mostly!)... I went and had a final meeting with the florist today to confirm all the details and how I want the bouquets to look etc, then we have a meeting with the DJ on Friday to discuss the final details pre wedding. It is all coming together very nicely indeed.

Think the most fun we’ve had has been doing the boxes for our bridal party and some DIY decorations for the reception, I must say we are Pinterest MASTERS... I’d show you, but the bridezilla in me wants it all to be under lock and key.

We also met with our photographer a few weeks back for a pre wedding shoot, this was for us to get to know her and her us, and to see how we are around a camera... if you follow me on any form of social media you will have seen me plastering the photos everywhere, but just incase you didn't; some of my favourites include:

We can’t thank Lottie enough for these, she is so talented and we are in love with the photos. Can’t wait to see what she does with our wedding day.

I was reading over the last blog I posted and I was saying that we had just put all our bottom drawer stuff up into the loft, but its literally time to bring it down again this weekend, as the weekend after (which is the weekend pre wedding) we move into our home! With that being said we have an extreme lack of furniture, so if anyone knows of anything going relatively cheap - help a gal out and let me know!

The last two months have flown by, and I imagine the next three weeks will go even faster... so apologies to everyone who has to deal with me, I imagine my bridezilla tendencies will come out to play and I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with that. We went to a wedding on Sunday for one of Kurtis’ family, and it was a real kick into reality, that in three weeks that will be us and we will be the centres of attention. It was lovely but also really quite surreal.

As if I managed to forget that since my last blog post I have had not one, not two but THREE hen dos! Who’d have thought that anyone needed three hen dos?! I had such lovely evenings each time, one was with my Brummie family and some lovely sisters from what will be my congregation when I move up there. Coley and Jayne very kindly organised for us to go into the city for the afternoon, had our makeup done professionally and just spent the afternoon wandering around the shops whilst the boys went suit shopping. Then went out to a local curry house for food, then ended the night with cocktails in the local Wetherspoons... what more could a girl want?!

Then for my second hen do, I chose to organise it for myself (it proved easier than trying to pass on numbers of sisters to my bridesmaids who don't really know anyone). I organised a meal in recently refurbished pub, The Pennyfarthing in Old Llantrisant. I must say the girls there were so helpful and really made the evening run so smoothly, which with 35 of us there for a sit down meal is a mighty difficult job. I would highly recommend the place if you're looking for somewhere for a nice evening out which isn't too far, they have live music on a Saturday night, serve a wide variety of cocktails and the best part? Good home cooked pub grub, not too posh but nice enough that you feel like it was worth spending the money out. I had such a wonderful evening with family and friends, and I really couldn't have asked for more.

Last but certainly not least was actually my surprise and most recent hen do! So my maid of honour (Georgia for those of you who don't know) couldn't make the first two hen dos, and so organised with Kurtis for me and a couple of my closest friends from school to go out for the evening in Cardiff - drinking cocktails and playing hen do games we found online. It was such a good laugh and so nice to be surprised like that. I couldn’t possibly ask for a better best friend than I've got... not quite sure how I am going to manage when I live in Birmingham and she lives in Swansea!?!

Anyway... I think that is about enough from me, I feel like I have been writing this for hours?! I recently have felt really not in the mood to write these blogs, but these past few days I have had so many ideas of things I could be writing about on here; and writing this tonight has just reminded me of why I started this in the first place. I love thinking back over all we have done and writing down how I feel whilst reminiscing, which I know when writing weekly doesn't seem like it would be fun - but it was. My love for writing appears to have returned - so all I am saying is watch this space!

If you have made it this far, then wow you truly are dedicated to the blog... that or you are incredibly nosey; I won't judge either way.

Thanks for reading, I promise the next one won't be as long and will be sooner than two months after this post!

All my love, the almost Mrs Bryan

xox

#wedding #wedding plans #stress #love #romance #relationships #hen do #bride to be #bridesmaids

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kurtwarren54 · 4 years

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Pregnancy 2 // First Trimester

Figured I would do an update on how the first trimester was for Baby 2! Things have been different and more intense the second time around! Excited to share the details with you below.

