#you'll float queue

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

Me when Stranger Things 4 finally drops and I can make my gay little fanfic even gayer

[awaywith-thefaeries]

COME HELL OR HIGH WATER | j.seresin

pairing: jake “hangman” seresin x wife!reader

summary: the dagger squad gets deployed on another mission and Jake is assigned as the mission leader. When he and Rooster’s planes go down in enemy territory, Jake’s only thought is getting back to his wife and daughters.

warnings: angst (with a happy ending), doubt, incorrect navy facts (I’m not that knowledgeable about the workings of the navy). Written mostly on my phone in the queues at Disney, so sorry if there are any spelling or punctuation errors.

a/n: based on this request. @cat998877 I hope you like it!

word count: 1.65k

main masterlist | series masterlist

The first thing on Jake's mind is his family.

The faces of his Y/n, Olive, and Charlotte. His girls. As everything appears to go to shit, as trees rustle and move around him, and Rooster shouts and curses to his left, Jake's resolve hardens even more than ever.

The mission had been going so well. The dagger squad had successfully taken out the target they had been deployed to remove, and the flyback had just about started. The removal of the target had alerted the enemy (as they had expected) but none of the officers who had prepared the pilots for this mission could have foreseen just how quickly the enemy pilots would retaliate. They had calculated the times down to the second needed for the flyback to the ship, but the second the enemy pilots had engaged Hangman and Rooster's planes in a dogfight, the timing had gone out the window.

"Get back to the ship Daggers 3 and 4!" Jake yells to his team as he hears Phoenix and Payback talking over the radio about coming in as backup, "Dagger 2 and I will take out these guys and get back right behind you!"

"Hangman..." Phoenix sounds unsure, as she watches Payback and Fanboy obey their friend's (and leader's) orders and begin the route back to the ship.

"NOW, Dagger 3! Go, go go!" Jake yells as he and Rooster fly as if they are one mind, evading and attacking simultaneously to get the three enemy jets off their backs.

Phoenix has a bad feeling as she obeys, knowing she can't ignore a direct order from her mission leader. Images of Hangman's family plague her mind as she leaves her friends to fend for themselves. She thinks of you, and how wrecked you'll be if Jake doesn't come back.

"Dagger 1, watch your right side!" Rooster yells, spotting the third enemy plane trying to get into position to shoot Hangman down.

"I see him! I see him!" Jake’s voice is strained as he maneuvers his plane out of harm's way.

"One down, two to go," Rooster yells as he pulls up so that his plane inverts completely, letting the enemy pilot’s plane fly directly underneath his fast enough to drop behind it and shoot.

"One left!" Jake yells as the second plane goes up in an explosion. He's still cautious, but he's starting to believe that this setback will be just that, a setback.

That's when everything goes to shit.

"Dagger 1, watch your back!" Rooster yells, the panic evident in his voice, as he sees the final enemy pilot's plane release a missile that was headed straight for Hangman's wing.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Jake yells as the missile makes contact with the left wing of his jet.

Rooster can do nothing but watch as his friends plane goes down, shock coursing through him, causing him to miss that the final pilot had released another missile. He hears it coming towards him a second too late, and there’s nothing he can do but brace as it makes contact with his wing.

Jake manages to right his plane just enough to where ejection is a safe option and he pulls his lever, shooting out of his plane as he hears another explosion go off behind him.

"Fuck!" Rooster’s voice comes crackling through Jake’s helmet as he ejects too, the two pilots keeping each other’s gaze as they float to the ground.

As soon as Jake’s feet touch the ground, he’s off running, releasing his parachute and leaving it there in the grass.

Swinging his head from left to right, he searches through the tree coverage for any sign of life, trying to find his wingman so that they can find a way out of here together. They have to find a way back.

Just as he’s starting to wonder if Rooster’s plane going down was some sick hallucination, Jake feels a hand on his shoulder. He whirls around, already on high alert, but calms slightly when he spots that it’s just Rooster, panting slightly.

"You ok, man?" Jake pants out, breathing heavily.

"Yeah, yeah I’m fine. You?" Rooster looks almost pitying, knowing just what Jake stands to lose if they don’t make it out of this.

"Yeah," Jake says, but Rooster can see it in his friends eyes, he’s on the verge of panic.

"Hey, man, we’re gonna get you back to them."

Jake smiles briefly, nodding his thanks to Bradley as he pulls in a few ragged breaths.

"Ok," the two men straighten together and look around them, taking in their surroundings, "what’s our game plan?"

✯✯✯✯

"Mama! Mama!" You breath deeply and paste a smile on your face, as you hear your daughter’s little voice yell from across the playground.

"Yes, Sugar?" You ask Olive as she skids to a stop next to the bench you’re sitting on.

"Are Dada and his team almost done with their mission yet?"

Your heart drops slightly at the reminder that your husband and his squad (who have quickly become your friends) are putting themselves in danger for their mission, but you don’t let it show on your face.

"I don’t know Liv, but you remember what Daddy told you and your sister right before he left, right?"

Your Olive nods eagerly, grinning up at you as she answers.

"Yeah, Daddy said that no matter what, he loves us and he will always come back to us. He said if anything goes wrong he will get home, come hell or high water! He promised."

She looks so proud of herself for remembering everything Jake told her a week ago, when he had bid them goodbye at the docks, you reach down and scoop her into your lap, careful not to jostle Charlotte, who is sleeping on the other side of the bench, head resting on the bag you had brought to the park with you.