WEIGHT GAINED

I haven’t tracked my exact weight for JUST the first trimester but at my 16 week appt I had gained 9 pounds which my dr said was normal and on track! I will say the pounds started packing on WAY faster this second time around. Almost to the point I was freaked out. But you have to think that everything is growing and taking shape faster and as long as I am on track with my doctor I am feeling great. It is always also strange coming off fertility treatment into pregnancy because I am not fully myself. I had been doing fertility medication for almost a year and that always adds some start weight. But, like I said, it’s all part of my story. All part of my process. And honestly, the fact that I am here, it all doesn’t matter. I am so grateful to be pregnant and have a healthy baby!!

HOW I’M FEELING: PHYSICALLY

Nausea

GOOD GOD. My nausea was 10x worse this time around. At 6 weeks, I went on diclegis prescription for nausea and took 2 pills at night. Despite being on meds, I still struggled through most of my first trimester with extreme nausea. Luckily I did not have vomiting but man… the nausea was REALLY bad. To be honest with you, none of the “tricks” worked for me either. Sure snacks, small meals, ginger, etc etc but nope. Massive unrelenting nausea. The hardest part about it is that being the mom to a toddler means you don’t have the luxury of resting like you do as a first time pregnant woman. Having to take care of an active child while struggling with feeling ill is miserable. I have to thank Blake for pretty much taking over the minute he would be done with work to help me as I was doubled over on the couch. It was rough. And rough knowing just how long the first trimester is. What I did make sure to do was ALWAYS have a snack in the mid afternoon. If I didn’t have some kind of snack between 2-4pm, I would be even more miserable. Saltine crackers were always on my nightstand along with bold chex mix, and goldfish.

Growing pains

I experienced some more intense round ligament pain in my groin area this time around. I noticed it mostly at night. Especially when I needed to lawn, or sneeze or make a bigger movement I would get a twitch of pain from it.

Pregnancy Brain

Like my first pregnancy, pregnancy brain is a REAL THING. I swear the moment I got pregnant my brain turned to mush. It’s hard to explain but I can’t remember anything to save my life. Lol!

Exhaustion

I was a new level of tired being pregnant and chasing a toddler. Truth be told being in a pandemic didn’t help either. Not being able to take him places etc. I was very tired but the sickness bothered me more than being tired.

Constipation

Sorry if that’s TMI but wow the constipation was bad this time around. The first month or two was tough and I know it also has alot to do with how much progesterone is in my body. Since I wasn’t drinking coffee after my transfer right away, it was extra tough. I always feel like coffee gets me moving. HA! I know. So much TMI. You’re welcome.

Baby bump

This time around I feel my belly popped out a lot sooner! At 14 weeks I feel I had a tiny little bump. I am sure I will look back and be like, WOW that wasn’t much of a bump but it’s when I felt there was a defined transformation.

HOW I’M FEELING: MENTALLY

I think similarly to my first pregnancy, after so much loss (with each of our failed embryo transfers) you keep waiting and holding your breath as each week passes you by. Each week it’s own milestone. And you find yourself thinking, “Oh I will feel good once I hear the heart beat!” “Oh I will feel good when I hit the second trimester.” But really, I think there is always a sense of unease as you move through the process. I think it’s healthy to be a little bit nervous. It’s honest. I think things have just been more stressful with the fact that we are still in a global pandemic because of Covid-19. That has put alot of stress on us keeping our family safe during these times and staying as isolated as we can while also being aware of taking care of our mental health. We are very fortunate living where we do to be able to spend time together outdoors and that has been great for the mind and body. Really, I go to bed, and wake up every day just so damn grateful knowing that I am growing life and repeating to myself that I AM PREGNANT. And THIS IS OUR CHANCE. This is our miracle. It’s been such an emotional roller coaster to get to this point and really, despite any outside stressors buzzing around, I am just so grateful and smile so big everyday knowing that next Summer I get to make Otis a big brother.

WHAT I’M EATING

First trimester for me was CARBS. CARBS and MORE CARBS. Honestly most days I barely had an appetite because of how sick I felt but I know how important it was to nourish my body. So I would basically have to force myself to have my meals. ESPECIALLY when it came to dinner. I had no appetite at all at night. It was bad.