"That’s right, Sugar," you coo, as your daughter tucks her head under your chin, curling into your lap.

"He promised, right Mama?"

Olive’s voice sounds so small, and your heart breaks a little at how unsure she sounds.

"Yeah, Liv, he did and you know that Daddy never breaks his promises, right?"

You feel Olive’s hair brush across your neck as she nods, and one of her hands comes up to play with the little heart shaped locket Jake had gotten you as a present, right before the twins had been born. Cuddling your little girl closer, you think back to the morning when he had given it too you, and the promise your husband had made.

You had been lying in bed, beyond tired because the twins kicking had kept you up all night, when Jake had come into the room after showering off his morning run.

"Hey darlin," he had whispered, slipping into the bed behind you, coming up to your back and reaching a hand around to rest on your baby bump, "how are my girls doing this morning?"

You had sighed, as your husband pressed soft kisses to the sensitive skin at the base of your neck.

When you hadn’t responded, Jake had gently turned your face to his, his green eyes lighting with worry as he took in your tear stained face.

"Oh baby…" he had cooed, brushing away your tears with the pad of his thumb, "what’s the matter?"

"I just…." You had taken a deep, shaky breath as Jake pressed gentle kisses to your cheeks, where the tears had been moments before, "I’m terrified that….that something will happen to…" you hadn’t been able to even voice the possibility of losing Jake. But, he had known, like he always did.

"Listen to me, darlin," he had said, leaning down to brush what was possibly the sweetest kiss of your life on your lips, "I know that my job is not the safest one there is and I can’t promise you that nothing will ever happen, because it’s out of my control."

Your eyes had refilled with tears, and Jake had leaned down, kissing you again while he wrapped his arm protectively and lovingly over your bump.

"But I can promise you that no matter what, wherever I am, whatever I’m doing, I will always fight to get back to you and our babies."

Jake had then let go of you for a moment, which caused you to whine slightly and Jake to smile as he had turned to pull a small box from his nightstands top drawer. He had turned back to you and held the small maroon box in between you.

"I wanted to give this to you when the girls were born, but I think now is better."

You had taken the box in your hands before glancing up at him, laughter in your eyes for the first time since the thoughts had started to plague your mind.

"Uh, Jakey, I don’t know if you remember, but you already did this part," you had teased, flashing your left ring finger at your husband, who had let out one of the laughs you loved so dearly, and pressed a kiss to the pair of rings sitting there.

"Darlin I’m not proposing again, this is something else. It’s just as important though…" he had trailed off and lifted his hand to the box easing the top up.

You had gasped at the beauty of the little heart shaped gold locket that lay nestled in the box. It was engraved with tiny little lilies, the first flowers Jake had ever gotten you when you started dating.

"Jakey…"

"Turn it over, baby," he had cut you off, and you did, seeing the small phrase on the back.

‘Come hell or high water’ was engraved within a ring of lilies, right in the center of the back side of the locket.

"It’s a promise," Jake had whispered, brushing a piece of hair back from your face to press a kiss to your temple. "No matter what, I will fight to get home to you, come hell or high water."

"Mama?"

Charlotte’s sleepy voice breaks you out of the memory as she stirs on the bench next to you.

"Yeah, baby?" You say, bringing a hand up to stroke through Olive’s hair as she keeps her hand on the locket, cheek to your throat.

"Can we go home now?"

"Of course baby." You start to gather your things, gently easing Olive off of your lap, your heart warming as the twins grabbed each other’s hands.

The three of you make your way home, the girls holding onto each other the whole way there.

"Why don’t you guys go play for a little bit," you say as you unlock the door to your little house that you and Jake have slowly been making into a home, “I’ll bring you two some apple slices.”

"Ok, mama!" The two little girls say, before taking off down the hall to their bedroom, as you made your way into the kitchen.

Before grabbing the apples, you lean against the kitchen island and look down at your locket, opening the clasp and taking in the two pictures on the sides.

The first picture was one of you and Jake on your wedding day. It had been taken by the photographer right towards the end of the night. You were being dipped by Jake, who was smiling down at you with his heart in his eyes. Your head had been tipped back, mouth open mid-laugh. It was quite possibly your favorite picture from the day.

The second picture was a shot of Jake on the day your daughters had been born. Their birth had been relatively easy (considering that you had carried the twins to full term) and the picture in the locket captured the moment when Jake had first held Charlotte and Olive in his arms.

You sigh, stroking your hand over the pictures, not needing to remove them to see the 'Seresin Family' engraving in the windows. You raise the locket to your lips and brush a light kiss over the pictures, before closing the clasp and turning to grab a couple apples and a knife to make your daughters a snack.

Just as you're placing the apple slices into a bowl, your phone starts ringing from where you had left it in the bag by the door. Wiping your hands, you grab your phone and answer the call.

"Hello?"

There's silence for a moment and then a shuddering breath comes over the line.

"Hi, Darlin," Jake's voice sounds shaky, which immediately gets your heart going fast, fear creeping into your bones.

"Jake," you say, as he lets out another shaking breath. is he crying?

"Baby, what's wrong? what's happened?"

"I...." Jake has to stop for a minute, and you stay quiet, letting him have a moment. "The mission is complete, we're returning to base right now."

Your heart soars and you can't keep the smile off of your face, and out of your voice.