That being said, I didn’t have any coffee for weeks. First off because I avoid caffeine after my embryo transfer and didn’t feel comfortable drinking it until after I heard the heartbeat. At a certain point, when my nausea would allow in the am and I was in the mood for coffee, I started to drink it again. I started with decaf but then had some headaches and my doctor always encourages me to have 1 cup of caffeine to help with my headaches. What I was drinking and couldn’t stop was bubble water (or carbonated water) whatever you like to call it. I usually prefer lukewarm drinks but this pregnancy I was craving ICED COLD bubble water. We actually ended up getting this carbonated water maker and we literally use it EVERY SINGLE DAY. For some reason the cold bubble water just helped with my nausea believe it of not.

Thankfully eggs were a lifesaver for me and I could tolerate them. My favorite go to breakfast that didn’t make me want to throw up: a piece of toast, a tiny bit of mayo, and a sliced hard boiled egg with salt and pepper. I basically ate that every day. I also had a lot of bagels with cream cheese when I wasn’t feeling great. Food was just tough so we didn’t meal plan as much so I could eat more what I could stomach that day.

As the first trimester went on, I was able to eat more regularly. I always try to eat protein for breakfast (like egg) to help really nourish me. I also try to make smarter choices and slip some protein in my afternoon snack. My favorites: string cheese, chocolate covered almonds, toast or apples with almond butter. Don’t get me wrong, some days I have a bowl of chips, a cupcake, or something else that is naughty. I think it’s all about balance and sometimes, you just have to indulge.

HOW I’M SLEEPING

First trimester sleep was rough. With the waking up to pee almost every night that was one element. It’s likely the hormone changes that always get to me. Last pregnancy I had to take unisom to get some form of normal sleep. Since I started the diclegis at 6 weeks with 2 pills at night, I found that helped me sleep MUCH better. So for now, I am sleeping ok. Some nights are better than others. I do toss and turn alot.

EXERCISE

I didn’t really work out at all till at least around 10-11 weeks. Of course I was doing my daily walks with Otis etc and getting my steps in and my blood pumping. But I wanted to take it easy and honestly I didn’t have the energy to do anything before then. Starting at 11 weeks I started short 10 minute workouts on my elliptical that we have in our garage and Blake got me for Christmas. I try to do that, or just walk briskly on our treadmill for 10-15 minutes. There are weeks I barely get 1 “workout” if you even want to call it that. Basically I just try to get my blood pumping whether I am walking for Otis’ morning walk or doing something else. I also started prenatal yoga class (virtually online) every week and its been music ot my soul. Great stretching and a great time for me to sit and connect with my body and the baby. It’s something I really enjoyed while pregnant with Otis so it’s a sense of comfort being able to participate even from my computer at home.

MEDS IM TAKING

For most of the first trimester, I stayed on alot of my IVF medications. I stayed on my prednisone steroids till 9 weeks and then weaned down my estrogen patches as well as weaned down to 1 progesterone injection a day. During this time, I did get some hormonal headaches with all the fluctuations but luckily they weren’t horrible and only lasted 2 days. I finally was able to stop all my meds (with the exception of baby aspirin and my diclegis) at my graduation appointment from the fertility clinic at 12 weeks!!! This was a HUGE milestone after literally doing injections and taking medications for almost a year in prep for each of my FET (frozen embryo transfer) cycles.

CHALLENGES

The biggest hurdles this pregnancy have been knowing and believing that feeling like crap would likely get better at the end of the first trimester. After a year of hormone meds, and then feeling awful my first trimester, a UTI, a yeast infection from the meds of the UTI (sorry TMI!!) I got to the point where being in my own skin was just frustrating. Being pregnant is a WILD things because your body is completely taken over. It’s beautiful in many ways and also still really emotionally challenging in others. I am so thankful to see the light at the end of the tunnel of the first tri. But anyone else that is “IN IT” my heart hugs yours mamas. It’s tough!!