"That's great, Jakey!"

There is silence again, and your smile drops a little.

"Jake, what happened?"

"I don't....I don't think I can talk about it all yet, but mine and Bradley's planes went down in enemy territory. We....it took us two days to find a way back into communication range with the ship."

"Oh, Jake...." You whisper, hand over your mouth, "I'm so sorry baby. What can I do to help you?"

"Just be waiting when I get home."

✯✯✯✯

The next morning, you wake up at 5:30 am. After flipping over a few times, you give in to the fact that you aren’t going to be able to sleep. You sit up, swinging your feet over the edge of the bed, hand coming up to scrub over your eyes.

Getting out of bed, you walk into your closet and find a pastel green sweat suit to wear to protect against the slight chill in the air. You pull your hair up into a claw clip and head out into the kitchen and living room area. You tidy up a bit, and pour some cereal into a bowl for yourself as you sit at the island, scrolling through your phone idly.

By the time it’s a reasonable hour to wake the girls up, you’ve cleaned nearly the entire house and made a list of things you need to restock in the kitchen.

“Good Morning,” you sing softly, flipping on the fairy lights above your daughters beds as you go over to their closet to pull matching sweat suits to yours out, laying a pink one on the end of Charlotte’s bed and a purple one on Olive’s.

Olive is the first one to wake up, turning over under her mountain of blankets to blink blearily up at you.

“Good morning, Mama,” she says, a little smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

You smile at her and ask her to please get dressed before making your way over to Charlotte’s bed, nestled in the corner of the room. The top of her dark blonde head is the only part of her visible under her soft white duvet with little pink flowers on it. You sit down, putting your hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her awake. She doesn’t say anything as her head turns over her shoulder, eyes blinking open slowly.

“Hey, baby,” you say, “it’s time to wake up!”

“Otay,” she says, her voice still scratchy from sleep and she allows you to pull the covers back far enough for her to scoot out of them.

As soon as her feet touch the ground, Olive is right there, fully dressed in the sweatpants and little matching hoodie. She holds out her arms for a hug and Charlotte steps straight into them, curling her own arms around her sisters waist.

“Good morning, Lottie.”

“Morning, Liv.”

You smile as you head to the door, calling over your shoulder.

“Your breakfast is on the table, girls, so please come out when Charlotte is dressed.”

“Otay!” You hear Olive shout back, making you smile.

A little while later, after the girls have finished their breakfast and the three of you had flopped onto the couch for some snuggles (a daily occurrence for you whenever Jake was deployed), Olive looks like she’s just about to nod off and Charlotte doesn’t look much more awake. Your daughters heads both snap up, however, as the doorbell ringing sounds through the house.

“Mama, is that…?” Olive is already up and bouncing on her toes as she looks at you expectantly. You smile, watching your daughter’s faces light up, as you nod.

“Let’s go welcome Daddy home, yeah?” You ask, already up and moving to the door, the twins hot on your heels.

Your heart is pounding as your hand comes up to the lock, turning it and pulling the door open. And just like that, your weeks of worry and stress melt off of you in an instant. Because he’s here, your Jake is right in front of you, looking tired, but whole. Looking alive.

“Hey, Darlin.” His tired smile seeps into your soul and you take a step forward, and then another and before you can even blink, Jake has dropped his duffle onto the front stoop and has you wrapped in a tight embrace. His face goes immediately to the crook of your neck, pressing into the sensitive skin there as he pulls you as close to his body as possible. You reciprocate the hug, and smile as you see and feel your girls attach themselves to a leg each.

“Hi Jakey,” you whisper, running your fingers through his hair, trailing your hands up and down his back.

You stand there for a long moment, before Jake finally manages to detach himself from you to bend and scoop his daughters into his arms. Olive and Charlotte both immediately curl their arms around his neck and start sprinkling kisses on his cheeks.

Later, when your little family has fallen asleep snuggled close together on the couch, the tv still playing a movie quietly, you look over at your husband, where he’s lying with Charlotte curled up on his chest and Olive plastered to his side. You softly stroke over the worry lines on his forehead. You know that he won’t be ready to open up for a while about what happened to him and Rooster, but you silently vow to just be there for him, for whatever he needs, in the next couple weeks.

Come hell or high water.

a/n: thank you so much for reading! If you have any requests for this family or any other story ideas you’d like to see, I’m always open to them (just send them to my asks).

[hellyeahscarleteen]

A Guide to Our Direct Services

Got a sexuality, gender, sexual health, or relationships question? We got you!

We have four free, direct support services so you can get one-on-one help if you can't find what you need on the website, if you you need or want more information, if you need help understanding something you've read here, or when you want support, help, advice or discussion from our staff, volunteers or peer community.

Our message boards: you'll need to register if you're not already registered for the boards; you can do that here. (We welcome contributions and responses from community members!)

Our SMS (text) service: you can text us at (206) 866-2279. The SMS service is free, but message and data rates apply, just like with any texts you send or receive to or from anyone. Per mobile restrictions, the SMS service is only available for users in the United States.

Our online chat (does not require registration): During chat times or with appointments (see under the cut).

The advice column queue (does not require registration)

(Not sure which you should choose? Find more information under the cut)

Scarleteen is a diverse, inclusive space where we are strongly and actively committed to making and keeping a space that feels as safe as possible for everyone, and which honors the diversity of human sexuality and identity. We welcome users of all gender identities, belief systems, ethnicities, economic classes, relationship constructs, and languages. We ask everyone here to work together to co-create and help nurture such an inclusive space, where often very loaded topics are discussed, by following and respecting the user policies and guidelines.