WHAT I’M WEARING

I feel everything comes on sooner with the second pregnancy and the need for stretchy things came sooner. When it comes to leggings, I still wear my pre-pregnancy lululemon align leggings which are high rise and so stretchy as well as my alo leggings that are really soft and a little lower rise. Both still fit comfortably and fit over my growing body. Toward the end of my first trimester, I ended up buying these maternity leggings from beyond yoga and I LOVE them. They feel like second skin and are so buttery soft. They come all the way up over your bump or you can also fold it down to go under. Highly suggest them as they are SO comfy.

Also because I don’t leave my house often (because of Covid-19) I wear a ton of sweats. These sets from Michael Stars have been a guilty pleasure because they are SO soft and made of terry material. I also love my sweat set from Tan Lines that Sivan sent over. The material is SO soft and I feel like a cool mom in them. Although Blake made fun of my crop top sweater. HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT IS COOL!!! I do enjoy wearing more cropped tops when pregnant to let the belly have it’s little bit of room. I did end up getting one pair of maternity denim from jbrand that actually fit great toward the end of my first trimester also. Will report back when I wear them out. Equally stretchy too.

I did buy 3 bras from skims that I have been loving too. This scoop bra, this triangle bra and this nursing bra are all GREAT. I wanted to see what the hype was about with this brand and I have to say the materials are ON POINT. VERY comfy. If you plan to order, SIZE UP and size up big time. I got at least size L in everything because my boobs are enormous now and I feel their stuff runs small. I also have a ton of bras from Otis’ pregnancy. From last pregnancy, I have my hatch and bravado bras that I wear weekly also.

It’s different for the second pregnancy because you start showing and feeling bigger sooner (at least in my case) so you are in that in between period of not fully having a bump but feeling large and awkward if that makes sense. I have to say, a perk of pandemic life is the fact that I am mostly in lounge wear so I have been able to avoid real clothes for most of the first trimester aside from doctors appointments etc.

SELF LOVE

First trimester was just really challenging with not feeling well constantly. Hard to give yourself self love, in a pandemic, with no childcare help. If anything, I tried to listen to my body, and lay down when Otis was napping and try my best to give my body the much needed rest it was craving. Nearing the end of the first tri, showers and a blow dry were my self care routine and even an at home mani/pedi. Feeling better was already such a treat and allowed me the time to do some other things for myself. I think it’s just so important to listen to your body and slow down when you need it.

FIRST TRIMESTER PURCHASES

Purchases for me:

Skims scoop bra

Skim maternity nursing bra

Skims triangle bra

Beyond yoga maternity capri leggings

Aarke water carbonator

Lululemon align leggings

Summer fridays babymoon belly balm

Purchases for baby:

Kyte baby rainbow onesie

Kyte baby toddler blanket

Moby mickey wrap (blake bought this for me!)

Letterfolk sign

Masongrey baby bundle

BABY PREPARATIONS

So we didn’t do much to prep for baby in the first trimester except for me sharing our good news with my good friend (and interior design guru) Anne! She helped to plan out the interiors of our whole home including master bedroom, living and dining rooms, and most recently Otis’ nursery. I basically texted her and forced her to dream up Baby #2 nursery ideas so we are currently working on that! IT’S GOING TO BE EPIC.

WHAT’S NEXT

I am looking forward to more ultrasounds!!!! I can not WAIT for my anatomy scan at 20 weeks to get some more face time with baby. Other than that, it’s check off each week as an incredible milestone and try to remain as active as I can to help get my body strong for delivery again. It’s exciting to near the half mark and be buying things for baby, talking to Otis about the baby and just imagining our life together as a family. I honestly am still in shock everyday. I feel lucky everyday. Our rainbows have brighten out life immensely and I am so excited to continue to share our journey with you all. Big love from all of us.

The post Pregnancy 2 // First Trimester appeared first on eat.sleep.wear. - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kimberly Lapides.

from Wellness https://www.eatsleepwear.com/2021/02/17/pregnancy-2-first-trimester/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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elizabethcariasa · 4 years

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Pregnancy 2 // First Trimester

Figured I would do an update on how the first trimester was for Baby 2! Things have been different and more intense the second time around! Excited to share the details with you below.