Which of our services should you choose?

The message boards:

Use for: Almost anything, be it simple questions or in-depth, involved discussions over time. This service is also best for when you want both staff and volunteer engagement AND discussion with peers, or primarily peer-to-peer discussion.

How fast will you be answered? Anywhere from a few minutes to within 24 hours. If you're a brand new user, your posts will not show up immediately on the boards: they go to a moderation queue staff review for a little bit first, so we can better screen for trolls or spammers.

Hablamos español: Tenemos voluntarios disponibles para los usuarios de habla hispana.

The SMS service:

Use for: Help finding content on the site to answer your questions, referrals for in-person local services like sexual or mental healthcare, or a referral to our message boards or live chat when you can't figure out which service is best for you. The SMS service is not intended for answers that can be found in our site content, or can be answered or discussed on the boards or via the live chat service.

How fast will you be answered? Within a few hours to 24 hours.

Hablamos español: Tenemos voluntarios disponibles para los usuarios de habla hispana.

The chat service:

(A real-time popup chat window, staffed and seen only by you and our staff and volunteers. It works like an IM conversation or Facebook chat.)

Use for: Sex, sexuality, sexual health and relationship questions, help, support and referrals. This service does require your immediate and full attention, so if you want to be able to come and go throughout a conversation, especially with lapses of several minutes, hours or days, or want to multitask, the boards or SMS service should be used instead.

Monday: 10 AM - 1PM PST and 1 pm-3 pm PST 

Friday: 8:30 - 11:30 AM PST

Saturday: 8 - 10 AM PST

If you want a chat at a time it isn't scheduled, you can always come to the message boards and see if any staff are available and ask. We're currently in the midst of making some changes to our schedule, so the current schedule should be considered temporary. You may also sometimes see the available chat icon -- a red S in a small yellow circle floating over the lower left of every site page -- outside of chat hours if and when staff are available for chat at times other than our set hours, and are welcome to come into chat anytime you see that icon.

The advice columns:

(The index of the advice columns is here, to give you a sense of the kind of engaged, professional and in-depth answers it provides.)

Best for: More involved, complex situations where you want a longer, in-depth answer, but can wait days, weeks or even months for your answer.  Questions and situations which are NOT time-sensitive (like pregnancy risks or scares, current health problems, or help you need to find as soon as possible). Questions and answers you are comfortable having published widely for all to see (even though they should not ever contain any identifying information where anyone reading could know it was you asking).

How fast will you be answered? As noted on the input form, most advice questions will never be answered, particularly if we've already written a column that has already answered a question. Otherwise, the wait can be anywhere from a day or two to several months. The advice column is intended for longer, in-depth answers to issues that are not particularly time sensitive or immediate. It is acceptable to leave your question in the queue, but then also bring to another of our direct services for a more immediate and guaranteed answer.

[still-a-morosexual-help]

@bigprincessrebel hi! I just saw your ask and ummmm so it's gonna have to be part of a somewhat bigger series of posts? I already have two asks about the morality of demons that I'm going to turn into one post, I've got a post about the functioning of the Celestial Realm vs Devildom and how that affects their morality/values in my drafts -> both would relate a lot to your ask. I also have a post about religion vs the the Celestial Realm & Devildom floating around somewhere that I should find cause it's also relevant. But I'm really busy these days so all that might take some time so till then here's a summary of my thoughts

I think it's dumb to believe Diavolo's a shitty ruler because he wants peace between the realms and demons are supposed to be evil? And to believe that the other demons won't like him because of that? Because:

1. The game literally said that Diavolo's voted the most popular demon every year

2. Lots of the background demons have made friends with not only MC (a human) but also with the angels. Hell Luke has demon friends outside of the main characters. Also like pretty sure lots of demons are romantically attracted to humans? Given how there was a queue to give MC Valentine's day presents

Okay but here are the more serious points:

3. It's heavily implied and straight up shown that the Celestial Realm does not equal Heaven the same way the Devildom does not equal Hell. (I have a whole post breaking this down and going into detail that I'll add when I properly answer your ask) meaning that in the same way that OM's angels' aren't inherently good, its demons aren't inherently bad. If you actually stop and look at it, you'll notice that the angels are more prone to everyday violence than the demons eg: Diavolo's solution to stopping an angry dragon being talking to it while Simeon's was to fight it (and we see that Diavolo's solution actually worked). Michael's punishments as an angel were scarier than Lucifer's punishments as a demon. Just generally how trigger happy Raphael is vs how weirdly kind Mammon is

4. OM! may borrow characters and certain plot elements from christianity but it's not a direct parallel or reflection of it so if you try to apply the logic of the "real" stories to these characters then the characters and the world they live in stop making sense and you get a warped version of the story where the demons are pure evil and Diavolo's a shitty leader for trying to go against their nature. The best way, in my opinion, to enjoy it is to acknowledge that there are similarities but ultimately analyse it independently. Using the lens of christianity to look at stories that don't completely follow it is how you end up with things like Disney's Hercules (a fun time but not accurate to the actual source material)

5. A BIG part of obey me is about overcoming prejudice. Like it's not even subtext. It's right there. The angels are shown to see demons as pure evil and a big part of the story is showing them that actually they're also just people. We see this in the Devilgram where Lucifer & Diavolo first meet, in the flashback where Simeon and Diavolo first meet, this is literally the entirety of Luke's arc/character development and in certain things said and done by Michael, Raphael and even Mammon. This....this huge part of the story wouldn't work if the demons actually were evil and Diavolo was just an idealistic idiot...

Anyway this was the summarised version, believe it or not!

[brigittttoo]

Codywan 6

LORE <3 <3 <3 thank you for your patience! I let this one get away from me a little but I think it turned out pretty well :)

6 - This Is A Life by Son Lux, Mitski, David Byrne (EEAAO soundtrack)

The rubble is piling up, and isn't getting any better with the way both sides are shooting up the landscape. Obi-Wan grips calmly onto Boga's reins as she slides to a stop in the dust by Cody and his men. "Commander!" he says. "Contact your troops. Tell them to get to the higher levels."

*

Obi-Wan falls defensively into Golden Plover stance, arms up and legs wide. He'd dropped his sword further back in the forest and the grey-clad fighter in front of him holds it out against him now, the metal glinting in the streak of sunlight through the bamboo. "You might want to re-think this," Obi-Wan says, breath steady.

*

Cody nods. "Very good, sir." He half-turns to leave, and then smirks back at Obi-Wan. "Oh, by the way, I think you'll be needing this." He holds Obi-Wan's lightsaber up to him, and Obi-Wan gratefully takes it.

*

Cody sighs and slouches even further against the wheel of the tractor. "I don't know what I was thinking," he says, and Ben's hand comes up slowly to touch his knee. Cicadas hum relentlessly in the trees but here in the middle of the field it's just them and the evening wind brushing through the grasses.

"You were thinking of helping," he says. "You were thinking about doing the right thing."

"I was thinking of being selfish," Cody frowns, mulishly.

*

"Thank you, Cody. Now let's get a move on, we've got a battle to win here!" With a snap of the reins Boga takes off, limbs everywhere, Cody's 'yessir' drifting into the background.

*

Camera bulbs flash them into near-blindness but Obi-Wan just smiles through it, turning slightly to give a couple different angles. He's wearing an old suit jacket but he's got a new stylist, one that let him haul out the kilt and his father's sporran from his closet, and can practically hear the fashion bloggers leaping onto their keyboards with fervour. Just before he takes his next step down the carpet he sees Cody standing further up the queue, hands clasped professionally in front of him.

*

Cody's holocomm chirps, and he extracts it from his belt. "Commander Cody," the Chancellor says. "The time has come. Execute Order 66."

*

"I thought--" Obi-Wan gulps, hair dripping into her eyes with the rain sluicing down on them. The street lamp douses her in burnt yellow light. "I thought it might have just all been a stupid mistake."

Cody's words catch in her throat; she thinks she might be crying now, too.

*

CC-2224 nods. "Yes, my lord." He snaps off the call at the same time that the traitor's varactyl lets out a whooping call. "Attack them!" he orders, and one of the men makes the shot. The traitor and the animal go tumbling off the side of the cliff.

*

A wind rustles through the oak tree's leaves. The willow next to it receives the same.

*

Something in Cody's head short-circuits. He hears a sharp ringing noise, and after he's taken off his helmet and shaken the vertigo he sees the brothers around him do the same. "Obi-Wan," he gasps, lunging in the direction of the cliffs. "Someone--Furrow!" Cody shouts, the name plucked from his mind and sliced across his tongue. "Give me that speeder!"

*

Cody, almost floating out of the bamboo, jumps wholly onto the grey-clad fighter, sending Obi-Wan's sword toppling to the ground. He whirls around with sure hands clamped to either side of the fighter's head, and Obi-Wan dashes forward to re-arm himself.

*

"Sometimes," Ben says, "you gotta care for yourself, first," and when his hand clenches on Cody's knee, Cody looks over at him. Ben's eyelashes almost glow in the golden light of early evening, and Cody is helplessly drawn in.

*

In the dark of the theatre, a hand lays overtop of a hand on the armrest between them. Cody leans over slightly towards Obi-Wan, and whispers, "We made something so beautiful together."

*

"It wasn't a mistake," Cody says, barely audible over the rain but so completely sure of herself. "It just took me a little time to get my shit together. Here," and she holds out her umbrella, making room for Obi-Wan underneath it.

*

As the breeze dies down, one of the willow's long branches drifts over, brushing against the rough bark of the oak's trunk.

*

The freezing water cuts through all the gaps in Cody's armour as he dives down into the rock pool, but luckily the HOD in his bucket is unaffected in its scanning as he swims. There he is, 3 metres ahead and floating limply, so Cody strokes over like they were taught in training, drags Obi-Wan onto his back and hooks an arm around him. Obi-Wan splutters and heaves once he's on the hard sandstone but it's Cody who loses his breath saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Obi-Wan, forgive me," over and over again.

"Cody," Obi-Wan says after his first full breaths. He appears to swallow back something pithy, and hooks a finger absentmindedly around Cody's glove. "Always."

[blubberquark]

When "Clean" Code is Hard to Read

Never mind that "clean" code can be slow.

Off the top of my head, I could give you several examples of software projects that were deliberately designed to be didactic examples for beginners, but are unreasonably hard to read and difficult to understand, especially for beginners.