WEIGHT GAINED

HOW I’M FEELING: PHYSICALLY

Nausea

Growing pains

Pregnancy Brain

Like my first pregnancy, pregnancy brain is a REAL THING. I swear the moment I got pregnant my brain turned to mush. It’s hard to explain but I can’t remember anything to save my life. Lol!

Exhaustion

Constipation

Baby bump

HOW I’M FEELING: MENTALLY

WHAT I’M EATING

HOW I’M SLEEPING

EXERCISE

MEDS IM TAKING

CHALLENGES

WHAT I’M WEARING

SELF LOVE

FIRST TRIMESTER PURCHASES

Purchases for me:

Skims scoop bra

Skim maternity nursing bra

Skims triangle bra

Beyond yoga maternity capri leggings

Aarke water carbonator

Lululemon align leggings

Summer fridays babymoon belly balm

Purchases for baby:

Kyte baby rainbow onesie

Kyte baby toddler blanket

Moby mickey wrap (blake bought this for me!)

Letterfolk sign

Masongrey baby bundle

BABY PREPARATIONS

WHAT’S NEXT

The post Pregnancy 2 // First Trimester appeared first on eat.sleep.wear. - Fashion & Lifestyle Blog by Kimberly Lapides.

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krisroley · 4 years

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February 8th 2021

It might just be the time of year, but I find myself getting discouraged easily. It’s compounded by the fact that we’re coming up on a year since my job sent me home and everything that’s happened since then. The simple fact of the matter is I’m not where I want to be at almost any category of life you care to name. I’m currently making about half of what I was pre-May 2020, I’m struggling with staying in a creative mindset, I’m not necessarily hopeful that I will be able to realize a key hope of mine to regain the position I was previously in, and I’m not finding anything equivalent out there that I can do despite the experience. It leaves me in a pretty depressing place, and I’m not sure what my next move is. So when this happens, I try to move out of the mindset of what I can’t do to figure out what I can accomplish. I believe it starts with talking about the things I am passionate about. Demonstrating some knowledge. Possibly not being so unassuming about it?

A lot of the past year had to do with how my friends stayed creative and productive during the pandemic, and now I may be best served by turning this camera inward. Let’s see what happens.

After I wrote the above, I fired up my Feedly reader, and Seth Godin’s post today is very timely indeed.

So, let’s consult the imp in the back of my head that wants to know what the bleep I’m going to do to turn YET into DONE. I think first we have to define what DONE is, and I’m finding that a little hard to do at the moment. It’s a Jackson Pollack splatter of thought about what I don’t want to be doing anymore, and very little thought about what it is I would rather be doing, and whether I can do it for a living. Nothing new here, this has pretty much been the case for a few years now. I need to put these thoughts together. I don’t want to take phone calls anymore. I do want a job in a creative field. I want what I create to be able to help people. I want to be able to live comfortably on the fruits of that effort, which means not only the bills are paid, but that the wife and I are not worried about health insurance, and that the kids are taken care of.

So, maybe that’s what done is. If that’s true, then the next question—my favorite—is ‘What’s Next?”. What I’m about to write is the first time I’ve ever written this answer: I don’t know. I don’t know what the first step is, and if I don’t know what the first step is, I can’t figure the next one. Marie Forleo likes to say “Everything is Figureoutable”. I sure hope so, because being stuck in this place is a goddamn exhausting place to be.

Of course, as I said at the beginning, it could just be that it’s January and it’s cold, and that I hate everything right now. It feels like more than that, but maybe it always does and I’m not remembering it.

Oh, You Didn’t Know?

Joe Budden, who up until a few months ago had an exclusive deal with Spotify, is moving his podcast to Patreon. The Verge has some comments from Budden:

He says he proved the model, along with the potential of his audience, but didn’t want Spotify to use his fans and reach to prove the platform’s own worth and make money.

“For many years, the record labels and the system that I come from tricked us into thinking they were doing us a favor by capitalizing off our talent and basically loaning us money, and that’s been the standard the entire time,” Budden says, adding that he already knows how that system worked out for creators.