Some projects are like that because they are the equivalent of GNU Hello World: They are using all the bells and whistles and and best practices and design patterns and architecture and software development ceremony to demonstrate how to software engineering is supposed to work in the big leagues. There is a lot of validity to that idea. Not every project needs microservices, load balancing, RDBMS and a worker queue, but a project that does need all those things might not be a good "hello, world" example. Not every project needs continuous integration, acceptance testing, unit tests, integration tests, code reviews, an official branching and merging procedure document, and test coverage metrics. Some projects can just be two people who collaborate via git and push to master, with one shell script to run the tests and one shell script to build or deploy the application.

So what about those other projects that aren't like GNU Hello World?

There are projects out there that go out of their way to make the code simple and well-factored to be easier for beginners to grasp, and they fail spectacularly. Instead of having a main() that reads input, does things, and prints the result, these projects define an object-oriented framework. The main file loads the framework, the framework calls the CLI argument parser, which then calls the interactive input reader, which then calls the business logic. All this complexity happens in the name of writing short, easy to understand functions and classes.

None of those things - the parser, the interactive part, the calculation - are in the same file, module, or even directory. They are all strewn about in a large directory hierarchy, and if you don't have an IDE configured to go to the definition of a class with a shortcut, you'll have trouble figuring out what is happening, how, and where.

The smaller you make your functions, the less they do individually. They can still do the same amount of work, but in more places. The smaller you make your classes, the more is-a and as-a relationships you have between classes and objects. The result is not Spaghetti Code, but Ravioli Code: Little enclosed bits floating in sauce, with no obvious connections.

Ravioli Code makes it hard to see what the code actually does, how it does it, and where is does stuff. This is a general problem with code documentation: Do you just document what a function does, do you document how it works, does the documentation include what it should and shouldn't be used for and how to use it? The "how it works" part should be easy to figure out by reading the code, but the more you split up things that don't need splitting up - sometimes over multiple files - the harder you make it to understand what the code actually does just by looking at it.

To put it succinctly: Information hiding and encapsulation can obscure control flow and make it harder to find out how things work.

This is not just a problem for beginner programmers. It's an invisible problem for existing developers and a barrier to entry for new developers, because the existing developers wrote the code and know where everything is. The existing developers also have knowledge about what kinds of types, subclasses, or just special cases exist, might be added in the future, or are out of scope. If there is a limited and known number of cases for a code base to handle, and no plan for downstream users to extend the functionality, then the downside to a "switch" statement is limited, and the upside is the ability to make changes that affect all special cases without the risk of missing a subclass that is hiding somewhere in the code base.

Up until now, I have focused on OOP foundations like polymorphism/encapsulation/inheritance and principles like the single responsibility principle and separation of concerns, mainly because that video by Casey Muratori on the performance cost of "Clean Code" and OOP focused on those. I think these problems can occur in the large just as they do in the small, in distributed software architectures, overly abstract types in functional programming, dependency injection, inversion of control, the model/view/controller pattern, client/server architectures, and similar abstractions.

It's not always just performance or readability/discoverability that suffer from certain abstractions and architectural patterns. Adding indirections or extracting certain functions into micro-services can also hamper debugging and error handling. If everything is polymorphic, then everything must either raise and handle the same exceptions, or failure conditions must be dealt with where they arise, and not raised. If an application is consists of a part written in a high-level interpreted language like Python, a library written in Rust, and a bunch of external utility programs that are run as child processes, the developer needs to figure out which process to attach the debugger to, and which debugger to attach. And then, the developer must manually step through a method called something like FrameWorkManager.orchestrate_objects() thirty times.

[aquatark]

alright, thank you everyone for voting on my luminous spoiler policy! this is the decision i have come to:

this blog will start posting images from luminous after release, with no spoilers. these will be tagged #endless ocean luminous.

i will also be tagging posts containing creatures new to the endless ocean series with #luminous new creature, along with the appropriate tags (ie. #flapjack octopus).

if you wish to avoid seeing anything from that game here, or just want to avoid seeing new creatures to the series, just block the tag(s) and you'll be good to go!

i'll be trying to get my copy as soon as possible, and get some nice photos floating out on the web! you're more than welcome to submit your own photos too - i'll tag them appropriately before adding them to my queue. :>

[forgeofthenine]

Okay hear me out. Could you make headcannons with the tiefling boys with a male partner? And they are the bottom? 🤔

Hi Anon! My requests are closed at the moment, but I believe I have a Zevlor x male reader headcanon set floating around somewhere. It escaped getting on my masterlist because it's an older piece that's a bit harder to find. Generally though I tend to write gender neutral reader :)

Hopefully you'll put this one back in my queue when my requests open back up again <3

[confessionsofa-roleplayer]

I need some advice. I feel self conscious on my own blog sometimes and I find it hard to know what to post. Like, I don't want to post so much ooc so I end up posting nothing. I feel like it's weird to post aesthetics for anything other than what specifically is about my muse, even though I know I could post things that just relate to them or to the people around them. So, how do I know what to post? Or do I just go crazy and post what I want no matter what?

In my experience, Anon, most people aren't fans of blogs that are an amalgam of RP and personal posts. I can't speak specifically to your fandom, but it's likely you'll get less people interested in writing with you if your blog is more personal than it is RP.

If you don't have any current threads to reply to, here are some ideas for things you might post instead:

Headcanons about your muse

If you don't know what to write about, look for some 'send me one of these questions about my muse' posts and use questions from that.

Quizzes that you've taken, answering as your muse

I know, some people love these and some people hate them. I think they're fun so long as they're not posted too often. An off-shoot of this are the ones where you design your muse in a graphics-creator of some kind - I've seen dragons, terrariums, cats, and even parfaits.

Images/gifs that remind you of your muse or feature their faceclaim.

Maybe it's a place they've visited, or a food they like to eat, or clothing they like to wear.

Quotes/jokes that fit your muse's mindset

There are several sites around that feature nothing but quotes, but you can also just do a tumblr search for 'friendly quotes' or something and can generally find some good stuff.

Posts about your RP style

A lot of people like to share posts that relate to RPing, like 'I don't mind waiting for replies! You do you and I'll be here.' etc. You don't have to make these yourself, there are plenty of them floating around already. I'm not sure on the best search terms for this one - maybe roleplay PSA, or something similar?

I would also try not to post too much at once. No one enjoys a flooded dash - so maybe set things up in a queue? I think you can have 999 posts there now, and if you set it up to queue 3-5 times a day, that could keep your blog on people's dashes for awhile.

Do our followers have anything they'd like to add or suggest?

~ Mod MJ ~

[yurtletheturtlehenderson]

And when Spotify says "one song got you through it all" and it starts blasting I'm Just Ken, what then

[syoddeye]

Hey, I hope I don't sound pushy but I reread business or pleasure and I can't wait for the morning after or whatever comes next. ❣️

hi, not pushy, i'm glad you dig bop! it's in my queue. i keep falling prey to my own impulses and writing everything else but my 'big' WIPs. that's on me. here's an unedited lil snack from what i've written for it so far.

It shouldn't surprise you that a man like John Price is seemingly prepared for the possibility of someone sleeping over, but seeing a spare toothbrush, towel, and an oversized robe left out in the en-suite is a delight. Simple slippers are tucked under the floating counter, almost making you forget you're not at a spa but at your employer-turned-hookup's penthouse. Your mind is more critical of your decisions in the light of day, but you'll save self-reflection for your own bathroom. Beneath the warmth of the double-headed shower, you try to avoid thinking about the origins of the hair products on the built-in shelf. After all, you agreed to keep things 'friendly.' It's not your business.

Behind the mirror, you find motrin and dry swallow a tablet for the gratifying ache in your lower half. Towelling your hair off, you briefly consider tracking down your handbag for makeup, but if he's seen you in the buff, you figure he can see a naked face, mild acne scars, and all. You slip on the soft cotton robe and decide to locate your host.

[alwaysthesitter]

Holy crap? I??? Am officially caught up? Like, ACTUALLY caught up. I've been caught up before on drafts, but still had 30+ things floating around my inbox because starters are my worst nightmare on the planet. But I've been all jacked up on caffeine and motivated lately, so. Everything is clear. Clean slate over here. Allows me time to work on my other two blogs. Queue will be posting five times a day, so if I have owed you something, I can guarantee you'll be getting it in a timely manner right now.

[sexymancatalogue]

Master Hand from the Super Smash Bros games. (He/it pronouns, despite how little people acknowledge him using using it/its pronouns occasionally) Since otherwise, he is masc presenting, I'd say sexyman? He unfortunately isn't in the wiki, but I do have a list of archetypes that he fits under (Or at least ones that fit canon as closely as possible): -4th Wall Blurring -Androgynous (It's a floating hand) -Angst (Look at what happened to him in Subspace Emissary and you'll understand why) -Cosmic -Distinctive Voice and Distinctive Laugh -Eldritch -Mysterious -Nonhuman -Neurodivergent Coded -Power/All-Powerful -Theme Song -Technically Antagonist -White Twink Humanization (I swear, most gijinkas i've seen of him have been like that- at least back around when Smash 4 was still new)

Thank you in advance!

Added to queue - Mod Hatty🎩

[fayrinferno]

I had this post brewing for several months now. So, several times I heard this opinion that Escaflowne is like "Final Fantasy VI, the anime" or even that it is heavily influenced by 90s fantasy JRPGs. Pretty much oblivious to the whole 90s JRPG scene (I just remember playing Chrono Trigger, Vagrant Story, and FFVII), I was like, what do they mean?

And then I followed certain topical tumblrs and enlightenment came. I'll queue up some of the gems but really, just check the blogs I reblog these from and you'll see what I mean. On the basis of looks alone, there's nothing closer to Esca than this. And I feel like in some obscure old fantasy/shoujo mangas, we may even find a story that is similar to it.

In general, 90s Japanese fantasy (anime, manga, games, light novels) is something I'm deeply intrigued by. I actually bought some artbooks, light novels and such from fantasy franchises I know practically nothing about. I simply enjoy just looking at it, but also love the mystery of it. It's a unique take on Western fantasy (and its tropes), but it also has its very own rules and tropes... like, who tells these people the characters must have huge shoulder pauldrons? Why are the swirls on the armor just.like.that? What's with the collars, the diadems, and the gems? Why the floating islands? Why is everybody pondering some orb? So many questions, so little answers... After so many years of liking it, it suddenly feels like my favorite anime was a part of some larger art movement I didn't know of the whole time????

EDIT: So I finished queuing up the posts, should go on for a few days. That's it for now, but I guess I'll continue using the tag whenever I see something. I also used "...huh?" tag for things that felt uncanny.