When Budden announced his split from the tech company, he said Spotify was “pillaging” his audience and only cared about how his show contributed to Spotify overall, not about his actual podcast.

Budden was a recording artist before he was a podcaster. If he’s aware that the record labels played games, I can’t believe he didn’t see the obvious. Streaming Services aren’t exactly known for treating artists differently, for a start, but let’s address what I think is the elephant in the room, which is the question of whether or not what you had was actually a podcast, because I think that question is fundamental to the problem Budden experienced. A podcast is not exclusive to a platform, and I’ll argue that point until I’m blue in the face. If I can’t subscribe to your show on a different platform than Spotify, then you don’t have a podcast, you have a show on Spotify. Spotify might have a big user base, but that user base is all you have. Spotify’s Q4 2020 earnings state that they have 345 million active monthly users, and that only 25 percent of those users listen to podcasts on the platform. That’s around 86.5 Million, and trust me, they’re not all listening to Joe Budden. Yes, he’s got a lot of downloads, but what he’s got on Spotify is all he’s going to get by staying there. Patreon is a huge and smart play, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes 3x on listeners and money at the very least.

(Note to self, get back on Patreon, it’s about to blow up.)

The Clothes Suck Anyway

Ah, exposure. SO great for paying bills, only the complete opposite of paying bills.

One of my favorite Twitter accounts is @forexposure_txt, and they receive posts every day from creatives who receive requests, demands, and straight-up meltdowns from people who believe it’s ok not to pay a creative for their work. However, in some cases, there’s the odd post about a company that lifts a picture, alters it, and uses it on their social media without attribution. Take, for example, Meg of Margate, a photographer who discovered a fashion brand called Ted Baker (no link, I’m not enabling this behavior) lifted a photo, photoshopped it, and post it on their Instagram “for engagement”. When called on it, they offered Meg a 200 dollar gift card from their store, which she declined. They then stated they didn’t have the budget to pay photographers, so they deleted the image.

Fine, but let’s be clear about what really happened here. A fashion brand that declared revenue of 617 million pounds in 2019 used a picture that didn’t own to drive traffic to their brand. They got likes and engagement for hours on that post. Then they told the photographer, sorry we can’t afford it, and just deleted the post. Ted Baker made money off that stolen picture, and they probably will have no liability for screwing a creative because it costs money to take people to court.

If this doesn’t make you angry, it should.

This seems like a good place to link to one of my favorite talks by Mike Montiero, “Fuck You, Pay Me.”

More Instagram Stuff

Instagram is now conducting a test to remove the ability to share feed posts within Stories:

You would assume that a lot of Stories updates are re-shared feed posts. The fact that Instagram is willing to reduce this seems like a positive sign for its development focus - but it might also indicate that people are viewing Stories less as a result of such shares, which has prompted Instagram to take action.

I can tell you that many of my stories are photos from other accounts that I think are amazing, and I do that to encourage my followers to follow them. If you remove the ability for me to do that, then I have to resort to a third party program—Repost—to post them to my feed, and I don’t want to do that. My feed should be for my pictures. I hope what they’re driving at is removing the ability to share one’s own feed posts as Stories, and I would completely understand why they feel it’s redundant. That’s not how I read this story.

In other Instagram news, it looks like IG and Twitter might be burying the hatchet soon and allowing integrations again:

That's an even bigger integration. As noted by Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram hasn't provided direct Twitter integration since it disabled Twitter card preview support back in 2012, which makes it annoyingly difficult to share content between the two apps. Now, it seems they're mending bridges, which could facilitate not just tweets in Stories stickers, but wholly new integration options which would enable direct sharing of Instagram posts to Twitter as well, fully integrated and formatted in-line.

That's not part of this proposal, and it may not ever be. But it would definitely be handy - and with Twitter seemingly now more open to such, it could pave the way for improved connection.

If true, this would look a lot cleaner than the screenshots we’re all doing right now anyway. Honestly, this horse has been out of the barn so long it’s dying of exposure.

Shot of The Day

#Joe Budden #Spotify #Patreon #Ted baker #For Exposure #IG Stories #social media #Twitter #Integrations #Winter #Seasonal Depression

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