Actually, you may play it as a drinking game and take a shot whenever you see:

literal girl out of Aston family

literal Zaibach guy/girl

literal Van in armor

literal Varie pose of a girl flying in the sky and/or holding something to her chest

floating earth

ancient looking fantasy city

wings

dragons

shiny orbs and/or crystal balls

swords with orbs

THAT pattern on armor or THAT pattern on fabric

This was me seeing all that and ofc now I have to subject more people to that. Sorry. Have a good weekend y'all.

[forecast-rain]

Hello there!

I go by Cloud and my pronouns are it/its, she/her and they/them. Or at least something like that...

I have an art blog (@floating-far-from-earth ) so if you want to see my art go follow it cause I've stopped reblogging my art to this one. I still have an art tag (#my art ❤) but it's only really used for doodles and stuff.

I have an oc blog called @clouds-oc-corner. I post about my little guys there <3

I also have an ask blog (@ask-oopsie-au) for my #claire oopsie moment au so if ya wanna check it out feel free! Warning for spoilers though. While it is an au it is a roleswap au focused on claire & noel. Not your typical roleswap au (more canon divergence/what if) but a roleswap nonetheless.

I generally just reblog random stuff or stuff pertaining to my current interests here. very much multifandom lmao

I do not tag spoilers unless you ask me to. I will probably still be prone to forgetting to tag them. sorry.

just in general I don't tag stuff other then fandoms and my posts unless you ask me to do so. There are some fandoms I don't tag though (like mlp) so apologies for that.

I don't really use the queue lmao if I'm here you'll know I'm here (sorry if I flood your dash btw)

also I tend to be. quite anxious about interactions if I'm not particularly close with someone. sorry about that.

[merrock]

HAPPY FIRST OF JUNE!

Can you believe that we've reached the mid point of the year?! I don't know about anyone else, but I think this one is flying by. And as we're heading into our busy summer season in our little town, we want to take some time out, as we always do, to go over some important things happening in and around Merrock!

HAPPENING IN JUNE!

10th -- pool party! -- all day pool party for everyone, with an 8pm "adults only" after party. (ooc: june 9 - 14)

18th -- father's day! -- floats for dads. hang out at the creamery making dad a tie and drinking root beer floats!

23rd - 25th -- pride weekend! -- pride night at vibrations, a parade and a festival in the park, all to celebrate you!

30th -- carnival & summer bash -- more info coming soon! (this one lies mostly in July!)

JUNE'S MINI-EVENTS!

5th -- last day of school! -- enjoy summer, kids!

5th -- donut day! -- flour co. is doing a buy one, get one free special for all donuts today!

8th -- best friends day! -- show off your best friend, or shoot them a nice gift to say you love them!

15th -- lobster day! -- go to Sandcastles and try out the new and improved lobster rolls!

21st -- first day of summer! -- self-explanatory. just enjoy some sunshine and warmth!

EXTRA BIT OF FUN!

Since June is a rather busy month in the group, we've decided not to do a new task just yet... but to point out the ones that we think you guys would enjoy doing if you haven't! For the month of June, we've brought back our GLORIOUS SUMMERTIME questionnaire! I know a lot of our newer players haven't gotten to fill it out yet (and maybe even some new characters!), so have at it! If you want to go a little further, we also have this SUMMERTIME WARDROBE development prompt that could be fun to play around with.

IMPORTANT NOTES!

as usual, be sure you've read over our rules. nothing has changed, buuut we think it's never bad to refresh yourselves.

let's all do better with starters. get into the habit of replying either as soon as you see an alert go up for a new one if you're around, or opening the page and replying right away when you log in. without priority being put into starters, writers feel ignored, disliked -- that's not our vibe.

remember to follow the starter rules: reply to starters before creating your own (unless you're new here!), and reply back to what you are given.

since we've had some people ask: reserves last for one week. if you know you'll be applying within one week, a regular ole reserve is fine! if you think you need more time to build up activity or work on the character, extended reserves last longer. they're not infinite, though! if in a month or so, you haven't applied, we will touch base.

since we've upped our character limit to ten (and beyond if they are diverse and your activity is exemplary), I'm setting a gentle "five character" rule, where we ask that you please check in with us past the five character mark, so we can make sure you're where you need to be activity-wise and with diversity.

lastly, just a gentle reminder that while we are admins and it is our responsibility to run the group, it is on all of us -- writers and admins alike -- to keep things going and make the group what we want it to be. this includes being kind to one another in the OOC, getting involved in tasks and events, responding to plot calls, and most importantly: being active.

BEHIND THE SCENES!

we have new graphics for the summer months, woohoo! if you notice anything looking a little messy, or anything is hard to read or see, please let us know!

over the next few days/weeks, you will see all of the wanted connections re-posted, so they can be in the new post format (it's easier for me!), and they will be going into the tags to help promote them. as always, we queue WCs on our promo blog, too!

other than that, we're trucking right along. summer is always full of fun things in merrock. some fun things we have coming up include: a volleyball tournament, our annual yard sale, a biiig beach party, and... hmm... what was i forgetting?

oh yeah! a gala! these seem to be a huge hit with you guys, i think because you like picking out dresses as much as i do, but -- stay tuned. because we're going to be taking theme suggestions, and then put things to a vote.

HAPPY JUNE, MERROCKITES! ☀️